The Satanic Panic

Hey, how’d we get here? You can largely blame the Satanic Panic of the 80's and '90s, a convergence of class anxieties, sociological shifts, psychological fads, and pop culture trends that produced a society-wide fear of the sexual abuse of children at the hands of an underground network of Satanists masquerading as daycare operators.

As families shifted to dual-income households, young children were increasingly left in daycare or under strangers' supervision. The anxiety of surrendering children to others’ control coincided with the publication of the bestseller Michelle Remembers, in which a psychiatrist coerced allegedly submerged memories of sexual abuse at the hands of Satanists from a Canadian patient. The resulting hysteria was quickly amplified by daytime television specials hosted by Geraldo Rivera, Oprah Winfrey and Sally Jesse Raphael.

The accusations of Satanic ritual abuse at daycare facilities were mostly fictions, with the children’s memories almost always coaxed out during therapy sessions. Hundreds were charged, even as most prosecutions ended without convictions and studies debunked claims of shadowy Satanic networks. The occasional convictions are still being nullified, some after the wrongly accused spent decades in jail. In possibly the most famous case involving supposed ritualistic Satanic violence, the three teens who became known as the 'West Memphis Three' were freed in 2011 after 18 years in prison for allegedly murdering two boys in a Satanic ritual, the culmination of the conflagration of fears that had begun 30 years prior to it.

Ariel Sharon, the Israeli PM, has died. If the “Ariel Sharon Prophecy” of Rabbi Yitzhak Kaduri is real, then the time clock has started for the second coming of Jesus Christ. Rabbi Yitzhak Kaduri was a renowned Mizrahi Haredi rabbi and Kabbalist who was best known for having read and memorized the Bible. His orthodox Jewish followers believed that his teachings were the most profound and that nobody had experienced a greater devotion to reading and studying the Torah than Kaduri, having lived from 108-118 years depending on which date of birth is authentic before his death in 2006.  If the interpretations of the last note from a dying man are to be believed, it indeed means something. Or, is it just another sequel to the Satanic Panic? Now, please cut, paste and watch:
http://youtu.be/k0DTT3u2JZ8
Thanks.

Economy x (Vs.) Welfare = Economic Development.

Economists and business leaders have long argued that the way to improve low-income workers’ standard of living is to grow the economy. This worked for a while after World War II. However, since the early to mid-70's, productivity and national income have increased, but wages haven’t. For eg., the gross domestic product of the United States was 16.77 trillion dollars in 2013. If you break this down per person, each American produced $140,000 in goods. Yet most people only see a small percentage of this in their wages. The median wage was $27,851 in 2013 which means 50% of working adults made $27,851 or less in the United States.
If each American made half of what was produced, the median salary would have been $70,000. Now, clearly, there are other costs involved: still why aren't people paid more? Why do many jobs pay so little?

Christopher Jencks, professor of social policy at Harvard, says it’s really quite simple. He writes:
A market economy is not designed to ensure that workers get paid what other people think they deserve. The logic of the market is that a worker should be paid the smallest amount to make sure the work gets done and  is not intended to pay them what they deserve. It's not meant to pay people what would make a better life for them. It's to pay the absolute minimum that the employer can get away with. Thanks.

God Save America!

How can Gilead Sciences charge $84,000 for a drug that costs less than $300?

America is the land of breakthrough science -- and equally of health care scams. The two seem to go hand in hand in the case of the new hepatitis C virus (HCV) cure named sofosbuvir, sold under the brand name Sovaldi by the drug company Gilead Sciences. There is no question that Solvadi is a godsend- a lifesaver for millions of Americans, and perhaps someday for hundreds of millions of people around the world infected by Hepatitis C. Yet Sovaldi is also the poster child of a U.S. health care system that is being bankrupted by greed, lobbying and indefensible policies on drug pricing.

Here are the basic facts:
In Dec., 2013, the Food and Drug Administration approved Sovaldi, and another formulation, Harvoni, which is sofosbuvir used in combination with another drug. Gilead set the price for a course of 12-week treatment of Sovaldi at $84,000, amounting to $1,000 per pill. Again, Gilead set the price of Harvoni at $94,000.

According to researchers at Liverpool University, the actual production costs of Sovaldi for the 12-week course is in the range $68-$136. Indeed, generic sofosbuvir is currently being marketed by India at $300 per treatment course, after India refused to grant Gilead a patent for the Indian market.

How can Gilead Sciences charge $84,000 for a drug that costs less than $300 to produce? First, Gilead's patent on sofosbuvir runs until 2028, giving it a monopoly in the U.S. market. Second, a range of Federal and state government programs will cover the $84,000 for a sizeable number of patients. For those not covered by government programs, some will be covered by private insurance, a few will pay out of pocket, and still others will likely die because they lack coverage and can't afford the treatment. God Save America!

Religion- 3

Do Las Vegas (the Gambling Capital) Churches accept gambling chips? This may come as a surprise to those of you who are not used to the ways of religion. Believe me, there are more churches than casinos in LA. Not surprisingly, some worshipers in Sunday services give casino chips rather than cash as offerings when the basket is passed. Since these churches get chips from many different casinos, they have devised a method to cash them. These churches send all the collected casino chips to a nearby monastery for sorting and then the chips are taken to the respective casinos (of origin) to cash in. This is done by the chip- priests, as they are called. You never thought this could ever happen, right?

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• Pg Anil Kumar, Sandeep Tharayil, Prathap Nair and 2 others like this.
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  Thomas Mathew Paravaneth This is a sort of custom which is acquired due to the surrounding mushroomed gambling institutions. Now a days in here Kerala, we may hear the auction of Rum bottles and Whisky bottles in temples to make money. Man becomes more practical now a days than experiencing what is church and what is temple.

  February 8 at 7:04pm · Edited · Unlike · 2
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  Mathew M Ninan Already wine bottles are on auction in Harvest festivals

  February 9 at 7:18am · Unlike · 1
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  Prof. Alex Odikandathil Ph.D. Thanks to the triumvirate, above. Yea, most likely they will start selling alcohol from the churches to make more money and it is easy to do so since many churches already have government approved distilleries to produce wine. They will then start bottoms up/ pole dance, if not nude dance, to attract new members to fill its coffers...

The Silk Road(s)

China's “slower economic activity" still means a staggeringly impressive annual growth rate of 7% which is now the globe’s leading economy. Internally, an immensely complex economic restructuring is underway as consumption overtakes investment as the main driver of economic development. At 46.7% of the gross domestic product (GDP), the service economy has pulled ahead of manufacturing, which stands at 44%.

Geopolitically, Russia, India, and China have just sent a powerful message westward: they are busy fine-tuning a complex trilateral strategy for setting up a network of economic corridors the Chinese call “new silk roads” across Eurasia.

Meanwhile, Moscow and Beijing are at work planning a new high-speed rail- remix of the fabled Trans-Siberian Railroad. And Beijing is committed to translating its growing strategic partnership with Russia into crucial financial and economic help, if a sanctions-besieged Moscow, facing a disastrous oil price war, asks for it.

To China’s south, Afghanistan, despite the 13-year American war still being fought there, is fast moving into its economic orbit, while a planned China-Myanmar oil pipeline is seen as a game-changing reconfiguration of the flow of Eurasian energy.

And this is just part of the frenetic action shaping what the Beijing leadership defines as the New Silk Road Economic Belt and the Maritime Silk Road of the twenty-first century. We’re talking about a vision of creating a potentially mind-boggling infrastructure, much of it from scratch, that will connect China to Central Asia, the Middle East, and Western Europe. Such a development will include projects that range from upgrading the ancient silk road via Central Asia to developing a Bangladesh-China-India-Myanmar economic corridor and a new maritime silk road that will extend from southern China all the way, in reverse Marco Polo fashion, to Venice.

Don’t think of this as the twenty-first-century Chinese equivalent of America’s post-World War II Marshall Plan for Europe, but as something far more ambitious and potentially with a far vaster outreach.

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  Prof. Alex Odikandathil Ph.D. For all the ambitious talk, details remain scarce on how this vision will be implemented. Will the land- and sea-based Silk Roads be limited to a string of bilateral agreements between China and individual countries, or between China and regional groups like the European Union and ASEAN? Is there a grander vision, such as a regional free trade zone incorporating all the Silk Road countries? Or will China be the tie that binds it all together, with no special agreements directly linking, say, Kazakhstan and Germany? Yet to be seen. The Silk Road is envisioned to create not just an economic trade route, but a community with “common interests, fate, and responsibilities. The Silk Road represents China’s visions for an interdependent economic and political community stretching from East Asia to western Europe, and it’s clear that China believes its principles will be the guiding force in this new community in the new era. “China’s wisdom for building an open- world- economy and open international relations is being drawn on more and more each day,” Xinhua (official press agency of the People's Republic of China), wrote.

Happy Valentine's day!

Hey, its Valentine's Day and our entire thoughts revolve around romance.
Falling in love, or failing to do so, can literally transform a person.

See how Dr. Larry Young and Brian Alexander explain it in 'The Chemistry Between Us': "When neuro- chemical circuits in our brains are activated, we're flooded with elation and the whole world seems brighter. It turns out that all kinds of love- for friends, family, and lovers- are induced by a similar brain function.

Unfortunately, many of our cultural myths, from fairy tales to rom- coms, paint a very distorted picture of love. In stories, love is projected as a static reward- you go out and find your prince or princess, overcome whatever obstacles the world throws in your way, and achieve a state of romantic happiness. Believe me, love is not the pot of gold waiting at the end of our quest incarnated in a single perfect partner. Instead, it's something that we need in every step of our way- Love energizes, encourages and guides.

Love is, perhaps, the most powerful drug mankind is aware of.
Happy Valentine's day!

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Sunday, February the 15th, 2015.

And here follows my observations on a post- Valentine's day: 
Living with a manipulative partner is like walking on a minefield. You can’t relax, you can’t just love them for who they are, and you’ll always have to be on guard. And that’s not really the recipe of a happy relationship, is it? If you can’t feel care- free happiness in your lover’s arms, is it worth staying in that relationship?
If your partner doesn’t try to change even after you’ve given them enough chances, walk away for good. Chances are, their manipulative behavior is too deeply ingrained in their mind to (ever) change. And you’re better off leaving the relationship, than letting this person break your spine and your morale, which would only lead you to getting used and manipulated by everyone else in your life. (Note: Manipulation is a behavior pattern in which one person tries to change the mind of another person without confronting them directly. Manipulators use deception, trickery and threats to get what they want from people who are willing to give in to them. God-men, god- women, church hierarchy and religious organizations are all examples of super- manipulators).