Poll #989414
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All

Due to it's graphic content, should sales of the Bible to those under 18 be banned or restricted?

More than 2,300 Hong Kong residents have lodged complaints about indecent and sexually explicit material in the Bible in a bizarre campaign to restrict sales of the Christian holy book. Hong Kong's publications watchdog has received an avalanche of complaints about tales of incest, rape, cannibalism and violence in the Bible since the website truthbible.net began urging people to file complaints. ... Now the website says it may raise the issue with Hong Kong's public ombudsman on the grounds that the "abnormal sex and violence" described in the Bible is at odds with the moral standards of people in the former British colony. If the campaign succeeds, the Bible could technically have its sales restricted in Hong Kong in the same way that pornographic magazines must be sold in sealed packages and to only those over age 18. The motive for the campaign is unclear. full article

I obviously don't believe the Bible should be censored, but it will be interesting to see how this plays out. At the very least it might be a lesson to the pro-censorship faction of Christians that their own words and logic can be used against them.

Gov. Eliot Spitzer and legislative leaders Thursday announced agreement on a bill that allows for convicted sex offenders to be confined after they complete their prison sentences -- a measure that could affect hundreds of inmates and cost the state more than $80 million a year to carry out, officials said. The still-to-be-introduced legislation -- which must be approved by both houses and signed by the governor -- will create a new system by which mental-health experts would decide at the end of a sexual predator's sentence if an offender is fit to return to the community or should be held in a psychiatric center. full article

What better place to house violent sex offender than with heavily drugged mentally ill folk who are undoubtedly aware that no pays attention anything they say. Wouldn't a better plan be to actually keep violent sex offenders in prison? They claim these sex offenders are a risk to the public, but apparently putting at risk mental patients (who've often committed no crime) is not a concern because "crazies" aren't people.

Under this new law, in New York you will be drugged and locked up with a mass of outgoing convicted sex offenders if you say the wrong thing to a therapist or psychiatrist. The safest option if you live in the State of New York: never under any circumstance say anything to a therapist or psychiatrist.

Neighbors noted that the house was unkempt and the parents were seldom seen. Teachers told investigators that Rebecca Riley came to school in clothes that were too big or not warm enough. The 4-year-old was so lethargic, they said, they sometimes had to help her up the steps in school. Pharmacists questioned the refills of clonidine, one of three psychotropic drugs the little girl was taking, two of which contributed to her death, according to the state medical examiner. ... The affidavit submitted by State Trooper Anna C. Brookes, one of three lead investigators of Rebecca’s death, paints a picture of a family in extreme crisis despite having access to social services and medical treatment. Rebecca, her 11-year-old brother, her 6-year-old sister and mother were all on medication for mental illness, and their father told investigators he had intermittent rage disorder but was not on medication. Denise Monteiro, a spokes-woman for the Department of Social Services, confirmed that the agency has had an open case on the family since 2005, when Michael Riley, Rebecca’s father, was accused of sexually assaulting a 13-year-old girl. He had been ordered to leave the family’s house, then in Weymouth, and was allowed to have only supervised visits with his children. ... An unidentified social worker from South Bay Mental Health in Weymouth began visiting the family in May. Her concerns about the amount of medication the children were receiving prompted her to contact their psychiatrist, Dr. Kayoko Kifuji of Tufts-New England Medical Center. The social worker told Kifuji that the amount of medication Rebecca was receiving was unusual and that she saw no evidence of the diagnosis of hyperactivity for which the girl was being treated. Rebecca was also diagnosed as bipolar when she was 28 months old. full article

I'd really like to know how you diagnose a 2 year old with bipolar disorder. No child should be on these drugs. None, zero, zip, zilch. There is absolutely no excuse for drugging a child. The psychiatrist should be criminally charged as well.

It's amazing that the only one in the whole family who wasn't drugged was the sexually abusive father.

Barton was referring to Democratic Reps. Gerry Studds of Massachusetts and Dan Crane of Illinois, both of whom were censured after having sexual relationships with 17-year-old pages. Crane lost his re-election bid, while Studds survived the scandal. full article

Dan Crane was a Republican. What's up with moving Republican assholes over to the Democratic party? First, FOX News repeatedly labels Foley as a Democrat. Now, CNN is calling Dan Crane as a Democrat. Get your facts straight people!

So, Foley claims he was molested growing up. Whether or not that happened, I do not like it again being used as an "excuse" for this behaviour. Most people who are molested DO NOT end up becoming molesters themselves. THERE IS NO EXCUSE FOR FOLEY'S BEHAVIOUR.

This is a very personal issue with me. I was molested as a child. I would never do anything like that to a child. However, the constant repetition of "victims of molestation become molesters" has made me wonder at points if I'm somehow at risk of waking one day and becoming a monster. I've heard this fear from many other victims as well. People who would never harm a fly worried about being around children because of this damaging "inner monster" myth.

I'm going to say it again:

BEING A VICTIM OF MOLESTATION DOES NOT MAKE ONE BECOME A MOLESTER. It is not an excuse and those who use it as one are further harming victims. Assholes like that should be locked up for the rest of their lives and left to rot.

A 50-year-old woman filed a federal lawsuit against Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center yesterday, saying she was forcibly undressed by five male security guards there last year after she refused a nurse's order to take off her clothes. The incident, which hospital officials have defended as necessary to make sure the woman was not hiding drugs or weapons, triggered flashbacks to childhood sexual abuse, according to the woman, Cassandra Sampson. She alleged in the suit that her civil rights were violated under the Americans with Disabilities Act, because hospital officials made no effort to protect her from psychological damage. Sampson said she went to the hospital for treatment of a severe migraine headache, but was moved to a psychiatric unit when she admitted struggling with self-destructive impulses. She said she pleaded to be allowed to keep at least her pants on before the strip search, but the nurse refused. ``Go ahead and rape me; everybody else has," Sampson said she cried out as the guards unbuckled her pants and removed them. ``They left me there with my underwear showing and my johnny up to my chest . . . I was crying, and [the nurse] said, `That's what you get for not listening to me.' " In a letter to Sampson, hospital officials said they were sorry she had such a terrible experience, but stood by their strict policy of searching psychiatric patients for their own benefit. ... A spokeswoman at UMass Memorial Medical Center in Worcester said the hospital never asks psychiatric patients to undress on arrival. If they suspect the patient may be dangerous, security guards perform a clothed pat-down search. Dr. Maggie Bennington-Davis led a successful effort to stop strip searches of psychiatric patients at Salem Hospital in Oregon in 2003. ``We can't be hauling people in here and be doing more harm to them," she said. ``It's very clear that a strip search retraumatizes them." ... Sampson hadn't intended to go to Beth Israel's emergency room on March 25, 2005, according to the lawsuit. But it was a weekend, and her primary care physician said the ER would be the best place to get help for severe migraine headaches that had persisted for three days. However, as soon as Sampson told a nurse that she took psychiatric medications and that she had been battling impulses to hurt herself that week, the nurse said she would need a psychiatric evaluation. Nurse Heather A. Richter then told Sampson that she would need to completely undress, according to the lawsuit. full article

This is absolutely disgusting. How in the world could Beth Israel's staff think it was in any way appropriate to have 5 male security guards rip off a woman's clothing? This story not only illustrates the dangers of being admitted into psych hospital for victims of sexual assault or abuse, it also illustrates the dangers of telling the wrong person about your feelings and thoughts. Note that Sampson only had thoughts of self harm, not suicide. Her life was NOT at risk. Psych wards are at most about safety nowadays. She did not need the babysitting of a hospital and she definitely did not need to be further traumatized. It was only a panicky nurse that caused her to end up there, this did not need to happen at all.

DOPA, or the "Deleting Online Predators Act" is one of the more horrifying and dangerous pieces of legislation in a long time. It would force libraries and schools to block access to "commercial Web sites that let users create web pages or profiles or offer communication with other users via forums, chat rooms, e-mail or instant messenging."

Essentially, DOPA would permit nothing that allows the user to publish or broadcast their views or tell stories. This bill does not target online predators, instead it censors those who are most likely to have negative views of the government. This bill would effectively silence large groups of disadvantaged children and adults whose only access to such online forums are schools and libraries.

The internet, especially blogging sites, threaten to break Marx's observation that "freedom of the press belongs to those who own one". The old monopoly on the press is being widdled away as more and more people are able to tell their stories. Those in power, while not acknowledging Marx's observation, have understood it to be true and have understood that it benefits them.

However, both Marx and the power brokers in Washington share the belief that information should be controlled. The only real difference between them was how this control is best administered. The internet offers a new world where information is controlled by no one. Where all are free to talk and tell our stories. We are still far from that world, but it is within our grasp.

The future is closer than we think, and what we do now will dramatically change what that future will be. We need to expand the press to everyone, not limit it to the few.

