Gemini Press

Any health information provided herein is for educational purposes only.
IT IS NOT INTENDED AS A SUBSTITUTE FOR
EVALUATION OR TREATMENT BY A HEALTH CARE PROFESSIONAL.

Wed, 31 May '06 Article: Librarians bitterly decry gag order in Patriot Act case

Response: Nice to know one group of Americans has some courage.

That this situation exists is testimony to the political ignorance and shameful cowardice of Americans, who stand by while their liberties are trampled by fascist criminals posing as patriots. All this so they can feel safe in their SUVs and burn their brains out with cell phones on the way to the Conehead consumer orgy.

Tue, 23 May '06 Syndicated editorial: Mary Sanchez: US government hams it up while terrorists plot

Response: She's right, but doesn't get it.

This piece tells of the government's vigorous pursuit of peacefully protesting Americans in the name of national security--like an animal rights activist protesting the sale of glazed hams.

Sanchez allows, however, that we need a "cost-effective way to find terrorists in our midst, a goal that no sane person would dispute post-Sept. 11." And her last thought is that if the government is busy watching peaceniks, who's looking for the true terrorists?

She doesn't get, of course, that 9/11 was an inside job and that the War on Terror is a protection racket and an excuse to trample civil liberties in preparation for the coming fascist state.

Who's looking for the true terrorists? Not the American scaredy sheeple, because all they'd have to do is turn eyes toward Washington, DC.

Mon, 22 May '06 S&E editorial: Addition of cops needed, welcome

Response: Retro, juvenile tough-guy mentality.

More people, more growth, more retail more money more crime more cops more people, more growth, more retail more money more crime more cops more people, more growth, more retail more money more crime more cops--ad infinitum nauseam.

Yes, folks, the S&E will tell you that force and a hangin' judge mentality is the answer to crime. This is because, to the juvenile mind there is never any collective or societal responsibility involved, just the guilt of the nasty law breakers. And don't forget the holiness of the law-abiders. Because as long as its legal, you can commit crime--even hurt the kids.

Never mind that most of the illegal crime involves drugs, which ought not to be illegal in the first place, which invites the illegal criminals to handle them. But you can't get this idea through the hangin' judge head. Nossir, even though there are much greater threats to us all from things we not only tolerate but embrace in our society. Like cell phones.

It's about this confounding phenomenon: Once insanity becomes sufficiently widespread, it becomes the norm and is fiercly defended by proponents of the status quo. Enter the Sentinel and Enterprise.

Mon, 22 May '06 Syndicated editorial: Time to return to the gold standard?

Response: Return to the old scam, stay with the insanity.

Currency, economies, and markets is too complex to discuss--and the whole subject seems fraught with confounding arbitrariness. The only sure thing is that the system is rigged to steal wealth from the people and flow it in one direction--slowly by surely, except for times when they steal chunks, as in depressions.

But to deal with gold at all now means egregious rape and destruciton of the Earth. But humans are no stranger to the insanity of destroying their source of life in order to survive.

Here are a few stories about the rape to make one's eyes water:
Papua

And Honduras

And the total devastation of our own (USA) Butte, Montana

Kinda makesya proud to be a hooman, no?

Sun, 21 May '06 S&E editorial: Regardless of cost, fix the schools

Response: Regardless of sanity, make sweeping statements.

It's almost unbelievable that schools could get as bad as they are. There's no comment on that irresponsible situation (but we've got $20 million to widen the stupid road). But now, even if the money has to be borrowed, fix the schools. Yes, it's the capitalist/American way--debt is our treasured way of life.

Under sane conditions, borrowing might be a sound suggestion. But in the situation where trillions of dollars have been stolen from the people at the federal level by a rigged system of currency, banking and economics, while public servants worship at that altar, this is just acid in the wound.

But hey, we've gone this far...what's a little more pain?

Sat, 20 May '06 Syndicated editorial: Ann McFeatters: Facing a full-fledged energy crisis

Response: "Full-fledged" doesn't cover what could happen.

If it were not so tragic, it would be a riot that "officials" around here and in most places fret much more about the corporate bird flu scam than the potential disaster that the energy/environmental/economic complex-crunch could lay on us.

Yes, it's true that both could be major scams. But it's also true that a) an energy crash could kill several billions and be permanent, and b) the planet probably cannot withstand the burning of even half the quoted remaining oil reserves.

Yet the locals are forging ahead with growth plans that are energy-intensive both in construction and operation, while getting their shortsighted shorts in a twist about freaking bird flu, a scam designed to fatten corporate coffers and generate fear, which makes people easier to control.

With leaders like this, terrorists are the least of our worries.

Sat, 20 May '06 S&E editorial: Bird flu a true threat

Response: S&E a true lapdog journal for government/corporate propaganda.

"Officials are taking the threat so seriously, they're considering where mass graves could be located." What good little officials, and what CRAP! Although, mass graves could be needed for another reason. That will be when/if the flow of oil should be interrupted sufficiently so that lots of people freeze to death. This is a greater possibility than bird flu.

But fear not, detention centers are being put in place across America so the herd can be dragged in during an "emergency."

However mass graves would be a better use for the land where the 400,000 square feet of retail death is being planned by the growth mongers, who cannot see the threat to life their policies pose.

The most likely way the bird flu is going to mutate into a human-threatening form is if a corporate/military biotech lab somewhere makes the modification.

Bird flu info; please check it out.

Mon, 8 May '06 Article: City making a pitch for baseball

Response: I thought I'd heard it all.

Yet another mountain of development insanity on the current mountain of it; this one on a 'mountain' of waste--a baseball field on the landfill. I've written so many times in these pages about the suicidality of the Holy Grail of economic growth and development, I AM the broken-record king. But for the record, here's a recent (5/15/06) 'open email' to my mayor, Dean Mazzarella. It has a somewhat related Bird-Flu 'preamble.'

Mayor Dino,
It was great to read about you and Chrisopher Knuth trying to moderate the panic over the bird flu hype. But there are some considerations I didn't see in the paper.

1) Mr. Knuth says flatly that the movie is a fiction; but he could have said flatly that the official story is one as well. "Officials" have said that between 200,000 and 2 million people could die here. Knuth did question the idea that the few deaths so far worldwide will translate to such carnage from a virus that does NOT readily spread from bird to human, or human to human.

2) Rumsfeld (the King of Aspartame) has millions in financial interest in Tamiflu. Any idea how much it costs? From $6 -$20 per capsule! There is little to no proof it works, but no doubt it's pretty toxic. Why? Anti-viral drugs are CHEMOTHERAPY. And there are deeper connections between elite moneymakers and major vaccinemakers.

3) After they get all the chickens burned up globally, only the big boys, like Tyson, will be left holding the market.

4) The Leominster "plan" to cope with this is questionable, because vaccines are NO answer, just another profit mechanism, and a poison one at that. Where's the double-blind study showing effectiveness and long-term safety of this new toxic mix in humans? Well, no time for that, just panic and everyone get shot up. Meanwhile, BushCo wants to cancel any liability on Pharma for vaccine damage, or on the Government or any 'authority' that virtually forces people to get the shot.

-------> What if people get the vaccine and THEN the flu? This happened with polio for a decade--CDC/NIH admitted it.

5) If you really want to help our community, get RADICAL :-) Peruse Len Horowitz's book "Death in the Air." I have a copy you can borrow. If you say you'll read and discuss it openly, I'll even buy one for you. That goes for Dan Mylott and Christopher Knuth as well. A book which corroborates Horowitz on the biochem war industry is A Higher Form of Killing, (HFK) by Harris and Paxman--the history of international corporate/military/government malfeasance in creating such weaponry. US sold $4 bn worth to Saddam before Gulf 1, as reported in the documentary about the military abuse of our soldiers that I made into 6 "Radical Communion" shows. "Beyond Treason" is coming up on rerun in 3 weeks on LATV and FATV. Admission is free, Dino.

Horowitz shows the intimate financial and administrative ties between the United Nations and World Health Organization, and the elite Rockefeller family, Carnegie Foundation, and the world’s leading drug makers. He also discusses in detail the origins of mysterious superbugs from the military-medical-biotechnology cartel. The corporatists use such scares to profiteer and, if necessary, control people and populations.

6) Where has the virus come from? These things are said to just "arise" from nowhere. But what if 'nowhere' is a Pharma/Military biolab? Are you aware of how much bio-experimentation has been perpetrated on the public without our knowledge (HFK)? And the Frankentechs have reconstituted the Spanish Flu virus. This is sanity? SO, what could make H5N1 'mutate' to facilitate human to human transmission?

On the lighter side of nonsense, how about Secretary of Health and Human Services Michael Leavitt recommending last March that Americans start storing canned tuna and powdered milk under their beds? Haha! And John Stewart helps to deconstruct the BS.

The feds are already preparing detention centers all across the country. Halliburton got a big contract to build some. Via 'Fatherland Security,' they're creating a vertically integrated military/police power structure so that our local police can be enlisted to do the bidding of the manipulators of our federal government. The NSA phone-spy is just another facet of TIA for monitoring and control. "No problem," say Dan M. and the Marine SSGT :-) Dan doubts the government would do wrong.

Amid an avalanche of lawsuits against Pharma for damage caused by their poisonous drugs, state legislators are busy subjugating us to the industry with the "health" care bill for all. And this, I'm guessing, is why we need another drugstore, right down town? These related, serious errors in judgment end up increasing people's flu susceptibility, by the way.

Please help people start breaking the spell of misconception, hypnotizing disinfo, and conditioned habit that form belief systems and guidelines for running communities.
•••

It's not the bird flu that people should panic about, but the plans for local development. All conditions/indicators--economic, environmental, energy, climate--strongly contraindicate business-as-usual for growth and development. Even though trusted, traditional methods, behaviors, policies may appear to 'work' locally and promise a bright future in some minds, they have destructive side effects--which seem to be ignored.

