Tales of the dead come back

~ susie ~ 1 Comment

I know this happened with my mother-in-law, and she absolutely refused to talk about it:

Why is it important for you to believe that there is life after death?

It was not important for me, at all, to believe. I’m a journalist. I don’t go around thinking, “I really hope there’s life after death.” Indeed, at the beginning I was the opposite—I didn’t want to believe. Yes, death was a source of terror. For me, the worst thing that could happen was nothingness. I would have far preferred to hear that Satan was waiting for me than to learn that there was nothing. But I was absolutely positive that there was nothing after death—that the curtain descends, and that’s it. Act III. It’s over. The stage is black.

And when I first ventured into this strange area of research, I was pretty sure, just as you said, that it was all the result of oxygen deprivation and that these were hallucinations. It was only after I discovered that it can’t be the result of oxygen deprivation, and these were not hallucinations, that I realized I had to change my views. That’s a very difficult thing to do, particularly when you’re past adolescence. But every bit of evidence, every single person I interviewed, forced me to change my views. It was something I did quite unwillingly and with a good deal of skepticism.

What I tried to do, as a journalist, was simply record what these people say happened. All I know is what I’ve reported, which is, when you die, that is not the end. Stuff goes on. That, to me, is weird. But it’s true.

Did engaging with this research make you want to die?

No! Nothing makes me want to die! But it did make me less fearful of dying. It was a long process, though. After the first 20 or 30 interviews, I was still terrified of death. All these people were telling me stuff that I never believed could happen. But gradually I came to accept that what they said was true. So I’m a little less terrified of death now.

You say that having an NDE often invests people with special powers. Tell us about the British air traffic controller.

[Laughs] The British air traffic controller makes me laugh. He told a person I interviewed, a British neuropsychiatrist named Dr. Fenwick, that he had a death experience. Oddly enough, as a result of this death experience, he became terrific at picking and choosing stocks. [Laughs]

The psychiatrist goes, “Uh-huh.” The guy says, “Yeah, you really should invest in British Telecom.”

Dr. Fenwick says, “Uh, yeah. Right.” And of course the stock soars right after that!

Usually these powers involve perceptual abilities, though, [such as] the ability to know what other people are thinking, the ability know what’s going to happen next. So they’re usually less materialistic than this gentleman’s powers. [Laughs] But, hey, whatever floats your boat.

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How Comcast bought Rahm

~ susie ~ 2 Comments

Visit from Rahm Emmanuel

And you have to admire a politician who stays bought, damn it!

In a blog post on the company’s corporate website last week, David L. Cohen, Comcast’s executive vice president and chief merger lobbyist, boasted that nearly 70 mayors and more than 60 additional state and local officials have gone on record as proponents of the proposed merger, which would combine the country’s No. 1 and No. 2 cable companies into one massive pay-TV andbroadband colossus.

In expressing his gratitude, Cohen singled out one particularly pro-merger mayor, Rahm Emanuel of Chicago. A former congressman and White House chief of staff, Emanuel wrote a letter to the Federal Communications Commission on Aug. 22 saying he believes the merger would be good for the Windy City, maintaining and enhancing Comcast’s “generous presence” in the area.

“We’re proud to have the support of Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel,” Cohen wrote.

Not mentioned in Cohen’s post, however, is the fact that during his political career, Emanuel and political committees he controls has received more than $100,000 from Comcast and its employees.

Declining wages? Yep

~ susie ~ 2 Comments

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Is this a secret? This so-called “recovery” is fake, just like extend-and-pretend policies Obama approved for the banks. If the banks had been held accountable and cleaned up, we’d have a real recovery by now:

Think your money’s not going very far this year? It’s not your imagination. According to new research by the Economic Policy Institute, real hourly wages declined for almost everybody in the U.S. workforce in the first half of 2014. Thanks, so-called recovery.

Economist Elise Gould pored over data from the government’s Current Population Survey and determined that workers at the 20th, 30th, 40th, 50th, 60th, 70th, 80th, 90th, and 95th percentiles all saw declines in their real wages in the first half of 2014 compared with the same period last year. This was true whether you had no high school degree, a high school diploma, some college, a college degree, or an advanced degree. In fact, people with advanced degrees saw the biggest drop (2.7 percent).

