One person's Opinion about what breaks economies...from WSJ

Below is an article interesting enough to share with others too This being an "opinion" piece in Wall Street Journal means it not officially the newspaper's reporters' views, but if the history is accurate [yeah, but who is going to look it up ?] and the slant not too severely bent, it bears reading and pondering..

The man is saying we should not raise taxes, even by other means, like calling it "fees, or taking away other benefits while taxing the same way for those benefits, or adding to our budget and then we are having to pay for it when we did not 'know' the cost 'beforehand' - which is what is happening all over the governments' places still and right now...

The deficit....ugh....has blown up bigger both in the last Bush administration with wars and other spendings, and is also now still growing even more [under the table mostly] and comes with the usual, with promises of reform [ that costs us too but that is barely acknowledged].

This is not an opinion on health care... but on what & how "we" are being spent and how much less we are "worth", just as our saved dollars [in whatever place we have stored them] are diminished forever...

and how we are being maybe manipulated by bailouts "giving back" to banks, by helping financial firms who are still gambling on our taxes as guarantees for their stability, and losing our control and choices - as our IRA's, bonds and stocks, and jobs are shaved and erased by the principal being dropped with loss of value of whatever numbers appeared to be there - even thought we put our earned money into those assumed to be 'safe' harbors.

oh well....another view from this sinking ship...globally now called 'our earth'.

and if you think this is a depressing and therefore an unwanted message, you are RIGHT, here, as you cannot be right in trying to move your funds around and take back [presumed] control over your MONEY, as money itself has already dropped in value.

And as your government has not helped you [even if you think you've got-some- now] keep what you have earned and saved so far. Better admit what is happening than 'hope' for what does not appear on any horizon, not to people we know at these regular levels.

Oh well...there is still the sun shining sometimes, and clean water where it can be found, and all the everywhere advertising and PR [public relations is the image-making, propaganda-selling, forming and framing of news and opinions, and media used mostly for the purposes of the PR maker...a seller of a view you are bombarded to believe without question,... hopefully] so prevalent constantly on every single sound / sight available.

Note the proliferation of billboards, the buses totally wrapped & covered with advertising, the TV/ internet/ radio and all sound sources are all sales advertising / commercials that fill every nook, spot, cranny, hole, space available anywhere ...continuously.... without any space to stop-to-think-for-yourself.

Getting overwhelmed with all that barrage into your
brain ?

Read and reflect. Sleep and dream of another world that is possible, still... maybe later.

Question every bit of 'news' and wait for another version to appear to whet your violent and purchasing urges, to replace the ones already aroused.

And dont believe anyone fully, not even me or this writer below.

Check all that you can to find a wider variety of other versions.

Find someone who does not agree with you already.

Talk and dis-cuss without personal relationships being damaged for differences.

And Let Go of the illusion that you have any or much control over external circumstances, especially that Federal-Reserve-manipulated cash and Your Government's "good intentions" to be working for you, little guy / gal.

But all that money is to repesent what you thought was wealth. It never was.

Your health. Your mental clarity. Your clear relationships with a very few other people.

Your trust in your life and nature and your beliefs of how it works [any way you define it]. Your clarity and awareness of the IMPERMANENT PROCESS YOU ARE...not an object thing, but an every changeable flow of life with all that we contain - together.

Now, these are Yours, to regulate, not control. These are within your control- range, partly.

And death and exiting this scene is also easy and not a bad thing, but also not just in your control either.

Be willing for whatever happens to be unwanted, but not destructive or obliterating to YOU or others either.

Be assured that you are much much more and other than you have been defined as being while here now.

And ENJOY this movie of which you are a star and active part, not just a pawn. It is all intended to be played, as in any drama, with your best moves and flexibility and with the easy motto:

"I do not do anything harmful to any one or animal or any natural thing.

I give only what I want to be given.

I act with all the honest awareness of my good intentions put into genuine actions.

I am not 'used' by this temporal yet current zeitgeist [ the moods & ways of this time / place fashion / culture] for any purpose other than that which I agree with full alertness,

I chose to realize the forces that push / pull on me and not just follow like a stupid fool.

I am smarter than most think I am and prove it with each choice I make.

I respect all life forms and act in accord for our mutual livelihood.

I am spiritual and more than this fancy body [which operates extraordinarily without my concious attention most of the time anyhow].

I am glad to be here as this is now, any how it may be, anyhow.

Yep ! Grateful to be alive even now.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

"No one outside ourselves can rule us inwardly. When we know this we become free. FEAR is always an anticipation of what has NOT yet come. "

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
this article is reposted from Wall Street Journal - opinion page, September 2009

author is ARTHUR B. LAFFER

The 1930s has become the sole object lesson for today's monetary policy. Over the past 12 months, the Federal Reserve has increased the monetary base (bank reserves plus currency in circulation) by well over 100%. While currency in circulation has grown slightly, there's been an impressive 17-fold increase in bank reserves. The federal-funds target rate now stands at an all-time low range of zero to 25 basis points, with the 91-day Treasury bill yield equally low. All this has been done to avoid a liquidity crisis and a repeat of the mistakes that led to the Great Depression.

Even with this huge increase in the monetary base, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke has reiterated his goal not to repeat the mistakes made back in the 1930s by tightening credit too soon, which he says would send the economy back into recession. The strong correlation between soaring unemployment and falling consumer prices in the early 1930s leads Mr. Bernanke to conclude that tight money caused both. To prevent a double dip, super easy monetary policy is the economy.

While Fed policy was undoubtedly important, it was not the primary cause

of the Great Depression or the economy's relapse in 1937. The Smoot-Hawley tariff of June 1930 was the catalyst that got the whole process going. It was the largest single increase in taxes on trade during peacetime and precipitated massive retaliation by foreign governments on U.S. products. Huge federal and state tax increases in 1932 followed the initial decline in the economy thus doubling down on the impact of Smoot-Hawley. There were additional large tax increases in 1936 and 1937 that were the proximate cause of the economy's relapse in 1937.

In 1930-31, during the Hoover administration and in the midst of an economic collapse, there was a very slight increase in tax rates on personal income at both the lowest and highest brackets. The corporate tax rate was also slightly increased to 12% from 11%. But beginning in 1932 the lowest personal income tax rate was raised to 4% from less than one-half of 1% while the highest rate was raised to 63% from 25%. (That's not a misprint!) The corporate rate was raised to 13.75% from 12%. All sorts of Federal excise taxes too numerous to list were raised as well. The highest inheritance tax rate was also raised in 1932 to 45% from 20% and the gift tax was reinstituted with the highest rate set at 33.5%.

But the tax hikes didn't stop there. In 1934, during the Roosevelt administration, the highest estate tax rate was raised to 60% from 45% and raised again to 70% in 1935. The highest gift tax rate was raised to 45% in 1934 from 33.5% in 1933 and raised again to 52.5% in 1935. The highest corporate tax rate was raised to 15% in 1936 with a surtax on undistributed profits up to 27%. In 1936 the highest personal income tax rate was raised yet again to 79% from 63%—a stifling 216% increase in four years. Finally, in 1937 a 1% employer and a 1% employee tax was placed on all wages up to $3,000.

Because of the number of states and their diversity I'm going to aggregate all state and local taxes and express them as a percentage of GDP. This measure of state tax policy truly understates the state and local tax contribution to the tragedy we call the Great Depression, but I'm sure the reader will get the picture. In 1929, state and local taxes were 7.2% of GDP and then rose to 8.5%, 9.7% and 12.3% for the years 1930, '31 and '32 respectively.

The damage caused by high taxation during the Great Depression is the real lesson we should learn. A government simply cannot tax a country into prosperity. If there were one warning I'd give to all who will listen, it is that U.S. federal and state tax policies are on an economic crash trajectory today just as they were in the 1930s. Net legislated state- tax increases as a percentage of previous year tax receipts are at 3.1%, their highest level since 1991; the Bush tax cuts are set to expire in 2011; and additional taxes to pay for health-care and the proposed cap-and-trade scheme are on the horizon.

In addition to all of these tax issues, the U.S. in the early 1930s was on a gold standard where paper currency was legally convertible into gold. Both circulated in the economy as money. At the outset of the Great Depression people distrusted banks but trusted paper currency and gold. They withdrew deposits from banks, which because of a fractional reserve system caused a drop in the money supply in spite of a rising monetary base. The Fed really had little power to control either bank reserves or interest rates.

The increase in the demand for paper currency and gold not only had a quantity effect on the money supply but it also put upward pressure on the price of gold, which meant that dollar prices of all goods and services had to fall for the relative price of gold to rise. The deflation of the early 1930s was not caused by tight money. It was the result of panic purchases of fixed-dollar priced gold. From the end of 1929 until early 1933 the Consumer Price Index fell by 27%.

By mid-1932 there were public fears of a change in the gold-dollar relationship. In their classic text, "A Monetary History of the United States," economists Milton Friedman and Anna Schwartz wrote, "Fears of devaluation were widespread and the public's preference for gold was unmistakable." Panic ensued and there was a rush to buy gold.

In early 1933, the federal government (not the Federal Reserve) declared a bank holiday prohibiting banks from paying out gold or dealing in foreign exchange. An executive order made it illegal for anyone to "hoard" gold and forced everyone to turn in their gold and gold certificates to the govern- ment at an exchange value of $20.67 per ounce of gold in return for paper currency and bank deposits. All gold clauses in contracts private and public were declared null and void and by the end of January 1934 the price of gold, most of which had been confiscated by the government, was raised to $35 per ounce. In other words, in less than one year the government confiscated as much gold as it could at $20.67 an ounce and then devalued the dollar in terms of gold by almost 60%. That's one helluva tax.

The 1933-34 devaluation of the dollar caused the money supply to grow by over 60% from April 1933 to March 1937, and over that same period the monetary base grew by over 35% and adjusted reserves grew by about 100%. Monetary policy was about as easy as it could get. The consumer price index from early 1933 through mid-1937 rose by about 15% in spite of double-digit unemployment. And that's the story.

The lessons here are pretty straightforward. Inflation can and did occur during a depression, and that inflation was strictly a monetary phenomenon.

My hope is that the people who are running our economy do look to the Great Depression as an object lesson. My fear is that they will misinterpret the evidence and attribute high unemployment and the initial decline in prices to tight money, while increasing taxes to combat budget deficits.

Mr. Laffer is the chairman of Laffer Associates and co-author of "The End of Prosperity: How Higher Taxes Will Doom the Economy—If We Let It Happen" (Threshold, 2008).

Article was pinted in The Wall Street Journal, page A25
Sept 22, 2009
online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203440104574402822202944230.html

Blocked by being Censored & Blocked too by Los Angeles Indy Media....what does this mean ?

This article about another one that was censored by "hiding" it...so is it still available to be read...is it still there now ...?

After the article below about "Americana" being spoken or not in this USA, it was also posted on www.la.indymedia.org on same date, but quickly in another day it was "hidden" and not accessible if link was not already saved elsewhere.


The question of censorship was left "unhidden" momentarily but then the computer ID'd by their hacker-organizer-volunteers have a clever way to insure NO MORE BAD THINGS ARE EVER POSTED ON THEIR PRIZED WEBSITE. Though many articles saying opinionated and some extremist views are posted regularly. But only the extreme Left Side Only, so-called "liberal" views are allowed, and who decides who is Left-enough ?

or Liberal-enough ?

or who authorizes the elimination of access to a so-called Free Speech and open communications local website ?

The actions were not announced nor will they probably be admitted, but the act is clear in that there is No Access allowed from the writer's computers [which are easily identified by numbers available on programs that are accessed by any website's clickers].


So the secret game continues, with apparent non-action while eliminating anyone who has anything not-postitive, not-wanted, not-complimentary on the 'owners' of Independent Media in Los Angeles' website. Of course, they have the right to exclude anyone, for any reason, right ?

Anyone can stop someone from making any unwanted statements on their blogs, websites, or commentary. It is called "monitoring" not for consistency, but for convenience. Most often, websites inform the ones who are being excluded with any form email to not just leave the writers waiting and wondering..."what did I do wrong here ?"


"WRONG" is whatever someone doesn't like or agree with. "wrong" is any dissident, different, "other", or questioner that wants to disagree with the prevailing propaganda or messages.


Most blogs and comment sites only monitor out not what is "other" than their main theme, but those who use many nasty malicious words intended to insult or tittilate or offend. Not for being "on the other side" of a controversial issue.


This is the article that was previously available for anyone to read, or to comment or disagree or criticize on the LA Indymedia website. It is being reposted and exposed here, though this writer can NOT access it any more to find out if it still exists visibly or has been "hidden" or eliminated altogether on the Indy site.

The Dictatorship style of demanding only agreement & obedience & alliances & bowing & kowtowing & deferring & subservience & all that is not usually called "American" by preference or tradition either is prevalent there, but not in many web places now. Some people get huffy and righteous and take their power of control OUT on anyone who criticizes them, but they are not claiming Freedom of Publishing speech and free thinking as their main motto either. Indy medias do. But dont act on their own words and beliefs. Wonder why ?


Independent Media is NOT AT ALL INDEPENDENT - but demanding the submissive dependence of it's writers to be only in it's 'good graces' and thus it's readers are limited & controlled. or self-censoring as well. No differences allowed. No questioning the rulers of that website and their censoring ways. No admission of their prejudices or biases either. No letting others learn of how the site is actually run, obviously differently than their written Editorial Policy and Mission proclaim. The hypocrisy is now complete and their rule over their website is truly owned and run by those who have the very same biases...only ! no one else allowed there !


