Green Cars: It Takes The Little Guys To Do It

The ‘Big 3′ in Detroit are crumbling.  After years of dragging their feet, buying off Washington and sleeping with the oil lobbyists, the empire is coming down.

In an interesting article on the hottest cars at the 2009 New York Auto Show, it’s the green start up companies who are coming out on top!  The Big 3 are outnumbered by innovative small companies; dozens of them with guts enough to take the dream off the drafting board and make it into a car.  As a result, this country will have more choices for cars not seen since about 1910!

Innovation is born of hard times.  Some of these tiny companies feel, as I do, that the government mandated 35 mpg for cars is ridiculously low. One would think that since the gas crisis of the 1970′s (which I remember vividly) would have spurred the industry to new heights.  Nope – the government, the automakers and the oil industry and God knows who else, continued business as usual and now the oil producing nations have got us by the short ones!

WHY has it taken the ‘little guys’ to be the ones to bring this to the forefront?  Why NOT Detroit?  WHY?  Because the OIL INDUSTRY does not have them in their pocket.  They aren’t buddy-buddy with the lobbyists!  They have the balls to do what should have been done 35 years ago!

Environmentally, we are one step from disaster.  With climate change wracking every part of the Earth, pollution, waste and degradation of the planet rampant, things MUST change.

The auto industry needs to get out of its own way: get serious instead of shoving out ‘quasi-green vehicles’! There is SO MUCH MORE that can be done and should be done NOW…. not in 10 or 20 years!

So, let’s say HOORAY to these brave LITTLE GUYS for stepping up and being a hell of a lot greener than Detroit.

Food & Wacky, Uncontrollable Kids

I picked up a book in a used book  shop:  “Why You Child Is Hyperactive”  by Ben F. Feingold, M.D.

Dr. Feingold was an allergist, who, back in the 70′s proposed that hyperactivity in children could be traced to chemical additives in food colorings.  His ‘Feingold Diet’ advocated strict adherence to a fresh food, chemical free life.  Parents of ADD and ADHD children were encouraged to keep a food diary.  The results were amazing.

Now, 40 years later, diet and the link to all sorts of disorders, in adults as well as children is mainstream medicine…. well,  practically.  There are still some parents and physicians who barely admit that what goes into a kid’s mouth will result in their little darling turning into the  creature from the black lagoon or Mr. Hyde.

If your child, or one you know, is out of their tree after eating a Happy Meal, you might do well to investigate…, that is unless you have stock in the pharmaceutical company that makes Ritalin!  Or maybe you’re totally oblivious to what it’s really doing to your kid and figure it’s just easier to keep shoving pills down his throat! Hey – if you don’t give a damn…. then keep having those prescriptions filled!

Chemical You….

My current list of books includes one by a prominent physician in environmental medicine. “Huh??” you’re probably thinking – “Environmental medicine – what’s that??”  Just what it says:  a physician who studies  how our environment affects our health.  Years ago, Dr. Roberts would have been called a quack.  Today, the evidence she offers in her books are backed up by solid medical research.

She’s beginning to scare me because too much of what I read in her articles and books mirrors what many other naturopathic, holistic and organic based evidence points out:  we are literally surrounded every day by toxins we have no control over.

CANCER

Maybe it’s because way back – cancer wasn’t diagnosed as cancer, or even at all.  Why, then, does it seem like so many people are getting it?  Not only older people, but young ones as well.  I doubt there is one person alive in this country who doesn’t know somebody with cancer.

Why?

Our environment.  Every single aspect of our lives has in it artificial components of plastic, out-gassing (fumes) or toxins of some sort.  The sad part about this is that the entire population of this world had no say – and is totally unaware that manufacturers, food producers, agribusiness and technology has contributed to it every day.

