End Times Sorceries And Debautry

[Psalm 51:17]

http://www.nowtheendbegins.com/peyton-manning-a-christian-budweiser-pitchman-after-super-bowl-50/
2/8/16

Meet Peyton Manning, The World’s First ‘Christian’ Budweiser Salesman

Budweiser disavowed all knowledge that Peyton Manning was going to make those remarks, and said emphatically that they did not pay him to say that. Good thing, too, as it is a violation of NFL league rules for a player to promote alcohol. So why would Manning repeat multiple times that he was going out to "drink a lot of Budweiser"? Because he owns a financial interest in not one but two Budweiser distributorships in his home state of Louisiana.

So why would Peyton Manning, a Christian, repeat multiple times that he was going out to “drink a lot of Budweiser”? Because he owns a financial interest in not one but two Budweiser distributorships in his home state of Louisiana.

“Woe unto him that giveth his neighbour drink, that puttest thy bottle to him, and makest him drunken also, that thou mayest look on their nakedness!” Habakkuk 2:15 (KJV)

Peyton Manning, of whom it had been said during the regular season had a “noodle arm“, was very vocal after pulling off the upset of the century with the Bronco’s defeat of the Carolina Panthers. This is what he said to CBS’ Tracy Wolfson:


“I want to go kiss my wife and my kids. I want to go hug my family,” Manning said in comments to CBS’ Tracy Wolfson immediately after the game. “I’m going to drink a lot of Budweiser tonight, Tracy, I promise you that. I’m going to take care of those things first and definitely going to say a little prayer and thank the man upstairs for this great opportunity.”

The really sad part of that statement is twofold. One, for someone who calls himself an “evangelical Christian“, telling 100 million people that he is going to go out and “drink a lot of Budweiser” and get drunk is a really, really poor testimony. It makes Christianity look really bad, makes it look just like the unsaved world. Secondly, instead of thanking his Saviour Jesus Christ, he instead opted for the expression “the man upstairs”. That’s what unsaved people call God, that’s not what Christians call their Heavenly Father.

Budweiser disavowed all knowledge that Peyton Manning was going to make those remarks, and said emphatically that they did not pay him to say that. Good thing, too, as it is a violation of NFL league rules for a player to promote alcohol. So why would Manning repeat multiple times that he was going out to “drink a lot of Budweiser”? Because he owns a financial interest in not one but two Budweiser distributorships in his home state of Louisiana.

So not only does Peyton Manning like to get drunk himself, he also enables thousands of other people to get drunk as well, while profiting from it at the same time. Absolutely shameful behavior for someone claiming to be a Christian. I wonder how many of the millions of impressionable, young teenage boys who watched and listened to him extol the virtues of getting drunk will be going out to try and do exactly that.

“Do not drink wine nor strong drink, thou, nor thy sons with thee, when ye go into the tabernacle of the congregation, lest ye die: it shall be a statute for ever throughout your generations: And that ye may put difference between holy and unholy, and between unclean and clean;” Leviticus 10:9,10 (KJV)

Looks like Budweiser and police and EMS workers across the country will be experiencing the same thing over the coming weeks, a marked increase in business.

Thanks for lowering the bar, Peyton. The Laodicean Church appreciates your diligent efforts. The last quarterback Denver had was sure a whole lot different than this.

[Psalm 51:17]

http://www.macleans.ca/society/life/the-alarming-rise-in-binge-drinking-among-young-women/
2/21/16

The alarming rise in binge drinking among young women


A new film launches a national campaign focused on young women and alcohol


Rosemary Counter

February 21, 2016

In a dingy basement apartment, Taylor and Molly, both 21-year-old students at an unnamed Canadian university, discuss their evening plans. More specifically, they discuss the availability of alcohol. “They’ll have a couple kegs,” promises Taylor, a biology major, “and mixed drinks like vodka crans, whisky sours, rum and cokes.” Unconvinced that will be enough, Molly pops three tallboys into her purse. Taylor fills a Gatorade bottle with white wine from a box.

It’s the beginning of a wild night in the new documentary Girls’ Night Out, airing this month on CBC, that zooms in on young women’s drinking habits—from their perspective. “It’s an uncomfortable topic for a lot of people,” says director Phyllis Ellis, herself a mother of a 22-year-old girl. “But I’m not going to make it softer. I’m just going to deal with the truth that they give me.”

The truth is that binge-drinking—defined by the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health as consuming five or more standard drinks (four for women) on a single occasion—is an epidemic: 18 per cent of high school students admitted they binged at least once last month; 32 per cent of Canadians aged 20 to 34 binged 12 times in the past year; and, proving this isn’t a freshman-specific problem, 19 per cent of Canadians aged 35 to 44—almost one in five—did the same.

That people sometimes drink to get drunk is nothing new. What is new is that binge drinking among women has increased at a rate seven times that of men, according to the American Public Health Association. While men still consume more alcohol, women metabolize it differently—the effects occurring faster and lasting longer—and are more vulnerable to long-term health effects. The risk of liver cirrhosis, brain damage and heart disease due to alcohol are all greater in women than men.
•Related: Alcohol-free frosh weeks have failed

At the same time, the way young women drink is different. “A binge is bigger than it used to be,” says Ann Dowsett Johnston, author of Drink: The Intimate Relationship Between Women and Alcohol, which inspired the film. “He’s drinking beer while she’s drinking shots. She’s two-thirds his size and probably didn’t eat dinner. Women live with more alcohol [than men], they pre-drink, they have a habit of purging and starting again.”

To Johnston, it’s no coincidence this generation of women is hitting the bottle harder than ever before; it’s the first generation to grow up with what she calls “Big Alcohol.” To target the underperforming young female market, which was too calorie-conscious for beer and not sophisticated enough for wine, the spirit industry invented the “alcopop” (e.g. Smirnoff Ice, Bacardi Breezer, Mike’s Hard Lemonade) and advertised it aggressively throughout the mid-’90s. In the same moment, Bridget Jones got adorably trashed alone in her apartment and Carrie Bradshaw made the cosmopolitan her go-to cocktail. “A whole generation of young women were taught that to be sophisticated, you drink vodka. They skipped the rest and started with hard liquor,” says Johnston. A more recent iteration may be what Punch, an online magazine devoted to intelligent writing about booze and drinking, calls the “whisky woman”—tough, “bro girl” types out of a Gillian Flynn novel with a penchant for downing Maker’s Mark who have become recurring features in men’s magazines.

Most of the young women who follow this drinking model are not alcoholics. A better term may be “almost alcoholic,” a new descriptor for people with alcohol-related problems that don’t officially “qualify” as alcoholic. “It’s a spectrum,” says Joe Nowinski, author of the 2012 book Almost Alcoholic. “There’s this middle zone of problem drinking with a mild to moderate problem, and there are a lot of people there.” In 2014, the National Survey of Drug Use and Health reported 90 per cent of excessive drinkers don’t meet the definition of alcoholism. In fact, because no general consensus can define it, even the word “alcoholism” was replaced in medical texts with “alcohol use disorder” in 2013.

“I didn’t day-drink, I didn’t need a drink in the morning; I could go a week or two without booze,” says 36-year-old Jen McNeely, a Toronto-based blogger. At 19, a guidance counsellor directed her to Alcoholics Anonymous. “I didn’t see anyone like me there, so I didn’t stick around,” she says. She drank hard for a dozen more years—professionally, almost, since she’s the brains behind the girl-about-town website She Does the City—before admitting she had a problem. “I wasn’t sure then if I was an alcoholic. I was a binge drinker.”
•Related: Does Alcoholics Anonymous fail addicts?

Now sober, McNeely appears in the film, spliced alongside younger versions of herself: “I’ll drink just to get drunk and I think that’s what most people do,” says Victoria, 21. “We all feel like it’s the normal thing to do,” says Taylor. It takes Molly eight drinks to “go from here to not here. Like the lights are on but no one’s home.”

That’s the blackout, the hallmark of the binge drinker, when the blood alcohol reaches a saturation point and shuts down the hippocampus, the part of the brain where long-term memories are made. People in blackouts are not passed out, but can walk, tell jokes, have sex and drive cars. They can appear normal and functional to others. The majority of people never experience a blackout, but they’re not uncommon among drinkers. A 2002 study from Duke University found 51 per cent of drinkers had blacked out before; the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse’s 2009 survey of 4,500 students found 12 per cent had blacked out within the past two weeks.

Since a blackout is defined by its nothingness, few accounts exist to offer insight into the experience. In the film, Sarah Hepola, author of Blackout: Remembering the Things I Drank to Forget, describes a moment, “when the curtain lifts again” and she finds herself “on top of a guy I’ve never seen before, and we’re having sex.” It was neither the first time she suspected she had a problem, nor the rock-bottom moment that would inspire her to quit: “My rock bottom lasted for five years,” she says.

Hepola’s story isn’t rare either; in fact, it’s commonplace for the women in Girls’ Night Out. Adriana, 25, recounts waking up beside a man she met the night before and discovering a pair of handprint-shaped bruises on her hips, though she had no memory of having had sex. In an era where consent is paramount in the culture—however it may play out in the courts—it’s a troubling and confusing storyline. “I never considered that assault because I know how I behaved when I was out and I knew the person I was,” she says, noting her partner was intoxicated too and perhaps equally incapable of giving consent. “The fact that I don’t remember it is my fault.”

Navigating this issue was particularly challenging while making the film, says Ellis. “**** is ****, and it doesn’t matter what you wear or do,” she says. “But there is another part to this conversation we need to be having. Even if it’s uncomfortable, even if it pisses people off, even if we’re wrong.”

Hepola too doesn’t consider her own blackout-sex story an assault. “Some people are of the opinion that any sex in a blackout is ****,” she says. “I’m not of that opinion.” Hepola is clear that to differentiate passed out (where a woman is unconscious or physically incapacitated due to alcohol) from blacked out, but she believes there is a complicated grey zone, where a woman appears to outsiders to be functioning or even normal. In Hepola’s case, alcohol obliterated her shyness and insecurity and offered a temporary out-of-character sexual confidence that was gone by daylight. Hepola believes it’s vital that this grey zone be part of the discussion about women and binge drinking, which often brings women in her particular position regret, shame and fear when their decision-making abilities are impaired by alcohol. “Many yeses on Friday night would be noes on Saturday morning,” she says.

The women in the film suggest that binge drinking can evolve into alcoholism—or scale back to moderation. Hepola ended up identifying as an alcoholic and has been sober for six years. Jen McNeely has been clean for five years. But others have managed to embrace moderation. “I decided I actually wasn’t an alcoholic,” says Adriana, now a nutritionist, who can easily enjoy a single glass of wine. “It was the environment I had put myself in and the people I was surrounding myself with.” That said, she believes the distinction is oddly arbitrary: “They say you’re a full-blown alcoholic when you need a drink in the morning, but girls like me need three bottles of wine before they go to the bar. What’s the difference?”

To steer university students toward lower-risk drinking, a new year-long campaign is launching across Canada. Developed by Girls’ Night Out producers with the Canadian Centre for Substance Abuse, #RethinkTheDrink will pick up where Ellis’s film ends, with dramatic webisodes, resource lists and on-campus screenings during always-boozy frosh week. They’ll be promoting #GirlsNightIn and an introspective Tumblr series called “Letters to 18-year-old me.” The goal is online engagement, open dialogue and, hopefully, some kind of change. “It’s going to take more than a village,” says the campaign’s spearhead, Deborah Day. “A lot of us have our heads in the sand.”

[Mark]

Lift the Ban! Kofi Annan on Why It's Time To Legalize Drugs

Drugs are dangerous, but current narcotics policies are an even bigger threat because punishment is given a greater priority than health and human rights. It's time for regulations that put lives and safety first, argues former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan.

In my experience, good public policy is best shaped by the dispassionate analysis of what in practice has worked, or not. Policy based on common assumptions and popular sentiments can become a recipe for mistaken prescriptions and misguided interventions.

Nowhere is this divorce between rhetoric and reality more evident than in the formulation of global drug policies, where too often emotions and ideology rather than evidence have prevailed.

Take the case of the medical use of cannabis. By looking carefully at the evidence from the United States, we now know that legalizing the use of cannabis for medical purposes has not, as opponents argued, led to an increase in its use by teenagers. By contrast, there has been a near tripling of American deaths from heroin overdoses between 2010 and 2013, even though the law and its severe punishments remain unchanged.

This year, between April 19 and 21, the United Nations General Assembly will hold a special session on drugs and the world will have a chance to change course. As we approach that event, we need to ask ourselves if we are on the right policy path. More specifically, how do we deal with what the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime has called the "unintended consequences" of the policies of the last 50 years, which have helped, among other things, to create a vast, international criminal market in drugs that fuels violence, corruption and instability? Just think of the 16,000 murders in Mexico in 2013, many of which are directly linked to drug trafficking.

A War on People

Globally, the "war on drugs" has not succeeded. Some estimate that enforcing global prohibition costs at least $100 billion (€90.7 billion) a year, but as many as 300 million people now use drugs worldwide, contributing to a global illicit market with a turnover of $330 billion a year, one of the largest commodity markets in the world.

Prohibition has had little impact on the supply of or demand for drugs. When law enforcement succeeds in one area, drug production simply moves to another region or country, drug trafficking moves to another route and drug users switch to a different drug. Nor has prohibition significantly reduced use. Studies have consistently failed to establish the existence of a link between the harshness of a country's drug laws and its levels of drug use. The widespread criminalization and punishment of people who use drugs, the over-crowded prisons, mean that the war on drugs is, to a significant degree, a war on drug users -- a war on people.

Africa is sadly an example of these problems. The West Africa Commission on Drugs, which my foundation convened, reported last year that the region has now become not only a major transit point between producers in Latin America and consumers in Europe, but an area where consumption is increasing. Drug money, and the criminality associated with it, is fostering corruption and violence. The stability of countries and the region as a whole is under threat.

I believe that drugs have destroyed many lives, but wrong government policies have destroyed many more. We all want to protect our families from the potential harm of drugs. But if our children do develop a drug problem, surely we will want them cared for as patients in need of treatment and not branded as criminals.

Stop Stigmatizing and Start Helping

The tendency in many parts of the world to stigmatize and incarcerate drug users has prevented many from seeking medical treatment. In what other areas of public health do we criminalize patients in need of help? Punitive measures have sent many people to prison, where their drug use has worsened. A criminal record for a young person for a minor drug offence can be a far greater threat to their well-being than occasional drug use.

The original intent of drug policy, according to the UN Convention on Narcotic Drugs, was to protect the "health and welfare of mankind." We need to refocus international and national policy on this key objective.

This requires us to take four critical steps.

First, we must decriminalize personal drug use. The use of drugs is harmful and reducing those harms is a task for the public health system, not the courts. This must be coupled with the strengthening of treatment services, especially in middle and low-income countries.

Second, we need to accept that a drug-free world is an illusion. We must focus instead on ensuring that drugs cause the least possible harm. Harm reduction measures, such as needle exchange programs, can make a real difference. Germany adopted such measures early on and the level of HIV infections among injecting drug users is close to 5 percent, compared to over 40 percent in some countries which resist this pragmatic approach.

Third, we have to look at regulation and public education rather than the total suppression of drugs, which we know will not work. The steps taken successfully to reduce tobacco consumption (a very powerful and damaging addiction) show what can be achieved. It is regulation and education, not the threat of prison, which has cut the number of smokers in many countries. Higher taxes, restrictions on sale and effective anti-smoking campaigns have delivered the right results.

The legal sale of cannabis is a reality that started with California legalizing the sale of cannabis for medical use in 1996. Since then, 22 US states and some European countries have followed suit. Others have gone further still. A voter initiative which gained a majority at the ballot box has caused Colorado to legalize the sale of cannabis for recreational use. Last year, Colorado collected around $135 million in taxes and license fees related to legal cannabis sales. Others have taken less commercial routes. Users of Spain's cannabis social clubs can grow and buy cannabis through small non-commercial organizations. And Canada looks likely to become the first G7 country to regulate the sale of cannabis next year.

Legal Regulation Protects Health

Initial trends show us that where cannabis has been legalized, there has been no explosion in drug use or drug-related crime. The size of the black market has been reduced and thousands of young people have been spared criminal records. But a regulated market is not a free market. We need to carefully think through what needs regulating, and what does not. While most cannabis use is occasional, moderate and not associated with significant problems, it is nonetheless precisely because of its potential risks that it needs to be regulated.

And therefore, the fourth and final step is to recognize that drugs must be regulated precisely because they are risky. It is time to acknowledge that drugs are infinitely more dangerous if they are left solely in the hands of criminals who have no concerns about health and safety. Legal regulation protects health. Consumers need to be aware of what they are taking and have clear information on health risks and how to minimize them. Governments need to be able to regulate vendors and outlets according to how much harm a drug can cause. The most risky drugs should never be available "over the counter" but only via medical prescription for people registered as dependent users, as is already happening in Switzerland.

Scientific evidence and our concern for health and human rights must shape drug policy. This means making sure that fewer people die from drug overdoses and that small-time offenders do not end up in jail where their drug problems get worse. It is time for a smarter, health-based approach to drug policy.

It is time for countries, such as Germany, which have adopted better policies at home, to strongly advocate for policy change abroad. The United Nations General Assembly special session on the world drug problem would be a good place to start.

http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/kofi-annan-on-why-drug-bans-are-ineffective-a-1078402.html

Yah, lets legalize them, lets start with this one first..

Krokodil Drug Facts: http://www.drugs.com/illicit/krokodil.html

[Mark]

Drug dealers will be executed by force-feeding them their own supply under new rules being considered in Indonesia

    Country's National Narcotics Agency suggested the extreme punishment 
    Proposal would strengthen tough laws including death by firing squad
    4.5 million drug addicts currently live in Indonesia with 33 dying a day
    Spokesman for agency said drugs were 'enemy' as he announced plans

Drug dealers in Indonesia will be made to eat their own supply until they die if new rules are pushed through.

The country's National Narcotics Agency has suggested the punishment in a desperate bid to tackle growing drugs problems.

The proposal would strengthen already tough laws, which include death by firing squad if citizens are caught drugs trafficking.

Police have also increased raids on local dealers, with one recent investigation leading to four deaths. 

Slamet Pribadi, a spokesman for the agency, told Al Jazeera: 'We need to be serious because drugs are the enemy.'

