Sacramento International Airport is dropping the TSA and replacing all security screeners with private contractors after it was given approval to opt out of the TSA program.
The Airport will become the third largest in the country to ditch the TSA and hire private security. Only a few other airports have done so after Congress passed legislation earlier in the year, opening the door for the widely loathed federal agency to be marginalized from aviation security altogether.
Airport Director Hardy Acree told reporters that he believes private screeners can do a better job than federal employees. “I think there is going to be a higher level of customer service”, Acree said.
“It’s a win-win for everything has no bearing on security procedure or the processes the public has become accustomed to,” another Sacramento Airport official told CBS News.
Linda Beech Cutler added that the move “Makes us more flexible for staffing, for peak times and not being so staffed up for not so busy times”.
Passengers notified of the coming change approved, suggesting that they would feel safer with private security on hand.
“It might be better, less intrusive on us. I don’t like how the government runs their business,” said one flyer.
In San Francisco, where TSA screeners have already been replaced, private security has been a success. “It’s been awesome in San Francisco.” said one flyer. “They get travelers through faster, they do a better job finding test devices, and the morale is better than the TSA.”
Although the eviction of TSA screeners is growing, many will be concerned by the fact that in accordance with federal law, private contract screeners are still trained by the TSA, and must adhere to TSA procedures.
“They will issue proposals, evaluate the private security companies and ultimately choose the company that would operate here,” said Linda Beech Cutler .
The new security agents will still use TSA equipment (body scanners), will still wear TSA badges, and will still be overseen by TSA supervisors. Current TSA employees at the airport will also be able to apply to become part of the new private security team.
The TSA had frozen the ability for airports to apply to use their own private screeners. However, a law passed by Congress reinstated the right and now forces the TSA to reconsider applications to the Screening Partnership Program.
Sacramento Airport applied to opt out from the TSA program in April. Just one month prior to that application, another major airport, Orlando Sanford International, announced that it was also opting out of using TSA workers.
The agency has been slow to reissue the guidelines on the the rule change, prompting Republican Representatives John Mica of Florida, Darrell Issa of California and Jason Chaffetz of Utah to press TSA head John Pistole to implement the mandate.
Mica has personally written to 200 airports advising them of the opportunity to opt out of using TSA screeners.
The TSA has been keen to downplay the opportunity for airports to dispense with their screeners, fearing a mass exodus that could undermine the justification for the agency’s continued existence, especially given the fact that its reputation has been repeatedly savaged by a number of scandals, alleged privacy rights violations and intrusive pat-down techniques.
Back to the basics of natural, unadulterated, real food as our Creator intended. Other subjects that interest us are respect of the natural world, indigenous populations and the truth. No topic too hot to handle. We present you with information to make your own decisions based on your research. If the purchasing power of $50 billion in advertising spent yearly in the US by the food and drug companies can't influence your decisions, then they intend to prevent your options. Vote With Your $$
Tuesday, July 31, 2012
Portrait Of Remote Drone Killer
One wonders if drone pilot Col. D. Scott Brenton listens to Louis Armstrong in the suburban Air National Guard Base in Syracuse from which he murders people 7,000 miles away.
"I see mothers with children, I see fathers with children, I see fathers with mothers, I see kids playing soccer," Brenton tells the New York Times. Drone operators see their intended targets "wake up in the morning, do their work, go to sleep at night," explains Dave, another high-tech murderer who killed from an office cockpit at Nevada's Creech Air Force Base and who now trains new recruits to the cyber-killer corps at New Mexico's Holloman Air Force Base.
When instructed to kill someone he has stalked from the air for a prolonged period, "I feel no emotional attachment to the enemy," Brenton insists. I have a duty, and I execute my duty." When the deed is done, he points out, nobody "in my immediate environment is aware of anything that has occurred."
"There was a good reason for killing the people that I did, and I go through it in my head over and over and over," insists another drone operator named Will, who -- like Dave -- served a deskbound "combat" tour at Creech and now trains others to do likewise at Holloman Air Base.
Like the soldier Bates in Henry V, it's sufficient for Will -- and others of his ilk -- to render obedience to their Leader, confident that "if his cause be wrong, our obedience to the king wipes the crime of it out of us." The more concise and notorious formula, of course, is: We are only obeying orders. Besides, drone operators (who insist on being called "combat pilots") are carrying out an indispensable function by picking off Afghan "militants" -- or at least those "suspected" of such tendencies -- who unreasonably resent the presence of foreign military personnel in their country.
The New York Times profile is part of a campaign by the state-aligned media to "humanize" the state functionaries who murder by remote control -- and to normalize this mode of mass murder as drones become part of the domestic apparatus of surveillance, regimentation, and repression. Readers are invited to share the anguish of these conflicted people, who for reasons of duty have to do terrible but necessary things.
In her book Eichmann in Jerusalem, Hannah Arendt offered a glimpse into the mindset of SS personnel who were given a somewhat similar assignment. To carry out their killing errand, she explained, something had to be done "to overcome not so much their conscience as the animal pity by which all normal men are affected in the presence of physical suffering."
"The trick used by Himmler ... was very simple and probably very effective; it consisted in turning these instincts around, as it were, in directing them toward the self," Arendt recounted. "So that instead of saying: What horrible things I did to people!, the murderers would be able to say: What horrible things I had to watch in the pursuance of my duties, how heavily the task weighed upon my shoulders!"
Not everybody attached to the Regime's Cyber-Killing Corps is haunted by the horrors he has inflicted on defenseless people halfway around the world. In a 2009 U.S. Naval Academy lecture, Dr. P.W. Singer of the Brookings Institution made reference to what he called "predator porn" -- footage of drone attacks proudly circulated by the people who committed those acts. In a typical offering, Dr. Singer relates, "A Hellfire missile drops, goes in, and hits the target, followed by an explosion and bodies tossed into the air." Singer described one clip of that kind, sent to him by a joystick-wielding assassin, that "was set to music, the pop song 'I Just Want to Fly' by the band Sugar Ray."
"It's like a videogame," one deskbound drone jockey told Singer. "It can get a little bloodthirsty. But it's f****g cool."
Singer describes asking a drone pilot "what it was like to fight insurgents in Iraq while based in Nevada. He said, 'You are going to war for 12 hours, shooting weapons at targets, directing kills on enemy combatants, and then you get in the car and you drive home. And within 20 minutes, you're sitting at the dinner table talking to your kids about their homework." Meanwhile, somewhere in Iraq (or Afghanistan, Pakistan, Libya, Somalia, Yemen, or another country yet to be identified), other families are desperately looking through the rubble of their own homes in search of survivors.
Although drone strikes occur daily, most Americans pay little heed to them -- beyond occasionally taking inconsolable offense when a dissident publicly describes them as acts of murder, and insults the Dear Leader by daring to compare him to less prolific killers.
This may change soon: As the Times points out, the Pentagon -- driven by "a near insatiable demand for drones" -- is training hundreds of operators to join the corps of more than 1,300 currently stationed at more than a dozen bases across the country. Surveillance drones operated by domestic police agencies are already plying the skies above us.
Those robot aircraft can be upgraded to airborne weapons platforms, and they soon will. The people being trained to feel "no emotional attachment" to foreigners designated enemies of the state will feel no particular burden when ordered to kill fellow Americans on that list. I'm sure that the "combat pilots" who murdered U.S. citizen Anwar al-Awlaki and his 16-year-old son Abdulrahman would testify to that fact -- that is, if the "heroes" who committed those acts were man enough to acknowledge their deeds in public.
"I see mothers with children, I see fathers with children, I see fathers with mothers, I see kids playing soccer," Brenton tells the New York Times. Drone operators see their intended targets "wake up in the morning, do their work, go to sleep at night," explains Dave, another high-tech murderer who killed from an office cockpit at Nevada's Creech Air Force Base and who now trains new recruits to the cyber-killer corps at New Mexico's Holloman Air Force Base.
When instructed to kill someone he has stalked from the air for a prolonged period, "I feel no emotional attachment to the enemy," Brenton insists. I have a duty, and I execute my duty." When the deed is done, he points out, nobody "in my immediate environment is aware of anything that has occurred."
"There was a good reason for killing the people that I did, and I go through it in my head over and over and over," insists another drone operator named Will, who -- like Dave -- served a deskbound "combat" tour at Creech and now trains others to do likewise at Holloman Air Base.
Like the soldier Bates in Henry V, it's sufficient for Will -- and others of his ilk -- to render obedience to their Leader, confident that "if his cause be wrong, our obedience to the king wipes the crime of it out of us." The more concise and notorious formula, of course, is: We are only obeying orders. Besides, drone operators (who insist on being called "combat pilots") are carrying out an indispensable function by picking off Afghan "militants" -- or at least those "suspected" of such tendencies -- who unreasonably resent the presence of foreign military personnel in their country.
The New York Times profile is part of a campaign by the state-aligned media to "humanize" the state functionaries who murder by remote control -- and to normalize this mode of mass murder as drones become part of the domestic apparatus of surveillance, regimentation, and repression. Readers are invited to share the anguish of these conflicted people, who for reasons of duty have to do terrible but necessary things.
In her book Eichmann in Jerusalem, Hannah Arendt offered a glimpse into the mindset of SS personnel who were given a somewhat similar assignment. To carry out their killing errand, she explained, something had to be done "to overcome not so much their conscience as the animal pity by which all normal men are affected in the presence of physical suffering."
"The trick used by Himmler ... was very simple and probably very effective; it consisted in turning these instincts around, as it were, in directing them toward the self," Arendt recounted. "So that instead of saying: What horrible things I did to people!, the murderers would be able to say: What horrible things I had to watch in the pursuance of my duties, how heavily the task weighed upon my shoulders!"
Not everybody attached to the Regime's Cyber-Killing Corps is haunted by the horrors he has inflicted on defenseless people halfway around the world. In a 2009 U.S. Naval Academy lecture, Dr. P.W. Singer of the Brookings Institution made reference to what he called "predator porn" -- footage of drone attacks proudly circulated by the people who committed those acts. In a typical offering, Dr. Singer relates, "A Hellfire missile drops, goes in, and hits the target, followed by an explosion and bodies tossed into the air." Singer described one clip of that kind, sent to him by a joystick-wielding assassin, that "was set to music, the pop song 'I Just Want to Fly' by the band Sugar Ray."
"It's like a videogame," one deskbound drone jockey told Singer. "It can get a little bloodthirsty. But it's f****g cool."
Singer describes asking a drone pilot "what it was like to fight insurgents in Iraq while based in Nevada. He said, 'You are going to war for 12 hours, shooting weapons at targets, directing kills on enemy combatants, and then you get in the car and you drive home. And within 20 minutes, you're sitting at the dinner table talking to your kids about their homework." Meanwhile, somewhere in Iraq (or Afghanistan, Pakistan, Libya, Somalia, Yemen, or another country yet to be identified), other families are desperately looking through the rubble of their own homes in search of survivors.
Although drone strikes occur daily, most Americans pay little heed to them -- beyond occasionally taking inconsolable offense when a dissident publicly describes them as acts of murder, and insults the Dear Leader by daring to compare him to less prolific killers.
This may change soon: As the Times points out, the Pentagon -- driven by "a near insatiable demand for drones" -- is training hundreds of operators to join the corps of more than 1,300 currently stationed at more than a dozen bases across the country. Surveillance drones operated by domestic police agencies are already plying the skies above us.
Those robot aircraft can be upgraded to airborne weapons platforms, and they soon will. The people being trained to feel "no emotional attachment" to foreigners designated enemies of the state will feel no particular burden when ordered to kill fellow Americans on that list. I'm sure that the "combat pilots" who murdered U.S. citizen Anwar al-Awlaki and his 16-year-old son Abdulrahman would testify to that fact -- that is, if the "heroes" who committed those acts were man enough to acknowledge their deeds in public.
World's First Smart City To Be Beyond Orwellian
The world’s first ‘smart city’ is being built in Asia- and it promises to serve as an experiment for the high-tech tyranny that is surely to come about as a response to the collapse of this present era of human industrial civilization.
Dubbed ‘Songdo’, the city will rest upon a wholly man made island in the Yellow sea and will incorporate just about every aspect of an Orwellian ‘super state’ imaginable.
Millions of wireless sensors and microchips will be embedded throughout the sprawling city-scape. ‘Smart appliances’ such as refrigerators that let you know when you’re running low on certain foods and bathroom mirrors that inform you of your physical health will be evident in every home.
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Songdo will also prominently feature ‘telepresence’ technology which translates to giant video screens everywhere. Telepresence is a ‘Skype’ like innovation developed by Cisco that allows folks to make convenient video calls to any one else with the same set up in their home or office.
Boasting other such innovations like street lights that automatically adjust to the number of people out on the street as well as an advanced ‘central hub’ that monitors almost every aspect of the city in real-time, Songdo is surely the first city of its kind with others like it such as the PlanIT Valley in Portugal just over the horizon.
The technology is neutral, the current value system is not: why Songdo will fail
Grass roots, sustainability organizations such as the Zeitgeist Movement and the Venus Project propose similar designs for advanced city systems as a means to ‘update’ our current inefficient model of the urban environment. What separates the aims of these two organizations in particular from the rise of Songdo-like city systems however is the fact that both groups advocate an adjustment of our human value systems first before migrating into an efficient new living-scape. Without having made these critical changes to the global, human social order, any new ‘smart city’ will only morph into a high-tech prison-grid controlled by extreme sociopaths.
Science fiction warns of high tech control grids
Orwellian cities of the future are certainly not a new concept in the realm of science fiction. In every example of a functional (or is it ‘non-functional’) dystopic model, citizens are treated like cattle as their every move is both tracked and recorded. In a world wherein our value systems have been radically adjusted to the extents proposed by the Zeitgeist Movement and the Venus Project, there is no real merit in any one person or group controlling others with high technology.
However, in places such as Songdo, it is mathematically certain- given the make up of our present warped psychology as a species- that a gross form of corruption will overtake the city and subject its millions of inhabitants beneath what will ultimately prove but a more advanced form of what was once Hitler’s Third Reich.
Songdo is scheduled to be completed by 2015. If proven a successful model for control, there is little doubt that the elites of many different cities will push to integrate the same technologies into their command-grid so as to gain a much firmer grip on their ‘unruly’ populaces.
Dubbed ‘Songdo’, the city will rest upon a wholly man made island in the Yellow sea and will incorporate just about every aspect of an Orwellian ‘super state’ imaginable.
Millions of wireless sensors and microchips will be embedded throughout the sprawling city-scape. ‘Smart appliances’ such as refrigerators that let you know when you’re running low on certain foods and bathroom mirrors that inform you of your physical health will be evident in every home.
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/fHO_zkHPTaI?feature=player_embedded" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
Songdo will also prominently feature ‘telepresence’ technology which translates to giant video screens everywhere. Telepresence is a ‘Skype’ like innovation developed by Cisco that allows folks to make convenient video calls to any one else with the same set up in their home or office.
Boasting other such innovations like street lights that automatically adjust to the number of people out on the street as well as an advanced ‘central hub’ that monitors almost every aspect of the city in real-time, Songdo is surely the first city of its kind with others like it such as the PlanIT Valley in Portugal just over the horizon.
The technology is neutral, the current value system is not: why Songdo will fail
- A d v e r t i s e m e n t
Grass roots, sustainability organizations such as the Zeitgeist Movement and the Venus Project propose similar designs for advanced city systems as a means to ‘update’ our current inefficient model of the urban environment. What separates the aims of these two organizations in particular from the rise of Songdo-like city systems however is the fact that both groups advocate an adjustment of our human value systems first before migrating into an efficient new living-scape. Without having made these critical changes to the global, human social order, any new ‘smart city’ will only morph into a high-tech prison-grid controlled by extreme sociopaths.
Science fiction warns of high tech control grids
Orwellian cities of the future are certainly not a new concept in the realm of science fiction. In every example of a functional (or is it ‘non-functional’) dystopic model, citizens are treated like cattle as their every move is both tracked and recorded. In a world wherein our value systems have been radically adjusted to the extents proposed by the Zeitgeist Movement and the Venus Project, there is no real merit in any one person or group controlling others with high technology.
However, in places such as Songdo, it is mathematically certain- given the make up of our present warped psychology as a species- that a gross form of corruption will overtake the city and subject its millions of inhabitants beneath what will ultimately prove but a more advanced form of what was once Hitler’s Third Reich.
