Category Archives: big oil

Fighting efforts to save the bees

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PR Watch has this up on Bayer and Syngenta’s trying to stop efforts to save the bees :   HTTP://WWW.PRWATCH.ORG/NODE/12066

(for some reason, my “link” feature is not working on my blog.  Also–I clicked on one of my links yesterday, and now they have ads–I have nothing to do with them, and I’m certainly not being compensated for them advertising with my blog. FYI.)

From the article:

The response of Bayer and Syngenta was to unleash a barrage of letters to the food safety agency and the European Commission, followed later by threatened lawsuits.

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This is the heart of the matter—Too Big To Fails can quash efforts against them or their interests just by simply litigating their way out of it., a la Monsanto. They don’t even have to win, but keep their opponents fighting in courts to bankrupt them.  Empty what little they may have in their bank accounts, and voila! no more opposition….

More here from Purdue University confirming the neonicotinoids were causing bee deaths: http://www.beesource.com/forums/showthread.php?263169-Purdue-university-study-confirms-neonicotinoids-on-maize-killing-honeybees

 

Domestic violence mirrors war

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I swear that I did not see this before making my previous comment on the connection between domestic violence and war.  Wow, what a timely article.

From the article:

Some 3,073 people were killed in the terrorist attacks on the United States on 9/11. Between that day and June 6, 2012, 6,488 US soldiers were killed in combat in Iraq and Afghanistan, bringing the death toll for America’s war on terror at home and abroad to 9,561. During the same period, 11,766 women were murdered in the United States by their husbands or boyfriends, both military and civilian. The greater number of women killed here at home is a measure of the scope and the furious intensity of the war against women, a war that threatens to continue long after the misconceived war on terror is history.

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On the photos taken of the violence at home:

The photos are remarkable because the photographer is very good and the subject of her attention is so rarely caught on camera. Unlike warfare covered in Iraq and Afghanistan by embedded combat photographers, wife torture takes place mostly behind closed doors, unannounced and unrecorded.

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An excellent point–because in Communications, the Vietnam War is known as the media war —a war that was lost because of the diligence of the press–they brought the war home every night on the nightly news.  People could see with their own eyes what was happening–politicians in Washington could not whitewash it.  The violence we were doing to others could not be denied.  The thought of a photographer taking photos while someone commits domestic violence makes my stomach turn…and at the same time, I’m thinking “is this what it takes to make it *real*….???”  Do the people have to see photos of women beaten to a pulp on the nightly news, every night to grasp how horrible this is?

Here’s another report on domestic violence in Africa following war.  Does the war cause domestic violence or is it a cycle repeating itself?

 

 

I think we lost one

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A poster on the mercury poisoning support group had posted an alarming letter–s/he was talking about being depressed and not seeing beyond the depression fog that goes with this horrible poison’s effects.

That was April 6th. I first replied that what the poster was experiencing was typical of heavy metal poisoning and that most of us have been *there*.  I begged her/him not to give up.

When the poster did not reply to any of us (several of us replied trying to help the poster see beyond the immediate feelings of despair), I tried again and asked the poster to let us know that s/he was okay.

No reply.  No response at all.  I’m afraid that this horrible poison has taken another life. Shit.

(I’m hoping that they’re still there, but not able to post at this time.)

More on Thatcher

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After reading this, I wanted to come back and comment on the fact that she had dementia.  Reagan did, too.

Does anyone else wonder at this?  What about heavy metal poisoning for the cause?  Could the meanness of the world be caused by toxicity?  We know it’s a known fact of mercury poisoning that anger and rage come with it.  The Mayo Clinic’s site on dementia–note that heavy metal poisoning is way down on the list.  It mentions low thyroid, which is good, but depressingly doesn’t mention diet. 

More here from someone who recovered from dementia after adopting a gluten-free diet.

Finally, here’s a report on the connection between criminal behavior and high levels of heavy metals. So much grief caused by toxins…and yet, it’s ignored by the medical profession, the corrections system, the public, etc….

Thatcher

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Protests at her funeral here.

On the Mirror site, someone commented that they should put her in a black bag and put her out with the rest of the trash.  Okay, that’s a little harsh.  But spending  10 million is too, too much, especially for someone who promoted austerity.

Funny how people who advocate austerity measures never include themselves as recipients.

Bush isn’t sorry

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common dreams has this up on an unapologetic George W. Bush .  The cartoon says it in ways that words could never come close.

