We need to cut any and all government funding of public, private, nonprofit, and academic efforts researching “curing” mental illness, autism, retardation, etc. because there is a major conflict of interest issue.

Unlike medication, which treats symptoms such as depression, anxiety, paranoia, attentiveness, etc., a “cure” implies that one’s personality would be permanently altered for life, and in order to be defined as a “cure”, it would have to be irreversible.

This creates a major problem – what is the “normal” and “sane” personality? It could be the personality that does not suffer from delusions, is capable of full social interaction, knows what type of discussion is warranted and where, and functions well in the workplace – as most people view it today. But it can also be personalities that follow all laws, do not question authority, have a materialistic lifestyle which can easily be “sold to”, someone who rejects or accepts God, the “tolerant” person. In other words, this could lead to an unexpected “standard” – a vulnerable, apathetic, and easily-manipulated person lacking free will, freedom of thought, and a free conscience.

When taken to the unborn child, we can also be born “customized” to have the biggest breasts, the perfect weight, the Hollywood body, bodies suited for porn, bodies suited for advertising and modeling, voices well-suited for TV, music, and acting. Sound familiar? Yes, it could just as well be blond hair and blue eyes. Pricing would become tied to economic class and social status as prospective parents pay for the “perfect” body and mind – or have your child face social rejection and discrimination not unlike the victims of racial segregation, Communism, World War II, and Apartheid.

But what does this all have to do with government? Wouldn’t accepting a “cure” be an individual choice?

As the price of such a surgery or other treatment will drop, insurance companies and socialized medicine would begin to force this treatment on the mentally handicapped without their consent. (One surgery, or thousands of dollars worth of prescription drugs and counseling?) There is too much money to save when an illness is no longer chronic.

As the government has the sole power to force such a treatment (through directives to programs like Medicare and Medicaid), and to permit or deny private industry to force such a treatment (through regulation of the insurance companies), there is a major conflict of interest, and all public (and hopefully private) funding of these mental, cognitive, and retardation “cure” groups should immediately stop.

Tonight, I left the following comment on his blog (entitled Catholic & Enjoying It, which I also just added to my blogroll):

What’s the difference between the mosque issue and, for example, allowing the construction of a Planned Parenthood facility next to an existing Catholic church? Would pro-choice protests outside the church disrupt Mass? Would the church facilities and Mass attendants be in danger of violence, or held responsible for a violent parishioner? Would Planned Parenthood demand the convenience of renting the basement of a church next door?

Something to think about.

Greek Orthodox leaders trying to rebuild the only church destroyed in the Sept. 11 terror attacks expressed shock this week after learning, via Fox News, that government officials had killed a deal to relocate the church.

The St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church, once a tiny, four-story building in the shadows of lower Manhattan, was destroyed in 2001 by one of the falling World Trade Center towers. Nobody from the church was hurt in the attack, but the congregation has, for the past eight years, been trying to rebuild its house of worship.

Though talks between the church and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey stalled last year, church leaders say they’ve been trying to kick-start discussions ever since. But amid debate over whether a proposed Islamic community center should go forward near Ground Zero, government officials threw cold water on the prospect of any deal with the church — telling Fox News the deal is off the table.

The archdiocese and Port Authority now offer sharply conflicting accounts of where things went wrong. The Port Authority has claimed the church was making additional demands — like wanting the $20 million up front and wanting to review plans for the surrounding area. They say the church can still proceed on its own if it wishes.

“This little church deserves to be rebuilt. It’s symbolic, not just for Orthodox Christians, not just for Christians, but for all Americans,” Arey said, calling the mosque debate “helpful” to the church’s cause. “I believe that people around the country are asking themselves the question — why all this talk about a mosque being built near Ground Zero? What about a little church that was destroyed on 9/11? … This is basically a bureaucratic impasse. This will dissolve in the face of the American public consciousness.”

Mr. President, please stand up and defend our Judeo-Christian values, express your public and unwavering support for St. Nicholas Church, and ensure that it is rebuilt.”

See also: Act! for America’s Stop the Mosque petition to Michael Bloomberg and New York officials. 99,622 have signed so far.

