Sunday, November 30, 2014

Top 4 Scientifically Proven Benefits of Meditation

http://humansarefree.com/2014/11/top-4-scientifically-proven-benefits-of.html

Top 4 Scientifically Proven Benefits of Meditation

Meditation: My secret weapon

“How do you do so much?” a colleague once asked me in my graduate school days, after I explained to her all the projects I’d been working on. In those days, I did a lot. I apprenticed for a newspaper, was a full-time student and part-time teaching assistant. I barely had time for a social life.

How did I do so much? The key was in stress management. My stress management was meditation. I often meditated in-between classes and at night. It was easy. And, it didn’t cost a penny.

I would often turn on a meditation radio station on Pandora and sit in a comfortable position. I focused on my breathing. I slowed down my mind, until my brain was like a serene lake reflecting stillness.


I mean, I didn’t become a meditation guru by any means. I’m what you’d call a “heady” person, as many people have told me that I “think too much.”

Therefor, I am also the type of person who appreciates scientific support, like recent studies or research conducted supporting the benefits of meditation. Here is some research on meditation that I found fascinating.

Four Positive Physiological Affects of Meditation

1. Meditation Speeds Up Brain Processing Potential

According to a research journal article published in Frontiers in Human Neuroscience in February 2012, meditation can alter the geometry of the brain’s surface.

There was a study done at the University of California in Los Angeles involving 50 meditators and 50 controls that addressed a possible link between meditation and cortical gyrification, the pattern and degree of cortical folding that allows the brain to process faster.

This study showed a positive correlation between the amount of gyrification in parts of the brain and the number of years of meditation for people, especially long-term meditators, compared to non-meditators.

This increased gyrification may reflect an integration of cognitive processes when meditating, since meditators are known to be introspective and contemplative, using certain portions of the brain in the process of meditation. Despite articles written from this journal article, more research is still necessary to determining more in depth on this specific link.

2. Meditation Loosens Our Neural Pathways

Rebecca Gladding, M.D. explains in an article published in May 2013 Psychology Today, how the brain functions better with meditation, and the positive affects it has on the brain, the longer you meditate.

Basically, Gladding explains how the brain can be molded by meditation. Specifically, the connection to our fear center and our “Me” Center (place where the brain constantly reflects back to you) wither away -by meditating on a regular basis.

This loosening up lessens our feelings of anxiety, because the neural pathways linking our Me Center to our fear decreases. The unhelpful feelings of anxiety become regulated, meaning, sufficiently ignored, which enhances better neural pathways to form.

New neural pathways include improved assessment and empathetic responses. The important thing that Gladding also mentions is that to maintain the benefits of meditation, you must keep meditating because “the brain can very easily revert back to its old ways if you are not vigilant.”

3. Meditation Reduces the Risk of Heart Disease

A large cardiovascular study was done and published in November 2012, in the journal Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes.

There were 201 people with coronary heart disease given two choices. (1) Take a health education class promoting improved diet and exercise. (2) Take a class on transcendental meditation.

Researchers studied these participants for five years and discovered something interesting. Those that chose (2) the meditation class had 48% reduction to the overall risk of heart attack, stroke and death. This was an initial study and again needs more research.

But it is promising, just the same.

4. Meditation Can Improve Memory Recall

New research on meditation shows that meditation can further enhance the abilities of memory recall. Catherine Kerr is a researcher at the Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging and the Osher Research Center. She has found that those that practice meditation could adjust their brains waves better.

They could screen out distractions and increase productivity faster than those that did not meditate. Less distractions gives room for the brain to integrate new information. This slight change in brain adjustment can dramatically aid in memory recall.

Kerr explained more in an article called, Meditation’s Effects on Emotion Shown to Persist, published in June 2013 at psychcentral.com.
“Mindfulness meditation has been reported to enhance numerous mental abilities, including rapid memory recall,” Kerr said. “Our discovery that mindfulness meditators more quickly adjusted the brain wave that screens out distraction could explain their superior ability to rapidly remember and incorporate new facts.”
By Stephanie Flood, Soul Spot;
- See more at: http://humansarefree.com/2014/11/top-4-scientifically-proven-benefits-of.html#sthash.wTfZStAJ.dpuf

Top 4 Scientifically Proven Benefits of Meditation

Meditation: My secret weapon

“How do you do so much?” a colleague once asked me in my graduate school days, after I explained to her all the projects I’d been working on. In those days, I did a lot. I apprenticed for a newspaper, was a full-time student and part-time teaching assistant. I barely had time for a social life.

How did I do so much? The key was in stress management. My stress management was meditation. I often meditated in-between classes and at night. It was easy. And, it didn’t cost a penny.

I would often turn on a meditation radio station on Pandora and sit in a comfortable position. I focused on my breathing. I slowed down my mind, until my brain was like a serene lake reflecting stillness.


I mean, I didn’t become a meditation guru by any means. I’m what you’d call a “heady” person, as many people have told me that I “think too much.”

