Peter's Place

Healing the Brain: Stress, Trauma and LGBT/Q Youth My friend David Balog wrote an important book that describes the physical damage homophobia inflicts on our youth. While his book focuses on youth, it's not difficult to see how the same physical damages inflicted on youth can also be inflicted on adults who experience homophobia. David's book,  Healing the Brain: Stress, Trauma and LGBT/Q Youth , has been described as An invaluable resource for those working in the trenches with LGBTQ youth in foster/adoptive care but equally important serves as a primer for those in the community at large who are largely unaware of this subset in our population who are in such desperate need!  A review, in layman's terms, of the effects caused by both physical and emotional trauma to youth, in particular lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender youth. To mitigate the social, emotional, and physical damage suffered by these youth, we must understand the effects of stress and tra...

If you're feeling a little bit old today, I've got the perfect remedy to help cheer you up: A search engine giant was born today, and it's something that might alarm some people because they haven't realized exactly how much time (and how many milestones ) has passed between the birth of this search engine and now. But like it or not, we're now, today, celebrating Google's 18th Birthday!!! I'm not kidding. Really ! That's right, folks. The venerable search engine we all love and turn to in our daily lives is now, officially, old enough to be an adult . In fact, since corporations are people , perhaps it HAS become an adult today? I wonder what would happen if we were to ask Google, " Is Google a person? "—are we allowed to even ask such a thing without it breaking the Interwebs ? In any event, don't feel old because Google is 18 years old today; rather, feel old because you can remember a time when you didn'...

The United States should join every other major nation and recognize that health care is a right of citizenship. A Medicare-for-all, single-payer system would provide better care at less cost for more Americans. ~ Bernie Sanders After spending approximately four days inpatient, I was discharged from the hospital today. Last Saturday, I was taken (via ambulance, which probably isn't covered by my medical insurance) to the ER at Hartford Hospital and admitted there in a "code red" situation because I was having difficulty catching my breath due to my heart racing and perhaps some other medical problems I was experiencing. As a (somewhat very new) volunteer for Hartford Capital City Pride , I was at HCCP's PrideFest , which was held outdoors (in the very hot, very humid weather) in Connecticut's Capital City of Hartford's Bushnell Park . It was a very hot, extremely muggy day—just the sort that my asthma-based  COPD has serious issues with. Despite the...

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The bravest thing I ever did was continuing my life when I wanted to die. ~Juliette Lewis #quote #qotd #mentalhealth

Bernie Sanders' Address to the DNC Convention on July 25, 2016 July 26, 2016. PHILADELPHIA, PA: Congressmember Keith Ellison, a self-declared "proud" supporter of Bernie Sanders and one of his delegates, came out onto the stage at the DNC Convention after Elizabeth Warren's speech. He spoke for a few minutes about voting and some of Bernie's more progressive issues, and then introduced the star of the event, US Senator Bernie Sanders. Sanders spoke at the Democratic National Committee's 2016 Presidential Convention on Monday, July 25, 2016 at approximately 10:30 pm. Prior to his appearance, a modified version of his "America" campaign ad played with the ending modified to include Clinton. He walked out on stage while "America" continued to play and was greeted with the evening's most energetic applause and cheers in the convention hall. His supporters refused to subside their cries and thunderous applause in a standing ovation t...

Selected tweets. Click to enlarge. Monday, July 25, 2016 – NEW YORK:  On Sunday, July 24, 2016, Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz announced her resignation to the Democratic National Committee as its chair effective at the end of this coming week, according to numerous reports in the mainstream media . Reports about whether or not Schultz would be participating in the upcoming Democratic convention this week bounced back and forth throughout the day. Early morning reports indicated that she would "gavel in the convention" but early afternoon reporting once again had DWS completely removed from having any role in the convention. Supporters of US Senator Bernie Sanders, who has endorsed Hillary Clinton to become the next President but who has yet to pledge his delegates to Clinton or even suspend his campaign, became livid and took to social media, expressing their anger over Schultz's continued participation in the convention, as shown in the sampling of...

WikiLeaks logo Before the last 16 states concluded their primary process, a leaked email —part of the DNC Email Archive published by Wikileaks —shows that planning for former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton to be the Democratic nominee  had begun long before one-third of the nation even had a say in the matter. The email below shows that the DNC had already completed content proclaiming their nominee to be Hillary Clinton on the morning of April 26, 2016—before 16 states had completed their primary voting process. The sender of the e-mail, Eric Reif , is a DNC staffer. The email contains content written to be sent out by various members of the DNC, including DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz, DNC CEO Amy K. Dacey, and President Barack Obama: Hi all — We are starting to plan ahead with messaging to our supporters for the end of the primary and transition to the general. Below are a handful of emails and graphic copy for the initial few days of that change, arra...

"If I would have had more time, I would have written a shorter letter." ~T.S. Eliot #qotd #quote #quotestoponder #quotables Is this an oxymoronic or paradoxical statement, and what do you think of its meaning? I hope you enjoy my photography! :) #picsbyPCF

At 8:30 pm EDT on Thursday, June 16, 2016, US Senator and Democratic Presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders delivered an address to his supporters via livestreaming on the Internet where he vowed to continue his campaign and the fight to transform America. Sanders called out the fight to create a world of social and economic justice as the major tenet to what his campaign is about, and that that fight must continue into the future. In his address , Bernie decried the notion that his ideas were fringe or not mainstream, citing the 22 primary contests he won decisively plus 5 additional primary contests where he lost by less than two percent of the vote. He called out mainstream media’s determining that his campaign was not to be taken seriously. Drawing attention to the “ overwhelming majority ” of voters aged 45 and under who supported his campaign, “ sometimes by yooge numbers ” as an unexpected result of the political revolution Sanders initiated, he referred to them as “ the f...

These creatures were once as common as blue skies a mere century ago but nearly wiped out in the USA. Over the past two decades they've been making a comeback, in a big way. But they're not the sort of creature most folks will be happy to see return to society: bed bugs! Dispelling the myths and presenting the facts in a manner designed to prevent hysteria, knowledge is the greatest weapon in the fight to eradicate our society of these pesky pests. Bed Bugs are indiscriminate feeders who feast on animal blood. They are not a sign of uncleanliness or disease. Bed bugs are easily spread and are found in all walks of life, from multi-million dollar mansions to dirt-poor nations. Dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane , most commonly known as that outlawed pesticide DDT, nearly wiped out the bed bug population in the USA after its introduction and widespread use in the 1940s. However, concerns about its health hazards and environmental impact led to a ban in the USA , with few exce...

Given the state of international affairs these days, I thought @DolORiordan's pained vocals in "Zombie" appropriate: