freedoms, healing & stories in the news
Government: who rules us.
Axelrod, a principal Obama advisor, described the news reports in 2008 on Obama’s long-time family pastor and mentor Rev. Wight as “ninety seconds of vitriol plucked from thirty years of sermons by some enterprising opposition researcher.”
_______________
Don’t forget that the quotes came from the Rev.’s own tapes.
JAJ48@aol.com
Read Shoveling Smoke or English Spoken Here, Obama by Firenze Sage at
http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/109312
Stanford hospital (LPCH) routinely mis-diagnoses children with Intellectual Disability because of faulty assessment proceedures. Mental Health wants to cut cases and one way is to refer out of County to Stanford who then mis-diagnoses. The loser? The child who needs appropriate therapy and support – no an inaccurate diagnosis.
Many CA children are wrongly diagnosed by reputable institutions such as Stanford Hsoital (LPCH) with Intellectual Disability/ Mental Retardation.
Read the story of Maria below. To make a referral to Stanford hospital ( LPCH) as County Mental Health did with Maria is simply wrong. County Mental Health actions — and lack of actions — harm children who deserve better.
Maria’s story is not unusual. The story describes how many children are routinely mis-diagnosed by Stanford hospital (LPCH). Information concerning Maria and the actual parties involved have been changed or not specified to maintain privacy.
Maria, not the child’s real name, was for real exposed in utero to multiple illegal drugs. And as is true for many children exposed in utero to drugs, Maria, now age eight, has substantial difficulties that affect her overall development. Front and center, she has substantial difficulties with with executive functioning, attention and concentration.
Maria was removed at birth from her biological parents. She lives with a foster mother who only speaks Spanish and a handful of other children. In the home, she has no daily chores and prefers to play by herself. For the last several years, Maria has received County mental health services (medications and therapy) to assist with her dificulties related to inutero drug exposure.
In the home, Spanish is the principal language spoken by the foster mother. At school, Maria’s special education classes (SDC) are in English. Maria speaks a mixture of Spaish and English. For example she know shapes (circle, rectangle) and colors in English but not Spanish; on the other hand, she knows animals and and common home items better in Spanish.
Through her public school, Maria’s cognitive abilities have been assessed in Spanish, English and also with non-verbal tests. At school, she performs best on non-verbal, visual tests of intelligence that have less cultural bias. Assessed on multiple occasions, Maria performs variously. On I.Q. tests that do not rely on lanugae she performs in the Average to Low Average range.
County mental health gave Maria a diagnosis of Pervasive Developmental Disorder, Not Otherwise Specified (PPP-NOS). Saying that they sought more ‘diagnostic clarity’, the County recently referred Maria to Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital (LPCH) located in Stanford, CA.
Though County Menal Health initiated the referral to Stanford hospital (LPCH) they did not send along their own mental health records. The Mental Health therapist or psychiatrist could have put relevant mental health summary records in an envelope and given it to the family to take with them. That did not happen.
Nor did County Mental Health assist so that relevant school psychological assessments accompanied their referral to Stanford hospital (LPCH). With a Release signed by the mother the County Mental Health therapist could have ensured that school assessments accompanied the County’s referral to Stanford hospital. That did not happen.
As a result, there was no collaboration between County Mental Health, the local schools and local physicians. As a result Stanford hospital (LPCH) lacked up-to-date relevant records available for review. Very importantly, and one wonders about arrogance by Stanford hospital, LPCH routinely does not seek out additional information other than what it gets from their own assessment.
The family had to travel two to two and a half hours each way to go to Stanford hospital (LPCH). Although there are numerous licensed psychologists trained in assessment and diagnosis the County routinely chooses to refer outside the County to LCPH. If they wanted to, County Mental Health could reaadily refer to the local Psychological Association. Every County in CA has a psychological association.
Maria was recently assessed by Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital (LPCH). Of importance, the LPCH assessment did not request nor review Maria’s multiple prior school assessments. And LPCH did not review Maria’s medical records nor her mental health records.
LPCH limited the assessment of Maria’s current functional abilities to the ratings that they obtained that day from Maria’s foster mother. No ratings were obtained from Maria’s teachers. Based on a one day assessment, done in English using a Wechsler IQ test known to have strong cultural biases, LPCH gave Maria diagnosis of Intellectual Disability/ Mental Retardation.
Yes this 9 year old child suffers from dificulties related to in utero drug exposure. And she has not yet stabilized her language abilities because she hears only Spanish at home and English at school. And yes on certain tests of executive functioning, attention and concentration she scores quite low.
Maria and other children referred by County mental halth deserve an accurate diagnosis based on a thorough review of relevant school, medical and mental health records. County mental health should collaborate with local psychological associations and use locally trained psychologists who can visit schools and observe children in their home enviornment. When referring outside the County, County Mental Healh should see that relevant school, medical and mental health records accompany their referral.
As I wrote above, to make a referral to Stanford hospital ( LPCH) as County Mental Health did with Maria is simply wrong. County Mental Health’s actions and lack of actions harm children who disserve better.
With an erroneous diagnosis in hand, County Mental Health will close Maria’s case saying that her supposed diagnosis of intellectual disability makes it impossible for her to profit from therapy. And with this diagnosis the schools probably will refer the family to social security.
What Maria truly needs is: 1) time to develop and stabilize her language abilities; 2) training in how to use schedules and other techniques that assist persons with problems with attention and concentration. Just because this eight year old tends to skip from step 1 to 4 does not mean she cannot learn to do tasks correctly. With correct interventions, Maria will be happier and society will not have to support her as an adult.
Commnets welcome. Send to: DrCameronJackson@gmail.com
Â
How does the economy “feed” people on a pie that shrank  from a 8″ apple pie to a 6″ pot pie? You sure can’t get 8 slices from a chicken pot pie and  feel fed! And that emply feeling in people’s belly is because the economy in Jan. 2012 has 5.8 MILLION fewer  jobs compared to peak employment in 2007.   More below based on the WSJ Jan 7-8, 2012
The private economy created 212,000 net new jobs in December, 2011 taking the unemployment rate down a tick to 8.5% which is better than the 9% three months ago. A sign of employment weakness is the still-low labor force particiaption rate, which remained unchanged at 64% A year ago it was 64.3% Remember — that means that ONE-THIRD of the labor force is not working compared with TWO-THIRDS that are.  Another 50,000 workers left the labor force in December, 2011 suggesting that many Americans simply stopped looking for work.
This is still the slowest job rebound since the Great Depression. A year from now, if no policies change, Mr. Obama’sx bombs will explode at once with the expiration of his payroll taxholidayandthe rollout of ObamaCare’s levies.
DrCameronJackson@gmail.com The first five (5) to Comment may receive a free copy of Shoveling Smoke or English Spoken Here, Obama by Firenze Sage
Castle Doctrine means no charges in bow-and-arrow killing
Somerset County District Attorney Jerry Spangler will not charge a man who fatally shot another man with a bow and arrow, saying today that changes in the state’s Castle Doctrine factored into his decision.
Mr. Spangler said the unidentified 38-year-old Center City man who confessed to shooting Tony L. Bittinger on Oct. 10 claimed he did so in self-defense.
Mr. Bittinger was found shot through the chest with an arrow near the front steps to the man’s house.
Trooper Joseph Drzal said Mr. Bittinger, who had been romantically involved with the man’s wife, made several threatening phone calls to the man before driving up to his home to confront him. There, he threatened the man with a heavy wooden club.The man told him to leave repeatedly. When Mr. Bittinger attempted to come up the stairs, the man shot him in the chest with an arrow. He died before first responders arrived.
_______________
Robin hood vs Cro-Magnon.
jaj48@aol.com
The first ten (10) to Comment on this post will receive a FREE copy of Firenze Sage’s book, “Shoveling Smoke or English Spoken Here, Obama” available on SmashedWords.com
Tony-winning actress Ellen Barkin rang in the new year in her typical brash style — uncorking a profanity-laced Twitter tirade against the NYPD and Mayor Bloomberg after watching the predawn arrests of suspected Occupy Wall Street scofflaws near her West Village townhouse.
“Just threatened on my street by NYPD, cop shoved me, both hands, onto sidewalk.â€
A video shot by her hunky boyfriend — 20-something actor-screenwriter Sam Levinson, son of director Barry Levinson — tells a different story.
In the video, the young uniformed officer calmly says, “Miss, sidewalk,†as he uses both hands to guide her gently backward out of the street and onto the curb.
“Get your motherf–king hands off me,†Barkin tells him.
_______________
Without a script writer this actress is not exactly eloquent.
jaj48@aol.com
Members of a Canadian family that run an offshore foundation which is under police investigation have taken over an Ecuadorean gold mining firm. It’s an attempt to prove their organization is not a Ponzi scheme and the family considers it a way to reimburse millions of dollars in missing investments, the Montreal Gazette reports.
About 1,000 Canadians, the majority from Quebec and Alberta, are unable to retrieve an estimated $65 million they invested on the advice of the Costa Ricabased Voyageur Foundation.
The organization – and many of the investment funds it flogged to Quebecers – are controlled by the Jarmans, a Canadian family originally from Port Alberni.
Attempts to have the Jarman family explain their backgrounds have been met with resistance, but biographical information online does not explain how these individuals developed the management expertise and formidable logistical skills required to manage 69 corporations and a $65-million “investment foundation.”
Voyageur founder Philip Jarman is a retired helicopter pilot; his daughter, Angela Jarman, is a former journalist with an undergraduate education degree and a certificate from a Baptist college, while Philip’s Toronto-based son, Jeff Jarman, worked as a helicopter mechanic.
_______________
And there is probably more gold in the Jarman’s teeth than in the “mine”.
Jaj48@aol.com
Hugo Chavez leader of Venezuela says that it is very strange that he and the leaders of Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay have struggled with cancer and that the US is responsible.
He said he wasn’t accusing the U.S. and that he doesn’t have any proof. But he asked, in his words, “Would it be strange if they had developed a technology to induce cancer and no one knew it?”
_______________
Is the non accusation stranger than the weirdo remark that nobody knows about the technology?
Calling Hugo: Announcements are not usually made about secret weapons.
Jaj48@aollcom
What happens when you get your car washed in California over the Christmas holidays?
Just before Christmas I took our car, the inside full of German Shepard dog hair and the outside dirty, to the car wash in Capitola, CA. I bought the $25. Whole Enchilada (inside and out) selection.
A manager came over to say that, because the car has so much dog hair, that I needed to purchase a custom job which costs $70.
I replied, “No, the general manager has told me – and I have in writing – that I can come in any time and get this car vacuumed only for $7.00 Because I know that the car is dirty and I want the inside vinyl cleaned also, I want the $25. selection.”
The man then said, “Well, OK, but we have to charge you an extra $3 per mat….”
So what’s going on here? Haggle over the price. Get the customer in the door and then jack up the price and see if the customer caves. If they don’t cave then go with the listed prices. Having lived a number of years in Latin American countries this was was familiar territory. Price is a much more fluid thing in Mexico and elsewhere.
So, I said, “Look, you have prices listed up there on your signs. There is no sign that says someone is going to evaluate my car as to how hairy it is and then tell me what to pay. So, please just provide me the Whole Enchilada service. And yes, because I do what the inside very clean, I will pay an extra $6 for you to wash two mats.”
Next step: a smiling, very polite Hispanic man in his late 50’s — who only spoke Spanish — started to vacuum my car. As I speak Spanish I thanked him for his help. And, a number of times encouraged him to do a bit more saying in Spanish, “Oh, a little more work here….” As the cleaning of the inside is what I was most interested in so I hung around to make sure that the car was vacuumed to my satisfaction.
All I had to do was run my finger along the edges, pull out mounds of more hair and smile. The Hispanic Spanish speaking man, a hard worker, smiled back at me and kept on vacuuming.
Step three: The car, after going through an automatic washer, was rubbed down and wiped off by a team of three men. The three men doing this job spoke mostly Spanish and one spoke English to me. They were friendly, hard working and appeared to be age 30 to 45.
Listening to the cleaners talk amongst themselves I heard only Spanish spoken. The manager also spoke only Spanish to the workers.
My question: How likely is it that a locally born, White, 18 year kid looking for an entry level job who only speaks English will be offered a job at that car wash? Very unlikely. And, in all the times I have gotten my car cleaned at that car wash, the workers were all Hispanic, largely only Spanish speaking men of differing ages.
Think about the Big Issues: One is the huge cost of U.S. entitlement programs — including the cost of Social Security Disability. I know as a psychologist because I work with disabled persons that many people on SSI Disability could be employed for 3-5 hours a day with support to clean cars. We also have many U.S. citizens with low cognitive IQ abilities who also could do this work.
It’s time to put Americans to work doing what they can do. If a disabled American can do 2-5 hours work in an entry level job such as washing cars (with job supports in place) that is far better than a life looking at life through TV.
English should be the language spoken in the work place so that all American citizens can compete for beginning level jobs such as car washing.
The president and his family are vacationing with much fanfare, publicity, and controversy in Hawaii.
And the former Speaker of the House, Democrat Nancy Pelosi, champion of the poor and the disenfranchised, “is once again spending her Christmas at the exotic Four Seasons Resort Hualalai at Historic Ka’upulehu in Kona on the island of Hawaii.â€
The cost for Nancy Pelosi’s vacation? $10,000 per day.
In addition to the $10,000 per day cost that Nancy Pelosi will be spending, her stay will cost Hawaiians some cash: “Pelosi has been escorted by local police during her last two holiday visits to Hawaii Island at a cost of $34,000 to local taxpayers.â€
_______________
Can someone tell me why the 10k dump is worth ten times more than the 1k dump? And does she ever feel your pain?
Jaj48@aol.com
The first ten (10) to Comment on this post will receive a FREE copy of Firenze Sages’ ebook, “Shoveling Smoke or English Spoken Here, Obama available at SmashedWords.com and through other e-book outlets.
BOSTON — A Peabody woman says a cupcake she tried to take on a flight with her sparked a potential security threat this week.
Rebecca Hains says she was going through security at the airport in Las Vegas when a TSA agent pulled her aside and said the cupcake frosting was “gel-like†enough to constitute a security risk.
She said she was able to pass through Logan International Airport security with two cupcakes, but she was stopped on the way back when she tried to return with one of them…
_______________
Can you imagine what a box of Twinkies would bring.
Jaj48@aol.com
