Abuse Later in Life Wheel

Noetic Now Journal | Institute of Noetic Sciences

As we know in psychology, when we deny something, we allow it to run us. I know in my own life that when I avoid something—pushing it to the edge of my consciousness because I think I’ll be happier that way, whether it’s the state of the world or some anger, resentment, or depression within me—when I force it out to the edge of my consciousness, it controls me. What I’ve also found is that by allowing stuff in and really looking at what’s there, facing it is actually healing and freeing. So, I wonder to what extent we’re actually keeping ourselves possessed and upset by the state of the world when we’re unwilling to really look at it.....  

CONTINUE READING: Noetic Now Journal | Institute of Noetic Sciences

Does the Right Really Want to Beat Obama? Maybe Not | Election 2012 | AlterNet

How badly do the sugar daddies of the right wing want to beat Barack Obama in November? Apparently, not enough. How else to explain the jumble of conflicting results emerging from the 10-state Super Tuesday Republican presidential primary/caucus slalom 

 CONTINUE READING: Does the Right Really Want to Beat Obama? Maybe Not | Election 2012 | AlterNet

» Six Romney Family Members Hit Campaign Trail… For RON PAUL / Infowars

No less than six relatives of Presidential candidate Mitt Romney have joined the campaign trail in the race for the GOP nomination, but they’re not supporting the former Massachusetts governor, they’re campaigning for Texas Congressman Ron Paul............

CONTINUE READING: Six Romney Family Members Hit Campaign Trail… For RON PAUL Alex Jones' Infowars: There's a war on for your mind!

The Best Response Women Can Give To The Birth-Control Extremists

The ‘morally opposed’ argument goes both ways........

CONTINUE READING: The Best Response Women Can Give To The Birth-Control Extremists

8 Reasons To Support President Obama

READ!: 8 Reasons To Support President Obama

Ayn Rand Worshippers Should Face Facts: Blue States Are the Providers, Red States Are the Parasites / AlterNet

Last week, the New York Times published a widely discussed article updating an argument that progressive bloggers noticed a very long time ago. It's now well-understood that blue states generally export money to the federal government; and red states generally import it........

READ MORE: Ayn Rand Worshippers Should Face Facts: Blue States Are the Providers, Red States Are the Parasites | Visions | AlterNet

CNN exclusive: FBI misconduct reveals sex, lies and videotape - CNN.com

Editor's note: Some content in this report may be offensive to readers. For more on this CNN exclusive story, watch Kyra Phillips' full report on "The Situation Room With Wolf Blitzer" tonight starting at 6 p.m. ET.

read more! CNN exclusive: FBI misconduct reveals sex, lies and videotape - CNN.com

GREAT NEWS!!!--Beacon Hill Will Soon Boast the Biggest Public Food Forest in the Country - Seattle News - The Daily Weekly

READ ARTICLE: Beacon Hill Will Soon Boast the Biggest Public Food Forest in the Country - Seattle News - The Daily Weekly

Taking Off the Blindfold - excellent information!~ B.Z. Riger

A good example of a lightworker taking up the task of telling it like it is. Whether or not one agrees with everything said here, t up the task is something we’re all invited to do.

READ MORE! Taking Off the Blindfold

Why Do We Live in a World That's Petrified of Women Who Love Sex? | Sex & Relationships | AlterNet

Our culture is deeply invested in our women-don’t-like-sex lie. We have to throw out basically all of the data to make that theory fit, so we blithely do just that....

READ MORE: Why Do We Live in a World That's Petrified of Women Who Love Sex? | Sex & Relationships | AlterNet

How marijuana impairs memory

The findings offer important new insight into the brain and raise the possibility that marijuana's benefits for the treatment of pain, seizures and other ailments might some day be attained without hurting memory, the researchers say.

READ MORE: How marijuana impairs memory

Senate Republicans Screw 9/11 First Responders

The Senate voted along party lines today to prevent passage of the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act. A few days back, Eddie C had a great diary explaining exactly what's in the bill. Back then, there was hope that some Republicans might vote for cloture and allow this important bill for our 9/11 first responders to pass. Unfortunately, Republicans have shown they're more interested in tax cuts for the wealthy and pretending to be deficit hawks than actually caring about those who responded to the deadliest foreign attack on American soil in history.......

