S.L & R.A - Stephen Barrett and Medical McCarthyism

(Concerned that those who engage in uncontested attacks against supporters of alternative health 

would misconstrue me and my co-author as such, we mean to clarify the following: we are not 

advocates of the alternative health movement, rather, we are advocates and supporters of truth. - S.L 

& R.A)

Introduction

Dr. Stephen Barrett is a ubiquitous figure in the world of health and medicine with a unique talent. 

A talent, described by Health and Human Services official, Dr. Thomas R. Eng, as a gift for widely 

"[influencing] behavior change" via interactive media. Elaborating, Eng states that "[Barrett] tailors 

information and interactions to the individual," adding, "In print media, there is some kind of 

vetting. In interactive, anyone or their brother can slap a Web page together."

One assumes that Barrett, in his efforts and opinions, is authoritative and correct, speaking as a 

retired physician / psychiatrist who's been interviewed on innumerable occasions by CNN, The 

New York Times, has testified as an expert before congress, and, in a larger sense, has been 

adopted by mainstream media as the "consumer watchdog" du jour within the field of medicine. 

Well, alternative medicine, more specifically. 

He has authored reports on many of the most accomplished practitioners and experts in the 

alternative health movement and in doing so, has generated a fair amount of controversy and mixed 

media attention. So much, in fact, that the reports on his site have come to dominate web search 

engine results, and in effect, preemptively tainting the reputations of hundreds of legitimate, well 

credentialed alternative health practitioners. Upon discovering this, my curiosity was piqued and I 

felt compelled to conduct some independent research on the matter, and hopefully, reach a 

conclusion as to whether Barrett was, indeed, an expert, or guilty of what Dr. Eng describes as 

"medical McCarthyism".

My focus would be the history and relationship between Barrett and Dr. Gary Null. Null is 

arguably the most respected, prolific advocate and high-profile voice in the alternative heath 

movement, influencing a massively wide spectrum of people throughout a varied host of philanthropic efforts and causes. The purpose of this paper is to not to bring direct challenge to 

Barrett's work or ideology, but rather to present facts and convey reasoned, journalistic 

interrogation into the heart of this debate. To that end, we can look to Null's extensive work and 

research on the negative effects of fluoride, mercury, vaccines, sugar and caffeine, all of which, 

Barrett has called in to question. Research will demonstrate that science firmly supports all of 

Null's conclusions and solutions on these topics. Fact checking and research is the cornerstone of 

the journalistic process, yet, Barrett and those media outlets who would employ his subjective 

opinion as scientific fact, quite simply, have not done their homework here. 

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Gary Null: The Causes of Violence

The recent mass shootings at schools and colleges, shopping malls, theaters, and a Sikh temple have unleashed a psychological terror on Americans, reminding us that murder can happen anywhere. One of the most urgent questions we are faced with in the wake of these events is which discussion we should be having. Should discussions be limited to the issue of access to assault weapons, the apparent American preference for mass shootings? Or do we focus on the ease of obtaining a weapon without a mental health screening? Or is it possible that the actual violence is far more pernicious and systemic and we are unwilling to acknowledge and confront it? Could it be that only the most overt forms of violence that occur in our backyards draw our attention and demand immediate dialogue? If this is so, then is it even worth considering the inability of the US to shed a tear or demand a public outcry over the slaughter of hundreds of thousands of native peoples, or confess to the abysmal treatment of minority groups, especially African Americans? And where is the national remorse for the indiscriminate bombing campaigns that took the lives of an estimated 3.8 million Vietnamese and an additional 300,000-500,000 Cambodians and Laotians, according new figures published by the British Medical Journal? Would Americans have been equally as outraged and equally as loud in their cries for gun control if the carnage had not occurred in the prosperous community of Newtown, but instead had happened in Camden, New Jersey, or a Detroit ghetto? And finally, as a nation, are we capable of separating out the means of violence (e.g., guns) from the underlying cause of violence?

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America In Decline: The Soul Crushing Despair Of Lowered Expectations

All over America tonight there are people that believe that their lives are over.  When you do everything that you know how to do to get a job and you still can't get one it can be absolutely soul crushing.  If you have ever been unemployed for an extended period of time you know exactly what I am talking about.  When you have been unemployed for month after month it can be very tempting to totally cut yourself off from society.  Those that are kind will look at you with pity and those that are cruel will treat you as though you are a total loser.  It doesn't matter that America is in decline and that our economy is not producing nearly enough jobs for everyone anymore.  In our society, one of the primary things that defines our lives is what we do for a living.  Just think about it.  When you are out in a social situation, what is one of the very first things that people ask?  They want to know what you "do".  Well, if you don't "do" anything, then you are not part of the club.  But the worst part of being unemployed for many Americans is the relentless pressure from family and friends.  Often they have no idea how hard it is to find a job in this economy - especially if they still have jobs.  Sometimes the pressure becomes too great.  Sadly, we are seeing unemployment break up a lot of marriages in America today.  Things are really hard out there right now.  A very large number of highly educated Americans have taken very low paying service jobs in recent years just so that they can have some money coming in even as they "look for something else".  Unfortunately, in many cases that "something else" never materializes.  In the past, America was "the land of opportunity" where anything was possible.  But today America has become "the land of lowered expectations" and the worst is yet to come.

We live during a time when "the American Dream" is literally being redefined.  In the old days, just about anyone could get a good job that would pay enough to make it possible to buy a house, buy a nice car and raise a family.

Read More:

http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/america-in-decline-the-soul-crushing-despair-of-lowered-expectations

International "Crime Against Humanity" Filed At The Hague Portuguese and U.S. Children - Victims of a Mercury Dental Filling Experiment Funded by U.S. Government says DAMS

Dental Amalgam Mercury Solutions (DAMS), a U.S.-based consumer organization, has co-filed a "Crime against Humanity" complaint with the International Criminal Court (ICC) at the Hague against those involved in an $11 million experiment conducted on approximately 1,000 children. The study of health harm from amalgam/mercury dental fillings, known as the "Children's Amalgam Trial" (CAT), was funded by the U.S. government's National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR).

International advocate Anita Tibau and documentary filmmaker Kelly Gallagher recently traveled to Lisbon to raise public awareness about the unethical research associated with silver/amalgam fillings, which contain 50% toxic mercury. The two Americans provided critical documents and film footage that became part of a shocking expose aired on Portuguese television last week, which prompted former victims of the CAT experiments to question the indignities and harm they incurred. The report by journalist Rita Maraffa Carvalho revealed many of the atrocities of CAT included in the complaint made to the ICC, which was co-signed by Tibau and Gallagher on behalf of the organization Mouth of Hope.

The CAT mercury experiments were conducted on children aged 8-10 from low-income families in New England and the Casa Pia orphanage in Lisbon between 1997-2005.

The research was authorized by NIDCR's project administrator Norman Braveman, and the Portuguese segment was managed by Timothy DeRouen, PhD, at the University of Washington.

The entire CAT study was funded by U.S. taxpayers' dollars, and even when personnel at Casa Pia were convicted of running a pedophile ring abusing the children in 2002, the study continued. Also during the course of the CAT experiments, concerns were never addressed about misleading consent forms and previously published scientific studies indicating that exposure from mercury fillings was a well-known threat to human health.

The late Sandra Duffy, an Oregon attorney, noted in 2004 that the U.S. consent forms did "not disclose how much mercury exposure or absorption occurs from the fillings," and the Portuguese consent forms, one hundred of which were signed by the same doctor for the orphans, did not even disclose that the fillings contained mercury.

Read More:

http://www.cnbc.com/id/47670745/International_Crime_Against_Humanity_Filed_At_The_Hague_Portuguese_and_U_S_Children_Victims_of_a_Mercury_Dental_Filling_Experiment_Funded_by_U_S_Government_says_DAMS

Breaking New MFA Investigation Leads to 21 Criminal Animal Cruelty Charges

A breaking new Mercy For Animals undercover investigation has resulted in unprecedented legal action on behalf of farmed animals. Hidden-camera video footage secretly recorded by an MFA investigator has led to 21 criminal cruelty-to-animals charges against the owner, two managers and five employees at Ontario Livestock Sales, one of the oldest and largest livestock auctions in southern California. The shocking video footage shows: "downed" animals—those too sick or injured to even stand or walk on their own—being left to slowly suffer and die without food, water or veterinary care; sick, injured and dying animals being kicked, pushed and dragged into transport trucks to be sold and slaughtered for human consumption; workers throwing, beating, stomping on and kicking animals in the face and body; baby goats being carelessly picked up by their necks and then kicked or tossed around; workers grabbing, dragging and throwing animals by their heads, necks, ears, horns, tails, and legs; and birds stuffed into bags and goats, sheep and other animals overcrowded into small pens, forcing animals to stand on and even trample each other. Upon reviewing the undercover footage, Temple Grandin, PhD, animal welfare advisor to the USDA, wrote: “The handling was very rough and kicking animals is not acceptable. If this auction had been a federally inspected meat packing plant, they would have suspended inspection and shut them down.” As MFA continues to expose the unconscionable cruelties inherent in animal agriculture, and to diligently pursue justice by aiding prosecutions of animal abusers, consumers still hold the greatest power of all to end the needless suffering and death of farmed animals by adopting a compassionate, vegetarian diet. Click here to read the Associated Press article about the investigation, which broke this morning. Click here to make a donation to support MFA’s lifesaving work.

