ONE OF THE REASONS THE USA LAGS BEHIND THE REST OF THE WORLD

The 'morality' police in the US do anything but enhance morality. All they do is drive 'immorality', by their definitions picked out of the air, underground. Warning: In good conscience, I must point out that entering the Wired magazine links on the site shows extremely graphic material, likely not what most grandmothers or sexually squeamish would want to watch. The Wired article itself in not objectionable. In the meanwhile, do check out the link that follows by the Japanese. The Japanese, are bringing porno back to the open public where people have the right to participate or not.

In 2003, the US Congress passed a law to tighten domain names that were meant to mislead people into porn sites. I do believe that misleading people should be stopped. In March 2007, the law was quashed when the courts decided that it deprived too many people of the rights to free speech while attempting to protect the few.

A demonstration of the perversion of some of the government officials with regard to their priorities to keep the public safe; it was not terrorism, organized crime, narcotics trafficking, immigration, or public corruption it was! pornography. Is there any wonder that such clear evidence that those running the country the past few years are totally out of step with the real issues that confront us as adults trying to survive in the US today.

While I abhor mysogynistic and sadistic pornography on a personal level and do not feel a need to frequent pornographic sites (which many of my male friends report often drop little nasties on one's computer) I strongly support the right to it for those for whom it is as helpful as sitting in church listening to a Hell and Damnation sermon. I abhor that there are some self-defined righteous people who think they can dictate what others must think and feel.

NATURE'S OXYMORONS

Oxymoron: from Merriam-Webster: a combination of contradictory or incongruous words (as cruel kindness); broadly : something (as a concept) that is made up of contradictory or incongruous elements


A rare white (albino) blackbird is sighted in New Hampshire.











A giant shrimp in Texas.








A writer writes on urban biodiversity. This is where we find our oxymoron. It is not nature in the city...it is the city in Nature. We read: "Isn't "urban nature" an oxymoron? People live in cities! Nature is "in the country!" Factory farming, a newer coined industry seems rather an oxymoron to me.

Ward M. Clark writes that "Animal Rights" is an oxymoron.

Mary Chipman writes about 'responsible breeder' as an oxymoron. She stresses: "The "responsible breeder" says she is doing it for the love of the breed, for the opportunity to bring pleasure to prospective owners of the offspring, or for any number of superficially noble reasons. It really doesn't matter what the reasons are; the fact still remains that for every puppy or kitten born, there is one less chance that an animal who already exists is going to find a home. Like it or not, millions of perfectly healthy and beautiful dogs and cats are euthanized in American shelters every single year to make room for the next wave. There are only so many potential homes. As the saying goes, you do the math."

Now all of this may be the 'exact opposite' of what we may have imagined. It is a 'known secret' that Nature is full of surprises and incongruities. What I wrote may be 'old news' to you, the reade, but I 'almost never' had more fun compiling oxymorons.

OUR HYPOCRITICAL GOVERNMENT

We seem to be governing with a "Do as I say, not as I do" principle. While we do not want our citizens to use drugs unnecessarily, we seem to make different rules for our servicemen. we do not permit our athletes blood boosting but we treat our servicemen as disposable entities and allow it. We do not seem to care what happens to their bodies, addictions, mental health, so long as they fight the war to the best of human ability. To me, this whole war is unconscionable but the careless attitude of our administration to the lives of the men and women in service is appalling.

The article linked, should you not have time to read it all, says: "In the U.S., where roughly two-fifths of troops returning from combat deployments are presenting serious mental health problems, PTSD has gone political in form of the Psychological Kevlar Act, which would direct the Secretary of Defense to implement "preventive and early-intervention measures" to protect troops against "stress-related psychopathologies."

Pilots, I have read, are frequently given amphetamines due to the many hours they must stay awake. Soldiers are often given the same. It is stretching my imagination to believe that there are physicians who thoroughly examine the total medical history of the servicemen, in battle and at war, to whom they prescribe as desirable candidates of the drug for the betterment of their own health. Wikepedia does not report a picture to support the good of it.

"Physical effects

• Short-term physiological effects vary greatly, depending on dosage used and the method in which the drug is taken. At therapeutic levels, the most common effects are decreased appetite, increased stamina, and physical energy.^{[citation needed]}

• Abuse or overdose effects^{[citation needed]} can include tremor, restlessness, changed sleep patterns, anxiety hyperhidrosis, psychomotor agitation, nausea, tachycardia, irregular heart rate, hypertension, headaches, hyperreflexia, tachypnea, gastrointestinal narrowing, and weakened immune system and increase in pre-existing anxiety and poor skin condition.^{[citation needed]} Fatigue and depression can follow the excitement stage. Erectile dysfunction, heart problems, stroke, and liver, kidney and lung damage can result from prolonged abuse.^{[citation needed]} When insufflated, amphetamine can lead to a deterioration of the lining of the nostrils.^{[citation needed]} Overdose can be treated with chlorpromazine.^[12]

