December 12, 2013

Homosexual WWII veterans lobotomized.

The U.S. government lobotomized roughly 2,000 mentally ill veterans—and likely hundreds more—during and after World War II, according to a cache of forgotten memos, letters and government reports unearthed by The Wall Street Journal. Besieged by psychologically damaged troops returning from the battlefields of North Africa, Europe and the Pacific, the Veterans Administration performed the brain-altering operation on former servicemen it diagnosed as depressives, psychotics and schizophrenics, and occasionally on people identified as homosexuals.

http://projects.wsj.com/lobotomyfiles/

December 12, 2013

Lobotomy For World War II Veterans: Psychiatric Care by U.S. Government

Roman Tritz’s memories of the past six decades are blurred by age and delusion. But one thing he remembers clearly is the fight he put up the day the orderlies came for him.

“They got the notion they were going to come to give me a lobotomy,” says Mr. Tritz, a World War II bomber pilot. “To hell with them.”

The orderlies at the veterans hospital pinned Mr. Tritz to the floor, he recalls. He fought so hard that eventually they gave up. But the orderlies came for him again on Wednesday, July 1, 1953, a few weeks before his 30th birthday.

This time, the doctors got their way.

The U.S. government lobotomized roughly 2,000 mentally ill veterans—and likely hundreds more—during and after World War II, according to a cache of forgotten memos, letters and government reports unearthed by The Wall Street Journal. Besieged by psychologically damaged troops returning from the battlefields of North Africa, Europe and the Pacific, the Veterans Administration performed the brain-altering operation on former servicemen it diagnosed as depressives, psychotics and schizophrenics, and occasionally on people identified as homosexuals.

http://projects.wsj.com/lobotomyfiles/

December 12, 2013

World War II Veteran Tells the Story of His Lobotomy

Inside the Mind of Roman Tritz

A World War II veteran speaks about his lobotomy, and his life. Warning: Graphic images.

http://projects.wsj.com/lobotomyfiles/?ch=video

December 12, 2013

S.Korea's KAI sells fighter jets worth $1.1 billion to Iraq

Source: Reuters

South Korean defense contractor Korea Aerospace Industries Ltd (KAI) has signed a deal with Iraq to export 24 light fighter jets valued at $1.1 billion, the company said on Thursday.

The deal to supply FA-50 aircraft also includes training for Iraqi pilots and other support for the Iraqi Air Force for the next two decades, which could push the total value of the deal to $2 billion, the contractor said in a statement.

The FA-50 is a light attack variant of the T-50 Golden Eagle supersonic trainer that was co-developed by KAI and U.S. defense firm Lockheed Martin Corp.

The Iraqi version of the FA-50, labeled the T-50 IQ, can be armed with air-to-air and air-to-surface missiles, machine guns and precision-guided bombs along with other munitions, KAI said.


Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/korea-39-kai-sells-fighter-jets-worth-1-120243240--finance.html

December 12, 2013

Yes, Virginia, there will be an Iran sanctions bill

Bad news, White House: It looks like the Senate will push ahead with a legislative response to the Iran interim nuclear deal over your strenuous objections.

Good news, White House: The measure will most likely be so watered down that it will give President Barack Obama broad latitude to pursue his high-wire diplomatic effort to ensure Iran does not get a nuclear weapon.

And it won’t get voted on before January, at the earliest.

Lawmakers will act despite an aggressive campaign by the Obama administration, including a classified question-and-answer session on Iran Wednesday with Secretary of State John Kerry and Treasury Secretary Jack Lew.

“If what we do next screws up the negotiations with the Iranians, then the Iranians weren’t serious about the negotiations,” one senator told Yahoo News after emerging from that closed-door briefing. The senator requested anonymity to discuss the still-fluid state of play in Congress.

Kerry, Obama’s point man on convincing lawmakers to hold their fire, declined to characterize the session. “We just had a good meeting,” he told reporters. Did he get his point across? “You should ask the senators,” he replied.

The senators were similarly tight-lipped.

http://news.yahoo.com/yes--virginia--there-will-be-an-iran-sanctions-bill-230558678.html

December 12, 2013

Arizona lawmaker's bill would target NSA

Unwilling to wait for congressional action, a first-term state legislator is attempting to clip the wings of the National Security Agency, at least in Arizona.

The proposal by Sen. Kelli Ward, R-Lake Havasu City, would require state and local government to refuse to help the spy agency unless it first produced a search warrant signed by a judge. The measure would prevent Arizona police agencies and courts from using any information gathered by the NSA without a warrant.

Ward said Tuesday she also wants to bar the use of any state resources or personnel to help the agency unless it is pursuant to a court order. And that, said Ward, could even include denying utility services.

The measure, if approved, would make Arizona the first state in the nation to impose such restrictions. But it might not be the last: The same plan is also being marketed to legislators nationwide by the OffNow Coalition, a group of organizations specifically formed to battle NSA spying.

http://azstarnet.com/news/state-and-regional/arizona-lawmaker-s-bill-would-target-nsa/article_28ac2caf-4cc6-56ee-986d-6edc37a85293.html

http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2013/12/09/new-legislation-would-ban-nsa-from-arizona

December 11, 2013

AIDS advocates say drug coverage in some marketplace plans is inadequate

The nation’s new health-care law says insurers can’t turn anyone away, even people who are sick. But some companies, patient advocates say, have found a way to discourage the chronically ill from enrolling in their plans: offer drug coverage too skimpy for those with expensive conditions.

Some plans sold on the online insurance exchanges, for instance, don’t cover key medications for HIV, or they require patients to pay as much as 50 percent of the cost per prescription in co-insurance — sometimes more than $1,000 a month.

“The fear is that they are putting discriminatory plan designs into place to try to deter certain people from enrolling by not covering the medications they need, or putting policies in place that make them jump through hoops to get care,” said John Peller, vice president of policy for the AIDS Foundation of Chicago.

As the details of the benefits offered by the new health-care plans become clear, patients with cancer, multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis and autoimmune diseases also are raising concerns, said Marc Boutin, executive vice president of the National Health Council, a coalition of advocacy groups for the chronically ill.

“The easiest way [for insurers] to identify a core group of people that is going to cost you a lot of money is to look at the medicines they need and the easiest way to make your plan less appealing is to put limitations on these products,” Boutin said.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/aids-advocates-say-drug-coverage-in-some-marketplace-plans-is-inadequate/2013/12/09/0fca0fd0-5d18-11e3-95c2-13623eb2b0e1_story.html?hpid=z2

December 11, 2013

GM Chooses Barra as First Female CEO of Global Automaker

Source: bloomberg

General Motors Co. (GM) named Mary Barra to succeed Dan Akerson as chief executive officer, completing the GM insider’s rise from a factory-floor worker to the industry’s first female CEO after more than a century of global automaking.

Barra, 51, takes over a company that has emerged from near-collapse a half decade ago, after an infusion of government cash and outside managers. Her elevation was announced a day after the U.S. government said it had sold its final shares of GM.

An engineer who holds a Stanford MBA, Barra inherits a company that is at its leanest in decades and light on debt. It has one of the U.S.’s newest and most acclaimed lineups, and a newfound strength in small and midsize cars, from the Chevrolet Cruze to the Cadillac CTS. It also faces threats, ranging from Japanese rival Toyota Motor Corp. (7203), which is increasingly using no-interest loans to win business, to Tesla Motors Inc., which Akerson has identified as an industry disruptor.

With Barra’s appointment, GM returns to the hands of an in-house manager after two leaders plucked from outside Detroit since 2009. A Pontiac die maker’s daughter who started as an intern more than 30 years ago, Barra was most recently the chief of product development and quality for all GM cars and trucks, where she oversaw the introduction of the well-received Chevrolet Impala and cut costs by standardizing parts.

Read more: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-12-10/gm-said-to-choose-barra-as-first-female-ceo-of-automaker.html

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December 11, 2013

Hundreds at vigil mourn Noblesville teen

Two years after Aubrey Peters was hailed as a hero for helping save two children who fell through ice on Morse Reservoir, grieving teens gathered near that scene Monday night to remember the teenage girl who died this past weekend in what is believed to be an accidental shooting.

Hundreds gathered on the shoreline of Morse Beach Park in Noblesville at a candlelight vigil to remember Peters, 16, who died Sunday after a man shot her with a handgun he thought would be empty, court documents say.

Jacob Travis McDaniel, 20, Noblesville, was charged Monday afternoon with reckless homicide in the death of Peters.

Students from Noblesville and nearby high schools paid tribute to Peters, who was a junior at Noblesville High School, by releasing balloons beneath a tree so their tethers would tangle in branches and become suspended in the freezing air.

Joe Hodson, Peters' boyfriend, was surrounded by friends as he walked away from a row of candles along the water. He used his finger to write a message in the snow: "JH + AP forever."

http://www.indystar.com/story/news/crime/2013/12/09/noblesville-man-arrested-in-shooting-of-girl-16/3915037/

According to the affidavit, McDaniel was showing Peters and the two other men a shotgun and a handgun. Dajuan Williams, one of the men, told police that "McDaniel tried to get Aubrey to hold the gun, but she didn't want to."

At that point, Williams told police, McDaniel ejected the magazine from the gun, pointed the weapon at Peters, took the safety off and pulled the trigger.

McDaniel apparently thought the gun was empty, the affidavit said, but when he pulled the trigger, a round fired.

"Aubrey clutched her chest and said, 'What just happened?'"

December 10, 2013

Dalai Lama denied visa to attend Mandela Memorial in SAfrica

The Dalai Lama will not attend memorial services for fellow Nobel Peace Prize laureate Nelson Mandela in South Africa, where the Buddhist spiritual leader has twice been unable to obtain a visa, a spokesman said Monday.

Tenzin Takhla gave no specific reason for the Dalai Lama missing the memorial service in Johannesburg and funeral in Mandela's hometown, saying only that "logistically it's impossible at this time."

snip

A South African court acknowledged last year that pressure from China, a major trading partner with South Africa, played a part in the delays.

http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/dalai-lama-miss-mandela-memorial-safrica-21145479