Saturday, August 31, 2013

Great documentary can be seen online now

Samsara (2011)

This film entitled "Samsara"
will probably be taken down in a few 
hours, so try not to miss the opportunity
to see this masterpiece, opulently 
photographed in Super-70-mm, a  
huge and expensive film format that 
beats any High Definition video or 3D, 
any day.

Filmed over nearly 5 years in 25 
countries on 5 continents, 'Samsara' 
transports us to the varied worlds of 
sacred grounds, disaster zones, industrial 
complexes, and natural wonders.

Directed by Ron Fricke and produced by 
Mark Magidson, who also collaborated 
on Baraka (1992), a film of a similar 
vein and in the same school of the 
'Koyaanisqatsi' series, the official website 
describes the film thus: "...'Samsara' 
explores the wonders of our world from 
the mundane to the miraculous, looking 
into the unfathomable reaches of man's 
spirituality and the human experience. 
Neither a traditional documentary nor 
a travelogue, 'Samsara' takes the form 
of a nonverbal, guided meditation."
 
Video (about 102 mins):   From Forbidden Knowledge

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Thursday, August 29, 2013

A REAL KEEPER: Great advice from Calvin & Hobbes creator

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/29/bill-watterson-advice-to-college-grads-illustrated-like-calvin-and-hobbes_n_3837271.html

Another cartoonist put Watterson's advice to college grads into an artistic masterpiece.  Watterson's words of wisdom are a guideline on how to live a happy life, doing things that feel right for you, no matter what the world may say.  "To thine own self be true."

Bill Watterson retired from writing and drawing "Calvin & Hobbes" about 18 years ago, but the timelessness of his message -- to always remain thoughtful, imaginative, and playful -- will stick in our culture forever, if we're lucky. Case in point: Cartoonist Gavin Aung Than, who pens comics on his blog Zen Pencils, created this tribute to Watterson that has struck a chord with the Internet over the last few days.

Than took the text from a commencement speech Watterson delivered at Kenyon College in 1995, and illustrated it in the style of "Calvin & Hobbes." He explains that this is the first time he's intentionally attempted to mimic Watterson, although the man has been an inspiration for his art as well as his career.

If you want to buy a print of Than's cartoon, you may be out of luck. He explains that since Watterson famously refuses to license his work, preferring to let his art speak for itself, selling this "would be against the whole spirit of Calvin and Hobbes." However, you can (and should) click over to his site and browse his other, non-Watterson related artwork.



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Wednesday, August 28, 2013

End Game: Who Really Runs Things in Our World

The world's ruling elite have 
fashioned an interlocking network 
of multi-national corporations that 
now posses more wealth and political 
autonomy than individual nations.

What psychological pathology drives 
their single-minded obsession for 
absolute control? What high-tech 
schemes serve their diabolical 
End-Game strategies?

Video (about 61 mins):


http://www.ForbiddenKnowledgeTV.com/page/24323.html
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MOST Important to view: Re. Sarin gas in Syria--WHO is doing it?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gTUcvKO3js8

Watch this video -- it gives very impressive evidence that it is NOT the Syrian government that is using Sarin gas against civilians.  Here is another proof in a long line of others that the real villains are the ones least suspected.  Watch this video (10 minutes long, but you can get the gist of it in the first 2-3 minutes) and form your own opinion based on facts revealed within it.  You may come out with a different opinion than the one with which you went in -- as to Who is doing it.  And WHY.  We need to educate ourselves about what is really happening in our world.  Isn't it better to know than to be played the fool over and over and over?  Please spread the word about this video.  As you'll see from emails below, it's already been removed from at least two sites and will no doubt be removed from other sites where it appears, but it's imperative for people to know the truth.  Send it on to your e-mail list before this link is taken off, too.

Dear Friends,

I am sending this out again because the earlier links were taken down rather quickly.
Here are some new links that work.
So you may want to watch this 10 minute video before these get taken down as well.

It is very important.

Roy


From: Nic 
To: Roy
Sent: Tuesday, August 27, 2013 5:51 PM
Subject: Re: Is the Syrian Government using chemical weapons?

Roy,

Is this it?
there are other links too.




From: Nic 
To: Roy 
Sent: Tuesday, August 27, 2013 5:46 PM
Subject: Re: Is the Syrian Government using chemical weapons?

Hi Roy,

In case you may or may not know, the video has been removed... pretty quickly!

Nic


From: Roy
To: Roy
Sent: Tuesday, August 27, 2013 5:29 PM
Subject: Is the Syrian Government using chemical weapons?


This is very important information. -- Roy


From: Roy
To: Roy
Sent: Tuesday, August 27, 2013 3:14 PM
Subject: Is the Syrian Government using chemical weapons?


From: Ruth
To: undisclosed
Subject: Fwd: Syria's Chemical Weapons

Dear Friends, This information is heavy but I fear unless enough people understand what is going on to stop this madness we will once again get sucked into another war. This time there will be no good end for anyone. -- Ruth

"Storm Clouds Gathering" is one of the best You Tube channels for news on geopolitical events.  Please see Leaked Documents: U.S. Framed Syria in Chemical Weapons Attack. (About 10 minutes)  Obama will likely be selling war like soap soon.

or click on:
(About 10 minutes) 



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The richer you are, the more "entitled" you feel

Our government is a plutocracy ruled by self-centered jerks
By Joshua Holland

Two studies released last week confirmed what most of us already knew: the ultra-wealthy tend to be narcissistic and have a greater sense of entitlement than the rest of us, and Congress only pays attention to their interests. Both studies are consistent with earlier research.

In the first study, published in the current Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, Paul Piff of UC Berkeley conducted five experiments which demonstrated that “higher social class is associated with increased entitlement and narcissism.” Given the opportunity, Piff also found that they were more likely to check themselves out in a mirror than were those of lesser means.

Piff looked at how participants scored on a standard scale of “psychological entitlement,” and found that those of a high social class — based on income levels, education and occupational prestige — were more likely to say “I honestly feel I’m just more deserving than others,” while people further down the social ladder were likelier to respond, “I do not necessarily deserve special treatment.”

In an earlier study, published last year in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Piff and four researchers from the University of Toronto conducted a series of experiments which found that “upper-class individuals behave more unethically than lower-class individuals.” This included being more likely to “display unethical decision-making,” steal, lie during a negotiation and cheat in order to win a contest.

In one telling experiment, the researchers observed a busy intersection, and found that drivers of luxury cars were more likely to cut off other drivers and less likely to stop for pedestrians crossing the street than those behind the wheels of more modest vehicles. “In our crosswalk study, none of the cars in the beater-car category drove through the crosswalk,” Piff told The New York Times. “But you see this huge boost in a driver’s likelihood to commit infractions in more expensive cars.” He added: “BMW drivers are the worst.”

Summing up previous research on the topic, Piff notes that upper-class individuals also “showed reduced sensitivity to others’ suffering” as compared with working- and middle-class people.

Lower-class individuals are more likely to spend time taking care of others, and they are more embedded in social networks that depend on mutual aid. By contrast, upper-class individuals prioritize independence from others: They are less motivated than lower-class individuals to build social relationships and instead seek to differentiate themselves from others.

These findings may appear to represent a bit of psychological trivia, but a study to be published in Political Science Quarterly by Thomas Hayes, a scholar at Trinity University, finds that U.S. senators respond almost exclusively to the interests of their wealthiest constituents – those more likely to be unethical and less sensitive to the suffering of others, according to Piff.

Hayes took data from the Annenberg Election Survey — a massive database of public opinion representing the views of 90,000 voters — and compared them with their senators’ voting records from 2001 through 2010. From 2007 through 2010, U.S. senators were somewhat responsive to the interests of the middle class, but hadn’t been for the first 6 years Hayes studied. The views of the poor didn’t factor into legislators’ voting tendencies at all.

As Eric Dolan noted for The Raw Story, “The neglect of lower income groups was a bipartisan affair. Democrats were not any more responsive to the poor than Republicans.” Hayes wrote that his analysis “suggests oligarchic tendencies in the American system, a finding echoed in other research.”

Hayes’ study is consistent with earlier research, including Princeton University scholar Larry Bartels’ 2005 study of “Economic Inequality and Political Representation.”

There are a few of ways of looking at these findings. They could be the result of genuinely held ideological beliefs which happen to justify inequality and privilege.

According to OpenSecrets, the average net worth of senators in 2011 was $11.9 million, so it could be a matter of legislators advancing their own interests and those of the people with whom they socialize and associate.

But MIT economist Daron Acemoglu, who co-authored Why Nations Fail with Harvard’s James Robinson, says that this kind of political inequality is a product of widening economic disparities. “It’s a general pattern throughout history,” he told Think Progress. “When economic inequality increases, the people who have become economically more powerful will often attempt to use that power in order to gain even more political power. And once they are able to monopolize political power, they will start using that for changing the rules in their favor. And that sort of political inequality is the real danger that’s facing the United States.”
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Monday, August 26, 2013

Seniors vs. criminals - living arrangements


An interesting idea.

Jails Vs Nursing Homes

Here's the way it should be:

Let's put the seniors in jail and the criminals in nursing homes. This would correct two things in one action:

Seniors would have access to showers, hobbies and walks. They would receive unlimited free prescriptions, dental and medical treatment, wheelchairs, etc. They would receive money instead of having to pay it out. They would have constant video monitoring, so they would be helped instantly if they fell or needed assistance. Bedding would be washed twice a week and all clothing would be ironed and returned to them. A guard would check on them every 20 minutes. All meals and snacks would be brought to them, and they would have family visits in a suite built for that purpose.

They would have access to a library, weight/fitness room, spiritual counseling, a pool and education, and free admission to in-house concerts by nationally recognized entertainment artists. Simple clothing -- shoes, slippers, pj's -- and legal aid would be free, upon request. There would be private, secure rooms provided for all with an outdoor exercise yard complete with gardens. Each senior would have a P.C., TV, phone and radio in their room at no cost. They could receive daily phone calls. There would be a board of directors to hear any complaints, and the ACLU would fight for their rights and protection. The guards would have a code of conduct to be strictly adhered to in order to protect the seniors and their families from abuse or neglect.

As for the criminals, they would receive cold food. They would be left alone and unsupervised, locked in to a cold and uninviting room. They would receive showers once a week. They would live in tiny rooms, for which they would have to pay $5,000 per month. They would have no hope of ever getting out.

Sounds like justice to me.


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The right wing should listen to Colin Powell--

...but they won't.  He's right. They're wrong.  But what's new about any of that? 

Colin Powell: Voter ID Laws Will 'Backfire' For Republicans

WASHINGTON -- Former Secretary of State Colin Powell warned Republicans on Sunday that the strict voter identification laws they're pursuing around the country will damage the party's standing with growing blocs of voters.

"[H]ere's what I say to my Republican friends: The country is becoming more diverse," Powell told Bob Schieffer on CBS' "Face the Nation." "You say you want to reach out, you say you want to have a new message. You say you want to see if you can bring some of these voters to the Republican side. This is not the way to do it."

"The way to do it is to make it easier for them to vote and then give them something to vote for that they can believe in," Powell added.

In the wake of the Supreme Court's ruling that struck down a key portion of the Voting Rights Act, Republicans in states like North Carolina, Florida and Texas have sought voter restrictions that critics, including Powell, say will disproportionately hurt minorities at the polls. North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory (R) signed legislation earlier this month that requires voter identification, rolls back early voting hours and ends a state-supported voter registration drive. Powell condemned that particular law at an event in Raleigh last week.

Powell pointed out that there was no evidence of widespread voter fraud, the very premise of the identification statutes.

"You need a photo ID. Well, you didn't need a photo ID for decades before," Powell said. "Is it really necessary now? And they claim that there's widespread abuse and voter fraud, but nothing documents, nothing substantiates that. There isn't widespread abuse."

Powell predicted that such measures will blow up in Republicans' faces.

"These kind of procedures that are being put in place to slow the process down and make it likely that fewer Hispanics and African Americans might vote, I think, are going to backfire, because these people are going to come out and do what they have to do in order to vote, and I encourage that," he said.

During the interview, Powell also reflected on the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington, recalling times when he couldn't eat in certain places due to the color of his skin, even though he'd just served his country.

"In my lifetime, over a long career in public life, you know, I've been refused access to restaurants where I couldn't eat, even though I just came back from Vietnam: 'We can't give you a hamburger, come back some other time,'" Powell recalled. "And I did, right after the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was passed, I went right back to that same place and got my hamburger, and they were more than happy to serve me now. It removed a cross from their back, but we're not there yet. We're not there yet. And so we've got to keep working on it."

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Wednesday, August 21, 2013

Ready to have a hair-raising read? Here it is!

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2012/03/ff_nsadatacenter/all/

OMG!  This WIRED Magazine article appeared in their April 2012 issue.  Anyone who can read this in full and not be shocked at the information contained in it just might be a zombie.  Hold onto your hat -- you're in for a wild ride through Information Hell.
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Backward/Upside Down World News

The crimes of Cheney/Bush/Rumsfeld/Tenet will not go unpunished forever. They will meet higher judgment, which is inescapable. Unfortunately, for now, these "dark side" war criminals are living their lives as free members of the elite 1% while Bradley Manning of the "light side" is imprisoned, in a terrible miscarriage of justice.  This is the totalitarian rulership that we now live with in our country.

BRADLEY MANNING GOES TO PRISON FOR 35 YEARS WHILE THOSE WHO AUTHORIZED TORTURE GO FREE

FORT MEADE, Md. -- Bradley Manning was sentenced to 35 years in prison on Wednesday for releasing 700,000 documents about the United States' worldwide diplomacy and wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Manning was a 25-year-old Army private first class at the time of his arrest. He saw himself as an idealist acting to end the wars, and said in online chats with hacker Adrian Lamo that he was particularly concerned about the abuse of detainees in Iraq. No political or military higher-ups have ever been prosecuted for detainee abuse or torture in Iraq, Afghanistan or at Guantanamo Bay.

"One of the serious problems with Manning's case is that it sets a chilling precedent, that people who leak information ... can be prosecuted this aggressively as a deterrent to that conduct," said Andrea Prasow, senior counterterrorism counsel and advocate in Human Rights Watch's U.S. Program. "Shouldn't we be deterring people who commit torture?"

Here are some of the individuals who have been involved since 9/11 in detainee abuse and torture, and potential war crimes, and have never been prosecuted.

George W. Bush
George W. Bush was president when the U.S. invaded Iraq based on faulty intelligence, tortured terror prisoners and conducted extraordinary renditions around the world.

"Enhanced interrogation," a Bush administration euphemism for torture, was approved at the highest level. A "principals committee" composed of Vice President Dick Cheney, National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, Secretary of State Colin Powell, CIA Director George Tenet and Attorney General John Ashcroft signed off on the methods.

"There are solid grounds to investigate Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, and Tenet for authorizing torture and war crimes," said Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch, when the group released a report called "Getting Away With Torture" in 2011.

Dick Cheney
As Bush's vice president, Cheney pushed the nation over to the "dark side," as he called it, in the war on terror.

The U.S. used extraordinary renditions to swoop up terror suspects and send them to repressive regimes in places like Syria and Libya for torture. Cheney was the key driver in producing the faulty intelligence that led the U.S. into war in Iraq. And he steadfastly defended the CIA's use of water-boarding and other torture tactics on U.S. prisoners.

Cheney "fears being tried as a war criminal," according to Colin Powell's former chief of staff Col. Lawrence Wilkerson, but he never has been.

Donald Rumsfeld
One of the planners of the Iraq War, Rumsfeld steadfastly maintained while Defense Secretary under Bush that U.S. soldiers did not have an obligation to stop torture being used by their Iraqi counterparts. He also approved of "stripping prisoners naked, hooding them, exposing prisoners to extremes of heat and cold, and slamming them up against walls" at Guantanamo.

While deployed to Iraq, Manning discovered that Iraqi soldiers had arrested members of a political group for producing a pamphlet called "Where Did the Money Go?" decrying corruption in the cabinet of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.

"‘i immediately took that information and *ran* to the officer to explain what was going on," Manning wrote in the chat logs. "he didn’t want to hear any of it … he told me to shut up and explain how we could assist the FPs in finding *MORE* detainees."

George Tenet and CIA torturers
Tenet was the CIA chief who told Bush that the case for war with Iraq was a "slam dunk." Under his watch, the CIA waterboarded Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Abu Zubaydah and Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri.

Further down the chain of command at the spy agency, lower-level officers have escaped prosecution for killing a prisoner in Iraq and one in Afghanistan in CIA custody. Attorney General Eric Holder in 2012 ruled out prosecuting anyone responsible for those deaths.

In sharp contrast, former CIA agent John Kiriakou is currently serving a 30-month sentence for revealing to reporters the names of interrogators involved in detainee abuse.

Abu Ghraib higher-ups
Although low-level soldiers like former Army Reserve Specialist Lynndie England were court-martialed for their role in detainee abuse at this notorious prison in Iraq, graphically illustrated in photos, the only officer prosecuted in the case had his conviction tossed out.

A 2009 Senate Armed Services Committee report found that the abuses at Abu Ghraib were not the result of a few unmonitored bad apples but rather the direct result of "enhanced interrogation" practices approved of by officials much higher up in the Bush administration.

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Monday, August 19, 2013

4-minute video: remarkable 9-yr-old boy talks about the universe

Out of the mouths of babes comes timeless wisdom....

This 9 year old boy discusses the
meaning of life, free will, alternate
universes and alien lifeforms with
amazing clarity.

Video (about 4 mins):


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Saturday, August 17, 2013

Want to see a VERY interesting German documentary?



Go to: 9/11 False Flag - German Documentary
 We get more true information from other countries than from our own.  This one is an impressive documentary from Germany -- on the subject of 9/11 and all the unanswered questions about that event.   This is a vital one to view if you are at all curious and/or skeptical about the official story we've been sold.  There are so many holes in that story, intelligent people all around the globe are questioning it with great intensity.  The Germans have put together an excellent film that presents the most important of those questions. I promise you, you will not be bored!

After September 11th, 2001, the
US was quick to launch attacks,
first on Afghanistan and later,
using falsified evidence, in Iraq.

Doubts about the official version
of the events of September 11th
have continued to grow among
both Americans and the International
community. The speculations that
surfaced on the internet directly
after the attacks were considered
to be just wild conspiracy theories.

Yet, the circumstantial evidence
and even the substantial evidence,
itself paints a clear picture.

This German-produced documentary
lays out a coherent alternative story
of the events of that day and leading
up to that day, refuting the bogus
"findings" of the 9/11 Commission
Report, which needs to be re-opened
ASAP, if we are to achieve the justice
and the peace that we all seek.

Video (about 73 mins):




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PLEASE VIEW: Was CIA Chief John Brennan Behind Journalist's Murder?

This 5 minute video shows absolute proof that investigative journalist Michael Hastings' fiery car crash was not an accident--but was a deliberate murder.  Take time to view the proofs presented in the video, as reported by Kim Dvorak of the San Diego Channel 6 News.  Kim Dvorak better watch her step --  She'll be the next one to be offed.

 Is there any intelligent person in the U.S. who really believes the "official" story on Michael Hastings' death?  It was outright murder -- he was too good of an investigative journalist (hardly any of them left now).  He was annoying the cabal that really rules us.  And the kill order was put out on him.  Add  Hastings name to the list of the assassinations: JFK, MLK, RFK, Michael Hastings -- (and MANY others who were killed after JFK's assassination because they knew too much) -- You can no doubt add other names to this growing list -- I know I can! (Paul Wellstone, JFK Jr., Marilyn Monroe, etc., etc.)  Now that we have drones and remote-controlled missiles/bombs/explosives, the murders can continue in impersonal ways.  Less messy that way.  Welcome to the Brave New World.





   
Investigative reporter, Kim Dvorak
of San Diego's Channel 6 News is
looking into the recent, mysterious
car-crash death of RollingStone
reporter, Michael Hastings, who had
just received a hacked email from
Stratfor President, Burton which
stated that John Brennan, former
Counterterrorism Czar and currently
the new Director of Central Intelligence
(after Petraeus was recently forced to
resign) was the man who called the
witch hunt on journalists, which involved
the extensive wiretapping and email
snooping of the Associated Press and
FOXNEWS and not Eric Holder's
Department of Justice.

An expert's review of the CCTV camera
footage of Hasting's fateful crash shows
that the car was traveling at 35 mph and
it appeared to burst into flames prior to
hitting a tree, according also to a witness 
at the scene. The car was not traveling at
over 100 mph, as widely reported.

The question is asked, whether Michael Hastings'
death constituted the State's assassination of a
free US Citizen, on US soil?

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Friday, August 16, 2013

Best Crop Circle Video Ever

Crop Circles Documentary

http://www.forbiddenknowledgetv.com/videos/ufosinterdimensionalultraterrestrials/crop-circles-crossover-from-another-dimension.html

I don't know how anyone can dispute that the incredibly intricate patterns and huge sizes of some of the crop circles could not have been made by humans.  Some of the gigantic patterns have appeared in just a few minutes, and even in daylight.  I've been intrigued by crop circles ever since I first learned of them back in the '90s.  This is the best documentary I've seen yet on the subject.  If you view it, I think you will marvel at these cropfield creations that have been taking place all over the world for many decades--and possibly much longer than that.  Watch the video and judge for yourself.


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Monday, August 12, 2013

Sensible, practical, desired: Assisted death for terminal patients

In my humble opinion, it's tragic and ridiculous that this woman who helped her dying father to find peace is now being prosecuted in Pennsylvania. It's barbaric to let someone suffer when they beg to be freed from their pain and there is available a peaceful, comfortable way for them to make their exit. We are a society that has not come to terms with death; the fear of it continues to keep the elderly/terminally ill shackled to bodies that have long outworn their usefulness. Who would not want to end their loved one's suffering, especially when that loved one is begging to be released?  If we truly knew that life continues on (and most good Christians profess to believe they will be in a blissful heaven with God), why would we even want to condemn our loved one (or ourselves!) to what has become a hellish life of physical pain and debilitation on Earth?  That does not compute. Can it be that most Christians don't really believe what they say they do?  I respect the decision of the author of this piece and agree with his sane, loving and logical reasoning. 

Prosecution of People Who Assist the Dying Must End
I helped to end my dad’s life

Okay, I admit it. I helped my father last year to die quicker in a Connecticut rehab center, and I was also witness to an assisted suicide in New York.

It’s time that we put this stuff out in the open and stopped the brutal prosecutorial nonsense around this issue.

As I write this, Barbara Mancini, a 57-year-old nurse here in the punishment state of Pennsylvania, has been charged with a serious felony, and is facing up to 10 years in jail because she put the morphine prescription for Joseph Yourshaw, her dying 93-year-old father, who was in home hospice care but in pain from terminal diabetes, heart disease and kidney disease, into his hands as he requested, so he could terminate his life.

Her father, a decorated WWII veteran, had expressed a desire to end his life at home and to receive no further medical intervention. He understood that he could do that by taking too many doses of morphine, and his daughter gave him the opportunity to make it happen. Unfortunately, the hospice nurse arrived at the home after he had done so, was informed of the action by Mancini, and called 911. Against his earlier stated wishes, Yourshaw was hauled off, comatose, to the hospital, where he was subjected to the medical establishment’s most strenuous efforts to perversely prolong his doomed life, and he died four days later just where he didn’t want to be: hooked up to life support in a hospital bed.

Then, piling on, the prosecutors stepped in, and went after Mancini.

Don’t they have anything better to do?

So back to my father and that New York assisted suicide.

 

Dad was 89 and in failing health though mentally sharp, when he fell badly, hitting the back of the base of his head on the bedpost so hard it broke off the corner of the bed frame. Rushed to the hospital, he was found to have a cranial bleed that was putting pressure on his brain. Over the next few weeks, shuttled between rehab facility and hospital three times, he gradually lost what control he still had over his arms and legs, eventually even losing his ability to speak or to swallow. He contracted pneumonia and an iatrogenic intestinal infection that was spreading through hospitals across the country at the time. Eventually, he made it clear to me and my siblings that he was done with medical care, and was put in a hospice bed at a local rehab center, He made it clear that he wanted no medical intervention, no food and no water. He would be dead in a matter of days, and knew it. The hospice nurse prescribed morphine, which was given orally, both to relax him, to ease any pain he was feeling, and to ease his labored breathing from the pneumonia. The prescription called for a dose every 1-4 hours as needed to keep him breathing easily.

While dad was still conscious, we told him jokes, sang songs to him, and talked to him. He enjoyed the company, but was clearly fading. Eventually, he lost consciousness. When his breath would become difficult, a nurse would be called, and she’d administer morphine. At that point, I asked the duty nurse why they were coming in only every four hours with the morphine. “You are allowed to give it every hour, so why don’t you just give it to him every hour?” I asked. “Why are we dragging this on?”

The nurse agreed to do so from that point.

It was a mercy for dad and for his close family. My brother, sister and I all loved our father dearly, which made the decision to push the morphine doses all the easier to make. With a new dose on the hour, his body became visibly much more relaxed, and his breathing and pulse became increasingly slow, the breaths coming every 10 seconds, then every 15 seconds, and finally, in the evening, as far apart as every 45 seconds. Finally there was a last breath and he was gone. It was completely peaceful.

Did we kill Dad with the closer morphine doses? No. Did we hasten his end? I’m certain we did and I certainly hope so. Morphine slows the breathing. Would Dad have approved? Yes. When his own mother, my grandmother, suffered a severe stroke in a nursing home, also at 89, it was Dad who requested that the nursing home take her off the feeding tube and to stop giving her water -- actions that assured her death within a couple of days. He had no qualms about that decision. It was what she’d want, he said, and what he’d want in her situation.

As for that assisted suicide, it happened several decades ago in New York City. An elderly professor my wife and I knew well was dying of cancer and was in hospice care at a major hospital. We went to visit him, and found him happily meeting with all kinds of friends and relatives who were coming to say good-bye. When our turn for an audience came, he showed us the intravenous drip in his arm and explained the little control valve on the tube running from the bag. “This contains my morphine, for pain,” he told us, with his elvish smile. “The doctor showed me how to control the flow with this little valve. One click if I feel pain. Two clicks if one click doesn’t work, three if two doesn’t work.” He paused, smiled conspiratorially, and added, “And he said that if I was ready to go, the fourth click would do it.”

Sure enough, a few days later, after he had seen everyone, tied up all the loose ends in his relationships, and made his peace with old lovers and friends, he rolled the wheel on the valve to the fourth click and was gone.

Did his doctor kill him, or at least assist him in committing suicide? Certainly. Was that a crime? Not in my book. He was dying, and made the choice himself of dying at his own time of choice, and peacefully, instead of wracked with pain from the cancer and hooked up to all kinds of medical devices. (As an aside, a year before he died, I was telling my father about this man's self-inflicted morphine suicide, and Dad said, "I hope I can get one of those switches when I go!" He thoughy it was an excellent idea.)

I’m sure these kinds of thing happen all the time all over the country. If every relative or doctor or nurse who assisted a parent or relative in ending a life more quickly and gently were prosecuted for assisting in suicide, or for murder, US jails would be overflowing far worse than they are already from our punishment-obsessed legal system and its political enablers.

How is it that a country that has no problem slaughtering innocents around the world--often dozens of them a time, including children--in the name of hunting down individuals it labels “terrorists,” and calls such deliberate mass murder (which it euphemistically terms “collateral damage”) justified, can get so overwrought about people who just, out of love, help the dying to end their lives peacefully?

Pennsylvania should drop its obscene prosecution of Mancini. She acted to honor her father’s wish to end his own life. This absurdity of prosecuting people for helping the dying to die in peace and with dignity must end.


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Thursday, August 08, 2013

Wise Woman Wrote Her Own Obituary

She was (and is) a beautiful and VERY wise soul!  She continues on in her journey, spreading wisdom and love as she goes...
There is no death -- only a change of worlds.  -- Chief Seattle

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Seattle-based author and editor Jane Catherine Lotter had many accomplishments in her life -- notably, a weekly humor column called "Jane Explains" and a recently published comic novel, The Bette Davis Club -- but at the end of her life, she didn't define success in terms of her career achievements.

Lotter died of endometrial cancer on July 18 at the age of 60, survived by her husband, 19-year-old son and 23-year-old daughter. One of the "few advantages" of dying of cancer, Lotter wrote with characteristic humor and wit in the Seattle Times, "is that you have time to write your own obituary." Lotter's touching tribute to her own life went viral on Twitter shortly after it was published.

So what did she see as the great successes of her life? Read the full obituary below:

One of the few advantages of dying from Grade 3, Stage IIIC endometrial cancer, recurrent and metastasized to the liver and abdomen, is that you have time to write your own obituary. (The other advantages are no longer bothering with sunscreen and no longer worrying about your cholesterol.) To wit:

I was born in Seattle on August 10, 1952, at Northgate Hospital (since torn down) at Northgate Mall. Grew up in Shoreline, attended Shorecrest High, graduated from the University of Washington in 1975 with a Bachelor of Arts in History. Aside from eight memorable months lived in New York City when I was nineteen (and where I worked happily and insouciantly on the telephone order board for B. Altman & Co.), I was a lifelong Seattle resident.

In my professional life, I was a freelance writer, editor, and proofreader. Among career honors, I received a First Place Society of Professional Journalists award for Humorous Writing for my column Jane Explains, which ran from 1999-2005 in the Jet City Maven, later called The Seattle Sun. Also won First Place in the Mainstream Novel category of the 2009 Pacific Northwest Writers Association Literary Contest for my comic novel, The Bette Davis Club (available at Amazon.com). I would demonstrate my keen sense of humor by telling a few jokes here, but the Times charges for these listings by the column inch and we must move on.

Many thanks to Sylvia Farias, MSW, at Swedish Cancer Institute for encouraging me to be part of an incredibly wise gynecological cancer support group. Thanks as well to the kind-hearted nurses and doctors at Group Health Capitol Hill oncology. And thanks to my sister Barbara who left no stone unturned in helping me get life-extending treatment in my final months.

I also want to thank Mrs. Senour, my first grade teacher, for teaching me to read. I loved witty conversation, long walks, and good books. Among my favorite authors were Iris Murdoch (particularly The Sea, The Sea) and Charles Dickens.

I was preceded in death by my generous and loving parents, Michael Gallagher Lotter and Margaret Anne Lotter (nee Robertson), and by my dear younger sister, Julie Marie Lotter. I am survived by my beloved husband, Robert ("Bob") Lee Marts, and our two adult children: daughter, Tessa Jane Marts, and son, Riley William Marts. Also my dear sisters Barbara Lotter Azzato, Kathleen Nora Lahti, and Patricia Anne Crisp (husband Adrian). And many much-loved nieces and nephews, in-laws, and friends.

I met Bob Marts at the Central Tavern in Pioneer Square on November 22, 1975, which was the luckiest night of my life. We were married on April 7, 1984. Bobby M, I love you up to the sky. Thank you for all the laughter and the love, and for standing by me at the end. Tessa and Riley, I love you so much, and I'm so proud of you. I wish you such good things. May you, every day, connect with the brilliancy of your own spirit. And may you always remember that obstacles in the path are not obstacles, they ARE the path.

I believe we are each of us connected to every person and everything on this Earth, that we are in fact one divine organism having an infinite spiritual existence. Of course, we may not always comprehend that. And really, that's a discussion for another time. So let's cut to the chase:

I was given the gift of life, and now I have to give it back. This is hard. But I was a lucky woman, who led a lucky existence, and for this I am grateful. I first got sick in January 2010. When the cancer recurred last year and was terminal, I decided to be joyful about having had a full life, rather than sad about having to die. Amazingly, this outlook worked for me. (Well, you know, most of the time.) Meditation and the study of Buddhist philosophy also helped me accept what I could not change. At any rate, I am at peace. And on that upbeat note, I take my mortal leave of this rollicking, revolving world-this sun, that moon, that walk around Green Lake, that stroll through the Pike Place Market, the memory of a child's hand in mine.

My beloved Bob, Tessa, and Riley. My beloved friends and family. How precious you all have been to me. Knowing and loving each one of you was the success story of my life. Metaphorically speaking, we will meet again, joyfully, on the other side.

Beautiful day, happy to have been here.

XOXO, Jane/Mom

Lotter's husband Bob Marts created pins to share at her memorial service on Sunday inspired by her final words, reading "Beautiful day, happy to be here," according to the New York Times.

Lotter inspired not only her family and friends, but an audience of millions over the Internet with what Marts describes as her love of life.

As one commenter wrote in Lotter's online Guest Book, "If more of us had your outlook on life, this world would be a much better place."



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Tuesday, August 06, 2013

Unfortunately, not all thieves are stupid...wow


Subject: UNFORTUNATELY,  NOT ALL THIEVES ARE STUPID!!

  

NOW HEAR THIS...NOT ALL THIEVES ARE STUPID!! 
 

1.
  Some people left their car in the long-term parking at San Jose while away, and someone broke into the car. Using the information on the car's registration in the glove compartment, they drove the car to the people's home in Pebble Beach and robbed it. So I guess if we are going to leave the car in long-term parking, we should NOT leave the registration/insurance cards in it, nor your remote garage door opener. 
This gives us something to think about with all our new electronic technology.
 
 

2.
  GPS. 
Someone had their car broken into while they were at a football game.  Their car was parked on the green which was adjacent to the football stadium and specially allotted to football fans.  Things stolen from the car included a garage door remote control, some money and a GPS which had been prominently mounted on the dashboard.  When the victims got home, they found that their house had been ransacked and just about everything worth anything had been stolen.  The thieves had used the GPS to guide them to the house.  They then used the garage remote control to open the garage door and gain entry to the house.  The thieves knew the owners were at the football game, they knew what time the game was scheduled to finish and so they knew how much time they had to clean out the house.  It would appear that they had brought a truck to empty the house of its contents.
 
Something to consider if you have a GPS - don't put your home address in it... Put a nearby address (like a store or gas station) so you can still find your way home if you need to, but no one else would know where you live if your GPS were stolen.
 
 

3.
  CELL PHONES 
I never thought of this.......
 
This lady has now changed her habit of how she lists her names on her cell phone after her handbag was stolen. Her handbag, which contained her cell phone, credit card, wallet, etc., was stolen.  20 minutes later when she called her hubby, from a pay phone telling him what had happened, hubby says 'I received your text asking about our Pin number and I've replied a little while ago.'  When they rushed down to the bank, the bank staff told them all the money was already withdrawn.  The thief had actually used the stolen cell phone to text 'hubby' in the contact list and got hold of the pin number.  Within 20 minutes he had withdrawn all the money from their bank account.
 
Moral of the lesson:
 
   a.  Do not disclose the relationship between you and the people in your contact list.  Avoid using names like Home, Honey, Hubby, Sweetheart,
 
         Dad, Mom, etc.... 
   b.  And very importantly, when sensitive info is being asked through texts, CONFIRM by calling back.
   c.  Also, when you're being texted by friends or family to meet them somewhere, be sure to call back to confirm that the message came from
 
         them.  If you don't reach them, be very careful about going places to meet 'family and friends' who text you. 
 
 

4.
  Purse in the grocery cart scam... 
 

A lady went grocery-shopping at a local mall and left her purse sitting in the children's seat of the cart while she reached something off a shelf...wait till you read the WHOLE story!  Her wallet was stolen, and she reported it to the store personnel.  After returning home, she received a phone call from the Mall Security to say that they had her wallet and that although there was no money in it, it did still hold her personal papers.  She immediately went to pick up her wallet, only to be told by Mall Security that they had not called her.  By the time she returned home again, her house had been broken into and burglarized.  The thieves knew that by calling and saying they were Mall Security, they could lure her out of her house long enough for them to burglarize it.
 
 
 
 

*PLEASE PASS THIS ON
 
Even if this does not pertain to you....Pass it on to your family and friends.
 
  
  
  

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