"But I see what you mean, Entrecard is screwing YOU with the paid ads. This setup sucks."
I wouldn't normally put my personal messages on this blog; but today I'm just so full of people who are full of themselves, that I think this deserves to be showcased just to let you know why this member is SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO Special.
(PPS/ She Wrote me after seeing this posted and has taken a new attitude - see it below)
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From: BadGalSays
Hey There I'm curious as to whether my ad ever showed up on your widget because It was never there when I came to your page today.
could it have been crossed out by paid ads ?
I'd really just like to know if it was supposed to show on your site today because I paid for it and it certainly wasn't there, ever.
~RE
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I really have no idea... maybe contact Entrecard to see what happened?
Thanks,
Gerri
In my dashboard, it says you're on there now. But I see what you mean, Entrecard is screwing you with the paid ads. This setup sucks.
"But I see what you mean, Entrecard is screwing you with the paid ads. This setup sucks."
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Gerri
Clearly my ec paid ad was wiped out by Paid Ads.
It never showed, but I paid.
and yes I will be blogging about this instance because i think people would appreciate knowing both what happened, and as well your response.
Thanks, Absolutely True
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Look, I have no idea what you're talking about. Do you think that I got paid for something?
I'd be happy to run your ad outside of EC to make it up to you, but I'm not the one who screwed you.
As for copying something off your blog? No idea there either, as I had never seen your blog before.
I'm surprised by your tone and I think there must be some miscommunication going on here because it's not that I don't care, it's that EC is ruining it for everyone.
If you want to email me your ad and link, I'll be happy to post it. I'm going to cease accepting EC ads as of today and as soon as all ads have run, I'm removing it from the site.
------------------------------------------------------------------1:01pm et from me to Gerri
Sweetie: to put it in a simple term used widely today "Thanks".
I hope you understand why this is an issue, and it's not the ec, it's the total "So What" attitude toward the bloggers who take their time to come to your blog to see what you've written; whether they know you or not.
may you get that one day. Till Then - Happy DROPPING
~RE
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| 5/04/09 13:19 new |
5/04/09 13:50
From: BadGalSays
You See Gerri, that's what I meant.
you must have thought about it after you realized that I am really speaking For You too.
No Thanks on the offer, you didn't make the mistake.
Entrecard played you - by convincing you to step aside from your principals and accept paid ads.
to cross out your fellow bloggers, you had to be convinced that it would help them. which you have now seen is a lie. Paid Ads don't fuel or help keep the system going since the system is people driven.
let me explain it like this,
if you consider the time each person spends dropping in on blogs in the course of a week; it sometimes amounts to as much as 20 hours a week. did you think about what that time is worth, to each of those bloggers ?
I'd like to ask you not to leave the system, just help to correct the issues and stay involved. make comments and speak up as a blogger to the issue of dropping a card; instead of Droppin In To Read a Blog.
WE Are Bloggers, Not Advertisers, Think of us that way
Have a Good Day
~RE
Mmmkay, Drugs Are Bad.. Really Doh
From BadGalsRadioPosted on December 18, 2008
As Well We Do Not Endorse the use of Ritalin and Like Kind Drugs.
We've done loads of blogs on the problems of the Drug Wars; and the Narco Traffico Policy Problems; so add this one to the pile cause not a word we say makes any difference.
Apparently not a body we show you, not a bullet we talk about; not the kid on your evening news laid out like a statistic; none of it makes any difference.
so lets try the subtle approach, and see if maybe a Cartoon Character can get people to pay attention to this travesty unfolding around us; and destined to get worse - ALA Post Vietnam; if we don't do something about the Economy Quick.
Remember if a drug dealer has a job making enough to live, they usually don't resort to dealing drugs. don't believe us and the studies we've shown you then just listen to Mr Mackey - He Knows,
to quote Mr Mackey - "Mmmkay, Drugs Are Bad, Don't Do Drugs"
URL: Can Amphetamines Help Cure Cocaine Addiction?
By Maia Szalavitz Monday, Dec. 08, 2008
(Time Magazine Online)
When methadone was first proposed for the treatment of heroin addiction, it sounded like a pointless gambit — sort of like substituting vodka for gin. That's enabling addicts, critics said, not helping them.
But over the years, maintenance treatment with methadone and other synthetic opiates like buprenorphine has proved successful — more than any other heroin-addiction therapy — in getting people off illicit drugs and lowering HIV transmission rates, crime and death among users. That success, in part, has got researchers wondering whether addiction to other drugs — namely to the stimulants cocaine and methamphetamine — could be curbed in the same way, by substituting a chemically similar alternative. (See the Year in Health, from A to Z.)
"It's an idea that really does need to be rigorously evaluated," says Frank Vocci, director of the pharmacotherapy division at the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA). "But right now there is more discussion than data."
The problem of stimulant addiction in the U.S. has dropped out of the spotlight of late, but it has not disappeared. According to a 2007 government survey, 2.1 million Americans had used cocaine in the month prior to the survey and 1 million had taken other stimulants for nonmedical purposes, including more than half a million users of methamphetamine. There are currently no overwhelmingly effective addiction treatments. Abstinence-based rehab therapy for meth and cocaine work about as well as rehab for other drugs — meaning that about one-third of users improve following treatment, but most relapse repeatedly.
And despite decades of study of dozens of compounds, there are as yet no federally approved medications for cocaine or meth addiction.
Asked whether NIDA thought the concept of stimulant maintenance treatment holds promise, Vocci says, "If putting your money where your mouth is means [that we consider it promising], then, yes, we're funding a fair number of studies."
To date, the research has been mixed but intriguing. The best-studied drugs so far are dexamphetamine, a form of amphetamine contained in the antihyperactivity drug Adderall, and modafinil, the wakefulness drug used to treat narcolepsy and shift-work sleep disorder. Most studies have been small and focused on safety rather than efficacy. Some have found no effect — but because of their size, it's difficult to determine whether that's meaningful.
One British study followed 60 stimulant addicts who were treated with dexamphetamine in a Cornwall clinic. Doctors tracked how well these patients fared compared with 120 heroin addicts being treated with methadone, and found an equivalent reduction in illicit drug use and drug injection. In both groups, about two-thirds of patients stopped injecting over 10 months.
Another trial in Australia followed 30 cocaine injectors, 16 of whom were treated with dexamphetamine and 14 with a placebo. Cocaine-positive urine tests in the dexamphetamine group fell from 94% to 56%, while the placebo group showed no change after 14 weeks. A similar study of modafinil at the University of Pennsylvania in 2005 found reduced cocaine use in addicts.
But there are reasons that stimulant maintenance treatment was not initially studied more extensively. For one, high doses of amphetamines can cause brain damage, psychosis, heart attack and stroke. (High doses of opioids like methadone, in contrast, can also be dangerous, but once a patient develops a tolerance to them, even very high doses of the drugs are not toxic.) The consequences of high-dose use are important, since addicts in treatment often try at least once to use illegal drugs "on top" of their maintenance drug. So far, however, studies of dexamphetamine and similar drugs have not revealed major safety problems. Although a few patients have had psychotic episodes from using "on top," those particular patients turned out to have previously suffered psychosis. "There's pretty consistent evidence that the side effects are generally nominal," says John Grabowski, a professor of psychiatry at the University of Minnesota who has championed the study of stimulant maintenance treatment in the U.S.
Another problem is that stimulants appear to increase users' desire subjectively, rather than satisfying it. While a heroin high is calming and lasts for several hours, cocaine and amphetamine feel different. As actor Robin Williams, an admitted ex-user, put it, cocaine makes you feel like a new man, and the first thing the new man wants is more cocaine. It produces excitement, not relaxation. And the concern is that a maintenance drug would have the same escalating effect.
"That's one argument, but the data doesn't seem to support it," says Craig Rush, professor of behavioral science at the University of Kentucky. In a study of seven cocaine-dependent patients, Rush treated them with dexamphetamine maintenance, then gave them cocaine in the lab. The effects of cocaine were blunted. Rush is now looking at what happens when dexamphetamine-maintained patients are given a choice whether or not to take cocaine in the lab — preliminary results suggest they "just say no" more often.
The newer stimulant drug, modafinil, does not carry the same addiction risk as amphetamines, making it a promising alternative as a maintenance drug. But it's also less effective in treating the most severe addictions, according to Grabowski. "In our research, we were able to separate out [the more and less severely addicted patients], and the more severe people were more responsive to the more potent stimulants," says Grabowski, who has conducted two randomized controlled trials involving nearly 200 patients, which found that dexamphetamine treatment reduced cocaine use better than a placebo.
Proponents of stimulant maintenance treatment also note this significant detail: Many stimulant abusers suffer from attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). While ADHD affects about 1% of the general population, according to Rush, it shows up in about 30% of cocaine and amphetamine addicts. Psychiatrists often hesitate to give hyperactivity drugs to patients with a history of addiction, but some studies suggest that maintenance may be exactly what this group needs — and that their drug abuse is an attempt to self-medicate. The studies that have included ADHD patients (many studies exclude them to avoid confounding) showed positive results. In one pilot study, conducted at Columbia University, maintenance treatment reduced cocaine use and craving in 12 cocaine addicts with ADHD.
None of the researchers believe that stimulant maintenance is a panacea or that it will work for every cocaine or meth addict. But there is no medical treatment that works 100% of the time. "I think we have found something of potential benefit, and it should be met with interest and further research, rather than disdain," Grabowski says.
Increase In Meth Labs May Mean New Laws
Producers Finding Ways To Skirt Current Laws
NASHVILLE, Tenn. - A dangerous homemade drug is making a comeback.
Video: Increase In Meth Busts Could Lead To New Laws
Local and state authorities have been making some headway against methamphetamine production, but they said there has been a recent surge in lab busts.
Currently if an individual wants to buy a pill that contains pseduoephedrine, he or she has to show photo identification.
Law enforcement officers said that requirement made a large dent in the number of methamphetamine labs over the past three years.
However, busts are on the rise again, and some possible changes include putting liquids with pseudoephedrine behind the counter.
Lawrence County had three methamphetamine busts this year, until last week when police raided four more labs. Across Tennessee, methamphetamine lab seizures have spiked.
"We anticipated some rebound to the lab seizure numbers," said Tommy Farmer of the Tennessee Meth Lab Task Force.
Through October, there were 625 busts in the state, compared to 583 in all of 2007. In middle Tennessee, methamphetamine lab busts are up more than 50 percent.
Authorities haven't seen these numbers since 2005, when tough new laws limited access to psuedoephedrines, a common ingredient in methamphetamine.
Police said cooks have found ways around the law.
"They are going to look for alternative ways to acquire the precursor chemicals used to make meth, and that's what we're seeing," said Farmer.
Farmer said he's already talking with the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation and the governor's office about making some changes and eliminating loopholes in the existing law.
For example, there is discussion of the possibility of putting liquid pseudoephedrines behind the counter as well as tablets.
But with the state's deepening budget crisis, any changes are going to have to come without a price tag.
"We think we can have some modifications or adjustments made to the existing legislation that would not have an impact or would not have a fiscal note attached to it," said Farmer.
Experts said better law enforcement tactics have also resulted in the large increase in methamphetamine busts.
Officers around the state are very well trained to spot methamphetamine labs, and aggressive law enforcement measures have shown results.
Tennessee is not the only state dealing with an increase in methamphetamine labs. The entire region is experiencing a spike, with the biggest increases seen in Missouri and Michigan.
Brutal Drug War Fueled By U.S. Appetite
CBS Evening News Exclusive: Mexico's Ruthless Drug Cartel Violence Now Crossing The Border
TIJUANA, Mexico, Dec. 16, 2008 | by Bill Whitaker
(CBS) In the past few years, Mexico has become one of the most dangerous places on earth. Drug gangs have killed more than 5,000 people this year - more than the entire American death toll in Iraq. Tuesday, the Justice Department declared Mexico's drug cartels have become the biggest organized crime threat to the United States. CBS News correspondent Bill Whitaker takes an exclusive look at how Mexico's problem is crossing the border.
The sound of a country in crisis includes the cries of a woman wailing upon finding husband dead in cab of truck. The United States' southern neighbor is in the throes of a drug war - one that's growing more savage every day as the brutally aggressive Sinaloa Cartel muscles in on territory controlled by the Arellano-Felix, the Juarez and Gulf Cartels for control of lucrative routes for smuggling marijuana, cocaine and amphetamines into the United States - a $14 billion a year illegal trade, Whitaker reports.
The drug traffickers are more reckless and ruthless than ever. A group of terrified school children were caught in the crossfire of a three-hour shootout on the streets of Tijuana. In Juarez, a crime reporter was shot to death, the fifth Mexican journalist silenced this year.
Bill Gore has witnessed the carnage, first as the FBI Special Agent in Charge in San Diego, now as the county's undersheriff. He says American drug users should realize they have blood on their hands.
"This is not a victimless crime," Gore said. "That people are dying, literally hundreds of them, on the streets of Tijuana, so they can have their recreational drugs on this side of the border."
After Mexican president Felipe Calderon declared war on the drug cartels last year, troops and federal police have captured or killed scores of drug kingpins. Yet, violence continues. (CBS)
The most extreme violence is just south of the border - nowhere worse than Juarez, across the Rio Grande from El Paso. There have been 16 murders in El Paso this year and almost 1,500 drug-related killings in Juarez.
One grisly new tactic is beheadings. A headless corpse hung above a busy highway almost two hours before police covered it with a sheet - the head found in a nearby park.
In Tijuana, nine men were decapitated last month, three of them policemen, their badges stuck in their mouths - some of the 40 murders in Tijuana occurred in just one weekend.
It is a bloody war fueled by a high-powered arsenal of weapons, most smuggled in from the United States.
Read more about the role of the cartels at Tijuana Press (in Spanish) and at KPBS online.
The gun violence is fueling a boom in the security business. Gabriel Martin turns cars into tanks with armor plating, bullet-proof glass. Of one car he says: "An AR-15 with armor-piercing nose could not get through that."
And there's a long waiting list of people anxious to pay from $30,000 to $90,000 to outfit cars with James Bond-like smoke screens and nails to puncture pursuers' tires.
"As crime rises it seems like the business grows," Martin said. "People are scared to be kidnapped."
The current FBI Agent in Charge in San Diego says gangland kidnappings, common in Mexico as a secondary source of cartel income, are becoming common there.
"The violence is absolutely spilling across into the United States," said FBI agent Keith Slotter said.
About 40 San Diego residents were kidnapped in Mexico this year - double the number three years ago. Many more go unreported.
"Normally, the kidnappers have done, we believe, extensive research ahead of time," Slotter said. "They have a good, a solid background on a person's financial means."
They kidnapped one woman's husband, an American with businesses in Tijuana. They demanded $2 million. She's afraid to reveal her identity.
"I had to sell my business. I had to sell property. Anything to get back my husband," the woman said. "There was no need for them to kill my husband."
Ironically, this orgy of violence erupted after Mexican president Felipe Calderon declared war on the cartels last year, dispatching 40,000 troops and federal police to cities under siege. They've killed or captured scores of drug kingpins.
Authorities call this a success, though a fierce gun battle raged in the middle of the city for almost an hour. In the end, the federal police and the military took custody the most wanted chief of the Tijuana drug cartel.
With the arrest of Eduardo Arellano-Felix, the once powerful cartel is in disarray. The unintended consequence of success: a bloodbath, as the next generation of gangsters battles for dominance.
"We cannot live with that kind of intimidation, with that kind of terror on our streets," said Jorge Ramos, the Mayor of Tijuana.
So the mayor of Tijuana last week tapped former army Lt. Colonel, Julian Leyzaola, to run the city's police department.
He promises to take back the streets.
"Even in war you don't see what you see here," he said through a translator. "People whose heads are cut off, people who are dissolved in acid. If the cartels only understand the language of violence, then we are going to have to speak in their language ... and annihilate them."
In other words, fight cartel violence with superior violence: the coordinated power the police and military. As the government fights to get the upper hand, there's likely to be more blood in the streets
TURKMENISTAN: READY TO LAUNCH A WAR ON DRUGS?
James Delly 12/15/08
(eurasianet.org)
Narcotics trafficking and drug addition have long been hidden scourges in Turkmenistan, Central Asia’s most insular state. But President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov has sent signals in recent weeks that his administration is pondering ways to tackle drug-related issues.
The clearest indicator of a shift in the Turkmen government’s attitude came on World AIDS Day, December 1, when a variety of state agencies hosted an informational event, titled Unite for Future! Unite Against AIDS and Drugs!, at a theater in central Ashgabat. Printed matter on the hazards of diseases associated with drug additction, especially AIDS, were available for distribution. The materials were a collaborative effort produced by the Turkmen Health Ministry, the National Red Crescent Society and the Youth Center of Turkmenistan.
Though modest in its scope, the event underscored the fact that Berdymukhamedov’s administration is taking tentative steps toward addressing what is one of the country’s most daunting social challenges. During the last session of Turkmenistan’s old parliament, held before fresh elections on December 14, some outgoing MPs expressed concern about the dangers of narcotics trafficking, as well as the high public health social costs exacted by drug addiction.
Turkmen citizens will tell enquiring foreigners that drug use is prevalent in Ashgabat and that addicts are responsible for many serious crimes, including robberies and even murders. Addiction likewise encourages other forms of criminal behavior, especially prostitution, as young Turkmen women sell their bodies in order to maintain drug habits. "Unemployement is so high, often men are ashamed and start to use heroin," said one Turkmen man, speaking on condition of anonymity.
AFGHANISTAN: Drug producers, smugglers under pressure?
 Photo: Ahmad/IRIN  |
| Afghanistan has been the top opium-producing country in the world over the past several years, according to UNODC |
KABUL, 10 December 2008 (IRIN) - A senior official in the Interior Ministry has told IRIN that “unprecedented progress” has been made in the fight against drugs, with at least 500 drug traffickers arrested in the past eight months.
Mohammad Daud Daud, a deputy interior minister with responsibility for counter-narcotics, told IRIN counter-narcotics activities had been “boosted considerably” since 2007.
In the past eight months, over 300 tonnes of cannabis, over 25 tonnes of opium and over 10 tonnes of heroin, as well as several tonnes of heroin-producing chemicals, were impounded. Twenty-five heroin-producing laboratories were also destroyed, according to the Interior Ministry. (The UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) survey in 2007 said a total of 90 laboratories were in operation in March 2007).
As well as taking a direct toll on the health of Afghans who abuse drugs, the drugs trade helps finance Taliban and criminal activities and fuels insecurity, in turn hampering humanitarian aid operations. Nevertheless, hundreds of thousands of people are involved in poppy cultivation, and opium income makes up to 40 percent of gross domestic product, experts say.
Lives lost
The government says it has paid a high price for its counter-narcotics operations: At least 45 police officers have been killed and 65 injured in armed clashes with smugglers and insurgents involved in the drugs trade, the Interior Ministry said.
In its latest, August 2008, survey UNODC said incidents related to eradication activities in Helmand, Kandahar, Herat, Nimruz, Kapisa, Kabul and Nangarhar provinces had led to the deaths of at least 78 people, most of them policemen, in 2008. This represented an increase of about 75 percent on the 2007 figure (19 deaths). The main incidents were in Nangarhar and Nimruz provinces, UNODC said.
Under strong international pressure the government has beefed up the judiciary, with judges encouraged to convict arrested smugglers swiftly, according to media reports, but progress is by no means even: According to an Interior Ministry press release issued on 4 September, unidentified gunmen killed the head of the counter-narcotics court and several judges have received death threats.
Drought helps stem opium production
According to UNODC, there had been a 19 percent decrease in the area under opium cultivation to 157,000 hectares, down from 193,000 hectares in 2007. However, because of a higher yield of 48.8kg per hectare (up from 42.5 kg in 2007), overall opium production dropped just 6 percent from 8,200 to 7,700 tonnes, UNODC said in a statement on 26 August.
The number of opium-free provinces has increased from 13 to 18 (out of 34), according to UNODC. "Last year the world got hit by a heroin tsunami, almost 700 tonnes. This year the opium flood waters have started to recede", said the executive director of UNODC, Antonio Maria Costa.
UNODC said eradication efforts had played little part in the decrease: In 2008, 5,480 hectares were eradicated - nearly four times less than the 19,047 hectares destroyed in 2007.
Instead, UNODC attributed the decrease to good local leadership, assisted by drought. Some governors discouraged farmers from planting opium through campaigns, peer pressure, and the promotion of alternative development. The most impressive results were in Nangarhar, which also experienced severe drought.
The US Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) on 24 October said potential opium production in Afghanistan had declined steeply - by 31 percent - to 5,500 tonnes, down from 8,000 tonnes in 2007.
Today's opium poppy crop is concentrated in the south and southwest: 93 percent is confined to just five southern provinces, with Helmand accounting for over 60 percent of poppy cultivation, ONDCP said.
Corruption
Allegations that clampdowns on drug production and exports are hampered by corruption, in which government and security officials share proceeds in return for protection, are widespread. Daud acknowledged that drugs money may have corrupted some officials.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai rejected a recent article in the New York Times which said his younger brother, Ahmad Wali Karzai, was involved in the heroin trade.
Meanwhile, the head of UNODC, Antonio Maria Costa, has called for a crackdown on corruption, which is "greasing the wheels" of the drugs trade. "Corrupt officials, landowners, warlords and criminals must feel the full force of the law, otherwise the opium economy will continue to operate with impunity, and the Taliban will continue to profit from it", he said in a statement.
2 comments:
That happened to me too. I had paid for an ad but when I visited the blog, it was blacked out (for me, because of Adblock).
I think I only paid 2 ec, so I wasn't worried about it. But it sucks when you think your ad is being shown all day and it isn't.
I think it's more the principal of understanding that the visit to the blog is more important that the ec. Dropping seems to have put that madness in somefolks minds.
just amazing I tell you..
thanks for the comment Angelika
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