You're F*cking Up America

If you buy fresh produce packaged inside a plastic box, you're fucking up America.

If you shop at the market but do not own a re-usable bag, you're fucking up America.

If you live in California, and have a sizable lawn that serves no utility besides enhancing aesthetics, you're fucking up America.

If you speak of economic justice as a derogatory term, you're fucking up America (Glen Beck).

If you live in a city, but do not have a container for recycling in your home, you're fucking up America.

If you dispose of more dishes than you wash, you're fucking up America.

If you do not know where your nearest farmer's market is located, you're fucking up America. Read more!

Continuation of a Discussion on Cap and Trade

starting here at Wine and Bowties.

Re-posted for reasons of convenience.

My rebuttal has been posted in red.

Alex

You’re certainly correct that the fees incurred on energy companies would mean a rise in energy prices for the consumer. I am, however, in favor of energy being more expensive. Regardless of how much we bitch about gas prices, the fact is that we have so much pollution largely because we drive too much. If gas becomes more expensive, we Americans would have to restructure our lives around it. In many European countries, for instance, the price of gas is significantly higher, but as a result, public transportation services are much more efficient, affordable and useful.

Higher energy prices means a lot more than just higher gas prices for your typical automobile commuter. Higher energy prices mean more expenses for businesses. Companies are going to shell out more money from their bottom line. This is going to slow up our economy. So unless you are an “expert” on anthropogenic warming, I suggest taking a neutral position regarding raising energy prices at least 1. until you know more about whether or not it is even necessary to address carbon emissions and 2. until our economy is better able to take such a hit. Raising energy prices at this time will deal a significant blow to the country’s productive capacity. And it is our productive capacity that is our biggest hope for recovery.

Public transportation is great; and it works really well in Europe because much of Europe was designed before the car. Over in the states, the prospect of public transportation is much more daunting in places like LA which were designed with the car as the primary mode of transportation. Sure we can come up with systems, but it will take billions of dollars in planning, resources and labor. We all know our state credit card is maxed out

And I doubt our pollution is largely because we drive too much, at least on a world scale. “The 15 biggest ships emit about as much sulphur oxide pollution as all cars combined.” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ship_pollution#Exhaust_emissions). It really depends what you define as pollution. If its carbon dioxide, then theoretically you will have the EPA taxing cow farts and overseeing plankton spawning projects. One of Lee’s better points is that we ought to know for sure what the facts are with CO2 and warming before we go writing costly legislation that could potentially be unnecessary. I would like to reiterate that unless you are an expert on anthropogenic global warming, it will only hurt our situation by calling for prescriptions to a disease you do not understand.

Of course, simply selling carbon credits is not the solution. Of course there would need to be a cap, which Annie in fact says should be the job of the EPA. The whole point of having an EPA is so that they can exercise some regulatory power over pollution. The notion that that would somehow allow to them to regulate “every facet of American life” is an unfounded load of bullshit. I mean, what “factual evidence” is that based on. Certainly not the legislation he’s referring to. The ultimatum comes in the form of “solid caps” and “strong laws”, rather than the lax ones proposed in the current Cap & Trade proposal.

Which brings me to my next point. I still think Lee is a dummy, but let me elaborate a bit. His political theory is vastly oversimplified, and his thinking is a strain of the kind of unfounded fear-mongering that dominates right-wing politics these days.

First off Lee states that our country became the richest in the world because we are a “free nation with limited government”. The fact is that our nation’s economy almost collapsed completely with the Great Depression. How did we escape this calamity? Big government solutions initiated by Roosevelt. Relief programs, taxation, public works programs, and reglulation of unscrupulous business practices. Without massive amounts of government aid and regulation, we simply would not have been able to dig our economy out of the depression.

Right here is another debate in itself. There are plenty of examples where limited government has played a significant contribution to our nations “wealth”. I simply do not know enough history to sit here and hash out a debate regarding whether or not limited government vs big government solutions have contributed more or less to the best aspects of this country. I’ve heard many argue also that WWII was the primary factor for getting the U.S out of the Great Depression. Like Michael Moore put it in Capitalism:ALS, we bombed the hell out of our competition, so we naturally became the leading car manufacturer in the world. What I will say is that Roosevelt era programs is not an end all be all argument to quashing the assertion that we are the richest nation in the world as a result of free government. The dynamics are far too complex to try and invalidate the point with such a simple rebuttal.

