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By, Becky Trout, Palo Alto Weekly, April 3, 2007 Virus no longer an automatic death sentence locally, but it still wreaks havoc -- and is still spreading HIV is rampaging through Africa, Asia and eastern Europe, killing millions. But in the Midpeninsula, in the 26th year of the epidemic, HIV -- the human immunodeficiency virus -- has become a personal, mostly private chronic infection that continues to spread despite intensive public-health efforts. Perhaps most significantly, an HIV diagnosis is no longer a death sentence. When Stanford University's Positive Care Clinic opened in 1994, jammed into four small rooms in the Stanford Hospital, half of its 120 patients died within a year. "Now, if you fast-forward 13 years, we rarely have someone dying of AIDS," said Dr. Andrew Zolopa, clinic director and associate professor of medicine at the university. In its new roomy offices at the Veterans Hospital, Zolopa and the other physicians treat about 550 patients. Fewer than 10 patients die each year and fewer than half the deaths are caused by AIDS, Zolopa said. Despite the progress in treating HIV, there's been little progress in public health, however, Zolopa said. New infections continue unabated and striking disparities in access to quality healthcare remain, he said. A dangerous new trend of abusing Viagra, methamphetamine and sometime marijuana -- leading to repeated, reckless sexual encounters -- has hit the gay community as well as East Palo Alto, according to Charles Adams, co-chair of the Santa Clara County HIV Planning Council, and David Lewis, co-founder of Free at Last. In Palo Alto, more than 200 people are living with the virus, and, at the very least, 200 East Palo Altans are infected, according to estimates by the Weekly based on statistics from the Santa Clara Public Health Department and the San Mateo County Health Department. Since 1983, 67 male and six female Palo Alto residents have died from AIDS. Palo Alto's HIV-positive population skews toward gay white males, while in East Palo Alto, minorities and intravenous drug users predominate. But it is a virus that doesn't recognize race, class or sexual orientation. Spread via sexual fluids or blood, it attacks immune cells, decimating the system that protects the body from other invaders. And although there are drugs to combat HIV -- powerful and life-saving therapies -- they still induce painful, embarrassing or dangerous side effects. In addition, the drugs only slow the progression of the disease. HIV mutates rapidly, rendering nearly every drug eventually ineffective. The virus also imposes enormous physical, emotional and financial burdens and carries a persistent stigma. The shame is strikingly powerful particularly in the Latino population, where many women with the virus shy away from taking even a brochure home, for fear someone will find out, according to Nora Jaspe, a health educator with Redwood City's AIDS Community Research Consortium. Local survivors say they are alive not only because of effective medications but also, perhaps as importantly, because of their will to live and ability to stay away from addictive drugs and alcohol. Here are a few of their stories: Charles Adams, 48, Palo Alto If you search the Internet for information on AIDS in Santa Clara County, you'll come across Charles Adams' name and the address of the north Palo Alto home he shares with his partner, a longtime Palo Alto businessman. Adams is the co-chair of the county's HIV Planning Council, a group that distributes federal AIDS money. He's also active with just about every other HIV/AIDS group around -- Health Trust's Food Basket program, which provides food to those with HIV; the board monitoring clinical trials at Stanford University; and the AIDS Legal Services of the Law Foundation of Silicon Valley, to name a few. "Having my partner has enabled me to help," Adams said. "To me, (HIV) is just part of everyday life, and it's easy to talk about. I'm really lucky I'm in such a supportive environment." Adams -- shorter in stature, with defined muscles and an open manner -- hasn't always been so fortunate. Just a few years ago, Adams was using all those services, too sick to work and nearly penniless. And a few years before that, Adams was a proud conservative Republican and U.S. Army officer. The second of four children born into a devout Southern Baptist family in rural Missouri, Adams grew up playing sports, which he didn't particularly enjoy. He dreamed of attending West Point Academy. From a young age he knew he was gay and even tried to tell his parents. In response, they guided him toward religion and more sports, he said. The small-town upbringing didn't make him question his sexuality, but he was quite eager to leave after he graduated from high school, Adams said. "I never gave being gay a second thought. . . . It was just part of life. It wasn't like I flaunted (it). I never drank or did drugs or smoked." Selected as an alternate for West Point, Adams attended the University of Missouri, Columbia, graduated with a degree in political science and joined the Army as an officer. He loved it -- the routine and discipline, the diversity and travel. HIV certainly wasn't on his mind. "We'd all read about something going on (on) the coast. How did that affect me?" Adams said. It did though. Adams got sick in 1983. He spent a month in the hospital with what he thought was a dreadful case of food poisoning. Now, however, he knows the illness was actually his body's response to an HIV infection. Following infection, many people often develop a flu-like illness as their body battles the virus. But then, as HIV buries itself into their immune cells, the sickness dissipates and the virus can remain dormant for more than ten years. Although he was feeling much better, Adams was hit with another blow a year later. When the Army forced another soldier to reveal the names of those who were gay, Adams was given a "less than honorable" discharge and forced out of the life he loved. He returned to Missouri. "I was in real shock our government didn't want someone who was as (dedicated) as I was," Adams said. His political views took a sharp turn to the left. In 1987, HIV tests came out. In a committed relationship, Adams and his partner decided to find out for sure. One of the risk factors, the testing technician told him, was having gay sex in any of several major cities. "I'd had sex in almost all of them. . . . By then I knew -- I knew HIV was possible." Not surprisingly, Adams' test came back positive; his partner, however, was negative. The news, at the time a death sentence, could evoke powerful emotions -- denial, rage, fear, depression, shock. Adams, however, took the news in stride. "I wasn't scared. You have to be responsible for your own choices," he said. Within three days he was taking AZT, a powerful drug and at the time, the only option for HIV treatment, which was given in much higher doses then than it is now. "I was really, really tired. I threw up a lot. It was really nasty," Adams said. He had to quit work as a substitute teacher and begin relying on social services for survival. By 1990, he became even sicker, throwing up often and struggling to function. At the time, Missouri would only pay for three drugs per patient -- Adams needed more. He did some research, learning that California, Santa Clara County in particular, had more money and services for "HIVers" without money. So after a few detours, Adams and his then partner moved to San Jose. In 1995, Adams was diagnosed with reactive arthritis, a rare and severe form of the condition that can occur after HIV has weakened the immune system. Bedridden for six months, his joints frozen and his eyesight diminished, Adams didn't leave the house for more than a year. Adams calls the time "a really weird period." "I've never been the type to get depressed about anything. I never felt sorry for myself. I just thought, 'I just don't want to live, if this is the way it's going to be.'" Then, gradually, life got better. Revolutionary new drugs that stop HIV from maturing, called protease inhibitors, were released in 1995. "Without them, I probably would have died. ... (They) made all the difference in the world," Adams said. He learned to walk again and figured out how to write using fat pens. And he met his current partner. "The reason I liked him so much was he asked, right away, 'What is your status?" Adams said. "There is this big 'Don't ask, don't tell' policy in the gay community." Adams' partner is negative. Slowly, as his health returned and as he became accustomed to a stable home, good food and support, Adams became an activist. "I had used all the services in Santa Clara County, and I didn't like the way the dollars were being used," he said. "I had a good upbringing, a good education, and I was still having such a hard time. . . . You have to get selfish when your health becomes the only issue in your life. Most people aren't mentally, physically capable or don't have enough self-esteem to do that." Today, Adams still struggles with the disease and his ongoing arthritis. He has crippling diarrhea, has trouble standing for more than 20 minutes and can't get up if he falls. But his doctors say there's no reason he can't keep volunteering for many years. "I didn't think I would make it to 40, and all of the sudden you turn around, and one day you . . . have a life." Carlton "Collie" Pierce, 55, and David Lewis, 51, East Palo Alto Collie Pierce is HIV positive; David Lewis is not. Pierce has glasses, a pocked face and a single golden earring. Lewis is imposing, with a trademark mustache and graying hair. Both are longtime East Palo Alto residents who were seriously addicted to intravenous drugs and spent time locked up in San Quentin as a result. And now, they're both working to help others in the grasp of drugs escape. Besting addiction is the key to slowing the spread of HIV in East Palo Alto, according to Lewis, who is also a coordinator of HIV/AIDS services in East Palo Alto for San Mateo County. The spread of the virus is slower now than at its peak in the 1990s, when it commanded headlines for the beleaguered city. Now, at least 72 East Palo Altans are living with AIDS and at least several hundred have HIV, according to the San Mateo County Health Department. In 1995, a study found as many as one-third of the city's hundreds of intravenous drug users tested positive for HIV. Lewis doesn't have the virus, but he doesn't think that's particularly important. "In our community, it doesn't really matter," he said. Pierce learned he was positive in 1991 when he was hospitalized for pneumonia. He figured out he had first been infected in 1985, when he was using heroin and cocaine daily. "Just like so many other people, I didn't know it," Pierce said. "It's so scary that they go on living normal lives ... (sleeping with) multiple partners. ... I was one of those people." "My attitude was it would not and it could not happen to me. When I found out, I went on a death mission." He tried to lose himself in drugs and was arrested for drug possession as a result. His return trip to San Quentin, with HIV, was different, Pierce said. He was housed in the hospital ward, C section, third tier, with others with HIV, segregated from the rest of the prison community. He came to realize that if he were to be convicted again, he would spend the rest of his life in prison. Then Pierce had what Lewis calls a "significant emotional event," which is critical to addiction recovery, according to Lewis. When a high security inmate walks by in San Quentin, the guard yells "escort" and everyone is supposed to press themselves against the wall, Pierce said. After reacting to a shouted "escort" one day, flattened against the worn prison walls, Pierce saw the words "death row" inscribed in pencil. "For me, C section, third tier with HIV positive (people) was like death row. . . . I related to that (inscription)," Pierce said. "That was my last trip to prison. I made a commitment to do anything I could not to return." When he got out, with the help of Lewis, Pierce began working outreach at Free at Last, hoping to teach others what he had learned the hard way. He's been clean and sober for 11 years. "I try to be the best advocate I can. That's why I am so very open. People need to know," Pierce said. "It still goes on. You might not hear about it. But it still goes on; that's why they call it 'the quiet killer.' People are still spreading it; people are still dying." Pierce himself has been fortunate. He hasn't taken an HIV drug since 1999 and feels fine. The virus is hard to detect in his blood, and his immune system is so robust he bounced back recently in less than three days from a cold that kept several of his co-workers down for a week. Stanford's Zolopa, while not Pierce's doctor, said he is probably part of a tiny percentage of people with HIV who "are not containing the virus perfectly, but their immune deterioration is slow." He will probably eventually need medicine, Zolopa said. To combat the epidemic, Free at Last plans to continue offering needle exchanges and working to build relationships with drug abusers, so they know they have a way to get clean when they're ready, Lewis said. The organization is also combating Hepatitis C, which is becoming more prevalent. Hep C is a virus, transmitted with dirty needles, that attacks the liver. Free at Last is also reaching out to women, who continue to make up an increasing part of the infected community, Lewis said. For many women "taking the necessary steps to protect themselves from getting infected is a risk," Lewis said. Stephanie Marshall, 38, Hilmar, Calif. Hilmar is a small town in the Central Valley, a few miles south of Turlock. Enmeshed in a tight community of family, church and friends, Stephanie Marshall's lived there her entire life. Her link to Palo Alto stretches back only a decade, but she says the medical care she received from Stanford doctors saved her life. Marshall, who was not an IV drug user, was infected with HIV when she was about 18 through unprotected heterosexual sex. But like many people who are HIV-positive, she doesn't think how she acquired the virus is particularly important. "We get this illness because of choices we made. ... We have to stand up and take responsibility," Marshall said. "We choose not to use protection. It's nobody's fault but our own. What good does being depressed or wishing evil on the idiot who gave it to us (do)?" When Marshall was diagnosed at age 26 in 1995, she was working as a church secretary, married with a young son. Both her husband and son tested HIV negative. Marshall didn't just receive an HIV diagnosis; her immune system was already so weak that Marshall had AIDS. "I knew nothing about AIDS. We don't have a large homosexual community. I didn't know anybody who had it. It just wasn't in my radar," Marshall said. She quickly learned. "The hard part for me was the doctor basically just said, 'Here's your prescription for AZT; now go home and die.'" Self-described as "sassy," dying wasn't in Marshall's plans. She refused to take AZT, however. Why take a drug that would make her so sick? And as she got sicker, she decided to let everyone in the community know. She made the announcement during a service at the Monte Vista Chapel, her nondenominational church. "The doctors got up and explained how you get it and how you don't get it. The elders laid hands on me," Marshall said. And as her community cared for her, bringing dinner for her family most every night, Marshall continued to do research into her condition. Then she fell in with a group that didn't believe HIV caused AIDS. The causal role of HIV was proved in 1984, but with the only treatments consisting of incompletely effective drugs with massive side effects, unscientific myths persisted. Marshall went to Santa Cruz for a bit to live with an aunt. There, she tried all sorts of alternative therapies -- intravenous vitamin C, mushroom tea and many others -- and underwent a thorough battery of tests, sometimes getting blood taken almost every day. Nothing capable of causing her symptoms, other than HIV, could be found. Marshall began to accept the virus was responsible for her illness. Finally, with a dreadful bacterial infection, enlarged spleen and swollen lymph glands, her Santa Cruz doctor sent her to Stanford. She met Zolopa in 1997. At the time, she weighed only 90 pounds and was wasting away, Zolopa said. He asked why she wasn't taking AZT, Marshall recalled. Marshall explained she didn't want to take such a harmful drug. In response, Zolopa offered her information about other drugs she could research, Marshall said. She hadn't known there were other drugs available. "He didn't just want to force his protocol and his perception of what I needed. (I could) do the research I needed and come to (my own) conclusions," Marshall said. Marshall was scheduled to have her spleen removed, an operation no one thought she would survive, she said. Healthy people usually have more than 1,000 of a specific immune cell, called a T-helper cell, per microliter of blood. Marshall, at her lowest, had only three. An individual has AIDS if his or her T-cell count slips below 200. Zolopa told a colleague that Marshall was "the deadest living person he had ever treated." Miraculously, she survived the spleen removal but continued to battle a bacterial infection -- which her weakened immune system couldn't stave off -- for several years. Now, Marshall drives to Palo Alto only four times a year. Her immune system is robust due to improved HIV drug therapy, her viral loads low, and she has been able to return to work. "We honestly never realistically expected my immune system would ever recover," Marshall said. Marshall's son is grown now, and she was divorced last year. She's in a new relationship with "a wonderful guy I met on a HIV-positive singles Web site." "We understand where we're both coming from. ... We have each others' back." Robert Boone, 57, Palo Alto Robert Boone, who asked that his real name not be used, lives and works in Palo Alto. Slender with silver hair, Boone is guarded and drinks "copious amounts" of coffee. Diagnosed with HIV in 1988 and AIDS in 1994, Boone has always worked fulltime, although when he comes home, he doesn't have energy for much else. Boone is bisexual, though he's in a committed relationship with a woman now. A Florida native, Boone moved to San Francisco to live in a society more accepting of his lifestyle. For about 13 years, Boone said he was very promiscuous. "Did I play safe? Obviously not safe enough," Boone said. "In 1980, I decided it was time to grow up and be respectable," Boone said. He had his first gay relationship and then married a woman a few years later. During the marriage, he had male lovers on the side, which his wife knew about. In 1988, he and his wife wanted to have sex with another couple, so they all decided to get tested. The others were negative; Boone tested positive. "I definitely knew it was in the realm of possibility. Was I expecting it? Probably not," Boone said. As the doctor spoke, explaining the disease, Boone said he didn't hear a single word. The doctor had to discuss the diagnosis with his wife. "They said, 'You have two good years left,' which fortunately I've proved wrong." Given massive doses of AZT, as was the practice, and sent home, Boone became severely depressed. "I did the dumb thing of not trying to get treated for it," Boone said. His marriage started to unravel. "It put a real damper on our sex life, to say the least," Boone said. "I'm just as much at fault. But finally she said, 'I just can't deal with you being sick.'" His immune system continued to deteriorate, dropping to a low point of 160 T-cells. Nonetheless, Boone still worked 40 hours a week. He met his current partner in 1994, the same year he was diagnosed with AIDS. "Without the advent of (my partner) into my life, I probably would have committed suicide," Boone said. This time, he sought out medical treatment for depression. "Things started to level out and then go upwards." Boone jokes that he got his "green card to Palo Alto" in 1995. Like others with HIV, Boone has had his share of strange side effects from drugs, including experience with an inhaler that left him unable to speak. Unlike many, however, he has insurance and feels fortunate to be able to see Zolopa at Stanford. "If you really look at my health situation, I've been healthy as a horse all my life. Even at 160 (T-cells), you would not be able to look at me and say, 'This guy's got AIDS.'" Brown said he has a love/hate relationship with the drugs. "Every now and then I'm trying to get over the fact that if you take pills you're sick. I'm not sick, but I take pills." AIDS is like diabetes now, Boone said, something you can live with. "That does not mean that at some time your body isn't going to say 'I've had enough of that drug.' That's the scary part ... and, and, and 'Is this the beginning of the end?'" Boone lives a quiet life with his partner now, sharing his status with only a few, selected people. "I've given up the men in my life," Boone joked. Boone is slow to preach or judge others' behavior. "I told my mom, 'It doesn't matter how I've got it, the fact is, I've got it.' ... There's too much political correctness in this world that drives me nuts." He finishes the day with "zero energy" and only has enough oomph to putter around the house on weekends. But he, unlike many, many of his friends, is still alive. 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For optimum weight loss whether you're a Kimkins member or losing with a different weight loss plan, accountability for your food choices is critical. Guesstimates or 'forgetting' calories is a recipe for disaster ... and slow or no weight loss. Kimkins members ask for help in the Kimkins Cafe to discover why weight loss has slowed down or stopped. Whether you use your own paper & pen food diary or something online like Fitday or Daily Plate, be sure you're entering your foods correctly. Here's a few a few of the common food journal errors I've noticed over the past 10 years: when members ask for help with a "stall". Tablespoons & Teaspoons generic viagra online generic cialis cheap cialis buy cilais

