They report that "Peking University (Beijing, China) scientist Yuan Kou and his team have come up with a lignin breakdown reaction that more reliably produces the alkanes and alcohols needed for biofuels. Lignin contains carbon-oxygen-carbon bonds that link together smaller hydrocarbon chains. Breaking down those C-O-C bonds is key to unlocking the smaller hydrocarbons, which can then be further treated to produce alkanes and alcohol."

Unlike other attempts, that use bacteria to create the starting material, or simply liquify a suable hydrocarbon, Kou's method involves heating water above 300 °C at high pressures, using a platinum-carbon catalyst and organic additives such as dioxane to create monomers and dimers in the solution.  Then the water is cooled and the fuel sources separate by themselves.

The monomers and dimers can then be refined into gasoline, diesel and methanol.

This is exciting research, but don't count on it to solve the world fuel problem any time soon.  this process has only so far been done in the lab, in small quantities.

Source:  abc news online

If I followed the diet above, I would be back on dialysis and possibly in the hospital.  How hard would it be to issue a warning that people should consult their physician before making radical changes to their diet?  Or how about not telling other folks what is best for them at all?  That would be a REALLY nice change.

Though "sapphire" means "blue" in Latin, the gem actually comes in a variety of stunning colors including yellow, pink, orange and the rare padparadscha (coral). Lab-grown alternatives of all of these colors are available. The color is inherent to the process, so unlike their mined counterparts, the gems are not treated for color enhancement.

The color of pink and yellow sapphires can closely resemble pink and yellow diamonds and therefore are an excellent alternative and a popular choice for engagement rings.

(Published July 18, 2008)

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A Kansas City man is charged with sexually assaulting a woman when both were patients at a psychiatric hospital.

Jackson County prosecutors on Thursday said 20-year-old Darius Maggard is jailed in $100,000 bond on a sexual assault charge. Police said the 47-year-old woman told investigators that she was asleep in her room at Research Psychiatric Center on June 13 when she was attacked.

The woman said she awoke to find Maggard having sex with her, and that she was groggy from medication she was taking and unable to fight him off. Court records say the woman reported that Maggard repeatedly asked, "This isn't rape is it?" and threatened to kill her if she told anyone.

Police said hospital staff told them that the woman's medication might have a similar effect as GHB, a drug often cited in rape cases.

Information from: The Kansas City Star, http://www.kcstar.com

Summary of Protection of Subjects of Involuntary Commitment Issues (Draft)

1.. There is a clear need for independent medical monitoring and follow up of subjects of commitment whose treatment includes psychotropic medication. (Not just neuroleptics, but all psychotropics including depakote, Tegretol, lithium and others.)
 This could be a G.P. or Internist hired by the CSB overseeing the
outpatient commitment to monitor all clients or it could be contracted out, but it is necessary to prevent medical harm and permanent injury. (Psychiatrists in CSB’s do not have the time to monitor medical health beyond cursory screenings if that, they will not have more time in the future if Kendra’s Law is passed.)

 2.. No one who is involuntarily placed in a hospital or in outpatient treatment should be forced to pay out of his or her own money for his or her unwanted treatment. If the state wants a person treated against their will, the state needs to pay for it.  Likewise all drugs that a person takes under a judicial authorization of treatment must be paid for by the state or
CSB,not the person who does not want to take them.  To do otherwise is to levy a civil fine on an individual who has not committed a crime or a tort in my opinion.  (The response by members of the Access Taskforce that this could lead to people preferring involuntary treatment to voluntary shows a clear lack of insight into the nature and effects of coercion and force seems based in a view of people with mental illness and their real lives that I can not even fathom.)

3.. The Medicare days of a subject of involuntary commitment (limited to lifetime of 180) should not be used for his or her hospitalization leaving him or her with no days left for voluntary hospitalization in a hospital of his or her choice in the future.
 

4.. Subjects of involuntary inpatient commitment and TDO’s should have the following protections as a matter of course:

A.   The right to have whomever they choose notified of their whereabouts at all times including when they are transferred to a different facility.
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 B.   Protection from eviction from apartments, nursing homes, Adult Living
 Facilities and group homes.

 C.   Protection from default judgments

 D.   Protection of their credit rating through requiring they be helped to access any bills they pay each month such as credit card and utility bills and given the chance to pay them from the hospital or other facility.

 E.   Freedom from exposure to unnecessary risks: The right not to be housed with NGRI’s with an arrest for a crime of violence, and the right to be allowed to choose to be housed in a single sex unit.  (The current human rights regulations do not even begin to address these concerns and have never been interpreted to do so.  This would need to be a new right/protection/statute.    The concern about NGRI’s with a record of arrest for a crime of violence and their need for a less restrictive environment is laudable but could be accomplished without endangering people who have not been arrested for a crime of violence by having separate step-down units for NGRI’s.  People who have been civilly committed are vulnerable to exploitation and violence and experience demoralization when they discover they are in the same unit as someone arrested for a violent crime.  Both women and men with mental illness are more likely than not to have a history of abuse.  For some, the safety of a single sex unit is necessary for their recovery and avoidance of re-traumatization.)

5.. Persons subject to commitment should have the right to have their own private provider testify by phone, deposition or fax at their commitment hearing.

 6.. The use of handcuffs shackles and police vehicles should be a last resort, not the first, in transporting people subject to commitment.  No one subject to commitment should be strip searched by a police officer for any reason.

Why is there a growing trend toward the holistic healing profession?  Because it addresses the social, psychological and emotional stressors of today's society that can contribute to physical symptoms of disease.  The holistic approach to healthcare can provide help to clients with weight struggles, low energy, digestive disorders, acne, skin issues, constipation, headaches, food cravings and stress induced illnesses.

Prevention through detoxification means less trips to the medical doctor and more energy to live your life! There is an ancient Chinese proverbs that says; "The oxen are slow, but the earth is patient!"

Be patient about your health. Keep working at strengthening your immune system, detox your body from the chemicals that has poisended it, in the food that we eat to the air that we breathe.

My wife and I have started to walk early in the mornings around the neighborhood that we live in and we love to hear the sounds of nature call to us. Lao Tse wrote over two thousand years ago in China, "NATURE does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished!' We love to watch the geese fly in formation, hear the songs of the Genny Wren, Mocking Bird, Blue Jays, Sparrows, watch the rabbits hop in and out of the neighbor's yards.

There is something infinitely healing in the repeated refrains of nature.....the assurance that dawn comes after the night and spring after winter. If you want to de-stress from the demands that society places upon your shoulders, learn how to speak to the earth as the Native Americans did and were wise in the ways of the land and nature. Other indigenous groups spoke to the earth and learned it's secrets of health and well being so why do we have to be different.

Remember: The earth longs to feel your bare feet massage her and the wind longs to play with your hair!"

Life is meant to "ENJOYED!" Just DO IT!

The Massage Professor!

Carly Simon - Nobody Does It Better

Radiohead - Nobody Does It Better

The truth is it's possible to sell online in more than one.  Don't let trends dictate your approach.  Use common sense - I always ask clients, "What does your budget and time allow?"  I you never really check your e-mail and you're doing your "online thing" as a side job - don't set-up a rapid electronic system that requires a response from you.  If your customers don't mind mailing things - go that route.  If you can set-up a form that you understand online, do it!  If you don't understand forms at all and couldn't manage the system yourself - shy away from things you don't understand.

It's your business; you built it - so others will come.  I know people who do just fine having a call-in system set-up in tandem with an online order form and no PayPal (amazing right).

My suggestion would be to cover all of the basis if you can.  Some customers will prefer online transactions while other smaller customers may only like sending in checks.  NEVER take cash through the mail.  It's a poor system which lacks accountability on both ends.  They (a customer) could mail you a cut envelope and say the payment must've been damaged in the mail to stall on a payment.  Use common sense on that one.

I'm no expert on E-Commerce implementation, but I pay attention to small business best practices and read a ton of books and articles on top of the few interactions I've had with it.  My tips are:

1. To try and implement what your customers are comfortable with
2. To not get caught up in every new (expensive) payment method
3. To see if any existing models exist that meet your need before creating a new payment system
4. To go with what makes sense with your budget and time

Just google E-Commerce and enlighten yourself before going with anything.  PayPal is great for a lot of folks.  Amazon offers businesses their model.  Banks will help you route online payments.  There are a lot of options!!  So remember there is more than one way...

A short sale does require some work on your part.  There is more paperwork. We'll need some specific items from you before we'll even list the property.  This saves us all time.  My belief is that one of the top reasons for a short sale failure is the listing agent.  We want to save everyone the trouble by having your entire package DONE , up front and in advance.  Then, when we get an offer for your property we are ready to submit right to the lender without delay.

Sometimes offers don't come in right away... and sometimes the banks take their time looking at the short sale request files.  What that means is that we'll ask you to continue to send us your pay stubs as you get them, as well as your bank statements.  Its not unusual for a loss mitigator/short sale specialist at your lender to come back after 2 months and say they're 'missing' updated items.  By being proactive, we'll always have what they need to complete the file.  Our goal is to NEVER be the reason for any delays.

So, if you want to explore the option of a short sale in Contra Costa (and parts of Alameda) County, call us for detailed information on what you'll need to gather and complete for us.  Then, when we come with the bulk of the paperwork for you to complete, you'll be ready with YOUR documents.

