The cult of Statism: The most dangerous religion

Statism is describing the psychological state of "Authoritarian Followers".

"Part of the problem seems to be that a large proportion of any population is what psychologist Bob Altemeyer calls "Authoritarian Followers." Let me quote from the Cambridge Dictionary of Psychology: "Authoritarian personality", and "Authoritarian followers". According to the dictionary:

"Authoritarian followers have the psychological characteristic known as right-wing authoritarianism. This personality trait consists of authoritarian submission, a high degree of submission to the established authorities in one's society; authoritarian aggression, aggression directed against various persons in the name of those authorities; and conventionalism, a strong adherence to the social conventions endorsed by those authorities.

Right-wing authoritarianism ("right" comes from "lawful") is measured on so called RWA scale." The Dictionary tells us that:

.... persons who get high RWA scale scores quite readily submit to the established authorities in their lives and trust them far more than most people do.

They supported Richard Nixon to the bitter end during the Watergate crisis. High RWAs also believed George W. Bush when he said Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, and they supported the war in that country long after others had signed off. High RWAs also are relatively willing to let authorities run roughshod over civil liberties and constitutional guarantees of personal freedom. They seem to think that authorities are above the law.

Bob Altemeyer, one of the champions in the psychology of authoritarians, notices that authoritarians are characterized by a certain specific cognitive behavior:

Compared with others, authoritarians have not spent much time examining evidence, thinking critically, reaching independent conclusions and seeing whether their conclusions mesh with the other things they believe. (...) They carry a list of 'false teachings' and rejected ideologies in their heads. But they usually learned which ideas are bad in the same way they learned which are good - from the authorities in their lives. Highs are not prepared to think critically."

Global Pathocracy, Authoritarian Followers and the Hope of the World

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Paying attention makes touch-sensing brain cells fire rapidly and in sync

Whether we're paying attention to something we see can be discerned by monitoring the firings of specific groups of brain cells. Now, new work from Johns Hopkins shows that the same holds true for the sense of touch. The study brings researchers closer to understanding how animals' thoughts and feelings affect their perception of external stimuli.

The results were published Nov. 25 in the journal .

"There is so much information available in the world that we cannot process it all," says Ernst Niebur, Ph.D., a professor of neuroscience in the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. "Many researchers believe the brain copes with this by immediately throwing away most of what we take in -- that's called selective attention. But we need to be certain that what is thrown away is really the irrelevant part. We investigated how our neurons do that."

Niebur, a computational biologist, worked with Steven Hsiao, Ph.D., a professor of neuroscience in Johns Hopkins' Zanvyl Krieger Mind/Brain Institute, who died in June, on the study. Hsiao's assistant research scientist, Manuel Gomez-Ramirez, Ph.D., trained three rhesus monkeys to pay attention to either the orientation (vertical or horizontal) or the vibration rate (fast or slow) of a pencil-shaped object using their sense of touch. The monkeys learned to move their gaze to a location on a monitor screen corresponding to the right answer and were rewarded with drops of juice or water.

Gomez-Ramirez then monitored the activity of groups of neurons and figure out which were in charge of perceiving which property. When the monkeys were paying attention to the object's orientation, he found, the neurons for that property fired more rapidly, and more synchronously, than did neurons for the vibration rate. That much was consistent with previous studies on selective attention in vision.

In addition, the research team found, the firing rate of the neurons for the property, and how much they synced up, predicted how well the monkey did on the task -- whether it at to the correct location on the monitor. But synchronization was more important to performance than was firing rate.

The results are a step toward "cracking the neural code," he says, an ambitious goal for which his research group continues to strive. "We're looking for the neural code of internal thought processes," he says. "It's a very fundamental question."

Comment: There is enough research to indicate, that consciously paying attention prevents one's brain from deteriorating. More so, ignoring reality and just going through the motions of life makes one open to myriad harmful influences and manipulation. If we are to become functioning and thinking human beings, we must make an effort to be aware and always pay attention.

'Life is religion. Life experiences reflect how one interacts with God. Those who are asleep are those of little faith in terms of their interaction with the creation. Some people think that the world exists for them to overcome or ignore or shut out. For those individuals, the world will cease. They will become exactly what they give to life. They will become merely a dream in the 'past.' People who pay strict attention to objective reality right and left, become the reality of the 'Future.' -- Cassiopaeans, 09-28-02

Pay attention to this:

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Hippocratic oath updated to include vow of loyalty to insurance giant

© The Onion

New York - In an effort to modernize the ancient ethics pledge, officials from the American Medical Association announced Tuesday an update to the Hippocratic Oath that includes a vow of loyalty to national health insurance giant Blue Cross Blue Shield.

