Carl Hirschmann owns and runs the celebrity venue Saint Germain. He is one of many self proclaimed celebrities, his only claim on fame being his boast of having had a fling with Paris Hilton and the bank account of his billionaire father, Carl Hirschmann Junior. Confused? His grandfather Carl Hirschmann Senior (ah!) was the founder of Jet Aviation which caters to the airplanes owned by the superrich on this planet.

On Thursday, after the attorney general’s statement, Swiss Television was constrained to publish a correction which appeared under the title “Party Gigolo Carl Hirschmann Arrested”. The comments posted by readers ranged from scathing (referring to the disinformation of the previous day) to the ridiculous (‘from king to gigolo in one day’).

But mainly, the editors were attacked over the use of the word gigolo. In Switzerland, the word gigolo is definitely linked to male sex workers, and readers found it profoundly disturbing that having to retract the allegation of the previous day, the editors persisted in keeping a sexual connotation in the headline even though the attorney general declined to comment. As the article contained reference to an allegation of paedophile charges against Carl Hirschmann several years back (which had been dropped by the attorney general at that time), the objectivity of the writers was doubted in no uncertain terms.

Subsequently, Swiss Television changed the title of the article to “Party Zampano Carl Hirschmann Arrested”. ‘The Great Zampano’ is a fictional figure dealing in illusion, whereby even the illusion he creates is only an illusion; he is finally unmasked as a great fraud. The figure is one of the main characters in Federico Fellini’s film La Strada and was played by Anthony Quinn. You might imagine readers’ comments on the use of this connotation to fraud and illusion. It was definitely going downhill for the editors.

After three hours on the net, the article received its third title: “Party Lion Hirschmann Arrested”. The deviation into the animal kingdom was greeted with ridicule by the readers. They continued to accuse Swiss State Television of Bolshevism, bias, creating a witch hunt, and of passing judgment on hearsay. The general credo was that employees at Swiss Television were living in a constant state of jealousy towards the rich.

The last word belongs to a reader of the site: “I note with great pleasure how much work has gone into this article, as all critical comments have been deleted once again. It is uplifting to find so much industrious work in a state owned institution and makes me proud of paying my television license fees.”

As a postscript, I might add that Carl Hirschmann, unlike Roman Polanski, has been freed on bail against a “considerable” caution.

I am not sure where this logic originated but I am just a little frustrated of hearing this from the Right.  Minnesota’s Rep. Michelle Bachman (just the one that comes to mind, there are many more that can be added to that list) and the others that have followed this type of rhetoric really has to look in to their hearts and see if that is really where they want to go.  I can only imagine how many other Veterans have felt like their patriotism has been over looked due to them NOT being on the “Right”. 

Over that last few years we have seen the “Right’s” rhetoric become more and more condescending to all others.  It is like they have adopted the “If you are not with Us, you are our enemy” policy.  Ramming ideology down the “Left’s” throat like it was their calling.

With that being said, I can’t understand why the “Right” is so driven to send more troops to Afghanistan.  There seems to be no problem to send our YOUNG soldiers into harms way for a country that has too many internal issues.  But since the “Right” has this “Us or Them” mentality, they have no moral issue with them dying to continue their rhetoric. 

YES, you guessed it.  I am NOT a conservative.  I am a pragmatist.  At one time I was a big supporter of the Republican party.  Until the day the Republican party decided to be my savior and dictate my beliefs.  I am not a religious man and do not believe in the divine.  Not to say I would ever tell someone else that they should not believe, but in the same breath, I am not a second class citizen because I do not believe.  Or am I wrong?  Has this become another Religous state????  I really hope someone will really look at this and realize what it is.  I do not like that ideology could dictate our views and that tolerance is now considered obsolete. 

Just take this Tea Bagger revolution.  I wish an investigative reporter would infiltrate the Tea Bag Express and find out the TRUE motivation for this type of movement.  I will not sit here and say that know one part of this movement does not have real concerns and views.  But if you had to ask me to speculate I would have to look at the “Us and Them” mentality mixed with a large amount of prejudice.  Prejudice to the “Left”, minorities, etc…. 

Wouldn’t you think someone of good conscience on the “Right” would step up and put down this Right Wing witch hunt mentality.  Since no one has said anything, you have seen the up rise of the lunatic fringe to accepted as part of the main stream.  I am fearful of them in my community, my work place and YES my Government.  Pretty soon if you are not a Good Christian Right Conservative, you will be considered a second class citizen and if not careful, we can be rounded up as dissidents.  Think about it… HARD people.  There is nothing wrong with being conservative but in that same breath there is nothing wrong with being Liberal either. 

We are all Americans and should have a code of conduct as the leader of the Free World but becareful that we don’t lose part of the world….. FREE.  Not just for the Right.

On Halloween morning, Shannon’s mother and her boyfriend told police that the girl had disappeared from their residence, though all three had been sleeping in the same room, a suspicious circumstance at best. The adults are purportedly cooperating with investigators, at least to some extent. Meanwhile, sheriff’s deputies from three counties and volunteer firefighters have been searching the town and its surroundings for clues.

The Town Left Behind

Chipley is a small backwater in Florida’s panhandle, about 80 miles northwest of Tallahassee, far removed in time and space from the opulent communities and tourist meccas to the south. It is a place whose dirt roads, beat up trailers and tin roof shacks reflect the quiet desperation of its residents. Neighbors keep largely to themselves amid ‘Beware of Dog’ signs, jacked-up clunkers and clotheslines sighing in the breeze.

Chipley is also an enclave from the encroaching terrain that encircles it, a desperate land of trees, tangled vines and swamps. It is an area straight out of an H. P. Lovecraft novel, difficult to search and capable of swallowing up secrets very quickly.

Bobby Haddock, Washington County Sheriff, is quarterbacking the investigation into Shannon Dedrick’s disappearance. He hasn’t released the names of the mother or her boyfriend, who have been interviewed. Sheriff Haddock has identified a ’person of interest,’ whom he hasn’t identified, either. He has issued a missing child alert, but that appears to be pro forma when analyzed in light of other things he has said and done.

First, Haddock spelled out the obvious point that Shannon could not have walked or crawled out of the room. Not only is she a mere seven months in age, but may be developmentally disabled. “This child cannot walk or crawl,” he said. “It did not leave the residence by itself.”

Of equal import is this finding: “There’s nothing to lead us to believe at this time that this was an abduction,” Haddock told the Panama City News Herald. This means two things. Haddock has rejected the significance of a mysterious grey van spotted on several occasions near the trailer where the child had lived. It also means that, by default, the boyfriend and/or mother are under suspicion. The interest in Shannon’s immediate family is heightened by Haddock’s belief that the child went missing no later than 8 AM October 31, 2009, encompassing a delay of at least three hours before the police were notified.

Haddock also said he is not concerned about the safety of anybody else in the community, further strengthening the perception that he is focused on the trailer’s adult occupants.

Shannon would be helpless if alone, and the places being searched could only yield her remains. Late Monday, Sheriff Haddock claimed: “We have searched every dumpster in the city limits of Chipley, we have turned over every garbage can.”

As to efforts in the outlying wilderness, the pattern of the search is telling. It began near the point of disappearance and is radiating outward in concentric circles. That would be the most efficient means of finding a girl alive if she were seven years old rather than seven months. It looks like a body search. It could be the investigators are looking for clues also, but if Shannon had been secreted to any safe place, the clues would not be in the woods or swamp.

Your writer would change these facts if he could, but can only keep you informed. Those who hope that Shannon will be found alive will need a miracle, so keep her in your prayers.

Update: Shannon Dedrick Found Alive in Babysitter’s Home

Just after this article went to press, baby Shannon was found, in a box under the bed of babysitter Susan Baker. County Sheriff Bobby Haddock is considering charges against the sitter and Shannon’s mother, Chrystina Lynn Mercer, probably for filing a false police report. Yet Shannon Dedrick lives, and that makes this writer’s morning.

Her father Faleh Hassan Almaleki, 48, who fled the scene, and was a subject of a manhunt, was finally arrested at Atlanta’s Airport last Thursday, after his attempt to flee to the United Kingdom was thwarted. It is reported that when he arrived in the UK, he was denied entry, and returned to the US where the police was there to welcome him. He was interviewed by the Peoria police, and transported back to Arizona to face charges.

According to the Associated Press (AP), the county prosecutor Stephanie Low told the judge that the father had admitted he had committed the crime. Low reportedly told the court “By his own admission, this was an intentional act and the reason was that his daughter had brought shame on him and his family” Low further said “This was an attempt at an honor killing”

It was reported that members of the family told the authorities that Almaleki attacked his daughter because he was upset that she had become too “Westernized” and her lifestyle was not in keeping with Iraqi values.

Almaleki, who had originally faced charges of aggravated assault, since his daughter’s death, he now faces upgraded charges, according to the Peoria police spokesman Mike Tellef, in an interview with the AP.

The Almalekis reportedly migrated to the US in the 1990’s, but the daughter had moved out and was living with her boyfriend’s mother, Amal Khallaf, who was also injured in the accident, and is expected to survive.  

Source

Professor Nutt called for the implementation if an “index of harm,” (which you can see HERE) providing accurate information regarding the dangers of both illegal and legal drugs, and accused the government of covering up the facts and misleading the public. (You can read the full story HERE). However, the government reacted quickly to prevent any disclosure of truth – backed up by scientific evidence gathered by an academic clearly considered by them to be the best man for the job when they initially employed him – by immediately demanding he resign from his position.

The following statement was released by a Home Office Spokesperson: “The home secretary has asked Professor Nutt to resign as chair of the ACMD [Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs]. In a letter he [Alan Johnson] expressed surprise and disappointment over Professor Nutt’s comments which damage efforts to give the public clear messages about the dangers of drugs. We remain determined to crack down on all illegal substances and minimise their harm to health and society as a whole.” Source

Richard Garside, director of the centre for crime and justice, who supported Nutt’s briefing paper – based in fact rather than upon moral stance – said: “I’m shocked and dismayed that the home secretary appears to believe that political calculation trumps honest and informed scientific opinion. The message is that when it comes to the Home Office’s relationship with the research community honest researchers should be seen but not heard. The home secretary’s action is a bad day for science and a bad day for the cause of evidence-informed policy making.” Source

Professor Nutt is said to be disappointed by the reaction, but is clear about the reasons for his dismissal. He yesterday released the following statement: “It’s unusual political times, I suppose, elections and all that. It’s disappointing. But politics is politics and science is science and there’s a bit of a tension between them sometimes.” Source

When later questioned on live television by the BBC, Professor Nutt said “It is a very bleak day for science… In many days it’s a worse day for Politics.” He also said his colleagues – who worked freely for thousands of hours – are “upset” about his dismissal, and claims the situation will “undermine confidence” in this type of position within the scientific community.

Clearly, those in power care more about the results of impending election than they do for truth and honour, science, and the even health and safety of the entire population of the UK.

You may also be interested in the following article:

Scientific Research Proves Alcohol and Cigarettes are More Dangerous Than Cannabis, Lsd or Ecstacy

To start with, If you are one of the people complaining…. unless you have a pre existing medical condition that makes you a greater risk, you are an idiot. I just got done with H1N1, as did my three children. My 11 year old has a good solid case of Asthma, and my youngest is only three. We were sick for a good four days; sniffles, achiness, a bit of puke, a lot of poop. Some fever. In other words, we had the damn flu. We treated using extraordinary experimental treatments… blankets, sleep, juice, thera flu, and chicken noodle soup. In 999 cases out of 1000, this is the flu. The hospital in our town of 20,000 has, in fact, stopped even bothered testing for the thing. Why? Because, again… It’s just the damn flu!

But for some reason, Our president (who, for the record, I agree with far more often than not; this is not an Obama bashing piece) in his infinite wisdom, decided to stand up and declare it a ‘National Emergency’, thus sending millions of boneheaded hypochondriac Americans into a vaccine craving frenzy. The logic of this eluded me. All it has done, as far as I can see, is create still another financial windfall for the pharmaceutical companies. It isn’t as if you can run to Wal Mart and shop around; as usual, monopoly conditions are firmly in place. The ultimate seller’s market, created by a very poor presidential decision.

So of course they aren’t hurrying. Why should they? As is usually the case, they have us exactly where they want us. Nice work, President Obama. You really dropped the ball on this one.

Source

Professor Nutt, chairman of Neuropsychopharmacology at Imperial College, London, and head of the Neuropsychopharmacology Unit at Bristol University, is now calling for the creation of an “index of harm,” to enable members of the public to compare the differences in danger levels between various drugs, both legal and illegal. In this index, alcohol would be considered the fifth most dangerous substance, after cocaine, heroin, barbiturates, and methadone. Cigarettes would be ranked number nine – higher than cannabis, LSD, and ecstasy, ranked  respectively at 11, 14, and 18. Drugs in the index are scored and ranked based on the physical harm they may cause the user, the likelihood of dependence, and harm caused to society.

Source

Professor Nutt criticised the government for providing mis-leading information, saying the artificial separation between legal and illegal drugs gives people the wrong impression about the dangers involved in the use of certain substances. He even went as far as saying smoking cannabis produces only a “relatively small risk of psychosis” – contradicting the government’s own advice, which claims it massively increases the risk of mental illness. He accused the former home secretary, Jaqcui Smith – famous for her porn-watching husband and shameful involvement in the MPs expenses scandal – of “distorting and devaluing” scientific research, when making the decision to reclassify cannabis as a class B drug. She accuses him of “trivialising” the dangers of drugs.

Professor Nutt has recently released a statement, saying: “No one is suggesting that drugs are not harmful. The critical question is one of scale and degree.” He added: “We have to accept young people like to experiment — with drugs and other potentially harmful activities — and what we should be doing in all of this is to protect them from harm at this stage of their lives. We therefore have to provide more accurate and credible information. If you think that scaring kids will stop them using, you are probably wrong.” Source

Source

The first and most obvious problem glaring at us from this “index of harm” is the incredibly high placement of alcohol, at number five – something many readers will be very surprised to see. A huge number of us drink on a regular basis, and probably consider consumption of this perfectly legal substance far healthier and less dangerous than regular use of either cannabis, LSD or ecstasy. But, if there’s scientific evidence to prove this to be more than marginally inaccurate, don’t the government owe it to us to tell us so?

The second issue is the idea that cigarettes could be more dangerous than cannabis, LSD, and ecstasy, which is shocking, by anyone’s standards. Here in the UK, we’re bombarded with press releases about the dangers of smoking cannabis; parents up and down the country are terrified their spliff-smoking teens will almost certainly find themselves suffering from schizophrenia if they insist in continuing their illegal past-time. Equally, LSD and ecstasy are promoted as dangerous, even lethal drugs – and most parents would much prefer their children were just having a drink and/or smoking some cigarettes, than taking either substance. But what if they’re wrong?

Source

From Professor Nutt’s above statement, we can see he openly accuses the UK government of scare-mongering tactics that he personally believes will never work. And he’s probably right, if previous campaigns are anything to go by. He’s also perfectly clear in his research-based, professional opinion as a scientist, that alcohol and cigarettes are far more dangerous than is currently admitted. So why are the government ignoring the evidence provided by his careful research and clinging to false statements made by politically-motivated individuals?

Could it be anything to do with the MASSIVE income they receive from the tax they charge on alcohol and cigarettes?

I don’t know about you, but as a parent – and regardless of any financial implications they may face as a result – I fully expect the government to provide me with the cold, hard facts about the dangers regarding drugs, as and when they discover them, so I can attempt to keep my children as safe as possible – as my job as a mother dictates. I simply cannot do so if they insist on lying to me.

LATEST NEWS: Government Sacks Scientist for Telling The Truth About Drugs

I know some right read this as not being a well-thought out and reasoned series of arguments, and I admit it is a bit of a rant, but some things need to be said. The points briefly touched upon are worthy of discussion. Yet the media (another organ of the political elite) presents to us the candidacy of Tony Blair as if it is only right and proper, as if his previous role as Prime Minister gives him some kind of automatic right to a role that will continue to impinge upon our lives without any say from us, the people, whatsoever. The Eurpean Union is behaving like the boys club it undoubtedly is. I don’t want this man in my life any more. It is a scandal and I believe this entire rotten edifice should be made to crumble and fall. I say NO to Tony Blair.   

The commercial starts with a commercial driving down the road, passing homes in foreclosure. A mother is on her way home from the grocery store with her kids. She carries her bags inside, one of which contains a bottle of soda. Then she makes her plea to the camera as she tells Washington, “What doesn’t seem like much to you can mean a lot to us.” Than we’re told to contact our congressmen to put a stop to this proposed tax on soda and juice drinks.

And if that ad wasn’t aggravating enough, the group came out with a second one:

Now don’t get me wrong. I believe this group CAN make an effective ad that would not irate me and others so much. They would have just put things into perspective. They could’ve made a light-hearted ad and have still gotten their message across.

As someone who never gave much thought into this issue before these ads, I’m now a person who may contact my lawmakers asking them FOR a tax on sugary drinks. Let’s use those “pennies that add up” for some of those things that are truly affecting Americans’ lives.

So far, two teenage suspects have been arrested, but the police estimate that up to twenty more will be arrested in conjunction. Police have posted a $20,000 reward for anyone that comes in with information that helps arrest and convict the people involved.

School officials are making statements to news outlets such as: “tragic incident,” “we are all going to learn from this,” “we wish this would never have happened,” “school administrators and police apparently weren’t watching the area as they should have.” The school also held a safety meeting for parents and students on Wednesday night. However, I think this is too little effort and way too late. School officials just approved security cameras this year after several years of violent crimes on school grounds… such as a student that was shot on school grounds and died in the principles arms. The time for safety meetings and learning from incidents was long before this girl was victimized.

So I ask, after years of violence on school grounds, why were present police and dance supervisors not more cautious? If their job was to patrol the dance, why did they not notice and investigate a crowd of 20 plus boys cheering for over 2 hours? How was this girl intoxicated inside of a school function without any person in authority noticing or taking action?

Of course, the bi-standers and attackers are the criminals here. However, I find the gross incompetence of the school and present police to be culpable as well.