Why is it even legal to change the names of programs and departments without legislative action for one disability but not another? I have heard the very lame and off point explanation that a more inclusive term was wanted for people with substance abuse, intellectual disabilities and mental health disabilities so the state (and the public?) could lump, oh excuse me, consider them all in one term. The explanation makes what is happening even worse. People with substance abuse problems are not people with mental illness unless they have co-occurring disorders and vice versa. People with mental health disabilities are not intellectually disabled except for the small co-occurring part of the population.

But hey, don't consult us, lump us all in together and call our real disabilities "behavioral" as if we were misbehaving and if we just behaved we wouldn't have a disability. Thanks DMHMRSAS and all the Community Service Boards who are ignoring and not even asking for the opinion of people with mental health disabilities, we really appreciate being ignored and silenced once again by the folks who earn their living off of our disabilities. Not.

A Brief History

We all know about dot-Mac. I mean, yeah, its called MobileMe now, but hey, we would always come to remember it as .Mac, won't we? The services provided in the .Mac package are just so comprehensive and convenient that it becomes almost impossible to live without. I know of some people who cannot imagine life without their .Mac accounts, let alone the iDisk space and the uber cool BackUp 3 services. So then, It comes down to the question of cost. Which person, in all of God's green earth, would be that beef headed to keep on spending $99 every year, year after year, to keep their accounts going. Sure, if you were Bill Gates or somethings, you would have maybe 60 .Mac accounts. But this article here today is not for the Rich and Famous. This is for the die hard fans of .Mac who just want to stop putting holes in their wallets. This is for those of you, who need an alternative.

The Road to Saving Money

The secret to saving money on your .Mac account is to technically, find things that cost less, or for that matter, even free. Freebies are ALL OVER the net. All you have to do is look hard enough and you will find something you like. With the rise of Torrents and Applications like iSerial Reader, it is super easy to download a fully working application off the net. However, .Mac is a service, and it is built into the OS. As such, there is no simple way of just "hacking" it. Besides, it is a paid service. Do you think Apple is not going to notice a rogue .Mac account that is not billed to anyone? So yes, the road to Saving Money is not necessarily easy, but it isn't impossible. Getting the exact same thing for free is definitely a no-no. You have got to accept that fact. If you can live with that fact, read on. If not, I suggest you give this article a miss a get back to the porn you were surfing a minute ago.

The Parts that Make .Mac

The components of .Mac is essentially what makes the service work. The smooth integration of the service into OS X, is also a remarkable feat pulled off by Apple, that I doubt will ever be present on Windows. The core components of .Mac are as follows:

• HomePage
• iDisk
• @mac.com
• Backup
• iCards

Extended services provided by .Mac include the following:

• Back to my Mac (dynamic DNS) remote desktop service
• iChat (SSL encryption possible)

While the extended services of .Mac can come in extremely useful, sadly, there are no substitutes for these services. This is because, the dynamic DNS protocols required for "Back To my Mac" to work properly are only available through .Mac and its servers. However, if you want to insist on using iChat, you may either do it via an AIM account, or, sign-up for a free trail of .Mac and retain you login information. The .Mac account can be used to login into your iChat account for life. (I think this applies to iTunes as well)

HomePage

Basically, it is a service that allows you to create your own homepage with personal webhosting features. The information that goes onto your site is placed within Apple's own servers. They do not interfere with the space you have on iDisk. These pages can be made on ANY Operating Systems and any Web Browser.

iDisk & Backup

A WebDAV based server storage, this online storage solution can be actually mounted onto your Macintosh Machine as if it were a real physical drive.                                  

[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="128" caption="The brand new iDisk with the MobileMe logo"][/caption]

Furthermore, the space on your iDisk could easily be upgraded by applying for different .Mac packages to suit your needs. The simplicity of drag and drop is definitely a plus for online storage.

Another good thing about the iDisk is that it has the ability to easily and quickly backup your system to it. Built into the .Mac service is the Backup feature that allows you to do this. You can even restore a brand new computer from the data stored up in the cloud with .Mac.

The last and final bit to iDisk is iWeb. iWeb is an application that was developed for Apple's suite of Softwares known as iLife. iWeb allows anyone at anytime to simply make a stunning website in seconds. The best part to this is that you get hosting straight onto your iDisk, and a rather smashing domain name is provided to you by Apple. These pages, unlike HomePage, cannot be edited by anything but Mac OS X using iWeb.

.Mac Mail (@mac.com)

With the integration of Mail into the .Mac service, an individual can simply check his @mac mail simply online through an AJAX system similar to hotmail. Having a @mac mail ID also meant that individuals could quickly check their mails via IMAP on their Macintosh Machines via the Mail.app Application.

iCards

This is a service of Apple's to enable it's subscribers to easily send e-cards. The only difference in this service is that these e-cards are sent directly from the @mac address and the cards are designed by professional designers at Apple.

All right then, that's all the services covered. Now to the juicy details. We have to make ourselves an alternative. I am not going to beat around the bush anymore, so here. i'll lay it up front straight to you.

