About one in four soldiers admit to abusing prescription drugs, most of them pain relievers, in a one-year period, according to a Pentagon health survey released Wednesday.

The study, which surveyed more than 28,500 U.S. troops last year, showed that about 20 percent of Marines had also abused prescription drugs, mostly painkillers, in that same period.

The findings show the continued toll on the military from fighting wars in both Iraq and Afghanistan since 2003. Those wars have required troops to serve multiple combat deployments.

“We are aware that more prescription drugs are being used today for pain management and behavioral health issues,” Brig. Gen. Colleen McGuire, director of the Army Suicide Prevention Task Force, said Wednesday. “These areas of substance abuse along with increased use of alcohol concern us.”

The survey showed that pain relievers were the most abused drug in the military, used illicitly at a rate triple that of marijuana or amphetamines, the next most widely abused drugs.

About 15 percent of soldiers said they had abused prescription drugs in the 30 days before they were questioned for the survey. About 10 percent of Marines said the same thing.

Prescription drug abuse is “an issue for American society as well, and we’re looking at it from every possible angle,” McGuire said.

Painkiller abuse among troops has soared since 2005, the last time a similar study was conducted. The 2005 survey showed that 4 percent of soldiers had abused painkillers in the previous 30 days, compared with 13 percent in 2008. Abuse within the previous year was 10 percent in 2005 compared with 22 percent in 2008.

The authors of the report released Wednesday said different questions were used in 2008 compared with previous years. That makes an exact comparison difficult.

The 2008 survey asked more specific questions, such as whether troops were engaged in any non-medical use of the drugs they were prescribed.

Prescription drug abuse among the civilian population dropped in 2008 compared with 2007, a federal report released in September shows.

USA Today reported last year that narcotic pain-relief prescriptions for injured or wounded U.S. troops jumped from 30,000 a month to 50,000 since the Iraq war began.

Lt. Gen. Eric B. Schoomaker, the Army surgeon general, created a task force this year to review the service’s pain management practices.

In addition, the Army is expanding programs to treat and educate soldiers about drug abuse. But the service struggles to provide enough drug counselors and needs to hire 270 to 300, Gen. Peter W. Chiarelli, Army vice chief of staff, said last month.

Other survey findings include:

• The percentage of troops showing signs of post-traumatic stress disorder increased during the war years. In a 2005 survey, 7 percent of the service members described symptoms suggesting PTSD. That increased to 11 percent in the 2008 study.

The largest increases were within the Army and Marine Corps, the two service branches doing most of the fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan. The rate of soldiers who described problems suggestive of PTSD increased from 9 percent in 2005 to 13 percent in 2008, and from 8 percent to 15 percent among Marines, the survey results show.

• Nearly 60 percent of Marines admit engaging in binge drinking. The rate of heavy alcohol use — defined as five or more drinks per occasion once a week — among all service members ages 18 to 35 remained higher than in the civilian population.

• Service members admitting that they had thoughts of suicide during the year prior to being surveyed doubled from 1 percent in 2005 to 2 percent in 2008.

The following email was sent to a former college colleague who has decided that she is too good to speak to me anymore, and has now broken some very big laws.

So, now I’m taking matters into my own hands.

You can see what I wrote her, as I’m about to post the email.  She is a senior White House staffer.  Her name is Cassandra Butts.  Who hasn’t done as much as I have in DC or anywhere else.  She’s just got that horrific disease, called “I went to Harvard with Obama, I’ve got ‘tude, FUCK OFF you stupid cracker.”

Unfortunately that doesn’t work, is illegal and appalling.

And shows you exactly the attitude of THIS ADMINISTRATION.  And will be circulated all over the HILL, the blogosphere and where ever I have to send it.

Because she, just like everyone else in DC with power, doesn’t give a rat’s ass about anybody else.  And the only way she got that “power” also called a title on a business card and about as meaningful, was by flushing her morals down the toilet.

When they ARE PUBLIC SERVANTS.  Emphasis on the last word.  So this is just one of the lessons that dumb ass in the Oval Office is going to start learning if he keeps lying, breaking his word, and playing “I’m going to screw everyone else, give out the best bailout money to my buddies, and fuck the entire US population in the ass, so I can become a billionaire because among other things I own a shitload of pharma stock.

I WANT THAT FUCKING MEETING CASSANDRA.  NOW.

And if there are any more delays, there’s going to be further embarrassment.  If not your firing, and Obama’s impeachment.

GET IT?  Am I using small enough words?  For a “biologicially inferior piece of garbage” that the President has made sure to show his contempt for. Not to mention you.  And as for Ms. Barnes.  That goes for her too.

And the rest of the assholes in Congress  who are getting rich off of war, get bribes on the side, to vote against the interests of the people they represent on say healthcare, while we pay for their privileged lives.

That is NOT the change I voted for, nor one I believe in.  And the last thing DC needs at this point, is another clueless egomaniac on the loose, who thinks he’s the fucking Messiah.  Trust me, he’s a legend in his own fucking mind.  BUT HE’S GOING TO FUND MY FUCKING PROJECT.

SO START MAKING THE DATE PRONTO.  HE WORKS FOR ME TOO.  HE IS THE ULTIMATE PUBLIC SERVANT. NOT THE MESSIAH.

IT’S TIME HE REMEMBERED THAT.  INSTEAD OF PLAYING KING FOR A DAY, AND GETTING PISSED OFF WHEN HE IS RIGHTLY CRITICIZED FOR SPENDING FOUR TIMES WHAT THE AVERAGE AMERICAN GETS PAID ANNUALLY, IF THEY STILL HAVE A JOB THAT IS, TO TAKE THE SPOILED MISSUS TO NEW YORK.  THANKS TO OBAMA’S POLICIES ON CONTINUED OUTSOURCING, NOT TO MENTION HIS CORRUPT ECONOMIC ADVISORS.  WHO SHOULD ALL BE FIRED.

And if you think that is embarrassing, there’s plenty more to come.  You dumb clueless bitch.  Call me “privileged” again and I’m going to make you eat your fucking words.  Go ahead, bail out the banks and ruin my life.  THEY DID THIS TO ME YOU BITCH.  IS THAT YOUR DEFINITION OF PRIVILEGED?  THEN YOU ARE REALLY SICK if not morally depraved.  Oh, and I also expect a full investigation of all of the cabinet members who have threatened me, discriminated against me and you have both refused to investigate them, which is part of your job, but the IG’s who did too.

And a hurry it up over at JUSTICE, where you clowns are facing CRIMINAL ASSAULT AND BATTERY CHARGES, conveniently documented by the NYPD.  With a witness to boot, so don’t even try to get Bloomberg, another criminal to try to cover that one up.

I don’t take it kindly when DOJ, “Don’t cry for me Pharmantina” Pelosi’s office and the DLCC keep hanging up on me.  That is also illegal.  Didn’t they teach you that crap at Harvard?   Because you sure look as dumb as fuck to me.  Not to mention criminal, lawbreaking bastards.  Oh, and don’t even mention the word “defamatory” because I have multiple agencies doing so much investigating at this point, with paper work to back it up, on the illegal crap Obama is turning his back on at the municipal, state and federal level,  that you are going to look like, as those who have real educations, and speak multiple languages, say, like merde.

Capiche?  And the only reason I have edited out your email, is that I still have a modicum of mercy.  Although technically it should be listed, per Obama’s promise to make government more accountable, and transparent, on the goddamned White House website.  But, silly me, he’s “adjusted his position” on that too.  Personally I think the asshole should be “adjusted out of office.”

Also called impeachment for lying his ass off on the way into office in the first place.

You see.  You gotta put your ass on the line, and your money where your mouth is.

Because among other things, I’m going to kill that fucking healthcare bill.  It’s illegal, it’s immoral and it shows EXACTLY how little Obama really thinks about the people who put their trust in him.

And I think that is disgusting.  Oh, and Rambo. FUCK OFF.  I’m not afraid of you either.

Gimp Godzilla,

Over and Out.

Amsterdam

A touch of Das Kapital with your morning coffee. Perhaps you could add a status to the effect of “___ is: being a bourgeois pig lolz!” Marx would want it that way.

I had to shop yesterday. The mall. Toys ‘R’ Us. Borders. Target. Shoot me. On the plus side, we hit two different chain restaurants and I left space in their bathrooms highly liberated with thought-provoking suggestions about materialism and how the gifts with deepest meaning are beyond price. Except in Red Robin. They looked so harried that I left “Quit your job and GO ON TOUR.”

Editors Note:  This is a follow on to two previous blogs and a developing story.

For those of you new to this, please read the first two installments at:

Part I

Part II

The reason I am sending you to another wormhole in cyberspace for these two articles, when the first of the two appears on this site, is for you to see something else.

DISCRIMINATION.  Particularly against women and those with disabilities and how unfounded such attitudes are, how our continued mistreatment, even by Obama, unfortunately, leads to this kind of thing, and why I am determined to make sure that I both get a meeting with him and that this kind of thing stops.

There is nothing like seeing for yourself to believe.  And the kind of comments I got, particularly on the first Part above are almost unbelievable.  Then again, this whole situation is.  And again something I blame on Obama, for reasons you will understand when you read the next parts of the developing story….something that nobody else has caught.  This is a serious and breaking news story about Presidential lawbreaking that it appears Congress is trying to cover up and none of the media outlets have caught.

Not bad for a, in the words of Mr. Summers’ Mr. Obama’s chief economic advisor, “biologically inferior” GIMP.   And in addition to that proposal that has sat in the White House for way too long, more than enough reason for a meeting in the Oval Office Pronto.  Otherwise, there will be more to follow.  Because Mr. Obama is pretty sexist himself.  And shows no respect for white women in their thirties and forties, to the extent that his goons have already beaten me up, his administration refuses to investigate, his White House refuses to return my calls on a very good jobs and clean energy proposal and THERE ARE NO WHITE WOMEN AT ALL IN THEIR THIRTIES OR FORTIES AT ANY POWERFUL POSITION IN THIS ADMINISTRATION, EITHER IN THE WHITE HOUSE OR HEADING UP A CABINET POSITION.

AND THAT IS UNACCEPTABLE.  IT IS CALLED DIVERSITY.  THEN AGAIN, AS YOU READ THIS STORY, YOU WILL SEE THAT MR. OBAMA’S BEHAVIOR IS A LITTLE LESS THAN PRESIDENTIAL.  IF NOT IMMATURE.  AND ILLEGAL.  THIS IS JUST ONE STORY.  THERE ARE MANY MORE.

This is the first of a series of this part of the action.

This is a follow up to the last blog I wrote on the topic of the supposed “break in” or um “lapse of security” or “failure of the secret service” or whatever bullshit du jour the “authorities” and “official sources” and unfortunately the mainstream media are too ever since that stupid distraction and soap opera occurred, are calling this charade not to mention the issue of “terrorist threats,” “threats to the president” and basically the entire pile of manure that surrounds this whole event that is, to use a phrase that I’m stealing from myself, but is absolutely appropriate here, so high, wide and deep that you can forget looking for the pony, ‘cause it died long ago.

Just from the stench of corruption surrounding this odiferous crap.

Not to mention the actual events of the night itself and why they were arranged.  Not to mention the ensuing “scandal” which was too.  And why.

The reason I’m writing this is because I have even more proof that what I wrote is true.

I now have additional proof that what I posted is true.  And now I’m going to tell you what that is, for several reasons, because I am really sick and tired of what is going on, and I am going to stop it.

I am also doing what I am doing to teach people, both in government and the average American a few lessons.  Including you Big Brother over there at Spook Central (NSC/CIA/FBI and whatever other unimaginative, unpronounceable acronyms you bozos make up for the security state that nobody can even remember, much less understand) and Orwell Tree House (The Department of Homeland Security) who can go kiss my ass.

And you know what; you guys over at the White House can do that too.  Not to mention ANYBODY IN GOVERNMENT, official or otherwise, who fucks with me over this.  Or anything else for that matter.  Except to start checking the President’s calendar for a meeting date.

Because I know Big Brother, among others, you are reading this too.  And if you care to show up at my door again, or any other government thugs, official or unofficial, all you are going to get, if I bother to answer my door at all, that is, is my middle finger in your face, if not my garbage pail contents thrown out my window on your heads and a string of invectives that is going to make that little twit Rambo look like a learning disabled three year old when it comes to using profanity (and I have far more respect for learning disabled three year olds than the other asshole bully for several reasons including their IQ, and morals) and trust me, I can out cuss that immoral fuck and bully in the White House, who does not intimidate me in the slightest, and when it comes to imaginative but very insulting, highly sophisticated, completely appropriate, extremely embarrassing and colorful profanity, huh, he’s in Kindergarten compared to me.  Among many other things.  And language I have every right to use.  Per some crazy thing called the law.  Not to mention, if he uses it, I can use it too.  See Title XII.

And if that confrontation happens, I will BE TAPING IT.  ON DIGITAL VIDEO SO IT WILL GO INSTANTLY VIRAL.  ASAP.

That if you would like to object to, on any stupid but you think clever or what is that word you dickheads like to use – “Unprecedented” – charge, is going to land you in a fucking Title XII, disabilities (both Rehab Act and/or ADA and 1991 Civil Rights Act) Hate Crimes and every other law I can throw at you, not to mention Constitutional law suit so fucking fast your heads are going to spin like a top.  And don’t even mention “NATIONAL SECURITY SECRET VIOLATION” YOU TURDS.

Because you don’t have a leg to stand on.

Even a prosthetic one.

Much less a wheelchair….and yes, I am making references to those with disabilities for a reason and not in a nasty or disrespectful way TO THEM, but to the fucks who are doing nothing about the issue (I.E. OUR NATIONAL LEADERS STARTING WITH OBAMA AND THE MISSUS, NOT TO MENTION CONGRESS) which you readers will understand in a sec, if you keep reading.

Capiche?

For those who don’t understand or think I’m being paranoid, even after you have completely read this blog and all of the attached blog posts (there are two other very important links you have to read to understand this especially if you have not been following the soap opera), I guarantee you, you will not think that way when I am done.

You see I had set a few, uh, “rat traps” to be consistent with my original analogies in that original story that I knew the ding dongs who I would be sending this too would probably set off and never even think to look for, much less, uh, “defuse the bomb”.  For reasons they would never catch or think I was too stupid to set.   And therefore trip.

Yes, I call myself Gimp Godzilla as a joke, but maybe Gimp Velociraptor would be more appropriate in this case.  Although I don’t plan on going extinct any time soon.  But trust me, just like in “Jurassic Park,” when I’m on the hunt for my prey, you will never see me coming.  And the uh, “attack” figuratively speaking will come from the direction least expected.

I may be a pacifist by choice.  But I do know how to be a predator.  That is the difference between being a moral human being with a sense of justice and committed to perpetuating it FOR EVERYONE and acting like a selfish solipsistic asshole.

See Exhibit A in the Oval Office for a perfect example of the latter.

But I knew that this was going to work because of the rampant discrimination against women and PWDs in our society, not to mention the disdain in general the political elite have for the hoi polloi.  And because they don’t want this leaking.  Blogs can be stripped from websites and blocked from channels in cyberspace too.  Just as well as pictures or stories can be blocked from websites.  Just like, for example, the British version of the BBC website was not available outside the country via the internet during key primaries in the U.S. last year.  How do I know that?  I checked.  For a reason.  I had some suspicions and still do about what the fuck is going on under the cover of FISA.  And trust me, when I write the blog that I’m going to about what I know about that, you will jump under the fucking bedclothes.

But why do you think that the BBC would block its own internal reporting from Americans trying to find out what the British were reporting internally during our own election, do you think?  And yes, the sites are different.  Go look them up.

But that kind of censorship has been going on for years.  Even before 9/11, Reuters, for example, would only send certain video feeds and news feeds  to certain countries and block feeds deliberately from going to others.  How do I know that?

Because I fucking worked for them.  Did I ever sign a nondisclosure?  No.  Did I ever tell them that I worked for the ACLU?  No.  Of course not.  They never asked.  And even if I had, they were too stupid or had no morals of their own to know, because of course I never said anything, that this kind of censorship is WRONG.

So people WAKE THE FUCK UP.  YOU ARE BEING LIED TO.  AND FUCKED WITHOUT THE LUBE.

And yes I’m using very graphic language, but I need to get this through your heads.  And, according to the latest studies in psychology and psychiatry, profanity gets people’s attention VERY FUCKING FAST.  So I’m not trying to offend you.  I am trying to educate you, save you, and WAKE YOU UP.

But back to our traps.  Of course they weren’t suspecting them.  So they tripped them.  Thus exposing their two inch, if that long, dicks in public.  And yes, that was meant to be a sexist insult, but a funny one, and certainly one they deserve.  You know, there are always substitutes that work just as well.  And if I can use them on you boys, as I do very handily and am often begged to, you can use them on me.

Ooops did I just say that?

Yes I did.

I hope you are laughing.  That was a comic moment.  You need them in these kinds of things.  Because this is a very scary story.  But now back to it.

Our government and our country, treat women like shit.  I mean look at who is in our government and how they treat just women, let alone gimps.  Unless you are a gazillionaire and even then, Mrs. Clinton (who I am no fan of but for the first time in my life felt sorry for when this happened during the campaign last year) for example had to endure having her daughter basically called a prostitute on mainstream, national TV.

Despite the crap the anchor, not to mention the network tried to use to justify its or even that asshole reporter’s actions, I would have had the head of the network’s balls on a platter.

And served for lunch the next day, au jus.

And FIRED that reporter.

I mean who the hell does he think he is?  Whether it is Chelsea Clinton or some unknown woman from the projects, you DO NOT say those things about women on MAINSTREAM TV.

Or ANYWHERE for that matter.

WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH THE MALE ASSHOLES RUNNING THE NETWORKS?  NOT TO MENTION THE MALE ASSHOLE REPORTERS?  THE ONLY ONES HIRED TO POLITICAL COVERAGE BEATS.

And if you don’t believe me, name one female political reporter in her thirties or forties, who does.

You can’t.  Because there aren’t any.  We are, to quote Larry Summers, biologically inferior of doing so, apparently.

What century are we in again?

You know that I’m joking and I’m not Hannibal Lector, but I would have been far firmer than Hillary Clinton was, is the point of the above.  Women are far too used to taking too much shit.  And then take their frustration out on each other.

I am someone who HAS NEVER TAKEN IT.  FROM ANYONE.  A blog story for another day.   But I suggest that American women start to learn that same fucking attitude.

Those bastards at the network are just lucky Mrs. Clinton isn’t me.

But Obama is no better, despite signing a piece of paper.  BFD.

According to Mr. Summers, Mr. Obama’s head economic advisor, women are “biologically inferior” and not capable of apparently anything except breathing and breeding.  Despite this, Mr. Obama decided that Mr. Summers, naturally, was the best candidate for the job, despite his incestuous relationships with Wall Street, not to mention his previous um “fulltime” employer, if you can call showing up for work one day a week a full time job (although at a salary that was quite impressive I have to say of $1.5 Million for that day of work) plus HUGE consulting fees on the side from other corrupt Wall Street perps, all of whom of course got bailed out with your money.

DE Shaw, Mr. Summer’s immediate ex-employer, and founded by a guy also from Mr. Obama’s undergraduate alma mater (gee, it gets more incestuous all the time, doesn’t it) that underpaying slave driver, don’t you think, FYI is the Quantiest of all quant firms in the known planet as well as a very successful hedge fund.  And also very involved in things like cancer research (i.e. healthcare), housing, and cleantech.  To the point that they invested in a HUGE offshore cleantech facility right off of what state, rather conveniently, right as Mr. Summer’s got his new job offer?

DELAWARE.

Which is significant why?

Because it is Mr. Biden’s home state.  The VEEP.

Setting themselves up not only for another incestuous spot on a Presidential advisory board but for first dibs on a lot of YOUR money in very lucrative fields where the government is giving money away to its favorite people right now.  In boatloads.  Healthcare, cleantech, etc and ad nauseum.

And oh, yes, DE Shaw is also buying lots of repossessed homes on the cheap too, as soon as the homeowners the government couldn’t give a fuck about are barely beginning to stack the few belongings left them in boxes next to their bunk beds in small piles at their nearest homeless shelter.  AND DON’T HIRE GIMPS.

Which as mentioned before in New York, thanks to such “brilliant” policies as Mr. Bloomberg’s, along with Mr. Donovan (who Mr. Obama picked for his new head of HUD so we can see some more of that “innovation in housing” nationally, are about as “brilliant” as those of Mr. Obama’s.  And as I have mentioned before, it costs twice as much to be homeless in New York City, as to occupy a studio apartment in the cheapest part of the city, thanks to such “brilliance.”  And, um “innovation.”

Does anyone else see any ethical or other say economic or logic problems here or am I the ONLY ONE?

Which also might explain some of the problems we’ve been having with Mr. Obama’s reluctance to do anything about reigning in Wall Street, implementing decent healthcare legislation, appointing a man to head Treasury who should be behind bars rather than behind the fucking desk at the head of Treasury (that would be little Timmy Turbo Tax) and does a lot of explaining about what is going so wrong right now with our economy and the absolutely inane if not stupid and immoral economic decisions this administration is making.  If not all of them.  About almost everything.  And no, signing documents doesn’t matter.  Neither does making token appointments.

Per that old fashioned Wendy’s ad “Where’s the FUCKING BEEF?”

Nonetheless Mr. Summers, who by the way also mentored Mr. Geithner, and along with Mr. Greenspan, destroyed the woman’s career who warned Mr. Greenspan in 1998/1999 about the danger of unregulated derivatives (for which they both wrecked her career right before they destroyed Glass Steagall, two of the most important reasons and causes for our economy going “boom’ last year with just as much force and destruction but which will cause far greater suffering for many more people GLOBALLY and last much longer than the damage of 9/11 ever did.

And this warning by the way, FROM A WOMAN, Brooksley Born (also the FIRST FEMALE LAW SCHOOL REVIEW EDITOR EVER AND FROM A PRESTIGIOUS LAW SCHOOL AT THAT…AND IN THE SIXTIES MR. OBAMA, you sexist asshole)…who of course, naturally don’t understand economics because we are so stupid and biologically inferior, per Summers, was BEFORE ENRON’s IMPLOSION, which was about exactly the same shit.

Oh, and one more thing.  Mr. Summers was also fired from Harvard for those disgustingly sexist and Neanderthal comments about women too.

Nevertheless, Mr. Obama of course, being so much more brilliant than anyone else on the planet, according to him, naturally therefore, decided, that Mr. Summers would of course, be the best option to have as HIS numero uno economic advisor.

I personally see a great deal of “brilliance” in that decision, but not the kind I would ever share in public.  It’s the kind that I routinely extrude in my toilet and flush down the commode when solid waste removal out of a certain orifice for biological functioning of my internal organs is necessary.  Specifically the intestines and the bowel region of my anatomy.

If that is what we call “brilliance” in our elected leaders, I think Americans need to look up in a dictionary if necessary, if they do not understand the meaning of this next term: “shit for brains masquerading as genius instead.”

Nevertheless, back to the point.  The current administration is so sexist, elitist, discriminatory and impressed with its own importance and significance, not to mention that everyone in it thinks that they are smarter than everyone else in America, that it thinks it could never be set up in its own rat trap.

Which is exactly what I set out for them along with catching them in the act, in that little story about the “White House Break in” Bullshit.

It’s not that the story is not true…it’s just that I added certain extra things to set those traps off.

Except the traps I set were things that were extremely sophisticated, not verbal, not necessarily visible at all, and there are more of them that I’m not going to mention, but I will tell you about the ones that have so far gone off as in “SNAP, SNAP, SNAP” to further lend cred to this story, to teach a few lessons, and to start to make America WAKE THE FUCK UP.

The first is that the fact that a story carrying a picture of the CEO of PepsiCo India would be automatically sponsored on the premiere feeder law site domestically, LAW.COM is interesting in and of itself because the story is very critical of the President and the Indian government does not want to damage a business or political relationship with America right now.  Or vice versa.  Despite the fact that they want nothing to do with our military activities next door.

It’s not the first time that one of my stories has been carried on Law.com.  But the fact that it was sponsored by Pepsi was the issue.  Law.com would never have carried that story otherwise.  I did that deliberately.  By using so much profanity that there is no way they would.  Nor would Pepsi have sponsored it, certainly not Pepsi India, not only because of the colorful language I used, but also because they certainly would have gotten the cultural references I used also.

Which they, unlike Americans reading the story or apparently my blog posts, DO NOT UNDERSTAND.  They are sophisticated multinational cultural references that require an education.  That only very educated people will be able to interprete i.e. heads of state, senior members of the UN and people that I grew up with.  And was educated to think that way from a very young age.  Despite the ‘tude coming out of the White House and the way I was always treated in DC and for that matter New York about not having a fucking Ivy on my resume.

The reference I made to Mrs. Obama giving a children’s book, “The Jungle Book,” about a little Indian boy, who lived in the jungle among talking animals, would not (I certainly hope) be lost on either the Senior White House clowns (although you never do know given what they gave to Mr. Brown), certainly not Ms. Jarrett who hails from Imperial Iran under the American propped up Shah, (a horrifically brutal government also backed up by the CIA for American business interests) or the Indian Government.   The latter of whom would certainly understand that I was saying that America treats India like a child named Mowgli, the central character in Kipling’s book, as an unequal.  A primitive living in the jungle.  Low caste.  Not a Raj (an Indian King – the highest caste that one can get and closest to God in the Hindi religion).

Now do you understand?

And for Mrs. Obama to give him that book would be to say “Fuck You.  You bow to us.  You are part of the American Empire, we dictate how you are going to rule your country.”

That is what IMPERIALISM IS.

And personally disgusting coming from a woman who not only is the descendant of slaves but doesn’t even know that Sesame Street, for example causes epilepsy in children because of the editing techniques it uses.  And was used by the Nixon administration to dumb down public education.  Not to mention that the fact that yes, my proposal, sitting at the White House ignored, because for whatever reason the elitists at the White House think they are better than I am, when they aren’t,  is better than hers, including the fact that I had already done my homework eight months earlier, to the point of having soil scientists in place to soil test the plot of land I wanted to use for my organic gardening work.  Sorry honey, but just having an Ivy League or even being first lady, doesn’t give you the right to get credit for nothing.  And even worse than that Axelrod HAS a daughter with epilepsy.  And Mrs. Obama hasn’t hired or even invited a single person or a child to the White House with a disability.  Her father had one.  Why the hell is she sitting on the sidelines if ignoring the issue completely.

The reality is that the way people with disabilities are treated in America today is like the American Apartheid.  And frankly, just like India today.

In India, they pay slave labor wages to people who would be getting $60-70 an hour here.  And did.  Until they shipped jobs like computer programming to India.  Where the computer programmers there, with English speaking skills, get about $5 an hour for exactly the same work.  A practice Mr. Obama apparently seems to want to emulate, perpetuate if not speed up.  So I gave them a taste of their own fucking medicine.  To prove not only that the story was true about the fuckup and coverup, but to counter the sexism of this administration and Obama’s appalling continuation of OUR appalling foreign policy which ultimately hurts US.

So unless Law.com suddenly got smart about tagging, which I doubt, and knows about Indian telco law, which I doubt even further, someone told them to set that trigger on their site to pick up any picture from that night that included the picture of the perps with the CEO of PepsiCo India.  Who there was no doubt would be attending.   And was set on autopilot.  But someone set it and dollars to doughnuts came from the White House.  Again, remember the whole silly Pepsi vs. Coke thing?  Again, nothing happens for an accident.  The White House is setting up business relationships all over the place.  It’s providing product placement for Google for Christ’s sakes on it’s own website.

But it’s not a new thing for America to push it’s products onto the rest of the world, even at the point of a gun.  What is “unprecedented” to quote them themselves is that this is so aggressive, and that they are actively speeding up the outsourcing of slave labor overseas, making the situation here even worse.  And doing nothing about the situation back home.  But doing it in such a way that is literally invisible to the American people so all they see is Obama doing his “I care” act bullshit when the man doesn’t give a flying fuck.

And the reason I know all of this is deductive logic, Dr. Watson.  Plus a very strong background in Telco and IT.  Not to mention political and internet marketing strategy.  That includes, yes, even though I have tits, a working knowledge of electrical and network engineering.  BASED ON EXPERIENCE.  What the hell do you think digital video is?  It’s the same as data.  It just needs to move faster.  That is the layman’s explanation, but essentially that’s all the difference there is.  But Obama and crew want to play I’m smarter than you and use this to fuck everyone who doesn’t know this.

They don’t want Americans to know about this stupid tagging crap, manipulation of the internet, outsourcing jobs as an official policy, along with the rest of the story, because the sponsorship and the story itself was removed from that site by another act.

Another trap I’ll get to in a sec.

But back to the sponsorship thing.

That Pepsi sponsorship was triggered by the data mining of the picture of the CEO of PepsiCo India at the White House dinner.  Set by Law.com for a reason.  By whom do you think?  Who does business in India and needs to know Indian law, number one?  And number two; there is another reason which I’ll get to in a moment.  Also very geeky and technical, but important.

The answers are corporate lawyers and law firms who do the outsourced business of big corporate America.  Where metadata and data mining are starting to be a big deal.  Who the president is servicing and giving all the bailout money to first, instead of supporting small business.  Don’t you remember Summers finally saying about three weeks ago, something to the effect “oh, yes, well we are turning our attention now to small business.”

Why wasn’t that the FIRST PRIORITY OF THE ECONOMIC RECOVERY?

Small business has always been the driving force of the commercial engine of America.

For the White House to be MIA for TEN MONTHS while saving Big Business and Wall Street first, while giving them extra money on top of that, is bad enough.

For this shit on top of that (i.e. speeding up the export of cheap labor overseas) is even worse.

But they’re not going to give much money to small business either.

Why?

Because they are flushing it down the toilet in Afghanistan.

And who does that benefit?  Wall Street and big business.  Who make the equipment for DoD in the first place.  And get their financing from Wall Street.  So this whole canard is just another bailout of Wall Street over YOUR STREET, plus a whole lot of kids who are going to get blown away just for the fuck of it.

ONE YEAR IN AFGHANISTAN COSTS AT LEAST AS MUCH as the entire domestic bailout.

Conservatively it costs about $1 Million per troop per year to keep those kids in an area that we are never going to do jack in.  THREE EMPIRES HAVE ALREADY TRIED TO GO IN ALREADY AND LOST.  What the fuck are we doing there?  Does Obama really think he’s so fucking brilliant that he’s going to do better than anyone else on the fucking planet or in history?

NO FUCKING WAY.  He is delusional if he even maintains a dream about it.

The country IS MOUNT EVEREST.  OBAMA IS NOT FUCKING MOHAMMED.  HE CAN’T MOVE MOUNTAINS.  Much as he would like to think so.  Or his ass kissing staff tells him that.

If you have read ANYTHING about what those kids are going through this is exactly what they are facing and it’s flipping their wigs.  If not blowing their circuits.  Even the ones who made it through Iraq, in one piece and relatively sane.  Which was no picnic.

The country itself in the lowlands, if you look at my last blog on the topic, and I’ll include the topographical map below again, is at it’s LOWEST point, 3,000 feet above sea level.  Those squiggly little lines folks, for those unused to reading topographical maps, are FUCKING MOUNTAINS.  THE HIGHEST, TALLEST, MEANEST MOTHERS ON THE PLANET.

Now, add 60-80 lbs of gear to that, which is what the average combat soldier wears, no language skills, no interpreters (how many Afghani fluent interpreters does DoD have do you think, when we only had like ten Iraqi ones and we fired one for being gay, let alone the State Department where Mrs. Clinton gives the Russian head of state a MISSPELLED BUTTON MEANING RESET?) a completely foreign culture, even more foreign than Iraq, a culture that has been under attack for CENTURIES, so trust me, they are fierce as shit, not to mention Bedouins used to picking up and moving in three seconds flat, plus caves and secret hidey holes carved into the mountains and what do you think is going to happen?

Obama is saying we’re out of there in 2011?

BULLSHIT.

Those troops are going to be kicked into outer space.  Several galaxies far from here.

Obama doesn’t give a shit.  He’s listening to the generals and playing politics and rewarding Wall Street and corporate America.  YET AGAIN.  And the generals don’t give a fuck.  They just want promotions, big budgets and lots of toys to play with.

That is DoD.  Trust me.   I know these assholes.  Why the hell do you think I kicked THEIR asses when I was in DC.

So what the hell are we doing sending kids off to a war we are going to lose, costs billions to fight and is going to cause a shitload of suffering and we don’t even have a plan to treat the wounded already.  THERE IS NO PLAN TO TREAT, REHABILITATE OR FIND JOBS FOR THOSE WHO HAVE TBI.  THE SIGNATURE WOUND OF BOTH IRAQ AND AFGHANISTAN.

Trust me.

I have TBI.

Even neurologists don’t fucking understand it.  It causes so many different kinds of conditions and we are on the dawn of neuroscience, that the fact that fucking White House is not only sending more troops off to a stupid war, but on top of this REFUSING to meet with the ONE PERSON IN THE COUNTRY, according to DOD, who doesn’t like ME, yet despite this, has already told me that I am far ahead of THEM in dealing with this, IS ANOTHER SIGN OF UNBELIEVABLE ARROGANCE.  IF NOT IRRESPONSIBILITY, SEXISM, RACISM, CLASSISM and everything else-ism.  And my proposal covers far more than that.

Like putting YOUR ASSES BACK TO WORK.  NOW.  At good salaries.  And saving your fucking mortgages.  NOW.  But Obama doesn’t want that.  Summers doesn’t want that.  Congress doesn’t want that.

They want their buddies to make a fortune off America’s pain.  And whether or not you want to believe that or not, that is what is happening.  All you have to do is look at where the grants are going.  I just happen to have contacts in DC at a high level because of my experience and have secret hidey holes and sources I’ll never reveal that also confirm that this is going on.

And that is totally WRONG.

And this latest escapade of blaming the secret service, is exactly the same fucking thing.  Obama and Co. are basically acting like High Caste Indians and treating the rest of America like low caste untouchables, as they call them in India.  While sending out Obama to do his “everyone in America has opportunity BS” act when they need him to.

Folks, Obama himself was incredibly privileged despite the ‘po black boy shit the campaign cooked up.  How many people have legacy AND minority extra special passes to Harvard Law?  Plus grannies who work at banks, so cosignatories on loans was never an issue.  How many people can say that?

3?  Maybe?

In the ENTIRE HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY?

So I gave them a taste of their own medicine.  Because I have a fucking education.  And because despite the fact that Obama thinks that he is god’s gift to the fucking planet, he’s not.

At this point I think he’s just a greedy, lying, corrupt fucking snot.

You do not set up people who are putting their lives on the line to protect you and your family for some fucking stupid political game to protect someone who may be your fucking mistress.  Much less the billion dollar salaries of some of the most corrupt, abusive companies on the planet.  The American Fortune 500.

But in the case of Tinkerbelle and Dingbat, whoever those two are, why the hell has Obama not already just ‘fessed up that he knew who they were?

Why is Tinkerbelle’s claim to greatness different in that picture at the end of the story I already posted than what she claimed to be in Virginia?  Why did no reporter do a check to see if she was a cheerleader FOR the Redskins in the first place?  Or Orwell Central for that matter before going off on some tangent about terrorists?  The Redskins are DC’s hometown sports obsession.  It’s not that difficult to get lists of who was on the cheerleading squad  going back to the founding of the team itself.  It’s not a national security secret.  Like say getting into the White House.  During a HIGH SECURITY, have to be CLEARED BY THE PENTAGON FIRST TO GET IN affair.

But Obama knows them, has for some time, has YET to say that he does, that is very clear, why the fucking secrecy in the first place?  That is what is so WRONG with this whole fucking story to begin with.  And why I smelled a rat.  And why I set out so many rat traps.  And sure enough, they’re going off.  Confirming my story and my suspicions to a T.

And that is why I’m deconstructing it.  And setting the traps I am.  And so far, every fucking suspicion, not to mention trap has been right and gone off like clockwork.  And that alone should make you too, start to ask some really hard questions if not pee in your fucking pants.  Why?  I’ll get to in a minute.

But back to the story.  We were at Pepsi.

Pepsi is hardly a shrinking violet when it comes to the online branding and social networking of it’s branding either.  I highly suggest you take a look at this link and especially think about the politics of the American politician they show.  Specifically the one known as “Tricky Dick” and his involvement with things like dirty tricks, break-ins, lying, illegal spying and of course, ILLEGAL WIRETAPPING.

And the significance to today’s problems with say FISA.  And what I’m pretty sure is an enemy’s list.  Because no matter what I’ve done, and what I’ve said, and no matter how much I’ve called, the White House REFUSES to call me back.

And there is NO EXCUSE FOR THAT.

But on the topic of Pepsi using Nixon as their iconic role model, rather ironic and fitting, don’t you think?  And pretty stupid on Pepsi’s part, although quite revealing of both their corporate politics, and, I’m sorry to say, The White House’s.  And this stupid equation and continuation of America’s obsession with fighting wars and translation of “Commie=Terrorist.”

And part of this idea called cultural superiority that Americans have that our mission in life is to Americanize the world.

Wrong.

While I’m no opponent of FAIR international trade, I don’t like seeing the double arches of McDonalds in Serbia.  And OUR, as in the American way of life is in NO WAY SUPERIOR to that of any other culture.  In fact, our way of life is incredibly destructive. Including ecologically.

Samuel Huntington, who I’m sure Mr. Obama read at Harvard or Columbia, and probably loves, was an appalling example of this kind of grandiose, America is better than anyone else thinking.

And Americans in general are appallingly culturally imperialistic, ignorant and intolerant.

And you can hate that opinion and statement all you want but having lived abroad, and trust me, if this country doesn’t shape up, will again pretty soon, with no plans on returning ever again, other countries and their cultures have the right to exist, without America fucking telling them what to do, eat, drink, consume or how to live their lives.  Much less steal their natural resources at gunpoint.  Or use their population as slave labor for our multinational criminal corporations.  Who use the same corporate BS propaganda as the White House is now, but trust me, it’s Bullshit.

Having worked at one of those appalling megamonsters out of necessity for awhile, which has now absolutely destroyed my life (guess that teaches me, huh) I know damned well how American corporations treat Indian workers.  Highly skilled ones at that.  And the truth is not very pretty.  In fact it’s a horror story.

