Monday, October 13, 2014


News Clips For The Day


"Stalker apps" are legal, but maybe not for long
By JULIA DAHL CBS NEWS
October 13, 2014, 6:00 AM

When federal authorities recently arrested a man for making and marketing a so-called "stalker app," Cindy Southworth of the National Network to End Domestic Violence was thrilled.

"My gut reaction was, 'yippee!'" Southworth told 48 Hours' Crimesider. "One down, hundreds to go."

Hammad Akbar, a Pakistani native and the CEO of the company that makes StealthGenie, is accused "selling a mobile spyware application that illegally intercepts wire and electronic communications made using smart phones," according to the federal complaint.

Marketed to people who suspect their significant other is cheating, StealthGenie boasted that it is "100% undetectable" once uploaded to a person's phone, and immediately starts allowing the user to monitor the communications from that phone via an online server, the complaint states. But according to Southworth and others, these apps make illegal activities - like stalking - dangerously easy.

"We try to minimize the victim's exposure to the stalker, and technology like this thwarts it," says Michele Archer, a director at the victim's advocacy group Safe Horizon. "You can be a living room stalker. It's a lot less effort."

Archer says Safe Horizon is seeing more and more women who say their abuser or stalker seems to know where they are all the time, and worry they may be reading their emails or tracking them via the GPS locator on their mobile phone or a vehicle security system like OnStar. This can pose a particular problem for victims who share a mobile plan with their abuser.

Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) has been pressuring federal agencies to investigate the makers of these spyware apps since 2011. In June 2014, Congress held a hearing on his bill seeking to outlaw apps that allow a user to monitor a person's location via GPS tracking and read their text messages or listen to their voicemails.

"My bill would shut down these apps once and for all," Franken told the Senate's Judiciary Subcommittee on Privacy, Technology and the Law.

According to a National Network to End Domestic Violence survey, 72 percent of programs serving domestic violence and stalking victims in the U.S said their clients had reported being tracked using GPS devices. And both Archer and Southworth say that telling victims to just turn off their phones may cause as many problems as it solves: the lack of a mobile phone makes it difficult to call for help, or locate nearby services if you are in danger.

"Domestic violence is about keeping the victim under your thumb," says Southworth. And what better way to keep someone under your thumb than to install a difficult-to-detect application on their phone that will tell you where they are at all times.

"Imagine the trauma of surviving domestic and sexual violence," testified Anoka County Minnesota Detective Brian Hill at June's Senate subcommittee hearing.

"Now add cyberstalking to that trauma. Stealth stalking apps endanger domestic violence victims' safety, financial stability, and social well-being."

After Akbar's arrest on Sept. 30, Sen. Franken issued a statement urging fellow lawmakers to act on his bill, called the Location Privacy Act of 2014.

"Currently there is no federal legislation banning the secret collection of location data," he said. "My bill would finally put an end to GPS stalking apps that allow abusers to secretly track their victims."

While surreptitious location tracking remains legal, Safe Horizon's Archer, herself a survivor of stalking, says she advises victims who suspect they're being tracked or spied on to turn their phones completely off when they are visiting places they wouldn't want their abuser to know about - a battered women's shelter, for example, or an attorney's office.

Archer also emphasizes the importance of keeping a record of the abuser's behavior, including saving messages and logging dates and times when he or she showed up at a place you didn't tell anyone you were going to visit.

"If you can show a pattern of behavior that would give a reasonable person fear," says Archer, police can take action.




Senator Al Franken says of his bill “Location Privacy Act of 2014” – "'Currently there is no federal legislation banning the secret collection of location data,' he said. 'My bill would finally put an end to GPS stalking apps that allow abusers to secretly track their victims.'" When I heard he had been elected I was interested to see what sort of politician he would make, and I definitely think his heart is in the right place. Hopefully apps using common devices to track and stalk someone will soon become illegal if this bill passes. At the present, stalking itself is already illegal, but the victim has to keep a record of abuser's messages and logging dates and the times when he or she magically shows up where the victim is when she thought she was safe. Hammad Akbar, a Pakistani native and the CEO of the company that makes StealthGenie, has been arrested for selling an illegal spyware application, so the federal police are actively trying to stamp out this particularly frightening and dangerous crime.






Minnesota's Liberian Immigrants Fear Stigma From Ebola – NPR
by MATT SEPIC
October 10, 2014

The community is reeling from the deaths of loved ones back home and local leaders are driving home the message: don't go home to grieve, stay here, protect yourselves.

MELISSA BLOCK, HOST:
We're going to hear now about the impact of Ebola on Liberian-Americans. One of the biggest Liberian communities in the U.S. is in Minneapolis. Many community members have lost relatives to the disease. And their leaders are urging them not to travel home for funerals. Matt Sepic of Minnesota Public Radio has our report.

MATT SEPIC, BYLINE: When Fomba Konjan got a call from his brother in Monrovia - the Liberian capital - the news was grim. Seventeen members of their extended family, including many nieces and nephews, had died of Ebola. That was a month ago. Now, it's much worse.

FOMBA KONJAN: Actually, my father's side, I lose 24, which is two dozen. And my mother's side - I lose eight.

SEPIC: That includes his sister. He says it's especially hard to grieve from 5,500 miles away.

KONJAN: We just stay here and pray to God: save our country and our continent and so on.

SEPIC: The West African community here includes about 12,000 people born in Liberia and nearly all know someone in the old country who's been sick and/or killed by Ebola since the outbreak began. At this suburban community center, Liberian-Americans are celebrating Eid ul-Adha, a Muslim holiday. About a quarter of Liberians in Minnesota are Muslim. Kids chase each other up and down the halls as about 100 adults gather in a banquet room.

Mohammed Dukuly - an imam - says he's been beseeching his flock to fight the urge to travel home, even, he says, if it means forgoing the traditional burial rite of washing the deceased person's body.

MOHAMMED DUKULY: The person who is already dead is dead. Our responsibility as Muslims, our obligation is to protect the living.

SEPIC: He says protecting the living also means protecting the immigrant community from the stigma Ebola carries. He's referring to Dallas, Texas, where Liberian national Thomas Duncan died after contracting the virus in Liberia and then traveling back to the U.S. Some African immigrants in Dallas say they've been told not to come to work. Here, Dukuly says his biggest worry is that an infected person will show up in Minneapolis.

DUKULY: The stigmatization that brings to our community. Someone from West Africa came into that place and has caused problem for people in Texas.

SEPIC: Abdullah Kiatamba is helping Dukuly get out the message. Kiatamba heads a group called the Minnesota African Task Force Against Ebola. It was formed to raise money and awareness. He also tells people not to travel home.

ABDULLAH KIATAMBA: It makes sense to support your family. But if you go to Africa now, some of your family will have Ebola, and they will not tell you they have Ebola. And when you come back, and you don't feel good, when they ask, you say, oh no, I don't think I got Ebola. I think I got malaria. And when they find out, you'll be on CNN.

SEPIC: These warnings appear to be working. Travel agent Jannie Seibure says Liberians who've already bought tickets to go back home for Christmas - and most Liberians are Christian - are now canceling their travel plans.

JANNIE SEIBURE: In recent times, that's all we see - a lot of refunds from passengers that had already made plans to travel to Monrovia, Sierra Leone and Guinea.

SEPIC: Back at the community center celebrating the holiday, Hakeen Sylla says most people have enough common sense not to travel.

HAKEEN SYLLA: People understand that you can't just go. People are dying just for being there and helping other people.

SEPIC: Sylla is one of the few Liberian-Americans here whose relatives have escaped Ebola so far. Even still, his closest contact with them for the foreseeable future will be by phone. For NPR News, I'm Matt Sepic in Minneapolis.




KONJAN: We just stay here and pray to God: save our country and our continent and so on.... SEPIC: The West African community here includes about 12,000 people born in Liberia and nearly all know someone in the old country who's been sick and/or killed by Ebola since the outbreak began. At this suburban community center, Liberian-Americans are celebrating Eid ul-Adha, a Muslim holiday. About a quarter of Liberians in Minnesota are Muslim. Kids chase each other up and down the halls as about 100 adults gather in a banquet room. Mohammed Dukuly - an imam - says he's been beseeching his flock to fight the urge to travel home, even, he says, if it means forgoing the traditional burial rite of washing the deceased person's body.... SEPIC: He says protecting the living also means protecting the immigrant community from the stigma Ebola carries. He's referring to Dallas, Texas, where Liberian national Thomas Duncan died after contracting the virus in Liberia and then traveling back to the U.S. Some African immigrants in Dallas say they've been told not to come to work. Here, Dukuly says his biggest worry is that an infected person will show up in Minneapolis.... SEPIC: Abdullah Kiatamba is helping Dukuly get out the message. Kiatamba heads a group called the Minnesota African Task Force Against Ebola. It was formed to raise money and awareness. He also tells people not to travel home.... And when you come back, and you don't feel good, when they ask, you say, oh no, I don't think I got Ebola. I think I got malaria. And when they find out, you'll be on CNN.... Travel agent Jannie Seibure says Liberians who've already bought tickets to go back home for Christmas - and most Liberians are Christian - are now canceling their travel plans.”

As this epidemic reaches its fingers outside the three African countries hit by the virus, I think it is safe to say that everybody worldwide has some anxiety on the subject, especially Africans. So far there have been no white reprisals against these African communities, that could come in the future if a full scale outbreak happens here. Somehow a nurse treating the deceased Duncan either made a mistake in taking her protective suit off, failed to don it correctly, or was contaminated severely during his dialysis or lung intubation. In today's CBS article on the subject of avoiding contact with the virus, Dr Tom Frieden, Director of the CDC is quoted, “"In taking off equipment, we identify this as a major area for risk,' Frieden said. 'When you have gone into contaminated gloves, masks or other things, to remove those without risk of contaminated material touching you and being then on your clothes or face or skin and leading to an infection is critically important and not easy to do right.'” I am very much afraid that we can expect more of these errors – being a little clumsy just once can cause death.




Porridge Aficionados Vie To Make Theirs The Breakfast Of Champions – NPR
by RICH PRESTON
October 10, 2014

Dr. Samuel Johnson's dictionary once summarily dismissed porridge, defining oats as a "grain, which in England is generally given to horses, but in Scotland supports the people."

That was in the 1700s. These days, porridge is seen as more cool than gruel. Today is World Porridge Day — and to celebrate, London hosted its own porridge-making competition.

"Most people think of porridge as a winter dish, and a richer, heavier dish. But I do think it's coming back in vogue. In the last 10 years, it's risen in profile," says Toral Shah, a competitor at Friday morning's event.

Porridge is traditionally Scottish, with its heritage in the oaty diets of crofters, or tenant farmers, of the remote Highlands. I'm a Scotsman, and porridge formed an integral part of my childhood. Winter would mean one thing for certain: a steaming hot bowl of the stuff every morning, before trudging through the snow to school.

Porridge is such a subjective thing. Mine was made with milk, occasionally dried fruit, and either brown sugar or golden syrup drizzled in the shape of a smiley face. Just as long as you remember to stir clockwise — stirring counter-clockwise risks summoning the devil, according to Scottish superstition.

Nick Barnard is a porridge traditionalist, and a judge in Friday's London Porridge Championships. "I have a bowl of oatmeal, flavored with salt and cooked just right — piping hot," Barnard says, explaining his technique. "I dip my spoon into the porridge, then into cold, raw Guernsey cream. ... And there I am, absolutely loving this wonderful simplicity."

Barnard runs London-based Rude Health foods, which sponsored Friday's competition. He was crowned last year's champion in the "speciality" category — he made a fruity date dish — at the World Porridge Making Championships, held annually in Carrbridge in the Highlands of Scotland.

The 21st world championship was held last weekend. Entrants competed in two categories: traditional and speciality. The winner in the former category takes home the "Golden Spurtle," a Scottish kitchen tool for stirring porridge, thought to have originated six centuries ago. Made of wood, it looks like a tiny baseball bat. This year's traditional winner, Dr. Izhar Khan, a kidney specialist from Aberdeen, Scotland, told NPR he credited his victory to the spurtle he used, made by one of his patients.

As for the prize for the speciality dish, it was awarded jointly to Chris Young and Christine Conte. Chris had turned savoury, putting together a wild mushroom porridge risotto, while Christina — a Scottish-Italian food blogger based in Los Angeles — made a sticky toffee porridge.

The winner of today's London event — personal fitness trainer Adam Stansbury — wowed the judges with his chocolate and honey porridge.

Fellow competitor Toral Shah is another health-food fanatic; she runs London's Urban Kitchen. The porridge competition, she says, "is a fun thing to do, it's slightly competitive, and I really want to show people that you can make things taste brilliant, but they can be really healthy, too."

Indeed, porridge's widely acclaimed nutritional benefits — slow-releasing carbohydrates, energy-rich and easy to digest — are credited in part for its resurgent popularity in recent years.

Some even credit porridge with changing the course of Scottish history. In his book The Scottish: A Genetic Journey, author Alistair Moffat argues that soon after the Scots began farming cereals thousands of years ago, they learned how to turn that harvest into porridge — a discovery that fueled the nation's population growth. His argument? Feeding children porridge — a meal soft enough not to tax fragile baby teeth — meant that women could stop breastfeeding sooner, freeing them up to have more children.

Modern Britons clearly haven't forgotten their roots. According to research firm Mintel, almost half of 16- to 24-year-olds in the U.K. surveyed last year said they start the day with porridge. And fast-casual food chain Pret A Manger's sales of hot cereals doubled in the U.K. In 2013.

But the porridge love has spread well beyond the U.K. Kahn's competitors in last week's championships included the owner of a porridge bar in Copenhagen, as well as Sweden's Nordic porridge-making champion.

So what does Barnard look for in a great serving of porridge? The first word he uses is "moreish" — how nourishingly delicious is it? He wants imagination, and something that's pleasing. The quality of the ingredients is also important for him. "Could I eat a whole bowl of it, and will it sustain me?"

For Toral, it's the experimental possibilities that make porridge so exciting. Take her beetroot and apple version, with hints of ginger, cinnamon, vanilla yogurt and spiced granola. "And it's apple season," she adds. "Why would you not go seasonal?"

So, tell us, how do you eat yours?



“por·ridge
ˈpôrij/
noun

A dish consisting of oatmeal or another meal or cereal boiled in water or milk”



“Nick Barnard is a porridge traditionalist, and a judge in Friday's London Porridge Championships. 'I have a bowl of oatmeal, flavored with salt and cooked just right — piping hot,' Barnard says, explaining his technique. 'I dip my spoon into the porridge, then into cold, raw Guernsey cream. ... And there I am, absolutely loving this wonderful simplicity.' Barnard runs London-based Rude Health foods, which sponsored Friday's competition. He was crowned last year's champion in the 'speciality' category — he made a fruity date dish — at the World Porridge Making Championships, held annually in Carrbridge in the Highlands of Scotland.... The winner in the former category takes home the 'Golden Spurtle,' a Scottish kitchen tool for stirring porridge, thought to have originated six centuries ago. Made of wood, it looks like a tiny baseball bat.... As for the prize for the speciality dish, it was awarded jointly to Chris Young and Christine Conte. Chris had turned savoury, putting together a wild mushroom porridge risotto, while Christina — a Scottish-Italian food blogger based in Los Angeles — made a sticky toffee porridge. The winner of today's London event — personal fitness trainer Adam Stansbury — wowed the judges with his chocolate and honey porridge.... Some even credit porridge with changing the course of Scottish history. In his book The Scottish: A Genetic Journey, author Alistair Moffat argues that soon after the Scots began farming cereals thousands of years ago, they learned how to turn that harvest into porridge — a discovery that fueled the nation's population growth. His argument? Feeding children porridge — a meal soft enough not to tax fragile baby teeth — meant that women could stop breastfeeding sooner, freeing them up to have more children.”

I have only tasted oatmeal porridge eaten with cream or butter, topped with cinnamon, sweetened and sometimes cooked with raisins, which we just called “oatmeal,” but my mother spoke with distaste of a porridge made of corn meal, called “mush.” I asked her if it was good, and she said with a twist of her mouth that it was “okay.” She was born in 1916 into a very poor Scotch-Irish farming family and they more often ate corn meal mush than oatmeal. My other memory of “porridge” is from Oliver Twist when he, egged on by the other boys, said “'Please, sir, I want some more,'” and got into big trouble for his temerity. Specifically he asked for more “gruel,” but that is defined in another article as “a thin porridge made from oatmeal boiled in milk, or, in Oliver's case, water.”

So porridge was a food born of poverty and scarce supply, preferred because it was cheaper than bread or meat. It is, however, not lacking in nutrition, hailed as a very good source of soluble fiber and starch, plus plant amino acids. Doctors recommend it to reduce high blood cholesterol. Any grain combined in the same meal as any bean provides the body with “complete protein,” which is what we need from meat. Strict vegetarians should frequently eat dried bean and either whole grain bread or something like porridge made from a grain to keep up their protein intake. It may have been boring to have to subsist on a diet like that for poor people, but it wasn't unhealthy. Of course there is also a need for vitamin filled fruits and vegetables, but most farmers in those days grew them, drying or canning them for the winter months.

The writer is describing how to make porridge and states that it's very versatile and easy, “'Just as long as you remember to stir clockwise — stirring counter-clockwise risks summoning the devil, according to Scottish superstition.'” The Scottish people are nominally Christian, but they are clearly still Celtic first. The stories of fairies and ghoulies, etc. can probably be heard there still on farms tucked away in the mountains. Religion among such people is very much supernatural in nature rather than philosophical. My grandfather Neil Morrison was into Calvinist religion, but he was also fond of seances. Otherwise he was very rational and traditional.





Breaking The Chains That Bind The Mentally Ill – NPR
by SUSAN BRINK
October 10, 2014

Love, respect, integration into communities, work, housing, food and clean water: That's what mentally ill people, like all human beings, need. Instead, in many parts of the developing world, people with mental illness are chained, nearly starved and even locked in a cage with a wild animal like a hyena to scare the demons out of them.

The World Health Organization's Chain-Free Initiative was launched in 2006 to help improve mental health services around the world. On this year's World Mental Health Day, organized by WHO to raise awareness of mental health issues, the theme is schizophrenia, a severe mental disorder characterized by false beliefs, hallucinations and unclear thinking. We talked with Dr. Taghi Yasamy, senior medical officer in the Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse at WHO, about the plight of people with schizophrenia.

"Chain-Free Initiative" is a provocative title. What does it mean?

In general, many people in low-income countries believe that schizophrenia is the result of possession by evil spirits. Beliefs like that are very common, and people use different techniques to try to get rid of the evil spirits. For example, they'll chain people — to beds in the house, to trees outside. They might give them only water, bread and pepper. They believe the spirits will leave because they don't like pepper. They might leave [the mentally ill person] in chains for as long as 40 days with just bread and water. Or they'll expose them to a wild animal, thinking the animal will scare the spirits away. In some places, they'll brush the skin harshly to get the spirits out. In the lowest income countries, it's common to see such things.

Do the patients' families try to protect their mentally ill members?

The stigma is strong in many countries. So families try to hide these patients. They want to confine the person, and they do unethical things like putting the patient in a cage. In places where they are not rich enough to afford a cage, they might chain [the patient] to a tree.

Do countries with somewhat higher levels of income do better?

In some places where the literacy rate is higher and they have more resources and a good number of educated people, they develop institutions to care for mentally ill people. But the demand is so high, people rush to these centers. There may be nothing for the rural areas, but in large urban areas the institutions fill up, and there is not enough manpower to care for everyone. The few mental institutions become just like jails, and within them, people can still be chained. The institutions might say that it's to keep the patients safe so they can't hurt themselves. But this is a violation of human rights.

How does the Chain-Free Initiative work?

In Somalia and Afghanistan, where we started the Chain-Free Initiative, there are now chain-free hospitals. We established a committee within hospitals that included patients, families and staff. We train the staff, we involve the relatives and friends who will be helping to provide services. They have become more humane places for treatment, not places to contain people. When ]the patients] feel better, they go back to the community.

How does the community receive returning mentally ill patients?

Patients need follow-up. We get permission from the family first, and then educate the community. We explain that the patient is not being possessed. He is ill. If there is a good primary healthcare system, mental health care can be integrated into the services within the primary care health centers. Providers at these centers have already been trained to immunize children and on mother and child nutrition. We've developed guidelines and tools to help them deal with mental illness.

Even in the developed world, there is a lot of stigma associated with mental illness.

That's true. These are the invisible chains of the mind. People all over the world need a higher level of psychological literacy. In high-income countries, between a third and a half of people with mental illness don't get services. This is often due to attitude, not access.




“Love, respect, integration into communities, work, housing, food and clean water: That's what mentally ill people, like all human beings, need. Instead, in many parts of the developing world, people with mental illness are chained, nearly starved and even locked in a cage with a wild animal like a hyena to scare the demons out of them. The World Health Organization's Chain-Free Initiative was launched in 2006 to help improve mental health services around the world. On this year's World Mental Health Day, organized by WHO to raise awareness of mental health issues, the theme is schizophrenia, a severe mental disorder characterized by false beliefs, hallucinations and unclear thinking.... The few mental institutions become just like jails, and within them, people can still be chained. The institutions might say that it's to keep the patients safe so they can't hurt themselves. But this is a violation of human rights. How does the Chain-Free Initiative work? In Somalia and Afghanistan, where we started the Chain-Free Initiative, there are now chain-free hospitals. We established a committee within hospitals that included patients, families and staff.... If there is a good primary healthcare system, mental health care can be integrated into the services within the primary care health centers.... Even in the developed world, there is a lot of stigma associated with mental illness. That's true. These are the invisible chains of the mind. People all over the world need a higher level of psychological literacy. In high-income countries, between a third and a half of people with mental illness don't get services. This is often due to attitude, not access.”

Folk beliefs such as possession by demons aren't common in the US anymore except among very conservative thinkers, but I do remember one case in the news some 20 years ago of a woman being arrested for practicing black magic. She was from Mexico. There are others occasionally in the news among inner city blacks or the Cajuns of Louisiana who practice “root” magic. The Catholic Church, believe it or not, actually still has a rite for exorcism. See the exorcismus article below.

The stigma against mental illness is largely a product of uneducated minds and the lack of good health care in a society or group. Conservative thinking has its price and that includes the dominance of religion as the only accepted source of enlightenment and beliefs, thus the prevalence of closed minded societies in many places when it comes to receiving any new information. In spite of this difficult barrier to progress, the World Health Organization's Chain-Free Initiative goes now into third world countries to try to teach people about mental health issues. Somalia and Afghanistan, for instance, have made progress and set up Chain-Free Hospitals. According to the article such hospitals in city areas tend to fill up to capacity rapidly so there is a need for more and more hospitals. I wonder if they try the American system of giving out medications under a psychiatrically supervised outpatient plan. Not everyone needs to be in a hospital unless they can't afford meds or they won't take them. Even schizophrenics are living at home with meds now.

The well-known Bethlehem Royal Hospital in London (see Wikipedia) was the earliest mental hospital in the UK, opened in 1247, still exists as a treatment facility today. It is no longer a place of imprisonment and virtual torture, and it has moved a number of times and revised its treatment protocols, but until 1634 it was a place where the mentally ill were chained up as describe in this article, and it got the horrible nickname Bedlam.” The callous public in London used to go there to watch the insane people not out of compassion, but for entertainment. In 1634, a small staff of real physicians were put in charge of the hospital, which included an apothecary – no antidepressants of course, but maybe belladonna or opiates. It was undoubtedly still primitive, but it consisted of an upgrade as it was a recognition of insanity as an illness. See below.

http://www.asylumprojects.org/index.php?title=Bethlem_Royal_Hospital
Bethlehem Royal Hospital

Bethlem in the 20th century

In 1930, the site of the hospital was moved to an outer suburb of London, on the site of Monks Orchard House between Eden Park, Beckenham, West Wickham and Shirley. This move to accomodate the need for psychiatric care is a more peaceful and rural environment. The old hospital site and its grounds were bought by Lord Rothermere and presented to the London County Council for use as a city park; the central part of the georgian styled building was retained as being of historic value, and became home to the 'Imperial War Museum in 1936'.

With the introduction of the National Health Service in 1948, the Bethlem Royal Hospital and Maudsley Hospital were merged to form a postgraduate psychiatric teaching hospital. The Maudsley’s medical school became the Institute of Psychiatry.

The new 89-bed, £33.5m unit (River House) opened in February 2008. It is the most significant development on the site since the hospital was formally opened at Monks Orchard in 1930. River House represents a major improvement in the quality of local NHS care for people with mental health problems. The unit provides care for people who were previously being treated in hospitals as far as 200 miles away from their families because of the historic shortage of medium secure beds in South-east London. This, in turn, was intended to help the NHS to manage people's progress through care and treatment more effectively.



http://www.exorcismus.org/exorcism-and-exorcists/212-who-is-an-exorcist

Who can perform an exorcism? And who is an exorcist?

In the Catholic Church, an exorcist is a bishop or a priest appointed by him, who has a special permission to perform exorcisms. The dignity of the sacramental and the nature of an exorcism require a special and explicit permission of a local ordinary (usually a bishop of the diocese).

Exorcists in the Church

The dignity of the sacramental and the character of an exorcism demand that the exorcist’s ministry be performed in the way that Jesus taught His disciples, in the spirit of obedience and in keeping with the Church’s practice. An exorcist in the Catholic Church is a diocese bishop or a priest appointed by him, possessing a special permit for performing exorcisms. The permission is permanently or temporarily granted by the bishop to priests , permanently or temporarily to priests endowed with piety, knowledge, prudence and integrity of life, and specially prepared for this task. (See Code of Canon Law).

An exorcist priest in his mission of freeing from evil spirits is guided by the recommendations of the Roman ritual, obtained knowledge and his own experience. The exorcist must exert great caution in the recognition, he must assess how the influence of the evil spirit on a given person might have started and recognise whether they are not dealing with a mental illness. He is obliged to take greatest care in the recognition, to estimate how the influence of the evil spirit’s on the person might have started and decide whether the person is not suffering from mental disorders. He is aware of the fact that Satan does not wish for man’s freedom, therefore he avoids exorcism and sometimes hides his presence. Further recognition of possible causes of the evil spirit’s action and its symptoms, followed by an exorcism, allows the exorcist priest to ascertain, whether the person in question is in fact under the devil’s influence and what is the level and the reasons for this influence.

It must be strongly emphasised that only exorcisms performed by priests authorised by the bishop’s power have healing power. All other practices resembling exorcisms, conducted by laymen as well as unauthorised clergymen do not bring a real freeing – they are its caricature.


Exorcism in Christianity
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

In Christianity, exorcism is the practice of casting out demons performed using the power of Christ in the name of Jesus and through Christian prayer andfasting, such as in the Christian Bible's: Matthew 10:1-8; Mark 6:7; Luke 9:1; Luke 10:17. The term became prominent in Early Christianity from the early 2nd century onward.[1] In Christian practice the person performing the exorcism, known as an exorcist, is often a member of the Christian Church, or an individual thought to be graced with special powers or skills. The exorcist may use prayers and religious material, such as set formulas, gestures,symbols, icons, amulets, etc. The exorcist often invokes God, Jesus and/or several different angels and archangels to intervene with the exorcism. A survey of Christian exorcists found that most exorcists believe that any mature Christian can perform an exorcism, not just members of clergy. Christian exorcists most commonly believe the authority given to them by the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit (the Trinity) is the source of their ability to cast out demons.[2]

In general, people considered to be possessed are not regarded as evil in themselves, nor wholly responsible for their actions, because possession is considered to be unwilling manipulation by a demon resulting in harm to self or others. Therefore, practitioners regard exorcism as more of a cure than a punishment. The mainstream rituals usually take this into account, making sure that there is no violence to the possessed, only that they be tied down if there is potential for violence.[3]
Current beliefs and practices[edit]

Anglicanism[edit]
Church of England[edit]

In 1974, the Church of England set up the "Deliverance ministry".[11] As part of its creation, every diocese in the country was equipped with a team trained in both exorcism and psychiatry. According to its representatives, most cases brought before it have conventional explanations, and actual exorcisms are quite rare; blessings, although, are sometimes given to people for psychological reasons.[11]

Anglican priests may not perform an exorcism without permission from the Diocesan bishop. An exorcism is not usually performed unless the bishop and his team of specialists (including a psychiatrist and physician) have approved it.

Baptists[edit]

Albert Mohler, the ninth president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, states that Baptists, among other evangelical Christians, do:

believe in the existence, malevolence, and power of the Devil and demons. About these things, the New Testament is abundantly clear. We must resist any effort to 'demythologize' the New Testament in order to deny the existence of these evil forces and beings. At the same time, we must recognize quickly that the Devil and demons are not accorded the powers often ascribed to them in popular piety. The Devil is indeed a threat, as Peter made clear when he warned: 'Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.' [1 Peter 5:8] The New Testament is also clear that very real cases of demonic possession were encountered by Jesus and his followers. Jesus liberated afflicted individuals as he commanded the demons to flee, and they obeyed him. Likewise, the Apostle Paul performed exorcisms as he confronted the powers of evil and darkness in his ministry.

A closer look at the crucial passages involved reveals no rite of exorcism, however, just the name of Jesus and the proclamation of the Gospel. Likewise, there is no notion of a priestly ministry of ordained exorcists in the New Testament.[13]

As a result of this theology, for the Baptist Christian, the weapons of "warfare are spiritual, and the powers that the forces of darkness most fear are the name of Jesus, the authority of the Bible, and the power of his Gospel."[14]





More Missouri protests planned over police shootings – CBS
AP  October 13, 2014, 8:06 AM

ST. LOUIS - More demonstrations are planned over the shooting of a black 18-year-old by a white police officer in suburban Ferguson this summer, after 17 people were arrested during weekend protests, St. Louis police said.

Organizers of the four-day Ferguson October summit are protesting the shooting of Michael Brown, which sparked sometimes violent demonstrations in the predominantly black St. Louis suburb of Ferguson in August.

Early on Sunday morning, about 200 protesters, some wearing masks, made their way to the south St. Louis neighborhood where another black 18-year-old, Vonderrit D. Myers, was killed by a white police officer recently. Protesters marched toward a QuickTrip gas station convenience store and tried to force open its doors, St. Louis Police Chief Sam Dotson said at a news conference.

Police assembled in riot gear and instructed the crowd to disperse, he said. About 50 of the marchers created a human chain by locking their arms and about half of them heeded the police warning and left.

"The people who were left there were people who made a conscious decision they wanted to be arrested," he said.

St. Louis police spokeswoman Schron Jackson said Sunday in an email that 17 people were arrested on suspicion of unlawful assembly. There were no reports of injuries or property damage, the email said.

On Monday, a "direct action" led by local and visiting clergy members is planned for Ferguson and other spots in and around St. Louis. Protest leaders don't plan to release details until shortly ahead of time to avoid tipping off law enforcement.

"We still are knee deep in this situation," Kareem Jackson, a St. Louis rap artist and community organizer whose stage name is Tef Poe, said Saturday. "We have not packed up our bags, we have not gone home. This is not a fly-by-night moment. This is not a made-for-TV revolution. This is real people standing up to a real problem and saying, 'We ain't taking it no more.'"

Two months after Brown's death sparked an initial wave of violent riots and led Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon to summon the National Guard, the highly organized weekend brought many newcomers to St. Louis.

The new arrivals included Vietnam-era peace activists, New York City seminarians, many college students and hundreds of fast-food workers bused in from Chicago, Nashville and other cities.

A crowd that organizers estimated at 3,000 marched peacefully through downtown St. Louis on Saturday to protest Brown's death and other fatal police shootings of black males in the St. Louis area and nationwide. No arrests were reported on Saturday.

Outside Busch Stadium in downtown St. Louis, where the Cardinals baseball team was playing the San Francisco Giants this weekend in the National League Championship Series of professional baseball, several dozen protesters stood on the sidewalk Saturday night, chanting and holding signs. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported that fans headed to the game mainly went around the protesters without stopping to look, though a few cheered their efforts. Game 2 in the series is scheduled for Sunday night.

Dotson said the city also will bolster its police presence when the St. Louis Rams host the San Francisco 49ers for Monday night football.

The planned events began Friday afternoon with a march outside the St. Louis County prosecutor's office, where protesters renewed calls for prosecutor Bob McCulloch to charge Darren Wilson, a white Ferguson officer, in the Aug. 9 death of Brown. A grand jury is reviewing the case and the Justice Department has opened a civil rights investigation.

Organizers said beforehand that they expected as many as 6,000 to 10,000 participants for the weekend's events.

Tensions have simmered since Brown's death. Residents were upset about the way his body lay in the street for more than four hours while police investigated the shooting. Many insist Brown was trying to surrender, with his hands up. Residents also protested the military-style police response to the days of riots and protests that erupted immediately after Brown's shooting in the predominantly black St. Louis suburb where just three blacks serve on a 53-officer force.

Since Brown's death, three other fatal police shootings of black males have occurred in the St. Louis area. The most recent involved an off-duty St. Louis officer who was working for a private neighborhood security patrol when he shot and killed Myers on Wednesday night.

The white officer, whose name hasn't been released, fired 17 rounds after police say Myers opened fire. Myers' parents say he was unarmed, and many speakers at the Saturday rally echoed those doubts.




“Early on Sunday morning, about 200 protesters, some wearing masks, made their way to the south St. Louis neighborhood where another black 18-year-old, Vonderrit D. Myers, was killed by a white police officer recently. Protesters marched toward a QuickTrip gas station convenience store and tried to force open its doors, St. Louis Police Chief Sam Dotson said at a news conference. Police assembled in riot gear and instructed the crowd to disperse, he said. About 50 of the marchers created a human chain by locking their arms and about half of them heeded the police warning and left.... On Monday, a "direct action" led by local and visiting clergy members is planned for Ferguson and other spots in and around St. Louis. Protest leaders don't plan to release details until shortly ahead of time to avoid tipping off law enforcement.... 'We have not packed up our bags, we have not gone home. This is not a fly-by-night moment. This is not a made-for-TV revolution. This is real people standing up to a real problem and saying, 'We ain't taking it no more.'"... the highly organized weekend brought many newcomers to St. Louis. The new arrivals included Vietnam-era peace activists, New York City seminarians, many college students and hundreds of fast-food workers bused in from Chicago, Nashville and other cities. A crowd that organizers estimated at 3,000 marched peacefully through downtown St. Louis on Saturday to protest Brown's death and other fatal police shootings of black males in the St. Louis area and nationwide. No arrests were reported on Saturday.... A grand jury is reviewing the case and the Justice Department has opened a civil rights investigation.”

I hope the grand jury will soon reach an agreement on the Darren Wilson case and charge him with at least second degree murder, because his response to the black youths was hostile and physically aggressive from the beginning, and ended in a shooting which witnesses say was of a man who was trying to give himself up and lie down on the ground. The “crime” that they are supposed to have committed was walking in the street rather than on the sidewalk. It will probably take a more extensive organization into a new civil rights movement, and include the same kinds of cases in other cities around the country to create a reliable peace. The leaders are still focused only on Ferguson, and they need to be focused on police overreach in general in towns and cities across the nation. The Department of Justice is doing some action along those lines as of a few weeks ago.

I hope there will be decisive change in these matters, as I despise all bullies – the fact that they are police officers doesn't make them justified in being killers. Good officers don't get nearly as much attention as the rogues do, unfortunately. It would really help if police did volunteer time in the inner city neighborhoods to help the youth and reach out to the adults. I would also like to see the police departments require a college degree and a psychiatric exam for anyone who wants to join a police force. They should also be certain to hire black, Asian and Hispanic officers in every town.





A harsh financial lesson for Philly teachers – CBS
By JONATHAN BERR MONEYWATCH
October 13, 2014, 5:30 AM

In a surprise move, the state-appointed body that oversees the Philadelphia School District decided last week to unilaterally to void its contract with the teacher's union after failing to reach an agreement over whether teachers should pay more for their health care costs. It's the latest battle over the contentious national issue of health care costs.

The decision stunned the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers (PFT), which represents teachers and school staff. Union President Jerry Jordan criticized the district for providing "a barely legible newspaper advertisement" as a public notice of the meeting where it canceled the contract. The School Reform Commission (SRC), Jordan said, spent "vast amounts of time and money on union-busting strategy sessions with their lawyers " and not enough working with the union.

According to experts, the SRC's action was unusual, though not without precedent, particularly as clashes over public sector pension benefits become increasingly common and may embolden local officials to take a tougher line on this controversial issue.

"Organized labor has largely died out in the private sector but is still strong in the public sector," said John Caskey, a professor of economics at Swathmore College outside of Philadelphia, who is familiar with the district's fiscal challenges. "This will be one more example of getting tough with the public sector."

Indeed, this is a national phenomenon. In New Jersey, Republican Gov. Chris Christie, a potential presidential candidate in 2016, has frequently clashed with the state's politically powerful teacher's union, the New Jersey Education Association. In Chicago, Democratic Mayor Rahm Emanuel earned the wrath of his city's teachers when he rescinded a 4 percent pay raise that had been contractually agreed to.

About 7,000 teachers who were laid off in New Orleans won a court case earlier this year challenging their dismissals, which could result in $1.5 billion in damages, a penalty that a local newspaper said could bankrupt the local school district.

Politics are clouding the picture in Philadelphia. The city hasn't elected a Republican mayor since the 1950s. But Republicans now control both houses of Pennsylvania's state legislature, and Gov. Tom Corbett, who is in the midst of a tough reelection battle, is in the GOP as well. Randi Weingarten, the president of the American Federation of Teachers, which the PFT is affiliated with, accused the governor of political opportunism.

"This behavior -- a governor imposing a contract three weeks before an election when he is losing in the polls -- is the kind of political stunt that makes people lose confidence in government and runs counter to what kids need," Weingarten said in a statement provided to CBS MoneyWatch.

Both sides, not surprisingly, have differing views over whether the SRC's decision is legal. The dire fiscal straits of Philly schools, however, are not in dispute. The district has closed 31 schools and laid of 5,000 workers in recent years. It's one of a handful of government entities Fitch Ratings has rated below investment grade, also known as junk bond status.

Heading into the school year, Philadelphia officials weren't sure they would have enough money to open their doors and were able to do so only after Pennsylvania lawmakers enacted a special tax on cigarettes sold in the city.

Fernando Gallard, a district spokesman, told CBS MoneyWatch the SRC decided to take unilateral action after failing to reach an agreement on concessions on benefits following 21 months of negotiations that centered on rising health care costs.

"The great majority of the teachers do not pay for health care for themselves and their families," he said. "It's been like that for years."

By making teachers shell out more money for their health care, the district expects to save $54 million, money that the cash-starved schools desperately need. Already, many teachers buy their own school supplies because the district can't afford to provide them. One school Gallard says he's familiar with has an operating budget of only $154. Thanks to the SCR's move, that figure will jump to more than $46,000.

But the price the district is paying to fix its fiscal woes may be a steep one. University of Pennsylvania professor Richard Ingersoll told CBS MoneyWatch that Philadelphia's teacher turnover rate is high because neighboring districts pay higher wages.

"When you are negotiating, it's about give and take," he said. "This is all take."




“The decision stunned the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers (PFT), which represents teachers and school staff. Union President Jerry Jordan criticized the district for providing 'a barely legible newspaper advertisement' as a public notice of the meeting where it canceled the contract. The School Reform Commission (SRC), Jordan said, spent 'vast amounts of time and money on union-busting strategy sessions with their lawyers' and not enough working with the union.... Both sides, not surprisingly, have differing views over whether the SRC's decision is legal. The dire fiscal straits of Philly schools, however, are not in dispute. The district has closed 31 schools and laid of 5,000 workers in recent years. It's one of a handful of government entities Fitch Ratings has rated below investment grade, also known as junk bond status.... Fernando Gallard, a district spokesman, told CBS MoneyWatch the SRC decided to take unilateral action after failing to reach an agreement on concessions on benefits following 21 months of negotiations that centered on rising health care costs. 'The great majority of the teachers do not pay for health care for themselves and their families,' he said. 'It's been like that for years.'... By making teachers shell out more money for their health care, the district expects to save $54 million, money that the cash-starved schools desperately need. Already, many teachers buy their own school supplies because the district can't afford to provide them.... But the price the district is paying to fix its fiscal woes may be a steep one. University of Pennsylvania professor Richard Ingersoll told CBS MoneyWatch that Philadelphia's teacher turnover rate is high because neighboring districts pay higher wages.”

The Philadelphia School District does have a valid financial problem. It has closed 31 schools and laid off 5,000 workers, plus the Pennsylvania legislature enacted a special cigarette tax in order to bring in enough money to open the doors at all this year. The district should save $54,000,000 by making the teachers pay a portion of their healthcare costs – something that they haven't done for many years according to this article. Maybe it was time for the union to gracefully give in on the point. Why the Philadelphia school district is so low on money is something they should look at, though. Are the Republicans squeezing the state school budgets too tightly? Is this an example of their aim to “let the public schools die on the vine?” Some other schools near the city have better pay for their teachers though, the writer said, so maybe Philadelphia needs to look to their neighbors to see how they are managing their school systems.