Thursday, August 27, 2009
Real US unemployment rate at 16 pct: Fed official
The real US unemployment rate is 16 percent if persons who have dropped out of the labor pool and those working less than they would like are counted, a Federal Reserve official said Wednesday.
"If one considers the people who would like a job but have stopped looking -- so-called discouraged workers -- and those who are working fewer hours than they want, the unemployment rate would move from the official 9.4 percent to 16 percent, said Atlanta Fed chief Dennis Lockhart.
He underscored that he was expressing his own views, which did "do not necessarily reflect those of my colleagues on the Federal Open Market Committee," the policy-setting body of the central bank.
Lockhart pointed out in a speech to a chamber of commerce in Chattanooga, Tennessee that those two categories of people are not taken into account in the Labor Department's monthly report on the unemployment rate. The official July jobless rate was 9.4 percent.
Lockhart, who heads the Atlanta, Georgia, division of the Fed, is the first central bank official to acknowledge the depth of unemployment amid the worst US recession since the Great Depression.
Lockhart said the US economy was improving but "still fragile," and the beginning stages of a sluggish recovery were underway.
"My forecast for a slow recovery implies a protracted period of high unemployment," he said, adding that it would be difficult to stimulate jobs through additional public spending.
"Further fiscal stimulus has been mentioned, but the full effects of the first stimulus package are not yet clear, and the concern over adding to the federal deficit and the resulting national debt is warranted," he said.
President Barack Obama's administration has resisted calls for more public spending, arguing that the 787-billion-dollar stimulus passed in February needs time to work its way through the economy.
Lockhart noted that construction and manufacturing had been particularly hard hit in the recession that began in December 2007 and predicted some jobs were gone for good.
Prior to the recession, he said, construction and manufacturing combined accounted for slightly more than 15 percent of employment. But during the recession, their job losses made up more than 40 percent of all US job losses.
"In my view, it is unlikely that we will see a return of jobs lost in certain sectors, such as manufacturing," he said.
"In a similar vein, the recession has been so deep in construction that a reallocation of workers is likely to happen -- even if not permanent."
Payroll employment has fallen by 6.7 million since the recession began.
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=CNG.4452bed82adf3124e5884678e236d7fb.361&show_article=1
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
Chicago shuts down to save money
Public services in the US city of Chicago have been shut down for a day as the authorities face an expected budget shortfall of some $300m (£184m).
Non-essential services such as rubbish collections, libraries and health centres were closed, in the first of three planned reduced service days.
City authorities hope the move, with workers taking an enforced unpaid holiday, will save an estimated $8.3m.
Other cities in the US have already introduced similar measures.
The savings from Chicago's reduced service days are small compared with the overall deficit.
But in a statement last week, Chicago's Mayor Richard M Daley thanked state employees for their "sacrifice".
"Every dollar we save from these measures helps to save jobs, and in the long-term, maintain service for Chicagoans," he said.
"This plan engages most civilian employees to accept cuts and to be part of the solution to our budget crisis."
Two more reduced service days have been scheduled - one for 27 November, the day after Thanksgiving and another for Christmas Eve, 24 December.
Workers have also been asked to take a series of unpaid days off and holidays without salary.
Chicago is one of a number of US cities and states to introduce closures and furlough days to address deficits.
In California, which has a budget deficit of some $24.3bn (£14.5bn) and has declared a fiscal emergency, state offices have been ordered to close for three days each month.
Michigan has said it will not pay its state employees on six days up to the end of September, to save nearly $22m.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8206433.stm
Non-essential services such as rubbish collections, libraries and health centres were closed, in the first of three planned reduced service days.
City authorities hope the move, with workers taking an enforced unpaid holiday, will save an estimated $8.3m.
Other cities in the US have already introduced similar measures.
The savings from Chicago's reduced service days are small compared with the overall deficit.
But in a statement last week, Chicago's Mayor Richard M Daley thanked state employees for their "sacrifice".
"Every dollar we save from these measures helps to save jobs, and in the long-term, maintain service for Chicagoans," he said.
"This plan engages most civilian employees to accept cuts and to be part of the solution to our budget crisis."
Two more reduced service days have been scheduled - one for 27 November, the day after Thanksgiving and another for Christmas Eve, 24 December.
Workers have also been asked to take a series of unpaid days off and holidays without salary.
Chicago is one of a number of US cities and states to introduce closures and furlough days to address deficits.
In California, which has a budget deficit of some $24.3bn (£14.5bn) and has declared a fiscal emergency, state offices have been ordered to close for three days each month.
Michigan has said it will not pay its state employees on six days up to the end of September, to save nearly $22m.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8206433.stm
Will They Ever Leave Michael Vick Alone?
Michael Vick Signs with the Philadelphia Eagles
Suki Falconberg Ph.D.
August 17, 2009
Michael Vick has just signed with the Philadelphia Eagles. He will play in the American NFL (National Football League) again. Some animal rights´ activists are still on his case for his torture of fighting dogs. Under our justice system, he has paid his dues and done his time. Admittedly, it´s a pretty weak system that allows a man who has tortured ani-mals to go free at all. But such is the value that we bestow upon ourselves as humans, as the dominant species, that we can pretty much torture anything that we want to. And then take ourselves to courts invented by us, and mete out human ´justice´—such as it is. The torture of animals is barely a misdemeanor in some states in the USA; and in states where it is a felony, punishment is quite minimal—as in the Vick case. Nothing like what would be handed down if a human were the victim—despite the fact that animals are far more helpless than humans.
I hold that Michael Vick is no more guilty than the rest of us. Everyone who eats meat is guilty of crimes equal to or perhaps in excess of what Vick committed. Our meat comes from factory-farmed animals raised and slaughtered under conditions far worse than those in your normal North Korean prison—or in a dog-fighting camp.
You have dined and, though the slaughterhouse is at an elegant distance, there is still complicity.´ This is a paraphrase from Emerson, and I wish I could have said it as well as he did. The ten-billion ´food animals´ (or so we label them) that humans consume in the USA every year live and die in unbelievable agony. Pigs are confined for their entire lives in spaces so small they cannot even turn around and they bite the bars of their cages until they go insane. Such is the atmosphere of built-up excrement fumes that they live in that most have pneumonia and other respiratory diseases. Until they go to slaughter, they never see grass or sky. Workers beat them with iron bars for fun and call them ´stupid b*****s´ and then beat them even more as they are driven into trucks for the trip to the slaughterhouses. Veal calves never leave the one small space they are tethered to from a few hours after birth and they sit in their own waste with sores on their bodies from the wooden slats they must lie on until they are pulled and dragged and beaten, in their weak state, to slaughter.
It is even worse for the birds who produce your eggs—as soon as they come out of the shell, the chicks have their beaks seared off with red hot blades so that they will not peck each other to death in small cages they live crammed into--crowded into spaces so small they cannot spread their wings for their entire lives, they are forced to lay an unnatural number of eggs until their uteruses prolapse and their bones break from calcium deple-tion. All of your ´farm-fresh eggs´ come from animals who live in unbearable pain. Their eyes are full of desperation and insanity. After about a year, they are sent to slaughter, to be used in pet food and baby food and chicken soup—that chicken soup that is for the comfort of the soul, I guess--their fragile bones snap as workers roughly grab them out of their cages. In the slaughterhouse, after throat slitting, they are stuffed in metal containers, upside down, to bleed to death and you can see their feet struggling in the air. Some manage to jump out and thrash around in the blood on the slaughterhouse floor. Slaughterhouse workers, to relieve the boredom of their day, use the hens as punching bags and kick them around like footballs. All in good fun, of course.
Kosher slaughterhouses are a lot of fun, too. The cow has her trachea and esophagus ripped out and then she thrashes around on the bloody floor in desperate pain as the workers kick her own blood on her and joke around.
It may be some consolation to those of you who felt for those poor Michael Vick dogs, that others are treated, if anything, even worse. Go watch Earthlings,* the great-est animal rights´ movie ever made, and you will see street dogs in Turkey being shot and limping off wounded to die. In one scene, filmed in Turkey, a very ill street dog, filthy and matted and not able to walk, is lying at the feet of a man who drives a garbage truck. The dog looks helpless and in his eyes is a desperate need for someone to help him and care for him. The garbage man throws the dog into the compactor and as we see the ani-mal disappear he licks his lips with his tongue in a pitiful way and his eyes still look hopeful that someone will help him. Protect me, please. I am helpless.
The garbage man is nonchalant and indifferent.
(Much in Earthlings is painful. But this scene had such a startling effect on me that the first time I saw the movie, I woke up for several nights in a row, crying, without even knowing why except that some hopeless fear was haunting me. At first, I didn´t know it was the dog-in-the-compactor scene. But, since it kept coming back to me all day, in images, I figured that was what was disturbing me in the dark of the night. It was startling since it had been over 50 years since I had woken up in tears. Not since I was a small child had I felt such hopeless fear.)
The shining spirit of the Athens Olympics in 2004 made itself manifest when the Greeks poisoned 30,000 street dogs so as to ´tidy up´ the city for the tourists. Every one who participated in that Olympics is as guilty as Michael Vick, the dog torturer—they are complicit in the suffering of those street dogs. All these humanitarians who marched in the opening ceremony—people like Susan Sarandon and Somaly Mam—are guilty. What a joke is Sarandon´s supposed humanitarianism if she did nothing to help these dogs who convulsed and shook and vomited in agony and died. We have videos of what the Greeks, those noble founders of democracy, did to these helpless dogs.
Scientists who torture labs animals are as guilty as Michael Vick. Even more so since they inflict worse pain on the lab animals than Vick did on the dogs. At all of America´s big proud research universities, grants of millions of dollars from the NSF (National Sci-ence Foundation) and NIH (National Institute of Health) and similar learned bodies are given to men and women who perform worthless, painful, gratuitous experiments on animals. They sew the eyelids of monkeys together and bolt instruments into their brains and insert electrodes into their eyeballs.
Rats probably have it the worst. I´ll just describe one relatively ´mild´ experiment—even though it is beyond the bounds of sadism, it is not even in the same ballpark as the more agonizing tortures that scientists inflict on rats. This particular fun one could be called the ´suspend him by his tail´ ordeal. Rats were suspended by their tails at a certain angle, completely immobilized, so that, in the position they were in, they could not move or groom themselves. Now, rats are small, nervous, sensitive little animals whose tiny beautiful little hearts beat 600 times a minute so being immobilized is beyond agony for them. I cannot even describe the insanity and desperation in their eyes as they endured 50 days of being ´suspended´ like this. Then, as the scientists phrased it, they were not killed, exactly, but they were ´sacrificed.´ What a word choice. ´Sacrificed´ to what, I wonder? To our stupidity, sadism, and cruelty.
While still alive and suspended in the torture dungeon, the rats´ front feet were on a few patches of wood shavings and we saw the animals surrounded by feces and unable to groom themselves due to the angles that they were suspended at. The animals looked filthy and ragged. You could see where the tails they were suspended by were raw and bleeding from rubbing against the restraining devices. You could see clumps of poop sticking out of their anuses and rimming the fur around the hole.
And I guess the scientists just walked on by them as these animals died every day for 50 days. Did the men and women who did this see nothing of the extreme and unbearable misery? I saw sheer insane agony in the rats´ eyes. It is good they were killed after 50 day since they journeyed deeper into madness everyday, so deep they could never come back. This ´banality of evil´ and torture is simply a commonplace in labs worldwide. What kind of beings, I wonder, could actually walk by such suffering, every day, un-moved?
I know rats well. Smart, kind, clean, intuitive, gifted with senses of humor and a deep capacity for affection—they are far far far better than your average human. Far far far far superior to the humans who torture them in labs. I cannot extol rats´ virtues enough, having cared for several dozen rescued ones over the years. They are as capable of feel-ing love and pain as any other sentient being. I was going to put ´as any human´ but I concluded long ago that humans are completely incapable of love.
The suspension experiment had something to do with ´femur stresses´ and the articles that scientists wrote up their findings in had long, long, long titles that made no English sense and that completely obscured what had been done to these animals. You would never even know that rats had been tortured. The legacy of the celebrated and enshrined Descartes, who cut up live dogs and ignored their yelps and squeals of pain.
From my many years of rescuing rats, I discovered that they are telepathic once you get to know them, both with each other and with humans who love them and care for them--so they know when others in the lab are being tortured as they are. I also discovered that they ´talk´ and chatter and squeak and squeal at levels humans cannot hear. With a ´bat detector´ instrument, you can hear them constantly talking back and forth to each other. They are amazingly chatty and make such an array of sounds that I only came to recog-nize just a few in their language. So it is probable that they are screaming in pain to each other in the labs all the time and that the scientists do not hear them. We know that the rats (not the suspended ones) run in endless, excited, mad, insane circles around the small barren cages in their labs at night after the scientists leave.
It must be convenient to torture a small silent animal. The scientists don´t have to slice the vocal chords of the rats, the way they do with beagles in labs, and then the dogs bay soundlessly at a moon they cannot see.
All of this is in service of our mad devotion to sacrificing animals on the Blood Sadism Altar of Western Science. I guess I could say Eastern Science as well since in Japan and Taiwan and Korea, Asian scientists are happily torturing animals in their labs.
The big question, of course, is why all these scientists all over the world are not in prison for torturing and killing helpless beings.
Dogs, by the way, have some protection in labs in the USA, at least on paper. Rats don´t. They are not classified as animals under the Animals Welfare Act. This is so that scien-tists can torture them with impunity and inflict pain on them without pain killers. Chimps are considered animals under the AWA. This does not protect them from being tortured, however. I suspect they have some small protection since they are expensive to replace, and it behooves scientists to keep them around for a long time. The poor rats only live a couple of years—and usually not even that long since they are ´sacrificed´ after being experimented on. (I am not sure you could call what they do in their few tortured inches of space in labs ´living´ at all—so brutal a life of deprivation and pain would be unthinkable if the scientists did this to humans.) But you can torture a chimp in a lab for fifty years—if he lasts that long, and some of them, sadly enough, do. By the end of a long ´career´ as a lab chimp, the poor creature will have so many infections and diseases and be so riddled with pain that he will self-mutilate by pulling his own intestines out, to lessen the suffering. I mean, he will be in as much pain as, well, as those poor NFL quarterbacks who get knocked around so much.
Back to Michael Vick, the subject of this article. His dogs were pretty fortunate in that they were not as low down on the torture chain as the chickens and the pigs and the rats are.
All of us are complicit in the enormous suffering of animals. Glamorous actresses in per-fume ads don´t tell you that the product contains an ingredient milked from the glands of a civet: and that this poor creature is confined to a box barely bigger than he is for his whole life, in between milkings, where he eats, sleeps, defecates, and pretty much goes insane. All the glossy beauty of the glamorous in the world cannot make up for one moment of his suffering. His misery negates all beauty.
Some animal rights´ people are criticizing Vick because they do not think he has ´re-pented.´ I say this is irrelevant. When he is alone at night, communing with himself, whether he is sorry for what he did or not is between him and his soul. That is private. It has nothing to do with him playing football, or working with the HSUS (Humane Society of the United States) to stop dog fighting. To be practical, as a public figure and a foot-ball celebrity, he does not have to be ´sincere´ or truly regretful, on the inside, to help stop dog fighting. We will never know if he is really sorry for his actions. Only he knows that. All he has to do is clean up his image and be willing to work with the HSUS. The latest reports on ESPN say he may work with the Philadelphia Humane Society and other animal groups in the city. Whether his community service will just involve dog fighting or whether he will work in other areas to benefit animals, ESPN did not say. Over the next few weeks, there should be more news about this forthcoming. HSUS reports that Vick has already met with and talked to young men in Chicago about dog fighting. A long-term agenda and association between Vick and the HSUS might bring about miraculous changes in terms of stopping dog fighting in the USA. Inner repentance aside, it is a great opportunity for one man to lessen animal suffering in the world.
As for communing with his soul, I am not sure we humans have souls. We are too cruel to have been granted a soul in the cosmic scheme of things. So Michael Vick communicating with his in the dark hours of the night might truly be irrelevant—if none of us humans have souls to commune with.
I am as guilty as Michael Vick. Even though I don´t run dog-fighting operations or eat meat or wear leather and I use holistic remedies not tested on animals and dutifully buy my Beauty without Cruelty cosmetics and try to rescue a few hapless rats when I can--and I write useless little articles like this one, to make myself feel as if I am doing some-thing, and I proclaim my innocence, I still do not walk the earth guiltless. Guilt engulfs me because I do not spend every moment, do not expend every ounce of my being, in helping those who suffer. It is my fate to be sensitive to the suffering and to be able to do almost nothing about it.
Meanwhile, I have many small comforts around me—a safe place to go home to, books to read, friends to talk to. In contrast, the billion of animals in the world we torture have no comforts, no lives, no today, let alone a tomorrow.
So, welcome back, Michael Vick. Welcome to the human race. We are just like you and you are just like us.
As a human, I was not granted a soul either. In the middle of the night, I cannot find one to commune with. I just see a dark nothingness, where the human soul should be.
Notes
Earthlings is directed by Shaun Monson and narrated by Joaquin Phoenix. Sections can be viewed at various sites on the internet like YouTube, or you can purchase it at earthlings.com. I think every human on the planet should watch it.
I´d like to add a little apologia to this article since I find that satire, which I sprinkle throughout this piece, is often misunderstood. I am not being critical of animal rights´ people—I have enormous respect for them. But I do think that Michael Vick can do some good in the world for suffering animals if we support him in his efforts. Whether we like or respect him does not matter: what matters is if he can help the ani-mals.
http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/view/114622
Suki Falconberg Ph.D.
August 17, 2009
Michael Vick has just signed with the Philadelphia Eagles. He will play in the American NFL (National Football League) again. Some animal rights´ activists are still on his case for his torture of fighting dogs. Under our justice system, he has paid his dues and done his time. Admittedly, it´s a pretty weak system that allows a man who has tortured ani-mals to go free at all. But such is the value that we bestow upon ourselves as humans, as the dominant species, that we can pretty much torture anything that we want to. And then take ourselves to courts invented by us, and mete out human ´justice´—such as it is. The torture of animals is barely a misdemeanor in some states in the USA; and in states where it is a felony, punishment is quite minimal—as in the Vick case. Nothing like what would be handed down if a human were the victim—despite the fact that animals are far more helpless than humans.
I hold that Michael Vick is no more guilty than the rest of us. Everyone who eats meat is guilty of crimes equal to or perhaps in excess of what Vick committed. Our meat comes from factory-farmed animals raised and slaughtered under conditions far worse than those in your normal North Korean prison—or in a dog-fighting camp.
You have dined and, though the slaughterhouse is at an elegant distance, there is still complicity.´ This is a paraphrase from Emerson, and I wish I could have said it as well as he did. The ten-billion ´food animals´ (or so we label them) that humans consume in the USA every year live and die in unbelievable agony. Pigs are confined for their entire lives in spaces so small they cannot even turn around and they bite the bars of their cages until they go insane. Such is the atmosphere of built-up excrement fumes that they live in that most have pneumonia and other respiratory diseases. Until they go to slaughter, they never see grass or sky. Workers beat them with iron bars for fun and call them ´stupid b*****s´ and then beat them even more as they are driven into trucks for the trip to the slaughterhouses. Veal calves never leave the one small space they are tethered to from a few hours after birth and they sit in their own waste with sores on their bodies from the wooden slats they must lie on until they are pulled and dragged and beaten, in their weak state, to slaughter.
It is even worse for the birds who produce your eggs—as soon as they come out of the shell, the chicks have their beaks seared off with red hot blades so that they will not peck each other to death in small cages they live crammed into--crowded into spaces so small they cannot spread their wings for their entire lives, they are forced to lay an unnatural number of eggs until their uteruses prolapse and their bones break from calcium deple-tion. All of your ´farm-fresh eggs´ come from animals who live in unbearable pain. Their eyes are full of desperation and insanity. After about a year, they are sent to slaughter, to be used in pet food and baby food and chicken soup—that chicken soup that is for the comfort of the soul, I guess--their fragile bones snap as workers roughly grab them out of their cages. In the slaughterhouse, after throat slitting, they are stuffed in metal containers, upside down, to bleed to death and you can see their feet struggling in the air. Some manage to jump out and thrash around in the blood on the slaughterhouse floor. Slaughterhouse workers, to relieve the boredom of their day, use the hens as punching bags and kick them around like footballs. All in good fun, of course.
Kosher slaughterhouses are a lot of fun, too. The cow has her trachea and esophagus ripped out and then she thrashes around on the bloody floor in desperate pain as the workers kick her own blood on her and joke around.
It may be some consolation to those of you who felt for those poor Michael Vick dogs, that others are treated, if anything, even worse. Go watch Earthlings,* the great-est animal rights´ movie ever made, and you will see street dogs in Turkey being shot and limping off wounded to die. In one scene, filmed in Turkey, a very ill street dog, filthy and matted and not able to walk, is lying at the feet of a man who drives a garbage truck. The dog looks helpless and in his eyes is a desperate need for someone to help him and care for him. The garbage man throws the dog into the compactor and as we see the ani-mal disappear he licks his lips with his tongue in a pitiful way and his eyes still look hopeful that someone will help him. Protect me, please. I am helpless.
The garbage man is nonchalant and indifferent.
(Much in Earthlings is painful. But this scene had such a startling effect on me that the first time I saw the movie, I woke up for several nights in a row, crying, without even knowing why except that some hopeless fear was haunting me. At first, I didn´t know it was the dog-in-the-compactor scene. But, since it kept coming back to me all day, in images, I figured that was what was disturbing me in the dark of the night. It was startling since it had been over 50 years since I had woken up in tears. Not since I was a small child had I felt such hopeless fear.)
The shining spirit of the Athens Olympics in 2004 made itself manifest when the Greeks poisoned 30,000 street dogs so as to ´tidy up´ the city for the tourists. Every one who participated in that Olympics is as guilty as Michael Vick, the dog torturer—they are complicit in the suffering of those street dogs. All these humanitarians who marched in the opening ceremony—people like Susan Sarandon and Somaly Mam—are guilty. What a joke is Sarandon´s supposed humanitarianism if she did nothing to help these dogs who convulsed and shook and vomited in agony and died. We have videos of what the Greeks, those noble founders of democracy, did to these helpless dogs.
Scientists who torture labs animals are as guilty as Michael Vick. Even more so since they inflict worse pain on the lab animals than Vick did on the dogs. At all of America´s big proud research universities, grants of millions of dollars from the NSF (National Sci-ence Foundation) and NIH (National Institute of Health) and similar learned bodies are given to men and women who perform worthless, painful, gratuitous experiments on animals. They sew the eyelids of monkeys together and bolt instruments into their brains and insert electrodes into their eyeballs.
Rats probably have it the worst. I´ll just describe one relatively ´mild´ experiment—even though it is beyond the bounds of sadism, it is not even in the same ballpark as the more agonizing tortures that scientists inflict on rats. This particular fun one could be called the ´suspend him by his tail´ ordeal. Rats were suspended by their tails at a certain angle, completely immobilized, so that, in the position they were in, they could not move or groom themselves. Now, rats are small, nervous, sensitive little animals whose tiny beautiful little hearts beat 600 times a minute so being immobilized is beyond agony for them. I cannot even describe the insanity and desperation in their eyes as they endured 50 days of being ´suspended´ like this. Then, as the scientists phrased it, they were not killed, exactly, but they were ´sacrificed.´ What a word choice. ´Sacrificed´ to what, I wonder? To our stupidity, sadism, and cruelty.
While still alive and suspended in the torture dungeon, the rats´ front feet were on a few patches of wood shavings and we saw the animals surrounded by feces and unable to groom themselves due to the angles that they were suspended at. The animals looked filthy and ragged. You could see where the tails they were suspended by were raw and bleeding from rubbing against the restraining devices. You could see clumps of poop sticking out of their anuses and rimming the fur around the hole.
And I guess the scientists just walked on by them as these animals died every day for 50 days. Did the men and women who did this see nothing of the extreme and unbearable misery? I saw sheer insane agony in the rats´ eyes. It is good they were killed after 50 day since they journeyed deeper into madness everyday, so deep they could never come back. This ´banality of evil´ and torture is simply a commonplace in labs worldwide. What kind of beings, I wonder, could actually walk by such suffering, every day, un-moved?
I know rats well. Smart, kind, clean, intuitive, gifted with senses of humor and a deep capacity for affection—they are far far far better than your average human. Far far far far superior to the humans who torture them in labs. I cannot extol rats´ virtues enough, having cared for several dozen rescued ones over the years. They are as capable of feel-ing love and pain as any other sentient being. I was going to put ´as any human´ but I concluded long ago that humans are completely incapable of love.
The suspension experiment had something to do with ´femur stresses´ and the articles that scientists wrote up their findings in had long, long, long titles that made no English sense and that completely obscured what had been done to these animals. You would never even know that rats had been tortured. The legacy of the celebrated and enshrined Descartes, who cut up live dogs and ignored their yelps and squeals of pain.
From my many years of rescuing rats, I discovered that they are telepathic once you get to know them, both with each other and with humans who love them and care for them--so they know when others in the lab are being tortured as they are. I also discovered that they ´talk´ and chatter and squeak and squeal at levels humans cannot hear. With a ´bat detector´ instrument, you can hear them constantly talking back and forth to each other. They are amazingly chatty and make such an array of sounds that I only came to recog-nize just a few in their language. So it is probable that they are screaming in pain to each other in the labs all the time and that the scientists do not hear them. We know that the rats (not the suspended ones) run in endless, excited, mad, insane circles around the small barren cages in their labs at night after the scientists leave.
It must be convenient to torture a small silent animal. The scientists don´t have to slice the vocal chords of the rats, the way they do with beagles in labs, and then the dogs bay soundlessly at a moon they cannot see.
All of this is in service of our mad devotion to sacrificing animals on the Blood Sadism Altar of Western Science. I guess I could say Eastern Science as well since in Japan and Taiwan and Korea, Asian scientists are happily torturing animals in their labs.
The big question, of course, is why all these scientists all over the world are not in prison for torturing and killing helpless beings.
Dogs, by the way, have some protection in labs in the USA, at least on paper. Rats don´t. They are not classified as animals under the Animals Welfare Act. This is so that scien-tists can torture them with impunity and inflict pain on them without pain killers. Chimps are considered animals under the AWA. This does not protect them from being tortured, however. I suspect they have some small protection since they are expensive to replace, and it behooves scientists to keep them around for a long time. The poor rats only live a couple of years—and usually not even that long since they are ´sacrificed´ after being experimented on. (I am not sure you could call what they do in their few tortured inches of space in labs ´living´ at all—so brutal a life of deprivation and pain would be unthinkable if the scientists did this to humans.) But you can torture a chimp in a lab for fifty years—if he lasts that long, and some of them, sadly enough, do. By the end of a long ´career´ as a lab chimp, the poor creature will have so many infections and diseases and be so riddled with pain that he will self-mutilate by pulling his own intestines out, to lessen the suffering. I mean, he will be in as much pain as, well, as those poor NFL quarterbacks who get knocked around so much.
Back to Michael Vick, the subject of this article. His dogs were pretty fortunate in that they were not as low down on the torture chain as the chickens and the pigs and the rats are.
All of us are complicit in the enormous suffering of animals. Glamorous actresses in per-fume ads don´t tell you that the product contains an ingredient milked from the glands of a civet: and that this poor creature is confined to a box barely bigger than he is for his whole life, in between milkings, where he eats, sleeps, defecates, and pretty much goes insane. All the glossy beauty of the glamorous in the world cannot make up for one moment of his suffering. His misery negates all beauty.
Some animal rights´ people are criticizing Vick because they do not think he has ´re-pented.´ I say this is irrelevant. When he is alone at night, communing with himself, whether he is sorry for what he did or not is between him and his soul. That is private. It has nothing to do with him playing football, or working with the HSUS (Humane Society of the United States) to stop dog fighting. To be practical, as a public figure and a foot-ball celebrity, he does not have to be ´sincere´ or truly regretful, on the inside, to help stop dog fighting. We will never know if he is really sorry for his actions. Only he knows that. All he has to do is clean up his image and be willing to work with the HSUS. The latest reports on ESPN say he may work with the Philadelphia Humane Society and other animal groups in the city. Whether his community service will just involve dog fighting or whether he will work in other areas to benefit animals, ESPN did not say. Over the next few weeks, there should be more news about this forthcoming. HSUS reports that Vick has already met with and talked to young men in Chicago about dog fighting. A long-term agenda and association between Vick and the HSUS might bring about miraculous changes in terms of stopping dog fighting in the USA. Inner repentance aside, it is a great opportunity for one man to lessen animal suffering in the world.
As for communing with his soul, I am not sure we humans have souls. We are too cruel to have been granted a soul in the cosmic scheme of things. So Michael Vick communicating with his in the dark hours of the night might truly be irrelevant—if none of us humans have souls to commune with.
I am as guilty as Michael Vick. Even though I don´t run dog-fighting operations or eat meat or wear leather and I use holistic remedies not tested on animals and dutifully buy my Beauty without Cruelty cosmetics and try to rescue a few hapless rats when I can--and I write useless little articles like this one, to make myself feel as if I am doing some-thing, and I proclaim my innocence, I still do not walk the earth guiltless. Guilt engulfs me because I do not spend every moment, do not expend every ounce of my being, in helping those who suffer. It is my fate to be sensitive to the suffering and to be able to do almost nothing about it.
