Archive for the ‘Activism’ Category

Food Crisis Hits Home

Saturday, March 22nd, 2008

The Natural Solutions Foundation, the leading Global Health Freedom organization, is proud to present this information to you. We protect your right to know about – and to use – natural ways to maintain and regain your health, no matter where in the world you live. Among your freedoms is the right to clean, unadulterated food free of genetic manipulation, pesticides, heavy metals or other contaminants and access to herbs, supplements, frequency devices and other means as therapies that may benefit or to protect your well-being without drugs and other dangerous interventions, if you choose.

For more information on our global programs, including the International Decade of Nutrition, as well as our US-based ones, please visit us at www.HealthFreedomUSA.org and www.GlobalHealthFreedom.org and join the free email list for the Health Freedom eAlerts to keep you in the loop, informed and active defending your right to make your own decisions about your health and wellbeing!
Our activities are supported 100% by your tax deductible donations. Please give generously (http://www.healthfreedomusa.org/index.php?page_id=189) to the Natural Solutions Foundation. Thank you for your support.
Feel free to disseminate this information as widely as possible with full attribution.
Yours in health and freedom,
Dr. Rima

Rima E. Laibow, MD
Medical Director
Natural Solutions Foundation
www.HealthFreedomUSA.org
www.GlobalHealthFreedom.org

Why is the agriculturally blessed US facing rising food costs which make it more and more difficult for more and more people to buy food? What if prices rise for real food which has not been genetically modified and fake food, which has been genetically modified (like the corn now in the food supply which was created to cause male sterility) is cheaper and more widely available? What would people buy and what would people eat?

The fancy breads impacted here are just the snowy frost on the tip of the iceberg. Food prices are rising all over the world at dizzying rates while food stocks are depleted and many parts of the world are just days away from running out of food. These two curves, one up at a tremendous rate and one down even faster, are a graphic representation of disaster. Maybe once upon a time the US would have been busy providing emergency rations to help the masses who will be impacted first and backing off from its policy of encouraging the planting of increasing amounts of food-production land into biofuel crops. Not now. The policy makers want more inefficient and expensive biofuel and fewer people around to use it, despite the failed mathematics of that equation and the increased energy cost of biofuel.

First the croissants and other luxury items become more expensive that people can afford, then their staples, then… what? Obviously, this economy of scarcity and shortage will not impact everyone equally and at the same time. But look down the socioeconomic ladder and see what is coming up towards you. If you do not like it (and I certainly do not), let’s find ways to change it. Growing as much of your own food organically or doing so in a coop is one way to make the changes. Supporting clean agriculture will bring its price down. Look into local Community Supported Agriculture (CSA, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Community-supported_agriculture) and arrange with local farmers to supply you with what you need. Rationale: it is clean, healthy for you and the environment and supports the kind of agriculture, organic or biodynamic, that we need on this planet.

But make a positive change in your food procurement habits and begin making a difference in your own life and in the life of the economy and the planet.

Now would be a good time to start. And now would also be a good time to support the Natural Solutions Foundation with your generous taqx deductible recurring donation. You know you can depend on the Natural Solutions Foundation. Click here (http://www.healthfreedomusa.org/index.php?page_id=189) to let us know that we can depend on you.

Soaring wheat costs means higher costs at bakeries

By Karen Gaudette
3/21/2008

Seattle Times staff reporter

The way wheat prices are hopping up, Puget Sound bakeries from wee Café Besalu to giant Costco might start wishing for Easter baskets of their own this year — stuffed with sacks of flour.

Bakeries of all sizes around the region are raising prices on loaves of bread, hamburger buns, croissants, doughnuts and pastries, some for the second or third time in the past year, trying to keep pace with the rising cost of flour, sugar, eggs, butter and even packaging made from petroleum products.

But for those who make their dough from dough, the hardest increase to swallow has been flour.

Bakers have cringed as the price of the standard 100-pound sack of flour soared from less than $10 at the start of 2007 to anywhere from $25 to upwards of $40 now.

“We’re all shell shocked right now. Anyone who is dealing with that floury stuff is right now finding out basically that the earth has shifted underneath our feet,” said Gillian Allen-White, general manager of Grand Central Baking Company.

“Everyone I know that’s baking is kind of freaking out right now,” said James Miller of Café Besalu in Seattle’s Ballard neighborhood. “We’ve only raised our prices once in seven years yet everything has just gone up so much more.”

National dilemma

Bakers have taken their concerns all the way to the nation’s capital. Baking trade groups that represent giants like Hostess to supermarket chains to family-owned bakeries lobbied Congress last week to put fields currently lying fallow into wheat production.

Wheat costs so much these days for a sheaf of reasons: Crop failures in Australia and Russia, rising demand among the growing middle class in China and India, and soaring shipping costs along with the price of diesel and gasoline. More wheat farmers here and around the globe are also replacing wheat with corn and other grains that can be processed into biofuels.

Washington farmers have moved about 30,000 additional acres into wheat production, said wheat commission chief executive Tom Mick, but that’s small potatoes compared to the 18.5 million acres devoted to wheat around the state. Wheat prices are at record highs, but so are prices for plenty of other grains they grow, he said.

And it’s not all rainbows for wheat farmers. They may be earning more, but they’re also paying more for everything from fertilizer to diesel.

“They’re paying down their debts, but not going out buying new pickups or Cadillacs or anything like that,” Mick said.

The organization that represents smaller bakeries, Virginia-based Retail Bakers of America, is urging its members to raise prices rather than continue trying to absorb the cost. At this point, they say it’s about survival for bakers who have struggled for years to compete against supermarkets.

“It wouldn’t be so bad if it was just the wheat, but we’re dealing with price increases across the board,” said Lynn Schurman, president-elect of Retail Bakers of America and owner of Cold Spring Bakery in Minnesota. “Eggs are up, dairy’s up, some of the shortenings are up … the combination of the different price increases coming is really scary for bakers. I don’t know that it’s ever happened like this.”

The latest consumer price index report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s economic research service bears this out. The cost of a dozen grade A eggs rose by nearly 30 percent during 2007 and was expected to rise an additional percent this year. Dairy (milk, cheese, butter) prices rose by 7.4 percent and were expected to go up another 2 or 3 percent in 2008. Fats and oils are expected to increase by as much as 7 percent this year.

Spokane wheat farmer Fred Fleming calls these the highest prices he can remember in four generations of farming Eastern Washington. Once, $6 a bushel was a price that grabbed headlines. Now it sells for about $12.50 at the Portland Grain Exchange.

“Usually in a baker’s life one product might go up and one goes down, so there’s a balancing act. Right now every thing’s just going up, so there’s no balance,” Fleming said.

Fleming co founded Shepherd’s Grain, a collective of farmers growing wheat in a more environmentally friendly manner. In keeping with the group’s goal of sustainability, he’s tried to keep prices below the national average (Shepherd’s Grain charges $9.70 a bushel, or about $26 per 100-pound sack of flour, which they mill).

Stretching the dough

All these expenses have prompted some new coping behaviors. Bakers say they’re making fewer varieties of bread, not refilling stocks when they run out and mixing different varieties of flour — everything they can think of to avoid big price increases.

Miller of Café Besalu has taken to pondering the weather before he pops his trademark croissants in the oven.

“The idea for us is if it’s sort of sunny in the morning and then raining by 11:30, everyone just decides oh, the heck with it, let’s go get a coffee. If it’s rainy, people sleep in in the morning,” Miller said. “Even though none of it is an exact science, you just have to be really careful not to over bake.”

Grand Central, which raised prices around the holidays, no longer delivers more bread to supermarkets than it expects to sell and is encouraging customers to place orders in advance to ensure those cookies and cakes they want will be available, Allen-White said. And, she feels badly about not having as much day-old bread to pass along to charities like Northwest Harvest.

Raising prices is risky business. For consumers already paying more for groceries and seeing $4-per-gallon gasoline on the horizon, at what price will they simply scrap the scone and coffee as too much?

“At the grocery store if milk goes up they just raise the price and that’s that,” Miller said. “When people have coffee and a pastry, they have a mental price they’re willing to pay.”

“Your customers are used to paying a certain amount,” said William Leaman, owner of West Seattle’s Bakery Nouveau. Open barely a year, Leaman says he’s relieved he was able to take food costs into account when he set his prices so that he could delay increases so far. “I’m going to try to hold off on that as long as I can, but when it really starts to affect the bottom line I may have to make some adjustments.”

QFC supermarkets have seen the cost of flour boost prices in both packaged goods and in ingredients used in their bakeries, said spokeswoman Kristin Maas. At Costco, house-baked bread, muffins and bagels went up 50 cents Monday to offset all the price increases.

“We’d been riding it out, hoping things would change,” said bakery operations vice president Sue McConnaha.

Aside from flour, she’s watched the soybean oil her bakers use rise from $23.66 to $60.20 for a 35-pound container over the past year.

Seattle’s Essential Baking Co. has reluctantly raised its prices across the board, and sales and marketing director Anna Li is dreading talk of wheat going even higher. Essential only uses flour from wheat grown organically, which can be tough to find as wheat buyers snap up whatever they can find to send overseas. Independent bakeries are kicking around the idea of banding together to negotiate better prices, she said.

“This is the staff of life and it’s something that we all in this country kind of take for granted,” Li said. “It makes that whole concept of Marie Antoinette ‘let them eat cake’ have a whole new meaning.”

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/foodwine/2004290947_wheat19.html

Ground Breaking Health Freedom Action: Call in the FTC!

Thursday, March 20th, 2008

Our highly innovative Citizens Petition asks the FTC to use its powers to prevent false and misleading advertising in order to STOP THE VACCINE INDUSTRY FROM SAYING THAT VACCINES ARE SAFE, EFFECTIVE OR PROVEN METHODS OF PREVENTING DISEASE AND PROMOTING HEALTH. Click here (http://www.healthfreedomusa.org/index.php?p=507) to read this ground breaking legal approach to stopping the vaccine madness.

A Citizens Petition is a legal assault on the US Government to force it to take the desired action. If the FTC does hold the hearings we ask for and take the desired actions, well and good. If it does not, that means we have “exhausted our administrative remedies” and the case is ripe (as they say) for Federal Court.

Once we have an FTC Docket Number for this Citizens Petition, it’s your turn. “Mouse Warriors” be prepared! Then you can sign it and pour forth a tsunami of grassroots support for changing the terrain on which the battle for vaccination freedom is fought from our bodies to our laws! But that will cost money so when you sign, we will ask you to make a “War Chest” donation (tax deductible, as always, of course) of at least $10.

Our first Citizens Petition on illegal US/Codex “HARMonization” and Dietary Supplements has nearly 200,000 sign-ones! But, to be honest, we made a mistake: since we did not ask for your financial support when you signed it, we do not now have the money to take it to Federal Court. We’ve learned and we are smarter now. With our new Citizens Petition, however, we will build the war chest as we build the number of people who join the Citizens Petition. Can you sign if you do not donate to the War Chest? Sure. Do we need the War Chest filled? You bet! It’s another way to protect and expand health freedom. We think it has great potential to end the vaccine lies since the FTC successfully took on the tobacco industry and other giants in the past in similar situations. Either way, we are building a case for Health Freedom in a novel and powerful way.

We’ll let you know as soon as we’re ready to start that tsunami of netroots support and filling that War Chest. Watch for it.

Thanks for your continuing activism.

