Letter to Sydney Morning Herald On GM "Science"

Some readers, like Mr. Colin Jeffrey, think that genetically manipulated food is the product of good science and nothing to be afraid of. Well, thalidomide, DDT, and releasing the cane toad in Australia were all considered to be good science in their day. Just because someone wears a white coat and works in a clean, shiny laboratory does not make them a good scientist.

We know enough now about how unlabeled GM was inserted into our diets to be a bit skeptical of governmental reassurances. Politicians are always seeking funding for reelection, and thus they make sure that GM is given a green light with lax safety regulation. The safety testing involved lasts about three weeks to three months on lab rats, and if the rats don't die, then we get to eat the stuff. To hurry the "patented food" to market, there is no multi-generational tests done, and no inspection of the effects on reproduction.. All testing is done in corporate labs, with governmental labs simply rubber stamping the results.

America has Only One Political Party

I think very few of your realize that we only have one political party in the United States. The only governing party we have puts on a charade every four years of having a real election, with candidates vying for who can be as different from the previous bums as possible.

The one party we have is like a person with a right hand and a left hand. Bush represented the right hand and Obama represents the left hand, but the brain still belongs to some secret combination of the owners of the Federal Reserve Bank, the C.I.A. and the Council on Foreign Relations. Although I really like Obama as a person, he appears more and more to be just a puppet of the powers that be, who want to keep the status quo.

Why is Fluoride in our Drinking Water?

I copied the following directly from the net, as I feel it is so important to know this information. Both Stalin and Hitler medicated the inmates of their gulags and concentration camps with this stuff, and for many years it has been in 60 percent of American drinking water, and is now being pushed in Australia too.

"Controversial fluoride is one of the basic ingredients
in both PROZAC (FLUoxetene Hydrochloride) and Sarin
nerve gas (Isopropyl-Methyl-Phosphoryl FLUoride).

Sodium fluoride, a hazardous-waste by-product from
the manufacture of aluminum, is a common ingredient
in rat and cockroach poisons, anesthetics, hypnotics,
psychiatric drugs, and military nerve gas. It's
historically been quite expensive to properly dispose
of, until some aluminum industries with an overabundance
of the stuff sold the public on the terrifically insane
but highly profitable idea of buying it at a 20,000%
markup, injecting it into our water supplies, and then
DRINKING it. Yes, a 20,000% markup: Fluoride--
intended only for human consumption by people
under 14 years of age--is injected into our drinking
water supply at approx. 1 part-per-million (ppm), but
since we only drink 1/2 of one percent of the total
water supply, the rest literally goes down the drain
as a free hazardous-waste disposal for the chemical
industry, where we PAY them so that we can flush their
expensive hazardous waste down our toilets. How many
salesmen dream of such a deal? (Follow the money!)"

Obscene Drug Mark Ups (U.S.A.)

The women who wrote this email and signed below are Federal Budget Analysts in Washington, DC :
Did you ever wonder how much it costs a drug company for the active ingredient in prescription medications? Some people think it must cost a lot, since many drugs sell for more than $2.00 per tablet. We did a search of offshore chemical synthesizers that supply the active ingredients found in drugs approved by the FDA. The chart below speaks for itself.

Celebrex 100 mg Consumer price (100 tablets): $130.27 Cost of general active ingredients: $0.60 Percen t markup: 21,712%

Claritin 10 mg Consumer Price (100 tablets): $215.17 Cost of general active ingredients: $0.71 Percent markup: 30,306%

Lipitor 20 mg Consumer Price (100 tablets): $272.37 Cost of general active ingredients: $5.80 Percent markup: 4,696%

Norvasec 10 mg Consumer price (100 tablets): $188.29 Cost of general active ingredients: $0.14 Percent markup: 134,493%

Paxil 20 mg Consumer price (100 tablets): $220.27 Cost of general active ingredients: $7.60 Percent markup: 2,898%

Prozac 20 mg Consumer price (100 tablets): $247.47 Cost of general active ingredients: $0.11 Percent markup: 224,973%

Xanax 1 mg Consumer price (100 tablets) : $136.79 Cost of general active ingredients: $0.024 Percent markup: 569,958%

Zithromax 600 mg Consumer price (100 tablets): $1,482.19 Cost of general active ingredients: $18.78 Percent markup: 7,892%

Zoloft 50 mg Consumer price: $206.87 Cost of general active ingredients: $1.75 Percent markup: 11 ,821%

So often, we blame the drug companies for the high cost of drugs, and usually rightfully so. But in this case, the fault clearly lies with the pharmacies themselves. For example, if you had to buy a prescription drug, and bought the name brand, you might pay $100 for 100 pills. The pharmacist might tell you that if you get the generic equivalent, they would only cost $80, making you think you are "saving" $20. What the pharmacist is not telling you is that those 100 generic pills may have only cost him $10! At the end of the report, one of the anchors asked Mr. Wilson whether or not there were any pharmacies that did not adhere to this practice, and he said that Costco, Sam's Club and other discount volume stores consistently charged little over their cost for the generic drugs. I would like to mention, that although these are a "membership" type store, you do NOT have to be a member to buy prescriptions there, as it is a federally regulated substance. You just tell them at the door that you wish to use the pharmacy, and they will let you in.

Sharon L. Davis, Budget Analyst, US Department of Commerce Room 6839 Office Fax: 202-482-5480 Email Address: sdavis@docgov

Mary Palmer, Budget Analyst, Bureau of Economic Analysis Office of Budget & Finance

My New York Times Comments on an Article by Pico Iyer

In response to Mr. Pico Iyer's article called "The Joy of Less"

(My comments follow)

As an American who has lived in several parts of the world, including Kyoto for a year, I couldn’t wait to learn to speak Japanese, and did so within six months of arriving there in 1966. I believe Mr. Iyer has chosen not to learn the language in order to maintain his sense of serenity. Learning a foreign language and also living in that country almost automatically mires one in its institutionalized problems. My observations now of Japan, having lived there a total of eight years, is that the modern culture is very frenetic, but is kept in a precarious balance of sanity, due to its traditional values and Zen-like qualities built into the language itself.

Having lived in Kyoto in the 60s however, I can hardly see any beauty in Kyoto these days, with its modern tall buildings obliterating the sky that used to be dominated by temples. Also, the levels of electromagnetic smog in the whole of Japan are beyond anything I can tolerate.

No, I currently reside in the Blue Mountains west of Sydney, Australia, where I write books, occasionally watch a DVD, cuddle my rabbit, and grow organic vegetables. I do worry about the state of America and the world though, as I don’t feel at all isolated from what looks like a growing worldwide political consolidation, when I would much prefer a return to an era like that of the ancient Greek city states.

NPR Allows Monsanto Greenwashing to Air

I cannot believe that a company like Monsanto is allowed to exist in this
world, let alone be supported by a public broadcasting station. Monsanto
is as evil as the tobacco industry was in covering up the harm that
tobacco has done to the world's citizenry. I personally will tell my
friends to stop sending in money to NPR if you continue to allow Monsanto
to be spewing its lies on the airwaves.

I am outraged by the 12 second ad that Monsanto has been running that
says, "Marketplace [an NPR program] is supported by Monsanto, committed to sustainable
agriculture, creating hybrid and biotech seeds designed to increase crop
yields and conserve natural resources. Learn more at ProduceMoreConserveMore.com"

The only agricultural practice proven to sustainably increase crop yields
while improving the soil's water-holding capacity is organic.

Major General Smedley Butler on his service to the U.S.A.

Here are the words of the most highly decorated military man in U.S history:

"I spent 33 years and four months in active military service and during that period I spent most of my time as a high class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism. I helped make Mexico and especially Tampico safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefit of Wall Street. I helped purify Nicaragua for the International Banking House of Brown Brothers in 1902-1912. I brought light to the Dominican Republic for the American sugar interests in 1916. I helped make Honduras right for the American fruit companies in 1903. In China in 1927 I helped see to it that Standard Oil went on its way unmolested. Looking back on it, I might have given Al Capone a few hints. The best he could do was to operate his racket in three districts. I operated on three continents."[