The Alternatives to .Mac

I have spent quite a number of days pondering over each and everyone of these services that I am about to reveal. Therefore, I am confident enough to tell you that yes, I have found a free alternative to the famous .Mac. Let us start with iDisk and storage matters.

iDisk and Storage

The secret to iDisk's drag and drop online storage is its use of the WebDAV system. The file format of this type of online drives allows them to be mounted on your systems. These drives can be mounted both on a Mac or a PC, but these things are done easier on a Mac.

Firstly, we need to get an online drive. Most people recommend Box.net. This company offers an online storage solution of 1GB that is free for life. However, I have recently discovered a free service that provides twice that storage!

+

[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="172" caption="MyDisk.se provides 2GB of free WebDAV based online Storage "][/caption]

Meet MyDisk.se. It is a service from Sweden that rocks my world right now. I mean yes, .Mac has ten times more storage but hey, with multiple emails, you can sign up for multiple accounts. The sign-up is quick and there is no verification process. Just provide them your email and create yourself an account. Until now, I have yet to receive any spam from a result of joining this. I am still keeping my eyes peeled for a better offer out there, so yeah, I will update this as I deem fit. So, how do you set up this WebDAV thing?

po

Well, this part is extremely easy on a Mac. First, hit 'Apple+K' on your desktop. Make sure the App you are running is Finder. Then, a screen similar to the one below will popup.

STEP ONE:

 

In the "Server Address" field, type out https://mydisk.se/Username. Note that the 'Username' here refers to the same one that you created when signing up at MyDisk.

Once done, hit Connect. You will see the following:

STEP TWO:

 

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="379" caption="Establishing contact with the Server"][/caption]

Wait for the computer to establish contact. When it has pinged the server, the server will request authentication. You will then see the next window.

STEP THREE:

Be sure to tick the option to remember your password. It will save time the next time you connect. The computer will skip this logging-in process if you do so.

STEP FOUR:

[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="166" caption="New WebDAV icon"][/caption]

 Finally, we have this lovely icon mounted automatically onto the desktop* or your finder. You can now drag and drop files onto the server anytime you want. You can even make folders and organize your server neatly.

I would suggest making another account just for backups. I will elaborate more on MyDisk backups in another post.

*Do note that to see the icon on your desktop, you must enable an option in Finder's Preferences. Go to Finder's prefs, go to the general Tab and select the checkbox that says, Show Connected Server

1st of June 2008 was a key date for the New European Chemical Testing Policy called REACH. The European Chemicals Agency which manages the implementation of this legislation became fully operational. Around 30,000 chemicals will be pre-registered at the European Chemicals Agency ( ECHA ) between the 1st June and 1st December 2008. The programme which intends to test thousands of substances on millions of animals in Europe has reached a critical stage.

REACH (Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation & restriction of CHemicals) controls the use of chemicals throughout the EU. In 2005 the number of animal experiments in the EU was 12 million, a significant percentage of these to satisfy safety regulations, and this is unacceptably high. It is in our own interest as well as the animals that the testing of these chemicals is by the latest methods based on human-biology. This is the surest way of guaranteeing that the most toxic chemicals are found and banned.

With the law that controls all animal experimentation in Europe, Directive 86/609, under review there was never a more crucial time to insist that the European parliament does all it can to replace outdated animal testing with modern alternatives. Some of the animal tests have been used for 60 years and it is not acceptable that they are still the main method of safeguarding our health and environment from dangerous chemicals.

What can be done?

It is in all our interest to insist that the chemicals we use are tested as thoroughly as possible with the latest technology available. Animal testing must be replaced with validated alternatives. Alternatives exist which still await validation and research for more is promising but lacks investment. Companies in each country of Europe required to satisfy the REACH regulations need to submit safety data on the chemicals they use. Citizens of Europe can make a difference in their own countries by writing or emailing their national politicians and asking them to support the use of validated alternatives as a legal requirement for the testing of these substances.

For UK Citizens, action can be taken to help improve the quality of testing of some of these chemicals. Many of these toxic chemicals are used in household products. Safeguarding our health and environment includes testing these with modern methods we can trust. Early Day Motion 1215 asks the British Government to take measures to prevent the testing of household products and their ingredients on animals. For these chemicals testing will only be by validated non-animal methods based on human biology. Ideally about 200 MP signatures are needed if this is to be influential.

To look over the text or see who has signed EDM 1215 visit

http://edmi.parliament.uk

For further information on the above matters:-

http://ec.europa.eu/Environment/

http://www.eceae.org

Thank You

Tonyg

As I lay here I think about all the other possibilities for my life. Other places I could be- both for better and worse. I could have changed a decision here or there and been in a completely different place both physically and mentally. This is not to say I am dissatisfied with my current state of affairs or state of being; just that I am pondering the alternatives. I wonder how I would fare in a different city, with different friends and away from family. I wonder if I could make it this far on my own. I wonder if there is someone out there willing to love me as much as I am willing to love them. I wonder what would happen if I sold it all and ran myself into the ground pursuing the life or lives I've considered living. The artist, the photographer, the poet. The painter, the biker, the farmer. Homeless, loveless, fearless. No, not fearless. I could not be fearless.