Songdo is scheduled to be completed by 2015. If proven a successful model for control, there is little doubt that the elites of many different cities will push to integrate the same technologies into their command-grid so as to gain a much firmer grip on their ‘unruly’ populaces.
Batman Shooter's Father About To Testify Regarding Banking Scandals
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Senior Lead Scientist at Fair Isaac. He spent his entire life in the financial and credit services. His educational background shows exceptional emphasis on Mathematics. He has an extensive educational background. It is reported that he was about to go before Congress to testify against a banking scandal.
Robert Holmes current position with FICO involves him handling Fraud.Now for those of you who don’t know FICO is a company that gives credit scores to Businesses and individuals. These credit scores helps Banks and others make complex decisions that involve investing. They come up with these credit scores and ratings by doing extensive analyzing and research. Then FICO provides this information to large companies.
Prior to Robert Holmes career at Fair Isaac he was developing Software. He was the Senior Staff Assistant at HNC Software. He worked there for two years. This company’s purpose is to provide different businesses with solutions to create growth and increase profit. The software that Holmes developed at HNC compiles research and data.
With this information it helps the executives at major companies including retail create plans that will help their service, customer satisfaction and more. Robert Holmes describes his special emphasis on research and analysis that he has developed over his years of work experience.
Senior Lead Scientist at Fair Isaac. He spent his entire life in the financial and credit services. His educational background shows exceptional emphasis on Mathematics. He has an extensive educational background. It is reported that he was about to go before Congress to testify against a banking scandal.
Robert Holmes current position with FICO involves him handling Fraud.Now for those of you who don’t know FICO is a company that gives credit scores to Businesses and individuals. These credit scores helps Banks and others make complex decisions that involve investing. They come up with these credit scores and ratings by doing extensive analyzing and research. Then FICO provides this information to large companies.
Prior to Robert Holmes career at Fair Isaac he was developing Software. He was the Senior Staff Assistant at HNC Software. He worked there for two years. This company’s purpose is to provide different businesses with solutions to create growth and increase profit. The software that Holmes developed at HNC compiles research and data.
With this information it helps the executives at major companies including retail create plans that will help their service, customer satisfaction and more. Robert Holmes describes his special emphasis on research and analysis that he has developed over his years of work experience.
Marines Counter Teacher Opposition To Recruit New Canon Fodder
The bellowing from the drill instructors began as soon as the newcomers arrived.
"GET OFF THE BUS!" barked one D.I.
It's a ritual reenacted countless times since 1923, when young men first began coming to boot camp to see if they were tough enough to be Marines.
But last week's group was not composed of frightened young recruits.
Instead they were high school teachers, guidance counselors and administrators from school districts in the Los Angeles and Sacramento areas. All had accepted the Marine Corps' invitation to spend four days at Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego, watching the training and talking to recruits, enlisted Marines and senior officers.
While some areas of the state embrace the military, the Los Angeles Unified School District, second largest in the country, has been more reticent. It gives recruiters no more access to students or their information than is granted to any other potential employer. Parents and older students also are allowed to restrict the release of personal information to military recruiters.
Some teachers in the district have launched "counter recruiting" efforts, warning students of physical danger, regimentation and loss of privacy and individuality that come with military service. Others put students on "don't call" lists.
"The U.S. continues to fight in wars that are opposed by the public, and yet the military can recruit with little opposition because working-class kids have few job options," said Joshua Pechthalt, president of the California Federation of Teachers and a critic of the Marine Corps program.
The Marine Corps hopes to counterbalance such hostility by inviting educators to what is called an "educator workshop."
A dozen times a year, the Marines welcome groups of about 80 educators to the San Diego boot camp. Most come from schools west of the Mississippi, the San Diego boot camp's recruiting region.
The Marine Corps picks up the tab for travel, lodging and incidentals, about $800,000 a year. The Marine Corps' other boot camp, in Parris Island, S.C., has a similar program.
"Please ask a lot of questions," Col. Michael Lee, commanding officer of the recruit training regiment in San Diego, told the group once the drill instructors stopped screaming. "The best thing you can do is gain knowledge and go back and share it with people who do not have it."
An early question from one teacher was whether recruits may someday go to war.
The answer from Col. Robert Gates, chief of staff for the boot camp and the western recruiting region, was direct: "The Marine Corps is primarily a combat-arms organization, that's what we do," he said. But he noted that U.S. involvement in Afghanistan is waning.
One teacher asked whether the Marine Corps is a refuge for young men who would otherwise be sent to jail. Maybe long ago, but not today, Gates said.
"Military service is not an alternative to incarceration or paying a debt to society," he said.
Is all the yelling, marching and physical strain really necessary? asked another. Yes, said Lee, because it pushes recruits to their limits and teaches them not to quit.
"There's a method to the madness," he said.
Can high school dropouts enlist in the Marines? Only under extraordinary circumstances: 99.7% of last year's recruits were high school graduates.
The educators watched recruits at the obstacle courses, rifle ranges, bayonet-training area and the swimming pool, where they learn to tread water while wearing combat gear. There were side trips to Miramar Marine Corps Air Station and Camp Pendleton.
"GET OFF THE BUS!" barked one D.I.
It's a ritual reenacted countless times since 1923, when young men first began coming to boot camp to see if they were tough enough to be Marines.
But last week's group was not composed of frightened young recruits.
Instead they were high school teachers, guidance counselors and administrators from school districts in the Los Angeles and Sacramento areas. All had accepted the Marine Corps' invitation to spend four days at Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego, watching the training and talking to recruits, enlisted Marines and senior officers.
While some areas of the state embrace the military, the Los Angeles Unified School District, second largest in the country, has been more reticent. It gives recruiters no more access to students or their information than is granted to any other potential employer. Parents and older students also are allowed to restrict the release of personal information to military recruiters.
Some teachers in the district have launched "counter recruiting" efforts, warning students of physical danger, regimentation and loss of privacy and individuality that come with military service. Others put students on "don't call" lists.
"The U.S. continues to fight in wars that are opposed by the public, and yet the military can recruit with little opposition because working-class kids have few job options," said Joshua Pechthalt, president of the California Federation of Teachers and a critic of the Marine Corps program.
The Marine Corps hopes to counterbalance such hostility by inviting educators to what is called an "educator workshop."
A dozen times a year, the Marines welcome groups of about 80 educators to the San Diego boot camp. Most come from schools west of the Mississippi, the San Diego boot camp's recruiting region.
The Marine Corps picks up the tab for travel, lodging and incidentals, about $800,000 a year. The Marine Corps' other boot camp, in Parris Island, S.C., has a similar program.
"Please ask a lot of questions," Col. Michael Lee, commanding officer of the recruit training regiment in San Diego, told the group once the drill instructors stopped screaming. "The best thing you can do is gain knowledge and go back and share it with people who do not have it."
An early question from one teacher was whether recruits may someday go to war.
The answer from Col. Robert Gates, chief of staff for the boot camp and the western recruiting region, was direct: "The Marine Corps is primarily a combat-arms organization, that's what we do," he said. But he noted that U.S. involvement in Afghanistan is waning.
One teacher asked whether the Marine Corps is a refuge for young men who would otherwise be sent to jail. Maybe long ago, but not today, Gates said.
"Military service is not an alternative to incarceration or paying a debt to society," he said.
Is all the yelling, marching and physical strain really necessary? asked another. Yes, said Lee, because it pushes recruits to their limits and teaches them not to quit.
"There's a method to the madness," he said.
Can high school dropouts enlist in the Marines? Only under extraordinary circumstances: 99.7% of last year's recruits were high school graduates.
The educators watched recruits at the obstacle courses, rifle ranges, bayonet-training area and the swimming pool, where they learn to tread water while wearing combat gear. There were side trips to Miramar Marine Corps Air Station and Camp Pendleton.
White House Chef Claims Future Food Will Be All Chemicals Not Real Food
Every two years, a consortium of Europe's most active minds converges at the Euroscience Open Forum to discuss the latest advancements in scientific research and innovation. But this year's meeting, which was held in Dublin, Ireland, featured a disturbing workshop held by White House executive pastry chef Bill Yosses, who explained and demonstrated to audience members how the food of the future will not actually contain real food, but rather various combinations of lab-created chemicals that mimic food.
As reported on Six One News, a feature of RTE News in Ireland, Yosses and several other food experts showed a live audience how to create various foams, gels, solids, and other food-like textured substances out of chemicals that, when combined, resemble things like lemon souffle and chocolate pudding. These food scientists then shared samples of these laboratory creations with audience members, who were told that the imitation food products are the wave of the future.
"You take the (chemical) compounds and you make the dish," said Herve This of AgroParisTech, a science and research organization based in France, to RTE News in Ireland. "So you have no vegetables, no fruit, no meat, no fish, nothing except compounds. And you have to create a shape, a color, a taste, a freshness, a pungency, an astringency, everything," he added, likening traditional cooking methods such as "cracking eggs" and using real food ingredients to "living in the Middle Ages."
White House executive pastry chef Bill Yosses shares a similar sentiment, as he believes creating fake food out of chemicals will actually help improve the quality of cuisine and availability of food. He told Six One News that chefs can use the information he presented to gain a "(better) understanding of what they're doing and use that to improve the processes, to improve not only the flavor but the hygiene, the longevity, how to store things."
"All that comes about from understanding cooking on a really molecular level," he added, with sort of a twinkle in his eye. But when he was asked if these same chemical food experiments are used at the White House in meals served to the Obamas, Yosses laughed and said no, explaining that "the First Family is looking for traditional, sort of 'happy recipes' that people are familiar with."
You can watch the disturbing segment in its entirety at:
<a href=http://www.rte.ie/news/av/2012/0712/media-3342255.html>This Link</a>
While intended to specifically showcase some of the more offbeat scientific developments circulating the "technosphere" today, the Euroscience Open Forum, including the troubling seminar on chemical-based "foods of the future," is actually a troubling foreshadowing of what may soon come for Americans. Some scientists are apparently of the strong persuasion that man-made food items are preferable to natural foods, and the former is what they hope the public will eventually accept.
The average person, in other words, will eventually be expected to happily eat green gelatin-like blobs made of chemical compounds, along with ambiguous cracker products that resemble "Soylent Green," while the White House and the world's other elites continue to eat wholesome, natural foods, including those hand-picked from Michelle Obama's organic garden.
As reported on Six One News, a feature of RTE News in Ireland, Yosses and several other food experts showed a live audience how to create various foams, gels, solids, and other food-like textured substances out of chemicals that, when combined, resemble things like lemon souffle and chocolate pudding. These food scientists then shared samples of these laboratory creations with audience members, who were told that the imitation food products are the wave of the future.
"You take the (chemical) compounds and you make the dish," said Herve This of AgroParisTech, a science and research organization based in France, to RTE News in Ireland. "So you have no vegetables, no fruit, no meat, no fish, nothing except compounds. And you have to create a shape, a color, a taste, a freshness, a pungency, an astringency, everything," he added, likening traditional cooking methods such as "cracking eggs" and using real food ingredients to "living in the Middle Ages."
White House executive pastry chef Bill Yosses shares a similar sentiment, as he believes creating fake food out of chemicals will actually help improve the quality of cuisine and availability of food. He told Six One News that chefs can use the information he presented to gain a "(better) understanding of what they're doing and use that to improve the processes, to improve not only the flavor but the hygiene, the longevity, how to store things."
"All that comes about from understanding cooking on a really molecular level," he added, with sort of a twinkle in his eye. But when he was asked if these same chemical food experiments are used at the White House in meals served to the Obamas, Yosses laughed and said no, explaining that "the First Family is looking for traditional, sort of 'happy recipes' that people are familiar with."
You can watch the disturbing segment in its entirety at:
<a href=http://www.rte.ie/news/av/2012/0712/media-3342255.html>This Link</a>
While intended to specifically showcase some of the more offbeat scientific developments circulating the "technosphere" today, the Euroscience Open Forum, including the troubling seminar on chemical-based "foods of the future," is actually a troubling foreshadowing of what may soon come for Americans. Some scientists are apparently of the strong persuasion that man-made food items are preferable to natural foods, and the former is what they hope the public will eventually accept.
The average person, in other words, will eventually be expected to happily eat green gelatin-like blobs made of chemical compounds, along with ambiguous cracker products that resemble "Soylent Green," while the White House and the world's other elites continue to eat wholesome, natural foods, including those hand-picked from Michelle Obama's organic garden.
Raw Food Diet For 160 Lb Weight Loss
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Former DEA Head Says CIA Are Drug Smugglers
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Why Chemtrails?
Here you have it, apparent weather modification at work. Notice the chemtrails are filling in a large area below the swirl at the top, and working over the vortex in the lower right system. It’s believed the metallic particles in the sprays make the atmosphere maneuverable by EMF emitting technology such as HAARP and other land, oceanic and space based broadcast stations.
Spraying out over the ocean is also a common spray tactic on the west coast. The trails are done way ahead of time and blow in with the on-shore wind. By the time they reach land much of the toxic spray in then at sea level, pummeling the dense shoreline population. When these false weather banks then appear, they fill in the blue areas with more spraying.
I watched it for years. In this case above it looks like weather mod at work.
(For larger view of the top picture go HERE)
Why Chemtrails?
Chemtrails are a multi-purposed supposed geoengineering effort costing trillions of dollars while the PTBs deny they even exist. These aerosols are toxic to all forms of life while also partially cutting us off from the life-giving sun. Chemtrails also make the atmosphere a more potent medium for mind altering ELF waves as well as a potential atmospheric “screen” for holographic technologies.
And I’m sure a lot more. Viruses, spores, nano-particles and even psychotropic drugs have been found in chemtrail samples.
How do you like having your natural world poisoned and weaponized?
That’s what they’re up to. Chemtrails make the perfect example. Now apply that model to every other area and the picture will become clear.
They’re up to no good except to break down society to a more controllable state. Our weakness is their strength.
Or so they’re planning.
Stay on top of it. We’re under constant attack but we can’t let it get us down.
Stay on the offensive exposing them and sharing the love and light of Truth.
Spraying out over the ocean is also a common spray tactic on the west coast. The trails are done way ahead of time and blow in with the on-shore wind. By the time they reach land much of the toxic spray in then at sea level, pummeling the dense shoreline population. When these false weather banks then appear, they fill in the blue areas with more spraying.
I watched it for years. In this case above it looks like weather mod at work.
(For larger view of the top picture go HERE)
Why Chemtrails?
Chemtrails are a multi-purposed supposed geoengineering effort costing trillions of dollars while the PTBs deny they even exist. These aerosols are toxic to all forms of life while also partially cutting us off from the life-giving sun. Chemtrails also make the atmosphere a more potent medium for mind altering ELF waves as well as a potential atmospheric “screen” for holographic technologies.
And I’m sure a lot more. Viruses, spores, nano-particles and even psychotropic drugs have been found in chemtrail samples.
How do you like having your natural world poisoned and weaponized?
That’s what they’re up to. Chemtrails make the perfect example. Now apply that model to every other area and the picture will become clear.
They’re up to no good except to break down society to a more controllable state. Our weakness is their strength.
Or so they’re planning.
Stay on top of it. We’re under constant attack but we can’t let it get us down.
Stay on the offensive exposing them and sharing the love and light of Truth.
Killing Jesus For A Bowl Of Goat's Foot Soup
Dog Poet Transmitting.......
May your noses always be cold and wet.
A couple of introductory quotes from the timeless zone; “the love of money is the root of all evil”, and “follow the money”. Every darkness imaginable on the planet at this moment can be proven by the one or traced by the other and who is at the heart of the matter at the moment and times past? The Central Banks are. All economic depressions, all wars, the roots of criminal enterprise on a grand scale, or a small scale, come out of policies initiated by bankers. The former are financed for the purpose of laundering operations and the latter are caused by economic hardship and adversity placed upon those who cannot make an honest living. When dishonesty is the operative philosophy at the top, it matriculates downward into the population. It's simple math, however you work the numbers.
Every time the news becomes so banal that it is channeling pure anal, you can be sure that the corporate suits have got some bitches brew to serve up to the public. They have a big commercial kitchen, so there are certainly at least two or 3 Wolf or Viking gas stoves, with any number of pots simmering in preparation, for whatever selection finally gets made and you can expect the usual training exercises, simulating whatever happens, taking place at the same time. It's hard to know who's who and what's what. You can get into the details, if you can get the details, or... who knows? There are so many versions and variations on a theme.
