Looks like Iraq has gone back to its old Saddam Hussein-style torturing ways

Gee, I bet these Iraqi prisoners would give anything to be back in Abu Graib with ladies panties on their heads.

MUST SEE! A radical but honest Muslim extremist reveals the truth about sharia

The next time a Muslim tries to tell you that jihad is self-reflection and sharia law is compatible with the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights, whip out this video, then watch him slither away.

Ex-Muslim Wafa Sultan (photo below) was there to debate the subject of jihad and sharia with Sheikh Omar Bakri Muhammad (photo above), best known for praising Osama bin Laden as a great leader. But after the Sheikh expressed without equivocation his pious views—in full accord with classical, mainstream Islamic doctrine on jihad and sharia, there was nothing much left to debate. The Sheikh told the truth about Islam.

Inasmuch as the propagation of Islam was to be the aim of all Moslems, perpetual warfare against the unbelievers, in order to convert them, or subject them to the payment of tribute, came to be held by Muslim scholars as the most sacred duty of the believer. This right to wage war is the only principle of international law which is taught by Mohammedan jurists; …with the Arabs the term harb expresses not only an unbeliever but also an enemy; and jihadi means the believer-militant. From the Muslim point of view, the whole world is divided into two parts—”the House of Islam,” and “the House of War.” 

Send this to your representatives, especially in states where anti-sharia legislation is under consideration. 

Oops! Looks like reports of American jihadi Omar Hammadi’s recent beheading by al-Shabaab have been greatly exaggerated

Apparently Omar Hammadi (In Somalia, known as Abu Mansour al-Amriki, the American) has made contact with Current TV, confirming, sadly, that he is not dead.

Recent video of Hammadi complaining that his life was in danger: oh-boo-hoo-my-comrades-want-to-kill-me-says-american-jihadi-in-somalia

Current TV’s Vanguard correspondent Christof Putzel about Putzel’s recent conversations with Omar Hammami, the American-born jihadi who was reported as having been murdered in Somalia in April, but is alive — a fact Hammami confirmed exclusively to Current TV.

Hammami made contact with Current TV three weeks ago after watching Putzel’s 2010 Vanguard documentary, “American Jihadi,” which traced Hammami’s journey from his birthplace in Daphne, Ala. to Somalia, where he became a leader in the Al-Qaeda-affiliated terrorist group Al Shabaab.

Turkish journalist’s advice on how best to fight ‘Islamophobia’ will fall on deaf ears

BURAK BEKDIL

Before Turkey’s ‘liberal’ Islamism could soften radical Islamism signs have emerged to suggest the opposite has happened. Expecting Turkey to play the role model for ‘Fortress Islam’ is like expecting the chief rabbi of Berlin to convince Adolf Hitler to give peace a chance.

BURAK BEKDİL  burak.bekdil@hurriyet.com.tr  Burak Bekdil lives in Ankara and writes among others for the Hürriyet Daily News. He is one of Turkey’s most outspoken commentators and critics of internal developments and foreign policy

HURRIYET (H/T IstanbulChick)  In 2009, for instance, Saudi courts declined to nullify a marriage between a 6-year-old girl and a 58-year-old man. I recalled this incident when Saudi Arabia’s Grand Mufti, Sheik Abdul-Aziz Al al-Sheik, recently insisted that girls are ready for marriage by age 10 or 12. “Good upbringing,” the mufti reasoned, “makes a girl ready to perform all marital duties.” Dear parents; don’t panic if you spot curious Muslim men and women watching your daughters at kindergarten playgrounds: They could just be innocently looking for a suitable wife for their son.

Democracy may have arrived in some parts of Islamdom but only in the shape of votes cast. Several people are under arrest in Syria, the Palestinian territories and Jordan for allegedly “insulting Islam.” Prison sentences in Kuwait and prosecutions in Tunisia on charges of blasphemous online content are in abundance. Apparently, social media has not only helped democratize the Middle East, but also boosted legal intimidation against the less faithful.

In Egypt, a telecom magnate, Naguib Sawiris, faced trial for uploading a picture of Mickey and Minnie Mouse clad in Islamic garb to his Twitter. In Saudi Arabia, Hamza Kashgari had to flee his country after tweeting something against religion. Sadly, he chose the wrong country to flee to. Malaysian authorities extradited Kashgari, who now awaits a possible death penalty sentence. Poor Kashgari must have been unaware that in Malaysia the National Fatwa Committee would announce it was not even permissible for Muslims “to participate in any rally intending to oust a government.”

And in Turkey, an official from the Religious Affairs Directorate told Hürriyet Daily News that “evil minded and illegal actions were not permitted in Islam.” I totally understand if religions did not allow illegal activity – although this, too, can be complex. Do religious rules changes when laws change? What about evil intentions? Is demonstrating against a government an evil intention? For the government it may be, but for the opposition why should it be? Who is to judge which intention is evil?

Recently, a virtuoso pianist and composer, Fazıl Say, was investigated by prosecutors after tweeting remarks considered offensive to all three monotheistic faiths. In fact, the prosecutors must have wished to pose a fake secular posture since Say’s tweets had really joked only about Islam.

The pianist, possibly one of the 10 most widely known Turks in the world, used Twitter to question whether Islamic heaven is a brothel or a pub, citing Quranic verses that describe rivers of drinks and beautiful women for those admitted to paradise. Say was joking, but the ruling elite were not laughing. Tweeting in response to Say’s tweets, a lawmaker from the ruling Justice and Development Party, Şamil Tayyar, asked Say: “Were you born in a brothel?”

But luckily there is one tiny land in the Middle East where most of that medieval understanding does not exist. It’s where Arab women have the right to vote and to be elected to public office and enjoy the same status as men; where laws prohibit polygamy, child marriage and female mutilation; where there are no incidences of honor killings. Which lucky Muslim country is that? Well, it’s not really Muslim and goes by the name Israel!

GITMO: ‘Non-Muslim’ Defense Attorney in headbag calls for other women at 9/11 hearing to wear ‘appropriate’ Muslim-sensitive clothing

The ‘dhimmi’ defense attorney who wore a traditional Islamic outfit during the rowdy arraignment of the accused Sept. 11 terrorists is defending her courtroom appeal that other women in the room wear more “appropriate” clothing to the proceedings — out of respect for her client’s Muslim beliefs.

 FOX NEWS  Cheryl Bormann, counsel for defendant Walid bin Attash, attended the arraignment Saturday dressed in a hijab (headbag), apparently because her client insisted on it. She further requested that the court order other women to follow that example so that the defendants do not have to avert their eyes “for fear of committing a sin under their faith.” 

At a press conference Sunday at Guantanamo Bay, Bormann said she dresses in a hijab at “all times” when she meets with her client “out of respect” for his beliefs. Asked why she requested other women do the same, Bormann said, “When you’re on trial for your life, you need to be focused.” 

Bormann, who is not Muslim, claimed the issue came up several years ago, when a paralegal wore “very short skirts” and it became a distraction for the defendants. She said that on Saturday, “somebody” was also dressed “in a way that was not in keeping with my client’s religious beliefs.” 

“If because of someone’s religious beliefs, they can’t focus when somebody in the courtroom is dressed in a particular way, I feel it is incumbent upon myself as a counsel to point that out and ask for some consideration from the prosecution,” she said. “Suffice to say it was distracting to members of the accused.”  The clothing request was just one of several unusual moments during Saturday’s lengthy and chaotic hearing. 

The court hearing for Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and his four co-defendants should have taken a couple of hours at most. Instead it lasted almost 13 hours, including meal and prayer breaks, as the men appeared to make a concerted effort to stall Saturday’s hearing. 

They knelt in prayer, ignored the judge, wouldn’t listen to Arabic translations over their head sets and one even insisted on having the more than 20 pages detailing the charges against them read aloud, rather than deferred for later in their case as the judge wanted, which added more than two hours to the proceedings. 

The defendants’ behavior outraged 9/11 family members watching on closed-circuit video feeds around the United States at East Coast military bases. One viewer shouted, “C’mon, are you kidding me?” at the Fort Hamilton base in Brooklyn. “They’re engaging in jihad in a courtroom,” said Debra Burlingame, whose brother, Charles, was the pilot of the plane that flew into the Pentagon. She watched the proceeding from Brooklyn. 

The defense attorneys in the case have complained repeatedly about the proceedings and about the military tribunal system itself. Human rights groups and defense lawyers say the secrecy of Guantanamo and the military tribunals will make it impossible for the defense. They argued the U.S. kept the case out of civilian court to prevent disclosure of the treatment of prisoners like Mohammed, who was waterboarded 183 times.

Mohammed, the admitted 9/11 architect, and the four men accused of aiding the 9/11 conspiracy put off their pleas until a later date. They face 2,976 counts of murder and terrorism in the 2001 attacks that sent hijacked jetliners into New York’s World Trade Center and the Pentagon. The charges carry the death penalty. 

Earlier Saturday, Mohammed cast off his earphones providing Arabic translations of the proceeding and refused to answer Army Col. James Pohl’s questions or acknowledge he understood them. All five men refused to participate in the hearing; two passed around a copy of The Economist magazine and leafed through the articles. (Just shoot the muslim bastards and be done with it)

Bin Attash was confined to a restraint chair when he came into court on Saturday, released only after he promised to behave. 

Ramzi Binalshibh began praying alongside his defense table, followed by Ali Abd al-Aziz Ali, in the middle of the hearing; Binalshibh then launched into a tirade in which he compared a prison official to the late Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi and declared that he was in danger.  ”Maybe they will kill me and say I committed suicide,” he said in a mix of Arabic and broken English. 

