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Body and Health Protein takes a bite out of hunger
Study suggests new reasons to tuck into that steak
They're not suggesting people binge on cheeseburgers, but British scientists have found eating a high-protein, hunter/gatherer-like diet boosts levels of an "anorectic" gut hormone that suppresses hunger.

It was already known eating protein makes people feel fuller, faster, but why that's so remained a mystery.

Now, a small study in humans and genetically modified mice reveals high-protein meals goad the body to produce more of a hormone known as peptide YY, or PYY, than either a high-fat or high-carbohydrate diet.

More Diet & Fitness news

In humans, high-protein diets caused "the greatest satiation," meaning the biggest reduction in hunger, researchers report today in the journal Cell Metabolism.

Mice fed high-protein meals gained less weight than rodents who ate the usual amount of protein.

The studies build on experiments in 2002 by the same researcher, who was the first to discover that injecting PYY into normal-weight and obese humans cut their food intake by one-third. Drug companies are now developing PYY shots and nasal sprays.

"Two questions that needed to be answered were, can you alter your own PYY by modifying your diet, and can we actually change how much PYY the body is making rather than giving it as a drug," Dr. Rachel Batterham, a senior lecturer at University College London, said in an interview.

It appears the answer to both is yes.

According to her team, the average western diet derives 49 per cent of energy intake from carbohydrates, 35 per cent from fat and 16 per cent from protein -- up to half as much protein as our hunter-gatherer ancestors consumed.

The diet fed to the male volunteers had 70 per cent of calories from protein, while the diet fed to the mice had 35 per cent of calories from protein. Batterham stressed people should not be rushing out and eating that much protein.

"We wanted the other components to be as low as possible and still be able to give the subjects a meal."

Previous studies have shown that increasing the protein content to 25 per cent has effects on hunger and body weight.

"I'm not going to recommend to anyone to change their diet to 70 per cent protein or even 35 per cent but maybe modulating diet is a good way of harnessing the body's own natural hunger control system," says Batterham, a specialist in diabetes/endocrinology and internal medicine.

More and bigger studies are needed to determine what effects high-protein diets have over the long term on kidney and liver function. What's more, obesity is about more than diet; it's also about the balance between food intake and energy output.

Modern-day humans expend far less energy ordering burgers and super-sized fries from the drive-thru window than hunter-gatherers did taking down prey.

The British and Australian scientists found mice with their PYY "knocked out" ate more and became markedly obese.

"When we gave it back by injection, it basically cured the obesity in the mice. That part proves that if you don't have PYY, you can become obese," Batterham says.

In the human study, nine obese and 10 normal-weight men were randomly assigned to have either a high-carb, high-fat or high-protein diet on three separate visits (they did not know which one they were eating). Their meals had to be eaten within 25 minutes, and the men then filled out hunger scores. Blood samples were taken to measure gut hormones.




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BUDAPEST -- Hungarian Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany is refusing to step down in the face of a political firestorm that erupted he had admitted lying "morning, noon and night"to win the last election, threatening instead to use force to crack down on any violent protests.

"Radical street action will not lead to a solution," Gyurcsany told Hungary?s TV2 news on Tuesday. "This is no longer an expression of democratic opinion."



As Gyurcsany spoke, the charred hulks of torched automobiles at Budapest's famous Szabadsag (Freedom) Square cooled and analysts said the prime minister?s credibility may have been irrevocably damaged by his statements and the street violence it triggered.



Budapest?s streets, pelted by rain, were quiet on Tuesday, but the political controversy grew throughout the day as the right-wing parliamentary opposition, the Alliance of Young Democrats (Fidesz) party, expressed sympathy with the disillusionment that triggered the protests.



The government lashed out at Fidesz for condoning street violence, but analysts admit this crisis may dramatically improve Fidesz?s political fortunes in municipal elections across Hungary slated for Oct. 1 and opposition leaders are demanding Gyurcsany step down if he loses the vote.



About 500 protesters gathered at parliament during the day Tuesday. There are also plans for a large student demonstration on Thursday, seen attracting 10,000 people, which the organizers fear could be hijacked by the opposition.



The crisis gripping the country began when a transcript of a caucus meeting of Gyurcsany?s Hungarian Socialist Party (MSzP) was leaked to the media in which Gyurcsany told party faithful that his government had lied "morning, noon, and night for the last 18 to 24 months" to win re-election in April.


"It was totally clear that what we are saying is not true," said Gyurcsany in the closed meeting May 26. "You cannot quote any significant government measure we can be proud of, other than at the end we managed to bring the government back from the brink. Nothing.



"If we have to give account to the country about what we did for four years, then what do we say?"



After the leak, spontaneous peaceful protests broke out in cities across Hungary on Sunday, including Budapest, Debrecen and Kecskemet.



Monday?s violence erupted when crowds attending a massive protest at Kossuth Square near Budapest?s parliament buildings marched two blocks to Freedom Square ahead of a few protesters who reportedly wanted to have their complaints aired over public television.



The crowd numbered as large as 5,000 people when several hundred demonstrators (some of whom have been identified as known right-wing figures and football hooligans) began attacking the ornate state-TV building with stones and bricks and setting parked cars on fire.



Riot police, besieged inside the network?s front entrance, proved unable to control the crowd. There are reports that police attempts to subdue rioters with hoses failed when protesters overran police and destroyed the water cannons.



Rioters eventually gained entrance to the building, although for a short time. Police had television personal evacuated through rear doors before the building was occupied.

Survivors says Amish girl asked to be shot first
Under a cold, steady drizzle, the Amish drove in horse and buggy to a farmland cemetery Friday to bury the last of five girls shot to death by an intruder as new details emerged of heroism inside their schoolhouse.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15166531/from/ET/

Thousands of protesters in Hungary call for PM's ouster


Associated Press

<!-- dateline -->BUDAPEST, Hungary<!-- /dateline --> — Tens of thousands of anti-government protesters called Sunday for the ouster of the Socialist prime minister because of his admission on a leaked tape that he had lied to the country about the economy. A new leaked recording of a Socialist minister was broadcast, raising more questions about the government's integrity.



http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20061008.whungary09/BNStory/International/

Spanky írta:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20061008.whungary09/BNStory/International/

Kattints a kibontásához...

"the government would make sure its politicians and local-level officials would have key roles in distributing state development funds despite victories in local elections by the Fidesz party. “Believe me, we know what we have to do,” MS. Lamperth said.

Well, I wonder whether she can further make excuses as if nothing had happened.
It does not surprises me at all that world’s newspapers have many headlines about Hungary nowadays. The country is becoming well advertised, unfortunately.

It is a mirracle that it's been advertised at all.
By the way: Who care's that it IS advertised, or not? We all know where we came from. Isn't that enought?

kocsissandrass írta:

It is a mirracle that it's been advertised at all.
By the way: Who care's that it IS advertised, or not? We all know where we came from. Isn't that enought?

Kattints a kibontásához...

Had I known what you might be meaning by saying: "Who care's that it IS advertised, or not?" I may be able to reply consequently. Because I do care, for example.
Let’s make it unmistakably clear at the same time, that I much rather would like to envision Hungary being advertised by its beauty, hospitality, traditions, culture, art, and so on. Therefore, the whole world would know what a potential is lying out there for tourism, investments, relations, etc… However, few or none positive advertisement seams to be appearing either in our most important media, like the above mentioned “The Globe and Mail”, or in world’s media in entirety. Yet, with the actual internal turmoil, our little Hungary made quite focused headlines throughout world’s newspapers, creating a rather false, even scary image about the country. Now that’s unfortunate!! - like I said above, and that’s been my former thoughts’ essence. Well, I should have used some more appropriate emoticons, sarcastic ones, all right.
Finally, I do know very well where I came from. (actually, for your knowledge, I came from Transylvania and I love Hungary a lot.)

PROTEST THE VERDICT
JUSTICE FOR OTTO VASS
Thursday, Nov. 6, 5 PM
7-11 Store, corner of College and Lansdowne


The four police officers who beat Otto Vass to death at the 7-11 store on August 9, 2000 have all been found not guilty of manslaughter. The verdict came as no surprise to those of us who have followed the history of police violence in this city.

But that doesn't make it any the less of an outrage.

The police lawyers' tactic - putting the character and psychiatric history of Vass on trial rather than the 51 blows inflicted on Vass by the cops - was successful. This is what happens on those rare occasions when police are called before the courts because of their violence: the victim is put on trial.

There is a lot to criticize in the way the trial was conducted. The prosecution was half-hearted and inept. Crucial evidence - particularly the eyewitness testimony of two witnesses who graphically described the police violence at the preliminary hearing - was never heard by the jury. The most damning witness against the cops was deported before the trial began, and because the Crown had not interceded with immigration officials, the judge would not allow the sworn testimony from that earlier hearing to be read out to the jury. And the judge in his summation of the case all but instructed the jury to find the cops innocent.

There will be later opportunities to say more on the conduct of the trial, but now is the time to act. We cannot allow this court to have the last word on Otto Vass's fate.

Tomorrow at 5 PM, at the 7-11 store parking lot where he was killed more than three years ago, the Committee for Justice for Otto Vass has called for a memorial service. Please spread the word.



Another trial was possible
Analysis of the Otto Vass murder trial by Don Weitz


The jury has been sequestered in the case of the four police officers charged with manslaughter in the August 9, 2000 death of Otto Vass. The trial may be over, but the controversy will continue, regardless of the verdict. Here are just some of the issues.

1) The opening argument that was heard too early

The problems began at the very beginning of the trial. It is normal practice in criminal cases for the Crown Attorney - prosecuting the accused - to make an opening statement, and then take whatever time is necessary to present the evidence. Only after that does the defence make an opening statement, and call its own witnesses.

But on September 16, Judge Patrick Lesage allowed the defence to present its opening arguments immediately after the opening from Crown Attorney Desmond McGarry. For 45 minutes, one of the defence attorneys, Earl Levy, went on and on and on almost exclusively about Mr. Vass' psychiatric history. The effect was to shift attention from the events of August 9 to the story of Otto Vass' life. From that day forward, it was not clear who was on trial - the four police officers, or Otto Vass.

2) The witness the jury never heard

The jury heard testimony from five eye-witnesses. But there was a sixth, and his evidence was never presented to them. Amir Hameed was quoted in the Toronto Star August 10, 2000 (the day after Vass was killed), saying:

"They (the police) were beating him worse than an animal - He wasn't fighting back at all." Hameed said one officer held the man down and punched him in the face while the other hit him on the legs with a baton. "He was just screaming due to the pain," Hameed said. "He never hit an officer - they never gave him a chance, and he never tried to."

On Friday August 11, Canadian Press wrote the following:

"(The officer) hit him with the baton 40 or 50 times, with all his energy," said Amir Hameed, who said he watched the incident from his apartment across the street.

None of this testimony was heard because Hameed was deported from Canada to Pakistan on an unrelated matter June 10, 2003. The Crown's office knew that Hameed was under threat of deportation, but for more than a year after the preliminary inquiry in June of 2002 (where Hameed testified), they did nothing to prevent or delay that deportation. It is very likely that had they contacted Immigration authorities, Hameed would have been kept in the country until he testified. Had Immigration refused after being contacted by the Crown, Lesage indicated that he would have considered having Hameed's testimony from the preliminary inquiry, read in as evidence. But because the Crown did not do "due diligence" to ensure Hameed's presence in the country, Lesage ruled on October 7 - with the jury out of the room - that Hameed's testimony would not be allowed in the trial.

3) The grieving widow who was kept out of the court-room

Vass was painted as a mentally-ill "monster" who "met his destiny" (in the words of one of the police lawyers) when he died after the encounter with the police on August 9. The jury was never given a picture of the human side of Vass to counter the demonization coming from the police lawyers.

They didn't even have the presence in the court-room - until the closing days of the trial - of his grieving widow, Zsuzsanna. This was one of the most outrageous aspects of the trial. In what other circumstances would the wife or husband of a homicide victim be excluded from the trial of those accused in the homicide?

The judge argued that the exclusion was necessary because Zsuzsanna had been called as a witness (by the police lawyers of all people), and all witnesses were excluded from the court room. But Zsuzsanna was not a witness to the crime. She was nowhere near the 7-11 on August 9, 2000. It was the opinion of many that she had only been called by the police lawyers in order to exclude her from the court-room. The constant presence of a grieving widow in the audience was bound to have an influence on the jury, showing that Vass was a human being, with a life and loved ones. But on September 23, Lesage ruled that Zsuzsanna be excluded.

4) The objections that were never raised

It is usually the case that the Crown has more resources at its disposal than the defence. But in this case, with four police on trial, it often seemed to be exactly the reverse. Four defence lawyers would grill each witness. Four defence lawyers were there to raise objections against the Crown.

And with the cacophony coming from the defence side, time and again, when it seemed like an objection would surely arise from the Crown's side, there was nothing but silence. This came to a peak October 20, when Zsuzsanna finally took the stand. For hours she was grilled by the defence lawyers. They opened up the matter of her civil suit against the police (she is suing for damages, in a matter that can't be heard until the criminal trial is complete). They were pressing her, trying to portray her as someone willing to fudge the truth for financial gain. Finally it was not the Crown who objected, but the judge, who told the defence that this was not the place to prosecute the civil case. It was only after the judge intervened, that finally objections were heard from the Crown.

There are other matters that should be of real concern to any interested in the cause of justice. It took eleven weeks for the Special Investigations Unit (SIU) to lay charges in the first place. If any other four people (i.e. not police officers) were seen kicking and hitting a man who subsequently died, would it have taken eleven weeks to lay charges? And once charges were laid, there was no preliminary inquiry for almost two years, and the trial itself began more than three years after the event. Memories fade with time, witnesses can (and in this case, did) fall from sight - there is a reason that the old expression says "Justice delayed is Justice denied".

Justice for Otto Vass.

Today evening on CBC

THE FIFTY SIXERS
Thursday October 25 at 8pm on CBC-TV
Saturday November 4 at 10pm ET/PT on CBC Newsworld



In October 1956, the people of Hungary rose up against the Soviet empire. When the Russian army crushed the revolution, Canada opened its doors to one of the largest refugee migrations in its history.
Miklos Gratzer was 22 years old when the fighting broke out. He was a fourth-year forestry student at Sopron University in the wooded hills near the Austrian border. His roommate, Istvan Tolnai, commanded the brigade of students who immediately took control of the border crossing at Sopron.
As fighting escalated in the capital city of Budapest, hospitals were quickly overwhelmed and in desperate need of supplies. Gratzer and one of his buddies commandeered a three-ton truck from a local textile factory. They raced toward the city along back roads through a darkening chaos with the first load of blood plasma. Just after midnight they got stopped at a Soviet army roadblock…
…The next afternoon, in another part of Budapest, 12-year-old Anna Porter met the enemy. She crouched in a doorway only a few blocks from the Danube. With a pocket full of bullets and a long black rifle in her hands, she watched a Russian soldier crawl from the burning wreckage of his tank and stagger towards her…
The revolution began the afternoon of October 23 rd, 1956, as a placard-waving crowd of students and factory workers swarmed the streets of Budapest. They marched to the Hungarian Parliament building demanding free and democratic elections. They told the Soviet-backed government they were fed up with Communism and wanted the Russian army to go home.
In the small university town of Sopron, near the Austrian border, Miklos Gratzer joined a student-led "revolutionary council" in the takeover of both the university and of Sopron city hall. It was a life-changing event – an act of treason punishable by death.
To a schoolgirl like Anna Porter, the march on Parliament in Budapest was a lark, a spontaneous party in the street – until shots rang out from a rooftop across the road. Secret police fired into the crowd. Hundreds died; thousands more were wounded. Fighting broke out across the city and quickly spread to the countryside.
Poorly armed civilians hurled bricks and Molotov cocktails at Russian tanks. Several units of the Hungarian army broke ranks and sided with their fellow citizens. Somehow – miraculously – the communist government fell within days and the Soviet army began to withdraw.
For about a week it looked as though Hungary had won its freedom. Political prisoners were released. Free elections were promised.
But on November 4 th, Moscow decided things had gone too far. The Kremlin sent 16 divisions of the Red Army with more than 2,000 tanks to crush the Hungarian uprising.
Freedom fighters and hundreds of thousands of ordinary citizens had only minutes to decide whether to stay and face the Russian onslaught, or to flee across the border into Austria. In the madness and confusion of the moment, families were split apart – some would not see their kin for more than 30 years.
Tolnai and his student brigade kept the border between Sopron and Austria open as long as they could to speed the movement of refugees. But soon he, Gratzer and Anna Porter were among more than 200,000 Hungarians on the run. Just as quickly as it began, the revolution was crushed and governments around the world faced a flood of refugees.
As winter storms rolled across Europe the refugees huddled in Austrian camps waiting for Western nations to open their doors. Just before Christmas of 1956 the first wave of more than 37,000 Hungarians began their trek toward an unknown future in Canada.
From Ottawa, Prime Minister Louis St. Laurent sent Immigration Minister Jack Pickersgill to Vienna with a mandate to slash red tape and speed the movement of refugees. Pickersgill organized a massive airlift. He booked every available plane and ship. And he told Canadian embassy staff to put students at the front of the line.
According to Pickersgill, "Most of the countries of refuge wanted to receive Hungarians who could start to work immediately, but we in Canada – alone – encouraged students to come here to complete their studies. We believed, in the long run, their additional qualifications would increase their contribution to their new homeland…"
The Sopron Story
When Pickersgill discovered Miklos Gratzer and Istvan Tolnai, along with 200 of their fellow forestry students and 34 faculty members from Sopron University – all penned-up in the same camp near Salzburg – he made a series of long-distance calls to Vancouver.
Within hours on a Sunday morning Pickersgill cut an extraordinary deal. He arranged for the Sopron school of forestry to be transferred – virtually intact – from Hungary to the University of British Columbia. In essence, the Sopron foresters were "adopted" en masse by UBC and the pulp mill town of Powell River on British Columbia's Sunshine Coast.
But best intentions could not guarantee a happy ending. For many of the Soproners, transition to a new life in the West was far from idyllic.
They arrived with little more than the clothes on their backs and a desire to escape communist oppression. Most knew nothing about Canada and didn't speak a word of English. They endured homesickness, depression and doubt.
Family members back in Hungary wrote emotional letters pleading for them to come home. They even encountered a nasty political backlash in left-wing British Columbia.
Anna's Story
Anna Porter came to Canada in a roundabout way. She and her mom escaped from Budapest to New Zealand, where they joined other family members. Anna wound up in a convent – the only child in the entire school who spoke no English. She felt isolated and alone, with a sense of "not belonging" that never went away.
As she grew up, she grew restless. After graduation, she wandered – to Sydney, then Rome and London before finally settling down in Toronto. Where she discovered her life's work – the editing, publishing and writing of books.
"I got to work with Margaret Laurence, and Margaret Atwood, and Mordecai Richler, Earle Birney, Irving Layton, Al Purdy – I mean, how lucky can you get?" asks Anna. In 1992 she was appointed an Officer of the Order of Canada.
In the end, the Sopron foresters persisted, survived and earned their own measures of recognition and respect. Istvan Tolnai worked his way up from "chokerman" on a rough and tumble West Coast logging crew to become chief forester for Weyerhaeuser Canada, one of the largest timber companies in North America. Miklos Gratzer became a distinguished professor of forestry with top postings at several large universities.
More than 80 percent of the Soproners graduated from UBC. More than 30 percent went on to earn advanced degrees. And like most of the Hungarians who arrived here in 1956, nearly all have become proud Canadian citizens.

<!-- End Table -->
The American Hungarian Federation was founded in 1906 as an umbrella organization and has over the years supported democracy, human and minority rights and the rule of law in Central and Eastern Europe. Recent developments relating to demonstrations against the government in Hungary deeply concern the Federation. The Federation condemns all acts of lawlessness and intolerance. Reports from various and credible sources indicate that the vast majority of demonstrators on October 23 were peaceful, law-abiding citizens exercising their right to freely speak, assemble and petition their government -- fundamental rights that are fully respected in all democracies. These reports, including photographs, further indicate that the police used overwhelming and unjustified force against a crowd of people who were merely attending an officially registered commemorative event. The police did not even attempt to distinguish between that peaceful crowd and the few troublemakers. Allegations also have been made of brutal beatings, including of a Catholic priest and a Member of Parliament, indiscriminate use of tear gas, water cannons and rubber bullets aimed above the waist contrary to European practices, use of extendable batons, failure by police to wear identifying badges and police being used as provocateurs.

These are serious and disturbing acts that undermine democracy and the rule of law and violate both the laws of Hungary and international standards of human rights. Official inaction considering these events is troublesome. The Federation strongly believes that these and related allegations must be thoroughly and timely investigated by a credible and completely independent body and if substantiated appropriate measures must be taken.
Finally, the Federation hopes that the respect for the rule of law and principles of democracy will preclude such occurrences in the future.
October 31, 2006

Saddam Hussein

Nov 5, 4:36 AM EST

Saddam, 2 Others Sentenced to Death


BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- Saddam Hussein and two other men were convicted and sentenced Sunday to death by hanging for war crimes in the 1982 killings of 148 people in the town of Dujail, as the former leader, trembling, shouted "God is great!"



After the verdict was read, Saddam yelled out, "Long live the people and death to their enemies. Long live the glorious nation, and death to its enemies!"

Clashes immediately broke out in north Baghdad's heavily Sunni Azamiyah district.

Saddam initially refused the chief judge's order to rise; two bailiffs lifted the ousted ruler to his feet and he remained standing through the sentencing.

Before the hearing began, one of Saddam's lawyers, former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark, was ejected from the courtroom after handing the judge a memorandum in which he called the trial a travesty.

Chief Judge Raouf Abdul-Rahman pointed to Clark and said in English, "Get out."

In addition to the former Iraqi dictator and Barzan Ibrahim, his former intelligence chief and half brother, the Iraqi High Tribunal convicted and sentenced Awad Hamed al-Bandar, the head of Iraq's former Revolutionary Court, to death by hanging.

Iraq's former Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan was convicted of premeditated murder and sentenced to life in prison.

Three other co-defendants were convicted of murder and torture and sentenced to up to 15 years in prison.
One defendant was acquitted for lack of evidence

The guilty verdict for Saddam is expected to enrage hard-liners among Saddam's fellow Sunnis, who made up the bulk of the former ruling class. The country's majority Shiites, who were persecuted under the former leader but now largely control the government, will likely view the outcome as a cause of celebration.

AP.

The sound is in arabic. You will be reading the English subtitles.

One impressive woman

Here is a powerful and amazing statement on Al Jazeera television.

The woman is Wafa Sultan, an Arab-American psychologist from <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com

Los Angeles</st1:City>

I would suggest watching it ASAP because I don't know how long the link will be active.

This film clip should be shown around the world repeatedly!!!

http://switch3.castup.net/cunet/gm.asp?ai=214&ar=1050wmv&ak=nul<O></O>

New York Times Nagy Imréről
http://www.time.com/time/europe/hero2006/nagy.html

pure, unadultered bullshit..

[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][SIZE=+2]Hotel yanks CNN; says network is pro-terrorist[/SIZE][/FONT][FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]

Wausau Daily Herald

[/FONT] [FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]ROTHSCHILD — Guests at one local hotel who switch on the TV in search of the latest news no longer have CNN as an option.

The Stoney Creek Inn, 1100 Imperial Ave., in Rothschild has dropped the 24-hour news channels CNN and CNN Headline News from its basic cable offerings.

Tony Magro, 76, of Barrington, Ill., stayed at the inn Monday night and said he was told by a receptionist that the hotel chain’s corporate office had issued a letter calling for the removal of the channels because CNN aids terrorists.

“I’m not an activist, and I really don’t have any interest, but that struck me as over the top,” Magro said. “I’m rather zealous about my rights as an American citizen, particularly when I’m paying for the service.”

Magro, who was driving to Michigan’s Upper Peninsula for the funeral of a friend when he had car trouble Monday in the Wausau area, said he had tried tuning in to CNN to find the latest news on today’s mid-term elections.

The channel was nowhere to be found, and he received an updated channel listing from the front desk today. The updated listing includes news channels MSNBC, CNBC, Fox News, C-SPAN and C-SPAN 2.

James Thompson, owner and chief executive officer of Stoney Creek Hospitality Corp., made the decision to remove the channels, according to the inn’s corporate office in Des Moines, Iowa. Thompson is out of the office today and was not immediately available for comment.

Stoney Creek Hospitality Corp. manages 10 hotels in Illinois, Iowa, Missouri and Wisconsin. The 107-room inn near the Cedar Creek Mall opened in 1997.[/FONT][/FONT]






[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]
[/FONT][/FONT]

Rumsfeld quits in wake of Democratic victory :4:






http://a123.g.akamai.net/f/123/1246...nwest/112/bush_rumsfeld11082006new.jpg?size=l

http://www.canada.com/topics/news/world/story.html?id=e7ba933d-0b4d-44d6-b517-668f2e3d66e5&k=59395

:4::4::4::4::4::4::4::4::4::4::4::4::4::4::4:

I am seiling therew the sea, from the beach of Canada. Purheps monday...

pitti írta:

Hat igen. Ez egy karakan csaj. \\m/
[/size][/font]

Kattints a kibontásához...

You got to respect the woman. She’s not afraid to call the spade a spade.

Sue Bailey and Jim Bronskill, The Canadian Press

Warner Vermette joined some friends last year for a night out in Williams Lake, B.C. Hours later, the 22 year-old wound up naked and screaming on the floor of an RCMP cell.
Vermette has an IQ of 63 - well below what’s considered normal. And what happened to the vulnerable young man that March night happens too often across Canada as the mentally ill are failed by systems meant to protect them.
Without those crucial supports, their harsh fate is frequently jail or the streets.
Vermette was bleeding from a nasty gash to his right foot that would need several stitches when he was finally taken to hospital 15 hours after his arrest.
He had kicked in a window in a building he apparently confused with his own nearby apartment.
Vermette is hospitalized regularly for overwhelming anxiety - when he’s not turned away for lack of beds - and is obsessed with professional wrestling. He can be sweet and engaging but is also prone to profane aggression when cornered.
He is among the 20 per cent of Canadians who will directly experience mental illness. And after 10 years in and out of jail for mostly minor, non-violent offences, he also personifies what happens when demand for mental health care outstrips need.
The result: some of society’s most susceptible members are caught in a revolving door between the prison cell and the street. It threatens the safety of both the mentally ill and the communities where they live.
Thousands of families across Canada find themselves trapped in the same stressful, costly and avoidable cycle. Yet lingering public distaste for open talk about mental illness puts them in a kind of social quarantine.
“I get the feeling from a lot of people out there, as long as it doesn’t affect them it doesn’t matter,” said Gary Allen, who was locked in jail during a particularly tough bout in his continuing fight with bipolar disorder, a form of severe mood condition.
As their loved ones slip in and out of stability, many families find themselves alone, ensnared in a justice system that both critics and corrections officials say is woefully ill-equipped.
Nor is there much help from community services. Most mental health agencies still lack the money and staff needed to fill the void left when large institutions closed years ago.
Jail is often the only alternative. And criminologists say Conservative plans to toughen sentences and curtail house arrest for certain crimes will throw more weight on a buckling system.
Vermette’s arrest for breaking and entering 19 months ago was the latest tangle with a justice system that his mother, Cindy Parsons, wryly calls his main “mental health resource” for the last decade.
The family has waged a losing battle to find effective treatment, says a frustrated Parsons.
“Politicians have to start talking about this.”
Warner is no born-to-be-bad career criminal, she insists.
He has the rational comprehension of about an eight-year-old.
“I don’t believe he’s capable of masterminding crimes.”
Yet her son has served serious prison time and he is far from alone.
The number of federal inmates identified as mentally ill has climbed dramatically in the last decade. At least 1,500 of 12,500 prisoners in 58 institutions need some form of daily care for serious mental health issues.
The swelling figure reflects the closure of mental institutions in recent decades with few replacement programs.
The shutdowns were a response to budgetary pressures, the emergence of more effective medications, and a belief the mentally ill are better off in the community than hived away in outmoded asylums.
Abuses indeed took place in the old-style institutions, said Dr. Ian Postnikoff, chief psychiatrist at the Correctional Service’s regional treatment centre in Abbotsford, B.C.
“But I think we’ve thrown the baby out with the bathwater. Where are the community resources?”
Cuts to health services in the 1990s increased pressure on remaining programs as accelerating social stress and homelessness fuelled demand for such help.
The streets and prisons are the asylums of the 21st century, says now retired senator Michael Kirby, who chaired an exhaustive committee study of mental health in Canada.
“There are very, very few resources in the prison system to deal with mental illness.”
The May committee report, Out of the Shadows at Last, called for a wide range of publicly funded community supports.
An acute lack of services means the sick and unstable are increasingly warehoused alongside violent criminals.
“There’s no question that we are criminalizing the mentally ill,” said Dr. John Bradford, a forensic psychiatrist who teaches at the University of Ottawa.
Federal correctional staff openly acknowledge a growing number of inmates should be in hospital - not behind bars.
Better community-based help for the mentally ill could avoid the hefty social and financial costs of locking people away, said Veronica Felizardo, a clinical social worker at the Correctional Service’s regional treatment centre in Kingston, Ont.
“Yeah, their crime was horrible. But they were off their medication. They were living on the streets.”
Jane Laishes, senior manager of mental health for the prison service, warns of pending disaster.
“Everybody is just so stretched to the limit,” she said of chronic staff shortages, especially when it comes to psychologists and psychiatric nurses.
“I guess I’m pretty astounded that we haven’t had a huge crisis, and that people get the level of care they do. But I think it’s a matter of time.
“The issue now is one of public safety. These people are coming back into the community.”
There are just 700 beds available in the five mental health treatment centres run by the prison service across Canada.
Admission is immediate for the most acute cases. But several hundred inmates with serious but less critical mental problems often wait months for care.
Laishes concedes the high-stress, drug-infested prison system is more an incubator than a cure for psychosis.
Untold numbers of offenders - the Correctional Service has no precise statistics - land in a segregation cell when they lash out, she said.
It’s “a tragedy” that locking up an ill inmate alone is the best tool the service sometimes has, Laishes says.
“They’re yelling, they’re screaming, they’re being out of control. They’re not fun for staff. They’re not fun for others.
“The bottom line, though, is that they’re suffering.”
Kim Pate, a national advocate for female inmates, says that kind of isolation is especially hard on women.
“At that moment when they’re most in crisis, it’s human contact - not video surveillance or a restraint chair - that they most want and need.”
Laishes also concedes it’s possible for a mentally unstable inmate to serve an entire sentence without being thoroughly diagnosed, let alone treated.
Evaluations for new inmates are often cursory and followup can be lax. Some prisoners deny having a mental illness.
“There’s still a lot of stigma,” Laishes says. Being bad is a badge of honor for some convicts. “But being mad?
“There’s no part of our culture where that is considered OK yet.”
The stigma is borne by the ill and their families.
Warner Vermette’s mother recalled his last nightmarish arrest.
Cindy Parsons believes her son panicked and broke into the wrong building after becoming disoriented when friends dropped him off.
He went into an alcohol-fuelled frenzy as police tried to control him. He was stun-gunned three times with 50,000 volts of electricity before officers muscled him into a cell, later stripping him to ensure he didn’t use his clothes to strangle himself.
What her son really required, Parsons says, was a psychiatric ward staffed by people trained to deal humanely with the mentally ill.
“Warner needed help. Only jail would take him.”
The RCMP later apologized after a full investigation.
Vermette should have been taken to hospital sooner, Staff Sgt. Grant Martin said in a letter to Parsons.
“Since the incident, our detachment has purchased a `prisoner restraint chair’ which alleviates the need to strip prisoners of their clothing.”
The detachment also agreed to take part in a training project to help front-line officers recognize and handle mental illness.
Vermette would spend the next eight months in custody. It wasn’t his first lengthy stint behind bars. He was sent to federal prison five years ago after agreeing to play sentry for a gang of would-be thieves who botched a jewelry store heist, his mother said.
“Warner took the blame for a lot of other people.
“He pleads guilty to everything. That sort of shows you his mental capacity.”
He chose to spend much of his prison time at B.C.’s Kent Institution in segregation - he found it less scary - but still mixed with the general population throughout his two-year sentence.
His mother arrived for a visit one day to find Warner sporting a fresh tattoo. Her mind churned with thoughts of dirty needles and liver diseases.
“He had access to drugs in there. I was just beside myself.
“The older inmates could see that he was vulnerable. I am just extremely thankful to a few guys who were there who took care of Warner - because the system sure didn’t.
“Warner has been through a lot in the last 10 years. And, unfortunately, the justice system has been his mental health resource.”