…and the victim-blaming rape culture continues…

More reasons to dislike Don Lemon.  Good God, did he really say that??  The victim should have fought back — not that Cosby should not have been shoving his member into her?!

So…by Don Lemon’s (and multiple other males and females) assertion, she “wanted it” because she was allegedly raped twice by Bill Cosby? (The only reason I say allegedly is for legal reasons….because I believe her.).

She talks about being unable to truly give consent– being stoned.

She talks about being afraid–he was in a position of power and she was young and vulnerable and felt she would not be believed if she did speak out.

If Don Lemon (and the rest) don’t believe her now….why would they have believe her then?  Her fears are well-founded.  Women as second-class, women as objects to use for sex,  women as not having a say in what happens to them….is our culture.

Naomi Klein on Keystone, hazards of bitumen, etc.

Naomi Klein was on DN! to put some of the facts straight about Keystone–it is NOT a job creator.  The oil is NOT coming to America, but being piped through this horrible pipeline that crosses farmland and aquifers.  The process to get the oil out of the sand requires huge amounts of precious water.

Note in the piece President Obama is stating that he’s really going to take this environmental thing seriously.  Really…he is. Not so fast.

First Nations, et al, protesting in Canada.  Here is the Global News report.  Note how they couch this report:  Anti-Oil.  A negative.  But they are not portrayed as pro-environment, pro-kids of coming generations, pro-health activists. Makes a difference, doesn’t it, on how one views them. I wonder how much $$ Big Oil is paying them to be their mouthpiece.

Lest we forget.

This from the Royal Canadian Chemistry society on toxicity.  And the Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS) on Bitumen.  Note how the folks in Michigan were complaining of the same symptoms listed on this data sheet for bitumen exposure after the Kalamazoo River spill.

EYES
: Hot bitumen and bitumen fumes may cause severe irritation and burns. Cold bitumen may cause slight irritation. Bitumen dust may cause irritation characterized by burning, redness, swelling and watering
~~~~~~~~
SKIN
: Hot bitumen and bitumen fumes may cause moderate to severe irritation and burns. Cold
bitumen may cause moderate irritation. Bitumen
dust may cause irritation characterized by redness
and occasional drying and peeling.
INGESTION
: Irritation of gastrointestinal tract, vomiting and a danger of aspiration. Aspiration can
develop into potentially fatal chemical pneumonitis.
INHALATION
: Bitumen fumes may cause moderate to severe irritation of the nose, throat and
respiratory tract. May cause headache, nausea, sore throat, nasal congestion, dizziness and nervousness. Confined spaces may accumulate hydrogen sulfide gas. Hydrogen sulfide may cause respiratory tract irritation, nausea, headache, dizziness, pulmonary edema, loss of consciousness, brain damage and death.
~~~~~~~~~

Also note how this sheet appears to be put out by petroleum corporation….yeah, I’m not putting a lot of confidence that they are telling the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.  Because I’m pretty sure that brain damage and death are serious reactions to the toxic substance. /snark

Here’s a short video on the fight against Keystone in Canada:

Again, I ask the question:  If most of the American public is against Keystone (which they are)…then why are our wishes not being honored?

Lastly, I leave you with Neil Young’s stirring song, Mother Earth:

Watching the video, it just kills me to see the beautiful greenery of Canada…and then what looks like an open wound where they have stripped the Earth.  I mean, it looks like someone went in for plastic surgery and was horribly disfigured.

Members of Congress salivating to get XL pipeline pushed through…

Well, they aren’t wasting any time, are they?

Roll Call.

Barrow. Bishop (GA). Brady  (PA). Clyburn. Cooper. Cuellar. Doyle. Green, Al. Green, Gene. Hinojosa. Jackson Lee. Lipinksi. Loebsack. Maloney. Matheson. McCarthy (NY). McIntyre. Murphy (FL). Nolan. Norcross. Owens. Peterson. Rahall. Richmond. Scott, David. Sewell (AL). Sires. Thompson (MS), Veasey. Vela. Walz.

The good folks who voted against:

Adams
Barber
Bass
Beatty
Becerra
Bera (CA)
Bishop (NY)
Bonamici
Braley (IA)
Brown (FL)
Brownley (CA)
Butterfield
Capps
Capuano
Cárdenas
Carney
Carson (IN)
Cartwright
Castor (FL)
Castro (TX)
Chu
Cicilline
Clark (MA)
Clarke (NY)
Clay
Cleaver
Cohen
Connolly
Conyers
Courtney
Crowley
Cummings
Davis (CA)
Davis, Danny
DeFazio
DeGette
Delaney
DeLauro
DelBene
Deutch
Dingell
Doggett
Edwards
Ellison
Engel
Eshoo
Esty
Farr
Fattah
Foster
Frankel (FL)
Fudge
Gabbard
Gallego
Garamendi
Garcia
Grayson
Grijalva
Gutiérrez
Hahn
Hanabusa
Hastings (FL)
Heck (WA)
Higgins
Himes
Holt
Honda
Horsford
Hoyer
Huffman
Israel
Jeffries
Johnson (GA)
Johnson, E. B.
Kaptur
Keating
Kelly (IL)
Kennedy
Kildee
Kilmer
Kind
Kirkpatrick
Kuster
Langevin
Larsen (WA)
Larson (CT)
Lee (CA)
Levin
Lewis
Lofgren
Lowenthal
Lowey
Lujan Grisham (NM)
Luján, Ben Ray (NM)
Lynch
Maffei
Maloney, Carolyn
Matsui
McCollum
McDermott
McNerney
Meeks
Meng
Michaud
Miller, George
Moore
Moran
Nadler
Napolitano
Neal
Negrete McLeod
O’Rourke
Pallone
Pascrell
Pastor (AZ)
Pelosi
Peters (CA)
Peters (MI)
Pingree (ME)
Pocan
Polis
Price (NC)
Quigley
Rangel
Roybal-Allard
Ruiz
Ruppersberger
Rush
Ryan (OH)
Sánchez, Linda T.
Sanchez, Loretta
Sarbanes
Schakowsky
Schiff
Schneider
Schrader
Schwartz
Scott (VA)
Serrano
Shea-Porter
Sherman
Sinema
Slaughter
Speier
Swalwell (CA)
Takano
Thompson (CA)
Tierney
Titus
Tonko
Tsongas
Van Hollen
Vargas
Velázquez
Visclosky
Wasserman Schultz
Waters
Waxman
Welch
Wilson (FL)
Yarmuth

My previous posts on XL, tar sands, bitumen, etc.:

Detroit buried in Petroleum Coke (which comes from tar sands when the oil is extracted.)

PIpeline rupture report buried.  Exxon interfering with coverage of Arkansas spill.  So you know that if there are any issues with Keystone, et al, we’re aren’t likely to hear about it until a lot of damage is done.

Kochs exposed.  One of the most important films you will watch.

Members of Congress pushing for XL pipeline…while being invested in it. And the Dirty Nine who were flown on private jet for a private meeting…um-hmmm.. this link also contains the testimony of Dr. James Hansen, a NASA scientist, on the Tar Sands being “game over” for the climate.

Canadians testify at the Senate. Tell us…how does it feel to be forced out of your home due to a toxic environment,,hmmm? /snarky

The First Nations folks speak out against the Tar Sands.  Their passion is so inspiring. And their spiritual connection to all of Creation is evident in the video.

Yes, there are actual progressive Democrats, although it’s hard to spot them sometimes. Note that Elizabeth Warren has signed on…and Hillary Clinton’s State Department’s environmental impact report was done by a Petroleum insider.  Unreal.  Clinton really must think we’re stupid or something.

PR Watch’s fine work on exposing the Keystone XL pipeline.

Selling the Earth for the XL.

Leto, Kennedy, et al, send a letter to John Kerry against the XL.  I include my own journey towards my impact towards the environment and trying to reduce my contribution to pollution.

Kris Homme on mercury’s devastating effects

Kris Homme is a member of our mercury support group.  She was a guest on a radio show talking about the lax regulations of mercury, even though it is a known neurotoxin (brain poison).

I was surprised that she recommended the DAN! doctors, because many members have been led astray by DAN doctors, so I would emphatically say that beware of DAN doctors if you choose to investigate this further.

Kris brings up the IV chelation and how dangerous it is–it really depends on one’s ability to excrete mercury, which she touches on, but doesn’t explain thoroughly.  I have Irish genes and the Irish are known poor excreters with the double APO gene.  If I were to do IV chelation, my body would not be able to excrete, and therefore, the mercury would be re-distributed, probably to the brain.  Dr. Cutler said he watched as a friend became mentally ill from IV chelation, and he then knew it was not a safe protocol to get the mercury out.  His friend never recovered.

I also wish that Kris had gone into her own debilitating symptoms–she now has macular degeneration and could not even read what I’m writing here.  She had to leave her engineering job because of mercury poisoning illness.

She also did not emphasize our toxic environment–from my own experience with the coal dust spewing from the coal burning power plant when I was a teen, I know with absolute certainty that environmental toxins are powerful and they do affect us in ways that we are not necessarily aware of, until it’s too late.

I found an article on Kris on alternet.org.  Besides CBS (60 Minutes), this is the only prominent media exposure asking about mercury poisoning.

Lastly, here is a video on Boyd Haley, PhD, who was a chemistry professor and spoke out on amalgams long ago.  It’s with great sadness that he speaks of the link between mercury and Alzheimers…I know in my heart that my mother suffered from mercury poisoning and most likely undiagnosed Celiac disease.

Veterans’ voices you don’t hear… **edited

DN! has a sobering report up this morning on the side of the war story you don’t hear from the Rah!Rah! mainstream media.  Keep the tissues nearby, because unless you have a hard heart, the tears will flow.

Tomas Young, activist against the Iraq War, dies on the eve of Veterans’ Day.

Phil Donahue and his role in getting Tomas’ story told.  The side of war you don’t see or hear.  As Donahue said, this has been the most “sanitized” war on record.  With the Vietnam war, the war was right in our faces every night with the then respectable media.  Communications folks talk about the war as being lost because of the horror of war brought into people’s homes every night.  There was no denying how devastating it was.

Now we have Tomas Young, who went in thinking he was fighting for his country, when he was fighting for oil.  He became paralyzed….for oil.

Lastly, StoryCorps has an animated video of a soldier and the children he met.  He could see their humanity and how utterly devastating war is when his little friend suffered terrible losses.  How could he explain this to the child?

I wonder what my Dad went through in his service.  He never talked about it.

And again, I want to state that I am not down on veterans…but I seek a world without war.

**edited to fix link.

How much money would we save?

I’m just wondering…how much money would we save, in fifteen minutes or less…if Geico, State Farm, Liberty Mutual, Progressive, etc., weren’t constantly running TV, radio, and internet ads?

I mean, really, the amount of money they are forking over for those ads means that a) they charge too much for their premiums opposed to the amount they pay out; or b) they don’t pay enough in corporate taxes.

Probably both….