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healingherbs

Upstate Renegade Productions/Sensitize © Equipment Wishlist:

CANON XH-A1 HDV Camcorder or advanced device x 3

28" Hanns-G HG281DP Widescreen Monitor

Edirol R-09 High Resolution Digital Voice Recorder 24-bit WAVE/MP3 x4

preferred device

Edirol R-4 Field Recorder x 4

Right click here and select Open in a New Window to listen to the new EP CD single Empty Space by our dear friends and resident band - 3rd Rock Revolution as you read

Right click here and select Open in a New Window to listen to the new EP CD single Put On Ya Boots by our dear friends and resident band - 3rd Rock Revolution as you read

Upstate Renegade Productions/Sensitize © Equipment Wishlist (continued):

Olympus ME-51S Stereo Microphone x 12

MANFROTTO KIT TWO -055XDB,804RC2
Weight 2.85 Kg
Maximun Capacity: 4.9 Kg
Closed length: 73 cm
Max Height: 190 cm
Min Height: 60 cm x3

studio lights x6

Sennheiser HD215 Closed Back Headphone x 8

AMD Slipstream Dual Core x32

£25,000.00 seed money for script-in-hand shoots pre-production - new works

Legalise Cannabis Alliance Logo

The Legalise Cannabis Alliance have given sponsorship-in-kind to Healing Herbs (a medical cannabis information film) by publishing updates about the show on their forum.

Upstate Renegade Productions produced the animated banner for the Mark Thomas Info website to say thanks for their assistance with the post production of Healing Herbs. Please note that by clicking or double-clicking the first banner above, you will be taken to the Mark Thomas Info website.

Please note that by clicking or double-clicking the banner up above you will be taken to the bluegreenearth.com domain and homepage which is facilitated by Tim Barton and colleagues. Why not bookmark us in your favourites folder and visit us again?

Upstate Renegade Productions adapted the above animated banner from an original by Tim Barton for Bluegreenearth (BGE). This was to say thanks for their assistance with the post production research of Healing Herbs. This is also to say thanks to Tim for taking time out of his heavy schedule to be interviewed for the Sensitize e-magazine.

Thank you.

Welcome to: Sensitize © Arts E-Magazine by Upstate Renegade Productions © Edition One - November 2008. Editor - Louis P. Burns aka Lugh © All rights reserved.

YOU WILL NEED TO DOWNLOAD THE LATEST VERSION OF FLASH PLAYER
http://get.adobe.com/flashplayer/

Edit to include an update regarding Mr. Simon Brickhill aka Psikottix (moderator on the: http://www.markthomasinfo.com/ website) who is mentioned in the Defining Censorship - An Unfortunate Update (Mark Thomas Info website) article below which describes some of the cyber-bullying and hate criminality perpetrated towards me by Mr. Brickhill and a few others on the Mark Thomas website and mailing list (screenshots stored) ...

If any of you are unfortunate enough to know Simon Brickhill aka Psikottix and have been linked to this page as a result of reading his lughout.moonfruit.com/# website where he has made several criminal accusations against me, threats to kill against me, calls to others to perpetrate harm (which is orchestrated terrorism incidentally and carries a very heavy penalty under both Irish and UK Law) against me, negative references to my media / music co-collaborators and good friends, stolen a copyrighted image from this domain which was part of the Wishing Well CD I produced for Foyle Hospice in memory of another good friend and community arts activist who is sadly no longer with us. The photograph I refer to includes a renowned recording engineer and lecturer with the North West Institute of Further and Higher Education and he is a totally unconnected individual but is someone whose life Simon may be also placing in jeopardy. Please be advised folks, that I had to report all of this to the Police Service of Northern Ireland on the 19th December, 2009 - Incident Report number 1146. It is all being investigated by Constable. Carr of Strand Road P.S.N.I. Derry (or Londonderry) and his colleagues. They are networking with the Telecommunications Division of the English / UK Police to locate and caution and/or arrest Mr. Simon Brickhill aka Psikottix.

Simon has also referred to a 'paper trail' which he aims to present to the authorities and which he claims may in some way incriminate me. What he is referring to are some emails, some pirated DVD's and about £8.00 worth of cannabis that I sent to him in better times, when he was feeling ill with depression and threatening to kill himself. My thinking at the time was that they would cheer him up and while I admit I have broken the law by pirating DVD's and sending some cannabis through the post to Simon, I have also notified the P.S.N.I. about this as part of my statement and they have advised me that I may recieve a caution. So Simon's attempt to blackmail simply reveals the sort of nasty individual that he is.