+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

http://la.indymedia.org/news/2009/07/229271.php reads as this :

"CENSORSHIP AT INDYMEDIA REPEATS AGAIN and AGAIN"

posted on Friday, Jul. 31, 2009

summary: Indymedia every so too often decides to CENSOR an article by hiding it from public view...but based on nothing more than it's own group's version of what they like politically or an article that someone there with the power of that clever click who has decided what was offered to the LA public readers now needs to be "gone !" out of sight ! Why they do this is unrevealed and non-transparent. And LA.Indymedia offer no way to reverse their discriminating acts either as there is no one ‘home’ when a letter is written to info@la.indymedia.org either !”

see http://la.indymedia.org/news/2009/07/229219.php which has been hidden, because it was what ? Nothing according to la.indy’s editorial policy or mission, for sure !

This has happened at least twice before to this writer and probably more often to others who may not check back after initially publishing their divergent views. Has it happened to you ?

Can anyone please explain the repeated hiding/censoring of articles arbitrarily or even deliberately discriminating against any writer who does not strictly FOLLOW some undeclared formula or bias held by this site ? As this hypocrisy of saying that they are believing in 'free speech' but then they eliminate that freedom at will has to also be exposed elsewhere now.

An article that was reposted from another published journal that was obviously not "liked" enough to keep for open reading, so that article was HIDDEN [as in hidden posts, all in pink and not available unless one knows how to access these ]....

for what visible reasonable cause ? Because someone did not agree ? or Someone who has the authority to 'take out' information that may be reliable, actual, accurate or even debatable was not wanted on la.indymedia.org ?

Is this not contrary to the intentions, purpose of this free speech website ?

other very weird articles appear all the time, but only from those who claim victimhood and thus are obviously acceptable in that case...

other articles berating any authority are loved and left intact.

a comment to the article was left visible while the re-poster was blanked out to not be seen unless a clever person happens to click the right button because they already know a Censored Article exists .

What is the explanation ? none given.

What is the purpose of choosing which side Indymedia prefers over others they dont happen to like or agree with ?

What is the propaganda bias located in these pages ?

The article about language speaks against corporations and businesses pretending to cater to certain groups to gain their favor and for more profits and customers. The capitalist nature of procedures pretending to be ‘for the people’ is noted to be actually more for the benefit of the capitalists than the populous.

dont ask because no one wants to tell. We expect this article to be quickly eliminated as well, as criticism, even constructive and accurate criticism surely cannot be allowed within such a self-righteous group that makes unilateral decisions contrary to it’s own mission & policies.

However, quoting here directly from la.indy’s posted editorial policy and mission, they claim one thing and then do another. Here is what the website states - see for yourself please ! :

[Note: underlined statements are for sorting thru the platitudes]

“We support local, regional and global struggles against exploitation and oppression”. [ but does this mean not allowing another group view that also claims this intent besides the particular ones they chose to believe and

support ????]

“ We function as a non-commercial, non-corporate, anti-capitalist collective.” and “... collectives organized along anti-authoritarian principles of open and transparent decision-making processes, [snip]... and the elimination of hierarchies. Los Angeles Independent Media Center participants shall not act in a manner that endangers, intimidates, or physically harms any member of the group [snip]...Indymedia members shall strive to act in a respectful manner to other members of the collective as well as the public.”

and their posted

“Mission Statement: To encourage a world where globalization is not about homogeneity and exploitation, but rather, about diversity and cooperation. [snip] To cover local events that are ignored or poorly covered by corporate media.... [snip] ”and environmental justice directly from their perspective. [snip] To encourage, facilitate, and support the creation of independent news gathering and organizations.”

So why are these statements on the la.indymedia site while the actions of it’s members doing otherwise ?

(c) 2009

“Let's Speak Americana, for a change....”

Let’s speak Americana again...not pretend we are so very multilingual that our tongues and minds are twisted by the culture that emphases Business Profits are our main Pursuit of Happiness or Life.

Americana is based on the English but our language is not actually that. It is also not Mexican Spanish or Latin America Spanish. It is not French, German. It is not “slave descendent” slang like “Ebonics” with “F*#@ YOU n#%g*r ” either. Our actual Americana speak is not minority inserts in actuality, tho daily talk tries to insert other’s words to influence and reflect their increasing purchasing power in this American Culture.

Business PROFITS are based on acceptance of others and their languages to make newcomers, visitors, foreigners PURCHASERS here. It is not that the Americans want to learn ‘new words’ daily. It is that pretend-inclusion makes for better CUSTOMERS for corporations that pretend to be store-front business and government services appear to be equality prone in their advertising.

It is all a POLITICAL & ECONOMIC lure to show at least that , “look, we are all the same and equal, see...we even speak your language now”. An extreme case is the multi-language voting ballots put out by some politically engaged and vote-seeking slanted law makers. They want YOUR vote, in any language, so better to include all who still do not speak the Majority’s speak, the traditional ways, or the basis of this country’s cultural norms that is a psuedo-English version of trading information.

To appear to be “equal” and thus claiming to have “the same” buying power, voting power and citizen basis is fake and a great PRETEND game. It is also called “the preferred correct version of Political framing”. Framing means the way the story is told and with a particular intention framing the conversation and resulting understanding. Those who enter into any country must quickly learn and become familiar with the common words, phrases, intentions and languages of that region, anywhere, and this has always been so.

The USA pretended at some point to be more “open” to all the unfortunates elsewhere [not the original basis of the USA, and never to all types or shades of peoples who ever entered these lands of the browner native tribes]. This was then engraved and later misused as a good business ploy to say: “Now we can SELL OUR PRODUCTS & SERVICES to those who enter these shores as well as we do those who have lived here and established this culture & language already.”

So almost every phone tree recording now includes what is similar to Spanish [not even the actual Spain-version of their original language] with the intention of Proving that everyone is being served and everyone can be a good-customer because “language is no excuse not to buy here or pay your bills here or use Our Services instead of theirs.

How long does it take an average intelligent human to learn the basics of the American language that surrounds them also, if they don’t hide ensconced and encased in their mini-cultural enclave ? How much effort does it take Americans to learn the language of the nations they live within, not as short-term tourists, but as workers or landowners or service-providers ? It should be the same as intelligences are similar tho they may appear varied more for people’s personal vanity and self-aggrandizing illusion reasons.

Groups have these same weaknesses anywhere of assuming that those who don’t yet know or speak as they do must be less smart and can be taken advantage of for a while. In USA we think a bit differently. The businesses of America have figured out that they can take advantage of other nationals better by pretending to speak their language and creating that alliance better to get their money spent at this business, than where they don’t seem to have that connection of language.

A fake and false pretense of “being one of you” when the businesses and corporations hire a few and pretend to be multi-cultural or multi-national for better profit-getting.