The steam still rises. The rain still falls. I am wishing there was an arm around me to reassure me, to comfort me- even though I know it will all be fine. It is always fine. I am fine.

Continue>>

It is time to bring back an Office of Consumer Affairs and to use it to take the pulse of EVERY consumer of Virginia's mental health system, not just that of the few who have access and privilege.

GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: And let's play off the summit this morning in Saudi Arabia. The Saudis have announced that they're going to increase production by 200,000 barrels a day. Say they may even do more. But Congressman Markey, King Abdullah also took off after speculators. Is this increase in production going to be enough to bring prices down?

REP. ED MARKEY: It may have a marginal impact. There is, without question, in my mind, speculation going on. Manipulation going on. The Democrats are going to put bills on the House floor this week to deal with that issue. But in the end, this crisis is really caused by 12 years of Republican control of Congress. We've gone from 46% dependence when the Republicans took over the House and Senate in 1995 to 61% dependence upon imported oil today. We've had an oil and gas agenda. They've thwarted the renewal energy agenda. They are still blocking in the Senate the tax breaks for renewable wind and solar and geothermal and other renewal energy technology. We only have 2% of the oil reserves in the United States. OPEC has 67%. That's our weakness. Our strength is that we are technological giants. We have not yet unleashed it. The Republican White House and House and Senate are still blocking that revolution.

SEN. KAY BAILEY HUTCHISON: Well of course, I would say that the Democrats have thwarted every effort we have made to increase our supply. This is a supply and demand issue. The demand has skyrocketed mostly because of global increases. And we have not done anything about supply because we're thwarted in nuclear power, we're thwarted in using our own national resources. Drilling offshore on a state-by-state option is something that I think we could do very environmentally safely. And yet anything that says production is killed by the Democrats. What I think we ought to do to get the speculators to stop thinking that the prices are going to go up is for Congress to show that we are going to take action with a balanced plan, with renewables, with nuclear power with expanded refineries, with drilling and exploration of our own natural resources. If we did that, yes, it would take five to ten years to get those things in line but the speculators would be out of the market.

RED CAVANEY: It is fundamentally, because unless you had very tight supply and demand, you wouldn't create the platform that would allow people to think that there was an opportunity here to make an investment, and then that could lead to other kinds of things. So you must address the base global supply and demand situation in order to bring some sort of order. Like right now we've had civil disruptions of Nigeria. A million barrels are offline that are not available.

JEFFREY SACHS: We have to move fast on a number of fronts. We need conservation. We need long mileage automobiles which was delayed forever. We do need alternative energy sources, renewables. We need the nuclear. That's got to be part of the mix. We are going to have to work together internationally. We ducked that issue entirely. Climate change is also part of the equation. This administration hid that from view for eight years. And so we never had a balanced plan. We never had a strategy at all. It was oil from first day. That's been the big mistake.

Let me come in at this point and say that the basic parameters are all in place here: the Democrats do not view oil as part of the solution to the energy problem. They demand alternatives to oil. The Republicans do - and have for years - viewed domestic oil as a critical part of any solution to our short- and long-tern energy needs, and have tried largely without success due to implement a policy of increased domestic oil production.

Red Cavaney points out that the speculation that drives up prices only enters into the cost equation when the supplies aren't meeting the demand. When supplies are abundant, you don't have people betting that the prices will go up.

Rep. Markey attempts to attack Republicans for the increase in dependence on foreign oil; but do you see how absurd that is? It's analogous to me beating the hell out of you with a baseball bat and then blaming you for being in poor health. Of course we're more dependent on foreign oil than we were 12 years ago: a determined Democratic minority has been allowed to block any - and I mean ANY - significant effort to increase our domestic oil production. And - in absolute refutation of the Democrat's mantra - we have NEEDED, now NEED, and will continue to NEED oil for the foreseeable future.

Markey goes on to say, "They've thwarted the renewal energy agenda. They are still blocking in the Senate the tax breaks for renewable wind and solar and geothermal and other renewal energy technology." And that is partially true (although Democrats and their environmentalist allies have been responsible for overturning wind technology, and liberal environmentalists recently sued to stop the use of solar technology, so let's not go too far blaming Republicans); but Democrats ought to look in the mirror when they demonize Republicans for blocking alternative energy by blocking tax breaks.

Democrats routinely shoot the country's national interests, and then put the gun in the Republican's hands.