Where does this 'sign the card' happy birthday for Obama come from? I don't want to know but I will find out by delayed reaction, in a way similar to porpoise fucking the scorpion beasts that are already, frenetically humping the mountains of the moon. In other words, by ways mysterious to the minds of men who are not also so engaged. I got your 99% right here; “shakin it here, Boss”. It must be so that some of us are employed in being the force behind the eyes of Billy Bob Thornton, playing the president of the United States. The reptile brain is in full ascendance. Leverage acts as leverage, until it is over leveraged and the lever transforms into a chute. Pressure generates power by compression, until the pressure becomes so great that it destroys the machinery producing the power.
The stock market, the currency, the collective progress of a society, continue so long as the level of confidence in any of them exceeds the doubt that rejects their value and importance. Nothing is actually real except to the degree that people believe in it. As soon as the greater mass of people cease to believe in it, it is no longer real. It is like the vested authority of the political spectrum. As Lao Tzu said long ago. “A leader is best when people are barely aware that he exists. It is worse when they love and admire him, even worse when they fear and hate him and the final stage is when they ridicule and laugh at him”. That's all paraphrasing but the point is made.
I have run out of things to say. I have run out of creative variations to say the same things from another perspective. I have run out of new and ever more amplified hyperbole, to define and describe the absurdity of these times. The fools and fiends employed in raising Hell on Earth are incapable of regulating or stopping themselves. Truly, as Nietzsche said, “Those whom the god's would destroy they first make mad”. Even though there is no precedence for success in what they are seeking to do, they soldier on into the abyss. The one's at the top of the criminal pyramid, who deny that they are at the top of the criminal pyramid ...but who are observably at the top of the criminal pyramid, build with their own hands the gibbets they will hang from.
For a long time now, they have been in engaged in a public relations game of playing the victimized, while enslaving and killing tens of millions. The tide of public opinion is shifting and all their artifice is becoming of no avail. Soon enough the red eyed mob is going to come after them and soon enough, the truth of all their evil activities, is going to be revealed in the bold sunlight of midday and there will be no argument, or defense they can muster. They will become the most accursed and hunted of creatures. Whatever mercy might attend some possibility of epiphany is fast running out. They will pull and push with a vengeance, until they are dragged and pulled after by the force of their own excess.
They've been called out by avatars and the great and courageous minds of the centuries and they have been allowed to prosper at the expense of everyone else, because that is the nature of times of darkness, in respect of the servants of darkness. When light breaks and awakening and awareness rise in concert, all that was dark and hidden is revealed and the genie will not go back into the bottle.
So, where am I going with this point, in this post I had no real intention of writing today; given that I have been considering a moratorium of this kind of thing, until the demented clowns, orchestrating their own destruction, get to that critical denouement? I'm getting into the predictable and inescapable madness that attends the deepest and darkest mania of them all; religious insanity. There are two kinds of religious insanity. There is the fanatical insanity of the worship of the material God; the one who has usurped the natural province of the sublime, higher mind of natural aspiration, toward the greater awareness of transcendent liberty and there is the worship of the currency of the material plane, for the purpose of an exclusionary state, at the expense of one's fellows. This crazy and inflamed state, born of self interest, is radiated outward, from the captive planes of consciousness, by the disembodied residents of the lower astral plane. They are being swept out into the minds and bodies of those who have given up their own sovereignty, in exchange for temporary license and the exercise of ever increasingly profane appetites ...and like the contagion of a plague, this viral parasite has found ever more welcome lodging, in the minds of the greater public, until it is universally accepted as the right and preferred state of being.
So... most especially in the logarithmically expanding decadence of the United States, this condition is reaching out into every nation, where similar conditions are festering into savage outbreak; both random and calculated acts of violence, against family, friends and strangers; kidnappings and torture, bodies by the road side, epidemic highway accidents, where as many as 20 people die at at a time, vans filled with passengers exploding into flaming infernos, public shootings in shopping areas, the indiscriminate murder of individuals under the plastic button eyes of Mickey Mouse, blowing away teenage boys exiting their vehicles. Every day there are a half a dozen or a dozen more and all the unseen killings taking place across the land.
People are going to jail for catching rainwater. Hot dog stands and lemonade stands are resulting in the arrests of children. Children are being tased and shot down by the police. They're being buggered and raped by public officials. You can't grow your own food or milk your own cows. There are cameras everywhere but you can't use your own. The supreme court said that corporations are people. Mitt Romney sucked the devil's flaming cock below The Fellatio Wall in Jerusalem; swallow or spit, Mitt? He killed Jesus for a bowl of Goat's foot soup. The fundies are screaming for Jesus to come back. They've got a hammer in one hand and a fistful of nails in the other. Jesus better watch his ass.
Yeat's “Second Coming”, appears more prophetic and profound with every passing day. Things definitely fall apart and the center cannot hold. Holy flaming platypus shit! It is literally unfreaking believable. Every single news site is loaded up with either aspartame laced trivia, or the kind of words and actions that would have been considered seriously bizarre, only a short while ago. They're still going on and on about the Tribe bus monitor because there is no industry more profitable than the victim industry and don't you forget it, “Nefah again, nefah again, unless we do it". It can't end well for the most part. It just can't. I'm going to find a great big farmhouse with a lot of land somewhere and someone's going to buy it for me/us and then everyone who can make it will have some shelter from the storm. If I don't disappear in India (as I hope to) that will be a reality and I've absolutely no doubt about it. We won't have trouble supporting ourselves. I alone have any number of guaranteed profitable activities and God only knows what the rest of you will come up with. Let's focus on this reality and make it happen. Just assume and expect it. I may not be there myself and then again I may but that's got nothing to do with it happening. Assume it and expect it. I've already seen it in various ways I won't be going into at the moment. Assume it and expect it, as opposed to your other alternative; “assume the position”. Over here, if you have a farm you are immediately entitled to a commercial license for whatever, pretty much.
It is Batshit Man crazy folks. You almost expect that ending to so many Warner Brother's cartoons with Porky Pig (how apt) saying, “ba ba ba ba bu,that's all folks”, except, instead of Porky Pig, it's Lord Shiva Nataraja, saying it and dancing The Tandava. There's a giant, sucking sound, like water, or something worse, being drawn down the mouth of a powerful drain. Some have made it to the top of the sink. For everyone else, it's off to the reincarnation, reclamation plant. On a positive note, Syria is kicking some Zio-rebel ass. On a positive note some of us know all of these things to be true and knowing something is true, puts you in the position to do something about yourself. That will be sufficient to changing the world. Do it today!
End Transmission.......
May your noses always be cold and wet.
A couple of introductory quotes from the timeless zone; “the love of money is the root of all evil”, and “follow the money”. Every darkness imaginable on the planet at this moment can be proven by the one or traced by the other and who is at the heart of the matter at the moment and times past? The Central Banks are. All economic depressions, all wars, the roots of criminal enterprise on a grand scale, or a small scale, come out of policies initiated by bankers. The former are financed for the purpose of laundering operations and the latter are caused by economic hardship and adversity placed upon those who cannot make an honest living. When dishonesty is the operative philosophy at the top, it matriculates downward into the population. It's simple math, however you work the numbers.
Every time the news becomes so banal that it is channeling pure anal, you can be sure that the corporate suits have got some bitches brew to serve up to the public. They have a big commercial kitchen, so there are certainly at least two or 3 Wolf or Viking gas stoves, with any number of pots simmering in preparation, for whatever selection finally gets made and you can expect the usual training exercises, simulating whatever happens, taking place at the same time. It's hard to know who's who and what's what. You can get into the details, if you can get the details, or... who knows? There are so many versions and variations on a theme.
Where does this 'sign the card' happy birthday for Obama come from? I don't want to know but I will find out by delayed reaction, in a way similar to porpoise fucking the scorpion beasts that are already, frenetically humping the mountains of the moon. In other words, by ways mysterious to the minds of men who are not also so engaged. I got your 99% right here; “shakin it here, Boss”. It must be so that some of us are employed in being the force behind the eyes of Billy Bob Thornton, playing the president of the United States. The reptile brain is in full ascendance. Leverage acts as leverage, until it is over leveraged and the lever transforms into a chute. Pressure generates power by compression, until the pressure becomes so great that it destroys the machinery producing the power.
The stock market, the currency, the collective progress of a society, continue so long as the level of confidence in any of them exceeds the doubt that rejects their value and importance. Nothing is actually real except to the degree that people believe in it. As soon as the greater mass of people cease to believe in it, it is no longer real. It is like the vested authority of the political spectrum. As Lao Tzu said long ago. “A leader is best when people are barely aware that he exists. It is worse when they love and admire him, even worse when they fear and hate him and the final stage is when they ridicule and laugh at him”. That's all paraphrasing but the point is made.
I have run out of things to say. I have run out of creative variations to say the same things from another perspective. I have run out of new and ever more amplified hyperbole, to define and describe the absurdity of these times. The fools and fiends employed in raising Hell on Earth are incapable of regulating or stopping themselves. Truly, as Nietzsche said, “Those whom the god's would destroy they first make mad”. Even though there is no precedence for success in what they are seeking to do, they soldier on into the abyss. The one's at the top of the criminal pyramid, who deny that they are at the top of the criminal pyramid ...but who are observably at the top of the criminal pyramid, build with their own hands the gibbets they will hang from.
For a long time now, they have been in engaged in a public relations game of playing the victimized, while enslaving and killing tens of millions. The tide of public opinion is shifting and all their artifice is becoming of no avail. Soon enough the red eyed mob is going to come after them and soon enough, the truth of all their evil activities, is going to be revealed in the bold sunlight of midday and there will be no argument, or defense they can muster. They will become the most accursed and hunted of creatures. Whatever mercy might attend some possibility of epiphany is fast running out. They will pull and push with a vengeance, until they are dragged and pulled after by the force of their own excess.
They've been called out by avatars and the great and courageous minds of the centuries and they have been allowed to prosper at the expense of everyone else, because that is the nature of times of darkness, in respect of the servants of darkness. When light breaks and awakening and awareness rise in concert, all that was dark and hidden is revealed and the genie will not go back into the bottle.
So, where am I going with this point, in this post I had no real intention of writing today; given that I have been considering a moratorium of this kind of thing, until the demented clowns, orchestrating their own destruction, get to that critical denouement? I'm getting into the predictable and inescapable madness that attends the deepest and darkest mania of them all; religious insanity. There are two kinds of religious insanity. There is the fanatical insanity of the worship of the material God; the one who has usurped the natural province of the sublime, higher mind of natural aspiration, toward the greater awareness of transcendent liberty and there is the worship of the currency of the material plane, for the purpose of an exclusionary state, at the expense of one's fellows. This crazy and inflamed state, born of self interest, is radiated outward, from the captive planes of consciousness, by the disembodied residents of the lower astral plane. They are being swept out into the minds and bodies of those who have given up their own sovereignty, in exchange for temporary license and the exercise of ever increasingly profane appetites ...and like the contagion of a plague, this viral parasite has found ever more welcome lodging, in the minds of the greater public, until it is universally accepted as the right and preferred state of being.
So... most especially in the logarithmically expanding decadence of the United States, this condition is reaching out into every nation, where similar conditions are festering into savage outbreak; both random and calculated acts of violence, against family, friends and strangers; kidnappings and torture, bodies by the road side, epidemic highway accidents, where as many as 20 people die at at a time, vans filled with passengers exploding into flaming infernos, public shootings in shopping areas, the indiscriminate murder of individuals under the plastic button eyes of Mickey Mouse, blowing away teenage boys exiting their vehicles. Every day there are a half a dozen or a dozen more and all the unseen killings taking place across the land.
People are going to jail for catching rainwater. Hot dog stands and lemonade stands are resulting in the arrests of children. Children are being tased and shot down by the police. They're being buggered and raped by public officials. You can't grow your own food or milk your own cows. There are cameras everywhere but you can't use your own. The supreme court said that corporations are people. Mitt Romney sucked the devil's flaming cock below The Fellatio Wall in Jerusalem; swallow or spit, Mitt? He killed Jesus for a bowl of Goat's foot soup. The fundies are screaming for Jesus to come back. They've got a hammer in one hand and a fistful of nails in the other. Jesus better watch his ass.
Yeat's “Second Coming”, appears more prophetic and profound with every passing day. Things definitely fall apart and the center cannot hold. Holy flaming platypus shit! It is literally unfreaking believable. Every single news site is loaded up with either aspartame laced trivia, or the kind of words and actions that would have been considered seriously bizarre, only a short while ago. They're still going on and on about the Tribe bus monitor because there is no industry more profitable than the victim industry and don't you forget it, “Nefah again, nefah again, unless we do it". It can't end well for the most part. It just can't. I'm going to find a great big farmhouse with a lot of land somewhere and someone's going to buy it for me/us and then everyone who can make it will have some shelter from the storm. If I don't disappear in India (as I hope to) that will be a reality and I've absolutely no doubt about it. We won't have trouble supporting ourselves. I alone have any number of guaranteed profitable activities and God only knows what the rest of you will come up with. Let's focus on this reality and make it happen. Just assume and expect it. I may not be there myself and then again I may but that's got nothing to do with it happening. Assume it and expect it. I've already seen it in various ways I won't be going into at the moment. Assume it and expect it, as opposed to your other alternative; “assume the position”. Over here, if you have a farm you are immediately entitled to a commercial license for whatever, pretty much.
It is Batshit Man crazy folks. You almost expect that ending to so many Warner Brother's cartoons with Porky Pig (how apt) saying, “ba ba ba ba bu,that's all folks”, except, instead of Porky Pig, it's Lord Shiva Nataraja, saying it and dancing The Tandava. There's a giant, sucking sound, like water, or something worse, being drawn down the mouth of a powerful drain. Some have made it to the top of the sink. For everyone else, it's off to the reincarnation, reclamation plant. On a positive note, Syria is kicking some Zio-rebel ass. On a positive note some of us know all of these things to be true and knowing something is true, puts you in the position to do something about yourself. That will be sufficient to changing the world. Do it today!
End Transmission.......
Saturday, July 28, 2012
Oregon Man Sentenced To 30 Days For Harvesting Rain Water On His Own Property
A rural Oregon man was sentenced Wednesday to 30 days in jail and over $1,500 in fines because he had three reservoirs on his property to collect and use rainwater.
Gary Harrington of Eagle Point, Ore., says he plans to appeal his conviction in Jackson County (Ore.) Circuit Court on nine misdemeanor charges under a 1925 law for having what state water managers called “three illegal reservoirs” on his property – and for filling the reservoirs with rainwater and snow runoff.
“The government is bullying,” Harrington told CNSNews.com in an interview Thursday.
“They’ve just gotten to be big bullies and if you just lay over and die and give up, that just makes them bigger bullies. So, we as Americans, we need to stand on our constitutional rights, on our rights as citizens and hang tough. This is a good country, we’ll prevail,” he said.
The court has given Harrington two weeks to report to the Jackson County Jail to begin serving his sentence.
Harrington said the case first began in 2002, when state water managers told him there were complaints about the three “reservoirs” – ponds – on his more than 170 acres of land.
According to Oregon water laws, all water is publicly owned. Therefore, anyone who wants to store any type of water on their property must first obtain a permit from state water managers.
Harrington said he applied for three permits to legally house reservoirs for storm and snow water runoff on his property. One of the “reservoirs” had been on his property for 37 years, he said.
Though the state Water Resources Department initially approved his permits in 2003, the state – and a state court -- ultimately reversed the decision.
“They issued me my permits. I had my permits in hand and they retracted them just arbitrarily, basically. They took them back and said ‘No, you can’t have them,’ so I’ve been fighting it ever since,” Harrington told CNSNews.com.
The case, he said, is centered on a 1925 law which states that the city of Medford holds exclusive rights to “all core sources of water” in the Big Butte Creek watershed and its tributaries.
“Way back in 1925 the city of Medford got a unique withdrawal that withdrew all -- supposedly all -- the water out of a single basin and supposedly for the benefit of the city of Medford,” Harrington told CNSNews.com.
Harrington told CNSNews.com, however, that the 1925 law doesn’t mention anything about colleting rainwater or snow melt -- and he believes that he has been falsely accused.
“The withdrawal said the stream and its tributaries. It didn’t mention anything about rainwater and it didn’t mention anything about snow melt and it didn’t mention anything about diffused water, but yet now, they’re trying to expand that to include that rain water and they’re using me as the goat to do it,” Harrington
But Tom Paul, administrator of the Oregon Water Resources Department, claims that Harrington has been violating the state’s water use law by diverting water from streams running into the Big Butte River.