Yours in health and freedom,
Dr. Rima

Rima E. Laibow, MD
Medical Director
Natural Solutions Foundation
www.HealthFreedomUSA.org
www.GlobalHealthFreedom.org

Your Free Thank You Gift

Thursday, March 20th, 2008

In the health freedom battle, grass roots size and activity level is crticially important. The New Media grass roots is known as “netroots”.
Right now, Natural Solutions Foundation is the largest and most effective health freedom voice. But we need many more voices in the netroots community and you are our key to finding them!

We need to add more people to our “netroots” mailing list so that our grassroots, netroots voice becomes louder and louder and louder. The grassroots need to roar loud enough to protect our rights so when people receive our emails, they take action! So here is our way of saying “Thank you” for helping us to grow the netroots list: Www.Organics4U.org (www.Organics4U.org) is a fantastic resource of healthy and health producing products. Every purchase helps to support the Natural Solutions Foundation and you get a 40% tax deduction on most purchases. So sign up 10 people for our Health Freedom eAlerts (http://www.healthfreedomusa.org/index.php?page_id=187“>http://www.healthfreedomusa.org/index.php?page_id=187) and we’ll say “Thank You” with a $10 gift certificate for our Health Freedom store, www.Organics4U.org. (No unwanted sign-ups, of course – ask these people for permission before you sign them up!)

Sign up 100 people and we’ll send you a $100 “Thank you” certificate. And for the person who signs up the most people by March 31, we’ve got a “thank you” certificate of $200 waiting for you!

Your purchases of organic products from www.Organics4U.org are good for you and good for the health freedom movement since the profits from these sales are another way for us to generate the funds that we need! To get these “thank you” certificates:

Just send us an email to dr.laibow@gmail.com telling us how many people you’ve signed up (please include their names and email addresses) and we’ll send out your Thank You certificate by email. Write “Alerts” as the subject and we’ll keep track of how many people you sign up. We’ll track how many new names are being added to our database and you’ll see a gift certificate in your email box!

Remember, though, despite the fantastic forward movement gained from that trip, we still have a very serious shortfall from our last Codex trip (Africa) and still need your generous and continuing financial support (http://www.healthfreedomusa.org/index.php?page_id=189).

Thank you for being an active force for change. Thank you, too, for building the netroots community to protect health freedom for all of us.

Yours in health and freedom,
Dr. Rima

Rima E. Laibow, MD
Medical Director
Natural Solutions Foundation
www.HealthFreedomUSA.org
www.GlobalHealthFreedom.org

African Request for Codex Partnership And Agricultural Improvement

Tuesday, March 18th, 2008

The email below represents a major forward movement in the Natural Solutions Foundation drive to energize sophisticated and effective opposition to Codex destroying good, clean food on a world-wide basis!

The Codex delegate of this African country (you can easily imagine why the name of the country and delegate are protected) wants his fellow Africans and their supporters (like the Natural Solutions Foundation) to work together to press the advantage that they secured by working together during the Working Group in Accra, Ghana (Feb. 2008) to stop the US from including language which would have left any country banning, or even labeling, Genetically Modified (GM) foods open to a World Trade Organization punishment. They saw the game, got together a very effective coalition and pushed back against the Biotech interests being advanced by the US.

But it gets better. At the end, you will see a request from this articulate and very articulate scientist to bring our advanced technologies, which are part of the International Decade of Nutrition, to his country.

This is thrilling, of course. With your generous support, we can go to the meetings and bring the agricultural improvements which eliminate the need for pesticide and increase both yield and nutrient density safely for the environment and the farmer as well. Click here (http://www.healthfreedomusa.org/index.php?page_id=189) to make a generous donation (recurring ones are particularly helpful) to make sure that the Natural Solutions Foundation is at these meetings, strategizing for health freedom with the African countries and their supporters in the coalitions we have worked so hard to build.

Yours in health and freedom,

Rima E. Laibow, MD
Medical Director
Natural Solutions Foundation
www.HealthFreedomUSA.org
www.GlobalHealthFreedom.org

Dear Dr. Rima Laibow,

To me and many who attended the Working Group meeting [on labeling of genetically modified foods] in Ghana [in February, 2008], the move we took [to force back the US labeling strategy and the associated attempt to set up countries banning GM foods for World Trade Organization sanctions] was exceptional and very rare in the history of such meetings. [Emphasis mine – REL] But a lot of effort was made starting with the meeting in Kampala, Uganda organized by the USA Department of Agriculture. We need more concrete scientific evidence and very logical reasoning to further advance the success of the African bloc, joined by it allies on this matter, by greater successes in Ottawa and Geneva. We resolve that all the African delegates who represented their countries in Ghana, should make an effort to represent their countries again in Ottawa, Canada. This way it will be a lot easier for us to forge ahead with that kind of solidarity. New faces may not be able to understand what we achieved in Ghana.

We all know and strongly believe that the reasons being advanced by the US, Canada and their allies is a scientific fallacy, but to provide a formidable road block to the US “chess move” to declare all foods (including GM) safe and thus requiring no labeling, needs a lot of concerted efforts. We need support from all people of good will in order to succeed in this endeavour. It took us time and logical reasoningto convince Nigeria to speak with all of us in one voice. [Nigeria was a co-author of the paper with which the US tried force the deceptive language saying that food on the market should be regarded as safe into Codex. Once adopted, that language would allow the US and its allies to take countries who blocked the legally “safe” GM foods to the World Trade Organization for sanctions to be levied againstthose nations -REL] We need the number and that is why I think we should try to find ways and means have a number of African countries represented in Ottawa and if possible we should have a pre-conference meeting and other subsequent side meetings for our group. That way we shall definitely have some headway.

Though I have not yet secured sufficient funding for the Ottawa Meeting, I still have very high hope of making it. In the mean time let us share any information that might be useful to fine tune our position papers for the forthcoming Meeting.

