The Socialism of Public Schooling

Sunday, September 28, 2008

Editorial: Cops wrong to taser teen

September 28, 2008
The Province

On Monday, a 16-year-old mother was clutching her baby, who was born one month ago with a series of life-threatening medical conditions. As the baby was released from hospital, the threat of those medical conditions had obviously diminished.

Social workers wanted the baby taken away from the mother, and when they were unable to do so, the police were called in.

With a number of police officers and social workers in the room, the distraught teenage mother allegedly gripped her sickly infant more tightly.

For three hours they negotiated.

Efforts to have the teenager willingly turn the baby over to the Vancouver police and social services went nowhere.

At that point, someone decided, for the well-being of this baby, that the standoff demanded immediate action: It was Taser time.

Not one Taser, but two Tasers.

As a result of the blasts, the mom involuntarily released the baby, the police rushed the child into an ambulance and all was resolved.

Well, sorry, but we still have a bunch of questions, starting with: What the hell just happened? Three, maybe four police officers couldn't wrestle an infant from the clutches of a 110-pound, 16-year-old mother? You negotiated for three hours with the teenager, then, 180 minutes later, concluded the infant was in trouble and only a Taser could resolve the situation? VPD Const. Jana McGuinness said officers had no choice but to Taser "the extremely distraught mother to rescue her critically ill infant." Rather than call that a lie, let's just say it's not true. Officers did have a choice. They could have left the room, for example. They could have continued to negotiate. Hell, they could have shot her.

Choices were everywhere. So, apparently, were Tasers.

Const. McGuinness went on to say: "It might appear to be harsh, but we have to remember that if the child died because we hadn't used the Taser, what criticism would we face then?" First off, police officers shouldn't make life and death decisions based on the optics and the potential for criticism. You do the right thing, and if some criticism comes along with doing the right thing, you live with it. Tasering this teenager was not the right thing.

As the citizens of Vancouver are well aware, the use of a Taser comes with the possibility of death. If the mother had a gun to the baby's head, fine, Taser her to Pluto. But the mother reportedly had no plans to hurt her child. The mother was holding the child during three hours of negotiations. Was it really worth risking the life of the 16-year-old by blasting her with thousands of volts of electric shock? Meanwhile, in New York, police Tasered a naked guy with a fluorescent light. He fell from the side of a building, landed on his head and died. A bystander recorded the incident and that recording was shared with the world on YouTube. Prosecutors are now investigating the police on the scene at the time of the death.

Perhaps if someone taped the Tasering of the Vancouver teenager, a similar investigation would ensue.

Perhaps the police themselves should have taped it. After all, they had three hours to set up the cameras.

Source: http://truthnottasers.blogspot.com/

IT'S NOT, BUT UR CURRENCY IS LOSING IT'S PURCHASING POWER!
More Currency = A Less Valuable Currency = Higher Prices
Governments and Central banks are the reason currencies are being inflated and causing them to lose their purchasing power.

currencies have been increasing in quantity which causes them to lose value.  If there are more dollars, each individual dollar will become less valuable.  As a result the price of "things" that currencies purchase, such as oil and gasoline, will go up.  This explanation of a complex topic is short and simple.  The main point to remember is that the cost of gas at the pump is a reflection of both the value of oil as well as the value of the currency measuring it.
  

The value of paper money continually loses value because the constant printing of paper money constantly dilutes the value of previously printed money. The more paper money printed, the less paper money is worth; and today, money is being printed at a faster rate than at any time in history.

In fiat paper money systems, today's paper money will be worth less than tomorrow's and will be worth less the day after ad infinitum . This constant degradation of paper money is known as inflation. When the process rapidly speeds up, it is known as hyperinflation. Remember that word.

For the first time in history, all money, all currencies are now fiat which means money no longer has intrinsic value . This is not because intrinsic value was deemed unnecessary for a functioning currency. The real reason is far less reasonable.

All money is now fiat because between 1949 and 1970 the US overspent its entire 21,775 ton hoard of gold and could no longer convert its currency to gold as agreed under the Bretton Woods Agreements in 1944.

Note: What gold remains in US custody today remains only because in 1971 the US refused to transfer the remaining gold owed to others; as its obligations were far greater than its capacity to settle.

Because at the time the gold-backed US currency anchored all world currencies, when the US dollar became fiat, all currencies also became fiat. For the first time in history, no currency was backed by either gold or silver including the international reserve currency, the US dollar. The destructive consequences of that act have remained contained for 35 years. They are no longer.

The sudden global switch from gold backed money to fiat paper money was not by design; it was the by-product of excessive US post-WWII military spending and corporate overseas expansion. Throughout history, the downfall of most paper money economies can be directly tied to wars and the military. The US is no exception.

