In my last post, I stated that I wouldn’t watch anything on National Geographic for a long time. Well, I watched this show, Paranatural, long before writing that post. The episode Blood Rain and Star Jelly was a little different from the shows I normally watch, but I figured I’d give it a shot. It was about supposed biological material coming from space. I am not a science fiction fan and outer space is one of the few things that does not draw my interest and that I do not really understand or care about. However, this topic seemed just interesting enough to warrant my attention. I still have a bad taste in my mouth about Nat Geo, as even this show was more fantastical than informative.
Apparently, about 100 metric tons of cosmic debris falls on earth each day. I can’t help but think of the lyric from the Frank Zappa song, “Look here brother, Who you jivin' with that Cosmik Debris?” Anyway……it is kind of freaky to think of unknown matter being drawn to our planet and settling here. I’m sure the chemists know what all of this stuff is, so I leave it to them. Most of this debris we can’t see because it is dust. Anything larger burns in the atmosphere, etc. But, there have been reports of galactic castoffs over the years that are visible and may possibly be biological material.
There have been several stories of gelatinous masses that have fallen from the sky around since the 12th century, which has come to be known as star jelly. The first modern account was in Philadelphia on September 26, 1950. Two policemen in South Philly saw a UFO land in a field and later saw a 6 foot “blob” on the ground. The material quickly disintegrated but has stayed with us forever as the inspiration for the movie “The Blob”.
Most narratives are similar; the star jelly disintegrates before it can be studied. However, in 1994 a gelatinous rain fell over the Pacific Northwest that literally covered yards and branches with slimy goo. Unfortunately, many people became ill after this. However, a sample was able to be delivered to a lab intact. There was bacteria found in the material. The sample did mysteriously disappear from the lab after this was publicized, but not until vital analysis had already been done. Guess what? The blob consisted of a man made matrix.
The other type of material reported to come from “space” is red rain. No, not the red rain of the Peter Gabriel song symbolizing helplessness and weakness, but literal blood red rain coming down from the sky. Like star jelly, red rain has been reported for many centuries, since the 10th century. But from July to September 2001, periodic blood red rainfalls came alongside normal rain in Kerala, India. What caused this?
The explanations include clay dust from and industrial plant, algae, and, of course, alien life. A lab in India discovered red structures shaped like red blood cells that appear to have cell walls like plants, instead of the membranes found around human cells. What‘s more, though they do not have DNA, they replicate in temperatures up to 600°F. The hypothesis is that they are simple extraterrestrial life just like what landed on earth many years ago, eventually populating the earth through panspermia.
To me, how life originated is one of those things we can never know the answer to, like the existence of God. Believe whatever you want about the creation of life, nothing can ever prove what happened billions of years ago. However, it is possible that future space exploration may yield biological material. Are these tiny cells plotting to devour us like the infamous blob? Are intelligent aliens dumping this material on earth? I doubt it.
Monday, August 30, 2010
Thursday, August 26, 2010
Shame on You Nat Geo!!!!!
National Geographic has always been a staple for documentaries for me because of my deep love for learning about different cultures around the world. When I saw that Search for the Amazon Headshrinkers was airing, I was excited. I “knew” that National Geographic would not make this beautiful, disappearing culture seem like a freak act in a circus. However, I was disgusted that they seemed to focus more on the narrators adventures than on educating about the culture of the Shuar, which may very well completely disappear in the near future. It seems National Geographic, the very publishers that started my passion, have sold out by choosing to present the information from a western point of view with added shock value. SICK.
Nearly everyone has heard of shrunken heads; but not many know what they are or the symbolism behind them. Many do not believe they can possibly be real human heads and are instead made from monkey skin. Those that do believe they are real seem to have a bizarre fascination with them. The hunt has been on for the headshrinkers for decades. Finally, it looks as if they have been found. ……… again.
In the 1960’s, Polish explorer Edmundo Bielawski and his team were exploring and documenting the northwest Amazon rainforest. After three years, they got lost and learned all too intimately about malaria. The were forced to ditch much of their equipment and reels of film. Fortunately, some of his footage has survived and has a fascinating tale to tell. This legendary tale begins with a murder in the Amazon basin and ends on the mantle of a collector of curiosities. The only known film evidence of a head shrinking ceremony is on these old reels. Is this real or just a fabrication; a show put on by natives for tourist?
This is what Piers Gibbon set out to discover when he and the Nat Geo team headed to the Amazon. Who is Mr. Gibbon, first of all? Usually documentaries have narrators or speakers that are involved in the field they discuss. Come on National Geographic! This man is not an anthropologist! It is so clear by his sick fascination with how the heads are made and if they are still being made today. He could give a hoot about the people behind this mystery. He’s a professional TV, radio, and conference presenter. Give me a break!
Piers travels through the western Amazon with the help of some local guides and asks around about shrunken heads. He makes sure to show the footage to everyone he comes across. He seems to want everyone to be as appalled by the head shrinking ceremony as he is. Appalled and disgusted is not how any National Geographic presenter should act. He discovers that a group called the Shuar of Ecuador are the ones that may know about the film, as they are the Amazon headshrinkers. He seeks out the Shuar and proceeds to make a big presentation out of showing the film to them. He even expects them to be shocked by the video. Why would they be? Unlike our culture, theirs isn’t one to be embarrassed of. Just because he is an ignoramus doesn’t mean that everyone else needs to feed into his crap.
I believe that a good half of the show was focused on explaining head shrinking ceremonies. It was done in a way that was meant to shock and sicken viewers. When giving tidbits of information about the meaning of the ceremony, it is with a decidedly biased view, something one should never witness from National Geographic.
He came across a priest that tells him that the Catholic church worked very hard to end head shrinking by relating the old testament to native beliefs. The priest was very proud to say that the Shuar no longer practice head shrinking and practice an integrated form of Christianity. You can have no idea how nauseous this makes me. Missionaries have destroyed so many cultures around the world and are very proud of it. Of course people will never actually convert, they create an integrated religion. How can ‘god-loving’ people be so proud to beat another people into religious and cultural submission? What is even sicker is that this information was painted in a positive light by the show!!! OK Nat Geo, since when are you siding with the Pope and devaluing the mosaic of culture on this planet?
I don’t know that I’ll watch anything on National Geographic anytime soon unless I look into them online first. I assumed that the foundation for which every young anthropologist dreams to do as project for would produce a show about a virtually unknown culture in an unbiased and celebratory way. Well I know what happens when we assume. I have been taken for a fool and this jackass Gibbons has become rich from it. This documentary did teach a very important lesson about how closed minded and bigoted most of us truly are.
Not much valid information is available on the Shuar online that is not published by sources that are either questionable or missionary in origin. But, if you would like to read something simple without going to the ethnological studies, read this Shuar Information from the University of Wisconsin. Have an open mind and heart, something National Geographic seems to have lost.
Nearly everyone has heard of shrunken heads; but not many know what they are or the symbolism behind them. Many do not believe they can possibly be real human heads and are instead made from monkey skin. Those that do believe they are real seem to have a bizarre fascination with them. The hunt has been on for the headshrinkers for decades. Finally, it looks as if they have been found. ……… again.
In the 1960’s, Polish explorer Edmundo Bielawski and his team were exploring and documenting the northwest Amazon rainforest. After three years, they got lost and learned all too intimately about malaria. The were forced to ditch much of their equipment and reels of film. Fortunately, some of his footage has survived and has a fascinating tale to tell. This legendary tale begins with a murder in the Amazon basin and ends on the mantle of a collector of curiosities. The only known film evidence of a head shrinking ceremony is on these old reels. Is this real or just a fabrication; a show put on by natives for tourist?
This is what Piers Gibbon set out to discover when he and the Nat Geo team headed to the Amazon. Who is Mr. Gibbon, first of all? Usually documentaries have narrators or speakers that are involved in the field they discuss. Come on National Geographic! This man is not an anthropologist! It is so clear by his sick fascination with how the heads are made and if they are still being made today. He could give a hoot about the people behind this mystery. He’s a professional TV, radio, and conference presenter. Give me a break!
Piers travels through the western Amazon with the help of some local guides and asks around about shrunken heads. He makes sure to show the footage to everyone he comes across. He seems to want everyone to be as appalled by the head shrinking ceremony as he is. Appalled and disgusted is not how any National Geographic presenter should act. He discovers that a group called the Shuar of Ecuador are the ones that may know about the film, as they are the Amazon headshrinkers. He seeks out the Shuar and proceeds to make a big presentation out of showing the film to them. He even expects them to be shocked by the video. Why would they be? Unlike our culture, theirs isn’t one to be embarrassed of. Just because he is an ignoramus doesn’t mean that everyone else needs to feed into his crap.
I believe that a good half of the show was focused on explaining head shrinking ceremonies. It was done in a way that was meant to shock and sicken viewers. When giving tidbits of information about the meaning of the ceremony, it is with a decidedly biased view, something one should never witness from National Geographic.
He came across a priest that tells him that the Catholic church worked very hard to end head shrinking by relating the old testament to native beliefs. The priest was very proud to say that the Shuar no longer practice head shrinking and practice an integrated form of Christianity. You can have no idea how nauseous this makes me. Missionaries have destroyed so many cultures around the world and are very proud of it. Of course people will never actually convert, they create an integrated religion. How can ‘god-loving’ people be so proud to beat another people into religious and cultural submission? What is even sicker is that this information was painted in a positive light by the show!!! OK Nat Geo, since when are you siding with the Pope and devaluing the mosaic of culture on this planet?
I don’t know that I’ll watch anything on National Geographic anytime soon unless I look into them online first. I assumed that the foundation for which every young anthropologist dreams to do as project for would produce a show about a virtually unknown culture in an unbiased and celebratory way. Well I know what happens when we assume. I have been taken for a fool and this jackass Gibbons has become rich from it. This documentary did teach a very important lesson about how closed minded and bigoted most of us truly are.
Not much valid information is available on the Shuar online that is not published by sources that are either questionable or missionary in origin. But, if you would like to read something simple without going to the ethnological studies, read this Shuar Information from the University of Wisconsin. Have an open mind and heart, something National Geographic seems to have lost.
Monday, August 23, 2010
The Scariest Drug in the World: POT!
My posts are not usually this long, but I am truly outraged! I watched the most enraging piece of trash on the Documentary Channel called “Messing with Heads”. This show was tagged as a documentary and formatted like a documentary. However, by definition a documentary portrays reality and is non-fiction. The Nazi film Triumph of the Will was clearly the inspiration for this 2-hour long Australian propagandist film about marijuana.
Not only did I study psychology, but I also used to have affection for pot in my early 20s. I was acquainted with many stoners as well as hard drug users and addicts. I am not a dumb person. I am an observer and a sponge. From this and my knowledge of basic brain biology and psychology, I am intelligent enough to know that this show was attempting to convince that the exception to the rule is in fact the norm.
I was watching in utter disbelief. Even my husband, who has always been sickeningly straight edge, was getting angry watching it with me. Why? Because unless you live in complete isolation from the world and get all of your information from sources like Fox News, you know that pot does not normally have this affect on people. Anyway, let us begin the tearing apart of this ludicrous waste of air space.
Show Background
The show profiles a few Australian youths that have been hospitalized for addiction to marijuana and psychosis caused by it. The goal of the film was to show that marijuana is far from harmless and in fact is just as bad as or worse than “hard” drugs. We always heard about pot being a “gateway” drug. Well, forget that! Psychosis and heavy lifelong addiction is apparently caused directly by marijuana. We had better tell all the ex hippies that are now sober and working in the corporate world that they are in fact psychotics in the throes of heavy addiction.
They indicate that pot smoking today is much different than it was in the 60s. The point was made that because of hydroponics and other factors, there is more THC in today's weed than in the past. I’m not arguing this point because breeding pot is serious business today and this may very well be true. But there always is just a shred of truth in propaganda isn’t there? They state that in the 60s everyone shared joints and today everyone smokes from a bong, so the amount of THC ingested is also greatly increased due to this.
Is Australia that different from America? Did my friends parents that were at Woodstock lie about those hookah parties? From how often I see kids buying rolling paper and single cigars from the store, I think joint and blunt smoking is still as popular as it was back in the 60’s and the 90‘s when I was in college. Bongs cost money and must be maintained. If you do not want to buy one, more effort goes into making one than just rolling a joint or packing a pipe. Maybe Australian kids are all rich and can afford to buy “accessories”. In any event, scientific studies have shown that the best way to smoke marijuana is through a bong or hookah because harmful chemicals in both the plant and those mixed in by dealers are filtered through the water.
According to the show, one out of five Australian youths smoke weed and of those, 10% are addicted and use every day. Then they said that half of all Australians have smoked it by the age of 16. So which is it? One-fifth or one-half? Many of these kids are regular users by age 14. I’m sorry, but even in a drug-scourged country like the US, we do not have many regular drug users that are under 14 outside of poverty-stricken areas. These kids were clearly middle class based on their clothing, even skin tone, cleanliness, and mannerisms. Oh, and all of them had facial piercings. Simply not good candidates for kids that are going to have so little adult supervision that they can smoke weed all day long without anyone noticing or caring.
Marijuana Induced Psychosis
They stated that extended use is causing severe paranoia and schizophrenia, which is literally filling up their psychiatric wards. I found that research has shown that in young people that are genetically predisposed to schizophrenia, heavy marijuana use can cause similar damage to the brain as schizophrenia. No similar effects have been found in people without family or personal history of similar mental illness. So, if their psych wards are filled from pot smoking kids going psychotic, they must have a lot of genetically predisposed people down under!
That was the rational part. Now let's talk about the completely crazy propagandist part. The profiles.
The first girl was a heavy user. She got clean and after 2 years started having delusions and the compulsion to jump out windows. To quote them, she “got” schizophrenia. She spent 15 months in the hospital and relapsed 7 times during her stay. Now she is better and has lived a completely normal life for four years. Besides looking androgynous, she looks perfectly normal. She talks perfectly normal. She is pretty much cured.
First of all, where were these so called doctors trained? You do not “get” schizophrenia, you develop it. People with schizophrenia do not relapse, like a person with cancer. The disease is always there, just in varying degrees. Schizophrenic episodes can be cyclical or triggered by a plethora of things.
I have known a few schizophrenics in my life as I stated in a previous post. It can take years to get medication right in a schizophrenic patient. It takes a minimum of two weeks for the drugs to even normalize in the body and start to do their job. Moreover, symptoms do not magically disappear. It takes several weeks to months for the correct medications to remove the symptoms. In addition, schizophrenia never goes away. There is no cure.
Even when the right medication cocktail has been found, the person still isn’t “right”; they are just functional. Why? Because antipsychotics have side effects that cause behaviors and ticks that are sometimes almost as bad as schizophrenia itself. In short, medicated schizophrenics appear in both manner and appearance, medicated. Neither this girl, nor ANY of the people profiled in this show appeared medicated. Nevertheless, they were all perfectly ok and living wonderful lives now that the evil demon weed was out of their lives. Interesting.
Marijuana Induced Mania
The high school boy they profiled was much more entertaining, not only for his claims but how serious and dramatic it was portrayed. He smoked pot up to 20 times per day and detailed that he smoked at 8 am, 8:30 am, and again at 9. He smoked in the shower so his parents couldn’t smell it. When using pot he had very bad “manic” episodes where he wanted to play loud music, drive fast, and yell. He came from a dysfunctional background and blocked everything out instead of talking about it. He has discovered that the key to being psychosis free is healthy eating, no stress, and exercise.
Oh, let's dig into this. First, how are these kids going about smoking pot? Smoking weed is not a quick fix drug like heroin. You do not “do pot” every half hour. Smoking something, even heroin or crack, is not done every half hour. It takes longer than shooting up or sniffing something up your nose. I've known a few people that were literally perpetually stoned. They did not smoke every half hour nor did they smoke anywhere near 20 times per day.
He smoked in the shower so his parents couldn’t smell it. His parents actually were completely unaware that he smoked marijuana at all! What kind of water do they have in Australia that masks the smell of pot? I’m sorry, but if your kid is doing pretty much anything 20 times a day, you know about it.
Let's talk about this manic episode. Pot relaxes you. The sativa strains give you an energy buzz, but nothing like a manic episode. You just get chatty and don't want to sit around. I decided to do some research on this and discovered that in those who are bipolar, marijuana can trigger a manic episode. I searched quite extensively and none of the information I found stated that marijuana will cause a manic episode in anyone that is not bipolar. Marijuana does not cause bipolar disorder; the disease must already exist for THC to have this effect. On that note, his story seems to go right along with that information. I particularly loved how his key to being psychosis free is exactly what psychiatrists tell their bipolar patients. Now that he doesn’t smoke anymore, he just has “tiny manic episodes”. I’m sorry, there is no such thing.
Marijuana Addiction
This kid also talked about the horrible withdrawal symptoms he had when he stopped using. What were they? He got angry and depressed. Sorry. Look up the definition of withdrawal. It involves physical symptoms, not just being a little cranky. So let’s talk about the addictiveness of marijuana.
There are two ways that a drug can be “addictive”. The first is by causing physical dependence. When the amount of certain foreign chemicals introduced to the human body ceases or lessens, the body deals with this abstinence by producing various physical and emotional withdrawal symptoms. This happens with alcohol, heroin, caffeine, innumerable prescription medications, and even aspirin. It does NOT occur with THC, the drug in marijuana. No matter if you inject THC in your veins or smoke a blunt in the Walmart parking lot every night, your body will NEVER have withdrawal symptoms from THC if you stop smoking. However, you may withdraw from the drugs the pot is laced with, such as meth or heroin.
The second and more powerful way to be “addicted” is related to the pleasure and reward neurotransmitters of the brain. If we experience a reward, this reinforces to us that what we are doing is good and should do it again. When addictive drugs are taken, the brain is flooded with one or more of the neurotransmitters that are part of the brain’s reward system, primarily dopamine. Depending on the drug, the brain either says, “Oh, I don’t need to make my own anymore”, or “Oh I don’t need this much, I’m shutting down the receptors.” The more of a drug that is taken and the longer the period of time, the more of this effect is seen. This causes the person to need to use drugs in order to get that reward. Guess what? THC does not activate any of the neurotransmitters associated with addiction.
THC is a cannabinoid chemical that activates the neurotransmitter anandamide, a natural cannabinoid. These affect short-term memory, coordination, learning, and problem solving. Since THC mimics anandamide, irregular signals are sent to the brain, making someone act stoned. If you know any frequent pot smokers, you should be able to see the correlation to these four areas that cannabinoids regulate. I hope we can all agree that while we can be addicted to pleasure, we cannot be addicted to remembering, walking in a straight line, or figuring out a complicated issue.
You might be thinking, “But marijuana causes euphoria.” No, it doesn’t. Euphoria is caused by dopamine and similar chemicals, which are not activated by marijuana. Pot alters your perception of the world. Some people like this, some don’t. Of those who like it, the feeling is not always euphoria. For those that do feel euphoria, the release of dopamine is caused by the thrill of altered perception, not by the drug itself. With a drug like cocaine, whether or not you “like” how it made you feel, chemical euphoria occurred in the brain.
With that being said, literally anything can be addictive. People release the neurotransmitters of addiction every time they do something that makes them feel a rush (either good or bad), like winning a board game, shopping, sex, or getting hurt. If any of these actions are done enough, it can become an addiction. Gambling and self-mutilation are very good example of this and are both actually more likely to cause addiction because winning and pain always trigger these chemicals into action.
Yes, smoking pot regularly is bad. However, so are a myriad of other substances that are legal and not demonized. You can die of liver failure if you take too much Tylenol! You can't even overdose on marijuana. I think that parents need to pay attention to their kids. Watch their behavior. Pay attention to signs of emotional problems and mental illness. Don’t blame all of your country’s problems on pot.
Note: After writing this, I noticed another blogger wrote on this over a year ago and shared my same opinion. I'm happy to know I'm not the only one out there...... I also have to thank my niece Courtney for making double sure my psychology info was still as I remembered it from over a decade ago. :-) Thanks!
Not only did I study psychology, but I also used to have affection for pot in my early 20s. I was acquainted with many stoners as well as hard drug users and addicts. I am not a dumb person. I am an observer and a sponge. From this and my knowledge of basic brain biology and psychology, I am intelligent enough to know that this show was attempting to convince that the exception to the rule is in fact the norm.
I was watching in utter disbelief. Even my husband, who has always been sickeningly straight edge, was getting angry watching it with me. Why? Because unless you live in complete isolation from the world and get all of your information from sources like Fox News, you know that pot does not normally have this affect on people. Anyway, let us begin the tearing apart of this ludicrous waste of air space.
Show Background
The show profiles a few Australian youths that have been hospitalized for addiction to marijuana and psychosis caused by it. The goal of the film was to show that marijuana is far from harmless and in fact is just as bad as or worse than “hard” drugs. We always heard about pot being a “gateway” drug. Well, forget that! Psychosis and heavy lifelong addiction is apparently caused directly by marijuana. We had better tell all the ex hippies that are now sober and working in the corporate world that they are in fact psychotics in the throes of heavy addiction.
They indicate that pot smoking today is much different than it was in the 60s. The point was made that because of hydroponics and other factors, there is more THC in today's weed than in the past. I’m not arguing this point because breeding pot is serious business today and this may very well be true. But there always is just a shred of truth in propaganda isn’t there? They state that in the 60s everyone shared joints and today everyone smokes from a bong, so the amount of THC ingested is also greatly increased due to this.
Is Australia that different from America? Did my friends parents that were at Woodstock lie about those hookah parties? From how often I see kids buying rolling paper and single cigars from the store, I think joint and blunt smoking is still as popular as it was back in the 60’s and the 90‘s when I was in college. Bongs cost money and must be maintained. If you do not want to buy one, more effort goes into making one than just rolling a joint or packing a pipe. Maybe Australian kids are all rich and can afford to buy “accessories”. In any event, scientific studies have shown that the best way to smoke marijuana is through a bong or hookah because harmful chemicals in both the plant and those mixed in by dealers are filtered through the water.
According to the show, one out of five Australian youths smoke weed and of those, 10% are addicted and use every day. Then they said that half of all Australians have smoked it by the age of 16. So which is it? One-fifth or one-half? Many of these kids are regular users by age 14. I’m sorry, but even in a drug-scourged country like the US, we do not have many regular drug users that are under 14 outside of poverty-stricken areas. These kids were clearly middle class based on their clothing, even skin tone, cleanliness, and mannerisms. Oh, and all of them had facial piercings. Simply not good candidates for kids that are going to have so little adult supervision that they can smoke weed all day long without anyone noticing or caring.
Marijuana Induced Psychosis
They stated that extended use is causing severe paranoia and schizophrenia, which is literally filling up their psychiatric wards. I found that research has shown that in young people that are genetically predisposed to schizophrenia, heavy marijuana use can cause similar damage to the brain as schizophrenia. No similar effects have been found in people without family or personal history of similar mental illness. So, if their psych wards are filled from pot smoking kids going psychotic, they must have a lot of genetically predisposed people down under!
That was the rational part. Now let's talk about the completely crazy propagandist part. The profiles.
The first girl was a heavy user. She got clean and after 2 years started having delusions and the compulsion to jump out windows. To quote them, she “got” schizophrenia. She spent 15 months in the hospital and relapsed 7 times during her stay. Now she is better and has lived a completely normal life for four years. Besides looking androgynous, she looks perfectly normal. She talks perfectly normal. She is pretty much cured.
First of all, where were these so called doctors trained? You do not “get” schizophrenia, you develop it. People with schizophrenia do not relapse, like a person with cancer. The disease is always there, just in varying degrees. Schizophrenic episodes can be cyclical or triggered by a plethora of things.
I have known a few schizophrenics in my life as I stated in a previous post. It can take years to get medication right in a schizophrenic patient. It takes a minimum of two weeks for the drugs to even normalize in the body and start to do their job. Moreover, symptoms do not magically disappear. It takes several weeks to months for the correct medications to remove the symptoms. In addition, schizophrenia never goes away. There is no cure.
Even when the right medication cocktail has been found, the person still isn’t “right”; they are just functional. Why? Because antipsychotics have side effects that cause behaviors and ticks that are sometimes almost as bad as schizophrenia itself. In short, medicated schizophrenics appear in both manner and appearance, medicated. Neither this girl, nor ANY of the people profiled in this show appeared medicated. Nevertheless, they were all perfectly ok and living wonderful lives now that the evil demon weed was out of their lives. Interesting.
Marijuana Induced Mania
The high school boy they profiled was much more entertaining, not only for his claims but how serious and dramatic it was portrayed. He smoked pot up to 20 times per day and detailed that he smoked at 8 am, 8:30 am, and again at 9. He smoked in the shower so his parents couldn’t smell it. When using pot he had very bad “manic” episodes where he wanted to play loud music, drive fast, and yell. He came from a dysfunctional background and blocked everything out instead of talking about it. He has discovered that the key to being psychosis free is healthy eating, no stress, and exercise.
Oh, let's dig into this. First, how are these kids going about smoking pot? Smoking weed is not a quick fix drug like heroin. You do not “do pot” every half hour. Smoking something, even heroin or crack, is not done every half hour. It takes longer than shooting up or sniffing something up your nose. I've known a few people that were literally perpetually stoned. They did not smoke every half hour nor did they smoke anywhere near 20 times per day.
He smoked in the shower so his parents couldn’t smell it. His parents actually were completely unaware that he smoked marijuana at all! What kind of water do they have in Australia that masks the smell of pot? I’m sorry, but if your kid is doing pretty much anything 20 times a day, you know about it.
Let's talk about this manic episode. Pot relaxes you. The sativa strains give you an energy buzz, but nothing like a manic episode. You just get chatty and don't want to sit around. I decided to do some research on this and discovered that in those who are bipolar, marijuana can trigger a manic episode. I searched quite extensively and none of the information I found stated that marijuana will cause a manic episode in anyone that is not bipolar. Marijuana does not cause bipolar disorder; the disease must already exist for THC to have this effect. On that note, his story seems to go right along with that information. I particularly loved how his key to being psychosis free is exactly what psychiatrists tell their bipolar patients. Now that he doesn’t smoke anymore, he just has “tiny manic episodes”. I’m sorry, there is no such thing.
Marijuana Addiction
This kid also talked about the horrible withdrawal symptoms he had when he stopped using. What were they? He got angry and depressed. Sorry. Look up the definition of withdrawal. It involves physical symptoms, not just being a little cranky. So let’s talk about the addictiveness of marijuana.
There are two ways that a drug can be “addictive”. The first is by causing physical dependence. When the amount of certain foreign chemicals introduced to the human body ceases or lessens, the body deals with this abstinence by producing various physical and emotional withdrawal symptoms. This happens with alcohol, heroin, caffeine, innumerable prescription medications, and even aspirin. It does NOT occur with THC, the drug in marijuana. No matter if you inject THC in your veins or smoke a blunt in the Walmart parking lot every night, your body will NEVER have withdrawal symptoms from THC if you stop smoking. However, you may withdraw from the drugs the pot is laced with, such as meth or heroin.
The second and more powerful way to be “addicted” is related to the pleasure and reward neurotransmitters of the brain. If we experience a reward, this reinforces to us that what we are doing is good and should do it again. When addictive drugs are taken, the brain is flooded with one or more of the neurotransmitters that are part of the brain’s reward system, primarily dopamine. Depending on the drug, the brain either says, “Oh, I don’t need to make my own anymore”, or “Oh I don’t need this much, I’m shutting down the receptors.” The more of a drug that is taken and the longer the period of time, the more of this effect is seen. This causes the person to need to use drugs in order to get that reward. Guess what? THC does not activate any of the neurotransmitters associated with addiction.
THC is a cannabinoid chemical that activates the neurotransmitter anandamide, a natural cannabinoid. These affect short-term memory, coordination, learning, and problem solving. Since THC mimics anandamide, irregular signals are sent to the brain, making someone act stoned. If you know any frequent pot smokers, you should be able to see the correlation to these four areas that cannabinoids regulate. I hope we can all agree that while we can be addicted to pleasure, we cannot be addicted to remembering, walking in a straight line, or figuring out a complicated issue.
You might be thinking, “But marijuana causes euphoria.” No, it doesn’t. Euphoria is caused by dopamine and similar chemicals, which are not activated by marijuana. Pot alters your perception of the world. Some people like this, some don’t. Of those who like it, the feeling is not always euphoria. For those that do feel euphoria, the release of dopamine is caused by the thrill of altered perception, not by the drug itself. With a drug like cocaine, whether or not you “like” how it made you feel, chemical euphoria occurred in the brain.
With that being said, literally anything can be addictive. People release the neurotransmitters of addiction every time they do something that makes them feel a rush (either good or bad), like winning a board game, shopping, sex, or getting hurt. If any of these actions are done enough, it can become an addiction. Gambling and self-mutilation are very good example of this and are both actually more likely to cause addiction because winning and pain always trigger these chemicals into action.
Yes, smoking pot regularly is bad. However, so are a myriad of other substances that are legal and not demonized. You can die of liver failure if you take too much Tylenol! You can't even overdose on marijuana. I think that parents need to pay attention to their kids. Watch their behavior. Pay attention to signs of emotional problems and mental illness. Don’t blame all of your country’s problems on pot.
Note: After writing this, I noticed another blogger wrote on this over a year ago and shared my same opinion. I'm happy to know I'm not the only one out there...... I also have to thank my niece Courtney for making double sure my psychology info was still as I remembered it from over a decade ago. :-) Thanks!
Sunday, August 22, 2010
Sorry for the Pause
Several weeks ago I lost the “blog book”, where all of the notes are stored for the shows I’ve watched. I have 2 other books with notes from shows watched years ago. One was defiled by my daughter. Meaning? All the pages with my notes were torn out and the remaining pages filled with little girl type things. The other is just pages and pages of random notes with no shows indicated except for one, “Saddam and the Third Reich”. Oh boy. No way am I writing about that. That 3 hour documentary totally blew my mind and made me so mad at all of my previous history teachers and the US media that I don’t know that I’ll ever be able to write about it.
To keep the blog going, I could have just started a fourth notebook. But I’m committed to this one, as it’s cover is a beautiful mandala. I am so unorganized as it is, I felt it best not to add another book to the mix. Lo and behold, the blog book has been found. After tearing the house apart for days, I spied it sitting innocently and alone on the backseat of my car. It would have been nice to find it while I had a break from work. However, I will try to plug ahead this week. Topics coming up: The “dangers” of marijuana, Amazon headhunters, biological material from space, and capitalism and the current economic crisis. So, fun stuff. Stay tuned.
To keep the blog going, I could have just started a fourth notebook. But I’m committed to this one, as it’s cover is a beautiful mandala. I am so unorganized as it is, I felt it best not to add another book to the mix. Lo and behold, the blog book has been found. After tearing the house apart for days, I spied it sitting innocently and alone on the backseat of my car. It would have been nice to find it while I had a break from work. However, I will try to plug ahead this week. Topics coming up: The “dangers” of marijuana, Amazon headhunters, biological material from space, and capitalism and the current economic crisis. So, fun stuff. Stay tuned.
Friday, July 30, 2010
The Unseen Environmental Hazard
Up until this point, I have consciously avoided any documentaries regarding anything in China. Anyone who knows me personally is aware of what a sore spot China is for me. Nevertheless, I feel that this episode of Vanguard called Pollution to Protest was about an issue that many people might be completely unaware of, e-waste. We all know that you don't just throw computers, cell phones and the like in the trash. We take special care to make sure they are disposed of properly. But, what happens to that material after it leaves our hands? Ask China.
One of the biggest electronics dismantling operations takes place in the Guangdong province of China. In these towns, especially Guiyu, known as the E-waste capitol of the world; people work dawn to dusk taking apart devices with whatever tool is available. Everyone from children to the elderly wakes up to piles of used junk and starts work immediately, working an average of 14 hours for about $12 a day. Many of the workers are migrant workers from other parts of China (and areas that technically are not China but the government has claimed them).
We picture factories where people carefully take apart our once beloved electronics. Get that idea out of your head, and FAST! There are no factories. There are literally huge piles of equipment along the streets and inside people's homes. If that isn't bad enough, after being dismantled the pieces are just thrown in piles of similar parts outside. The metal parts of devices are boiled down in huge cauldrons to extract the heavy metals within.
Over 50 million tons of e-waste is produced each year. These piles of e-junk are sent away for safe processing because they contain lead, cadmium, and mercury, as well as other harmful materials. We are safe from our own waste, but the people taking apart these electronics are at risk for dangerous toxicity disease from a multitude of materials. Children are reported to have 25% higher blood lead levels.
Of course though the largest recipient, China cannot do all of this "safe disposal" by themselves. E-waste is also shipped to Nigeria and India and is processed under similar conditions, though not in such gross quantities. I'm not aware of the environmental situation in Nigeria besides the cyanide that goes into the water supply there from diamond mining. However, I am acutely aware that both China and India are focusing on economic growth and are ignoring the environment. This is where I use the stapler to keep from going on a rant about China.
In any event, not much is being done about this. On our end, there are a few things we can do. Buy from companies that produce "green" electronics. Don't replace electronics unless you need to (don't be a capitalist whore is what I mean by this). Return your electronics for refurbishment to the company rather than sending them to an e-waste disposal center. Lastly, pray that these countries get a big kick in the ass.
E-waste hazards: Chinese gear recyclers absorb toxic chemicals.(This Week)(electronic waste, polybrominated diphenyl ethers): An article from: Science News
One of the biggest electronics dismantling operations takes place in the Guangdong province of China. In these towns, especially Guiyu, known as the E-waste capitol of the world; people work dawn to dusk taking apart devices with whatever tool is available. Everyone from children to the elderly wakes up to piles of used junk and starts work immediately, working an average of 14 hours for about $12 a day. Many of the workers are migrant workers from other parts of China (and areas that technically are not China but the government has claimed them).
We picture factories where people carefully take apart our once beloved electronics. Get that idea out of your head, and FAST! There are no factories. There are literally huge piles of equipment along the streets and inside people's homes. If that isn't bad enough, after being dismantled the pieces are just thrown in piles of similar parts outside. The metal parts of devices are boiled down in huge cauldrons to extract the heavy metals within.
Over 50 million tons of e-waste is produced each year. These piles of e-junk are sent away for safe processing because they contain lead, cadmium, and mercury, as well as other harmful materials. We are safe from our own waste, but the people taking apart these electronics are at risk for dangerous toxicity disease from a multitude of materials. Children are reported to have 25% higher blood lead levels.
Of course though the largest recipient, China cannot do all of this "safe disposal" by themselves. E-waste is also shipped to Nigeria and India and is processed under similar conditions, though not in such gross quantities. I'm not aware of the environmental situation in Nigeria besides the cyanide that goes into the water supply there from diamond mining. However, I am acutely aware that both China and India are focusing on economic growth and are ignoring the environment. This is where I use the stapler to keep from going on a rant about China.
In any event, not much is being done about this. On our end, there are a few things we can do. Buy from companies that produce "green" electronics. Don't replace electronics unless you need to (don't be a capitalist whore is what I mean by this). Return your electronics for refurbishment to the company rather than sending them to an e-waste disposal center. Lastly, pray that these countries get a big kick in the ass.
E-waste hazards: Chinese gear recyclers absorb toxic chemicals.(This Week)(electronic waste, polybrominated diphenyl ethers): An article from: Science News
Monday, July 26, 2010
Toilets for Everyone
The episode of Vanguard on Current about the World Toilet Crisis was one of the most relevant and informative documentaries that I have seen in a while. This is an issue I knew about, but definitely did not realize the scale. Half, yes half of the worlds population does not have a toilet to use. Just imagine, 2.6 billion people are shitting in the open.
Obviously tribal peoples do not use toilets. Anyone that knows anything about conditions in third world and developing counties would realize that bathrooms aren’t commonplace within residential areas. This is a normal expectation and it really isn’t gross to me. This is because I know that since prehistoric times man has known to have both burial and bathroom pits away from homes and sources of food and water. Unfortunately, somewhere along the line, that knowledge was swept under the rug by both the individual, his community, and his government.
The first part of the show focused on India, where 55% of the population (600 million people) lives without toilets. More people in India have cell phones and TVs than toilets. Not entirely surprising. Even though the countries economy is growing fast, sanitation has not even begun to run the race, let alone catch up. It seemingly is not a priority for the Indian government.
The Yamuna River was profiled, which is the largest tributary of the Ganges. The water in the river near New Delhi is black and bubbles with methane gas. Along the banks, you cant walk more than a few feet without finding a pile of human feces swarming with flies.
New Delhi gets its water supply from this “holy” waterway. Inhabitants of the banks of the river near New Delhi have no access to tap water. Guess what that means? They use the black sewage filled river water to cook, drink, bathe, and wash their clothes. Oh yes. In the city itself there is insufficient sewage treatment. The canals along the street that raw sewage run through also hold the inlets for fresh water. So you must put your water container in sewage to get clean water. That is about as nasty as it gets. No wonder 1,000 children in this area die every day of diarrhea, a result of water borne illness.
Apparently, upriver there is a dam that keeps water from flowing to the city. Above the dam, the river is beautiful and stocked with wildlife. The only new liquid that the Yamuna River gets near New Delhi is toxic waste and sewage. When a plague hits New Delhi, don’t be surprised.
Contrast this with the town of Haryana, India where 60% of residents have a toilet. The local government gives each family a $47 grant to install a toilet. There is even a campaign called “no toilet, no bride” where mothers will not even consider a boy to marry her daughter unless there is a toilet in the house. This is giving dignity to women who and reducing disease greatly.
The next stop on this shit train was Indonesia. This was a completely different situation. Where in India, lack of money and a badly run government are the culprits in the sanitation crisis, education is the root cause in Indonesia. It isn’t that Indonesians don’t have access to clean water, they don’t seem to realize that its not good to defecate in your water supply.
The strategy of Jack Sim of the World Toilet Organization is to go from town to town educating locals about the dangers of open toileting near or in their water supply. They aim to make one town at a time open defecation free, by locally marketing toilet benefits and making the locals sign agreements. Each inhabitant that installs a toilet gets notoriety in the town, helping to spread the word. As each village does this, the idea spreads to the next. In the last year, 3% have turned to toilets. This may not seem like a lot until you consider the population.
Another interesting idea is creating many jobs for the community, fecal recycling. The contents of septic tanks go through a multi-stage transformation into fertilizer. This fertilizer is valued because it is certified organic, making produce grown with it more valuable. The next time you eat organic produce from Indonesia, consider that!
This is a serious problem that affects all of us. Even though we may live in a society where virtually everyone has a toilet, this does not mean we cannot be affected by this problem. All local environmental problems are the world’s problems due to international trade and travel. If you would like to help with this devastating health problem, you can contact the World Toilet Organization or Water.org.
Obviously tribal peoples do not use toilets. Anyone that knows anything about conditions in third world and developing counties would realize that bathrooms aren’t commonplace within residential areas. This is a normal expectation and it really isn’t gross to me. This is because I know that since prehistoric times man has known to have both burial and bathroom pits away from homes and sources of food and water. Unfortunately, somewhere along the line, that knowledge was swept under the rug by both the individual, his community, and his government.
The first part of the show focused on India, where 55% of the population (600 million people) lives without toilets. More people in India have cell phones and TVs than toilets. Not entirely surprising. Even though the countries economy is growing fast, sanitation has not even begun to run the race, let alone catch up. It seemingly is not a priority for the Indian government.
The Yamuna River was profiled, which is the largest tributary of the Ganges. The water in the river near New Delhi is black and bubbles with methane gas. Along the banks, you cant walk more than a few feet without finding a pile of human feces swarming with flies.
New Delhi gets its water supply from this “holy” waterway. Inhabitants of the banks of the river near New Delhi have no access to tap water. Guess what that means? They use the black sewage filled river water to cook, drink, bathe, and wash their clothes. Oh yes. In the city itself there is insufficient sewage treatment. The canals along the street that raw sewage run through also hold the inlets for fresh water. So you must put your water container in sewage to get clean water. That is about as nasty as it gets. No wonder 1,000 children in this area die every day of diarrhea, a result of water borne illness.
Apparently, upriver there is a dam that keeps water from flowing to the city. Above the dam, the river is beautiful and stocked with wildlife. The only new liquid that the Yamuna River gets near New Delhi is toxic waste and sewage. When a plague hits New Delhi, don’t be surprised.
Contrast this with the town of Haryana, India where 60% of residents have a toilet. The local government gives each family a $47 grant to install a toilet. There is even a campaign called “no toilet, no bride” where mothers will not even consider a boy to marry her daughter unless there is a toilet in the house. This is giving dignity to women who and reducing disease greatly.
The next stop on this shit train was Indonesia. This was a completely different situation. Where in India, lack of money and a badly run government are the culprits in the sanitation crisis, education is the root cause in Indonesia. It isn’t that Indonesians don’t have access to clean water, they don’t seem to realize that its not good to defecate in your water supply.
The strategy of Jack Sim of the World Toilet Organization is to go from town to town educating locals about the dangers of open toileting near or in their water supply. They aim to make one town at a time open defecation free, by locally marketing toilet benefits and making the locals sign agreements. Each inhabitant that installs a toilet gets notoriety in the town, helping to spread the word. As each village does this, the idea spreads to the next. In the last year, 3% have turned to toilets. This may not seem like a lot until you consider the population.
Another interesting idea is creating many jobs for the community, fecal recycling. The contents of septic tanks go through a multi-stage transformation into fertilizer. This fertilizer is valued because it is certified organic, making produce grown with it more valuable. The next time you eat organic produce from Indonesia, consider that!
This is a serious problem that affects all of us. Even though we may live in a society where virtually everyone has a toilet, this does not mean we cannot be affected by this problem. All local environmental problems are the world’s problems due to international trade and travel. If you would like to help with this devastating health problem, you can contact the World Toilet Organization or Water.org.
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
Comfort in Likeness
On Link TV, I watched a documentary about Iraqi refugees in Lebanon called Iraq in Lebanon. With all of the turmoil in the Middle East, Lebanon has become a sanctuary for those from conflict zones such as Iraq and Palestine. Starting in 2006, Iraqis began flooding into the country in unprecedented numbers. In 2008, about 50,000 Iraqis, mostly Shiite Muslims and Christians illegally entered Lebanon, a country that does not border Iraq. This is a situation I know virtually nothing about. So, it is hard to have much of an opinion on it.
Unfortunately, Lebanon's policy on refugees is not very accommodating. Formally, refugees are tolerated only long enough to be resettled in another country through the UN or repatriated to Iraq. This means that there is no such thing as asylum or refugee status in Lebanon. Still, thousands flee here.
The UNHCR (the UN Refugee Agency) offers resettlement to refugees in Lebanon to other countries (mostly the US, Canada, and Australia) or repatriation to Iraq. The process takes several months and the refugess receive no protection or any type of UN or government assistance in the meantime. They cannot sign leases or get jobs. If they can get an apartment, they are charged double or triple the rate. If someone does illegally hire them, they must be on constant lookout for police. Days and nights are filled with fear as they pray that police will not find them.
When illegals are caught in Lebanon, they are not deported. They are put in prison for several months. These prisons are not like the cushy jails Americans take for granted. Up to 10 people are put in a 6 square foot cell with no toilet. From how these refugees described the fabulous accommodations, it reminded me of the descriptions of Revolutionary war prison ships, where three times as many soldiers died than in combat.
Ziyad, a Shiite Iraqi profiled on the show, begged to be deported to Iraq in order to get out of this hell hole. Upon arriving in Iraq, he got his passport and legally went to Syria. Did he stay there? No. He crossed the border illegally to return to Lebanon. I thought to myself, "Why, if he can LEGALLY go to Syria, would he ILLEGALLY go back to Lebanon?" This was quite curious and I decided to research this issue. Here is what I was able to find out.
Syria, which shares a large border with Iraq, has a contract with the UN to accept refugees. Syria offers protection to refugees as well as financial assistance, health care, and education. Though not allowed to seek formal employment, they can work and not fear arrest. Syrians in general are accepting of the refugees. Interestingly enough, the Iraqi refugee population in Syria is one of the largest refugee populations in the world. Thousands of Iraqis arrive in Syria every month. Sounds great, right?
Prior to 2007, most Iraqis that entered Syria were allowed to stay. Unfortunately, in 2007, stricter visa requirements were enacted for Iraqis as well as the shortening of the period for residence permits. In the most recent two years, Iraqis have been deported and jailed. The restrictions are not so tight that it would prevent so many Iraqis that are risking their life in Lebanon from seeking shelter there. There is another reason. Religion.
Syria happens to be about 70% Sunni Muslim, 13% Shiite Muslim, and 10% Christian. In Lebanon, 40% of the population is Christian and there are an equal amount (28% each) Sunnis and Shiites. In fact, Lebanon has the largest Christian Community in the Middle East. Lebanon is the only country in the Middle East where a Christian can comfortably make a life for them self. Undoubtedly, Shiite Muslims also have fewer problems there.
So, it comes down to society. Though Syria offers the necessities of life, Lebanon offers community. In these stressful times, Iraqis would rather risk their lives and jail to get help from people like them rather than trust an accepting government with their lives. You really can't blame them.
Unfortunately, Lebanon's policy on refugees is not very accommodating. Formally, refugees are tolerated only long enough to be resettled in another country through the UN or repatriated to Iraq. This means that there is no such thing as asylum or refugee status in Lebanon. Still, thousands flee here.
The UNHCR (the UN Refugee Agency) offers resettlement to refugees in Lebanon to other countries (mostly the US, Canada, and Australia) or repatriation to Iraq. The process takes several months and the refugess receive no protection or any type of UN or government assistance in the meantime. They cannot sign leases or get jobs. If they can get an apartment, they are charged double or triple the rate. If someone does illegally hire them, they must be on constant lookout for police. Days and nights are filled with fear as they pray that police will not find them.
When illegals are caught in Lebanon, they are not deported. They are put in prison for several months. These prisons are not like the cushy jails Americans take for granted. Up to 10 people are put in a 6 square foot cell with no toilet. From how these refugees described the fabulous accommodations, it reminded me of the descriptions of Revolutionary war prison ships, where three times as many soldiers died than in combat.
Ziyad, a Shiite Iraqi profiled on the show, begged to be deported to Iraq in order to get out of this hell hole. Upon arriving in Iraq, he got his passport and legally went to Syria. Did he stay there? No. He crossed the border illegally to return to Lebanon. I thought to myself, "Why, if he can LEGALLY go to Syria, would he ILLEGALLY go back to Lebanon?" This was quite curious and I decided to research this issue. Here is what I was able to find out.
Syria, which shares a large border with Iraq, has a contract with the UN to accept refugees. Syria offers protection to refugees as well as financial assistance, health care, and education. Though not allowed to seek formal employment, they can work and not fear arrest. Syrians in general are accepting of the refugees. Interestingly enough, the Iraqi refugee population in Syria is one of the largest refugee populations in the world. Thousands of Iraqis arrive in Syria every month. Sounds great, right?
Prior to 2007, most Iraqis that entered Syria were allowed to stay. Unfortunately, in 2007, stricter visa requirements were enacted for Iraqis as well as the shortening of the period for residence permits. In the most recent two years, Iraqis have been deported and jailed. The restrictions are not so tight that it would prevent so many Iraqis that are risking their life in Lebanon from seeking shelter there. There is another reason. Religion.
Syria happens to be about 70% Sunni Muslim, 13% Shiite Muslim, and 10% Christian. In Lebanon, 40% of the population is Christian and there are an equal amount (28% each) Sunnis and Shiites. In fact, Lebanon has the largest Christian Community in the Middle East. Lebanon is the only country in the Middle East where a Christian can comfortably make a life for them self. Undoubtedly, Shiite Muslims also have fewer problems there.
So, it comes down to society. Though Syria offers the necessities of life, Lebanon offers community. In these stressful times, Iraqis would rather risk their lives and jail to get help from people like them rather than trust an accepting government with their lives. You really can't blame them.
Friday, July 16, 2010
Good ol American Values
Though it is my home, I am admittedly not a big cheerleader for the United States and its politics. However, I am a huge history aficionado. As an American, I learned little about history besides anything that directly related to my American experience. This is regrettable because I feel the history of other parts off the world is much more exciting and intriguing. Nevertheless, I always like to learn the little known facts and the things that were left out or forgotten from my childhood history lessons.
The History Channel is home to a new series called "America: The Story of Us". The first episode was 2 hours long and covered the period from Jamestown until the Revolutionary War. I learned many facts by watching this, which was the goal. More profound to me was the realization that we are not what we claim to be anymore. We have truly lost the American spirit that we preach around the world.
Cooperation and Respect
The residents of Jamestown made a treacherous journey in 1610 across the ocean that lasted several months to use their entrepreneurial spirit to find gold and a route to the orient. Being ill prepared for hard labor and with virtually no survival skills, things were so hard that one man in Jamestown killed his pregnant wife with the intent of eating her. Nevertheless, they persevered.
John Rolf arrived with a few tobacco seeds stolen from the Spanish controlled colonies. He made alliances with the local Native Americans, which led to his marriage to Pocahontas. Within 2 years of his arrival, tobacco was growing in every garden, eventually making Jamestown the first American Boomtown.
Compare this to how we overcome lands today. Iraq is a perfect example. Our government is not honest about why we are really being sent there. We kill and torture the inhabitants (children and puppies included) and destroy the landscape. We force our ways upon them. There is no friend making here; citizens are fleeing Iraq by the thousands every year. A great number of them are refugees in America, where we enforce a policy of bigotry and hate against them.
Religious Tolerance
Ten years after Rolf, a group of religious nonconformists made a similar journey to escape religious oppression. Nineteen families, goats, chickens, pigs, and dogs arrived on the Mayflower with all of the supplies and gumption needed to make new lives for themselves. In the first 3 months, half of them died. They also made alliances with the natives leaving them with the know how to farm the sandy ground. This allowed them to thrive and prosper. The average Puritan was 2 inches taller, averaged 8 children per family, and were 20% richer than their counterparts in England.
America, a land founded partially on the foundation of religious tolerance, now breeds some of the most bigoted and narrow minded people in the world. I feel that as long as you are Christian, you can have all of the religious freedom that you need here, no matter if you play with snakes are have a church practically made of neon created only to make you rich. If not, you can risk everything from simple ridicule to having your place of worship burned to the ground.
Muslims have been in our country since before Columbus with no conflict. Now we allow our media to demonize each one, making each American Muslim part of the 2% worldwide that are extremists. Are we reminded that we aided Saddam Hussein in his failed war against Iran in the 80's? Let's not mention the fact that we trained the most feared of them all, Osama!
Sure, our government gives all religions most of the same legal rights to be a part of our fabric. In Italy, a religion cannot legally exist without a contract with the federal government. Another example is Greece, which barely admits that their "Muslim minority" even exists. Muslims make up approximately 30% of the citizenry of Greek Thrace (who are treated much as legal Mexicans are here in the US) and Muslim refugees from the Middle East are pouring by the thousands into Athens.
These countries were not born of a desire for freedom from religious persecution. They have no moral or constitutional duty to provide it like the United States does. We should look to India, a true faith melting pot, for inspiration. It is the birthplace of four of the world's religions and has true tolerance in both law and culture. This is not to say there is not religious violence in India. However, outsiders and not the citizenry of the subcontinent usually cause the violence. Jains, Hindus, Muslims, and Christians all live together in one village with respect for one another and are entwined in each other's lives. People are not tagged with a label, they are just a neighbor.
Something to Believe In
As the colonies grew, they became ever more important to England. Forty percent of all British exports reached the colonies and the tobacco plantations were making Britain rich. There were huge taxes on all imports and exports. More important was that with their King so far away, Americans had their own way of life. The British were unnecessarily oppressive and gave the colonists no legal representation.
As we all know, the colonists made revolution against the best army in the world, with little chance of succeeding. This revolution is the epitome of courageousness, innovativeness, cooperation, and standing for what you believe in. We won the revolution because we waged war differently, created new and better weapons, and inoculated our troops from disease, a technique taken from slaves.
On recent trips to Valley Forge and the Princeton battleground, I heard about Baron Von Steuben, a gay Prussian military leader that trained Washington's troops in the winter of 1778. He noted that you could simply tell other armies what to do and they did it with no questions or hesitation. The colonial troops would not do anything unless the reason was explicitly stated and they agreed with it. What happened to that?
America has become a capitalist society that is full of people that expect. We expect wealth, material things, and feel self entitled. We believe we are the best, but no longer have to work for it. We have become lazy and sloppy. This loss of drive and pride and confidence in the status quo has cost hundreds of thousands of American jobs and has made our educational system subpar. Americans complain that immigrants are stealing their jobs. If we were willing to work half as hard as they are, we would be guaranteed a job. We also would not be one of the most overweight nations!
Many Americans now are part of a flock of sheep, guided by the staff of radical Christian leaders to hate, maim, and scream for war against people that just want to live their lives in peace. We do what we are told in response to psychopolitical babble that is veiled in secrecy. Though we know the government and their media whores are misrepresenting and lying, we brand those who are brave enough to try to find the truth as crazy. From the outside we must look like zombies wired to Fox News, only making robotic actions based on the subliminal messages we receive throughout the day.
If America and its government held the ideals that created it in their hearts, this would truly be the greatest place on earth to live. But sadly, though we preach these things, they are not regularly put into practice by average citizens or their leaders. We are holding desperately onto the knots in the rope, being dragged through a cave blind and dumb.
The History Channel is home to a new series called "America: The Story of Us". The first episode was 2 hours long and covered the period from Jamestown until the Revolutionary War. I learned many facts by watching this, which was the goal. More profound to me was the realization that we are not what we claim to be anymore. We have truly lost the American spirit that we preach around the world.
Cooperation and Respect
The residents of Jamestown made a treacherous journey in 1610 across the ocean that lasted several months to use their entrepreneurial spirit to find gold and a route to the orient. Being ill prepared for hard labor and with virtually no survival skills, things were so hard that one man in Jamestown killed his pregnant wife with the intent of eating her. Nevertheless, they persevered.
John Rolf arrived with a few tobacco seeds stolen from the Spanish controlled colonies. He made alliances with the local Native Americans, which led to his marriage to Pocahontas. Within 2 years of his arrival, tobacco was growing in every garden, eventually making Jamestown the first American Boomtown.
Compare this to how we overcome lands today. Iraq is a perfect example. Our government is not honest about why we are really being sent there. We kill and torture the inhabitants (children and puppies included) and destroy the landscape. We force our ways upon them. There is no friend making here; citizens are fleeing Iraq by the thousands every year. A great number of them are refugees in America, where we enforce a policy of bigotry and hate against them.
Religious Tolerance
Ten years after Rolf, a group of religious nonconformists made a similar journey to escape religious oppression. Nineteen families, goats, chickens, pigs, and dogs arrived on the Mayflower with all of the supplies and gumption needed to make new lives for themselves. In the first 3 months, half of them died. They also made alliances with the natives leaving them with the know how to farm the sandy ground. This allowed them to thrive and prosper. The average Puritan was 2 inches taller, averaged 8 children per family, and were 20% richer than their counterparts in England.
America, a land founded partially on the foundation of religious tolerance, now breeds some of the most bigoted and narrow minded people in the world. I feel that as long as you are Christian, you can have all of the religious freedom that you need here, no matter if you play with snakes are have a church practically made of neon created only to make you rich. If not, you can risk everything from simple ridicule to having your place of worship burned to the ground.
Muslims have been in our country since before Columbus with no conflict. Now we allow our media to demonize each one, making each American Muslim part of the 2% worldwide that are extremists. Are we reminded that we aided Saddam Hussein in his failed war against Iran in the 80's? Let's not mention the fact that we trained the most feared of them all, Osama!
