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Direct link to video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=2FAbUZd3zoMSynopsis Excerpt: A Melbourne, Florida cop turned off his audio and video equipment before beating a 66-year-old man suffering from dementia "for no apparent reason," WFTV reports. The officer turned off his video and audio equipment before the beating. The department was able to extract the video from the hard drive, but not the audio. The only disciplinary record the officer received for the incident was a written reprimand for turning off the recording equipment. Flowers was charged with battery on a law enforcement officer. "It's ridiculous. Clearly from this video there was no assault on...

John Bolton announced a few minutes ago that he has endorsed Mitt Romney in the 2012 election campaign. He believes Romney is the strongest conservative, who is electable. Bolton has informed himself of romney's writings and beliefs, and considers him the best conservative in the race. Greta's show repeats on Fox a 1 a.m.

Oh man, this is classic. McCain totally referred to Romney as “President Obama” and went on for a few seconds before Gov. Haley corrected him. Hilarious!

In an interview published Saturday to mark 50 years of Christian Broadcasting Network, Chairman Pat Robertson said he liked Mitt Romney’s politics and saw the Mormon presidential candidate as an “outstanding Christian.” Although many evangelicals are skeptical of the Mormon faith’s claim to Christianity, Robertson called former Massachusetts Governor Romney an “outstanding Christian” in an interview with The Associated Press. But when asked if he was alright with a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the White House, the 81-year-old head of the television network refused to answer. In a Pew Research Center poll in...

Tight glucose control won't mitigate the cognitive effects of type 2 diabetes, an ACCORD subanalysis found. Intensive treatment aiming for hemoglobin A1c under 6% did reduce brain atrophy over 40 months compared with standard management (P=0.0007), Lenore J. Launer, PhD, of the National Institute on Aging in Bethesda, Md., and colleagues found. But cognitive scores over 40 months showed no advantage over treatment to the conventional 7% to 7.9% goal (P=0.2997), they reported online in Lancet Neurology. These results from the Action to Control Cardiovascular Risk in Diabetes (ACCORD) Memory in Diabetes (MIND) substudy matched the overall lack of benefit...

Religious broadcaster Pat Robertson told his "700 Club" viewers that divorcing a spouse with Alzheimer's is justifiable because the disease is "a kind of death." During the portion of the show where the one-time Republican presidential candidate takes questions from viewers, Robertson was asked what advice a man should give to a friend who began seeing another woman after his wife started suffering from the incurable neurological disorder. "I know it sounds cruel, but if he's going to do something, he should divorce her and start all over again, but make sure she has custodial care and somebody looking after...

PHILADELPHIA - It seems the Eagles aren't the only team in town ready for some NFL action. The lawyers of Anapol, Schwartz, Weiss, Cohan, Feldman and Smalley have taken on the National Football League in federal court. Seven former professional football players -- among them former Chicago Bears and Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Jim McMahon and Philadelphia Eagles lineman Gerry Feehery -- retained the Philadelphia law firm, alleging the NFL failed ...

Researchers discover common cause of all forms of ALSCHICAGO --- The underlying disease process of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS and Lou Gehrig's disease), a fatal neurodegenerative disease that paralyzes its victims, has long eluded scientists and prevented development of effective therapies. Scientists weren't even sure all its forms actually converged into a common disease process. But a new Northwestern Medicine study for the first time has identified a common cause of all forms of ALS. The basis of the disorder is a broken down protein recycling system in the neurons of the spinal cord and the brain. Optimal functioning of...

Psychologist Margaret Gatz explains what 25 years of research have taught her about reducing the risk of dementia. Margaret Gatz, a psychologist at the University of Southern California, Los Angeles, is investigating the causes of Alzheimer's disease. To that end, she has studied the health of more than 14,000 Swedish twins for more than 25 years. On 5 August, she will tell the annual convention of the American Psychological Association in Washington DC what the study has taught her about how to reduce risk for the disease. Nature got a preview. What first motivated you to study Alzheimer's disease? Before...