The late central banker John Exter called today's money IOU-nothing money , the best description yet of today's constantly degrading paper currencies. Trillions of dollars are bet daily on FOREX markets as speculators bet on the value of government issued coupons masquerading as money. Someday, perhaps sooner than later, speculators will bet the coupons have no value at all.

THE DAY GOLD CORNERS PAPER MONEY

On that day, according to Professor Antal E. Fekete, a spontaneous gold corner could develop; but the corner would not be driven by speculators cornering a commodity to drive up its price. The corner will be caused by the refusal of those who own gold to exchange their increasingly precious metal for increasingly worthless paper currencies.

Since 1913 when the Federal Reserve first issued its debt based paper money in the US, the paper US dollar has lost 95 % of its value, a loss of 95 % over 95 years. Perhaps in five more years, 100 years after the creation of the Federal Reserve, the US dollar will have lost 100 % of its value—which means in five years the US paper dollar will be worth nothing.

Throughout history, no fiat money system has stood the test of time. All attempts to substitute paper money for gold and silver have ended in the total destruction and debasement of the currency.

This time will be no different. It is hubris to think otherwise but unfortunately the vast majority do—which is a clear sign they're not thinking at all.

Barrels of oil per dollar in blue, Euro in red and ounce of gold in purple.



The Price of Oil Hasn't Budged Since 2001 (If You Pay for Black Gold with Gold)

http://www.msplinks.com/MDFodHRwOi8vd3d3LnRoZWRhaWx5Z3JlZW4uY29tL2Vudmlyb25tZW50YWwtbmV3cy9sYXRlc3Qvb2lsLWdvbGQtY29tbW9kaXRpZXMtNDcwNDE1MDc=">http://www. thedailygreen. com/environmental-news/latest/oil-gold-commodities-47041507





Zimbabwe brings in new currency to tackle inflation crisis
Larry Elliott, economics editor The Guardian,
Friday August 1 2008 Article history

People in Zimbabwe will tomorrow start to use a new currency introduced by the central bank to halt the African country's runaway increase in the cost of living.

Gideon Gono, the central bank governor, said he was no longer prepared to print notes of ever higher denominations. "Ten billion dollars today, will as from August 1 be revalued to one zimdollar dollar," he said earlier this week. The move follows an increase in Zimbabwean inflation to 2.2m%, and represents an attempt to get to grips with the economic crisis in what was once one of sub-Saharan Africa's richest countries. The $100bn note came into circulation only 10 days ago.

Gono's move follow the example of the president of the Reichsbank in the 1920s, Hjalmar Schacht, who helped end Weimar Germany's financial crisis by striking nine zeros from the currency and turning 10bn old marks into one new rentenmark.

Zimbabwe's inflation rate has hit a new high as the country comes to terms with spending billions of dollars.

The BBC's Andrew Harding visited a supermarket in Harare and found buying a box of eggs costs 600 billion Zimbabwe dollars.

VIDEO OF ZIMBABWE FOLLOWING LINK;
http://www.msplinks.com/MDFodHRwOi8vbmV3cy5iYmMuY28udWsvMi9oaS9hZnJpY2EvNzUyOTc0MS5zdG0=">http://news. bbc. co. uk/2/hi/africa/7529741. stm

Did you even know that apricot seeds are illegal... well of course, they are inside apricots if you buy the fruit, but did you know that it's illegal to buy/sell the seeds (from inside the pit) in the US? I bet you still think I'm joking don't you? Stay tuned.

Cyanide in Apricot Seeds Target Cancer

By BBC News Online's Jonathan Amos, 7 September 2000

Scientists are using cyanide to attack tumors. They have tested a two-stage drug that harnesses the power of the dangerous chemical to kill bowel cancer cells in the lab.

The researchers, at Imperial College, London, now hope to refine the technology and test it on patients.

Laetrile (amygdaline) is a simple compound found most abundantly in the seeds of non-citrus fruits. Most commercially prepared laetrile is extracted from apricot seeds. Laetrile is composed of two molecules of glucose (sugar), one molecule of benzaldehyde (an analgesic) and one molecule of hydrocyanic acid (a cell-killing compound). It is the hydrocyanic acid which kills cancer cells.

Laetrile's action relies on a chemical difference between normal cells and cancer cells:

• Cancer cells contain in abundance an enzyme called beta-glucosidase; normal cells have very little of it.
• Normal cells have large quantities of another enzyme called rhodanese; cancer cells are deficient in that.

Laetrile is broken down into its component parts as a result of the action of beta-glucosidase. As normal cells are deficient in this, most of the cyanide is released only in cancer cells. With nothing to control it, the cyanide released destroys the cancer cells.

In normal body tissue, deficient in beta-glucosidase, very little cyanide is released and rhodanese, in the presence of sulphur-bearing compounds, converts the little free cyanide which may be released to thiocyanate which is not toxic. This thiocyanate is then excreted in the urine. In this way normal cells survive unharmed.

