The Freedom Watch

NY’s SAFE Act Imperils Yet Another Victim

"David Lewis is a librarian who lives in Amherst, New York, and owns several pistols. He once swallowed some anti-anxiety medication -- allowing cops to grab his guns pursuant to the SAFE Act's cruel discrimination against people with 'mental-health issues.' Turns out cops had the wrong 'David Lewis.' ''I was extremely shocked and saddened and immediately just felt embarrassed knowing that someone had thought negatively of me and wrongly. I had absolutely no idea how this could have happened,' said Lewis...' He also 'hoped his health record would be confidential. 'It's not right. i always thought people could expect more privacy than that,' said Lewis.'" Continue reading →

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Papers Please: TSA-Style Checkpoints at UK Bus & Train Stations

"‘Airport-style’ security checkpoints are being rolled out at local bus and train stations up and down the UK after local pilot schemes conducted over the last two years were deemed a success by police. The checkpoints comprise metal detector arches, drug-sniffing dogs, police pat-downs and bag searches. The reason? To 'help people who use public transport feel safer.' Over the last couple of years more and more of these ‘security’ checkpoints have been quietly introduced at local bus and train stations across the UK under a number of pretexts that simply don’t bear scrutiny." Continue reading →

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Dealing with Cops These Days

"In a word – don’t. You are dealing with perhaps the worst possible tag-team combination: Someone with legal power over you who is held to a different – and far more lenient – standard than you are. A cop can: Commit assault with near-impunity. He can draw his firearm and point it at you – even shoot at you – without fear of life-altering consequences – such as a felony record for brandishing and reckless endangerment. He can rely on his cronies and the system to cover up or minimize his errors of judgment, even when they involve serious harm to innocent people such as yourself. His word will be treated as legal tender in court – while yours is considered suspect. His very person is anointed." Continue reading →

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Arbitrary enforcement, secrecy, self-interest, and the loss of government legitimacy

"The drug war and the national security scandals have overlapped in so many ways, not the least of which is a growing sense of the erosion of the very foundation of legitimacy of government. There are laws you must follow, but we’re not going to tell you what they are, or our interpretation of what they mean, but you must follow them anyway, and we’re going to gag you so you can’t talk about these laws you must follow, and if you try to take it to court, we’re going to invoke national security and say that the courts can’t be allowed to discuss it, plus since it’s secret it doesn’t exist anyway." Continue reading →

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UK’s former top drug official: Coke-head bankers caused financial crisis

"The former top drugs adviser to Britain’s parliament told UK newspaper The Telegraph on Sunday that risk-taking behaviors behind the financial crisis of 2008 were driven by excessive cocaine consumption by the world’s banking elite. Nutt was fired from his post as Britain’s top drugs adviser in 2009, after he criticized the government’s drug policies for inhibiting research into Schedule I substances like psilocybin, which Nutt has studies for its potential to alleviate symptoms of depression. At the time he’d said that consuming the unadulterated, pure form of the drug ecstasy is safer than riding a horse. Nutt was ordered to apologize for his statement on ecstasy." Continue reading →

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Taxpayer Dollars Are Helping Monsanto Sell Seeds Abroad

"The US State Department has been essentially acting as a de facto global-marketing arm of the ag-biotech industry, complete with figures as high-ranking as former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton mouthing industry talking points as if they were gospel. The FWW report is based on an analysis of diplomatic cables, written between 2005 and 2009 and released in the big Wikileaks document dump of 2010. FWW sums it up: 'a concerted strategy to promote agricultural biotechnology overseas, compel countries to import biotech crops and foods that they do not want, and lobby foreign governments—especially in the developing world—to adopt policies to pave the way to cultivate biotech crops.'" Continue reading →

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5 GMO Myths Busted

"Every year, a greater and greater percentage of our food supply sources back to genetically modified ingredients. Monsanto, Dow, Bayer, DuPont and the other biotech giants have made GMOs into a multi-billion dollar industry and unsurprisingly have launched one of the largest pr campaigns in the history of the food industry to convince the public that their products are safe, healthy and beneficial. Let's examine five of the main claims of this PR campaign and see how they stack up to reality." Continue reading →

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The Man Who Was Treated for $17,000 Less

"Most people are unaware that if they don't use insurance, they can negotiate upfront cash prices with hospitals and providers substantially below the 'list' price. Doctors are happy to do this. We get paid promptly, without paying office staff to wade through the insurance-payment morass. So we canceled the surgery and started the scheduling process all over again, this time classifying my patient as a 'self-pay' (or uninsured) patient. He underwent his operation the very next day, with a total bill of just a little over $3,000, including doctor and hospital fees. He ended up saving $17,000 by not using insurance." Continue reading →

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Gel used for buttocks enhancements blamed for 15 deaths in Venezuela

"A gel used in a popular form of plastic surgery in Venezuela has been blamed for at least 15 deaths in the past two years, Agence France-Presse reported on Monday. The procedure, which involves injecting the synthetic polymer beneath the skin, is intended to enhance the buttocks region by allowing the gel to spread through the tissue. Support groups said to AFP that more than 40,000 women have undergone the surgery, seemingly owing to what it called devotion to 'the cult of the body.' But, AFP reported, removing the gel is an experimental treatment that costs $6,000, compared to the $800 cost to get 500 milligrams of having it put in, despite the apparent health risks." Continue reading →

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E-ppointments

"Right after 8.30am is a busy time for the ill in Britain. People must call up in the morning to book an appointment later in the afternoon. Come opening time, the phone lines are jammed with hacking, spluttering sick people trying to beg an audience with their doctor. Being able to book appointments online and outside of office hours not only makes life easier for patients, but gives them more choice. Zesty, a start-up based in London, has signed up 200 dental practices across ten London boroughs since launching at the end of April. Investors including Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon, have put $95m into ZocDoc, an American health tech company, since its launch in 2007." Continue reading →

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