The remaining Americans are frustrated and upset at having to perform unnecessary tasks such as “press 1 for English” and “press 2 for...” and so on when they have already learned and used the prevailing language well enough to conduct their business there. To see business signs in scripts unintelligible to American natives or long time citizens is confusing and insulting even, to have the impression that they cannot read or understand what those store signs, billboards or house letters represent. There is a sense of being almost ‘invaded’ by others who refuse to be a part of the culture and land they have chosen within which to now live.

The ‘foreigners’ are using other ways of insisting they are not Americans but their own separate ways without sharing equally in the language and culture of the majority they have also chosen to use for their own benefits. The word “foreigners” indicates that they do not appear to be part of the USA norm or majority or tradition by identifying themselves and their wares/ services in only their ‘home language’ so only their own people’s can recognize what they are and do. Is that inclusion ?

Are those methods integration or separation and alienating ? This is not what America wanted to represent in it’s “many people’s” invitations that have sometimes been used against the predominant population, not graciously accepted as an invitation “into” it, or to join it.

Americana is a basic language with many twangs, clicks, slurs, nasal intonations, drawls, sharp choppy drop offs, and varied dialects still basically well understood as the central language predominates and leads the majority population. Based on the tertiary invasion of these lands [the natives spoke many tribal languages of their groups and areas, then the Spaniards were said to be ‘conquerors’ a little lower on the continent, and then the English sailed over to escape their own bondage and came to these northern territories now called “United States of America” which is not all of the Americas.

The English language was reduced and shifted some and even more over time to still resemble the old original versions but with many changes still. It has continued to be the majority language today, even though it may no longer sound so to anyone living in a big urban city or even some agricultural regions. Other languages attempt and some do predominate over the original English that the USA natives [born and raised by their families in these areas] have been speaking for hundreds of years HERE.

Many countries learn English because both the USA and UK and some other nations do their business and political transactions in this language. When these speakers arrive in the USA they use their language skills appropriately. Those who enter and don’t attempt to LEARN AND USE the cultural language and ways of the country they are visiting or emigrating into are being arrogantly self-serving and discourteous as well. The prior identification of cultural alliance is brought into another’s preferred arena and then the demand to place a symbolic ‘flag’ of their prior place as equally validly placed here.

Like a stand that says, “I am not you or like you...and I may not even like you...but I want to live where you have developed conditions preferable to where I come from...and I want to have everything you have without becoming or being like any of you either !” A bit of a put-down in attitude and reference and the dual-citizenship stance seems like one that want to usurp, take advantage while not giving up anything else in return. A rather arrogant demand to remain a native of another place, culture, language and yet have all the benefits that was not earned or worked for here in this place, culture, language-group.

Language groups are a significant identifier of who someone IS or allies with or has family together, to join in their community/ land. Aboriginals of Australia do not identify so much as any tribe but as “language groups” to say they have conflicts but it is not based on physiological or easily identifiable distinctions, so language differences are the way to tell each other apart to know who is “us” and who are “them”. They are not the only ones who use words, sounds, languages, badges, tools, art and dress to tell each other which group is friendly and which may not be so.

Americana is not yet labeled as a language, but UK English do not see what is spoken here as the same as those who emanate from Great Britain with their English traditions and European heritages.

Wikipedia says “ Americana refers to culture, history and heritage of the United States. Americana is anything that captures the essence of America's values, experiences and collective identity. Symbols of Americana are readily and easily associated with the United States...” [snip] “.. oft-mentioned idea of the "American Experience." Symbols of Americana or the American Experience include ...” certain foods, soft drinks, movies, movie stars, sports, music, cartoons, and structures that are part of the daily used language as well.

Wikipedia further writes: “English is a West Germanic language that originated in Anglo-Saxon England. [It was an indo-European language ] As a result of the military, economic, scientific, political, and cultural influence of the British Empire during the 18th, 19th, and early 20th centuries and of the United States since the mid 20th century.” [snip] “A working knowledge of English has become a requirement in a number of fields, occupations and professions such as medicine and computing; as a consequence over a billion people speak English to at least a basic level.”

However, those peoples who want to live within the USA boundaries and are not learning or willing to speak the majority-language continue to insist they ‘don’t have to’ and are enabled to refrain from joining those whom they have come to share resources here by those “press 2 for....” any other language but the majority one. That printing of dual or multi-languages by our utility companies are paid for by higher prices for all users, and does not come out of the profits of those corporations.

The advertising done to other-language-groups in the USA is also an added element to determining produce/ service price, and not a cost to the selling businesses who insist on their monetary returns. None of this multi-language servicing those who cant, wont, don’t speak the majority-English-language speakers is for FREE, tho that information is never openly shared.

The real question is why there is such reluctance to “do as the Romans do” that is the courtesy demanded of Americans elsewhere as well ? Many newly-entered people may learn some basic ways to get around, to use the resources well, to get basic approval and acceptance, but then continue to retain their prior language and customs as predominant, not even equally shared in changing any of their speaking ways. It is bringing a square of the “old country” into this “new land” and expecting everyone else to understand their reluctance to adapt to where they want to permanently reside.

It is basically asking the already established USA people to learn their languages if they want their business and earnings and to demand that the people who have lived here long before [regardless of who won which war when, that being a done signed agreement at the end of that event] should shift in the newcomers’ direction instead.

Where is this ever written or accepted ? Whose home is being re-arranged for the convenience of the visitors ? Whose language is being diminished as no longer primary, but one of many languages spoken in the USA ? Why are those who have invested diligently into their culture, their holdings in USA terms, and obeyed the customs and laws here being asked to be so accepting of those who arrive and make demands for change from what was working well before that influx of non-English-speakers ?

Who appears to enable the newer-arrived cultures to BUY and BUY and BUY their stuff and services at the expense of their own peoples in these USA ?

Or are global multi-national corporations only acting in their own behalf insisting on getting their profits in any language and from any language-group, as they no longer are American at all anyhow ?

We may have to change our name from United States of America to “United Corporations of Multi-National Origins living in what was “America”, as it has been called. This may be already a fact not yet admitted by most of those who think they are still “Americans” in these lands.

And those who insist on what they-want-to-insist is the Only Correct Political View, as if one person or group can claim that authority for themselves alone, that the above opinion is "hate speech" or "xenophobic" or "unusual" and "wrong !" can knock on another door to claim rights they do not own. FREE SPEECH and freedom to think and state those thoughts are integral to not only USA traditions and laws but many other cultures claim this 'right' even when the governing politicos do not actually allow these exposed.

This is a carefully deliberated, a commonly observed, and a boldly stated opinion and observation of how businesses, advertising, cultural morays, and people's languages are used, and manipulated for other purposes than for the benefit of the majority of that land region too. Oh well, what's new ?

