amyk's Blog

Jewish Groups Decry Madonna’s Comparison of McCain to Hitler
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
By Julie Stahl

Jerusalem (CNSNews.com) – Pop diva Madonna, who less than a year ago declared herself an “ambassador for Judaism,” has drawn on the Jewish people’s most painful memory to bash Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz).
 
Jewish groups said Madonna insulted Holocaust victims and all Americans with her comparison of McCain to former German dictator Adolf Hitler as part of her new world tour.
 
Madonna opened world concert tour over the weekend in Wales. While singing a song called “Get Stupid,” a photo montage showed images of destruction and global warming followed by video images of Hitler, Zimbabwe’s ruler Robert Mugabe and McCain, reports said.
 
“I find Madonna’s attempt to compare John McCain with Hitler beyond the pale and an insult to all Americans, Democrats as well as Republicans,” said Rabbi Marvin Hier, founder and dean of the Wiesenthal Center. 
 
Hier also “strongly criticized” attempts to brand Democratic presidential contender Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) as a “Muslim extremist.”
 
“There ought to be no place in the political and social discourse of American culture for such deliberate distortions and lies sure to be viewed by hundreds of thousands of young people around the world,” Hier said in a statement.
 
“Comparisons to Hitler have no place in a music concert, or in the presidential campaign,” said Anti-Defamation League National Director Abraham Foxman.
 
“Whatever Madonna’s political or personal views, it is outrageous to invoke Nazi imagery in the context of John McCain’s candidacy or to make a comment on American political leadership,” said Foxman, who is a Holocaust survivor.
 
Foxman said that it was “inappropriate and offensive” to compare present or former world leaders to a man who was responsible for the death of six million Jews.
 
“Doing so trivializes the history of the Holocaust and is an insult to the memories of the victims and their families,” Foxman said in a statement.
 
McCain campaign spokesman Tucker Bounds was quoted as saying that the comparisons were “outrageous, unacceptable and crudely divisive.”
 
Last September, Madonna, who was raised a Roman Catholic, visited Israel to attend conference on Kabbala (Jewish mysticism).
 
At the time she met with Israeli President Shimon Peres and declared herself an “ambassador for Judaism.”
 
She last performed in Israel in 1993.

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Alright.. so it's really NOT so shocking.   Madonna has built her career on being EXTREMELY controversial in an effort to bring attention to herself.   She thrives on this motto -- "Negative publicity is better than NO publicity".  

So what do you think?  Does she really believe McCain is another Hitler.. or is she simply stirring the pot to sell more CD's?

McCain protests NBC coverage
By: Mike Allen
August 18, 2008 09:04 AM EST

Sen. John McCain's (R-Ariz.) campaign manager Rick Davis asked Sunday for a meeting with Steve Capus, the president of NBC News, to protest what the campaign called signs that the network is "abandoning non-partisan coverage of the presidential race."

Davis made the request Sunday in a letter that is part of an aggressive effort by McCain to counter news coverage he considers critical.

In this case, the campaign is objecting to a statement by NBC's Andrea Mitchell on "Meet the Press" questioning whether McCain might have gotten a heads-up on some of the questions that were asked of Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.), who was the first candidate to be interviewed Saturday night by Pastor Rick Warren at a presidential forum on faith.

Warren told the audience that McCain was being held in "a cone of silence" so he wouldn't hear the questions, which were similar for both candidates.

Warren referred again to "the cone of silence" when McCain came onstage, and the senator joked: "I was trying to hear through the wall."

Mitchell reported that some "Obama people" were suggesting "that McCain may not have been in the cone of silence and may have had some ability to overhear what the questions were to Obama. He seemed so well prepared."

A McCain aide said that is not the case: "Senator McCain was in a motorcade led by the United States Secret Service and held in a green room with no broadcast feed."

Mitchell made the comment in the context of saying McCain did better, and that the Obama camp was defensive. In response to the campaign's letter, she pointed out that journalists get criticism from both sides.

"I wasn't expressing an opinion," Mitchell said. "I was reporting what they were saying."

Here is the text of the letter:

August 17, 2008
Mr. Steve Capus
President, NBC News
30 Rockefeller Plaza
New York, NY 10112

Steve:

We are extremely disappointed to see that the level of objectivity at NBC News has fallen so low that reporters are now giving voice to unsubstantiated, partisan claims in order to undercut John McCain.

