Friday, December 18, 2009

Nurturing Self Empowerment - Video of the Week: Back On My Feet


Dec 18, 2009

   
Back On My Feet
Imagine driving to work on the first day of your dream job, seeing a few homeless folks on the street, and giving it all up to help them. Anne Mahlum began "Back on My Feet" to encourage the homeless to join her in running through the streets of Philadelphia. By using running as a means to build confidence and self-esteem, combined with job training resources, Mahlum has given many homeless people a chance at a new life. She has helped them see past the reasons for their homelessness, and decide to turn over a new leaf.

Watch This Video


KarmaTube is a repository of inspiring online videos coupled with small, be-the-change actions that everyone can engage in. Our weekly videos reach 28572 active subscribers. about us | more videos



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Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Wendell Berry: A Speech To The Garden Club Of America

Poetry

A Speech to the Garden Club of America

by Wendell Berry September 28, 2009

(With thanks to Wes Jackson and in memory of Sir Albert Howard and Stan Rowe.)

 

Thank you. I’m glad to know we’re friends, of course;

There are so many outcomes that are worse.

But I must add I’m sorry for getting here

By a sustained explosion through the air,

Burning the world in fact to rise much higher

Than we should go. The world may end in fire

As prophesied—our world! We speak of it

As “fuel” while we burn it in our fit

Of temporary progress, digging up

An antique dark-held luster to corrupt

The present light with smokes and smudges, poison

To outlast time and shatter comprehension.

Burning the world to live in it is wrong,

As wrong as to make war to get along

And be at peace, to falsify the land

By sciences of greed, or by demand

For food that’s fast or cheap to falsify

The body’s health and pleasure—don’t ask why.

But why not play it cool? Why not survive

By Nature’s laws that still keep us alive?

Let us enlighten, then, our earthly burdens

By going back to school, this time in gardens

That burn no hotter than the summer day.

By birth and growth, ripeness, death and decay,

By goods that bind us to all living things,

Life of our life, the garden lives and sings.

The Wheel of Life, delight, the fact of wonder,

Contemporary light, work, sweat, and hunger

Bring food to table, food to cellar shelves.

A creature of the surface, like ourselves,

The garden lives by the immortal Wheel

That turns in place, year after year, to heal

It whole. Unlike our economic pyre

That draws from ancient rock a fossil fire,

An anti-life of radiance and fume

That burns as power and remains as doom,

The garden delves no deeper than its roots

And lifts no higher than its leaves and fruits.


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Sunday, December 6, 2009

The Story Of Stuff - Another Movie Under The Radar Watched by 600,000 People So Far

The Story Of Stuff - Another Movie Under The Radar Watched by 600,000 People So Far

Here's the movie:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gLBE5QAYXp8

Here's the website:
http://www.storyofstuff.com/

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Saturday, December 5, 2009

Daily Exercise & Stronger Muscles Lead To Better Brain Function

fitness and health, persistence is more important than intensity.
each day is far better than ... on the weekend

Your body needs daily involvement in physical activity to realize maximum benefits,
so find something you can enjoy daily, then stick to it!
:-)
===


the greater muscle strength a person has, the more likely he or she is to maintain proper cognitive function over time.

less likely to develop progressive cognitive degeneration

link between motor decline and participation in social activities.
significant increase in cognitive degeneration among those who participated the least in social activities.

increased social activity plays an enormous role in prolonging functional motor skills and vice versa.

physical exercise, cognitive activity, and social participation all contribute to healthy brain function.

necessary nutrients
Alpha lipoic acid (ALA)
Acetyl L-carnitine (ALC)
promote a strong memory and a vibrant nervous system.

Phosphatidylserine (PS)
protects the integrity of cell membranes
proven in published research to improve cognitive neural function and memory.

+++

NaturalNews Tip of the day (from Mike):

When it comes to fitness and health, persistence is more important than intensity. Walking 20 minutes each day is far better than sprinting one hour on the weekend, in other words. Your body needs daily involvement in physical activity to realize maximum benefits, so find something you can enjoy daily, then stick to it! :-)

Study Reveals Stronger Muscles Lead to Better Brain Function

Saturday, December 05, 2009 by: Ethan Huff, citizen journalist
http://www.naturalnews.com/027663_muscles_brain_function.html

A recent study published in the November 2009 issue of Archives of Neurology revealed that the greater muscle strength a person has, the more likely he or she is to maintain proper cognitive function over time. The study examined 970 men and women and found that those individuals who ranked in the top ten percent for muscle strength were 61 percent less likely to develop progressive cognitive degeneration when compared to those in the bottom ten percent.