Sure, our government gives all religions most of the same legal rights to be a part of our fabric. In Italy, a religion cannot legally exist without a contract with the federal government. Another example is Greece, which barely admits that their "Muslim minority" even exists. Muslims make up approximately 30% of the citizenry of Greek Thrace (who are treated much as legal Mexicans are here in the US) and Muslim refugees from the Middle East are pouring by the thousands into Athens.
These countries were not born of a desire for freedom from religious persecution. They have no moral or constitutional duty to provide it like the United States does. We should look to India, a true faith melting pot, for inspiration. It is the birthplace of four of the world's religions and has true tolerance in both law and culture. This is not to say there is not religious violence in India. However, outsiders and not the citizenry of the subcontinent usually cause the violence. Jains, Hindus, Muslims, and Christians all live together in one village with respect for one another and are entwined in each other's lives. People are not tagged with a label, they are just a neighbor.
Something to Believe In
As the colonies grew, they became ever more important to England. Forty percent of all British exports reached the colonies and the tobacco plantations were making Britain rich. There were huge taxes on all imports and exports. More important was that with their King so far away, Americans had their own way of life. The British were unnecessarily oppressive and gave the colonists no legal representation.
As we all know, the colonists made revolution against the best army in the world, with little chance of succeeding. This revolution is the epitome of courageousness, innovativeness, cooperation, and standing for what you believe in. We won the revolution because we waged war differently, created new and better weapons, and inoculated our troops from disease, a technique taken from slaves.
On recent trips to Valley Forge and the Princeton battleground, I heard about Baron Von Steuben, a gay Prussian military leader that trained Washington's troops in the winter of 1778. He noted that you could simply tell other armies what to do and they did it with no questions or hesitation. The colonial troops would not do anything unless the reason was explicitly stated and they agreed with it. What happened to that?
America has become a capitalist society that is full of people that expect. We expect wealth, material things, and feel self entitled. We believe we are the best, but no longer have to work for it. We have become lazy and sloppy. This loss of drive and pride and confidence in the status quo has cost hundreds of thousands of American jobs and has made our educational system subpar. Americans complain that immigrants are stealing their jobs. If we were willing to work half as hard as they are, we would be guaranteed a job. We also would not be one of the most overweight nations!
Many Americans now are part of a flock of sheep, guided by the staff of radical Christian leaders to hate, maim, and scream for war against people that just want to live their lives in peace. We do what we are told in response to psychopolitical babble that is veiled in secrecy. Though we know the government and their media whores are misrepresenting and lying, we brand those who are brave enough to try to find the truth as crazy. From the outside we must look like zombies wired to Fox News, only making robotic actions based on the subliminal messages we receive throughout the day.
If America and its government held the ideals that created it in their hearts, this would truly be the greatest place on earth to live. But sadly, though we preach these things, they are not regularly put into practice by average citizens or their leaders. We are holding desperately onto the knots in the rope, being dragged through a cave blind and dumb.
Thursday, July 8, 2010
The Origins of Jungle Music
You know that a documentary series has to be cool if Reckoner by Radiohead is its theme song. I checked out Vanguard on Current TV and was impressed. These 30-minute episodes about global issues pack in a lot of information. I watched the episode Forest of Ecstasy, which was about the harvesting of a chemical used to make ecstasy in the Cambodian rainforest.
Drug users are typically not in the habit of, nor do they care where their drugs come from. A good many environmentally conscious casual drug users could benefit from doing a tad bit of research. They would be appalled and may even be able to curb a certain degree of use among the people they know. This is especially the case with ecstasy.
The largest intact rainforest in Southeast Asia supports 12 endangered animals and the Mreah Prew Phnom tree, itself rare. In the Cardamom Mountains, within the pristine beauty of the forest, there are clearings where deforestation has occurred and makeshift factories are found. At ground level, you can smell smoke from constantly burning fires. In many areas, no animal sounds are heard due to excessive poaching and a poisoned water supply.
This is a relatively new phenomenon for the Cardamoms. In the 1970's the Khmer Rouge ruled the area and swept the area with genocide and famine. When they were driven out, land mines were left behind in the forest, effectively keeping people away. The Cardamoms and the Mreah Prew were slowly rediscovered. Deforestation, poaching, and environmental destruction increase each year.
What is so special about this endangered tree? The strong smelling tree is the holder of a very valuable treasure; safrole or sassafras oil. This golden oil has traditionally been used for perfumes, cosmetics, and traditional medicine. However, it also has a similar chemical composition to MDMA (ecstasy) and is a key ingredient in its manufacture.
The tree is cut up and the wood chips are distilled over constantly burning fires for 5 days before the oil is extracted. A large amount of firewood is needed to keep the kettles going, causing deforestation. It is estimated that one ton of trees is felled per day. The oil and the byproducts of its extraction are carcinogenic. It is fabulous to know that everything goes right into the water supply. Even more exasperating is that most of these trees are found in a wildlife sanctuary.
The oil brings in big bucks, but most of the harvesters and the rangers that search for manufacturers do not even know what it's used for. Sold for up to $30/liter and smuggled into Vietnam and China, the oil eventually reaches drug producers in Europe, America, and Australia. Approximately 7,000 pills can be manufactured from one liter with a street value of approximately $200,000.
Besides the 'evils' of drug use, the environmental consequences are huge. Roads and trails are built through the forest as well as clearings for the factories. Deforestation and the resulting erosion is clearly an issue. The byproducts are carcinogenic to the indigent workers and animals in the forest. But, it also allows poachers an easy route through the forest. Some areas have 'Empty Forest Syndrome', where almost no evidence of animal life is found. Please take note that this is happening in a wildlife refuge!!!
Fighting this is difficult because it can take days to hike out to possible coordinates of sites previously gathered by helicopter. By the time the rangers get to a site that may have been active, it is deserted. When a live camp is found, it is easy for the harvesters to scatter into the dense forest around them. They are also heavily armed.
The Australian government has been trying to help. They assisted in burning several tons of the oil in 2008, releasing chemicals into the air. What a good plan! This is an issue that I would not mind one bit if the US government would stick its dirty little nose in. Oh wait, it would hurt China if we did that. God forbid we do anything to hurt China's economy!
Drug users are typically not in the habit of, nor do they care where their drugs come from. A good many environmentally conscious casual drug users could benefit from doing a tad bit of research. They would be appalled and may even be able to curb a certain degree of use among the people they know. This is especially the case with ecstasy.
The largest intact rainforest in Southeast Asia supports 12 endangered animals and the Mreah Prew Phnom tree, itself rare. In the Cardamom Mountains, within the pristine beauty of the forest, there are clearings where deforestation has occurred and makeshift factories are found. At ground level, you can smell smoke from constantly burning fires. In many areas, no animal sounds are heard due to excessive poaching and a poisoned water supply.
This is a relatively new phenomenon for the Cardamoms. In the 1970's the Khmer Rouge ruled the area and swept the area with genocide and famine. When they were driven out, land mines were left behind in the forest, effectively keeping people away. The Cardamoms and the Mreah Prew were slowly rediscovered. Deforestation, poaching, and environmental destruction increase each year.
What is so special about this endangered tree? The strong smelling tree is the holder of a very valuable treasure; safrole or sassafras oil. This golden oil has traditionally been used for perfumes, cosmetics, and traditional medicine. However, it also has a similar chemical composition to MDMA (ecstasy) and is a key ingredient in its manufacture.
The tree is cut up and the wood chips are distilled over constantly burning fires for 5 days before the oil is extracted. A large amount of firewood is needed to keep the kettles going, causing deforestation. It is estimated that one ton of trees is felled per day. The oil and the byproducts of its extraction are carcinogenic. It is fabulous to know that everything goes right into the water supply. Even more exasperating is that most of these trees are found in a wildlife sanctuary.
The oil brings in big bucks, but most of the harvesters and the rangers that search for manufacturers do not even know what it's used for. Sold for up to $30/liter and smuggled into Vietnam and China, the oil eventually reaches drug producers in Europe, America, and Australia. Approximately 7,000 pills can be manufactured from one liter with a street value of approximately $200,000.
Besides the 'evils' of drug use, the environmental consequences are huge. Roads and trails are built through the forest as well as clearings for the factories. Deforestation and the resulting erosion is clearly an issue. The byproducts are carcinogenic to the indigent workers and animals in the forest. But, it also allows poachers an easy route through the forest. Some areas have 'Empty Forest Syndrome', where almost no evidence of animal life is found. Please take note that this is happening in a wildlife refuge!!!
Fighting this is difficult because it can take days to hike out to possible coordinates of sites previously gathered by helicopter. By the time the rangers get to a site that may have been active, it is deserted. When a live camp is found, it is easy for the harvesters to scatter into the dense forest around them. They are also heavily armed.
The Australian government has been trying to help. They assisted in burning several tons of the oil in 2008, releasing chemicals into the air. What a good plan! This is an issue that I would not mind one bit if the US government would stick its dirty little nose in. Oh wait, it would hurt China if we did that. God forbid we do anything to hurt China's economy!
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
But You Don't HAVE to Look Like a Tree
I discovered a new series in the Science channel a few weeks ago called Humanology. The episode called "Tree Man: A Search for the Cure" caught my attention. I settled onto the upstairs futon with my kitty to watch the story of Dede Banatang from Indonesia. He developed growths that looked like tree branches on his hands and feet after a cut on his leg healed at age 21. He had no use of his hands and could not care for his children or work because of his condition.
Dede wanted to work, get married, and care for his children properly. He and all of the people interviewed stated that God willing, a cure would come. In order to find a cure, you need to know what you are trying to cure. Doctors in Indonesia never attempted to find out what was causing these huge growths. Their treatment plan was to cut back the growths periodically. But, they would start growing back before they could all be cut.
His story caught the attention of Dr. Gaspari from the University of Maryland, who went to Indonesia to meet with Dede. He took samples and found that this was just a Human Papiloma virus gone wild. Common warts! He also had untreated Hepatitis B and tuberculosis. Since he had a low white blood cell count and he had multiple infections in his body, his skin was not shedding normally and the warts were growing to a very large size.
The documentary focused on the struggle between this American doctor that wanted to cure him, and the Indonesian doctors that just wanted to remove the growths and graft new skin. Though Gaspari stressed that the warts would even appear on grafted skin, the surgeries remained on the schedule. The quick fix was on the Indonesian agenda, even if it meant more suffering in the end for the patient.
It has taken me a while to sit down and actually write about the show that I watched nearly a month ago. I was simply appalled at how this man was treated. I have not found a way to address it; but the DVR is filling up again and the husband is annoyed. Before I start, I apologize in advance to my Muslim friends out there for anything that may seem insensitive to you.
To me, there is an intrinsic link between culture, religion, and psychology. I find that many people don't concern themselves with what religion someone is when thinking about how they act or do things. This goes for whole societies also. Most people do not know a thing about other religions besides what the press feeds them or what they may have learned in that token world religions class. But, even if someone is not religious, the predominant religion in their culture and family has a strong impact on their morals, behavior, and their thoughts.
Though religion was mentioned in literally one sentence of this whole show, I feel it is the root of why poor Dede went through as much suffering as he did. Though I am far from ignorant about Islam, I do not think like a Muslim nor can I wrap my head around many of the beliefs or thought processes of a Muslim. I would love to understand more about the mindset of Islamic Medicine after watching this. I am well aware that my anger about this show comes from my ignorance on the topic.
From what I know, there are varying degrees of concern with Islamic Law among Muslim doctors. Some are completely western in their style and methodology while others strictly adhere to law and rely on herbal medicine more than modern treatments. I wonder on which side of this scale the Indonesian doctors in this film are.
Of more concern to me is the Muslim mindset about illness. How I have come to understand it, everything that happens to a person, good or bad, is a way to experience God, illness included. I can grasp this. I have a hard time dealing with the thought that removing disease is removing ones experience with God. If the disease is an experience with God, isn't the treatment and cure?
Without Islam, the western world as we know it would not even exist. Europeans would not have known many of the scientific bases if Muslims had not introduced them. In my opinion, Islam is the most scientific of all of the major world religions. What other holy text besides the Qu'ran mentions the "Big Bang" , paths of interstellar objects, sperm creating life, and genes?
It seems to me like there is a disconnect here that can be potentially fatal. Medical practitioners belonging to the most scientific faith treating diseases for which they have not attempted to name. If Islam was at the forefront of ancient medicine, why is it running backward now?
Friday, June 11, 2010
Mommy, I'm Not Eating That!!!!
I wasn’t sure about the Amazing Eccentrics series on Current TV. But with the hard drive wiped on the DVR, beggars cant be choosers. So, tonight I watched the episode about food delicacies from around the world. I was expecting disturbing. Some of it exceeded my expectations.
The first clip was about a restaurant in China that only served animal penis. Apparently eating the penis of another animal improves virility. I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to be with a guy that eats dead cooked penis. The penises mentioned in the clip were goat, horse, yak, ox, donkey, and deer. The correspondent went on to describe the texture and taste of each. I’ll spare you the gory details.
Next, Las 7 Regiones de Oaxaca Restaurant in Los Angeles was profiled. Here, they serve chapulinas. Do you really want to ask what this is? Grasshoppers soaked in lime and water roasted in oil. Not so shocking. As an anthropology major in college, I saw plenty of films featuring people eating insects. Grasshoppers are seemingly nutritious and delicious. Where 100g of McDonalds hamburger has 12g of protein and 9g of fat, the chapulinas have 20.6g of protein and 6.1g of fat.
They traveled to Vietnam next, one of 2 dozen countries that eats dog meat. Dog meat is said to also increase virility because it warms the body. I wonder about the dog penis. That must be very special. The dog part wasn’t so disturbing, though I’m a dog lover. I know people eat it. When he was served the still beating heart from a snake, that was sincerely disgusting. No further comment.
Hidalgo, Mexico was the next stop. They went to a food festival of local food delights. On the menu were rattlesnake soup, worm tacos, BBQ iguana with rice, armadillo stew, and skinned rodent. The only spectacular part of that was the heads of the dead ‘rodents’. The teeth. I don’t know how to express how much that disturbed me.
Last, curiles were eaten in Honduras. You’re going to ask aren’t you? Live clams is the answer. Not surprisingly, they are an aphrodisiac and are known as natural Viagra. The live clams are served on a plate and don’t look very much alive until you squirt lemon juice on them. Acid kills them, so they squrm around quite a bit. Then you eat them. Nasty.
When you travel, you should definitely try the local cuisine. I’m not very adventurous when it comes to food. I just started eating Mexican maybe 5 years ago. By Mexican, I do not mean grasshoppers or skinned rodent. More like fajitas and flautas. More power to the people out there who can go to a foreign country and eat things that are completely out of their cultural norms. I am not one of you.
The first clip was about a restaurant in China that only served animal penis. Apparently eating the penis of another animal improves virility. I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to be with a guy that eats dead cooked penis. The penises mentioned in the clip were goat, horse, yak, ox, donkey, and deer. The correspondent went on to describe the texture and taste of each. I’ll spare you the gory details.
Next, Las 7 Regiones de Oaxaca Restaurant in Los Angeles was profiled. Here, they serve chapulinas. Do you really want to ask what this is? Grasshoppers soaked in lime and water roasted in oil. Not so shocking. As an anthropology major in college, I saw plenty of films featuring people eating insects. Grasshoppers are seemingly nutritious and delicious. Where 100g of McDonalds hamburger has 12g of protein and 9g of fat, the chapulinas have 20.6g of protein and 6.1g of fat.
They traveled to Vietnam next, one of 2 dozen countries that eats dog meat. Dog meat is said to also increase virility because it warms the body. I wonder about the dog penis. That must be very special. The dog part wasn’t so disturbing, though I’m a dog lover. I know people eat it. When he was served the still beating heart from a snake, that was sincerely disgusting. No further comment.
Hidalgo, Mexico was the next stop. They went to a food festival of local food delights. On the menu were rattlesnake soup, worm tacos, BBQ iguana with rice, armadillo stew, and skinned rodent. The only spectacular part of that was the heads of the dead ‘rodents’. The teeth. I don’t know how to express how much that disturbed me.
Last, curiles were eaten in Honduras. You’re going to ask aren’t you? Live clams is the answer. Not surprisingly, they are an aphrodisiac and are known as natural Viagra. The live clams are served on a plate and don’t look very much alive until you squirt lemon juice on them. Acid kills them, so they squrm around quite a bit. Then you eat them. Nasty.
When you travel, you should definitely try the local cuisine. I’m not very adventurous when it comes to food. I just started eating Mexican maybe 5 years ago. By Mexican, I do not mean grasshoppers or skinned rodent. More like fajitas and flautas. More power to the people out there who can go to a foreign country and eat things that are completely out of their cultural norms. I am not one of you.
Thursday, June 10, 2010
MINOR Disaster
Last night we lost our satellite signal. My husband was trying to fix the problem before calling DirecTV. He reset the DVR. Makes sense, right? HA! Well, there are 2 different resets on the box, the soft and hard reset. He clearly was not aware of what he was doing. The hard drive was wiped clean. Approximately 40% of the disc space was taken up by documentaries. I would estimate that I lost about 20 hours of shows. I can't really be angry, but I am in a state of awe and disbelief.
This morning I was able to get the signal back by hanging out the upstairs window and tearing down vines that had grown up the side of the house. We still have a weak signal because of all of the huge trees in our neighbors yards, so we will have to get the technician to come out at some point and realign the satellite.
So, today will be spent trying to remember and set up what season passes we had and setting a bunch of documentaries to record. Not exactly what I had planned for the day!
This morning I was able to get the signal back by hanging out the upstairs window and tearing down vines that had grown up the side of the house. We still have a weak signal because of all of the huge trees in our neighbors yards, so we will have to get the technician to come out at some point and realign the satellite.
So, today will be spent trying to remember and set up what season passes we had and setting a bunch of documentaries to record. Not exactly what I had planned for the day!
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
January is Schizophrenic
Though I missed most of the specials for psych week on Discovery Health, I was able to catch “Born Schizophrenic: January’s Story”. This is the story of the Schofield family and their daughter January, called Jani, and their battle with childhood schizophrenia. Jani is one of the youngest children to ever be diagnosed with schizophrenia. Her family has been on a wild ride, to say the least. An article about the show can be found here.
This scary disease has touched my life and has always fascinated me. I had a good friend that became schizophrenic after the suicide of his mother. Though he always had emotional issues, it was confusing, frustrating, and frightening to watch him spiral downward into a world of hallucinations and bizarre thoughts. He was a drug and alcohol abuser, so his medication was never taken correctly and did not help very much. He started out as an outgoing, oversexed, but disturbingly intelligent guy and became a violent cocaine addict, an alcoholic, and criminal that died in a state prison just a week before his 33rd birthday.
I had encounters with other schizophrenics, such as one of my college roommates that came to me straight from a stint at the institution. That girl was the best roommate I ever had! She was the only one that could handle my eccentricities, shared common views on things, and left me alone! Plus, she had a TV. That is always a plus.
What I have learned through the years is that this disease waxes and wanes like the moon. It is a chameleon. It is a shark and a mouse. It manifests itself differently in everyone affected. If you’ve met 50 schizophrenics, you haven’t seen it all. With each individual there does seem to be a disjointed cycle of lucidity and madness. You get to know the signs and understand what they are saying in times of utter madness. You learn to brace yourself and put on your “dealing with a schizo” persona. But sometimes, like a scorpion hiding in the sand, it strikes without warning leaving you feeling panicked and paralyzed.
This is definitely what Jani’s parents are feeling. From seven days after her birth when she completely stopped sleeping, Jani was not a normal child. At first they thought she was just a genius, pointing to different body parts at 5 months. From what I’ve learned over the years, it seems severe biological mental illness (especially schizophrenia) accompanies a high level of intelligence. Here are just a few famous schizophrenic ‘geniuses‘:
John Nash, subject of the film A Beautiful Mind.
Jack Kerouac, American writer and artist
Syd Barret of Pink Floyd
William Chester Minor, creator of Oxford English Dictionary
Pablo Picasso, Spanish artist
Unfortunately, Janis illness got her removed from school permanently in first grade. Violence towards herself and other children was the main reason for this. She has been known to choke herself and try to jump out windows. The family actually has two apartments so that her younger brother Bodhi is safe from her.
After years of different diagnoses, at age 6, Jani was finally diagnosed with schizophrenia. Jani goes to school now an hour a day by herself, but still has trouble concentrating for that long. Her parents have created a group for parents of schizophrenic children. As a result Jani has been able to spend time with children like herself.
I can’t imagine the hell that parents of these young children go through on a daily basis. I have only encountered schizophrenic adults. They became schizophrenic as a result of a trauma in their teens. Children haven’t the life experience to understand what is ‘normal’ to properly separate what is real and what isn’t. We can only hope that someday effective treatments become available.
This scary disease has touched my life and has always fascinated me. I had a good friend that became schizophrenic after the suicide of his mother. Though he always had emotional issues, it was confusing, frustrating, and frightening to watch him spiral downward into a world of hallucinations and bizarre thoughts. He was a drug and alcohol abuser, so his medication was never taken correctly and did not help very much. He started out as an outgoing, oversexed, but disturbingly intelligent guy and became a violent cocaine addict, an alcoholic, and criminal that died in a state prison just a week before his 33rd birthday.
I had encounters with other schizophrenics, such as one of my college roommates that came to me straight from a stint at the institution. That girl was the best roommate I ever had! She was the only one that could handle my eccentricities, shared common views on things, and left me alone! Plus, she had a TV. That is always a plus.
What I have learned through the years is that this disease waxes and wanes like the moon. It is a chameleon. It is a shark and a mouse. It manifests itself differently in everyone affected. If you’ve met 50 schizophrenics, you haven’t seen it all. With each individual there does seem to be a disjointed cycle of lucidity and madness. You get to know the signs and understand what they are saying in times of utter madness. You learn to brace yourself and put on your “dealing with a schizo” persona. But sometimes, like a scorpion hiding in the sand, it strikes without warning leaving you feeling panicked and paralyzed.
This is definitely what Jani’s parents are feeling. From seven days after her birth when she completely stopped sleeping, Jani was not a normal child. At first they thought she was just a genius, pointing to different body parts at 5 months. From what I’ve learned over the years, it seems severe biological mental illness (especially schizophrenia) accompanies a high level of intelligence. Here are just a few famous schizophrenic ‘geniuses‘:
John Nash, subject of the film A Beautiful Mind.
Jack Kerouac, American writer and artist
Syd Barret of Pink Floyd
William Chester Minor, creator of Oxford English Dictionary
Pablo Picasso, Spanish artist
Unfortunately, Janis illness got her removed from school permanently in first grade. Violence towards herself and other children was the main reason for this. She has been known to choke herself and try to jump out windows. The family actually has two apartments so that her younger brother Bodhi is safe from her.
After years of different diagnoses, at age 6, Jani was finally diagnosed with schizophrenia. Jani goes to school now an hour a day by herself, but still has trouble concentrating for that long. Her parents have created a group for parents of schizophrenic children. As a result Jani has been able to spend time with children like herself.
I can’t imagine the hell that parents of these young children go through on a daily basis. I have only encountered schizophrenic adults. They became schizophrenic as a result of a trauma in their teens. Children haven’t the life experience to understand what is ‘normal’ to properly separate what is real and what isn’t. We can only hope that someday effective treatments become available.
Monday, May 17, 2010
Through Pain Comes Great Strength
On Sunday morning I wanted to watch something a little longer to possibly clear more than 1% disc space on the DVR. I decided to watch something a little less educational, Dad's in Heaven with Nixon. Wow. This was simply put, a great film. It is the story of a the struggle and survival of the Murray family of New York. It was advertised as a story about the enduring love of a mother for her autistic child. It was so much more than that.
Chris Murray, the filmmaker's youngest brother, suffered oxygen deprivation at birth and did not hit the normal childhood milestones. Born in 1960, the medical world was not friendly to Chris. As a child, he was not diagnosed with autism. The doctors and psychiatrists constantly told his mother that he should be in an institution; that he had no hope of a normal life. The more she was told, the more determined she was to see Chris succeed.
A great deal of the film was spent on the emotional struggles of the grandfather and father. Both clearly struggled with what we now call bipolar disorder. The grandfather was an alcoholic who had a very poor relationship with his youngest son, the filmmaker's father. He felt his father hated him and often felt rejected by him. In the end, this disorder caused the filmmakers family to lose everything, endure divorce, and even lose their father at an early age.
Everything that their father was made the family weak, but Chris' disability made them strong. Chris has a simple appreciation for life and has taught his family so much about the nature of love, life, and the world around them. Left confused and empty by their father, I feel Chris filled a void. Chris could definitely feel that his father could not connect with him. In his desire for that closeness, he developed an almost mystical ideal of his father after death.
We often think of things in such a logical, linear, scientific way. Your son is autistic. Look at the awesome struggle you will face. This family used Chris to be closer together. They pooled their energy into making him succeed. Their father's distress had such a deep impact on all of them, but Chris softened the blow. Things happen for a reason.
Chris lives on his own, holds two part time jobs, and became a successful painter after the death of his father. The Long Island drowning at the spot where the family used to spend summers sparked a desire in Chris to start paining. Through his art, he has grown. It seems his father's weakness has always brought him strength, though usually indirectly. In turn, his strength has held up the family over a dark cloud, allowing them to always see the sun.
Friday, May 14, 2010
Costume Crazy
There is this new series on Current TV called Amazing Eccentrics. It looked interesting and they are only 30 minutes. I watched the one on costumes, which had 5 segments. It was all about people that love wearing costumes for various reasons. I guess I was supposed to think these people were freaks! I didn't! Does that make me one?
The first was on Jay Maynard, or Tron Guy, as he is known on the internet. He is famous apparently. I am apparently out of that loop. Anyway, he apparently made this suit to go to a convention of some kind and everyone fell in love with him. I didn't think this was very weird. People dress up to go to Trekkie things and other venues of the like. I think its awesome that this chubby older man has the gall to travel all over the place in that tight outfit. More power to him! I think it's great!
The next was a guy named Jason Jackson that lives in suburban Sydney, Australia whose whole life revolves around Michael Jackson. Ok. This one was weird. But only because I think the whole Michael Jackson phenomenon as a whole is bizarre. I just never appreciated him after he turned into a white woman, I guess. This guy calls his house Never land. He has a garden full of concrete animals that his father makes. His mother makes all of his costumes. It is a touching story I guess. He heard an M.J. song when he was in the hospital with cancer as a child and it gave him hope. So, naturally, he became a Jackson impersonator when he grew up. One good thing is that probably the real M.J. didnt get to Australia as much as other places, so his fans get an awesome almost Michael show. Hey, its a Jackson performing!
I really loved the next dude. This guy in Portland, OR wanted to be a real life superhero. Yes, there is a such thing. Zetaman and his sidekick Agent Null patrol the streets of Portland and gives to the homeless. Whatever they need, he tries to give them. So selfless, he gave his UGGs to someone during the show. The other impressive thing to me was that he was giving medical supplies to a homeless woman that had one been an EMT, so that she could help her comrades. This guy deserves a big Kudos.
Kaiju Big Battel was next. It was "normal" people dressed up in costumes wrestling each other. Though the costumes were kind of neat, I didn't see how it was all that different from WWF. Not as expensive to get in? The fighters aren't on steroids? Maybe I just didn't get it. But, it was only a 5 minute segment.
The last part was on LARPing (live action role playing, in case you don't know of it). Well, is this really news? I never was into role-playing games or fantasy or anything like that. But, I am still aware that LARPing exists. Its like the Renn fair in a way. But.... extended.
I was disappointed. I expected the show to be about people doing really bizarre things in costumes. Oh well. I wonder if I should watch or delete the other 6 episodes on my DVR.
The first was on Jay Maynard, or Tron Guy, as he is known on the internet. He is famous apparently. I am apparently out of that loop. Anyway, he apparently made this suit to go to a convention of some kind and everyone fell in love with him. I didn't think this was very weird. People dress up to go to Trekkie things and other venues of the like. I think its awesome that this chubby older man has the gall to travel all over the place in that tight outfit. More power to him! I think it's great!
The next was a guy named Jason Jackson that lives in suburban Sydney, Australia whose whole life revolves around Michael Jackson. Ok. This one was weird. But only because I think the whole Michael Jackson phenomenon as a whole is bizarre. I just never appreciated him after he turned into a white woman, I guess. This guy calls his house Never land. He has a garden full of concrete animals that his father makes. His mother makes all of his costumes. It is a touching story I guess. He heard an M.J. song when he was in the hospital with cancer as a child and it gave him hope. So, naturally, he became a Jackson impersonator when he grew up. One good thing is that probably the real M.J. didnt get to Australia as much as other places, so his fans get an awesome almost Michael show. Hey, its a Jackson performing!
I really loved the next dude. This guy in Portland, OR wanted to be a real life superhero. Yes, there is a such thing. Zetaman and his sidekick Agent Null patrol the streets of Portland and gives to the homeless. Whatever they need, he tries to give them. So selfless, he gave his UGGs to someone during the show. The other impressive thing to me was that he was giving medical supplies to a homeless woman that had one been an EMT, so that she could help her comrades. This guy deserves a big Kudos.
Kaiju Big Battel was next. It was "normal" people dressed up in costumes wrestling each other. Though the costumes were kind of neat, I didn't see how it was all that different from WWF. Not as expensive to get in? The fighters aren't on steroids? Maybe I just didn't get it. But, it was only a 5 minute segment.
The last part was on LARPing (live action role playing, in case you don't know of it). Well, is this really news? I never was into role-playing games or fantasy or anything like that. But, I am still aware that LARPing exists. Its like the Renn fair in a way. But.... extended.
I was disappointed. I expected the show to be about people doing really bizarre things in costumes. Oh well. I wonder if I should watch or delete the other 6 episodes on my DVR.
Thursday, May 13, 2010
Hate is Based on Lies.... and bad ones
Illness has kept me from watching any "serious" TV and admittedly I was avoiding watching Hitler's Blood Oath, part of The History Channel's Nostradamus Effect series. Now, people often misunderstand my thoughts on Hitler. Honestly, I revere the man in a way. But, not for his atrocities. Anyone who is THAT messed up in the head and can get the masses to not only believe the lies he preaches, but do whatever he wants, commands a certain degree of respect. It is amazing to me that perfectly sane people can be ignorant to insanity and worship it. I wish I could get people to do crazy things on my behalf! Maybe I'm just simply not nuts enough. I respect the man for his power; but think his followers are a bunch of numb-nuts.
Anyway, there are quite a few shows, especially about Hitler, where I don't learn very much of anything. I came out of this with maybe 3 new bits of info. But, I do not like watching the Hitler documentaries that focus on the hatred of the Third Reich and the modern day organizations that follow Hitler's message of hate. It is one thing if hate is based on even quasi-truths. But, this whole racial pride thing that Hitler preached is so ridiculous it just makes me irate. I just can't stand hearing about it. The people that believe this craziness are never going to see that it doesn't make sense.
This particular show was about the Nazi religion, which was a "blood cult". Hitler preached that the German bloodline must be purified; that the Aryan race was superior. Having any physical contact with someone outside of this gene pool would literally contaminate the blood flowing through your veins. The religious cult of the Nazis was very focused on blood. From this came German Christianity, where Jesus was a Nordic Aryan sent to earth to fight Jewish materialism.
Of course the most obvious is that Hitler hated Jews and had Jewish ancestry. Well, that says something doesn't it? If a man wants you to go out and kill people like himself, what bigger sign of self hatred is that? He was a failure at everything prior to being Fuhrer. The man did not have high self esteem UNTIL he went crazy.
I'm going to try not to go on too much of a rant about this whole thing. I waited a good 6 hours to even write this so I was adequately calmed. This Aryan Pride thing.... Hitler said there was a powerful root race, the Aryans. It must be purified.
The "Aryans" were people from the area that is now India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Iran. They were called 'aryan' not because of the color of their skin, but because they spoke Indo-Iranian languages (Persian, Sanskrit, Hindu, Urdu, Punjabi, etc.). The country name Iran actually means 'land of the aryans'. They did not have blond hair and creamy skin with rosy cheeks though. They did travel to Europe and are now known by a horribly derogatory term, gypsies.
The word Aryan was not even used in relation to "white" Europeans until the late 1800's when the base language group that defined Aryans was changed from Indo-Iranian to Indo-European. That still didn't make all Aryans German. But it did make Germans Aryan.
Hitler said that Aryans were the 'Nordic Ideal". Oh, let's go there. GERMANY IS NOT A NORDIC COUNTRY. Now, in Nordic countries (Iceland, Norway, Sweden, etc.) they DO speak Germanic languages. But the history of the Germanic peoples is not congruent with the history of the Nordic folks. Ever heard of the Vikings? Not German. So, Hitler's "ideal" was completely not German.
Ok. So now obviously Hitler was just meaning white people right? The white supremacy groups today are equal opportunity haters. If you aren't "white" they hate you. And nowadays, they have expanded to vigorously hate middle eastern people. Well, what does it mean to be "white"? White is a nice little term for Caucasian. What does Caucasian mean? The word came from the Caucasus region, which is between the Black and Caspian seas. Wait, isn't Iran there? Why yes it is! What Bush loving American would think of an Iranian as white?
Truth be told, there are only three 'races' that have true biological differences, Black, White, and Asian. It has nothing to do with skin color. It has to do with bone structure and other genetic features that any forensic anthropologist could describe to you in detail. If your ethnic heritage is not from Africa or Asia, you are white. Sorry white supremacists, many of the darker skinned people you seek out are Caucasian. Oh, and so are the Jews (the ones that aren't Asian or black anyway). By the way, being Jewish is a religious preference, not an ethnicity. Anyway.....
Hitler was talking about a set of characteristics, the pure race. These characteristics are not German, nor are they Aryan. Blond haired, blue eyed. An ideal exactly opposite of Hitler himself. Who was he kidding?
What is even more comical is the KKK. They say you have to have "pure American blood" running through your veins. Excuse me? So, you need to be Asian? The Native Americans are Asian. Oh, you mean white American? A son of a founding father? Well, that makes sense because it seems many of them were also racist.
So, the question is, who in the world of hatred determines who is white? Would anyone of European origin be white? That doesn't seem right because anyone that is of what used to be called the "Mediterranean race" (Italians, Greeks, etc) is genetically closer to an Arab than to a German. The "Dark Irish" and other groups that got their dark locks and eyes intermixing with the Romans when they conquered the area, also have Arab blood.
The truth is, from the beginning of civilization, groups have warred, controlled, and loved one another. Look at the great ancient empires and the large areas they spanned. Those citizens had access to each other. Plus, leaders cross culturally intermarried. There never can be a pure race. If there was, it sure wouldn't be Caucasian, since mankind originated in Africa.
I want to leave you with one factoid. The show states that the origin of the swastika is a mystery because so many versions of it have been seen throughout history. They say that the closest is a Hindu symbol in the opposite direction that refers to the wheel of fortune and karma. But, they must not have done their research!The Hindus use both clockwise and counterclockwise swastikas, each with a different meaning. Hitler seems to have screwed up and picked the wrong one. The clockwise (which is associated with the Nazis) is a symbol of harmony and good luck. The Sanskrit word svastika means "all is well". The left facing swastika (sauvastika in Sanskrit) is a symbol of the goddess Kali and magic. Though is does not symbolize anything sinister, that's probably the one Hitler was looking for.
Anyway, there are quite a few shows, especially about Hitler, where I don't learn very much of anything. I came out of this with maybe 3 new bits of info. But, I do not like watching the Hitler documentaries that focus on the hatred of the Third Reich and the modern day organizations that follow Hitler's message of hate. It is one thing if hate is based on even quasi-truths. But, this whole racial pride thing that Hitler preached is so ridiculous it just makes me irate. I just can't stand hearing about it. The people that believe this craziness are never going to see that it doesn't make sense.
This particular show was about the Nazi religion, which was a "blood cult". Hitler preached that the German bloodline must be purified; that the Aryan race was superior. Having any physical contact with someone outside of this gene pool would literally contaminate the blood flowing through your veins. The religious cult of the Nazis was very focused on blood. From this came German Christianity, where Jesus was a Nordic Aryan sent to earth to fight Jewish materialism.
Of course the most obvious is that Hitler hated Jews and had Jewish ancestry. Well, that says something doesn't it? If a man wants you to go out and kill people like himself, what bigger sign of self hatred is that? He was a failure at everything prior to being Fuhrer. The man did not have high self esteem UNTIL he went crazy.
I'm going to try not to go on too much of a rant about this whole thing. I waited a good 6 hours to even write this so I was adequately calmed. This Aryan Pride thing.... Hitler said there was a powerful root race, the Aryans. It must be purified.
The "Aryans" were people from the area that is now India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Iran. They were called 'aryan' not because of the color of their skin, but because they spoke Indo-Iranian languages (Persian, Sanskrit, Hindu, Urdu, Punjabi, etc.). The country name Iran actually means 'land of the aryans'. They did not have blond hair and creamy skin with rosy cheeks though. They did travel to Europe and are now known by a horribly derogatory term, gypsies.
The word Aryan was not even used in relation to "white" Europeans until the late 1800's when the base language group that defined Aryans was changed from Indo-Iranian to Indo-European. That still didn't make all Aryans German. But it did make Germans Aryan.
Hitler said that Aryans were the 'Nordic Ideal". Oh, let's go there. GERMANY IS NOT A NORDIC COUNTRY. Now, in Nordic countries (Iceland, Norway, Sweden, etc.) they DO speak Germanic languages. But the history of the Germanic peoples is not congruent with the history of the Nordic folks. Ever heard of the Vikings? Not German. So, Hitler's "ideal" was completely not German.
Ok. So now obviously Hitler was just meaning white people right? The white supremacy groups today are equal opportunity haters. If you aren't "white" they hate you. And nowadays, they have expanded to vigorously hate middle eastern people. Well, what does it mean to be "white"? White is a nice little term for Caucasian. What does Caucasian mean? The word came from the Caucasus region, which is between the Black and Caspian seas. Wait, isn't Iran there? Why yes it is! What Bush loving American would think of an Iranian as white?
Truth be told, there are only three 'races' that have true biological differences, Black, White, and Asian. It has nothing to do with skin color. It has to do with bone structure and other genetic features that any forensic anthropologist could describe to you in detail. If your ethnic heritage is not from Africa or Asia, you are white. Sorry white supremacists, many of the darker skinned people you seek out are Caucasian. Oh, and so are the Jews (the ones that aren't Asian or black anyway). By the way, being Jewish is a religious preference, not an ethnicity. Anyway.....
Hitler was talking about a set of characteristics, the pure race. These characteristics are not German, nor are they Aryan. Blond haired, blue eyed. An ideal exactly opposite of Hitler himself. Who was he kidding?
What is even more comical is the KKK. They say you have to have "pure American blood" running through your veins. Excuse me? So, you need to be Asian? The Native Americans are Asian. Oh, you mean white American? A son of a founding father? Well, that makes sense because it seems many of them were also racist.
So, the question is, who in the world of hatred determines who is white? Would anyone of European origin be white? That doesn't seem right because anyone that is of what used to be called the "Mediterranean race" (Italians, Greeks, etc) is genetically closer to an Arab than to a German. The "Dark Irish" and other groups that got their dark locks and eyes intermixing with the Romans when they conquered the area, also have Arab blood.
The truth is, from the beginning of civilization, groups have warred, controlled, and loved one another. Look at the great ancient empires and the large areas they spanned. Those citizens had access to each other. Plus, leaders cross culturally intermarried. There never can be a pure race. If there was, it sure wouldn't be Caucasian, since mankind originated in Africa.
I want to leave you with one factoid. The show states that the origin of the swastika is a mystery because so many versions of it have been seen throughout history. They say that the closest is a Hindu symbol in the opposite direction that refers to the wheel of fortune and karma. But, they must not have done their research!The Hindus use both clockwise and counterclockwise swastikas, each with a different meaning. Hitler seems to have screwed up and picked the wrong one. The clockwise (which is associated with the Nazis) is a symbol of harmony and good luck. The Sanskrit word svastika means "all is well". The left facing swastika (sauvastika in Sanskrit) is a symbol of the goddess Kali and magic. Though is does not symbolize anything sinister, that's probably the one Hitler was looking for.
Thursday, May 6, 2010
The Birth of Speaking "Proper"
I went upstairs and decided to watch something on the old DVR. Some of the stuff on there was recorded in 2008. No, I'm NOT kidding! I had, in 2008, recorded the whole series "The Adventure of English" on History International. I remember watching 2 or three episodes and then the others just stayed on there and never got watched. Very fascinating stuff! The series covers the birth of our language all the way up to current day.
I put on the episode about changes from the Age of Reason (late 17th century) to the Industrial Revolution. Before this, English was like a rogue language running a muck. There were no standards at all; no grammar was in place, words had no set meaning, proper pronunciation hadn't been determined. What a mess! I can't imagine communicating like that. We think we have problems understanding each other now!
During the Age of Reason, scholars were insistent on creating standards for the language. Prior to this time, Latin was always used for scholarly writing. English was not deemed suitable. John Locke and Isaac Newton were key players in this movement.
In Locke's Essay Concerning Human Understanding, he said that better use of language could end disputes and factionalism. If definitions for words could be agreed upon, peace was sure to follow. Well Mr. Locke, that was a nice, cuddly thought. But we have agreed upon definitions for most words and peace does not appear to be on the horizon. It is farther away than ever. Maybe the opposite is true. We have such distinct specific words for emotions and feelings that by using the correct words, insults and injury are now much worse than they were in the 17th century. Maybe we need to go back to a state where no one knows what the hell anyone else is talking about!
The first scholarly publication in English according to the show was Optiks by Newton. In this book about the refraction of light, Newton coined many new words such as indistinct and well-defined. Prior to this book many words had completely different meanings. Opaque had meant 'unlit' and Newton changed its meaning to "not allowing light to pass".
During this time newspapers were starting to be circulated and it was popular to hang out in coffee shops and read and discuss them. For the first time, written English was a part of everyday life. But, the same thing was written with so many contrasting words that you had to read a few versions of an article to gain its meaning.
Samuel Johnson decided to put an end to this by creating the first English Dictionary. In seven years he plotted out 43,000 words in 2 volumes. Sounds great, right? Well, lets just say it was a nice first effort. He left out all proper nouns but put in obsolete words. If he didn't understand a word, he just left it out rather than ask others. This includes most medical, legal, and trade terms. And of course the definitions provided are pretty useless. Some of the definitions used multiple long and pretentious words that no one understood. Others were ridiculous or just plain wrong. Of those mentioned in the show my favorite was this:
Tarantula: An insect whose bite can only be cured by music.
Besides trying to get definitions in order, the fabulous easy to remember grammar that we all know and love was invented. There was also a big emphasis on vocabulary and standardizing spelling and pronunciation. Seeing that there are 7 ways to spell the sound "ee", they did a FABULOUS job of that! Many common words were banned such as fib, bigot, flimsy, and nowadays. Don't you wish the word bigot was STILL banned?
Subscription libraries came on the scene, making reading more accessible, especially to women. With women reading, the market for novels grew. Jane Austen came on the scene. There was such an emphasis on speaking and acting properly. Talking about the human body was considered very rude. Thousands of lines of Shakespeare were removed due to their crudeness. The belief was that if the word was gone, the thought was gone. It was from this that the first English slang was born. I got quite a laugh out of the list they provided of words for "the male organ": tailpipe, Captain Standish, Silent flute, pike of pleasure, cupid's torch, nimrod, mighty hunter, his majesty in purple cap, beloved guest, pleasure pivot, Dr. Johnson, and others. Obviously the thought was not gone. They were clearly thinking about it a lot!
I think that they did the best they could at the time to make some order out of the mess that English was at the time. Even though we have great dictionaries, why did other areas stay stagnant? Our grammar is so fraught with inconsistencies and exceptions that it is rare for a native speaker to keep it straight. Somebody better get on that!
I think that they did the best they could at the time to make some order out of the mess that English was at the time. Even though we have great dictionaries, why did other areas stay stagnant? Our grammar is so fraught with inconsistencies and exceptions that it is rare for a native speaker to keep it straight. Somebody better get on that!
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
Where is Alexander?
When I was 12, we studied ancient civilizations in school and I was hooked. I had a fascination with ancient Egypt and vowed to become an egyptologist when I grew up. Ha! Yea right! I did major in Anthropology and decided that life wasn't going to work out for me. I still love it though, and was excited to find the Egypt Unwrapped series on Nat Geo. I watched the episode today Alexander the Great's Lost Tomb and embarrassed to say I actually learned a lot from it.
In 332 BC Alexander arrived in Egypt. At the time, Egypt was controlled by the Persian Empire. Alexander was able to force out the Persian army and become Pharaoh. Quite an accomplishment. He only spent 6 months there while living, though it is his eternal resting place.
Alexander was very smart in taking control of Egypt. In Karnak, the center of power in Upper Egypt, he restored the Temple of Thuthmosis III. He claimed him as his spiritual ancestor, a great move as Thuthmosis is known as the Napoleon of Egypt. He then made the 6 day journey across the Western desert to Siwea. This desert oasis is the home of Amun, Father of the Pharaohs. After this journey, the future of Egypt was changed forever.
When Alexander died in Babylon, his body made its way back to Egypt for burial. Everyone wants to find Alexander's body. There are two known burials, Memphis and later Alexandria. Alexander's tomb is DEFINITELY in Alexandria somewhere. As a matter of fact, it was a major tourist attraction for a few hundred years. There are many ancient accounts of what this golden shrine looked like and the approximate location within the city. However, it has never been found. Those who are on the hunt for the Alexandria tomb are actually known as Fools of Alexander. Since the ancient city is far below current day Alexandria and the area in which this tomb should be is very large, chances are, no one is going to find it.
The question is, where is the body NOW? Theory holds that if the tomb is found, it would be empty. Starting in the 4th century, Egypt was in turmoil over religious upheaval. The religion of the gods was taken underground. Was his body stolen? Was it taken by his followers to a safe place?
At the time of the religious power control, Alexander's followers supposedly took his body to the Bahariya Oasis. There is an existing temple to Alexander there with evidence that the cult of Alexander was practicing here until 600AD. The Valley of the Golden Mummies was found here in 1996. The mummies all date to the Greco-Roman Period and are from all stations in life......from common people to rulers. Is this the final resting place of Alexander?
It would be awesome if any one of Alexander's tombs were found. Even better if his body were found. Since he died mysteriously, it would be great to have some forensic analysis done on his mummy. But, if the tomb is ever found (which it hasn't been), there is no way to know what happened to the body. So, why even speculate on where the body is without a tomb or a missing body for that matter?
In 332 BC Alexander arrived in Egypt. At the time, Egypt was controlled by the Persian Empire. Alexander was able to force out the Persian army and become Pharaoh. Quite an accomplishment. He only spent 6 months there while living, though it is his eternal resting place.
Alexander was very smart in taking control of Egypt. In Karnak, the center of power in Upper Egypt, he restored the Temple of Thuthmosis III. He claimed him as his spiritual ancestor, a great move as Thuthmosis is known as the Napoleon of Egypt. He then made the 6 day journey across the Western desert to Siwea. This desert oasis is the home of Amun, Father of the Pharaohs. After this journey, the future of Egypt was changed forever.
When Alexander died in Babylon, his body made its way back to Egypt for burial. Everyone wants to find Alexander's body. There are two known burials, Memphis and later Alexandria. Alexander's tomb is DEFINITELY in Alexandria somewhere. As a matter of fact, it was a major tourist attraction for a few hundred years. There are many ancient accounts of what this golden shrine looked like and the approximate location within the city. However, it has never been found. Those who are on the hunt for the Alexandria tomb are actually known as Fools of Alexander. Since the ancient city is far below current day Alexandria and the area in which this tomb should be is very large, chances are, no one is going to find it.
The question is, where is the body NOW? Theory holds that if the tomb is found, it would be empty. Starting in the 4th century, Egypt was in turmoil over religious upheaval. The religion of the gods was taken underground. Was his body stolen? Was it taken by his followers to a safe place?
At the time of the religious power control, Alexander's followers supposedly took his body to the Bahariya Oasis. There is an existing temple to Alexander there with evidence that the cult of Alexander was practicing here until 600AD. The Valley of the Golden Mummies was found here in 1996. The mummies all date to the Greco-Roman Period and are from all stations in life......from common people to rulers. Is this the final resting place of Alexander?
It would be awesome if any one of Alexander's tombs were found. Even better if his body were found. Since he died mysteriously, it would be great to have some forensic analysis done on his mummy. But, if the tomb is ever found (which it hasn't been), there is no way to know what happened to the body. So, why even speculate on where the body is without a tomb or a missing body for that matter?
Monday, May 3, 2010
Will he know?
It is nagging at me. It just is profound and disturbing that both Hitler and Napoleon knew of Nostradamus' work and saw themselves in it. They recognized themselves as the antichrists mentioned. Do other world leaders, these predecessors of the third antichrist, acknowledge it? I'm sure Bush didn't because his mental capacity isn't exactly profound. But what about everyone's favorite, bin Laden? Will the next antichrist see himself in the writings of Nostradamus and get an emotional power boost like Napoleon and Hitler did?
If there can be forerunners to the Antichrist, why aren't there any mention of predecessors of this "messiah". What about Gandhi? Well Nostradamus was religious and fanatics like to get wrapped up in the negative. Why would God give the power to see positive things? Prophecy just doesn't work that way, I guess. So I guess the Mahatma of India has to be put back on the shelf.
If there can be forerunners to the Antichrist, why aren't there any mention of predecessors of this "messiah". What about Gandhi? Well Nostradamus was religious and fanatics like to get wrapped up in the negative. Why would God give the power to see positive things? Prophecy just doesn't work that way, I guess. So I guess the Mahatma of India has to be put back on the shelf.
Thursday, April 29, 2010
Antichrists EVERYWHERE
So, I watched this History Channel documentary called "The Third Antichrist" that is part of The Nostradamus Effect series. I've always been fascinated by Nostradamus and how he felt he had a 'god given' ability to see the future. God given in that it tortured him, of course.
The show discussed how in the quatrains of Nostradamus, there are three Antichrists, as opposed to the one Antichrist of the new testament and one "Antichrist figure" called masih dajjal in Islam (the only other religion that has such a figure). At the time Nostradamus had his visions, none of these figures had yet appeared. Each of the three will be successively worse than the last. Prior to the coming of the last Antichrist, there will be forerunners that will be mistaken for the Antichrist himself. Of course, the final Antichrist will signal the End of Days.
There was, I admit, quite compelling evidence that Napoleon Bonaparte was the first of the three Antichrists. One quatrain states:
An emperor will be born near Italy
who will cost the empire very dear.
When they see the people who ally with him
they will say he is less a prince than a butcher
Of course, Napoleon was born in Corsica and cost his empire in many ways. Another famous quatrain "names" Napoleon; "Pau, Nay, Oloran will be more of fire than blood". Pau, Nay, and Oloron were french villages in the time of Nostradamus and when the words letters are switched around a bit it spells Napoleon Roy (king). The last poem that mentioned regarding Napoleon was
Roman Pontiff beware of approaching
The city that two rivers flow through,
Near there your blood will come to spurt,
You and yours when the rose will flourish
Pope Pius VI was driven our of Rome by Napoleon's forces in 1797 and died while vomiting blood in Valence, France, which is at the convergence of the Rhone and Isere rivers.
Who can deny that if there are three Antichrists, that Adolf Hitler is the second? In more than one place in Nostradamus' writings, he mentions the name "Hister". Close enough, right? The most compelling quatrain is the following:
From the deepest part of Western Europe
A young child will be born to poor people
Who will by his speech seduce a great multitude,
His reputation will increase in the Kingdom of the East
Of course Hitler was not born with a silver spoon in his mouth. He was born in Austria along the Danube river. Coincidentally (or not) the Latin for the lower portion of the Danube river is 'Hister'. During a time when Germany was looking for a savior after economic collapse, his word spread and he was revered because of his charisma and compelling speeches. The show only referred to Japan as the meaning of the last line, which is a natural assumption. However, Hitler also allied with the Grand Mufti, but Hitler did not put much effort into helping the Arab cause.
Who is the third Antichrist? According to Nostradamus, his name is Mabus and there will be a 27 year war after his death. In recent decades a lot of people have been accused of being the Antichrist. Among them, Saddam Hussein, Osama bin Laden, Henry Kissinger, GW Bush, and even President Obama. I giggled a bit when they noted that gw backwards and upside down is ma, making his name Mabush. However, since Bush went out of power without any drama, he cant be the Antichrist. Hes just one of the forerunners. No further comment!
The show discussed how in the quatrains of Nostradamus, there are three Antichrists, as opposed to the one Antichrist of the new testament and one "Antichrist figure" called masih dajjal in Islam (the only other religion that has such a figure). At the time Nostradamus had his visions, none of these figures had yet appeared. Each of the three will be successively worse than the last. Prior to the coming of the last Antichrist, there will be forerunners that will be mistaken for the Antichrist himself. Of course, the final Antichrist will signal the End of Days.
There was, I admit, quite compelling evidence that Napoleon Bonaparte was the first of the three Antichrists. One quatrain states:
An emperor will be born near Italy
who will cost the empire very dear.
When they see the people who ally with him
they will say he is less a prince than a butcher
Of course, Napoleon was born in Corsica and cost his empire in many ways. Another famous quatrain "names" Napoleon; "Pau, Nay, Oloran will be more of fire than blood". Pau, Nay, and Oloron were french villages in the time of Nostradamus and when the words letters are switched around a bit it spells Napoleon Roy (king). The last poem that mentioned regarding Napoleon was
Roman Pontiff beware of approaching
The city that two rivers flow through,
Near there your blood will come to spurt,
You and yours when the rose will flourish
Pope Pius VI was driven our of Rome by Napoleon's forces in 1797 and died while vomiting blood in Valence, France, which is at the convergence of the Rhone and Isere rivers.
Who can deny that if there are three Antichrists, that Adolf Hitler is the second? In more than one place in Nostradamus' writings, he mentions the name "Hister". Close enough, right? The most compelling quatrain is the following:
From the deepest part of Western Europe
A young child will be born to poor people
Who will by his speech seduce a great multitude,
His reputation will increase in the Kingdom of the East
Of course Hitler was not born with a silver spoon in his mouth. He was born in Austria along the Danube river. Coincidentally (or not) the Latin for the lower portion of the Danube river is 'Hister'. During a time when Germany was looking for a savior after economic collapse, his word spread and he was revered because of his charisma and compelling speeches. The show only referred to Japan as the meaning of the last line, which is a natural assumption. However, Hitler also allied with the Grand Mufti, but Hitler did not put much effort into helping the Arab cause.
Who is the third Antichrist? According to Nostradamus, his name is Mabus and there will be a 27 year war after his death. In recent decades a lot of people have been accused of being the Antichrist. Among them, Saddam Hussein, Osama bin Laden, Henry Kissinger, GW Bush, and even President Obama. I giggled a bit when they noted that gw backwards and upside down is ma, making his name Mabush. However, since Bush went out of power without any drama, he cant be the Antichrist. Hes just one of the forerunners. No further comment!
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Nothing to Contribute
I've been contemplating starting a blog, but just never got around to it. I have two problems that I hope can be resolved by writing this thing:
- I have a DVR full of documentaries and I'm getting angry looks from the family. I need to watch them and have a reason to because simply, I have a lot of other stuff going on.
- My family does NOT want to hear about the documentaries when I do watch them. I like to talk about what I learn. I have stopped watching them to stop annoying them.
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