Hendro Pandowo, a local police chief, added: 'We have to fight this war on drugs everywhere.

'They have to be cleaned off the streets of Jakarta and eradicated through Indonesia.' 

Around 4.5 million drug addicts currently live in Indonesia with 33 people dying per day due to overdoses.

Critics have slammed the proposals and claim the country's laws do not differentiate between addicts and criminals. 

It comes after the country decided to halt all executions temporarily at the end of last year.

The decision meant British grandmother Lindsay Sandiford, who was sentenced to death after being caught smuggling **** into Bali, was given a temporary reprieve

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3471915/Drug-dealers-executed-force-feeding-supply-new-rules-considered-Indonesia.html#ixzz41jUIv5W1

[Psalm 51:17]

Don't be fooled by all these false teachers and false professing Christians who try to convince you that drinking alcohol "moderately" is somehow a Christian's "liberty". Ultimately, NOONE intends to be an alcoholic.

Proverbs 31:4  It is not for kings, O Lemuel, it is not for kings to drink wine; nor for princes strong drink:
Pro 31:5  Lest they drink, and forget the law, and pervert the judgment of any of the afflicted.

[Psalm 51:17]

http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/news/a42297/supreme-court-weed-legalization/
The U.S. Supreme Court Is Hearing a Huge Marijuana Legalization Case Today


Nebraska and Oklahoma v. Colorado.


The Supreme Court of the United States — minus the late Justice Scalia — is set to take up the hot-button issue of marijuana legalization today in a highly watched case. The SCOTUS is hearing a challenge to Colorado legalization from two neighboring states Nebraska and Oklahoma as plaintiffs. The states are arguing that because of legalization, marijuana is unlawfully crossing over their borders. The federal Controlled Substances Act should override state legalization, they argue, under the Supremacy Clause of the Constitution. But SCOTUS is unlikely to take up Nebraska and Oklahoma v. Colorado, watchers say, partially because the plaintiffs' case is so weak, and partially because one likely supporter of the case, Justice Scalia, is dead.


"It's hard to predict where a given justice is going to come down on anything," according to Tom Angell, in an interview with the International Business Times. Angell founded the cannabis advocacy group Marijuana Majority, and analyzed Scalia's record on cannabis for Marijuana.com. "But my best guess is Nebraska and Oklahoma probably just lost one of their votes for granting the review."

With the nine-member SCOTUS down to eight, the vote for review could be 4-4, and a tie would favor the defendant Colorado. Legal experts say plaintiffs Nebraska and Oklahoma lack standing.

"The plaintiffs can't show they could be helped by a positive decision in their favor," Sam Kamin, marijuana law professor at the University of Denver, told IBT.

The federal government itself does not support review, and the solicitor general urged the Supreme Court to deny the lawsuit. If SCOTUS takes up review and ties on the case, it would only be the third time in U.S. history for a so-called 'original jurisdiction deadlock'.


The first time, in 1870, the case remained up in the air for nearly three years. The second time, in 1953, the court ruled one way, only to overrule itself a year later. … In other words, no one knows exactly what will happen if the Supreme Court takes up the Colorado lawsuit and then can't come to a majority opinion on it.

Still legal experts doubt SCOTUS wants to potentially shut down medical and recreational legalization in 35 states.

"There is so much very, very high-profile stuff on pause right now, my gut instinct is they are going to say, 'We don't need anything else on our plate,'" Kamin told IBT.

[Psalm 51:17]

http://www.sermonaudio.com/sermoninfo.asp?SID=322162325499
Alcoholics Anonymous: Twelve Steps to Hell - Antichrist Agenda Revealed (pastor Jason Cooley)
3/22/2016 (TUE)
Audio: http://www.sermonaudio.com/playpopup.asp?SID=322162325499

[Mark]

Regular Marijuana Use Linked to Economic and Social Problems

really? 


People who smoke marijuana on a regular basis for years and those who are dependent on it are significantly more likely to have economic and social problems at midlife than those who use it only occasionally or not at all, new research shows. And the longer that people regularly smoke, the greater their chances of having these troubles.

The study does not prove that marijuana causes these problems, but it does go further than probably any other research has done before to demonstrate a strong link. The paper was compiled from information gathered on nearly 1,000 New Zealanders in the town of Dunedin, who were checked on and interviewed regularly from birth to the age of 38. It was published online March 23 in the journal Clinical Psychological Science.

People in the study who smoked regularly, defined as at least four times per week over the course of several years, had significantly more economic problems, such as high levels of debt, poorer credit ratings, limits on cash flow and even difficulty paying for food and rent, says study author Magdalena Cerdá, a researcher at the University of California, Davis.

Moreover, they also were more likely to exhibit antisocial tendencies in the workplace, including such things as lying and engaging in arguments with co-workers. And they were more like to have conflicts in their intimate relationships, she adds.

Heavy smokers also ended up in a lower “social class” than their parents, Cerdá says. (Social class was defined as level of job specialty, with professionals like doctors and lawyers at the top and unskilled laborers at the bottom.) Meanwhile, those who didn’t regularly smoke ended up in a higher social class than their parents. While noteworthy, the finding raises some philosophical questions about what “social class” really means and what the value of such distinctions are.

Unlike many studies, this paper tried to control for a wide variety of potentially confounding factors, such as ethnicity, social class of origin, family history of substance dependence, low childhood self-control, childhood IQ, adolescent psychological problems like depression and motivation level at age 18. The researchers also controlled for the use of alcohol and other drugs. When people using these substances were excluded and only those using solely marijuana were considered, the link held up, the study found.

It should be noted, however, that the findings don’t apply to light or occasional smokers. And Igor Grant, a physician and researcher at UC San Diego who wasn’t involved in the paper, clarified that people who admitted smoking four times per week were probably more realistically smoking on a daily basis. Meanwhile, only a small fraction of marijuana users— around 9 percent, according to one large study—become dependent on it. And this number, as with just about everything involving marijuana, is a subject of controversy, with some saying it’s higher and others saying it’s lower or inappropriately measured in the first place.

The study participants were interviewed by researchers at ages 3, 5, 9, 11, 13, 15, 18, 21, 26, 32 and 38.

Researchers found that cannabis and alcohol dependence were both about equally linked with downward mobility, antisocial behavior in the workplace and relationship conflicts. But marijuana dependence appears to be linked even more strongly to financial problems than alcohol dependence is, Cerdá says.

Of course, alcohol dependence has much worse health effects than heavy cannabis use, and this study didn’t address physical health, Cerdá says.

As to whether these results could be unique to New Zealand, Ceradá says she doesn’t think so because “there have been multiple studies looking at this, and they’ve been pretty consistent.” That said, the levels of regular use and dependence—15 and 18 percent, respectively, among the New Zealand study participants—is higher than those found in the United States. But these rates may go up as marijuana is legalized in more and more states.

(The reason those numbers are different is because some people smoke regularly without being dependent, and some become dependent without smoking heavily, Cerdá says.)

There are, of course, limitations to this study. “It is difficult to definitely establish a causal relationship in studies of this sort, as the authors acknowledge,” says Wayne Hall, a researcher at the University of Queensland who wasn’t involved in the paper. “It may be that cannabis dependence is a marker of other risk factors for social and economic adversity. [But] this is less likely given that the effects persisted after controlling for plausible confounders and that much the same pattern was true of alcohol dependence” in the group, he adds.

One of the strengths of the study was to show that people generally began to have economic and social problems after smoking regularly and were not different beforehand as teens on measures of IQ, motivation, impulsivity or likelihood of using other drugs, Cerdá says.

However, Grant says that it’s possible there is something unique about the type of person who goes on to smoke regularly or become dependent, and some of the problems encountered may have to do with underlying personality differences that are difficult to measure—or psychological problems not yet manifest—as opposed to marijuana itself.

“It’s not the ordinary person who would use marijuana every day for years on end,” Grant says. “Whether marijuana caused these problems or these were people who were destined to have these problems anyway, I don’t think we can really figure out.”

http://www.newsweek.com/regular-marijuana-use-linked-economic-and-social-problems-440107

[Psalm 51:17]

Yeah, the downward spiral of the economic ills of this country are not that of one President's economic policies alone (whether it be Obama, Bush, Clinton, or whoever) - it's an equation with A LOT of variables, this being one of them (for example).

[Psalm 51:17]

http://www.salon.com/2016/03/22/weed_is_winning_4_signs_the_marijuana_business_is_booming/

[Psalm 51:17]

Danny Castle - Alcohol, Public Enemy #1

[Psalm 51:17]

[Mark]

Whoa! TV content hits new low in 1 sentence on 1 show

America may no longer be the world of Opie Taylor on “The Andy Griffith Show” and the Beaver and Wally on “Leave it to Beaver,” but a television monitoring organization is expressing disbelief that the nation has decayed to the point that the words “a–, b—-, butthead, douche, ****, **** shamer, **** bag and **** basket” are acceptable content – for just one sentence on just one television show for children during prime time.

And that nudity is acceptable.

And that images of a blood-drenched body of a woman wearing only underwear strung up from the ceiling of her home is acceptable.

And that a conversation about sex with a corpse is a good thing.

The Parents Television Council says it is alerting parents in a campaign that includes a petition demanding a reform of the rating system.

