Lively Authority

Great quotes from Thomas Jefferson

NOTE: I am filing this post under the category "Current Affairs", since they are are SO applicable to our times.  The last one is especially incendiary...

"

• When we get piled upon one another in large cities, as in Europe, we shall become as corrupt as Europe .
• The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not.
• It is incumbent on every generation to pay its own debts as it goes. A principle which if acted on would save one-half the wars of the world.
• I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them.
• My reading of history convinces me that most bad government results from too much government.
• No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms.
• The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government.
• The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.  (My Favorite)
  
• To compel a man to subsidize with his taxes the propagation of ideas which he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical.
• I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around the banks will deprive the people of all property until their children wake-up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered.

"

You know what happened to JFK after he tried to convert our currency back to a silver standard and away from the Federal Reserve?  See this article.  He issued Executive Order 11110 on June 4 1963.  This order is STILL IN EFFECT.  By the end of that year, he had been assassinated.  Coincidence?

Thanks to my friend, Tom DeMaio, for the TJ quotes.

More on the Coal Ash Spill in TN

Here is a link to a video posted by the Chattanooga Times Free Press on the spill, stating the devastating impact it is having on the livestock and wild animals in the area:

http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/jan/01/video-ash-spill-aftermath/

The environmental advocacy group, Appalachian Voices, undertook an evaluation of the river water near the spill, and found that the water contained from 2 to 300 times the level of chromium, lead, arsenic and other metals allowed for drinking water.  The TVA (Tennessee Valley Authority), the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) and the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation reported higher than normal levels of these elements, but have not released the full results yet.

Appalachian Voices is based in Boone, NC.  Their study used standard EPA testing methodologies, stated Shea Tuberty, an environmental toxicologist  based at Appalachian State University, who assisted in the study.  Another blow was landed on the TVA et al, by RFK Jr., who is the chairman of the national Waterkeeper Alliance.  Read his remarks in the Chattanooga Times Free Press article.

To their credit, the TVA is attempting to address the spill on the main page of their website at www.tva.gov/, the EPA at http://www.epa.gov/region4/kingston/index.html and the TN Department of Environment & Conservation on their site at http://www.state.tn.us/environment/kingston/index.shtml.

Coal accident in Kingston, Tennessee

King Coal still has issues, it seems...

A dam at the Kingston Fossil Plant, run by the TVA (Tennessee Valley Authority) had a breakage the week of Christmas, and toxic ash sludge (300 million gallons) poured over several acres of land and into waterways, ruining several houses.  The waterways, including the Emory River, feed ultimately into the Tennessee River, which flows through Chattanooga.  Kingston is about 40 miles west of Knoxville.  The accident is far larger than two related accidents, one in 1967 on the Clinch River in Virginia, and the other in 2005 in Northampton County, Pennsylvania.

Coal ash contains high levels of toxic chemicals such as arsenic, lead and selenium, which cause cancer and neurological problems.  Several people in this area spent Christmas Eve worrying about their health and homes, rather than enjoying Christmas.  Some fish kills were reported by anglers downstream from the spill site.

The coal in the Eastern Appalachian area carries 3 to 5 times higher levels of nickel, lead, arsenic and chromium than the coal mined in the Rocky Mountain or Northern Plains areas.

It appears that the Kingston site was stacking the coal ash higher and higher as they ran out of room in the increasingly inhabited area, ultimately leading to the accident.  The TVA is looking into alternate means of storing the ash, they said.  See the full article in the New York Times.

This accident is only the latest in a series of problems reported with coal mining in Tennessee.  According to the September 2008 issue of the Tennes-Sierran, the newsletter of the Tennessee Chapter of the Sierra Club, the Zeb Mountain Coal Mine has been dumping harmful amounts of selenium into Tennessee waterways for a while.   Located in Campbell and Scott Counties, this mine is of the mountain-top removal type, and is operated by the National Coal Corporation.  The company was put on notice by the Sierra Club, the Tennessee Clean Water Network (TCWN) and Save Our Cumberland Mountains (SOCM) in August 2008 for the pollution. 

In humans, selenium pollution is very toxic, and can result in hair and fingernail loss, kidney and liver damage, and damage to the nervous and circulatory systems.  In fish, this pollution bio-accumulates, causing reproductive failure, birth defects, and damage to gills and internal organs.  Read the full article about the Zeb Mountain Coal Mine pollution in the Tennes-Sierran.

Being that my parents and most of my family is from West Virginia, I am always being made aware of the pollution that has been caused in that state by mountain top removal coal mining.  West Virginia environmental activists have taken note of issues occuring in other states as well, related to this form of coal mining.  Here is an article about the Zeb Mountain pollution in the West Virginia Highlands Voice, the blog of the West Virginia Highlands Conservancy.

Picture courtesy of the Knoxville News Sentinel, via AP.

Fish Oil good to prevent macular degeneration in the eye?

Some research has indicated that eating more oily fish, such as salmon, or taking good quality Omega-3 fatty acid capsules, can help reduce the advance of AMD, or age-related macular degeneration, which affects the retina of the eye.  My father developed this syndrome as he got older, and it cause a blind patch in the middle of his eye.  It eventually affected both eyes.  It can be severe enough to cause the sufferer to be declared legally blind.  Smoking is also said to advance the possibility of developing AMD.

Omega-3 fatty acids have been shown by research to help with heart and brain health, and improves the structure of the retina.  For more information, see the article in Natural News.  Thanks to Maryann Marshall and her article on 4Marks.  Maryann recommends Moxxor, which is made from green-lipped mussel oil.  I have never used this brand, but have had good luck with the Nordic Naturals brand, available in health food stores.  Nordic Naturals makes a good juvenile strength supplement (Omega 3-6-9 Junior) that my son took for a while; he liked the lemony taste which covered up the fishy taste.  I have taken one of the adult strength formulas, Ultimate Omega; Nordic also makes the Ultimate DHA Eye supplement, which I have not tried.

Nordic Naturals products are available in Cleveland, TN at the Abundant Living health food store on Keith Street, and in Tallahassee, FL at New Leaf Market cooperative in the shopping center at the corner of Appalachee Parkway and Magnolia.

Focus on FOCA

Are we ready for a fight in January?

Go Michelle Rhee!

Kudos to Michelle Rhee, Chancellor of the Washington D.C. public school system!  She has the guts to defy the all-powerful teachers' unions, and recommends an end to tenure.  In her new plan, she is offering strong pay incentives for teachers who give up their tenure.  The D.C. system is one of the worst inner-city school systems in the nation, and she is wasting no time in recommending extreme measures to overhaul it.  Barack Obama is backing her as well.  Check out the New York Times article, and some of the many interesting comments.

There are so many issues facing America's schools today.  What is very clear is that if we as a nation do NOT get a handle on the situation in the next 10 years, we are going to be increasingly a 3rd world country, placed BEHIND India and China, and other nations who prize education as a top priority.

Some of the issues facing American public education (K-12):

• The teaching profession is not respected and paid well as a whole.  This sends a message to America's best and brightest college students: DO NOT APPLY and waste your time.  Sports figures and corporate executives (many whom do not have anything  but their bottom lines in mind) make much more.  Is this what our society values over the education of our young? 
• Parents do not encourage or push education for their kids.  Of course this is not true of many parents, but some simply do not care or don't have the time to reinforce their kids' learning and performance at school.  The kids that do well in school are not only bright, but their parents EXPECT their children to do well, and good academic performance is rewarded, and lack of the same is punished by removal of privileges, etc.
• Family structure and other issues: family breakup, economic hardships (forcing parents to work more than 1 job, etc), alcoholism, drug addiction, and lack of extended family support are all culprits.  I myself am a single parent, but have always pushed education for my son, and held him responsible for his educational failure and success.
• Teachers' unions: these organizations are mainly interested in holding on their power above all else.  Since educators have unionized (starting in the late '60's), education in this nation has only gotten worse, with less respect for the teachers, less learning and self-discipline for the students, more emphasis on a politically correct curriculum and less emphasis on moral education and teaching of the basics, greater bureaucracy (with little to show for it), high pay for administrators but little backup for teachers, stagnation in the workforce with low-performing teachers staying in their jobs forever, etc.
• Breakdown of society as a whole, with a constant media barrage promoting sex, success in monetary terms only, and self-satisfaction above all other values.  Along with this is a de-emphasis on the spiritual values of life, because this would supposedly violate the "separation of church and state". 

Ask yourself, why do so many politicians who are supposedly so "concerned about our public schools", send their kids to private schools?

Father Carapi's 11th hour advice on voting in the upcoming election

Whoever I vote for, it can't be Obama.  Here's why:

Part 1:

Part 2:

Part 3:

Readin', Ritin', 'Rithmatic and Rape

Elementary public schools ain't what they used to be.  Sexual assaults on elementary school kids (often BY other elementary age kids) are increasing. often in the school yard or the school bathrooms.  Check out this article from the LA Times.

I mean, a 5 year old boy being raped by a 6 year old boy AT SCHOOL?  A raped girl being wheeled back to school in a grocery cart?  What a tragedy.  One more reason I send my son to private school, and many others do as well, or homeschool.

Cure for Cancer?

The June issue of Forbes magazine featured the article "The Key to Cancer?", which showcased the work of the biologist Michael Clarke at Stanford University.  One statement in the article caught my eye: "He argues that a handful of aberrant cells drive the growth and spread of most cancers.  Chemo drugs may fail, the theory goes, because they spare some tumor stem cells.  But if you kill these cancer stem cells, the tumor will be rendered benign".  This theory is backed up by his research with humans as well as mice. 

Clarke's work catches my eye because it helps to corroborate the work of the medical maverick Dr. William Donald Kelley, who basically cured himself of his pancreatic cancer over 30 years ago.  He was basically given a death sentence by his doctors, and was given only 2 or 3 months to live, at most.  He went through an intensive enzymatic, herbal, vitamin and food-oriented cancer-killing and detoxification program which was very, shall we say, purgatorial and complete.  He only recently died, and up until the end, he advised many patients.

It is interesting to note that Dr. Kelley started out as a dentist, and his work and findings were rejected by the medical establishment at the time.  One of the cornerstones of Dr. Kelley's theory was that it was a human stem cell which was the germinating seed of the cancer. These stem cells occur all over the human body, not just in the genital organs.  The internally-produced pancreatic enzymes help to destroy a human stem cell which is not in its proper place.  However, pancreatic enzymes are too deficient in the human body to successfully metabolize the high protein diet that we eat in America today, and there is not enough left over to attack and destroy these excess stem cells. 

After the human stem cell germinates the cancer, toxins and imbalances within the body help the cancer to grow.  If the germ cells are not killed and the basic imbalances within the body are not addressed, the cancer will regrow even after extensive radiation and chemotherapy.  I think that both of these guys have a real insight into cancers.  Having lost my mother to lung cancer, and 2 uncles to intestinal and esophagal cancers, I am very concerned about this issue.  Needless to say, all the chemo and radiation in the world did not save my beloved family members.  Radiation and chemo are for one, very blunt instruments and do not address either the stem cell germ of the cancer nor the metabolic imbalance and toxin load; in fact they add to the latter.

Links for Dr. Kelley's work:

eyewitness account and video by one of Dr. Kelley's cancer survivors

One Answer to Cancer - the book

I am hopeful that Mr. Clarke does not go through the same persecution that dogged Dr. Kelley's work.  There are signs that the AMA and other conventional medical authorities are loosening up in their doctrinaire attitude toward alternative treatment:

Growth of alternative therapies in the war on cancer

All you Catholics need to vote!

Watch this wonderful video from CatholicVote.com, very inspiring!