Label the FDA

Occupy Monsanto has this up on the ongoing efforts to get GMO food labeled.  A shareholder has proposed labeling, but the board has rejected that.  (no surprise there)

They are having an event this week to bring attention to the FDA ignoring the public’s wishes for labeling.

No More

Jeff Nguyen has a blog up featuring Eddie Vedder’s song “No More”.

God bless Phil Donahue— still fighting the good fight.  I grew up watching Donahue and he opened my world.  He talked about subjects that were taboo.  He asked intelligent questions.  I loved the “live” aspect of his shows where callers could call in to add to the story.

It was a sad day when his show was no more.  And even sadder that he was fired from MSNBC for speaking out against the Iraq war.

 

NSA: It’s worse than we thought

I hope you’re sitting down, because this is going to blow you away.

An interactive graphic from Der Spiegel explains that this tool is a part of NSA’s ANT division that the agency developed so it can see and hear what is happening in a room “without having to actually install radio-signal-emitting bugging devices in them.”

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…and you thought that mercury poisoned folk like myself were crazy for saying that EMF’s bothered us greatly.  When I was sicker, I could not talk on a cell phone for an hour, or I would become ill with a migraine.  EMF’s from the classroom smartboard/computer/wand make me ill.

And as far as the radiated beams causing cancer…well, that is a stone in the gravel pit.  The NSA is running amok with nobody reining them in or following anything that looks like our Constitution…

Oh, and in case you missed it–they’re also intercepting laptops bought online and installing spyware on them. Yep.

….because we got to get the boogeyman.

We got to get the boogeyman.

I wonder about this and those birds falling out of the sky.  More here.

Mall of America…not for *that* America

The women of Idle No More tried to hold a Native American dance in the Mall of America, which promptly had them arrested.  I kid you not.

123 years after Wounded Knee, and they’re still objecting to the Native Americans dancing.

 

What is the harm in that?  I thought it was quite moving.

 

 

They won’t even give her the respect of telling her a valid reason why they can’t be there….because they don’t have one…

 

Vanishing New York

New York Observer has a link to this, among other stories:

Vanishing New York.  All the businesses that closed under Michael Bloomberg.

If you look only at this list and add up all the years in business represented, we lost approximately 6,926 years of New York City history in only a dozen years. And we know the real number is much higher than that.

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Pretty sad, eh? A hardware store in business for 100 years!  A bakery in business for 89 years! A restaurant in business for 48 years! A records store in business for 60 years! A hotel in business for 127 years!  A book store 86 years!

…and Shea Stadium destroyed.

That is a lot of history.  Think of all the people that passed through the doors…in their youth, in their adulthood, with their children, grandchildren…seeing familiar faces and catching up with each other’s lives.

Our culture is being destroyed before our eyes–everything that makes us connect with one another.  One of the things I loved about Fort Wayne is that somehow it’s managed to hold onto some of that culture–it’s known as the city of restaurants and churches….for good reason.  They still have many independent restaurants…not McRestaurants.  The downtown is walkable–pleasant—with many independent stores.

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Other stories the Observer posted:  Starchitects and the luxury apartment boom in NY, related to the previous story–

Don’t get me wrong, I love architecture.  I love the work of Frank Lloyd Wright.  But if it comes a the expense of neighborhoods, then, no, I can’t go along with that.

People deserve to have decent housing at rents they can afford.  Small business should be afforded the same.  Something needs to be done so that if a luxury building is built, those around it are not made to suffer by enormous rent increases.

Preppers versus Tradition

Granny Miller has a post up on the curious phenomenon of preppers.

 

I am positively revolted by the survivalist perception and belief that somehow there will not be enough food, water, clothing, shelter and goodness and humanity to go around when “the collapse” comes.

…wisdom from the elders….

( TEOTWAWKI = The end of the world as we know it.  TSHTF= the sh*t hits the fan.)

 

Neocons rewriting the Bible

…well, I wish I could say this is a surprise…but, no, I was waiting for the “re-write” because Jesus is just too, too, liberal…you know, feeding people, healing the sick without being paid, throwing the bankers out of the Temple…

See, the neocons were hiding behind the “Moral Majority” schtick and intimidating folks with their self-righteous blather.  Now that some of us have been speaking out about spirituality, they have suddenly realized their game is up.

Sorry, neocons….try as you might, you cannot have a re-do to support your selfish, hateful, punitive actions that feed the dark side.

123 years after Wounded Knee massacre

Warrior Publications has a blog up on the massacre at Wounded Knee.

As I look at the photo of the mass grave, it is a shocking picture too similar to the Jews in Nazi Germany camps.

Something that is really important to know—these Native Americans had laid down their guns.  They had given all their weaponry to the calvary in what they thought was a truce…

…and then they were fired upon…

Unarmed men, women, and children gunned down…

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Warrior Publications also has this up on Carter Camp, of the 1973 Wounded Knee siege.   Treaty after treaty had been broken, and the Native Americans were asserting their right to exist, their right to practice their spirituality–which had been outlawed–and their right to their land.  They were protesting the war-like atmosphere created by Dick Wilson, whom thought of the traditional American Indians as “communists” .  He terrorized the traditionals.

The movie Thunderheart is loosely based on the events at Wounded Knee.  (Pay close attention to the bartender in one of the scenes–Crosby, Stills, and Nash fans will see a familiar face. 🙂

On the message board under portrayal of elders, a commenter talks about Grandpa Reaches being their favorite character in the movie–he was a medicine man, but not full of himself, not holier-than-thou.  He was the genuine deal.

Another commenter was commenting on the scene where Grandpa’s TV and ancient sacred turtle rattle are destroyed–they were trying to explain to someone why Grandpa would be upset about them breaking his TV, but not the sacred rattle.

It struck me odd, too, but trying to think as the Native Americans do about possessions, perhaps it was supposed to be a “letting go” of possessions such as the rattle, because it, too, could be replaced?  Or perhaps Grandpa Reaches thought that the rattle represented connection with the Creator, but he didn’t need an object because he was always connected?  I don’t know the answer, but it’s a good question.

They also talked about what Grandpa Reaches gave Ray Levoi for his sunglasses.  I thought it was probably a stone that Grandpa had blessed?

Anyway, I hope I haven’t given too much away to anyone who hasn’t seen it but wishes to–a really good movie full of twists and historical value.

An Educator for Chancellor…what a concept…

Bill de Blasio better check with ole’ slick Willy and Hilly to rethink his choice for Chancellor.   He must be mistaken, because Bill, Hillary, Michelle Rhee, Eli Broad, and Bill Gates don’t approve of actual educators being involved in…you know…education administration.  De Blasio obviously didn’t get the memo that he needs to appoint an investment banker, technology terrorist, or some other profiteer to run the schools.  /very snarky