Tell the USDA No GMO apples

organic consumers has this up on the latest nonsensical bioengineered frankenfood product…

…because it makes soooo much sense to bioengineer an apple not to turn brown…

Anybody else have deja vu about Alar??

From the story:

But in 2005, the last year results were available, the U.S. Department of Agriculture found pesticide residues on 98 percent of the apples it tested. All the residue was at levels within federal guidelines.

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Yum.

The problem with reports like this is that they try to say the Alar scare was over the top and scaring people needlessly….when they should be scaring people because we’re living in a toxic soup.  This has to be part of the reason people are so apathetic towards chemicals being used in their homes, their workplaces, their food, their water, their soil, and their air….

<sigh>

Reign of Error; Kochs, et al, planning assault on Ed.

Patrick Walsh has a report up on Reign of Error, by Diane Ravitch.

Oh, and have you heard?  It’s open season on teachers.  The climate that No Child Left a Mind and Race to the Bottom have created—to punish students for not being perfect students and their teachers, who are under tremendous pressures to not have any stupid kids (said facetiously)–has now come to fruition.  I’m sure Bill Gates, Eli Broad, Michelle Rhee, et al, are laughing themselves silly.

Jan Ressenger put up a link to this report from the Guardian on just how far the Kochs and their comrades are willing to go….not only to destroy public education, but continue attacks on working folks and unions…

SPN’s president, Tracie Sharp, told the Guardian that “as a pro-freedom network of thinktanks, we focus on issues like workplace freedom, education reform, and individual choice in healthcare: backbone issues of a free people and a free society.”

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I wonder if she could get the word “free” in there any more…was she wrapped in a flag, too??  Because that would *definitely* mean that this program was patriotic and would strengthen democracy…

...by destroying it…

“it’s for your own good” has to be the biggest lie ever told!

Side note~ someone in the comments section linked to the Yes Men video. Enjoy. (Be sure to click on Part 2–with Surviva-balls.  Hilarious.)

Someone also kindly posted a link to a list of Kraft foods.  Again…where are the antitrust laws?  Why is one food manufacturer able to control so much of the market share?  Not that junk food, which is the majority of crap that Kraft makes, is something healthy..what if folks were able to afford healthy made-from-scratch food…?  We could do some serious damage to Kraft’s bottom line if we refused to buy their junk food and bought only fresh….and we’d be healthier, too.

Center for Media and Democracy has the scoop on SPN.  (As a side note~ I haven’t been getting regular emails of the CMD for a few months now–it’s been spotty at best…interesting.  I’ll have to make a note to keep checking their website for updates.)

True to nature, they hide their lobbying disguised to avoid paying taxes.  Good Grief, these people know how to play the game of getting someone else to pay while they reap the benefits.

The mention of the Goldwater Institute raises huge red flags–Hillary Clinton was a Goldwater Girl.  An excellent blog here on her history…er, her trying to re-write her history…and Bill’s.

The Clintons LOVE poor black people on welfare

• The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA) that was dreamt up by past Republican administrations, was actually passed by Congress and signed by Clinton. This act was filled with vindictive measures aimed at the poor. Among other things, it set a five-year lifetime limit for cash assistance and gave the states power to adopt stringent restrictions in several other areas. Another key part of the Act, was the imposition for the first time of lifetime limits on welfare. Once a welfare mother uses up this lifetime limit, set at five years by the federal government, she and her children can never again receive federal cash benefits, no matter how desperate their condition and no matter what happens to the overall economy.
Bill Clinton has certainly laid his Mack game down heavy in the black community. Maybe that’s why the African-American community has been so thoroughly duped by lip service, prominent public appearances and appointments, and an office on Harlem’s 125th (although Clinton certainly hasn’t used it much).

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Ahem.   There are white people on food stamps, as well.  The Clintons, along with the Kochs, et al, don’t like POOR people.  Period.

We can’t talk about Bill Clinton’s love for his “black race” without mentioning Rwanda. You remember what happened in Rwanda? If you don’t, then I suggest you rent the movie “Hotel Rwanda” and be prepared to be thoroughly disgusted. Bill Clinton not only refused to intervene to save over one million people from being hacked to death, but he even declined to convene his Cabinet to discuss the crisis.

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I highly recommend Hotel Rwanda.  Just don’t watch it and Schindler’s List on the same weekend.  I actually had to call my son after watching them both one weekend….I needed to talk to a sane human being…

And let’s not forget this piece on the secretive group Hillary Clinton belongs to.  As I’ve said on many occasions…it never ceases to amaze me how people who call themselves Christian act nothing like Christ.  Who would Jesus bomb, Hillary?