Whitewashing barbaric Halal Slaughter to make it palatable to ignorant Americans

Think ‘halal’ is a just a dietary restriction? Adnan Durrani, the founder of American Halal, wants to change the definition.

INC  Most Americans know the term halal-if they are familiar with it at all-as the Muslim system of dietary regulations. Adnan Durrani wants consumers to understand halal in different terms: “Wholesome and pure. Sustainable, fair trade, and just practices in terms of the environment and animal welfare.”

Durrani is the founder and CEO of American Halal, whose Saffron Road brand sells the first halal-certified frozen entrées available in mainstream supermarkets nationwide, including all stores in 11 regions of the Whole Foods chain. Though halal may be mysterious to most Americans, it has many parallels to kashrut, or Jewish dietary law, notably in its ban on pork products and standards for butchering meat. And for Durrani, a U.S. citizen of Pakistani descent, that’s the point.

Jack Acree, executive vice president with American Halal Co., Inc., left, and Adnan Durrani, Chief Halal Officer with American Halal Co., Inc, stand near their products in a freezer case at a Whole Foods store in Darien, Conn.

Muslims always try to compare Halal to Kosher yet the differences are dramatic, which is why Muslims are allowed to eat Kosher but Jews are not allowed to eat Halal. 

Kosher vs. Halal:

Kosher – requires the animal be slaughtered quickly and humanely, strictly forbidding cruel slow methods like strangulation.

Halal – requires the animal be bled out in agony while sick people who get off watching that kind of thing have a “festival.”

Kosher – requires the blood be drained cleanly from the *carcass* of the humanely killed animal, removing toxins released from cells into the bloodstream at the moment of death from the meat.

Halal –leaves the meat *filled* with toxins released at the moment of death because the blood is removed while the animal is dying and therefore is not present in sufficient quantities to remove those last toxins.

Kosher – contains little to no cortisol or norepenepherine (two stress chemicals that are similar enough from mammal to mammal to cross species) because the animal to be killed is treated well before it is put down and is generally not frightened as it is put down (because in a truly kosher slaughter situation, animals cannot be slaughtered in a sequential fashion, as the waste of one could contaminate the next, so they are not exposed to the “scent of death” the way non-kosher culls are)

Halal – animals watch other animals die during the blood letting festival, smelling their fear and raising their own stress. These stress chemicals “marinate” the meat in hormones known to raise levels of aggression and violence in nearly all mammal species (including human).

Kosher – requires cooking the cleanly drained meat completely, cooking any remaining stress chemicals into oblivion.

Halal – allows for a surprising range of cooking methods, including even some “tar tar” dishes (raw or nearly raw), allowing for the spread of disease and chemicals and hormones that were not removed by the idiotic slow bloodletting practice and half-measure cooking.

Kosher – the spinal cord is sectioned thus cutting off pain to the brain. Therefore, no suffering or terror.

Hallal – spinal cord left intact.

There are only 5.3 million Jews in the U.S., but kosher food is a $12.5 billion market. It’s also a crowded one, with 16,000 companies selling certified-kosher products. As for Muslims, a recent Pew Report put their U.S. population at 2.6 million in 2010 but projects that number jumping to 6.2 million by 2030.

Of course, for a brand with Saffron Road’s ambitions, making a hit with Muslim shoppers isn’t enough. In the kosher food market, for example, about 75 percent of sales comes from non-Jews-many of them Muslims-who buy kosher for reasons including health and safety, taste, or flavor, and the belief that the products are made under stricter guidelines than are other products. (Readers of a certain age may remember Hebrew National’s successful 1970s “We Answer to a Higher Authority” TV ad campaign.) The Saffron Road name-an allusion to the Silk Road, the ancient trading route that connected the Middle East, India, and China-was chosen to be broadly appealing.

And each box is graffitied with half a dozen or so seals of approval: certified humane, (Humane in Islam is not the same as humane to everybody else. See videos below) antibiotic free, gluten free. Although halal certification (from the Islamic Food and Nutrition Council of America) may be the draw for a Muslim shopper, a non-Muslim looking for frozen Thai or Indian food might choose Saffron Road because it’s the only certified-humane and antibiotic-free option in the grocery freezer. (And they would be buying into a fraud)

American Halal had retail sales of more than $4 million in 2011, driven largely by Whole Foods. But with new products on the way and distribution in more supermarket chains-including Publix, Wegmans, and Kroger-Durrani forecasts sales hitting $50 million within five years.

The video here shows the kind of suffering Muslims cause animals they slaughter: (VIEWER DISCRETION ADVISED)

MORE STORIES/VIDEOS OF  INHUMANE HALAL SLAUGHTER

Why Muslims should ‘never’ be called animals

There is nothing animal-like about Muslim behavior. Just ask any Muslim.

