The Food and Drug Administration has decided that all those wheezing
asthma sufferers can afford to shell out a little more for their
inhalers and have banned all over the counter puffers. They’ll have to
pay more for “prescription-only alternatives” because the OTC brands contain cloro-florocarbons, which damage the ozone:
The action is part of an agreement signed by the U.S. and
other nations to stop using substances that deplete the ozone layer, a
region in the atmosphere that helps block harmful ultraviolet rays from
the Sun.
But the switch to a greener inhaler will cost consumers more.
Epinephrine inhalers are available via online retailers for around $20,
whereas the alternatives, which contain the drug albuterol, range from
$30 to $60.
The FDA finalized plans to phase out the products in 2008 and
currently only Armstrong Pharmaceutical’s Primatene mist is available in
the U.S. Other manufacturers have switched to an
environmentally-friendly propellant called hydrofluoroalkane. Both types
of inhalers offer quick-relief to symptoms like shortness of breath and
chest tightness, but the environmentally-friendly inhalers are only
available via prescription.
There are only 1-2 million people using Primatene. I can’t imagine
that would be that big of an impact on the ozone layer. Nonetheless, if
you suffer from asthma, your medical bill is about to increase,
possibly double or triple.
Wheeeeeeez Wheeeeeeez Wheeeeeeez ....but at least I'm not hurting the environment
In a unique case in Britain, a 25-year-old man has been sent to jail for 18 weeks for posting mocking video and messages about teenagers who had died and were being memorialized on sites such as Facebook. Sean Duffy posted defaced pictures of the teenagers online and made jokes about the way they had died, which included a girl who was hit by a train, and created cartoonish videos on YouTube. According to the Guardian newspaper, the judge called the case an example of the “harm and damage” that malicious behaviour on social networking sites may have. “You have cause untold stress to already grieving friend and family,” the judge said. Mr. Duffy was also ordered to stay off Facebook and any other social networking sites for five years.
Of course they only arrest guys for this kind of thing. It isn't like as if the authorities arrest women when they spread rumors that some guy is a rapist that they have never met. Not only is this wrong to arrest people for telling jokes... it's unconstitutional in the United States. I'm getting tired of this attitude towards our freedoms. ...and yes I realize it is in the U.K., but I figured they had evolved or something. Our rights are lost... just about everywhere.
(Eye) Palestinians hold a sign against US President Barack Obama during a protest in the West Bank city of Ramallah on September 22, 2011. Palestinians slammed US President Barack Obama's United Nations address a day earlier, calling it a display of US bias towards Israel. (Getty Images)
(EYE) NEW YORK (JPost) – In an animated speech, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan spoke out vehemently against Israel and put the blame for the current Israel-Turkey tension solely on the shoulders of the Israeli government.
Calling Turkish support for a Palestinian state “unconditional,” Erdogan said that “it is necessary to put pressure on Israel to achieve peace.”
“What you face today is not a simple equation of peace for security,” he said. “You must read the newly flourishing political and human geography in the Middle East.”
A new approach was necessitated by the changing political climate created by the Arab Spring, he said.
Citing May 2010’s Mavi Marmara incident, Erdogan said that Israel “has seriously wronged a country and its people.”
“Israel must apologize, pay compensate to the families of our martyrs, and lift the blockade on Gaza,” he said.
Here is the problem with the media and their slanted bias. Where is the evidence of bullying? Young people get bullied all the time, and I have no doubt that this kid experienced some level of teasing, but for some reason some people have thick enough skin to move on. With the amount of online exposure this story has gotten, one would expect there to of been some kind of exposure over who was bullying this kid. Why wasn't there? Perhaps because this kid had other issues... or perhaps because it was because this kid was bullying back in other ways and just did not have the strength to stand up. The problem here is when it gets emotional and people stop looking for the truth and are just looking to push an agenda that is hostile... usually to straight men. Further... he says he didn't have any male friends. Perhaps it wasn't the men who were teasing him. Perhaps they were trying to avoid him because they didn't want to go into his sexual sphere. Perhaps the teasing came from the women in his life? But the straight men will be the ones they will blame. There is no evidence yet of anything, but people jump to conclusions. If a boy were straight think about it from his position for a second... Boys and girls have a tendency to stick to their own gender because it is stressful to deal with sexual complications and go about daily routine. If a boy were gay then the other boys would avoid him, not because they hate him, but because it is a situation that makes life a lot harder for them. So this boy was probably surrounded by girls... who did not treat him as one of their own. How can we expect people to get along if we can't say the way it really is? It is less likely that this boy was teased by the boys around him, but rather he was probably teased by girls his own age... and yet the police will probably be looking for men (can you blame the straight males for trying to avoid that?)
