ZERO Sardines Along Pacific Coast

I don't eat sardines, however, sardines are the main food source for thousands of sea birds, mammals and fish who are starving without this vital food source.

An Inconvenient Tooth a Fluoride Documentary

Published on Sep 8, 2012

An Inconvenient Tooth is a documentary film about fluoride. It was released September 6th, 2012 at the City Hall in Portland, Oregon. http://AnInconvenientTooth.org

Fluoride Is Hazardous Waste

36 Signs Media Is Lying About Radiation- Still Not Ready To Accept a Harsh Truth?

ael Snyder, on December 31st, 2013

 

     

The west coast of the United States is being absolutely fried by radiation from the Fukushima nuclear disaster, and the mainstream media is not telling us the truth about this.

What you are about to see is a collection of evidence that is quite startling.  Taken collectively, this body of evidence shows that nuclear radiation from Fukushima is affecting sea life in the Pacific

Ocean and animal life along the west coast of North America in some extraordinary ways.  But the mainstream media continues to insist that we don’t have a thing to worry about.  The mainstream media continues to insist that radiation levels in the Pacific and along the west coast are perfectly safe. 

Are they lying to us?

 Evaluate the evidence compiled below and come to your own conclusions…

#1 Independent researchers have measured alarmingly high levels of radiation on the beaches of the west coast.  For example, the video posted below was taken on December 23rd, 2013 at Pacifica State Beach.  As you can see in this video, radiation levels near the water are up to five times higher than normal background radiation…

#2 According to Oceanus Magazine, the total amount of cesium-137 that has been released into the Pacific Ocean from Fukushima is 10,000 to 100,000 times greater than the amount released into the oceans by the Chernobyl disaster or by the atmospheric nuclear weapons tests of the 1960s.

#3 Former MSNBC host Cenk Uygur has admitted that while he was at MSNBC he was instructed not to warn the public about the radiation coming from Fukushima…

“I was on MSNBC at the time when this happened, I said, “Don’t trust what the Japanese government is saying, they’ll say trust what the electric power company is saying. Go, go, go, get outta there. Get as far away from that plant as you can. It’s literally a core meltdown.” And they always don’t want people to panic, so they were always like, “Oh it’s going to be okay.” [...] I’m like, “You’re crazy man, don’t be anywhere near that reactor.” And I remember at the time, of course not at The Young Turks, but on cable news, people were like, “Hey Cenk, you know, I don’t know that you want to say that, because the official government position is that it’s safe.” Oh, is that the official government position? Now go explain that to the people who served on the USS Ronald Reagan.”

#4 71 U.S. sailors who assisted with the initial Fukushima relief efforts have developed serious diseases such as testicular cancer, thyroid cancer, Leukemia, “unremitting gynecological bleeding” and brain tumors since that time as a result of exposure to radiation coming from Fukushima.
#5 Something is causing starfish all along the west coast of the United States to literally disintegrate into piles of “white goo“…

Researchers say nuclear pollution from the 2011 earthquake in Japan that damaged the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant could be partially to blame for a disease wiping out starfish along the West Coast.
Dr. Peter Raimondi of the University of Santa Cruz says something is making starfish susceptible to whats believed to be a bacteria coined “Wasting Disease.” It essentially disintegrate the marine invertebrates into a white goo, after the starfish loses its legs.

#6 Bald eagles are dying in unprecedented numbers in Utah, and nobody can figure out why this is happening…

Bald eagles are dying in Utah — 20 in the past few weeks alone — and nobody can figure out why.

Hundreds of the majestic birds — many with wing spans of 7 feet or more — migrate here each winter, gathering along the Great Salt Lake and feasting on carp and other fish that swim in the nearby freshwater bays.
Earlier this month, however, hunters and farmers across five counties in northern and central Utah began finding the normally skittish raptors lying listless on the ground. Many suffered from seizures, head tremors and paralysis in the legs, feet and wings.

#7 Huge numbers of dead birds are dropping dead and washing up along the coastlines of Alaska.  It is being reported that many of the carcases of the dead birds are “broken open and bleeding”.

#8 The recent deaths of thousands of birds in Oregon is absolutely baffling scientists.

#9 Something is causing large numbers of seals and walruses up in Alaska to lose hair and develop “oozing sores”.

#10 Substantial numbers of polar bears along the coast of Alaska are suffering from fur loss and open sores.

#11 There is an epidemic of sea lion deaths along the California coastline.

#12 The population of sockeye salmon along the coastlines of Alaska is at a “historic low”.

#13 Something is causing Pacific herring to bleed from their gills, bellies and eyeballs.

#14 Dangerous levels of cesium-137 have been discovered in mushrooms and berries grown along the west coast.

#15 According to an absolutely shocking report put out by the National Academy of Sciences, it has been proven that Pacific Bluefin tuna have transported radioactive material “across the entire North Pacific Ocean”…

“We report unequivocal evidence that Pacific Bluefin tuna, Thunnus orientalis, transported Fukushima-derived radionuclides across the entire North Pacific Ocean.”

#16 Something seems to be causing a substantial spike in the death rate for killer whales living off of the coast of British Columbia.

#17 Experts have found very high levels of cesium-137 in plankton living in the waters of the Pacific Ocean between Hawaii and the west coast.

#18 One test in California found that 15 out of 15 Bluefin tuna were contaminated with radiation from Fukushima.

#19 Back in 2012, the Vancouver Sun reported that cesium-137 was being found in a very high percentage of the fish that Japan was selling to Canada…

• 73 percent of the mackerel

• 91 percent of the halibut

• 92 percent of the sardines

• 93 percent of the tuna and eel

• 94 percent of the cod and anchovies

• 100 percent of the carp, seaweed, shark and monkfish

#20 An EU-funded study concluded that Fukushima released up to 210 quadrillion becquerels of cesium-137 into the atmosphere.

#21 One very experienced Australian adventurer has stated that he felt as though “the ocean itself was dead” as he journeyed from Japan to San Francisco recently…

The next leg of the long voyage was from Osaka to San Francisco and for most of that trip the desolation was tinged with nauseous horror and a degree of fear.
“After we left Japan, it felt as if the ocean itself was dead,” Macfadyen said.
“We hardly saw any living things. We saw one whale, sort of rolling helplessly on the surface with what looked like a big tumour on its head. It was pretty sickening.

“I’ve done a lot of miles on the ocean in my life and I’m used to seeing turtles, dolphins, sharks and big flurries of feeding birds. But this time, for 3000 nautical miles there was nothing alive to be seen.”

In place of the missing life was garbage in astounding volumes.
“Part of it was the aftermath of the tsunami that hit Japan a couple of years ago. The wave came in over the land, picked up an unbelievable load of stuff and carried it out to sea. And it’s still out there, everywhere you look.”

#22 It is being projected that the radioactivity of coastal waters off the U.S. west coast could double over the next five to six years.

#23 The deputy chairman of Russia’s State Duma Committee for Natural Resources, Maxim Shingarkin, says that seafood captured off the northwest coast of the United States is so radioactive that it represents a “danger for mankind”…

“Currents in the world ocean are so structured that the areas of seafood capture near the U.S. northwest coast are more likely to contain radioactive nuclides than even the Sea of Okhotsk, which is much closer to Japan. These products are the main danger for mankind because they can find their way to people’s tables on a massive scale.”

#24 According to one recent scientific report, radiation from Fukushima could affect our seafood for “many generations” and ultimately kill more than a million people…

This cycle will last for many generations, because of the food chain of fish and other marine fauna, and the radioactivity will be recycled and in fact the meat content will increase rather than decreasing by decay. Even if only one one-hundredth of the radioactivity (more than 1e15 Bq of CS137) were to enter this recirculation pattern, the collective whole body ingestion dose over many generations would exceed 1e7 Sv, sufficient to kill more than 1,000,000 people.

#25 The Japanese government has estimated that approximately 300 tons of highly radioactive water is pouring into the Pacific Ocean from the destroyed Fukushima nuclear facility every single day.


#26 A senior researcher of marine chemistry at the Japan Meteorological Agency’s Meteorological Research Institute says that “30 billion becquerels of radioactive cesium and 30 billion becquerels of radioactive strontium” are being released into the Pacific Ocean from Fukushima every single day.

#27 According to Tepco, a total of somewhere between 20 trillion and 40 trillion becquerels of radioactive tritium have gotten into the Pacific Ocean since the Fukushima disaster first began.

#28 According to a professor at Tokyo University, 3 gigabecquerels of cesium-137 are flowing into the port at Fukushima Daiichi every single day.

#29 It is being projected that significant levels of cesium-137 will reach every corner of the Pacific Ocean by the year 2020.

#30 It has been estimated that the entire Pacific Ocean will soon “have cesium levels 5 to 10 times higher” than what we witnessed during the era of heavy atomic bomb testing in the Pacific many decades ago.

#31 The immense amount of radioactive material being released into the Pacific Ocean from Fukushima has caused environmental activist Joe Martino to issue the following warning…

“Your days of eating Pacific Ocean fish are over.”

#32 The Iodine-131, Cesium-137 and Strontium-90 that are constantly being released from Fukushima are going to affect the health of those living in the northern hemisphere for a very, very long time.  Just consider what Harvey Wasserman had to say about this…

Iodine-131, for example, can be ingested into the thyroid, where it emits beta particles (electrons) that damage tissue. A plague of damaged thyroids has already been reported among as many as 40 percent of the children in the Fukushima area. That percentage can only go higher. In developing youngsters, it can stunt both physical and mental growth. Among adults it causes a very wide range of ancillary ailments, including cancer.

Cesium-137 from Fukushima has been found in fish caught as far away as California. It spreads throughout the body, but tends to accumulate in the muscles.
Strontium-90’s half-life is around 29 years. It mimics calcium and goes to our bones.

#33 Outdoor radiation levels at Fukushima recently hit a new all-time high.

#34 According to the Wall Street Journal, it is being projected that the cleanup of Fukushima could take up to 40 years to complete.

#35 Yale Professor Charles Perrow is warning that if the cleanup of Fukushima is not handled with 100% precision that humanity could be threatened “for thousands of years”…

“Conditions in the unit 4 pool, 100 feet from the ground, are perilous, and if any two of the rods touch it could cause a nuclear reaction that would be uncontrollable. The radiation emitted from all these rods, if they are not continually cool and kept separate, would require the evacuation of surrounding areas including Tokyo. Because of the radiation at the site the 6,375 rods in the common storage pool could not be continuously cooled; they would fission and all of humanity will be threatened, for thousands of years.”

#36 There are very alarming reports that new “unexplained plumes of radioactive steam” are rising at Fukushima.  Japanese officials are not able to get inside and see what is causing these plumes.  Some are speculating that the crisis at Fukushima just got a whole lot worse.  The following is from a recent Ecologist article…

Unexplained plumes of radioactive steam have been rising from Fukushima’s Reactor Building 3, Could a major meltdown be on the way?

Fukushima’s Reactor Building 3 exploded on 13th March 2011 as a result of a hydrogen buildup, breaching the building’s containment and emitting a huge plume of radiation.

The reactor itself is in meltdown.

And now fresh plumes of steam have been seen coming out the structure. These have now been confirmed by Tepco, the owner of the nuclear plant, from 19th December onwards. The company believes the steam is coming from the fifth floor of the building.
However it does not know the cause of the steam. Lethal levels of radiation and the physical damage to the structure have so far made entry and inspection impossible.

If a full-blown meltdown does happen at Fukushima, it would be an environmental disaster unlike anything that we have ever seen before in human history.

As we enter 2014, we are entering a time when the world is becoming increasingly unstable.  The global economy is being shaken, political corruption is seemingly everywhere, evidence of advanced social decay is all around us and the earth itself is starting to groan and crack with increasingly regularity.  But the mainstream media continues to insist that everything is going to be just fine.  That is one of the reasons why I wrote my new novel.

 The American people deserve to hear the truth and be warned about the great challenges that are rapidly approaching.

In the end, millions upon millions of people could end up getting seriously ill as a result of all of this radiation coming from Fukushima.  Most of them will never even know why they have gotten sick.
And if there is a major earthquake or a significant accident during the cleanup at Fukushima, we could actually see huge sections of Japan be evacuated permanently.

It would be hard to overstate just how serious all of this is.  But you won’t hear about this from the mainstream media.  Their story is that “everything is okay” and they are sticking to it.

So what do you think?  Please feel free to share your thoughts by posting a comment below…

Is Monsanto Using 4-H to Brainwash Your Children About GMOs?

By Dr. Mercola

Monsanto is boasting its partnership with 4-H programs by giving a shout-out to “National 4-H Week.”¹

This is not the first time Monsanto has used its clever propaganda to influence our nation’s youth. The Council for Biotechnology Information widely circulated a Biotechnology Basics Activity Book for kids, a disturbing and brightly colored obvious intent to 'educate' the children.

4-H is the country’s largest youth organization with more than 6 million members in 80 countries around the world, involving children from elementary school age through high school.

The organization is extremely influential to children, impacting their intellectual and emotional development through their numerous programs and clubs. Unfortunately, Monsanto is using its partnership with 4-H as a vehicle to worm its way into your child’s mind in order to influence her developing beliefs and values.

Children are like little sponges, soaking up everything they see and hear, which makes them particularly vulnerable to being sucked in by propaganda.
And the effects could be life-long—at least they’re intended to be. Indeed you’d be hard-pressed to convince an adult, who from childhood was taught the merits of genetically engineered foods, that there’s anything wrong with such alterations of the food supply.  

If your child is involved in 4-H, it would be wise to monitor the messages she’s getting, given this organization’s  corporate sponsors and alliances.

4-H is really the perfect vehicle for Big Ag to manipulate an entire generation, using tactics not that different from the youth indoctrination strategies employed by political extremists in order to gain children’s trust and then “groom” them however they wish.

Think about it—what better way to control the future of our food system than to brainwash 6.8 million impressionable youth into believing that genetically modified organisms (GMOs) are safe and beneficial, if not the answer to all the problems of the world?²

4-H Volunteers are Being Trained by Monsanto

The 4-H Youth Development Organization was originally set up by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) to train the rural youth of America in hands-on skills like agriculture and raising animals, including the promotion of responsible animal husbandry and the cultivation of food resources in a responsible, ethical way.

The 4-H emblem, a four-leaf clover, is supposed to symbolize four actions (head, hands, heart, and health) as stated in their pledge:

“I pledge my head to clearer thinking, my heart to greater loyalty, my hands to larger service and my health to better living, for my club, my community, my country, and my world.”

However, as noble as their original vision is, it remains vulnerable to the influences of its funders. Just as the USDA and other government agencies have a carefully crafted and well established revolving door arrangement with industry, 4-H is increasingly in the grips of the corporations that fund it—specifically, the agricultural, biotech, and junk food industries.

According to its 2012 Annual Report,³ 4-H’s funding comes from a long list of donors that include Monsanto, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Cargill, DuPont, United Soybean Board, Coca-Cola, and Pfizer. It doesn’t take much imagination to predict what sort of agenda 4-H would need to promote to keep its donors happy.

Pro-GMO propaganda would be easy to weave into 4-H’s program since they already occupy the role of teaching children the art of farming, and in their position of authority, children would never question it. Monsanto is now also training tens of thousands of 4-H volunteers, according to an article in 4-Traders:

“In 2007, Monsanto expanded its 4-H volunteerism support by funding state and regional development. More than 52,600 volunteers have attended Monsanto-supported forums and training events in 50 states, three US territories and four Extension regional forums.”

Monsanto Hijacks Government, Education and Science

Corporations like Monsanto are employing increasingly underhanded strategies to spread their self-serving propaganda across broader segments of society. Here are three prime examples:

• Hijacking Government Regulators: Conflicts of interest are rampant in government agencies, which have a revolving door with US federal regulatory agencies like the USDA, FDA, and EPA.
• Hijacking Higher Education: An ever-increasing percentage of funding for research at land grant universities now comes from private corporations, giving big companies a stronger foothold than ever in higher education. Corporations wield power over educational institutions by giving college leaders positions on their corporate boards, and by hiring scientists as paid consultants. As a result, academic freedom has gone out the window, conflicts of interest are rampant, and bias eclipses objectivity.
• Hijacking the Media: Organizations such as Science Media Centre and American Council on Science and Health feature scientific “experts” that are anything but independent, and have undisclosed and far-reaching affiliations with the biotech industry.

Of course, if you are a large corporation trying to control the food supply, the younger you Consider the “Biotechnology Basics Activity Book” for kids, circulated by CBI (Council for Biotechnology Information).⁴ Its colorful pages and friendly cartoon characters spew outright lies about the “benefits” of genetic engineering for health, environment, world hunger and the future of farming.

Monsanto is one of eight biotech companies behind the release of this 16-page children’s activity book, demonstrating just how low it will stoop. CBI claims to promote science-based information but is really just a shill for the biotech industry, for the purpose of advancing the pro-GMO agenda.  Brainwashing children is a new low, even for Monsanto. They’re not satisfied with just poisoning our children’s bodies—now they’re trying to poison their minds as well. And history is quite clear about how easy it is to poison the minds of the young.

Hijacking the Minds of Our Youth

It is difficult to ignore the parallels when looking at how 4-H, the largest American youth organization, is being hijacked by big biotech corporations to fulfill an agenda—the worldwide takeover by GMOs. But when you consider that Monsanto has no problem with poisoning our children, destroying farmers, polluting oceans, and ruining the earth’s topsoil, it seems there is no limit to their avarice.

If the Nazi analogy seems far-fetched, consider that the German people would have felt the same way before they realized what was happening to them. These manipulations can be masterful and insidious. The best way to protect your child from corporate brainwashing is with YOUR watchful eye.

If corporations like Monsanto are successful in hijacking the minds of our youth, they will essentially be in control the decisions and behavior of the next generation—and there is nothing to stop them until a great deal of damage is done to you, your children and grandchildren, and our planet. This is why it is so critical for you to be involved in your children’s activities and take an active role in their education.

Do not fall into the trap of assuming that, just because they are involved with a “reputable” organization like 4-H, that they are getting unbiased and truthful information.

Vote with Your Pocketbook, Every Day

The food companies on the left of this graphic spent tens of millions of dollars in the last two labeling campaigns—in California and Washington State - to prevent you from knowing what’s in your food. You can even the score by switching to the brands on the right; all of whom stood behind the I-522 Right to Know campaign. Voting with your pocketbook, at every meal, matters. It makes a huge difference.

I encourage you to continue educating yourself about genetically engineered foods, and to share what you’ve learned with family and friends. Remember, unless a food is certified organic, you can assume it contains GMO ingredients if it contains sugar from sugar beets, soy, or corn, or any of their derivatives.

If you buy processed food, opt for products bearing the USDA 100% Organic label, as certified organics do not permit GMO’s. You can also print out and use the Non-GMO Shopping Guide, created by the Institute for Responsible Technology. Share it with your friends and family, and post it to your social networks.

Alternatively, download their free iPhone application, available in the iTunes store. You can find it by searching for ShopNoGMO in the applications. For more in-depth information, I highly recommend reading the following two books, authored by Jeffrey Smith, the executive director of the Institute for Responsible Technology:

• Seeds of Deception: Exposing Industry and Government Lies about the Safety of the Genetically Engineered Foods You're Eating
• Genetic Roulette: The Documented Health Risks of Genetically Engineered Foods.

For timely updates, join the Non-GMO Project on Facebook, or follow them on Twitter.

Please, do your homework. Together, we have the power to stop the biotech industry from destroying our food supply, the future of our children, and the earth as a whole.

All we need is about five percent of American shoppers to simply stop buying genetically engineered foods, and the food industry would have to reconsider their source of ingredients—regardless of whether the products bear an actual GMO label or not.

Multnomah County's (Portland, Or) idiotic counter productive animal control policies

To: Kim Peoples

     The Multnomah County Commission

     Portland City Council

 

Repeatedly it has been brought to your attention ( the correspondence and documentation in the following August e-mail is only one of many) that Multnomah County's regressive,ineffective cruel animal control agency preys upon the public, issuing threats, fines and excessive penalties often accompanied by the seizure, suspension of ownership and the killing of companion animals for correctable often quite minor offenses.The homeless are often charged as in a recent case $1500  in fines and effectively denied legal representation by being denied information that pro bono legal services are available. Minorities are accused of faking their ignorance of English. Multnomah County sponsors government  animal abuse because of the laziness  and indifference of Multnomah County government when it pertains to animals. Multnomah County government  protects the comfort of long term employees not public service

 

Attached above is another set of tickets: " we are forcing surrender of your dog" ( almost always for correctable minor offenses); "one more time and we will force the surrender of your dog." virtually always meaning killing. Never once does MCAS work with the public to solve problems.They have no owner diversion programs; offer no prevention and education; and  exist in a culture  that  quite commonly operates above or outside the law, relying exclusively upon primitive threats, excessive fines, and punishments that solve nothing and only inflict alienation and pain.  That is what bullies do, govenrment sponsored. They are always on vacation and  absent/ impossible to reach: "Telephone hours are not currently ( or ever) available.". Sometimes the entire upper management is out at the same time. .

 

The fact that Multnomah County has not  responded to or addressed these problems (always in meetings; deaf to public service) is the final insult to the citizens of this community.

 

What does it take to for this government to work? 

 

What is wrong with Multnomah County's representatives?

 

And what does it take to get new government officials who care and act upon compassion, decency and common sense and a real commitment to public service?

 

We need those officials now.

 

    

 Gail O'Connell-Babcock, Ph.D.
Citizens for Humane Animal Legislation/Watchdog
16004 SW Tualatin-Sherwood Road, # 508

Sherwood OR 97140

Telephone: 503.625.4563

 

 

Sent: Mon, Aug 12, 2013 2:39 pm
Subject: Multnomah County's idiotic counter productive animal control policies: failing the community

    To:  Michael Oswald

           Kim Peoples, Department of Community Services

           Officer Charles Poetz

           Jeff Cogen, County Chair

           Multnomah County Commission

           Portland City Council

   CC: Robert Babcock

 

Multnomah County idiotic counter productive enforcement practices continue to fail animals and the community

 

Attached find examples of the worlds worst enforcement policies practiced daily by Multnomah county animal control officers whose only tools (“corrective” actions) are escalating threats, punishment, fines and extorted consent. It takes no training or education to engage in threats. Tantrum tickets (next time I’ll get you” a favorite of a number of officers and the agency as a whole) don’t solve problems, they create them. Why fund such primitive appalling behavior?

When you threaten citizens over incidents instead of helping find resources to solve problems you are a very high cost pointless item in the county budget.  If recidivism occurs it is because you failed in your “corrective” actions to find a genuine solution. I am going to post the best “blah, blah I am going to get you next time” tickets every week. For an explanation of what is wrong with MCAS enforcement along with “corrective” solutions read the essay posted below.

For today the litany of threats by Officer Cherry (see attachment) is the ticket of the week:

“Any new dog bite incidents will result in a suspension of ownership request. Quarantine will be required to take place at the shelter and Roscoe will be kept at the shelter pending the appeal hearing decision or a default finding.”

Where presumably Roscoe will read about the fates of errant dogs while in solitary confinement “Security” (allowed 15 minute visits and a visit from the priest). Intelligent communities have dog owner diversion programs, education and mediation. We are stuck with regressive bullying and an “unhealthy/untreatable” system that works for no one: man or dog.

Gail O’Connell-Babcock

Telephone: 503.625.4563    

Endless Lies Regarding Climate

By Alan Caruba

I am on the Friends of the Earth (FOE) email list and receive a steady stream of theirs and the Sierra Club’s lies about the environment. A recent FOE mailing stating that “Devastation from climate change has become all too frequent.”

This is simply an outright lie. Inherent in natural events such as hurricanes and typhoons, blizzards, tornadoes, floods, droughts, and forest fires is the damage they cause, but FOE asserted that “People in vulnerable communities are already struggling with dirty air, unsafe housing and increased cancer rates. So when extreme weather hits, its impacts are even more devastating.”

All communities, from small towns to major cities are by definition “vulnerable”, but the air has undergone significant clean-up over the years so this is not a common problem anywhere. As for cancer rates, they too have been in decline thanks to advances in medical care. It is doubtful that most Americans live in allegedly unsafe housing these days. Houses on both coastlines are vulnerable to ocean storms. Houses inland are vulnerable to floods and fires. There is nothing inherently “environmental” about this. It’s about location.

All this is little more than blatant scare mongering and FOE was calling on its members and others who received its email to “Call on President Obama to ensure that all Americans are protected from climate disasters.”

No President has any control over weather events. To FOE, however, this is a call for “critical environmental justice.”

There is no such thing as “environmental justice.” It is an invention of environmental groups that are intent on convincing people that whatever they do or fail to do somehow has an impact on the weather.

Indeed, the entire global warming hoax, now called climate change, was based on the lie that humans were responsible for producing huge amounts of carbon dioxide via industry, driving, or making some toast for breakfast. The environmental enemy was and is the use of energy, but it is energy that has so vastly improved and protected everyone’s life.

In a recent article, Dr. Craig Idso, the founder and former president of the Center for the Study of Carbon Dioxide and Global Change, a coeditor of the Nongovernmental International Panel on Climate Change, and James M. Taylor, a senior fellow of The Heartland Institute and the managing editor of Environmental & Climate News, a monthly publication, examined how “Global Warming Alarmism Denies Sound Science.”

They took note of the way the Fifth Assessment Report of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change moved away from its earlier predictions and assertions. “The IPCC report contradicts claims that global warming is causing more extreme weather” and “admits the lack of global warming this century defies nearly all computer models that predict rapid future warming.” The organization devoted to the global warming hoax has been forced to retreat from decades of lies about it.

While FOE tries to scare people with references to “extreme weather disasters”, Idso and Taylor pointed to the fact that “Global hurricane frequency is undergoing a long-term decline, with global hurricane and tropical storm activity at record lows during the past several years…

The United States is benefitting from the longest period in recorded history without a major hurricane strike. Tornado activity is in long-term decline, with major tornado strikes (F3 or higher) showing a remarkable decline in recent decades.”

This is not to say that hurricanes like super storm Sandy or tornadoes have not occurred, but it is to say that there have been far less. These weather events affecting the United States have been in decline and that is the reality.

The FOE claim that any President can possibly “protect communities” is absurd. It is a lie.
The most worrisome aspect of environmental lies is that they are used to justify governmental policies.

The new Environmental Protection Agency administrator, Gina McCarthy, ahead of a trip to China, told a liberal advocacy group in Washington that she has devoted her life to protecting the environment: “And I really see no greater issue and no more urgent threat to public health than climate change.”

There is NOTHING the EPA can do about CLIMATE CHANGE.

The present global climate is, in fact, in a lengthy cooling cycle, not caused by anything to do with human activity, but by a reduction in solar radiation due to its own diminished cycle of magnetic storms (sunspots).

Cleaning the nation’s air and water is a public health activity, but denying Americans access to the nation’s vast reservoirs of coal, oil, and natural gas is an attack on the nation’s economic growth and a denial of the energy it requires to recover from the 2008 financial crisis, providing jobs and keeping energy costs under control.

Environmentalism is based on lies and the lies reflect an agenda that regards humanity as the enemy of the Earth.

New Fukushima Radiation Release Estimates

Combined Air & Sea Releases

This is one of the questions we are asked the most, “how much radiation was released from Fukushima”.

Many of the estimates out there are old initial estimates of the meltdown phase and do not include radiation releases over the years.

In our effort to answer this question we found a wide variety of research and estimates.

 With time researchers were able to use other tools and testing to create a better idea about how much has been released.

These estimate ranges are presented to give an idea of the broad range of official estimates and are not a specific scientific study. What these widely divergent estimates show is that there is a need for more honest and accurate study of this issue.

Fukushima Vs. Chernobyl

We looked at these two disasters since they are frequently compared to each other. The extremely high levels, all in petabecquerels are problematic even if there is a considerable difference between the two.

Fukushima Releases To The Air

These numbers were established by using the range of estimates that were either “all radiation”  or at least included cesium 137 and iodine 131 for the initial phase of the disaster. The estimates for the years following the accident are based on TEPCO’s admitted hourly release rates. These totals are for the time period through December 12, 2013

Air high:   16886 Pbq
Air low:         900 Pbq

Fukushima Releases To The Sea

These numbers include initial releases and also over time releases based on oceanography institute estimates. These totals are for the time period through December 12, 2013

Sea high:     960 Pbq
Sea low:       520 Pbq

*does not include radiation that escaped via air but fell into the sea or that washed out to sea via rivers.

Fukushima Combined Releases To Sea & Air

Combined high: 17846 Pbq (74.5% of total inventory at the plant)
Combined low:     1420 Pbq (5.9% of total inventory at the plant)

Chernobyl Release Estimates

The release estimates provided by UNSCEAR were used for comparison.
Air:               8385 Pbq
Sea:                 20 Pbq
Combined:  8405 Pbq

NOTE:  There is much more data available on this site, linked in Post Subject. 

 March 25, 2011 Dr Helmut Hirsh of Greenpeace Germany released a statement that, according to analysis of radiation released to date, has reclassified Fukushima at Level 7, comparable to Chernobyl.

April 11, 2011 TEPCO reluctantly admitted that Fukushima was now a Level 7, the worst possible.  However, nobody disputes that it is multiple times worse than Chernobyl, yet there isn't any higher measurement.  If TEPCO had admitted it sooner, would people have taken other precautionary measures?

The total amount of radionuclides iodine-131 and caesium-137 released since the start of the accident until March 23rd 2011 is so high that they are equal to three class 7 accidents.  and it continues until stopped.

Chernobyl had one nuclear reactor and only 3 months of radiation while Fukushima has failures at four nuclear reactors which hold about 1,000 times more radiation than the bombs at Hiroshima, and 40 years of improper nuclear storage and numerous smaller nuclear events.  All federal agencies that regulate radioactive exposures agree that any radiation exposure raises the cancer risk.  But it isn't JUST cancer, RADIATION EXPOSURE  effects your entire health profile.

Chernobyl took aggressive action after only 10 days of burning out of control.  They dumped tons of sand and Boron and began entombment procedures.  TEPCO worsend the nuclear disaster by adding salt water!  Are they that incompetent, do they believe the laws of chemistry cease to exist in Japan, or is there something more deliberate going on?  Is this really about protecting future profits?

You can know what radiation is in your food, soils or environment by checking with Geiger Counters and Dosimeters

Or assume, as I do, that everything is potentially contaminated and will be for thousands of years.  Why not take every health precaution possible to minimize radiation effects?

 

50,000 angry Poles rally against UN attempts ‘to steal away our liberties’ – Video

“This is simply an excuse for more government oppression.”

As more than 50,000 enthusiastic Poles gathered in downtown Warsaw on Monday to celebrate National Independence Day, with millions more watching on live television, CFACT president David Rothbard was invited to the stage to deliver an impassioned address celebrating freedom and warning against the dangerous and oppressive climate agenda of the UN.

CFACT President David Rothbard addresses Polish National Independence Day rally in Warsaw, Poland, 11 November 2013

Before what was one of the largest audiences to ever hear a speech denouncing UN global warming policies, Rothbard said he was honored to stand with the Poles in a “new battle for freedom against those who would use environmental and climate alarmism to steal away our liberties and give international bureaucrats control over our energy sources, our daily lives, our prosperity, and our national sovereignty.”

The address was carried live on national television and covered by a large number of international media outlets. It took place just as the UN was kicking off its COP19 climate conference a few kilometers away.

Rothbard noted that at last year’s COP meeting, UN climate chief Christiana Figueres said that what the UN was undertaking is “a complete economic transformation of the world.”

“This is not good news for those who love freedom, and it is not good news for Poland,” Rothbard asserted.

The crowd gave hearty consent to Rothbard’s message.

“There hasn’t been any global warming in more than 15 years,” he noted, “and this is simply an excuse for more government oppression.”

The UN made a big mistake choosing Poland to host its global warming treaty summit. The Poles see right through warming propaganda. Enduring generations of socialism has left them with a deep distaste for propaganda and bureaucratic control. Polish prosperity was blocked first by war and then by ideology. Poland deserves freedom and prosperity and knows it can’t move forward without energy. The brave Poles are not about to cede their sovereignty to UN control.

CFACT, which has been an officially recognized NGO at UN conferences for nearly two decades, will be in Warsaw throughout the two weeks of COP 19. Its delegation will be headlined by Apollo VII astronaut Col. Walter Cunningham who is highly critical of UN climate science.

Boated Sex Poodle Still Stranded

How fortunate Mr. Gore and Generation Investment Management (GIM) were able to secure a half-page "opinion" piece in the October 30, 2013 Wall Street Journal. Readers should be grateful that GIM is so concerned for their financial well-being that they wrote this exposé of misguided investments in fossil fuels. The article reads like a self-serving stock prospectus designed to persuade potential investors sell off or short carbon assets, lest they be "stranded" with toxic investments. Perhaps GIM would then be so kind as to take those freed funds under its own management and redirect them to the profitable "renewables" niche market in which they specialize.

Mr. Gore himself is stranded with the outsized and unfulfilled climate catastrophe claims of his 2006 An Inconvenient Truth. They live on in this latest anti-carbon crusade. The central claim of the WSJ article of a "consensus within the scientific community that increasing the global temperature by more than 2˚C will likely causing devastating and irreversible damage to the planet" is unsubstantiated. 

Quoting a mythical consensus does not qualify as scientific truth. The inconvenient, but factual, truth is that even as atmospheric carbon dioxide has risen about 9% the past 15 years, global temperatures have remained level. Sea level rates of rise have not accelerated; no major hurricanes have stuck the U.S. since 2005.

Fossil fuels remain the mainstay of reliable energy production, here and overseas. Coal-based energy production is increasing on a worldwide basis. Germany exemplifies this trend as the energy void created by closures of their nuclear power plants is being filled by coal-fired electrical generation.

Like the iconic polar bears used to promote global warming catastrophe, Mr. Gore is now the one stranded on an Arctic ice floe of shrinking credibility.

Read more: http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2013/11/al_gore_still_stranded.html#ixzz2jha1rzwq
Follow us: @AmericanThinker on Twitter | AmericanThinker on Facebook

13 Lies GMO Labeling Opponents are Recycling in Washington State

• By Zack Kaldveer
  Organic Consumers Association, August 21, 2013
  
  

It’s déjà vu all over again. Last year a coalition of out-of-state, multinational biotech, pesticide and junk food corporations spent nearly $46 million to narrowly defeat Proposition 37, California's GMO Labeling Initiative.

Now, the same who’s who of the world’s most notorious global corporate bad actors has descended on Washington State. Why? To try to stop Washington State voters from passing I-522, a citizens’ initiative that, if passed, will require mandatory labeling of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in all food products sold in Washington State.

Like bad robots, they’re spitting out the same old, tired lies, designed to scare voters into voting against their own best interests.

Here are the lies. And the facts. Please read, print, email, roll up and stuff into a bottle you launch into the sea . . . whatever it takes to spread the word that while $46 million may buy a lot of lies, it doesn’t change the facts.

Lie: Labeling genetically engineered foods (GMOs) will cost taxpayers millions of dollars a year.

Truth: Empirical studies have concluded labeling would lead to no increases in prices. Since the European Union labeled GMOs in the 1990’s, there has been "no resulting increase in grocery costs."

Trader Joe’s, Clif Bar & Co. and Washington’s own PCC Natural Markets all label their non-GMO product lines at no additional cost to consumers.

Lie: I-522 is full of arbitrary special interest exemptions that will just confuse consumers.

Truth: I-522 requires labeling for the GE foods that are most prevalent in the American diet – food on supermarket shelves. I-522’s exemptions are easy to explain and guided by common sense and the law:

•     Restaurants – Restaurants and bake sales are not required to list the ingredients in their products. Requiring labeling for GMOs would have required tracking all the ingredients in restaurant meals, and since no other laws require that, it didn't make sense for this one to.
•     Meat, cheese, dairy and eggs from animals - These will be labeled if they come from genetically engineered animals. However, they are exempt if the animals ate genetically engineered feed but are not themselves genetically engineered. This exemption is common all around the world. It didn't make sense for Washington’s law to be stricter than international standards.
•     Alcohol – Alcohol labeling is regulated under different laws than food at both the federal and state levels. Because of the single-subject law that requires initiatives to apply to only one subject, alcohol couldn’t be included.

Lie: Consumers don’t need labels to avoid GMOs. All they need to do is buy certified organic products.

Truth: Food companies routinely and intentionally mislead consumers by labeling products “natural” in order to attract health-conscious consumers. Because the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) does not prohibit the use of the word “natural” on products containing GMOs, most consumers are fooled by this label. 

 

According to a recent poll by the Hartman group, 61 percent of respondents erroneously believed that the use of the word “natural” implies or suggests the absence of GMOs, versus 63 percent who correctly believed that the label "organic" means that a product is GMO-free. 

 

Food companies should be required, as they are in some 60 other countries, to clearly state that a product contains GMOs. If companies truly believe their GMO ingredients are perfectly safe, why spend millions to keep from having to label them?

Lie: Washington will be the only state in the nation to label GMOs, unfairly hurting farmers and the state’s multi-billion agricultural industry. 

Truth: Washington won’t be the only state labeling GE foods.  Connecticut, Maine and Alaska have passed labeling laws and dozens of other states are considering identical proposals. Besides, 64 countries already require labeling, so many farmers are already used to labeling for exports. In fact, many Washington farmers support labeling because they believe that growing GMO crops destroys healthy soil, and because they sell crops to overseas markets that either require labels on GMO crops, or have banned them completely. These countries are increasingly concerned about U.S. non-GMO crops, such as wheat, that could be potentially contaminated by cross-pollination with GMO crops.

Lie: I-522 encourages shakedown lawsuits by giving trial lawyers an unprecedented new right to sue farmers, food producers and store owners over the wording on food labels.

Truth: I-522 offers no economic incentives for lawyers to sue. Consumers can't file a class action suit against food producers without first giving the food producer a warning and the opportunity to comply with the law. As long as the defendant fixes the labels, then no class action is permitted. Once the class action option is off the table, a consumer could sue only to get a court order to require labeling, and only for the few dollars that consumer paid to buy the product. Where’s the incentive?

If the state brings a court action to enforce the new law, any penalties recovered by the state go only to the state - not the plaintiff or the lawyer. Food companies are required by law to label for ingredients, calories, etc., and there have been few violations. Why wouldn’t companies accurately label genetically engineered foods, too?

For the real story about abusive lawsuits by rapacious trial lawyers, check out what Monsanto is up to: suing farmers across the country for growing their own seeds.

Lie: Labeling GMOs creates a bureaucratic nightmare for grocers and retailers and requires the state government to monitor labels on thousands of food products in thousands of stores, costing taxpayers millions.

Truth: Under I-522, the person responsible for labeling processed foods is the person who puts the label on: the manufacturer. Retailers would only have to label the few raw commodities (sweet corn, papaya, squash) that are genetically engineered. They can either stick a simple label on the bin or, if they wish, they can ask their supplier for a sworn statement that the crop is not genetically engineered.

I-522 requires no costly testing for GE ingredients. No burdensome government oversight is necessary. The system is inherently designed to protect small grocers and retailers while providing consumers with the right to know what’s in their food without increasing grocery costs.

Lie: GE foods pose no health safety risks.

Truth: GMOs have never been proven safe. The FDA requires no pre-market health safety studies, and the only long term peer-reviewed animal study conducted involving GMO corn sprayed with Monsanto’s Round Up herbicide, found massive tumors, organ failure and premature death in rats. In addition, a growing body of peer-reviewed animal studies have linked these foods to allergies, organ toxicity, diabetes, cancer, autoimmune disorders, birth defects, high infant mortality rates, fertility problems, and sterility. Clearly, more independent, long term studies are warranted. Until GMOs are proven unequivocally safe, they should be labeled so consumers can avoid them if they choose.

Lie: GE foods are as, or more, nutritious than organic foods.

Truth: Organic foods, especially raw or non-processed, contain higher levels of beta carotene, vitamins C, D and E, health-promoting polyphenols, cancer-fighting antioxidants, flavonoids that help ward off heart disease, essential fatty acids, and essential minerals. On average, organic is 25 percent more nutritious in terms of vitamins and minerals than products derived from industrial agriculture. Levels of antioxidants in milk from organic cattle are between 50 percent and 80 percent higher than normal milk. Organic wheat, tomatoes, potatoes, cabbage, onions and lettuce have between 20 percent and 40 percent more nutrients than non-organic foods.

A report released from the non-GMO corn company De Dell, in Canada found GMO Corn has 14 parts-per-million (ppm) of Calcium while non-GMO corn has 6130 ppm, or 437 times more. According to the report, non-GMO corn also has 56 times more magnesium and seven times more manganese than GMO corn.

Lie: The World Health Organization, American Medical Association, National Academy of Sciences and other respected medical and health organizations all conclude that GE foods are safe.