Meanwhile, I have many small comforts around me—a safe place to go home to, books to read, friends to talk to. In contrast, the billion of animals in the world we torture have no comforts, no lives, no today, let alone a tomorrow.
So, welcome back, Michael Vick. Welcome to the human race. We are just like you and you are just like us.
As a human, I was not granted a soul either. In the middle of the night, I cannot find one to commune with. I just see a dark nothingness, where the human soul should be.
Notes
Earthlings is directed by Shaun Monson and narrated by Joaquin Phoenix. Sections can be viewed at various sites on the internet like YouTube, or you can purchase it at earthlings.com. I think every human on the planet should watch it.
I´d like to add a little apologia to this article since I find that satire, which I sprinkle throughout this piece, is often misunderstood. I am not being critical of animal rights´ people—I have enormous respect for them. But I do think that Michael Vick can do some good in the world for suffering animals if we support him in his efforts. Whether we like or respect him does not matter: what matters is if he can help the ani-mals.
http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/view/114622
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
Courtroom Yawner Jailed for Six Months? WTF
(Aug. 10) -- As Clifton Williams sat in the courtroom in Joliet, Ill., awaiting his cousin's sentencing on drug charges, little did he know he would soon be the one in jail.
As Judge Daniel Rozak sentenced Williams' cousin to two years probation, Williams yawned, an act that earned him six months in jail on contempt charges, the Chicago Tribune reported.
Williams' father said he was "flabbergasted" by the sentence, the maximum issued for a contempt charge without a jury trial. "It seems to me like a yawn is an involuntary action," Clifton Williams Sr. told the newspaper.
The court disagreed. While Rozak did not comment on the charges, a state's attorney's office spokesman, Chuck Pelkie, said Williams did not let out a "simple" yawn. "It was a loud and boisterous attempt to disrupt the proceedings," he said.
According to the Tribune, Rozak is particularly fierce on courtroom decorum, issuing contempt-of-court charges at the highest rate of any judge in the county. The broad discretion of judges to control their courts has prompted Rozak to file contempt charges against people for everything from swearing to not silencing their cell phones.
However, some of the people Rozak assigned harsh sentences to were shown leniency if they apologized.
Williams will have to serve as least 21 days, the Tribune reported, and he has been locked up since July 23. In a letter to his family, Williams wrote, "I really can't believe I'm in jail."
SMH talk about power trip. They want to lock you up for anything now days.
http://news.aol.com/article/clifton-williams-jailed-for-yawning/610205?icid=main|htmlws-main|dl1|link3|http%3A%2F%2Fnews.aol.com%2Farticle%2Fclifton-williams-jailed-for-yawning%2F610205
As Judge Daniel Rozak sentenced Williams' cousin to two years probation, Williams yawned, an act that earned him six months in jail on contempt charges, the Chicago Tribune reported.
Williams' father said he was "flabbergasted" by the sentence, the maximum issued for a contempt charge without a jury trial. "It seems to me like a yawn is an involuntary action," Clifton Williams Sr. told the newspaper.
The court disagreed. While Rozak did not comment on the charges, a state's attorney's office spokesman, Chuck Pelkie, said Williams did not let out a "simple" yawn. "It was a loud and boisterous attempt to disrupt the proceedings," he said.
According to the Tribune, Rozak is particularly fierce on courtroom decorum, issuing contempt-of-court charges at the highest rate of any judge in the county. The broad discretion of judges to control their courts has prompted Rozak to file contempt charges against people for everything from swearing to not silencing their cell phones.
However, some of the people Rozak assigned harsh sentences to were shown leniency if they apologized.
Williams will have to serve as least 21 days, the Tribune reported, and he has been locked up since July 23. In a letter to his family, Williams wrote, "I really can't believe I'm in jail."
SMH talk about power trip. They want to lock you up for anything now days.
http://news.aol.com/article/clifton-williams-jailed-for-yawning/610205?icid=main|htmlws-main|dl1|link3|http%3A%2F%2Fnews.aol.com%2Farticle%2Fclifton-williams-jailed-for-yawning%2F610205
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Brazil finds new strain of H1N1 virus
Brazilian scientists have identified a new strain of the H1N1 virus after examining samples from a patient in Sao Paulo, their institute said Tuesday.
The variant has been called A/Sao Paulo/1454/H1N1 by the Adolfo Lutz Bacteriological Institute, which compared it with samples of the A(H1N1) swine flu from California.
The genetic sequence of the new sub-type of the H1N1 virus was isolated by a virology team lead by one of its researchers, Terezinha Maria de Paiva, the institute said in a statement.
The mutation comprised of alterations in the Hemagglutinin protein which allows the virus to infect new hosts, it said.
It was not yet known whether the new strain was more aggressive than the current A(H1N1) virus which has been declared pandemic by the World Health Organization.
The genetic make-up of the H1N1 virus and its subvariants are important for scientists.
Pharmaceutical companies are working to mass produce a vaccine against the current A(H1N1) flu.
There are fears though that it could mutate into a deadly strain, much in the same way as the 1918 Spanish flu -- also an A(H1N1) virus type -- did when it killed tens of millions around the planet.
According to the WHO, 36,000 people in 76 countries have been infected with the H1N1 virus, causing 163 deaths.
Swine Flu Vaccination Poses Serious Threat to Your Health
Global Research 13 June: It looks like governments around the world will either force these vaccinations on the public or launch a massive propaganda campaign to trick you into submitting to a jab. If they attempt to force these untested and essentially experimental vaccinations on you, cite the Nuremberg Code, which states: “The voluntary consent of the human subject is essential.” No experimental vaccine should be “conducted where there is an a priori reason to believe that death or disabling injury will occur, except, perhaps, in those experiments where the experimental physicians also serve as a subjects.
ATTENTION, Please: The WHO has declared swine flu (N1H1) pandemic. This will probably imply governmental demands for universal mass vaccinations under penalty for not complying. Flu vaccine contains squalene oil as an adjuvant.
Micropaleontologist Dr. Viera Scheibner conducted research into the adverse effects of adjuvants in vaccines and wrote: Squalene “contributed to the cascade of reactions called “ Gulf War syndrome. GIs developed arthritis, fibromyalgia, lymphadenopathy, rashes, photosensitive rashes, malar rashes, chronic fatigue, chronic headaches, abnormal body hair loss, non-healing skin lesions, aphthous ulcers, dizziness, weakness, memory loss, seizures, mood changes, neuropsychiatric problems, anti-thyroid effects, anaemia, elevated ESR (erythrocyte sedimentation rate), systemic lupus erythematosus, multiple sclerosis, deadly Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, Raynaud’s phenomenon with paroxysms of lack of blood in fingers and toes in fingers and toes, Sjorgren’s syndrome with blurred vision, chronic diarrhea, night sweats and low-grade fever.”
Wikipedia A study linking squalene, as experimental vaccine adjuvant, to individuals with the clinical signs of Gulf War syndrome was published in 2002. A U.S. Federal Judge ruled that there was good cause to believe aqualene to be harmful, and he ordered the Pentagon to stop administering it in October 2004.
Something peculiar is going on: The Bilderberg meeting wanted to appoint the WHO as the Health Ministry of the UN world government. Now an unprecedented hype is taking place: A non-existing risk of a pandemic flu is being blown up out of all proportions by the WHO – and without any measures being taken! Does this New World Order organisation with a very dubious reputation (its first director was Brock Chisholm – founder of the World Federation for Mental Hygiene, which has scuppered our culture) play a trump card to promote itself in the New World Order? It might be inspired by looking at the successes based on lies like the climate lie, the home made terrorism, and now the also home made financial crisis as for financial gains and promotion of the New World Order. Then the conclusion that you can really achieve great results in terms of world government by mendacious scaremongering seems inevitable!! Swineflu_virus
The WHO declares the first pandemic in the 21. century
Reuters 11 June 2009 The World Health Organization declared the first flu pandemic of the 21st century on Thursday, urging countries to shore up defenses against the virus which is "not stoppable" but has proved mainly mild so far. However the WHO imposed no restrictions on travels or contacts between people.
"Moving to pandemic phase six level does not imply we will see an increase in the number of deaths or very severe cases.The WHO recommended drugmakers stay on track to complete production of seasonal influenza vaccine for the northern hemisphere's next winter in the next two weeks. Each year, normal flu kills up to 500,000 people and infects millions.
The Times 11 June 2009: So far it has caused relatively mild, cold-like symptoms with headaches and vomiting, with only 141 deaths among 27,737 cases in 74 countries worldwide since March, In Britain, the number of confirmed cases has risen steadily to 797, with about 40 fresh cases a day.
Deutsche Welle 11 June, 2009: UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon:Our best response is a firm demonstration of global solidarity."
Pigs.jpgThis pandemic is a hype
The EU sponsored Blogactiv on 06/05/09 quotes the Washington Post of 27 April, 2009 (now removed from the web) “The media hype is not in any scale to the real threat, it can be good entertainment like circus in ancient Rome and a tool to put the common people’s focus on trivialities."
The following is from an article by Stephen Lendman 10 June 2009 on the Global Research
The industry-run US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) notoriously rushes inadequately tested drugs to market, putting their efficacy and safety into question, and turning those who use them into lab rats. It includes everyone if a mass vaccination is ordered on the mere claim of a public emergency - no proof required.
If mass vaccinations are ordered, millions of Americans may ask: Why have you willfully and maliciously ruined my health?
MassvacDangerous side effects of flu vaccinations due to vaccine adjuvant squalene
Imunologist Dr. Pamela Asa first recognized autoimmune diseases showing up in GIs that mirrored those in lab animals injected with oil formulated squalene adjuvants.
According to Matsumoto, today, “Squalene adjuvants are a key ingredient in a whole new generation of vaccines intended for mass immunization around the globe. Squalene is not just a molecule found in a knee or elbow - it is found throughout the nervous system and the brain.” When injected in the body, the immune system attacks it as an enemy to be eliminated. Eating and digesting squalene isn’t a problem. But injecting it “galvanize(s) the immune system into attacking it, which can produce self-destructive cross reactions against the same molecule in the places where it occurs naturally in the body - and where it is critical to the health of the nervous system.” Once self-destruction begins, it doesn’t stop as the body keeps making the molecule that the immune system is trained to attack and destroy.
Matsumoto says “Squalene is a kind of trigger for (a) real biological weapon,” what Soviet researchers called “a biological time bomb!!” He and Dr. Pam Asa conclude that “Oil adjuvants are the most insidious chemical weapon ever devised,” including ones with squalene. So what American scientists conceived as a vaccine booster (or what’s now being developed in labs) was another ‘nano-bomb,’ instigating chronic, unpredictable and debilitating disease. GULF-WAR-SYNDROME-740740Using squalene in vaccines is outlandish and criminal.
Gary Matsumoto is a New York-based award-winning investigative journalist. His 2004 book, “Vaccine A: The Covert Government Experiment That’s Killing Our Soldiers and Why GIs are Only the First Victims” took sharp issue with IOM results and the Pentagon’s denial of Gulf War syndrome.
Investigating the shadowy vaccination development world, he discovered US military-employed doctors and scientists conducted secret medical experiments on US citizens in violation of the Nuremberg Code and fundamental medical ethics.
According to Matsumoto, the Pentagon violated these and other standards, betrayed the troops, and the fundamental duty of military and civilian leaders to protect them. Since at least 1987, biowarfare development trumped the welfare of tens of thousands of GIs used as human guinea pigs for inoculation with experimental unlicensed anthrax vaccines containing Skewedsqualene - administered involuntarily without disclosure of its harmful effects to human health.
Matsumoto wrote:
“The unethical experiments detailed in this book are ongoing, with little prospect of being self-limiting because they have been shielded from scrutiny and public accountability by national security concerns.”
Other research shows that squalene is the experimental anthrax vaccine ingredient that caused devastating autoimmune diseases and deaths for many Gulf War veterans from the US, UK, and Australia,
yet it continues in use today and for new vaccines development in labs.
“There are now data in more than two dozen peer-reviewed scientific papers, from ten different laboratories in the US, Europe, Asia and Australia, documenting that squalene-based adjuvants can induce autoimmune diseases in animals…observed in mice, rats, guinea pigs and rabbits.
Matsumoto’s book includes numerous case studies of GIs afflicted with one or more of the above syndromes, their devastating effects, and the outlandish US government reaction - failing to acknowledge their existence or a connection between them and administered vaccines. Also denying the effects of other toxic Gulf theater exposures (like depleted uranium) as well as withholding meaningful treatments or protocols.
Money above others´health
So why does Washington sanction its use? According to Matsumoto: “scientists in the United States are now literally invested in squalene.
Disturbingly, many of the cutting-edge vaccines currently in development by the NIH and its corporate partners contain squalene in one formulation or another. There is squalene in the prototype recombinant vaccines for HIV, malaria, herpes, influenza (including the swine strain), cytomegalovirus and human papillomavirus.” Some of these “are intended for mass immunization(s) around the globe” and that possibility should terrify everyone enough to refuse any mandate or doctor’s prescription to take them."
Children to be 1st for H1N1 Vaccine
WASHINGTON – Schoolchildren could be first in line for swine flu vaccine this fall — and schools are being put on notice that they might even be turned into shot clinics. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said Tuesday she is urging school superintendents around the country to spend the summer preparing for that possibility, if the government goes ahead with mass vaccinations.
"If you think about vaccinating kids, schools are the logical place," Sebelius told The Associated Press
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=CNG.594b3919f568748326be82a3a65d7646.241&show_article=1
The variant has been called A/Sao Paulo/1454/H1N1 by the Adolfo Lutz Bacteriological Institute, which compared it with samples of the A(H1N1) swine flu from California.
The genetic sequence of the new sub-type of the H1N1 virus was isolated by a virology team lead by one of its researchers, Terezinha Maria de Paiva, the institute said in a statement.
The mutation comprised of alterations in the Hemagglutinin protein which allows the virus to infect new hosts, it said.
It was not yet known whether the new strain was more aggressive than the current A(H1N1) virus which has been declared pandemic by the World Health Organization.
The genetic make-up of the H1N1 virus and its subvariants are important for scientists.
Pharmaceutical companies are working to mass produce a vaccine against the current A(H1N1) flu.
There are fears though that it could mutate into a deadly strain, much in the same way as the 1918 Spanish flu -- also an A(H1N1) virus type -- did when it killed tens of millions around the planet.
According to the WHO, 36,000 people in 76 countries have been infected with the H1N1 virus, causing 163 deaths.
Swine Flu Vaccination Poses Serious Threat to Your Health
Global Research 13 June: It looks like governments around the world will either force these vaccinations on the public or launch a massive propaganda campaign to trick you into submitting to a jab. If they attempt to force these untested and essentially experimental vaccinations on you, cite the Nuremberg Code, which states: “The voluntary consent of the human subject is essential.” No experimental vaccine should be “conducted where there is an a priori reason to believe that death or disabling injury will occur, except, perhaps, in those experiments where the experimental physicians also serve as a subjects.
ATTENTION, Please: The WHO has declared swine flu (N1H1) pandemic. This will probably imply governmental demands for universal mass vaccinations under penalty for not complying. Flu vaccine contains squalene oil as an adjuvant.
Micropaleontologist Dr. Viera Scheibner conducted research into the adverse effects of adjuvants in vaccines and wrote: Squalene “contributed to the cascade of reactions called “ Gulf War syndrome. GIs developed arthritis, fibromyalgia, lymphadenopathy, rashes, photosensitive rashes, malar rashes, chronic fatigue, chronic headaches, abnormal body hair loss, non-healing skin lesions, aphthous ulcers, dizziness, weakness, memory loss, seizures, mood changes, neuropsychiatric problems, anti-thyroid effects, anaemia, elevated ESR (erythrocyte sedimentation rate), systemic lupus erythematosus, multiple sclerosis, deadly Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, Raynaud’s phenomenon with paroxysms of lack of blood in fingers and toes in fingers and toes, Sjorgren’s syndrome with blurred vision, chronic diarrhea, night sweats and low-grade fever.”
Wikipedia A study linking squalene, as experimental vaccine adjuvant, to individuals with the clinical signs of Gulf War syndrome was published in 2002. A U.S. Federal Judge ruled that there was good cause to believe aqualene to be harmful, and he ordered the Pentagon to stop administering it in October 2004.
Something peculiar is going on: The Bilderberg meeting wanted to appoint the WHO as the Health Ministry of the UN world government. Now an unprecedented hype is taking place: A non-existing risk of a pandemic flu is being blown up out of all proportions by the WHO – and without any measures being taken! Does this New World Order organisation with a very dubious reputation (its first director was Brock Chisholm – founder of the World Federation for Mental Hygiene, which has scuppered our culture) play a trump card to promote itself in the New World Order? It might be inspired by looking at the successes based on lies like the climate lie, the home made terrorism, and now the also home made financial crisis as for financial gains and promotion of the New World Order. Then the conclusion that you can really achieve great results in terms of world government by mendacious scaremongering seems inevitable!! Swineflu_virus
The WHO declares the first pandemic in the 21. century
Reuters 11 June 2009 The World Health Organization declared the first flu pandemic of the 21st century on Thursday, urging countries to shore up defenses against the virus which is "not stoppable" but has proved mainly mild so far. However the WHO imposed no restrictions on travels or contacts between people.
"Moving to pandemic phase six level does not imply we will see an increase in the number of deaths or very severe cases.The WHO recommended drugmakers stay on track to complete production of seasonal influenza vaccine for the northern hemisphere's next winter in the next two weeks. Each year, normal flu kills up to 500,000 people and infects millions.
The Times 11 June 2009: So far it has caused relatively mild, cold-like symptoms with headaches and vomiting, with only 141 deaths among 27,737 cases in 74 countries worldwide since March, In Britain, the number of confirmed cases has risen steadily to 797, with about 40 fresh cases a day.
Deutsche Welle 11 June, 2009: UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon:Our best response is a firm demonstration of global solidarity."
Pigs.jpgThis pandemic is a hype
The EU sponsored Blogactiv on 06/05/09 quotes the Washington Post of 27 April, 2009 (now removed from the web) “The media hype is not in any scale to the real threat, it can be good entertainment like circus in ancient Rome and a tool to put the common people’s focus on trivialities."
The following is from an article by Stephen Lendman 10 June 2009 on the Global Research
The industry-run US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) notoriously rushes inadequately tested drugs to market, putting their efficacy and safety into question, and turning those who use them into lab rats. It includes everyone if a mass vaccination is ordered on the mere claim of a public emergency - no proof required.
If mass vaccinations are ordered, millions of Americans may ask: Why have you willfully and maliciously ruined my health?
MassvacDangerous side effects of flu vaccinations due to vaccine adjuvant squalene
Imunologist Dr. Pamela Asa first recognized autoimmune diseases showing up in GIs that mirrored those in lab animals injected with oil formulated squalene adjuvants.
According to Matsumoto, today, “Squalene adjuvants are a key ingredient in a whole new generation of vaccines intended for mass immunization around the globe. Squalene is not just a molecule found in a knee or elbow - it is found throughout the nervous system and the brain.” When injected in the body, the immune system attacks it as an enemy to be eliminated. Eating and digesting squalene isn’t a problem. But injecting it “galvanize(s) the immune system into attacking it, which can produce self-destructive cross reactions against the same molecule in the places where it occurs naturally in the body - and where it is critical to the health of the nervous system.” Once self-destruction begins, it doesn’t stop as the body keeps making the molecule that the immune system is trained to attack and destroy.
Matsumoto says “Squalene is a kind of trigger for (a) real biological weapon,” what Soviet researchers called “a biological time bomb!!” He and Dr. Pam Asa conclude that “Oil adjuvants are the most insidious chemical weapon ever devised,” including ones with squalene. So what American scientists conceived as a vaccine booster (or what’s now being developed in labs) was another ‘nano-bomb,’ instigating chronic, unpredictable and debilitating disease. GULF-WAR-SYNDROME-740740Using squalene in vaccines is outlandish and criminal.
Gary Matsumoto is a New York-based award-winning investigative journalist. His 2004 book, “Vaccine A: The Covert Government Experiment That’s Killing Our Soldiers and Why GIs are Only the First Victims” took sharp issue with IOM results and the Pentagon’s denial of Gulf War syndrome.
Investigating the shadowy vaccination development world, he discovered US military-employed doctors and scientists conducted secret medical experiments on US citizens in violation of the Nuremberg Code and fundamental medical ethics.
According to Matsumoto, the Pentagon violated these and other standards, betrayed the troops, and the fundamental duty of military and civilian leaders to protect them. Since at least 1987, biowarfare development trumped the welfare of tens of thousands of GIs used as human guinea pigs for inoculation with experimental unlicensed anthrax vaccines containing Skewedsqualene - administered involuntarily without disclosure of its harmful effects to human health.
Matsumoto wrote:
“The unethical experiments detailed in this book are ongoing, with little prospect of being self-limiting because they have been shielded from scrutiny and public accountability by national security concerns.”
Other research shows that squalene is the experimental anthrax vaccine ingredient that caused devastating autoimmune diseases and deaths for many Gulf War veterans from the US, UK, and Australia,
yet it continues in use today and for new vaccines development in labs.
“There are now data in more than two dozen peer-reviewed scientific papers, from ten different laboratories in the US, Europe, Asia and Australia, documenting that squalene-based adjuvants can induce autoimmune diseases in animals…observed in mice, rats, guinea pigs and rabbits.
Matsumoto’s book includes numerous case studies of GIs afflicted with one or more of the above syndromes, their devastating effects, and the outlandish US government reaction - failing to acknowledge their existence or a connection between them and administered vaccines. Also denying the effects of other toxic Gulf theater exposures (like depleted uranium) as well as withholding meaningful treatments or protocols.
Money above others´health
So why does Washington sanction its use? According to Matsumoto: “scientists in the United States are now literally invested in squalene.
Disturbingly, many of the cutting-edge vaccines currently in development by the NIH and its corporate partners contain squalene in one formulation or another. There is squalene in the prototype recombinant vaccines for HIV, malaria, herpes, influenza (including the swine strain), cytomegalovirus and human papillomavirus.” Some of these “are intended for mass immunization(s) around the globe” and that possibility should terrify everyone enough to refuse any mandate or doctor’s prescription to take them."
Children to be 1st for H1N1 Vaccine
WASHINGTON – Schoolchildren could be first in line for swine flu vaccine this fall — and schools are being put on notice that they might even be turned into shot clinics. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said Tuesday she is urging school superintendents around the country to spend the summer preparing for that possibility, if the government goes ahead with mass vaccinations.
"If you think about vaccinating kids, schools are the logical place," Sebelius told The Associated Press
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=CNG.594b3919f568748326be82a3a65d7646.241&show_article=1
Evidence mounts for US dollar and bond madness
The richest Countries now are China,Russia,India and Brazil. America is half way a third world country. California, is so broke they can't even pay attention and The LA Lakers have to pay for their own parade, because the state is so broke, but yet the mainstream media keep lying to masses about how the economy is going to get better. Face it it's time for America to fall like other Countries and Empires did in history. You can't stay on top forever. Rome, even the great Egypt/kemet has fallen. Power/energy is induced and who controls the power/resources controls the game. Don't hate the player hate the game.
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20090614_the_american_empire_is_bankrupt/
There was an excellent interview by Max Keiser with Rick Ackerman, stock market forecaster and economic expert, with relation to many of the factors around the economy and the manipulations that are on-going. You really should listen to it, as they also first go over the mysterious $134 billion in seized bonds and who may be behinds that scandal.
However the part I want to highlight has to do with China and what are they going to do with their US assets like dollars and bonds Perhaps better said, what they have clearly already started. Here is a partial transcript from the podcast and video:
"All the talk about China abandoning the dollar...
There are six people seated at the table and one with a huge, huge pile of chips, that is China. Now people can say, 'China is in trouble' and they have a trillion dollars worth of dollars ... and they can't afford to bolt from the dollar because it is going to send all of their USD holdings down in value.
My feeling is, China with that big pile of chips has already written off it's loses and it is going to take the trillion hit and it can kinda do a little bit... China does not care what happens to the dollar, it has basically written it off. [They are using their hard USD's to buy hard assets like copper and gold...]
Is China going to continue to buy gold bullion, what do you think Rick?
China has been doing it so well, that is not driven the price of gold above $1,000, like you might expect. The Chinese are very patient, they are very wise, and eh, they are buying huge stocks of metals right now at depressed prices, that's one of the factors that has driven the Baltic exchange (Baltic Dry Index) higher."
SOURCE: http://maxkeiser.com/
Note on BDI or Baltic Dry Index in this report (with chart):
Careful! Shipping Rates Show Signs Of Speculative Excess
In other words, fits in perfectly with what Max and Rick were discussing above! It is experiencing this bounce, based on heavy buying by China to get out of their USD's and into something stable, like metals and raw resources...
SO, interesting, the Baltic Dry Index crash (in prices) has been stopped and even seen a small rally here, based off of China's divesting from the USD (In summary). That is something. Thus, this is not a recovery we are seeing, but a cover-up of China making the biggest switch in history, out of the USD and related assets.
We see China, via past reports, up to a lot of activity around distancing itself from the USD as a reserve currency and likely Treasury Bonds as well. Here is a small archive to review from the last weeks of what China (And Russia and other important countries) are up to:
* Brazil and China work together to replace dollar
* The Fed hires lobbyist whom specializes in... collapses?
* Malaysia, China mull ending dollar trade: report
* Russia may swap US Treasuries for IMF debt
* New Currency Cooperation (China and Asia)
* China talks up currency diversity
* Breaking- New World Reserve Currency out of G20!
* Russia, China- Gold Standard return...
* China shoots over the bow- warning to Obama on economy
* Non-USD investments - a time to act (China and GCC start new currencies
In closing, Rick sees a rally in gold up to 1,066, not quite time for the big move up with this metal, in his view...
Postscript: Everyone is discussing the G8 and what will come out of it. For me it is this E4 (The Emerging Four, as I call it.) and their big meeting on Tuesday, as we read:
"BRIC is an acronym for the developing nations of Brazil, Russia, India and China. These nations will meet on June 16th and the reserve status of the USD is expected to be a key topic of discussion. Chinese and Russian officials have expressed concern about the USD reserve status and their holdings of US assets. Recent speculation that the US AAA debt rating could be lowered heightens concern about the potential risks of holding U.S.treasuries. Earlier this week, the Russian president said that the BRIC may discuss his proposal to create a new world currency. Russia has reduced its USD reserves from 45% to 41.5% and increased its euro reserves to 44% from 47.5%. Russia's central bank says that it will reduce holdings of US treasuries. Russia may sell some of its USD reserves and move them to IMF bonds. The Russian president says that China supports the idea of the need for a global reserve currency to replace the dollar."
Source: < ahref=http://www.fxstreet.com/fundamental/economic-indicators/event-risk-bric-meeting-on-june-16th/2009-06-12.html>http://www.fxstreet.com/fundamental/economic-indicators/event-risk-...
As they mention some of the risks, if the BRIC countries decide, to speed up their dumping of USD holdings are:
"What are some of the possible risks if the BRIC countries decide to speed up diversification out of US holdings and broaden discussions about the need for a global reserve currency at next week's BRIC meeting in Russia? The biggest risk could be that the dollar may fall sharply in value as investors dump US treasuries. A sharp decline in the value of the dollar could make it more difficult for the US to fund its budget deficit. Interest rates may continue to rise, the Fed’s balance sheet will expand and inflation could surge. These factors would present a major threat to the US recovery and the global economy. Fed Chairman Bernanke said he is confident that the USD will remain the main reserve currency for many years to come. The BRIC countries may have a big say in whether Bernanke is right. The BRIC must be careful not to trigger a dollar crisis as a freefall in the USD would hurt the value of their already large holdings of US treasuries."
Retailers Shutting Down In The D.
DETROIT -- They call this the Motor City, but you have to leave town to buy a Chrysler or a Jeep.
Borders Inc. was founded 40 miles away, but the only one of the chain's bookstores here closed this month. And Starbucks Corp., famous for saturating U.S. cities with its storefronts, has only four left in this city of 900,000 after closures last summer.
Detroit's Retail Exodus
Lochmoor Chrysler Jeep on Detroit's East Side has stopped selling Chrysler products, one of the 789 franchises Chrysler is dropping from its retail network.
There was a time early in the decade when downtown Detroit was sprouting new cafes and shops, and residents began to nurture hopes of a rebound. But lately, they are finding it increasingly tough to buy groceries or get a cup of fresh-roast coffee as the 11th largest U.S. city struggles with the recession and the auto-industry crisis.
No national grocery chain operates a store here. A lack of outlets that sell fresh produce and meat has led the United Food and Commercial Workers union and a community group to think about building a grocery store of its own.
Journal Community
* Discuss: Can Detroit recover from the recession and auto industry crisis? What will it take?
One of the few remaining bookstores is the massive used-book outlet John K. King has operated out of an abandoned glove factory since 1983. But Mr. King is considering moving his operations to the suburbs.
Last week, Lochmoor Chrysler Jeep on Detroit's East Side stopped selling Chrysler products, one of the 789 franchises Chrysler Group LLC is dropping from its retail network. It was Detroit's last Chrysler Jeep store.