Most, if not all, scenes in this video were filmed in Muslim countries.

How many more Dhimmicrat politicians are on Muslim Brotherhood proxy-CAIR’s payroll?

Yesterday, I posted about soon-to-be ex-Representative Dennis Kucinich’s (D-OH) disgusting tribute to CAIR on the floor of Congress. Today, another ex-Senator, Russ Feingold (D-WI) jumps to the defense of Muslims in America whom he claims are suffering from post-9/11 ‘Islamophobia.’

I guess it’s telling that both these Dhimmicrats are out of power or soon to be. rep-dennis-kucinich-d-oh-asks-the-house-to-join-him-in-praising-muslim-brotherhood-affiliated-hamas-linked-cair-for-tens-years-of-outstanding-achievement

Inside Islam  Former Wisconsin Senator Russ Feingold is known for taking on monumental challenges. In 2001 he was the only senator to vote against thePatriot Act. These days, Feingold has turned his attention to another cause—US foreign policy. At a talk in Madison, Wisconsin, about his new book, While America Sleeps, Feingold argued for increased American engagement with the rest of the world. He said 9/11 highlighted the importance of engaging and understanding the rest of the world, and criticized Democrats and Republicans alike for failing to heed the message.

In making his case, Feingold, a Liberal Jewish-American (aka Judenrat, Jewish traitor), did not lose sight of domestic issues, pointing out the impact 9/11 had on the lives of Muslim Americans. He likened the situation to Japanese internment during World War II. (Sorry, Russ, Muslims were not put into internment camps, though they should have been…unlike the Japanese)

In the last couple of years, there have been a number of incidents where people have used the issue of alleged Muslim extremism (Alleged? How about the dozens of  averted (by law enforcement) Muslim terror attacks? The Fort Dix Six? The Christmas Day and Times Square bombers, to name a few? And the real one -The Fort Hood Massacre)  in this country to justify things like outlawing amosque in Southern Manhattan, the burning of Qur’ans and most despicably, hearings held by Peter King in Washington specifically focusing on ‘so-called’ Muslim terrorism, as opposed to the terrorism phenomenon in general. (The only thing despicable is you, Feinberg, pretending that virtually all terrorism today is not Islamic)

Feingold bemoaned the fact that the post-9/11 era has made Muslims feel like second-class citizens in their own country. (Gee, Russ, very few Muslims consider themselves Americans first. In fact, Islam doesn’t allow them to)

Their hope is that they can once again someday feel like they’re not strangers in their own country. (They can, when they return to one of their 57 Muslim countries around the world) Naturally, it must be very frustrating for Muslims to have their religion characterized in a way that is essentially wrong. (Only if you consider the truth to be wrong) Islam is not a religion of the kind that’s described by the political opportunists in this country. (Please! Tell us you aren’t buying that crap about a religion of peace. You are? Moron)

Feingold also argued against the characterization of Islamic values as contrary to democratic values. (Any Islamic scholar can quote you chapter and verse how Islamic law is nothing like democratic law) He recounted his experience meeting with the Madison-area Muslim community after 9/11, but long before the Arab Spring.

The thing that really angered them was that we spoke of the virtues of democracy and human rights and women’s rights, and yet we supported despots throughout the Islamic world who did just the opposite. … Even though it’s not specifically about the religious element, it’s a very significant thing in terms of the way American Muslims and Arabs think about our international policy. (Nobody cares what Muslims and Arabs think of our international policy. If they don’t like it, they can leave. And most of us wish they would. You can go with them, Russ. As a Jew, you might finally have your eyes opened as to why Muslims are not welcome in the civilized world.)

ATTENTION all you ‘Boycott Israel Firsters’

While you’re on the streets demanding people boycott Whole Foods and Bed, Bath, & Beyond for selling Israeli goods, there is a long list of Made-in-Israel products and technology you should be protesting:

In her new book, ‘The Devil We Don’t Know,’ Nonie Darwish reveals the ugly truths behind the ‘Arab Spring’

Did the Arab Spring mark the beginning of a bright new future for the Middle East, a new era in which democracy will flourish, freedom of speech and religion will be seen as absolute rights According to Middle East expert Nonie Darwish, there will be no democracy, no freedom, and no new economic opportunity, and the violence and repression have already begun.

In The Devil We Don’t Know, Darwish reveals the unpleasant truths behind the Arab Spring: the students, activists, and young professionals who initiated the Cairo protests represent only a tiny minority of Egypt’s population. Other groups, such as the Muslim Brotherhood and Salafi, shared their desire to oust President Hosni Mubarak, but for entirely different reasons. Now that Mubarak is gone, says Darwish, these radical conservative factions have seized the initiative to further their own goals, including waging war on Israel, expelling Coptic Christians from Egypt, and engaging in jihad against non-Islamic nations.