That’s after its new study showed the full extent of the problem.

The organization’s chief, Tim Winter, says the study suggests, strongly, something has to be done.

It revealed that there are no more family shows.

None.

“The number of prime-time TV-G rated programs decreased from 27 hours in a two-week period in 1997 to 0 hours in a two-week period in 2014. In 2015 and 2016, there were no regularly scheduled prime time series rated TV-G,” the organization found.

Also, at the same time, there was a huge plunge in the prime-time broadcast of shows rated TV-PG.

And many times the ratings were meaningless, as the content of programs rated TV-PG and TV-14 became more and more indistinguishable.

“For most of the 20th century, the entertainment industry acted responsibly in keeping entertainment appropriate for all audiences, in the awareness that television was ‘a guest in the home.’ From 1934, when the Federal Communications Commission first set up statutes regulating the airwaves, to the 1970s, when the Supreme Court reaffirmed them, and up to the present day, it has been the law that the airwaves are public property belonging to all Americans,” the report said.

“Further, private corporations are permitted to use them to make a profit, free of charge, only so long as they do so ‘in the public interest.’ The court confirmed that the broadcast airwaves are ‘uniquely pervasive,’ and that the government and the American people have a ‘compelling national interest’ in keeping graphic violence, explicit sex, and other harmful content off the public airwaves in a ‘time, place and manner’ when children are likely to be in the audience.”

In a statement about the campaign, Winter said programs now frequently include “a sexual intercourse scene” with graphic details.

And the violence is bloody.

“In recent months, we’ve seen a woman commit suicide by shoving an ice pick into her eye; a man pull a razor blade across a woman’s throat as she choked to death on her own blood; and a man stab a woman to death as she was performing oral sex on him in the front seat of his car,” he said.

“Yes these shows – and every other program on broadcast TV – [are] rated as appropriate for children.”

The list of words cited above appeared in one sentence for the ABC program “The Real O’Neals.”

“The show was rated PG, which is the same rating Disney uses for ‘Cinderella,’ ‘Inside Out’ and ‘The Good Dinosaur,'” Winter said.

He said the ratings need to be reformed, and an oversight board, which currently includes those who are rating their own programs, should be revamped.

The petition calls for a fix to the industry.

Winter told WND the first “G” show in years to appear was this year’s “Little Bigshots.”

“Not surprisingly, it’s doing well,” he said.

But the rating system is wrong, “to the point of being fraudulent.”

The PTC report said Congress has made it clear that the industry is responsible for ensuring programming is distributed in a way that minimizes children’s exposure to adult content.

“However, the industry’s answer to America’s growing concern with increasing sex, profanity, and violence on television was not to reduce such content. Rather, the entertainment industry’s representatives chose to create a TV content rating system (similar to the family movie ratings system), which they claimed would assist parents in protecting children from harmful media content.”

But the report said the television shows rarely meet the standards of the ratings they’re given, often put people in charge of evaluating their own shows and are taking family TV watching to new lows.

“Regularly scheduled series rated TV-G (appropriate for all audiences) have been eliminated from prime time,” it said. And “graphic content on television is increasing in both amount and intensity.

“The amount of both nudity and violence (particularly weapon-related violence involving guns, bladed weapons, and blunt force) increased per hour of programming on prime-time broadcast TV between 2011 and 2014,” the report said.

All violence was up 6 percent. Weapons-related violence was up 17 percent. Nudity was up 93 percent.

The council explained that the vast body of scientific, psychological and medical research shows that exposure to graphic violence and explicit sex is harmful to children.

“Parents who rely on the TV Content Ratings System to make informed decisions about what to watch on television have been deceived,” Winter said. “The implications in our report are enormous and should give the TV industry significant pause. The industry should have to answer as to why TV-G rated primetime series are extinct; why the lines between TV-PG and TV-14 shows are blurred; why more adult content is being shown on TV-PG shows; why nudity and violence are increasing on broadcast TV overall.”

He said Congress, the FCC, public health advocates and parents “must insist that the TV Content Ratings System be accountable to the public and meet the needs of the parents and families it was intended to serve.”

“Parents must be alerted to potentially harmful TV content, and the ratings system, which the V-chip utilizes to block unwanted content, can only work if the ratings are accurate. As we approach the 20th anniversary of the ratings system’s creation, it is time for the system to be accurate, consistent, transparent, and accountable to the public.”

http://www.wnd.com/2016/04/tv-content-hits-new-low-in-1-sentence-on-1-show/

[Psalm 51:17]

^^ I can attest to this - a month ago I was at family, and they had some sitcom on CBS one night - most of the dialogue was explicite fornication and private body parts. Disgusting. I don't recall ever hearing this line of dialogue in my lifetime on mainstream television.

[Psalm 51:17]

http://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/nation-world/national/article71022122.html
4/10/16
She survived her first driving-while-texting accident – but not her second


Oakdale, Calif.  —

Oakdale teen Amanda Clark’s phone conversation came to an abrupt end when her Chevrolet Trailblazer rolled three times before landing on its roof. She’d run a stop sign and was broadsided by another driver. Metal caved in around her but the roof stayed intact and she survived with just scrapes and bruises.

[He took his teen daughter to a strip club, and now dad must pay price]

She wrote extensively about the experience for her senior project at Oakdale High School in 2006.

“I hate the thought of dying without my family knowing how I felt about them,” she wrote.

[One teen dead, two hospitalized after house party]

“I believe everything happens for a reason and the reason for my car accident is to let me know that I need to slow down and pay more attention. I know that I need to change the way I have been living my life. My phone and talking to my friends put me in danger. I realize how easy it is for my life to be over because I wasn’t paying attention.”

So when she got back in her car after the accident, she pledged to put her phone away.

“I thought this would be a wake up call for her,” said Clark’s mother Bonnye Spray. “And it was for a short time she wouldn’t talk on the phone, she was more cautious. But she got more confident in her driving and a sense of ‘Hey, I survived one, I’m invincible, nothing is going to happen to me now.’”

One year later, almost to the day, Clark was driving in Manteca. She’d been on the phone arguing with her roommate. When she took the Highway 120 bypass to Interstate 5 she lost control of her car and crashed. Cell phone records show she was texting.

First responders told Spray it took them 40 minutes to free Clark from her crumpled car, but by that point she hadn’t been breathing for 20 minutes. She died the next day.

Nine year later, Spray still cries when she tells her daughter’s story. It’s trying, but she tells it nearly every week because she wants others to learn from it.

She’s told it to an audience of 800 and she’s told it to individuals, like the waitress in Inglewood who asked her and her husband why they were visiting. They were there for another presentation.

On Friday, Spray told Clark’s story to a health class at Downey High School.

April is National Distracted Driving Awareness Month and last week was California Teen Safe Driving Week. But presentations like the one at Downey are conducted throughout the county year-round.

About 150 presentations reaching more than 5,000 students will be done this year as part of a program called Impact Teen Drivers, a collaboration between first responders, educators, health professionals, and traffic safety advocates.

Spray was joined in the presentation by Impact Teen Drivers representative David Aaronson, Doctors Medical Center trauma nurse Rena Lepard and California Highway Patrol Officer Eric Parsons.

They talked about how the likelihood of crashing increases with each distraction: you are three times more likely to crash with three passengers in the car, 12 times more likely when you reach for your phone to check a text message and 16 times more likely when you respond to the text.

Parsons said Impact Teen Drivers started in 2010, a few years after hands-free driving laws were passed.

“That’s when we started seeing the ramifications of distracted driving,” he said. “With the laws changing we changed the way we coded traffic collision,” tracking distracted driving as a contribution factor.

Nationwide, 3,154 people were killed and about 424,000 more were injured in motor vehicle crashes involving distracted drivers in 2013, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

That same year, 10 percent of all teen drivers involved in fatal crashes were reported as distracted at the time of the crash.

Teens are among the drivers most likely to be distracted, according to the Administration, and car crashes are the number one killer of teens.

While this week focused on teen drivers, there are efforts throughout the month to educate all drivers. Message boards on highways have been illuminated with the distracted driving awareness motto “It’s not worth it,” as well as a reminder that the ticket is $150.

Law enforcement agencies throughout Stanislaus County have been participating in grant-funded operations that put extra officers on the street to target distracted driving.

A driver’s education teacher first asked Spray to talk about what happened to Amanda just a few months after the crash.

She’d never done any public speaking so, “I just wrote down the basics of what had happened. I had to read it and bawled my eyes out the entire time,” Spray said. Afterward “I noticed the kids were quiet, a lot of kids were wiping tears away and I realized this does have an impact.”

more

[Mark]

[Psalm 51:17]

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/authorities-pot-operations-found-in-homes-where-8-died/ar-BBsaWJq?ocid=spartandhp
Authorities: Pot operations found in homes where 8 died
4/25/16

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Marijuana growing operations were discovered at some of the crime scenes where officials said eight family members were killed in a "pre-planned execution," raising more questions as authorities scrambled to find a suspect or suspects in the slayings in a rural southern Ohio community.

The killings at four homes near the small community of Piketon on Friday was "a sophisticated operation," Attorney General Mike DeWine said at a news conference Sunday. Seven adults and one teenage boy were found shot in the head; three young children were not harmed.

"This was a pre-planned execution of eight individuals," DeWine said.

