“Progressive Radio Host Mitchell J. Rabin, Monday @ 6pm(est)” – A Better World Newsletter

Week of June 27, 2011

A BETTER WORLD on Progressive Radio Network

Listen Mondays 6:00pm_EST

This week’s guest was the renowned Pulitzer-prize, best-selling author and journalist Chris Hedges. His latest book, The World As it Is: Dispatches on the Myth of Human Progress, is the primary topic of today's show. Chris Hedges has been an outspoken critic of the American Empire and the corporatization of government, the consolidation of power into the hands of the very few at the expense of the vast majority of people, here and across the world.

Having been a war correspondent in Central America, Africa, the Balkans and the Middle East, having seen war and bloodshed up close over the course of years, Hedges' perspective is searing, his knowledge formidable and his opinions compelling. Perhaps most compelling is his commitment to the truth.

Chris blasts the powers that be that control the media and have emptied it out of its contents, replaced by celebrity news and entertainment. Chris Hedges was one of the NY Times leading journalists for 15 years when, due to their unwillingness to engage truthful reporting, he resigned. Tune in for a lively discourse between these two impassioned speakers.

ABetterWorld.net/media

Click to read more ...

“Elizabeth McGowan” - U.S. Climate Protests Shift to Blocking Keystone XL Pipeline Approval

http://solveclimatenews.com/news/20110627/climate-protests-keystone-xl-pipeline-oil-sands-transcanada-bill-mckibben

Bill McKibben and allies say the proposed tar sands pipeline — which was barely on their radar a year ago — could galvanize U.S. action on climate

By Elizabeth McGowan, SolveClimate News                          Jun 27, 2011

WASHINGTON—Conservationists are still fuming about President Obama's continued lack of follow-through on his promise to affix solar panels to the White House roof.

For now, however, they're willing to give him a pass on what they recognize would be mostly a symbolic gesture.

But a summons for civil disobedience at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue this summer indicates they are unwilling to be anywhere near as lenient about a lightning rod of a proposed pipeline. It's known as the Keystone XL and it could pump millions more barrels of heavy crude from Alberta, Canada's oil sands mines to refineries along the U.S. Gulf Coast if the federal government greenlights it.

"It was an enormous boost when Obama the candidate told us that the rise of the oceans would begin to slow and the planet start to heal on his watch," author and activist Bill McKibben told SolveClimate News in an interview from his Vermont home.

Click to read more ...

“Nelson Lampe” - Floodwater Seeps into Nebraska Nuke Plant Building

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2011/06/27-6

Published on Monday, June 27, 2011 by Associated Press

by Nelson Lampe

OMAHA -- Missouri River floodwater seeped into the turbine building at a nuclear power plant near Omaha on Monday, but plant officials said the seepage was expected and posed no safety risk because the building contains no nuclear material.

The Missouri River, swollen by heavy rains and melting snow, has been flooding areas from Montana through Missouri. Residents have been shoring up levees around towns as federal officials widen flood gates to allow record or near-record water releases to ease pressure on reservoirs. An 8-foot-tall, water-filled temporary berm protecting the plant collapsed early Sunday. Vendor workers were at the plant Monday to determine whether the 2,000 foot berm can be repaired.

Omaha Public Power District spokesman Jeff Hanson said pumps were handling the problem at the Fort Calhoun Nuclear Station and that "everything is secure and safe." The plant, about 20 miles north of Omaha, has been closed for refueling since April. Hanson said the berm's collapse didn't affect the shutdown or the spent fuel pool cooling.

Click to read more ...

“Lisa Guisbond” - How Standardized Testing is Being Expanded

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2011/06/27-9

Published on Monday, June 27, 2011 by The Washington Post

by Lisa Guisbond

Parents, teachers, and students: Raise your hands if you think what our schools need is more new tests and a greater emphasis on testing. If not, listen up, because this is exactly what our students and teachers face because of the reactions of Massachusetts, Maryland, Virgina, New York, North Carolina and other state policy makers to the federal Race to the Top (RTTT) program. These states have all marched to the RTTT beat, quickly passing laws that, among other things, insist that teacher evaluations must be linked to student outcomes. 

A focus on tests will undermine much of the most important work that teachers do. Good teachers do not simply convey information. They identify the diverse needs of their students, engage student interests and build students’ confidence. They also help develop team interaction and cooperation, while challenging and assisting students to overcome barriers. Unfortunately, a proposal with standardized testing at its center will likely rupture the essential relationships between teachers and students that make this work possible. Now we are seeing all the devilish details emerge, as state departments of education devise the regulations for how school districts must march to the RTTT beat.

In Maryland, for example, the Council for Educator Effectiveness voted to tie 50 percent of each assessment to student growth on standardized exams, despite vehement objections from teachers on the panel. Similar battles have erupted in New York and Charlotte, N.C., over proposed teacher evaluation systems that rely heavily on student test scores and use flawed methods to judge teacher quality.

Click to read more ...

FoxNews: Migraines Eased After Ginger and Herb Treatment

FoxNews, Published June 17, 2011 | Reuters

http://www.foxnews.com/health/2011/06/17/migraines-eased-after-ginger-and-herb-treatment/#ixzz1QU9xgsq6

Migraine sufferers treated with a homeopathic preparation of ginger and the herb feverfew may find some pain relief, according to a preliminary study.

Feverfew, which is derived from a flowering plant, has long been thought to be a remedy for headaches. It might offer an alternative to standard migraine medications, which are costly, have side effects and don't always work, according the new report.

About 12 percent of Americans get migraines, and the problem has been estimated to cost the U.S. some $20 billion annually in lost productivity and medical care.

In the new study, researchers funded by PuraMed Bioscience, which makes the feverfew/ginger treatment, randomly assigned patients to take a preparation containing miniscule amounts of the two plants or a dummy treatment.

The patients were asked to treat themselves–—by putting a little sachet with the preparations under their tongue—as soon as they recognized the signs of an approaching migraine.

Click to read more ...

"Kaitlyn Moore" - Monsanto trying to take over world seed supply, nation by nation

by Kaitlyn Moore

http://www.naturalnews.com/032826_Monsanto_seed_supply.html

(NaturalNews) He who controls the seed controls the food supply; and he who controls the food supply controls the world. There is no question that Monsanto is on a mission to monopolize the conventional seed market. In fact, they are steadfastly working towards the goal of creating a world where 100% of all commercial seeds are genetically modified and patented- basically a world where natural seeds are extinct.(http://www.naturalnews.com/029325_M...)

Unfortunately for the global community Monsanto is accomplishing their purpose. They currently own 90% of the world's patents for GMO seed including cotton, soybeans, corn, sugar beets and canola. (http://www.guardian.co.uk/environme...)

Yep, the creators of chemicals that will go down in history for their toxicity and horrific side effects, is attempting to take over the world's seed supply. Ask yourself- do you really want companies such as BASF, Bayer, DuPont, Syngenta, and Dow involved with your food? Sadly, to a large extent they already are. These Monsanto chemical and GMO cronies all share genetically engineered traits and create the patented herbicides and pesticides that GMO crops require to thrive.

Click to read more ...

"Barbara Demick" - China wrestles with food safety problems

latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-china-food-20110627,0,7413678.story

From steroid-spiked pork to glow-in-the-dark meat to recycled cooking oil collected from sewers, a series of illnesses and scandals linked to tainted food has put officials on guard. But tougher measures have had little effect amid an official culture of secrecy.

By Barbara Demick, Los Angeles Times

5:35 PM PDT, June 26, 2011

It was a wedding the guests would never forget. Everybody of consequence in the village had been invited to a banquet to celebrate the marriage of the son of one of the wealthiest families. Fifty tables groaned under a lavish spread of dumplings, steamed chickens, pork ribs, meatballs, stir fries, all of it exceptionally delicious, guests would later recall.

But about an hour into the meal, something seemed to be wrong. A pregnant woman collapsed. Old men clutched their chests. Children vomited.

Out of about 500 people at the April 23 banquet in Wufeng, 286 went to the hospital. Doctors at the No. 3 Xiangya Hospital in nearby Changsha, capital of Hunan province, blamed pork contaminated with clenbuterol, a steroid that makes pigs grow faster and leaner. Consumed by humans in excess quantity, it can cause heart palpitations, nausea, convulsions, dizziness and vomiting.

"It was as though he was poisoned," said a villager named Dai, whose husband was hospitalized for five days.

To eat, drink and be merry in China is done at a risk

Click to read more ...

ANH: Herbal Medicinal Products Directive is “a protectionist tool”

Nutraingredients.com, 27-Jun-2011

http://www.nutraingredients.com/Regulation/ANH-Herbal-Medicinal-Products-Directive-is-a-protectionist-tool

The Alliance for Natural Health International has slammed the European Commission’s Traditional Herbal Medicinal Products Directive as “a protectionist tool.”

Traditional Chinese Medicines, based on plants such as ginkgo biloba, face unfair discrimination, claims Alliance for Natural Health International.

In an open letter to European commissioner John Dalli, Robert Verkerk, the alliance’s founder and scientific director wrote: “It seems that the criticism you now face in some quarters is down to the creation by the EU of what is effectively a protectionist tool; one which favours certain products of the European phytopharmaceutical system and discriminates against those of non-European traditional systems of medicine.”

Verkerk’s letter follows a forum in the European Parliament on 21 June to consider the challenges posed by the Traditional Herbal Medicinal Products Directive (THMPD Directive 2004/24/EC) to traditional systems of medicine; particularly those of non-European origin.

Click to read more ...

Life Extension: Increased consumption of cruciferous vegetables linked with lower risk of dying over a decade

Life Extension, June 24, 2011

http://www.lef.org/whatshot/2011_06.htm#Increased-consumption-of-cruciferous-vegetables-linked-with-lower-risk-of-dying-over-a-decade

A report published in the July, 2011 American Journal of Clinical Nutrition reveals that men and women who consume a greater amount of cruciferous vegetables, which include broccoli, cabbage and cauliflower, have a lower risk of dying over 4.6 to 10.2 years of follow-up. 

Click to read more ...

Stephen Barrett and Medical McCarthyism

By S.L & R.A

Share

(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.

Click here to download the full paper