An Alternative to Prescription Painkillers: A New Epidemic

The world and its people are clearly in a lot of pain. Whether it’s physical pain or emotional pain, the response of the medical community has been to prescribe drugs to medicate it. Using prescription drugs like Vicoden and Percoset to treat chronic physical pain results in approximately 17,000 deaths each year in the U.S. alone. That’s an increase of more than 400% since 1999. Even over-the-counter pain relievers such as ibuprofen and acetaminophen can prove dangerous with prolonged use or taken in large doses.

While the U.S. leads the world in addiction to prescription opioid painkillers, Australia currently ranks second. The Australian Medical Association recently declared the rising statistics a “national emergency”. Nearly all countries have reported an increase of addiction to prescription drugs. According to the Psychology Today, a large percentage of people receiving drug treatment in Europe are addicted to benzodiazepines. This class of prescription drug is commonly used to treat anxiety and includes popular drugs like Xanax.

Alternatives to the Use of Prescription Drugs to Manage Pain and Anxiety

To avoid the added pain of addiction, people are looking for alternative treatments for chronic pain.

Exercise and Meditation

Exercise can reduce pain in a number of ways. It strengthens muscles, increases joint mobility, releases natural pain-killing endorphins, and improves sleep. Relaxation can also be an effective tool in treating both pain and anxiety by decreasing stress and muscle tension. Meditation techniques can also reduce stress and adding yoga can make you stronger and more flexible in the process.

Massage Therapy

Massage therapy has been proven to be hugely beneficial in treating chronic pain, both physical and emotional. There have been multiple studies that concluded massage was superior to relaxation and acupuncture in managing back pain. The benefits of massage are also more long-lasting than other types of treatments, for up to a year past the end of active treatment in some cases. More proof lies in the fact that many insurance companies now cover therapeutic massage.

Massage has proven effective in treating chronic shoulder pain, headaches, fibromyalgia, and carpal tunnel syndrome. It has also been demonstrated to improve grip strength, increase range of motion, and decrease anxiety and depression. Despite its many benefits, many people still aren’t able to take advantage of its benefits. The most common reasons are the lack of time and cost. Taking a pill only takes a moment. A therapeutic massage requires travel time in addition to the hour it takes for the massage. Massage usually costs approximately $100 per session.

Massage Chair

One increasingly popular alternative for busy people who want to manage pain or stress and avoid prescription drugs is a massage chair. Utilizing every form of state-of-the-art technology now available, massage chairs have come a long way from the first models. Today’s models include a wide range of features such as 16 settings from light massage to deep tissue massage, a heated lumbar and seat region, shiatsu massage for neck and shoulders, and special rollers designed for foot massage. Some even have a full-body stretch feature that helps exercise seldom-used muscle groups.

Massage therapy can literally be a life-saving choice in the treatment of chronic pain. Just as importantly, it can enhance your quality of life by reducing stress, anxiety, and depression while increasing flexibility, mobility, and relaxation. Unlike the epidemic of prescription drug addiction, a global epidemic of relaxation would be a welcome one.

Further reading:




Religious Reasons Not To Circumcise

Together with Paul, he [St. Barnabas] then went to the so-called Council of Jerusalem where after a profound examination of the question, the Apostles with the Elders decided to discontinue the practice of circumcision so that it was no longer a feature of the Christian identity. – Pope Benedict XVI, General Audience, January 31, 2007

There are three main religions of the world that practice circumcision: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Many people refer to these religions as Abrahamic faiths, after Abraham of the Old Testament. When looking for justification for circumcision, many adherents of these religions refer to Abraham’s children being circumcised as justification to continue the practice.

Using Abraham’s actions as justification for genital mutilation is irrational. By today’s standards, Abraham was certifiably insane. He committed adultery by sleeping with a servant girl, he believed he heard God’s voice commanding him to do things, and he built an altar in order to murder his son because he believed he was following God’s wishes. At the last moment, he believed God wanted him to stay his hand. For these and other reasons, Abraham makes a poor role model by today’s standards. Most of us would be hard pressed to find a priest, rabbi, or imam who would tell anyone to follow God’s commands if they were to hear his voice commanding them to kill a family member.

The belief that God wants you to murder your child is seen as profoundly insane, but the belief that God wants you to sacrifice the most sensitive part of your son’s penis is still seen as routine, and normal in the U.S. and Canada, but not in any other developed country. Routine infant circumcision is not normal for most Europeans, Australians, Asians, Latin Americans, or New Zealanders.

Jewish arguments in favor of circumcision are so commonplace now as to be axiomatic. What isn’t commonly known are the arguments that oppose circumcision on Judaic religious grounds. Because circumcision originated with Abraham, Jewish people commonly believed that in order to be Jewish, one must be circumcised. The idea that removal of the foreskin is what makes someone truly authentically Jewish cannot be historically supported.

Moses was not circumcised and he prohibited circumcision during the 40 years he and his followers spent in the wilderness. The Jewish people have never questioned Moses’ authenticity as a Jew, so if circumcision was not required of Moses to be Jewish, why would it be a requirement today? In addition, Theodor Hertzl, the founder of Zionism, also refused to have his son circumcised. Many prominent Jewish celebrities are opposed to circumcision including Roseanna Barr, Alicia Silverstone, Howard Stern, and Billy Joel.