Darwish presents a brief history of the cycle of revolution and dictatorship that has plagued Islamic nations of the Middle East since the fall of the Ottoman Empire in 1923. She finds a common thread among all of these regimes, whether military, monarchist, or ideology driven. They have all been Islamic states in which sharia, the divine law of Islam, supersedes all others, forbidding freedom of speech and religion, as well as gender equality. Under sharia law, any ruler who refuses to conduct jihad and advocates peace with non-Muslim nations can be removed from office.

She describes how the rigid, authoritarian class structure demanded by sharia law precludes any possibility of democracy or equality, and she laments the fact that among all of the many placards carried by protesters in Tahrir Square in January 2011, she didn’t see a single one demanding “Down with Sharia.”

Darwish also examines the effect of the Islamic revolutions on the state of Israel, the rise of Islamic apostasy in recent years, and whether the uprisings have helped or hindered the budding Arab feminist movement. Further, she explores the impact of these rebellions on the West and whether they will lead to a reduction or an increase in terrorist attacks by Islamist groups.

Backing up all of her claims with hard facts and solid, well-reasoned arguments, Darwish makes it clear that she has no fear of controversy, and The Devil We Don’t Know is sure to provoke plenty of that as events continue to unfold.

You can see the Parts 2, 3, & 4 of this interview here: Nonie Darwish Interview

‘The Devil We Don’t Know’ available at: AMAZON

Nonie Darwish lectures across the United States and has appeared on radio and television programs including CNN, Headline News, Fox, MSNBC, Al-Arabiya, National Public Radio and Israeli TV. Darwish has been published in the London Telegraph, Jerusalem Post, and New York Daily News. She is a frequent lecturer on college campuses including Harvard, Brown, Stanford, UCLA, University of Pennsylvania, Georgetown, Boston University, and the University of Southern California.

Very wise Hungarian immigrant explains why Muslim behavior justifies ‘Islamophobia’

Now an American citizen, this Hungarian woman lived much of her life under a brutal totalitarian regime and warns that Islam is the most totalitarian of all.

This interview followed a speech by Nonie Darwish, Egyptian-American ex-Muslim.

H/T democast

MUSLIM GIRLS GONE WILD!

This is what happens when you force young girls to dress in black shrouds and forbid them from even talking to boys their own age.

BIG MACS, BURQAS, and INBREDS – a deadly combination in the Muslim world

Obesity-related ailments and the social/religious habits of the Arab and Muslim world are taking their toll. Diabetes is climbing to dangerous levels while burqa-clad women suffer Vitamin D deficiencies. What’s more, serious birth defects are skyrocketing, the result of rampant Muslim inbreeding.  

ANSA (H/T trop)  Over 215,000 people have been diagnosed as diabetic in Qatar, and the disorder is affecting children as well as adults. The quality of life and daily habits of the Arab world tend to foster the spread of this illness often stemming from obesity, which affects over 40% of the population according to the National Health Strategy 2011-2016.

This report seems the direct consequence of the country’s social habits. Sports are a problem more than a form of entertainment. The traditional attire, a long white tunic with the keffiyah for men and the abaya (a long black tunic) for women, make playing almost any sport nearly impossible and obliging a compromise between cultural and religious traditions and the possibility to conduct a healthy life and engage in physical activity.

In a conservative country with the highest rate of mosques per capita in the world, many would opt not give up their traditional habits for a run or a football match. Most people do not spend much time walking in the streets, in part due to the high summer temperatures which make a normal stroll an exhausting effort, and in part because it is considered degrading. Most of the population get around exclusively by car.

 In addition to making physical activity difficult, the traditional attire prevents sun exposure and leads to another dysfunction, that of vitamin D deficiency. According to a study by the Hamad Medical Hospital in Doha, 90% of those involved in the study suffered from this deficiency due to a lack of exposure to the sun’s rays.

In an interview with the Qatari press, Doctor Mohamed Khanjar of the Hamad Medical Hospital urged the population to expose their faces, calves and hands to the sun for at least 30 minutes per day – being the only parts of the body able to be revealed without giving rise to religious or social problems.

Due to their personal choice or that of their families, Muslim women avoid sports leading to contact with men or in their presence, and so many gyms and sports centres become off-limits. Another obstacle to sports is Ramadan, an entire month set aside for fasting and the avoidance of food and water before sundown.

During Ramadan most of the population sleep during the day, with the iftar beginning at sundown: large feasts at which many end up eating so much they need to be taken to hospital casualty wards, with a record high almost 8,000 cases of indigestion recorded at the Hamad Medical Hospital emergency room solely in the first week of Ramadan 2011.

Another traditional practice leading to disease, in this case of a genetic type, are marriages between members of the same family. In Gulf countries marriages are often arranged between families, causing cousins and relatives to marry each other. These marriages often result in the birth of children with serious genetic disorders, including Down Syndrome.