And let’s get something straight. The notion that the invisible hand of the free market will somehow lead to a less problematic solution than government regulation makes no sense.

In certain respects the invisible hand is a much better solution than government intervention. Keeping this on a general level, look at the U.S government subsidizing agriculture. Once a railway was built right down the middle of Mexico, cheap u.s agriculture flooded the Mexican markets and devastated local economies; and Jamaica, etc. In terms of clean energy, it may be a better idea having venture capitalists invest in methane harvesting plants for cattle feces rather than having the EPA tax it. This too is too complex and debatable for a simple response.

Yes there is in all likelihood a happy medium of free market and big government policies. Naomi Klein’s book the Shock Doctrine does a brilliant job at highlighting the failures of the free market systems of Milton Friedman and total reliance on the invisible hand. And yes I am with you 100% that our wealth and prosperity came at the destruction, poverty and exploitation of other countries; that our wealth is distributed inequitably; and that there is an inherent problem with greed and self interest being an underlying drive of our current capitalist system. I am also with you that Lee does have a right wing bias, especially with his seemingly black and white tone regarding socialism as being completely negative. If you think he is a dummy for being so gung ho about limited government, completely anti-socialism and wealth redistribution, that is fine with me. I find it to be relatively justified. Yet I still feel that those issues aside, he presents valid points that should not be overlooked i.e increasing energy costs, not having money for dividends, not making widespread legislation without addressing critical discrepancies in the proxy vs instrumental data., etc.

Furthermore, the invisible hand is not something we should lock up and throw and away the key. If anything please consider that there are certain systematic functions of our day to day that are better suited for the invisible hand than big government. There may be a role better served by the invisible hand than big government when it comes to cleaner energy. Just look at the Prius. It may be slow, but it will in all likelihood be steady. People vote with their dollars, and if there are enough people willing and able to vote “green” then you can bet there will be a capitalist looking for a way to deliver.

The nature of the free market benefits corporate giants. Sure we are the richest nation, but our prosperity comes at the price of destruction, poverty and exploitation of other countries. Not to mention, the wealth, however great it may be, is distributed more inequitably here than almost anywhere in the world. Free market dogma posits greed and self-interest as the tendency to which we should entrust global economy, rather than the desire for justice or equality. That’s the inherent problem.

Wealth redistribution and socialism always seem to come into the conversation. But the fact that those words automatically generate a negative response doesn’t really make sense. For one, it’s not the Cold War anymore; contrary to what Glenn Beck might tell you about “Comrade Obama”, we’re not fighting a war of containment right now. The fact is that our economic policies arenot entirely capitalist or socialist. They’re somewhere in between which is why we have social services, support programs, good hospitals, and taxes. Put the market completely in charge of those things and god knows what happens.

The fact is our government would benefit from adopting more traditionally “socialist” traditions. For one, we could use higher corporate and property taxes, particularly on the wealthiest of the wealthy. The corporate powers that control resources continue to hoard wealth, living in absurd luxury while our infrastructure suffers. To my mind, it’s time that wealth gets reinvested into education, healthcare reform, or as Annie suggested, perhaps even foreign aid, given the ill-gotten benefits our country has reaped from poorer nations.

(real quick on the above. I went to private high school where the per capita cost for each student was lower than surrounding public schools, yet our school managed to put out a better quality education with less per capita resources. It’s a slippery slope you get on saying our infrastructure is suffering because wealthy corporations are hoarding too many resources. Often it’s the inefficiencies of entrusting our government to address specific localized needs from the top down that gets us into trouble)

As far as Global Warming is concerned, like I said, I’m not the expert. But a three minute video that cites two charts doesn’t convince me that more than 90% of the scientific community is wrong.

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$100 Billion Bailout For IMF Tagged On To War Funding Bill

'Democrats in Congress have agreed to provide a $100 billion credit line to the International Monetary Fund, tagging it onto the war supplemental intended for operations in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Iraq.