Thousands of years after circumcision had been widely practiced, around 140 A.D, the procedure was radically altered . The Jewish authorities sought to modify the procedure so as to make it impossible for anyone Jewish to be mistaken as being intact or uncircumcised. (The ignominy of being mistaken for a Greek was somehow more disturbing than the practice of truly mutilating genitals). Until this time, the tip of the foreskin was removed, the part of the foreskin that isn’t initially fused to the glans of the penis. In this new procedure, referred to as peri’ah, the foreskin is completely stripped away from the glans, and then the next step in the procedure is known today as synechotomy, wherein almost all of the foreskin is removed and the extent of the injury to the penis is correspondingly more extensive. These changes to circumcision made it much more difficult to make restorative efforts on the remaining foreskin after a circumcision. This significantly more harmful and relatively recent approach to circumcision is the style of genital mutilation preferred by medical and religious professionals today. There is absolutely no chance that Abraham’s children, Moses (intact) or his children, or Jesus of Nazareth were circumcised in this manner. Furthermore, when God made Adam he made him perfect, and he wasn’t circumcised.

Other biblical imperatives: animal sacrifice, slavery, stoning of adulterous women, mandates against homosexuality ─ these have mostly fallen by the wayside. Judaism, except for the Ultra-Orthodox, has bridged the gap from ancient lore to modern day scientific enlightenment. Most Jews do not maintain kosher dietary laws, nor do they believe in laws forbidding travel or work on Shabbat. Why do they stubbornly maintain the atavistic ritual of circumcision? –Mark Reiss M.D.

According to Jewish law, Halacha, Jewish identity is purely matrilineal. If your mother is Jewish, you are Jewish, regardless of your circumcision status. Believing that one must be circumcised in order to be Jewish does not make it true, or historically accurate.

The Jewish alternative to circumcision is known as a Brit Shalom. This is a Jewish naming ceremony without circumcision. Begun over 150 years ago, this alternative service maintains the integrity of the Bris, while showing compassion and reason more respective of modern day understanding.

The Christian Religion Is Fundamentally Incompatible With Genital Mutilation

Christians took an adamant stance against circumcision in the earliest days of the Church. St. Paul, apostle to the gentiles, ardently opposed circumcision. As clarified by Paul’s teachings, circumcision directly contradicts Christian faith and teachings. The new covenant with God for Christians mandates forgiveness, compassion, and faith, not sacrifice. All Christian parents have a Christian obligation to love, nurture, and protect their children. Obviously these obligations would preclude unnecessary and harmful surgeries that offer no benefit and could potentially castrate or kill the child.

In the New Testament it reads:

Gal 5:2 – Behold, I, Paul tell you that if you be circumcised, Christ will be of no advantage to you.

Gal 6:13 – And even those who advocate circumcision don’t really keep the whole law. They only want you to be circumcised so they can brag about it and claim you as their disciples.

Titus 1:10-11 – For there are many who rebel against right teaching; they engage in useless talk and deceive people. This is especially true of those who insist on circumcision for salvation. They must be silenced. By their wrong teaching, they have already turned whole families away from the truth. Such teachers only want your money.

Gal 5:3 – And I testify again to every male who receives circumcision, that he is in debt to keep the whole LAW you who do so have been severed from Christ… You have fallen from grace.

Phil 3:2-3 – Watch out for those wicked men – dangerous dogs, I call them – who say you must be circumcised. Beware of the evil doers. Beware of the mutilation. For it isn’t the cutting of our bodies that makes us children of God; it is worshipping him…with our spirits.

Even if your interpretation of Christianity differs from St. Paul’s, it should be noted that Jesus never forced his views on anyone. Religious tyranny is antithetical to Christ’s example. Religious freedom means the right to choose one’s own religion, not the right to impose circumsitious beliefs upon others. There are more than a hundred fatalities a year due to circumcisions. Castrations and other complications do occur. These children have been sacrificed for an ancient superstition, not true religious mandates. The Quran never once mentions circumcision. Islamic scholars are in dispute over the necessity of circumcision and in dispute over whether or not Muhammad was circumcised or born without foreskin.

Brit Milah

A Brit Milah is the traditional Jewish naming ceremony, which is when circumcision traditionally takes place. The term Brit Shalom means “Covenant of Peace”. It is a non-cutting, peaceful alternative to the violent traditional Jewish cutting ceremony.

Circumcision stands in direct opposition to religious teaching prohibiting violence and sexual contact outside of marriage. Within the context of circumcision it seems any other molestation is culturally permissible. If we are to fall under the delusion that circumcision is somehow required of the faithful, we can overlook anything. But when you really think about it how could it be possible that circumcision is an innocent sexual mutilation? It manifests itself as deep perversions of the human spirit. This perversion is evidenced in the Messisa or Metzitzah, a third step not introduced until the Talmudic period (500-625 A.D.) wherein the mohel (in an act of pedophilia) sucks blood from the penis of the circumcised infant. Unbelievably the Rabbi explains that in order to more “easily” perform a circumcision the infant should be in a state of sexual arousal. According to the late Rabbi Snowman author of the book The Surgery of Ritual Circumcision.

When the penis of an infant is in a state of erection the operation is more easily performed and the dressing more efficiently applied. The manipulation of the organ necessary to grasp the prepuce is generally sufficient to stimulate the increased blood supply requisite for an erection.

When agreeing to have their child circumcised parents are fundamentally agreeing to a violent and sexual act to be done to their child. There are many people that do not need any religious justification for why that would be immoral and cruel thing to have done to their child, but for those that do, these are just some of the religious reasons not to circumcise.

Further Reading:
Sources:



10 Circumcision Myths – Let’s Get the Facts Straight

In an effort to sell you medical services that are not needed, hospitals have continued a practice that was adopted as a preventative measure against masturbation. Instead of abandoning the practice once Americans became more sexually liberated, doctors and nurses have begun spreading a number of falsehoods and half-truths in order to justify the amputation a fully functioning organ immediately upon birth. Yes the foreskin is an organ, it has known immunological, sexual and protective functions.

