His Appetite Will Devour the Earth

In 1855, President Franklin Pierce made a “request” to the Suwamish tribe of Indians (who lived in what is now the State of Washington) to “sell” their land to the government. This, in part, was the reply:

The great chief in Washington sends word that he wishes to buy our land. The great chief also sends us words of friendship and goodwill. This is kind of him, since we know that he has little need of our friendship in return. But we will consider your offer, for we know that if we do not do so, the white man may come with guns and take our land.

How can you buy or sell the sky — the warmth of the land? The idea is strange to us. Yet we do not own the freshness of the air or the sparkle of the water. How can you buy them from us? Every part of this earth is sacred to my people. Every shining pine needle, every sandy shore, every mist in the dark woods, every clearing and humming insect is holy in the memory and experience of my people.

We know that the white man does not understand our ways. One portion of the land is the same to him as the next, for he is a stranger who comes in the night and takes from the land whatever he needs. The earth is not his brother, but his enemy, and when he has conquered it, he moves on. His appetite will devour the earth and leave behind only a desert....

One thing we know which the white man may one day discover: Our God is the same God. You may think that you own Him as you wish to own our land. But you cannot. He is the God of men. And His compassion is equal for the red man and the white. This earth is precious to Him. And to harm the earth is to heap contempt on its Creator.

The whites, too, shall pass — perhaps sooner than other tribes. Continue to contaminate your bed and you will one night suffocate in your own waste. When the buffaloes are all slaughtered, the wild horses all tamed, the sacred corner of the forest heavy with the scent of men... where is the thicket? Where is the eagle?

There is no quiet place in the white man’s cities. No place to hear the leaves of spring or the rustle of insect wings.... And what is there to life if a man cannot hear the lovely cry of the whippoorwill or the argument of the frogs around a pond at night?

We might understand if we know what the white man dreams, what hopes he describes to his children on long winter nights, what visions he burns into their minds, so that they will wish for tomorrow. But we are savages. The white man’s dreams are hidden from us.

And because they are hidden, we will go on our own way. When the last red man has vanished from the earth, and the memory is only the shadow of a cloud moving across the prairie, these shores and forests will still hold the spirits of my people, for they love this earth as the newborn loves its mother’s heartbeat.

If we sell you our land, love it as we loved it... and with all your strength, with all your might, and with all your heart, preserve it for your children, and love it as God loves us all. The earth is precious to Him. Even the white man cannot be exempt from the common destiny.

Chief Seathl (Seattle) of the Suwamish tribe of Indians

Target of the Well-read Man

In commemoration of Banned Book Week, the website of the Office For Intellectual Freedom of the American Library Association, published a list of the top 100 banned or challenged books from the turn of the new millennium to 2009.

I have to admit that I am unfamiliar with most of the books on the list, although now I'm thinking of reading several of them. I did notice some titles that perennially appear on such lists, but also some I was quite surprised to find here. Just a few from the list are:

The Harry Potter series, by J.K. Rowling
Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, by Maya Angelou
Captain Underpants, by Dav Pilkey
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain
The Color Purple, by Alice Walker
Go Ask Alice, by Anonymous
Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger
To Kill A Mockingbird, by Harper Lee
The Face on the Milk Carton, by Caroline B. Cooney
Snow Falling on Cedars, by David Guterson
Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley
Slaughterhouse-Five, by Kurt Vonnegut
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, by Ken Kesey
Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury
The Joy of Gay Sex, by Dr. Charles Silverstein
Friday Night Lights, by H.G. Bissenger
A Wrinkle in Time, by Madeline L’Engle
The Goosebumps series, by R.L. Stine

These books represent new and established classics and some of the most critically acclaimed and seminal works in American letters.

Banned Books Week is an annual event celebrating the freedom to read. Held during the last week of September, it highlights the value of free and open access to information. Banned Books Week brings together the entire book community –- librarians, booksellers, publishers, journalists, teachers, and readers of all types –- in shared support of the freedom to seek and to express ideas.

A challenge is an attempt to remove or restrict materials, based upon the objections of a person or group. Challenges do not simply involve a person expressing a point of view; rather, they are an attempt to remove material from the curriculum or library, thereby restricting the access of others.

As John Stuart Mill wrote in On Liberty: "The peculiar evil of silencing the expression of an opinion is, that it is robbing the human race; posterity as well as the existing generation; those who dissent from the opinion, still more than those who hold it."

Free Access to Libraries for Minors, an interpretation of the Library Bill of Rights (ALA's basic policy concerning access to information) states that, “Librarians and governing bodies should maintain that parents—and only parents—have the right and the responsibility to restrict the access of their children—and only their children—to library resources.”

Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas remarked: "Restriction of free thought and free speech is the most dangerous of all subversions. It is the one un-American act that could most easily defeat us."

Phil Kerby, a former editor of the Los Angeles Times observed, “Censorship is the strongest drive in human nature; sex is a weak second.”

To see the entire list, go to: www.ala.org/bbooks/top-100-bannedchallenged-books-2000-2009

"A book is a loaded gun in the house next door...Who knows who might be the target of the well-read man?” Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451

“He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance.”

By Laura Bledsoe

Dearest Guests, (You have all become dear to us!) 

What an evening we had this last Friday night! It had all the makings of a really great novel: drama, suspense, anticipation, crisis, heroic efforts, villains and victors, resolution and a happy ending. 

The evening was everything I had dreamed and hoped it would be. The weather was perfect, the farm was filled with friends and guests roaming around talking about organic, sustainable farming practices. Our young interns were teaching and sharing their passion for farming and their role in it. (A high hope for our future!) The pig didn’t get loose. Our guests were excited to spend an evening together. The food was prepared exquisitely. The long dinner table, under the direction of dear friends, was absolutely stunningly beautiful. The music was superb. The stars were bright and life was really good. And then, …

for a few moments, it felt like the rug was pulled out from underneath us and my wonderful world came crashing down. As guests were mingling, finishing tours of the farm, and while the first course of the meal was being prepared and ready to be sent out, a Southern Nevada Health District employee came for an inspection. 

Because this was a gathering of people invited to our farm for dinner, I had no idea that the Health Department would become involved. I received a phone call from them two days before the event informing me that because this was a “public event” (I would like to know what is the definition of “public” and “private”) we would be required to apply for a “special use permit”. If we did not do so immediately, we would be charged a ridiculous fine. Stunned, we immediately complied.