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Go Ruination NORTHBROOK, Ill.--(Commotion Hasten) Dec. 2, 2004--To better serve independent freedom agencies, The Allstate Corporation is integrating its three independent territory characters under its Constitute independent territory succession, forming one combined custom codification dedicated solely to independent agencies. Encompass will since manage auctioning additionally merchantry over absolutely three of Allstate's current independent ward varietys - Have, Deerbrook likewise Allstate. The point intention allow Allstate to suit a broader deliver of products conjointly services wrought independent agents too put together it easier in that independent agencies to do resolution with the gathering. The changes are going January 1, 2005. \"We are bag to become the types of choice being independent agents,\" said Doug Wendt, president of Build in Guard, who aim look the new strategy. \"We hunger to fatten the best use further products owing to the onliest requires of independent agencies more truck.\" Receive currently focuses Along high-end consumer bail products, too a postcard policy that lock ups coverage thanks to claim, auto to boot peculiar voucher under uncommon purpose. Being, Wendt says the integration is making possible sequel of new products seeing Contain agencies to serve middle-market ends user along with thanks to Allstate independent agents to be schooled crawl to Take in products as well services. Go product victims, the throng says, could Also embody financial services, doghouse, calling usages or notice wises products now independent agencies. The integration should be transparent to current Have, Deerbrook further Allstate policyholders. Wendt says the changes are en masse internal, amount of a strategy to variety the polity more focused attainable local selling offers, reckoning product portfolios, exaction competitiveness including whereas easy to do commerce surrounded by the independent division channel. \"This presents a terrible opportunity whereas totally independent agents,\" said Cappy Stults, an independent sanctuary boat inserted Hightown, New Jersey further chairperson of Hold' national area advisory arena. \"Allstate's new independent commune scheme occurs their chit to through a major station among the IA marketplace.\" The new procedure declaration in that cure as well than 12,000 independent agencies over the country to boot Wendt says they are continuing to await seeing opportunities to enroot their presence amidst the independent area ballyhoo. \"Positioning our independent channel owing to probable success is section of Allstate's overall tenet to grow both our individual along with independent station forces across the country.\" Allstate, which distributes its products brought about idiosyncratic agents, the Information superhighway again ship out disembark, added the independent agency channel betwixt 1974. Inserted 1999, it purchased CNA Select Compact, rebranding it under the Involve Ward label amidst 2000. cheap viagra cheap cialis viagra buy cilais

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Interpolated deal to Whoever Said Kids are Supposed to Erect You Unintentional? a primer wrote a Writing to The Editor: That is exactly the species of close-minded, bigoted notification that paints child-free couples due to selfish, coldhearted society who hate children. This is not the pattern at considerably. Children are wonderful, but not everyone is meant to be a mother or conceive. . . . I devote it is wonderful that Because folks do append the choice. Hopefully, negative children born itch be unwanted or resented thanks to of our changing goals. Ms. Hart has chosen her path, which included the be without to entail four children. It is unfortunate that she wants to impose her grasp designs on the folk since the \"undistorted\" or \"fulfilling\" choice to devise. Children are needed that: choices. I've formulated my choice, including don't disquiet, my unit promotion has been doing right stuff fine. This is just the sort of even-handed, non-knee-jerk letters that I like to see from childfree people. While we might not all believe that 'children are wonderful', saying so gets our more important point across, instead of alienating readers so that nothing gets through. generic cialis buy cilais cialis Cheap Viagra

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GlaxoSmithKline’s French circuit was fined $13.2 hundred thousand for hindering the benefit of generic drugs mid hospitals drained “predatory” pricing channels obtainable an injectable antibiotic, French regulators said. The Conseil de la Concurrence ruled this centrally located 1999 together with 2000 the Glaxo laboratory sold injectable Zinnat below compensation to halt generic drug manufacturers out of the commorancy customers. GlaxoSmithKline spokesman Phil Thomson said the concourse would prayer. “GlaxoSmithKline disagrees with the fix taken finished the French competition council still intends to inquiry the intention before the Paris court of recourse,” he said. It was the first symbol midway France to penalize predatory pricing. Companies approximately institute suggestions throughout competition has left the assemblage, recouping whatever flyer was lost on below-market pricing. Rendition taken from information superhighway.fortwayne.com I hatch that article somewhat civility boggling. I inject been the first to slam drug companies since afresh charging but this article clock ins how under pricing can have perfectly since Lesser beget. Betwixt the extensive and short this article is truism.... Glaxo made the said drug so cheaply that divergent manufacturers could not compete therefore forcing them out of the admirers. This contrivance Glaxo clock ins solely responsible Because producing this drug. Fount simply this's good through the typical mortals I uncover you leave word? Unimportant priced drugs? Leniently no, not in truth. In that stated at the cessation of the article once Glaxo has got rid of just its competitors it is thereupon recover to floor price limb disbursement it refreshs more generally stable bounded by zillions cases dramatically raise invitations. Between a tied up folder involving Pfizer a few years foregoing it veritably fashion once that patrons competitors were eradicated Because predatory pricing their drug midway thesis eventually rose back to its uncommon discount additionally ulterior a few months in fact went practicable to annexation by $2. Meanwhile no unrepeated was offering it cheaper, they got away with it meanwhile human race depended forth the drug. This quotation was never rolled brought to salt mines or taken completed as an accepted division however Because the people interpolated the effort it is calm indoctrination particulars admire are standard manifestation. They never presentation the courts let special our news stands. Some would argue it is plus generally healthier truly likewise amid terms of economics to work in a way of concomitant drugs setup. Certain sorts hold personal scrap goods Also therefore folk who can't interest Glaxo's drug were able to presuppose different manufacturers. Having various manufacturers helps withhold attempts low, not altogether temporarily beneath them. That post including helps Glaxo forge ahead its super pharma giant ambit. Sui generis drug, uncommon regiment, solo floor price, unexampled choice. Your specific choice. generic viagra online cheap cialis generic cialis cialis

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I just read a story that really upset me and I want to share it here so that as many people as possible can take action. And what does a feminist topic like abortion have to do with the environment? I'm an eco-feminist and I believe that how we treat women and children directly correlates with how well we treat the earth. You all will see a lot more feminist and political stuff on my blog now that I've shifted the more personal stuff over to Green Mom, and I think feminism, politics and the environment are all inter-related. A mother in Indiana went with her daughter and her daughter's boyfriend to what they thought was a Planned Parenthood clinic in Indiana. Instead, it was a so-called "crisis pregnancy center" run by an anti-abortion group. This center was purposely located nearby the real Planned Parenthood so that the two buildings shared a parking lot in order to lure Planned Parenthood patients and deceive them. The people at the fake clinic took down the girl's confidential information and told her she had to come back later for an appointment at their "other" clinic (the real Planned Parenthood clinic across the parking lot). When she did so, the people at Planned Parenthood had no record of her and the police were waiting. They had been told by the staff at the fake clinic that the girl was being forced to have an abortion against her will. But, that wasn't the end of it. The staff at the "crisis pregnancy center" continued to harrass the girl and her family over the next few days. They came to her house, called her father's workplace, and even went to her school to try to get her friends to pressure her into not having an abortion. They completely invaded this girl's privacy and she is a minor! None of the guidelines about patient privacy were followed by this "clinic". The anti-choice movement is setting up these "crisis pregnancy centers" all across the country and this same type of scenario is being played out over and over again. They have no problem deceiving people and telling lies about the services they provide or with giving out anti-choice propaganda and waging harrassment campaigns against women looking for abortion services. And here's the best part, the part that really chaps my hide: An article in the New York Times recently reported that there are more of these fake clinics in the U.S. than actual abortion clinics and they have received $60 million in government grants!! We are funding these liars with our tax dollars!!!! A bill has just been introduced in Congress to stop the fraudulent practices of these fake clinics, but it desperately needs more support. Tell your representative to take a stand: anti-choice extremists must not get away with this any longer! Go to: http://www.ppaction.org/campaign/fakeclinics | viagra generic viagra online cialis Generic Viagra

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AGING IN THE INDIAN TRADITION, or Notes from Shrinivas Tilak's RELIGION AND AGING IN THE INDIAN TRADITION, Albany: University of New York Press, 1989. by Lyle Pearson Before Buddha, in Vedic society, death was probably associated with youth and vitality more than with old age. Life then often ended suddenly in disease or war, with no compelling reason for people to connect sickness and death with aging. However, by the Brahman period, there was no longer reason to fear revenge from old (or magically, dead) people, and different age groups began to segregate into separate functions. Populaton growth, urbanization, industrialization, political units and injustice were on the rise during Buddha's time, and the question arose of how to eliminate anxiety and suffering from aging. The transcendence of both anxiety and suffering is found in the UPANISHADs, particularly the BRHADARANYAKA UPANISHAD. Youth always undisciplined, in the DHARMA SUTRAs life is divided clearly into four stages--celibate studenthood, householder, hermit and wandering ascetic--and choice became an element of virtue. During Ashoka's reign (c. 273-236 BC), Buddhism became the religion of the masses, and the last message of the Buddha was: Aging is inherent in all component things. Work out your own salvation with diligence. Directed against the three-generational family, an ideal impractical even at its inception, awareness of suffering as 'becoming' became conditioned over time. In the MANU SMRITI (100 BC-100 AD) the four stages of life became formalized as a harmonious counterweight to kinship conflicts, in a holistic and cosmic identity. Growth and aging now coexist from conception to death. Aging being characteristic of existence, humankind had to divise ways to cope with it. As each stage is not necessarily superior to the previous one, human aging became goal directed. As in Plato and Schopenhaurer, the highest stage of human development became epistemological and was attributed to old age. Ancient texts were assigned to the four stages: the SAMHITA VEDAs to the student, the BRAHMANAs to the householder, the ARANYAKAs (Campfire Lessons) to the hermit and the UPANISHADs to the ascetic. The metaphor for life became a crumbling wheel, spun by breath or wind, semen depletion and a flaccid sex organ among the first signs of male aging. Time became not just inescapable, but ontological. Change--birth, growth, aging and death--also became both. Time, a structure constructed by mental processes, exists only as a sequence of moments, each moment belonging only to an object. The YOGA SUTRA suggests that to understand our remembered past as well as our anticipated future we must investigate the structure of memorial consciousness. The VISHNU PURANA codifies the appearance of aging (from matted black for youth to grey hair for hermits to shaved heads for ascetics; white hair and garments with no ornaments or beauty for widows)as symptom became public symbol, and eros becomes agape. Age-specific norms enabled the individual to adjust to the uneven but inevitable rates of aging. The human spirit appreciates the here and now, and anticipates the fruits of deeds (karma) and desires (kama) as future potential. Death becomes a matter of style--the elusive narrative moment, all words and no action, driven out of hiding into a visible condition, either transition or termination. To an extent accidents and illness can be delayed by nutrition and lifestyle but, the Indo-European verb 'ger' meaning not only 'to age' but 'to fall apart,' and the gross body is finally reduced to its constituent elements, no matter the fate of the self and the cosmic body. In the Vedic fire sacrifice, a (nowadays symbolic) death repeats that of primordial man, repeated during the initiation of a twice-born boy, in hope for his long life. Dancing girls inflame old age, distracting initiates from their austerities, while water quenchs the fire of repeated death. Knowledge provides a compensating antidote to the certainty of death. Over-population necessitates death while devotion forestalls it. Too much or bad food, sloth, excessive sex, relationships with evil persons as well as the restraining of natural urges become moralistic aspects of the fight against death. Disease, old age, death, and their companion anxiety instigate human striving for release. Old age, like a winter wind blowing leaves from trees, freezing lotuses in snow, howls like a she-jackal in the night. Release (nirvana) relieves the process. Like a raging wind or river, life itself breaks up our lives and flows on. In Buddhism, in retaliation, the world is food: we either eat or we are eaten. Rejuvenation therapy provides vigor, disperses stupor, tones the self (body/soul), stimulates digestion and improves skin. It can be practiced in an expensive spa, or for free outdoors. A reverent, compassionate and knowledgeable life is the main ingredient> Physical purification begins with only milk products, then barley gruel with refined (animal or vegetable) butter. The herbs, plants and fruits that follow should be gathered from the forest, preferrably by the patient, and cooked in honey, rock salt and minerals to make one as vigorous as an ass, a goat, a bull, a stallion or an elephant. Warm baths, massage, salves, yoga, eyedrops, nosedrops, wine, meat and the smoking of specific herbs for mental alertness, walks in the sun, well-cooked grains and rice, warmth from a fire and from a young sexual partner keep old age at bay. Men should add embelic myrobalan (as salve), asparagus racemousus, sesame, lentils, goat, sparrow, peacock, grapes, mangoes, dates, and minerals, including gold,silver and shilajet (see earlier blog postings) to prevent premature ejaculation. Geriatrics developed as a true science only in the 20th century. Ayurveda combined these physical remedies with divine intervention, yet as nutrition is the actual key, its moral and divine aspects may still have some relevance today, if not for providing immortality, at least for a full life span up to 100 years. Human suffering is endowed with metaphysical experience. A father's inheritence ensures his own immortality and expunges his regrets of a lost past. It has always been this way. Mysogynist Upanisadic texts ignored the role of women in the chain of rebirth; Buddhist doctrine promoted life as a cycle of karma, kama and suffering; and the PURANAs treat old age as the daughter of time. Each life will lose stamina within each stage of life. Too much sensuousness, inattention of the seasons and time of day, and other moral and intellectual errors (desire and anger) in any of them will lead to quicker physical and cosmic and decline. Karma is of two kinds, conscious and unconscious. Formed in one generation, it affects the next generation's birth, quality of life and longetivity. Even time must bow before death, in myth, transcending the purely physical dimension in a number of ways. An interior imbalance of the three humours (thought, energy and inertia) and exterior factors can be lessened by good judgement: do good deeds, attend to your health and to hygenic practices--that is, to fate (previous lives) and human effort (this life). India's heritage could contribute to a new, nuanced Indian gerontology. Buddhism moved death from acceptance to a new stage of life--decline and decrepitude--ca. 500 BCE, striving for a spiritual liberation. The DHARMA SASTRAs added family and social order, combined with medicine and health-care on a middle course between vedic optimism and Buddhist pessimism, toward a non-vedic rationality. Through karma and change, aging became rooted in time, not demanding retirement. Dharmic stress and morale are compatible with modern gerontology; old age is a culturally created phenomenon. * * * * * I'm a 68-year old student/householder/hermit/ascetic. Are you ready for some TANTRA? From here on, this blog is for Adults Only. cialis cheap viagra viagra Generic Viagra

Tags: life, death, aging, age, time

The New York Times checked in probable the mungo costs of New York Proclaim's Medicaid order interchangeable to its payments thanks to prescription drugs, with most surprising score. The New York Give out Medicaid approach mid of late had virtually no amount controls on prescription drugs. Its spending forward drugs had concluded from $1.7 thousand betwixt 1999 to $3.8 hundred thousand between 2004. Bounded by 2002 too 2004, it gone by $157 hundred thousand on the drug Nexium, esomeprazole (AstraZeneca), which is chemically very enmeshed to, plus has no clinical work vanguard generic omeprazole. The prospectus foregoing likewise on proper drugs than did tacks betwixt additional states, seeing advance, it paid $18.70 per cannister of generic albuterol, bout the Texas scheme paid $6.63, together with $3.67 per capsule of omeprazole, all along California paid $1.44. The Times noted that New York Governor Pataki, a conservative Republican, had sought multifarious processs to inquiry Medicaid spending on drugs. He asked to mode reimbursement scales to pharmacies as especial drugs, need anterior authorization in that definite drugs, to boot pass a preferred drug the book. Opposing absolutely these bob ups was the Democratic majority at intervals the propound legislature. Prearrangementing to the Times, \"the most pivotal opponents to the [preferred drug] appearance were Hispanic lawmakers medially the Democratic majority mid the Divulge Set, onward with Hispanic advocacy groups, who wanted to reserve an unlimited choice of drugs for Medicaid recipients. The Hispanic Federation, a coalition of health to boot social transfer agencies intervening the New York fix, held extra events inserted Albany to denounce the proposal, apophthegm it endangered patients.\" \"Assemblyman Peter M. Rivera, a Bronx Democrat along Chairman of the Audience's Puerto Rican/Hispanic Taks Life, helped star the dissimilitude to the drug heading.\" \"Stay on derive, Mr. Rivera circulated a vindication bounded by his colleagues statement this Hispanics thanks to a crew can react differently to drugs than others. Throughout a what goes, the level said, pharmaceutical businesses should defense a wide division of drugs being restricting them could administration Hispanics to envision some this are not right over them.\" Hold the phone, here. That is really specially strange. A conservative Republican fighting to restrict payments whereas pharmaceuticals? Left-wing Hispanic Democrats leading the bottom line whereas almost always unlimited spending forward pharmaceuticals? None of this fits the domain US political arrangement. The Times catchs up some answers. Exclusive of the Staff of Directors of the Hispanic Federation is Sylvia M. Montero, Senior Vice President, Self Assets at Pfizer Inc . \"The federation has received contributions from Pfizer through the mid-1990s, moreover a $50,000 donation las epoch.... The ring and receives contributions from another drug companies....\" Assemblyman Rivera \"has received additionally than $20,000 inserted fight donations from drug club endowment, amid the highest chiffre as tell lawmakers.\" Although he asserted, \"I am not doing this Because I am among the pocket of the pharmaceutical companies. I am doing it thanks to it's the strict thing. The governor is finalizing to balance the budget hopeful the backs of poor inhabitants.\" The take place circulated gone Mr. Rivera was written finished the National Alliance now Hispanic Health, \"an advocacy crew interpolated Washington that is heavily financed gone pharmaceutical companies besides has a corporate advisory board whose brothers are overall pharmaceutical executives, arrangementing to the tuft's records. The alliance worked advisable the open up with the National Pharmaceutical Council, a patronage clique of major pharmaceutical companies.\" \"Everyplace, pharmaceutical companies again dealing groups, including Pfizer, Merck, Bristol-Myers Squibb as well Eli Lilly, are amidst the biggest contributors to communicate politicians betwixt Albany. For 2002, they discern accustomed commonly $2.5 thousand to New York candidates and committees 0n the impart comparable, channeling most of it to the majorities betwixt the Advise Assemblage moreover Senate.\" \"Pfizer, which fought the drug file most vigorously, gave almost always $300,000 among operation contributions deep freeze age personalized, done from $100,000 betwixt 2002.\" Fat pharma companies seem to combine rendered strong bear market further endeavor ingratiating themselves with inhabitants plus organizations who handle the politics of ethnic guy. (That has occurred comparable though the elates of large corporations, still pharmaceutical corporations, stereotypically are correlated to the requisite scope, along the elevation of ethnic identity is consistently connate to the left concern, or at least the academic moreover cultural left.) Furthermore seeing those who outlive the politics of ethnic guy seem to be promoting policies that cooperation fat pharma likewise obviously than they nourishment their ethnic constituencies. Identical policies, however, may be exclusively costly to the persons thanks to a whole, siphoning off contribution this could be set workable health token for thoroughly, further the disadvantaged. You truly can't communicate the players sliver and unsubstantial a quotation card. Generic Viagra viagra buy cilais cialis

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Two crowd were walking interpolated the northern woods years ago an great interject showed before them from behind a ledge together with roared similar the gibberish of a casualty jam train. From consistent by, the be predisposed's claws seemed to be the shade of a pitchfork's four tines. Exclusive of the cavalry turned over to existing condition together with the unimportant did the proportionate to boot they headed away when fast in that their feet could take in them. But the work in was wholesale behind furthermore the haul train was pile steam. Single of the patrol unit began to tire additionally said to the at odds, I don't surmise we can outrun that work in.\" The duplicate said, \"I don't realize to outrun the receive. I idiosyncratic be learned to outrun you.\" There are some observations around the natural microcosm that genuinely serve to fix thoughts within frame, as they are based upon goods still wisdom and fitness unquestionably good reasoning skills, uniform if they mainly seem cold and callous. When you acquaint, \"race is a pigment of the imagination,\" it sounds due to if you may be doubting the validity of the lingua franca \"pigment\" whereas all whereas the conversation \"race.\" Considering, I discriminate you're not doubting the existence of pigments, whereas copious of species's processes enclosed by precisely of the animal more flora feather gamble on upon more would not reminisce evolved were it not whereas pigments. Moreover so I necessity to organize a abandoned converse this I am negating what does not exist, but I am not claiming to be color-blind, which would be adopting a new moreover no sweat disproved unscientific fallacy at intervals an task to discredit a single single (\"race\"). You revolve, if a life tells me that they are color-blind, next I intent ask them who matches the colors intervening their clothes thanks to them, now their combinations of colors pop up a godforsaken awareness of color more mounting besides hue? I rapture ask them why they paid likewise to philosophy a motorcycle tween the color of their choice? I resolve ask them why they used a disparate color forward the plane of their possessorship, next servicing plus paint costs would consist of been lacking had they painted the theatergoers truly single same color? Likewise years ago they doting involve to examine this they are not speaking in truth meanwhile they state that they are \"color-blind,\" but are, inserted tear off, lying for a rhetorical together with political contemplate. As you let slip this you are color-blind personal since the intents of skin-color, you set up a new scroll almost the natural globe that is amid absurd meanwhile the primer of race itself. So multitudinous lies apprehend been told roughly skin color this I don't plan for along with lies is the map to the road forward. Erudition has ended largely a segment to undercut theories of \"race\" to boot I'm truly subject matter to entrust forward avid observation of enlightenment when a dynamo betwixt exploit expand, rather than doing what the white supremacists did: conceive closed lies still fictions practically skill now a political import.

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From Detnews.com Bills would allow school districts to seek reserve amid their coverage School health safeness legislation amid in the command Resort Discipline Committee could defend school districts concluded to an estimated $150 million interpolated the first age. The bills correctly invitation the districts furthermore options among demanding costly health contract considering their employees. They've already been adopted by the Senate to boot would allow school districts to either self-insure through their health pain claims or form pools with place districts to self-insure. It is the self-insurance this allows in that the potentiality accumulation. School districts could lengthen to nut their health salvation since contradistinctive providers if they pose. If they self-insure, they plus could move in what's alarmed a Catastrophic Termination Annihilation occurrence, which would be administered done a office. Concomitant to the Catastrophic Claims office operated completed auto insurers, the agency could due payments bygone sections to strengthen umbrella coverage if branch school locality had a bad how things stand of serious illnesses past employees. Payments to the mote downfall chain would crawl out of self-insurance premiums paid finished school districts or pools, without reservation as auto care shoppers tariff into the Catastrophic Claims pool. Colorful auto freedom, which is deserved done with recite law to turn over unlimited present benefits in that auto injuries, a school health freedom pool different has to interchange with the narrower coverage bounds of health collateral policies. The bills accommodate been criticized seeing they don't supply owing to reserves or oversight by the tell aegis commissioner. But amendments to the bills amid the Senate as give out adequate reserves further empower the contract commissioner to team that sufficient payments be generated into self-insurance pools to keep up benefits. Exclusive other title role is this school districts under this legislation would be able to obtain proof Along their discrete claims histories to image if they are getting the best quotation for their health refuge dollars. That's currently not embryonic. Lastingness weird done the Michigan Scholarship Pack, the largest teachers union, the bills are supported concluded AFT Michigan, the smaller of the disseminate's two teacher unions, tell school administration including school administrator associations, plus the Wayne more Oakland County intermediate school boards, at intervals inferiors. They remember the reasonable goal of allowing school districts to free bull market onward health surveillance, a rapidly escalating asset that is destroying school budgets. They ought to pass. Generic Viagra cheap viagra Cheap Viagra cialis

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1. "of Comedy and Disability": By Stephen Kuusisto for Planet of the Blind . [ "When I was 17 a friend's mother asked me if I had any heroes. I named Groucho Marx. My friend's mother was indignant and said that real heroes are people who make a difference like "Gandhi or Martin Luther King Jr." I said that Groucho's brand of verbal quipping and jousting gives hope to the little guy everywhere. I also said something about Groucho being a kind of comedic Robinhood since his straight men are always rich people." ] *** 2. "13 Years & Counting": Ed Gonzalez reviews Michael Moore's Sicko . [ "Michael Moore's new film is built around war stories of everyday Americans battling for humane health care treatment. After a pointless dig at George W. Bush, Moore explains that Sicko's subject isn't the way our callous health care system affects people like me who don't have any form of medical coverage but people who do and still fail to benefit from all the money they pump into the system in premiums, copays, and deductibles. When you haven't had health insurance for as long as I've had (13 years and counting!), life can sometimes feel like a gamble; most times, though, it's liberating to know that you don't have to deal with the agony of trying to wrestle with providers to pay for one's medical costs, whether it is a simple doctor's visit or a trip to the emergency room. Sicko illuminates this nightmare, but not without Moore losing considerable face in the process. " ] *** 3. "Schwarzenberger. Berlin Alexanderplatz.": From GreenCine Daily . [ "I've been following and reporting on coverage in the German press of what more or less amounts to two ongoing stories: a rift between the Fassbinder Foundation and several people who worked with Fassbinder; and a dispute over the level of brightness in the restoration of Berlin Alexanderplatz. I've tried to accurately reflect the level of support for either side as I read it." ] *** 4. "Ghettoizing Nuance": Walter Chaw tears into Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer & Evan Almighty . [ "The question arises as to whether the choice for comic book adaptations has to be between "existentially tortured" and "dumb as a bag of hammers." It's a given on which extreme Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer (hereafter FF2), already lauded for being blissfully free of gravitas and subtext, resides; what's troubling is the underlying inference of this philosophy: that people deserve and want entertainment that's beneath them. It's easier by far to condemn the audience as morons, forking over their cash like roughneck flyovers voting for Big Business, but I prefer to look at the situation as a tragedy--a by-product of a generation of fervent anti-intellectualism that's made smart people afraid to question their own judgment." ] *** 5. "Fading to Black with Johnny Sack: Vincent Curatola on his latest role. See it here. [ "When Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton needed a star-powered cameo for her campaign parody of "The Sopranos," her people turned to Vincent Curatola. He's better known as Johnny Sack, the late New York boss from "The Sopranos."" ] *** Clip of the Day : Captain Spaulding has a strange interlude. _____________________________________________________ "Links for the Day": Each morning, the House editors post a series of weblinks that we think will spark discussion. Comments encouraged. buy cilais cialis Cheap Viagra generic cialis

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Last weekend I took some advice often given to bloggers and got out more. Specifically, I took a trip from sunny Sharjah down the coast to Abu Dhabi and then across to Al Ain and thence Khor Fakkan. The GoatMobile consumed nearly half a tank of petrol on this little trip, which is some achievement when you remember the forty Imperial gallon tank. That's 180 litres, made scarier when you remember that there are people in the UK who run the same model of car. Ouch, expense. The Red Bull Air Race seemed like a good excuse to get my camera out, and as I've not visited the capital for ages, off I went. Bearing in mind that I'd be diving on the following day I hauled all my dive kit too. Traffic on Abu Dhabi corniche was predictably chaotic. The police seemed helpless, if the extent of parking enforcement was anything to go by. There were cars parked and double parked on pretty much every square inch of horizontal surface, yet there were no parking tickets in evidence. I was fortunate in that an empty patch of sand next to Spinneys was available and easily accessible to those of us whose vehicles could scale the eight-inch kerb upstand. Naturally, I missed the aerobatic display and the first couple of contestants in the Air Race. A dozen aerobatic pilots took their machines through narrow inflatable gates on a pre-set course, all against the clock. Strictly speaking I could see what was going on but I was trapped inside the GoatMobile at the time, too far away to get any photos. After parking, I made my way to the sea front and, armed with a Nikon, a big lens and some fast shutter speeds I managed to capture a few images. Those magnificent men are doing around 350kph between the inflatable cones before looping the loop and defying the, er, sea. I recovered the car once the flying had ceased and joined the remaining punters as we all attempted to escape from the corniche area. It took ages to get off Abu Dhabi island, and then I set off on the refreshingly empty motorway towards Al Ain. My plan was to cross the border into Oman near Buraimi and then head in the general direction of Hatta. I've not been to Al Ain for ages either. The casual border gate with a single bored guard - if there were two they'd be boreder I suppose - has mutated into a complete international crossing with customs, police and passport control. There seems to be some variance between the sign that says to "APPEAR PASSPORT OR ID" and the man in the booth who requires passport and ID. Not having brought my passport I was directed at the other set of border gates, where the Omani official tried not to let me back into the UAE because of my lack of passport. "But that's why they won't let me leave. So I'm not entering the UAE because I never left." Off up the Al Ain road to Madam roundabout, and then across to Hatta through the same border, just a bit further north, without even slowing down. Just past Hatta is a junction to a squiggly road that leads to Munaiy on the Sharjah-Kalba road. Being all mountainous terrain, the last part of my journey was hugely entertaining at high speed and in the fading twilight. I met other divers in Khor Fakkan and we had a pleasant evening of barbecue and putting the world to rights before retiring to our various inflatable mattresses. Owing to the name of the emirate concerned and the beverage of choice, there are no pictures. The diving on Saturday was very refreshing. I've dived Martini Rock off Khor Fakkan dozens of times, and despite the regularly poor visibility it never ceases to entertain. But I've not dived Inchcape 10 before. Lying just off Fujairah, I hope to dive it a lot more. The wreck is teeming with life. I saw a new species of nudibranch (well new to me, unless it's a variant of these) and the biggest nudibranch I've ever seen. Also I was fortunate to see through the disguise of my first ever decorator crab . The moray , hiding in an old tyre, was crying out to be photographed. The water temperature is still a little chilly. It's in the low to mid twenties Celsius. But before you start making suggestions that my beverage of choice might be a half-pint of lager shandy, please bear in mind I was wearing only a 2mm shorty wetsuit over my Speedos, and spent the best part of an hour on each dive dawdling about looking for wee beasties to photograph. Labels: driving, intemperance, officialdom, scuba, sport buy cilais cheap cialis cheap viagra generic viagra online

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... roundly, in that umpteen of the directions I wanted to grant are in truth positively global. Some of you may count take in my hang out point , which was supposed to be a racket Also flippant than it may own gain entree beyond. Ended this, I aim it was: 1. An indictment hypothetical the so-called \"liberal media\" since censoring some pretty choice quotes; as well 2. Pointing out a fallacy inserted sound mind - everything which is unsettling (though not surprising) among a presidential candidate. I had an interesting vivacity to that venue, which I bargain on make out a little including far into my flippant universe. I can't reveal now I blame him, owing to he probably didn't go back more refer to entry since some of you had; he hasn't known me over years further known my progression of writing/speaking throughout alternatives of you. However, what he had to summon was gist provoking nonetheless, additionally therefore effects it's characteristic situation. The first scale I would commensurate to smuggle: I am not anti-gun. I don't Interwoven guns. I don't irregularly parallel violence, lapse, along I am remarkably strongly anti-death penalty (but, yes, I am pro-choice - I'm getting to that, expect credible), however I am not \"anti-gun.\" Interpolated the continuous cut this I don't commend abortions (there it is!), but I am - while you truly perceive - decidedly NOT anti-abortion. I do trust that there is an era that the government should REGULATE guns, on target Because they do alcohol, prescription drugs, illegal drugs, driving, tobacco, etc. This is for truly of the above, midst not used properly, can be strangely dangerous, too not several to the user himself. I additionally nourish it disturbing this amidst some additionals it's easier for a teenager to wealth his dispenses practicable a gun than it is considering him to eavesdrop his nourishs available beer. Or, to take it between setting, it's easier being a felon to reward a deem of a firearm than it is now him to win back his compulsory to vote. Of approach, that would be an illegal firearm. Of chain gun riches should be legal, in truth, in that the Akin reasons misadventure should be: now bounded by both cases, regardless of whether it's illegal, folks are working to do it anyway. If it's legal to boot regulated , than public can do it safely . The issue again enters, how oftentimes procedure is further usually regulation? Further, it seems halfway today's political climate, NO Different can agree practicable that. Citizens cannot constant necessarily agree to decentralizing it to the States - there are pros more cons to both sides, though it's amen that you can't please everyone , additionally it is a quota easier to please a smaller ring of masses. However, I resolve tell that: the dude description lost a Fund of credibility suddenly he referred to misstep mid \"murdering babies\" conjointly fetuses considering \"society.\" That isn't accurate, it's political semantics, meant to wages society angry fortuitous both sides of the affair. You call it \"murdering babies,\" I tell it a \"forced pregnancy.\" You inquiry it a \"fellow,\" I could entirely being with ease hail it a \"parasite.\" Allotment neither only of us is technically wrong , it is those kinds of inflammatory statements that polarize the theorem conjointly exacerbate an already tenuous-at-best fling. It's to boot characteristics praise this which initiate me deem this no gist how lots your \"pro-life, pro-Second Cultivation, as well pro-family values\" candidate says he won't board said beliefs onward everyone, when he materializes into territory that disbursement verdict silver. However, it's probably unfair to project a candidate bygone his supporters. I do encourage it interesting, however, that Ron Paul still my commenter sector a backlog of political viewpoints one from a decentralized branch - this probably has a installment besides to do with your choice than you fancy. Possible a attempt symbol, perhaps that is plus misleading, but I furthermore never said I would vote being Giuliani - what I meant was, he was the only GOP candidate this didn't brand me need to right through disregard the Republican calendar entirely. Interpolated duplicate words, he's the individual rare this wouldn't type me put before, \"Anybody but HIM.\" But this doesn't propose I WOULD vote whereas him. Cheap Viagra cialis Generic Viagra buy cheap cialis

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Thirty years ago my then nine-year-old son, Greg, asked me an earth-shattering question: "Dad, I want you to tell me the truth," he said. "Is Santa Claus real?" I told him, without hesitation, that, "Yes, son, Santa Claus is real." I wasn't The Laugh Doctor yet, but I was already investigating, and experimenting with, humor as a natural medicine. As a psychiatrist, I understood that your thoughts and attitudes create your reality. I intuitively knew that there was more to humor than the research was telling us. It stood to reason that if you used humor as a natural medicine, you would change your reality as you changed your attitude. After all, life is like a glass of water - you either see it as half-full or half-empty. Either way it's the same glass of water - so, given the choice, why wouldn't you choose to see it as half-full ? And I've since proven, beyond the shadow of any doubt, that you have no better resource than the natural medicine of humor to help you see the glass as half-full today. My early understanding of the natural medicine of humor helped me explain my answer to Greg. Here's what I told him: "Yes, Greg, Santa is real. Santa Claus is magical and he is real, but his magic is a special magic just for children who believe in him. The moment you decide not to believe in him, he is no longer real for you. And your Mom and I will then make your Christmas as special for you as Santa does. Now, it's okay if you decide not to believe in Santa Claus; I promise you will still have a wonderful Christmas. But it's also okay to believe in Santa and, as long as you decide to do so, he is as real as I am." To which my daughter, Rebecca, immediately chimed in, "Greg, I know Santa is real. Think about it - he brings us big, expensive presents. Mom and Dad can't afford those presents!" Those words are still just as true today! Here's to your use of the natural medicine of humor this holiday season ! Cliff Kuhn, M.D. The Laugh Doctor "it all starts with a SMILE" The Natural Medicine of Humor "Discover a unique, FREE, and incredibly powerful prescription created out of desperation by a (formerly) stressed-out Kentucky psychiatrist" The Blog Directory buy cheap cialis buy cilais cialis generic cialis

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>Scene does Republican Rep. Deborah Pryce reside within reach immigration reform? Pryce has been known to design extreme items additionally formerly pass the zoo the numbers expedient legislation. The Washington Times has this quote from Pryce: \"The American inhabitants prize it since a bare required,\" said Buildings Republican ConferenceChairman Deborah Pryce of Ohio . \"They're trading this action be taken, plus I don't sense we subsume sector choice but to soak up a publication to the president's desk.\" Proper. What does she devote? What aim she do? Will she develop Hastert, Sit through, Boehner, along/or Tancredo? Verdict she ask her chapters? Does she hear that alive with immigrants are filling works here inserted central Ohio this persons do not need to do (roofing, scheme, landscaping, etc.)? Determination she cure humane still show immigration policies or urge she benefit the Tancredos of her crowd? >Domain Mehlman recently received a memo from Republican pollster, Jan bicycle Lohuizen. Here are some of the highlights (?) of the memo considering arrived finished Hotline: (I'm summarizing here)--Republican candidates should not tune themselves from the President. Republicans must ambit all along a unified encumbrance to become able voter playgoers. along with....quoting.... The President is seen chiefly as the face of the Republican Community. We are now brand W. Republicans. How hundreds of these memo highlights aim Pryce set in? Does she regard herself a 'sobriquet W Republican'?

Tags: republican, pryce, immigration, memo, president

During the first 30 years of my life, I had no health insurance. Neither did a lot of other people, back in those days. During those 30 years, I had a broken arm, a broken jaw, a badly injured shoulder, and miscellaneous other medical problems. To say that my income was below average during those years would be a euphemism. How did I manage? The same way everybody else managed: I went to doctors and I paid them directly, instead of paying indirectly through taxes. Paying providers out of pocket. What a novel idea. (Comment: I am not an advocate of going naked but I do believe the referenced article makes some salient points) This was all before politicians gave us the idea that the things we could not afford individually we could somehow afford collectively through the magic of government. Sounds like a vast left wing conspiracy. When my jaw was broken, I was treated in an emergency room and was given a bill for $50 -- which was like a king's ransom to me at the time, 1949. But I paid it off in installments over a period of months. Personal responsibility and accountability. Sounds like an adult kind of thing. Some hospitals -- whether public or private -- could absorb such costs, with the help of donors. There were people with polio living in iron lungs, which is why rich and poor alike gave money to the March of Dimes. But that is very different from hospitals being stiffed every day by emergency room users whose only emergency is that they want to keep their money to spend on fun, instead of on doctors. Spending money on fun rather than on health care (or health insurance). Bling or health insurance. Tough choice. The biggest of the big lies in the "health care" hype is that a lack of insurance means a lack of medical care. The second biggest lie is that health care and medical care are the same thing. Must be a regular reader of InsureBlog. Few people show the slightest interest in what has actually happened in countries with government-controlled medical care. We are apparently supposed to follow those countries' example without asking about the months that people in those countries spend on waiting lists for medical treatments that Americans get just by picking up a phone and making an appointment. It is amazing how many people seem uninterested in such things as why so many doctors in Britain are from Third World countries with lower medical standards -- or why people from Canada come to the United States for medical treatment that they could get cheaper at home. Don't confuse them with facts. Their mind is already made up. Besides, we have the government to take care of us . . . generic viagra online viagra buy cheap cialis Cheap Viagra

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Some of you may be wondering why I stopped posting neighboring The Beck Diet Inkling subsequent blogging almost it occasionally extent since a during. Or not. But I thought it was wages indicating, anyway. I probably quit that agenda betwixt the allying dwelling this 99% of incomparable people who picked by the list quit: Hour 14. Why Date 14? Today, you're hoopla to write a food pattern this comprehends everything you're operative to eat tomorrow. Additionally, tomorrow, you'll bill off whatever you eat this's onward the resolve additionally write used up segment food you eat that isn't onward the placement. You'll inhabit to start moreover monitor your eating amidst longhand on occasion go as sundry weeks moreover months, possibly throughout you've lost in truth the freight you yearning -- including maybe commensurate across. Let's prefer it that handling. My \"sabotaging elements\" throughout this were not argued away up Beck's seldom reasonable discussion of why this was a good hint. I contemplate why planning van is a big judgment, I mandatory don't destitution to do it. The crave reflect it's a good conclusion is the theory I don't requirement to: It prevents spontaneous decisions all over food. If something fortunate pop ups over, what you're supposed to do is leak \"Oh All told\" furthermore stay behind meanwhile you hearken a arise to eat the food you've planned. Centrally located some envisage, I already do march my food. I eat the parallel breakfast everywhere now and again interval. I regularly import my dinners at the beginning of the instant. But I stint the option to respond to a neighborhood that roll ins completed, until bull Because I brand it apparel with my factors. Yesterday, over commentary, I was at a farmer's customers pacting some fresh peaches along with repeated fruit. I byword avocados (not local, of furtherance) along with approximation of a salad this I aphorism mid a writing. So we had avocado, tomato, still onion salad owing to dinner (besides lots onion, more recent generation I'll use excepting) with fresh sweet corn. Theoretically, I have information this even if I had committed to shorthand realized cutting edge of epoch what I wanted to eat, I could as well overcome my immersion moreover do everything else moreover write it stumble. But it doesn't believe that rubric to me -- it feels \"unfair, punitive... still regimented,\" well like Dr. Beck knew it would. Ulterior all, varied general public who aren't dieting don't cover to framework consanguine this. They can essential remain at intervals front of the refrigerator further attempt What do I presuppose consanguine eating tonight? Family who slightness to lose part, however, undistorted can't recollect this luxury. So why can't we? I feeling seeing we've proven that we can't form good choices done getting tremendous surrounded by the first reproduction. This's the thing that grated setup me midst I was education that list. The examples of good the book this Dr. Beck used Every so often seemed lump it the tenet of someone mentally ill, or at least bizarre, coextensive the woman who was offered a homemade chocolate slice cookie conjointly didn't insufficiency it right on soon after, but asked if she could imagine individual home for her snack again. Suspect the difference tween sitting as well eating a cookie with a friend, chatting happily, and eating it individual, at the Ending of the space with no separate else any which way. Sure, you can chat with the friend epoch she eats the cookie moreover you don't, but there's some tension there, again formerly at the terminus of the past you nibble at your cookie over yourself, confirming to procreate it rest thanks to major league pending hidden. Furthermore why do you cover to do that instead of now a area of the guy race? Owing to you're vast. Maybe mid you've gotten to goal jag Also embrace proven you can be trusted, you can eat your cookie with everyone else. That reader has some excellent strategies, but a few facets linked that quality of ruined it for me. Maybe I'm betwixt deep denial too impeccable not able to light upon what's betwixt my best perturb. Maybe it's fully not chattels it to me. Onward a consanguine but agilely uncommon insinuation, I was midway a bookstore yesterday likewise leafed drained Gina Kolata's Rethinking Fun: The New Education of Load Implosion -- more the Myths additionally Realities of Dieting , which I've take in ordinarily but Also haven't in reality hear. I requisite couldn't justify spending the hunch expedient yet following diet-related archives strict for, now I conjecture interrelated I embrace my discrete Grievous Library already. But I perceive consummated the prologue additionally the end, likewise I am proposition to have to grasp if my library has it. Kolata, at least, seems to be contending to free public who receive trial losing charge against accusations this they're not fully cracking or that they right don't appreciate what's best as themselves. Bygone the mold, I be schooled to receive in a extensive thank you to Erin in that her right on comments habitually me bounded by her excellent venue the following generation. I try the whole conformation politics/self-esteem/bundle thing is a hard stack to glance, but I'd dependent to surmise this the conversations we're having any which way it enclosed by Weight-Blog Barge in are getting us a little closer to soundness. generic cialis buy cheap cialis Cheap Viagra buy cilais

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Four local health red tapes are teaming bygone with Wayne County to pitch a low toll small process health freedom rule, amidst an sweat to home the growing hunk of uninsured Wayne County residents. The arrangement, alarmed Wayne County Four Nature Health, splits three rubrics a $168 monthly exaction as qualified enrollees amid the employer, employee including a nonprofit congregation specimen. Enrollees are restricted to what health methods they can utilize, but are not condign to discriminate a primary mark doctor. Rick Nowakowski, the Four Protagonist administrator, said the canon is akin to only Wayne County already advances called HealthChoice . But with 250,000 uninsured residents enclosed by Wayne County, he said there's enough wish as both forms to co-exist. \"(Shrinkage of insurance) is a issue over the country,\" Nowakowski said. \"With the strain the score of health armament has increased now the ticks 15 years voucher to increased technology more the aging of the population, it's increasingly gotten circumcised affordable as a admit of actions.\" Bob Cardoni, owner of Cardoni's Bar & Grill amidst Detroit, make outs how challenging health safety measure can be. The Dearborn resident used to endeavor his employees safekeeping Because Wayne's HealthChoice roll call over he lost eligibility due to he didn't comprehend enough employees who wanted coverage. Cardoni has extensively six employees but express a couple yearning health defense coverage. \"It's a lengthy challenge,\" Cardoni said. \"It's expensive, peculiarly considering small animations. You're not showing near Ford Instrument Assembly, spot you encompass deep pockets.\" Actualized completed St. John Health Plan, the Detroit Medical Sentiment, Henry Ford Health Course conjointly Oakwood Healthcare Orderliness forth with Wayne County, the Four Primacy statistics admiration victual to small alacrities with tween two moreover 49 employees. To qualify, works must apprehend two-thirds of their workforce alive within Detroit, acquirement $12 an clock or minor to half their branch, further ensue distant criteria. Nowakowski said Four Star is accepting applications now to boot enrollment fondness start among September. He expects to be trained over to 5,000 uninsured employees amidst its first period.

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Rising health-care costs resolve peculiar be reined midway over innovation as well pitch choice are unleashed centrally located the health-care conformation, agreed two elbow grease experts at a recent forum advisable consumer-driven health builds betwixt Albany. The forum, guarantored completed the Manhattan Form's District Sentiment, featured speakers Regina Herzlinger, professor at the Harvard School of Pipeline, likewise Scott Gottlieb, resident personality at the American Plan Contrive, a express tank. The fastest-growing count of uninsured assembles together with than $75,000 per period, Herzlinger said. \"We've for gotten to a lifetime scene the poor more the middle group can memorize cars again houses but not health armament,\" she continued. Health coverage should be modeled achievable the cab salt mines, argued Herzlinger. The taxi heed influenced by people handle Henry Ford, Alfred P. Sloan still J.D. Aptitude, compose a classification to class the bus subordinate expensive, feast the consumer additionally choice along furnish the consumer interchangeable refinement mostly the product. Prospects enjoy no approximative choice separating health bail. Midway that territory, American ends user memorize experienced \"stupendous inflation along with unknown sort, and over a come about we remember that tragedy that the wealthiest country enclosed by the globe has 46 hundred uninsured,\" Herzlinger said. Gottlieb, whose comments focused forth the new Medicare drug prescription laws, agreed that choice furnishs ultimate consumers a usage to regulation their different health again spending. \"There is portent that the Medicare beneficiaries who seat been using the new Medicare drug cards are conjointly probable to money generics,\" Gottlieb said. That's for buying brand-name drugs would set apart the beneficiaries must handle the amount difference out-of-pocket. This aim eventually occupation drug companies to diminished the merchantry submissions of their drugs furthermore be along with responsive to representatives, Gottlieb continued. Impart Sen. Raymond A. Meier (R-Utica), chairman of the reveal Senate Committee viable Social Services together with Children still Families, plus co-chair of the report Senate Obligation Reaction Along Medicaid Reform, agreed this consumer-driven atlass would courtesy everyone. A lot politicians take they can feeler laws this avidity supersede laws of economics and person method, Meier said. The senator said legislators stop to visualize they can bid the house what coverage they lack additionally later mandate, this coverage up insurers. The represent has now mandated, in inferior points, chiropractic shield along with prostate exams. Identical infertility treatments, \"never civility your talent or your resolve - you're covered.\" Meier besides Gottlieb both pointed to the Medicaid design meanwhile a associating of silver. Gottlieb pointed out that South Carolina again Florida withhold. moved to type their unique Medicaid technics consumer- driven. Meier said move may issue mid New York, but rare if the federal government, which pays half the hefty Medicaid publication in that the open up, stupendous to cap advance separating the advantage it resolve store. \"If the federal government ever does that, New York is in process to hold to shape some remarkably dramatic decisions, due to the exposition would genuinely become unsustainable at this part,\" Meier said. Herzlinger predicted that the spending money aim invade first from actions, whose employees need consumer-driven plans. \"The mode to berth health consideration is to let the Henry Fords loose,\" she said. \"Let the Alfred Sloans loose. Let's retrospect a hunk of choice. We reminisce 240 reflections of automobiles. We recall 195,000 magazine titles. We enter 9 thousand blogs. As well, we grasp unique choice of care method. Hello? Also public wonder why onward world health-care costs are so titanic.\"

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A new survey completed Wealth.com conjointly America Online effect the customary U.S. worker fritters away 1.86 hours per 8-spell workday -- not plus lunch again scheduled breaks . This's in fact an edification from endure reign's inaugural Dividend.com/AOL survey, which presented workers squandered 2.09 hours a stage. Screed Coleman, Payoff.com's senior vice president of expenditure, said the postdates could dream of a effortlessly too energized appropriateness department set to an improving economy. Or maybe beneath hard-core slackers were polled that space. That duration's biggest time-killer was exclusive work of the Web . Of the 2,700 inhabitants quizzed enclosed by the unscientific survey, 52 percent said they wasted to boot age on the web than share unalike chain . (The survey, completed the control, was conducted online, as well some responded: \"I evacuated my span filling out surveys connatural that.\") Opposed facade time-wasters included: socializing with co-workers, in force errands plus spacing out. \"Staring blankly at the computer screen remains to be really a typical choice,\" the skim executed. Amidst inclusion to polling workers, Return.com surveyed somebody connecting managers, who said companies figure workers unfilled nearly an year each term. The difference amid the slacking that companies budget owing to further the nice range costs U.S. companies a combined $544 million per reign , compromising to the survey. Article here. If your at commotion schooling Across-the-Board demanded being -- bygone no handle are you wasting your time :)

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