Category Archives: General

Teenager’s regret,

Teenagers often use social networking sites like MySpace to post intimate personal information they come to regret, as it lets future employers (or online predators) learn about sex activity and substance abuse.

 
A Note to the Wise on MySpace Helps
New York Times –  By ERIC NAGOURNEY Teenagers often use social networking sites like MySpace to post intimate personal information they come to regret, as it lets future employers (or online predators) learn about sex activity and substance abuse.
Teens Divulge Risky Behavior on Social Networking Sites Washington Post
Teens Act Risky on Social Sites like MySpace TopNews
CNN – Newsweek – USA Today – WWLP 22News
all 245 news articles »
 
PS: Warning over ‘third hand smoke’
BBC News –  Many people are unaware that even smoking away from babies or pregnant women presents a risk, according to US research. Poisons in cigarette smoke can linger on fabrics or hair, but a survey of 1500 households found that fewer than half of smokers knew
Study warns about toxins from ‘third-hand smoke’ CTV.ca
Study warns of third-hand smoke Xinhua
Chicago Tribune – Natural News.com – Telegraph.co.uk – KARK
all 76 news articles »

Alcholic’s sleep

Drink Alcohol and Die  is fast becoming North America’s preoccupation, main goal, slogan      

“A 2007 poll by the National Sleep Foundation found that 67 percent of women frequently experience sleep problems and 29 percent use some type of sleep aid at least a few nights a week. Other surveys have consistently found that nearly half again as many women as men complain of insomnia….   Many Doctors tend to assume that the problem is psychological. When 501 physicians were interviewed about how they treated insomnia, they revealed that they asked an average of just two and a half questions, mostly about psychological problems.   National Institutes of Health spent less than $20 million on the condition, although it affects as many as a third of the U.S. adult population. Most of those funds were directed toward treating and managing the problem,” 

Researchers found that people who get more rest are less likely to have calcium clogging their arteries, which can lead to heart attacks and heart failure. The hard “plaques” narrow blood vessels and are a major risk factor for heart disease. Scientists believe that the body is better able to clear the build up from the crucial blood vessels if it gets more rest.  High levels of cholesterol, high blood pressure and smoking are all known to affect the risk of suffering from hardened arteries. Now scientists have proven that the amount of sleep a person regularly gets can also affect their chances of developing the condition.  
 
If you often cannot get enough sleep it can be due to unresolved guilt or unresolved stress, now next do learn to admit it, recognize it, deal with it positively now.. if something is bothering you, put it in writing literately.. so next you can study it, and look at how to spherically deal with it.. or next even go to others for help in dealing with the unresolved guilt or stress first..
 
Face it if you do not eat well you may also feel tired and not get enough sleep.. someone who has had a good meal tends to next sleep quite well. 
 
 You have a responsibility to firstly look after your own well being.. do so now too
 
There is a great risk when being overly ambitious, trying to get rich, and/or  having even acquired wealth that the related stress, lack of sleep can kill you.. 
 
A Mysterious Link Between Sleeplessness and Heart Disease
New York Times – People who don’t get much sleep are more likely than those who do to develop calcifications in their coronary arteries, possibly raising their risk for heart disease, a new study has found. After accounting for various other causes, the researchers concluded that one hour more of sleep per night was associated with a 33 percent decrease in the odds of calcification, comparable to the heart benefit gained by lowering one’s systolic blood pressure by 17 millimeters of mercury.
  
 
(Eccl 5:12 KJV)  The sleep of a labouring man is sweet, whether he eat little or much: but the abundance of the rich will not suffer him to sleep.
 
(Eccl 5:13 KJV)  There is a sore evil which I have seen under the sun, namely, riches kept for the owners thereof to their hurt.
 
(Eccl 5:14 KJV)  But those riches perish by evil travail: and he begetteth a son, and there is nothing in his hand.
 
(Eccl 5:15 KJV)  As he came forth of his mother’s womb, naked shall he return to go as he came, and shall take nothing of his labour, which he may carry away in his hand.
 
(Eccl 5:16 KJV)  And this also is a sore evil, that in all points as he came, so shall he go: and what profit hath he that hath laboured for the wind?
    
8 Hours of Sleep: a Heart-Healthy Goal for 2009
U.S. News & World Report –  Who would have thought that how we sleep would turn out to be a coronary artery risk factor every bit as important as smoking or high blood pressure?
Expecting a Late Night? Sleep Deprivation Boosts Heart Risk Bloomberg
A Mysterious Link Between Sleeplessness and Heart Disease New York Times
Washington Post – WebMD – BBC News – NPR
all 103 news articles »

Dangerous drug combos pose risk for elderly
Reuters – By Julie Steenhuysen CHICAGO (Reuters) – Older adults in the United States are popping prescription pills, over-the-counter drugs and dietary supplements in record numbers, and in combinations that could be deadly, US researchers said on Tuesday.
Drug Combinations Putting Seniors at Risk Washington Post
Mixing drugs puts more older patients at risk USA Today
WebMD – CNN – FiercePharma – Wall Street Journal Blogs
all 78 news articles »


Even a Little Overweight, Inactivity Hurts the Heart
Washington Post – Dec 22, 2008 By Ed Edelson MONDAY, Dec. 22 (HealthDay News) — Even a few extra pounds and just a little inactivity increased the risk of heart failure in a major study of American doctors.
Study: A Few Extra Pounds = Big Heart Risk CBS News
Just a little extra weight and inactivity contribute to heart failure TopNews
U.S. News & World Report – Chapel Hill News – Medical News Today – HealthNews  

Let’s first be fair to ourselves and others and note that no one thing specifically causes all the cancers, diabetic sick persons, heart problems in the world, rather it is a combination of several different factors starting with our personal ignorance, and the false neglect of   our Bodies.
 
I have said it before and I will say it again Most people still do not take adequate care of their bodies, and have to visit the Doctor next as a result, when an ounce of prevention would have been worth a pound of cure.
   
Heart disease is the leading cause of death in the north America often occurs after years of accumulated, neglected  damage to blood vessels around the organ.
  
Burning a candle at both ends tends to shorten it’s life span, in half.. not getting enough quality sleep  also  affects shortens our life, affects our health.. The actual amount of our sleep affects  directly our personal health, our actual output, productivity if you admit it now or not.. Recent studies have shown that people who sleep five or fewer hours per night are more likely to develop heart trouble and are clearly less productive during the day, and will even unbeneficial gain weight as a result  too, since they have less energy for physical activities. 
   
Experts recommend that adults get between seven and eight hours of sleep a night, teenagers nine hours and children between 10 and 11 hours.  Seniors need more than 8 hours of sleep.
 
More Canadians are trying to drink themselves to sleep, Quebec study finds  Canwest News Service Published: Friday, January 02, 2009 Canadians are spending hundreds of millions of dollars every year self-medicating their insomnia with alcohol, a new study suggests. “We were very surprised to see that so many people use alcohol as a way to promote sleep, particularly because it has more detrimental than beneficial effects on sleep,” says Charles Morin, a professor of psychology at Laval University and one of the authors of the study, published this week in the journal Sleep. Overall, eight per cent of the sample reported using alcohol as a sleep aid. Among people with insomnia, 28 per cent reported self-medicating with alcohol.   The study estimates the total annual costs of the sleep disorder in Quebec alone is $6.5 billion. “We know insomnia is a very prevalent problem, it has a very negative impact on people’s quality of life,” Morin says. “If we can show that it’s 10 times more costly not to treat insomnia because of its impact on absenteeism from work and reduced productivity than it is to treat it, why aren’t we treating it more often?” Part of the problem is that so few people seek help. Morin says some people take sleeping pills, “but there are many more who self-medicate with over-the-counter products or, worse, with alcohol.” The research found the money spent on the use of booze as a sleep aid far exceeds costs associated with visits to doctors and the use of prescription pills and over-the-counter products from antihistamines to herbal teas. “The idea that ‘schnapps before your bedtime’ is good for your sleep might have been right about 100 years ago, as long as it was the occasional schnapps,” says Dr. Adam Moscovitch, medical director of the Canadian Sleep Institute and a University of Calgary professor. “When you knock yourself out as a way of dealing with it, if you can’t shut you mind off in any other way, then alcohol has a very negative effect on your sleep. It deprives you of any of the deep stages of sleep and, once it wears off, it has a rebound effect. So your problem becomes much worse.” Of the $6.5 billion estimated annual costs associated with insomnia in Quebec, the biggest indirect cost by far — $5 billion — was reduced productivity. The highest direct cost — $339.8 million — was money spent on alcohol to promote sleep. By comparison, an estimated $16.5 million was spent on prescription drugs, and $1.8 million for over-the-counter products. The study, based on a random sample of 948 adults, distinguished between those people who drink at the end of the day, and those who use booze specifically to help them sleep, meaning they drink before bedtime, or in the middle of the night. Canadians today live in a stressed society with multiple pressures balancing work and family responsibilities. “One of the things we cut corners on is our sleep,” Moscovitch says. http://www.canada.com/theprovince/news/story.html?id=bbff0ea3-d36d-45bd-ac3b-773697d5442f
  
High personal stress, lack of excercise, Smoking, Alcohol, diabetes, high blood cholesterol,  obesity. etc., now have all been linked directly to the negative calcium buildup in the coronary arteries around the heart. NOT getting enough sleep increases the risk of clogged arteries and heart disease, research has shown.    One’s blood pressure usually dips when people are asleep, which could provide health benefits for those who get more sleep..  a number of studies have suggested that people who sleep less are at greater risk of heart disease and death.. Also “It’s possible, for example, that people who are under more stress may be both sleeping less and at higher risk of heart disease, “If we got those people to sleep more but they still were under a lot of stress, it wouldn’t change their risk of heart disease.” Higher education levels are also associated with both a lower risk of heart disease and a tendency to get more sleep.”  Abnormal sleep patterns also can skew the release of appetite- related hormones, which may contribute to heart disease-related conditions such as obesity and diabetes, earlier studies have shown.