(c) 2009

“CENSORSHIP AT LA INDYMEDIA REPEATS AGAIN and AGAIN

summary: Indymedia every so too often decides to CENSOR an article by hiding it from public view...but based on nothing more than it's own group's version of what they like politically or an article that someone there with the power of that clever click who has decided what was offered to the LA public readers now needs to be "gone !" out of sight ! Why they do this is unrevealed and non-transparent. And LA.Indymedia offer no way to reverse their discriminating acts either as there is no one ‘home’ when a letter is written to info@la.indymedia.org either!”

see http://la.indymedia.org/news/2009/07/229219.php which has been hidden, because it was what ? Nothing according to la.indy’s editorial policy or mission, for sure !

This has happened at least twice before to this writer and probably more often to others who may not check back after initially publishing their divergent views. Has it happened to you ?

Can anyone please explain the repeated hiding/censoring of articles arbitrarily or even deliberately discriminating against any writer who does not strictly FOLLOW some undeclared formula or bias held by this site ? As this hypocrisy of saying that they are believing in 'free speech' but then they eliminate that freedom at will has to also be exposed elsewhere now.

An article that was reposted from another published journal that was obviously not "liked" enough to keep for open reading, so that article was HIDDEN [as in hidden posts, all in pink and not available unless one knows how to access these ]....

for what visible reasonable cause ? Because someone did not agree ? or Someone who has the authority to 'take out' information that may be reliable, actual, accurate or even debatable was not wanted on la.indymedia.org ?

Is this not contrary to the intentions, purpose of this free speech website ?

other very weird articles appear all the time, but only from those who claim victimhood and thus are obviously acceptable in that case...

other articles berating any authority are loved and left intact.

a comment to the article was left visible while the reposter was blanked out to not be seen unless a clever person happens to click the right button because they already know a Censored Article exists .

What is the explanation ? none given.

What is the purpose of chosing which side Indymedia prefers over others they dont happen to like or agree
with ?

What is the propaganda bias located in these pages ?

The article about language speaks against corporations and businesses pretending to cater to certain groups to gain their favor and for more profits and customers. The capitalist nature of procedures pretending to be ‘for the people’ is noted to be actually more for the benefit of the capitalists than the populous.

dont ask because no one wants to tell. We expect this article to be quickly eliminated as well, as criticism, even constructive and accurate criticism surely cannot be allowed within such a self-righteous group that makes unilateral decisions contrary to it’s own mission & policies.

However, quoting here directly from la.indy’s editorial policy and mission, they claim one thing and then do another. Here is what the website states - see for yourself please ! :

[Note: underlined statements are for sorting thru the platitudes]

“We support local, regional and global struggles against exploitation and oppression”. [ but does this mean not allowing another group view that also claims this intent besides the particular ones they chose to believe and support ????]

“ We function as a non-commercial, non-corporate, anti-capitalist collective.” and “... collectives organized along anti-authoritarian principles of open and transparent decision-making processes, [snip]... and the elimination of hierarchies. Los Angeles Independent Media Center participants shall not act in a manner that endangers, intimidates, or physically harms any member of the group [snip]...Indymedia members shall strive to act in a respectful manner to other members of the collective as well as the public.”

and

“Mission Statement: To encourage a world where globalization is not about homogeneity and exploitation, but rather, about diversity and cooperation. [snip] To cover local events that are ignored or poorly covered by corporate media.... [snip] ”and environmental justice directly from their perspective. [snip] To encourage, facilitate, and support the creation of independent news gathering and organizations.”

So why are these statements on the la.indymedia site while the actions of it’s members doing otherwise ?

(c) 2009

Health Care is again returning to profitable ins. companies. So ...write someone quick !

This is a letter written to my Congressional Representatives today. The Prez is not clearly moving in the directions he promised [so what's different about this one, huh??]

Moveon.org initiates some petitions with which I agree. This is one I chose to write my own words and express my own thoughts and strong feelings... If you too want to write any blog, newspaper, letter, AND your govt representatives, take off from here on your own or quote [please use " marks] for attribution and not plagiarize, tho you don't have to state where the source comes from this time]

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - here it is : - - - - - - - - -

Dear MY-Representatives:

Please take our public citizen concerns in consideration when you vote.

We need to significantly change how health care is delivered in USA. We spend too much on end of life and guilt of family issues without concern for cost, which benefits the medical & health ins. industry more than any human beings who received excessive medical services.

Please start counting up how much it costs each of us for excessive lab tests [to cover malpractice and pay tort attorneys and cover costs of those who practice poorly ]and account for how much goes into for technology that is way beyond the reasonable and necessary for the medical condition as we have assumed [ like with financial debt and housing bubbles and toxic assets] that we "need" more when it is not cost effective nor actually helpful to better or good enough health.

Notice how much insurance companies & their affiliates are profiting from the premium /cost raises [every year over 6-12% so far, every year, way above the CPI too!] with easy excuses as to why they continually have increased annual fees and premiums for less and ineffective services...to pay their shareholders and accrue more $$$ holdings [to make them safe, not the saving the patients paying them ].

Be aware of how our health coverages have be paying for much 'middle managers /& clerks' bureaucrats and they are not-all-needed to provide good health services ....the corporations are cleverly covering-their-bottoms-paperwork-about- illegalities-unethicalities-siphoning -off-money-from-direct-treatment-funds... and the extra created organizations, the MCO red-taped bureaucracies that are not helping the patients or payees but covering the insurances instead. So much focus goes into their corporate workings instead of money utilized for direct treatments and interventions.

With managed care not being all it was suppose to "save" everyone, not just pay the corporations & agents thru profits and employments. Most medical providers did NOT want to move into managed care but were forced into being supervised by non-medical staffers in far away places who limited services, set reimbursement rates, required more and more malpractice insurance and made sure all negative responsibility was finally not theirs, but landed on the provider again.

And the MCO's have kept their hold over the medical field even tho it is not ever clear who benefits from these extra costs - certainly not the paying public or patients, maybe the practitioners who formed 'groups' to gain access to more per "captitation" [paid by number of patients in a group if or not they utilize services, hoping not to give away services if possible to profit more themselves]. "Most often, the physicians are paid on a basis of capitation, which in this context means a set amount for each enrolled person assigned to that physician or group of physicians, whether or not that person seeks care." [Wikipedia] A frustrating, delaying, stealing from us all system has become standard practice, to the dismay and disservice of patients and many medical professionals also.

Be sure to read the MoveOn.org petitions, as well, which focuses not on these specifics as much but may also show the multitudes that are concerned in different way that we are being - and have been for a long time now - pushed out of plain simple helpful medical care and into more and more fancy expensive "newest" technological and pharmaceutically-profitable maneuvers instead of given helpful & necessary direct treatment.

Some of the older fashioned healing [medicine in many forms] versions did as well or better in many cases,than what we pay for so dearly now, tho not all. Ask anyone, including yourself please, how much your/their DEMAND for increased novelty, insisting on the latest, style="font-style:italic;"> nnewest, fanciest,expensive treatments and services are expected, of course ! - not that the basic help that is actually required has even been tried... but all the advertising is effectively believed, advertising that is done for upgrading, up-costing medical drugs & equipment and hospitals and such, all this is based mostly on FEAR OF DEATH & DYING.

And also families fear of being guilty of 'not doing enough" when they don't know how much they are actually paying indirectly for all that fake reassurance of their "caring". The patient suffering from excessive, short-lived if effective, painful and distressful treatments [costly too] is not the focus, the family guilt is. huh ? But often so.

All the FEAR MONGERING that is daily urgently stressed in our devoted media - focusing on any and all dangers anywhere - shown with great & exaggerated bloody pictures and each tear caught on millions of screens - all add to the desire & demand & then insistence for more and more Expensive medical aids - that so many hope will save them from suffering - to not be one of those that they see on the "news" .

Fear is definitely driving up our health costs along with all the paid advertising and public relations [costs are then included in our premiums and charges, of course, trickle down, it is called] all done to profit those who say they only insure the USA public.

And as 'good consumers' and fools, many have agreed that we "need" those "recommended by my doctor" tests or mis-directed treatments is so that all those expenses land back on those who pay - YOU, me, us passive consumers. Yes,it is we who fall prey to those business predators.

Insurance and health corporations are mostly not healers. They are "providers of services" but that means computer-paper-work, price-management, administrative, or all that claimed as extra 'needed' part of providing medicine or treatment. That also includes the advertising to us, the public, to doctors, to each other and the high costs of public relations to help those same corporation look good, that insurance be purchased and known, all that is included in the final 'health care costs' and premiums set for us. Huh? No wonder premiums are excessive and ridiculous.

And note what is not openly revealed: the increased selection of increasing our medical costs just because of who they chose to ally with to then contract for that increase their profits or businesses...instead of improving our actual services. And the corporations are also "lobbied" by their trade-favors-giving friends and profit-selected-alliances. So where can costs be cut ? It has long ago been obvious but also difficult to change.

Dont ask because the actual collusions and corruptions are well hidden, tho PUBLIC CITIZEN, CONSUMER REPORTS UNION, and some other watch groups are slowing leaking out some true stats and information. Search it out.
Share it with everyone you know, everywhere. We need to be our own public & relations.

The disease is in the system, more than in any patient. Question: how much can that entrenched system be changed ? Now.

It is time to open our eyes, minds and accounting practices to see what has been our mainline health care services and who gets the most out of it...not the ordinary citizen patient, not the burdened care-giving family...not the paying for high fees employer or employee...but whom ?????

yep, you already know and so do I.

Please make CHANGE OF MINDS and cost effective medical services a reality NOW

thank you

this was also on

http://pol.moveon.org/pac/popetition/comments.html?registered=1&petition_id=706&redirect
_url=%2Fpac%2Fpopetition%2Fcomments.html&id=16294-9179597-_Mna5Mxmy

(c) maryjanie 2009

FEARING again ? death ? pain ? loss ? or just just fear-ing contaminated ?

There is some unusual phenomena occurring...nothing personal, but we are induced into taking it as "our fault"...as our 'weakness'...as directed at our beings, our bodies, our families, our stuff, our safety.

But notice how consecutively one "crisis" occurs immediately after another kind....like another one of more war and sacrifices needed from YOU too, and now !

another of Buy More or the government cant pay it's accumulated debts.

another of Buy another house to keep up with your neighbors' purchasing more homes for profit and prestige.

another of Bail-Out of YOUR banks by your tax monies or you will be responsible for all your money losses

another of Put on that mask to save your life from swine flu death creeping into your daily breath

another of Our sons and fathers coming home from an [necessary for whom and for what benefits ?] WAR in Pakistan and Afghanistan - maybe even returning, but now crushed, mutilated, left untreated by the military and turned into killers of innocent civilians while visiting those far off lands. When those in war or in our military returns with PTSD what do we call those people we knew before now ?

another of our waters being privatized, rationed, contaminated, dried up, and [not "or"] limited everywhere...and you cant live without that precious water

another of venomous lionfish having grown into a devouring menace to other fish and living things, having no natural predators and having been delivered to remote from their original coral reef habitat into more local waters [see Mother Jones article describing this one !] eliminating whole groups of fish and other species and extinguishing other growth of populations ...in other words, our global transportation systems have delivered one local dangerous fish into other regions where they have grown exorbitantly and freely. Or the rabbits proliferating Australia, or other plant species overtaking other’s habitats.

another of our precious USAmerican dollar being printed up with nothing but Federal [private banks] banks creating credit out of the government massive deficit...so dont wonder what that cash you think you have to depend upon is worth more than the illusion and propaganda behind it.

another of cyberspace being so surveillanced by the US data- collectors that there is no more actual privacy, only the IDEA that what you say, write, hear, or think [ ever written or stated] is only yours. NO. Now it all can be SAVED for some future time when 'evidence is needed' to arrest you or some other identified dissident ...to legally use against anyone who acts against those who hold all the legal powers, right now. All that data mining collected is as a legal library for use 'as necessary' when and if you or yours does anything 'considered by those who hold that information/power' as not-OK. It can also be used as extortion, as file-sharing for whatever purpose is convenient, or data can be selectively identified for a particular interpretation or even used as a bribe maybe.

That this blog, your reading it, your morning cell phone conversation, your email message, your voicing at work or in school some activist or dissident opinion, your note to yourself left at home even, or that simple statement you inadvertently made and then simply forgot, yes, that too is being RECORDED by more than the NSA, FBI, CIA or those easily identified groups.

This is not 'paranoia' and false suspicions but has been verified already by many and with new laws curbing privacy and expanding the powers of data-sharing and data storing in hiding. Check it out and take the hint. Nothing to worry about because it is already a done deal. Without our permission or agreement.

now why FEAR anything more ? Your health. YOur privacy. YOur money. Your savings and security. Your home. Your credit [whatever is left of it by now, with the world-money-men claiming they did not know what happened or what they were trading all this time...] Your insurance. Your death.

All is in more than just flux. All of this is out of your control and out of your information stream...and what is known is just the tip of your pinkie finger, because you are powerless to change it in your favor. Peon. Pawn. Fool. Human piece. Just another byte. or Nano.

If this sounds scary or dismal or fearsome, then know it does not MATTER because it is already a done deal. As a done deal, but no one wins. That is the irony, the joke, the last laugh. Those who thought their lives would improve and their prestige be enhanced by taking it all and maybe using what they know and own to even greater power heights still live in the same type of human bodies with human emotions, limited human minds and even with spiritual bits too.

And by assuming any bodies can own and hold and take more and more and "win" any games for pride and ego-gain have lost already, not because of hell-after-death but because this world is less worth living in when turned into a fear-growing machine.

So whatever the next disaster, [natural or man-made, they are not separated events] or scare that is advertised and sold to CREATE more FEAR and pain and suffering...just know that you dont have to do anything. YOu dont have to buy it, believe it, accept that story or myth or paradigm. You dont have to follow anyone, or if you do out of belonging or needing to be part of a safer group, your choice has a 50=50 chance of being the best choice anyhow.

The globe is also called gaia, or an organism, or a whole, or part of 'the universe' we prefer, or an earth/planet but not all this is. Just as you are not all you think you are, but much more and other than what you 'think' too. That is the unadmitted part that makes the worst only another way to live or to die. Chose how you prefer to do it, or try a few ways out and see which might, maybe, be better for you.

Chose the FEAR you want to temporarily believe and follow it to it's natural logical or reasonable conclusion. Look around and see how others' have chosen different or varied fears to focus their lives upon and how it affects them. Fear is always here and refuses to exit as long as thinking constructs conflicting / limiting / ideas that are not what-is.

Notice how there seems to always be prey & predators, competition for "more" or for position / status. See how death is always possible except for that moment of exception. Find out how much of our time we spend worrying about losing and suffering and hating ourselves for being 'imperfect'. Remember how much we want it allllll, easily, immediately, perfectly, pleasurably and nothing less.

So enjoy the scare, just like you like violent or horror films, or do dangerous risky activities for the adrenalin rush. Be Afraid. But chose it, and then change how and why you do this. It comes naturally to all animal forms, maybe plants fear too, tho we have not heard this clearly yet.

Those who want to scare you use your fear for their gain, but if YOU CHOSE when, how, how long, where and take some responsibility for your own fearing, then it is YOURS to play with, and not give it away by the news media push.

Fear ? of course ! Suffer ? no way !

When the danger of death or pain or direct loss happens right in your face, then and only then do you know if fear is necessary or the right reaction. Otherwise, it is all IMAGINED FEAR ...of the future, of possibilities [not probabilities usually].

To fear a direct danger is different. Then it is a challenge, an action, a direct reaction, not so much imagined, although imagination may play into the perception of that danger.

Fearing again ? why not ? It's OK, just learn something from that emotion at that time, and just keep going on....and on...and on...
until....yep...

you're dead and then it's a bit easier...they say.


(c) maryjanie 2009

Was the Prez Obama bribed by AIG ?

see this informative article about the meltdown, the 25 main cheating money grabbers, and how much AIG, a huge bailer outed had contributed to Obama's recent campaign in 2008 =see

http://www.publicintegrity.org/investigations/economic_meltdown/assets/img/Chart5-fullsize.jpg
see full article by citizens Public Integrity who investigated and crunched actual numbers for us to learn about what we are, will be, forever, paying those who cheated and robbed us, taxpayers. AIG donated $104,332 in campaign contributions = just given to help this man become our top govt official who then turns around to bail out that same company....now this does make sense, right ? See this:

http://www.publicintegrity.org/investigations/economic_meltdown/articles/entry/1286/


"The Roots of the Financial Crisis: Who Is to Blame?
Banks that Financed Subprime Industry Collecting Billions in Bailouts "
By John Dunbar, David Donald May 06, 2009


The full informative article cites banks, refers to links for numbers, and exposes lots of banks and institutions we had used and trusted...before... but our
focus here is on CAMPAIGN CONTRIBUTIONS and who rec'd most and the question is how does this relate to the big bail-outs that came later ? huh ?

http://www.publicintegrity.org/investigations/economic_meltdown/assets/img/top25-listfull.jpg

here are some quotes, or you can read the whole detailed article for yourself too

"American International Group (AIG), better known for insurance and complex trades in financial derivatives, made the list at No. 18, " [snip]

"The five banks on the list that are still lending are Wells Fargo, JPMorgan Chase, GMAC LLC, Citigroup, and AIG. All have received billions from the government’s bank bailout programs." [snip]

"In addition to the $700 billion bailout, the Federal Reserve began committing hundreds of billions of dollars to guarantee against losses on failing mortgage assets of AIG, Citigroup, and Bank of America." [snip]

" And the bailout of insurance giant AIG may go as high as $187 billion and includes a combination of loans, direct investment by the government, and purchases of shaky assets. " [snip]

another chart of interest = http://www.publicintegrity.org/investigations/economic_meltdown/assets/img/Chart6-fullsize.jpg

"Many of the lenders coaxed them along by lowering lending standards, failing to require documentation of income on loans, and providing adjustable rate loans with low two-year teaser rates that reset to much higher levels. Ultimately, that fed a wave of foreclosures, leading to trouble for borrowers, lenders, and eventually taxpayers — lots of it"

yeah, yeah, some people are tired of hearing about it, but every review of WHAT DID HAPPEN when and where tells us there are smelly games being played in high places, even with those who promised transparency and hope too.

you may be fascinated by the work done by CITIZEN groups, that are not government nor allied with those who stole our savings and erased our confidence in our money and those who claimed to hold it 'for us'.


(c) maryjanie 2009

When our own GAO notes all the tax havens and money left elsewhere...and none of our corps return their thefts....what is happening right here ?

this is a repost from Salon.com opinions
http://www.salon.com/opinion/conason/2009/03/23/big_clawback/index.html

"According to the Government Accountability Office, nearly all of America's top 100 corporations maintain subsidiaries in countries identified as tax havens. As the GAO notes, there could be reasons other than avoiding the IRS to set up branches in places such as Singapore, Luxembourg and Switzerland, where taxes are light or nonexistent and keeping clients' illicit secrets is considered a matter of national pride.

But what reason other than evasion could there be for Goldman Sachs Group to set up three subsidiaries in Bermuda, five in Mauritius, and 15 in the Cayman Islands? Why did Bank of America Financial need two subsidiaries in Guernsey? Why did Wachovia need 18 subsidiaries in Bermuda, three in the British Virgin Islands, and 16 in the Caymans? Why did Lehman Brothers need 31 subsidiaries in the Caymans?

What do Bank of America's 59 subsidiaries in the Caymans actually do? Why does Citigroup need 427 separate subsidiaries in tax havens, including 12 in the Channel Islands, 21 in Jersey, 91 in Luxembourg, 19 in Bermuda and 90 in the Caymans? What exactly is going on at Morgan Stanley's 19 subs in Jersey, 29 subs in Luxembourg, 14 subs in the Marshall Islands, and its amazing 158 subs in the Caymans?

And speaking of AIG, why does it have 18 subs in tax-haven countries? (Don't expect to find out from Fox News Channel or the New York Post, because News Corp. has its own constellation of strange subsidiaries, including 33 in the Caymans alone.)