Authorities remained tight-lipped Sunday about details of the investigation, any suspects or motives for the crime. They said they found marijuana operations at three of the crime scenes, but didn't say if the deaths were linked to pot. Autopsies were expected to be completed Monday.
 
Pike County Sheriff Charles Reader said it was clear the family was targeted, and he's told the victims' relatives to arm themselves.

Reader said he didn't believe safety was an issue for others, but he said "If you are fearful, arm yourself."

Investigators have interviewed between 50 and 60 people in hopes of finding leads, and a team of 38 people is combing wooded areas around the shooting scenes to ensure no evidence was missed, authorities said.

"This was very methodical. This was well planned. This was not something that just happened," said Reader, noting most victims were targeted while they were sleeping.

FILE- In this April 22, 2016, file photo, Ohio State Attorney General Mike DeWine speaks during a news conference in Piketon, Ohio. Authorities are scrambling to determine who killed eight family members in a "pre-planned execution" that has shaken residents of their rural southern Ohio community. DeWine on Sunday, April 24, described the killings near the small community of Piketon as "a sophisticated operation.”


CORRECTS FROM PIKETOWN TO PIKETON- Pike County Sheriff Charles Reader addresses the media, hesitating briefly before saying that his county is small and he knows the family, at a press conference in Piketon, Ohio, on Friday, April 22, 2016. Reader stated that multiple victims were killed in an execution style shooting and that the shooter is still at large.

Authorities believe eight are dead in three homes along a rural road.

This aerial photo shows one of the locations being investigated in Pike County, Ohio, as part of an ongoing homicide investigation, Friday, April 22, 2016. Several people were found dead Friday at multiple crime scenes in rural Ohio, and at least most of them were shot to death, authorities said. No arrests had been announced, and it's unclear if the killer or killers are among the dead.

Authorities set up road blocks at the intersection of Union Hill Road and Route 32 at the perimeter of a crime scene, Friday, April 22, 2016, in Pike County, Ohio. Shootings with multiple fatalities were reported along a road in rural Ohio on Friday morning, but details on the number of deaths and the whereabouts of the suspect or suspects weren't immediately clear. The attorney general's office said a dozen Bureau of Criminal Investigation agents had been called to Pike County, an economically struggling area in the Appalachian region some 80 miles east of Cincinnati.

Lt. Michael Preston, of the Ross County Sheriff's Department speaks to the media on Union Hill Road that approaches a crime scene, Friday, April 22, 2016, in Pike County, Ohio. Shootings with multiple fatalities were reported along the road in rural Ohio on Friday morning, but details on the number of deaths and the whereabouts of the suspect or suspects weren't immediately clear. The attorney general's office said a dozen Bureau of Criminal Investigation agents had been called to Pike County, an economically struggling area in the Appalachian region some 80 miles east of Cincinnati.

Media and emergency personnel stand at the perimeter of a crime scene as investigation vehicles drive up Union Hill Road, Friday, April 22, 2016, in Pike County, Ohio. Shootings with multiple fatalities were reported along a road in rural Ohio on Friday morning, but details on the number of deaths and the whereabouts of the suspect or suspects weren't immediately clear. The attorney general's office said a dozen Bureau of Criminal Investigation agents had been called to Pike County, an economically struggling area in the Appalachian region some 80 miles east of Cincinnati.

Emergency vehicles park outside the perimeter of a crime scene, Friday, April 22, 2016, in Pike County, Ohio. Shootings with multiple fatalities were reported along a road in rural Ohio on Friday morning, but details on the number of deaths and the whereabouts of the suspect or suspects weren't immediately clear. The attorney general's office said a dozen Bureau of Criminal Investigation agents had been called to Pike County, an economically struggling area in the Appalachian region some 80 miles east of Cincinnati.

FILE- In this April 22, 2016, file photo, Ohio State Attorney General Mike DeWine speaks during a news conference in Piketon, Ohio. Authorities are scrambling to determine who killed eight family members in a "pre-planned execution" that has shaken residents of their rural southern Ohio community. DeWine on Sunday, April 24, described the killings near the small community of Piketon as "a sophisticated operation.”

The victims were identified Saturday as 40-year-old Christopher Rhoden Sr.; his 16-year-old son, Christopher Rhoden Jr.; 44-year-old Kenneth Rhoden; 38-year-old Gary Rhoden; 37-year-old Dana Rhoden; 20-year-old Clarence "Frankie" Rhoden; 20-year-old Hannah Gilley; and 19-year-old Hanna Rhoden.

Hanna Rhoden was in bed with her newborn baby nearby, authorities said. The infant was 4- or 5-days old. The newborn, Hannah Gilley's 6-month-old baby, and one other small child were not hurt.

DeWine said the state's crime lab was looking at 18 pieces of evidence from a DNA and ballistic standpoint, and five search warrants have been executed.

Since the slayings, authorities have refused to discuss many details of the crime, a potential motive, weapons, or the search for the assailant or assailants.

"We don't know whether it was one or more people involved in this," DeWine said.

More than 100 tips have been given to investigators, who've set up a number for people to call as police seek information about the crimes. A Cincinnati-area businessman also put up a $25,000 reward for details leading to the capture and conviction of the killer or killers.

Robin Waddell, who owns the Big Bear Lake Family Resort just south of Piketon, said Christopher Rhoden often did work for him as a carpenter and helped out with his excavation business. He said Rhoden was a nice guy whose kids sometimes visited him while he was working.

"It's a large family," Waddell said. "There's a lot of them and they've been in this community for generations. So this is affecting a lot of people."

Maggie Owens, a cook at the town's Riverside Restaurant, said she's counts herself among those who feel they're on eggshells.

"I know a lot of people are just scared," Owens, 39, said in a phone interview on Sunday. "You don't hear about stuff like that around here."

She said her son was friends with the younger Christopher Rhoden. She described Dana Rhoden as a woman with "a heart of gold" who gave her clothes and money when her home burned down last year.

The exact timing of the shootings remains unclear. Authorities got the first 911 call shortly before 8 a.m. Friday; the second came several hours later from another location.

Two of the crime scenes are within walking distance of each other along a sparsely populated, winding road that leads into wooded hills from a rural highway. The third residence is more than a mile away, and the fourth home is on a different road, at least a 10-minute drive away.

Todd Beekman, who owns an outdoors shop a few miles from the crime scenes, said at least one customer came in to stock up on ammunition after hearing about the shootings. But Beekman and others hanging out there midday Saturday said they weren't concerned for their own safety because it's an area where residents know and look out for each other.

"The word spread pretty fast, as it does in any rural area," Beekman said. "Everybody's kind of their own brother's keeper down here."

[Mark]

This is disgusting and there is no way around it.

Widowed ex-senator, 90, to wed same-sex partner, 40
'Matthew is very different from Clare'

Harris Wofford, a Pennsylvania Democrat who served in the U.S. Senate between 1991 and 1995 – and who was married to a woman named Clare for 48 years, before she died in 1996 from leukemia – announced via an op-ed in the New York Times he had found love again and was set to marry, this time to a man 50 years his junior.

“Too often, our society seeks to label people by pinning them on the wall – straight, gay or in between,” he wrote, in a piece entitled, “Finding Love Again, This Time With a Man,” in the New York Times. “I don’t categorize myself based on the gender of those I love. I had a half-century of marriage with a wonderful woman, and now am lucky for a second time to have found happiness.”

The ‘Stop Hillary’ campaign is on fire! Join the surging response to this theme: ‘Clinton for prosecution, not president’

His new love, which he described as developing from a friendship forged on the beach in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, is named Matthew Charlton, age 40.

“As we talked, I was struck by Matthew’s inquisitive and thoughtful manner and his charm,” Wofford wrote. “I knew he was somebody I would enjoy getting to know. We were decades apart in age with far different professional interests, yet we clicked.”

Shortly after, the two began to travel the country and to Europe, “becoming great friends,” he wrote.

“We both felt the immediate spark, and as time went on, we realized that our bond had grown into love,” Wofford wrote.

Wofford said it took three years, but he finally shared his feelings for Charlton with his three children and their families.

“To some, our bond is entirely natural,” he wrote. “To others, it comes as a strange surprise, but most soon see the strength of our feelings and our devotion to each other. We have now been together for 15 years.”

“Outlasting the Gay Revolution” spells out eight principles to help Americans with conservative moral values counter attacks on our freedoms of religion, speech and conscience by homosexual activists

He then spoke of his support for “gay” marriage, and said that he felt “lucky to be in an era where the Supreme Court has strengthened what President Obama calls ‘the dignity of marriage’ by recognizing that matrimony is not based on anyone’s sexual nature, choices or dreams. It is based on love,” he wrote.

He also said: “Matthew is very different from Clare. The political causes that continue to move me do not preoccupy him, nor have I turned my priorities to design, the focus of his driving talent. Still, the same force of love is at work bringing two people together.”

He quoted from a Robert Frost poem, remarked on his previous “pull[s ] of passionate preference,” and underscored the similarities of the “gay”-rights movement to the civil rights struggles of Martin Luther King Jr. days.

“All this is on my mind as Matthew and I prepare for our marriage ceremony,” Wofford finished. “On April 30, at ages 90 and 40, we will join hands, vowing to be bound together.”

Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2016/04/widowed-ex-senator-90-to-wed-same-sex-partner-40/#Qmk7rDlCH3seVbUq.99

[Mark]

Sex toy company unveils Manhattan ‘GuyFi’ booth — including laptop and Internet — for men to ‘relieve stress’ during the workday

 They must be yanking our chain.

A sex toy company trying to get a rise out of New Yorkers erected a head-turning promotional ploy on Fifth Ave.

Hot Octopuss unveiled what it called a “GuyFi” booth on 28th St. and 5th Ave. where men could, in theory, go to “relieve stress” mid-workday.

The ****-themed marketing scheme was inspired by a Time Out survey, which concluded that 39% of the New York men questioned admitted to masturbating while at work.

 The booth was created to “take this habit out of the office and into a more suitable environment designed to give the busy Manhattan man the privacy, and the high-speed Internet connection, he deserves,” Octopuss said in a press release.

The booth was actually an out-of-service telephone kiosk outfitted with a black curtain, a folding chair, a laptop computer, and a Hot Octopuss ad along the side.

“At Hot Octopuss we are all about looking for new solutions to improve everyday life and we feel we’ve done just that with the new GuyFi booth,” Adam Lewis, Hot Octopuss co-founder, said in a statement. “We hope the city’s men enjoy using the space we’ve created in whatever way they want.”

A representative later told Mashable Friday that, “the brand is not actively encouraging people to masturbate in public as that is an illegal offense.”

http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/manhattan/manhattan-guyfi-booth-men-relieve-stress-article-1.2499002

[Psalm 51:17]

http://www.nowtheendbegins.com/laodicean-pastor-creates-jesus-beer-bible-study-meet-bar/

Laodicean Pastor Creates ‘Jesus + Beer’ Bible Study And They Meet In A Bar

"It's a thing," said Dault. He offered as proof a podcast called Homebrewed Christianity, recorded by "guys that brew their own beer and like to smoke cigars."
4/28/16

“It’s a thing,” said Dault. He offered as proof a podcast called Homebrewed Christianity, recorded by “guys that brew their own beer and like to smoke cigars.”

“Wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging: and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise.” Proverbs 20:1 (KJV)

EDITOR’S NOTE: All my life, both lost and saved, I have battled alcohol. Having been raised in a hard-drinking, German Irish family and having my first drink at age 11, there are some things so deeply ingrained that only death or the Rapture will remove them. But drinking is not a good thing, it never leads to good things, and it certainly has no place in the church or in the Body of Christ. Make no mistake, the Bible at no time condones habitual drinking because ultimately it will lead to drunkenness, which is a sin. If you’re a Christian who struggles with alcohol, let me encourage you to keep fighting and never quit. The Bible, speaking in any dispensation, calls us to soberness and holy living as much as it is within us to do so. Fight the good fight.

The big screen at Bernie’s Tap Room in Waukesha flickers with a baseball game between Texas Christian University and Dallas Baptist. The players are nearly life-size.

But the action on-screen is lost to the 15 people seated at two long tables in front of the game. They are deep in conversation about Jesus, church and life, stopping occasionally for a sip from the pint glass at hand.

Jesus + Beer is in session.

In and near Milwaukee, some people are getting a little faith with their froth. Assemblages like Jesus + Beer are part of a national trend of groups combining Bible study with elbow-bending. Sometimes, it’s just easier to talk religion over a beer, one pastor said. It’s also an idea that goes back to Martin Luther and the Protestant Reformation.

Brandon Brown, pastor at Collective MKE church, said he started Jesus + Beer because “people have left traditional church structures but still want to talk about Jesus.”

And he liked the selection of brews at Bernie’s, 351 W. Main St.

“That’s the trajectory of my life,” said Brown, whose Bay View version of the monthly Jesus + Beer sessions meets May 17 at Tonic Tavern, 2335 S. Kinnickinnic Ave. “Beer’s actually a late addition. Jesus’ love was there from the beginning.”

“And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit;” Ephesians 5:18 (KJV)

J. Patrick Hornbeck, chair of the theology department at Fordham University in New York, says pubs represent a space of freedom that churches don’t always offer.

“It gives people permission to say a little more,” said Hornbeck, who says pubs offer something of a theological lubricant. “It’s something more of an equalizing force.”

Drinking beer and talking religion played a role in the Protestant Reformation, said Steve Jerbi, pastor at All Peoples Lutheran Church, 2600 N. 2nd St.

The Reformation was funded by brew that Martin Luther’s wife made, said Jerbi, who hosts a monthly meeting at the Riverwest Public House, 815 E. Locust St., where people of all faiths — and, as often as not, no faith — drink beer and talk religion.

“This week, we had a Reconstructionist Jew, a secular Muslim, a candidate for the ministry in the Baptist church, a lesbian and a middle-aged mom,” Jerbi said.

“Part of it is that I enjoy having a good conversation over a pint,” he said. Jerbi’s group has been meeting since the Public House opened five years ago.

David Dault, head of the nonprofit Chicago Sunday Evening Club, said the relationship between religion and alcohol can be chronicled through the Reformation. Look for which countries had beer as their main alcoholic beverage as opposed to wine: Catholics and wine vs. Protestants and beer.

As in Luther’s day, perhaps, “craft beer allows you to nerd out about the technicalities — about hops, about mash time. People that geek out about theology have a similar craft,” Dault said.

“There’s a certain technical pride in both creating something and playing with holy things, intoxicating substances. Things that are spiritual in both senses of the word.”

Dault points to a current “theology hipster subculture” in which groups of men with beards and pipes host hard-core discussions of orthodox theology.

“It’s a thing,” said Dault. He offered as proof a podcast called Homebrewed Christianity, recorded by “guys that brew their own beer and like to smoke cigars.”

Recent patrons at McBob’s, 4919 W. North Ave., might have seen Dan Quakkelaar and friends sharing a few beers. They were identifiable by Bibles crowding the table.

“It does sometimes get looks — a bunch of guys with their Bibles out, drinking beer,” Quakkelaar said.

Christopher Boucher doesn’t go to church. He doesn’t read the Bible. But the 26-year-old global product manager is a regular at Jesus + Beer.

“In traditional religious settings, you need to be formal. You need to know all the sayings that go with all the different parts of the service,” Boucher said. “You might feel obligated by the collection plate.”

The night’s discussion is never written in stone, and tangents are welcome, Boucher said. As a result, he said, “not only do people listen, they respond.”

Caroline Moan, 53, sits at the same table as Boucher. She followed Brandon Brown from his former church, Elmbrook, to his Jesus + Beer group.

“Some people think Christians are not supposed to drink,” Moan said. “Brandon is not afraid to go beyond what the establishment thinks in a very respectful way.

“He wants people to understand there is a role and that it’s OK to bring alcohol into a Christian’s life. I think that’s part of it,” she said. “The venue is purposeful.” source

“Woe unto him that giveth his neighbour drink, that puttest thy bottle to him, and makest him drunken also, that thou mayest look on their nakedness!” Habakkuk 2:15 (KJV)

[Psalm 51:17]

[Mark]

Cannabis arteritis: Australian diagnosed with marijuana-related disease that can cause loss of limb

Man will have to take aspirin as a blood thinner for the rest of his life

An Australian man who smokes up to a gram of cannabis per day has narrowly escaped amputation after becoming the first in the country to be diagnosed with a rare disease linked to cannabis use.

After an ulcer on his toe failed to heal, the heavy cannabis user consulted Frankston Hospital in Melbourne, where he was diagnosed with cannabis arteritis, an extremely rare disease which causes a build-up of plaque around the arteries, thereby decreasing blood flow to the limbs.

The patient, who has not been identified, was treated with a balloon angioplasty, where a collapsed balloon, known as a balloon catheter, is placed in the area which is constricted in order to inflate it to a healthy size.

REST: http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/cannabis-arteritis-first-australian-diagnosed-marijuana-related-disease-loss-limb-amputation-a7020251.html

[Mark]

Residents unnerved by adult baby store in Chicago suburb

Some residents of a Chicago suburb are calling for the removal of a business catering to adults who enjoy acting like and being treated as babies.

The Mount Pleasant store, Tykables, only allows customers inside by appointment and has its doors locked and windows blocked at all times, but some local residents expressed outrage at the activities that take place inside the store.

The store owner gave a tour of the facility in a YouTube video and showed off the shop’s adult-sized items including a rocking horse, a high chair, a playpen and a 7-foot-tall crib.

“Things for people to come and play, take pictures with. Not everybody has access to a nursery,” the owner said in the video.

The store specializes in selling adult diapers, which the owner said are marketed toward those with medical needs as well as “ABDL,” or “Adult Baby Diaper Lovers,” some of whom have sexual fetishes related to wearing diapers or acting like babies.

“It’s hard for us to swallow in this community,” a resident said at a village hall meeting Tuesday night.

“He’s getting his party on in there, and we’re supposed to sit back and watch,” another local said.

Some residents defended Tykables.

“They’re not having sex with their diapers on, they’re having people feed them and act like a baby,” one resident said at the meeting.

A village official said there might not be much officials can do about the complaints.

“It’s a business that many people find at best distasteful, but that is legal,” the official said.

