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B-NEWSSupport Lines It's About Time! Issue January 28, 2010
Subscribe or unsubscribe on the www.pabia.org Website or visit
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Friday, January 29, 2010
I know, it's been a very long time since you received something from me. Life is full and I refuse to just forward messages. Hopefully you will find a nugget of value here. If not and you want to stop receiving email from me, just point your browser to the following page and unsubscribe: http://listserv.tbinet.org/scripts/wa-tbinet.exe?SUBED1=b-news&A=1.
I don't want to pollute your inbox with needless information. Of course, if you find value here and think someone else might too, forward this newsletter and invite them to subscribe: http://listserv.tbinet.org/scripts/wa-tbinet.exe?SUBED1=b-news&A=1
Now, with that said, I'll offer you the following table of contents:
* Perspective: Health Care Reform
* Haiti Water Filter Opportunity
* Physician Assisted Suicide: A Disability Perspective http://www.disabilityandhealthjnl.com/current
* SPECIAL EDUCATION Seeking stories in Western PA
* Scientists discover first evidence of brain rewiring in children
* PA Department of Public Welfare to Close Allentown State Hospital
* Executive Order Amended to Immunize INTERPOL In America (This is a MUST Read!)
*****
When: Monday, February 1, 2010
Time: 7:00 PM.
Speaker: Maria C. Philips, MSW, COMMCARE Supervisor,
Three Rivers Center for Independent Living (TRCIL)
Where: In the Union Building at 801 Union Place ( Building # 3 ) 3rd Floor, behind Allegheny Center Alliance Church, 250 East Ohio St., 15212 (Northside of Pittsburgh ) across from Allegheny Center. This building is close to PAT bus lines that service the Northside: Routes 1A-F, 6A-C, 11A-F, 12A, 16B-F, 17B and 500 are just some of the busses that loop the Allegheny Center . Access is aware of its location. There is plenty of free parking. The building is accessible with ramps and an elevator.
For more information or to confirm your attendance, please contact Rich Wagner at 412-366-4645.
Topic: The COMMCARE Waiver. It is a waiver specifically for individuals who have had a TBI, need services and would like to remain in the community.
It is funded by the Department of Public Welfare (DPW), Bureau of Home and Community Based Services (BHCBS), and overseen by the Office of Long Term Living (OLTL). The COMMCARE waiver is one waiver under the Community Services Program for Persons with Physical Disabilities (CSPPPD).
Three Rivers Center for Independent Living (TRCIL) is a Center for Independent Living (CIL) AND the agency that is currently helping individuals enroll in the waivers and is a provider of service coordination for waiver recipients.
Ms. Philips will discuss the enrollment process, requirements and the services that the COMMCARE wavier can provide.
We can then open the floor for questions and answers. This will be an informal presentation.
Visit http://www.pabia.org/Support%20Groups/Support%20Groups.htm
for more information and maps.
*****
Perspective: Health Care Reform
By John Pistorius
One of the biggest topics of debate in this nation is the current proposed health care legislation. Many people love the proposal and many others hate it. To be sure, it is dividing the United States of America. I like living here. My dad served in the Navy and Marines to defend this nation and its Constitution against all enemies, foreign or domestic. And I like the fact that we are still free. But health care reform is threatening to subdivide us even further than other fights ever have.
Consider the fact that those who believe the government should take over everything, subvert the Constitution and eliminate any form of privacy have wholeheartedly thrown their selves behind the current proposal. Those who trust government to rule the people without checks and balances are pushing this legislation along like a high-speed Mag-Lev train. "Never mind the details" they say. "So what if no one has read it. WE NEED HEALTHCARE REFORM!"
Others, who do not trust the government to control the way they receive allopathic heath care services are less jubilant. They don't like the idea of having a government employee between them and health care options and services. They disagree with the idea of shoving legislation along without thoroughly understanding it. And they fear a governmental take over of such a large portion of the economy.
And then there are those who disagree with the idea of the government taking money from everyone and funding death in any way, shape or form. They argue that it is immoral to take money from people who are opposed to killing unborn children and using it to increase the number of deaths by abortion.
And then we have people with disabilities who get in on the debate. Some believe they are in danger of losing any form of health care and will settle for this as opposed to nothing. Others believe the proposed legislation will be used to eliminate people with disabilities in many ways. Some will be cut off at the starting gate, never getting a fair chance to run this human race. Others believe they will be pushed out of the race early as services are reduced or terminated in an effort to "save the taxpayers money." And still others believe they will not be saved from death as life-saving techniques will be hindered by factor charts that weigh the potential for a productive recovery. Some who want this legislative train to speed into passage are non-productive individuals with entitlement surnames, who feed like the politicians at the public trough. They want this because of the glorious promises of "change" that tickles their ears.
Yours truly believes that we absolutely need health care reform. We also need insurance reform and monetary system reform. But nobody seems to be addressing those major issues. With the current allopathic medical system, we have many unsolved problems. And we have a system of care that has bloated itself as it has grown out of control. But I must ask if reasonable, rational people really want to subject their selves and generations of their children to such sweeping over regulation of their lives. Do the productive people who form this nation really want to have government employees between them and their doctors? Do they want to create more government that spends imaginary money that enslaves their posterity to a debt that can never be repaid under the current monetary system?
What really interests me is why no one is crying out against the very real enslavement to the mounting debt that our government is creating through the false monetary system we use. Why is no one insisting that the United States of America buy all of the debt it owes with the bonds it can issue on its good credit and sovereign name? Why is no one demanding that the false Federal Reserve Notes be replaced with real United States currency that is backed with value instead of debt that must be serviced? Why have we become a nation divided by everything and anything that comes down the smoke and mirrors railroad while bureaucrats and bankers get fat on the value we produce to service the debt that could easily be eliminated?
I don't have the answers, but I can sure think up the questions! Give it some thought, form your own opinions and thank God you live in the greatest nation under heaven today.
Imagine for a minute how much money, I mean real value that you give away every year in taxes. You pay taxes on everything you purchase. Sure you do. Think about the taxes that are built into every purchase. Every aspect of everything that goes into every business that is a part of the chain is taxed. Each level of the economy is taxed. Those taxes are passed onto you. They are built right into the price of your purchase. And on many purchases, you pay sales tax on top of the taxes that are built into the cost of the items you purchase. And all of that taxation is a part of the bigger problem: bad money. It is a symptom of fiat currency, valueless dollars, empty bucks.
Those dollars used to have value behind them and they were worth working for. They bought things of value that were grown or produced or manufactured in these United States of America. And they bought services that were priced within the reach of most people. Whenever you wanted to have something of substance instead of a piece of paper, you could trade those paper notes in for a hunk of metal that was universally agreed to be something of real value. But no more.
Now, back to health care.
Change the monetary system from a valueless paper and computerized digits into one that is backed by the good credit of these United States of America and health care costs will go down. Permit holistic approaches to become widespread in the treatment and prevention of disease and as the health of the nation improves, watch health care costs go down. Let the free market provide treatment options that improve health and eliminate disease instead of treating symptoms and enslaving people to drugs. As the general health of the nation improves, watch health care costs decline. Stop the pharma cartel from controlling the way we receive information and treatment. And watch people become well and shake their dependence upon the health care system, and watch health care cost come down. Oh, I know the arguments against my opinions, please save your time.
Hey, this is just my perspective and everything I say could be wrong.
Or not.
*****
Haiti Water Filter Opportunity
SAWYER WILL MATCH EVERY FILTER DONATED
Haiti is in desperate need of clean water after the catastrophic earthquake on January 12th. After an earthquake, water supplies are vulnerable to contaminates through ruptured pipes, and damaged storage units. Waterborne diseases lead to dehydration and can be deadly fast if people do not have access to safe water.
Sawyer is working with several groups that are providing clean water to Haiti with our filters. Every filter you donate to the organizations listed below, Sawyer will match..
TO DONATE:
1. Click here to visit our purchase page on www.pointonefilter.com
2. Enter pass code: AR09NM and hit submit
3. Enter the quantity of SP180 you would like to donate (first item on the page)
4. Fill in your Billing Information
5. Under Shipping Information type "DONATION" in the "First Name" box
6. In the "Last Name" box type the name of the organization you wish to donate to
7. Enter shipping address:
605 7th Ave N
Safety Harbor, FL 34695
727-725-1954
8. Enter your credit card information then hit submit
Sawyer will then deliver the filters to the organization you selected.
Organizations
Forward Edge International - www.forwardedge.org
Healing Hands International - www.hhi.org
Mennonite Central Committee - www.mcc.org
Luke's Mission - www.lukesmission.com
Pure Water for the World - www.purewaterfortheworld.org
Functional Literacy Ministry of Haiti - www.flmhaiti.org
Heaven's Family - www.heavensfamily.org
New Mission Systems International - www.nmsi.org
Giving Children Hope - www.gchope.org
Spirit-Led Expeditions, Inc. www.spiritledexp.com
Rescue Task Force -
www.rescuetaskforce.org
Thank you for the much needed support. Please feel free to use the link below to forward this email to anyone that may be interested in helping Haiti with clean water.
