Category Archives: ethics and morals

Freed U.S. Hikers write book

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Democracy Now! featured the three hikers captured in Iran.

They emphasized during the program that they did not hate the Iranian people.  I think this is an important point because it sends the message of peace instead of revenge.

It’s fascinating that this incident apparently was the beginning of tentative peaceful relations that was behind the historic Iranian nuclear deal.

I’m glad that they are using what could be a negative–anger for what happened to them–and turned it into a positive–working for the end of solitary confinement and other ills of the prison system.

A concrete dog run?  Are you kidding me?  Talk about being treated like an animal.  I always thought that they were allowed out into fresh air on a grassy yard.  They’re not even getting that much.  It’s pretty sad when someone in a U.S. prison is experiencing the same thing as prisoners in Iran.

In one of the prisons here, the prisoners once had an organic garden.  Governor Daniels got that stopped.  Um-hmmm….

 

Greenpeace protests logging in Canada

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Report here. 

What bothers me is when I see trees torn down for yet more construction when there are thousands of empty buildings waiting to be occupied.  There should be a law that prohibits this–we don’t have the luxury of time anymore.  We need those trees to take the carbon dioxide out of the air and provide us with fresh oxygen.  Indiana is especially bad about destroying forests–when you look at aerial photos, you can pick Indiana out just by the lack of trees.   You can tell such a difference when leaving Indiana and going to Ohio–the air is better.  Combine this with the 15 million pounds of toxins released into our waterways…toxic soup.  (sigh)

The youngest victims at Auschwitz

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City Jackdaw has a sobering post up on a young Polish Catholic girl, Czesława Kwoka, that perished at the German prison camp.

I wanted to re-post in memory of her, too.  And the other children. And the gypsies.

Be sure to click on the link to her biography.

It’s important to note that these are the poor.  The wealthy could flee the country until the war was over.

 

Heavy Metals and Chemical Toxins in Foods **edited

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Where’s my spoon?  /snark

Magnetic Wheaties.  The press refused to publish this because they didn’t think it was real.  Anyone want to test their own Wheaties and dispute it?

Heavy Metals in Vegan foods. 

Sea vegetables.

Here’s another paper on heavy metals content in foods.

Arsenic in food.  The discussion is in defense of reports of arsenic in organic foods.  What the news reports got wrong was that heavy metals are present in conventionally grown foods, too.  It’s not a fault of growing them organically…but it is a fault of our toxic environment—which we are all responsible for promoting.

Another link here.

While there is a set legal limit for the amount of arsenic in water, that’s not the case for food. In previous weeks, researchers also detected high levels of arsenic in apple and grape juices. “All of these arsenic studies come back to the fact that there are multiple exposures, with the levels varying from product to product and batch to batch,” says Patty Lovera, assistant director of Food & Water Watch, a consumer safety organization. “We need to figure out some regulatory limit.”

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Arsenic in rice has been discussed on the mercury support group–obviously, we’re concerned about putting more poison in our bodies.  It’s frustrating as hell because even if you eat organic, you’re still at risk of heavy metals by the soil contamination.

Someone said in a reply on one of the sites I visited:  you’re pretty much going to get exposed by anything you eat…nothing is safe.

But I would not give up organic food.  Conventionally grown food is less nutritious, besides polluting the environment even more–it doesn’t make sense on that point alone.

Finally, here’s a disturbing video produced by Environmental Working Group on toxic chemicals in babies’ blood.

I looked up the Kids Safe Chemicals Act of 2008…and I’ll give you three guesses how it turned out.  Yep.

But, wait!  There’s yet another bill introduced with link to co-sponsors…here’s where it stands. 

Sen. Frank Lautenberg [D-NJ] Bill Author

Kirsten Gillibrand [D-NY] Bill Author

Max Baucus [D-MT]

Michael F. Bennet [D-CO]

Richard Blumenthal [D-CT]

Barbara Boxer [D-CA]

Maria Cantwell [D-WA]

Benjamin Cardin [D-MD]

William “Mo” Cowan [D-MA]

Richard Durbin [D-IL]

Dianne Feinstein [D-CA]

Al Franken [D-MN]

Tom Harkin [D-IA]

Angus King [I-ME]

Amy Klobuchar [D-MN]

Patrick Leahy [D-VT]

Robert Menéndez [D-NJ]

Jeff Merkley [D-OR]

Barbara Mikulski [D – MD]

Patty Murray [D-WA]

Bill Nelson [D- FL]

Bernard Sanders [I-VT]

Brian Schatz [D-HI]

Charles Schumer [D-NY]

Jon Tester [D-MT]

Tom Udall [D-NM]

Elizabeth Warren [D-MA]

Sheldon Whitehouse [D-RI]

Ron Wyden [D-OR]

Again, no mention on the toxins’ effects on the animals and birds.  Mercury has been found in birds on land and sea birds.  It’s also been found in marine mammals.

**edited to correct wording.

Rhee vs. Ravitch

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Diane Ravitch posted a link to this biting piece.  Apparently, Rhee knew when it comes to her failed education mandates, she was going to get schooled by Diane.

And yet…she is still telling the American public she knows whats best for their children.

The Winter We Danced

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Leanne Betasamosake Simpson has a post up on a book about the Idle No More movement with stories and poems and such.  I haven’t read it, but would love to have a copy of what sounds like a wonderful historical book.  She notes that the royalties will benefit the indigenous youth. 

Bad Whiskey, mental institutions; Andrea Yates

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City Jackdaw has the reasons you could have been admitted to a mental institution in the 19th century.

Masturbation and, well, being a woman from all the “ailments” associated with being female.  Freud was an influence, I’m sure.

Note the reading of a novel was reason enough to be admitted! No doubt this was directed at a woman, because women were discouraged from educating themselves.  Truly, the medical profession said women would “shrink” their uterus if they went to college.  They based this genius on the observation that women who went to college were not as likely to have children, not have as many children.  Yep.

I wish I could say that the psychiatric profession has progressed passed the misogyny, but if you read the DSM, their diagnostic manual, it has “diseases” that describe the symptoms of being…a woman.  It’s a very vague description that has no reasoning behind it.

Related to this~

I was watching a documentary on Andrea Yates yesterday.  Her case always troubled me.  I felt at the time that she is mercury toxic for her to suddenly start acting mentally ill.

My intuition has been heightened by more clues — she became non-verbal (autistic symptoms) with her children, even though she performed regular duties such as fixing them lunch.  Her father had Alzheimer’s, so he and she were probably exposed to mercury (my belief that mercury and aluminum are direct causes of Alzheimer’s). Her father was of Irish ancestry–another strong clue of inability to detox mercury.

She began to act irrationally after the birth of her fourth child.  This is crucial because if she were already mercury burdened at her own birth (possibility),  and received Rho-Gam shots, she received more mercury via the shots.  After the fifth birth, she absolutely would have more toxicity and the mercury amount probably pushed her over the edge.

Those around her described her as loving before she became ill.  Her symptoms match mercury/heavy metal toxicity: anxiety, depression, autistic symptoms, bags under her eyes (adrenal fatigue/thyroid), self-mutilation,  and on top of that, the very drugs she was prescribed most likely caused more harm than good.

I hope that someone around her with some intellect will look into heavy metal poisoning as the root cause of her illness.  I just feel it in my gut.