Let your eyes caption this pic.

Dumbing Down America.

A DC airport ticket agent offers some examples of why...........

1. I had a New Hampshire Congresswoman (Carol Shea-Porter) ask for an aisle seat so that her hair wouldn't get messed up by being near the window. (On an airplane!)

2. I got a call from a Kansas Congressman's (Moore) staffer (Howard Bauleke), who wanted to go to Cape Town. I started to explain the length of the flight and the passport information, and then he interrupted me with, ''I'm not trying to make you look stupid, but Cape Town is in Massachusetts.''
Without trying to make him look stupid, I calmly explained, '' Cape Cod is in Massachusetts, Cape Town is in South Africa.'' His response -- click.

3. A senior Vermont Congressman (Bernie Sanders) called, furious about a Florida package we did. I asked what was wrong with the vacation in Orlando. He said he was expecting an ocean-view room. I tried to explain that's not possible, since Orlando is in the middle of the state.
He replied, 'Don't lie to me. I looked on the map and Florida is a very thin state!'' (OMG)

4. I got a call from a lawmaker's wife (Landra Reid) who asked,

''Is it possible to see England from Canada ?''
I said, ''No.''
She said, ''But they look so close on the map.'' (OMG, again!)

5. An aide for a cabinet member (Janet Napolitano) once called and asked if he could rent a car in Dallas. I pulled up the reservation and noticed he had only a 1-hour layover in Dallas. When I asked him why he wanted to rent a car, he said, ''I heard Dallas was a big airport, and we will need a car to drive between gates to save time.'' (Aghhhh)

6. An Illinois Congresswoman (Jan Schakowsky) called last week. She needed to know how it was possible that her flight from Detroit left at 8:30 a.m., and got to Chicago at 8:33 a.m.

I explained that Michigan was an hour ahead of Illinois, but she couldn't understand the concept of time zones. Finally, I told her the plane went fast, and she bought that.

7. A New York lawmaker, (Jerrold Nadler) called and asked, ''Do airlines put your physical description on your bag so they know whose luggage belongs to whom?'' I said, "No, why do you ask?"

He replied, ''Well, when I checked in with the airline, they put a tag on my luggage that said (FAT), and I'm overweight. I think that's very rude!''

After putting him on hold for a minute, while I looked into it. (I was dying laughing). I came back and explained the city code for Fresno, Ca. is (FAT - Fresno Air Terminal), and the airline was just putting a destination tag on his luggage.

8. A Senator John Kerry aide (Lindsay Ross) called to inquire about a trip package to Hawaii. After going over all the cost info, she asked, ''Would it be cheaper to fly to California and then take the train to Hawaii ?''

9. I just got off the phone with a freshman Congressman, Bobby Bright from Alabama who asked, "How do I know which plane to get on?''

I asked him what exactly he meant, to which he replied, ''I was told my flight number is 823, but none of these planes have numbers on them.''

10. Senator Dianne Feinstein called and said, ''I need to fly to Pepsi-Cola, Florida. Do I have to get on one of those little computer planes?''
I asked if she meant fly to Pensacola, FL , on a commuter plane.
She said, ''Yeah, whatever, smarty!''

11. Mary Landrieu, Louisiana Senator, called and had a question about the documents she needed in order to fly to China. After a lengthy discussion about passports, I reminded her that she needed a visa. "Oh, no I don't. I've been to China many times and never had to have one of those.''

I double checked and sure enough, her stay required a visa. When I told her this she said, ''Look, I've been to China four times and every time they have accepted my American Express!''

12. A New Jersey Congressman (John Adler) called to make reservations, ''I want to go from Chicago to Rhino, New York.''
I was at a loss for words. Finally, I said, ''Are you sure that's the name of the town?''
"Yes, what flights do you have?'' replied the man.
After some searching, I came back with, ''I'm sorry, sir, I've looked up every airport code in the country and can't find a rhino anywhere.."
The man retorted, ''Oh, don't be silly! Everyone knows where it is. Check your map!''
So I scoured a map of the state of New York and finally offered, ''You don't mean Buffalo, do you?''
The reply? ''Whatever! I knew it was a big animal.''

Sarah Palin made up a new word when she wrote a Twitter post over the weekend saying Muslims shouldn't build a mosque near Ground Zero in New York City.

In the first iteration of her tweet on the topic, the former Alaska governor wrote, quote, "Ground Zero Mosque supporters: doesn't it stab you in the heart, as it does ours throughout the heartland? Peaceful Muslims, (please) refudiate."

Observers think she meant either "repudiate" or "refute" since "refudiate" is not found in the dictionary.

When pundits poked fun, Palin compared herself to the Bard of Stratford on Avon, saying, quote, "Shakespeare liked to coin new words too. Got to celebrate it!"

The thugs with badges strikes again!

"Two police are off the force and a rural Georgia teacher is threatening to sue after she says she called police to her home and ended up getting zapped repeatedly with a stun gun." Smh



Three Philadelphia police officers were caught after plotting with drug dealers and staged a traffic stop.

The plan consisted of a scheme to steal $15,000 worth of heroin from a supplier and sell it to citizens of Philadelphia.

Officers Mark Williams, James Venziale and Robert Snyder were all convicted on a 14-count indictment Tuesday, along with three suspected drug dealers.

The plan unfolded for the officers when they tried to sell the 300 grams of heroin to an undercover federal agent.

The police officers and two drug dealers were arrested for the crime and so was the wife of one of the officers. Snyder's wife Christal, is the only one not being held in custody right now from all those arrested.

Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey said he would quickly begin the process of terminating them.



The FBI were still on the hunt as of Tuesday for Miguel Santiago who is suspected of being one of the drug suppliers. The 39 year old Philadelphia resident will be the lone defendant in the trial that will not have a conspiracy charge against him.





NEW ORLEANS -- Three police officers charged in the killing of two unarmed residents on a New Orleans bridge after Hurricane Katrina and a cover-up that followed pleaded not guilty on Wednesday.

Sgts. Robert Gisevius and Kenneth Bowen and Officer Anthony Villavaso stood before a federal magistrate in green prison garb, shackled at the waist and ankles. They will remain jailed at least until a hearing Friday. A tentative trial date is set for Sept. 13.

Magistrate Louis Moore Jr. read the counts - 13 against Bowen, 11 against Gisevius and 10 against Villavaso. Former officer Robert Faulcon made his initial court appearance Tuesday in Texas, where he was arrested, but has not entered a plea.

The charges against the four carry a maximum sentence of life in prison or the death penalty, although U.S. Attorney Jim Letten said the Justice Department hasn't decided whether to seek the latter punishment.

The family of two victims - Ronald Madison, who was killed, and his brother, Lance, who survived - sat in the front row of the packed courtroom. Gisevius cried quietly as he stood with his lawyer.

"We'll be able to pick this indictment apart," said Frank DeSalvo, Bowen's lawyer. "There is a lot of fantasy there."

Bowen, Gisevius and Villavaso were suspended without pay after the indictments were released Tuesday, NOPD spokesman Bob Young said on Wednesday.

Five former officers already have pleaded guilty to charges they helped cover up the shootings. Prosecutors have said police fabricated witnesses, falsified reports and plotted to plant a gun to make it appear that the shootings were justified.

The shootings at the Danziger Bridge happened Sept. 4, 2005, six days after Hurricane Katrina smashed levees and left the city flooded and in chaos. Bodies floated in filthy flood waters. There were reports of looting and gunshots rang out throughout the blacked-out city.

It was in this backdrop that police, desperate to regain control, were called about 9 a.m. that morning after reports of gunfire at the bridge.

Seven heavily armed New Orleans police officers stormed the bridge. Prosecutors said they shot at the first people they saw, people they say were crossing the bridge to find food.

When it was over, two men were dead and four others lay wounded on the hot concrete.


Oakland, CA: No Money, No Cops, No Clue.

Oakland, California is a good example of how hypocritical race-baiting can turn a city into a lawless, penniless, arrogant, irresponsible blame-thrower. Tonight, Oakland will devolve into even more chaos.

The latest chapter in the total decay of this rotted racist community will take place tonight at midnight. 80 police officers, a tenth of the police force, will be laid off due to deep budget cuts in one of the most crime-ridden cities in the country

Oakland Police have charges pending, some felonies, against more than 80 people for rioting and looting after the verdict of police officer Johannes Mehserle’s trial.

There were approximately 1,000 people trashing and thieving downtown Oakland that night however….so Oakland police are now asking the public for help?

Have you seen our looters


If you ask me we're better off without the thugs with badges.

In the land of dumb me down and distraction.

No Justice: Oscar Grant Verdict Overshadowed By Basketball News
Thursday, July 8, 2010 will be a day that goes down in infamy for me. It's not because "King" James abandoned his hometown of Cleveland to play super friends with Dwyane Wade andChris Bosh in South Beach. July 8 will forever be etched into my memory as the night Oscar Grant's name got added to the list of those who found no justice after being shot down by the law in cold blood.
If you're unaware, I'm honestly not surprised. In the early morning hours of New Year's Day 2009, Oscar Grant was detained by Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) police officers after responding to reports of a fight at the Fruitvale BART Station. Grant was restrained by Officer Johannes Mehserle and another officer when Grant allegedly resisting arrest. Officer Mehserle drew his gun as he stood over Grant--who was lying face down--and fired a gunshot into the back of the 22-year-old. Grant would be pronounced dead the following morning at Highland Hospital in Oakland. The events were captured on video, similar to the Rodney King beating back in 1991, and clearly show Mehserle shooting Grant as he lay on his stomach.
Nineteen months later, a jury found Mehserle guilty of involuntary manslaughter and not guilty of second-degree murder and voluntary manslaughter. Involuntary manslaughter carries a maximum sentence of four years and could likely see Mehserle serve two years and/or probation, depending on the judge's ruling when sentencing commences on August 6.
What we learned: Even in 2010, it's still legal for law enforcement to kill a black man and walk away with a slap on the wrist.
First time drug possession offenders do one to three years in jail. A repeat offender can do up to 12 years. NFL wide receiver Plaxico Burress shot himself at a New York nightclub and will do two years. Quarterback Michael Vick served 21 months in prison after pleading guilty to federal felony charges related to being involved in an illegal interstate dog fighting ring. The last time I checked, a human's life is valued greater than that of a dog. Perhaps I was wrong.
Grant joins the likes of Amadou Diallo, Sean Bell and more recently, 7-year-old Aiyana Stanley-Jones, who've died at the hands of the law and have yet to see justice served on their behalf. Rodney King was beaten for the world to see and the officers were acquitted. Grant was shot and killed in front of witnesses on video and the officer involved still managed to avoid a lengthy sentence. Now reverse the roles and let me know how many years a civilian will get for involuntary slaughter on a cop. Two to four years in jail? How about two to four lifetimes in prison?
There was another crime committed on July 8 that was simply appalling. That crime was the media's coverage of the circus known as LeBron James' announcement and how it completely overshadowed the Oscar Grant trial. As if we hadn't heard enough about where LBJ would end up, a nationally televised ego-stroking special where James declared where he was heading for the 2011 NBA season aired two hours after the Oscar Grant verdict hit. Whereas CNN managed to squeeze in a two-minute blurb to publicize the verdict, the rest of the evening was dedicated to an athlete and his big announcement regarding where his next multimillion dollar check was coming from. A video package featuring President Barack Obama discussing LeBron James aired as thousands rallied in Oakland in support of Grant. Larry King had a banner that said "The World Waits For LeBron's Decision." Apparently, the world keeps turning when another black man dies at the hands of law enforcement and stops when a basketball player changes zip codes.
