Männer jagen, Frauen sammeln. Zwar längst nicht mehr Beeren und Nüsse, sondern eher Taschen oder Schuhe. Ich für meinen Teil sammle derzeit Steine. Na ja, Sie wissen schon. Ich bin geradezu berufen, mit meinen Buben an der nationalen Steinsammlung mitzumachen. Wir alle können von der Aktion nur profitieren. Für den Grossen ist sie pädagogisch wertvoll, da er laut Initianten «die Schweiz auf spielerische Art entdecken kann». Es dauert mich nur, seinen Elan zu dämpfen, wenn er beim Anblick des Neuenburger Steins lauthals die italienische Hymne anstimmt, die ihm Nonno diesen Sommer beigebracht hat. Der Kleine trainiert mit dem Sammelgut nicht nur seine Feinmotorik, sondern er lebt auch seine Arglist aus, indem er die Klötzli unter dem Sofa verschwinden lässt, wo sie dann – dem Jagdtrieb des Familienoberhaupts sei Dank – mittels Staubsauger wieder aufgestöbert werden.

Sogar ich habe beim Lösen der Quizfragen, um den begehrten Jokerstein zu gewinnen, viel gelernt: etwa, dass Roger Federer in Münchenstein BL lesen und schreiben gelernt hat. Nun wird uns ausgerechnet Baselland zum Verhängnis! Nach 1,3 Kilo gesammelten Steinen fehlt uns immer noch der rote Krummstab! Obwohl wir einer fleissigen Sammlergemeinschaft angehören, ist es uns noch nicht gelungen, die Sammlung damit zu vervollständigen. Wir könnten zwar die fehlende Trophäe online ersteigern oder an einer Börse eintauschen. Aber wir wollen das Ziel aus eigener Kraft erreichen.

Eine Manie ist eben eine Manie. Allen Unkenrufen zum Trotz habe ich die Aktion bisher verteidigt. Jetzt aber kippt meine Stimmung. Ich glaube genauso wenig an die Erklärung meines Mannes, dies habe mit einem Zürcher Boykott von Bebbi-Steinen zu tun wie dass die Steine auf dem Seeweg von China kommend die Überquerung der Läckerli-Linie nicht geschafft haben. Kann man es mir verübeln, wenn ich argwöhne, das Ganze sei eben doch ein umsatzsteigernder Bschiss? Ein richtiger Lilibschiss?

The HeART Auction has been launched! It is now up and running here: http://myworld.ebay.com/iowajulz/
To donate items to this auction please email give2manie@yahoo.com.

UPDATE – AUCTION HERE: http://myworld.ebay.com/iowajulz/

Attention Art Lovers!

You may know the story of Manie, the baby born with Transposition of the Great Arteries (video link – see also: footage of Manie crying after his air tube was removed – mom unable to hold him as a newborn -  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OHuCMcnihj8). The family has a case pending against GSK for Manie’s heart defect caused by Paxil, a case which is not moving quickly… and medical travel expenses for Manie are hitting the family hard.

Currently dad Russell is looking for work and Julie is unable to work due to caring for Manie and her other kids. The family is now auctioning off some of their artwork. Check back for updates and additional photos, paintings, and other artwork being submitted for auction.

Ten percent of the sales will be donated back to the UNITE / MADNAP cause for public awareness to help save other babies. For more information on how we utilize donations send an email to amy@uniteforlife.org.

To donate commissioned artwork or other goods to this auction, contact Julie & Russell at give2manie@yahoo.com.

We welcome artwork by children or adults, professional or not. Any other items you would like to donate to the family for an auction, as well as direct monetary donations, are appreciated. The auction will most likely run on eBay through December 25.

Here are some samples of the amazing artwork by Julie & Russell (stay tuned for updates):

Who’s America
http://wp.me/phViU-vK

Tattoo
http://wp.me/shViU-tattoo

..și la ce să nu te aștepți! Voi încerca să fiu scurt: am pornit blogul acesta pentru că e timpul să am și eu un blog personal, să-mi spun oful când simt nevoia, să scriu ce-am mai descoperit când sunt super entuziasmat de descoperire, să mai public câte o bucată de cod inventat de mine, sau să mai explic diverse lucruri.. dar nu te aștepta la un blog de tutoriale sau de coduri sursă!

Și poate, cine știe, în viitorul nu prea depărtat voi face ceva mai mult și mai mare din acest blog, un loc cu mai mulți autori, fiecare scrie despre maniile lui, ce-l pasionează, dă sfaturi, ș.a.m.d. Who knows ?

Uneori imi doresc sa pot iesi din ambianta asta absolut haotica, sa plec, sa ies, sa evadez in propria-mi creatie. Ceea ce ne-a fost dat, ni s-a luat inapoi. Ceea ce am vrut sa oferim ne-a fost refuzat. Nimeni si nimic nu poate opri existenta balantei cu inclinatie nedefinita pentru ca probabil aceasta ori e prea slaba si nu reuseste sa tina greutatile, talerele atingand pamantul, ori greutatile defapt nu exista fiind decat niste utopii, astfel obiectul ramanand in total repaus.

Suntem niste adieri ale trecutului, fiecare suflet tanjeste dupa mai departe, insa adierile, in slabiciunea lor, nu ajung departe… Suntem ochii ce se straduiesc a nu lacrima intreaga viata, dar sfarsesc prin a inmuia obraji in tristete sau furie. Suntem cei ce aclama venirea mantuirii ca apoi s-o denigreze. Suntem noi… Suntem aceia care tanjesc dupa dragostea adevarata, fara a deschide indeajuns de mult inima si mintea spre a o cauta si nu a o astepta.

Nimic?! Niciodata sa nu spui ca n-ai nimic. Intotdeauna ai ceva. Fie ca ai suparari apasatoare, fie ca ai un zambet care te poarta mai departe, fie ca te ai doar pe tine si tot ai ceva. Tot avem ceva…

Mânie… Energia ce vrea sa ţâşneasca din rădăcinile existenţei mele pentru a definitiva presiunea gândurilor, sângerândul psihic.

2012. Nibiru şi-a făcut efectul. Tot Pământul este pârjolit, zguduit de cutremure, înecat de inundaţii catastrofale care au ras oraşe întregi, uraganele sunt zilnic peste tot. Mada şi Ave sunt singurii doi oameni care au scăpat de la prăpăd, ascunşi în crăpătura unei stânci…

1) Mada este lesbiană, Ave este homosexual. Se vor sacrifica pentru salvarea rasei umane, hotărând să aibe copii împreună. Sau nu, pentru că nu se iubesc…

2) Mada este tatăl Avei. Sunt creştini (habotnici, ar spune unii). Rasa umană va pieri? Nu, dar Mada se va sinucide după ce Ave va avea al doilea copil (un băiat şi o fată). Ave, după ce copiii îi vor fi făcut primul nepot. Creştinii se sacrifică mai spectaculos. (Erau posibile şi alte variante, care implicau o mamă, dar din cauza unei înjurături foarte uzuale în filmele din ziua de azi, şi anume “you crazy m…r”, am preferat-o pe aceasta, ca să fie totul mai curat-murder.)

3) Mada şi Ave sunt fraţi, ambii gay. Rasa umana mai bine ar pieri… Dar nu, ei se sacrifică, deşi nu se iubesc (romantic vorbind), deşi-la-pătrat sunt fraţi (dar nu se iubesc nici ca fraţi).

4) Mada şi Ave sunt de acelaşi sex, dar numai unul este gay. Acela îl violează pe celălalt, în mod total inutil, dar satisfăcător. Cel violat constată că nu a fost chiar neplăcut, şi devin un cuplu sudat de vânători-culegători fără urmaşi.

În primele trei scenarii omenirea are o şansă, şi nu este nevoie de iubire romantică, de suflete pereche, love-love-love, ci de sacrificiu. Dar de ce să te sacrifici fără iubire? Pentru cine să te sacrifici? Are sacrificiul fără iubire vreun rost? Nu cred că ştie nimeni, deocamdată. Te poţi sacrifica pentru ceea ce ar fi trebuit să fii, dar nu eşti, în speranţa că vei deveni. Asta fac şi călugării, pustnicii, pelerinii, autoflagelanţii, stâlpnicii… Asta ar trebui să facem toţi? 2012 se apropie…

ISAIA 53:10

Cornilescu
Domnul a găsit cu cale să-L zdrobească prin suferinţă… Dar, după ce-şi va da viaţa ca jertfă pentru păcat, va vedea o sămînţă de urmaşi, va trăi multe zile, şi lucrarea Domnului va propăşi în mînile Lui.

NTR
DOMNUL însă a vrut să-L zdrobească prin suferinţă.
Dar după ce Îşi va da viaţa ca jertfă pentru păcat,
Îşi va vedea urmaşii şi va trăi multe zile, iar voia DOMNULUI va propăşi prin El.

Ebraica modernă
ויהוה חפץ דכאו
החלי אם־תשים אשם
נפשו יראה זרע
יאריך ימים וחפץ
יהוה בידו יצלח׃

Hebrew Transliterated
VYHVH ChPhTSh DK’aV HChLY ‘aM-ThShYM ‘aShM NPhShV YUr’aH ZUr’y Y’aUrYK YMYM VChPhTSh YHVH BYDV YTShLCh.

H2654
חפץ
châphêts
khaw-fates’
A primitive root; properly to incline to; by implication (literally but rarely) to bend; figuratively to be pleased with, desire: – X any at all, (have, take) delight, desire, favour, like, move, be (well) pleased, have pleasure, will, would.

H2656
חפץ
chêphets
khay’-fets
From H2654; pleasure; hence (abstractly) desire; concretely a valuable thing; hence (by extension) a matter (as something in mind): – acceptable, delight (-some), desire, things desired, matter, pleasant (-ure), purpose, willingly.

Latin Vulgate
53:10 et Dominus voluit conterere eum in infirmitate si posuerit pro peccato animam suam videbit semen longevum et voluntas Domini in manu eius dirigetur

Young Literal Translation
And Jehovah hath delighted to bruise him, He hath made him sick, If his soul doth make an offering for guilt, He seeth seed — he prolongeth days, And the pleasure of Jehovah in his hand doth prosper.

Louis Segond (1910)
Il a plu à l’Eternel de le briser par la souffrance… Après avoir livré sa vie en sacrifice pour le péché, Il verra une postérité et prolongera ses jours; Et l’oeuvre de l’Eternel prospérera entre ses mains.