Easier to Clean

Contrary to popular myth, an intact penis is no harder to clean than a circumcised one. All it requires is simply rinsing off whenever you bathe; no soap is necessary. For care of infants, simply clean what is seen and wipe from base to tip. Never retract the foreskin on an infant because it can cause serious damage in the form of adhesions. Forcefully retracting would be like ripping your fingernail off as the foreskin is adhered to the glans and forcing it back will hurt the boy. Taking these steps to clean an intact penis is far easier than caring for a circumcised infant. A circumcision leaves an open wound vulnerable to infection, a wound that is trapped in a diaper that will likely be exposed to feces. There’s nothing cleaner about caring for a surgically altered penis; in fact, it is more difficult than cleaning an intact one.

Prevents HIV

One of the most common myths you hear with circumcision is that it prevents HIV and AIDS. This is simply not true and is based on a handful of highly flawed studies out of Africa. Some of these studies did not take into account important factors that could affect the HIV status of the men in the study. For example, condom use was not tracked in some studies nor was the HIV status of their female partners. All three of the major studies were halted early, which can cause the effects of treatment to be greatly over exaggerated. These studies also experienced high attrition rates of participants. The potential HIV status of these lost participants could potentially skew the statistics.

Many other studies have shown that circumcision did not decrease the rates of HIV among circumcised males and in some cases, being circumcised actually increased a man’s risk of acquiring HIV. One study out of Uganda showed that the female partners of recently circumcised males were at an increased risk of contracting HIV. Another study found that circumcision increased the risk of HIV by as much as 300%, since the instruments used were not sanitized and circumcision directly aided in spreading the virus from person to person.

Prevents Cancer

Another myth of circumcision is that it helps prevent penile cancer in men and cervical cancer in their female partners. This is simply not true. Abraham Wolbarst, a doctor in the early 20th century, was one of the first to hypothesize that smegma, a secretion more prevalent in uncircumcised males than circumcised males, was carcinogenic and caused cancers. This was debunked later by studies in the 1950s. Further studies found that there was no statistical difference in rates of penile cancer between circumcised and uncircumcised males. Even the American Cancer Society has categorically stated that promoting circumcision as a method of preventing cancer is not effective. In a letter to the American Academy of Pediatrics, they wrote:

As representatives of the American Cancer Society, we would like to discourage the American Academy of Pediatrics from promoting routine circumcision as preventative measure for penile or cervical cancer.

The American Cancer Society does not consider routine circumcision to be a valid or effective measure to prevent such cancers. 

Research suggesting a pattern in the circumcision status of partners of women with cervical cancer is methodologically flawed, outdated and has not been taken seriously in the medical community for decades. Likewise, research claiming a relationship between circumcision and penile cancer is inconclusive.  

Penile cancer is an extremely rare condition, effecting one in 200,000 men in the United States. Penile cancer rates in countries which do not practice circumcision are lower than those found in the United States. Fatalities caused by circumcision accidents may approximate the mortality rate from penile cancer.

Portraying routine circumcision as an effective means of prevention distracts the public from the task of avoiding the behaviors proven to contribute to penile and cervical cancer: especially cigarette smoking and unprotected sexual relations with multiple partners. Perpetuating the mistaken belief that circumcision prevents cancer is inappropriate.

Even though evidence has shown that circumcision does not reduce the risks of penile or cervical cancer, many people continue to perpetuate this myth.

Babies Don’t Feel the Pain

Probably one of the most dangerous myths of circumcision is that babies do not feel pain. Most of the time, baby boys are circumcised with either no anesthetic at all or just a local anesthetic that does little to numb the pain of the foreskin being ripped back from the glans and then cut off. Many studies over the years have shown that babies do feel pain but a recent study using MRIs on infants is the most telling. This study by Oxford University found that out of the 20 areas of the brain that light up on MRIs of adults in pain, 18 will light up on MRIs of infants in pain. The study also found that babies have a lower pain threshold than adults. It is easy to see from this that yes, baby boys do feel the circumcision and are in extreme pain throughout the whole procedure.

Women Find it More Attractive

Many American women will state that they find circumcised penises more attractive than intact penises. This is simply because circumcision has been a cultural norm. This statement is not true for most women worldwide where circumcision is not the norm. As more women are educated on the benefits to their own sexual pleasure when a man is intact, this cultural norm will change.

It Prevents Urinary Tract Infections

Females are far more likely than males to get urinary tract infections. Most men will never have a urinary tract infection regardless of their circumcision status, and even if they do occur, UTIs are easily treatable.

It Doesn’t Affect Your Sex Life

Being circumcised does affect a man’s sex life. Being intact increases the sexual pleasure for both men and women. For a man, being circumcised can make it harder to reach orgasm and contribute to sexual dysfunction. Having a foreskin increases the sensitivity for both the intact male and his partner. It provides a natural lubrication for women.

It’s a Useless Piece of Skin

The foreskin is anything but a useless piece of skin, as many proponents of circumcision will try to tell you. The foreskin has more than sixteen functions and is an important part of the human body. Functions of the foreskin include:

  • Protection of the glans from injury
  • Provides moisture and pH balance
  • Helps prevent contaminants from entering the urethra
  • Contains glands that produce antibacterial and antiviral proteins such as lysozyme
  • Provides natural gliding action during sex
  • Contains between 10,000-20,000 nerve endings, and seven different types of nerve endings

Even though this is just a short list of the many functions of the foreskin, it is easy to see that the foreskin is not “just a useless piece of skin”.

FGM is Different and/or Worse

The differences between female circumcision and male circumcision are debated, even among intactivists. The basic concept is the same for both: the removal of erogenous tissue. Where people disagree is in how much damage it causes in victims of either gender. Both female circumcision and male circumcision result in lasting harm. Only male circumcision is legal in Western countries. While intactivists may disagree on whether female circumcision results in worse injury than male circumcision, all intactivists can agree that no circumcision should be done on infants and children who are incapable of consent.