Simon has made several adjustments to his pages on the lughout/moonfruit.com/# website over the last month, but I have kept screenshots of them all for the benefit of the P.S.N.I. the UK Police, the courts and anyone else who wants to see who the aggressor and bully has actually been in this situation. You can view those screenshots by clicking the links here. They are an example of some of the hostilities towards me from just one member of the Mark Thomas site (Simon Brickhill aka Psikottix) and mailing list who had a problem with me vocalising my absolute shock and horror at and towards the British army and their brutal treatment of children in Basra, Iraq (which I compared to their illegal activities here in Northern Ireland for several decades) and which you can read more about below.

The upshots of all of this are that I am now recieving treatment for sleeping difficulties. The bi-polar depression which I have lived with my whole life has flared up. An ongoing heart condition has been exacerbated. My Christmas and New Year were ruined. My family and friends have had to listen to me going through several anxiety attacks brought about by all of this in combination with the very real fears associated with living in a city where armed paramilitaries have on many occasions targeted suspected drug dealers and sex offenders. So Simon, if you think any of this has been funny, or a piece of highbrow satirical comedy. Think again, preferably from the safety of a prison cell or under house arrest.

One other thing you may wish to also consider Simon, and it may be unfounded, is that many of your accusations made towards me, may very well be projection in psychological terms. In which case, maybe the authorities, your friends, colleagues, fellow markthomasinfo.com forum members / mailing list subscribers, your CPN and your neighbours should be alerted. Your mind is definitely sick enough to warrant more than a few concerns.

You can contact Simon Brickhill aka Psikottix on: psi.kottix@gmail.com or Twitter him on: http://twitter.com/psikottix although, be advised, he's an ugly little bastard and might make you puke. He's got a face only a blind mother in a rush could love.

Finally, here's a song for and quite probably about Simon Brickhill aka Psikottix. I think it's rather fitting for the lying little prick!

Thank you for your kind attention.

Sincerely. Louis P. Burns aka Lugh - 14th January, 2010 (17.59pm GMT) ...

------------

Further Update: At any time he could show some evidence, like screenshots from the http://www.markthomasinfo.com/ forums where he claims I called anyone a murderer. This paragraph goes out equally to Alan Fisher aka the_leander (although he appears to have slid off like so much runny shit, after starting all of this), and finally Jeff Jenkins aka plucker, the administrator of the; http://www.markthomasinfo.com/ website and forums who can be contacted on; plucker@btinternet.com

Oh yeah, and over on Facebook there's a group called: Soldiers Are Not Heroes (S.A.N.H.) with over 207,500 members (at the time of writing this - early hours of; 16th January, 2010) including Mark Thomas' pal Brian Haw the Peace Activist and myself of course. Several people there are actually calling British soldiers 'murderers' but I bet the three stooges mentioned directly above haven't got the balls to confront any/all of them! Which only proves them to be a pack of bullies who target individuals. Cowards basically.

Thank you for your kind and continued attention folks.

Sincerely. Louis P. Burns aka Lugh - 16th January, 2010 (01.58am GMT) ...

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Defining Censorship - An Unfortunate Update (Mark Thomas Info website)
By Louis P. Burns aka Lugh © 2008. All rights reserved.

(continued from page one)

On the Mark Thomas Info website's homepage sited here there are hyperlinks to their forum sited here and one to their favourite websites or links page sited here. On that webpage there is a banner/picture link to Irrepressible Info which is an external site from anything to do with the previous 3 webpages but is part of an Amnesty International campaign. Amnesty International through the Irrepressible Info campaign aim to allow people a voice on external websites and free from military or other oppressive forces that attempt to censor or silence them.

The Irrepressible Info campaign appealed directly to me as a writer but, and it's a big 'but'; I find it somewhat sickening that I discovered this link through the Mark Thomas Info website given how the forum administrators of that website, a man known to me as Jeff Jenkins aka Plucker and another known to me as Simon Brickhill aka Psikottix + certain other regulars posters on there actually behaved. Both of these administrators are/were members of Sensitize © and at any time they are welcome to sign in and explain why I was banned from their forum last year. They may even be in a position to explain why I have also recently been denied access to post to the Mark Thomas Mailing List.

