Bravo Michael Hastings! The McChrystal Article

    A story is a story and should be written as observed by the journalist.  Unbiased stories about politics and politicians are hard to come by. I say BRAVO Mr. Hastings. Your article, “The Runaway General” is a masterpiece. Extremely well written. Of course you are a talented journalist, after all you work for Rolling Stone! Thank you for showing us what true journalism is. Thank you for not “playing ball” so as to secure future access. I think that shows a lot of integrity. I personally think that what you observed and described so succinctly in your article shows ordinary men given extraordinary responsibilities and the mechanism of coping with the stress. Not unlike everyday people in their everyday jobs. (I say, let he who has not bad mouthed their boss or made fun of a co-worker cast he first stone!)  Of course many readers will be appalled because they probably read OTHER magazines whose articles are written to promote a certain agenda, blah, blah, blah…oh sorry, yeah it’s pretty much like that. I think you should win an award for this article!  Read an interview with the writer himself  http://www.onpointradio.org/2010/06/reporter-michael-hastings-on-gen-mcchrystal

Toxic Coal Ash Goes Unregulated by EPA

As I was saying, in March 2000, the EPA concluded that “these wastes can, and do pose significant risks to human health and the environment when not properly managed.” So why, to this day, are coal ash pit management virtually unregulated by the agency?(link to Jeff Goodell’s Rolling Stones article: http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/;kw=%5B3351,94939%5D ) The following was taken directly from the EPA’s website…can some one explain this to me?
Fossil fuel combustion (FFC) wastes are the wastes produced from the burning of fossil fuels (i.e., coal, oil, natural gas). This includes all ash, slag, and particulates removed from flue gas. FFC wastes are categorized by EPA as a “special waste” and have been exempted from federal hazardous waste regulations under Subtitle C of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA). In addressing the regulatory status of FFC wastes, EPA divided the wastes into two categories:

• Large-volume coal combustion wastes generated at electric utility and independent power producing facilities that are managed separately.
• All remaining FFC wastes, including:
  • Large-volume coal combustion waste generated at electric utility and independent power producing facilities that are co-managed with certain other coal combustion wastes (referred to as “comanaged wastes”).
  • Coal combustion wastes generated at non-utilities.
  • Coal combustion wastes generated at facilities with fluidized bed combustion technology.
  • Petroleum coke combustion wastes.
  • Waste from the combustion of mixtures of coal and other fuels.
  • Waste from the combustion of oil.
  • Waste from the combustion of natural gas. http://www.epa.gov/wastes/nonhaz/industrial/special/fossil/index.htm

More later…

TRICLOSAN . . . WHHHHAT?

OOPs they did it again. . .how many times can the FDA get it wrong before the general public stops believing that safety and the FDA are synonymous? http://topnews.us/content/216073-fda-take-closer-look-soap-triclosan-antibacterial-agent ..

break from heavy

Tonight I am blogging about nothing. Nothing controversial. No message. No warnings. Nope! Nothing. . .nada. . .Just chillin’. Listening to an album. Yes I said album and I ment it. Not a C.D., I-pod, or whatever…an old fasioned record player, with an old fasioned music disc going round and round. I’m still worried about the mercury leaching from 300 million carelessly discarded CFL bulbs, but tonight–not preaching, teaching or public announcementing just chillin’, me and the soundtrack from “Showboat.” Think I’ll hit the hay now..nite, nite. 🙂

Murky on Mercury

 An article  by By LAURA MARQUEZ posted on www.abcnews.go.com website on Sept. 18, 2006 points out that according to the the National Wildlife Federation “there truly is no link in the food chain untouched by mercury. . .”  this carries broad implications for humans! From what I understand mercury posioning is cummulative .Mercury doesn’t leave your body.? The FDA dismisses aligations that thermisol (mercury) containing vaccines cause autism because they have reduced the amounts to below trace levels…and autism levels keep rising!  A trace of mercury in one vaccine no problem, however our children recieve 36 (or more)  immunizations by the time they are 2 yrs old (if you follow the CDC’s schedule.)  So what happens to all those traces of mercury?  Couple that with the other sources of mercury and it’s no wonder the autism rate is now 1 in every 69 boys to develop some sort of Autism spectrum disorder.  Now the last thing we need is 300 million burned out CFL bulbs containting 5mg of mercury each thrown into our landfills…PLEASE recycle  your CFLs—some Home Depot stores have a place where you can return burned out bulbs. Every store that sells CFLs is supposed to have recycling program…we need to push for this. CFL bulb recycling needs to be a priority and needs to be easy to do. Convenient for everyone.  Any Ideas?

MORE ACRIMONY

 We have mercury in our dental fillings.  There is mercury emitted by coal burning factories, and  mercury (thermisol) in our immunizations and vaccines, and mercury in the fish we eat. What about the mercury in the new compact fluorescent light bulbs (and the old long tubular ones too.) Those cute “dairy-queen” twirls contain 5mg of mercury. More than 300 million bulbs were sold in the U.S. in 2009. As long as the bulb stays in tact, the mercury poses not threat. But what if you break one of these CFLs? Do you know how to properly clean it up? And when your CFL bulb burns out, oh and it will, what do you do with it? We know that mercury is one of the most toxic substances on earth. Scientific studies show that mercury passes through the umbilical cord and goes straight into the fetal brain. Then why is it okay for pregnant women to receive thermisol containing vaccinations such as the H1N1. Is the toxic load theory so far fetched? Could this be contributing to the epidemic of autism and autoimmune disease? In closing, please recycle your CFL bulbs so they don’t end up in the land fills where the mercury will leach into our ground water, then we’ll be drinking it. And I don’t know about you, but I’ve had enough mercury for one lifetime. Go to www.epa.gov/waste/hazard/wastetypes/universal/lamps/index.htm  to find bulb recycling near you.

QUESTION the ACRONYMS

As we travel through our lives, learning then unlearning beliefs we once held true, life can start to feel very random. Back in the 70’s, just looking at a stick of butter threatened to give you a coronary. The CDC the FDA, the AMA, and your MD warned of the dangers of eating butter. So everyone switched to margarine. At the unwavering recommendations of the FDA and the AMA we ate tubs of that stuff. Some depression era seniors still have the stacked plastic towers to prove it. ( I worked for homecare nursing, I know this.) And guess what, the acronymites were wrong! Those powerful acronyms. We might as well have been eating the tubs. Turns out margarine is  one molecule away from plastic. We have come full circle; butter is okay in moderation of course. Now we eat olive oil! Eat it, cook with it,  bathe in it…(thanks to Dr. Oz). True to the American way, if a little is good then a lot is better.  (Teeth whitening, tanning, breast implants, lip collagen etc..) Just goes to show you that you shouldn’t follow blindly the recommendations of faceless agency acronyms. http://www.snopes.com/food/warnings/butter.asp

STUFF THEY KEEP DEAD THINGS IN . . . EW

Did you know that there is formaldehyde in your beauty products? Yep I was watching the television show  “The Doctors” and these medical professionals were very appalled and warned the audience members and the viewing public to be very cautious about smearing on the make up and lotion products because they may contain a known carcinogenic; formaldehyde along with other cancer causing chemicals. That seemed a bit hypocritical to me since we allow the injecting of formaldehyde into our bloodstreams and the bloodstreams of our children as immunizations and vaccines contain FORMALDEHYDE. Look it up www.generationrescue.com