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And absolutely, censorship should not be even considered. But when you say the public is speaking loud and clear, I say a 100 million books sold and a solid fan-base is as good, if not a better counter-argument ...

I'm talking about the rational public..lol...and pandering to youth with forbidden subjects will always create a fan base, even if the writing is not that good.

Just ask Stephanie Meyers.

Don't misunderstand, I think it's great they've made a lot of money with their brand of literature. It's just not something I would do.

Thanks NJC That's what I wanted to know.

This is the only site I'm having trouble loading.

I WOULD REALLY APPRECIATE AN ANSWER EVEN IF IT'S JUST THAT YOU DON'T KNOW. IT'S A PAIN IN THE ASS WHEN I AM ON MY KINDLE AND HAVE TO WAIT AS IF I AM USING DAIL UP ONLY TO GET A TIMED OUT MESSAGE. I USE MY KINDLE A LOT.

JP.
I just read your post and I agree with you. I really hate to wade through 'word salads' full of a lot of words with little to no informational value. Now, undoubtedly, the writer of such long missives will come back and tell you didn't understand what they wrote, even though what they wrote was only understandable by them. They congratulate themselves on being ununderstandable, convinced they are the smartest person in the room. When in reality, they are narcissist in love with their own written voice. To me, writing is communication and what good is writing something so vast and convoluted that no one understands it? To me that's not communication, that's mind masturbation and an attempt to appear to be smarter than you are. 

In the thread I mentioned and you've just posted in, the idea of fate and predestination are just that, ideas. There's no basis in fact to justify their existence. There is not one person who can say for sure that they know their fate, or that they were predestined to be in the place they are now. That's why it's a FICTIONAL literary device.

As for you teasing Charles, I am just as guilty, posting a whole article about World Net Daily and how they make up news items with a right wing agenda, then post them as if they were true. I tried to refrain from getting involved, but I have three biracial grandchildren and when I saw NJC quoting lies as truth simply because Travon Martin was black, I couldn't let it go unchallenged.

I built this group based on free speech and I think, as more threads are shut down, more posts pulled, the TNBW community will find their way here.

Thanks for explaining that. I wondered why some posts only showed up for a few minutes while others stayed forever!

This is the other side. We could stay off topic and match articles on both sides of this issue or just let this boy rest in peace.

Right Wing Site World Net Daily Spreads Misinformation About Trayvon Martin

Reno Berkeley

A week has come and gone since George Zimmerman was acquitted in the shooting death of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin. A week is a long time by media standards, but due to the remarkable nature of the case, controversy about the verdict continues. Conservative pundits insist on perpetuating an image of a violent, drug addled young man who viciously attacked a dedicated neighborhood watch volunteer.

We will never know both sides of the story, as there were no witnesses to the altercation leading up to Martin's death. All we know is George Zimmerman's account, and also Rachel Jeantel's testimony about her phone conversation with her close friend just moments before the fatal gunshot.

And yet, the politics of character assassination continue, driven by rumor, speculation and an unwavering need to paint Zimmerman as a hero who made an honest mistake. So-called political doyens have even gone so far as to espouse completely unsupported claims regarding Martin's penchant for drug use.

One such pundit is Andrea Shea King of World Net Daily (WND). WND is a conservative news website that reports on such things as a 900-year-old prophecy of Jesus' return and how legalizing gay marriage will inevitably lead the way to government-sanctioned pedophilia.

Ms. King's report is no less preposterous. In her opinion piece, 'It Wasn't Just Skittles Trayvon Was Carrying,' she claims that Trayvon was a hardened drug user, whose addiction was so severe that he sustained liver damage. King even provides a helpful link to the autopsy report done by the medical examiner in Daytona Beach, Florida.

On the first page of the autopsy report, the cause of death is concluded to be a shotgun wound. Manner of death is listed as homicide and is signed by Dr. Shiping Bao, the doctor who testified during the trial. Upon researching the claim that Martin had a drug problem, I found no evidence of this in the autopsy report, although Ms. King claims it is there.

She references another conservative blog, The Conservative Treehouse, as being a reliable source for information about the victim's drug use. She writes:

"Among its reports, Trayvon Martin’s drug use, explaining how the Skittles and Arizona Watermelon Fruit Juice Cocktail drink he carried that night are ingredients that, when mixed with dextromethorphan (DXM) cough syrup, create “Lean”, a concocted high which can cause psychosis and aggression over the longer term. According to the autopsy report, Martin’s liver showed damage consistent with DXM abuse."

This last sentence I emphasized for a reason. It is because DXM ,or 'lean', is mentioned nowhere in the 20 pages of information on the Martin's autopsy report. On pages four and five, Bao lists the conditions in detail of the body organs, including the liver. On page six his reports lists the condition of the liver as having "no diagnostic abnormalities."

Yet King and the rest of her conservative compatriots would have the world believe that his liver was damaged because he was a drug addict. The only kernel of truth to this -- and it is a stretch -- is that a trace amount of THC was found in his system. The amount specifically was 400 times less than necessary to be intoxicated. No other drugs were found in his system. None.

Marijuana can stay in the system for up to three months, depending on the method and frequency of use. This gives one a completely different vision of the high school student. Because the amount found in his system was so minute, the last time he ingested it could have been weeks prior to the shooting.

The misinformation in King's story can only be described as egregious, for it appepears that she did not bother to read the Bao's autopsy report. If she did and reported Martin as having a drug problem, then she has committed libel against a boy who can no longer defend his own character.

The question, therefore, is why is Andrea Shea King willing to spread such gross misinformation? Are she and her conservative colleagues are incapable of detatching themselves from their preconceived biases and rationally analyze their own information? Perhaps she will come forward with an explanation as to why she is perpetuating the myth of the violent junkie.

Regardless of whether Trayvon Martin threw the first punch on that fateful night, he does not deserve to have his name continually dragged through the mud.

Max, latest data condensed:

Medical marijuana is currently legal in 23 U.S. states and the District of Columbia. From state to state, marijuana is approved for a variety of conditions, including but not limited to epilepsy, arthritis, nausea, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), multiple sclerosis, cancer, glaucoma, Crohn’s disease, chronic pain, and post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

“States recommend use for 20 to 30 conditions when many of those conditions have little or no evidence,” says Kevin P. Hill, MD, MHS, assistant professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and director of the Substance Abuse Consultation Service at McLean Hospital in Belmont, Massachusetts. “There’s a tremendous need for evidence-based guidance on medical marijuana, and I can tell you from speaking both nationally and internationally that physicians and patients alike are clamoring for practical advice,” Hill, the author of Marijuana: The Unbiased Truth about the World’s Most Popular Weed, tells Yahoo Health.

A series of studies and articles published today in JAMA offer some answers to questions that have been on the minds of doctors, legislators, and the public: What conditions or symptoms can medical marijuana help relieve, and to what extent? What are the side effects, and how common and serious are they? And what does this mean for patients suffering from chronic conditions, and for the doctors treating them?

Research Supports Some Uses of Medical Marijuana

One of the studies released today is the most comprehensive analysis of research on medical uses for cannabinoids (the active chemical compounds in marijuana) to date. It included 79 different trials, collectively involving more than 6,400 participants. In addition, all of the studies included in the analysis were randomized controlled trials (the gold standard of research quality) that compared cannabinoids with a placebo (sugar pill), usual care, or no treatment.

It’s important to note that most of the studies in the analysis did not ask patients to inhale marijuana, which contains more than 60 different cannabinoids. Instead, participants took cannabinoid medications, which deliver one or two of the chemicals. Dronabinol, for example, is a synthetic form of THC (tetrahydrocannabinol) that has been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for chemotherapy-related nausea and vomiting and to help underweight AIDS patients gain weight.

“We only identified two studies on inhaled marijuana which might be a reflection of the legal status,” says study author Penny F. Whiting, PhD, senior research fellow at the University of Bristol in the UK. “In addition, it is easier to control the dose when studying synthetic drugs than to herbal plants that are administered by inhalation.”

Most of the research has been conducted on only a few conditions, with mixed results:

Nausea and vomiting from chemotherapy: Twenty-eight studies in total assessed the effects of cannabinoids on nausea and vomiting. Researchers were able to pool the data from three of them, and found that a significantly greater proportion of patients using cannabinoids experienced complete relief from their symptoms. Overall, 47 percent of participants taking cannabinoids said their nausea and vomiting went away, versus 20 percent of the placebo group.

“Although for some indications we had a relatively large number of studies, it was only possible to combine results for a small proportion of these for a small number of reported outcomes,” Whiting tells Yahoo Health. “This was because studies reported a wide variety of different outcomes, measured in different ways, and did not report the appropriate statistical results to allow us to include them in our meta-analysis.”

Chronic pain: Twenty-eight studies assessed cannabinoids for chronic pain due to conditions such as cancer, diabetes-related nerve damage, and fibromyalgia. Researchers were able to combine the data from eight of the trials, and found that cannabinoids significantly improved pain in a greater proportion of patients compared to a placebo. Participants also reported less subjective pain, on average, with the cannabinoids. The analysis concluded that there is “moderate-quality evidence” to support the use of cannabinoids for chronic pain.

Spasticity from multiple sclerosis or paraplegia: Fourteen studies examined the effects of cannabinoids on spasticity, a symptom of multiple sclerosis characterized by tightness and involuntary muscle movement. The analysis found that compared to a placebo, cannabinoids were associated with greater improvement in spasticity symptoms. However, the results were not statistically significant, meaning they could be due to chance.

Appetite stimulation in HIV/AIDS: Four studies looked at how cannabinoids affect weight gain in people with HIV/AIDS; all of them used the FDA-approved drug dronabinol (synthetic THC). The review concluded that there was some evidence that dronabinol is associated with increase in weight versus a placebo.

Limitations Highlight the Need for More Research

The review found little to no evidence for the use of cannabinoids in glaucoma, sleep disorders, Tourette syndrome, and social anxiety disorder. The studies on these conditions have all been small, Whiting explains. “This means that the studies may not have had enough power to detect differences between groups,” she says. “Further large, robust randomized studies should be conducted, especially in areas for which our comprehensive systematic review found no or very little evidence.”

Hill also makes the point that there are more than 60 different cannabinoids in marijuana, and research has studied only a handful of them. (Only two cannabinoid medications are approved by the FDA.) “There could be medical conditions for which a plant itself, with a combination of 60-plus cannabinoids, will outperform those two cannabinoids that we have,” he says.

“It’s very likely that we’re going to have new cannabinoids approved by the FDA within the next few years” for chronic pain, spasticity, and neuropathic pain, Hill says. “But right now because there are only two cannabinoids available, there is a place for medical marijuana.”

Side Effects Widespread, Some Serious

More than 80 percent of participants taking cannabinoids experienced one or more side effects, Whiting says. That’s compared to 62 percent in the control group. “Most of the side effects were mild,” such as dry mouth and drowsiness, Whiting says. About 6 percent of those in the cannabinoids group, however, reported serious side effects, such as vomiting or hallucination. (So did 4 percent of the people in the control group.)

“If you’re someone who is using marijuana daily over a long period of time, then we worry about addiction, cognitive difficulties, or worsening anxiety or depression. Those are the main concerns,” Hill says. “The reality is, if you’re going to take it regularly — as most people would if they were going to use it medicinally — then there is a significant side effect profile, and it becomes a risk-benefit discussion.”

Advice for Doctors and Patients

In a separate review released today in JAMA, Hill outlines some general guidelines for doctors and patients to follow regarding medical marijuana.

First, Hill says, patients considering using marijuana for a medical purpose should research reliable information and see their primary care doctor. “There’s a difference between talking with your doctor — somebody who knows you and has a history with you — as opposed to going to a specialty medical marijuana clinic,” he says. “I think unfortunately, in some of those clinics, the doctor-patient relationship doesn’t meet the same standard that it would in regular practice.”

Namely, he says, clinics tend not to offer the same level of follow-up care, which is important with any medication that has significant side effects.

The bottom line, Hill says, is that, “We need to do more of these trials. We need to make it easier to do these trials, and we need to do them so we can see whether or not there is evidence to support the use of medical marijuana for the conditions under which people have voted for it.”

Hope this helps.

Good luck, dags

Good luck to all the finalist!

No...it's not a sorry excuse, Mrs P. I know what's going on and I'm sorry, I was just kidding you. You could have taken your time, I just wanted to let you know where you would probably check back. Will look at your blog now...

dags

I left you a comment! Good luck with Skeleton Run!