According to the Center for Arab Genomic Studies (CAGS) there are over 250 types of genetic disorders in the United Arab Emirates, the country seeing the fifth highest rate of inter-family marriages, with half being between members of the same family. The true tragedy linked to this cultural habit are the cases of children with birth defects, In Qatar, about 19,000 children are born every year, and the Paediatric Surgery Department of Doha’s Hamad Medical Corporation carries out about 3,000 paediatric operations every year, including over 200 on children born with serious birth defects.

Zilla of the Resistance, good friend and fellow anti-Islam blogger needs our help and prayers

ZILLA OF THE RESISTANCE

***So after years of suffering with doctors unable to figure out what has been wrong with me or how to make it better, my dentist inadvertently found the missing piece of the puzzle and may have saved my life in doing so. Now I need to find a doctor who is willing and able to treat me and, as I look for one, I am learning that obtaining treatment is very expensive. My friends in the Conservative Blogosphere are helping to raise awareness of my situation in the hopes that with help from Tip Jar Hitters, I will be able to the medical care I will need in order to get better and reclaim my life. Story of how I got here below, scroll down for updates.***

Originally published March 9, 2012 

This is an update for everyone who has been following my health issues. I apologize in advance if this turns out to be a confusing mess, but the nightmare I am living is complicated, hard to explain, and I am trying to do this through excruciating pain which makes it hard to focus – but I want those of you who are interested to know what’s been going on with me, and I hope that if there someone is suffering something similar, that they may find something helpful in this post and maybe realize that they are not alone.

Past posts with information about my medical issues in reverse chronological order:HERE, HERE, HERE, and HERE.

Beginning in the first week of January and going throughout February, I had been given six rounds of four different antibiotic medications to no avail, the infection that started in my tooth which had spread into my ear and my sinuses would improve after a couple of days of treatment and then revert back to horrible within a day or two of  the course of completion of each course of antibiotics. I have dangerous reactions to many of the most widely used antibiotic medications so doctors are limited in what they can prescribe to me. There was one very strong antibiotic medication that i am known to be able to tolerate that my dentist said we could try as a last resort if the 6th round of antibiotics failed, which it did, so I was given a ten day treatment with Levaquin that finally got the raging infection in my head under control. I finished that course about a week and a half ago and tomorrow I go back to the dentist to get something permanent put over that tooth, most likely we will try a simple filling because I can’t afford any of the other options right now (I don’t even know how I am going to pay for tomorrow’s appointment) and it is still possible that I’ll lose the tooth and the bridge it holds up some time in the future – but right now I don’t care, I just want the temporary filling replaced with something stronger before I get infected again. But a funny thing happened during all of this…

As I have explained before, I suffer from chronic pain due to nerve damage from injuries, ruptured discs and something else that has been misdiagnosed as a bunch of different things and that has plagued me for years. I have lived with most of these things for well over a decade, especially the problems with my hands, but the past few years and increasing especially in the past year, there have been new, painful, and frightening symptoms which have seriously messed up my life. I spend the first few hours of every day so crippled up from back pain that it is difficult to stand up straight, hard to walk, and just exhausting – sometimes these problems clear up after I’ve been up for a while, sometimes they don’t and I lose entire days of my life to pain and misery and am unable to do much of anything. Since last fall I have also been running low grade fevers and getting chills, on and off, throughout the day, every damned day. It has been hell.

I noticed that while I was on the various antibiotics I had to take this year for the infection in my head that within a few days of starting each treatment, my fevers and chills would stop and, for the first time in years, I would get some relief from the debilitating pain in my back and my bones, but within a few days of completing each course of antibiotics, I would be back to my usual misery, and sometimes even worse than before.

During the last round of antibiotics, with the ‘last resort’ medication Levaquin, for the first time in nearly 2 years, I actually felt much better; I still had the pain in my hands and feet that I will probably alsways have, but I had several glorious days when I woke up NOT feeling as if I had been hit by a train, I could stand up straight and walk with ease, and I wasn’t so freaking tired – I was actually able to get some things done around here and play more with my kids, I felt ALIVE! Sadly (and I daresay, predictably), a few days after completing that course of treatment, while my dental/sinus/ear infection were finally better, my body pain and exhaustion returned with a vengeance and has worsened with every passing day. So here I am now, with pain so bad that it has had me in tears on and off for two solid days (no, my pain does not normally make me cry but this time it is indescribably bad, scary and so damned frustrating), and depression from it all is really kicking my ass. But the temporary reprieve from the agony seemed to me an important clue to the mystery that torments me, so I brought it up the other day when I went to the pain management doctor.