From Merriam-Webster’s online dictionary:

so·cio·path Listen to audio/ˈsoʊsijəˌpæθ/ noun

plural so·cio·paths

[count] : someone who behaves in a dangerous or violent way towards other people and does not feel guilty about such behavior
— so·cio·path·ic Listen to audio /ˌsoʊsijəˈpæθɪk/ adjective
▪ a sociopathic personality ▪ sociopathic behavior ▪ He is sociopathic.
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Oil company profits and/or new business from the Iraq War.  This was one of my arguments for my friend who was in the military–that the war was being fought for oil.  She was adamant that we would not be lied to about weapons of mass destruction.
From the article:
At the same time, representatives from ExxonMobil, Chevron, ConocoPhillips and Halliburton, among others, met with Cheney’s staff in January 2003 to discuss plans for Iraq’s postwar industry. For the next decade, former and current executives of western oil companies acted first as administrators of Iraq’s oil ministry and then as “advisers” to the Iraqi government.

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Note further down the word privatization.  Sound familiar??

I tried to search for Afghanistan profiteering, but coming up empty.  I’ll wager that it’s the same, since there is an oil pipeline there.

I found this on the companies that profit the most from war.

Feeding the dark side.

 

 

Thatcher

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The comments here are priceless on Margaret Thatcher’s passing.  Gah, I used to think so well of this woman in my repub daze.  Arrgh.

And even if I had the money, I would not have seen Meryl Streep’s version of her.  I was afraid that the worst would not come out, and from the comments on the movie, my guess was accurate.  Trying to make her into someone to admire?  Wow, Streep has gone so far away from Silkwood. 

The comments on feminists praising Thatcher as being a woman that “made it” is spot on.  One doesn’t have to look any farther than Hillary Clinton to see that.

I mean, really, Clinton makes a big deal about being asked about her clothes, and there are feminists who applaud that thinking she’s being assertive. Pfft.  Men are asked about the suits they wear.  I wouldn’t know what an Armani suit was if not for that.  And a man could not walk into a courtroom, to use the above example, in jeans and flannel shirt and expect to be given the same consideration from a judge that he would if he were wearing a suit.  Men notice other men’s suits, but they’re not as obvious about it.  It may come out as “hey, nice suit” and left at that.

Should a person be judged by appearance?  Absolutely not.

In my personal observation, we are becoming worse about judging folks by the outside instead of the inside.  Our cultural programming, from watching shows like Survivor, among other things,  buys into the notion that others are superior.  Some see clothes as an indicator of superiority.  I remember that it wasn’t so much so before we moved away from an agricultural (family farm) culture.  I remember when Levi’s became the preferred jean and you were “uncool” if you didn’t have those jeans.  Uncool = lesser person.  This also coincides with “poor person”,  btw….

Somehow our culture became twisted along the way and “rich people” became associated with “good people”.  Being poor, one comes to assess folks not on their bank accounts, but on their actions.  What do they do with their funds?  Do they help others or spend their time degrading others and, like the Kochs, do their best to make sure that they have it all?

 

Anyway, Margaret Thatcher and Ronnie Reagan were the architects of what we’re dealing with today–the culture of greed.  “I’ve got mine, screw you.”   or “I’ve got mine, and I want yours, too.”

The sea turtle

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So, the calendar has changed to April (what happened to March?) and this month’s sea creature is the sea turtle. 

I was not aware that they couldn’t retract their outer limbs nor that it could take 50 years for some species to reproduce.

Here’s a story on a rescue-and-release of the turtles.  Again, their navigation is off and they end up in colder waters than they are accustomed to.

National Geographic has a nice photo gallery of the sea turtle.  More amazing facts–the Green Sea turtle is so ancient that it saw the dinosaur emerge and then watched them grow extinct.  Amazing.

On a visit with relatives, we were walking along a beach and saw the tracks made by turtles as they paddle in the sand.  My aunt explained what made the unusual design.  It was during this trip that I also saw whales in the distance spout water sky high.  Very cool.

Toxins and their effects on the sea turtles.  Not a surprise, but wish it was…

More from Sea Turtle Conservancy on pollution and its affects. Can we outlaw plastic bags, balloons, bottles, food wrappers, etc….? Nah…that would mean a little...inconvenience…to us…

A story here on a turtle being run over by an all terrain vehicle…this is a big problem with the North Carolina coast–environmentalists have been threatened by the off-roaders who for some reason feel the need to drive these vehicles on the beaches. And this on politicians with nothing better to do than interfere with efforts to stop it.  <sigh>

More here on beach roadkill from Ted Williams at Audobon–including birds.  Outer Banks Preservation Association.…pshaw.

Another fiasco by BP— their *cough* controlled burns probably burned turtles alive.

 

More on the Arkansas spill

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You know, there are days when I wish that I was wrong, and this is one of them.

So…my first inclination was right–that they were trying to control the message and access to the area by the press….it would appear that the press corps are going to have to start having body guards.

At least there is one aerial photo of the mess here.