Omul este făcut pentru suferinţă. Sau pentru o ciudată lucrare, o lucrare grea şi dureroasă, pe care însă ar trebui s-o facă cu plăcere, s-o poarte ca pe un jug uşor. Poate că omul a fost creat pentru fericire şi plăcere (dar — iarăşi poate – nicidecum propria sa fericire sau plăcere). Voinţa lui Dumnezeu îl zdrobeşte, îl răneşte şi-l schilodeşte zi de zi, prin confruntare cu propria sa voinţă, derizorie, de plăcere mai mult sau mai puţin sublimată. Sau, dimpotrivă, îl înalţă, îl bucură şi-l cheamă la comuniune. Isus, Dumnezeu Fiul, a găsit plăcere în a face voia Tatălui până la capăt, oricât de dură părea jertfa care I s-a cerut. Care Şi-a cerut-o Sieşi. Pentru a ne arăta cât de importante, deşi nedesluşite nouă, I se par Lui regulile după care totul se face, se schimbă, se trăieşte, se dăruieşte şi se consumă. Pentru a ne convinge să-I fim urmaşi, să-L urmăm pe o cale, strâmtă şi periculoasă, pe care nu o prea pricepem, făcând o lucrare cu sfârşit dincolo de timp, dar având o singură miză: plăcerea Lui. Mortificarea noastră – sau bucuria noastră.

Creştinilor obişnuiţi nu le place să audă ce I-ar plăcea lui Dumnezeu, ce fel de viaţă ar trebui, poate, să ducă, ba chiar să suporte ca pe o chinuitoare povară. Cei care aduc tuturor aminte de jug, de chin, de jertfă, de sânge şi sudoare, de vină şi păcat, de pedeapsă, sunt consideraţi fundamentalişti. Cei care aduc aminte tuturor de cât de uşor ar trebui să fie jugul, de dragoste, de iertare, de fericirea de a trăi şi a fi om în lumea asta pe care unii o văd câteodată minunată, sunt consideraţi de ceilalţi rătăciţi, uneori liberali sau postmodernişti distructivi. Cale de mijloc nu există, pentru că nu e Calea. Mereu şi mereu vedem orbi care călăuzesc alţi orbi, sau jurăm că vedem unica lumină călăuzitoare pe adevărata şi singura cale, uitând că toate Îi sunt cu putinţă. Faceţi şi trăiţi numai aşa, veţi primi (la urmă, în nici un caz acum) răsplata, altfel vă aşteaptă pedeapsa. Chinul veşnic, iadul, iazul de foc, a doua moarte, sau veşnicia fără El, eventual chiar un cancer sau o paralizie — dacă ar fi un pic de dreptate pe pământ, dar mai e timp… Faceţi voia Lui cu-, şi de plăcere, faceţi-I Lui plăcerea, chiar şi dacă asta vă face plăcere — nu e nimic rău în asta, voluptatea suferinţei nu e singura plăcere pe care El ne-o îngăduie aici. Nu fiţi ca Iona, nu e neapărat necesar să urâţi lumea, lumea conţine oameni pe care ar trebui să-i iubim, animale de care ar trebui să ne pese, lucruri şi fiinţe de care am putea să ne ataşăm, conştient, patetic şi perisabil, sub semnul viermelui care nu moare, dar poate omorî, uneori spre salvare. Lumea ar trebui poate să audă, să simtă, să fie ameninţată cu vestea cea bună că Iona a scăpat, deşi nu a ascultat, că Ninive şi Babilonul se pot pocăi în sac şi cenuşă, dar nu sunt încă destui prooroci, iar Dumnezeu nu-şi doreşte să ne distrugă, ba chiar îi face plăcere să ne ierte, pe noi şi pe Iona deopotrivă.

IONA

3:1 Cuvîntul Domnului a vorbit a doua oară lui Iona, astfel:
2 “Scoală-te, du-te la Ninive, cetatea cea mare, şi vesteşte acolo strigarea pe care ţi-o voi da!”
3 Şi Iona s’a sculat, şi s’a dus la Ninive, după Cuvîntul Domnului. Şi Ninive era o cetate foarte mare, cît o călătorie de trei zile.
4 Iona a început să pătrundă în oraş, cale de o zi, strigînd şi zicînd: “Încă patruzeci de zile, şi Ninive va fi nimicită!”
5 Oamenii din Ninive au crezut în Dumnezeu, au vestit un post, şi s’au îmbrăcat cu saci, dela cei mai mari pînă la cei mai mici.
6 Lucrul a ajuns la urechea împăratului din Ninive; el s-a sculat de pe scaunul lui de domnie, şi-a scos mantia de pe el, s’a acoperit cu un sac, şi a şezut în cenuşă.
7 Şi a trimes să se dea de ştire în Ninive, din porunca împăratului şi mai marilor lui, următoarele: “Oamenii şi vitele, boii şi oile, să nu guste nimic, să nu pască, şi nici să nu bea apă deloc!
8 Ci oamenii şi vitele să se acopere cu saci, strige cu putere către Dumnezeu, şi să se întoarcă dela calea lor cea rea şi dela faptele de asuprire, de cari le sînt pline mînile!
9 Cine ştie dacă nu Se va întoarce Dumnezeu şi Se va căi, şi dacă nu-Şi va opri mînia Lui aprinsă, ca să nu pierim!”
10 Dumnezeu a văzut ce făceau ei şi că se întorceau dela calea lor cea rea. Atunci Dumnezeu S’a căit de răul pe care se hotărîse să li-l facă, şi nu l-a făcut.
4:1 Lucrul acesta n’a plăcut deloc lui Iona, şi s’a mîniat.
2 S’a rugat Domnului, şi a zis: “Ah! Doamne, nu este aceasta tocmai ce ziceam eu cînd eram încă în ţara mea? Tocmai lucrul acesta voiam să-l înlătur fugind la Tars. Căci ştiam că eşti un Dumnezeu milos şi plin de îndurare, îndelung răbdător, şi bogat în bunătate, şi că Te căieşti de rău!
3 Acum, Doamne, ia-mi viaţa, căci vreau mai bine să mor decît să trăiesc!”
4 Domnul a răspuns: “Bine faci Tu de te mînii?”
5 Şi Iona a ieşit din cetate, şi s’a aşezat la răsărit de cetate. Acolo şi-a făcut un umbrar, şi a stătut supt el, pînă va vedea ce are să se întîmple cu cetatea.
6 Domnul Dumnezeu a făcut să crească un curcubete, care s’a ridicat peste Iona, ca să facă umbră capului lui şi să-l facă să-i treacă mînia. Iona s’a bucurat foarte mult de curcubetele acesta.
7 Dar a doua zi, la răsăritul soarelui, Dumnezeu a adus un verme, care a înţepat curcubetele, şi curcubetele s’a uscat.
8 Cînd a răsărit soarele, Dumnezeu a făcut să sufle un vînt uscat dela răsărit, şi soarele a bătut peste capul lui Iona, şi Iona a leşinat. Atunci a dorit să moară, şi a zis: “Mai bine să mor decît să trăiesc!”
9 Dar Dumnezeu a zis lui Iona: “Bine faci tu de te mînii din pricina curcubetelui?” El a răspuns: “Da, bine fac că mă mînii pînă la moarte!”
10 Atunci şi Domnul a zis: “Ţie îţi este milă de curcubetele acesta, care nu te-a costat nici o trudă şi pe care nu tu l-ai făcut să crească, ci într’o noapte s’a născut şi într’o noapte a pierit.
11 Şi mie să nu-Mi fie milă de Ninive, cetatea cea mare, în care se află mai mult de o sută douăzeci de mii de oameni, cari nu ştiu să deosebească dreapta de stînga lor, afară de o mulţime… de vite!”

Gelozia urmaşilor care se luptă pentru avere ne lasă să vedem altceva decât propria răsplată, ne lasă să dorim altceva decât pedeapsa uzurpatorilor, ne lasă să dăm un pas înapoi pentru cinstirea celor în drept la moştenire? Oricum, e clar că El ne lasă să facem orice. Doar uneori îi opreşte pe aleşii Săi să cadă în păcat. Şi nu opreşte nimănui accesul la har, uneori în condiţii pentru mulţi inacceptabile, iar pentru alţii neînţeles de uşoare.

El va vedea, poate chiar acum vede o sămânţă de urmaşi. Noi o vedem, o putem vedea oare?

În acea dimineaţă m-am trezit cu inima tăiată împrejur.
Dar nu aşa… ci făcută praf! O să întrebaţi cum mi-am dat seama. Nu, nu mă durea nimic în piept, dormisem chiar mai bine ca de obicei, dar simţeam că parcă se freacă zdrenţele din carne de inimă — de gratiile cuştii toracice, de plămân poate, de prapuri nebănuiţi şi alte măruntaie. Sângele bolborosea ca şi cum mocnea un vulcan noroios în mine, şi se mai auzea un zgomot ritmic, oribil, de parcă cineva strivea metodic cu făcăleţul larve de mătase.
Buimac, am dat să mă duc la baie ca să mă uit în oglindă, dar era să leşin de spaimă când pe hol am dat peste un înger. Era îmbrăcat exact ca în vitralii, cu sandale romane şi platoşă, avea nişte aripi albe de anvergură modestă, dar frumoase şi îngrijite, iar la brâu avea o sabie, într-o teacă filigranată.
–…
–Nu te teme!
–Încerc, Doamne, dar… Sunt cam speriat, îngrijorat…
–Nu ai motiv, fii pe pace.
–Dacă îmi pot permite să întreb… cred că Tu mi-ai tăiat inima împrejur… Ce trebuie să fac pentru a fi demn de o atât de mare minune, Doamne? (Pot să-I spun aşa? Cum vorbeşti cu un înger? Numai să nu fac vreo prostie, să nu fiu obraznic!)
–Uite, ia sabia asta — a zis El desfăcând-o de la brâu şi întinzându-mi-o. Cu ea să-i tai, împrejur, pe toţi. Începi cu lista asta.
Am luat sabia şi lista, scrisă cu roşu pe un pergament destul de fragil. Am încercat să-mi arunc un ochi pe listă, dar lumina pe hol era mult prea slabă pentru ochii mei. Şi poate că asta a făcut să mi se aprindă un beculeţ, chiar înainte de a mă trezi cu adevărat în vechea mea stare.

So, last Friday was my birthday and I turned… OLD.  Don’t worry about it.

After a long day at work, I went out to dinner with some really close friends and of course my family.  MOSCOW ON THE HILL.

After dinner, I said goodbye to my family and went out to see more of my friends at Barrio in Downtown St. Paul.  It’s just a hop skip and a jump away from dinner so I got there in NO time.  People think DT St. Paul is dead… they’re wrong.  You just have to come down and check things out.  There are pockets of life that are growing.

This place was BUSY before we got there.

Yes, I was drinking…

FUCK YOU I’M AN ANTEATER!!!!

It was a good night.  Thanks to everyone who came out!  I’m swore off drinking for a while.   But apparently I just meant I wouldn’t have a drink the next MORNING.  The next night, ELKO.

Es begann vor genau einem Jahr, an meinem achtzehnten Geburtstag. Ich weiß nicht warum ich auf diesen Button klickte, noch warum er mir zuvor nie sonderlich aufgefallen war, ich weiß nur, dass sich vor mir eine neue Welt auftat, die Welt des Spam. „Aber das ist doch nichts Besonderes.“ Würde man sich versucht fühlen zu sagen. „Spam, den kennen wir doch alle.“ Das könnte man sagen, bevor man meine Sammlung gesehen hat. Als ich diese zweitausendfünfhundertachtunsechzig Spammails durchsah, kam etwas über mich, wie eine Sucht, oder eine Erleuchtung. Ich fühlte mich frei und mutig, wie ein Entdecker, ein Pionier. In dieser Welt gab es alles: Es gab Menschen mit mehreren, oder überdimensionalen Geschlechtsteilen, es gab Wunderheilmittel, die alle Krankheiten auf einen Schlag auslöschen konnten, es gab tragische Schicksalschläge, einsame Huren und unerwartete Lotteriegewinne.

