Tuesday, April 15, 2008
Several Reasons Why it isn't about Oil
By Curt Maynard
The war in Iraq, and America’s so-called Imperialistic ventures in the Mid East have nothing to do with oil.
How do you know that you might be asking?
Without delving into some very credible “conspiracy theories,” which tend to cause the eyes of “enlightened” Americans to glaze over in their own unique self-righteous stupor, let me relate some facts below, that should, assuming the reader has the ability to think properly as my friend in Rome Alfio Faro, likes to say, convince even the skeptic that Bush’s recent forays into the Middle East have nothing to do with the monopolization of oil reserves. I won’t leave the reader hanging, after relating these facts I’ll spell out in one word exactly why Bush is occupying Iraq and Afghanistan and why he intends to attack Iran and Syria as well.[1]
The Third World nation of South Africa produces a barrel of oil from coal for under $35.00 a barrel.[2] The United States of America has some of the largest coal reserves in the world.[3] These coal reserves are of a far higher quality than that used by South Africa, the sulfur content is much less, and thus, American coal can be converted to oil cheaper than can South African coal.
You may have heard about Canada’s Oil Sands, but what you may not have heard is that within these sands Canada harbors nearly as much oil as Saudi Arabia.[4] Granted, it costs much more money to extract this oil from the sand than it does for Saudi Arabia to open its spigots, but at current oil prices, $76.00 a barrel, it is both feasible and profitable to begin mass production.[5]
What the reader, especially the American reader, is almost certainly unaware of is that the United States of America has even more oil than Saudi Arabia or Canada locked away in strata of shale under the Rocky Mountains.[6] Costs to extract this oil are considerably higher than extracting it from sand, but bear in mind, at current prices, it too can be extracted profitably with technology that already exists. Not to mention the fact that its extraction, assuming that illegal aliens aren’t invited en masse to fill openings, will create hundreds of thousands of jobs for Americans, not service related jobs, but real employment with real salaries and benefits.
Methane Hydrate – methane hydrate is essentially frozen methane gas. Methane gas burns cleaner than any other energy source known, if combustion is complete; there is no appreciable pollutant created from its use. In any case, methane hydrate exists in reserves so large that they dwarf all of the oil and coal reserves combined, the world over, from the dawn of time; it lies under the oceans and has already been extracted by the industrious Japanese. Its extraction at present is too costly to be profitable, but like anything else, costs decline over time and/or as the result of new technology.[7]
If the United States government were truly interested in marshaling oil sources around the world, would it not be doing everything within its power to mollify relations with the countries that possess the oil? Instead Bush is doing everything he can to alienate the populations of oil producing nations, and doesn’t seem to be in the least bit concerned about the consequences of such foreign policy folly.
Above I promised that after relating some facts I’d spell out in one word exactly why Bush is occupying Iraq and Afghanistan and why he intends to attack Iran and Syria as well. Dear reader, the reason in one word is “Israel.” Why Bush pursues his insane adventures in the Mid East for the Zionist state is not exactly known, some think he is a Christian fundamentalist, with a “dual covenant” eschatological outlook, this writer seriously doubts this premise, Bush’s words may exemplify Christian value and virtue, but his actual behavior demonstrably prove that his words are empty and are meant only to maintain a relatively powerful base, that of the Christian voting block.[8]
There are others that believe Bush may be compromised in some way and may be under the influence of those blackmailing him; those who would and could reveal to the world some dark secret hiding in the closet of the Commander and Chief. I suppose it’s possible, I personally don’t believe that former President Clinton just happened to meet up with a young Jewess named Monica Lewinsky, who just happened to save a sample of the President’s sperm discharged on her dress after administering fellatio. Call me a conspiracy theorist if you like, but I’ll bet it wasn’t a happy accident.
Toxic Sludge Being Marketed as Fertilizer Utilizing Low-Income Americans as Guinea Pigs
Sludge Fertilizer Program Spurs Concerns
By JOHN HEILPRIN and KEVIN S. VINEYS
Associated Press Via Yahoo, April 13, 2008
Straight to the Source
BALTIMORE - Scientists using federal grants spread fertilizer made from human and industrial wastes on yards in poor, black neighborhoods to test whether it might protect children from lead poisoning in the soil. Families were assured the sludge was safe and were never told about any harmful ingredients. Nine low-income families in Baltimore row houses agreed to let researchers till the sewage sludge into their yards and plant new grass. In exchange, they were given food coupons as well as the free lawns as part of a study published in 2005 and funded by the Housing and Urban Development Department.