READ MORE: Senate Republicans Screw 9/11 First Responders

How I Learned the Mainstream Myth About Eating Disorders Was Wrong | AlterNet

Eating disorders do not run parallel alongside a track of bodily dissatisfaction, and the more we conflate the two, the less we’re tackling the true complexity of eating disorders, and the less we’re looking at the threads that unite patients more deeply than hating their thighs.

READ MORE: How I Learned the Mainstream Myth About Eating Disorders Was Wrong | Food | AlterNet

13 States Working Towards Smart, Sane Marijuana Laws | AlterNet

State legislatures have convened or are convening all around the country, and once again this year, marijuana decriminalization or legalization are hot topics at the statehouse.....

READ MORE: 13 States Working Towards Smart, Sane Marijuana Laws | Drugs | AlterNet

Obama Continues to Box In His Opposition - The Flylooper - Open Salon

Nothing could be more obvious – and to a progressive, encouraging. 


Barack Obama has managed, particularly since the disaster of the 2010 midterm elections, to box in the GOP into narrower and narrower confines. And in doing so he has opened up a 15 point lead in some polls over his likely challenger, the erstwhile “severely conservative” Mitt Romney. Obama, by luck or design, is beginning to stand out as the only sane guy in the room..... 

READ MORE.....Obama Continues to Box In His Opposition - The Flylooper - Open Salon

Moyers: Meet the Shameless Plutocrats Choking What's Left of Our Democracy | AlterNet

Watching what’s happening to our democracy is like watching the cruise ship Costa Concordia founder and sink slowly into the sea off the coast of Italy, as the passengers, shorn of life vests, scramble for safety as best they can, while the captain trips and falls conveniently into a waiting life boat......

CONTINUE READING: Moyers: Meet the Shameless Plutocrats Choking What's Left of Our Democracy | Economy | AlterNet

Why the Right Wing Is Petrified of Letting Voters, Instead of the Electoral College, Pick Presidents | AlterNet

Right-wingers are truly worried that a plan reforming the way the president-electing Electoral College works is gaining legal ground and could bring the biggest change in the political landscape in decades. The National Popular Vote plan would replace the current system, in which states award Electoral College delegates to whomever wins the presidential vote in that state, with a new interstate agreement where a participating state’s delegates would be bound to the national popular vote winner.

READ MORE: Why the Right Wing Is Petrified of Letting Voters, Instead of the Electoral College, Pick Presidents | Election 2012 | AlterNet

iEmpire: Apple's Sordid Business Practices Are Even Worse Than You Think | | AlterNet

New research goes beyond the New York Times to show just how disturbing labor conditions at Foxconn, the "Chinese hell factory," really are.

CLICK TO CONTINUE: iEmpire: Apple's Sordid Business Practices Are Even Worse Than You Think | | AlterNet

New Rules for Radicals ~ 10 Ways to Spark Change/Alternet

What’s going on is that we are (finally!) in the first giddy months of a deep-current sea change in American politics, the kind of realignment that happens once every several decades. This change has put us into a whole new political era, one that runs by an entirely new set of rules — and one in which a great many impossible things may, all of a sudden, become possible.....

CONTINUE READING......

Gingrich and Romney want to do away with bilingual ballots! What?!?!?!

http://motherjones.com/politics/2012/01/gingrich-and-romney-want-say-adios-bilingual-ballots

Gingrich and Romney Want to Say Adios to Bilingual Ballots

The GOP front-runners endorse a plan that could disenfranchise millions of voters—including their own.

—By Adam Serwer

| Mon Jan. 30, 2012 3:00 AM PST

As Republican primary voters head to the polls in Florida on Tuesday, both GOP front-runners have endorsed a policy that would contradict existing law and could disenfranchise millions of voters across the country.

During a recent debate, both Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney supported getting rid of bilingual ballots when the topic was brought up by the moderator. "I would have ballots in English," Gingrich said. "And I think you could have programs where virtually everybody would be able to read the ballots." Romney agreed. "I think Speaker Gingrich is right with regards to what he's described," he said.

That wasn't much of a stretch for Gingrich, who once called Spanish "the language of living in a ghetto." Yet their glib demand for English-only ballots would require amending the Voting Rights Act and doing away with hard-won legal requirements that have existed for decades. It's a sharp turn away from the Bush administration, which despite a spotty civil rights record filed more ballot access cases on behalf of non-English speakers than any administration had before.

"We used to have poll taxes, we used to have whites-only primaries, we used to not let women vote," says Myrna Perez, senior counsel with the Brennan Center's Democracy Program. "Policies that would make our ballots less accessible to Americans based on what language they speak would be at odds with that historical arc towards expanding the franchise."

Bilingual ballots are no abstract issue in Florida, which has a sizeable population of Americans whose first languages are Spanish or Haitian Creole. "The Haitian population is a voting bloc, the Hispanic community is a voting bloc," says Carolyn Thompson, a Florida-based activist with the Advancement Project, a civil rights group. "They pay taxes, they've won the right to vote in their language."

Under the 1975 revision of the Voting Rights Act, communities whose non-English speaking populations reach a certain level have to provide voting materials in alternate languages.

There are 238 jurisdictions covered by the Voting Rights Act's language requirements. It's hard to tell how many voters would be impacted by the repeal of those provisions, but the census estimates that there are more than 19 million eligible voters who come from the communities the law is meant to serve. Ten counties in Florida are among them, four of which went Republican in the last presidential election. 

"Some of these ballot measures involve very complex legal language," Camila Gallardo of the Latino civil rights organization National Council of La Raza points out. "Some of the language is hard to understand even for fluent English speakers, let alone if your first language isn't English."

Republicans have long had a complex relationship with Florida. It's the site of great conservative victories, like George W. Bush seizing the presidency in 2000 and Marco Rubio crushing his challengers in 2010's Senate race. But it's also the kind of place where moderates like Jeb Bush and Charlie Crist thrive, a cosmopolitan state that anti-immigrant ex-GOP congressman Tom Tancredo once compared to the Tower of Babel. That's why Gingrich followed up Monday's debate with an appearance on the Spanish-language station Univison in which he called Romney's draconian approach to curtailing illegal immigration an "Obama-level fantasy," and why Romney turned Gingrich's remarks about Spanish being "ghetto" into a campaign ad. In Florida, a Republican who comes off as anti-immigrant or anti-Hispanic could see their political ambitions cut short fast. It's a difficult balancing act for members of a party that is seen as increasingly hostile by Latino voters, who are becoming more influential in American elections.

"They try to appeal to Latinos and Florida and during the general election, but everywhere else they're trying to be tough guys," says Dr. Gary Segura of the national polling firm Latino Decisions. "It's going to be very difficult for them to have it both ways."

More than 1 out of 10 Republican primary voters is Latino in Florida, so it's possible that Romney and Gingrich's commitment to English primacy, if applied, could disenfranchise part of their own base in the state. Or they could just be banking on the possibility that their voters are more likely to be completely bilingual.

"The Cuban population heavily concentrated in the Republican Party are bilingual, fluent, are likely to be able to hang with that," says Segura. "Some number of Republicans would be disenfranchised, but the largest number would be first-generation Puerto Rican Democrats."

Changing federal law isn't easy of course, and the Voting Rights Act was renewed in 2006 for another 25 years. By the time it's up for consideration again, Republicans might have even less interest in ensuring that language minorities have equal access to the ballot box, even in Florida.

"For a long time, Cubans were staunchly in the Republican column, although that demographic is really changing," says Gallardo. "[Today] you see a lot of young Hispanics registering with no party affiliation."

Beware Celebrations of Republican Disarray | The Nation

The Republicans did have a class of unruly freshmen; however, I presumed that the Mayhew principle of re-election–seeking behavior would swiftly bring them in line. But the debt ceiling fiasco this past summer undermined this 
expectation.....

CONTINUE READING: Beware Celebrations of Republican Disarray | The Nation

Razib Khan: Newt Gingrich IQ More Verbal Than Analytical

Is Newt Gingrich as smart as he thinks? He’s obviously not dumb like Rick Perry, or ignorant like Herman Cain. But I think Newt is a “high verbal” type who can impress the dull more than actually get anything done. I believe that Mitt Romney is somewhat higher in I.Q., but more critically he probably has a better practical skill set. Newt is not one known for contingency and coherency, and that’s a problem.

READ MORE: ParaPundit: Razib Khan: Newt Gingrich IQ More Verbal Than Analytical

The Fascinating Scientific Reason Why "Money Doesn't Buy Happiness" | Alternet

No matter how you turn it, research says once your basic needs are taken care of, money and other rewards don’t make you happier.

The Fascinating Scientific Reason Why "Money Doesn't Buy Happiness" | Personal Health | AlterNet

Is Alcoholics Anonymous Too White? | AlterNet

Dismissing AA as a white-person's movement, many black addicts take a pass on the 12-steps and seek salvation from their church...

CONTINUE READING: Is Alcoholics Anonymous Too White? | | AlterNet

Lawrence O'Donnell, Jr. / "Liberals"

"Just the Facts, Ma'am!"

FOSTER CARE IN N.C.: "to be or not to be"?!?!

In my opinion, this disclosure in general has been a long time coming. For me, exposing this is the "takeaway" good news of the month here in North Carolina.While it was posted in a Hickory, NC paper, by no means is my rant focused on this agency, limited to Hickory, or even to North Carolina.

Are some foster kids over-medicated? Interesting question. No-brainer answer. YES!!! (And it is even more despicable to watch the "system" rationalize it in all its steps!) That system (a true example of "trickle-down" ethics) is drenched in decisions of profit and convenience for the system, but with little respect for the welfare and highest good of the child. Truth be told, if a child's life and emotional well-being were not at stake, observing the dynamics is almost perversely humorous. Many "systemic sustainers" who love, at times, to use the monicker "healer" ... should hightail it for the Cannes movie festival!

With long experience working with foster care in this state, and observing the abuses from which "the system" dispassionately turns its eyes, I remain convinced that most foster care is a necessary evil. 

Sitting in a case management meeting is a head-shaking experience, and is often a microcosm of the dysfunction of our culture. The motto might as well have been, "Save and accrue the buck, so that it passes state investigation (generally a travesty of a process anyway!), but the kid be damned!" 

Any professional adult (mental health care, foster care and group home systems, social services, etc.) who interrupts this schizophrenic process is more at risk than one of the state's abused children. Many of these children, who are in a foster home due to a "stated" effort to save them from abusive homes, receive even more abuse in foster homes ... sexual and otherwise. Emotional abuse, because "we can't leave marks", is sometimes so horrific that one wonders how the child can put one single confident foot into the next day. To make matter even worse, when the kids' behaviors sometimes reflect the corruption of the systems, they again are harshly punished.  The old "blame the victim" paradigm. The systemic efforts to cover up are interesting and oh-ever-so-slick!

If you are interested in less-than-unimpressive outcomes (and isn't that the operant word in federal and state care?!), give this site a glance.  You may find yourselves shocked:

http://www.liftingtheveil.org/foster14.htm

It was a rare foster parent with whom I worked whose TRUE caring for the children they had in their care, put the highest good of the child as a priority. Oh, they talked a good game, but were generally so transparent, the process was "Ridiculosity Unplugged"!  It did not take ten minutes, combined with a good amount of intuition, to understand that the money (not insignificant, I might add) drove the foster parents. Many had up to 3-5 foster children in their home. Multiply what the parents get for that, along with benefits for the child, and you will begin to get the point. Of course, I get that it costs money to raise a child in any family, but when one really adds up the "change", outside of any foster parents' income, it is quite interesting! Many natural parents would be thrilled to be receiving the money and benefits into their family coffers.

http://www2.hickoryrecord.com/news/2012/jan/22/are-some-foster-kids-over-medicated-ar-1838150/

Rat study throws new light on animal consciousness - rats behave with empathy

(NaturalNews) An animal whose very name is often used as an insult may harbor more "human" traits like compassion than previously suspected. A recent study by University of Chicago researchers suggests that rats are capable of behavior which


READ MORE: Rat study throws new light on animal consciousness - rats behave with empathy

Mitt Romney Wouldn't Know a Free Market If It Bit Him on the Ass /AlterNet

At Bain Capital, Romney used the tax code to redistribute wealth from taxpayers to his investors and partners.....


READ MORE: Mitt Romney Wouldn't Know a Free Market If It Bit Him on the Ass | Economy | AlteryNet

Disgusting: Wall Streeters Mock Occupy and Poor People at Fancy Frat Party | AlterNet

One of the things that makes Wall Streeters so unsympathetic is that, even when disdain for their greed has not just spread across America but across the world, they don't seem to realize it. 


And if they do? Well, they don't give a flying fuck......

READ MORE: Disgusting: Wall Streeters Mock Occupy and Poor People at Fancy Frat Party | AlterNet

SOPA STRIKE - Largest online protest in history - January 18 - blackout your site

READ THE STUNNING FACTS: SOPA STRIKE - Largest online protest in history - January 18 - blackout your site

BBC Reports on Bilderberg Secret Society

READ MORE: Bilderberg Secret Society

"10 Reasons the U.S. Is No Longer the Home of the Free"

This morning's email brought a powerful block of "Just the Facts, Ma'am!" from...well, we'll call her Nancy.  She wrote:


Folks, This is a very important and informative article about the erosion of our freedoms in this country!!  Please look into it and follow your own instincts!!
Nancy


READ MORE: http://www.wanttoknow.info/g/land_of_the_free_erosion_of_freedom

Afghan Child Bride Traded to Pay Opium Debt | Womens eNews

Afghan Child Bride Traded to Pay Opium Debt

By Fariba Nawa

WeNews guest author

Sunday, January 15, 2012

Afghanistan's opium trade impacts the daily lives of Afghans like nothing else, says Fariba Nawa in her book "Opium Nation." In this excerpt she shares the story of Darya, a girl who was sold into marriage to settle an opium debt...

READ MORE: Afghan Child Bride Traded to Pay Opium Debt | Womens eNews

"America Has Woken Up to the Reality: Inequality Matters" by Bill Moyers & Michael Winship/ Alter Net

While police have cleared many Occupy encampments, a collective cry, loud and clear, has gone up from countless voices across the country: Enough's enough.......

READ THIS: America Has Woken Up to the Reality: Inequality Matters | Take Action | AlterNet

"10 Signs of Emotional Abuse"--YouTube

Dirty Minds: How the Brain Evolved to Glorify Monogamy Yet Make Screwing Around Irresistible / AlterNet

With so many of these same cultures putting a premium on monogamy, why do huge numbers of people around the world still cheat?

READ MORE: http://www.alternet.org/sex/153709/Dirty_Minds:_How_the_Brain_Evolved_to_Glorify_Monogamy_Yet_Make_Screwing_Around_Irresistible_/?page=entire#.TxMiDR1kcng.blogger

The Most Corrupt Members Of Congress ~ Business Insider

READ FOR DISCLOSURE: The Most Corrupt Members Of Congress

"Why Are Republican Prudes Still Desperate to Control Your Sex Life?" | AlterNet

The GOP's leading candidates are becoming more sexually conservative as the rest of America heads in the opposite direction.


Why Are Republican Prudes Still Desperate to Control Your Sex Life? | Sex & Relationships | AlterNet

4 Creepy Ways Big Pharma Peddles its Drugs | AlterNet

Big Pharma uses ads that sow hypochondria, raise health fears and sell diseases to adults and their children....

READ MORE: 4 Creepy Ways Big Pharma Peddles its Drugs | Personal Health | AlterNet

"Your Gut Has a Mind of Its Own... Literally" by Ross Pomeroy

Tummies talk to us. Whether it is from pangs of hunger or a sensation of satiety, our guts like to keep in contact. For the longest time, I considered this "communication" to be no more than intelligible mumbling. But a somewhat recent discovery has got me thinking about those burps, bubbles, and gurgles in a whole new light. Because, as it turns out, your gut has a mind of its own......

READ MORE: Your Gut Has a Mind of Its Own... Literally

Robert F. Kennedy Jr.: Mitt Romney's Test of Moral Fiber

I was surprised when Mitt Romney's son, Matt,resuscitated the "birther" issue in New Hampshire on December 29. Speaking at a campaign event, the young Romney deflected a question about his father's refusal to release his income tax return by citing a proposal that President Barack Obama should first release his own birth certificate. Mr. Romney, who has since retracted his statement, apparently did not realize that, at White House urging, the state of Hawaii released the president's long form birth certificate on April 25, 2011.......

READ MORE: Robert F. Kennedy Jr.: Mitt Romney's Test of Moral Fiber

Chemtrails VS. Contrails / You Tube/Discovery Channel

"What Will Love Give You?" Dr. Margaret Paul

Did you grow up believing that if only someone REALLY loved you in the way you needed to be loved, then you would feel happy, safe, lovable and worthy?

Certainly being truly loved by parents goes a long way toward supporting children in feeling safe and lovable, but it is not the whole story. Even if your parents did love you the way you needed to be loved, if they didn’t role-model loving themselves, then it is likely you absorbed their forms of self-abandonment – judging themselves, turning to various addictions to manage their feelings, and making others responsible for their feelings and sense of worth....

READ MORE:What Will Love Give You?

Chemtrails Validated by History Channel Video

WATCH COMPELLING VIDEO: Chemtrails Validated by History Channel Video

5 Things You Should Know About the FBI's Massive New Biometric Database | Civil Liberties | AlterNet

Civil libertarians worry about the roll-out of Next Generation Identification, a massive expansion of the agency's current biometric database.

READ MORE: 5 Things You Should Know About the FBI's Massive New Biometric Database | Civil Liberties | AlterNet

Why You May Be Drinking Soda That Contains a Dangerous Flame Retardant Banned in Europe and Japan / AlterNet

Some soda drinkers may be getting a dose of a synthetic chemical called brominated vegetable oil, or BVO.

READ MORE: Why You May Be Drinking Soda That Contains a Dangerous Flame Retardant Banned in Europe and Japan / AlterNet

"The Making of the 99%"| The Nation

“Class happens when some men, as a result of common experiences (inherited or shared), feel and articulate the identity of their interests as between themselves, and as against other men whose interests are different from (and usually opposed to) theirs.” —E.P. Thompson, The Making of the English Working Class   The “other men” (and of course women) in the current American class alignment are those in the top 1 percent of the wealth distribution—the bankers, hedge-fund managers and CEOs targeted by the Occupy Wall Street movement. They have been around for a long time in one form or another, but they began to emerge as a distinct and visible group, informally called the “superrich,” only in recent years.

READ MORE: The Making of the 99% | The Nation

Post-Menopause Sex Is Great in So Many Ways | Womens eNews

By Marie Cameron

WeNews commentator

Sunday, April 17, 2011

Sex after menopause brings more than pleasure. It lowers blood pressure, boosts immunity and reduces pain, according to a mass of evidence that has been piling up in recent years.

READ MORE: Post-Menopause Sex Is Great in So Many Ways | Womens eNews

Intimacy Intensifies in Women's 'Second Adulthood' | Womens eNews

By Suzanne Braun Levine

WeNews guest author

Sunday, January 8, 2012

Despite conventional wisdom dictating that intimacy ends at midlife for women, Suzanne Braun Levine says this is untrue in her new book "How We Love Now." In this except, she describes how love actually changes and deepens.

READ MORE: Intimacy Intensifies in Women's 'Second Adulthood' | Womens eNews

How Doctors Choose to Die – The Sweet Pursuit – Utne Reader

Doctors have the very best medical care at their fingertips. They read journals that publish the latest medical findings; they know the most up-to-date treatments for various ailments and diseases; they might even play golf with a top surgeon or two. And yet, when faced with death, many physicians forgo intensive medical treatment..........

READ MORE.......