Hell

Good news for smokers - marijuana smokers - that is!

Marijuana smoking does not cause lung cancer and even protects the lung from that scourge.
Senior researcher, Donald Tashkin, M.D., Professor of Medicine at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA in Los Angeles says the findings were a surprise as they expected to find that a history of heavy marijuana use would increase the risk of cancer from several years to decades after exposure to marijuana. "We expected that we would find that a history of heavy marijuana use – more than 500-1,000 uses - would increase the risk of cancer from several years to decades after exposure to marijuana", said Dr Donald Tashkin, who led the study. However, the team surprisingly found no link between use of marijuana and cancers. "We know that there are as many or more carcinogens and co-carcinogens in marijuana smoke as in cigarettes. But we did not find any evidence for an increase in cancer risk for even heavy marijuana smoking."

US Tobacco is Radioactive

I'm not surprised about the findings as I am convinced that the tobacco grown in the USA is full of radiation and therefore causes cancer of the lungs. Not only am I convinced but the Surgeon General stated on national television in 1990 that tobacco radiation is probably responsible for 90% of tobacco-related cancer. Dr RT Ravenholt, former director of World Health Surveys at the Centers for Disease Control, has stated that "Americans are exposed to far more radiation from tobacco smoke than from any other source."

There are two reasons for the tobacco grown in the USA is full of radiation. One is the fact that the major source of this radiation is phosphate fertilizer. The big tobacco companies all use chemical phosphate fertilizer, which is high in radioactive metals, year after year on the same soil. These metals build up in the soil, attach themselves to the resinous tobacco leaf and ride tobacco trichomes in tobacco smoke, gathering in small "hot spots" in the small-air passageways of the lungs. Tobacco is especially effective at absorbing radioactive elements from phosphate fertilizers, and also from naturally occurring radiation in the soil, air, and water.

The second reason is US tobacco is being grown on nuclear contaminated soil.
In a 1983 letter from the state of Tennessee to Oak Ridge officials, White Oak Lake is described as "the most radioactive lake in the country." The state asserted in its letter that the use of White Oak Lake as a settling basin for contaminants was unacceptable, and noted that the Clinch River acted as a pipeline for contaminants from White Oak Creek into the Watts Bar, Reservoir. White Oak Lake continues to be used as a settling basin for contaminants from the White Oak watershed. Take a look at a map and see where tobacco is grown and you will see that the highly contaminated Oak Ridge area is up wind from the main tobacco growing regions, which consequently are down wind and receive ground water from the mountains of Tennessee.

Here is a report of one of the many covered up nuclear reactor accident at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory and a link to an interesting article about other nuclear waste problems there.

Why is it that the US population suffers more lung cancer deaths than other countries? For example, Hungary has more active smokers than anywhere else in the world and has half the lung cancer than the US. They have more doctors per capita and their reporting is excellent. Japan, China and Greece are up there as well and their statistics are very low. (Japan did not grow tobacco on its soil until 1989 which saved them from the Hiroshima and Nagasaki fallout from the WW II bombings.)

The Oxford Atlas of the World, ISBN 0-19-520955-9, published in 1992, gives figures for cigarette consumption in different countries during the time period 1986-1988. The figures are in annual consumption of cigarettes per capita.

Operation Smoke Screen
Some readers may remember the first TV warnings in the 1950's of cigarettes causing cancer. The person who did the advertisements for the American Cancer Society was the famous actor, John Wayne. He said he had lung cancer due to smoking. However, it turned out that he actually contacted his cancer filming a movie on radioactive contaminated soil. Of the 220 persons who worked on The Conqueror on location in Utah in 1955, 91 had contracted cancer as of the early 1980s and 46 died of it, including stars John Wayne, Susan Hayward, and Agnes Moorehead, and director Dick Powell.
Check out one of these ventage ACS commercials by John Wayne.

The actors and crew were exposed to radioactive fallout from U.S. atom bomb tests in the area, no doubt, inhaling a fair amount of it in the process, and they later shipped 60 tons of hot dirt back to Hollywood to use on a set for retakes, thus making things even worse.

So who is fooling who? Why do the deaths from lung cancer keep increasing in the US when per capita consumption of tobacco has been declining over the past 25 years? Their song and dance now is that there is a very long incubation period and, passive smoking is used to explain the non smokers lung cancer. That means that people who don't smoke can be added to the statistics of tobacco related deaths. The cause of the raising cancer in the US is due to pollution by irresponsible corporations and covered up by a corrupt government.

Your best bet then, taking into account the latest news, is switching to marijuana for your smoking pleasure - that is if you are not already a healthy and happy user! But remember, organic is the only way to grow your own. And for you nicotine addicts, you can order non US brands over the internet or grow your own tobacco. It is easy and fun.

Posted by Susan at 04:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (1930)

Corporate America has gone global in an attempt to take over the whole world. In order to understand why and how they have done this I have a nice bit here that will help to clarify the situation.

I Can Fix Your Teeth, But It’ll Cost You An Arm And A Leg
by Mike Bohling
While our country has been busy hemorrhaging money, blood, and credibility, I’ve been busy thinking about the future. I’ve been trying to concentrate my efforts on thinking about MY future, but the future of the country keeps shoving my future aside and taking center stage.

People are unhappy with the direction in which America is headed. Some, like myself, are downright disillusioned. I don’t want to go into the details of what my ideals of America are, but I feel that her very foundation is being dismantled brick by brick right in front of my eyes. So much so, that it has become easier to count the bricks that are left than the ones missing.

The United States that I grew up in was a much different place that the one I live in today. Back then, I felt confident in my security. Laying out a plan for the future was easy. I believed that if I worked hard, saved, invested wisely, and didn’t squander my money that I would someday retire and live out my final years pursuing my interests. That’s the way things worked back then. Now that I’ve passed the halfway point towards retirement, I’ve come to realize that it may not be so easy. The government that I once thought of as the Eagle that protected me has turned out to be just another appendage of the Corporate Vulture, looking to pick my bones.

Corporate America has become America, and our current crop of elected officials has completely validated my inherent mistrust of politicians. Maybe it’s always been that way, and I just didn’t notice. I guess I was distracted by too many years of the national media embarrassing itself week after week with the latest “Top News Story”. It hasn’t taken much scrutiny on my part to conclude that this country is owned and controlled by a handful of corporations, and that our politicians and lawmakers are owned and controlled by a hit squad of heartless lobbyists and attorneys employed by them. These Mega-Conglomerates have grown much bolder recently in showing their absolute control. And why shouldn’t they? It’s not as if Vultures have anything to fear from mere citizens or a handful of environmentalists and third party fantasizers.

When the President asks for our support in spreading “Freedom” to the far reaches of the globe currently occupied by evil-doers, he does so tongue in cheek. Oh, he’s trying to spread freedom alright, not individual freedom, not religious freedom, or even freedom from tyrannical leaders. The freedom that Dubya and his cronies hope to spread worldwide is corporate freedom. Freedom to extract. Freedom to exploit. Freedom to pollute. You might keep that in mind the next time you hear him describe his adversaries as “Freedom Haters”. Corporate freedom is slowly and deliberately killing off the middle class in America, and countries around the world are rightfully fearful that America’s brand of corporate freedom is about to be imposed upon them as well.

A cursory look at 2005’s legislature draws a pretty good picture of Congress completing another blockbuster year of passing laws designed to protect Corporate America from it’s traitorous citizens. From Credit Card company sponsored bankruptcy reform, to Imminent Domain, to handing out subsidies and tax breaks for the most profitable companies in the history of the world with last year’s Energy Bill, our lawmakers have made it very clear who they work for, and it ain’t you and me. They couldn’t even bring themselves to address the embarrassingly pathetic $5.15 minimum wage that hasn’t increased since 1997. Heck-of-a-job, Congress.

The soaring gas prices and obscene profits made by Big Oil seem like a natural place to spend some time ranting, so I will. Fuel prices are high, and they’re going to go higher, yet American auto manufacturers are still producing energy-flatulating SUV’s as fast as they can, and American consumers are still buying them. What’s even more amazing, is that the 12 mpg crowd actually believes that they’re being patriotic by buying these four-ton Tonka toys.

Last week, while I was pumping $16 worth of hi-test into my motorcycle, the woman at the next pump was griping about the $120 it took to fill up her brand new Lincoln Navigator. I considered informing her that all of those “Support Our Troops” magnets and flags were adding undue weight and wind resistance to her behemoth, and were probably reducing her fuel economy, but I didn’t want to cause a scene. I also didn’t think she would have been humored if I pointed out the irony of her complaining about gas prices while driving a troop carrier to the post office, so I put my helmet on and continued on with my 50 mpg camping trip without saying anything.

Upon reflection, I should have stuck around and had a long conversation with that Navigator Lady. I think I could have padded my retirement account nicely by selling her my Cheerios on the premise that they were Krispy Kreme seeds. Ah well, another opportunity lost.

And what does all of this have to do with me planning for my future? Well, everything. I can control how much gasoline I consume and how much I spend on non-essentials, but what has me in a sweat are the rapidly rising costs of things I have no control over. Things like health insurance and medical care, food, housing, electricity, natural gas, campground fees, and fishing licenses. (Okay, okay, campground fees and fishing licenses aren’t “necessities”, but without them what’s the point of planning for the future?).

In trying to plot out my retirement, I have to face the harsh reality that as fast as I can put money away, the Vultures (with the help of my government) are trying to devise more and more insidious ways to get their greedy talons on it. I’m worried that the economy will take a dump and take my retirement savings with it, and I worry that if the devaluation of the dollar continues at it’s current pace, that it will take a wheelbarrow full of social security checks to buy a loaf of bread. But, what really keeps me awake at night is worrying about how to stay healthy. Health care in the 21st century is becoming a luxury that only the wealthy will be able to afford.

Even if I have no income and nothing left to retire on, I know that I’ll manage. I’m pretty resourceful, and I don’t need much. I’ll be fine as long as I can keep from getting sick, or getting old. As I said earlier, this is not the America that I grew up in. In this new America, the middle class will be forced to make a choice between forfeiting a lifetime’s worth of accumulated assets for a two-week hospital stay, or handing it all over to the insurance companies during the course of twenty plus years of retirement. Either way, someday I am going to be faced with making the decision to eat and keep a roof over my head, or to go see a doctor and get that nasty cancer/stroke/heart attack taken care of.

Many of you reading this may be thinking that I have a rather pessimistic view of my future, and that isn’t the point that I’m trying to get across. I’m not pessimistic, in fact, the people who know me, know me as an optimist (I’m still confident that God will use my retirement plan for miracle practice). It’s just that I’ve grown very cynical through years of watching the country I grew up in slowly change from a place that held a secure future for me, into a place that seems to be working overtime from all angles trying to separate me from what I have earned.

To be truthful, it’s not even me that I’m worried about. I still have options. As I said in the first paragraph, the problems that face this country have taken center stage, they just happen to be the same problems that I face, trickled down. I have an idea or two about how I’ll deal with things on my end, but that won’t lessen the anxiety for the rest of you.

Posted by Susan at 05:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (436)

Does anyone have any idea how many US citizens have joined the exodus to Canada. I really don't know but there seem to be a lot of stoners and peace loving folk that have packed up and moved across our northern border. In 2004 there were already an estimated one million. Because the situation in Washington has not improved, I believe there are a lot more now, despite the difficulty in getting a visa to stay.

The Canadian Exodus gave the Mexican government a good idea.

"What if we do like the Canadians and de-penalize the use of marijuana. We could get all those young and energetic gringos to come to Mexico. That would really make it tough for the USA to get the workers and soldiers they need so badly - grist for their grinder, let's say? That would make them really need our hard working people for their sweat shops and they may even send them off to war. A fair exchange."

But, no. Because of US pressure, the bill will not be signed into law just yet. US officials had voiced concern that the law could lead to a wave of drugs-related tourism across the border. President Fox having lost any spine he had will not sign the bill into law in its present form.

After the Mexican president refused to sign the bill in its current form, 500 protesters held a marijuana smoke-in in Mexico City.
"Decriminalization does not create more users ... we have to decriminalize the discussion of decriminalization," said presidential candidate Patricia Mercado, of the Alternative Social-Democratic party.

A half-dozen Mexico City police officers confronted the protesters, but the crowd thronged around them shouting "Take us all, Take us all!" and the police quickly retreated.

So, for now the peace loving people will have to make due with Canada and hope the Mexicans jump on the next opportunity to change those pesky prohibition laws.

Posted by Susan at 08:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (566)

What happened to the good ol' days when a Mexican immigrant and his family where held in high esteem by a community? I remember when we had seasonal workers who would come and pick the potatoes, onions and garlic. We could hardly wait for their yearly return. What a joy. Music, dancing, singing was the pastime after a long day's work.

Yes, they lived in row houses and they had a lot of children all sleeping together. I spent a great deal of my childhood playing in those cramped quarters but boy, did we have a good time. One of the families, even settled down in our town and sent their children to school. I was thrilled as they were the only kids that liked or even knew how to dance. Freddy (Ferdinando) was my dance partner in one of the yearly Christmas presentations. Thanks to his love of music and inborn rhythm, we won first prize.

One year, a little Mexican girl with the most beautiful long black hair got it caught in a picking machine and died. The whole town mourned for her. We did not see those good people as immigrants. No way, because we were all immigrants ourselves. Our town was made up of Italians, Portuguese, some Germans and the rest were Cowboys - whereever they came from. We did not consider ourselves Americans. If someone asked me my nationality I said I was Portuguese even though I was born in the USA. The same for the Italians. In fact, I didn't know I was an American National until I took a trip to England and the man at the immigration counter asked me why I said I was Portuguese when I had an American passport and was born in the USA. How embarrassed I was to find that I had spent all those years thinking my nationality was Portuguese.

I liked it like it was. America the Beautiful. A land for immigrants.
But what has happened that now those good people are considered illegal and even felons just because they are trying to better their lives by living the American Dream. Can we really punish them as if they were criminals? What crime have they committed by crossing the border? It is not murder, nor theft. The crime is not a crime that causes harm but rather it is a crime because the law says it is - Mala Prohibita - a crime that is only such because it is prohibited. That is different from the "Mala in Se" - bad in itself - and it should not be a crime nor prohibited and certainly not punishable.

I dream of the day when there will be no border control and people can live where they like and work where they find jobs. It is a degrading task to go to the immigration authorities to ask to stay in a country that you wish to make your home and have to be treated like a third class citizen. It has been my cross for over thirty years of living and traveling in Europe. I am a US citizen and I would not think to give up that honor but I must say that if I were Mexican I would never want to give up my citizenship to become an American. I wonder what Bush is thinking when he keeps going on waving that as a carrot to get the illegal mexicans to turn themselves in. What world does he live in?

Today will bring another show of force with the immigrants showing their strength by marching en masse and singing their version of the National Anthem in Spanish. I think we all should sing along.
You can listen to the "Nuestro Himno (Our Anthem)" here and practice a bit before joining the immigrants in their march. Yes!

Posted by Susan at 06:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (312)