Chemicals surround us.  Our computers are made from plastics which release chemicals into our environment.  If we’ve sworn off caffeine, and drink decaf instead, chances are we’re getting a good dose of chemicals from the decaffeination process. Got that suit back from the cleaners?  Guess what it’s been cleaned with?  Dry cleaning fluid=chemicals.  If your kids play sports like football or soccer they’re probably rolling around on turf treated with herbicides and other toxic lawn chemicals.  Think you’re safe at work?  Your company probably has a contract with an extermination service and sometimes you’re even sitting at your desk when the guy comes through with the little sprayer tank!  Millions of Americans go to work in environments chocked full of chemicals:  manufacturing facilities with dust and fumes from chemicals, heavy metals, plastic compounds, cleaning solutions,  paints, glues and pesticide residues.  Even if your job does not put you in direct or daily contact, you are still at risk.

We take medicines to make us well, right?  We suffer from various diseases which may have been caused by our body’s reaction to the onslaught of chemicals that started in the womb! Every thing our mother ate, drank, breathed, cleaned with, bathed with;  every time she dyed her hair – we got a little dose of it too. The fetal brain is far more delicate and subject to abnormalities from environmental toxins, as well as hormones created by the mother’s body in response to stress and emotion.  (see ‘The New Feminine Brain”  by Dr. Mona Lisa Schulz)

Our modern world is full of things that we have no control over.  Modern science, supposedly our friends, may unknowingly or KNOWINGLY – have been responsible for the drastic rise in a host of maladies.  From ‘the ‘Big C’ to asthma, fibromyalgia, ADHD, depression – all can be traced to chemical imbalances.  Artificial substances which act as hormone disruptors, making our bodies react with symptoms of an inner world gone haywire:  illness.

Another thing that always scared me was hormone replacement therapy.  Why would a woman want to take the stuff when she could go through a natural process the way her body was designed to do?  OK, for some it’s more uncomfortable than others.  We’re a population of people who don’t want to be uncomfortable.  Now, however, modern medicine is finding that it really ISN’T  ‘nice to fool Mother Nature.’  All the women I know who have taken hormone replacement therapy have cancer in some form or another.  What does that tell you?  I’ll pass, thank you!

When I worked at Lowe’s in the section with the lawn chemicals, after about a month I developed severe body pain.  Every joint would hurt.  At night it usually was the worst.  Sometimes I’d wake up screaming because it felt like I’d been stabbed!  I hurt so bad I gobbled pain killers just to function.  Looking back now, it probably was from exposure to atrazine (‘Weed-B-Gone’) and triazicide and all the other things I was around.  Sweeping the floors and inhaling the dust probably gave me a good dose of pesticides!  Though I wore gloves when handling bags and bottles, there was so much of it in the atmosphere. This is a frightening thought and just one example of how our environment can affect us.

The only thing we can do is learn more, teach others and try our best to live a clean life.  Fastidious detox routines must become the norm, not only with food, massage, detox baths and saunas to beat back the chemical onslaught.

Maybe we can buy ourselves some time.

This is YOUR FOOD We’re Talking About

Corporate America is trying to take one more step to control food.  Small farmers are being threatened yet again by the federal government.  NAIS (National Animal Identification System)  is supposed to provide protection against these food recalls by tracking ‘food’ (in this case, animals) for their life.  Every time an animal is moved, mounds of paperwork have to be completed – for EACH animal. Moreoever – once again – this hurts the people who can least afford it – the SMALL FARMER.

Think it WON’T AFFECT YOU?

Think again.

If your kids have pet rabbits,  if you have a few chickens you keep for eggs or maybe you have a cow or two.  Goats for milking?  Those, too, will be required to be tagged and tracked.

No – what we do NOT need is NAIS.  We need BETTER conditions for these animals to begin with.  Not crowded, disease promoting facilities which harbor dangerous bacteria with lax monitoring systems!  The FDA and USDA cannot do it’s job, so they want to punish the small farmers and impose MORE TAXES on the American people.

Go to Organic Consumers to read more and tell your friends and contact your representatives!  Don’t let AGRIBUSINESS buy the saftey of the American people again!

Take Action: Stop NAIS

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has been working for over five years to force a National Animal Identification System (NAIS) onto American animal owners. NAIS is designed to identify and track each and every individual livestock and poultry animal owned by family farmers, hobby farmers, homesteaders, and pet owners across the country.