"This newly revised pledge requires doctors to uphold their allegiance to Blue Cross Blue Shield, to avoid pricey tests and referrals whenever possible, and to do no harm to any in-network patient so far as it remains sufficiently cost-effective," said AMA spokesperson Amanda Cummings, noting a further addition to the professional oath that obligates doctors to enforce all co-pays and coinsurance payments.

"The updated text also requires physicians to have a comprehensive working knowledge of their specific financial agreement with Blue Cross Blue Shield. And above all, a doctor must, at all times, avoid inflicting any injury or wrong upon the company's bottom line."

Officials added that the new pledge would no longer require doctors to swear by "Apollo the physician, and Aesculapius the surgeon, and likewise Hygeia and Panacea," but rather by Blue Cross Blue Shield CEO Scott Serota.

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Major snowstorm to plaster Northeast U.S.

A major storm will impact the Northeast through Thursday, complete with gusty winds, substantial snow, heavy rain, a wintry mix and flooding.

A strengthening storm along the mid-Atlantic coast will push northward on Tuesday, then inland Tuesday night through Thursday.

According to AccuWeather Chief Meteorologist Elliot Abrams, "This will be a snowstorm for some areas well inland, while impacts similar to a tropical storm will occur along the coast, including much of Interstate-95."

Heavy Interior Snow

The heaviest snow, a general 6 to 12 inches is forecast to fall on the Endless, Catskill and Adirondack mountains. Locally higher amounts can occur.

While the snow will be welcome by those with skiing interests, travel will become extremely treacherous and AccuWeather.com Meteorologist Ben Noll stated that the "wet-clinging nature of the snow could lead to downed trees and power outages."

Interstates that could quickly become snow-covered and treacherous for motorists include stretches of 81, 87, 88, 90, 91, and 93 in upstate New York and northern New England.

Outside of the mountains, the rate of the snow in the interior Northeast will determine travel troubles and amounts.

"Marginal temperatures could cause the snow to melt as it falls on some of the roads for a time," stated AccuWeather.com Senior Meteorologist Alex Sosnowski.

"The snow would have to fall at a heavy rate to accumulate on paved surfaces outside of the mountains."

Communities at risk for one or more rounds of heavy snow and slippery travel include Scranton, Pennsylvania; Lebanon, New Hampshire; Caribou, Maine; Binghamton and Syracuse, New York; and Rutland and Burlington, Vermont.

"However, enough warm air could come into some of these areas to switch snow over to a wintry mix, or even rain for a time," Sosnowski said.

Aside from any heavier burst and icy spots to start, the snow should be light enough for much of interstates 68, 70, 79, 80, 81 and 86 in the central Appalachians and toward the eastern Great Lakes to be mainly wet or slushy Tuesday through Wednesday.

In the transition zone from snow to rain in the Northeast, a bit of icing could occur and add to the hazards for motorists. Icy conditions have already led to several accidents and road closures on major highways early Tuesday from central Pennsylvania to northern Virginia.

Downpours, Poor Drainage Flood Threat for I-95

The storm will be a mainly rain event for the I-95 corridor from Boston southward to Washington, D.C., but AccuWeather.com meteorologists will be monitoring the potential for some wet snow at the storm's onset or end.

The rain alone could bring some impacts to residents and travelers. The heavy rain threatens to trigger flooding in low-lying and poor drainage areas.

Airline passengers should prepare for an increasing number of flight delays and cancellations. Poor visibility from wind-swept rain and the risk of hydroplaning will be a concern for motorists. Such travel disruptions will spread from Baltimore, Philadelphia and New York City during the day on Tuesday to Boston for the evening commute.

Strong Wind, Coastal Flooding Potential

The danger of coastal flooding will exist Tuesday from the Delaware and New Jersey beaches to New York City and southern New England, then will increase Tuesday night farther north along the eastern New England coast as howling northeasterly winds whip the region.

The risk of coastal flooding will generally be limited to within a couple of hours of the scheduled high tides.

The winds along the coast could be strong enough to cause localized damage and power outages. Gusts could top 50 mph on some coastal areas.

The strong onshore winds at the coast will shut off as the storm moves northward and inland at midweek.

Outlook for Wednesday Night and Thursday

Colder air will wrap into the slow-moving storm, along with bands of snow and flurries over New England and the mid-Atlantic during Wednesday night through Thursday.

While there is a chance of a ground whitening snow shower as far east as I-95, the mostly likely area for a small additional accumulation of snow will be in parts of interior New England and the central Appalachians.

Parts of northwestern Pennsylvania and western and central New York state are likely to receive heavier lake-enhanced snow.

Gusty winds from the northwest will add to the chill around the eastern Great Lakes and mid-Atlantic into Friday.

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Antibiotics kill our cells with each use - Harvard study

Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin in the 1940s, and it has been used as a poster child for 'safe' antibiotics ever since. Fleming's discovery heralded the 'age of antibiotics,' but new research from Harvard scientists reveals concerning information about antibiotics, confirming that the

Penicillin has been called better than the 'big gun' antibiotics for treating pneumonia and other childhood diseases, but it that really true in a new age of antibiotic resistance created by their overuse? Even the corrupt FDA admits that antibiotic misuse and overuse is a problem.

According to the Harvard summary:

"One of the oldest and most widely used antibiotics, penicillin, attacks enzymes that build the bacterial cell wall. Researchers have now shown that penicillin and its variants also set in motion a toxic malfunctioning of the cell's wall-building machinery, dooming the cell to a futile cycle of building and then immediately destroying that wall."

This would be a simple microbial process that we could take for granted if it weren't for the resistance to penicillin and other antibiotics that has emerged in the last few decades. The fact is that scientists still don't really know how the original 'age of antibiotics' worked.

Thomas Bernhardt, associate professor of microbiology and immunobiology at Harvard Medical School, are looking closer at this phenomenon.

Their findings, published in the journal , explain how penicillin can be devastating to bacteria - which may lead to new ways to thwart drug resistance, but could also explain why 'good' bacteria is harmed by antibiotics. How do these drugs differentiate after all?

GASP! CDC Admits Age of Antibiotics is over as Super Bacteria Grow

Bernhardt and his team have shown that antibiotic drugs do more than simply block cell-wall assembly. Penicillin and its variants also This downstream death spiral depletes cells of the resources they need to survive."

Bernhardt explains the ramifications concerning drug-resistance:

"It seems to be a common theme with some of the best antibiotics that we have: They don't just inhibit the enzyme they are targeting; they actually convert that target so that whatever activity it has left becomes toxic."

Penicillin and some other antibiotic drugs are included in a class called beta-lactams, all of which are derived from natural antibiotics produced by fungi and have known bacteria-fighting capabilities.

If a drug prohibits a cell from synthesizing new strands by blocking the enzymes that build cross-links, weakening the cell walls (meaning the cell wall can't hold together), how do we keep the healthy cells from dying? It's a bit like treating cancer cells with chemotherapy. All the cells die, not just the cancerous ones.

Bernhardt and Hongbaek Cho, lead author of the paper, used a specific derivative of penicillin that targets only one enzyme in cell-wall assembly. Their aim was to genetically manipulate their study subject, to make this enzyme dispensable for the life of the cell.

Surprisingly, the scientists noticed that targeting the nonessential enzyme with the penicillin still killed the cell. This finding was quite a conundrum. The enzyme could be removed from cells completely without harm. Yet, when it was present and bound by the drug, the cells would die.

The investigators discovered that the root cause of the problem was that the drug not only inhibited the enzyme, but it also caused it to malfunction in such a way that its activity became toxic.

Solutions: 5 Natural Antibiotics to Combat Antibiotic-Resistance

Bernhardt stated:

The problem is that more and more unwanted bacteria are becoming resistant to antibiotics, and in many cases, disease-causing bacteria are actually influenced to grow more.

Antibacterials usually work in one of two ways:

• A bactericidal antibiotic like penicillin hopefully kills the unwanted or 'bad' bacteria.

• A bacteriostatic antibiotic stops bacteria from multiplying.

Simple. natural antibiotics like garlic and onions, basil, chamomile, aloe vera, astragalus and others; however, don't cause side effects like antibiotic resistance, diarrhea, nausea, fungal infections, and the disruption of healthy gut flora that help to fight disease.

Furthermore, with many antibiotics, bacteria are killed, but resistant germs may be left to grow and multiply.

"Some bacteria develop the ability to neutralize the antibiotic before it can do harm, others can rapidly pump the antibiotic out, and still others can change the antibiotic attack site so it cannot affect the function of the bacteria."

Pharmaceutical antibiotics simply kill bacteria indiscriminately throughout the body. That is how they are manufactured. So, if you contract strep throat, for example, the antibiotic you take will kill the good bacteria, lactobacillus, which you need to crowd out Candida and other issues. This is why vaginal and intestinal yeast infections are so common after antibiotic use.

Natural antibiotics don't seem to cause the phenomenon of antibiotic resistance, and many are simply foods you eat on a daily basis. For example, these 8 natural antibiotics could possibly replace pharmaceutical antibiotics for good. Natural, non-pharmaceutical antibiotics even fight anti-biotic resistant diseases, like MRSA, and E Coli.

Why use Big Pharma drugs at all? It doesn't take a room of Harvard scientists to figure out better options that are less expensive and still effective.

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More fear: Islamic State claims 'radioactive device' now in Europe

© AP

An alleged weapons maker for the Islamic State (IS) claimed that a "radioactive device" has been smuggled into an undisclosed location in Europe, according to an intelligence brief released Monday by the SITE Intelligence Group.

"A Radioactive Device has entered somewhere in Europe," according Twitter user Muslim-Al-Britani, who claims to be a freelance jihadist weapons maker now working alongside IS (also known as ISIL or ISIS), according to tweets captured and disseminated by SITE.

BREAKING NEWS# WARNING A Radioactive Device has entered somewhere in Europe. http://ift.tt/1w8sOpR

- Muslim-Al-Britani (@TNTmuslim) December 6, 2014

The claim by Al-Britani comes just days after reports emerged that IS could have in its possession a dirty bomb, the elements of which were obtained via earlier IS raids on a university research facility in Mosul that contained uranium. Al-Britani is also responsible for the flurry of reports on the dirty bomb.

Al-Britani, who has disseminated on his Twitter feed "weapon instructions and manuals," claimed on Nov. 23 that the "Islamic State does have a dirty bomb. We found some radioactive material from Mosul university," according to the tweets reproduced by SITE.

While it is difficult to assess the veracity of Al-Britani's claims, U.S. officials have expressed concern about IS potentially smuggling nuclear and radioactive material out of Iraq.

U.S. and Iraqi officials inked a pact in September meant to step up efforts to combat this type of smuggling, which the United States deemed a "critical" threat.

"There's always a concern about radiological or radioactive sources," a State Department official told the at the time.

While the United States, at that time, was "not aware of any cases of these types of material being smuggled out of the country thus far," ISIL could potentially use these radioactive materials to create a crude bomb, the official said.

"This is the kind of thing where if ISIL got its hands on enough radioactive sources or radioactive sources of a sufficient radioactivity level and they decided to turn it into a bomb and blow it up in a market, that would be a very unpleasant thing," the official said.

Iraq reportedly informed the United Nations in July that terrorists had seized nuclear materials being housed at Mosul University. Some 90 pounds of uranium were said to have been stolen, according to reports.

Former Pentagon adviser Michael Rubin said that intelligence officials should be considering the information disseminated by purported IS confidants.

"Too often, counterterrorism officials plan to prevent replication of the last terror attack," Rubin said. "Terror groups, however, plan to shock with something new."

"Maybe Britani is lying, and maybe he's not. But Western officials would be foolish to assume that just because something hasn't happened yet, it won't," Rubin said. "The terrorist groups have the motivation and, thanks to post-withdrawal vacuum created in Iraq, the means to strike the West like never before."

The threats also should factor into the ongoing debates about border control, according to Rubin.

"Perhaps it's also time to recognize that open borders and successful counter-terrorism are mutually exclusive," he said. "It's a lesson that might fly in the face of Obama's ideology, but reality will always trump political spin."

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Scientists find brain mechanism that keeps us reaching for the glucose

© Unknown

British scientists have found a brain mechanism they think may drive our desire for glucose-rich food and say the discovery could one day lead to better treatments for obesity.

In experiments using rats, researchers at Imperial College London found a mechanism that appears to sense how much glucose is reaching the brain and prompts animals to seek more if it detects a shortfall. In people, the scientists said, it may play a role in driving our preference for sweet and starchy foods.

Glucose, a component of carbohydrates, is the main energy source used by brain cells.

"Our brains rely heavily on glucose for energy,.. but in our evolutionary past it would have been hard to come by. So we have a deep-rooted preference for glucose-rich foods and seek them out," said James Gardiner, who led the study and published its findings in the Journal of Clinical Investigation on Monday.

Gardiner's team started with a hypothesis that an enzyme called glucokinase, involved in sensing glucose in the liver and pancreas, might play a role in driving glucose desire. Glucokinase is found in part of the brain called the hypothalamus, which regulates various functions including food intake.

In their experiments they first found that when rats go 24 hours without eating, glucokinase activity in an appetite-regulating center in the hypothalamus increases sharply.

The rats were given access to a glucose solution as well as their normal food pellets, called chow. When the researchers increased the activity of glucokinase in the hypothalamus using a virus, rats consumed more glucose in preference to chow. When glucokinase activity was reduced, they consumed less glucose.

Gardiner suggested that in people it might be possible to reduce glucose cravings by changing the diet, and said a drug that could act on this system may potentially prevent obesity.

"People are likely to have different levels of this enzyme, so different things will work for different people," he said in a statement about the study.

"For some people, eating more starchy foods at the start of a meal might be a way to feel full more quickly by targeting this system, meaning they eat less overall."

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