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Scientology and Drugs - Attitudes and Rules

2009-11-11T15:08:00Z

Eric asked: I know Scientology opposes the drugging of society, but I am unclear as to precisely what extent it stands in opposition to drug consumption, i.e. absolute opposition vs. nuanced opposition.

What, if anything, does Scientology have to say, for example, about "moderate" caffeine and/or alcohol consumption? Are Scientologists discouraged from drinking beer and caffeinated soda?

Hey Eric,

Great question.

The Church does its utmost to not interfere in people's lives. So there are no rules about what you can and can't do regarding drugs - other than the usual laws of the land.

It has been found that certain drugs affect Scientology Auditing, so there are rules about how long you have to wait after (for example) drinking a beer or taking a painkiller before you can get auditing.

The church policy about physical illness is that you should go to a competent practitioner in that field: e.g., an MD, a chiropractor, a nutritionist, etc. At that point it's up to the practitioner.

As to attitudes of Scientologists to drugs, there are some survey results here: Use Of Drugs/Alcohol.

The following data on attitudes to drugs is from my own experience and observations.

Illegal drugs: They are illegal, so we don't touch them.

Legal drugs that have been proven to be safe: if you need a drug because of a medical situation and it has been prescribed by a competent practitioner then you should take it. Ditto for over-the-counter stuff.

Scientologists are individuals. Most that I know are very careful about drugs and we have workable alternatives to them. For example, I'd say a Scientologist was less likely to take a painkiller for the pain from an injury than your average Joe, because we have alternative, very workable methods of handling pain (See Scientology Assists). But if you need a medical drug and it's the usual thing to take then you take it.

Here is an example: a friend of mine had a burst appendix. It was pretty severe and she needed a major operation to handle the peritonitis caused by it (she still has a 6 inch scar from this operation). After the operation she was put on Vicodin for the post-op pain - a powerful and potentially addictive painkiller. As soon as I could, I gave her a course of Scientology Assists and next day she didn't need the Vicodin anymore, she was able to go down to aspirin. After some more assists she didn't need any drugs at all.

Legal drugs that have been proven to be dangerous and to cause harm but are still on the market because the drug manufacturer makes billions from them: We are opposed to these. We don't take them. Examples of this sort of drug: Psychiatric Drug Side Effects Search Engine.

Other miscellaneous drugs such as alcohol, caffeine, tobacco, etc.: Some drugs can get in the way of Scientology Auditing. For example, you can't get auditing within 24 hours of drinking alcohol because it has been found that it will interfere with your spiritual progress. Same goes for some other drugs such as aspirin. So there is no restriction on you having a beer, just that you can't get auditing for 24 hours afterwards.

I've never seen anything regarding most other "minor" drugs such as caffeine or tobacco, it's personal choice.

My own personal preference is to stay away from any kind of drug as much as possible. If I have a physical problem then I'll first try something natural, if it doesn't work then I'll try something stronger, but I'll try to apply the Scientology principle of gradients. E.g., If I had a nasty systemic virus such as Chronic EBV, then maybe I'd start with dioxychlor, if it didn't handle it I'd move on to something stronger and more medical like doxycycline and if that didn't work then acyclovir (BTW: that's an actual example I know of). Of course, all this would be done under the guidance of a competent practitioner, the Church would not be involved in this sort of medical treatment in any way.

I hope that answers your question.

Schweinegrippe Impfung: Nebenwirkungen von Pandemrix

2009-11-11T19:48:56Z

Nebenwirkungen von Pandemrix:

Sehr häufig (mehr als einer von zehn):
Kopfschmerzen, schmerzende Muskeln und Gelenke, Müdigkeit, Schmerzen und Schwellung sowie Rötung an der Injektionsstelle.

Häufig (zwischen einem und zehn von hundert):
vergrößerte Lymphknoten, Schüttelfrost, grippeähnliche Erkrankung, vermehrtes Schwitzen, Reaktionen an der Injektionsstelle.

Gelegentlich (zwischen einem und zehn von tausend):
Schlaflosigkeit, Schwindel, Taubheitsgefühl, extreme Müdigkeit, Verdauungsstörungen, Magen- und Darmprobleme, Erbrechen und Übelkeit, Juckreiz, Hautausschlag, generalisierte Hautreaktionen.
Selten (zwischen einem und zehn von zehntausend):
Krampfanfälle, Nervenschmerzen, vorübergehender Mangel an Blutplättchen, allergische Reaktionen.

Sehr selten (weniger als einer von zehntausend):
Vaskulitis mit vorübergehender renaler Beteiligung. Neurologische Erkrankungen, Guillain-Barré-Syndrom und Nervenentzündung.

Quelle: Europäische Arzneimittel-Agentur laut Expressen, 21.10.2009

Posted in Blogroll Tagged: Impfung, Nebenwirkungen, Pandemrix, Schweinegrippe Impfung

Scientology Volunteer Ministers Help Philippines Recover from Crushing Typhoon Season

2009-11-11T05:38:40Z

Scientology Volunteer Ministers bring spiritual first-aid to Filipinos devastated by this year’s typhoons that left tens of thousands homeless. Scientology Volunteer Ministers from the Church of Scientology Mission of Manila responded with help throughout this year’s devastating typhoon season. Four deadly typhoons in a two-month period, the last hitting only last week, have caused damage to [...]

Spiritual Counseling in Scientology: Auditing

2009-11-10T18:07:49Z

What is auditing?

Auditing is the term given to the spiritual counseling which is the central practice of Dianetics and Scientology. It is delivered by an auditor (from the Latin word audire, meaning to listen)—a person trained and expert in the exact techniques of Dianetics and Scientology.

The goal of auditing is to restore individual ability. It is a precise, thoroughly codified activity with precise procedures.

An auditor uses exact sets of questions asked to help a person find out things about himself and improve his condition. An unlimited number of questions could, of course, be asked—which might or might not help a person. The accomplishment in Dianetics and Scientology is that L. Ron Hubbard isolated the precise questions and directions to invariably improve a person’s ability and remove the impediments to his or her spiritual growth.

An auditor does not engage in some vague form of mental exploration, nor does an auditor offer solutions, advice or evaluation. One of the fundamental principles of the Scientology religion is that an individual can improve his conditions only if he is allowed to find his own answers to life’s problems. Scientology auditors help individuals to accomplish this goal by guiding them to examine their existence through a carefully structured series of steps that Mr. Hubbard developed. By following this gradient process, individuals can improve their ability to face what they are and where they are.

Cheap Marketing

2009-11-11T10:52:19Z

People would never buy a $2000 used car thinking they were getting something "just as good as a new Lexus."

They'd never buy a $25 clock radio at Wal-Mart thinking they were getting the equal of a $15,000 Bang & Olufsen system.

No one would spend $150 on a painting made in China, figuring it was the investment equivalent of an original Picasso.

What's my point? People do this sort of thing every day in purchasing websites.

Websites built on $50 templates, $39.95 off-the-shelf Content Management Systems, made in India for $395, or with do-it-yourself programs are NOT the equal of a custom designed, professionally built website. Not for the search engines and not for the visitor experience.

So why do people do it? I believe this is the fault of marketers themselves.

Most businessmen have spent big bucks repeatedly for websites (or other marketing services) that were going to be the greatest thing since sliced bread and instead turned out to be more like moldy crusts. A big disappointment to say the least. Under-performers, delivered late and over-budget.

Marketing companies for decades have carefully explained to their clients that there is no way to measure the effectiveness of what they do.

Is it any wonder that people rebel? If you're going to waste money, it might as well be a small amount. Maybe you'll get lucky. Is it any wonder, given the abysmal track record of most marketers, that people take action into their own hands? They can't do any worse!

I'm not actually trying to convince you NOT to purchase our services.

There IS such as thing as PROFESSIONAL marketing.

The problem is telling when you've found it.

Unlike most industries, there's no easy simple way to tell.

If you go to a Lexus dealer, and buy a vehicle with 0 miles on the odometer, with Lexus on the nameplate, you know you are going to be getting a reliable, well-engineered prestige car.

If you buy World Series tickets from Ticketmaster, you know you won't be turned away at the ballpark because your tickets are fake.

This is a problem peculiar to service professions. How do you know if a lawyer is a good one? An accountant or a financial adviser.

Oh yeah, most financial advisers turned out to be incompetent.

Do what you have to, to establish you are dealing with competent, professional marketers.

THERE IS SUCH A THING AS PROFESSIONAL MARKETING.

IT DOES MAKE A DIFFERENCE.

Jog tárcsa

2009-11-11T10:02:45Z

Amíg a csapatok átverekedik magukat az adminisztráción megosztom veletek, a sokaknak fejtörést okozó Jog* tárcsát.

04:15-től kb. 2 perc a lényeg

*Joke helyett Jog, köszi Teodora!

Wasting Money

2009-11-10T13:01:02Z

I've repeatedly commented on the differences between marketing for large and small companies.

Here's one: large corporations can afford to waste millions of dollars on a failed marketing campaign. They can even deliberately launch, and promote with tens of millions of dollars, a new product with the intention of it failing. Sergio Zyman, formerly head of marketing for Coke, famous claims they did that with Tab Clear.

Small businessmen need their marketing to work. Every dollar is precious. More importantly, the business that doesn't materialize when a marketing campaign fails, can be the difference between life and death for a company, or between prosperity and hanging on by a thread.

Most marketing vendors DON'T deliver, or succeed only intermittently. They survive, even flourish based on a few notable successes, or on smoke and mirrors.

Is it any wonder that small businessmen are chronically frustrated and suspicious at any marketing company or scheme that comes their way?

And yet, you keep trying, don't you.

Because one thing successful small businessmen know: There is no choice. You HAVE to market.

And of course, that is why this blog (and my upcoming book), is called "Market or Die".

New Church of Scientology Grand Opening in Washington DC

2009-11-10T03:44:54Z

Thousands attended the dedication and opening of the new home of the Founding Church of Scientology in Washington, DC. Scientology ecclesiastical leader Mr. David Miscavige presided and public officials praised the Church of Scientology for their work in human rights, criminal reform, anti-drug and disaster relief efforts. Washington, DC - On Saturday, October 31, the Founding Church of Scientology...

Niki Lanik Races for Human Rights

2009-09-10T00:47:57Z

Recognized at the 6th Annual Youth for Human Rights Summit in Geneva last week, race car driver Niki Lanik explains why he promotes human rights to racing enthusiasts. Austrian-born race car driver Niki Lanik, 22, uses his sport to champion human rights. Recognized with a Human Rights Advocate Award last week at the 6th Annual Human Rights Summit in Geneva, Switzerland, Lanik has been an advocate...

New Church of Scientology Grand Opening in Washington, D.C.

2009-11-10T04:46:35Z

Three thousand Scientologists and guests attended the dedication and opening of the new Founding Church of Scientology of Washington, DC, October 31, 2009. The ribbon was pulled by Mr. David Miscavige, Chairman of the Board of Religious Technology Center and ecclesiastical leader of the Scientology religion, and other distinguished guest speakers. Thousands attended the dedication [...]

Church of Scientology Grand Opening in Washington, DC

2009-11-10T03:10:50Z

On Saturday, October 31, the Founding Church of Scientology of Washington, DC, opened its new premises six blocks from the White House and minutes from Capitol Mall. Attended by nearly 3,000 Scientologists and guests, the Church was dedicated by Mr. David Miscavige, Chairman of the Board of Religious Technology Center and ecclesiastical leader of the Scientology religion.

The building, over 49,000 square feet, represents the Church of Scientology’s largest presence ever in the nation’s capital, a presence that dates back to the 1955 establishment of the Founding Church of Scientology in the District by Scientology Founder L. Ron Hubbard — an occasion considered a milestone in the establishment of Scientology as the only major religion founded in the 20th century, a religion that has since become the fastest-growing religion in the world.

Mr. Miscavige and other speakers gave special praise to the millions of Scientologists the world over who have given of their time and effort to make the Church’s anti-drug education initiative the largest non-governmental program of its kind and the Church’s human rights education program the largest on earth. They also praised the work of over 195,000 registered Scientology Volunteer Ministers trained to respond in times of disaster.

In expressing the importance of a prominent Scientology Church in the nation’s capitol Mr. Miscavige stated:

“In a word, this Church is the sum total of all our history and all LRH envisioned when serving as our first Executive Director.

“This is also the kind of Church he envisioned when authoring our programs and campaigns — in anticipation of a day when turmoil knocks out the props and the whole social veneer collapses…

“Which, of course, is exactly what happened — and thus what prompted our Wake-up Call after 9/11…wherein our history intersects with the history of this nation.”

Yet the significance of a major Church of Scientology in Washington, DC, runs much deeper as Mr. Miscavige made clear:

“You are looking at a living embodiment of the freedom and equality that originally inspired this nation because, yes, this Church stands for life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. And, yes, it stands here today because of the freedom on which this nation was built — the freedom of religion. For it was here, in this nation’s capital, that we fought for and won our recognition.”

And in the words of Congressman Brad Sherman of California’s 27th District in his address to the gathering:

“I have worked diligently and continuously to express my views, and I believe the views of the entire Congress, that all countries should treat all religions equally and provide true freedom of religion for everyone.”

Congressman Sherman praised the Church’s efforts in raising awareness of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and stated that the battle for human rights includes bringing human rights awareness to all people.

“That is why the efforts of many churches and religious organizations to focus on human rights issues are so important.”

Others speaking and participating in the dedication of the new Scientology Church were Ms. Addie Richburg, President and Chairman of the Board of the National Alliance of Faith and Justice; Ms. Diane Rothe-Smith, Executive Director of the National Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster (NVOAD); and Mr. Mike Silverstein, President of the Dupont Circle Advisory Neighborhood Association who also represented District of Columbia Mayor Adrian M. Fenty.

Rev. Sylvia Stanard, Director of Public Affairs for the Founding Church, invited all inside to tour the new Church, which includes numerous multimedia presentations in its Public Information Center, describing fundamentals of the Scientology religion, the Church’s worldwide humanitarian and social betterment programs, and the life and legacy of L. Ron Hubbard. As in any Church of Scientology, the doors are always open for people to walk in and find out for themselves.

Washington, DC, played a pivotal role in the life of the Founder of the Scientology religion. At age 13, as America’s youngest Eagle Scout, L. Ron Hubbard traveled cross-country to meet President Calvin Coolidge. As a student at George Washington University in the early 1930s, Mr. Hubbard learned the scientific methodology he later applied to unlocking the riddle of the human mind and life. After World War II, he tested Dianetics techniques on numerous cases at Saint Elizabeth’s Hospital and wrote the first manuscript of his discoveries in Dianetics: The Original Thesis. In 1955, he established the Founding Church and became its Executive Director.

The Founding Church of Scientology of Washington, DC, represents a milestone for the Scientology religion, which comprises more than 8,000 Churches, Missions and groups in 165 nations. As part of the continuing program to meet the demand for Scientology services, new Churches have been established in Berlin, Johannesburg, London, Madrid, New York and San Francisco. Earlier this year, new Churches opened in Malmo, Sweden; Dallas, Texas; Nashville, Tennessee and, on October 24, in Rome — five new landmark Scientology Churches opened newly in the last six months.

Does My Website Need a Static, Dedicated IP Address? Really?

2009-11-10T01:42:04Z

Chuck of Chuck St. John Photography asked me the following question by email:

“I don’t seem to have a static IP. When I did your test, and used the IP # given, It did not take me to my web page but the to hosting
companies’ web page ”

My answer was:

“Yeah, that happens a lot. It means your website has a ‘dynamic, shared IP address’ which saves the web hosting company a ton of money.”

Chuck is talking about the process of figuring out whether your website has its own static, dedicated IP address. The way you can know this is to open up a command prompt (the good old DOS prompt), and typing in the following:

ping www.mywebsite.com
(inserting your real website name there.)

Let’s try it for this website, www.jmblog.com:

ping www.jmblog.com

The result will be a reply an IP address.

In this case, that IP address is 65.38.173.51.

If you take that IP address and copy it into your browser window, it will return my website, www.jmblog.com. That means that my site has its own, static, dedicated IP address. It doesn’t change. It’s been at the same IP address for about 5 or 6 years now.

The following is a gross oversimplification, but it will give you the idea:

I host about 50 clients on my dedicated server. Each website on my server is set up with a static, dedicated IP address. It’s better for search engine rankings. It helps a litle bit at Google to have a dedicated, static IP address. (Bruce Clay has proven this definitely — and I trust Bruce’s data above what Google says, which is that it doesn’t matter. It does matter.) That’s why I offer static IP addresses to my SEO and web design clients when I wind up hosting them.

But it costs me about a dollar per IP address per month.

Most web servers are set up to handle 2000 or more websites. (Remember, this is a GROSS oversimplification I’m giving here.) As I understand it, most of those websites are sitting idle most of the time, with no one visiting them (sad but true). But when someone does visit them, a normal server will dynamically assign an IP address from a small pool of IP addresses, and so for the duration of the visit (someone looking at the site in his browser) the site is assigned an IP address from the pool. When that session is over, a visitor to a different website hosted on that server will be given the exact same IP address from the pool. So the IP address is dynamic (happens whenever there’s a request) and it’s shared, and its somewhat random. A server can handle 2000 websites or more, while using less than 100 IP addresses, most of the time. So that’s what most web hosting companies do. (There are lots of exceptions to this, but you get the idea.)

Your website could be sharing IP addresses with known spammers, with porn sites, or with drug or gambling sites, and you’d never know. But Google will know.

And since IP addresses are in a dwindling supply (they are talking about implenting a new six-number IP address scheme in the next few years after we run completely out of IP addresses using four numbers), the cost of them is going up and it’s hard to get any more. I can’t get any more IP addresses from the company where I lease my dedicated server; they won’t sell them to me because they need them to set up new servers.

However, there’s usually a back-door kind of way to get an IP address from your current web hosting company. Just buy a security certificate for your website. Tell them you’re going to be setting up a shopping cart and need a secure server and your own security certificate. When they sell you a security cert, it has to be assigned to JUST ONE IP address. So you’ll end up with a static, dedicated IP address for your website when you buy a security certificate.

Which helps a little bit with your Google ranking. Not a lot, but some.

To prove it to yourself, do this little test. It won’t take 10 minutes:

Go check the websites ranking in the top 10 at Google for your keywords and see how many of them have their own static, dedicated IP address. Then go to page 10 of the Google search results for that same keyword and see how many websites have their own static, dedicated IP addresses. Whenever I’ve done this, it’s shown a distinct lack of static IP addresses for those on page 10, and an abundance of static IP addresses on page 1 of the Google SERPs.

Is it a causal relationship? Or Coincidence? Sites that rank well tend to be selling something, which means they have a security cert, which means they have a static, dedicated IP address. And they tend to be better optimized, more focused, have better content, and so on — in other words they have been actively driven to the first page of Google search results by someone like me.

Either way, it still relates: sites with a static, dedicated IP address tend to do better in the Google search results.

Is having a dedicated, static IP address as important as having tons of relevant content? Not even remotely. It is as important as having tons of links to your site from relevant web pages that also have their own PageRank? Nope.

It’s just barely important enough that we make it a requirement for our SEO clients to have a static, dedicated IP address. And we’ll help them get one, one way or another. It’s usually easy.

If your content is sparse and stale and you have few links to your site, which by the way is built entirely with Flash, then don’t sweat the fact that you’ve got a dynamic IP address. You’ve got MUCH bigger problems to worry about.

But if you’re duking it out on page 1 of the Google search results for your main keyword, and you can’t seem to make it up past the 4th position, getting your site a static IP address may just boost your site that last little bit to get you to position 3. There are dozens of minor points, each of which may help. Having a static IP address is just one of them.

I use a proprietary checklist of about 60 points that we know make a difference to Google, based on our experience doing search engine optimization for more than a decade. We were doing this back before they were trying to figure out what to call it and eventually settled on “SEO” and “SEM”.

Many points of SEO technique have come and gone from that checklist over the years. Meta keywords tags, invisible text, stuffing keywords in table summary tags, stuffing keywords in comment tags, reciprocal link directories, etc., have gone the way of the dinosaurs.

We give away free consultations where we try to give you one concrete thing that you can do to make your site rank better in the Google search results; no one will twist your arm to buy our SEO audit services but if you want to know what your site needs to rank well, feel free to contact me.

La caduta del muro e dell’ipocrisia

2009-11-09T22:52:47Z

PENSIERI IN-BARAZZATI

Vent’anni fa cadeva il muro di Berlino.

Mi pare ieri…

Una nazione costretta ad innalzare muri per impedire ai suoi stessi cittadini di fuggire, dovrebbe far capire a tutti quanto sia radicato l’istinto di Libertà nella natura umana.

Eppure in Italia c’è ancora chi vorrebbe rifondare il comunismo a tutela delle classi proletarie.

Meriterebbero veramente di vivere come operai in un paese comunista!

Warning

2009-11-09T12:40:19Z

(Parte 1) La Iglesia de Cienciologia responde al Juicio en Francia

2009-11-08T15:37:00Z

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Your Bottom Line

2009-11-08T11:15:18Z

I've commented on the difficulty of surveying for pricing. One reason for that is pricing is not an absolute.

The only measure of value for a product or service is what someone is willing to pay for it. If you can change that, you can charge more.

It is one of the major jobs of marketing (and PR) to make people willing to spend more money for the same product or service.

Why do people pay $100 for a pair of designer jeans? Is the fabric so much better than a $20 pair you buy in Wal-Mart?

Why do flacks (Publicists) work their tails off to get your book on Oprah or Madonna to wear your hats? It isn't just the exposure. People will pay more for a product endorsed or used by a celebrity.

The easiest way to increase your bottom line is to raise your prices without reducing your sales volume.

"Easy?" you say. "We're in a recession!"

So What.

Get clever.

In almost every industry and business, there are opportunities being missed to enhance the value of products and services in the eyes of the prospective buyer.

Think about it.

Day 77 | Waiting in the car with Mackenzie while mom shops @ Target

2009-11-07T23:47:06Z

Day 77 | Waiting in the car with Mackenzie while mom shops @ Target, originally uploaded by Tad Reeves.

Mom needed to run into Target to get a few things while I stayed in the car with Mackenzie. And what else to do while she’s giggling away than to snap pictures with the iPhone! Too bad I don’t have video on this thing, though, as her sounds were just choice.

Scientology Lotus Flower Mission Opens in Hualien, Taiwan

2009-11-07T02:19:12Z

The new Church of Scientology Lotus Flower Mission of Hualien brings spiritual guidance to the people of eastern Taiwan. The Church of Scientology Lotus Flower Mission has opened its doors bringing the qualities the lotus flower symbolizes to the people of Hualien—the awakening of spiritual reality, harmony, and abundance. Traditional dancers welcomed the congregation and their guests [...]

We call upon the NHS to stop promoting harmful psychotropic drugs for children

2009-11-07T17:42:00Z

The NHS react to the fact that their leaflets, that promote Atomoxetine (brand name "Strattera"), Olanzapine (brand name "Zyprexa") and Risperidone to children, are being publicly displayed.

About a year ago, I came across a series of NHS-produced leaflets which encourage children to take certain psychiatric drugs, the safety of which has not been studied on children. Disgusted, I blogged about the situation here.

A few months later, the Bonkers Institute for Nearly Genuine Research, a group that campaigns against psychiatry and psychiatric drugs, found my blog post and left a comment as follows:

We've added these NHS leaflets to our Marvelous Mental Medicine Show's "Kid Stuff" page:
www.bonkersinstitute.org/medshow/kidstuff.html

We're always looking for similar items to include in the Institute's Medicine Show, so please drop us a line if you come across anything else which might be of interest to us.

Best regards,
Ben Hansen
Special Assistant to Dr. M.I. Bonkers, M.D.
Institute for Nearly Genuine Research
www.bonkersinstitute.org

Then, a few days ago, the Institute for Nearly Genuine Research received an e-mail from Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust, as follows:

Central and North West London NHS Trust email correspondence
regarding NHS children's leaflets posted at bonkersinstitute.org

From: Eccles Sue (Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust) sue.eccles@nhs.net
To: methodius@bonkersinstitute.org
Date: Mon, Nov 2, 2009 at 11:53 AM
Subject: Our Patient Information Leaflets

I have been informed that you are using our leaflets on your web-site. Whilst I think your intention is to draw attention to the material which is available for patients and their parents/carers (I have read your end-piece about copyright) you have nevertheless uploaded the whole text of our leaflet. Could I please request that you amend the site so that it is no longer possible to access the whole leaflet -- the front page and our contact details would be appropriate. I'm sure you appreciate that the only way that we will be able to produce more materials for patient benefit is by recouping the cost from other organisations which want to use them -- our objective is provide written materials to support the verbal counselling given by healthcare professionals -- they are not meant to stand alone as sources of information. We charge a reasonable fee for full access to all the children's leaflets and so it not in our interest, or necessarily, patients and parents to have access to them on your website without the professional support intended.

I hope this explanation makes sense to you and that you will amend your site quickly. I would appreciate your response and compliance with this request as soon as possible.

Sue Eccles
Deputy Chief Pharmacist
Central and North West London NHS Trust
Greater London House
Hampstead Road
LONDON
NW1 7QY
Tel. 020 3214 5898

Dr. Bonkers responds:

We posted the NHS leaflets to stimulate public scrutiny of your agency. We call upon the NHS to stop promoting harmful psychotropic drugs for children. In a spirit of full disclosure and transparency, we have now posted your letter as well.

http://www.bonkersinstitute.org/medshow/olanzapeen.html

Psychiatry is to medicine what astrology is to astronomy. ~ Leonard Roy Frank
Bonkers Institute for Nearly Genuine Research www.bonkersinstitute.org

How do you feel about the NHS encouraging children to take medication that has not been tested for use by children?

Weekly Winners - We Seem to Have Inherited a Dog.

2009-11-07T17:09:00Z

Meet Lady, the world's laziest Australian Shepherd.

She is not, in fact, dead.

Just really, really tired.

Colin has been asking for a dog for two years, so he's pretty happy she's here. I think he'd like it more if she'd run around and get crazy with him. She seems exhausted - maybe later. It's a trial weekend, but I'm hoping she'll stay. We do have a cat-- one who hates dogs with a seething passion. But the dog could not care less about our cat, which is making it really hard for the cat to be bothered. They might work out just fine. So far, they share a favorite hobby - sleeping like the dead.

To see some beautiful photos from the lives of bloggers all over the world, check out Sarcastic Mom's Weekly Winners.