Link: http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2012/02/07-5

Monsanto ready to sell GM crops and weed-killing chemicals in Vietnam; Many outraged. Multinational agricultural biotech corporation Monsanto, known as the creator of chemical weapon Agent Orange, is attempting to infiltrate Vietnam once again -- this time as GMO dealer.

Link: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/9067332/Alcoholic-drinks-to-get-weaker-says-minister.html

Alcoholic drinks should be made weaker under in Britain under Government plans to tackle the "deadly problem” of binge-drinking, a health minister has said. ."In the strategy, ministers are expected to unveil measures to increase the price of alcoholic drinks according to how strong they are. This could be done through higher taxation per unit, minimum pricing per unit or simply higher levels of duty for strong drinks. Ministers will also encourage companies to produce weaker alcoholic drinks.

Link: http://enenews.com/highest-level-radioactive-cesium-san-francisco-area-milk-august-2011-150-epas-maximum-contaminant-limit-chart

A new milk sample has been measured, this one with a best-by date of 2/16/2012. The results are posted to the milk sample page. Low levels of both Cs-134 and Cs-137 were still detected in the sample.

Link: http://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/02/06-0

Patenting seeds has led to a farming and food crisis - and huge profits for US biotechnology corporations.Corporations defined a problem - and for them the problem was farmers saving seeds. They offered a solution, and the solution was to make it illegal for farmers to save seed - by introducing patents and intellectual property rights [PDF] on those very seeds. As a result, acreage under GM corn, soya, canola, cotton has increased dramatically.

Link: http://www.wsws.org/articles/2012/feb2012/pers-f04.shtml

The announcement this week by the Susan G. Komen Foundation that it would cut off funding to Planned Parenthood unleashed a popular backlash, with hundreds of thousands expressing their outrage via social networking sites. Komen abruptly reversed its decision on Friday, but not before the move had exposed the advocacy group’s capitulation to extreme-right, religious forces.

Link: http://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/02/01-4

Looking at millions of individual bills that makeup the 2.7 trillion dollars of annual health care costs opens a gigantic window on the massive waste, redundancy, profiteering, fraud and sometimes criminal over-billing.Americans continue to spend more on health care than patients anywhere else. Moreover, France and Germany, Italy, England, Canada, Belgium, Sweden and all other western countries plus Japan and Taiwan cover almost all their citizens, unlike the U.S. where 50,000,000 people are uninsured.These include higher administrative costs to deal with insurance paperwork, higher insurance company profits and executive compensation and less developed electronic health records leading to costly errors.Health care bills come with hefty levels of fraud.fully ten percent of all health care expenditures are the result of computerized billing fraud and abuse. That will be $270 billion this year.But why the health insurance companies, a formidable force do not do more to stop fraudulent billing practices, is a puzzle.

Link: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2095610/Silver-bullet-cancer-Metal-kill-tumours-better-chemotherapy-fewer-effects.html

Silver can kill some cancers as effectively as chemotherapy and with potentially fewer side effects, new research claims.
Scientists say that old wives tales about the precious metal being a ‘silver bullet’ to beat the Big C could be true.
The metal already has a wide range of medicinal uses and is a common antiseptic, antibiotic and means of purifying water in the third world.

Link: http://socialistworker.org/

SOME 10,000 nurses at four of the largest New York City hospitals recently settled contracts that include modest raises and increased staffing. The deals also include lump-sum payments that partially offset a recent arbitration decision requiring private-sector nurses represented by the New York State Nurses Association (NYSNA) to contribute to their health care fund for the first time.

Link: http://www.alternet.org/story/153926/california_supreme_court_could_make_gamechanging_decision_on_marijuana_policy

The court granted review for two rulings that dealt major blows to the medical pot industry, and has the opportunity to lay the foundation for future regulation. Ctr. The Pack decision held that some local regulations governing medical marijuana dispensaries may be preempted by federal law and the Riverside decision held that localities could legally ban dispensaries altogether. Both have been used by localities to justify suspending local medical marijuana ordinances and instituting further moratoria or outright bans. Both cases have generated considerable fear and instability among medical marijuana providers and led to decreased access to medicine by patients.

Link: http://www.alternet.org/food/153568/weve_lost_nearly_all_of_our_wild_foods__what_happened_and_what_are_we_missing

Once upon a time, wild foods were a regular and beloved part of the American diet. Today, the American epicure might dine on foraged mushrooms and ramps, but for many of us, fish are the last wild food we eat. What happened? And what are we missing?

