Our Health and Freedom to Choose are Under Attack by Big Industry-

I Just got a response from Senator Barbara Boxer reporting on the successful removal of an amendment that was the latest US attack on personal health freedom to choose your own supplements on the free market, at competitive prices, at will, vs regulation by governmental agencies who are in bed with the pharmaceutical industry who aren't satisfied with the revenue they create by pushing drugs on us for everything under the sun, regardless of their long term side effects or unknown dangers, as we've seen in so many class action lawsuits over FDA approved drugs.

Dear Ms. Hale:

Thank you for contacting me to express your opposition to a proposal to broaden the federal government's regulatory authority over dietary supplements.  I appreciate hearing from you.

You will be pleased to hear that an amendment to give the Federal Trade Commission more regulatory authority over dietary supplements was removed from the final version of the new Wall Street reform bill (H.R.4173) before it was signed into law on July 21, 2010.

Be assured that I will keep your views in mind should the Senate consider legislation regarding dietary supplements in the future.

Again, thank you for writing to me.  Please feel free to contact me again about this or other issues of concern to you.

Barbara Boxer
United States Senator


These sneaky last minute amendments are tacked on to avoid notice, they come off as concern for our health because we aren't smart enough to decide for ourselves, when the real issue is that natural and alternative health solutions have become widely available via the internet along with tons of great research and medical opinion, right at our fingertips and the jury is in, they have since time immemorial been used to help keep people healthy, improve core issues, illnesses, ailments and boost immune function which helps keep people out of the disease loop of chemicals that treat symptoms vs heal the root cause. Bottom line is the drug companies and medical industry isn't happy with the competition and want to control it for themselves, to divert our buying practices to their pockets at the cost of our freedom.

Now, I'm not saying there aren't good and valid uses for medications and some vaccines that have stamped out real epidemics and plagues but we've been used as guinea pigs for their revenues as they've created diseases and disorders to give us the public a reason for buying their drugs. They urge us to tell our doctors which drugs we want to try, what they should prescribe. They now actually pitch us on media day in and day out. They have a vested interest in keeping us engaged with their marketing and tied to their drugs. If we aren't allowed into the process of decisions on our health care and what we choose to put into our bodies, what have we become? It's too frightening to believe actually. It's as if we are cattle or some commodity that is being fought over for control for the revenue.

Check out the Life Extension Foundation Watch Page for Specifics and Info on How to Take Action HERE



Alliance for Natural Health Article



Drug Companies Win Big and Eliminate Medical Herbs from Europe

In less than a year, virtually all medicinal herbs will be illegal in the European Union.
In their take-no-prisoners strategy to wipe out every penny of competition and gain complete control of the health of the people, Big Pharma and Agribusiness have scored a major win in Europe. Similar, potentially devastating battles are also underway in the U.S.
How can this be happening? The secret weapon used by drug companies is trade law. According to Gaia Health:

“Rather than treating food and traditional medicines as human rights issues, they have been treated as trade issues. That makes the desires of large corporations the focus of food and herbal law, rather than the needs and desires of people. It's this twisting that has resulted in the FDA's making outrageously absurd statements, such as claiming that Cheerios and walnuts quite literally become drugs simply because of health claims made for them.”

Sources:

  Gaia Health September 12, 2010

If you follow any of these links you'll find a way to use a prewritten letter you can add to or modify and sign off to send to your representative - get involved, share the info, let's stop this and warn others we aren't the passive dummies they think we are,

The Medium is The Message- Getting Past The GateKeeper

Blogging is interesting, as I was looking for a quote that came to mind relating to my topic, I found this information on Wikipedia linked above on Marshall McLuhan, Who is credited with coining the term 'Global Village' and 'The Medium is the Message', in relation to technology changing our world. My intention was to talk about the media and the subterfuge in ads when I started thinking about the old film classic, Network where some anchor loses it and screams the memorable phrase, "I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore!". So then then I start thinking, What was that saying, The media is the message?.. Googled and found the correct phrase and the subject it was used to head up. I never heard of Marshall McLuhan but he deserves credit and the info on his take about media is one very relevant to consider today.   I don't think this was a fluke, it's very spot on when you consider how the internet and television are used to express messages intended to get us to do something. 

I really thought the following was a great explanation of what we're seeing today;

"in Understanding Media, McLuhan describes the "content" of a medium as a juicy piece of meat carried by the burglar to distract the watchdog of the mind.^[6] This means that people tend to focus on the obvious, which is the content, to provide us valuable information, but in the process, we largely miss the structural changes in our affairs that are introduced subtly, or over long periods of time.^[5] As the society's values, norms and ways of doing things change because of the technology, it is then we realize the social implications of the medium. These range from cultural or religious issues and historical precedents, through interplay with existing conditions, to the secondary or tertiary effects in a cascade of interactions^[5] that we are not aware of."

This punctuates what I've noticed more and more often and the irritation felt as I see how effective the medium is at sneaking the message past the guard dog of our critical thinking, to deliver it's payload while we're busy feeling emotion or caught up in the delivery or the personality delivering the message.
We have trust barriers that are on guard, we value one channel higher than another sometimes based on nothing but popular opinion or how wealthy the spokesperson is, or some language jargon that makes us feel comfy, but if you remember that classic old movie A Face in the Crowd, which was brilliant and before its time with good ol Sheriff Taylor,Andy of Mayberry, Andy Griffith, in the lead role, of a bumpkin who becomes the spokesperson for the Average Joe, the plain talking darling of the advertising world, a celebrity if you will, until he becomes a monster, as a power drunken figurehead of the cult of personality Lonesome Rhodes.

Someone needs to remake that 1957 film, it would be stupendous today, you could choose any genre of music you wanted to play Lonesome, of course country would fit great. I digress, but if you've seen it you'll remember the end and the moral of the story which was a fitting comeuppance and a hard slam from grace when he inadvertently slams his public while his mic is hot, done deliberately to prevent his dangerous charm from infiltrating the political area, his new aspiration. If you've never seen it, go rent it, it's worth it.

I was watching AM News Television on Fox last week and was put off by the light touch given to a serious story as if turning the page which I'm sure it was to the talking head on camera at 6am. It's not out of the ordinary but this time it really struck me as inappropriate. It has been growing inside me, this feeling of insult while being hammered with ads that have become more crafty, subtle, or subliminal in their message or otherwise the outright shyster type ads that used to be screened out on major networks now allowed with a brief disclaimer which may as well say, We know this is crap but hey, the money is green so don't hold us accountable for the hype this guy is selling.

A major crisis has hit the American public in massive job losses and the media and it's talking head's are all business as usual, bantering, consumerism, ads and marketing slickness trying to work into our subconscious to try and convince you it's all as it always was. Only now the marketing psychology is heavier than ever as you watch a show and see a brand name product placement in the hand of a well liked character, trying to use the pseudo relationship you have with them to get you to buy that product. Suddenly it's so overwhelmingly obvious you can't miss it. Even actors want to ride the popularity train as a cameo to boost marketability. You watch a fictional show and you're aware you're being pitched. Now even creative products are tainted with the selling out for another revenue stream from their product. Artists used to have standards. Commercialism rules.

But there's a heavier reason we have to question authority,

Here's a Story You Won't See on OC Housewives

 Here's a shocking cautionary tale from the Orange County Register posted last week illustrating how things can spiral out of control and why it's important to take measures now to shore up whatever income you've got going.  A solid home based business can be worked to generate a nice residual income even in a part time effort if you have the right business, product and support.


Work: the ‘Orange County Dream’ to homeless
August 24th, 2010, 6:01 pm  posted by Peggy Lowe

SAN CLEMENTE – Allen Pederson pulls into a parking slot  at San Clemente State Beach, hoping he gets a meter with a little time left.  Renting by the hour with a few coins is all he can do now. This 1998 white Ford  van is Pederson’s real estate reality, 25 square feet he calls “our little  apartment.”
Beside Allen is his wife of 21 years, Regina. This was her  vehicle, the one she used to drive the couple’s three kids to church, the one  with the “Best Mom” license plate frame intact.

It’s sunset on a recent  Thursday, and the couple sits down on a park bench on the bluff overlooking the  ocean, and Allen jokes that this is his living room. Dinner is from Taco Bell, a  tostada, burrito and Diet Coke eating up most of the last $5 Allen had in his  wallet.

This is all the Pedersons have left of what Allen  called “the Orange County Dream.” They have lost everything since Allen lost his  job in 2005, an event that triggered a domino effect of decline for the family,  down to being homeless and what Allen admits is now day-to-day  survival.

“It’s just kinda like, where did it go? It was just  there. It happened so fast! You think, ‘It will never happen to me.’ I think  back, how did it happen?” Allen says. “How did this happen?”
The trigger to  what the family now simply calls “The Trauma” happened in January 2005, when  Allen lost his six-figure job at Time Warner Cable in a downsizing  move. 

Finding Our Place in the Puzzle of the Future

I believe there are many professionals who, like myself, have been seeking their niche, a place to fit into this new age where they can thrive and earn a real living, honestly, providing value to the marketplace without risking their reputation, entire savings or life to do it.

This is my contribution to the conversation as both one of the boomers out on that limb willing to risk breaking away from the old beliefs that employers will take care of you and value your loyalty when times are tough, and as a woman who has been online since 95 and has seen the rapid advancement of commerce, marketing tactics and outright scams using emotional buttons and trickery to part us from our money.

I've been on the bad end of the stick when it came to holding my own as a mother with the desire to stay around my kids as they grew up but also to make an income, trying many uncharted options before they were uncovered as scams and finding also great opportunity having kissed a few frogs to get to the good stuff. There's good and bad stuff out there but now we have some real oversight and experience to determine which is which in the opportunity world. While an opportunity may be solid there's always one question mark in the picture and that's people.

I don't think I need to expound on the current state of reality in employment and jobs as the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports the decline by county on this page;
http://www.bls.gov/news.release/cewqtr.nr0.htm
Then in another reports increasing despair among the unemployed who believe there are no jobs in their field available after months of seeking work.
http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.nr0.htm  Read on...