“The law that he is actually violating is not the 1925 provision, but it’s Oregon law that says all of the water in the state of Oregon is public water and if you want to use that water, either to divert it or to store it, you have to acquire a water right from the state of Oregon before doing that activity,” Paul told CNSNews.com.
Yet Paul admitted the 1925 law does apply because, he said, Harrington constructed dams to block a tributary to the Big Butte, which Medford uses for its water supply.
“There are dams across channels, water channels where the water would normally flow if it were not for the dam and so those dams are stopping the water from flowing in the channel and storing it- holding it so it cannot flow downstream,” Paul told CNSNews.com.
Harrington, however, argued in court that that he is not diverting water from Big Butte Creek, but the dams capturing the rainwater and snow runoff – or “diffused water” – are on his own property and that therefore the runoff does not fall under the jurisdiction of the state water managers, nor does it not violate the 1925 act.
In 2007, a Jackson County Circuit Court judge denied Harrington’s permits and found that he had illegally “withdrawn the water at issue from appropriation other than for the City of Medford.”
According to Paul, Harrington entered a guilty plea at the time, received three years probation and was ordered to open up the water gates.
“A very short period of time following the expiration of his probation, he once again closed the gates and re-filled the reservoirs,” Paul told CNSNews.com. “So, this has been going on for some time and I think frankly the court felt that Mr. Harrington was not getting the message and decided that they’d already given him probation once and required him to open the gates and he refilled his reservoirs and it was business as usual for him, so I think the court wanted -- it felt it needed -- to give a stiffer penalty to get Mr. Harrington’s attention.”
In two weeks, if unsuccessful in his appeals, Harrington told CNSNews.com that he will report to the Jackson County Jail to serve his sentence.
“I follow the rules. If I’m mandated to report, I’m going to report. Of course, I’m going to do what it takes in the meantime to prevent that, but if I’m not successful, I’ll be there,” Harrington said.
But Harrington also said that he will never stop fighting the government on this issue.
“When something is wrong, you just, as an American citizen, you have to put your foot down and say, ‘This is wrong; you just can’t take away anymore of my rights and from here on in, I’m going to fight it.”
Gary Harrington of Eagle Point, Ore., says he plans to appeal his conviction in Jackson County (Ore.) Circuit Court on nine misdemeanor charges under a 1925 law for having what state water managers called “three illegal reservoirs” on his property – and for filling the reservoirs with rainwater and snow runoff.
“The government is bullying,” Harrington told CNSNews.com in an interview Thursday.
“They’ve just gotten to be big bullies and if you just lay over and die and give up, that just makes them bigger bullies. So, we as Americans, we need to stand on our constitutional rights, on our rights as citizens and hang tough. This is a good country, we’ll prevail,” he said.
The court has given Harrington two weeks to report to the Jackson County Jail to begin serving his sentence.
Harrington said the case first began in 2002, when state water managers told him there were complaints about the three “reservoirs” – ponds – on his more than 170 acres of land.
According to Oregon water laws, all water is publicly owned. Therefore, anyone who wants to store any type of water on their property must first obtain a permit from state water managers.
Harrington said he applied for three permits to legally house reservoirs for storm and snow water runoff on his property. One of the “reservoirs” had been on his property for 37 years, he said.
Though the state Water Resources Department initially approved his permits in 2003, the state – and a state court -- ultimately reversed the decision.
“They issued me my permits. I had my permits in hand and they retracted them just arbitrarily, basically. They took them back and said ‘No, you can’t have them,’ so I’ve been fighting it ever since,” Harrington told CNSNews.com.
The case, he said, is centered on a 1925 law which states that the city of Medford holds exclusive rights to “all core sources of water” in the Big Butte Creek watershed and its tributaries.
“Way back in 1925 the city of Medford got a unique withdrawal that withdrew all -- supposedly all -- the water out of a single basin and supposedly for the benefit of the city of Medford,” Harrington told CNSNews.com.
Harrington told CNSNews.com, however, that the 1925 law doesn’t mention anything about colleting rainwater or snow melt -- and he believes that he has been falsely accused.
“The withdrawal said the stream and its tributaries. It didn’t mention anything about rainwater and it didn’t mention anything about snow melt and it didn’t mention anything about diffused water, but yet now, they’re trying to expand that to include that rain water and they’re using me as the goat to do it,” Harrington
But Tom Paul, administrator of the Oregon Water Resources Department, claims that Harrington has been violating the state’s water use law by diverting water from streams running into the Big Butte River.
“The law that he is actually violating is not the 1925 provision, but it’s Oregon law that says all of the water in the state of Oregon is public water and if you want to use that water, either to divert it or to store it, you have to acquire a water right from the state of Oregon before doing that activity,” Paul told CNSNews.com.
Yet Paul admitted the 1925 law does apply because, he said, Harrington constructed dams to block a tributary to the Big Butte, which Medford uses for its water supply.
“There are dams across channels, water channels where the water would normally flow if it were not for the dam and so those dams are stopping the water from flowing in the channel and storing it- holding it so it cannot flow downstream,” Paul told CNSNews.com.
Harrington, however, argued in court that that he is not diverting water from Big Butte Creek, but the dams capturing the rainwater and snow runoff – or “diffused water” – are on his own property and that therefore the runoff does not fall under the jurisdiction of the state water managers, nor does it not violate the 1925 act.
In 2007, a Jackson County Circuit Court judge denied Harrington’s permits and found that he had illegally “withdrawn the water at issue from appropriation other than for the City of Medford.”
According to Paul, Harrington entered a guilty plea at the time, received three years probation and was ordered to open up the water gates.
“A very short period of time following the expiration of his probation, he once again closed the gates and re-filled the reservoirs,” Paul told CNSNews.com. “So, this has been going on for some time and I think frankly the court felt that Mr. Harrington was not getting the message and decided that they’d already given him probation once and required him to open the gates and he refilled his reservoirs and it was business as usual for him, so I think the court wanted -- it felt it needed -- to give a stiffer penalty to get Mr. Harrington’s attention.”
In two weeks, if unsuccessful in his appeals, Harrington told CNSNews.com that he will report to the Jackson County Jail to serve his sentence.
“I follow the rules. If I’m mandated to report, I’m going to report. Of course, I’m going to do what it takes in the meantime to prevent that, but if I’m not successful, I’ll be there,” Harrington said.
But Harrington also said that he will never stop fighting the government on this issue.
“When something is wrong, you just, as an American citizen, you have to put your foot down and say, ‘This is wrong; you just can’t take away anymore of my rights and from here on in, I’m going to fight it.”
Friday, July 27, 2012
How To Lose Visceral Fat
It’s not all about looking good. Roll your eyes if you must: everybody’s beautiful in some way. But visceral fat—fat inside the abdomen—is little more than a time bomb wrapped around a belly.Visceral obesity results in fatty acids accumulation in the pancreas, heart, liver, and other organs. This prevents proper organ function, causes improper insulin regulation, and even leads to heart attacks. But don’t stress; if you want to know how to lose visceral fat, try these 4 simple and natural weight loss tips.
How to Lose Visceral Fat – 4 Proven Natural Weight Loss Tips
1. Use Coconut Oil
Although coconut oil got a bad rap in the ‘70s for having high saturated fat content, human studies have shown that coconut oil helps reduce abdominal fat. In one instance, one group of women received 2 tablespoons of coconut oil daily for 12 weeks while the other received none. The group with coconut oil lost some girth and showed a healthy rise in “good” HDL cholesterol levels. As an added bonus, having coconut oil available can also allow you to experience oil pulling benefits.
Replace other cooking oils with coconut oil; it takes like butter (I promise) in baked goods and is mouth-watering in any stir-fry dish.
2. Drink Green Tea
It’s hard to say anything bad about green tea. There has been a connection between green tea and cancer prevention; it helps prevent dementia; it fights free radicals and promote graceful aging, and a 2009 study found that drinking catechin-rich green tea promoted weight loss.
3. Sunbathe for Vitamin D
We’ve already extolled the benefits of vitamin D; one of them is weight loss! A study by researchers at the University of Minnesota reported on the relationship between vitamin D and weight loss, showing that weight loss occurred among people who adopted a balanced diet and had high vitamin D levels. We shouldn’t rob our bodies of the vitamin D found in UVB radiation. To burn some fat, spend short periods outdoors without sunscreen.
4. Avoid Fructose, BPA, and MSG
Countless other toxins likely promote weight gain, but perhaps the three most notable are fructose, Bisphenol A, and monosodium glutamate.
Angel Nadal, a BPA expert at the Miguel Hernendez University in Spain, found that a quarter of a billionth of a gram of BPA triggered the release of twice the regular amount of insulin to digest food. A researcher at UT Southwestern Medical Center reported that fructose (especially when in the form of high fructose corn syrup) may be to blame for obesity, and a study by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill showed MSG led to animal obesity but also applied to human subjects.
How to Lose Visceral Fat – 4 Proven Natural Weight Loss Tips
1. Use Coconut Oil
Although coconut oil got a bad rap in the ‘70s for having high saturated fat content, human studies have shown that coconut oil helps reduce abdominal fat. In one instance, one group of women received 2 tablespoons of coconut oil daily for 12 weeks while the other received none. The group with coconut oil lost some girth and showed a healthy rise in “good” HDL cholesterol levels. As an added bonus, having coconut oil available can also allow you to experience oil pulling benefits.
Replace other cooking oils with coconut oil; it takes like butter (I promise) in baked goods and is mouth-watering in any stir-fry dish.
2. Drink Green Tea
It’s hard to say anything bad about green tea. There has been a connection between green tea and cancer prevention; it helps prevent dementia; it fights free radicals and promote graceful aging, and a 2009 study found that drinking catechin-rich green tea promoted weight loss.
3. Sunbathe for Vitamin D
We’ve already extolled the benefits of vitamin D; one of them is weight loss! A study by researchers at the University of Minnesota reported on the relationship between vitamin D and weight loss, showing that weight loss occurred among people who adopted a balanced diet and had high vitamin D levels. We shouldn’t rob our bodies of the vitamin D found in UVB radiation. To burn some fat, spend short periods outdoors without sunscreen.
4. Avoid Fructose, BPA, and MSG
Countless other toxins likely promote weight gain, but perhaps the three most notable are fructose, Bisphenol A, and monosodium glutamate.
Angel Nadal, a BPA expert at the Miguel Hernendez University in Spain, found that a quarter of a billionth of a gram of BPA triggered the release of twice the regular amount of insulin to digest food. A researcher at UT Southwestern Medical Center reported that fructose (especially when in the form of high fructose corn syrup) may be to blame for obesity, and a study by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill showed MSG led to animal obesity but also applied to human subjects.
Ecuador Takes A Stand For Wikileaks Assange
The Ecuadorean government has been working to ensure WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is not extradited to the US and this week went so far as to call such a possibility 'evil'.
Signs placed by supporters of Assange outside the Ecuador Embassy, London.(AP/Lefteris Pitarakis) "In legal terms … the evil that Ecuador wishes to prevent is the extradition [of Assange] to the US. Now if there are ways and means of that being tied down, I think that would be a just solution," stated the senior legal adviser to the country's embassy in London, where Assange has been staying in a bid to gain political asylum in Ecuador.
Assange began his quest for asylum after Britain's Supreme Court ruled that Assange must be extradited to Sweden, where he faces accusations of sexual assault. Assange and his legal team fear that he would then be extradited to the US on what Assange maintains are politically motivated charges of espionage over his work with the whistle-blowing website WikiLeaks.
Diplomats for Ecuador said they have taken part in numerous diplomatic talks with the Swedish and UK governments, seeking to guarantee that Assange will not be extradited to the US after the completion of legal proceedings in Sweden.
Officials have estimated there have been more than 20 meetings – including video conferences – with the UK Foreign Office – and around 10 meetings between Ecuadorean and Swedish diplomats.
Under extradition law, a rule called "specialty" ensures that an individual can only be extradited to one country within a certain amount of time; however, the rule can be waived by the country granting the initial extradition – in this case the UK. If this is done, Assange could more easily be extradited to the US after his hearing in Sweden.
Ecuador is working to make sure this won't happen.
Ecuadorean government officials have now invited Swedish authorities to the embassy in London to facilitate questioning between Assange and the Swedish prosecutor surrounding the allegations in Sweden.
Assange is yet to be formally charged with a crime.
Officials in Ecuador said Assange should not expect a decision on his actual asylum request until after the Olympics.
Signs placed by supporters of Assange outside the Ecuador Embassy, London.(AP/Lefteris Pitarakis) "In legal terms … the evil that Ecuador wishes to prevent is the extradition [of Assange] to the US. Now if there are ways and means of that being tied down, I think that would be a just solution," stated the senior legal adviser to the country's embassy in London, where Assange has been staying in a bid to gain political asylum in Ecuador.
Assange began his quest for asylum after Britain's Supreme Court ruled that Assange must be extradited to Sweden, where he faces accusations of sexual assault. Assange and his legal team fear that he would then be extradited to the US on what Assange maintains are politically motivated charges of espionage over his work with the whistle-blowing website WikiLeaks.
Diplomats for Ecuador said they have taken part in numerous diplomatic talks with the Swedish and UK governments, seeking to guarantee that Assange will not be extradited to the US after the completion of legal proceedings in Sweden.
Officials have estimated there have been more than 20 meetings – including video conferences – with the UK Foreign Office – and around 10 meetings between Ecuadorean and Swedish diplomats.
Under extradition law, a rule called "specialty" ensures that an individual can only be extradited to one country within a certain amount of time; however, the rule can be waived by the country granting the initial extradition – in this case the UK. If this is done, Assange could more easily be extradited to the US after his hearing in Sweden.
Ecuador is working to make sure this won't happen.
Ecuadorean government officials have now invited Swedish authorities to the embassy in London to facilitate questioning between Assange and the Swedish prosecutor surrounding the allegations in Sweden.
Assange is yet to be formally charged with a crime.
Officials in Ecuador said Assange should not expect a decision on his actual asylum request until after the Olympics.
Big Pharma Kills 6,200% More People Than Homicidal Shootings
NaturalNews) In the aftermath of the Aurora, Colorado Batman movie theater shooting, President Obama chimed in on the gun control debate yesterday, saying, "Every day, the number of young people we lose to violence is about the same as the number of people we lost in that movie theater. For every Columbine or Virginia Tech, there are dozens gunned down on the streets of Chicago or Atlanta..." (http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/jul/25/obama-calls-measures-...)
What he didn't say, however, is that every day 290 people are killed by FDA-approved prescription drugs, and that's the conservative number published by the Journal of the American Medical Association.
As no one seems to believe these numbers are real, I'll quote the source: The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) Vol 284, No 4, July 26th 2000, authored by Dr Barbara Starfield, MD, MPH, of the Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health.
That study, which is twelve years old -- and drug deaths have risen considerably since then -- documents 106,000 deaths per year from the "adverse effects" of FDA-approved prescription medications.
To reach this number from outbreaks of violent shootings, you'd have to see an Aurora Colorado Batman movie massacre take place every HOUR of every day, 365 days a year.
If a massacre of people using slugs of lead is bad, why is a massacre of people using deadly chemicals perfectly acceptable?
A medical massacre that dwarfs the number of deaths from shootings
No one in Washington talks about prescription drug deaths. There are no sobbing victims shown on the evening news. This "chemical massacre" happens quietly, behind closed doors. Yet to achieve this level of mass death in the world of plane crashes, for example, you'd have to see a jumbo jet airliner crashing into the ground once a day, every day of the year.
But that's only the beginning of the mass death caused by modern medicine, where greed-driven doctors are routinely bribed by the drug giants (http://www.naturalnews.com/036510_doctors_bribes_drug_companies.html) and thereby make the "Joker" James Holmes look like a boy scout by comparison. As NaturalNews previously revealed, just one company -- GlaxoSmithKline -- had a bribery network of 49,000 doctors who received financial kickbacks to prescribe more Glaxo pharmaceuticals to patients.
According to the report Death by Medicine, by Drs. Gary Null, Carolyn Dean, Martin Feldman, Debora Rasio and Dorothy Smith, the medical establishment kills 783,936 people in the United States every year. (http://www.lef.org/magazine/mag2004/mar2004_awsi_death_02.htm)
Those deaths include:
• 106,000 Americans killed from drug side effects
• 115,000 Americans killed from bedsores
• 98,000 Americans killed from medical error
• 88,000 Americans killed from infections
• 32,000 Americans killed from surgery
• 37,000 Americans killed from unnecessary procedures
... and so on. See the source link, above, for the rest of the numbers.