USDA claims that NAIS is a disease tracking program, but has refused to provide any support for its claims. In reality, NAIS will:

Create expensive and time-consuming tagging and reporting requirements for small farms. The requirements are particularly burdensome for those farmers raising sustainable livestock on pasture. Ultimately, this will reduce the availability of grass-fed meats, eggs, and milk.

Give factory confinement farms a loophole through the use of group identification, providing yet another unfair advantage for factory farms. Not provide any information to the consumer, and does not improve food safety, because the tracking ends with the animal’s death.

Replace states’ existing, well-functioning disease response and brand inspection programs with an unproven, expensive, and unreliable system;

Impose high costs and government surveillance on every farmer and animal owner for no significant benefits, and will likely force many small producers out of business.

NAIS does nothing to improve food safety for consumers or prevent animal diseases. This program is a one-size-fits-all program developed by and for big Agribusiness. NAIS will increase consolidation of our food supply in the hands of a few large companies and put the brakes on the growing movement toward local food systems.

The grassroots movement has already successfully stalled USDA’s plans for NAIS, which originally called for the entire program – premises registration, animal identification, and tracking – to be mandatory by January 2009. The proposed rule is an opportunity to get thousands of objections in the formal record, and have an even greater impact.

It is imperative that people speak up to protect our right to farm and our food supply!

Take action today! Go to: ORGANIC CONSUMERS to see the video and learn more.

The deadline to submit comments to the USDA is March 16th.

Remember:  This is YOUR FOOD and America’s SMALL FARMERS we’re trying to save.

(Source:  OCA Feb Newsletter)

We Are All LAB RATS

YOU and I are lab rats.  Your KIDS are lab rats, too. Unless you grow and consume all your food yourself, YOU are held hostage by the food companies.

Think about it.  Everything thing you eat -  e v e n   those so-called ‘natural’ or ‘organic’ foods probably are tainted in some way with something.

I know too much.  I have my roots in the local food movement, but they stretch way back to the environmental movement.  What I do here, and on my website an other blogs, is try to EDUCATE.

For the most part, the average consumer has their head up their butt when it comes to food and the environment.  They think it’s not their problem, that it doesn’t concern them and that it doesn’t affect them.

Do you send your kids to public  school? Do they play sports?  Do they eat school food?  Do you take them to fast food joints?  What do you buy for them at the  grocery store? Do you eat in restaurants? What DO you eat when you eat? What DO you drink when you drink?

What about your home life?  What products do you buy:  laundry detergent, body care products, beauty products, perfumes, lotions, hair dye, nail polish?  What do you paint your walls with?  Where did you get your furniture? Do you use any bug killing preparations?  What about your lawn?  Do you have a lawn care service and do you KNOW what they put on your lawn?  Have you had a pest company assure you their ‘chemicals’ are safe around kids and pets?  Do you go to Lowe’s or Home Depot and buy lawn care products to keep the nasty bugs away?  Do your KIDS PLAY ON YOUR LAWN?

Where do YOU choose to shop?  Is Wally-World your best buddy because you have fallen victim and been brainwashed by their  ‘save money, live better’  catchphrase?

Big business, especially the likes of Wal-Mart, does NOT give a shit about you.  Look at the way they treat their own employees?  They’ve been convicted on a vast array of charges in recent years of labor violations.  Going waaaay back, and I have a copy of the article in my files here…. they even wanted to move a Native American cemetery because they wanted to build a store!  Do you think, in this day of corporate greed, that it’s gotten any better, that they’ve become a kinder, more gentler Wally?

There are numerous links detailing environmental disregard -and- total disregard for human life on this planet BY food companies and agricultural chemical companies.  You and I and this planet are being POISONED by thousands of chemicals a day because the likes of Monsanto and Bayer… those kindly aspirin people.

DO THE RESEARCH.  Do it for your kids, your friends, your family, your friends and if you care enough – our planet.

Detox: Why It’s Important

We live in a world of toxins, which didn’t exist 50 or 100 years ago.  Since the advent of plastics, that “miracle substance”, we can find few things that aren’t either entirely composed of them or partially so. Consequently, because of things like plastics, pollution, food additives, pesticides, synthetic ingredients in furnishings, personal care items, and cleaning products, we need to help our bodies get rid of toxins.  This is where a good detox bath comes in.

