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Thomas Paine

To argue with a person who has renounced the use of reason is like administering medicine to the dead.

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

1 March - Morning Notes

THE GEISHAImage by Okinawa Soba via Flickr

 

 Natural Food List

Have We Been Suckered by Biotech Firms? 

Our food supply has been infiltrated by genetically modified organisms, yet we are not being told what they are. The government refuses to label the organisms because we are told that they are the same as the non-genetically modified versions. One must ask how, in that case, these organisms can be patented if they are "the same". We are being forced to abandon our common sense. We are taking our own judgment "out of the loop".

GloFish fluorescent fish. Genetically modified...Image via WikipediaThere are arguments that genetically modified foods are the answer for the upcoming global food shortage. None of this appears to be true. People have fed themselves and their local community for many years. We have created this scenario of a global food economy and are being lead to believe that if we don't get our favorite fruit from around the world that we will starve. This is simply not the case. We can adapt again to our local foods and do so organically. Organic farms are often more profitable and produce yields equal to or higher than genetically modified crops.
Are there food shortages and famines? Absolutely. If there is so much food then how are people starving? It comes down to the will or political might of people in charge to distribute the food that we have. Western civilizations are very good at getting food from halfway around the world to sell in our local stores. We are not very good at giving it back when needed or to create a sustainable infrastructure for those that farm our foods in different countries.

Deregulating genetically engineered alfalfa is going to allow for widespread planting of a crop that does unbelievably well without genetic engineering. Now, massive amounts of pesticides are going to be sprayed on these crops, which will cross pollinate to the non-GMO varieties. We are told that they wont, or it will be minimal, but the problem is obvious to anyone that didn't flunk seventh grade biology. Pollination happens, whether you want it to or not.Biotech firms are entrenched within the government agencies which regulate them and even the supreme court itself. Politicians, officials and judges have direct ties to biotech firms. These ties are not hard to find. 
Keith Line

Flame Retardant Found in U.S. Butter

In a shocking recent study, it was found that ten samples of butter, found in US stores, were found to be contaminated with a flame retardant. PBDE's, or polybrominated diphenyl ethers were likely transferred from contaminated papers that wrap the butter as well as being within the butter itself.
Read more...
Keith Line

Gas Industry Tries to Get Movie Disqualified from Oscars

Gasland, a film by Josh Fox is up for best documentary at the upcoming Academy Awards ceremony. It has been reported that the natural gas industry asked the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to remove the eligibility of the film to win the award due to inaccuracies.
Read more...

Hannah Carney

Wholesome McDonald’s Oatmeal Breakfast? Probably Not Yet.

McDonald’s recently introduced a new breakfast food: Fruit and Maple Oatmeal. Described on the McDonald’s website as “what happens when wholesome meets delicious,” it’s the franchise's latest attempt at offering healthy food. With its “100% natural whole grain oats,” “plump raisins,” dried cranberries and raisins, and diced apples, the cereal does seem to be a healthy breakfast option.
Read more...
Karen Miller

A different kind of dryer sheet

One of my closest friends is a holistic health practitioner. She's a strong believer that people can lead healthy, pollutant-free lives. We've had numerous conversations where I always learn something new, but one of the most surprising things to come was a mention in passing that she uses Seventh Generation Fabric Softener Sheets.
Read more...
Keith Line

Cornucopia Institute Files Complaint Against Dean Foods for Improper Organic Labeling

Cornucopia Institute, an organic industry watchdog, has filed a formal legal complaint against Dean Foods. The institute says that Horizon Fat-Free Milk Plus DHA Omega-3 bears the USDA organic seal despite using DHA oil that is not legal in organic food production.
Read more...
 Dr. Mercola

U.S. Study Links Pesticides to Parkinson's Disease

Neurotoxins like pesticides, herbicides and fungicides are substances that have been shown to cause disruptions to the neurological system, including your brain. Why neurotoxins still enjoy widespread use on our fresh food supply is really more about the bottom line for farming operations than it is about the science of human health.
Because in terms of human health, pesticides, herbicides and all neurotoxins are a man-made disaster. And the treatment of the diseases they cause are in some cases hardly treatments at all.
The chlorine-based pesticides and herbicides, which are some of the most damaging to human health, have also been developed into biological weapons (nerve poisons) for warfare.
That should tell you something about these potent chemicals.