Regarding the Natural Solutions Foundation, I am very much interested in learning from you how we can make our contribution towards the improvement of the agricultural output, nutrient density and decreased water usage of crops without the addition of any pesticide, fertilizer or other expensive and dangerous chemicals here in Uganda. I am sure this shall be of great help to our rural poor farmers and to the
country at large. It would very nicely fit within the framework of our national policy of modernization of agriculture to reduce rural poverty and improve on household food security.

As a way forward, I think we should explore means and ways of how we can get started here in XXX. We should aim to start small and grow rapidly in XXX and subsequently in East and Central Africa. XXX can be a very good entry point bearing in mind that the East African cooperation is expanding fast to include countries like Rwanda and Burundi.

Hoping to hear from you soon. My best regards to General Stubblebine, the President of the Foundation.

Name withheld.

Cut the Crap! Thanks, Eve Pringle, For the Straight Talk on Mercury.

Sunday, March 16th, 2008

Natural Solutions Foundation: More Than Just Talk!

The Natural Solutions Foundation, the leading Global Health Freedom organization, is proud to present this information to you. We protect your right to know about – and to use – natural ways to maintain and regain your health, no matter where in the world you live. Among your freedoms is the right to clean, unadulterated food free of genetic manipulation, pesticides, heavy metals or other contaminants and access to herbs, supplements, frequency devices and other means as therapies that may benefit or to protect your well-being without drugs and other dangerous interventions, if you choose.

For more information on our global programs, including the International Decade of Nutrition, and our US based ones, please visit us at www.HealthFreedomUSA.org and www.GlobalHealthFreedom.org and join the free email list for the Health Freedom eAlerts to keep you in the loop, informed and active defending your right to make your own decisions about your health and wellbeing!
Our activities are supported 100% by your tax deductible donations. Please give generously (http://www.healthfreedomusa.org/index.php?page_id=189) to the Natural Solutions Foundation. Thank you for your support.
Feel free to disseminate this information as widely as possible with full attribution.
Yours in health and freedom,
Dr. Rima

Rima E. Laibow, MD

Medical Director
Natural Solutions Foundation
www.HealthFreedomUSA.org
www.GlobalHealthFreedom.org

This is a remarkably important article which every one interested in vaccination, autism or protecting our young ought to read and forward. And while you are doing that, think about the fact that the US Government’s NorthCom, the US Northern Command, has signed a pact with Canadian Military to allow the Canadians to enter the US if their help is needed. Needed for what, you might ask? Well the ONLY button focusing on a threat on the official site of NorthCom, http://www.northcom.mil/, is one button on Avian Flu. When you go there, you see the usual deceptive fear mongering. Remember, though, that on April 17, 2007, the FDA announced that it had approved an Avian Flu Vaccine (http://www.fda.gov/bbs/topics/NEWS/2007/NEW01611.html) despite the fact that a vaccine CANNOT be made against an organism which allegedly does not exist. Leaving aside this biological absurdity, the FDA announced,

The vaccine was generally well tolerated, with the most common side effects reported as pain at the injection site, headache, general ill feeling and muscle pain. The study showed that 45 percent of individuals who received the 90 microgram, two-dose regimen developed antibodies at a level that is expected to reduce the risk of getting influenza. Although the level of antibodies seen in the remaining individuals did not reach that level, current scientific information on other influenza vaccines suggests that less than optimal antibody levels may still have the potential to help reduce disease severity and influenza-related hospitalizations and deaths. Additional information on this H5N1 influenza vaccine is being collected on safety and effectiveness in other age groups and will be available to FDA in the near future.

but has none the less, at that point, nearly a year ago, the FDA said on the same site,

With the support of FDA, the U.S. National Institutes of Health and other government agencies, sanofi pasteur and other manufacturers are working to develop a next generation of influenza vaccines for enhanced immune responses at lower doses, using technologies intended to boost the immune response. Meanwhile, the approval and availability of this vaccine will enhance national readiness and the nation’s ability to protect those at increased risk of exposure.

In other words, we, the tax payers of the United States were paying for industry to make yet another very dangerous vaccine.

Then on August 3, 2007, the Avian Flu Diary, http://afludiary.blogspot.com/2007/08/us-govt-orders-additional-pre-pandemic.html, published this announcement:

US Govt Orders Additional Pre-Pandemic Vaccine

# 1041 A pre-pandemic vaccine is a bit of a gamble. It may, or may not, prove effective once a pandemic strain emerges. The hope is that even a poorly matched vaccine might afford enough protection to the recipient that while it might not stop them from becoming infected, it might lessen the severity of their illness and improve their chances of survival.

GSK (Glaxo-Smith Kline) announced today that the HHS has ordered an additional 22 million doses of this pre-pandemic vaccine, on top of an order for 5 million doses made last November.

This is a substantial increase in the national vaccine stockpile, with perhaps enough vaccine for 10% of the nation.

Tow years earlier, on August 8, 2005,the New York Times announced,

A Successful Vaccine Alone Is Not Enough to Prevent Avian Flu Epidemic

By LAWRENCE K. ALTMAN and KEITH BRADSHER

WASHINGTON, Aug. 7 – Health officials, who over the weekend announced success in an initial test of a human vaccine against avian influenza, cautioned Sunday that the existence of a vaccine in itself would not be enough to avert a worldwide pandemic.

They said countries need to quickly organize ways to give the shots when they become available, a task that will take coordination, money and more scientific work.

www.nytimes.com/2005/08/08/politics/08flu.html

Enter NorthCom and its cozy little deal with the Canadian Military.

By the way, in case you are worried about the Constitutional problem presented by the prohibition against quartering foreign troops on US soil (which apparently might trouble you and me, but not the US Military and the Department of Homeland Security), since the North American Union and the Security and Prosperity Perimeter signings (minus referendum, advice and consent of Congress or any parliament or any other non New World Order input), that little issue is of no consequence since either the US and Canada ARE one country now or the constitutions of all three countries whose presidents (elected and unelected) and premier who signed the agreement in 2003 were abrogated and nullified in that signing.

In that same New York Times story, the ringing call for more Tamiflu for the poor nations that could not afford the vaccine was issued. The only problem with that (aside from the highly interesting 1/4 patent share ownership of Donald Rumsfeld in that failed and dangerous anti-viral drug) is that it does not work against Avian Flu since the drug had already become resistent to it by the time this clarion call for more drug profits for the Secretary of Defense was made.

The Avian Flu pandemic to come is, however, is a bit different from seasonal flu or diptheria or whooping cough or Hepatitis B. While marketing words like “very severe”, “lethal” and “deadly” are intentional parts of the strategy to sell vaccines, the Avian Flu danger, real or not (and I have very grave doubts about whether it is another marketing ploy for profits and fascism) will, I believe, be pulled out of the quiver of slings and arrows against of outrageous freedom (Sorry Mr. Shakespeare) to compel vaccination, at gun point if necessary, for a pestilence which is either wholly illusory or totally manufactured. Once the word “Pandemic” is uttered by the head of Health and Human Services, for example, compulsory vaccination swings into place along with Martial Law. Those who do not accept vaccination will be “quarantined” indefinitely, according to the Patriot Act I and II, Bio Shield I and II and a host of Homeland Security directives and similar edicts.

Remember, the “tetanus” shots so generously provided in South and Central America and the and “smallpox” in Africa which the World Health Organization handed out contained not only goodies like stealth viruses and, we believe, CMV 40, a potent leukemia-causing virus, as well as the usual witches brew of mercury, aluminum hydroxide, etc., etc., etc., but a vaccine which renders women sterile as well. That same vaccine is now approved by the FDA for use in this country.

Many people believe that under the auspices of the WHO those same small pox vaccinations also contained an agent that destroys the immune system and opens it up to opportunistic infections and diseases – HIV, in other words. I must admit that I have reluctantly come to the horrifying conclusion that this belief is justified.

Is it any wonder, then, that the shameful whitewash of vaccination and its tools is carried out so stridently and adamantly by the CDC, the FDA and other agencies with a stake in protecting the vaccine producers, their own behinds and their various real intentions?

Read Eve Pringle’s outstanding article and pass it along to everyone you know. And while we are cutting the crap along with Ms. Pringle, let’s cut the Bird Flu crap as well

While you are engaged in crap cutting, please remember to support the Natural Solutions Foundation in two ways:
1. Pass this information along as widely as you can and ask everyone you know to sign up for our free Health Freedom eAlerts, http://www.healthfreedomusa.org/index.php?page_id=187, and disseminate them widely while asking their contacts to make this a viral success and
2. Donate generously to the Natural Solutions Foundation to keep us keeping on. Your tax deductible gifts make our work possible. Recurring gifts, large or small, are particularly helpful to us. Click here (http://www.healthfreedomusa.org/index.php?page_id=189) right now to keep health freedom free!

Yours in health and freedom,
Dr. Rima

Rima E. Laibow, MD

Medical Director
Natural Solutions Foundation
www.HealthFreedomUSA.org
www.GlobalHealthFreedom.org

And remember, too that the US has announced that it has enough Avian Flu vaccine for every Evelyn Pringle: Autism – Cut The Crap
Sunday, 31 July 2005, 4:25 pm
Opinion: Evelyn Pringle

Autism – Cut The Crap

By Evelyn Pringle

In their public statements, officials within the FDA and CDC, are always claiming that researchers and scientists who conduct studies, not funded by drug companies or the government, are making unfounded claims about a link between thimerosal-laced vaccines and autism, and other neurological disorders, which they claim could lead to reduced vaccine coverage, resulting in preventable outbreaks of disease affecting the entire planet.
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I say cut the crap.

Think about it. Why would so many highly respected scientists, researchers and physicians go to such great lengths to concoct bogus studies and issue false reports, in essence putting their professional reputations on the line, if their was no connection? I want these officials to do two things. First I want them to give me one good reason why these professionals would make this up, and two, I want them to give me one logical alternative theory for the current epidemic of disorders.

Lets look at a few of these experts.

Dr Jeffrey Bradstreet, is a practicing physician who treats children with autism and other brain-damage disorders. While in the Air Force, he was trained in toxicology and environmental health. His duties as an Officer included the responsibility for military personnel who had exposure to a wide variety of toxins, including mercury.

Dr Bradstreet has evaluated well over 2000 children with neurological disorders. He also directs a school for children with neurodevelopmental disorders where his responsibilities include supervising occupational therapists, speech and language pathologists, and applied behavioral analysts.

Dr Bradstreet is a Harvard Certified Medical Education Instructor in autism and has written three peer reviewed papers regarding the relationship between thimerosal, developmental disorders and biological markers for Mercury-Susceptibility.

In addition, he has conducted research regarding these disorders and has worked with some of the most highly respected professionals in the country, including Dr Jane El-Dahr of the Tulane University Medical Center; Dr V.K. Singh of the Utah State University Biotechnology Center; the University of Michigan Department of Pharmacology; Dr Vas Aposhian of the University of Arizona; Dr Anne Connolly of the Washington University Hospital; Dr Walter Spitzer of McGill University; the Department of Pediatrics at Robert Wood Johnson Medical School; Dr Jim Adams of the University of Arizona; and Dr Jill James, a former FDA researcher, now with the University of Arkansas, Department of Pediatrics.

Apparently the FDA, CDC, and vaccine makers expect us to believe that this long line of highly respected professionals from Universities all over the country somehow got together and conspired to conduct fraudulent research for decades and then authored 1000s of false reports and other publications.

I do not buy it. What would be the payoff?

