Jacksonville man charged in Kinston arsons
By: WNCT STAFF
Published: July 14, 2012
KINSTON, N.C. - A Jacksonville man is behind bars, accused of setting fire to three buildings in Kinston.
Officers with the Kinston Department of Public Safety along with Agents with the ATF and SBI made the arrest Friday.
48-year-old William Elliot is facing four separate charges of burning certain buildings and one charge of first degree arson. He had a first court appearance Monday morning at 9 a.m.
Camp Lejeune's Public Affairs Office says Elliot is a retired marine who served from June 1982 to September 2011. He was a Master Gunnery Sergeant who won several awards, including a Marine Corps Good Conduct Medal, a Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medal and a National Defense Service Medal.
read more here
Tuesday, July 24, 2012
Media hyped what Holmes Mom said
Holmes Family Stands Behind Son, Disputes Media Reports
An attorney for the family of suspected Colorado Massacre gunman James Holmes says they stand behind their son.
By Shauntel Lowe
July 23, 2012
The mother of the suspected Colorado Massacre gunman was referring to herself—not her son—when she told a reporter he had the "right person" when asked about the shooting last week, the Holmes family attorney said Monday, adding that the parents stand behind their son.
An attorney for the family of suspected Colorado Massacre gunman James Holmes says they stand behind their son.
By Shauntel Lowe
July 23, 2012
The mother of the suspected Colorado Massacre gunman was referring to herself—not her son—when she told a reporter he had the "right person" when asked about the shooting last week, the Holmes family attorney said Monday, adding that the parents stand behind their son.
"I did not know anything about a shooting in Aurora at that time. He asked if I was Arlene Holmes and if my son was James Holmes who lives in Aurora, Colorado. I answered, 'Yes, you have the right person.' I was referring to myself.
I asked him to tell me why he was calling. He told me, 'About a shooting in Aurora.' He asked for a comment. I told him I could not comment because I did not know that the person he was talking about was my son and I would need to find out."
read more here
New age babble, ancient healing
I was stunned by what was missed in this article. Meditation has worked for centuries to teach a body to calm down. The "whole" of the person begins to work in harmony again, mind, body and spirit. It is not the answer to all of "whole" of a person with PTSD, especially Combat PTSD.
Meditation helps a veteran re-teach his/her body to calm down again. After training to get the body to go into high alert, experiencing the events of combat and months of not really resting, the body needs help to put things back in balance again. Meditation is vital but so is talk therapy, spiritual healing and often medication.
If meditation is not your thing, then some are helped by doing something as simple as taking long walks with calming music to trap out thoughts that can agitate the body going "on guard" again instead of relaxing. Some find martial arts work. Others find yoga helps, or playing a musical instrument, reading a good book or writing. Anything of natural order helps different people as long as it is calming and not numbing.
I talked to some veterans telling me that drinking does the trick and helps them calm down. They are confused between calming and numbing. Some say they drink to fall asleep but have confused falling asleep with passing out. If you're thinking about drinking instead of doing something listed above, it is not a good idea at all. It will only make PTSD stronger, your wallet leaner, your lawyer richer when you are caught drunk driving and leave you with a hangover.
It could also lead to something like this.
Break Out of the Prison of Your Past
Lilian Cheung, D.Sc., R.D.
Co-Author, 'Savor: Mindful Eating, Mindful Life'
Posted: 07/24/2012
"You are free to be here." -- Thich Nhat Hanh
This simple idea opens a world of relief. We can unburden ourselves of past suffering by realizing that however painful experiences were, they are not happening to us in the present moment. The suffering from the past is a shadow that we allow to haunt us.
The application of mindfulness, the state of being fully present in the here and now, has proved so useful in transforming past pain in to peace that prisons, detention centers and psychotherapists treating veterans with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) are increasingly implementing mindfulness-based programs. The results for individuals who participate, and their communities, have been promising.
The Mind Body Awareness Project, a nonprofit organization that offers meditation courses to at-risk youth in prisons and detention centers, conducted a two-year pilot study, which concluded in 2007. Ninety-five percent of participants in their mindfulness programs reported feeling physically better after coming to class. Ninety-three percent reported feeling less stressed, 85 percent felt better about themselves and 78 percent reported sleeping better.
read more here
Meditation helps a veteran re-teach his/her body to calm down again. After training to get the body to go into high alert, experiencing the events of combat and months of not really resting, the body needs help to put things back in balance again. Meditation is vital but so is talk therapy, spiritual healing and often medication.
If meditation is not your thing, then some are helped by doing something as simple as taking long walks with calming music to trap out thoughts that can agitate the body going "on guard" again instead of relaxing. Some find martial arts work. Others find yoga helps, or playing a musical instrument, reading a good book or writing. Anything of natural order helps different people as long as it is calming and not numbing.
I talked to some veterans telling me that drinking does the trick and helps them calm down. They are confused between calming and numbing. Some say they drink to fall asleep but have confused falling asleep with passing out. If you're thinking about drinking instead of doing something listed above, it is not a good idea at all. It will only make PTSD stronger, your wallet leaner, your lawyer richer when you are caught drunk driving and leave you with a hangover.
It could also lead to something like this.
A woman said her ex-boyfriend was sitting on her roof texting her nonstop and had tried to break into her home. Sheriff's deputies took the suspect – a drunken Marine – to Camp Pendleton.
Marines Call Me Maybe video causes controversy
Dancin’ Marines
By MARK THOMPSON
July 23, 2012
These days, when troops get bored in the war zone – and there’s plenty of time for that to happen – they make music videos. Here’s the latest from the Marines (and some soldiers) at Kandahar airfield in Afghanistan, lip-syncing to what Battleland is told is Carly Rae Jepson’s summer hit “Call Me Maybe.”
Posts a self-described Marine sergeant:
By MARK THOMPSON
July 23, 2012
These days, when troops get bored in the war zone – and there’s plenty of time for that to happen – they make music videos. Here’s the latest from the Marines (and some soldiers) at Kandahar airfield in Afghanistan, lip-syncing to what Battleland is told is Carly Rae Jepson’s summer hit “Call Me Maybe.”
Posts a self-described Marine sergeant:
Well thats great that these POG’s [Persons Other than Grunts] are making music videos while me and other real Marines are fighting a war. I lost my leg in Afghan last August which I am glad to have done my duty for 9 years untill i was wounded but the fact of the matter is we like so many other combat arms Marines were on a PB [patrol base] with no power no a/c no running water because logistics could not get proper equiptment to us…… But these Marines are the ones that could get it to us and there making a stupid music video what a joke. And these Marines are the one that will be the ones telling war stories in the bar.
Read more
Dr. Drew says after trauma, don't isolate!
Dr. Drew was talking about the mass murder at the movie theater in Aurora Colorado making a very clear case about the dangers of isolating after an event like this.
Drew talked about faith in your higher power, talking to other people and not shutting yourself off.
Isn't it great advice? That's what the civilian world does with traumatic events.
While we see hundreds of reporters show up after something like this, there is also an army of crisis responders rushing out to help. The goal, get people to talk about it so they can begin to heal. Have a conversation with someone that will not judge them so they can talk it out.
Traumatic events are not part of a "normal" life. People are not trained to cope with it especially when it is something like this. Something like this is not personal yet somehow they wonder if it is because of them. Well meaning "friends" will come out with something totally stupid like "God never gives us more than we can handle." as if God not only made them go to that movie, at that time, in that theater and then sent the gunman in to punish them or test them.
God didn't send the murder in. This was not personal. He opened fire on kids, teens, young adults and everyone else he thought may be easy to hit.
Mass murder is not personal. It wasn't personal on 9-11 anymore than it was in Colorado. That may be the hardest thing to overcome. The randomness of the suffering makes people feel very unsafe from that moment on. People will go to the movies and remember what happened just as millions of people around this country went to work in large buildings thinking about the planes that took down other buildings.
With help, the right kind of help, days of normal-ness will take the fear away.
Psychologist say that after trauma there is a 30 day window. If the aftereffects do not get weaker as time passes, then they need to get more help to overcome it. That does not mean that everything inside will "get over it" but just means the trauma won't win. If you need help go for it. Don't listen to anyone saying anything that makes you feel worse afterwards.
Drew talked about faith in your higher power, talking to other people and not shutting yourself off.
Dr. Drew: 'Trauma changes our brains'
By Dr. Drew staff
updated 7:04 AM EDT, Tue July 24, 2012
NEED TO KNOW
'If you isolate and sit with your fears … you increase your risk for psychiatric/psychological problems later,' Dr. Drew says
Aurora is bracing for another emotional week as families begin making funeral arrangements for the loves ones they lost in the horrific Colorado theater shooting.
On Monday night, HLN’s Dr. Drew dedicated his entire show to helping people understand how to overcome such distress.
“Trauma changes our brains,” he said. “It changes our brains permanently and that is why we have to have professional intervention. There's healing, but it’s about re-wiring and changing how the brain functions.”
read more here
Isn't it great advice? That's what the civilian world does with traumatic events.
While we see hundreds of reporters show up after something like this, there is also an army of crisis responders rushing out to help. The goal, get people to talk about it so they can begin to heal. Have a conversation with someone that will not judge them so they can talk it out.
Traumatic events are not part of a "normal" life. People are not trained to cope with it especially when it is something like this. Something like this is not personal yet somehow they wonder if it is because of them. Well meaning "friends" will come out with something totally stupid like "God never gives us more than we can handle." as if God not only made them go to that movie, at that time, in that theater and then sent the gunman in to punish them or test them.
God didn't send the murder in. This was not personal. He opened fire on kids, teens, young adults and everyone else he thought may be easy to hit.
Mass murder is not personal. It wasn't personal on 9-11 anymore than it was in Colorado. That may be the hardest thing to overcome. The randomness of the suffering makes people feel very unsafe from that moment on. People will go to the movies and remember what happened just as millions of people around this country went to work in large buildings thinking about the planes that took down other buildings.
With help, the right kind of help, days of normal-ness will take the fear away.
Psychologist say that after trauma there is a 30 day window. If the aftereffects do not get weaker as time passes, then they need to get more help to overcome it. That does not mean that everything inside will "get over it" but just means the trauma won't win. If you need help go for it. Don't listen to anyone saying anything that makes you feel worse afterwards.
Monday, July 23, 2012
President Obama speaks at VFW Convention
President Obama announces job training services for veterans
BY LAURA MYERS
LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL
Posted: Jul. 23, 2012
RENO -- President Barack Obama on Monday announced an overhaul of U.S. job training services for veterans returning home from war, saying it's still too tough for America's fighting men and women to find jobs despite the skills they learned in the military.
"We're going to set up a reverse boot camp," Obama said, addressing the annual convention of Veterans of Foreign Wars. He said it would provide job training, education and help starting new business for veterans in order to step up their "career readiness."
"Our American veterans have the skills America needs," Obama said to warm applause from several thousand veterans in the Reno-Sparks Convention Center. "It's still too hard for our folks to find work, especially our young veterans" returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.
Obama said he also signed into law a veterans jobs skills act to help speed credentials and certification in job specialties veterans learned in the military to help them get work at home.
read more here
When Mitch" McConnell gave this speech in 2010, his priority was to make Obama a one term president. His list of things to do did not include taking care of the men and women serving this nation in two wars, taking care of the veterans already back home, taking care of the National Guards and Reservists needing jobs or anything else military families needed. Making Obama a one term president was the goal of the GOP elected to run the affairs of this nation. So what did they do? They cut budgets getting rid of a most of the jobs veterans usually take in public service as firefighters, police officers, teachers and other jobs so they can still be of service to their communities. They they complained about the unemployment rate they just voted to increase so they could "cut the deficit" at the same time most Governors didn't use their share of the stimulus money to keep veterans on the job.
Watch this video clip of McConnell and you'll see why it has been so bad for veterans in the last two years. While commercials down here in Florida talk about the unemployment rate at 8% for the "last three years" they fail to mention that in 2009 it was still the Bush budget and what they love to forget is the fact that while Presidents come up with their own thoughts on the budget the end result always comes from CONGRESS!!!!!!!
They control the money but love to blame the guy in charge no matter who it is so while Democrats complained about the Bush budget again the end result came from the people each state elected.
7,800 veterans as human guinea pigs may finally get justice
VA Must Disclose Veteran Drug Test Documents
By ANNIE YOUDERIAN
(CN) - Veterans won another court order requiring the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs to hand over more documents about its Cold War-era drug experiments on thousands of Vietnam veterans.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley in Oakland, Calif., said the documents requested were "squarely relevant" to the claim that the government failed to adequately notify veterans of the chemicals they were exposed to and what that exposure might do to their health.
The Army and the CIA, with the help of Nazi scientists, used at least 7,800 veterans as human guinea pigs for testing the effects of up to 400 types of drugs and chemicals, including mescaline, LSD, amphetamines, barbituates, mustard gas and nerve agents, the Vietnam Veterans of America and individual soldiers claim in a 2009 class action.
The government covered up the true nature of its experiments, which began in the 1950s under code names such as "Bluebird," "Artichoke" and "MKUltra."
In "Project Paperclip," the Army and CIA allegedly recruited Nazi scientists to help test various psychochemicals and develop a new truth serum using its own veterans as test subjects.
"Over half of these Nazi recruits had been members of the SS or Nazi Party," according to the class action. "The 'Paperclip' name was chosen because so many of the employment applications were clipped to immigration papers." read more here
By ANNIE YOUDERIAN
(CN) - Veterans won another court order requiring the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs to hand over more documents about its Cold War-era drug experiments on thousands of Vietnam veterans.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley in Oakland, Calif., said the documents requested were "squarely relevant" to the claim that the government failed to adequately notify veterans of the chemicals they were exposed to and what that exposure might do to their health.
The Army and the CIA, with the help of Nazi scientists, used at least 7,800 veterans as human guinea pigs for testing the effects of up to 400 types of drugs and chemicals, including mescaline, LSD, amphetamines, barbituates, mustard gas and nerve agents, the Vietnam Veterans of America and individual soldiers claim in a 2009 class action.
The government covered up the true nature of its experiments, which began in the 1950s under code names such as "Bluebird," "Artichoke" and "MKUltra."
In "Project Paperclip," the Army and CIA allegedly recruited Nazi scientists to help test various psychochemicals and develop a new truth serum using its own veterans as test subjects.
"Over half of these Nazi recruits had been members of the SS or Nazi Party," according to the class action. "The 'Paperclip' name was chosen because so many of the employment applications were clipped to immigration papers." read more here
Heavy combat puts service members at high suicide, PTSD risk
Utah study: Heavy combat puts service members at high suicide, PTSD risk
Military Research shows sending a small, all-volunteer military into combat repeatedly has ‘enormous implications,’ U. dean says.
By Kristen Moulton
The Salt Lake Tribune
First Published 1 hour ago • Updated 1 minute ago
The more severe combat a warrior experiences, the more likely he or she is to later attempt suicide, new research at the University of Utah’s National Center for Veterans Studies shows.
It might seem like common sense, says David Rudd, the center’s scientific director and the dean of social and behavioral sciences, but it had never before been empirically validated, he says.
"This has enormous implications," says Rudd, who will discuss his research with the Congressional Veterans Caucus in Washington on Tuesday and at the American Psychological Association conference in August.
It shows there are ramifications when a nation sends a small, all-volunteer military into combat over and over and over again, he says.
"The severity of your psychiatric injury, the severity of your symptoms is clearly, undeniably tied to the severity of your combat exposure."
Moreover, it puts to rest the notion that warriors become more resilient, more comfortable the longer they are in combat. That’s a bromide sometimes used by those who dismiss combat as a cause because, after all, roughly half of suicides occur among military members who never leave the United States.
"It makes it hard to argue the case anymore that, ‘Hey, people who haven’t deployed are trying to kill themselves," says Rudd. "Yes, they are, but … it’s a separate issue. What this paper helps articulate is there are two different populations of people."
For those in his study who saw heavy combat, the findings are stark: 93 percent qualified for a diagnosis of post traumatic stress disorder and nearly 70 percent had attempted suicide.
read more here
Military Research shows sending a small, all-volunteer military into combat repeatedly has ‘enormous implications,’ U. dean says.
By Kristen Moulton
The Salt Lake Tribune
First Published 1 hour ago • Updated 1 minute ago
The more severe combat a warrior experiences, the more likely he or she is to later attempt suicide, new research at the University of Utah’s National Center for Veterans Studies shows.
It might seem like common sense, says David Rudd, the center’s scientific director and the dean of social and behavioral sciences, but it had never before been empirically validated, he says.
"This has enormous implications," says Rudd, who will discuss his research with the Congressional Veterans Caucus in Washington on Tuesday and at the American Psychological Association conference in August.
It shows there are ramifications when a nation sends a small, all-volunteer military into combat over and over and over again, he says.
"The severity of your psychiatric injury, the severity of your symptoms is clearly, undeniably tied to the severity of your combat exposure."
Moreover, it puts to rest the notion that warriors become more resilient, more comfortable the longer they are in combat. That’s a bromide sometimes used by those who dismiss combat as a cause because, after all, roughly half of suicides occur among military members who never leave the United States.
"It makes it hard to argue the case anymore that, ‘Hey, people who haven’t deployed are trying to kill themselves," says Rudd. "Yes, they are, but … it’s a separate issue. What this paper helps articulate is there are two different populations of people."
For those in his study who saw heavy combat, the findings are stark: 93 percent qualified for a diagnosis of post traumatic stress disorder and nearly 70 percent had attempted suicide.
read more here
When it feels terrible to love them
by Chaplain Kathie
Wounded Times Blog
July 23, 2012
When it feels terrible to love them it is because we just don't understand Combat PTSD.
Christopher Thomas, of Helmsman Studios is directing a movie on combat PTSD called Terrible Love.
He emailed me about questions he had, so I called him back after I took a look at his promo and we talked for a long time. I was impressed by what I saw but more impressed by the passion in his voice and the important questions he wanted answers for.
One of the questions was "What do we have to do first?" Point blank my answer was that since we are so far behind on helping our veterans, we have to go to the families first if we are ever going to catch up. Most of the emails and phone calls I receive come from the families first and then the veterans they care about.
My job is to get them to understand what Combat PTSD is, what it does, why they act the way they do so they don't feel so lost, frustrated, hopeless and alone, and then what they can do to help someone they love. I tell them that when the veteran comes home from combat, it's our battle to fight for them, not against them.
I did it. We're heading into our 28th anniversary and have been together for 30 years. I know how hard it is and everything else that comes with it. Even knowing what I knew it was almost impossible to stay in the worst of times, so it is very painful to think about these families with little or no knowledge to help them get through it.
One of the reasons I am with Point Man International Ministries is to help the families as well as the veterans. The outreach and support we give doesn't cost much money at all. I crunched some numbers for the State of Florida and discovered if I traveled all over this state for an entire year reaching the 1.6 million veterans' families it would cost about $100,000 including the car I'd have to buy (example Chevy Equinox about $30,000), tolls, gas, food, lodging, printing and my time. But this wouldn't cost the state of Florida a dime considering how many veterans groups are in this state claiming to be addressing the needs of our veterans and collecting millions in donations every year. They could all pitch in.
PTSD can harm families of veterans is an article about a family and how this hits the entire family. My book For The Love of Jack is about living with it for 18 years and was published 10 years ago when I self published it right after 9-11-2001 when no one was talking about Combat PTSD simply because I saw all of this suffering coming. Remembering what it was like when I met my husband and there was nothing to help me help him was my motivation. Basically every family I help is because I know how they feel. It sucks!
It sucks the life out of you even now with information overload. These families end up turning to Facebook and overnight experts telling them some nonsense passing it off as advice and support. When a wife posts about what she considers emotional abuse, the response is usually to get a divorce instead of explaining the difference between true emotional abuse and what seems like it because of the symptoms of Combat PTSD, what a flashback does or even why they act the way they do.
Symptoms of PTSD that tend to be associated with C-PTSD include problems regulating feelings, which can result in suicidal thoughts, explosive anger, or passive aggressive behaviors; a tendency to forget the trauma or feel detached from one's life (dissociation) or body (depersonalization); persistent feelings of helplessness, shame, guilt, or being completely different from others; feeling the perpetrator of trauma is all-powerful and preoccupation with either revenge against or allegiance with the perpetrator; and severe change in those things that give the sufferer meaning, like a loss of spiritual faith or an ongoing sense of helplessness, hopelessness, or despair.
But the fly by night "experts" offer the same advice they'd offer anyone never once addressing the fact that combat is not what everyone else goes through any more than they address the different levels of it or what the difference is between mild PTSD, full blown PTSD, secondary stressor and secondary PTSD.
We are the ones that calm them down or fire them up. Support them and help them to see they are not evil or we treat them as if they are worthless. We either stand by their side to help them get help or help them to become homeless. We save them when they try to commit suicides or find them when they succeeded.
We end up holding the guilt when we failed to stay or give them what they needed when we only did the best we could at the time because some hack gave us bad advice and made it all worse. Our love for them does not have to feel terrible.
If you've given up because the site you trusted turned out to be a lot of BS, don't give up. Do what I did and continue to do. Only go to the real experts to get the answers.
If we are ever going to undo the damage done when they come home, the families have to come into all of this right now. The suicides and attempted suicides go up because the DOD and VA are pushing failed programs they have finally admitted they cannot prove they work so this battle is in our hands.
Failing Veterans
What Others Say: Failing veterans
Those who served deserve better
Jul 20, 2012
This editorial appeared July 19 in the Pensacola News Journal.
A recent report shows we are failing our veterans, especially those returning from the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Specifically, the Institute of Medicine recommended that soldiers returning from war be screened for post-traumatic stress disorder at least once a year. Officials there also said more research is needed to see if the treatment for the disorder is working.
An Associated Press story said it’s estimated that as many as 20 percent of the people deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan have symptoms of PTSD. That could be more than 500,000 of the 2.6 million deployed. Equally troubling is the statistic that only about half of those diagnosed with PTSD seek treatment. The others don’t pursue treatment because they fear it could jeopardize their careers.
Clearly more needs to be done for these young people who have served bravely, many in fierce combat where they have killed the enemy or where they have seen their comrades wounded, maimed or killed. Those types of traumatic events can trigger PTSD.
The report also suggested treatment isn’t reaching those who need it most, or if it’s working at all.
read more here
Those who served deserve better
Jul 20, 2012
This editorial appeared July 19 in the Pensacola News Journal.
A recent report shows we are failing our veterans, especially those returning from the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Specifically, the Institute of Medicine recommended that soldiers returning from war be screened for post-traumatic stress disorder at least once a year. Officials there also said more research is needed to see if the treatment for the disorder is working.
An Associated Press story said it’s estimated that as many as 20 percent of the people deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan have symptoms of PTSD. That could be more than 500,000 of the 2.6 million deployed. Equally troubling is the statistic that only about half of those diagnosed with PTSD seek treatment. The others don’t pursue treatment because they fear it could jeopardize their careers.
Clearly more needs to be done for these young people who have served bravely, many in fierce combat where they have killed the enemy or where they have seen their comrades wounded, maimed or killed. Those types of traumatic events can trigger PTSD.
The report also suggested treatment isn’t reaching those who need it most, or if it’s working at all.
read more here
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