Suicide Notes on LJ

This is a post that beinghomeless posted earlier today. She asked us to repost and spread the word, and what can I say? When Crystal talks, we listen.

(Now I'm glad that Icky Man is still on my friend-of list, so he'll have to read it too. Take THAT, Icky Man!)

Note to ALL:

If you ever have a friend on your friends list threaten suicide or leave a suicide not in their LJ (public or friends only) contact the Livejournal Abuse Team immediately.

The Abuse Team does have more info on each LJer than most of us may have and can contact the users local police department and get them help a lot sooner than an LJ friend could if no one knows his real name or address... Abuse team handles these situations frequently.

EDITED TO ADD: "file a request with the LiveJournal Abuse Team with *all* IRL contact
info you have". Sometimes people forget to do that, and in suicide
requests, seconds count. (-jessical, LJ Abuse team)

Unfortunately, it's not uncommon that people leave suicide notes in their LJ, but very few LJers know to contact the Abuse team in the event that someone on their friends list leaves a suicide note... can you each take a minute today to post this info in your own LJ to spread the word throughout LJ as for how to handle this type of situation. like jessical said, "seconds count" and contacting LJ abuse for a friend is what may may save the life of someone on YOUR friends list.

(/public service announcement)

the nature of the American people

"I shared a deep disgust that those prisoners were treated the way they were treated," Mr. Bush said. "Their treatment does not reflect the nature of the American people." He added that the actions of a handful of soldiers should not taint the tens of thousands who serve honorably in Iraq. Mr. Bush emphasized that the investigation into the case was moving ahead. "I think they'll be taken care of," he said.
(Quoted from a NYTimes.com article, 05/01/04)

Such is my addiction to blogs that when I read this quote on my daily email news digest, I looked around for the "Comment" link. 'Cause as we all know, any good webpage nowadays has a comments feature. Not finding one, I guess I'll just comment here.
( Open letter to Mr. Bush )

(/rant) Okay, back to your regularly scheduled blog.

EDIT: It gets worse before it gets better; this article states that many newspapers did not run the photos or the story for several days. Propaganda sheets, indeed. Here's the link to the actual article:
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/01/international/middleeast/01ABUS.html?th=&pagewanted=all&position=
NYTimes.com requires a registration, but it's painless. They will not spam you, ever. Go read it.

More NYTimes stuff

Since I *know* y'all immediately went and registered...
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/01/arts/01DINO.html?th
This article is entitled "Dino-Free Fun for Creationists".

My yappy secular science-believin' side says: AAARRRRGGH!

My spirit-of-inquiry side says: Does anyone know how long ago Creationists peg the Flood occurring? This article (quoting a controversial source, even to Creationists) states that they believe God created the earth 6,000 years ago. I thought most Creationists put it at 10,000 yrs or so. I'm wondering if there's mainstream Creationist agreement and where I could go to get their timeline. Anybody?