Markey said we have only 2% of the world's oil reserves. This is patently false, although one can measure "oil reserves" in so many different ways that virtually any figure is true depending upon one's definitions. However, a significant percentage of the United States domestic oil reserves is contained in fields that will require new or improved technology for cost-efficient production. We are on the verge of being able to cleanly obtain oil from coal (the United States has the largest coal deposits in the world); we are on the verge of being able to obtain oil from shale (we have massive shale oil deposits in the Bakkan , and we are on the verge of being able to profitably employ deep-water drilling and slant drilling techniques. If and when the Demcrats allow the American people to obtain the oil it has, that "2%" figure would increase very dramatically. The fact of the matter is, if the Democrats allowed us to simply access the oil that is already readily available in ANWR and offshore, we could very quickly go from being the 12th largest producer of oil to the 4th largest producer of oil.

Another area that should be considered is the Democrat's approach to "conservation." Requiring automakers to produce more fuel-efficient cars is nothing more than an indirect way of forcing Americans to buy small, underpowered cars that they have historically not wanted. It is their way of attempting to force their will on the market - just as preventing domestic drilling is a way for the Democrats to force their will upon the market.

If they came out and imposed legislation requiring Americans to buy dinky little hybrid cars, Americans would be outraged. By trying to force automakers to produce the cars that they want Americans to drive, they are essentially doing the same thing, but most Americans haven't quite figured that out yet.

I drive the speed limit, and I routinely see two things: 1) a lot of SUVs, trucks, and large-engined performance vehicles on the road; and 2) the aforementioned vehicles and virtually everyone else whizzing past me on the freeway going 10-20 mph beyond the 70 mph speed limit. The fact of the matter is that most Americans simply do not want to have draconian energy conservation policies imposed upon them - which is precisely the approach that Democrats favor.

In their constant attempts to manipulate the oil producers, and to manipulate the automakers, to do their bidding, Democrats show a fundamental distrust of the market and of the market forces that made this country great. And I would ask, based on what do they believe that big government bureaucracy can do a better job than the free market? Senate Democrats couldn't even run their own cafeteria; just why on earth should we trust them to run anything?

Another interesting exchange:

REP. ED MARKEY: It's kind of a sad day in American history. We were given one week's notice to go over to Saudi Arabia today to beg the Saudi Arabians and OPEC to please produce more oil we can purchase. We have 700 million barrels of oil in our strategic oil reserve. The president should say to OPEC, that he is going to begin deploying 100,000 barrels of oil per day out of that strategic petroleum reserve to drive down the price. And he should also say to them like President Kennedy said to Khrushchev in 1961, that we are going to put a man on the moon. We are not going to allow the communists to control the skies. He should announce today a crash program that we are going to have automobiles that are dramatically more efficient. That we're going to have wind and solar and geothermal. That we are going to use our technology in order to break our dependence upon Saudi Arabia and the rest of these countries. But that is not happening instead we're over there with a tin cup begging them to sell more of our weakness to us, imported oil.

RED CAVANEY: Look, our concern is that what you need are permanent solutions. That's the signal the market's looking for. Opening up, providing some access, doing everything. We support all of the alternatives. Our companies are some of the largest players in that. Any scenario you look at, you will find that you need all the energy we can get of every kind and to take some off or to marginalize others is going to end up hurting the consumer. The consumer, when we went past $3 a gallon of gasoline, up to $4, they connected the dots. And that's why you're now seeing them asking for urgent action on the part of the Congress. They understand that we need more energy.

JEFFREY SACHS: It's so interesting how there's a, you know, a rough consensus on the things that need to go into this. But there's been nothing that's been done during this whole administration. Because they basically just turned away from realities, turned away from the alternatives, turned away from massive investments that are needed in the science and technology. They turned away from really investing in long mileage automobiles, millions of dollars rather than billions that are needed to get these going.

SEN KAY BAILEY HUTCHISON: Well first of all, we have made major investments in renewables and research. We have. We have increased huge amounts. However, let me just say look at the last month just as an example. We, the Republicans, have put forward a balanced plan. The Democrats came forward with a plan that had no energy production at all. It was sue OPEC. Congressman Markey has just said oh, we've gone over there with a tin cup. Well, at the same time, the Democrats are passing in the United States Senate a bill that would sue them. Now what kind of reaction are we going to expect from Saudi Arabia which is today, looking at trying to help the world market if we are going to sue them? That's not a way to try to make friends and increase our supply. In addition the Democratic plan had two other things. A windfall profits tax which has been shown not to work and form a commission to investigate price gouging which is being done by the CPSC right now. So I do think we could come together. But not if the Democrats refuse to have any increase in supply. And the Republicans are willing to certainly do more in research, more in renewables, more in conservation, and I think you have a point. We haven't done enough in conservation. But make those investments.