If you know other organizations not listed above that are also doing relief work in Haiti and would like to donate to them, please contact
amy@sawyer.com.
For more information about our filters visit www.pointonefilter.com
*****
Physician Assisted Suicide: A Disability Perspective
From the American Association of Health and Disability (1/13/10):
A Disability Perspective on the Issue of Physician Assisted Suicide
The entire January, 2010 issue of the Disability and Health Journal is available at no cost on line at www.disabilityandhealthjnl.com. Usually, only the abstracts are available to non-members of AAHD, however, this special issue is available to the general public. This special issue is focused on Physician-Assisted Suicide: A Perspective from Advocates for People with Disabilities. Although public opinion in the United States on physician-assisted suicide is evenly divided, about half of states have either defeated bills to legalize assisted suicide or have passed laws explicit ly banning it and only two states, (Oregon and Washington) have legalized it. In this environment, A Disability Perspective on the Issue of Physician-Assisted Suicide, a special issue of Disability and Health Journal: The Official Journal of the American Association on Health and Disability, published by Elsevier, examines the issues related to assisted suicide and disability, the legal considerations and the Oregon and Washington experiences.
Articles include:
* Assisted suicide: Why this is an important issue for the Disability and Health Journal
Suzanne McDermott
* Killing us softly: the dangers of legalizing assisted suicide, 05 November 2009
Marilyn Golden, Tyler Zoanni
* Assisted suicide laws create discriminatory double standard for who gets suicide prevention and who gets suicide assistance: Not Dead Yet Responds to Autonomy, Inc.
Diane Coleman
* Public health, populations, and lethal ingestion
Kirk C. Allison
* No, we don't think our doctors are out to get us: Responding to the straw man distortions of disability rights arguments against assisted suicide
Carol J. Gill
Visit www.disabilityandhealthjnl.com to read the articles included in this edition.
*****
SPECIAL EDUCATION Seeking stories in Western PA
Hi folks,
I have recently been appointed the Special Education Examiner for the Pittsburgh region at
Examiner.com. I'm looking for personal stories related to the good, bad and ugly of special education in the Western PA region.
Please feel free to forward my information to families and educators as you deem appropriate.
Thank you for your consideration!
Amy
--
Amy Caraballo
Pittsburgh Special Education Examiner
http://www.examiner.com/x-31431-Pittsburgh-Special-Education-Examiner
*****
from: http://www.physorg.com/news179584529.html
Scientists discover first evidence of brain rewiring in children
December 9th, 2009 in Medicine & Health / Neuroscience
Carnegie Mellon scientists discover first evidence of brain rewiring in children.
(picture not included)
The left brain image shows the area of compromised white matter (blue area) among poor readers relative to good readers at the beginning of the study. The center brain image shows the area where the structural integrity increased (red/yellow area) among poor readers who received the instruction, and it is very similar to the initially compromised area. The right brain image shows that following the instruction, there were no differences between the good and poor readers with respect to the integrity of their white matter. Credit: Timothy Keller and Marcel Just
Carnegie Mellon University scientists Timothy Keller and Marcel Just have uncovered the first evidence that intensive instruction to improve reading skills in young children causes the brain to physically rewire itself, creating new white matter that improves communication within the brain.
As the researchers report today in the journal Neuron, brain imaging of children between the ages of 8 and 10 showed that the quality of white matter — the brain tissue that carries signals between areas of grey matter, where information is processed — improved substantially after the children received 100 hours of remedial training. After the training, imaging indicated that the capability of the white matter to transmit signals efficiently had increased, and testing showed the children could read better.
"Showing that it's possible to rewire a brain's white matter has important implications for treating reading disabilities and other developmental disorders, including autism," said Just, the
D.O. Hebb Professor of Psychology and director of Carnegie Mellon's Center for Cognitive Brain Imaging
(CCBI).
Dr. Thomas R. Insel, director of the National Institute of Mental Health, agreed. "We have known that behavioral training can enhance brain function. The exciting breakthrough here is detecting changes in brain connectivity with behavioral treatment. This finding with reading deficits suggests an exciting
. . . More at:
(Editors note: And some used to say the brain didn't heal! Yes, it's true. They thought the world was flat too.)
*****
From: http://www.physorg.com/news179759980.html
Neuroscience in the driving seat
December 11th, 2009 in Medicine & Health / Neuroscience
It emerged today that more drivers are using hand-held mobile phones than two years ago, despite the introduction of tougher penalties. The Transport Research Laboratory is worried because phone-using drivers are four times more likely to crash and their reaction times are likely to be slower.
