California GMO Ballot

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…as California goes, so goes the Nation  (she says hopefully)… (hat tip to organic consumers)

I wasn’t as impressed with this article as Ronnie Cummins.  It failed to note the Purdue University scientist, Dr. Huber, who sent a letter of concern to Vilsack.  But it was sure to get in GMO advocates that have nothing to back up their assertions that this *stuff that resembles food* is safe.

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By now, you have heard of the *cough* research that says people who buy organic food are….jerks.  Um-hmmm…

Organic Consumers states that reason.com is a part of the Reason Foundation, a libertarian “think tank”, which is…wait for it…a member of ALEC.

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Another link organic consumers had was to a movie trailer about the coming water crises.  However, it was made by the folks who brought us “Waiting for Superman” a smear piece on the public school system that was used as a prop to promote charter schools…so yeah, I’m not linking to it.

News from Wisconsin, ALEC, and more…

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Center for Media and Democracy has this post up on the slanted nooz for Wisconsin taxpayers…and, sadly, there are too many folks who will believe what is written…because it’s written.  See, they think that anyone who puts their name next to an article is actually taking pride in that article and that they’re are trying to report the news fairly.  They don’t understand that news is created, and that the newspaper editors (along with news directors) get to decide what news is reported, and HOW it’s reported….they are gatekeepers.

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Next, we have the story on Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp being a member of ALEC.  I’m shocked, shocked, I tell you! /snark

I was also shocked that Murdoch is joining in the destruction of public schools with the financial free-for-all that’s going on with these greedy bastards.

From the article:

Last November, News Corp. dropped $360 million to buy Wireless Generation, a Brooklyn-based education technology company that provides software, assessment tools, and data services. “When it comes to K through 12 education, we see a $500 billion sector in the US alone that is waiting desperately to be transformed by big breakthroughs that extend the reach of great teaching,” Murdoch said at the time.

Um…what “big breakthrough” could possibly be beyond the “reach” of great teaching…?

More from the article:

Last year, when New Jersey lost out on millions of federal education funding due to a screw-up on its grant application, the company landed at the center of the debacle. The state, after all, had reportedly paid the firm $500,000 to ensure the accuracy of its application, among other things.

Okay, schools having to apply (beg) for money for grants for the children’s education irritates me to no end.  I tried to look up exactly when the whole schools-begging-for-money-through-grants-thing started, but I couldn’t find it.  If I recall correctly, it was when my kids were in elementary school, some twenty years ago (I just noticed CMD has stated this started about twenty years ago, but I don’t have time to read the link).  It seems that the grants and No Child Left A Mind have combined to transform our good school systems into the soulless, art-less, music-less robot creators they are…schools had to play nice in order to get needed money.

Here’s one school that stood up against this shady bullying.  Good for them. I love that they questioned the ranking, especially when they had been rated as a good school just prior to the failing ranking.  I love that someone also mentioned the faults of testing–it’s been given a golden status as the true measurement of one’s intelligence, when it should be a tool, but not the concrete answer of the question of intelligence.  And, as I’ve mentioned previously, testing was originally devised to help a child in trouble…but the eugenics crowd leaped on it to use as a tool to decide who is worthy and who is not.  I saw this as a Substitute Teacher–the kids were tested, and based on that test, were labeled–and that label will follow them all of their school career.

A side note~ I remember one time when I was subbing for a teacher that I didn’t know.  It was one of the first experiences I had as a sub.  There was one particular child who was having great difficulty with the Math lesson, so I used more time to devote to the lesson–going over it three times and then helping him individually with it.  He finally “got it”.  However, this meant that I didn’t get through all of the lessons for that day.  The teacher came in the room at the end of the day, and her face turned red with anger as I explained that I didn’t get through her entire plan.  She was furious because I had taken so long with the Math lesson.

With NCLB, there isn’t time, really, for the kids that are having difficulty with lessons.  Your time is tightly controlled to cram everything that is required in.  It is so controlled that a teacher is not able to teach creatively.  It also puts such pressure on the little ones to complete a task in a given number of minutes, and if they fail, they’re labeled as dummies.  And if they do successfully complete a task, this doesn’t in any way mean that they’ve actually learned anything–they’re just repeating what they’ve memorized, because, basically, that’s what NCLB is all about–not learning creative skills, critical thinking skills, thinking outside the box–it’s about repeating what you’ve been told.  There’s a reason that teachers “teach to the test”….if their school does not show “improvement” they lose the $$.  It’s all for show, folks…

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On to other things…

Gotta love this. 

Rahm Emanuel is apparently afraid the renegade nurses would start…I dunno, giving out free health care…?

From the story:

 

In the lead up to the eventful weekend in Chicago, NNU had a hard time securing permits for their rally and march from the mayor of Chicago, and former chief of staff to President Obama, Rahm Emanuel. At the last minute, Emanuel tried to move the rally and kick Morello off the bill, but the nurses would not yield. After much negotiation, they were allowed to rally, but not to march, so the nurses decided to take a stroll, walking on the sidewalks, stopping at red lights and courteously maintaining a path for passers-by. Despite their decidedly well-behaved march, they were followed by watchful police officers from countless agencies, in the streets and on the rooftops.

Nurses, folks.  Emanuel is afraid of nurses exercising their right to assemble and have their grievances addressed…hmmm…now I *know* I’ve read that we have the right somewhere…oh, yeah, the Constitution….hmmm…

There’s more on CMD, but I’m out of time here.  More tomorrow.

 

GAPS and the sustainable environment

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While I was out jogging this morning, I was thinking about the GAPS diet and how Dr. Campbell-McBride advocates nuts in the diet…and it flashed in my head about how much land is used to grow wheat and corn and soybeans…and I wondered about how much more food, as in nuts, could be grown and if that was more ecologically sound?

I found this page advocating that very idea–it says that nut trees require very little chemical intervention, if any at all…not to mention the benefits of increased oxygenation by the trees and providing a home for the birds and squirrels.

I also found this resource for the re-foresting agriculture.

I also found this dedicated to permaculture.  I really like the Vajra farm–I could picture myself taking a stroll through there…I could just feel the cool breeze and the serenity of the forest.  It doesn’t look like any farm that I’ve been acquainted with…

I’m looking at that and thinking about the dry, windblown fields in Indiana, and how much better having this type of agriculture would be for the Earth.  And it would be better for us, as well, with eating nuts and berries again instead of stuffing our faces with bread, cakes, and the like…

Here’s yet another take on growing trees  in “alley ways” along with the usual.  I don’t get a good feel for this–I’d have to see it in operation.  My thinking is that the trees will eventually grow enough to block most of the light for the other crops…unless that is the purpose–to grow crops between them until they are large enough to use for lumber?  The site doesn’t really explain the process very well.

Anyway, there you have it.  I think this would really take off if it were promoted as a healthier alternative for diet, for the Earth, for the animals…

…but that’s just crazy talk 🙂

 

 

 

GAPS

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More from the book Gut and Psychology Syndrome by Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride….

p.321

Top Ten Influences which boost immunity:

1.  Fresh animal fats (from meats and dairy) and cholesterol-rich foods (particularly raw egg yolks).  [Dr. Campbell-McBride emphasizes that cholesterol is very beneficial, despite the false promotion of junk science saying otherwise.]

2.  Cold-pressed oils:   olive oil, fish oils, nut and seed oils.

3.  Onions and garlic.

4.  Freshly pressed veggie & fruit juices. [the fresh foods have enzymes that help your body to digest them properly. ]

5.  Regular consumption of greens:  parsley, dill, coriander, spring onion and garlic, etc. [word of caution: coriander has an effect on mercury mobilization, and it’s not been researched so there is no reliable info. on whether it carries it out of the body, too.]

6.  Probiotic supplementation and fermented foods. [She explains that gut flora is seriously compromised in most of the population, and these will help restore normal flora.]

7.  Contact with animals:  horses, dogs, etc.  Having a pet in the family can do a lot for children’s immune status.

8.  Swimming in unpolluted natural waters:  lakes, rivers, sea.**

9.  Physical activity in the fresh air.

10.  Exposure to sunlight and sensible sunbathing.

**These are non-chlorinated swimming pools.  Pretty cool, eh?

…and if you prefer to do it yourself, Mother Earth News has this for you.  They lose me with advocating man-made materials, however, but you’ll get the basics from the article.

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Next, Dr. Campbell-McBride has a list of the Top Ten Influences that damage immunity:

1.  Sugar and everything containing it:  sweets, soft drinks, confectionery, ice cream, etc.  [she does, however, allow natural honey…whew]

2.  Processed carbohydrates:  cakes, biscuits, crisps, snacks, breakfast cereals, white bread, and pasta.

3.  Chemically altered and artificial fats:  margarine, cooking and vegetable oils, processed foods with these. [basically, the more they change the structure of the food, the worse it is for you–raw and fermented being the best foods.]

4.  Lack of high quality protein in the diet, from meats, fish eggs, dairy products, nuts and seeds.  [Dr. Campbell-McBride writes quite a bit against the vegetarian diet.  She says that the proteins in the plants are not easily absorbed/digested by our digestive systems.  I was a vegetarian from 1998-ish to 2006, when I was advised to start eating meat because of severe anemia, so I understand what she’s saying, but I had hopes that once I was well again that I could go back to vegetarian, but it doesn’t look promising.]

5.  Exposure to man-made chemicals:  cleaning and washing chemicals, personal care products, paints, fire retardants, petrochemicals, pesticides, etc.

6.  Exposure to man-made radiation:  electronic screens: TV, computer, play stations; mobile phones, high-powered electricity lines, nuclear stations, nuclear waste, anti-cancer medication, anti-viral drugs.

7.  Drugs:  antibiotics, steroids, antidepressants, painkillers, anti-cancer medication, anti-viral drugs.

8.  Lack of fresh air and physical activity.

9.  Lack of exposure to sunlight.

10.  Lack of exposure to common microbes in the environment. […]  Living in too sterilized environment is strongly associated with compromised immunity.

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More from the book:

p.71  […]  In an old Textbook of Psychiatry by Henderson and Gillespie, published in 1937, it is clearly stated:  “A thorough physical examination is absolutely essential in every case–schizophrenics are commonly poorly nourished”.  […]  Deficiencies in vitamins (such as niacin, or B3, B6, B12, B1, folic acid, Vitamin C)and many minerals (such as magnesium, zinc, manganese, etc.) are routinely recorded in schizophrenic patients.[…]  U.S. professor Curtis Dohan, M.D., devoted many years to researching what connection digestive abnormalities in schizophrenic patients may have with their psychological state.

…Dr. Dohan found that symptoms of schizophrenia could be dramatically relieved by cutting all grains…

He also found that some cultures in the South Pacific which never consumed grains, had no schizophrenia.  Only when they adopted a Western diet full of grains did they stat getting cases of schizophrenia.  Another good example is Ireland, where people did not consume wheat until the potato famine in 1845.  Before then there were no cases of schizophrenia or coeliac disease recorded in Ireland.

(I can’t find it now, but I had seen a link a while back where Germans also suffer from gluten intolerance.  They observed that schizophrenia went down dramatically during WWII, when grains were scarce.  So, yeah, I have both German/Irish genes, so I’m pretty much SOL in the gluten department.)

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I know this diet is spot on–but it’s not easy.  Dr. Campbell-McBride has a list of allowed foods and non-allowed foods.  She eliminates ALL grains, so I was correct in my thinking that I couldn’t eat rice nor potatoes (carbs).

On the non-allowed foods, I got to…chocolate.  Read it again to make sure that I hadn’t misread it….

Chocolate?  She wants me to give up chocolate?  Was she freaking crazy?  I didn’t think I could do it….*anything* but chocolate…

…so I ate a bunch of chocolate…

…and felt so awful that I thought I’d have to at least give it a shot.

I’m at day five…and holding my own.  I have a fear that closer to *that* time of the month, however, I’ll be craving it like crazy and will lose the battle…

On the more positive side, I have lost fifteen pounds since March.  And my gut is less swollen.  It’s freaking amazing. 🙂

The History

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…of this land has been horribly twisted to put white European settlers as some sort of heroes, when the truth is far from that.

From Indian Country, exploring the Native American side of that history. Contrary to belief, this land was not a “wilderness”, but a carefully cultivated eco-system that worked, amazingly, for 10,000+ years…and it took the Europeans only a few hundred years to trash the place…

There are several links at the bottom of the story.  I don’t have time to click on all of them, but did this one.  When I told my son about the smallpox infested blankets, he didn’t believe me.  He couldn’t imagine someone being so evil.   Bio-warfare, like drones, is a coward’s way to win at war–“if we can’t win by our physical and mental stamina, we’ll cheat and introduce a disease that will knock them out…” Sickening.

DN!

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DN has this today.

Fukushima released twice as much radiation as was reported. *yawn* tell us something we didn’t already know…

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Further down, Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase are suspected of playing a shell game.  *yawn* tell us something we didn’t already suspect…a banker possibly involved in making a profit off of a false front…now that’s not something you hear every day./snark

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Pentagon PR company admits to creating a misinformation campaign (only it’s with American journalists this time).  *really*, folks, this yawning thing is getting monotonous…

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A woman with a pro-choice shirt was forced to cover up before she could catch her connecting flight….Freedom of Speech…well, only if we agree with you…

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Lastly, this on the Philadelphia public schools crises, which was self-created by the cut in funding.  Both Romney AND Obama both want to destroy public schools…they steadfastly hold onto “No Child Left Behind” and promotion of charter schools, which both have been shown to NOT improve education.

Margaret Spellings, a Bushee, is immersed in this–a red flag.

Romney’s knock on teacher’s unions is another red flag. You notice that he doesn’t name who this long time president of the teacher’s union…(Amy Goodman said Albert Schenker–and his words were meant in another way).

It is a slap in the face that teachers don’t care about children nor their education.  I’ve been in the schools (unlike Obama or Romney, who went to private schools) and all of the teachers were dedicated to educating kids even within the shitpile of No Child Left a Mind…

You might recall the quotes from craniologists the other day–how “science” was being used to discredit women (and blacks)…well, that is where IQ testing came from–they developed questions to assess if someone needed help in certain areas. But what started out as a beneficial way to help became a tool for those who seek Power Over.

Protests against chemicals

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The stroller brigade went to DC to protest the non-transparency of chemicals on our health and the environment. Link to info here.

Glad to see it.  I am dumbfounded on a daily basis at the apathy by those around me to the onslaught of toxins and how much damage they are doing not only to us but the environment.

People will tell me they’re taking x amount of prescription drugs, while drinking cokes, eating junk food, etc., while their bodies are already being assaulted.    One resident of the building  came outside, saying he wanted to “get some fresh air”….while dragging on a cigarette…

…I had to stifle myself to keep from cracking up laughing…

It’s just mindboggling how they don’t see any connection between how poorly they feel and the chemical soup we’re in.

I’ve noticed a change in people’s behavior when they saturate the skies with chemtrails…is anybody investigating that?

Here is a link exploring that.  There aren’t a lot of credible sources out there on this issue–but just from my personal observation, I think they are affecting people’s health.  Mercury poisoning makes one much, much more sensitive to toxins–car exhaust, perfumes, chemical cleaners, electro-magnetic fields (at one point, I couldn’t talk on a cell phone without getting a migraine the next day)etc.–and when they spray this junk in the air, I have a reaction to it.

One link I read said that the chemtrails contain aluminum and barium–those two metals are hazardous to one’s health–so I went looking for more info on it and found this.

I’m afraid that it will be like the onslaught of diseases after  introduction of chemicals–mainly cancer that takes many years to manifest.  I can say, as a canary in the coal mine, my reaction is a warning of how it is affecting folks who are not mercury toxic…

 

The funny side of mercury poisoning

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…if there is such a thing…

This was posted by one of the group’s members, Brian McBlain.  Since mercury toxicity causes chronic fatigue, severe memory loss, loss of coordination, personality changes, etc., many folks have lost their jobs because of it.

*** Employability: A few of us are approaching sufficient memory, stress, and general functionality to re-enter the work force.

Explaining the employment gap is going to be fun…

10. Took some time off to test my metal.
9. Wanted to get in touch with my inner ore.
8. Heavy metal toxicity made me allergic to work.
7. My memory got so bad I couldn’t remember appointments like work.
6. I kept getting lost in my driveway.
5. It is hard to dress for success when you can’t get out of bed.
4. I thought I get in touch with my asocial side.
3. I tried putting pants on one leg at a time and kept falling over.
2. I’d drive to work and not find it.
1. Eye kudn’t tiepe wurth sh

(Reprinted with permission from the author.)

Funny because it’s so true, especially to the more toxic of us.

When my brain was saturated with mercury, I got to the point where my hands were shaking, as in Parkinson’s. I could not hold a thought in my head.  Even though I loved to read, it was torture because I had to keep re-reading the same passages over and over because of the severity of ADD and memory loss.

The worst day–the lowest point–was when I couldn’t remember my own children’s names.  It was then that I knew that something was terribly wrong–and no freaking doctor could diagnose the  root cause.  Thanks to my guardian angel for leading me to the answer and not giving up on me.

GAPS

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I finally was able to get a copy of the Gut and Psychology Syndrome book by Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride from the library.

(A little warning here–a little gross, so if you’re eating breakfast or lunch, probably not the time to read this.:)

p. 11-12

…in 1998 Dr. Andrew Wakefield, a consultant gastroenterologist at the Royal Free Hospital in London and his team published their research, suggesting a connection between chronic inflammatory bowel disease and autism.

[…]

Dr. Wakefield and his team have identified a condition in the bowel of those children, which they named Ileal-Lymphoid-Nodular Hyperplasia and Non-specific Colitis. […] Ileum is a name given to the last three-fifths of the small intestine. […] The major function of the small intestine in general is food absorption.  However, not much food absorption happens in the ileum.  The walls of this part of the small intestine are packed with large numbers of lymph nodes, called Peyer’s patches, which are small, round or bean shaped structures, ranging in size from 1 to 25 mm.

[…]

We know two major functions they fulfill:

1.  The first function is filtering the lymph (tissue liquid) coming from the ileum and removing bacteria, viruses, fungi, dead cells  (including cancer cells) and various toxins from it.  It is a good place to look at what particular infectious agents might be lurking in your intestine because the lymph nodes are like a prison from these viruses, bacteria, dead cells, and fungi–if they cannot destroy them, they imprison them.  So, when gastroenterologists perform endoscopies, they always try to get a sample of these lymph nodes to be examined under the microscope.  This is what Dr. Wakefield’s team had done.

2.  A second function of lymph nodes is production of lymphocytes–a large group of immune system cells, a major function of which is fighting infections.  In fact lymph nodes themselves are made primarily of lymphocytes, together with some other cells.  So, when the lymph nodes are faced with an infection, they start producing a lot of lymphocytes to fight the infection, which makes the lymph nodes large and inflamed, sometimes painful.  This enlargement of the lymph nodes is called lymphoid nodular hyperplasia and this is what Dr. Wakefield has found in the ileum of autistic children.

Because many of the children from his study have developed autistic features after MMR vaccines, this is the direction Dr. Wakefield pursued when looking at what particular infection may have caused this enlargement of the lymph nodes.  Suspecting that it might be the measles virus, he involved in his research a well-known virologist Dr. John O’Leary, a professor of pathology from Dublin.  Sure enough, Dr. O’Leary has found the same measles virus used in the MMR vaccine in the ileal lymph nodes of the autistic children.  This particular part of Dr. Wakefield’s research concerning the measles virus and MMR vaccine, casued a lot of controversy and vigorous resistance from government and the medical establishment which distracted attention from the main issue.  The main issue is:  autistic children have enlarged and inflamed lymph nodes in their gut wall, which is a clear sign of a fight with some infection going on there.

p.13

[…]  Dr. Wakefield’s team has found various stages of the mucous membranes of the colon and intestines, abscesses filled with pus, ulcers, and plenty of faecal compaction.  In some places the gut wall was so inflamed with such enlargement of the lymph nodes, that it almost obstructed the lumen of the gut.  In some ways this inflammation resembled ulcerative colitis, in some–Crohn’s disease, when some features were completely unique to these autistic children.

[…]  the findings of Dr. Wakefield and his team…have been independently supported by…Buie, et al; Uhlmann et al; Furlano, et al; Morris, et al; …[and by] practicing doctors around the world [through clinical observation].

 

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The autism connection to heavy metal poisoning is talked about quite a bit on the support group–the anecdotal evidence is to voluminous to be ignored.  However, Dr. Campbell-McBride makes a point later that there are children with inflamed guts whose parents have not had them vaccinated.  Then the questions turn to what else could be causing it?  She touches on our toxic environment and how our bodies are already being assaulted by chemicals daily and it’s destroying our immune systems.  It doesn’t take a whole lot to tip them over the edge so that one starts having problems such as “leaky gut”.

I do think it’s significant that the same measles virus injected into these kids is the same one found in the inflamed gut.  Huge red flag.  Dr. McBride still believes that children should be vaccinated, however, which just blows me away.  She has a list of cautions–like children of parents with compromised immune systems, siblings with immune system issues or epilepsy, schizophrenia, autism, etc., should not be vaccinated at all.  Next, she recommends vaccines in one single dose–she makes the point that we don’t get measles, mumps and rubella all at once, so why should we be exposed to all of them at once?  Same with the Diptheria, Pertussis, and Tetanus vaccine.

However, Dr. McBride fails to acknowledge that there is a huge controversy about how people’s health was improved with better hygienic practices, not by vaccination.

Here’s a resource center on vaccines.

What I don’t get is this:  I had ALL of the diseases they’re now vaccinating for–both kinds of measles, mumps (both sides at the same time, ugh), and chicken pox at six months of age–and I survived. OMG! It’s a miracle!

I mean, measles are scary for a pregnant woman because it can lead to mental retardation…but this idea struck me as I read about all the mental issues associated with the measles vaccine (and leaky gut).  Although it didn’t cause mental retardation, was it behind the other mental issues?  Which is worse–taking a chance for mental retardation on a few or causing so many to suffer their entire lives?  That gets into a huge ethics question.

And there is so much about the immune system that is not understood.  If there’s no profit in it, the medical establishment isn’t interested.

I still think information is the key–give people the information and let them make up their own minds to whether they want to risk it or not.  For me, if I knew all that I know now, I would take that risk.   I feel guilty even now for giving my kids antibiotics when they were young–it’s another drug that is not fully understood and they do not count destruction of the “good” bacteria as a problem, even though it causes serious problems for people’s immune system.