Phimosis is a Common Affliction that Must be Corrected with Circumcision

Phimosis is a common misdiagnosis given to parents to convince them to circumcise their sons. This condition is defined as the inability of the foreskin to retract from over the glans, or head, of the penis. Diagnosis of this condition is divided into two categories: physiologic phimosis and pathologic phimosis. What many do not realize that it is perfectly normal for an intact infant boy or young child’s foreskin to not be able to retract. In fact, on average, the foreskin is not fully retractable until later in childhood, around the beginning of puberty. As a result, many doctors will diagnose a young infant boy or toddler as having phimosis when in fact his body has not reached the biological state of development where the foreskin retracts naturally. Physiologic phimosis generally resolves itself as boys reach puberty and their foreskin begins to retract naturally. Even if it does not, phimosis does not need to be ‘fixed’ with circumcision. Pathologic circumcision is due to scarring, infection, and inflammation. Treatment may be required if it begins to interfere with urination, but a true necessity for circumcision rarely exists.

Conclusion

When it comes to deciding whether to circumcise your son or not, look at the research. All of the reasons doctors, nurses, and other medical professionals give for circumcision simply are not supported by the facts. These myths need to be debunked every time you hear them. Please help us build an intact generation by educating others on the myths of circumcision and the benefits of leaving baby boys intact.

Further Reading:
Sources:



Statesmen Against Mandatory Vaccines

For to be free is not merely to cast off one’s chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others.” –Nelson Mandela

Medical care has never been a tough sell as long as the public believes the benefits outweigh the risks. Vaccination has remained popular due to this belief. In reality, the benefits accrue to the pharmaceutical companies and the salespeople (medical staff) who administer them. There is no risk for the vaccine manufacturer, as they are immune to all liability. The risk is borne solely by the patients and their caretakers. All vaccines have a risk of severe side effects, including death. If there are, in fact, benefits to vaccines, they have not been proven. Vaccines generate antibodies, but this does not equate to meaningful protection, resistance or immunity.

Also check out Doctor's Against Vaccines and Scientists Against Vaccines.

Thousands of industry-funded, pseudo-scientific studies have been failing to convince all of the public that vaccines are safe and effective. When the placebo is another vaccine, only the uninformed fall for the hype. Unfortunately, some of the most poorly informed people are often medical professionals. With the advent of the Internet, information is just a click away. Stories of vaccine fatalities, pharmaceutical company corruption, and vaccine-injured children are all over the Internet. Doctors like to counter these criticisms of vaccines with a dismissive “you shouldn’t believe everything you read on the Internet”, but then again you shouldn’t believe everything you hear on TV or any other source of media. To those willing to do the research and hear both sides of the argument, the truth is out there.

Other government plans to both track vaccine compliance, and impose new mandates on vaccines are currently underway.

Both in the past and the present there have been influential leaders willing to speak out against either the vaccine schedule or vaccine mandates. And there is one statesman who has always been opposed to vaccines of any kind, for any reason.

Mahatma Ghandi against vaccinesMahatma Ghandi

Mahatma Gandhi is well known for being a civil rights activist and leader of the independence movement in India. He espoused the use of non-violent protests and fasting as a means of civil disobedience. He studied law in London and at home in India. In particular, he is known for the Salt March, a public display of civil obedience against Britain’s Salt Laws, which prohibited Indians from gathering salt. This brought international recognition to his cause and resulted in him being named Time Magazine’s Man of the Year in 1930. He was also outspoken against vaccines, writing about them in his book, A Guide to Health.

The original theory was that a single vaccination would suffice to keep a man immune from this disease for life; but, when it was found that even vaccinated persons were attacked by the disease, a new theory came into being that the vaccination should be renewed after a certain period, and to-day it has become the rule for all persons-whether already vaccinated or not-to get themselves vaccinated whenever small pox rages in any locality, so that it is no uncommon thing to come across people who have been vaccinated five or six times, or even more.

…Its supporters are not content with its adoption by those who have no objection to it, but seek to impose it with the aid of penal laws and rigorous punishments on all people alike.

…No one can say that small-pox will necessarily attack those who have not been vaccinated; for many cases have been observed of unvaccinated people being free from its attack. From the fact that some people who are not vaccinated do get the disease, we cannot, of course, conclude that they would have been immune if only they had got themselves vaccinated.

…As has been well said, cowards die a living death, and our craze for vaccination is solely due to the fear of death or disfigurement by small-pox.

…Vaccination, instead of doing good, works considerable mischief by giving rise to many new diseases. Even its advocates cannot deny that, after its introduction, many new diseases have come into being.

…The vaccine is a filthy substance, and it is foolish that one kind of filth can be removed by another.

… The fact of the matter is that it is only the self-interest of doctors that stands in the way of the abolition of this inhuman practice, for the fear of losing the large incomes that they at present derive from this source blinds them to the countless evils which it brings. There are, however, a few doctors who recognize these evils and who are determined opponents of vaccination.

…Those who are conscientious objectors to vaccination should, of course, have the courage to face all penalties or persecutions to which they may be subjected by law, and stand alone, if need be, against the whole world, in defense of their conviction.”

Ron Paul

https://youtu.be/E2Gi47Hd8xQ

Ron Paul is known for being a libertarian-leaning Republican politician. After graduating from Gettysburg College, he attended medical school at Duke University and specialized in obstetrics-gynecology. He served in the Air Force and National Guard as a physician before entering politics in the 1970s. He was a Representative for Texas for a total of twenty-four years and has run for President numerous times, most recently in 2012. He also published three books back in the 1980s. Representative Ron Paul has been outspoken on his beliefs for less governmental control, and he is critical of the war on drugs. He is adamantly against mandatory vaccines, believing it will lead to further governmental control in other areas.

If I were still a practicing ob-gyn and one of my patients said she was not going to vaccinate her child, I might try to persuade her to change her mind. But, if I were unsuccessful, I would respect her decision.

…Those who are willing to make an “exception” to the principle that parents should make health care decisions for their children should ask themselves when in history has a “limited” infringement on individual liberty stayed limited. By ceding the principle that individuals have the right to make their own health care decisions, supporters of mandatory vaccines are opening the door for future infringements on health freedom.

If government can mandate that children receive vaccines, then why shouldn’t the government mandate that adults receive certain types of vaccines? And if it is the law that individuals must be vaccinated, then why shouldn’t police officers be empowered to physically force resisters to receive a vaccine? If the fear of infections from the unvaccinated justifies mandatory vaccine laws, then why shouldn’t police offices fine or arrest people who don’t wash their hands or cover their noses or mouths when they cough or sneeze in public? Why not force people to eat right and take vitamins in order to lower their risk of contracting an infectious disease? These proposals may seem outlandish, but they are no different in principle from the proposal that government force children to be vaccinated.

Rand Paul

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AlWcDDZ1w38

Rand Paul is known for being a political activist and U.S. Senator from Kentucky since 2010. He attended Baylor University before obtaining a medical degree from Duke University like his father, Ron Paul. He specializes in Ophthalmology and provides free eye services for those in need through a charity, Southern Kentucky Lions Eye Clinic, that he founded. He also performs free eye surgeries through another international charity. Rand Paul joined the political arena in the 1990s in Kentucky through an activist organization, Kentucky Taxpayers United, which focused on taxation and spending issues within the state of Kentucky. After campaigning for his father in 2008, Rand Paul became a Senator in 2010. He is currently a Republican presidential candidate. He has been outspoken against the current vaccine schedule and vaccine mandates.

I guess being for freedom would be really unusual. I guess I don’t understand the point of why that would be controversial.

…I think vaccines are one of the greatest medical breakthroughs that we have. I’m a big fan and a great fan of the history of the development of the small pox vaccine for example. But you know, for most of our history, they have been voluntary. So I don’t think I’m arguing for anything out of the ordinary. We are arguing for what most of our history has had.

…I don’t think there is anything extraordinary about resorting to freedom. I’ll give you a good example. The hepatitis B vaccine is now given to newborns. We sometimes give five and six vaccines all at one time. I chose to have my [children’s vaccines] delayed. I don’t want the government telling me that I have to give my newborn hepatitis B vaccine—(the CNBC reporter tried to cut him off here)

…Which is transmitted by sexually transmitted disease and/or blood transfusions. Do I ultimately think it is a good idea? Yeah. And so I had my [children’s] staggered over several months. I have heard of many tragic cases of walking, talking normal children who wound up with profound mental disorders after vaccines. I’m not arguing vaccines are a bad idea. I think they are a good thing, but I think the parent should have some input. The state doesn’t own your children. Parents own the children. And it is an issue of freedom and public health.”

Robert Kennedy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bSwXNkcOWKc

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is a successful environmental lawyer. He has published numerous books, including the New York Times’ best-sellers The Riverkeepers (1997) and Crimes Against Nature (2004). He received his undergraduate degree from Harvard University before finishing law school at the University of Virginia and then receiving a Masters Degree from Pace University in Environmental Law. He currently teaches at Pace University’s Law School. In the past, he has served as an Assistant District Attorney in New York City and has worked on political campaigns for Al Gore, Edward Kennedy, and John Kerry. Though he supports vaccination and has had all six of his kids vaccinated, he is against the use of thimerosal in vaccines and is strongly against mandatory vaccines.

Vaccines are big business. Pharma is a trillion-dollar industry with vaccines accounting for $25 billion in annual sales. CDC’s decision to add a vaccine to the schedule can guarantee its manufacturer millions of customers and billions in revenue with minimal advertising or marketing costs and complete immunity from lawsuits. High stakes and the seamless marriage between Big Pharma and government agencies have spawned an opaque and crooked regulatory system.

…Big money has fueled the exponential expansion of CDC’s vaccine schedule since 1988, when Congress’ grant of immunity from lawsuits suddenly transformed vaccines into paydirt. CDC recommended five pediatric vaccines when I was a boy in 1954. Today’s children cannot [attend] school without at least 56 doses of 14 vaccines by the time they’re 18.

An insatiable pharmaceutical industry has 271 new vaccines under development in CDC’s bureaucratic pipeline in hopes of boosting vaccine revenues to $100 billion by 2025. The industry’s principle spokesperson, Dr. Paul Offit, says that he believes children can take as many as 10,000 vaccines.

Public health may not be the sole driver of CDC decisions to mandate new vaccines. Four scathing federal studies, including two by Congress, one by the US Senate, and one by the HHS Inspector General, paint CDC as a cesspool of corruption, mismanagement, and dysfunction with alarming conflicts of interest suborning its research, regulatory, and policymaking functions.

…The corruption has also poisoned CDC’s immunization safety office, the research arm that tests vaccines for safety and efficacy. In August 2014, seventeen-year CDC veteran, Dr. William Thompson, who is author of the principal study cited by CDC to exculpate mercury- preserved vaccines from the autism link, invoked whistleblower protection, and turned extensive agency files over to Congress. Thompson, who is still employed at CDC, says that for the past decade his superiors have pressured him and his fellow scientists to lie and manipulate data about the safety of the mercury-based preservative thimerosal to conceal its causative link to a suite of brain injuries, including autism.

Thimerosal is 50% ethylmercury, which is far more toxic and persistent in the brain than the highly regulated methylmercury in fish. Hundreds of peer reviewed studies by leading government and university scientists show that thimerosal is a devastating brain poison linked to neurological disorders now epidemic in American children. My book, Thimerosal: Let the Science Speak, is a summary of these studies, which CDC and its credulous journalists swear don’t exist. Although Thompson’s CDC and vaccine industry colleagues have created nine patently fraudulent and thoroughly discredited epidemiological studies to defend thimerosal, no published study shows thimerosal to be safe.

Donald Trump

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AffuKjGV6BA

Donald Trump, a real estate mogul and aspiring politician, graduated from University of Pennsylvania in 1968 with a degree in Economics. He is known for his many successful and unsuccessful real estate ventures including the Grand Hyatt Hotel in New York City and Trump Tower. Donald Trump has filed for corporate bankruptcy four times in relation to hotel and casino properties in Atlantic City that were over-extended. He is also known for his reality show, Celebrity Apprentice and other media ventures. Trump is currently on his third marriage. He has openly admitted that he supports vaccinations, but on a more spread out schedule and has had his children vaccinated on an extended schedule. Currently a Republican presidential candidate, he attempted to run for President in the 2000 election, the 2012 election and he is currently the frontrunner in the Republican party for the 2016 presidential election.

Autism has become an epidemic. 25 years ago, 35 years ago, you look at the statistics, not even close. It has gotten totally out of control. I am totally in favor of vaccines but I want smaller doses over longer periods of time. Because you take a baby in, and I’ve seen it, and I’ve had my children taken care of over a long period, over a two or three year period of time, same exact amount. But you take this little beautiful baby, and you pump, and it looks just like its meant for a horse and not for a child, and we’ve had so many instances, people that work for me. Just the other day, two years old, two and a half years old, a beautiful child, went to have the vaccine and came back, a week later got a tremendous fever, got very very sick, now is autistic. I’m in favor of vaccines, do them over a longer period of time, same amount, just in little sections.”

A series of tweets further confirms his stance on vaccines.

No more massive injections. Tiny children are not horses-one vaccine at a time, over time.

I am being proven right about massive vaccinations-the doctors lied. Save our children and their future.

I’m not against vaccinations for your children, I’m against them in one massive dose. Spread them out over a period of time & autism will drop!

So many people who have children with autism thanked me-amazing response. They know far better than fudged up reports. 

I’ve gotten to be pretty familiar with the subject. You know, I have a theory, and it’s a theory that some people believe in, and that’s the vaccinations. We never had anything like this. This is now an epidemic. It’s way, way up over the past 10 years. It’s way up over the past two years. “

Donald Trump is well aware of the fact that his views are contrary to most physician recommendations.

But I couldn’t care less, I’ve seen people where they have a perfectly healthy child, and they go for the vaccinations and a month later the child is no longer healthy.”

Conclusion

When a financially significant portion of the public becomes too well informed to routinely vaccinate their children, the results are predictable: either pharmaceutical profits margins take a hit or freedom has to go.

Big Pharma has chosen corporate fascism over losing profits under the guise of the “greater good.” In California and Mississippi, you can no longer refuse vaccines for your children if they attend public school or attend day care. SB277 in California and a similar bill in Mississippi removes religious and philosophical exemptions and makes getting a medical exemption almost impossible. If you need your children to attend public school in CA or MS you have no choice but to inject your children with aborted fetal cells, aluminum, formaldehyde, and other toxins.

Unfortunately vaccine mandates have not ended with children. Section 101 of Senate Bill 1203, named the 21st Century Veterans Benefits Delivery Act, mandates vaccines for all veterans. As a lasting insult to those brave men and women who have served the United States, they will no longer have the right to refuse any vaccines, even experimental ones, without risking the loss of their VA benefits. Despite the well founded allegations that Gulf War Syndrome was caused by the experimental anthrax vaccine, there is now no limit to what may be injected into our veterans. They defended freedom overseas, only to return home and be stripped of their personal freedom to decide their own medical treatment.

California legislators have already passed a state bill SB 792 to mandate vaccines for adults. This bill targets those who work at or volunteer at daycare centers, and it offers no exemptions. It also includes criminal penalties for noncompliance.

Introduced by Rep. Wilson, Congressional Bill HR 2232 seeks to remove all vaccine exemptions from all public schools, similar to California’s SB277. This bill seeks to mandate vaccines for all children in all public schools in order for the schools to receive any federal funding.

Other government plans to both track vaccine compliance, and impose new mandates on vaccines are currently underway.

Even those who are pro-vaccine should be opposed to medical tyranny. No medical procedure should be forced on anyone without their informed consent. These ethics were conceived of after WWII, once the horrifying atrocities of Nazi medical experiments came to be known.

If you believe vaccines should be mandated, then we implore you to reconsider your position and to learn more about vaccines. People are far more likely to feign informed knowledge of a topic than to admit profound ignorance. To date, we know of no one without a vested interest in vaccines or anyone else who is well informed on the dangers of vaccines or well read in history who could possibly support such a tyrannical notion. Slavery has always been ubiquitous in human history. It is freedom that has been the exception and not the rule (even in America). Freedom is precious. It is hard fought for and very easily lost. As a nation, we have sacrificed a great deal for the limited freedoms we currently enjoy. It is our freedom that is under siege, not just the right to refuse vaccines. The U.S. has fought for far too long against tyranny, to once again let it thrive within our borders, under the guise of healthcare.

Further Reading:
Sources:



A Burden of Guilt – Learning About Vaccine Dangers the Hard Way

I carry a burden of guilt with me. I will carry this guilt until the day I die. I damaged my children.

I was stupid, arrogant, and naive, and my decision may have caused permanent damage to the children I love with all of my heart.

