Guruphiliac - The Truth About The Guru-Bashing Blog Guruphiliac

Guruphiliac – The Truth About The Guru-Bashing Blog Guruphiliac

Jody Radzik is the webmaster for the guruphiliac blog, whose purpose is stated as:

While we understand that gurus are held sacred by many, they are also public figures deserving of scrutiny. Our primary aim is to inject a little humor into what can be an excessively self-righteous enterprise, and to illustrate the primary truth that no matter how divine their devotees believe them to be, gurus poop on the same pot we do…Any self-respecting guru would understand this and make every effort to show his students that s/he poops on the same pot as they do…This site is dedicated to the truth. The truth that gurus are merely plain, old ordinary people just like us. They complain like us, shit on the toilet like us and most imagine they have special powers, just like a lot of the least mentally stable among us.

Jody Radzik also believes that followers essentially project “enlightenment”, “powers”, “holiness”, “purity”, etc. onto their “Gurus”, “Religious Figures” and/or “Religious Objects”. Fair enough.

Information About Jody Radzik, The Guruphiliac Webmaster

Jody Radzik is not an easy person to understand. One might easily assume that Jody Radzik is a free-thinker, a skeptic, a rationalist, a disillusioned ex-follower, a grumpy guy or a mixture of all of the above. However, the truth about Jody is rather surprising and is going to be disillusioning to Jody’s coterie of guruphiliac-ites. Jody is the webmaster to Atman.net, which provides links to an online book by Bruce Morgan, an article by Jeffrey J. Kripal about Kali’s Child, the NonDualLogicality Blog (where you can listen to Jody garble on non-duality) and a site dedicated to the Hindu Goddess, Kalika. Jody believes in tantric Shaktism and Advaita Vedanta (although Jody’s interpretation of these two are non-orthodox). Jody is also a devotee of the Hindu Goddess Kali Ma, whose picture he links to from his guruphiliac site. Whenever Jody refers to “Ma”, he is actually referring to Kali Ma. Jody is openly into Raves and psychedelic drugs (more on this later). After reading many of Jody Radzik’s postings on Google Groups (using the name “Jodyrrr”), it is abundantly clear that he has a compulsive need to be “right” and to trash and bash anyone who dissents with him: Reference. Jody often accuses others of “projecting” and that they have “uninformed opinions”. He often rants about realization (claiming he is realized), but then will break down into shrieking hissy fits, labelling (or is it “projecting”?) others as being “stupid and crass”! Apparently, those who have the greatest of self-realization, like Jody, tend to act just like ordinary human beings, with the same reactions and emotional outbursts. Jody endlessly preaches on “self-realization”, just as other Gurus do. Jody can rightly be called an “Anti-Guru Guru-Wannabee”. As if this isn’t enough, Jody also professes to having a Guru whose name he keeps secret (more on this later)!

Guruphiliac Blog Webmaster Claims Self-Realization:

On Google Groups (using the name “Jodyrrr”) Jody Radzik (the Gurphiliac Blog webmaster) claimed that he is self-realized, joining the ranks of Saints, Siddhas, Sages and Mahatmas. Jody said:

Guruphiliac Jody Radzik: “But the lesson of the evening for me was that people who call themselves spiritual will never believe that I’m realized. I’m just way too out there for them. Ma has made me the counter example to all they’ve come to expect about spirituality and about realized folk.” (Reference)

After reading through Jody Radzik’s posts on Google Groups (under his name “Jodyrrr”), it became apparent to me that he has a compulsive need to be “right”. Jody trashed and bashed anyone who dissented with him and accused them of “projecting” and having “uninformed opinions”. Although Jody ranted about realization (claiming he is self-realized), he broke down into shrieking hissy fits, labeling (or is it “projecting”) others as being “stupid and crass”. Sri Sri Jodyrrr (the self-professed Saint and Mahatma) exhibited (and continues to exhibit) the behaviors of ordinary, over-emotional and non-realized humans. As if this is not embarrassing enough, Jody Radzik (the guru-basher-extraordinaire) admitted that he has a Guru whose name he keeps secret (in fear that others will “criminally libel” his Guru, as he does with other’s Gurus).

Believe It Or Not: Jody Radzik Has A Guru:

Some very amusing excerpts from a conversation between Jody Radzik and Greg Goode:

Guruphiliac Jody Radzik: “The difference between them and myself is that I’ve always lived in and enjoyed the world, and that Mother has made it exceedingly clear to me that She will bestow realization on whomever She wants, despite their disposition as ascetic wannabes. Unfortunately, no one believes I know what I’m talking about, except my guru. In the interest of maintaining the status quo, he doesn’t enter the debate, even though he confirms my assertions as I’m making them. This isn’t to say that I don’t get along with them. I do for the most part. However, I’ve found myself in raging debates, the whole bunch of them vs. me. I find this situation quite enjoyable, but it seems to shatter their quaint ideas about what the center exists for, and so in deference to my guru I usually keep a lid on it…I’ve been blessed to have taken initiation from a monk of the Ramakrishna Order, and I’m quite convinced he’s a bona-fide, yet successfully hidden saint.” (Reference)

Apparently, Jody Radzik converses with Mother Kali on a regular basis and hears her voice in his head. Sounds rather spooky, if you ask me. Imagine that, the Supreme Goddess of the Universe conversing with you? Some Gurus (and schizophrenics) claim they do the same thing. Jody also said he has a Guru (*gasp*) and that he took initiation from a monk of the Ramakrishna Order that he regarded as a saint (*another gasp*). I guess Jody never witnessed this monk pooping.

Jody Radzik has a Guru and sees nothing wrong with it. When it comes to others and their Gurus, however, Jody Radzik subjects them to ridicule, defamation, bitter sarcasm and bold-faced lies on his Guruphiliac Blog and Guruphiliac Yahoo Group. In Jody Radzik’s illumined world, the realized are indistinguishable from liars, deceivers and potty-mouthed extremists. Weird? Eh?

Guruphiliac Jody Radzik: “My guru basically left me to my own devices with the mantra he gave. His advice is always the same. Pay your bills. Don’t party too much. Restrain yourself some. Meditate. Pray to the Lord and come every Sunday. He offers his time generously but keeps the personal relationship to a minimum. He always gives the same, somewhat boring lectures along with his gentle advice and admonishments. I’m convinced he’s a great bhakta saint, but to many he’s just a cute little village man from West Bengal presently living in California. His satsang is small because he doesn’t allow projection, and he doesn’t perform psychotherapy. That filters out everyone except the sincere who already have or develop a liking for the teachings of Ramakrishna and his disciples. He leaves the therapy to the therapists while he gently points you in the direction of understanding. In my book that makes him an ideal guru.” (Reference)

Guruphiliac Jody Radzik: “My guru, a Ramakrishna Math swami, is about the most low-key and unassuming person I’ve ever met. His teaching is the same teaching his guru gave, which is the same teaching Ramakrishna and Vivekananda gave. I have many problems with some aspects of this teaching, and I expressed my opinions about them often in the context of my weekly discussions with him and his satsang. Not once, ever, did he have any problem with it at all. I’ve found some agreement with a few other members of the group, but the bottom line is that it doesn’t perturb my guru in any way at all.” (Reference)

Jody Radzik’s comments amount to nothing more than face-saving deceit and self-serving hypocrisy. Jody seems to live in an egocentric universe where his experiences, opinions and beliefs are tantamount and superior to everyone else’s. What about other’s convictions about the genuineness of their experiences with their own chosen Guru? What about other’s beliefs and ideas about an “ideal guru”? Apparently, no one else’s opinions or experiences matter except Jody Radzik’s.

Jody thinks he is perfectly entitled to criminally libel other’s Gurus (under the direction of voices he hears in head, which he attributes to Kali Ma), all the while ferventy protecting his own chosen Guru, sniveling that others are “criminally libeling my guru” (whom appears to be Swami Chetanananda from the Kali Mandir). Jody is essentially trying to argue that his Guru is better than all other Gurus. Consequently, all of Jody’s opinions, arguments and judgments about Gurus are deflated, irrelevant, superficial and just plain weird.

Jody Radzik’s Drug-Induced Experience Of Kali Ma:

Douglas Rushkoff: “Jody Radzik, for example, believes he once encountered the spirit of Kali directly. To him, there was nothing dark about it, he tells me as he makes a graffiti picture of the goddess onto a billboard at a construction site in downtown Oakland: ‘I can positively describe that experience as making love with God. I know that’s what it was. Nobody can tell me different. I will argue until the day I die that that’s what my experience was. It was a wonderful experience and it’s led me to greater opening. Every now and then I do Ecstasy again because it brings me back to that incredible experience that I can’t even begin to describe. It’s there. It’s there that I learned how to make love with God. It’s how I offered myself as a sex slave to God, through MDMA, and it’s brought me to really a wonderful experience of life.’ Several TOPYs who are walking by stop to watch Radzik paint. ‘Whoah!’ exclaims one girl. They stare in astonishment. ‘Better be careful, man!’ warns the largest of the guys, whose nose has at least three rings in it. ‘Kali is dangerous. She’ll get you really hard. She’s the Destroyer.’ The TOPYs shake their heads and walk on in horror and disdain. Radzik looks up from his work and shouts after them with a wide smile: ‘Kali has her fist up my ass up to her elbow and she loves every minute of it!’ (Reference)

When devotees attribute extraordinary experiences or visions to their Gurus (without the aid of drugs), it’s all “projection” according to Jody Radzik. But when Jody Radzik had a drug-induced experience (and re-induced the experience by using illegal psychedelic drugs), he claimed his sex-slave hallucinations were real experiences. This is the type of Anti-Guru weirdo who attempts to invalidate others spiritual experiences.

Jody’s Gospel of “Who” & Blurbs About “Brahman”

It is perplexing, amusing and highly entertaining to note that the Guru-Bashing addict, Jody Radzik, actually talks and preaches exactly like Gurus do! No kidding! Let us look at Jody’s cultish introduction of the concept of “who”. What? Yes, the concept of “who”. Haven’t you heard of it before? Before you start sounding like a Ferruginous Pygmy Owl, let us allow Jody to explain (taken from his nonduallogicality archive, emphasis on “who” added: References: 01 – 02):

Jody Radzik: “It occurred to me that thinking of who as a quantity is a measure of realization’s effect on a life.