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Nowhere was this more evident than with NBC chief correspondent Andrea Mitchell's comments on "Meet the Press" this morning. In analyzing last night's presidential forum at Saddleback Church, Mitchell expressed the Obama campaign spin that John McCain could only have done so well last night because he "may not have been in the cone of silence and may have had some ability to overhear what the questions were to Obama." Here are Andrea Mitchell's comments in full:

Mitchell: "The Obama people must feel that he didn't do quite as well as they might have wanted to in that context, because what they are putting out privately is that McCain may not have been in the cone of silence and may have had some ability to overhear what the questions were to Obama. He seemed so well-prepared." (NBC's "Meet The Press," 8/17/08)

Make no mistake: This is a serious charge. Andrea Mitchell is repeating, uncritically, a completely unsubstantiated Obama campaign claim that John McCain somehow cheated in last night's forum at Saddleback Church. Instead of trying to substantiate this blatant falsehood in any way, Andrea Mitchell felt that she needed to repeat it on air to millions of "Meet the Press" viewers with no indication that 1.) There's not one shred of evidence that it's true; 2.) In his official correspondence to both campaigns, Pastor Rick Warren provided both candidates with information regarding the topic areas to be covered, which Barack Obama acknowledged during the forum when asked about Pastor Warren's idea of an emergency plan for orphans and Obama said, "I cheated a little bit. I actually looked at this idea ahead of time, and I think it is a great idea;" 3.) John McCain actually requested that he and Barack Obama do the forum together on stage at the same time, making these kinds of after-the-fact complaints moot.

Indeed, instead of taking a critical journalistic approach to this spin, Andrea Mitchell did what has become a pattern for her of simply repeating Obama campaign talking points.

This is irresponsible journalism and sadly, indicative of the level of objectivity we have witnessed at NBC News this election cycle. Instead of examining the Obama campaign's spin for truth before reporting it to more than 3 million NBC News viewers, Andrea Mitchell simply passed along Obama campaign conspiracy theories. The fact is that during Senator Obama's segment at Saddleback last night, Senator McCain was in a motorcade to the event and then held in a green room with no broadcast feed. In the forum, John McCain clearly demonstrated to the American people that he is prepared to be our next President.....

We are concerned that your News Division is following MSNBC's lead in abandoning non-partisan coverage of the Presidential race. We would like to request a meeting with you as soon as possible to discuss our deep concerns about the news standards and level of objectivity at NBC.

Sincerely,

Rick Davis
Campaign Manager
John McCain 2008

-----------------------------

Who do you watch/read for your election coverage?  Are you seeing bias?  Can McCain's camp "fix" the problem?  Or they making it worse by "calling them out"?

(Yves Herman/Reuters)

Four US Olympic cyclists who caused an outcry when they arrived at Beijing airport wearing smog masks have today apologised to Games organisers.

The four - Mike Friedman, Bobby Lee, Sarah Hammer and Jennie Reed - said that they were wearing the masks because of pollution fears, a touchy subject for the Chinese authorities.

As the Chinese capital remains shrouded in smog today, Jim Scherr, the chief executive of the US Olympic Committee, revealed that the four had said sorry.

"It probably wasn’t the most opportune time for these athletes to wear these masks,” he said, adding they had written an apology to Beijing Olympic Organising Committee (BOCOG).

But US officials said they would not ban US athletes from using masks to combat pollution if they felt it was needed because of air quality conditions.

“They have the right to wear masks if they feel it’s in their best interest to do so,” Scherr said.

“Hopefully they won’t have to use them and the air quality will be good."

Officials have today insisted once more that air quality is safe for athletes. Figures from China’s official Environmental Monitoring Centre deemed the air quality to be level two or “fairly good”.

Beijing enjoyed unusually blue skies last weekend following last-minute anti-pollution measures introduced on July 20, prompting optimism that organisers had managed to control air quality ahead of the Games.

Today, however, a murky haze hung over the main Olympic venues in northern Beijing, combining with high humidity and temperatures of 34C (95F) to create challenging conditions for competitors.

The quality of the Chinese capital’s air has proved a thorny public relations problem, but organisers said that plans to invoke further emergency measures before Friday’s opening ceremony would not be activated.

The authorities have already removed one million of the city’s 3.3 million cars from the roads and shut down more than 100 polluting factories and building sites in an attempt to clear the smog.