I have been getting treated at this pain management facility for about a year; I had previously gone to orthopedics and then neurologists before I found this place. The first doctor I saw there said I had Fibromyalgia, but the more I researched it, the less I seemed to fit that particular bill, and she put me on new medications that made me so ill that I lost 40 pounds in 2 weeks. She also refused to give me anything for breakthrough pain as she was convinced that her idea was the solution and she become indignant when I questioned it and then she transferred my case to another practitioner in the facility.  The next person to treat me there was a registered nurse, and she actually listened to me, and she gave me actual medication for the pain instead of attempting to put me on things such as anti-seizure medication (I do not have seizures) like the other doctors had done, she read my chart and noticed that I had been infected with Lyme disease from tick bites on at least three separate occasions (I live in one of the top 3 highest concentrations of Lyme Disease in the world), she suggested that my bone pain could be due to arthritis caused by Lyme Disease but all she could do was adjust dosages of the pain medications and keep me on what was called “maintenence” which means I get the same pain meds every month that take keep some of the edge off of the pain so I can at least get out of bed every day but there was nothing that could actually make me not be in chronic pain every single day of my life with some days being far worse than others.  This last practitioner left the facility recently and I was assigned to a new doctor (an MD) who had just begun working there. Our first meeting was just to review what they had done so far and write the same scripts, then it was 3 months of “quick visits” where they simply give refill scripts for the meds, until this past week when I had a full consultation appointment with him.

So the other day I told the new doctor about the strange thing which had happened to me while on the antibiotics for an unrelated issue. I also made sure to mention that I had been repeatedly infected with Lyme Disease. To my surprise, he did not look surprised, and he explained to me that there are different variants of Late Stage Lyme Disease, some of which respond to oral or IV antibiotics and some which don’t. He told me that the testing for it is very expensive and not covered by insurance but even then tests aren’t 100% accurate anyway so doctors like him go with the “if it looks like a duck, walks like a duck…” method for diagnosing such things and that my accidental temporary reprieve from the pain with antibiotics was a huge and useful clue. I explained how badly I was feeling since stopping the antibiotics and asked if he could provide more but he said that it is dangerous to keep taking them after I have already been on so many in such a short time and also that because I have such weird reactions to so many medications (and dangerous food allergies as well) that he needed time to do some research to try to find an treatment that might be helpful to me. He will see me again for a consultation in one month and until then, all I have is my regular pain meds which are not particularly helpful right now.

I am sure that my current flare up will ease at some point, and I am happy that I finally found a doctor who seems to understand (he had previously worked for 20 years on Long Island’s East End where Lyme Disease is also prevalent so he has experience with it) but it sucks that I cannot be given any treatment for it right now and it is very depressing to have had a taste of what “better” feels like and knowing that it’s not something I will be able to get hold of again in the immediate future. So that’s what’s going on with me, I am hurting badly, very tired, and more than a little bit depressed and frustrated. Hopefully the dentist appointment goes well tomorrow and is not too expensive, I wonder if I can convince the dentist to give me antibiotics again so I can get a few more days of feeling like a real person just one more time? I doubt it, but it would sure be nice as I hate feeling like this and my husband and children deserve so much better than the miserable, sad, me that they are stuck with right now (although I try my best to smile through it all when I think they are looking, it gets harder every day to do and there is so much that they are all missing out of because I just can’t do much) and I feel like I am failing them.

If I haven’t bored you away yet, thank you for reading, any prayers you could offer up for me and my family would be greatly appreciated. Hopefully the current flare up will ease a little soon so I can at least get you all some new blog posts you might enjoy reading, but be sure to check my Twitter feed and the A-C page for news info as I do try to post a little bit to those places daily no matter how badly I feel, you can also find lots of great stuff in the blogroll in the left-hand margin of this blog.

UPDATE: March 10, 2012 6:30 am  

Thank you to everyone who has been sending prayers and offering kind words of encouragement, they mean the world to me!

Thank you to those of you who kindly hit my tip jar, I truly appreciate it and feel better knowing that I will be able to give the dentist something towards my bill when I go there this morning to (hopefully) have them finish up the work on that one bad tooth!

As much as I hated going through the dental/sinus hell, it turns out that the whole nightmare was a blessing in disguise as the accidental improvement of my body pain while taking antibiotics for the infection in my head led to having a doctor finally understand what has been wrong with me for all of this time.

Mysterious ways…

UPDATE II: March 10, 2012 11:00 pm

Last night my tooth began bothering me and when the dentist started poking around up there this morning, it hurt a lot. The infection up there is back again, but luckily not back up in my sinus yet. The dentist prescribed an antibiotic rinse and then when I asked him if he would write me a script knowing how sick I have gotten from this thing already, he kindly agree and even gave e a refill for “just in case”. The prescription is for the Levaquin that had the unexpected effect of making my years long body pain gt better for the first time ever and it is a medication that is recognized as a treatment for Late Stage Lyme Disease. I am hoping that I will be feeling better within a few days and even if it is only a temporary reprieve, at least I will have a chance to be productive for a bit and this also buys me a little bit more time as I search for a doctor who will be willing and able tot treat me so I can get better.

