The Onion has their usual satirical take on the Charter Schools lottery “system”.
“Between small class sizes, longer school days, individualized instruction, and superior college admission rates, charters provide amazing opportunities for students who don’t enter a convulsive state, fall into a coma, stop breathing, and cease all bodily functions during the admissions process.”
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bwahahahahahahaha.
Spot on.
It’s really sad that the article hits Charter snobbery at its heart….and the kids suffer most of all.
Just wanted to give you a head’s up on something the mercury group has posted~
Vitamin Research Products (vrp.com) is no longer stocking DMSA, one of the chelators of mercury and lead. They just suddenly stopped stocking it and have even removed the page from their website.
This is not good news. They were the main supplier of DMSA. Theories are abound that Big Pharma is behind this–buying out the competition. And if they can buy out natural cures, they can force sick people to buy their side-effect-laden crap.
There are also allegations that Obamacare is limiting natural methods of healing, such as chelation supplements, making it harder for folks to get well. I don’t know this for fact, but it is one of the reasons I have not signed up for the health care. Another reason is the link to the insurance industry instead of single-payer, which would have been more palatable, being like Medicare for All.
I can tell you that many of us on the group lost jobs as a result of mercury–therefore, we had lost the ability to pay for medical insurance and the ability to pay for supplements that insurance didn’t cover. But at least the supplements were available…and cheap. I would have not gotten well without that. So once again, the poor take a hit for the uber wealthy to make even more profits….
I suspected that Big Pharma would try to grab this part of the market again, because they had in the past and continually try to get some twerp in Congress to do their bidding with making supplements illegal.
With billions of dollars and high-priced lawyers, they have gotten away with trying to take credit for natural healing herbs and methods, such as those used in India. These were used for thousands of years…and Big Pharma comes along and tries to claim a patent. Utterly mindboggling. More here on Big Pharma’s battle to get a share of the market in India. An even better explanation of it here.
Big Pharma tries to claim that compulsory licenses aren’t available for cancer drugs – a lie; or that they are only available for national emergencies – another lie; or that India is establishing a general exception to patents for pharmaceuticals – an even bigger lie. Sovereigns retain the right under TRIPS to issue compulsory licenses or to allow public, non-commercial use of patented products or processes. As long as the correct procedures are followed and adequate remuneration is paid, the patent holder has nothing legitimate to complain about – unless, of course, it is a U.S. multinational who doesn’t want an emerging country like India to get in its way.
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…or for a group of U.S. citizens who want natural methods to heal their bodies to get their way….
And unfortunately, that’s not all that the greedy are trying to patent.
Lastly, here is a good segment on DN! with Vandana and Mira Shiva–two “uppity” women I admire for fighting the good fight~~
Vandana brings up the point of liability. It would seem that none of the chemical companies — be it Dow/Union Carbide or any Big Pharma — want to take responsibility for the harm that they cause. All the profits. None of the guilt.
She also highlights the attitudes towards the poor–they don’t matter so let’s poison them or use them as guinea pigs.
It was great to hear of them speak of their strong mother in the end~~no junk food in the house. My father, too, did not allow junk food in the house when I was growing up–a parent who cares is not going to feed their child junk. I heard the other day of parents of my children’s generation feeding their kids nothing but junk…and they don’t see anything wrong with that. Very unsettling. Regretfully, I didn’t appreciate my Dad’s wisdom until recently. I always felt deprived because other kids got to have a “treat” of junk food on Friday night. Just before the divorce, my sister would make Chef Boy-ar-dee pizzas on Friday night. I felt happy at getting that “treat”. Pfft. The “treat” that kills.
Food is medicine. Weeds are medicine. When will we learn to value that which is not valuable by profit-making and make that available to all, not just those with cash in hand??
One New York state study found radioactivity in fracking waste water at 267 times the level considered safe for human consumption. Other studies found several cancer-causing contaminants in fracking waste water. The report cites arsenic, lead, hexavalent chromium, barium, chloride, sodium, sulfates, boron, benzene and radioactive agents.
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You might remember hexavalent chromium…it was the stuff used by PG & E featured in the movie, Erin Brockovich.
It, as well as benzene, are known cancer causing agents. Arsenic and lead, of course, are heavy metals that cause neurological damage and in enough amounts–death.