Stundenlang saß ich dort und las was diese Menschen zu sagen hatten. Gerade als ich im Begriff war meinen „Mannesstolz“ mit dem Lineal zu vermessen, kam meine Mutter in’s Zimmer: „Schorschi, was machst du, um Himmels Willen?!“ und dann fügte sie leiser und fast verschwörerisch hinzu: „Die Klingelhubers sind zu Besuch und haben eine Torte für dich gebracht!“ Als sie gegangen war, musste ich meine ganze Willenskraft zusammennehmen, um meine geburtstagskindlichen Pflichten wahrnehmen zu können.
Um zehn in der Nacht waren endlich alle Beglückwünscher gegangen und ich rannte fast, um noch schneller zurück am Computer zu sein.

Am nächsten Tag kam mein Vater extra den ganzen Weg vom Nachbardorf zu Besuch um mir (nachträglich) zu gratulieren. Er hatte das seit Jahren nicht getan, also freute ich mich irgendwie.
„Schorsch, jetzt bist du ein Mann, verstehst du?“ sagte er betont männlich und schlug mir auf die Schulter. Es tat ein bisschen weh. „Ich glaube schon…“ sagte ich irritiert und er fuhr fort mit seiner übertriebenen Stimme zu sprechen: „Weißt du Schorsch, ein echter Mann, das ist nicht der mit dem größten Schwanz. Nein, Mann ist man hier!“ er hieb sich mit der Faust in die Herzgegend „Im Herzen, verstehst du?“ Ja, plötzlich verstand ich: meine besorgte Mutter musste ihn gestern Nacht noch angerufen, und ihm vom Lineal erzählt haben. Sein Verhalten war mir peinlicher als mein eigenes.
„Ich weiß.“ Sagte ich und ging in mein Zimmer. Ich war beleidigt, dass er deshalb gekommen war und nicht einfach um mich mal wieder zu sehen, also sperrte ich die Tür hinter mir zu und setzte mich vor den Bildschirm. „Wollten Sie schon immer, dass ihre Banane mehr als nur Affen anlockt?“ las ich und: „Jetzt in 2 Tagen 15kg abnehmen, ohne auf fettes Fleisch zu verzichten“. Ganz besonders interessant fand ich auch die Namen der Absender. Da gab es eine Wendy Abigantus und eine Tarinia Klubber und nicht zu vergessen Doktor Magumbo Anderson.

Bald legte ich mir einen eigenen Ordner an, in dem ich alle Spammails speicherte, aber schon nach zwei Wochen, reichte meine Festplatte nicht mehr aus und ich musste meine Sammlung auf DVDs brennen.
Heute bin ich neunzehn geworden und besitze 500 solcher Dvds. Ich wohne in meiner eigenen Wohnung, bin aber drei Monatsmieten im Rückstand, weil mich meine Mutter aufgegeben hat. Es ist nicht so, als wäre ich faul, oder in der Schule jemals schlecht gewesen, es ist eher so, dass mir dieses Leben hier mehr Freude bereitet. Schon früh am Morgen stehe ich auf und besuche zuerst einmal alle Seiten, von denen ich gehört habe sie sind unsicher oder gar gefährlich. Irgendwie fühlt es sich gut an, etwas zu tun, vor dem sich andere fürchten. Dann abonniere ich alle Newsletter und gebe meine Emailadresse so oft als möglich aus. Ca. zweimal täglich formatiere ich meinen Computer, wegen der unvermeidlichen Viren. Ja, und abends dann, kann ich die Früchte meiner Taten ernten: Spammails.

Freundin hab ich keine, obwohl ich jetzt weiß wie ich machen könnte, dass „alle Mädls einen Orgasmus kriegen, wenn sie mich nur von Weitem sehen“, das macht mir auch ein bisschen Angst um ehrlich zu sein, ich mein, dass solch eine Kraft in mir drinnen steckt. Ich glaube nicht, dass ich verrückt bin, eher dass ich sehr nahe daran bin, dem Sinn des Lebens auf die Spur zu kommen. Meine Mutter unterstützt das natürlich alles überhaupt nicht und wie sie meine DVD-Sammlung gefunden hat, wollte sie mich fast zur Adoption freigeben, aber die haben ihr gesagt, dass ich ja schon volljährig bin und so. Es hat mich sehr traurig gemacht meine Mutter so zu sehen, zu sehen wie sehr sie mich missversteht. Ich will ihr doch nicht weh tun, nicht nach dem ganzen Scheidungsdrama mit meinem Vater, ich will sie stolz machen, ein Lächeln auf ihr Gesicht zaubern wie selbst „Clarophil, die Pille gegen alles“ es nicht tun könnte und ich weiß auch schon wie! Ungefähr dreimal pro Woche, gewinne ich zehntausend Euro im Internet, wieviel das insgesamt vom letzten Jahr bis heute ist, will ich gar nicht ausrechnen.
Jedenfalls habe ich denen allen meine Adresse und Telefonnummer geschickt und warte darauf, dass sie mir das Geld bald schicken. Wirklich bald, wahrscheinlich schon nächste Woche.

Să n-apună soarele peste mânia voastră.

[Efeseni 4.26]

Ura şi focul trebuie înăbuşite din primul moment, altfel în urma lor rămîne cenuşă.

Ileana Vulpescu

Cuvîntul Meu, care iese din gura Mea, nu se întoarce la Mine fara rod

Mânia este un afect uman cu o gamă diversă de manifestări: de la mânia mocnită (neexprimată) la mânia vulcanică (agresivă, injurioasă, distrugătoare). Efectele negative ale mâniei stau probabil la originea clasificării ei între cele şapte păcate „de moarte”. Această clasificare e de bun simţ şi se referă strict la amploarea consecinţelor unui păcat în relaţia cu semenii. Strict din această perspectivă se poate spune că există păcate distructive şi păcate foarte distructive. Adică rele şi foarte rele.

Şi totuşi, mânia în Scriptură nu are întotdeauna conotaţii negative. Mânia lui Dumnezeu (orge tou theou) este un concept bine reprezentat pe paginile Scripturii (atât în Profeţi, cât şi în scrierile pauline sau Apocalipsa).

Mai mult, întâlnim mânie şi în viaţa Mântuitorului. În Marcu 3:5 Isus îşi roteşte privirile cu mânie peste nişte oameni incapabili să empatizeze cu omul bolnav care stă în mijlocul lor într-o zi de sabat. În Marcu 10:14, când ucenicii îi ceartă pe cei care îşi aduc copiii  la Isus, Mântuitorul este cuprins de indignare. Verbul aganakteo apare în NT grec de 7 ori şi se referă când la ucenici (indignaţi de cererea fraţilor lui Zebedei sau de „risipa” făcută de femeia venită cu vasul de alabastru), când la arhierei şi cărturari (indiganţi că se strigă „Osana” în Templu), când la un fruntaş al singagogii (indignat că Isus face minuni în timpul sabatului, şi nu în cele şase zile lucrătoare). Nu în ultimul rând, din relatarea privind curăţirea Templului putem înţelege că Isus a fost mânios.

Pavel ne îndemnă (citând textul grecesc din Ps. 4:5) să ne mâniem şi să nu păcătuim. Contextul sugerează că e vorba de a lua atitudine în raport cu păcatele celor din comunitate, având totuşi grijă ca până la finalul zilei să existe o reconciliere.

Aşadar, întâlnim pe paginile Scripturii mânii isterice şi distrugătoare (Saul e un exemplu tipic), dar şi mânii (indignări) justificate de tot soiul de situaţii aberante sau strigătoare la cer (inimi împietrite, ucenici zeloşi să-i ţină pe copii departe de Isus, o ierarhie care speculează pietatea populară pentru a se căpătui, dezordini în sânul comunităţii creştine).

Să ne mâniem, dar să ne mâniem când trebuie şi cum trebuie. Şi, at the end of the day să avem totuşi o inimă împăcată. Altminteri, mânia devine păcat. Şi încă unul de moarte.

becken aenden mondt ende van hem selven.
Catarrus Is een druppinghe van herssenen / comende somtijts van coude of van groote hittĕ / somtijts van overvloedicheyt vă etĕ eň drincken / ende hier tegen is goet het latĕ van de hooft-ader.
Spasmus (*) Is een spanninghe der senuwen als die tegens haer behoorlijcke nature ende ghewoonte getrocken worden / ende comt meest van overvloedicheyt van spijs ende dranck / of van ledicheydt als een mensch gheen exercitie heeft daer hy hem by verwermen mach / of oock van veelheyt van fluymen.
Melancolia ofte Swaermoedicheyt (*) / dees comt van Galle als daer veel quade en sware waterachtighe vochticheden in zijn of als de Milte bedorven is / waer af quade opstijginge geschien int breyn: oft comt ooc vă al te groote becommernisse ende quellagie die met dese passie gequelt zijn die zijn vael van aensicht / treurich van wesen / cleyn van polse / ende stilswijghende ende bevreest.
Insania seu Mania : Beteeckent een dulle sieckte / welcke passie comt uit die geelheyt văder Galle / die boven maeten door hittĕ verbrant zijnde / verandert in swerte materie ende van benedĕ opstijgende tot het breyn ofte Herssenen / maeckt ontsinnicheyt of rasernije / ende vă dese sieckte sijn meest onder warich jonghe lieden.
Catarasta (*) seu Suffusio Is een gebreck inde oogen als daer eenighe donckerheyt voor comt van een vlisken / waer door de ooghe duyster wort / ’t welck comt van eenige dicke humeuren die int gesichte verstijft zijn / soo dat een mensch daer door blint of qualijck siende wort.
Ophtalmia. (*)Is een groote pijne in de ooghen / ’t welck comt van vollijvicheyt eň overvloedicheyt van bloede / waer af die ooghen seer root worden ende overvloeyen van tranen.

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Please read Julie Edgington’s blog entry about a reocurring nightmare she has about Manie: http://bigpharmavictim.blogspot.com/2009/09/reoccurring-nightmare.html

There are also several updates on her blog regarding the current Paxil birth defects trial being covered by Bloomberg news.

Reoccurring Nightmare

by Julie Edgington

Last night I had a reoccurring nightmare which I have had since I found out it was Paxil which caused Manie’s birth defect. Usually I wake only remembering bits and pieces of my nightmare, but not this time. This time I woke with tears streaming down my face and a tear soaked pillow.

My Nightmare:

I saw myself standing there in the kitchen of our old house. This was the house I had been living in when I became pregnant with Manie. I knew right away exactly what moment from the past this was. It was so clear this time as if I was really there watching it all happen. Not only was I watching this happen I could physically feel everything that I felt that day. I watch and felt myself push the kitchen chair in that someone had left pulled out. I watch and felt myself get a glass of water. I even felt the coldness of the glass in my hand. I knew what was going to happen next because I had already done this.

At this time I felt someone holding my hand I looked down and it was Manie. He looked up at me and the sadness on his face let me know he knew what was about to happen too. As I looked at him I could hear his heart beating. I knew it was his because of the sound of it. His heart sounds different then any other heart because of the leak. As I continued to look at him I could hear my own heartbeat also. It was as if I could hear his heartbeat in my right ear and mine in the left, both beating at the exact same time. As I stood there looking at him my chest began to ache. With every heartbeat mine was changing to sound just like Manie’s. I felt as if I had ran a marathon and had a heart attack all at the same time. Before I knew it the two heartbeats were now one. I felt scared and worried, but not for me for Manie.

I began to look around for something to help us. I remembered where we were and at what time. I realized I can stop this! As I looked straight ahead of me I saw myself taking the pill from the package. I screamed and I tried to move, but there was nothing I could do! I could not hear myself. My feet were locked to the floor. The more I watch the more I felt our heart pounding and the louder it became. I looked down at Manie and he just stand there crying as if he knew I could do nothing. I continued to scream but nothing worked. Then I could feel it, the feeling of that damn pill in my mouth and the drink of water that carried it down. I felt it as if it was really happening. In a last ditch effort to make it all better I closed my eyes and slowly instead of having just one heartbeat there was two again. The heartbeat in my right ear was normal and healthy. I gave Manie my heartbeat and I took his. As much as my heart ached with pain and as tired as I was I felt good inside. I could feel the scars on my chest. I looked at Manie’s chest his scars were gone. Manie smiled at me and let go of my hand. I could not hear our hearts beating anymore, but I knew he would be alright.

Manie and I were no longer in that old kitchen, we were outside. I watched as Manie ran and ran and ran. I watched as he played football, basketball, baseball and hockey. I watched as he rode the scariest of amusement park rides. There was no more waiting in doctors offices, no more hospitals, no more leg and arm cramps and no more waking in the middle of the night in pain. There was no more medications. Manie did not look tired because he was not tired. He felt good he was finally able to do all the things he ever wanted because the child on the outside finally matched the child on the inside. My nightmare had become a dream. I woke to tears on my face and pillow because Manie was happy. Happy tears turned to sad tears as I slowly realized it was just a dream. The real nightmare is what I live. The nightmare is knowing I can’t make it all better because I really can not change heartbeats with Manie.

FRIENDS!

Then you go here for more show related photo’s from my bands set; http://heiruspecs.wordpress.com/2009/09/20/show-recap-sauce-soundbar-918/

But come back here for this;

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!! For the record, I swore I had more pics of Hannah and Andrew.  But this is apparenlty it.  Sorry!  :(

After the show, Scott, Leegrodamus and I wandered over to the Cowboy bar accross the street where I saw Julee and co.  We then went to Luce where we saw some guy “who needed help to get that bitch”.  Then home.

So, Glaxo has known since as early as 1980 that Paxil could cause birth defects.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=ah9mMl9sDitg

Glaxo Executive’s Memo Suggested Burying Drug Studies (Update4)

By Jef Feeley and Margaret Cronin Fisk

Sept. 15 (Bloomberg) — An executive of GlaxoSmithKline Plc, the world’s second-biggest drugmaker, talked about burying negative studies linking its antidepressant drug Paxil to birth defects, according to a company memo introduced at a trial.

“If neg, results can bury,” Glaxo executive Bonnie Rossello wrote in a 1997 memo on what the company would do if forced to conduct animal studies on the drug. The memo was read during opening statements in the trial of a lawsuit brought by the family of a child born with heart defects.

The Philadelphia trial is the first of more than 600 cases alleging that London-based Glaxo knew Paxil caused birth defects and hid those risks to pump up profits. The drug, approved for U.S. use in 1992, generated about $942 million in sales last year, 2.1 percent of Glaxo’s total revenue.

The family of Lyam Kilker claims Glaxo withheld information from consumers and regulators about the risk of birth defects and failed to properly test Paxil. Kilker’s mother, Michelle David, blames Paxil for causing life-threatening heart defects in her 3-year-old son.

Glaxo officials urged scientists to withhold information about Paxil’s risks from a paper laying out the company’s “core safety philosophy” for the drug, said Sean Tracey, a lawyer for Kilker and David, in his opening statement in the trial.

“They said if there’s any doubt, take it out,” Tracey told jurors. “They do not want to scare anybody. It’s a very competitive marketplace. It’s a multibillion-dollar industry.”

‘Rare Thing’

Glaxo executives contend that the boy’s heart defect wasn’t caused by Paxil, Chilton Varner, one of the company’s lawyers, told jurors today in her opening statement. In court filings, Glaxo has said it appropriately tested and marketed the antidepressant drug.

“When Lyam Kilker was born in 2005, GSK had not received notice” of his specific type of heart defect in connection with Paxil use, Varner said. “The numbers will tell you the defect is a rare thing.”

The Paxil label at that time reported about animal studies, “including the rate of deaths,” she said.

Glaxo didn’t target pregnant women and its sales force didn’t use strong-arm tactics to push prescriptions, Varner said. “Whatever the marketing was, it played no role in Ms. David’s doctors’ decision to prescribe Paxil or Ms. David’s decision” to take the drug, she said.

Rat Studies

Glaxo officials purchased the compound sold as Paxil from a Danish company that had done animal studies showing young rats died after taking low doses of the drug, Tracey said in his opening statement.

One of the company’s scientists noted in internal documents in 1980 that information in the rat studies suggested Paxil “could be” a cause of birth defects, Tracey said. Still, the drugmaker refused for almost 20 years to do studies on why the young rats died, he added.

Tracey told jurors they would see documents in the trial that the company hadn’t turned over to regulators or congressional investigators. “You are going to see docs that have never seen light of day before,” he said.

For example, Tracey pointed to a 1998 internal review by Glaxo of all reports of side effects tied to Paxil and officials found “an alarmingly high number” of birth-defect reports. Even with those concerns, the report was never turned over to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and “the alarming language” was deleted from it, the lawyer said.

In 2001, the company received a letter from a woman who used Paxil during her pregnancy and decided to abort her fetus after tests showed it had birth defects, Tracey said.

Internal Report

In analyzing the woman’s case, Glaxo officials concluded in an internal report that it was “almost certain” the fetus’s birth defects were caused by his mother’s Paxil use, the family’s lawyer added. Still, the company didn’t turn over its analysis to the FDA or beef up the drug’s warning label, Tracey said.

It wasn’t until after the FDA ordered Glaxo and other makers of antidepressants in 2003 to do more safety studies on their products that Glaxo officials publicly acknowledged that Paxil increased the risk of birth defects, Tracey said.

The lawyer for David, a college nursing student who was a former cheerleader for the National Basketball Association’s Philadelphia 76ers, told jurors that Glaxo hid Paxil’s problems to protect its profits.

Paxil is “the No. 1 asset to this day this company has ever owned,” the attorney said.

‘Quite Different’

Varner said she will present “quite different” evidence on animal tests tied to Paxil.

“The animal testing did not suggest Paxil caused birth defects,” Varner said. The FDA considered the tests when it approved the drug for use by U.S. consumers in 1992, she said.

When Glaxo officials considered offering Paxil for sale in Japan, internal records show executives worried in 1994 they might have to do more safety testing on the antidepressant, said Dr. David Healy, an Irish psychiatrist testifying as an expert for Kilker’s family in the case.

It may be the “type of study we wish to avoid,” Jenny Greenhorn, an official in Glaxo’s international regulatory affairs unit, said in a memo.

Glaxo also is fighting suits in the U.S., Canada and the U.K. over claims that Paxil, also known by the generic name paroxetine, causes homicidal and suicidal behavior. The company has settled some suicide claims, though terms of the settlements haven’t been released.

New York Settlement

In 2004, the drugmaker agreed to pay the state of New York $2.5 million to resolve claims that officials suppressed research showing Paxil may increase suicide risk in young people. The settlement also required Glaxo to publicly disclose the studies.

The company’s provision for legal and other non-tax disputes as of June 30 was 1.7 billion pounds ($2.8 billion), the company said in a July 22 regulatory filing that didn’t mention the Paxil litigation.

“We do not disclose our legal reserves for any specific litigation matter,” Glaxo spokesman Kevin Colgan said earlier this month.

Glaxo American depositary receipts, each representing two ordinary shares, fell 68 cents, or 1.7 percent, to $38.76 in New York Stock Exchange composite trading today. Glaxo fell 14 pence, or 1.2 percent, to 1,175.5 pence in London.

The case is Kilker v. SmithKline Beecham Corp. dba GlaxoSmithKline, 2007-001813, Court of Common Pleas, Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania.

To contact the reporters on this story: Jef Feeley in Philadelphia jfeeley@bloomberg.net; Margaret Cronin Fisk in Southfield, Michigan, at mcfisk@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: September 15, 2009 17:03 EDT

Una raccolta di nuove interviste all’autore di “Fitzcarraldo” e “Grizzly Man”. Tutti i sogni e le manie del «bavarese tardomedievale».

«Detesto proondamente il concetto d’artista in questa epoca. L’ultimo re dell’Egitto, Farouk, ormai in esilio e tremendamente obeso, mentre divorava una coscia d’agnello dopo l’altra, ha detto una cosa veramente bellissima. “Oramai non ci sono più re al mondo, solo il re di cuori, il re di quadri, il re di picche e di fiori”. È rimasto solo un posto in cui si possono trovare artisti: il circo. Penso davvero che nel mondo dei pittori, dei romanzieri e dei registi cinematografici non ci siano artisti. Si tratta di un concetto che appartiene a secoli passati, in cui c’erano cose come la virtù, i duelli con le pistole all’alba tra uomini innamorati e le fanciulle che svenivano sui divani».

Si intitola Incontri alla fine del mondo la raccolta di conversazioni tra cinema e vita con il regista Werner Herzog a cura di Paul Cronin edito da minimum fax (con la curatela di Francesco Cattaneo). Non la fine del mondo in senso menagramo & apocalittico, anche se l’oscuro, solitario e visionario (ma non immaginario) Herzog, scartata l’etichetta di romatico tedesco e di espressionista, si è sempre definito un «bavarese del tardo mediovevo». Ma nel senso dei territori estremi esplorati dall’uomo, sia nella straordinarietà delle imprese – nel Fitzcarraldo con cui nel 1983 vinse per la regia a Cannes, l’attore feticcio di Herzog, Klaus Kinski ha un sogno: costruire un teatro d’Opera nella foresta Amazzonica, dove far cantare Enrico Caruso – sia nella quotidianità della vita, con la costante della comunicazione, l’espressione dell’invidividuo alle prese con handicap, come lo straordinario Paese del silenzio e dell’oscurità, documentario sulla vita della sordocieca Fini Straubinger, per il quale Herzog è stato sempre categorico: «Chi non l’ha visto non dovrebbe parlare del mio cinema».