The bottom line total comes to 783,936 deaths every year from "conventional" medicine (drugs and surgery medicine).
You are 6200% more likely to be killed by your doctor than by a shooter
According to the CDC's numbers from 2007, the total number of homicide shooting deaths in the United States each year is roughly 12,600 (Xu, Jiaquan; Kenneth D. Kochanek, Sherry L. Murphy, Betzaida Tejada-Vera (2010-05-20). "Deaths: Final Data for 2007" (PDF). National Vital Statistics Reports (CDC) 58(19): 11.)
This means that your risk of being killed by your doctor is 62 times higher than the risk of being killed by a shooter. Put another way, that's a 6200% higher risk.
It seems that before we even think about the issue of gun control, we need a national debate on DOCTOR control.
After all, when doctors inadvertently kill people by prescribing deadly chemotherapy cocktails or deadly prescription drugs, they don't even get arrested for it! But they do get financial kickbacks, exotic vacations paid by drug companies, free travel, free meals and other perks of being a Big Pharma sellout. Plus, they're free to go on killing other people, over and over again. While doctors obviously don't intend to kill people, they nonetheless keep doing so as long as they get their bribes, kickbacks and perks. (http://www.naturalnews.com/036417_Glaxo_Merck_fraud.html)
If Obama really wanted to protect Americans from being killed, he'd call for restrictions on the prescribing of deadly pharmaceuticals. But don't hold your breath on that one, because when it comes to actually protecting the American people from medical massacres, or GMOs, or toxic fluoride in the water supply, the real Joker is Obama himself.
What he didn't say, however, is that every day 290 people are killed by FDA-approved prescription drugs, and that's the conservative number published by the Journal of the American Medical Association.
As no one seems to believe these numbers are real, I'll quote the source: The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) Vol 284, No 4, July 26th 2000, authored by Dr Barbara Starfield, MD, MPH, of the Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health.
That study, which is twelve years old -- and drug deaths have risen considerably since then -- documents 106,000 deaths per year from the "adverse effects" of FDA-approved prescription medications.
To reach this number from outbreaks of violent shootings, you'd have to see an Aurora Colorado Batman movie massacre take place every HOUR of every day, 365 days a year.
If a massacre of people using slugs of lead is bad, why is a massacre of people using deadly chemicals perfectly acceptable?
A medical massacre that dwarfs the number of deaths from shootings
No one in Washington talks about prescription drug deaths. There are no sobbing victims shown on the evening news. This "chemical massacre" happens quietly, behind closed doors. Yet to achieve this level of mass death in the world of plane crashes, for example, you'd have to see a jumbo jet airliner crashing into the ground once a day, every day of the year.
But that's only the beginning of the mass death caused by modern medicine, where greed-driven doctors are routinely bribed by the drug giants (http://www.naturalnews.com/036510_doctors_bribes_drug_companies.html) and thereby make the "Joker" James Holmes look like a boy scout by comparison. As NaturalNews previously revealed, just one company -- GlaxoSmithKline -- had a bribery network of 49,000 doctors who received financial kickbacks to prescribe more Glaxo pharmaceuticals to patients.
According to the report Death by Medicine, by Drs. Gary Null, Carolyn Dean, Martin Feldman, Debora Rasio and Dorothy Smith, the medical establishment kills 783,936 people in the United States every year. (http://www.lef.org/magazine/mag2004/mar2004_awsi_death_02.htm)
Those deaths include:
• 106,000 Americans killed from drug side effects
• 115,000 Americans killed from bedsores
• 98,000 Americans killed from medical error
• 88,000 Americans killed from infections
• 32,000 Americans killed from surgery
• 37,000 Americans killed from unnecessary procedures
... and so on. See the source link, above, for the rest of the numbers.
The bottom line total comes to 783,936 deaths every year from "conventional" medicine (drugs and surgery medicine).
You are 6200% more likely to be killed by your doctor than by a shooter
According to the CDC's numbers from 2007, the total number of homicide shooting deaths in the United States each year is roughly 12,600 (Xu, Jiaquan; Kenneth D. Kochanek, Sherry L. Murphy, Betzaida Tejada-Vera (2010-05-20). "Deaths: Final Data for 2007" (PDF). National Vital Statistics Reports (CDC) 58(19): 11.)
This means that your risk of being killed by your doctor is 62 times higher than the risk of being killed by a shooter. Put another way, that's a 6200% higher risk.
It seems that before we even think about the issue of gun control, we need a national debate on DOCTOR control.
After all, when doctors inadvertently kill people by prescribing deadly chemotherapy cocktails or deadly prescription drugs, they don't even get arrested for it! But they do get financial kickbacks, exotic vacations paid by drug companies, free travel, free meals and other perks of being a Big Pharma sellout. Plus, they're free to go on killing other people, over and over again. While doctors obviously don't intend to kill people, they nonetheless keep doing so as long as they get their bribes, kickbacks and perks. (http://www.naturalnews.com/036417_Glaxo_Merck_fraud.html)
If Obama really wanted to protect Americans from being killed, he'd call for restrictions on the prescribing of deadly pharmaceuticals. But don't hold your breath on that one, because when it comes to actually protecting the American people from medical massacres, or GMOs, or toxic fluoride in the water supply, the real Joker is Obama himself.
Armed #Bounty Hunters Seize Raw Milk Advocate
James Stewart, the 65-year-old raw "milk man" and founder of Rawesome Foods, was assaulted near his home today by three armed men driving unmarked luxury vehicles with no license plates. Carrying firearms on their hips and dressed in gangster-style street clothes, Satanic T-shirt imagery and tattoos, they claimed to be making an "arrest" and verbally assaulted James, sprayed pepper spray in his face, then forced his head against a car and screamed, according to witnesses, "You better listen to me or you're gonna have a bad f*ckin' day!"
James Stewart's cell phone was on the entire time, and a phone witness told NaturalNews the arrest was conducted "Nazi style." Meanwhile, James was screaming to anyone who would listen, "HELP ME! HELP ME! WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS TO ME?"
A partial video of the incident was captured by a witness. The redness in the face of James Stewart is due to the pepper spray assault. That video link is here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UYTP9C7jtrI
James was wanted on $130,000 in bail by Ventura County, which had originally put him on $1 million bail -- an amount usually reserved for murderers, rapists or serial killers. James, accused of selling "unpasteurized milk" through Rawesome Foods, was made the target of an FDA-funded and politically motivated attempt to destroy the raw milk industry in California. He has been charged with financial crimes by Ventura County even though there is literally no legitimate evidence whatsoever linking James to any such crimes, and the entire case is already in the process of being unraveled.
In the Ventura case, there is no crime, no evidence, and not even any justifiable reason to arrest James and put him on bail in the first place! The entire thing was utterly fabricated as a publicity stunt to attempt to intimidate would-be raw milk producers.
Bounty hunters drive cars with no plates, carry weapons, intimidate witnesses
In the arrest video, James clearly says, "Sir I was trying to give you the information that I thought Mr. McAfee was giving to me." James is referring to Mark McAfee of Organic Pastures, California's largest organic milk producer. NaturalNews has confirmed that Mark McAfee, among several other people, had helped fund James Stewart's bail bond. According to James Stewart, who phoned from Ventura county jail, Mark McAfee was present at the "arrest" and watched the bounty hunters take James away.
During the so-called "arrest," one of the bounty hunters attempts to verbally intimidate the person filming the video, threatening them by saying, "You're interfering with an arrest, you're blocking traffic." In reality, the bounty hunter never identified himself, never read James any rights and was not involved in any legal arrest whatsoever. The whole thing was a charade carried out by what might appear to a rational person to be armed thugs driving stolen vehicles while impersonating undercover police officers.
In the video, what appears to be a firearm can be seen on the hip of one of the men wearing a pink shirt. At no point during the assault did these men show any badges or identification of any kind. According to California law, "All bounty hunters must carry with them a certification of completion of required courses and training programs."
According to witnesses, these armed men did not produce any certificates at all. Instead, they verbally intimidated the people filming the incident. One of the bounty hunters called the camera person a "retard" for daring to film him.
We can hear on the video another bounty hunter saying, "You're in a lot of trouble, you better get an attorney!" During all this, they are rifling through James' pockets and apparently stealing all his personal belongings. "You are in a lot more trouble than anybody up here," one of them says to James. "You are in a lot of trouble."
Over raw milk? Really? Is this what California has come to now? If you sell unpasteurized milk, you get accosted by three armed men driving unlicensed (stolen?) vehicles, working for the state?
"We are not the police..."
When the witnesses filming the incident asked for the badge numbers of the individuals who claimed to be making an "arrest," they were told, "We're not the police so we're not gonna give you badge numbers."
Later in the video, a close-up image appears for one of the license plates of the luxury vehicles used by the armed assailants. It is clearly an Infinity car dealership plate number KMA-367. The vehicle is a white Infinity luxury sedan.
The other vehicle, which also has no California license plate, is a black sports car. While James is being stuffed into one of the vehicles, one of the bounty hunters calls him a "scumbag."
Public vigil needed
James is currently residing in the Ventura county jail. As NaturalNews previously reported, James was tortured in the Los Angeles jail system for a period of eight days (http://www.naturalnews.com/035208_James_Stewart_torture_county_jail.h...).
James has privately told me, the editor of NaturalNews, that he fears if he is taken back to jail, he will be tortured, subjected to starvation or even murdered by the authorities there. This may be more likely than you think, because the outright criminality of California officials who persecuted James Stewart is now being exposed.
For example, NaturalNews has already exposed Michelle LeCavalier and L.A. district attorney prosecutors for illegally signing search warrants and conducting armed raids on Rawesome Foods even though they had never taken an oath of office as required by California law (http://www.naturalnews.com/036523_Rawesome_District_Attorney_imperson...).
This means the armed raid against Rawesome Foods, the arrest of James Stewart and all the actions taken against him were illegal. Furthermore, James now has a potential multi-million-dollar civil case against Los Angeles County -- and possibly individuals in Ventura County -- for false arrest, kidnapping and violating his civil rights while they were "impersonating" officials.
Given these circumstances, James has legitimate reason to fear that county authorities there -- who almost certainly staged the armed bounty hunter interception of James last night -- may quite literally be trying to kill him.
James told me on the phone many times, "I love live, I will not give up. If they say I committed suicide, it means they killed me, Mike. They're gonna try to kill me."
That James was stuffed into unmarked, unlicensed cars driven by intimidating-looking men carrying weapons and verbally threatening witnesses at the scene only further supports the legitimacy of James' fear.
Let Ventura County know we are watching and that we demand the charges against James be dropped
Here, I ask for your support to let the Ventura County DA's office know we are watching them, and we hold them responsible for the treatment of James.
Call the main DA's office at 805-654-2500 and let them know that you are joining tens of thousands of other people who are watching this and carefully scrutinizing their behavior. The Ventura County case against James Stewart is, I can assure you, utterly fabricated and completely without merit. It should be immediately dropped and James set free.
Here's the full contact information for the Ventura County DA's office:
http://da.countyofventura.org/contact_information.htm
Ventura County has been waging a "war of personal vengeance" against Stewart. Both Ventura and L.A. counties have spent millions of dollars in taxpayer money in an attempt to incarcerate a raw milk man! A senior citizen! The man is 65 years old, utterly non-violent in every way, and yet has been targeted in the most vicious manner by district attorneys who apparently don't have any real criminals to go after.
Questions remain about the "arrest" of James Stewart
Some serious questions emerge tonight from the "hunting down" of James Stewart by Ventura county:
• What crime has James allegedly committed that is so serious it justifies $130,000 in bail bonds?
• Where is the evidence of such crimes? (It doesn't exist!)
• Why are armed individuals who claim to be working for the county running around Ventura with unlicensed vehicles that appear to be stolen off the new car lot of an Infinity dealership?
• Why were these "bounty hunters" dressed in Satanic imagery and sporting gang-style facial hair and tattoos while driving high-dollar luxury cars?
• Why were they so verbally abusive to James Stewart, calling him a "scumbag" if they were just bounty hunters looking to earn a paycheck?
• How were these bounty hunters able to locate James Stewart in the first place? Were they tipped off by someone?
• What will happen to James Stewart in Ventura county jail? Will they torture him? Will they silence him? Will they drop the charges and apologize?
This story is developing here on NaturalNews.com. We will continue to bring you details as we speak with witnesses and investigate more deeply. Share this story. Spread the word: No one who sells real food in California is safe from the "authorities" there. You can and will be targeted, kidnapped, robbed at gunpoint by the police, then tortured in the jail system.
Thursday, July 26, 2012
100 Million + Poor In The US
Every single day more Americans fall into poverty. This should deeply alarm you no matter what political party you belong to and no matter what your personal economic philosophy is.
Right now, approximately 100 million Americans are either "poor" or "near poor". For a lot of people "poverty" can be a nebulous concept, so let's define it.
The poverty level as defined by the federal government in 2010 was $11,139 for an individual and $22,314 for a family of four.
Could you take care of a family of four on less than $2000 a month?
Millions upon millions of families are experiencing a tremendous amount of pain in this economy, and no matter what "solutions" we think are correct, the reality is that we all should have compassion on them. Sadly, things are about to get even worse. The next major economic downturn is rapidly approaching, and when it hits the statistics posted below are going to look even more horrendous.
When it comes to poverty, most Americans immediately want to get into debates about tax rates and wealth redistribution and things like that.
But the truth is that they are missing the main point.
The way we slice up the pie is not going to solve our problems, because the pie is constantly getting smaller.
Our economic infrastructure is being absolutely gutted, the U.S. dollar is slowly losing its status as the reserve currency of the world and we are steadily getting poorer as a nation.
Don't be fooled by the government statistics that show a very small amount of "economic growth". Those figures do not account for inflation.
After accounting for inflation, our economic growth has actually been negative all the way back into the middle of the last decade.
According to numbers compiled by John Williams of shadowstats.com, our "real GDP" has continually been negative since 2005.
So that means we are getting poorer as a nation.
Meanwhile, we have been piling up astounding amounts of debt.
40 years ago the total amount of debt in the United States (government, business and consumer) was less than 2 trillion dollars.
Today it is nearly 55 trillion dollars.
So we have a massive problem.
Our economic pie is shrinking and millions of Americans have been falling out of the middle class. Meanwhile, we have been piling up staggering amounts of debt in order to maintain our vastly inflated standard of living. As our economic problems get even worse, those trends are going to accelerate even more.
So don't look down on the poor. You might be joining them a lot sooner than you might think.
The following are 40 facts about poverty in America that will blow your mind....
#1 In the United States today, somewhere around 100 million Americans are considered to be either "poor" or "near poor".
#2 It is being projected that when the final numbers come out later this year that the U.S. poverty rate will be the highest that it has been in almost 50 years.
#3 Approximately 57 percent of all children in the United States are living in homes that are either considered to be either "low income" or impoverished.
#4 Today, one out of every four workers in the United States brings home wages that are at or below the poverty level.
#5 According to the Wall Street Journal, 49.1 percent of all Americans live in a home where at least one person receives financial benefits from the government. Back in 1983, that number was below 30 percent.
#6 It is projected that about half of all American adults will spend at least some time living below the poverty line before they turn 65.
#7 Today, there are approximately 20.2 million Americans that spend more than half of their incomes on housing. That represents a 46 percent increase from 2001.
#8 During 2010, 2.6 million more Americans fell into poverty. That was the largest increase that we have seen since the U.S. government began keeping statistics on this back in 1959.
#9 According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the percentage of "very poor" rose in 300 out of the 360 largest metropolitan areas during 2010.
#10 Since Barack Obama became president, the number of Americans living in poverty has risen by 6 million and the number of Americans on food stamps has risen by 14 million.
#11 Right now, one out of every seven Americans is on food stamps and one out of every four American children is on food stamps.
#12 It is projected that half of all American children will be on food stamps at least once before they turn 18 years of age.
#13 The poverty rate for children living in the United States is 22 percent, although when the new numbers are released in the fall that number is expected to go even higher.
#14 One university study estimates that child poverty costs the U.S. economy 500 billion dollars a year.
#15 Households that are led by a single mother have a 31.6% poverty rate.
#16 In 2010, 42 percent of all single mothers in the United States were on food stamps.
#17 According to the National Center for Children in Poverty, 36.4 percent of all children that live in Philadelphia are living in poverty, 40.1 percent of all children that live in Atlanta are living in poverty, 52.6 percent of all children that live in Cleveland are living in poverty and 53.6 percent of all children that live in Detroit are living in poverty.
