Nunya: You think you know?

Pot Crusader Marc Emery Jailed in Canada Pending Extradition

blog@nunya.com (Nunya) — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 14:40:00 PST

Posted by: Nunya - By Phillip S. Smith, Drug War Chronicle. Posted October 2, 2009. Canadian "Prince of Pot" Marc Emery turned himself in to Canadian authorities Monday and is in custody in Vancouver pending extradition to the United States. The Canadian Justice Minister is expected to sign extradition papers within a matter of weeks, and then Emery will be driven to the border, handed over to US authorities, shackled, and sent to a federal detention center in the Seattle area. Shortly after that, Emery is set to plead guilty to a single count of marijuana distribution, with an expected sentence of five years in a US federal prison. Emery and two employees of his cannabis seed selling business, Greg Rainey and Michelle Williams, were arrested in July 2005 by Canadian police honoring a US arrest warrant charging the trio with marijuana distribution and conspiracy for selling seeds to customers in the US. They faced decades or even life in prison under draconian US federal marijuana laws. Earlier this year, Rainey and Williams accepted a plea bargain in which they pleaded guilty to a single count and were sentenced to probation in Canada. With his employees' legal situation resolved, Emery then cut his own deal. But that doesn't mean he's changed his ways. At a press conference outside the BC Supreme Court in Vancouver Monday just before he turned himself in, Emery was in typical "Prince of Pot" form. "I'm disappointed in my government, but very proud of my 'Overgrow the Government' r...

Caught on tape: Cop assaults 15-year-old special needs student

blog@nunya.com (Nunya) — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 14:35:00 PST

Posted by: Nunya - By Stephen C. Webster Thursday, October 8th, 2009 -- 8:18 pm For the offense of not having his shirt tucked in, 15-year-old special needs student Marshawn Pitts was slammed into a wall of lockers and pounded repeatedly in the face by a police officer who broke the boy's nose and bloodied his mouth. The Dolton, Illinois teen told a local CBS affiliate that the officer was cursing at him as he complied with the order to tuck in his shirt. Then, "it was just like, boom!" he said. The assault, which took place in May, was recorded on a security camera at the Chicago suburb's Academy for Learning. "The academy is a high school for special-needs students who are emotionally disturbed or struggle with behavioral disorders," noted Chicago Breaking News. "Marshawn was a student there because he suffered brain injuries when he was hit by a car years ago, [family attorney Edward] Manzke said." During the recording, the officer stoops down and places a cup of coffee on the floor, then threw the teen into the lockers before pummeling him and pinning him to the floor in a maneuver known as the "face-down take-down." "Zena Naiditch of Equip for Equality, a legal advocacy group that fights for the rights of people with disabilities, looked at the video and said the type of physical restraint used by the officer has killed students," CBS News reported. Naiditch added that the hold can be lethal because those trapped by it are left unable to breathe. CBS noted that seven...

6 Year Old Facing 45 Days of "Reform School"

blog@nunya.com (Nunya) — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 14:34:00 PST

Posted by: Nunya - Written by Selwyn Duke Tuesday, 13 October 2009 00:51 Our authorities may not be able to track down Osama bin laden, but never fear, they're keeping us safe from budding little terrorists such as first grader Zachary Christie. Caught red-handed, the Newark, Delaware, six-year-old was suspended from his school and may face 45 days in reform school for violating the Christina School District's "zero tolerance" policy on weapons. His offense? Bringing a camping utensil set to school. The "weapon" in question is a "hobo tool" the first grader had received after recently joining the Cub Scouts; it contains a fork, spoon, and knife. Zachary was so excited about his new acquisition -- as any normal boy would be -- that he brought it to school to use during lunch period. School officials then suspended him, saying they have no choice because the district's code of conduct prohibits the possession of knives "regardless of the possessor's intent." Unfortunately, little Zachary's story is a common one today, with well-meaning students being subjected to disproportionate punishment across the nation in the name of zero tolerance. Writing about Zachary's case in the New York Times, Ian Urbina provides one of these other examples, that of a third-grade girl who "was expelled for a year because her grandmother had sent a birthday cake to school, along with a knife to cut it. The teacher called the principal -- but not before using the knife to cut and serve the cake." I wond...

WWASPS Having Trouble in Mexico Again

blog@nunya.com (Nunya) — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 14:33:00 PST

Posted by: Nunya - Sunset Bay Academy Proud of Long and Successful History Academy Staff is Excited about Growth of their Teen Programs Rosarito, B.C., Mexico (PRWEB) October 14, 2009 -- When Sunset Bay Academy, an at risk youth program, was founded as Oceanside Teen Center in July 2008 the academy sub-contracted the services of the Worldwide Association of Specialty Programs (WWASP) using their seminar model, marketing infrastructure, and billing services. Sunset Bay Academy needed the support of such services since they were new in establishing a therapeutic boarding school in Rosarito, B.C., Mexico. They did not have name recognition in United States to access the Therapeutic Boarding School Industry and associated themselves with WWASP for their external services. Sunset Bay Academy hired bilingual psychologists to implement the most important aspect of the behavioral health model. Their skills and expertise as therapists have created the greatest impact in providing a critical support system for both the students and parents working towards restoring and healing their families and counseling teens. In addition, Sunset Bay Academy's Program Director and Medical Director live on the school grounds and are accessible 24/7. Each psychologist was carefully selected for their credentials, professional history, and most important, for their passion in working with youth and families. Sunset Bay Academy developed its program and was very clear that it would adhere to professional ethi...

Justices debate life sentences for juveniles

blog@nunya.com (Nunya) — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 14:32:00 PST

Posted by: Nunya - Court was asked whether some sentences for juveniles are "cruel and unusual" One appeal is from man who was convicted of raping woman when he was 13 Only a few states prohibit sentencing minors to life without a chance for parole By Bill Mears, CNN Supreme Court Producer November 9, 2009 6:50 p.m. EST Washington (CNN) -- The Supreme Court wrestled in often emotional terms Monday over whether sentencing juvenile criminals to life in prison without parole is "cruel and unusual" punishment, especially when their crime is not murder. The justices appeared divided over how to treat two separate appeals, one involving a 13-year-old rapist and the other a 17-year-old violent home-invasion robber. "You can imagine someone who is a month short of his 18th birthday, and you are saying that, no matter what this person does -- commits the most horrible series of non-homicide offenses that you can imagine, a whole series of brutal rapes, assaults -- that person must at some point be made eligible for parole. That's your argument?" a skeptical Justice Samuel Alito asked a lawyer for one of the prisoners. Justice Stephen Breyer offered a different example. "The confusion and uncertainty about the moral responsibility of a 13-year-old is such that it is a cruel thing to do, to remove from that individual his entire life" with such a sentence, he said. "You see, we are at the extreme" in that example. The Supreme Court's rulings are expected by late spring. One...

Should Teens Be Condemned to Die in Jail?

blog@nunya.com (Nunya) — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 14:31:00 PST

Posted by: Nunya - 16-Year Old Got Life Without Parole for Killing Her Abusive Pimp -- Should Teens Be Condemned to Die in Jail? Two cases in the Supreme Court could alter the fates of over 2,500 people serving life without parole for crimes they committed as teenagers. This article is the first in a two-part series about juveniles and harsh sentencing. Sara Kruzan was 11 years old, a middle school student from Riverside, Calif., when she met a man -- he called himself GG -- who was almost three times her age. GG took her under his wing; he would buy her gifts, take her and her friends rollerskating. "He was like a father figure," she recalls. Despite suffering severe bouts of depression as a child, until then, Kruzan was a good student, an "overachiever" in her words. But her mother was abusive and addicted to drugs; as for her father, she had only met him a couple of times. So, more and more, GG filled in. "GG was there -- sometimes," she said. "He would talk to me and take me out and give me all these lavish gifts and do all these things for me ..." Before long, he started talking to her about sex, giving her his expert advice on what men were really like and telling her that she didn't "need to give it up for free." Unbeknownst to her, GG was grooming Kruzan to be a prostitute. When she was 13, he raped her. "He uses his manhood to hurt," Kruzan recalls, "Like, break you in. I guess." Kruzan worked for GG as a prostitute for three years. The hours were 6 p.m. until 5:30...

MTV has Gone Too Far!

blog@nunya.com (Nunya) — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 10:53:00 PDT

Posted by: Nunya - I didn't watch the show, but here is a quote from "Gone too Far" the intervention MTV bullshit reality show that aired last night. "The only thing left was Death, Institution or Jail." Gee that is the exact same line that was preached by the one and only abusive Straight Inc. I realize Adam Goldstein (RIP) went through the same abuse as the tens of thousands of other kids in Straight Inc. He probably wasn't an addict until after being told by Straight for 2+ years that he was. He was told along w/ all the other kids, that if he didn't stop using he'd wind up dead, insane or in jail. If you hear something enough times and believe it, guess what, it will happen. Most kids in straight were not addicts, but they couldn't graduate the program until they not only admitted but basically believed they were addicted to drugs. Straight ruined lives, broke apart families and their message lives on in the form of other programs, shows like this, and people who still believe that force and confrontation is the only way to save a life. MTV has Gone too Far airing this bullshit! When are people going to wake the hell up! Children and adults should never ever be forced to rehabilitate. Tough love is a crock of shit! Pardon the language I'm a little pissed off. I realize if someone is killing themselves using a hard substance like cocaine, meth or heroin, many people feel the need to step in. There are ways to do this that are humane and compassionate. That aren't on public television a...

US Aid to Israel

blog@nunya.com (Nunya) — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 19:13:00 PDT

Posted by: Nunya - ...

Financial woes shuts residential care site

blog@nunya.com (Nunya) — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 10:28:00 PDT

Posted by: Nunya - Financial woes shuts residential care site July 3, 2009 By Charles M. Bartholomew, Post-Tribune correspondent CHESTERTON -- Thursday was the last day for office workers at the Pathway Family Center, the residential care and referral facility for teens and their families who face substance abuse problems. Clinicians will see the last clients next Thursday, according to Pathway CEO and President Terri Nisseley, who described her mission as, "We save kids." After that, families seeking help will have to take their troubled teens to the agency's facilities in Indianapolis as much as several times a week, as they had to before Pathway opened its Porter County location in 2007 at the invitation of the Community Action Drug Coalition. Among the center's free services that will stop are a hot line that handled 420 calls last year and a community education program for youths, teachers and health care workers that served 24,320 people, Nisseley said. "Not having residential care here puts them in a bind. I know first-hand working with kids ... the importance of a residential treatment center," said Portage High School Resource Officer Troy Williams, a member of the local board for Pathway. Local officials agree with Nisseley's claim that the center's adolescent treatment programs are "very successful" in turning young people away from drugs. On the Web site www.pathwayfamilycenter.org , Porter County Sheriff David Lain says that Pathway "has proven to be succ...

Faith Finley's death at Parmadale Family Services

blog@nunya.com (Nunya) — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 10:28:00 PDT

Posted by: Nunya - Faith Finley's death at Parmadale Family Services while being restrained has not led to charges nearly 8 months later Thursday, July 16, 2009 Rachel Dissell Plain Dealer Reporter Pictures taken by the Cuyahoga County coroner's office show Faith Finley's body sprawled on grungy linoleum at Parmadale Family Services, her baby-blue hooded sweatshirt dappled with vomit. The photos show Faith's face, her eyes still slightly open, the skin of her hand already turning blue. Those pictures of Faith's body were taken in December after she died while being restrained by the center's staff. Nearly eight months later, Faith's family is waiting to find out if anyone is going to be held responsible for the 17-year-old's death, which the coroner ruled a homicide. A Parma police investigation was finished months ago and turned over to county prosecutors. The coroner's investigation, also completed, raised questions about the version of events given by Parmadale staff. So did a sworn statement by a 12-year-old witness who apparently was not, at least initially, questioned by authorities. "They have had plenty of time to investigate," said Jill Flagg, attorney for Faith's mother. "As a lawyer who practices criminal law on a regular basis, I believe there is evidence of wrongdoing that the prosecutor should present to a grand jury." Prosecutor's office spokesman Ryan Miday said the Finley case is very complex. "This office takes all homicide cases seriously," Mid...

Friends' Fears For 'Gay Cure Clinic' Student

blog@nunya.com (Nunya) — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 10:27:00 PDT

Posted by: Nunya - 2:23pm UK, Monday July 20, 2009 Ruth Barnett A campaign is under way to locate a gay man who has not contacted his friends since he apparently checked into a clinic to "cure" his sexuality. Bryce Faulkner Bryce Faulkner is a medical student from Arkansas, United States Bryce Faulkner, 23, is believed to have signed up for 14 months of "ex-gay therapy" with a religious group. Boyfriend Travis Swanson told Sky News Online he has not heard from the Christian medical student since a tearful phone call on June 15. Mr Faulkner, from Arkansas, had told friends he planned to be open about his relationship and move closer to his partner who lives in Wisconsin. They believe the student could instead be at an Exodus International centre in Florida. One of the biggest organisations offering "recovery" therapy, it has 230 ministries across the US and Canada. Its centres are often run by non-professional Christian ministers and some offer "intensive live-in" courses, according to its website. Treatment is believed to include no speaking for three days, no phone or email access and no physical contact. Travis Swanson Travis Swanson Although the Exodus site features testimonials from Christians who "recovered" from their attraction to same-sex partners, there are several support groups for those who say the treatment does not work. Peterson Toscano, from the support group Beyond Ex-Gay, spent 17 years battling with his sexuality. He told Sky Ne...

Former S.D. Boot Camp Remembers Teen Death Ten Years Ago

blog@nunya.com (Nunya) — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 10:18:00 PDT

Posted by: Nunya - By CHET BROKAW and CARSON WALKER Associated Press Writers Published: Tuesday, July 21, 2009 12:20 AM CDT PLANKINTON -- The changes are noticeable at the former State Training School since 14-year-old Gina Score died 10 years ago Tuesday of heat exhaustion after a mandatory run. The razor wire and bars on the windows are gone. The detention cell is hidden by a new wall. A private company runs the facility. And instead of getting in a kid's face, the goal is to get into his or her head. "I think we're reaching kids a lot deeper now," said Fred Bettner, executive director of what is now the Aurora Plains Academy, a private operation that contracts with the state to treat some juvenile offenders. "We're not locking them up. We're not secluding them. We're not doing more trauma to them. We're trying to help them get through the trauma that's happened in the past." In July 1999, Score was overweight and had just arrived in the program days before taking part in the 2.7-mile run that was a part of the girls boot camp routine. It was hot that day and the staff members thought she was faking symptoms. A jury acquitted two state employees of wrongdoing in Score's death, but it prompted the state to close the reform school in 2001, 113 years after it opened. Clinicare of West Allis, Wis., opened the academy in January 2007 to help juveniles with extreme verbal, physical and sexual aggression. The private operation is part of a big change made in the past deca...

Warning Signs of Potentially Abusive Facilities

blog@nunya.com (Nunya) — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 10:17:00 PDT

Posted by: Nunya - 1.) The facility is not licensed. 2.) Verbal and/or written communication between the child and his parents, siblings, grandparents, etc. is prohibited, restricted, or monitored on any level. 3.) The facility requires that the parents and/or child sign a form releasing the program of liability in the event of injury to the child. 4.) The program requests/demands/recommends that they have legal custody of children. 5.) The program requires that children live in foster or "host" homes instead of allowing them to reside with their parents. 6.) The child or parent or forbidden from discussing the daily happenings at the facility. Often this policy is called "confidentiality." 7.) The child is denied access to a telephone. 8.) Phone calls between children and parents are monitored. 9.) The program uses confrontational therapy. 10.) Parents must fulfill requirements of the facility before being permitted to visit their own children. 11.) The facility is located outside the jurisdiction of the United States. 12.) Children are restrained or otherwise physically prevented from leaving the facility. 13.) The staff includes former students/clients of the facility. 14.) Staff members claim that self-injury or cutting/carving on ones body is normal behavior for a child in treatment. 15.) Parents are not allowed to remain with their child during the entire intake/entry process. 16.) The program inflicts physical punis...

Teacher arrested after pregnant teen reports assault

blog@nunya.com (Nunya) — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 10:15:00 PDT

Posted by: Nunya - Jeffrey Wolf updated by: Anastasiya Bolton Date last updated: 7/27/2009 6:26:30 PM Associated Images ESTES PARK - A teacher is accused of sexual assault after investigators say he got a 16-year-old student pregnant. The Larimer County Sheriff's Office has arrested 34-year-old Anthony Ruiz, a former social studies teacher at Eagle Rock School. Administrators at the school told the sheriff's office a former student told them she had been sexually assaulted by Ruiz in May 2009. Robert Burkhardt, head of Eagle Rock School, told 9NEWS the former student called a member of the staff on Wednesday, July 22 and told that member about the incident. Burkhardt says the school immediately contacted Child Protective Services and the Larimer County Sheriff's Department. The teen, who is currently with her family in California, told investigators the assault happened one time and she became pregnant. No other assaults have been reported by this student or any other students at the school, but deputies are talking with other students to get more information. Last Friday, investigators contacted Ruiz and arrested him on one count of sexual assault on a child by a person in a position of trust. Burkhardt tells 9NEWS he put Ruiz on administrative leave Friday and fired him Saturday. "This place operates in the world of trust," Burkhardt said. "This trust was violated." Burkhardt says the 16-year-old was first enrolled at the school in January 2008. She left in...

Pathway Family Center has told parents the program will be closing Friday, July 17.

blog@nunya.com (Nunya) — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 10:12:00 PDT

Posted by: Nunya - July 16, 2009: Pathway Family Center has told parents the program will be closing Friday, July 17. On July 14, 2009, we announced that the owner of the property leased by the Indianapolis Pathway Family Center facility had filed a "COMPLAINT FOR EVICTION AND DAMAGES AND TO ACCELERATE RENTS" against the program. Today, July 24, 2009, we learned the case was settled out of court. Details will be posted here as they become available. Click here to see the lawsuit The Pathway programs are direct descendants of Straight, Inc. Straight, Inc. is considered to be one of the most abusive programs in United States history and has been classified as a cult. Straight, Inc. Michigan closed in 1993, not long after the Atlanta Journal Constitution reported that "Michigan regulators plan to inspect the facility weekly, after finding the program had twice inappropriately restrained clients, injuring one. Michigan has ordered the program to get a residential license, entailing more stringent inspection of host home arrangements." Helen Gowanny, the director of Straight, Inc. Michigan, along with the parents of some graduates, then opened Pathway Family Center. Terri Nissley, the current director of Pathway Family Center, was one of those parents. Her daughter is a graduate of Straight, Inc. Michigan. The after-care coordinator at the Indiana facility is reported to be a...

Pathway Family Center has been evicted

blog@nunya.com (Nunya) — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 10:10:00 PDT

Posted by: Nunya - This is basically video of an empty parking lot and a vacant building. Pathway Family Center was evicted for not paying rent for several months. I posted this video taken from the day of the eviction on youtube. The remaining 11 Pathway kids are being held at secret host homes 24/7, and it is rumored that Pathway will be closing mid-August. At this time, no one has mentioned where these kids are being held exactly. It is rumored that Terri Nissley is working with parents to start a Pathway spinoff under a different name at a different location and to be run as a non-profit under the names of some of the parents. I hope this does not happen as it has in the past....

Peter Paul vs. Hillary Clinton

blog@nunya.com (Nunya) — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 15:38:00 PDT

Posted by: Nunya - http://www.paulvclinton.com/...

FTS!

blog@nunya.com (Nunya) — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 15:06:00 PDT

Posted by: Nunya - So very true!! Source: http://xkcd.com/137/...

Beastie Boys tour &' album postponed

blog@nunya.com (Nunya) — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 13:20:00 PDT

Posted by: Nunya - Beastie Boys tour & album postponed for treatment of cancerous tumor on Adam Yauch's neck. Get well soon Adam!! More info: http://www.beastieboys.com...

"Crisis in California" - Calvina Fay Debates Rob Kampia

blog@nunya.com (Nunya) — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 12:11:00 PDT

Posted by: Nunya - Calvina Fay is clueless. She is the Director of DFAF. DFAF is owned by Mel Sembler. When Straight Inc. shut down in the early 90s Mel Sembler changed the name of the Organization to DFAF. These are the same people that abused countless of children in the name of "rehabilitation". When Straight was around they used faulty statistics and tactics and they still do today. They make a ton of money in the "troubled teen industry" legalizing would greatly hurt their industry and ability to make money as an organization. She says 60% of people using drugs (my guess mostly alcohol) abuse children. That statement alone is false and such a hypocritical statement to come from an organization who themselves has abused children for years. When the truth finally comes out on a mass scale about what the DFAF has been involved in, they won't have much of a leg to stand on....

Ex-Reform School Student Says He Witnessed Boy's Beating Death

blog@nunya.com (Nunya) — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 10:34:00 PDT

Posted by: Nunya - Wednesday, December 10, 2008 Don Stratton, a former student at the Florida School for Boys, with a photo of some of his classmates As authorities began investigating unmarked graves near a reform school where boys were brutally abused in the 1950s and '60s, one former student remembered the horrors that happened inside. Don Stratton, now 63, went to the Arthur G. Dozier School for Boys in Marianna, Fla., and says he saw the unimaginable at the place known simply as the "White House." "I witnessed them killing a boy, OK. They beat him to death," Stratton told MyFOXTampaBay.com. "The state of Florida beat him at the White House. And I watched it; I seen it." He said the school controlled students with fear. Twice a week, the children -- ages 9 to 16 -- would be taken into a room and beaten. The boys called it "going down," according to MyFOXTampaBay.com. "They turned the fan on, so you wouldn't hear the screaming. But I could hear the screaming 'cause I was right there," said Stratton, who was beaten three times. Florida Gov. Charlie Crist wrote to the head of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement on Tuesday, asking authorities to determine the origin of the more than 30 unidentified graves and whether any crimes were committed. Officials Probe Unmarked Graves at Florida Reform School The agency said it planned an immediate investigation. The move comes after a group of former inmates, now in their 60s, asked for an investigation into the graves mar...

Drug Warriors and Their Prey by RLMiller (Review)

blog@nunya.com (Nunya) — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 18:28:00 PDT

Posted by: Nunya - Richard Lawrence Miller is the same person who wrote that piece on the appalling lack of ethics involved in Dr. Richard H. Schwartz's use of Straight, Inc. "clients" as experimental research subjects. This was recently mentioned in the following thread:Who are the doctors at PFC?viewtopic.php?f=7&t=26022--�?|�?�0�?�|?�-- --�?|�?�0�?�|?�-- --�?|�?�0�?�|?�--Drug Warriors and Their PreyFrom Police Power to Police Stateby Richard Lawrence MillerPraeger Publishers 1996, ISBN 0-275-95042-5A Review by Peter Webster--�?|�?�0�?�|?�--There is a certain difficulty in writing a review of Richard Lawrence Miller's Drug Warriors and Their Prey, but not because it is a difficult book in any usual sense. On the contrary, it is disarmingly easy to understand the author's every implication. Yet the theme of Mr. Miller's essay, a point by point comparison of the reality of Drug Prohibition in the United States today with exactly analogous situations leading up to Hitler's Third Reich and the attempted destruction of the Jewish people, is certain to repulse the very readers who need most to understand that, indeed, it can happen again. Thus the book, and any honest review of it, might achieve little more than preaching to the converted: those who can readily accept its main thesis must already be active in resisting not just the "worst excesses" of the War on Drugs, but the entire and historically-proven futility of the very concept of Prohibition as a means to advantageous ends.Not that Hit...

Winning the war on drugs

blog@nunya.com (Nunya) — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 18:26:00 PDT

Posted by: Nunya - Winning the war on drugs by Prof. Steve Jonas "Winning the War on Drugs?" Is that you, Dr. Steve? Isn't that "War" just a construct designed to achieve political and economic aims, while oppressing with it one particular sector of the population? How can it be "won?" This column considers that conundrum in almost telegraphic form. I have written at length on it in the academic literature. Interested readers are welcome to get in touch with me for references. The "War on Drugs" has never been such a thing. From its inauguration by Richard Nixon it has always been a War on Drug Users, for the most part minority drug users at that, although some non-minorities have occasionally been caught up in its tentacles. The so-called War on Drugs was begun shortly after the invention of the race-based "Southern Strategy" that has controlled the fortunes of the GOP and unfortunately the country for most of the time since Nixon installed it. The correctly labeled "War on Drug Users" has primarily been a racist enterprise too. It has been aimed at the users of one minor class of the Recreational Mood Altering Drugs (RMADs), those that are currently "illicit" (as alcohol was nationally between 1920 and 1933 and cigarettes were in 15 states at various times during the 19th century. Although the ratios have declined a bit in the last few years, for most of its duration under the War on Drug Users, while approximately 75% of those in prison for drug-related offenses are non-white approxim...

SPLC Sues Mississippi County to Stop 'Shocking' Abuse of Children at Detention Center

blog@nunya.com (Nunya) — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 18:12:00 PDT

Posted by: Nunya - The Southern Poverty Law Center today filed a federal class action suit to stop the "shockingly inhumane" treatment of children at a juvenile detention center and to force officials to provide sanitary facilities and mental health treatment to young people confined there. The suit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi on behalf of a 17-year-old boy who, despite attempting suicide while in the facility, has received no mental health treatment. He has been subjected to physical abuse and filthy conditions, and has been forced to sleep on the floor in an overcrowded, insect-infested cell. The Harrison County Juvenile Detention Center in Biloxi, Miss., has been operated by a private corporation, the Mississippi Security Police, for more than nine years at an annual cost of $1.6 million. "It is a travesty that the county has chosen to let a private company profit by neglecting and abusing our children," said Vanessa Carroll, a staff attorney for the SPLC's Mississippi Youth Justice Project and counsel for the children....

Somali Islamists order teenagers' hands, legs cut off

blog@nunya.com (Nunya) — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 18:10:00 PDT

Posted by: Nunya - * Amputations ordered by Islamist insurgents * President calls on world community to save Somalia (Adds Amnesty International) MOGADISHU, June 22 (Reuters) - Somalia's al Shabaab insurgents in a Mogadishu stronghold sentenced four teenagers on Monday to each have a hand and a leg amputated as punishment for robbery. It would be the first such amputation carried out by the Islamist rebels, who follow strict sharia law in the parts of south Somalia they control. Al Shabaab -- whose ranks are swelled by foreign jihadists and is seen by Western security services as a proxy for al Qaeda in Somalia -- has carried out executions, floggings and single-limb amputations before, mainly in south Kismayu port. It is battling the government of President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed for control of Mogadishu and is fighting a government-allied moderate Islamist militia in the provinces....

Comics artist Mark Sable detained for Unthinkable acts

blog@nunya.com (Nunya) — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 10:59:00 PDT

Posted by: Nunya - By Ian Randal Strock May 13, 2009 Boom! Studios sends word that comics writer Mark Sable was detained by TSA security guards at Los Angeles International Airport this past weekend because he was carrying a script for a new issue of his comic miniseries Unthinkable. Sable was detained while traveling to New York for a debut party at Jim Hanley's Universe today. The comic series follows members of a government think tank that was tasked with coming up with 9/11-type 'unthinkable' terrorist scenarios that now are coming true. (See this article for more on the series.) Sable wrote of his experiences: 'Flying from Los Angeles to New York for a signing at Jim Hanley's Universe Wednesday (May 13th), I was flagged at the gate for 'extra screening'. I was subjected to not one, but two invasive searches of my person and belongings. TSA agents then 'discovered' the script for Unthinkable #3. They sat and read the script while I stood there, without any personal items, identification or ticket, which had all been confiscated.' 'The minute I saw the faces of the agents, I knew I was in trouble. The first page of the Unthinkable script mentioned 9/11, terror plots, and the fact that the (fictional) world had become a police state. The TSA agents then proceeded to interrogate me, having a hard time understanding that a comic book could be about anything other than superheroes, let alone that anyone actually wrote scripts for comics.' 'I cooperated politely and tried to expla...

Ibogaine in the News

blog@nunya.com (Nunya) — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 10:58:00 PDT

Posted by: Nunya - ...

Cannabis Column: The Top Ten Obstacles to Marijuana Law Reform

blog@nunya.com (Nunya) — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 10:58:00 PDT

Posted by: Nunya - Jon Gettman is a long time contributor to HIGH TIMES. A former National Director of NORML, Jon has a Ph.D. in public policy and regional economic development and consults with attorneys, advocates, and non-profits on cannabis related research and public policy issues. On October 8, 2002, along with a coalition of organizations, he filed a new petition to have cannabis rescheduled under federal law. This column will track that petition's progress. The Top Ten Obstacles to Marijuana Law Reform A lot of people think that the pharmaceutical industry is one of the most powerful opponents to marijuana's legalization. They don't realize that these companies stand to make billions of dollars off of the chemical compounds contained in marijuana in a legal regulatory climate. The reality is that the current restrictions on marijuana make scientific research on marijuana-related pharmaceuticals too expensive to pursue, and the restrictive regulatory climate concerning anything related to marijuana creates too much uncertainty about future sales and profits to justify developing marijuana related drugs. Even if marijuana were legal and widely available, there would still be a valuable market for a marijuana-based painkiller that was 50 to 100 times more powerful than the herb itself. Many others think the alcohol industry is another potential opponent to marijuana's legalization. However, they realize that the popularity of alcohol has...

Help my friend Heather! The Race For the Cure is September 12th, just around the corner.

blog@nunya.com (Nunya) — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 10:56:00 PDT

Posted by: Nunya - Help my friend Heather! The Race For the Cure is September 12th, just around the corner. On a personal note, the more I thought about this the more I realized what I already knew. Without these funds for research there would not be new drugs out there for people like myself that have had three reoccurrences of breast cancer. The drugs I am taking for my diagnoses 6 weeks ago were not available in 2006. That hit too close to home. This money stays in Cincinnati for those LIVING with breast cancer and those in our future that may have to fight this nasty disease. Let's find a CURE for breast cancer---forever. Click here to help! The Race for the Cure� ONE EASY STEP: CLICK SUPPORT HEATHER AND LET'S SEE HOW MUCH WE CAN BRING IN TO STOP BREAST CANCER!!!!!!! One in eight women will be diagnosed with breast cancer in her lifetime. The Komen Greater Cincinnati Race for the Cure� raises money to fund education, screening and treatment programs for these women and thousands of others in our own community and supports the national search for a cure. The Komen Race for the Cure� Series is the largest series of 5K run/ walks in the world. Since its origination in Dallas in 1983, the Komen Race for the Cure� Series has grown from one local race with 800 participants to an international series of 117 races with more than 1.5 million participants. Now going through my fourth battle of cancer with a POSITIVE attitude!!! ...I thought I had fought the toughest battle...

Ireland Makes Blasphemy Illegal

blog@nunya.com (Nunya) — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 10:54:00 PDT

Posted by: Nunya - Irish atheists are horrified by new legislation making blasphemy illegal, and punishable by a 25,000-Euro fine. Christians of all stripes should be, too. As part of a revision to defamation legislation, the Dail (Irish Parliament) passed legislation creating a new crime of blasphemy. Update: The bill went to the Seanad on Friday, July 10, passing by a single vote. This attack on free speech, debated for several months in Europe, has gone largely unnoticed in the American press. The text of the legislation is provided at the end of this post. How does this impact free speech? Just don't be rude. * Atheists can be prosecuted for saying that God is imaginary. That causes outrage. * Pagans can be prosecuted for saying they left Christianity because God is violent and bloodthirsty, promotes genocide, and permits slavery. * Christians can be prosecuted for saying that Allah is a moon god, or for drawing a picture of Mohammed, or for saying that Islam is a violent religion which breeds terrorists. * Jews can be prosecuted for saying Jesus isn't the Messiah. Is it really THAT big a deal? Ireland's Blasphemy Bill not only criminalizes free speech, it also gives the police the authority to confiscate anything deemed "blasphemous". They may enter and search any premises, with force if needed, upon "reasonable suspicion" that such materials are present. * The local Freethinkers society, with its copies of Hitchens' God Is Not Great: How Religio...

Color-Picking Pen Concept Imagines Real-World Photoshop Eyedropper Tool

blog@nunya.com (Nunya) — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 13:58:00 PDT

Posted by: Nunya - Most of the Photoshop tools familiar to artists import old school analog devices onto the computer. Before computers, artists would use actual razors to crop, and physical scissors and glue to cut and paste. But South Korean designer Jinsun Park has envisioned a pen that reverses the process, taking a tool developed for the computer and porting it to physical reality. Park has designed a concept pen that adapts Photoshop's eyedropper tool for real life. On one end of the pen is a camera that captures a complex, real world color. Then, like an inkjet printer, a computer in the pen calculates the mixture of red, green and blue ink needed to replicate the color photographed by the camera. Ink in the perfect proportions then flows out of the ball point on the other end of the pen. Source: http://www.popsci.com/gear-amp-gadgets/article/2009-06/real-life-photoshop-tool-grabs-colors...

Void LP player

blog@nunya.com (Nunya) — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 12:56:00 PDT

Posted by: Nunya - The record player uses a carrier and dock outfitted with a magnetic and auto-calibrating control system which carries the LP into thin air as it is playing music. a self-running record player shaped in the form of a red sphere, contains a needle, amplifier and speaker, spins around the record, bringing the music to life. the sphere that plays the vinyl was technically influenced by the 'vinyl killer', currently the world's smallest LP player that has a built-in motor, amplifier and speaker. Simple colors and shapes express a kind of astronomical movement between the object and space. The levitation is managed electronically. once turning the player on, you can manage the elevation levels through the touch sensors on the front side of the base unit. Source: http://rheajeong.com/index.php?/2009/high/...

Neil Young

blog@nunya.com (Nunya) — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 20:42:00 PDT

Posted by: Nunya - That Neil Young's been working on his career retrospective for 23 years says something about the songwriter's longevity. But it raises a question: Can anything be worth that long a wait? We say: Sort of. Neil Young Archives Volume 1 (1963�1972), which came out this week as a boxed set of ten (10!) DVDs, is absurdly lavish. The tracks date back to Young's earliest recordings, with a Winnipeg folk-rock band called the Squires; they include two excellent (but previously released) concert performances and dozens of previously unreleased recordings. You'll also find Young's quasi-watchable film Journey Through the Past as well as interviews, lyric sheets, demos, and other ephemera. There's plenty to explore here, and thanks to Young's gearhead tendencies -- which explain his insistence on audio DVDs rather than CDs -- the sound quality is pristine. (You can also get an eight-CD version of the set, but it all but comes with a warning sticker from the man in charge.) That said, Archives is expensive -- $200, with the Amazon discount -- so its appeal is directly proportional to your degree of obsessiveness. For most of us, the $70 set of CDs will suffice. Source: Veryshortlist.com...

Couple: County Trying To Stop Home Bible Studies

blog@nunya.com (Nunya) — Thu, 28 May 2009 08:14:00 PDT

Posted by: Nunya - SAN DIEGO -- A local pastor and his wife claim they were interrogated by a San Diego County official, who then threatened them with escalating fines if they continued to hold bible studies in their home, 10News reported. Attorney Dean Broyles of The Western Center For Law & Policy was shocked with what happened to the pastor and his wife. Broyles said, "The county asked, 'Do you have a regular meeting in your home?' She said, 'Yes.' 'Do you say amen?' 'Yes.' 'Do you pray?' 'Yes.' 'Do you say praise the Lord?' 'Yes.'" The county employee notified the couple that the small bible study, with an average of 15 people attending, was in violation of county regulations, according to Broyles. Broyles said a few days later the couple received a written warning that listed "unlawful use of land" and told them to "stop religious assembly or apply for a major use permit" -- a process that could cost tens of thousands of dollars. "For churches and religious assemblies there's big parking concerns, there's environmental impact concerns when you have hundreds or thousands of people gathering. But this is a different situation, and we believe that the application of the religious assembly principles to this bible study is certainly misplaced," said Broyles....

Bilderberg Plan For Remaking the Global Political Economy 2009

blog@nunya.com (Nunya) — Wed, 27 May 2009 07:10:00 PDT

Posted by: Nunya - Andrew G. Marshall writes: From May 14-17, the global elite met in secret in Greece for the yearly Bilderberg conference, amid scattered and limited global media attention. Roughly 130 of the world's most powerful individuals came together to discuss the pressing issues of today, and to chart a course for the next year. The main topic of discussion at this years meeting was the global financial crisis, which is no surprise, considering the list of conference attendees includes many of the primary architects of the crisis, as well as those poised to "solve" it. The Agenda: The Restructuring of the Global Political Economy Before the meeting began, Bilderberg investigative journalist Daniel Estulin reported on the main item of the agenda, which was leaked to him by his sources inside. Though such reports cannot be verified, his sources, along with those of veteran Bilderberg tracker, Jim Tucker, have proven to be shockingly accurate in the past. Apparently, the main topic of discussion at this years meeting was to address the economic crisis, in terms of undertaking, "Either a prolonged, agonizing depression that dooms the world to decades of stagnation, decline and poverty ... or an intense-but-shorter depression that paves the way for a new sustainable economic world order, with less sovereignty but more efficiency." Other items on the agenda included a plan to "continue to deceive millions of savers and investors who believe the hype about the supposed up-turn in the e...

The Truth about Schizophrenia

blog@nunya.com (Nunya) — Tue, 26 May 2009 08:44:00 PDT

Posted by: Nunya - ...

Thousands beaten, raped in Irish reform schools

blog@nunya.com (Nunya) — Wed, 20 May 2009 10:30:00 PDT

Posted by: Nunya - DUBLIN � A fiercely debated, long-delayed investigation into Ireland's Roman Catholic-run institutions says priests and nuns terrorized thousands of boys and girls in workhouse-style schools for decades -- and government inspectors failed to stop the chronic beatings, rapes and humiliation. Nine years in the making, Wednesday's 2,600-page report sides almost completely with the horrific reports of abuse from former students sent to more than 250 church-run, mostly residential institutions. But victims' leaders said it didn't go far enough -- particularly because none of their abusers were identified by name. The report concluded that church officials always shielded their orders' pedophiles from arrest to protect their own reputations and, according to documents uncovered in the Vatican, knew that many pedophiles were serial attackers. The investigators said overwhelming, consistent testimony from still-traumatized men and women, now in their 50s to 80s, had demonstrated beyond a doubt that the entire system treated children more like prison inmates and slaves than people with legal rights and human potential. "A climate of fear, created by pervasive, excessive and arbitrary punishment, permeated most of the institutions and all those run for boys. Children lived with the daily terror of not knowing where the next beating was coming from," the final report of Ireland's Commission to Inquire Into Child Abuse concluded. The leader of Ireland's 4 million Catholics...

War

blog@nunya.com (Nunya) — Wed, 20 May 2009 07:43:00 PDT

Posted by: Nunya - The end to war starts with YOU. Stop fighting with yourself, your friends, you neighbors. Set the example! Be the light! Shine on!!...

Fuck you Very Much

blog@nunya.com (Nunya) — Wed, 20 May 2009 07:28:00 PDT

Posted by: Nunya - "Look inside, look inside your tiny mind and look a bit harder cause we're so uninspired so sick and tired of all the hatred you harbor so you say it's not okay to be gay well I think you're just evil you're just some racist who can't tie my laces you're point of view is medieval Fuck you, fuck you very very much cause we hate what you do and we hate your whole crew so please don't stay in touch fuck you, fuck you very very much cause your words don't translate and it's getting quite late so please don't stay in touch do you get, do you get a little kick out of being small-minded? you want to be like your father it's approval you're after well that's not how you'll find it do you, do you really enjoy living a life that's so hateful cause there's a hole where your soul should be you're losing control of it and it's really distasteful Fuck you, fuck you very very much cause we hate what you do and we hate your whole crew so please don't stay in touch Fuck you, fuck you very very much cause your words don't translate and it's getting quite late so please don't stay in touch Look inside, look inside your tiny mind and look a bit harder cause we're so uninspired so sick and tired of all the hatred you harbor Fuck you, fuck you very very much cause we hate what you do and we hate your whole crew so please don't stay in touch Fuck you, fuck you very very much cause your words don't translate and it's getting quite late...

Google joins Bilderberg cabal

blog@nunya.com (Nunya) — Mon, 18 May 2009 13:51:00 PDT

Posted by: Nunya - Posted: May 17, 2009 10:04 pm Eastern � 2009 WorldNetDaily Astir Palace Hotel Resort, reported site of this year's Bilderberg Group meeting WASHINGTON � The latest meeting of the secretive, half-century-old Bilderberg Group concluded yesterday outside of Athens with a few arrests, but little news. Demonstrators from the political left and right shouted outside the Astir Palace hotel letting some of the wealthiest and most powerful people in the world know they weren't entirely welcome. A photographer for the London Guardian was briefly taken into custody while police insisted he delete pictures he took outside the hotel, which was closed to the public during the three-day meeting. A police officer told the Associated Press the resort was being protected by hundreds of police, navy commandos, coast guard speedboats and two F-16 fighter planes. The officer spoke on condition of anonymity, in keeping with his department's regulations. Attendees this year reportedly included U.S. Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner; Larry Summers, the director of the U.S. National Economic Council; Richard Holbrooke, the Obama administration's special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan; World Bank President Robert Zoellick; European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet and European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso. [More..]...

12 Ways Women Have Replaced Men With Technology

blog@nunya.com (Nunya) — Thu, 14 May 2009 11:43:00 PDT

Posted by: Nunya - There's no denying the obvious: men have served a useful purpose in the evolutionary development of the human race. However, developments in science and technology are rapidly advancing, allowing women to slowly, but surely, replace the men in their lives. Are men destined to go the way of gills and the vestigial tail? Maybe not, but here are 12 ways in which men are becoming increasingly obsolete to the needs of women. Read more...

Female Hysteria

blog@nunya.com (Nunya) — Thu, 14 May 2009 10:29:00 PDT

Posted by: Nunya - Female hysteria was a once-common medical diagnosis, made exclusively in women, which is today no longer recognized by modern medical authorities as a medical disorder. Its diagnosis and treatment were routine for many hundreds of years in Western Europe. Hysteria was widely discussed in the medical literature of the Victorian era. Women considered to be suffering from it exhibited a wide array of symptoms including faintness, nervousness, insomnia, fluid retention, heaviness in abdomen, muscle spasm, shortness of breath, irritability, loss of appetite for food or sex, and "a tendency to cause trouble". More.....

Nunya.com Email

blog@nunya.com (Nunya) — Thu, 14 May 2009 10:26:00 PDT

Posted by: Nunya - I received this email today "I have been using nunya@nunya.com and nunyabizness@nunya.com as email address to put on forms and things like Safeway Club cards for years. I hope you aren't stupid enough to have that as an email address!" My response. The stupid man is the man that uses an email address that is owned by someone else. I mean how dumb do you have to be to fill out info on line (including usernames and passwords) and then use someone else's email address. Of course nunya@nunya.com is ours ANYTHING@nunya.com is ours. Lucky for you, we have enough integrity not to post every email that we receive on line, so the world can see just how many stupid people are out there. Actually, we did that once but the server couldn't handle it. LOL My advice, use your own fucking email address dumbass!...

Today

blog@nunya.com (Nunya) — Fri, 01 May 2009 10:22:00 PDT

Posted by: Nunya - Today is a good day. It's a great day. This is the first day of the rest of my life. Wow, wtf does that mean really? Hell if i know. hahaha.. Life is a twisting, turning story that will leave you guessing until the end. It will mold you, shape you, twist you, pull you, push you, shake you, love you, hate you, inspire you, ignite you, incite you, delight you. Tonight, you. It's on!...

Children tracked by sat nav to stop bad behaviour

blog@nunya.com (Nunya) — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 10:59:00 PDT

Posted by: Nunya - Children will be tracked by satellite on public transport and encouraged to spy on their friends and report bad behaviour, under a pilot scheme by the Welsh Assembly. The project is being trialled across the six North Wales counties to tackle anti-social behaviour on school buses. Pupils will use a picture swipe card to clock on and off the bus allowing parents to keep a closer check on their child via a website. It will help deal with a number of issues including truancy, drivers reporting and identifying ill-behaved children and monitoring a child's whereabouts in the event of them going missing or a bus breakdown. The scheme include 'Bus Angels' aged 14 and above, who covertly report incidents of bad behaviour, Peter Daniels, transport manager at Denbighshire County Council said: "The main aims are to support schools, drivers, parents and pupils on school buses to improve behaviour and enable them to understand the consequences of some of the things they do. "I have to say in north east Wales we don't really see trouble and misbehaviour, but in the afternoon some of the pupils can be jolly and minor anti-social behaviour can occur, or from time to time something more serious. "It's very much like the scheme in London where an Oystercard user boards a bus and taps in and then taps out when he or she gets off. "Using GPS tracking, parents will know exactly where their pupils are on the bus." http://www.telegraph.co.uk/scienceandtechnology/technolo...

Earth Day predictions of 1970. The reason you shouldn�t believe Earth Day predictions of 2009.

blog@nunya.com (Nunya) — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 10:57:00 PDT

Posted by: Nunya - Earth Day predictions of 1970. The reason you shouldn't believe Earth Day predictions of 2009. April 22, 2009, 4:00 am Earth Day is past now, but this article is so popular we're pinning it at the top of the home page today so everyone looking for it can find it. Luckily, we haven't run out of oil, but have exhausted our supply of 70s fashion. Luckily, we haven't run out of oil, but we have exhausted our supply of 70s fashion. For the next 24 hours, the media will assault us with tales of imminent disaster that always accompany the annual Earth Day Doom & Gloom Extravaganza. Ignore them. They'll be wrong. We're confident in saying that because they've always been wrong. And always will be. Need proof? Here are some of the hilarious, spectacularly wrong predictions made on the occasion of Earth Day 1970. "We have about five more years at the outside to do something." � Kenneth Watt, ecologist "Civilization will end within 15 or 30 years unless immediate action is taken against problems facing mankind." � George Wald, Harvard Biologist "We are in an environmental crisis which threatens the survival of this nation, and of the world as a suitable place of human habitation." � Barry Commoner, Washington University biologist "Man must stop pollution and conserve his resources, not merely to enhance existence but to save the race from intolerable deterioration and possible extinction." � New York Times editorial, the day after the first Earth Day...

An Oregon School for Troubled Teens Is Under Scrutiny

blog@nunya.com (Nunya) — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 17:03:00 PDT

Posted by: Nunya - On April 28, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments in a case that has caused anguish in the world of special education and children's mental health. The case, Forest Grove v. TA, centers on the question of whether families with a disabled child have a right to seek reimbursement for private-school tuition from the state if the child did not first receive special-education services in public school. The legal question is a narrow one, but the case raises larger, more troublesome issues about student safety and the quality of educational services that families should expect when they place their children in private residential care, because the school involved in the case, Mount Bachelor Academy, near Prineville, Ore., is under state investigation for allegations of abuse reported by students and one employee. A spokesperson for the Oregon Department of Human Services (DHS) declined to discuss the details of the ongoing investigations, which include a second inquiry based on possible licensing violations. But according to 10 students, two separate parents and a part-time employee interviewed by TIME -- some of whom are involved in the inquiry -- Mount Bachelor Academy regularly uses intensely humiliating tactics as treatment. For instance, in required seminars that the school calls Lifesteps, students say staff members of the residential program have instructed girls, some of whom say they have been victims of rape or sexual abuse, to dress in provocative clothing -...

Do Lap Dances and Humiliation Treat ADHD and Should Public Schools Pay?

blog@nunya.com (Nunya) — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 17:00:00 PDT

Posted by: Nunya - In today's Time Magazine online, I have an article about a school-- Mount Bachelor Academy-- which is part of a Supreme Court case to be argued on April 28. The Court will answer the question of whether parents can sue to get reimbursement for private residential schools like Mount Bachelor, if their disabled child hasnt first tried public special education. In this case, the child's disability was ADHD. For the article, I interviewed more than ten students, two unrelated parents and a current employee who describe bizarre, abusive, one-size-fits-all "therapies" that are neither educational or therapeutic. Most of the teens I spoke with say they had witnessed or were personally made to perform lap dances or other sexualized activity in front of dozens of peers and staff. The school's management denies all allegations of wrong-doing. It may be the case that parents should have access to the courts if they feel that their school's plan for their child with a disability is wrong. The Supreme Court will make that decision. However, I think it's very difficult to argue that sexual humiliation, sleep deprivation, food deprivation and isolation from family (kids are only allowed one ten-minute, monitored phone call every other week for months on end, no calls if they are punished) is an effective treatment for ADHD, depression, addiction or any other form of teen misbehavior or mental illness. Though the school denies that it uses degrading tactics, reports of them have...

Pee Poo

blog@nunya.com (Nunya) — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 16:58:00 PDT

Posted by: Nunya - When I first saw the Peepoo bag I thought it was a joke, but after reading about it I realized it's quite a novel idea. Basically it's a plastic bag to go to the bathroom in, which is why I thought it was a joke, but this simple little bag employs some sophisticated sustainable solutions and solves some pretty daunting problems. In the developing world clean water and sanitation are very scarce. This is due to over population and lack of infrastructure and poses a serious health risk to the affected populations. In these parts of the world not only do they lack the infrastructure to attain clean water, they also lack the infrastructure needed to deal with all their waste, so they end up contaminating the little water they have. Around the world, one child dies every 15 seconds from to contaminated water. For them the saying "Don't piss where you drink" isn't a clever metaphor, it's a real life challenge. More Source: http://greenupgrader.com/7230/improving-sanitation-with-the-peepoo-bag/...

Truth Wins Out - Zach Stark Speaks: Forced into Ex-Gay Boot Camp in 2005

blog@nunya.com (Nunya) — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 11:09:00 PDT

Posted by: Nunya - Wow just like Straight Inc. Zach Stark, who endured more than a month of involuntary detention in Exodus International's costly live-in ex-gayification program Love In Action, appears briefly in the upcoming ex-gay documentary This Is What Love In Action Looks Like, which is planned for release later this year. You need to a flashplayer enabled browser to view this YouTube video Zach was 16 years old when he learned that he would be forced to live at Exodus International's "Love In Action" ex-gay boot camp in 2005. He wrote the following to close friends via MySpace. He was known then only as a semi-anonymous youth named "Zach": Somewhat recently, as many of you know, I told my parents I was gay. This didn't go over very well, and it ended with my dad crying, my mom tearing and me not knowing what I'd done - or what to do....

SLS Health

blog@nunya.com (Nunya) — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 14:44:00 PDT

Posted by: Nunya - Repost... THESE ARE THE FACTS REGARDING THE STATUS OF SLS HEALTH VS OMH AS OF MARCH 23, 2009: 1.) On or around December 3rd Justice O'Rourke from the Putnam County Supreme Court ordered that all fines and also ordered OMH would be barred from taking further regulatory action against SLS, including the revocation of SLS licenses. This was after him supposedly reviewing the over 3,498 pages of evidence in ONE NIGHT. 2.) On December 10 the NY State Attorney General filed a motion with the Appellate Division barring enforcement of Justice O'Rourke's order until the Appellate Division has had an opportunity to review and decide the appeal. This permitted the OMH Revocation hearing to move forward (and it did start on Jan 5, 2009). Also, the Appellate Division only grants orders of this type when it has serious concerns about the order issued by the lower court. In this case the fact that all of the evidence could not have been humanly possible to be reviewed in under 24 hours made Justice O'Rourke's order appear to be a "favor" to SLS. 3.) On December 23 the Appellate Division acted swiftly and issued an Emergency Stay of Justice O'Rourke's order. Justice O'Rourke's order was stayed, meaning not in effect, on the condition the NY Attorney General files its appellate brief on or before Jan. 22, 2009. This means the Appellate Division is fast-tracking the appeal. 4.) On Jan 19, 2009 the OMH Revocation Hearing started. SLS made a motion prior to the OM...

The Obama Deception

blog@nunya.com (Nunya) — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 10:04:00 PDT

Posted by: Nunya - ...

Quote

blog@nunya.com (Nunya) — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 08:30:00 PST

Posted by: Nunya - "Since Aristotle, man has organized his knowledge vertically in separate and unrelated groups -- Science, Religion, Sex, Relaxation, Work etc. The main emphasis in his language, his system of storing knowledge, has been on the identification of objects rather than on the relationships between objects. He is now forced to use his tools of reasoning separately and for one situation at a time. Had man been able to see past this hypnotic way of thinking, to distrust it (as did Einstein), and to resystematize his knowledge so that it would all be related horizontally, he would now enjoy the perfect sanity which comes from being able to deal with his life in its entirety. Recently, it has become possible for man to chemically alter his mental state and thus alter his point of view (that is, his own basic relation with the outside world which determines how he stores his information). He can restructure his thinking and change his language so that his thoughts bear more relation to his life and his problems, therefore approaching them more sanely. It is this quest for pure sanity that forms the basis of the songs on this album." --Quote from the liner notes of The Psychedelic Sounds of The 13th Floor Elevators...

It�s the Pot Economy, Stupid

blog@nunya.com (Nunya) — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 08:00:00 PST

Posted by: Nunya - It looks like the pot debate just got real. As the nation faces its worst economic crisis in generations, California Assemblyman Tom Ammiano has introduced a trailblazing bill to tax and regulate marijuana like alcohol. Hard on the heels of Michael Phelps' nationally-resonant bong demo, Ammiano's gesture is a whole lot more intentional. One hopes it will stir the long-overdue national examination of the financial and human price that we pay for criminalizing pot. The most widely used illicit drug in the western world, marijuana is a fact of life that's been sampled by upwards of 100,000,000 Americans. Officially prohibited since 1937, we finally seem on the threshold of a promising moment in our nation's tortured relationship to the drug. On November 4 alone, Massachusetts decriminalized personal pot use, Michigan became the thirteenth state to allow its medical use, and we elected a president who's openly admitted to smoking it. National polls and the yawn that greeted the Phelps media frenzy indicate that Americans are reconciled to pot's largely benign role in our culture. Nevertheless, the mindless prohibition enforcement machine rolls on. In 2007, over 800,000 Americans were arrested for marijuana-related crimes (nearly 90 percent of them for possession), with upwards of 85,000 of them serving sentences in jail or prison. In the U.S., incredibly there are more arrests for marijuana possession each year than for all violent crimes combined. This astounding human to...

Babies &' Beats

blog@nunya.com (Nunya) — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 14:02:00 PST

Posted by: Nunya - Press Release: Newborn infants detect the beat in music (Dutch | Hugarian) Researchers have found that newborn infants are able to detect the beat in music. The results support the theory that a sense for detecting a regular beat, termed 'beat induction', is innate or possibly learned already in the womb. Beat induction is probably fundamental to the origins of music, because it allows clapping or making music together, dancing to a rhythm, etc. Istv�n Winkler, Henkjan Honing and colleagues investigated beat induction in sleeping babies two or three days after birth. Since it is not feasible to observe behavioral reactions in newborns, the researchers used scalp electrodes to measure electrical brain signals. The babies wore self-adhesive ear?couplers (see photo) through which a simple, regular rock rhythm was delivered, consisting of hi-hat, snare, and bass drum. Several variants of the basic rhythm were constructed by omitting strokes on non-significant positions of the rhythm. These variants were played to the infants, with a "deviant" segment, missing the downbeat, occasionally interspersed. Shortly after each deviant segment began, the babies' brains produced an electrical response marking that they had expected to hear the downbeat but had not. This innate sense of rhythm is probably essential for bootstrapping verbal communication and music appreciation, the researchers say. The research was conducted at the Institute for Psychology of the Hungarian Academy of...

Ouch! Can You Really Break Your Penis?

blog@nunya.com (Nunya) — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 14:00:00 PST

Posted by: Nunya - Ever since heartthrob television doctor Mark Sloan had a sexual mishap on last night's episode of TV hit show Grey's Anatomy, bloggers around the globe have been buzzing about a bizarre and horrifying condition called "broken penis syndrome". For those who didn't catch last night's hot and steamy love scene between Sloan (played by actor Eric Dane) and "intern" Lexie Grey (Chyler Leigh), be advised: it ended painfully--very painfully. At least for Sloan, who suffered a severe injury to his manhood, which prompted a slew of rumors among hospital staff about which woman "broke Sloan's penis," according to ABC's online recap of the episode. Given that there are no bones in the penis, can it really break? It turns out there is an unfortunate injury termed "penile fracture" that can indeed occur during sexual intercourse. We asked Hunter Wessells, chair of the urology department at the University of Washington School of Medicine in Seattle (also home to the show's Grace Hospital), to describe the condition and how it can happen. [An edited transcript of the interview follows.]...

In Defense of the Value of Social Neuroscience

blog@nunya.com (Nunya) — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 13:58:00 PST

Posted by: Nunya - Matthew Lieberman is associate professor of social neuroscience at the University of California, Los Angeles. In recent weeks, he's also rebutted the claims of a recent paper, "Voodoo Correlations in Social Neuroscience," which explored the high correlations between measures of personality or emotionality in the individual--such as the experience of fear, or the willingness to trust another person--with the activity of certain brain areas as observed in an fMRI machine. Mind Matters editor Jonah Lehrer chats with Lieberman about why most fMRI correlations aren't false, the "reward" of intense grief and why accepting unfair offers seems to activate brain areas involved with self-control. LEHRER: Your field of research has come under fire in a recent paper titled "Voodoo Correlations in Social Neuroscience." What's the authors' argument and have they identified a significant problem in this field? LIEBERMAN: In their paper, Vul and colleagues suggest that brain-personality correlations in many social neuroscience studies depend on invalid methods and thus are "implausibly high," "likely...spurious" and "should not be believed." These claims are incorrect. These analyses use standard procedures for drawing inferences and protecting against false positives. The correlation estimates will tend to be somewhat higher than the true value, but there is no evidence to suggest that these correlations are meaningless or "voodoo" science. The argument that Vul and colleagues pu...

Detention Camps in America?

blog@nunya.com (Nunya) — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 08:08:00 PST

Posted by: Nunya - What goes on here? Jerome Corsi's breathtaking story in WND earlier this week is giving me heart palpitations. In case you missed it, Rep. Alcee Hastings, D-Fla., a former judge impeached in 1981 by a Democratic House of Representatives and only the sixth federal judge ever to be removed by the U.S. Senate, has introduced a bill to establish at least six emergency centers for U.S. civilians in the event of some future, unspecified crisis. "The bill also appears to expand the president's emergency power, much as the executive order signed by President Bush on May 9, 2007, that, as WND reported, gave the president the authority to declare an emergency and take over the direction of all federal, state, local, territorial and tribal governments without even consulting Congress," the storycontinues. And here's some further context: "As WND also reported, DHS has awarded a $385 million contract to Houston-based KBR, Halliburton's former engineering and construction subsidiary, to build temporary detention centers on an 'as-needed' basis in national emergency situations." I don't like it. I don't trust Washington. And I sure don't trust Alcee Hastings....

Time to Attack in Pennsylvania

blog@nunya.com (Nunya) — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 10:53:00 PST

Posted by: Nunya - Letter to Editor, Time to Attack in Pennsylvania Posted by Mark Rauterkus at 1:25 PM Listen to this article. Powered by Odiogo.com By Mike Ference Clairton, PA 15025, Email: Ference at icubeddotcom Every day brings new evidence that we no longer live in a civilized and principled society. The worst part, it usually concerns another case of corruption involving a member of the PA Senate or House; a PA judge; law enforcement officer; District Attorney or some other Pennsylvania public servant. (I prefer, serpent). However, the latest news of wrongdoing in Pennsylvania involves what I call child trafficking at its lowest level. As reported in the Associated Press, Pennsylvania President Judge Mark Ciavarella and Senior Judge Michael Conahan agreed to plead guilty to various federal charges (no state charges, PA politicians take care of their own) and face seven years in prison. Their crime, court documents said they took kickbacks for sending children to detention facilities run by PA Child Care in Luzerne County and a sister company in western PA. Altogether the judges took $2.6 million in bribes....

Realization Is the Best Ego Dissolver

blog@nunya.com (Nunya) — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 17:03:00 PST

Posted by: Nunya - Written on September 15, 2008 by Tom Stine Creative Commons License credit: L. Marie A while back, my friend Jonathan Mead over at Illuminated Mind wrote an article on enlightenment in which he said: "Your realization that everything is non-dual will not break all of the previous self-limiting and fear-based beliefs you have with yourself. Breaking those agreements will require hard work and perspiration to change." I've intended for a while to write a brief article on this comment of Jonathan's to offer a different perspective. So, here goes: To be honest, his statement runs counter to my experience and that of others. When the realization of no-self dawns, not merely an intellectual understand, but a true realization, beliefs disappear. As Ramana Maharshi pointed out, the belief in a separate "me," what he called the I-thought, is the root of all other beliefs. When it drops away, all beliefs are suspended. Thoughts might still arise, but they cannot be believed again. If they arise again, then the I-thought has returned. To be awake, one would need to be free from the identification with belief. So, in a sense, the definition of enlightened would be "free from believing any thought." So, I would have to disagree with Jonathan's statement. Realization does, in fact, break the entire ego system. I think the key word here is realization. What he describes in his post is, for me, more of an intellectual understanding which isn't a realization. That's how i...

A rocky first few weeks

blog@nunya.com (Nunya) — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 16:24:00 PST

Posted by: Nunya - Money by the barrelful, by the truckload. Mountains of money, heaped like gassy pyramids in the national dump. Scrounging packs of politicos, snapping, snarling and sending green bills flying sky-high as they root through the tangled mass with ragged claws. The stale hot air filled with cries of rage, the gnashing of teeth and dark prophecies of doom. Yes, this grotesque scene, like a claustrophobic circle in Dante's "Inferno," was what the U.S. government has looked like for the past two weeks as it fights on over Barack Obama's stimulus package -- a mammoth, chaotic grab bag of treasures, toys and gimcracks. Could popular opinion of our feckless Congress sink any lower? You betcha! Why in the cosmos would the new administration, smoothly sailing out of Obama's classy inauguration, repeat the embarrassing blunders of Bill Clinton's first term? By foolishly promising a complete overhaul of healthcare within 100 days (and by putting his secretive, ill-prepared wife in charge of it), Clinton made himself look naive and incompetent and set healthcare reform back for more than 15 years. President Obama was ill-served by his advisors (shall we thump that checkered pi�ata, Rahm Emanuel?), who evidently did not help him to produce a strong, focused, coherent bill that he could have explained and defended to the nation before it was set upon by partisan wolves. To defer to the House of Representatives and let the bill be thrown together by cacophonous mob rule made the presi...

3 Rules of the Internet

blog@nunya.com (Nunya) — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 16:20:00 PST

Posted by: Nunya - ...

Ruin Your Health With the Obama Stimulus Plan: Betsy McCaughey

blog@nunya.com (Nunya) — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 13:46:00 PST

Posted by: Nunya - Commentary by Betsy McCaughey Feb. 9 (Bloomberg) Republican Senators are questioning whether President Barack Obama's stimulus bill contains the right mix of tax breaks and cash infusions to jump-start the economy. Tragically, no one from either party is objecting to the health provisions slipped in without discussion. These provisions reflect the handiwork of Tom Daschle, until recently the nominee to head the Health and Human Services Department. Senators should read these provisions and vote against them because they are dangerous to your health. (Page numbers refer to H.R. 1 EH, pdf version). The bill's health rules will affect "every individual in the United States" (445, 454, 479). Your medical treatments will be tracked electronically by a federal system. Having electronic medical records at your fingertips, easily transferred to a hospital, is beneficial. It will help avoid duplicate tests and errors. But the bill goes further. One new bureaucracy, the National Coordinator of Health Information Technology, will monitor treatments to make sure your doctor is doing what the federal government deems appropriate and cost effective. The goal is to reduce costs and "guide" your doctor's decisions (442, 446). These provisions in the stimulus bill are virtually identical to what Daschle prescribed in his 2008 book, "Critical: What We Can Do About the Health-Care Crisis." According to Daschle, doctors have to give up autonomy and "learn to operate less like...

"Ancient" Syriac bible found in Cyprus

blog@nunya.com (Nunya) — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 05:03:00 PST

Posted by: Nunya - NICOSIA � Authorities in northern Cyprus believe they have found an ancient version of the Bible written in Syriac, a dialect of the native language of Jesus. The manuscript was found in a police raid on suspected antiquity smugglers.Turkish Cypriot police testified in a court hearing they believe the manuscript could be about 2,000 years old. [More..]...

The Unsung Goddess of FUNK

blog@nunya.com (Nunya) — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 13:04:00 PST

Posted by: Nunya - This morning, I rediscovered the ultra-fine music of Betty Davis; it had been a few years since I last listened to that tape I had copied from my ex-gf (a domina / stripper / musician). Anyway, if you've never heard Betty Davis, go LISTEN NOW or be officially de-funked!!! From CD Universe: "Despite an abundance of talent, a crack back-up band (which included most of Graham Central Station), and some of the most stinging funk tracks of the era, it's really not all that surprising that Betty Davis never became a star: the girl was a stone-cold freak, and her self-titled 1973 debut more than illustrates that fact. Second wife to Miles Davis and Jimi Hendrix's former girlfriend, Davis is often credited (by Miles himself in fact) with steering Miles toward the sounds that would give rise to his fusion period, and one listen to the acid-tinged wah-drenched guitars on the album's opening track, "If I'm in Luck I Might Get Picked Up," makes it clear that Betty was on a decidedly different trip than almost all of her contemporaries. The album can be quite odd, yet Davis is so unhinged and brimming with such confidence (particularly on the cult fave "Walkin' up the Road") it's impossible not to be amazed. Frustratingly, Davis remains in relative obscurity to this day despite providing the template for the sexually confident female performer that has been used by Lil'Kim, Foxy Brown, and Kelis, among others. 2007 digitally remastered reissue of the 1973 debut album from F...

Blue Berries

blog@nunya.com (Nunya) — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 10:44:00 PST

Posted by: Nunya - Research is showing that blueberries contain a number of compounds that have medicinally beneficial properties. The earliest recorded use of blueberry for medicinal purposes dates from the Middle Ages, and it has been used in European folk medicine since the 16th century. Some of its reported medicinal benefits include preventing urinary tract infections, antioxidant (anti-cancer) activity, reducing heart disease risk, strengthening collagen, regulating blood sugar, improving night vision, reducing replication of the HIV virus, and treating diarrhea. Research has been done by Rutgers Lab in New Jersey, and by scientists in Israel on the ability of blueberries to prevent urinary tract infections. The compounds inhibit the binding E. coli bacteria to the urinary tract wall, thus preventing the bacteria from invading the tissues and causing an infection. Treatment with blueberry compounds offers an alternative to the use of antibiotics. Recent work indicates that blueberries contain compounds having anti-cancer properties. They act to induce enzymes that protect against cancer and reduce rapid tumor growth. A survey of the antioxidant capacity of a number of fruits and vegetables conducted by Dr. Ron Pryor of the USDA placed blueberry at the top of the list....

Reality Sandwich

blog@nunya.com (Nunya) — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 16:28:00 PST

Posted by: Nunya - Great site, check it out! http://www.realitysandwich.com/ "Reality Sandwich is a web magazine for this time of intense transformation. Our subjects run the gamut from sustainability to shamanism, alternate realities to alternative energy, remixing media to re-imagining community, holistic healing techniques to the promise and perils of new technologies. We hope to spark debate and engagement by offering a forum for voices ranging from the ecologically pragmatic to the wildly visionary (which, to our delight, sometimes turn out to be the one and the same). Counteracting the doom-and-gloom of the daily news, Reality Sandwich is a platform for voices conveying a different vision of the transformations we face. Our goal is to inspire psychic evolution and a kind of earth alchemy. For the launch of the site, we've assembled dozens of regular contributors who will post a variety of content, including thought pieces and essays, short news stories, video clips, and audio podcasts. As Reality Sandwich develops, we will become much more than a traditional online magazine. Reality Sandwich will merge media with a social network that facilitates connections between the members of our international community. As our features present visionary ideas and new tools for sustainable living, the social network will support our members in using these new concepts and techniques in their own lives, as well as facilitating discussions about their own journeys of discovery. "...

Entheogen

blog@nunya.com (Nunya) — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 16:27:00 PST

Posted by: Nunya - ...

The reality of math

blog@nunya.com (Nunya) — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 17:17:00 PST

Posted by: Nunya - Is math real? The question seems absurd: Doesn%u219t two and two equal four? Can%u219t we describe the details of the universe in precise mathematical terms? Of course math is real! But Mario Livio, a senior astrophysicist at the Hubble Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, isn%u219t so convinced. In his fourth book, Is God a Mathematician?, Livio explores mysteries that have long perplexed theologians, philosophers, and mathematicians alike: Are mathematical concepts woven into the very fabric of the cosmos? And if they are, did a divine weaver put them there? The answers, Livio tells us, are yes %u214 and no. Mathematical concepts %u214 like the golden ratio, or Euclidian geometry %u214 are useful fictions that don%u219t exist in the natural world. (In other words, the circle and the square are make-believe.) But mathematicians who work within these invented languages can discover concrete truths about the nature of the universe. As for God . . . let%u219s just say that He%u219s very, very improbable. Source: http://www.veryshortlist.com/science/daily.cfm/review/958/Book/is-god-a-mathematician/...

Good News: Bad Economy Killing Abusive Teen Programs

blog@nunya.com (Nunya) — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 17:11:00 PST

Posted by: Nunya - Maia Szalavitz Posted January 30, 2009 | 05:48 PM (EST) There is a silver lining to this bleak economy: Abusive and ineffective "tough love" programs for teens are failing right and left. In just the last few weeks, the notorious Tranquility Bay program in Jamaica, Spring Creek Lodge in Montana, and Pathway Family Center in Detroit and Ohio have all been shuttered. Tranquility Bay was known for making kids kneel on concrete for days and using "restraint" so harsh that it broke bones. Both Tranquility Bay and Spring Creek Lodge were part of a network called the World Wide Association of Specialty Programs and Schools (WWASP or WWASPS)--and the group's philosophy involves constant use of emotional attacks and humiliation in a rigid, structured day in order to break teens' spirits. Spring Creek was notorious for a frigid, small isolation room called "the Hobbit"--sometimes teens were left there for months. From Pathway--which was descended from the infamously abusive Straight Inc.--I received two separate accounts of suicide attempts by girls which were not reported to their parents, and many stories of the usual attack therapy and humiliation. Unfortunately, neither WWASP nor Pathway is completely dead yet: WWASP still has centers operating in the US and abroad, and Pathway has sites in Indiana: Porter and Indianapolis....

I-Team: Drug Center Closes

blog@nunya.com (Nunya) — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 13:59:00 PST

Posted by: Nunya - HELL YEAH! A controversial drug treatment program the I-Team profiled several years ago has shut its doors to patients. But that doesn't mean the controversy is over. The I-Team's Hagit Limor says the teenagers have just been moved to another state. Kids Helping Kids presented itself as the treatment of last resort when the I-Team got an unprecedented look inside four years ago. No cameras had been allowed before. The treatment the I-Team saw called for complete isolation of newcomers, who don't go to their home or to school for months, sometimes longer. They aren't allowed to listen to music or TV. They can't talk to each other, and must get permission to speak at all. The executive director of the facility in Milford, Ohio told us in 2005, there's a reason for this tough love. Penny Walker said, "We deal with difficult kids and sometimes difficult families, and we're not going to please everybody." Walker no longer works for Kids Helping Kids....

Report Reveals Severe Cases of Abuse and Neglect of School Children

blog@nunya.com (Nunya) — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 08:03:00 PST

Posted by: Nunya - January 13, 2009 2:55 PM WASHINGTON, D.C. � Schoolchildren around the country have been subject to abusive � and in some cases fatal � uses of seclusion and restraint by school administrators, teachers and staff, according to a new report released today by the National Disability Rights Network. The report, the first national effort to examine these practices in both public and private schools identified hundreds of cases where the abusive and negligent use of seclusion and restraint injured or traumatized students, many of whom were disabled. In several cases, students died. In light of this report, U.S. Rep. George Miller, the chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee, announced the committee will hold a hearing on these abuses. "These abuses are a shocking and disturbing betrayal of the trust that families and communities place in our schools. School administrators and teachers are tasked with providing not just productive and encouraging learning environments for students, but with keeping them safe. It is wholly unacceptable for children to be locked up in closets or for any staff member to use overwhelming � and in some cases deadly � force against their students. "This report raises serious questions about the treatment of schoolchildren, the qualifications and training of staff, and what actions have been taken to address these unconscionable practices. No child should be at risk or in danger while at school, no matter what the circumstances. Our...

A Record Year for the Pharmaceutical Lobby in '07

blog@nunya.com (Nunya) — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 08:01:00 PST

Posted by: Nunya - A Record Year for the Pharmaceutical Lobby in '07 Washington's largest lobby racks up another banner year on Capitol Hill By M. Asif Ismail Data analysis by Helena Bengtsson Washington, June 24, 2008 � Washington's largest lobby, the pharmaceutical industry, racked up another banner year on Capitol Hill in 2007, backed by a record $168 million lobbying effort, according to a Center for Public Integrity analysis of federal lobbying data. Among the industry's successes: getting two controversial laws extended and thwarting congressional efforts to restrict media ads for prescription drugs. The spending represents a 32 percent jump over 2006. Driven in part by a busy legislative calendar dominated by issues critical to the industry, the effort raised the amount spent by drug interests on federal lobbying in the past decade to more than $1 billion. Pharmaceutical, medical device, and other health product manufacturers, together, spent more than $189 million on lobbying last year, another record and nearly three times the $67 million they spent in 1998, the first full year for which complete records and totals are available. More than 90 percent of the total was spent by 40 companies and three trade groups: the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), the Biotechnology Industry Organization, and the Advanced Medical Technology Association. The spending binge last year may have also been fueled by the previous November's Democratic takeover of...

Murtha's Gitmo Invite Could Be Stimulus for Western Pennsylvania

blog@nunya.com (Nunya) — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 05:28:00 PST

Posted by: Nunya - Pennsylvania Rep. John Murtha says he'd be willing to house Guantanamo Bay detainees in his district. Rep. John Murtha's invitation to house Guantanamo Bay detainees in his district has some local officials seeing dollar signs -- even though Murtha's comment was met with disbelief by others. The Pennsylvania Democrat, chairman of the defense subcommittee for appropriations, is renowned for his ability to steer earmarked dollars to his district. And after Murtha told FOX News that he'd be willing to take in terrorist suspects, some saw it as a job-creation opportunity. His district's maximum-security prisons are full, according to the state Department of Corrections, so a new prison would likely be needed to house any of the 245 detainees now in Cuba. [More..] Source: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/01/22/murthas-invitation-gitmo-prisoners-create-jobs-officials-say/...

The Hopi Pipe Ceremony

blog@nunya.com (Nunya) — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 12:11:00 PST

Posted by: Nunya - Purpose: As mentioned previously, the word "Medicine" has a different meaning for Native Americans. It encompasses well-being and spiritual health as well as physical health. A pipe ceremony is a ritual that Hopi Native Americans employ to pray to the Great Spirit. Great Spirit is comprised of the mother (the earth) the father (the heavens and celestial bodies) as well as the grandmothers and grandfathers. Grandmothers and grandfathers may be likened to angels. In the Hopi tradition, they are beings that have been in the universe since time began and they are thought to carry specific medicines. That is, they each have different strengths or aptitudes which the Hopi may call upon in different circumstances. Pipe ceremonies can be carried out at virtually any time that the practitioner desires. One way to think of them is as an active or interactive prayer session or meditation. Sometimes a Hopi shaman (medicine man) is present for the ceremony, but that is by no means a requirement. Practitioners of the Hopi faith can perform a pipe ceremony when they are grateful for an answered prayer, to ask for the health or care of a loved one, to celebrate the birth or death of a family member, to ask for clarity when making a decision, to request the healing of a friend, or to express gratitude for life's many blessings. One of the key aspects of the pipe ceremony is to develop one's own relationship with Spirit with the understanding...

Autistic child taken from school in handcuffs

blog@nunya.com (Nunya) — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 10:00:00 PST

Posted by: Nunya - COEUR D'ALENE -- A Ponderay mom was left outraged when school officials ordered her autistic 8-year-old daughter handcuffed and taken from the school in a police car. Outside her Ponderay home, 8-year-old Evelyn Towry, in her pink boots and favorite sweatshirt explains why she's now suspended from school. "Because I was trying to leave and they hold me down," Evelyn said. Evelyn is a third grader at Kootenai Elementary and has Asperger's Syndrome, a high functioning form of Autism. On Friday she started to act out....

Thought Reform Programs and the Production of Psychiatric Casualties

blog@nunya.com (Nunya) — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 12:46:00 PST

Posted by: Nunya - "The techniques used to induce belief, change, and dependency by various thought reform programs appear to be related to the type of psychiatric casualty the program tends to produce. Large group awareness training (LGAT) programs appear more likely to induce mood and affect disorders. Groups that use prolonged mantra and empty-mind meditation, hyperventilation, and chanting appear more likely to have participants who develop relaxation-induced anxiety, panic disorder, marked dissociative problems, and cognitive inefficiencies." Source: http://www.rickross.com/reference/brainwashing/brainwashing10.html...

Keene Talk Show Host Threatened with Imprisonment for Speaking out Against Drug War

blog@nunya.com (Nunya) — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 08:25:00 PST

Posted by: Nunya - The host of the nationally syndicated radio show Free Talk Live, Ian Freeman (Bernard), has been threatened with 90 days imprisonment for writing about and attending a protest of the drug laws. (Related articles: Activist Arrested for Plant Possession and Radio Host Jailed over Couch) Earlier this year, Ian was dragged into court because his tenants had a couch in the yard. Ian did not sit fast enough for Judge Burke and was given 90 days for contempt of court, plus thee days in jail for the couch "offense." After the three days in jail, Judge Burke suspended the 90 days and released Ian. One of the conditions of release was Ian demonstrating "good behavior." Now, for writing about, and talking about Andrew Carroll's marijuana civil disobedience, in addition to attending the protest, Ian is being charged with "Criminal Liability for the Conduct of Another" and could have the 90 day sentence reinstated even if he is never convicted for the Criminal Liability. This case could have serious repercussions for freedom of speech and freedom of the press in this country, if reporting on a "crime" can be construed as aiding the "crime." The freedom to petition the government for redress of grievances is also at risk here. Paperwork Ian received: http://freekeene.com/files/Motion_to_Show_Cause2009-01-12.pdf Source: http://www.newhampshirefreepress.com/NHFreePress/?q=node%2F309 This is appalling. Just more proof that the "drug war" has nothing to do with drugs and ev...

The Nature of Knowledge

blog@nunya.com (Nunya) — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 07:54:00 PST

Posted by: Nunya - By Edwin E. Ott All knowledge is illusion! By this statement I am not meaning put down knowledge nor promote magic, but I do believe it is important to acknowledge the limitations of our knowledge base. If we do not remember our fundamental premises, we may astound ourselves with pronouncements which do nothing more than restate these premises. Let me explain what I mean by knowledge being illusion and how I arrive at this conclusion. I accept as axiomatic the existence of "reality," that is, the essence of the universe, reality, exists independently of the existence of sentient observers. I believe this is the common operating axiom of most people, and as such, may seem to be trivial. However, this is not the only viable premise of the nature of the universe. Probably the first operating premise we learn is that what is perceived is "real." Seeing is believing. This axiom has a long history in human thought. For example, the "Doubting Thomas" story in the Bible is an application of this premise. Although the advent of modern technology has "shown" us that many perceptions may not be "real," this premise still has a strong hold in modern society. For example, a corollary to this premise is touted more and more frequently today --it's not what you do that counts, but what people think you do. This "perception is all important" philosophy may be well suited to sales, but I hope the mechanics servicing the next airliner I ride do not subscribe to this premise. "Virtual...

Children of the Night

blog@nunya.com (Nunya) — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 16:52:00 PST

Posted by: Nunya - Children of the Night: Saul Williams...

Pharmaceutical Sickos (Interview with Abraxas)

blog@nunya.com (Nunya) — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 11:20:00 PST

Posted by: Nunya - ...

Quote

blog@nunya.com (Nunya) — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 08:54:00 PST

Posted by: Nunya - "We wouldn't be here if it weren't for psychedelic drugs. In terms of the role of psilocybin in human evolution on the grasslands of Africa, people not on drugs were behind the curve. The fact is that, in terms of human evolution, people not on psychedelics are not fully human. They've fallen to a lower state, where they're easily programmed, boundary defined, obsessed by sexual possessiveness which is transferred into fetishism and object obsession. We don't want too many citizens asking where the power and the money really goes. Informed by psychedelics, people might stop saluting. "Take your political party, your job, whatever, and shove it."" ---Terence McKenna...

How to Lower Electric Bills With a Whole House Meter

blog@nunya.com (Nunya) — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 08:40:00 PST

Posted by: Nunya - Whole house meters have been available for a few years, but not many consumers know that much about them. A whole house meter is an ingenious device that tracks your energy usage, allowing you to have a better idea of how much electricity you are wasting or conserving. Installation is pretty straightforward--here is what to do. Difficulty: Moderately Challenging Things You'll Need: Screwdriver Step1 Remove the panel cover. If you have a large electrical panel, you should have someone available to help you remove the cover, as they can be quite heavy. Step2 Locate the two feed lines coming into the panel. These will be connected to your main breaker and will be much larger than all of the other wires in the electric panel. Now, there are many different types of whole house meters, but the two most common either get plugged into an existing outlet or wired to a spare circuit breaker....

Satan Claus is Coming to Town

blog@nunya.com (Nunya) — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 07:19:00 PST

Posted by: Nunya - http://www.iamshaman.com/amanita/resurrection.htm The painting entitled "Resurrection of Santa Claus" (above left) is the result of an exploration into the mysterious relationship between Santa and the Amanita muscaria, or fly agaric mushroom. Through the course of making this painting, I discovered that much of the popular iconography surrounding Santa Claus can be linked to the fly agaric. His immortality, omniscience, powers of magical flight and prosperity can all be attributed to this particular mushroom and its entheogenic powers. (1) Unquestioned holiday symbols such as flying reindeer, chimney sliding, Christmas trees and magical elves at the north pole all begin to make sense in the context of Santa's relationship to the fly agaric. As I am primarily a painter, this is to be taken as a loose presentation of some of my research and insight into a deep and murky subject. The fact that Santa is related to a psychedelic mushroom came to me spontaneously during a state of heightened awareness. And, after much research, I have found growing support for this hidden secret of Christmas. I see Santa Claus primarily as a symbol, an archetype. Ultimately he represents masculine spiritual power, like Buddha or Christ, yet we may need to look deep beneath the surface to see his potency. His current form is twisted and grotesque, a caricature of his potential self. I believe he got this way due to the abuse of masculine power over thousands of years. Santa Claus represents m...

Britain hunting lovelorn beaver

blog@nunya.com (Nunya) — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 12:29:00 PST

Posted by: Nunya - LONDON (AFP) � There's a gnawing problem in the countryside -- a giant beaver on the loose, wreaking havoc in southwest England. And his owner reckons there's only one thing that can lure the lovelorn rodent back into captivity: the scent of female beaver....

Porn Kings to D.C. - Help Us Through Hard Times

blog@nunya.com (Nunya) — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 15:31:00 PST

Posted by: Nunya - Posted Jan 7th 2009 12:15PM by TMZ Staff Joe Francis and Larry Flynt claim the economy has made America's sexual appetite go limp, so they're going to the one place where sex is always rampant -- Congress. Flynt (the "Hustler" guy) and Francis (the "Girls Gone Wild" dude) are asking the government for a $5 billion bailout, claiming the adult entertainment industry has taken a huge shot to the face because of the downturn -- citing the fact that XXX DVD sales are down 22% from a year ago. "With all this economic misery and people losing all that money, sex is the farthest thing from their mind," Flynt says. "It's time for Congress to rejuvenate the sexual appetite of America." Francis sees his industry like the big three automakers, only BIGGER: "Congress seems willing to help shore up our nation's most important businesses; we feel we deserve the same consideration." Francis says he's going to D.C. to personally make the pitch. Sounds like someone has a bone to pick. Source: http://www.tmz.com/2009/01/07/porn-kings-help-us-through-hard-times/...

Press Release

blog@nunya.com (Nunya) — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 17:56:00 PST

Posted by: Nunya - ISAC Corporation reports that a 14 year old boy has been detained against his will in an outpatient drug treatment program in Southfield MI since June 6, 2008. The name of the program is Pathway Family Center. Since that date, this boy has been residing away from his parents in unregulated, locked "host homes" run by the parents of clients in the program. Additionally, this program uses a level system, the first of which prevents clients from having privacy in the bathroom, attending school, reading, using the phone, watching TV, listening to the radio and a host of other restrictions that are consistent with the systematic thought reform methods utilized in its related program called STRAIGHT, Inc. That program was reported to have been closed in 1993, however, Pathway Family Center continued to treat clients from STRAIGHT, Inc. using the same methods and principles. There is at least one staff member from that program currently employed by the Southfield facility. Pathway also operates two other facilities located in Indiana. The facility they operated in Milford Ohio was closed earlier this month. The mother of this boy has joint legal/physical custody of her son and his father orchestrated his placement against her wishes. They have been divorced for nearly a decade. Pathway Family Center has repeatedly refused the mother's request to speak to her son in private. According to the policies of the program, the client must send complaints through what is known as a "COC"...

Ex-Detainee of U.S. Describes a 6-Year Ordeal

blog@nunya.com (Nunya) — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 15:49:00 PST

Posted by: Nunya - The New York TimesEx-Detainee of U.S. Describes a 6-Year OrdealBy JANE PERLEZ, RAYMOND BONNER and SALMAN MASOODPublished: January 5, 2009LAHORE, Pakistan -- When Muhammad Saad Iqbal arrived home here in August after more than six years in American custody, including five at the military prison at Guant�namo Bay, Cuba, he had difficulty walking, his left ear was severely infected, and he was dependent on a cocktail of antibiotics and antidepressants.In November, a Pakistani surgeon operated on his ear, physical therapists were working on lower back problems and a psychiatrist was trying to wean him off the drugs he carried around in a white, plastic shopping bag.The maladies, said Mr. Iqbal, 31, a professional reader of the Koran, are the result of a gantlet of torture, imprisonment and interrogation for which his Washington lawyer plans to sue the United States government.The coming administration of President-elect Barack Obama is weighing whether to close the Guant�namo prison, which many critics have called an extralegal system of detention and abuse.But the full stories of individual detainees like Mr. Iqbal are only now emerging after years in which they were shuttled around the globe under the Bush administration's system of extraordinary rendition, which used foreign countries to interrogate and detain terrorism suspects in sites beyond the reach of American courts....

Apology to Straight Inc. Survivors

blog@nunya.com (Nunya) — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 16:26:00 PST

Posted by: Nunya - January 3, 2009 Dear Kelly, This is an apology to Survivors of Straight Inc. from me, as a Former Executive Staff Member, in response to the Straight, Inc. Survivor's Letter Requesting Acknowledgment and an Apology. As you know, my name is Richard Mullinax. From 1985 - 1989, I was a staff member at Straight Incorporated, a drug and alcohol treatment facility for adolescents. If my memory serves me correctly, the dates, locations and positions of my employment were as follows: Fall 1985 - Group Staff Trainee, Springfield, VA Fall 1985 - Spring 1986 - Junior Staff, Springfield, VA Spring 1986 - Winter 1987 - Senior Staff, Springfield, VA Winter 1987 - Spring 1987 - Executive Staff, Springfield, VA Spring 1987 - Fall 1987 - Executive Staff, Cincinnati, OH Fall 1987 - Spring 1988 - Executive Staff, Springfield, VA Spring 1988 - Spring 1989 - Executive Staff, Atlanta, GA There were brief periods between 1985 and 1989 that I was not employed by Straight, and I may have some of the months wrong above. For 19 years, I gave very little thought to my actions as a staff member of Straight. Then, in the Spring and Summer of 2008, I began to interact with Straight Survivors and listened to their experiences. As the weeks and months progressed, I became increasingly aware of the damage I caused to Straight Survivors as a staff member. After much reflection on the events of the 1980's I have become very much aware that many Straight Survivors lost their int...

Rip It Up and Start Again

blog@nunya.com (Nunya) — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 09:26:00 PST

Posted by: Nunya - This takes a little while to load, but is a great blog about post-punk, etc: http://ripitupandstartagainbysimonreynolds.blogspot.com...

Vegetarian Nutrition

blog@nunya.com (Nunya) — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 09:37:00 PST

Posted by: Nunya - Vegetarian Nutrition Wednesday, 21 February 2007 Vegetarians can rest assured. Plant-based foods are loaded with nutrients including ample protein, iron, calcium, vitamin D, iodine, omega-3 fatty acids, and zinc. Vegans require a reliable source of vitamin B12. Whether you eat a vegetarian or non-vegetarian diet, the key to health is simple. Include a wide variety of different foods in your diet � no one food source is nutritionally complete by itself. Vegetarians choose foods from grains, vegetables, legumes, nuts, seeds and fruits. Whole unrefined foods are best. Eggs and dairy are optional. On a plant-based diet, you will have the distinct advantage of obtaining nutrients from sources high in fibre, and low in saturated fat and cholesterol....

Pathway Family Center

blog@nunya.com (Nunya) — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 07:31:00 PST

Posted by: Nunya - This site is dedicated to exposing the truth about Pathway Family Center. There are many people who have reportedly been harmed by the treatment they received at Pathway Family Center. There are also very many people who have reportedly been harmed by this program's predecessor, STRAIGHT INC. In addition, there are many people who were reportedly harmed in various ways by the methods used by Kids Helping Kids, which was a Pathway Family Center until recently and affirmably a STRAIGHT INC. descendant. The history of these interrelationships will be explained further in the Pathway Origins section of this site. Check it out: http://www.pfctruth.com/...

Atlas of Plucked Instruments

blog@nunya.com (Nunya) — Sun, 28 Dec 2008 05:17:00 PST

Posted by: Nunya - Visit: http://www.atlasofpluckedinstruments.com/ for a complete history of stringed instruments. Based on a large private collection of plucked stringed musical instruments (plus additional material from books and websites), this ATLAS will give you information about almost all the different plucked instruments still in use....

Amazing

blog@nunya.com (Nunya) — Thu, 25 Dec 2008 07:25:00 PST

Posted by: Nunya - This is truly amazing! wingsuit base jumping from Ali on Vimeo....

Happy Holidays!

blog@nunya.com (Nunya) — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 08:53:00 PST

Posted by: Nunya - Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/malffred/3133074035/...

George W. Bush's Marijuana Report Card

blog@nunya.com (Nunya) — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 06:25:00 PST

Posted by: Nunya - ...

Hero Dog Helps Wounded Dog

blog@nunya.com (Nunya) — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 05:22:00 PST

Posted by: Nunya - Hero Dog Tries To Help Wounded Dog - Funny bloopers are a click away...

Audio Pad

blog@nunya.com (Nunya) — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 08:16:00 PST

Posted by: Nunya - Audiopad is a composition and performance instrument for electronic music which tracks the positions of objects on a tabletop surface and converts their motion into music. One can pull sounds from a giant set of samples, juxtapose archived recordings against warm synthetic melodies, cut between drum loops to create new beats, and apply digital processing all at the same time on the same table. Audiopad not only allows for spontaneous reinterpretation of musical compositions, but also creates a visual and tactile dialogue between itself, the performer, and the audience. Audiopad has a matrix of antenna elements which track the positions of electronically tagged objects on a tabletop surface. Software translates the position information into music and graphical feedback on the tabletop. Each object represents either a musical track or a microphone. Audiopad was developed by James Patten and Ben Recht aka localfields. Source:...

Inventor's 2020 vision: to help 1bn of the world's poorest see better

blog@nunya.com (Nunya) — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 08:10:00 PST

Posted by: Nunya - It was a chance conversation on March 23 1985 ("in the afternoon, as I recall") that first started Josh Silver on his quest to make the world's poor see. A professor of physics at Oxford University, Silver was idly discussing optical lenses with a colleague, wondering whether they might be adjusted without the need for expensive specialist equipment, when the lightbulb of inspiration first flickered above his head. What if it were possible, he thought, to make a pair of glasses which, instead of requiring an optician, could be "tuned" by the wearer to correct his or her own vision? Might it be possible to bring affordable spectacles to millions who would never otherwise have them? More than two decades after posing that question, Silver now feels he has the answer. The British inventor has embarked on a quest that is breathtakingly ambitious, but which he insists is achievable - to offer glasses to a billion of the world's poorest people by 2020....

Hello concerned citizens!

blog@nunya.com (Nunya) — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 09:33:00 PST

Posted by: Nunya - *This is a comment that was left on the Aspirin vs. Marijuana thread, thought I would repost it here for all to see* A call is going out to all of the world's organizations that claim to be working for a better world for us to live in. The world is waking up to so many discomforting realities, but at the same time we are reaching out to each other with words of encouragement. We can make moves. We can have peace of mind, by being on the right track. We are sharing the truth with each other and watching the miracles happen. This letter is from Citizens Against Marijuana Prohibition, which currently operates in the US, but is setting an example for the world. C.A.M.P. is dedicated to freeing innocent people from prison, and protecting those whose freedoms are threatened, as well as revealing the truth about the many beneficial properties of cannabis so that proper judgements can be made. We, like you, are doing the ridiculous thing. Trying to help others, who we don't even know. Why would we do such a thing? Perhaps there's something that motivates humans besides personal physical well-being. We think so. What can you do to help the cause of saving the world from ignorance? Of course you are already doing a lot. Thank you for everything. Keep up the good work. Now, what can we do to motivate people to change the legal status of the blessed cannabis plant? Some of the things we're doing right now are lobbying at the New York State Legislative building and pressing...

~ Whores Not Wars ~

blog@nunya.com (Nunya) — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 15:44:00 PST

Posted by: Nunya - ArtCoreFromTheHardCore: Whores not Wars (blog) http://artcoreharmreducer.blogspot.com/2007/07/whores-not-wars.html "Sex Workers and Supporters Come Together" http://www.flickr.com/photos/esthet/2325799133/...

Women more promiscious at sex than men, more unfaithful

blog@nunya.com (Nunya) — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 10:15:00 PST

Posted by: Nunya - YOUNG women are becoming more promiscuous, with more sexual partners than men. By the age of 21 they have had sex with an average of nine lovers - two more than their male partner. Today's young women have been brought up on the bold and brazen bedroom antics of Carrie Bradshaw (Sarah Jessica Parker) and her friends, the Daily Mail newspaper in the UK reports. The "anything goes" sexual antics in Sex and the City and more recently, Desperate Housewives and for a short while, Lipstick Jungle, is being played out in real life....

The Seed

blog@nunya.com (Nunya) — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 15:18:00 PST

Posted by: Nunya - I was abducted by The Seed in Miami Fla. when I was 15. My parents gave custody over to them, I was removed from school & turned into a 'good kid' & remained 'good' until I turned 18. My parents friends had a daughter who I'd met once. She told them she "knew" I was on drugs & that The Seed could help me. I was using drugs but IMO [in my opinion] was not outta control. I had a part time job at the time that my dad used to drive me to. He told me one day that he had to pick up a couple people to drive up there. He stopped at a house & picked up these two HUGE guys, & they both got into the back seat with me, one on either side, me in the middle. It was at that point that my dad told me there was a change of plans. They took me to a Blimp Hanger (Goodyear) where this Org. had been donated space. It had about 1000 kids in it on metal folding chairs. Boys on one side, girls on the other. They talked to us 12 hours a day, made us sit in these chairs the whole time, with no bathrooms. They gave us PB&J & bug-juice (peanut butter and jelly and watered-down kool-aid) for breakfast, lunch & dinner. I was put into a foster-home with about 12 other boys. The foster-folks kept us up for more hours, talking to us. I ran away the 2nd day & was captured by the foster-folks, They grabbed me in a public place & nobody did nothin' to stop 'um. It was at this point that I became VERY untrusting of ANYBODY! I acted very sorry for running, had my hair cut short that day & 'became' one...

David Belle

blog@nunya.com (Nunya) — Sun, 14 Dec 2008 06:48:00 PST

Posted by: Nunya - ...

Sex toy testers wanted

blog@nunya.com (Nunya) — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 16:22:00 PST

Posted by: Nunya - With the recession and global financial crisis summer jobs can be hard to come by, but gainful unemployment can still be had - product testing a new sex toy. No payment was involved but successful applicants for the 100 "sexexcutive" jobs would receive a free vibrating sex toy, worth about $25, to trial. It was the dream job in a country where people were "quite willing to discuss their sexual antics", Durex New Zealand country manager David Rae said. The company has run similar campaigns with condom testing. Product testing helps generate product development and generates interest, Mr Rae told NZPA. Applicants, who must be at least 16, could apply online until January 21. Source: http://www.3news.co.nz/News/BusinessNews/Sex-toy-testers-wanted/tabid/421/articleID/83680/cat/52/Default.aspx...

'Santa Bob' admits he grew wacky weed and 'shrooms

blog@nunya.com (Nunya) — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 13:04:00 PST

Posted by: Nunya - TOWSON, Md. (AP) - A Harford County man who sells Christmas trees on his farm and poses as Santa for the children of his patrons has pleaded guilty to two counts of growing and possessing marijuana and hallucinogenic mushrooms. Prosecutors are seeking at least six months in jail for 62-year-old Robert Chance of Darlington, also known as "Santa Bob."...

Scientists develop software that can map dreams

blog@nunya.com (Nunya) — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 10:42:00 PST

Posted by: Nunya - The secret world of dreams has been unlocked with the invention of technology capable of illustrating images taken directly from human brains during sleep. A team of Japanese scientists have created a device that enables the processing and imaging of thoughts and dreams as experienced in the brain to appear on a computer screen. While researchers have so far only created technology that can reproduce simple images from the brain, the discovery paves the way for the ability to unlock people's dreams and other brain processes. A spokesman at ATR Computational Neuroscience Laboratories said: "It was the first time in the world that it was possible to visualise what people see directly from the brain activity. "By applying this technology, it may become possible to record and replay subjective images that people perceive like dreams." The scientists, lead by chief researcher Yukiyaso Kamitani, focused on the image recognition procedures in the retina of the human eye. It is while looking at an object that the eye's retina is able to recognize an image, which is subsequently converted into electrical signals sent into the brain's visual cortex. The research investigated how electrical signals are captured and reconstructed into images, according to the study, which will be published in the US journal Neuron. As part of the experiment, researchers showed testers the six letters of the word "neuron", before using the technology to measure their brain activity an...

Confrontational Therapy Works If You Work It Correctly

blog@nunya.com (Nunya) — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 10:39:00 PST

Posted by: Nunya - BULLSHIT!!!! Where do you druggie ingrates get off????!!!???? LAMBASTING A PROVEN, EFFECTIVE,THERAPEUTIC TECHNIQUE!!!!! When I read that article written by those quacks, I was nauseated that someone would have the temerity to endanger our kids by trying to discredit and eliminate the one technique that has proven effective at dealing with no-good druggie adolescents and getting them STRAIGHT!!!! No wonder you all are on the road to JAILS, INSTITUTIONS, AND DEATH!!!!! If you spent a quarter of the effort working your program as you do trying to undermine it, you would be doing well. Instead, you keep pointing the finger and playing the blame game. You know you did the NECESSARY THINGS wind up on front row, so don't give me any of that namby-pamby, crybaby BULLSHIT!Now..... LET'S HAVE A SONG!!!!!!!!...

Re: Nervous insight.

blog@nunya.com (Nunya) — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 13:00:00 PST

Posted by: Nunya - I have definitely experienced the emotional detachment that you are describing after my experience with Mount Bachelor Academy. Poker face to the max, I realized after the first few days that I couldn't trust a single person I talked to in there. I saw people who were really good friends betraying each other right off the bat. That's the kind of rifts that attack therapy creates in people in a residential setting. There was always an unspoken understanding that we may be friends now, but in group it's another story. You're on your fucking own. I primarily watched my own back. I had a huge advantage going into it however, and that is my acting experience. I am as a result of my acting experience a good public speaker and fast on my feet. After a few months it got to the point where I understood the the dynamics of how group worked so well that I was able to avoid trouble, mostly. It's really a very simple system. Someone is going to have the barrel of the attack gun pointed at them. If no one brings any requests to group, they can usually just harass someone on a self-study or who has bans or who is new. When that person gets defensive, yell at him until he or she agrees with the group. It's preferable if they start crying. If they are crying, inform them of their punishment and then when they get angry, yell at them some more. When emotions are running high, shift the target to someone else who will with the help of a few cues from the facilitator become the new object of...

The Black Hole

blog@nunya.com (Nunya) — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 11:58:00 PST

Posted by: Nunya - Phil and Olly / UK / 2008 A sleep-deprived office worker accidentally discovers a black hole - and then greed gets the better of him......

Nervous insight (by Appalachian freight rider)

blog@nunya.com (Nunya) — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 11:26:00 PST

Posted by: Nunya - Remember in $tr8 how you had to learn to anticipate your own emotional reactions to staff and the group or be submitted to their will ?? You had to be just that much quicker in order to strike pre-emptively, you know, talk about it in group and be able to demonstrate some measurable change or something, like you were struggeling with something but you were workin your program. And you had to play a poker face so hard that you lost your ability to be spontaneously emotional. You know like when everyone around you throws their head back in laughter but you, because you've become so objective or something, so concerned with monitoring your spontaneity in order to protect yourself from the mind-rapists. Every subtle psychological reaction had to be self monitored and controlled so as not to reveal any secret hidden places within the mind, sanctuaries of sanity, which were fiercely defended...the assault was so relentless and brutal, it was pretty much a psychological serial rape....

I Met The Walrus

blog@nunya.com (Nunya) — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 10:00:00 PST

Posted by: Nunya - In 1969, a 14-year-old Beatle fanatic named Jerry Levitan, armed with a reel-to-reel tape deck, snuck into John Lennon's hotel room in Toronto and convinced John to do an interview. This was in the midst of Lennon's "bed-in" phase, during which John and Yoko were staying in hotel beds in an effort to promote peace. 38 years later, Jerry has produced a film about it. Using the original interview recording as the soundtrack, director Josh Raskin has woven a visual narrative which tenderly romances Lennon's every word in a cascading flood of multipronged animation. Raskin marries traditional pen sketches by James Braithwaite with digital illustration by Alex Kurina, resulting in a spell-binding vessel for Lennon's boundless wit, and timeless message....

Obama Drug Czar Pick Tied to Abusive Christian Rehab Linked to Contributor Charged with $3.5 Billion

blog@nunya.com (Nunya) — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 21:48:00 PST

Posted by: Nunya - If his opposition to needle exchange and maintenance treatment for addictions isn't enough to convince you that Jim Ramstad isn't qualified to serve in Obama's cabinet as "drug czar," how about an earmark funding a Christian addiction "program" that uses outdated and abusive tactics and tries to "complete" Jews? Now add a connection between that program and a man who is charged with swindling investors out of $3.5 billion dollars. That's right. Jim Ramstad was the sole sponsor of an earmark providing $235,000 to Minnesota Teen Challenge, a branch of a national anti-addiction group which believes that recruiting people into the Assemblies of God ministry will cure their addiction. Yes, this is the same Teen Challenge that prompted George W. Bush to de-regulate faith-based addiction treatment in Texas in 1997. The program couldn't meet basic education standards required for qualified counselors, but Bush wanted it kept open....

PharmFree.org

blog@nunya.com (Nunya) — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 21:27:00 PST

Posted by: Nunya - The American Medical Student Association (AMSA), the nation's oldest and largest, independent association for physicians-in-training, announces PharmFree.org, the medical community's home for reclaiming the ethics of medicine by removing conflicts of interest and restoring the sanctity of the patient-physician relationship. PharmFree.org, created in collaboration with the Prescription Project, a drug industry watchdog group, provides the most comprehensive collection of resources for students seeking policy change at their institutions. "It is not often that students have the opportunity to initiate such large policy reform in their schools and medical centers," says Dr. Brian Hurley, AMSA's national president. "With all the recent research, media attention, and discussion within academic medicine, the issues of conflicts of interest and the proper role of industry in medicine have reached a tipping point. The information available at PharmFree.org empowers students to work with their schools toward major reform."...

Video Arcade

blog@nunya.com (Nunya) — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 21:25:00 PST

Posted by: Nunya - Montreal art-rockers Arcade Fire have posted two excellent interactive videos on their website -- and you can have more fun with them in five minutes than you'd get from a day's worth of MTV. In "Neon Bible," the band's lead singer, Win Butler, appears against a black background; click on his hands, mouth, and eyes to affect his voice and motions. In the "Black Mirror" video, you control the arrangement -- lose the vocals, drop the bass, or (for a supercreepy effect) hear the string section all by its lonesome. The chance to connect with your inner Phil Spector -- that's creepy, too, but rewarding enough to make you consider music as a second career. http://www.neonbible.com/yope.html...

Stimulating Sites

blog@nunya.com (Nunya) — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 21:19:00 PST

Posted by: Nunya - Step in to a world only a designer could create. Lim Si Ping is truly original in her artwork.I just love looking at her website to get inspired. Her artwork takes me into a surrealist world and I never want to come back....

Why you should mix records on crap speakers

blog@nunya.com (Nunya) — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 21:17:00 PST

Posted by: Nunya - Bill Moriarty, record producer and Highrise customer (case study), offers some interesting advice to other producers at his blog: Mix Records on Crap Speakers. "It's the very naive producer who works only on optimum systems." -Brian Eno It's unlikely whoever is buying your records has anything better than an average hi-fi, boombox, car stereo, or ipod. I'd bet they don't have studio monitors. Recording & mixing solely on studio monitors is foolish. All that low end in the guitar? It's useless in the small speakers. It's just taking up frequencies the bass or drums or organs or tenor instruments can occupy. You have to be ruthless in cutting away useless frequencies so the record is loud & jumps out of all speakers. Make the record sound outstanding on little crap speakers since that's where most people will hear it. I've found when I do this it still sounds great on the fancy speakers. Love this. It's not about the gear. In fact, gear can distract you from the essence of what you're working on. Strip what you're doing down to its bare essentials and evaluate that. If that comes off great, then it will work as it gets louder, starts to grow, or whatever. (And web designers can definitely apply the same idea to bandwidth speed, screen size, etc.) Source: http://www.37signals.com/svn/posts/1449-why-you-should-mix-records-on-crap-speakers...

Abolish government police

blog@nunya.com (Nunya) — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 16:56:00 PST

Posted by: Nunya - Before they kill us all.Thankfully, a potentially deadly situation in southern Maryland was averted this week when the state's attorney called off a state police SWAT team before it killed another civilian who was threatening or harming no one.The nutshell: A woman allegedly calls police around 10:00 p.m. saying her son has been shot somewhere in the vicinity of her house. Police arrive at the house and see a woman alone holding a weapon. Police doubt the "viability of the call" based on the woman's behavior but nevertheless proceed to erect a barricade around the property and evacuate nearby homes. Maryland State Police Special Tactical Assault Team Element (S.T.A.T.E.) "was to arrive on the scene at about 11:50 p.m."...

Dance

blog@nunya.com (Nunya) — Sat, 06 Dec 2008 12:39:00 PST

Posted by: Nunya - Watch it all the way through, totally worth it....

Kids Helping Kids( A Pathway family Center)- Milford, Ohio- closed down?

blog@nunya.com (Nunya) — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 21:07:00 PST

Posted by: Nunya - This just in.......Several eye witnesses have observed that Kids Helping Kids ( a Pathway Family Center) located at 6070 Branch-Hill Guinea Pike in Milford Ohio, has had no clients at the building for a total of four days now. Apparently, a few days ago the President of the International Survivors Action Committee (ISAC), William Earnshaw, reported this fact to Mr. Jim Lapczynski, a legal representative of ODADAS (Ohio Department Of Alcohol & Drug Addiction Services), and Mr. Lapczynski knew nothing about it. William Earnshaw is also reporting now that a program parent has indicated that Kids Helping Kids( a Pathway Family Center) in Milford, Ohio has been shut down. When a source called The program to verify that the program is in fact shut down, the program denied that they are shut down, and are now claiming that they are using the Milford, Ohio branch as an assessment program. Dear Kids Helping Kids, a Pathway Family Center, I just would like to personally know which option it really is: a.) Shut the fuck down? or is it option b.) assessment facility? You people cannot have it both ways. An email was sent to the president and CEO of Pathway Family Centers, Teri Nissley, to request verification of an answer either way. As of yet the email has yet to be returned with an answer.Also another thing, always remember this: one down ...two to go! Protesters are not going away anytime soon. love ye! -Your favorite protester Deprogrammed AGAIN I REPEAT KH...

DEAR PFC EXPOSED, Your Website is a sad joke.

blog@nunya.com (Nunya) — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 21:06:00 PST

Posted by: Nunya - Here is an email that I received yesterday morning from an apparently cowardly and anonymous source yet to be named. I say to the source," If ye feel so strongly in your opinion then show yourself and personally stand by your convictions. As for the website or anyone that is involved with the website being even remotely involved with the organization HEAL(Human Animal Earth Liberation), it is simply not true. Although, we do not refute HEAL, we also do not condone or endorse HEAL either. Without any further procrastination, I give you the email that I have received: from Rusty Nail Tetnus to pathwayfamilycentersexposed@gmail.com date Tue, Dec 2, 2008 at 8:19 AM subject Your website is a sad joke. mailed-by hotmail.com Dear PFC "Exposed" : It is obvious that you've decided to join forces with HEAL and bombard the internet with propaganda against Pathway Family Center. It's very amusing that you've tried to "distance" yourself from the others and create a "show" of dischord when everyone knows you all work together to fight the "bad" program called Pathway Family Center. Pathway Family Center and its staff are not fooled by your online "disagreements" with "WDTony" and know exactly what kind of game you all think you are playing. You can create as many websites against Pathway Family Center as you wish. It won't work. You are weak and foolish children playing online games and no one is buying it. You only make yourselves look more idiotic by...

The beauty products from the skin of executed Chinese prisoners

blog@nunya.com (Nunya) — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 12:40:00 PST

Posted by: Nunya - A Chinese cosmetics company is using skin harvested from the corpses of executed convicts to develop beauty products for sale in Europe, an investigation by the Guardian has discovered. Agents for the firm have told would-be customers it is developing collagen for lip and wrinkle treatments from skin taken from prisoners after they have been shot. The agents say some of the company's products have been exported to the UK, and that the use of skin from condemned convicts is "traditional" and nothing to "make such a big fuss about"....

How Can I Arrange for Burial at Sea in the Mid-Atlantic?

blog@nunya.com (Nunya) — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 17:59:00 PST

Posted by: Nunya - Burial at sea must take place at least three nautical miles from land. For burial of non-cremated remains, the water must be at least 600 feet deep and measures must be taken to ensure that the remains sink to the bottom rapidly and permanently. Any flowers or wreaths must be made of natural materials which readily decompose in the marine environment. Check with the local coroner's office or a local funeral home in the area of the port from which you plan to depart to see if any permits are required. The EPA only requires that within 30 days after the burial that the following information be supplied:...

My Forbidden Diary (Day 3)

blog@nunya.com (Nunya) — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 23:41:00 PST

Posted by: Nunya - Little Fat Fucker woke me up early this morning. The sun wasn't even up yet and the jerk was screaming at me to get the hell out of my bedroll. He kept hollering at me until I managed to get dressed and pack up my roll. This wasn't fast enough for him and he dumped all my gear and clothes onto the ground. To piss me off even more he kicked my stuff all over the place. Instead of packing it up in under 3 minutes or less I sat down on one of the rocks and told Little Fat Fucker to go fuck himself. He started screaming and yelling some more. Oh god.. i wanted to kick him in the face so damn much. I almost did but out of the corner of my eye I could see Rancid Cocksucker sort of hovering in the background. Rather than pack up my gear I just sat there on that rock and ignored all the yelling and screaming. It wasn't to long before Little Fat fucker grabbed me by the arm and pulled me off the rock. he started screaming that no damn kid was going to sit on one of his rocks and refuse. I sat down on my sleeping bag instead. Rancid Cocksucker ran over and pulled it out from under me. With these to people hovering over me it didn't take a lot for me to figure out they were trying to get me angry. It worked to....

My Forbidden Diary (Day 2)

blog@nunya.com (Nunya) — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 10:43:00 PST

Posted by: Nunya - Little Fat Fucker dumped a glass of water on my face when i didn't wake up fast enough to suit him. The man truly is a repulsive piece of humanity. He is a farting, burping, sweating asshole who has a body odor that makes me sick to my stomach. Once I was up and on my feet little fat fucker gave me one of those small boxes of cereal, a banana, and a pint of milk for my breakfast. After eating he took me to another building where I was issued my trail gear. When little fat fucker said gear I thought i was going to be getting a pack with some decent clothing. What I got instead was a second pair of clothes, a warm jacket, thermals, a spoon, tin cup, sleeping bag, and a ground cloth. My food came next and again my expectations were proven to be reaching far to high. Rather than actual dehydrated meals I was given lentils, oatmeal, and a few other odds and ends. All of this was rolled up into the ground cloth and tied up with the seat belt strap....

Protect Yourself: Dangerous Diseases on the Rise

blog@nunya.com (Nunya) — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 10:31:00 PST

Posted by: Nunya - There are a variety of reasons for the resurgence of certain diseases, and some of the fault inevitably lies with the human population: Over consumption and the prevalence of an inactive lifestyle have resulted in skyrocketing rates of obesity and the illnesses related to it. And some believe that parents who ignore vaccination recommendations are keeping certain childhood maladies alive that could be eliminated. Experts are also concerned about the likelihood of certain diseases that have the capability to pass from animals to humans. Here are some scary sicknesses that are on the rise: 1. Tuberculosis. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that one in three people worldwide has been exposed to tuberculosis. One of the oldest known diseases, it primarily attacks the lungs but can also affect the brain, kidneys, and spine. For nine in 10 of those with a latent infection, the bacteria will remain dormant; however, in 2006 approximately 9.6 million people were diagnosed with tuberculosis, and 1.5 million died. While the detection rate of new tuberculosis cases was halved between 2005 and 2006, it increased by 3 percent in 2007 and again in 2008. What most concerns the medical community is the rise of drug-resistant strains of tuberculosis, which have a much higher mortality rate, especially among people whose immune systems are already compromised by disease or age. 2. Whooping Cough. The number of people infected by this highly contagious respiratory tract infect...

Exclusive First Listen: Paul McCartney

blog@nunya.com (Nunya) — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 10:14:00 PST

Posted by: Nunya - Hear The Entire Album, Featuring McCartney And Youth As The Fireman November 18, 2008 - When The Fireman released its debut album in 1993 -- the instrumental dance and electronica mix Strawberries Oceans Ships Forest -- the band's identity was a mystery. U.K. music magazine Melody Maker eventually exposed The Fireman as a duo featuring the bassist and producer known as Youth and, to everyone's surprise, Paul McCartney. Reviewers praised the collaboration as "staggeringly brilliant," but it was a strange and entirely unexpected direction for the former Beatle. McCartney and Youth followed their debut five years later with Rushes, another instrumental album the two described as "ambient dreams in rainbow arches." But The Fireman fell silent for the next decade, as the two returned to their own projects. Last year, McCartney and Youth returned to work as The Fireman for their third release together, Electric Arguments. Unlike the previous albums, The Fireman's new studio disc features vocals. McCartney entered the studio, without any material, and recorded 13 songs in 13 days. He played all the instruments, with Youth at the helm as producer. The Fireman offered the first single from the album, "Lifelong Passion," as a download from the band's Web site for anyone making a donation to the Adopt-A-Minefield charity. Electric Arguments is sometimes bluesy and gritty, with McCartney howling against fuzzy guitars ("Nothing Too Much Just Out of Sight"), sometimes delicat...

The Way We Were: Life Magazine Photos Of Women In The 1950s

blog@nunya.com (Nunya) — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 09:38:00 PST

Posted by: Nunya - As previously posted, the Life magazine photo archive is now available online. The collection is estimated to consist of more than 10 million photos, many of which were never published in the magazine and only exist as negatives, slides and etchings. You can search the collection for historical images, and if you want to purchase framed prints, you can do that, too. We'll be taking a look at women in several decades (previously: the '30s and the '40s) and today, the full-of-change 1950s. The photos begin after the jump. Source: http://jezebel.com/5099377/the-way-we-were-life-magazine-photos-of-women-in-the-1950s Search millions of photographs from the LIFE photo archive, stretching from the 1750s to today. Most were never published and are now available for the first time through the joint work of LIFE and Google. Gallery: http://images.google.com/hosted/life...

Hyphenated Names

blog@nunya.com (Nunya) — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 23:21:00 PST

Posted by: Nunya - Times when you don't hyphenate your name... Would you choose to be a Poore-Sapp or a Beaver-Wetter? http://www.joe-ks.com/archives_jul2007/HyphenatedNames.htm...

Vicar went to hospital with potato stuck in bottom

blog@nunya.com (Nunya) — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 16:02:00 PST

Posted by: Nunya - A vicar attended hospital with a potato stuck up his bottom - and claimed it got there after he fell on to the vegetable while naked. The clergyman, in his 50s, told nurses he had been hanging curtains when he fell backwards on to his kitchen table. He happened to be nude at the time of the mishap, said the vicar, who insisted he had not been playing a sex game. The vicar had to undergo a delicate operation to extract the vegetable, one of a range of odd items medics in Sheffield have had to remove from people's backsides or genitals. Others include a can of deodorant, a cucumber, a Russian doll � and a carnation. Speaking of the vicar, A & E nurse Trudi Watson, of Sheffield's Northern General Hospital, said: "He explained to me, quite sincerely, he had been hanging curtains naked in the kitchen when he fell backwards on to the kitchen table and on to a potato. "But it's not for me to question his story. He had to undergo surgery to have it removed." She advised anyone tempted to use such objects in sex games to think again. "It can be very dangerous and potentially life-threatening," she said. "Surgery can lead to infection, nasty scarring, and it could possibly end up with the person having to use a colostomy bag as a result." A hospital trust spokeswoman in Sheffield said: "Like all busy hospitals we do see some unusual accidents. "But our staff deal with them in a discreet, professional and kind way."...

Women DON'T want to bother with foreplay.

blog@nunya.com (Nunya) — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 13:49:00 PST

Posted by: Nunya - Do you stay the course? In opposition to the general consensus women take more pleasure from intercourse than foreplay, a new survey has found. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1089622/Women-DONT-want-bother-foreplay-says-shock-new-study.html...

Wonder Glen

blog@nunya.com (Nunya) — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 10:45:00 PST

Posted by: Nunya - The Wonder Glen website gives visitors a peek behind the (dysfunctional) scenes at a (fictional) "film, television, and new-media company," where the backstabbing, quibbling, rumors, and failed attempts at "growing" team spirit are hilariously familiar. Think of the multifaceted, superdetailed send-up of corporate culture as a smart, funny adjunct to the deadpan satires we've come to expect from people like Christopher Guest and Ricky Gervais. But we'll let you in on a secret: Half the fun consists of trying to figure out who the site's actual authors and owners are. (Yes, we know -- but, irritatingly, we've been sworn to secrecy.) www.wonderglen.com Source: http://www.veryshortlist.com...

How ants decongest

blog@nunya.com (Nunya) — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 10:40:00 PST

Posted by: Nunya - As every commuter knows, the shortest path between two points isn't always the best or fastest route to a destination. Now we've learned that ants know it too. A recent experiment found that ants used "swarm intelligence" to redirect traffic when a route between two points got clogged: Ants headed toward a food source would take the shortest possible route. But when they met oncoming traffic upon returning (thus suffering what the researchers called "repulsive interactions"), they sent chemical signals to ants headed in the direction they'd just come from. Some of those oncoming ants then detoured to a less-congested route, and traffic sped up. We get a watered-down version of this from GPS units that incorporate traffic-report databases. But research suggests that if those GPS units fed data back into the databases, we too would grow collectively intelligent -- and traffic jams would be a thing of the past....

Face the music

blog@nunya.com (Nunya) — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 10:38:00 PST

Posted by: Nunya - A Japanese man electrocutes himself, slowly, in front of his computer -- and the results are more amusing than what you'd imagine. First, artist-programmer Daito Manabe wrote a (rather catchy) song. Then he taped electrical wires to different muscles in his face and used them to administer shocks in accordance with the notes of that song. Each shock made him twitch, cringe, and flinch -- and at first, watching "Electric Stimulus to Face -- Test 3" will make you do the same. Is it painful? "Yes," Manabe says. "But not as much as you might think." The whole affair looks and sounds like something Thom Yorke might have dreamed up for a Radiohead video -- and like any given Radiohead song, it really gets going at around the minute mark. Source: http://www.veryshortlist.com/web/daily.cfm/review/847/Web_video/electric-stimulus-to-face/?vp...

My Forbidden Diary

blog@nunya.com (Nunya) — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 09:47:00 PST

Posted by: Nunya - Day 1 Today I was picked up after school by my stepmom and dad. I was a bit surprised, but they quickly explained that they were pulling me out of school for a few weeks to attend a special camp. While being a bit perplexed as to why my 3.5 gpa would require me to spend time in a special I found myself quickly reassured by what my stepmom described as the fun activities of canoing, rock climbing, and hiking. Ironic that before my dad married the bitch we did that sort of thing all the time. I must have fell asleep at some point during the ride because as soon I opened my eyes I found two large looking fuckers staring at me through the window. I looked around and found my parents gone. The bigger of the two men pulled the door open and told me that I could either get out of the car on my own, or be pulled out. It didn't take me long to make up my mind and I jumped over the back seat of the mini-van and locked the door....

Vitamin D Vital for the Heart

blog@nunya.com (Nunya) — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 18:03:00 PST

Posted by: Nunya - Lack of the sunlight-derived nutrient tied to increased cardiovascular events Posted December 1, 2008 By Ed Edelson HealthDay Reporter MONDAY, Dec. 1 (HealthDay News) -- A lack of vitamin D, which is absorbed primarily through exposure to sunlight, helps boost the risk of heart attacks and strokes, new research finds. "There are a whole array of studies linking increased cardiovascular risk with vitamin D deficiency," noted Dr. James H. O'Keefe, director of preventive cardiology at the Mid America Heart Institute in Kansas City. "It is associated with major risk factors such as high blood pressure, diabetes and stiffening of the left ventricle of the heart and blood vessels. Inflammation is really important for heart disease, and people with vitamin D deficiency have increased inflammation."...

Scans Show Sound-Processing Deficits in Autistic Kids

blog@nunya.com (Nunya) — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 18:01:00 PST

Posted by: Nunya - MONDAY, Dec. 1 (HealthDay News) -- Children with autism spectrum disorder process sounds a fraction of a second slower than other children, an abnormality that offers insight into listening and language issues linked to the condition, a new study says. Researchers used magnetoencephalography (MEG), which records minute magnetic fields associated with electrical brain activity, to detect the slight delay in autistic children who were exposed to beeps, tones in pairs, vowels and sentences at different speeds, tones and frequencies....

Tonight, for one show only � it�s Jupiter, Venus, and the moon!

blog@nunya.com (Nunya) — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 17:51:00 PST

Posted by: Nunya - By Peter N. Spotts | 12.01.08 Dateline: Pete's front stoop in Franklin, Mass. The moon-Jupiter-Venus show is underway (show times vary by location). And it's spectacular! Relish it. We won't see its kind for another 44 years. One way to stretch the pleasure: Use a pair of binoculars. It's your ticket to the matin�e. From my front stoop, the moon -- a waxing crescent -- is clearly visible in a fading orange sky at 4:13 p.m. local time....

My Time at Three Springs Paint Rock Valley Boys

blog@nunya.com (Nunya) — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 17:50:00 PST

Posted by: Nunya - My Time at Paint Rock Valley Boys I worked as a counselor at Three Springs of Paint Rock Valley Boys from 2002 to 2004. During that time I participated in abusive acts and witnessed even more. My actions have brought me a great deal of personal pain and remorse. It wasn't until after I was terminated, for what essentially was the exercising of poor judgment that I came to realize the full extent of what I did and saw. Everything must have a start and my story started with the extremely poor training I received, moved on to the appalling lack of supervision, and is rounded out by the horrible conditions of the facility. I started working at Three Springs a few weeks before Christmas at the end of 2002. At my time of hire I spent four or so weeks going through the Three Springs 100 hour new employee training. During this time I went to classes all day and spent time with a group at night. The training program was inadequate to say the least. Most of it went over the various levels of the stages system, the medicine wheel, and creed. We received minimal medical training, minimal training in how to deal with violence, minimal training in dealing with people who were upset. All in all we received very little useful training to prepare us for covering the group we were being trained to cover. Once training was complete, and we passed our tests, which most of us cheated on, we were given our group assignments. My group was the group of Lisicha. This group was the youth grou...

Tainted cocaine linked to 7 cases of illness in Alberta

blog@nunya.com (Nunya) — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 14:10:00 PST

Posted by: Nunya - Last Updated: Friday, November 28, 2008 | 2:20 PM MT Comments119Recommend125 CBC News Seven people in Alberta have developed a form of immune system suppression after consuming cocaine laced with a chemical compound, public health officials said Friday. The individuals developed agranulocytosis, a condition that makes the immune system incapable of fighting off infections. It makes common infections become serious, even fatal, quite quickly. "We are advising anyone who develops a fever or other signs of infection and has used cocaine to seek medical attention quickly," Dr. Gerry Predy, Alberta's Acting Chief Medical Officer of Health, said in a news release. "Any skin abscess or lung infection that develops rapidly should also be treated immediately." Officials have linked the cases to cocaine laced with levamisole, a chemical compound developed to treat intestinal worms in humans and animals. The cases were reported in Edmonton, Red Deer, and in undisclosed locations in southern and northern Alberta. Doctors in Alberta have been advised they should test and treat patients for this condition if they complain of a fever or other signs of infection after using cocaine. http://www.cbc.ca/canada/edmonton/story/2008/11/28/edm-cocaine-warning.html...

Natural Harvest - A Collection of Semen-Based Recipes

blog@nunya.com (Nunya) — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 13:06:00 PST

Posted by: Nunya - Semen is not only nutritious, but it also has a wonderful texture and amazing cooking properties. Like fine wine and cheeses, the taste of semen is complex and dynamic. Semen is inexpensive to produce and is commonly available in many, if not most, homes and restaurants. Despite all of these positive qualities, semen remains neglected as a food. This book hopes to change that. Once you overcome any initial hesitation, you will be surprised to learn how wonderful semen is in the kitchen. Semen is an exciting ingredient that can give every dish you make an interesting twist. If you are a passionate cook and are not afraid to experiment with new ingredients - you will love this cook book! http://www.lulu.com/content/4956212...

Shanghaied into Straight, Inc.

blog@nunya.com (Nunya) — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 12:47:00 PST

Posted by: Nunya - One of the worst days of my life was November 6th, 1982. I had spent a few weeks in bed with the flu after returning home after running away. By the time that fateful Saturday rolled around, I was starting to feel better again. My parents told me they wanted to take me to Virginia where there were some people I could talk to about getting my life back on track, or something to that effect. It didn't sound so bad, but I had absolutely no idea what was in store for me. Little did I know that from that day forward my life would never be the same. My trust in my parents was destroyed that day when I realized that they had abandoned me into the hands of the people at Straight Incorporated. I found myself in a room with two kids about my age sitting in chairs in front of the only door to the small, bare, windowless room. They asked me all kinds of questions. What drugs had I used? How long did I use them? How many of my friends drank or used drugs? Did I have premarital sex? I did my best to answer their intrusive questions. For what it was worth (not much to them), my drug use had tapered off considerably. Granted, I had run away from home after dropping out of the 10th grade, but I hadn't been getting high or even drinking regularly at this point. They told me my parents didn't want me back, and that if I didn't sign myself in for two weeks, they would get me court ordered there for two years! Not knowing any better, I signed myself in and was led into the "group room" by som...

Wal-Mart worker dies after shoppers knock him down

blog@nunya.com (Nunya) — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 11:55:00 PST

Posted by: Nunya - By COLLEEN LONG, The Associated Press 10:39 a.m. November 28, 2008 NEW YORK -- A worker was killed in the crush Friday after a throng of shoppers eager for post-Thanksgiving bargains burst through the doors at a suburban Wal-Mart, authorities said. At least four other people were injured, and the store in Valley Stream on Long Island was closed. Wal-Mart Stores Inc. in Bentonville, Ark., called the incident a "tragic situation" and said the employee came from a temporary agency and was doing maintenance work at the store. "He was bum-rushed by 200 people," co-worker Jimmy Overby, 43, told the Daily News. "They took the doors off the hinges. He was trampled and killed in front of me. They took me down too. ... I literally had to fight people off my back."...

Neb. safe-haven fix blocks parents from leaving teens

blog@nunya.com (Nunya) — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 11:30:00 PST

Posted by: Nunya - Neb. safe-haven fix blocks parents from leaving teens The revision covers children up to 30 days old and reflects lawmakers' original intent to protect newborns. By Nate Jenkins The Associated Press Updated: 11/21/2008 10:34:39 PM MST LINCOLN, Neb. -- Gov. Dave Heineman signed into law Friday a bill adding a 30-day age limit to a safe-haven law that allowed 35 children -- including teenagers as old as 17 -- to be abandoned at state hospitals. The law, approved hours earlier by the Legislature in a 45-3 vote, was to go into effect Saturday and makes Nebraska the 14th state with a 30-day age cap. It had been the only state with a safe-haven law without an age limit. "I think this solves the immediate problem of adolescents being abandoned," said state Sen. Kent Rogert. "These kids are old enough to know they're being dropped off, and that's not good." The law was meant to prevent newborns from being dumped in trash bins or worse. But it has been used to abandon 35 children at state hospitals since July -- many of them preteens or teenagers as old as 17. Hospital officials have described children crying hysterically as they pleaded with their parents not to leave them. Five of the children have been from other states, including from as far away as Florida and Michigan. The law was not revised to preclude infants from other states from being dropped off. Heineman said the age limit should keep Nebraska from becoming a dumping ground for children fr...

Abusive Programs

blog@nunya.com (Nunya) — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 11:21:00 PST

Posted by: Nunya - This page will contain a directory of programs. In order to appear on this list, they have to be cited by one or more watch-organizations as abusive. See link: http://wiki.fornits.com/index.php?title=Program_directory...

Spectrum Care Academy Inc. (KY)

blog@nunya.com (Nunya) — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 11:19:00 PST

Posted by: Nunya - Suit against teen center where girl died sealed The Associated Press COLUMBIA, Ky. -- A judge has sealed a lawsuit against a treatment center for teenage girls accused of being poorly run after the center settled with the family of a patient killed after running into traffic. Adair Circuit Judge James G. Weddle sealed the file shortly after the suit against Spectrum Care Academy Inc., settled in October. The Lexington Herald-Leader reported that Spectrum requested the sealing of the file. Stephen L. Hixson, the attorney for the estate of the dead girl, told Weddle at a hearing on Tuesday that the public has the right to see the file, but Weddle said he would seal it. Spectrum's attorney, Michael A. Goforth, told Weddle the file contains details that should not be publicly available, such as financial information and names of young patients. Weddle cut off additional arguments from Hixson, telling the attorney to put his claims in writing or appeal....

What is known about Heaven's View Christian Boarding Academy

blog@nunya.com (Nunya) — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 11:17:00 PST

Posted by: Nunya - What is known about Heaven's View Christian Boarding Academy? It look like a Roloff facility but we cannot be sure. It is located around Wayneville, MO. From our data sheet (not finished): Communication No contact with the detainees the first 30 days. After this period of isolation the detained girls may receive calls from home every two weeks. But the right to calls can be revoked if the staff orders it. There is no info whether the phone calls are monitored. Parents are allowed to visit their daughter after 3 months. However the visits can also be terminated by decisions of the staff. Home visits are decided by the staff [1]. Education The facility uses the Accelerated Christian Education (A.C.E.) workbook curriculum provided by School of Tomorrow [2]. School of Tomorrow requires that just one person in an entire school be "certified" to use the curriculum. This certification is NOT from any state agency. It is issued by School of Tomorrow. This enables schools to use the curriculum without having any certified teachers by the State. Religious The detainees are mandated to attend the church - Grace Covenant Christian Center - the facility works with regardless of their religious belief....

Swiss likely to approve prescription heroin

blog@nunya.com (Nunya) — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 13:17:00 PST

Posted by: Nunya - By ELIANE ENGELER Associated Press Writer Posted: Friday, Nov. 28, 2008 A placard showing a couple saying "Yes, thanks to the treatment our son could get out of drugs" is among others on display in Geneva, Switzerland, Thursday, Nov. 27, 2008. Switzerland will decide Nov. 30 in a popular vote whether to put a heroin distribution program on a permanent legal footing. GENEVA Dr. Daniele Zullino keeps glass bottles full of white powder in a safe in a locked room of his office. Patients show up each day to receive their treatment in small doses handed through a small window. Then they gather around a table to shoot up, part of a pioneering Swiss program to curb drug abuse by providing addicts a clean, safe place to take heroin produced by a government-approved laboratory....

Thanksgiving Turkey Bird Flu Prevention Tips

blog@nunya.com (Nunya) — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 11:03:00 PST

Posted by: Nunya - The geniuses over at BaconToday.com have just raised the bar for Thanksgiving Dinner. I'm sure by now you've heard of the genetic masterpiece, the Turducken. It's a turkey that's stuffed with duck, which has already been stuffed with chicken. It's basically one of those Russian stacking dolls(that you keep opening up only to find a smaller doll which also contains a smaller doll and so on), yet much more delicious. What those Bacon obsessors have done is take the Turducken and add the next logical step, wrap that bitch in bacon! Unfortunately I've found this just now, and I think I'm going to have a (now boring)cajun fried turkey this year..but you can bet I'll keep this in mind for years to come. Although before I try, It'll probably be good to see if anyone dies this week from direct exposure to THE TURBACONDUCKEN!!! Pictures of the monstrosity and much much more bacon porn after the jump! THE TURBACONDUCKEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Thanks to Holy Taco for passing along the gospel of Bacon Today. Check out that Bacon Today link because after all, they promise "Daily Updates on the World of Sweet, Sweet Bacon". Another shocking discovery about bacon on the internet I made....check out the first page of a google image search for bacon. Just on the first page, you'll find a briefcase made of bacon, a bra made of bacon and Diet Coke....WITH BACON! Amazing Source: http://www.frumpzi...

Thief Steals Woman's Thanksgiving Turkey

blog@nunya.com (Nunya) — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 10:53:00 PST

Posted by: Nunya - Kansas City Woman Prays It Went To A Family In Need KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- A woman returned from church Sunday to find that someone had stolen her frozen Thanksgiving turkey. Satara Brown has a big holiday planned. She can't make it home to Ohio to be with her family, so she decided to invite more than a dozen people to her home to share the holiday with her. "There are many families, children that maybe don't have a place to go, and so I purchased a turkey, a ham and chitlins and sweet potatoes," Brown said. She had the turkey in the freezer in her garage. She said while she always kept the garage door down, she never bothered to lock the side door. On her way home from church on Sunday, she picked up some chitlins, which she put in the freezer. Since the freezer was full of food, she said it wasn't until she got back into her house that it dawned on her that something was wrong. Brown said to herself, "You know, that was really easy to put the chitlins in the freezer. Why was it easy for me, where's the turkey?" When she looked around, she realized she was also missing a stadium chair. Brown said the thief left behind a lot more valuable items such as tools. "But I did think it was funny that they only took the turkey and a chair and not all the other things that were in my garage. Like, they didn't want my dessert?" Brown said she has a good job. She could easily afford to replace the turkey, so she and her guests will still have a good Thanksgi...

Turkey Vultures

blog@nunya.com (Nunya) — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 10:52:00 PST

Posted by: Nunya - "When wildlife or freshmen in the area expire, one of the possible outcomes is attracting vultures. This one was dining on west campus near the creek. Turkey Vultures (Cathartes aura) are year-round residents of Davis and are common throughout the rest of California, though there seem to be less of them around campus and the other urban parts of town during the winter. Though Turkey Vultures generally look a lot like the old world vultures, they share name only. They belong to the Cathartidae, which was briefly grouped with storks, herons and egrets in the order Ciconiiformes but is now back with Falconiformes. Similar species include the Black Vulture and the California Condor, neither of which is likely to be seen around Yolo County. The Turkey Vulture is easily distinguished from the former by its red head (on adults), and whitish remiges (the feather on the trailing edge of the wing) on the underside of the wing. From the latter, it is distinguished by smaller size and underwing color--the California Condor from below shows white triangles against black. Also, the Turkey Vulture often "wobbles" in flight and sometimes holds its wings in a crimped V-shaped position. Some Turkey Vulture statistics from The Wheeler Guide to Raptors of Western North America: Males and females are roughly the same size, though males are slightly larger on average. The species' wingspan is 63-71 inches, and the length from head to tail is 24-28 inches. Turkey Vultures can r...

Frozen turkey used to club carjacking suspect

blog@nunya.com (Nunya) — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 10:51:00 PST

Posted by: Nunya - Frozen turkey used to club carjacking suspect Associated Press Nov. 24, 2008, 12:41PM RALEIGH, N.C. -- Stopped. Cold turkey. North Carolina authorities say a shopper clubbed an alleged carjacker with a frozen turkey as he tried to steal a woman's car in a grocery store parking lot Sunday. Police say 30-year-old Fred Louis Ervin of Raleigh stole money from a gas station before running across the street to a Harris Teeter store in a town just south of Raleigh. Garner police say he began beating Irene Moorman Bailey while stealing her car. Other shoppers came to her rescue, including one who hit Ervin with the turkey. Police did not release the person's name. Despite serious head injuries, Ervin got away in Bailey's car and hit several other cars as he fled. But police arrested him a short time later. He faces several charges including assault inflicting serious injury. Ervin was hospitalized today in good condition, a hospital spokeswoman said. He had not yet been assigned a lawyer and was to appear in court Dec. 30....

Independent Thought

blog@nunya.com (Nunya) — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 10:44:00 PST

Posted by: Nunya - "Independent thought is not popular -- it is absolutely, pricelessly, rare. Nothing you read about in the papers or see on the television is independent. Whatever we take in from the popular media is regurgitated conventional knowledge. There is nothing independent about most of the world. This is a tragedy -- independent thought is essential for progress. Conventional thinking moves us forward gradually at best (at worst it pushes us backwards). Independent thinking is required to achieve any substantial jump in performance. Logically, when we think like everyone else is thinking, the best we can expect is to achieve what they're already achieving. If our aim is to over-achieve, we need to avoid the same banal influences and think impossibly. We need to become independent from conventional wisdom....

Do Microwave Weapons Kill?

blog@nunya.com (Nunya) — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 14:18:00 PST

Posted by: Nunya - Although high-powered microwave weapons are designed to destroy the electronic equipment used by enemy command centers, their effect on humans in the vicinity is less clear. The U.S. military says HPM weapons are non-lethal, but that doesn't mean free from harm. The U.S Marines Corp. is currently developing a microwave-based weapon that inflicts a brief, intense burning sensation on the target's skin similar to touching a hot light bulb. Mounted on Humvee, the weapon is designed for crowd dispersal. The temperature settings are variable, however, and can be set as high as 130 degrees F. Given that temperature variability, it's possible that someone in the path of a HPM burst might be cooked like a meal readied by a microwave oven. Meanwhile, scientists at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee have proposed building an electromagnetic pulse weapon that would disrupt a person's short term memory and cause him to lose control of involuntary body functions. So whereas a HPM weapon's lethality is uncertain, it's definitely going to hurt, leaving the victim incapacitated for a short period of time. --Frank Vizard http://www.mikrowellenterror.de/english/domicrowafeweaponskill.htm...

Pot joins the fight against Alzheimer's, memory loss

blog@nunya.com (Nunya) — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 16:59:00 PST

Posted by: Nunya - A large-scale study released this week showed that the herb gingko biloba has no effect in preventing dementia or Alzheimer's disease. But alternative medicine aficionados may find hope in a new research touting the bennies of another "herb" in preserving memory. Scientists from Ohio State University report that marijuana, contrary to the conventional wisdom, may help ward off Alzheimer's and keep recall sharp. Their findings, released today at the Society for Neuroscience meeting in Washington D.C.: chemical components of marijuana reduce inflammation and stimulate the production of new brain cells, thereby enhancing memory. The team suggested that a drug could be formulated that would resemble tetrahydroannibol, or THC, the psychoactive ingredient in pot sans making the user high. But the research may ultimately drive those who fear impending dementia to roll their own solution to the problem. Study co-author Gary Wenk, a professor of psychology, had already devised a preliminary version of a THC-like synthetic drug that improves memory in lab animals. His team at the meeting said that it works by activating at least three receptors in the brain targeted by THC--proteins on the surface of nerve cells that then trigger cellular processes resulting in reduced inflammation and production of new brain cells that can boost recall. Understanding how the compounds work may pave the way for a pharmaceutical company to prepare its own med for human clinical trials....

The Projected Death of Straight Inc.

blog@nunya.com (Nunya) — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 14:31:00 PST

Posted by: Nunya - A lot of us probably figured Straight, Inc. would get shut down sometime after we got out. When I was finally out and away from Northern Virginia for good, I imagined the program would be gone after a year or two. After all, I had seen the lawyers come and go and knew something was potentially up. Aside from that, I probably just figured that a place as stupid as Straight would sooner or later, if not sooner, be history. The bad news is people still fall for the same old shit; they still sell a lemon, and it seems there's a sucker born every minute. Same shit (with a new sales pitch), different century!...

Tent City

blog@nunya.com (Nunya) — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 11:14:00 PST

Posted by: Nunya - Let's see, where shall I begin? I guess from the beginning. Monday July 14th 2008, I am somberly getting dressed for my first day at tent city, the first of 45. I keep thanking God that I have work release 5 days a week and that everything will be fine, no big deal. I get my scrubs and jogger bra on, wash my face, put 3 bowls of food and water out for the cats and feed my fish until they almost explode. I do not have a license, they run your plates if you drive to jail, so Yvette offered to drop me off for my big day. I have my paperback book, roll of quarters, 20 singles, and an alarm clock. I have a shitty pair of shoes from Target to wear because they have to be closed toed when you first arrive, by the way they were killing my after 10 minutes. The shoes were the least of my problems....

Things not to do!

blog@nunya.com (Nunya) — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 10:41:00 PST

Posted by: Nunya - The following is intended as fucked up, deranged satire and should not be taken seriously by anyone: DON'T walk up to Virgil as he's walking up the courthouse steps, say "Remember me, asshole?" and shoot him several times with a .45 DON'T break into the homes of former Straight, Inc. executives, bind them with hemp fiber, and spray them with pepper spray before igniting the whole place. DON'T kidnap some lame-ass ex-Catholic priest who still works in the drug-treatment industry, dose him with 500+ mcgs of LSD, and subject him to a confrontation "marathon" where his fingernails are removed with rusty pliers. DON'T castrate some fucked up ex-Group Staff Supervisor, using a rusty razor blade and no anesthetic, leaving him to wallow in pain and shock as you repeatedly kick him in the head. DON'T spray lighter fluid all over an ex-Straight, Inc. Executive who has started her own spin-off program, light it, and say "Tell me about your feelings, bitch!" as you do multiple shots of 151, spitting out every other one on her. DON'T use a Taser on an ex-Executive Staff member who now works as an educator right before you cover his head with a sack containing rabid weasels. These things would be wrong. DON'T DO THEM!!!...

Arkansas judge tells parents to leave Tony Alamo compound to regain custody of seized children

blog@nunya.com (Nunya) — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 04:57:00 PST

Posted by: Nunya - An Arkansas judge has told parents of two teenage girls taken from a religious compound run by Tony Alamo that the children can be returned to their parents if the parents agree to leave the compound and secure financial independence away from the controversial "Tony Alamo Christian Ministries" organization. The two girls, ages 16 and 14, were removed from the compound along with four other girls in a September 20 raid conducted by state, federal law enforcement officials and FBI. Authorities raided the compound while investigating allegations of physical abuse and child sexual abuse. The controversial evangelist leader of the organization, Tony Alamo, 74, was himself arrested on September 25 in Flagstaff, Arizona on charges of sexually abusing children and allegedly transporting a young girl across state lines in order to commit sexual acts with her - a violation of the Mann Act. He waived extradition from Arizona to Arkansas. Alamo has previously been convicted on charges of tax evasion. He was born as Bernie Hoffmann, and started the Tony and Susan Alamo Christian Foundation in 1969 with his wife Susan....

Miller Newton touched my junk liberally

blog@nunya.com (Nunya) — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 04:45:00 PST

Posted by: Nunya - Miller Newton touched my junk liberally. He strapped me in to his Straight-mobile and he couldn't keep his offensive hands off of me. He was performing many red flag touches. I couldn't believe what the fuck was going on. I told Miller Newton the city would not approve of a millionaire touching an underage kid for free. Can you believe it? Miller Newton did all this. He picked me off the street, strapped my arms and legs down in the Straight-mobile's passenger seat, and just wouldn't stop fondling my cock'n'balls. They definitely were red flag touches. The goddamn referee he had in the back seat kept on raising up this red flag every time he touched my junk but did "Dr." Newton care? NO WAY! He just kept on doing it. I couldn't believe what the fuck was going on, indeed. I pleaded with Miller Newton but to no avail. I told him the city would not approve of such a wealthy man touching an underage kid like me (at the time I was 13) without at least compensating me for the trauma and the use of my body as his own personal plaything. This got to him, worrying about his image. He continued to fondle me, all the while ignoring the referee's red flags. Then he drove the Straight-mobile to my house and ejected the seat I was in! It was amazing. But surprisingly, after I woke up the next morning, my bank account had $150k in it!!! Can you believe it?...

Obama Drug Czar Pick: No Recovery from War on Drugs?

blog@nunya.com (Nunya) — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 04:36:00 PST

Posted by: Nunya - By: Maia Szalavitz On paper, Jim Ramstad -- who is rumored to be Obama's choice for drug czar -- looks like the ideal man for the job . He's a recovering alcoholic himself and a Congressman who championed legislation recently passed to provide equal insurance coverage for addictions and other mental illnesses. To top it off, he's a Republican, giving Obama what looks like a relatively harmless way to make his cabinet more bipartisan. Choosing Ramstad would appear to make a powerful statement about addiction as a medical, not a moral issue. Unfortunately, Ramstad may be a drug warrior in recovering person's clothing. There is one issue that has consistently separated those who put science and saving lives in front of politics. That is needle exchange programs for addicts to prevent the spread of HIV and other blood borne illnesses....

How did the marijuana gateway myth get started?

blog@nunya.com (Nunya) — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 04:00:00 PST

Posted by: Nunya - First, there is no drug that will magically give you a craving for other drugs you have never had. That is a belief in witchcraft, not science. Hemp was George Washington's primary crop, and a secondary crop for Thomas Jefferson, so hemp has been around in America for a long time, without apparently causing much destruction in society. Each sailing ship carried several tons of hemp in its rope and sails, so cultivation of hemp was a major industry. Even though cannabis was widely grown, there were no allegations that it led to harder drugs. In 1910, they believed that the certain steppingstone to opiate addiction was "eating Mexicanized food". The fundamental idea comes from America's puritanical history. It is the idea that pleasure is sinful, and small pleasures lead to cravings for larger pleasures. In this example, those who crave spicy food will inevitably crave larger pleasures, such as opium....

A different approach to helping troubled teens - mentoring

blog@nunya.com (Nunya) — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 09:34:00 PST

Posted by: Nunya - Mentors work to help troubled teens By CLAUDIA ROWE P-I REPORTER One girl, at 17, is already a mother of two and charged with prostitution. Life so far, to hear her tell it, would be unbelievable to most people. Another youth, 18-year-old Carlos Bernardez, faced a weapons possession case and says his main goal now is to become a better father to his daughter while finding a way to earn money -- legally. Both teens present such an array of challenges that any number of caseworkers might immediately give up. But a small, quiet battalion of adults is determined to mentor them over these hurdles, along with hundreds of other youths in King County. Mentors, trained professionals or dedicated volunteers, stay-at-home moms or ex-gang members, appear to be among the least expensive, most effective means of stemming a tide of youth crime and gang violence that is beginning to make funeral attendance de rigueur for hundreds of young people. In the past year, six teenagers have been killed in gang-related shootings in and around Seattle. And the list of court-referred kids awaiting mentors is growing -- far longer than the roster of those who have signed up to serve. "We're just trying to do everything we can to address this and make a difference for our young people, because they're losing ground," said Hazel Cameron, a committee chairwoman with Washington State Mentors and executive director of the 4C Mentoring Coalition in Seattle....

The Drug War in 100 Seconds

blog@nunya.com (Nunya) — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 08:32:00 PST

Posted by: Nunya - ...

Law Enforcement: This Week's Corrupt Cops Stories

blog@nunya.com (Nunya) — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 07:38:00 PST

Posted by: Nunya - http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/561/police_drug_corruption A trio of bad apples from Arizona, including a DARE officer with a penchant for sexual assault, made the news this week, while the city of Berwyn, Illinois, found itself in a bit of hot water over the way it used asset forfeiture funds. Let's get to it: In Nogales, Arizona, a former Nogales DARE officer was convicted last Friday on numerous charges related to unwanted sexual contact with young women. Ramon Borbon, 40, was convicted of sexual abuse and obstructing a criminal investigation in the case of a 16-year-old girl whom he forced to touch him inappropriately and threatened to stop her from going to authorities. He was also convicted of sexual assault and kidnapping charges in the case of a 19-year-old woman for restraining and raping her. He was in uniform during both incidents. In a motion ruling during trial, Santa Cruz County Superior Court Judge James Soto wrote that Borbon has "a character trait which gives rise to an aberrant sexual propensity" and that he appeared to have "identified young, vulnerable females with a history of psychological and/or substance abuse problems that are less likely to come forward and if they do, are less likely to be considered credible." There are also at least four other complaints of sexual abuse against Borbon. The police department had earlier found them to be "without merit." He will be sentenced December 12....

The Truth about Marijuana?

blog@nunya.com (Nunya) — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 07:34:00 PST

Posted by: Nunya - Hey kids, stop and think for a minute. The above video is the U.S. Government's official thinking about marijuana. Even if you haven't tried cannabis, you know what a silly piece of crap that video is. So my question is this: If the government is telling insane lies like that to you, what else do you think they are lying about? ... Are they telling you the truth about anything? Source: http://www.matrixmasters.com/blog/2008/11/hillarious-attempt-to-demonize.html...

Beneath The Radar: Rock's Greatest Secret Bands

blog@nunya.com (Nunya) — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 05:32:00 PST

Posted by: Nunya - Interesting, with great links on page: http://www.jericsmith.com/secretbands.htm...

Rockin' The Stove with Chef Shirl� - Apple Crisp

blog@nunya.com (Nunya) — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 11:51:00 PST

Posted by: Nunya - ...

Scott Greening Dependency Center in Joplin, MO

blog@nunya.com (Nunya) — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 11:37:00 PST

Posted by: Nunya - Ex-Supervisor at Teen Rehab Center Allegedly Raped Patient Friday, November 21, 2008 JOPLIN, Mo. -- A woman who briefly supervised teens at a southwest Missouri drug and alcohol treatment center is charged with statutory rape for allegedly having sex with a 16-year-old boy at the center. Police say they're investigating similar allegations concerning Jana Carter, 45, and three other teens who lived at the male-only dormitory at Scott Greening Dependency Center in Joplin. Two of the boys are 16 and the third is 14. No charges had been filed in those allegations as of Friday. A probable cause statement filed in Jasper County Circuit Court alleges that Carter had consensual sexual contact with the 16-year-old at least twice last month at the center. Their alleged encounters occurred while Carter, a residential supervisor at the time, was working her shift....

Changing times close children's home (MI)

blog@nunya.com (Nunya) — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 11:36:00 PST

Posted by: Nunya - Saturday, November 1, 2008 Grosse Pointe Woods Changing times close children's home State treatment policy shifts, tough economy too much for facility that dates to 1836. Karen Bouffard / The Detroit News GROSSE POINTE WOODS -- A Grosse Pointe Woods children's home that has provided treatment for troubled children for 172 years will be shuttered at the end of November, a result of the state's shifting priorities for residential treatment of children and the economy. The board of trustees of the Children's Home of Detroit voted Thursday to shutter the facility, which houses 5-to-17-year-olds in cottages on a 13-acre country-like campus. The home can house about 90 children; it has 28 children in residence, said Executive Director William Steele. The state is placing fewer children in residential treatment settings partly because of the settlement of a lawsuit brought by the New York City-based child advocacy group Children's Rights. The group sued Michigan over poor treatment of children in foster care that resulted in several deaths....

Boot Camp Nurse Criticized - Gives Up State License (FL)

blog@nunya.com (Nunya) — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 11:35:00 PST

Posted by: Nunya - Kristen Schmidt, the former Bay County Juvenile Boot Camp nurse at the center of the Martin Lee Anderson case, will no longer be able to practice in the state of Florida. She's voluntarily relinquished her nursing license to State Board of Nursing. The board filed the final order with the Florida Department of Health Tuesday afternoon. Schmidt was a central figure in the death of 14-year-old Martin Lee Anderson at the Bay County Juvenile Boot Camp on January 5th, 2006. Schmidt was the nurse on-duty that day, which was Anderson's first day at the facility. Anderson collapsed during a physical assessment run in the recreation yard. At first drill instructors believed Anderson was faking illness to get out of running. For 20-minutes they tried to get him back on his feet. But during the process, the drill instructors used some arm strikes and take-downs, as well as ammonia capsules to revive the teenager....

Pendleton Academies may face closure

blog@nunya.com (Nunya) — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 07:22:00 PST

Posted by: Nunya - ODHS plans to revoke facility's certificate The East Oregonian The Oregon Department of Human Services-Addictions and Mental Health Division (AMH) on Tuesday notified the Pendleton Academies' board of directors of their intention to revoke the treatment facility's certificate of approval to operate as a provider of psychiatric residential treatment services and psychiatric day treatment services for children. On Aug. 20, AMH placed conditions on Pendleton Academies' certificate of approval to operate. At that time, the board appointed Interim Executive Director Terry Edvalson, who has been working with Pendleton Academies' staff to meet the standards required by AMH. Since then, Pendleton Academies has continued to care for clients, but has not been permitted to admit new clients to the program. As recently as late October, AMH indicated they would lift the restrictions on Pendleton Academies and allow the admission of new clients, according to a statement released by the Pendleton Academies board Tuesday afternoon. Given Pendleton Academies' efforts and progress in meeting AMH requirements, said the news release, Edvalson and the board were surprised by AMH's most recent action, the statement said. The board plans to investigate its appeal rights and will be meeting again this Friday when more information is available, according to the statement. http://www.eastoregonian.info/main.asp?SectionID=13&SubSectionID=48&ArticleID=85475&TM=58775.37...

A Call to Revise or Reject HR 6358, the �Stop Child Abuse in Residential Programs Act of 2008�

blog@nunya.com (Nunya) — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 06:34:00 PST

Posted by: Nunya - To: United States House of Representatives, United States Senate, and President of the United States We, the undersigned, call on Congress and the President of the United States to revise or reject HR 6358, the "Stop Child Abuse in Residential Programs Act of 2008". There are a number of problems with the legislation as it is now written. HR 6358 fails to include: *Regulation of the referral and transport (hired kidnapping) industry *Regulation of "faith-based" programs such as Bethel Boys Academy and Hephzibah House *A federal ban on off-shore programs *A federal rule banning psychological torture and unethical, experimental behavior modification methods in residential teen programs *Additional civil and criminal remedies for victims (i.e. extending statute of limitations)...

Stop unregulated behavioral modification programs

blog@nunya.com (Nunya) — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 06:30:00 PST

Posted by: Nunya - This petition calls on federal and state governments to increase oversight and regulation of behavioral modification programs that advertise themselves as drug rehabilatation centers but are actually private juvenile and adult detention centers many of which are poorly monitored and regulated by outside governmental authorities to insure the humane and fair treatment of youth and young adults....