Positive News from the USA

Shreeman · Post by **Shreeman** » 03 May 2014 04:53

Yogi_G:

Please ask here. This is positive <news>. Thanks for your cooperation.

sanjaykumar · Post by **sanjaykumar** » 03 May 2014 05:05

Mindless bashing of the other is best left to a certain privileged group of inbreds on India`s westerly approaches. Here we like to leaven our prejudices with reason. Anecdotes by no means constitute proof but can be mighty inconvenient.

The god of America is money as is the god of Hindus. They provide a mostly level playing field there. They are not keeping you out of engineering/medical/business schools in a systematic, legalistic way (yes I am aware of Berkeley and Asian applicants).

Perhaps we need to peek under our own collars before being too harshly judgemental.

member_28502 · Post by **member_28502** » 03 May 2014 06:32

Now we have positive and Sterling news from Land O Lake(r)s

Also another greater Positive news that does not get noticed much either

Slavery by Another Name
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This is a good article. Click here for more information.
Slavery by Another Name
Cover
Author Douglas A. Blackmon
Subject African-American history, disfranchisement after Reconstruction era
Genre Non-fiction
Publisher Anchor Books
Publication date
2008
Pages 468 pp.[1]
ISBN ISBN 978-0-385-50625-0
Slavery by Another Name: The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II is a book by American writer Douglas A. Blackmon, published by Anchor Books in 2008.[2] It explores the forced labor of imprisoned black men and women through the convict lease system used by states, local governments, white farmers, and corporations after the American Civil War until World War II in the southern United States. Blackmon argues slavery in the United States did not end with the Civil War, but instead persisted well into the 20th century.

Slavery by Another Name began as an article Blackmon wrote for The Wall Street Journal detailing the use of black forced labor by U.S. Steel Corporation. Seeing the popular response to the article, he began research for a more comprehensive look at the topic. The resulting book was well received by critics and became a New York Times Best Seller. In 2009, it was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction, and in 2011, was adapted into a documentary film for PBS.

watch here if you are even more positively enthused

http://video.pbs.org/video/2209539112/

shiv · Post by **shiv** » 03 May 2014 08:19

Agnimitra wrote:Once upon a time in the 'Wild West', neighborly relations were far warmer among frontiersmen - at least among themselves, not always with the 'Indians'. Community spirit was high, people left doors unlocked, left spare firewood at the doorstep in case others had any use for it, were generous to neighbors, hospitable to strangers (at least the white of them) joining the community, etc. The level of security and friendliness in that armed society of frontier settlers was high - unlike the fiction spread by Hollywood spaghetti Westerns. Later only the gun culture remained, and without 'Indians' to shoot at, the camaraderie and friendly neighborhood spirit began to evaporate for some reason.

@LokeshC - remember - the truth cannot be hijacked. Hijackers will end up sounding like bumbling apologists - so just carry on..

My personal knowledge of America barring what I saw as a tourist many moons ago comes from people and reading - and that goes back a long long time - "family" experiences of America passed on to me from grandparents and parents date back to a time before 1945 - and I have family photos as a reminder of all that I have learned.

The concept of welcoming a neighbour or the cliched "borrowing a cup of sugar" are very American. Neighbours in distress do go across for help and neighbours mow lawns, shovel snow look after children and do things for each other in America,

So basically TS Jones is talking utter bullshit when he comes on here and says going uninvited is very rude in America, and people can get shot for that. Just like Pakistanis - a lie is told simply to maintain honor and dignity and pretend that it is OK to shoot a man dead without identification in America.

The problem is that Americans are not necessarily rude. They can, however be armed, stupid and dangerous - a very Pakistani combination. Racism is not the point here. Even blacks in America can be armed and stupid and dangerous. But if you ask Mr Jones, they are just rude. Not armed, stupid and dangerous. Whether blacks armed or unarmed are considered more stupid and dangerous than whites, armed or unarmed is something that can undergo further investigation on this thread in the coming days.

I am guessing that it will turn out that blacks are considered infintely more stupid and dangerous than whites, whether armed or unarmed and need exemplary punishment in an exceptional country

Shreeman · Post by **Shreeman** » 03 May 2014 08:48

The daily diet: The revelry and lovefest sections are new in every post, courtesy of google uncle, in case you haven't noticed.

The 737 is the world's best selling airliner. In a 2-class configuration, it seats around a 100 people. Below, we keep counts by the planeful of lovefest and revelry incidents reported so far in this series:

+

By the way, we are counting incidents and not victims.

Revelry:
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1,
2,
3,
4,
5,
6,
7,
8,
9,
10.

Lovefest: Remember: it is always avoidable.
--------------
1,
2,
3,
4,
5,
6,
7,
8,
9,
10.

Disclaimer:Please re-read the FAQ, before making any judgements and inferences. The intent is not to have the reader conceive, but to perceive what is in plain sight. Inferences are your own and please resist the temptation of 140 character conclusions. You may not have yet perceived much more that is relevant. All the yak butter will not give you the essence of what is above. I dont know, and I wrote it. The thread is established and this adds only little additional value now. It is only there at the admin's discretion. This was all that was handy at the time of writing. And pasta willing, more of your preconceptions will be proven false, in less than 140chars, soon enough.

Hussain HankPsnky
U-NSN
Silicone Valley Wilds

member_28502 · Post by **member_28502** » 03 May 2014 09:18

Shiv ji you have given the best portrait of average American in simple few words.
As people they are great, helpful, caring, loving, (having traveled and worked in world a bit in Europe, UK, France Netherlands Sweden, South Africa, Singapore etc) . Americans are by and large benevolent but can be violent when off their medications like Zoloft, Lexapro, Prozac etc. Life is very stressful in USA, but a very good nation of people on the whole, surely much better than Europe .

sanjaykumar · Post by **sanjaykumar** » 03 May 2014 09:19

Ah yes. An intimate knowledge of America from old photographs. The level of scholarship of some gufa-bound shastris is compelling.

I am embarrassed, TSJones, but I assure you there are Indians who are more deliberate with their opinions. Some are learned from more than their magazine reading and hearsay knowledge. Indians have a reputation of being a subtle people. Notwithstanding the fatuous opinions you might find occasionally.

Please consider this is a highly self-selected cabal of debaters. Most Indians who come to America are game for the challenges as well as the opportunities. That is why the are lining up at the consulates. Oddly the don't do that with Russia or Brazil's chancelleries.

Perhaps the hypocrisy and sanctimoniousness is not exclusive to Amreeka. Indians are exceptionalism entitled too. Naturally.

sanjaykumar · Post by **sanjaykumar** » 03 May 2014 09:21

A confession. I do not remember a neighbour coming over for a cup of sugar except for the time on "Bewtiched". but I guess I don't have a white picket fence.

Absurd.

shiv · Post by **shiv** » 03 May 2014 09:55

sanjaykumar wrote:Ah yes. An intimate knowledge of America from old photographs. The level of scholarship of some gufa-bound shastris is compelling.

I am embarrassed, TSJones, but I assure you there are Indians who are more deliberate with their opinions. Some are learned from more than their magazine reading and hearsay knowledge. Indians have a reputation of being a subtle people. Notwithstanding the fatuous opinions you might find occasionally.

Please consider this is a highly self-selected cabal of debaters. Most Indians who come to America are game for the challenges as well as the opportunities. That is why the are lining up at the consulates. Oddly the don't do that with Russia or Brazil's chancelleries.

Perhaps the hypocrisy and sanctimoniousness is not exclusive to Amreeka. Indians are exceptionalism entitled too. Naturally.

Hmm never expected you to get upset to this degree - the standard accusation of the person who says "My travel miles are greater than yours, hence mine is bigger" . Well - one lives and learns - but it is interesting to see that if one prods enough you find Indians coming out of the woodwork to defend America. That is well known on BRF - but what we do not accept on here is Indians defending Pakistan. America is a friend. Not Pakistan

I doubt if TSJones is a baby who will get upset and walk away unless you soothe his sensibilities with lame excuses like "Please consider this is a highly self-selected cabal of debaters. Most Indians who come to America are game for the challenges as well as the opportunities. " Sounds like the Indian guest in America trying to mollify American host should host get upset with all Indians rather than this " self-selected cabal of debaters".

"I am different. i am not one of them. I support America and will not tease or say things about America that get your knickers in an almighty twist. Don't get upset poor ickle TSJ. Some Indians are like you and me, fellow Americans." LOL Nice. Chamchagiri - but very sophisticated.

shiv · Post by **shiv** » 03 May 2014 10:20

sanjaykumar wrote: That is why the are lining up at the consulates. Oddly the don't do that with Russia or Brazil's chancelleries.

The line at consulate argument comes up again.

Only educated Indians are allowed into the US. The US needs them and pays them well. Uneducated don't get in. The US needs uneducated people for labor but imports them from Central and South America

In India only a privileged small percentage get the education that would qualify them for a visa to the US and it those educated - a miniscule percentage of all Indians who line up at the consulate. Among the few who get in - some feel so grateful and so liberated by the US that they become unofficial US ambassadors and apologists helping to educate Americans about which Indians are smart and who are not. It's a different type of caste system practised by a different type of slave. The more things change the more they remain the same.

Yogi_G · Post by **Yogi_G** » 03 May 2014 10:33

Shreeman wrote:Yogi_G:

Please ask here. This is positive <news>. Thanks for your cooperation.

So lets stop discussion of racism and other race related theories as well.

yvijay · Post by **yvijay** » 03 May 2014 10:42

^ Yogi_G sir, this thread is for positive news, just like the Benis thread. That's why he's asking you to take that question to India-US Strategic News and Discussion thread.Please don't take offense.

Yogi_G · Post by **Yogi_G** » 03 May 2014 10:51

yvijay wrote:^ Yogi_G sir, this thread is for positive news, just like the Benis thread. That's why he's asking you to take that question to India-US Strategic News and Discussion thread.Please don't take offense.

No offence taken, I agree with him here. I saw a whole lot of discussion on racism stuff including about native Americans so I asked my question in that context. So lets keep the positive news here and move all race related discussions keeping in line with what Sreeman ji suggested.

sanjaykumar · Post by **sanjaykumar** » 04 May 2014 01:16

It helps to have one's facts verified. The hundreds of thousands, perhaps now approaching one million Indians, working on the farms of California or driving taxis in NYC manning the desk in little motels in Georgia are not PhDs. The educationally restrictive immigration policies and indian immigration is out of the 1970s. Again something one reads, divorced from the reality of contemporary indian immigrant experience.

I do find pop psychology mildly amusing so I will also give it a go. But it is not I who dip my quill in the inkwell of sour grapes.

Perhaps a not impertinent question is if America is so hideous to some, what are they doing here? Or is it that one finds American society flawed and so personal failings are absolved?

member_22733 · Post by **member_22733** » 04 May 2014 01:18

This thread is not about Indian immigrants. It has nothing to do with India. Please take you trolling somewhere else.

member_22733 · Post by **member_22733** » 04 May 2014 01:24

Steering it back to topic:

Shreeman · Post by **Shreeman** » 04 May 2014 03:07

The daily diet: The revelry and lovefest sections are new in every post, courtesy of google uncle, in case you haven't noticed.

The 737 is the world's best selling airliner. In a 2-class configuration, it seats around a 100 people. Below, we keep counts by the plateful of loveliest and revelry reported so far in this series:

+

+ ...

By the way, we are counting incidents and not victims.

Revelry:
-------------
1,
2,
3,
4,
5,
6,
7,
8,
9,
10.

Lovefest: Remember: it is always avoidable.
--------------
1,
2,
3,
4,
5,
6,
7,
8,
9,
10.

Disclaimer:Please re-read the FAQ, before making any judgements and inferences. The intent is not to have the reader conceive, but to perceive what is in plain sight. Inferences are your own and please resist the temptation of 140 character conclusions. You may not have yet perceived much more that is relevant. The thread is established and this adds only little additional value now. It is only there at the admin's discretion. This was all that was handy at the time of writing. And pasta willing, more of your preconceptions will be proven false, in less than 140chars.

Hussain HankPsnky
U-NSN
Silicone Valley Wilds

shiv · Post by **shiv** » 04 May 2014 06:41

sanjaykumar wrote:
I do find pop psychology mildly amusing so I will also give it a go. But it is not I who dip my quill in the inkwell of sour grapes.

Sour grapes? And I am the pop psychologist? LOL! Physician, heal thyself. You can't get away from the fact that you admitted to being embarrassed and gave an apologetic explanation to a random person who may be white American so that you would not be counted among other Indians whom you feel are wrong on so many counts. You read a name like TSJones and you think "White American being troubled by inferior sourgrapes Indians. I am embarrassed. Let me make him feel better by teling him that I am on his team. How cute! We Americans will stick together against these stupid black Indians who are all dying to be with us in America for its "opportunities and challenges". Let me tell you who is good and who ain't. That is seriously funny.

"Sour grapes" is standard excuse number 3 of the "rahrah America" Indian immigrant apologizing to white massa for Indian behaviour
1. Sour grapes - I am here you are not
2. US consulate queues are long - and I am past that - so I am greater and you you queue standers are either epic failures or frustrated
3. I have travelled more but you sit in your cave so I am greater

How transparently naive.

Add to that this faux attitude of "Oh I don't want to say anything further because of my overall superiority but I will keep repeating the above 3 points of my superiority" Chillax. Have a Charminar.

Agnimitra · Post by **Agnimitra** » 04 May 2014 07:26

shiv ji in full form

sanjaykumar · Post by **sanjaykumar** » 04 May 2014 07:39

Gibberish. Try to marshal some cogent thoughts, then post.

sanjaykumar · Post by **sanjaykumar** » 04 May 2014 07:40

Though it does seem I have struck a raw nerve somewhere.

svenkat · Post by **svenkat** » 04 May 2014 07:52

sanjaykumarji,

The US cherrypicks ALWAYS.Let us spread the LIGHT of the GOSPEL from the PROMISED land.Let the evangelicals do the job.

svenkat · Post by **svenkat** » 04 May 2014 07:55

svenkat · Post by **svenkat** » 04 May 2014 07:59

And sanjaykumarji,
And why do you disrupt the narrative?Why do the great amirkhans have things like visas for their Free land?You are such a spoilsport.

shiv · Post by **shiv** » 04 May 2014 08:09

sanjaykumar wrote:Though it does seem I have struck a raw nerve somewhere.

Yes. And an opportunity to lay open the manner in which Pakistani excuses are made: "You are a critic because you are jealous". When this kind of excuse comes from Pakistan we have a good laugh. When the same excuse is put up with great solemnity by an Indian - failing to point it out would be real hypocrisy on my part. The same excuses come from so many people who want to show how loyal they are to America. In this case what was funny was that you were apologizing about Indians to a random American sounding name on the internet. Shows how deeply you are embarrassed and need to hold yourself away from the unwashed.

When the anger of cognitive dissonance strikes - it's "pop psychology" and "gibberish". You need to soothe yourself with the multiple characterizations you have made about me personally in the absence of facts to rebut criticism of America which makes you squirm. I will list them out in another post as a reminder if your pathetic embarrassed thrashing about continues any further. You can take comfort in the fact that you did touch a raw nerve. You gave me an opportunity to show up a strange way in which the US makes many immigrants conform to a particular "never speak ill about the US" norm to the extent that those who don't conform are characterized as "other". At other times and in other circumstances this is called "dhimmitude".

TSJones earlier referred to the "long queues". When confronted with ugly facts about America the way an American consoles himself is to say "hey Indians stand in long queues outside the American embassy" . Funny that you bought up exactly the same justification to show America's greatness over India and console TSJ. The fact that you are yourself a successful queue stander who is now "on the other side" is forgotten and for you every Indian is a queue stander notwithstanding the fact that your subsidized education in India by underpaid teachers was exactly what America wanted to win your everlasting loyalty. Every one outside of America is "jealous" and suffers from "sour grapes" Just like people being critical of Pakistan because thy are jealous of Pakistan.

You are just another apologist for America. If people criticize your dear America you need to suck it up and get used to it. There is no need to get personal. And you know damn well exactly what you said.That low blow was as cheap as anyone can get while trying to protect and suck up to a perceived white American on this forum. Did you really have to get personal about me just to make TSJ feel better? Or was it you trying to feel better about yourself? A random American sounding name becomes the embodiment of America for you - which you need to protect by bashing Indians who don't conform. Wow! That is sick. If this is not mental enslavement I don't know what is. A total sellout. MUTU now has a name.

TSJones · Post by **TSJones** » 04 May 2014 11:47

Shiv, your obession about me is a bit much don't you think? Look, I don't have your connections or status. What ever i have to say is generally disregarded. So why bother with me? Does it bother you that bad that someone has different ideology than you? Good grief!

I think I'll email Mr. Rugnetta and have him do a bubble chart about this. The dude's pretty good at it.

member_22733 · Post by **member_22733** » 04 May 2014 12:22

Learn ye yindooos, you smelly casteist religious fundamentalists on how the land of TSJ and sanjaykumar handles a delicate case of a woman whose car was where a police car wanted to be

There is no abuse of power in Murrrica! Land of the fee, home of the slave.

member_22733 · Post by **member_22733** » 04 May 2014 12:33

TSJones wrote:Shiv, your obession about me is a bit much don't you think? Look, I don't have your connections or status. What ever i have to say is generally disregarded. So why bother with me? Does it bother you that bad that someone has different ideology than you? Good grief!

I think I'll email Mr. Rugnetta and have him do a bubble chart about this. The dude's pretty good at it.

TSJ,
Let me try to answer that (out of sheer amusement)

I think shivji is not obsessed about you. You are nothing but a representative of the subject of this thread. Shiv is annoyed at our resident house slaves who have not an inkling of an idea (like you) on the purpose of this thread. As far as I am concerned, I have pity for them, I am not angry at them as I used to be, nor am I annoyed at them. I just feel pity for people who have no clue what they are defending. I have the same pity for the gung-ho soldiers send to Eye-raq to their deaths in order to 'defend American Freedom by spreading democracy'. These people are much like the people who sign an important contract without understanding even a bit of it.