Alan Fisher aka the_leander was also a member on Sensitize © until I booted the sickening little slag. As was Joanne Chapman aka jo / Pino. These two individuals in particular seemed to think it ok to accuse me (on the Mark Thomas Info website forum) of the very serious crime of terrorism. Another went as far as saying I personally called him and his family murderers simply because he comes from a military / naval or 'services' background and because I spoke out about a clip on YouTube that revealed some British soldiers brutally beating some young kids in Basra, Iraq. I most certainly did not call him or his family members 'murderers' and I challenge him to reveal any evidence he may think he has to the contrary for example links to pages or screenshots of pages on the Mark Thomas Info forum where they should exist. As for jo, she's just a lippy bigot, but even she is welcome to explain her offensive accusations / actions towards me. Not only are they welcome to post any comment explaining any of this, but other members of both the forum and Mark Thomas Mailing List are welcome to join Sensitize © and give their account of why they either joined in on the attacks or why many of them (good and honourable) kept out of the whole situation? I can, if called upon present several examples of some of the nastier emails I recieved to my main Gmail account from Alan as well as many others from people who lumped themselves together with him through misguided friendship in some instances, and then abused me further and derided almost every post I made, both to the forum and mailing list. They can scream 'Data Protection Act' until they are blue in the face. Two points on that:

1) To get anywhere legally they would have to admit these emails (which I encountered via the Mark Thomas Mailing List) exist and that they are familiar with or sent these same offensive emails and continued, despite being asked not to, or to explain themselves and their offensive (indeed fascist) comments by other subscribers of/to the Mark Thomas Mailing List. In doing so of course they would incidently reveal themselves to be guilty of the more serious crimes of cyber-bullying / and possibly cyber-hate towards anyone with an opposing perspective or voice against the British army/government or its continued brutality around the world (well documented).

2) I identify as an Irish citizen/person. I am not subject to the same ridiculous British laws governing them and I am prepared to 'ride-the-storm-out on this point. But, to be fair, I won't quote any of these offensive emails for now which only actually become crimes of any sort by me if I quote them innacurately, therefore libel.

I also wish to bring this to the attention of Amnesty International who I hope in turn will address / investigate the matter. My reasons apart from being a published and respected writer both among my peers in England, Ireland and America and recently acknowledged in a book soon to be released in the UK are the obvious anxieties, frustrations and to a certain extent the emotional pain I have had to endure at the hands of a few bigots and censors who frequently derided and insulted me, either on the forum which was fully endorsed and approved of by the Mark Thomas Info forum's administrator; Jeff Jenkins aka Plucker (he did nothing to stop it), or the Mark Thomas Mailing List. The catalyst and my civil/human rights to speak out against oppressive military regimes like the British army + their various governments over the years were breached several times. My requesting Amnesty International intervene here has been inspired by this;-

http://www.amnesty.ie/amnesty/live/irish/action/article.asp?id=17978&page=15310

that link was easily accessible through the Irrepressible Info link on the Links pages of the Mark Thomas Info website but now appears dud. It was about Irish writers and their bid to address creatively; the dangers of censorship and breaches of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It's interesting that it's no longer visible. I can only hope they've moved the article to a new thread and that it hasn't been removed entirely. On it, Irish poet, writer and winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature - Seamus Heaney's submission called - The Redress of Poetry was presented. Here is a quote from it and I apologise sincerely if I have broken any copyright laws but this is important to writers everywhere and especially any poor writer who thinks Mark Thomas can help break the deadlock of censorship:

Seamus Heaney on Amnesty International's website - The Redress of Poetry:

"Flouted though the Articles have been and continue to be, their vulnerability should perhaps be regarded as an earnest of their ultimate value. If, for example, an effort were to be made to enforce them by the exercise of military power - as in the effort to enforce "democracy" on Iraq - it would not only end in failure but would discredit utterly the very concept of human rights. They would be stigmatised as the attributes of an imperium rather than an inherent endowment of the species.

It is this vulnerable yet spiritually inviolate quality which makes them attractive not only to the wronged and the oppressed of the Earth, but to writers and poets as well. The Universal Declaration is not a sure-fire panacea for the world's ills; it is more geared to effect what I once called "the redress of poetry" than to intervene like a superpower. This idea of redress I discovered first in Simone Weil's book, Gravity and Grace , where she observes that if we know the way society is unbalanced, we must do what we can to add weight to the lighter side of the scale. The Universal Declaration, it seems to me, adds this kind of weight and contributes thereby to the maintenance of an equilibrium - never entirely achieved - between the rights and wrongs.

Writers and poets are also capable of adding this kind of weight, as will be evident in the work of contributors to the series which this newspaper is organising in the weeks ahead. I expect, however, that when they are faced with the direct speech of the Declaration, many of them will proceed indirectly. They too will want to conjure up work that functions as a counterweight to the given actuality of the world. The writings they place in the scale may only be imagined, but if the imagining is credible, if it persuades us to suspend our disbelief, it will be part of the redress that human dignity, human rights, human reason, human consciousness all desire and deserve.

It is also a fact, however, that when it comes to creating work in support of a morally laudable cause or in response to an uplifting theme, writers and poets face a difficulty peculiar to their calling. They are not like speakers at a podium or preachers in a pulpit. Because of the artistic imperative they obey, they must do more than utter a commendable sentiment. They must make a thing of words, construct "a verbal contraption".

It is not enough for creative writers to be what Osip Mandelstam once called "purveyors of the paraphrasable meaning", even if they happen to be paraphrasing the Universal Declaration; not enough merely to repeat what Joyce called "the big words", even words like "dignity" and "conscience"; not enough to have the will doing the work of the imagination. Some kind of turn or twist or swerve, some shift in the mind or the medium has to occur, some little startle of insight or originality that may prompt the composition of a short lyric or the invention of an entire world - as in Animal Farm ."

Judging from this, and my own identity as an activist, human rights campaigner and writer, it would appear I have been banned, censored and frequently insulted by people on the Mark Thomas Info website forum and Mailing List because I spoke out about British soldiers beating up children in their own country* (Iraq) and drew a parallel with that and how they behaved for years here in Northern Ireland. In effect I have been punished for being humanitarian. It would appear only people identifying as 'British' can speak out about such butchery on the Mark Thomas Info forum. Anyone non-British can't. That is fascism and indeed censorship, possibly racist as well.

I don't know which is more insulting or offensive quite frankly. Being banned from the Mark Thomas Info website forum, or the knowledge that I was banned by people working/posting to a forum and mailing list owned by a man supposedly working to ensure things like this don't happen (Mark Thomas). Hypothetically, one could easily draw the conclusion that he doesn't really care about anything, is a liar and only into activist campaigning for the glory of being seen to be on the side of fair play and the revenue gained from book sales. However, I still hold a fading hope that this is not the case, even though Mark Thomas has done nothing to counter-measure the damage some of his forum admin, forum members, mailing list contributors and friends did to me. Nor has he addressed why they found/thought their activities and comments were acceptable. It was in fact; bullying, censorship, cyber/hate criminality and most definitely a breach of my civil and human rights to continue to work as a writer online (a progression of my career as a published writer).

I am morally bound and responsible to state that Mark Thomas and his admin staff on the Mark Thomas Info forum and mailing list deserve to be revealed, because if they are not sincere activists and human rights campaigners opposed to censorship, then they are a wedge between real action against censorship, human rights violations and progress towards lasting change / equality / freedom of speech and the upholding of Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Mark Thomas, his forum admin team and anyone else who thinks they can are welcome to join Sensitize ©** and try to censor me or treat me like they did on the Mark Thomas Info forum and mailing list, but they will have to explain why they thought their actions either justifiable or legal to a much bigger crowd and support base than I believe they could ever muster.

CLICK HERE TO PARTICIPATE IN OUR ONGOING DEFINING CENSORSHIP DISCUSIION GROUP

Any attempt to have this post withdrawn or this community and its forums deleted will not only be affecting me, but the careers and livelihoods of many other published and respected working artists, e-poets, filmakers, media/music producers and writers.

* I spoke out against these barbaric savages beating children and whoever that person is doing the voiceover and compared their hatred to the hatred they enforced on many people living in Northern Ireland during the Troubles. Please note, you may have to open a YouTube account and verify you are over 18 years old.

** By joining Sensitize © you are stating you are 18 years old or over and have read our Guidelines page prior to joining.

Hyperlinks in this post are to;

http://www.markthomasinfo.com/

http://www.markthomasinfo.com/forum/login.asp?target=default.asp <-- This link is now dud. I wonder why?

http://www.markthomasinfo.com/links/default.asp <-- This link is now dud. I wonder why?

http://irrepressible.info/?fragment=19

http://www.amnesty.org/

http://uk.youtube.com/verify_age?&next_url=/watch?v=cLaAUx4r7ow <-- You will have to open a YouTube account and verify you are 18 years old or over.

http://upstaterenegadeproductions.com/messageboard/ucp.php?mode=register&sid=e551d4a0999aaee2e1920080139b46bc

Very sincerely.

Louis P. Burns aka Lugh - Community arts, disability and human rights activist /
campaigner, e-poet, filmaker, independent media producer, journalist, song and
short story writer. Owner and voluntary Administrator / Editor of; Upstate Renegade
Productions & Sensitize © ...

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Thanks :)

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Right click here and select Open in a New Window to listen to the new EP CD single Non-Starter by our dear friends and resident band - 3rd Rock Revolution as you read.

By clicking on the above banner you will be taken to the Bluegreenearth domain and homepage which is facilitated by Tim Barton and colleagues. Please note that this is an external site. Why not bookmark us in your favourites folder and visit us again?

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Right click here and select Open in a New Window to listen to the new EP CD single Hard Shoulder by our dear friends and resident band - 3rd Rock Revolution as you read.