Truth: The United Nations/World Health Organization food standards group and the American Medical Association have called for mandatory pre-market safety testing of genetically engineered foods, a standard the U.S. fails to meet. A National Academy of Sciences report states that products of genetic engineering technology “carry the potential for introducing unintended compositional changes that may have adverse effects on human health.” Numerous public health and medical groups support the labeling of GE foods, including the American Public Health Association, Washington State Nurses Association, Breast Cancer Action, Allergy Kids Foundation, Autism One, and many others.

Lie: We need GMOs to feed the world.

Truth: Studies have proven that GE crops do not lead to greater crop yields. In fact, just the opposite is true. A 2009 study by the Union of Concerned Scientists found GMO crops fail to produce higher yields. And a recently released, peer-reviewed study published in the International Journal of Agricultural Sustainability found that conventional plant breeding, not genetic engineering, is responsible for yield increases in major U.S. crops.

Lie: The creation of GE seeds is comparable to the cross-breeding that our ancestors did to create hardier versions of heritage crops.

Truth: Cross breeding is the product of guided natural reproduction, while GMOs are created in a laboratory using high-tech and sophisticated techniques. One of these techniques involves gene-splicing which is used to cross a virus or a bacteria with a plant. These untested, unnatural creations are the antithesis to what our ancestors did, and what responsible farmers do: cross-pollinate different varieties of the same plant to help naturally bring forth desirable characteristics.

Lie: GE crops reduce the need for pesticides and herbicides.

Truth: GE crops have dramatically increased the use of herbicides and pesticides. According to a new study by Food and Water Watch, the “total volume of glyphosate applied to the three biggest GE crops — corn, cotton and soybeans — increased 10-fold from 15 million pounds in 1996 to 159 million pounds in 2012” with the overall pesticide use rising by 26 percent from 2001 to 2010.

The report follows another such study by Washington State University research professor Charles Benbrook last year that found that overall pesticide use increased by 404 million pounds, or about 7%, from 1996 and 2011. The use of GE crops are now driving up the volume of toxic herbicides needed each year by about 25 percent.

Lie: GE crops aren’t harmful to the environment.

Truth: Besides polluting the environment with herbicides and pesticides, GE crops are leading to biodiversity loss and the emergence of “super bugs” and  “super weeds" that are threatening millions of acres of farmland, requiring the need for even more dangerous and toxic herbicides.

GE crops, and the toxic pesticides they are designed to withstand, are endangering numerous critical species, including the honey bee, frogs, birds, fish and the Monarch Butterfly.

And don’t forget our air and water. The island of Molokai in Hawaii has had its air and water quality destroyed by Monsanto’s almost-2000-acre test facility. The same is true worldwide, with many areas around GMO farms reporting horrific bloody skin rashes, an uptick in asthma and toxic pesticides that leach into the groundwater.

 

NOTE:  At the risk of sounding like a broken record, consumers have far more power than any legislation.  Just stop buying and swallowing their garbage and even giant corporations fall if they don't provide what consumers will buy.  

Americans simply don't care enough yet to pay attention to their health, if enough voted against GMO false foods, they wouldn't fill our supermarket shelves.

More Cooked Shelter Kill Statistics

:"The five shelters listed above are all members of the Animal Shelter Alliance of Portland (ASAP), a group of ten organizations dedicated to ending the euthanasia of social, healthy, and treatable cats and dogs in our local shelters by collaborating on spay/neuter programs, educational and outreach efforts, and the promotion of humane alternatives for feral cats. By working together, ASAP partners have ensured that no healthy, adoptable cat or dog has been euthanized in our local shelters since 2010. And most cats and dogs with treatable health or behavioral problems are also being saved (so far, none have been euthanized in 2013). www.asapmetro.org<http://www.asapmetro.org>"

 

 

To: The membership of ASAP

 

The statement prominently featured on ASAP's website and noted above is categorically false ( as also was the earlier claim that no healthy animals had been euthanized in two years in the metro area).  ASAP has an absolute duty to verify all of its claims and a due diligence responsibility that should be taken seriously or else animals die needlessly, buried under false categorizations. ( Why for example do you accept and endorse as a diagnostic/prognostic categorization: "unhealthy/untreatable" for a dog that has killed a cat or has a minor bite history when  the former is prey drive ( killing a cat) and for the latter simple  prevention  and training ?

 

The Asilomar  categories mean whatever ASAP  members want them to mean  in order to win a prize. Routine diagnostic/prognostic mis-classifications are also evident in public records. Shouldn't that matter to a coalition of professionals dedicated to saving lives?

 

 

What fact checking methods do you utilize? For example, I have continuous public intake records from MCAS for the current year ( 2013) and also for a decade previous and I assure you many dogs and cats with treatable conditions are being killed this year. 

 

Would you like to review those records?

 

What forms of  accountability do you use?  "Because I said so" as a collegial intra group response is not enough. It betrays the public and this community 's homeless animals.  

 

Gail O'Connell-Babcock, PhD

Citizens for Humane Animal Legislation/Watchdog

Sherwood Oregon 97140

Telephone: 503.625.4563

Fukushima and The Global Police State

Fukushima & The Global Police State

I wrote about Fukushima back in 2011, when the crisis first erupted. I knew it was real serious from the very first day and I said so. I wrote about the evacuation of Tokyo and I believe there were people who thought I had a screw loose

 But the news out of Japan just gets worse and worse. We have an enormous problem. The radioactive contamination problem at the melted down and exploded nuclear power reactors at Fukushima is so bad that it may exterminate a great deal of the biological life on this planet, including the human race. At the very least we may well be facing an evacuation of a large part of Japan and a sterilized, dead, Pacific Ocean, devoid of fish, whales, crabs, oysters, plankton, squid, porpoises, etc.

It may be that in the near future the evacuation of the human population of Japan and the sterilization of most life in the Pacific Ocean represent the "best case scenario." There are other possible scenarios that are far grimmer.

I don't know why anyone who is thinking clearly about their future life prospects would choose to live in Baja California. I have looked at the radiation dispersion patterns and it looks like that region of North America takes a real direct hit. The radioactivity comes right across the Pacific from Fukushima and WHAMMO !!

And here's the crucial point: it will not stop coming.

Actually, you could pretty well extend that analysis to the whole of North America, especially, but not only, to the western coastal region

Fukushima operator pleads for international help as radiation crisis deepens

Anyway, the company that (mis)manages the melted down and exploded nuclear reactor catastrophe at Fukushima, TEPCO, is now asking for international assistance to contain the incipient apocalypse. Good luck with that !!

What is USSA president, barack obama, going to do ?

Will he send FEMA over to Japan to straighten it all out ?

Most of my readers are in the USSA, and so you know the track record of the USSA federal agencies in dealing with emergencies and crisis situations. Exhibit A; Hurricane Katrina and New Orleans. Need I say more?

You are on your own and always have been. That is the stark truth. There is no magical safety net to catch you. There is no Big Daddy "Uncle Sam" who is going to come rescue you or me. Nope, on the contrary, you had best look to your own salvation, because Fukushima is a total game changer, and whatever plans you had for the rest of your life, you had better adjust your perspective accordingly, because we are in completely uncharted waters and will remain there from now on. Always and forever.

So I intend to remain in South America, though even here it may be just a question of time until the radioactivity also reaches fatal levels. The situation is just that serious. We may have already killed the planet, and ourselves. Maybe our collective death throes are all that remains of the time we have left.

I don't know what more to say about it than that.

The USSA Police State

I have also warned of this repeatedly:

Daniel Ellsberg: US on Verge of Becoming Police State Under Obama

I asked ayahuasca more than one and a half years ago to show me the future and that is what it showed me: a police state, an iron-fisted dictatorship, with an all-encompassing sort of ethereal, overhead control grid to impose full-spectrum control and domination of human thought, emotion and behavior.

A red-white-and-blue, totalitarian hell -- all wrapped up in the stars and stripes and the pledge of allegiance to the flag and to the republik for which it stands. Yadayadayada. Along with American Idol reruns and a nice, aspartame sweetened slice of apple pie. You do love 'Merika, dontcha ?

And I don't know what more to say about that, either. Either you see the police state clamping down or you don't. Either you recognize red-white-and-blue dictatorship, or you don't.

Meanwhile, Back At The Ranch ...

Are we coming up on an important stellar event in the near future? I hadn't been thinking about that, but the galaxy is a huge and ancient place, so who knows? For years I have been following the crop circles that have been laid down in the fields of the English countryside every spring and summer. It is clear that whatever intelligence is behind them has a wealth of astronomical knowledge and is communicating a great deal of information through the crop formations. So what does the most recent crop circle mean? I don't pretend to know, but Dr. Horace R. Drew, at Crop Circle Connector, has analyzed the formation and feels that it could be pointing to a major astronomical event in the relatively near term. So we shall see what happens.

In that vein, here's a little something from the MIT Muses, circa 1997.

Mica, Mica, parva stella;
Miror quaenam sis tam bella.
Splendens eminus in illo,
Alba velut gemma caelo.

Quando fervens sol discessit,
Nec calore prata pascit,
Mox ostendis lumen purum,
Micans, micans per obscurum.

Tibi, noctu qui vagatur,
Ob scintillulam gratatur;
Ni mica res, tu non sciret,
Quas per vias errans iret.

Meum saepe thalamum luce,
Specularis curiosa;
Neque carpseris soporem,
Donec venit sol per auram.

Mica, Mica, parva stella;
Miror quaenam sis tam bella.

My Current Situation

Thankfully, some of my readers have been generously supportive in my present, difficult circumstances and I am very grateful to them. While some have responded. the vast majority have not, and I understand that. Times are tough, people have their own lives with other obligations and priorities, and many people are very hard up against it financially.

Alas, every time my attorneys do something I have to pay them. They don't work for free, not even in Ecuador and I have retained one of the better known law firms in Quito.

 Of course, my attorneys are in Quito, because I was hospitalized and bed ridden for more than three months in Quito. I was physically unable to leave the hospital and walk around town to interview attorneys, though I wanted to and needed to, and was fervently wishing that I could, all the while inwardly bemoaning the fact that I could not.

 But none of that mattered; they came to my ward unannounced one day to represent another patient directly across the corridor from my room, and so I retained them then, seeing as they were the only legal counsel in Quito that the Universe sent my way, literally to my door, as improbable and completely unexpected as their appearance was.

To successfully prosecute the case all the way up until incarceration of my assailant will cost several thousand dollars more in fixed fees, as well as my attorneys' incidental fees along the way -- per diem, travel, food, lodging, investigative expenses, taxis, copies, phone calls, etc. & etc. Every time we have to travel from Quito over to the Amazon it costs. It is an unusual case, even a bit complex, but it is moving forward, probably to trial before Christmas.

Many people want more detail on the case and I cannot provide that, on the advice of my attorneys who do not want to unduly prejudice the proceedings. But it does appear that in the coming months I will speak and write much more openly on the matter, assuming that we are not all in a mad scramble to preserve life and limb, in the event that Fukushima blows sky high, and throws the whole planet into a frenzied, radioactive tizzy.

The long and the short of it is that the venerable, ancient tradition of shamanism unfortunately has a dark side to it, and sad to say there are real brujos, or shamans who misrepresent themselves and degrade the shamanic path, to the extent of abusing people who come to them in search of more awareness or spiritual communication with the natural world.

 This was not the plan I had for my life in 2013, but it is what it is. Perhaps Pachamama has some work for me to do in South America. It appears that very few people are willing to do Her hard and dirty work, and so I am entertaining the possibility that she has personally tasked me with certain distasteful duties by default. Not because I am better than others, or more able, but simply because I came into her realm and did not refuse the work. Many thousands come to South America to drink a little ayahuasca, or maybe even malicagua, or to smoke a little San Pedro cactus, and then they jet back to Soho, or Berkeley, or Berlin or Paris or Des Moines, or… well, you get the idea.

 They come to see inward sparkles, ride a river raft, photograph Machu Picchu, and that's it. For many of them South America is like an exotic carnival ride. Not to say that that is inherently bad or wrong, but it doesn't necessarily address other issues that are confronting us all, inwardly and outwardly, me no less than you or anyone else.

Amazonian ecology is vital, deeply crucial to this planet, and that includes the human ecological component, as well. Ideally, a deeply spiritual shamanism that works in harmony with humankind and Nature, and fosters profound mental, physical, emotional and spiritual integration can heal not only the ills of the Amazon region, but of humanity and the Earth, as a whole.

Sadly that isn't happening, it just isn't. Instead there are a lot of charlatans, and I mean a lot more than just one or two, who are not interested in pursuing the common good, or the good of the Earth. That is not even on their mental horizon. What an awful lot of them are seeking is petty, self-serving, personal power over others, or money, or ignorant exploitation of those who come to them.

My current living arrangement is a small, spartan, hostel room that costs me about $8 per night. There are places that cost less, but you wouldn't want to live there and neither do I. I take my meals in the local restaurants that usually cost $1.75 for a simple breakfast and $2 for lunch. I shop in the local markets for things like roasted peanuts, almonds, prunes, oat meal, heads of broccoli (which I eat raw, because I have no kitchen), tangerines, aloe vera leaves, the pulp of which I also eat raw, raw alfalfa juice, coconut juice, fresh carrot juice, etc. I still walk with crutches and continue to receive therapy. That is my life. Pretty stripped down and basic.

I appreciate your generosity in aiding my ongoing struggle for justice in the Amazon. Donations are not tax deductible or refundable. They go for my legal expenses in Ecuador, to bring my assailants to justice at the earliest possible time, and also to assist with my basic living expenses. Won't you please be generous! Contact me at dr.samizdat1618@gmail.com or Skype me at richard.sauder333 (I am not a Free Mason.)