Children represent the fastest growing group of users of a new generation of antipsychotic medications, even though the drugs are not approved for their use and serious safety concerns remain. Between 2001 and 2005, prescriptions for atypical antipsychotic drugs increased by 80% among children and teens, compared with an increase of 46% among adults aged 20 to 44. ... In a study published in the summer of 2004, the researchers reported that prescriptions for atypical antipsychotics doubled among Tennessee children on Medicaid between 1996 and 2001. They further reported that 43% of prescriptions were written for children with ADHD or a related disorder as the primary diagnosis, while just 14% were written for bipolar disorder and 9% for schizophrenia or other psychotic conditions. In a later nationwide study, the researchers concluded that 6 million prescriptions for atypical antipsychotics were written for children between 1995 and 2002. Again the researchers found that a large percentage of the prescriptions were written for children with ADHD as the primary diagnosis. full article

Lets ignore for a moment the devastating side effects of antipsychotics such as diabetes, metabolic disorders, heart problems, tardive dyskinesia, and neuroleptic malignant syndrome. Let's just focus on the intended effects of these drugs. Antipsychotics slow down the brain. They make it harder to think and by doing so make it harder to learn. These children are having their brain fogged at the most important time of their lives for them to be thinking. I can't imagine the damage to the intellectual and emotional development of these kids caused by being on extremely powerful mind altering drugs 24 hours a day. THESE ARE CHILDREN, FOR GOD'S SAKE!

The psychiatrists aren't even attempting to claim these children are psychotic. 43% of the children receiving antipsychotics are diagnosed with ADHD. Antipsychotics have nothing whatsoever to do with the "symptoms" of ADHD. The only reason to give antipsychotics to ADHD-diagnosed children is to sedate them. To keep them drugged so the teachers and parents don't have to deal with them. It is a form of neglect.

These children are going to reach adulthood. Due to the drugs they are being forced to take, many are not going to be able to develop the mental and emotional tools necessary to live and function as adults. Not having learned the skills necessary to hold down jobs, many will become dependant on the very system that abused and drugged them. The psych industry is creating a generation of lifetime customers.

I'm 32.

I'm still fighting decades old demons.

When will it ever stop?

I'm too old for this.

Fuck people who say I'm wallowing.

Fuck everyone.

I don't fucking care.

It's been far too long.

I am against psychiatry because psychiatrists are now giving hard-core antipsychotics to kindergarteners and Prozac to toddlers. I'm against psychiatry because much of their drugs have nasty permanent debilitating side effects such as tardive dyskinesia, and deadly side effects such as significantly increased diabetes risk and neuroleptic malignant syndrome. I'm against psychiatry because no psychiatrist can adequately explain what a "chemical imbalance" looks like or what a proper "chemical balance" would be. I am against psychiatry because there are no objective tests for mental "illnesses", all diagnoses are made subjectively based on the opinions of individual psychiatrists who regularly come to differing conclusions regarding the same patient. I am against psychiatry because if mental "illness" actually is biological in origin, neurologists should be handling it on a medical basis. I am against psychiatry because psych drugs simply mask the symptoms and don't actually help patients get better. I am against psychiatry because a friend of mine was told that her son could no longer attend school unless he took addictive amphetamines. I am against psychiatry because of the ongoing campaigns to force dangerous drugs and electroconvulsive therapy on adults that have committed no crime. I am against psychiatry because the psychiatry has become more about selling drugs than helping patients.

The gorilla glue seems to be doing a good job keeping my staff held together. I can even put my weight on it. For a long time I've had a sense that those things around me that I most considered truly mine have been broken and put back together, sometime precariously. I've always felt a connection with such things, because I have put myself back together from the shattered remnants of long ago. I remember when I was around 13 (give or take a year), I had a Commodore 64 and the floppy drive didn't work. I repaired it using rubberbands, and it worked well for many years until I got a 386. I've always felt that I'm running on rubberbands and duct tape. Now my staff is this way too. Perhaps this will serve not only to be more mindful of its care, but also to increase my connection to it and my commitment to understanding the meaning behind it.

I've finally cut that physically abusive, thieving, lying, manipulative, con artist bitch completely out of my life after all these years. Yay!!

Poll #630011
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All

If a physically abusive ex that currently lives a distance away gets upset and starts an fight with you online out of the blue the day they are supposed to send a check paying you back some of the money they defrauded you out of, would you: