Monday, February 28, 2011

Health Alert - Heart Attack: know the early warning signs. More at http://ping.fm/fkOf6 #TNNWC #health #newsroom #buzz #douglascastle

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Health Alert - Heart Attack: know the early warning signs. More at http://ping.fm/fkOf6 #TNNWC #health #newsroom #buzz #douglascastle




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Friday, February 25, 2011

BRAIN PACEMAKERS - A Possible Means To Treat Psychiatric Disease And Emotional Illness

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BRAIN PACEMAKERS - A Possible Means To Treat Psychiatric Disease and Emotional Illness.



Note: This Article Commentary was written by author Douglas Castle for initial publication in the LIFE EXTENSION AND ENHANCEMENT Blog on 23rd February, 2011. The Author is also the CEO and Chairman of TNNWC Group (http://www.tnnwc.com/), a company which provides information, publications and services to entreprenerial enterprises and growing companies. To become a Member of TNNWC and enjoy its many benefits today (at no charge), simply go to the Company's home page and look for the "JOIN US" button.
---------------

According to a fascinating article which appears below, courtesy of Associated Press (AP), scientists are researching and experimenting with the possibilities of utilizing electronic stimulation of key areas of the brain to treat psychiatric illnesses.

While the illnesses which will likely receive the most focus initially will tend to be either seizure-related, sensorial- or processing-related, or those involving severe psychomotor symptoms or even some types of psychosis caused by neurochemical imbalances which may be remedied or inhibited by electrochemical means, there is also the possibility (and hope) for treatments of some more commonplace, but nonetheless debilitating emotional disorders.

As scientists become more familiar with the intricacies of the various parts of the brain, their functions, their specific neurochemistry, and the relationships between synaptic neurochemistry and responses to various types and levels of electronic stimulation, these theories might lead to procedures which will may replace the need for certain psychiatric drugs and other treatments. Perhaps some of these electronic stimulus techniques, when properly refined and satisfactorily tested will make it possible to reduce or eliminate dosages of or classes of psychotropic medications or surgeries.

All treatments currently in use have serious potential side effects, and all of those protocols presently employed have certain limitations and drawbacks.

The brain operates through a very complex system which incorporates biochemistry, magnetism, electrical impulses and a variety of other forces. In better understanding the nature of these forces in terms of their cause and effect relationships as correlated with various aspects of mental function and behavior, scientists are increasingly optimistic that there will be breakthroughs during the course of the next decade.

The methods being discussed are a far cry from radical surgeries and the rather primitive techniques of electroconvulsive therapy ("ECT" or "Shock Therapy") for treatments of conditions from epilepsy to schizophrenia.

The referenced article follows for your information.

Faithfully,

Douglas Castle
LIFE EXTENSION AND ENHANCEMENT
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--------------- ####

Trying brain pacemakers to zap psychiatric disease

By LAURAN NEERGAARD, Associated Press Medical Writer Mon Feb 21, 8:27 am ET

WASHINGTON – Call them brain pacemakers, tiny implants that hold promise for fighting tough psychiatric diseases — if scientists can figure out just where in all that gray matter to put them.

Deep brain stimulation, or DBS, has proved a powerful way to block the tremors of Parkinson's disease. Blocking mental illness isn't nearly as easy a task.

But a push is on to expand research into how well these brain stimulators tackle the most severe cases of depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder and Tourette's syndrome — to know best how to use them before too many doctors and patients clamor to try.

"It's not a light switch," cautions Dr. Michael Okun of the University of Florida.

Unlike with tremor patients, the psychiatric patients who respond to DBS tend to improve gradually, sometimes to their frustration.

And just because the tics of Tourette's fade or depression lightens doesn't mean patients can abandon traditional therapy. They also need help learning to function much as recipients of hip replacements undergo physical therapy, says Dr. Helen Mayberg of Emory University.

"Once your brain is returned to you, now you have to learn to use it," she told the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Roughly 70,000 people around the world have undergone deep brain stimulation for Parkinson's or other movement disorders when standard medications fail, says Okun, among leading researchers who gathered at that meeting last week to assess the field.

How does it work? Surgeons implant a wire deep in the brain. Tiny electrical jolts — running from a pacemaker-like generator near the collarbone up the neck to that electrode — disable overactive nerve cells to curb the shaking.

Scientists figured out which spot to target based on surgery that sometimes helps worst-case Parkinson's patients by destroying patches of brain tissue. But with deep brain stimulation, the electrodes don't destroy that tissue. The electrical signals can be adjusted or even turned off if they don't help, or if they cause neurological side effects. (The surgery, however, does sometimes cause dangerous brain bleeding or infections.)

Psychiatric illnesses require a similar operation — but surgeons must implant the electrode into a different spot in the brain.

There's the rub: It's not clear which spot is best for which psychiatric disease. In fact, two manufacturers — Medtronic and St. Jude Medical — have begun major studies of DBS' effects on depression. Each places the implant in a different region, based on promising pilot studies.

And the Food and Drug Administration in 2009 approved Medtronic's version for a small group of obsessive-compulsive patients who get no relief from today's treatments, under a special program that lets devices for rare conditions sell before there's final proof that they work. Dr. Joseph Fins, medical ethics chief at New York Presbyterian Hospital, worries that may hurt efforts to get such proof. The more available the electrodes are, the more people may seek to try the $30,000 surgeries without enrolling in strict trials.

How good is the evidence so far? The researchers are pushing for a registry to track DBS recipients to better tell, but overall they're cautiously optimistic.

Just over 60 people with intractable obsessive-compulsive disorder have undergone DBS since 2000, says Dr. Benjamin Greenberg, a Brown University psychiatrist who is heading a major study funded by the National Institute of Mental Health. About three-fourths of the first few dozen patients studied significantly improved, some as long as eight years.

"You still have a burden, but you have a life," is how he describes the improvement.

These are people who try to relieve fears or anxiety with obsessive behavior, such as washing their hands or checking locks repeatedly — many of whom never got out of the house because their daily rituals consumed so much time, Greenberg says.They'd failed behavior therapy designed to teach that whatever they fear doesn't happen if they skip the ritual.

But with the brain pacemaker, somehow that behavior therapy starts working, Greenberg says — maybe by enabling their brains to better remember the lessons.

One big hurdle: The battery, tucked near the collarbone, tends to last less than two years. Changing it entails outpatient surgery, one reason that about a third of studied patients stop getting zapped. So Greenberg just began testing a newer version that patients can recharge every few days.

Results on about 100 DBS patients with severe depression have been published so far, and roughly half improve regardless of which of the two targeted brain regions is zapped, says Emory's Mayberg, who shares a patent licensed to St. Jude.

Separately, she's now studying what the successfully treated brains have in common that might help predict the best candidates, hoping to ease "a tremendous burden on the patients" as they decide whether to try these experiments.

___

EDITOR's NOTE — Lauran Neergaard covers health and medical issues for The Associated Press in Washington. ####


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Make The MOST Out Of This Resource…

Hint: Don’t just look at the posts! ---
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3) Look through the constantly – updated RESOURCE AND RESEARCH SECTION.

You'll find fabulous information about your particular areas of interest.

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Tags, Labels and Key Words: brain mapping, neurochemistry, electroconvulsive therapy, EEG, ECT, lobotomy, synapse, brain chemistry, stimulus-response, psychotropic medications, nootropic drugs, scientific advancement, healthcare, psychiatric disease, emotional illness, epilepsy, schizophrenia, brain electrochemistry, Life Extension And Enhancement Blog, Associated Press, health matters, transhumanism, Braintenance Blog, The Global Futurist Blog, Douglas E. Castle, gray matter, convolutions, mysteries of the mind, suggestion, behavioral psychology, electricity and the brain, mental illness treatment, seizure disorders, cingulotomy, prefrontal lobotomy, intelligence, perfecting Humankind, emerging technologies, TNNWC Group publications and services, modern medicine, treasures of the cranial vault, pacemakers, cardiology, irregular heartbeat, electromagnetic waves...



