…this was in the news a couple days ago–a BP refinery in Northwest Indiana (they wouldn’t even name the city at first) was recalling gasoline it sold here after complaints started coming in about cars not starting.
They’ve been less than forthcoming about what exactly happened, as one can tell from this article…given BP’s history, I’m skeptical of the alkylation unit excuse.
More here.
AP has this up on a yet another disease that implicates a destroyed immune system.
Let’s break this down, shall we?
She was from Vietnam, and came here after the war, in 1975. Although the article doesn’t state that, she most likely was exposed to Agent Orange–exposure to Agent Orange can cause immune system deficiency.
I also wonder about Celiac. When doing my research on it, I had read that Asians don’t get it–it’s just unheard of in that population…but knowing how the medical profession likes to make pronouncements of entire classes of people with a small sampling, I’m suspicious that she might have it and not be diagnosed nor tested. I didn’t have any overt symptoms–it was only because of my Irish-German heritage that I put the puzzle together. And it’s interesting that I have become more sensitive as I have adopted the GAPS diet–allowing my gut to heal.
There isn’t any mention of her diet, nor of the doctor asking her about diet….so one is left to wonder if she’s adopted the Western diet and is suffering because of it. I think the age thing is a big clue–our bodies are miracles that can take a lot of abuse before the cells break down and start to wreak havoc. This is something I’ve noticed on the mercury poisoning support group–some folks will have good health up ’til the time they reach 40, and then things start happening.
There’s also no discussion on toxin exposure. She lives in Tennessee, ranked 11th in toxic exposure. (What? Indiana is *only* ranked 4th? …we must be slipping in polluting our environment./snark) Note the assertion of the article that the EPA is right on top of things… the reporter apparently didn’t get the memo of the corporate polluters who worked to get those regulations repealed.
From the article:
The NRDC also framed its report in a political context, indicating that Sen. Lamar Alexander voted against an attempt by Sen. James Inhofe, R.-Okla., to repeal the Mercury and Air Toxics standard. Sen. Bob Corker supported it.“For too long, Americans have had no choice but to breathe toxic air pollution. Thanks to the EPA, the air is getting cleaner,” said Franz Matzner, NRDC associate director of Government Affairs. “But we need lawmakers who will help clean up the air we all breathe — not lawmakers who do the bidding of big polluters trying to repeal safeguards that protect children’s health. This and future Congresses should let the EPA do its job so all Americans can breathe easier.”
Here’s another article on the toxic junk in Tennessee by Kelly Hearn ( The Nation). Pay attention to the date–I think it could be significant to this woman because she began getting ill in 2009. Holy Crap. Mysterious disease…my arse.
Here’s another discussion on it (same blog). A good discussion on Celiac reaching across several populations that the medical profession has refused to acknowledge. Good Grief. The misery and diseases they have caused by their ignorance.
If there isn’t a big explosion, or bomb, or someone bleeding…well, it’s just *got to be* something else besides toxic chemicals. Seriously. There are people who, faced with evidence, will still not believe that chemicals can do so much harm.
Also up from common dreams is this. I clicked on the link someone posted in the comments section for American Progress–the paper is too long for me to read on the limited time here, so I’ve scrolled down to the companies responsible for getting this law pulled–for the Midwest: Link here. (In case this doesn’t work, the page number is 11.)
For the general list (page 9) of those fighting the EPA: link here.
Another article in the comments section on the same subject here.
Again, the articles address the affects to humans, such as asthma, but fail to entertain the scope of all of nature being affected by the poisonous air. Not to mention the affects on crops.
The radio news today stated that Frontier Communications was down…internet and phone service, so if the listeners were being served by that company, they would be out of service until Frontier came back online.
They went on to say that the police in the town of Huntington were affected by this, and if people needed to contact the police, they need to call the Indiana State Police and then they gave an 800 number to call.
WTH? Can you imagine the chaos this has caused?
