Category Archives: community

More adventures in gluten free foods

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(I meant to post this a few days ago. Oops.  Too much going on…geesh.)

A member of the mercury support group posted about foods that might create problems for folks who are gluten sensitive.   She had taken an expensive ($225) test for foods that the body reacted to as if they were gluten.  A lot of the foods she reacted to are on the “safe” list for gluten sensitive folk.

And then another member of the group posted this link.  Of course, coffee, chocolate and eggs are on the list.

As you can imagine, I was depressed that chocolate was once again mentioned as a problem for us.  But coming off of a five day migraine means that something is wrong and I need to start looking at what I am eating.

Worse than that was the eggs and coffee.  If you can’t eat grains, the usual stuff you would eat for breakfast is out the window…so eggs were an easy option for me.

So, I went searching for others’ views on this, and found a helpful links here .  This makes more sense to me, because Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride (GAPS), had eggs on her list for recommended foods.  She even recommended raw eggs beaten with honey for their nutrient value.

I have been trying to get free range eggs, but that is hard to come by in my area.  I came across someone who has eggs for sale independently of stores, and I plan on asking about the feed they use.  As a side note~when I first saw the notice, my first thought was “I wonder if they take food stamps?”  And the next happy thought was…”I don’t have to choose my food according to who will take food stamps anymore! Woot!”

On another site, coffee is debated (in the comments section) on whether it or the dairy creamer might be responsible.  Dr. McBride states that we should not drink instant coffee, but that freshly made coffee that is somewhat weak can be in our diet.

Okay, I feel a little less constricted.

And I realize that chocolate IS a problem, but I seriously don’t know how I’m going to give it up.  It’s an addiction, for sure.  I think I’m going to have to approach it like an addiction and focus on one day at a time.  It would be sooo much easier if it didn’t taste so good.  And be comfort food.

Same with rice.  I had purchased rice flour and made biscuits and gravy as comfort food…and now it looks like I’ll have to give that up, too.  And the rice flour pizza, too.  Arrgh.

One of the comments linked to this page.  He explains gluten reactions a little more in-depth than most.

Another mentioned the gluten free society.

 

Creepy Ads and total cluelessness

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The Dish posted a piece on UNICEF’s creepy ad campaign to persuade people in India to use the loo instead of defecating in the streets (I can’t comment on the video…couldn’t make past the first minute).

Hello? They don’t seem to *get* that they are not doing it from ignorance, but because, like the author says, they are poor–therefore their struggle for each day is to find food, clean water, and not die.  Having a loo in the vicinity is a luxury they cannot afford.

Why didn’t UNICEF use whatever overpaid money they put into this ad campaign and purchase some composting toilets for these folks? Or construct public restrooms near the poor?  Or, better yet, put on an ad campaign for jobs with livable wages so they could take care of themselves??

10 Biggest Oil Spills in History

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We don’t hear a lot about oil spills in other parts of the world…we’re lucky if we hear about ALL of them in our little corner of the world…so I thought I’d post this on the worst that has happened.

From the Gulf War in Kuwait:

The largest oil spill the world has seen exacted little permanent damage on coral ecosystems and local fisheries, according to a report by the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission at Unesco. The study concluded that about half the oil evaporated, one-eighth of it was recovered and another quarter washed ashore, mostly in Saudi Arabia.

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I found it hard to believe that this spill had not done a lot of damage…especially now that there are cases of MERS in Saudi Arabia that are on the increase.

Could oil spills from over a decade ago be impacting the immune health of the folks there? I don’t know for sure, but it is a possibility. Something has compromised their immune systems…GMO’s, grain-based diet, chemicals…and on.  I would start looking at the folks whom have survived it and do detailed investigation into their diet and what chemicals they have been exposed to.

I found this website that not only dismisses the idea that there wasn’t a lot of damage, but the spill was not an accident–but a deliberate act of environmental warfare.  (I highlighted the text with my mouse so I could read it.  Black and white, people. Black and white, if you want a person to read what you write.)  (haha. poet and don’t know it.)

Not only did they have to contend with the oil spill on the land and water, but then they had an oily rain to deal with.  Good Grief.  If your land is polluted, the normally beneficial rain cannot help do its work of cleansing the Earth, as well as replenishing the water supply, and nourishing the plant life.  All life stops the minute the water supply is polluted.

 

 

 

 

Bill Gates “explains” Common Core

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Unbelievable.  Bill Gates–car salesman.  He is so full of it, that I don’t know where to even begin….

He states that these standards will allow children whom have moved to be able to pick up where they left off…again he misses the point that CHILDREN ARE INDIVIDUALS and they will either grasp a subject or not…according to where they are at in their personal development.

Gates also states that Common Core is made towards children’s development level.  Bullshit.  Utter bullshit.  You don’t teach integers, that is part of trigonometry, to grade school students!  You don’t teach the Code of Hammurabi to first graders!

He outright lies about government not dictating these standards.  Race to the Bottom guarantees that they will adopt their policies, or the schools will be denied federal dollars that were paid for by the public.

Mercedes Schneider points out more of the lies in her take on this…note the link to Indiana trying a shell game of getting rid of Common Core…but then adopting standards that are a warmed over version of Common Core.  Very disappointing to see that Glenda Ritz is going along with this charade.

 

 

 

Obama High School and Affirmative Action

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Fred Klonsky posted his viewpoint on Barack Obama College Preparatory School and Obama’s silence on a Supreme Court decision on Affirmative Action.

President Obama, however much I disagree with his education policies, is entitled to his opinion…whether it be for or against Affirmative Action.  I presume he is for it, but chose not to speak out at this particular decision.  I really don’t recall him speaking out on much regarding Supreme Court decisions— so because he’s black, he should speak out on this particular decision?

Perhaps I’m misinterpreting things…but this piece just struck me wrong.

As a side note~ Cabrini Green?  Really?  That was the housing project that was famously featured when former Chicago Mayor Jane Byrne *cough* moved in….the press was all over it…but what they forgot to tell people was that she wasn’t moving in as in moving all her household…but rather, she kinda sorta stayed there one night a week./snark

Or perhaps it was a few hours in the daytime./snarkier

Or perhaps she just drove past the place…on her way to her real home…./snarkiest

We need jobs, not eggs.  Funny how it’s been thirty years and not much has changed, eh?

Oh, wait…

Rahm builds an elite high school on this historical spot….not only do you not get jobs, but you get thrown out.

 

2014 Food Summit

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Center for Food Safety is sponsoring a Food Revolution Summit this coming week- April 26th to May 4.

You can sign up for free here.  Of course, I’m not a fan of those trying to sell something but there are some good speakers listed.

(Meanwhile, this is the weirdest migraine yet–it’s been a mild painful but persistent.  I’m expecting it to get worse today…so…we’ll see. )

First Nations people protest Royals

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In news that you won’t read about in the mainstream media–Warrior Publications has a post up of the indigenous folks protesting the Royals.

…or if you do hear about it, it will be in a negative light….as in they have no right to their land or to protest.

Recovering from mercury poisoning…

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…more specifically, recovering from the disassociation of autism–

We had a troll visit the mercury support group recently pretty much saying it was all crap.

One of the mothers of an autistic child spoke out with this wonderful letter:

Andy,

Wonderful post and thank you for it. Varun is wasting his time here. The proof is in the pudding for us. Although I would be lying if I said I
didn’t dream of a complete “cure,” I never thought in terms of  “I must
cure him.” That would be icing on the cake, of course, but when I chose to reject what the medical mainstream tried to sell me, “No hope. Dope him into oblivion so he can be controlled or institutionalize him,”

My goal was to improve his quality of life with the hope of independence. He has emerged from the abyss. I have witnessed more progress in the three years since we began AC, then in the ten years previous we did only diet and supplements.

To hear him excited about subjects such as architecture and meteorology and to waiver back and forth as to which he wishes to become,it is like Christmas morning every day here now. Is he “cured”? No, not yet. How far can he go? Only time will tell, but I have never been so full of hope since we began this journey.

I thank you from the bottom of my heart, and if I ever meet you in person one day, be prepared for a bear hug and a few tears of joy!

Sincerely,

Starbuck75

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Just for notes–“Varun” was saying no one was seeing results and that we were a “cult”.  Yep.

Okay, here are some of the things that happened to me, but are now healing or healed:

–I had such edema that my toenails turned black and fell off when I was moving –twice.  The pressure underneath the nail from standing all day, bending, and constant movement proved too much for my mercury poisoned self, and caused the nail to die.  It took a year the first time (2006) I moved, and the nail growing back was misshapen and very thin.

–Thinning hair that became straight and lost its shine.  My hair is growing in thicker now, with the wavy hair I always had (much to my chagrin), and it now has its shine back.

–Fingernails that were blue and had lost the “moons”.  Now they are healthier looking pink with some of the moons back.

–Skin rash that covered my forearms–itchy, angry red patches that are now almost gone with pink scars where the patches were.

–My eyesight had dimmed.  It is now almost normal sight. However, I am still having to use glasses, where my eyesight had been 20/20 and 20/15.

–My short term memory was so bad at one point that I would literally forget something I had been told 30 seconds before.  This was the time when I forgot my own children’s names–very frightening and upsetting.

–My hands were shaking at one point.  I thought I had Parkinson’s, and didn’t tell anyone what was happening.  If they would shake in public, I would hide them so no one would notice.

–My ADD was terrible.  Your brain is this wonderful machine that makes connections from all over the place, and when you’re mercury-poisoned, your brain can’t connect all those places, so your thoughts are all over the place.  This also made reading, something I love, damn near impossible because I would read a page, forget what was on it, read it again, and…well, rinse, repeat.  Getting through a book was agony.  Still dealing with this, however, but it is much diminished.

–My dyslexia was much worse.  As with the ADD, it has improved, but still is affected.

–I was getting migraines after exercising.  I am now able to exercise at least twice a week without problem.  It’s still not where I want it to be, but much, much improved for which I am eternally grateful.  This was something that depressed me to no end.  I was becoming an invalid and I wanted to be out doing things.

–I started getting monthly migraines one year after the three amalgams were placed in 1994.  Before this, I had migraine once per year (probably due to gluten intolerance).

–My teeth have improved.  I’m not experiencing tooth pain and decay like before.  Yay.

–My personality is returning.  I lost my sense of humor to this horrible poison.  I lost my love of life.  I didn’t care about things I had previously cared about.  I overreacted to things that I would have not normally done.

–All of my senses were affected by this stealth poison–hearing, sight, taste, touch, smell were all diminished and still are at times.

–I have an exaggerated startle response brought on by this poison.  It is still there sometimes, but is diminishing as I chelate.

–Autistic symptoms.  When it was really bad, I didn’t want to go anywhere–if I could, I would have stayed home all the time.  Then I wanted to be around people, but I didn’t want to talk to them.  Now I’m in a fuzzy place where those symptoms are easing up, but still pop up at the most inconvenient times.

–I had joint pain and muscle aches and muscle atrophy.  All of those are diminishing as I chelate the poison out.  It’s interesting that I get the muscle aches when I have a migraine, too.

–Lastly, I lost intellect.  The reason I say this is I was doing dumb stuff that I knew better in my previous life.  I also had tested in the 90th percentile when taking a test for MENSA.  I tried again a few years ago, on their website, and got the “don’t call us, we’ll call you” schtick.

This list is not exhaustive, but gives a pretty good idea what mercury poisoned folk go through and it proves that low dose chelation can lead to recovery.

Arne Duncan is not only racist, but sexist, too

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Carol Burris, a highly regarded public school principal, has a piece up exploring the degrading comments directed at opponents to Arne Duncan’s brainless education policies.

He actually states that the Governor of NY, Cuomo, is a “profile in courage”.  Bwahahahaha *snort*  Yeah, because it takes courage to make children cry from tests that are above their intellectual development level….

He dismissed parents who criticized his policies as “white suburban moms” who thought their little darlings were much smarter than they actually were….because education guru Arne said they were. Someone whom has never taught in school…methinks Arne thinks he’s smarter than he is.  Ahem.

Burris also notes the misogyny in Duncan’s comments…labeling women opponents as “hysterical” and “dramatic”.  Oh, and “noisy”, to me, equals “uppity” women.   Yep.  He must be taking his cues from Freud’s playbook, the Diagnostic Manual.

As a side note~~I found a blog on misogyny here.

And on the link for reddit creep shot, this disturbing info on the rape/violence against women culture:

The fiasco comes on the heels of a highly-publicized flap between reddit and Gawker, after Gawker journalist Adrian Chen’s investigation of an infamous user of the subreddit who went by the handle, Violentacrez. According to the The Guardian, that user “set up hundreds of sub-forums where users post links and images including bestiality, rape fantasy, under-age porn and upskirt photos.” 

Among the sections that Violentacrez created or moderated were: Chokeabitch, Niggerjailbait, Rapebait, Hitler, Jewmerica, Misogyny, and Incest

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…created by 49-year-old computer programmer and misogynist, Michael Brutsch.

But back to Arne Duncan…what do his comments signify?  That perhaps his hatred of public education proponents, mostly women, is part of a hatred of women in general?

And “stay the course”….really?  You couldn’t think of something original besides Bushisms? Yeah, because the Bushes have done *so much* for this country and public education with No Child Left a Mind…/snarky to the extreme

Duncan keeps knocking our public school system, especially the individualistic nature of public school before NCLB or Race to the Bottom…while ignoring those folks who made phenomenal contributions to society, from those same individualistic school systems, such as Neil Armstrong, Maya Angelou, Frank Church, Paul Wellstone, Birch Bayh, Dwight Eisenhower, a great grandson of immigrants, who loved art, math, spelling, and history; Gloria Steinem, and any number of musicians who got their start in music programs that included actual instruments, that went on to get private instruction to become great musicians.  Same with artists.

If you view Duncan’s video, it is stunning that in the first minute, he talks of John being orphaned at a young age…and he had teachers –-public school teachers–who helped him along his path to become productive.  He also was a product of the public education system before NCLB could dull his creative expression, his critical thinking skills, and his own expression of his individuality.

I wonder what his public education teachers think of him trying to destroy those very things in children today with the rigidity of Common Core and Race to the Bottom…?

He mentions that the First Lady had a teacher that told her she shouldn’t aspire to Ivy League schools because it was too good for her.  That makes me sad to hear.  Is that a reason the First Lady is against public education?  I suspect that those who are against public education had bad experiences with teachers…and then project that onto all teachers.

I had some bad teachers, but for the most part, my experience with public education was good.  Yes, those experiences with bad teachers were hurtful but the ones who were encouraging when I was discouraged made up for that.  And it was an intrinsic thing, too, because I loved learning.

I guess that is where you have to be responsible for your own education…to go on even though they tell you that you can’t.  Because, believe it or not, my first class of composition in college, I had a white instructor who, when I asked her about a career as a writer, told me “don’t quit your day job.”  So, there you go…