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The Absurd, Exaggerated Metaphor Is The Best To Use.

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"Why," you may ask, "is the absurd, exaggerated metaphor the best to use?"

Douglas Castle responds, directed from the hallowed halls of Mad Marketing Headquarters (located in a satellite orbiting the Earth):

"Because PEOPLE REMEMBER ridiculous things more readily than practical ones! If they are being taught (and they are aware of the process) they are naturally hesitant and resistant. If the message comes across as being entertaining, shocking or utterly ridiculous, it is processed with much less resistance and much more memorability." So there.

Allow Us to Illustrate:




Stranger than fiction...it's...

The Entrepreneur's Nightmare - "You Can't Pay The Bills With Projections."






[A voice from the last row in the back yells out, "Do I hear 'AMEN!', Brothers and Sisters?"]

Dear Friends, Readers, Futurists, Internationalists, Activists, TNNWC Members and especially Entrepreneurs (both aspiring and currently at-large):


You've heard them all..."the darkest hour is always before the dawn,"..."a watched pot never boils"..."slow and steady wins the race"..."The Lord never gives you more than you can handle...."

There is always a childhood aphorism to offer you comfort in times of hardship. Ironically, the person who offers you these time-worn words of fatuous philosophy is almost never someone who has any money to fund your enterprise (or your personal sustenance). Yet the incorrigible entrepreneur somehow knows that there is a light at the end of the tunnel (and that it is not an oncoming train), but he doesn't know precisely when that light will become visible.

The uncertainty of timing is the most nerve-wracking part of entrepreneurship. It is the most frightening of all paradoxes -- not unlike that of the the airline pilot who has been circling over the airport time and time again waiting for clearance to land and trying to think of a "Plan B" as he watches his fuel gauge needle approaching (ulp) empty.

I'll leave you with an absurd example (because those are the easiest to visualize and remember)...

[cue angelic, dreamlike harp music in background....possibly whole-tone scale arpeggios.....]

After five years of hard work, and after having spent your entire personal fortune on your venture, you have found a sincere, enthusiastic investor who is sincerely interested in financing your continuity and growth. He wants to meet you and your small crew at your offices to exchange his ONE MILLION DOLLAR check for a stock certificate.

While he sits down in your makeshift conference room and you try to make him (and yourself) comfortable with small talk, two burly chaps walk right into your meeting and announce to you, "Hey buddy - you ain't paid your rent for the copy machine, the coffee maker and the water cooler in almost three months, so the boss told us we gotta take this stuff outta here now." They proceed to pick up the items, one by one and remove them from your increasingly vacant-looking offices.

You grin sheepishly at your Angel Investor, and helplessly shrug your shoulders. He slowly stands up, puts his checkbook back in his pocket and says to you these fatal last words..."I can see this is a bad time. I'll (ahem) call you at some time in the future. Good luck with your situation, I'm sure that it will work out just fine. Thanks for the Sprite. I'd better get going -- I've got a busy schedule tonight. In fact, I might be busy for a week or two."

Faithfully,

Douglas Castle


-----
Douglas Castle - THE DAILY BURST OF BRILLIANCE .001™  at http://aboutdouglascastle.blogspot.com/  




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TNNWC Group, LLC empowers emerging enterprises locally, worldwide and inter-globally by providing 1) informational publications and products; 2) an indispensible suite of crucial, unparalleled services for business planning, development, growth, marketing and capitalization, which are offered to all of our Members who are all 3) interactively involved within a growing, mutually-supportive collaborative, cooperative community of individuals and businesses. We are run by entrepreneurial people, and we live to serve entrepreneurial people and the business initiated through their inspiration… from the garage-based technological start-up, to the “small business” wanting to break free of its limitations and grow larger at an accelerated but sustainable pace. We Empower Emerging Enterprises™ - not with “happy talk” and “grandiose ideas”… but with real tools and expert interpersonal guidance to use each of them for their optimal effectiveness. Visit us at TNNWC Group, LLC. - Join us. We have so much to offer you. Our philosophy is simple: UNITE AND CONQUER.