We were in the middle of our harvest day for our CSA shares, a very busy time for us, but Monte immediately left to comply with the demand and filled out the required paper work and paid for the fee. (Did I mention that we live in Overton, nowhere near a Health Department office?) Paper work now in order, he was informed that we would not actually be given the permit until an inspector came to check it all out. She came literally while our guests were arriving! 

In order to overcome any trouble with the Health Department of cooking on the premises, most of the food was prepared in a certified kitchen in Las Vegas; and to further remove any doubt, we rented a certified kitchen trailer to be here on the farm for the preparation of the meals. The inspector, Mary Oaks, clearly not the one in charge of the inspection as she was constantly on the phone with her superior Susan somebody who was calling all the shots from who knows where. 

Susan deemed our food unfit for consumption and demanded that we call off the event because: 1. Some of the prepared food packages did not have labels on them. (The code actually allows for this if it is to be consumed within 72 hours.) 2. Some of the meat was not USDA certified. (Did I mention that this was a farm to fork meal?) 3. Some of the food that was prepared in advance was not up to temperature at the time of inspection. (It was being prepared to be brought to proper temperature for serving when the inspection occurred.) 4. Even the vegetables prepared in advance had to be thrown out because they were cut and were then considered a “bio-hazard”. 5. We did not have receipts for our food. (Reminder! This food came from farms not from the supermarket! I have talked with several chefs who have said that in all their years cooking they have never been asked for receipts.)

At this time Monte, trying to reason with Susan to find a possible solution for the problem, suggested turning this event from a “public” event to a “private” event by allowing the guests to become part of our farm club, thus eliminating any jurisdiction or responsibility on their part. This idea infuriated Susan and threatened that if we did not comply the police would be called and personally escort our guests off the property. This is not the vision of the evening we had in mind! So regretfully, again we complied. 

The only way to keep our guests on the property was to destroy the food. I can’t tell you how sick to my stomach I was watching that first dish of Mint Lamb Meatballs hit the bottom of the unsanitized trash can. Here we were with guests who had paid in advance and had come from long distances away anticipating a wonderful dining experience, waiting for dinner while we were behind the kitchen curtain throwing it away! I know of the hours and labor that went into the preparation of that food. 

We asked the inspector if we could save the food for a private family event that we were having the next day. (A personal family choice to use our own food.) We were denied and she was insulted that we would even consider endangering our families health. I assured her that I had complete faith and trust in Giovanni our chef and the food that was prepared, (obviously, or I wouldn’t be wanting to serve it to our guests). 

I then asked if we couldn’t feed the food to our “public guests” or even to our private family, then at least let us feed it to our pigs. (I think it should be a criminal action to waste any resource of the land. Being dedicated to our organic farm, we are forever looking for good inputs into our compost and soil and good food that can be fed to our animals. The animals and compost pile always get our left over garden surplus and food. We truly are trying to be as sustainable as possible.) Again, a call to Susan and another negative response.

Okay, so let me get this right. So the food that was raised here on our farm and selected and gathered from familiar local sources, cooked and prepared with skill and love was even unfit to feed to my pigs!?! 

Who gave them the right to tell me what I feed my animals? Not only were we denied the use of the food for any purpose, to ensure that it truly was unfit for feed of any kind we were again threatened with police action if we did not only throw the food in the trash, but then to add insult to injury, we were ordered to pour bleach on it. 

Now the food is also unfit for compost as I would be negligent to allow any little critters to nibble on it while it was composting and ingest that bleach resulting in a horrible death. Literally hundreds of pounds of food was good for nothing but adding to our ever increasing land fill! 

At some point in all of this turmoil Monte reminded me that I had the emergency phone number for the Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund (FTCLDF) on our refrigerator. I put it there never really believing that I would ever have to use it. We became members of the Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund several years ago as a protection for us, but mostly to add support to other farmers battling against the oppressive legal actions taken against the small farmers trying to produce good wholesome food without government intrusion. 

The local, sustainable food battle is being waged all across America! May I mention that not one battle has been brought on because of any illness to the patrons of these farms! The battles are started by government officials swooping down on farms and farmers like SWAT teams confiscating not only the wholesome food items produced but even their farm equipment! Some of them actually wearing HAZMAT suits as if they were walking into a nuclear meltdown! I have personally listened to some of their heart wrenching stories and have continued to follow them through the FTCLDF’s updates. 

Well, I made the call, told my story and within a short period of time received a phone call back from the FTCLDF’s General Counsel, Gary Cox. When told the story, he simply suggested that we apply our fundamental constitutional right to be protected against “unlawful search and seizure.” I simply had to ask Mary two questions. “Do you have a search warrant?” “Do you have an arrest warrant?” 

With the answers being “No”, I politely and very simply asked her to leave our property. As simple as that! She had no alternative, no higher power, no choice whatsoever but to now comply with my desire. She left in a huff making a scene shouting that she was calling the police. She left no paperwork, no Cease and Desist order, no record of any kind that implicated us for one thing, (we had complied to all their orders) only empty threats and a couple of trash cans full of defiled food. I will get back to “the inspector” and her threats shortly. 

Let’s get to where it really gets good. While I am on the verge of a literal breakdown, Monte and Gio get creative. All right, we have just thrown all of this food away, we can’t do this, we can’t do that, what CAN we do? Well, we have a vegetable farm and we do have fresh vegetables. (By the way, we were denied even using our fresh vegetables until I informed our inspector that I do have a Producers Certificate from the Nevada Department of Agriculture allowing us to sell our vegetables and other farm products at the Farmers Market. Much of our produce has gone to some of the very finest restaurants in Las Vegas and St. George.) 

The wind taken out of the inspector's sails, Gio and his crew got cookin’. It just so happened that we had a cooled trailer full of vegetables ready to be taken to market the following day. Monte hooked on to the trailer and backed it up right next to the kitchen. Our interns who were there to greet and serve now got to work with lamp oil and began harvesting anew. Knives were chopping, pots of pasta and rice from our food storage were steaming, our bonfire was now turned into a grill and literal miracles were happening before our eyes! 

In the meantime, Monte and I had to break the news to our guests. Rather than go into the details here, you can see the video footage on Mark Bowers and Kiki Kalor’s (our friends and guests) website at: http://www.reallyvegasphoto.com/Events/CSA-Farm-Government-Inspection/19707296_v2zFML#1546717636_dJJDZjw

We explained the situation, offered anyone interested a full refund, and told them that if they chose to stay their dinner was now literally being prepared fresh, as just now being harvested. The reaction of our guests was the most sobering and inspirational experience of the evening. In an instant we were bonded together. 

They were, of course, out-raged at the lack of choice they were given in their meal. Out-raged at the arrogance of coming to a farm dinner and being required to use only USDA (government inspected) meats. Outraged at the heavy handedness of the Health Department into their lives. Then there was the most tremendous outpouring of love and support.

One of our guests, Marty Keach, informed us that he was an attorney and as appalled as everyone else offered his support and counsel if need be, even if it be to the Supreme Court. He was a great comfort in a tense time. 

With their approval, Giovanni and crew got cooking and the evening then truly began. The atmosphere turned from tense and angry to loving and supportive. As soon as I heard my brother Steve sit down and begin strumming his guitar, I knew something special was happening. Paid guests volunteered their services. Chef Shawn Wallace, a guest, joined Gio and his team his knife flying through the eggplant and squash. Wendy and Thierry Pressyler and so many that I am not even aware of, were helping to grill and transport dishes. Jason and Chrissy Doolen offered to run quick errands. Jeanne Frost, a server for the Wynn hotel, didn’t take a seat and began serving her fellow guests. 

Before long we were seated at the beautiful table and the most incredible dishes began coming forth. It was literally “loaves and fishes” appearing before our very eyes! We broke bread together, we laughed, we talked, we shared stories, we came together in the most marvelous way. 

Now this is what I had dreamed, only more marvelous than I could have ever imagined! The sky being bright with glittering stars, we had the telescopes out and invited any guests who desired to look into our starry heaven. While we were looking into the heavens, heaven was looking down upon us! I can’t tell you the number of times I have felt the hand of providence helping us in the work of this farm. 

As hard and demanding as this work is, I KNOW that this is what we are meant to do. 

I KNOW that it is imperative that we stand up for our food choices. 

I KNOW that local, organic, sustainable food produced by ourselves or by small family, local farms is indispensible to the health and well-being of our families and our communities now and in the future! 

If this work were not so vitally important, the “evil forces” would not be working so hard to pull it down. We were victorious, we will be victorious, we must be! Our grandchildren’s future is at stake! 

Back to the inspector. She did call the police. You must remember that we live in a small town. We know these officers. They responded to the call dutifully but were desperately trying to figure out why they had been called. Never in all of their experience had they ever received a call like this. 

Mary, the inspector, demanded that they give us a citation. The officer in charge said that she was to give us the citation, she responded that no, they were to give us the citation, which they then asked her for what violation. Even with the help of her superior on the phone she could not give them a reason. They asked her to leave which she did. The police were very kind and apologetic for the intrusion. All of this was done without fanfare and out of sight of our guests. The police officers are commended for their professionalism! 

Now that we have come to the last chapter of our novel, I realize that it ends with a cliff-hanger. As happy as the ending was, it isn’t “happily ever after” yet. This will remain to be seen in the ensuing days, weeks and even years ahead. 

Tom Collins, our County Commissioner, furious by the events that took place, having formerly been a board member for the Southern Nevada Health District is putting together a meeting with himself, the current board members and ourselves to make sense of all this mess. 

As so many of you have related verbally and through emails your desire to help and be involved, we will keep you informed as events take place. I feel that we have been compelled to truly become active participants in the ongoing battle over our food choices. This is just one small incident that brings to our awareness how fragile our freedoms are. We are now ready to join the fight!

We would encourage all of you who can to contribute and to become a member of the Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund. They are not only fighting for the farmers, they are fighting for the consumers to have the right to choose. You can find them at: farmtoconsumer.org

As I close, I am reminded of the passage written so forcefully by Thomas Jefferson in the Declaration of Independence: 

“He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance.” 

The same battle continues. I pray the result of the battle will be the same, that we have been “endowed by our Creator with … life and liberty”. 

We love you all, and thank you with all our souls for your continued love and support! We will stay in touch. 

With warmest wishes for you and your families,

Monte and Laura Bledsoe

Written from Quail Hollow Farm October 24, 2011

*Photographs copyright by Quail Hollow Farm. Reprinted with permission. Please visit Quail Hollow Farm at www.quailhollowfarmcsa.com

Fiber in the Park

Hi all. I just got back from the Fiber in the Park festival at Shabbona Park in Earlville.

I was going to spend the day at home, and my wife had planned to attend the annual wool fiber show that she looks forward to each year. But it was such a gorgeous day, 67 degrees, bright blue, with puffy gray-white clouds, that I decided on a whim to go with. So my wife and son got me ready to go, out into the car, wheelchair in the trunk, and we were off on the backroads for a quick drive through the cornfields.

I am very glad I went. The park itself was beautiful, lots of old trees (one giant oak taking me back 45 years as I imagined myself climbing rope ladders up to my treehouse), a system of fishing ponds (bobbers and line adorning the lower branches), and vintage slides, jungle gyms, and even a merry-go-round.

The small show featured everything from hand-crafted spinning wheels to carding combs, from roving and fleece to worsteds and dyed yarns, from knitted hats to lace shawls and plaid blankets. There were women spinning wool fiber into yarn and a man who introduced us to Molly and her kid Kiefer, two Icelandic sheep.

The colors of the skeins of yarn for sale were amazing. We had gone with the intention of looking, not buying, and not having any particular projects in mind. I have to say, I made out like a bandit. We bought a skein with orange and brown and yellow and a very little green that my wife is going to crochet into an autumn hat for me. Then we were looking at some finished products, and we found a wonderful, long scarf in shades of brown with a Native American design that happened to look great around my neck. Although the items were not inexpensive, they were reasonably priced and everything was on sale.