Well now (actually in March) Wikileaks has revealed another reason – to enable abuse of power in government. Here are excerpts from a CIA document on propaganda operations to increase support for war in Afghanistan:

Afghanistan: Sustaining West European Support for the NATO-led Mission—Why Counting on Apathy Might Not Be Enough

Public Apathy Enables Leaders To Ignore Voters

French Focused On Civilians and Refugees. Focusing on a message that ISAF benefits Afghan civilians and citing examples of concrete gains could limit and perhaps even reverse opposition to the mission. Such tailored messages could tap into acute French concern for civilians and refugees.

Conversely, messaging that dramatizes the potential adverse consequences of an ISAF defeat for Afghan civilians could leverage French (and other European) guilt for abandoning them. The prospect of the Taliban rolling back hard-won progress on girls’ education could provoke French indignation, become a rallying point for France’s largely secular public, and give voters a reason to support a good and necessary cause despite casualties.”

The French government has already made combating Afghan human trafficking networks a priority and would probably support an information campaign that a NATO defeat in Afghanistan could precipitate a refugee crisis.

For example, messages that illustrate how a defeat in Afghanistan could heighten Germany’s exposure to terrorism, opium, and refugees might help to make the war more salient to skeptics.

The same poll also found that, when respondents were reminded that President Obama himself had asked for increased deployments to Afghanistan, their support for granting this request increased dramatically

Media events that feature testimonials by Afghan women would probably be most effective if broadcast on programs that have large and disproportionately female audiences.

Here is the Wikileaks page, though the PDF file download seems to be down. You can read and download the PDF on Doxtop.com.

Rather than go on a standard political rant about this issue like any other blogger would, I thought I’d apply this to each amendment in the Bill of Rights of the US Constitution.

(Note that the content in this article may not apply to blogs hosted on major “community” sites such as Google and Myspace. Since they are run by major corporations, with Myspace owned by the parent company of Fox News, they may be subject to the same/similar issues as Twitter and Facebook.)

1st Amendment: No Establishment of Religion (basis for “Separation of Church and State”), Freedom of Religion, Freedom of Speech, Freedom of the Press, Peaceful Assembly, Right to Petition the Government:
Blogs have empowered the people more than ever, as they expose media bias and blackouts, political scandals, and more corruption you would never find out about on TV or radio. Information about diverse religions and philosophy available on the Internet is discouraging many parents from vaccinating their children by temporarily changing their religion or claiming an exemption. Some religious issues reported by Media 1.0, such as sexual abuse issues in the Catholic Church, have been subject to further debate on blogs – for example, the role of the vow of celibacy required by most priests. Material critical of Islam, such as the movie Fitna and depictions of Muhammad, freely spreads through blogs, causing Islamic theocracies to play whack-a-mole, banning entire Web sites and threaten to execute their owners. As a means of news, blogs containing audio and video, such as embedded material uploaded onto YouTube, have enabled individuals to “broadcast”, regardless of archaic laws. Broadcast licensing was originally designed to prevent interference according to issues not present in the age of GPS, satellites, digital transmissions, and “simulcasting” (the ability to put multiple channels in a single frequency, such as with Digital TV and HD Radio). However, they eventually became a means of media control. It took many media blackouts for obscure anti-establishment politician Ron Paul to gain media exposure in 2008, and in the 2004 Democratic primaries an antitrust-minded man named Howard Dean was mocked out of the race over a pep rally. Many grassroots campaigns, spread via blogs, have been highly successful. The Internet has made it easy to send e-mails and faxes to Congressmen and -women, as well as make laws and transcripts available for full viewing.
What gives blogs the advantage with all of this over Twitter or Facebook is the fact that if you own or lease the hardware running your site, you have much more freedom, since the less contracts there are, and the more privacy rights you have (Facebook is notorious for a mysterious “selling out” on the importance of privacy rights some time ago), the freer you are.

