No, I did get that part MGR, and as I was trying to indicate, a parent could simply remove their child from this whole sphere of influence by refusing to sign the permission slip in the first place, thus keeping them out of the health center.

Ultimately this might be bad, as it would then remove their access to the other services as well, but I still maintain that doctor-patient confidentiality is a key part of the strategy in getting kids to seek proper protection for themselves... because trust me when I say this: not every little girl is capable of talking about sex with their parents. This goes for women of all ages, not just 11 year olds, its just one of those topics a good many kids would prefer to avoid discussing with their parents... and at risk teens and preteens certainly aren't going to seek a doctor's advice if they know they will get 'narc-ed on'.

Raven, I don't know if you got this, but that permission slip isn't for the BC.. it's for use of the health center. Anything that happens after that slip is signed is confidential.

Uh swampy, jonny, did you read the articles that we linked to? From what it sounds like, students are getting examined by professionals. Again, I qoute to you, this time with key things in bold:


"At King Middle School, birth control prescriptions will be given after a student undergoes a physical exam by a physician or nurse practitioner, said Lisa Belanger, who oversees Portland’s student health centers.

Students treated at the centers must first get written parental permission, but under state law such treatment is confidential, and students decide for themselves whether to tell their parents about the services they receive."


And from an article @SunHerald.com

"School officials said five of the school's 510 students would have qualified for the birth control under the program last year.

O'Brien, whose district includes King Middle School, said the notion that young children can now easily get birth-control pills is flat wrong.

"They don't just have a giant punch bowl full of pills," he said,

The birth control will be given out only after extensive counseling, and no prepubescent children will get it, O'Brien said.

But Coyne said a physically mature, savvy 11-year-old could get the birth control once the permission slip to use the center is signed.

"I think she could navigate the system," he said.

Portland's three middle schools had seven pregnancies in the last five years, said Douglas Gardner, director of Portland's Health and Human Services Department. He said early reports of 17 pregnancies during the last four years were erroneous."


So, not only are the students getting examined by a trained professional (these are not being handed out like vitamins), but to even undergo the exam in the first place or use the medical center itself, the child needs to have parental permission. I'm guessing this would be in the form of a release waiver that is filled out at the beginning of each school year, similar to the normal safety/contact info/release waiver that is then kept on file in student records.

So, Swampy, in your case, you could always choose to not give that permission, and your daughter would not even be allowed to access the health center and instead rely upon the doctors you designate outside of school. And likely, there will be many parents in Maine who will follow that route, not just because of the access to birth control, but because I'm sure some parents can afford better health care for their kids or have children with special medical issues that they need to monitor. For everyone else though, especially kids from low income families, this health center sounds like a very good thing, not just because of the access to birth control, but also immunizations, examinations, and basic treatments... and might be way more than some of these kids would normally get, and in the case of the Portland school district, it sounds like they need this kind of setup.

Again from the article @SunHerald.com

"The King Middle School is among Portland's most diverse schools, with 31 languages spoken there and 28 percent of its students foreign-born. The school, located on the same peninsula as downtown Portland, draws from the islands in Casco Bay, wealthier neighborhoods overlooking the bay, and low-income triple deckers.

Fifty-four percent of the students are part of the federal free lunch program, which is an indicator of poverty.

Principal Michael McCarthy said the school had just one pregnancy last year, but students were reporting they were sexually active. The center has dispensed condoms since 2000, but because it could not prescribe birth-control pills, nurses referred the students to Planned Parenthood or Maine Medical Center.

"When they followed up, they found that in many cases, the kids weren't doing that," McCarthy said."

It sounds like an environment that would be tough enough for a young girl to grow and mature in, and having an early teenage pregnancy would likely be an extreme burden and only help to perpetuate the cycle of poverty in the area. Coupled with that is the high immigrant population, which means there are probably a lot of parents in the area that are not equipped to deal with the new 'American' environment (i.e.- probably considerably more sexualized in content than the culture of their homelands) that their children need the support to deal with. In light of these considerations, I think that the Portland school system is taking appropriate measures to ensure that their students get the fairest start on life possible, and don't end up at an early age 'stuck' in the environment they are now living in.

Also, as none of us can say for sure what the exact procedures are there, we can't really argue on sticking points like whether or not they are gathering medical history... although, given my own experiences with student health services on a collegiate level, I would like to think that if this place in Maine is being run by health care professionals of a similar caliber, that they would probably contact your child's primary physician for medical records/history... at least, that is what they do here.

I do like jonny's idea that parents should be subjected to the same sex-ed classes as their children, if only because, in a lot of cases anyway, parents might finally realize just how lacking the sex ed programs are in a good number of school systems, and take it upon themselves to either demand a change in curriculum, or better yet, open up a dialogue on the matter with their children.

Couple of points, just adding to whats already been said realy.

First, age of relevance. A quick search found this, from what looks a reasonable article:

"The average age for a girl to start puberty is at (age) 11 or 12," she said. "But we consider it normal for a girl as young as 8 years old to have her period. Only if it happens at a really young age like (age) 4 or 5 is there reason to worry. In those cases, there could be some serious problems, like a tumor in the brain or the ovaries."

Addressing issues like this must be done in ways appropriate to real life, and real individuals. Not every girl will have puberty onset at an early age (8), but it can be normal/natural for those who do. One size/age for addressing these issues does not fit all.

Culture: Our society expects people to "get together" at quite a late age, historically speaking. Marriage at what we would feel was a very young age were much more common just yesterday, in anthropological (ex anthropomorphic) terms. Our culture is new, and young. And not normal, statistically speaking. (this is not an aesthetic judgment).

Society. (my perspective is from the UK fyi) Our society is far from perfect and reflects the huge differences in quality of the social/emotional/intellectual/support networks etc that exist not just for the kids, but the parents too. I'm saying that what we cant have artificially rosey/high expectations for either parenting, or the children. Thats not to say that its all bad for all of them, just that its not 1 size fits all, and we have to acknowledge this, not hide from it by wishing everything was great for everyone, and criticizing/penalizing kids who are victims of poor parenting/support networks (possibly having parents who also suffered from it).

Parenting:
I might have been viewed as lucky by most of my friends, in terms of my family life, but families are complex things. I'm certain mine was perceived as loving, and a stable middle class home. But my dad was a secret alcoholic, and whilst not violent, i had a terrible relationship, parent/child wise, in that i zero respect for him, or his irrational and unreasonable responses. I would never have come to him about some serious problem, nor my mother (who has never related to me, as lovely a person as she is). We cant isolate further, children who cannot relate/interact with their parents, according to some "Ideal standard" that we make policy by. If councilors/doctors cannot have a confidential relationship to kids, then they cannot offer support that they may not be getting from any other place. Put it this way, for those WITH good parenting, they may not need this support. For those without, it may have a vital impact on their lives, and the lives of their potential kids.


I know not having an ideal childhood != early sex (i didn't get around to it till almost 30) but ignorance/no support is never a good recipe.

MG, if encountering the news of what this school is doing was a shock, that dosen't mean its not an appropriate course for them, and rather the fact it IS appropriate is what is shocking.

From the article, @MSNBC:

"At King Middle School, birth control prescriptions will be given after a student undergoes a physical exam by a physician or nurse practitioner, said Lisa Belanger, who oversees Portland’s student health centers.

Students treated at the centers must first get written parental permission, but under state law such treatment is confidential, and students decide for themselves whether to tell their parents about the services they receive."

Sounds to me like they got a good plan of action outlined, and the mere fact that there even is a health center for the school district is great, and definitely leaps and bounds ahead of anything my school system ever had in place.

There is absolutely no evidence that the Pentagon is hiding videos of the impact.

Only three security tapes capturing anything of the Pentagon impact were sequestered at that time. A few frames from the Pentagon helipad tape were released immediately, but the rest of the footage remained confidential as it might have been needed during the Moussaoui trial. Since his conviction though, all three have been released.

There is overwhelming evidence that Flight 77 hit the Pentagon. This includes (but isn't limited to) dozens of pieces of eyewitness testimony, numberless pieces of recovered debris (including engine wreckage), recovered and functional flight data recorders and the DNA identification of all but one of the passengers.

Choggie:

We don't have all the facts about evolution. There is, however, overwhelming evidence in support of it and absolutely no compelling evidence in favour of any alternative theory. So, do you think that the conclusion that evolution exists is "God damn insane"? Further, I have no idea why you're referring to pilots "from the desert." The hijacker pilots were mainly from Saudi Arabia. They were all commercially licensed and instrument rated. Many were university educated.

Bluecliff:

Flight 77's Flight Data Recorder has been released. Those belonging to Flights 11 and 175 were destroyed and never recovered.

As far as I'm aware, there were only three security tapes capturing anything of the Pentagon impact sequestered at that time. A few frames from the Pentagon helipad tape were released immediately, but the rest of the footage remained confidential as it might have been needed during the Moussaoui trial. Since his conviction though, all three have been released.

Further, you claim that by releasing such-and-such, the government could "deal a fatal blow to the conspiracy theories." With respect, that is a naive thing to say. The conspiracy theories surrounding 9/11 subsist on simply no evidence and also in the face of overwhelming counterevidence. It's not like a few further pieces of counterevidence are going to change anything.

The address I use for this site is relatively new; not many people have it because I can't stand spam, and so far so good...haven't gotten a single bit yet. However, I recently received one that was odd... the subject said something about receiving an application for employment or something like that, but there was no body text except for the confidentiality warning, which is usually attached after emails from employers, hospitals, etc. (after that, there was a similar one about the IRS, which I'd never seen before)... both seemed to be a signature on an email which otherwise contained no text. So I looked to see who it was from, and it was from "unknown@unknown.unknown" It's true I've been looking for a few jobs lately, but I don't recall applying at the CIA. So, A) it had me wondering if it was correlated to the security breach here, (ie intruders obtaining email addresses) and/or B) has anyone had a similar experience with gmail, especially with the triple-unknown "From" address?

There have been some thoughtful points made in the last four posts and they deserve a considered reply. Perhaps I'll get round to that at a later date. For now though, I'll just address your two-part question, Constitutional_Patriot.

Firstly, yes, I think it's perfectly reasonable for the FBI to have gathered as much evidence as possible in the immediate aftermath of the event (and I suspect the conspiracy theorists would be amongst the first to cry foul had they done anything else). Secondly, as far as I'm aware, there were only three security tapes capturing anything of the impact sequestered at that time. A few frames from the Pentagon tape were released immediately, but the rest of the footage remained confidential as it might have been needed during the Moussaoui trial. Since his conviction though, all three have been released.

No, I'm saying that no photographic evidence of the interior columns being cut seem to exist (to the public).. specifically the one that is most known that we're referring to, it leaves one to wonder about it.

Par:
"Also, I would have thought that the "other halves" of the columns are not still in the pictures because they have been transported away. That was the reason for them having been cut, after all."
Then where is the crane that would have lifted the other piece... it's now shown and there was no sign of any scaffolding material or other equipment near the center column that the welders would have used because there was still too much debris all around that column when the photo was taken.

Par:
"Further, you seem to be implying that the photograph in question was supposed to have been officially repressed but has somehow slipped though the net In fact, it's been taken from a publically-available collection of photographs which document the clean-up operation."

Well that's your interpretation, not what I said. The photo in question does not clearly indicate that it was cut by welders after the fact or by thermate since they would look similar.. what I said is that they DID have to approve such photos from hitting the public. It's no secret that that specific photo and the other close up photos were taken by a limited number of photographers and the photo's WERE screened before their release.

While the steel was being removed from the site of the three largest and most mysterious structural failures in history, even the team FEMA had assembled to investigate the failures -- the Building Performance Assessment Team (BPAT) -- was denied access to the evidence. The Science Committee of the House of Representatives later identified several aspects of the FEMA-controlled operation that prevented the conduct of an adquate investigation:

The BPAT did not control the steel. "The lack of authority of investigators to impound pieces of steel for investigation before they were recycled led to the loss of important pieces of evidence."
FEMA required BPAT members to sign confidentiality agreements that "frustrated the efforts of independent researchers to understand the collapse."
The BPAT was not granted access to "pertinent building documents."
"The BPAT team does not plan, nor does it have sufficient funding, to fully analyze the structural data it collected to determine the reasons for the collapse of the WTC buildings."
Gene Corley complained to the Committee that the Port Authority refused to give his investigators copies of the Towers' blueprints until he signed a wavier that the plans would not be used in a lawsuit against the agency.

There SHOULD have been more photographs and immediate investigation of 9/11 - one of the most profound events in our history is my main point here. I don't know for certain one way or the other if the official story is true yet. The government has a known history in maintaining secrets from the public, blocking investigations, censoring information, subversion, intimidation and gag-ordering whistleblowers. With all of this going on it's no wonder that the evidence that does exist yet neither proves anything one way or the other becomes controversial.

100: Night of the Living Dead
99: Laura
98: Dead Poets Society
97: Bladerunner
96: The Lost Weekend
95: Oceans 11
94: Star Wars: Episode IV
93: Midnight Run
92: It Came from Outer Space
91: The Right Stuff
90: The Fugitive
89: The French Connection
88: Back To The Future
87: Cast Away
86: Quiz Show
85: The Silence of the Lambs
84: Titanic
83: The Magnificent Seven (?)
82: Rain Man
81: Galaxy Quest
80: Harold and Maude
79: Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead
78: The Day The Earth Stood Still
77: The Apartment
76: The Great Escape
75: The Hustler
74: Ed Wood
73: The Jerk
72: Raiders of the Lost Ark
71: When Harry Met Sally
70: Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan
69: M*A*S*H
68: The Breakfast Club
67: The King and I
66: Gentleman's Agreement (?)
65: The Princess Bride
64: Yellow Submarine
63: Network
62: Mister Roberts
61: Singles
60: Gone With the Wind
59: The Awful Truth
58: Goldfinger
57: The Manchurian Candidate
56: It's a Wonderful Life
55: The Blues Brothers
54: The Remains of the Day
53: Midnight Express
52: Waking Ned Devine
51: Roman Holiday
50: Cool Hand Luke
49: The Taking of Pelham One Two Three
48: The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938)
47: The Big Sleep
48: On The Waterfront
45: The Hudsucker Proxy
44: Dirty Harry
43: Monty Python and the Holy Grail
42: Finding Nemo
41: Ben Hur
40: Superman
39: The 39 Steps
38: Aliens
37: Men In Black
36: Clerks
35: Harvey
34: Marty
33: The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean (?)
32: All About Eve (?)
31: Ferris Bueller's Day Off
30: The Wild Bunch
29: Young Frankenstein
28: The Bridge Over the River Kwai
27: The Usual Suspects
26: North By Northwest
25: Sunset Blvd.
24: Escape From New York
23: The Wizard of Oz
22: Casablanca
21: The Lion in Winter
20: Boogie Nights
19: The Shawshank Redemption
18: Almost Famous
17: The Maltese Falcon
16: The Natural
15: Being John Malcovich
14: The Professionals
13: Laurence of Arabia
12: Ghostbusters
11: This is Spinal Tap
10: Citizen Kane
9: 12 Angry Men
8: Office Space
7: To Kill a Mockingbird
6: Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels
5: The Godfather
4: Fargo
3: L.A. Confidential
2: Once Upon a Time In the West
1: The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring

That's off the top of my head. My wife saw this and filled in a few more, and corrected a few.

Do the US DVDs include the BBC "Dr Who Confidential" 30 min series that followed every episode?

Krupo: Wow, you're right. I hadn't noticed that it made the top 15. Thanks for the welcome! (=

Gervaise: "I dunno, Coast Guard?" I actually laughed out loud at that one, hehe

Some really interesting points (by quantumushroom, joedirt, wepwawet, gervaise, etc.) in regards to the subject of this video are being brought up. I agree that some police matters are definitely confidential and should not be subject to the general public's knowledge. I am referring specifically to Wepwawet's point of taking statements, etc. I certainly don't believe it is right for the public to actively and deliberately interfere with a criminal investigation.

Moreover, I feel that the mother in the video should definitely not have been aggressively and closely following the officers as she was. However, again, I feel the police officers may have overstepped their power in telling the person videotaping the incident that he was illegally doing so. It did not appear that he was interferring with their ability to enforce the law.

Nevertheless, without knowing the specifics of the local laws regarding this incident, and without knowing the complete story (given this may be considered a fragment of the overall recording), it's somewhat hard to come to a definitive conclusion. With the evidence provided, however, it *seems* the officers just didn't want to be videotaped, which I feel is a request that may be declined. This of course is again provided it isn't intentionally interferring with their enforcement of the law but is merely providing a recording of the incident, for better or for worse.