I thought vaccines were more dangerous than most people realized, but I still thought, overall, they were worth the risk. I was too lazy to do the research. Like an idiot, I blindly trusted my doctor. This belief system was what led me to vaccinate three out of four of my children. My twins are now seven years old. They have not completely recovered from their last round of vaccines.

Both my mom and my brother, Michael, had tried to convince me to refuse vaccines. When that didn’t work, they both advocated spacing out vaccines. I did decide not to adhere to the recommended CDC schedule. We spaced out their shots, but I allowed my children to be fully vaccinated because I was thinking, as so many do, that it’s a bigger risk not to vaccinate.

On their last visit to the pediatrician, my wife wanted to allow the doctor to give them two vaccines just to get them caught up. I agreed. Immediately afterward, they both showed signs of neurological damage. My son began stuttering and my daughter started mumbling. Even today, years later, after feeding them the best food and the best supplementation, they are still not 100%.

I must admit, I didn’t approach my research with an open mind. I was sure that…

Amazingly, even after this experience, I clung to the belief that my children’s sensitivities were the exception and not the rule. I even tried to convince myself that their symptoms were just happenstance and didn’t have anything to do with the vaccines. My brother and my mom knew better. A part of me knew better, too.

I first started working for my brother at Organic Lifestyle Magazine about a year ago. At the time, I, like the majority of Americans, still believed that vaccines were, for the most part, safe and effective. My first articles were about less contentious issues, but eventually, Michael assigned me to a vaccine article.

Michael is completely anti-vaccine. So naturally, I was pretty nervous when he made the assignment. He did his best to assure me that as long as I did real research with an open mind, he would support my work. I didn’t believe him. He even said that if my research proved that some vaccines were safe and effective, he would publish the article.  “Just keep writing like you’ve been writing, and do the research with an open mind like you have been. If you do that, I’ll publish it.” Regardless of what he said, I was still sure Michael would decide my article wasn’t a good fit for the magazine. I half-joked about having a job until I turned in the article. I was sure our brand new working relationship would end badly. I was wrong.

I was, and I still am, pro-science. My brother knew this. He knew that if I were to really, truly dig for the facts, I would see the truth for what it is.

I must admit, I didn’t approach my research with an open mind. I was sure that my pre-conceived notions were accurate, but it didn’t matter. In the end, the only conclusion I could come to was the same conclusion everyone comes to once they actually do the real research – vaccines are a crime against humanity.

Vaccines are the primary reason our nation’s children are so sick. Vaccines are associated with autism, autoimmune diseases, asthma, allergies, chronic inflammation, all the diseases they are said to protect against, and more.

Every single ingredient is toxic. Every single one! I had spent years trying to avoid GMOs and other toxins in my food, and I allowed them to be injected into my children’s bodies! Unless one of my children gets bitten by a rabid animal, I will refuse any and all vaccines. In my mind, the rabies vaccine is acceptable because it is used after exposure to a potentially fatal pathogen.

Don’t fall for the hype. Do your own research. Do real research. It will be easier if you can approach it with an open mind, but if you do real research you’ll see the truth for what it is. The truth is, at the very least, these companies that produce vaccines are greedy, corrupt, unethical, and dangerous. Every ingredient is in fact toxic to the body. Every one. We are foolish to trust these corrupt companies.

It’s been years since my children’s last round of vaccines. Thanks to my brother’s help, my children are much better. A healthy lifestyle and diet combined with proper supplementation has proven to me to be highly effective in detoxifying them. I believe that in time, especially after we are growing all of our own food in the best soil, they will get back to 100%.

I brought these children into the world. It was my job to protect them. My brother tried to share his knowledge about vaccines as soon as he learned I would become a father. He told me to do my own research. I failed miserably at protecting my children simply because I trusted our doctor more than my brother. My mind constantly goes back to “if only I knew then what I know now” about vaccines.

I don’t want anyone else to carry this burden of guilt. This is why we are working so hard to educate the public about vaccines. No child should have to suffer neurological damage simply because their parents didn’t know any better. Information is just a click away. Our children are getting damaged and we see it all around us while we call it the new normal. Think about it. Don’t count on your doctor for this one. Your doctor is very busy, and even if he or she does do real research on vaccines, there is a huge financial incentive for them to keep their mouths shut, which most of them do.

Further Reading:



SlingShot – Segway Inventor Dean Kamen is Working to Solve the World’s Water Crisis

“We can empty half of all the beds in all the hospitals in the world by just giving people clean water.” – Dean Camen

It’s hard to believe, but it’s true. Waterborne illnesses are a growing problem, killing more people now than ever before. Waterborne illnesses are now killing 3.4 million people a year, most of them young children. The majority of these deaths could be prevented, just by giving people access to clean water. For the majority of waterborne illnesses, no vaccine is available, and even if they were, vaccines carry with them serious risks of injury, including death. By contrast, there is no risk inherent in drinking clean water; there are only benefits.

On Our “Blue Planet” Clean Water is Getting Harder to Obtain

It is a well-known fact that all life needs water. Though most animals aren’t very fussy about how clean their water is, human beings have no choice but to be choosy. For those who live in the underdeveloped world, water cleanliness can mean the difference between life and death.

In the undeveloped world, the average amount of time per day spent by women looking for water that’s safe for their kids is 4 hours.

And if it didn’t turn out to be the right stuff, they spend the next day or two burying their babies.

That shouldn’t be their choices. They shouldn’t have to go that far. They shouldn’t have to make the choice between drinking the kind of stuff you wouldn’t give to your dog, or not having anything at all

It shouldn’t be this way-Dean Camen

Questionable Priorities

You would think that upon learning this, some of the best-known philanthropists would feel compelled to help people living under such conditions have access to clean, drinkable water. Unfortunately this isn’t the case, instead of clean water, dirty vaccines is what is being given to the underdeveloped world.

