I had no idea, but thanks to Wikipedia, now I do and so do you. Some people hate the FREE internet, the free internet doesnt serve the elite, power hungry, and profit-minded interests.. But, the free internet is so crucial, it allowed humanity to connect, share, and offer an age of knowledge and free exchange of ideas… We dont want to lose that. Read on:

To: English Wikipedia Readers and Community
From: Sue Gardner, Wikimedia Foundation Executive Director
Date: January 16, 2012

Today, the Wikipedia community announced its decision to black out the English-language Wikipedia for 24 hours, worldwide, beginning at 05:00 UTC on Wednesday, January 18 (you can read the statement from the Wikimedia Foundation here). The blackout is a protest against proposed legislation in the United States—the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) in the U.S. House of Representatives, and the PROTECT IP Act (PIPA) in the U.S. Senate—that, if passed, would seriously damage the free and open Internet, including Wikipedia.

This will be the first time the English Wikipedia has ever staged a public protest of this nature, and it’s a decision that wasn’t lightly made. Here’s how it’s been described by the three Wikipedia administrators who formally facilitated the community’s discussion. From the public statement, signed by User:NuclearWarfare, User:Risker and User:Billinghurst:

It is the opinion of the English Wikipedia community that both of these bills, if passed, would be devastating to the free and open web.

Over the course of the past 72 hours, over 1800 Wikipedians have joined together to discuss proposed actions that the community might wish to take against SOPA and PIPA. This is by far the largest level of participation in a community discussion ever seen on Wikipedia, which illustrates the level of concern that Wikipedians feel about this proposed legislation. The overwhelming majority of participants support community action to encourage greater public action in response to these two bills. Of the proposals considered by Wikipedians, those that would result in a “blackout” of the English Wikipedia, in concert with similar blackouts on other websites opposed to SOPA and PIPA, received the strongest support.

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November 22, 2011

Dear Citizen for Health,

By now you are familiar with our campaign opposing the FDA’s “Draft Guidance for Industry: Dietary Supplements: New Dietary Ingredient Notifications and Related Issues”. We believe this document reflects the FDA’s intention to willfully and grossly misinterpret the law, especially the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994 (DSHEA), regarding New Dietary Ingredients (NDIs) and filing submissions for them.

Thousands of you have demonstrated your commitment to health freedom with messages to your elected representatives and comments to the FDA, and we at CFH have submitted ours as well. You can read those comments here.

The deadline for comments is December 2. With only ten days left, we’ve created a petition to be delivered to Congress and the Presdient calling on them follow up with the FDA once the comment period closes as a final push to get this dangerous Guidance withdrawn. The targets here are different, so if you have already sent comments to the FDA, augment your voice by signing the petition too!

Sign the petition now!

As we’ve already made clear, if this guidance moves forward to govern future FDA policy it will strike at the very root of our health freedoms, and supplements and other products generally recognized as safe for nearly two decades will be re-assessed as if they contained new ingredients. This would cause major disruption in the dietary supplement market; force a significant number of products off the shelves; and result in revenue losses of over a billion dollars and the unemployment of over 100,000 Americans.

That’s why we need your help now, more than ever, to have the kind of impact that will make the FDA withdraw the guidance.

We want to amss at least 10,000 signatures in the next ten days so act quickly, and be sure to keep an eye out for further developments in this critical campaign.

As always, thanks for your participation,

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Besides emailing your senators and congressperson as explained in this post, it’s important to file your comments with the FDA itself, which will appear in the Federal Register and hopefully add to the voices of others and help save our supplements; otherwise, the FDA will claim that no one objected.

The link below will take you to where you can Submit a Comment. In one of the mandatory fields, it asks you the name of your organization: you can enter Citizens for Health in this (they’re one of the organizations leading our fight to save our supplements).

Feel free to customize your message and tell the FDA why access to supplements is important to you. The Comment form only allows a few words, so you might want to just put a short summary in it and save a more detailed message in a text (.txt) file, which it allows you to attach.

You can copy the text found here (sample letter) or modify the letter to congresspersons found here , and paste it into Microsoft word, word pad or notepad then save it as a .txt file.
Please note that, due to many requests from people who would be harmed by their loss of supplements, the FDA has granted an extension for us to file our comments — but we must submit them quickly, as they will not consider any submitted after December 2,  2011.

Link to where you can Submit Your Comments:
http://www.regulations.gov/#!documentDetail;D=FDA-2011-D-0376-0079

Organization:
Citizens for Health

Notice by the FDA of Comment period extension until December 2,  2011:

[Federal Register Volume 76, Number 175 (Friday, September 9, 2011)]
[Notices]
[Page 55927]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2011-23098]
——————————

Re: Docket No. FDA-2011-D-0376-0079, “Draft Guidance for Industry: Dietary Supplements: New Dietary Ingredient Notifications and Related Issues”

This guidance, if enacted, would put in place a series of onerous regulations for the supplement industry that will make it extremely expensive and difficult for the nutritional industry to keep manufacturing supplements — so expensive and difficult, in fact, that it will put most legitimate manufacturers out of business and potentially eliminate most supplements from the marketplace.

The rules as proposed seem innocent enough, requiring a stringent approval process for all supplements on the marketplace since 1994, when Congress passed the Dietary Supplement Health and Information Act (DHSEA). DHSEA was actually intended to protect nutritional and herbal manufacturers from unwarranted FDA harassment, and allow Americans access to legitimate supplements.

The sponsors of DHSEA intended that the law would reduce the regulatory burden on supplement manufacturers, and provide a streamlined process of bringing new products to market. Instead of honoring the purpose of DHSEA, the FDA in its newly proposed regulations seems determined to institute a complicated, burdensome, and financially prohibitive approval process for each and every new supplement on the market since 1994, akin to the drug approval process. No supplement company has the resources to finance such a procedure, which can run into the tens of millions of dollars for every new product. Experts who have reviewed the proposed regulations claim that the FDA could insist that even previously available supplements would also be subjected to such requirements and be classified as “synthetic food additives” – and their manufacturers frankly would have to close down.

The FDA already has the power and authority to prohibit sale of mislabeled, harmful, or dangerous supplements. Through its Good Manufacturing Practices regulations already in place, supplement manufacturers must meet stringent requirements for safety and potency. The FDA also has the authority to punish manufacturers who make inappropriate unsubstantiated claims. In effect, the FDA already has all the power it needs to regulate effectively nutritional supplements.

A colleague said, “In all the years I have been fighting for freedom of choice in health care, the currently proposed regulations are the most troubling, most far-reaching, and with potentially the most catastrophic effects, not only for my own health, family and friends, but for those tens of millions of Americans who rightfully and intelligently use nutritional products for their health-supporting benefits. In other words, this bill creates extraneous red tape, paperwork, and burdensome labeling requirements when everything the bill mandates is already being accomplished under current law!”

During this time, supplements have enjoyed an unrivaled safety record. Statistics show they’re safer than prescription drugs, cosmetics, medical devices, and even safer than food!

According to the Poison Control Centers, there were no deaths due to supplements in 2008. In 2009, there was one.

When the Dietary Health Supplement Education Act was passed, Congress intended a simple notification process for new dietary ingredients. This guidance would turn this into a pre-approval scheme, which goes against the intent of the law. The FDA already has ample regulatory authority to take action against a product if it’s unsafe. They don’t need to have this pre-approval power, too.

This could be disastrous to public health. At a time when preventative measures are even more important to health care costs, the FDA is limiting access to preventative health care.