Psychological effects

• Short-term psychological effects of the drug at therapeutic levels could include alertness, euphoria, increased concentration, rapid talking, increased confidence, and increased social responsiveness.^{[citation needed]} Effects of the drug when abused could include, hallucinations, and loss of REM sleep the night after use.^{[citation needed]}

• Long-term amphetamine abuse can induce psychological effects that include insomnia, mental states resembling schizophrenia, aggressiveness (not associated with schizophrenia), addiction or dependence with accompanying withdrawal symptoms, irritability, confusion, and panic.^{[citation needed]} Chronic and/or extensively-continuous use can lead to amphetamine psychosis, which causes delusions and paranoia, but this is uncommon when taken as prescribed. The abuse of an amphetamine is highly addictive, and, with chronic abuse, tolerance develops very quickly. Withdrawal, although not physiologically threatening, is an unpleasant experience (including paranoia, depression, difficult breathing, dysphoria, gastric fluctuations and/or pain, and lethargia).^{[citation needed]} This commonly leads chronic users to re-dose amphetamine frequently, explaining tolerance and increasing the possibility of addiction.

Dependence & Addiction

Tolerance is developed rapidly in amphetamine abuse, therefore increasing the amount of the drug that is needed to satisfy the addiction.^[13] Repeated amphetamine use can produce "reverse tolerance", or sensitization to some psychological effects.^{[14][15][16][17][18]} Many abusers will repeat the amphetamine cycle by taking more of the drug during the withdrawal. This leads to a very dangerous cycle and may involve the use of other drugs to get over the withdrawal process. Abusers will commonly stay up for 2 or 3 days avoiding the withdrawals then dose themselves with benzodiazepines or barbiturates to help them stay calm while they recuperate. The constant switching from uppers to downers can cause serious damage to the CNS and brain^{[citation needed]}. Chronic abusers of amphetamines typically snort or resort to drug injection to experience the full effects of the drug in a faster and more intense way, with the added risks of infection, vein damage, and higher risk of overdose. Because of the abuse of amphetamines in the U.S., most brands were discontinued by the 1990s, including the highly abused brand names Biphetamine (known as "black beauties") and Preludin, known on the street as "slams", whose coating was peeled and then injected. Only a few brands of amphetamines are still produced in the United States: those prescribed for narcolepsy, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, treatment-resistant depression, and extreme obesity.^{[citation needed]"}

Proponents of the "Psychological Kevlar" approach to PTSD may have found a silver bullet in the form of propranolol, a 50-year-old beta-blocker used on-label to treat high blood pressure, and off-label as a stress-buster for performers and exam-takers. Ongoing psychiatric research has intriguingly suggested that a dose of propranolol, taken soon after a harrowing event, can suppress the victim's stress response and effectively block the physiological process that makes certain memories intense and intrusive. That the drug is cheap and well tolerated is icing on the cake."

I would like to think that propanalol is being given because someone really does care that our service men and women are not suffering the after effects of the war as we now know they are. However, having watched our leaders at work, I can only they are in the mentality of getting as much out of the 'animal' as those who race horses like Eight Belles and Barbaro. Delicate legs on track that is not meant for them to run so hard on at their age. However, when the horses break a leg (or two), they can be euthanized at the track. When a soldier's spirit and mental health is broken, he has two choices: to suicide or suffer PTSD. In 2004, CBS News reported: (CBS) Texas Army Specialist Joseph Suell told his mother he wasn't cut out to fight the Iraq war. "He said 'Momma I haven't killed anybody here and I hope I never have to kill anybody,'" said Rena Mathis. Instead, the 24-year-old husband and father of three apparently took his own life. "The cause of death is Ibuprofin and amphetamine. Self-inflicted overdose. The Pentagon says self inflicted overdose," said Mathis, reading a military document on her son's death.

"10/31/06 (2006-10-31) Army specialist Alyssa Peterson was an Arabic speaking interrogator assigned to the prison at the Tal-afar airbase in far northwestern Iraq near the Syrian border. According to the Army's investigation into her death, obtained by a KNAU reporter through the Freedom of Information Act, Peterson objected to the interrogation techniques used on prisoners. She refused to participate after only two nights working in the unit known as the cage. Army spokespersons for her unit have refused to describe the interrogation techniques Alyssa objected to. They say all records of those techniques have now been destroyed.

Instead she was assigned to the base gate, where she monitored Iraqi guards. She was sent to suicide prevention training. But on the night of September 15th, 2003, Army investigators concluded she shot and killed herself with her service rifle. [KNAU]"

OBAMA VICTORY SPEECH IN NORTH CAROLINA

Senator Obama gave a very important victory speech. He came through as the uniter he claims to be not only for the party but, as well, for the country.