Therefor, I am also the type of person who appreciates scientific support, like recent studies or research conducted supporting the benefits of meditation. Here is some research on meditation that I found fascinating.

Four Positive Physiological Affects of Meditation

1. Meditation Speeds Up Brain Processing Potential

According to a research journal article published in Frontiers in Human Neuroscience in February 2012, meditation can alter the geometry of the brain’s surface.

There was a study done at the University of California in Los Angeles involving 50 meditators and 50 controls that addressed a possible link between meditation and cortical gyrification, the pattern and degree of cortical folding that allows the brain to process faster.

This study showed a positive correlation between the amount of gyrification in parts of the brain and the number of years of meditation for people, especially long-term meditators, compared to non-meditators.

This increased gyrification may reflect an integration of cognitive processes when meditating, since meditators are known to be introspective and contemplative, using certain portions of the brain in the process of meditation. Despite articles written from this journal article, more research is still necessary to determining more in depth on this specific link.

2. Meditation Loosens Our Neural Pathways

Rebecca Gladding, M.D. explains in an article published in May 2013 Psychology Today, how the brain functions better with meditation, and the positive affects it has on the brain, the longer you meditate.

Basically, Gladding explains how the brain can be molded by meditation. Specifically, the connection to our fear center and our “Me” Center (place where the brain constantly reflects back to you) wither away -by meditating on a regular basis.

This loosening up lessens our feelings of anxiety, because the neural pathways linking our Me Center to our fear decreases. The unhelpful feelings of anxiety become regulated, meaning, sufficiently ignored, which enhances better neural pathways to form.

New neural pathways include improved assessment and empathetic responses. The important thing that Gladding also mentions is that to maintain the benefits of meditation, you must keep meditating because “the brain can very easily revert back to its old ways if you are not vigilant.”

3. Meditation Reduces the Risk of Heart Disease

A large cardiovascular study was done and published in November 2012, in the journal Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes.

There were 201 people with coronary heart disease given two choices. (1) Take a health education class promoting improved diet and exercise. (2) Take a class on transcendental meditation.

Researchers studied these participants for five years and discovered something interesting. Those that chose (2) the meditation class had 48% reduction to the overall risk of heart attack, stroke and death. This was an initial study and again needs more research.

But it is promising, just the same.

4. Meditation Can Improve Memory Recall

New research on meditation shows that meditation can further enhance the abilities of memory recall. Catherine Kerr is a researcher at the Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging and the Osher Research Center. She has found that those that practice meditation could adjust their brains waves better.

They could screen out distractions and increase productivity faster than those that did not meditate. Less distractions gives room for the brain to integrate new information. This slight change in brain adjustment can dramatically aid in memory recall.

Kerr explained more in an article called, Meditation’s Effects on Emotion Shown to Persist, published in June 2013 at psychcentral.com.
“Mindfulness meditation has been reported to enhance numerous mental abilities, including rapid memory recall,” Kerr said. “Our discovery that mindfulness meditators more quickly adjusted the brain wave that screens out distraction could explain their superior ability to rapidly remember and incorporate new facts.”
By Stephanie Flood, Soul Spot;
- See more at: http://humansarefree.com/2014/11/top-4-scientifically-proven-benefits-of.html#sthash.wTfZStAJ.dpuf
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Wednesday, November 26, 2014

Too Funny! Tea Party wants Palin to run against McCain in Primary


Oh, the irony of it all!  McCain has to be rueing the day he ever gave prominence to Sarah and her clan.

Guess who the Tea Party wants to primary John McCain? Go on, guess


26 Nov 2014 at 13:59 ET                   

Tea Partiers — by which I mean the Most  Patriotic American People Whoever Lived And That Includes the Founding Fathers Who Didn’t Make Guns The First Amendment Because They Were RINO’s — are not happy with Arizona Senator and President in Exile John McCain at all. They don’t like John McCain, probably because he isn’t on TV enough yelling about illegal President Thugbama, and definitely because he hangs out too much with that maybe-homosexual boy from South Carolina. You know the one I’m talking about. Yeah, that guy.

Hot on the heels of unelecting Congressman Eric Cantor from the House  for not loving Jesus enough, Tea Partiers are feeling their oats and have decided that they are going to purge the party of race-traitor Abraham Lincoln of all non-believers.

“…in their most audacious plans, Tea Party groups are preparing to recruit challengers to run against high-profile Republicans they accuse of betraying them — as they did when they toppled Eric Cantor, the former House majority leader.”

Got a list and checking it twice, gonna find out who’s naughty and likes Mexicans too much.

At the top of their list of potential targets are politicians like Senator John McCain of Arizona, a proponent of an immigration overhaul. Their fantasy candidate: Sarah Palin, Mr. McCain’s former running mate, who now spends much of the year at her home in Scottsdale, Ariz. Two prominent conservative activists, who spoke anonymously to reveal private discussions, said leading Tea Party figures planned to reach out to Ms. Palin to see if she was interested in running against Mr. McCain.