I have been doing research and have learned that many doctors who specialize in treatment of Late Stage Lyme operate on a cash only business to avoid some of the nasty red tape and big nanny state fuckery which becomes a barrier to the doctors ability to do right by his or her patients. And they don’t come cheap – one doctor I called requires a $1500 payment JUST for the initial consult, and requires a five hundred dollar security deposit just to be able to make the appointment! It is obvious that he is not a doctor I can afford to see but I am hoping I can find one who can see me and is willing to treat me without costing a ton of money. I am learning that people with this late stage Lyme have to pay a LOT of money for testing and treatment. Any money I can scrape together towards my health issues is going to be money that would otherwise be used to pay for food and our utility bills here, so I could really use some help. You will be helping to save my life and give back to my family the mom & wife that they deserve.

My friends in the Conservative Blogosphere are rallying on my behalf and I am so touched by it that I barely have words to express how much it means to me. Tom Mannis at Chicago News Bench came up with the idea of a fundraiser to help get me well and save my life. The guys at Waznmenttobe, Whoopie & Buffoon, came up with a cool widget for me that you will be seeing in the side bars at some of the best blogs around. Paul Lemmen of An Ex-Con’s View was also  instrumental in making this happen. I am deeply humbled to get so much love from so many people, words fail to describe the depths of my gratitude.

Thanks, everybody, and thank you to everyone who is putting up the Zilla-Aid widget and of course, a huge thank you to the kind people who have or will hit the tip jar.

Update III: March 12, 2012 9:00 pm:

I am still in a lot of pain, but it seems to be getting a little bit better since I started the antibiotics again that were given to me by my wonderful dentist. The outpouring of kindness from friends and strangers alike is amazing, thank you all so very much!

Will Profit at Capitalist Preservation posted an email from me (with my permission) that explains some of the things I have learned as I have been doing research and trying to find treatment that will hopefully keep me from getting any worse and ideally help me to get better and give me back my life. Excerpts below:

I need to find what they call a Lyme Literate doctor (LLMD) but because of the nanny-state’s interference, most of the Lyme specialists operate on a cash only basis and it is very expensive – one doctor I called charges $1500 just for the initial consult visit and requires a $500 deposit just to even make the appointment! Obviously that is out of my league and I am not willing to drop that kind of money on a doctor that I have not even met before I know if he can even help me, so I will spend the coming weekdays calling around to see if I can find a regular doctor who understands this disease and is willing to help me to fight it. The fact that I respond to oral antibiotics is a great blessing because a lot of people with this disease do not and they end up having to endure months of IV antibiotics, sometimes pumped directly into their hearts! It is “controversial” to give a patient long term courses of antibiotics because the side effects include killing the “good” bacteria in the body and puts people at risk of serious problems, and also, people are afraid of creating resistant bacteria and triggering a zombie apocalypse. Hopefully I can find a doctor who will be able to help me not only get the treatment I need but also to prevent some of the scary stuff such treatment may put me at risk for, and of course, be prepared to avoid triggering a zombie apocalypse.

…

Lyme Literate doctors are not generally open about what they do because big nanny state puts a lot of them under investigation and at risk of losing their medical licenses so there is actually a Lyme Disease ‘underground’ that involves privately contacting people who may know a doctor who can help just to find treatment. People getting treated are urged not to publish the names of their doctor or any contact information because it can put the doctors at risk. How messed up is that? I suspect it will worsen under Obamacare and will not just effect Lyme doctors; anyone who deviates from big-nanny approved methods will be targeted – there are already a growing number of doctors in many different fields who no longer accept insurance and operate as cash only so they have less hoops to jump through in order to properly care for their patients.   MORE HERE

There will likely be more doctors in many different fields going “off the grid” as Obamacare draws near and the noose of bureaucratic micromanaging tightens on healthcare providers who fail to do what they are told by a panel of pencil pushers rather than do what is best for their patients. When I am feeling a little better, I plan to do some investigative blogging about this phenomenon.

Thank you again to everyone who is helping, linking and praying for me, God bless you, I love you all.

If any BNI readers can offer any medical advice or referrals, please contact her here: Zilla@MareZilla.com  

Or at her website here: ZILLA OF THE RESISTANCE

Contrary to what sharia-proponents in America want you to believe…..

Sharia Law is totally incompatible with democracy, according to Sharia4Belgium’s Aby Imran.

The concept of democracy is alien to the Muslim psyche, to the extent that there is not even an equivalent terminology for it in Arabic, or in any language spoken Muslim countries. The next time a Muslim tells you that Islamic law is compatible with America’s Constitution, tell him to prove it.