Link: http://www.alternet.org/food/153831/Sugar_High%3A_The_Dark_History_and_Nasty_Methods_Used_to_Feed_Our_Sweet_Tooth/

Sugar is now 20 percent of the American diet, but it's not just our health that suffers from its pervasiveness. Today, sugar productionstill uses exploitative labor practices and can cause serious environmental problems .

Link: http://www.geopoliticalmonitor.com/nuclear-power-after-chernobyl-and-fukushima-4593/

It is one of the marvels of our time that the nuclear industry managed to resurrect itself from its ruins at the end of the last century, when it crumbled under its costs, inefficiencies, and mega-accidents. Chernobyl released hundreds of times the radioactivity of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombs combined, contaminating more than 40% of Europe and the entire Northern Hemisphere.1

Link: http://www.alternet.org/story/153859/while_republicans_play_politics_over_food_stamps%2C_new_film_focuses_on_hunger_in_america_/3

49 million people are struggling to get enough to eat in America, GOP candidates' posturing isn't helping. FOOD-INSECURE MOTHER: I’m struggling so much every day to be able to even feed my kids. Hunger isn’t just someone in Africa that’s real skinny and you can see their ribs. It’s right here in the United States.

Link: http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2012/01/governments-worldwide-raise-acceptable-radiation-levels-based-upon-politics-not-science.html

Instead of Protecting People, Governments Cover Up by Raising “Safe” Radiation Levels. American and Canadian authorities have virtually stopped monitoring airborne radiation. Neither American nor Canadian authorities are testing fish for radioactivity. Does that mean that we don’t have to worry about radiation from Fukushima?

Link: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2085351/Toilet-tap-Panel-recommends-Americans-drink-waste-water-combat-future-shortages.html#ixzz1jCcebjMb

'Wastewater is a drought-proof supply and a very viable option compared to imported water and other options' Next time you pour a glass of water from the tap try not to think about this - you might be about to drink what you once flushed away. Rising numbers of Americans are consuming wastewater, or 'toilet on tap', without even realising it, according to an official report. Even though it once contained human waste, food scraps and bath scum, the National Research Council claims that it could actually be better for you than fresh water.

Link: http://www.activistpost.com/2012/01/how-your-taxes-are-being-used-by.html

With rates of obesity, diabetes, and nearly every other major health problem rising each year, why has the United States decided to heavily subsidize junk food? Farmers around the country choosing to grow healthy crops like chard, broccoli, and spinach simply do not have the government funding that those growing massive amounts of corn and soy beans (of which above 90% of each are genetically modified) do.

Link: http://venezuelanalysis.com/news/6716

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has expressed his “suspicions” over the number of left wing Latin American presidents who have acquired cancer recently. “It’s difficult to explain, at this point, what is happening to some of us in Latin America,” Chavez said. “It’s strange that [Paraguayan president Fernando] Lugo, [Brazilian president] Dilma [Rousseff], and then myself, and a few days later [ex Brazilian president Luiz Inacio] Lula [Da Silva] and now Cristina [Fernandez] have contracted cancer”.

Link: http://www.disinfo.com/2011/12/monsantos-gm-corn-linked-to-organ-failure/

In a study released by the International Journal of Biological Sciences, analyzing the effects of genetically modified foods on mammalian health, researchers found that agricultural giant Monsanto’s GM corn is linked to organ damage in rats.

Link: http://www.prisonplanet.com/race-on-to-cover-up-details-of-lab-created-killer-bird-flu.html

Genetically altered H5N1 strain can spread between mammals. A highly contagious mutant strain of H5N1 bird flu that can be transmitted between mammals has been deliberately created at Rotterdam’s Erasmus Medical Centre, the London Independent reports.

Link: http://wsws.org/articles/2011/dec2011/pers-d20.shtml

A bipartisan proposal presented last week would replace the traditional Medicare program for seniors and the disabled with a fixed federal contribution toward the cost of coverage for each beneficiary. The plan is the latest effort to open up to privatization and destruction the most significant social program enacted in the United States after World War II.

Link: http://www.examiner.com/human-rights-in-national/over-462-trillion-becquerels-fukushima-strontium-pacific-ocean-seafood-risk?CID=examiner_alerts_article

After Japanese Prime Minister declared the Fukushima nuclear catastrophe under control Friday, Japan's The Asahi Shimbun newspaper released calculations Monday showing at least 462 trillion becquerels of radioactive strontium have leaked into the Pacific Ocean since Fukushima's No. 1 nuclear power plant catastrophe began, making it one of the world's most severe marine pollution cases in history. According to Greenpeace independent research, Government and retailors are not adequately protecting the public from dangerous radioactive contaminated Pacific seafood, still sold unlabeled in Japan and on the international market, including to the United States due to a secret pact between Secretary Clinton and the Japanese Prime Minister.

Link: http://wsws.org/articles/2011/dec2011/budg-d19.shtml

The budget agreement passed by Congress and signed into law by President Obama Saturday puts in place cuts for the current fiscal year that target social spending, particular energy assistance and education. One of the biggest single cuts comes in low-income heating assistance, which is slashed 25 percent, or $1.2 billion, compared to last year’s figure. This cut is particularly cruel, coming at the onset of winter, and insuring that tens of thousands of poor and elderly people will face the danger of hypothermia and potential death.

Link: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/12/19/scientists-warn-against-eating-packaged-cookie-dough/

Next time you have the urge to eat cookie dough, it’s something that you may want to strongly reconsider. Scientists from the journal Clinical-Infectious Diseases found in a recent study of the 2009 E.coli outbreak that 77 people in 30 states became ill after eating Nestle’s Toll House raw cookie dough.

Link: http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/medical-journal-article--14000-us-deaths-tied-to-fukushima-reactor-disaster-fallout-135859288.html

Impact Seen As Roughly Comparable to Radiation-Related Deaths After Chernobyl; Infants Are Hardest Hit, With Continuing Research Showing Even Higher Possible Death Count. WASHINGTON, Dec. 19, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- An estimated 14,000 excess deaths in the United States are linked to the radioactive fallout from the disaster at the Fukushima nuclear reactors in Japan, according to a major new article in the December 2011 edition of the International Journal of Health Services. This is the first peer-reviewed study published in a medical journal documenting the health hazards of Fukushima.

Link: http://naturalsociety.com/banned-in-27-countries-monsanto-rbgh-dairy-milk-products/

milk1 210x131 Banned in 27 Countries, Monsantos rBGH Inhabits Many U.S. Dairy ProductsAre you consuming Monsanto’s genetically engineered growth hormone known as rBGH? The synthetic hormone is created using molecules and DNA sequences that are a result of molecular cloning, which has been linked to breast and gastrointestinal cancer. Unfortunately, it is estimated that around 1/3 of cows in the United States are injected with this synthetic hormone, which means that you have most likely been highly exposed to rBGH if you live in the U.S. or have eaten U.S. dairy products.

Link: http://www.henrymakow.com/gettingsexundercontroll.html

Most men don't realize how victimized they are by their obsessive compulsive sex drive.
They regard the mating ritual as life's greatest gift, rather than a colossal, self-defeating waste of energy. Contrary to what we are taught, men don't need a woman "to become a man." At 62, I am no longer of draft age. I'm referring to the press gang of nature. I am no longer needed to father a child. I know this because my sex drive is not what it used to be. I can "perform" but I don't need to. Far from being alarmed, I am relieved. As the hormonal fog dissipates, I have moments of clarity that I'd like to share with younger males still on the treadmill of sex and romance.

Link: http://www.alternet.org/food/153475/why_is_the_fda_saying_it%27s_ok_to_eat_seafood_10%2C000_times_over_the_safe_limit_for_dangerous_carcinogens/

FDA not only downplayed the risk of contamination, but ignored staff members who proposed higher levels of contamination protection. Ever since the largest offshore oil spill in history spewed into the Gulf of Mexico last year, independent public health experts have questioned the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's efforts to effectively protect Americans from consuming contaminated seafood.

Link: http://naturalsociety.com/highly-toxic-mercury-present-in-processed-foods-yet-fda-does-nothing/

Why has the FDA ignored the fact that mercury, an element that is highly toxic in all forms, was found in a large number of brand-name processed foods? Specifically, the mercury content was found to be contained in high-fructose corn syrup, which also reportedly contains genetically modified ingredients. Instead of addressing this major public health concern, the FDA is focusing their time on crushing beneficial supplements through ridiculous NDI regulations that threaten the entire infrastructure of the nutraceuticals industry.

Link: http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/12/12-0

Farmers have been through this before — our lives and livelihoods falling under corporate control. It has been an ongoing process: consolidation of markets; consolidation of seed companies; an ever-widening gap between our costs of production and the prices we receive. Some of us are catching on, getting the picture of the real enemy.

Link: http://www.alternet.org/story/153408/the_health_of_children_and_consumers_is_threatened_by_conservative_push_for_corporate_speech_rights/

Some pro-business federal judges have shockingly approved a constitutional right for big companies to avoid revealing product dangers on labels. In recent years, corporate lawyers representing industries whose products touch millions of American lives have stopped numerous government efforts to better inform the public about possible health risks with an eyebrow-raising legal strategy. They have asserted a constitutional right not to speak, or say more than they want on labels and advertising, and pro-business federal judges have agreed, rejecting the public’s right to know.

Link: http://www.davidicke.com/headlines/57128-new-zealand-food-bill-to-make-growing-food-a-government-privilege-rather-than-a-human-right

The God-given human right to freely cultivate food is under attack in New Zealand (NZ) as special interest groups and others are currently attempting to push a “food security” bill through the nation’s parliament that will strip individuals of their right to grow food, save seeds, and even share the fruits of their labor with friends and family members.

Link: http://www.alternet.org/story/153332/seven_diseases_big_pharma_hopes_you_get_in_2012/

Supply-driven marketing not only turns the nation into pill-popping hypochondriacs, it distracts from Pharma's drought of real drugs for real medical problems. It used to be joked that a consultant is someone who borrows your watch to tell you what time it is. These days, the opportunist is Big Pharma, which raises your insurance premiums and taxes while providing you "low-priced" drugs that you paid for.

Link: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/dec/05/fukushima-leak-radioactive-water

Radioactive water might have found its way into the Pacific ocean and experts believe it could contain strontium... "Then the second angel poured out his bowl on the sea, and it became like the blood of a corpse. And everything in the sea died." Revelation 16:3

Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail/213377.html

The UK and US militaries have been developing new biological weapons which are capable of terminating certain races, a Middle East expert tells Press TV. “They (the US and UK military establishments) even developed a black-only bomb that targeted the Afro gene. There is even talk now that there may be one for the Chinese gene,” Peter Eyre, a Middle East consultant, said in a recent interview with Press TV.

Link: http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/12/02-11

The nuclear power industry has been resurrected over the past decade by a lobbying campaign that has left many people believing it to be a clean, green, emission-free alternative to fossil fuels. These beliefs pose an extraordinary threat to global public health and encourage a major financial drain on national economies and taxpayers. The commitment to nuclear power as an environmentally safe energy source has also stifled the mass development of alternative technologies that are far cheaper, safer and almost emission free — the future for global energy.

Link: http://exposingthetruth.info/top-five-regrets-of-the-dying/

For many years I worked in palliative care. My patients were those who had gone home to die. Some incredibly special times were shared. I was with them for the last three to twelve weeks of their lives.

Link: http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/11/29-6

A little more than a year ago, on the day after the GOP regained control of the House of Representatives, Speaker-to-be John Boehner said one of the first orders of business after he took charge would be the repeal of health care reform.

Link: http://dprogram.net/2011/11/29/globalists-purchase-millions-of-toxic-hpv-vaccines-for-girls-in-third-world/

At its recent board meeting in Bangladesh, the GAVI Alliance, formerly known as the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunizations, announced plans to bring the deadly human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccines Gardasil (Merck & Co.) and Cervarix (GlaxoSmithKline) into the third world. A pro-vaccination group backed by the World Bank, UNICEF, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and the vaccine industry, GAVI’s stated goal is to vaccinate 240 million children by 2015.

Link: http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/11/27-1

The wonder of our world is that scientific knowledge is now so powerful that we can save millions of children, mothers, and fathers from killer diseases each year at little cost. The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB, and Malaria has mobilized that knowledge over the past decade to save more than 7 million lives and to protect the health of hundreds of millions more. Yet now the Global Fund is under mortal threat because of budget cuts approved by President Obama and the Congress.

Link: http://www.alternet.org/story/153227/how_creepy_conservative_christian_modesty_doctrines_harm_young_women/

When you argue that what’s modest and what isn’t is a valid concern for women, you tell them that their appearance matters most. This isn’t a story about how modest clothes allowed me to “let myself go” and conceal a growing figure. It’s not even a story about how wearing modest clothes kept my self-esteem at rock bottom and thrust me into a too-close relationship with Ben & Jerry. It’s a story about how modesty doctrines impacted my mind, in ways that had real, negative effects on my body.