ENOUGH ROOM

"The most costly of all follies is to believe passionately in the palpably not true. It is the chief occupation of mankind." - H. L. Mencken. "One of the common failings among honorable people is a failure to appreciate how thoroughly dishonorable some other people can be, and how dangerous it is to trust them." - Thomas Sowell. - Join search for truth learn to recognize it when you encounter it. See also enoughroomvideo.blogspot.com youtube.com/user/roybercaw [Editor: Roy Bercaw]

May 23, 2008

Fighting Stigma?

Fighting Stigma?

This article fails to mention any opposition to stigma, "a mark."
It does not address institutionalized unlawful discrimination or the
failure of the "advocates to oppose it. Why is this in the Styles
Section? Is it fashionable?
(GABRIELLE GLASER, "'Mad Pride' Fights a Stigma," The New York Times,
May 11, 2008) It celebrates a system of psychiatric labeling of
humans. There is no questioning of the labels or of what a psychiatric
illness is. This article promotes more of the same.
Psychiatry treats symptoms of illnesses only psychiatrists can
see. Charles Barber says this is new, i.e., accepting psychiatric
illnesses other than depression. Huh? All of these made up illnesses
are accepted by state and US legislatures, courts and journalists who
promote these business illnesses. Psychiatry is a belief system with
no science to back up the propaganda and the treatment using chemicals
to alter human perception.
The Times promotes a dangerous industry that harms humans and
denies many people their basic Constitutional rights. Once again
business trumps law.
Quoting E. Fuller Torrey shows that this is an anti human pro
industry essay. Torrey believes that anyone accused of mental illness
is dangerous, needs to be drugged and loses his or her rights. He is a
funding mechanism for the drug industry. David Oaks works with NAMI
(National Alliance for the Mentally Ill) which is the drug industry
front organization that pretends to be a patient advocate. NAMI
advocates for drug treatment. The Citizens Commission on Human Rights
was not mentioned. CCHR is the only organization to oppose this false
belief system politically. Psychiatry is a system of social control
used by government, corporations and relatives with no due process
protections.

Roy Bercaw - Editor ENOUGH ROOM

Full article at

http://tinyurl.com/6mbu4f

'Mad Pride' Fights a Stigma
The New York Times
By GABRIELLE GLASER
Published: May 11, 2008

6 comments:

Diogenes said...: [David Oaks sent me the below message on May 23, 2008 regarding the letter to the New York Times on stigma. My reply to this message is the next comment. Editor]

OPEN LETTER TO ROY BERCAW

Dear Roy,

I'll try to keep this brief, because another person has called our office, one more person complaining about being locked up and forcibly drugged in the psychiatric system, as I was myself in Massachusetts many years ago.

I'm glad MindFreedom is here to speak out.

I read what you wrote, copied below, about the New York Times MAD PRIDE article on 11 May 2008, which covered MindFreedom and can be read at http://www.mindfreedom.org.

Of course there are legitimate criticisms of that NY Times article. But what you wrote falsely and needlessly insulted me personally.

I'd like to ask you to distribute my open letter to the people you sent that to. I wonder if you will.

Roy, I appreciate you have e-mailed out many alerts over the years about the mental health system, and I've benefited from that. There's a role for the lone wolf writer.

But I've been a human rights activist in the field of mental health for 32 years, working in groups with thousands of others. Through I'm proud that I've maintained my independence at some personal sacrifice. Such independence is rare in the mental health field.

You claim in what you wrote that I work with NAMI, making it appear I'm somehow a shill for the drug companies that fund NAMI.

Actually, I'm proud to be one of the activists who for decades has helped to help lead protests of NAMI and drug company promotion of human rights violations, including:

* A hunger strike targeting three groups including NAMI, which refused to respond to our demands.

* Protests -- including a group protest I led from the streets peacefully going INSIDE a NAMI meeting. And another directly IN FRONT of PHARMA headquarters in Washington, D.C.

* An award-winning investigative article about NAMI drug company funding that I wrote.

And much more.

Perhaps because MindFreedom has protested in a unified way, we appear to be getting somewhere.

Here in Lane County we just had a Mad Pride skit and protest this past Saturday targeting the bullying of the psychiatric drug industry (including showing a worship of a five-foot pill) that can now be seen on YouTube:

http://www.mindfreedom.org/norm

And guess what, one of the participants in that skit, who helped plan it, and who is helping in our local affiliate... also happens to also be a NAMI member, and a good guy. He is getting his local NAMI affiliate to join in some of the local activities here for empowerment and self-determination, such as the Opal Network we helped start.

But I look at all that as a sign of our success. Back in the 1950's my relatives were targeted by the Red Scare, so I don't like the idea of slamming people's reputation because of guilt by association.

I'm also proud that MindFreedom, which I direct, is one of the few totally independent human rights groups in the mental health advocacy field, with zero links or connection to NAMI, drug companies, government, mental health industry, or religion. Of course, many of our members are also members of other groups, too, but our organization is totally independent.

Roy, your tactic of insulting and putting down human rights activists reminds me of the attack-based politics that has ruled in the USA for some time, and that a new generation of youth activists may be trying to leave in the past. I've seen that kind of division split up our social change movement for decades.

Perhaps that's one reason so many youth psychiatric survivors are now embracing Mad Pride activism: They can speak out about human rights, but use culture and fun to do so in a positive way.

MindFreedom itself has actively challenged and protested the psychiatric drug industry, though we do have a pro-choice position and a number of our members choose to take prescribed psychiatric drugs.

We didn't write that New York Times article about Mad Pride and MindFreeedom. If we did, I would write it differently. I'm not here to defend the NY Times, which I've certainly protested for years, too.

But the NY Times reporter at least tried to include a diversity of viewpoints, including MindFreedom's hunger strike critical of the psychiatric drug bullying in our culture. You said the journalist had "no questioning" of labels but the reporter did include an alternative to the phrase "mental illness" by saying some prefer to use the term "extreme mental states." The reporter also mentioned there are individuals highly critical of psychiatric drugs.

Roy, when the pro-industry New York Times is more fair than your own writing, it may be time for reflection.

I'm open to debating a variety of perspectives with anyone.

Being a writer certainly is important, and many of our members are writers, journalists and authors of books that can be seen in our Mad Market. Once more, I've benefited by your heads up about news items via your e-mail.

But as the civil rights movement showed, lone writing is not enough, it's also important to ORGANIZE, including working with other people in GROUPS.

You say below that Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR), which is part of the Church of Scientology, is the "only" organization worth supporting.

That's your choice.

We at MindFreedom have zero connections to or funding from CCHR or their sponsor Church of Scientology. This is not to criticize CCHR's work, it's just the truth.

But you may want to know that the leaders of CCHR have long-realized it's important for us in MindFreedom to have our total independence. We address that in our "Frequently Asked Questions" on our web site, including with a letter from our attorney.

A main tactic of the psychiatric industry for decades is to claim they only have one critic, CCHR. This is false, the industry has many critics, but it's easier to attack one opponent.

While CCHR leaders have always respected our decision at MindFreedom to be completely independent, I've heard nothing but praise from CCHR for the human rights activism that MindFreedom is engaged in, and for my own human rights work. Similarly, MindFreedom refuses to get caught up in any hate-speech and bigotry toward CCHR or Scientologists, and I've seen CCHR do some great human rights work.

I sincerely doubt whether CCHR leaders would endorse your false and insulting public put downs of me or our group, and I doubt whether they'd welcome your divisive insulting approach.

We at MindFreedom are not for everyone. And that's okay.

But we're willing to move toward a nonviolent revolution with others, whether they are one of the 100 affiliates and sponsors in our coalition or not.

MindFreedom was started back in the 1980's by embracing the idea of working together in a "spirit of mutual cooperation" as our mission statement. That's why we're one of the few totally independent psychiatric human rights groups.

We are for those ready for a united independent activism for a nonviolent revolution in the mental health system.

If anyone receiving this is interested, check out our work for yourself at http://www.mindfreedom.org, and feel free to ask me any questions at oaks@mindfreedom.org.

But now I have to make that phone call back to that individual locked up in a psychiatric institution... isn't that who we are doing this work for?

David
David W. Oaks, Director, MindFreedom International
http://www.mindfreedom.org; May 24, 2008 at 7:14:00 AM EDT
Diogenes said...: Hello David,

I am sorry if I said anything to upset you in my letter to the
NYTimes. However you substantiate what I said. You say in your
response, "And guess what, one of the participants in that skit, who
helped plan it, and who is helping in our local affiliate... also
happens to also be a NAMI member, and a good guy."
No doubt there are many good people who work with or for NAMI.
What is wrong with that? Why is that so upsetting to you? I do not see that my comment that you work with NAMI is in any way an insult. Check out the dictionary.
Your reply is too long for me to send in its entirety. People are
too busy to read my rants no less your's too. I will put your response up as a comment on my blog where the letter is posted. I will put my reply (this one) as a comment to your response. I hope that is acceptable to you.
You know that I am not the first person to object to your
coziness with NAMI. One problem with having a large organization is
that other organizations can infiltrate it. When it gets as large as your's is you spend a lot of time administatively. That is your focus. Mine differs.
When I worked at the state house 2001-02 writing bills to address discrimination none of the local groups many of them taxpayer funded helped me at all. I spent many hours writing and calling them asking them for their support. l got none. I did see some NAMI advocates acting for the legislature. Their slant was to promote treatment. They did not oppose abuses.
Calling me a "lone wolf writer" sounds like a label. Isn't that
what psychiatrists do? It is personal (ad hominem) unlike what I said about you.
You do not need to justify yourself. You are a great leader and a human rights advocate.You have a large organization and helped a lot of people. I admire you. I am grateful for your efforts.
I saw the video of the giant purple pill chasing people from the
Ken Kesey statue. It looked as if all the people were having a good
time. I wish that I could gather so many people. If you could get them
to go to lobby your local government you could have a great influence on how they spend US taxpayer funds. Cities and towns get US taxpayer funds for psychiatric treatment and policing. Politicians are fragile. With a large group you can scare the hell out of them.
You say, that I said CCHR "is the 'only' organization worth
supporting." I know you are intelligent and very well educated. I know you are a Harvard graduate. I know you are at least as busy as I am. But you need to read what I wrote not what you think I said. What I said is "CCHR is the only organization to oppose this false belief system politically."
You also attribute to my statement that you work with NAMI all kinds of extreme thoughts about associations and the Red Scare which are only in your interpretation. For someone with 32 years experience you have a very thin skin.

Roy Bercaw; May 24, 2008 at 7:17:00 AM EDT
Anonymous said...: Very well written piece and the comments are good as well; May 24, 2008 at 1:51:00 PM EDT
Diogenes said...: Hello David,

You may want to look at this video lecture "The Wires that
Control the Public Mind" given by Sheldon Rampton of PR Watch at the
U. of Wisconsin. (Abstract below)

http://youtube.com/watch?v=UUY9ahSCMG0

He spoke at a Google techtalk lecture May 6, 2008. It is about 40
minutes before the questions begin. At one point he explains how a PR
firm boasted of infiltrating their organization investigating
corporate lies published in the media. I have no evidence but I
suspect one of the drug companies has someone inside of your
organization as well.
The important pattern Rampton discusses is that much of what we
see in the news is really propaganda.

Roy

Google Tech Talks
May, 6 2008

ABSTRACT

"The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. ... In
almost every act of our daily lives, whether in the sphere of politics or business, in our social conduct or our ethical thinking, we are dominated by the relatively small number of persons ... who understand the mental processes and social patterns of the masses. It is they who pull the wires which control the public mind." -- Edward Bernays, founder of the public
relations industry.

Billions of dollars are spent each year in the United States alone on public relations, a little-understood profession that has become a modern propaganda-for-hire industry. "Publicity" was once the work of carnival hawkers and penny-ante hustlers smoking cigars and wearing cheap suits. Today's PR professionals are recruited from the ranks of former journalists,
retired politicians and eager-beaver college graduates eager to rise in the corporate world. They hobnob internationally with corporate CEOs, senators
and U.S. presidents. PR wizards concoct and spin the news, organize phony "grassroots" front groups, spy on citizens, and conspire with lobbyists and politicians to thwart democracy. In today's electronic age, they use 800-numbers and telemarketing, advanced databases, and "video news releases" -- entire news stories written, filmed and produced by PR firms and transmitted electronically to thousands of TV stations around the world. Canned news from PR firms is designed to be indistinguishable from real news and is increasingly taking its place, used as "story segments" on TV news shows without any attribution or disclaimer indicating that what viewers are
seeing is in fact subtle paid advertisements. On the internet as well, PR firms have created slick websites that promise to inform the public while pushing hidden agendas. Example include:
the Greening Earth Society (funded by the coal industry), which claims that global warming is actually good for the environment the Foundation for Clean Air Progress (which opposes regulations to control air pollution) the African American Republican Leadership Council (a conservative organization headed by white Republicans) Working Families for Wal-Mart (secretly funded, of course, by the Wal-Mart itself)
Project Learning Tree (sponsored by the logging industry) PR firms create front groups as part of what they call the "third party technique." The basic idea, as described by one PR executive, is to "Put your words in someone else's mouth." They realize that their messages are more likely to persuade the public if they come from seemingly independent "third parties" such as a professor or a pediatrician or someone representing a nonprofit citizens' group. The problem is, these third
parties are usually anything but neutral. They have been handpicked,
cultivated, and meticulously packaged to make you believe what they have to say--preferably in an "objective" format like a news show or a letter to the editor. And in some cases, they have been paid handsomely for their opinions.

Speaker: Sheldon Rampton
Sheldon Rampton researches deceptive PR firms for the Center for Media and Democracy and is the co-author, with John Stauber, of books including "Toxic Sludge Is Good For You: Lies, Damned Lies and the Public Relations Industry"; "Trust Us, We're Experts: How Industry Manipulates Science and
Gambles With your Future": and "Weapons of Mass Deception: The Uses of Propaganda in Bush's War on Iraq." He will discuss the Center's work including its website, Sourcewatch.org, a wiki-powered collaborative research project to document the "names behind the news."

(c) 2008 YouTube, Inc.

Roy Bercaw - Editor ENOUGH ROOM; May 25, 2008 at 11:01:00 AM EDT
Diogenes said...: [In response to my comment about the YouTube video about the PR Industry, David Oaks all-lawyered up like the best Harvard corporate moguls, sent me this warning. He really sounds like MLK, Jr. doesn't he? Editor]
Thanks for the information, and thanks your concern Roy. I work with folks in the movement to challenge corporate media, so I'm already familiar with the PR industry.

I am incredibly busy today because we are attending a premiere of a new documentary film, Little Brother Big Pharma, so this is just a brief note:

Roy, concerns are always important, and I'm glad to hear it. As director of MindFreedom I can tell you your "suspicion" about our group is unfounded.

That said, Roy, I need to mention something our attorney David Atkin told me a few years ago.

And I need to be really clear about it with you personally, in case you decide to make any accusation against us:

If any individual or group makes a false claim against us with intent to harm any of our board of directors or staff, our attorney has asked us to bring this up with him because he would need to pursue a potential defamation lawsuit, beginning with a warning letter.

You are welcome to bring this information up with your own attorney if you need legal advice about it.

Best wishes,

Sincerely,

David

David W. Oaks, Director, MindFreedom International
- Show quoted text -

On May 25, 2008, at 7:43 AM, Roy Bercaw wrote:

Hello David,

You may want to look at this video lecture "The Wires that
Control the Public Mind" given by Sheldon Rampton of PR Watch at the
U. of Wisconsin. (Abstract below)

http://youtube.com/watch?v=UUY9ahSCMG0

He spoke at a Google techtalk lecture May 6, 2008. It is about 40
minutes before the questions begin. At one point he explains how a PR
firm boasted of infiltrating their organization investigating
corporate lies published in the media. I have no evidence but I
suspect one of the drug companies has someone inside of your
organization as well.
The important pattern Rampton discusses is that much of what we
see in the news is really propaganda.

Roy

Google Tech Talks
May, 6 2008

ABSTRACT

"The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and
opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. ... In
almost every act of our daily lives, whether in the sphere of politics or
business, in our social conduct or our ethical thinking, we are dominated by
the relatively small number of persons ... who understand the mental
processes and social patterns of the masses. It is they who pull the wires
which control the public mind." -- Edward Bernays, founder of the public
relations industry.

Billions of dollars are spent each year in the United States alone on public
relations, a little-understood profession that has become a modern
propaganda-for-hire industry. "Publicity" was once the work of carnival
hawkers and penny-ante hustlers smoking cigars and wearing cheap suits.
Today's PR professionals are recruited from the ranks of former journalists,
retired politicians and eager-beaver college graduates eager to rise in the
corporate world. They hobnob internationally with corporate CEOs, senators
and U.S. presidents. PR wizards concoct and spin the news, organize phony
"grassroots" front groups, spy on citizens, and conspire with lobbyists and
politicians to thwart democracy. In today's electronic age, they use
800-numbers and telemarketing, advanced databases, and "video news releases"
-- entire news stories written, filmed and produced by PR firms and
transmitted electronically to thousands of TV stations around the world.
Canned news from PR firms is designed to be indistinguishable from real news
and is increasingly taking its place, used as "story segments" on TV news
shows without any attribution or disclaimer indicating that what viewers are
seeing is in fact subtle paid advertisements. On the internet as well, PR
firms have created slick websites that promise to inform the public while
pushing hidden agendas. Example include:

the Greening Earth Society (funded by the coal industry), which claims that
global warming is actually good for the environment
the Foundation for Clean Air Progress (which opposes regulations to control
air pollution)
the African American Republican Leadership Council (a conservative
organization headed by white Republicans)
Working Families for Wal-Mart (secretly funded, of course, by the Wal-Mart
itself)
Project Learning Tree (sponsored by the logging industry)

PR firms create front groups as part of what they call the "third party
technique." The basic idea, as described by one PR executive, is to "Put
your words in someone else's mouth." They realize that their messages are
more likely to persuade the public if they come from seemingly independent
"third parties" such as a professor or a pediatrician or someone
representing a nonprofit citizens' group. The problem is, these third
parties are usually anything but neutral. They have been handpicked,
cultivated, and meticulously packaged to make you believe what they have to
say--preferably in an "objective" format like a news show or a letter to the
editor. And in some cases, they have been paid handsomely for their
opinions.

Speaker: Sheldon Rampton
Sheldon Rampton researches deceptive PR firms for the Center for Media and
Democracy and is the co-author, with John Stauber, of books including "Toxic
Sludge Is Good For You: Lies, Damned Lies and the Public Relations
Industry"; "Trust Us, We're Experts: How Industry Manipulates Science and
Gambles With your Future": and "Weapons of Mass Deception: The Uses of
Propaganda in Bush's War on Iraq." He will discuss the Center's work
including its website, Sourcewatch.org, a wiki-powered collaborative
research project to document the "names behind the news."

(c) 2008 YouTube, Inc.

--
Roy Bercaw - Editor
ENOUGH ROOM
PO Box 400297
Cambridge MA 02140 USA
enoughroom.blogspot.com
enoughroomvideo.blogspot.com

David W. Oaks, Executive Director
MindFreedom International
454 Willamette, Suite 216 - POB 11284
Eugene, OR 97440-3484 USA

web: http://www.mindfreedom.org
email: oaks@mindfreedom.org
office phone: (541) 345-9106
fax: (541) 345-3737
member services toll free in USA: 1-877-MAD-PRID[e] or 1-877-623-7743

United Independent Activism for Human Rights in Mental Health!

MindFreedom International is an non-profit coalition with a vision of a non-violent revolution in mental health. Accredited by the United Nations as a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) with Consultative Roster Status.

Join now! http://www.mindfreedom.org/join-donate

"Human salvation lies in the hands of the creatively maladjusted."
- Martin Luther King, Jr.; May 25, 2008 at 11:15:00 AM EDT
Diogenes said...: [Kevin Hall, New England Director of Citizens Commission on Human Rights sent me this message]
"Hi Roy,
David is actually right. He hates NAMI, has personally protested them
and has often attacked them on his web site.

He did thank you for speaking out against psychiatry in your letter
and maybe you should correct things with him? None of us are perfect,
but I think he's trying to do a lot of good things.

If you decide to write him, I would appreciate if you could include my comment."

I [Editor] found a news alert David Oaks sent out dated Nov. 3, 1999. It is about a Mother Jones article dated Dec 1999 pp 22-23 which reveals that 18 drug companies gave NAMI $11.72 between 1996-99.
David Oaks' dedication to fighting psychiatric abuses is beyond doubt. I pointed out the presence of NAMI members within his organization. If that is not of concern sobeit." [Editor]; May 28, 2008 at 1:10:00 PM EDT

DROP A DIME AT:

You can send me an email at rb662 (at) columbia.edu

US Federal Debt July 2, 2016 $19,385,011,022,974.42.

The estimated population of the United States is 323,268,727 so each citizen's share of this debt is $59,965.62. The National Debt has continued to increase an average of $2.42 billion per day since September 30, 2012!

"Sarchasm:" the gulf between the author of sarcastic wit and the recipient who doesn't get it. (Tom Witte, Gaithersburg)" Washington Post August 2, 1998, Style.

George Washington (1732-1799) "Government is not reason; it is not eloquent -- it is force. Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master."

Albert Einstein (1879-1955) "The world is a dangerous place to live, not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don't do anything about it." "If you are out to describe the truth, leave elegance to the tailor." "Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid."

John Adams (1735-1826) Our constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.

Thomas Sowell (1930 -) "One of the common failings among honorable people is a failure to appreciate how thoroughly dishonorable some other people can be, and how dangerous it is to trust them."

Noam Chomsky (1928 -) “If we don't believe in freedom of expression for people we despise, we don't believe in it at all” (Guardian (UK), Nov.23, 1992)

Louis Pasteur (1822-1895) "Chance favors the prepared mind."

Winston Churchill (1874-1965) "If you will not fight for the right when you can easily win without bloodshed, if you will not fight when your victory will be sure and not too costly, you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with all the odds against you and only a small chance of survival. There may even be a worse case: you may have to fight when there is no hope of victory, because it is better to perish than to live as slaves." - "The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter." "The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings; the inherent virtue of socialism is the equal sharing of miseries." "Never give in. Never give in. Never, never, never, never - in nothing, great or small, large or petty - never give in, except to convictions of honor and good sense. Never yield to force. Never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy."

E. E. Cummings (1894-1962) "To be nobody but yourself in a world that's doing its best to make you somebody else, is to fight the hardest battle you are ever going to fight. Never stop fighting."

Jodie Foster (1962 - ) "Normal is not something to aspire to, it's something to get away from."

Bertrand Russell (1872-1970 )"The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, and wiser people so full of doubts." "The fundamental cause of trouble in the world is that the stupid are cocksure while the intelligent are full of doubt."

Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (1844-1900) "Convictions are more dangerous enemies of truth than lies."

Frank Leahy (1907-1973) "Egotism is the anesthetic that dulls the pain of stupidity."

Henry Ward Beecher (1813-1887) "A person without a sense of humor is like a wagon without springs. It's jolted by every pebble on the road."

James Michael Curley (1874-1958) “Never complain, never explain.”

Sigmund Freud (1856-1939 ) "The reason for so much bad science is not that talent is rare, not at all; what is rare is character."

Jonathan Swift (1667-1745) “I never wonder to see men wicked, but I often wonder to see them not ashamed.” "When a true genius appears in the world, you may know him by this sign, that the dunces are all in confederacy against him."

Andre Gide: (1869-1951) "Everything has been said before, but since nobody listens we have to keep going back and beginning all over again." "Believe those who are seeking the truth. Doubt those who find it."

Sylvia Plath (1932-1963) "And by the way, everything in life is writable about if you have the outgoing guts to do it, and the imagination to improvise. The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt."

A woman responding to a threat from Cuban-backed terrorists in El Salvador, 1982 “You can kill me, you can kill my family, kill my neighbors, but you can’t kill us all.”

Aung San Suu Kyi (1945- ) "The only real prison is fear, and the only real freedom is freedom from fear."

Dorothy Thompson (1894-1961) "Only when we are no longer afraid do we begin to live." Jean de La Fontaine (1621-1695) "Nothing is more dangerous than a friend without discretion; even a prudent enemy is preferable."

Lady Marguerite Gardiner (1789-1849) "There are no persons capable of stooping so low as those who desire to rise in the world."

Louis D. Brandeis (1856-1941)"Those who won our independence believed liberty to be the secret of happiness and courage to be the secret of liberty." "Sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants.”

Will Rogers: (1879-1938) "When people start taking the comedian seriously and the politician as a joke, everything changes." "This country has come to feel the same when Congress is in session as when the baby gets hold of a hammer."

Adlai E. Stevenson Jr. (1900-1965) "My definition of a free society is a society where it is safe to be unpopular." [Under this definition, Cambridge Massacchusetts, and the state of Massachusetts are not free societies. ed.]

Edward R. Murrow (1908-1965) "We cannot defend freedom abroad by deserting it at home."

Maria Bartiromo (1967 -) "My [commencement 2011] speech at St. John's [University, New York] three themes: work hard, no shortcuts, love what you do, and always do the right thing."

Ayn Rand (1905-1982) "Do not let your fire go out, spark by irreplaceable spark in the hopeless swaps of the not-quite, the not-yet, and the not-at-all. Do not let the hero in your soul perish in lonely frustration for the life you deserved and have never been able to reach. The world you desire can be won. It exists ... it is real ... it is possible ... it's yours."

Dwight Eisenhower (1890-1969) "Leadership consists of nothing but taking responsibility for everything that goes wrong and giving your subordinates credit for everything that goes well."

Henrik Ibsen (1828-1906) "The strongest man in the world is he who stands most alone."

Dr. Seuss (1904-1991, Theodor Seuss Geisel) "Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter, and those who matter don't mind."

Joseph Goebbels (1897-1945, Hitler's Minister of Propaganda) "If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State."

Howie Carr (1952- Boston Herald Columnist, WRKO Radio Talk Show Host) "The [MA] courts are more corrupt than the legislature." (November 18, 2010, 6:15 PM on his radio show.)

Eric Hoffer (1902-1983) "In a time of drastic change, it is the learners who inherit the future. The learned usually find themselves equipped to live in a world that no longer exists."

William F. Buckley, Jr. (1925-2008) "I'd rather entrust the government of the United States to the first 400 people listed in the Boston telephone directory than to the faculty of Harvard University.

Voltaire (François Marie Arouet, 1694-1778) "Common sense is not so common." "Doubt is not a pleasant mental state, but certainty is a ridiculous one." "Let us read, and let us dance; these two amusements will never do any harm to the world."

Martha Coakley (1953 - Democrat, MA Attorney General, 2010) "In Massachusetts, technically, it is not illegal to be illegal."

Deval Patrick (1956 - Democrat, MA Governor, 2010) "I am not a politician."

Michael Bloomberg (1942 - Democrat, Republican, Independent 3-Term Mayor of New York City and Billionaire) "Last time I checked, the pharmaceutical industry doesn't make a lot of money."

George W. Bush (1946 - ) "Intentions get overwhelmed by perceptions."

John Tudor "Technology makes it possible for people to gain control over everything, except over technology."

Isaac Asimov (1920-1992) "The saddest aspect of life right now is that science gathers knowledge faster than society gathers wisdom."

Robert Heinlein (1907-1988) "There is no worse tyranny than to force a man to pay for what he does not want merely because you think it would be good for him."

H.L. Mencken (1880-1956) "There is something even more valuable to civilization than wisdom, and that is character." "The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed -- and hence clamorous to be led to safety -- by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary." "No matter how happily a woman may be married, it always pleases her to discover that there is a nice man who wishes she were not." "For every complex problem, there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong." "It is the dull man who is always sure, and the sure man who is always dull." "Democracy is the theory that people know what they want and deserve to get it good and hard." "Democracy is the art and science of running the circus from the monkey cage."

Michel de Montaigne: (1533-1592) "The most manifest sign of wisdom is a continual cheerfulness."

Aldous Huxley: (1894-1963) "I wanted to change the world. But I have found that the only thing one can be sure of changing is oneself."

T. S. Eliot: (1888-1965) Half the harm that is done in this world Is due to people who want to feel important They don’t mean to do harm But the harm does not interest them. Or they do not see it, or they justify it Because they are absorbed in the endless struggle To think well of themselves."

Burt Prelutsky, (1940- Columnist) "Surely something must be terribly wrong with a man who seems to be far more concerned with a Jew building a house in Israel than with a Muslim building a nuclear bomb in Iran."

Nicholas Murray Butler (1862-1947) "An expert is one who knows more and more about less and less."

Henry Kissinger: (1923 - ) "In this world it is often dangerous to be an enemy of the United States, but to be a friend is fatal."

Socrates: (469BC-399BC) "He is the richest who is content with the least."

Leo Tolstoy: (1828-1910) "Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way." "Seize the moments of happiness, love and be loved! That is the only reality in the world, all else is folly." "Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself." "Truth, like gold, is to be obtained not by its growth, but by washing away from it all that is not gold."

P.J. O'Rourke (A Parliament of Whores) "Imagine if all of life were determined by majority rule. Every meal would be a pizza. Every pair of pants, even those in a Brooks Brothers suit, would be stone-washed denim. Celebrity diet and exercise books would be the only thing on the shelves at the library. And - since women are a majority of the population- we'd all be married to Mel Gibson."

Marcel Proust (1871-1922) "Let us be grateful to people who make us happy, they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom."

Orson Welles (as Harry Lime in The Third Man, 1949) "In Italy, for thirty years under the Borgias, they had warfare, terror, murder, bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and the Renaissance. In Switzerland, they had brotherly love; they had 500 years of democracy and peace -- and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock."

Tacitus: (c. 56 AD-c. 117) "The more corrupt the state, the more it legislates."

Ralph Waldo Emerson: (1803-1882) "Nothing astonishes men so much as common sense and plain dealing."

Doug Hoffman: (2009 Conservative Party Candidate for US Rep. NY 23rd District) "Congress fiddles while our economy burns. They lack common sense."

Rich Lowry: (On ObamaCare) "A shimmering mirage of wishful thinking and willful dishonesty."

President Obama (as he loses public support.) "We cannot wait any longer [. . .] There comes a time to remember the fierce urgency of right now."

Rush Limbaugh: (On first hour of his show broadcast October 23, 2009) Obama "is delusional." He's "seriously dangerous." He's "insane." Reacting to Obama's comments that the US Constitution is an obstacle to "redistribution of wealth." Obama also referred to "the so called founders."

Marek Edelman, leader of Warsaw Ghetto uprising. (1919?-2009) "Man is evil, by nature man is a beast. People have to be educated from childhood, from kindergarten, that there should be no hatred."

Adis Medunjanin (24 in January 2010, Queens, NY man accused of training with al Qaeda): "We love death more than you love life."

Edward Moore Kennedy (1932-2009): "Do we operate under a system of equal justice or one for the average citizen and one for the high and mighty?"

Robert Novak: (1931-2009) “Always love your country — but never trust your government!

Calvin Coolidge: (1872-1933) “Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful people with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan ‘press on’ has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race.”

Harry Callahan (Clint Eastwood) in Dead Pool: "Opinions are like a**holes. Everybody's got one."

Lyndon Johnson: (1908-1973) “The difference between liberals and cannibals is that cannibals don’t eat their friends and family members.”

Margaret Thatcher: (1925 - 2013) "The problem with socialism is that eventually, you run out of others people's money."

John Adams: (1735-1826) "Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide."

Abraham Lincoln: (1809-1865) "America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves."

Thomas Jefferson: (1743-1826) "Merchants have no country." “In questions of power, let no more be heard of confidence in man, but bind him down from mischief by the chains of the Constitution.”

James Madison: (1751-1836) “I cannot undertake to lay my finger on that article of the Constitution which granted a right to Congress of expending, on objects of benevolence, the money of their constituents.”

Mark Twain: (1835-1910) "Politicians are like diapers. They both need changing often and for the same reason." "It's not what you don't know that gets you into trouble. It's what you think you know for sure that just ain't so." "Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect." "Keep away from people who belittle your ambitions." "Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great."

Maggie Gallagher: (1960 - ) "Politicians can pass a bill saying a chicken is a duck and that doesn't make it true. Truth matters."

Humpty Dumpty (In Alice in Wonderland) "When I use a word, it means exactly what I want it to. No more no less."

Groucho Marx: (Julius Henry, 1890-1977) "Outside of a dog, a book is a man’s best friend. Inside of a dog it’s too dark to read."

United States Constitution http://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/constitution.overview.html

FACTS ARE STUBBORN:

John Adams: Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, the dictates of our passions, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.

Aldous Huxley: Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.

Thomas Fuller: Get the facts, or the facts will get you. And when you get them, get them right, or they will get you wrong.

Obama Lost the Debate on Health Care:Unable to counter widespread concerns of citizens about his health care plans, Obama supporters conduct intense vitriolic attacks on critics. Obama has no rational arguments, and hopes to discredit his critics by character assassination. They are not just racists now they are greedy racists and hate mongers. Maybe that will work. Ya think? Obama-Biden: Stupid is as stupid does. Biden: "We misread how bad the economy was."

Obama: [Correcting Biden]"We had incomplete information." So the US Congress voted for and the President signed a $787 billion stimulus bill without having read it, and with incomplete information? And they say others are stupid? Hello? Then Congress voted for a 1,000+ page "cap and trade" bill that none of them read.

Bloomberg: Daschle says, "Health care reform will not be pain free. Seniors should be more accepting of the conditions that come with age instead of treating them," while former Colorado Governor Dick Lamm says seniors have "a duty to die." If this does not sufficiently raise your ire, just remember that the President, Senators and Congressmen have their own special gold plated health care plan which is guaranteed the remainder of their lives and they are not subject to this new law if they pass it. Reverse the dangerous direction of the Obama administration and its allies.

Obama, The Un-Truman: David McCullough, in his biography of Harry Truman, "Truman" says on page 217, "Harry cared little more for other [than Huey Long] celebrated 'speechifiers' in the Senate. Admittedly fearful of making a speech himself, he seemed to resent particularly those who could and who made their reputations that way. They were the 'egotistical boys' whose specialty was talk." Obama admitted that he can make a speech but that he was incapable of doing anything in the Senate. Where did he gets his special powers during the campaign?

Obama's Mantra: He keeps repeating, "I won the election." He expects all Americans to support what HE wants. "I won," is how Obama implements the post-partisan unification of America. What a guy! See also Rich Lowry's "Sorry, O: 'I won' Won't Cover this," New York Post, February 6, 2009, page 27. http://www.nypost.com/seven/02062009/postopinion/opedcolumnists sorry__o__i_won_wont_cover_this_153839.htm

MIDDLESEX DA: We're too busy to address crimes less than murder. On Thursday June 25, 2009 Marian Ryan, who works for the Middlesex District Attorney in MA, returned my call from the previous day. She heads the unit for abuse of elders and abuse of persons with disabilities. She told me, "We've had four murders this month." That was to explain why she was unable to address 35 years of police abuses of a citizen with a disability now an elder. She said that a police officer making a threat did not rise to the level of a crime. She did not have time or resources to address abuses by the City Manager and the Police Commissioner of Cambridge, and the Harvard University campus police. It was no concern that using police to harass a person with a disability may be the reason for the four murders. MA Civil Rights statute and possession of illegal firearms are felonies, but not murder. Misallocation of resources is easily apparent. If the police focused on criminals instead of harassing elders with disabilities there might be less violent crime. But who was I to argue.

Cambridge Censorship: In October 2009 City Council Candidate Kathy Podgers complained to Attorney Bill August, long term president of the Cambridgeport Neighborhood Association, that her posts to the neighborhood discussion lists were not appearing. Then Bob LaTremouille added his similar complaints. When I chimed in that my posts did n0t appear for many months Bill August accused me of libel. I said he ignored my complaints about censorship. For a lawyer he does not read very well. On one occasion in 2007 I sent a letter via Fedex from one part of Cambridge to another. I used Fedex because of frequent tampering with my mail by USPS employees. Mail was withheld by USPS employees, and some mail was intercepted and never got to where I sent it. The letter sent by Fedex never arrived either. Their tracking system ended before it was delivered. I wrote to the President of Fedex. He sent me a check for $25 to compensate me. What good is money if you can't send a letter from one part of a city to another? In June 2009 I sent a letter to a US Government agency complaining about a mobbed up police officer who was protecting criminals who harass me each day. Two days after I sent the letter the police detective appeared at a market as I shopped. He used a young woman as bait to try to have me arrested. In June 2009 someone opened a YouTube account solely to publish a comment attacking me personally. This is a frequent experience of an ongoing character assassination campaign by criminals and their police associates. A Harvard University attorney told me not to make complaints to their real estate offices but to the office of the General Counsel. The lawyer assigned was trying to deceive me. On June 6, 2009 I noticed a threat from a police officer as a comment under one of my videos posted on YouTube July 7, 2008. The video shows a Cambridge police patrol car parked in a bus stop. The officer was having dinner nearby not on an emergency call. Every day since I complained to the Attorney General about the threat Cambridge police or Harvard campus police follow me and try to provoke me. The Attorney General is married to a supervising Cambridge police officer. I learned on June 15, 2009 that the FBI was investigating me again. In May 2009, my comments on the Boston Herald web pages (a public accommodation) were removed allegedly due to violations of guidelines. When I complained one was restored. Interns referred me to a staff writer when three of my comments about the shooting death at a Harvard dorm were removed. Someone unknown to me posted a picture of a man from the city in my YouTube profile. That means that someone is tampering with my YouTube account. That is a felony under US law. On or about December 12, 2008 my name was removed from two neighborhood discussion lists--Riverside and Cambridgeport. My attempts to be put back on were ignored by the former President of the Riverside neighborhood, Larry Adkins. Cambridgeport moderators opened my new access in February 2009. In May 2009 I received messages from the list but was unable to post messages. Last year I was unable to receive or post messages to the Porter Square neighborhood discussion list. No notice there either. They began a new list this year and I now get messages. But I was the target of personal attacks on the Porter Square list, the Cambridgeport discussions and on the Cambridge Chronicle web pages. An FBI informant who maintains a web site about the City of Cambridge ridicules me and others who he believes have disabilities. My account with YouTube (more than 250 videos posted) was shut in August 2008 and my appeals of Fair Use Doctrine were ignored. On April 15, 2009 my YouTube account was re-opened. Emily Rooney, host of the PBS news show, Greater Boston threatened to have me banned from Boston. Cambridge City Councilor and Harvard lawyer, Brian Murphy, who resigned in February 2009 to take a six-figure job with the state used council rules to silence my expression. These are rules that the Council created but ignore at every meeting. An email account I used specially for discussion lists was shut down with no notice and no reason or warning given. My several emails inquiring why have been ignored. That account was re-opened on February 10, 2009. Google Video flagged and blocked four uploaded episodes of a cable access TV show I produced and hosted on CCTV. When I appealed their decision, they agreed to put it back up. But as of this date one remains blocked. In February 2009 a long term producer of documentaries at CCTV told me "There is no such thing as Free Speech." That was the second time someone in Cambridge said that to me.

ENOUGH ROOM

May 23, 2008

Fighting Stigma?

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