First off, Jesus doesn’t love me this much, although he does love me enough to float rumors that not-so-good-at-throwing-football-guy Tim Tebow is maybe courtin’ and sparkin’ one of them there Duggar gals. Jingerjamjam or Jawboner, one of them.

Second, it is awfully early to recruit Palin for 2016 now  since she’ll probably quit the campaign before Valentines Day next February.

On the other hand, Palin has expressed an interest in holding public office again because her critics make her “want to work so hard for justice in this country.”

… and then quit because the money sucks and you have to show up for work and “do stuff,” and then you’re too tired when you get home at night to catch up on your “stories” you TiVo’d during the day and, ohfegawdssakes,  now Todd wants to play “dog sled” in bed at night and bleh, who needs it. Better to stay home, teaching youngest daughter Glacier how to make a proper moosetini. (pro-tip: use mini-Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups instead of olives).

Of course, the irony here is that McCain would be primaried by the woman he plucked from obscurity and made a national figure and now, oh no!, the killer is inside his own house.

Without John McCain, Palin would have eventually quit her job as one of America’s more obscure governors and devoted herself to raising her children, by which I mean holding their hair back while they vomit after a night of drinking and partying and brawling and getting pregnant. Again. Without John McCain’s Hail Mary pass, America would have been deprived of their K-Mart Kardashians.

Now we might get to see a reverse-Frankenstein with the monster chasing its creator across the ice floes.

If only God loved me — all of us really — this much…



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Saturday, November 22, 2014

The Candy Bomber -- Inspiring WW II story


This is very moving.  Truly the spirit of Christmas in action.

 

I had not previously seen nor even heard of/about this video - at the below Web-site. But I gladly pass it along to you all with my endorsement to please watch it from beginning to end. (Be certain to have your speakers on and volume up to hear it all.) Be aware that - like me, you may find that your monitor may become very blurry because of your tears as you approach the end of the video. It is a piece of history, of kindness, love and healing that should not be forgotten.




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Thursday, November 20, 2014

Elizabeth Warren to Obama: ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!!!

God bless her!   I wish we had a thousand Elizabeth Warrens and Bernie Sanders in Congress!!!!  Unlike most of our elected officials, they are not driven by greed or lust for power, and they actually care about the PEOPLE, making them a very rare breed in this world.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/elizabeth-warren/presidents-wall-street-nominee_b_6188324.html
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Monday, November 17, 2014

One in 30 U.S. children is homeless!

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/11/17/child-homelessless-us_n_6169994.html

Republican advice for any financial problem is: 

borrow money if you have to from your parents

Mitt Romney and other Republican candidates will tell you, if you need money for anything, why just borrow it from your parents.

For instance, if you’re young and you want to start your own business, Romney has some advice from you: Borrow money from your parents. At a “lecture” for students at Otterbein University in Ohio, Mitt Romney told students that his friend started a business by borrowing $20,000 from his parents at a low interest rate. Romney suggested anyone in the audience could do the same:

This kind of devisiveness, this attack of success, is very different than what we’ve seen in our country’s history. We’ve always encouraged young people: Take a shot, go for it, take a risk, get the education, borrow money if you have to from your parents, start a business.

That flippant advice fits right into the characterization that Romney and the Republican Party are completely out of touch with regular people. They don't even realize that most students don’t have parents with $20,000 in disposable capital sitting around to give to their kids to start a business--or to keep them and their families from being homeless.

This country has taken a terrible downslide since Reagan and his "trickle-down Reaganomics" became the rule in our country.  Deregulation of corporations, leading to obscene wealth for the richest--and poverty for the middle class and already poor are the result. Greed without compassion is the legacy of Reagan and the ilk that followed him.  That ilk now rules the John Roberts Supreme Court, which gave us Citizens United in their 2010 decision allowing unlimited corporate and union spending on political issues.  Americans have now been told, as Mitt Romney said, "Corporations are people, my friend."   In that act, the Supreme Court endorsed corporate personhood -- holding that business firms have rights to all personal freedoms, including even religious freedom under federal law. Not only do corporations have rights, but because they also have much more money and lobbyists to buy what they want, their rights are stronger than yours.

Thanks, Republicans, for all the "freedoms" you claim to cherish.  Seems the cherishing goes only as far as freedoms for corporations and the wealthiest citizens.  The cutoff comes at personal freedoms for the middle class and the poor.


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Vitamin D for Multiple Sclerosis and Parkinson's -- new studies

Much good information in this article for MS patients, as well as Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, cardiac patients and asthma sufferers--and others.  New studies are identifying Vitamin D deficiencies prevalent in these groups.  Read entire article at link below -- I've excerpted just a few paragraphs...

Can This "Hopeless" Disease Be Treated with a Simple Nutrient? 
It's long been considered a hopeless disease with few treatment options, with the typical prescription focusing on highly toxic medications. However, research over the past few years suggests it may be improved by this simple, everyday nutrient.

