And my new favorite Twain quote is…

“If Christ were here,  there is one thing he would not be…A Christian.”  Brilliantly said.  Trying to act like Christ is a little too much work…as it requires following “Do Unto Others…”

Diane Sweet has a post up on the fundamentalist Pat Robertson, doing what fundamentalists do:  putting women beneath them…

I disagree with one of the commenters who said that this kind of thinking was dying out.  It’s a dangerous assumption, and from what I’m seeing, far from being a thing of the past.  This crap has been going on for thousands of years, in different forms and won’t “die out” until women are seen and treated as equals. Women are a still not thought of as having equal value in whatever they do–if they stay home to raise the children and care for the house, or if they work outside the home.

The issues with rape and the degradation of the young woman in Steubenville are classic examples of treating women as “less than” and making moral judgments against her that are not made against the men.  She’s a slut to be peed on.  He’s just having a good time.

 

 

The Flu scare is on….

(sigh) Once again the scare tactics are on for the flu vaccine.

News reports have been blasting on every news station I’ve listened to: radio, TV and newspapers.  Local coverage here:  http://www.fortwayne.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130109/NEWS/320139235?mytabsmenu=

On the rightwing radio station here, the head of the health dept. was pushing for everyone to get the vaccine, using a coercive technique of saying that “you may be healthy, and survive the flu, but you may expose someone else to the flu…” (if you don’t get the vaccine).  Of course, the talk show host did not question this line of thinking nor if there were repercussions to getting the vaccine itself.  This is one of the issues I had with the health dept–they don’t tell both sides of the story and reveal the downsides of vaccine to allow people to make their own decisions of whether they want to get the vaccine.

Here’s a blog disputing the numbers the CDC is using to scare the public into getting a vaccine that is not safe nor necessarily effective.  (Keep in mind, folks, that the CDC is now being run by the Dept. of Hysterical Security.)

People have such short memories on the swine flu “pandemic”...and all the hysteria that involved.  The key sentence in this report is this:

Most reports coming from the Southern Hemisphere in late August (the end of winter there) suggested that the swine flu is highly infectious, but not particularly lethal.

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The swine flu was contagious, but not particularly lethal–so the hysteria was just that–being terrorized over something that was not likely to cause severe health problems.

The story does say that whooping cough has been contained by vaccines, but from everything I’ve read, that is not true.  They have been saying that whooping cough is increasing in numbers, even though people have been vaccinated!

Another telling sentence in the above report is this:

Education, lifestyle, income, and many other “confounding” factors can come into play, and as a result, cohort studies are notoriously prone to bias.

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Bias. Bias. Bias.  Scientists have inserted their biases into research to obtain a certain result or support their own prejudices.  This has been demonstrated over and over and over again….and yet reporters and the public don’t question scientists or their research.

For instance, those who don’t see doctors and don’t get the flu (such as myself) are not going to be counted.  I should be getting the flu because of my compromised immune system and exposure to all sorts of germs at the library and my building…so where is the science in that??

(A side note ~ I heard or read somewhere that keyboards were filthier than toilet seats, so I began using the sanitized wipes on the keyboard before I type a letter. And in relation to that, you men need to wash your hands after using the toilet!  I did my own little “survey” when I worked (Gah, I once worked…)–the company’s break room was situated near the bathrooms, and I’d listen for the water to run after someone used the toilet.  All the women washed their hands…half of the men did. Blech.)

Link to the vaccine injury page.  Good info here.  Be sure to click on the link of the unvaccinated children.  There’s a particular statement by a speech pathologist who notes that children have seizures and their development is arrested after receiving the vaccines.  This makes sense to me because of all I know about the immune system (the gut) and the interference with brain function (migraines, seizures, ADD, clumsiness) when one has leaky gut (Celiac).  But you won’t hear this on the radio or TV or newspapers…

Also on the page is a link to the state of health of vaccinated children.  Two-thirds of the parents who had their children vaccinated would not continue.  Link here to the health effects after vaccination.

A good website here on the 1986 law effectively putting the burden of vaccine injury onto the taxpayers and allowing the pharmaceutical industry and doctors to avoid responsibility and accountability for the harm that vaccines cause.  (Note that this is during the Reagan administration.)

From the webpage:

There is a long list of things that are wrong with the VICP. First and foremost, while it is referred to as a court, it simply is not a court. There is no judge, no jury, no right to require the adversary to provide information, and no formal rules of evidence and civil procedure.

~~~~

This illustrates the lack of justice for the victims of vaccine injury.  A pharmaceutical company does not have to show their face in a court of law, to a jury, and most importantly, to the victim whose life has been altered due to their product, as the page states.  The hidden data of the Vaccine Safety Datalink was allowed to be viewed by the Justice Dept, but not the attorneys for the victims.

The page states that they only have a three year statute of limitations to file the case.  They feel, and I agree, that this is too short a time period.  For one, you have so many so-called professionals who will dispute the vaccine injury.  This is parallel  to my mercury injury from the amalgams–even though my migraines started one year after placement, it wasn’t until nearly ten years later that I discovered the link between them and the symptoms I was having.  All the professionals I had seen never considered amalgams as a source of health issues.  They still don’t.

And the biggest empty hole missing from this conversation is: DIET.  Not a word about how diet affects us and our immune systems and how a healthy immune system will successfully fight the flu bug and any other nasty stuff that comes our way.  Folks don’t die from the flu–they die from pneumonia, because of a compromised immune system that can’t fight it off.  Not a word about gluten intolerance and how that can lead to the gut’s inability to effectively kill the flu virus or the pneumonia bacteria.

The next biggest empty hole is: ENVIRONMENTAL TOXINS.  This being another devastating effect on the immune system.

But that would actually take using more than a myopic view, and we just can’t have that. /snark

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

She’s just a whore…

…she probably deserved it…we can’t be arresting our star football players…/snark (be sure to click on the Prinniefied.com link–good coverage of the case there.

More here.  

It’s unbelievable that the dude in the video was saying that it should go through the courts…um, yeah, that’s kinda what they’re protesting about–that it wasn’t being forcefully dealt with because of the town’s football worship….

…and attitudes towards women in general and rape specifically…

You know, the arguments are as old as the hills:  the victim brought it on by herself by drinking/partying/wearing skimpy clothes, and on.  What other crime would they ever make that kind of accusation? Rape is the only crime where the victim has to prove they didn’t want the crime to happen.

Case in point (from the NY Times article):

He said that online photographs and posts could ultimately be “a gift” for his client’s case because the girl, before that night in August, had posted provocative comments and photographs on her Twitter page over time. He added that those online posts demonstrated that she was sexually active and showed that she was “clearly engaged in at-risk behavior.”

So….because she was sexually active and wearing skimpy clothes…God, this gets soooo old.…she couldn’t possibly have been raped, because everybody knows that sluts don’t get raped.  They *always* want it and if they don’t put out, well, then one just has to take it. /said with cynicism and dripping sarcasm.

Also telling is the statement “..some people deserve to be peed on…”  In other words, she’s not a human being— she’s an object to be peed on.

The coaching staff’s statement that she “made it up” to cover for her bad behavior is so out of line, but not surprising, given the mindset.  And the coach himself, well, what can one say to “you’ll get yours!” ??

Sadly, the mindset is not just in Steubenville or the U.S. or India, but all over the world. such as this group in Australia.

More blame the victim here.

More here on the politics of rape… note the conservative viewpoint to deny that rapes occur.  As this article illustrates, even women  attack other women about whether they were raped or not.  I seriously wonder if Katie Roiphe wasn’t raped and is in serious denial?

Link in criminal behavior and heavy metals

One of the members of the support group posted this link to a timely article on the link between lead and criminal behavior–not just here, but around the world.  Pretty impressive.  Unfortunately, the article’s focus is solely on lead, and not other heavy metals like mercury, which also affect brain and body function, and is everywhere in the atmosphere.

Anybody wanna bet that this will not be looked at in the case of Adam Lanza or any of the mass killers?

Most Admired?

Seriously?

Gallup has the “Most Admired” poll out here:  http://www.gallup.com/poll/145394/Barack-Obama-Hillary-Clinton-2010-Admired.aspx

I kept looking for the numbers, but didn’t find them until the very bottom of the story–they only asked 1,000 adults. I think I heard there were 60 million people in the U.S. now–they could only find  a thousand people to ask?

And if you look at the margin of error at 4 + or – percentage points…it’s laughable.  Anything more than 2% plus or minus is a flawed poll–it’s considered biased and invalid.

Judging from the other women chosen, with two exceptions, the poll is definitely skewed with those of the conservative views.

Things not to admire:

Whitewater.

The link to Chinese censorship. 

More stuff on Bill with his support of the war in Iraq. Oh, wait…he didn’t support the war in Iraq? /snark

And Hillary’s support of the war in Iraq…

And the stuff I brought up in my post here.

And then there’s the self-righteous, fundamentalist connection–here and here.

And personally, I know someone who knows Hillary Clinton.  I can’t go into details, but it’s sufficient to say that her behavior in at least one incident was more of that of a teenage girl and her boyfriend than an adult woman in relation to her husband.   I expect maturity and self-respect and dignity out of my leaders…I guess I’m funny that way.

 

 

PR Watch

(I’m sooo far behind, I think I’m ahead…)

Trying to play catch up–here are some highlights of issues sent out by Center for Media and Democracy–

I love that he is holding Whole Foods accountable for the food they are saying is organic….but not quite telling all of the possible ingredients (heavy metals and other contaminants)…

The “Don’t ask, don’t tell” I-see-no-evil, I-hear-no-evil is pretty standard.  They aren’t counting on folks like Mario asking questions, either.  The more people ask questions, the harder it is to come up with evasive answers.

Like I’ve said before, know where your food is from–buy locally if at all possible, because the gossip is at least one other national organic food store is selling conventionally grown (using chemical fertilizers, herbicides, pesticides) food is being marketed as organic.

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Addressing the gun violence issue.  Like in my previous post, you can use other weapons for violence instead of guns–it’s the acceptance of violence in our society (and others) that encourages this.  It’s so much easier to throw a rock than to try to reason with someone and to compromise and to recognize one’s own responsibility towards making peace.  A gun is a  quick way to end whatever problem there is…

And the argument that everyone carrying a gun would stop violence…oy vey…

