Big Sky

Kate Bush is so beautiful.

山達基是危險邪教

山達基是危險邪教 is Traditional Chinese for, "Scientology is a dangerous cult."

I'm doing my part to get the word out for any Taiwanese Googlers. Scientology is trying to recruit new W.I.S.E. members in Taiwan.

Batshit Americana: Chiropractic

The American prairies of the late 1800s produced a lot of wacky cults, chiropractic being just one example.

Link to D. D. Palmer on a pretty cool mapping site, AKA Daniel David Palmer.

Born: 7-Mar-1845
Birthplace: Port Perry, Ontario, Canada
Died: 20-Oct-1913
Location of death: Los Angeles, CA
Cause of death: Typhoid Fever
Remains: Cremated, Palmer College of Chiropractic, Davenport, IA

Gender: Male
Race or Ethnicity: White
Sexual orientation: Straight
Occupation: Doctor

Nationality: United States
Executive summary: Founder of chiropractic medicine

D. D. Palmer devised chiropractic medicine, the theory that most human illness derives from dislocations of the spinal column, and that manipulation or adjustment of the spine cures ailments from headaches to high blood pressure. Through the mid-20th Century, the American Medical Association ridiculed chiropractic as an unsafe, even lethal form of quackery. While chiropractic medicine is now more accepted as an alternative to traditional medicine, there is little dispute that its originator was an eccentric character.

His formal schooling ended at the age of eleven, and as an adult he worked as a beekeeper, fruit merchant, grocer, and school teacher. He was a long-time aficionado of alternative ideas, having joined a spiritual cult and researched phrenology, and for several years he advertised his services as a "magnetic healer" in Davenport, Iowa. In 1895, he said he had cured deafness in a patient, one Harvey Lillard, by making two adjustments to Lillard's displaced vertebra. He subsequently claimed to have cured another patient's heart disease with similar spinal manipulation, and in 1896 he established the Palmer School of Magnetic Cure, now known as Palmer College of Chiropractic.

"Having found the cause of cancer", he later wrote, "it is an easy thing to relieve the pressure upon the blood vessels and nerves". He had no medical training, but billed himself as "Dr Palmer", and he was charged at least three times with practicing medicine without a license. Testifying that his work had no relation to medicine, he was acquitted on two occasions, then charged a third time in 1906, convicted and briefly jailed. After paying a fine, he left Iowa and turned the school over to his son, chiropractor B. J. Palmer.

In his later years the elder Palmer claimed to have "received chiropractic from the other world", and argued that instead of seeking changes in the law to make chiropractic legal, chiropractors should claim that their work is protected by freedom of religion. He died on 20 October 1913, and according to news accounts at the time his death was caused by injuries sustained when he was hit by a car driven by his son. The younger Palmer was sued by his father's estate, but the case was dropped before the trial reached conclusion, after the coroner listed typhoid as cause of death. Palmer was married six times and died destitute, but his son popularized chiropractic by eliminating the wackier rhetoric, managing the college in a professional manner, and purchasing two radio stations to promote chiropractic ideas.

Father: Thomas Palmer (shoemaker, b. 10-Oct-1824, d. 1903)
Mother: Catherine McVay Palmer (b. circa 1827)
Brother: Bartlett Palmer (postal worker, d. 1911)
Sister: Catherine Palmer
Sister: Hanna Jane Palmer
Sister: Lucinda Mariah Palmer
Brother: Thomas Palmer, Jr. (b. 1843)
Wife: Abba Lord Palmer (m. 20-Jan-1871, sep. 1873)
Wife: Louvenia Landers Palmer (m. 7-Oct-1874, d. 20-Nov-1884)
Wife: Lavinia McGee Palmer (m. 1876, d. 1885)
Wife: Martha Henning Palmer (m. 1885)
Wife: Villa Amanda Thomas Palmer (m. 6-Nov-1888, d. 9-Nov-1905)
Wife: Molly Hudler Palmer ("Mary", m. 11-Jan-1906)
Daughter: May Palmer Brownell (b. 1878)
Daughter: Jessie Palmer Wall (b. 1888)
Son: Bartholomew Josiah Palmer ("B.J.", chiropractor, b. 14-Sep-1892, d. 21-May-1961)

Administrator: Founder, Palmer College of Chiropractic (1896-1906)

Canadian Ancestry
English Ancestry Paternal
German Ancestry Paternal
Irish Ancestry Maternal
Scottish Ancestry Maternal

Author of books:
The Chiropractic Adjuster (1910)
Text-Book of the Science, Art and Philosophy of Chiropractic for Students and Practitioners (1910)
The Chiropractor (1914, posthumous)
Daily Meditations of D. D. Palmer (1982, posthumous)

Anonymous: The Next Generation

The song "Still Alive" is an Anonymous calling card, often played at protests of the Church of Scientology. From Wikipedia:

"Still Alive" is a song featured in the 2007 video game Portal. It was written by Jonathan Coulton and was performed by Ellen McLain while portraying the Portal character GLaDOS. The song originated in a meeting between two Valve developers and Coulton about him writing a song for the company, which Coulton accepted due to his fandom of the Half-Life series. It is the end credits song, and plays after GLaDOS is defeated by Chell, with the lyrics suggesting that she (GLaDOS) is "still alive". The song received significant praise for its humour and the quality of its performance. It has been featured in multiple venues, including at the 2009 Press Start -Symphony of Games-, a yearly Japanese concert event to showcase the musical works of video games. It was also featured as a free downloadable song for the Rock Band series, originally released on the 1 April 2008.

LOL you glorious bastards.

Operation LEAKSPIN

Leakspin website

Operation: FROZEN VENGEANCE!

More on the story.

WikiRebels

Helen Thomson is pretty cool!

Editorial: Thomson set the bar high in public life
Published: Saturday, Dec. 11, 2010 - 12:00 am | Page 12A

As new legislators prepare to get down to work, they ought to take a moment to study the too-brief tenure of Helen Thomson.

A psychiatric nurse by profession, Thomson arrived in the state Assembly in 1996, and immediately set out to make an impact on one area – mental health care.

After trying and failing in her first term, Thomson managed to push through legislation in 1999, AB 88, ensuring that mentally ill people would be treated equally in at least one fundamental area.

Thomson's bill required that health insurance companies provide coverage for severe mental illness such schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, just as they provide coverage for cancer, heart attacks and other physical infirmities. Other states had adopted mental health parity laws before California. But once California acted, virtually all other states approved similar laws.

Thomson did not stop there. The following year, she pushed what became known as Laura's Law. Laura Wilcox was home on winter break from Haverford College and working at a Nevada County mental health clinic when she was gunned down by a mentally ill 41-year-old man who long had refused treatment.

Over the objections of some so-called advocates for the rights of mentally ill people, Thomson's bill sought to allow counties to require that severely mentally ill people undergo assisted outpatient treatment, with all appropriate safeguards.

The bill did not go as far as Thomson had hoped. She had wanted to extend it statewide. But to maneuver the bill through the Legislature, she had to engage in the hard art of compromise, agreeing to permit counties to opt into the program or not.

Nevada County opted in. Los Angeles County has begun a pilot program. Other counties have considered adopting such requirements. Perhaps over time it will extend statewide.

None of it came easily. The Church of Scientology aggressively opposed Laura's Law, joining with other groups to demonstrate against Thomson. One group passed out buttons denouncing her as a "danger to others."

Along the way, Thomson ran afoul of Democratic leaders. So it came as little surprise that when new legislative districts were drawn in 2001, Thomson was all but blocked from running for a state Senate seat.

Undaunted, she returned to the Yolo County Board of Supervisors in 2002 and continued to make a difference in the world of mental health care.

She is retiring from elected office in January at age 70.

Thomson didn't rise as high as some other politicians who served in the Assembly between 1996 and 2002. But there are few in the class who left a greater mark on California than Thomson. In the process, she provided a lesson to legislators who come after her.


Read more and leave a thank you.

Bacha Bazi

Wikileaks confirms US State department has been aware of US security contractor DynCorp's invovlement in procuring bacha bazi --young boys-- for use by Afghani police.

Hey CNN, Fox, CBS, ABC, etc:

WHERE THE FUCK HAVE YOU GUYS BEEN?

In one story Wikileaks justifies its own existence.

Get a grip, people. Assange /= Wikileaks.

In a shockingly flippant comment to a Canadian television news anchor Evan Solomon of the CBC News Network on live TV, Tom Flanagan, a senior advisor and strategist to the Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper today called for the assassination of Wikileaks director Julian Assange . It is believed to be the first ever televised "fatwa" since the edict by the Iranian leadership of the late Ayatollah Khomeini against British writer Salman Rushdie in February 1989. Amazingly, although news anchor Solomon afforded Flanagan the opportunity to retract his statement, Flanagan balked at doing so and instead reiterated that U.S. President should put out a "contract" on Assange or use "a drone" and that he would not be unhappy if Assange "disappeared." Flanagan who is a trusted member of PM Harper's inner circle of Tory strategists joins Sarah Palin in calling for the death of the Wikileaks director as retribution for the website's release of confidential diplomatic and intelligence "chatter" this week.

Operation Payback

At the moment I have mixed feelings about what's happening to Wikileaks. I do think it's useful to have a forum where whistle-blowers can leak documents in the public interest. On the other hand, I can imagine a system that exerts little editorial control or filtering over the leaks falling victim to abuse and manipulation.

I want real human beings to take responsibility for reviewing the leaks, gauging their evidential merit, and weighing the risks and benefits associated with publishing the material.

I'd like, somehow, for the international community of professional journalists to monitor Wikileaks. I'd be willing to trust a collective that can apply basic rules of evidence and that can use independent peer review in a non-cult-like manner.
_____________________________________
Transcription:

Corrupt governments of the world, we are anonymous. For some time now, voices have been crying out in unison against the new ACTA laws. The gross inadequacies of the new laws being passed internationally have been pointed out repeatedly. Our chief complaint is that such measures would restrict people's access to the internet.

In these modern times access to the internet is fast becoming a basic human right. Just like any other basic human right, we believe that it is wrong to infringe upon it. To threaten to cut people off from the global consciousness as you have is criminal and abhorrent. To move to censor content on the internet based on your own prejudice is at best laughably impossible, at worst, morally reprehensible.

The unjust restrictions you impose on us will meet with disaster and only strengthen our resolve to disobey and rebel against your tyranny. Such actions taken against you, and those you out source your malignant litigation too, are inevitable, unavoidable and unstoppable.

We Are Anonymous,

We Are Legion And Divided By Zero.

We Do Not Forgive Internet Censorship

And We Do Not Forget Free Speech.

We Are Over 9000,

Expect Us!

Operation Avenge Assange

Everybody loves Julian.

Time magazine has put Julian Assange on their cover; Anonymous is launching Operation Avenge Assange. We all know what happened the last time 4Chan and Time agreed on something.

MD pimping Narconon

OK, who is this guy?