Una grande energia scorre in Herzog, ma non il vitalismo dell’Hemingway dell’Harris Bar: alla impaziente identificazione con le cose, all’esperienza della pura energia, il regista preferisce la paziente opera dell’intagliatore, perchè il mediovevo lavora per cambiare la materia che ha davanti, sperando che il risultato sia un’estasi e non un incubo. E se la materia è fatta di sogni, come diceva Shakespeare, ecco allora Herzog alle prese con i deliri dei suoi personaggi, manie sempre private, conseguenza di menomazioni ed eccessi, che aspirano a sfide impossibili, contro Dio, contro la natura, contro la società.

Quello di Cronin é un libro che vuole arginare il mare di bugie ed esagerazioni che ha sempre circondato la figura del regista, un pò per la spigolosità del personaggio, un pò per l’aurea mitica assunta dai suoi film-opera. Per questo Cronin rinuncia ad assemblare materiale già esistente, ma preferisce ripercorrere di nuovo i 45 film di Herzog, dal claustrofobico film sulla fallimentare rivolta dei nani, Anche i nani hanno cominciato da piccoli, ai documentari come Grizzly man, premiati in tutto il mondo. Ma anche Cronin si arrende all’ambiguità dell’epica herzoghiana in fatto di verità e bugie.

«Non so chi sia Ferrara e non ho visto nessuno dei suoi film» ha dichiarato ieri il regista dopo le dichiarazioni di Abel Ferrara che lo accusava di furto. Forse un’altra bugia, ma, a proposito, non si faccia ingannare chi leggendo le quasi 400 pagine di conversazioni con Herzog, si mostri compiaciuto – in tempo di crisi dell’industria del cinema – dell’aneddoto del furto della cinepresa ai tempi della scuola, come fosse una sorta di manifesto indy. Herzog fa parte di una generazione di cineasti tedeschi coraggiosi (che nel deserto cinematografico post 1945, decisero di svincolarsi dalla lontana stagione del grande cinema espressionista) che venne fuori grazie alle sovvenzioni statali (televisione compresa, di cui il massimo esempio fu Fassbinder), con l’obiettivo unico e ossessivo di fare film, i loro film. Arenatosi Wenders, scomparso precocemente Fassbinder, Herzog continua per la sua strada: fare film. A Venezia addirittura raddoppia, con My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done, prodotto da Lynch.

Link: Psychiatriemuseum Bern. Dort entstanden die Aufnahmen mit freundlicher Genehmigung des Personals. Der Felsblock ist eine Patientenarbeit, die sich vor dem Museum befindet. In Behandlung waren in der dortigen Psychiatrie (in Außenstellen) auch Robert Walser und Friedrich Glauser. In der Berner Psychiatrie selbst wurde die Kunst Adolf Wölflis entdeckt und gefördert.

The Mothers Act Disease Mongering Campaign – Part IV

Thursday, August 27, 2009 by: Evelyn Pringle, health freedom writer

(NaturalNews) This is part four of an article series by Evelyn Pringle. Find previous parts here: Part One (http://www.naturalnews.com/026634_d…), Part Two (http://www.naturalnews.com/026707_h…) and Part Three (http://www.naturalnews.com/026742_d…). What follows is the full text of part four:

The Mothers Act campaign has evolved into the most rabid gang of disease mongers seen in recent years, likely due to its 8-year existence.

In the 2002 paper titled, “Selling sickness: the pharmaceutical industry and disease mongering,” in the British Medical Journal, Ray Moynihan, Iona Heath, and David Henry, describe the mechanisms of the Mothers Act disease mongering campaign to a tee when explaining that:

“Within many disease categories informal alliances have emerged, comprising drug company staff, doctors, and consumer groups. Ostensibly engaged in raising public awareness about underdiagnosed and undertreated problems, these alliances tend to promote a view of their particular condition as widespread, serious, and treatable.”

“A key strategy of the alliances is to target the news media with stories designed to create fears about the condition or disease and draw attention to the latest treatment. Company sponsored advisory boards supply the “independent experts” for these stories, consumer groups provide the “victims,” and public relations companies provide media outlets with the positive spin about the latest “breakthrough” medication.”

The A Team

In review, the main leaders of the Mothers Act disease mongering campaign include Susan Dowd Stone and Karen Kleiman, two social workers who own treatment centers recruiting customers via their websites, PerinatalPro and Postpartum Stress Center, and who also sell books. The two most prominent “victims” or “human faces” in the campaign are Katherine Stone with the “Postpartum Progress,” website and Lauren Hale with a site called “Sharing the Journey.”

All the websites follow the lead of a group called, “Pospartum Support International,” and parrot the buzz words and phrases invented by the self-interested specialists and experts, such as “women’s reproductive mental health,” and “pregnancy related mood disorders,” and “reproductive psychiatry.”

Old Chemical Imbalance in the Brain Scam

On July 7, 2006, in discussing a press release for book in which: “Mothers share their challenges with sleep deprivation, anxiety, colicky and ill babies, and other issues that sent them into a downward spiral,” Katherine Stone wrote on Postpartum Progress:

“In my opinion, I consider chemical brain imbalances to be the source of sending us into a downward spiral, not colicky babies and sleep deprivation as the press release seems to infer. Those things just make the experience worse.”

Dr David Stein, a professor of psychology and criminal justice at Virginia State University, and author of, “Unraveling the ADD/ADHD Fiasco,” has taught psychopharmacology for 25 years. One of the greatest myths about mental disorders, is that they are caused by a chemical imbalance, he says.

“The myth is founded on some of the tricks that are pulled in so-called scientific research in psychology and psychiatry,” he explains.

“The manipulation of research has become one of the most powerful and most unethical marketing tools ever devised,” he says. “Not one study can be replicated at the testing labs of hospitals or by laboratories involved in clinical patient care.”

“Replication is a basic step for all sciences,” Dr Stein explains.

When a drug alleviates a certain condition, such as depression and anxiety, patients are told that the drug is correcting a chemical imbalance. “However, this type of logic is not permitted in true science,” Dr Stein reports.

To simplify the point, he provides the analogy of people drinking alcohol, which is a sedative drug, and experiencing relief from anxiety. “Can we say that alcohol clears up chemical imbalances that cause anxiety?”, he points out.

If so, Dr Stein says, “then the entire human race is running around with chemical imbalances.”

“This type of logic is not permitted within proper scientific circles,” he says. “Sadly, proper scientific circles are evaporating within psychiatry and psychology.”

Sad Daddies

As part of this overall disease mongering scheme, the Mothers Act campaign has now taken aim at new fathers. All the gals provide links to the “PostpartumMen,” website. And in return, PostpartumMen dedicates a whole webpage to promoting the Mothers Act, complete with a link that takes readers directly to the website of Susan Stone’s treatment center.

“PostpartumMen is a place for men with concerns about depression, anxiety or other problems with mood after the birth of a child,” according to its website.

Dr Will Courtenay runs the site. Courtenay is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker and has served on the clinical faculty in the Department of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, and the University of California, San Francisco, Medical School, according to his bio.

“Yes, men do get postpartum depression,” he writes on PostpartumMen.

“It’s a fact that most people – and even many health professionals – don’t know,” he claims.

“Depression, anxiety or other problems with mood can occur anytime during the first year of your child’s life,” he tells men.

“The truth is, depression, anxiety and other mood disorders are common,” he states. “In fact, they’re just as common – and just as real – as physical problems, like heart disease and diabetes.”

“It really pains me to see so many men suffering alone, in silence,” Courtenay says on PostpartumMen. “Especially since depression, anxiety and the other mental health problems that afflict us are treatable.”

For men, the newly coined disorder is called “paternal postpartum depression,” and referred to as “PPND.”

“Up to 1 in 4 new dads have PPND,” Courtenay tells readers on PostpartumMen. “In the United States alone, that amounts to 2,700 new fathers who become depressed every day.”

And as it turns out, Courtenay hosts a total of six websites for men, accessible with live links from PostpartumMen, including one for his “Men’s Health Consulting,” firm.

In advertising for this firm, he provides a webpage on, “Media Coverage of Dr. Will Courtenay,” and posts selective remarks and comments made regarding himself or PPND and men.

For instance, this description of himself was listed as coming from Newsweek: “An expert on why fathers can also become depressed after the birth of a child, and what couples can do about it.”

“Each day in the U.S., 1,000 new dads become depressed, and according to some studies that number is as high as 3,000,” was posted as coming from CNN.

According to the above, at 3,000 new dads per day, times 365 days year, a potential 1,095,000 new customers could be recruited each year for the “Reproductive Psychiatry” industry, via the PPND component of the disease mongering campaign alone.

On the Media Coverage page, Courtenay also provides a link to a May 14, 2008, Parent Map article titled, “Sad dads: postpartum depression in men,” in which he states: “Men need to know that this can happen to them, and that if it does happen to them, there are other people out there experiencing it, too.”

This article says Courtenay publishes a website about “postpartum depression among dads” called “www.saddaddy.com.” However, when clicking on the saddaddy link, PostpartumMen comes up today.

And surely by coincidence, Courtenay will soon have a new book for sale titled, “Sad Dads,” which he is currently writing, according to his bio on the consulting firm’s website.

“If you’d like to arrange an individual consultation with Dr. Courtenay, please call 415-346-6719,” the PostpartumMen website states.

And apparently postpartum depression in dads is catchy. “If you’re experiencing PPND, it increases the likelihood that your partner is also depressed,” Courtenay informs men on his website.

“It’s important that she get help for herself as well,” he kindly advises.

He then provides a link to a page with resources “specifically for women,” where Kleiman’s Postpartum Stress Center just happens to be listed as specializing “in the diagnosis and treatment of prenatal and postpartum depression and anxiety disorders,” along with a clickable link to the center’s website.

On the StorkNet website, where Kleiman dishes out disease mongering tidbits on a regular basis, she does her part to promote PPND by telling readers: “Yes, absolutely dads can get depressed after the birth of a baby. We just don’t hear a lot about it.”

“PPND is a very serious condition,” Courtenay states on PostpartumMen. “But it’s also a very treatable condition.”

“If left untreated,” he warns, “PPND can result in damaging, long-term consequences for yourself, your child, and your family as a whole.”

Men who think they might have it can click on a link and be screened right on the spot, for free no less.

“Do YOU have PPND? Complete the PPND Assessment and find out,” the website tell men.

In fact, Courtenay is running the “Dads’ Postpartum Depression Study,” on his website, “in collaboration with the Center for Men and Young Men at McLean Hospital, Harvard Medical School.”

“You are invited to participate in a research study conducted by Dr. Will Courtenay, an internationally recognized scholar in understanding men,” the website tells men.

“Upon completion, you will receive a score from an assessment for postpartum mood disorders,” the consent form states. “This will allow you to determine whether you might be suffering from anxiety or depression.”

Respected Researchers support the Mothers Act

No psychotropic drug is FDA approved as safe for use by pregnant and nursing mothers, meaning every prescription written to these women is off-label. The drug makers cannot legally push their drugs for unapproved uses to doctors or consumers so they simply hire a few highly paid quacks to do it.

Then these quacks will drag a “human face” along for drama when giving seminars or public interviews. For instance, on February 26, 2009, Katherine wrote a Postpartum Progress blog with the headline: “Interview Today on Postpartum Depression & Related Illnesses”.

“Getting ready to go do interview with CNN/Turner Private Networks for the CNN Accent Health Network that appears in doctors’ offices and reaches more than 140 million viewers each year,” she told readers.

“They will also be interviewing Dr. Zachary Stowe from the Emory Women’s Mental Health Program,” Katherine added, with a live link to Stowe’s Emory program.

Not mentioned is the recently revealed matter that Stowe, the director of the Emory Women’s Program, made a quarter million dollars from the Paxil maker alone in 2007 and 2008, and failed to disclose the majority of those earnings to Emory University.

The “National Institute of Mental Health said it is reviewing Stowe’s activities, prompted by a letter from a U.S. Senate committee that said Stowe received $253,700 in 2007 and 2008 for “essentially promotional talks” for the drug maker GlaxoSmithKline,” the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported on June 11, 2009.

One of Stowe’s emails that turned up in litigation, dated September 19, 2003, shows his nicer side when demanding to be paid for promotional talks he never gave for Glaxo because they were apparently canceled due to lack of interest.

“I do not want to be a prick,” he said, “but given the time and frustration, I think she should arrange to pay me for both talks, as noted in my last email to her.”

On October 17, 2008, Katherine appeared at a “Perinatal Depression Conference,” in Chicago with another “prominent speaker,” Dr Lee Cohen, director of the Massachusetts General Hospital Center for Women’s Mental Health, and an Associate Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, put on by the Jennifer Mudd Houghtaling Postpartum Depression Foundation.

Other featured speakers who have appeared at seminars sponsored or co-sponsored by the same Foundation include Zachary Stowe, and Dr Katherine Wisner, according to the Foundation’s website.

In February 2006, Cohen was the lead author on a paper titled, “Relapse of Major Depression During Pregnancy in Women Who Maintain or Discontinue Antidepressant Treatment,” published in the “Journal of the American Medical Association,” for a study that claimed stopping antidepressants could greatly increase the risk of pregnant women relapsing into depression.

A few months after the study was published, the July 11, 2006, Wall Street Journal revealed the obvious motives of the “experts” who authored the paper in wanting pregnant women to stay on antidepressants.

The Journal reported that, “the study and resulting television and newspaper reports of the research failed to note that most of the 13 authors are paid as consultants or lecturers by the makers of antidepressants,” and “the authors failed to disclose more than 60 different financial relationships with drug companies.”

The Journal noted that Cohen was a longtime consultant to 3 antidepressant makers, a paid speaker for 7, and his research work was funded by 4 drug companies. Adele Viguera, associate director of the Mass General perinatal psychiatry program and professor at Harvard, also did not disclose a paid speaking relationship with Paxil maker GlaxoSmithKline.

Among the most significant absent disclosures found, were those of Dr Lori Altshuler, director of the Mood Disorders Research Program at UCLA, who was a speaker or consultant for at least five antidepressant makers. “Two of her colleagues — Vivien Burt and Victoria Hendrick — were also authors who didn’t report financial relationships they have with antidepressant makers,” the report said.

JAMA has required authors to list all financial interests since 1990, and publishes the disclosures. In an online editorial in July 2006, JAMA editor, Dr Catherine DeAngelis, announced her intention to enforce disclosure policies in part, by publicizing any author’s failure to follow the rules and specifically noted that 3 consecutive nondisclosures involved authors from Harvard, and included the Cohen study.

The financial ties of the authors to the drug makers was brought to the attention of JAMA by Dr Adam Urato, and a letter from Dr Urato was published in JAMA, stating that since the study dealt in part with the question of pregnant women stopping antidepressants, the readers should be aware of the potential for pro-drug bias.

In the case of SSRI use by pregnant women, the Journal noted that the industry-paid opinion leaders have become dominant authorities in the field, and explained that:

“They help establish clinical guidelines, sit on editorial boards of medical journals, advise government agencies evaluating antidepressants and teach courses on the subject to other doctors.”

Ironically, the only financial relationships disclosed were for Zachary Stowe and Jeffrey Newport of the Women’s Mental Health Program at Emory. However, nowhere was it revealed that Stowe might be raking in a quarter million dollars from each drug company, and Newport’s list of disclosures on financial ties to drug makers is every bit as long as Stowe’s.

In blogs on Postpartum Progress, Katherine Stone refers to Newport as her shrink.

Emory’s bio page for Newport shows he received an Eli Lilly Fellowship from the Society of Biological Psychiatry, an Eli Lilly Psychiatric Research Fellowship from the American Psychiatric Association, and a “Psychiatry Resident of the Year Award,” from Pfizer.

Newport also received a “Young Investigator Award,” from the National Alliance for Research on Schizophrenia and Depression (NARSAD). Eli Lilly’s 2007 grant reports shows a $15,000 donation to NARSAD in one quarter and second $15,000 grant in another. The 2008 grant report lists a $15,000 donation, two $5,000 grants, and another $100,000 donation to NARSAD.

In her book, “Perinatal and Postpartum Mood Disorders,” Susan Stone tells readers: “Respected university medical centers conducting research and offering education include Emory University School of Medicine (website address inserted) and Massachusetts General Hospital Center for Women’s Mental Health (website address inserted).”

On April 14, 2009, the Harvard’s website for the Mass General program posted a blog with the headline, “Postpartum Depression Legislation Still Needs Your Support,” with the message that “Susan Dowd Stone, fomer president of Postpartum Support International, has taken the lead in putting together a petition of those who support the MOTHERS Act,” and listed Susan’s email address to sign the petition.

The website for the Women’s program also includes a link to the “Screening for Mental Health,” website, where SMH is described as:

“SMH is a non-profit organization that provides screenings for depression, bipolar disorder, anxiety, post traumatic stress disorder, suicide intervention, alcohol problems and eating disorders. These programs are designed for community and mental health sites, employers, health care organizations, colleges/universities and high schools.”

Tax returns show drug companies have provided this “non-profit” with at least $4,985,925 up to 2008

Eli Lilly’s grant report for 2007, lists three grants of $24,250, $50,000 and $50,000 to SMH. In 2008, SMH received donations from Lilly worth $100,000.

And Speaking of Harvard

On September 27, 2007, the New York State Board for Professional Medical Conduct reported that Dr Jack Gorman, now the former president and psychiatrist-in-chief of Harvard University’s McLean Hospital, in charge of psychiatry at the other Harvard-affiliated hospitals in the Partners HealthCare system, was found guilty of negligence on more than one occasion for engaging in “inappropriate sexual contact with a patient.” A month later he surrendered his right to practice medicine in Massachusetts.

Gorman was instrumental in both selling the diseases, and promoting SSRIs to treat, Social Anxiety Disorder and General Anxiety Disorder, as well as “Compulsive Shopping Disorder,” in conjunction with Katherine Stone’s former employer, the Cohn & Wolfe public relations firm hired by Glaxo.

On June 9, 2008, with a headline, “Harvard doctors’ studies tainted,” the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review wrote: “Harvard Medical School doctors who helped pioneer the use of psychiatric drugs in children violated U.S. government and school rules by failing to properly disclose at least $3.2 million from drugmakers led by Johnson & Johnson and Eli Lilly & Co., a U.S. senator said.”

An investigation by the US Senate Finance Committee found Dr Joseph Biederman earned about $1.6 million from drug companies between 2000 and 2007, but failed to report about $1.4 million on forms filed with the school. Doctors, Thomas Spencer and Timothy Wilens, raked in a combined $2.6 million in the same time period.

Biederman, Spencer and Wilens are major proponents for the validity of the bogus “Adult ADHD” diagnosis, with claims that over 4% of the population in the US has it.

Moving right along, Dr Jeffrey Bostic, Assistant Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, and the medical director of the Massachusetts Child Psychiatry Access Project at Massachusetts General, became the “star spokesman” for Forest Labs in the promotion of Celexa and Lexapro for unapproved uses with children from 1999 through 2006, according to a lawsuit filed in February 2009, by the US Department of Justice, charging the company with defrauding the government of millions of dollars by illegally marketing the drugs off-label for kids.

Between 2000 and 2006, “Forest paid Bostic over $750,000 in honoraria for his presentations on Celexa and Lexapro,” the complaint reports. Bostic gave more than 350 Forest-sponsored talks and presentations in 28 states, many of which addressed the pediatric use of Celexa and Lexapro.

On March 13, 2009, Bloomberg News reported that, “Harvard Medical School doctor Lee Simon, accused last year of plagiarizing a scientific article on immune disease, has resigned.”

On April 10, 2009, the Wall Street Journal health blog announced: “More news on the research-fabrication front.” Robert Fogel, “a former assistant professor at Harvard Medical School, fabricated and falsified data in a study of sleep apnea in severely obese patients, the Office of Research Integrity at HHS said,” the Journal noted.

Fogel “has been disciplined by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services for falsifying as much as half of the data he used for a Harvard study on sleep apnea in morbidly obese patients,” the Harvard Crimson reported on April 9, 2009.

In March 2009, as part of the Senate Finance Committee investigation, Senator Charles Grassley asked Pfizer to provide details of its payments to roughly 150 faculty members at Harvard Medical School since January 2007.

Disease Mongering in the Media

In an April 11, 2006, paper in PLoS Medicine, Steven Woloshin and Lisa Schwartz of Dartmouth, point out that discussions “about disease mongering usually focus on the role of pharmaceutical companies — how they promote disease and their products through “disease awareness” campaigns and direct-to-consumer drug advertising, and by funding disease advocacy groups.”

“But diseases also get promoted in another way,” they note, “through the news media.”

“Unless journalists approach stories about new diseases skeptically and look out for disease mongering by the pharmaceutical industry, pharmaceutical consultants, and advocacy groups,” they warn, “journalists, too, may end up selling sickness.”

Journalists “should be very wary when confronted with a new or expanded disease affecting large numbers of people,” they said, in words certainly applicable to the Mothers Act disease mongering campaign.

“If a disease is common and very bothersome, it is hard to believe that no one would have noticed it before,” they aptly point out.

“Prevalence estimates are easy to exaggerate by broadening the definition of disease,” they advise.

“Journalists should also reflexively question whether more diagnosis is always a good thing,” they said. “Simply labeling people with disease has negative consequences.”

“Similarly, journalists should question the assumption that treatment always makes sense,” they state. “Medical treatments always involve trade-offs; people with mild symptoms have little to gain, and treatment may end up causing more harm than good.”

“Finally,” the authors note, “instead of extreme, unrepresentative anecdotes about miracle cures, journalists should help readers understand how well the treatment works (e.g., what is the chance that I will feel better if I take the medicine versus if I do not?) and what problems it might cause.”

