Now come to think of it I believe I just contact a New Reporter instead.

surf kid that's my cash advance balance limit that my CC# has placed.

Spy Master Admits Error
Intel czar Mike McConnell told Congress a new law helped bring down a terror plot. The facts say otherwise.
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Spy Master Admits Error
Intel czar Mike McConnell told Congress a new law helped bring down a terror plot. The facts say otherwise.

By Michael Isikoff and Mark Hosenball
Newsweek
Updated: 6:38 p.m. ET Sept 12, 2007
Sept. 12, 2007 - In a new embarrassment for the Bush administration top spymaster, Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell is withdrawing an assertion he made to Congress this week that a recently passed electronic-surveillance law helped U.S. authorities foil a major terror plot in Germany.

The temporary measure, signed into law by President Bush on Aug. 5, gave the U.S. intelligence community broad new powers to eavesdrop on telephone and e-mail communications overseas without seeking warrants from the surveillance court. The law expires in six months and is expected to be the subject of intense debate in the months ahead. On Monday, McConnell—questioned by Sen. Joe Lieberman—claimed the law, intended to remedy what the White House said was an intelligence gap, had helped to “facilitate” the arrest of three suspects believed to be planning massive car bombings against American targets in Germany. Other U.S. intelligence-community officials questioned the accuracy of McConnell's testimony and urged his office to correct it. Four intelligence-community officials, who asked for anonymity discussing sensitive material, said the new law, dubbed the "Protect America Act,” played little if any role in the unraveling of the German plot. The U.S. military initially provided information that helped the Germans uncover the plot. But that exchange of information took place months before the new “Protect America” law was passed.

After questions about his testimony were raised, McConnell called Lieberman to clarify his statements to the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, an official said. (A spokeswoman for Lieberman confirmed that McConnell called the senator Tuesday but could not immediately confirm what they spoke about.) Late Wednesday afternoon, McConnell issued a statement acknowleding that "information contributing to the recent arrests [in Germany] was not collected under authorities provided by the 'Protect America Act'."

The developments were cited by Democratic critics on Capitol Hill as the latest example of the Bush administration's exaggerated claims—and contradictory statements—about ultrasecret surveillance activities. In the face of such complaints, the administration has consistently resisted any public disclosure about the details of the surveillance activities—even thought McConnell himself has openly talked about some aspects of them.

The Justice Department, for example, just two weeks ago filed a brief opposing the public release of secret legal opinions about the program—even in redacted form—on the grounds that any disclosure beyond a one-sentence comment earlier this year by Attorney General Alberto Gonzales would “cause serious damage to the national security of the United States.” (The existence of one of those rulings was first disclosed by NEWSWEEK this summer and publicly confirmed by McConnell in an interview with the El Paso Times in August. The ACLU last month filed an unprecedented motion with the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court seeking public release of its rulings about the surveillance program.)

The flap over McConnell’s latest statements is especially sensitive because many Democrats have said they felt the White House and the director of national intelligence stampeded them into passing the new surveillance law—claiming it was needed on an “emergency” basis to protect the country against a future terror attack. Speaking Wednesday at a meeting of the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington, Rep. Jane Harman, who was ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee until she was bumped from the committee earlier this year, charged that McConnell had politicized negotiations over the bill. He "appeared to be taking orders from the White House, negotiating for the White House," said Harman. The role he played, "whether he intended it or not, appeared to be political," she said. "Hey—Jane to Mike," she said. "Don't become a political actor."

McConnell's testimony that the new law helped in the German case was especially striking—since it seemed to contradict public statements by American and German officials about how the plot was exposed. About 10 months ago—long before the new law was put into effect—guards at a U.S. military base near Frankfurt noted a suspicious individual conducting surveillance outside the facility. U.S. military officials tipped off German authorities, who quickly identified the individual and several accomplices as militants affiliated with the Islamic Jihad Union, a violent Al Qaeda-linked group. The Germans kept the group under surveillance for months and discovered evidence that the militants—some of whom had been to an Islamic Jihad Union training camp in Pakistan—were assembling chemicals for bombing attacks on American military installations in Germany. (The U.S. Embassy in Berlin issued a public warning last April that it had received intelligence reporting about threats against U.S. personnel in that country.) One U.S. intelligence official described the law-enforcement operation as a case of “good old-fashioned police work.”

Yet when McConnell testified before the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee, he cited the German case as an example of how the new Protect America Act was working. The law, he started to say, "allowed us to see and understand all the connections with ..." At that point, Lieberman, the committee chair, interrupted McConnell. Lieberman expressed surprise that the law might have contributed to the German counterterror operation. "The newly adopted law facilitated that during August?" he asked.

"Yes, sir, it did,” McConnell responded. “The connections to Al Qaeda, the connections specifically to what's referred to as IJU, the Islamic Jihad Union, an affiliate of Al Qaeda. Because we could understand it, we could help our partners through a long process of monitoring and observation ... And so at the right time, when Americans and German facilities were being targeted, the German authorities decided to move."

Counterterrorism officials familiar with the background of McConnell's testimony said they did not believe the intel czar made inaccurate statements intentionally as part of any strategy by the administration to goad Congress into making the new eavesdropping law permanent. Officials said they believed McConnell gave the wrong answer because he was overwhelmed with information and merely mixed up his facts. Nonetheless, some officials said, as news of McConnell's misstatements spread, it would be in the intelligence director's best interests to correct his testimony—advice he is now heeding.

I had a hellava day deal with my bank Chase Bank. There appears to be a problem where they are going through manually correcting Credits and Debits. I'm not sure what happen but if you have a Credit card or Debit Card check your receits and see if matches to your balances.

I'm have a Chase Credit card and when I look back at the ATM withdrawals that I used it with the amount goes from, and I only take out $20 at a time, from

DATE:08/30/07
Amount : $20.00
Available Balance: $580.00


DATE: 08/30/07
Amount: $20.00
Available Balance: $560.00


DATE: 08/30/07 ???!!!!
Amount: $20.00
Available Balance: $560.00 ???!!!!


DATE: 09/01/07
Amount: $20.00
Available Balance: $540.00


DATE: 08/30/07 ???!!!!
Amount: $20.00
Available Balance: $540.00 ???!!!!


DATE: 09/01/07 ???!!!
Amount: $20.00
Available Balance: $480.00 ???!!!


From what I gather at the end of the at last transaction the fix the problem. Because it totals up to $120 worth withdrawals. So from $600 subtract $120.00 you get $480.00.
I also notice that it appear to be a weekend thing. 08/30/07 is a Friday and 09/01/07 is a Saturday.


When I went to my bank they said they were haven't computer problems with credit accounts.

I'm also having problem with my debit card. It appears that when I withdraw money using my Debt card there are double withdrawals taken out. And again it's an ATM withdrawal and on weekends that appear out of order.

I tried calling the debit card dept to dispute the withdrawal amount and said that the the my bank branch told me that they
have credit account problems and were fast fixing the problem. The customer phone service rep that they, the Credit dept and Debit dept were 2 separte divison and do not contact each other.

I should have suggest to her that because I have both a Chase Credit Card and a chase Debit card that it could have spread.

Unfortunately she wasn't very understanding and she denied my dispute request.


I suggest that if you have Chase Bank that you check your Credit and Debit card receits and if it appear that they don't match then either go to the bank to dispute, go file a complain with the police, or go to a lawyer to dispute the amount credited or debited. Remember to bring proof!!!!

Personal I did the first thing, go to the bank to dispute the charges. They weren't too much help

Now I'm going the the police to file the complaint.

If the police as unhelpful as the bank then I hiring a lawyer.

No federal hate crime charges in torture case
Woman held, abused for a week was not a random target, prosecutor says
MSNBC video


No hate crime charges in torture case
Sept. 12: Federal prosecutors say they will not seek hate crime charges against six people charged with the abduction, assault and torture of a West Virginia woman. NBC's Pete Williams reports.
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Updated: 4:14 p.m. ET Sept 12, 2007
BIG CREEK, W.Va. - Six white suspects accused of torturing a young black woman for days in West Virginia will not face federal hate crime charges, Justice Department officials told NBC News on Wednesday.

At one point, an assailant cut the woman’s ankle with a knife and used the N-word in telling her she was victimized because she is black, according to the criminal complaints.

The Justice Department said it will defer to West Virginia in prosecuting the six suspects.

Story continues below ↓
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Logan County Prosecutor Brian Abraham said his office would pursue other charges first because they carry stiffer penalties. West Virginia’s hate crime law carries a sentence of up to 10 years.

Also Wednesday, Abraham said the woman, who allegedly was sexually assaulted and forced to eat rat droppings, was not a random target.

One of the six suspects arrested in the case, Bobby Brewster, had a previous relationship with the victim, Abraham said. He said Brewster had been charged in July with domestic battery and assault after a domestic dispute involving the same woman.

“She obviously had some sort of social relationship,” Abraham said. “That is based on the fact that she was present at his residence on a prior date.”

If true, that evidence would undercut the hate crime law, which applies to crimes motivated by racial hatred and not by non-race-related conflicts.

Grisly details
Megan Williams, 20, was found beaten and bruised at Brewster’s mother’s home in rural Big Creek on Saturday.

MSNBC.com generally does not identify suspected victims of sexual assault, but Williams and her mother agreed to release her name. Carmen Williams, Megan William's mother, said she wanted people to know what her daughter had endured.


According to criminal complaints, Megan Williams, 20, was detained and assaulted for about a week.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

According to the criminal complaints, Williams’ captors, all of them white, choked her with a cable cord and stabbed her in the leg while calling her a racial slur, poured hot water over her, made her drink from a toilet and made her eat dog feces and rat droppings.

She was also beaten and sexually assaulted during a span of about a week, according to the complaints.

It wasn’t until an anonymous tip led Logan County Sheriff’s deputies to the property on Saturday that her ordeal ended. She limped toward the deputies, her arms outstretched as she cried, “Help me!”

“I didn’t know there were people like that out here,” Carmen Williams said Tuesday from her daughter’s hospital room.

Previous arrest records
Police tape now surrounds the entrances to the beige-and-brown mobile home. An extension cord runs from the home to a cramped shed where authorities believe Megan Williams was held with a portable stereo, a locker and a power saw.

The suspects in the case have previous arrest records going back several years, according to records from Logan County Magistrate Court, and Abraham said he had “some familiarity with all those individuals.”

Since 1991, police have filed 108 criminal charges against the six.

Brewster’s mother, Frankie Brewster, 49, faced the most serious charges among them. She was charged in 1994 with first-degree murder, but pleaded guilty to lesser charges of manslaughter and wanton endangerment. She was released from prison in 2000 after serving five years in the death of 84-year-old Polly T. Ferrell, court records show.

Six in custody
In Williams’ case, Frankie Brewster is charged with kidnapping, sexual assault, malicious wounding and giving false information during a felony investigation.

Bobby Brewster, 24, also of Big Creek, is charged with kidnapping, sexual assault, malicious wounding and assault during the commission of a felony.

Danny J. Combs, 20, of Harts, is charged with sexual assault and malicious wounding.

Karen Burton, 46, of Chapmanville was charged with malicious wounding, battery and assault during the commission of a felony.

Burton’s daughter, Alisha Burton, 23, and George A. Messer, 27, both of Chapmanville, are charged with assault during the commission of a felony and battery. She previously faced charges of assault during the commission of a felony and battery; in May, she was accused of striking Messer with a shovel and smashing the window of a woman’s car. The charges are pending.

All six remained in custody Wednesday in lieu of $100,000 bail each.

Public Defender Dwyane Adkins, appointed to represent Bobby Brewster, declined to comment on the case. The other defendants’ court-appointed lawyers were either in hearings or did not immediately return telephone calls Wednesday.

The home at Big Creek is quiet now. Newborn pups sleep in the entryway to the small shed, their mother protectively barking at approaching strangers.

Megan Williams, her right arm in a cast, may be well enough to leave the hospital within a few days, her mother said.

“I just want my daughter to be well and recover,” Carmen Williams said. “I know the Lord can do anything.”

Why not? For clone any way. Most men testostrone levels are drop world wide every generation. Conicidentically lowering male ferility. In the future it might be that DNA datebases are the way for human civilization to keep going.

Well not actually on a plane. But some trie to fly with 30 dead snakes on a plane.

Man's bags contained 30 dead reptiles in jars, bottles; officials investigating
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Updated: 1:14 p.m. ET Sept 9, 2007
ATLANTA - Airport security officers are used to finding strange critters while screening luggage, they just don't encounter the kind that have venom too often.

A man flying into Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport from South Korea recently packed 30 dead snakes in jars and bottles inside boxes he checked as luggage, said Jon Allen, spokesman for the Transportation Security Administration.

Even though the creatures were lifeless, screeners took extra precautions because U.S. Fish and Wildlife officers warned that some of the snakes could still contain venom, Allen said.

A dead bird and pieces of several other birds also were in the passenger's boxes aboard the Korean Air flight on Aug. 15, officials said.

The passenger, whose name has not been released, faces possible fines. Federal wildlife officials are investigating.

Allen said he has no idea what the passenger intended to do with the creatures.


Now if that movie title almost came true how close can the right wing religious movie "The Mark Unleased" can come to fruition.

So we continue to fight a war to help place a corrupt government in power. The funny thing is back in the 80 the US help Saddam stay in power. Heck in 1984 a Iraqi missile hit a US navy ship but we didn't do any thing because they said it was an accident.
We're just replacing a old corrupt nation that was once our ally with new corrupt nation will HOPEFULLY be our ally.

I seem to have hit a bump with a debate with fellow member on the site, he refuses to respond. Putting an impass to see who won the debate. So I just take the case with the you the public.

Is silica just another form of silicone.

Silica, which is a known cancer agent, is natural form of silicon and silicone is silicon build with organic compounds so it's it's not techincal silica or silicon. Silica by the way is sand but you don't inhale or ingest it so the health risk of cancer is much lower than you expect. Heck you go to the beach and built sand castles with it. Silicone is used in breast implants and products that are used in every day life. There have been concern wherther Silicone is safe. Silicone breast implants were common then banned and back on the market.

Now would you feel comfortable having silicone implants in you if you now know that silicone is just in the same chemical family as silica?

I came across an article where chemical found in everyday products are causing a lowering of testorstone in men, male gential birth defects and lowering sex drive. And these product are pesticides on food crop, plastics, even colonges. It make me want to go "al natural."


Cross your legs, men. A phenomenon called xenobiotic attack is meddling with your manhood, and your family jewels may never hang the same way again.
By Richard Conniff, Men's Health

In 2003 Professional golfer Shaun Micheel took his game to a new level. He won the PGA Championship on the 72nd hole with his 21st birdie of the tournament. Then everything seemed to fall apart.

"I lost my drive. I didn't enjoy practicing anymore. If I made a couple of bogeys, I just wanted to go home," he said at the time. It was more than a slump. He barely even showed up on the professional circuit the following year. At first he thought it was depression. "I seemed to be tired all the time, and irritable. I wasn't myself."

But in April 2005, a blood test showed that, at the age of 36, Micheel had the testosterone level of a 70-year-old. His doctor had him rub a hormone-replacement gel onto his biceps each morning. By September his testosterone level was back to normal.

It wasn't a miracle cure. He still hasn't won another major tournament, though he did manage a second place finish last year. But Micheel is working his way back up the list of money winners. More important, both he and his wife say testosterone has given him back his old, upbeat personality.

Good news for him, but what about the rest of us? Some scientists now wonder if a lot of other "walking, talking, normalish guys," as one urologist put it, are also experiencing a fading of the hormonal basis of masculinity, leaving them feeling less like the men they used to be, less than their fathers were in their time.

Most men can expect their testosterone levels to drop by about 1 percent a year beginning in their 50s. So a man in his 70s might have only half the testosterone he had when he was 25. But researchers behind the Massachusetts Male Aging Study—which has been tracking behavioral and physiological traits for 1,709 men born between 1916 and 1945—noticed something strange. Men born more recently had T levels that were surprisingly low. The 60-year-old in 2003 had about 15 percent less testosterone than the 60-year-old in 1988, according to Thomas G. Travison, Ph.D., lead author of the testosterone study. Sixty was looking like the new 70. Had something happened? Could we be in the middle of some broad biological or environmental change affecting all men simultaneously?