Dr. Patricia Boyle, the author of the study, and her research colleagues from Rush University Medical Center in Chicago examined men and women between the ages of 54 and 100, testing their strength in nine different muscle categories. The study patients were followed for a period of four years in which their cognitive capabilities were examined along the way. The stronger patients were found to have maintained the best brain function.

The research team performed a similar study back in June that investigated the link between motor decline and participation in social activities. The report revealed a significant increase in cognitive degeneration among those who participated the least in social activities.

According to Aron S. Buchman, MD, from the Rush Alzheimer's Disease Center and department of neurological sciences at Rush University Medical Center, each point of decrease on the social activity scale used in the study was the equivalent of a person being five years older at the study's baseline. In other words, increased social activity plays an enormous role in prolonging functional motor skills and vice versa.

Among all the studies performed on the subject, researchers have clearly found that physical exercise, cognitive activity, and social participation all contribute to healthy brain function. Rather than rely on medication, Dr. Buchman recommends a multidisciplinary approach to help aging people retain strong mental health.

Improved brain function can also be achieved by ensuring the body receives the necessary nutrients for such a task. Alpha lipoic acid (ALA), sometimes referred to as the "universal antioxidant", is a necessary compound that converts energy from food and mitochondria for use throughout the body. Acetyl L-carnitine (ALC) works to transport fat through cell membranes into cell mitochondria where it produces cellular energy through oxidation. Together, these nutrients work wonders to promote a strong memory and a vibrant nervous system.

Phosphatidylserine (PS) is another valuable nutrient that fortifies and protects the integrity of cell membranes by defending them against age-associated degeneration. It has been proven in published research to improve cognitive neural function and memory.

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Daily Exercise & Stronger Muscles Lead To Better Brain Function

fitness and health, persistence is more important than intensity.
each day is far better than ... on the weekend

Your body needs daily involvement in physical activity to realize maximum benefits,
so find something you can enjoy daily, then stick to it!
:-)
===


the greater muscle strength a person has, the more likely he or she is to maintain proper cognitive function over time.

less likely to develop progressive cognitive degeneration

link between motor decline and participation in social activities.
significant increase in cognitive degeneration among those who participated the least in social activities.

increased social activity plays an enormous role in prolonging functional motor skills and vice versa.

physical exercise, cognitive activity, and social participation all contribute to healthy brain function.

necessary nutrients
Alpha lipoic acid (ALA)
Acetyl L-carnitine (ALC)
promote a strong memory and a vibrant nervous system.

Phosphatidylserine (PS)
protects the integrity of cell membranes
proven in published research to improve cognitive neural function and memory.

+++

NaturalNews Tip of the day (from Mike):

When it comes to fitness and health, persistence is more important than intensity. Walking 20 minutes each day is far better than sprinting one hour on the weekend, in other words. Your body needs daily involvement in physical activity to realize maximum benefits, so find something you can enjoy daily, then stick to it! :-)

Study Reveals Stronger Muscles Lead to Better Brain Function

Saturday, December 05, 2009 by: Ethan Huff, citizen journalist
http://www.naturalnews.com/027663_muscles_brain_function.html

A recent study published in the November 2009 issue of Archives of Neurology revealed that the greater muscle strength a person has, the more likely he or she is to maintain proper cognitive function over time. The study examined 970 men and women and found that those individuals who ranked in the top ten percent for muscle strength were 61 percent less likely to develop progressive cognitive degeneration when compared to those in the bottom ten percent.

Dr. Patricia Boyle, the author of the study, and her research colleagues from Rush University Medical Center in Chicago examined men and women between the ages of 54 and 100, testing their strength in nine different muscle categories. The study patients were followed for a period of four years in which their cognitive capabilities were examined along the way. The stronger patients were found to have maintained the best brain function.

The research team performed a similar study back in June that investigated the link between motor decline and participation in social activities. The report revealed a significant increase in cognitive degeneration among those who participated the least in social activities.

According to Aron S. Buchman, MD, from the Rush Alzheimer's Disease Center and department of neurological sciences at Rush University Medical Center, each point of decrease on the social activity scale used in the study was the equivalent of a person being five years older at the study's baseline. In other words, increased social activity plays an enormous role in prolonging functional motor skills and vice versa.

Among all the studies performed on the subject, researchers have clearly found that physical exercise, cognitive activity, and social participation all contribute to healthy brain function. Rather than rely on medication, Dr. Buchman recommends a multidisciplinary approach to help aging people retain strong mental health.

Improved brain function can also be achieved by ensuring the body receives the necessary nutrients for such a task. Alpha lipoic acid (ALA), sometimes referred to as the "universal antioxidant", is a necessary compound that converts energy from food and mitochondria for use throughout the body. Acetyl L-carnitine (ALC) works to transport fat through cell membranes into cell mitochondria where it produces cellular energy through oxidation. Together, these nutrients work wonders to promote a strong memory and a vibrant nervous system.

Phosphatidylserine (PS) is another valuable nutrient that fortifies and protects the integrity of cell membranes by defending them against age-associated degeneration. It has been proven in published research to improve cognitive neural function and memory.

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Sunday, November 29, 2009

Another Corporate Change Of Heart - United Students Against Sweatshops Enlightens Them

1,200 workers in Honduras who were fired by their American corporate factory owner because they unionized. Then, something remarkable happened. They got their jobs back.

In January, Russell shuttered one of eight apparel factories it owns in Honduras. It was the only plant with a union.

the University of Miami (which was the first to sever ties)

agreement with the workers' union that reopens the factory, puts all the fired employees back to work, compensates them for lost wages and, in a startling reversal, promises the union access to its other apparel manufacturing plants in Honduras.

But the happy ending did come. Russell did repent and reform its ways. And that good fortune may just spread. Russell is the largest private employer in Honduras, and its watershed agreement may influence other workplaces in Central America.

in the late 1990s, chapters of United Students Against Sweatshops started forming on college campuses with a mission to help empower working people around the world. Today, thanks to that activism, about 175 American colleges and universities have adopted manufacturing codes of conduct demanding that workers in factories that produce their apparel are treated fairly and decently.
===

Corporate Scrooge Has Change of Heart

by Robyn Blumner

When we think of heartwarming tales, they tend to be of the sort like "Miracle on 34th Street," where little Susan Walker gets the house she wanted for Christmas after all, or "It's a Wonderful Life," where George Bailey's neighbors and customers put self-interest aside to save his bank. Those are yummy treats of magical doings and brotherly compassion that the season inspires. But in real life happy endings don't often come so easily or tidily.

I'm about to share one of the most cockle-warming stories of the year, even though its happy conclusion was a long, tough slog and about a decade in the making.

This is a story about 1,200 workers in Honduras who were fired by their American corporate factory owner because they unionized. Then, something remarkable happened. They got their jobs back.

The Scrooge in this modern-day "A Christmas Carol" is Russell Athletic, a leading sportswear company, owned by Fruit of the Loom. The visiting spirits who made Russell change its shriveled corporate heart are college students around the country, members of United Students Against Sweatshops.

In January, Russell shuttered one of eight apparel factories it owns in Honduras. It was the only plant with a union. Since then, USAS students have convinced nearly 100 colleges and universities to end or suspend their licensing agreements with Russell.

This blow to the bottom line was not inconsequential. The agreements allow Russell to put university names on T-shirts, and other apparel that college students buy as wardrobe staples, and some of them were reportedly worth more than a $1 million in sales.

But those dollars flew out the corporate headquarters' window when the University of Miami (which was the first to sever ties), Harvard, New York University, North Carolina, Duke, the entire University of California system and dozens of other major schools told Russell to either correct the injustice and respect the rights of its workers to organize, or go away.

Lo and behold, Russell woke up one morning a changed entity, full of the milk of human kindness. Earlier this month it struck an agreement with the workers' union that reopens the factory, puts all the fired employees back to work, compensates them for lost wages and, in a startling reversal, promises the union access to its other apparel manufacturing plants in Honduras.

This is the same Russell that allowed its management and supervisors to regularly threaten workers that the plant would likely be closed if they brought in a union.

In one incident among many documented in a report by the Worker Rights Consortium, a group funded by universities to watchdog the behavior of their collegiate apparel makers, a Russell supervisor said in a factory cafeteria that "The workers will starve because they got involved with a union." He said, "The owners will never accept a union," and, "these people from the union are going to be left eating (expletive deleted)."

This is the same Russell that offered the union as its final offer during 2008 contract negotiations a raise for workers of four cents a day in 2009 and five cents a day in 2010. If that doesn't describe a classic miserly, exploitative Scrooge, what does?

But the happy ending did come. Russell did repent and reform its ways. And that good fortune may just spread. Russell is the largest private employer in Honduras, and its watershed agreement may influence other workplaces in Central America.

So how did all this happen? How did nearly 100 universities agree to boycott Russell within such a short period of time?

Back in the late 1990s, chapters of United Students Against Sweatshops started forming on college campuses with a mission to help empower working people around the world. Today, thanks to that activism, about 175 American colleges and universities have adopted manufacturing codes of conduct demanding that workers in factories that produce their apparel are treated fairly and decently.

When an investigation by the Worker Rights Consortium found that Russell had clearly breached this code, the universities had little choice but to say "adios."

And so ends our tale of little-guy triumph and noble do-gooders persevering. If only all businesses felt such pressure to treat their people well. What glad tidings those would be.



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Friday, November 27, 2009

PLUNDER - When The Rule Of Law Is Illegal - Ugo Mattei & Laura Nader

A new book worth reading:
PLUNDER - When The Rule Of Law Is Illegal
Ugo Mattei and Laura Nader
Amazon Link


[what is needed is] world culture and of global political realism.

a need of social justice and solidarity
empowered by a political soul
justice
respect

empowering its bright side and fully exposing the dark aspects of the rule of law can transform it into a tool for taking control of a runaway world, fueled by an economic dynamic called neo-liberalism.

a new form of international scholar and citizen activism.
resist the empire of lawlessness

We need ... a philosophy for our own time."

law in action is about politics and power
a rule of law of the people
fundamental restructuring of the political field.

People have to be free to build their own economies.
+++



'The only truly political action . . . is threat which severs the nexus between violence and law'.

the incremental use of law as a mechanism for constructing and legitimizing plunder.

patterns of global plunder, ... continued by nations, in particular the USA, and multinational corporate entities independent of explicit political or military colonialism.

a need of social justice and solidarity


the rule of law has a bright and a dark side

empowered by a political soul
justice
respect

empowering its bright side and fully exposing the dark aspets of the rule of law can transform it into a tool for taking control of a runaway world, fueled by an economic dynamic called neo-liberalism.

a clear rejection of an ideology of inherent superiority of Western culture that does not recognize that the West is itself part of something much larger.

... the problems we are facing are systemic to a several-hundred-year-old system of Euro-American expansion and domination based on extraction and plunder, a system that is now adopted by India and China.

plunder as the rule rather than the exception allows the reader to get outraged.
organize radical alternatives to its destructive models of development?

a new form of international scholar and citizen activism.

differentiate between the light and dark sides of the rule of law

plunder may become the target of public opinion and legal challenges.

Lifting plunder from below the radar screen is a potential mobilizing force
persistence, networking, imagination

resist the empire of lawlessness
develop tools that expose the variety of Western colonial strategies used to deny history
develop a critique of ethnocentrism both conscious and unconscious.

We need ... a philosophy for our own time."

law in action is about politics and power
a rule of law of the people
fundamental restructuring of the political field.

demystify many taboos ... [including the] rule of law.
tell the historical truth,
 to the people, to prove that truth is always revolutionary and might, if politically organized, pierce the thick veil of lies that shelters Western plunder and historical brutality.

Western spectacular and imperialist ideas of democracy and of the rule of law should be rejected.

On this planet, resources are scarce but, if the rich were legally forced to respect the limits of decency, there would be more than sufficient resources for all to live well.

admiring the rich and the powerful and the instruments used to secure such an unfair arrangement seems indeed paradoxical.

People have to be free to build their own economies.


There is nothing inevitable about the present arrangements and their dominant and taken-for-granted certainties.

[what is needed is] world culture and of global political realism.

+++


PLUNDER - When The Rule Of Law Is Illegal
Ugo Mattei and Laura Nader
Amazon Link

From the introduction:

'The only truly political action . . . is threat which severs the nexus between violence and law'. - Giorgio Agamben

... While theoreticians of Euro-American imperialism profess to recognize the rule of law as keystones of the 'civilizing process,' its dark side has been neglected. Law has been used to justify, administer, and sanction Western conquest and plunder, resulting in massive global disparities. Thus, we argue, imperial uses - past and present - of the rule of law are behind the current less-than-ideal practices of distributive justice.
...
Our story is about the incremental use of law as a mechanism for constructing and legitimizing plunder. Our intent is to examine the extent of the law's dark side and to explain the mechanics of such imperial uses of it.
...
What is of interest to us in this book are the mechanisms through which the transnational rule of law, as a deeply Western idea, has led incrementally to patterns of global plunder, a process initiated by the expansion of Euro-American society worldwide, and now continued by nations, in particular the USA, and multinational corporate entities independent of explicit political or military colonialism.
...
The transformation of the rule of law ideal into an imperial ideology has accompanied the move from a need of social justice and solidarity towards the capitalist requirements of efficiency and competition.
...
We argue that the rule of law has a bright and a dark side, with the latter progressively conquering new terrain whenever the former is not empowered by a political soul. In the absence of such political life, the rule of law becomes a cold technology, and the dark side can cover the whole picture as law yields to embrace brute violence.
...
A public shift from justice to profit, from respect to thefts, followed within an atmosphere of silenced political debate, overwhelmed by self-congratulatory rhetoric, such as the end of history, through the 1990s.
...
Perhaps empowering its bright side and fully exposing the dark aspets of the rule of law can transform it into a tool for taking control of a runaway world, fueled by an economic dynamic called neo-liberalism.
...
A reconfiguration would mean, first and foremost, a clear rejection of an ideology of inherent superiority of Western culture that does not recognize that eh West is itself part of something much larger.
... the problems we are facing are systemic to a several-hundred-year-old system of Euro-American expansion and domination based on extraction and plunder, a system that is now adopted by India and China.

Perhaps plunder as the rule rather than the exception allows the reader to get outraged. The Enron scandal, the mutual fund scandal, and other examples portrayed as exceptions ... in fact are the rule of corporate capitalist development; workers are victimized; people lose their savings; innocents are killed; peasants are starved. The distinction between what is legal and what is illegal blurs in a world in which the rule of law is reduced to a dull rhetoric or to Orwellian double-speak. How much more suffering do we need to realize that similar tragedies are the rule and not the exception? How much more time do we need to recognize the civilizing failure of corporate capitalism and the need to organize radical alternatives to its destructive models of development?

From Chapter 1
... In this book we are not moved by the desire to argue against the rule of law. We only wish to gain a better understanding of this powerful political weapon, to question its almost sacred status, by analyzing it as a Western cultural artifact, closely connect with the diffusion of Western political domination. We will try to disenatangle its connection with the ideal of democracy, and on the contrary recognize its close association with another notion, that of 'plunder.'

Let us clarify, before we continue, what we mean by the term 'plunder.' The American Heritage Dictionary defines 'plunder' as  'to rob of goods by force, esp. in times of war; pillage," and 'Plunder' (the noun) as 'property stolen by fraud or force.' It is the latter definition that especially brings to mind the dark side of the rule of law. We address both looting by force and looting by fraud, both wrapped in the rule of law by illustrious legal practitioners and scholars. We trace the development of the critical supporting role that the rule of law has played in plunder.

... the birth of the rule of law ... had nothing to do with notions of democracy, unless we wish to assert that the English Parliament of the time was a democratic institution! As widely recognized by contemporary historians, the birth of the rule of law was actually the triumph of medieval social structure over modernization. ... the false notion that progress and civilization were protected by the alliance between Parliament (democracy!) and the common law courts (the rule of law).


From the end of the last chapter
...
The preceding examples point to a new form of international scholar and citizen activism. The additive effect might in the long run cause people to be able to differentiate between the light and dark sides of the rule of law, between the seedlings that start with local law traditions and then grow and spread, as was exhibited with global outrage at the US's unilateral attack on Iraq. If more widely recognized for what it is, plunder may become the target of public opinion and legal challenges. Lifting plunder from below the radar screen is a potential mobilizing force, although there is no guarantee without persistence, networking, imagination, and recognition of the difficulties inherent in deconstructing the imperial rule of law, in some places still considered to be a social good.

...
If, however, you are a victim of land plunder, polluted drinking water, or loss of state oil revenues, if you have lost a job or savings, or are the poor target of a fishing expedition aimed at filling up privatized jails - that is where the spectacular hits the ground and the user of law grasps the difference between the light and dark sides of the rule of law. Can we resist the empire of lawlessness with a one-day protest or with a well-articulated suit in a US court of law? It seems unlikely.

The strategy is to develop tools that expose the variety of Western colonial strategies used to deny history, and to develop a critique of ethnocentrism both conscious and unconscious. Did Cicero not remind us: "Freedom is participation in power"? A vision that capitalizes on historical experience offers ideas based on whatever deserves to be saved in the name of justice, wherever it comes from in time and space. Realized Western capitalism and realized European socialism must be compared on an equal footing. Neither, with only few exceptions, have been success stories over time. We need, as Margaret Meed noted shortly before her death, "a philosophy for our own time."

In discussing the continuities between colonialism and neo-liberalism we have offered abundant evidence that capitalism has enough strength and its actors the capacity to deploy an impressive aggregate of effective strategies to overcome difficult moments created by temporary triumphs of legality. Given the fact that, ultimately, the law in action is about politics and power, possibly more than about efficiency or justice, we need to acknowledge the impossibility of significantly transforming the imperial rule of law into a rule of law of the people outside of a fundamental restructuring of the political field. Such an attempt, however, needs to demystify many taboos, one being the per se desirability of the historical experience hitherto known as rule of law. There is a renewed need to tell the historical truth, not only to powerful institutions but also to the people, to prove that truth is always revolutionary and might, if politically organized, pierce the thick veil of lies that shelters Western plunder and historical brutality. Western spectacular and imperialist ideas of democracy and of the rule of law should be rejected. What over time should emerge is a very simple notion, today hidden in plain sight over time should emerge is a very simple notion, by a centuries-old dominant ideological tale: in a world of scarce resources there is a limit to private accumulation to be respected, and the rich (countries, corporations, or, ultimately, individuals) cannot be rich beyond that limit without being responsible for the poor being poor. Trespassing over that substantive limit amounts to plunder, regardless of whether the rule of law, by protecting the bottom line and all externalized costs, enforces such disparities. On this planet, resources are scarce but, if the rich were legally forced to respect the limits of decency, there would be more than sufficient resources for all to live well. Nobody would admire and respect someone who at a lunch buffet for seven, obscenely ate 90 percent of the food, leaving he other guests to share an amount insufficient for one. In a world history of capitalism in which the rule of law has reproduced taht arrangement on the large scale, admiring the rich and the powerful and the instruments used to secure such an unfair arrangement seems indeed paradoxical. People have to be free to build their own economies.

There is nothing inevitable about the present arrangements and their dominant and taken-for-granted certainties. Indeed, it may be that the present legal and political hegemonies suffer from lack: the lack of world culture and of global political realism.



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Monday, November 23, 2009

Establish War Tax On High Income Americans To Fund Afghan War Surge

Any troop increase for Afghanistan should come with a "war surtax" on high income Americans

"If we have to pay for the healthcare bill, we should pay for the war as well,"

"graduated" tax on income that would help offset the roughly $40 billion in new costs needed to send 40,000 more troops to Afghanistan,

an "additional income tax" on incomes over $200,000 or $250,000 to finance any troop surge.

+++

Obey Wants 'War Surtax' to Fund Afghan Effort

by Michael O'Brien

WASHINGTON, DC - Any troop increase for Afghanistan should come with a "war surtax" on high income Americans, a top House chairman said Monday.

Rep. David Obey (D-Wisc.), the chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, warned that if President Barack Obama decides to send additional troops to Afghanistan, it should be funded with the new tax.

"If we have to pay for the healthcare bill, we should pay for the war as well," Obey told ABC News in an interview, "by having a war surtax."

Obey said his proposed tax would be a "graduated" tax on income that would help offset the roughly $40 billion in new costs needed to send 40,000 more troops to Afghanistan, a cost estimated by Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Director Peter Orszag.

"I want the president and every American to think ahead of time about what it means if you do add to our involvement in Afghanistan," Obey told ABC, pointing to the war costs that affected the presidencies and domestic agendas of Harry Truman and Lyndon Johnson. 

The call for a new tax mirrors a similar demand over the weekend from Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.), the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, on funding the war effort in Afghanistan. Levin told Bloomberg News that he favored an "additional income tax" on incomes over $200,000 or $250,000 to finance any troop surge.

"If we don't pay for it, then the cost of the Afghan war will wipe out every other initiative that we have to try to rebuild our own economy," he said. "I'm going to be fighting to get whatever they do paid for."

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Mammograms Harm Women - Cancer Industry Abandons Science To Keep Pushing Them

Cancer industry abandons science to keep pushing mammograms that harm women

Monday, November 23, 2009
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
Editor of NaturalNews.com (See all articles...)

(NaturalNews) The cancer industry has blatantly abandoned science these past two weeks by insisting women under 50 should receive annual mammograms even though the industry's own scientific task force concluded that such screenings result in too many false positives. Essentially, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force took a good, hard look at the science and concluded that mammograms harm far more women than they help (for women under 50, anyway). But when they announced the new recommendations that women under 50 should avoid mammograms -- and women over 50 should only get them every other year -- the cancer industry cried foul.

Radiologists, oncologists, Big Pharma pill-pushers and cancer industry non-profits all banded together to declare, "We are abandoning the science! We want more mammograms for more women, science be damned!"

Of course, they all still claim to be "scientific," but what they really do is selectively cherry-pick which bits and pieces of the scientific evidence they choose to adhere to. And when it comes to these new mammogram recommendations, they've decided to simply abandon the science and keep pushing more radiation imaging tests for women (mammography).

The cancer industry is a complete failure

What you are witnessing here, folks, is the desperate last gasps of a failed industry. Their technologies do not save lives, their drugs do not cure cancer, and their "science" doesn't add up. The cancer industry is a fraud, and now its fraudulent nature is finally becoming apparent to everyone. It even has the mainstream media (USA Today) describing the failures of mammography in articles like the one you'll see here: http://www.usatoday.com/news/health...

Here's something else you need to know: The cancer industry hasn't merely abandoned science in terms of mammography; it has also abandoned all science with the pushing of chemotherapy. Did you know there has never been a randomized, placebo-controlled study proving that chemotherapy saves the lives of breast cancer patients?

That evidence doesn't exist. The whole "treatment" scam is based entirely on fiction. Chemotherapy only works at all against three rare types of cancer, and breast cancer isn't one of them.

In defending the new mammography guidelines, Dr. Timothy Wilt, a member of the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, said that the task force recommendations "were based on the most rigorous peer review of up-to-date, accurate information about the evidence about the harms and benefits of treatment."

He repeated that women under 50 should never receive mammograms, and women 50 or over should only receive a mammogram every two years.

The American Cancer Society, quite predictably, has a real problem with that recommendation. Its entire success (and power) depends on more people getting cancer, and one of the best ways to make sure that happens is to keep pushing for more mammograms. In opposing the new mammography recommendations, the ACS has now abandoned science, too.

Chemotherapy: The chemical holocaust

When cancer doctors tell you that "chemotherapy will save your life," they are lying to you. And they lie thousands of times a day, deceptively recruiting women into modern medicine's version of a chemical holocaust.

The cancer industry offers no cures. A cure for cancer would destroy the industry. It would wipe out billions of dollars in profits that drug companies, radiologists and oncologists are counting on right now. This is precisely why the cancer industry dares not tell women the truth about vitamin D, for example, which prevents 77% of all cancers, including breast cancer.

If every woman in America were given vitamin D supplements, cancer rates would plummet by up to 77% in a single year, and the cancer industry would virtually collapse. That cannot be allowed to happen, of course, which is precisely why the industry has a complete blackout on vitamin D information while pushing hard for annual mammograms that continue to cause cancer (and generate repeat business).

The U.S. government has abandoned science, too

Kathleen Sebelius, Secretary of Health and Human Services, has told women to ignore the new mammography advice by the U.S. government task force. But she has zero scientific evidence to back up her advice. She, like everyone else pushing mammograms, is engaged in pure quackery.

I find this particularly fascinating, given that the cancer industry claims people who are offering cancer cures are "quacks." Such cures aren't based on rock-solid science, they claim! But when the rock-solid science says mammograms are dangerous for women, the cancer industry abandons the science! That's why they are the new quacks.

Here's a simple prediction: In twenty years, mammograms will have been long since abandoned. Doctors of that era will look back at 2009 and wonder how this so-called "modern" medical industry could have been so deeply invested in such a dangerous, cancer-causing technology called mammography. They will scratch their heads and ask, "Why didn't they heed the science that said mammography is dangerous?" They'll write about "how medically illiterate the people were in 2009" because they voluntarily inserted their body parts into irradiation machines.

The fact is that people of every era are suckers for apparent medical authority. Patients tend to believe doctors because they mistakenly think doctors know what they're talking about. But conventional doctors are technicians, not healers. They understand the detailed of how to administer poisons, but they have no clue how to activate the body's innate healing potential.

Doctors tend to be very intelligent individuals, but even they cannot understand things they've never been taught, and medical school is focused almost entirely on a drugs-and-surgery approach to medicine (slash and burn).

To expect a conventional doctor to be good at healing is like expecting your accountant to be good at ballet.

Doctors may be smart, but they're ignorant about healing. And for the most part, they're nutritionally illiterate, which is why cancer doctors still don't recommend vitamin D. (Astonishing, but true.)

So why, then, would patients who are interested in healing their bodies go see medical professionals who are experts in the administration of poison? It makes no sense. But that's what insurance covers, so they keep doing it. And they keep dying of cancer, an almost entirely preventable disease with cures that exist right now but will never be publicized because too much profit depends on keeping people sick.

Mammograms are the insurance of the cancer industry. As long as mammogram machines keep running, there will always be more cancer to diagnose -- because the machines are making cancer!

Sources for this story include:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3404027...
http://www.usatoday.com/news/health...

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Thursday, November 19, 2009

Too Big to Fail is Too Big to Exist - 2 Page Bank Bill In Senate

BREAK 'EM UP

http://sanders.senate.gov/petition/?uid=c53f1aca-5881-403e-928b-a25980cb4e0c

A bill to make the Treasury secretary identify too-big-to-fail financial giants and break them up picked up support. 

"When it comes to understanding the real economy and the struggles of ordinary Americans, Bernie Sanders always seems to be ahead of the curve,"

The Nation said.  Bernie's bill "makes a lot of sense" to Rachel Maddow.  To read more from the editor of The Nation, click here.  To watch Rachel, click here.  To sign the petition, click here.

The Petition:

Petition to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner

Too Big to Fail is Too Big to Exist

Financial institutions that are “too big to fail” played a major role in undermining the American economy and driving our country into a severe recession.

Financial institutions that are “too big to fail” put taxpayers on the hook for a $700 billion bailout and more than $2 trillion from the Federal Reserve in virtually zero interest loans.

Huge financial institutions have become so big that the four largest banks in America (JP Morgan Chase, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, and Citigroup) now issue one out of every two mortgages; two out of three credit cards; and hold $4 out of every $10 in bank deposits in the country.  

Just five banks in America (JP Morgan Chase, Bank of America, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, and Morgan Stanley) own a staggering 95% of the $290 trillion in derivatives held at commercial banks. Derivatives are risky side bets made by Wall Street gamblers that led to the $182 billion bailout of AIG, the $29 billion bailout that allowed JP Morgan Chase to acquire Bear Stearns, and the collapse of Lehman Brothers.

The concentration of ownership in the financial services industry has resulted in higher bank fees and interest rates that consumers are forced to pay for credit cards, mortgages and other financial products.

No single financial institution should be so large that its failure would cause catastrophic risk to millions of American jobs or to our nation’s economic well-being.

No single financial institution should have holdings so extensive that its failure could send the world economy into crisis.

We believe it is time to break up the banks and insurance companies which are too big to fail.

We believe that passage of The Too Big to Fail, Too Big to Exist Act is essential for a strong American economy and a secure future for ourselves, our children, and our grandchildren.

We urge the immediate enactment of the Too Big to Fail, Too Big to Exist Act, which directs the treasury secretary to compile a list of those financial institutions that are too big to fail in the next 90 days, and to break up these banks and insurance companies a year after the legislation is signed into law.







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Sunday, November 15, 2009

Live Map Of Increasing Unemployment Rates by County Jan 07 - Sep 09

Watch how unemployment increased from Jan 2007 to Sep 2009.
There are now more than 31 million people currently unemployed
-- that's including those involuntarily working part time and those
who want a job, but have given up on trying to find one.

The worst economic upheaval since the Great Depression.

http://at7b.com/imagesTG/unemp0107.png


http://at7b.com/imagesTG/d2266a62d072629d6922acc2df3f9d08.png


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Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Charter Of Compassion - Nov 12

When Karen Armstrong, who has authored over 20 books on the role of religion in the modern world, won the 2008 TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) Prize, she wished for the creation, launch, and propagation of a Charter for Compassion, to help unite religious and secular people worldwide around a common belief in compassion.

Nurturing a global community of peace and harmony.

See video here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DCG4qryy1Dg&feature=player_embedded#

Submissions and comments came from more than 150,000 people from 100 countries; a Council of Conscience, made up of 18 diverse religious leaders, is distilling their input into a Charter for Compassion.

On November 12, Armstrong's wish will become fully realized with the launch of the charter.


The Charter Of Compassion unveiling.

There is an urgent need for a new focus on compassion.

Bringing together voices from all cultures and religions, the Charter seeks to remind the world we already share the core principles of compassion.

On November 12, thousands of people across the globe will listen together. More on November 12 »
See second video here:
http://charterforcompassion.org/

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