Muscle Wars-PICS-Health-News-Sep 14, 2011-
"NO" Religious Discussion / Safe PICS For All Ages/
Boycott Trump-TARGET-FOX NEWS/Murdoch-Salvation Army
Support Keith Olbermann's show "Countdown with Keith Olbermann" - new on "CURRENT TV" (air's nightly @ 8 PM EST (Mon - Fri). About time - as we need progressive un-censored news! Replays at 11 PM Eastern and 2 AM Eastern.
Alert: Target + Minnesota Forward + Tom Emmer = Support for a rather dangerous and radical political philosophy that diminishes LGBT people to pests that should be murdered. And "Target" is cool with this? In San Diego LGBT community peacefully canvassed customers near their stores. In return, TARGET is suing the LGBT community for voicing our right of FREE SPEECH! Update: Target lost in court! David beat Goliath! What should you do? Return everything you bought to TARGET and tell them why! ....Boycott TARGET!!!!!
- Members should join our President Barack Obama group . (Health Care & Gay Rights, Gay Marriage, Repeal DOMA, Don't Ask & Don't Tell).... Osama Bin Laden is killed (May 1, 2011)! President Obama was totally involved and viewed the entire operation in real time. President Obama made a very serious decision that worked! Bravo!!!
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ObamaBiden2008/join - Wrestling Pic group @ http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CyberWrestlingGuys/join
- Bearhug Yahoo PIC Group http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Bearhug/join
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http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HeadLockAndHeadScissorsWrestling/join - Heath Ledger group @ http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HeathLedgerTributeSite/join
- Bearhug Submission - NEW: Roommates, A New Coach (Episode 118, By Clay) (Continuing Wrestling Fiction Series). Your "Public" Yahoo Profile must include "Public" Age, Gender, Location - before you apply for membership @ http://groups.yahoo.com/group/BearhugSubmission_/join
Diet & Fitness:
- Reminder: Did you complete your Diet Journal today?
- Did you do any physical activity? If not, make a point of it by tomorrow!
- Perhaps our male fitness photos shall inspire you to get Fit!
Take Action:Health - Wellness - Exercise - Reflections:Meditation Can Reduce Health Care Costs
By Rick Nauert PhDSenior News Editor, Sep 13, 2011 - Roth Media
Stress can contribute to a wide array of health problems, and finding ways to reduce stress could presumably impact overall health care costs as well. A new study suggests that meditation can do just that.
According to the research, people with consistently high health care costs experienced a 28 percent cumulative decrease in physician fees after an average of five years practicing the stress-reducing Transcendental Meditation technique compared with their baseline.
The study is published in the September/October 2011 issue of the American Journal of Health Promotion.
Experts have recognized that in most populations, a small fraction of people account for the majority of health care costs.
In the U.S., the highest spending 10 percent in the general population incurred 60 percent to 70 percent of total medical expenditures annually.
In the Medicare population, the highest spending 5 percent incurred 43 percent of total Medicare costs, and the highest spending 25 percent of seniors accounted for 85 percent of total expenses.
Individuals in these groups have consistently high medical bills year after year.
For many, chronic stress is the number one factor contributing to high medical expenses. Stress reduction may help reduce these costs.
This new study compared the changes in physician costs for 284 consistent high-cost participants—142 Transcendental Meditation practitioners with 142 non-practitioners, over five years in Quebec, Canada.
The non-TM subjects were randomly selected from Quebec health insurance enrollees with the same age, sex, and region to match the TM participant profiles.
The TM participants decided to begin the technique prior to choosing to enter the study. In the year before the intervention began, there were no significant differences between the groups in payments to physicians.
During the five-year assessment period, the TM group's annual health care costs declined significantly (p = 0.004), while the comparison group's utilization showed no significant changes.
After the first year, the TM group decreased 11 percent, and after 5 years, their cumulative reduction was 28 percent (p = 0.001).
The primary measure for assessing the effectiveness of TM practice in decreasing medical costs was the fees paid by the Quebec health insurance agency to private physicians in all settings for treating study participants.