No one was suggesting that men rush out to get their testosterone levels checked (though, okay, I did), much less consider testosterone therapy (and, yes, I am considering it). As one endocrinologist put it, "You need to see more than one study from more than one laboratory before you start waving your arms and shouting alarm."

But the Massachusetts results marked a turning point: Testosterone is no longer just a hot topic for misguided weight lifters or baby boomers with delusions of eternal youth. It's something the average aging male will need to think about, starting with a few testosterone basics.

Testosterone is literally what makes us men. Delivery of the right amount at the critical moment shifts development of a fetus away from the basic human blueprint, which is female, and onto the path to masculinity. A surge in testosterone (from the testes—hence the name) in adolescence boosts us into manhood. And for the rest of our lives, testosterone, or the lack of it, seems to play a key role in muscle strength, lean body mass, bone density, mental sharpness, and sex drive—the things that often make us feel best about who we are.

Despite testosterone's explosive reputation, there's no solid evidence that it causes aggression or violence. On the contrary, heightened testosterone is often associated with self-confidence and social success. Testosterone levels typically increase to ready us for a challenge, whether it's a football game or a chess match. Testosterone also rises after a victory, causing an increase in confidence that often leads to even more victories, the so-called winner effect. Who would want less of a hormone like that?

And yet the quantity of the stuff, even in healthy young men, is astoundingly small. Most doctors measure total testosterone as the starting point, and for American men under the age of 40, the normal range is 300 to 1,000 nanograms per deciliter of blood. (That's what "ng/dl" means on your medical laboratory report.) A nanogram is a billionth of a gram, and a deciliter is a 10th of a liter. Or, to put it in layman's terms, not bloody much. If you somehow managed to collect all the testosterone from your entire body, it would barely fog the bottom of a shot glass.

But it gets more complicated. Testosterone occurs in the blood in three forms.

About 40 percent of total testosterone is tightly bound to sex hormone-binding globulin, or SHBG, meaning it's not readily available for use by the body. In fact, nobody knows for sure what function SHBG-bound testosterone performs.

"Free testosterone" isn't bound to other molecules. But it constitutes just 2 percent of total testosterone.

Fortunately, the balance of total testosterone is bound to albumin and other proteins, and those links are easily broken. So together with free testosterone, this "bioavailable" testosterone is there when the body needs it.

You could look at it this way: Your manhood is based on half of almost nothing. And there's less of it with each passing year.

Measuring testosterone is complicated, because the tests themselves aren't always reliable, and results can differ from one lab to the next. "Normal" levels can also vary dramatically from one man to the next. And they can vary from minute to minute in the same man; testicles seem to do everything in spurts. That's because testosterone levels fluctuate with the little wins and losses of daily life. So if a test suggests that you have a testosterone problem, do not despair: There's a one-in-three chance you'll be back to normal on a follow-up.

But none of this diminishes the mystery: Why would testosterone levels in the United States today be substantially lower than they were 15 years ago? When they saw their results, the Massachusetts researchers thought they'd made a mistake. "We'd used the same lab, the same assay, and the same analyst to gather the data over time," says Travison. "But even so, subtle changes in the way the assay was manufactured could have had some impact."

Then in the summer of 2006, Travison attended an Endocrine Society meeting where another researcher, Antti Perheentupa M.D., Ph.D., from the University of Turku, in Finland, presented evidence of a similar decline. The Finnish results suggested the change was happening among younger men, too. A man born in 1970 had about 20 percent less testosterone at age 35 than a man of his father's generation at the same age. "When I saw another group reproducing our results," says Travison, "that was convincing to me that we were seeing a true biological change over time, as opposed to just some measurement error."

One possible explanation for the decline is obvious: Men are fatter now. In the Massachusetts study, the average 60-year-old man in 1988 was already well past overweight (a body mass index, or BMI, of 25). But his 2003 counterpart was pushing obese (a BMI of 30). And obesity, says Travison, is "a very powerful predictor of low testosterone." Gain 10 percent in your BMI and you can expect your testosterone to drop by about the same amount. As a result, fat men typically have up to 25 percent less total testosterone than their trim counterparts do. (Fair warning: This doesn't make them girly men. SHBG—the stuff that locks up half your testosterone—also decreases with obesity. That means even a fat man with low total testosterone may have enough of the bioavailable stuff to crush you between his manboobs.)

Taking multiple medicines also tends to decrease testosterone, and a quarter of the Massachusetts test participants were practicing "polypharmacy"—taking six or more medicines at the same time. This was partly because the test group had aged. But in tandem with the obesity epidemic, participants also seemed to be experiencing an Rx epidemic. In 1988, 38 percent of the men were not taking regular medications. By 2003, not one man could make that claim.

Still, obesity and polypharmacy together weren't enough to explain the loss of testosterone. Nor was the dramatic decline in smoking among participants, though quitting can sometimes cause a decrease in testosterone. To filter out these effects, Travison's group looked at a subsample of 500 nonsmokers who were neither obese nor taking a large number of drugs. And even these apparently healthy men displayed the same exaggerated decrease in testosterone.

Scientists have been arguing for years about whether they are seeing a worrisome pattern in male reproductive-health problems around the world—and also about whether environmental factors are to blame. Fertility, which moves in tandem with testosterone, has dropped not only in industrialized nations like Sweden, but also in Sri Lanka, without any apparent change in contraception or abortion rates. Increasing numbers of boys are being born with genital abnormalities, including undescended testicles, and urethras that exit in odd places along the penis. In Denmark, 40 percent of young men have a subnormal sperm count, and the rate of testicular cancer is among the highest in the world. In the United States testicular cancer has recently become the most common malignancy among Caucasian men ages 15 to 35. Some researchers have grouped these developments together as "testicular dysgenesis syndrome," or TDS, with "dysgenesis" meaning abnormal development of the male organ.

There are plenty of experts who question the evidence of such a syndrome. But Mitch Harman M.D., Ph.D., an endocrinologist at the University of Arizona college of medicine and the director of the Kronos Longevity Research Institute, sees the shadow of Silent Spring. Back in 1962, when Rachel Carson published her environmental classic, estrogen-like substances in the insecticide DDT were making eggshells so thin that they were crushed by nesting parents; populations of eagles and other large birds plummeted. And today? Dr. Harman says, "I'm concerned that we're just pouring chemicals out into our environment that are endocrine-suppressing, estrogen-like compounds," possibly causing similar disruptions in human reproduction. The authors of a recent article in the Medical Journal of Australia likewise suggest that from early fetal life onward, male hormonal and reproductive functions are under "xenobiotic attack," meaning chemicals not naturally found in the body appear to be disrupting normal biological development.

For instance, 90 percent of American men have evidence of chlorpyrifos in their urine. This shouldn't be surprising, since up to 19 million pounds of the stuff was distributed across the United States in 1999 alone, much of it in household products like tick-and-flea powder for pets, lawn treatments, and common insecticides. Though residential use is now restricted, chlorpyrifos is still common in agriculture, as well as in some professional applications; for most people, diet is now the main source of exposure. In a recent Harvard study, men with the highest chlorpyrifos exposure typically had 20 percent less testosterone than those with the lowest exposure.

Carbaryl is another possible culprit. Detectable levels turn up in 75 percent of American men, and having it in your urine appears to be associated with reduced sperm count and liveliness, or motility, as well as increased DNA damage. And yet we still apply carbaryl to lawns and gardens at a rate of up to 4 million pounds a year, mostly by way of an insecticide known as Sevin. There should be a bumper sticker: Honey, the lawn shrunk my testicles.

Phthalates are also everywhere, almost certainly including your own body. Manufacturers use them in colognes and cosmetics and as softeners in plastics. Baby bottles now come "phthalate-free," but hospital intravenous bags generally don't. And yet some phthalates seem to have all of carbaryl's unpleasant associations with reproductive health. And not just in men: Last year Greenpeace issued a warning against the danger of phthalates in your girlfriend's sex toys. Then the Danish Environmental Protection Agency came riding to the rescue, declaring such toys safe - as long as she keeps it to an hour or less a day.

Scientists can't say that any of the suspect chemicals actually cause the reproductive effects that are occurring. They can only point out troubling associations. But these associations seem to be proliferating. About 50 new chemicals come onto the market weekly, says Dr. Harman, and while testing for carcinogenicity is required, "there's no systematized testing for subtle endocrine effects."

We're not likely to have good answers anytime soon. The reproductive problems of human males will remain understudied, says Dr. Harman, in part because federal research dollars are being diverted to issues like biological warfare and terrorism. "We might just wind up disappearing from the planet quietly," he says, "because we were too busy fighting wars to figure out that our reproductive systems were going south."

All this could make testosterone therapy a more likely part of your life as you age. Demand is already booming. Last year, according to IMS, a pharmaceutical information company, U.S. doctors wrote more than 2.5 million testosterone prescriptions, and the market was worth more than $500 million to pharmaceutical companies. That's double what it was 5 years ago. If the decline in testosterone levels turns out to be real, the market could easily double again, with 6 to 12 percent of men in some age groups likely to qualify as "hypogonadal," to use the medical profession's distinctly depressing term. (Loosely translated, it means "tiny testicles.")

Misuse of testosterone-based steroids to build muscle is booming. It's already twice as common as heroin abuse among U.S. 12th graders. Baby boomers have also latched onto testosterone therapy as an anti-aging remedy, despite a dearth of supporting evidence.

At the same time, Australian andrologist David Handelsman, Ph.D., worries that doctors are failing to diagnose cases of genuine testosterone deficiency, resulting in "lifelong consequences" for younger men. As a result, testosterone therapy "suffers simultaneously from both overuse and underuse." And yet evidence about whether such therapy is safe or effective is "shockingly weak," says the Mayo Clinic's Victor M. Montori, M.D. "There is no way for physicians to be certain when prescribing testosterone that, on average, it's doing more good than harm."

So is it safe to use testosterone therapy, even under a doctor's care? Does it cause prostate cancer, as some suggest? Here's where the debate stands now: First, the fear isn't that testosterone will cause prostate cancer. It's a natural product of the human body, and no evidence anywhere has ever shown it to be a carcinogen. Scientists worry instead that adding testosterone may fuel the growth of small cancers that already exist, undetected and harmless, in the prostates of many older men.

The only reliable way to gather scientific evidence on the prostate-cancer question would be the sort of large-scale, long-term study endocrinologists have tried and failed to get the government to undertake since 1999. That's roughly the same period in which testosterone use doubled in this country. So men are, in effect, undertaking the same experiment themselves, on their own bodies—haphazardly, and with no way to track the results.

The debate over testosterone levels was kind of a parlor game for me when I started researching this article. I'm married, a father of three, and neither overweight nor a smoker. I lift weights, and I row crew 6 miles a day in season. My appetites and my outlook on life have always seemed healthy. It never occurred to me that my testosterone levels might be low. Using testosterone therapy to prolong the illusion of youth made about as much sense to me as hair plugs.

Then I had a blood test, and my total-testosterone level came back way low. It looked like the batting average of an okay hitter in a bad month near the end of his career. Suddenly, I listened a little more sympathetically when Abraham Morgentaler, M.D., an associate clinical professor of urology at Harvard, started making the case for test-osterone-replacement therapy. "What's amazing to me is the passion this testosterone issue generates in people," he was saying. "There are a couple of issues that come up. 'Why can't we just age normally? Why do we have to have 70-year-old men chasing their wives like they did when they were 25? Why can't they just be 70?' And I think it's the most ridiculous argument. Bad vision is age related, as are bad hearing, bad joints, bad hearts, bad blood vessels. Even cancer is age related. We treat all these things so we can live longer or happier. And the change in hormonal levels? If it's treatable and the therapy is safe, reasonably speaking, why would we want to withhold treatment from somebody?"

The case for considering testosterone therapy became even more compelling this past summer, when researchers at the University of California at San Diego released results from their long-term study of men over 50. Participants whose testosterone levels tested low in the early 1980s but who were otherwise healthy had a 33 percent higher risk of death over the following 2 decades. Another study, from the University of Washington, looked at men over 40 who already had health problems, and found that low testosterone dramatically increased their risk of death.

But I didn't immediately try to alter my T levels. The standard medical guidelines for treatment are strict. I qualified on the first count: "unequivocally low serum testosterone levels." But I didn't have "consistent symptoms and signs" of low testosterone.

For doctors who take the conservative approach, the symptoms that matter most are physical changes, such as shrinking of the testicles, development of breasts, a decrease in spontaneous erections, or a loss of muscle bulk and strength. Doctors who take a looser approach often recommend therapy to men with the sort of complaints almost everyone experiences at some point: "Do you tire more easily? Is it more difficult to get and stay in shape? Is there less desire to exercise? Have you lost some of the zest for life?" I didn't fit either set of symptoms.

Given the nuances involved, anybody thinking about testosterone therapy needs to consult a specialist. My doctor, an endocrinologist, pointed out that, despite the low total testosterone, my free testosterone was normal. He also discovered a slight thyroid hormone deficiency, a potential cause of low testosterone. So while he wasn't ruling anything out, it didn't look like T-time just yet.

Those are the kind of judgments a lot more men will be making over the coming years, as the population ages and further evidence comes in on health and reproductive issues. For some men, both young and old, testosterone therapy will seem like a miracle, a second chance at life as a man. But the effects can also vary dramatically from one person to the next. So for other men, it won't make much difference at all. "I'll be 64 in April," says one endocrinologist, whose total testosterone is "sky high" at 640, "and I don't feel the same as I did when I was 44. There's more to aging than hormones."

So which are you? And what should you do? A good doctor is the place to start, but even doctors have no certain answers, and your government has guaranteed doctors won't get answers for decades to come. So when it comes to doing the right thing about testosterone, the truth is that you're pretty much on your own.

The question remains: Are you man enough right now? Will you be, 10 years from now?

So Silica is cancer element found in natural materials such as sand and quartz, silicone is a cancer element with organic compounds and implanted in people to "monitor" their health.

Hey philly did you see the movie?

Oh don't bother answering I found the answer is YES!

Read below or cut paste link


http://cti.itc.virginia.edu/~meg3c/ethics/cases/dcc/dccpart2.html

Part 2: SILICONE ??? [6]

Silicon, silica, silicone--what’s the difference? Silicon is a chemical element, one of the 109 known substances that constitute the universe's matter. Second only to carbon in its presence on earth, one-quarter of the earth’s crust is silicon. Carbon is also the only element capable of producing more compounds than silicon; thus, silicon possesses immense potential for commercial application. One of the premier semi-conducting elements, silicon is used in many electronic devices, such as transistors and computers.

However, one does not find silicon alone in nature. It always exists as silica or silicates. Silica is silicon dioxide (SiO2), commonly found in sand and quartz. A silicate is a compound made of silicon, oxygen, and at least one metal, sometimes with hydrogen, sometimes without it. Talc, all gemstones but diamond, and clays are natural silicates. The most widely recognized synthetic form is sodium silicate, or water glass, a combination of silica with sodium and hydrogen. Capable of ". . . combining chemically with most metallic oxides," 7] silica is important in both the chemical and industrial realms. It appears in a wide range of products, from glass to cosmetics to the amorphous silica gel we find with our new shoes. (Materials lacking the molecular lattice structure of a solid state are amorphous, for example, all liquids. Thus, an amorphous form of a material possesses the same atomic makeup as the crystalline version, but without a"highly ordered geometry" [8].)

Silicone is a synthetic polymer, or macro-molecule, whose backbone is a repeating chain of Si-O molecules, with various organic groups attached to the silicon. The most common silicone is PDMS, poly-dimethylsiloxane [(CH3)2Si-O), the foundation of all silicones. Silicones have been introduced into many products, from cosmetics to building materials to computers. Commercial silicones are separated into six groups according to the number of repeating units and the number of ties linking these units: ". . . fluids, emulsions, compounds, lubricants, resins, and elastomers."[9] A fluid is characterized by its uniform change in shape or direction when an outside force is applied, so that it includes all liquids. Typically, silicone fluids are straight chains of PDMS ending in trimethylsyl groups, ranging in viscosity from that of water to fluids that cannot be poured. An emulsion is a stable combination of at least two immiscible liquids, one present in the other as droplets, for example, oil in water. A compound in this context is a formulated or compounded mixture. Lubricants are "materials of low viscosity that separate moving solids, used to minimize friction and wear."[10] A silicone resin is a substance which is ". . . non-combustible, electrically nonconductive, hard and glassy when . . . cold, and soft and sticky . . . [above] . . . the glass transition point."[11] Finally , an elastomer describes a synthetic polymer which behaves much like natural rubber, i.e. can be stretched to several times its size and still snap back to its original length.

Silicone gels lie somewhere between a fluid and an elastomer. They are "lightly crosslinked" PDMS molecules, forming a three dimensional array "which . . . [is] . . . swollen with PDMS fluids to give a sticky, cohesive mass without form. . . "[12] and, thus, are more complex than a fluid; however, the gel's composition is less dense than that of the elastomer, which has only minute portions of its fluid not crosslinked. An elastomer surrounds the gel in silicone breast implants

And here is a link about Silica being placed as a knowed cancer causing agent.

http://www.osha.gov/SLTC/silicacrystalline/overlooked.html

Are Other Health Effects of Silica Exposure Being Overlooked?


by
David F. Goldsmith, PhD
Public Health Institute


The National Conference to Eliminate Silicosis March 23-25, 1997 in Washington DC enjoyed a splendid turnout of over 600 attendees. In my opinion, the conference attention on silicosis to the exclusion of discussion of other silica health effects was very shortsighted . However, I was delighted by the opening remarks by NIOSH Director, Dr. Linda Rosenstock, who pointed out that we now know that silica exposure is a risk factor for several "new" conditions, and that deliberations should be expanded to consider other health problems such as cancer, autoimmune diseases, nephritis and other kidney diseases, and tuberculosis (TB).

What is the evidence for these other conditions? Last month the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) changed the classification of silica from 2A (probable human carcinogen) to 1 (known human carcinogen). The change to IARC Type 1 means that occupational silica dust exposure is considered like other known human carcinogens such as asbestos, vinyl chloride, radon daughters, smoking, and DES. It means that companies are likely to change their Material Data Safety Sheets (MSDS), that workers need to be informed, and that where there are alternatives to silica (such as sandblasting) that they need to be sought out. The change in IARC status does not mean that the controversy about carcinogencity is over, but it does mean that the evidence is sufficient to convince a group of IARC experts that silica increases the risk of lung cancer. Furthermore, it goes a long way to meeting the criteria for causation we use in epidemiology. There is other evidence to suggest that silica is linked to stomach cancer, lymphatic cancers, and skin cancer, though the IARC focus was on pulmonary malignancies.

The other health effects are not "new," but we now have good epidemiology studies of recent vintage showing that silica exposure (with and without silicosis) is linked with several autoimmune conditions which previously there were only case studies: rheumatoid arthritis, scleroderma, Sjogrens' syndrome, and lupus. There is also accumulating epidemiology evidence that occupational silica exposure is linked with kidney diseases such as nephritis and end-stage renal disease.

With a narrow focus on silicosis, we tend to overlook serious conditions that often accompany silicosis--silicoTB and cor pulmonale (enlargement of the heart muscle). Although these two secondary effects of silicosis are declining in the U.S. (as is silicosis), they remain killers of relatively young workers in developing countries and in China and former Soviet Union. Sadly we also must acknowledge the epidemic of acute and accelerated silicosis that descended upon Mexican workers in the Midland-Odessa, Texas area in the early part of the 1990s, some 60(!!) years after the Gauley Bridge disaster. These men were vastly overexposed to silica, without any protection, in several oil pipe sandblasting operations, and they have many of the autoimmune ailments as well as fatal silicosis.

Thus, the silicosis prevention we all hope to achieve should include these other diseases: cancer, autoimmune illnesses, kidney diseases, and TB. Furthermore, the employees we need to communicate with about this hazard must receive information in languages of the workers at risk, not in English only.

David F. Goldsmith, PhD
Public Health Institute
2001 Addison Street, 2nd Floor
Berkeley, CA 94704-1103 USA
davegold@publichealth.org

Hey Philoshper you didn't answer my question. Isn't silicone made from cancer causing silica?

Here's an article on the amount of corruption that an Iraqi official quit over and is now seeking asylum in the US.

Iraqi official: ‘Corruption has crippled Iraq’
Top watchdog resigns, accuses al-Maliki Cabinet of corruption

Official alleges corruption in al Maliki cabinet
Sept. 7: A top corruption fighter in Iraq says the U.S. should no longer support that government. NBC’s Lisa Myers reports.
Nightly News

U.S. officials say the battle to clean up Iraq's government has suffered a "serious blow" with the resignation of the nation's top corruption fighter. The former watchdog, Judge Radhi Al Radhi, tells NBC News that Iraq's current government, headed by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, is riddled with so much corruption that the U.S. must stop supporting it. Rahdi is now in the United States, and his departure from the Iraqi government comes just as the U.S. prepares for a key report from Gen. David Petraeus about the military "surge" in Iraq.

Until last week, Rahdi headed the Iraqi government department responsible for rooting out graft and fraud in Iraq's young government. It is called the Commission on Public Integrity, or CPI. It refers its investigations into corrupt officials to Iraqi courts for prosecution.

But Rahdi recently resigned, and he says that was because of numerous threats on his life by corrupt Iraqi officials. "They have militias," he says, "and they attacked my neighborhood with missiles and these missiles fell very close to my house." If he returns to Iraq under current circumstances he believes he'll be killed.

Rahdi says there is corruption at the highest levels in various ministries. Prime Minister al-Maliki is not corrupt himself, he alleges, but protects corrupt ministers and allies and has repeatedly obstructed investigations.

"He is protecting all the accused people who belong to his political bloc," he says. "He has interfered a lot in many ways. At first, he had issued orders for us not to try or even bring any cases to court with any previous or current ministers."

Rahdi complains pervasive corruption has crippled Iraq and added to the suffering of the Iraqi people. "The reconstruction of Iraq has almost stopped," he says. "[There's] no water, no electricity, no gas, no oil."

He explains corruption is a key factor: "This corruption has made our economy stale. It's frozen our economy; freezing our economy led to a lot of unemployment. Therefore crime and terrorism is occurring everywhere in Iraq. The militias are smuggling the oil and using that money to buy weapons."

His investigations have revealed graft and fraud throughout the Iraqi government, including cases against high-ranking officials in the Oil Ministry, the Interior Ministry, the Health Ministry and the Transportation Ministry. "There have been millions of dollars spent rebuilding the Ministry of Defense, but the security day after day is getting worse," he says. "Also, many millions have been spent on the Ministry of Interior, and still there is no security. The same thing happened in the Ministry of Health: The militias stole medicine, and they took medical and health equipment. I don't even want to tell you about the Ministry of Trade, where they're giving food to people that is not edible for any human being."

The al-Maliki government says corruption is a problem but denies blocking criminal investigations. And it has counterattacked — accusing Rahdi himself of being corrupt, charges U.S. officials dismiss. An al-Maliki spokesman says al-Maliki cooperated with Rahdi.

One critic of Rahdi is Sheikh Sabah Al-Saady, a minister of parliament who oversees corruption issues. American officials are skeptical of him. He told NBC that there are 50 charges against Rahdi and that Rahdi fled from Iraq. Radhi dismisses the charges, as do American officials. Some speak anonymously because they are not permitted to talk to the press.

But Stuart Bowen, the special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction, has worked with Judge Radhi and says he thinks highly of him. "Judge Radhi by my judgment was an honorable man and an effective crime fighter in Iraq, and it’s a loss for Iraq that he is no longer there," Bowen told NBC in an interview.

"This is a very serious blow to the corruption-fighting effort in Iraq," Bowen said. Bowen's office monitors how U.S. funds are spent in Iraq and investigates crimes involving U.S. projects in Iraq.

Rahdi clearly despairs for his country and says there is no longer any hope of progress under the current Iraqi government. He says of America, "When they realize that that they're paying money and lives without results, they will stop the support." Asked if the U.S. should drop support of the al-Maliki administration because of corruption, he answers "yes."

U.S. officials say they expect Rahdi to seek political asylum here, escaping threats from the very government America is supporting.

The al-Maliki government already has named his replacement at the Commission on Public Integrity, a man U.S. officials say was previously accused of corruption.

oh by the the movie's title was "The Mark Unleased." If you saw it please tell me how it ends.

Speaking about chips being implanted in people I rented a religious right-wing movie where the people in the world are implanted with chips that monitor their thoughts. It supposedly is a source of pleasure and it also controls emotional reactions. Aparently in the movie the anti-christ is now the president of the world and the way he tries to conquer the world. He does it by implanting the chips with the uses of deception, say it will help will stresses of life and health monitoring.
I didn't see the whole movie but just by hearing news of a politican helping get past a implant to do just about the same thing and ran for the president is just eerie.

Hey philospher isn't silicone made from silica? Because silica is a cancer causing agent.

The problem is Iran and it's growing influence in the region. Bush's mismaged war gave them an opportunity and with US military bog out in a Iraq civil war they see chance to gain control of Iraq's oil fields. To further the problem American support of the Iraq war is waning, like wise are Arab states trust in the American military as a stabilizing and protecting force in the region.

Arab countries like Saudi Arabia, Eygpt, Lebenon, Kuwait, and Israel all dislike and distrust Iran. Iran is the threat but unfortunately these same nations disagree with each other and can't unifiy against Iran.

Syria is an ally of Iran and the two nations secretly support the insurgency in Iraq.

In my opinion the best strategy unite the Saudi Arabia, Eygpt, Lebenon, Kuwait with ecomonic incentives where there depend on each other and forge diplomatic relationships. Then let that unified group pry Syria from Iran with those same economic incentives. Syria stops it's support of the insurgency. Iran then is isolated in the region.

In reguard to Iraq we'll have to force them to have greater responsibility in protecting themselves. That we'll have to pressure the Iraq government to reform for that to work.

Support the the insurgency works when people don't have the homes, infrastructure, and jobs to live on. We have create jobs, rebuild and restore utilities and services in areas that are stable so that economy builds up. When people go back to work support for insurgency will drop.

If the US is to stay in Iraq the next president should make it clear to the American public that our involvement is to protect the Arab states from Iran. Bush made the mistake to sell this as a war on terror rather than a move to put pressure Iran to change. The next president who ever he or she has to pick up the ball from Bush's fumble.

Gardenforge! What? You thought this is a cut and paste rant? Well I did cut and paste but it's not a rant! I just pass along some information that factual. Heck this is solid financial advice.

Forget about American auto industry, let us give up our market share, as well as our j-o-bs, to Japan, or Germany. Banks, with their morgages mess, is in the toilet, along with stock prices.

Just invest in bombs, bullets, guns, mercenaries and you will a make a financial, and literal, killing. You could sell your knives to those mercenaries and double your money back.

Seriously now, I only continue to post about this mismanage war that the White House hoodwinked us into is to remind you and people like you that you can't avoid the truth. This war was not about some just and noble war on terrorism. It's about an administraion overstepping their power with a great miscaluation in world affairs, economy, ethnic relations.

Until the nation can get out of this adiminstration's war, only then can we fix our economy, deal with illegal imigration, pay down national debt, get universal health insurance, create and protect American jobs.