Debunked: Ridiculous Study Claims Organic Same as Conventional

Anthony Gucciardi

 

The latest study to demonize foods free of GMO ingredients and mercury-containing high-fructose corn syrup ultimately once again fails to accurately address key aspects of the conventional verses organic debate and even falls short of properly addressing the limited scope of concerns it does attempt to analyze. You can see even from the comments on many of the mainstream reports that readers quickly saw through the eroneous ‘organic is the same as conventional’ headlines and began highlighting the many inaccuracies of the research.

What to Do When – Not If – Inflation Gets Out of Hand

image source

Jeff Clark
Casey Research

The cheek of it! They raised the price of my favorite ice cream. Actually, they didn't increase the price; they reduced the container size. I can now only get three servings for the same amount of money that used to give me four, so I'm buying ice cream more often.

Raising prices is one thing. I understand raw-ingredient price rises will be passed on. But underhandedly reducing the amount they give you ... that's another thing entirely. It just doesn't feel ... honest.

You've noticed, I'm sure, how much gasoline is going up.

Food costs too are edging up.

My kids' college expenses, up.

Car prices, insurance premiums, household items – a list of necessities I can't go without. Regardless of one's income level or how tough life might get at times, one has to keep spending money on the basics. (This includes ice cream for only some people.)

According to the government, we're supposedly in a low-inflation environment. What happens if price inflation really takes off, reaching high levels – or worse, spirals out of control?

Education After the Collapse – A Journey Back: Free eBook

Gaye Levy, Contributor

The year is 2018. Looking back, everything in the good old days of 2011 and 2012 seem like a distant memory. And yeah, at the time those good old days did not seem so good. But now they do. Why? The world and society as we knew it are long gone and we are left with a new world, a world without conveniences, without power and without a consistent and reliable food supply.

What I have described above, in my own words, is the scenario described in a new free eBook written by Todd Sepulveda, the chief editor at the Prepper Website. In his book, titled “Education After the Collapse”, Todd describes a fictional community surviving in the aftermath of an economic collapse. It is not a pretty picture and most certainly it will make you want to sit back and think (as well as ratchet up the preps more than just a little bit.)

But his intent is not to scare and not to create panic. Rather, with this brief introduction, the intent is to set you on a track for thinking about an aspect of prepping you rarely hear about: the education of our children and the leaders of the next generation.

School When There Is No Classroom

Congress Demands Answers for Homeland Security’s Unjust Domain Name Seizures

Trevor Timm
EFF

This morning, a bipartisan group of Representatives, led by Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.), sent a pointed letter to Attorney General Eric Holder and the Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano protesting the recent spat of domain name seizures—executed on dubious copyright grounds—that have been censoring websites with no due process.

“Our concern centers on your Department’s methods, and the process given, when seizing the domain names of websites whose actions and content are presumed to be lawful, protected speech,”the letter said, which was also signed by Rep. Jared Polis (D-Colo.) and Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Ut.). 

18 Indications That Europe Is An Economic Black Hole That Will Suck The Life Out Of The Global Economy

Michael Snyder, Contributor

Summer vacation is over and things are about to get very interesting in Europe. Most Americans don't realize this, but much of Europe shuts down for the entire month of August. I wish we had something similar in the United States. But now millions of Europeans are returning from their extended family vacations and the fun is about to begin.

During August, economic conditions continued to degenerate in Europe, but I figured that it wouldn't be until after August that the European debt crisis would take center stage once again. And as I wrote about last week, if there is going to be a financial panic, it typically happens in the fall.

The stock market has seen quite a nice rally over the summer, and many investors are nervous that we could see a significant "correction" very soon. The month of September has been the absolute worst month for stock performance over the past 50 years, and it has also been the absolute worst month for stock performance over the past 100 years as well. Of course that does not guarantee that anything is going to happen this year. But things in Europe continue to get worse. Unemployment rates are spiking, manufacturing activity is slowing down, housing prices are crashing and major financial institutions are failing. What is happening in Europe right now appears to be an even worse version of what happened to the United States back in 2008.

Supranational ASEAN is Super Folly for Southeast Asia

US reveals ASEAN as neo-imperial consolidation as Clinton calls on bloc to present a "united front" against China.

Tony Cartalucci, Contributor

In the literary classic Gulliver's Travels, the protagonist, Lemuel Gulliver, finds himself shipwrecked on an island of tiny people called, "Lilliputians." While he slept, the Lilliputians used their tiny rope and stakes to tie Gulliver down. When he awoke, though many times larger than any one of the Lilliputians, he was immobilized and at their mercy.

Image: Lemuel Gulliver on the island of Lilliput, having been overtaken while asleep by ropes and stakes by the diminutive but numerous Lilliputians. Western corporate-financier interests envision organizing Southeast Asia into a supranational bloc, ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations), to use the smaller nations as a combined front to "tie down" China in a similar manner. Unlike in the story Gulliver's Travels, China may well break free of its binds and stomp the Lilliputian leaders flat for their belligerence. 

This analogy is important because it represents the precise example used by Wall Street-London corporate-financier interests in producing policy for the containment of China. In 1997, a very different world from today, where the idea of a multipolar world order uprooting Anglo-American hegemony was still a fanciful notion, Western policy makers literally used this analogy to describe their strategy of encircling and containing China.

Inherit The Wind . . . The Evil of Two Lessers

Dees Illustration

PA Farruggio

The fine 1960 film Inherit the Wind was more than just about the 1925 Scopes Monkey Trial in Tennessee. Yes, it had as its focal point the law forbidding the teaching of evolution in schools. However, when one views this film, or reads the play it was developed from, one sees a doorway to totalitarianism.

Added to that warning is the observation that many of us humans seem to need to be led. In the fictitious town of Hillsdale, Tennessee, the common folk were led by their religious leaders, who determined how they should not only act . . . but think. 

When the great statesman and Christian scholar, Mathew Harrison Brady, comes to town to lead the prosecution of the case, he surpasses even their pastor in influencing their minds. During the trial, Brady’s counterpart, attorney Henry Drummond for the defense decides to put the right to think for oneself on the witness stand. The right to question authority, and yes, to dissent from it, is what was really on trial in that case.

Obama and Netanyahu Use Propaganda to Cover Their Plan to Attack Iran

Susanne Posel, Contributor

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netenyahu continues to decry that Iran is endeavoring to build a nuclear weapon and admonishes Obama’s slow move toward military strike.

A “clear red line” must be set forth for Iran not to cross,suggests Netanyahu. “This is a brutal regime that is racing ahead with its nuclear program, because it doesn’t see a clear red line from the international community. The greater the resolve and the clearer the red line, the less likely we’ll have conflict.”

Netanyahu claims that anti-Semitic remarks were made by Iran at a recent UN meeting. Allegedly, Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Israel is “an insult to humankind”.

Last month, more verbal bashing resulted from General Amir Ali Hajizadeh of the Revolutionary Guards supposedly saying that if Israel strikes Iran, they will be blown “into the dustbin of history.” Hajizadeh continued: 

Coconut Oil Hailed as ‘Miracle’ Dental Breakthrough, Deadly Bacteria Killer

Anthony Gucciardi
Looking for an alternative to toothpastes loaded with sulfates and other toxic ingredients such as fluoride? Mainstream science has now fully recognized the ‘miracle’ powers of coconut oil to not only combat tooth decay and drastically improve overall mouth health, but also to specifically crush a yeast known as candida albicans that can lead to deadly infections. This ‘news’ likely comes as nothing more than further confirmation for many, as natural health practicioners have been recommending coconut oil for years.

The research comes from the Athlone Institute of Technology, where Ireland-based scientists examined the effects of natural and digested coconut oil on common strains of bacteria within the mouth. What they found was that not only did the coconut oil effectively inhibit a majority of the bacteria strains single-handedly, but it was also particularly harmful to candida albicans. This is important when considering the fact that an excessive amount of the yeast known as candida albicans can be brought upon by a poor diet consisting of processed foods and sugar.

To Revive Economy, Place a Better Bet on Smalls versus “Too-Big-to-Fail” Companies

The raw truth is that Politicians and Government are Major Barriers to Solving Unemployment due to Limiting Small Business Contracts while Supporting Corporations that Pay Millions to CEOs.

Anthony Freda Art

Fannie LaFlore

Recent economic indicators from the Federal Government estimate that up to 23 million people are out of work or underemployed in America. Solutions exist that could change things practically overnight, but are not implemented. As the economic free-fall continues to plague millions of individuals and families struggling to make a decent living, and if governmental options are available but nothing is being done to solve the problem, the central question is why?

One reason is that many public officials claim the government is broke, suggesting that too much debt leaves few to no resources to support job development and employment training initiatives -- but that’s not quite the case. Nationally-recognized attorney, activist and author Van Jones and his Rebuild the Dream organization are launching a new campaign to change the way we talk about our economy and debt. Jones says it's crucial that we don't buy the myth that America is broke, while today's robber barons set the terms of the debate and make off like bandits with taxpayer funds due in part to not paying their fair share in taxes and using corporate money for their own benefit. "We are not broke, we are being robbed,” Jones said, as the basis for Rebuild the Dream’s platform for bottom-up, people-powered activism efforts to help fix the U.S. economy.

What’s not so clear is just how the American people (that would be me and you) are being robbed. But much evidence points to businesses being routinely excluded from governmental opportunities that could significantly improve the economy. This is relevant because research shows most new jobs evolve from entrepreneurial activity (small business), while large enterprises struggle with manageability, generally do not grow organically, or remain stagnant except when they buy existing small companies.

Politicians, both in the Republican and Democratic parties, send mixed messages about priorities and shift blame. 

Shoot to Kill: Autonomous Robots Developed By DARPA Will Not Question Orders

Susanne Posel, Contributor

The Defense Advanced Projects Research Agency (DARPA) Autonomous Robotic Manipulation (ARM)program seeks to find ways to utilize different remote robotic manipulation systems that are controlled by humans. This program is divided into 3 aspects:

• Hardware: to design dexterous multi-fingered robotic hands
• Software: develop complex algorithms for grasping, manipulation and sensory perception
• Outreach: beta-testing robotics in public forums to further study robotic autonomy

In 2010, DARPA revealed a robot at the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International Conference in Denver that was interactive in a public forum. Participants would write software and have the robot preform specified tasks. The goal of this event was to show that robots were being developed by the US government to preform “dangerous tasks” such as disarming an explosive device thereby reducing “significant human interaction”.

Obama Executive Order Will Nationalize the Demonization of US Veterans as Mentally Ill

Susanne Posel, Contributor

The demonization of US veterans has been a reoccurring theme in mainstream media of late.

Last week, it was recounted by mainstream media (MSM) that Terence Tyler, former US Marine had opened fire on his co-workers at a New Jersey supermarket called Pathmark before turning the gun on himself.

Tyler was reported to have been carrying an AK-47 with several rounds of ammunition, as well as a handgun when he began “shooting seemingly at random” into the supermarket. The semiautomatic weapon Tyler used in the shooting is purported to be illegal according to New Jersey state laws if it is enhanced with elements that would raise the gun to the level of assault rifle.

Bruce Kaplan, Middlesex County prosecutor said that there were 16 shots fired in the Pathmark store at 4 am wherein 2 co-workers of Tyler were killed. Kaplan asserts that he does not “believe they were specifically targeted. I believe everybody in the store was a target. It appears he opened fire on the employees that he observed in the store when he entered the store.”

13 Evidence-Based Medicinal Properties of Coconut Oil

Sayer Ji, Contributor

While coconut oil has dragged itself out of the muck of vast misrepresentation over the past few years, it still rarely gets the appreciation it truly deserves. Not just a "good" saturated fat, coconut oil is an exceptional healing agent as well, with loads of useful health applications.

Some examples of "good" saturated fat include

• Fat-burning: Ironic, isn't it? A saturated fat which can accelerate the loss of midsection fat (the most dangerous kind). Well, there are now two solid, human studies showing just two tablespoons a day (30 ml), in both men and women, is capable of reducing belly fat within 1-3 months.
• Brain-Boosting: A now famous study, published in 2006 in the journal Neurobiology of Aging, showed that the administration of medium chain triglycerides (most plentifully found in coconut oil) in 20 subjects with Alzheimer's disease or mild cognitive impairment, resulted in significant increases in ketone bodies (within only 90 minutes after treatment) associated with measurable cognitive improvement in those with less severe cognitive dysfunction.[i]
• Clearing Head Lice: When combined with anise spray, coconut oil was found to be superior to the insecticide permethrin (.43%).[ii]

Big Sis buys yon bonny bagpipes and gets overcharged in the process

McLellan Pipes

James Smith, Contributor

Just when you thought the madness at the Department Of Homeland Security could not get any worse, DHS, on behalf of Customs and Border Protection agency, requests the purchase of, and awards the purchase of 12 MacLellan Bagpipes made from African Blackwood.

Surely, these pipes will be used to sing Amazing Grace at the funerals of fallen agents. An appropriate use, no doubt.

But they were overcharged! Ya gotta love the Scots. They know a sucker when they see one, and Big Sis is . . . well, that can’t be confirmed.

As the Scottish proverb goes, “Never marry for money, ye can borrow it for cheaper”

Folks, you’ll love this.

New Pepsi Sweetener is Mixture of Dangerous Carcinogenic Chemicals

Susanne Posel, Contributor

PepsiCo has decided that aspartame, a neuro-toxin used in their diet cola products as a sweetener, is not “sweet enough” and are “testing a new mix of artificial sweeteners” that will retain its potency longer than high fructose corn syrup.

The new mixture of sweeteners being tested includes acesulfame-potassium, or ace-K. The problem PepsiCo has with aspartame is that it is affected negatively in warm conditions that occur during shipping before their soda products arrive in retail stores.

In 1998, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the use of ace-K despite its known safety dangers. This chemical is most popularly used in baked goods, chewing gum and gelatin desserts according to the food safety advocacy group, the Center for Science in the Public Interest.

40 Signs That We Have Seriously Messed Up The Next Generation Of Americans

Dees Illustration

Michael Snyder, Contributor

What in the world have we done to our kids? If you spend much time with them, you quickly realize that the next generation of Americans is woefully unprepared to deal with the real world. They are overweight, lazy, undisciplined, disrespectful, disobedient to their parents, selfish, self-centered, and completely addicted to entertainment. And that is just for starters.

We feed them insane amounts of sugar and high fructose corn syrup and then when they become overactive we pump them full of prescription drugs to calm them down. Instead of raising our children ourselves, we allow the government schools and the entertainment industry to do it. By the time they reach the age of 18, they have spent far more time with their teachers, their video games and the television than they have spent with us.

Our young people are #1 in a lot of global categories, but almost all of them are bad. Young people in the United States are more obese than anyone else in the world, more sexually active than anyone else in the world and they become pregnant more often than anyone else in the world. Of course it probably doesn't help that we have the highest divorce rate in the world either. Our families are a complete and total mess, and it is our kids that are paying the price. One top of everything else, we have accumulated a 16 trillion dollar debt which we will be handing down to the next generation. I am sure that they will appreciate that.

US-Funded Activsts Exposed as Genocidal Bigots

Myanmar's "pro-democracy" front now leads calls for genocide of ethnic minorities - Aung San Suu Kyi's silence is complicity. 

Tony Cartalucci, Contributor

In Myanmar (still called by its British colonial nomenclature "Burma"), ethnic minority Rohingya Muslims have been once again targeted by violence and the threat of relocation. Self-proclaimed "Buddhist monks" have taken to the streets in cities across Myanmar, reminiscent of the 2007 "Saffron Revolution," to call for the expulsion of the Rohingya from the country.

AFP claims in their article, "Monks stage anti-Rohingya march in Myanmar," that the marching "monks" support President Thein Sein's plan to expel the Rohingya, before paradoxically admitting that Thein Sein has accused the marchers of "kindling hatred toward the Rohingya."

Image: Hands up for recolonization and genocide. One of the US State Department's favorite "activism 2.0" gags is having activists write on their hands and photographing it to show solidarity for a cause across social media. Aung San Suu Kyi (photo courtesy of Soros.org) herself promoted the recolonization of Myanmar by Western interests in this way. Ironically, her supporters who had used the tactic to support Suu Kyi and others in her movement, are now writing pro-genocide slogans on their hands.

The recent campaign carried out not only by "monks," but other stalwart supporters of "pro-democracy icon" Aung San Suu Kyi, has shocked uninformed, though well-meaning people around the world - however, it only exposes the illegitimacy and true nature of yet another Western-backed, neo-imperial, faux-democracy movement that has been evident for years.

Mandatory Chemotherapy for Children with Cancer?

Elizabeth Renter

Most people have some second or even first-hand experience with cancer. Whether you’ve watched a loved one struggle, or if you are a survivor yourself, you know how difficult the battle can be.

And if you’ve gone through it or seen someone go through chemotherapy treatments, you know the poison meant to kill cancer cells can severely weaken the entire body, seemingly destroying healthy cells as well. The treatment can be especially dangerous for children with cancer.

Fortunately, if diagnosed with cancer, we all get a say in how our illness is treated. Right?

That’s what the Minnesota family of 8-year old Sarah Parisian thought as doctors tried to force chemotherapy on their young and vibrant child. They were wrong.

FEMA requests even more emergency food

James Smith, Contributor

On the 31st of August, 2012,  FEMA requested 1.1 Million low sodium MRE’s to help with the demands from Hurricane Isaac. They needed to be shipped on September 1st.

On September 1st, at 10:18 PM ET, FEMA transmitted another solicitation for MRE’s. This time, the standard “Commercial Meal” MRE for those not on a restricted diet.

This Request for Quote is for a commercial Meals Buy and does not include reduced-sodium meals. The purpose of this RFQ is to request for unit prices of commercial meals only, and all other related costs like frieght (sic) costs will be determined at the time of order.

The response deadline on this RFQ is 2 September 2012, no later than 4.00 PM ET, less than 18 hours after the request was made.

What are commercial meals? According to associated document, they are meals that fall under the following guidelines: