Okay...I have a new favorite in the kitchen. A neat herb a friend in CA uses to make olives yummier called Grains of Paradise.

My friend dislikes the intense saltiness of most commercial green olives (I don't mind I like salty stuff) so he drains and rinses green olives then returns them to the jar that he his filled with a good light olive oil, some pickling spices and some Grains of Paradise.

I have to say they are quite yummy.

I am hoping to find some new uses for this spice. I imagine it lends itself well to a variety of dishes.

Anyone else know of or use this spice? If so I would love to hear some suggestions.

From http://grainsofparadise.com/

Adorissima Gourmet™
presents
Grains of Paradise

There’s an enchanting new flavor blowing towards America from the exotic shores of Western Africa.

Even its most familiar name – grains of Paradise – delights the imagination and tempts the palate with the promise of culinary adventure.

Grains Of Paradise This intriguing spice, often described as a vibrant blend of ginger, cardamom, and pepper, seems to be just as valuable in the medicine cabinet as it is in the spice rack. And although its arrival in the United States is a new chapter in the long, rich history of its story, the spice has made its way into many traditional dishes that are the mainstay of several global cuisines.

Native to the marshy coastal area of the Gulf of Guinea off Western Africa, this little-known member of the ginger family (Zingiberaceae) goes by a number of intriguing names. Botanically, it is the Aframomum meleguetta but is known by other names to many people.

The indigenous Obro tribesmen have long known the meleguetta pepper as yoruba; the Chitta call it hausa. Other local names include wisa, formwisa, efom wisa, and apokuo. Its peppery personality and native environment are undoubtedly responsible for its identification as Guinea pepper and alligator pepper.

In its native habitat, the meleguetta pepper is one of the exotic spices used in the traditional recipes of the peoples of the Grain Coast, stretching from Sierra Leone to Nigeria.

Grains Of Paradise Trade routes spanning the vast African desert during the 13th century led to the introduction of this unforgettable flavor to Italy and, soon thereafter, to the rest of the European continent.

Italian intrigue fueled the spread of the name “grains of Paradise” as demand from Elizabethan England generated a surge in popularity of this delightful flavor. It became a much-sought-after item on the list of new and exciting gourmet spices that was taking the continent by storm following the expansion of maritime trade routes to far-flung and exotic locales.

Cinnamon, ginger, cardamom, and black pepper were also delighting the palates of European aristocracy at the same time grains of Paradise was introduced. Indeed, these are often companion seasonings used in recipes featuring grains of Paradise.

Food fashions, as well as clothing fashions, follow trends and cycles and, over time, European interest in grains of Paradise waned. It remains, however, as a signature flavoring agent for alcoholic beverages such as aquavit, gin, beer, and some of the more complexly flavored liqueurs.

A modern-day revival of interest of the earthy flavor of this highly aromatic spice makes it a highly desirable gift for friends and family members who enjoy cooking with exciting seasonings. Winter holidays, and the traditional showering of gifts they bring, provide the perfect opportunity to delight gourmet cooks on your list with gift baskets featuring this lively spice and perhaps a recipe or two for cooking ideas.

Grains of Paradise is an outstanding substitute for cardamom and black pepper. Recipes featuring grains of Paradise to include on your spicy gifts list include traditional European breads and cookies that feature cardamom or black pepper.

Consider crusty artisan-inspired breads sprinkled with coarsely cracked seeds of grains of Paradise paired with sesame, fennel, or caraway seeds. To further impress your dining companions, be sure to include a bowl of olive oil seasoned with grains of Paradise and perhaps a little garlic and fresh thyme. A communal bowl of this delicious sauce is sure to enhance any meal when passed around so dinner guests can drizzle a generous spoonful on their breads. A small bowl of it at each plate adds a gourmet touch, too, and makes dipping irresistible.

Pfeffernusse, molasses, gingerbread, and other spiced cookies and biscotti are sure to please young and old alike. Put an air of intrigue in this year’s fruitcakes, too, by adding some ground grains of Paradise along with the favorite spices you traditionally use.

Include grains of Paradise in curried dishes of Northern African and Middle Eastern influence. Add it to zesty paella, cassoulets, and curry dishes. It’s a mainstay in Moroccan, Ghanaian, and Ethiopian cooking, too, so consider including it in your Kwanzaa food festivities. Equal parts curry and ground grains of Paradise add a mischievous new twist to the ubiquitous holiday deviled egg, too.

Enliven your beverages with unground grains of Paradise. Spice up some coffee to accompany a rich chocolaty dessert. For warm winter beverages laced with wine, rum, brandy, or whiskey, add some whole seeds of this mystical African spice to add an exotic touch of warmth to a chilly winter evening. Sprinkle freshly ground grains of Paradise atop your favorite eggnog for a lively new spin on a traditional holiday treat.

Put some zest into your tea, served hot or iced, with the addition of some grains of Paradise, a cinnamon stick, a slice of fresh ginger, and a generous dollop of honey during the steeping process. Try this same blend of seasonings with dried hibiscus flowers for a pleasantly pungent herbal tea.

