Category Archives: politics

More on the Bush Library

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Common Dreams has this up on the Bush Library dedication today:  http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2013/04/25-5

I think I’m going to be sick….

From a letter quoted in the article:

Last month, on the tenth anniversay of the start of Bush’s invasion of Iraq, wounded Iraq war veteran Thomas Young, who remains in hospice waiting to die, wrote an open letter to Bush and his vice president Dick Cheney which included:

“I write this letter on behalf of husbands and wives who have lost spouses, on behalf of children who have lost a parent, on behalf of the fathers and mothers who have lost sons and daughters and on behalf of those who care for the many thousands of my fellow veterans who have brain injuries. I write this letter on behalf of those veterans whose trauma and self-revulsion for what they have witnessed, endured and done in Iraq have led to suicide and on behalf of the active-duty soldiers and Marines who commit, on average, a suicide a day. I write this letter on behalf of the some 1 million Iraqi dead and on behalf of the countless Iraqi wounded. I write this letter on behalf of us all—the human detritus your war has left behind, those who will spend their lives in unending pain and grief.

I write this letter, my last letter, to you, Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney. I write not because I think you grasp the terrible human and moral consequences of your lies, manipulation and thirst for wealth and power. I write this letter because, before my own death, I want to make it clear that I, and hundreds of thousands of my fellow veterans, along with millions of my fellow citizens, along with hundreds of millions more in Iraq and the Middle East, know fully who you are and what you have done. You may evade justice but in our eyes you are each guilty of egregious war crimes, of plunder and, finally, of murder, including the murder of thousands of young Americans—my fellow veterans—whose future you stole.”

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Ending his letter, Young wrote to Bush:

“My day of reckoning is upon me. Yours will come. I hope you will be put on trial. But mostly I hope, for your sakes, that you find the moral courage to face what you have done to me and to many, many others who deserved to live. I hope that before your time on earth ends, as mine is now ending, you will find the strength of character to stand before the American public and the world, and in particular the Iraqi people, and beg for forgiveness.”

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Domestic violence mirrors war

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I swear that I did not see this before making my previous comment on the connection between domestic violence and war.  Wow, what a timely article.

From the article:

Some 3,073 people were killed in the terrorist attacks on the United States on 9/11. Between that day and June 6, 2012, 6,488 US soldiers were killed in combat in Iraq and Afghanistan, bringing the death toll for America’s war on terror at home and abroad to 9,561. During the same period, 11,766 women were murdered in the United States by their husbands or boyfriends, both military and civilian. The greater number of women killed here at home is a measure of the scope and the furious intensity of the war against women, a war that threatens to continue long after the misconceived war on terror is history.

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On the photos taken of the violence at home:

The photos are remarkable because the photographer is very good and the subject of her attention is so rarely caught on camera. Unlike warfare covered in Iraq and Afghanistan by embedded combat photographers, wife torture takes place mostly behind closed doors, unannounced and unrecorded.

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An excellent point–because in Communications, the Vietnam War is known as the media war —a war that was lost because of the diligence of the press–they brought the war home every night on the nightly news.  People could see with their own eyes what was happening–politicians in Washington could not whitewash it.  The violence we were doing to others could not be denied.  The thought of a photographer taking photos while someone commits domestic violence makes my stomach turn…and at the same time, I’m thinking “is this what it takes to make it *real*….???”  Do the people have to see photos of women beaten to a pulp on the nightly news, every night to grasp how horrible this is?

Here’s another report on domestic violence in Africa following war.  Does the war cause domestic violence or is it a cycle repeating itself?

 

 

I think we lost one

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A poster on the mercury poisoning support group had posted an alarming letter–s/he was talking about being depressed and not seeing beyond the depression fog that goes with this horrible poison’s effects.

That was April 6th. I first replied that what the poster was experiencing was typical of heavy metal poisoning and that most of us have been *there*.  I begged her/him not to give up.

When the poster did not reply to any of us (several of us replied trying to help the poster see beyond the immediate feelings of despair), I tried again and asked the poster to let us know that s/he was okay.

No reply.  No response at all.  I’m afraid that this horrible poison has taken another life. Shit.

(I’m hoping that they’re still there, but not able to post at this time.)

CISPA

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Electronic Frontier Foundation has this up. 

The internet should be viewed as a private transaction between the user and the internet.  I don’t understand the thought that because you’re on the ‘net, you’re automatically abdicating the Right to Privacy guaranteed by the Fourth Amendment. 

Amendment IV

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

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Blood Medicine

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I’m watching Kathleen Sharp on BookTV (yay, Book TV) that has written a book called Blood Medicine about a cancer drug, Epo,  that did a great job of helping red blood cells to grow….

….unfortunately, it also helps cancer cells to grow.

Yes, yes, it is freaking amazing that this drug is on the market with serious issues such as suspected of killing people.

The operation was a success.  But the patient died.

Sharp describes a cancer patient was helped by the drug with his cancer fight, but died because he began bleeding out the nose and mouth.

Sharp is adamant against pharmaceutical companies being able to advertise on Tv.  I  believe she said that we and perhaps another country are the only developed countries that allow these commercials.

In Communications, they go to great lengths in order to sell the product.  Advertising agencies will do a study of the targeted audience to see how to construct the message for the best impact — i.e., to get the target audience  to request it from their doctors. or perhaps I should say demand it from their doctors.  They are convinced by slick advertising that *this* drug will help them get healthy again.   As someone who has been *there*, it really doesn’t take much in convincing if you’re so ill that you would do almost anything to regain your health.  Sharp didn’t even touch on the fact that these doctors who are prescribing these drugs, may be invested in these companies, and therefore, have a financial interest to prescribe these drugs.  I’ve seen how pharma works –they are not legally supposed to buy doctors lunches and other gifts….so they have “information sessions” and just happen to have it during the lunch hour….and have lunch brought in.  Ahem.

A sunshine law is part of the Obama health plan.  We’ll see if it does any good.  I’m pessimistic because the whole culture surrounding the FDA and the pharm industry and the billion dollar lobbying by Big Pharma…

More history here.

And here.  How can we forget Bush appointment, Dr. Hager,  and his ex-wife’s allegations of marital rape?

Sharp mentions the revolving door between the pharm industry and the FDA.

A man calling himself  John calls in and is identifying himself as a neonatalogist whom immediately states that Sharp has “poorly researched” her book. (red flag that this guy is perhaps an industry exec or someone tied to the billion dollar industry).   She states that there are some uses for the drug, but  the consumers are not aware of the dangers and that needs to change.

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While researching this, I found this link.  People were protesting Monsanto back in 1994….but Bill Clinton was busy in the Oval Office….something about an intern with a blue dress…

Michigan debates Common Core

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Diane Ravitch has this up on the debate on Common Core education standards in Michigan.  It’s odd that they are debating it after they had accepted it….jumped the gun, maybe?  That seems to be all to common in the education world–some *expert* claims to have the magic bullet for *fixing* education, but that never seems to pan out….

Let the Intimidation begin…

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Another good blog from Diane Ravitch on the bullying in schools…

….not by the kids, mind you, but a teacher under pressure to conform and teach to the test and the principal who, as a commenter put it, has “lost their way”.

As was said–pit the parents and teachers against one another, and *voila*, you have dysfunction….leading to failing schools that can be closed and handed over to the profiteers….

From the blog:

My daughter, who is in the 11th grade, was victimized by her principal and teacher today because she submitted an opt out letter. She was made to feel wrong and unsupportive of her school because she wasn’t going to take the test.

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This is what I was talking about in my previous blog–it can be intimidating even for a parent to speak out–let alone a student who is vulnerable to the teacher’s grades and attitude.

Uppity people who ask questions or protest something they perceive as detrimental are to be dealt with—can’t have that because before you know it, there will be others who will also start asking questions….

 

 

Ripping the Band Aid Off

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Diane Ravitch has a blog up on the new standard, Common Core for the public schools in NYC.

From The Economist comments section:

the new testing regime encourages a wider opening of the class gulf by giving teachers an incentive to compete for students with strong skills, excellent home support, and private resources to purchase any necessary tutoring to get Junior up to snuff. Who will stand up for the child of a poor single parent who can’t afford Khan Academy tutoring, doesn’t know enough algebra to help, and doesn’t have time to walk her/his child through the mountains of test preparation homework dispensed in the months leading up to this?

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Word.  The poor kids with no one at home who can help them and no money for tutoring and coming to school hungry because single Mom can’t afford breakfast…depressing….

An incident popped into my head when reading the comments on the link she provides to The Economist (strange that a story on education would end up there, eh?)  Anyway, being 34, the college I wanted to attend had required I take entrance exams a second time (the first time was the SAT’s in h.s.).  Algebra and Trigonometry were part of the exam.  I didn’t take the college prep courses in high school because I didn’t think I’d ever get to go to college (even though I wanted to)….so you could have knocked me over with a feather when the admissions counselor told me that I passed the Math test and could opt out of the pre-Math courses.  I think I actually laughed that I passed them without taking classes….which goes to show that exams shouldn’t have as much weight as they do.  I mean, I got decent grades in Math (B’s)…but did not know the material before taking the class—it would have been a disaster for me to opt-out.  Maybe, just maybe, I had a few Algebra and Trig problems while in h.s., because, if I recall correctly, textbooks at that time had problems for the next grade level at the back of the book, in order to prepare the students for the next year.  This might explain at least some of it.

Additionally, when I was in college, the ADD was bad and even though I studied my butt off for several hours and knew my subject matter, I still only got B’s and sometimes C’s because of poor test taking.  My mind would be all over the place.  This is another reason that testing shouldn’t be given the weight that it does–I knew the material, but you wouldn’t know it by the test.

Also, the university I began at had a much better support system with excellent tutors available to help unravel the Math mysteries.  The university I went to after the initial classes–the one I graduated from–deliberately made Math very difficult.  I think this was to “weed out” the students…after all, most of the professions that pay well involve Math.  If you have a lot of folks who can do Math, well then, you don’t have exclusivity, do you?  Harder to justify higher salaries when there are more folks who can do those jobs.

Lastly, testing aside, parents DO need to take an active role in supplementing their child’s teacher’s efforts.  AND even question their teachers when appropriate.  I had to do this twice –once when my middle child was having difficulty learning to read.  Her 1st Grade teacher was frustrated and going to label her as “stupid”…I could see the handwriting on the wall. I went to the precious gift of the library and checked out books on teaching kids to read, since I didn’t know how to help her—she was getting stuck on the words “a” , “and” and “the”….I luckily (or guided 🙂 found a book on Dyslexia.  I discovered that she was dyslexic.  And I discovered that I was, too.   Dyslexics have a hard time with a, and, the—because they learn to read by visualizing a picture in their head–b-a-l-l is a round thing they can bounce….they can’t picture a, and,the—because they don’t represent any *one* thing.  I checked out a Phonics book and began sitting down with her every night and eventually she *got it*.  She graduated from the same university many years later 😉

The second time I had to question my child’s teachers was when they were going to “Whole Language” — a stupid program that didn’t teach Phonics.  I wouldn’t have it and protested it.  I got a bunch of flack for it, but I went ahead and checked out the Phonics book a second time to help my third child  to read, too.  Incidentally, I also protested a change in class organization, when they were going to make the 2nd graders switch classes….like they were in middle school…to have two different teachers during the day.  I protested that because I believe the younger kids need to have one teacher for consistency…little ones need that security.  I was sent a condescending note that “they were sorry that I wouldn’t be joining them…”  As if everyone else didn’t have a problem with it, so why did I?

More on Thatcher

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After reading this, I wanted to come back and comment on the fact that she had dementia.  Reagan did, too.

Does anyone else wonder at this?  What about heavy metal poisoning for the cause?  Could the meanness of the world be caused by toxicity?  We know it’s a known fact of mercury poisoning that anger and rage come with it.  The Mayo Clinic’s site on dementia–note that heavy metal poisoning is way down on the list.  It mentions low thyroid, which is good, but depressingly doesn’t mention diet. 

More here from someone who recovered from dementia after adopting a gluten-free diet.

Finally, here’s a report on the connection between criminal behavior and high levels of heavy metals. So much grief caused by toxins…and yet, it’s ignored by the medical profession, the corrections system, the public, etc….