2010-03-27

thanks for toughing out this health care bill

co.pol/dem/Thank Representative Giffords/my reply

co.pol/{Arizona Daily Star, The Daily Territorial, USA Today, New York Times}/
thanks for toughing out this health care bill:


Dear Rep. Giffords,
. thank you so much for being a true
blue dog democrat -- a true fiscal conservative,
that is exactly the reason
I pumped $hundreds into this campaign .

. I'm sorry about the anger you rep's endured;
I watched your townhall meetings on
google( site:youtube.com giffords health care ) .
. the opposition claimed this bill was
not conservative,
but they know
they are just the sore loser half
that had their seat taken for the
I'm Bushed Years .
. I would ask them:
what is not conservative about
"(you pay for what you've been getting!)?
. how about
instead of our medicare "(death panels)
we gave them the honest conservative deal:
you take the same level of medicare
that you signed up for when medicare was created;
lets see them talk about honest conservatism then .

. too bad though that our bill didn't
offer them more choice:
one where we could sign a waver saying
we wouldn't accept any charity health care,
and then it would be fair if we
wouldn't have to pay any health insurance .
. but I believe in a right to die too,
so seeing people decline help
just doesn't touch me .

. I understand that you were in favor of tort reform;
did we get that ?
anyway, I have another fiscally conservative
idea for that:
rather than stopping the trials,
we could be getting at the root of the
medical errors:
those medical guys belong to a cartel
that artificially keeps their numbers low,
makes them operate alone with little sleep,
when instead
they should be working in pairs
like airline pilots .
-- and then we could quarter their $400k salaries .
. they talk about the quality of standards
when they set the bar so high for licensing;
but there is real safety in numbers
as is the case with pilots, juries,
and open source software .

. again, thank you so much,
I would be proud to fund your next election,
phil

2010-03-24

amer'dreaming on the job!

3.24: news.pol/amer'dreaming on the job!

. some news bit just said the same as here:
US Sees 'Explosion' of Extremist Groups, Militias
"(The U.S. has seen an "explosion" in the number of
radical anti-government groups and armed militias
[due to] the election of the first black president
[and] the bank bailout ... .
)
. amer's are hostile about both a black pres
and the bailout ?
what do those have in common ?
. the housing and finance collapse was basically due to
unconditionally guaranteed gov't loans
-- via Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac --
and weren't those the liberal's attempt at
giving capital to the minorities ?
. this is similar to my euro-christian history apologist idea
of having the gov' buy businesses
to be handed out to blacks and natives
instead of welfare .
. owning a house would have my idea's effect only if
they lived in their car and rented their house out;
but, home ownership is still capital
that grows in value when you maintain it
--- it gives you a part-time job at
being your own landlord .
. I was wishing they would do this
without realizing they actually were!
and wow you have to be careful what you wish for,
because if it's heavy
then a sarcastic bureaucracy is likely to
drop it on your foot !

. here is a summary of wiki
showing how democrats are perceived
in the bailout picture .
Fannie_Mae
Subprime_mortgage_crisis
United_States_housing_bubble
Sales_Prices_of_New_Homes_Sold_in_United_States_1963-2008_annual.png

1938: Fannie Mae was established for New Deal:
. to make mortgages available to low-income families.
. added to the Federal Home Mortgage association,
a part of Franklin Delano Roosevelt's New Deal
in order to facilitate liquidity within the mortgage market.
1968:
. the government converted Fannie Mae
into a private shareholder-owned corporation
in order to remove its activity from the annual balance sheet
of the federal budget .
Consequently, Fannie Mae ceased to be the guarantor of
government-issued mortgages,
and that responsibility was transferred to the new
Government National Mortgage Association (Ginnie Mae).

1970: Freddie Mac created .
(Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation)(FHLMC),
to compete with Fannie Mae
for a robust and efficient secondary mortgage market.
HOUSES AVERAGE: $27k

1977: Carter's Community Reinvestment Act (CRA 1977)
. an affirmitive action plan for banks
giving small business loans and home mortgages
to blighted inner cities .
HOUSES AVERAGE: $54k

1999: Clinton's Fannie Mae CRA push .
. in response to the affirmitive action push,
primary mortgage markets pressed Fannie Mae
to ease credit requirements,
enabling them to make subprime loans at
higher than conventional loan interest rates .
HOUSES AVERAGE: $200k

1999: public awareness (New York Times)
"( Fannie Mae is taking on significantly more risk,
which may not pose any difficulties during
flush economic times.
But the government-subsidized corporation
may run into trouble in an economic downturn,
prompting a government rescue
similar to that of the savings and loan industry in the 1980s.)

2000: HUD's anti-predatory lending rules
. HUD disallowed risky, high-cost loans
from being credited toward affordable housing goals.

2002: Bush's "Renewing the Dream"
. the Single-Family Affordable Housing Tax Credit Act.
$2 billion in tax credits over the next five years
to develop affordable single-family housing in distressed areas.
HOUSES AVERAGE: $230k


2003: Bush's fix for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac
. Fannie Mae's risk feared to be much larger than believed .
. Fannie Mae is prescribed outside supervision
to set capital-reserve requirements for the company
and to determine whether the company is adequately managing
the risks of its portfolios.

2003: Democratic opposition to Bush's plan:
ranking Democrat on the Financial Services Committee,
Barney Frank of Massachusetts:
"These two entities -- Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac --
are not facing any kind of financial crisis,"
"The more people exaggerate these problems,
the more pressure there is on these companies,
the less we will see in terms of affordable housing."

2003: Bush's American Dream Downpayment Act
. a new program that provided grants to help home buyers with
downpayment and closing costs.
The act authorized $200 million dollars per year
for the program for fiscal years 2004-2007.
. also tripled the funding for Habitat for Humanity's
that help families help themselves become homeowners
through 'sweat equity' and volunteerism in their communities.
Substantially increasing, by at least $440 billion,
the financial commitment made by the government-sponsored enterprises
involved in the secondary mortgage market
specifically targeted toward the minority market.

2004: layered-risk loans race
[. high-risk loans were allowed again
with the intention that high risk actors
be given affordable terms .
. instead, house loans layered the risk:
their payments would remain affordable
only if multiple factors remained positive:
interest rates had to remain low,
and unemployment had to remain low .
. because these loans couldn't be covered by Fannie Mae,
the banks bundled the loans into products
that would be sold as high interest bonds .]

2004: Alan Greenspan warns of market conspiracy
. the markets appear to believe that the U.S. Government
would never allow Fannie Mae (or Freddie Mac) to fail .
HOUSES AVERAGE: $274k

2005: public awareness of "layered-risk" lending .
Alan Greenspan praised the rise of the sub-prime mortgage industry
and the tools which it uses to assess credit-worthiness .
HOUSES AVERAGE: $297k

2005: Federal Housing Enterprise Regulatory Reform Act (S.190)
2005: Federal Housing Finance Reform Act (H.R. 1461)
. an effort to reform the existing GSE regulatory structure
in light of the recent accounting problems
and questionable management actions
leading to considerable income restatements by the GSE's.
After being reported favorably by the Senate's
Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs in July 2005,
the bill was never considered by the full Senate for a vote.[18]
. The House Financial Services Committee had crafted changes
and produced a Committee Report;
it was passed by the House in spite of opposition by
Democrats, Bush, and other Republicans;
and the Senate ignored it .
2006: Sen. McCain's becomes a cosponsor of S.190
. Fannie Mae's regulator reported that profits were
"illusions deliberately and systematically created
by the company's senior management" .
HOUSES AVERAGE: $306k

2007: HOUSES AVERAGE: $310k and falling
. the collapse of the U.S. housing market
and subprime mortgage crisis .
. many with adjustable rate mortgages (ARM)
were unable to pay their mortgages,
precipitously increasing home foreclosures
causing supply to exceed demand
and a decline in prices .
. also, stricter lending standards made it more and more difficult
for borrowers to get mortgages.
This depreciation in home prices
led to growing losses for the GSEs,
which back the majority of US mortgages.
. widely held subprime mortgage securities
lost most of their value,
resulting in a massive tightening of credit
around the world.

Democratic senators
such as Senator Charles Schumer of New York
were already proposing a federal bailout
in order to save homeowners from losing their residences.
Opponents
asserted that a government bailout would
set a bad precedent, create a moral hazard,
and worsen the speculation problem in the housing market.

2009: HOUSES AVERAGE: rising again
after a 32% dive from 2006 peak .

2010-03-05

President Obama's health care video

pos.pol/health care/President Obama's health care video:
. the "final march" speech adds very little:
some republican demands were included;
but, there's still no mention of how to appease
the people that were worried about death panels .
. I still feel like I don't have
the ammo I need to defend this bill;
because, even though we do have
a need for mandatory health insurance,
we also need a menu of variously-priced plans,
where we're being rewarded with cheaper premiums
for contracting to accept less care .
. the main problem today is that people haven't been
given a chance to make that deal;
instead, they can just hope nothing happens,
and then when it does happen,
they accept every treatment to fix it
regardless of their lack of plans .
. the gov't has already made special plans
for religious groups that have a
history of refusing treatments .
. what we need now is a generalization of that:
who is it that really cares about death panels?
let their groups pay the premiums for that exorbitant plan .
. the issue of death panels
and the costly problem of doing without them
would then take care of itself,
except for needing a transition period
where the people who are nearing medicare
would get subsidized to give them the chance
to keep the same unpaneled plan they were promised .

2010-03-01

health advice on knol needs full disclosure

2.14: health/knol/CAVEAT:
. I'm an evangelist for the dieticians I believe in,
but I'm not myself a certified dietician;
I'm simply practicing my freedom to speak
(often against the GRAINS of
the current dietary professionals) .
. don't even bother with checking my references:
you need to see a doctor or certified dietician
before acting on this advice .
. moreover, keep in mind that my highest calling
is to keep finding the most healthful advice;
so, please read with an eye toward helping me
in this open source self-help effort .

proj.health/knol/CAVEAT added:
. added caveat to all health articles,
and also changed summary of
primary USA cancer source is mold toxins .

care for high-risk elders

2.10: co.health/care for high-risk elders:
Health and Wellness Product Information Group
Are you and your agency prepared to work with
lesbian and gay seniors?

my reply:
. according to that article,
sexual minorities have a lot in common with
the mentally ill: fewer social connections,
and thereby a greater risk of stress conditions .
. they should be reminded to compensate by
concentrating on the other branches of longevity:
#: finding self-employment you love,
both challenging and providing a feeling of flow .
#: staying on a disciplined diet
that keeps hormones in the zone:
beans, greens, yams, and no grains or sugar .
#: peak resistance exercise
for maximizing natural growth hormone .

paleo (grassfed) diet

2.9: co.health/linkedin.com/Health and Wellness Product Information Group:
Eating like Cavemen - What are your thoughts on a Paleo Diet?

. an interview with a Paleolithic nutrition expert .
"(
Dr. Loren Cordain is a professor of exercise physiology
and a renowned expert in the area of Paleolithic nutrition.
) .
. I would sum it up as the grass-fed diet
-- omega-3 friendly .
. one thing not mentioned in that link's interview
is the pervasive dioxin problem
-- we need to be more careful with fat
than our ancestors;
I use 3rd-party tested fish oil
http://www.ifosprogram.com/IFOS/ConsumerReport.aspx

. meat and dairy not safe?
low-fat legumes (vs soy and peanuts)
-- unlike cereals, seeds, and nuts --
do qualify as a grass-fed diet .
. low-fat beans, with sufficient cooking times,
are non-toxic and omega-3 friendly;
esp'ly {kidney beans, black beans}
for having not only a complete proteinbut also the highest fiber and protein
per plant calorie .
some-beans-feature-complete-protein.html

. legumes have been the most important
dietary predictor of longevity
Asia Pacific J Clin Nutr 2004;13 (2):217-220 (pdf)
but when a long-living culture's legume is soy,
that soy is mostly fermented
(reduces toxins and anti-nutrients) .
. the key to a legume`s healthfulness is its
time-releasing of carb' and protein,
and the fact that its soluble fiber promotes
bacterial production of butyrates and vitamin k .
. however!
one very important mineral that is often missing from beans
is selenium -- that pro-longevity powerhouse --
which is a mineral only tolerated by legumes, not needed by them,
and which is available to farm-raised animals, salt-water wild fish,
and salt-water vegetables .

. my diet-related health articles .
blog posts:
. do some legumes have a lectin problem?
. can chickens eat beans?

estrogen-dominance a major source of cancer

2.4: health/estrogen-dominance:
. the 2nd way fat creates estrogen-dominance
is by holding stores of progesterone
which then leak constantly
thereby disrupting progesterone's normally
non-constant, pulsating dosing .
[. the first is by body fat being a producer of estrogen;
another inderect way is that
obesity often comes from fatty diets
which often contain high levels of dioxins and pcb's
which mimic estrogens ]
[3.1: even veg'oil can be a source of dioxins
and the body stores this dioxin in its own body`fat ]


2.14: sci.health/postpartum depression from progesterone resistance

[I'm a middle-aged male using it nasally 1mg every other day
combining it with dhea micronized 5..10mg nasa daily]
. feeling relieved by progesterone
I got the idea that the reason there's a depression after some pregnancies
is that they started it with an estrogen dominance,
then to overcome that,
the body had to over-produce progesterone
causing progesterone resistance later,
and that might cause depression .
web:
"(Postpartum depression occurs in women with an
altered progesterone level)
-- www.pmstreatmentclinic.com/services.html
"(Since Dalton has insisted that post-partum depression was related to PMS,
I tried treating it with progesterone as well.
The results have seemed good to me. ...)
-- www.gentlebirth.org/archives/progppd.html
"(During the course of that visit,
she commented on her long experience with
the use of progesterone in the treatment of postpartum depression. ...)
-- www.naprotechnology.com/depression.htm
"( ... Many women find that their depression becomes much worse
just before, or during, a period.
If this is so, consider progesterone therapy
to help prevent this severe form of pre-menstrual tension.)
-- www.mothersbliss.com/life/pnd.asp
[3.1: warning:
. beware high-dose dhea or progesterone,
better to work at lowering levels of the opposing hormones:
cortisol and estrogen
getting too much can cause resistance to that hormone .]