A new and frightening innovation occurred with these agricultural poisons with Monsanto's patented Roundup weed killer, which was designed to be used in conjunction with Monsanto's genetically modified seeds – seeds designed to grow plants that resist dying from the neurotoxins contained in Roundup.
So farmers using Monsanto seeds can now essentially double, triple or quadruple the amount of pesticide they normally dump on crops without killing it. The increased pesticide residue, however, remains on the foods that wind up on your dinner table.
About 90 percent of the corn produced in the US is genetically modified and produced by Monsanto. And their soybeans account for almost 95 percent of production. In other words, if you're eating non-organic corn or soybeans in the United States, you're eating Monsanto corn that's been repeatedly and thoroughly drenched in Roundup.
The danger to you is very real, but even more frightening is the danger you are exposing your children and their children to, according to the latest research.

To limit your exposure to the most common pesticides, herbicides and fungicides, you want to buy as much fresh organic produce as possible, as synthetic chemicals are not allowed on organic crops. For a good guide to vegetables and buying organic, see this previous article.
Since years' worth of these toxins now pollute our soils and waterways, including the sources of most if not all human drinking water, you also want to invest in a good water filtration system for your home or apartment to ensure you are drinking the purest water possible.
Also consider a shower filter, because once these toxins found in your tap water are heated and become airborne in your shower, they cause more damage to your body through your skin and lungs than from drinking unfiltered water.
You also want to consider supplementing with omega 3, which is one of the supplements I recommend for just about everyone, because this is what is going to protect you at the cellular from the damage associated with environmental toxins.


Gyrovague's Raves
News, current events, world politics, philosophy, language, literature, ideas, criticism, culture, history, music, art, science, education, and technology.

Receding gums: What ails Australia’s iconic trees?

  Swathes of gum trees are dying without obvious cause. In forests from Western Australia to the island state of Tasmania, trees that should be living for more than 400 years are mysteriously dying before reaching their 100th birthday.
If the gums are lost, the outcome would be dire for a whole suite of plants and animals. "Old trees are keystone species that support a disproportionate amount of species," says Dugald Close, a plant ecologist at the University of Tasmania. Gum leaves feed local birds and their hollows provide shelter for endangered species such as Leadbeater’s possum.
The premature death of gum trees was noted as far back as the 1970s, when eucalypts started succumbing to a disease known as Mundulla Yellows. The leaves of affected trees would gradually turn yellow, until the tree finally died. It took until 2004 for the culprit to be identified – lime, or calcium hydroxide, used in road-making, was washing into nearby eucalypt forests, making the soil alkaline (Australasian Plant Pathology, vol 36, p 415). Eucalyptus tree roots need neutral or acidic soil to suck up nutrients such as iron and manganese. When iron was injected back into affected trees, they made a full recovery.
Today’s dieback extends far beyond just a few roadside trees. By 2000, large tracts of eucalypts were dying along Australia’s east coast. In many places, the decline coincided with a booming population of native birds called bell miners, and their partners in crime, sap-sucking native insects called psyllids.

 Stephen Leahey
 U.S. Navy sinking skeptics ?

Patrick Carman Grabs Young Readers with Trackers


Bestselling young adult novelist Patrick Carman has spent the past few years exploring ways to attract young readers back to books by integrating audio, video, and online games into his books. In this article, Michael Andersen interviews Carman about his latest series, Trackers, following the exploits of Adam Henderson and his friends as they put their espionage skills to the test using “Tracker” units cobbled together from spare parts.

 History Commons ( Creative Commons Content )

Timelines

  Project       Topic       Date Added     

  Blog Project Human Beings First
 Zahir Ebrahim’s Letter to BRussells Tribunal: Egypt Revolution, the White Man’s Burden, and Iraq

