The Good News is .......

I haven't had much to comment on lately regarding the news because not much has interested me.  Since my interest in having this blog in the first place was based on the premise I'd do it daily, I've been feeling somewhat guilty about missing several days at a time.  It occurred to me this morning that I'm not to blame,  It isn't my fault.  I'm guilty of nothing wrong.  I realized that the truth is there's just about no news happening.  There never was.  

The illusion that there is daily news grew out of the 1940's and 1950's newspaper culture where there were daily headlines.  Daily headlines do not translate into daily news.  Google has capitalized on this erroneous assumption too and on its News Page, it runs a long list of news headlines that are actually categorized and sanitized opinions about various aspects of our daily lives.  It is rarely new information about specific or timely events.  Michael Jackson died.  That was news at that time.  The one million other "news articles" about Michael Jackson are opinions about his death and circumstances and are not news.  They are filler, Googlespeak or pap, depending on our point of view.  So in conclusion, news is not a daily or weekly event, I still do timely articles on the news and the rest is simply whining about the human condition that most of us seem destined to do every day.  That's good news.

The Murder of Michael Jackson. Who did it?

My friend Steve wrote this simple but damningly truthful piece about the real cause of Michael Jackson's death and the individuals responsible for his murder.  Thanks Steve for pointing out that the mind-numbing greed of the big pharmaceutical companies who are in it for the profit rather than our good health,  are again responsible for another tragic death.

"Will Rogers once said, "It isn't what we don't know that gives us trouble. It's what we know that ain't so."  Like Elvis Presley, Anna Nicole Smith, and Heath Ledger, Michael Jackson is the latest in a line of people that "knew" that the way to deal with the pain and stress was to take prescription drugs.      Of course, this belief was reinforced by doctors who refuse to diagnose the cause of health problems and worship at the altar of prescription drugs-not to treat the problem but to block the symptoms.  We call this Radio Medicine-turn up the volume and ignore the cause of the sounds or symptoms.    News reports say that Michael Jackson had back pain.  The Radio Medicine solution is to use narcotics to block the signals and not to treat the problem.  In fact, there are reports that shortly before his death, Jackson received a large dose of morphine-legal heroin.      It is said that he was very anxious about his upcoming tour.  Rather than examine the cause of the anxiety, which could be physiological, the Radio Medicine solution-give him Xanax and Zoloft, not to treat the cause but to unsuccessfully drown out the symptoms he was experiencing.       The media focus on Michael Jackson's prescription drug addiction will surely get ratings, but it will also help save many lives and help many more escape from the trap of prescription drugs and Radio Medicine.  This new awareness of prescription drugs will not help the thousands who have lost children, spouses and friends to these deadly drugs, but it may save millions of lives that are now at risk."

Young Women: Their Tragic Place in History Repeats Itself With NEDA

Young Women: Their Tragic Place in History Repeats Itself With NEDA

Over 2000 years ago, a young queen of an area of England now called East Anglia rose up against a massive legion of occupying Roman forces and inspired the entire nation to cast the invaders out.  According to our records, Boadicea was and still is a great inspiration to those who would thwart tyrants.  Around 1431, the setting was France and a peasant girl from Eastern France became "St. Joanne of Arc" and led the French army to several inspiring victories before she was burned at the stake at 19 years old.   In Afghanistan in the 1970's, Meena, the founder of RAWA (Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan) inspired us all with her battle against Taliban Fundamentalism and the regional birth of women's rights, human rights and freedom before she was murdered by KGB forces in 1981, yet her voice is still heard around the world.

Today, another young woman has taken the baton and inspires freedom lovers the world over.  Her name is Neda which means "voice" in Farsi and she was murdered by the government supported militia in Tehran, Iran on Saturday.  Her death was recorded on video and has been seen by millions around the globe and again, it is the voice of a young woman who inspires us all to insist on democracy and human rights for all.

She was a 16 year old philosophy student.