EXCERPT:  Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic, neurodegenerative disease of the nerves in your brain and spinal column, caused through a demyelization process. It has long been considered a “hopeless” disease with few treatment options.

The typical prescription for MS focuses on highly toxic medications like prednisone and interferon. However, research over the past few years suggests MS may be improved using a number of natural methods—including vitamin D.

Most recently, a study presented at this year’s annual meeting of the American Association of Neuromuscular and Electrodiagnostic Medicine (AANEM) shows that vitamin D deficiency is surprisingly prevalent both among those diagnosed with MS, and patients suffering other neuromuscular conditions.

Here, vitamin D deficiency was defined as a 25(OH)D3 level of 30ng/ml or less. Of patients diagnosed with a neuromuscular condition, 48 percent were deficient in vitamin D. Only 14 percent were above “normal,” which here constituted a vitamin D level of 40 ng/ml. According to one of the authors:

“While the connection between vitamin D deficiency and neurologic disease is likely complex and not yet fully understood, this study may prompt physicians to consider checking vitamin D levels in their patients with neurologic conditions and supplementing when necessary.”

Besides this one, about a dozen other studies have also noted a strong link between MS and vitamin D deficiency. For example, a number of studies have confirmed that your risk of MS increases the farther away you live from the equator, suggesting lack of sun exposure amplifies your risk.

Optimizing your vitamin D level is of great importance if you have MS, but it’s not the only factor. For additional treatment suggestions, please see previous article discussing natural MS treatment guidelines.


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Sunday, November 16, 2014

Big Pharma are CRIMINALS for What They Are Doing to Americans

GREED has taken over our society -- and we are all paying a huge price--one way or another.  Do you ever wonder how many people have died from misprescribed drugs and/or the taking of several prescribed drugs at the same time, the "mixing-and-matching" that goes on because one or more of the drugs didn't do what they were "supposed" to?  I do.  I'll bet the number is in the hundreds of thousands or millions!  Read the following article and weep along with me at the loss of common sense and the rise of greed....

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/11/the-most-popular-drug-in-america-is-an-antipsychotic-and-no-one-really-knows-how-it-works/

EXCERPT: 
It’s called polypharmacy and it is increasingly popular: Prescribing several drugs, often as a cocktail, that are supposed to do more than the drugs do alone. Big Pharma likes polypharmacy for two obvious reasons: drug sales are tripled or quadrupled—and it’s not possible to know if the drugs are working. The problems with polypharmacy parallel its “benefits.” The person can’t know which, if any, of the drugs are working so they take them all. By the time someone is on four or more psychiatric drugs, there is a good chance they are on a government program and we are paying. There is also a good chance the person is on the drugs for life, because withdrawal reactions make them think there really is something wrong with them and it is hard to quit the drugs.

Into this lucrative merchandising model came the idea of “add-on” medications and “treatment-resistant depression.” When someone’s antidepressant didn’t work, Pharma marketers began floating the idea that it wasn’t that the drugs didn’t work; it wasn’t that the person wasn’t depressed to begin with but had real life, job and family problems—it was “treatment-resistant depression.” The person needed to add a second or third drug to their antidepressant, such as Seroquel or Abilify. KA-CHING.


THE MOST POPULAR DRUG IN AMERICA IS AN ANTI-PSYCHOTIC AND NO ONE KNOWS HOW IT REALLY WORKS
Alternet

Does anyone remember Thorazine? It was an anti-psychotic given to mentally ill people, often in institutions, that was so sedating, it gave rise to the term “Thorazine shuffle.” Ads for Thorazine in medical journals, before drugs were advertised directly to patients, showed Aunt Hattie in a hospital gown, zoned out but causing no trouble to herself or anyone else. No wonder Thorazine and related drugs Haldol, Mellaril and Stelazine were called chemical straitjackets.

But Thorazine and similar drugs became close to obsolete in 1993 when a second generation of anti-psychotics which included Risperdal, Zyprexa, Seroquel, Geodon and Abilify came online. Called “atypical” antipsychotics, the drugs seemed to have fewer side effects than their predecessors like dry mouth, constipation and the stigmatizing and permanent facial tics known as TD or tardive dyskinesia. (In actuality, they were similar.) More importantly, the drugs were obscenely expensive: 100 tablets of Seroquel cost as much as $2,000, Zyprexa, $1,680 and Abilify $1,644.

One drug that is a close cousin of Thorazine, Abilify, is currently the top-selling of all prescription drugs in the U.S. marketed as a supplement to antidepressant drugs, reports the Daily Beast. Not only is it amazing that an anti-psychotic is outselling all other drugs, no one even knows how it works to relieve depression, writes Jay Michaelson. The standardized United States Product Insert says Abilify’s method of action is “unknown” but it likely “balances” brain’s neurotransmitters. But critics say anti-psychotics don’t treat anything at all, but zone people out and produce oblivion. They also say there is a concerning rise in the prescription of anti-psychotics for routine complaints like insomnia.

They are right. With new names and prices and despite their unknown methods of action, Pharma marketers have devised ways to market drugs like Abilify to the whole population, not just people with severe mental illness. Only one percent of the population, after all, has schizophrenia and only 2.5 percent has bipolar disorder. Thanks to these marketing ploys, Risperdal was the seventh best-selling drug in the world until it went off patent and Abilify currently rules.

Here are some of the ways Big Pharma made antipsychotics everyday drugs.

Approval Creep

Everyone has heard of “mission creep.” In the pharmaceutical world, approval creep means getting the FDA to approve a drug for one thing and pushing a lot of other drug approvals through on the coattails of the first one. Though the atypical anti-psychotics were originally drugs for schizophrenia, soon there was a dazzling array of new uses.

Seroquel was first approved in 1997 for schizophrenia but subsequently approved for bipolar disorder, psychiatric conditions in children and finally as an add-on drug for depression like Abilify. The depression “market” is so huge, Seroquel’s last approval allowed the former schizophrenia drug to make $5.3 billion a year before it went off patent. But before the add-on approval, AstraZeneca, which makes Seroquel, ran a sleazy campaign to convince depressed people they were really “bipolar.” Ads showed an enraged woman screaming into the phone, her face contorted, her teeth clenched. Is this you, asked the ads? Your depression may really be bipolar disorder, warned the ad.

Sometimes the indication creep is under the radar. After heated FDA hearings in 2009 about extending Zyprexa, Seroquel and Geodon uses for kids–Pfizer and AstraZeneca slides showed that kids died in clinical trials–the uses were added by the FDA but never announced. They were slipped into the record right before Christmas, when no news breaks, and recorded as “label changes.” Sneaky.

And there is another “creep” which is also under the radar: “warning creep.” As atypical anti-psychotics have gone into wide use in the population, more risks have surfaced. Labels now warn against death-associated risks in the elderly, children and people with depression but you have to really read the fine print. (Atypical anti-psychotics are so dangerous in the elderly with dementia, at least 15,000 die in nursing homes from them each year, charged FDA drug reviewer David Graham in congressional testimony.) The Seroquel label now warns against cardiovascular risks, which the FDA denied until the drug was almost off patent.

Dosing Children (OUTRAGEOUS!!!!)

Perhaps no drugs but ADHD medications have been so widely used and often abused in children as atypical anti-psychotics. Atypical anti-psychotics are known to “improve” behavior in problem children across a broad range of diagnoses but at a huge price: A National Institute of Mental Health study of 119 children ages 8 to 19 found Risperdal and Zyprexa caused such obesity a safety panel ordered the children off the drugs.

In only eight weeks, kids on Risperdal gained nine pounds and kids on Zyprexa gained 13 pounds. “Kids at school were making fun of me,” said one study participant who put on 35 pounds while taking Risperdal.

Just like the elderly in state care, poor children on Medicaid are tempting targets for Big Pharma and sleazy operators because they do not make their own medication decisions. In 2008, the state ofTexas charged Johnson & Johnson subsidiary Janssen with defrauding the state of millions with “a sophisticated and fraudulent marketing scheme,” to “secure a spot for the drug, Risperdal, on the state’s Medicaid preferred drug list and on controversial medical protocols that determine which drugs are given to adults and children in state custody.”

Many other states have brought legal action against Big Pharma including compelling drug makers to pay for the extreme side effects that develop with the drugs: i.e., massive weight gain, blood sugar changes leading to diabetes and cholesterol problems.

Add-On Conditions

It’s called polypharmacy and it is increasingly popular: Prescribing several drugs, often as a cocktail, that are supposed to do more than the drugs do alone. Big Pharma likes polypharmacy for two obvious reasons: drug sales are tripled or quadrupled—and it’s not possible to know if the drugs are working. The problems with polypharmacy parallel its “benefits.” The person can’t know which, if any, of the drugs are working so they take them all. By the time someone is on four or more psychiatric drugs, there is a good chance they are on a government program and we are paying. There is also a good chance the person is on the drugs for life, because withdrawal reactions make them think there really is something wrong with them and it is hard to quit the drugs.

Into this lucrative merchandising model came the idea of “add-on” medications and “treatment-resistant depression.” When someone’s antidepressant didn’t work, Pharma marketers began floating the idea that it wasn’t that the drugs didn’t work; it wasn’t that the person wasn’t depressed to begin with but had real life, job and family problems—it was “treatment-resistant depression.” The person needed to add a second or third drug to their antidepressant, such as Seroquel or Abilify. Ka-ching.

Lawsuits Don’t Stop Unethical Marketing

Just as Big Pharma has camped out in Medicare and Medicaid, living on our tax dollars while fleeing to England so it doesn’t have to pay taxes, Pharma has also camped out in the Department of Defense and Veterans Affairs. Arguably, no drugs have been as good for Big Pharma as atypical anti-psychotics within the military. In 2009, the Pentagon spent $8.6 million on Seroquel and VA spent $125.4 million—almost $30 million more than is spent on a F/A-18 Hornet.

Risperdal was even bigger in the military. Over a period of nine years, VA spent $717 million on its generic, risperidone, to treat PTSD in troops in Afghanistan and Iraq. Yet not only was risperidone not approved for PTSD, it didn’t even work. A 2011 study in the Journal of the American Medical Association found the drug worked no better than placebo and the money was totally wasted.

In the last few years, the makers of Risperdal, Seroquel and Zyprexa have all settled suits claiming illegal or fraudulent marketing. A year ago, Johnson & Johnson admitted mismarketing Risperdal in a $2.2 billion settlement. But the penalty is nothing compared with the $24.2 billion it made from selling Risperdal between 2003 to 2010 and shareholders didn’t blink. The truth is, there is too much money in hawking atypical anti-psychotics to the general population for Pharma to quit.


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Saturday, November 15, 2014

Good Essay

Barbara H. Peterson

Think about it. The world around us has been carefully crafted as an illusion to keep us from realizing the truth.

Illusion is built on a phony belief system

We are taught to believe that sickness is inevitable, and that doctors can cure us of that sickness using drugs concocted in a lab. For a price. There is always a price.

We are taught to hate certain people because of their beliefs, the color of their skin, their gender, height, weight, the way that they walk, the way they talk, and the way that they look.

We are taught that we need to have certain things to be happy. That material wealth will make us better than our neighbors and deserving of praise.

We are taught that there is only one way to win, and that is to beat the other person.

We live in a bubble, surrounded by biases that form our reality. And it is a cage. The bars consist of thoughts designed to enslave us to corporations that relentlessly suck the life blood out of us. Thoughts that keep us docile and happy in our confinement. We are drugged by the media, lied to by fancy politicians and those who would be friends, experimented on by war-mongers and chemical companies, then thrown to the wolves when we try to fight back.

We are trained to be obedient consumers.

We are trained to never question authority and to toe the party line. And we willingly comply, because if we don’t we won’t receive our next treat.

Woof! I’m a good little doggie. May I please have a bone?

A love for the truth is built on breaking free from that belief system

Breaking free starts with one bar in the cage. The first lie that is discovered and dismantled. And the illusion starts unraveling.

The real shocker is just how deep the lies go. How fully entrenched our world is in lies, deceit, trickery, greed and outright malice. A tangled web of false beliefs that bind us, undone by one strand of truth, leading to another, to another, until the cage entrapping us is all but transparent.

Until we commit to finding and hanging onto that which is true, we live in a constant state of psychosis, unable to recognize the truth if it ran up, bit us on the arse, and trampled us with all four feet. We remain happily ignorant. And controlled. And powerless to escape the cage.

If we are determined to break free, then we must stand. To declare the truth that we find, and live by it. To refuse to compromise integrity, self esteem, honor, compassion and life for a temporary fix of gratification.

Woof! I’m a dog that has found the stash and won’t settle for your handouts anymore.

And it’s contagious. The truth, that is. It is the thread that holds all of creation together. It is the mother ship, the standard, the crown jewel. It will never let you down because it is the firm foundation. The rock.

There is no debating the truth. There is no compromising with it. The truth is the truth. Lies bounce off of it, ineffective. It is the one and only thing we can count on. Everything else is shifting sand. Everything else is the lie. The cage. The entrapment. And once you commit to the truth, there is no going back.

Let freedom ring.

©2014 Barbara H. Peterson

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Friday, November 14, 2014

Want to know truth about UFOs? - Read these quotes

from astronauts and government officials in the know, who think it is high time the rest of us are told the truth:


The Cover-up: UFOs

Mercury & Gemini Astronaut, Colonel Gordon Cooper

A saucer flew right over, put down three landing gears, and landed on the dry lakebed. [The cameramen] went out there with their cameras towards the UFO. It lifted off and flew off at a very high rate of speed. ... I had a chance to hold [the film] up to the window. Good close-up shots. There was no doubt that it was made someplace other than on this earth. pp.  226-227. See also Gordon Cooper & Bruce Henderson, Leap of Faith: An Astronaut's Journey into the Unknown, pp. 80-91.  For more, click here.

Apollo 14 Astronaut, Edgar Mitchell, Ph.D. (Aeronautics, MIT, sixth man to walk on moon)
Yes, there have been ET visitations. There have been crashed craft. There have been material and bodies recovered. There has been a certain amount of reverse engineering that has allowed some of these craft, or some components, to be duplicated. And there is some group of people that may or may not be associated with government at this point that have this knowledge. They have been attempting to conceal this knowledge. People in high level government have very little, if any, valid information about this. It has been the subject of disinformation in order to deflect attention and create confusion so the truth doesn't come out. pp. 61-64.  See also The Way of the Explorer, Edgar Mitchell, Dwight Williams, p. 212.  For more, click here.

Director of CIA, Admiral R.H. Hillenkoetter
It is time for the truth to be brought out in open Congressional hearings. Behind the scenes, high-ranking Air Force officers are soberly concerned about UFOs. But through official secrecy and ridicule, citizens are led to believe the unknown flying objects are nonsense. To hide the facts, the Air Force has silenced its personnel. p. 58, quoted from New York Times, February 28, 1960, p. L30.  Click here to see original archived article.

FAA Chief of Accidents and Investigations, John Callahan
The UFO was bouncing around the 747. [It] was a huge ball with lights running around it. ... Well, I've been involved in a lot of cover-ups with the FAA. When we gave the presentation to the Reagan staff, they had all those people swear that this never happened. But they never had me swear it never happened. I can tell you what I've seen with my own eyes. I've got a videotape. I've got the voice tape. I've got the reports that were filed that will confirm what I've been telling you. pp. 80 - 85.  For more, click here.

United Kingdom Chief of Defense (1971 - 73), Admiral Lord Peter Hill-Norton
I have frequently been asked why a person of my background – a former Chief of the Defense Staff, a former Chairman of the NATO Military Committee – why I think there is a cover-up [of] the facts about UFOs. Governments fear that if they did disclose those facts, people would panic. I don't believe that at all. I've said so in print. There is a serious possibility that we are being visited by people from outer space. It behooves us to find out who they are, where they come from, and what they want. pp. 305 - 307.   For more, click here.

US Navy Pilot, Frederick Fox
Publication JANAP 146E has a section that says you will not reveal any information regarding the UFO phenomenon under penalty of $10,000 fine and ten years in jail. So the secret has been kept. pp. 145, 146.

UFO Message:  Don't Mess With Nuclear Weapons

US Air Force, FAA, Captain Robert Salas

[The security guard called and] said, "Sir, there's a glowing red object hovering right outside the front gate. I've got all the men out here with their weapons drawn." We lost between 16 to 18 ICBMs [intercontinental nuclear missile warheads] at the same time UFOs were in the area and were observed by airmen. ... [A high-ranking Air Force Officer] said, "Stop the investigation; do no more on this and do not write a final report." I heard that many of the guards that reported this incident were sent off to Viet Nam. pp. 168-171. For more, click here.

US Air Force, Professor Robert Jacobs
So this thing [UFO] fires a beam of light at the warhead, hits it and then it moves to the other side and fires another beam of light. And the warhead tumbles out of space. What message would I interpret from that?  [The UFOs were telling us] don't mess with nuclear warheads. ... Major Mannsman said, "You are never to speak of this again." After an article [about the incident years later], I would get phone calls all night long. People would call and start screaming at me. One night somebody blew up my mailbox. pp. 184, 187.  

More Cover-up:  Advanced Technologies Developed from UFOs

Russian Air Force, Space Communications Center, General Vasily Alexeyev
As a rule, [places where UFOs appear] are objects of strategic significance. ... [The Air Force] came up with a table with pictures of all the shapes of UFOs that had ever been recorded – about fifty – ranging from ellipses and spheres to something resembling spaceships. ... The study of UFOs may reveal some new forms of energy, or at least bring us closer to a solution. pp. 345–347.  For more, click here.

US Air Force, Intelligence Operative, Master Sergeant Dan Morris
UFOs are both extraterrestrial and manmade. ... It's not that our government doesn't want us to know that there are people on other planets. What the people in power don't want us to know is that this free energy [from energy generators developed with UFO technology] is available to everybody. So secrecy about the UFOs is because of the energy issue. When this knowledge is found out by the people, they will demand that our government release this technology, and it will change the world. pp.  364.  For more, click here.

US Army, Colonel Thomas E. Bearden
Probably 50 inventors have invented [virtually free energy systems]. If we use these systems, we can clean up this biosphere. But, what we have is a situation where the entire structure of science, industry, and the patent office are against you. I've been a victim of quite a bit of suppression. And behind this, we have a few people who are quite wealthy. The more powerful the agency, the more they will resort not only to legal, but to extra-legal means to suppress their competition. pp. 534 – 542. See also www.cheniere.org.  

The Grand War Plan:  It's All Based on a Lie

Fairchild Industries Corporate Manager, Von Braun's Spokesperson, Dr. Carol Rosin
[In 1974, founder of modern rocket science Wernher] Von Braun told me that the reasons for space-based weaponry were all based on a lie. He said the strategy was to use scare tactics – that first the Russians, then terrorists are going to be considered the enemy. The next enemy was asteroids. "The last card is the alien card.  We are going to have to build space-based weapons against aliens, and all of it is a lie." ... I was at a meeting in Fairchild Industries in the War Room. The conversation [was] about how they were going to antagonize these enemies and at some point, there was going to be a Gulf War. Now this is 1977! pp. 255-259. See www.peaceinspace.com.  For more, click here.


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Pope continues his plans for new Catholic Church: showers for the homeless

Pope Francis plans to build showers for the homeless

Updated

Pope Francis reportedly is working on plans to build showers for homeless men and women in Vatican City, his latest move to change the public’s expectations of the Catholic Church and to ease some residents’ suffering.