In Canada and U.S., physician payments have been 20 percent of national health expenditures.
This study's findings were similar to earlier ones. In a previous Canadian study, the TM group exhibited reduced medical expenses between 5 percent and 13 percent relative to comparison subjects each year for 6 consecutive years.
In a subsequent Canadian study of senior citizens, the TM group's five-year cumulative reduction for people aged 65 years and older relative to comparison subjects was 70 percent. In a sample of American health insurance enrollees, the TM participants had reduced rates of illness in all disease categories.
An 11-year, cross-sectional study in Iowa found that subjects age 45 and over who practiced the TM technique had 88 percent fewer hospital days compared with controls. Their medical expenditures were 60 percent below the norm.
Other studies, including randomized clinical trials, indicate the TM technique can improve physical and mental health, decrease tobacco use, reduce substance abuse, and decrease other unhealthy habits and risk factors that lead to chronic disease and costly treatments.
"This article has major policy significance for saving Medicare and Medicaid without cutting benefits or raising taxes," said the paper's author, Robert E. Herron, Ph.D.
"Almost no intervention for cost containment has decreased medical expenditures by 28 percent over five years from a baseline. Now, it may be possible to rescue Medicare and Medicaid by adding coverage for learning the Transcendental Meditation technique."
- Boycott advertisers of Glenn Beck's radio show and his guest spots on Fox News. Glenn Beck is anti-gay rights. Update: Boycott Successful: Update 4/7/2011: Beck has been fired by FOX NEWS! Radio stations dropping Beck as well in several locations. Now, tell FOX to stop having Beck as a Guest.
- Update: DADT has been repealed. President Obama has kept his promise!
- Boycott Bill O'Reilly and FOX News and their advertisers. Bill discussed a French commercial by McDonalds that was meant to show that McDonalds is Gay Friendly. Bill said what is next? Is McDonalds going to be Al-Qaida friendly as well? Imagine - Bill O'Reilly compares Gays to Al-Qaida! Boycott Fox's Owner "Rupert Murcoch" and get him thrown in jail for illegal - political donations, corruption, greed, bribery, hacking!
- Boycott Arizona the home of "hater" - U.S. Senator John McCain. Arizona's Hateful anti-Immigration Law - encourages racial profiling and increases hatred towards minorities. A remedy: Demand Republicans to support Immigration Reform (The Dream Act). Further, Senator McCain voted against ending DADT and Blocked Immigration reform!
- Boycott Target, Best Buy, Gold's Gym - for donating money towards anti-gay political candidates/organizations. Update: (12/26/2010): Target is continuing to donate to anti-gay groups/causes/politicians. Update 03/08/11 - Lady Gaga Ends Target Partnership, Reportedly Over Target's Poor LGBT Stance. Update 3/25/2010 - Target displays their hypocrisy and Sues California Gay Rights Group for Lobbying Outside Stores. Target is attempting to block the LGBT right of free speech! STOP SHOPPING AT TARGET!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Update 4/8/2011: Target lost its case to stop the LGBT from canvassing in front of their stores. A huge PR Disaster for TARGET! Perhaps Target should go out of business as they betrayed their investers and customer base. Target contributed massive funds to a politician who would like to exterminate gays. Now, Target can not stop us from Boycotting them, nor picketing, nor talking to customers near their stores; although, Target allows a anti-gay company such as the Salvation Army to stand outside their door and speak with customers and raise money. Isn't this a double standard?
- End DOMA (Defense of Marriage Act). Prevents Federal employees and Gays in the Military from gaining equal benefits. Prevents Gay Partners from gaining equal benefits.
- Pass ENDA (Employee Non-Discrimination Act). ENDA would prevent employment discrimination of LGBT workforce.
- Boycott Salvation Army as they will not hire Gays! "DO NOT DONATE TO THEM."
- BOYCOTT "Chick-fil-a" for donating money to anti-gay groups.