It is just mindboggling that the fracking proponents look the other way at the damage caused by the fracking process. All that matters to them is getting the gas out of the ground, no matter the consequences. Well, it has a way of coming back on you…quality of life goes down…healthcare costs go up…and each generation suffers more DNA damage.
Members of Congress have paid attention to the orca documentary, Blackfish, and are now asking Secretary Vilsack for updated guidelines on marine mammals in captivity.
Well…it’s a start…but I would much rather see the whole practice abandoned entirely. It is inhumane to take these animals from their natural habitat for our entertainment.
It’s sad to see that the Sea World employee lashing out at people speaking out against Sea World. It was troubling to see Dawn Brancheau’s family speaking out against them, too. Mindboggling.
(Side note~Migraine is gone…weird. I felt like I was getting one Tuesday, and then it went away. Probably due to the new stress of job and getting away from all grains and chocolate….it’s going to be interesting to see how my body re-adjusts, if my migraines are any clue.)
I got the rare chance of watching Melissa Harris-Perry this morning. I don’t always agree with her conclusions, but do enjoy the stimulating program. She talked about the Santa Barbara shootings and the gender bias of the shooter, Elliott Rodger. She mentioned a video by him, but refused to play it, so I went looking for it on youtube:
Wow. Just Wow. Two minutes into this video, and you can see why women rejected this guy. Narcissistic. Self-absorbed. Playing the victim. Shallow. Entitled.
Over and over again, he claims rejection by women and doesn’t understand why. Over and over again he says “these beautiful blonde women” are out with “douchebags”….when they should be out with “wonderful” him. Women have great intuition (which they don’t always listen to) and probably could see this guy’s warped view of himself and the world and his negative energy towards them…as is now known by his murdering people.
MHP’s guest stated that this guy had a sense of entitlement. I can see that in the video. By his view, he was such a “terrific” guy, and was entitled to the beautiful women, but couldn’t get them….so he killed them.
There are so many things tied to Elliott Rodger’s view –one of which is the society’s rape/violence culture against women.
Rodger focuses on rejection by beautiful women. I would lay bets that there were women who liked Elliott…but they weren’t “beautiful” on the outside. He probably treated them badly…as he claims he was treated. It’s okay, you see, to treat women who are “ugly” by society’s standards in a disrespectful and dismissive tone. This makes me so angry I could spit nails right now.
They brought up that Elliott was autistic. Okay, you all know what I’m going to say next…he was a high functioning autistic, with apparent aggression and rage — both tied to mercury poisoning. Will anyone explore that possibility while investigating this case? Probably not. And another chance at recognizing mercury/heavy metal poisoning/toxicity’s influence in crime is ignored.
From the first link:
Studies involving a large sample of autistic and schizophrenic patients found that over 90 % of those tested had high levels of the milk protein beta-casomorphine-7 in their blood and urine and defective enzymatic processes for digesting milk protein(92,93,83), and similarly for the corresponding enzyme needed to digest wheat gluten(92,94)
Due to the large number of vaccinations that are now containing mercury thimerosal, most children have been documented to receive mercury exposure far above the government health guideline for mercury, and the number of causes of autism has increased over 600% in the last decade[81,A,43b].
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[…]
A group of violent criminals had signif. higher levels of hair lead and cadmium levels than non violent controls(62b)
[…]
Studies at the Argonne National Laboratory found that the majority of delinquents and criminals had high metals levels such as cadmium and lead, and to fall into 2 categories. One group with high copper and low zinc, sodium potassium tended to have extreme tempers, while another group with low zinc and copper, but high sodium and potassium tended to be sociopathic(115). But it was found that treatment of delinquent or violent prone individuals for metals related problems including nutritional therapy usually produced significant improvements in mood, violent behavior, and functionality- with complete cure in the majority of cases (115,119,120).
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A note here about hair analysis–Dr. Cutler is of the belief that hair levels are helpful, but not 100% indicators of toxicity. Time and again, mercury poisoned folks have tested low mercury on hair tests — NOT because they are not poisoned, but rather, because their bodies are not secreting mercury. They lack the ability to efficiently rid the body of mercury. Once they began to chelate, and their poor bodies were able to function half-way decently, their hair tests have changed to high mercury levels.
It is almost a rule that on the mercury support group, that we are gluten and dairy intolerant–lack of enzymes since mercury interferes with it.
It will be interesting to see the developing story. God Bless the parents and loved ones who lost someone.
What is amazing about this is that this stuff was happening up to the 80s (and up to the 70s in the States)…and had pretty much been happening since the European invasion. Terrible, terrible thing to do to these families. We now know that this wasn’t about the child’s welfare as much as it was about a self-righteous idea of imposing one’s religion upon others–about forcing others to conform to what your narrow view of how a society should operate.
The local radio station airs a program where locals call in to sell or trade stuff they don’t want anymore. The hostess was remarking about buying a bread machine and how it came from a moment of inspiration (cold winter day)…but, yeah, didn’t progress past the thought…and she remarked how much stuff we buy that we don’t need. Don’t get me started…I’ve been through so much that material stuff no longer has its hold on me like before. It’s hard to get past that, because of the way our society values things instead of people, but once you do get past it, you become so much more free.
Anyway, the host talked about ice cream makers and how you cranked it a couple of times, and said “enough of this, I’m going to ___ (he names a popular ice cream place).”
Well, I started thinking about how much I loved home-made hand-cranked ice cream….
I was introduced to it at my summer camp. If you have never had hand-cranked ice cream, I highly, highly recommend it. Delicious.
The thing about it is that it was a group effort–all of us in our camp cabin took turns cranking. We actually argued over who would get to crank!
I think there is a lesson in there–what may seem too hard as an individual–can be achieved if we all took turns carrying the “load”.
More thoughts on the prior post and feminism in general.
Because the thing that continues to upset me is that there isn’t much mention of women who stay at home. The emphasis is on women and careers…but not embracing the women and particularly children. Women at home are particularly vulnerable…and in need of support. Note that I don’t say they need protection, as in overbearing control–but rather, support for whatever decision they make.
As I get older, I realize more than ever how much it meant to stay at home…even though at times it nearly drove me crazy…because it was so isolating. Women who stay at home need to be connected without being smothered…is that a possibility? They also need financial support in the way of Social Security in their own names and accounts. This would ensure her being taken care of in old age and a small price to pay for giving kids the best start in life.
I mean, if this country values kids, giving them that special time to grow up in a place where they’re not treated like a number, not held to a rigid schedule (yes, I know some households are kept on a schedule–mine wasn’t– other than mealtimes, bedtimes, that sort of thing.). Being un-scheduled allows one to just let the mind run free–openly explore, and clear the mind for new ideas. I look at daycare centers as making kids feel like a number. And feeling rushed in life. I can’t see a kid being able to ride a bike down the lane when at daycare five days a week. They get little time after they get home on weeknights (none in the winter for any outside activity). And by that time, the creativity and spontaneity is dulled…if not completely gone.
I’ve just seen such a dramatic change with my generation’s working mothers that it can’t be denied how important it is for someone–be it mother or father–to stay home and allow kids their childhoods. I know that is difficult with the stagnant wages and for single Moms…but there again, we should be supporting them with livable wages and a support system so that the kids could be at home.
Wow. It doesn’t surprise me that the cat is a tiger cat….love them–they’re definitely people cats. My two kitties in adulthood, Samantha, and Bandit, were both tigers and the best pets.
It tickled me to hear the owner say that she followed them home. She “chose” them. Heh.
Glad the little boy is okay. What an experience to tell your buddies. So there, cat haters. 🙂
(And I’m not trying to be down on dogs, because you all know that I love dogs, too. Owners, on the other hand…they’re like the parents that say their kids “would never do that” when confronted with wrongdoing…same with dogs…)
What kind of cruel person would throw a student’s lunch in the trash because they didn’t have the money to pay?
Does anyone believe Mark Daniel, the superintendent, that there are “policies in place to avoid instances such as these…”? Me, neither. Somebody has given permission to that minimum wage cafeteria worker that it is perfectly okay to waste good food to punish a child for the parents’ mistakes. I don’t know if you can even call it a mistake when this parent is a single Mom working two jobs to take care of her family. What is missing from this picture, besides compassion…? The father, who is probably paying very little in support or nothing at all. My ex only paid one-fifth of his $100k income to support three children. And he begrudged even that little amount…
There is more to this story, folks, than is being written about here.
And God Bless the mother for her compassion and generosity. God Bless the son for he learned something through his pain of humiliation.
Eagle 
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