I’ve read this piece before, but this sentence just packed a punch:

It emerged, he [Reverend Don Jones] says, as a third way, a reaction against both separatist fundamentalism and the New Deal’s labor-based liberalism.

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…a reaction against….the New Deal’s labor-based liberalism.  In other words:   unions….working folks….public education…social security…medicaid…..livable wages…(and the environment, too, but that would come later).

…and if you listen carefully to conservative media, you’ll hear subtle and outwardly snide attacks on Roosevelt’s New Deal.  Get it, now?

And this:

Niebuhr and Tillich’s combination of aggressiveness in foreign affairs and limited domestic ambition naturally led Clinton toward the gop. She was a Goldwater Girl who, under the tutelage of her high school history teacher Paul Carlson (whom Jones describes as “to the right of the John Birchers”), attended biweekly anticommunist meetings and later served as president of Wellesley’s Young Republicans chapter.

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…she attended biweekly anticommunist meetings.  Wellesley…if the movie “Mona Lisa Smile” is any indication, is a conservative’s utopia…so Young Republicans chapter there?  Pretty hard to swallow that this was a fluke -a flash in the pan….especially when one turns a critical eye to Hillary’s record.  I mean, if they call themselves Democrats, but act as Republicans…

“Mind conservative but a heart liberal” tells me that she is like so many guys who say they’re “socially liberal, but fiscally conservative”.  What this means is:  I’m selfish and self-absorbed.  And I don’t follow my heart.  I let my purse strings do the thinking for me.   In other words, I choose money over God.  (Jesus said that we could only serve one Master–money or God.  Not both.)

Okay, there is more to write, but I’m really tired from the day and need to call it quits.

 

Yoga for lymph system

Did you know that the lymph system is as important for circulation as the respiratory system?  I sure didn’t.  The lymph glands in my neck have been swollen since 1995.  I had one amalgam placed in 1991, and the other seven that did me in, in 1994.  One year later, I began getting the monthly migraines.  I also was exposed to melted plastic when I worked in the office of a car parts manufacturer.  We were attached to the factory, and someone had a machine on that molded plastic parts.  I never got the full story of what happened, but the accident had to have been huge, as I smelled burnt plastic in the office.  My glands were swollen from then on.

So…I’ve noticed when I’m chelating, that the glands go down to normal size.  When I stop the round?  Back to swollen again.  This seems to be an issue for most of us with mercury poisoning.  The poor lymph system is supposed to carry out all the wastes, but it just gets overwhelmed.

I found this site explaining the lymph system and thought I’d pass it along.  Yoga is supposed to help the lymph system to cleanse itself–and jumping on a trampoline helps, too.

I also started a search on sea salt benefits.  I had purchased some of the pink salt that has not been chemically processed and wondered what benefits (or detriments) it possessed.

They make the case that table salt is sodium chloride and has been processed out the wazoo to remove all the additional minerals.  The companies then sell the minerals for $$.  The resulting sodium chloride is not recognized by the body and is sent to the…uh…waste bin…

The theory is that untreated salt is much better for us because the body recognizes it and utilizes it accordingly to keep the delicate balance for the heart and kidneys to function properly.  One site even claimed that it helps remove plaque from the gut.

Of course, one always has to take what is said with a critical eye.

I think there is something to it, however, because I took 1/4 tsp baking soda + 1/4 tsp pink salt in a glass of water–sipping it throughout the day.  I started craving the pink salt.  Interesting.

I listen to my body–when I was a vegetarian, I was craving meat…my body understood what it needed, and even though I hated going back to eating meat, it saved my life.   So when it craves something, I pay attention, keeping in mind that craving something could also mean I am allergic to it.

Are you optimistic ’bout way things are going… **edited

Seriously??  They’re charging fees to the homeless for shelter….unbelievable….meanwhile, Canadians using food banks are at record highs…

(blog title is reference to the song “Dialogue, Parts 1 and 2 by Chicago)

**edited because no matter how many times I’ve listened to the song…somehow still messed up the lyrics….<sigh>

Bombs, not food, say repubs…

Susie Madrak has this up on the continued republican war against the poor.    To say it is demoralizing would be an understatement.

Shall we play the six degrees to Clinton game?  He pushed for “workfare” , which required welfare recipients to work for free–truly a corporation’s dream of forcing people to work and not pay any wages or benefits!  Slave labor rocks!!  /snark

When I asked for assistance after first moving to FW, I was required to do community service for two and a half days.  The money I requested?  $25.  Yes, you read that right— $25,   It was a humiliating experience when having to ask in the first place and then being put down by the social worker for having moved to FW without a job.  I was, um, hoping to get a job….

The Brits who are conservative are also playing the “we want to help you help yourself” game–

links here and here.

From the last link:

There is no reason to think, however, that the criticisms levelled at workfare won’t also apply to the new scheme. Is, for example, a person spending 30 hours a week picking up litter more or less likely to find a paying job? Research which looked at similar schemes in the US, Canada and Australia found that:

“There is little evidence that workfare increases the likelihood of finding work. It can even reduce employment chances by limiting the time available for job search and by failing to provide the skills and experience valued by employers. Subsidised (‘transitional’) job schemes that pay a wage can be more effective in raising employment levels than ‘work for benefit’ programmes. Workfare is least effective in getting people into jobs in weak labour markets where unemployment is high.”

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Truly disgusting how punitive these people are towards the poor.   Why not just have a public hanging and be done with it, already?

Lastly, here is the video someone suggested on crooks and liars:

New faces of soul food

Michael Twitty has a link up to a piece on soul food.  I like how he characterizes it as not necessarily West African, but a food of an enslaved people.

I recently made collard greens with chicken fat to flavor it….and I couldn’t believe the difference in taste.  It took the bitterness out and added something sweet to it.  I also put in chopped garlic cloves.  Yum.

 

 

Gluten or Not?

A member of the mercury support group posted a link to this video:

Another member questioned this guy’s assertions, because it seems like he is promoting his website and services and trying to scare people.  Good Grief, I wouldn’t be able to eat anything according to this guy.  He also fails to mention toxins in the body, and specificallly, heavy metal poisoning, which causes many of the autoimmune symptoms. And he doesn’t advocate for organic food consumption as a way to regain one’s health.

He doesn’t state whether he has additional training with a degree in nutrition, as Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride does, so I’m not as inclined to believe all of his assertions.

Rice is allowed on the GAPS diet, but I react to it.  Same with corn.  It’s an individual thing that everyone has to figure out for themselves.  I get a tell-tale red rash around my neck (redneck, heh) that shows up when I eat something that causes my body to react.

I do agree with his assertions that gastrointestinal symptoms are not the most prominent symptoms, as I did not have huge symptoms there, but do have more of the neurological with the migraines and such.

Strokes and youth

This is sobering news.  Note that the article doesn’t go into diet, but if GMO’s were introduced in the 90s, and strokes started increasing at that time….is anyone going to look into the connection?

Also, colorectal cancer has increased in youth at the rate of 13%  from 1992-2005.  The article goes for the easy blame of fast food….without exploring the GMO connection or toxic environment.   I’m not saying that fast food isn’t a factor, because it is not healthy, but they need to go more deeply.

Also, neither of these articles explore economic factors where the families buy processed food because it’s cheaper, and the family’s health suffers because of it.

Breast cancer rates among the young, and especially young black women, are rising, too–tripling from 1976 to 2009.  Red flags all over the place, folks.

For me personally, one of my lumps has shrunk, the other has stayed the same, a little over a year after discovery.  Interestingly, I had read somewhere that women with fibrocystic breast disease respond well to iodine.  If you recall, last year, about this time,  I had three breast lumps and they were increasing in size.  After increasing my iodine, one disappeared and the other stayed the same size.

Within the mercury poisoning group, there is great debate about low thyroid and iodine.  Some folks are adamantly against iodine, saying if one has Hashimoto’s (which I suspect I have because it is autoimmune and goes with Celiac), that iodine will make it worse.  That hasn’t been my experience.  With the shrinking breast lumps, I would say that my intuition has been right in increasing the iodine.

Mercury interferes with iodine absorption.  the Barium sprayed from chem trails interferes with iodine absorption.    These are most likely factors in the increases in cancer, since the thyroid is a master gland controlling nearly every important body function, from the pituitary to the adrenals, to the gut, to brain function.  This is serious stuff, and messing with the environment is coming around to bite us in the arse.

 

Food, Food, Food

Apparently, there is a square knish shortage due to a factory fire in New York.  I had no idea what a knish was until this piece, so thanks for enlightening this writer.  It sounds yummy.

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In other food blogs is Michael Twitty’s piece on the life of a slave.  A great glimpse into history we don’t usually read about.  It’s well written–puts the reader into the daily struggle for them.  I was thinking when he wrote about catching the fish, that the fish must have tasted so good being caught in non-polluted waters.  And even though the work was hard,  it must have been nice to work outside in the sunshine….don’t misunderstand me–I know it was very hard, but I personally really enjoyed working on a farm.  I even liked it when the rain came down.    I would be weeding the old fashioned way of pulling them, and a grasshopper might leap onto a leaf nearby…..or a butterfly come floating past….birds singing….