Rainbow Gathering Arrests

The U.S. Forest Service should consider banning the Rainbow Family from Forest Service land after a confrontation last week led to the arrest of at least eight people, a top agency official said Monday.

John Twiss, director of Forest Service Law Enforcement and Investigations in Washington, D.C., said he was among the officers who responded when Rainbow Family members threw sticks and rocks at federal officers.

The confrontation started when officers tried to arrest a member of the Rainbow group for an alleged drug offense.

Twiss characterized the Rainbow participants as "non-compromising," "arrogant" and "anti-authority." He said this year's episode and other disturbances at recent gatherings should prompt a review of whether Rainbow Family events are allowed.

"I think we have to have that discussion within the agency," Twiss said. "We spend an awful lot of time and effort on these people. And frankly, the taxpayers deserve better."

About 7,000 people turned out for this year's Rainbow event, a weeklong gathering of eccentrics, young people and hippie types, held on the Bridger-Teton National Forest near Big Sandy.

The confrontation Thursday night escalated as about 400 Rainbow participants tried to intervene in the arrest, the Forest Service said.

About 70 people were yelling profanities and throwing rocks and sticks at officers from about 25 feet when Twiss arrived. He said no officer was hit.

Officers then fired "pepper balls" - similar to paintballs but containing a pepper substance - to control the crowd, he said.

Jeff Kline, a Rainbow participant from Santa Fe, N.M., said Forest Service statements that a mob of 400 people confronted federal officers were "an absolute lie, and a fabrication."

Kline said he saw officers arrest a man near the children's area of the camp and that officers shot pepper balls at crowds of people who responded to the commotion because they were worried about their children.

"The Forest Service law enforcement crew, I could see them running and pushing people aside," said Kline, a 30-year veteran of Rainbow gatherings. "And more people kept coming, because all the little kids were there."

Five people were arrested during the disturbance and another three people have been arrested in subsequent days for related offenses, said Rita Vollmer, a spokeswoman for the Forest Service management team.

The identities and specific charges were not released by the Forest Service. Vollmer said the charges included interfering with an officer and drug-related offenses.

The suspects were scheduled to appear before a federal magistrate Monday afternoon at a temporary court set up in Lander, said John Powell, spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's Office in Cheyenne. Powell said information on the suspects and the results of their arraignments were not immediately available.

The Rainbow Family, which has no spokesmen, leaders or officials, has relied on the First Amendment for decades as it has held its annual gatherings on public land. That provision guarantees the right of the people "peaceably to assemble."

Linda Burt, state director for the ACLU, said it's clear that the group has a right to assemble. She said her organization is investigating the actions of the federal law enforcers.

*****

I don't know all that transpired at this gathering and the actions of the feds but with past history as a guide I tend to believe the Rainbow member's version is closer to the truth.

UFO turns out to be something a bit more mundane

Police in South Wales, UK, were dispatched to respond to a 999 emergency call to investigate a "bright stationary object" in the sky above a concerned citizen's home.

The BBC News posted a recording and transcript of the conversation between the control room, the caller, and the police:

Control: "Alpha Zulu 20, this object in the sky, did anyone have a look at it?"

Officer: "Yes, it's the moon. Over."

Link

(Filed in the "Where do these people come from?" folder)

Thought for the Day

Learn from other's mistakes,
life isn't long enough to make them all yourself.

Desperate Ad

Found this add on the net - he's paying $100:

"Looking for a monkey who can bang on my keyboard to try to find the one random sequence of characters that is not yet taken as a domain name."

Any unemployed monkeys out there interested?

She isn't an IV drug user any longer! (For now)

The Mrs., just came in from the doctor where they finally decided to remove the PIC line from her right arm which she has had since her last hospital visit.

So more more IV antibiotics ... we're down to oral ones.

But when removing the PIC line the doctor said she had a blood clot in that arm (luckily it came out with the PIC line) and he was freaking because it was blood clots in the lungs last year that started this saga we are on.

Right now the Mrs., is ecstatic with the fact she can take a shower in lieu of a bath - you can not allow the end of the PIC line to get wet - so I expect not to see her for the next hour or so!

At least now, she is no longer an 'IV drug user' ... until the next time the hospital sends her home with a PIC line in her arm that is!

What they're saying ...

Here is what some are saying about Carolina Naturally:

"Makes you think"
"Isn't afraid"
"Philosophy anyone can relate to"
"Life - humorously"
"You are guaranteed to learn"
"The best blog I have found, yet"
"A must read daily"

Cancer Cured? Granulocytes Treatment Worked 100 Percent In Mice Work But Will It Work In Humans?

“Scientists at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center are about to embark on a human trial to test whether a new cancer treatment will be as effective at eradicating cancer in humans as it has proven to be in mice.

The treatment will involve transfusing specific white blood cells, called granulocytes, from select donors, into patients with advanced forms of cancer. A similar treatment using white blood cells from cancer-resistant mice has previously been highly successful, curing 100 percent of lab mice afflicted with advanced malignancies.

Zheng Cui, Ph.D., lead researcher and associate professor of pathology, will be announcing the study June 28 at the Understanding Aging conference in Los Angeles. The study, given the go-ahead by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, will involve treating human cancer patients with white blood cells from healthy young people whose immune systems produce cells with high levels of cancer-fighting activity. The basis of the study is the scientists’ discovery, published five years ago, of a cancer-resistant mouse and their subsequent finding that white blood cells from that mouse and its offspring cured advanced cancers in ordinary laboratory mice. They have since identified similar cancer-killing activity in the white blood cells of some healthy humans.”

(read more at Scientific Blogging and Slashdot)

This could be the 'magic bullet' for cancer - that would be most pleasant for all those who are living with cancer.

Meditation, Yoga Might Switch Off Stress Genes

“Researchers say they’ve taken a significant stride forward in understanding how relaxation techniques such as meditation, prayer and yoga improve health: by changing patterns of gene activity that affect how the body responds to stress. The changes were seen both in long-term practitioners and in newer recruits, the scientists said.

“It’s not all in your head,” said Dr. Herbert Benson, president emeritus of the Benson-Henry Institute for Mind/Body Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital and an associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School. “What we have found is that when you evoke the relaxation response, the very genes that are turned on or off by stress are turned the other way. The mind can actively turn on and turn off genes. The mind is not separated from the body.”

One outside expert agreed. “It’s sort of like reverse thinking: If you can wreak havoc on yourself with lifestyle choices, for example, [in a way that] causes expression of latent genetic manifestations in the negative, then the reverse should hold true,” said Dr. Gerry Leisman, director of the F.R. Carrick Institute for Clinical Ergonomics, Rehabilitation and Applied Neuroscience at Leeds Metropolitan University in the U.K.”

(from the The Washington Post)

‘Hellboy’ Taps Into Ancient Irish Folklore

“When “Hellboy II: The Golden Army” hits the big screen on July 11, it won’t just be comic book aficionados salivating over the lush, fantasy-world storyline.

Fans of Celtic mythology, too, will recognize the name of the film’s principle villain, Prince Nuada, a character loosely modeled after an important figure in the ancient folklore of Ireland. The film is peppered with other references to the myths of the Celtic tribes, who lived on the Emerald Isle beginning in 700 B.C.

The story behind Celtic mythology and the whimsical tales themselves would make for several interesting movies in their own right.”

(read the full piece on Live Science)

(Trailer for “Hellboy II”)

Rainbow Gathering arrests lead to riot

Big Brother is still alive (hopefully not for much longer):

U.S. Forest Service officers pointed weapons at children and fired rubber bullets and pepper spray balls at Rainbow Family members while making arrests Thursday evening, according to witnesses.

“They were so violent, like dogs,” Robert Parker told reporter Deborah Stevens of the libertarian-oriented, Round Rock, Texas-based We the People Radio Network [www.wtprn.com] after the incident.

“People yelled at them, ‘You’re shooting children,’” Parker said during an interview on the network’s “Rule of Law Show.”

About 7,000 people have arrived at the gathering near Big Sandy in the Wind River Mountains for the annual Gathering of the Tribes, a seven-day event of fellowship, partying including illicit drug use, praying, and living on the land.

They camp on Forest Service land around the country every year, but the Rainbow family’s nonhierarchical methods — no one can speak for the Rainbows, much less sign a land use permit — often have stymied their relationships.

But rarely do the tensions escalate into violence.

Full Story: Jackson Hole Star Tribune

Pomegranate Ranked Healthiest Fruit Juice

On The Early Show Saturday, Health magazine contributor and clinical nutritionist Samantha Heller talked about what makes the juices healthy.

The study took into account the antioxidant levels of the juices.

Basically, Heller says, anything with a vivid color, like most berries, will be high in antioxidants, so it’s no surprise berry juices landed in most of the top 10 slots.

Read more from Pomegranate Ranked Healthiest Fruit Juice

Going Green

Save the Planet, Save Cash: 25 Best Ways to Green Your Green

See also: 12 Tips To Help You Become an Armchair Environmentalist

Tropical Storm Bertha likely to become hurricane

Forecasters say Tropical Storm Bertha likely will become the Atlantic season's first hurricane sometime today.

At 11 p.m. EDT Sunday, Bertha was centered about 930 miles east of the northern Leeward Islands in the Caribbean.

Maximum sustained winds have increased to about 65 mph with some higher gusting.

The storm is moving toward the west-northwest at about 20 mph.

In Addendum:

Well, she done it ...

Tropical storm Bertha has strengthened to become the first hurricane of the Atlantic season.

As of 5 a.m. EDT today, Hurricane Bertha was about 845 miles east of the northern Leeward Islands. Forecasters at the National Hurricane Center say it is too early to say if or where the storm will hit land.

Maximum sustained winds have increased to speeds of 75 mph with higher gusts. Some strengthening is expected during the next couple of days.

Bertha is headed west-northwest at about 17 mph.

Too early or not I'd be watching Bertha closely - I just have a feeling.