While I think Democrats have fallen for Limbaugh's (and other Republican voices) continuing to say "Don't throw me in the briar patch" (if anyone remembers their old children's stories about Br'er Rabbit, it is fortunate for the country that we have two superb candidates. If the news media was as qualified for their jobs as the two Democratic candidates are for goals, our country would be more fairly informed and served by them. However, they have sold out to their masters who hold their paychecks, sadly.

Senator Clinton gave a victory speech in Indiana for herself. While the media was planning her political funeral, she continued with her message of hope for our country under her leadership.

Both of these candidates are asking us to start acting like Americans again. Chris Matthews called her speech a 'charming' speech, then added, "Perhaps she has a new speech writer." He forgets that both of these candidates can talk for themselves, even with speech writers which we know is doubtful with our current leader. Olbermann saw it as 'like one of those Schwartzernegger movies in which the machine gets an arm cut off and then comes back to life."
He doesn't mention that he and his media accomplices cut off the arm!

WHAT'S IN A NAME?

The Greek Island of Lesbos, with its 100,000 inhabitants, is upset about the confusion caused by their being called Lesbians (which they are) and the homosexual (which they are not) connotation given the name in the rest of the world. For an article on the subject by Malcolm Brabant, by BBC News, you can read all about it. Names matter a lot in business, as well. Xerox didn't like their name being used universally for all copy on all products not their own. It didn't matter, people still say, "Oh, can I Xerox this?" Google got all out of joint when people took their name and turned it into a verb, as in "Just Google xxxx." Lawsuits don't seem to touch these matters once the steam roller has been set to 'Go'.

The third commandment is is usually understood as a prohibition against using God's name in profanity or even in a callous manner. ""You shall not misuse the name of the LORD your God, for the LORD will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name." Two states are suing over illegal use of Legal Aid.

For those who take the right to free speech too literally...nothing in life is totally free.

FOR JANE AUSTEN LOVERS

My blog writing didn't happen last night because I was rapt and wrapped last night in a fourth Elizabeth Aston book in the manner of Jane Austen. This one was The Darcy Connection. Disappointed that I had finished the Aston books as well as Austen, I found in Amazon that there is another Aston book in her series The Exploits and Adventures of Miss Alethea Darcy: a Novel. While browsing there, I see that there is a whole cottage industry of writers capitalizing from Jane Austen. I ordered a few more to check them out, hoping (and reasonably sure) it will not dampen feelings about the original Austen.


Aston writes well. After the first that I read by her on the Darcy clan, she did a much better job at building her characters. However, one thing I noted (though she relies heavily on the format that Austen used) is that she has peppered her books with villains while Austen only used mean spirited characters. While there is one who might be called a villain, he was simply selfish and not really as determined to do the kind of evil Aston writes about in some of her characters. There are intrigues, misunderstandings, but less of the detail with which Austen described went through the heads of her characters. Nevertheless, Aston's books still qualify beautifully in the 'feel-good' category of books for readers who like to leave the last page with a nice warm feeling that the world is not such a bad place, after all.

LACK OF CLARITY IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE

I've often wondered about the word 'procrastination' I wondered if there was an anticrastination. After all, if you are 'pro' something, you should be able to be 'anti' the same thing. The dictionary lists suggestions for words when it can't find the one for which you are hunting. The first suggestion Merriam-Webster gave was constipation. I thought that was very rational of those dictionary people.

Words can be so much fun. For example, there's sewer and sewer. What, might you ask is the difference? Well Betsy Ross was one and the other is a mass of pipes carrying doo-doo away. Now how would someone new to our language figure that out? Newspapers are even more difficult for strangers to English. I remember a journalist saying that the soldier yelled, "Drop your arms and raise your hands" That might seen very difficult to do!

Headlines make great use of the language with two meanings as in: 'Patient At Death's Door--Doctors Pull Him Through'.

Humor is based on using language literally. Rodney Dangerfield used to say, simply, "Take my wife...please!" People are so frequently apologetic so repeatedly as to make it most annoying. It is as though they can never take responsibility for anything they have done. They try to get out of responsibility by saying, "I'm really trying!" a prompt answer most usually is, "Yes, you are....VERY!"

Very confusing are missed punctuation marks. An early sentence to illustrate this used to be: 'The cow fell in the hole on her back' suggestion of implosion rather than , 'The cow fell in the hole, on her back.'

People play with matching sounds: "He believed Caesar could see people seizing the seas."

We also have words whose definitions are both synonyms and antonyms: cleave (adhere and separate); cover (conceal and expose); trim (garnish and prune); sanction (censure and approve). Is there any wonder why we, as a people, have difficulty understanding one another?