Since ancient times, one of the most effective detox regimens has been the bath.  Soaking in hot mineral springs or a bath containing aromatic bath salts, oils and herbs, was a favorite past time of the Romans, Chinese and other civilizations. Aromatic bath salts serve a two-fold purpose:  their scent calms and relaxes the body and the salts, be it Dead Sea salts, Himalayan salts, Epsom salts or other natural bath salts, act as a detoxifying agent.  This helps the body rid itself of toxins, stave off illness and muscle strain and fatigue. If you remove dead skin with an exfoliating natural scrub, the results are even better.

Most people don’t realize that when you take a hot detox bath, you can even either prevent or lessen the effects of an oncoming illness.  A hot detox bath does the same thing as a fever does:  kills germs inside the body by raising the overall temperature.  That’s what a fever is for!  It is the body’s defense system against illness.

One of my favorite combinations is  mixing Epsom salts with bath salts. Epsom salts are wonderful!  We think of them only when we’ve sprained or strained something.  They have two other great benefits:  they will help you sleep after their detoxing properties in your bath, and they are a natural skin softener.

So, the next time you get that scratchy feeling in your throat, or have been around too many people who’re sick – and don’t want to come down with something, get in a  hot tub for an hour or two with some bath salts.  Your body will probably thank you!

ADD/HD & Diet?

An article appeared in Reuters on children on medication for ADD/HD having hallucinations. Why is this no surprise?

The use of Ritalin and its cousins, all nervous system excitants, became the drug of choice during the 80s and 90s.  Ritalin is one of the most over prescribed drugs on the market today.  Although certain criteria should be met before assuming a child truly is ADHD, many physicians and parents are too quick to assume their child truly is ADD/HD, when all that may be needed is a ‘cleaner’ diet.

We’ve all seen kids bounce off the walls after eating high doses of sugar, haven’t we?  Why is it so strange to some that FOOD may actually be the cause of supposed ADD/HD in your kid?

The typical American diet is loaded with sugar and chemical additives. Browse any supermarket aisle containing lunch items and you will find a disturbing array of ‘food-like substances’ designed for convenience for Moms packing kids’ school lunches.  Food marketed as ‘healthy’ or a ‘good, nutritious lunch for your kids’ or ‘healthy snacks’ often contains more artificial ingredients than real, actual food.  Even so-called healthy yogurts:  low or no fat varieties of one popular brand, Yoplait, have a scary list of artificial ingredients.

Don’t fall for the claims of fast-food purveyors, either.  Every parent.., no.., make that every person, should read ‘Fast Food Nation’ by Eric Schlosser if you eat fast food.  Morgan Spurlock’s book, “Supersize Me”, which came out after the academy nominated movie, gives a behind-the-scenes look at McDonald’s and the fast food industry.  I guarantee, you’ll never feel the same about eating out after reading these two books.

ADD/HD is a real condition due to the brain’s neural transmissions and actual brain development. Rather than assuming your kid IS actually ADD/HD and is not just being a ‘normal’ kid with that kid energy, don’t automatically go for the doctor’s insistence on a drug regimen. Parents should consider a natural approach first.  What is your child eating during the day?  What IS IN their food that might be causing this?

Consulting with a licensed nutritionist or dietitian, having a chemical analysis done might be a good first step.  A cleaner diet, free of artificial chemicals, all sugars, no soda – might go a long way to helping the child.  Because studies have indicated that there are an average of 1,000 household  toxins in a child’s home  environment, eliminating these elements may also have some bearing.

As an old friend used to say:  “Start simple.”  It may be the most beneficial way to help your child.

Want A Job? Move To India

A friend who has worked for Bank of America just learned her job will end on July 31st.  She has worked there 15 years through various name changes and takeovers/buyouts.

Her boss announced the jobs would be outsourced to India.  Isn’t that NICE!