Dr Mark Geier is a medical doctor who holds a PhD in genetics and is board-certified in medical genetics and forensic medicine. He was a researcher at the National Institutes of Health for 10 years and was previously a professor at Johns Hopkins University. He has studied vaccines for more than 30 years and has published over 50 peer-reviewed papers on vaccine safety, efficacy, contamination and policy.

He was instrumental in convincing officials to switch from the whole-cell Diphtheria-Tetanus-Pertussis (DTP) vaccine to the safer version (DTaP). In fact, he wrote the article, “The True Story of Pertussis Vaccination: A Sordid Legacy?” which in 2002, won the first annual Stanley W. Jackson award for the best paper published in the Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences during the period of 2000 to 2002.

Dr Geier has made several presentations to the Institute of Medicine on the adverse effects of vaccines including one on thimerosal in 2004. He and his son, David Geier, are the only independent researchers who have ever been permitted to study the Vaccine Safety Datalink (VSD) database of the CDC.

Dr Geier has testified before the US House of Representatives Committee on Government Reform Investigating Vaccines and the Autism Epidemic to critique the Hviid study, conducted in Denmark on autism and thimerosal exposure and he has also addressed the FDA Advisory Committee regarding vaccine safety.

Finally, Dr Geier has testified as an expert witness in about 100 cases before the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program in the US Court of Federal Claims.

In one such case, on November 25, 2003, the Special Master French issued an opinion in which he praised Geier’s credentials and vast experience and said in part:

Dr Geier “ranks high among those who have studied vaccine issues through the medical literature on vaccines, databases, studies, articles and information on vaccine safety and efficacy in vaccine policy.” … “The tenor of his testimony in this case addressed the importance of statistical databases in providing statistical reliability and validity in interpreting the epidemiology and issues relating to autism and various vaccines. . . . Dr Geier has recently proposed a data-sharing process that would improve the reliability of present statistical data that would include the present VAERS statistical database. It would be helpful in interpreting the epidemiology and issues relating to the autism controversy.”

Give me one good reason why this world renowned scientist would put his professional career on the line by lying under oath, not only in court 100 times, but also before a congressional committee?

The drug makers and government officials have waged an all out attack on this particular expert in attempt to discount his opinions because Dr Geier speaks in term most people understand. He has reported on the staggering statistical numbers showing the rise in brain-damaged kids who were vaccinated with thimerosal compared to the children who received very little mercury, or mercury-free vaccines, and were not injured. When he speaks, people “get it,” and the powers that be know it.

Then there is expert, Dr George Lucier, who in the year 2000, retired from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences where he was Director of the Environmental Toxicology Program and Associate Director of the National Toxicology Program. In that capacity, he was responsible for coordinating toxicological research and testing across federal agencies as well as conducting risk assessments for exposure to toxic substances including mercury. He has authored well over 200 scientific publications involving toxicology, pharmacology and risk assessment, including ten articles on mercury.

In 1998, Dr Lucier was appointed the Chair of the Organizing Committee for the White House Workshop on Scientific Issues Relevant to Assessment of Health Effects from Exposure to Methylmercury. He has presented his opinions on numerous occasions in various forums and for 28 years, he was the co-editor in chief of the prestigious scientific journal, Environmental Health Perspectives.

Why would this guy lie under oath?

Another renowned scientist expressing the same view on thimerosal, is Dr Boyd Haley, who is currently a Professor and Chairman of the Department of Chemistry with a joint appointment in the College of Pharmacy at the University of Kentucky.

He teaches a class on mercury toxicology and has published more than 110 articles in the peer-reviewed literature including the toxic effects of elemental mercury. Since 1989, his laboratory has been conducting research on the relationship between mercury and neurological diseases, and has performed experiments with thimerosal. In 2001, Dr Haley made a presentation on “In Vitro Studies of Thimerosal Toxicity,” to the IOM.

So why would this guy spend 25 year of his life conducting bogus studies, rendering fraudulent results and authoring a 100 dishonest articles?

An expert I consulted during my initial investigation of this issue was Dr David Ayoub, MD, who when asked how certain he was of the link between autism and thimerosal, told me, “I can state that the certainty of the science supporting mercury as a major cause of autism is probably more overpowering than the science behind any other disease process that I studied dating back to medical school.”

Dr Ayoub is the Director of the Prairie Collaborative for Immunization, an organization that is self-funded, which aids organizations, journalists, and legislators obtain accurate information to assist their work. He is also the author of the report, “Pregnancy and the Myth of Influenza Vaccination-Is it safe, is it effective, is it necessary? What the CDC documents reveal.”

When asked why so many scientist were now conducting research Dr Ayoud said, “I think a disease that effects more individuals than AIDS or cancer, in previously normal infants and children, has created a sense of urgency amongst researchers.”

Flu shots with a toxic dose of mercury are still being given to pregnant women and Rh negative shots with thimerosal are still being given to pregnant women. Even though recent studies have shown that lower IQ levels linked to mercury exposure in the womb costs the US $8.7 billion a year in lost earnings potential, according to a study released in February 2005, by researchers at the Mount Sinai Center for Children’s Health and the Environment, who combined a number of previous studies to determine hundreds of thousands of babies are born every year with lower IQ associated with mercury exposure.

Lead researcher and pediatician, Leonard Trasande, said annually, between 316,588 and 637,233 infants are born with umbilical cord blood mecury levels linked to IQ loss and about 4% of babies are born with mercury levels between 7.13 and 15 micrograms per liter which at that level, causes an IQ loss of 1.6 points.

The drug makers have been marching their own experts into court so lets look at the credentials of some of their experts to see how they match up with those listed above.

In the case of Vera Easter verses Aventis Pasteur, although Harvard-educated and the author of some 80 peer-reviewed articles, according to his deposition, Dr Philip Wang’s specialty was epidemiology related to antidepressants. Prior to being retained as an expert for the vaccine makers, Dr Wang had not done any evaluations associated with vaccines, had no specific training whatsoever regarding mercury, and had written no articles on the effects of heavy metal exposure.

Dr Wang has never investigated any illness claimed to be associated with heavy metal exposure and has never been asked to do a formal epidemiologic evaluation of the hypothesis that the thimerosal could cause neurological disorders or autism.

He claimed that he did know that the VAERS database existed prior to being retained as an expert, but had never conducted any analysis on the Vaccine Safety Datalink.

Dr Wang’s knowledge of vaccines and thimerosal was limited to what he learned in 30 to 35 hours of meetings with defense attorneys and reading the relevant medical literature, most of which was provided by the defense attorneys.

Finally, Dr Wang only offered an opinion on the link between thimerosal and autism and not on the issues relevant to the case relating to other neurological disorders.

For some reason, I don’t think Dr Wang would fare too well if called upon to take the stand to disprove the opinions of the many established experts on the plaintiff’s team with their combined decades of research experience in this area of expertise.

Another drug maker expert in the case was Dr Chris P Johnson, who in her deposition agreed that, prior to the case, her experience with mercury poisoning cases was zero. She has had no experience related to mercury or its neurotoxic effects and conceded that she was not an expert on mercury or the effects of mercury exposure on the human body.

I hardly think Dr Johnson is a match for the experts above. In fact I think it would be grossly unfair to even throw this gal in the ring with the other heavyweights. I guess it just goes to show how much humiliation some people are willing to endure to make a buck.

Partnerships Between Industry and Regulatory Officials

In reaching decisions, officials within regulatory bodies seem more concerned about the impact of their decision on global vaccination policies than making an unbiased appraisal of the scientific evidence. In reviewing statements by these agencies, people need to consider the inherent conflicts of interest between the CDC, charged with investigating medical issues; the FDA, charged with regulating vaccines; the Institute of Medicine (IOM), which examines policy issues; and the vaccine manufacturers.

After an on-going investigation of several years, the Mercury in Medicine Report was published on May 21, 2003 by the Subcommittee on Human Rights and Wellness of the Committee on Government Reform, and included testimony from numerous experts. The report rendered a number of specific findings.

Most significant was its statement that, “The CDC in general and the National Immunization Program are particularly conflicted in their duty to monitor the safety of vaccines, while also charged with the responsibility of purchasing vaccines for resale as well as promoting increased immunization rates.”

The report went on to say that the CDC due to its “biases against theories regarding vaccine-induced autism,” had chosen to fund researchers “who also worked for vaccine manufacturers to conduct population-based immunologic studies. . .” But most importantly, it identified Thimerosal as the culprit in plain language and in no uncertain terms:

“Thimerosal used as a preservative in vaccines is directly related to the autism epidemic. This epidemic in all probability may have been prevented or curtailed had the FDA not been asleep at the switch regarding a lack of safety data regarding injected thimerosal and the sharper eyes of infant exposure to this known neurotoxin. The public health agencies’ failure to act is indicative of institutional malfeasance for self protection and misplaced protectionism of the pharmaceutical industry.”

The CDC’s decision to promote the publication of research supportive of the vaccine industry to refute this report by a congressional committee, demonstrates just how far it will go to support its partners in crime.

Blatant evidence of this partnership can be found in a CDC plan to promote flu vaccine sales which detailed a “7 step recipe for generating interest in, and demand for, flu (or any other) vaccination.” The document discusses the “best recipe” that would foster interest and demand, including use of terms like “very severe,” “more severe,” and “deadly” to “motivate behavior” and increase sales. For any doubters, this evidence should confirm that the interests of the CDC and the industry are one and the same.

In addition, numerous articles published in medical journals between 2001 to 2004, were quoted as key studies relied upon by the Institute of Medicine, which as it turns out, were written by authors and researchers with direct conflicts of interest and real biases in favor of claiming that thimerosal did not cause injuries or autism. Many of the conflicts were not revealed by the authors at the time the articles were written in direct violation of policy rules pertaining to medical journals.

For instance, one article relied upon by the IOM, although not a population study, was Pichichero et al. Mercury concentrations and metabolism in infants receiving vaccines containing Thimerosal: a descriptive study, published in Lancet in 2002.

Pichichero did not declare any conflicts, despite the Lancet’s strict policy requiring that conflicts be disclosed. However, in a subsequent New York Times article, Pichichero admitted that he had done work for Lilly and other drug companies. But a fact that must have slipped his mind was that in an earlier article in American Family Physician, Pichichero had declarated:

The author has received research grants and/or honoraria from the following pharmaceutical companies: Abbott Laboratories, Inc.; Bristol Myers Squibb Company; Eli Lilly & Company; Merck and Co.; Pasteur Merieux Connaught; Pfizer Labs; Roach Laboratories; Roussel-Uclaf; Schering Corporation; SmithKlineBeecham Pharmaceuticals; Upjohn Company; Wyeth-Lederle.

In defending thimerosal, officials will often refer to the World Health Organization as a body that has found it safe. Well in a June, 2001 WHO report, the agency itself refers to vaccine manufacturers as a full and equal “partner.” When the WHO was worried that regulations had affected drug maker’s costs, it stressed the need to get them to stay in the market, and even proposed a “communication strategy that would take account of public concern about adverse effects of vaccines.”

So, in a subsequent WHO meeting on April 15-16, 2002, a decision was made to “lobby Ministry of Health and senior regulators” on the thimerosal issue and to “develop a strong advocacy campaign to support the ongoing use of thiomersal.“ It can readily be seen that the WHO has similar reasons to those of the CDC to support the industry’s position.

As thimerosal containing vaccines continue to be shipped to countries all over the world, its becoming more and more apparent that these cozy “partnerships” wield a considerable amount of power when it comes to making decisions related to vaccine safety.