The village attorney said civil rights laws might protect the store from any potential action, even if the owner was found to have been dishonest in his business application.

http://www.breitbart.com/news/residents-unnerved-by-adult-baby-store-in-chicago-suburb/

[Mark]

Here’s what actually happens at ‘cuddle parties’

Getting spooned by a stranger might be your idea of a nightmare-come-true. But believe it or not, getting cozy with complete randos is totally on-trend, thanks to the growing popularity of something called a “cuddle party.”

So what is a cuddle party, exactly?

These fetes aren’t exactly new. In fact, they’ve been around for about a decade — but they’ve been particularly buzzy lately, with more and more popping up across the country.

“Cuddle Party is a playful social event designed for adults to explore communication, boundaries, and affection,” reads the website for Cuddle Party, a nonprofit organization operating throughout the US. “You can come to a Cuddle Party to meet new people, to enjoy amazing conversations, to touch, to be touched, to have fun, to practice asking for what you want, to practice saying ‘no’ to what you don’t want — all in a setting structured to be a safe place for exploration and enjoyment. You can even come to a Cuddle Party just to cuddle!”

Attending one of these events will cost you a pretty penny, though. At The Snuggery in Rochester, New York, a 45-minute Double Cuddle — which allows you to cuddle with two people concurrently (kind of like an unsexy ménages à trois) — will run you $100.

Meanwhile, if you have $1,500 to spare, you can become a cuddle facilitator (they organize the get-togethers), cuddle lifeguard (they watch the party to make sure no sex happens and that everyone stays safe), or cuddle caddy (they assist the lifeguards during a party). That’s how much it costs for the Cuddle Party four-month facilitator certification program, says Madelon Guinazzo, one of the group’s certified facilitators. Guinazzo co-produces events with someone who has a yoga studio, since her apartment is too small for her to host them there. “I bring foam padding — the kind that is inside mattresses — and layers of blankets to create soft spaces,” she says. “We call it our ‘fluff.’”

Are there really any health benefits?

Many cuddle party websites toss around vague claims about how this keep-your-clothes-on, consensual-but-nonsexual facilitated snuggle sesh with strangers can lead to everything from healthy blood pressure levels and better immune function to more self-confidence and less stress. So, is the price worth it?

The very nature of cuddling is good — there’s no disputing that. That’s because touch causes the body to release oxytocin, says Paul Hokemeyer, Ph.D., a licensed therapist based in Los Angeles and Telluride, Colorado. “Physically, it helps to reduce inflammation,” he says. “Emotionally, it reduces stress and anxiety. It also increases the level of trust between parties.” So there is some truth in the groups’ feel-good claims.

But do you receive the same health benefits if the affection is coming from someone you have no emotional connection to whatsoever? Well, if you’ve set firm, clear boundaries, and have an understandable expectation of the process, cuddling with a stranger could potentially do you some good, says Hokemeyer. But he adds that affection is best when it’s grounded in a history of safety and knowledge of the other. So maybe stick to hugging your BFF for some extra loving if you’re in need of an emotional boost.

http://nypost.com/2016/06/16/heres-what-actually-happens-at-cuddle-parties/

[Psalm 51:17]

https://www.yahoo.com/news/supreme-court-partly-strikes-down-state-drunken-driving-141650275.html
Supreme Court partly strikes down state drunken driving test refusal laws

June 23, 2016

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court ruled on Thursday that states cannot make it a crime for a drunken driving suspect to refuse to take a blood test but can criminalize the refusal to take breath tests to determine alcohol levels.

The ruling will affect laws in 11 states.

The court ruled in cases involving three defendants challenging their convictions for refusing to take such tests in two states, North Dakota and Minnesota. Lower courts had upheld the laws, which criminalize a motorist's refusal to take a test gauging alcohol levels in situations in which police do not have a warrant for such a test.

[Psalm 51:17]

https://www.yahoo.com/news/california-gets-ahead-vote-legalization-marijuana-030418535--nfl.html
California gets go-ahead to vote on legalization of marijuana
6/29/16

(Reuters) - Californians are set to decide whether to make recreational marijuana use legal, as other Western states have done, after the California Secretary of State's office said on Tuesday the issue could be put to voters in the November ballot.

The proposed so-called "Adult Use of Marijuana Act," which is supported by Lieutenant Governor Gavin Newsom among others, would allow people aged 21 and older to possess as much as an ounce of marijuana for private recreational use and permit personal cultivation of as many as six marijuana plants.

"Today marks a fresh start for California, as we prepare to replace the costly, harmful and ineffective system of prohibition with a safe, legal and responsible adult-use marijuana system that gets it right and completely pays for itself," initiative spokesman Jason Kinney said in a statement.

The measure would also establish a system to license, regulate and tax sales of marijuana, while allowing city governments to exercise local control over or disallow commercial distribution within their borders.

The initiative required just over 402,000 valid signatures to qualify for the ballot and exceeded that number on Tuesday, the Secretary of State's office said. Secretary Alex Padilla is slated to certify the initiative on June 30.

more

[Mark]

[Mark]

Two Killed, Another Injured at Martin County Home Where Man Found Eating Victim's Face

A disturbing scene in south Florida has left a couple dead, their neighbor in the hospital and a man under arrest after allegedly committing the crimes and eating part of a victim’s face.
Police responded to a home in Martin County near the border of Palm Beach County and the city of Tequesta on Monday night and found a man later identified as 19-year-old Austin Harrouff on top of another man using his teeth to bite and remove pieces of his face, officials said.

That victim, 59-year old John Joseph Stevens III, was pronounced dead at the scene. Police would later find the body of 53-year-old Michelle Karen Mishcon inside the garage. She is the daughter of the former mayor of North Miami Beach.

Martin County Sheriff’s Office officials said a female deputy arrived and found Harrouff on top of Stevens attempting to eat his face.

"When she got there she realized that the offender was actually biting the victim in the face and causing what turned out to be some substantial trauma to his face from bite marks," Sheriff William Snyder said.

Deputies were initially unsuccessful in getting Harrouff off of the victim with a stun gun and K-9 dog, officials said. Eventually, four deputies were able to pry him off and arrest him.
Do Michael Phelps' 28 Medals Weigh More Than His Baby?

A neighbor who initially came to the home to try and help was also stabbed by the suspect and taken to a nearby hospital for surgery. The neighbor, 47-year-old Jeff Fisher, is expected to survive.

"He's recovering. He's got multiple stable wounds in the left side of his head and in his back," father Steve Fisher said.

Harrouff was also taken to a hospital for treatment after the incident. Officials said he was in life-threatening condition and it's unknown if he'll survive.

Harrouff was reportedly a good student at Florida State University and has no criminal record.

Snyder told reporters that a motive is not yet known, but has not ruled out the influence of a drug such as flakka. Authorities are running tests for multiple substances, Snyder said.
Fugitive on America's Most Wanted List Arrested in Hialeah

"We will be doing sampling of his blood to see if there was flakka or bath salts, which are known to cause what we call the excited delirium, and he did have some indications that we might be working with that," Snyder said.

Snyder added the couple did not know Harrouff and that the Florida State University student gave a false name when first arrested, slowing the investigation.

The sheriff said Harrouff had joined his family for dinner at a restaurant a short distance away when he stormed off, apparently agitated about slow service. His parents were so worried by his behavior that they called police and some of his fraternity brothers in a futile attempt to find him before the attack.

About 45 minutes later, he apparently targeted the couple at random, the sheriff said.

"It's inexplicable," Snyder said. "One of the first things we try to do at a crime scene is try to understand the motive of the offender, because it is the motive of the offender that gets us going in the right direction. In this case, we can't establish a motive. It's 'I don't know.'"

A sophomore majoring in exercise science, Harrouff is muscular - rosters from Suncoast Community High School in nearby Riviera Beach listed him at 6-feet-tall and 200 pounds. Football teammates said coaches wanted him to be more aggressive.

"The coaches would always try to get him mad and play angry, and he never had it in him. I didn't think he would hurt a fly," quarterback Matt Dame told The Palm Beach Post. Dame now plays at Columbia University.

Stevens owned a lawn service and the couple enjoyed boating, neighbors said.

"John and Michelle were the nicest people," neighbor Amy Lourie said. She said they would sit in the garage with the door open while watching television and wave and talk to passersby while their Labrador retriever played in the yard. She said they would drive around the neighborhood in their golf cart with the dog sitting with them.

"It was the cutest thing," Lourie said.

She said it isn't surprising Fisher would try to rescue them, saying he and the couple were close friends.

Dr. Wade Harrouff, a dentist, declined to comment about his son's arrest. It is unknown if Austin Harrouff has an attorney.

http://www.nbcmiami.com/news/local/Two-Killed-Another-Injured-at-Martin-County-Home-Where-Man-Found-Eating-Victims-Face-390278492.html#ixzz4HXQGrBvZ

[Psalm 51:17]

https://www.yahoo.com/news/high-court-sides-employee-fired-164315626.html
High court sides with employee fired for smoking pot at work
8/19/16

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — A Connecticut state worker fired after he was caught smoking marijuana on the job was punished too harshly and should get his job back, the state Supreme Court ruled Friday.

Gregory Linhoff was fired from his maintenance job at the University of Connecticut Health Center in Farmington in 2012 after a police officer caught him smoking pot in a state-owned vehicle. He had no previous disciplinary problems since being hired in 1998 and had received favorable job evaluations, according to his union. He was arrested, but the charges were later dismissed.

State officials said firing the New Hartford resident was the only appropriate penalty for his conduct and not doing so would send a bad message to other employees. An arbitrator disagreed and overturned the firing, saying Linhoff instead should be suspended without pay for six months and be subject to random drug testing for a year after he returned to work.

The state appealed and a Superior Court judge overturned the arbitrator's decision on the grounds that it violated Connecticut's public policy against marijuana use. Linhoff's union, the Connecticut Employees Union Independent SEIU, appealed the judge's ruling to the Supreme Court.

All seven justices agreed that the lower court judge was wrong to overturn the arbitrator's ruling, saying that while state policy on drug use in the work place allows for firing workers it does not require it. Justices also said that judicial second-guessing of arbitration awards is uncommon and should be reserved only for extraordinary circumstances.

"The misconduct at issue was completely unacceptable, and we do not condone it," Chief Justice Chase T. Rogers wrote in the decision.

"By the arbitrator's estimation, (Linhoff's) personal qualities and overall record indicate that he is a good candidate for a second chance," Rogers wrote. "Moreover, the discipline the arbitrator imposed was appropriately severe, and sends a message to others who might consider committing similar misconduct that painful consequences will result."

Linhoff couldn't be reached for comment Friday. A phone number for him could not be found.

His lawyer, Barbara Collins, said the Supreme Court ruling is important because it acknowledges the value of upholding decisions made in arbitration, which was designed as a way to settle disputes out of court.

"Perhaps as important the court acknowledged whether directly or indirectly that there is a public policy of rehabilitation and second chances which should be recognized in the work place," she said.

A spokeswoman for the state Attorney General's Office said officials are reviewing the ruling and they declined further comment.

At the time Linhoff was fired, he was seeking treatment for depression, stress and anxiety because his wife had filed for divorce and he had a cancer scare; he believed smoking pot helped to alleviate his worries, Collins said.

[Mark]

Major Cities All Over America Have Become Infested With Opioid Addicts And Extremely Violent Gangs

Violence and drugs are flooding the streets of our major cities, but those that live in cushy suburban neighborhoods may not have heard much about this because the mainstream media is so obsessed with covering Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. As you will see below, drug overdose deaths involving heroin and prescription opioid pain relievers have soared to unprecedented levels, and in some areas of the country health authorities are finding themselves absolutely overwhelmed by overdose cases this summer. Law enforcement officials are doing what they can to combat this epidemic, but because Barack Obama has left our borders wide open the gangs are able to transport these dangerous drugs into this country with ease. As a result, we are facing a crisis on a level that we haven’t seen since at least the 1980s.

Let’s start with some hard numbers. The following comes from the official CDC website…

    More people died from drug overdoses in 2014 than in any year on record. The majority of drug overdose deaths (more than six out of ten) involve an opioid.1 And since 1999, the number of overdose deaths involving opioids (including prescription opioid pain relievers and heroin) nearly quadrupled.2 From 2000 to 2014 nearly half a million people died from drug overdoses. 78 Americans die every day from an opioid overdose.

    We now know that overdoses from prescription opioid pain relievers are a driving factor in the 15-year increase in opioid overdose deaths. Since 1999, the amount of prescription opioids sold in the U.S. nearly quadrupled,2 yet there has not been an overall change in the amount of pain that Americans report.3,4 Deaths from prescription opioids—drugs like oxycodone, hydrocodone, and methadone—have also quadrupled since 1999.5

And keep in mind that those numbers are two years old. Things have gotten much, much worse since then, and this summer the numbers are off the charts.

For example, just check out what is currently going on in the Cincinnati area…

    With an estimated 78 overdoses Tuesday and Wednesday alone, and an estimated 174 overdose cases in emergency rooms in less than a week, officials are scrambling to attack a heroin crisis of a magnitude they’ve never had before.

    “This is unprecedented to see as many alerts as we’ve seen in the last six days,” said Hamilton County Health Commissioner Tim Ingram. He was referring to a surveillance system that alerts the public health department when an unusual number of drug-related emergency-room encounters occur.

Elsewhere in Ohio, things are equally as bad. The following is from a report about the overdose epidemic in Richland County…

    One week in August produced 51 suspected drug overdoses and three deaths in Richland County, providing more fresh evidence the local heroin crisis appears to be rapidly escalating.

    The almost daily surge in overdoses impacts people well beyond addicts and their families, taking a growing toll on workers on the front line of helping people.

    Dr. Joseph Bocka, an emergency room physician at OhioHealth Mansfield Hospital, said it’s not uncommon for people drop off overdose victims and leave, to find patients with a needle sticking out of their arm or to treat same person multiple times. Some are more concerned about losing their high than dying.

So where are the front page stories about this on the big mainstream news websites?

Can’t they stop talking about Clinton and Trump long enough to focus on the fact that countless numbers of Americans are becoming addicted to extremely dangerous drugs and many of them are dying?

On the west coast, similar things are happening…

    In just 12 days, California’s Sacramento Valley has seen 42 opioid overdoses  — resulting in 10 deaths. Even in a country that’s watched opioid addiction spread at an alarming pace, this kind of overdose rate isn’t normal.

    At least, up until now.

    These overdoses weren’t caused by the prescription painkiller the users were believed to have been taking, called Norco. Instead, they had taken a street pill disguised to look like Norco that contained a chemical 50 times more potent than heroin: fentanyl.

It is said that Fentanyl is up to 100 times more powerful than morphine. Nobody should ever be taking this outside of a medical setting, because the risk of overdose is extremely high.

According to Fox News, West Virginia is the state with the most overdose deaths per capita, but New Mexico and New Hampshire are right up there as well…

    CDC statistics show West Virginia has the highest per capita rate of lethal overdoses in the nation, followed by New Mexico, New Hampshire, Kentucky and Ohio. The drug epidemic has not spared any communities, said Jim Johnson, director of the Mayor’s Office of Drug Control Policy in Huntington.

    “Some 22 million people across the country suffer from substance abuse disorders, resulting in 50,000 overdose death rates each year,” Johnson said. “This is right up there on that same level as terrorism and homeland security concerns in our country. That doesn’t even count the number of people getting Hepatitis B and C and HIV.”

Needless to say, wherever there are drug addicts that are also gangs that are eager to make money off of them by selling them drugs.

Barack Obama is originally from Chicago, but things have just continued to get worse and worse for the Windy City ever since he entered the White House.

I have previously written about how there are now 150,000 gang members living in Chicago, and the violence in the city continues to escalate to new levels. In fact, this year there have been more shootings in Chicago than in New York City and Los Angeles combined.

One of the recent shooting victims was a little 10-year-old boy named Tavon Tanner. The following comes from the Chicago Tribune…

    In the weeks since he was shot in the back, 10-year-old Tavon Tanner has undergone several operations to repair the damage from the bullet that tore through his small body and remains lodged between his shoulder and his chest.

    The fifth-grader is still in the hospital and still in pain, according to his mother Mellanie Washington. He doesn’t talk as much and cries more often. Sometimes he’ll ask if police have arrested the person who shot him.

Overall, the month of August has been the most violent month for the city of Chicago in nearly 20 years. Here is more from the Tribune…

    Tavon was among more than 400 people shot in Chicago this month. There have been at least 78 homicides, marking August as the most violent month in the city in almost 20 years, according to data provided by the Chicago Police Department. And there are two more days to go.

In the past, you could avoid most of the violence by staying away from the “bad areas” of the city, but now the violence appears to be spreading even to the “good areas”…

    Chicago’s violent crime problem seems to be spreading to the historically safe “north side” neighborhoods. The spike in crime on the north side comes as Chicago’s police department has diverted more officers to the city’s violent south and west side neighborhoods to fight extreme levels of violence there. As reported by local Chicago news station WGN, violent crime is up 61% in the Loop this year with Near North Side up 50%, Lincoln Park up 42% and Edgewater up 44%.

    WGN also reports that officers have seemingly lost control of Chicago’s streets as they’re growing increasingly hesitant to confront people out of fear of being humiliated by the next viral arrest video. Meanwhile, local gangs are reported to be offering incentives to “cop killers.”

And of course Chicago is far from alone. It is only August, but Baltimore has already surpassed 200 homicides for the fifth consecutive year…

    Baltimore officially has had 200 homicide victims in 2016 after an autopsy confirmed a 42-year-old man found dead Friday just west of downtown had been fatally stabbed.

    The victim, identified Monday as Franswhaun Smith, was found Friday about 7:50 a.m. in the 700 block of Murphy Lane, in the Heritage Crossing neighborhood that was formerly the site of the Murphy Homes public housing development.

The social fabric of our nation is literally coming apart at the seams all around us, and yet after eight years many Americans still don’t know the name of our Vice-President.

Great manufacturing cities such as Detroit were once the envy of the world, but now they have become global jokes. Our middle class is dying, poverty is exploding, our borders are wide open and our major cities have become infested with drugs and gangs.

Anyone that cannot see that America is in decline is either uninformed or is simply delusional.

Our once great nation is in an advanced state of rot and decay, and attempting to deny the obvious is not going to fix anything.

http://endoftheamericandream.com/archives/major-cities-all-over-america-have-become-infested-with-opioid-addicts-and-extremely-violent-gangs