Now I'm writing on my laptop and my wife is grilling chicken. We've got a couple of Leinenkugel Red Lagers chilling in the fridge, and Halloween Oreos for dessert. Turned out to be a very good day indeed.

www.facebook.com/fiberinthepark

The Happy Dance

My son sent me a message a few days ago about a possible link between antidepressants and violent behavior. This is what he wrote: "The shooter in DC this week was on SSRI's (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors). So was Sandy Hook shooter. So were over 90% of all mass shooters! When you find a story about a mom doing something unimaginable to her children, yup you got it - SSRI's in her cabinet! Here is why:"

He went on to list the dozens of side effects of SSRI's that include drowsiness; somnolence; headaches; bruxism (grinding teeth); extremely vivid or strange dreams; mydriasis (pupil dilation); changes in appetite; insomnia and/or changes in sleep; changes in sexual behavior; anxiety; panic attacks; mania; tremors; suicidal ideation; photosensitivity; paresthesia (sensation of tingling, pricking, or burning of the skin); cognitive disorders; violent tendencies; and paranoid reactions.

He asked me if I'd look into it. Since that time I have been immersed in this unsettling topic, but here is what I found.

Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRI's) are a class of compounds typically used as antidepressants in the treatment of depression, anxiety disorders, and personality disorders. SSRI's are the first class of psychotropic drugs discovered using the process called rational drug design, a process that starts with a specific biological target and then creates a molecule designed to affect it. They are the most widely prescribed antidepressants in the world. The efficacy of SSRI's ... has been disputed.

The main indication for SSRI's is major depressive disorder. SSRI's are frequently prescribed for anxiety disorders, such as social anxiety disorder, panic disorders, obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD), eating disorders, chronic pain, and for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). They are also frequently used to treat depersonalization disorder, although generally with poor results.

SSRI users with some type of bipolar disorder are at a much higher risk for mania (a state of abnormally elevated or irritable mood, arousal, and/or energy levels. The word "mania" derives from the Greek: madness, frenzy; and from the verb "mainomai" - "to be mad, to rage, to be furious"). Mania varies in intensity, but severe episodes can result in extreme energy, psychotic features, including hallucinations, delusions of grandeur, suspiciousness, catatonic behavior, aggression, and a preoccupation with violent thoughts and schemes. SSRI-induced mania in patients diagnosed with unipolar depression can trigger a bipolar episode.

Critics of SSRI's claim that the widely disseminated television and print advertising of SSRI's promotes an inaccurate message, oversimplifying what these medications actually do and deceiving the public. It has been argued that SSRI's can actually cause chemical imbalances and abnormal brain states. Noted psychologist and neuroscientist Elliot Valenstein claims that the broad biochemical assertions and assumptions of mainstream psychiatry are not supported by clinical evidence.

The SSRI drug duloxetine, marketed as Cymbalta, lists, in addition to the side effects already discussed: decreased interest in sexual intercourse; change or problem with discharge of semen; inability to have or keep an erection; longer than usual time to ejaculation of semen; and loss in sexual ability, desire, drive, or performance. I mention this because acts of extreme violence invariably contain psychosexual components.

One other side effect of SSRI's is fear. Fear is our most basic survival instinct. Fear is hard-wired into our autonomic brain functions. Fear floods our bodies with adrenaline. Fear triggers our fight-or-flight mechanism. A blind kill or be killed reaction.

Another widely prescribed SSRI is Zoloft (sertraline). Side effects again list: decreased sexual desire or ability; aggressive reaction; excited feelings or actions that are out of control; feeling that others are watching you or controlling your behavior; feeling that others can hear your thoughts; feeling, seeing, or hearing things that are not there; and severe mood or mental changes.

http://ssristories.com states the following:

SSRI's, or selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, are the pharmaceutical companies latest cash cows. Their use has skyrocketed in the last ten years. Nicknamed "Chemical Babysitters" and designated as antidepressants, they are causing dozens of murders, thousands of psychoses and are altering the minds of millions of users. All but a very few of the latest "Mass Murderers" have been on these drugs. Schools encourage parents to put their children on these drugs for the smallest signs of "non conformity." Schools receive more money for "disabled" students.

They cite the following case:

Kristine Marie Cushing, age 39, had been separated from her husband for several months. In October 1991, she took a .38-caliber pistol and shot and killed both of her children, Elizabeth age 8, and Stephanie Marie, age 4, while they lay sleeping in their beds, then shot herself, inflicting a non-fatal wound. Prosecutors stated that they "couldn't find one iota of information to show that she was anything but a very giving, caring and sweet human being." After a plea of insanity, she was committed to a mental institution. What made her snap? She had been taking Prozac.

In the aftermath of the Columbine High School massacre, it was reported that Eric Harris, one of the shooters, was taking Luvox, which, like Prozac, Zoloft and Paxil, belongs to the SSRI class of drugs. In one out of every 25 children taking it, Luvox causes mania. His partner Dylan Klebold's medical records have never been made available to the public.

Fifteen-year-old Shawn Cooper of Notus, Idaho, fired a shotgun at students and school staff. According to his stepfather, he had been taking an SSRI. Thirteen-year-old Chris Fetters of Iowa killed her favorite aunt. She was taking Prozac. Kip Kinkel, a 15-year-old youth, went on a rampage in Oregon. He first shot and killed his parents, spent the night with the bodies (characteristic of the dissociative reaction these drugs often cause), then killed two and wounded 22 of his fellow students at Thurston High School. He was taking Prozac.

John Noveske, founder and owner of Noveske Rifleworks, just days before he was mysteriously killed in a single car accident, published the following information on his Facebook page:

• Jeff Weise, age 16, had been prescribed 60 mg/day of Prozac (three times the average starting dose for adults) when he shot his grandfather, his grandfather's girlfriend and many fellow students at Red Lake, Minnesota. He then shot himself. 10 dead, 12 wounded.

• Cory Baadsgaard, age 16, Wahluke (Washington state) High School, was on Paxil (which caused him to have hallucinations) when he took a rifle to his high school and held 23 classmates hostage. He has no memory of the event.

• Luke Woodham, age 16 (Prozac) killed his mother and then killed two students, wounding six others.

• A boy in Pocatello, ID in 1998 had a Zoloft-induced seizure that caused an armed stand off at his school.

• Michael Carneal (Ritalin), age 14, opened fire on students at a high school prayer meeting in West Paducah, Kentucky. Three teenagers were killed, five others were wounded..

