I found this explanation of he way society treats those unable to work while completing my Social Care degree. It is not my personal feeling. It was one of the more depressing parts of the course:As a disabled person you are unable to fulfil your expected role: work, produce, purchase, rinse , repeat. This is seen as a deviance from the norm, and a threat to the stability and welfare of wider society. Because of your disability you are permitted exemption from those duties, but only as long as you are genuinely ill (have a diagnosis/physical manifestation of your disease) and that you are trying your hardest to get well (showing signs of improvement, participating in programmes designed for improving your health.) http://amplify.com/u/dsq9 http://amplify.com/u/dsqa

Real Scientology, Real Scientologists.

I won’t fully recount here what the PAC RPF is like. At best it is a gulag where time stands still. The only thing that makes it bearable are the some of the dedicated staff there. Some had been on the program for seven years or more. That is seven years without a day off, no contact with wife or family, no music, twenty-minute meal breaks. A phone call to your parent’s on Christmas day. A day otherwise spent cleaning floors and toilets. For the most part the RPF is kept hidden from the public and staff. For the most part, we helped build sets for the Int events and furniture for the “Ideal Orgs”.

At one point, following an IAS event, the RPF was allowed to watch the video of the event where Tom Cruise receives the IAS medal and is proclaimed by DM as “the most dedicated Scientologist I know”. I looked over at the guy sitting next to me, a man who had worked on the ship with LRH, had been an SO member for over 25 years, who had been on the RPF for 6 years separated from his wife and family. Really? An actor who has been actively disseminating for a couple of years is the most dedicated Scientologist on the planet?

via markrathbun.wordpress.com

Eventually, some cult members encounter enough bullshit that it seems to act like smelling salts, and they wake up and start wondering how the hell they can get out of the mess they are in.

This is my first post on Amplify! #myfirstpost on another bloggy thing.. I have no idea why. Mainly "because its there" but this is nothing like climbing a mountain, obviously. http://amplify.com/u/d3sv

The Age of Uncertainty: Almost Lost Forever

via ageofuncertainty.blogspot.com

Found this thanks to @adders on Twitter. The very thought of someone dropping an old photo album into a bin.. how *could* they?

Huge Commonwealth Games cock-up leads to condoms blocking drains | Sport | The Guardian

The condom blockage follows an outbreak of gastrocolic problems such as diarrhoea among swimmers this week.

via guardian.co.uk

Is it me or is it weird how the wording makes it sound like the condom useage is related to the Delhi Belly?

Confidence, Power, Love

I have a few memories of being in some kind of choir in high school. It baffles me that I felt able to sing back then, surrounded by other people who could hit the notes and hold them, but years later I won't knowingly let anyone hear a single note. It really does seem that the words of one loved one eroded my belief in my voice so badly that even contradictions from my most loved today can't mend it.

Facebook/Synching mobiles

"pull the photos down from Facebook and put them on your phone. That would breach Facebook's terms of service." http://bit.ly/cDyIb6 but thats what my blackberry does! I'm deleting Farcebook for Blackberry.