Enjoy the versatile flavor of grains of Paradise in everything from the main course to all the trimmings. Include it in beverages served hot or cold. Dazzle your dinner guests with this exotic new flavor they’re sure to remember all year long.

And don’t be surprised when your favorite restaurant starts featuring meals livened up with the flavor of grains of Paradise. This exciting, exotic flavor works well from appetizer to dessert and innovative chefs everywhere will, no doubt, feature it proudly in the most imaginative ways. This lively flavor is sure to become one of the hottest food trends around.

In fact, a recent issue of the Culinary Trend Mapping Report identifies new and exotic spices as leading the way among food manufacturers and chefs alike as the most versatile innovation to the culinary arena of late. Watch for grains of Paradise to quickly become celebrated as the industry’s favorite new superstar once the secret is out.

And reach for grains of Paradise when you’re not feeling quite so dazzling, too.

Some exciting studies are being conducted at some very prestigious research facilities that are unlocking the secrets to the many medicinal values of grains of Paradise. Its place as a functional food, one that provides both nourishment and health benefits, has been known throughout the ages in its indigenous Africa but scientists in the US are busy at work discovering new and exciting uses for this mystical plant.

The Rutgers University Biotechnology Center in New Jersey works with an amber-colored extract from the plant they consider more precious than the most rare golden topaz. This liquid “gemstone” is proving to be an incredibly powerful anti-inflammatory agent that rivals Vioxx, Celebrex, and Bextra and it seems to do so without the undesirable and dangerous side effects the prescription drugs are known to cause.

Phytomedics Inc., a New Jersey pharmaceutical company, is licensed by Avon Products Inc. to develop skin care products that harness the healing properties of liquid grains of Paradise when applied to blemishes and injuries to the skin.

The signs of aging everyone dreads – wrinkled, dry skin that has lost its elasticity and sheen – are attributed to the effects of long-term inflammation triggered by a lifestyle that includes poor dietary choices. Avon and Phytomedics are working together to develop a line of products that employ the anti-inflammatory properties of grains of Paradise to offset this effect of enjoying a long life.

Phytomedics also finds that grains of Paradise works as a powerful pain-relieving agent when rubbed on an arthritic joint. And, once again, chronic inflammation is being cited as the cause of arthritis in a growing list of scientific research studies.

Patents are pending for Interleukin Genetics, which is developing remedies based on grains of Paradise, which are intended for treatment of Alzheimer’s disease, osteoporosis, arthritis, and cardiovascular diseases, all thought to be triggered by the immune system’s response to inflammation.

The health-sustaining benefits of eating a diet high in foods known to offset the aging process, due to anti-inflammatory agents, was recently publicized on the Oprah show. Oprah’s nutritional expert, Dr. Nicholas Perricone, encourages a healthy diet, including beneficial herbs and spices, as a safe, natural, and highly effective means of living young forever.

Indeed, the peoples indigenous to grains of Paradise’s native habitat have relied on the medicinal properties of this wonder plant for countless generations. In its native environment, people regularly chew seeds to relieve dysentery, toothache, migraines, and to reduce fever. It’s also said to be a potent sexual stimulant.

Even African gorillas are lending a hand in the discovery of the medicinal secrets locked away in these tiny powerhouses. These incredibly robust animals thrive in the wild but quickly decline in health once in captivity. Attention lately has compared their behaviors in the wild to their treatment after capture.

Seems even wild gorillas enjoy a daily dose of fresh seeds from grains of Paradise plants in their native habitat. But once removed from the wild, and from grains of Paradise, inflammatory conditions soon develop, with heart disease coming quickest.

Studies under way at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases is now following the lead of the gorillas to explore the use of grains of Paradise for treating heart disease and control of penicillin-resistant Staphylococcus infections. The powerful anti-inflammatory and antibiotic effects of grains of Paradise are proving to be potent and very successful in repeated laboratory tests conducted throughout the United States.

Although grown in a very small geographic location, improved cultivation and harvest techniques are being studied by numerous entities. This exciting, delicious, medicinal plant is expected to soon become the darling of culinary society once again.

Glad some enjoyed this.

Here from Neatorama are some other remembrance days from other parts of the world.

Five Other Remembrance Days Across the World
Posted by Stacy in Everything Else, Neatorama Only on May 25, 2009 at 8:05 am

Those of us in the U.S. are celebrating Memorial Day today - a day to honor lost loved ones and soldiers (more on that in a minute). But our Memorial Day is just one of many Remembrance days across the world. Here are the traditions of a few of them (and a little explanation of ours).

U.S. Memorial Day

The U.S. Memorial Day was originally conceived to honor soldiers (Union soldiers, specifically) who had fallen in the Civil War, so you can see it has been a tradition for quite some time. It’s hard to say exactly where it started, because more than two dozen cities claim they originated the day, but in 1966, Lyndon B. Johnson officially declared Waterloo, N.Y., the home of Memorial Day. Although some of us forget what a solemn occasion the day is, at least one group of people remember: the soldiers of the 3rd U.S. Infantry spend the Thursday prior to the holiday placing small American flags at the graves of more than a quarter of a million gravestones in Arlington National Cemetery. They spend the rest of the weekend patrolling the grounds to make sure each and every flag remains upright and flying.

Anzac Day

Every year on the 25th of April, Australia and New Zealand honor their soldiers - the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) - who fought in the Gallipoli Campaign of WWI. Nearly 11,000 soldiers died during the eight-month campaign (and nearly 80,000 died in the war overall). The holiday was officially declared in 1920 and ever since, people have honored some obvious traditions - memorial services, marches and events honoring veterans - and some not-so obvious ones. For instance, some people play two-up, an Australian gambling game, because it was one of the ways soldiers amused themselves. And it’s not uncommon to add a little rum to your coffee that day to honor the “gunfire breakfast” some soldiers used to warm their bellies before battle. Like the United States’ Memorial Day, Anzac Day has now broadened to honor all loved ones who have passed away and not just the soldiers.

Vimy Ridge Day

This unofficial Canadian holiday has only been around since 2003, so compared to the others on the list, it’s a newcomer. On the ninth of April, Canadians remember their lost soldiers from the Battle of Vimy Ridge from WWI. It was the first time all four divisions of the Canadian Corps had ever fought together, and although they were successful in taking the ridge from the German troops, they lost nearly 4,000 men in the process. Canadians honor the soldiers who gave their lives in this battle by lowering flags to half mast, holding ceremonies and leaving wreaths on graves and monuments. Unlike others on this list, this holiday has not expanded to include any deceased loved ones - it remains specifically dedicated to the Battle of Vimy Ridge. Incidentally, there is a monument at the actual site of the battle; it’s one of only two Canadian National Monuments located outside of Canada (the other one is also in France).

Dodenherdenking

The Dutch remember the members of the armed forces of the Kingdrom of the Netherlands on May 4 every year. The royal family attends a ceremony held at the national monument on Dam Square in Amsterdam and at 8 p.m., the entire country grinds to a halt for two minutes in respect to those who died in wars or peacekeeping missions. Public transportation doesn’t run and television and radio stations don’t broadcast anything. Up until 1961, Dodenherdenking was only meant to honor victims of WWII, but like most other countries with similar memorial days, it now includes everyone. Dutch people have another holiday the following day the fifth of May is Liberation Day in the Netherlands and celebrates the day the Canadian army (largely the Canadian army, anyway) freed the Netherlands from Nazi occupation during WWII. Strangely, Liberation Day used to be held only once every five years, but since 1990, it has been a yearly event. Photo via Canada at War.

Volkstrauertag

The German memorial day was proposed in 1919 and was meant to remember those who died in WWI. Some thought it was appropriate and others didn’t, largely due to the fact that there was a dispute over what laws the Reich could enact and what laws the states could enact. It created a lot of confusion (and probably some angry politicians), so it wasn’t really regularly celebrated until about 1934, when the Nazis declared it an official holiday. Except they mangled the meaning all around and called it Heldengedenktag, the Day of Commemoration of Heroes. It’s not a bad idea in theory, but the Nazis turned it into inappropriate (and scary) hero-worship. That version of Volkstrauertag ended in 1945, but in 1948, the country brought back the holiday with its original intent. To commemorate the occasion, two Sundays before Advent, various goverment officials from the Chancellor to the Bundespräsident give speeches and the song “Ich hatt’ einen Kameraden” (I had a comrade) is played. Photo via Reservistenverband.

When my middle daughter was in high school they had a short story section. The kids were told to bring in their favorite short story to share with the class.

Becca took in Harrison Bergeron (plot summary below) a short story from the book Welcome to the Monkeyhouse by one of my favorite authors Kurt Vonnegut. The English teacher had never heard of Vonnegut. (Something that astounded me but oh well)

Her teacher was quite pleased with Becca's contribution and at the end of the year we gifted the teacher the book because she's told Becca she would be using the story in future classes. The next year it was included in the course.

I honestly believe there are a lot more people in the world who want to read and who oppose banning books than there are book banners. The problem is those who seek to ban books are loud and organized. They show up at libraries and school board meetings with pitchforks and torches in hand and politicians and public servants ever aware of the potential power of mob rule and wary of being branded libertines bow to the pressure.

It is essential that people who believe in free thought and expression! Show up too! Go to the school board meetings and the library board meetings. Express your support for freedom. Let public officials and libraries know you will support bravery in the face of the morals police, the religious wing nuts and all the other pitch fork carrying, torch wielding mobs.

For those curious about the story Harrison Bergeron I suggest reading it. Short that I will give you this.

Stealing the plot summary from wiki so here it is:

In the story, societal equality has been achieved by handicapping the more intelligent, athletic or beautiful members of society down to the level of the lowest common endowment. This process is central to the society, designed so that no one will feel inferior to anyone else. Handicapping is overseen by the United States Handicapper General, Diana Moon Glampers.

Harrison Bergeron, the protagonist of the story, has exceptional intelligence, height, strength and beauty and thus has to bear enormous handicaps. These include headphones that play distracting noises, three hundred pounds of weight strapped to his body, forty pounds of birdshot around his neck, eyeglasses designed to give him headaches, and a rubber ball on his nose, black caps on his teeth, and shaven eyebrows to hide his beauty. Despite these societal handicaps, he is able to invade a TV station, declare himself emperor, strip himself of his handicaps, then dance with a ballerina whose handicaps he has also discarded. Both are shot dead by the brutal and relentless Handicapper General. The story is framed by an additional perspective from Bergeron's parents, who are watching the incident on TV, but because of their handicaps and less than average intelligence, cannot concentrate enough to appreciate what occurs nor remember it.

I completely agree Creative.

Kids who are shelter, pampered, insulated, and denied information and experiences such as failure have a rude awakening when they get out into the real world. Well, the self aware ones anyway. Never underestimate the power of denial haha

Hey, who needs military intelligence when you have the Bible around right?

I have said it for a long time and I will keep saying it. Religious zealots be they Christian, Muslim or any other religion are dangerous.

Those here in the U.S. are no different from those we vilify overseas.

Makes me want to throw up.

Biblical Prophesy and the Iraq War
Bush, God, Iraq and Gog

By Clive Hamilton

May 23, 2009 "Counterpunch" -- The revelation this month in GQ magazine that Donald Rumsfeld as Defense Secretary embellished top-secret wartime memos with quotations from the Bible prompts a question. Why did he believe he could influence President Bush by that means?

The answer may lie in an alarming story about George Bush’s Christian millenarian beliefs that has yet to come to light.

In 2003 while lobbying leaders to put together the Coalition of the Willing, President Bush spoke to France’s President Jacques Chirac. Bush wove a story about how the Biblical creatures Gog and Magog were at work in the Middle East and how they must be defeated.

In Genesis and Ezekiel Gog and Magog are forces of the Apocalypse who are prophesied to come out of the north and destroy Israel unless stopped. The Book of Revelation took up the Old Testament prophesy:

“And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, And shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle … and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them.”

Bush believed the time had now come for that battle, telling Chirac:

“This confrontation is willed by God, who wants to use this conflict to erase his people’s enemies before a New Age begins”.

The story of the conversation emerged only because the Elysée Palace, baffled by Bush’s words, sought advice from Thomas Römer, a professor of theology at the University of Lausanne. Four years later, Römer gave an account in the September 2007 issue of the university’s review, Allez savoir. The article apparently went unnoticed, although it was referred to in a French newspaper.

The story has now been confirmed by Chirac himself in a new book, published in France in March, by journalist Jean Claude Maurice. Chirac is said to have been stupefied and disturbed by Bush’s invocation of Biblical prophesy to justify the war in Iraq and “wondered how someone could be so superficial and fanatical in their beliefs”.

In the same year he spoke to Chirac, Bush had reportedly said to the Palestinian foreign minister that he was on “a mission from God” in launching the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan and was receiving commands from the Lord.

There can be little doubt now that President Bush’s reason for launching the war in Iraq was, for him, fundamentally religious. He was driven by his belief that the attack on Saddam’s Iraq was the fulfilment of a Biblical prophesy in which he had been chosen to serve as the instrument of the Lord.

Many thousands of Americans and Iraqis have died in the campaign to defeat Gog and Magog. That the US President saw himself as the vehicle of God whose duty was to prevent the Apocalypse can only inflame suspicions across the Middle East that the United States is on a crusade against Islam.

There is a curious coda to this story. While a senior at Yale University George W. Bush was a member of the exclusive and secretive Skull & Bones society. His father, George H.W. Bush had also been a “Bonesman”, as indeed had his father. Skull & Bones’ initiates are assigned or take on nicknames. And what was George Bush Senior’s nickname? “Magog”.

Clive Hamilton is a Visiting Professor at Yale University He can be reached at: mail@clivehamilton.net.au.

Notes.
Jocelyn Rochat, ‘George W. Bush et le Code Ezéchiel’, Allez Savoir!, No. 39, September 2007
http://www.rue89.com/2007/09/17/un-petit-scoop-sur-bush-chirac-dieu-gog-et-magog
http://www.plon.fr/ficheLivre.php?livre=9782259210218
http://www.palestinechronicle.com/view_article_details.php?id=14890
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2005/oct/07/iraq.usa

Excellent stuff here!

I'd contribute to her college fund. Here is a link to the question on yahoo with comments below.

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AoCt3NHGwM8BxD2H1669H3_ty6IX;_ylv=3?qid=20090305151758AA7dWwd

Kid keeping a lending library of banned books in his her locker
Posted by Cory Doctorow, May 24, 2009 6:32 AM | permalink
Javier sez, "A teenager asks Yahoo! Questions whether maintaining a lending library in his school locker is illegal (as opposed of merely in contravention of school regulations). A school friend asked to borrow off him The Catcher in the Rye, one of the books in the banned list, and one thing led to another..."

This happened a lot and my locker got to overflowing with the banned books, so I decided to put the unoccupied locker next to me to a good use. I now have 62 books in that locker, about half of what was on the list. I took care only to bring the books with literary quality. Some of these books are:

The Perks of Being a Wallflower
His Dark Materials trilogy
Sabriel
The Canterbury Tales
Candide
The Divine Comedy
Paradise Lost
The Godfather
Mort
Interview with the Vampire
The Hunger Games
The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court
Animal Farm
The Witches
Shade's Children
The Evolution of Man
the Holy Qu'ran
... and lots more.

Anyway, I now operate a little mini-library that no one has access to but myself. Practically a real library, because I keep an inventory log and give people due dates and everything. I would be in so much trouble if I got caught, but I think it's the right thing to do because before I started, almost no kid at school but myself took an active interest in reading! Now not only are all the kids reading the banned books, but go out of their way to read anything they can get their hands on. So I'm doing a good thing, right? Oh, and since you're probably wondering "Why can't you just go to a local library and check out the books?" most of the kids are too chicken or their parents won't let them but the books. I think that people should have open minds. Most of the books were banned because they contained information that opposed Catholicism. I limit my 'library' to only the sophmores, juniors and seniors just in case so you can't say I'm exposing young people to materiel they're not mature enough for. But is what I'm doing wrong because parents and teachers don't know about it and might not like it, or is it a good thing because I am starting appreciation of the classics and truly good novels (Not just fad novels like Twilight) in my generation?

Give that kid a medal and a full-ride scholarship to the best library school in the country, please!

America does this too...

Government Experiments on U.S. Soldiers: Shocking Claims Come to Light in New Court Case

By Bruce Falconer, Mother Jones. Posted May 23, 2009.

Their stories are a staple of conspiracy culture: broken men, suffering hallucinations and near-total amnesia, who say they are victims of secret government mind-control experiments. Think Liev Schreiber in The Manchurian Candidate or Mel Gibson in Conspiracy Theory. Journalists are a favorite target for the paranoid delusions of this population. So is Gordon Erspamer—and the San Francisco lawyer's latest case isn't helping him to fend off the tinfoil-hat crowd. He has filed suit against the CIA and the US Army on behalf of the Vietnam Veterans of America and six former American soldiers who claim they are the real thing: survivors of classified government tests conducted at the Army's Edgewood Arsenal in Maryland between 1950 and 1975. "I get a lot of calls," he says. "There are a lot of crazy people out there who think that somebody from Mars is controlling their behavior via radio waves." But when it comes to Edgewood, "I'm finding that more and more of those stories are true!"

That government scientists conducted human experiments at Edgewood is not in question. "The program involved testing of nerve agents, nerve agent antidotes, psychochemicals, and irritants," according to a 1994 General Accounting Office (now the Government Accountability Office) report (PDF). At least 7,800 US servicemen served "as laboratory rats or guinea pigs" at Edgewood, alleges Erspamer's complaint, filed in January in a federal district court in California. The Department of Veterans Affairs has reported that military scientists tested hundreds of chemical and biological substances on them, including VX, tabun, soman, sarin, cyanide, LSD, PCP, and World War I-era blister agents like phosgene and mustard. The full scope of the tests, however, may never be known. As a CIA official explained to the GAO, referring to the agency's infamous MKULTRA mind-control experiments, "The names of those involved in the tests are not available because names were not recorded or the records were subsequently destroyed." Besides, said the official, some of the tests involving LSD and other psychochemical drugs "were administered to an undetermined number of people without their knowledge."

Erspamer's plaintiffs claim that, although they volunteered for the Edgewood program, they were never adequately informed of the potential risks and continue to suffer debilitating health effects as a result of the experiments. They hope to force the CIA and the Army to admit wrongdoing, inform them of the specific substances they were exposed to, and provide access to subsidized health care to treat their Edgewood-related ailments. Despite what they describe as decades of suffering resulting from their Edgewood experiences, the former soldiers are not seeking monetary damages; a 1950 Supreme Court decision, the Feres case, precludes military personnel from suing the federal government for personal injuries sustained in the line of duty. The CIA's decision to use military personnel as test subjects followed the court's decision and is an issue Erspamer plans to raise at trial. "Suddenly, they stopped using civilian subjects and said, 'Oh, we can get these military guys for free,'" he says. "The government could do whatever it wanted to them without liability. We want to bring that to the attention of the public, because I don't think most people understand that." (Asked about Erspamer's suit, CIA spokeswoman Marie Harf would say only that the agency's human testing program has "been thoroughly investigated, and the CIA fully cooperated with each of the investigations.")

Erspamer's involvement in the case is deeply personal. His father was a government scientist during Operation Crossroads, a series of nuclear tests conducted at Bikini Atoll in the Pacific in the summer of 1946; he was present aboard a research vessel for the "Baker" test, during which a 21-kiloton thermonuclear bomb was detonated 90 feet below water. The blast resulted in massive radioactive contamination. Erspamer's father and the rest of the ship's crew, he says, all died in middle age from radiogenic diseases. Erspamer makes his living in the field of energy litigation, but has twice before argued class action suits for veterans—one for soldiers who, like his father, were exposed to radiation during nuclear tests (a case he ultimately lost in a 1992 appellate decision) and more recently one on behalf of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans denied treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder. The case is on appeal in California's 9th Circuit. "Nobody out there is doing these types of cases," he says. "It's really sad because the veterans are left holding the bag, and it's not a very pretty bag."

One of those vets is Frank Rochelle. Unlike those of other test veterans, portions of his heavily redacted medical records have survived, providing a rare, if incomplete, account of his experiences. In 1968, while posted at Virginia's Fort Lee as a 20-year-old Army draftee, he saw a notice calling for volunteers for the Edgewood program. Among the promised incentives were relief from guard duty, the freedom to wear civilian clothes, three-day weekends, and, upon completion, a medal of commendation—all for participation in experiments that, according to the notice, would help the military test a new generation of equipment, clothing, and gas masks. Upon his arrival at the testing facility in Maryland, he says he was asked to sign a series of documents, including a release form and a secrecy agreement. The tests would be risk free, he says he was told, and any drugs given would not exceed normal dosage. Over the next two months, however, he was subjected to three rounds of experiments that, Rochelle says, left him permanently damaged. His medical records indicate that he was exposed to nonlethal incapacitating agents like DHMP and glycolate, both of which act as sedatives that produce hallucinations. In the latter case, Rochelle says he was taken into a gas chamber and strapped to a chair by two men in white lab coats, who affixed a mask to his face and told him to breathe normally. He quickly lost consciousness. According to Erspamer's complaint, "Over the next two to three days, Frank was hallucinating and high: he thought he was three feet tall, saw animals on the walls, thought he was being pursued by a 6-foot-tall white rabbit, heard people calling his name, thought that all his freckles were bugs under his skin, and used a razor to try to cut these bugs out. No one from the clinical staff intervened on his behalf…"

Medical records indicate that Rochelle went through a third round of testing, but he has no memory of it. For years he's been having nightmares about the Edgewood tests and now suffers from anxiety, memory loss, sleep apnea, tinnitus, and loss of vision, all of which he claims are direct results of the experiments. Still, he didn't inform his doctor of the tests until 2006, believing that he was still bound by the oath of secrecy he swore in 1968. (The government finally released human test subjects to speak to their physicians about the tests in June 2006, under the condition that they not "discuss anything that relates to operational information that might reveal chemical or biological warfare vulnerabilities or capabilities.")

Rochelle's story is similar to those of Erspamer's other plaintiffs, all of whom claim to be suffering debilitating health effects stemming from the experiments. Of course, substantiating these claims is a challenge, given that most of the medical records were destroyed upon completion of the program. Rochelle's records remain intact, but for "others we have less information," says Erspamer. "We spent a great deal of time on that topic, and we are confident that the plaintiffs are who they say they are, were where they said they were, and got what they said they got," in terms of exposure to experimental chemicals. "Who bears the burden on that issue when the defendants destroyed the evidence?" Erspamer asks. "They've put all that stuff through the shredder."

Compensation for injuries sustained during human testing of chemical and biological agents is not unprecedented. Last year, more than 350 servicemen who served as test subjects at Porton Down, a secret military research facility where the British government conducted its own series of mind-control experiments, were granted nearly $6 million in compensation in an out-of-court settlement with the UK's Ministry of Defence. Likewise, in 2004, the Canadian government began offering $18,000 payments to eligible veterans of experiments at its testing facilities. Nevertheless, says Erspamer, "No American soldiers have ever been compensated." The CIA and the Army "just hope they're all gonna die off, and they will unless somebody does something."

I say let's lock up Thomas3474 for six years in a concrete and wire cage without charges or access to representation then see what happens.

Who is the "they"?

I had some continuing education classes not long ago that were required for folks taking criminal justice degrees. Most of the young men in my classes were hoping to be police officers.

One Monday evening a classmate, the twenty year old son of a local prosecutor, showed up bruised and cut. He shared his weekend adventure with the class quite enthusiastically and it prompted a discussion that the instructor, a former policeman and the head of the metro areas security for the public schools, joined in on.

"Fighting is fun isn't it?!", instructor.

"Yeah, I love bustin' heads. That's what I do on the weekend. Maybe have a few brews and look for fights", kid.

"Yep I remember when I was your age. I was always looking for fights. That's one of the reasons I became a cop", instructor.

"Yeah I know, I can't wait till I can bust some heads legally", kid.

With this the instructor chuckled as many or really most of the young men in the class voiced their enthusiasm for fighting. What followed was another twenty minutes or so of stories from the instructor of the enjoyable violence he had engaged in while serving as a police officer until one woman got up and walked out of the class. Her departure seemed to remind him that maybe he shouldn't be sharing the things he was and we got back on task.

Oh, the class subject material? Ethics in law enforcement.

If that instructor and those potential young officers are an indication of what even a small fraction of officers are like that is a problem. It is suppose to be protect and serve after all and not brutalize and bully.

Anyone else watching the Blackhawks completely melting down in Game 4?

Nice to see their barn so quiet especially after all the pissing and moaning about the clean legal Kronwall hit in Game 3.

You have to wonder if they will be as quiet about all the cheap shots the hawks are taking in the 3rd period.

Asses...

It really is to bad they have to resort to that in their last game at home. The resurgence of hockey in Chitown is good for hockey. Don't get me wrong I like a fight now and then and I like the physical game but the hawks classless performance and cheap shots today aren't.

This story has it all.

Small minds, prejudice, bigotry, idiocy, fear mongering, thought police....the hits keep coming!

I have news for them...gay people are every where.

The school officials ought to smarten up oh and be fired too.

Lessons on Gay Equality From The Mouths of Babes

Harvey_milk_penn Last week, I wrote about nine-year-old Ethan McNamee, a Denver third-grader who organized a gay rights rally at the Colorado State Capitol on Saturday, May 16. Today, I want to introduce you to another young gay rights supporter, Natalie Jones, a sixth-grader from Mt. Woodson Elementary School in Ramona, CA.

Earlier this month, Natalie was given an assignment as part of her independent research class to prepare a written report on any topic. After having seen the Academy-Award winning movie Milk, starring Sean Penn, Natalie chose to write about the man Penn portrays in the film, real-life gay rights activist Harvey Milk. She received a score of 49 out of 50 possible points for her assignment.

After the grading, Natalie and the other students in the research class were then told to create power-point presentations from their projects to show classmates. But the day before Natalie was to give her presentation, she was called to the principal's office and told she couldn't do so.

Bonnie Jones, Natalie's mother, spoke with the superintendent of schools about the disturbing turn of events. The superintendent told her that a district board policy on “Family Life/Sex Education” prevented Natalie from sharing her assignment with the class.

That policy reads, in part, “(P)arents/guardians shall be notified in writing about any instruction in which human reproductive organs and their functions, processes, or sexually transmitted diseases are described, illustrated, or discussed. In addition, before any instruction on family life, human sexuality, AIDS or sexually transmitted diseases is given, the parent/guardian shall be provided with written notice explaining that the instruction will be given ... ”

A few days later, parents of students in Natalie's class received letters from the school explaining that her presentation on Harvey Milk would be held during lunch recess on May 8, and that students could only attend if they had permission.

That news further upset Natalie's mom, who told the American Civil Liberties Union, "This whole thing is unbelievable — first my daughter got called into the principal’s office as if she were in some kind of trouble, and then they treated her presentation like it was something icky. Harvey Milk was an elected official in this state and an important person in history. To say my daughter’s presentation is ‘sex education’ because Harvey Milk happened to be gay is completely wrong.”

Elizabeth Gill, a staff attorney with the ACLU’s national LGBT Project, agrees with Jones. “Schools that act as if any mention of the existence of gay people is something too controversial or ‘sensitive’ to discuss are doing a disservice to their students,” said Gill. “This school completely overstepped its bounds in trying to silence Natalie Jones by shunting her presentation off to a lunch recess time and misusing a school policy to justify requiring parental permission to see it.”

Acting on behalf of Natalie and Bonnie Jones, the ACLU sent a letter to the Ramona Unified School District on May 20, notifying the district that it violated the sixth-grader's free speech rights when it refused to allow her to give the presentation in class, and that it improperly required classmates to get parental permission to see the presentation.

The school district has five days to respond or the ACLU may file a lawsuit.

Tomorrow marks the fifth day, but it's also a holiday. So, we'll likely have to wait a day to get word of the district's response. I'll post it here when the response is published.

http://www.pimpmywry.com/2009/05/lessons-on-gay-equality-from-the-mouths-of-babes.html

I thank you for pointing out my mistake so kindly.

I agree with you.

Some days...and this is one of them I can happily say...I am not a member of Thomas3474's imaginary majority.

Once more...simple solutions for simple minds.

Yes I do know...haha

I have since I was a child interchanged them when talking. I do the same thing (not to trivialize my mistake) with my ankles and elbows and with the ground and the floor.

My family laughs about it and I will fess up to this mistake when we meet this weekend. The family joke is, "Mom's reset the calender again"

Veterans Day is a day to honor all that served.

I don't wish to overlook anyone but I just heard some numbers.

Less than 2mil vets of WWII are now alive and 1,200 of them die daily.

Please...do not forget the sacrifice of those men and women this weekend and all the men and women who serve along with their families while you are grilling burgers or basking in the sun this holiday weekend.

Yes...this is what America does...but...we have, or some of us have including our founders, aspired to a higher standard.

What some would do now is abandon that standard and act in ways that make us indistinguishable from those we vilify.

"All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing." (Edmund Burke)

Okay folks...I hesitate to ask others to write letters or to help but sometimes I see these small abuses that really make me mad.

If any reading is mad about this please let the State of Ohio know.

Pics and video at: http://www.wcpo.com/news/local/story/Man-Gets-Flat-Tire-State-Threatens-Foreclosure/Tewa5WHxWU6_vbRk0nJfCQ.cspx

FAYETTEVILLE, Ohio -- A broken road reflector cost Paul Holden the price a new tire, and now it could cost him his home.

That's the threat from the Ohio Attorney General if Holden doesn't pay another $24.66 the state says it spent investigating his claim for the flat tire.

The saga began nearly a year and a half ago on January 28, 2008 when Holden hit a six-pound metal road reflector protruding from the pavement on Ohio Route 286. "My truck just jumped in the air," says Holden. "The road reflector hit about the center of the tire and ripped a hole about three inches long."

Holden did what any good citizen would do; he called the county to report the problem so others could avoid a similar fate.

Holden told the county, "there was about eight or ten of them missing in that same area, and I just wanted to report it. And when I called to report it, they suggested that I could file a claim."

The State of Ohio charges $25.00 to file such a claim, and you can get that amount refunded if the claim is approved. Holden spent $89.00 replacing the flat tire, so he decided to roll the dice and file a claim with the state.

Officials responded with detailed reports and road inspection logs showing that crews checked Route 286 at least every two weeks. Because Holden could not prove how long the reflector was dislodged before he hit it, the state said it was not responsible.

Holden could have filed an appeal, but he decided to cut his losses with the $25.00 filing fee and the cost of the replacement tire.

Then more bills started coming from the state. The first was for an additional $22.00 for the state's investigation. Ohio officials were even charging Holden more than $6.00 in postage for letters they sent to him, including the bills.

Each subsequent bill added more fees, and a few cents in interest. Holden decided not to pay the bills because he'd figured -- as the victim -- he'd already paid enough.

The final notice came from Ohio's Attorney General demanding full payment within seven days, or the state would go after his "wages and bank accounts." The letter also said, "a sheriff's sale of your personal property may be held, and a foreclosure action against any real estate owned by you may be initiated."

Holden was amazed the state was threatening to seize his farmhouse over a $24.66 bill, but he took that threat seriously.

"When you get a letter from the Attorney General stating that they're going to auction off your property until the dollar amount was paid," he says, "it sure seems real to me."

We contacted both the Ohio Attorney General's office, and the Ohio Department of Transportation, but neither has responded to our requests for comment.

Holden paid the bill a few days before the letter from the AG's office arrived, so this should be the end of his ordeal.

Meanwhile, the state recently repaved the section Route 286 where Holden's tire was damaged. Surprisingly, they installed the very same steel reflectors that have caused serious injuries to dozens of people across the nation.

The state may not have learned its lesson, but Holden says he has learned his.

"Don't file a claim unless you've got some good high-powered lawyers behind you," says Holden, "because as the little guy, you're just out of luck."

http://www.wcpo.com/news/local/story/Man-Gets-Flat-Tire-State-Threatens-Foreclosure/Tewa5WHxWU6_vbRk0nJfCQ.cspx

Humm Nogames has asked a proper question.

I await responses to his last...

Okay so not really waiting. I think I will go have a shower.

When considering the news I sometimes find the words people use interesting. So, when I found this site I thought it was pretty interesting. Admittedly it isn't scientific but...it is interesting.

After all, the pen is mightier than the sword right?

The word "mingle" Rank: 27,450

The word "poop" Rank: 46,548

The word "session": 2,285

haha Editing this post to add the word Wyn (not win which ranks at 962): 25,291

WordCount™ is an artistic experiment in the way we use language. It presents the 86,800 most frequently used English words, ranked in order of commonness. Each word is scaled to reflect its frequency relative to the words that precede and follow it, giving a visual barometer of relevance. The larger the word, the more we use it. The smaller the word, the more uncommon it is.

WordCount data currently comes from the British National Corpus®, a 100 million word collection of samples of written and spoken language from a wide range of sources, designed to represent an accurate cross-section of current English usage. WordCount includes all words that occur at least twice in the BNC®. In the future, WordCount will be modified to track word usage within any desired text, website, and eventually the entire Internet.

WordCount was designed with a minimalist aesthetic, to let the information speak for itself. The interface is clean, basic and intuitive. The goal is for the user to feel embedded in the language, sifting through words like an archaeologist through sand, awaiting the unexpected find. Observing closely ranked words tells us a great deal about our culture. For instance, “God” is one word from “began”, two words from “start”, and six words from “war”. Another sequence is "america ensure oil opportunity". Conspiracists unite! As ever, the more one explores, the more is revealed. Some of the best sequences people have sent me are here.
NEW! WordCount tracks the way we use language. QueryCount tracks the way we use WordCount. Take a look.
#2 in the popular series "Fun with WordCount", we introduce the 1970's Movie Character Name Game!!!!

WordCount was designed and developed by Jonathan Harris of Number27, in conjunction with the FABRICA studio of Italy.


To put a word in go to: http://www.wordcount.org/main.php