One study  tested 495 men and women aged between 35 and 47 over five years, none of whom had evidence of hardening of the arteries at the start of the study. By the end, however, 12 per cent of the volunteers were sufferers. Calcified arteries were found in 27 per cent of volunteers who slept less than five hours a night. That figure dropped to 11 per cent for participants sleeping five to seven hours, and 6 per cent for those who spent more than seven hours asleep. this study adds to previous research suggesting that getting enough sleep may help to keep our heart and circulation healthy. “Sleep is essential for our body’s ability to repair itself, and  it is important to try and get enough rest. Drinking alcohol late at night, and getting up early can also  mean we’re not getting enough quantity, or quality, of sleep.

Adults who do not get enough sleep often act like cranky babies who also need their sleep in reality..  A long daily grind that shaves away hours of sleep and makes people groggy may also contribute to their risk of heart disease, scientists said.
  
Paradoxically, despite all the dangers, warnings ,  most people continue to drink beyond safe levels on a weekly basis that is more than 14 units of alcohol for women and 21 units for men. At the heart of this strange contradiction is a false belief, best encapsulated by the former Prime Minister in his introduction to the first national alcohol strategy. In the document, Tony Blair assured readers that “alcohol misuse by a small minority” was responsible for the rising levels of social and health harm. In short, problem drinkers are “other people”, spoiling it for the rest of us. In reality this is not so.. Drinking alcohol  has become too common amongst too many people. There is “no failsafe guide” on staying under the legal alcohol limit. It’s also worrying that motorists are continuing to ignore the drink-drive message.  
 
 “Reality too many of the binge drinkers., if not already are likely to become hard core alcoholics. The real problem of alcohol misuse was much wider than previously thought   We are drinking more now than we have ever done since before the First World War. We must transform attitudes towards alcohol.   Alcohol, though legal and embedded in our society, is no ordinary commodity. It is very harmful .. never mind the lies, spins,  distortions of the alcohol industries, alcoholics themselves. 
  
Attitudes To Alcohol Must Change. A health Minister  has called for a change in attitudes towards alcohol by both the public and the drinks industry all year now too. Statistics which show an increase of in the number of people   binge drinking, getting drunk  and that the statistics also show that we still have a long way to deal with this major problem. 81% of people who choose to drink are still exceeding the recommended daily limits. The cost of alcohol misuse to our society is very real. In just over 10 years, there has been a startling 86% increase in the numbers of people dying due to alcohol related harm. “Now, more than ever, we should all be working together to really tackle this issue head on and I believe the drinks industry has a key role to play. Supermarkets in particular sell alcohol far too cheaply. I am extremely disappointed that despite having met with each of the major supermarkets, and received their personal assurances that they take this matter extremely seriously, those words have not as yet translated into meaningful action. ”On the contrary, they are flooded with festive drinks promotions that will only encourage people to indulge further in binge drinking. This, in my view, is totally unacceptable.   Action speaks louder than words. On this occasion, profit is being put before public health.”  “The harsh reality is that although alcohol misuse is known to be damaging and harmful to health and well-being, many people still drink to excess. This must change, and in this respect we all have a collective responsibility in tackling this issue – individuals, society, government and the drinks industry alike.”    http://www.emaxhealth.com/2/63/27952/attitudes-alcohol-must-change.html  http://www.emaxhealth.com/2/63/27943/northern-ireland-reports-adult-drinking-patterns.html 
 
 Perhaps the most worrying aspect of all is  the frightening age shift in alcohol use. A generation or two ago, the first experiments with binge drinking were at university or during National Service. The “victims” of those generations who started drinking in their late teens and 20s were perhaps better able to cope with the consequences than 10-14 year-olds today.
 
 The international evidence is quite clear that the health consequences of alcohol misuse are closely linked to a nation’s total alcohol consumption and the main drivers of this are price and availability. 

For liver disease and other medical conditions, there can be a time lag of 10 or more years from the onset of serious drinking to reaping the consequences. Now we are seeing patients, particularly women, in their 20s with advanced alcoholic liver disease – a real tragedy for their family as well as themselves.” 

Holiday stress, along with getting laid off, has caused too many a person to start drinking heavily and this situation is not unusual.. Sadly when most people think about the upcoming holidays, they think about friends, family, food and good cheer. And for many people, the weeks between Thanksgiving and New Year’s are still particularly difficult. Financial problems are tough to handle for most people at any time, but they can seem overwhelming during this season of giving. Due to unresolved stress Feelings of loneliness, isolation and despair may also intensify but alcohol and drugs are never the answer still. Unfortunately, your friend’s   Many people turn to alcohol falsely believing that it helps them to relax and to cope with stress and worry. And because many people think that New Year’s Eve and similar occasions must always be celebrated with alcohol, it’s often readily available, providing another excuse to drink. It actually will likely cause more problems, and not effectively deal with the ones still not resolved Many people next tend to go to excess, extremes, and   drinking larger amounts of alcohol can increase the risk of a deadly form of liver damage called cirrhosis, heart disease, some types of cancer and injuries. And even moderate drinking can often have harmful consequences in the wrong setting, such as one should not    drink and drive, and drinking alcohol during a pregnancy may  seriously harm a developing baby. Alcohol dependence, also called alcoholism, often  means that if a person tries to stop or cut back on drinking, he or she may experience anxiety, sweating, trembling, trouble sleeping, nausea and vomiting. Drinking can be risky even for people who aren’t dependent on it. It may seriously still interfere with sleep and productivity, strain close relationships and get in the way of spending time with loved ones. It not only also puts the drinker at risk for becoming alcohol dependent as well as developing alcohol-related health problems. Too many people who really do now suffer from a drinking problem claim still don’t believe that anything is wrong. They faley try to justify that they’re drinking to cope with a particularly stressful time. In their mind, suppposedly the basic stress is the unresolved problem, not the drinking. They say they can stop drinking whenever they want, but they don’t. Two wrongs do nto make one right here too.  Denial is a common obstacle that prevents many people from seeking help.
 
More alcohol use is a concern for health-care professionals, since it means more deaths, illness, injuries and hospital visits, meaning added strain on the health-care system, and additional cost. “There’s 60 different ways in which alcohol can cause premature death and illness,”  Too many cops are alcoholic themselves these days it seems too. Showing justice and compassion is rightfully prosecuting all of  the guilty alcohol and drug offenders. Now we know that more people have accident due to road rage, impaired driving, driving under the influence of drugs, alcohol  over speeding too and we still do need to review how much time and resources do the police deal with that firstly? “ 
Despite plunging sales in almost every sector, alcohol sales are on the rise in Ontario, British Columbia and in other provinces over last year . If you drive at twice the legal alcohol limit you are at least 30 times more likely to cause a road crash than a driver who hasn’t been drinking. Alcohol abuse is a problem that is expected to become increasingly common as baby boomers, who have been found to drink more than previous generations, reach age 65 and beyond. ”A lot of folks over 50 are already dealing with diseases associated with aging and medication use that can result in possible complications and drug interactions. And older people who abuse alcohol are consuming an inordinate amount of calories that can displace important nutrients.” It is just a fact, common sense that  “even at lower levels of consumption, alcohol can be problematic for older people.” “Because of an increased sensitivity to alcohol and decreased tolerance as one ages, lower amounts of alcohol can have a bigger effect,” he said. “Older people get into trouble with doses of alcohol that wouldn’t be a problem with a younger person.” Immoderate consumption of alcohol — more than three drinks a day — can be hazardous for people of all ages, but especially so for the elderly, who reach higher levels of blood alcohol faster and maintain them longer than younger people. And people who  have ailments, like chronic liver disease, or take medications, like psychoactive drugs, that would render any amount of alcohol risky.  Alcohol abuse and alcoholism in aging adults  is “a silent epidemic.”  Many older people pursue drinking patterns established earlier in life and may not realize that continuing to drink the same amount of alcohol as they did when they were younger may place them at risk for health problems.” They all rather should be using diet and exercise to reduce cardiac risk; trying alternative relaxation methods to reduce stress,  exercise more ; and, for those who drink, cutting down on the amount of alcohol consumed by mixing it with water, taking an hour to finish one drink and alternating alcohol with nonalcoholic drinks. Because alcohol consumption is a  too common practice, questions about drinking are necessarily part of a general medical health assessment.”   Health experts  warn  that drinking too much alcohol, too fast can be dangerous.  The Department of Health defines binge drinking as over six to eight units of alcohol in an evening for most adults. Their  unit of alcohol depends on the strength of what you’re drinking.  One unit is half a pint of ordinary strength lager, beer, or cider; a 25 ml measure of spirits; or a 125 ml, small glass of wine. Also children often copy their parents when it comes to their attitudes towards alcohol. All parents can reduce the risk to their children, such as avoiding drinking alcohol on every occasion.  Too many  people   are getting into trouble with alcohol. Potential hazards include an increased risk of falls and vehicular accidents, a decline in short-term memory, a worsening of existing health problems and interactions with medications that may diminish the effectiveness of some drugs and increase the toxic effects of others.
  
Nearly twice as many liquor stores, relatively cheap booze and a pricing system that effectively discounts drinks with more alcohol are contributing to a rise in hazardous drinking, says B.C.’s provincial health officer. The same is true in Alberta and other provinces. A 2003 study found that 79 per cent of youth in school reported drinking at least once by age 17, and 20 per cent of those reported binge drinking three or more days in the previous month. While booze prices have risen in recent years, they have not kept pace with other consumer goods, a trend likely to continue with more competition among stores. Kendall recommends that pricing should reflect alcohol content, with discounts for low-alcohol alternatives and a price premium for stronger drinks. Current pricing creates “clear price incentives for consumers to choose higher-strength alcohol products in all major beverage classes,” As of 2007, government liquor stores accounted for 39 per cent of B.C. sales, with private stores up to 33 per cent. Bars, clubs and restaurants served most of the remainder. B.C.’s biggest average booze consumption occurs in the Interior Health Authority region, which includes the Okanagan and Kootenay regions, at 11 litres of pure alcohol per person per year. Vancouver Island was second at 10.71 litres, and also had the largest increase, 15.2 per cent between 2002 and 2007. Northern Health region was third at 9.73 litres per person, followed by Vancouver Coastal at 8.61 and Fraser, the lowest at 7.03. The Central Coast region of Vancouver Coastal has the highest consumption in the province, 13.69 litres per person in 2007.
 
More drunk drivers,  motorists are hitting the sauce before hitting the road this holiday season too. About 1 percent of  the drivers stopped are charged  with impaired driving offences during the generally only one month long  Police province wide drunk drivers check stop campaigns . Sadly there are plenty more drivers who often still do drank like fish  get away during the rest of the year due to the limited number of police officers participating in check stops the rest of the year. We do thus know that very few of the actual people who are impaired and on the roads are caught by police. ”The average person who is prepared to drive while impaired will do it about 80 times a year, repeat offenders causing the most problems.” “Drunk drivers are still; not  getting the message, quite frankly, “The average blood-alcohol reading of those charged was .165, twice the legal limit of .08. The highest reading was .25, more than three times the limit, ” The drivers range between 19 and 59 years old. The average age is 35 but a dozen are over 40. (Older drivers) too seem to be more set in their habits and  risk-takers also tend to be   resistant to all education campaigns,” And during the same period over generally ten times more people now are being charged with failing to to wear seatbelts and Highway Traffic Act offences over impaired driving, even though it is drunk drivers,  that causes many of the accidents?  All now still Unsatisfactory.
  
In 2006, 232 Ontarians were killed in traffic accidents in which alcohol was a factor.  “We’ve had an increased number of impaired driving fatalities in Ontario though we’re still seeing a downward trend in Ontario,” is still not enough policing here.
 
An Australian study estimates that about half of all traffic accidents in Australia may be due to road rage and most of the others related to alcohol, impaired driving and yet the police falsely tend to pursue revenue generating speeding traffic tickets still and why?   Road rage is a relatively serious act; it can  be seen as a violation of human and property rights , an endangerment of  other’s personal well being, security. 
  
Now I have said it for over 3 decades in writing to all too so now call it what you want but police services generally  it is not about public safety, for it is  a self employment, empire  building, a false money grab, revenue generation, hidden taxes..  for if  the cops, the mad RCMP  were now really worried about public safety THEY WOULD FIRSTLY ARREST THEIR OWN KIND, THE BAD COPS WHO OFTEN DRIVE HOME DRUNK AFTER WORK, COMING HOME FROM THE POLICE TAVERN, and they would ALSO FIRSTLY  go after the people who drive reckless, who  fail to stop at the stop signs, or the  traffic stop lights, and go seriously after the impaired drunken drivers, deal with the unsafe cars whose brakes are squealing cause they need to be repaired.. etc. Cops , civil and public servants too often become perverse persons, unacceptable bullies still too. You and I still do not have to accept such crap.

  

PS:
Study: Smoke-free laws may cut heart attack hospitalizations
CNN – 14 hours ago
By Miriam Falco ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) — Implementing smoke-free policies can lead to a fewer hospitalizations resulting from heart attacks, according to a new study published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Study links smoking bans, heart attack rate Greeley Tribune
Our View: Smoking ban, one year later Northwest Herald
KKTV 11 News – The Associated Press – KDRV – Norman Transcript
all 460 news articles »

see also http://stayinhealth.wordpress.com/2008/11/21/anti-suicide-watch/

 

  

Coping with Personal unresolved Stress

  

Siblings, Most adults too  often do fight for a number of reasons.
-They fight because they want a parent’s or other person’s attention, especially where the parent has only so much time, attention and patience to give.
-They fight because they are selfish, jealous: “He got a new bike. I didn’t. They must love him more than they love me.”
-They even fight over ordinary teasing which is a way of testing the effects of behavior and words on another person: “He called me…” “But she called me…first.”
-They fight because they are growing up in a competitive, aggressive, self centered, worldly, dog eat dog,   society that falsely teaches them that to get it, to win is to be better than to be the loser. “I saw it first.” “I beat you to the water.”

Lessons about jealousy, competition, sharing and kindness are difficult to learn, and, indeed, even many adults still still haven’t learned them. Too many adolescent may not recognize, admit still  their needs or may be too embarrassed to express them verbally, so their ongoing fighting with siblings, others is a way to get their need personal  attention which often next  actually increase in adolescence life.

A Parent’s Checklist
As a parent, do you:
-Set aside some time to be alone with each child?
-Recognize that each child is different?
-Make sure your adolescents realize they are each unique and have a special set of strengths?
-Praise adolescents for being who they are and not just for what they can do?
-Avoid initiating competition among children?
-Realize adolescents and younger children need to be given the right also to decide not to share at least some of the time?
-Be sure older children are not usually forced to give in to younger ones because “he’s little” or “she doesn’t know better?”
-Talk positively to the adolescents about their fighting?
-Falsely encourage, promote the sibling fighting?

 

11 Tips for Coping with Personal unresolved Stress
 
God grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change;
courage to change the things I can;
and wisdom to know the difference
 
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace,
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
where there is sadness, joy;
O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console;
to be understood as to understand;
to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive;
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.
The prayers of Saint Francis of Assisi
 
1. First Concentrate on the present.   You cannot change the past, but you can work on having a better future
Don’t needlessly, continually  dwell on the past or worry about a future you cannot control. Have a positive and not a a negative, defeatist attitude now as well
 
2. Consider, Admit and deal with  your  past, present  problems one at a time.  First personally define, Write down those things that Bother you, do Number them, and do decide what you can and cannot do abut  them too . Prioritize as well Decide which ones are still important and which ones are no longer important to deal with.
If there are lots of items  you want to change, start by focusing on one or two of the most bothersome or dangerous ones. Don’t try to make too many changes all at once. Don’t merely lump your complaints,  problems together, it can make them seem overwhelming.
 
Remember
Anger and aggression are different. Anger is a temporary emotional state caused by frustration; while aggression is often an attempt to hurt a person or to destroy property.
Anger and aggression do not have to be dirty words. We must be careful to tell the difference between behavior that indicates emotional problems and behavior that is normal. Convert aggression to assertiveness, actions done in love as well.
 
**Writing. There is evidence that writing about stressful events and circumstances may help relieve stress and improve diseases linked to stress.  Write for 10 to 15 minutes a day about an unresolved stressful events and how you felt. One way to use writing to deal with stress is to keep a stressed out journal. This can really help you identify the sources of stress in your life so that you can find better ways to cope with them. 
 
3. Take positive action.  Do review all of your options, such as writing a letter of complaint to the right party, in detail reporting the matter so you do not have to have it repeated on you.
Make sure you have realistic expectations, goals, approaches too. Once you’ve decided what you want to do about a problem, act consistently quickly ,  firmly and follow up on it too.
 
4. Don’t   merely complain about your problems . Continually complaining is wasteful, and seriously for a stat don’t expect only others alone to resolve them, deal with them yourself .
Talk things over with your family and good friends. Look for the positive, possible, practical  solutions.
 
5. Occupy yourself and your mind.  Determine what you can and cannot do, how much time you should spend on it, also do go on with your life
 
Social interaction, alternative activities can help during a time of stress by not continually focusing on the problem
 
*Doing something you enjoy. A meaningful activity helps relieve stress, tension. This can be a hobby, such as gardening; a creative activity, such as writing, crafts, or art; or doing volunteer work for a cause that benefits others. Playing with and caring for pets also can help you relax. Although you may feel that you are too busy, making time to do something you like can help you relax and make you more productive in other areas of your life. 

Good Music therapy can relax your body, improve your mood, and change the pace of your day.   

 

Good Humor therapy Clean Jokes, Comedy, are becoming widely accepted as a tool for reducing stress and boosting the body’s immune system.
 
6. Don’t just blame the other people for your problems and their failure at  Resolving them – be an active part of the solution yourself if need be
Frustrated hostility will accomplish nothing and can only make and feel worse.
 
7. Exercise every day.
Go for a walk and concentrate on your surroundings instead of  just on your problems.
 
8. Maintain a daily routine. even if you are unemployed, retired, but do not get into a continual rut as well
I have often helped many a poor, depressed person, not by any medications, but by  simply by changing their daily normal activity routine, and next by taking them for a drive into the country, or taking them to see a good film, a comedy, or Giving them some good movies to watch, or by me taking them to a fine food restaurant, or by me taking them for a long  walk through unfamiliar surroundings.. and it worked.. it actually next had broke them out of their long term depression.
 
Can’t change positively   the person? try first changing their surroundings, environment temporarily?
A familiar pattern of  daily activates can decrease stress and increase your sense of security. Be willing to make a change once a while as well.
 
9. Avoid taking your problems to bed. Try to forgive and forget.
Clear your mind of the days thoughts so you can get a good night sleep.
 
10. Talk to your adequate health care provider, helper. Pick and choose, for remember there are still good and bad professionals.
She/he can help you find the right agency or person(s) to assist you in coping with stress. 
 
With God on your side you will always be a winner
 
St. Francis of Assisi’s prayer in praise of God
 
You are holy, Lord, the only God,
and Your deeds are wonderful.
You are strong.
You are great.
You are the Most High.
You are Almighty.
You, Holy Father are King of heaven and earth.
You are Three and One, Lord God, all Good.
You are Good, all Good, supreme Good,
Lord God, living and true.
You are love. You are wisdom.
You are humility. You are endurance.
You are rest. You are peace.
You are joy and gladness.
You are justice and moderation.
You are all our riches, and You suffice for us.
You are beauty.
You are gentleness.
You are our protector.
You are our guardian and defender.
You are our courage. You are our haven and our hope.
You are our faith, our great consolation.
You are our eternal life, Great and Wonderful Lord,
God Almighty, Merciful Saviour.
 
do see also 
 
 
Resolving the Conflicts requires still :
 
Admitting, recognizing the stress issue.
Effectively dealing with the issue in a positive manner… For the matters left on their own to be resolved   tend to get worse and not better
 
The instinctive, natural way it seems is merely to immediacy, feel anger, to  express our anger and to to respond  immediately aggressively as well.. not much self control obvious.. as opposed to a planed, deliberate, calculated, thought our approach.
 
When you are angry, you probably feel:

 
This often Aggressive Anger is a  response to  our perceived threats; it inspires powerful, often visible  feelings and behaviors. But we can’t physically lash out at every person or object that irritates or annoys us; laws, social norms, and for most of us our own common sense places valid limits on how far our anger can take us.
 
Stop. Consider the consequences. Think before you act. Try to find positive or neutral explanations for what that person did that provoked you.  Learn to recognize what sets you off and how anger feels to you. Learn to think through the benefits of controlling your anger and the consequences of losing control. Control your own  behavior, don’t let anger control you.
 
Identify the problem, problem behavior. Isolate it from the emotions associated with it and evaluate it.  How often does it happen and how long can  it go on?  What is the purpose of the behavior? If it tears down another person, it is abusive.  If you suspect abuse, it’s important to act quickly to stop it. Do not hesitate to bring it into the open, to expose it next to all for what it really is, unacceptable abuse. Get enough fact and feeling information to assess the problem accurately. Restate the problem to make sure you understand it clearly. Figure out alternative solutions to the problem.

 
Anger management  reducing  both your emotional feelings and the physiological arousal that anger causes. You can’t always get rid of, or avoid, the things or the people that enrage you, nor can you change them, but you can learn to control your reactions, and express, act in a positive manner, for the good of all.

 
Set ground rules to prevent emotional abuse, and stick to them. For example, make it clear you will not put up with name-calling, teasing, belittling, intimidating,   provoking, cheating, lying, stealing, bullying, physical abuses, intimidations and you will firmly deal with it too. Living with bad, fighting adolescent siblings is not pleasant. Clearly show all of the  adolescents the cost of fighting is higher than the falsely expected reward.
 
Next  tell of the trouble makers, bad adolescents that while it’s normal to have disagreements, the constant fighting upsets you  and you  value peace at home. You also can  can say they will no longer be the judge and jury over the siblings’, adolescents  disputes, wars  and you merely will not stand for it, put up with it and stand by the resolution with firm action!
 
Timing: use a controlled, well thought out  response to Control the event on your own time, and don’t merely be hastily suckered into facing, dealing with it unprepared. Also now do Give yourself a regular break from the conflicts, stressful situations. Make sure always too you have some “personal time” scheduled for times of the day, the place  that you know are particularly stressful.  One’s Problems and responsibilities can weigh on you and make you feel angry at the set “trap” you seem again to have fallen into and all the people and things that form that trap. Sometimes it’s our unavoidable immediate surroundings that give us continual, ongoing, unavoidable  cause for irritation and fury. If need be do next Remove yourself permanently from the environment, for your own good health firstly . One does not have to put with with these mostly false conflicts forever.
Set clear consequences for broken rules.  What will happen if they break the rules? For example, one husband told his wife he would no longer spoil his wife, indulge in all of her false whims, desires, but would not merely give her two  alternative choices beforehand, one would lead to a reward, one whole lead to negative personal consequences for her.  Choice one – resolve the conflicts peacefully, amiably.  Or if she continued to cause false problems, fighting he would merely fire her, terminate the relationship, divorce the marriage. He next  was forced to take the second alternative.
 
“One father reported that every time a fight started, he would say to his adolescents, “You’re fighting. I’m leaving.” And then he would go out to work in the yard or take a drive or run an errand — but he simply walked away from the fighting. A mother used a similar tactic. When the fighting began, she said, “Call me when it’s over.” Then she went to her bedroom, slamming the door to emphasize her point. Another parent made his adolescents leave the house when they began fighting. “

In each of these cases, the parents, adolescents  demonstrated that their ongoing fighting would not get their attention and they would not get involved in the fight.
 
Do not hesitate to Remove yourself  from the problem behavioral  person, or remove the root cause of the problem child , adult

 
Instead of doing nothing, which postpones the inevitable anyway. Seek, get sound advice, the valid  opinion of others too. Make a plan, and check your progress along the way. Resolve to give it your best, but also not to punish yourself if an answer doesn’t come right away. If you can approach the conflicts, fight  it with your best intentions and efforts and make a serious attempt to face it head-on, you will be less likely to lose patience and fall into all-or-nothing thinking, even if the problem does not get solved right away.

Remember, you can’t eliminate anger-and it wouldn’t be a good idea if you could. In spite of all your efforts, things will happen that will cause you anger; and sometimes it will be justifiable anger. Life will be filled with frustration, pain, loss, and the unpredictable actions of others. You can’t change that; but you can change the way you let such events affect you. Controlling effectively your angry responses can keep them from making you even more unhappy in the long run. 
 
Negative Results of unchecked Sibling Rivalry or Sibling Abuse : Thousands of adult survivors of sibling abuse can readily tell of the far-reaching negative effects that such unchecked behavior has had on them as children and even as adults. For instance, one person, reflecting back on their relationship with   a brother wrote: “I believed EVERYTHING my brother told me. Even if it was lies to make himself look better.  Children and adults often still do wrongfully abuse a brother or sister  to falsely try to  gain power and control.
 
 
If you notice the following signs in a person  over a period of time, the potential for increased unacceptable physical  violence next also exists:

or failing to acknowledge  the abuse of others, 

When you recognize these unacceptable future increased violence warning signs in someone else,   Hoping that someone else will deal with the situation is still false way out.

Be safe. Don’t spend time alone with people who show any of these warning signs and  remove the person from the situation that’s setting them off.

The most important thing to remember is don’t go it alone. Expose the matter to others as well.

a history of violent or aggressive, abnormal . offensive behavior
serious drug or alcohol use
gang membership or strong desire to be in a gang
access to or fascination with weapons, especially guns
threatening others regularly
trouble controlling feelings like anger
withdrawal from friends and normal, usual activities
visibly feeling rejected or alone
having been a victim of bullying, or now being a bully themselves
poor school or job performance
history of discipline problems or frequent run-ins with authority
feeling constantly disrespected
failing to acknowledge the feelings  rights of others

The angered people tend to jump to-and act on-conclusions, and some of those conclusions can be very inaccurate. The first thing to do if you’re in a heated discussion is slow down and think through your responses. Don’t say the first thing that comes into your head, but slow down and think carefully about what you want to say. At the same time, listen carefully to what the other person is saying and take your time before answering.  Listen, too, to what is underlying cause of your  anger. It’s natural to get defensive when you’re criticized, but don’t fight back. Instead, listen to what’s underlying the words: the message that this person might feel neglected and unloved. It may take a lot of patient questioning on your part, and it may require some breathing space, but don’t let your anger-or a partner’s-let a discussion spin out of control. Keeping your cool can keep the situation from becoming a disastrous one.

It’s best to find out what it is that triggers your anger, and then to develop strategies to deal with and to keep those triggers from tipping you over the edge. 

Remind yourself that merely getting angry is not going to fix anything, that it won’t make you feel better (and may actually make you feel worse). You need to focus on the problem and deal with it effectively;

Logic defeats anger, because anger, even when it’s justified, can quickly become irrational. So use cold hard logic, Such as ” you’re just experiencing some of the rough spots of daily life. Normal  people tend expect : fairness, appreciation, agreement, willingness, congenital agreements. The first best attitude to bring to such a problem situation, then, is not to focus on solely now finding the solution, but rather firstly on how you handle and face the problem.

We face a choice  to deal with their angry feelings  such as expressing our anger, suppressing our outrage, and submissiveness, calming Ourselves, controlling our outward behavior, but also controlling our internal responses, taking steps to lower our heart rate, calm yourself down, and letting  the emotional feelings subside.

Assertiveness is expressing our anger in love ,without hurting others. Being assertive here doesn’t mean being pushy or demanding; it means being respectful of yourself and others.

Anger turned inward may cause next  hypertension, high blood pressure,  a self pity complex, or depression.

” Unexpressed specific anger can create other problems. It can lead to pathological expressions of anger, such as passive-aggressive behavior (getting back at people indirectly, without telling them why, rather than confronting them head-on) or a personality that seems perpetually cynical and hostile. People who are constantly putting others down, criticizing everything, and making cynical comments haven’t learned how to constructively express their anger. Not surprisingly, they aren’t likely to have many successful relationships. ”

muscle tension
accelerated heartbeat
a “knot” or “butterflies” in your stomach
changes in your breathing
trembling
goose bumps
flushed in the face

You can reduce the rush of adrenaline that’s responsible for your heart beating faster, your voice sounding louder, and your fists clenching if you:

Take a few slow, deep breaths and concentrate on your breathing.
Imagine yourself at a better place, the beach, by a lake, or anywhere that makes you feel calm and peaceful.
Try other thoughts or actions that have helped you relax in the past.

“Calm down.”
“I don’t need to prove myself.”
“I’m not going to let him/her get to me.”

Young Offenders, Sibling rivalry, War

     
Sibling rivalry, war is the jealousy, competition and fighting between the unloving and/or  unloved brothers and sisters firstly.  It is a concern for almost all parents of two or more kids. Problems often start right after the birth of the second child.  Sibling rivalry usually continues throughout childhood and even adulthood, it can be very embarrassing, frustrating and stressful to parents.  There some things parents can do to help their young kids get along better and work through conflicts in positive ways and  help you keep the peace at your house.
 

Sibling rivalry, war  is as old as the children of Adam and Eve and is too often recorded now as a sin in the Bible as well that has negative consequences on the persons involved and even others.
 
The real sad part is that many adults play also this false game still too.. Conquer and destroy!
 
 Sibling rivalry can also be caused by proximity in age. Research suggests that siblings that are within two years’ age of one another tend to have more sibling rivalry than other siblings.  Ultimately, sibling rivalry is often caused not only by by blocked goals but by  poor personal communication skills, bad or extreme values,  just like almost any other sorts of adult conflicts and wars

There are many factors that contribute to sibling rivalry:
 
-Past and present neglect of the siblings by the parents will top it all.. there are overarching sorts of factors and events that can be, ultimately, the root causes of any sibling rivalry. Knowing what these important factors and events are can help you to not only understand the causes of sibling rivalry, but to deal with sibling rivalry more effectively when it does occur. Some of the most common causes of sibling rivalry tends to be jealousy or selfishness.
-Each child, person  is mostly competing to define who they are as an individual.  As they discover who they are, they try to find their own talents, activities, and interests.  They want to show that they are separate from their siblings.
-Rejected Children, Adults too  feel they are getting unequal amounts of your attention, discipline, and responsiveness.
-Children often may feel their relationship with their parents is threatened by the arrival of a new baby. 
-A  children’s and an Adult’s developmental stages affect how well they can share your attention and get along with one another. 
-Children and adults  who are hungry, bored or tired, nervous, stressed out  are more likely to start fights.
– Too many Children, adults too  do not know positive ways to get attention from their brother or sister, so they pick fights. 
– Family dynamics play a serious role here as well when one of the parent  neglect one of their children, or shows a false favoring, partiality,. We are reminded this happened in the biblical account of Joseph and his brothers due to his new coat of many colors,
– Children, adults  will fight more with each other in families where there is no set bounders, understanding that their fighting is not an acceptable way to resolve conflicts. 
– All Families that don’t share enjoyable times together will probably have more family conflict next exasperated by a jealous immoral, insecure, poor self esteem  spouse(s)  of the siblings now too
– Unresolved Stress, poor health  in the parent’s lives will often  decrease the amount of still need attention parents give the children and thus increase the sibling rivalry. 
– Stress in the  children’s lives will next  shorten their fuses, and create more conflict, cause significant home, community  and even health problems as well

So how the good and bad parents do now still treat their kids, children and how they do now react to conflict will  make a big difference in how well siblings get along.  

The degree of existence of sibling rivalry, young offenders, gangs  tends to show how good of a parent, manager, administrator now you really were, are.

“as many as 53 out of every 100 children abuse a brother or sister, higher than the percentage of adults who abuse their children or their spouse. What some kids do to their brother or sister inside the family would be called assault outside the family. As parents, we may be tempted to ignore fighting and quarrelling between children. We may view these activities as a normal part of growing up. We say, “Kids will be kids” or “They’ll grow out of it.”   However, thousands of adult survivors of sibling abuse tell of the far-reaching negative effects that such unchecked behavior has had on them as children and adults. Children often abuse a brother or sister, usually younger than themselves, to gain power and control. One explanation for this is that the abusive child (generally with a poor self esteem) feels powerless, neglected and insecure. He or she may feel strong only in relation to a sibling being powerless. The feeling of power children experience when they mistreat a brother or sister often reinforces their decision to repeat the abuse ”  http://www.sasian.org/papers/rivabuse.htm
 
Why do we hear of the Russian Mafia, and the Asian Gangs now more increasing, because their parents have neglected them while they were busy trying to get rich, richer.
 
(James 4:1 KJV)  From whence come wars and fightings among you? come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members?
2  Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not.
3  Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts.
4  Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.
5  Do ye think that the scripture saith in vain, The spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy?
6  But he giveth more grace. Wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble.
7  Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
8  Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded.
9  Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness.
10  Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up.
11  Speak not evil one of another, brethren. He that speaketh evil of his brother, and judgeth his brother, speaketh evil of the law, and judgeth the law: but if thou judge the law, thou art not a doer of the law, but a judge.
12  There is one lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy: who art thou that judgest another?
13  Go to now, ye that say, To day or to morrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain:
14  Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.
15  For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that.
16  But now ye rejoice in your boastings: all such rejoicing is evil.
17  Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.
5:1  Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you.
2  Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are motheaten.
3  Your gold and silver is cankered; and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days.
   
 
 
 
 
(Prov 22:6 KJV)  Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.– Train your children firstly in the right way.. neglect any of them and everyone next will pay the negative price..
 
– Tell them that being self centered, selfish, concerned only about their own needs, desires is still an unacceptable sin, negative approach.
– Don’t play favorites or refuse to forgive, do not take sides as well. Your children need to learn that you will do your best to meet each of their unique needs. 
– Never compare your children.  
– Don’t typecast.  Let each child be who they are.  Don’t try to pigeonhole or label them
– Set your kids up to cooperate rather than compete.
– Teach your kids positive ways to get attention from each other.
– Don’t yell or lecture.  It really won’t help at all..
– Listen—really listen—to how your children feel about what’s going on in the family. and next also act upon it positively. They seek the parent’s help first often,  They may not be so demanding if they know you at least care how they feel. “When parents falsely unwisely crash, jump into sibling spats, they often protect one child (usually the younger sibling) against the other (usually the older one).  This escalates the conflict, because the older child resents the younger, and the younger feels that they can get away with more since the parent is “on their side.”  ”
– Celebrate your children’s differences, positive aspects and not mainly their negatives.
– Let each child know they are still unique and special— accept them, you love and care for them, just for whom they are.
– Encourage win-win negotiations, where each side gains something.
– If you are constantly angry at your kids, no wonder they are angry at each other!  Anger feeds on itself.  Learn to manage your anger, so you can teach your children how to manage theirs. 
– learn, Teach conflict resolution skills during calm times.
– Personally Model good conflict resolution skills for your kids.  
– Try to Involve your children in setting ground rules. 
– Enforced Ground rules, with clear and consistent consequences for breaking them, can help prevent many squabbles.
  
Summary
    
(Psalm 133:1 KJV)  Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!
    
 Sibling rivalry is a type of competition or animosity among brothers and sisters, blood-related or not..  the sibling bond is often complicated and is influenced by factors such as parental treatment, birth order, personality, and people and experiences outside the family. Sibling rivalry is particularly intense when children are very close in age and of the same gender, or where one child is intellectually gifted, or one child has received or attains  a bigger inheritance, earning, position, status in life. Adolescents fight for the same reasons younger children fight,  Fighting with siblings as a way to get attention, power  may increase in adolescence. Events even such as a strained marriage may  drive them seriously  apart. Sibling Rivalry in the Bible – sample cases: Cain and Abel, Esau and Jacob, and Joseph and his brothers., Leah and Rachel, and today’s counterpart is the conflicts between the Arabs and the Jews, gangs, Mafia
   
(Prov 15:1 KJV)  A soft answer turneth away wrath: but grievous words stir up anger.
  
 
Siblings often do fight for a number of reasons.
-They fight because they want a parent’s or other person’s attention, especially where the parent has only so much time, attention and patience to give.
-They fight because they are selfish, jealous: “He got a new bike. I didn’t. They must love him more than they love me.”
-They even fight over ordinary teasing which is a way of testing the effects of behavior and words on another person: “He called me…” “But she called me…first.”
-They fight because they are growing up in a competitive, aggressive, self centered, worldly, dog eat dog,   society that falsely teaches them that to get it, to win is to be better than to be the loser. “I saw it first.” “I beat you to the water.” 
 
Lessons about jealousy, competition, sharing and kindness are difficult to learn, and, indeed, even many adults still still haven’t learned them. Too many adolescent may not recognize, admit still  their needs or may be too embarrassed to express them verbally, so their ongoing fighting with siblingsis a way to get their need personal  attention which often next  actually increase in adolescence life.

 

A Parent’s Checklist
As a parent, do you:
-Set aside some time to be alone with each child?
-Recognize that each child is different?
-Make sure your adolescents realize they are each unique and have a special set of strengths?
-Praise adolescents for being who they are and not just for what they can do?
-Avoid initiating competition among children?
-Realize adolescents and younger children need to be given the right also to decide not to share at least some of the time?
-Be sure older children are not usually forced to give in to younger ones because “he’s little” or “she doesn’t know better?”
-Talk positively to the adolescents about their fighting?
-Falsely encourage, promote the sibling fighting?
 

 

 
So the still mostly useless Albertan Prime Minister Stephen Harper and federal Justice Minister Rob Nicholson MP want to get tough on the young offenders, instead of on the parents, show to us all how ignorantly they are and very poor parents now too.. They clearly themselves firstly need to be educated.
 

Quebec proof federal tough-on-crime strategy doesn’t work: experts

The Canadian Press   MONTREAL – While the economy will no doubt take centre stage when Parliament resumes sitting in the new year, the Conservatives are making it clear that plans to get tough on youth crime will also be high on their agenda.  Should the Tory government survive, there’s little doubt it will move forward with strengthening the Youth Criminal Justice Act to have it include life sentences for convicted murderers as young as 14.  It would come in a year in which Albertans mark the 10th anniversary of the Taber school shooting and months after a rise in the number of iPod muggings was brought to light by the trial of a teen who fatally stabbed a man on a city bus in Ottawa  With that backdrop, the Tories’ tough-on-teens approach sits well with many, mianly according to Justice Minister Rob Nicholson.  But there’s one place in Canada where authorities have long taken a different approach – Quebec.  Tackling youth crime was among the Conservatives’ key election planks, but it was also one of the issues that angered Quebecers and prevented the Tories from broadening their support in the province.  Figures compiled by the Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics show Quebec’s emphasis on prevention and rehabilitation over incarceration has served the province well. In fact, the youth crime rate in Quebec has consistently been the lowest in all of Canada.  In 2007, for example, for every 100,000 young people aged 12 to 17 in Quebec, just 1,610 were involved in a crime.  In the Northwest Territories, the region where youth crime rates have traditionally been the highest, that figure was 10,491.  British Columbia recorded the second lowest youth crime rate in Canada, followed by Prince Edward Island, Ontario, Newfoundland and New Brunswick.   Meanwhile, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Nova Scotia and Alberta recorded the highest crime rates.  Montreal criminologist Michele Goyette said the Conservative mentality of setting minimum penalties doesn’t sit well in Quebec, where there was strong  opposition to replacing the Young Offenders Act, which combined punishment and rehabilitation, with the YCJA, which favours increased penalties.  “Anything that seeks to create automatic sanctions for us, that’s against our beliefs,” said Goyette, who works at the Centre jeunesse de Montreal, a social-services agency for troubled youth.  Each person is evaluated individually and a rehabilitation program that might include drug treatment, anger management, job training or academic classes is established regardless of whether the individual is in custody or serving a sentence in the community.  While many other parts of the country have since caught on, Goyette said Quebec also has a long-standing practice of handling minor offences outside of the court system.  Theft or shoplifting cases, for example, might be dealt with through mediation or reparations with the victim, she said. Universite de Montreal criminologist Jean Trepanier said Quebec’s approach to juvenile delinquency dates back to the 1950s when an institution for boys known as Boscoville introduced a variety of psychological and educational interventions aimed at rehabilitation.  By the 1960s, the Universite de Montreal had even developed programs in “psycho-education,” he wrote in a 2004 article published in the Canadian Journal of Criminology and Criminal Justice.  “With good programs, what we can hope for is the delinquent activity will diminish and disappear earlier,” he said in an interview.  The use of extra-judicial measures has traditionally meant far fewer young people ending up before the courts in Quebec, Trepanier said.  Statistics show the introduction of the Youth Criminal Justice Act, which placed a greater emphasis on such measures, led to similar trends across the country.  It also led to fewer and shorter custodial sentences, but Trepanier said a lack of flexibility within the YCJA has effectively limited the ability of youth workers to design effective rehabilitation programs.  “Youth are often sentenced to very short custodial sentences in which we can’t undertake a rehabilitation program and as such… they re-offend and they end up in custody for another short period,” he said.  “Six sentences of one month don’t have the same effect as one six-month sentence even if the total length is the same.”  Statistics show about 10 per cent of convicted youths in Quebec received a custodial sentence in 2006-2007, the second lowest in the country after Manitoba.  Two-thirds of guilty-youth cases resulted in probation. Quebec was by far the province most likely to sentence teens to  community service at 48 per cent, double the national average.  Irvin Waller, a criminologist with the University of Ottawa’s Institute for the Prevention of Crime, suggested Quebec’s strong social safety net and “sophisticated” youth protection system have also contributed to lower crime rates.  Besides focusing on rehabilitation for those already in trouble with the law, Quebec has invested heavily in programs that prevent crime.  “The city of Montreal has invested in youth centres in areas where there were likely to be a lot of young people joining gangs,” he offered as an example.  “It’s not a coincidence that (Montreal) has the lowest estimated number of youth gang members per capita of any major city in Canada.”  He also touted the province’s $7-a-day daycare system as the sort of social policy that’s likely to reduce youth crime rates over time.  While he agrees Quebec has consistently been the most progressive when it comes to its approach to youth crime, Waller said Alberta is poised to outpace it.  In November 2007, the province launched a three-pronged “Safe Communities” initiative aimed at reducing crime by focusing on enforcement, prevention and treatment.  The $468-million, three-year project has resulted in the opening of 20 new treatment beds for 18-24-year-olds recovering from addictions and the elimination of cheap drink specials at bars to improve staff and patron safety and avoid excessive liquor consumption.  Alberta also plans to boost mental health services for children, substance abuse awareness in schools and make the transition back into the community easier for high risk youth.  “This is the first three years of changing the way that government approaches these situations,” Alberta Justice Minister Alison Redford said.  In Ontario, a recent report on youth violence found racism and poverty were direct contributors and recommended providing anti-racism training to police officers and ensuring teachers and school administrators better reflect the neighbourhoods they serve. It also called for $200-million for improved mental health services as well as better co-ordination among government ministries.  Critics have argued the $2-million report, commissioned by the province after the fatal May 2007 school shooting of 15-year-old Jordan Manners in Toronto, merely stated the obvious and that the cash-strapped province likely won’t be able to implement the recommendations anyway. 
http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/capress/081226/national/year_youth_crime
 
I am always amazed when some ignorant, immoral persons demand, especially it seems uncompassionate Conservatives, who clearly too often still fail to change themselves, so they falsely think others being able to change is impossible as well,  so they do try to enforce the “letter of the law” over the “spirit of the law”.. the “spirit of the law” means an attempt to allow a person to repent, rehabilitation, where as the “letter of the law” falsely demands full incarceration, punishments. Furthermore punishing children for the often neglect, sins of their own  parents is still also absurd.. if anyone who should be punished here firstly it should be the parents anyway! Parents buck passing their sins onto the others is really criminal.
 
(Prov 22:6 KJV)  Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.
 
Ironically this issue was one of the main reasons that the Tories failed to get reelected and now they are stupid enough to try it again, they thus will be making the alternative coalition government of liberals being even more attractive to many next instead.
  
(John 8:7 KJV)  So when they continued asking him, he lifted up himself, and said unto them, He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.
 
Like I wrote before
 
“The Bloc got another break when Stephen Harper made a statement pushing for teens who commit serious crimes to serve jail sentences in adult prisons. Mr. Duceppe slammed the Prime Minister for delivering “fresh meat” to prison pedophiles and sending young criminals to “the university of crime.”” http://www.nationalpost.com/news/canada/election-2008/story.html?id=882332
 
Now really How can a now Alberta, redneck that was personally now even raised in Montreal, Quebec,  now get it so wrong, did he accidently offend the people of Quebec or did he do so knowingly because he not care if it did cause he was trying to please so hard his hypocritical, Conservative rednecks of Alberta, who do emphasize now wrongfully now the letter of   the law over the  spirit of the law.. for now when there is an increase of  problem children, juvenile delinquents,  it is the parents firstly who have to take the majority of the blame and not the children. Surely the self professing Christian evangelical, Alliance church,  Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper knows this from his own personal Bible readings? (Prov  22:6 KJV)  Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.
 
 
or is Stephen Harper now also, still just a pretender Christian now too not just a pretender poltician?

More Booze Taxes Lower Alcohol-Linked Deaths

  

Raising state taxes on alcohol may trigger an immediate drop in the number of people who die from alcohol-related disease, new research reveals.  The finding is based on the particular experience of Alaska, following that state’s two legislative moves to raise taxes on beer, wine and liquor in 1983 and 2002. In the first instance, the research team observed a 29 percent decline in deaths from alcohol-related disease; in the second, the apparent drop was 11 percent. “The real bottom line is that the increase in the alcohol tax saved lives,” said study lead author Alexander C. Wagenaar, a professor of epidemiology with the College of Medicine at the University of Florida in Gainesville. The study was funded by the Substance Abuse Policy Research Program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. To gauge the impact of alcohol taxes on alcohol-related disease fatalities, the authors analyzed U.S. National Center for Health Statistics data from 1976 through 2004. They tallied the number of men and women who died from a range of alcohol-related conditions, both in Alaska and across the United States, before and after Alaska’s two tax bumps. Such diseases include cirrhosis, cancer of the mouth, cancers of the esophagus, breast cancer, and a number of other pancreatic and cardiac illnesses. Alongside alcohol-related injuries and accidents, such illnesses make up the estimated 85,000 alcohol-fueled deaths occurring in the United States annually. And it should be pointed out that in public health, if we do something that reduces the death rate by just 3 or 5 percent, that’s considered to be a major success. And these tax increases reduced the risk of death from alcohol-related disease far more substantially than that.” “Just think of the healthcare cost that would be saved if we reduced the death rates across the whole country. And this is absolutely something that’s not impossible to do.” “So this study reaffirms this effect and its impact, in terms of alcohol. And it suggests that any change in public health messages concerning alcohol consumption should also involve a change in taxes, and therefore prices, as an effective means for ensuring improved health for the community.”http://health.usnews.com/articles/health/healthday/2008/11/13/booze-taxes–lower-alcohol-linked-deaths.htmlhttp://www.cspinet.org/booze/taxguide/TaxIndex.htm

“So, the implication for the other states and the country as a whole is quite amazing,”

 

For more on the impact of alcohol taxes on drinking behaviors, head to the Alcohol Policies Project. 

 

Sarah Palin

 Now that the election is over, and Barack Obama has been elected asthe 44th President… are we still going to hear about Sarah Palin? Or will her name become obsolete? After elections, the opponent that loses usually disappears within a week after the election… but this is Sarah Palin we’re talking about… 
 

75 percent of evenagelicals still did not vote for Obama, or 49 percent of the voting US population..

“The media is already harping on the fact that 60 percent of voters expressed doubts about Sarah Palin being ready to take over as President should something happen to John McCain.

But if you study the exit polls carefully, there is no evidence that this fact actually influenced the vote.

When people were asked if Palin’s presence on the ticket was an important factor in their decision, 60 percent answered yes, 33 percent no. But of the 60 percent that said yes, 56 percent ended up voting McCain versus 43 percent Obama.

On the other hand, of the 33 percent that said no, only 33 percent voted McCain versus 64 percent Obama.

What does this mean? People who thought Palin’s presence on the ticket was important were more likely to vote McCain by a significant margin. So the media is allowing their bias to influence the interpretation of the data.

You can look even closer than that. Palin was picked specifically to influence a few key demographics for the Republicans – women, independents, white evangelicals and gun owners:

– White women voted McCain/Palin 53-46. That’s within the margin of error for how Bush/Cheney score with the same group in 2004, 55-44.

– White independents voted McCain/Palin 49-47. There are no comparable data on this group for 2004, but we do know that independents went for Kerry 49-48 in 2004, and 52-44 for Obama this year. It’s safe to conclude that the swing to Obama in this category was caused by non-white independents voting overwhelmingly for the Democratic ticket.

– White evangelical/born again cCristians voted McCain/Palin 74-24 in 2008, which is slightly lower than the 78-21 breakdown in 2004. But their share of the total vote was larger this time than last time (26 percent in 2008 versus 23 percent in 2004), so on balance the white evangelical/born again contribution to the Republican vote was probably about the same size as it was in 2004.

– Gun owners voted for McCain/Palin in the same numbers they voted for Bush/Cheney last time round: 62-37 in 2008 versus 63-36 in 204

So, in those four major target groups, Palin delivered the goods for the McCain campaign. These are groups that were skeptical about McCain before Palin joined the ticket.

In all four categories, the McCain/Palin share of the vote was virtually identical to the Bush/Cheney share in 2004. That seemed impossible before Sarah Palin.

Sarah Palin will be a force to be reckoned with over the next four years.”

Sarah Palin In 2012


It was a teary-eyed Sarah Palin who waved to the crowd in Phoenix last night and is now on her way home to Alaska to split time as Governor and Mom.

She has a son in Iraq, a daughter pregnant and an infant with Down Syndrome.

She has her hand’s full.

But she has made it clear that this is not the last we will see of Sarah Palin.

“I’m not doing this for naught,” Palin said last week, when asked if all the mudslinging in the campaign made her long for a return to the more sedate politics of Alaska, where she is governor.

After McCain’s stinging loss, Palin, 44, has emerged as one of the strongest brands the Republicans have got.

As one of the most recognisable figures in a party searching for direction and new leadership, Palin’s future role will be a major theme when Republican heavyweights weigh up strategies for the 2010 mid-term congressional elections.

“She definitely is going to be the most popular Republican in this country when this thing is over,” Republican strategist Ed Rollins, and former political director to president Ronald Reagan, told CNN before the election.

And the carefully coiffed conservative Christian who cast herself as a maverick, a reformer and an anti-corruption star, has clearly indicated the 2008 run wasn’t an end-all to her national political ambitions.

“I think that, if I were to give up and wave a white flag of surrender against some of the political shots that we’ve taken, that would bring this whole” endeavour to nothing, Palin told ABC last week.

In the last pre-election episode of NBC’s Saturday Night Live, comedienne Tina Fey, in her much lauded role impersonating Palin, made a show of “going rogue” from the McCain campaign talking points by trying to hawk “Palin 2012” t-shirts.

At Republican rallies in recent weeks supporters too have been seen displaying “Palin 2012″ shirts and banners.

There has been talk in Hollywood of Sarah Palin getting a talk show; talk in Washington of Sarah Palin as the best fundraiser the Republicans have; talk in Alaska of Sarah Palin running for the Senate.

There is a world of options in front of Sarah Palin. She is the star of the Republican Conservative base and if you think she will stay in Alaska for long – you’re wrong.”

http://www.thesarahpalinblog.com/

 if you think the evangelicals have died for long – you’re wrong

Diabetes – Heart Health

 
The INTERHEART study, funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, shows that the risk of heart attack crosses geographic boundaries and correlates strongly to the so-called Western diet that favors salty snacks and fried foods, and to a lesser extent, meat. The risk, spread over five continents, is 30% higher for those who eat a Western diet, the study shows, than for those who adhere to a “prudent diet,” or one rich in fruits and vegetables. An Oriental diet, which is high in tofu and other soy products, doesn’t seem to lower or raise heart attack risk overall, according to the study. Researchers out of McMaster University in Ontario, Canada, examined dietary trends among more than 16,000 participants in 52 countries who were recruited between 1999 and 2003. One-third of the participants, or 5,761 people, were interviewed after having a single heart attack; the remaining 10,646 had no known heart disease, including angina, and did not suffer from diabetes, hypertension, or high cholesterol. The mean age of participants was between 53 and 57 years old. The study categorized eating patterns as Western, Oriental, and prudent. Participants answered written questions and were interviewed by medical personnel about their consumption of 19 food categories, including leafy greens, pickled foods, dairy products, and desserts. All answers were scored according to dietary risk. The study accounted for other risk factors like smoking, body mass index, age, physical activity, sex, and geographical region in assessing overall heart attack risk. It did not track long-term changes in regional eating habits and their link with health problems. Researchers concluded that the higher the regular intake of fried and salty foods, the higher the risk of heart attack regardless of which region of the world one resides in; prudent dietary habits carried the lowest risk. An Oriental diet seemed to be protective against heart attack in some regions of the world, but was not the best hedge overall, perhaps because of the high salt content of soy and other sauces common in the dining choices.  “The objective of this study was to understand the modifiable risk factors of heart attacks at a global level,” says Salim Yusuf, DPhil, the study’s senior author. “This study indicates that the same relationships that are observed in Western countries exist in different regions of the world.” Yusuf is a professor of medicine at McMaster University and is director of the Population Health Research Institute at Hamilton Health Sciences in Ontario, Canada. The study acknowledges that serving sizes and preparation technique (the type of fat used in cooking, for example) could play a role in increasing heart attack risk in participants adhering to a Western diet.  http://www.webmd.com/heart-disease/news/20081020/western-diet-is-a-global-heart-risk
 
Oct. 27, 2008 — A review of 40 clinical drug trials failed to produce reliable conclusions about the effects of oral diabetes medicines on cardiovascular health, despite controversy over the drug Avandia. However, researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health did find that metformin seemed to be associated with a decrease in heart disease and heart-related deaths Despite a finding that the drug trials, most of them short-term, were not comprehensive enough to yield the best data, researchers point to metformin as a drug that is “moderately protective” and Avandia as “possibly harmful.” The earlier analysis of the effect of diabetes drugs on cardiovascular health, reported in TheNew England Journal of Medicine in 2007, showed that Avandia, which works well to reduce blood sugar, was associated with a higher risk of heart attack. However, researchers in that case also acknowledged that their conclusions were limited by a lack of access to original clinical data. http://www.webmd.com/heart-disease/news/20081027/do-diabetes-drugs-affect-heart-health
— It may be possible for people with type 2 diabetes to reverse a heart threat without surgery, a new study shows. The study included 358 people with type 2 diabetes who took stress tests to check their heart’s health. The stress tests showed that a fifth of the patients had silent myocardial ischemia. Translation: Those patients had no heart disease symptoms, but their heart muscle didn’t get enough oxygen during the stress test. Heart muscle needs oxygen, which it gets from blood. Blood flow to the heart muscle suffers if the coronary arteries narrow. Ischemia (and possibly a heart attack) can be the result. The patients and their doctors were free to pick any ischemia treatment. None of the patients got surgery, but they tended to start taking at least one of the following medications:
Aspirin
Statin drugs, which lower LDL (“bad”) cholesterol
ACE inhibitors, which lower blood pressure
Three years after their initial stress test, the patients repeated the stress test. The researchers expected that the patients’ ischemia would have worsened. But they were wrong. Of the 71 patients who had ischemia at the study’s start, 56 patients (79%) no longer had ischemia three years later. That finding was “striking and unexpected,” write Yale University’s Frans Wackers, MD, and colleagues. The researchers aren’t sure that the medications reversed ischemia. For instance, the study doesn’t show whether the patients also got serious about their diet and exercise after learning they had silent cardiac ischemia, or which medications helped most. The surprising results deserve further research, Wackers and colleagues conclude.
http://www.webmd.com/heart-disease/news/20071026/diabetes-heart-help-without-surgery
 

Potassium and Your Heart

Potassium is a simple mineral with a crucial job: helping your heart beat. A hundred thousand times a day, potassium helps trigger your heart’s squeeze of blood through your body. If you have high blood pressure, heart failure, or heart rhythm problems, getting enough potassium is especially important. And although potassium and cholesterol aren’t directly related, eating a potassium-rich diet just might lower your cholesterol, too.

Potassium: Abundant and invisible

Potassium exists in abundance in soil and seawater. A healthy amount of potassium is essential to all plant and animal life. A critical electrolyte, potassium allows our muscles to move, our nerves to fire and our kidneys to filter blood. The right balance of potassium literally allows the heart to beat. Most people get plenty of potassium just by eating a normal American diet. The main source of potassium in our food is fruits and vegetables. Dairy products, whole grains, meat, and fish also provide potassium.

Excellent sources of potassium include:

  • potatoes
  • tomatoes
  • avocados
  • fresh fruits (bananas, oranges, and strawberries)
  • orange juice
  • dried fruits (raisins, apricots, prunes, and dates)
  • spinach
  • beans and peas

Eating a diet rich in fruits and vegetables is the best way to get enough potassium. You’ll also get the other benefits of a high fruits-and-veggies diet. Those include:

  • reduction of heart disease risk
  • lower cancer risk
  • lower risk for obesity

Potassium and your heart

In healthy amounts, potassium is a heart-friendly mineral. Potassium doesn’t treat or prevent heart disease. Numerous studies show, though, that getting enough potassium has heart-healthy benefits in several important ways.

Potassium and high blood pressure

In one major study of people with high blood pressure, taking potassium supplements reduced systolic blood pressure (the top number) by about 8 points. But you don’t have to pop potassium pills to get the heart-healthy benefits. A diet high in fruits and vegetables (good sources of potassium) and fat-free or low-fat dairy foods can help lower systolic blood pressure by more than 10 points in people with hypertension.

Potassium and high cholesterol

A direct link between potassium and cholesterol hasn’t been established. But it’s interesting that many diets proven to lower cholesterol are also high in potassium. If you have abnormal cholesterol levels, you’re at higher than average risk for heart disease. The same goes for anyone with any of the other risk factors for atherosclerosis:

  • smoking
  • high blood pressure
  • age over 55 for men or 65 for women
  • lack of exercise
  • obesity

Taking potassium isn’t known to reduce the risk of heart attacks. But by making sure you’re taking in enough potassium, you’ll probably end up eating more fruits and vegetables. A healthy diet — high in fruits and veggies and low in saturated fat and cholesterol — can help cholesterol levels and reduce the risk of heart disease

Potassium and abnormal heart rhythms (arrhythmias)

For people with abnormal heart rhythms, potassium may be even more important. Potassium is hiding inside every heartbeat. Each heart muscle needs just the right potassium balance in order to contract in a coordinated fashion.

People who’ve had abnormal heart rhythms — arrhythmias or dysrhythmias — are at risk for an uncoordinated heart rhythm. Some abnormal heart rhythms include:

  • atrial fibrillation
  • atrial flutter
  • ventricular tachycardia
  • ventricular fibrillation
  • supraventricular tachycardia
  • Wolf-Parkinson-White syndrome

People with a history of arrhythmias should see a doctor on a regular basis. A periodic potassium check might be part of your routine doctor’s visits.

Potassium and heart failure

For many people with heart failure (also called congestive heart failure), getting enough potassium is especially important. Some diuretics — water pills — for heart failure can cause you to lose potassium in the urine. Potassium supplements or a potassium-rich diet can put it back. Ask your doctor before starting a potassium supplement on your own because it may not be necessary.

Potassium: How much?

When it comes to potassium, it is possible to have too much of a good thing. Healthy people shouldn’t have any problems from eating a high-potassium diet or taking potassium supplements as directed. But people with kidney problems or certain other conditions such as the following need to be cautious about potassium intake:

  • acute renal failure
  • chronic kidney disease or dialysis dependence
  • use of medications that increase potassium levels, including spironolactone (Aldactone), triamterene, or trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole (Bactrim)

How much potassium should you be eating? The easiest thing to do is to increase the amount of high-potassium fruits and vegetables in your diet. You’ll be getting plenty of potassium — with no calculator required.

If you really feel like counting, the USDA recommends 4,700 milligrams of potassium per day. You can find the potassium content in foods on their package labels or from the USDA Web site: http://www.nal.usda.gov.

http://www.webmd.com/heart-disease/potassium-and-your-heart

are you a job misfit?

 

Still even looking for that good  Job? is it really now cause you firstly still have no friends to help you get one, or  you have over estimated your technical- economy value in your greed to get rich quickly?
 
I am amazed how many one sided, lop sided views on employment , too many young persons today do have, especially even those  who do graduate from a technical college, University, etc.,  and they still do expect to get rich immediately, to shortly  have a good job, and they do rather too often get disappointed even because they now firstly have violated the unwritten laws of management, that your own inter personal skills, social skills now are as important as your technical skills.
 
And because you lack social skills, and do not have good friends, you really can even miss out on about 80 percent of the jobs today that are not advertised, but are known only by a word of mouth social network too..
 
That’s unfair that I am being penalized for not being mature enough, for even being a  young person now too.. for my even lacking social skills and social contacts skills you may reply.. Really?
 
But that is not how many employers see it, social values do count,  especially as to  your ability to get along with your superiors, and others often is now more important than the technical skills you do even bring to the job. As simple as that too.
 
Now before you get next do hot and puffy, mad and angry at someone, the whole employment system, first do still think about the personal, social effect it has on your ability to get a job, to keep it too, even on your promotion, as well as your salary now too.
 
  Wise people do!
 
 

My most active, top posts, searches

Most Active

 

Liberal vs Conservatives

Bell Sympatico

Canada’s election not as interesting as the one in the US?

Canada’s Prime Minister Stephen Harper

Being ignorant and showing a false hatred towards the truth

“Why Canada’s Prime Minister Stephen Harper keeps his religion secret ?”

The really Bad Alliance , Evangelical churches..

How I see it.. pretenders

Deliberate unforgiveness

Abortion of older children, teens too

Favorite Christian based reading, resources,

One thing is still very clear the too often pretentious news media and  the too often pretentious  politicians are not actively doing their jobs in helping people to be informed, having the proper facts to be able to make the proper decisions, take the proper actions, so do thank God for the existence of the internet, no matter how imperfect now it itself is as well.. it offers now at least some valid truths to the discerning readers.