It has been a much bigger priority of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to “help” India by giving them vaccines. In India, over $10 billion dollars has been spent vaccinating the population against polio; unsurprisingly, this has caused over 50,000 cases of vaccine-induced paralysis.

There are many diseases that can be transmitted by water, and not all of them are caused by pathogens. Many are from pollution.  It is estimated that groundwater in as much as 1/3 of India’s 600 districts is not fit for human consumption. The most common pollutants are high concentrations of fluoride, iron, salinity and arsenic. Approximately 65 million people in India have been suffering from fluorosis, severe fluoride poisoning. Roughly 5 million Indians are suffering from arsenicosis, arsenic poisoning. Unfortunately the problem seems to be getting worse.

The World Health Organization reported that of the 10 million annual deaths in India, nearly 8 million are due to lack of basic health care amenities like effective sewage systems, a safe drinking water supply, elementary sanitary facilities, and hygienic conditions.

If these basic human needs continue to go unmet, the Pacific Institute estimates that waterborne illnesses could begin claiming over 100 million lives a year by 2020.

Challenges of Bringing Water to the 3rd World

Modern water infrastructure is incredibly expensive to build and maintain. It is unrealistic to expect the 3rd world to solve their water problems the same way the Western world has; they simply do not have the resources. Another solution is needed.

Contaminated water can be purified through filtration or distillation. Unless you know exactly what’s wrong with the water, filtering out all of the contaminants out isn’t feasible. Until recently, the distillation process always required a tremendous amount of energy.

Vapor Compression Distiller

Dean Camen’s company, DEKA Research and Development, has found the solution. They designed a new portable system for water distillation, and they call it the SlingShot.

The SlingShot boils water, condenses it, and then recycles the energy used in the process. By recycling the energy, the amount of power needed to power the machine is greatly reduced-from 25,000 watts, to less power than a handheld hair dryer. Anyone can distill water with this machine as long as they have access to some electricity, some of the time. Despite how underdeveloped the 3rd world is, most of the planet’s inhabitants have at least limited access to electricity.

DEKA Research and Development has reached out to numerous governmental organizations, and they were disappointed to learn that the United Nations, The U.S. government, and other governments had no interest in helping people get access to clean water.

Dean Camen is leading the charge, stepping in to help where the Gates Foundation, the World Health Organization, the United Nations, the U.S. and other organizations have refused to help.

Everybody asks me, “Well, why do we call the box SlingShot?

…I heard the story of David and Goliath. To me the moral of that story was: Technology is cool. And people say to me, “How, how did you get that moral out of it?”

I said well, “There was this really little guy David and he had this really big problem Goliath. But he had this little thing called the slingshot and that little piece of technology took out that really big problem.

Let’s put water machines all over the world. There’s no easier way to wipe out 50% of all human disease. Let’s Just do it. Simple.

…We want to be helping get water to everybody on this planet. It’s the right thing to do. It’s simply the right thing to do. We can do it. Therefore we should do it. So why is it prevention to give people clean water? Call me crazy. We have a Department of Defense and we build the ultimate weapons of mass destruction. But how about if we build weapons of mass construction? And what if we go around the world and give everybody clean water, and it says “US” on it, your friend? Maybe we’ll have a Department of Peace. And maybe we will prevent the wars. And if we can get these water machines into high volume production, I think we put them around the world and there’s a way better shot that a large part of two billion people will be our friends.

To learn more, be sure to watch SlingShot, also available on Netflix and YouTube.

Recommended Reading:
Sources:



The Phantom Menace – The Superbug

It sounds like the latest Star Wars movie or a villain from Marvel Comics, but this “phantom menace” is not fiction. It’s a deadly superbug with a twist. Classified as a Carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae, or CRE, this class of bacteria is not only antibiotic resistant to last-resort antibiotics, it has the ability to pass on its antibiotic resistance to other bacteria in the body. Like other superbugs, the phantom menace is associated with healthcare centers (like hospitals, nursing homes, and long-term care facilities) and results in a high mortality rate of 50% or more.

From 2010 through 2015, the CDC has confirmed 43 phantom menace cases in the U.S. from 19 states. The CDC reports that the majority of patients were exposed and infected outside of the United States. While 43 is a very small number, the CDC is concerned because they believe this is just the tip of the iceberg. These types of superbugs are believed to be on the rise and under diagnosed.

The phantom menace bacteria pass on antibiotic resistance through a plasmid, a small DNA molecule with the ability to replicate independently. It includes an enzyme that breaks down antibiotics. It is this plasmid that can transfer antibiotic resistance to other bacteria in our bodies. Basically, the non-superbug bacteria become infected with a resistant gene from the superbug bacteria and then continue spreading the resistant gene creating new strains of superbugs.

The worst-case scenario is not far fetched. The Washing Post quotes Lance Price, director of the Antibiotic Resistance Action Center at George Washington University’s Milken Institute of Public Health, as saying, “History shows that these mobile resistance genes can spread around the world quickly, silently riding in people, animals and food.”

The superbug gene, MCR-1, is becoming more common in China and has recently shown up in Demark, fueling the concern that it will spread worldwide. Researchers in China tested marketplace meats and slaughterhouse pigs looking for the gene. It was found in 20% of the pigs and 15% of the meat.

Once again this very real threat is man-made. Researchers have concluded that drugs given the pigs in China provided the breeding grounds for the bacteria. If we continue the inhumane and dangerous practice of factory farming, feeding animals both prophylactic and indicated antibiotics, we will continue to breed new threats to worldwide health.

If we as individuals continue to use antibiotics when they are not needed along with antibiotic soaps, hand wipes, and cleaning solutions, we are part of the problem. We are aiding bacteria in their natural progression toward antibiotic resistance.

Recommended Reading:
Sources: