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Best of the Web: Has Drug-Driven Medicine Become A Form of Human Sacrifice?

Sayer Ji
GreenMedInfo
Thu, 29 Dec 2011 11:09 UTC
US Constitution
© GreenMedInfo
"Unless we put medical freedom into the Constitution the time will come when medicine will organize itself into an undercover dictatorship. To restrict the art of healing to doctors and deny equal privileges to others will constitute the Bastille of medical science. All such laws are un-American and despotic."

~ Attributed to Dr. Benjamin Rush,
Signer of the Declaration of Independence
Benjamin Rush accurately foretold a grave possibility facing Americans today, namely, that the art and science of healing be restricted to a select class of allopathic physicians, who have the sole legal right to recommend and administer medicines, and whose pharmacopeia excludes - as a matter of principle - all the healing foods, vitamins and herbs which have been used safely and effectively for countless millenia in the prevention and treatment of disease.

We have entered an era where medicine no longer bears any resemblance to the art and science of healing. The doctor no longer facilitates the body's innate self-healing capabilities with time, care, good nutrition and special help from our plant allies. To the contrary, medicine has transmogrified into a business enterprise founded on the inherently nihilistic principles of pure, unbridled capitalism, with an estimated 786,000 Americans dying annually from iatrogenic or medically-caused deaths.*
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Pills

Best of the Web: Are Psychiatrists Inventing Mental Illnesses to Feed Americans More Pills?

Rob Waters
AlterNet
Tue, 27 Dec 2011 23:22 UTC
prescription bottles
© n/a
Mental health professionals say new diagnoses will lead to overmedication.

Anyone who's ever tried to get reimbursed by a health insurance company after seeing a psychiatrist or psychotherapist, or taking a child or teenager to one, has no doubt noticed the incomprehensible numbers that appear on the clinician's statement, perhaps preceding some slightly less imponderable phrase.

Maybe you are a 296.22 (major depressive disorder, single episode, mild) or a 300.00 (anxiety disorder NOS - not otherwise specified). Hopefully, you are not a 301.83 (borderline personality disorder). Your kid might be a 313.81 (oppositional defiant disorder) or, more likely, a 314.01 (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, predominantly hyperactive-impulsive type).

Since 1952, a tome called the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, better known as the DSM, has been reducing to a few digits the psychological malady said to afflict a patient. This bible of mental health treatment, published by the American Psychiatric Association (APA), provides a list and description of every mental health condition known to - or invented by - psychiatry, from histrionic personality disorder (301.50) to transvestic fetishism (302.3).
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Dollar

Best of the Web: US: Government of the rich, by rich and for the rich

Patrick Martin
World Socialist Web Site
Wed, 28 Dec 2011 21:46 UTC
According to a study reported Tuesday, nearly half the members of the United States Congress are millionaires. Of the 535 legislators (100 members of the Senate and 435 members of the House of Representatives), at least 250 are millionaires and the median net worth is $913,000.

Sixty-seven senators are millionaires and the median wealth of the body's 100 members is $2.63 million.

While the Senate has long been known as a millionaires' club, the transformation of the House is a relatively recent phenomenon. The median net worth of members of the House of Representatives, excluding home equity, has more than doubled over the last 25 years, from $280,000 in 1984 to $725,000 in 2009 in inflation-adjusted dollars. During that same period, the median net worth of an American family fell from $20,600 to $20,500.

Both the Washington Post and the New York Times gave front-page treatment to the data, derived from figures collected by the Center for Responsive Politics. The articles reflect nervousness in the corporate-controlled media over the degree to which the rising personal wealth of members of Congress is discrediting the institution.
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Handcuffs

Best of the Web: FBI Says Activists Who Investigate Factory Farms Can Be Prosecuted as Terrorists

Will Potter
greenisthenewred.com
Tue, 20 Dec 2011 14:59 UTC
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© greenisthenewred.comThis recent investigation of a McDonald's egg supplier is an example of the type of activism the FBI calls terrorism.
The FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force has kept files on activists who expose animal welfare abuses on factory farms and recommended prosecuting them as terrorists, according to a new document uncovered through the Freedom of Information Act.

This new information comes as the Center for Constitutional Rights has filed a lawsuit challenging the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act (AETA) as unconstitutional because its vague wording has had a chilling effect on political activism. This document adds to the evidence demonstrating that the AETA goes far beyond property destruction, as its supporters claim.

The 2003 FBI file details the work of several animal rights activists who used undercover investigation to document repeated animal welfare violations. The FBI special agent who authored the report said they "illegally entered buildings owned by [redacted] Farm... and videotaped conditions of animals."
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Nuke

Best of the Web: Seals with Damaged Flippers and Hair Loss 'Are Being Killed by Radiation from Fukushima Plant', Biologists Warn

Chris Parsons
The Daily Mail, UK
Wed, 28 Dec 2011 12:10 UTC
injured seal
© North Slope Borough Dept of Wildlife ManagementHarmed: Seals like this one in Barrow, Alaska, have been found with bleeding lesions, damaged fur and flippers thought to have been caused by radiation from Fukushima, Japan.
  • Seals washed up with hair loss and bleeding lesions
  • 9.0-magnitude quake caused meltdown at Japanese plant in March
Scientists in Alaska are investigating whether seals are being killed by radiation from Japan's crippled Fukushima nuclear plant.

Scores of ring seals have washed up on Alaska's arctic coastline since July either injured or killed by a mysterious disease which biologists first thought was a virus.

But the bleeding lesions on the hind flippers, irritated skin around the nose and eyes and patchy hair loss on the seals' fur coats may have been caused by radiation from the stricken nuclear plant.
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Family

Best of the Web: Half of America In Poverty? The Facts Say It's True

Paul Buchheit
Information Clearing House
Tue, 27 Dec 2011 19:06 UTC
poverty in us
© n/a
Recent reports suggest that almost 50% of Americans are in poverty or at a "low income" level. The claim is based on a new supplemental measure by the Census Bureau that includes health care, transportation, and other essential living expenses in the poverty calculation.

The concept of "low income" is controversial. It has been defined as earnings between 100 and 199 percent of the poverty level, a claim which, if true, would place every American family making $50,000 or less at a near-poverty level.

Conservative organizations believe the whole 'poverty' issue is overblown. The Cato Institute blames LBJ and Obama for reversing a declining poverty rate. Forbes blames the calculations. The Heritage Foundation argues, "The average poor person, as defined by the government, has a living standard far higher than the public imagines...In the kitchen, the household had a refrigerator, an oven and stove, and a microwave." The case for a growing "consumption equality" is alternately defended and denied.

With emotions running high on both sides, we need to take a balanced look at the available data to determine how well the highest-earning family of the poorest 50% -- a family with a $50,000 income -- can survive. (The maximum individual income for the poorest 50% is about $30,000.)
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Stormtrooper

Best of the Web: US: 'I'm a cop, I can do whatever I want ' off-duty policeman shouts before 'executing guy in bar' over a game of darts


Daily Mail
Sun, 25 Dec 2011 06:19 UTC
Image
© Police HandoutDetained: Off-duty cop deputy Dayle Long, 42, allegedly shot Vanettes

Riverside County sheriff's deputy Dayle Long, 42, allegedly shot Samuel Vanettes, 36, three times leaving him to die on the floor of the bar in Murrieta, California.

An off-duty police officer has been charged with executing a man in a sports bar - after an argument over a game of darts.

Riverside County sheriff's deputy Dayle Long, 42, allegedly shot Samuel Vanettes, 36, three times, leaving him to die on the floor of the bar in Murrieta, California.

It is reported that Long, who had been drinking alone, struck up a conversation with Vanettes and his friends at Spelly's Bar and Grille before the shooting.

An altercation allegedly broke out after the police officer told one of the friends 'I'm better at darts than you are', Chris Hull, 39, told Patch.com.

'My buddy says, "Aw, you suck at darts". (The man) says, "That's why I'm a cop, I can do whatever I want to do".'

Hull said his friend asked; 'Really, you can do anything?'

The police officer then pulled out his gun, Hull claimed and after the group repeatedly asked him to put it away he 'pops three rounds into my friend Sam'.
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Che Guevara

Best of the Web: 2011 - Year of the Dupe

Tony Cartalucci
Land Destroyer Report
Sat, 24 Dec 2011 06:43 UTC
Image
A timeline & history: One year into the engineered "Arab Spring," one step closer to global hegemony
dupe (ˈdüp also ˈdyüp)
n.
1. An easily deceived person.
2. A person who functions as the tool of another person or power.
tr.v. duped, dup·ing, dupes To deceive (an unwary person).
December 24, 2011 - In January of 2011, we were told that "spontaneous," "indigenous" uprising had begun sweeping North Africa and the Middle East in what was hailed as the "Arab Spring." It would be almost four months before the corporate-media would admit that the US had been behind the uprisings and that they were anything but "spontaneous," or "indigenous." In an April 2011 article published by the New York Times titled, "U.S. Groups Helped Nurture Arab Uprisings," it was stated:
"A number of the groups and individuals directly involved in the revolts and reforms sweeping the region, including the April 6 Youth Movement in Egypt, the Bahrain Center for Human Rights and grass-roots activists like Entsar Qadhi, a youth leader in Yemen, received training and financing from groups like the International Republican Institute, the National Democratic Institute and Freedom House, a nonprofit human rights organization based in Washington."
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Dollar

Best of the Web: A Very Scary Christmas And An Incredibly Frightening New Year


Theeconomiccollapseblog.com
Sun, 25 Dec 2011 10:39 UTC
Image
© Unknown
Can you hear that? It almost sounds like a little bit of peace and quiet. This year, the holiday season has been fairly uneventful, and for that we should be very grateful. But it isn't going to last long. 2012 is going to be a much more difficult year for the U.S. economy and the global financial system than 2011 has been. So if things are going well for you right now, enjoy this little bubble of peace and tranquility while you can. Because while things may look calm on the surface right now, the truth is that this is a very scary Christmas for financial professionals and world leaders. Most of them know how fragile the global financial system is at the moment.

Most of them know that we are living in the greatest bubble of debt, leverage and financial risk that the world has ever seen. As I wrote about the other day, world leaders would not be throwing huge bailouts around like crazy if everything was going to be just fine. The truth is that we are rapidly approaching another financial crisis that may end up being even worse than the horrific crash of 2008.

Despite unprecedented efforts by the European Central Bank, the yield on 10 year Italian bonds is nearly up to 7 percent again.

Keep an eye on the yield on 10 year Italian bonds. That is going to be one of the most important financial numbers in the world in the coming months.
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Holly

Best of the Web: US: Just Say No to Christmas?

Judy Keen
USA Today
Fri, 23 Dec 2011 00:00 UTC
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© Denny Simmons/USA TodayGriffin Holland, with mom Sarah Stewart Holland, plays in his family's Paducah, Ky., home on Dec. 14. The family has scaled back on Christmas spending, and Griffin will get gifts stashed after his birthday celebration.
Susan Lee, a divorced mother of three in New York City, is taking a drastic step this year. "No Christmas for me," she says. "No gifts, no turkey, no tree, no kidding."

Lee, 41, a marketing consultant, says she needs a break from the stress and spending that are integral parts of the holiday. Her kids will celebrate a traditional Christmas with their dad, but she's ignoring all the rituals.

"I start dreading Christmas from the time the decorations go up in the stores," she says. "It stopped being fun for me, so I'll find out this year if I can do without it altogether. I think it will be a relief. It already is."

The holiday is in no danger of extinction. Retail sales broke records over the Thanksgiving weekend, and online sales are up 15% from 2010, according to ComScore, a research company. A Gallup Poll found that Americans expect to spend an average of $764 on Christmas gifts, $50 more than a year ago. And forecasters expect spending on Christmas to rise 3.1% to $3.4 billion this holiday season.
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