West Virginia toxin spill: it ain’t over…

Dispatches from the underclass has a post up with an interview of a West  Virginia mom concerned about the water and the effects on her children.

As she brings up, they are already dealing with toxins from the coal industry (mercury, lead, arsenic), and now this….their water is brown.

The scene from JAWS comes to mind where they tell everyone that it’s safe to go back into the water…um-hmmm….

And the sad thing, besides endangering these folks’ health and not knowing what this chemical does to people…is that West Virginia is one of the most beautiful states I’ve ever been in.  The mountains are sooo gorgeous.

The Octopus of inBloom…

Mercedes Schneider has an excellent blog up on all the twists and turns of school profiteering–who is involved, who’s making the $$ off of our kids.  It’s an in-depth blog well worth the time of the read.

The comments are intelligent, as well.  One of them links to this article.  Bill and Melinda Gates are freaking insane.  How detached from the real world does one have to be to think this is okay??  It’s not a true measurement of engagement in the lesson–it only measures arousal.  The student could be thinking of something else, as one comment in the article illustrates, not what is being taught.  Creepy doesn’t *begin* to describe this electronic gadget.

Note the very last paragraph where National Council on Teacher Quality, which receives funding from the Gates Foundation promotes this insanity.  Remember, folks, Gates is now part of the Billionaires Media Message….gotta keep that in mind when reading anything positive on Gates, et al., because they’ve probably written it themselves or had any number of people they support financially do their dirty work for them.

Also, in the link Mercedes provided for her former post on this, is this gem:

First of all, it was Gates money that funded the inBloom data “cloud.”

Next, the sponsor of the webinar, EWA, has taken $2.7 million in Gates money since 2003.

Third, the Data Quality Campaign (DQC) has taken $13.5 million in Gates money. (In November 2013, I wrote this post on Aimee Guidera and DQC. Enlightening reading.)

Fourth, USDOE Assistant Secretary for Innovation and Improvement Jim Shelton used to work for Gates as the Gates Foundation director of its education division. Shelton is also a partner with the charter-market-creating New Schools Venture Fund (a connection to Education Undersecretary nominee Ted Mitchell) AND was a senior management consultant for McKinsey and Company (former employer of Common Core “lead architect” David Coleman).

Fifth, Fordham University professor Joel Reidenberg and others conducted a study on privacy issues and “cloud computing”… funded by Microsoft.

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Yep, it’s the revolving door with Jim Shelton…like the FDA.  Anyone wanna bet Shelton will go back to Gates once his work to destroy public education is done?

Finally, another person posted this link of a group of Carbondale, Colorado parents getting together to fight for our public schools.

 

Young: Tar Sands are Canada’s Hiroshima **edited

Neil Young is finishing up his “Honor the Treaties” concerts in Canada.  He compared what is happening to Hiroshima, which irked a few people.

He is being compared to Jenny McCarthy, whom has spoken out on vaccines causing autism.

McCarthy, a former model/actress, vehemently claims childhood vaccinations cause autism and other disabilities, despite those claims having been disproven by rigorous scientific research.

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…disproven by rigorous scientific research….

bwahahahahahahahaha *snort*

Well, as I posted recently, scientific research has a few flaws in it that the vaccine apologists, as Dr. Cutler refers to them, choose to ignore.

I hope that Neil Young considers being compared to Jenny McCarthy a compliment, because I do….much as I do when I’m called a bitch for speaking up for myself or others…

People who diminish others have little facts to back their claims up…that’s why they attack the person instead of the person’s arguments.  Ad hominem.

**edited to add:  I just wanted to say that Global News pushes vaccines.  They had article after article on scaring people into getting vaccination, and that the flu season was horrible, and that they were running out of vaccines.  Very lopsided reporting.

Newark Principals fired for protesting school closings

Diane Ravitch has this up on the latest in taxation without representation and punishing an American citizen for exercising their right to Freedom of Speech.

One of the links was so compelling I want to put it here.  So much for inept educators being disciplined for non-performance…you’re punished even if you’re doing well, apparently.  Good Grief, what a nazi!!

Gov. Christie must have a “Bully’s Playbook” that all in his inner circle go by…

And Michele Brown and the Economic Development Authority should be investigated, also, while they’re at it…

Under fire? Attack the teachers and unions

Jersey Jazzman has this up on the “shiny thing” defense of Gov. Christie for bridgegate….when you’re under fire, create a distraction, and Christie’s favorite is bashing teachers.  Be sure to click on the link for the deplorable conditions of the schools.

Indiana and the West Virginia spill

Update:  Indiana actually noticed that there was a chemical spill upriver!  /just a little sarcasm, folks

Reading this, though, Indiana just seems….passive.  Cincinnati is taking a proactive stance in shutting off the water intake.

And, I have to wonder as I’m reading this, how will they separate the West Virginia chemicals from the toxins already in the Ohio River?  Will they be able to tell which are our chemicals and which are Freedom Industries?  /just a little snarky

Meanwhile, Louisville, Kentucky  is business as usual.  I just shake my head at the laissez-faire attitude  “we will treat the water and make it smell and taste good.”  WTH?

I want water that is free of chemicals, not just “taste good”.  Charcoal is fine for removing impurities, but it doesn’t remove everything.

I found a couple of websites advocating bamboo charcoal for water filtration here and here.  I haven’t tried these, but they do look promising…and since bamboo is sustainable, all the better.  Finally, there this site on a primitive charcoal filter.

Reverse osmosis is supposed to remove much more–but it also removes needed minerals.  Some sites suggest putting a high quality salt (that hasn’t had the minerals removed as they do with sodium chloride, or table salt) back in as a way to counteract it.

I had a tough time finding much information that wasn’t a company website, but this was the best one to explain what reverse osmosis removes.

 

Education: Throwing kids into the deep end

Seamus McCarville has a thoughtful post up on the nonsensical approach of Common Core and its proponents.

I went to the NYSUT website and briefly looked over the cheerleading of Common Core.  It states that up until now, there has been a wide variation of standards from place to place…like that indicates failure…

…and as I’m reading that, I’m thinking of all the contributions to America that have happened by people who came from different areas of the country with different educational systems–Neil Armstrong pops into my head as I type–he was not educated under Common Core…

What about the artists? What about the musicians?  What about culinary endeavors or farming?  This is just sooo short-sighted and myopic in that it has such a narrow focus of what these self-appointed education gurus have deemed important.

They seem to want robots teaching class…instructing them which side of the classroom to be on? Seriously??  Micro-manage much?

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More on Education:

Mercedes Schneider has this up on Arne Duncan blaming everyone else but himself.

 

 

Mercury and Autism

(Most of you have read this stuff before, so it will be boring to you.  I’m posting for folks who are new to this info.)

Dr. Andrew Hall Cutler, whose protocol I follow, spoke out on the deliberate act of confusing the public (and even the medical profession) about mercury and autism.

He referred to this paper, by M. Catherine Desoto, PhD, and Robert Hitlan, PhD. , that appeared in the Journal on Child Neurology, Nov. 2007.

I know that when I was really sick, I did not want to leave my home.  I wanted no contact with people at all.  As I started to get better with chelation, I wanted to be around people–I just didn’t want to talk to anyone—this was more pronounced in new situations or with people I was unfamiliar with (that kind of goes with learning new things–if I learned something before being mercury poisoned, I’ve had an easier time learning a new aspect of it.  If, however, it was totally new, my eyes would glaze over from being overwhelmed.)

I still have autistic symptoms when I’m chelating–don’t want to talk (or write a blog).    This proves me beyond a doubt that there is a connection between mercury and autism.

As the authors of this paper explore, mercury exposure does not necessarily correlate with presence of mercury in the hair.  Dr. Cutler had said that the ability to excrete mercury is an individual thing, with some of us being poor at mercury/heavy metal elimination.  Again, the Irish are particularly susceptible to this as we lack the gene to excrete mercury properly.  Gluten intolerance also allows more mercury to enter the blood stream via “leaky gut” (holes in the gut caused by inflammation from the inability to digest the gluten)—a double whammy.

Dr. Cutler also mentioned something that happened in 1972 in Iraq:  many were poisoned by ethylmercury in grain (reports that it is methylmercury are wrong, according to Dr. Cutler).  Boy, there’s a study to end all studies of how these folks who survived and reproduced, passing mercury damaged DNA on to their offspring and how that affected their personalities/level of tolerance.

As I read about the seed sown in millions of acres, I’m wondering about the contamination of the soil?

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In other health news, the FDA has come out with a lame warning on acetominophen, the active ingredient in Tylenol.  An Eli Lilly researcher once told me that acetominophen damages liver cells.  Ibuprofen damages kidney cells.  I don’t think there is a *safe* amount to take.  You have to weigh the options–how bad do you really feel?  Bad enough to kill off some liver or kidney cells?  This is why people need to be given the information and let them make up their own minds how much they are willing to risk their health…

 

Geoengineering: Insane and Delusional

A report here on Al Gore speaking out on geoengineering.  I totally agree.  The Earth is a magnificent living, breathing, organism that can take care of herself quite well, thank you, without any *help* from us.

What we need to do is put on our big adult pants and scale down the polluting.  It means stop giving industry the right to pollute what belongs to all of us.  Well, that’s not accurate, either, because it doesn’t really *belong* to us, but rather, we are borrowing it while we are here.

It’s not ours to do with as we please, but a gift to be cherished and given back….what  a wonderful humble idea…

…meanwhile, that 15 MILLION pounds of toxins into Indiana waterways keeps flashing in my head….

The PR ads against Teachers and Public Education

Mercedes Schneider has this up on a billboard blasting Randi Weingarten and teachers  unions (read: public education).  (hat tip to Diane Ravitch)

Note that sleazy Rick Berman is behind this attack ad.

This is what parents have to look forward to, with dictatorships as Charters:

This is a comment signed Concerned Charter Teacher:

I work at Success Academy and thought you might be interested in the following. Just heard that we are planning a pro-charter parent march on October 8th. Our schools are being closed for the morning. Teachers, parents, students, and central office staff are being required to join the march. Other charter schools are joining as well. Several emails from senior leadership make it clear that the event is not optional. It seems very unethical that adults and children are being forced into this political statement, but I don’t know what, if anything, can be done. [Emphasis added.]

 

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Event is not optional.

Thinking is not optional.

Art is not optional.

Music is not optional.

Being a kid is not optional.