S. D. Wells -- The $3 billion Human Genome Project was supposed to find the root causes of all diseases, but turned out to be a scientific boondoggle

To ferret out the genetic roots of common diseases like cancer and Alzheimer's and then generate treatments" was the true goal of the 10-year, $3 billion human genome project, or was it? Geneticists who were paid a very pretty penny to study the genetics of disease are claiming they are "back to square one" in knowing where to look for the roots of these diseases, including heart disease and diabetes. But are any of them really diseases at all?

Most diseases are actually contagious, infectious and/or genetic defects, but the four leading causes of death in America, for the most part, are not. So what's the real deal? In June 2000, President Clinton announced that the genome project would "Revolutionize the diagnosis, prevention and treatment of most, IF NOT ALL, human diseases." He then added, "You will see a complete transformation in therapeutic medicine." Remember that Clinton is the man who balanced the national budget.

"Genomics is a way to do science, not medicine," said Harold Varmus, former president of the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York, who became director of the National Cancer Institute (NCI). Both organizations pay their presidents and CEO's massive salaries and bonuses, using up most of the public donated monies for administrative costs, all while burying cures for disease (http://just-say-no-to-chemo.blogspot.com). Varmus claims the findings have explained only a small part of the risk of getting a disease, and that scientists now fear even those could be "statistical illusions." (http://www.cancer.gov/aboutnci/director)

Read more.. http://www.naturalnews.com/037167_Human_Genome_Project_scientific_failure_disease.html

Tom Engelhardt - Praying at the Church of St. Drone

Be assured of one thing: whichever candidate you choose at the polls in November, you aren’t just electing a president of the United States; you are also electing an assassin-in-chief.  The last two presidents may not have been emperors or kings, but they -- and the vast national-security structure that continues to be built-up and institutionalized around the presidential self -- are certainly one of the nightmares the founding fathers of this country warned us against.  They are one of the reasons those founders put significant war powers in the hands of Congress, which they knew would be a slow, recalcitrant, deliberative body.

Thanks to a long New York Times piece by Jo Becker and Scott Shane, “Secret ‘Kill List’ Proves a Test of Obama’s Principles and Will,” we now know that the president has spent startling amounts of time overseeing the “nomination” of terrorist suspects for assassination via the remotely piloted drone program he inherited from President George W. Bush and which he has expanded exponentially.  Moreover, that article was based largely on interviews with “three dozen of his current and former advisers.”  In other words, it was essentially an administration-inspired piece -- columnist Robert Scheer calls it “planted” -- on a “secret” program the president and those closest to him are quite proud of and want to brag about in an election year.

Read More:

http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175551/

Katherine Stewart - Are Christian Fundamentalists Teaching Genocide in Our Schools?

The Bible has thousands of passages that may serve as the basis for instruction and inspiration. Not all of them are appropriate in all circumstances.

The story of Saul and the Amalekites is a case in point. It's not a pretty story, and it is often used by people who don't intend to do pretty things. In the book of 1 Samuel (15:3), God said to Saul:

"Now go, attack the Amalekites, and totally destroy all that belongs to them. Do not spare them; put to death men and women, children and infants, cattle and sheep, camels and donkeys."

Saul dutifully exterminated the women, the children, the babies and all of the men – but then he spared the king. He also saved some of the tastier looking calves and lambs. God was furious with him for his failure to finish the job.

The story of the Amalekites has been used to justify genocide throughout the ages. According to Pennsylvania State University Professor Philip Jenkins, a contributing editor for the American Conservative, the Puritans used this passage when they wanted to get rid of the Native American tribes. Catholics used it against Protestants, Protestants against Catholics. "In Rwanda in 1994, Hutu preachers invoked King Saul's memory to justify the total slaughter of their Tutsi neighbors," writes Jenkins in his 2011 book, Laying Down the Sword: Why We Can't Ignore the Bible's Violent Verses (HarperCollins).

Read More:

http://www.alternet.org/story/155663/are_christian_fundamentalists_teaching_genocide_in_our_schools

Rev. Dan Vojir - The Vatican's Fake Occupy Implodes: Documents Evoke A History Of Money Laundering, Sexual Terrorism, And Even ... Murder

THE BUTLER DID NOT DO IT

A tell-all book, leaked documents, billions in favorable contracts, money laundering, sexual terrorism ... and possibly murder. With St. Peter's in the background, it all sounds like a Dan Brown thriller. But in this mystery, the butler did not do it. At least not to the extent that a papal investigation would have it. 

Paolo Gabriele, 46, who has worked as Benedict's butler since 2006, was reportedly taken into custody after investigators found a mass of documents in the Vatican apartment he shares with his wife and three children.
The arrest comes a month after the Vatican gave an investigative team led by Cardinal Julian Herranz, a member of Opus dei, a full "pontifical mandate" to join Vatican police in rooting out the perpetrators of what has been dubbed Vatileaks.

Gabriele is now languishing in a Vatican prison cell (yes, the Vatican does have a prison) and for now it seems that his only crime was the same as that of Pvt. Bradley Manning (wikileaks) - leaking the juiciest anti-Vatican documents in history. 

Sources close to Gabriele, however, say that he would not have masterminded a leak and that his possession of the documents proves very little: no motive has been proffered and apparently no money was offered for the documents.

Read More:

http://www.opednews.com/articles/The-Vatican-s-Fake-Occupy-by-Rev-Dan-Vojir-120527-850.html

Valerie Tarico - 8 Ways Christian Fundamentalists Make People Convert -- to Agnosticism or Atheism

If the Catholic bishops, their conservative Protestant allies, and other right-wing fundamentalists had the sole objective of decimating religious belief, they couldn’t be doing a better job of it. 

Testimonials at sites like ExChristian.net show that people leave religion for a number of reasons, many of which religious leaders have very little control over.  Sometimes, for example, people take one too many science classes. Sometimes they find their faith shattered by the suffering in the world – either because of a devastating injury or loss in their own lives or because they experience the realities of another person’s pain in a new way. Sometimes a believer gets intrigued by archaeology or symbology or the study of religion itself. Sometimes a believer simply picks up a copy of the Bible or the Koran and discovers faith-shaking contradictions or immoralities there.   

But if you read ExChristian testimonials you will notice that quite often church leaders or members do things that either trigger the deconversion process or help it along. They may turn a doubter into a skeptic or a quiet skeptic into an outspoken anti-theist, or as one former Christian calls himself, a "devangelist."

Here are some top ways Christians push people out the church door or shove secret skeptics out of the closet. Looking at the list, you can’t help but wonder if the Catholic bishops, Rick Santorum, Michele Bachmann and their fundamentalist allies are working for the devil.

Read More:

http://www.alternet.org/story/155553/8_ways_christian_fundamentalists_make_people_convert_--_to_agnosticism_or_atheism

Chris Hedges - The War on Gays

No one understands this better than the gay activist and pastor Mel White. White, along with his husband and partner of 30 years, Gary Nixon, founded Soulforce, an organization committed to using nonviolent resistance to end religion-based oppression. White and hundreds of Soulforce volunteers protest outside megachurches that preach hatred and bigotry in the name of religion. White travels to communities where young gays, lesbians, bisexuals or transgender people have committed suicide. He holds memorial services for them in front of the church doors. He accuses the pastors of these churches of murder. His books “Stranger at the Gate: To Be Gay and Christian in America” and “Holy Terror: Lies the Christian Right Tell Us to Deny Gay Equality,” are two of the most important works that examine the innate cruelty and proto-fascism of the Christian right. White, more than perhaps any other preacher in the country, has pulled young men and women back from the brink of despair, from succumbing to the tragic fate of Tyler Clementi. And White is scared.

“What kind of environment creates a Dharun Raviwho would carry out that kind of bullying, as well as a kid like Tyler who would become a victim of that kind of bullying?” White asked when I reached him by phone at his home in Long Beach, Calif. “It is society. At its heart it is the church. The churches should be convicted, not just Ravi. He’s just an extension of the hatred that people feel about this threat, this gay threat. Pope Benedict XVI should be on trial. Richard Landfrom the Southern Baptists should be on trial. Religious leaders, Protestant and Catholic, should be on trial. They made this happen, but too few Americans make the connection.”

Read More:

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/the_war_on_gays_20120528/

Growing Body Of Research Shows Massage Therapy Effective For Prevalent Health Conditions

A growing body of evidence shows massage therapy can be effective for a variety of prevalent health conditions, including the pain of osteoarthritis of the knee, inflammation after exercise, chronic low back pain and fibromyalgia. Massage is rapidly becoming recognized as an important part of health and wellness, and research compiled by the American Massage Therapy Association (AMTA) indicates some of what takes place in the body during massage therapy.

The Pain of Osteoarthritis of the Knee

Research(1) supported by the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine shows 60-minute sessions of Swedish massage once a week for those with osteoarthritis of the knee significantly reduced their pain. This study, which involved a total group of 125 subjects over an eight-week period, is the latest published research study indicating the benefits of massage therapy for those with osteoarthritis of the knee.

Inflammation After Exercise

Research(2) through the Buck Institute for Research on Aging and McMaster University in Hamilton, Ohio indicates massage therapy reduces inflammation of skeletal muscle acutely damaged through exercise. The study provides evidence for the benefits of massage therapy for those with musculoskeletal injuries and potentially for those with inflammatory disease. Specifically, evidence at the cellular level showed massage therapy may affect inflammation in a way similar to anti-inflammatory medications.

Read More:

http://www.lef.org/news/LefDailyNews.htm?NewsID=13413&Section=Aging

June Gruber - Four Ways Happiness Can Hurt You

Can feeling good ever be bad? New research says yes—and points the way to a healthier, more balanced life.

In recent years, we’ve seen an explosion of scientific research revealing precisely how positive feelings like happiness are good for us. We know that they motivate us to pursue important goals and overcome obstacles, protect us from some effects of stress, connect us closely with other people, and even stave off physical and mental ailments.

This has made happiness pretty trendy. The science of happiness made the covers of Time, Oprah, and even The Economist, and it has spawned a small industry of motivational speakers, psychotherapists, and research enterprises. This website, Greater Good, features roughly 400 articles about happiness, and its parenting blog is specifically about raising happy children.

Clearly, happiness is popular. But is happiness always good? Can feeling too good ever be bad? Researchers are just starting to seriously explore these questions, with good reason: By recognizing the potential pitfalls of happiness, we enable ourselves to understand it more deeply and we learn to better promote healthier and more balanced lives.

Read More:

http://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/four_ways_happiness_can_hurt_you?utm_source=GG+Newsletter+-+May+2012+%232&utm_campaign=GG+Newsletter+-+May+2012+%232&utm_medium=email

Emiliana R. Simon-Thomas - Three Insights about Compassion, Meditation, and the Brain

What I learned at the recent International Symposium for Contemplative Studies.

The recent International Symposium for Contemplative Studies (ISCS), held in Denver, opened with a guided meditation-turned-keynote address by mindfulness pioneer Jon Kabat-Zinn, sitting cross-legged on his Zafu cushion.

But as eminent and enlightened as Kabat-Zinn appeared on stage, his message was that the audience should not be intimidated by the Tibetan monastics, scientific icons, or other spiritually accomplished thinkers in the room. Instead, we were encouraged to embrace our common humanity—our shared aspiration to relieve suffering and cultivate happiness in life. “We are all contemplatives,” he reassured.

That was arguably the main message of the three-day symposium as a whole. It was possibly the biggest and most far-ranging event organized to date by the Mind and Life Institute, which has been championing dialogue between Buddhist scholars and forward-thinking scientists for 20 years, and it offered a powerful reminder of how vast and mainstream contemplative science has gotten in that time.

Read More:

http://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/three_insights_from_the_frontiers_of_the_mind?utm_source=GG+Newsletter+-+May+2012+%232&utm_campaign=GG+Newsletter+-+May+2012+%232&utm_medium=email#

Richard Schiffman - Why Our Children Should Be Taught to Meditate in School

If you have brought up children, or taught them as I have, then there is something that you have doubtless said scores of times a day -- "Pay attention!" Yet this can be the hardest thing for a child to do. Their minds are like monkeys swinging quickly from one branch of thought or feeling to another. And cellphones, iPods and numberless other handheld "weapons of mass distraction" have made it that much harder for our children to focus.

This is a real problem in school, where achievement depends on one's ability to concentrate on the work. It is not just the presence of electronic devices in the classroom, something which naturally alarms a lot of teachers. More damaging are the habits which they inculcate in the young -- the surfing mentality which is always looking restlessly toward the next image, message or sensation.

Granted, this is nothing new. Before there were Blackberries and gaming devices, there were paper airplanes and spitballs. Kids have always found ways to distract themselves from the task at hand -- and adults, too. It is a challenge for all of us to keep our attention focused productively in the here and the now. But we all know from experience that our success and happiness depend on it. To learn something new, to accomplish anything worthwhile, to appreciate a work of art, to think deeply and creatively about a problem, we need to be able to focus and to keep our attention from straying.

Read More:

Richard Schiffmanhttp://www.opednews.com/articles/Why-Our-Children-Should-Be-by-Richard-Schiffman-120513-421.html