You are expected not to have a clue of why this thread exists, and hence you are (as far as I am concerned) an irrelevant troll. I feed you out of amusement and due to a puny bit of credit you deserve for successfully derailing thread

member_22733 · Post by **member_22733** » 04 May 2014 12:45

Here is some SoCal love for ya-all. Just like 'surprise sex', we now have a new term in American microeconomics: 'Homeless by choice'

shiv · Post by **shiv** » 04 May 2014 13:18

TSJones wrote:Shiv, your obession about me is a bit much don't you think? Look, I don't have your connections or status. What ever i have to say is generally disregarded. So why bother with me? Does it bother you that bad that someone has different ideology than you? Good grief!

You have been on this forum long enough for both you and me to either ignore each other or take pot shots and then move on. If you think I am obsessed with you personally it's your prerogative to feel that way. Whatever effect you might have on anyone here, it is clear that something I said on here made one person angry enough to make a personal attack on me, while explaining to you in the same post what Indians are really like - all those Indians who stand in long queues outside US embassies in India. That is how you came into the discussion.

Your current involvement is not of your doing. It is all about embarrassment and shame felt by one member that provoked him to take a pot shot at me why trying to explain to you the true nature of forum members here. You are incidental - collateral damage if you like. It's just that sanjaykumar is a fellow American and he has desperately tried to please you and mollify you under the impression that you are all worked up and may think all the wrong things about Indians by simply reading what i and some others write. If the issue is important to you, maybe you could ask him why he needs to do that. Maybe you and he know each other? I wouldn't know. Maybe he feels insecure and needs to reiterate that he is not like the others and is compelled to spell that out on a public forum telling random anonymous people about how different he is compared with many others on this forum, myself included. Perhaps he will be happy if you acknowledge his plea. It's your call. Not my problem.

johneeG · Post by **johneeG** » 04 May 2014 14:42

Hey, Mr. Obama: Prescription drugs kill 6200% more Americans than homicidal shootings

Thursday, July 26, 2012
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
Editor of NaturalNews.com (See all articles...)
Tags: gun control, prescription drugs, deaths

(NaturalNews) In the aftermath of the Aurora, Colorado Batman movie theater shooting, President Obama chimed in on the gun control debate yesterday, saying, "Every day, the number of young people we lose to violence is about the same as the number of people we lost in that movie theater. For every Columbine or Virginia Tech, there are dozens gunned down on the streets of Chicago or Atlanta..." (http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/jul...)

What he didn't say, however, is that every day 290 people are killed by FDA-approved prescription drugs, and that's the conservative number published by the Journal of the American Medical Association.

As no one seems to believe these numbers are real, I'll quote the source: The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) Vol 284, No 4, July 26th 2000, authored by Dr Barbara Starfield, MD, MPH, of the Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health.

That study, which is twelve years old -- and drug deaths have risen considerably since then -- documents 106,000 deaths per year from the "adverse effects" of FDA-approved prescription medications.

To reach this number from outbreaks of violent shootings, you'd have to see an Aurora Colorado Batman movie massacre take place every HOUR of every day, 365 days a year.

If a massacre of people using slugs of lead is bad, why is a massacre of people using deadly chemicals perfectly acceptable?

A medical massacre that dwarfs the number of deaths from shootings
No one in Washington talks about prescription drug deaths. There are no sobbing victims shown on the evening news. This "chemical massacre" happens quietly, behind closed doors. Yet to achieve this level of mass death in the world of plane crashes, for example, you'd have to see a jumbo jet airliner crashing into the ground once a day, every day of the year.

But that's only the beginning of the mass death caused by modern medicine, where greed-driven doctors are routinely bribed by the drug giants (http://www.naturalnews.com/036510_doctors_br...) and thereby make the "Joker" James Holmes look like a boy scout by comparison. As NaturalNews previously revealed, just one company -- GlaxoSmithKline -- had a bribery network of 49,000 doctors who received financial kickbacks to prescribe more Glaxo pharmaceuticals to patients.

According to the report Death by Medicine, by Drs. Gary Null, Carolyn Dean, Martin Feldman, Debora Rasio and Dorothy Smith, the medical establishment kills 783,936 people in the United States every year. (http://www.lef.org/magazine/mag2004/mar2004_...)

Those deaths include:

• 106,000 Americans killed from drug side effects
• 115,000 Americans killed from bedsores
• 98,000 Americans killed from medical error
• 88,000 Americans killed from infections
• 32,000 Americans killed from surgery
• 37,000 Americans killed from unnecessary procedures

... and so on. See the source link, above, for the rest of the numbers.

The bottom line total comes to 783,936 deaths every year from "conventional" medicine (drugs and surgery medicine).

You are 6200% more likely to be killed by your doctor than by a shooter
According to the CDC's numbers from 2007, the total number of homicide shooting deaths in the United States each year is roughly 12,600 (Xu, Jiaquan; Kenneth D. Kochanek, Sherry L. Murphy, Betzaida Tejada-Vera (2010-05-20). "Deaths: Final Data for 2007" (PDF). National Vital Statistics Reports (CDC) 58(19): 11.)

This means that your risk of being killed by your doctor is 62 times higher than the risk of being killed by a shooter. Put another way, that's a 6200% higher risk.

It seems that before we even think about the issue of gun control, we need a national debate on DOCTOR control.

After all, when doctors inadvertently kill people by prescribing deadly chemotherapy cocktails or deadly prescription drugs, they don't even get arrested for it! But they do get financial kickbacks, exotic vacations paid by drug companies, free travel, free meals and other perks of being a Big Pharma sellout. Plus, they're free to go on killing other people, over and over again. While doctors obviously don't intend to kill people, they nonetheless keep doing so as long as they get their bribes, kickbacks and perks. (http://www.naturalnews.com/036417_Glaxo_Merc...)

If Obama really wanted to protect Americans from being killed, he'd call for restrictions on the prescribing of deadly pharmaceuticals. But don't hold your breath on that one, because when it comes to actually protecting the American people from medical massacres, or GMOs, or toxic fluoride in the water supply, the real Joker is Obama himself.

Link

INTERNATIONAL STATISTICS
Every day in the US, 2,500 youth (12 to 17) abuse a prescription pain reliever for the first time.

Prescription drug abuse, while most prevalent in the US, is a problem in many areas around the world including Europe, Southern Africa and South Asia. In the US alone, more than 15 million people abuse prescription drugs, more than the combined number who reported abusing cocaine, hallucinogens, inhalants and heroin.

In 2006 in the United States, 2.6 million people abused prescription drugs for the first time.

A 2007 survey in the US found that 3.3% of 12- to 17-year-olds and 6% of 17- to 25-year-olds had abused prescription drugs in the past month.

Prescription drug abuse causes the largest percentage of deaths from drug overdosing. Of the 22,400 drug overdose deaths in the US in 2005, opioid painkillers were the most commonly found drug, accounting for 38.2% of these deaths.

In 2005, 4.4 million teenagers (aged 12 to 17) in the US admitted to taking prescription painkillers, and 2.3 million took a prescription stimulant such as Ritalin. 2.2 million abused over-the-counter drugs such as cough syrup. The average age for first-time users is now 13 to 14.

CAUSE OF DEATHS
Prescription Drugs: 45%
Street Drugs Combined: 39% (Amphetamine + Heroin + Methamphetamine + Cocaine)

Depressants, opioids and antidepressants are responsible for more overdose deaths (45%) than cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine and amphetamines (39%) combined. In the United States, the most deaths used to take place in inner cities in African-American neighborhoods, but they have now been overtaken by white rural communities. The same trend can be seen in the rates of hospitalization for substance abuse and emergency hospitalization for overdoses. Of the 1.4 million drug-related emergency room admissions in 2005, 598,542 were associated with abuse of pharmaceuticals alone or with other drugs.

By survey, almost 50% of teens believe that prescription drugs are much safer than illegal street drugs—60% to 70% say that home medicine cabinets are their source of drugs.

According to the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University, teens who abuse prescription drugs are twice as likely to use alcohol, five times more likely to use marijuana, and twelve to twenty times more likely to use illegal street drugs such as heroin, Ecstasy and cocaine than teens who do not abuse prescription drugs.

In 2007, the Drug Enforcement Administration found that abuse of the painkiller Fentanyl killed more than 1,000 people that year in the US. It is thirty to fifty times more powerful than heroin.

“I realized I was using more Xanax on a regular basis. I took time off work to get off it. Without the knowledge I was addicted, I went ‘cold turkey.’ For four days and nights I was bedridden. I didn’t sleep or eat. I vomited. I had hallucinations. On about the third day without Xanax I started to become uncoordinated and unbalanced and bumped into things. On about the fourth day I became really worried when I started having twitching sensations.” —Patricia

Link

Overdose deaths from prescription drug abuse skyrocketing in southwestern Pennsylvania
January 23, 2014 5:13 AM

Related Media:
bullet
Pa. House OKs monitoring prescription drugs
2012: Seminar warns of prescription drug abuse dangers
Treatment programs and drug take-back locations

By Janice Crompton / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Prescription drug abuse is an epidemic in Pennsylvania, and legislators and law enforcement officials are scrambling to address the rapidly growing problem.

“I think we’re in a culture in which everything gets fixed — there is no level of uncomfortableness that we think we should have to endure,” said Elaine Stano, treatment specialist with the Fayette County Drug and Alcohol Commission, referring to the use of prescription narcotics for pain relief. “It’s a quick way to alleviate discomfort. There’s just an idea that we don’t ever have to be uncomfortable, and I think that’s a major reason drugs are a problem."
PG graphic: Overdose death rates
(Click image for larger version)

Addiction to prescription pills — mainly to narcotic painkillers such as oxycodone, sold as Percocet and other brands, and hydrocodone, sold as Vicodin and other brands — has proven to be more deadly than some illegal drugs. According to the Centers for Disease Control, prescription drug overdoses in 2007 resulted in four times as many deaths as heroin overdoses and twice as many as cocaine. And that trend has continued.

Across the region, the number of overdose deaths from prescription and illegal drugs has increased dramatically, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Health, Bureau of Health Statistics and Research, with Fayette County leading the way.

Fayette County has one of the highest death rates from drug overdoses in the country, more than that of West Virginia, the state with the highest rate of overdose deaths in the nation.

And in Westmoreland County, drug overdose deaths for the first time have surpassed all other types of unnatural deaths combined, including car accidents, homicides and fires.

In 2011, the most recent data available for research, drug overdose deaths in Allegheny County totaled 243, a rate of 20.5 per 100,000 residents. That’s up from 2010 and 2009, when 228 and 222 people died from overdoses, respectively. Compare that to the rate in 1990, when 87 people, or 6.3 per 100,000 residents, died of an overdose in the county.

The numbers for outlying counties also have climbed. In 1990, a total of 18 people died of drug overdoses in six counties in the region — Beaver, Butler, Fayette, Greene, Washington and Westmoreland.

Three of the 18 died in Fayette County that year. By 2009, the number in Fayette County had reached 23. It rose to 28 in 2010, then to 43 in 2011 — representing 33.5 per 100,000 residents, surpassing West Virginia's nation-leading rate of 28.9 overdose deaths per 100,000 residents.

“I think we have some stronger prescription drugs now,” said Jana Kyle, executive director of the Fayette County Drug and Alcohol Commission, about the increase in that county. “We have Opana, oxymorphone, Oxycontin … Doctors prescribe these highly addictive drugs and aren’t aware that people are becoming addicted."
PG graphic: Drugs from a familiar source
(Click image for larger version)

In the region's other counties, the number of overdose deaths from both prescription and illegal drugs in 2011 was, listed from the highest rate to lowest: Greene, 10 deaths, or 28.2 per 100,000 residents; Beaver, 37 deaths, or 24.2 per 100,000 residents; Washington, 40 deaths, or 21.2 per 100,000 residents; Westmoreland, 78 deaths, or 20.4 per 100,000; and Butler, 30 deaths, or 17 per 100,000 residents.

All counties in southwestern Pennsylvania outpace the state in the number of deaths per 100,000 people. Statewide, the rate is 15.3 — 14th highest in the nation, according to a recent study by the nonprofit, Trust for America’s Health.

In Westmoreland County, Coroner Ken Bacha is on a mission to educate the public about prescription drug abuse.

“If you take all of the other types of unnatural death and put them together, they don’t equal the number of drug overdoses we had in 2013,” he said of his county.

When Mr. Bacha took office in 2002, 22 people died of drug overdoses that year, mostly from heroin use. In less than 10 years, that number had risen to 78 deaths. Last year, the county saw about 92 people die from drug overdoses, and so far in 2014, seven people are suspected to have died as a result of a drug overdose.

What is perhaps most striking about the data, Mr. Bacha said, is that about two-thirds of the overdoses now involve prescription drugs, with about a third caused by illicit drugs.

"The biggest problem is that people think it’s prescription medication that comes from a doctor — it’s OK,” he said.

The two drugs most often involved in overdose deaths are hydrocodone and oxycodone, Mr. Bacha said. Sometimes added to the deadly cocktail are the “benzo” family of drugs — benzodiazepine, sold as Valium or Xanax — which are sometimes used to treat anxiety and depression. Both are central nervous system depressants that can cause a person to stop breathing.
PG graphic: Commonly abused medications
(Click image for larger version)

Mr. Bacha is sponsoring prescription drug summits in schools throughout the county. He said the problem crosses demographic divides.

“This addiction does not discriminate,” he said. His youngest overdose victim was a 15-year-old who died from heroion use, while the oldest was a 72-year-old woman who overdosed on prescription drugs, he said. “It affects down-and-out people and people who live in million-dollar houses. Our biggest percentage of deaths is among white males, ages 41 to 60."

Mr. Bacha is among those advocating legislative overhaul, and lawmakers are hearing the outcry. They have introduced several bills aimed at creating a prescription drug monitoring program and database that could alert doctors and pharmacists to abuse. In particular, the efforts would expose so-called “doctor shopping”— when a patient visits multiple doctors to obtain duplicate prescriptions.

Pennsylvania does not do a good job of monitoring, Mr. Bacha said. “It is essential. It will help cut down on the supply, but on the negative side, we think it’s going to push people to use heroin.”

He and other addiction experts believe heroin use will increase because patients who are exposed as doctor shoppers will need another way to feed their addiction.

U.S. Attorney David Hickton said the law treats addicts and dealers differently.

“We’re highlighting addiction awareness and addiction education because addiction is an illness that’s determined largely by your DNA. Once you become an addict to these powerful medications, you can’t stop taking them any more than you can stop breathing," he said.

''The goal of law enforcement and the Obama administration is not to jail drug users but to rehabilitate them through treatment programs and close monitoring,'' he said.

“This administration has realized the distinction between the illness of addiction and people who are trafficking drugs. The treatment option is a huge piece of the equation.”

Mr. Hickton’s office has been concentrating its efforts on the supply-side of prescription narcotics. In 2012, he secured a conviction against Oliver Herndon, 41, a doctor from Peters who pleaded guilty to accusations that he prescribed powerful narcotics to patients without obtaining their medical history and without a thorough examination.

Investigators had described the Stanford-educated physician as a major supplier of narcotics in Western Pennsylvania, so much so that after his arrest in March 2012, the street value of oxycodone doubled to $40 per pill. He was sentenced to 11 years and 3 months in prison.

“What we’re finding is the use of these pills is just increasing geometrically in all areas,” said Mr. Hickton, who helped launch a drug take-back program in which boxes are located throughout the state where people can drop off leftover prescription drugs. “The data shows that most people are beginning their pill problem right out of the medicine cabinet.”

Several bills pending in the state Legislature would create a prescription drug database, including House Bill 1694, introduced last year by state Rep. Matthew Baker, R-Tioga. It passed the House by a 191-7 vote and is now being considered by the state Senate Public Health and Welfare Committee.

The bills vary in how much access law enforcement would have to such a database. In Mr. Baker’s bill, a search warrant would be required in most cases. He and others point out the importance of the bill’s objective — to help addicts, not necessarily to punish them.

Mr. Baker said he hopes the bill moves quickly through the Senate because Pennsylvania is lagging behind other states that have already addressed the monitoring of prescription opiates. Pennsylvania, along with every other state except Missouri, has a prescription drug monitoring program but it does not monitor Schedule II, III, IV or V drugs, such as hydrocodone or oxycodone.

The bills are supported by industry groups, including the Pennsylvania Pharmacists Association, which represents 1,200 pharmacists statewide.

“I would say that we’re pretty strongly supportive of it,” Pat Epple, CEO of the association, said of the efforts.

The group had concerns early on about whether pharmacists would be required to investigate all patients through the database system. Ms. Epple said the group favors a voluntary approach.

But some groups don’t want to see any of the bills move too quickly through the Legislature due to privacy concerns.

“It’s extremely concerning that the government wants to collect this type of personal information about people,” said Andy Hoover, legislative director of the American Civil Liberties Union in Pennsylvania. “There needs to be some serious privacy controls, and the existing bills don’t have them.”

Mr. Hoover is concerned that any patient, including a child, who gets routine dental work or takes medication for attention deficit disorder will end up in the system.

“The medications on this list are very common,” he said. “It goes all the way down to prescription cold and flu medications because it’s based on the federal Controlled Substances Act.”

Schedule II drugs that would be covered by the monitoring bills include the highly addictive painkillers such as oxycodone and hydromorphone, sold as Dilaudid and other brands. But the bills also would cover drugs in the Schedule V category, which include cough suppressants and anti-diarrheal medications and are considered to have a low potential for abuse.

“Millions of people will end up on this database,” Mr. Hoover said.

He also expressed concern about abuse of the database, citing information from the Medical Identity Fraud Alliance that indicates medical identity theft is on the rise, increasing 20 percent between 2012 and 2013.

The ACLU also takes issue with the search warrant requirements for law enforcement access to the database. Right now, Mr. Baker’s bill provides a search warrant requirement but not for all police inquiries.

“We think it should be broader. It should cover any attempt from a prosecutor into this database. If they want this type of information, they should have to explain to a court what they want,” Mr. Hoover said. “They can’t get into our personal medicine cabinets without a warrant.”

Ron and Judi Owen of O'Hara have taken up the cause of combatting drug abuse. Their daughter Sarah overdosed on heroin 10 years ago at age 23, leaving behind a 5-year-old daughter.

“We are part of fraternity of many families who have lost kids who pushed the envelope and never thought they had a problem,” Mr. Owen said. “Our Sarah was a loving mother and a caring daughter, but she always wanted to have an extra rush. It’s a dangerous road.”

He said his daughter began taking drugs while she was a student at Fox Chapel Area High School.

He and his wife have been active since their daughter’s death, serving on nonprofit boards and speaking to groups about the way drug use tears families apart.

“It takes over your desire to live a normal life,” said Mr. Owen, who serves on the board of directors for Gateway Rehabilitation. “It takes one shot too much of that stuff and it’s over. Your family and friends mourn for life.”

The couple has created an organization devoted to giving young women a chance to move beyond their addictions. It is called R.O.S.E.S from Sarah, which stands for Recovery Or Single-Mother Educational Support.

"People need to be educated about what they’re taking,” said Erica Usher, a prevention supervisor with the Fayette County Drug and Alcohol Commission. “We have to be responsible for what we put in our bodies.”

Kenneth Martz, director of the Bureau of Treatment, Prevention and Intervention, part of the state Department of Drug and Alcohol Programs, believes the problem must be addressed from many different angles, including drop-off boxes to collect unneeded prescription medicines, expanded treatment options to address addiction and a monitoring program to track possible abusers.

“No one element will be the silver bullet that will stop this,” said Mr. Martz, who noted that treatment options can be outpatient or inpatient and most insurance covers substance abuse treatment.

“It usually takes them getting arrested to get forced into treatment,” Mr. Bacha said of those who are addicted.

He added: “Parents need to be in their kids' business with tough love or they’ll be picking out their casket.”

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Death by Prescription
Posted: 09/23/2013 11:13 am
Read more
Prescription Drugs, Addiction and Recovery, Addiction and Recovery, Prescription Drug Abuse, Prescription Drug Deaths, Prescription Drug Overdose, Healthy Living News

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People were saddened, but no one was really surprised back in the glory days of rock n' roll when Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, and Jim Morrison all died of drug overdoses, or when Richard Burton, Jack Kerouac, and Billie Holiday all died from alcohol-related causes. Their deaths may have been "accidental," but hey, they were certainly pushing the old envelope. Back then, the drugs of choice were all the ones your mother warned you against, like alcohol, cocaine, and amphetamines. Today, however, as noted in the latest data from the Centers for Disease Control, drug overdoses were the cause of 38,329 deaths in 2010. And 60 percent of those were from prescription drugs!

When Whitney Houston fell asleep in a bathtub right before the Grammy Awards and never woke up, she had imbibed a cocktail of cocaine and prescription drugs -- 12 different medications prescribed by five different doctors, including anti-anxiety and muscle relaxant meds. Heath Ledger (who never got to see himself as the Joker in The Dark Knight), Brittany Murphy (who starred in such films as Clueless, Girl Interrupted, and Just Married), Anna Nicole Smith (Playboy playmate and former reality TV star), and Michael Jackson (the king of pop) all overdosed on legal medication.

We can criticize and/or envy the harried lifestyle of the rich and famous, but in fact they make up a very small percentage of the thousands of accidental prescription medicine deaths each year; the great majority of these deaths happen to ordinary folks like your son or your sister. Has our stressed-out, multi-tasking, anxiety-causing way of life turned us into a nation of addicts? Are we seeking out doctors who don't mind giving us multiple prescriptions for every little ache and pain and angst? We may not have the money to fund an at-home doc to administer an anesthesia so we can sleep, like Michael Jackson did, but we can probably find a couple of docs to keep us well supplied in Ambien, Xanax, Vicodan, and Oxycodone.

And if you're getting your drugs from multiple doctors, who's keeping track of possible drug interactions? What if that Ambien you take to sleep at night is toxic when mixed with the wine you drink at dinner and the anti-anxiety med you take to get through work and the painkiller for your aching back? No wonder drug ODs have overtaken deaths from traffic accidents and guns! Yet most of us are still more worried about random gun violence than about the pills we pop with no qualms -- after all, the doctor prescribed them!

The Mayo Clinic has reported that almost 70 percent of Americans take at least one prescription drug a day, and more than 50 percent are on at least two prescriptions, while 20 percent are on at least five prescription meds. The most common prescriptions are for antibiotics, antidepressants, and painkiller opioids.

So what are we going to do? Obviously, something has to be done about pharmacists and doctors who don't use their state's prescription drug database, like in Florida where "doctor shopping" to obtain multiple prescriptions for narcotic pain pills runs rampant. And there are other legal efforts that can be made by various federal and state government agencies. But in reality, what has to change is our automatic reaching for a magic pill to take care of depression, anxiety and insomnia, and our reliance on opioid drugs to relieve pain.

Anxiety, depression, stress, sleeplessness, pain -- they can all be addressed in ways that are more self-empowering and hold no danger of accidental death. How about meditation, biofeedback, exercise and fresh air, better nutrition, going to bed at a decent hour, and holistic techniques such as acupuncture and massage? But beyond the natural and energy-centered ways of de-stressing, attention must also be paid to learning how to process emotional trauma without resorting to drugs. If we develop a decent amount of self-awareness (think: meditation and therapy) we are not likely to pop a pill first and ask questions later. We also need to have a lot more education about the dangers of pharmaceuticals, especially about their interactions with each other and the potential for accidental death, rather than more commercials on television proclaiming their benefits. Risk versus benefit is the name of the game.

So before you reach for a pill, why not try doing something on your own first? What you may really need for that mental or physical issue is something that addresses the underlying emotional cause. Maybe it's time to really reconsider that job or that relationship that is the real source of the problem. At the very least, ask your doctors a lot of questions when they prescribe something for you, and go online to research the pros and cons of the drug. And be sure to ask about interactions with other medications you may be taking. Accidental death is all too real -- it's not just for celebs!

Need help with substance abuse or mental health issues? In the U.S., call 800-662-HELP (4357) for the SAMHSA National Helpline.

Spiritual teacher, health & wellness expert and New York Times best-selling author Deborah King makes frequent appearances on national TV. Her latest book, Entangled in Darkness: Seeking the Light, explores ways to keep our psyches healthy.

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TSJones · Post by **TSJones** » 04 May 2014 15:28

shiv wrote:
TSJones wrote:Shiv, your obession about me is a bit much don't you think? Look, I don't have your connections or status. What ever i have to say is generally disregarded. So why bother with me? Does it bother you that bad that someone has different ideology than you? Good grief!
You have been on this forum long enough for both you and me to either ignore each other or take pot shots and then move on. If you think I am obsessed with you personally it's your prerogative to feel that way. Whatever effect you might have on anyone here, it is clear that something I said on here made one person angry enough to make a personal attack on me, while explaining to you in the same post what Indians are really like - all those Indians who stand in long queues outside US embassies in India. That is how you came into the discussion.

Your current involvement is not of your doing. It is all about embarrassment and shame felt by one member that provoked him to take a pot shot at me why trying to explain to you the true nature of forum members here. You are incidental - collateral damage if you like. It's just that sanjaykumar is a fellow American and he has desperately tried to please you and mollify you under the impression that you are all worked up and may think all the wrong things about Indians by simply reading what i and some others write. If the issue is important to you, maybe you could ask him why he needs to do that. Maybe you and he know each other? I wouldn't know. Maybe he feels insecure and needs to reiterate that he is not like the others and is compelled to spell that out on a public forum telling random anonymous people about how different he is compared with many others on this forum, myself included. Perhaps he will be happy if you acknowledge his plea. It's your call. Not my problem.

First of all good Doctor, let me apologize for inspiring *anybody* to attack you. I did not realize my innate qualities of leadership, devotion to a righteous cause, and noblesse oblige caused others to don the vest with a dead man switch. Or perhaps my Osamma bin Laden qualities are due to my puppy like charm.

At any rate I highly doubt Sanjay had me in mind in his observations. This is unfortunately a straw man construct of yours. You want to associate me with him in order to show your contempt for his as you see it, ideologically incorrect opinion. You think I am a stinking pole cat to paint him with. Please cure your obession with me. Physician, heal thyself.

No more from me on this. If I protest too much I will be banned.

johneeG · Post by **johneeG** » 04 May 2014 16:00

10 Prison Security Techniques Being Implemented on the American People
Has our country become one giant correctional institution?

Posted on February 11, 2014 by Marlon Brock in Analysis

Americans are not typically aware of how their federal and state prison systems work. What we think we know, we learned from watching television. When I took my first walk through at FCI (Federal Correctional Institution) El Reno Oklahoma as a new employee, I was surprised at how non-Hollywood real prison life is. Frankly, all I knew about prison life was what I saw on television or at the movies. Not even close.

As I got closer to retiring from the Federal Bureau of Prisons (FBOP), it began to dawn on me that the security practices we used in the prison system were being implemented outside those walls. “Free worlders” is prison slang for the non-incarcerated who reside in the “free world.” In this article I am going to compare a number of practices used in federal prisons to those being used today in the “free world.”

You might find that our country may be one giant correctional institution.

Cameras & Movement Tracking

(Source: Joern Haufe / Getty Images)

In federal prisons, cameras are everywhere. The reason, of course, is to help maintain security and keep track of prisoners. Inmates know that if they break any rules or policies, they can be readily identified if the event occurred in view of a camera. The cameras remind the inmates that they do not have any freedom or privacy, and that they live under total control.

Unfortunately, the “free world” is now subject to the widespread use of video surveillance and movement tracking. This goes beyond cameras, which have become virtually ubiquitous now. The federal government has been handing out grants to create sophisticated surveillance grids in cities across the country.

These surveillance grids frequently include license plate readers — some with the ability to log 1,200 license plates per hour, logging timestamps and location data — giving the government a way to track people and analyze their movement patterns. Some cities post license plate readers to log every single vehicle that enters or leaves its boundaries. Many cities have turned their police cars into roving data collectors by outfitting them with mobile license plate scanners. A man from California discovered that he had been photographed 112 times over the course of a couple years — from just one police cruiser mounted with a license plate scanner! The local databases of movement data are integrated with the federal government through its fusion centers located all over the country.

The government also has the ability to use facial-recognition software in conjunction with its surveillance grid to instantly identify individuals by comparing their photograph to biometric databases created using BMV photographs. Facial recognition cameras can be set up to accurately identify a person against a database of millions of images in less than one second. The government can then potentially log their locations and using the data for any purpose it wants.

As the usage of these technologies grows, the “authorities” will practically know where you are at any time. The British have the greatest level of electronic surveillance in the world. Their movements are said to be recorded 3,000 times a week. The United States is not that far behind. In some ways, with the numerous NSA spying programs, the USA leads the world in destroying personal privacy. Today’s youngest generation will grow up never knowing what privacy is.

Drug Testing

(Source: Maritime Med)

The federal prison inmate drug abuse monitoring program has been going on for decades since the capability was invented. At any time, a prisoner can be tested for intoxicants using urine, sweat, saliva, and hair samples taken by force. After years of perfecting the process on inmates, it was introduced to the American public.

On September 15, 1986, President Ronald Reagan signed Executive Order 12564, establishing the goal of a Drug-Free Federal Workplace. Additionally, in 2010, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) finalized a new rule that allows federal agencies to use sweat, saliva and hair in federal drug testing programs that only tested urine. Since then, many private businesses and corporations had to begin testing their employees in order to keep or obtain federal contracts. Under federal guidelines for employee testing, if a person takes medicine that was not prescribed to him, he has committed a federal drug abuse offense and may be fired. Children in public schools are also subjected to involuntary random drug testing.

The inmates were the guinea pigs for a program now being regularly employed on Americans. This process conditions Americans to be accustomed to regularly submitting bodily fluid samples to the government, lessening their resistance to data collection and intrusion in other areas.

Metal Detection & Weapon Confiscation

(Source: J. Miles Cary / Knox News)

In prison, detection and confiscation of weapons is a necessity. Prisoners cannot be allowed the freedom to possess objects that could potentially be used to cause harm to others. The security of the facility relies on the prisoners remaining disarmed.

With that said, not even prisons can be guaranteed to be weapon free. Inmates are clever, and can fashion any piece of metal into a makeshift weapon. They are also prolific smugglers. To mitigate this risk, prisoners and visitors are put through metal detector checkpoints to keep them disarmed. Any metallic contraband is confiscated.

Treating prisoners this way is one thing. In a prison setting, security trumps liberty. The liberties of the inmates have been curtailed through due process on an individual basis. But these prison tactics have crept out into the “free world.” Now, virtually all government buildings use metal detectors to screen incoming visitors and even their own personnel. This establishes a climate of fear of weapons and a false sense of security among those within such “weapon free zones.” If a prison can’t proclaim to be weapon free, how can any place outside of prison make such arrogant and naive claims?

Crowd Control

(Source: Nigel Parry)

Helmets, face shields, batons, knee guards, tear gas, wedge formations, line formations, half steps, full steps, pinning tactics — all of these phrases are associated with prison crowd control. As I look at today’s police and how they attempt crowd control it reminds me of my days in federal prison as the Hostage Negotiation Team (HNT) leader. The HNT worked closely with the Special Operations and Response Team (SORT) on both monthly local training and annual training at Fort Gruber in Muskogee Oklahoma. SORT membership is selective and highly practiced. The teams must be familiar with hand signals and verbal commands, as well as certain maneuvers that are often referred to as “stomp and drag.” These tactics are designed to help quell disturbances — the FBOP word for “riot” — by forcing inmates in the direction that SORT wants them to move. This training takes place monthly for SORT members and annually for the rest of the FBOP staff.

The next time you see police engaged in crowd control on television you are watching what was perfected by prisons official through years of practice and real life action. I participated in five disturbances. After observing law enforcement agencies dress up in intimidating riot suits and mimic the behavior of SORT, it is clear that police are using prison tactics to intimidate and control civilian protesters.

Checkpoints & Random Pat Searches

(Source: Springfield News-Sun)

In federal prison, all inmates are subject to an immediate pat search by any staff member, anywhere, at any time. If the inmate refuses, he or she is “arrested,” which entails being cuffed and escorted to administrative segregation — otherwise known as the jail within the jail. The pat search is used to detect contraband. All inmates returning from industrial work programs in medium and low security institutions are pat searched and metal detected before being allowed to return to their dorm. Additionally, inmates in medium and low security institutions are pat searched when they leave food service or the “chow hall.” In high and maximum security institutions, inmates are pat searched every time they move. Movement in these institutions is highly controlled.

Compare this to police roadblocks and checkpoints used to perform warrantless searches for contraband. When a person is stopped by city, county, or state police, they are visually inspected, asked questions concerning their activities, and may be asked to submit to a vehicle or personal search. At federal roadblocks, a subject can be directed to a secondary search area at the discretion of the observing officer. There, the person can be searched for contraband regardless of any objections, just like in a federal prison. There are dozens of federal roadblocks on roads in the southwestern United States, many of them permanent and located up to 100 miles away from the border.

It isn’t just drivers being put through such intrusion. There is also the matter of “stop and frisk” searches which are taking place in several areas of the country. These intrusive stops involve the stopping of a pedestrian for any reason, followed by being subjected to a police officer’s questioning and a warrantless search of their pockets, purses, bags, and property — just like a prisoner.

Mail Surveillance

(Source: Justin Sullivan / Getty Images)

Every piece of mail sent to an inmate in federal prison is opened, searched, and may be read depending on the dictates from the institutions intelligence office. In medium and high security institutions, all mail is delivered to the unit officer unsealed so that it can be read before being delivered to the mail room. Inmate mail is controlled and may be copied if it is determined that there is possible criminal activity being discussed either blatantly or in code. If something is detected it may be rejected and returned to the inmate if it violates policy. Two examples of “rejected correspondence” are an inmate’s attempt to conduct unapproved business, or writing another inmate without permission.

Recent revelations have made it clear that Americans’ mail is being surveilled as well. The New York Times reported on how the United States Postal Service uses a “Mail Isolation Control and Tracking program” to create a permanent record of who is corresponding with each other via snail mail. The program — secretly established in 2001 and not revealed for over a decade — assists the government in implementing blanket surveillance of every single resident of the United States. Each piece of physical mail is photographed and stored in a database. Law enforcement has unfettered access to this data without even the requirement of obtaining a warrant. About 160 billion pieces of mail end up being recorded per year.

Telephone Monitoring

Is the NSA listening to your phone calls?

For decades the FBOP has possessed the capability to monitor outgoing telephone calls. However, their system required staff to sit and listen to the calls which took staff away from direct supervision of inmates. In the early 2000s, a new system was put in place that allowed any and every phone in an institution to be immediately monitored and the call recorded.

Just like in a federal prison, the NSA has the capability to track and monitor anyone’s phone conversations without recourse. The agency can monitor text messages. They can collect locations, times, and a log of every phone number that has been dialed by any phone in the United States. The government can set up fake base stations to intercept phone calls. They can hack the applications on a person’s smart phone and spy on their usage. The NSA can even crack cellphone encryption.

Unlike the inmates who have no choice in the matter of telephone monitoring, the American people have been told about the spying but have decided not to do anything about it.

Lockdowns

National Guard soldiers lock down city streets in Boston. April 2013. (Source: Jesse Costa / WBUR)

When a correctional institution has its daily operations disturbed, often times it results in a lockdown. Lockdowns usually occur after a disturbance, weather concerns, inmate escapes, rumors of a disturbance about to occur, rumored escape attempts, and institution wide searches are some reasons to lockdown.

The most notable “free world” lockdown in recent memory occurred in Boston, Massachusetts. This lockdown mirrors a federal prison lockdown that is called when the entire institution is to be searched. That is exactly what occurred in Boston. In April 2013 the Boston suburb of Watertown was locked down to the point where no one could enter or leave the town, while 9,000 law enforcement personnel and military took part in searching just about every backpack, vehicle, and home that they could get away with.

Some of the searches were voluntary, but many were not. As SWAT teams performed systematic house-to-house searches, videos were captured of families being ripped from their home without a warrant so the police could help themselves to the inside of their homes. What resulted had the look of prisoners being removed from their cells by a SORT unit. Watch for yourself:

Police perform house-to-house raids in Watertown MA
Systematic House-to-House Raids in Locked-Down Watertown, Mass.

The Watertown lockdown was practice for future declarations of martial law. Those tactics had been used and perfected in our prison systems for years. Now the “free world” is getting the prison treatment with little objection from the public. The lockdown was not necessary and served mostly to measure the public’s reaction and to establish a sense of fear and intimidation. I think it worked.

Snitching

Homeland Security propaganda poster. (Source: DHS.gov)

The last thing I want to mention is what I call the “Moscow Law.” While growing up during the cold war, I was taught that in the USSR, people were expected to watch their neighbors, strangers, and even family and friends, and report any suspicious activity to the local police. We in America have that law. Read it below. Did you know it exists?

Title 18 U.S.C. § 4: Misprision of felony: Whoever, having knowledge of the actual commission of a felony cognizable by a court of the United States, conceals and does not as soon as possible make known the same to some judge or other person in civil or military authority under the United States, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than three years, or both.
In prison, there are “snitches” everywhere. Believe me, they are not just the inmates, they are also staff. Programs like Infragard are attempting to do the same thing in the “free world” as it is in the imprisoned world. Once these programs get started, they are almost impossible to stop. What are we paying our law enforcement to do? Protect us or detect us? You decide.

Policy and program statements from the Bureau of Prisons are available at: http://www.bop.gov/

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Earnest thanks goes to all those who have contributed to the operation of this website. We are committed to covering
stories that remain conspicuously ignored by the national mainstream media, and your generous support is essential
to effectively distributing this message. Many victims of government-sanctioned violence offer their gratitude.

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svenkat · Post by **svenkat** » 04 May 2014 17:06

johneeG saar,
your posts are violative of the rules of the dhaaga.I really wish the mods completely delete all these off-topic posts which are not in tune with the gospel from the promised land.

johneeG · Post by **johneeG** » 04 May 2014 17:33

Widow’s home seized because of unpaid $6.30 property tax late free
"I pay my bills. To steal a house for $6 is ludicrous.”

Posted on April 29, 2014 by Site Staff in News

The home of Eileen Battisti which was seized by Beaver County. (Source: Keith Srakocic / AP)

ALIQUIPPA, PA — A judge has upheld the seizure and sale of a widow’s home over an unpaid property tax bill of $6.30. The homeowner claims that if she knew about the bill she would have paid it.

Eileen Battisti, 53, of Aliquippa, lost legal rights to her home in September 2011 due to the tiny late fee. She has since been fighting for an appeal in court. She says Beaver County failed to provide her proper notice of the sale.

Eileen Battisti grows emotional during an interview outside her confiscated home. (Source: Keith Srakocic / AP)

Battisti, who lost her husband several years ago, has said that she has struggled to keep up with taxes and financial burdens alone. Battisti paid her 2008 Center Area School District taxes six days late. Though she paid the balance in full, but she did not pay an additional $6.30 interest fee for the late payment by a May 1, 2009, deadline.

“I paid everything, and didn’t know about the $6.30,” said Battisti.

The county then continued to penalize her on the $6.30 with additional late fees and interest. By 2011 it reached $234.72 — yet Battisti says she was still not aware of it.

Ultimately her home at 118 Rosewood Drive, valued at $280,000, was sold off at auction for $116,000 to a buyer named S.P. Lewis, of Imperial. Battisti says that Lewis, offered to sell it back to her for over twice what he paid.
“Yes, it took me a while to get the bills, but I pay my bills. To steal a house for $6 is ludicrous.”
“They wanted $250,000, and they would give the house back,” said Battisti’s attorney, Joseph M. Spratt. “I found them repulsive — their approach toward this.”

Battisti would receive $108,039 in proceeds from the sale, but would lose twice that amount in equity.

“Yes, I had issues. I’m a widow. I’m raising three kids on my own, trying to put them through college,” Battisti said. “Yes, it took me a while to get the bills, but I pay my bills. To steal a house for $6 is ludicrous.”

A shocking estimate given by county Solicitor Joseph Askar reveals that the county seizing between 600 to 1,000 properties per year over unpaid taxes. Beaver County has 170,000 residents.

“I’m going to fight it until my dying day,” Battisti said. She will be allowed to stay in the home until a final ruling is made.

The tragedy of Eileen Battisti exposes the utter degradation of property rights in the USA. Property owners have been reduced to mere tenants on land that is ultimately controlled by the government. Such property taxes ensure that no one can ever own their land free-and-clear, and Americans are all one lost piece of mail away from losing everything to land-grabbing extortionists.

Link

Man’s Las Vegas casino winnings confiscated by police without any criminal charges
"Everyday I do this. It's all I do for a living. It's drug interdiction and I get money."

Posted on May 4, 2014 by Site Staff in News
Deputy Lee Dove (Source: Humboldt County Sheriff)

Deputy Lee Dove (Source: Humboldt County Sheriff)

WINNEMUCCA, NV — After a successful run at the casinos in Las Vegas, a man carrying a large sum of cash fell victim to a thieving police officer on his way back to California. Without charging him with a crime or even giving him a speeding ticket, the cop seized 50,000 and let him go. This practice of highway robbery is perfectly legal.

Tan Nguyen was the lucky gambler who was stopped along I-80 in Humboldt County. Nguyen was stopped by Deputy Lee Dove for only going 3 miles per hour above the posted speed limit.

To establish the grounds for searching Nguyen’s vehicle, the deputy began to claim that he smelled drugs.

“I just smelled weed. I know I did. I know I smelled weed,” said Dove in the dash-cam video available from KLAS-TV.

Deputy Dove is a skilled narcotics agent that knows that accusing someone of drug trafficking is all that is required to walk away with their money and property. The policy that enables him to do this is known as civil asset forfeiture. “How much money you got?” asks the deputy.

No drugs were found in the subsequent search. But that was no problem for the deputy. He had discovered Nguyen’s money — $50,000 in cash and $10,000 in cashier’s checks.

“That’s not yours, is it?” the deputy asked.

“That’s mine,” Nguyen responded.

“Well, I’m seizing it,” the deputy declared.
“Everyday I do this. It’s all I do for a living. It’s drug interdiction and I get money.”

Nguyen protested that the officer had no right to rob him. But Deputy Dove reminded him that government theft is legal in a police state.

“Everyday I do this,” said the Deputy Dove. “It’s all I do for a living. It’s drug interdiction and I get money.”

“The only reason why you have that cash is because it’s related to some sort of illegal activity,” said the deputy. “You know it and I know it.”

He goes on: “With everybody, that’s what I do because they don’t want the problems or the headaches so they abandon the money. They take what they’ve got in their wallet, or in this case cashiers checks, and they bolt.”

According to a subsequent lawsuit, Dove told Nguyen that he would be arrested unless he “got in his car and drove off and forgot this ever happened.”

“I don’t have all day to sit here debating it,” Dove impatiently stated. He took the money and let the driver go.

Motorists like Nguyen are essentially accused of criminal activities without actually being charged with a crime. They are then forced to prove their innocence or — in many cases — abandon the money. The expenses of legal fees make it cost prohibitive to fight back, and government agencies are well-oiled machines when it comes to theft.

Nguyen spent his remaining $10,000 in cashier’s checks to pay an attorney to file a lawsuit against Humboldt County. Ultimately he got his cash returned. But Deputy Lee Dove has not been fired, as the underlying tactic he routinely uses is exactly what is expected from enforcers of the War on Drugs.

The Fifth Amendment states, “No person shall be… deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.” The concept of seizing money without criminal charges needs to be abolished immediately in the spirit of the constitution and in the interest of preserving liberty. No one’s cash or property is safe as long as it remains standard practice.

Link

"If this doesn’t convince this chief and this mayor that officers are out there killing people without justification, I don’t know what will."

Homeless man shot to death by police while ‘illegally camping’ in the foothills of NM

The 76-year-old man felt pain so severe he thought he was going to die.

Elderly man tasered 6 times during case of mistaken identity

Man arrested after drinking iced tea in public must take deal or go to trial
A power-tripping beverage cop arrests a man for not letting him examine his canned drink.

Posted on March 19, 2014 by Site Staff in News
A man in plain clothes comes over and starts demanding to see the can of iced tea.

A man in plain clothes comes over and starts demanding to see the can of iced tea. (Source: YouTube)

FAYETTEVILLE, NC — A man drinking canned iced tea in a parking lot was accosted by a plainclothes beverage cop who demanded to inspect his drink. He was placed in handcuffs and arrested. Even though the man was innocent and was only drinking tea, prosecutors are still trying to set him up with probation and community service.

The incident took place on the evening of April 27th, 2013. Two men were standing by their vehicle waiting for friends to arrive in the parking lot of a state-owned ABC Liquor Store.

One man, Christopher Lamont Beatty, was holding a canned beverage, while his friend, Tino Brown, was recording video using his cell phone. That’s when the two were interrupted by a man who was interested in the man’s choice of refreshments.

A beverage cop’s rage begins to surface. (Source: YouTube)

Beatty, who also goes by the name “Xstravagant” or “Xstrav” as his rapping persona, began receiving harassment about the can he was holding. A man in plainclothes, claiming to be “the police”, insisted that he turn over his beverage for an inspection. Beatty refused the stranger’s requests, but pointed out that it was only an AriZona-brand drink, “Half-and-Half” iced tea and pink lemonade — not alcohol.

Brown and Beatty pointed out that they didn’t know the identity of the nosy man and that Beatty had committed no crime. Still, the man demanded to examine his beverage and would not take no for an answer.

The stranger then claimed that Mr. Beatty was under arrest. He became grabby and ended up putting Beatty in a choke-hold as he took him down to the ground.

The stranger places a choke-hold on Mr. Beatty. (Source: YouTube)

(Source: YouTube)

The bully, who turned out to be Alcohol & Beverage Control Law Enforcer Rick Libero, forced Mr. Beatty face-down onto the concrete and placed him in handcuffs.

Tino Brown had been recording the whole incident and documented the labeling on the can, showing that it was a non-alcoholic drink.

Beatty was arrested and taken to jail. He was charged with two crimes; second degree trespass and resisting a public officer. Months have gone by and the prosecution has offered a deal.

(Source: YouTube)

The assailant starts sizing up his next potential victim. (Source: YouTube)

The government requests that Beatty “submit to a year of probation, do 24hours of community service, have a mental health assessment, and submit to drug testing and warrantless searches,” reported the Fayetteville Observer.

“It would get it dismissed at the end, but I would still have to take responsibility for my actions, and I felt like I did nothing wrong,” Beatty said.

Beatty could also potentially take this to trial, in which a jury of his peers would have the opportunity to vindicate him of an unjust charge.

Link

A man with a long list of grievances is cut off after 180 seconds, then is dragged away to jail by police officers.

He attempted to offer copies of his typed document of grievances to the sparsely-seated audience as he frustratedly said that the town was violating his rights. The two spoke over one another and then police officers were sent over to silence the aggrieved citizen.

Man receives felony after speaking too long at town hall meeting

‘Cash register justice’: Florida town so corrupt that lawmakers want to abolish it
"They make Boss Hogg look like a Sunday school teacher," says sheriff

Posted on March 11, 2014 by Site Staff in News
(Source: Lon Horwedel/AnnArbor.com)

A revenue generator at work. (Source: Lon Horwedel/AnnArbor.com)

HAMPTON, FL — A tiny town in Florida has earned such a reputation for corruption that some are seeking to erase it completely from existence. The town government apparently exists exclusively to extort money from drivers through traffic tickets and line the pockets of those politically connected.

What makes this situation different than what goes on regularly in towns and cities across America? The answer, primarily, is that the town has done a notoriously poor job of convincing people that the government has any other abilities other than highway robbery. The town is a notorious speed trap that has earned itself national recognition.

The town of Hampton only has a population of 477, yet it has an exceptionally large police force for its size — nearly 20 officers. That’s a ratio of 1 ticket-writing cop to every 25 residents.

Those officers are preying on a stretch of highway that is only a quarter mile long, issuing 12,698 tickets between 2011 and 2012, according to the New York Times.

These fines raked in hundreds of thousands of dollars, yet the town still managed to operate in a deficit. In 2011 alone, the police department outspent its budget by $108,000 — around 68% of the original budget. Police Chief John Hodges blamed vehicle maintenance and poor gas mileage on the police cars.

Hampton is nothing more than a blip on the map. The 89-year-old town is landlocked and covers only 1.12 square miles. After suffering financial struggles in the 1990s, city leaders pushed to annex a sliver of land which gave it access to a 1,260-foot stretch of U.S. Highway 301.
A map of Hampton, Florida.

A map of Hampton, Florida, which covers just over 1 sq. mi.

The acquired land gave the town a new revenue stream and the corruption took off from there. As more money poured in, the department grew and money-snatching efforts intensified. They even reduced the speed limit to create more speeders.

Officers were given slick new equipment, drove new SUVs, and other new weapons and gadgets.

Cops would routinely perform traffic stops while decked out in tactical regalia. One cop was given the nickname “Rambo” because he would stop motorists with a AR-15 rifle, CNN reported.

An audit revealed that the large flow of cash stemmed into abundant corruption by city officials. There has been abuse of city credit cards, abuse of city-owned vehicles, and disappearing cash. Some estimate that $1 million has gone missing, while the town has little to show for its substantial collections.

The county sheriff recognized that the town was corrupt and cut Hampton’s access to county databases, radio communications, and the use of the county jail.

“It became ‘serve and collect’ instead of ‘serve and protect.’ Cash register justice,” said Sheriff Gordon Smith. “Do y’all remember the old ‘Dukes of Hazzard’? Boss Hogg? They make Boss Hogg look like a Sunday school teacher.”

When Hampton got a new mayor, Barry Moore, he was quickly imprisoned by the police force on a trumped up drug charge. Moore told CNN that he was targeted for arrest “as part of a systematic way to tear the town of Hampton down.”
“It became ‘serve and collect’ instead of ‘serve and protect.’ Cash register justice.”

The Gainsville Sun reported that the Hampton police chief has been stingy with disclosing information about his staff — even to the Bradford County Sheriff. The chief allegedly would only disclose the names of 4 officers and claimed that all of the others were working undercover or on special detail. The sheriff suspects that the reason is that they do not actually have the proper credentials to work as police officers.

“It’s like something out of a Southern Gothic novel,” State Senator Rob Bradley told Time magazine. “This town exists apparently just to write speeding tickets. Most people don’t understand why it exists in the first place.”

“This situation went on for so long and the mismanagement was so deep, we have to seriously consider abolishing the government,” said Sen. Bradley.

The Declaration of Independence states that “whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends [life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness], it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it.”

The corruption in Hampton seems to be so systemic that the people ought to exercise their right of abolition without further delay. With the parasitic group of kleptocrats gone, the town may become a more hospitable place to live.

* * * * *

UPDATE: In an agreement with the state, the town has agreed to get rid of its police department. Every member of the town council resigned, and the town is scheduled to hold a special election to replace all of its officials.

Link

Elderly woman with dementia detained for months for feeding birds
81-year-old animal lover held without bond for placing bread out for some crows.

An elderly woman who suffers from both Alzheimer’s disease and dementia has been locked away for months for the crime of feeding some birds on her own property.

Mary Musselman, 81, is a retired gym teacher who is described as gentle-hearted, sweet and harmless. But her hobby of feeding wildlife has put her on the wrong side of the law. A judge has evidently felt that her actions were so severe that he has kept her locked up for nearly 3 months.

Musselman is a repeat offender, and the final straw came when a spies from the Department of Fish and Wildlife found that the octogenarian had once again placed bread in her yard to feed some crows. She was arrested and has been locked behind bars since January 29th.

Last year she was arrested for putting food in her yard to feed a black bear, which she believed would starve without her. Following her arrest, the judge placed her on probation for one year. Her subsequent bird-feeding stunt evidently violated her probation.

Mrs. Musselman suffers from an incurable brain disease which leads to loss of memory, confusion, and altered mood. Despite this, her attorney’s request that she be housed with family members was denied.

Link

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Svenkat saar,
I didn't understand your message.

svenkat · Post by **svenkat** » 04 May 2014 17:51

johneeGji,
please see and learn from the posts of LokeshCji,rgsriniji,ManjaMji,UBji,kanchaji,Sonugnji.This is just from the last two pages. thats the standard you are expected to follow.

johneeG · Post by **johneeG** » 04 May 2014 17:58

Svenkat saar,
I didn't understand. Am I doing something wrong? Please explain properly.

Atri · Post by **Atri** » 04 May 2014 18:00

svenkat wrote:johneeGji,
please see and learn from the posts of LokeshCji,rgsriniji,ManjaMji,UBji,kanchaji,Sonugnji.This is just from the last two pages. thats the standard you are expected to follow.

svenkat · Post by **svenkat** » 04 May 2014 18:09

johneeGji,
the first post of the thread.

shiv wrote:I think too many bad things have been said about the US of late. Bad blood has been created because of a well meaning US attempt to free India of slavery.

I think I would support the idea mooted in another thread that we should have a thread for good and positive things from the US. Hopefully it will help reduce hurt feelings on at least one side.

My ***** **** is itching again. Few would remember the early days of lal madarsa and goat hunbandry. That is long out of fashion. This time the "Good News, Y'all!" is about own fair and lovely lady liberty. So, can we have a thread for our sunday services? Freedom of relijion pleaje. And only pure Americsn spirits and languaje.

Much obliged,

Another post from the 1st page from the person who seeded this thread.

Shreeman wrote:Thank you kindly, interwebs gods.

As you know, I have registered a new startup U-NSN in the Valley of the Silcone, where the children go to church every sunday morning and the services are streamed over the internet, where the songs of ambulence sirens at night are sweeter than the sea, and where medicines grow in the backyard of all the houses in the hills, and yoga is practiced by the sea.

I can confirm there are no shooty-stealy, robby-stealy, killy-stealy, banky-empty, or most any hanky-panky here at all. No one has heard of them. It is a welcoming land that literally shower and swabs you with gifts including free medical examinations available on entry, even road side assistance centers are common. You don't even have to be sick to get one. All our foreign looking employees have smiles on there faces,

johneeG · Post by **johneeG** » 04 May 2014 18:19

svenkat wrote:I give up.This is after all the thread about the land of the Free.

Arrey, saar! I am unable to catch your hints. Please explain properly, no? Am I doing something wrong?