The conventional economic system is rigged to steal the people's wealth and flow it in one direction. This theft underlies the worry about people leaving Massachusetts. More importantly, it underlies the 'need' to crush ourselves with development to pay the bills. Most importantly, it underlies the oxymoronic dilemma of our dependence for survival on self-destructive (Earth-destructive and toxic) mechanisms. This dangerous habit is very much like a drug addiction (the retail boom is part of the 'fix').

The main reason the addiction has appeared to work up to now, is the liquidation of our primary asset--Earth. Business costs are always based on 'taking,' and rarely if ever include 'putting back.' The retail boom is now predicated upon slave labor, loss of jobs here, heavy pollution, huge waste stream, fatal worsening of our monster trade deficit, increased dependence on increasing oil consumption, and ever-greater debt.

No one in his right mind would invest in a company in debt like the US. It makes Enron look conservative. Yet, promoters of conventional economic growth are ipso facto investing heavily in this debacle. The likelihood of serious consequences increases daily. A certain politician from Leominster has said the economy is improving a bit. This is like thinking you've made money with a huge cash advance on your credit card.

And now Waste Management is coming on TV telling us how wonderful waste is, and essentially that we can produce as much as we want because they can turn it into recreational parks and baseball fields. Orwellian :-)

All this will come back to bite us. Our butt is between the big teeth right now.

Look at Lancaster--short of water, can't grow without water, need to grow to avoid huge deficits. 'Lemmingster' and Fitchburg are locked into the same vicious circle. PLEASE say how such a double-bind can be embraced as a sensible system. I'm flabbergasted that local/state pols and officials can't/don't see this. Well, maybe they do, and don't care/don't know what else to do, what? Admission is free, Dino.

I've asked on Radical Communion and in numerous emails:
"If prosperity depends upon eternal growth, what do we do for prosperity when space and resources run out (as they must in a finite world--as is happening in Lancaster)?" PLEASE ANSWER THIS QUESTION (ANYONE!)

Absent a prior energy solution, energy intensive projects not designed to create local self-sufficiency and LESS dependence on infrastructure, technology, and transportation (including importation) are suicidal. To me, this makes them a form of insanity. If you think that's harsh, consider the Iraq 'war' that we have allowed ourselves to be lied into. Analysts projected the cost of full compliance with Kyoto to be $325 billion over many decades, yet we have already spent more than $300 billion in Iraq, which exacerbates all the warning indicators by orders of magnitude. Another analyst projected the total war cost to be between 1 and 2 $trillion. This is sanity?

But hey, just slap on your red shirt and go along.

Writer James Howard Kunstler says that the biggest obstacle to getting our petro-dependent society to change its wasteful ways is a "collective insanity," found in the "worship of unearned riches, which is based on a very stark idea, the idea that you can get something for nothing."

Imagine someone behaving at the family table as we behave in the global community: At 6% of world population, we consume more than 25% of the energy, and produce 40% of the pollution. This has the effect of severe deprivation elsewhere--comprising poverty, pollution, disease, and death.

Dino--what gives America the right to be such a selfish, inconsiderate hog? Revelling in our retail orgy literally at the expense of other nations? Is this so we can ruin other people's places so the immigrants come this way in droves? PLEASE ANSWER THIS QUESTION (ANYONE!) Did I mention we have 37 million starving citizens in the US?

Contraindicated local plans include Rte 12 widening, the NED fiasco on Rte 117, the condo explosion, the attempt to 'grow' communities and grow the tax base, and Bovenzi's big mess slated for Ward 3. Try to think of the energy required for all these pursuits as blood coming from your arteries. And to throw people out of their homes by eminent domain is a most UN-American thing. Mob rule. What a waste of $20 million (was that estimate figured at $3-$5/gallon?)

And I thought I'd heard it all about misguided development until I read about the proposed baseball stadium. There is not one sane reason for going ahead with this in the current global scenario. It's outright frivolity. Worse than a new drugstore. Speaking of which, isn't it a bit hypocritical, after you, Dino, were waxing reminiscent on TV about old buildings, to be planning the demolition of 35 Central St? And for drug dealers to boot?

It's a bit ironic that all these plans held up as our salvation comprise the cause of our demise. And it's darkly humorous that those who campaign about illegal drug addiciton cannot see their own, much more threatening, addiction. That would be Growth--preceded by debt/inflation.

Consider the "upscale" chain restaurants for that "quality dining experience." These are outlet conduits for the enormous energy sink and waste that is our poison industrial agriculture. We are eating fossil fuel. Read Fatal Harvest, my friend. I have a copy of that you can borrow as well. Restaurants are also big energy consumers and waste-stream producers. You probably know that if the "government" didn't corporate-welfare the water it takes to grow beef, hamburger would be about $50 a pound. Of course we're all paying that price anyway (even those of us wise enough not to eat poison-ag dead animals :-) Stolen wealth.

Same with gasoline. The pump price is a fraction of the actual cost. And to an Iraqi, the price of it is a 500 pound bomb dropped on his neighborhood. No electricity or clean water for over a decade. Disease and death. Oh yes, we are responsible. It's like an Iraqi who was released from Abu Ghraib in May 2004 said, "The Americans brought electricity to my ass before they brought it to my house." All the while, the usurped federal government is pouring $592 million into a palace/embassy in Iraq that has juice 24/7, complete with a Starbucks for the drug addicts. Stolen wealth. Get your red shirt on.

Oil is heading for $100/barrel and running out (by contrivance or factl). To squander it on the projects mentioned above is misguided. None of them can survive $100/barrel oil! People think the problem is high prices? No, the prices are not yet high enough to knock sense into SUV-brained Americans. So I suppose it's perversely good that our development plans are going to exacerbate higher prices. However, the chance for avoidance of extreme misery may soon be slim, if any. We could even see $5/gallon before the year's out.

Even if there were unlimited oil, the planet can't withstand the burning of much more of it (not to mention coal!) at current rates, never mind for growth plans such as enthusiasts indulge around here. No practical, safe, effective alternative to oil, coal, and gas exists or can be implemented in time--UNLESS we drastically reduce consumption NOW to buy the time. Talk is about 'meeting needs' instead of reducing them. Childishness.

Behaving like kids playing in traffic, we're extremely vulnurable to circumstance. For example, there are now consistent attacks on Nigerian pipelines that are operated by foreign companies. The Nigerian rebels are warning companies to get out now while it’s still safe. Any significant spontaneous or planned disruption in the flow of oil now would probably initiate a global economic collapse. You couldn't blame the poverty-stricken Nigerians, who have been one of many 'beneficiaries' of corporate oppression, for acting in a way that could create it. "Significant" means as little as 10-15%. If Venezuala were to divert that much oil to another market, our economy would collapse.

With "collapse" we're talking about something that will make the Great Depression look like a picnic. And it could come from any of the "indicators" mentioned earlier, not just energy. Another weather disaster or two could bring the house down. OUR behavior locally contributes to the global conditions that result in more monster storms.

There is one scenario that's been in the paper that could make sense within the framework of creating local self-sufficiency. That is creating NECESSARY housing in old mill buildings. The idea is to move and concentrate the human population close to the urban center, to forbid any more construction, home or otherwise, in the periphery, and leave/return as much of that as possible to Nature. See, the animals are smarter than we. They live without destroying the place. We call our destruction 'development' and pat ourselves on the back. But the moose, deer, bear and beaver have been walking into our development trying to say something--to the deaf, apparently.

This housing idea is not for the purpose of increasing population locally to feed the Consumer Orgy (which is pretty blatantly the guiding plan around here). We, and the world, need to reduce population until we figure out how to end our dependence for survival on self-destructive (Earth-destructive) mechanisms, and stop the inexorable depletion of hard resources. It's unsustainable foolhardiness. One has to be in a state of intense denial or starry-eyed distraction not to see this.

OR, please say how these touted development plans are facilitating the critical need for reducing energy demand and pollution, and how they will prepare us for, or protect us from, the impending crunch. I can back up profusely what I'm reporting. Can you defend current policy in the face of this strong possibility? Sure, I'd be happy to be on your show :-) You will be on mine in the fall--one way or another :-)

Our Zoning Law needs a "Just Say No" clause, so the Planners aren't mere automatons conforming to the rules and regs of self-destruction. Then we could just say no to the suicide addiciton being offered from outside--if it were not embraced from within.

I've been talking about all this since years before the day I stood in City Hall opposing Wal-Mart. Mr Souza felt he had to shut me up, saying that energy was no problem. Quite the visionary. No official has even responded to say this is wrong and for what reason(s). Wait til next winter--or the one after that, or...  

BTW, did you hear about Puerto Rico going bankrupt? It has suspended all payments. Parts of public services have been shelved; schools have been closed, and close to 100,000 people have stopped working in the last week or so. Yet there's hardly any response here: no official reaction, very limited media coverage.

It's only the beginning.

A serious crash is imminent. The real estate bubble is deflating. We are accelerating the crash with local economic/growth policy.

Reports of falling sales and investors stuck with properties they can't sell are just the beginning. Property owners should worry; so should their lenders.
"The housing bubble has popped"

Here's another idea: Instead of putting in the 400,000 square-foot monster on 117, let's just have the delivery trucks bring all the landfill-bound stuff that people would have bought, directly to the transfer station, where WM can turn it into boils in the Earth with 'green' projects on top. Then, like OilCo, the retailers can apply for corporate welfare for the profits they would have made. More stolen wealth, and we can avoid the traffic jam. Not bad, eh :-)?

The justice will come, my friend, when you, Mayor Dan, the Planners, and whoever invented our shortsighted zoning laws, are out on Rte 12 in a chain gang hand shoveling the widened section :-)

And we've not even detailed the major threat to health that is our way of life, and our costly enslavement to Doktor Pharmastein's Medical Merry-Go-Round.

But there is some good news. Since I've talked so much to you and everyone about all this to no avail, I'm ready to audition for the Blue-in-the-Face Man Group :-)

Thanks for listening (if you got this far :-) I look forward to hearing from you (anyone!)

Best,
PeterT
------------
"The very luxuries we pride ourselves on being able to afford are making us biologically poorer for having them." - Robert Ovetz, PhD, Sea Turtle Restoration Project
-----------
"In our desire for the good life, we are forfeiting our right to any life at all." - John Kaminski

Sun, 7 May '06 Special column: Daniel M. Asquino: College president praises Summer Up program

Response: Some good stuff, but...

Summer recreation programs and field trips for 'at risk' kids resulted in some positive outcomes, such as a 29 percent reduction in 'risky behavior.' A sense of contribution to the community increased by 38%.

Then Asquino makes a point about the US spending more on prisons than on higher education. Therefore, goes the reasoning, the anti-drug programs will "save our society...the huge financial burden of incarcerations..."

Like most anti-drugsters, Asquino never bothers to consider that the biggest problem with drugs might be the invitation to criminals afforded by the illegality of the substances. After all, that's what really drives the incarcerations, the vast majority of which are non-violent, and heavily related to Marijuana. Special interests controlling government and influencing public opinion have waged a big propaganda campaign against pot, which is probably the safest drug on the planet.

The state has no right to tell anyone what he can or cannot put into his body. This is the accursed drawback of democracy, or mob rule, as opposed to a republic, which emphasizes individual rights. The irony is that people are exposed to equally harmful substances and risky behavior that society holds dear, or which underlie 'legitimate' business, especially industrial chemicals, medical drugs, and society's drugs of choice, such as caffeine.

There is no description of what an at-risk kid is, but if these programs get good reviews, there may be more kids trying to 'qualify.'

Sun, 7 May '06 S&E editorial: Jeff McMenemy: Argue the immigration issue on its merits

Response: Yes, 'merits' often come in disguise.

The main thrust of this one is that Jeff feels that discussions on the immigration have been marred by accusations of racism/bigotry.

"Saying you don't think illegal immigrants should be granted citizenship because they're breaking the law is not racist," says Jeff, but that doing so because you don't like Latinos (for example) is racist. "It's just that simple," says Jeff (he's such a black-and-white kinda guy).

Unfortunately, it isn't that simple. Simply because racists can hide behind the apparently 'reasonable' point of view.

But in all the discussions reported in the paper some of the biggest factors have largely been ignored, although desperation has been mentioned. Here's a letter-to-editor I sent on 5/5 which addresses this:

"We're All 'Illegal' Immigrants"
It seems that when "legitimate Americans" argue for a tough stance on illegal immigrants, a few considerations are missing.

Many immigrants are victims of unbearably oppressive conditions maintained by multinational corporations, many of whom are US-based and in league with sleazebag governments (including ours). These corporations rape and poison the earth, steal resources, and enslave labor for fun and profit, providing our Conehead consumer market.

Drummond Corp, a huge Alabama mining firm operating in S. America, is suspected of hiring mercenaries that kidnap, torture and kill peasant leaders attempting to unionize its slave-driving operations. These terrorists are most probably trained at the School of the Americas--now Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Policy--at Fort Benning Georgia, the biggest terrorist training camp in the world.

If it were not for intolerable conditions, how many people would abandon their home. Would you?

People who think themselves "legal" American citizens are merely accomplices receiving stolen property from the folks who took the place by force ("The Land for Free"). Native inhabitants were mass-murdered, imprisoned on dustbin reservations and lied to religiously ever since. So we're all virtual colonial invaders, and in that sense unjust immigrants, reaping the benefits of what we love to hate in Saddam and Osama. We might want to try a little humility. The real Americans were all but destroyed. 

If we began with loyalty to our source of life, Mother Earth, and to her children, including animals, wind, and water, rather than the national hubris that drives the sentiment of illegal-immigrant haters, we might end up with peace and justice, or at least the preservation of the future for the kids.

Otherwise, self-possessed obsession with chauvinism and "national security" might result in criminal hypocrisy, loss of freedom, phony wars, unspeakable violence, and planetary mass destruction. Seen any lately?

Tue, 2 May '06 Article: Pizza shop filtering water for safer dough

Response: Forgive him, for he knows not what he sells.

OOf course it can't hurt to use pure water in pizza dough. And, despite the assertions of local officials, Leominster water is not safe to drink. Even if it began pure, chlorine is added, which is a serious health threat.

Beyond that, the official statement is merely a guess, because there are literally thousands of pollutants coming from our vaunted, plasticized and chemicalized way of life that are not tested for. Only a limited range of 'standard' poisons and organisms are tested for.

As for the rest, folks, welcome to Guinea Pig World. People's health could be getting insidiously compromised by municipal water, but if it happens they'll never know, because no one is trying to determine the connection. Instead, we walk, run, and ride for disease research.

As for pizza dough, well, it's already a chemical feast, what with pesticide residue, dough conditioners, alloxan (whitener, causes diabetes), fungicide residue, and fungal toxin residue present in all stored grains (because they can't spray enough fungicide in there to get all the fungus that grows on grains in silos).

Not to mention that white flour is an enzyme-dead, processed, devitalized, empty-calorie nonfood. It's said to be 'enriched,' however. This means that a few of the 23-odd original, naturally balanced nutrients removed by food 'scientists' are replaced with inferior, synthetic chemicopharma substances.

To top it off, another fungus, yeast, is added when making the dough, providing an additional source of toxins to the mix. And we won't even get into how nasty the toppings are, including the gut-clogging, hormone-residue cheese (which is frequently burned).

By the way, aren't those drug dealers the nastiest people?

Mon, 1 May '06 S&E editorial: Exodus underway

Response: Fretting about something that would be welcome in a sane world.

Great consternation here about people leaving Massachusetts, apparently for cheaper housing and better jobs. This is bad news for the growth mongers, but good news for us breathers--although you wouldn't know this by the freaking traffic everywhere.

Persons commenting in this piece are State Rep Jennifer Flanagan, Chamber President David McKeehan, Fitchburg State College President Robert Antonucci--and of course the composer of this dark comedy, presumably S&E editor Jeff McMenemy.

Considering that the planet would be much more likely to survive with about a third of current population, this can't be an entirely bad thing. Two things make it threatening: 1) our insane debt/inflation/growth economic system with its rigged markets and phony currency produced at will by financial terrorists (Federal Reserve), 2) dependence for prosperity on the Conehead consumer orgy and toxic technology.

To service these two bits of human folly, we need a third--to be overpopulated.

The worst aspect of this editorial is the suggested solution, based on what "other states" are doing, namely wooing stem cell and biotech companies with public money, like California has done.

Oh yes, the mongers would love to have Dr Frankenstein right in the back yard. Why, it's JOBS, you know, and economic activity and all that. Never mind that these industries are based on health ignorance; are energy intensive; produce a heavy, often hazardous, waste stream; and are generally controlled by a ruthless, Pharma-like crowd of corporatists.

And here's the author's inspirational message: "The important lesson for Mass....is that governments must have dramatic visions, and make bold moves, to be competitive in today's global marketplace." Right words for the wrong reasons. But unfortunately, our governments--local and state--have no vision at all--or are misguided by the conventional paradigm.

Little does that writer realize that by investing in a self-destructive global system, we ensure our own demise.

Sun, 30 Apr '06 Column series: Serving to fight in the War on Drugs

Response: Can these folks BE this naive?

This one is by Robert Antonucci, President of Fitchburg State College and co-founder of the North Central Mass Alliance for a Drug Free Future (NCMADFF - a shorter name would have helped, but this one is commensurate with the politically correct long-wind being blown around :-.

To be fair, I can't unequivocally assess Mr Antonucci's naivete, or his sincerity. That will have to wait awhile to see what response there is, or not, to serious questions that have been, and will be, sent about the focus, validity, and motive for this anti-drug campaign.

In the interest of not reinventing the wheel, an earlier response, sent via email to these folks will serve to cover the major points. Meanwhile, here are a few specifics from this most recent outing.

Mr A begins with reference to the "horror, damage, and ruined lives" that can be caused by a drug addiction, and to the fact that we all pay the price for this blight on our community. This is an example of the focus flaw, because there are acceptable societal habits and influences that do equally bad and even worse things (see earlier response and the email reprinted below).

This is not to say certain drugs are not dangerous when abused, but one point is that the worst aspect of the "impact" on the community is the very illegality of the drugs. This is where all the crime comes in, and the stress on "law enforcement," which is one of Mr A's next points.

In the same paragraph, however, is an insight into the 'motive' flaw: Drugs are "...driving away fearful residents or potential residents." First, the fear is caused by the crime we create with stupid laws around an issue of personal choice. Secondly, the desire for more residents is part of the ill-advised, eternal economic growth policy being promoted by officials. The great dark humor is that such promoters can't see that the policy is as much an addiction as drugs, with even worse ultimate consequences. Search the site for "economic growth" or "addiction" or "drug(s)" for numerous writings on this.

In his appeal to enlist all citizens in the Big War, Mr A goes on about "teaching our children...right and wrong." Oh boy, can this one be torn apart. I'm going to end the response to this rant with the following--an email I just sent around, including the principle members of NCMADFF, that concerns the issue of just what right and wrong are and who understands:
From: peter@geminipress.com
Subject: Idiocy Disguised as Responsible Policy
Date: May 4, 2006 5:49:04 PM EDT

"Coca-Cola, Pepsi Ban Soda in Schools in Clinton Deal"
May 3, 2006

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000087&sid=aSpHwVqaCvBU&refer=top_world_news

"Coca-Cola Co., PepsiCo Inc. and Cadbury Schweppes Plc will only sell water, juice, tea and low-calorie drinks in schools under a deal brokered by former President Bill Clinton and the American Heart Association. The companies will limit soda sales in high schools to diet drinks, Clinton said at a press conference in New York today..."

