Rigorous Damage Control Will Be Underway Soon

I suppose this is the downside of credulous acceptance of Internut conspiracy theories. I'd imagine this therapist has made the rounds of all the SRA sites on the web. Wouldn't be a bit surprised if he hunkered down at RI on occasion. I also imagine that the RI-ers are furiously trying to debunk this ladies claims. I doubt that Jeff & crew will be rigorous enough to admit that their pet obsession is pure bunkum.
True believers rarely allow anything to inconveniently derail what they've spent so much time defending. After all, no one likes to look foolish.

A psychologist accused of hypnotizing a woman into believing she possessed multiple personalities and participated in satanic rituals may be sued by several others who say they were also told they had been a part of a satanic cult, according to a Missouri attorney.

Lisa Nasseff, 41, of Saint Paul, Minn., is suing her former therapist, Mark Schwartz, and the Castlewood Treatment Center in St. Louis, Mo., where she received 15 months of treatment for anorexia, according to the complaint.

Instead of improving, the lawsuit alleges Nasseff suffered "great physical pain and suffering and anguish" during her time at the facility, and asserts that she will continue to suffer.

"She was hospitalized multiple times," Nasseff's lawyer, Kenneth Vuylsteke, told ABCNews.com. "One time she tried to commit suicide … she's done much better now that she's been away from there."

The complaint alleges Nasseff's therapist, Mark Schwartz, "carelessly and negligently hypnotized [Nasseff]" while she was under the influence of "various psychotropic medications" to treat depression and anxiety. The hypnosis allegedly created false memories, including the belief that she was "a member of a satanic cult and that she was involved in or perpetrated various criminal and horrific acts of abuse."

One of those acts included "sacrificing her sister's baby on the altar of Satan," according to Vuylsteke.

Nasseff "was in a highly vulnerable physical and mental state due to her pre-existing eating disorder," according to the complaint.

The lawsuit also alleges Schwartz "persuaded and convinced [Nasseff] to become increasingly isolated from her family and friends by leading her to believe said persons were involved in a satanic cult and that they had been and would continue to sexually abuse her and force her to engage in criminal acts and horrific abuse of others."

But then other women receiving treatment at the facility began to realize their stories were very similar to one another's, Vuylsteke said.

"She got together with other women who had been through this with her at Castlewood. And they said, 'How can we all have been members of cults and not know it -- two years ago, three years ago? We all got brainwashed? It can't be right."

Now "multiple individuals" are speaking out about Castlewood, and backing Nasseff's account of what took place there, Vuylsteke added.

"We've got other cases we're looking at right now," Vuylsteke told ABCNews.com, adding the alleged victims' stories, all involving women, look "remarkably similar."

At this stage, he declined to say exactly how many women are claiming false memory implantation.

"All I can tell you is it's several. We're in the process of evaluating them right now," he said.

Schwartz, the therapist who treated Nasseff at Castlewood and still serves as the facility's clinical co-director, denied ever hypnotizing Nasseff.

"We don't use hypnosis," said Schwartz, who told ABCNews.com he has not yet retained a lawyer. "It's usually exposure therapy where the person is exposed to the memories of their trauma in various ways in order to move beyond it … A person is avoiding the memories and the feelings [associated with those memories] so you have them begin to talk about it in a safe way, that's not re-victimizing."

He also said he had never discussed satanic cults with Nasseff, and she had never told him she committed any criminal acts.

"I don't know anything about all that," he said.

He did confirm she had been given anti-depressants and that they had discussed "sexual trauma," but "the details I don't even remember."

"She reported abuse history, we dealt with it, she got a lot better, and now she's suing us," he said.

"Emotionally it hurts. You give everything you have to these clients and you really care about them. When they file a lawsuit it really stings."

On the Castlewood website, it states the treatment center's staff specializes in several areas, including hypnosis.

Castlewood Treatment Center did not respond to an interview request from ABCNews.com, but the executive director of the facility, Nancy Albers, told Courthouse News Service, "We strongly believe that all of these claims are without merit and we intend to defend these claims vigorously."

Implanted Memories at Castlewood?

According to the complaint, Nasseff stayed at Castlewood for about eight months, beginning in July of 2007. She later returned to the clinic in Mary of 2009 for an additional seven months of treatment before leaving the facility in December that same year.

In October of 2010, Schwartz allegedly contacted Nasseff, according to the lawsuit, and "told her if she did not return to Castlewood Treatment Center for additional psychological counseling and treatment she would most assuredly die from her eating disorder."

One year later, in October 2011, the complaint alleges Schwartz left Nasseff a telephone message saying her lawsuit would expose her multiple rapes, and her "membership in a satanic cult" as well as the individuals who were also members.

When asked about that phone call, Schwartz told ABCNews.com he had called Nasseff to say, "I'm worried about this because you told me a lot of information that is very, very confidential. When you file a lawsuit it all comes out, and it's a lot of secrets that you told me."

"It was really just concern," he said. "When people go to a therapist they expect confidentiality and privacy. It just breaks my heart that … she said a lot of horrible things that are going to come out."

The lawsuit claims Nasseff was "singled out and targeted" based, in part, on her "ability to pay for long-term continuous inpatient services."

She is now seeking $650,000 for the "medical, counseling and therapy treatment expenses" she incurred as a result of the alleged treatment, and $350,000 for non-economic costs, Vuylsteke said.

Vulnerable Patients Susceptible to Implanted Memories

Nasseff's lawyer, Vuylsteke, admitted he was skeptical when he first heard about Nasseff's case.

But then he met her in person.

"Lisa … is a highly intelligent individual," he said. "When I spoke with her I understood then what happened and what she had to work through to come to the realization that all of this was implanted."

He was further convinced after speaking with Bill Smoler, a prominent attorney from Madison, Wis., who is well-regarded among false memory experts. In January Smoler won a $1 million verdict for the parents of a girl who accused them of abuse after receiving inpatient therapy, and will be joining Nasseff's case as co-counsel, Vuylsteke said.

There's no credible scientific evidence that the human brain can store "repressed memories," according to University of California at Irvine professor Elizabeth Loftus, one of the country's foremost experts on false memory.

But psychologists have demonstrated it's possible to implant memories.

"In my research we plant false memories in the minds of people in order to study the process," she said. "There have been hundreds of cases … where people have gone into therapy and were led to believe they were molested."

It's a problem that emerged in the '80s and '90s, according to the False Memory Foundation, an organization founded in 1992 after a spate of cases where adults claimed to have uncovered "repressed memories" of childhood sexual abuse during therapy sessions. The revelations, however, weren't true.

"They were just exploding at that time," said False Memory Foundation co-founder Pamela Freyd, adding that the cases often involved inpatients participating in both hypnosis and support groups while on medication.

Chris Barden, a psychologist and attorney based in Minnesota was at the helm of many of those cases.

"During the 1990s I conducted more lawsuits against 'recovered memory' therapists than, I believe, any other lawyer in the world … for a total near 300 in over 30 states," he told ABCNews.com. "I won all but one of them."

The False Memory Foundation website states false memories "can result from the influence of external factors, such as the opinion of an authority figure or information repeated in the culture. An individual with an internal desire to please, to get better or to conform can easily be affected by such influences."

For intelligent, creative people with imaginations, Freyd said, "it may be easier for them to conjure up the kinds of images that develop in this kind of environment." But anyone seeking therapy is already in a vulnerable position, she added, and susceptible to persuasion.

"You believe the person you are seeing is an expert who will help you return to normal, you are going to try to do what this expert says needs to be done," said Freyd. "And if an expert says you need to recover memories, people who want to get better or be sure they're doing what the doctor says will work in that direction."

Steven Lynn, a memory expert and professor of psychology at Binghamton University in New York, told ABCNews.com it's possible to implant "all kinds of things."

"There's research showing you can implant memories of witnessing a demonic possession," he said.

Schwartz denied having implanted Nasseff's memories, but he did say he practices exposure therapy, which is typically used as treatment for people who have PTSD, according to Lynn.

"The idea is that you present the person with imagined themes that have occurred in the past that tend to bring forth anxiety and symptoms of post traumatic stress disorder," Lynn said. "So by repeating exposure to the theme people learn how to not be so afraid of the situation they were formerly fearful of."

Exposure therapy can yield positive results in the right setting. But if someone has not actually been exposed to the traumatic event they're asked to re-imagine, exposure therapy can have a much different effect, Loftus said.

"If you take a group of women who have been raped and have them contemplate their legitimate rape experience then pretty soon many of them will be able to think about it without feeling as much emotion and pain," said Loftus. "But if you're exposing somebody to something that didn't happen then something completely different is going on."

Fuck God

Critics of President Obama felt little holiday cheer after the president did not thank God in his Thanksgiving-themed weekly Internet address. They immediately took to Twitter and the Internet to voice anger and disbelief.

"Holy cow! Is that one screwed up or what?" columnist Sherman Frederick of the Las Vegas Review-Journal wrote in a Thanksgiving-morning blog post.

"Somebody ought to remind Obama (and his speechwriter) that when Americans sit down around a meal today and give thanks, they give thanks to God."

Over on the website of Fox News Radio, radio host Todd Starnes also took issue.

"His remarks were void of any religious references, although Thanksgiving is a holiday traditionally steeped in giving thanks and praise to God," Starnes wrote.

"The president said his family was 'reflecting on how truly lucky we truly are,'" Starnes said. "For many Americans, though, Thanksgiving is a time to reflect on how blessed and thankful they are."

He forgot Ganeesh too. The bastard. From what I understand, Zeus is also pissed. As is Odin, Mithra & Pazuzu. Thankfully, Yahweh has been an absentee landlord for a little over 2 centuries and He couldn't be reached for comment. His Son, after a day spent picking splinters out of His hands & feet, had this to say:

"Gee, I guess I'll forgive him."

Reagan Dodges Bullet From Grave

Thank God. Now Ronald McReagan can unseat Lincoln as America's most loved McPresident. There's no need to let anything as uncertain as the truth tarnish the PR constructed image of America's first Alzheimer president. I'm equally glad that his sidekick George "Wimp" Bush skated away clean as a whistle. Otherwise one could discern a pattern, given the uncomfortable truths of George Jr.'s presidency, of familial obfuscation amongst the Bush clan. With any luck, history's dustbin will have room for any allegations that may surface regarding George the Lesser. Otherwise the War On Terror, much like the War On Communism, could look like a sham and no one wants that.

Do they?

WASHINGTON (AP) — One of the prosecutors who investigated the Iran-Contra affair concluded two decades ago that neither Ronald Reagan nor George H.W. Bush was criminally liable in the scandal that tarnished the presidencies of both men, according to reports made public Friday.

Associate independent counsel Christian Mixter reached that conclusion in 1991 even though he found that President Reagan was briefed in advance about every weapons shipment sold to Iran in the arms-for-hostages deals in 1985-86. In a separate report on Bush, Mixter wrote that the then-vice president was chairman of a committee that recommended mining the harbors of Nicaragua in 1983.

Mixter's reports were obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request from the National Security Archive, a nonprofit research group, which released them on the 25th anniversary of the Iran-Contra scandal. At a Nov. 25, 1986, White House news conference, Reagan and then-Attorney General Edwin Meese disclosed that money from the arms sales to Iran had been diverted to the Contra guerrillas fighting the leftist government of Nicaragua after Congress had cut off military aid to the rebels.

Mixter concluded it would be difficult to prosecute Reagan for violating the Arms Export Control Act mandating congressional notification of arms transfers through a third country — Israel in the case of the Reagan White House's secret arms sales to Iran in 1985. The reason, said Mixter, was that Meese had told Reagan the National Security Act could be invoked to supersede the export control act.

Mixter's March 1991 reports to his boss, Independent Counsel Lawrence Walsh, and his team of prosecutors noted that they were actively investigating Bush, who by then had become president.

"As we have discussed," Mixter wrote to Walsh and the other prosecutors, "there is an outstanding area of investigation that could conceivably lead to wholly new evidence regarding Mr. Bush's role in Iran-Contra." The topic concerned possible knowledge by Bush of secret military support for the Contras, including the recommendation to mine the Nicaraguan harbors.

A year after Mixter wrote his reports, Walsh obtained a grand jury indictment charging former Reagan administration Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger with concealing his detailed notes of the controversy from investigators.

Bush pardoned Weinberger and five other Iran-Contra figures shortly before the former defense secretary was to go on trial in a case in which Bush could well have been summoned as a witness either by prosecutors or defense attorneys.

In a final report by prosecutors released in 1994 more than a year following Bush's pardons, Walsh stated that Reagan acquiesced in a cover-up that had been spearheaded by Meese and carried out at the top levels of the Reagan administration. The report was immediately denounced by Reagan, Meese, Bush and others. Impeachment of Reagan "certainly should have been considered" by the congressional committees investigating the Iran-Contra affair, Walsh told a news conference at the time.

Mixter's reports on Reagan and Bush reflect the absence of evidence demonstrating that Reagan or Bush hid information from investigators. Both men participated in meetings of Reagan and his inner circle in which one or the other covert operations was discussed.

"I conclude that President Reagan lacked sufficient information" about what the National Security Council staff was doing, "and the manner in which Congress was deceived, to support a criminal charge that he conspired" with others indicted in the scandal, Mixter wrote.

"The record on President Reagan's awareness of these congressional inquiries is somewhat muddy," said Mixter. "There is no indication that Mr. Reagan was aware of, or played any conscious role in, the administration's efforts to deflect congressional inquiries into the shootdown" of one of the planes secretly supplying arms to the Contras, says Mixter's report.

As for the report on Bush, Mixter wrote: "Although the quantity of information compiled by Mr. Bush's Iran-Contra activities is much smaller than that amassed on former President Reagan, it is quite clear that Mr. Bush attended most — although not quite all — of the key briefings and meetings in which Mr. Reagan participated."

The report went on: "However, if then-President Reagan faces no criminal liability for having 'authorized' any of the core Iran-Contra events of which both he and Mr. Bush were aware, then there is no basis on which to find a secondary officer like Mr. Bush liable for simply 'being there' while those events were discussed with the president."

Peter Kornbluh, the National Security Archive analyst who obtained the Mixter reports under the FOIA, called them "the verdict of history on the Iran-Contra roles of both the president and vice president of the United States."

That won't be necessary Mr. Bush. You're innocence was carefully constructed and unassailable.

American Consumers Are Still Loonies

Eyewitness sketch of pepper spraying shopper

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A woman shot pepper spray to keep shoppers from merchandise she wanted during a Black Friday sale, and 20 people suffered minor injuries, authorities said.

The incident occurred shortly after 10:20 p.m. Thursday in a crowded Los Angeles-area Walmart as shoppers hungry for deals were let inside the store.

Police said the suspect shot the pepper spray when the coverings over the items she wanted were removed.

"Somehow she was trying to use it to gain an upper hand," police Lt. Abel Parga told The Associated Press early Friday.

He said she was apparently after some electronics and used the pepper spray to keep other shoppers at bay.

Officials said 20 people suffered minor injuries. Fire department spokesman Shawn Lenske said the injuries to least 10 of them were due to " rapid crowd movement."

Parga said police were still looking for the woman.

The store remained open and those not affected by the pepper spray continued shopping.

Pointless Finger Farts

Cool! Another porky American meatball with more body fat than IQ rolls himself under the bus of public opinion. For an encore, they'll probably discover that soldier boy's computer is overloaded with self produced kiddie porn.

A former elementary school principal in Iowa was sentenced to 30 years in prison Monday after pleading guilty to one count of producing child pornography involving students at his school, officials said.

Robert Burke, 43, admitted that as head of the school in Dubuque, Iowa, he had "used hidden cameras in the school bathroom to secretly capture videos depicting the genitals of male students," said the US Justice Department.

Secret camera photos of male genitals? That's fucked up. Honestly, I don't get it. Male genitals aren't all that attractive. But, then again, neither are female genitals.
Maybe Officer Pike's infraction would be more palatable if we looked at his pepper spray can as a surrogate penis, while the pepper spray itself could be the surrogate semen. Then that's just one long money shot.

After all, everyone loves porn. Even liberals. They just say PC shit like "I only like porn where the woman is enjoying herself."

As if they could tell the fucking difference.

As much as liberal folk whimper about these authoritarian uses of force, they need them. Otherwise they wouldn't be able to get anyone to give a shit. In much the same way the Ku Klux Klan thrives on crowds of left wingers opposing their marches. If no one showed to oppose a Klan Rally all we'd be left with would be a motley bunch of pudgy white guys wandering down the street.

Don't these cop assholes realize that the use of violence just validates protests that are never going to change anything. Ever. The protesters don't really want anything to change. They'll always want aisles filled with 50 different cereal flavors & cell phones & computers & bongo drums. Because, if all that disappeared tomorrow they would cry their little eyes out.

Maybe the protests are meant to instill a sense of guilt in our elite masters. I suppose this would work if the folk who own us weren't such obvious sociopaths.

I also wonder why it took them 2 years to muster enough outrage to protest. Is the left afflicted with a slow reaction infirmity?

Do they not realize that the jig is up? Do they not realize that the jig was up long ago? As a matter of fact, it appears that the jig was up long before the protesters even knew there was a jig to be up.

I read one liberal writer who said that every time he heard someone ask what the protesters wanted he said to himself "victory."

"Victory" seems as empty and meaningless a term as "hope" & "change."

But liberals, much like their conservative mirror images, seem to have a soft spot for vague & meaningless terminology.

I suppose that's why the elite are equally amused by both sides of the 99 percentile.
While low rent liberals & conservatives circle their wagons around their vague philosophic generalities, the elite sharpen their scalpels for their next economic disemboweling.

As the last bit of blood dribbles out of our red, white & blue rock, I suspect that a little pepper spray will be looked back on with nostalgia for a kinder, gentler America.

"Death and hopelessness provide proper motivation - proper motivation for living an insightful, compassionate life. The experience of complete hopelessness, of completely giving up hope is an important point. This is the beginning of the beginning. Without giving up hope - that there's somewhere better to be, that there's someone better to be - we will never relax with where we are or who we are...When we talk about hopelessness and death, we're talking about facing the facts. No escapism...If we totally experience hopelessness, giving up all hope of alternatives to the present moment, we can have a joyful relationship with our lives, an honest, direct relationship, one that no longer ignores the reality of impermanence and death."
Pema Chodron

It's A Byte Of A Revolution...Or Not...

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Occupy Wall Street Divided
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor & Satire Blog The Daily Show on Facebook

My son directed me to this great little slice of Liberal ephemera. I don't find it surprising in the least. Funny? Yes. But not surprising.

My absolute favorite quote is "I'm more against private property not personal property."

I would love to hear the wanker explain the difference.

I do admire how the Apple folk recognize that Liberals are techno-crack addicts of the highest order who love their little expensive toys more than they love anything.

I made a token attempt to see if the folk at RI Liberal Land mention or rebuke this POV but, at 139 pages, I quickly realized that only someone whose entire life is spent virtually would have the time to trawl through it all.

God, Guns, Football & Kiddie Diddling - An Old American Quartet For A New American Century

CHARLESTON, South Carolina (Reuters) - In the wake of the Penn State child sex abuse scandal, another university, The Citadel military college in South Carolina, revealed on Saturday that it had investigated accusations against a camp counselor but took no action.

The man has since been jailed on separate charges of molesting five boys in Mount Pleasant, near Charleston, South Carolina.

"We regret that we did not pursue this matter further," Citadel President Lt. General John Rosa and Board of Visitors Chair Doug Snyder said in a statement.

The Citadel said it investigated four years ago accusations of inappropriate conduct with children by Louis Neal "Skip" ReVille, who was a counselor at the military school's camp.

ReVille is a graduate of The Citadel, the college said, and worked as a counselor at the school's camp for three summers between 2001 and 2003.

In 2007, a former camper at The Citadel Summer Camp informed the school that five years earlier, when he was 14, ReVille invited him and another boy into his room where the three watched pornography on ReVille's computer and masturbated, college officials said.

"Because of the seriousness of the accusation, The Citadel's general counsel conducted an investigation immediately, including traveling to the individual and his family and conducting an interview," the statement said.

"A thorough review of Mr. ReVille's records revealed no other complaints, and interviews indicated that he was highly regarded by those at camp. His file included a clean background check conducted by an outside organization. Unlike his admissions to current charges, Mr. ReVille strongly denied the accusation."

After graduation from The Citadel, ReVille was a principal at Coastal Christian Preparatory School and had coached sports for years at several area schools and recreation centers, police said.

He was arrested in October on the child molestation charges.

The Citadel said it was commenting on the incident now because of media requests in the wake of the Penn State sex abuse scandal. Jerry Sandusky, the former defensive coordinator for the Penn State Nittany Lions, was charged on November 5 with sexually abusing eight young boys over a period of nearly 15 years.

That scandal has forced the resignation of some of Penn State's biggest names, including the school's president, its athletic director and its legendary football coach, Joe Paterno.

Anyone surprised by this has probably spent an inordinate amount of time with their head stuck up their own ass.
Christianity despises women & the simple pleasures gained from a nice set of breasts.
Football fans spend way too much time staring at fit men in tight pants, relegating all the hot cheerleaders to momentary filler.
While the military, and its love of phallic firepower that spurts penetrating death, is so overtly sexually dysfunctional that a Freudian could build an entire career examining its byways and back alleys.
Do you suppose that it's a coincidence that these groups also hate homosexuals to a far greater degree than any others in society.

I'm beginning to think that every dipshit past time of manly America is just camouflage for a deep seated desire to suck cock.
It would explain why they call the sports geeks favorite past time "fantasy football."
Maybe I'm just odd but football is never ever ever in any of my fantasies.
But then again, neither are God, guns & kiddie diddling.

I once suggested to a room full of football fans that the games would be much more enjoyable if they spent 2 hours filming the cheerleaders and left the game to the audio portion.
It went over like a big church fart.
Evidently men in tights are exactly what manly men in recliners really ache to see. Well, maybe "the ache" isn't exactly in the optic nerve. More like the copulate-ic nerve I think.

Damn, there goes my membership in The Manly Club of Alpha.

Roger Waters Is A Wanker

Roger says some wonderful things in this video. He is such a noble fellow. I'm honored that my city will be hosting his recreation of "The Wall" on July 3, 2012.
I'm so honored & supportive that I think i'd like to attend so I can sway along while Roger sings, "never trust the government." Just the thought makes my dick hard.

Let's look at tickets.

Holy fucking shit!!! Roger is charging between $92 & $1,100 for seats. Is he offering to have a hooker blow me while I watch? Or is he insane?

& fuck me blind, he's coming to the Consol Energy Center, a mecca of corporate whoredom if I've ever seen one. Entrance gates are named after corporations.

They have an American Eagle Outfitters Gate:



& A Tribune Review Gate:



They also have a Verizon Gate but, sadly, I can't find any photos.

Corporations are so embedded into Consol Energy Center, Penguin Hockey replays are displayed as Verizon Replay or Highmark Replay on the big screen TVs as they're replayed.

I won't even touch on Consol Energy because they're footprints are self evident.

The Consol Energy Center was built to replace the Civic Arena, a hockey & concert venue that, when built, completely decimated Pittsburgh's Hill District, a predominately black area. Prior to the Arena's construction, the Hill was a thriving black community. Since its construction, the Hill has sunk into a pit of poverty, drugs & despair.

So, evidently Roger loves the poor, just as long as they don't come to his shows. I do understand. Smelly homeless people tend to distract from the cute blond hottie factor. I'd pick the cute young hotties with disposable income any day too.

Gee, Roger sort of looks like another upscale liberal dipshit mouthing empty platitudes & complete bullshit to make himself feel better while he laughs all the way to the bank.

In the end, much to Roger's chagrin I'd imagine, it appears that Roger has become "just another brick in the wall."