Every major news network was dedicated to LeBron's big announcement. None paid attention to the travesty taking place in Oakland. Not even networks that are supposed to be "ours" (and I use the term "ours" very loosely) like BET. If it wasn't for Twitter and socially conscious journalists who care about their community such as Davey D, I wouldn't have known the jury had reached a verdict until well after the fact. There was literally no coverage on our major news outlets. To say that a rich athlete deserves this much attention is disgusting and a disgrace to journalism. ESPN is not at fault because sports is their hustle. But as for these other media outlets, I found the lack of coverage in lieu of LeBron-mania to be revolting.
Even more unnerving was the activity on Twitter. While many displayed their outrage, many more opted to be consumed with "King" James and a rumored Kanye West tracklisting that leaked. It was indicative of our society and our lack of interest in issues that are close to home. We're more concerned with finding out where the rich man will go collect his next check rather than be concerned with people that are murdered in our tax bracket who look and act just like us. Chances are the average black man has a greater possibility of being harassed by police than becoming the next LeBron James.
What would have been an incredible display of character was something I certainly didn't expect LeBron and his team to do--either mention the Grant verdict and his support of the protests in Oakland, or cancel his press conference because more important issues are at hand. A move like that would have been monumental. But he's LeBron James, not Muhammad Ali. I don't expect much more from him than what we have already seen. But I digress.
As the Grant family voiced their displeasure with the ruling, all I could think about is how another black man gets taken down by the long arm of the law and it gets swept under the rug with the swiftness of a 1997 Allen Iverson crossover. The media paid a little more attention later in the night when a few knuckleheads looted an Oakland Foot Locker in "protest." The peaceful demonstrators were given little attention, but the ignorant ones become a reflection of the entire community. It's irresponsible journalism that has catapulted Lindsay Lohan's lame 90 day stint in jail and LeBron's egotistical "It's All About Me" announcement over issues that really matter. It's an uneducated community that has the information highway at their fingertips but opt to fawn over Kat Stacks' groupie adventures and who Kim Kardashian is dating rather than use the net to find out what is going on in Haiti seven months after the earthquake. Watching meaningless conversations take place on Twitter when real situations occur is a reminder of how much we have detached ourselves from reality.
We have become a numb society that is enthralled with the celebrity lifestyle. Our aspirations are strung together with half-baked dreams anchored by the motto "Fame or Bust." We live vicariously through the rich and famous while we disconnect the line when a parallel is drawn between ourselves and the common man.
LeBron-mania is over. Oscar Grant is still dead and Oakland is wrought with anger and distress. As LBJ joins Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh for an all white party in South Beach that us common folk can't afford to attend, Oscar Grant will join Diallo and Bell in the afterlife as they comfort the sobbing Jones who thought the police were supposed to be the good guys. As Cleveland fans light their #23 jerseys on fire and try to figure out who will lift "The Curse" from Cleveland, Oscar Grant's family and friends dab away the tears while picking up the pieces of an emotionally devastated community that has once again been let down by "The Curse" of an unbalanced judicial system.
Which one will most likely be forgotten by tomorrow?
It will only remain this way if you let it.