In other words, the sugar factor is removed, halleluja, but the rest of the soda pop concoction remains, including the carbonation and extreme acidity, with the addition of the artificial sweetener aspartame. This substance, called an excitotoxin, has numerous ill effects and should never have been approved by the FDA decades ago (another Donald Rumsfeld accomplishment). It exemplifies corporate/government (FDA) malfeasance that results in the poisoning of everyone, especially kids, for profit.

And here's some research (which, with an ounce of common sense, we wouldn't need) on the relationship between junk food and violent behavior (maybe even vandalism?)

That 'adults' can stand by and allow a chemical assault on kids' brains, while pompously fretting about illegal drugs, then turning around and drugging kids with Ritalin, etc, to kill the effects of our toxic-chemical, toxic-energy, and crapfood way of life, is, well--anyone got a word for that? I've got a few choice ones.

Now if we could just encourage the local paper, Sentinel & Enterprise, to cease the junk 'journalism' promoting unhealthy behavior with 'cute' pictures of kids getting a sugar/dairy/chemical fix, it would be a step in the right direction (anyone wanna bet it won't be long before they run another?)

Sat, 29 Apr '06 Article: Many looking ahead to next phase in health care debate

Response: Nonsense added to nonsense.

A new plan has been submitted by MA Attorney General Tom Reilly--"the next phase of health reform," which is to address cost. "The next frontier in the health care debate will be cost and quality," says Brian Rossman, policy director of Health Care for All.

Good luck boys!

The following is an email I sent to MA State Rep DiMasi, a primary architect of Massachusetts's new health care bill. It was also sent to many state pols and local pols and officials. You may not be surprised to hear that NO ONE has responded--not even to say thanks, tell me I'm wrong, or even that I'm crazy :-) I'm starting to think these people are so confounded, they just don't know WHAT to say.

4/17/06:
Dear Rep DiMasi,

I appreciate the intention and the amount of thought and effort that has gone into the new Massachusetts health care bill. One of the prospects is that it will lower costs by getting people into regular channels of health care as opposed to many emergency-room visits by uncovered people. This has some logic to it.

But I respectfully suggest that the fundamental difficulty in health care is not, and will never be, addressed by administrative and coverage reform alone. That difficulty comprises the dangers and ineffectiveness of conventional medicine itself. A question apparently left unanswered: Of what interest is widespread wellness to an industry whose financial health depends upon permanent and widespread illness? 

This industry also egregiously violates the fundamental tenet of medicine: First, do no harm, by literally killing between 160,000 and 780,000 people annually, depending on how one looks at statistics. The lesser figure is by their own admission in JAMA. The greater figure is the conclusion of well-known health expert Gary Null.

Not to be a wise guy, but forcing people to buy in or face tax penalties almost has the feel of fascism. It's getting to be "1984." As  a Holistic practitioner, I wonder how this bill helps people aware enough not to want conventional medicine for wellness maintenance/recovery--something for which it is ill-equipped, and, some would argue, actually prevents. Such people might need separate accident and income insurance. Is that in there? If not, where is freedom?

The noted transition will have a reducing effect on costs, but costs are still going to soar for a varety of reasons, not the least of which is the greed of the corporatists who control the Pharma and the medical supply/device industries. In effect, this bill enslaves us to a ruthless, profit-motivated corporate monopoly--that is, unless it offers freedom of choice of modality/practitioner? It seems Senator Kennedy had it right when he said "Just what the 'doctor' ordered" (read, Doctor Pharma).

Another major reason for ever-increasing cost is that wellness is not the result, or even the intent, of conventional treatment methods, predisposing people to deteriorating health profiles and more visits and treatments. Also, conventional medicine is very hi-tech and energy-intensive, therefore inordinately dependent upon fossil and other resources, while producing a voluminous, nasty waste stream and heavy pollution. Mr. Finneran's burgeoning and largely unnecessary biotech industry will therefore only exacerbate cost increases.

If this is, as the newspaper reported, the first step, I hope that the next one addresses the question of what's being delivered under the coverage.

Thanks for your time.

Sincerely,
Peter G Tocci, BA, MT
Leominster

Followup to Above Letter to Rep DiMasi:

"The Evidence Is in the Pudding" 5/1/06

Dear Rep DiMasi,

The article linked below exemplifies rather well the nature of the beast to which our new conventional-health-care legislation subjugates insurance consumers, as suggested in an earlier email. A bitter irony not told in this story is that even if the company were not gouging hapless and desperate insurance holders, the "con" would only be marginally lessened, not eliminated. This is because the drug in question is not a safe and effective approach to the cancers it's being used on and proposed to be used on. But what can one expect, I suppose, for only about $46 grand for ten months' treatment.

Please note that the company in question is biotech--a typical member of the industry the misguided Thomas Finneran promotes, primarily on the basis of economy and jobs.

"Drug Firms ‘Gouge’ Consumers After Taking Taxpayer Handouts"
April 14/2006

"On Tuesday, the global biotechnology company Genentech reported that the company’s total product sales for the first quarter of 2006 increased 39 percent, to $1.64 billion, while sales of their colon-cancer drug Avastin increased 96 percent, raking in $398 million. The same day, Genentech also announced it was seeking approval from the Food and Drug Administration to expand use of Avastin to treat lung and breast cancer..."
http://newstandardnews.net/content/index.cfm/items/3059

And here's a helpful description of what the FDA does. It's a bit old, but nothing has changed--except that things might have gotten a bit worse since the old days:

Statement by Herbert Ley, former FDA Commissioner, at the 1965 Edward Long US Senate hearings and reprinted in the Jan. 2, 1970 San Francisco Chronicle:

"People think the FDA is protecting them. It isn't. What the FDA is doing and what the public thinks it's doing are as different as night and day.

"First, it is providing a means whereby key individuals on its payroll are able to obtain both power and wealth through granting special favors to certain politically influential groups that are the subject of its regulation. This activity is similar to the 'protection racket' of organized crime: for a price, one can induce FDA administrators to provide protection from the FDA itself.

"Secondly, as a result of political favoritism, the FDA has become a primary factor in that formula whereby cartel-oriented companies in the food and drug industry are able to use the police powers of the government to harass or destroy their free-market competitors.

"And thirdly, the FDA occasionally does some genuine public good with whatever energies it has left over after serving the vested political and commercial interest of its first two activities."

---- Pretty damning stuff. It should be added that "free-market competitors" are not exclusively other drug dealers, but often include anyone who comes up with safe and effective remedies of which favored FDA "subjects" cannot get financial control. This especially concerns 'incurables,' including major degenerative symptomologies, such as heart disease, cancer, and AIDSyndrome.

Sincerely,
Peter G Tocci
Leominster
------------- "Industrial parents, forced to procreate manpower for a world into which nobody fits who has not been crushed and molded by sixteen years of formal education, feel impotent to care personally for their offspring and, in despair, shower them with medicine." - Ivan Illich, "Medical Nemesis"d

Fri, 28 Apr '06 Syndicated editorial: Two drugs: A tale of twisted science

Response: Excellent!

U of Colorado law professor Paul Campos usually writes pretty good stuff. This time, he's outdone himself, clearly painting the picture of general stupidity and government malfeasance around the marijuana issue.

The goody-shoe, self-righteous, politically correct anti-drug campaigners should take note.

In order to make his point, Campos notes the conscious marketing of a dangerous drug called Redux, which was originally denied by the FDA. That decision was reversed in 1996 due to the usual political, financial, and phony-science pressure applied by Big Pharma. As a result, many people died of heart valve damage.

To date, says Campos, no one we're aware of has ever died of marijuana, which in addition to expanding awareness, has medicinal value. It's unfortunate that the value noted in this piece is marijuana's unique ability to control the unbearable nausea created by chemotherapy/retroviral drugs, because such drugs are themselves yet another example of PharmaMedical malfeasance.

But you get the point. And the fact is that many more people are dying of approved drugs than even cocaine and heroin (whose quality is unregulated). Goody shoes should take note of this also, as well as the fact that the worst effects of these drugs are caused by their very illegality.

Campos also points out the great volume of research recounting the usefulness and safety of pot, noting that the government has done its best to keep such research from being conducted and results to be known.

It's interesting to consider the numerous dangerous substances approved by the FDA over the decades. Some have been exposed and recalled--such as Thalidomide, Fen Phen, Zyprexa, phenylpropanolamine, Vioxx, while others continue to assault health--Celebrex, Strattera, aspartame (forced through by Donald Rumsfeld), MSG, and SSRI drugs like Prozac, Zoloft, etc. You could go on and on.

And the funniest thing is that most medical drugs are useless, often causing more problems than they solve. Also funny is that the goody-shoes never mention the politically INcorrect stuff.

Wed, 26 Apr '06 Article: WTC developer, Port Authority close to ground zero rebuild deal

Response: Crime pays bigtime.

Larry Silverstein, who is recorded live in history saying, with impunity since, that he decided to "pull" WTC 7 on 9/11, ostensibly to saver further loss of life, is about to reap the rewards of his criminal involvement in 9/11 by rebuilding the Center, and getting "promises to fill more than 1 million square feet of office space at ground zero with federal, state, and city leases."

And the beat goes on, la de da de dee.

Archive of Editorial Letters

Peter G. Tocci is a Holistic wellness consultant and health writer dba Associated Health Services in Leominster, Massachusetts.

Check out Holistic Health Information

Associated Health Services
978.537.6991

Gemini Press
978.537.2553

E-mail for both:
peter<at>geminipress<dot>com
Or Send S-mail:
Peter G. Tocci
22 Walker St. #2
Leominster, Mass. USA 01453

Home

Page Top