EPI reveals this isn’t just a blip. Real wages dropped 4.9 percent for workers with a high school degree and 2.5 percent for workers with a college degree from the first half of 2007 to the first half of this year.

Gould explains in the report that “the last year has been a poor one for American workers’ wages.” She states that “on the whole, the broad wage trends by education level over the last decade and a half make clear that wage inequality cannot be readily explained by stories about educational credentials and technology; wage inequality has increased steadily, yet even those with a college diploma or advanced degree have experienced lackluster wage growth.”

Mohammed is 14

~ susie ~ 2 Comments

mohammedgaza

He has been in intensive care for three weeks and lost 12 members of his family in the Rafah bombing in Gaza. Now he dreams of the day he can have artificial legs. Look at this half-starved kid smile, it just breaks my heart.

Please give to one of these Gaza relief organizations, as much as you can spare:

UNRWA (United Nations Relief and Works Organization for Palestine Refugees in the Near East) is the UN organization that runs those schools that the Israeli’s keep shelling, most recently two days ago when ten people were killed and many wounded, prompting U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to call it “a moral outrage and a criminal act.” UNRWA staff have been among the victims of this and other violence. Global News reports that the staff of UNRWA, which runs 82 schools and provides food, shelter to over 200,000 displaced Palestinians, are at a “breaking point” trying to deal with this humanitarian crisis. Tax deductible donations in the US can be made through US Friends of UNRWA, a 501(c)(3) .

For those who prefer to donate through a somewhat smaller organization,
The Jerusalem Fund is a Washington based 501(c)(3) that does cultural, educational and humanitarian work on behalf of Palestinians in particular those living in the Occupied Territories and surrounding refugee camps. Its “Humanitarian Link” gives small grants to needy hospitals, schools, orphanages and human rights groups. Its Emergency Gaza Appeal promises that 100% of donations to this appeal will be earmarked for humanitarian relief and rebuilding in Gaza.

Another smaller but effective organization, Middle East Children’s Alliance (MECA) is a US-based non-profit humanitarian aid organization that has delivered millions of dollars in food, medicine and medical supplies to children in the West Bank and Gaza, Iraq and Lebanon. According to its web site, MECA provides financial assistance for community projects in the West Bank and Gaza such as sports teams, arts programs, English classes, computer technology, media training, playgrounds and psychosocial support. MECA is currently seeking emergency aid for children in Gaza– food, milk, medicine.

The Palestine Children’s Relief Fund has an urgent Gaza fund. “PCRF is responding to this ongoing crisis by identifying injured kids and providing them with critical medical care, as well as providing poor, displaced families with the urgent humanitarian aid that is needed.” Writes one donor on the site: “I hope this sand grain will be useful, somehow…”

Three other larger organizations that do critical work on behalf of the Palestinians are: Save the Children-Gaza Children in Crisis; Medecins sans Frontieres (call 1-888-392-0392 to earmark your gift to their Gaza relief efforts which appear to be mostly in the important area of trauma counseling); the Palestinian Red Crescent Society (International Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies); and CARE (West Bank/Gaza crisis).

A website called Gaza Siege lists these and other organizations that work in Gaza and seems very comprehensive both in terms of the relief organizations it lists as well as background and current information and reports.

Update: Since the August 5th posting of “Where You Can Donate to Help Gaza”, readers have identified a number of other organizations working to provide relief in Gaza, all of which really need support at this time of such unimaginable suffering at the hands of the Israelis: Medical Aid For Palestinians, a UK based organization;  Catholic Relief Services , a 501(c)(3) which allows for earmarking donations to Gaza as a “special request” on its web site; ANERA (American Near East Refugee Aid), a 501(c)(3) operating since 1968 with over 80 full time staff operating in Gaza, the West Bank and Lebanon; United Palestinian Appeal, a 501(c)(3); Islamic Relief USA, a 501(c)(3); and the Gaza Mental Health Foundation, a 501(c)(3) (contributions by check only/no credit cards).