In Uganda, Prisons Officers to Pay Torture Victims

Prison officers who torture inmates will now be held responsible for their acts, including compensating the victims, the commissioner general of Prisons has said.

Dr. Johnson Byabashaija said the new Prisons Act 2006 shifts the burden of compensating torture victims from the State to the perpetrators of the crime.

"It is no longer a request that we observe inmates' rights. It is a legal requirement.

"It is no longer the Attorney General who is going to be sued for abusing prisoners' rights but the individual officer," Byabashaija warned.

He was on Wednesday speaking at the opening of a workshop for local administration prisons officers who have been integrated into the main prisons service.

The integration follows the enactment of the new law, which placed all local government policing agencies under the Commissioner General of Prisons...

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New Kerouac book due in November

Co-written in 1945 by Jack Kerouac and William S. Burroughs, And the Hippos Were Boiled in Their Tanks deals with the event that gave the Beat writer group its notoriety: the stabbing of David Kammerer by Lucien Carr. The Telegraph writes:

Carr served two years after admitting manslaughter, claiming Kammerer had been obsessed with him and had become violent.

Carr confessed to Kerouac and Burroughs, who helped him dispose of the knife but did not go to police. Kerouac was arrested as an accessary to the killing in 1944 and was put in a Bronx jail but he was freed after his girlfriend, Edie Parker, stood bail.

Burroughs was arrested but escaped incarceration after his father put up bail.

The book's publication will be a cause célèbre, given the enduring appeal of the authors. It is understood legal wranglings within the Kerouac estate are the reason it has not been published before, although neither writer was keen for that to happen. In a documentary Burroughs described it as "not a distinguished work".

US Great Seal Conspiracy Debunked by Alleged Conspirators

The Associated Press tells us: " ... Not that the Seal's symbols — the all-seeing eye, the unfinished pyramid, the Latin phrases, the bald eagle clutching an olive branch and arrows and the number 13 — aren't powerful.

They are, historians say. Yet their meanings have been misidentified, misunderstood and misrepresented almost since the Continental Congress first commissioned the Seal in 1776.

It would be another six years before the original design was approved and another 128 before it evolved into its current form. Along the way, a movement to decipher the Seal's meaning with ancient Egyptian, mystical and otherwise otherworldly explanations has gained currency.

The Internet age has seen an explosion in such conspiracy theories, many which have now been ingrained in public consciousness through the popular "National Treasure" movie franchise that serves up a combination of Masonic lore and historical myths in blockbuster Hollywood fashion.

Among them:

_That the Seal proves the domination of the United States by a powerful, quasi-religious cult. The Ancient Scottish Rite of Freemasonry is a perennial favorite of conspiracy theorists as some Founding Fathers were Masons and the Seal uses several Masonic symbols.

_That the Seal draws on Satanism or polytheistic ritual to promote a universal new world order under which Earth would be ruled by a single omnipotent government.

_That repeated references to 13 — the number of steps in the unfinished pyramid, stars in the constellation over the eagle's head, arrows in the eagle's claw, stripes on the eagle's shield, letters in the phrase "Annuit Coeptis" — demonstrate the power of 13 American families. ... "

~ From Great Seal Secrets Revealed! ~

Also check out The United States Seal - Fact, Fiction or Conspiracy?

'I already know who rules the United States'

" ... That having been said, I also realize that conspiracy theories are total nonsense. As anyone whose ever tried to keep a secret will tell you, any group larger than one person probably has a stool pigeon in it. Besides, who needs scapegoats like the Masons and the Men in Black? I already know who rules the United States.

Insurance companies.

Think I'm joking? Well, try this on for size. From the Revolutionary war to the 1970's, U.S. citizens were the tallest people in the world. However, over the last 60 years or so, Americans have been getting progressively shorter while Europeans have been growing progressively taller. In fact, in the middle of the 1800's, the average Dutchman was six centimeters shorter than the average American. Today, that trend is completely reversed.

I would love to blame this on the fact that Europeans often build their nuclear reactors in the middle of cities. After all, it would be really cool if the whole glowing continent was getting bigger because of an Attack of the 50-foot Women-style atomic-era disaster. However, according to a recent study that was jointly conducted by Princeton University and the University of Munich, the actual culprit is America's lower nutritional standards and its lack of a health-care safety net. According to this study, the fact that 15% of American children have no health coverage, combined with the fact that the remaining children often have to fight for a decent standard of care, is partially to blame for America's shortness epidemic.

On the bright side, this means that we can stretch out in smaller airplane seats. On the downside, it means that, if you want to stare down a Dutchman, you'll probably need to stand on a telephone book. ... "

~ From Health insurance companies: They ARE the boss of you ~

'Self as a verb, ego as a noun'

MG: Could you define ego in terms of the 8-circuit brain? Do you see a distinction between ego and self?

AA: In context to the 8-Circuit Brain model, the first four circuits symbolize specific developmental stages of the ego personality as our physical, emotional, conceptual and social survival strategies and defenses. However, until these levels or circuits can be experienced firsthand and redefined for oneself, our survival strategies and defenses tend to run, more or less, on automatic. Running on automatic means a life defined and driven chiefly by the unconscious parental and societal conditioning we were raised with, rather than a life dictated by our own innate sensibilities, values and ethics as an awakening human being.

This shift from automatic living to awakening parallels Carl Jung's Individuation, Dada Bhagwan's Self-realization, Dr. Abraham Mazlow's Self-Actualization, G.I. Gurdjieff's Self-Work and other related approaches to differentiating the innate being from the unconscious complexes we have mistaken for identity.

The 8-Circuit Brain can offer useful guidelines for revisioning these four survival modes, according to one's own discovery of what each one means and how they interact with each other, towards the maturing of a strong, supple and flexible ego. How the term "ego" differs from "self" should remain an ongoing inquiry. In shorthand, ego refers to any self-image or idea we have become emotionally invested in protecting, defending and preserving; for whatever reasons. The term "self", for me, represents a process not a goal; self as a verb, ego as a noun.

Our experiences are mediated by our bias, beliefs, ideas, ideals, etc. When these mediations can be minimized we can open up to a more direct experience of whatever is happening. As we experience life more directly, or with minimal mediation, a new kind of self develops...one that must stay open and flexible to persist, rather than the ego tendency for fixating on a set image or idea of who we are or what is happening. Again, self as verb, ego as noun.

Since the ego is made up of ephemeral image-stuff, it is naturally insecure and understandably covets the idea of being in control or the boss of it all. Even though deep down we may know it's an illusion to feed the ego's fantasy, we do it anyway. That's sleepy human. We also forget it's a fantasy and end up taking ego way too seriously. Dreaming humans. The process of selfhood, on the other hand, seems more guided by the gestalt of the situation itself, as if to say the situation were the boss. Ah! The awakening human!

 
MG: Where do the "upper" process-oriented circuits 5-8 fit in?

AA: Whereas the first four circuits symbolize a hierarchy of survival needs, circuits five through eight represent states of consciousness and functions of intelligence operating with, what I call, transpersonal post-survival agendas. These agendas push and stretch human consciousness to their outermost limits and can be thought of as evolutionary triggers. Upper circuit experiences are often triggered by specific types of shocks, such as fifth circuit shock of ecstasy, sixth circuit shock of uncertainty (or relativity), seventh circuit shock of unity and eighth circuit shock of impermanence.

~ From The 8-Circuit Brain and Other Bright Ideas: Part 2 ~