Pennsylvania Hospital to Open Country’s First Inpatient Treatment Program for Internet Addiction

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Photo Credit: Fox News

Photo Credit: Fox News

Ten years ago, Kevin Roberts suffered from an addiction that took over his life.

Roberts, now 44 years old, would sit eight to 12 hours a day in front of the pale blue glow of his computer, playing a videogame. During holidays, he “binged,” spending nearly all his waking hours at his keyboard. Finally, a friend who had been through Alcoholics Anonymous told him he displayed all the same characteristics of an addict.

“Like most addicts, I went through a series of self-deception,” said Roberts, who documented his struggle with addiction in his book, “Cyber Junkie: Escape the Gaming and Internet Trap.”

The story of Roberts, who came to grips with his addiction through years of therapy and spiritual retreats, is not unique. Treatment facilities have sprung up in recent years, but a psychiatric hospital in central Pennsylvania is now set to become the country’s first facility of its kind to offer an inpatient treatment program for people it diagnoses with severe Internet addiction.

The voluntary, 10-day program is set to open on Sept. 9 at the Behavioral Health Services at Bradford Regional Medical Center. The program was organized by experts in the field and cognitive specialists with backgrounds in treating more familiar addictions like drug and alcohol abuse.

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Ten-Year-Old Boy Wins Alaska’s Contest for Giant Cabbages

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Photo Credit: plagal

Photo Credit: plagal

A 10-year-old boy has won Alaska’s annual giant cabbage contest, submitting a 92.3-pound (41.9 kg) specimen named “Bob” to officials at the state fair.

Keevan Dinkel of Wasilla, Alaska, produced this year’s winning entry, which was carried in by several Boy Scouts, in the Alaska State Fair’s Giant Cabbage Weigh-Off on Friday night.

His giant cabbage, which rose to about thigh height on a typical adult, and those of other contestants were weighed at the fairgrounds in Palmer, in a contest watched by hundreds of onlookers, attended by green-clad women dressed as “cabbage fairies” and monitored by a representative of the state Division of Weights and Measures.

Produce can grow to enormous sizes under Alaska’s summer midnight sun. Growing big cabbages is a tradition in this part of the state, just north of Anchorage, which is considered Alaska’s main farm belt.

This year was the first time in the contest’s 18 years that a child has won the weigh-off, according to state fair officials. The fair offers a junior competition for growers 12 and younger, but Keevan’s entry was put into the adult open category because of its size.

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Liz Cheney Blasted by Older Sister Over Anti-Gay Marriage Stance

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Photo Credit: AFP

Photo Credit: AFP

Mary Cheney, the openly gay daughter of one of ex-Vice President Dick Cheney’s two daughters, has taken to Facebook to blast her older sibling, Elizabeth.

Liz Cheney, a Wyoming Senate candidate, aired her views on gay marriage on Friday by saying it should be something for voters to decide on a state-by-state basis, and not a matter for ‘judges’ or ‘legislators.’

Mary Cheney, openly lesbian and married to Heather Poe since 2012, responded by posting on her personal Facebook page: ‘For the record, I love my sister, but she is dead wrong on the issue of marriage.’

She continued: “Freedom means freedom for everyone. That means that all families — regardless of how they look or how they are made — all families are entitled to the same rights, privileges and protections as every other.”

‘For the record, I love my sister, but she is dead wrong on the issue of marriage.’

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Which Organs Can I Live Without, And How Much Cash Can I Get For Them?

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Photo Credit: Victor de Schwanberg

Photo Credit: Victor de Schwanberg

First, a disclaimer: Selling your organs is illegal in the United States. It’s also very dangerous. Handing off an organ is risky enough when done in a top hospital, even more so if you’re doing it for cash in a back alley. No, really: Don’t do this. OK? OK.

There are many organs one can theoretically do without, or for which there’s a backup. Most folks can spare a kidney, a portion of their liver, a lung, some intestines, and an eyeball, and still live a long life. That said, donating a lung, a piece of liver or a section of intestines is a very complicated surgery, so it’s not done frequently on the black market. And no one’s going to make much cash on an eyeball. “In the U.S., there’s a fairly steady supply of donated corneas from corpses,” says Sean Fitzpatrick, director of public affairs at the New England Organ Bank. “There’s pretty much no market demand for eyes.” Giving up a kidney, though, is a relatively simple surgery that has netted desperate people a few bucks.

Now, black-market organ dealers don’t do a great job of filing taxes, but here are some prices based on rumored deals and reports from the World Heath Organization. In India, a kidney fetches around $20,000…

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Chinese Father Chains his Blind, Mentally Ill Son in a Cave after Losing their Home

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Photo Credit: EuroPics

Photo Credit: EuroPics

A father has told how he’s turned his handicapped son into a real life caveman – chaining him naked to a rock face in central China.

Astonishing pictures of tragic Cheng Xiangtao, 26 – born blind and mentally disabled – chained by his ankle to his cave in remote Chengling village, Henan province, have outraged the country.

Dad Cheng Yuanchao, 70, abandoned his son after losing his home and going to live with his daughters.

‘I have no home of my own now and nowhere to house my son. This is the best I can do. I visit him three times a day with food and water so he is never hungry of thirsty.

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Gun Control Rally is Overwhelmed by Pro Gun Supporters Who Take Over Podium (+video)

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StopNRAYou know, we keep hearing about how 90% of the country supports expanded background checks, and a majority support new gun control.

However, whenever it comes to actually taking action, those alleged supporters are nowhere to be found. Often, participants at anti-gun rallies are outnumbered by organizers and the media.

A rally in support of expanded background checks in Ohio late this week was no exception.

Anti-gun speakers and protestors, who numbered only a handful, where quickly overwhelmed by NRA and Buckeye Firearms Association supporters in Columbus.

“As a gun owner, I’m a responsible person and I think it’s responsible to ask to have all gun owners have a background check,” said Blanche Luczyk [event organizer]. “It’s just common sense. Any responsible person who is willing to take the ownership of a gun should be willing to have that background check.”

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Krauthammer Warns Strike on Syria May Result In ‘Major Regional War’ (+video)

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krauthammer

On Friday’s “Special Report” on the Fox News Channel, Krauthammer elaborated on that reference, drawing a comparison of early 20th century Germany to modern-day Iran — a growing superpower that its neighbors do not know how to contain.

The question is — it is going to look as if the U.S. — the U.K. already walked away. Iran is in the driver’s seat. America is slinking away. And the problem is if you make a miscalculation here and you let Iran imagine that it is in charge, it threatens to attack Israel … Israel will respond fiercely it and it could get out of control. So, it isn’t as if Obama imagined — he says, ‘I’ll do a narrow thing, limited thing. It’s not going to be boots on the ground, as if he is pleading with Assad, you know, don’t take it seriously. It’s just going to be a few bombs in the desert. Well, if he miscalculates and the Iranians and Hezbollah react, we could have a regional war – a major regional war.”

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Video: Ralph Peters- Most Phenomenally Stupid Misuse Of Our Military I’ve Seen (+video)

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Photo Credit: National Review

Photo Credit: National Review

BILL HEMMER: You are strong in your opposition to this. Why?

RALPH PETERS: Well, because it’s the most phenomenally stupid misuse of our military I’ve ever seen. No one in this administration has been able to explain what tangible vital security interest we have in Syria or in stopping this fighting. This military demonstration — and that’s what it’s going to be — is about Obama shooting off his mouth about red lines and chemical weapons. Now he feels he has to do something. He doesn’t want to do too much, he doesn’t want to do too little. He’s not thinking through the potential consequences, and I see no, no way, Bill, in which a military attack on Syria is worth it for the United States or will end well.

HEMMER: Alright, let’s work through the scenarios then. How do you allow anyone on this planet to use chemical weapons, WMD, and not respond to it, not act?

PETERS: Where’s the rest of the world? Where are the neighbors? The Arab League said it doesn’t want us to attack. They obviously don’t care about poison gas being used on Muslims.

HEMMER: You have the French, and you have the British, and the Arab League did not come out yesterday in support, but there is support among these Arab nations that do it, whether or not it’s written on a sheet of paper or whether or not it’s declared in a mosque or not.

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President Obama Turns to Congress to OK Strike Against Syria

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

President Obama said Saturday the United States should take military action against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad for using chemical weapons on civilians but also turned to Congress for approval — dealing a potential setback to America’s foreign policy and setting up what will likely be a hard-fought Washington debate on the issue.

“This menace must be confronted,” Obama said of the Assad regime’s alleged chemical attack, speaking from the Rose Garden.

However, the announcement also raised the question about whether the president put the burden on Congress to act.

“President Obama is abdicating his responsibility as commander in chief and undermining the authority of future presidents,” said New York Rep. Peter King, a member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. “The president doesn’t need 535 members of Congress to enforce his own red line.”

The president was driven to make a decision following an Aug. 21 chemical attack outside Damascus that killed more than 1,400 people, including hundreds of children. The attack was just one of several allegedly carried out by the Assad regime after Obama said about 12 months ago that the regime using a chemical weapon would “cross a red line.”

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Biden: We’ll Target Congressmen Who Oppose Gun Control Efforts

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images (1)The White House will continue its push to strengthen gun control laws, even if it means targeting members of Congress who oppose its agenda, Vice President Joe Biden said Thursday.

“If Congress doesn’t act, we’ll fight for a new Congress,” Biden said in the Roosevelt Room of the White House as he swore in B. Todd Jones as the new director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. “It’s that simple. But we’re going to get this done.”

In April, a bipartisan gun-control plan that would have expanded background checks and banned assault weapons failed to garner support in the Senate and was killed off, despite polls that showed massive public support in the wake of the Newtown, Conn. school massacre last Dec..

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