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Wednesday, February 23, 2011

ANSWERS! - An Issue of Sanitation Meets Speculation - Braintenance...

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Note: Here, at last, are the promised answers to the mind-bender of February 15th, which were promised by February 19th, and which deadline was further extended because of a temporary mind loss...now, it's (ulp) February 23rd.

An Issue of Sanitation and Speculation - Braintenance

Note: A most unusual posting where we combine observed bathroom antics and public health with probability.

Only at http://Braintenance.blogspot.com

Dear Fellow Intellectual Elitists (some of whom are brilliant, and a few of which are self-defensively delusional) and Brain Barrier Busters:

It has been determined after many years of observation, study and statistical analysis, that only 1 in 8 males actually washes his hands immediately after using the restroom and prior to his exit. Knowing this disenchanting factoid, please answer the following questions:

1. If you are outside of the restroom (for whatever reason), and you are compelled by social obligation to shake hands with every individual who exists the restroom after having "done his thing," what is the probability (in terms of a percentage) that the first person whose hand you shake will have (whew!) washed his hands? The probability is a simple one in eight, one eighth, or (expressed as a percentage) 12.5%.

2. In the same circumstances as in 1), above, what is the probability that the third person whose hand you shake will have washed his hands? The probability will still be 12.5%, as each man's handwashing protocol is independent of next...at least if they are not watching eachother...

3. If you shake hands with eight of these chaps in succession, what is the probability that you will have shaken the hand of any one person who will have washed his hands? Since the probability that you will have had the pleasure of shaking hands with one of these obsessive-compulsive fastidiously clean fellows-well-met (or fellows not -wet) is 87.5%, but you have to shake hands with all of these fellows (eight of 'em), you have to do a bit of cogitation:

Firstly, the question being asked is actually "what is the likelihood that you will shake the hand of one person (the likelihood being .125) who has actually washed his hands?" The likelihood of your shaking the hand of one of the "traditionalists" (i.e., zip it and run) is .875.
Hmmm...

If you are shaking the hands of all eight of these superstars, it does not guarantee that one will actually be a hand washer. We are dealing in probability and not certainty. Remember, there is a measurable probability that four of the eight have washed their hands just as there is some probability that not a single one of the eight has washed post-jostle...

Taking it a step at a time, and knowing that each of these deodorant cake refracting chums has an independent probability of being a hand washer, we put together a long multiplication chain, of the independent probabilities in each case, and assume that one fellow is the sanitary 12.5%-er, and the others, each, are 12.5%-ers. Let's assume (since order doesn't matter) that the first fellow is a "clean one," and that all of the seven to follow are representatives of the "unwashed masses".

(.125)x(.875)x(.875)x(.875)x(.875)x(.875)x(.875)x(.875) = .0490868 = 4.91% (approximately).



4. If you know that the person whom you have just shaken hands with was a non-washer, what is the probability that the next person emerging from the lavoratory will be a non-washer as well? It's still going to be 87.5%.

5. If you decide to become adventurous and wear gloves during every handshake for the first seven of eight successive handshakes, what is the likelihood that you will have shaken hands with a hand-washer when your gloves were off? Refer back to question #3, and its answer. The gloves are just a distraction...they do not effect the probability of these separate, independent events.

It's February 15th. I'll have answers for you by February 19th at latest. I over-promised and under-delivered.

Faithfully,

Douglas Castle

Tags, Labels and Key Terms: probability, independent events, counterintuition, sanitation, male hand-washing habits, interesting statistics, BRAINTENANCE Blog, The National Networker (TNNWC) Weekly Newsletter, The Blue Tuesday Report, technullities, factoids, altoids, adenoids, deltoids, Blogs by Douglas Castle, thinking, the Human Brain, the cranial vault, learning math, cognitive enhancement, brain gym, mind-building exercises.




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Monday, February 21, 2011

Best Blogs Of The Week - In Search Of The Finest, Most Interesting Blogs and Posts.

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Best Blogs Of The Week - In Search Of The Finest, Most Interesting Blogs and Posts: All Subjects, All Fields, No Limits.

Dear Readers and Friends:

I promise you a wonderful, intellectually-rewarding experience with http://bestblogsoftheweek.blogspot.com/ .

I believe that the written expression of great thoughts, interesting stories, and brain-straining wordplay is in danger of extinction. It is my mission, with this blog, to comb the annals (which does sound a bit distasteful) of citizen journalism to find the best examples of the written word. We, as members of Humankind (I am behind in my dues, but I'm going to get current next month, I swear...) have a sacred obligation to promote free thought, the science and art of written expression, and literacy.

Join me here, and help to prevent an endanged species from becoming extinct.

Faithfully,

Douglas Castle

p.s. The first post follows:
---------------

The noted (and occasionally notorious) DouglasCastleBlogosphere has, this 14th day of February, 2011 given birth to a new blog, titled, "Best Blogs Of The Week." Be on the lookout for some excellent ideas and writing from the deepest reaches and farthest realms of cyberspace. The subject matter will be highly varied -- but always interesting.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Faithfully,

Douglas Castle
http://www.tnnwc.com/
http://aboutdouglascastle.blogspot.com/
***
This Posting appeared in BEST BLOGS OF THE WEEK.

This Site is produced by Douglas Castle.
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Pardon The Delay...

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Dear Everyone:

Please pardon my delay in providing you with the solutions to the posting (from February 15th) which began as follows...




An Issue of Sanitation and Speculation - Braintenance

Note: A most unusual posting where we combine observed bathroom antics and public health with probability.

Only at http://Braintenance.blogspot.com


I promise to have the solutions for you by tomorrow, February 22nd. I have temporarily lost my mind, and am looking for it. This is no simple task task, in that I am searchiung for something which is 1) undefined, and 2) difficult to locate without the use of its faculties. Is that a paradox, or what?

Faithfully,

Douglas



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Tuesday, February 15, 2011

An Issue of Sanitation and Speculation - Braintenance

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An Issue of Sanitation and Speculation - Braintenance

Note: A most unusual posting where we combine observed bathroom antics and public health with probability.

Only at http://Braintenance.blogspot.com

Dear Fellow Intellectual Elitists (some of whom are brilliant, and a few of which are self-defensively delusional) and Brain Barrier Busters:

It has been determined after many years of observation, study and statistical analysis, that only 1 in 8 males actually washes his hands immediately after using the restroom and prior to his exit. Knowing this disenchanting factoid, please answer the following questions:

1. If you are outside of the restroom (for whatever reason), and you are comp-elled by social obligation to shake hands with every individual who exists the restroom after having "done his thing," what is the probability (in terms of a percentage) that the first person whose hand you shake will have (whew!) washed his hands?

2. In the same circumstances as in 1), above, what is the probability that the third person whose hand you shake will have washed his hands?

3. If you shake hands with eight of these chaps in succession, what is the probability that you will have shaken the hand of any one person who will have washed his hands?

4. If you know that the person whom you have just shaken hands with was a non-washer, what is the probability that the next person emerging from the lavoratory will be a non-washer as well.

5. If you decide to become adventurous and wear gloves during every handshake for the first seven of eight successive handshakes, what is the likelihood that you will have shaken hands with a hand-washer when your gloves were off?

It's February 15th. I'll have answers for you by February 19th at latest.

Faithfully,

Douglas Castle

p.s. A distasteful bonus: Do you find it ironic that the late, celebrated Helen Keller is regarded by many today as a visionary?
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Tuesday, February 8, 2011

KNOWLEDGE versus INTELLIGENCE --- Braintenance - Douglas Castle

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KNOWLEDGE versus INTELLIGENCE.

Dear Intellectual Adventurers, Cranial Conquerors, TNNWC Members, Colleagues, Friends, Nerds, Geeks, M.E.N.S.A. Megalomaniacs, and curious readers (who might have gotten here by accident).

The news is indeed sobering. Someone who is extremely knowledgeable may have a terrific accumulated intellectual database of factual information, but he or she is not necessarily intelligent. A knowledge base, while very, very useful, is a function of exposure, memory and some other "photostorage skills."

Intelligence, on the other hand, is the ability to:Apply knowledge in making comparisons, seeing associations, generalizing, extrapolating, synthesizing and analyzing knowledge.

An intelligent person will make the most efficient use of knowledge, and will stand to benefit most by a greater knowledge base from which to draw comparisons, recognize patterns, and develop alternatives and solutions.

Your college pal who could recite the number Pi to 50 decimal places might have had a wonderful memory, but he was not necessarily intelligent.

I'm glad that we cleared that up.

Faithfully,

Douglas Castle

Subscribe to TNNWC. Reap the immediate and substantial rewards of Membership. Click on http://www.tnnwc.com/ . Your membership is free, and it will grant you access to some of the greatest self-growth and business-building tools ever created. -DC

Tags, Labels and Key Words: eidetic memory, photographic memory, knowledge, intelligence, measurements of intelligence, applied intelligence, artificial intelligence, memorization, cognition, problem-solving, Braintenance, behavioral psychology, memorization versus learning, associative intelligence, metaphorical thinking, TNNWC Services, TNNWC Buzzworks, MENSA, IQ, Intelligence Quotient, Douglas E. Castle, knowledge base, accessing knowledge, synthesis, analysis, creative processes, TNNWC Gist Video, recall, recollection, Ricola, visual imagery, autism, definitions of intelligence, cognitive enhancement.

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Thursday, February 3, 2011

Mobile Apps and Texting - BRAINTENANCE

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Mobile Apps and Texting - BRAINTENANCE

Dear Fellow Thinkers, and Those Who Are Currently Thinking About Thinking:

Firstly, a quick saying about life for the day:

"We sank, therefore I swam" (with apologies to Descartes)

Secondly, a Bit Of Commentary:

With mobile applications and text communications tools becoming more plentiful, more capable and more accepted by the public daily, we actually have less time and space to get our messages across than ever before. An exceedlingly long message might now consist of 140 characters (including spaces)-- a more reasonable one might be: RU? ("Are you?").

We have to learn to master the art of minimalist communications. While annoying and largely ineffective (as well as corrosive of the very foundations of civilized discourse), we can have fun with them.

Here, for example, is a dialogue between a prospective diner patron and a waitress (Flo) at breakfast time, as it might be done via texting or mobile app mobilization. Your mission is to decode it:

He: FUNEMNX?

She, Responding: SVFMNX!

Translation:

He: "Have you any ham and eggs?"

She: "Yes, we have ham and eggs!"

We are indeed entering a brave new world. RUOK? IM.

Faithfully,

Douglas Castle

p.s. At present, we are still required to use letters of the alphabet, but given enough time, we'll be communicating in universal symbols.


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It is politically incorrect to describe a person or idea as being "RETARDED." But...

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Note:The article which follows has nothing to do with TNNWC's GIST VIDEO, but I would be sadly remiss if didn't advise you to learn more, while laughing, at http://bit.ly/LethalNapkin . When you are about to make a presentation to an important aristocrat who only has two or three minutes to spare (because he is going to visit his concubines, or to have dinner with a head of state, or to write a Haiku about climate change...) you MUST use the most efficient means of conveying your idea. We might just have that - you, or your company can have it, too.
-DC
---------------

It is politically incorrect to describe a person or idea as being "RETARDED." But...

Dear Friends, Readers, TNNWC Members and Esteemed Colleagues:

As Rahm Emmanuel would sadly tell you (after a neck-vein-popping tirade of expletives, as is the "Rahmulan Style"), after his public chastisement by Sarah Palin for his use of the term "retarded" in reference to an idea, which he believed was, well, retarded. Being PC is important -- it is an elusive skill wherein you must "communicate" without making any value judgments, quantitative or qualitative comparisons between or among people, indication of any distaste for anything, except terrorism (and that is a maybe, depending upon a] who is commiting the act, and b] the motivation behind it).