Karen Dolan - Disgusting: 7 Million Kids and Mothers Suffer Extreme Poverty in the Richest Country in the World

I recently had the opportunity to talk with Georgetown law professor Peter Edelman, to discuss his decades of anti-poverty work and his new book, So Rich So Poor: Why It’s So Hard to End Poverty In America. Peter Edelman was legislative aide to Senator Robert F. Kennedy and accompanied Kennedy on his 1967 visits to the deep South to understand hunger and poverty in this country and how to fix it. Edelman also served as Assistant Secretary of Health and Human Services years later under President Bill Clinton. He resigned this post in protest of Clinton's signing of the welfare reform legislation that converted the federal anti-poverty cash-assistance entitlement into a state block grant program that severely restricted the availability of cash assistance to those in need. [Disclosure: Edelman serves an adviser to the Economic Hardship Reporting Project and sits on the board of one of the project's current funders, the Public Welfare Foundation.]

Karen Dolan: Peter, you tell us in your book that "extreme poverty" in the U.S. is increasing. Can you explain what this means with regard to things like shelter and food and whether it's getting a lot harder to be poor than it was a few decades ago?

Peter Edelman: Extreme poverty means having an income of less than half the poverty line. That's less than $9,000 a year for a family of three. The stunning fact is that in 2010, there were 20.5 million people who had incomes that low. And perhaps even more disturbing -- 6 million people have no income other than food stamps (SNAP). That means an income at one third of the poverty line or less than $6,000 a year for a family of three. You can't live on that.

Read More:

http://www.alternet.org/story/155642/disgusting%3A_7_million_kids_and_mothers_suffer_extreme_poverty_in_the_richest_country_in_the_world

Sam Rolley - DHS Is Watching

Thanks to a Freedom of Information Act request, bloggers and social media users now know the hundreds of words that they should avoid using online to keep from being scrutinized by the Department of Homeland Security.

The words are included in the DHS’s 2011“Analyst’s Desktop Binder,” which is used by workers at the National Operations Center where agents learn to identify “media reports that reflect adversely on DHS and response activities.” The goal of the agency is to track any remarks that show signs of general dissent against the government or its agencies, though DHS officials insist that the data collection is only to assess threats.

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http://personalliberty.com/2012/05/30/dhs-is-watching/?eiid=

Vienna dismisses Beijing objections to Dalai Lama meet

Up to 10,000 people came out to greet the Dalai Lama on Saturday after Vienna ignored warnings from China that ties with Beijing could be harmed by hosting the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader.

China made its objections clear to the 76-year-old Nobel Peace Laureate's meetings with Austrian leaders but Chancellor Werner Faymann said he would decide whom to meet.

The Dalai Lama, who is on an 11-day visit to Austria with the prime minister of Tibet's government-in-exile Lobsang Sangay, spoke at Vienna's historic Heldenplatz (Heroes' Square) for about 30 minutes to a crowd of 10,000, organisers said.

Speaking from a stand emblazoned with the words "Tibet needs you now", he underscored the importance of protecting Buddhist culture, the environment and human rights.

"Our time will come, it is close. Democracy is universal," said Sangay, who spoke before the Dalai Lama.

He referred to the Arab Spring uprisings that toppled veteran dictators in Libya, Egypt and Tunisia as well as Myanmar pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi who was released from seven straight years of house arrest in November 2010 and has now been issued with a passport, enabling her to travel abroad for the first time in 24 years.

"All the promises that were made in 2008 at the time of the Olympic games have been broken. The Tibetans are in a minority in their own region," a member of the Save Tibet organisation who gave her name as Erika told AFP at the rally.

Read More:

http://www.sinodaily.com/reports/Vienna_dismisses_Beijing_objections_to_Dalai_Lama_meet_999.html

Tina Dupuy - Why Mobility in America Is in the Dumpster

We’re a species that has gotten around; we’ve wandered, pioneered and migrated to every corner of the world. The spear tip of technology is how we can get somewhere else: the wheel, the sailboat, the rocket. In short: we’re movers.

We are now as mobile as we’ve ever been as a culture. Our phones are not tethered to any particular location. Our keepsakes, like photos and letters, are all saved on devices smaller than your average drugstore paperback. The bitter visual of a breakup – the splitting up of a couple’s CD collection – no longer exists since you both have copies of the same MP3s. Your computer fits comfortably in your lap – everything else is in your pocket. We now have the ability to go anywhere and bring with us more things utilizing less space than at any other time in human history.

We have the ability – the freedom – to roam more now than ever before. And yet our upward mobility is standing still.

Jason DeParle in The New York Times wrote in January this year, “Countries with less equality generally have less mobility.” And as Occupy Wall Street successfully pointed out the top one percent “earn” nearly a quarter of the nation’s income. While they have enjoyed an increase in wealth and a decrease in taxes, the rest of the country has seen a flattening of their prospects. The U.S. ranks near the bottom in income inequality and therefore upward mobility.

Time noted, “The Pew Charitable Trusts’ Economic Mobility Project has found that if you were born in 1970 in the bottom one-fifth of the socioeconomic spectrum in the U.S., you had only about a 17 percent chance of making it into the upper two-fifths.”

Read More:

http://www.alternet.org/story/155505/why_mobility_in_america_is_in_the_dumpster