The measure would also increase the U.S. member contribution to the IMF by $8 billion and authorize the United States to back the IMF’s plan to sell 400 tons (12.97 million ounces) of gold, according to lawmakers’

Article here Read more!

From "I Know I'm Not Alone"

a documentary by Michael Franti, song Tolerance - Michael Franti



http://www.iknowimnotalone.com/ Read more!

Cheney '94: Invading Baghdad Would Create Quagmire C-SPAN

"How many additional dead American's was Saddam worth? And our judgment was not very many and I think we got it right." Read more!

Peaceful Jews vs. Rabid Zionist

Anti-Zionist Jewish Protesters are Attacked by an AIPAC Conference Attendee

Read more!

China Faked their Spacewalk Endeavour

This is pretty comical.
What are the chances China is the only country to fake a space expedition?

Read more!

Obama's Admits his Cap and Trade System Will Cause Energy Prices To Skyrocket

Read more!

Another Water Powered Car

http://danieldingel.com/watercar Read more!

Mercury Poison for Green Lightbulb Workers

The increasing demand for energy efficient light bulbs - which require mercury to operate - are creating health risks for Chinese workers who manufacture the bulbs. The lack of uniform health and safety regulations in China have left large swaths of said workers with dangerously high levels of Mercury in their systems.

One worker is quoted:

Our forefathers had been mining for mercury since the Ming Dynasty [1368-1644] and in olden days there was no pollution from such small mines. But in modern times thousands of miners came to our land, dug it out and poured chemicals to wash away the waste. Our water buffaloes grew stunted from drinking the water and our crops turned grey. Our people fell sick and didn’t live long. Anybody who could do has left.

The article aslo describes the mining process:

Until recently, the conditions were medieval. Miners hewed chunks of rock veined with cinnabar, the main commercial source of mercury. They inhaled toxic dust and vapours as the material seethed in primitive cauldrons to extract the mercury. Nobody wore a mask or protective clothing.

Link

BTW If a Mercury lightbulb breaks in your home the room should be cleared for at least 15 minutes in order to avoid inhaling Mercury vapors. Read more!

Australian Inventors Invent Magnetic Motor

The video say just one for 5 grand could power an entire home for decades.



Here's a link for more info. Read more!

Murs: "The Science"

Read more!

Large Scale Solar Storm Predicted between 2010-2012

a storm is coming--the most intense solar maximum in fifty years. The prediction comes from a team led by Mausumi Dikpati of the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR). "The next sunspot cycle will be 30% to 50% stronger than the previous one," she says. If correct, the years ahead could produce a burst of solar activity second only to the historic Solar Max of 1958.

Link to rest of article
Supplementary article Read more!

Herbal Pandemic Preparedness

Herbal Pandemic Preparedness
Sources: Farmacy Herbs, Karlo Berger, American Red Cross.

Step One Prevention:
If the flu hits your area the best practice is prevention

Tea:
Sage, Skullcap, Oregano, Thyme, Elder Flower, Holy Basil, Nettle.
2-3 cups daily

Tincture:
Echinacea 2x daily; 2 dropperful (One week on, one week off)
Astragulus Tea (3 cups) or Tincture( 2 dropperful 3x daily)

Food;
Miso, raw garlic, veggie broths, Cayenne pepper, Turmeric, organic
veggies, meats and grains.
Stay away from processed foods, food coloring and sugar and alcohol
(sugars in the body feed bacteria and viruses) and coffee (coffee
dehydrates the body and depletes you of vitamins and minerals that will
help fight off pathogens).


Anti-Viral/ Anti-biotic Hand Wash:
10 drops grapefruit seed extract/ 10 drops tea tree essential oil extract
in 1 gallon water

Antiseptic Spray for surfaces:
Vodka, Water, Tea Tree Oil, Lavender Essential oil. Disinfect door knobs
switches , handles, toys and other surfaces that are commonly touched.

Air Sanitizer:
Simmer water on low heat in a pot with 5 drops Eucalyptus Essential Oil or
5 drops Tea Tree Essential Oil or Lavender Essential Oil


If you do come down with the flu, then focus on immunity!