It is a pallid, vapid, acceptance of all things that ultimately negates the expression of opinion almost altogether. More often than not, it means we are not allowed, in polite company, to speak either candidly or truthfully. We speak in painfully measured euphemisms, without any spark of spontaneous, heartfelt truth. In trying so desperately to be inoffensive, we are actually becoming either liars or, by default, nobodies in a state of either quiet desperation, or in a complete emotional and intellectual deep-freeze.

Ironically, when it comes to partisan politics, campaigning or aspiring public servants and their handlers are the only ones who can speak of "wrong" or "right." They are a privileged class of persons permitted to say nasty, judgmental things about the character, performance, and views of those against whom they are competing. The only socially permissible exception to being PC is when discussing politics - negative campaigning is now the accepted convention.

We do not have better or worse -- we now have "different." People who were once crippled became handicapped, and ultimately graduated to being "challenged." The neighboorhood heroin addict become a "substance abuser". The chronic drunkard became a "victim of alcholism," which, like mesothelioma, is a disease. Fidgety children became patients to be treated (with powerful psychotropic medications) for an emotional disorder called ADHD. I used to have problems, but now I have only issues which can be dealt with by using "coping strategies and tools."

All of the foregoing stuff seems retarded to me. I apologize to those folks who are actually intellectually impaired due to illness or incident, and to those in a state of insurmountable emotional development or with learning disabilities. I offer no apologies to those people who are just plain stupid, and take the actions necessary to prove it.

I came across a wonderful article written by Suzi Parker a day or so ago in AOL NEWS. She speaks about a university whose students were going to be treated (at their expense, in a very tight economy) to a paid speech on abstinence to be delivered by Bristol Palin.

As it turns out, the students did not fancy this idea and rallied, via Facebook, to nix the Bristol Stomp. Bristol has since cancelled her would-have-been-well-paid commencement speech. Thank you, every one of you students who presented your strong feelings against this waste of your funds and time. You are to be complimented on forthrightly questioning the wisdom of the persons making the selection of Ms. Palin as your inspiration and role model.

Please read the article which follows, and then click on the Facebook link -- go along with the thread of comments; it will renew your faith in the potential of America's youth to truly think and act intelligently, reasonably and responsibly. These young people give me some new hope.

Enjoy the article.

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Bristol Palin's Washington University Appearance Canceled Amid Protests

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Bristol Palin will not be speaking about abstinence at Washington University in St. Louis next month.

The university said in an e-mailed statement, "The student group that invited Bristol Palin...has mutually agreed with her not to proceed with a contract regarding Palin's participation in a panel discussion at Washington University on Feb. 7."

The university's Student Health Advisory Committee invited Palin, who became a single mother at 18 and is now a spokeswoman for the prevention of teen pregnancy, to speak on abstinence during Washington University's student Sexual Responsibility Week. That week will focus on creating an open sexual dialogue on campus.

Students started a protest via Facebook to halt Palin's appearance, which would have been paid for with student-generated funds. It had been reported that she would receive between $15,000 and $30,000 to speak.

A Facebook group called "Keep Bristol Palin out of the sex discussion at Washington University" said, "It's not about conservative or liberal, it's about not wasting our money on people who don't matter...especially people who are only famous for being the teenage pregnant daughter of a politician. That is not a credential -- it's a gimmick. So reach across the aisle -- and stand up and say something."

That group also launched a petition as did the university's College Democrats.

Palin, who was a finalist on last year's "Dancing With The Stars," is an ambassador for The Candie's Foundation, which aims to prevent teen pregnancy.

Last week, Palin appeared at a charity fundraiser in Texas that benefitted the nonprofit Central Texas Orphan Mission Alliance, which takes an anti-abortion stance. Sarah Palin also appeared last week in Texas for a fundraiser for Lubbock Christian School.

The university said in its statement that Dr. Katie Plax, head of adolescent medicine and associate professor in the Department of Pediatrics at Washington University School of Medicine, would participate on the panel instead of Palin.
Filed Under: Woman Up
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