The pope’s chief alms-giver, Monsignor Konrad Krajewski, told The Associated Press that three showers will be installed in the public restrooms in St. Peter’s Square, the plaza directly in front of St. Peter’s Basilica, to help individuals who are homeless. The idea allegedly stemmed from Krajewski’s encounter with a homeless man who declined the charity provider’s offer to celebrate his 50th birthday at a restaurant because of his odor.

RELATED: Progressive Catholics hail Pope Francis’ position on social issues

Francis, the first Jesuit to assume the role of pontiff, succeeded Pope Benedict XVI last year and promised to change the ways the Vatican conducts business. He has broken with his predecessors several times, saying the church cannot insist only on issues related to abortion, gay marriage, and the use of contraceptives, and asking, “Who am I to judge?” in response to reports of gay clergy members. The Catholic leader was named “Person of the Year” last year by TIME magazine. He even posed for a selfie with youths during a meeting in St. Peter’s Basilica last year.

On Thursday, Francis warned leaders preparing to gather at the G20 Leaders’ Summit this weekend against unchecked consumerism that can damage the planet. In a letter he sent to Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott, chair of the upcoming conference, the pope pointed out that people around the world are unemployed and suffering from malnutrition.

“I would ask the G20 heads of state and government not to forget that many lives are at stake behind these political and technical discussions, and it would indeed be regrettable if such discussions were to remain purely on the level of declarations of principle,” he wrote. “There are constant assaults on the natural environment, the result of unbridled consumerism, and this will have serious consequences for the world economy.”

In an unprecedented move, Francis last week demoted the highest-ranking American at the Vatican. Cardinal Raymond Burke was removed from the church’s highest court to become the chaplain of the Knights of Malta, a Vatican charity group, after he vocally opposed the religious establishment’s recent progressive moves. His new position holds almost no responsibilities.

In October, Francis made a significant rhetorical break with Catholic tradition by declaring that the theories of evolution and the Big Bang are real, and remarking that God is not “a magician with a magic wand.” He explained that both evolution and the Big Bang are not incompatible with the existence of God. In fact, he said, they “require it.”

MORE DETAILS ABOUT JOHN PAUL I's DEATH
Sister Vicenza found the Holy Father dead at approximately 4:45 a.m. on September 29, 1978 and was forced to keep silent by the Secretariat of State, Cardinal Villot, who imposed a vow of silence upon her to cover up the whole affair. The secretaries were likewise forbidden to advise anyone of the events without Cardinal Villot's authorization.  A trustworthy person conveyed to Fr. Saez personally that Sister Vicenza had said, "But the world must know the truth."

Sister Vicenza gave two conflicting reports concerning the state that she first found Pope John Paul I. According to her breathless words to a group of French priests that same morning, it was "in his bathroom" that she had "found him dead."  Yet another report (no doubt arranged by Cardinal Villot), says that Sister Vicenza entered the room and found the Pope sitting up in bed, "with an expression of agony" before he died.  This discrepancy is very important: if it was determined that Sister Vicenza found the Holy Father dead in the bathroom, still in his papal robes, this would indicate that Pope John Paul I died shortly after his champagne "toast" with Cardinal Villot the night of September 28, 1978.

David Yallop reconstructs the actions of Cardinal Villot and paints a very suspicious portrait. It is reported that at 5:00 a.m. Cardinal Villot confirmed the Holy Father's death. The Pope's glasses, slippers, and will disappeared, "none of these items has ever been seen again." Speculation is that there may have been vomit on the slippers, which if examined would identify poison as the cause of death.
    
Cardinal Villot (or an aide) telephoned the embalmers and a Vatican car was sent to fetch them. Incredibly, the car was at their door at 5:00 a.m.! What ensued in the following hour is still a mystery.
It was not until 6:00 a.m. that Dr. Buzzonati (not Professor Fontana, the head of the Vatican medical service), arrived and confirmed the death, without drawing up a death certificate. Dr. Buzzonati attributed the death to acute myocardial infarction (heart attack).
    
At about 6:30 a.m. Villot began to inform the cardinals, an hour and a half after the embalmers had arrived!  Yallop notes that, for Cardinal Villot, the embalmers took precedence over the cardinals and the head of the Vatican medical service.  By 6 p.m. that evening, the Papal Apartments had been entirely polished and washed. Yallop writes that the secretaries packed up and carried away the Pope's clothes, "including his letters, notes, books and a small handful of personal mementos.... By 6:00 p.m., the entire 19 rooms of the Papal Apartments were totally bereft of anything remotely associated with the Papacy of Luciani."
    
Villot arranged for the embalming to be performed that evening, a procedure as unusual as it was illegal. Why the rush?  It is also reported that during the embalming it was insisted that no blood was to be drained from the body, and neither were any of the organs to be removed. Yallop notes that "a small quantity of blood would of course have been more than sufficient for a forensic scientist to establish the presence of any poisonous substances."  

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