#18 Since 2007, the number of children living in poverty in the state of California has increased by 30 percent.
#19 Child homelessness in the United States has risen by 33 percent since 2007.
#20 There are 314 counties in the United States where at least 30% of the children are facing food insecurity.
#21 More than 20 million U.S. children rely on school meal programs to keep from going hungry.
#22 A higher percentage of Americans is living in extreme poverty (6.7 percent) than has ever been measured before.
#23 If you can believe it, 37 percent of all U.S. households that are led by someone under the age of 35 have a net worth of zero or less than zero.
#24 A lot of younger Americans have found that they cannot make it on their own in this economy. Today, approximately 25 million American adults are living with their parents.
#25 Today, one out of every six elderly Americans lives below the federal poverty line.
#26 Amazingly, the wealthiest 1 percent of all Americans own more wealth than the bottom 95 percent combined.
#27 The six heirs of Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton have a net worth that is roughly equal to the bottom 30 percent of all Americans combined.
#28 At this point, the poorest 50% of all Americans now control just 2.5% of all of the wealth in this country.
#29 Back in 1980, less than 30% of all jobs in the United States were low income jobs. Today, more than 40% of all jobs in the United States are low income jobs.
#30 Right now, the United States actually has a higher percentage of workers doing low wage work than any other major industrialized nation does.
#31 Half of all American workers earn $505 or less per week.
#32 In 1970, 65 percent of all Americans lived in "middle class neighborhoods". By 2007, only 44 percent of all Americans lived in "middle class neighborhoods".
#33 Federal housing assistance outlays increased by a whopping 42 percent between 2006 and 2010.
#34 Approximately 50 million Americans do not have any health insurance at all right now.
#35 Back in 1965, only one out of every 50 Americans was on Medicaid. Today, approximately one out of every 6 Americans is on Medicaid.
#36 It is being projected that Obamacare will add 16 million more Americans to the Medicaid rolls.
#37 Back in 1990, the federal government accounted for 32 percent of all health care spending in America. Today, that figure is up to 45 percent and it is projected to surpass 50 percent very shortly.
#38 Overall, the amount of money that the federal government gives directly to the American people has risen by 32 percent since Barack Obama entered the White House.
#39 It was recently reported that 1.5 million American families live on less than two dollars a day (before counting government benefits).
#40 The unemployment rate in the U.S. has been above 8 percent for 40 months in a row, and 42 percent of all unemployed Americans have been out of work for at least half a year.
Recently, I wrote a long article about why there will never be enough jobs in the United States ever again.
That means that a whole lot of Americans are not going to be able to take care of themselves.
As our economy gets even worse, there is going to be a tremendous need for more love, compassion and generosity all over the country.
Don't be afraid to lend a helping hand, because someday you may need one yourself.
NOTE: It's easy to grow edible foods in your garden, use raised beds, buckets, barrels, trelise against an exterior wall, hanging baskets etc. Every little bit helps you save money and eat fresh food, herbs & greens. Great selection of simple to grow Non Hybrid Organic Seeds
Right now, approximately 100 million Americans are either "poor" or "near poor". For a lot of people "poverty" can be a nebulous concept, so let's define it.
The poverty level as defined by the federal government in 2010 was $11,139 for an individual and $22,314 for a family of four.
Could you take care of a family of four on less than $2000 a month?
Millions upon millions of families are experiencing a tremendous amount of pain in this economy, and no matter what "solutions" we think are correct, the reality is that we all should have compassion on them. Sadly, things are about to get even worse. The next major economic downturn is rapidly approaching, and when it hits the statistics posted below are going to look even more horrendous.
When it comes to poverty, most Americans immediately want to get into debates about tax rates and wealth redistribution and things like that.
But the truth is that they are missing the main point.
The way we slice up the pie is not going to solve our problems, because the pie is constantly getting smaller.
Our economic infrastructure is being absolutely gutted, the U.S. dollar is slowly losing its status as the reserve currency of the world and we are steadily getting poorer as a nation.
Don't be fooled by the government statistics that show a very small amount of "economic growth". Those figures do not account for inflation.
After accounting for inflation, our economic growth has actually been negative all the way back into the middle of the last decade.
According to numbers compiled by John Williams of shadowstats.com, our "real GDP" has continually been negative since 2005.
So that means we are getting poorer as a nation.
Meanwhile, we have been piling up astounding amounts of debt.
40 years ago the total amount of debt in the United States (government, business and consumer) was less than 2 trillion dollars.
Today it is nearly 55 trillion dollars.
So we have a massive problem.
Our economic pie is shrinking and millions of Americans have been falling out of the middle class. Meanwhile, we have been piling up staggering amounts of debt in order to maintain our vastly inflated standard of living. As our economic problems get even worse, those trends are going to accelerate even more.
So don't look down on the poor. You might be joining them a lot sooner than you might think.
The following are 40 facts about poverty in America that will blow your mind....
#1 In the United States today, somewhere around 100 million Americans are considered to be either "poor" or "near poor".
#2 It is being projected that when the final numbers come out later this year that the U.S. poverty rate will be the highest that it has been in almost 50 years.
#3 Approximately 57 percent of all children in the United States are living in homes that are either considered to be either "low income" or impoverished.
#4 Today, one out of every four workers in the United States brings home wages that are at or below the poverty level.
#5 According to the Wall Street Journal, 49.1 percent of all Americans live in a home where at least one person receives financial benefits from the government. Back in 1983, that number was below 30 percent.
#6 It is projected that about half of all American adults will spend at least some time living below the poverty line before they turn 65.
#7 Today, there are approximately 20.2 million Americans that spend more than half of their incomes on housing. That represents a 46 percent increase from 2001.
#8 During 2010, 2.6 million more Americans fell into poverty. That was the largest increase that we have seen since the U.S. government began keeping statistics on this back in 1959.
#9 According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the percentage of "very poor" rose in 300 out of the 360 largest metropolitan areas during 2010.
#10 Since Barack Obama became president, the number of Americans living in poverty has risen by 6 million and the number of Americans on food stamps has risen by 14 million.
#11 Right now, one out of every seven Americans is on food stamps and one out of every four American children is on food stamps.
#12 It is projected that half of all American children will be on food stamps at least once before they turn 18 years of age.
#13 The poverty rate for children living in the United States is 22 percent, although when the new numbers are released in the fall that number is expected to go even higher.
#14 One university study estimates that child poverty costs the U.S. economy 500 billion dollars a year.
#15 Households that are led by a single mother have a 31.6% poverty rate.
#16 In 2010, 42 percent of all single mothers in the United States were on food stamps.
#17 According to the National Center for Children in Poverty, 36.4 percent of all children that live in Philadelphia are living in poverty, 40.1 percent of all children that live in Atlanta are living in poverty, 52.6 percent of all children that live in Cleveland are living in poverty and 53.6 percent of all children that live in Detroit are living in poverty.
#18 Since 2007, the number of children living in poverty in the state of California has increased by 30 percent.
#19 Child homelessness in the United States has risen by 33 percent since 2007.
#20 There are 314 counties in the United States where at least 30% of the children are facing food insecurity.
#21 More than 20 million U.S. children rely on school meal programs to keep from going hungry.
#22 A higher percentage of Americans is living in extreme poverty (6.7 percent) than has ever been measured before.
#23 If you can believe it, 37 percent of all U.S. households that are led by someone under the age of 35 have a net worth of zero or less than zero.
#24 A lot of younger Americans have found that they cannot make it on their own in this economy. Today, approximately 25 million American adults are living with their parents.
#25 Today, one out of every six elderly Americans lives below the federal poverty line.
#26 Amazingly, the wealthiest 1 percent of all Americans own more wealth than the bottom 95 percent combined.
#27 The six heirs of Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton have a net worth that is roughly equal to the bottom 30 percent of all Americans combined.
#28 At this point, the poorest 50% of all Americans now control just 2.5% of all of the wealth in this country.
#29 Back in 1980, less than 30% of all jobs in the United States were low income jobs. Today, more than 40% of all jobs in the United States are low income jobs.
#30 Right now, the United States actually has a higher percentage of workers doing low wage work than any other major industrialized nation does.
#31 Half of all American workers earn $505 or less per week.
#32 In 1970, 65 percent of all Americans lived in "middle class neighborhoods". By 2007, only 44 percent of all Americans lived in "middle class neighborhoods".
#33 Federal housing assistance outlays increased by a whopping 42 percent between 2006 and 2010.
#34 Approximately 50 million Americans do not have any health insurance at all right now.
#35 Back in 1965, only one out of every 50 Americans was on Medicaid. Today, approximately one out of every 6 Americans is on Medicaid.
#36 It is being projected that Obamacare will add 16 million more Americans to the Medicaid rolls.
#37 Back in 1990, the federal government accounted for 32 percent of all health care spending in America. Today, that figure is up to 45 percent and it is projected to surpass 50 percent very shortly.
#38 Overall, the amount of money that the federal government gives directly to the American people has risen by 32 percent since Barack Obama entered the White House.
#39 It was recently reported that 1.5 million American families live on less than two dollars a day (before counting government benefits).
#40 The unemployment rate in the U.S. has been above 8 percent for 40 months in a row, and 42 percent of all unemployed Americans have been out of work for at least half a year.
Recently, I wrote a long article about why there will never be enough jobs in the United States ever again.
That means that a whole lot of Americans are not going to be able to take care of themselves.
As our economy gets even worse, there is going to be a tremendous need for more love, compassion and generosity all over the country.
Don't be afraid to lend a helping hand, because someday you may need one yourself.
NOTE: It's easy to grow edible foods in your garden, use raised beds, buckets, barrels, trelise against an exterior wall, hanging baskets etc. Every little bit helps you save money and eat fresh food, herbs & greens. Great selection of simple to grow Non Hybrid Organic Seeds
GMO Apples Ready To Hit The Market
After setting sights on creating a heavily modified apple that ‘never browns’ and doing their very best to hide the fact that they are indeed genetically altered, a biotech corporation known as Okanagan Specialty Fruits is now pushing for their new genetically modified apples to hit the market. The company recently submitted an application to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency to launch their initiative to get the apples into your local grocery market and reap ‘improved industry sales’, but they made sure that the data was not available to the public.
Now, after providing virtually no information to the citizens of Canada and submitting only two pages of information on the product actually written by the company, Okanagan Specialty Fruits is now set on a United States release. On July 9th, the USDA posted the corporation’s request for approval on their website for the genetically modified ‘non-browning’ apples, giving the public 60 days to comment before ultimately making a decision.
The move has outraged many watchdog organizations, who have continued to highlight the fact that the initial submission to the Canadian government was ‘embarrassing’ in its utter lack of real information. Speaking on behalf of the Canadian Biotechnology Action Network, activist and biotech researcher Lucy Sharratt stated:
“The CFIA should be deeply embarrassed for wasting Canadian’s time on a false invitation to comment on the GM apple… the CFIA public comment period was always a sham because it was based on no data but this farce is now completely exposed.”
Genetically Modified Apples Opposed by 69% of Canadians
Unsurprisingly, Sharatt’s sentiments have been echoed by many Canadian citizens and activists. The crusade to bring genetically modified apples has been met with extreme activism from concerned citizens as documented by a number of new polls and surveys. Giving a powerful statistical concept of how citizens see the proposition of the modified apples, a consumer poll commissioned by apple grower associations based in British Columbia and Quebec revealed that 69% of Canadians simply do not want the genetically modified apple.
One reason that some citizens are concerned is the fact that biotechnology researchers have openly admitted that while only one gene is necessary to be altered to prevent browning in the apples, the change could likely affect a multitude of other genes in the process. And with unknown gene changes comes unknown consequences. In case you’re skeptical, even Monsanto’s top PhD researchers have openly stated to former Monsanto employee and whistleblower Kirk Azevedo that during the genetic modification process “other proteins that are being produced, not just the one we want, a byproduct of the genetic engineering process.”
Eventually leaving the company and coming out to expose their health-wrecking practices, Azevedo reports:
“I saw what was really the fraud associated with genetic engineering. My impression, and I think most people’s impression with genetically engineered foods and crops and other things, is that it’s just like putting one gene in there and that one gene is expressed….But in reality, the process of genetic engineering changes the cell in such a way that it’s unknown what the effects are going to be.”
There is still time to submit your comments to the USDA regarding the potential approval of genetically modified apples. The Alliance for Natural Health has established a simple form to do so.
Now, after providing virtually no information to the citizens of Canada and submitting only two pages of information on the product actually written by the company, Okanagan Specialty Fruits is now set on a United States release. On July 9th, the USDA posted the corporation’s request for approval on their website for the genetically modified ‘non-browning’ apples, giving the public 60 days to comment before ultimately making a decision.
The move has outraged many watchdog organizations, who have continued to highlight the fact that the initial submission to the Canadian government was ‘embarrassing’ in its utter lack of real information. Speaking on behalf of the Canadian Biotechnology Action Network, activist and biotech researcher Lucy Sharratt stated:
“The CFIA should be deeply embarrassed for wasting Canadian’s time on a false invitation to comment on the GM apple… the CFIA public comment period was always a sham because it was based on no data but this farce is now completely exposed.”
Genetically Modified Apples Opposed by 69% of Canadians
Unsurprisingly, Sharatt’s sentiments have been echoed by many Canadian citizens and activists. The crusade to bring genetically modified apples has been met with extreme activism from concerned citizens as documented by a number of new polls and surveys. Giving a powerful statistical concept of how citizens see the proposition of the modified apples, a consumer poll commissioned by apple grower associations based in British Columbia and Quebec revealed that 69% of Canadians simply do not want the genetically modified apple.
One reason that some citizens are concerned is the fact that biotechnology researchers have openly admitted that while only one gene is necessary to be altered to prevent browning in the apples, the change could likely affect a multitude of other genes in the process. And with unknown gene changes comes unknown consequences. In case you’re skeptical, even Monsanto’s top PhD researchers have openly stated to former Monsanto employee and whistleblower Kirk Azevedo that during the genetic modification process “other proteins that are being produced, not just the one we want, a byproduct of the genetic engineering process.”
Eventually leaving the company and coming out to expose their health-wrecking practices, Azevedo reports:
“I saw what was really the fraud associated with genetic engineering. My impression, and I think most people’s impression with genetically engineered foods and crops and other things, is that it’s just like putting one gene in there and that one gene is expressed….But in reality, the process of genetic engineering changes the cell in such a way that it’s unknown what the effects are going to be.”
There is still time to submit your comments to the USDA regarding the potential approval of genetically modified apples. The Alliance for Natural Health has established a simple form to do so.
NY Mayor Encourages Police To Strike So Americans Lay Down Their Right To Keep & Bear Arms
New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg told CNN's Piers Morgan last night that he doesn't "understand why police officers across this country don’t stand up collectively and say we’re going to go on strike, we’re not going to protect you unless you, the public, through your legislature, do what’s required to keep us safe."
We've been hearing a lot of that recently. Earlier this year, The New York Times reprinted a Department of Justice press release and slapped this lede on top of it: “As violent crime has decreased across the country, a disturbing trend has emerged: Rising numbers of police officers are being killed.”
Bloomberg and The New York Times are both wrong:
In 2008, ten times more civilians regular people were killed by cops than cops were killed by perps.
In 2011, 72 cops were shot and killed in the entire U.S.; in L.A. County alone, cops shot and killed 54 suspects the same year--22 percent of those people were unarmed.
As Scott Reeder reported at Reason this morning, "Farmers, ranchers, commercial fishermen, loggers, garbage collectors, truck drivers, construction workers, pilots, steel workers, roofers, and others are far more likely to face death on the jobs than police or firefighters, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics."
And as Choire Sicha wrote earlier this year, "2008 was the ten-year low for police officers being killed, and 2012 is, so far, year-to-date, down 49% from last year."
Bloomberg, the commander of "the seventh biggest army in the world" went on to say that "police officers want to go home to their families. And we’re doing everything we can to make their job more difficult, but more importantly, more dangerous, by leaving guns in the hands of people who shouldn’t have them and letting people who have those guns buy things like armor piercing bullets.’’
The statistics say that the jobs of police officers are getting increasingly safer. After all, even the smallest departments now have access to battle-tested body armor, weaponry, vehicles, and unmanned drones; SWAT and raid training courtesy of outfits like Academi (the company formerly known as Blackwater now trains officers "who conduct warrant service, fugitive apprehension, SWAT operations and drug search warrants who are in need of sound tactics and techniques"); asset forfeiture funds from the Department of Justice; and a neutered-and-spayed 4th Amendment, courtesy of the United States Supreme Court.
Thanks to all of that, cops are more likely than ever to return safely to their families every night.
But what about the rest of us? What about Kelly Thomas, who screamed for his father while five cops beat him to death? Or Patricia Cook, shot to death by a deranged alcoholic with a badge? Or Andrew Scott, killed during a wrong-door raid? Or Nick Christie, gagged and pepper-sprayed to death by prison guards? Or Seth Adams, shot four times by a cop behind his family business, then left to die? Or Wendell Allen, who was unarmed when a New Orleans cop shot and killed him during a raid? Or Ramarley Graham, the 18-year-old New Yorker shot and killed by plainclothes cops for trying to flush a small bag of marijuana down the toilet? Or Kyle Miller, killed by Colorado police for waving a BB gun in the air? Or Todd Blair, killed by Utah police for raising a golf club above his head?
That's a smattering of names from the last year or so. A complete list is impossible, though you could spend months culling names from local media outlets. It would be significantly longer if we included people who were shot, but didn't die; or people who were just shot at by cops. It would be exponentially longer if we included people who were beaten, intimidated, wrongly arrested/incarcerated, or otherwise abused by police officers.
Didn't these folks want to go home to their families? Didn't they want to be safe when they were in their homes with their families?
They didn't get memorials. Their hometowns didn't shut down traffic for their funerals. The mayor didn't speak at their prayer vigil, if they had a prayer vigil. Their congressmen did not speechify about them on C-SPAN. No one proposed laws in their honor. No city or state official called for a national conversation about anything.
In most cases, here's what happened, and often happens: Cops who kill get a paid vacation, and the local district attorney, or state attorney determines that protocol was followed. The cop comes back with a tan and a mandate. A big ugly shrug is standard operating procedure.
Maybe Bloomberg is right; maybe America's cops should go on strike.
NOTE: Police no longer protect & serve, they enforce the law, they do not have any requirement to protect you, ever. Let them strike!
We've been hearing a lot of that recently. Earlier this year, The New York Times reprinted a Department of Justice press release and slapped this lede on top of it: “As violent crime has decreased across the country, a disturbing trend has emerged: Rising numbers of police officers are being killed.”
Bloomberg and The New York Times are both wrong:
In 2008, ten times more civilians regular people were killed by cops than cops were killed by perps.
In 2011, 72 cops were shot and killed in the entire U.S.; in L.A. County alone, cops shot and killed 54 suspects the same year--22 percent of those people were unarmed.
As Scott Reeder reported at Reason this morning, "Farmers, ranchers, commercial fishermen, loggers, garbage collectors, truck drivers, construction workers, pilots, steel workers, roofers, and others are far more likely to face death on the jobs than police or firefighters, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics."
And as Choire Sicha wrote earlier this year, "2008 was the ten-year low for police officers being killed, and 2012 is, so far, year-to-date, down 49% from last year."
Bloomberg, the commander of "the seventh biggest army in the world" went on to say that "police officers want to go home to their families. And we’re doing everything we can to make their job more difficult, but more importantly, more dangerous, by leaving guns in the hands of people who shouldn’t have them and letting people who have those guns buy things like armor piercing bullets.’’
The statistics say that the jobs of police officers are getting increasingly safer. After all, even the smallest departments now have access to battle-tested body armor, weaponry, vehicles, and unmanned drones; SWAT and raid training courtesy of outfits like Academi (the company formerly known as Blackwater now trains officers "who conduct warrant service, fugitive apprehension, SWAT operations and drug search warrants who are in need of sound tactics and techniques"); asset forfeiture funds from the Department of Justice; and a neutered-and-spayed 4th Amendment, courtesy of the United States Supreme Court.
Thanks to all of that, cops are more likely than ever to return safely to their families every night.
But what about the rest of us? What about Kelly Thomas, who screamed for his father while five cops beat him to death? Or Patricia Cook, shot to death by a deranged alcoholic with a badge? Or Andrew Scott, killed during a wrong-door raid? Or Nick Christie, gagged and pepper-sprayed to death by prison guards? Or Seth Adams, shot four times by a cop behind his family business, then left to die? Or Wendell Allen, who was unarmed when a New Orleans cop shot and killed him during a raid? Or Ramarley Graham, the 18-year-old New Yorker shot and killed by plainclothes cops for trying to flush a small bag of marijuana down the toilet? Or Kyle Miller, killed by Colorado police for waving a BB gun in the air? Or Todd Blair, killed by Utah police for raising a golf club above his head?
That's a smattering of names from the last year or so. A complete list is impossible, though you could spend months culling names from local media outlets. It would be significantly longer if we included people who were shot, but didn't die; or people who were just shot at by cops. It would be exponentially longer if we included people who were beaten, intimidated, wrongly arrested/incarcerated, or otherwise abused by police officers.
Didn't these folks want to go home to their families? Didn't they want to be safe when they were in their homes with their families?
They didn't get memorials. Their hometowns didn't shut down traffic for their funerals. The mayor didn't speak at their prayer vigil, if they had a prayer vigil. Their congressmen did not speechify about them on C-SPAN. No one proposed laws in their honor. No city or state official called for a national conversation about anything.
In most cases, here's what happened, and often happens: Cops who kill get a paid vacation, and the local district attorney, or state attorney determines that protocol was followed. The cop comes back with a tan and a mandate. A big ugly shrug is standard operating procedure.
Maybe Bloomberg is right; maybe America's cops should go on strike.
NOTE: Police no longer protect & serve, they enforce the law, they do not have any requirement to protect you, ever. Let them strike!
Shooter Heavily Drugged During Court Appearance
Appearing in court today, the suspected shooter in the Colorado mass murder case looked to be heavily drugged. Even the corporate media admitted he appeared to be sedated. From NYMag.com:
Accused Aurora shooter James Eagan Holmes sat in a Colorado court room with red-and-orange-dyed hair and heavy eyelids this morning at his advisement hearing, speaking not a word and appearing to nearly nod off. The 24-year-old looked confused, blinked slowly, and struggled to keep his head up, leading the press to wonder if he’d been drugged.
Accused and convicted RFK assassin Sirhan Sirhan said he was drugged before the assassination:
Sirhan: “It was hot that night and I was very thirsty. I remember that….I went to the bar and had four drinks within about 15 minutes. I couldn’t seem to get enough to drink….They were Tom Collins’s….(but) I wasn’t drunk. I felt drugged. I think somebody slipped something into my drinks. My legs and arms became rubbery. I remember standing by my car but I couldn’t drive so I went back inside and got some coffee.”
Reynolds: “How did you get downstairs to the pantry?”
Sirhan: “Somebody guided me. I don’t know who.”
Reynolds: “Did you have your gun with you?”
Sirhan: “Yes. When I was in the pantry, the gun was in my hand.”
Reynolds: “Did you know Robert Kennedy was going to be walking toward you?”
Sirhan: “No. I didn’t know where I was and I don’t know how I got there. I was in a state of blackout.”
Recently produced evidence reveals that Sirhan was not the shooter and he was framed. In a federal court last November, lawyers argued that Sirhan “was an involuntary participant in the crimes being committed because he was subjected to sophisticated hypno programming and memory implantation techniques which rendered him unable to consciously control his thoughts and actions at the time the crimes were being committed,” according to court papers.
Was James Holmes also an unwilling participant and is he being drugged to prevent him from declaring his innocence or revealing other information at odds with the official narrative?
Accused Aurora shooter James Eagan Holmes sat in a Colorado court room with red-and-orange-dyed hair and heavy eyelids this morning at his advisement hearing, speaking not a word and appearing to nearly nod off. The 24-year-old looked confused, blinked slowly, and struggled to keep his head up, leading the press to wonder if he’d been drugged.
Accused and convicted RFK assassin Sirhan Sirhan said he was drugged before the assassination:
Sirhan: “It was hot that night and I was very thirsty. I remember that….I went to the bar and had four drinks within about 15 minutes. I couldn’t seem to get enough to drink….They were Tom Collins’s….(but) I wasn’t drunk. I felt drugged. I think somebody slipped something into my drinks. My legs and arms became rubbery. I remember standing by my car but I couldn’t drive so I went back inside and got some coffee.”
Reynolds: “How did you get downstairs to the pantry?”
Sirhan: “Somebody guided me. I don’t know who.”
Reynolds: “Did you have your gun with you?”
Sirhan: “Yes. When I was in the pantry, the gun was in my hand.”
Reynolds: “Did you know Robert Kennedy was going to be walking toward you?”
Sirhan: “No. I didn’t know where I was and I don’t know how I got there. I was in a state of blackout.”
Recently produced evidence reveals that Sirhan was not the shooter and he was framed. In a federal court last November, lawyers argued that Sirhan “was an involuntary participant in the crimes being committed because he was subjected to sophisticated hypno programming and memory implantation techniques which rendered him unable to consciously control his thoughts and actions at the time the crimes were being committed,” according to court papers.
Was James Holmes also an unwilling participant and is he being drugged to prevent him from declaring his innocence or revealing other information at odds with the official narrative?
Colorado Shooter, Weird Science, Government & Darpa Connections
Appearing on the Alex Jones Show today, investigative journalist Wayne Madsen said accused shooter James Holmes had a number of links to U.S. government-funded research centers, including the Defense Advance Research Projects Agency, or DARPA.
James Holmes was one of six recipients of a National Institutes of Health Neuroscience Training Grant at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus in Denver, Madsen writes for the Wayne Madsen Report.
“The Anschutz Medical Campus is on the recently de-commisioned site of the U.S. Army’s Fitzsimons Army Medical Center and is named after Philip Anschutz, the billionaire Christian fundamentalist oil and railroad tycoon who also owns The Examiner newspaper chain and website and the neo-conservative Weekly Standard,” Madsen explains. “The Anschutz Medical Campus was built by a $91 million grant from the Anschutz Foundation.”
Holmes also worked as a research assistant intern at the Salk Institute at the University of California at San Diego in La Jolla. The Salk Institute teamed up with DARPA, Columbia University, University of California at San Francisco, University of Wisconsin at Madison, Wake Forest University, and the candy bar company Mars “to prevent fatigue in combat troops through the enhanced use of epicatechina, a blood flow-increasing and blood vessel-dilating anti-oxidant flavanol found in cocoa and, particularly, in dark chocolate,” according to Madsen’s research.
The DARPA program was part of the military’s “Peak Soldier Performance Program,” which involved engineering brain-machine interfaces for battlefield use and other bionic projects.
In addition, James Holmes’ father, Dr. Robert Holmes, worked for San Diego-based HNC Software, Inc., a company that worked with DARPA to develop “cortronic neural networks” that enable machines to translate aural and visual stimuli and simulate human thinking.
The Holmes family appears to have deep connections to the military-industrial complex. Lt. Col. Robert Holmes, the grandfather of James Holmes, was a graduate Turkish language graduates of the Army Language School, later the Defense Language Institute, in Monterey, California (the same military installation, incidentally, where alleged 9/11 hijacker Saeed Alghamdi trained).
The elder Holmes, Madsen notes, more than likely worked in intelligence. “Typically, U.S. military officers conversant in Turkish served with either the Defense Intelligence Agency or the Central Intelligence Agency at either the U.S. embassy in Ankara or the Consulate General in Istanbul, or both,” he writes.
“Was James Holmes engaged in a real-life Jason Bourne TREADSTONE project that broke down and resulted in deadly consequences in Aurora, Colorado?” Madsen concludes. Operation Treadstone was a fictional top-secret CIA project under which the character Jason Bourne underwent behavioral modification.
NOTE: Too many coincidences aren't there? What are the chances that the "shooter" will live to tell his side of the story?
James Holmes was one of six recipients of a National Institutes of Health Neuroscience Training Grant at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus in Denver, Madsen writes for the Wayne Madsen Report.
“The Anschutz Medical Campus is on the recently de-commisioned site of the U.S. Army’s Fitzsimons Army Medical Center and is named after Philip Anschutz, the billionaire Christian fundamentalist oil and railroad tycoon who also owns The Examiner newspaper chain and website and the neo-conservative Weekly Standard,” Madsen explains. “The Anschutz Medical Campus was built by a $91 million grant from the Anschutz Foundation.”
Holmes also worked as a research assistant intern at the Salk Institute at the University of California at San Diego in La Jolla. The Salk Institute teamed up with DARPA, Columbia University, University of California at San Francisco, University of Wisconsin at Madison, Wake Forest University, and the candy bar company Mars “to prevent fatigue in combat troops through the enhanced use of epicatechina, a blood flow-increasing and blood vessel-dilating anti-oxidant flavanol found in cocoa and, particularly, in dark chocolate,” according to Madsen’s research.
The DARPA program was part of the military’s “Peak Soldier Performance Program,” which involved engineering brain-machine interfaces for battlefield use and other bionic projects.
In addition, James Holmes’ father, Dr. Robert Holmes, worked for San Diego-based HNC Software, Inc., a company that worked with DARPA to develop “cortronic neural networks” that enable machines to translate aural and visual stimuli and simulate human thinking.
The Holmes family appears to have deep connections to the military-industrial complex. Lt. Col. Robert Holmes, the grandfather of James Holmes, was a graduate Turkish language graduates of the Army Language School, later the Defense Language Institute, in Monterey, California (the same military installation, incidentally, where alleged 9/11 hijacker Saeed Alghamdi trained).
The elder Holmes, Madsen notes, more than likely worked in intelligence. “Typically, U.S. military officers conversant in Turkish served with either the Defense Intelligence Agency or the Central Intelligence Agency at either the U.S. embassy in Ankara or the Consulate General in Istanbul, or both,” he writes.
“Was James Holmes engaged in a real-life Jason Bourne TREADSTONE project that broke down and resulted in deadly consequences in Aurora, Colorado?” Madsen concludes. Operation Treadstone was a fictional top-secret CIA project under which the character Jason Bourne underwent behavioral modification.
NOTE: Too many coincidences aren't there? What are the chances that the "shooter" will live to tell his side of the story?
London's Militarized Olympics
The London Olympics are fast taking on the appearance and tone of a full-scale land, sea and air military operation rather than an international sporting event.
With surface-to-air missiles stationed on top of residential apartment blocks, Royal Navy battleships on alert and Royal Air Force fighter jets and helicopters patrolling the skies over Britain’s capital there is a foreboding sense of a nation at war instead of an occasion of internationalist fraternity that the ancient Games are supposed to embody.
The Games begin in just under two weeks. The latest development is the announcement by Britain’s Ministry of Defence that 3,500 extra troops are to be deployed to ensure security at the 30 venues hosting sporting events. This is in addition to the 13,500 military personnel already assigned to protect members of the public and sports teams from the risk of terrorist attack.
British General Sir Nick Parker, overseeing the security arrangements, has said that one of the contingencies being planned for is dealing with a “9/11 type event”.
The total troop deployment in and around London represents 7,000 more personnel than is currently on British operations in Afghanistan.
This figure is in addition to the 10,000 extra police officers and a division of 10,000 private security guards. It was the disclosure that G45, the private security firm with the Olympics contract, could not fulfill its manpower requirements to cover the Games that prompted the latest enlisting of additional soldiers.
The militarization of the Olympics was conveyed inadvertently by a spokesman for the Ministry of Defence when he said: “Many of the people whom the public will meet at the point of entry to any Olympic event will now be a serving member of the armed forces.”
Boris Johnson, the maverick Mayor of London, said in a statement: “The mayor takes the issue of Olympics security extremely seriously, and having the finest and bravest service men and woman in the world at our disposal during the Games should be a source of great comfort.”
The Royal Navy’s largest battleship, HMS Ocean, will be moored on the Thames at Greenwich, providing a logistical command centre during the event. It will also provide a base for Lynx helicopters manned with snipers to make round-the-clock sorties over the capital.
NOTE: Read the rest of the article by clicking on the Title, it includes some incredibly chilling photos.
With surface-to-air missiles stationed on top of residential apartment blocks, Royal Navy battleships on alert and Royal Air Force fighter jets and helicopters patrolling the skies over Britain’s capital there is a foreboding sense of a nation at war instead of an occasion of internationalist fraternity that the ancient Games are supposed to embody.
The Games begin in just under two weeks. The latest development is the announcement by Britain’s Ministry of Defence that 3,500 extra troops are to be deployed to ensure security at the 30 venues hosting sporting events. This is in addition to the 13,500 military personnel already assigned to protect members of the public and sports teams from the risk of terrorist attack.