2nd Amendment: Right to Bear Arms:
In a world of liberal and neo”conservative” media, true conservatives and libertarians have grown due to blogs. Efforts such as the “Ron Paul Revolution” presidential campaign of 2008, the successor group Campaign for Liberty, and Tea Party protests owe the Internet their success. In opposition to these efforts, bog-standard left-wing charges of “violent racists” and “angry white men” fly at innocent Republicans who now have a new opportunity to speak their mind. And unlike Twitter and Facebook, which respond to any one complaint by banning the user or material immediately, so-called “hate speech” and “harassment” accusations by the left-wing establishment can be resolved more easily and fairly with a hosting provider, even if similar bans are in their contracts.

3rd Amendment: No Quartering of Soldiers:
Many blogs, such as the anarcho-capitalist LewRockwell.com and Justin Raimondo’s Antiwar.com, frequently criticize wars, foreign policy measures, anti-terrorism laws, and the actions of the US military (in fact, LRC is banned from offices of US intelligence agencies). No longer are complaints about the military or government limited to our minds or homes – while none of us, whether criminal or peaceful, are anonymous to authorities in any way, blog pseudonyms enable us to publish all kinds of crazy ideological arguments without our families and friends even knowing. Again, Facebook and Twitter will shut anything “hate speech” down immediately.

4th Amendment: Search & Seizure, Warrants, Right to Privacy:
The establishment has grown very successful in defeating the protections of this amendment. Laws such as the Patriot Act have eroded this right, and social networks and search engines have become goldmines for both private industry and government agencies. Facebook and Twitter are no exception – those sites store backups of your actions even if you delete your account. Web hosts have their own privacy policies and law enforcement measures which may be much less invasive. Other laws, such as the Digital Millenium Copyright Act, have granted these same broad powers to copyright holders, though in some cases they are used for purpose of censorship or forming trust-like “holding” organizations rather than copyright infringement.
And while Media 1.0 will censor or twist anything that reflects badly upon its own industry (or any other industry for that matter), and Facebook has “mysteriously” reversed its stance on privacy rights recently, blogs such as Slashdot have risen to fill in the blanks.

5th Amendment: No Double Jeopardy, No Self-Incrimination, Right to Life, Liberty, and Property, Eminent Domain:
6th Amendment: Right to a Speedy Trial, Nature of Trials:
7th Amendment: Right to Trial By Jury:
Acts which threaten the establishment have led to intelligence agencies and copyright holders to engage in dealmaking which is slowly trending towards entire leasing of your machine. Blogs have been reporting these efforts by Microsoft, Apple, the MAFIAA, and others, as well as reporting hacker attacks on remotely-stored personal data, which is sometimes marketed as “cloud computing”. After eminent domain laws were extremely loosened to allow seizure of property by Wal-Mart, bloggers not only reported the story, but debated the consequences. Trial by jury is being threatened through the expansion of forced arbitration, mandated by a federal law irreversible by states, including to Web sites about cartoon characters, rapists, neglectful murdering nursing homes, and consumer electronics purchases, but people are getting together and fighting the law, and some arbitration companies have left consumer dispute markets. The banking industry’s role in the current recession, reported by bloggers with an anti-establishment bias, has helped with this issue as well.

8th Amendment: No Cruel or Unusual Punishment:
Information regarding foreign wars have been reported by bloggers, with Media 1.0 dishonesty even being videotaped. Torture and other events at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo would be easy to hide if blogs didn’t exist, and there would be less questioning the claims made by the President about national security and foreign dictators. The use of pseudonyms have encouraged people to discuss and debate the Israeli lobby without fear of being publicly labeled an anti-Semite, even if they secretly are one.

9th Amendment: Rights Not Limited to Constitution:
As rights such as copyright protection have been broadly expanded in length and scope, bloggers have been making use of Creative Commons licenses to waive such rights for the benefit of themselves and others. This even includes musicians who rely on a cult following and touring, such as Nine Inch Nails and Radiohead, who have left major labels and still kept their fans. Some have gone even further and released material entirely into the public domain, as controversial creationist figure Kent Hovind once did. I myself have released much of this blog’s content into the public domain.