( Libra Bunda ) Jamey Rodemeyer became the latest in a string of suicides by young Americans who had been abused or ridiculed because of their sexuality, in several cases over the internet. In May, he recorded a video message for the "It Gets Better" campaign, through which young gay people, along with celebrities and national figures such as Barack Obama, try to encourage each other to remain hopeful through difficult experiences. "People would just keep sending me hate, telling me that gay people go to hell," he said in the recording, which was posted to YouTube. Jamey, who had just began high school, received support from his parents, Tracy and Tim Rodemeyer, and went through counselling. Recently "he was saying how great school was going, how happy he was, his grades were great," his father told local television reporters. But in retrospect, Mr Rodemeyer said, "he fooled everybody. He put on a brave face and I wish he wouldn't have." » | Jon Swaine, New York | Wednesday, September 21, 2011
( ABC )"The special victims unit is looking into the circumstances prior to his
death," Captain Michael Camilleri said. "We are not sure if there is
anything criminal or not."
No bullying laws exist in New York State, according to Camilleri, so
police would have to determine whether aggravated harassment charges fit
this case. Whether suspects would be tried in juvenile court would
depend on whether the alleged bully was 16 or older, he said.
...you just knew they needed an excuse to limit the constitution in a Blue State and take our rights to free expression away
Police said they had spoken with Williamsville School Superintendent
Scott G. Martzloff, who has pledged the district's cooperation.
"We've heard that there were some specific students, an identifiable
group of students, that had specifically targeted Jamey, or had been
picking on him for a period of time," Police Chief John C. Askey told
the Buffalo News.
Jamey sent out many signals on social networking sites that he was
struggling with his sexuality, even though he encouraged others on the
It Gets Better project websiteYouTube to fight off the bullies.
He killed himself this weekend after posting an online farewell.
Lady Gaga weighed in on the situation via twitter: "Bullying must become illegal. It is a hate crime," she tweeted.
"I am meeting with our President. I will not stop fighting. This must
end. Our generation has the power to end it. Trend it
#MakeALawForJamey," the singer posted to twitter last night.
Students had been posting hate comments with gay references on his Formspring account, a website that allows anonymous posts.
"JAMIE IS STUPID, GAY, FAT ANND [sic] UGLY. HE MUST DIE!" one post said,
according to local reports. Another read, "I wouldn't care if you died.
No one would. So just do it :) It would make everyone WAY more
happier!"
...ok... so who said it? Probably the other nerdy kid who was being bullied. start your panic now!
Friends reported the bullying to guidance counselors. But everyone, including his mother, thought he had grown stronger.
His death coincides with a national summit
this week sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education in Washington,
D.C., an effort to stem the toll of bullying school children.
Speaking at the second annual Federal Partners in Bullying Prevention
Summit were the parents of Justin Aaberg, a gay 15-year-old from
Champlain, Minn., who hanged himself after being bullied. The parents,
Tammy and Shawn Aaberg,
said that one form of the bullying came from a student religious group
whose members told Justin that he was going to hell because he was gay.
"Justin was a smiley, happy boy who loved to play his cello," said his
parents. "School systems need to do more to protect LGBT students from
bullying, and not turn their back on them because of their sexual
orientation."
Rodemeyer's suicide also sets off a somber beginning to LGBT History Month in October.
"Jamey's suicide is a tragic reminder of the vulnerability of gay
teens," said Malcolm Lazin, founder and executive director of the
Equality Forum, which focuses on LGBT civil rights and education.
"They are bullied and marginalized," he said. "While some may say that
Jamey took his life, it is unrelenting homophobia that murdered him."
Jamey's mother, Tracy Rodemeyer, who did not return calls from ABCNews.com, told the Buffalo News
that her son had been questioning his sexuality and had expressed
thoughts of suicide, but had also been encouraged by good friends and
was a "happy" and "strong" teen.
Friends described him as caring and friendly, and he had been seeking help from a social worker and therapist.
According to the National Center for Educational Statistics, 28 percent
of students aged 12 to 18 reported that they were bullied in school
during the 2008-2009 school year. Bullying also slows down as children
get older from a high of 39 percent of all sixth graders to 20 percent
of high school seniors.
The most overwhelming form of bullying is done through ridicule, insult
and rumors, rather than physical aggression, according to the report.
The rate of victimization among lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender
(LGBT) students has remained constant between 1999 and 2009, the latest
date for which there are statistics, according to the National Climate
Survey conducted by the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN).
Parents and educators say they face significant challenges in stemming
LGBT bullying, particularly at schools where there are fewer resources
and support groups such as gay-straight alliances.
"We have seen some positive signs in available resources and supportive
educators and society is moving in a good direction," GLSEN spokesman
Daryl Presgraves said. "But it's still very difficult to be an LGBT
youth in school."
In May, after coming out to friends, Jamey posted a YouTube video on the new online site, It Gets Better Project,
which provides testimony from adults and celebrities to reassure
troubled and potentially suicidal LGBT youth that life improves as they
get older.
He wrote: "Love yourself and you're set. ... I promise you, it will get better."
Jamey's school counselors had advised him not to go on social media
sites to talk about his sexuality, according to the Buffalo News.
Some parents urge others to monitor their children's social networking accounts. And school principals such as Anthony Orsi of Benjamin Franklin Middle School in Ridgewood, N.J., have urged middle-school parents to outright ban the use of social networking to prevent cyberbullying.
Social media sites such as YouTube and Facebook have made it easier for
bullies to target their victims, but at the same time they are sometimes
the only venue for talking about their pain.
"It's a very challenging time for parents and for youth," Presgraves of
GLSEN said. "You have a scenario where for a lot of youth, it's the only
support to go online and seek peers to give them support and to feel
connected to a community. At the same time, they expose themselves to
negative cyberbullying."
It is almost like this story was pre-written before the suicide by activists with an agenda. So what happens now? They arrest by IP address and demonize some poor nerd who was trying to impress a bunch of Heathers and Jocks... it destroys his life. Then they destroy the arresting detective's life... and in the end the real bullies move on and go to the Ivy League. The former bullies in ten years will become your snarky social workers, activists, therapists and progressive journalists that push an agenda that is contrary to their own actions. All the elitist pricks get to feel a moment of guilt... that makes their meaningless life have some kind of meaning. The gay kid is still dead... and the nerdy kid who left a stupid comment has his life destroyed. The police officer who makes the arrest ends up self destructing... will it actually happen that way? I don't know... but I've seen it play out that way before. Point is that we should be encouraging people to prevent this blame game and demonization... and what we really do is continue the cycle. Meanwhile in NY our freedoms are slowly eroding because people don't know how to deal with this kind of thing. Everybody wants to catch the bad guy.
The
U.S. has blocked ceasefire efforts at the time of Israeli attacks. In
fact, Obama himself—you can take a look at his—I don’t know if he still
has it, but in his website prior to the election, there was a section on
the Middle East. And it’s worth looking at. It gives you an indication
of what’s been happening since. It’s full of, you know, adoration of
Israel. You expect that. Practically not a word about the Palestinians, a
few phrases saying maybe they should have some rights. But that was
right in the middle of the latest Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 2006, a
brutal, murderous invasion, without any credible pretext — you can go
into that—actually, the fifth such invasion. And Obama took pride, in
his webpage, in having co-sponsored a Senate resolution, right in the
middle of the invasion, insisting that nothing be done to impede
Israel’s attack in Lebanon and that the U.S. should censure and maybe
sanction anyone who tried to interfere with it—Iran and Syria.
That's
just one long astonishing stream of lies. It's not just this part about
Israel's alleged "brutal, murderous invasion" of Lebanon in 2006, but
notice how Chomsky piles on 4 more lies, with this part about "the fifth
such invasion" by Israel, etc. So, counting back, we have Gaza in 2009,
Lebanon in 2006, Lebanon in 1982, Yom Kippur in 1973, and the Six Day
War of 1967. There are a few other conflicts, but these are probably the
ones Chomsky's referencing. And in each case, Israel acted in
self-defense, or as preemption in the case of 1967. That is, the
"credible pretext" has been either border incursions into Israel, rocket
attacks, terrorism against Israel civilians, or full-scale massed army
warfare waged by "murderous" Arab regimes against the Jewish state.
Here's Wikipedia, for example, on the origins of the 2006 Lebanon war:
The
conflict began when militants from the group Hezbollah fired rockets at
Israeli border towns as a diversion for an anti-tank missile attack on
two armored Humvees patrolling the Israeli side of the border fence. The
ambush left three soldiers dead. Two additional soldiers, believed to
have been killed outright or mortally wounded, were taken by Hezbollah
to Lebanon. Five more were killed in a failed rescue attempt. Israel
responded with airstrikes and artillery fire on targets in Lebanon that
damaged Lebanese civilian infrastructure, including Beirut's Rafic
Hariri International Airport ,[35] an air and naval blockade, and a
ground invasion of southern Lebanon. Hezbollah then launched more
rockets into northern Israel and engaged the Israel Defense Forces (IDF)
in guerrilla warfare from hardened positions....
At around 9 AM
local time on 12 July 2006, Hezbollah launched diversionary rocket
attacks toward Israeli military positions near the coast and near the
border village of Zar'it[60] as well as on the Israeli town of Shlomi
and other villages. Five civilians were injured. Six Israeli military
positions were fired on, and the surveillance cameras knocked out. At
the same time, a Hezbollah ground contingent infiltrated the border into
Israel through a "dead zone" in the border fence, hiding in an
overgrown wadi. They attacked a patrol of two Israeli armoured Humvees
patrolling the border near Zar'it, using pre-positioned explosives and
anti-tank missiles, killing three soldiers, injuring two, and capturing
two soldiers (Master Sergeant Ehud Goldwasser and First Sergeant Eldad
Regev). In response to the Hezbollah feint attacks, the IDF conducted a
routine check of its positions and patrols, and found that contact with
two jeeps was lost. A rescue force was immediately dispatched to the
area, and confirmed that two soldiers were missing after 20 minutes. A
Merkava Mk III tank, an Armored personnel carrier, and a helicopter were
immediately dispatched into Lebanon. The tank hit a large land mine,
killing its crew of four. Another soldier was killed and two lightly
injured by mortar fire as they attempted to recover the bodies.
Hezbollah
named the attack "Operation Truthful Promise" after leader Hassan
Nasrallah's public pledges over the prior year and a half to seize
Israeli soldiers and swap them for four Lebanese held by Israel...
What's
interesting about the Wikipedia entry is not only how devastating it is
to Noam Chomsky's argument, but also that Wikipedia's widely perceived
as hopelessly left-wing on top of that. See, "How the Left Conquered Wikipedia, Part 1."
I've
seen Chomsky in person. It was a creepy experience, basically attending
a function surrounded by hippies, progressives, and terrorists. And
Chomsky just spewed lies the whole time. And here he is on Democracy
Now!, and of course, cited as the high holy authority on the Middle East
by activists on the communist left. And it's all a bunch of lies.
President Obama told 'moderate' 'Palestinian' President Mahmoud AbbasAbu Mazen that the United States will use its veto against a 'Palestinian' effort to attain 'statehood' via the United Nations Security Council.
US
President Barack Obama told Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on
Wednesday that UN action would not achieve a Palestinian state and the
United States would veto any Security Council move to recognize
Palestinian statehood, the White House said.
"We would have to
oppose any action at the UN Security Council including, if necessary,
vetoing," Ben Rhodes, the White House national security council
spokesman, told reporters after Obama met Abbas in New York.
Meanwhile, French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said that a vote in the Security Council is 'several weeks away' leaving plenty of time for diplomacy to avoid an American veto.
"It
will probably take several weeks (before a vote takes place) and those
weeks can be used to develop a strategy," Juppe told reporters in New
York. The Palestinians are preparing to present their statehood bid on
Friday.
Conflicting comments made earlier by senior Palestinian
officials further added to the uncertainty surrounding the PA's UN bid.
Nabil Shaath, a senior official in Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas'
Fatah party said, "We will give some time to the Security Council to
consider first our full membership request before heading to the General
Assembly."
An hour later, Saeb Erekat, a senior aide to Abbas
and former chief of negotiations for the Palestinian Authority denied
that a delay was on the agenda, saying Abbas has no plans to agree to a
delayed vote. "We will not allow any political maneuvering on this
issue," he said.
If a vote is still several weeks away, how will the 'Palestinians' know when to riot.
The French proposed a one-year map for 'Palestinian statehood' - that would work out great with Obama's reelection schedule.
But
the real miracle here is that the World is finally starting to awaken
to the reality of what a 'Palestinian state' would engender. This is
from the first link again.
According to sources in the
delegation, the Americans and Europeans are beginning to understand the
harsh reality of the present Middle East. Israel presented a vast amount
of intelligence information pointing to al-Qaeda's penetration in Egypt
and the growth of radical Islam in the Arab country.
Diplomatic
officials stated that Israel warned that Sinai could turn into a second
Afghanistan. "The images from the storming of the Egyptian embassy in
Cairo and Mubarak's trial changed the Western perception of what is
actually transpiring in the Middle East," they said.
In
consultations between Jerusalem and Washington, it was determined that
Obama would clarify to Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas the economic
consequences of a unilateral declaration.