“Sick people stand to benefit from treatment, but healthy people may only get hurt: they get labeled “sick,” may become anxious about their condition, and, if they are treated, may experience side effects that overwhelm any potential benefit,” they point out.

However, relaying any information in the media contrary to the propaganda pumped out by the rabid disease mongers running the Mothers Act campaign has proven to be easier said than done.

Time Magazine Blasted

In July, 2009, Time Magazine published a great article by Catherine Elton titled, “Postpartum Depression: Do All Moms Need Screening?”

Elton reported that “the Melanie Blocker-Stokes Postpartum Depression Research and Care Act, familiarly known as the Mothers Act, has passed the House and is headed for the Senate.”

“If it becomes law, it will mandate the funding of research, education and public-service announcements about postpartum depression (PPD) along with services for women who have it,” she explained.

In the article, Elton accurately reported the arguments put forth by people for and against the Act, and summarized the story of the Malanie Blocker-Stokes, the woman the bill is named after.

“The legislation has sparked surprisingly heated debate, dividing psychologists and spurring a war of petition drives aimed at either bolstering the bill or blocking its passage,” Elton pointed out.

“At the root of the dissent is the issue of screening,” she noted. “Does PPD screening identify cases of real depression or simply contribute to the potentially dangerous medicalization of motherhood?”

“Although the current version of the Mothers Act does not specifically include funding for PPD testing, an earlier one did (it was based on a New Jersey law that mandates universal PPD screening), and critics say the new act will naturally lead to greater use of screening if it passes,” she correctly reported

“Opponents of the bill contend that mental-health screens are notoriously prone to giving false positives — research suggests that as few as one-third of women flagged by a PPD screen actually have the condition — and say testing is a gambit by pharmaceutical companies to sell more drugs,” Elton accurately pointed out.

“But clinicians and researchers say screening is intended not as a diagnostic tool but as a way to identify patients who need further evaluation,” she said. “Studies suggest that PPD affects as many as 1 out of 7 mothers and that failing to treat it exposes women and their babies to unwarranted risk.”

“Postpartum depression is not a benign, uncommon thing. We screen all infants for [the genetic disorder] phenylketonuria, which is extremely rare. Why don’t we screen women for this?” asked University of Pittsburgh Medical Center psychiatrist Katherine Wisner, in the article.

“Why?” Elton wrote. “Because increased screening could lead to an increase in mothers being prescribed psychiatric medication unnecessarily.”

“That concern lies close to the heart of Amy Philo, 31, of Texas, who has become a leader of the anti–Mothers Act movement,” she reported.

“In 2004, shortly after her first son was born, he choked on his vomit and needed emergency treatment,” the article explained.

“Her son recovered, but after the incident, Philo became preoccupied with his safety and felt severe anxiety about protecting him — a common symptom of PPD.”

“After a one-minute conversation with my doctor,” Amy told Time, “he gave me Zoloft and said it would make me and my baby happy.”

“But Philo says she started having suicidal and homicidal thoughts, which got stronger when another doctor raised her dosage,” Elton wrote.

However, Amy explains that Zoloft caused problems that never existed, it did not “make them worse.”

The drug caused me to turn from “a worried mother after my son almost died in the ER, into a psychotic, homicidal, suicidal person,” she says, and it got worse when the dose was upped.

Eventually, Amy “weaned herself off the drug, and her violent feelings disappeared,” Time noted.

“What TIME failed to disclose is that Dr. Wisner is listed on the speakers bureau for Pfizer and Lilly, makers of the antidepressants, Zoloft and Prozac–drugs that carry Black Box label warnings about increased risks of suicide, ” Vera Hassner Sharav, president of the Alliance for Human Research Protection, pointed out in a June 15, 2009, infomail to the group’s mailing list.

“Doctors who serve on pharmaceutical speaker’s bureaus give “promotional talks” on behalf of the company that pays them–the service they render for pay is to advertise drugs to other doctors–despite the confirmed evidence of these drugs serious hazards,” she explains.

Wisner is a main promoter of mandatory screening of new mothers for mental disorders. In a December 2006 editorial in the Journal of the American Medical Association, Wisner recommended “that the United States take steps to implement a universal screening program, in which all women are screened between two- and 12-weeks postpartum,” her University reported in a December 5, 2006, disease mongering press release titled, “JAMA Editorial Notes Childbearing Presents Unique Vulnerability for Psychiatric Illness, Making Effective Screening, Education and Treatment Essential.”

“Those presenting with symptoms of a psychiatric disorder should be treated immediately after diagnosis,” Dr Wisner said in the news release.

Five months before her editorial called for “universal screening,” Medical News Today ran the headline: “Commonly Used Anti-depressants Safe And Effective For Treating Postpartum Depression,” on August 5, 2006, for a study led by Wisner in the Journal of Clinical Psychopharmacology.

The Alliance for Human Research Protection is one of more than 50 advocacy groups in a coalition, organized by Amy Philo, that have come out against the Mothers Act. Other prominent members of the coalition include: AbleChild, the Citizens Commission on Human Rights, International Center for the Study of Psychiatry and Psychology; International Coalition For Drug Awareness; Law Project for Psychiatric Rights; and Mindfreedom International.

Amy Liked It

“Catherine Elton did a fantastic job of showing both sides in a fair light,” Amy wrote about the Time article in a blog on her website.

“She tells the truth about the treatment given to Melanie Stokes, about my experience with Zoloft, and about screening,” she pointed out.

“People who would otherwise never think twice if their doctor hands them a prescription for psych drugs will see this article and perhaps be saved because of it,” she noted.

“But this does not sit well with people who make a living marketing disorders to the public,” Amy wrote.

Plan of Attack

Likely unbeknownst to even Amy, a well-orchestrated plan of attack against Elton, Time Magazine, and Amy herself, was already well underway.

On July 12, 2009, Lauren Hale sprung into action on her website with the headline: “TIME Magazine misfires debate on MOTHER’S Act.”

Hale went so far as to give women specific instructions to make sure the Time article was not read, and wrote: “I am personally asking you to boycott – even asking if you can take the copy of TIME home from the doctor’s office in order to keep other moms from reading it!”

“And make sure you ASK – because just taking it would be stealing and that’s illegal,” she added.

“I happen to know that Ms. Elton did indeed interview fellow survivors who support the bill,” Hale informed readers of her website.

“One has to wonder then,” she said, “why did their stories not make it into the article? Was it length? Was it editing? Or was it intentional?”

“The only survivor story featured in this article is that of Amy Philo,” Hale wrote, “one of five recipients of an Outstanding Achievement for Mothers’ and Children’s Rights awards from the Citizens Commision on Human Rights or CCHR.”

“CCHR was founded in 1969 by none other than the Church of Scientology, well-known to oppose the entire psychiatric field,” she continued. On July 13, 2009, Amy responded to Hale in a blog on the Hale’s website with the following comments:

“Actually Lauren, I was one of five women to receive a group award called “Outstanding Achievement for Mothers’ and Children’s Rights.”

“The other women include two who lost children to antidepressants and ADHD medications, and two who were targeted by schools and CPS for refusing to allow their children to be drugged with antidepressants and ADHD meds.”

“I am by far the least of these women, but thanks for bringing up my award,” Amy said. “I was honored to be recognized by an amazing mental health watchdog group.”

“I am not a member of CCHR, but I have zero problems with their group,” she continued. “Their membership includes both Scientologists and non-Scientologists.”

“I think it’s hilarious that you choose to bring up Scientology,” Amy said. “Especially considering that many of your friends received awards from drug companies.”

On July 13, 2009, on Postpartum Progress, Katherine Stone ran the headline, “Time Magazine Skips the Facts about Postpartum Depression,” and wrote in part: “Time completely blew it.”

“The editors should really be ashamed of themselves for allowing an article on a topic that they clearly knew so little about to be published,” she stated.

Katherine concluded her blog by telling readers: “If you haven’t already written to them to express your displeasure, you should,” and conveniently provided a live link to send a letter to Time.

“If you’d like to send me your letter I will be happy to share it on Postpartum Progress,” she kindly told letter writers.

Katherine would in fact go on to post a total of 6 such letters (at last count), on PostPartum Progress over the next couple weeks.

On July 15, 2009, Hale reported on her website: “I fired off a letter to TIME over the weekend.”

“Katherine Stone has graciously published the full text over at her blog, Postpartum Progress,” she told readers, and “graciously” provided a link to her letter on Katherine’s site.

On July 15, 2009, Katherine also posted “A Mother’s Letter to Time Magazine,” from a women named Kim Rogers.

“For every Amy Philo, there are 100 women who support and understand the importance of the MOTHERS Act,” Kim wrote.”I was very disappointed to not even see one of them represented.”

On July 15, 2009, Medical News Today highlighted the discussion in the Time article with a report under the headline: “Bill Fuels Debate Over Universal Screening For Postpartum Depression.”

The next day, Hale posted a response on the Medical News website with a heading: “Over 50+ Women’s Advocates And Professionals Disappointed In TIME Article.”

“When the TIME article, “The Melancholy of Motherhood” was first published online, myself and several others immediately rallied to send TIME a letter to point out many of the article’s shortcomings,” she said.

“This letter, authored by none other than Katherine Stone of Postpartum Progress, advises TIME of several mistakes and oversights within the article,” she reported.

“All of us were deeply disheartened by the lack of information and one-sided presentation of this debate by TIME Magazine,” she continued.

“I am even further disappointed,” Hale said, “to read an even more lacking rehash of an already inaccurate article here at Medical News Today, a normally reliable resource.”

“I sincerely hope readers of this article will also choose to click the following URL to read our Open Letter to TIME in order to obtain further facts and information regarding the MOTHER’S Act and the TIME article,” she wrote, above a link to Postpartum Progress.

For starters, Katherine’s letter shows only 47 signatures. And of those, eleven women are listed with books to sell. Fifteen are hooked in with Postpartum Support International, as a past or current office holder, coordinator, or chairperson of affiliated groups, and many run websites or support groups

Only four names among the 47 signatures are listed as simply being a mother.

After Katherine posted the open letter to Time on Postpartum Progress, replies to it included one by a John Smith, who stated: “You know Time is abjectly derelict in its duty when it offers, as the “opposing side,” a person who seems to be an obvious Scientology sympathizer, Amy Philo.”

“Did they do no research at all? Do they not understand the importance of vetting sources?” Smith wrote.

“Do they not realize that mentally ill people don’t always have a grip on reality?” he stated, in an obvious dig against Amy, without mentioning that Amy was not mentally ill prior to taking Zoloft, after being screened by a home visiting nurse who told her take drugs to “prevent” PPD.

Internet Battle Breaks Out

On July 13, 2009, with a headline that read, “Motherhood is Not a Medical Disorder,” Dr Douglas Bremner discussed the Time article on a website called the “Drug and Health Safety News Blog.”

Bremner is a professor of psychiatry and radiology at Emory University, the director of the Emory Clinical Neuroscience Research Unit, and the director of Mental Health Research at the Atlanta VA Medical Center. He also wrote the not too Pharma friendly book titled, “Before You Take That Pill: Why the Drug Industry May Be Bad for Your Health.”