10th Amendment: States’ Rights, Other Rights Belong to States & People:
Due to dissatisfaction with the establishment, fueled by blogs and the Tea Party movement, many libertarians have started a “Tenther” movement, proposing that the US become a confederacy where states have nullification rights over an ever-expanding federal government. Many want to repeal other Constitutional amendments associated with infringing on states’ rights, including parts of the 14th (birthright citizenship, bill of rights applies to states), the 16th (direct federal income tax), and the 17th (senate popularly elected like the house is, something I want to see repealed). Twitter and Facebook, once again, will shut down anything after somebody points the race card.

27th Amendment: Limiting Congressional Pay:
(part of original Bill of Rights, but not ratified until 1992)
Bloggers have been able to monitor Congress like never before, including not only laws and transcripts in their entirety, but also exposing financial and sexual scandals, ties to various lobbies, and other forms of corruption Media 1.0 would never report, and would be extremely difficult to spread via Twitter.

Your Late Bedtime Says You’re an Oddball

You like to do your own thing, even if you have to make sacrifices for your lifestyle. You are extremely creative and inspired. It’s easy for you to lose time in your projects. You tend to live hard and not take as good of care of yourself as you should. Sleep often comes last for you, if it comes at all… and you’re always hurting in the morning.

Blogthings Quiz: What Does Your Bedtime Say About You?

You Should Work with Art

You are a very visual and creative person. You couldn’t stop making beautiful things, even if you tried. You are constantly inspired and driven to create. It would drive you crazy to follow too many rules at work. You have to do things your own way. If you’re given room to be yourself, you come up with amazing things. You never stop making art, so you might as well get paid for doing something you love!

Blogthings Quiz: What Should You Work With?

Your Spring Sense is Sight

You can’t help but be moved by the beauty of spring. The whole world changes in front of you. You love every green shoot and every blooming plant. It’s like a picture is being colored! You are artistic and very visual. If spring hasn’t inspired you to paint or draw yet, some day it probably will. You always give yourself time to stop and take it all in. Nature is truly an amazing thing.

What’s Your Spring Sense?

You Are Compassionate Toward the World

You are a true humanitarian. You care deeply for everyone on this planet. If you were independently wealthy, you would be a huge philanthropist. Since you’re not rich yet, you do what you can to help everyone around you. It’s likely that you are active with charities and always willing to help a friend.

Blogthings Quiz: How Do You Feel About the World?

You Are Brilliant

You are a very talented person. And it’s likely that your talents span many different areas. You are probably also very well educated – whether you’ve had a lot of formal education or have educated yourself. You spend a lot of time developing your skills. Practice means perfect, and you sure like to practice. You can be a bit of a perfectionist at times. You like to get things exactly right.

Blogthings Quiz: The Retro Pattern Test

You Are “Thou Shalt Not Bear False Witness”

You don’t just think that honesty is the best policy, you think it’s the only policy. You believe that it’s important to be truthful, especially with yourself and the ones you love most. No doubt about it, the truth is sometimes quite ugly. But we need to face how ugly it is before we work to change it. You think the world would be a better place if all the lying and deception stopped. Let’s lay the cards out on the table.

Blogthings Quiz: Which of the Ten Commandments Are You?

You Have an Active Imagination

Your mind is churning and producing new thoughts all the time. You are definitely good at imagining. You can visualize events pretty easily, and you’re not bad at thinking up new ideas. Believe it or not, you could be a bit more imaginative. All you have to do is give yourself permission Spend a few minutes each day daydreaming. It’s good for you, and who knows what might come of it?

Blogthings Quiz: How Active is Your Imagination?

Project MK-ULTRA, or MKULTRA, was the code name for a covert CIA mind-control and chemical interrogation research program, run by the Office of Scientific Intelligence. The program began in the early 1950s, continuing at least through the late 1960s, and it used United States citizens as its test subjects. The published evidence indicates that Project MK-ULTRA involved the surreptitious use of many types of drugs, as well as other methods, to manipulate individual mental states and to alter brain function.

An outgrowth of that project is unofficially referred to as “Project Monarch”. It is a mind control technique which exposes the subject to a trauma so violent that his/her mind creates a dissociation. The victim’s brain becomes compartmentalized and a new personality, which is then molded and educated by the manipulators, emerges.

