Comment Archives: Last 30 Days
Re: “Do Disabled Motorists Need Free Parking?”
Driving is not a human right.
Re: “Highest-Paying Clothing Buyers”
The people that work at the Crossroads on Shattuck are so rude. I absolutely hate doing business with them. Why have an attitude when you work in retail....at a used clothing store....in Berkeley? They act like they are working at Chanel on Rue Cambon! Enough with the sour attitude already. Next.
Re: “Ships in the Night”
hiya! Ships in the Night is a QUEER DANCE PARTY that has been around for 5+ years in the Bay Area. For more information about it check out our blog shipsinthanight.blogspot.com or email us at shipsinthAnight(at)gmail(dot)com. thanks, durt, on behalf of the ships in the night crew
Re: “Breaking News: San Jose Dispensary Landlords Threatened with 40 Years in Prison as Feds' Marijuana Crackdown Continues”
This comment was removed because it violates our policy against anonymous comments. It will be reposted if the commenter chooses to use his or her real name.
Re: “Gut Feeling: Pot Eases Crohn's Disease”
I use cannabis oil or edibles for my pain and it does help my pain
Re: “Oakland Deemed "Most Exciting City in America"”
Guess I'm here at the right time!
Re: “I am Annoyed and Disappointed”
It's logical for Ritter to have assumed that the Landmark Forum was not "mandatory", since it was "recommended" by the Cafe. However, as someone who took Landmark's Forum in the 1990's, I can say that Landmark has a different definition of "recommended". Landmark has one list of "requirments" to attend the Forum and a separate list of "recommendations". However, if you refuse to accept their "recommendations" without giving them an acceptable explanation as to why you will not promise to abide by their "recommendations" (Yes, they actually ask you to stand and promise to abide by their recommendations if you have not sought an exemption from the recommendations, and if you receive such an exemption, they actually instruct you to sit during this portion), instantly those recommendations become a requirement for you. They'll even threaten to call the police to have you removed. In the Forum I attended, they actually threatened one participant with that. A lot of mind control at the Forum! It may not meet the technical definition of a cult, but there is definitely some mind control going on there!
Re: “First Friday, the Movie”
great stuff. Look at my film Oaktown. its just this, it was screened at the oakland international film festival
Re: “Activists Try to Get Rid of Juvenile Records Fee”
This comment was removed because it violates our policy against anonymous comments. It will be reposted if the commenter chooses to use his or her real name.
Re: “Hacking Oakland's Budget”
Thanks Leonard. Though we'd love to, there's no rushing any data that's confined to a PDF, which is where it is for now.
Also, creating a tool to consider different budget scenarios would require vastly more technical and research capacity than we now have as an all-volunteer group. We'd be happy to collaborate with folks that want to support that work though -- we meet every Tuesday at City Hall.
And to the city's credit, they have visualized the 5-year projection -- http://www2.oaklandnet.com/oakca1/groups/c… -- what is lacking are opportunities to have a public dialogue about it, and ways to capture the best ideas that surface as a result. That's what we're working on.
Re: “The Truth About Uncle Ricky”
@ Nate seltenrich DID U THINk all DREAMS MEANS THE TRUTH? GO SLEEP AGAIN AND HAVE A POSITIVE Dream your comment sound like you took some 211 wine. You are mess up in you mind when those awkward words words pop out of ur mind but the matter of facts is that there is freedom of expression next time when you give a comment mind your language about the person your commenting about focus your mind i AnD reality never thing of ur past live and wrong thought and BELIEVES, guess of some body you don't know but u just heard of keep ur mind short for uncle Ricky is a you adult who kep it serious and everything is straight forward remember jeloursey never pays. in GOD WE TRUST.
Re: “Egbert Souse's”
Avoid Egbert Souse's on Piedmont Avenue. Egbert Souse needs to be closed! Egbert Souse's is a nuisance at all times of the day and night. Egbert Souse has a negative impact on Piedmont Avenue residents, visitors and businesses. Egbert Souse's customers are always blocking the sidewalk in front and around the bar. Fights break out at least twice a week (including with weapons). Customers sit in their cars playing loud music while drinking and using drugs. The City of Oakland has even filed lawsuits against Egbert Souse's. How many people have to be shot and killed at Egbert Souse's to get it shutdown?
Re: “Hacking Oakland's Budget”
The application is very helpful at demystifying the city's two year budget.
I hope the volunteers can rush out a version that gives the 5 year projection for the city's finances under different assumptions of police spending and of making payments to fund our huge retirement and infrastructure expenses that are projected to come home to roost big time in two to three years.
We need the 5 year perspective to see how decisions we make now will have large consequences just a couple of years out.
Re: “Do Disabled Motorists Need Free Parking?”
Reading some of the comments here is really getting me upset - more than the article itself even! People who are able-bodied just don't get it! I can barely walk. I use a cane and should be in a wheelchair probably, but I keep pushing myself until the day I simply won't be able to walk any further. That said, people are so ignorant of what we go through! They think all disabled people are in wheelchairs and are mobile, right? Well, for me, walking to the meter box, walking back to my car, then onto my destination can be more than I can bare! I am in constant physical pain. On a scale of 1 to 10 I'm a 12, but I keep going because I HAVE to! I am a single mom with no other options, so I keep on going. Yes, there are A LOT of people abusing the placards and I think there should be a different system. And I would be ok with paying for parking if there was a way that I could do it without the walk back and forth (which can be quite long in some places!). BART? There's no transportation options for me. Not near bart. Can't walk the blocks to the bus stop. Unable to ride a bike (my hip is my issue or I would!). And speaking of BART....have you ever thought about how much walking is required in a station? I have to walk FAR to get to the elevator to get to the train. I get off at the next station and the elevator is at the complete opposite end of the station. The walk has brought me to tears! People just don't get it! But I am just happy to have the closer parking spot for parking and again, I'm not looking for free parking, just closer, more convenient parking. Come up with a better solution that doesn't cost more than the city would make by making us pay, and then I'd be happy to do so!
Re: “Do Disabled Motorists Need Free Parking?”
There is a reason for the free parking......Disabled people need to stay independent. I cannot walk to a bus stop or Bart. I often need to park at a meter for a doctor's appointment, a store or yes even a movie. I don't have the option of coming back to feed a meter or parking a few blocks away in an unmetered spot (if i can find one) Those that don't have to walk in my shoes (or try to walk in them) just don't get it. Your bodies are working the way they are supposed to. Well my body used to do that too. Now i need to park at a meter and I need to stay independent. This reporter is so misguided. Go after the fraudsters. Nancy Pearlman
Re: “San Diego Mayor Bob Filner Comes Out Swinging for Medical Marijuana”
Mr. Filner is a very special mayor to back MMJ as strongly as he does. Thankfully more and more Californian's are getting behind marijuana usage (for responsible adults adults). With the help of other respectable people in the MMJ community (including ASA and politicians) we may just get legalization in CA:) http://www.californiadispensaryinfo.com/
Re: “Breaking News: San Jose Dispensary Landlords Threatened with 40 Years in Prison as Feds' Marijuana Crackdown Continues”
The DOJ's claims to be protecting "school children" is a joke, given the closer proximity of liquor stores, sex shops, and other adult businesses to schools. Sorry Haag but the politically correct "protecting our children" scheme doesn't work anymore. People are smarter now, especially in the Bay Area. ---Quit wasting our tax dollars to attack other citizens.
Re: “Breaking News: San Jose Dispensary Landlords Threatened with 40 Years in Prison as Feds' Marijuana Crackdown Continues”
Just another political move to setup for RAIDS on state approved medical marijuana dispensaries. Notice the timing, how these RAIDS always happen after every election season... Reminds me during the end of Alcohol Prohibition. Law enforcement knows its getting to the end and making one final punch to cash in on the government's 7 billion dollar budget on the war against marijuana. Much easier to go after defenseless medical marijuana pharmacies than real drug criminals: Cartels and organized drug trade. So SAD that our tax dollars are used to arrest other citizens.
Re: “US Judges Can End Drug War, Researchers Say; 'Institutional Racism' Creates Unequal Protection for Whites”
Great article!
Re: “California Supreme Court: Cities Can Ban Medical Marijuana Dispensaries”
FDA approved Prescription drugs kill some 200,000 Americans every year.
http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/feature…
"An estimated 770,000 people are injured or die each year in hospitals from adverse drug events (ADEs) defined as an injury resulting from medical intervention related to a drug. Not all, but many, IF NOT MOST, of these adverse drug events are preventable."
http://www7.nationalacademies.org/ocga/tes…
* The number of deaths from drug poisonings in the U.S. has increased sixfold since 1980.
* In 2008, more than 41,000 people in the U.S. died from intentional and accidental poisonings. Nine out of 10 were due to drugs. These deaths exceeded the number of deaths from automobile accidents making poisoning the leading cause of injury death. (CDC National Center for Health Statistics 1980 to 2008)
Fully 40% of these deaths in 2008 involved the use of prescription opioid pain relievers such as codeine, fentanyl, hydrocodone, morphine, and oxycodone, (was 25% in 1999) - In 2008, Cocaine was involved in about 5,100 deaths and heroin was involved in about 3,000 deaths.
http://www.webmd.com/pain-management/news/…
* PRESCRIPTION PAINKILLERS: drugs like oxycodone and hydrocodone, the main ingredients in Oxycontin and Vicodin, landed 305,885 Americans in emergency rooms in 2008 -- more than double the 144,644 visits in 2004, (2010 study by Samsha and the CDC)
Overdose deaths involving these opioid pain relievers (oxycodone and hydrocodone; and synthetic narcotics such as fentanyl and propoxyphene) now exceed deaths from heroin and cocaine combined (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)
Prescription drug overdoses have been increasing in the United States over the last decade, and by 2008 had reached 36,450 deaths—almost as many as from motor vehicle crashes (39,973).
http://www.acep.org/MobileArticle.aspx?id=…
* VIOXX: On January 24, 2005, the medical journal The Lancet published on its website a report on Vioxx risks that was previously blocked by the FDA. The study found that Vioxx may have caused as many as 140,000 cases of heart disease in the United States and as many as 56,000 deaths during the five years that it was on the market. The newly published study of 1.4 million patients shows that that low doses of Vioxx increased the risk of heart disease by about 50%, and higher doses increased it by 358%.
http://www.vioxxnews.com/
* ACETAMINOPHEN: ( found in more than 300 products with sales in the billions of dollars annually) Acetaminophen overdoses are the leading cause of acute liver failure (ALF) in the United States, Great Britain and most of Europe. Acetaminophen toxicity accounts for approximately 50% of all cases of ALF in the United States and carries a 30% mortality—More than 100,000 calls to Poison Control Centers, 56,000 emergency room visits, 2,600 hospitalizations and nearly 500 deaths are attributed to acetaminophen in the United States annually.
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002…
* ANTIDEPRESSANTS: The respected journal, PLoS ONE, published a study in June 2010, showing that men who are depressed and take trycyclic, SSRI, or any other antidepressants die at a significantly greater rate than those who don't. - Performed in Australia, the study followed 5,276 men aged 68-88.
"The results of this study indicate that the 6-year adjusted mortality hazard is twice as high for men with depression compared with non-depressed men and that the use of antidepressants is associated with an independent rise in mortality of 30%. .. We found that antidepressant treatment increases the mortality hazard of men by 30%, and this association is independent of the presence of clinically significant depression. .. It is also important to consider that the use of antidepressants has been associated with numerous potentially harmful effects, some of which may increase morbidity and mortality. For example, antidepressant treatment has been linked to increased risk of injurious and non-injurious falls in cross-sectional and longitudinal studies, and there is some evidence that the use of common antidepressants increases the risk bleeding in various body systems, including the central nervous system, as well as the risk of incident diabetes. In addition, recently published findings from the Nurses' Health Study showed an increase in the number of sudden cardiac deaths associated with the use of antidepressants, a result that is consistent with our observation of an excess of cardiovascular deaths amongst men using antidepressants."
http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%…
Postmenopausal Women on antidepressants are 45% more likely than those not on such medication to have a stroke, and 32% more likely to die of any cause. - There is an increased likelihood of Hemorrhagic strokes (bleeding in the brain) which is possibly the result of the anti-clotting effect of selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitors (SSRIs) which are most frequently prescribed for depression. The authors of the study noted that since post-menopausal women make up the largest segment of patients in the United States on antidepressants, the resulting increases in strokes and deaths across the country could be significant.
http://archinte.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/s…
A study published in 2009 found that SSRIs interfered with the breast cancer medication tamoxifen, with tumors more than twice as likely to return after two years in women taking antidepressants compared with those taking tamoxifen alone.
Children whose mothers take Zoloft, Prozac or similar antidepressants during pregnancy are twice as likely as other children to have a diagnosis of autism or a related disorder.
http://edition.cnn.com/2011/HEALTH/07/04/a…