"The lack of retail is one of the biggest challenges the city faces," said James Bieri, president of Bieri Co., a Detroit-based real-estate brokerage. "Trying to understand how to get it to come back will be one of the most important keys to its resurgence -- if it ever has one."
Detroit's woes are largely rooted in the collapse of the auto industry. General Motors Corp., one of downtown's largest employers and the last of the Big Three auto makers with its headquarters here, has drastically cut white-collar workers and been offered incentives to move to the suburbs. Other local businesses that serviced the auto maker, from ad agencies and accounting firms to newsstands and shoe-shine outlets, also have been hurt.
The city's 22.8% unemployment rate is among the highest in the U.S.; 30% of residents are on food stamps.
"As the city loses so much, the tax base shrinks and the city has to cut back services," said Margaret Dewar, a professor of urban planning at the University of Michigan. That causes such hassles for retailers as longer police-response times, as well as less-frequent snow plowing and trash pickup.
While all of southeast Michigan is hurting because of the auto-industry's troubles, Detroit's problems are compounded by decades of flight to the suburbs.
Hundreds of buildings were left vacant by the nearly one million residents who have left. Thousands of businesses have closed since the city's population peaked six decades ago.
Navigating zoning rules and other red tape to develop land for big-box stores that might cater to a low-income clientele is daunting.
The lack of grocery stores is especially problematic. The last two mainstream chain groceries closed in 2007, when The Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Co. sold most of the southeast Michigan stores in its Farmer Jack chain to Kroger Corp., which declined to purchase the chain's two Detroit locations, causing them to close.
A 2007 study found that more than half of Detroit residents had to travel twice as far to reach a grocery store than a fast-food outlet or convenience store.
Michelle Robinson, 42 years old, does most of her shopping at big-box stores in the suburbs. When visitors staying at the hotel near her downtown office ask where to shop, she sends them to a mall in Dearborn, 12 miles away.
A few retailers are thriving. Family Dollar Stores Inc. has opened 25 outlets since 2003. A handful of independent coffee shops and a newly opened Tim Horton's franchise cater to workers downtown.
Discount grocer Aldi Inc. opened stores in the city in 2001 and 2005. A spokeswoman said the chain is "very bullish" on Detroit. Farmer's markets draw crowds looking for fresh produce.
Olga Stella, an official at the Detroit Economic Growth Corporation, works to persuade businesses to move to the city. She says companies have underestimated Detroit's economic potential and that Aldi and Family Dollar are proof there's money to be made here.
Meanwhile, the former Lochmoor Chrysler Jeep is now Lochmoor Automotive Group, a used-car dealership and repair shop. Gina Russo, daughter of the dealer's longtime owner, is being groomed to take over the family business. She has agreed to start selling small pickup trucks made by India's Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124510185111216455.html#printMode
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
We know they're not teaching shiit in American schools.
Dumbest Generation Getting Dumber
The Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) is an international comparison of 15-year-olds conducted by The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) that measures applied learning and problem-solving ability. In 2006, U.S. students ranked 25th of 30 advanced nations in math and 24th in science. McKinsey & Company, in releasing its report "The Economic Impact of the Achievement Gap in America's Schools" (April 2009) said, "Several other facts paint a worrisome picture. First, the longer American children are in school, the worse they perform compared to their international peers. In recent cross-country comparisons of fourth grade reading, math, and science, US students scored in the top quarter or top half of advanced nations. By age 15 these rankings drop to the bottom half. In other words, American students are farthest behind just as they are about to enter higher education or the workforce." That's a sobering thought. The longer kids are in school and the more money we spend on them, the further behind they get.
While the academic performance of white students is grossly inferior, that of black and Latino students is a national disgrace. The McKinsey report says, "On average, black and Latino students are roughly two to three years of learning behind white students of the same age. This racial gap exists regardless of how it is measured, including both achievement (e.g., test score) and attainment (e.g., graduation rate) measures. Taking the average National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) scores for math and reading across the fourth and eighth grades, for example, 48 percent of blacks and 43 percent of Latinos are 'below basic,' while only 17 percent of whites are, and this gap exists in every state. A more pronounced racial achievement gap exists in most large urban school districts." Below basic is the category the NAEP uses for students unable to display even partial mastery of knowledge and skills fundamental for proficient work at their grade level.
The teaching establishment and politicians have hoodwinked taxpayers into believing that more money is needed to improve education. The Washington, D.C., school budget is about the nation's costliest, spending about $15,000 per pupil. Its student/teacher ratio, at 15.2 to 1, is lower than the nation's average. Yet student achievement is just about the lowest in the nation. What's so callous about the Washington situation is about 1,700 children in kindergarten through 12th grade receive the $7,500 annual scholarships in order to escape rotten D.C. public schools, and four times as many apply for the scholarships, yet Congress, beholden to the education establishment, will end funding the school voucher program.
Any long-term solution to our education problems requires the decentralization that can come from competition. Centralization has been massive. In 1930, there were 119,000 school districts across the U.S; today, there are less than 15,000. Control has moved from local communities to the school district, to the state, and to the federal government. Public education has become a highly centralized government-backed monopoly and we shouldn't be surprised by the results. It's a no-brainer that the areas of our lives with the greatest innovation, tailoring of services to individual wants and falling prices are the areas where there is ruthless competition such as computers, food, telephone and clothing industries, and delivery companies such as UPS, Federal Express and electronic bill payments that have begun to undermine the postal monopoly in first-class mail.
At a Washington press conference launching the McKinsey report, Al Sharpton called school reform the civil rights challenge of our time. He said that the enemy of opportunity for blacks in the U.S. was once Jim Crow; today, in a slap at the educational establishment, he said it was "Professor James Crow." Sharpton is only partly correct. School reform is not solely a racial issue; it's a vital issue for the entire nation.
http://townhall.com/columnists/WalterEWilliams/2009/06/03/dumbest_generation_getting_dumber
Does Life Immitate Chess?
You might have seen in my earlier essays that I like to see life as though it was a game. Now I want to compare life as if it would be a game of chess. I think of it as I am representing the white and black is what I have to overcome in order to reach my life goals. My life goals is to be happy, reaching success as a writer, have many nice friends, getting a good girlfriend, raising successful children, being healthy, having financial freedom and helping other people to become successful.
I think it is important to understand that it is you who control the pawns, how they move and what happens to them rather than thinking that you are the pawns and they are controlled by God, your genes, patter in society, just random or any other such idea. Personally I believe that if you can establish the thinking that you are responsible for anything that happens in your life or did not happen which you wanted to happen then you have come far on your way.
The black pawns is every kind of obstacle or problem coming or standing in your way in reaching your goals and the game is if you can reach your goals despite any and all reasons. I believe you can, within reason.
In chess you predict what your opponent is going to do and each and every move has a consequence and meaning in the overall game. The same is in life. If you can predict what will happen in the future when you do certain actions and how your actions affects everything else I believe you are good on your way.
Did you ever play chess and stood up and walked around and saw the game from blacks side? Try to do the same in life. See life from other viewpoints and angles. Try the unknown, test things, learn, discover.
Probably the biggest difference between a game of chess and life is that in chess you know all the rules on how everything works. This is not so in life. In life you start as a child without a manual on how to live. Your parents and school will learn you a lot but most of the things you have to learn yourself. And many things are not easy. It is expected that you get good grades in school, find a good place to live, a job you like, a good wife or husband and successful children. This is not easy and some things can be very hard.
Perhaps you have seen the famous quote that says that your enemy is your greatest teacher? Well, in my example, I like to see it as the black pawns is what you learn from. Study how they move and what they do. See every setback as a new opportunity.
No matter how much you learn there is more you can learn. Never ever assume you know all about something. When I was a kid I read in an excellent article that an important point in becoming a genius is to learn something new each day. Focus on the things that will make you win over black and reach your goals in life.
“If we did all the things we are capable of, we would literally astound ourselves.” – Thomas A. Edison
Checkmate!
Everything Is Energy With The Same Math.
"On the topic of how the sun induces energy from the solar system does it have anything to do with magnetic vortex's. You said things tend to move in circles which made me think of a discovery channel type show I watched years ago about vortex's. It said something to the effect that vortexs influence everything in the universe. I didn't grasp it then but that would make sense now. The rotation of the sun causes a +ve vortex surrounded by a corresponding -ve vortex. The -ve vortex is what induces the rotation of the planets and the flow of energy towards the hub or sun. If this is way off moran thinking don't hesitate to let me know, the donations already on the way." -- emailer
the way *I* explain science to the fans is to equate it to society. I feel society is EASIER for people to understand vs numbers and objects. Since all natural laws apply, it is easy to draw the parallel between the social sciences and the natural or universal sciences. For instance - if you realize that a company boss/leader/politician INDUCES his subjects (rather than forcing them to work/obey him) then it is SIMPLE to see that ALL matter in the universe including our SUN follows the same principle in order to recieve POWER. "MATH IS UNIVERSIAL" - I have begun to get your feet wet in these subjects to see if you morans can handle it - with good feedback/interest I will go further. But for now realize my methodology: The rules and phenomena of social science apply to universial science and vice versa - again ''math is UNIVERSAL"..... the OWNER of a company is the PROTON, the manager of the company is the NEUTRON, and the worker(s) are the ELECTRON(s)
or:
the OWNER of a company is the QUEEN BEE, the manager of the company is the DRONE BEE, and the worker(s) are the WORKER BEE(s)
Everything is the SAME math, from the structure of an atom to the make up of the universe.
The queen/owner induces herworkers via her drones who serve as 'reinforcers of the culture of the hive', and the workers are induced via a circular (short cut/fantasy) coiled inducer.
) use the hivean method of understanding natures laws by applying social laws to the universe and vice versa ''math is universal''
2) all power is induced, never forced
3) power is induced by fantasy
4) 'fantasy' to natural things is a SHORTCUT, which in nature are CIRCLES or CYCLES
5) the inducer is always in the center and the energy is always rotating around it
Next I will get into HOW cirlcles and cycles tend to induce things AND why ROTATION along with revolution is necessary for the induction to work
Monday, June 15, 2009
Phoenix crop circle may predict end of the world
Crop circle experts believe the latest pattern to be discovered, a phoenix rising from the flames in Wiltshire, may give a warning about the end of the world.
The 400-foot design was discovered in a barley field in Yatesbury near Devizes and depicts the mythical phoenix reborn as it rises from the ashes.
Investigators claim more formations are referencing the possibility of a cataclysmic event occurring on December 21, 2012, which coincides with the end of the ancient Mayan calendar
The Mayan's believed civilisation exists within a series earth cycles of 144,000 days each with the 13th expiring in December 2012, resulting in Armageddon.
Crop circle enthusiast Karen Alexander, from Gosport, Hants, said: "The phoenix is a mythical creature which symbolises rebirth and a new era in many cultures across the world.
"Within the crop circle community many believe the designs are constantly referring to December 21 and its aftermath.
"This could be interpreted as the human race or earth rising again after a monumental event.
"The patterns are becoming more intricate with every find and it is exciting to think how they are going to evolve by the time we get to 2012."
Recent crop circles have included giant jelly-fish and one image discovered in Wiltshire in June which experts dubbed the most 'mind boggling' they had ever come across.
The formation, measuring 150ft in diameter, is apparently a coded image representing the first 10 digits, 3.141592654, of pi.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/5540634/Phoenix-crop-circle-may-predict-end-of-the-world.html
Saturday, June 13, 2009
US cities may have to be bulldozed in order to survive
Dozens of US cities may have entire neighbourhoods bulldozed as part of drastic "shrink to survive" proposals being considered by the Obama administration to tackle economic decline.
The government looking at expanding a pioneering scheme in Flint, one of the poorest US cities, which involves razing entire districts and returning the land to nature.
Local politicians believe the city must contract by as much as 40 per cent, concentrating the dwindling population and local services into a more viable area.
The radical experiment is the brainchild of Dan Kildee, treasurer of Genesee County, which includes Flint.
Having outlined his strategy to Barack Obama during the election campaign, Mr Kildee has now been approached by the US government and a group of charities who want him to apply what he has learnt to the rest of the country.
Mr Kildee said he will concentrate on 50 cities, identified in a recent study by the Brookings Institution, an influential Washington think-tank, as potentially needing to shrink substantially to cope with their declining fortunes.
Most are former industrial cities in the "rust belt" of America's Mid-West and North East. They include Detroit, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Baltimore and Memphis.
In Detroit, shattered by the woes of the US car industry, there are already plans to split it into a collection of small urban centres separated from each other by countryside.
"The real question is not whether these cities shrink – we're all shrinking – but whether we let it happen in a destructive or sustainable way," said Mr Kildee. "Decline is a fact of life in Flint. Resisting it is like resisting gravity."
Karina Pallagst, director of the Shrinking Cities in a Global Perspective programme at the University of California, Berkeley, said there was "both a cultural and political taboo" about admitting decline in America.
"Places like Flint have hit rock bottom. They're at the point where it's better to start knocking a lot of buildings down," she said.
Flint, sixty miles north of Detroit, was the original home of General Motors. The car giant once employed 79,000 local people but that figure has shrunk to around 8,000.
Unemployment is now approaching 20 per cent and the total population has almost halved to 110,000.
The exodus – particularly of young people – coupled with the consequent collapse in property prices, has left street after street in sections of the city almost entirely abandoned.
In the city centre, the once grand Durant Hotel – named after William Durant, GM's founder – is a symbol of the city's decline, said Mr Kildee. The large building has been empty since 1973, roughly when Flint's decline began.
Regarded as a model city in the motor industry's boom years, Flint may once again be emulated, though for very different reasons.
But Mr Kildee, who has lived there nearly all his life, said he had first to overcome a deeply ingrained American cultural mindset that "big is good" and that cities should sprawl – Flint covers 34 square miles.
He said: "The obsession with growth is sadly a very American thing. Across the US, there's an assumption that all development is good, that if communities are growing they are successful. If they're shrinking, they're failing."
But some Flint dustcarts are collecting just one rubbish bag a week, roads are decaying, police are very understaffed and there were simply too few people to pay for services, he said.
If the city didn't downsize it will eventually go bankrupt, he added.
Flint's recovery efforts have been helped by a new state law passed a few years ago which allowed local governments to buy up empty properties very cheaply.
They could then knock them down or sell them on to owners who will occupy them. The city wants to specialise in health and education services, both areas which cannot easily be relocated abroad.
The local authority has restored the city's attractive but formerly deserted centre but has pulled down 1,100 abandoned homes in outlying areas.
Mr Kildee estimated another 3,000 needed to be demolished, although the city boundaries will remain the same.
Already, some streets peter out into woods or meadows, no trace remaining of the homes that once stood there.
Choosing which areas to knock down will be delicate but many of them were already obvious, he said.
The city is buying up houses in more affluent areas to offer people in neighbourhoods it wants to demolish. Nobody will be forced to move, said Mr Kildee.
"Much of the land will be given back to nature. People will enjoy living near a forest or meadow," he said.
Mr Kildee acknowledged that some fellow Americans considered his solution "defeatist" but he insisted it was "no more defeatist than pruning an overgrown tree so it can bear fruit again".
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financetopics/financialcrisis/5516536/US-cities-may-have-to-be-bulldozed-in-order-to-survive.html
The government looking at expanding a pioneering scheme in Flint, one of the poorest US cities, which involves razing entire districts and returning the land to nature.
Local politicians believe the city must contract by as much as 40 per cent, concentrating the dwindling population and local services into a more viable area.
The radical experiment is the brainchild of Dan Kildee, treasurer of Genesee County, which includes Flint.
Having outlined his strategy to Barack Obama during the election campaign, Mr Kildee has now been approached by the US government and a group of charities who want him to apply what he has learnt to the rest of the country.
Mr Kildee said he will concentrate on 50 cities, identified in a recent study by the Brookings Institution, an influential Washington think-tank, as potentially needing to shrink substantially to cope with their declining fortunes.
Most are former industrial cities in the "rust belt" of America's Mid-West and North East. They include Detroit, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Baltimore and Memphis.
In Detroit, shattered by the woes of the US car industry, there are already plans to split it into a collection of small urban centres separated from each other by countryside.
"The real question is not whether these cities shrink – we're all shrinking – but whether we let it happen in a destructive or sustainable way," said Mr Kildee. "Decline is a fact of life in Flint. Resisting it is like resisting gravity."
Karina Pallagst, director of the Shrinking Cities in a Global Perspective programme at the University of California, Berkeley, said there was "both a cultural and political taboo" about admitting decline in America.
"Places like Flint have hit rock bottom. They're at the point where it's better to start knocking a lot of buildings down," she said.
Flint, sixty miles north of Detroit, was the original home of General Motors. The car giant once employed 79,000 local people but that figure has shrunk to around 8,000.
Unemployment is now approaching 20 per cent and the total population has almost halved to 110,000.
The exodus – particularly of young people – coupled with the consequent collapse in property prices, has left street after street in sections of the city almost entirely abandoned.
In the city centre, the once grand Durant Hotel – named after William Durant, GM's founder – is a symbol of the city's decline, said Mr Kildee. The large building has been empty since 1973, roughly when Flint's decline began.
Regarded as a model city in the motor industry's boom years, Flint may once again be emulated, though for very different reasons.
But Mr Kildee, who has lived there nearly all his life, said he had first to overcome a deeply ingrained American cultural mindset that "big is good" and that cities should sprawl – Flint covers 34 square miles.
He said: "The obsession with growth is sadly a very American thing. Across the US, there's an assumption that all development is good, that if communities are growing they are successful. If they're shrinking, they're failing."
But some Flint dustcarts are collecting just one rubbish bag a week, roads are decaying, police are very understaffed and there were simply too few people to pay for services, he said.
If the city didn't downsize it will eventually go bankrupt, he added.
Flint's recovery efforts have been helped by a new state law passed a few years ago which allowed local governments to buy up empty properties very cheaply.
They could then knock them down or sell them on to owners who will occupy them. The city wants to specialise in health and education services, both areas which cannot easily be relocated abroad.
The local authority has restored the city's attractive but formerly deserted centre but has pulled down 1,100 abandoned homes in outlying areas.
Mr Kildee estimated another 3,000 needed to be demolished, although the city boundaries will remain the same.
Already, some streets peter out into woods or meadows, no trace remaining of the homes that once stood there.
Choosing which areas to knock down will be delicate but many of them were already obvious, he said.
The city is buying up houses in more affluent areas to offer people in neighbourhoods it wants to demolish. Nobody will be forced to move, said Mr Kildee.
"Much of the land will be given back to nature. People will enjoy living near a forest or meadow," he said.
Mr Kildee acknowledged that some fellow Americans considered his solution "defeatist" but he insisted it was "no more defeatist than pruning an overgrown tree so it can bear fruit again".
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financetopics/financialcrisis/5516536/US-cities-may-have-to-be-bulldozed-in-order-to-survive.html
The Things That Are Killing You.
Prescription and over the counter Medication
Is it mere coincidence that the drug industry is a billion dollar industry, and that the US just happens to be the most medicated population on earth? In the U.S. , prescriptions have increased over the past decade to 3.4 billion annually, a 61 percent increase. Retail sales of prescription drugs jumped 250 percent from $72 billion to $250 billion, while the average price of prescriptions has more than doubled from $30 to $68. Source
One only needs to turn on the TV, to practically any station to see Drug advertisements. We're told to ask our Doctor, since we are definitely so educated on the topic after watching 30 seconds of old people frolic and listened to 25 seconds of side effects.
Ironically enough, Ads will often tell you one of the side effects of the product is what it actually supposed to treat. And if you get that side effect, you'll likely have numerous others as well.
In 2004 it was stated that on average, each month 40 new side effects or adverse reactions were added to drug warning labels after they had already been approved and were being consumed by customers. Source.
In one of the longest delays in changes, widely used Demerol a common pain reliever got a new warning in 2003, 70 years after its introduction. The change? Demerol was passing straight into mothers milk, being passed on directly to suckling babies. A powerful pain reliever being consumed by a baby is terrifying, who knows the full extent of the health consequences of that problem.
Another example would be the product Pletal, which in February of 2004 was given a battery of new, terrible side effects.
FDA.GOV
The following adverse events have been reported worldwide since the launch of Pletal in the US. Pain, Chest pain, hot flashes, cerebral hemorrhage, angina pectoris, hypo-tension, hepatic dysfunction/abornmal liver function, jaundice, vomiting, thromboctopenia, leukopenia, bleeding tendency, paresthesia, hyperglycemia, pulmonary hemorrhage, interstitial pneumonia, pruritus, skin eruptions including Stevens-Johnson syndrome, rash, increase BUN, and hematuria.
The following adverse events occurred OUTSIDE the US prior to marketing of Pletal in the US: Pulmonary Hemorrhage and Stevens-Johnsons syndrome.
That last line means “Massive bleeding of the heart, and excruciating, disfiguring skin reaction that sometimes kills you”. They knew all of this, before they happily made a fortune selling it to us.
How we got over medicated
As you'll soon read later on in this thread, the issue is that we are being slowly poisoned by so many things daily that we essentially are permanently sick. Leading to a variety of different symptoms, then through the million dollar marketing campaigns are convinced to go ask about a drug that promises a quick fix for all these ambiguous symptoms.
But, not only do they cause as many issues as they solve, but could literally kill you in the process. All given to you legally from your local, helpful doctor. Who by the way, made a killing giving you that prescription. The perscription drug industry is able to pull all this off, thanks to its investment in lobbyists.
Source.
The top twenty pharmaceutical companies and their two trade groups, Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) and Biotechnology Industry Organization, lobbied on at least 1,600 pieces of legislation between 1998 and 2004. According to the non-partisan Center for Responsive Politics, pharmaceutical companies spent $900 million on lobbying between 1998 and 2005, more than any other industry. During the same period, they donated $89.9 million to federal candidates and political parties, giving approximately three times as much to Republicans as to Democrats. According to the Center for Public Integrity, from January 2005 through June 2006 alone, the pharmaceutical industry spent approximately $182 million on Federal lobbying. The industry has 1,274 registered lobbyists in Washington D.C.
What the Statistics say
Modern medicine kills 750,000 people each year, that's a 16,400% increase over terrorism. The equivalent to crashing 6 fully loaded jumbo jets daily. Source.
Adverse reactions alone claimed approx. 32,000 people in 2000. Source.
Non-Steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs such as Aspirin claimed 7,600 people in 2000. Source.
In contrast, all illicit drug use both directly and indirectly claimed only 17,000 people in 2000. Source.
Prescription pills are absolutely UNNECESSARY and should be avoided at all costs, unless it is a life or death situation. And, if such an event were to come about, you will be glad you are not already resistant to the drug that could ease great pain in a life or death situation. The negative effects are substantial, and as mentioned, could kill you. It's worth noting I have taken one prescription in my quarter century, it was for an ear infection when I was a child. I could also count the amount of Tylenol and Advil I have taken with my fingers. I have not been sick in approx 8 years, and I have never experienced a head ache. I do not believe this to be due to my lucky nature, rather the fact that I do not medicate.
Fluoride
Some people may already know about fluoride. I have talked about it several times on this forum, as well as others. But since we come in contact with this poison daily, everyone should be educated about it's toxicity and the illogical way it came to invade our daily life.
For those who haven't already, I suggest reading my thread about tooth sensitivity and it's apparent association to Fluoride, I suggest reading it as others have found the information useful.
So what is Fluoride?
Source.
The 1984 issue of Clinical Toxicology of Commercial Products lists fluoride as more poisonous than lead and just slightly less poisonous than arsenic. It has been used as a pesticide for mice, rats and other small pests. A 10# infant could be killed by 1/100 of an ounce and a 100# adult could be killed by 1/10 of an ounce of fluoride.
So, just slightly less lethal than lead, and not quite as poisonous as the infamous arsenic. Doesn't that sound like something you want added to your body daily? Some people who feel that fluoride is a less of a threat then it is perceived to be, like to use the argument that the amount is so small.
If we were only speaking of 1 single, tiny dose daily, then perhaps that could be the case. But, even if that were the case, why would anyone want a chemical known to be more toxic to humans than lead, ingested at all?
If video is your thing, learn all about it in 10 minutes at this YouTube link
How it has invaded our life
The reason it's such a great threat is the fact that it bombards our life daily. One of the main ways we ingest Fluoride is through our drinking water.
Almost everywhere in the continental US undergoes fluoridation of their water supply.
Source.
The fluoride used in our water supplies is industrial grade fluoride called Hydrofluosilicic Acid which contains harmful contaminants such as arsenic, barium, cadmium, lead and mercury. It is a byproduct from the phosphate fertilizer industry. Water fluoridation is a cheap way for industry to get rid of their waste and consumers pay the price.
We then drink the water, cook with the water, and bathe in the water. The compounding effect ramps up the levels in our body quickly. Water is essential to a humans survival, so it makes sense that ingesting clean water will improve overall health. If you haven't already, you should seriously invest in a Berkey water filtration system. Around $200 you can have a complete system, and if you're currently purchasing bottled water, this pays itself off quickly, but better yet, could save your biggest asset, your health.
Having a good water filtration system also allows you enough water to cook with. Additionally, even if you are not concerned about the health benefits, it will be extremely useful during any sort of situation X where water supplies could be compromised. Berkey filters specifically can use practically any water source and turn it into beautifully clean, healthy, drinking water.
Additionally, there are products that you can attach to your shower head so the water you use to clean yourself, isn't doing more harm than benefit.
Fluoride For Teeth
As far as fluorides use for dental care, I suggest reading my thread linked above. More and more information is coming to late that is challenging the orthodox thinking of the use of fluoride. Dental fluorosis is a devastating problem that has resulted from mass fluoridation. It is a lot like natural decay, using something to treat a problem, that it itself creates, is an illogical thought process that needs to be changed.
Nazipedia – Dental Fluorosis
Dental Fluorosis Pictures – Look familiar?
Source
In a number of small villages in Sicily, Turkey and India there is naturally occurring fluoride in the water ranging from 0.7 to 5.4 ppm. Here the villagers and their livestock are chronically ill, while neighboring villages with no fluoride have no such illnesses. Premature aging is the overall effect. Children have brown decaying teeth; young adults often have none. Young men are bent over and crippled with pain in their joints and hips. Their skin is wrinkled and they look 60 at age 30 to 40. There is premature hardening of the arteries, loss of appetite & sex drive by age 30. The rate of stillborn miscarriages by 4 months is extremely high.
MSG
Monosodium Glutamate, or MSG as it's more commonly referred to is another substance that has covertly invaded our lives, primarily due to the profit motive. It was first manufactured commercially in Japan and was introduced to the United States in 1947, as a “Flavor Enhancer” Source.
I could list the foods that contain it, but I only have 10000 characters here. Small rule of thumb, almost all processed food, fast foods, junk foods such as potato chips, condiments, and prepackaged foods. Unless you are actually vigilant, you are most likely consuming MSG at least once in your day. I suggest going into your pantry and cupboards and reading ingredient lists. You will most likely be shocked to find it in almost everything. It's also worth noting that MSG sometimes hides under a variety of other ambiguous names such as “Spice” and other equally misleading names.
If you shop at stores such as Safeway, Wal-Mart, Costco, etc etc. You are definitely buying food every visit that contains MSG.
Why is it so prevalent?
The reason for it's prevalence is because of it's addicting quality. There's a reason why once you pop, you can't stop, and it's name is Monosodium Glutamate. It's salty nature is where it gets the “Flavor Enhancer” title, cause it does do that. But the fact that it is addictive by nature is the main reason it has invaded our food supply.
It is listed as a Safe Food additive, so why as a company would you not want to add it? Makes garbage taste fantastic, and gets customers addicted to the product. Does that not sound like a miracle ingredient for food manufacturers?
It's also worth noting that it is utilized in sit down, formal restaurants as well as fast food. A simple way to find out if they are using MSG is to ask the waiter, and tell him that you are highly allergic. If they do use it, they wont. Or if they are selling you packaged garbage, they will redirect you to something different on the menu.
MSG Sensitivity
As I already briefly stated, the addictive quality is bad news for a society that has grown to contain epidemic levels of obesity. The relation of the introduction of MSG and the growing percentage of Obese Americans since, is quite obvious.
MSG Sensitivity is a problem that some may not even be aware they are suffering from. Instead attributing the problems to different issues. Check out a list of Symptoms. It's estimated that potentially upto 30-40% of our society is suffering from MSG sensitivity without even knowing it. Leading to more prescriptions, and poor health. It's also worth mentioning, that although it is listed as a safe additive, society as a whole actually ingests more daily than even they regard as safe. Source
People should eat foods because they enjoy them, not because they are chemically addicted. There's no rocket science analysis skills needed to understand that the prevalence of this ingredient and the nature of deteriorating health in Americans, as well as obesity, are linked. Check sources for expanded information on MSG.
Artificial Sweeteners
Artificial sweeteners come in a variety of household names Aspartame, Splenda, NutraSweet etc. This is another thing, that unless you are conscious of, are likely ingesting almost everyday. They are essentially, all the same garbage with different names.
Source
Look for the ingredient aspartame. This artificial sweetener was approved by the FDA in 1981. It is packaged under the brand names NutraSweet, Equal and Sugar Twin. It is used in over six thousand products and is usually listed as aspartame in the ingredients list in products like diet soda.
Coincidentally, it was good ol' Rumsfeld who did the pushing of this toxic product. In January of 1981, Rumsfeld, at the time CEO of Searle, announced at a meeting that he was going to push to have Aspartame approved within that year. He argued that his pull in Washington would mean more than science, and that's exactly what happened.
There are 92 Known Side Effects of Aspartame. Again, this leads to falsely diagnosed “conditions” and leads to an over medicated society.
Each artificial sweeter has it's own uses based upon the properties it yields. Some perform while under heat, and are used for baking. Others such as aspartame, are used highly in drinks, especially “diet” drinks. The zero calories, are in no way worth the damage that these chemicals inflict.
Ironically enough, many studies have actually found that those who consume diet soft drinks are over 30% more likely to gain weight. Which seems to defeat the purpose to begin with, and then of course you get 92 other potential reasons why it was a bad choice. Source
If video is your thing, learn all about it in 10 minutes at this YouTube link
GMO Foods
Genetically modified foods could well turn out to be one of humanities most devastating blunders. In 2003 scientists announced that the gene sequence of the inserted genes in GMO foods, had actually changed their order. Thus the genetic inserts are not only unstable and changing, but are changing in an unpredictable fashion, which is extremely dangerous. - Esoteric
GMO Crops were given to us by arguably, one of the most diabolical companies on earth, Monsanto. And if you don't already know about Monsanto and their crimes against humanity please take a few minutes to watch some short film pieces.
The World According to Monsanto
The Genetic Conspiracy, Monsanto
There are a variety of detrimental health effects directly related to the use of GMO Crops. I could write an entire thread on this topic alone. Some problems of GMO Crops, tens of thousands of deaths and debilitating disabilities as well as near deaths, Direct Cancer and Degenerative disease links, Super Viruses, Antibiotic threats via milk, Antibiotic and pesticide threats via plants, Birth defects and shorter life spans;
...The experience of actual GM-fed experimental animals is scary. When GM soy was fed to female rats, most of their babies died within three weeks—compared to a 10% death rate among the control group fed natural soy. The GM-fed babies were also smaller, and later had problems getting pregnant.
Other problems include, soil toxicity, extinction of seed variety, super weeds, plant invasion, terminator trees, super pests, poisonous to mammals, destruction of self sufficient family farming, terminator technology, dependancy issues etc.
Source: 50 Harmful Effects of GMO crops
SAY NO TO GMO CROPS.
Plastics
Plastics are another common item we deal with practically every single day. The obvious pollution issues need not be discussed as it's common knowledge what this wonderful material we love does to our landfills.
Source
In addition to creating safety problems during production, many chemical additives that give plastic products desirable performance properties also have negative environmental and human health effects. These effects include
Direct toxicity, as in the cases of lead, cadmium, and mercury
Carcinogens, as in the case of diethylhexyl phthalate (DEHP)
Endocrine disruption, which can lead to cancers, birth defects, immune system supression and developmental problems in children.
Chemical Migration from Plastic Packaging into Contents
Source
Find alternatives to plastic products whenever possible. Some specific suggestions:
* Buy food in glass or metal containers; avoid polycarbonate drinking bottles with Bisphenol A
* Avoid heating food in plastic containers, or storing fatty foods in plastic containers or plastic wrap.
* Do not give young children plastic teethers or toys
* Use natural fiber clothing, bedding and furniture
* Avoid all PVC and Styrene products
Buy food in glass or metal containers
Avoid heating food in plastic containers, or storing fatty foods in plastic containers or plastic wrap
Do not give young children plastic teethers or toys
Use natural fiber clothing, bedding and furniture
Avoid all PVC and Styrene products
Disinfection products and others
At one point or another, I am sure almost everyone has had an encounter with one of these products. Be it sanitizing wipes, Purell hand gel, cleaning products etc. For a while the media was on a big push to convince us that germs were our number one enemy and that they must be crushed at all costs.
This leads to over-zealous mothers who feverishly fight the battle on a daily basis. Through knowledge I have come to have over my life, I have noticed that it is most common for the child who had a mom running around sanitizing everything to be the person who is unhealthy most often.
Logic dictates that if your immune system is never given a chance to naturally learn to fight harmful germs, and later on in life you are in an unsanitary environment you are much more likely to get sick. For what it's worth, me and my brother grew up getting into everything two young boys could get into on 10 acres. Constantly dirty, neglecting our hand washing duties and our mom never wiped down anything for us. Ironically enough, we fit the exact opposite of what society recommends, yet were sick very seldom.
Additionally, I personally have not be sick in approximately 8 years. I attribute that to not only my life style selections, but also the fact that I have a very rugged immune system that has been battle hardened through the years of germ fighting.
It's also worth noting that since the disinfection campaign started, there has obviously been a rise in a variety of child hood diseases. Though links between the two are rarely drawn.
Sunscreens
Since it's summer time, I figured I would add this cause it's important as well. Products like Sun Screen may actually not be all that the doctor ordered either.
Most sunscreens only block UVB rays, leaving UVA rays to do damage. Because people believe they are protected, it causes people to stay in the sun too long. And interestingly enough, it's UVB rays that make us burn. So our natural warning signal is slowed, and instead of us beginning to burn and realizing it's time to go inside, we stay in the sun far too long.
Furthermore, UVB is how we get Vitamin D naturally. Vitamin D, interestingly enough, is known to help prevent some cancers, most notably, breast and colon. If all this weren't bad enough, keep in mind that when you are lathering yourself up with lotion, you're smearing chemicals all over your skin. Some of those chemicals are toxic, and your pours drink them up and shuttle them all over your body.
Microwave Ovens
History
The history of the household microwave ovens starts in 1945 when On October 8, 1945 Raytheon filed a U.S. patent for Spencer's microwave cooking process and an oven that heated food using microwave energy was placed in a Boston restaurant for testing. S In 1965 Ratheon, acquired Amana, which introduced the first popular home model, the countertop Radarange in 1967 at a price of US$495. S
For those who don't know, Raytheon is an extremely large Defense contractor of the United States. Some may reffer to it as a “Humanity loving corporation”. Learn more of its accomplishments here.
Today
These days, practically everyone has a microwave, even I have one rotting in the corner of one of my counters. They have become so inexpensive that they are available for under $50. A fraction of what they once used to cost. The quick and easy nature is definitely their largest asset, if I can have a potato in one minute, I'm going to have a damn potato in one minute! But has our complacency with this household object been doing damage to our health and well being?
Challenges to the Safety of Microwaved Water
In 2006 a science fair project by a girl raised the question, does microwaving water effect it negatively? Her grandfather who later published her findings to the internet was just as surprised by the results, as the granddaughter who tested them.
Purified water was heated separately, one by microwave in a plastic container, the other on a stove. Once heated, both were allowed to cool to a normal temperature before both were used to feed two virtually identical plants. Results were immediate as the plant fed with the microwaved water grew slower every single day, ultimately leading to its complete destruction by day 9. Pictures.
Objections
Some immediately argued that since the microwaved water was heated in a plastic container, that there may have been a leeching effect of the plastic that lead to the damaging of the plant. Regardless, most people can remember a time where they microwaved something in plastic.
Additionally, the fact that she didn't replicate the experiment several times, with scientific precision it is hard to accept the information as definitive. People also claimed that the pictures show more water on the microwaved plant which people claim is proof of over watering. I disagree with this as I am sure most who have grown crops before will understand, that feeding the same dose of water to two plants, the healthy plant will consume it much quicker than a bleak, dying plant. But, it does not specifically state that they were given the exact same amounts of water each day, which I would hope would have been common sense for an experiment like this.
Furthermore some argue that it's nonsense to think anything has changed in the water. It went in as water and came out water, the same thing that would happen if heated by any other source. A google search will yield several people who use this argument.
So that's that then?
Almost.
Source
The central issue is whether there's such a thing as a "microwave effect"--that is, whether microwaves do anything that conventional heating methods don't. The main way microwaves heat up a plate of leftovers is by causing the food molecules to vibrate--an accelerated version of what ordinary cooking does. The microwave effect, if it exists, is more mysterious and potentially a lot scarier. For example, some conjecture that certain frequencies of microwave radiation can resonate with food, body tissues, and whatnot. Just as a low-power radio wave reaching a tuned-in boom box can rattle windows, a seemingly innocuous beam of microwave energy striking a harmonically attuned target may have disruptive effects.
More was discovered as microwaves made their way from the kitchen counter
into the lab in the '80s to be used by scientists. Reactions could be sped up exponentially without the use of heavy solvents. This led to some troubling results.
What the scientists soon discovered was that the results the microwaves produced were hardly consistent and often had unexpected and varied results. The wondered, if these unexpected and varied results may be leading to unexpected damage to the quality of the food and liquid we eat.
Conclusion
So are microwave ovens safe? I think that ultimately, the jury is technically still out on this one. But, similar to other topics I have looked into, it seems that popular belief is constantly being challenged by new studies and experience. Since scientists themselves refer to the reaction to what is put into the microwave is varied and inconsistent, almost implies that it could well be hazardous.
There is also a distinction to be made when talking about a simple ingredient such as water is put into a microwave, versus a complex plate of dinner, or organic material like breast milk. The chances for destruction of useful nutrients and bacteria exist in the latter. And also as mentioned, leeching from plastic that holds what is being heated is possible because the accelerated degradation of the plastic molecules. Source. But perhaps the knowledge we possess now is enough to think twice about that one minute potato.
Aluminum
Though not classified as a heavy metal such a lead, it can be dangerous in high levels. Especially since it can accumulate in ones body, the brain being the worst place it can find itself. Higher aluminum levels have also been linked to Alzheimers. 2. 3.
How does it make it into us?
It's used in the manufacturing of cookware, flatware, foil, cans used for soda. It's also used commonly in the following health products: Antacids, Buffered Aspirin, Vaccines, Vaginal Douches, Hemorrhoid Medications, Anti-Diarrhea Medications, Astringents, Nasal Sprays, Baby Powder, Dentures, Lipsticks, Talcum Powder. It's used commonly in the following cooking ingredients, Baking Powder, Self-Rising Flour, Table Salt, Pickling Salt, Processed Cheese, Cake Mix. Source.
Aluminum Toxicity
Source
Many of the symptoms of aluminum toxicity mimic those of Alzheimer’s disease and osteoporosis. Colic, rickets, gastrointestinal problems, interference with the metabolism of calcium, extreme nervousness, anemia, headaches, decreased liver and kidney function, memory loss, speech problems, softening of the bones, and aching muscles can all be caused by aluminum toxicity.
Aluminum is excreted by the kidneys, therefore toxic amounts can impair kidney function. Aluminum can also accumulate in the brain causing seizures and reduced mental alertness. The brain is normally protected by a blood-brain barrier, which filters the blood before it reaches it. Elemental aluminum does not pass easily through this barrier, but certain compounds contained within aluminum, such as aluminum fluoride do. Interestingly, many municipal water supplies are treated with both aluminum sulfate and aluminum fluoride. These two chemicals can also combine easily in the blood. Aluminum fluoride is also poorly excreted in the urine.
If you feel that you may be effected by Aluminum Toxicity you can find out with tests. Keep in mind that it is impossible to be completely Aluminum free. But the more it's avoided and removed from your diet and surroundings, its cumulative effect will be slowed and could possibly save you from Alzheimers.
Vaccines
Vaccines have received a lot of attention on ATS in the past, 1300 Girls Harmed by HPV Vaccines. Vaccine Information Thread. Etc etc.
Source
A vaccine is a biological preparation that improves immunity to a particular disease. A vaccine typically contains a small amount of an agent that resembles a microorganism. The agent stimulates the body's immune system to recognize the agent as foreign, destroy it, and "remember" it, so that the immune system can more easily recognize and destroy any of these microorganisms that it later encounters.
I'll start by saying that I have never had a flu vaccine, and I have never had the flu. The same goes for my entire immediate family. People can draw their own conclusions to that statement. I hope some people can provide their own stories in this thread about their vaccine experiences. Have you been vaccinated by the flu, and did you subsequently come down with it?
There is a lot of evidence that Vaccines are far from as safe as claimed by the Manufacturers who reap billions in profit from them. Additionally, studies have found that their appears to be a link between the rise in childhood autism and the use of high levels of mercury in Vaccines. Mercury is added to vaccines as a preservative. 1. 2. 3.
It's also worth noting, that a recent study is out that appears to refute the link. Source. If I reaped the benefits of a billion dollar industry, I may go to some great lengths to make studies support my needs. Whether that's the case, and what the long term effects of the study will be, remains to be known. Keep in mind there have been many, many studies that have made the link, and only one to really refute it.
What about the other dangers, besides Mercury?
The vaccine history is fairly long and dark. Dr Mendelsohn, M.D. (1984) stated:
My suspicion, which is shared by others in my profession, is that the nearly 10,000 SIDS deaths that occur in the United States each year are related to one or more of the vaccines that are routinely given children. The pertussis vaccine is the most likely villain, but it could also be one or more of the others.
SIDS, is the acronym for “Sudden Infant Death Syndrome” which as it name suggests, is the spontaneous death of an infant that remains to be completely explained.
The statistics alone are shady enough, but one also needs to realize that statistics collected by the manufacturers are often skewed and deaths are listed as coincidental, or under other terms such as cot death, MSbP & SBS
Smallpox vaccine infant deaths (UK) were estimated at 25,000 in 1880, and 6,000 in 1921.
780,000 people die from Allopathic (vaccinator) iatrogenic disease in the USA every year, 106,000 from adverse drug reactions.
Source
The bottom line: Allopathy has always killed more children than the diseases with vaccination ( 1 2 3 4 ) and the suppression of effective non-Allopathic medicine such as Vitamin C which would prevent all cot-deaths and most other child deaths, (known since 1949
Conclusion
The evidence is overwhelming to anyone who bothers to look. It's also worth noting that it makes no sense to take what could be a toxic vaccine, to stop one strain, when it could mutate the same year and leave you unprotected any ways. Is the risk really worth it? With major death statistics, as well as Severe Adverse Reactions reported world wide, and billions spent compensating victims, say NO to vaccines for you, and especially your children. Cause once they've been damaged, they may never be the same.
Toxic Aids and Cancer Treatments
Chemotherapy
Recently a lot of discussion was stirred when a mother refused to allow the government to force her child to finish Chemotherapy. Link
Some supported the Judge who over ruled the kids decision to abandon chemo for alternative methods that wouldn't devastate his body and bring him to the edge of death, in hopes of avoiding it. I have seen first hand the destructive effects of chemo first hand. And it's terribly sad to see, especially when it's someone you love. Now don't get me wrong, there are cases where chemo does work. But is it as effective as it is popularly believed?
And why, after trillions of dollars of funding and millions of educated man hours, is there not a treatment that is not only effective most often, but does not require extensively poisoning the body, in hopes of maybe poisoning the cancer while your at it? Is it not fair to demand such results after the expense that has been paid by private donations and tax dollars?
One study goes far for the case of debunking Chemotherapy as an effective treatment. : “The contribution of cytotoxic chemotherapy to 5-year survival in adult malignancies.”
The authors
The three authors of the paper are: (1) Graeme Morgan, Associate Professor and radiotherapist at the Royal North Shore Hospital in Sydney. (2) Robyn Ward, a senior specialist in Medical Oncology and Associate Professor of Medicine at St Vincent’s Hospital, Sydney. She is also a member of the Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee. (3) Michael Barton, Research Director Associate Collaboration for Cancer Outcomes Research and Evaluation, Liverpool Health Service, Sydney.
They publish their work in the Journal of Clinical Oncology Volume 16, Issue 8, December 2004, pages 549-560. This is a peer-review well-respected medical journal. Their paper was submitted for publication on 18 August 2003. It was revised and finally accepted for publication on 3 June 2004. This means the paper has been scrutinized by fellow doctors and has undergone the normal peer-review process. It is not a back-door, arm-twisting way to get into the pages of the medical journal. Given the above, you and I (and even doctors!) should not have any doubt as to the credibility and validity of what they say in their research paper.
The absolute real-life data that this article carries is most shocking: “The overall contribution of curative and adjuvant cytotoxic chemotherapy to 5-year survival in adults was estimated to be 2.3% in Australia and 2.1% in the USA.” In short, they said that the contribution of chemotherapy is not more than 3%.
Not more than 3%? That's our effective chemotherapy situation. And as I mentioned, don't get me wrong, if you find those 3 people in the hundred that it saved, they will tell you it saved your life. If you ask the other 97, they would likely tell you it ruined what life they had left. Results not acceptable considering what has been put into the industry. Once again, profit has become the driving force.
Aids and AZT
From my thread - Aids – We've Been lied to
Up until now, its been treated as a correlation between the two, if you're HIV positive, you will die from AIDS. But what is stumping experts is the fact that not all people with AIDS are HIV positive. HIV Has been around since before the USA, so why did it just start killing people 30 years ago?
The experts in the documentary go over all the evidence and discover that the correlation is not enough since it does not prove true 100% of the time. Retroviruses and viruses in general infect and ravage the host between days and upto a month, but HIV(AIDS) can take upto 10 years, which another thing that doesn't add up.
It appears just like the failed Cancer industry which is simply a ponzi scheme, the Aids industry is alll about the money. Surprise surprise? It may be that AZT the most popular treatment for aids could do more harm than help.
Information derived from the following Documentary
What are we told about AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome)
We have been told that it is caused by a tiny retrovirus named HIV, which interesting enough has been around for many, many decades prior to it ever having any link to causing the sudden AIDS epidemic. We are told that anyone of us could be at risk with unsafe sex, and that once diagnosed with HIV, we will eventually die from any one of several debilitating diseases as a result.
Oddly enough, unlike every other retrovirus which attacks it's victims immune system within days, weeks or perhaps a month or two of infection. HIV/AIDS can take up to and exceeding 10 years.
Over 100,000 studies have been conducted and yet there are still no solid links that HIV actually is the cause of AIDS to begin with. Perhaps the industry is barking up the wrong tree, and that's why it has still never delivered a cure almost 30 years later, and after utilizing more resources than it took man to make it to the moon.
How did it go so wrong?
Well, if AIDS has not been caused by HIV then millions of people have been given a diagnosis of death. Additionally, hundreds of thousands have been given drugs that could potentially cause AIDS themselves.
As people rushed to find the cause and cure for AIDS, public pressure mounted, pushing for expedient results. In the haste, one hypothesis was accepted, that HIV was causing AIDS, but it was never peer reviewed and since its acceptance billions in funding, and thousands of jobs now hang in the balance.
The doctors that produced the Hypothesis were Dr. Robert Gallo and Dr. M. Essex. This was after failing to find a virus cause for Cancer. He would later be the one to “discover” the retrovirus HIV as the cause of AIDS. Incidentally, as the press conference was going on to announce the probable cause of AIDS was discovered, the test to find HIV was being patented. It would yield royalties to the discoverers (above), and would direct $100,000,000 into the Department of Health Coffers, yearly.
This meant that the AIDS industry had just been born, and the US government was now heavily invested in it's status quo. This would lead to the suppression of contradictory claims and lack of trying anything else. Instead, people decided to continue barking up the wrong tree. It's also the reason, 30 years later, there is still no cure.
AZT – The Deadly Cure
Source
Zidovudine (INN) or azidothymidine (AZT) (also called ZDV) is a nucleoside analog reverse transcriptase inhibitor (NRTI), a type of antiretroviral drug. It was the first approved treatment for HIV. It is also sold under the names Retrovir and Retrovis, and as an ingredient in Combivir and Trizivir. It is an analog of thymidine.
Can the antiviral drug AZT, given to HIV-positive mothers in pregnancy and to their newborn babies, protect against mother-to-baby transmission of AIDS? The claim that it does so is entirely speculative. Yet the harm done by the drug is extensively documented. [AZT stands for azidothymidine. It is also called zidovudine by the manufacturer and marketed under the name Retrovir.]
AZT treatment strategy is based on a number of beliefs. One is that certain biological signals, such as elevated "viral load" and "HIV" antibodies, signify HIV infection. Another is that HIV infection is the cause of AIDS. If either or both of those suppositions are untrue, as some scientists argue [see adjoining article "Molecular Miscarriage: Is the HIV Theory a Tragic Mistake?"], then all mothers and babies treated in this way are being uselessly exposed to an unquestionably dangerous chemical.
AZT's proven toxicities include severe muscle pain, weakness, and atrophy; heart muscle changes and malfunctions; bone marrow suppression, with consequent anemia and loss of all types of blood cells; liver failure; and broad-ranging and sometimes irreversible loss and poisoning of mitochondria, the energy "factories" within our cells. The drug also leads to permanent DNA damage, and studies in mice and monkeys have raised concerns that babies exposed to AZT in the womb will face an increased risk of cancer when they grow up.
Source
Similarly, an Italian study involving more than 200 HIV-positive children found that at three years old, those born to mothers treated with AZT during pregnancy were significantly more likely to have developed severe disease than children whose mothers were not treated. They also had a higher death rate.
Further information - Aids INC – 2 hour Documentary on the fraud of the AIDS industry.
Conclusion
If we have failed to find the cause, and have been improperly treating it, it could go down as one of the largest medical blunders in history. So in the future, think first before supporting the Cancer and AIDS industry monsters. Some people call the AIDS epidemic, genocide. Source
Manufacturing Chemicals
This topic is from Pretty Vacant's post in Part 1. All props to them, I am simply quoting. Anyone wishing to refute any part of it, is welcomed. Full post, here.
Let's also add some other chemicals to the list which can be readily identified in all too many personal care products and cleaning products:
Polyethylene glycol (PEG), lanolin, diethanolamine (DEA), isopropanol, triethanolamine (TEA), propylene glycol, aluminium, ether, methylene chloride, acetone, mineral oil, triclosan, and the big one sodium lauryl/ laureth sulfate (SLS/ SLES)
.. to name but a few.
Everywhere I go, I look for these chemicals in various products, and I can tell you, they're literally everywhere. I was shocked to find out that they were so commonly used! All of the mentioned chemicals can be found in either hair care products, hair sprays and styling products, hair dyes, toothpaste, mouthwash, antiperspirants, baby products, bubblebath and bodywashes, soap, shaving cream, skin care and cosmetics, fragrances, sunscreen and nail treatments.
And I'm sure these are not strictly limited to this list alone. .
Too many times I've picked up an eco-friendly dish-washing liquid to find sodium laureth sulfate used as a primary ingredient - SLS/ SLES is used in the industrial industry in engine degreasers, car wash soaps and garage floor cleaners. It can lead to direct damage of hair follicles, skin damage, eye damage and even liver toxicity.
Many of these chemicals are either linked to cancer in animals and/ or humans, or are often contaminated with carcinogens, or readily form carcinogen nitrosamines when mixed with other ingredients - such as fluoride, propylene glycol, PEG and acetone; many are identified as accumulating in the organs - such as triclosan, aluminium, and again fluoride and propylene glycol; and many are neurotoxins, which damage the central nervous system or are Teratogens, which affect the embryo, including ether, propylene glycol, lanolin, acetone and methylene chloride.
Propylene glycol can also be found in tyre sealant, rubber cleaner, de-icer, stain removers, fabric softener degreaser, paint, adhesive and wallpaper stripper. It acts as a humescent, which causes retention of moisture content of the skin.
Obviously, products containing these ingredients are allowed on the shelves because the amounts of chemicals used within are not dangerous enough to harm on an individual level. However, it is my belief, that prolonged daily use of products containing such toxins can build up to cause diseases such as cancer.
Replacement of Breast Milk
Another one of the failures of modern society is the move from natural breast feeding of children. I was breast fed as a child and think that it served me well. I knew people growing up that were not, and I have watched people I know have kids and not breast fed them. Personally, I noticed that there seemed to be a link between childhood disorders and the removal of breast feeding as the primary nutrition source for babies.
Studies seem to have confirmed my observations, J Hum Lact. 1997 Jun;13(2):93-7. Published by School of Nursing, Wichita State University, Kansas, USA.
Source
Breastfeeding, a valuable natural resource, promotes health, helps prevent infant and childhood disease, and saves health care costs. Additional annual national health care costs, incurred for treatment of four medical conditions in infant who were not breastfed were estimated. Infant diarrhea in non-breastfed infants costs $291.3 million; respiratory syncytial virus, $225 million; insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus, from $9.6 to $124.8 million; and otitis media, $660 million. Thus, these four medical diagnoses alone create just over $1 billion of extra health care costs each year. Breastfeeding may also enhance intellectual development of children according to at least one medical research study. The potential societal benefits of more intelligent children is incalculable even though it cannot be directly measured in terms of dollars.
Finally, it was calculated that an additional $2,665,715 in federal funds is needed yearly in order for WIC to provide infant formula to non-breastfeeding mothers. For the average family, the cost of purchasing formula is twice the cost of supplemental food for the breastfeeding mother. Breastfeeding education and support should be an integral part of health care, especially under managed care which rewards the prevention of health problems and reduced use of health services.
One of the features unique to primate infants is slow early development of the immune system, during which time energy and nutrients are devoted to the growth and development of other systems such as the central nervous and musculoskeletal systems. According to Sellen, lactation is thought to have evolved around 200 million years ago as a means of transferring the protective functions of fully mature immune systems across generations; all mammals derive essential protection from their mothers' milk.
"The mother supports the host defense of the infant in two ways," says Lars Hanson, a clinical immunologist at Göteborg University in Sweden. "One is via antibodies from her blood that are actively transported over the placenta to the infant's circulation during fetal life, and are ready for use from birth on. The other is due to the numerous and complex defense factors provided via the mother's milk, available directly after delivery."
Not only is it harming the child by setting them up for a myriad of possible problems in their future. But studies have also found that the lack of a close relationship between mother and child can lead to a whole host of it's own problems later on in life.
Source
Many researchers have found correlations between secure mother-infant attachment and later psychological and social development. Infants who securely attach to their mothers become more self-reliant toddlers and have a better sense of self-esteem, said Alan Sroufe, PhD, an attachment researcher at the Institute of Child Development at the University of Minnesota.
He's been following a group of 180 disadvantaged children-now age 19-since before birth, looking at mother-infant attachment and multiple developmental measures such as the kids' expectations from relationships with parents and friends. He's also looking at the children's life stress, success in school and peer relationships.
Sroufe has found that even though these children lead unstable lives, if they had a secure mother-infant attachment they were likely to be self-reliant into adolescence, have lower rates of psychopathology, enjoy successful peer relationships through age 16 and do well in school-especially in math-at all ages.
Pesticides – In Honor of Audus who only likes shouting and not providing sources
More and more studies are defining the link between Pesticides and the growing cancer rates that our society experiences. As if it weren't bad enough that companies like Monsanto were Genetically engineering crops to create more of their own pesticides that leads to toxicity in humans. Studies now find links between the amounts of pesticide pollution and the growing levels of PCB's in humans, to higher levels of Cancer. Source
Not only are the effects on humans devastating, but so are the effects it creates in the soil itself.
Source
Pesticides decrease biodiversity in the soil because they do not just kill the intended pest; they often kill many of the other small organisms present.
When life in the soil is killed off, the soil quality deteriorates and this has a knock-on effect upon the retention of water. This is a problem for farmers particularly in times of drought. At such times, organic farms have been found to have yields 20-40% higher than conventional farms.
Soil fertility is affected in other ways, too. When pesticides kill off most of the active soil organisms, the complex interactions which result in good fertility break down.
Plants depend on millions of bacteria and fungi to bring nutrients to their rootlets. When these cycles are disrupted plants become more dependent upon exact doses of chemical fertilizers at regular intervals. Even so, the fantastically rich interactions in healthy soil cannot be fully replicated by the farmer with chemicals
Effects of Pesticide Pollution on Humans
Source
Pesticides can also endanger workers during production, transportation, or during and after use.
Bystanders may also be affected at times, for example walkers using public rights of way on adjacent land or families whose homes are close by crop spraying activities.
One of the main hazards of pesticide use is to farm workers and gardeners.
A recent study by the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston, discovered a 70% increase in the risk of developing Parkinson’s disease for people exposed to even low levels of pesticides.
Diet as a Source
Source
The main source of exposure to pesticides for most people is through diet.
A study in 2006 measured organophosphorus levels in 23 school children before and after changing their diet to organic food. The levels of organophosphorus exposure dropped immediately and dramatically when the children began the organic diet.
Residues, set by governments, are limited to tolerance levels that are considered safe, based on average daily consumption of these foods by adults and children. But, as we all know, some people do not behave as average!
What can be done?
Source
Some pesticides are so toxic that their use is restricted to licensed, trained applicators. In the US it is a violation to apply any pesticide in any way that is not in accordance with the label for that pesticide. Further, it is a crime to do so intentionally.
In most counties pesticides are classified according to their toxicity. Most acute pesticide poisonings result from disregarding the label directions.
If you must use toxic pesticides at all (and there are usually safer alternatives) - then the most important advice is: Read the label! - and then follow the instructions to the letter.
Apart from political action, anyone who is concerned about the toxic effects of pesticides should try to eat organic food whenever possible. Organic foods are grown without toxic pesticides for the most part.
If you are growing food or flowers and other plants at home, consider doing everything by organic methods. There are many strategies available to organic gardeners to avoid attacks by pests.
The toxic effects of pesticides on our foods and our land and the effects on our health and the health of our children make it an issue which is sure to become more and more crucial.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)