~~~~~~~~~~

ALEC member Scott nominated to fill Demint vacancy.

IRS audit for ALEC?  The question becomes “are you a charity if you have a political action committee and go from state to state trying to heavily influence legislation?”

Michigan and ALEC’s right to work law.   This is part of the religious right’s assault on fairness, which I’m finding out in the book Holy Terror.  (I’m slowly getting through it, a better report later.)

 

…and then there’s violence without a gun…

The human body can be used as a weapon, as well.  How effing vicious does a rape have to be to put a woman into intensive care?  And what about that bus driver?? He had to have known what was going on.

And the way this story is written makes it sound like only in India is rape a stigma…yeah, well, I’ve got news for ya, it’s a stigma *everywhere*…right here in the U.S., we have republicans who say if a woman is raped, she can’t become pregnant...or if she is a Native American woman, a non-native man can rape her without fear of punishment.

Or how about the town I grew up in–where teenage boys tied a mentally challenged woman to a tree and raped her…one of my former friends actually blamed her, saying that she “let them”.  How the hell can you defend yourself if you’re tied to a tree? Or not in command of all your mental faculties?

So we come back to the acceptance of violence in our society.  “Boys will be boys” and all that crap…

Genetic tests on Lanza?

Oh.My.God.

I am just stunned.  Eugenics, anyone??

Nothing in this article about him having amalgams or mercury exposure or diet (if he is gluten intolerant, leading to schizophrenia).

No…we can’t have scientists looking at stuff like that, because that’s too simple an answer and the ways to fix it make us uncomfortable.   It means we have to give up some things that pollute our environment and we have to make more of an effort to understand the diet and immune system and how they affect our brains.

I mean, really, “science” has taught us that amalgams are safe, right??

…and “science” has brought us pesticides, herbicides, chemical fertilizers, and genetically modified organisms.

So, yeah, scientists with biases and prejudices should *absolutely* assign a value to a gene and making sweeping generalizations with those biases. /snark

More here. Be sure to note the Americans funding this garbage.