I just found out (un-officially) that I will be out of a job on July 31st .. wow. My dept is the best in the country – we have come under goal for 18 months! Not one other dept can say that. The big honcho came in person to tell us. One of my co-workers called me and told me .. management has yet to call me. Our jobs are going to India.  India!?! Freakin’ India?? Bank of America just got more bailout money .. for what?! I want to know what the hell they are using that money for! To decorate another office?! I am writing every person I can find – this is so not right! I am literally shaking from anger ….

WHAT ARE WE GOING TO DO?  Those of us who are out of work and those who have recently lost their jobs and those who will be losing their jobs…., where are the jobs for us?

I guess we have to move to India.

There aren’t enough burger joints for all of us to work in!  Time was, a game of kiss-ass would keep you a job.  That doesn’t work, not when daily announcements of losses and layoffs blankets the news.

In the movie, “SICKO”, there is an interesting note.  A person interviewed in France said, “Here in France the government is afraid of the people.  In the U.S. the people are afraid of the government.”

Maybe it’s TIME for another REVOLUTION!  Time to let government know that we WILL NOT TOLERATE OUR JOBS BEING SENT OVER SEAS.  Companies who do intend to send jobs to places like India should be fined heavily.  Not being in law or government, I’m not sure how this would work – but IT HAS TO STOP NOW.  If companies are losing money – it is because people are not buying because they have no jobs or are afraid that they are next!

The new administration  has a terribly difficult task ahead of it cleaning up the Bush era mess. I don’t envy President Obama because I truly believe he is on our side.  It’s the other clowns in government I worry about!

Your KID’S Health Depends on YOU

I stand in the supermarket line in amazement. No wonder why our kids are so hyper, so sick and so fat. LOOK at what you’re FEEDING THEM!

My God, parents…, do you think you’re doing your kids a favor by letting them DRINK SODA?  Do any research on it as all and find that you are PREDISPOSING your children to a host of diseases. Soda leaches calcium from bones.  It contributes to acid reflux, the acid  in it erodes the enamel off their little teeth! I guess you enjoy taking your kids to the dentist because it is a major contributor of tooth decay.

I saw a parent at a restaurant pouring soda into a bottle of a toddler.  I wanted to scream!  The kid, though, happily sucked it down.

There is no such thing as a ‘healthy’ snack food.   As reported in the previous post, “POISONS IN YOUR FOOD” chips and junk food derive their flavor from chemicals!  Some so-called healthy yogurts are no better:  Yoplait has a scary list of chemicals.  Do you really want to eat that stuff?  I don’t.

Every parent should read: FAST FOOD NATION by Eric Schlosser.

I watch in dismay as the woman ahead of me in line stacks her ‘food’ on the conveyor belt to be scanned.  Microwaveable meals, stuff which – If you READ THE INGREDIENTS – have very little ‘real’ food.  What once was food has been processed, manipulated, dried and chemicalized.  Your children and family AREN’T EATING REAL FOOD! You might as well FEED THEM PLASTIC!  This is all because you don’t have the time – aka – are too lazy too cook a real meal.

Soft drinks, juice drinks with just a smidgen of so-called juice but mostly sugar (high fructose), sports drinks, Gator-Aid:  all loaded with artificial colorings and chemicals.

Those supposed healthy meals you’re getting like  Lean Cuisine, Stouffer’s and even the vegetarian ones by Morningstar:    READ THE INGREDIENTS!  Michael Pollen, in his book, “In Defense of Food – An Eater’s Manifesto” states that we should eat as our grandparents ate.  If a product contains more than 5 ingredients, or has words you can’t pronounce, don’t eat it!

With the rise in cancers, a prime culprit is what we eat and are exposed to.

Get the kids off the junk food.  Better yet, DON’T START THEM ON IT IN THE FIRST PLACE.  Case in point – I never got into the soda habit because, as a child, we weren’t allowed to have it except very infrequently.  Today, it isn’t in my house – ever – and IF I drink 6 sodas in a year – that’s a lot!  Same thing with the junk food.  It was a treat and hence, I can just walk but the potato chip aisle without a thought.

So parents, on your next trip to the store, you have a choice:  make your kids healthy or make them sick.  It all starts with their next meal.