It may be that a group of neuroscientists at Oxford University can help in dealing with this kind of distraction and improve drivers’ reaction times. They believe that understanding the way we respond to danger signals and make life-or-death decisions can enable us to make improvements in car design. Leading car manufacturers are now taking an interest in the hope of making us better, safer drivers.
The problem with using a phone is that talking while driving increases the risk of an accident. ‘People think that they can do both, but they can’t,’ says Professor Charles Spence of the Department of Experimental Psychology at Oxford University. ‘The brain is configured to respond best to one spatial location at a time. So looking in one direction at the road and listening in another to a caller on the mobile phone at the same time can’t be done well.’
It is now possible to make transparent loudspeakers which can be incorporated into a car windscreen. This enables people to look at the road and listen to a phone conversation coming from the same direction, Charles Spence’s group has shown.
Senses & signals
There’s no doubt that improvements to driving safety are still needed, with 2,538 people killed on the road in 2008 and 26,034 seriously injured. Human error contributes to the vast majority of road accidents, and loss of control of a vehicle or failing to look properly are contributory factors in many of these incidents.
Many new technologies are gradually being added to cars to improve safety. These include
sat-navs, hands-free mobile phones, and warning signals. A number of cars now have systems that can sense nearby vehicles and warn the driver when anything gets too close.
But Charles Spence and colleagues believe that the designs that engineers have come up with - using displays, flashing lights, and bleeps - don’t always make it easy for drivers to make decisions based on the information they’re given.
He believes we can do better: ‘All our decisions and actions are based on our senses and go through our brains. Knowledge of how we respond to sights, sounds, touch and feel should enable us to come up with better, neuroscience- inspired designs for alerting drivers to danger.’
The latest work from Charles’ research group, published in the journal Human Factors, demonstrates how warning signals given to the driver through the headrest can improve the speed with which they can respond to the danger, potentially reducing the number of front-to-rear- end collisions.
The work makes use of recent neuroscience research showing that the space behind the head, where you can’t see what’s going on, is treated in a special way by the brain.
‘Our brains react immediately and automatically to things happening in that space in a defensive response to potential danger.’ says Charles Spence. It is similar to the margin of safety or ‘flight zone’ seen in many animals.
His group, with funding from Toyota, carried out experiments showing a short warning sound from speakers just behind a driver’s head can improve the speed of response to danger by nearly four tenths of a second over warning lights placed further away, like those on
. . .
More at: http://www.physorg.com/news179759980.html
*****
News for Immediate Release
Jan.. 28, 2010
PA
Department of Public Welfare to Close Allentown State Hospital
Harrisburg – Acting Secretary of Public Welfare Harriet Dichter today announced plans to close Allentown State Hospital in Lehigh County by Dec. 31.
Dichter said the closure is part of Pennsylvania’s commitment to reducing its reliance on institutional care and improving access to home- and community-based services for Pennsylvanians living with mental illness.
“For more than 25 years, Pennsylvania has been on the leading edge of developing local partnerships and community based service options that promote recovery for people living with mental illness,” said
Dichter. “As facilities close, we open doors to opportunities for residents to live their lives to the fullest by returning to their homes and communities as contributing members of society, all while managing their own health and well-being.”
The closure of Allentown is part of the department’s plan to create a more unified approach to funding community services and supports for those living with mental illness. The department will reinvest the millions of dollars saved to further develop and sustain clinically-based, recovery-oriented services and to continue to improve the mental health service delivery system.
The resident population at Pennsylvania’s seven state hospitals has decreased by nearly 65 percent since 1994, from almost 5,000 to the current 1,627.
Allentown State Hospital currently serves approximately 175 residents at its 217 acre campus, with a staff of approximately 379 people and a current budget of $35.3 million. The hospital serves Lehigh, Northampton, Carbon, Monroe and Pike counties.
Prior to being discharged, hospital residents will participate in a series of assessments in order to determine their level of need for services and support as they look toward a successful life within a more integrated setting, such as a group home, public housing or with family. The assessment process will ensure that safe and appropriate placements are made.
DPW has established a toll-free number for family members of residents of Allentown State Hospital to use during the closure process. Family members will be able to speak with staff from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., Monday through Friday, by calling 1-877-695-7462.
To aid in the closure process, the department will establish a strong community advisory team made up of Allentown residents, county representatives from the Allentown service area, as well as other interested stakeholders who will monitor and assist the department through the process.
DPW will hold a public hearing from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Monday, Feb. 22, at the Four Points by Sheraton Hotel & Suites, 3400 Airport Road, Allentown, to accept comment about the closure from stakeholders, officials and the community.. Those wishing to provide comments are asked to register by contacting Beth Neston at (610) 740-3409.
The department will attempt to provide hospital employees with the opportunity to continue their work with the commonwealth, using all of the departments under the Governor’s jurisdiction.
Allentown State Hospital was originally opened and received its first resident in 1912, helping to alleviate overcrowding at state hospitals in Norristown and Danville. Originally called the Allentown Homeopathic Hospital for the Insane, it was the first homeopathic institution of its kind in Pennsylvania. As the homeopathic medical approach gradually changed to the more standard medical model, the hospital became known as Allentown State Hospital. The patient population quickly rose to 867 and eventually peaked at 2,107 patients in 1954.
For more information regarding the closure, visit http://www.dpw.state.pa.us/
Media contact: Stacey Witalec, 717-787-4592
*****
Working While Disabled
Social Security Administration website
http://www.ssa.gov/pubs/10095.html
*****
from: http://threatswatch.org/analysis/2009/12/print/wither_sovereignty/
ThreatsWatch.Org: PrincipalAnalysis
Wither Sovereignty
Executive Order Amended to Immunize INTERPOL In America - Is The ICC Next?
By Steve Schippert, Clyde Middleton
Last Thursday, December 17, 2009, The White House released an Executive Order "Amending Executive Order 12425." www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/executive-order-amending-executive-order-12425
It grants INTERPOL (International Criminal Police Organization) a new level of full diplomatic immunity afforded to foreign embassies and select other "International Organizations" as set forth in the United States International Organizations Immunities Act of 1945.
By removing language from President Reagan's 1983 Executive Order 12425, this international law enforcement body now operates - now operates - on American soil beyond the reach of our own top law enforcement arm, the FBI, and is immune from Freedom Of Information Act (FOIA) requests.
For Immediate Release December 17, 2009
Executive Order -- Amending Executive Order 12425
EXECUTIVE ORDER
- - - - - - -
AMENDING EXECUTIVE ORDER 12425 DESIGNATING INTERPOL
AS A PUBLIC INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATION ENTITLED TO
ENJOY CERTAIN PRIVILEGES, EXEMPTIONS, AND IMMUNITIES
By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, including section 1 of the International Organizations Immunities Act (22 U.S.C. 288), and in order to extend the appropriate privileges, exemptions, and immunities to the International Criminal Police Organization (INTERPOL), it is hereby ordered that Executive Order 12425 of June 16, 1983, as amended, is further amended by deleting from the first sentence the words "except those provided by Section 2©, Section 3, Section 4, Section 5, and Section 6 of that Act" and the semicolon that immediately precedes them.
BARACK OBAMA THE WHITE HOUSE,
December 16, 2009.
After initial review and discussions between the writers of this analysis, the context was spelled out plainly. www.patriotroom.com/article/obama-exempts-interpol-from-search-and-seizure-on-us-lands
Through EO 12425, President Reagan extended to INTERPOL recognition as an "International Organization." In short, the privileges and immunities afforded foreign diplomats was extended to INTERPOL. Two sets of important privileges and immunities were withheld: Section 2© and the remaining sections cited (all of which deal with differing taxes).And then comes December 17, 2009, and President Obama. The exemptions in EO 12425 were removed.
Section 2c of the United States International Organizations Immunities Act is the crucial piece.
Property and assets of international organizations, wherever located and by whomsoever held, shall be immune from search, unless such immunity be expressly waived, and from confiscation. The archives of international organizations shall be inviolable. (Emphasis added.)
Inviolable archives means INTERPOL records are beyond US citizens' Freedom of Information Act requests and from American legal or investigative discovery ("unless such immunity be expressly waived.")
Property and assets being immune from search and confiscation means precisely that. Wherever they may be in the United States. This could conceivably include human assets - Americans arrested on our soil by INTERPOL officers.
Context: International Criminal Court
The importance of this last crucial point cannot be understated, because this immunity and protection - and elevation above the US Constitution - afforded INTERPOL is likely a precursor to the White House subjecting the United States under the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court (ICC). INTERPOL provides a significant enforcement function for the ICC, just as our FBI provides a significant function for our Department of Justice.
The rest of this article is available at: http://threatswatch.org/analysis/2009/12/print/wither_sovereignty/
*****
That's all folks.
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