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Native American Heritage Month

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From Turtle Talk--a guest post by Bridget Mary McCormick.

Turtle Talk also has a link up to an obit of Betty Binns Fletcher–a woman to admire.

In the article, she stated that she had a hard time getting hired as an attorney after graduation because of the prejudice in law firms.  Yeah, well, I wish I could say that it has changed, but it’s still there…at least if you’re an assistant.  I took paralegal courses and got A’s.  However, when I and a couple of classmates went to look for a job afterward…nothing.  There were several attorney’s assistants taking the course–all of them blond and in their twenties and high school graduates.  The classmates that couldn’t get a job?  In our forties.  And two of us had Bachelor of Arts degrees.  You can draw your own conclusions.

Also on the blog is this link to a case of a non-Indian mother who gave birth to a child of a Cherokee father, who did not assert his parental rights…at first…but after finding out the child was to be adopted, he filed a case to block it.  It’s ridiculous that this dragged out for two years while the child was becoming attached to the adoptive parents–the father had indicated he did not want her to be adopted by strangers at four months of age–at that point, he should have been custody of the child.  This would have made her life so much more easier than to drag it out.

The father was not abusive, according to the document (I only read to page 26), and other than his initial reluctance, he stepped up and that should have been considered a positive for this little girl.  I mean, the details are scant about the people involved in the case, but something that leaped out at me was  the implication that it was a negative against the father because the father was going to be aided by his parents in caring for the child–the Native Americans raise children differently than Europeans–the entire tribe looks after the little ones.  At least, that is the traditional way…not sure if they still adhere to this, but it wouldn’t be abnormal for the father’s parents to help raise the little girl.  What is seen as a negative by white folks (assuming that the professionals involved were white folks) is seen as positive by the Native American culture.  Lastly, there is the elephant in the room of whether the adoptive parents were Christian and the Native American father practiced traditional tribal spirituality.  The Mormons used this angle to kidnap Native American children from their parents and adopt them legally.

 

 

The meningitis outbreak

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I’m waiting to see this entire story unfold, because there’s definitely more going on behind the scenes here.

Links here and here.

Here’s the CDC description of fungal meningitis:  http://www.cdc.gov/meningitis/fungal.html

(I thought the symptoms are what I experience every month with my migraines–stiff neck, low grade fever, nausea & vomiting, altered mental state….interesting.)

Indiana is now up to 32 cases:  http://www.wane.com/dpp/news/indiana/ind-agency-state-has-32-fungal-meningitis-cases

It’s interesting that the CDC says the Midwest is particularly susceptible to the causes of fungal meningitis, that we have all sorts of bugs floating around that will cause illness if our immune system is compromised.  I’m also curious about the mold that has begun growing on houses here for…say, at least the last two decades.  I’ve lived here all my life, and never saw this.

I found this interesting piece on Purdue’s website:http://www.purdue.edu/newsroom/releases/2012/Q3/poor-pollination-leads-to-moldy-growth-in-corn.html  Makes one wonder, doesn’t it?

My  “antenna” went up with compromised immune system, since I’m trying to fix my “leaky gut”–so….I went on a search to find more stuff on the connection between leaky gut and meningitis.  While I couldn’t find any articles directly linking it, I am suspicious this may be a factor in why these folks became ill–one of the big reasons is that we on the mercury support group talk about the fight against Candida and other fungal infections that take over because our immune systems are shot.  With the inflamed gut, that fungus enters the bloodstream, creating all sorts of health issues.

One of the cures, however, is a natural one:  coconuts.    It has lauric acid in it which naturally kills off fungal critters.  The group recommends taking a teaspoon of organic, non-refined coconut oil per day.  It has to be non-refined because the process of refining it takes away all the benefits.  You can also cook with it, as the health benefits are not destroyed by cooking.  I’ve also used it instead of shortening when I used to make oatmeal cookies <sigh> one of those things I won’t be able to have anymore….

It is supposed to be like breast milk, which also has lauric acid.  Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride (GAPS doctor/author) has stated that breast milk is crucial for the first six months of life–babies are born with a sterile gut and the breast milk will provide the beneficial “good” bacteria.  I think that is why the Boomer generation is so screwed–the majority of us were bottle-fed, and exposed to chemicals unlike generations before–both of which will diminish and destroy the immune system.

Here’s a pretty good website on all the health issues mold/fungus can cause.  It’s stunning that birth defects and cancer can be caused by mold.  And that it is a neurotoxin.  Wow.  Why isn’t more attention paid to this? And does GM corn and other food multiply mold’s effects?

Albany Pro-Fracking Rally

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“Advocates” of the poisonous fracking practice were bused into Albany, NY.

In the book, Not in Our Backyards! by Nicholas Freudenberg (1984), the author notes the long history of corporate owners pitting unions (workers) against environmentalists.  Some union members saw the environmentalists as elitists.  They feared job loss if the company picked up and moved their jobs to another area or another country that would be more “friendly”.  This fear was not unfounded, as many companies did just that.  The threat was very real.

From this article, that blackmail is still at work–forcing people to choose having income or taking a risk with theirs and their family’s health.  It’s only after a tragedy occurs that they realize they gained a little at first, but lost their precious health or livestock or poisoned their land or water forever.

Artists Against Fracking website here. Yoko Ono and Sean Lennon beg Gov. Cuomo not to rush into allowing fracking.

Oh, and let’s not forget the resulting earthquakes linked to fracking…nobody seems to want to address that issue.

From Ohio. And Texas.

Here’s a good article from Bloomberg summarizing it.

It is stunning that energy companies who violate the rules over and over again, and again, are  allowed to continue.  Why?

Oh, and this just adds to the total picture of unethical behavior and lack of accountability.  And this stuff has been going on since the beginning of the oil industry—so why isn’t something done to correct it?

Expanding the Debate

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DN! has again allowed ALL presidential candidates a forum to express their reasons for wanting to be president.  I couldn’t listen to the entire debate, as I’m out of time, but this is what I’ve listened to:

Green Party candidate Dr. Jill Stein’s arrest should send chills down one’s spine.  It is absolutely stunning that a person with a legitimate claim as a candidate for political office is arrested for trying to assert the right to debate.  And being handcuffed to a chair for eight hours??

As she said, this would not have happened if the League of Women Voters were still running the debates.

To shut them out is weak, in my opinion.  If you’re a strong candidate, allowing others in is not going to phase you.  What are they afraid of?  Legitimizing the Green Party? or Justice Party?

Having to actually answer questions that many Americans want answered?

I would say all of the above.  A robust debate helps the marketplace of ideas, but informed voters tend to start asking questions that most politicians would rather not answer.

On to the debate–

Dr. Stein and President Obama touch on keeping jobs here, giving tax breaks to those companies that keep or create jobs here.  In the place I grew up in, they were giving tax breaks out the wazoo to companies, at the peril of schools, which suddenly lost the tax base to keep schools running with adequate teaching staff, supplies, etc.  And what did these companies do when the mood struck?  Left for Mexico, China, etc.  Personally, I think when a company gets tax breaks like this, and then packs up and leaves, they should be made to pay back every last cent they took away in tax relief… plus interest.

Thompson *cough* apologizes

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(Just a little clarification to my post on watching Hotel Rwanda and Schindler’s List–I didn’t mean that I don’t recommend the movies, but rather, I don’t recommend watching them both on a weekend. They’re both very well done, but graphically depict the dark side. )

Tommy Thompson’s son has tried to remove the boot from his mouth, but failed miserably.  The President deserves an apology.  And no, Thompson’s son is not suffering more than anyone else.

Social Security going up by 1.7 percent

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…your grocery bill, gas bill, etc. will go up by 25 percent…/snark

Link.

See, this is what I don’t get–they were just saying not two months ago that this was one of the worst droughts on record and our grocery bills were going to be severely affected–but this article states that food prices have pretty much stayed the same.

Ahem.

Like I’ve noted in my personal grocery bills, I’ve seen several items jump $1 or $2 per item in a month’s time, which really adds up if you’re on a restricted budget, as folks on S.S. are.  They know that every time there’s a S.S. increase, it isn’t enough, and the prices will go up accordingly.  (No, I’m not on S.S. or disability.)

I’ve done a quick search of several articles, and they all insist, via the Consumer Price Index that grocery prices have remained the same.

I looked up the table they publish:  http://www.bls.gov/cpi/cpid11av.pdf for the 2010-2011 price list…and somebody ain’t telling the truth, here…

You have to scroll down to get specifics, and looking at something that most poor folks purchase: ground beef went up 11%.  Eleven freaking percent in one year!  White bread 5%; Cereal 3%; Bacon 13%; Fresh Fish and Seafood 8%; Eggs 9% Milk 9%; Potatoes 12%; Coffee 14%;  Butter 14%; Peanut Butter 6%….and non-food:  fuel oil 30%; water and sewage 5%; motor fuel 26% and on…

(note that medical care only went up 3%…well, now, the oil companies aren’t getting nearly as much attention from the politicos as the medical community’s medical costs increases…hmmm…twenty-six percent should garner a little more attention, dontcha think?)

But they’ll give you a 1% increase…

…so you can try to make that can of dog food go a little further…after all, the top 1% need those tax breaks so they can…feed and house their horses…and  John McCain needs another house…

 

Whitley County tea party billboard

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<sigh> from people who claim environmentalists are scary, scary people….

….the Whitley County *cough* Patriots put up billboards that implicitly compare Barack Obama as a terrorist who needs to be “taken out”.

Link here:  http://www.wsbt.com/news/wsbt-tea-partiers-forced-to-move-controversial-antiobama-billboard-20121016,0,4031528.story

All that’s missing is the bulls-eye that Sarah Palin had painted on Gabby Giffords’ head…