British General Sir Nick Parker, overseeing the security arrangements, has said that one of the contingencies being planned for is dealing with a “9/11 type event”.
The total troop deployment in and around London represents 7,000 more personnel than is currently on British operations in Afghanistan.
This figure is in addition to the 10,000 extra police officers and a division of 10,000 private security guards. It was the disclosure that G45, the private security firm with the Olympics contract, could not fulfill its manpower requirements to cover the Games that prompted the latest enlisting of additional soldiers.
The militarization of the Olympics was conveyed inadvertently by a spokesman for the Ministry of Defence when he said: “Many of the people whom the public will meet at the point of entry to any Olympic event will now be a serving member of the armed forces.”
Boris Johnson, the maverick Mayor of London, said in a statement: “The mayor takes the issue of Olympics security extremely seriously, and having the finest and bravest service men and woman in the world at our disposal during the Games should be a source of great comfort.”
The Royal Navy’s largest battleship, HMS Ocean, will be moored on the Thames at Greenwich, providing a logistical command centre during the event. It will also provide a base for Lynx helicopters manned with snipers to make round-the-clock sorties over the capital.
NOTE: Read the rest of the article by clicking on the Title, it includes some incredibly chilling photos.
Authorities Seek To Destroy Edible Landscape
People are hungry, economies everywhere are tanking. The answer to that problem used to be "do what you can on your own." In America, it was the now iconic Victory Gardens. In Montreal, Canada there is a move to defeat such self-reliance.
For some strange reason, helping yourself is the very last thing the governments in both the U.S. and Canada will "allow" you to do; not even on your own land. Stranger still, it is the lower-rung, local governments that show up in news stories extinguishing property rights in the name of almighty municipal code.
Josée Landry and partner Michel Beauchamp decided to start an urban garden for both economic and health reasons, and they even have documented its progress via their family blog since its beginning. They proudly gave their new passion a name - Rosa - in memory of civil rights icon, Rosa Parks, who refused to take her place as ordered by the tyrannical bureaucracy of the day.
Now it seems that they find themselves forced to take a stand for another basic civil right: food freedom. Instead of allowing this garden to flourish and nourish, local officials in Canada now want to make any new front yard gardens completely illegal by autumn, along with uprooting Rosa.
The crackdown on home gardening has been marching across the first world at a rapid pace of late. In the U.S. we have seen a woman threatened with jail for 93 days for front yard tomatoes and a Tulsa, OK woman sued after coming home to find her yard full of herbal remedies and vegetation ripped up and taken. Oftentimes, it's a power play, and only when enough negative attention is garnered, do the code enforcers back down, usually citing their targets for some other minor infraction.
This latest move in Canada follows a similar pattern; by enforcing an arbitrary code that front yard gardens (also called kitchen gardens) are only allowed, at the bare minimum, less than 30% vegetation. Who in Drummondville, Quebec would create such a code and why? Also, shouldn't other factors be considered: they own their home, they offer the food to the community without profit, it is aesthetic and has attracted worldwide media attention, as well as some celebrity garden bloggers.
Not only does the city want most of the couple's garden uprooted and tossed, but they are seriously discussing outlawing all future front yard gardens! The only stipulation being that old gardens can apparently stay as long as it meets the "under 30% of the yard" code.
The couple was facing fines of between $100 and $300 per day if they did not comply by yesterday. According to CBCNews, "The couple said they had no intention of complying with the city's request."
As per usual, the local authorities love to vaguely claim that there have been neighbor complaints. CEO of Drummondville, Claude Proulx, called it a question of "uniformity of the urban fabric."
But, Beauchamp has been open with his neighbors, and they have shared the fun and eats. He has had no inkling of anyone disliking the tidy and delicious landscape, adding, "They love it. Everybody is surprised by the kind of taste we can have from fresh vegetables." (Source)
And no doubt the neighbors may also be impressed by the changes they see in the urban farming couple: both growing and eating the garden goods has helped Landry and Beauchamp lose a combined 100 pounds!
Take some tips from this video of their garden's formation:
Urban kitchen garden activist and blogger Roger Doiron got behind the fight and organized an impressive worldwide petition called Stop the War on Front Yard Vegetable Gardens. As of Sunday, they had 800 signatures, yesterday 8,000, and today almost 11,000 and counting. The couple's "bed-in" peaceful protest, Lennon-Ono style, also garnered much support and media attention.
By the way, Doiron is the one who apparently encouraged Michelle Obama to grow the Presidential garden. No sooner had he featured the Canadian garden on his site when they get slammed with threats of hundreds of dollars in fines if they didn't rip it out and replant grass. Do you think he wonders why the White House shows the world about gardening, and then municipalities everywhere start simultaneously cracking down on their residents?
What does it ultimately take to stop the rolling boulder of unyielding municipal power? As evidenced above and in other cases, a negative spotlight, lots of outraged people, and the threat of losing an election (and salary and pension) speaks volumes. The culmination of which recently bought Landry and Beauchamp till September 1, before the officials decide what to do with them. Activism works!
That allows them to harvest their garden, but then what? Will people forget the original intention to outlaw all such yard gardens? That's a problem when things get pushed back - the officials hope that people do not stay so riled up, and that the media moves on. And what of the gardening soldiers? Will they be slapped with other arbitrary code violations?
Let's try to revisit these plights to make sure we don't leave them behind in the big fight for all of our food freedom.
If this garden is deemed illegal, we're in deep you-know-what. - Roger Doiron
For some strange reason, helping yourself is the very last thing the governments in both the U.S. and Canada will "allow" you to do; not even on your own land. Stranger still, it is the lower-rung, local governments that show up in news stories extinguishing property rights in the name of almighty municipal code.
Josée Landry and partner Michel Beauchamp decided to start an urban garden for both economic and health reasons, and they even have documented its progress via their family blog since its beginning. They proudly gave their new passion a name - Rosa - in memory of civil rights icon, Rosa Parks, who refused to take her place as ordered by the tyrannical bureaucracy of the day.
Now it seems that they find themselves forced to take a stand for another basic civil right: food freedom. Instead of allowing this garden to flourish and nourish, local officials in Canada now want to make any new front yard gardens completely illegal by autumn, along with uprooting Rosa.
The crackdown on home gardening has been marching across the first world at a rapid pace of late. In the U.S. we have seen a woman threatened with jail for 93 days for front yard tomatoes and a Tulsa, OK woman sued after coming home to find her yard full of herbal remedies and vegetation ripped up and taken. Oftentimes, it's a power play, and only when enough negative attention is garnered, do the code enforcers back down, usually citing their targets for some other minor infraction.
This latest move in Canada follows a similar pattern; by enforcing an arbitrary code that front yard gardens (also called kitchen gardens) are only allowed, at the bare minimum, less than 30% vegetation. Who in Drummondville, Quebec would create such a code and why? Also, shouldn't other factors be considered: they own their home, they offer the food to the community without profit, it is aesthetic and has attracted worldwide media attention, as well as some celebrity garden bloggers.
Not only does the city want most of the couple's garden uprooted and tossed, but they are seriously discussing outlawing all future front yard gardens! The only stipulation being that old gardens can apparently stay as long as it meets the "under 30% of the yard" code.
The couple was facing fines of between $100 and $300 per day if they did not comply by yesterday. According to CBCNews, "The couple said they had no intention of complying with the city's request."
As per usual, the local authorities love to vaguely claim that there have been neighbor complaints. CEO of Drummondville, Claude Proulx, called it a question of "uniformity of the urban fabric."
But, Beauchamp has been open with his neighbors, and they have shared the fun and eats. He has had no inkling of anyone disliking the tidy and delicious landscape, adding, "They love it. Everybody is surprised by the kind of taste we can have from fresh vegetables." (Source)
And no doubt the neighbors may also be impressed by the changes they see in the urban farming couple: both growing and eating the garden goods has helped Landry and Beauchamp lose a combined 100 pounds!
Take some tips from this video of their garden's formation:
Urban kitchen garden activist and blogger Roger Doiron got behind the fight and organized an impressive worldwide petition called Stop the War on Front Yard Vegetable Gardens. As of Sunday, they had 800 signatures, yesterday 8,000, and today almost 11,000 and counting. The couple's "bed-in" peaceful protest, Lennon-Ono style, also garnered much support and media attention.
By the way, Doiron is the one who apparently encouraged Michelle Obama to grow the Presidential garden. No sooner had he featured the Canadian garden on his site when they get slammed with threats of hundreds of dollars in fines if they didn't rip it out and replant grass. Do you think he wonders why the White House shows the world about gardening, and then municipalities everywhere start simultaneously cracking down on their residents?
What does it ultimately take to stop the rolling boulder of unyielding municipal power? As evidenced above and in other cases, a negative spotlight, lots of outraged people, and the threat of losing an election (and salary and pension) speaks volumes. The culmination of which recently bought Landry and Beauchamp till September 1, before the officials decide what to do with them. Activism works!
That allows them to harvest their garden, but then what? Will people forget the original intention to outlaw all such yard gardens? That's a problem when things get pushed back - the officials hope that people do not stay so riled up, and that the media moves on. And what of the gardening soldiers? Will they be slapped with other arbitrary code violations?
Let's try to revisit these plights to make sure we don't leave them behind in the big fight for all of our food freedom.
If this garden is deemed illegal, we're in deep you-know-what. - Roger Doiron
Wednesday, July 25, 2012
Dirty Dozen & 15 Cleaner Fresh Foods
For the eighth year in a row, the Environmental Watch Group (EWG) has published an updated ‘shopper’s guide’ based on a comprehensive analysis of government pesticide testing data of 45 different fruit and vegetables. The guide includes the ‘dirty dozen:’ the twelve foods most commonly contaminated with pesticides, as well as the ‘clean fifteen:’ the fifteen least contaminated foods. This year the dirty dozen also includes a ‘plus’ category, warning about two foods containing particularly concerning organophospates, insecticides that are known reproductive and neurotoxins. The use of organophosphates have been significantly reduced in the past decade, but is yet to be banned, and this year, a number of crops still tested positive. The journal Environmental Health Perspectives contains 25 articles published in the past week analyzing and discussing the dangers or organophosphates in our food supply.
Also new this year, researchers investigated the pesticide content of 190 samples of baby food, with rather alarming results.
As the EWG simply and frankly reminds us, ‘Pesticides are toxic by design. They are created expressly to kill living organisms — insects, plants, and fungi that are considered “pests.” Many pesticides pose health dangers to people. These risks have been established by independent research scientists and physicians across the world.” The U.S. and international government agencies have linked pesticides to health problems spanning brain and nervous system toxicity, cancer, hormonal disruption and skin, eye and lung irritation. However, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), under pressure from The American Crop Protection Association, largely representative of the pesticide industry, has failed to apply adequate protective measures in regulating our food supply. One might well ask whether it is wiser to protect a country’s crops or its population.
The Dirty Dozen
Without further ado, the dirty dozen:
Apples
Celery
Sweet bell peppers
Peaches
Strawberries
Nectarines (imported)
Grapes
Spinach
Lettuce
Cucumbers
Blueberries (domestic)
Potatoes
Plus 2 more to add to the dirty dozen:
Green beans
Kale/Collard Greens
Going into a little more detail for the dirty dozen, 100 percent of imported nectarines tested positive for pesticides, as well as 98% of apples and 96% of plums. Grapes had 15 pesticides in a single sample, while blueberries and strawberries each had 13. As an entire category, grape samples contained 64 different pesticides; bell peppers had 88 different residues, cucumbers 81 and lettuce 78.
The Clean Fifteen
And the clean fifteen:
Onions
Sweet corn
Pineapples
Avocado
Cabbage
Sweet peas
Asparagus
Mangoes
Eggplant
Kiwi
Cantaloupe (domestic)
Sweet Potatoes
Grapefruit
Watermelon
Mushrooms
Highlights of the clean fifteen include pineapples, in which fewer than 10% of samples contained pesticides, mangoes and kiwis, both of which were completely free of pesticides more than 75% of the time, and watermelon and domestic cantaloupe over 60% of the time. Among vegetables, no samples of sweet corn and onions had more than one pesticide and more than 90% of cabbage, asparagus, sweet peas, eggplant and sweet potato samples contained no more than one pesticide.
One additional concern to consider: sweet corn, although it may contain less pesticide residues, is quite commonly genetically modified in the U.S. While genetically modified organisms (GMO) are banned or significantly restricted in Australia, Japan and throughout the European Union, the industry is still at large in the U.S., and no labeling is required by the federal government. For this reason, it is recommended that sweet corn consumption also be limited to organic.
Among baby food, green beans and pears were especially disturbing: almost 10% of green beans contained the organophosphate methamidiphos in amounts that could easily increase risk for brain and nervous system damage in infants consuming a four-ounce serving of green beans on a regular basis. 92% of pear samples tested positive for at least one pesticide and over a quarter of samples contained five or more, including iprodione, categorized by the EPA as a probable human carcinogen, and not registered for use on pears. In fact, the presence of iprodione in pears of any kind constitutes a violation of FDA regulations and the federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act.
While there is no question that Americans need to eat more fruits and vegetables, it’s worth taking an extra step to make sure that produce is delivering the nutrition it’s supposed to, and nothing it’s not. Pause for a moment. Want some neurotoxins with that salad? I didn’t think so.
Also new this year, researchers investigated the pesticide content of 190 samples of baby food, with rather alarming results.
As the EWG simply and frankly reminds us, ‘Pesticides are toxic by design. They are created expressly to kill living organisms — insects, plants, and fungi that are considered “pests.” Many pesticides pose health dangers to people. These risks have been established by independent research scientists and physicians across the world.” The U.S. and international government agencies have linked pesticides to health problems spanning brain and nervous system toxicity, cancer, hormonal disruption and skin, eye and lung irritation. However, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), under pressure from The American Crop Protection Association, largely representative of the pesticide industry, has failed to apply adequate protective measures in regulating our food supply. One might well ask whether it is wiser to protect a country’s crops or its population.
The Dirty Dozen
Without further ado, the dirty dozen:
Apples
Celery
Sweet bell peppers
Peaches
Strawberries
Nectarines (imported)
Grapes
Spinach
Lettuce
Cucumbers
Blueberries (domestic)
Potatoes
Plus 2 more to add to the dirty dozen:
Green beans
Kale/Collard Greens
Going into a little more detail for the dirty dozen, 100 percent of imported nectarines tested positive for pesticides, as well as 98% of apples and 96% of plums. Grapes had 15 pesticides in a single sample, while blueberries and strawberries each had 13. As an entire category, grape samples contained 64 different pesticides; bell peppers had 88 different residues, cucumbers 81 and lettuce 78.
The Clean Fifteen
And the clean fifteen:
Onions
Sweet corn
Pineapples
Avocado
Cabbage
Sweet peas
Asparagus
Mangoes
Eggplant
Kiwi
Cantaloupe (domestic)
Sweet Potatoes
Grapefruit
Watermelon
Mushrooms
Highlights of the clean fifteen include pineapples, in which fewer than 10% of samples contained pesticides, mangoes and kiwis, both of which were completely free of pesticides more than 75% of the time, and watermelon and domestic cantaloupe over 60% of the time. Among vegetables, no samples of sweet corn and onions had more than one pesticide and more than 90% of cabbage, asparagus, sweet peas, eggplant and sweet potato samples contained no more than one pesticide.
One additional concern to consider: sweet corn, although it may contain less pesticide residues, is quite commonly genetically modified in the U.S. While genetically modified organisms (GMO) are banned or significantly restricted in Australia, Japan and throughout the European Union, the industry is still at large in the U.S., and no labeling is required by the federal government. For this reason, it is recommended that sweet corn consumption also be limited to organic.
Among baby food, green beans and pears were especially disturbing: almost 10% of green beans contained the organophosphate methamidiphos in amounts that could easily increase risk for brain and nervous system damage in infants consuming a four-ounce serving of green beans on a regular basis. 92% of pear samples tested positive for at least one pesticide and over a quarter of samples contained five or more, including iprodione, categorized by the EPA as a probable human carcinogen, and not registered for use on pears. In fact, the presence of iprodione in pears of any kind constitutes a violation of FDA regulations and the federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act.
While there is no question that Americans need to eat more fruits and vegetables, it’s worth taking an extra step to make sure that produce is delivering the nutrition it’s supposed to, and nothing it’s not. Pause for a moment. Want some neurotoxins with that salad? I didn’t think so.