Moon GODDESS VP HATER NATION's blog: "Things I think you all should know"

Ford, Chrysler and GM's contributions after 9/11 'CNN Headline News did a short news listing regarding Ford and GM's contributions to the relief and recovery efforts in New York and Washington. The findings are as follows..... 1. Ford- $10 million to American Red Cross matching employee contributions of the same number plus 10 Excursions to NY Fire Dept. The company also offered ER response team services and office space to displaced government employees. 2. GM- $10 million to American Red Cross matching employee contributions of the same number and a fleet of vans, suv's, and trucks. 3. Daimler Chrysler- $10 million to support of the children and victims of the Sept. 11 attack. 4. Harley Davidson motorcycles- $1 million and 30 new motorcycles to the New York Police Dept. 5. Volkswagen-Employees and management created a Sept 11 Foundation, funded initial with $2 million, for the assistance of the children and victims of the WTC. 6. Hyundai- $300,000 to the American Red Cross. 7. Audi-Nothing. 8. BMW-Nothing. 9. Daewoo- Nothing. 10. Fiat-Nothing. 11. Honda- Nothing despite boasting of second best sales month ever in August 2001 . 12. Isuzu- Nothing. 13. Mitsubishi-Nothing. 14. Nissan-Nothing. 15. Porsche-Nothing. Press release with condolences via the Porsche website. 16. Subaru- Nothing. 17. Suzuki- Nothing. 18. Toyota-Nothing despite claims of high sales in July and August 2001. Condolences posted on the website . Whenever the time may be for you to purchase or lease a new vehicle, keep this information in mind. You might want to give more consideration to a car manufactured by an American-owned and / or American based company. Apart from Hyundai and Volkswagen, the foreign car companies contributed nothing at all to the citizens of the United States. It's OK for these companies to take money out of this country, but it is apparently not acceptable to return some in a time of crisis. I believe we should not forget things like this. Say thank you in a way that gets their attention.

Yes I know I never thought that I would do this either. But as it stands I am in an auction. If you would like to take a shot at what I am offering here is the link .... http://www.fubar.com/photo.php?u=407377&albumid=1055692&i=413436025&idx=9 BID BID BID!!! Thanks, Moon

"The truth is incontrovertible. Panic may resent it, ignorance may deride it, malice may distort it, but there it is."

It’s no wonder that truth is stranger than fiction. Fiction has to make sense.” “Let us live so that when we come to die even the undertaker will be sorry.” “When your friends begin to flatter you on how young you look, it’s a sure sign you’re getting old.”

If voting could really change things, it would be illegal.

CHILDREN should just shut it and do as they are told for once in their fucking lives, according to the results of a major academic study. Researchers at Glasgow Clyde University found that instead of being treated like equals and asked for their opinion on a wide range of issues, children should button their fucking lips and remember who pays the sodding bills round here. Professor Henry Brubaker said: "There has been a move in recent years to include children in decision making and respect their opinions. Why? They're idiots. "Even doctors are now being told to take children seriously. So when some moronic little turd comes in with a 50p piece rammed up his nose, the GP is supposed to chat to him about interest rates? Give me a fucking break. "We studied 50 children over a two-week period and concluded that rather than indulging these ghastly, violent, cheeky little shits, perhaps we should concentrate on feeding them three times a day and making sure they do outlandish things like their homework, brushing their teeth and going to bed at a reasonable hour. All the while telling them to sit down and shut the fuck up on a regular basis." He added: "Once you've established a pattern you can then carry on doing that right up to the point where they find a job and get the fuck out of my house." But Kyle Stephenson, 12, a spokesman for the British Youth Parliament, said: "Children have a right to be heard. In fact, I have just finished writing a really important thing about the environment. "It's called Why Can't People Just Stop Doing Things That Are Bad And Start Doing Things That Are Really Good Instead. "The Prime Minister has asked me to start work at the Number 10 Policy Unit as soon as my balls drop."

Can you imagine losing your home over a $68 dental bill? That's what happened to one Utah woman. Sonya Capri Ramos says her Salt Lake City home was sold out from under her in 1996 to pay a collections agency seeking payment for dental work performed on one of Ramos's daughters. And despite the fact that she had made three years of payments on a $51,000 mortgage, the title changed hands for just $1,550 at a sheriff's auction. But the story doesn't end there: Ramos, 41, said she didn't find out that her home no longer belonged to her until two years after the sale. To date, she hasn't moved out. Instead, she said she continues to make mortgage payments on the home and is fighting what has become a decade-long legal battle to reclaim ownership. Began With Cavities Ramos said she bought her three-bedroom home with her then-husband Roger Bangerter in 1993. The couple used a $51,000 loan from Salt Lake City under the city's first-time home buyer program. Two years later, she took her second-oldest daughter, Bailee Bangerter, to the dentist for cavity treatments on the girl's baby teeth. Ramos said she paid for part of the treatment, but not all of it -- a $68 bill remained. Ramos said she had "all intentions" to pay the bill, but didn't. "I wish I would have borrowed money to pay it at the time," she said wistfully. A collections agency, North American Recovery, eventually sued her for payment of the bill, which by 1996 had escalated to more than $950, a result, Ramos said, of legal fees and other costs associated with collecting payment on the original bill. But Ramos said she was never notified of the lawsuit and therefore didn't contest it. A Legal Loss With no legal defense, a judge ruled in favor of North American Recovery and ordered the local sheriff's department to sell off Ramos's property to satisfy the debt. According to a 10-page published decision by the Utah Court of Appeals, the judge ordered the sheriff "to collect the judgment, with costs, interest and fees, and to sell enough of defendant's non-exempt real property to satisfy" the amount due. Keith Meade, a Utah lawyer who focuses on real estate matters, said that this type of judgment typically allows some leeway for just a portion of the defendant's property to be sold off to satisfy the debt owed, which in this case was far smaller than the value of the home. But because the real estate at stake was Ramos's home, which by law is considered "indivisible," the title to the entire property was sold at auction. Ramos's home was sold in 1996 to Jarmaccc Properties, a Utah company, for $1,550, according to the court documents. Under the terms of such a sale, a property's buyer -- in this case, Jarmaccc -- buys the title to the home and the right to take over the mortgage payments. But Jarmaccc never did that because Ramos, who said she was never given notice of the sale, said she continued making the monthly mortgage payments herself. "I continued to pay my mortgage," she said. "I didn't know the house was sold." She was effectively paying off the note on a home she no longer owned. And for various reasons, she has continued to make payments in the 12 years since, allowing Jarmaccc the chance to eventually keep the home for just the $1,550 it paid at the sheriff's auction. Ramos estimated that she has paid more than $50,000 toward the principal loan plus interest, the bulk of which came after that 1996 sheriff's sale. A Shocking Realization Ramos said she didn't even learn about the sale until 1998, when Salt Lake City denied her application for a loan to do renovations on her home. "They told me, 'You don't even own the house,'" she said. "I was dumbfounded that somebody else had the title." But according to the court documents, a deputy sheriff signed a 1996 certificate stating that there was "due and legal notice" that the property would be sold. Kurt Johnson, the president of the North American Collection Agency Regulatory Association and a senior investigator with the Minnesota Department of Commerce, said it was highly unusual for a collections agency to recover payments through the sale of a home that isn't facing foreclosure. "Typically, they just put liens on the property," he said. "I've never heard of it in my 20 years in Minnesota, and I've never heard of it in any other state." North American Recovery's president, David Saxton, did not return several phone calls from ABC News. Lt. Kendra Herlin of the Salt Lake County Sheriff's Office said that the office generally notifies someone of a sheriff's sale either in person or by posting a notice on the property itself. Herlin said it was "highly unlikely" that someone would not receive notification that their home was being put up for sale. Meade, who stressed that he has no firsthand knowledge of the specifics in Ramos's case, said he found it difficult to believe that a person in Ramos's position would never receive any notification. "The thing that's strange in my mind is her claim that she didn't know this was occurring. I find that hard to imagine, given what has to happen," he said. But Ramos said that's what happened to her. She said the sheriff's office used an inaccurate legal description of the house and that that kept her from learning of the sale. "The law is simply unjust when your home can be sold to satisfy such a small debt, when other property exists that could also be sold to satisfy the debt," said Ryan James, of Haskins & Associates, the Salt Lake City firm currently representing Ramos, in an e-mail to ABC News. No Refuge in Bankruptcy According to the appeals court decision, Jarmaccc Properties served Ramos, then Sonya Bangerter, with a notice instructing her to move out of her home in May 1998. Ramos said she never received that notice either. That same year, Ramos said that on the advice of a previous attorney, she filed for bankruptcy in an effort to reclaim her property. On that lawyer's suggestion, Ramos said she structured a bankruptcy settlement that would allow her to regain the title to the house after she paid to Jarmaccc the $1,550 the company paid to buy the property. But Ramos said that after she paid the company, it still would not relinquish ownership of the home. Ralph Petty of Jarmaccc Properties did not return several calls to his office. In 2004, Ramos went to court again and attempted to put her name back on the home title. The court ruled in her favor, but Jarmaccc appealed. The Utah Court of Appeals ruled this month that Ramos could not dispute Jarmaccc's title claim because the statute of limitations had expired. Ramos said she will appeal to the state's supreme court in hopes of winning the house back once and for all. If she does not regain ownership, it is unclear whether Ramos would have any legal claim to the tens of thousands of dollars spent on mortgage payments while the home was owned by Jarmaccc. Such cases are rare, but Utah lawyer Meade noted that while a person in Ramos's situation may have been making mortgage payments, the holder of the home's title could argue that it also permitted her to live rent-free, further muddying any claim she might have. A Silver Lining? In the meantime, Ramos, who divorced her first husband in 1999, continues to live in the house with her two youngest children and her second husband. She has continued making mortgage payments and says she only has about $9,000 remaining to pay off the initial loan from the city. For the last year, Ramos has been working as a home loan officer after taking part in a training program and earning a mortgage lender agent's license from the state. "I love it because I honestly feel like I have helped a lot of people," she said. But Ramos said that her newfound avocation isn't the silver lining to her housing nightmare. "The silver lining," she said, "will be if I get the house."

by Daniel Pinchbeck The 2008 World Psychedelic Forum was an almost shockingly respectable affair. Held in Basel, Switzerland, in a spacious convention center next to the five-star Swissôtel Basel, the event drew 1,500 visitors for a two-day symposium on the past and present state of psychedelic thought and research. Despite flashes of eccentricity and DayGlo, you could have easily thought you were at a conference for alternative medicine or some abstruse but uncontroversial hobby. I felt honored to be one of the speakers, part of a high-profile group which included the Czech LSD researcher and theorist Stanislav Grof; Ralph Metzner, a well-known author and teacher and one of Leary’s original partners at Harvard; botanists Dennis McKenna, Christian Raetsch and Kat Harrison; MAPS director Rick Doblin; anthropologist and author Jeremy Narby; visionary artists Alex and Allyson Grey; and many more. The Gaia Media Foundation organized the forum, following upon their successful LSD conference, marking the 100th birthday of LSD chemist Albert Hofmann, two years ago. The 2008 event mingled nostalgia and insularity, futurism and hope, in equal measures. On the nostalgia side, Timothy Leary’s archivist Michael Horowitz mounted an exhibit of psychedelic art and media imagery, much of it from the heyday of late-sixties flower power, while Carolyn (Mountain Girl) Garcia gave a heartfelt speech about her journeys with the Merry Pranksters and the early Haight Ashbury days of the Grateful Dead. Although Hofmann is still alive, he declined to attend the festivities. A proper Swiss bourgeois, he didn’t approve of the conference being scheduled for Easter weekend. Sixty-five years since Hofmann’s first accidental dose, new frontiers in psychedelic research are opening up, represented at the Forum by an array of therapists and scientists from institutions across Europe, the U.S. and Canada. After a 35-year blockade on the subject, psychedelic research with human subjects is being permitted again. In Switzerland, a new study explores LSD as a tool of psychotherapy — the first such study to be allowed since the early 1970s. After years of persistent effort, the Multidisciplinary Association of Psychedelic Studies (maps.org) has succeeded in shepherding a number of projects through the regulatory system. Studies underway in the United States include research on use of psilocybin as a treatment for cluster headaches, and on MDMA (Ecstasy) as a treatment for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, a complex likely to haunt tens of thousands of veterans as they return from the Iraq War. Today, there is potential for psychedelics to be reintroduced into mainstream culture, not as drastic catalysts of social upheaval but as tools that can help people overcome serious problems. In the future, MAPS sees itself becoming a “nonprofit pharmaceutical company” that distributes psychedelics to qualified professionals. On a deeper, almost subconscious level, cultural and political resistance to the scrupulous study and use of psychedelics seems to have dissipated. A recent study conducted by John Hopkins, giving psilocybin to subjects who had never taken a psychedelic before, found that most subjects had long-lasting positive changes in their worldview. CNN and The Wall Street Journal gave prominent coverage to the results of this study. Beyond the scientific framework, there is compelling anecdotal data on the benefits of psychedelic use for creative processes, intellectual work and personal development. Recently, British newspapers reported that Francis Crick may have been taking low doses of LSD when he discovered the double helix shape of the DNA molecule (although he refused to allow this to be published before his death). The Nobel Prize winning biochemist Kary Mullis openly discussed the inspiration he gained from psychedelics. Many pioneers of the Internet and the personal computer experimented with psychedelics. And of course, the anthemic music, film, literature and visual culture of the late-1960s remains iconic. During his speech at the conference, Dr. Tom Roberts, a psychology professor at Northern Illinois University, proposed that the rediscovery of psychedelics in modern culture is creating a “second Reformation.” During the first Reformation, the Bible, which was only available to a priest class able to read Latin, was translated, printed and distributed to the masses, who were then able to read and interpret the “word of God” for themselves. By providing direct access to the mystical experience described in sacred texts from around the world, this “second Reformation” will, eventually, eliminate the need for a priest class that stands between the individual and personal revelation. Of course, such a deep shift in cultural perspective is a long process — the first Reformation developed over a few hundred years. At this point in time, those of us who see validity in the psychedelic experience can feel cautiously optimistic that we are reaching some tipping point in cultural perception. The discourse around hallucinogens has become far more sophisticated and measured than it was a generation ago. While Timothy Leary argued psychedelics were a shortcut to “enlightenment” and that everyone should “turn on” and “drop out,” researchers today consider psychedelics to be powerful tools that have negative effects if used improperly, like all tools. But these substances may also have tremendous benefits for the individual and society, when we become mature enough to make use of them.