Category Archives: environment

Natural Shampoo

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I’ve been searching for a natural shampoo, without chemicals, as most of the chemicals they put in shampoos have been shown to be carcinogenic or endocrine disruptors.  Here’s a list of the stuff they put in personal care products.  I found propylene glycol on the label of a package of shredded coconut!  Good Grief.

I found a recipe for no-poo shampoo, where you put baking soda on your scalp and then rinse with vinegar.

Yeah…that didn’t work out too well…although it did help remove some of the buildup of the shampoo product I now use, leaving my hair bouncier.  But it’s not something you can use instead of commercial shampoo–your hair starts to look like it does when you’re sick for three days with the flu.  Not a pretty sight.

I found this helpful site on yucca as a shampoo.  Another site said you could also use it for a natural laundry soap.  Interesting.

It’s good for you, the wildlife, and the environment.  Woot.

China Syndrome

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… they lied…as DN reported before.

I wonder how much of that radiation made its way to the U.S. via the ocean and the air currents?

Here’s a link on the subject…if they detected it as far as Massachusetts and North Carolina, you can bet there was much more radiation over the western half of the States than is being admitted.  I wonder how many folks have been diagnosed with thyroid cancer since the accident?  And if they are diagnosed, how many doctors are doing detective work to find the cause?  My bet is that they will blame the patient or will not even recognize thyroid issues and instead diagnose the patient with psychosomatic illness?  Nah, that can’t happen…/snark.

 

Fairy Tales by the World Bank

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According to this article: http://www.thenational.ae/news/uae-news/education/poor-education-unemployment-caused-arab-spring-claims-world-bank

… World Bank would like to blame the Arab Spring on the lack of college education…while saying that unemployment could be helped by education.

Yeah….that isn’t playing out so well over across the pond, where unemployment of college educated folks is the highest ever, according to this blog:http://www.econmatters.com/2012/05/first-time-ever-most-of-unemployed-are.html

Although I don’t agree with the author’s assertion that the “solution” is to do away with college loans (can you say rightwing?), but rather, to…you know, this will sound crazy….but the solution isn’t to deny college education, but to actually change the economic policies by Friedman economists who believe that unemployment is actually good for the country…(as James Medoff and Andrew Harless asserted in their book, The Indebted Society.)

Friedman and his followers believe in a convoluted policy called “Natural Rate of Unemployment” which embraces the neocon mindset of greed is good.

Here’s a great blog on the subject.

From the blog below the first:

…the whole story is starting to feel like a comedy routine: yet again the economy slides, unemployment soars, banks get into trouble, governments rush to the rescue — but somehow it’s only the banks that get rescued, not the unemployed.

[italics mine]

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You know, whenever I read the financial theories, I come back to the thought that the way that we do business is set up to go against the best interests of Mother Earth: use up resources without giving back.

That’s a self-defeating proposition.

The bigger question is how can we have jobs or some form of support that is in tune with nature?  Is that possible?

California GMO Ballot

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…as California goes, so goes the Nation  (she says hopefully)… (hat tip to organic consumers)

I wasn’t as impressed with this article as Ronnie Cummins.  It failed to note the Purdue University scientist, Dr. Huber, who sent a letter of concern to Vilsack.  But it was sure to get in GMO advocates that have nothing to back up their assertions that this *stuff that resembles food* is safe.

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By now, you have heard of the *cough* research that says people who buy organic food are….jerks.  Um-hmmm…

Organic Consumers states that reason.com is a part of the Reason Foundation, a libertarian “think tank”, which is…wait for it…a member of ALEC.

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Another link organic consumers had was to a movie trailer about the coming water crises.  However, it was made by the folks who brought us “Waiting for Superman” a smear piece on the public school system that was used as a prop to promote charter schools…so yeah, I’m not linking to it.

GAPS and the sustainable environment

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While I was out jogging this morning, I was thinking about the GAPS diet and how Dr. Campbell-McBride advocates nuts in the diet…and it flashed in my head about how much land is used to grow wheat and corn and soybeans…and I wondered about how much more food, as in nuts, could be grown and if that was more ecologically sound?

I found this page advocating that very idea–it says that nut trees require very little chemical intervention, if any at all…not to mention the benefits of increased oxygenation by the trees and providing a home for the birds and squirrels.

I also found this resource for the re-foresting agriculture.

I also found this dedicated to permaculture.  I really like the Vajra farm–I could picture myself taking a stroll through there…I could just feel the cool breeze and the serenity of the forest.  It doesn’t look like any farm that I’ve been acquainted with…

I’m looking at that and thinking about the dry, windblown fields in Indiana, and how much better having this type of agriculture would be for the Earth.  And it would be better for us, as well, with eating nuts and berries again instead of stuffing our faces with bread, cakes, and the like…

Here’s yet another take on growing trees  in “alley ways” along with the usual.  I don’t get a good feel for this–I’d have to see it in operation.  My thinking is that the trees will eventually grow enough to block most of the light for the other crops…unless that is the purpose–to grow crops between them until they are large enough to use for lumber?  The site doesn’t really explain the process very well.

Anyway, there you have it.  I think this would really take off if it were promoted as a healthier alternative for diet, for the Earth, for the animals…

…but that’s just crazy talk 🙂

 

 

 

GAPS

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More from the book Gut and Psychology Syndrome by Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride….

p.321

Top Ten Influences which boost immunity:

1.  Fresh animal fats (from meats and dairy) and cholesterol-rich foods (particularly raw egg yolks).  [Dr. Campbell-McBride emphasizes that cholesterol is very beneficial, despite the false promotion of junk science saying otherwise.]

2.  Cold-pressed oils:   olive oil, fish oils, nut and seed oils.

3.  Onions and garlic.

4.  Freshly pressed veggie & fruit juices. [the fresh foods have enzymes that help your body to digest them properly. ]

5.  Regular consumption of greens:  parsley, dill, coriander, spring onion and garlic, etc. [word of caution: coriander has an effect on mercury mobilization, and it’s not been researched so there is no reliable info. on whether it carries it out of the body, too.]

6.  Probiotic supplementation and fermented foods. [She explains that gut flora is seriously compromised in most of the population, and these will help restore normal flora.]

7.  Contact with animals:  horses, dogs, etc.  Having a pet in the family can do a lot for children’s immune status.

8.  Swimming in unpolluted natural waters:  lakes, rivers, sea.**

9.  Physical activity in the fresh air.

10.  Exposure to sunlight and sensible sunbathing.

**These are non-chlorinated swimming pools.  Pretty cool, eh?

…and if you prefer to do it yourself, Mother Earth News has this for you.  They lose me with advocating man-made materials, however, but you’ll get the basics from the article.

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Next, Dr. Campbell-McBride has a list of the Top Ten Influences that damage immunity:

1.  Sugar and everything containing it:  sweets, soft drinks, confectionery, ice cream, etc.  [she does, however, allow natural honey…whew]

2.  Processed carbohydrates:  cakes, biscuits, crisps, snacks, breakfast cereals, white bread, and pasta.

3.  Chemically altered and artificial fats:  margarine, cooking and vegetable oils, processed foods with these. [basically, the more they change the structure of the food, the worse it is for you–raw and fermented being the best foods.]

4.  Lack of high quality protein in the diet, from meats, fish eggs, dairy products, nuts and seeds.  [Dr. Campbell-McBride writes quite a bit against the vegetarian diet.  She says that the proteins in the plants are not easily absorbed/digested by our digestive systems.  I was a vegetarian from 1998-ish to 2006, when I was advised to start eating meat because of severe anemia, so I understand what she’s saying, but I had hopes that once I was well again that I could go back to vegetarian, but it doesn’t look promising.]

5.  Exposure to man-made chemicals:  cleaning and washing chemicals, personal care products, paints, fire retardants, petrochemicals, pesticides, etc.

6.  Exposure to man-made radiation:  electronic screens: TV, computer, play stations; mobile phones, high-powered electricity lines, nuclear stations, nuclear waste, anti-cancer medication, anti-viral drugs.

7.  Drugs:  antibiotics, steroids, antidepressants, painkillers, anti-cancer medication, anti-viral drugs.

8.  Lack of fresh air and physical activity.

9.  Lack of exposure to sunlight.

10.  Lack of exposure to common microbes in the environment. […]  Living in too sterilized environment is strongly associated with compromised immunity.

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More from the book:

p.71  […]  In an old Textbook of Psychiatry by Henderson and Gillespie, published in 1937, it is clearly stated:  “A thorough physical examination is absolutely essential in every case–schizophrenics are commonly poorly nourished”.  […]  Deficiencies in vitamins (such as niacin, or B3, B6, B12, B1, folic acid, Vitamin C)and many minerals (such as magnesium, zinc, manganese, etc.) are routinely recorded in schizophrenic patients.[…]  U.S. professor Curtis Dohan, M.D., devoted many years to researching what connection digestive abnormalities in schizophrenic patients may have with their psychological state.

…Dr. Dohan found that symptoms of schizophrenia could be dramatically relieved by cutting all grains…

He also found that some cultures in the South Pacific which never consumed grains, had no schizophrenia.  Only when they adopted a Western diet full of grains did they stat getting cases of schizophrenia.  Another good example is Ireland, where people did not consume wheat until the potato famine in 1845.  Before then there were no cases of schizophrenia or coeliac disease recorded in Ireland.

(I can’t find it now, but I had seen a link a while back where Germans also suffer from gluten intolerance.  They observed that schizophrenia went down dramatically during WWII, when grains were scarce.  So, yeah, I have both German/Irish genes, so I’m pretty much SOL in the gluten department.)

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I know this diet is spot on–but it’s not easy.  Dr. Campbell-McBride has a list of allowed foods and non-allowed foods.  She eliminates ALL grains, so I was correct in my thinking that I couldn’t eat rice nor potatoes (carbs).

On the non-allowed foods, I got to…chocolate.  Read it again to make sure that I hadn’t misread it….

Chocolate?  She wants me to give up chocolate?  Was she freaking crazy?  I didn’t think I could do it….*anything* but chocolate…

…so I ate a bunch of chocolate…

…and felt so awful that I thought I’d have to at least give it a shot.

I’m at day five…and holding my own.  I have a fear that closer to *that* time of the month, however, I’ll be craving it like crazy and will lose the battle…

On the more positive side, I have lost fifteen pounds since March.  And my gut is less swollen.  It’s freaking amazing. 🙂

The History

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…of this land has been horribly twisted to put white European settlers as some sort of heroes, when the truth is far from that.

From Indian Country, exploring the Native American side of that history. Contrary to belief, this land was not a “wilderness”, but a carefully cultivated eco-system that worked, amazingly, for 10,000+ years…and it took the Europeans only a few hundred years to trash the place…

There are several links at the bottom of the story.  I don’t have time to click on all of them, but did this one.  When I told my son about the smallpox infested blankets, he didn’t believe me.  He couldn’t imagine someone being so evil.   Bio-warfare, like drones, is a coward’s way to win at war–“if we can’t win by our physical and mental stamina, we’ll cheat and introduce a disease that will knock them out…” Sickening.