The cancer industry has been searching for decades for a 'magic bullet', a treatment which targets only cancer cells without damaging normal cells, and there it was all the time and they refused to acknowledge it.

Full Story: http://www.second-opinions.co.uk/laetrile.html

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Proof that laetrile (component of APRICOT SEEDS) is illegal in USA:

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

Plaintiff-Appellee

vs.

JOHN ANTON RICHARDSON
RALPH S. BOWMAN
FRANK SALAMAN
ROBERT WILLIAM BRADFORD

Defendants-Appellants.

Filed October 26, 1978

On Appeal from the United States District Court for the Southern District of California

Before: HERRILL and ANDERSON, Circuit Judges,
 and BARTELS,* District Judge

*Honorable John R. Bartels, Senior United States District Judge of the Eastern District of New York, sitting by designation.

MERRILL, Circuit Judge:

Laetrile is a substance (drug or vitamin) around which controversy for some time has raged as to whether it provides effective cure of or relief from cancer. The Food and Drug Administration has classified it as a "new drug" under 21 U.S.C. §32l(p): a drug not generally recognized by experts to be safe and effective. Under 21 U.S.C. §355(b) as a result of this classification an application for approval of the new drug must be filed and the new drug cannot be transported in interstate commerce without such approval.¹ Approval so far has been withheld, which precludes importation of the drug and limits distribution of it in this country.

This case involves a conspiracy to smuggle the drug into the United States from Mexico and thereafter to distribute the smuggled merchandise. A twelve-count indictment was returned by a grand Jury in the Southern District of California charging these four appellants and fifteen other codefendants with two conspiracies—one to smuggle merchandise and one to receive; buy, sell, transport and conceal the smuggled merchandise, both in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§37l and 545—and also charging various substantive offenses, The trial of these appellants was severed from that of their codefendants. All four were found guilty of the two conspiracy counts. Appellant Bradford also was found guilty of three substantive counts: two of smuggling and one of receiving, concealing and facilitating the transportation of smuggled merchandise.

The record establishes that in 1971 one McNaughton (a codefendant) was engaged in a chemical manufacturing business in Sausalito, California. He decided to move his plant to Tijuana, Mexico, and there to manufacture Laetrile. The plant was established under the name of Cyto Pharma. One Contreras (a codefendant) who maintained a cancer clinic in Mexico became co-owner of the enterprise. One Greczy (a coconspirator) who had acted as chemist for NcNaughton in Sausalito, and two Del Rio brothers from Mexico (codefendants) were placed in charge of the plant. At the outset the plant produced only for Contreras' clinic. A surplus developed, however, and in the fall of 1971 it was decided by McNaughton, Contreras, Greczy and the Del Rios that the surplus should be brought into the United States for distribution. Since Customs officials regularly seized all declared Laetrile, this meant that the Laetrile would have to be smuggled in. One Thurston (coconspirator) was designated to act as distributor for NcNaughton in the United States. Evidence as to the manner in which the conspiracy operated came from correspondence of Thurston seized under a state search warrant and from testimony of Grcczy and numerous other co-defendants, many of whom had actually brought Laetrile across the border and some of whom had engaged in knowing distribution.

Appellant Richardson is a medical doctor engaged in practice in Albany, California. Appellant Bowman is his office manager. Appellants Bradford and Salaman are active members of the Committee for Freedom of Choice in Cancer Therapy, which is engaged in seeking to remove the FDA classification of Laetrile or to secure its approval.

Source: http://www.casewatch.org/doj/bradford/appeal.shtml

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From CNN: http://archives.cnn.com/2000/HEALTH/cancer/09/07/laetrile.crackdown.ap/index.html

FDA cracks down on laetrile resurgence

Web posted at: 1517 GMT

In the 1970s, thousands of patients went to Mexico seeking laetrile, and some doctors sold it in the United States, before a National Cancer Institute study concluded the substance did not fight cancer. Experts also warned that laetrile pills could cause cyanide poisoning.

So the Food and Drug Administration declared laetrile illegal. Several states fought the FDA action but courts backed the government, ending laetrile's heyday by 1980.

Now laetrile is rebounding on the Internet, sometimes sold under the aliases amygdalin or "vitamin B17."

Wednesday, the FDA announced that a U.S. District judge in Miami had issued a preliminary injunction halting sales by three Internet sites, and warned consumers to beware.

"We do not want people to take products that have not been proven to be safe and effective," said FDA enforcement chief John Taylor, saying the biggest worry is that patients will forego proven cancer therapy.

The judge's ruling temporarily stops laetrile sales by World Without Cancer Inc. and Health World International Inc., of Bay Harbor Fla., and Arizona-based Health Genesis Corp., which also does business in Bay Harbor Island, while the court considers an FDA lawsuit seeking to permanently halt the sales. The FDA said since 1998 its inspectors have warned David E. Arjona, a official of all three companies, that laetrile is illegal, yet those inspectors bought laetrile from his Web site in June.

Arjona did not return a phone call. His attorney, Kirkpatrick Dilling of Chicago, was not aware of the preliminary injunction but said his client "hasn't sold one thing that's harmful to anybody."

The Florida case is the FDA's third laetrile crackdown this year, part of the agency's new attempt to block Internet sales of unapproved drugs. In April, a federal judge ordered a New York company to stop selling laetrile -- in July, a federal grand jury indicted an Ohio laetrile seller.

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History of Hemp

Some other interesting pieces of information about the historical use of hemp include the following.

• Hemp is thought to originate in the Himalayas, from where it was spread by animals and people. The Aryans who invaded India are known to have taken hemp seed with them to sow for fibre throughout the Middle East and Europe.

• Hemp is among the oldest industries, going back more than 10,000 years to the beginning of pottery.
• The oldest relic of human industry is a bit of hemp fabric dating back to approximately 8,000 BC. It was found in Mesopotamia and was mentioned in Assyrian scripts.
• By 3,000 years BC, hemp was considered the most important textile, and even in China, where silk production was flourishing, hemp was relied on because it was cheaper than silk and was a strong fibre for clothing.
• Christopher Columbus carried hemp seed on his fleet for use in case of shipwreck to grow crops for raw materials and for use as a food source.
• US past presidents Thomas Jefferson and George Washington were both active hemp farmers.
• The war between North America and Great Britain in 1812 was mainly about access to Russian hemp.
• Napoleon's principle reason for invading Russia in the same year 1812 was due to Russian hemp supplies.
• Until the early 1800's the word 'linen' was used to refer to any fine fabric made from hemp or flax.
• After the invasion of Philippines stopped the supply of Manila hemp to US, the US government distributed 400,00 pounds of Cannabis hemp seeds to US farmers who subsequently produced 42,000 tons of fibre for the US WWII effort.
• Benjamin Franklin started one of the first paper mills with cannabis hemp thus freeing US from dependence on paper or books from England.
• Hemp seed oil is said to burn the brightest of all lamp oils and has been used for millennia.
• Scythians used hemp seed oil to cleanse and purify themselves.
• Legal restrictions put an end to Henry Ford's automobile made in part from hemp fibre and run on hemp oil. He was forced to abandon his work due to hemp prohibition, and alcohol prohibition.
• In 1935 in the US 58,000 tons of hemp seed was used to make non-toxic paint and varnish, but hemp prohibition meant these safe products were replaced with toxic petro-chemical paints and varnishes.

• French bank notes are still produced from hemp paper, grown and processed in a small area of France.

Mother's anger turns to delight after her baby survives an abortion

By Liz Hull

Finley Crampton really shouldn't be here. Although his parents would have loved another child, they knew their baby could inherit a life-threatening kidney condition – and they couldn't take the risk.

After all, their first son had died of the condition and the second was born with serious kidney damage.

So when Finley's mother, Jodie Percival, became pregnant while on the Pill, she and her fiance Billy Crampton, 35, made the agonising decision to abort this child.

Survivor: Jodie Percival and baby Finley who survived an abortion

'Deciding to terminate at eight weeks was just utterly horrible but I couldn't cope with the anguish of losing another baby,' said Miss Percival, 25.

However, Finley had other ideas. And some time after the operation, Miss Percival felt a fluttering in her stomach.

Eventually her doctor sent her for a scan – and she discovered she was 19 weeks pregnant.

The child had survived the abortion and thrived in the womb. 'I couldn't believe it,' said Miss Percival. 'This was the baby I thought I'd terminated.

'At first I was angry that this was happening to us, that the procedure had failed.

'I wrote to the hospital, I couldn't believe that they had let me down like this. They wrote back and apologised and said it was very rare.'

But a week later, another scan confirmed that this baby had kidney problems too, like the couple's previous children.

Miss Percival carries a gene which triggers multicystic dysplastic kidney – which causes cysts to grow on the kidneys of an unborn baby.

Her first baby, Thane, had lived for only 20 minutes after she was forced to deliver him prematurely.

Her second son, Lewis, now 20 months, was born with a similar condition. He survives on one kidney.

However, doctors told the couple from Sutton-in-Ashfield, Nottinghamshire, that this child was likely to survive, so they decided he deserved a chance.

And in November, Finley was born three weeks premature, at 6lb 3oz.

He had minor kidney damage but is expected to lead a normal life.

'I knew if that operation hadn't failed he wouldn't have been there,' said Miss Percival, a hairdresser.

'I just couldn't believe that this child had got through it all and looked so perfect.

'He may need an operation but as only one of his kidneys is affected he can survive.

'I still struggle to believe just what he has fought through. Now he's here I wouldn't change it for the world.'