Who Knew What And When

The well-documented sordid history of thimerosal, including the continuing misrepresentations by its inventor, Eli Lilly, confirms that the product should never have been used in childhood vaccines, and should have definitely been removed prior to the doubling of the content that resulted from the addition of the HIB and Hepatitis B vaccines in the late 1980’s to mid-90’s.

Mercury in vaccines was tested and shown to be lethal many times over the past 40 years. In May of 1967, an article was published in Applied Microbiology, titled “Enhanced Toxicity for Mice of Pertussis Vaccine When Preserved with Merthiolate.” The abstract states: Pertussis vaccines preserved with 0.01% merthiolate (thimerosal) are more toxic for mice than unpreserved vaccines prepared from the same parent concentrate containing the same number of organisms.

In this study, twenty mice were injected with a vaccine with no thimerosal and none died. 30 others were injected with the same vaccines, plus thimerosal, and 5 died. The article stated that “it would not be surprising if injection of this vaccine influenced the susceptibility of the mouse towards a mercurial preservative.“ The authors also noted that “other laboratories” had observed toxicity of final lots of preserved vaccine when the vaccines themselves were “atoxic or only slightly toxic.”

In 1972, Lilly received an article that confirmed that thimerosal had caused 6 deaths when too much of it had been used, which said: “The symptoms and clinical course of the 6 patients suggests subacute mercury poisoning.”

In 1975, autopsies on squirrel monkeys treated with thimerosal-containing nose spray, determined that mercury accumulated in the brain “which may represent a potential hazard in the chronic use of thimerosal as a preservative in products intended for human use.”

By the late 1970’s, vaccine companies realized the need to remove thimerosal because of its poisonous effects. In an October 12, 1979 memo, Merck scientists discussed the “potential problem” of having mercury in its flu and meningococcal vaccines, as well as the Hepatitis B vaccine that was under development and asked: “Should a program of replacement be initiated now to guard against any spontaneous rally to avoid its (thimerosal) use in injectables?”

This memo proves that the industry knew about the dangers long before the mercury-loaded Hib and Hep B vaccines were added to the schedule in the 1980’s and 1990’s.

In 1986, an article titled, “Organic Mercury Compounds and Their Toxicity,” noted that thimerosal had caused problems and stated that it was “now accepted that multidose injection preparations are undesirable, and preservatives should not present in unidose preparations.“

In the early 1990’s, the level of thimerosal in vaccines increased drastically, and in many cases doubled. The drug companies knew that adding 3 or four HIB vaccines and as many as 3 Hep B shots would substantially increase the level of mercury injected into infants at a critical period of brain development.

We now know that by 1991, Merck absolutely knew that the increase was harmful. A 1991 internal memo, recently revealed by the LA Times, concluded that exposure in infants within the first six month of life could be 87 times the level determined safe. The memo‘s damning revelations said:

For babies: the 25 ug of mercury in a single 0.5 ml dose and extrapolated to a 6 pound baby would be 25 times the adjusted Swedish daily allowance of 1.0 micrograms for a baby of that size. The total mercury burden in a baby is unknown, but it has been stated that the blood level of a newborn may exceed that of the mother. If eight doses of thimerosal-containing vaccine was given in the first six months of life (3 DTP, 2 HIB, and 3 Hepatitis B) the 200 micrograms of mercury given, say to an average size of 12 pounds, would be about 87 times the Swedish daily allowance of 2.3 micrograms for a baby of that size.

In the memo even acknowledged that “the best way to go is to switch to dispensing the actual vaccines without adding preservatives.” However, it went on to say that while this was the best solution, there was “a cost consideration the head of Health Services has to consider. Several large ampoules or bottles are more expensive than a smaller number of larger packages.”

So in essence, this Merck memo proves that by 1991, vaccine makers knew that they were injecting poison into infants and decided that profits were more important than the country’s most precious asset, an entire generation of children.

The vaccine makers are fighting hard against the removal of thimerosal for two reasons. The first is the usual suspect, greed. But the second reason is now higher on their list. The industry knows that if thimerosal were to be completely removed from all vaccines tomorrow, the public would not be able to ignore the corresponding decline, not only in cases of autism, but in the epidemic of all the strange disorders that have engulfed the public school system in all 50 states over the past 15 years. The decline is already happening in California, one of the first states to ban thimerosal.

In attempt to confuse the issue, officials have tried to avoid any discussion of the evidence establishing an association between mercury and a host of other neurological disorders.

In addition to autism, the epidemic includes attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADD/ADHD) and speech or language delay and each has its own spectrum of symptoms. For example, autism is characterized by impairments of social interaction, communication, and behavior. ADD/ADHD is typified by persistent patterns of inattention and/or hyperactivity. Speech and language delay are characterized by sensory and auditory processing disorders impacting on communication. See Immunization Safety Review, Thimerosal-Containing Vaccines and Neurodevelopmental Disorder, IOM 2001.

Officials should quit using scare tactics to infer a threat to the vaccine program as a whole. The issue is not the vaccines, its the preservative that has to go. And its not just contained in childhood vaccines. Thimerosal is in other products given to unsuspecting victims.

The flu vaccine is probably the most commonly used product that still contains the preservative, but there are other shots that have it as well. For instance, I just found out that a shot given to stop contractions in pregnant women who go into labor too early contains thimerosal.

I traveled to Wisconsin to be sure that I would be in the hospital at the time of delivery to protect my first grandson from any nurse with a needle looking to stick him with a Hep B vaccine. A few days ago, my daughter began to have early contractions. The doctor told her not to worry, to just come in for a check up. She came home with the great news that a shot stopped the contractions, only to find out a few hours later that the miracle shot may have contained thimerosal.

That was three days ago and I am still in shock!

While adverse effects of vaccines to a small number of susceptible individuals might seem justified in the interest of the greater good to mankind, the brain-injuring effects arising as a result of the government forcing parents to inject a known poison into their precious children should not be tolerated.