But for the next part of THIS HORROR STORY, you’ll have to tune in to the next blog post.  Part II

My husband (I’ll call him Jerkface, because that’s the G-rated version of how I feel about him right now…if things get better, maybe he’ll graduate to a nicer name) and I have been together for more than a decade. We’ve been married for almost three years. We did things a bit backwards and had two children before the marriage thing. Our kids are great…they’re the only things that hold me together. They’re both super smart and have great hearts. They don’t deserve any of this.

Jerkface has always had a problem with addiction…it runs in his family. His grandfather was an alcoholic, his mother has a addiction to Xanax and god only knows what else (more about her later),  his cousin has his own heavy addiction to OxyContin. Before I even met him, Jerkface had a heroin habit, which he kicked. But he’s always had a preference towards pills. I was no angel when we met, either. We were very much into the party scene…extacy, lsd, special k, nitrous, coke, you name it. I was young and it was fun. I had no responsibilities and could throw my life away without affecting anyone. So Jerkface and I met when he was 19 and I was 20. We partied through 6 months, and then I got pregnant (oops). After that, I decided it was time to grow up. I quit all of the stuff, got a regular job and tried to fix the damage I had done to my life. Jerkface did the same, but never really quit the stuff. He still smoked pot (regularly) and occasionally popped pills. It was better, but the drug use was still present. He had his ups and downs, for sure, but there seemed to be more ups at that point. After a few months, we decided to get away from where we were living (no jobs, rent was too expensive) and moved in with his mother until we could find an apartment. Things went a bit downhill. His mother has quite the addiction to pills, and she has no qualms about sharing with her son. Jerkface started getting bad, and we moved across the country to get away from the temptations that Jerkface couldn’t resist and moved closer to my family up north.

Things were okay for a while. Jerkface got a good job, we found an apartment, I stayed home with the baby for a few months then also got a job as a receptionist. I even enrolled in a college degree program. After we met some locals, he got back into the recreational drug use.  We continued down this path for a few years. He began to use a bit more often, but it still didn’t seem to be anything that was too worrisome.

I got pregnant again and had a beautiful baby girl. After that, things got worse. Jerkface was out a lot doing god knows what. He was making a lot of money at his job, but was spending it almost as fast as he could make it. I had taken a waitressing job at night so we wouldn’t have to pay daycare for two small children. Jerkface seemed to resent that he had to stay home with the kids at night. We fought all of the time, and he constantly accused me of cheating on him (which I never ever did). He was paranoid and aggravated and made my life miserable. Eventually, he seemed to snap out of it, I went back to daytime work, and things were better again.

So we got married. It was one of the happiest times of my life. We had so much fun on our honeymoon and I felt like our life together would be nothing but sunshine. Unfortunately, it didn’t take long for the storms to come rolling in.

I don’t know what it was, but almost as soon as we got back, he got back into drugs (OxyContin, and heroin, and any other opioid he could get his hands on)…bad. Maybe he realized that we were married and he could get away with more, I don’t know. He began spending all of his paycheck on a regular basis, leaving the bills to me. I had a decent job at this point, so it was doable…not easy, but doable. We fought a lot. He lied all of the time. I didn’t know what to do. I just lived with things as they were for a while. He got worse and worse. Eventually, his  paycheck wasn’t enough to cover his habits and he began dipping into my money. He would take cash out of my wallet without me knowing. Then he began using my debit card and taking money out of my account without permission. I changed my PIN and wouldn’t give it to him. He found other ways of stealing from me…he would take my card and, using it like a credit card (no PIN necessary), would buy cartons of cigarettes or WalMart gift cards and trade them for drugs. Checks bounced, overdraft fees piled up, and he denied, denied, denied. He would steal checks from my checkbook and write them to himself (if he knew I had money in my account) or to his dealers or to someone who thought he was their friend, convincing them to give him money in exchange for the check.

He would stay up all night and sleep all day, missing work. He was never around, unless he was sleeping on the couch. He eventually lost his job of 8 years because of his addiction. He got another job a month later, only to do the same thing, losing that job about a month after he started. This was all around the time when the bottom dropped out of the economy, and there were no more jobs to be found.

He continued stealing from me, we fought constantly. He convinced me that he was depressed, and that was why he was turning to drugs. e went to the doctor and was put on depression meds. They didn’t help, at least not for very long. He kept stealing and lying and using. It was the darkest time in my life. My mortgage was falling further and further behind. I couldn’t make enough money to keep us afloat. I cried, screamed, fought, yelled, guilted…nothing worked.

Things got a little better, and Jerkface seemed to be on the upswing. He had finally admitted he had a problem and it seemed like he was really trying to overcome. He had found a job and was going to work every day. I hoped it was all over. I was out of town on business for a week. I made the mistake of leaving my checkbook behind. During the 5 days I was gone, he wrote over $1000 in bad checks (knowing I had no money in my account). He had pulled the trick of convincing a friend to give him cash for a check (actually, a few checks). When the checks bounced, she called me, pissed. She threatened to go to the police and tell them that Jerkface was forging checks in my name unless he paid her back immediately (about $350). He didn’t have any money and I wasn’t giving him any more money to fix his problems. He ended up giving her his car, which was worth about 15 times what he owed her, to avoid her going to the cops.

I found out he pulled the same check scam with a 17 year old girl that lives in our neighborhood and with several other people. My account was so far overdrawn, I couldn’t bring it current soon enough, and the bank closed it. I still can’t get another checking account. My credit cards are all gone, because he was stealing so much money from me that I couldn’t pay them.

After that, I was done. I told him I wanted a divorce. He moved in with a friend down the street for a while (he took our remaining car and left me without transportation), and I tried to begin putting my life back together. After about a month, he came back. He wanted to get better. He wanted to have a normal life. He began going to NA meetings. He really tried at first. I believed him. I let him move back in and sleep on the couch and tried to help him through. It didn’t take long for him to slip. He began to steal and lie again. We’ve been through this cycle a couple of times. And that’s pretty much where we are now.

He tells me he’s trying to wean himself off the pills, but he can’t quit cold turkey or he’ll go through terrible withdrawals. He’s still spending way too much money, and I have my doubts about his convictions. Right now, I’m taking it day by day, and I have no idea what today will bring. He used last night (at least he’s not trying to hide it anymore) and right now he’s sleeping on the couch as our children watch cartoons next to him. It breaks my heart. I miss the real him. This other person he’s become sucks. He’s either a pill-induced annoying idiot, or sleeping, or a complete jerk. I just want him to come back. He was so funny and sweet and loving and fun. Now he’s completely consumed and will do anything to get what he needs. I just want my best friend back, and I don’t know what to do to find him. He’s becoming more and more lost inside his addiction.

My husband is addicted to prescription painkillers, namely OxyContin. I’ve been battling this for several years. A few months ago, it came to mind that writing  about it might help me to process all of the crap I’ve gone through (and continue to go through). For me, one of the hardest things about this whole situation is feeling completely alone.

My husband has his first love (drugs), and as much as I try to be a part of his recovery, I’m not. I could never understand what he’s dealing with. I’ve never been very close with my family. My sister knows the most about my situation, but she lives across the country, and phone/email conversations just don’t translate very well. My life has been so consumed by this that I don’t have much of a network of friends for support, except for work friends, and unleashing all of this on them is embarrassing and not exactly good for my career. I’m a smart person, and I feel like anyone who knows what I’m going through just looks at me and wonders why the hell I don’t just leave him. I’ve become that girl…the one people feel sorry for, but not too sorry, because she ’s sticking around by choice. How sorry can you feel for someone like that? I know that much of it is probably in my head…that if I were to reach out, I could probably find support. I know that my shame and embarrassment facilitate my loneliness. But I’m not able to get past that just yet.

So I’m alone. And it’s hard…I’m faced with situations everyday that completely overwhelm me, and I don’t have anyone to talk to about it. Even if I did, how could they relate unless they’ve been through it? I try to talk to my husband about how I feel, but he’s so consumed by his demons it doesn’t feel like I get through at all. I’ve become this solitary person (I’ve always been semi-solitary…but it has gotten worse lately). I’ve got all of this crap going on in my head that I need to process, and I’m sure there are other people out there who feel the same…there must be, right?

So I started this blog. Mainly to help me get my feelings down and to give me an outlet for my anger, frustrations, depression, fear, loneliness, rage, shame, and all of the other feelings that come along with living through the addiction of a loved one. And if someone else stumbles across this and they can relate, great! I know what it’s like to just need to know you’re not the only one going through this.

I’m not saying the way I’m dealing with my husband’s opiate addiction is right. I make mistakes all of the time…mistakes I know I shouldn’t be making, which are the worst kind. I just need a place to share my journey. I hope it helps.

Very happy Sashimi added.

So yes, my long suffering fans… I have returned, perhaps 5 kilograms heavier than when I left, with an immeasurable desire for ostrich biltong, and a nice tan.

The holiday to South Africa rocked. We got to do some familial bonding time, and a fair amount of time got spent with the friends. Mr & Mrs B… many thanks for the awesome trip to Knysna and back… much obliged. Now come and visit us so we can return the favour. Wooz and SPF… it was great to be able to spend so much time with you guys… thanks for taking the leave and making it all possible. Chris and Lily and Megan… thanks for the accomodation and for letting us skank up your bathroom one week before your wedding.

So. This Blog has been built up by three weeks absence, and is bound to be a little longer than normal. As usual, if you want to skip the personal stuff, jump ahead to the line of asterisks at the end of this piece.

South Africa. Well well. It was an absolutely awesome trip. One of my favourite things to do in the whole world is to get a car that I like driving and then to take a long road trip. And the wife and I got to do just that with her family. The four of us piled into their car and drove off on what worked out to be an insanely expensive, but very enjoyable experience. And my god did we shop. Everything from Chutney to Cuckoo Clocks went into that car.

Let’s see, first stop was the Willows in Port Elizabeth. This was a classic little caravan/chalet place, and we got a two-bedroomed chalet for the four of us. Very comfortable, very clean and so close to the sea that even my youngest students could throw a stone into the water from the living room. We were there for two nights… and used the time soaking up some much-needed shopping. And thus began my fixation with finding the perfect pie on the holiday. See… the wife and I recently stopped being vegetarian and started eating seafood. Well… poultry has been added to the pile of edibles now… meaning that Chicken was back on the menu. (For the record, we still don’t eat mammals…. which means that yes, TURKEY is back on the menu for Christmas.) With chicken scratching at the doormat, I started in on Chicken Pies.

Woolworths to the rescue. AWESOME chicken and mushroom pie. Try it. Very good.

An aside – If it feels as if all the wife and I did on this holiday was sleep and eat, well… we feel that way too. It was a great holiday.

After PE, we drove on to Sedgefield…. chosen because it was nice and close to Knysna, which was where our friends Stompie and Jax were getting married. Yes… we did it all on this trip, weddings included. The place in Sedgefield was fantastic, the view was simply unbeatable.

Stompie and Jax threw themselves a Euro-funded Afro-ethnic wedding. And it was really a great evening. Good to be able to catch up with them again, as we hadn’t seen them since leaving Ireland. The wedding itself was out-standing and if their friends are anything to go by, they’ll be blessed in the future.

After the wedding it was a case of doing some family time in and around Knysna and George. We took in the sights of Hoekwil and Wilderness, the former very rustic, the latter full of sea spray.
Much seafood was eaten. Much chicken was eaten.

One of the highlights for the wife and I of the Sedgefield trip was a visit to the Wild Oats Farmer’s market… where local farmers sold their wares. (Mainly foodstuffs, but some raw produce too.) We got to soak up a little culture…

It was here that I found the undisputed BEST chicken pie in South Africa. The Steam Whistle Stop Pie company, operating out of god-knows where, but with a stand at the market.

After Sedgefield, there remained only the trip back to East London, which took much longer than expected. This is because of a little known family problem. Fact: If you place two women with disposable income in the back seat of a car, they will hatch plans to visit as many farm stalls as possible on the way back home. This is in a misguided effort to fill the car with very fattening farm foodstuffs and home produce. Thus, some 600 kilometres, 23 pieces of fudge, a half-dozen bottles of chutney, three full wheels of cheese, and 39 farm stalls later….. the entire Western Cape was denuded of produce, the car was groaning on its springs and we got home. To a huge dinner cooked by my sister in law.

The rest of the trip was spent with friends and family. I got to get in a fair amount of roleplaying with Wooz and the bunch, and even GMed a demo session for Jebb and his bunch. An obnoxiously large amount of time was spent virtually supine on Wooz’ patio drinking coffee… which is the perfect way to conduct oneself on holiday. Besides, the view from there isn’t half bad either.

Three weeks flew by with absolutely no regard for how much it cost us to get there, or indeed just how long 14 hours in economy class feels. (Particularly when you are bloated on fudge and chicken pies.)
There were tears, there were hugs and then we were gone.

To everyone who made the effort, thanks a hell of a lot guys, it was a vastly enjoyable experience.

************

And let’s get on with the jokes and stuff shall we?

The Truth About College:

SOCIOLOGY: For sheer lack of intelligibility, sociology is far and
away the number one subject. I sat through hundreds of hours of
sociology courses, and read gobs of sociology writing, and I never
once heard or read a coherent statement. This is because sociologists
want to be considered scientists, so they spend most of their time
translating simple, obvious observations into scientific-sounding code.
If you plan to major in sociology, you’ll have to learn to do the same
thing. For example, suppose you have observed that children cry when they
fall down. You should write: “Methodological observation of the
sociometrical behavior tendencies of prematurated isolates indicates that
a causal relationship exists between groundward tropism and lachrimatory
behavior forms.” If you can keep this up for 50 or 60 pages, you will get
a large government grant.

This weeks musical talent comes to you from the talented Ms. Nina Simone. This one is called Strange Fruit. And if it is depressing, well, it is meant to be. Give yourself a search for the lyrics. Sometimes, I am sad to be a human.

And that is that.. .. if there appears to be a lack of linkage in this blog, sorry… but 3 weeks without internet means that I didn’t find as many interesting things. Next time. K?

Ciao
Yeti out.

I have been addicted to substances for 30yrs. I started using when I was 14 and have wrestled with the problem ever since. Before turning to ‘recreational drugs‘ I used to cut myself and act out because I was in pain. Unlike other addicts I know, nothing awful ever happened to me in childhood. My parents were attentive and loving, but I picked up mixed messages that distorted my view of life.

Drug use is an outward manifestation of this internal conflict.  Although I may have discovered an alternative coping mechanism, I would probably not have reached the ripe old age I have, if I had never used.  I was always obsessed by mortido over libido and my nature has always been subversive and destructive. I have recently had to accept that I have a co-existing psychological disorder. Co-morbidity is extremely common among addicts, and makes the addiction even harder to treat.

I discovered that opiates and tranquilizers were particularly adept at suppressing psychological pain and they soon became my drugs of choice. I wanted to spend the rest of my life, bathed in their warm ‘readybrek glow’. Unfortunately, they lead me to some very dark places, and eventually, stopped working altogether.

Since I stopped using, and with the support of ACT I have realized that everyone experiences pain. I am not as ‘different’, as I once believed I was, and I no longer feel as lonely as I once did. In trying to avoid the inevitable I had, only succeeded in exacerbating my suffering further.

So says Karl Marx. Look I’m not here to necessarily debate religion. That’s a different story, for a different time. But I read this article today and I just had to just say something about it.

The jist is: Muslim woman gets stoned to death for having an “affair” (though she was divorced at the time) while man gets just 100 licks to his backside.

"God's work"?

WRONG WRONG WRONG.

How is this “righteous”? How is this doing “good”? I’m sure if God were to come down right down at this very moment, he would be disgusted and send all those bastards straight to Hell for distorting his words and basically playing him. Unfortunately, these people are so dogmatic about their so called “religious” beliefs that they cannot see the evil that they are actually doing.

What’s worse is that people will see this and think that all of Islam is this way, which it isn’t. Stupid, disgusting, barbaric acts like this will not help shake the “one bad apple, spoils them all” mentality held by some…

for full article please go here

From “Young Frankenstein”
Dr. Frederick Frankenstein: [to Igor] Now that brain that you gave me. Was it Hans Delbruck’s?
Igor: [pause, then] No.
Dr. Frederick Frankenstein: Ah! Very good. Would you mind telling me whose brain I DID put in?
Igor: Then you won’t be angry?
Dr. Frederick Frankenstein: I will NOT be angry.
Igor: Abby Someone.
Dr. Frederick Frankenstein: [pause, then] Abby Someone. Abby who?
Igor: Abby Normal.
Dr. Frederick Frankenstein: [pause, then] Abby Normal?
Igor: I’m almost sure that was the name.
Dr. Frederick Frankenstein: [chuckles, then] Are you saying that I put an abnormal brain into a seven and a half foot long, fifty-four inch wide GORILLA?
[grabs Igor and starts throttling him]
Dr. Frederick Frankenstein: Is that what you’re telling me?”

It is, somewhere in the fantasy world of Beaver Cleaver and black and white television, embedded in Americana that “normal” is definable. It is not that easy. Frankly, normal is defined only by what one’s surroundings are, and what one wants normal to be. My brain, thank you very much, is not normal and what a blessing that is.

So to say that someone is not “normal” is a way of, quite simply, dismissing them as less than you. Of course, I am not normal. Many of you reading this would be considered by others and even by your self not “normal” becaus eyou may be creative, or overly energetic, bouncy and hard to pin down. Like the horse Spirit or Pooh’s Tigger, others are always asking “what’s wrong with you” or “if you could only settle down”. But why?

I like being “Abby Normal”. Even then, the singing, dancing Peter Boyle (RIP) was the most lovable and admirable character in the film, I believe. (sure, there was that part about the brain/body part transplant but let’s not get off the subject here…)

I was with friends discussing this very issue yesterday and was reminded that words, no matter how intelligent the people are (or perhaps directly related to the high IQ of those using them), can carry powerful, deep-seeded blocking mechanisms. Tell someone they are not “normal” and you may lose them. Say it to me and I will laugh at you, and tell you “why in the world would I want to be “normal”?” But others will attach that to a hurtful  place, one where they will regress, fight back, even shut down. Which is where talking about these types of things, the root of one’s own roadblocks, really helps me. I’ve seen it help others. It’s just a natural thing: face an overgrown root and trim it back so that the pathway is clear. Pick up some trash that’s piled up, so I can walk in that direction… remove the shrapnel so the blood flows naturally (note I did not say ‘normally’!)… set aside the rubble  (or designate it a monument if you must) so that you may make room for new, and wonderful personal architecture. Do not do this? Your life will become cluttered, the pressure will mount, the doors will blow off and you will find your self in a world of self-abuse, repetitive self-medication or simple pain.

A dear friend and I discussed the issue of medication, for example, and how difficult it is to throw a diagnosis, a blanket catch all on what is happening in someone’s neuropathways, and expect it to be the answer. It’s just too complicated. A broken arm, simple. A misfiring brain with ADD symptoms or heavy mood swings, or one connected to drugs or alcohol in an addictive way, not so simple. The doctor must listen, the person must communicate, they must change, they must try new things. they must try nothing. the science is so new, so changing, so intertwined with holistic needs and organic circumstances that i agree with her in that (our opinions only) 80 per cent of the medications given to create a “normal” brain function are probably just “thrown out there” first instead of way down the line of self-discovery when the ability to understand what is happening with someone’s “feelings”, “emotions” and “thoughts” has matured to a point of cognitive enlightenment.

For example, I did not take any medication for the ‘order’ (sted ‘disorder’) they call ADD until I was in my 40’s. And it took a long time and a proactive set of doctors and discussions,  to settle on what I do today to feel like my “self” and function in a manner that is akin to what feels natural to me. And I am not certain this is what i will do for ever… As I contiunually read, research and discuss ways to become my complete, unblocked self. But I must be healthy, and my body clean and coherent, and so there are other important things i do to keep the pathways clear  so my brain (as abnormal as it is) can do it’s thing. I recommend three books here in these areas if they interest you, “Driven To Distraction” and “Delivered From Distraction” more of which you can find on the author’s web-site which I will link here. I recommend the books only, as they have been helpful to me and others in my family. I also recommend another i have been reading by James Hollis, “Finding meaning In The Second Half of Life” even if you are not yet in the second half of your life. Again, these are authors I have enjoyed, I am not espousing nor recommending them as doctors or individuals philosophically. That is your choice. I also like German Chocolate cake and peanut butter sandwiches at 3 am, so clearly you are on your own with anything I say.

I want to feel like myself. That is what  I work towards daily and what I wish for my loved ones searching for a place to stand still, while they seek a  direction in which to walk slowly.  (or quickly, if that is their nature!)   And I do not wish  it to be alone for any of us, for isolation is the dark-side of connectivity, a nurturing and healthy stnadard of human existence. Yet the universe holds that key… a thought for another day on this journey. Where rain drops but does not fall,  lest the semanticist in me see that nurturing natural occurence as something negative, rather than positive.

I leave you with one more thought from one of Hollywood’s great musical moments. Feel free to sing along to the Monster’s great debut…

Dr. Frederick Frankenstein: [singing] If you’re blue, and you don’t know where to go to, why don’t you go where fashion sits…
The Monster: ‘UTTIN’ ON THE ‘IIIIIIIIIIHHHHTTTSSSSS”!

(The photo attached was an attention getter; yours truly playing the bi-polar role of “Brenda Gale/Abe Drangle” in the world premiere musical “Murder on the high C’s” back in 2007; below you’lll find brenda’s “better half” and my preferred role.)

"Let me introduce my self, Abraham Drangle, used car salesman."

Weltweit sind sich Laien, Experten und Medien einig: Ausdauerndes Joggen hebt die Stimmung. Und viele glauben, dass körpereigene Opioide, so genannte Endorphine, dafür verantwortlich sind. Der Beweis dafür konnte allerdings nie erbracht werden – bis jetzt: Denn deutschen Forschern ist es nun erstmals gelungen, die Ursache des so genannten Runner`s High zu belegen. Zudem zeigten sie, dass körpereigene Opiate auch in Hirnbereichen ausgeschüttet werden, die an der Unterdrückung von Schmerzen beteiligt sind. Die Studie ist jetzt in der Fachzeitschrift “Cerebral Cortex” erschienen.

Zum vollständigen Artikel =>

Quelle: scinexx.de  Bild: GFDL

“A conquered nation is like a man with cancer: he can think of nothing else.“ 
George Bernard Shaw

I thought I’d take a break from healthcare issues and spend this blog on another of Obama’s idiotic moves – that in foreign policy.

More specifically our involvement in Afganistan and Obama’s absolutely idiotic decision to remain the middle of the mess.   Not to mention escalating it.

No matter how supposedly touching his “honoring the dead” photo op, I suppose planned to regain public support for the war, for the dead kids returned from the wars he is waging.   Especially suspicious, if not outright cynical, with this little story starting to float on the blogosphere.

Which is more than hyprocritical than touching if he really cared about those killed in action for a horrific and amoral war.  And even more so when you consider his appalling coverups about the horrific medical care, not to mention his own decision to delay disability payments to wounded vets at the VA.  Not to mention his complete MIA on the issue of TBI, the so called “signature wound” of both wars we are fighting, even though he has a very good proposal in the White House already which deals with the issue, but his stupid staff won’t bring it to his attention.

But back to Obama’s pious BS in what I can only think is yet another public exhibit of the man’s self regard for himself and that he has this egocentric delusion he’s smarter than anyone else, and knows more about everyone on everything on the planet (on any subject, but particularly one this macho) that justifies his stupid and downright suicidal military overseas foreign policy decisions.

More specifically Afghanistan and the Obama future strategy there.

Another “compromise” that is going to turn absolutely tragic, is already, and yet another sign of the Great Poobah’s both ignorance of military strategy, the region in general, his reluctance to tell the truth about anything (including this is part of the international drug war, and has nothing to do with terrorism at all) and his reluctance to take a firm stand ON ANYTHING.

Not to mention his bad habit of listening only to generals and war hawks (including Hillary), who think that any war is a good one.  Not to mention that half of Congress (and Sen. Feinstein – A Democrat no less – from California is particularly guilty of this) who approve a war based economy and national budgets, because it creates opportunities for them to create earmarks that their spouses will make a fortune on.  While starving the poor and underclass.

And all connected to the supposed superior economic policy of perpetuating a military economy of perpetual war, where the elites benefit handsomely at the expense of the country.

Furthermore from just the perspective of the military and the NSC, NSA, CIA, and entire international security complex, and to some extent, even more scarily, the domestic one too, this is obscene.  And endangers rather than protects ALL AMERICANS.

To understand what is really going on, besides the philosophy of the warhawks who’ve never met a war they didn’t like, Obama’s ego and ignorance, and the greedy bastards in Congress (on both sides of the aisle, who seem to think that taxpayer money, particularly in perpetuating large military budgets, is their way of getting rich) you have to think in bureaucratese, no matter what the lip flap at the Pentagon, Congress, or even the White House is.

Bigger budgets mean more power, and that’s what Washington is all about.

These mindsets of course do not consider for one minute, the innocent kids sent to fight a useless war, who have no idea what they are getting themselves into, and even less what awaits them, if they survive.

How old is that kid beneath the gear in the picture above, who looks as terrified and lost as Little Bo Beep, even under the storm trooper attire he is wearing?

Twenty?

Maybe.

Jesus, what are we doing to the kids of this generation?  BOOMERS THAT MEANS YOU, not to mention any literate person, with a memory and a sense of history, not to mention have relatives who maybe fought in it a little fracus you might have read about in the history books, if not lived through it, called Vietnam.

And I won’t bother mentioning Meghan McCain, or her opinions of the subject, because she wasn’t born yet.

This war is so stupid, not to mention self destructive, that the U.S. military, in escalating this war, are re-calling up grandmothers for that matter.  Just to prove that they are right.

I have a friend whose GRANDMOTHER, who serves in the National Guard, has now been called up for her SECOND TOUR OF ACTIVE COMBAT DUTY IN AFGHANISTAN.  Where there are, as in all guerrilla actions, no safe places to hide.  The whole country is a warzone.  Even for granny.  Then again, it sure beats paying social security out.  At least in the eyes of the Chicken Hawks.

And despite the warmongering at the Pentagon, actually does have alot of people the White House and all the other chickenhawks cannot dismiss or undermine as some sort of lefty, communist, illogical subhuman and therefore dismiss, and rightly so who are publicly denouncing this policy.  And those would be those in even the ESTABLISHMENT, throwing in the towel, and expressing their opposition, in very public ways, because even they see the writing on the wall.  As this highly embarressing (for the Administration and the White House) resignation from even a State Department Official with expertise in the region, and impeccable credentials, is further highlighting

And doing a particularly good job, not to mention displaying excellent timing.   Causing red faces all over Washington, and deservedly so.

Particularly since there is “breaking news” i.e. another convenient plant, of supposed 9/11 plotters passports found near the Afghan border, and the President’s current focus on the issue.  The discovery of the former which I guarantee you will be used, if not squashed like a bug, as justification of more of the same.

Not “change we can believe in.”  At least if future Presidential actions and decisions are based on what has been the Obama strategy so far.

Duck and run, procrastinate indefinately, or blame a convenient scapegoat when plans go very wrong.  And take all the credit when things go right. While negotiating even more crooked deals in private.

Which uh, despite that unbelievable Nobel decision, that even the White House had the tact to underreact to (and justly so although Obama should have declined the award altogether if he had a modicum of common sense not to mention an ego the size of Jupiter), Obama is most guilty of.

And has been his modus operandi since his entrance into politics as an wanna be power player black politician on the make, back home in the Windy City.  Even as an obscure State Senator he couldn’t get his bills passed until he was tapped as “the boy” from the real power player in the very corrupt Illinois state senate.

And set up for a Federal Senate seat.

There are those who would argue that the Presidential version of this political chameleon, who many are calling a political sociopath, is exhibiting the same behavior in the White House.

And that of course would include his decisions on the wars.

For that I would turn not to DoD, but a WOMAN (remember those Obama), who was not only a superior military strategist who kicked the butts of her many assassins, and certainly bested political enemies as head of state as if they were mere dust in the wind.  And had experience in such tactics from a time she was a child, not to mention brought the Brits to the beginning of what is called “The Golden Age of Empire.”  From the British perspective anyway.

For those of you who remain historically ignorant, that would be Queen Elizabeth I, who didn’t like war at all.  In fact, her most famous quote on the subject, besides the Tilbury Speech, was that she didn’t like war because “the outcome is so unpredictable.”

And was willing to put her ass on the line, unlike the generals who fight this war from their safehavens and armchairs in safety in the nation’s Capitol, to preserve the sanctity of Britain against a very REAL attack from the Spanish.  Not some hocus pocus illusionary “terrorist threat” which the conventional warmongers in DC are still trying to prove exist, much less have an even harder time finding them.

And Barry, just so you know, ol’ Lizzy beat the pants off of ya in symbolism too.  As this portrait below so aptly demonstrates.

Those recently and extremely conveniently timely if not suspiciously geophraphically placed and now “discovered” passports on the Afghan border, supposedly linked (just because they say so at CIA headquarters)  are also most likely what are called “plants” by CIA agents for those of us a little too familiar with CIA tactics, DoD bungling and downright stupidity, and Washington “leaks.”

And explains a great deal about why Obama decided not to prosecute the worst offenders of the Bush years with say, war crimes.

He already knew going in that he was going to need the agencies’ cooperations for the war ahead.  Meaning that he planned this early, that the “discovery” of such supposed damning evidence could easily have come from direct orders from the White House (that’s Obama playing I’m smarter than everyone else on the planet without realizing that this stupid tactic has been used before) and this Obama, not the one who promised to change all that, was apparently committed to stupid acts of economic and human destruction, not to mention wedded to the idea of Empire-building fascism, and war mongering even before the election, should be no surprise to ANYONE.  Certainly given actions to date now that he’s in office.

I mean all you have to do is think back eight years ago (I know Megan McCain, you weren’t born yet) when “federal investigators” on the case of 9/11 found the car supposedly used by said terrorists, conveniently with “How to make an airplane a bomb” in the abandoned vehicle of the supposed 9/11 plotters.

It’s almost like a retarded CIA attempt to convince the public “see terrorist was here,” in big cartoon arrows that the government thinks passes the laugh test for credibility, because Americans are so stupid. And as I seem to remember they also, miraculously, managed to find even more passports of the “9/11 terrorists”, which showed up in the mound of rubble after 9/11 (what are the odds of that happening) because downtown New York looked like a million Kinko’s had gone on an a bipolar “up”.  For months.  If not years.

And literally covered the entire lower section of Manhatten with a paper trail so heavy, that there is NO WAY, that another convenient “passport” would show up or be found.

“Accidentally on purpose.”

Right before I believe the imposition of the Patriot Act.  And in fact was used as “evidence” of this war policy on two fronts was justified.  By the White House, DoD, the entire national security complex.

Oh, and blindly or deliberately self enrichingly, by Congress.

I mean, if you were going to blow up a plane and the World Trade Center, would you leave your manual on how to do it in YOUR CAR?  AT THE AIRPORT?  Much less use your REAL passport?

Trust me, terrorists are not picked for their stupidity.  Even those who are mentally challenged, although even this was a story that was manipulated too, of the Iraqi’s sending mentally retarded women in as very deadly human bombs, who detonated themselves and penetrated far into very “secure” U.S. compounds.

Think the Special Olympics, Iraqi style folks.  Those who have mental disabililities, even Down’s Syndrom, have feelings, can understand religion and ethics, and know very well what martyrdum is about.

Especially as the thought of dying and going to glory beats the shit out of what they face if they continue to live.  Because in Muslim societies, unfortunately, I have to say, despite the cultural bias (I warned you up front at least), but also based on working with an Iraqi Journalist in Washington at the national HQ of Reuters, who turned to me for career advice. But even that characteristic of the Taliban is suspect.

And certainly the stereotype of how they treat women is a rather disconcerting reminder that the White House senior staff is not exactly a maelstrom of gender pluralism (as in NONE).

And this cultural stereotype about all those poor, helpless, dumb Muslim women is even more challenged by current events.   Confirmed by the fact that many Iraqi women today are doing just fine, on their own, thanks all the same, despite the appalling prejudice led by oppressive leaders and religious fundamentalists (sounds a lot like this country, doesn’t it), in leading charges against oppressive, sexist leaders. Like say a President in a country near you who hasn’t hired ANY white women in their forties to power positions in the White House and is running the office like a traditional “boy’s club.”

Obama sure doesn’t win any points there, let me tell ya.

And women are kicking ass in many Muslim states of late.

They don’t need any “help” from us, except maybe our suport in the form of food and emergency medicine aid at least.  And certainly not the heavy boot of the U.S. military.

Who, for example, in the face of say Iran and attacking a country with a well trained force of suicidally trained defenders ready to blow themselves to smithereens as human bombs given the LEAST bit of provocation, much less invasion (yes there are even rumours floating in certain circles that I can’t believe OBAMA IS THAT STUPID to even THINK ABOUT IT.

I MEAN OBAMA LIVED IN A MUSLIM COUNTRY UNDER THE OPPRESSIVE ROLE OF AMERICAN OIL CORPORATIONS as a kid.  And even attributes the fights of his mother agaist his stepfather, who changed his tune and decided it, screw it with the politics.  I’m going with the money.

Sounds awfully like the Democratic Party, doesn’t it?

Sorry, but look what happened there.  In both examples as described above.

And Obama is smart enough to have an understanding, on both an educational level and a personal one, to know how disastrous these kinds of policies are.

And I mean, come on. How gullible does the ruling elite really think the American populace is?  They are not stupid enough to even think about reinstituting the draft.  But that’s about as far we as we’ve gotten in the progressive foreign policy stance eminating from the White House and the State Department.

For YEARS.  Actually DECADES.  And actually REGRESSIVE, because using the National Guard instead of the “real fulltime military” i.e. instituting a draft, would mean an official act of war.  Requiring Congressional approval.  Which Obama wants to protect, much as George Bush, as the ultimate Executive Privilege club of the political version of a “Big Swinging Dick.”

To quote Wall Street lingo.

Not that Obama doesn’t deserve it.

And would mean recognizing that continuation of such policies endangers the right of Habeas Corpus and the protections of Posse Comitatis, which  are under serious attack.  Not to mention Obama is pretending that he doesn’t know what the Insurrection Act is, or how its butchering under Bush is now illegal.  And this from the great and much self proclaimed Constitutional scholar himself.  Not to mention U.S. Senator when the former rather important law was restored to its original intent.

I’ll bet his excuse on that, if it ever becomes an issue will be familiar too.  He wasn’t in the room.

And this Afghan escalation certainly makes Obama look butch and manly to both conservative white male neanderthals on the Hill, not to mention the conservative, but out to lunch on foriegn policy and history (in general) American populace.  80% of whom don’t even own a passport.

Whether it’s official or not by some stupid rule, not to mention unConstitutional, the fact is this crappy policy is costing us a bloody fortune.  Just the amount of your tax money spent mostly butchering civilians, for one year in Afghanistan is supposed to equal (although I bet it outnumbers it) the ENTIRE DOMESTIC BAILOUT.

Meaning in literal terms, the U.S. government has chosen it’s more important to go fight um, “terrorists,” abroad, than saving the home of every American who’s about to lose it.  And already has because of the meltdown.  And the sleight of hand of Wall Street which is going to get EVEN WORSE, because of Obama’s refusal to regulate it.

But I digress from the lessons of 9/11 and the car which contained a copy of “Blowing Up the U.S. Trade Towers for Dummies” inside of it.

Especially when this original vehicular “finding” was used as part of the other BS propoganda for even opening this zone of conflict in the first place, by who else but his Brilliance, George W.

Who probably couldn’t even find Iraq, much less Afghanistan on a map, and was probably convinced of the inititiative by a Power Point Slide complete with the appropriate Bible Verse (Rumsfeld’s favorite briefing technique and justifications for the worst undermining of our civil rights, not to mention justification for going to war in the first place, along with “torture is legal” ideas, which is even scarier).

And even stupider for Obama to continue, and even escalate for precisely that reason.

Yet he’s listening to his generals because he doesn’t have a f*cking clue what he’s doing, doesn’t seem to have a conscience, or both, despite that convenient photo op of Obama “honoring the dead,” and the testosterone charge men seem to get when sending others off to die for meaningless causes, but will in the end prove very profitable for them personally and or politically.

War is very profitable, especially for Wall Street, and thus the DNC’s current purse. Not to mention directly, but we’ll get to that in a moment.

But I thought it was also important to address the issue in the current atmosphere of foreign policy discourse, both in DC, and nationally.  Especially with the many other convenient “leaks” designed to influence public policy floating around the Hill, (a common DC tactic) and thus the mainstream press and the general (even left leaning) well known “conventional wisdom” blogosphere these days to convince Obama of the “conventional wisdom” of escalating the zone of conflict.

Not to mention the general public. Who hate the war but also hate the idea of “losing.”

To both and to all, I would say both “get over it” and what exactly is being lost?  Except lives of both American soldiers, more specifically National Guardsmen who are not exactly trained in this sort of thing, and innocent civilians of the Afghan variety, for a totally stupid and pointless war.

And Obama is trying to shore up his right flank from conservatives who foam at the mouths at any attempt Obama might hold for doing nothing about supposedly lawless, children-eating Bedouins supposedly taking over (also called defending) their own country by force?

Even the worst cyber attack couldn’t come close to justifying what we are doing in Afghanistan. Not to mention the idea of a “threat” from a population that is using the classic and much more deadly, effective (and decidedly cheaper) tactics, not to mention weaponry that the U.S. is absolutely a sitting duck for.

But this is a policy that is defended staunchly from the White House.  From anonymous sources of course.

And thus needs to be corrected.

And that would be to remind the White House, Congress and the General Public of the idiocy that is both what the Economist this week called “Obama’s War,” and the fact that the dumbass is even thinking about continuing if not escalating it.

Not to mention their strategy. Which is rumored to include an additional escalation of even MORE TROOPS.  Plus other stupid tactics.  Which again is hardly new and has a long track record of failing.

As even this CNN story points out, “you can rent an Afghan, but you cannot buy him.”  And that’s not the only mainstream media outlet to publically air such opposition, relevent and extremely powerful, because most of them are chickenhawks and believe in American Cowboyism, which is fully on display in the Afghan theatre, not to mention the generals who are guiding this war (and certainly at least soaked in if not deliberately stoking ego at the White House to get their point across, but not as it would have you believe), despite Obama’s attempts to gloss over it, and paint it any other way.

Sorry, no dice.  You’ve been caught in the act.  And look just as stupid as your predessors before you.

And so I thought I would give a little history lesson in the process of kicking your ass.  That would be you BO.  As in Obama.

First of all, even the idea of attacking a culture that consists of predominantly Bedouin tribes (translation for Meghan McCain, along with the link, since I know you weren’t born yet) continual, usually seasonal mobile tribes of people who are very comfortable living in tents,  and nice ones at that, with mountains to protect them that are the foothills of the Himalyas.

Given that reality, not to mention topology, any real invasion is doomed from the start.

To be even more graphic, it’s sort of like playing hide and seek where you are always going to lose.

Simply put, the locals know where to go hide where we don’t have a clue where to seek.  And therefore are given natural protection from the largest military force, not to mention technologically, um, if not exactly intellectually advanced, and definately most expensive in the world.

Oh, and not to be sexist, or condescending or anything, but those squiggly little lines and the chart at the bottom (for those of you unfamiliar with how to read topographical maps) shows exactly how high, literally speaking, our challenges are in the region.

On multiple fronts.

Starting with the geography.

The damn country looks like Mount Everest meets The Misty Mountains of the fictitious Hobbit.  And has some very nasty surprises in store for U.S. soldiers who go stumbling into it.

Just a heads up and a little literal analogy, it’s like Frodo deciding to take on the mines of Moria, without the help of Gandolf.

And Obama is definately not a wizard, with supernatural powers.  Much less the Messiah.  As much as he likes to believe it.

So I wouldn’t follow him there.

And let’s start from the beginning with a whole new perspective.  Not to mention logic.

You try fighting in that kind of terrain, for multiple tours of duty, carrying over 60 lbs of gear, living in constant pain and fear, and seeing, if not being forced to participate in appalling acts of violence.

And exposed to graphic scenes of death.

Oh, and forced to participate in that little brew ha ha called TORTURE.

Not to mention live in the constant and very real fear, that U.S. ground forces are fighting and following phantoms.

Which of course they are.

Just the geology of the country automatically defeats any invader.

Which no amount of troops is EVER going to control, much less catch.

Even though Hannibal crossed the Alps without any side attacks from outraged locals.  He most certainly didn’t do it under constant warfare.

And he used elephants.

Not bombing runs with white phosphorous.

And NO, DoD, you cannot use elephants in your stupid wars or emulate Hannibal.  Elephants are endangered and OFF LIMITS.

Not to mention elephants are far more precious, even if they are less “inexpensive” in DoD speak (they are endangered all over the world) than your most up to date gagetry.

That doesn’t work.

Even though it costs the taxpayers a bloody fortune.   And will continue to.

And is a recipe for disaster, not to mention should be the writing on the wall to GET OUT NOW because WE ARE GOING TO LOSE.

Even by airstrike.

Which even the generals are mentioning is not the way to win this war.  FINALLY.

Just as it is announced that the troops we have deployed are on the verge of collapse, and the damned army is running out of bullets.

This is hand to hand combat against people who have grown up with self defense, not to mention guerilla warfare, are fiercely independent, and when put up against American Soldiers (especially the boy next door who probably joined the National Guard just to get a college education or maybe even just a job in the middle of a recession) and who certainly doesn’t have a CLUE what he’s in for.

I mean, let’s think about this situation logically for just one moment on this issue alone.

Mountains that big and that high are as impenatrable as the deepest anti nuke airstrike chamber the U.S. government has ever built itself.

You don’t think the Afghans know that?  How is that that our country. not to mention our supposedly intellectual superior political elite doesn’t?

And shows you exactly the IQ, not to mention the motivations (and exposes the stupidity and self interest) of all those war hawk, airmchair generals at the Pentagon (and throughout the national security complex), not to mention the State Department where Hillary likes to play butch war games because that’s how she was taught to be a politician.  Not to mention Congress.

Except that Hillary’s never learned the oldest saying in the book.

If a man wants to play a dick size competition with a woman, at least a liberated, independent, and free thinking one, he is going to lose.

Automatically.

For the simple reason that we women are not limited by nature or biology or even downright orneriness and savagery when we are threatened, and certainly not intimidated from either fighting macho games or lacking in IQ.

And some of us are very good at sticking remarkably similar looking substitutes that the other gender has and we do not, albeit yes, they are fake and usually made of rubber or plastic, where the sun don’t shine.  Without the lube.  Literally or figuratively speaking.

There, is that macho and graphic enough for ya?

You don’t think the Afghans, a people who survive in a region long tormented by various Empires’ dreams of glory (and control of resources), would have created secret tunnels by NOW?

Not to mention creating very effective and cheap ways of creating havoc for the Storm Trooper invasion that is, unfortunately the role of the U.S. military presence in the region?

And that our troops are sitting ducks?

And that airstrikes, while they are really good at killing and maiming civilians, really have no effect on routing out those who have access to the above natural insulation, conveniently sculptured and I’m sure with hidden maps and secret tunnels carved into the caves that are used with common frequency by those with the need to use them?

Get real.

The second issue at hand, besides “containing terrorists” another really old excuse and absolutely stupid, not to mention disingenius, and that is that India and Pakistan are just south of the border.

For those of you really sophisticated folks, they used to be the same country.  One essentially raped by the British when they had their turn at Global Empire.  And always seen as the next strategic “possession” from some very big and proximate neighbors not shy about annexing additional territory, especially when they think they have the arrogance (i.e. supposedly superior firepower and knowledge) to overwhelm the “ignorant natives.”

And then as is now a very good resource to have under your thumb.

Only to find out to their supreme embarressment that their hubris was misplaced.

Unfortunately for us, as any Empire with ideas about military action in the region, not to mention controlling resources, national domestic corporate business interests or annexing territory, the Afghans don’t agree with such ideas.  And have every right to do so.

If you don’t believe me, then consider this.   These days, at least, from an American perspective, India is an awfully good source of offshored and cheap computer programmers and call center operators, for say multinational U.S. corporations, who don’t want business ops interfered with in any way, with nasty little complications called civil rights and equal pay.

Among other issues.

Involving, as usual, valuable and much sought after (and therefore commoditized  and priced much higher than the worth and lives of the natives) natural resources, which every empire even considering marching into Afghanistan has NEVER ignored.

And say all you want about supposed Taliban insurgencies, and protecting the “world” from terrorism, that arguement just doesn’t even hold water with the locals, as I’ll get to in a minute, considering India’s reaction to the escalation in the region.

The Indian government knows very well what this is really about.  Like all imperialism and most wars, it’s being fought over resources, with ideology and fake patriotism (not to mention scare tactics) dealt out like playing cards to convince the American public by the political elites that throwing our taxpayer dollars down endless military invasion ratholes is a good idea.

Not to mention the ethical issues involved.  On many levels.  And from many directions.  In the middle of the worst recession this country has had in eighty years.

And of course, the Indians are well aware of America’s own business dealings in the region.  Just like the British before us.  Like dealing with equal pay and those pesky human rights issues that just get in the way of turning their work force into forced labor camps.

Gosh, wouldn’t that be great if those same corporations (which include alot of Wall Street banks) could get their way in the good ol’ U.S. of A?

There are those of us who think they just got it, but that’s another story.  Think Bank Bailout with no accountability, while the rest of the country sinks and you see what I mean.  And that’s just one example.  But that’s another topic for another post.

Or ten.

The real history lesson here, especially with Obama talking about our involvement in the region for the next DECADE, is what happened to the British, who still haven’t learned their lesson (in their ongoing suckup to DC) despite their dismal failure (one might call it a literal massacre)  during a little historical dustup known as The First Anglo-Afghan War, or part of The Great Game as the British played Testosterone One Upmanship with the Russians for the latter part of the 19th Century.

To begin to wrap this up, and make my final point.  The picture at the beginning of this article is the classic portrait, painted of the sole survivor of the Afghan massacre 150 years ago, who managed to survive the bloodbath at the British Garrison at Kabul and the ensuing “retreat.”

He was allowed to escape, as the only survivor, most historians believe, so the message would get through loud and clear, and in their own languange none the less, that the Afghans had just whupped the British Empire in the tookus.  As in kicked their asses into outer space.  Last heard from, those unfortunate British soldiers and their families (over 20,000 of them) who Lord Brydon left behind, were circling Mars (just a little attempt at humor here).

They were all, in historical reality, murdered.  By a country really tired of dealing with ideas of annexing property or stealing natural resources by Empires on the make.

And that was close to almost two centuries ago.  Imagine how fed up the Afghans are with this continuing crap.

What, what?!?

As in what an embarressing slap in the face, not to mention a kick in the cojones, for the most powerful force on the planet at the time?  And is about to be just as embarressing to this one.  Meaning US.  As in the good ol’ asskicking U.S. of A.

And this particular analogy is particularly appropriate to use as an analagous one for today’s current events.

Not only was the first Anglo-Afghan conflict the worst setback and the beginning of the end of both the British Empire and the business end of the whole operation, the British East India Company, (think America’s financial influence and international American businesses in today’s language) but is an exact forecursor of what is going to happen to us, if we don’t turn tail, decide it was a collossal mistake, (just blame it on Bush for God’s sake) and tail it double quick and in retreat, and cutting our losses NOW, get home and end this thing ASAP.

Of course generals at the Pentagon, and the usual stereotypical “guy” don’t ever want to retreat in “defeat.” Even if logic and history suggest that perhaps this might be a good idea.  And defending a stupid policy for much longer than necessary (or politically popular for that matter) is a really dumb idea.

And remember, Gates (and all Secretaries of Defense, are political hires). So this is really coming from Obama.

Trust, me, we are going to get our asses kicked so bad that we’re going to think the nosebone is connected to the piggy-went-to-market little toe.

And going to happen sooner than later.

No matter how much Obama wants to prove that he’s macho.

And I’d prefer to do it with a lot fewer dollars not to mention lives wasted, for an absolutely stupid and unwinnable war.  Fought for highly dubious reasons.  Including, if you can believe it, a supposedly creative way to fight the drug war.

Which if you read my post on the criminalization of marijuana in the U.S., has been around for more than a hundred years at this point. With many dollars and lives wasted and no tangible results.

What was that about repeating the same mistakes and expecting different results?  Isn’t that the definition of insanity?

Even if you don’t like my politics, there’s another reason to GET OUT NOW, as the ghostly voice said in a classic horror movie of the late seventies about a haunted house in a place called Amityville.  Which if you are Megan McCain you certainly don’t remember because you weren’t born yet, but I thought given that mentality, I would include a few little reminders of it, along with it’s classic line that should be the modus operandi of our future plans in the region.

There’s no way we can win.  It’s like playing hide and seek in the most complicated to maintain supply chain war, not to mention, the harshest, and highest terrain on the planet.  In the middle of a population the invading force doesn’t (in general) have a freaking clue about. Certainly don’t know the many dialects in the region.  And might have had an Indian or even Pakistani dinner.

Once.  Maybe.

Chicken Masala anyone?

If they even know the difference between the two countries.  Much less the history of the region.

And are up against a population that are not only fierce, but have been at present in a state of constant war for the last thirty years. And kicking ass consistently.

Not to mention that’s just this time around. The region has been in an almost constant state of war to protect itself, it’s identity and its borders, for well over 300 years.  If not longer than that.  And so far, doing a pretty damned good job of it.

They are fierce fighters, as anyone would be, protecting their own interests and culture, and history.  Not to mention country and national borders. And trust me, you don’t want to screw with them.

Even the arrogant Brits, never ones to depict their non white counterparts in anything but disdain, took care to carefully depict the ferocity of the guerilla troops they faced (see below).

And as an opposing force is no match for the behemoth of the American Amy, which was built to fight conventional wars.  Which this most certainly is not.

It requires (or so the war mongers think) small groups of deadly men, who are willing to kill for the fun of it.  Or a paycheck.  Or at least it doesn’t keep most of them up at night.

Both who work directly for the government and to whom this  work is “outsourced to.”  Think Blackwater.  And the CIA.

A tactic we call here in the good ole USA, “Counterterrorism.” And one, again, that’s been used before in the region, historically, for well over 150 years, by European AND American, AND Russian, and CHINESE spooks, who think they are smarter than the “dumn natives” when they don’t have a clue, and as a result, still failed when they relied on that strategy.

And even India is giving Washington the middle finger, in other words saying “No bloody way are we going to get involved.”  They’re not stupid.  Not to mention have a very vivid memory.

Yes Meghan, we know, you weren’t born yet.  Go look up the history of the region on the internet.

The only way to even combat a guerilla army, which has the support of the locals is by using tactics commonly referred to as “Counterterrorism.”   Or its other euphamism called “low intensity, urban counter insurgency methods.”

See picture below.

Meaning urban warfare and as we have seen, tragically the involvement, meaning deaths and horrific maimings (no I’m not going to show those awful pictures.  Go to Glenn Greenwald’s site if you want to see graphic renditions); I don’t want such images of violence and suffering on MY site for the traffic it will generate from the bloodthirsty, the voyeuristic and for the page rankings of the posters of such pictures, of hundreds of innocent civilians (I don’t participate in blood money schemes or marketing for browser ranking  position).

But these are deaths that are occcuring ON TOP of the airstrikes.

Counterterrorism today, as it really always has been, is another word for CIA involvement (of which there is already proof, as in one of the most senior ministers of the Pakistani government has just been revealed to have been on the spook’s payroll for years, massive bribes, and horrific human rights abuses that will only backfire.

Again, a repeat of history if you look up the brief descriptions of the past failed attempts at “victory” in the links I’ve provided above from Wikipedia.

And there’s plenty more out there on the internet if you are really interested.

Even Melville writes about his opposition to Colonial intervention in the region, in Moby Dick, starting with Chapter 1 (one of the interesting aspects of my book, soon to be Kindelized or whatever’s cheapest at the time that delivers quality product, on my self hosted WordPress site in progress, but does have some segments of the book as a free teaser aready available, under the tab “Channeling Melville.”  Forgive the ups and downs of the site if you aren’t met with an interface that’s up and running yet.  I’m telling you in advance, we’re still under construction.  But if you catch us on a good day when the site is actually up, look for the “Channeling Melville” tab.

At http://myblog-thatgoeswithoutspeaking.com.

But back to ol’ Melville this is what HE had to say about the situation, which sounds remarkably like the present, even in the opening chapters of the novel.  To wit:

“Finally, I always go to sea as a sailor, because of  the wholesome exercise and pure air of the fore-castle deck.  For as in this world, head winds are far more prevalent than winds from astern (that is, if you never violate the Pythagorean maxim), so for the most part, the Commodore on the quarter-deck gets his atmosphere at second hand from the sailors on the forecastle.  He thinks he breathes it first; but not so.  In much the same way do the commonality lead their leaders in many other things, at the same time that the leaders little suspect it.  But wherefore it was that after having repeatedly smelt the sea as a merchant sailor, I should now take it into my head to on a whaling voyage;  this the invisible police officer of the Fates, who has the constant surveillance of me, and secretly dogs me, and influences me in some unaccountable way – he can better answer than any one else.  And doubtless, my going on this whaling voyage, formed part of the grand programme of Providence that was drawn up a long time ago.  It came in as a sort of brief interlude and solo between more extensive performances.  I take it that this part of the bill must have run something like this:

“Grand Contested Election for the Presidency of the United States.”
“WHALING VOYAGE BY ONE ISHMAEL.”
BLOODY BATTLE IN AFFGHANISTAN.”

Though I cannot tell why it was exactly that these stage managers, the Fates, put me down for this shabby part of a whaling voyage, when others were set down for magnificent parts in high tragedies, and short and easy parts in genteel comedies, and jolly parts in farces – though I cannot tell why this was exactly; yet, now that I recall all the circumstances, I think I can see a little into the springs and motives which being cunningly presented to me under various disguises, induced me to set about performing the part that I did, besides cajoling me into the delusion that it was a choice resulting from my own unbiased freewill and discriminating judgements.
Herman Melville, Moby Dick, 1851

But I digress for that act of shameless self promotion and literary comparison to the present that is eerily similar (and the former the only means of economic survival for me at the moment, so do it for charity if you like this article).  And do me a favor, click on some of the ad links you see.  It will take you two seconds, but will add to my survival.  We’re all in this one together, don’t you see?

To end this little warning shot across the bow off, I will end the with immortal words of Lord Brydon himself.  Remember, our woebegone survivor of the First Anglo-Afghan act of whup ass in recent history.

As a reminder of how prescient that battle was, over 150 years later in predicting the outcome of this misguided attempt (now the third Empire building mistake, four times by the British, and once by the Russians).  And now the U.S.  For the same reasons and using the same tactics.

And imagine, to really put this in perspective, the Viet Cong had only kicked the French’s ass once in Vietnam.  Before they kicked American ass.  And before there are any sniggers about the lethality of the French army, just remember there was this frog who once took over Europe (and nearly Russia as well) called Napoleon?  And the French Foreign Legion is hardly a pack of pansies.

So the Viet Cong kicked some formidable ass with the French.  As in wiping the floor with them. Before they did it to us.

And now, the Afghans, with much more experience at fighting large empires and with an impeccable history of winning, (as in Afghans 5, other empires 0) even when outgunned, are going to do the same thing to us too.

You see, reaching back into history, there is this rather unappealing but remarkable lesson that cannot be denied or white washed over.

In that historic Afghan Act of kicking British Ass, 150 years ago, there is one indisputable fact.  And that is that the Afghans, like any invaded people won’t give up.

And will wait us out.

Whoever “us” is, as the invading force.  Because after all, it’s their country, not ours.

A fact that was illustrated very well in the historical recounting of our distinguished Lord Brydon, 150 years ago.

Upon reaching “civilization” in the state vaguely resembling the historical interpretation above, Lord Brydon, was asked by incredulous British Officers when he finally reached Jalalabad (a strong British outpost at the time), “But where is the rest of the army?”

To which Lord Brydon replied dryly, as he fell off his horse in exhaustion, and covered with blood, and the beast of burden was hardly in better shape, “I am the army.”

Meaning he was the ONLY SURVIVOR OF THE MASSACRE.  Of over 20,000 people.  Military ones, mostly.  And their families.

Hint, hint, oh, poohah in chief.  Words to live by and rethink strategy accordingly.  You might try to read some books on the subject.  And put the generals in their place.

We don’t want any more repeat scenes like that now do we?  Especially in the age of digital distribution and video.

Axelturf, are you paying attention?

Because this baby also belongs to you.  And you are old enough to remember Vietnam.   There’s no way you can spin this one, no matter how hard you try.

Meghan, shut up before you even open your mouth.  I know, you weren’t even concieved yet.

The decks, the facts, and even the state of the economy don’t justify this war.  And any attempt to “spin” the crap coming out of the White House or any other “officials” mouths, former or present, is going to look like yet another Obama attempt to swap deckchairs on the Titanic.

Just like his other policies to date.

Not to mention, do we really want the U.S.S. America to go belly up because it hit an iceburg it could have avoided, called Afghanistan?

We have talked a lot about opioids on this blog, they are not only used as painkillers but also as antidiarrheal! A known side effect related with the use of opioids is constipation, I guess it is a low price to pay for the abusers to get high, but it can be a blessing for a person suffering diarrhea.  Loperamide, the active ingredient in the OTC antidiarrheal Imodium, binds into the opiate receptors in the gut wall but it crosses  badly the blood-brain barrier! In consequence, loperamide does not depress the CNS, and so it does not make one high!

However, it is important to note that the effects of loperamide on the CNS could be increased by P-glycoprotein inhibitors, a potential door for abuses.

Hieu

Sources

Tylenol PM is a very common over the counter (OTC) medicine uses to treat minor pains and also as a sleep aid; it contains diphenhydramine HCL, the same active ingredient found in the OTC allergy medicine Benadryl, which is used to help with sleeplessness.

Tylenol PM by itself sounds innocent, however, it is one of the main ingredients of a very dangerous street drug called “cheese heroin”! The DEA considers “cheese” as a “starter form” of heroin, since it is known to be used by young students of the Dallas area; still, it is a very lethal drug which has already made many victims.

Why is “cheese” found in Dallas?

In the west coast, and the regions close from Mexico, most of the heroin found is under the form of “black tar heroin,” (a black, sticky, tarry heroin) compare to the east coast where it is in powder. Drug dealers in their thirst of money have found a way to make “black tar heroin” snortable, an easy route of administration in contrast of intravenous heroin, making it more attractive. The “tar heroin” is mixed with Tylenol PM crushed in powder, resulting in a cheap and effective drug; a small amount of heroin is needed to put the user in a “nod,” since the diphenhydramine contained in Tylenol pm should already make the user in sleep.

Heroin by itself is already dangerous, now, imagine it being combined with the lethal effects of acetaminophen (Tylenol) on the liver! And the fact, that a tablet of Tylenol PM contains actually a very small amount of active ingredient and a lot of fillers which are not made to be snorted safely.

“Cheese heroin” is not expensive to make and then can be sold cheap to young kids who put themselves in great danger, thinking that they are using the “real deal” and are actually being poisoned by the nasty cuts, and addicted by the little amount of heroin actually in the “cheese”.

Hieu

Sources

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/localnews/stories/031509dnmetcheesedeath.3e0160d.html

http://www.usdoj.gov/dea/programs/forensicsci/microgram/mg0607/mg0607.html

http://www.usdoj.gov/dea/concern/heroin.html

According to a health economist analyst in Boston the annual cost for opioid abuse is about 11 million for medical care.  Increasing incidents of abuse require hospital admission.  Pharmaceutical companies are developing techniques to avoid tampering of drugs to discourage drug abusers.  It is suggested that medical intervention can decrease opioid abuse by improving patient teaching and assessment including more follow-ups.  The FDA is developing the comprehensive risk management system for sustained release drugs.  The system requires doctors and pharmacies to meet certifications standards.

Another victim

Steve Dotson on the verge of losing everything including his life due to his addiction to prescribed painkillers.  Raises Questions about the availability of these powerful drugs; easily taking over peoples’ lives.

Mary

Sources

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/20/business/20stream.html?_r=1

http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2007-08-04-painkillers_N.htm

]]> http://brookintervention.wordpress.com/2009/10/23/update-on-my-life/ Fri, 23 Oct 2009 22:21:08 +0000 - http://brookintervention.wordpress.com/2009/10/23/update-on-my-life/

Update on my life

Hi everyone. I have been pretty good recently. My pain has been under control. I am still taking suboxone. My pain is also not as bad as it used to be. I am getting around much better. I still have a lot more joints that need to be replaced. My relationship with my family is doing good. Recently my mother had an accident. She went to a shooting range and they all shot their guns off and she didn’t have time to put her head phones on so she lost most of her hearing. It is so hard for her. In a way we relate, we both had a sudden traumatic accident in our lives. One day she could hear and the next day she can’t. One day I could walk and the next day I couldn’t. She is doing better now. She can hear a little bit now with hearing aids. My father is having some gallbladder problems. I  can’t tell you about all my family members because some chose not to be mentioned.  But besides that they are doing great and they are all in good spirits. My twin sister she just had a beautiful baby boy. His name is Corbin.  He is a beautiful baby boy.
I did have a small relapse when I returned back to Bay Recovery. I was sobor for 19 months. I slipped up. But Dr. Rand took great care of me. He actually took me off all pain meds and I was just taking suboxone and Tylenol. I felt so great. I felt like I had been poisoned for years taking narcotics. My pain decreased, I looked healthier, I had more energy, it was amazing. I never thought that I would be able to live my life without pain medication but I can. Thanks to Dr. Rand. He really saved my life.
I have lived in Oklahoma all of my life. Believe me I love it. But I have been spending so much time here in California I just decided that I am going to move hear to San Diego. And I get to be close to Dr. Rand. For sure I don’t want to be far from the man who changed my life for the better. The weather is so much better here also. I will miss snow but I can always go back and visit. One thing for sure is that I am going to miss my babies like crazy. (My nephews and niece) I call them my babies because I have no children of my own and I love them so much like they were my own. And of course I will miss my family as well. Along with my crazy aunt.

www.bayrecovery.com
www.bayrecoveryintervention.com

The introduction of OxyContin in the market has allowed an access to a drug highly concentrated with the opioid oxycodone. OxyContin is a painkiller prescribed for patients with severe pains; as a schedule II medicine, it is a strictly controlled product with a high potential of abuse. Time released, OxyContin can be found in a wide range of oxycodone concentration; from 10 to 80mg.

Oxycodone is an opioid, and like all opioids it affects the central nervous system (CNS) inducing effects comparable to those of morphine or diacetylmorphine. The people who abuse oxycodone, are looking for the strong euphoria that it brings, forgetting that, as an opioid, it can also lead to a slow heart rate, respiratory arrest and eventually death. Also, one can become addicted to oxycodone as it can happen with most of opioids!

The problem with OxyContin is its high concentration in oxycodone, in addition, the timed-release system is easily broken down when the pill is crushed and the total amount of one pill can be directly taken. Easily abused, and with a high strength, OxyContin and oxycodone products in general are being widely abused nowadays, and are as dangerous as heroin when abused. Addiction and tolerance build up and it is easy to make the little step which can lead to an overdose.

You can visit  http://www.oxyabusekills.com/ a website providing information on the danger of OxyContin, a petition can be also signed to ban OxyContin.

Hieu

Sources

http://www.purduepharma.com/MSDSs/OxyContin_binder.pdf

http://www.usdoj.gov/dea/concern/oxycontin.html

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