The Associated Press reviewed grant documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act and interviewed researchers. No one involved with the $446,231 grant for the two-year study would identify the participants, citing privacy concerns. There is no evidence there was ever any medical follow-up.
Comparable research was conducted by the Agriculture Department and Environmental Protection Agency in a similarly poor, black neighborhood in East St. Louis, Ill.
The sludge, researchers said, put the children at less risk of brain or nerve damage from lead, a highly toxic element once widely used in gasoline and paint. Other studies have shown brain damage among children, often in poor neighborhoods, who ate lead-based paint that had flaked off their homes.
The idea that sludge - the leftover semisolid wastes filtered from water pollution at 16,500 treatment plants - can be turned into something harmless, even if swallowed, has been a tenet of federal policy for three decades.
In a 1978 memo, the EPA said sludge "contains nutrients and organic matter which have considerable benefit for land and crops" despite the presence of "low levels of toxic substances."
But in the late 1990s the government began underwriting studies such as those in Baltimore and East St. Louis using poor neighborhoods as laboratories to make a case that sludge may also directly benefit human health.
Meanwhile, there has been a paucity of research into the possible harmful effects of heavy metals, pharmaceuticals, other chemicals and disease-causing microorganisms often found in sludge.
A series of reports by the EPA's inspector general and the National Academy of Sciences between 1996 and 2002 faulted the adequacy of the science behind the EPA's 1993 regulations on sludge.
The chairman of the 2002 academy panel, Thomas Burke, a professor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, says epidemiological studies have never been done to show whether spreading sludge on land is safe.
"There are potential pathogens and chemicals that are not in the realm of safe," Burke told the AP. "What's needed are more studies on what's going on with the pathogens in sludge - are we actually removing them? The commitment to connecting the dots hasn't been there."
That's not what the subjects of the Baltimore and East St. Louis research were told.
Rufus Chaney, an Agriculture Department research agronomist who co-wrote the Baltimore study, said the researchers provided the families with brochures about lead hazards, tested the soil in their yards and gave assurances that the Orgro fertilizer was store-bought and perfectly safe.
"They were told that their lawn, as it stood, before it was treated, was a lead danger to their children," said Chaney. "So that even if they ate some of the soil, there would not be as much of a risk as there was before. And that's what the science shows."
Chaney said the Baltimore neighborhoods were chosen because they were within an economically depressed area qualifying for tax incentives. He acknowledged the families were not told there have been some safety disputes and health complaints over sludge.
"They were told that it was composted biosolids that are available for sale commercially in the state of Maryland. I don't think there's any other further disclosure required," Chaney said. "There was danger before. There wasn't danger because of the biosolids compost. Composting, of course, kills pathogens."
The Baltimore study concluded that phosphate and iron in sludge can increase the ability of soil to trap more harmful metals including lead, cadmium and zinc, causing the combination to pass safely through a child's body if eaten.
It called the fertilizer "a simple low-cost" technology for parents and communities "to reduce risk to their children" who are in danger of lead contamination. The results were published in Science of the Total Environment, an international research journal, in 2005.
Another study investigating whether sludge might inhibit the "bioavailability" of lead - the rate it enters the bloodstream and circulates to organs and tissues - was conducted on a vacant lot in East St. Louis next to an elementary school, all of whose 300 students were black and almost entirely from low-income families.
In a newsletter, the EPA-funded Community Environmental Resource Program assured local residents it was all safe.
"Though the lot will be closed off to the public, if people - particularly children - get some of the lead contaminated dirt in their mouths, the lead will just pass through their bodies and not be absorbed," the newsletter said. "Without this iron-phosphorus mix, lead poisoning would occur."
Soil chemist Murray McBride, director of the Cornell Waste Management Institute, said he doesn't doubt that sludge can bind lead in soil.
But when eaten, "it's not at all clear that the sludge binding the lead will be preserved in the acidity of the stomach," he said. "Actually thinking about a child ingesting this, there's a very good chance that it's not safe."
McBride and others also questioned the choice of neighborhoods for the studies and why residents were not told about other, possibly harmful ingredients in sludge.
"If you're not telling them what kinds of chemicals could be in there, how could they even make an informed decision. If you're telling them it's absolutely safe, then it's not ethical," McBride said. "In many relatively wealthy people's neighborhoods, I would think that people would research this a little and see a problem and raise a red flag."
The Baltimore study used a compost of sludge mixed with sawdust and wood chips packaged as "biosolids," the term for sludge preferred by government and the waste industry.
"What we did was make the yards greener," said Pat Tracey, a Johns Hopkins University community relations coordinator who recalled helping with the lawn work. "They were bald, bad yards. It was considered sterile fertilizer."
Baltimore environmental activist Glenn Ross says choosing poor neighborhoods destined for demolition makes it hard to track a study's participants. "If you wanted to do something very questionable, you would do it in a neighborhood that's not going to be there in a few years," he said.
HUD documents show the study's lead author, Mark Farfel, has pursued several other studies of lead contamination including the risks of exposure from urban housing demolitions and the vacant lots left behind.
Farfel has since moved to New York, where he directs the World Trade Center Health Registry surveying tens of thousands of victims of the Sept. 11 attacks. He denied repeated requests for interviews and referred questions to Baltimore's Kennedy Krieger Institute, the children's research facility that was the recipient of HUD grants with Farfel as project manager.
The institute referred questions to Joann Rodgers, a spokeswoman for Johns Hopkins. She said a review board within its medical school approved the study and the consent forms provided to families that participated. "The study did not test children or other family members living in the homes," she said.
Some of Farfel's previous research has been controversial.
In 2001, Maryland's highest court chastised him, Kennedy Krieger and Johns Hopkins over a study bankrolled by EPA in which researchers testing low-cost ways to control lead hazards exposed more than 75 poor children to lead-based paint in partially renovated houses.
Families of two children alleged to have suffered elevated blood-lead levels and brain damage sued the institute and later settled for an undisclosed amount.
The Maryland Court of Appeals likened the study to Nazi medical research on concentration camp prisoners, the U.S. government's 40-year Tuskegee study that denied treatment for syphilis to black men in order to study the illness and Japan's use of "plague bombs" in World War II to infect and study entire villages.
"These programs were somewhat alike in the vulnerability of the subjects: uneducated African-American men, debilitated patients in a charity hospital, prisoners of war, inmates of concentration camps and others falling within the custody and control of the agencies conducting or approving the experiments," the court said.
Popular Impotence Drugs May Cause Sudden Deafness
by David Gutierrez
(NaturalNews) The FDA has announced an immediate change to the labeling of drugs in a family that includes popular impotence drugs, warning that they may lead to sudden, severe and potentially permanent hearing loss.
The erectile dysfunction drugs in the phosphodiesterase type 5 (PDE5) class include Pfizer's Viagra, Eli Lilly's Cialis and GlaxoSmithKline's Levitra. Also receiving a label change will be blood pressure drug Revatio.
The FDA reviewed side effect reports on the drugs after a case study was published in the Journal of Laryngology & Otology in 2007, reporting that a 44-year-old man had suffered sudden hearing loss after only 15 days on Viagra. Upon review, the FDA uncovered 29 post-approval reports of patients undergoing sudden hearing loss from PDE5 drugs. In two-thirds of cases, the hearing loss appeared to be permanent. Hearing loss was sometimes, but not always, accompanied by dizziness or ringing in the ears. The majority of cases involved only one ear.
"Because some level of hearing loss is usually associated with the aging process, patients on these drugs may not think to talk to their doctor about it," said Janet Woodcock, the FDA's chief medical officer.
The FDA advises all patients on PDE5 erectile dysfunction drugs to stop taking the medication immediately upon the first sign of sudden hearing loss, and to seek immediate medical care.
"Because Revatio is used to treat a potentially life-threatening condition, the FDA does not recommend [that] patients abruptly stop taking this medication," the agency said. Such patients "should consult their physician if they experience sudden problems with their hearing."
"The fact that the FDA is just now finding out about the risk of sudden hearing loss from impotence drugs demonstrates the failure of its drug approval process to identify serious health risks before drugs are approved," said consumer health advocate Mike Adams. "The truth is that most newly-approved prescription drugs are unleashed upon the population as large-scale experiments, and neither the drug's manufacturer nor the FDA really has any idea of the true dangers of the drug."
Meltdown of U.S. Dollar Underway as China Dumps the Currency
by David Gutierrez
(NaturalNews) Comments by China that it intends to move away from its reliance on the dollar triggered a sharp drop in the Dow Jones Industrial Average and heightened worldwide fears about the U.S. currency's stability. Chinese Central Bank Vice Director Xiu Jian said that his country is planning to shift much of its $1.4 trillion national currency reserve from dollars to more stable currencies, such as the euro or Canadian dollar. After these comments, the dollar fell to record lows relative to other currencies -- the lowest ever against the euro, the lowest in a generation against the British pound, and the lowest in 57 years against the Canadian dollar.
"The big issue on any currency is if its rate of depreciation is so fast that it scares away all capital, and the announcement that we heard from China sort of feeds those fears," said Larry Smith, chief investment officer at Third Wave Global Investors.
China is the world's largest investor in U.S. Treasury bonds and securities, holding more U.S. debt than any country but Japan. Because China's currency is linked to the dollar, the country also maintains a massive reserve of the currency.
But this policy had already begun to shift at the time of Xiu's comments. China has divested approximately 5 percent of its $400 billion holdings in the U.S. Treasury and established a $200 billion fund to help diversify its investments in equities and stocks around the world.
"We will favor stronger currencies over weaker ones, and will readjust accordingly," said Cheng Siwei, vice chairman of China's National People's Congress.
It is not just U.S. investors who are concerned. Because the dollar's fluctuations have driven up the euro, exports in Europe have fallen and sparked fears for the stability of that continent's economy. In a recent speech, French president Nicolas Sarkozy added his voice to those calling for the Bush administration to act to stabilize the currency.
"The dollar cannot remain 'someone else's problem,' " Sarkozy said. "If we are not careful, monetary disarray could morph into economic war. We would all be its victims."
Sunday, April 13, 2008
Dangers of High Fructose Corn Syrup - HFCS
HFCS high fructose corn syrup is responsible for a dangerous epidemic of obesity and diabetes. People under the age of 45 are “children of the corn.” Like Stephen King's thriller, they are reaping the consequences...
...of the food industry’s high fructose corn syrup. They were children or young adults in the late 70s, 80s and 90s when high fructose corn syrup was introduced to the American food supply as a cheap replacement for sugar. Now many of them are struggling with an epidemic of obesity and diabetes, also being referred to as diabesity.
In a recent chemical analysis of eleven carbonated soft drinks sweetened with high fructose corn syrup (HFCS), researchers from Rutgers University found very high levels of reactive carbonyls.
Reactive carbonyls, which have been linked to tissue damage and complications of diabetes, are elevated in the blood of people with diabetes. A single can of soda, however, has five times that concentration of reactive carbonyls. Old-fashioned table sugar, on the other hand, has no reactive carbonyls.
When people from Iceland visit the United States, the first thing they notice is the number of fat people they see. The average weight of American women (164 pounds) and men (191 pounds) has increased 25 pounds since 1960. We are the fattest people on earth, thanks to Coke, Pepsi and ADM - Archer Daniels Midland - the largest producer of HFCS.
Due to federal agribusiness subsidies, every dollar of profits earned by ADM's corn sweetener operation costs consumers $10. Of the $113.6 billion in taxpayer commodity subsidy payments distributed by the USDA between 1995 and 2004, corn drew $41.8 billion -- more than cotton, soy, and rice combined. What's wrong with this picture? Maybe it's the Iowa presidential primary. Where do the presidential candidates and your congress people stand on corn subsidies? Who sucks up to ADM?
The occurrence of new cases of type 2 diabetes has doubled over the past three decades, according to a report in the American Heart Association's journal Circulation - June 2006. The percentage of overweight children in the United States has tripled since 1980. The epidemic of type 2 diabetes cases across the nation is likely to lead to a substantially higher incidence of strokes among middle-aged adults and newly diagnosed diabetics.
"Most, but not all, of the increase in diabetes occurred in people who were obese - those with a body mass index of 30 or more," according to the National Lung, Heart, and Blood Institute in Framingham, Massachusetts.
A person with diabetes has a 50 percent chance of having a heart attack compared with a risk of 5 percent for people without diabetes or who don’t know if they have a vascular disease. In fact, diabetes puts you at the same risk for a heart attack as a non-diabetic who has had a heart attack and whose risk of another is substantially higher.
More than one out of every three individuals in the United States has diabetes or impaired fasting glucose, a condition that increases the risk of developing diabetes.
The CDC estimates that diabetes costs the United States $92 billion in medical costs and $40 billion in indirect costs.
It is getting difficult to find a food product at the grocery store or McDonalds that is not loaded with HFCS. One 20-ounce bottle of Coke, Pepsi, Mt Dew, Sprite or Dr. Pepper is the equivalent of pouring 17 teaspoons of sugar straight into your body. HFCS is the leading ingredient after carbonated water in these beverages. Women who drink at least one regular soda a day are 85 percent more likely to develop type 2 diabetes than those who drink less. It also leads to tooth decay.
High Fructose Corn Syrup is found in fruit drinks like Capri Sun, Sunny Delight, Snapple, Hawaiian Punch, Ocean Spray Cranberry Juice and in most energy drinks. It is also found in chocolate drinks like Yoohoo, Arizona Tea, SoBe Beverages, cookies, ice cream, Campbell soup, Heinz Ketchup, Ragu, Aunt Jemima Syrup, Hershey's Syrup, Breyers Yogurt, Kraft Barbecue Sauce, Smucker's Preserves and some breakfast cereals.
High fructose corn syrup masquerades under the name of crystalline fructose in Glaceau Vitamin Water and some energy drinks. Naive teenagers guzzle this "poison" because they think it is good for them. Then they go on a diet and wonder why they are still gaining weight.
Have you seen the new commercials on TV for Capri Sun? The ad suggests that Capri Sun is now healthy for you because they have added antioxidants. As long as they continue to sweeten Capri Sun with HFCS, they are lying to you.
People who use HFCS as a sweetener increase their triglycerides 32 percent relative to people who use mostly sugar, according to University of Minnesota professor John Bantle. The body metabolizes high fructose corn syrup differently than sugar. It blunts the body's ability to recognize when it is full and increases a person's appetite.
High Fructose Corn Syrup puts people at risk for metabolic syndrome. According to the Mayo Clinic, "Metabolic syndrome is a cluster of conditions that occur together, increasing your risk for heart disease, stroke and diabetes. Having just one of these conditions — increased blood pressure, elevated insulin levels, excess body fat around the waist or abnormal cholesterol levels — contributes to your risk of serious disease. In combination, your risk is even greater."
There is a a rise in uric acid in the bloodstream that occurs after fructose is consumed. The temporary spike of HFCS blocks the action of insulin, which typically regulates how body cells use and store sugar and other food nutrients for energy. If uric acid levels are frequently elevated, over time features of metabolic syndrome may develop, including high blood pressure, obesity and elevated blood cholesterol levels.
Research by the U. S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) reveals that high fructose diets shorten the life span of laboratory mice from the normal two years to a mere five weeks.
Overweight Hispanic-American children who consume lots of sugary foods and drinks show signs of pancreatic beta cell decline - a forerunner of type 2 diabetes.
Researchers at the University of Southern California came to that conclusion after studying 63 overweight Hispanic children, ages 9 to 13, all without diabetes. The team tracked the children's eating habits and also took blood samples before and after giving them sweets.
Beta cells in the pancreas create insulin in response to sugar obtained from food. When beta cells start to function less effectively, they produce less insulin, leading ultimately to diabetes. The USC team found that about 40 percent of the sweets consumed by the children in this study came from sugary drinks such as soda or sweetened juices.
If you compare the population of non-diabetics to diabetics, the average life span is 10 years less. There are many complications that occur with diabetes. They include coronary artery disease, peripheral vascular disease, blindness, kidney disease and loss of sensation in the hands and feet.
Older people may have something to worry about also. The leading theory about the cause of Alzheimer's Disease implicates insulin. Insulin concentrations in the brain drop significantly in early Alzheimer's and continue to fall as the disease worsens, suggesting that Alzheimer's Disease may be Type 3 diabetes. Researchers found that insulin is not just produced in the pancreas, but also in the brain.
If you wish to prevent diabetes and Alzheimer's disease, the prudent thing to do is to read the label of food items and beverages before you buy them at the store. If you see High Fructose Corn Syrup or crystalline fructose - Don't Buy It!
One tip is to try an ethnic grocery store - such as an Asian or Latino food store, if you have trouble finding HFCS free foods that you like. The American food industry doesn't give two "toots" about your health.
According to Dr. Mark Hyman, MD "Immediate action is needed to address this problem on a societal level. The time for blaming the victim, for putting the entire responsibility of the obesity epidemic on a gluttonous population is over. The science is clear, and we have the means to save lives and millions in health care dollars.”
Question of the decade: Why doesn't the FDA approve stevia as a sweetener? Stevia was introduced in the 1970s in Japan and accounts for over 40% of the sweetener market there. It is also commonly used in South America. Only 24 percent of Japanese aged 15 and older are believed to be overweight, compared to over 65 percent of adults in the United States.
In 1991, at the request of an anonymous complaint, the FDA labeled stevia as an unsafe food additive. It is truly absurd that the medical establishment and government watch dogs in the U.S. are so myopic as to believe that if a product has not been scientifically proven safe inside the borders of the U.S., then it is dangerous until proven otherwise. What's wrong with this picture?
According to Dr. William Dietz of the CDC (Center for Disease Control), in the February 2006 issue of the Journal of Pediatrics, "Consumption of excess calories can produce weight gain. The high fructose content of sugar-sweetened beverages may promote hepatic lipogenesis, and the reduced insulinogenic response may decrease the inhibitory effects of these sugar-sweetened beverages on food intake. In addition, significant weight gain may occur when carbohydrates are consumed as liquids rather than as solids."
Soft drinking teens pile on pounds and obesity
According to a study released March 6, 2006, the number of overweight children is on the rise worldwide and by the end of the decade the number of overweight children will have caused a strain on our health system as they age. It is estimated that just under half of the children in North and South America will be overweight by 2010, up from about 28%. In Europe, about 38% of the children will be overweight, compared to 25% currently.
Dr. James said researchers had analyzed reports from 1980 to 2005 as well as World Health Organization data. They found data for trends over time covering school-age populations in 25 countries and preschool-age children in 42 countries.
In the drinks study, a team at Boston's Children's Hospital monitored the weight of 103 teenagers, putting half of them on unsweetened or artificially-sweetened drinks and letting the other half continue to consume sugary drinks. They concluded that a single 330ml can a day of sweetened drinks could lead teens to put on 1 pound every three or four weeks.
News Article
Diabetes Risk Factors
Are you overweight?
Do you drink soft drinks or juices with High Fructose Corn Syrup everyday?
Do you have high cholesterol?
Do you spend too much time online or watching TV and don't exercise enough?
Do you have relatives with diabetes?
Do you have heart disease?
Do you smoke?
Are you over 55?
Are you over 45 and have high blood pressure?
Are you over 35 and are Asian, Black, Latino or Native American?
As a footnote, a new Italian study suggests Aspartame (NutraSweet) causes cancer in rats at levels currently approved for humans.
The Dangers of Corn Oil
A study at the San Francisco VA Medical Center demonstrates that omega-6 fatty acids such as the fat found in corn oil promote the growth of prostate tumor cells in the laboratory.
Working with human prostate cancer cells in tissue culture, researchers identified for the first time a direct chain of causation: When introduced into prostate tumor cells in culture, omega-6 fatty acid causes the production of cPLA2, which then causes the production of the enzyme COX2. In turn, COX2 stimulates the release of PGE2, a hormone-like molecule that promotes cell growth.
What's important about this is that omega-6 fatty acids are found in corn oil and most of the oils used in bakery goods, which means that if you're eating a diet high in omega-6 fatty acids, it's possible that you're turning on this cancer cascade, which has been shown to be a common denominator in the growth of prostate, colorectal, and some breast cancers.
The study points out that 60 years ago in the United States, the dietary ratio of omega-6 to omega-3, a beneficial fatty acid, was 1 to 2. Today, the ratio is 25 to 1. Over that same 60 years, the incidence of prostate cancer in the U.S. has increased steadily.
This is one more reason it is important to pay attention to the fats that you are eating. Substitute olive oil whenever possible, and take omega 3 fish oil capsules daily. Remember, always be good to yourself.