Fidel Castro to appear on Cuban television and radio

(Reuters) - Former Cuban leader Fidel Castro, who has lived in seclusion since falling ill four years ago, will appear on Cuban television and radio on Monday evening to discuss his theory that the world is on the verge of nuclear war, the Communist Party newspaper Granma said in its Monday online edition.

The appearance will mark the second time in less than a week that the suddenly resurgent 83-year-old has made a public appearance, after staying out of view, except in occasional photographs and videos, since undergoing emergency intestinal surgery in July 2006.

Last Wednesday, he made a visit to a Havana scientific center that was disclosed in a blog on Saturday.

Castro writes opinion columns, or "Reflections," for Cuba's state-run media that in recent weeks have focused on his prediction that nuclear war will soon break out, sparked by a conflict between the United States and Iran over international sanctions against Iran's nuclear activities.

"The empire is at the point of committing a terrible error that nobody can stop. It advances inexorably toward a sinister fate," he wrote on July 5.

The "empire" is how Castro usually refers to the United States, his bitter foe from the time he took power in Cuba in a 1959 revolution.

In a column published on Sunday night, Castro said the "principal purpose" of his writings has been to "warn international public opinion of what was occurring."

He said he has reached his dire conclusion based in part on "observing what happened, as the political leader that I was during many years, confronting the empire, its blockades and its unspeakable crimes."

The columns have attracted little attention internationally and caused little reaction in Cuba, but Castro promised to continue his lonely fight to warn the world of the coming disaster.

"I don't hesitate in running risks of compromising my modest moral authority," he wrote on Sunday. "I will continue writing 'Reflections' about the topic."

Castro ruled Cuba for 49 years before provisionally ceding power to younger brother Raul Castro following his 2006 surgery.

Citing age and infirmity, he officially resigned in February 2008 and Raul Castro, now 79, was elected president by the National Assembly.

Fidel Castro's reappearance comes as Cuba is preparing to release 52 political prisoners, all jailed in a crackdown on the opposition in 2003 while he was still in power.

http://bossip.com/266024/fidel-castro-says-the-us-is-plotting-a-sinister-plan-that-no-one-can-stop/#more-266024

Not a good look of the week.

She must don't own any mirrors in her section 8 crib!

Normality Is Now An Endandered Species.

Fads in psychiatric diagnosis come and go and have been with us as long as there has been psychiatry. The fads meet a deeply felt need to explain, or at least to label, what would otherwise be unexplainable human suffering and deviance. In recent years the pace has picked up and false "epidemics" have come in bunches involving an ever-increasing proportion of the population. We are now in the midst of at least 3 such epidemics-of autism, attention deficit, and childhood bipolar disorder. And unless it comes to its senses, DSM5 threatens to provoke several more (hypersexuality, binge eating, mixed anxiety depression,group thinking, worshipping celebrities, minor neurocognitive, and others

Fads punctuate what has become a basic background of overdiagnosis. Normality is an endangered species. The NIMH estimates that, in any given year, 25 percent of the population (that's almost 60 million people) has a diagnosable mental disorder. A prospective study found that, by age thirty-two, 50 percent of the general population had qualified for an anxiety disorder, 40 percent for depression, and 30 percent for alcohol abuse or dependence. Imagine what the rates will be like by the time these people hit fifty, or sixty-five, or eighty. In this brave new world of psychiatric overdiagnosis, will anyone get through life without a mental disorder?

What accounts for the recent upsurge in diagnosis? I feel quite confident we can't blame it on our brains. Human physiology and human nature change slowly if at all. Could it be that the surge in mental disorders is caused by our stressful society? I think not. There is no particular reason to believe that life is any harder now than it has always been-more likely we are the most pampered and protected generation ever to face its inevitable challenges. It is also tempting to find environmental (eg toxins) or iatrogenic causes (eg vaccinations), but there is no credible evidence supporting either of these. There is really only one viable environmental candidate to explain the growth of mental disorder-the widespread recreational use of psychotropic substances. But this cannot account for the extent of the "epidemics," particularly since most have centered on children.

No. The "epidemics" in psychiatry are caused by changing diagnostic fashions-the people don't change, the labels do. There are no objective tests in psychiatry-no X-ray, laboratory, or exam that says definitively that someone does or does not have a mental disorder. What is diagnosed as mental disorder is very sensitive to professional and social contextual forces. Rates of disorder rise easily because mental disorder has such fluid boundaries with normality.

What are the most important contextual forces?

1. DSM-III made psychiatric diagnosis interesting and accessible to the general public. More than a million copies of each edition have been sold-more to ordinary people than to mental health professionals. The widespread appeal of the DSM is in its clear definitions that allow people to diagnose themselves and family members. For the most part, this has been a useful contributor to self-knowledge and to early identification and treatment. But it can also be overdone and inevitably leads to overdiagnosis in the hands of non-clinicians.

2. This interacts with the fact that it is fairly easy to meet criteria for one or another DSM diagnosis. The definitional thresholds may be set too low and the DSM system has included many new diagnoses that are very common in the general population. The experts who establish the DSM criteria always worry more about missing cases than about casting too wide a net and capturing people who do not require a diagnosis or a treatment.

3. The pharmaceutical industry has proven to be fairly unsuccessful in developing new and improved medications. But it is wonderfully effective at marketing existing wares and is an important engine in overdiagnosis and the spread of psychiatric epidemics. The drug companies are skilled at mounting a full-court press that includes "educating" doctors, "supporting" advocacy groups and professional associations, controlling research, and direct-to-consumer advertising.

4. Patient and family advocacy groups have played an important role in calling attention to neglected needs; in lobbying for clinical, school, and research programs; and in reducing stigma and promoting group and community support. There are times, however, when advocating for those with a disorder can spill over and promote the spread of the disorder to others who are mislabeled. The mental disorders all have unclear boundaries among themselves and with normality. Clinical experience and caution are necessary in distinguishing at the boundary who does and who does not meet the criteria for the diagnosis. Well-informed self-diagnosis or family diagnosis can play a screening role and is part of being a wise consumer. But self-diagnosis is usually far too inclusive and needs trimming and validation by a cautious clinician.

5. It is no accident that the recent "epidemics" have all occurred in the childhood disorders. There are two contributing factors. The first is the push by drug companies into this new market. The second is that the provision of special educational services often requires that there be a DSM diagnosis.

6. The internet is a wonderful communication tool that provides a wealth of information and creates a social network of informed consumers. But it can also contribute to the spread of "epidemics". Disorder-focused Web sites (often run by patients and families) provide a powerfully attractive forum and support system that draws people who may inaccurately self­overdiagnose in order to be part of the internet community.

7. The media feeds off and feeds the public interest in mental disorders. This happens in two ways. Periodically, the media becomes obsessed with one or another celebrity whose public meltdown seems related to a real or imagined mental disorder. The mental disorder is then endlessly commented on and dissected by the media. The latest example is the Tiger Woods media frenzy which will likely lead to an "epidemic" of "sexual addiction." Popular movies can also be contagious. Sybil helped cause a fad in multiple-personality disorder.

8. We live in a society that is perfectionistic in its expectations and intolerant of what were previously considered to be normal and expectable distress and individual difference. What was once accepted as the aches and pains of everyday life is now frequently labeled a mental disorder and treated with a pill. Eccentrics who would have been accepted on their own terms are now labeled as sick (with Asperger's) and in need of therapeutic intervention. Mental disorder labels can provide cover for societal problems. Criminal behavior has been medicalized (eg, rape as a psychiatric disorder) because prison sentences are too short and such labeling allows for indefinite psychiatric commitment.

All the above factors interact to produce follow-the-leader diagnostic fads that punctuate a general pattern of overdiagnosis. The definition of fad is "a temporary fashion, notion, manner of conduct especially one followed enthusiastically by a group." What makes something a psychiatric fad is that a psychiatric label seems to explain some common, nonspecific, problematic symptom or behavior, and that label is suddenly given to everyone. The fact that everyone is doing it reduces the stigma of the diagnosis and leads to more people getting the diagnosis. Then, like the old adage that if you have a hammer, everything looks like a nail, the new label gets twisted to fit cases which really don't fit it simply because the label itself is popular and accepted.

There is no objective way to determine what should be the proper rate of mental disorder in the general population. My view is that DSM-IV is almost certainly overinclusive, but I would not recommend tightening the criteria until we have clear evidence this would do more good than harm. The DSM-5 bias to thrust open the diagnostic floodgates is supported only by flimsy evidence that does not come close to warranting its great risks of harmful unintended consequences. It is too bad that there is no advocacy group for normality that could effectively push back against all the forces aligned to expand the reach of mental disorders.