GILBERT - Arizona Sen. John McCain held a town hall in Gilbert this morning and the economy took center stage. The town hall was focused on the nations' economic troubles and McCain said the on-going financial problems would be much greater had Congress not passed a bill to keep the country from defaulting on its debt. McCain said he is very concerned with the recent S&P downgrade of the United States' credit rating and views it as a wake-up call to the nation. "It will cost more to borrow money and it is a very serious situation," McCain said. McCain...

(snip) MCCAIN: ... just wants to spend money. Hello? He just wants to spend more money. You and I are -- remember when Ronald Reagan said the worst deal he ever made was when he sat down with the Democrats and said they would cut spending $3 and raise taxes for every $1. Guess what? They raised taxes and they didn’t cut spending. That’s why the Tea Partiers and others would – I’m not a Tea Partier -- but the fact is, we need a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution. We couldn’t get it through the Senate as the...

After savagely tearing into conservatives on the floor of the Senate, McCain is on Hannity right now, claiming that he was attacking Obama, not conservatives. Then, he claims that no-one has a better conservative fiscal record than he, because he "fought the Bush -uh spending." He did? No, he fought the Bush TAX CUTS.

Dementia sufferers are being killed by doctors in Holland under the country’s euthanasia laws, official figures are to reveal. A total of 21 patients with early-stage dementia, including Alzheimer’s, died by lethal injection last year, according to a forthcoming annual report. This is the first time dementia sufferers have been included in the country’s euthanasia statistics. None of the cases is thought to have involved any illegal act on the part of health professionals, and each time the patient was considered capable of giving their consent. But the figures have caused alarm among critics who say the pool of patients...

June 27, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Euthanasia is on the rise in the Netherlands, and it is taking an even uglier turn than many would have expected. Cases of euthanasia have risen from 2,500 in 2009 to 2,700 in 2010; but even more shocking, last year 21 persons suffering from the early stages of dementia, but who were otherwise in good health, were euthanized. All of these 21 “mercy killings” were subsequently approved by the official euthanasia follow-up commission. This 2010 annual report on euthanasia has yet to be published, but key figures were released by the official news channel, NOS,...

Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said on Thursday the survival of Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi's regime could spell the end of NATO. “Logically you can exact that if he [Gadhafi] outlasts NATO, the Arab spring is over,” said Graham. "…He will take it out on his people, I think it will affect the price of oil and would be the end of NATO because NATO taking on Gadhafi and losing -- its going to be very hard for that organization to go off to another war and be taken seriously.” Speaking on the Senate floor, Graham and...

Sunlit Uplands readers know that we bow to no one in our utter contempt for the Marxist who is deliberately dividing and undermining this country from the Oval Office in the White House. Yet we are also the first to acknowledge that no one bears more responsibility for the election of Barack Hussein Obama than George W. Bush. We were, therefore, sorry to read this morning that his close friend and political protege, Texas Governor Rick Perry, has added South Carolina to his summer travel plans — his first trip to an early presidential primary nominating state. South Carolinians have...

Carter: 'Probably superior' to other ex-presidents *** UPDATE 3:59 pm ET *** Former President Carter issued a written statement after his comments aired: "What I meant was, for 27 years the Carter Center has provided me with superior opportunities to do good." In an interview with NBC's Brian Williams, former President Jimmy Carter, who has been a target of the right through the years, lauded his own post-presidency, telling Williams, "I feel that my role as a former president is probably superior to that of other presidents." Carter, who is out with a new book defending his legacy, backed up...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Waterboarding and other harsh interrogation techniques were not a factor in tracking down Osama bin Laden, a leading Republican senator insisted Thursday. Sen. John McCain, who spent 5 1/2 years as a prisoner of war in North Vietnam, also rejected the argument that any form of torture is critical to U.S. success in the fight against terrorism.

TOPSFIELD (MA)— Four nursing assistants have been fired and two top administrators replaced at one of the state's top-rated nursing homes, in the wake of patient abuse allegations. A report completed last month by state investigators alleged that at least a dozen residents of the Masconomet Healthcare Center in Topsfield were subjected to various forms of verbal abuse and humiliation — including one patient with dementia who was recorded on a cell-phone camera answering questions in a confused manner, to the amusement of a nursing assistant who then shared the video with coworkers. The report says a group of four...

Older people suffering from mild memory and cognition problems may be less likely to progress to full-blown Alzheimer’s disease if they receive treatment for medical conditions like diabetes, high blood pressure and cholesterol, a new study has found. In 2004, researchers at Daping Hospital in Chongqing, China, began following 837 residents ages 55 and older who had mild cognitive impairment but not dementia. Of these, 414 had at least one medical condition that can impair blood flow to the brain. After five years, 298 of the participants had developed Alzheimer’s. Subjects who had had high blood pressure or other vascular...

There's still no foolproof way to predict who will develop dementia, but brain scientists say they have identified a new clue: Cluelessness, as in an inability to tell when people are lying or using sarcasm. A preliminary new study conducted at the University of California at San Francisco suggests that the neurodegenerative process responsible for dementia also causes deterioration of regions of the brain responsible for detecting insincere speech. "These patients cannot detect lies," study author Dr. Katherine Rankin, of the university's Memory and Aging Center, said in a written statement. "This fact can help them be diagnosed earlier." It...

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said Monday he feared a "stalemate" has developd in Libya that would lead to a more radical government in that country. McCain, the ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said the U.S. should revive its air attacks to incapacitate forces loyal to Moammar Gadhafi's regime. "All we need to do is get sufficient air power in there to really nail Gadhafi's forces, and we can succeed," McCain said on KFYI radio. "A stalemate is a terrible outcome, because if you have a stalemate you open the door for radical Islamists to come in and...

Washington (CNN)-GOP Sen. John McCain is in need of a tech lesson. In an appearance on ABC's "This Week," the senator from Arizona said that iPads and iPhones are "built in the United States of America." But every techie knows that they are, in fact, built in China. McCain touted free trade agreements during the interview and voiced his agreement with President Obma that "innovation is the key to us being able to restore our economy." And though the designs for the iPad and iPhone are home grown in California, the actual manufacturing takes place overseas, in China. "I think...

Given the contentious relationship between his followers and many in the conservative movement, it’s safe to say that Rep. Ron Paul’s address to CPAC this year was one of the more anticipated speeches of the political holiday weekend. And Rep. Paul delivered: railing against the “neo-Jacobins” that passed the PATRIOT Act, calling for drastic cuts in military spending, and a passionate repudiation of the Federal Reserve. Opening with a jubilant recognition of the results of last November’s midterms– and, especially, the election of his son Rand to the Senate– the tenor of Paul’s speech was mostly combative towards the more...

Wherever it's buried in the body, a disease leaves traces in the blood—or so the thinking goes. But finding these biomarkers, which can help catch the disease early on, has been an exercise in futility, with one promising candidate after another losing its luster once it receives scrutiny. A team of chemists and other researchers now propose a new way to pick up biomarkers with a blood test: by screening for antibodies that the body makes in response to particular diseases. So far, the group has reported results for only a small number of Alzheimer's disease patients. But they are...

What does he want? Revenge. For what? Being born. This is the way famous gunslinger Doc Holliday answers equally famous lawman and good friend Wyatt Earp’s inquiry - in their depiction in the movie Tombstone - into why their sworn enemy, Johnny Ringo, is such a misanthrope. Sadly, this description would be equally accurate in explaining the actions of another Arizona transplant filled with endless rage: Senator John McCain. I first encountered the seething side of McCain when I was writing my 2008 book, The Real McCain, which was critical of him while pointing out a then-controversial fact, one no...

Dan Rather: GOPers ‘Seek to Cut Out President Obama’s Heart & Throw His Liver to the Dogs’ By Brad Wilmouth Created 11/21/2010 - 12:00pm By Brad Wilmouth | November 21, 2010 | 12:00 On Sunday’s syndicated Chris Matthews Show, panel member and former CBS anchor Dan Rather - currently with HDNET - made an over the top metaphor about the Republican Party wanting to "cut out President Obama’s heart and throw his liver to the dogs." The panel was having a discussion of the likelihood of gridlock, with substitute moderator Norah O’Donnell asking, "Isn’t there some pressure on the Republicans...

The nearest I ever got to Sparky Anderson in person was four years ago. At a funeral. I'm not even close to making this one up. Larry Sherry, the 1959 World Series MVP for the Los Angeles Dodgers (Anderson was once a minor league infielder in the Dodger organisation, before spending a miserable season as a good-glove-bad-bat Philadelphia Phillies infielder), had died after a long bout with cancer. I wrote a pleasant little tributary to the old righthander and, within hours of its publication, I received a pleasant communique from Sherry's son-in-law. He thanked me for the kind words and...

Winston-Salem, N.C. – Researchers for the first time have shown that drinking beet juice can increase blood flow to the brain in older adults – a finding that could hold great potential for combating the progression of dementia. The research findings are available online in Nitric Oxide: Biology and Chemistry, the peer-reviewed journal of the Nitric Oxide Society and will be available in print soon. (Read the abstract.) "There have been several very high-profile studies showing that drinking beet juice can lower blood pressure, but we wanted to show that drinking beet juice also increases perfusion, or blood flow, to...

(CNN) - Former President Jimmy Carter dismissed any notion that he has ill feelings toward the Tea Party movement. “I don’t have any criticism of the members of the Tea Party,” Carter told CNN’s Howard Kurtz in an interview on “Reliable Sources.” “A lot of those same people, 30 years ago, were the ones who put me in the White House.” The former president did however, express concern about the movement’s funding, while at the same time taking a shot at the recent Citizens United Supreme Court ruling on campaign spending and free speech. “This Tea Party doesn’t realize that...

CHICAGO (Reuters) – Walking at least six miles a week may be one thing people can do to keep their brains from shrinking and fight off dementia, U.S. researchers said on Wednesday. A study of nearly 300 people in Pittsburgh who kept track of how much they walked each week showed that those who walked at least six miles had less age-related brain shrinkage than people who walked less. "Brain size shrinks in late adulthood, which can cause memory problems. Our results should encourage well-designed trials of physical exercise in older adults as a promising approach for preventing dementia and...

A woman accused of sending a bizarre series of letters last year threatening to bomb a west Toronto elementary school, shoot some of its staff and kill the principal has signed up to run for trustee in the upcoming election. Linda Pitney, 63, filed her papers to run for Toronto District School Board trustee for Eglinton-Lawrence just before the nomination deadline Sept. 10. Pitney is one of a trio of women facing several counts of threatening death and intimidation in connection with the letters, which allegedly targeted staff at Perth Avenue Junior public school. Pitney and the two co-accused have...

Have you ever known people who pass the time of day by arguing with themselves? Barbara Boxer almost gets to that level in this video clip from the San Francisco Chronicle and Debra Saunders, who can’t quite believe that Boxer’s delusion is so detailed. Boxer talks at length about how then-Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice failed to provide an answer to her during a Senate hearing on how many troops had been killed in action in Iraq. Boxer took a lot of heat from her remarking on Rice’s childless status as a way to criticize the Bush administration for going...

/begin my summary Kim Jong-il Mind Getting Erratic... Reinstates Cha Seung-soo Reinstated a guy he purged not long ago, forgetting his decision. Moon Sung-hui, Seoul 2010-08-06 N. Korean officials are in a state of anxiety and fear after Kim Jong-il reinstated Cha Seung-soo to head of Korea Central TV. Kim personally issued the order to purge Cha months ago, who infuriated Kim by running capitalist-style commercial advertisements on state TV. He was undergoing reeducation as a worker at a water utility enterprise. In mid-May, after his visit to China, Kim Jong-il called the state TV and wanted to speak to...

/begin my excerpts Kim Jong-il Losing his Marbles Lee Yong-soo 2010.07.07 Watching the same performance again in less than two weeks Ordering the rebuilding of a theater still in good shape N. Korea leader Kim Jong-il continues to show signs which put his judgment in doubt, for example, ordering the rebuilding of a theater still in good shape Quoting a source in China, Radio Free Asia (RFA) based on U.S. reported, "National Theater located in Joong-gu District of Pyongyang was torn down in last May and now being rebuilt. Citizens of Pyongyang have trouble understanding why the building which underwent...

There is a good deal of debate about the health effects of caffeine, and whether these effects are primarily positive or negative. Caffeine, particularly in coffee, has been studied closely to determine where it may be of benefit, and where it may cause undesirable effects. Health benefits of caffeine Parkinson's disease Parkinson's is caused by the loss of brain cells that produce a chemical messenger called dopamine. According to a researcher from the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston, people who drink coffee or consume caffeine regularly have a lower risk of developing Parkinson's disease. The research put forth...

/begin my excerpts Kim Jong-il Talking Flat-out Nonsense ... Deteriorating Memory 2010.06.25 N. Korean leader Kim Jong-il is showing signs of dementia such as instances of talking nonsense, according to the report made at Intelligence Committee of National Assembly, according to Munhwa Ilbo on June 25. According to lawmakers present at the June 24th committee hearing, where National Intelligence Director Won Sehoon was present among others , the intelligence report said, "N. Korean leader Kim Jong-il's health worsened since his stroke and is frequently exhibiting memory loss." According to one legislator, Kim Jong-il reportedly said during his on-site inspection tour...

Attention, pack rats: science may have figured you out. Researchers say they've found an area of the brain that seems to govern the urge to collect. For most people, collecting is a perfectly healthy behavior. It's an outlet for expressing passion for just about anything, such as stamps, wine, art, shoes, or Elvis memorabilia. Collecting is also common among animals, and not just for food. It's been observed in creatures great and small, from mammals to insects. For instance, some birds can't resist aluminum and bright objects, while hamsters gather glass beads when given the chance. But in rare cases,...

People who carry a lot of weight around their middle are at increased risk of developing dementia, say researchers.

People who carry a lot of weight around their middle are at increased risk of developing dementia, say researchers. A US study of more than 700 adults showed that being overweight is associated with smaller brain volume, a factor linked with dementia. The finding was particularly strong in those with high levels of visceral fat - fatty tissue which sits around the organs, Annals of Neurology reported. More than 750,000 people in the UK have a form of dementia. The researchers from Boston University School of Medicine looked at people with an average age of 60 years old, 70% of...

In a study published March 9, 2010 in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, Mark Kunik, M.D., M.P.H., a psychiatrist at the Michael E. DeBakey VA Medical Center (MEDVAMC), and his colleagues found aggressive behavior in patients with recent-onset dementia is closely linked with pain, caregiver burden, and declining quality of the caregiver-patient relationship. "Historically, behavioral problems in patients with dementia, such as aggression, have been treated with tranquilizing medications without regard to what might be causing the behavior," said Kunik, primary author of the paper. “The medications are not particularly effective and often result in unwanted side effects.” The researchers...

I live in the San Diego area with my wife and her father who now has dementia. In case you are unfamiliar with the condition, it used to be known as senility. A person with dementia may confuse the past with the present, easily forget things, and have random inaccurate thoughts that make little to no sense. That is why an attempt to carry on a decent conversation with a senile old man can easily leave a sane person befuddled or dismayed. Someone with dementia may also be completely unaware of his/her condition, even if told "You have dementia," because...

I am taking care of elderly parents; Mom does OK, but Dad has dementia and it is starting to cause other problems. This thread is posted in order to ask for advice and tips from other freepers. There's a wealth of knowledge on this forum. From what I have read, the medical community seems split on the question of dementia causing excessive sleep, or that excessive sleep causes dementia. I have noted that after Dad is up for some time and active, his mind is sharper....he remembers things that happened. Therefore, I'm inclined to believe the latter theory. If I...

February 28, 2010 Fighting Alzheimer's With A Touch of Beauty A pioneering care project demonstates how literature, music, art and love can improve the lives of dementia sufferers Rita Hayworth [Pic in URL] Margarette Driscoll In her heyday, Rita Hayworth was known as the “Love Goddess”: so explosive was her appeal that her image was placed on the first nuclear bomb to be tested on Bikini Atoll after the second world war. As befits one of the world’s most glamorous women, she danced her way through 61 movies and five husbands. She was a pin-up for American servicemen and is...

Those who live in industrialized countries have easy access to healthy food and nutritional supplements, but magnesium deficiencies are still common. That's a problem because new research from Tel Aviv University suggests that magnesium, a key nutrient for the functioning of memory, may be even more critical than previously thought for the neurons of children and healthy brain cells in adults. Dr. Inna Slutsky of TAU's Sackler School of Medicine published results of a 5-year probe which has significant implications for the use of over-the-counter magnesium supplements.

Watertown, MA—Scientists at Boston Biomedical Research Institute (BBRI) and the University of Pennsylvania have found that combining two chemicals, one of which is the green tea component EGCG, can prevent and destroy a variety of protein structures known as amyloids. Amyloids are the primary culprits in fatal brain disorders such as Alzheimer's, Huntington's, and Parkinson's diseases. Their study, published in the current issue of Nature Chemical Biology (December 2009), may ultimately contribute to future therapies for these diseases. "These findings are significant because it is the first time a combination of specific chemicals has successfully destroyed diverse forms of amyloids...

Alzheimer's caused by cold sore virus? In a connection that sounds borderline preposterous, links have been accumulating between Alzheimer's disease and cold sores....Cold sores are caused by the herpes simplex virus type 1, a type that should not be confused with herpes symplex virus type 2 which is the cause of genital herpes. A growing body of research, suggests that the HSV-1 may also be responsible for the majority of Alzheimer's cases.... "There's clearly a very strong connection," says British researcher, Ruth Itzhaki, Ph.D., speaking one afternoon in her office at the University of Manchester, in northwestern England. A neurobiologist,...

"Embracing Dementia is an excellent resource for families, caregivers, staff, clergy, and counselors! It offers hope and practical help for anyone affected by Alzheimer’s & dementia! It is also available in Large Print edition!"

The standard explanation for what causes Alzheimer's is known as the amyloid hypothesis, which posits that the disease results from of an accumulation of the peptide amyloid beta, the toxic protein fragments that deposit in the brain and become the sticky plaques that have defined Alzheimer's for more than 100 years. Billions of dollars are spent yearly targeting this toxic peptide — but what if this is the wrong target? What if the disease begins much earlier, fueled by a natural process? Reporting in the current edition of the journal Neurobiology of Aging, UCLA professor of psychiatry George Bartzokis argues...

This poem is dedicated to those who suffer from Dementia or Alzheimer's and for family members who find themselves - forgotten. Mum has suffered from Alzheimer's for years and often doesn't not know who I am. If she does, she has no idea when I spoke to her or saw her last. For each week she declines, it's that little bit harder for us all who love her. Medication helps, and she has some good days... Dad lives in the same wing of a nursing home. It's a beautiful place and I'm so glad that Dad can be close by....