It’s another glaring example of the dangers of consolidating all communications into one company. Even if I had the money, I would not have all of my phone, internet, and cable service from one provider. (I’m saying that without checking into what’s available in the area–I briefly looked at what was available when I moved here, but haven’t lately–so for all I know, there isn’t separate service available.)
When one company has all of that, and they fail for whatever reason (no reason has been given for Frontier’s issues), it can have serious repercussions, as with a fire breaking out, or someone having a heart attack and cannot call “911” or a crime in progress…and on…
Why is consolidation never considered from the consumer’s point of view??
(Okay, feeling a little more lucid today…back to business…)
People who starve in America per given year.
More statistics on the world here.
More debate about the *cough* non-issue here. Repeat after me: “If you don’t acknowledge there’s a problem, then there’s no problem.”
Deaths from prescription drugs here--a whopping 100,000 people die every year from prescription drugs and 2 million are seriously injured…but you wouldn’t know that by the lack of attention it receives. I’m sure that the drug companies buying advertising on the TV networks has *nothing* to do with the lack of sunlight on the issue. /snark
But those same TV nooz stations will begin (if they haven’t already, since I’m cable-less, I don’t know and I don’t have time to search the web to find out) their onslaught of dire warnings to the American public on the upcoming flu season and how they better get on the stick and get those poisonous vaccines shot into their already beleaguered bodies. The radio stations here are doing their best to get the hype going on West Nile again…today they announced that horses have died of West Nile, so owners are being urged to get their horses vaccinated. Wanna know how many horses have died? Three. Yep. I wonder if those horses die from the vaccine if it will be duly noted and reported to authorities? Nah, we can’t have that. That would be responsible and accurate.
Other deaths by pharmaceutical companies here. Keep the kleenex handy. A story of a mother’s heartbreak over the belief she was doing what a good mother does…
More on vaccine deaths here. Note the similar blanket excuse of SIDS. Here’s a site that blames the parents (mother) for SIDS…oldest trick in the book–that way, she’ll feel guilty for being a poor parent instead of questioning the vaccines the child received. More blaming here…by National Polite Republican.
More parents’ stories here. But the public is going to be urged to put this poison into their children…and then be blamed if their child dies as a result. This is criminal. I can’t even read them all because it’s just too hard.
I’m struggling with this issue with my own kids now–they’ve been brainwashed to believe vaccines are okay and I’m being an alarmist. I’ve seen how they have affected a sibling’s grandkids and how the child changed dramatically after receiving these horrible shots. I can’t convince my kids that there is a connection. I don’t have grandchildren yet, but I’m trying to prevent a tragedy.
And thanks to Senator Frist, you can’t touch Big Pharma. Profit$ without penalty nor accountability. More here.
…let’s not forget Frist killing kittens for “medical research”. Paragraph here: http://www.rotten.com/library/bio/usa/bill-frist/
And more here.
And speaking of cruelty to animals, the FW radio stations were reporting this morning that allegedly a man had tied a firecracker to a kitten’s tail, and it appears that he allegedly threw the kitten into a fire. The story went on to say that the man’s girlfriend owned the cat and she was quoted as saying that the boyfriend was complaining that the “cat was always around.” Sounds like a great guy. /snark
…falls mainly on the Hoosier plain…:)
I was in that haze between sleep and awake states at 6:30 this morning when I thought I heard a rumble…
Could it be?
Is that rain I hear hitting the window?
Nah…I’m still asleep…
And then…CRACK! BOOM! Nature blessed us with much, much needed rain. It didn’t last long, probably ten-fifteen minutes, so I thought it was over…and then another storm came in and rained for an hour! Woot! I would go out dancing in it if I wouldn’t be taken away in a straight jacket (we don’t do that stuff here. Spontaneous displays of joy and wonderment are not allowed. /just slightly snarky).
So, yeah, I’m letting out a big Ahhhh…thank you thank you thank you.
We’ve apparently been noticed by Washington–the Ag Undersecretary is here seeing the amount of crop damage due to the drought. Link here: http://www.wane.com/dpp/news/indiana/usda-undersecretary-to-visit-allen-county-farm
I was listening to the rightwing radio station this morning (It took me so long to find a nooz station that actually has a live reporter because it was with the same station that broadcasts Limbaugh, Hannity, and whatshisname. Unfortunately, it also means that the nooz is slanted towards the rightwing mindset…so, yeah…) and they had the Undersecretary on. The guy was talking in farm terms that the public is not familiar with–anyone with any public speaking training knows that you have to keep the terms to common everyday terms so everyone will understand it. Even the rightwing morning host said he didn’t understand what was just said—and the undersecretary didn’t try to clarify–I can’t figure out if he doesn’t have a clue (not likely) or if it was deliberate.
He did say that they have planted more corn this year than previous years, so the crop was not going to be that devastated. The morning host said something like “You mean that even though we’re looking at a lot of crop loss here, that there isn’t going to be that much of an impact?” To which the ag secretary said “no.” Then the host asked about the prices. The ag secretary said that prices were going up. Um-hmmm…I smell a rat. If the corn crop hasn’t been impacted in a severe way, then why the hell are the prices going up?
Can you say “speculation”? I knew that you could.
As a side note, I found this with Michael Pollan on the cows being fed corn/grain instead of letting them feed on grass. (Warning: parts are very graphic).
It’s very simply explained that they have systems that allow them to digest grass, not corn. And the really disturbing aspect is how they used to allow them to mature to 4 to 5 years, but now have it down to 14 months, going to 11 months. Mo money Mo money Mo money.
Another disturbing aspect is when the calf is separated from its mother–the mother bellows for days and days he says.
From the page:
There are] 35,000, 50,000, 100,000 animals in the space of a couple of hundred acres. And in the middle of the city is rising the single landmark, which is the feedmill. It’s several stories high. It’s silvery. It’s sort of this cathedral in the midst of this, and everything rotates around it. …
But they really are medieval cities in many respects, I realized, because they are cities in the days before modern sanitation. They’re from the time when cities really were stinky. When they were teeming and filthy and pestilential and liable to be ridden with plague, because you had people coming from many, many different places, bringing many, many different microbes into a concentrated area where they could spread them around.
~~~~~~~
The problem with this is that the antibiotics are affecting the people eating them: resistance, and encouragement of candida and other nasty bugs in the gut, cause such grief. And of course, doctors are not taking this into account any more than they’re taking diet into account when a patient presents with a problem.
So…even though we don’t have 14th century disease right now, with the destruction of a person’s immune system through their gut, it’s setting up a bad set of circumstances that have that potential. We already have super bugs that are not treatable by even the most strongest antibiotics.
And I can’t even begin to understand the mindset that says that cows don’t care if they’re sick from not having their proper food, or being crammed in together standing in their manure, or the mother cow losing her calf before its time (the fact that she bellows is your first clue) …
It is curious how Michael Pollan says it’s dangerous to say that an animal is impacted by the way humans treat it–I’ve heard old farmers call cows “bossy” because of their personality…so how is it dangerous to state observations that confirm the animals are more than machines?
Pollan states he bought a cow and raised it to market, but was not allowed to go into the kill floor. A red flag.
Animals give us life and deserve to be treated with respect. Stuffing them with corn that ferments in their insides, packing them in lots too small to move around freely with piles of manure, injecting them with drugs to counteract all of that doesn’t ring of respect.
At the end of the article, Pollan is asked about irradiation. Says it’s probably fine. Yeah, radiating food would be just what is needed after all of the above…Good Grief.
I’m late with this, but it’s nice to know others are out there fighting for those of us most affected by this. The cuts in food stamps…i.e., the “Eat Shit” campaign of those compassionate conservatives who think all life is precious…as long as you’re a conservative and wealthy….poor people should just dry up and blow away and “decrease the surplus population…”
From the email sent to the organic advocates group I belong to:
Rep. Marcia Fudge (D-OH) and other hill champions are coordinating Members
of Congress to make ‘one minute’ speeches in opposition to the House Ag
Committee’s proposed cuts to SNAP. When you call your Members of Congress
today, ask him/her to speak out on the House floor in support of SNAP
tomorrow, *July 10 at noon or on Wed., July 11th at noon*. If interested,
House offices should contact LaDavia Drane (ladavia.drane@ mail.house. gov)
in Rep. Fudge’s office. “One Minutes” are first come, first serve.~~~~~~~~~~~
“House Republicans think a working poor household with $2,000 in assets
shouldn’t be getting food stamps – an average of $1.50 per meal – but they
don’t seem to have problems with far wealthier insurance companies and
agribusiness getting much bigger handouts from the Farm Bill,” noted Dunlea.The Congressional Budget Office estimates the House bill would cut spending
over ten years by more than $35 billion, the Senate bill $23 billion.****“****America* ***’s children, seniors and 1.5 million veteran households
facing a constant struggle against hunger deserve better from Congress,”
said Senator Gillibrand of the House bill.****The House bill does not include several amendments attached to the Senate
bill, including one that required those getting subsidized crop insurance
to comply with conservation requirements and another that reduce by 15
percentage points the share of crop insurance premiums the government pays
for farmers with adjusted gross incomes of more than $750,000. Currently
the government bears an average 62 percent of crop insurance premiums
~~~~~~~~~
The quote from Henry Kissinger popped in my head. Link Here:
http://www.corporate-aliens.com/quotes/getquote.php?Henry-Kissinger"eid=1427
Who controls the food supply controls the people; who controls the energy can control whole continents; who controls money can control the world.
Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride recommends making your own homemade yogurt because the commercial stuff is inferior, with less active live cultures. So, I’ve been experimenting with using organic Kefir with this wonderful locally made milk, from Trader’s Point Dairies here in Indiana. It’s pasteurized (since raw milk will kill you/snark) but it is not homogenized, which is only a cosmetic, not a health concern. Dr. Campbell-McBride says that the process to homogenize changes the fat molecules. I suppose the body cannot recognize it in the changed form?
Anyway, I’ve decided that my homemade yogurt is like a box of chocolates…I never know what I’m going to get. 🙂 It’s either runny or lumpy….although I have to admit the times when it’s been more of a solid, I’ve added more Kefir to it, so maybe that’s the cause.
Homemade sauerkraut is totally under-rated. The commercial stuff has this bitterness to it, but the homemade stuff doesn’t. It has a kick to it, for sure. The only problem is that you have to wait 5-7 days for it to ferment.
I’ve also tried fermenting carrots. I thought I might get the sweet-and-sour thing….yeah, that didn’t work out so well…but they’re still edible.
There’s also a recipe for homemade ice cream, using real cream that’s also been fermented into sour cream, adding eggs, honey, and whatever ingredient you want…sounds delicious.
Dr. Campbell-McBride encourages certain ripe fruits on the diet–I’ve tried some, but still have strong reactions to them, so I’m back to ripe bananas (brown spots on the skin) and apples. I mashed a ripe banana and threw it in the pan with the eggs in the morning, and oh.my.god, it was like eating pancakes! Yum…pancakes are something I’ve been missing.
I’ve been pretty good at sticking with the diet, although I have to admit I cheated last week…succumbing to the call of M&M’s. But I’m still proud of myself for sticking to it. I’ve now lost 20 pounds. Amazing.
~~~~~~
Fort Wayne has free firewood, if anyone’s interested…you’ll have to drop by and pick it up yourself. 🙂 Just a little storm humor. Geez, it still amazes me how powerful that storm was…I was walking home from the grocery this morning (haven’t been able to walk anywhere because of the heat), and there were trees with major damage on each of the six blocks I walked. One guy passed by and said his friend’s car was demolished by a tree. I don’t think insurance even covers that–nice out for them, eh?
Oh, and a minor correction–I don’t think the picture I linked to with the tree in the street was the actual one in front of the library. I’m still not that familiar with the streets, not being that mobile. I think the tree down was actually about a couple blocks over. Anyway, wanted to clear that up. Truth in reporting and all that 🙂
~~~~~~~~~~
Eagle 
You must be logged in to post a comment.