Thank you for sending me your newsletter ‘support Iraqi protests’ carrying excerpts from your press release of February 20, 2011. It is empirical what you say: “While millions across the world watched live 18 days of dramatic revolution that ousted the US-allied torture-friendly regime of Hosni Mubarak, no one is offered live feed from Iraq of its people’s uprising against an enemy much worse.”
I wonder though, if these breaking “revolution” events in Egypt and elsewhere, can solely be parsed in their local context….? You have yourself also observed in your newsletter: “And while President Obama and Secretary of State Clinton are being lauded for their supposed support for Egyptian democracy,”.
Does that fact in itself cause you to also wonder why do they support Egyptian “democracy”, while you bemoan them not doing the same for Iraq: “no one is asking the key question Washington can’t answer: When will members of this US administration and the three previous face trial for crimes against humanity in Iraq?”
And I found your wish, while understandable, very unsettling: “We are certain the people of Iraq will achieve victory, like their Tunisian and Egyptian brothers and sisters”!
What victory?
I may be wrong of course – only the “illumined” ones claim to be all knowing.  And I would like to believe:
  • That these “revolutions” aren’t actually being run out of the Rand Corporation with many reactionary scenarios and  counter-scenarios already preempted with game theory and deep funding…
  • That our fifth columnists, Trojan Horses, infiltrators posing as friends and revolutionaries but carrying the white man’s burden just as they have been for the past several hundred years of infiltrations, and other principals directly working for the hectoring hegemons as both stooges and mercenaries, are just idly sitting by frustrated that all their grandiose plans for lighting the ‘arc of crisis’ have been suddenly and unexpectedly destroyed by the street mobs in the very same ‘global zone of percolating violence’….
  • That the hectoring hegemons are actually quite unhappy about these “regime change” mantras  of “democracy” driven by the public themselves….
  • That “democracy”, mob rule, where, ostensibly, 51% can dictate to the other 49%, that is in the best case when no powers are manipulating them, is something they are reluctant to offer their colonies as they play musical chairs with complaint rulers, while they subvert their own Constitutional Republic into “democracy”….
  • That they, the hectoring hegemons, are actually surprised by the breaking events in Egypt, just as they were surprised by the “go Musharaf go” revolutionary movement in Pakistan in 2008 where now the democracy of the godfather reigns supreme, just as they were surprised by the Iranian revolutions…. rather idiotic then, don’t you think, for a superpower to spend trillions of dollars in the exercise of hegemony only to be surprised, surprised by Bin Laden, surprised by towers felling so suddenly, surprised by …..

Eric Walberg
Recommended websites





 Talk to Action

( I've been posting emailed weekly synopses at My Opera of reports on Politics From the Pulpit ) 


Ted Haggard Meets with Ex-pornographer.
Ted Haggard met with a former pornographer in my town. ......
OldChaosoftheSun (0 comments)
Atheists banned over disruption
Today there is a disturbing news item in the paper regarding the fight for separation of church and state. ......
ArchaeoBob (20 comments)
Patriot Movement more overt
A couple of incidents including a news story suggest that the patriot movement is becoming more overt. ......
ArchaeoBob (4 comments)
The Religious Right's Budget Bluster
Dear Talk To Action readers, please see editorial note, in full story. ......
Nace Frick (1 comment)
An unfortunate conclusion...
Lance Wallnau has a video explaining the Seven Mountains Mandate to the church in Wasilla. ......
OldChaosoftheSun (3 comments)
Exorcism and religious intolerance
Exorcism and "spiritual warfare" are often accompanied by religious intolerance and attempts to impose theocracy -- at least in the context of the "New Apostolic Reformation," as has been pointed out many times, by......
Diane Vera (12 comments)
Religious Right business connections discussed
Today in the paper, they've actually got an article about Chic-Fil-A and their support of religious right stuff!  for this paper, it's actually a bit critical! ......
ArchaeoBob (2 comments)
John McCain, John Hagee & "God Sent Hitler" Revisited
I've been reading Reddit.com a lot lately - it's a great aggregation site (news, and pretty much everything else under the sun)  with unpredictable, quirky content and a young-ish, smart reader base. Today I......
Bruce Wilson (0 comments)
Fox News Suggests Rabbis Protesting Beck Are In the 'Vast Soros Conspiracy' Too
Part of the grim underlying reality of this ongoing saga, the stirrings of Jewish protest against the sort of Jew-baiting that Texas megapastor John Hagee and other evangelicals have been doing for years, which......
Bruce Wilson (0 comments)
Ugandan GLBT activist murdered.
The very sort of thing expected from the hate spewed by the Religious Right and their cohorts has happened.  David Kato was murdered. ......
ArchaeoBob (2 comments)
Supreme Court judges had major conflict of interest
It's disturbing when you learn that Supreme Court judges violate codes of ethics, and have secret meetings with people before ruling on things that affect those people.  It's even more disturbing when they violate......
ArchaeoBob (2 comments)
Repubs To Read Bible On House Floor
 In the wake of their recent reading of the Constitution of the United States on the floor of the House of Representatives, Republican lawmakers have announced they intend to do the same with the......
Glappy Dick (4 comments)
The Prevalence of the Word "Transformation."
How key is the word "transformation" among Dominionists? ......
OldChaosoftheSun (8 comments)
Keith Olbermann Leaves MSNBC (A Few Great Moments Against Dominonism)
Today, I recoiled in fright as I read that Keith Olbermann had been terminated before his contract was finished.  The NY Post, ever acting their character, called him a "Gasbag" on his way out......
OldChaosoftheSun (8 comments)
Having Theological Skin in the Game
One of the great questions of the gay rights debate has been this: why does the Christian Right care so much about gay marriage? If you consider they spent at least $35 million dollars......
christinewoodman 
 

Attention Unchurched Military Personnel: They're Coming For Your Children

Given the current brouhaha over where the government should be making budget cuts, I decided that now would be a good time to get back to a project we began last fall at the Military Religious Freedom Foundation -- finding out just how much money the Department of Defense is spending to evangelize the U.S. military. The DoD could easily save tens of millions of dollars a year if it stopped trying to save souls.

We're not talking about chaplains here. We're talking about the steady stream of DoD contracts for things like religious retreats, Christian concerts, "Spiritual Fitness" programs, construction of extravagant mega-churches and religious centers on military bases, top-notch musicians and music directors for worship services, and all the other civilian employees, contractors, and ministries hired by the DoD to run these often unconstitutional religious enterprises. It's abundantly clear from DoD contracts and other sources that no expense is spared when it comes to evangelizing the military -- and that includes evangelizing the children of our service members.

 Southern Baptists Move Further to the Right

The International Mission Board's  search committee of the Southern Baptist Convention has a recommendation to present to the Board.  The mission board is the huge sending agency that selects mission workers and sends them around the world.  The agency also works with other governments from around the globe on special projects.  Historically the agency has tried to stay clear of entanglement with church mission work and foreign governments.  For instance, historically the board has refused to work with CIA agents on the field.  What future this relationship has will have to be seen.  The committee is recommending Tom  Elliff to head the agency. Tom is a Christian Nation advocate and arch enemy of the idea of separation of church and state.

 Special Guests: Promoting Conspiracy

A few days ago, a publicity agency called Special Guests received some attention for a press release promoting Avi Lipkin, an Israeli pundit who has reportedly spoken "in over 1000 churches and synagogues in the United Sates, Canada, England, Greece, Israel, and other countries". Lipkin claims that Obama is planning to allow 100 million Muslim immigrants into the USA as a plot to Islamize the USA by the end of his second term; this somewhat extravagant conspiracy theory caught the attention of David Corn at Mother Jones, and Corn took a closer look at Lipkin's promoter:

According to its website, the organization has collaborated with the National Right To Life Committee, the Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute, the Second Amendment Foundation, and other conservative groups. The site boasts, "We regularly place guests on radio shows including Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity Radio, [and] Michael Savage." The group says it only promotes causes that "are pleasing to The Maker, our Creator." It asks potential clients, "What is your special message? Is it helpful to humanity? Is it God-honoring?"
Apparently, it pleases God to accuse the president of covertly plotting--and implementing!--a Muslim takeover of the United States.

Special Guests' other clients include Walid Shoebat, and he and Lipkin are packaged as "available as guests individually or together as a panel."

Here's the full story + discussion
Anti-Abortion Dream Team: Former P P Director Joins Lila Rose's Live Action  
Abby Johnson, a former director of a Texas Planned Parenthood clinic, has been hired by Lila Rose's Live Action, the group surreptitiously video taping visits to Planned Parenthood clinics in order to entrap staffers into illegal behavior, as its Chief Research Strategist. What if the heart-wrenching story she's been telling for more than a year about the event that changed her from being a pro-choice advocate to becoming an anti-abortion spokesperson isn't true? As a result of her story, she's gained a measure of celebrity, financial security and has become a sought after speaker at anti-abortion events and a frequent guest on conservative radio and television programs. Now, her story, as explained in her new memoir, has led her to Lila Rose's anti-abortion group, Live Action.
Welcome to the new world of Abby Johnson.
Here's the full story + discussion
Short Takes
Religion Dispatches:  Sarah Posner further debunks claims that the "Tea Party doesn't care about 'social issues' or that its adherents aren't religious... ". RHReality Check:  Carole Joffe reminds that, noise from the Religious Right not withstanding, only 3 percent of Planned Parenthood's services involve abortion and no public funds are used.
Dirty Hippies:  Vatican: Priests Have Been Raping Nuns to Avoid Hookers with HIV.

Comments >>
 
 Government funded missionaries in public schools? The idea would flabbergast many of America's founders, most certainly the architects of the United States Constitution. Here's the background: As a February 23rd, 2011 story from the Florida Independent, by Andy Kopsa, describes, the American leader of the Florida-based abstinence-only education program Project SOS endorses Martin Ssempa, a leading Uganda backer of the so-called "Kill the gays" bill that may soon come up for a vote in Uganda's parliament. Project SOS has received over six and a half million dollars in federal funding, from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services since 2002, to teach abstinence education in Florida public schools. The funding continues into the present - in September SOS received over $450,000 from HHS. But the Uganda tie is far from the most controversial aspect--the founder and head of SOS says the program was inspired by God, and her church identifies the Project SOS program as one of the "ministries" it supports, with SOS head Pam Mullarkey as a "missionary"...federally funded, that is.
(2 comments, 3998 words in story)
Here's the full story + discussion
Right Perfects Art of Bonking Planned Parenthood
Bill Berkowitz
GOP Legislators and Anti-Abortion Groups Turn Up the Heat on Planned Parenthood With the new Republican-controlled House, and more anti-abortion legislators in states across the country, Planned Parenthood is coming under increasing attacks from the right. These attacks need to be vigorously countered. However, stories of Planned Parenthood "malfeasance" documented by surreptitious videos taped by phony clients have made the organization even more of a target.
Here's the full story + discussion

Bad Conscience: Obama Administration Rejects Oppressive Bush Medical Regulations
Rob Boston
Last week, the Obama administration did something that didn't capture much media attention but should have: It officially overturned a bad policy from the Bush years and issued a series of final regulations dealing with health care and the right of "conscience." A little background: In December of 2008, the lame-duck Bush administration issued a sweeping series of regulations giving health-care workers a right to refuse to take part in any procedure that they say violates their religious beliefs. The astonishingly broad and far-sweeping reach of the regulations extended beyond reproductive healthcare, such as sterilization and abortion, to cover areas such as end-of-life directives, care of patients with HIV, and even use of psychiatric medicines.

Here's the full story + discussion
Biblical Capitalism - Part Two The Tea Partiers' version of constitutional conservatism is not new, as shown in the following quotes taken from Protestant fundamentalist textbooks. Neither is this worldview the creation of the late Mormon author Cleon Skousen, or a unique discovery by Glenn Beck.  Thousands of pages of fundamentalist textbooks trumpet claims related to the belief that federal regulation of the free market is not only unconstitutional but against God's will.  This worldview often comes as a package of interrelated narratives: 1) Biblical Capitalism; 2) a Christian nationalist version of American history and exceptionalism; and 3) Creationism.  Many Tea Partiers and their candidates of choice are voicing an ideology that have been widely taught to both students and adults for more than two decades - a worldview that is more closely related to the Constitution Party's mission "to restore our government to its Constitutional limits and our law to its Biblical foundations," than libertarianism.

Here's the full story + discussion
 General Insanity: Former Army Officer Launches Salvo Against Islam And First Amendment
Longtime readers of this blog might remember William "Jerry" Boykin, an Army general who in 2003 sparked controversy for giving speeches to fundamentalist Christian audiences during which he asserted, among other things, that Muslims worship idols and that the real enemy of America is not Osama bin Laden or Saddam Hussein but Satan. In a 2003 appearance in Oregon, Boykin unleashed this gem: Islamic extremists hate the U.S., he said, "because we're a Christian nation, because our foundations and our roots are Judeo-Christian."


 

What is 'Islamofascism'?

( Comments from Muslims on Fake Islam. Christians who know about Dominionism and other Xian cults should sympathize. )

Here's the full story + discussion
 Is Islamofascism a Slur
( Given that the whole 'global jihad' is enabling narrative for the New Crusades, that shouldn't be too hard to figure out ) 

Postscript ‘War on Terror’ is not about ‘Islamofascism’ – Please get with the real agenda you people!

Saturday, March 21, 2009
 The following report (excerpted) was published by Prisonplanet last week [1]:

 


 Telus invests $650m on expansion

Global Telecoms Business
Telus says it is spending $650 million to expand its wireless and wireline networks across Alberta in 2011. The company plans to continue investing in its ...

Gloves are off over wireless airwaves

STEVEN CHASE
Industry Minister Tony Clement is caught in a tug of war between the big telecom incumbents and smaller players over how to craft the next auction of wireless airwaves, a part of the spectrum so valuable it’s been likened to beachfront real estate.

 Many Books

The Aeroplane Boys Flight

 

2012, The Collapse of the U.S Dollar

( This blog uses a static header. Current articles are below that - something I just discovered myself )

Susan on February 28th, 2011
Gulf Arabs are planning along with some other countries like China, Russia, Japan and France, to end using the U S dollar as the currency for oil.  They plan to use several currencies including the Japanese yen and the Chinese yuan, the euro, gold and a new currency that is planned for the nations of the Gulf Co-Op Council.  This includes Saudi Arabia, Abu, Dhabi, Kuwait and Qatar.  This planning occurred in 2009.
Have you not noticed the rapid increase in food prices in the stores?  Can you imagine what they will be a year from now?  Do you read or watch the news of what is going on in the Middle East as of right now? 
Are you unaware of what is happening to our nation’s farmers and how regulations have brought so many of them to bankruptcy?

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