--------------------------

What are you thoughts on the "mask controversy"?  Should the athletes have apologized? 

Do you think they were forced.. or coerced into apologizing?

WASHINGTON – The Internet is where we spend more and more of our time. But for a growing number of people, it’s an out-of-control habit instead of a necessary part of life.

Internet addiction -- an online-related compulsive behavior that interferes with normal living and causes severe stress on family, friends, loved ones and work -- is a psychological and behavioral problem that is spreading around the world, experts say.

Kimberly Young, clinical director of the Center for Internet Addiction Recovery and author of the book “Caught in the Net,” said that about 5 percent to 10 percent of Americans --15 to 30 million people -- may suffer from Internet addiction. And the problem may be even greater elsewhere. Young said 18 to 30 percent of the populations of China, Korea and Taiwan, where the Internet is even more popular than in the U.S., may be addicted.

"I’ve seen a lot of growth in the field of Internet addiction,” said Young. “More research and studies (are) trying to understand it better. … It’s a global problem.”

The main types of Internet addiction are cybersex, online affairs, online gambling, online gaming, compulsive surfing and even eBay addiction, Young added.

An article by Dr. Jerald J. Block in the March issue of the American Journal of Psychiatry stated that “Internet addiction appears to be a common disorder.”

Centers specializing in Internet addiction have been created to offer treatment.

Coleen Moore, coordinator of resource development at the Illinois Institute for Addiction Recovery, said she has clients from college age to early adulthood who spend 14 to 18 hours a day online.

----------------------------

It wasn't long ago that I blogged about people with "blogging" addictions.. and I seem to remember a lot of you were in denial about your own "habits".   

Now there's talk of people who are addicted to the internet as a whole  So fess up.  Do you suspect you might have a "problem"?  

How many hours a day do you spend online?  

P.S. -- I'll be surfing the web while you respond.. and checking back every three minutes to see what you had to say.  If I don't respond back to you right away, it's because I'm checking my e-mail.  Thanks =)

LA blocks new fast-food outlets from poor areas

LOS ANGELES (AP) - City officials are putting South Los Angeles on a diet. The City Council voted unanimously Tuesday to place a moratorium on new fast food restaurants in an impoverished swath of the city with a proliferation of such eateries and above average rates of obesity. The yearlong moratorium is intended to give the city time to attract restaurants that serve healthier food.

The action, which the mayor must still sign into law, is believed to be the first of its kind by a major city to protect public health. "Our communities have an extreme shortage of quality foods," City Councilman Bernard Parks said.

Representatives of fast-food chains say they already offer healthier food items on their menus. "It's not where you eat, it's what you eat," said Andrew Puzder, president and chief executive of CKE Restaurants, parent company of Carl's Jr. "We were willing to work with the city on that, but they obviously weren't interested."

Thirty percent of adults in South Los Angeles area are obese, compared to 19.1 percent for the metropolitan area, according to the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health.

Research has shown that people will change eating habits when different foods are offered, but cost is a key factor in poor communities, said Kelly D. Brownell, director of Yale University's Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity.  "Diets improve when healthy food establishments enter these neighborhoods."

---------------------------

Pretty interesting stuff here. 

Should city council members be allowed to dictate which restaurants can go up in certain parts of town based on their menu? 

Does this cross the line of infringing on our freedoms? Or are they doing the people of L.A. a public health service?

Friday , July 25, 2008

A hotel security guard told FOXNews.com he intervened this week between a man he identified as former Sen. John Edwards and tabloid reporters who chased down the former presidential hopeful after what they're calling a rendezvous with his mistress and love child.

The Beverly Hilton Hotel guard said he encountered a shaken and ashen-faced Edwards — whom he did not immediately recognize — in a hotel men's room early Tuesday morning in a literal tug-of-war with reporters on the other side of the door.

"What are they saying about me?" the guard said Edwards asked.

"His face just went totally white," the guard said, when Edwards was told the reporters were shouting out questions about Edwards and Rielle Hunter, a woman the National Enquirer says is the mother of his child.

The guard said he escorted Edwards, who was not a registered guest at the hotel, out of the building after 2 a.m. Edwards did not say anything while he was escorted out, said the guard, adding that at times the reporters on the scene were "rough on him," sticking a camera in his face and shouting questions.

The guard did not recognize Edwards at the time of the incident, but said he concluded it was the 2008 presidential hopeful after hearing reports about the incident and finding an Enquirer reporter's notebook at the scene.

The guard said during the chase the reporters had dropped the notebook, which he picked up. "This book has everything in it on him," he said, referring to Edwards. The guard later confirmed Edwards' identity after being shown a photograph.

A former campaign staffer, speaking on condition of anonymity, told FOXNews.com he wishes he were "more surprised" to hear reports Edwards was visiting Hunter. "I'm definitely upset by it. I wish I was more surprised, though."

Edwards this week has repeatedly refused to comment on the Enquirer report. Asked about it on Thursday at an event in New Orleans, he said: "I have no idea what you're asking about. I've responded, consistently, to these tabloid allegations by saying I don't respond to these lies and you know that ... and I stand by that."

Beverly Hills Police Sgt. Michael Publicker confirmed Friday that an incident report was filed with the department by two of the tabloid's reporters. Publicker said that contrary to a published report, a "criminal complaint" was not filed and there are no charges pending.

"It will be looked into," Publicker said, refusing to say whether Edwards would be contacted as part of a formal investigation. "We're not going to comment on the investigation," he said.

Enquirer Editor-in-Chief David Perel told FOXNews.com his reporters caught Edwards visiting Hunter and her baby at the hotel earlier Monday evening. Perel said Hunter and Edwards have been occasionally getting together so Edwards can see the baby. Hunter came to Beverly Hills with a male friend, Bob McGovern, said Perel. Hunter and her companion reportedly booked two rooms under McGovern's name, and McGovern picked up Edwards to bring him back to the hotel.

Perel said Enquirer staff had been given information about the planned Edwards-Hunter meeting, and the tabloid sent reporters to the hotel in anticipation of Edwards' arrival. According to the Enquirer, Edwards was first spotted being dropped off at the hotel at 9:45 p.m. PT, about 25 minutes after reporters watched McGovern leave the building in his BMW.

Edwards went to Hunter's room and the two left the hotel together and returned 45 minutes later, Perel said. Edwards reportedly entered her room and stayed there until after 2:30 a.m. PT.

FOXNews.com could not independently confirm the Enquirer's allegations. Perel also declined to identify where the Enquirer received the information about Edwards' alleged visits.

Perel told FOXNews.com that after leaving Hunter's room, Edwards took an elevator to the basement, where he was confronted by two Enquirer reporters. He ran into the bathroom, where he remained until the security guard arrived.

The Enquirer says it has videotape showing Hunter entering the room where she met Edwards, and shows Edwards leaving the same room. However, the Enquirer has thus far declined repeated requests by FOXNews.com to release any photographs or videotape evidence of the incident.

Lynda Simonetti, director of public relations at the Beverly Hills Hilton, refused to comment on the guard's version of the incident, citing the hotel's privacy policy.

"We value the privacy of all the guests," Simonetti told FOXNews.com, adding, "The non-disclosure policy applies to the requests of the names, whether it's past, current or anticipated guests... That's our policy."

Last October, the Enquirer reported that several sources said a former campaign worker on Edwards' campaign had been having an affair with the former North Carolina senator. In an e-mail allegedly written by Hunter to a friend, she wrote that she is "in love with John," but it's "difficult because he is married and has kids."

Edwards' wife Elizabeth, whom many have credited as being one of the driving forces behind Edwards' campaign, announced in March that her breast cancer had re-emerged after going into remission following a 2004 diagnosis.

Hunter has said that the father of her child is former Edwards campaign official Andrew Young. The 41-year-old married father of three has also said he is the father.

--------------------------------

Yuck.  I really hope this isn't true.  Elizabeth Edwards doesn't need anymore stress or worry considering what she's going through. 

Your thoughts?

Mon Jul 14, 1:32 AM ET

An Australian woman described as the world's oldest Internet blogger has died at the age of 108 after posting a final message about singing "a happy song" in her nursing home.

Olive Riley "passed away peacefully on July 12 and will be mourned by thousands of Internet friends and hundreds of descendants and other relatives," a note on her website said.

Riley had posted more than 70 entries on her blog from Woy Woy on the east coast since February last year, sharing her thoughts on modern life and her experiences living through the entire 20th century.

Born in the outback town of Broken Hill on October 20 1899, she lived through two world wars and raised three children while doing various jobs, including ranch cook and barmaid.

In her final post on June 26, she wrote: "I can't believe I've been here in this nursing home for more than a week.

"How the days have flown, even though I've been in bed most of the time. I still feel weak, and can't shake off that bad cough.

"Penny, who's in the next bed to mine, had a visit one day this week from her daughter, who's a professional singer. Guess what happened! She and I sang a happy song, as I do every day, and before long we were joined by several nurses, who sang along too. It was quite a concert!"

Riley's blog, initially on www.allaboutolive.com.au and more recently at http://worldsoldestblogger.blogspot.com, was "mind-blowing to her," her great grandson Darren Stone said.

"She had people communicating with her from as far away as Russia and America on a continual basis, not just once in a while," he told the national AAP news agency.

"She enjoyed the notoriety -- it kept her mind fresh."

---------------------------------

Imagine that 108 and still blogging.  Good for her.   I hope if I live to be that old I still have my senses about me and am as open to new technology as she was.   What a wonderful thing to be connected to people around the world through the internet. 

Do you see yourself blogging in your old age? 

Thursday , July 10, 2008

Cynthia Rodriguez still loves Alex Rodriguez but is done with the marriage, she told gossip columnist Cindy Adams in an interview published on Thursday.

Rodriguez, 35, also told Adams she is "not out to mutilate" A-Rod, 32, and denied reports of a recent revenge shopping spree in Paris.

"Not one word of those stories is true. I never before in all my married life together ever went away without my husband or family. Not once in 13 years.

"I did not spend one dollar shopping in Paris. I did not go to super-fancy expensive restaurants. I did not go to any spa. I didn't do one thing. I spent the most innocent four days with my children's godparents, who are as close to us as family," she said. "My husband and I were already into our problems and I didn't know where to go, what to do. I needed to think — to clear my head."

Earlier this week, a former Boston stripper said she slept with the Yankee third baseman twice in 2004.

In divorce papers filed Monday in Miami-Dade County Family Court, Cynthia accused A-Rod of "extramarital affairs" and called their six-year marriage "irretrievably broken."

Cynthia did not name names in her six-page petition. Her lead lawyer, Earle Lilly, denied speculation that Rodriguez had a sexual relationship with Madonna, 49, calling it "an affair of the heart."

It wasn't "sexual infidelity," Lilly told People.com.

Cynthia and A-Rod have been married for more than five years. She has asked for primary custody of their two children — Nathasha Alexander, 3, and 2-month-old Ella Alexander — as well as child support and alimony.

Rodriguez is in the first season of a $275 million, 10-year contract with the Yankees, a deal that allows him to earn up to $305 million. He made $185.45 million from 2001-7 from his contract with the Texas Rangers and Yankees.

Madonna denies having an affair with Rodriguez, and insists her own marriage to British director Guy Ritchie is not on the verge of ending, despite reports they both have consulted divorce lawyers.

-------------------------

Do you believe any of the rumors?  Do you care?  Personally.. I find it quite sad that a 3 year old and 2 month old child have been dragged into this mess. 

Tuesday , July 08, 2008

A holiday weekend flight from Miami to New York never got off the ground after the crew arrived more than an hour late and angry passengers intimidated them so much that they refused to work.

American Airlines Flight 1908 was scheduled to leave Sunday evening from Miami en route to LaGuardia Airport in New York City. But the flight crew arrived an hour and 15 minutes late, prompting impatient and irate passengers to boo — and worse, MyFOX New York reported.

One witness said some people used "harsh language" with the gate attendants and were "really kind of like being a mob about it. It was scary."

When a few of the crewmembers refused to work because of the "hostile environment," American tried to find replacements — but to no avail, according to MyFOX New York. The airline had to put everyone up in a hotel and fly them out Monday afternoon.

Adding insult to injury? Flight 1908's passengers flew into LaGuardia, but their bags arrived at JFK.

--------------------------------

My first question... why was the crew late?  In some cases.. by law the FAA requires the crew get a certain amount of rest in between flights, if that's the case.. they couldn't help the situation.  

If they were late out of carelessness or disregard for the passengers.. that's a completely different story! 

What would you do.. would you boo the crew?  Is this customer service at it's worst.. or customers out of control?

A 70-YEAR-OLD Indian woman has become the world’s oldest mum after giving birth to twins.

Omkari Panwar, the wife of a retired farmer, delivered a boy and girl by caesarean section on Friday.

The frail pensioner, who has two adult daughters and five grandchildren, underwent IVF treatment to produce a male heir to the family’s smallholdings.