• A young man in Huntsville, Alabama (Ritalin) went psychotic chopping up his parents with an ax and also killing one sibling and almost murdering another.

• Andrew Golden, age 11, (Ritalin) and Mitchell Johnson, aged 14, (Ritalin) shot 15 people, killing four students, one teacher, and wounding 10 others.

• Rod Mathews, age 14, (Ritalin) beat a classmate to death with a bat.

• James Wilson, age 19, (various psychiatric drugs) from Breenwood, South Carolina, took a .22 caliber revolver into an elementary school killing two young girls, and wounding seven other children and two teachers.

• Jarred Viktor, age 15, (Paxil), stabbed his grandmother 61 times.

• Jeff Franklin (Prozac and Ritalin), Huntsville, AL, killed his parents as they came home from work using a sledge hammer, hatchet, butcher knife and mechanic's file, then attacked his younger brothers and sister.

• Kevin Rider, age 14, was withdrawing from Prozac when he died from a gunshot wound to his head. Initially it was ruled a suicide, but two years later, the investigation into his death was opened as a possible homicide. The prime suspect, also age 14, had been taking Zoloft and other SSRI antidepressants.

• Kara Jaye Anne Fuller-Otter, age 12, was on Paxil when she hung herself from a hook in her closet. Kara's parents said ".... the damn doctor wouldn't take her off it and I asked him to when we went in on the second visit. I told him I thought she was having some sort of reaction to Paxil..."

Noveske  goes on to cite several teenage suicides that I do not want to list here because they are too painful.

• Kurt Danysh, age 18, while on Prozac, killed his father with a shotgun. He is now behind prison bars, and writes letters, trying to warn the world that SSRI drugs can kill.

• Woody __, age 37, committed suicide while in his 5th week of taking Zoloft. Shortly before his death his physician suggested doubling the dose of the drug. He had seen his physician only for insomnia. He had never been depressed, nor did he have any history of any mental illness symptoms.

• Steven Kazmierczak, age 27, shot and killed five people and wounded 21 others before killing himself in a Northern Illinois University auditorium. According to his girlfriend, he had recently been taking Prozac, Xanax and Ambien. Toxicology results showed that he still had trace amounts of Xanax in his system.

Paul Joseph Watson of Infowars.com commented on the fact that the mainstream media intentionally ignores the SSRI - mass murder link due to the crassness of the almighty dollar. "Why is the corporate media so disinterested in pursuing this clear connection? Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that the pharmaceutical giants who produce drugs like Zoloft, Prozac and Paxil spend around $2.4 billion dollars a year on direct-to-consumer television advertising every year. By running negative stories about prescription drugs, networks risk losing tens of millions of dollars in ad revenue."

Dr. Julian Whitaker MD states, "The explosive nature of these drugs is predictable. Studies show that they can cause akathisia, a condition of significant physical and mental agitation. Akathisia is to violence what a match is to gasoline."

Ann Blake Tracy, Ph.D., author of Prozac: Panacea or Pandora?, has been studying the violent, dark side of SSRI drugs for ten years. She has researched 32 murder/suicides that involved women and their children. By interviewing their families and studying autopsy reports, news accounts and medical histories, she has determined that in 24 of these 32 cases, the women were taking Prozac or another SSRI.

The defenders of Prozac say that millions are being helped by it, but this claim is spurious. In the clinical trials submitted to the FDA for registration, Eli Lilly studied the drug in less than 300 people and for only four to six weeks. One out of every seven participants dropped out of the study because of side effects of the drug.

In fact, Germany's Ministry of Health denied Eli Lilly a license for fluoxetine (Prozac). “Considering the benefit and the risk, we think this preparation totally unsuitable for the treatment of depression,” read the statement.

In its review of the book Let Them Eat Prozac: The Unhealthy Relationship Between the Pharmaceutical Industry and Depression by David Healy, the New York Review of Books says:

Healy is a distinguished research and practicing psychiatrist, university professor, frequent expert witness, former secretary of the British Association for Psychopharmacology, and author of three books in the field. Healy doesn't deny that SSRI's can be effective against mood disorders, and he has prescribed them to his own patients. As a psychopharmacologist, however, he saw from the outset that the drug firms were pushing a simplistic “biobabble” myth whereby depression supposedly results straightforwardly from a shortfall of the neurotransmitter serotonin in the brain. No such causation has been established, and the proposal is no more reasonable than claiming that headaches arise from aspirin deprivation.

Healy suspected that SSRI makers had squirreled away their own awkward findings about drug-provoked derangement in healthy subjects, and he found such evidence after gaining access to Pfizer’s clinical trial data on Zoloft. In 2001, however, just when he had begun alerting academic audiences to his forthcoming inquiry, he was abruptly denied a professorship he had already accepted in a distinguished University of Toronto research institute supported by grants from Pfizer.

Healy concludes woefully:

The FDA is timid, underfunded, and infiltrated by friends of industry; even the most respected medical journals hesitate to offend their pharmaceutical advertisers; professional conferences are little more than trade fairs; leading professors accept huge sums in return for serving the companies in various venal ways; and, most disgracefully of all, many of their “research” papers are now ghostwritten outright by company-hired hacks. Big Pharma doesn’t just bend the rules; it buys the rulebook.

In Talking Back to Prozac: What Doctors Aren't Telling You About Prozac and the Newer Antidepressants by Peter Breggin MD and Ginger Breggin, Dr. Breggin says:

I have now been a medical expert in dozens of product liability suits against pharmaceutical companies, including the manufacturers of drugs examined in this book: Prozac, Paxil and Zoloft. Most of the lawsuits have centered on the main issues in this book: antidepressant-induced violence, suicide and mania. In most of these cases, the plaintiffs or the plaintiffs’ families have hired me after individuals have committed suicide, perpetrated crimes, or otherwise ruined their lives while under the influence of an antidepressant.

Most of the antidepressant cases in which I have been an expert have been settled to the satisfaction of the people who brought the suit against the drug company. Sometimes the drug companies have given a million, or even many millions of dollars, to the plaintiffs—of course, always without admitting guilt. Except for one case that was settled for millions of dollars during the trial, in no case has an antidepressant manufacturer chosen to go to court.

Antidepressants generate gigantic revenues for the drug companies. In 2006, antidepressants were the most prescribed among all classes of drugs, with a total of 227.3 million prescriptions in the United States, with a total revenue of $13.5 billion.

Joe Wesbecker had threatened his co-workers in the past, but had never been violent. In 1989, Wesbecker was placed on Prozac (fluoxetine). One month later, he became agitated and delusional. Suspecting Prozac as the cause, his psychiatrist stopped the antidepressant. Two days later, with most of the drug remaining in his system, a heavily armed Wesbecker walked into his former place of work in Louisville, Ky., where he killed eight people and wounded many others.

A 16-year-old boy in Manitoba, Canada, abruptly plunged a knife into the chest of one his best friends, killing him. The youngster, with no history of violence or serious mental illness, had been put on Prozac three months before the murder. When his mother told the psychiatrist that Prozac was making her son worse, the doctor increased the dose. Seventeen days later, with no significant provocation, the teenager killed his friend.

Before he committed the massacre in the theater in Aurora, Colo., in 2012, James Holmes was in psychiatric treatment at his university clinic. It is certain that Holmes was either taking psychiatric drugs or in withdrawal from them at the time he committed murder.

We do not know if the Newtown shooter, Adam Lanza, was taking psychiatric medication at the time of the shootings, but it was reported that he had been psychiatrically diagnosed and treated. A Washington Post article reported that a family friend said “he was on medication.”

The following warning now appears on all SSRI packaging:

WARNING! Withdrawal can often be more dangerous than continuing on a medication. It is important to withdraw extremely slowly from these drugs, usually over a period of a year or more, under the supervision of a qualified specialist. Withdrawal is sometimes more severe than the original symptoms or problems.

The website SSRI Stories: Antidepressant Nightmares ssristories.com comprises a database of over 4800 news stories, that have appeared in the media (newspapers, TV, scientific journals)  or that were part of FDA testimony in either 1991, 2004 or 2006, in which antidepressants and violence are mentioned.

The website focuses on the Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors (SSRI's), of which Prozac (fluoxetine) was the first. Other SSRI's are Zoloft (sertraline), Paxil (paroxetine), Celexa (citalopam), Lexapro (escitalopram), and Luvox (fluvoxamine). Other newer antidepressants included in this list are Remeron (mirtazapine), Anafranil (clomipramine) and the SNRI's Effexor (venlafaxine), Cymbalta (duloxetine) and Pristiq (desvenlafaxine), as well as the dopamine reuptake inhibitor antidepressant Wellbutrin (bupropion) (also marketed as Zyban).

The site breaks down the massive index of cases into the following categories:

Soldier Cases

School Shootings / Incidents

Journal Articles

Workplace Violence

Celebrity Cases

Highly Publicized Cases

Won SSRI Criminal Cases

Women Teacher Molestations

Postpartum Cases

Murder-Suicides

Murders / Murder Attempts

Suicides / Suicide Attempts

Road Rage Cases

Mike Adams, editor of http://www.naturalnews.com wrote: "We weren't planning to cover this story until the Associated Press confirmed that Aaron Alexis, the shooter believed responsible for the recent mass shooting at the Navy yard, "had been treated since August by the Veterans Administration for his mental problems"."

This is proof that Aaron Alexis was on psychiatric drugs, because that's the only treatment currently being offered by the Veterans Administration for mental problems. Alexis' family members also confirmed to the press that he was being "treated" for his mental health problems.

Alexis also suffered from PTSD, blackouts, and anger issues – all of which are treated with SSRI drugs. The most common form of treatment for PTSD is Paroxetine, which is listed as the number 3 top violence-causing drug by the Institute for Safe Medication Practices (ISMP).

Mike Adams refers to the antidepressant - violence link as a "chemical holocaust."

This blog is long enough as it is, and as with all my blogs, this review is intended as an opinion piece only. I always recommend that readers pursue lines of inquiry that interest them most.

There is a clear and alarming causality between SSRI's and violence. Profit alone pushed these psychotropic drugs onto the market without adequate testing and oversight. An aggressive advertising strategy led to the prescribing of SSRI's to children, teens and young adults who were highly susceptible to the serious side effects, and the gross over-prescribing in the general population. Overworked and incentivized physicians turned a blind eye to the emerging link between these quick-fix miracle drugs and the horrendous consequences. While men, women, and children died, legislators and government regulators were being wined and dined by lobbyists with unlimited amounts of money at their disposal.

On a personal note, I myself have experience with these drugs and their insidious effects. From my earliest childhood I suffered from profound depression and suicidal tendencies. Left undiagnosed, I turned to drugs in my teens and later to alcohol in an attempt to self-medicate. Psychiatrist after psychiatrist prescribed one pill after another, each more devastating than the one before. I was finally put on Cymbalta, which has been described as taking a hammer to a lightbulb, with similar results.

The drug so adversely changed my personality, "zoning me out" into a zombie-like state, that I could no longer recognize myself as the person I was. My creativity was taken away, my humor, my intellect, my sexual desire, my will to live. I made the mistake of going off the drug cold turkey and experienced life-threatening withdrawal symptoms, that I just rode out, shivering with chills, sweating, doubled over with nausea, curled up in a fetal position in bed, feeling like I was going to die, and wishing with all my heart that I would.

I was subsequently diagnosed with bipolar disorder and still take a low dose of the SSRI citalopram, but throughout my journey I suffered several suicide attempts, multiple hospitalizations, alcoholism (I'm currently four and a half years sober), police interventions, arrest for domestic assault while suffering a psychotic episode, and very nearly divorce.

Throughout it all, I was fortunate to have an understanding and loving family, a supportive group of close friends, and most especially a wife who went way above the call to stand by me and stick with me. My heart goes out to those affected one way or another by mental illness and the methods used to treat them, who have not been so lucky.

Wait For It

This article from the Facebook page Aboriginal and Tribal Nation News just crossed my desk. It talks about a newly released feature film titled "Cherokee Word for Water." The movie tells the story of a Native American activist who became the first modern female Chief of the Cherokee Nation.

Her name is - wait for it - Wilma Mankiller.

http://www.whitewolfpack.com/2013/07/new-film-cherokee-word-for-water-story.html

Google It

At the time of this writing, Google is trading on the Nasdaq stock exchange for $903.32 per share. By comparison, Apple is currently trading at $464.68  per share, Amazon at $312.03, Microsoft $$33.32, Facebook $45.23, and Yahoo at a paltry $30.43  per share.

Every morning, as regular as clockwork, coffee, and sitting on the commode, I scroll down to the bottom left of my laptop and click on the red, green, and yellow circle that instantly connects me to the digital universe.

Google Inc. was founded by Larry Page and Sergey Brin while they were Ph.D. students at Stanford University. Google was incorporated as a privately held company on September 4, 1998. An initial public offering followed on August 19, 2004. Its mission statement is "to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible."

To accomplish that goal, Google provides Internet access through Chrome which holds a 65% worldwide market share. Google offers cloud computing, software applications and online advertising technologies.

Google owns YouTube, Blogger, Gmail, and the Android mobile operating system. Google has effectively mapped the entire planet in three-dimensional real time, is in active testing of driverless vehicles, is in development of vocal interfaces, is designing wearable computers, and is rapidly approaching the breakthrough to Artificial Intelligence.

Google offers an office suite (Google Drive), social networking (Google+), desktop product applications for Web browsing, organizing and editing photos, and instant messaging. Google has moved increasingly into communications hardware including production of its high-end Nexus devices. Google is installing a fiber-optic infrastructure  to facilitate a Google Fiber broadband service.

The corporation has been estimated to run more than one million servers in data centers around the world and to process over one billion search requests and about twenty-four petabytes (2 to the 50th power (1,125,899,906,842,624) bytes. A petabyte is equal to 1,024 terabytes) of user-generated data each day.

In 2006 Google moved its headquarters to Mountain View, California. The sprawling business and research site is nicknamed the Googleplex. The company name originating from a misspelling of the word "googol," the number one followed by one hundred zeros. In January 2013, Google announced it had earned $50 billion in annual revenue for the year of 2012. On Fortune magazine's list of best companies to work for, Google ranked first in 2007, 2008 and 2012, and fourth in 2009 and 2010. Google was also nominated in 2010 to be the world's most attractive employer to graduating students. Google has a designated Chief Culture Officer, who also serves as the Director of Human Resources. The purpose of the Chief Culture Officer is to develop and maintain the culture and to keep true to the core values that the company was founded on.

In 2003, the verb "google" was added to the Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary and the Oxford English Dictionary, defined as "to use a search engine to obtain information on the Internet."

Google has partnered with other organizations for research, advertising, and other activities. In 2005, Google partnered with NASA Ames Research Center to build 1,000,000 square feet of office space to be used for research projects involving large-scale data management, nanotechnology, distributed computing, and the entrepreneurial space industry.

In 2007, Google began sponsoring NORAD Tracks Santa, following Santa Claus' progress on Christmas Eve, using Google Earth to "track Santa" in 3-D for the first time. Google-owned YouTube gave NORAD Tracks Santa its own channel.

Google launched its own satellite in 2008, providing the company with high-resolution imagery for Google Earth. In 2010, Google Energy made its first investment in a renewable energy project, putting $38.8 million into two wind farms in North Dakota. On August 15, 2011, Google made its largest-ever acquisition to-date when announced that it would acquire Motorola Mobility for $12.5 billion. This purchase was made in part to help Google gain Motorola's considerable patent portfolio on mobile phones and wireless technologies to help protect it in its ongoing patent disputes with other companies. One of the more controversial services Google hosts is Google Books. The company began scanning books and uploading limited previews, and full books where allowed, into its new book search engine.

In May 2013, Google's Amit Singhal commented on the future of search, explaining that a search engine's three primary functions will need to evolve and that search will need to: 1. Answer, 2. Converse, and 3. Anticipate. Concurrently, the company instituted Google Translate, a  translation service, which can translate between 35 different languages. The software uses corpus linguistics techniques, where the program "learns" from professionally translated documents. Additionally, Google launched its Google News service in 2002. The "highly unusual" site "offers a news service compiled solely by computer algorithms without human intervention," presenting topically selected links to news and opinion pieces along with story leads, and photographs.

In 2006, against strong opposition from large telecommunications companies, Google offered free wireless broadband access in San Francisco. Google's stated objective is to offer free Internet access worldwide, breaking the backs of ISP monopolies.

Google is a noted supporter of network neutrality. According to Google's Guide to Net Neutrality:

Network neutrality is the principle that Internet users should be in control of what content they view and what applications they use on the Internet. Just as telephone companies are not permitted to tell consumers who they can call or what they can say, broadband carriers should not be allowed to control activity online.

On February 7, 2006, Vint Cerf, current Vice President and "Chief Internet Evangelist" at Google, testified before Congress that "allowing broadband carriers to control what people see and do online would fundamentally undermine the principles that have made the Internet such a success."

So what does all this mean? The overarching project that ties everything together is the development of a set of artificial intelligence systems that use machine learning techniques to automatically classify and deal with vast amounts of web information. To oversee this eventuality, Google  hired Singularity-obsessed AI-booster Ray Kurzweil in December 2012 to help run its AI and machine learning schemes.

At research.google.com/pubs/ArtificialIntelligenceandMachineLearning.html, under the heading Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, the site references 330 Publications dealing with Artificial Intelligence. Some of the titles (none of which I've read) are:

A Generic Technique for Synthesizing Bounded Finite-State Controllers; A Semantic Matching Energy Function for Learning with Multi-relational Data; An Empirical Study of Learning Rates in Deep Neural Networks for Speech Recognition; Comparative Study of Classifiers to Mitigate Intersymbol Interference in Diffuse Indoor Optical Wireless Communication Links; Fastfood - Approximating Kernel Expansions in Loglinear Time; The Dataminer Guide to Scalable Mixed-Membership and Nonparametric Bayesian Models; and Probabilistic Initial 3D Model Generation for Single-Particle Cryo-Electron Microscopy.

And that's just from the first ten percent of the list!

When asked how soon Google would pass the Turing Test (a concept first introduced in 1950 by British mathematician and computer scientist Alan Turing which measures a machine’s ability to exhibit behavior equivalent to a real human being), Google CEO Eric Schmidt responded that "Google could do it in five to ten years.”

Google’s primary vehicle for its Artificial Intelligence technology is Google Now, the voice-recognizing search product which is a tool that will eventually be able to manage almost every aspect of our lives.

But not to be outdone, Google is also tackling AI from a completely different approach. Quantum computing took a giant leap forward in May of this year when Google announced that NASA and Google, in partnership with a consortium of universities, was breaking ground on the new Quantum Artificial Intelligence Lab which will employ the D-Wave Two. The machine will be installed at the NASA Advanced Supercomputing Facility at the Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley and is expected to be available for government, industrial, and university research later this year.

Quantum computers exploit the bizarre quantum-mechanical properties of atoms and other building blocks of the cosmos. While regular computers symbolize data in bits, 1s and 0s expressed by flicking tiny switch-like transistors on or off, quantum computers use quantum bits, or qubits, that can essentially be both on and off, enabling them to carry out two or more calculations simultaneously. A quantum computer with 300 qubits could run more calculations in an instant than there are atoms in the universe. Sponsors of the project include the CIA’s investment arm In-Q-Tel.

Stepping from the virtual world into the real world, Google has been working in secret but in plain view on vehicles that can drive themselves, using artificial-intelligence software that can sense anything near the car and mimic the decisions made by a human driver. Computer drivering systems react faster than humans, have 360-degree perception and do not get distracted, sleepy or intoxicated. The technology could double the capacity of roads by allowing cars to drive more safely while closer together. The system would utilize Google Earth for the vehicle's GPS navigation system.

Even the most optimistic predictions put the deployment of the technology more than eight years away, but organizations with a vested interest in the project include DARPA (the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency), the Pentagon's research arm.

Google acknowledges that such technologies are ahead of the law in many areas, and that AI raises many moral and ethical issues. If a machine becomes self aware do we need to treat it as a lifeform with inherent rights?

Just today Google said it plans to set up a new company called Calico, to develop technologies to tackle health issues, with a focus on life-threatening diseases and problems affecting mental and physical agility due to aging. The new company will be headed by Apple Inc and Genentech Chairman Art Levinson. Google offered no further details other than to say that Google's investment in Calico is "significant."

Google co-founder and Chief Executive Larry Page wrote on his Google+ profile: "Don't be surprised if we invest in projects that seem strange or speculative compared with our existing Internet businesses."

Soon we will all be wearing Google computers, linked by Google servers, riding in Google operated cars on Google controlled transportation grids, powered by Google energy. We will live longer through Google health services, and our entire lives will be recorded and displayed on YouTube. All human communication will be filtered through Google networks and devices, and we will be tracked in real time by Google GPS maps and hi-res satellites. The sum of human knowledge will reside in Google data storage centers. And all this will be directed from the AI Googlesphere .

Google's motto is "Don't Be Evil." Can Google take over the world? Yes. Will Google take over the world? Yes, if it is in their corporate interests to do so. Should Google take over the world? I leave that up to you.

I Like Big Butts and I Can Not Lie!

I guess if a guy is going to be outed, there are worse things to be outed as than a guy who likes women's butts.

In my 55 years and one week on Earth, I had the most humiliating, humbling, embarrassing experience of my life yesterday afternoon.

While doing research online, I ran across a Facebook page called Big Butts. I have always been a great admirer of the human form, and it is my contention that when God designed the female backside, to man's everlasting delight, He was having a very, very good day.

I clicked on the link, immediately noticed that the page had thousands of "Likes," and yes, hundreds of amateur photos of, well, big butts. They were all of the string bikini and thong variety in provocative poses. I "Liked" the page and began to scroll through. It's an active site and each picture had dozens of thumbs up and several comments. I went ahead and liked many of the posts and left some innocuous messages along the lines of "astounding," "cute as a peach," and "eminently kissable."

I was quite enjoying myself, proceeding under the assumption that what happens on Big Butts, stays on Big Butts, when all of a sudden, a message box popped up from the bottom of the screen from my daughter in law. The message said, "Pops, you are wild on Facebook! LMAO."

The bottom of my stomach dropped down, and I quickly went to my news feed, but there was nothing there. I looked at my home page, and again there was nothing there. So I messaged my daughter in law back and asked, "What are you referring to?" and she responded, "THE CHEEKS, DUDE!"

The image of all my friends and family, men, women, children, my PARENTS, seeing dozens of naked tushies with my incriminating remarks under my byline, flashed before my eyes.

Now, although I am on Facebook, write a blog, and surf the Web, when it comes to technology, I am most assuredly a newbie. I emailed my wife at work, explained what happened, and asked how to put the genie back in the bottle. Fortunately my wife is a very understanding person, and knows full well that her own luscious globes factored into my attraction to her when we got married. She wrote back something about Timeline and Privacy settings, but it was all Greek (no pun intended) to me. Then she said that she would look at it when she got home. But that was HOURS away! By that time the damage would be done.

I was in full heart pounding, adrenaline rushing, blood pressure soaring, beet red faced, mind whirling, panic mode. One image, or even two, I could laugh off, but dozens? That surely showed a side of me I would have preferred to keep private. I kept checking my news feed and home page, and still saw nothing untoward, but apparently my daughter in law was seeing SOMETHING, but what? So far no one else, including my sister, who lives on Facebook and has a wicked sense of humor, had posted any comments.

I contacted my son, who is a stickler for Facebook etiquette, but he was laughing so hard that all he could say was, "Keep up the info-war Pops, but chill on the butts."

For many years, due to a spinal cord injury, I have been paralyzed from the waist down, and that means EVERYTHING from the waist down. Everyone who knows me, knows that I am a harmless, lovable, old coot. Therefore, perhaps I can be forgiven for my innocent peccadilloes. I actually shut my laptop down before my wife got home. I had already resigned myself to taking down my Facebook page and moving into a damp cave at the top of an inaccessible mountain peak, there to live out the remainder of my miserable life.

As all things, this too shall pass. Will I continue to check out women's behinds? Absolutely (I ain't dead yet). Will I be more discreet and circumspect? You better believe it. Will I leave comments? Well, that's at least half the fun, isn't it? But I will be very wary in the future.

One final note. I've never had as hard a time choosing just one piece of art to end a blog, but it was sure fun trying.

Please visit the following link to view more Big Butts

http://www.facebook.com/B1GBUTT5

[Unfortunately, the page has been shut down by Facebook]