Before awakening, we are our who exclusively. When we decide to embark on a spiritual journey to find ourselves, we start out by adding to this who, sometimes greatly adding to it, with the materials we come across while being spiritual people.

As far as I can tell, much of spirituality seems to only add to who levels. Sure, it may turn you into a bliss bunny, and that’s certainly good consolation for some. But being a bliss bunny is only a different color of who. Many, many people get stuck right here. If they can feel bliss around their guru, they think they’re getting “it”. These folk spend their lives chasing experience, never really seeing the truth that lay just beyond, in plain view, the whole time they were looking for it.

There was just too much spiritual who in the way.

In order to reduce your who, you’ve got to turn your mind back on itself, and attempt to learn as much about your process as possible, and do so fearlessly. You’ve got to become an eater of who, processing the landscape of emotional complexes through your awareness of them. You’ve got to dive into your most fearsome nightmares. That is the only way to truly know yourself and get access to your deepest who.

And perhaps after a few decades or so, you’ll suddenly see that you are not this who at all. You’ll understand in a very clear and very real way, that you are ‘this’.

But, that doesn’t suddenly drain the who out of the mind. The who which was still there sticks around, and changes gradually in the awareness of ‘this’. This is what I mean about levels of who indicating the effect that realization has had on a life.

So start eating your who, slowly at first. A therapist can be really helpful here, but you should probably make an effort to find a good one. I’d recommend one trained at a transpersonal psych college. That’s no guarantee of quality, but at least they’ll be able to get their heads around your spiritual trip.”

Say what? Who is Jody trying to fool with this Guru Talk? Not only did the above comments make no sense, Jody is talking about realization as if he is realized! Oh yeah, Jody claimed he is realized! After eating through all his “who”, the end result is Jody’s disgust that Guru’s poo! Now that sounds like a realization worth striving for.

Jody Radzik: “Brahman is indivisible, and Atman is Brahman. Atman is not separated from Brahman to become a “drop,” it is the whole Brahman known to an individual life.

There was never any separation. There is only apparent separation. It’s a mirage, not a difference in location.

Seeing ourselves as these “drops” puts a layer of symbolic thinking between personal and impersonal awareness, keeping personal from opening up to see what’s always been present, the impersonal truth.

Breaking the bonds and opening awareness would be the trick. I guess that’s what spiritual practice is about. However, even with those bonds we think need breaking, we are always right here, in front of our noses, as Brahman.”

The BIG questions are: Is Jody self-realized? Is he enlightened? Why would Jody speak about Brahman if he has not realized Brahman? Why would Jody tell us that “breaking the bonds and opening awareness” is “the trick”, if he has not broke the bonds and opened his awareness? Essentially, Jody is setting himself up as some sort of Guru figure who lays claim to special wisdom about Brahman, Realization, the Atman and the Truth (claims that Gurus happen to make, by the way). Perhaps the reason why Jody makes special claims about realization is because he claims he is realized: Reference. Jody said, “But the lesson of the evening for me was that people who call themselves spiritual will never believe that I’m realized. I’m just way too out there for them. Ma has made me the counter example to all they’ve come to expect about spirituality and about realized folk.”

It is laughable when “non-dualists” attempt to express their non-dual “truths” by utilizing the vehicle of duality. As soon as non-duality is preached, five main things blossom into existence: 1) The speaker; 2) The spoken, 3) The means by which the spoke is spoken; 4) That to which the spoke is spoken and 5) The means by which the spoken is heard, understood, assimiliated, etc. As soon as Jody opens his mouth to talk about non-duality, he is affirming and preaching duality by utilizing the vehicle of duality. To whom exactly is the explanation of “oneness” for, if there is only the “self” and none other? Why is it that duality is easily perceived and validated in our everyday life, yet non-duality is unseen, difficult to grasp and is mummified in spiritual terms and philosophy? One would think that an easily validated “truth” is more meritorious than one not so easily validated. In Advaita Vedanta, the opposite holds true. I’m sure Jody has a good explanation for those who are gullible (some would say “brainwashed”) enough to believe him. Maybe I fail to understand these things because I haven’t eaten enough of my “who”? Then again, maybe non-dualists are “projecting” (Jody’s term) their inner emptiness, inner void, self-negation and denial onto the Universe? There’s a thought!

There is another perfectly good reason why we shouldn’t believe Jody. He poops! No matter how deep his insights, how vast his realizations, how profound his experiences, Jody (like other Gurus) is no better than anyone else because he poops in the pot just like everyone else! Jody should change his Gospel of “Who” to the Gospel of “Poo”. The only problem with Jody’s blurbs about “truth” the spiritual path and nonduality is that he poops. He is unbelievable for this reason alone. Enough said! After all, this is the logic that Jody generally uses against Gurus.

The Two-Sides Of Projection

Jody is no dummy. He knows how to weave thoughts and concepts that superficially appeal to those who are rational and logical. Jody rightly points out that followers (devotees) essentially project “enlightenment”, “powers”, “holiness”, “purity”, etc. onto their “Gurus”, “Religious Figures” and/or “Religious Objects”. I agree. However, I also believe that non-followers (ex/non-devotees) essentially project their negativity, hate, anger, fear, un-holiness, impurity, etc. onto “Gurus”, “Religious Figures” and/or “Religious Objects”. That’s right, this is a two way street. Jody bashes positive projections from followers but doesn’t say one word about his negative projections or the negative projections from non-followers!

Kali Ma & Solving The Pooping Issue

Jody has a big problem with pooping Gurus. The thought that Guru’s poop disgusts Jody so much he cannot fathom being devoted or eulogizing anyone that poops. Enter Kali Ma! Stone idols and paper pictures of Kali Ma don’t poop. Pooping problem solved!

Jody Radzik Dumps Nirvana For Ecstasy & Glorifies Drugs

Reference: E-volution

“You touch the darkness–the feminine, the gross, whatever you see as dark,” Jody Radzik explains to Diana as they hand out flyers in the street for a new house club. “When you’re on Ecstasy, the drug forces you to become who you really are. You don’t get any positive experience from a drug like cocaine; it’s a lie. But with Ecstasy, it can have a positive effect on the rest of your life!”

Jody and Diana are on their way to a club called Osmosis, a house event which occurs every Thursday night at DV8, a downtown San Francisco venue, for which Radzik serves as promotional director. Promoting house, though, is almost like promoting Ecstasy. The drug and subculture have defined and fostered each other. Osmosis is proud of the fact that it mixes gay, straight, glam, and house culture, and Radzik–a gamine, extremely young thirty-year-old with a modified Hamlet haircut and a mile-a-minute mouth–credits E with their success.

“There’s a sexual element to house. E is an aphrodisiac and promiscuity is big. In everyday life men usually repress their ‘anima.’ Ecstasy forces you to experience what’s really going on inside.” Diana (who runs her own house club down the block) is amused by Jody’s inclination to talk about taboo subjects. Jody goes on proudly, exuberantly, and loud enough for everyone else in the street to hear. Being publicly outrageous is a valued personality trait in E culture adapted from Kesey’s Merry Pranksters.

“E has a threshold. It puts you in that aahh experience, and you stay there. It might get more intense with the number of hits you take, but it’s not like acid, which, with the more hits you take, the farther you’re walking from consensus culture. With E, your ability to operate within the confines of culture remain. You can take a lot of E and still know that that’s a red light, or that there’s a cop here and you don’t want to fuck up too much. On acid, you can be completely out of your head, and walking in a completely different reality.”

“So E is not simply watered-down LSD. While acid was a ‘test’, Ecstasy is a ‘becoming’. Acid involved a heroic journey, while E is an extended moment. The traditional bell curve of the acid trip and its sometimes brutal examination and stripping of ego is replaced with a similar vision but without the paranoia and catharsis. By presenting insight as a moment of timelessness, E allows for a much more cyberian set of conclusions than the more traditional, visionquest psychedelics.”

“Rather than squashing personal taste and creating legions of Birkenstock clones, E tends to stimulate the user’s own inner nature. Hidden aspects of one’s personality–be it homosexuality, transvestitism, or just love and creativity–demand free expression. All this is allowed to happen, right away, in the E-nvironment of the house club. Reintegration on E is unnecessary because the E-xperience itself has an immediately social context. If anything, the E trip is more socially integrated than baseline reality. E turns a room of normal, paranoid nightclubbers into a teaming mass of ecstatic Global Villagers.”

To Radzik, the club lights, music, and Ecstasy are inseparable elements of a designer ritual, just like the campfire, drumbeats, and peace pipe of a Native American tribal dance. Arriving at the club in time for the sound check, Jody and Diana dance a while under the work lights. Jody’s diatribe continues as he demonstrates the new hip-hop steps he picked up in Los Angeles last week.

“The Ecstasy comes through the house music. The different polyrhythmic elements and the bass … this is current North American shamanism. It’s technoshamanism. E has a lot to do with it. It really does. I get a little nervous but I’ve got to tell the truth about things. But the system is probably going to react against the E element.”

Diana cuts in: “And then they’ll just shut you down like they closed our party last week.” She takes a cigarette from behind her ear and lights it. Jody still dances while Diana stands and smokes. Neither he nor the E culture will be taken down that easily. “E is an enzyme that’s splicing the system. E is like a cultural neurotransmitter that’s creating synaptic connections between different people. We’re all cells in the organism. E is helping us to link up and form more dendrites. And our culture is finally starting to acknowledge the ability of an individual to create his own reality. What you end up with, what we all have in common, is common human sense.”

The E-inspired philosophy borrows heavily from the scientific and mathematics theories of the past couple of decades. House kids talk about fractals, chaos, and morphogenetic fields in the same sentence as Deee-Lite’s latest CD. Jody’s cultural neurotransmitter” image refers back to James Lovelock’s Gaia hypothesis, which is the now well-supported notion that planet Earth is itself a giant, biological organism. The planet is thought to maintain conditions for sustaining life through a complex series of feedbacks and iterations. A population of ocean microorganisms, for example, may regulate the weather by controlling how much moisture is released into the atmosphere. The more feedback loops Gaia has (in the form of living plants and animals), the more precisely “she” can maintain the ecosystem. Evolution is seen more as a groping toward than a random series of natural selections. Gaia is becoming conscious. Radzik and others have inferred that human beings serve as Gaia’s brain cells. Each human being is an individual neuron, but unaware of his connection to the global organism as a whole. Evolution, then, depends on humanity’s ability to link up to one another and become a global consciousness.

These revelations all occur to house kids like Jody under the influence of E. This is why they call the drug a “cultural enzyme” The Ecstasy helps them see how they’re all connected. They accept themselves and one another at face value, delighted to make their acquaintance. Everyone exposed to E instantly links up to the Gaian neural net. As more people become connected, more feedback and iteration can occur, and the Gaian mind can become more fully conscious. Jody and Diana both believe that house culture and the Gaian mindset literally “infect” newcomers to the club like a virus. As Osmosis opens, Jody watches a crowd of uninitiated clubbers step out onto the dance floor, who, despite their extremely “straight” dress, are having a pretty Ex-uberant time.

“This looks like a group of people that might be experimenting with Ecstasy for the first time. They’re going to remember this night for the rest of their lives. This is going to change them. They are going to be better people now. They’re infected. It’s like an information virus. They take it with them into their lives. Look at them. They’re dancing with each other as a group. Not so much with their own partners. They’re all smiling. They are going to change as a result of their participation in house. Their worldview is going to change.”

Indeed, the growing crowd does seem uncharacteristically gleeful for a Thursday-night dance club. Gone are the pickup lines, drunken businessmen, cokeheads, and cokewhores. The purposeful social machinations–getting laid, scoring drugs, or gaining status–seem to be overrun by the sheer drive toward bliss. Boys don’t need to dance with their dates because there’s no need for possessiveness or control. Everyone feels secure–even secure enough to dance without a partner in a group of strangers.

Whether that carries into their daily life is another story. Certainly, a number of new “cyberian converts” are made each evening. But the conversions are made passively, as the name of the club implies, through Osmosis. “Unlike acid, which forces users to find ways to integrate their vision into working society, E leads them to believe that integration occurs in the same moment as the bliss. The transformation is a natural byproduct–a side effect of the cultural virus.

As club regulars arrive, they wink knowingly at one another.” Jody winks and nods at few, who gesture back coyly. The only information communicated, really, is “I am, are you?” The winkers are not so much the “in” crowd as the fraternity of the converted. They’re all part of what one T-shirt calls “The E Conspiracy”. These are the carriers of the cultural virus. No need to say anything at all. The E and the music will take care of everything (wink, wink).

“The sixties went awry because they wanted a sweeping cultural change to go on overtly,” explains Radzik, nodding to two girls he’s sure he has seen before. They wink back. “And that didn’t happen. What’s different about house is that no one’s trying to ‘spread the message.’ It’s more like, we’re into it because we love it, but we’re not out to convert people. ‘Groove is in the heart’ [a Deee-Lite lyric]. We just want to expose people to it. People decide that they’re into it because they respond to it on a heart level. I think the bullshit’s going to come apart of its own accord.”

“So is this a dance floor filled with socially aware, fully realized designer beings? Certainly not. It’s a dance floor filled with smart kids, sexy kids, not-so smart kids, and not-so sexy kids, but they do seem to share an understanding, in the body, of the timeless quality of bliss and how to achieve it through a combination of dance and E. Even the music, playing at precisely 120 beats per minute, the rate of the fetal heartbeat, draws one into a sense of timeless connection to the greater womb–Gaia. The lyrics all emphasize the sound eee.” “Evereeebodeee’s freee,” drones one vocal, in pleeesing gleeeful breeezes, winding their way onto the extreeemely wide smiles of dancing boys and girls. It’s just the E! Likewise, the way in which E infiltrates society is much less time-based and confrontational than was the case with acid. E infiltrates through the experience of bliss, so there’s nothing to say or do about it. The meta” agenda here is to create a society with no agenda.”

As Jody screams over the din of the house music, “Fuck the agendas. We just have to manifest our culture. You have to trust your heart. That’s what Jesus really said. And that’s what E does. It shows people they have their own common sense. They realize, I don’t need this!”

Bruce Eisner shows up at about midnight, exploring the house scene and its relationship to Ecstasy for the second edition of his book Ecstasy: The MDMA Story. A veteran of the sixties and just a bit too old to fit in with this crowd, he almost sighs as he explains to E-nthusiastic clubbers how E’s preservation of social skills and ego make it a much better social transformer than the psychedelics of his day.

“In the sixties, we were sure we were going to have this revolution that would change everything overnight. And it never came. We got the seventies instead.” A few girls laugh. They were born in the seventies. Bruce smiles slowly. He’s got a dozen stoned kids hanging on his every word, when in fact he’s trying to understand them.

“With E, you don’t get so far out, like on acid, where you lose touch with the physical world. It allows you an easier time to bring the insights back in. Huxley talked a lot about the importance of integrating the mystical experience with the worldly experience. He had that one trip where he decided, ‘The clear light is an ice cube. What’s important is love and work in the world.’ And love and work in the world is what Ecstasy shows you. It’s a model for enlightenment, and the challenge is bringing that into the real world.”

So maybe revolution has become evolution as house culture awakens to the fact that there is method behind Gaia’a madness, and that Darwin wasn’t completely right. Life naturally evolves toward greater self-awareness, and we don’t need to push it anywhere. The universe is not a cold sea of indifference but the warm, living waters of an oversoul composed of waves of love–Gaia’s morphogenetic fields. The mock self-assuredness of the “me” generation gives way to the inner wink-wink-say-no-more knowing of the E generation, as the sixties bell curve finally touches down, and ego fully reintegrates into a postpsychedelic culture.

Interesting Links & Stuff About Jody Radzik

• Ape Man Exposes Godmen
• Guruphiliac Jody Radzik Blog
• Jody Radzik’s Pictures Of A Rave In Sante Fe
• Jody’s Yahoo Profile
• Jody’s Wikipedia Profile
• Some Of Jody’s Postings On The “Ammachi Free Zone” Yahoo Group
• Some of Jody’s Postings On The “Nonduality Salon” Yahoo Group
• Some of Jody’s Postings On The “Meditation Society Of America” Yahoo Group
• 1,600 posts for “JodyR” on Google Groups
• Guruphiliac Can’t Find A Date
• View A Poem That Jody Posted In Praise Of Kali Ma
• Douglas Rushkoff stated:
  
  

  Rushkoff: “My good friend Jody Radzik – the guy who first introduced me to raves, actually – started up a blog this year. Jody is about the most loving and optimistic person I’ve ever known. That’s why I was surprised that instead of touting a new spiritual or cultural phenomenon, Radzik had decided to bash one.”

• Click Here to read one of Jody Radzik’s posts on Google Groups defending the use of marijuana.
• Click Here to read how Jody said:
  
  

  Guruphiliac Jody Radzik: “If Adi Da is a regular user of marijuana he’s just gone up 50 points in my book!”

• Four months after this page was published (exposing Jody Radzik’s shameless use and promotion of illegal drugs) he posted the following comment on a blog:
  
  

  Guruphiliac Jody Radzik: “Yeah. I need to be stoned ALL the time.” (Reference)

• Click Here to read the following post:
  
  

  “Jody Radzik, identified in a Rolling Stone feature on smart drugs and rave culture as ‘one of the [rave] crowd’s resident gurus,’ believes that ‘[t]he planet is waking up…Humans are the brain cells. The axons of the nerve cells are the telephone lines.’”

• Click Here to view the archive to HarshaSatsangh and where Jody said:
  
  

  Guruphliac Jody Radzik: “Fortunately, we have the shelter of the Great Saints and Sages to take refuge with. When we come to be blessed with sincere aspiration their grace will manifest in a myriad of ways, assuring us an appropriate course of action in our spiritual practice no matter what role we are playing in the world.”

  I didn’t know there were Great Saints and Sages who didn’t poop. Is it possible that Jody changed his views? Don’t you just hate when people flip-flop, willy-nilly, from one extreme to the other?

• Click Here to read an amusing thread where Radzik, Jody goes all out of his way to defend his systematic bashing of Gurus, all the while praising and defending his belief in the Hindu Goddess, Kali Ma. Jody doesn’t realize that he is projecting power, holiness and divinity onto his concept of Kali Ma (ironically, a behavior he bashes with devotees of Gurus). Jody acts exactly like devotees, constantly referring to “Ma” and whatever she wills for him. Jody acts (or tries to act) like a realized person who knows “The Truth”. The big question is: Are you willing to let your son or daughter get addicted to Ecstasy and Psychedelics to find “The Truth” that Jody is pushing through drug-induced hallucinations?

In Conclusion

In a nutshell, the guruphiliac blog bashes Gurus because they poop and their followers project stuff on them. Period. That’s really what this blog is all about. Jody also attempts to inject some humor into his posts (which he does with some success) but at the cost of truth (Jody mixes truths with untruths; or more bluntly, truths with bold-faced lies). Jody is doing all this stuff because he believes he is realized (Reference) and is being guided by the Spirit of the Hindu Goddess Kali Ma! Those who dissent with Jody are usually retaliated against using five primary tactics:

1. Name-calling.
2. Accusing the other person of “projecting” (although Jody doesn’t “project” at all).
3. Bringing up the “E” word (“ego”, not “ecstasy”).
4. Publicly divulging other’s emails and then encouraging his entourage of anonymous and potty-mouthed “followers” to e-mail them with complaints.
5. Accusing others of being funded or being “paid shills” (let’s not bring up the issue of who supplied him with club drugs, funded his purchase of club drugs and is funding his Anti-Guru campaign : Ouch). I also surmise, in private, Jody might also accuse others of not eating enough of their “who”.

Hopefully, now that you understand Jody Radzik and his guruphiliac blog better, enjoy, laugh and take everything you read with a grain of salt. It doesn’t get much weirder than this folks!

Click Here For Pictures Of Guruphiliac Jody Radzik

saisathyasai.com Reference

[Via http://geraldjoemoreno.wordpress.com]

Does Swine Flu Vaccine Cause Miscarriages?

U.S. health authorities have made pregnant women one of the highest priority groups for getting the H1N1 swine flu vaccine. Is it actually safe for pregnant women and their babies?

In fact, the package inserts for the swine flu vaccines actually say that the safety of these vaccines for pregnant women has not been established. And miscarriage reports from pregnant women who have taken the H1N1 swine flu vaccine have started to pour in from all over the nation, according to Organic Health November 11, 2009.

I’ve read so many personal stories of heartbreak – women who lost their babies just hours or days after getting the H1N1 vaccine this year. Someone might argue that miscarriages are common and have nothing to do with the vaccine. But when a shockingly large number of women who had healthy pregnancies up until the injection with the vaccine suddenly miscarry right afterwards, it most certainly warrants investigation! And most vaccine-related miscarriages have not been reported yet. Remember, only less than 10% of severe vaccine side effects will ever be reported!

Would you like to become a guinea pig if you are a pregnant mother? If you read the package inserts, you’ll find that NONE of them have ever been tested for safety and effectiveness in pregnant women and nursing mothers, and none of them are recommended for pregnant women “unless clearly needed.” You should also understand that no reproduction studies have been done to determine how these flu vaccines (whether for seasonal- or the H1N1 vaccine) affect future fertility, and whether or how they affect a developing fetus. The vaccine manufacturers and the doctors administering the shots are legally protected if something goes wrong. You cannot sue them for damages.

So it’s really up to you to decide whether to get the vaccine or not. I strongly urge you to do more research and make an educated decision for yourself and your unborn baby!

[Via http://helenfu.wordpress.com]

Diklorometana

Dichloromethane (DCM or methylene chloride) is the organic compound with the formula CH2Cl2. This colorless, volatile liquid with a moderately sweet aroma is widely used as a solvent. More than 500,000 tons were produced in 1991. Although it is not miscible with water, it is miscible with many organic solvents.[1] It was first prepared in 1840 by the French chemist Henri Victor Regnault, who isolated it from a mixture of chloromethane and chlorine that had been exposed to sunlight.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dichloromethane

http://ntp.niehs.nih.gov/ntp/roc/eleventh/profiles/s066dich.pdf

http://www.jtbaker.com/msds/englishhtml/D2895.htm

http://msds.chem.ox.ac.uk/DI/dichloromethane.html

 

[Via http://rgmaisyah.wordpress.com]

Rob Frank at the top of Entertainment Business Battling Cancer!

December 1, 2005 my career was on top of the world. I was working with some of the biggest celebrities, in the country music industry, and had just finished the first national homecoming for Vietnam veterans that gained world exposure and turned out to be a history channel documentary. My mother’s health was still good enough to travel and a few months earlier my parents were my guest at Operation Homecoming USA and rubbing elbows with all of the Joint Chief of Staff to the President of the United States. In January 2005, I had directed and produced the Inaugural Ball for the President and First Lady.

I was just finishing a grueling tour- Nashville, Branson, Chicago, Davenport, Branson, Nashville, and on to Loveland to surprise my mom and dad for Thanksgiving all over a nine day stretch. God was already preparing me for the guest I hated for many years prior to December 2005. I look back on the tour and God let me see all the people that meant a lot to me and were close to my heart. My busy family, that never has much time for me when I travel, had all the time in the world. I remember thinking as I headed back to Branson after a great holiday how fortunate we were to spend time together.  Everything was great as I parted back home knowing I needed rest before my military USO tour that would start five days before Christmas.

Amarillo, TX 2:00am it was evident to me that the uninvited guest had arrived not knowing hours from that moment my life would change forever.  My temperature was 104 degrees and my focus was on home because I knew that something was crippling me on the inside. All by myself I traveled across Oklahoma praying to God that he would let me make it home, as God spoke to me through the radio- through song. I passed out in a rest stop bathroom. When I came to a man would not help me telling his son I had too much to drink. They thought I was drunk.

The only way I was able to make it to the hospital from that trip was through my faith in God. I knew I was extremely sick.  I really was in so much pain my doctor was amazed I lived through the journey home. Prayer, scripture, and God’s voice got me home nothing else.  All the teaching from my past kept running through my head along with memories from my childhood.  If you really believe in God and really need his help he will see you through was clear to me that day. Even when you know there is a storm ahead, he will carry you to the storm and will help you to face your Uninvited Guest. When God is preparing you for a storm in your life who do you call out to? Who do you trust? Do you pull over to the side of the road and die or do you keep your eye focused on the solution and keep driving? Do you let the others who ignore your cry for help convince you to give up? The attitude that you choose and your faith will see you through!

To be continued on Saturday July 11, 2009!

 

[Via http://motivationthatworks.wordpress.com]

Motor Unit Recruitment Strategies During Deep Muscle Pain

When you hurt your arm or leg or back, the first thing you’d often notice is that ones range of motion tend to decrease.   It hurts to move, or your muscles feel achy.  Medical research has no explanation however for the fact that despite pain and obvious torn/ damaged muscles, individuals are still able to perform tasks with the same amounts of force as an individual who is not in pain.  Researchers recently have hypothesised that individuals who are experiencing deep tissue pain, in fact recruit more muscles to help out the torn/ damaged muscle do its task.   This might seem painfully obvious but it is not.  Up until this point the current theory/ model of muscle recruitment during pain stated that muscle groups take from other limbs or major muscles to help get a task completed.  Lets dive a bit further into this issue and I”ll attempt to lay it out nice and simple.

First off we need to understand what a functional motor unit is, in order to understand how this works.  For the purpose of simplicity we will use the bicep as our model muscle in the following explanations.  As you may know muscles have the ability to flex and relax.  Simply put a muscle is in fact a bundle of fibers which each act independently to add to a larger whole.  The reason you can flex your arm and wave vs. flex your arm to lift a weight is that the more labor, force your body needs , the more motor units are recruited to get the job done.  The neat thing is these muscle fibers actually recruit in an orderly fashion from smaller to larger.

So what happens when you’ve torn a muscle or injured a limb?  Say you need to get a task done but your injured.  How do your muscles deal with this situation?  Researchers set out to answer this exact question.  They did this by getting a patient pool of volunteers who let them inject 5% saline solution into the subcutaneous fat of their forearms and their triceps.  These researchers then looked at the electrical levels of the neurons that innervate each functional motor unit and took recordings from these while their patients were asked to perform tasks with a given force.  These neurons that innervate each motor unit, control the muscles flexion and relaxation abilities.  When a task is performed a certain electrical charge can be measured of each one and with some sophisticated software researchers can tell how many individual units exist and which ones in particular are being recruited.

Diagram of the quadricep muscle

When all was said and done they were astonished.  What they found was that the current model of motor unit recruitment during pain was in fact wrong! As they predicted,  muscle groups that were undergoing deep tissue pain in did in fact show the same electrical activity as normal muscles.  They also were able to generate force just like a non injured muscle could.  However, what they didn’t expect was that the muscles were actually recruiting in a different order than the normal recruitment order from smallest to largest.  This basically means that when your injured your brain knows to switch which muscle unit it chooses to help you get a task done, rather than always recruiting them in the same pattern and order.  This has huge implications for studies on pain and how the human body is able to cope with injury.

The motor unit as seen coming from the spine out to the muscle groups

[Via http://natchem.wordpress.com]

War on the war on drugs

There is a fiendish drug problem up and down the nation. People are out of control, gnawing on empty boxes of cornflakes, clapping hands when the news comes on the telly, and all the while injecting themselves with hard drugs; however it isn’t all sport with the drug user, as many are having limbs sawn off because their local dealer thinks it economically viable to mix his drugs with rat poison, talcum powder, and common-folk dandruff.

People would be up in arms on this, however they don’t have any. When the Government issued a ‘WAR ON DRUGS’ some locals took the law into their own hands and started arming themselves, shooting, arresting, beating, and stoning people who looked like drug dealers – it was getting to the stage where people were scared to wear too much gold on the streets. One result of this WAR was that less dandruff was being mixed into the heroin and that the price came down, however the main concern of the middling folks was that there was too many zombies walking their streets. One person commented, “all they do is gibber all day, like street monkeys!”

A Cabinet minister rushed to the town to attempt to stem the tide of Zombi-ism, and told the folks that drug taking will not be tolerated, not for one second, and that punishments would be meted out. He told them that there was a WAR ON DRUGS!; and speaking to a group of local drug heads, in a drug clinic, he thought he had made an impact on their mental well being, although his rhetoric and frantic hand waving sent them all crazy and loopy and the white knuckled group grabbed his head and started rubbing it for dandruff.

Over in Afghanistan, a field of Poppies was going up in purple haze. One local Baron of the region said he wasn’t too miffed about the high flames because ministers had bought him and his family (including his pet gorilla) tickets to see Status Quo live in concert. When asked why he allowed strangers to come and burn his property, his simply said, “ what dja mean man? check the colours man!”

The Prime Minister has called his cabinet together. The group decided that there needed to be a new and fresh and stimulating policy on the drug problem; this time, their reason was precise and enervating, it sent some people into a ping pong competition; the new plan was simple, but deadly: A WAR ON THE WAR ON DRUGS.

One family in Cheshire had taken it upon themselves to start a group called: “Cheshire families taking the drug problem on themselves, why not?” The group sponsored cadets, boy scouts, and brownies; they would smash drug dealers windows with giant cookies and stale cakes; when Halloween came along they would dress up as police officers and hope that the drug lords would be fearful, but they would just be tossed into skips.

The government decided they had had enough of spending billions on the WAR ON DRUGS and THE WAR ON THE WAR ON DRUGS and decided to legalize drugs; they said that they were no longer going to play the caring parent, and that the people could just shove off! Paranoia struck the country. The criminals felt afraid. They didn’t know what to do, however some went back to university to learn mathematics, some went into the music business, and some stuck their heads into toilets and flushed.

[Via http://rollaball77.wordpress.com]

MEN!!!!

I feel sick to my stomach every time I see a someone playing with another person’s emotions. It’s so fucking sickening. My brother used to be like that, and I’m sure he still is at times. I know, and sadly have unknowing gotten involved with, several guys like that. It’s sick! Sex with different people that means nothing. If you’re both into one night stands, whatever, just be safe and don’t make a slutty habit out of it. Especially if you’re supposedly looking for that special someone, because then, it just makes you look like a bullshitting prick.

I hate when guys can’t count their sex partners. It rubs me the wrong way. And they’ve expierimented with heavy drugs. And you know they still do it a little bit, because they hangout with skeezy little stoners and people who snort and shoot, etc. And the drinking, they don’t know when to quit. Drinking and driving isn’t an issue because they don’t care. As long as they get what they want. Their idiots! And don’t even get me started on cheating. Only slutty skanks cheat. Especially if you’re not telling your partner about it. Do it once and you may have a shot. Do it twice, and give your partner proof…. Bye, bye! Believe me when I tell you they will find out.

Anyways, I’m so glad I decided not to watch The Notebook tonight. Then I would’ve been crying even harder. I already watched Brokeback Mountain tonight. Jeez! Anyways, have a good night!

[Via http://jeffydylan.wordpress.com]

Senate Health Care Bill, Government health care, Canadian health care, Cost reduction, Waiting lists, Deferred screening, Cato Institute, Sally C Pipes, Stop this bill

I am not going to address the lies being told by Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi and Barack Obama about covering more Americans and reducing costs with government run health care. Unless you are a far left, socialist wacko, your good common sense will help you realize the liberal Democrats are lying. Instead I offer a video, that corroborates a body of evidence that proves that government run health care is bad for the citizens and will destroy our health care system. I can assure you from my recent dealings with the Social Security Administration that we do not want the government involved.

“The Difference Between Canada and the U.S. Health Care Systems”

“Sally C. Pipes understands Canadian health care. As the former Assistant Director of the free-market Fraser Institute, she lived under Canada’s national health care system.

Today Pipes is president of the Pacific Research Institute and author of the new book, The Top Ten Myths of American Health Care. She spoke at the Cato Institute July 15, 2009.”

Here is a link to the latest Senate Health Care Bill. http://democrats.senate.gov/reform/patient-protection-affordable-care-act.pdf We must try to stop this criminal attempt by the liberal Democrats to ruin our health care. However, “Let not your hearts be troubled”, we are changing Congress in 2010. Sharpen your pencils and update your score cards.

rational drug users

I recently read a nice paper, in which the authors make the point that if drugs are legalized, they might be made legal in a strategic way to help reluctant addicts to escape from compulsion while allowing more considerate drug users to still get high.

Their suggestion is that drugs should be legalized but unable to be purchased immediately. The idea is that the rational and in control drug user will plan ahead and so never penalized by this rule. The addict however, who bounces from craving to craving, would be protected by the fact that he could never satisfy a sudden craving. The authors put the point this way,

Another situation with similar characteristics is drug use. Scholars
recognize that “craving is a motivational state . . . equated with the subjective
desire for the effects of a drug.”123 Craving, like depression, not
only motivates certain behaviors, but it crowds out virtually all considerations
other than, in this case, drug taking. In a neurological study
of addiction, Frawley refers to a “process of . . . increasing the behavior
that facilitates drug or alcohol use and eliminating behavior that
interferes with or does not lead to drug or alcohol use. This leads to a
kind of ‘tunnel vision’ on the part of the addict.”124 This effect is most
dramatically evident in the behavior of cocaine addicts, who report
that “virtually all thoughts are focused on cocaine during binges;
nourishment, sleep, money, loved ones, responsibility, and survival
lose all significance.”125

An interesting feature of craving is that it drastically affects people’s
decisions about present actions, but has comparatively little effect
on decisions involving only future outcomes. Thus, an addict
might be willing to pay a tremendous amount to obtain a drug immediately,
but would not agree to pay such a large amount for the drug
in the future.126 This suggests a policy lever less drastic than banning
drugs and more asymmetrically paternalistic: dispense drugs legally
with a mandatory waiting period (much as a pharmacy takes time to
fill a prescription).127 This kind of forced waiting provides a way to
protect the future self from the craving current self. Since perfectly
rational users will plan ahead, the forced delay imposes little cost and
it may benefit drug users who are able to make comparatively rational
decisions for the future.

I’m not sure what I think about this point, but I guess the general idea is that the addict wouldn’t buy drugs in the middle of a craving because it would do nothing to end the craving. He would then face his purchase decision under more rational lights later after the craving has passed.

 

Mending Hearts Rehabilitaion Center...

this place is bull

cant eat what i want

have to go to these meetings with physicians who

cant imagine

so i front

act like this white jacket is helping me

but all i think about

is goin home

where i wanna be

sleeples nights

terrible fights

stressful

cuz he couldnt understand me

sent me to rehab

now my head is heavy

how is this helping me?

when i told you to read my feelings

and you denied

evedently

so ill stay here forever

just to be away from you

because im afriad to go back

and your the drug i run into…

61. No Wrong God

Meditations in Job : 61. God does no wrong

Job 34:10-12 Far be it from God to do evil, from the Almighty to do wrong. He repays a man for what he has done; he brings upon him what his conduct deserves. It is unthinkable that God would do wrong, that the Almighty would pervert justice.

In chapter 34 we pick up the second phase of Elihu’s talking, started by, “Then Elihu said…” Again he challenges his listeners to listen and check out what he has to say: “Hear my words, you wise men; listen to me, you men of learning. For the ear tests words as the tongue tastes food. Let us discern for ourselves what is right; let us learn together what is good.” (v.2-4).  In this there is a confidence that is willing to be checked out.  We also have a reasonable faith one that can be checked against the evidence and we should not be afraid to say to others, “Check it out!”

Elihu then picks up again on what he has heard Job say, “Job says, `I am innocent, but God denies me justice. Although I am right, I am considered a liar; although I am guiltless, his arrow inflicts an incurable wound.” (v.5,6) Job has asked for justice but justice is not what it is all about.  Elihu concludes that this puts Job in the same category as evildoers who also say wrong things about God (implied): “What man is like Job, who drinks scorn like water? He keeps company with evildoers; he associates with wicked men.” (v.7,8)  i.e. he takes in scorn as one drinks and takes in water and by his words he “keeps company with” and “associates with” wrong people. That doesn’t make him an evildoer or wicked but just means he is speaking in the same foolish way they do.

Why?  What has he said?  He has said, “It profits a man nothing when he tries to please God.” (v.9)  i.e. what is the point of trying to please God?  Back in chapter 21 Job maintained that the wrong doer so often appears to get away with it and, indeed, both good and bad die young or live to old age.  Perhaps this is what Elihu is referring to.  He has a strong answer which we have in our verses today which may be summed up as, “God does no wrong!”   Often in these meditations I have found myself saying that we may not understand what is happening to us but when we get to heaven, if God allows us to look back on His dealings with us, we will never be able to criticise Him for anything He has said or done or not done!

In verse 11 we find a doctrine that comes up often in Scripture: “He repays a man for what he has done; he brings upon him what his conduct deserves.” In the New Testament Paul says, “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive what is due him for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.” (2 Cor 5:10) which is about our future destiny, and then more generally in respect of life here on earth, “A man reaps what he sows.” (Gal 6:7)

Yes, this is a general truth.  One day we will have to appear before the Lord to account for what we have done and, yes, here and now our wrong behaviour can have serious repercussions. For example the promiscuous person can find themselves with a sexually transmitted disease, which may be life threatening. Their behaviour has genuinely serious repercussions. The person who steals something lives in fear of being caught and one day may be arrested and judged. The person who has an uncontrollable temper may say things which harm and destroy a relationship and life is changed.  A person who eats too much becomes obese and may have a whole range of health problems, as does a person who drinks too much or takes illegal drugs. In all of these ways wrong behaviour DOES bring ‘negative fruits’ to our lives, fruits that are liable to be harmful and destructive.  It is no wonder that Elihu had previously said that God speaks to us “to turn man from wrongdoing and keep him from pride, to preserve his soul from the pit, his life from perishing by the sword.” (Job 32:17,18)

But there is a bigger truth and it is that God does things sometimes that are not related to this general principle and so Job is not being punished for his wrong doing.  As we’ve seen, he’s been declared by the Lord to be righteous. This is all about testing of faith, testing for faithfulness, and that is nothing to do with discipline to deal with sin. No, the principle is right, Elihu, but it just doesn’t apply here to Job.  It’s a good and right principle but it is not what is happening here.

Yet again we are faced with this warning not to judge people without revelation from God. It is too easy to get it wrong!

Brick (2005)

This movie was described to me by my sister in this way:  ”a high school detective story with a pulp fiction, underground feel to it”.  That’s precisely what it was.

IMDB says:

“A teenage loner pushes his way into the underworld of a high school crime ring to investigate the disappearance of his ex-girlfriend.”

Seems about accurate to me.  It’s a movie filled with twisted story lines, quirky characters, code words, and obscurity.  I love it.  It was just confusing enough that I hoped, with every minute, that the previous minute would be explained.  So many ends were left untied, it leaves a lot to the imagination.  And isn’t that what we want out of a movie?  Really?  Don’t we want to be left guessing?

Every new clue has you putting two and two together, and in its unpredictable way the movie is constantly calling you wrong, and at times it can be almost frustrating.  I remember I spent the first twenty minutes in a state of: “he’s who, and she’s a what?  Why’s he doing that?  Who wrote that note, if she didn’t?”

I remember me ‘n my sister turning to each other and saying: “I wish high school was like that”.  So, maybe I don’t, because I’d hate for that many people to die in my high school every, like, week.  The movie made you feel like you were drowning, and every time you breathed for the surface, you longed again for that inability to swim.

By the way, the trailer’s bad ass.  I dug it up for you.

The main character looks like my brother.  Ah, ha.

My first Photoshop Picture

Suddenly I find myself wearing more hats than I expected. I am not overwhelmed as much as eager to rise to the challenge. I need to save money so I’m learning to do Photoshop, so by this time next year, I can sell my skills and do my own flyer design for my charity events. Please rate my skills. Tell me what you think.

I call this image, Suicide King. I had wanted to do this for the longest and decided it was best to try it myself. Thats me shooting myself in the head if you aren’t quite sure.

Evidence That Health Care Costs Will Not Be Controlled

Writing in the New Republic, Jonathan Cohn thinks he has found the reason forPhRMA’s support of the current legislation. Apparently back in March the  “global research and consulting firm” IMS Health projected negative growth for the drug industry from 2008 to 2013. But now, with the prospects of health legislation growing, it is projecting annual growth of 3.5% for the same period. That level of growth makes the $80 billion in concessions by the industry seem like a good investment.

SOURCE:
New Republic

OBAMACARE ENDORSEMENTS: WHAT THE BRIBE WAS

OBAMACARE ENDORSEMENTS: WHAT THE BRIBE WAS
http://thehill.com/blogs/pundits-blog/healthcare/66717-obamacare-endorsements-what-the-bribe-was

By Dick Morris and Eileen McGann
Published on TheHill.com on November 6, 2009

As the suicidal Democratic congressmen proceed to rubber-stamp the Obama healthcare reform despite the drubbing their party took in the ’09 elections, the president trotted out the endorsements of the AMA and the AARP to stimulate support. But these — and the other endorsements — his package has received are all bought and paid for. Here are the deals:

• The American Medical Association (AMA) was facing a 21 percent cut in physicians’ reimbursements under the current law. Obama promised to kill the cut if they backed his bill. The cuts are the fruit of a law requiring annual 5-6 percent reductions in doctor reimbursements for treating Medicare patients. Bravely, each year Congress has rolled the cuts over, suspending them but not repealing them. So each year, the accumulated cuts threaten doctors. By now, they have risen to 21 percent. With this blackmail leverage, Obama compelled the AMA to support his bill … or else!
• The AARP got a financial windfall in return for its support of the healthcare bill. Over the past decade, the AARP has morphed from an advocacy group to an insurance company (through its subsidiary company). It is one of the main suppliers of Medi-gap insurance, a high-cost, privately purchased coverage that picks up where Medicare leaves off. But President Bush-43 passed the Medicare Advantage program, which offered a subsidized, lower-cost alternative to Medi-gap. Under Medicare Advantage, the elderly get all the extra coverage they need plus coordinated, well-managed care, usually by the same physician. So more than 10 million seniors went with Medicare Advantage, cutting into AARP Medi-gap revenues.

Presto! Obama solved their problem. He eliminates subsidies for Medicare Advantage. The elderly will have to pay more for coverage under Medigap, but the AARP — which supposedly represents them — will make more money. (If this galls you, join the American Seniors Association, the alternative group; contact // sbarton@americanseniors.org

This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

.)

• The drug industry backed ObamaCare and, in return, got a 10-year limit of $80 billion on cuts in prescription drug costs. (A drop in the bucket of their almost $3 trillion projected cost over the next decade.) They also got administration assurances that it will continue to bar lower-cost Canadian drugs from coming into the U.S. All it had to do was put its formidable advertising budget at the disposal of the administration.
• Insurance companies got access to 40 million potential new customers. But when the Senate Finance Committee lowered the fine that would be imposed on those who don’t buy insurance from $3,500 to $1,500, the insurance companies jumped ship and now oppose the bill, albeit for the worst of motives.

The only industry that refused to knuckle under was the medical device makers. They stood for principle and wouldn’t go along with Obama’s blackmail. So the Senate Finance Committee retaliated by imposing a tax on medical devices such as automated wheelchairs, pacemakers, arterial stents, prosthetic limbs, artificial knees and hips and other necessary accoutrements of healthcare.

So these endorsements are not freely given, but bought and paid for by an administration that is intent on passing its program at any cost.

PLEASE FORWARD THIS  TO FRIENDS AND FAMILY. THANK YOU!

Karzai Opnieuw president: Een farce genaamd Afghanistan (1)

De afgelasting van de tweede ronde voor de presidentsverkiezingen in Afghanistan toont nog maar eens aan hoezeer het beleid van de NAVO geleid door de VS hier in een algehele chaos is ontaard.

Zelden hebben westerse diplomaten, politici en militairen elkaar zoveel uitgescholden als in de kwestie Afghanistan. Met als voorlopig dieptepunt de annulering van de tweede ronde voor de presidentsverkiezingen.

De door iedereen in de Westerse kanselarijen nu publiek als corrupt en onbekwaam omschreven president Hamid Karzai blijft president. En dat belooft.

De corruptie bestrijden

Maar geen zorg. Onmiddellijk na de aankondiging dat Karzai nog president bleef beloofde die Karzai dat hij de corruptie ging bestrijden en de president van alle Afghanen zou zijn. En de ‘broeders’ bij de Taliban riep hij op zijn strijd voor de verdediging van het land te vervoegen.

Ook de westerse leiders hielden min of meer dezelfde teneur aan. “Karzai moet nu een degelijke regering vormen met bekwame mensen. Verder moet men de corruptie bestrijden en de drughandel oprollen”, klonk het bij Barack Obama, Gordon Brown en de andere leiders van de Navo.

Of iemand dat soort verklaringen echt gelooft dient echter betwijfeld. In de pers werd geopperd dat het toch wel mooi zou zijn als de regering Karzai enkele corrupte figuren of drughandelaars zou arresteren. “Het zou het geloofwaardiger maken”, klonk het uit Westerse diplomatieke mond in de New York Times. Zelfs de schijn ophouden is er niet eens meer bij.

Drugkoningen

Het is het soort verklaringen die men reeds sinds de Amerikaanse invasie van Afghanistan in 2001 in kringen van de VS en de Navo hoort. Uitlatingen die best als hallucinant kunnen beschouwd worden.

Zo geeft men zelfs in kringen van de International Narcotics Control Board, een door de VS gesponsorde VN-organisatie die instaat voor de drugsbestrijding, publiek toe dat Ahmed Wali Karzai, broer van Hamid, een grote rol speelt bij de drughandel. Verhalen die dankzij lekken uit de regering Obama ook regelmatig te lezen zijn in vooral de New York Times.

Karzai is dan ook een mannetje geweest die door Bush Jr. aan de macht werd gebracht en die op geen sympathie kan rekenen bij de huidige regering. Alhoewel ook de relatie met de clan Bush/Cheney naar verluid op haar dieptepunt staat.

Een ander aan de heroïne gelinkt figuur is Muhammad Fahim, de oude baas van de veiligheidsdienst en toekomstig vicepresident. Dat er in Afghanistan van de bestrijding van de corruptie en drugbestrijding niets in huis zal komen is dan ook nogal wiedes.

De vraag stelt zich hier trouwens of die Westerse beschuldigingen aan het adres van Karzai alleen maar bedoeld zijn om hem straks de schuld voor het Afghaanse falen in de schoenen te schuiven.

De schuld ligt bij de VS

De schuld voor deze chaos, wanbeheer, corruptie en grootschalige drughandel dient echter gelegd bij de Verenigde Staten. Zo werd Muhammad Fahim officieel ontvangen bij Donald Rumsfeld, de minister van Defensie onder George Bush Jr. toen men al lang wist dat de man nauw betrokken was bij de drugshandel.

Het is blijkbaar zelfs nog erger. Volgens een getuigenis van een informant van de Drugs Enforcement Agency (DEA) werd de Afghaanse drughandelaar Hajji Bazshir Noorzai in 2005 bewust naar de VS gelokt en daar tot levenslang veroordeeld zodat Wali Karzai daarna diens uit de tijd van de Taliban daterende drughandel kon overnemen.

Een verhaal dat doet denken aan de periode van de drooglegging, en het Chicago van Al Capone en Lucky Luciano toen corrupte politici en flikken maffiabazen arresteerden zodat de rivalen hun territorium konden overnemen. Er is blijkbaar weinig veranderd in de VS.

Het is uiteindelijk de VS geweest die de gebroeders Karzai naar Afghanistan stuurden voorzien van vele miljoenen dollars Amerikaanse centen om Afghanistan voor rekening van de VS te besturen. Men corrumpeerde hen dus voor het avontuur echt goed begon.

McChrystal is een dromer die fabeltjes verkoopt

Hoezeer men in de VS voluit zit te dromen blijkt uit het doelstellingen voorgesteld door generaal McChrystal Amerikaans opperbevelhebber in Afghanistan en de man naar ginds gestuurd om de boel recht te trekken.

Die stelde dat het essentieel is om tienduizenden extra Afghaanse soldaten en politielui op te leiden. Het was de kern van zijn plan. Dit terwijl er gemiddeld 19 tot 25% van de numerieke sterkte van politie en leger na hun opleiding ook weer wegvlucht. Richting de opstandelingen? In wezen is het aantal Afghaanse soldaten en politielui recent zelfs gedaald.

Bovendien bleek recent nog uit een incident met Britse soldaten wat de realiteit is. Zo knalden Afghaanse soldaten tijdens een rustpauze 5 van hun Britse mentors neer. Wat dan maar gemakshalve op een verwarde extremist werd gestoken. Men kan al raden hoe de relatie ten velde is tussen de Westerse troepen en het leger van Karzai.

Wishful thinking

En dat men daarbij liefst zwakke corrupte figuren gebruikt is klassiek. Bezettende mogendheden hebben er geen belang bij om het door hen bezette land te laten besturen door niet-corrupte, bekwame en sterke figuren. Het zou ten koste van hun invloed gaan.

Ook toen Duitsland in 1940 het bestuur in België overnam gebruikte men corrupte randfiguren als een Jef ‘cognac’ Van de Wiele en geen Leopold III om het land onder controle te houden.

Het verklaart waarom de VS bij hun oorlogen gebruik maken van schertsfiguren zoals de katholieke Vietnamese dictator Ngo Dinh Diem die – figuurlijk – spuwde op niet katholieke Vietnamezen.

De schuld voor de huidige toestand en de corruptie in Afghanistan ligt dan ook grotendeels bij de Amerikaanse regering van George Bush Jr. en diens vicepresident Dick Cheney.

Onzer jongens in Afghanistan

Hoe rampzalig de toestand in realiteit wel is blijkt ook uit het ontslag na een fikse publieke rel van de zelf niet onbesproken Peter Galbraith (2), de nummer twee van de VN in Afghanistan en een vertrouweling van Richard Holbrook, de speciaal Amerikaans gezant voor Afghanistan en Pakistan.

In wezen blinken de verklaringen van de westerse politici en de pers uit in wishful thinking, mijlenver verwijderd van enig realiteitsbesef. Zo kregen we het voorbije jaar in de Nederlandse media mooie verhalen te lezen en te horen over hoe ‘onze jongens’ vanuit Camp Holland de drughandel bestrijden, de Taliban vernietigende slagen toebrengen en de streek heropbouwen.

En dan was er onze eigen Pieter De Crem (CD&V), onze minister van Defensie die onlangs in Humo beweerde dat de Navo 80% van het grondgebied controleerde. Om van Yves Leterme (CD&V), minister van Buitenlandse Zaken, maar te zwijgen. Die zag onze aanwezigheid daar als een strijd tegen de drugshandel.

Eenzelfde toon trouwens bij de Italiaan Antonio Maria Costa, hoofd van de UNODC, het United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, die vorig jaar Hamid Karzai in Kaboel persoonlijk ging feliciteren omdat de opiumproductie was gedaald. In feite een gevolg van de enorme overproductie de voorbije jaren die de prijzen deed instorten. Waarvan hij ook wel op de hoogte was. Dit terwijl iedere insider toen al perfect wist hoe de vork hier aan de steel zat. De eerste verhalen over Karzai en drugs waren toen al trouwens in de New York Times gepubliceerd en bij insiders al wijdverspreid.

Saladin

Het strafste misschien was achter de verklaring van de nieuwe Navo-Baas de Deen Anders Fogh Rasmussen die tijdens een Brusselse persconferentie recent de Russen opriep om soldaten te sturen om het Afghaanse leger helpen te reconstrueren. Het toont hoezeer men bij de Navo ten einde raad is.

De eerste echte poging van de EU en de VS om gezamenlijk onder de vlag van de Navo met militaire middelen hun wil op te leggen eindigt in een nooit geziene ramp. Een ramp die bovendien geheel hun eigen schuld is. Niemand anders. Met als vraag of men hieruit lessen gaat trekken en de militaire plannen definitief zal opbergen.

In feite gaat deze ramp terug tot de tweede helft van de jaren zeventig toen de Amerikaanse president Jimmy Carter en zijn Poolse adviseur en Ruslandhater Zbigniew Brzezinski plots besloten om samen met Pakistan de decennialange Russische invloed in Afghanistan te ondermijnen. Pakistan om India, toen bondgenoot van Rusland, een hak te zetten en Brzezinski om Rusland te pesten.

Volgens sommige bronnen heeft men de Russen zelfs bewust in Afghanistan gelokt. Een beleid die leidde tot steun aan de meeste conservatieve elementen uit de islam, van Bosnië over Tsjetsjenië tot Afghanistan. Waarbij schooldirecteurs die gemengd onderwijs gaven vermoord werden door wat hier toen overal als ‘vrijheidsstrijders’ werden omschreven.

Het gevolg is uiteindelijk dat Bin Laden en zijn volgelingen als de nieuwe Saladin uit de strijd zal komen, de ‘dappere strijders van de islam’ die de nieuwe kruisvaarders uit het Midden-Oosten verjoegen.

Het prestige van iemand als Bin Laden zal in de ganse derde wereld dan ook verder toenemen. Niet dat de sociale en economische doelstellingen die hij voorstelt echt geliefd zijn bij vele moslims of elders. Die willen in meerderheid leven in de 21ste eeuw, niet in het jaar 800 of in een arm achterlijk land als Afghanistan. Abu Dhabi of Doha is de toekomst, niet Kaboel of Kandahar.

Zolang echter de VS en Israël hun vlag niet strijken zal Bin Laden succesrijk zijn. Daarna pas komt zijn neergang. Ondertussen is de nederlaag vooral een erg slechte zaak voor Israël. Maar daar lijkt men dit niet in te zien en leeft men nog in de illusie de Arabische wereld te kunnen blijven domineren.

Daar zitten de zeloten op hun heilig Massada te wachten op Gods redding.

Willy Van Damme

(1) Een versie van deze analyse verscheen eerder ook op de nieuwe website www.dewerktitel.be, een initiatief van enkele van de onlangs bij De Morgen ontslagen journalisten.

(2) Peter Galbraith werd onlangs in de Financial Times omschreven als een beschermer van minderheden. Hij was VS-ambassadeur in Kroatië en zag persoonlijk aan de frontlijn toe toen Kroatische soldaten de eeuwenlang door Serviërs bewoonde gebieden in de Krajina plunderend en moordend van Serviërs zuiverden. Wat later een oorlogsmisdaad genoemd werd.

In Iraaks Koerdistan adviseerde hij de lokale regering om zoveel mogelijk gebieden te annexeren van de centrale regering. Waaronder de olierijke regio rond Kirkoek. Waarna hij via dubieuze contracten poogde zich die olierijkdom toe te eigenen. Hij schreef toen ook een boek ‘Het einde van Irak”. Na Joegoslavië wou hij ook Irak in stukken slaan. Wat faalde.

Gonzo punk science

The good Doctor’s appeal to pretty much anyone reading his books is undeniable. The raw feeling of being in the moment, the intense emotional presence of his writing is overpowering. The story, with facts and opinions woven haphazardly into it, is just one piece of the mad painting. This became known as “gonzo journalism,” foregoing an observer’s impartiality for the unbridled excitement of being part of the story. It’s more of an eye witness account than a sterilized retelling of the events.

Though decidedly partial, his version of the events offered a greater gut, visceral insight into what happened. Agree or disagree, reliving it through someone else’s eyes is bound to be interesting.

I would argue that such bits of mad inspiration, instinctual, careless creation exist in science, too. The Scientific Method is what comes after the secretive, mystical subconscious twists and turns by some unknown dynamics into an insight. Through some devilish talents, the improbably subconscious seeks out the single solid kernel of truth amongst a sea of half-truths and incomplete datasets. Somewhere, there is a truer pattern behind the dusty and rare windows, and discovering this pattern is not a reasonable or rational course.

The flash of genius is a lightning strike, and the few lucky enough to witness it are revealed a picture that no one has seen it before, and they are left o rediscover it, piece by piece, sometimes spending years, or their whole lifetimes, attempting to once again capture that single vision.

I say, the unquantifiable, unfathomable inspiration is a central part of what we, as scientists, do. The spark of the subconscious is as important to us as it is to artists. The Method to us is as mastery of the brush was to Dali, or skill with the guitar to Hendrix. They are the means to dress the original inspiration into a more physical manifestation that others can understand. With equations, we paint our beautiful, elegant truths.

So why not sex, drugs, and quantum mechanics?

Do we, perhaps, spend too much time honing the rational and the strictly sequential parts of our minds? Should we indulge the less structured parts of our soul, for they are the ones that will bear the more brilliant fruit?

After all, the unknown is our business. Some madness along the way is to be expected.

091107 - Trash

Sometimes it seems as if life overwhelms us. It’s as if all the bad things happen all at one time and we seem to be bombarded with bad news. Life seems heavy and it seems as if there is now way out of the situations we find ourselves in.

When life is like that it is very hard to notice all the good things around us and to focus on them.

If you find yourself in a situation where you can only see the bad and the wrong all around you, the chances are that you are sufferring from what I call the “Trash Can” syndrome. The “Trash Can Syndrome” is like putting your head inside a trash can and trying to find something in there that is wholesome and good and pure and inspiring. So you wade through the rubbish trying to find the best of what’s in there in the hope that its going to make you feel better.

Sadly there is nothing in there that will satisfy you.

In order to see the blue sky above and the green fields around, hear the birds singing and the rustling of the breeze in the trees, you will need to get your head out of the trash can.

Unfortunately the reverse is also true. Sometimes we find ourselves in a open park with God’s beauty all around and yet we seek out the first “Trash Can” we can find and dive straight in. It’s as if we choose to shut off the “real” fulfilling stuff in life and rather choose to explore the “trash” of life.

No one in their right mind would dive into a trash can to find something fulfilling in there and yet we do it with our lives. Many of us seek fulfillment in things like drugs, porn, alcohol, adultery, the pursuit of wealth etc etc. We feed ourselves with this junk and think it’s going to make life better. All it does actually, is make life worse.

In order to lead a fulfilling life, we need to stay clear of the “Trash Cans”, we need to get our head out of the “Trash Can” and only then can we find the real beauty, the real fulfillment in life and in living. The choice, however, is entirely ours. What will you do?

No matter who you are or what religious orientation you are from, the way of Jesus Christ is the very best way to live. His example and teachings are something that we should all be trying to follow.

Following that is the way to life and life in all its fulness. It’ll keep your head out of the trash can and your life in line with Gods will and purpose for you in the world.

Notes from the future: The origins of Open Source Democracy

If nothing else, the peremptory sacking of David Nutt by Home Secretary Alan Johnson in October 2009 exposed the aching chasm which  existed between rational thought and political thought, such as it was in early 21st century Britain.  In the grips of a deep recession, a failing Labour administration, confronted by a Conservative party even more devoid of political wisdom and insight than themselves, sought to establish clear leeway between themselves and their opponents by a number of headlining manouevres. David Nutt, an eminent scientist, whose contribution to knowledge in the sphere of psychopharmacology was of the very first order, was to be their patsy. Unfortunately, as events subsequently transpired, it was to not only rebound on themselves, but to bring into question the very legitimacy of a mode of political representation which had existed, largely unchanged, since the mid-19th century. 

David Nutt, a quiet-spoken and eloquent advocate of scientific principle could not have appeared more reasonable than his simian aggressor, and a very clear delineation in their intellectual capacities was immediately more than superficially apparent. Moreover he was right: when comparing and categorising risk, objectivity was paramount.  Mr Johnson’s pretext for sacking Professor Nutt was that he had in some way stepped into politics by stating the blindingly obvious during the course of an academic lecture. The populace were unconvinced and an obviously tired and emotional Johnson did not help his case by addressing them as though they were a round of postmen to be whipped up in fury and led out on strike at protest at t’management.

A number of MPs, seeing the writing writ large upon the wall, could not have been more suprised than Belshazzar himself to have been found weighed in the balance and found wanting; questions were asked in the House, an Early Day Motion was hurriedly tabled to the effect that this House believes that Government policy on alcohol and drugs misuse and harm should be based on scientific evidence. But it was too late, the British public, much like the bosun of an 18th century man of war, removed the cat from out of the bag, lashed the prisoner to the gratings and flogged him round the prevalent media.  They were evidently not remotely amused. Decades of parliamentary abuse of privilege, compounded by fiascos such as the cheap sell-offs of public assets under the previous administration, the whitewashing of the state-instituted murder of Dr David Kelly in the Hutton Report, the expenses scandal, had taken their toll.

People began to wonder how it was that an uneducated former Marxist postman from Bow could wield such exorbitant power. The conclusion that they were forced to was that it was a symptom of a much deeper malaise, that the very process of government itself was broken, and that the unpleasant phenomenon of Alan Johnson was yet another case of jobs for the boys. The technological mechanisms for real democratisation and  enfranchisement of the electorate had been in place for many years; the internet was ubiqitous. The existing status ante quo had however made little if any attempt to embrace the technology to extend the reach of democracy. 

Social networking sites were to prove to be a fertile breeding ground for opposition. The wikia picked up the events faster than the mainstream media, and both Johnson and Nutt’s entries in Wikipedia were objectively modfied within hours of events occurring. It would only be a question of time before someone would ask the question “if paid for government is as broken, expensive and fundamentally bloated as Micro$oft software, why isn’t there an open source alternative.” The inexorable rise of Open Source Democracy had begun…..

(Video) If You Thought About Getting Flu Vaccine... Watch This! 1977 Swine Flu Scare on '60 Minutes' vs 2009 Broadcast

OLD – 1977 “60 Minute” broadcast (32 Years Ago) Swine Flu Scare – Old Lies of the CDC (short version) There is a HIGH LEVEL of MERCURY in the vaccines.  Mercury is a poison.  It can cause neurological disorders.  High levels of Mercury is linked to AUTISM.

 

 

NEW — 2009 COMMON SENSE MEDICAL ADVICE (WATCH and LISTEN!!)

 

Doctor Admits Vaccine Is More Deadly Than Swine Flu Itself & Will Not Give It To His Kids

Also see: (Video) Flu Vaccine Permanently Disables NFL Cheerleader

The Swine Flu is an orchestrated attempt to spread fear and chaos into the population and to try to get people vaccinated, which everyone should know contains mercury that damages your nervous system. Mercury, of course, is one of the most toxic substances you can put in a human body. It is a heavy metal known to contribute to neurological disorders, including autism, dementia, and even Alzheimer’s disease. Mercury also tends to build up in tissues in the human body and is not easily removed, so even small exposures to mercury can accumulate over time and end up compromising the health of the person involved. Baxter, the makers of the flu vaccines was caught putting live bird flu in the vaccines and making people get more sick and ill with the help of the World Health Organization (WHO). DO NOT TAKE THE VACCINE! Unless of course you want to have the possibility of dying and destroying your immune system and have all sorts of side effects and you are determined for your own personal destruction – then by all means get it. If you are an intelligent person and not a sheep who cannot critically think for yourself – research further and you will come to the conclusion that this vaccine is a big scam and should not enter one single human body.

Psychic Mayor

Mauricio Fernandez. (Photo: AP)

Mauricio Fernandez, mayor of San Pedro Garza Garcia, an affluent community in northern Mexico is psychic.

Yup, no doubt about it!

How else to explain how he could announce the death of a bitter rival during his acceptance speech some 3.1/2 hours BEFORE any body was found and 2 days before it was identified as that of his rival?

I mean, the only other explanation for Sn Fernadez’s foreknowledge of his rival’s demise would be that he was directly or indirectly responsible for the death of Hector Saldana whose barefoot, blindfolded body was found hundreds of miles away. And that, of course, is unthinkable.

Fernandez has naturally denied having played any part in Saldana’s death – testifying that he was told of the death by US Authorities.

Paul Knierim, a spokesman for the Drug Enforcement Administration in Washington, said that, while he could not comment on the specific case, US agents did routinely coordinate with Mexican investigators trying to crack down on cartels.

Jeez, surely Fernandez is not implying american DEA personnel are somehow responsible for the death of his rival???

Nah, like I said. Simplest explanation is the most likely – Sr Fernandez is psychic

Source . . .

Reviews: Weird Tony talks about FEST 8

  
     All the assholes were fleeing Gainesville last weekend for the Gators game in Jax. I hate football, so I fled Jacksonville for the Fest 8 in Gainesville. 
    For the Gainesville natives who remained, University blvd must have been a hell of a sight. Friday afternoon to Sunday night, the place was crawling with all sorts of weird folk. Whatever culture Gainesville has is completely consumed for these days late in October. It becomes a punk town. From 250 pound beardos to rude boys to crusties, every weird subgenre of every weird subgenre of every weird genre in music was represented there. Fringe groups that come together for 3 days a year for the purpose of partying and listening to music.

   

 Now that I think of it, the same thing can be said about the Gathering, so I’m gonna take a different approach to this and focus on cops and crusties. Now, as any Florida native knows, Florida’s justice system is on par with 17th century Massachusetts’. For the eight years of festin’ Gainesville has put on, the cops have been generally cool with it. Considering how many drugs and beers are consumed at the fest, most fest kids, despite their weird subgenre of weird subgenre of weird genre affiliation, have been grateful for this. Most fest kids.
     One stupid fucking crusty was dancing in the middle of a street, a rare cop appeared, and tried to get him to get out of the way of traffic. Another stupid fucking crusty thought he saw an opportunity to crush the system, so he punched the cop. The cop tasered him. About 5 more stupid fucking crusties started to beat the shit out of the cop. The cop radioed for backup, tear gas was broken out, arrests were made and the crusties lost. The next day this was all over the local news. http://www.gainesville.com/article/20091102/ARTICLES/911021004
    This is the second time in two years Gainesville cops have had fest problems, and in the words of one Lieutinent, they are going to ‘increase staff’ for the next one. Way to up teh p0nx, guys. Put aside the fact that these kids were out of line and got what was coming to them (personally, I would’ve loved to see the cops go Kent state on their asses. I hate hippies.) and let’s assume that the cop was being a prick. When cops are being pricks, you don’t fucking punch them. Now if you’re from out of town and you’re representing a subculture that has had problems with the town’s cops before, you swallow your pride use a little tact and try to give your people a better name. That ain’t the time to relive 82 and start a riot. It’s the time to shut up and get out of the way so I don’t have to be frisked anymore next year. Yeah, big black dudes at the venue frisk you when you go in. I don’t fucking get it.  

more to come from your pal,

Weird Tony

The Daily Habit: Health

 11:59 pm

5 Habits That are Hard as Hell to Break – AMERICA - Isn’t life after college grand, that is if you’re doing things right.  You have it all down to a science at this point in the game, but then again you’ve always had the edge.  Went off to  at some far-off school out in the middle of nowhere, pushed through slowly on the 6 year plan while mom and dad footed the bill, did little or nothing all day long, and basically hit hit every fraternity party and pot dealer along the way.  After graduation you lucked out and got a job that paid handsomely, even though you didn’t deserve it. Now, some 10 years later, you’ve got it made in the shade, but you have a bad habit or two. You’re single and you make some serious quid, but you’re a total fat ass who is still partying his ass off 6 nights a week with the recent college grades who live downstairs.  You have no cartlidge left in your nose, you have a river of live and your heart is the size of a bowling ball.  Sounds fun, but if this is the case, you better break these habits immediately or you’ll be lugging around a tank of oxygen faster than you can crack two boxes of whip-its.

1. Not Stealing from sleep-  You won’t be sleeping after inhaling that 8 ball in the men’s room at Applebees during happy hour.

2.  Don’t skip breakfast-  Why should you?  There’s nothing better than a dozen eggs and a pound of bacon before you head off to work at the coal mine.

3.  Not blowing off exercise- One lap around the track and you’ll wake up 20 minutes later in an ambulance strapped to a pair of jumper cables.

4.  Late night gorging-  A bucket of hot hot wings and a 12 pack before bed does it every time.

5.  Counting your beverages- 24 is the limit, at least if you’re driving. (http://shine.yahoo.com/channel/health/5-habits-to-break-before-its-too-late-527017/)

Oh, you know the rest.  You keep telling yourself and others that you’re as fit as a fiddle and that you’ve never felt better, but in reality your tuba is fat as an ox and you feel like shit.  After this gets old you realize, eventually, that every day of your life spent partying like a rock star takes you farther from your ultimate goal of living a fulfilling, healthy life. So, if you want to live a while longer, or at least long enough to see your feet for the first time since little league, get on the health tip and kick those rotten habits. If you’re cool with the fat gut and don’t mind being a glutton for drug and boozed induced punishment, stick to that plan and don’t stray away under any circumstances.  After all, what good is a habit unless it’s a bad one?

FDA Gives Update on Botulinum Toxin Safety Warnings; Established Names of Drugs Changed

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today announced an update to a previous safety alert on four botulinum toxin drug products, noting that all of them now have boxed warnings on their labels and have developed Medication Guides for patients, as directed by the agency in April 2009.

The boxed warning cautions that the effects of the botulinum toxin may spread from the area of injection to other areas of the body, causing symptoms similar to those of botulism. Those symptoms include potentially life-threatening swallowing and breathing difficulties and even death.

These symptoms have mostly been reported in children with cerebral palsy being treated with botulinum toxin for muscle spasticity, a use of the drugs that has not been approved by FDA. Symptoms have also been reported in adults treated both for approved and unapproved uses.

The affected products are:
- Botox (new established name: onabotulinumtoxinA)
- Botox Cosmetic (new established name: onabotulinumtoxinA)
- Myobloc (new established name: rimabotulinumtoxinB)
- Dysport (abobotulinumtoxinA) was approved in April 2009 with the boxed warning and is not making any name or label changes at this time.

No definitive serious adverse event reports of distant spread of toxin effect have been associated with dermatologic use of Botox/Botox Cosmetic at the recommended doses (for frown lines between the eyebrows or severe underarm sweating). As well, no definitive serious adverse event reports of distant spread of toxin effect have been associated with Botox when used at approved doses for eyelid twitches or for crossed eyes.

The revised labels also emphasize that the different botulinum toxin products are not interchangeable, because the units used to measure the products are different. To help reduce the potential for dosing errors, the botulinum toxin products have changed their established drug names (often referred to as the drug’s “generic” name). Neither the brand names nor the formulations of the products have changed.

Johnson Gets it Right on Drug Decision

Whilst watching Sky News this morning i was shocked to discover that i actually agree with a decision taken by the current Government. The interview with Home Secretary Alan Johnson was regarding the recent dismissal of the head of Labour’s drug advisory board, Profesor David Nutt.

Since this decision was made, Dr Les King of the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs, has resigned in protest to Prof Nutt being denied his ‘freedom of speech’ so say the BBC. However this is entirely misleading and misrepresenting the point. The issue is not whether Prof Nutt is permitted to express his opinions or not, rather the fact that he has taken an opposing view to those people he is supposed to be advising and representative of.

Having spoken openly against the Government’s decision to upgrade cannabis to a Class B from a Class C and having claimed that taking ecstasy is no more dangerous than riding a horse, you can see why the Home Secretary felt this man was not a good representative of the Brown leadership.

Let’s just think about this for a moment. If the Government were to appoint a military expert to advise it on the deployment of our nuclear arsenal, would it then be ok for said expert to join the CND. No, of course not. If they were to appoint someone to discuss the problems of prolonged NHS waiting lists and this person then said that they didn’t think they actually existed then again there would be a problem. So what is the difference when the chief drug advisor attacks the decisions that the Government have made.

In reality the arguments as to whether it’s right or wrong to change drug classification will be somewhat lost now as the issue becomes more and more politicised but i do not think that we can blame the Government for sacking someone who has been attacking them publicly.

Oh and you may want to take a picture people because me agreeing with Governmental decisions does not happen very often.