In discussing the Time article, Bremner pointed out that the Mother’s Act legislation was “initiated in response to the story of Melanie Blocker-Stokes, who leaped to her death from her hotel room in Chicago three months after the birth of her daughter.”

“Officially known as the Melanie Blocker-Stokes Post Partum Depression Research and Care Act, but referred to as the Mother’s Act, this legislation would require screening of all women post-partum for depression,” he wrote, and further explained:

“The problem with this is the attitude that being a mother is a risk factor for a psychiatric disorder. First of all, there is no evidence that women without a prior history of anxiety and depression have any increased risk of getting post partum depression. So to screen all moms as if giving birth is a risk factor for depression is ridiculous.”

“And whenever you start screening the general population,” he warned, “you get into problems with over-identification of people and an increase in the number of people that go on antidepressants.”

“I am opposed to mandatory screenings of the population, like Teenscreen, which are bonanzas for the pharmaceutical industry, but a major intrusion into the privacy and autonomy of American citizens,” Bremner said.

“In the case of Melanie Blocker-Stokes,” he wrote, “she had already been treated with multiple courses of psychotropic drugs and electro-convulsive therapy, so there is no reason to think that her life would have been saved by ’screening’”.

On July 14, 2009, psychologist, John Grohol, took Bremner to task on the website, PsychCentral, with the headline: “Bremner’s False Claims about Postpartum Depression.”

“My BS alert goes off whenever someone tries to change the argument from a reasonable effort to help increase education and information about a stigmatized mental health issue, to hyperbole, suggesting that a piece of legislation is trying to turn motherhood into a psychiatric disorder,” Grohol reported.

“It goes off again,” he said, “when a professional makes an extraordinary claim like, ‘there is no evidence that women without a prior history of anxiety and depression have any increased risk of getting post partum [sic] depression.’”

“These are objective researchers calling for more screenings,” Grohol claimed. “Not politicians. And not people (or professionals) with a political agenda.”

The Mothers Act disease mongers will often initiate debates about topics like the Time article but then censor the comments of bloggers who try to post contrary views. When Bremner was blocked from responding to Grohol’s comments on PsychCentral, Bremner opened up the debate on his own site and stated: “Motherhood is STILL Not a Medical Disorder: Response to Critics.”

An all-out blogging war then erupted on the competing websites. On July 14, 2009, a guy named Frank Lee wrote on PsychCentral: “As far as I can tell, the ringleaders of the anti-Mothers Act movement are the anti-psychiatry, anti-medication, anti-the-brain-is-an-organ crowd.”

“Legitimate researchers and mental health experts may regard them as “Internet nutters,” in the words of one highly published psychiatrist,” he claimed. “Their views may sound so ridiculous to educated (and sane) people that they are dismissed outright.”

“But, unfortunately,” he noted, “they have a lot of time on their hands, and they gather force on the Internet and make their voices known — and LOUDLY.”

“The fact is,” Lee said, “a significant percentage of the American population has untreated mental disorders.”

“But many of them have been treated — and treated hamhandedly by ignorant physicians,” he added. ‘These former patients are angry — and LOUD.”

“Some, no doubt, blame their current disordered mental state on medication when in fact it is the natural progression of their disorder,” Lee said.

“Some are simply so selfish they will deprive others of the chance for medical care simply because treatment for theirs didn’t work out so well,” he wrote. “Selfish. Selfish. Selfish.”

“But that’s the way many mental disorders are — selfish,” Lee added.

“We need to recognize these people as the sick minds that they are,” he said, “or all progress is lost.”

“It’s a SCREENING, you wingnuts,” Lee announced.

“Learn to read,” he told the wingnuts. “And take your medication. And shut up.”

In writing on Bremner’s site, Gina Pera, who has a book to hawk on Adult ADHD, also basically claimed that statements and opinions about the Mothers Act, by Amy and people like her, should be ignored because these people are mentally ill.

“We cannot make public-policy decisions based on the stories of people who have been diagnosed with mental health disorders and treated for them,” she wrote.

“Sorry, but it’s true,” she added.

“Many mental health disorders limit objectivity,” Pera states, “so these people are just not the best judges of what has been done to them and why.”

“They can have their stories and they can share them,” she said. “But we can’t make policy on this kind of hearsay and paranoia.”

On PsychCentral, the mental health expert Pera further explained: “To those who contend that the mentally ill always know they are mentally ill, that flies entirely in the face of all that we know about anosognosia and the denial of illness.”

“Mental illness can — and often does — limit accurate perception of self and others,” she said. “It’s just a fact.”

In a July 15, 2009, post on PsychCentral, John Smith jumped on the bandwagon and wrote: “These bloggers who pander to the Scientology crowd (and their mentally ill ilk) are simply seeking the spotlight, in my opinion. Shameless self-promotion, at the expensive of accurate information.”

“They’re whipping up the hornets’ nest and taking no responsibility for their actions” he said. “Despicable.”

In a second blog posted immediately after the first, Smith said: “Check out Ms. Philo’s connection with the Scientology front’s ‘Natural News.’”

“As if it’s not obvious she’s mentally unstable,” he wrote.

“The idea that Time magazine would give her a platform is ridiculous, as if she represents the “other side” of the issue,” Smith said. “She sings straight from the Scientology songbook: off-key.”

After allowing all the attacks to be posted on his site about Amy, when Amy posted truthful information such as Katherine Stone being a paid speaker with money from Zoloft maker Pfizer, Grohol wrote a blog basically warning Amy to knock it off or she would not be allowed to post comments on his site.

“We don’t allow ad hominem or personal attacks here,” he said, “So I suggest that if you want to engage in such, you go elsewhere for your enjoyment.”

It was at this point that Evelyn Pringle (me) felt compelled to enter the debate and wrote: “This from a someone who has allowed people to posted snide remarks and inuendoes to discredit Amy, or anyone else with an opposing view, who has been diagnosed with a mental disorder, rightfully or wrongfully, all over the internet, including here.”

“These people verify everything I have warned about in my articles,” she said. “Once a woman is tagged with a mental illness diagnosis via the Mothers Act, she will lose all credibility for life.”

“In the Mothers Act disease mongering campaign we now have social workers, running treatment centers with websites, diagnosing mental disorders, with 2 and 3 question screening tools, and advising women on which drugs they recommend,” Pringle wrote on PsychCentral on July 16, 2009.

“It’s hard enough to accept that the nation’s mental health is gauged on disorders defined by a single 38,000 member psychiatric professional group,” she said, “delegating the treatment of mental illness to social workers, with a doctor signing off on the diagnosis for billing purposes, is not acceptable.”

Pringle’s comments were also soon blocked on Grohol’s website.

But on July 20, 2009, she wrote on Bremner’s website: “I think every blogger who brings up Scientology should identify their religious faith for the record.”

“As I’ve said many times, I am not a fan of any organized religion, and disagree with the practices of many, but I fail to see what religious beliefs have to do with opposing the Mothers Act legislation,” she wrote.

“For instance,” she said, “I always thought it was ridiculous that Catholics were not allowed to eat meat on Fridays (when I was young), get divorced, or use birth control (to name a few).”

“However, being my father was a firm believer in the Catholic religion, I never felt the need to belittle his faith,” she wrote. “I simply decided not to be a Catholic when I grew up.”

“Nor do I feel the need to preface peoples’ name with their religion in a low-ball attempt to win a debate,” Pringle said.

“I disagree with the beliefs of many other religions but who am I to say which one of the world’s millions of religions is correct,” she added.

“Trying to use Scientology as a smoke-screen is really getting old,” Pringle said. “Anyone who is a member of an organized religion should be required to identify that affiliation if they want to make Scientology an issue in this debate.”

On July 22, 2009, a blogger on Bremner’s site named Lisa wrote: “Dr. Bremner, just my opinion, but I suspect the reason you riled Dr. Grohol has to do with the fact that he can’t very well blame your opposition to the Mother’s Act on Scientology or Anti-psychiatry.”

“I wish the debate over this bill didn’t have to devolve into that,” she said. “It’s so tiring.”

Grohol’s Internet One-stop

As noted previously in this series, Grohol, the guy supporting “objective researchers calling for more screening,” is operating a profitable one-stop treatment center on the internet with PsychCentral, where people can get therapy from “live” online “experts” 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, as well as coupons for free samples of psychiatric drugs, with instructions on what to discuss during doctors’ appointments.

Grohol’s one-stop even provides links to quizzes for people to self-screen not only for depression, but for Adult ADHD, anxiety, OCD, PSTD, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and just about every other so-called mental disorder known to mankind.

One helpful link takes potential customers to the: “Do I Need Therapy? Quiz”.

A weekly chat with a PsychCentral therapist would cost a mom who screens positive for PPD roughly $120 per hour, billed at $2 per minute, or $6,240 a year.

The Abilify advertised on PsychCentral, to treat depression as an add-on with antidepressants, was recently priced at $1,230 on DrugStore.com. Add Cymbalta, one of the antidepressants Grohol promotes with another ad, complete with a voucher for a free sample, at a cost of $390 a month, and a woman is looking at a yearly tab of $19,440, bringing the combined drug and therapy total to $25,680.

And God forbid, if mom and dad both screen positive, the cost of treatment could double to $51,360. As a psychologist, Grohol can not write prescriptions, and neither can his online “therapists,” so this amount would not include the fees for office calls to the prescribing physician.

However, before heading over to Gohol’s one-stop, perhaps postpartum couples may want to see if a new car could pull them out of their funk. On the “Car Connection” website, the starting price for a brand new 2009 Kia Rio is only $11,495, and the 2009 Honda Fit is listed at $14,750, bringing the total cost to only $26,248 for two vehicles.

If the new cars don’t do the trick, the parents would still have $25,112 left over to spend on a half year of treatment at PsychCentral, based on the estimated costs for drugs and therapy found on the website.

Also, a quick search of the internet turned up a website called, “Live Psychic Readings,” supposedly featured on “Good Morning America,” that only charges $1 per minute, with a toll free number. And better yet, another site with the heading, “The Honest Psychics,” only charges a buck for 10 minutes.

Grohol also allowed Katherine to post a link on PsychCentral to a petition for people to sign in support of the Mothers Act, a process funded by the “Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance,” a Big Pharma front group that serves as a funnel of drug company money to finance disease mongering campaigns.

The DBSA’s 2007 annual report shows the group received between $150,000 and $499,000 from AstraZeneca, Pfizer and Wyeth, and between $10,000 and $149,000 from Abbott, Cyberonics, Forest, Glaxo, Organon, and Otsuka American Pharmaceuticals. DBSA also received $37,510 from Eli Lilly in 2007, and another $20,000 from Lilly in 2008.

Lilly’s first quarter grant report for 2009 shows a $5,000 donation to the DBSA. The Rhode Island chapter of the group also received $7,500 from Lilly in the first quarter of 2009.

This article continues tomorrow in part five.