- BOYCOTT KOCH INDUSTRIES PRODUCTS- to include their products: Angel Soft toilet paper / Brawny paper towels / Dixie plates, bowls, napkins & cups / Mardi Gras napkins and towels / Quilted Northern toilet paper / Soft 'n Gentle toilet paper / Sparkle napkins / Vanity fair napkins / Zee napkins / Georgia-Pacific paper products & envelopes / All Georgia-Pacific lumber & building products (INVISTA Products) / Lycra / Stainmaster Carpet. The billionaire - Koch brothers are ultra republican - tea bag founders/supporters that do not support causes of the LGBT community.
- Boycott WALMART - The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, force criticized Wal-Mart for denying employee benefits to same-s-x partners and for failing to prohibit discrimination based on gender identity. By comparison, the group said two other chain stores with a strong presence in New York, Costco and Walgreens, did much better.
- Remember David Kato, Gay activist - Uganda, who was slain because he is gay!
- "Tune Out Trump", Boycott all Trump Hotel, casinos, holdings, The Apprentice and NBC Network! At CPAC, Trump said he is considering a run for president as a Republican. In a interview with the Des Moines Register, Trump added that he opposes all forms of legal recognition for gay couples, not just marriage. "They should not be able to marry," he said. So why does NBC keep the Apprentice when Donald Trump has stated he may run for president? After making racist remarks about Obama and recv'g public backlash, Trump decided not to run for president after NBC renewed his awful TV Show. How can NBC re-new the clown's show after he pulled such hateful shenanigans? Boycott NBC! Boycott advertisers of The Apprentice and Trump's other business's. Don't shop at any bullding with Donald Trump's name to include Trump Hotels, Casinos, Condo's, Offices, Shops! The Donald has expressed extreme Hatred towards gays and blacks with his birther remarks and anti-gay rhetoric. Remember how poorly Trump treated Rosie O'Donnel? Now we know why he did that! It was hate against a lesbian as we now know he is biget. Unforgiveable! Again, Dump NBC because they air/re-newed Donald Trump's "The Apprentice"! Now the Donald Claims the Long Form Birth certificate is a fraud. And NBC keeps this guy?
This group is called "Peckers Pics." The English - slang definition of "pecker" is to pluck at the truth. Therefore, we peck at items such as Gay Men's Health, Male Fitness, Gay (LGBT) Politics & Issues. In this section you may peck at each photo in order to decide the winner of the "war of the fittest!" Whereas, you should select the guy that may inspire you to exercise and "get fit!" Warning: This may stoke you!
Your participation in discussion of health / news articles - appearing in this message is greatly appreciated.
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8Wrestling - Skotusa, Greece
9Wrestling - Skotusa, Greece
10Wrestling at Skotusa /Serres/Greece
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33In Memory of Andy Whitfield
The Spartacus star, died Sunday of non-Hodgkins lymphoma at age 39.
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44LA, CA, USA; Club Papi
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You Decide!
NYC Pride; June 26, 2011
Stoked?
NYC Pride; June 26, 2011
In Suburb, Battle Goes Public on Bullying of Gay Students
By ERIK ECKHOLM - Sep 13, 2011 - New York Times
ANOKA, Minn. -- This sprawling suburban school system, much of it within Michele Bachmann's Congressional district, is caught in the eye of one of the country's hottest culture wars -- how homosexuality should be discussed in the schools.
After years of harsh conflict between advocates for gay students and Christian conservatives, the issue was already highly charged here. Then in July, six students brought a lawsuit contending that school officials have failed to stop relentless antigay bullying and that a district policy requiring teachers to remain "neutral" on issues of sexual orientation has fostered oppressive silence and a corrosive stigma.
Also this summer, parents and students here learned that the federal Department of Justice was deep into a civil rights investigation into complaints about unchecked harassment of gay students in the district. The inquiry is still under way.
Through it all, conservative Christian groups have demanded that the schools avoid any descriptions of homosexuality or same-sex marriage as normal, warning against any surrender to what they say is the "homosexual agenda" of recruiting youngsters to an "unhealthy and abnormal lifestyle."
Adding an extra incendiary element, the school district has suffered eight student suicides in the last two years, leading state officials to declare a "suicide contagion." Whether antigay bullying contributed to any of these deaths is sharply disputed; some friends and teachers say four of the students were struggling with issues of sexual identity.
In many larger cities, lessons in tolerance of sexual diversity are now routine parts of health education and antibully training. But in the suburbs the battle rages on, perhaps nowhere more bitterly than here in the Anoka-Hennepin School District, just north of Minneapolis. With 38,000 students, it is Minnesota's largest school system, and most of it lies within the Congressional district of Ms. Bachmann, a Republican contender for president.
Ms. Bachmann has not spoken out on the suicides or the fierce debate over school policy and did not respond to requests to comment for this article. She has in the past expressed skepticism about antibullying programs, and she is an ally of the Minnesota Family Council, a Christian group that has vehemently opposed any positive portrayal of homosexuality in the schools.
School officials say they are caught in the middle, while gay rights advocates say there is no middle ground on questions of basic human rights.
"I think the adults are much more interested in making us into a political battlefield than the kids are," said Dennis Carlson, the superintendent of schools. "We have people on the left and the right, and we're trying to find common ground on these issues."
"Keeping kids safe is common ground," he said, pointing to district efforts to combat bullying and to new antisuicide efforts.
Gay children, and some parents and supporters, say these efforts are undercut by what they call the district's "gag order" on discussion of sexual diversity -- a policy, adopted in 2009 amid searing public debate, that "teaching about sexual orientation is not part of the district-adopted curriculum" and that staff "shall remain neutral on matters regarding sexual orientation."
The lawsuit was brought in July on behalf of six current and former students by the Southern Poverty Law Center and by the National Center for Lesbian Rights. It charges that district staff members, when they witnessed or heard reports of antigay harassment, tended to "ignore, minimize, dismiss, or in some instances, to blame the victim for the other students' abusive behavior."
One of the plaintiffs, Kyle Rooker, 14, has not declared his sexual orientation but was perceived by classmates as gay, he said, in part because he likes to wear glittery scarves and belt out Lady Gaga songs. In middle school he was called epithets almost daily, and once he was urinated on from above the stall as he used the toilet.
"I love attention, but that's the kind of drama I just can't handle," Kyle said, adding that when he was threatened in the locker room, school officials had him change in an assistant principal's office rather than stopping the bullying.
The district's demand of neutrality on homosexuality, the suit says, is inherently stigmatizing, has inhibited teachers from responding aggressively to bullying and has deterred them from countering destructive stereotypes.
"This policy clearly sends a message to LGBT kids that there is something shameful about who they are and that they are not valid people in history," said Jefferson Fietek, a drama teacher at Anoka Middle School for the Arts, using the abbreviation for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people.
Mr. Fietek, the adviser to a recently formed Gay-Straight Alliance at his school, said he knew of several gay and lesbian students who had attempted or seriously considered suicide.
Colleen Cashen, a psychologist and counselor at the Northdale Middle School, said that by singling out homosexuality, the policy created "an air of shame," and that contradictory interpretations from the administration had left teachers afraid to test the limits, seeing homosexuality and the history of gay rights as taboo subjects. "I believe that the policy is creating a toxic environment for the students," she said.
Mr. Carlson, the superintendent, agreed that bullying persists but strongly denied that the school environment is generally hostile. He said he welcomed further initiatives that could result from negotiations over the lawsuit or with the federal investigators. "We want all students to feel welcome and safe," he said.
But conservative parents have organized to lobby against change. "Saying that you should accept two moms as a normal family -- that would be advocacy," said Tom Prichard, president of the Minnesota Family Council. "There should be no tolerance of bullying, but these groups are using the issue to try to press a social agenda."
A group of district parents who are closely allied with the family council declined to be interviewed. Their Web site says that depression among gay teenagers is often the fault of gay rights advocates who create hopelessness: "When a child has been deliberately misinformed about the causes of homosexuality and told that homosexual acts are normal and natural, all hope for recovery is taken away."
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North Carolina House Advances Gay Marriage Ban Without Public Notice
Huffington Post - Sep 13, 2011 - Tyler Kingkade
WASHINGTON -- A constitutional ban on same-sex marriage moved a step closer to becoming a reality on Monday in North Carolina. The state House of Representatives approved legislation to put the issue on the ballot in May 2012, just five hours after the bill was put before the members of the state legislature.
After a series of last-minute procedural changes by House Republicans, the chamber passed the amendment by a 75-42 vote, without any input from the public. Eight Democrats joined Republicans in voting for the measure. It now heads to the GOP-controlled state Senate.
There is already a law banning same-sex marriage in North Carolina. But state GOP leaders, including House Majority Leader Rep. Paul Stam, were worried a court could find the law unconstitutional. Therefore, they pushed to amend the state's constitution to be in synch with the law.
Stam also said he's worried that New Yorkers who have legally wed in their state may move to North Carolina.
"They're going to bring with them their same-sex marriages and they're going to want to get divorced and have child custody issues ... and we're not equipped to handle them," Stam said on the House floor.
A series of procedural maneuvers by the Republican majority ensured public comment was not included in the debate Monday, and committee members had to vote on a brand-new version of the bill less than an hour after seeing it for the first time.
The location of the committee meeting room and the chamber selected to debate the bill first were both changed from the original schedule. The proposed constitutional amendment wasn't made public until later in the afternoon, while the House was already debating the bill.
The proposed ballot date for when the amendment would be put to a vote was also changed to the May 2012 primary election rather than the November 2012 general election. Democrats had charged that Republicans wanted the amendment on the general election to boost conservative voter turnout, and Stam said this move would eliminate that criticism.
House Rules Chairman Tim Moore (R-Cleveland) chose not to allow public comment on the measure, despite many people reportedly showing up to speak on the issue.
During the debate, Democrats repeatedly decried the amendment as a distraction from creating jobs and helping the struggling economy. Others asked why they were debating what is already outlawed in statute, while still others shared emotional, personal stories about why they did not want discrimination written into the state's constitution.
State Rep. Marcus Brandon (R-Guilford), the only openly gay state lawmaker, told his fellow lawmakers that people yelled "abomination" at him as he walked through the capitol building that afternoon, and said he was told he was "going to hell."
State Rep. Mickey Michaux (D-Durham), a black lawmaker, had an exchange with Stam on the floor in which he pointed out that the U.S. constitution "still says I am three-fifths of a person." Michaux said on the floor that he was attempting to highlight how hard it would be to remove the discriminatory language in the future.
At one point, state Rep. Jennifer Weiss (D-Wake) called out Stam for eating popcorn during the debate "while other's rights are stripped away."
One Republican lawmaker, state Rep. Glen Bradley (Youngsville), stood and spoke in opposition to the amendment, even offering his own amendment -- which eventually failed -- that would have removed the government from having any role defining marriage of any couple. He eventually said he would vote for the amendment to go to the ballot, even though he was "ashamed" of the legislative body.
Besides Bradley, only a few lawmakers spoke in support of the proposed constitutional amendment, while at least a dozen spoke in opposition. The Republicans said they simply wanted to put the final decision to the people.
Eight separate candlelight vigils were planned around the state of North Carolina on Monday at 7 p.m., and gay rights activists plan to rally at the North Carolina statehouse at noon on Tuesday. Almost 50,000 hand-signed postcards in opposition to the amendment were delivered to the statehouse Monday morning as well.
A recent poll conducted by Public Policy Polling found a majority of North Carolinians oppose the constitutional amendment.
Every gay and lesbian person who has been lucky enough to survive the turmoil of growing up is a survivor. Survivors always have an obligation to those who will face the same challenges."
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