What is truly sad is that the United States has to go to Saudi Arabia and beg them to produce more oil when we could have been producing that oil ourselves. In a way, Markey - who is ostensibly blaming this situation on Bush and the Republicans - is actually lamenting that Democrats have been successful in implementing their agenda!!! If Republicans had had their way - and if they had not had their bills blocked by Democrats - we would not have had to go beg the Saudis, would we? Even by the liberals incredibly stingy figures on our oil reserves (the oil companies who actually know what they're talking about claim we have much more), there is no question that we could have produced the amount of oil in question just by opening up ANWR.

One of the things that I always marvel at about Democrats is that they believe that only government money matters. They despise the free market system, and therefore consistently seek to impose big government bureaucracy in place of the free market system they fear, hate, and misunderstand.

The reality is this: why does the government have to invest in all these alternative energy sources? Why aren't private investors doing it? I mean, by all accounts Barack Obama is going to raise $500 million dollars for his campaign; why can't all these people put their money where their mouth is and invest in their vision of alternative energy? Answer: because their solutions don't work, won't work, and the market knows that.

I remember several years back when the State of California obtained $6 billion dollars for government-sponsered research in embryonic stem cells. How many cures has that $6 billion resulted in? ZERO. NADA. NEIN. BUTKUS. We needed that huge sum of money because private money wasn't going into embryonic stem cell research. Apart from the fact that embryonic stem cell research has killed innocent human life, it hasn't produced squat. So government money came in to fill the void, and the government funding hasn't produced squat either. We might as well have dug a big hole, thrown in $6 billion, and then filled in the hole.

If a research program actually promises to produce a positive outcome that will result in an investment profit, private money will pour in. You can always spot a financial black hole by the cries for government funding. And the greater the cries for government funding, the bigger the black hole it is.

Contrast this with financing for oil exploration, drilling, and alternative source techniques. First of all, we are talking about a proven resource that WILL work, not some pie-in-the-sky useless liberal crap, and not some product that will require a massive overhaul of our entire energy infrastructure. But second, the reason these areas are underfunded is not because they won't produce a positive return on investment, but due to the fact that they can't produce any return at all because Democrats block any oil production! When the government won't allow oil companies to produce oil, there is far less incentive for investment to fund the new technologies they will need. If Democrats would just get the hell out of the way, our market system would start working and producing the vital oil and energy that this country desperately needs.

Markey cites Kennedy vs. Khrushchev, when the United States beat the communists to the moon. The problem is, Markey and his fellow Democrats are today playing the role of Khrushchev and the communists, rather than actually helping the United States of America to accomplish its goal of energy independence. They are blocking the free market and imposing their bureaucracy in a matter very reminiscent of the communist state-managed economy (i.e. the folks who lost in the race to the moon, and then went bankrupt and collapsed altogether).

The real problem is, as Sen. Hutchison says, "The Democrats came forward with a plan that had no energy production at all."

We need to make oil prices the albatross that we hang around the neck of Democrats. Barack Obama is in lock step with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, who says:

"Coal makes us sick, oil makes us sick, it's ruining our country, it's ruining our world."

(See my article discussing that little pearl of wisdom).

Democrats routinely demonize oil. They routinely demonize oil companies who produce the vital resource we desperately need. They steadfastly refuse to allow the United States to increase either it's domestic oil production or its refining capacity. It is directly due to their "commonsense plan" that we are in the situation we are in, and that we will continue to remain in the situation we are in.

If you want $12 a gallon gasoline, vote Democrat. They will offer "global warming" solutions up the whazoo that will undermine and eventually gut the American economy by starving our economy of the oil we need for our survival. If you want to lower the price of gasoline by means of effectively increasing our oil supply, vote Republican.

It's as simple as that.

By Shankar Vedantam
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, June 28, 2005; A01

John Zeber recently examined one of the nation's largest databases of psychiatric cases to evaluate how doctors diagnose schizophrenia, a disorder that often portends years of powerful brain-altering drugs, social ostracism and forced hospitalizations.
Although schizophrenia has been shown to affect all ethnic groups at the same rate, the scientist found that blacks in the United States were more than four times as likely to be diagnosed with the disorder as whites. Hispanics were more than three times as likely to be diagnosed as whites.
Zeber, who studies quality, cost and access issues for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, found that differences in wealth, drug addiction and other variables could not explain the disparity in diagnoses: "The only factor that was truly important was race."
The analysis of 134,523 mentally ill patients in a VA registry is by far the largest national sample to show broad ethnic disparities in the diagnosis of serious mental disorders in the United States.
The data confirm the fears of experts who have warned for years that minorities are more likely to be misdiagnosed as having serious psychiatric problems. "Bias is a very real issue," said Francis Lu, a psychiatrist at the University of California at San Francisco. "We don't talk about it -- it's upsetting. We see ourselves as unbiased and rational and scientific."
As the ranks of America's patients and doctors become more diverse, psychiatrists such as Lu are spearheading a movement to address the problem. Clinicians need to be trained in "cultural competence," they say, to prevent misdiagnosis and harm.
Psychiatrist Heather Hall, a colleague of Lu's, said she had to correct the diagnoses of about 40 minorities over a two-year period. She estimated that one in 10 patients referred to her came with a misdiagnosis such as schizophrenia, a disorder characterized by social withdrawal, communication problems, and psychotic symptoms such as delusions and hallucinations.

Read the rest of this article HERE.

Food prices are skyrocketing because of the rising cost of fuel. Cities and city governments are exploring innovative ideas, like the four day work week which in turn will make it increasingly difficult to rid the country of its unemployment woes. Yes unemployment continues to go up, because of our Gas prices remain stagnant in this no growth economy. We have been operating on borrowed time since 2000 and as they say the Chickens Have Come Home To Roost.

So we resort to scooters, walking, riding our bike, snow shoes, a cross country skying, to deal with this mess that President Bush has no idea how to solve it. So we will go on and see Gas prices rise to $6.00 per gallon and above. We finally ask the question how much can we take of this before it is a total revolt? Or will prices mysteriously go down one month before the election? If so, we know that all this is by design; to elect John McCain.

The video below is a preview of a new HBO documentary into NCLB's impact in one inner-city school.

Comprehensive sex education rather than abstinence-only education might have prevented 17 students in Massachusetts from becoming mothers before their 18th birthday. Childhood obesity continues to compromise the health of children, putting them at risk for heart disease, Type II diabetes and other disorders. However, many schools continue to serve unhealthy foods during lunch and keep the vending machines stocked with sugar-laden snacks and beverages. School systems have continued to cut back or virtually eliminate physical education from schools.

Ensuring children's welfare is one of the most paramount interests of government. While they are children, parents provide them food, shelter, clothing and many other things that contribute to our consumer-based economy. From an economic standpoint, they are the future workforce. From a moral standpoint, children should be protected because they can not protect themselves.

Political ideology should not affect policy decisions related to children´s welfare. Many of the conservative Republicans currently in office are to blame of the consistent budgetary cuts that have taken place. They have managed to politicize an issue which objectively should not have any opposition. Why should children be punished with hunger if their parents lose their job while the economy is in a recession? How do you turn down health care coverage for children whose parents work but make too much more for Medicare but too little for private health insurance coverage?

If the government actually values children and youth, why isn't it doing more to protect them? Why doesn't the government invest in their continued wellbeing? Why is there political opposition to the creation of a safety net?

Let oil soar above $140 a barrel. Let layoffs and foreclosures proliferate like California’s fires. Let someone else worry about the stock market’s steepest June drop since the Great Depression. In our political culture, only one question mattered: What was Wesley Clark saying about John McCain and how loudly would every politician and bloviator in the land react..?

Unable to take another minute of this din, I did what any sensible person might do and fled to the movies. More specifically, to an animated movie in the middle of a weekday afternoon. What escape could be more complete..?

Indeed, sitting among rapt children mostly under 12, I felt as if I’d stepped through a looking glass. This movie seemed more realistically in touch with what troubles America this year than either the substance or the players of the political food fight beyond the multiplex’s walls.

While the real-life grown-ups on TV were again rebooting Vietnam, the kids at “Wall-E” were in deep contemplation of a world in peril — and of the future that is theirs to make what they will of it. Compare any 10 minutes of the movie with 10 minutes of any cable-news channel, and you’ll soon be asking: Exactly who are the adults in our country and who are the cartoon characters?

One of the great things about art, including popular art, is that it can hit audiences at a profound level beyond words. That includes children. The kids at “Wall-E” were never restless, despite the movie’s often melancholy mood and few belly laughs. They seemed to instinctually understand what “Wall-E” was saying; they didn’t pepper their chaperones with questions along the way. At the end they clapped their small hands. What they applauded was not some banal cartoonish triumph of good over evil but a gentle, if unmistakable, summons to remake the world before time runs out...

Mr. McCain should be required to see “Wall-E” to learn just how far adrift he is from an America whose economic fears cannot be remedied by his flip-flop embrace of the Bush tax cuts (for the wealthy) and his sham gas-tax holiday (for everyone else). Mr. Obama should see it to be reminded of just how bold his vision of change had been before he settled into a front-runner’s complacency. Americans should see it to appreciate just how much things are out of joint on an Independence Day when a cartoon robot evokes America’s patriotic ideals with more conviction than either of the men who would be president.

I think there's still a chance Obama will remember he needs the votes of ordinary citizens - and walk away from advisors who believe "ordinary" questions only require rote answers.

I hope there continues to be a chance that Americans will rise above long-tolerated levels of ignorance and bigotry - and refuse to vote for Bush 3.