During their reeducation, subjects are said to be exposed to numerous symbols such as trees, spider webs, masks, mazes, butterflies, etc. They are also shown movies which contain specific symbols (or “triggers”) such as The Wizard of Oz and many Disney Movies. The same way those subjects are brainwashed and reeducated, mass media conducts a large scale mind control project, which starts at birth with Disney movies and continues with Hollywood flicks and music videos.

“Lady Gaga, The Illuminati Puppet” is from last August but still gets lots of comments, many of which are interesting. I like this comment by Charles Deckert:

Ah, I see now! They’re putting out “role models” for us all, aren’t they? I see now why the music sucks; the point lies in body language and neurolinguistics, which for today’s youth and even their immediate predecessors is easy to hide under a bunch of mindless noise (wrapped up with its own programming of course). The downgrading and desecration of art on all levels can be seen as a means of turning the clarity of the collective consciousness into mere noise and blur. Cinema has gone to shit, music has gone to shit, even literature has made the contents of Dom DeLuise’s septic tank much more interesting and educational. For this, I propose that those of us who’re artists in any field make it a point to put out what we do from the deepest levels of our brains and our hearts and to avoid getting sucked into the machine from which artists like Lady Gaga and Rihanna (and many others!) have been produced and payrolled to pollute our understanding and our tastes.

In the past I have pointed out my theory for the consistent, obvious mocking of moral absolutism found in the media – that a lack of spirituality leads to a hole which can be “filled” by unquenchable purchases of advertised consumer products, rather than dedicating your life to a higher power of some kind, spread through acts of selfless charity.
The commenter raises a good point – this may be part of a longer-term effort to instill moral relativism permanently to make way for consistent profits. (I always blamed crappy music on the RIAA’s legal-payola-by-proxy and anti-piracy settlements being more profitable than sales.)

The column cited the "Inclusive Version":

"For God so loved the world that God gave God’s only Child, so that everyone who believes in that Child may not perish but may have eternal life." -John 3:16 (AIV)

I had no idea that God talked like Elmo and Jesus was always a child.

You may notice that I use King James Version for the widget on the side. For some reason it says "Public Domain" instead of "KJV". And while the translation being public domain and the poetic nature of English at the time are both great reasons to prefer the KJV, the main reason is this: Who would you trust more with the Word of God? Would you trust (A) A period of time dominated by monarchs and imposed Christianity, where all of the monarchs’ tyrannical actions are justified by portions of the Bible claiming a divine right, or (B) a period of time where complete majority rule is an ideal society, where practicing organized religion is unpopular, where nobody can offend anyone, let alone burn them for heresy? I am a Catholic and there is the anti-Catholic royal suck-up Preface, though it doesn’t really matter when comparing these two agendas.

Astrologer Suresh Kumar Kaushal has sought quashing of the July two High Court judgment legalising gay sex between consenting adults in private, which was earlier a criminal offence punishable with up to life imprisonment.

WTF???? We always complain about certain politicians tending to mandate Judeo-Christian morality, but this is/was too bizarre!

Anyway, I have a list of funny ideas for book titles. If there are actually books with those titles, then take it as a complement for your creativity and/or sense of humor. WARNING: adult language.

This high school college textbook provides the student with tons of information on Islam, before political correctness became an issue:
History of Islam, 600-1963

Sex advice on getting more guys/girls:
They Call It “Cum” For A Reason

Survivalist book:
MacGyver for Dummies: 150 Easy Devices You Can Make

Thinking about getting a sex change operation?
The Transsexual Checklist: Some Things To Think About Before Chopping It Off

Time to grow up, high school is over:
Goths and Emos in the Workplace: How to Keep Your Personality and Maintain a Full-Time Job

Understanding men:
“Why Do Men Like Boobs”? And Other Women’s Questions Answered

Slogan: “Recommended by 1 in 100,000,000 Psychiatrists”:
150 Knock-Knock Jokes To Cure Depression

And don’t forget:
Voting for Dummies: The Idiot’s Guide to American Democracy