Healthcare provision seeks to embrace prayer treatments

Backed by some of the most powerful members of the Senate, a little-noticed provision in the healthcare overhaul bill would require insurers to consider covering Christian Science prayer treatments as medical expenses.

The provision was inserted by Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah) with the support of Democratic Sens. John F. Kerry and the late Edward M. Kennedy, both of Massachusetts, home to the headquarters of the Church of Christ, Scientist.

The measure would put Christian Science prayer treatments -- which substitute for or supplement medical treatments -- on the same footing as clinical medicine. While not mentioning the church by name, it would prohibit discrimination against "religious and spiritual healthcare." [...]

About 90 years ago, private insurance companies began paying for Christian Science prayer treatments, but more recently, managed-care insurers declined reimbursements, insisting on paying for care that produced proven medical results.

The Internal Revenue Service allows the cost of the prayer sessions to be counted among itemized medical expenses for income tax purposes -- one of the only religious treatments explicitly identified as deductible by the IRS. Some federal medical insurance programs, including those for military families, also reimburse for prayer treatment. [...]

Dr. Norman Fost, a pediatrician and medical ethicist at the University of Wisconsin, said the measure went against the goal of reducing healthcare costs by improving evidence-based medical practices. "They want a special exception for people who use unproved treatments, and they also want to get paid for it," he said. "They want people who use prayer to have it just automatically accepted as a legitimate therapy."

My theory is that the fine people of 555 California are just sad that they don't get enough flashmobs.

"I Will Break Your Fucking Camera"

"I had heard that the security guards at 555 California were unappreciative of photography. I mentioned this to Stuart and we agreed that these types of rules were silly and served no real purpose. So we decided to check it out and within a few moments several security guards greeted us with wagging fingers and walkie-talkies.

"No photography, they stated clearly. Why, we responded. Safety, they said.

"I decided to challenge this statement and the older of the bunch (left) asked me if I wanted to be punched in the face. No, I replied, I have to go back to work and a black eye would make things awkward for me. He then asked me how I would feel if he broke my camera. I told him I would be bummed, but that I needed an upgrade and if he touched me or my camera I would seek monetary legal action to the extent of a brand new Canon 5D Mark II."

Previously, previously, previously.

Also, Drugs in Portugal: Did Decriminalization Work?

In 2001, Portugal became the first European country to officially abolish all criminal penalties for personal possession of drugs, including marijuana, cocaine, heroin and methamphetamine. [...] Five years after personal possession was decriminalized, illegal drug use among teens in Portugal declined and rates of new HIV infections caused by sharing of dirty needles dropped, while the number of people seeking treatment for drug addiction more than doubled.

"Judging by every metric, decriminalization in Portugal has been a resounding success," says Glenn Greenwald, an attorney, author and fluent Portuguese speaker, who conducted the research. "It has enabled the Portuguese government to manage and control the drug problem far better than virtually every other Western country does."

Compared to the European Union and the U.S., Portugal's drug use numbers are impressive. Following decriminalization, Portugal had the lowest rate of lifetime marijuana use in people over 15 in the E.U.: 10%. The most comparable figure in America is in people over 12: 39.8%. Proportionally, more Americans have used cocaine than Portuguese have used marijuana.

After months of complaints by European dairy farmers angry over low prices, protesters in Brussels on Monday poured milk onto the streets, hurled eggs and other missiles, and started fires that filled the air with black smoke. Police helicopters hovered overhead as hundreds of tractors - and some cattle -- blockaded the area outside the European Union's headquarters while agriculture ministers met in an emergency meeting.

Previously.

September 29th 2009

Friday 9/11/09 8:35AM 1546 Market St.: Officer Woo was standing on Market St at Franklin dealing with transient related call when he observed the suspect being chased by an woman. The woman saw Officer Woo and yelled "help, help she just stole ice cream from my store." Officer Woo detained the suspect and recovered the stolen ice cream. The victim stated the suspect entered her store and opened a bag of chips and started eating them. The victim told her to stop it. The suspect refused, took off her shoe and hit the victim over the head. The suspect then went into the freezer, stole the ice cream and ran. The suspect was booked at County Jail 9.

Saturday 9/12/09 12:09 AM 1155 Market St.: Officer Forneris and Officer Madrid were on patrol when they were dispatched to a call of a person who was assaulted with a cane. Officer Cronin and Officer O'Keeffe arrived on scene and detained the suspect. The Officers spoke to the victim who stated the suspect beat her multiple times on her head and back with his cane. The victim stated the suspect just kept yelling that his girlfriend told him to beat her up. The suspect was booked at County Jail 9.

Sunday 9/13/09 11:29 PM 563 Natoma St.: Officer Gunter and Officer Tack were responding to a call of a burglary. Upon their arrival, Officer Forneris and Officer Madrid had the suspect detained with the assistance of Sgt. Frazer and Officer Glynn. The suspect had taken off the security gate and was crouched down by the front door of the residence. When the suspect saw the Officers he tried to pull his hood over his head to hide. But that didn't work!! When Officer Cronin and Officer Tack made contact with the residents they stated that they were sleeping when they heard a loud bang. The suspect was trying to kick open the door. Both victims were terrified for their life. The suspect had numerous prior arrests for violence and theft. The suspect was booked at County Jail 9.

Tuesday 9/15/09 11:05 PM 479 Natoma St.: Officer Pedroza, Officer Frost, Sgt. Christ and Sgt. Bragagnolo were working plain clothes in the area. The Officers and Sergeants were walking east on Natoma St. when they observed a hand to hand narcotics transaction. When the two suspects saw the Officers they both tried to throw their rocks of cocaine they had. One of the suspects even tried to throw the cocaine down a storm drain. HOWEVER, Sgt. Bragagnolo was smarter then the suspect!! Sgt. Bragagnolo got a rake handle, put a piece of chewing gum on the tip of the handle and was able to recover the one piece of rock cocaine that fell down the gutter! GOOD McGyver work Sgt. Bragagnolo! All in all the Officers/Sergeants recovered nine pieces of rock cocaine. Both of the suspects were booked at County Jail 9.

"Nice boots."        

Here's Barack and Michelle Obama with Spanish Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero and his family. The State Department uploaded it to Flickr. (What an unlikely sentence!) Whoops -- no one in Spain has ever seen Zapatero's Goth daughters before!

According to Zapatero, Spanish law allows him to prevent the Spanish media from running any photographs of his 16 and 13-year-old daughters Laura and Alba. For their privacy, see. And because maybe it would be considered weird for the PM to have goth daughters, but it totally shouldn't be. It is a natural part of life, becoming a teenaged goth.

Iran police 'target mannequins'

Iranian police have warned shopkeepers not to display female mannequins without a hijab, or showing bodily curves, Irna news agency reports.

Display of bow ties and neckties, and the sale of women's underwear by men are also banned, the police said.

The move is part of a crackdown on Western influences and enforcement of dress codes in recent years. "Un-Islamic behaviour" has been targeted since President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's first election in 2005.

"Using unusual mannequins exposing body curves and with heads without hijabs [Muslim veils] are prohibited to be used in the shops," police said in a statement carried by Irna.

Correspondents say that in the past such campaigns usually only lasted throughout the summer, but last year's crackdown, including on tight trousers for women, was still continuing in the winter.

Iranians who violate dress codes for the first time are generally cautioned, but repeat offenders can face court action and "guidance classes".

Cops clean up Tenderloin   [ it really says that! ]

A three-week sweep targeting Tenderloin drug dealers is the beginning of a tough-on-crime era dawning on the gritty neighborhood, authorities promised Wednesday.

"Let's get it really clear," San Francisco police Chief George Gascón said at a Tenderloin Station news conference. "We're not talking about a war on poor people or a war on the homeless. We're talking about a war on drugs and organized crime."

From Aug. 13 to Sept. 2, police arrested 302 people in the neighborhood. Most of the arrests were undercover narcotics stings, in which suspects sold crack-cocaine, heroin and prescription painkillers to police. Nearly half the people arrested were on felony parole or probation, police said. Dealers commuted to the open-air drug market from as far away as Stockton, Fresno and Santa Rosa.

Google has deleted DNA Lounge from Street View. This happened a few months ago, and was not corrected by yesterday's Street View update. Ever since Street View launched, you've been able to see DNA Lounge in it (evidence from more than two years ago!) but now, all of Eleventh Street between Bryant and Mission is missing from Street View. And hey, why bother to drive the entire length of Sixteenth Street? That's not a significant part of town either, right?

But the truly baffling part is: why would they bother to delete old imagery instead of just updating it as newer stuff comes in? That's completely retarded.

WTF, Google.

Microwave weapon will rain pain from the sky

The Pentagon's enthusiasm for non-lethal crowd-control weapons appears to have stepped up a gear with its decision to develop a microwave pain-infliction system that can be fired from an aircraft.

The device is an extension of its controversial Active Denial System, which uses microwaves to heat the surface of the skin, creating a painful sensation without burning that strongly motivates the target to flee. The ADS was unveiled in 2001, but it has not been deployed owing to legal issues and safety fears.

Nevertheless, the Pentagon's Joint Non-Lethal Weapons Directorate (JNLWD) in Quantico, Virginia, has now called for it to be upgraded. The US air force, whose radar technology the ADS is based on, is increasing its annual funding of the system from $2 million to $10 million.

Previously.

Obviously the workaround is to stay away from Fisherman's Wharf.

Zipping past Fisherman's Wharf, Chris Paget's scanner downloaded to his laptop the unique serial numbers of two pedestrians' electronic U.S. passport cards embedded with radio frequency identification, or RFID, tags. Within an hour, he'd "skimmed" four more of the new, microchipped PASS cards from a distance of 20 feet.

"There's a reason you don't wear your Social Security number across your T-shirt," Albrecht says, "and beaming out your new, national RFID number in a 30-foot radius would be far worse."

But Gigi Zenk, a spokeswoman for the Washington state Department of Licensing, says Americans "aren't that concerned about the RFID" in a time when "tracking an individual is much easier through a cell phone."

You stay klassy, Bozeman, Montana.

Applying for a job with the City of Bozeman? You may be asked to provide more personal information than you expected.

That was the case for one person who applied for employment with the City. The anonymous viewer emailed the news station recently to express concern with a component of the city's background check policy, which states that to be considered for a job applicants must provide log-in information and passwords for social network sites in which they participate.

The requirement is included on a waiver statement applicants must sign, giving the City permission to conduct an investigation into the person's "background, references, character, past employment, education, credit history, criminal or police records."

"Please list any and all, current personal or business websites, web pages or memberships on any Internet-based chat rooms, social clubs or forums, to include, but not limited to: Facebook, Google, Yahoo, YouTube.com, MySpace, etc.," the City form states. There are then three lines where applicants can list the Web sites, their user names and log-in information and their passwords.

[...] "We do those types of investigations to make sure the people that we hire have the highest moral character and are a good fit for the City," Sullivan said.

The new software "is programmed to reject attempts at exuberance or human warmth." "It will send an error message if it detects a non-neutral expression," the DMV spokeswoman said.

Very nice:

In the event you're stopped by overzealous law enforcement or security officials attempting to enforce fictitious laws, I've designed these fictitious and official-looking Photographer's Licenses. If you have Adobe Illustrator, you can download the vector art EPS file and print your own. You'll need a photo of yourself, and OCR or an equivalent-looking font to fill in your personal information.

Department of Homeland Security Photographer's License
San Francisco Muni Photographer's License