When the cost of these shenanigans was last estimated two years ago, the U.S. government's annual loss in revenue due to tax avoidance by major corporations and super-rich individuals was pegged at about $100 billion -- considerably more than a rounding error, even today. But of course that is only a rough assessment, as is the estimate of $12 trillion in untaxed assets hidden around the world. Nobody will know for certain until the books are opened and transparency is established.

Whatever the accurate accounting proves to be, it is certain to exceed hundreds of billions annually worldwide...[see source for more if you want ] "
[snip]

None of these tax havens could exist without the connivance or at least the cooperation of the world's most powerful governments, which remain dominated by financial industry lobbyists even now. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development has sought greater transparency from the tax havens for years, hearing promises from most and defiance from a few.

But in reality almost nothing was accomplished until last year, when U.S. law enforcement authorities began to pursue Union Bank of Switzerland (UBS) executives with criminal indictments. The UBS probe led to a settlement last month that included a fine of $780 million and an agreement to provide information about tens of thousands of American clients maintaining secret accounts at that huge bank.Quantcast

Over the past several years, however, the trend has gone the other way, with abuse of bank secrecy and the expatriation of investment and profits growing rapidly"
* * * * * *

and then when the Prez decides to give USA taxpayers a tiny amount of the taxes they have avoided all these many years, billions and more ....it is a political maneuver to say to the paying taxes all the time citizens" see what I am doing for YOU ?"...and yes, this is a good move, finally, but the total monetary pay-backs are minimal, mostly a symbolic gesture of repatriation, reparations, and not the real amount or the real act.

Better than nothing being done while pretending that all the monies and job that 'have gone, gone, gone......' elsewhere for these many years of exporting our corporate taxes and cheaper labor over there, is it really diminished ?

we'll see...if any money, jobs, responsibility & accountability returns to where IT ALL BELONGS, RIGHT HERE IN THIS BIG U S OF America, where the thefts started and became deported or exported.

corruption is always here, not just 'there' and rampant, infused into our govt systems and corporate businesses. and then they say "vote for me" and "trust us".

Huh?

(c) maryjanie 2009

Big Pharma - yes, we have been sold on pill-taking always and forever new

reposted from my comment on http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2009/05/big-pharma-profits-grandmothers-little-helpers in Mother Jones
by maryjanie on May 5, 2009 - 5:03pm.

- - - - - - - - - - - -
This is a comment to an article entitled: "Big Pharma Profits from Grandmother's Little Helpers — By James Ridgeway | Tue May 5, 2009 "
an excerpt :... "summarizes two new studies from the journal Health Affairs, documenting the explosion in the use–and cost–of psychotropic drugs over the last decade. One study found that between 1996 and 2006, “prescriptions for mental health medications increased by 73% among U.S. adults and by 50% among children.” As of 2006, one in 10 U.S. adults takes at least one prescription for this purpose"[snip]
- - - - - - - - - - -

We have bought into the well-advertised story - "take a pill and it is easy", or else "it will save your life".... all at a huge cost that is never revealed.

It is predominantly in the USA that the sales pitch has worked so well. Using the cover up of common sense and common substances to Cure what cannot be cured but only partially or slightly changed, we are barraged with doctor-advising and advertising. Medications are the easiest way to provide medical "help".

Just write a prescription and get paid for the visit or call. No need for deep thoughtful diagnosis or history taking. No need for individual care. Statistics with genralizations are enough proof to professionally state that " this little expensive pill/drug will save you from whatever you think you are feeling that should NOT BE SO.

You should feel good all the time. You should never be uneasy or uncomfortable or different than your models. You should not have to feel anything at all except pleasure or numbness. We have a pill for any feelings you dont want or like. "

No need to suffer or even think you are suffering.

The AMA and all it's profiteers and alliances have convinced the USAmericans that only they can do nature's work and better and at a much higher cost too. No need to use mental health talk or other healing therapies when a pill will maybe [or often not] do.

The placebo effect is most often about 1/3 of the effect anyhow. The white coat or gown or fancy office plays another percentage of the helping role. The expensive education must have surely given that doctor/medical practitioner some invaluable knowledge, like dispensing pills being the primary one used [sometimes the same stuff comes in liquid form, but it is not liked as magically good tho].

And we have exported this notion that pills are the best and safest and easist. Magical word "easiest". The whole world agrees. Hand us some more pills, please.

Not all medications are unnecessary. Never think that. But much more prescriptions are written and taken for what is only a slight, mild, little, or negative effect on the actual medical problem. Much more 'you need our medicine' is advertised right to the consumer to then instruct their prescriber what they want w/o even an expert diagnosis involved.

So who is surprised that 1/10 of those we may know are popping pills and forgetting how to throw them back up. Thow up the idea that pills solve everything. That there is or should be a pill available for any unwanted thought, sensation, not-allowed-feeling. And many medications do very little if anything actually. NIMH admits most studies are not as good as they want to sound, actually. Proof positive is not always as it is advertised either.

Like for demenia. Like aging effects, Like looking less than screen star-gorgeous. Like being less than super-muscular. Like a little agitation or anxiety that is feared to be dangerous or deadly even. Like any sensation that is not usual or suddenly felt. Like doing whatever "the doctor Orders !" tho the positive effects are not actually noted to be helpful after all. Or not for very long.

We have become pill-prone, laying down to do whatever the fad, mode, sales job has insisted is "best for you, dearie" when they forget to tell us how they are bested up by our purchasing [yes, even thru insurance or govt programs, it's our money still being used for these purchases ] the drugs.

Fear mongering is pervasive and a new wave continually erupts and flows into every news story or media coverage. "Take a pill and the fear will diminish, for a moment or two anyhow." Fear of getting sick or uncomfortable is highly prevalent. "Take a pill, just in case," even if the probability may be very small of being actually ill enough to lay in bed for a day.

We have been sold a box of pills that is putting minds to sleep and quiets any questions right into the black hole of "that is an irrelevant question" [but who decides this ? yes, we know]

We no longer question if we need the prescriptions, we ask for them, or may not even fill them, but pay for them in some form or other. We believe that all is genetic or body only and whatever else there is can also be changed and improved with another pill for the mind or emotions or socialization process. There is a medication or 25 more easily available for every possible concern or questioned part of us.

Most are not essential. A good number may be, for a while. Chronic illness people rely on pills - assuming they are saving themselves from worse, when 'chronic' means not temporal or improving either. To be relieved of pain and deep suffering is important and should always been attempted, tho it may not be effected at times.

Most of what is sold, bought, prescribed, resold on the streets, and used to OD on is a waste of money, waste of our resources, and a waste of our intelligent questioning minds.

This article has good information, thought provoking and hopefully not pill popping being the effect any more. Time to be checking OURSELVES in and out about what we need, what works, for how long, what it costs actually, and what we have been sold into pill-slavery for all this time.

(c) maryjanie 2009