The guidance creates unnecessary regulations that limit my access to the dietary supplements I rely on. The expensive and burdensome process will force between 20,000 and 42,000 dietary supplements to be removed from the market and will increase the cost of those supplements that remain.

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Health Risks Of Herbal Dietary Supplements
by Dr. James A. Duke

The front page of the health section of the March 19th, 2000 Washington Post, read: “Mounting evidence suggests that increasing numbers of Americans are falling seriously ill or even dying after taking dietary supplements [...] The victims include men and women of all ages as well as children whose parents are feeding them snacks, drinks and nostrums made with herbal supplements that are neither regulated by the federal government nor tested for their effects on the young.”

With such ominous articles appearing now regularly in the media, and with more and more people taking herbs, it makes sense to ask, “How does the harm done by herbs compare with harm done by other things?” Last year, several people called to ask me what I thought about another article in the Washington Post, “Health Concerns Grow Over Herbal Aids.”

My immediate reaction: mostly nonsense and some truth. The nonsense is fertilizing fears among the lay public and driving them back into the waiting arms of the greedy “pharmaceuticalists.” Two of my good friends were so alarmed by the negative press on herbs that they stopped herbs completely.

The growing health concerns from mass-media articles are being fertilized by trigger-happy journalists, pharmaceutical manufacturers and promoters, and physicians who know so little about herbs, many of them unfamiliar with the statistic from the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) that prescription drugs are killing 140,000 Americans a year. Herbs (usually through abuse or exceeding recommended dosage) are killing fewer than 100.

WHERE’S THE TRUTH

The elements of truth the Post article adduced apply mostly not to herbs, but synthetic supplements that never saw an herb. The Post article mentions ephedra, a Chinese herb, which can be used wisely and properly (in fact, various species have been used medicinally for thousands of years).

Reminding the readers that automobiles, which killed 41,826 people nationally in 1998, or diseases such as kidney disease, which killed 26,295, kill more people than herbs, the author of the Post article, in all fairness, should have included the other figures, the 40,000-100,000 killed by medical mistakes, the 98,000-140,000 a year killed by prescription drugs in American hospitals and the 77,000-88,000 killed by hospital-caused nosocomial infections. Surely he was aware of these figures. If not, he should not have condemned the more salubrious herbal statistics without comparing the pharmaceutical death rate.

I’ll do that for him today — honestly, not sensationally. Summary: regulated pharmaceuticals kill many more Americans than herbal medicine, a thousand fold more.

Then Guggliotta attempts to nail some of my herbal alternatives. St. John’s wort is fast becoming a Prozac “competitor.” Actually, St. John’s wort is fast becoming a Zoloft competitor, and is being studied as such at Duke University. I predict that St. John’s wort will prove to have fewer side effects than Zoloft. Kava is a more logical alternative to Prozac, less addictive and probably much safer.

Melatonin is a good remedy for jet lag with in my own experience. A supplement it is. An herb it ain’t. Ginkgo biloba allegedly slows dementia. Conversely, Tacrine (Cognex), the first FDA-approved drug for Alzheimer’s, helps about 25 percent of the patients for no more than two years, allegedly upsetting the livers of 25 percent of those patients.

Matter of fact, as Guggliotta says, senna, a natural purgative, was added to Ex-Lax last year to replace a a side-effect-associated synthetic chemical. I suppose Guggliotta’s comments might have herbal people, frightened by his comments, abandoning the ephedra and rushing out to get Ex-Lax for weight-loss and exercise regimes. Most of the alternative practitioners discourage the use of any laxative, natural or synthetic, for protracted periods. Instead, we urge exercise and diet (at least five fruits and five vegetables).

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Please contact your congressperson ASAP.

This website will automatically look up your senators and congressperson and email them: http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/750/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=8252 – This website has an already-written letter. Please copy the letter below and paste it the message box to replace the letter that is automatically shown.  The letter below is longer but it addresses the issue with more detail.  Read it as well to get educated on the issue.  The Senators seem to not know how wide of an impact this FDA regulation will be.

Detailed letter:

Subject: FDA Supplement Guidance Will Result In The Loss Of Tens Of Thousands Of Jobs and Cost the Economy $21.2 Billion To $39.8 Billion Annually.

What the FDA is telling Congress is misleading. In recent weeks, the FDA has launched an aggressive new campaign to put in place a series of onerous regulations for the supplement industry that in effect would drive most legitimate manufacturers out of business and potentially eliminate most supplements from the marketplace and increase the cost of others by many folds.

Unfortunately, there was a dangerous loophole in the 1994 DSHEA law: while supplements that existed at the time were protected by law, the FDA was given the authority to regulate any new ingredients introduced after Oct. 15, 1994.

What the FDA is telling Congress is misleading: that it has “released draft guidelines intended to assist the dietary supplement industry in deciding when a premarket safety notification for a dietary supplement containing a new dietary ingredient (NDI) is necessary, and in preparing premarket safety notifications. This guidance, when finalized, does not create new regulations or law”, but the problem is that the FDA is trying to turn the clock back with the laws it already has. Our elected officials clearly don’t understand the problem yet. The FDA is trying to turn the clock back with the laws it already has. The guidance document makes it clear that the FDA is willfully and grossly misinterpreting the law, especially the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994 (DSHEA), with regard to re-defining NDIs and filing submissions for them. The agency’s attempt to create new regulatory requirements using a guidance document is also in violation of the Administrative Procedure Act (APA), and therefore the agency is in violation of the law.

Those of us who researched this issue need Congress’s help because it has the power to rein in the FDA and have done so in the past when many voters complained that their health would suffer if their supplements were taken away.

This is a blatant abuse of power. What the FDA is doing here is performing an end-run around the existing law. According to the law, the FDA has to prove a dietary supplement is unsafe for it to be taken off the market. These new guidelines turn that on its head. They are clearly not what Congress intended.

The FDA rules as proposed seem innocent enough, requiring a stringent approval process for all supplements on the marketplace since 1994, when Congress passed the Dietary Supplement Health and Information Act (DHSEA). DHSEA was actually intended to protect nutritional and herbal manufacturers from unwarranted FDA harassment, and allow Americans access to legitimate supplements.

The cost of complying with these guidelines would be astronomical. Experts estimate that the studies required would cost between $100,000 and $200,000 per ingredient notification. That adds up to millions of dollars per supplement company. Smaller companies would not be able to afford this and would go out of business.

The economy is already hurting and we have high unemployment. If enacted as currently proposed, this guidance will have a massive impact to the dietary supplement industry and further hurts our economy. Expert analyses show that this guidance will cost the economy $21.2 billion to $39.8 billion annually and result in the loss of tens of thousands of jobs.

Numerous attorneys have pointed out that the FDA’s attempt to create new regulatory requirements using a guidance document is in violation of the Administrative Procedure Act (APA), and that this amounts to illegal sleight-of-hand, using a guidance as a side-door effort to avoid the public meetings that would promote a more formal debate. Some have stated:

“The Draft Guidance on NDIs is contemptuous of the intent of Congress when it passed DSHEA, because instead of ensuring access to a full range of products, it obstructs their path to the marketplace. The guidance document makes it clear that the FDA is willfully and grossly misinterpreting the law, especially the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994 (DSHEA), with regard to re-defining NDIs and filing submissions for them. The agency’s attempt to create new regulatory requirements using a guidance document is also in violation of the Administrative Procedure Act (APA), and therefore the agency is in violation of the law.

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I recently completed reading a book titled Sugar Blues by William Duffy, I picked it up at a closeout sale at a Borders bookstore for half price. I like this one, learned a few things from it and have since recommended it to a few friends. I also have largely gone on a sugar-free experiment. I also recommend you read this book, it’s a classic diet book, yet it sounds as if it was written a couple years ago, there might be a few outdated bits and pieces but again, this is a classic worth reading and has a wealth of insight to offer you. I had reduced my sugar intake for a few years, seeking to be “moderate”, this book is actually helping me far “very easily” resist sugar. I am almost sugar free these days. I appreciate the history in this book, you will learn about the history of sugar, and other things like fermenting, sauerkraut and beer. You will learn how sugar was invented, and you will be reminded that unlike salt (so essential people used it as currency in the past) sugar is a relatively new addition to our diet. This book touched me in a positive way, and I feel it will do the same with you. You just might never look at food and eating the same way again! all good positive things!

Well, what else does the book talk about? Duffy makes it clear how he dislikes how sugar is labeled (or not labeled) on products and how it is inaccurate to lump refined sugar with other healthy carbs under the same label name. See, not all carbs are the same, but a food label doesn’t tell you that, nor does it say how much added sugar is in a product. You might be surprised to learn what I learned about brown and raw sugar products, and what they put sugar in (ketchup, mayo, dressing, etc), you’ll read about sugar and the persians, indians, crusades, and even slavery! The book is easy to read as well, well documented and sourced.

Knowing what I know now, it is difficult to allow myself to eat sugar, and I have this book to thank. This books acts as an anti-sugar vaccine or an anti-sugar booster shot. If you crave sugar simply read this book and you will no longer crave it!

Sugar is not a nutrient, it is not empty calories either, it is actually an anti-nutrient, when you eat it you are eating something that takes away vitamins from your body to rid itself of sugar.. thus Duffy defines it as a poison, and I see why.

I’ve finished the book a weak ago only, I can say no to sugar now easily, I have resisted cravings and know what it feels like to eat sugar now vs. another source of calories, and I am still learning my body’s response and watching to see how my health will improve. I am unable to tolerate sugar in things now, many things smell and taste too sweet! I do not touch or crave the junk you find at gas stations or coffee shops. Instead of sugar I eat fruits, brown rice, potatoes etc.. real healthful calories. It’s a transition, for sure, but a good and natural one. I wish I had read this book 20yrs ago, as a kid I binged on sugar and now can see how it probably had negative effects on my health.

See, the thing is, “when it comes to sugar, the secret is not moderation but avoidance.”

I wont ramble much more..

You can find it at a very affordable price on amazon

It’s a prime ingredient in countless substances from cereal to soup, from cola to coffee. Consumed at the rate of one hundred pounds for every American every year, it’s as addictive as nicotine — and as poisonous. It’s sugar. And “Sugar Blues”, inspired by the crusade of Hollywood legend Gloria Swanson, is the classic, bestselling expose that unmasks our generation’s greatest medical killer and shows how a revitalizing, sugar-free diet can not only change lives, but quite possibly save them.

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Death by Medicine, Part I

By Gary Null PhD, Carolyn Dean MD ND, Martin Feldman MD, Debora Rasio MD, Dorothy Smith PhD

ABSTRACT

A definitive review and close reading of medical peer-review journals, and government health statistics shows that American medicine frequently causes more harm than good. The number of people having in-hospital, adverse drug reactions (ADR) to prescribed medicine is 2.2 million.¹ Dr. Richard Besser, of the CDC, in 1995, said the number of unnecessary antibiotics prescribed annually for viral infections was 20 million. Dr. Besser, in 2003, now refers to tens of millions of unnecessary antibiotics.^{2, 2a}

The number of unnecessary medical and surgical procedures performed annually is 7.5 million.³ The number of people exposed to unnecessary hospitalization annually is 8.9 million.⁴ The total number of iatrogenic deaths shown in the following table is 783,936. It is evident that the American medical system is the leading cause of death and injury in the United States. The 2001 heart disease annual death rate is 699,697; the annual cancer death rate, 553,251.⁵

TABLES AND FIGURES (see Section on Statistical Tables and Figures, below, for exposition)

ANNUAL PHYSICAL AND ECONOMIC COST OF MEDICAL INTERVENTION

We could have an even higher death rate by using Dr. Lucien Leape?s 1997 medical and drug error rate of 3 million. ¹⁴ Multiplied by the fatality rate of 14% (that Leape used in 1994¹⁶ we arrive at an annual death rate of 420,000 for drug errors and medical errors combined. If we put this number in place of Lazorou?s 106,000 drug errors and the Institute of Medicine?s (IOM) 98,000 medical errors, we could add another 216,000 deaths making a total of 999,936 deaths annually.

ANNUAL UNNECESSARY MEDICAL EVENTS STATISTICS

The enumerating of unnecessary medical events is very important in our analysis. Any medical procedure that is invasive and not necessary must be considered as part of the larger iatrogenic picture. Unfortunately, cause and effect go unmonitored. The figures on unnecessary events represent people (?patients?) who are thrust into a dangerous healthcare system. They are helpless victims. Each one of these 16.4 million lives is being affected in a way that could have a fatal consequence. Simply entering a hospital could result in the following:

1. In 16.4 million people, 2.1% chance of a serious adverse drug reaction,1 (186,000)
2. In 16.4 million people, 5-6% chance of acquiring a nosocomial infection,9 (489,500)
3. In16.4 million people, 4-36% chance of having an iatrogenic injury in hospital (medical error and adverse drug reactions),16 (1.78 million)
4. In 16.4 million people, 17% chance of a procedure error,40(1.3 million)

All the statistics above represent a one-year time span. Imagine the numbers over a ten-year period. Working with the most conservative figures from our statistics we project the following 10-year death rates.

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I found and became a member of Dental Amalgam Mercury Solutions (DAMS) a non profit educational organization, based in Minnesota, that can help you learn about your teeth health, fluoride, amalgams, tooth extraction, root canals, biological and holistic dentists, etc.. Learn the real story behind Fluoridation and how teeth can (and always are) re-mineralizing or re-enamelizing.

I’ve posted a few topics in the past about dental health, you can find them under this post under ‘related articles’.

Quote from www.amalgam.org:

Dental Amalgam Mercury Fillings

Dental Amalgam Fillings, sometimes called “silver amalgams,” are actually half mercury. They are a time-release poison, a major source of mercury to those who have them. DAMS stands for Dental Amalgam Mercury Solutions and it is a non-profit organization based in Minnesota, in the United States, educating the public on mercury amalgams and other ways that dentistry may affect health.

This web page version is dated December 17, 2009.  www.amalgam.org is a historic web site on the mercury amalgam issue, first set up in March 1997. More content and more links are being developed.

The DAMS information packet, the DAMS periodic newsletter, Dental Truth, and the books and DVDs that DAMS sells all provide information on dental amalgam filling (“silver fillings”), crowns, root canals, gum disease, fluoride and other important topics. On the subject of dental amalgam mercury fillings, we describe the symptoms of mercury toxicity, safe amalgam removal, choosing suitable replacement materials, and safe, natural detoxification including alternatives to the drug approaches. Many toxins can be found in crowns, bridges, dentures and in the mouths rinses and jell treatments that contain fluoride. Root canal treated teeth are dead teeth and are therefore prone to infection – infection which can be very toxic and hard to get rid of because there is no blood flow into a dead tooth. Such “root canals” have been linked to cancer and other chronic illnesses. The patient may want to consider extraction of such teeth, but extractions also merit some discussion; tooth extractions must be done properly and thoroughly in order to avoid leaving infection behind in the jawbone, a cause of jawbone disease. Jawbone disease is fairly common but is often overlooked and is rarely diagnosed. Jawbone disease (also jawbone “cavitations”) may cause facial pain, and may cause or contribute to a weakened immune system, and many of the same neurological and auto immune diseases that infected root canalled teeth and toxic metals may also be a factor in.

Is there a cover-up of these many dental – health hazards? It appears so. We understand that the dental industry and the American Dental Association (ADA) dismiss these many health concerns and many of us view their dismissal, their claims of amalgam safety as dishonest and a cover-up. We don’t know what the ADA’s inner thinking is, but behaps the ADA feels that, since it has defended and promoted the use of mercury amalgam fillings throughout its entire history, it could not survive if it were to admit that it has been wrong over the last century and a half, as mis-informed and harmed millions of people, including its own dentist members, some of them seriously, through its cover-up. Most of the media also participates in cover-up even though, based on the science and the clinical record, the cover-up should be over and amalgams should be banned in the USA. We note that amalgams have been banned in Norway and Sweden, so it is possible for the truth, and a responsible public policy, to triumph in a functioning democracy. Unfortunately, here in the USA the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) appears to be captured by the ADA, and remains in cover-up mode. No matter how much damning science is presented to the FDA Dental Division and how many case reports of patient injury are presented, FDA remains in a state of denial and cover-up of the hazards of dental amalgam fillings.

Non-profits to the rescue. DAMS is a tax-exempt educational non-profit organization helping educate people in the US, Canada and elsewhere on these very important dental-health issues. People who wish to get their dental amalgam fillings removed should find knowledgeable practitioners who can remove amalgams safely, with elaborate precautions to protect the patient. Such knowledgeable dentists are not merely “mercury-free” or “cosmetic” dentists; they should be “holistic” or “biological” dentists, meaning that they pay attention to the effects that their work has on the whole person and on his/her underlying health. We must emphasize that it is very hazardous to have mercury amalgam fillings replaced by a “regular” (i.e. conventional) dentist who does not have the training and equipment to replace the amalgams with elaborate precautions.  DAMS maintains a list of holistic (biological) dentists in every state and province who are trained and equipped to replace amalgams safely. Hopefully they will also use better choice replacement materials, use natural, less toxic approaches to gum health and decay prevention (no fluoride) and be aware of the hazards of root canal treatments. To request a list of knowledgeable practitioners in your state of province, please call DAMS at 651-644-4572.

Please e-mail us at DAMS@usfamily.net Please leave your name and full address on the DAMS voice mail or with our person who answers the phone. . We normally mail out the list (or lists) with our information guide. Please accept our info guide, read it and study it. It has a wealth of information and helps make you a more informed dental patient. It discusses in detail the dental amalgam mercury issue and other ways that dentistry may affect health. To talk with a DAMS staff person, you may also call 651-644-4572. You may be surprised that a real person will answer. There may be additional information that can be supplied in your information packet that helps address your special questions.

To read more scientific details on mercury, amalgam and their health impacts, please go to our web site www.flcv.com/indexa.html. This is one of the largest, most detailed web sites on the hazards of dental amalgam fillings, with hundreds of scientific abstracts and references.

The information packet that you are being mailed and the information that you are being given on the phone are provided at no charge; but a contributions is requested. DAMS is a very caring, generous non-profit organization; no one is denied help on the basis of lack of money. But please look for a donation envelope in you packet, with a reply strip and donate what you can to keep the work of DAMS going, so it can continue to help you and others. You may also join DAMS as a member in order to receive the DAMS newsletter, Dental Truth, on an ongoing basis. (Ask for a sample newsletter in your packet, if you like). Memberships are normally $25 per year, and less for low income people. Contributions to DAMS are tax deductible.

Please remember, whether calling us at 651-644-4572 or e-mailing us at dams@usfamily.net, to provide name and full mailing address in order to receive the info guide and our list of holistic dentists in your state; and, if you need a call back, leave your phone number, including area code, and speak slowly in giving your phone number.

Retrieved July 30th, 2010.

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Hi again!

Here are a few thoughts for you to consider today:

.

The more the old systems reveal their inadequacies the more people will believe change is needed. Every thing that happens is an opportunity. Everything is neural, if you define it as positive you get a positive effect.

NOTHING has a built-in meaning.

.

.

love,
Ethan

I went to the Basilica Block Party yesterday. If you know me then you know I am not big on parties, concerts, loud music, etc.. I was invited to go so I went. People were much better well behaved than I expected, I think Minnesotans are generally nice and polite and this contributed to the party situation. Maybe the fact this was a Basilica party also made a difference. The music was fun, especially the Barenaked Ladies band (the Chinese Chicken song).

What I did not like was how party admission volunteer staff had everyone get rid of any food or beverages (including water). I understand that they would like people to not bring food or alcohol or even soft drinks, but water is a different story.

I felt that asking people to get rid of their water was an overreaching rule (and a wasteful one). They were filling trash container after another with bottles of water and other drinks, a huge waste.

I did not have my own water bottle with me, so I did not have to get rid of anything. But, had I had water I would have felt very uncomfortable doing that and probably would have refused.

Once I was inside the fenced, barricaded “camp” you could only buy water from a few places and each bottle was sold for $4!  A $1 bottle for $4!

I call this an abuse of power, even extortion. It also felt like an infringement on my human and constitutional rights. Further, you could buy food and beer from many vendors, water was only available at a couple places, no free (fountain) water was available.

What If I said No?

The next time I go to a party I will take my water bottle with me, and I will refuse to throw out my water. If they insist I do, I will say I need it because of health reasons. If they say “no” I will ask for FREE water inside. If they say “no”, I will write about it here again and will then consult with an attorney to see if I could take legal action.

As far as I am concerned what they did was extortion in order for me to buy water from them at their inflated prices.

You may have to wait a few years before I get to try this, since I rarely go to parties like these.

To the Basilica of Saint Mary I say, “please do not extort me again”. Just, “stop it, now”.

To you, the readers, if you had similar experiences I’d like to hear from you, please leave a comment below. If you are a representative of the Basilica I’d love to hear from you, do leave a comment below.

Thanks!

While reading about color therapy, I came across this article and found it worth sharing. It’s a good intro to, and gives you some history on, what is called Spectro-Chrome color therapy. It talks a little about what seems to be suppression by some interests and how, despite suppression, color therapy is being used today.

Despite what anyone may think, in my personal opinion (and I suspect this is the opinion of so many people around this planet,)  an adult person has the right to treat one’s self or loved ones with ANY kind of therapy they choose. This is a matter of human rights, freedom of choice, freedom of expression and freedom of religion as well. In the U.S we expect such freedoms.

If you or a loved one is suffering from some sort of dis-ease, by all means continue any conventional treatment that you’re using, seek help everywhere you can, and should you choose to utilize some sort of  ‘alternative therapy’ that is your right. You’re an adult, do your research, reach your conclusion and make up your own decisions.  The key here is doing your research to arm yourself with knowledge.

At the end of this post I share with you very valuable resources should you decide to learn more about color therapy, these were suggested to me by an authority in this field.

Article Title: Clinical Spectro-Chrome Color Therapy Crushed by the Medical Mafia

If someone told you he or she cured his or her cancer with color therapy, would you believe it? You may understandably categorize it as new age nonsense. Well, it appears that it’s for real and not just for cancer. Colored light therapy was originated mostly by an American physician, Dr. Edwin Babbitt, in 1878, and developed scientifically into Spectro-Chrome therapy for virtually any malady by Dinshah Ghadiali, who had immigrated to New York from India during the early 20th century.

Despite the harassment and law suits in Dinshah Ghadiali’s adopted home state of New York, he was able to continue practicing, training, and selling the equipment needed until around 1946. He was supported by AMA practicing physicians who were using his colored light therapy successfully, even in extreme cases that medicine of the 1920’s through early 1940’s could not handle.

What You’re Not Supposed to Know

It was not until 1946 through 1948 that Spectro-Chrome therapy was crushed by the Medical Mafia’s use of the court system in New Jersey. Dinshah’s therapy had been getting too popular among health professionals and ordinary people. So a rigged court and judge had their way. His and others’ equipment was destroyed in a publicized spectacle similar to the old FBI raids on bootleggers during prohibition. Dinshah Ghadiali was fined $20,000 and placed on probation for five years.

How could something that doesn’t work be the target of such a destructive campaign from the Medical Mafia? Consider that there are auras, and the colors indicate particular subtle energy fields capable of influencing organs in different ways. Very few humans, maybe many cats, can see auras. But can you see the energy coming into your WiFi computer or cell phone? Yet, an effect is achieved on a material object. So much for this crude analogy of color or vibrational therapy basic theory.

Colored light energies are always present and do no harm, unlike electro magnetic radio frequencies which are invisible and often harmful. Even the UV rays of sunlight initiate the manufacture of Vitamin D3 in our bodies. It seems this is all easily understandable. But when colored light and water is introduced as physiological and psychological therapy, well, the woo-woo attitude tends to set in!

Yet both the Navy and NASA have been experimenting with color therapy in limited fashions. During the past several years, there has been the medical practice for treating premature babies with Bilirubin Syndrome (jaundice) by exposing them to blue light, although the methodology is somewhat different from Ghadiali’s.

Ellis Peterson, a retired math professor and electronics engineer who has been studying alternate healing treatments for over 30 years states, “I have personally studied Dinshah’s Color healing methods and I have one of his original Color projectors. I have used his color filters and projector for over 20 years and have found it’s curative, healing powers to be beyond words.”

Read more…

My dear friend of Minnesota’s environment and public health,

Can you take just a couple minutes to help save Minnesota lakes, rivers, streams, and groundwater from the first serious threat of pollution by toxic Acid Mine Drainage from copper-nickel mines?  Here’s a quick-and-easy webform provided by our friends at Organic Consumers Association:  http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/642/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=1839

TWIN-CITIES COMMENT-WRITING WORKSHOP  this Sunday:

Also, you and anyone you  know who might be interested are invited to attend this special comment-writing workshop Sunday, January 17, 1-4 PM in St. Paul.  Please refer others, even if you’re not likely to attend.  It is a private meeting for contributors to substantive public comments on the draft environmental impact statement, hosted by WaterLegacy.org.

This is a limited opportunity, with comment period set to close *February 3*, 2010. Your comments are critical to the project receiving the scrutiny it deserves. It would create toxic acid mine drainage for hundreds or thousands of years.

Register NOW. Be sure to state your topic(s) or area(s) of interest in the DEIS.
http://www.mepartnership.org/mep_calendar.asp?cal_id=3510

All levels of citizen participation are welcome. Some would just like to sign a form letter and hand it in. Some would like to pick a narrow topic and write comments in one hour, or stay for the duration and write extensive comments. We held a similar workshop in Cloquet last weekend, which was very well-attended and productive.  Many completed and either emailed or mailed their comments that day.

You will benefit by learning from other citizens, background and technical documents, information about PolyMet and the environmental review process, and tips to make your comments most effective. We can provide talking points and drafts.  We will facilitate according to your needs.

Professional input will be available and more is welcome.

NOTE:  Even if you may not feel comfortable submitting written comments on the EIS directly, your expertise would be very beneficial.

Meanwhile, you can demand that DNR provide adequate public participation in the environmental review process. Specifically, ask for 1) extension of the comment period from only 90 to at least 180 days; 2) more convenient and interactive public hearings around the state. Email: Stuart Arkley MDNR stuart.arkley@dnr.state.mn.us <mailto:stuart.arkley@dnr.state.mn.us>

Read more…

A series of news stories were published based upon a report by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, (OECD), that showed that the United States spent the most on healthcare, yet was not doing well when compared to other wealthy nations in several key areas of health measurements.

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development issued a report on December 8, 2009 called the “OECD Health Data 2009: Statistics and Indicators for 30 Countries” which included a detailed study on the US healthcare system. The portion of the report specific to the US called, “OECD Health Data 2009, How Does the United States Compare”, has with it some telling statistics about the US healthcare system and the results we get for the money spent.

Some of the interesting facts uncovered by the report are the following:

The United States ranks far ahead of other OECD countries in terms of total health spending per capita, with spending of $7,290 . That represents almost two-and-a-half times greater than the other nations average of $2,964 in 2007. The next closest nation is Norway which follows, with spending of $4,763 per capita, followed by Switzerland with spending of $4,417 per capita.

The US spends 16% of its Gross Domestic Product on healthcare, compared with France, Switzerland and Germany, which allocated 11.0%, 10.8% and 10.4% of their GDP to health respectively.

The US pays a smaller portion of the health care bill from public funding than other nations. Only 45% of healthcare expenses are paid by public funds which is a much smaller amount compared to an average of 73% for other OECD nations.

Infant mortality in the US is at 6.7 deaths per 1,000 live births which is well above the average of 3.9 per 1,000 live births.

Life expectancy at birth in the U.S. was 78.1 years in 2007 which is a year less than the OECD average of 79.1, and puts the U.S. just ahead of the Czech Republic, Poland and Mexico. Norway and Switzerland have a 2 to 4 year longer life expectancy over the US.

The study also noted that drug spending has increased everywhere with the US leading the way. According to the report, per capita spending on pharmaceuticals rose by almost 50 percent over the last 10 years in OECD countries, reaching a total of $650 billion in 2007. The U.S. was the world’s biggest spender on pharmaceuticals, spending $878 per person, with Canada next at $691 per person and the OECD average at $461.

Winona LaDuke, is an Anishinaabeg (Ojibwe) enrolled member of the Mississippi Band of Anishinaabeg and is the mother of three children. Winona is the Program Director of Honor the Earth and Founding Director of White Earth Land Recovery Project.

Leading Honor the Earth she provides vision and leadership for the organization’s Regranting Program and its Strategic Initiatives.  In addition, she has worked for two decades on the land issues of the White Earth Reservation, including litigation, over land rights in the 1980’s.  In 1989, she received the Reebok Human Rights Award, with which in part she began the White Earth Land Recovery Project.

In 1994, Winona was nominated by Time Magazine as one of America’s fifty most promising leaders under forty years of age, and has also been awarded the Thomas Merton Award in 1996, the Ann Bancroft Award, Ms. Woman of the Year Award (with the Indigo Girls in 1997), the Global Green Award, and numerous other honors. A graduate of Harvard and Antioch Universities, she has written extensively on Native American and environmental issues.

Her books include: Last Standing Woman (fiction), All Our Relations (non-fiction), In the Sugarbush (Children’s), and The Winona LaDuke Reader.

To show respect to all of her work, I post this article about Winona LaDuke under the Best Of category.

For more information, visit: http://nativeharvest.com.

mad as hell doctors.com - Where the rubber gloves meet the road

For those who have doubts about where doctors stand on the public option, this recent survey of doctors should help.

New England Journal of Medicine: 73% support a public option

New England Journal of Medicine article

NPR:
NPR article

Since CNN is refusing to air this ad, I am posting it here.

Tell CNN to play this ad here

An article title We Already Have Death Panels was posted on seeking wholeness .com on August 26, 2009. You can find it here.

A few days ago, on Wednesday September 02, 2009 the California Nurses Association released another sobering study that shows clearly the so called death panels are the norm. The claims denial rates by leading California insurers were just …  (I will leave this a blank for you to fill).

Here are the percentages of denied claims:

* PacifiCare — 39.6 percent
* Cigna — 32.7 percent
* HealthNet — 30 percent
* Kaiser Permanente — 28.3 percent
* Blue Cross — 27.9 percent
* Aetna — 6.4 percent

Find the CNA/NNOC research results below:

For Immediate Release
September 2, 2009

California’s Real Death Panels: Insurers Deny 21% of Claims PacifiCare’s Denials 40%, Cigna’s 33% in First Half of 2009

More than one of every five requests for medical claims for insured patients, even when recommended by a patient’s physician, are rejected by California’s largest private insurers, amounting to very real death panels in practice daily in the nation’s biggest state, according to data released Wednesday by the California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee.

CNA/NNOC researchers analyzed data reported by the insurers to the California Department of Managed Care. From 2002 through June 30, 2009, six of the largest insurers operating in California rejected 47.7 million claims for care — 22 percent of all claims.

The data will be presented by Don DeMoro, director of CNA/NNOC’s research arm, the Institute for Health and Socio-Economic Policy, at CNA/NNOC’s biennial convention next Tuesday, Sept. 8 in San Francisco. The convention will also feature a panel presentation from nurse leaders in Canada, Great Britain, and Australia exploding the myths about their national healthcare systems.

“With all the dishonest claims made by some politicians about alleged ‘death panels’ in proposed national legislation, the reality for patients today is a daily, cold-hearted rejection of desperately needed medical care by the nation’s biggest and wealthiest insurance companies simply because they don’t want to pay for it,” said Deborah Burger, RN, CNA/NNOC co-president.

For the first half of 2009, as the national debate over healthcare reform was escalating, the rejection rates are even more striking.

Claims denial rates by leading California insurers, first six months of 2009:

• PacifiCare — 39.6 percent
• Cigna — 32.7 percent
• HealthNet — 30 percent
• Kaiser Permanente — 28.3 percent
• Blue Cross — 27.9 percent
• Aetna — 6.4 percent

“Every claim that is denied represents a real patient enduring pain and suffering. Every denial has real, sometimes fatal consequences,” said Burger.

PacifiCare, for example, denied a special procedure for treatment of bone cancer for Nick Colombo, a 17-year-old teen from Placentia, Calif. Again, after protests organized by Nick’s family and friends, CNA/NNOC, and netroots activists, PacifiCare reversed its decision. But like Nataline Sarkisyan, the delay resulted in critical time lost, and Nick ultimately died. “This was his last effort and the procedure had worked before with people in Nick’s situation,” said his older brother Ricky.

Read more…

Worth watching:

This is a good cartoon video titled ‘Why We Need Government-Run Universal Socialized Health Insurance‘. It explains why we need a public health insurance option or some sort of a government-run health system in the US.

The video compares Health Insurance to the fire department in a very effective manner. I’d like to add that fire departments used to be private and for profit in Chicago, then came the Chicago fire. After the Chicago fire the fire department was socialized to distribute risk and lower cost.

It’s ironic that nowadays fire department remain socialized, and work very well. We all expect the fire fighters to show up at a phone’s call, yet when your own body, your own intestines, brains, or heart are on fire (i.e. sick/ill) you cannot get the attention needed, since the system is so very broken.

Enjoy the video:

Animated by Andy Lubershane. More comics at http://www.earthlycomics.blogspot.com

Text transcript of the video:

Why we need government-run universal, socialized, call it what you want, health insurance.

We all know from basic civil class, or just being alive, that a lot of essential services are already government-run, universal, socialized, whatever you wanna call it.

Think water treatment, police, fire, postal service, coast guard, all those things you know are gonna be there for you, every single day without even thinking about them. We all pay our taxes and the government uses the money to pay for the things everyone needs just to get by.

Now, health care is just as essential as any of these services. Sure, a few of us may be lucky enough to make it through our whole lives without any medical problem but the rest of us depend on health care at some point in our lives just to get by. Besides its essentialness, there’s another reason health insurance is just like those government run, universal, socialized, whatever you wanna call them services, that’s this: There are very very few people that can afford to pay on their own the cost of health care when disaster strikes and they or someone they love gets really really sick.

So, we all need insurance, which basically means when we pool our money together enough so what when anyone of us gets really really sick there’s enough money in the pool to pay for that person to get better, that’s insurance.

But, who should we choose to manage the pool of our money and give out our money to the people who need it? Well, private insurance companies are the ones that we are using right now, but there’s a problem. On average, these companies take 10 – 20 cents out of every dollar we put in the pool.

Read more…

More than three out of every four Americans feel it is important to have a “choice” between a government-run health care insurance option and private coverage, according to a public opinion poll released on Thursday.

A new study by SurveyUSA puts support for a public option at a robust 77 percent, one percentage point higher than where it stood in June.

But the numbers tell another story, as well.

Earlier in the week, after pollsters for NBC dropped the word “choice” from their question on a public option, they found that only 43 percent of the public were in favor of “creating a public health care plan administered by the federal government that would compete directly with private health insurance companies.”

Rea more at Huffington Post

This is an interesting article written by Teresa Silverthorn on an interesting phenomena, namely worshiping and studying the invisible God. I use the word invisible here, because as Teresa points out, when a person says they can see this God they are told ‘no you can’t see (him or her)’, in fact one is not supposed to see it.

In the framework of the article below, I see these scenarios:

• God actually doesn’t exist but you are asked to spend your life seeking it
• God does exist but it it is simply invisible to humans
• God is a figment of imagination
• God is not invisible but some want you to think it is

Re-printed below with permission from author:

The human race is psychotic. They were either born that way, taught to be such, or it was decided upon.

I have heard this before, and so have you. I am speaking of a current statistic that claims that a certain percentage of humanity has been defined as “psychotic,” which leaves the rest of us looking around our neighborhood analyzing our friends and co-workers.

In my opinion, it refers to the majority. Not the minority. And, I’m only speaking of a certain element of our existence, not an overall judgment call.

Read more…

A few days ago I wrote an article where I mentioned how I’ve been hearing more suicide news recently. Yesterday and today, it seems most the suicide news in the media is about Fort Campbell. Here you will see snippets from three recent news articles on this topic:

Fort Campbell holds ’suicide stand-down’
FORT CAMPBELL, Ky., May 27 (UPI) — Fort Campbell, Ky., home to the U.S. 101st Airborne, began a three-day ’suicide stand-down’ Wednesday after 11 soldiers took their own lives this year.

The “training event” is the second one in 2009, CNN reported. It began with a speech from Brig. Gen. Stephen Townsend to all the enlisted men and officers in the division, Kelly Tyler, a spokeswoman said.

With 64 suicides so far in 2009, the U.S. Army appears likely to pass the record of 133 reported last year. There were 115 suicides in 2007, the highest number since the Defense Department began tracking military suicides in 1980

Source: http://www.upi.com/Top_News/2009/05/27/Fort-Campbell-holds-suicide-stand-down/UPI-73121243453994/
Despite prevention efforts, soldier suicides at Fort Campbell continue to rise

By Associated Press

3:03 AM CDT, May 27, 2009
FORT CAMPBELL, Ky. (AP) — Despite previous efforts to stop suicides, the number of Fort Campbell soldiers who have killed themselves has continued to increase.

Fort Campbell leaders have ordered the entire installation to stand down for three days starting Wednesday in response to the 14 suspected suicides since Jan. 1, including two this month.

The installation participated in an Army-wide suicide prevention campaign in March that included training soldiers and commanders to look for signs of stress and depression.

Source: http://www.whnt.com/news/sns-ap-tn–fortcampbellsuicides,0,6850567.story

Families Affected by Suicide Feel Sting on Memorial Day

Mary Clare Lindberg’s son, Army Sgt. Benjamin Jon Miller, was home in Minnesota on leave from Iraq in June when he shot and killed himself

In March, Lindberg made a pilgrimage to Fort Campbell, Ky., to visit the post where her son served with the 101st Airborne Division. While it was comforting to meet with the soldiers with whom her son had served, Lindberg was upset when she saw the unit memorial. The names of two soldiers from her son’s brigade who were killed in combat were on the memorial, but Ben Miller’s name was not.

“Because my son was a suicide home on leave, his name was not on the memorial wall at Fort Campbell, and that’s just not right,” said Lindberg, who said her son was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder from his experiences in Iraq.

Source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/24/AR2009052402142.html?hpid=topnews

I’ve been hearing suicide mentioned often in the news recently so I thought I grab a few recent news articles and compile them here.

Suicide Headlines:

Missing soldier from Fairfield commits suicide in Santa Cruz
SANTA CRUZ — An AWOL soldier committed suicide in a car parked at an ocean overlook on Friday afternoon, three days after he was reported missing from Fort Carson in Colorado.

U.S. Army officials had issued alerts asking for the public’s help in finding Pfc. Roy Brooks Mason Jr., a decorated Iraq War veteran whose hometown is Fairfield, but had no luck finding the 28-year-old.

“We knew that he was missing and we were looking for him,” said Fort Carson spokeswoman Brandy Gill. “We were concerned for him.”

Source: http://www.mercurynews.com/crime/ci_12432747
Post sees second suicide in 2 weeks
The Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office confirmed Thursday that a Fort Campbell soldier committed suicide Monday night on Dean Road, the second suspected suicide this month by a soldier.

MCSO spokesman Ted Denny did not identify the soldier, saying MCSO policy prohibits release of details about suicides. Fort Campbell said the cause of the soldier’s death is under investigation.

According to 911 records, a call was made just before 8:40 p.m. Monday night to dispatchers indicating a suicide in the 600 block of Dean Road.

Source: http://www.theleafchronicle.com/article/20090522/NEWS01/905220344

Triple killing a double murder-suicide
Authorities: Man killed wife and son before turning gun on himself

Neighbors in The Cedars neighborhood describe Billy and Jolyne Hardy as the typical all-American family.

Billy worked two jobs to provide for his wife and 3-year-old son, and Jolyne, who also held a full-time job, often was seen outside playing with the child, Bryce, and working in the yard.

“Anyone who knows Billy can tell you he was a hard worker and he loved his family,” said Reginald Autrey, neighbor and close friend of the couple. “They were nice people and always have been.”

Source: http://www.shreveporttimes.com/article/20090506/NEWS03/905060325/1002/NEWS

Dad sent a suicide text before killing his family
Adrian Dunne sent a suicide note via text message before killing his wife, two young daughters and then himself.

The misspelled message told exactly what was going to happen. “Ciara and Aidran are so very sorry. We nott going to Livepol. Instad we pick heaven. Please forgive”. (sic)

Read more…

According to a new report released by the Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD), happiness levels are highest in northern European countries.

Denmark, Finland and the Netherlands rated at the top of the list.

Outside of Europe, New Zealand and Canada also made the top 10. The U.S. did not.

The U.S. ranked the highest for child poverty and obesity among the western nations polled.

Other Very Interesting Findings include:

Adult height: Americans are not getting taller. The United States is the only country in the OECD where men and women aged 45-49 are no taller than those aged 20-24 years old, indicating no improvement in health and social conditions determining gains in height.

Health care: The United States spends the most per capita on health care, but despite their high levels of health spending the Unites States has relatively low life expectancy.

Net National Income: The United States is one of the richest countries in the OECD. In 2006, the United States had a per capita National Net Income in excess of USD 35 000. Only Luxembourg and Norway were higher.

Fertility: The United States has a much higher fertility rate than most other OECD countries of 2.1 children per mother, compared to an OECD average of 1.65.

Child poverty: Child poverty has fallen since the mid-1990s but one in five US children still live in poverty, a rate exceeded only in Poland, Mexico, and Turkey

Social protection: The United States is the fourth lowest in the OECD in terms of income shares of public social spending. However, when tax breaks for social purposes and private social spending are also considered, social spending in the United States rises above the OECD average of 28% to 31% of income.

Eating time: Americans spend around an hour and a quarter eating every day, slightly more than only Canadians and Mexicans but less than half the eating time spent by the French. Despite this limited time spent eating, their obesity rates are the highest in the OECD.

Leisure time of men and women: American men have nearly 40 minutes more leisure time than women per day.
Find the report here: http://www.oecd.org/document/24/0,3343,en_2649_34637_2671576_1_1_1_1,00.html

Let me ask you,

• Are we a nation of Me’s or a nation of We’s?
• How can one justify that it is more important to have a fetus develop into a baby and then be born than to give that new born baby and child health coverage or keep them from poverty?

We may make more money per capita in the US but we spend most of it on health insurance and other ‘fees’ – These are what I call hidden taxes.

These hidden taxes go to corporations not to benefit other citizens; they suck money up the ranks to make the rich richer, making huge profits and paying CEO’s millions of dollars that are basically denied health care reimbursements to you.. In other words, money from your pocket to theirs.

Taxes are used by governments (i.e. we the people) to benefit the population at large, these fees are simply how some corporations (after lobbying congress) dip their hands in your pockets and ’steal’ your money.

Read more…

How will our world change if women were to rule?

I read an article titled “Woman, Be Silent” by Teresa Silverthorn a few weeks ago. The article started by mentioning a legend about the first civilization of humanity, where women held the authoritative power over the male community, and were created solely for supervisory reasons. Then the men took over the power of the community using trickery.

The article continues on, here are some excerpts:

Today. Our daughters are dressed in push-up bras, slinky clothing, with low self-esteem. They are used by the media to sell. They are used by the media to provoke.

They are used, and remain silent. They are exploited, and remain silent, thinking this is their only way to survive. They were taught this by their mothers, who barely survived. But, did so, by remaining silent.

I have seen how women sometimes hurt themselves indirectly when they force their daughters to abide by cultural expectations and by how they raise their male children. They are not to blame though, women around the globe have power because they raise tomorrow’s generation, but they are restricted in their ability to change the generations; they are bound by pre-established systems that they live in and depend on.

The restrictions that women face stem from the way in which the current systems of life are set up, we can call these systems the systems of living; what I mean is that the current laws, cultures and expectations of women all depend on the systems of living.

People live up to what is asked of them, many personalities are shaped by the cultures they are exposed to, individuals rise or sink due to these systems of living. The way people see themselves depends to a large extent on the systems of living they find themselves in. The same is true with women. Even an essential question like ‘what it means to be a woman’ in its entirety is determined by that woman’s interactions with the systems of living.

Read more…

Are you under the impression that usable and reliable electric vehicles do not exist? Are you waiting for the major auto makers to produce electric vehicles or to see these electric cars on TV ads? Do you think the Chevy Volt is your only choice and are chocked by the price tag? Do you think that your only choice when it comes to driving an electric car is to make one yourself using a conversion kit?

If you are any of these, I have good news for you.

We live in a world where a few brave minds have took it upon themselves to do what the major auto makers couldn’t (ehm.. I meant, wouldn’t), namely to build 100% reliable electric vehicles.

I am not talking about converted vehicles; you know, these regular cars that people convert to electric vehicles, I am also not talking about the do-it-yourself conversion kits.. Noo, real, street worthy, 100% electric cars do exist today and are probably available for sale near you.

Whether you live in the US, in Europe or in Asia, electric car are being produced now and you could purchase one, without paying $40,000 or more.

In my opinion, the newer generations of electric cars is a good match for the current generation of fluid fuel (gas, diesel, ethanol, hybrid) powered cars. The development is fast and furious.

While the best battery technology remains patented and shelved rather than used in street cars, there exists sufficient enough batteries to enable workable EVs. You can read an article I wrote on a recent advancement in battery technology here . Lio-Ion batteries are common choices in today’s EVs; with a variety of powerful electric motors these electric cars have amazing acceleration and reliability. They also cost much less to maintain.

What is even more impressive is that these EVs are finally catching up to liquid fuel vehicles (hybrids, gas, ethanol etc vehicles) when it comes to range.

The reason I am writing this article is to share with you a collection of links to Electric Vechicle companies. The list below contains links to (American, European and Asian) car manufacturers that build neighborhood electric vehicles (NEV), electric highway cars, electric trucks, electric buses, electric 2 wheelers and 3 wheelers, and electric sports cars. These are not prototype cars but are actual usable ones.

If I missed any manufacturer (i.e. a car company) please leave a comment with a link.

• http://en.think.no/
• http://evolution.loremo.com/
• http://www.acpropulsion.com/ebox/
• http://www.aerorider.com/
• http://www.ariana-ev.com/
• http://www.attrd.com/rnd/parade_main.htm
• http://www.blueskydsn.com/
• http://www.byd.com/
• http://www.cityel.de/
• http://www.cleanova.com/
• http://www.commutercars.com/
• http://www.cree.ch/
• http://www.dilixi.com/
• http://www.e-ride.com/
• http://www.ececars.nl/
• http://www.elbilnorge.no/
• http://www.electrovaya.com/
• http://www.flybo.cn/
• http://www.flytheroad.com/
• http://www.futurevehicles.co.uk (Website no longer accessible)
• http://www.getkurrent.com/
• http://www.go-one.de/
• http://www.greenvehicles.com/
• http://www.hec.w4r.nl/
• http://www.hybridtechnologies.com/
• http://www.innovech.net/ Chinese car (Website no longer accessible)
• http://www.itiselectric.com/
• http://www.lightningcarcompany.co.uk/
• http://www.maranello4cycle.com/
• http://www.micro-vett.it/english/doblom1ing.html
• http://www.milesev.com/
• http://www.mindset.ch/
• http://www.mitsubishi-motors.com/special/ev/ Mitsubishi i MiEV
• http://www.myersmotors.com/
• http://www.nicecarcompany.co.uk/
• http://www.obvio.ind.br/obviona/828.htm
• http://www.optimalenergy.co.za/
• http://www.phoenixmotorcars.com/
• http://www.quicc.eu/index.php?pid=10
• http://www.revaindia.com/
• http://www.silenceinc.ca/accueilEN.htm
• http://www.smart.com/
• http://www.smithelectricvehicles.com/
• http://www.sonimileotor.com (Website no longer accessible)
• http://www.sunmotor.us/Company_Products.html
• http://www.teslamotors.com/
• http://www.theaircar.com/
• http://www.think.no/
• http://www.treffpunktzukunft.com/
• http://www.twike.com/
• http://www.universalelectricvehicle.com  the Spyder (Website no longer accessible)
• http://www.vantagevehicle.com/
• http://www.venturifetish.fr/
• http://www.wrightspeed.com/
• http://www.zapworld.com/
• http://www.zenncars.com/

Here we go again with another food recall. On Tue Mar 31, 2009 a California pistachio processor issued a nationwide voluntary recall due to potential salmonella contamination.

Thus far, several illnesses have been reported by consumers that may be associated with the pistachios, the FDA said.

The pistachios are roasted and tested for quality, it is believed the cross-contamination occurred at the processing / packaging plan.

The FDA is advising consumers avoid all pistachio products

The last food recall due to salmonella contamination outbreak was with peanuts and peanut butter that has sickened more than 690 people in 46 states. The company in the news then was Peanut Corp. of America, the company behind the current outbreak is Setton.

Both Setton and Peanut Corp. of America are bulk provider of nuts to food manufacturers and wholesalers. That means that the contaminated pistachios could have ended up in a variety of processed foods, including ice cream, cookies, candies and trail mix.

I try to purchase and consume (i.e support) organic and small farm products when I can, I do not support large scale commercial factory farming and food processing.

When are we going to learn than small farms and smaller food manufacturers will provide better quality and be more socially and environmentally friendly?

News articles:

http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=103267

http://cancer.about.com/b/2009/04/01/fda-issues-pistachio-warning.htm

http://www.reuters.com/article/rbssFoodDistribution%20&%20Convenience%20Stores/idUSN3139386420090331

http://www.oregonlive.com/business/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/business/1238034318314750.xml&coll=7

This is part 4 of the series of articles entitled “The People of the Seven Council Fires – Documentary Summary“. Find part one here, part two here, part three here.

This article is about Family and the new way of life the Oyate were forced into.

Relationships are very important to the Oyate. If you were an Oyate you can make new relatives, by adopting someone as a relative, as a mother, son, sister or brother.

Social structure

The social structure is one of an extended family.

The men assume the role of the protector, provider and leadership.

Women

Women maintain the household. Women are viewed as nurturers & educators.

Women educate the children until a certain age, when boys go with men mentors and women stay under the womens’ mentorship

Grandmothers are usually the educators of the young

Women owned the house and tipi

Ethnic Cleansing

The Lakota were men of peace, lived in balance with creation and addressed all creation as relatives, they were relatives with the white buffalo

The Lakota was the last of tribes to resit the US military, odds and numbers were against them and eventually they worse faced with a new way of life.

Treaties were made and broken. Land was taken. People were forced into farming, and into boarding schools that were basically functioning in a Catholic school system. Further, families broken apart and separated, men and women and children separated.

Their roles were taken away. The women could no longer teach and nurture their children who were taken away from them; the men had no buffalo to hunt and mentoring to give.

The rationale for the boarding schools was, as Carlisle founder Richard Henry Pratt often said, to “kill the Indian and save the man.” But the actual reason was economic: By taking away the children, the U.S. government was able to take away and maintain control of the Indian land base.

Alcohol & drugs came into their lives when reservations started; the buffalo was replaced by rations as part of a government ration system.

The Oral tradition ended; now Cathlic nuns taught children and provided the children protection, someone else was providing for the children.

It was against the law to be Lakota from 1880 to 1978 !!!

In the 1950’s 100% of the Lakota denied their indiannes and they did not speak in Lakota.

Read more…