Continue tea:
Sage, Skullcap, Oregano, Thyme, Elder Flower, Holy Basil, Nettle.
(1 quart daily.)

add these tinctures 2 droperfull 3x daily
Meadowsweet, Japanese Knotweed, Turmeric
(keep up the echinacea and the astragulus)

Colloidal Silver: 2 squirts three times daily

Vitamin C 20000 mg daily

Grapefruit seed Extract: 1/4 teaspoon once daily.

Sleep Aids/ Pain Relief:
Valerian, Chammomile, White Willow Bark, Lemon Balm, St. Johns Wort
Take 1-2 squirts of tincture as needed or 1-2 cups of tea as needed

Stay home and avoid sharing items with household members (pens, papers,
computers, remote control. sheets, towels eating utensils, food.)

Wear a surgical mask when around others.

Clean sheets, bedding and clothes every day.


Take baths with 10 drops of lavender essential oil and 10 drops rosemary
essential oil and sea salt.
If your fever is high, use lukewarm water, if your fever is not high, hot
baths are okay.
(Remember fevers are our bodies way of heating up to kill pathogens. Very
high fevers are dangerous, but a low fever is actually good)

Drink veggie and chicken broths with miso and raw garlic (tons of it!) and
a pinch of Cayenne Pepper.

If you have an appetite eat only organic brown rice and greens/ steamed
veggies ( the simpler the better with food, if you put food that is hard
to digest in your body, your energy goes to digesting, rather than
fighting pathogens)

Air sanitizer: Water steam with Eucalyptus Essential Oil or Tea Tree
Essential Oil or Lavender Oil (do this in the room every 5 hours)

Caregivers should wear disposable gloves and wearing a mask when giving care Read more!

Israel Mashup Catch-Up

1. Israel to double up West Bank settlers
2. Israeli occupation forces and protected Jewish settlers are waging war on Palestinian olive orchards throughout the occupied West Bank
3. Israeli soldiers admit 'murdering' Gazans
4. You are fighting a religious war against gentiles': What rabbis told Israeli soldiers in Gaza war
5. US Army Confirms Israeli Nukes By law, the U.S. would have to cease providing billions of dollars in foreign aid to Israel if it determined the country had a nuclear weapons program. That's because the so-called Symington Amendment, passed in 1976, bars assistance to countries developing technology for nuclear weapons proliferation.
6. Read more!

Biosand Water Filters

Filters bacteria, viruses, arsenic, etc. The sand and mold is relatively inexpensive, easy to produce and acquire, and a single system can provide enough water for a family of 8 over the span of many years. It simply requires stirring the top layer in order to clean.

To purchase commercially
Humanitarian Video
Link1
Link2
Link3
Wiki Link
Link 4
Water quality test

While I'm at it I thought I would throw in the Katydyn product page
and a video on the Black Berkey water filters. Each Black Berkey will filter up to 3,000 gallons of water; and all you have you do for maintenance is wipe the outside down with a Scotch Brite pad. A pair of black Berkey's run for $99 and you can make your own drip containers out of sparkletts bottles or buckets. You can also purchase flouride and arsenic attachments for the filter (these are the white canisters you see below) I think the Berkey's even filter out radon!
Read more!

Microsoft Surface

Read more!

Ray Gun

Read more!

The Economic Collapse: How It Was Engineered

The Crisis of Credit Visualized from Jonathan Jarvis on Vimeo. Read more!

Are We Really OK with Electroshocking Toddlers?

Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. -- C.S. Lewis

Psychiatry's "shock doctrine" is quite literally electroshock, and its latest victims are – I'm not kidding – young children.

On Jan. 25, 2009, the Herald Sun in Melbourne, Australia, reported: "Children younger than 4 who are considered mentally disturbed are being treated with controversial electric shock treatment." In Australia, the use of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is increasing, and the Herald Sun's report on "Child Shock Therapy" stated that last year, "statistics record 203 ECT treatments on children younger than 14 -- including 55 aged 4 and younger."


Many Americans think that ECT has gone the way of bloodletting, but it continues to be regarded by American psychiatry as a respected treatment, especially for patients who are "treatment resistant" to drugs. Although ECT for young children is nowhere near as common as for adults, most U.S. states do not prohibit ECT for kids. California prohibits ECT for children under the age of 12 but allows children between 12 and 15 to receive ECT if three psychiatrists are in favor of it.

You might think that before any child receives a series of 70 to 170 volts of brain zappings and is thrown into seizures, every other non-traumatic therapy would have been attempted. You might think that before using ECT, in addition to trying every type of psychotherapy, there would also be an exhaustive effort to find a therapist with whom a kid might genuinely connect. You might think all this, but you would be wrong. It is not unusual for psychiatrists to simply prescribe one drug, then another drug, then several drug combinations (called "cocktails"), and if those fail, recommend ECT.

The disproportionate use of ECT on women, especially older women, once made it a feminist issue, but I heard no feminist opposition when Kitty Dukakis recently came out positively about her own ECT. Psychiatry is well aware of its historical bad press about ECT, including Sylvia Plath's nightmarish ordeal, so today, ECT is far more pleasant to observe. Patients are administered an anesthetic and a muscle relaxant prior to ECT so they don't writhe in agony as seizures are induced. However, the effects on the brain have not changed.

There are various modern ECT techniques. However, the scientific reality is that for all of these techniques, without evidence of any brain malignancy, the brain is damaged. Neurologist Sidney Sament describes the process:

"After a few sessions of ECT, the symptoms are those of moderate cerebral contusions ... Electroconvulsive therapy in effect may be defined as a controlled type of brain damage produced by electrical means ... In all cases, the ECT ‘response' is due to the concussion-type, or more serious, effect of ECT. The patient 'forgets' his symptoms because the brain damage destroys memory traces in the brain, and the patient has to pay for this by a reduction in mental capacity of varying degree."

In January 2007, the journal Neuropsychopharmacology published an article about a large-scale study on the cognitive effects (immediately and six months later) of currently used ECT techniques. The researchers found that modern ECT techniques produce "pronounced slowing of reaction time" and "persisting retrograde amnesia" (the inability to recall events that occurred before the traumatic event) that continue six months after treatment.

While ECT proponents admit to collateral damage, especially memory loss, they claim that it is an effective treatment. However, a Kitty Dukakis testimonial is not exactly science. With respect to preventing suicide, the Journal of Affective Disorders in 1999 ("Retrospective Controlled Study of Inpatient ECT: Does it Prevent Suicide?") reported, "We failed to demonstrate that ECT had prevented suicide in hospitalized patients."

Longtime ECT critic, psychiatrist Peter Breggin, in the International Journal of Risk & Safety in Medicine in 1998 ("Electroshock: Scientific, Ethical, and Political Issues"), reported that at establishment psychiatry's "Consensus Conference on ECT" in 1985, ECT advocates were unable to come forth with one controlled study showing that ECT had any positive effect beyond four weeks and that many other ECT studies showed that it had no positive effect at all.

The heretical Breggin added, "That ECT had no positive effect after four weeks confirms the brain-disabling principle, since four weeks is the approximate time for significant recovery from the most obvious mind-numbing or euphoric effects of the ECT-induced acute organic brain syndrome." Breggin's "brain-disabling principle" is that even when ECT does "work," it works only temporarily -- the same way that a blow by a sledgehammer or an acid trip might temporarily disconnect one from the reality of one's life and the sources of one's emotional pain.

Psychiatry will always find celebrities who swear by ECT, but the American public rarely hears about those celebrities who have cursed their ECT. In Papa Hemingway, A.E. Hotchner recounts the sad end to Ernest Hemingway's life. Hemingway became extremely depressed, was medicated and ultimately given ECT; but he became even more depressed and complained about the effects of the electroshock:

"Well, what is the sense of ruining my head and erasing my memory, which is my capital, and putting me out of business?"

In 1961, after a second series of ECT, Hemingway used his shotgun to commit suicide.

If you feel sorry for Hemingway, then what kind of emotional reaction do you have upon discovering that last year 203 Australian children -- including 55 age 4 and younger -- received ECT?


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