Mum ... Omkari Panwar, 70

Her husband, Charan Singh Panwar, 77, mortgaged his land, sold his buffalos, spent his life savings and took out a credit card loan to finance the treatment.

“At last we have a son and heir,” he said. “We prayed to God, went to saints and visited religious places to pray for an heir.

“We kept no stone unturned and God has rewarded us. The treatment cost me a fortune but the birth of a son makes it all worthwhile. I can die a happy man and a proud father.”

The twins, born one-month premature and weighing only two pounds each are healthy and expected to survive, according to doctors at Jaswant Roy Speciality Hospital.

Family ... Omkari and relatives

Omkari, who has no birth certificate and does not know the day she was born, uses the date of India’s independence in 1947 to guess her age.

She said she was nine when the British Raj left India meaning she is now 70.

She lives in Muzaffarnagar, seven hours drive north of the capital New Delhi.

Romanian Adriana Iliescu, who gave birth to a daughter, aged 66 in 2005, is the world’s previous oldest mother.

After being told she had beaten the record by four years, Omkari said: “If I am the world’s oldest mother it means nothing to me. I just want to see my new babies and care for them while I am still able.”

Gynaecologist Nisha Malik, who performed an emergency operation on the 70-year-old said: “I was shocked when this old lady told me she was pregnant. I have been practising medicine for 20 years and I have never heard of such a case.”

-----------------------------------

Here's my question.. if this guy sold his buffaloes, mortgaged his home, spent his life savings and took out a credit card loan to pay for the IVF treatment to have a son.. What exactly will this "heir" inherit?

And what would he have done if he got TWO GIRLS?

BY JOHN MARZULLI
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Monday, June 30th 2008, 11:32 PM

A shocking video shows a woman dying on the floor in the psych ward at Kings County Hospital, while people around her, including a security guard, did nothing to help.

After an hour, another mental patient finally got the attention of the indifferent hospital workers, according to the tape, obtained by the Daily News.

Worse still, the surveillance tape suggests hospital staff may have falsified medical charts to cover the utter lack of treatment provided Esmin Green before she died.

"Thank God for the videotape because no one would have believed this could have happened," said Donna Lieberman, executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union.

"There's a clear possibility of criminal wrongdoing with regard to recordkeeping, and that has to be investigated."

The city Department of Investigation is part of a sweeping probe that has brought some changes to the ward known as G Building.

A federal suit filed last year in Brooklyn alleged neglect and abuse of mental patients at the hospital. The suit sparked an investigation by the Brooklyn U.S. attorney's civil rights unit before the June 19 death.

Two different security guards spotted Green, a native of the island of Jamaica, prone on the floor and did nothing, the tape shows. They have been fired, along with four other staffers.

Green, 49, taken to the unit for "agitation," keels over out of her chair at 5:32a.m., according to the time stamp on the video. She had been sitting about 3feet from an observation window. Two other patients were in the room.

Green is lying facedown on the floor, her legs splayed, when a security guard strolls by at 5:53 a.m., looks at her for about 20 seconds and then walks away.

She is writhing on the floor, thrashing her legs, about 6 a.m., when her medical chart contends she was "awake, up and about, went to the bathroom."

Green rolls on her back at 6:04a.m. She stops moving at 6:08 a.m., but two minutes later a security guard pushed his chair into camera view.

He never gets out of the chair, but looks at Green and scoots away. A female patient who was in and out of the room finally brings a clinic staffer to check the woman and a crash cart is summoned.

The medical chart claims she was "sitting quietly in [the] waiting room" at 6:20 a.m., although she was already dead. The cause of death is still under investigation.

"We are shocked and distressed by this situation," the Health and Hospitals Corp. said in a statement.

http://abclocal.go.com/wabc/story?section=news/
local&id=6237821

The link above.. in BLUE will take you to the article so you can see the video for yourself.   It is shocking and disgusting. I wonder what the world is coming to that human beings are treated like trash.  

This reminds me of the incident several weeks ago where the man was run over in the middle of the street.  The car that hit him kept going and people on the sidewalk simply stared at him.   

How did we get to this point?  Or is it that now we have surveillance video to prove how inhumane the world really is?

Internet addiction is a 'clinical disorder'

By Andy Bloxham  Last updated: 5:23 PM BST 19/06/2008

Sufferers spend unhealthy amounts of time playing online games, viewing pornography or emailing.

They suffer four symptoms: They forget to eat and sleep; they need more advanced technology or more hours online as they develop 'resistance' to the pleasure given by their current system; if they are deprived of their computer, they experience genuine withdrawal symptoms; And in common with other addictions, the victims also begin to have more arguments, to suffer fatigue, to get lower marks in tests and to feel isolated from society.

Early research into the subject found highly educated, socially awkward men were the most likely sufferers but more recent work suggests it is now more of a problem for middle-aged women who are spending hours at home on their computers.

Psychiatrist Dr Jerald Block said some sufferers were so addicted to the internet that they required medication or even hospital treatment to curb the time they spent on the web.

He said: "The relationship is with the computer. It becomes a significant other to them. They exhaust emotions that they could experience in the real world on the computer through any number of mechanisms: emailing, gaming, porn."

He added: "It's much more acceptable for kids to talk about game use, whereas adults keep it a secret. Rather than having sex, or arguing with their wife or husband, or feeding their children, these adults are playing games."

Dr Block, of the Oregon Health and Science University in Portland, in the USA, first made the claims in an editorial for the American Journal of Psychiatry.

British psychiatrists have previously reported that between five and 10 per cent of online users are internet addicts.

----------------------------------------

If I had to guess.. I'd say it's much higher than 5 to 10 percent.

Do you know any internet addicts?  Are you worried you might become one (or already are)?

Victoria Colliver, Chronicle Staff Writer

Tuesday, June 17, 2008

Howard Weyers tried the "carrot" approach by giving his employees incentives and encouragement to quit smoking. But when that didn't work, he resorted to the stick. A big stick.

Weyers, owner of a health care benefits administrator in Lansing, Mich., gave his 200 employees an ultimatum in 2004: Quit smoking in 15 months or lose your job. He refused to hire smokers. Ultimately, he extended his smoking ban to employees' spouses and monitored compliance through mandatory random blood testing.

Weyers' method, while effective, wouldn't fly in California because the state has laws that prohibit employers from making hiring or firing decisions based on employee participation in a legal activity.

About 45 million Americans smoke cigarettes despite more than three decades of public efforts to encourage people to quit.

In addition to lost work hours, employers have a vested interest in getting their workforce to kick the habit, given that they pay a large portion of health care costs and are the main source of health insurance for more than half the population.

-- About 23 percent of American adults and 28 percent of teens smoke.

-- 70 percent of smokers say they want to quit.

-- 10 percent of smokers living today suffer from a smoking-related illness.

Sources: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; U.S. Surgeon General; State of California; American Cancer Society.

-----------------------------

Should employers have the right to give their employees an ultimatum -- quit smoking or you're fired?  This guy is even banning employee's spouses from smoking!

And how about that MANDATORY random blood testing? 

Get Osama Bin Laden before I leave office, orders George W Bush 

 By Sarah Baxter

President George W Bush has enlisted British special forces in a final attempt to capture Osama Bin Laden before he leaves the White House.

Defence and intelligence sources in Washington and London confirmed that a renewed hunt was on for the leader of the September 11 attacks. “If he [Bush] can say he has killed Saddam Hussein and captured Bin Laden, he can claim to have left the world a safer place,” said a US intelligence source.

Intelligence on the whereabouts of Bin Laden is sketchy, but some analysts believe he is in the Bajaur tribal zone in northwest Pakistan. He has evaded capture for nearly seven years. “Bush is swinging for the fences in the hope of scoring a home run,” said an intelligence source, using a baseball metaphor.

A Pentagon source said US forces were rolling up Al-Qaeda’s network in Pakistan in the hope of pushing Bin Laden towards the Afghan border, where the US military and bombers with guided missiles were lying in wait. “They are prepping for a major battle,” he said.

The main operations in Pakistan are being undertaken by Delta, the US army special operations unit, and the British SBS.

Special forces are being sent to capture or kill Al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters based on intelligence provided by the Special Reconnaissance Regiment and its US counterpart, the Security Co-ordination Detachment.

Robert Gates, the US defence secretary, said last week that the US would “partner [the Pakistanis] to the extent they want us to” to combat insurgents.

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Hard to believe it's been nearly 7 years since 9-11 and Bin Laden is still out there.

What are your thoughts on this alleged "ramped up" effort to catch Bin Laden before President Bush leaves office?