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Segami

Segami's Journal
Segami's Journal
December 29, 2012

NEVER, EVER Give Up. Arthur's Inspirational Transformation!





If this story can inspire someone you know, please share it with them!




Arthur's story is highlighted from the beginning, in the upcoming documentary, INSPIRED: The Movie. http://www.inspiredthemovie.com
(Thanks to filmmaker Steve Yu for putting this inspirational video together!)

Arthur Boorman was a disabled veteran of the Gulf War for 15 years, and was told by his doctors that he would never be able to walk on his own, ever again.

He stumbled upon an article about Diamond Dallas Page doing Yoga and decided to give it a try -- he couldn't do traditional, higher impact exercise, so he tried DDP YOGA and sent an email to Dallas telling him his story.

Dallas was so moved by his story, he began emailing and speaking on the phone with Arthur throughout his journey - he encouraged Arthur to keep going and to believe that anything was possible. Even though doctors told him walking would never happen, Arthur was persistent. He fell many times, but kept going.

Arthur was getting stronger rapidly, and he was losing weight at an incredible rate! Because of DDP's specialized workout, he gained tremendous balance and flexibility -- which gave him hope that maybe someday, he'd be able to walk again.

His story is proof, that we cannot place limits on what we are capable of doing, because we often do not know our own potential. Niether Arthur, nor Dallas knew what he would go on to accomplish, but this video speaks for itself. In less than a year, Arthur completely transformed his life. If only he had known what he was capable of, 15 years earlier.

Do not waste any time thinking you are stuck - you can take control over your life, and change it faster than you might think.

Hopefully this story can inspire you to follow your dreams - whatever they may be.
Anything is Possible!
December 24, 2012

BWHAHAHA: Did Dan Savage’s Marriage CAUSE Mormon GOP Sen. Crapo’s DUI?



IOKIYAAR!!!!


In this day and age, we really can’t be too certain what might cause a religious Republican who claims to not drink alcohol to drink. Surely the conservative Mormon Idaho Senator, Mike Crapo, never would have been boozing it up had gay marriage not been so victorious around the US this year, right? After all, we’re still trying to figure out if Dan Savage’s marriage caused Track Palin’s divorce (Dan denies it, but those homersexuals are known to lie). Who would put it past Dan, mischievous little anti-elf that he is, to use his homosexual wiles to entice a religious right Mormon Republican senator into sin?



Nationally around 10,000 people die each year on the road from drunk drivers. Crapo has apologized for being an idiot and driving under the influence but shouldn’t he be apologizing for being a typical conservative hypocrite? Then again, the GOP is the party that openly embraced Newt Gingrich and gave a round of applause for prostitute-loving David Vitter. What part of the Book of Mormon says drinking until you are drunk is OK followed by driving? I’m admittedly not an expert so someone’s going to have to point out that part of the book.




“I made a mistake for which I apologize to my family, my Idaho constituents and any others who have put their trust in me,” he said. “I accept total responsibility and will deal with whatever penalty comes my way in this matter. I will also undertake measures to ensure that this circumstance is never repeated.”

Crapo (pronounced KRAY-poh) was released around 5 a.m. Sunday on an unsecured $1,000 bond. His court date is set for Jan. 4.

Crapo has served in the Senate since 1998, where he has built a reputation as a staunch social and fiscal conservative. He is currently in his third term and won’t have to run again until 2016.

http://news.ca.msn.com/top-stories/idaho-sen-mike-crapo-arrested-for-dui




Everyone knows Congress has perks and benefits well above most voters. How many of us would have problems with their employment if they were busted for DUI? How is it that the congressional lifestyle is so protected? It’s doubtful that the hypocrite Crapo will resign considering Senator Larry "Wide Stance" Craig‘s history. What’s up with Idaho being so obsessed with voting for GOP hypocrites?





http://americablog.com/2012/12/mormon-conservative-senator-crapo-arrested-for-dui.html
December 24, 2012

HYPOCRITE: Mormon GOP Senator Who Claims to ABSTAIN From Alcohol ARRESTED for DUI




How many times has Crappo been drunk while VOTING on important public issues?

This ReTHUG Hypocritter needs to resign!!! His judgement is impaired!





Idaho Sen. Michael Crapo is a strict social and fiscal conservative (whatever that means these days: Tax the poor, give corporations taxpayer money, and scream about loose women using contraception combined with bizarre beliefs about the female body). He’s a Mormon who has told the press that he doesn’t drink. And he was arrested for a DUI in Virginia early Sunday morning. The Senator ran a red light, prompting police to pull him over, whereupon he failed sobriety tests. His blood alcohol level was .11. (Virginia has strict DUI laws.) After being arrested, Crapo was released on a $1,000 bail. His license will probably be suspended for 7 days as per the law in Virginia.



Senator Crapo said in a statement to CBS News, “I am deeply sorry for the actions that resulted in this circumstance. I made a mistake for which I apologize to my family, my Idaho constituents and any others who have put their trust in me. I accept total responsibility and will deal with whatever penalty comes my way in this matter. I will also undertake measures to ensure that this circumstance is never repeated.”



Sure, you might be concerned that the Senator has abandoned his principles and values by drinking anything let alone being arrested for a DUI, but fear not. Crapo has a 0% rating from the HRC on gay rights, because while he’s obviously a bit confused about just how much booze one can drink before they’re too drunk to drive, he’s super clear that sexual orientation shouldn’t be protected in any way by the government. No rights for the gays! Social conservatives prefer to save up all of the rights for the “righteous”.



Crapo has also been really clear that we need to spend our money going after young girls who cross state lines to violate his religious beliefs by seeking an abortion. Yes, drinking and driving might kill other already-borns, but abortion, while legal, is not okay in Crapo’s eyes. He voted yes to increase funding for the “vigorous enforcement of a prohibition against taking minors across State lines in circumvention of laws requiring the involvement of parents in abortion decisions consistent with the Child Custody Protection Act.”





cont


http://www.politicususa.com/mormon-republican-claims-abstain-alcohol-arrested-dui.html

.
December 24, 2012

Study: BOOZE Damages the Brain, POT Does Not




Alcohol damaged teens' brain tissue; marijuana did not.




Some new science demonstrates that marijuana may not have the harmful effects critics claim. In fact, while pot had no measured impact in a new study, the very legal and very lucratively-marketed substance alcohol actually has a worse health impact on young users.


Specifically, a new study of substance-using teenagers' brains shows that the regular use of alcohol had a harmful effect on the boozing group, while the toking-up group's brains suffered little alteration.


From Medical Daily, emphasis ours:



The researchers, from the University of California, San Diego and the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, performed the study on 92 16- to 20-year-olds. The scientists scanned their brains both before and after an 18-month period. Over the course of the 18 months, half of the teens, who already had an extensive track record with alcohol and marijuana, continued their vices as they had before. The other half continued to abstain or drink a minimal amount, like they too had done before the study.


In addition to the brain scans, the study also required a detailed toxicology report and substance use assessment. The teens also were interviewed every six months. Researchers did not check the teens' cognitive ability, but simply took brain scans.


The researchers found that, after the year and a half was over, kids who had drank five or more alcoholic beverages twice a week had lost white brain matter. That means that they could have impaired memory, attention, and decision-making into adulthood. The teens that smoked marijuana on a regular basis had no such reduction.



http://www.medicaldaily.com/articles/13623/20121221/teen-marijuana-cause-brain-damage-alcohol.htm#qi80Evlcd2TmFFby.99



While other studies have had less clear results, this study is important for a few reasons.

First, it shows that early alcohol abuse can be dangerous because it damages the tissues that influence judgement and self-control. "If teens decrease their tissue health and cognitive ability to inhibit themselves, they might become more likely to engage in risky behavior like excessive substance use," the Huffington Post quotes study co-author Joanna Jacobus, postdoctoral fellow at the University of California, San Diego, as saying.





cont'

http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/study-booze-damages-brain-pot-does-not?akid=9844.4337.KsVrAF&rd=1&src=newsletter765210&t=4


December 23, 2012

BWHAHAHAHA: The Romneys Take Their Ball and Go Home, Claiming Mitt NEVER Wanted to be President





The new meme to come out of the Romney family is that Mitt never wanted to be President anyway, so fug you America! I guess it wasn’t “his turn” after all.


Yes, Tagg Romney told the Boston Globe that Mitt never wanted to president. He only ran for 6 years because he couldn’t find anyone as perfect as Himself to run. The brutal Republican primaries notwithstanding, we are to believe Romney never wanted it. It was, we’re told, Romney’s love of God and country that made him run.


He wanted to be president less than anyone I’ve met in my life. He had no desire to . . . run,” said Tagg, who worked with his mother, Ann, to persuade his father to seek the presidency. “If he could have found someone else to take his place . . . he would have been ecstatic to step aside. He is a very private person who loves his family deeply and wants to be with them, but he has deep faith in God and he loves his country, but he doesn’t love the attention.”

http://www.boston.com/news/politics/2012/president/2012/12/23/the-story-behind-mitt-romney-loss-the-presidential-campaign-president-obama/2QWkUB9pJgVIi1mAcIhQjL/story.html




Well, that explains so much. I mean, remember when Mitt threw a fit because the crowd loved Ryan more than him?



Romney is introducing Ryan to the crowd and the crowd starts cheering spontaneously “Ryan, Ryan, Ryan!”
All is well! They crowd is fired up! This is the point, right? Right?

But then immediately the sun goes out.

Romney looks at the crowd and at Ryan and then he admonishes the crowd with his hand held up in the HALT position, “Wait a sec, wait a sec! Romney, Ryan, Romney, Ryan, Romney, Ryan.” (Emphasis Romney)

The crowd falls silent. They are not chanting Romney Ryan. Awkward.

Romney, befuddled, seems to think the crowd has complied, “There we go. That’s great.” Gesturing

confusedly back to Ryan, he says, “Thank you.”

http://www.politicususa.com/watching-romney-ohio-joe-scarborough-covers-face-mutters-sweet-jesus.html




December 23, 2012

Obama is Determined to Give Republicans What THEY DESERVE On The FISCAL CLIFF





More reporting confirms that President Obama’s hard stance on the fiscal cliff is a reality. Obama is looking to drive his election victory home by only giving Republicans what they’ve earned on the fiscal cliff. As Politico reported in a story titled Why Obama isn’t Caving, “But if the 2012 election increased the president’s comfort with public emotion, it also strengthened his desire to ensure that the GOP — a party that has lost the popular vote in six of the last seven presidential elections — doesn’t get a better deal than they have earned.”



Politico is the second non-liberal outlet in the last two days to report that President Obama is taking a hard line with House Republicans on the fiscal cliff. Yesterday, The Wall Street Journal reported that the president told Speaker Boehner that he would get nothing in the fiscal cliff negotiations. After Boehner’s Plan B imploded, the president spoke to the media and reduced his offer to the Republicans. Many on the left jumped the gun and accused Obama of caving based on their own fears and media accounts that were sourced to House Republicans.



Obama is willing to compromise, but there is a difference between a compromise and a cave. In compromise, you give something to get something. A cave occurs when one side gives the other everything it wants. An example of a cave occurred almost one year ago today when House Republicans gave Obama everything he wanted by extending the payroll tax cut. People keep comparing the fiscal cliff negotiations to 2010, when they should be looking at last year for a more appropriate comparison. Republicans were hoping they would get 2010 Obama. Instead, they got 2011 Obama times ten. The president’s reelection victory has given him an exponential increase in strength, leverage and political capital.



While Boehner and the House Republicans are mired in their standard dysfunction, President Obama is at the height of his powers. The more Republicans misbehave, the lower Obama’s offer to them goes. Notice the shift in authority, Obama is deciding what or if a deal gets done. The days of House Republicans dictating their terms to Obama look to be long gone. (Those days actually ended in 2011, but some people refuse to see it.)





http://www.politicususa.com/obama-determined-give-republicans-deserve-fiscal-cliff.html
December 23, 2012

President Bush’s May 3rd 1995 Letter of Resignation From The NRA





After the hateful words by the National Rifle Association, a wave of resignations have begun. This is not the first time such a wave has happened. In 1995, former President George Herbert Walker Bush sent his own letter of resignation to the NRA, in response to then Vice-President Wayne LaPierre’s attacks on Federal workers doing their jobs. The topics and issues he brings up are as relevant today as they were in 1995, in light of the NRA blame-filled conference on Friday, we are reprinting this letter from the first President Bush in its entirety below:



May 3, 1995


Dear Mr. Washington,



I was outraged when, even in the wake of the Oklahoma City tragedy, Mr. Wayne LaPierre, executive vice president of N.R.A., defended his attack on federal agents as “jack-booted thugs.” To attack Secret Service agents or A.T.F. people or any government law enforcement people as “wearing Nazi bucket helmets and black storm trooper uniforms” wanting to “attack law abiding citizens” is a vicious slander on good people.


Al Whicher, who served on my [ United States Secret Service ] detail when I was Vice President and President, was killed in Oklahoma City. He was no Nazi. He was a kind man, a loving parent, a man dedicated to serving his country — and serve it well he did.


In 1993, I attended the wake for A.T.F. agent Steve Willis, another dedicated officer who did his duty. I can assure you that this honorable man, killed by weird cultists, was no Nazi.


John Magaw, who used to head the U.S.S.S. and now heads A.T.F., is one of the most principled, decent men I have ever known. He would be the last to condone the kind of illegal behavior your ugly letter charges. The same is true for the F.B.I.’s able Director Louis Freeh. I appointed Mr. Freeh to the Federal Bench. His integrity and honor are beyond question.


Both John Magaw and Judge Freeh were in office when I was President. They both now serve in the current administration. They both have badges. Neither of them would ever give the government’s “go ahead to harass, intimidate, even murder law abiding citizens.” (Your words)


I am a gun owner and an avid hunter. Over the years I have agreed with most of N.R.A.’s objectives, particularly your educational and training efforts, and your fundamental stance in favor of owning guns.


However, your broadside against Federal agents deeply offends my own sense of decency and honor; and it offends my concept of service to country. It indirectly slanders a wide array of government law enforcement officials, who are out there, day and night, laying their lives on the line for all of us.


You have not repudiated Mr. LaPierre’s unwarranted attack. Therefore, I resign as a Life Member of N.R.A., said resignation to be effective upon your receipt of this letter. Please remove my name from your membership list.



Sincerely,


[ signed ]

George Bush






This is how a leader responds to such hate filled rhetoric – they distance themselves while condemning the attacks. One may not agree with President George HW Bush’s politics, but his love of country, and the people who enter into public service for that country, is clear in this letter. The NRA has but one option, to remove LaPierre from his office, and to distance themselves from his decades of hate-filled rhetoric attacking the foundations of this country, the public sector workers who every day devote themselves to making this a better nation. Instead of accepting responsibility for their efforts to give firearms to criminals, the NRA trots out long discredited arguments that video games cause people to go into homicidal rampages. Common sense tells us that there will always be people who will fly in to these fits of rage and homicide, but the difference is that knives can’t kill as easily as a gun.




cont'

http://www.addictinginfo.org/2012/12/22/president-bushs-letter-of-resignation-from-the-nra/
December 22, 2012

Man Protests Sandy Hook Shooting By CUTTING UP NRA MEMBER CARD.




The NRA does NOT want videos like this to go VIRAL.....




Since the brutal and tragic shooting at Sandy Hook elementary school, the nation has been in a state of turmoil. There are some, including the NRA and some gun lovers, who blame everything but guns and see the tragedy as a reason to bring more guns into the world. Others, including some lifelong NRA supporters, have said ‘enough is enough.’


The anonymous man shown in the above photograph is a card-carrying member of the NRA, and he is one of those saying ‘enough is enough.’


“This is my NRA club card,” he says, “I want to show you my tribute and how outraged I am at the loss of life in Newtown, CT. This is what I’m gonna do (pulls out scissors) to this card.” He then goes on to cut his card into three pieces, says, “that’s it,” and shuts off the camera.



According to CNN – which originally received and posted the video — the man is a retired police officer who goes by the handle of Logan248, and who has been an outspoken pro-gun advocate in the past. a CNN producer’s note also refers to the man as “Huffman.”





video:

http://www.addictinginfo.org/2012/12/21/man-protests-sandy-hook-shooting-by-cutting-up-nra-card-video/
December 21, 2012

Rep. Edwards Leads Press Conference OPPOSING Use of CHAINED-CPI in Budget Negotiations

Rep. Edwards, several Members of Congress, and grassroots organizations held a press conference to show unified support opposing the use of the chained CPI in calculating cost-of-living adjustments as part of the budget negotiations. The average Social Security recipient, who at age 65 receives just $15,000 per year in benefits, will suffer cuts of $650 a year by age 75 and $1,130 a year by age 85. All total, those losses by age 95 for a retiree with average earnings would be nearly $25,000.



December 21, 2012

WHERE Can Boehner GO From Here?

After “Plan B” meltdown, few options left for Boehner

But the White House still says it's confident there can be a deal to avoid the "fiscal cliff"







- So where can Boehner go from here?



From the New York Times, one option is that Boehner works with Obama to pass something without the support of the more conservative members of his caucus:



Democrats — and some Republicans — hoped the demise of the Boehner backup plan will usher in a last and final round of negotiations between the speaker and President Obama over a broad deficit reduction deal that raises more than $1 trillion in taxes over 10 years while locking in another $1 trillion in savings from entitlements like Medicare and other federal programs.

“The math changes” with a bipartisan deal, said Representative Steven C. LaTourette, a retiring Republican moderate from Ohio, who predicted Mr. Boehner could win at least half of House Republicans. “If there’s a negotiated settlement with the president, the speaker will put it on the floor and we’ll see where the chips fall.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/21/us/politics/house-moves-toward-vote-on-boehners-backup-plan.html?pagewanted=2&_r=2&hp&





Or, Richard Cowan from Reuters says, he could just give up entirely:


Boehner’s only other apparent option – one that he hinted at late on Thursday following the collapse of his bill – would be to walk away and leave the problem on Democrats’ doorstep.

“Now it is up to the president to work with Senator Reid on legislation to avert the fiscal cliff,” Boehner said in a statement referring to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/21/boehner-plan-b_n_2342833.html




Brian Beutler of TPM suggests another possibility:


But if a last ditch effort fails, or he chooses to rebuff Obama, he’ll set one of two unpredictable chains of events into motion.

He can still bring Senate-passed legislation to the floor, which would lock in the Bush tax cuts for income up to $250,000. That bill would face stiff resistance from many corners of his conference, but would likely pass with overwhelming Democratic support. it would leave unresolved issues like the sequester, Medicare physician reimbursement, expiring emergency unemployment benefits, annual appropriations, and the debt ceiling. And it would still leave him wounded leader, in a tough spot with his members.

Or he could turn toward the cliff, take the country over, try to breathe life back into his speakership, and grapple with the messy consequences next year.

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/12/boehners-plan-b-fail.php




Salon’s Steve Kornacki sums it up:


The most likely scenario now is that January 1 will come and go, the Bush tax cuts will expire for all Americans, and President Obama and Democrats will then introduce a bill to restore the Bush rates for most people – maybe using the $250,000 income threshold that Obama stuck with until this week. Maybe then, when the vote really would be for a tax cut, Republicans will sign off on it. But for now, that’s not where they are.

Meanwhile, Boehner will hold a press conference at 10 a.m. this morning, and Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats will speak at 1 p.m. The House will not meet again until after Christmas.

http://www.salon.com/2012/12/21/the_humiliation_of_john_boehner/






http://www.salon.com/2012/12/21/after_plan_b_meltdown_few_options_left_for_boehner/

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