genetic engineering done right, wrong, and ugly

2.20: web.health/gmo/seeds of deception:

. a local radio station just interviewed the author of
[seeds of deception].book;
he recommended a site responsibletechnology.org .

. googling for more info, I found a video of the author
detailing how his book needed to be written
because (at least at the time)
random genetic insertions were being carelessly used;
ie, done without being tested by anyone with
the consumer's interest genuinely in mind .

. the video champions The Campaign To Label Genetically Engineered Foods,
but,
"(the principal organizer passed away July 3, 2009
after a long bout against cancer .
. The fight for a sane genetically engineered foods policy
continues at such excellent organizations as the
Institute for Responsible Technology.)
. the youtube entry has this intro:
This lecture was created by combining the 6 pieces
posted on YouTube by The Kick Them All Out Project.
This project shows you how we can take back control of Congress
from the special interests that control it now
and put an end to things like GMO foods.
This lecture by Jeffrey Smith, author of Seeds of Deception,
summarizes the contents of his book .

. according to that video,
the reason of being cautious about gmo's
is that gov't is assuming gmo's are safe until proven guilty;
but, the nature of gmo`tech had been
(if it isn't still currently the case)
involving unpredictable changes in a plant's biochemistry
that warrant treating it like a complete alien
in need of quaranteen until multi-generational studies have been done .

. gmo's and biotech do offer the world a lot of potential
(like engineering high-intelligence organisms
that won't poison the planet with over-population);
but, we need labeling that assures testing:
(eg, what strains a food is coming from,
and links to proof of 3rd-party testing for that strain .)
--(. again, that's assuming genetic engineering is still done by
random gene insertions .)

. the problem with the monsanto method
of genetic modification
-- the method (at least at the time?)
that touches the majority of our foods
through the inclusion of the these crops:
soy, corn, sugar beets, and certain veg'oils (cottonseed, canola) --
is that it results in gene shifting,
which can potentially change the meaning or scheduling
of all the genes that got shifted by the insertion .
. it is this random widespread changing
that can result in creation or increased dosages of
allergens, anti-nutrients, carcinogens, and toxins .
. another side-affect of the commercial gmo process
is antibiotic resistant organisms;
because, the economical way to tell
when a gene insertion has taken place,
is to include with the insertion
an antibiotic resistance gene,
so then after applying the gene and then antibiotics,
only the gmo's are left .

fda knew genetic modified bacteria poisoned tryptophan:
. the most shocking assertion by the video
is that fda claimed the tryptophan poisoning
couldn't be due to gmo's
because the responsible manufacturer
was not using gmo's at that point,
but some leaked documents showed that
fda did have a receipt of legal documents
showing earlier use of gmo's by that manufacturer .
. the fda tried to blame it on
the manufacturer using cheaper toxin-catching filters;
but if the fda had admitted to
knowing about gmo's being in use,
the question they would have then been held to is
how are gmo's creating these toxins in need of filtering?
. see the video . see some brief text .

. while fda knew the gmo process had poisoned tryptophan,
they insisted it was due to "(health fraud schemes)
and relegated all tryptophan to prescription only .

. if the tryptophan poisoning hadn't created such bizarre symptoms,
they never would have been attributed to food,
and thereby fallen into the labeling wastebasket
of "(succumbing to the modern high-stress lifestyle) .
. between 1994 and 2001,
when many new gmo products were introduced,
the number of food-relatable illness doubled .

seedsofdeception @ amazon
. one critic of the book suggests a more "(even-handed) alt':
as it
"(deftly swats aside several of the well-known studies
that purport to show risks associated with genetically modified crops
(such as Dr. Pusztai's rat
and John Losey's Monarch butterfly studies)) .
. my response to his critics
is that the authors case is not based
primarily on Dr. Pusztai's rat study
but on simple facts about the effects of
random gene insertions causing unpredictable changes
by shifting nearby genes:
shifting a gene can change its function .
. none of his critics address that concern .

seedsofdeception.com
responsibletechnology.org @ facebook

Center-for-Food-Safety
cfs @ facebook
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. signed up for newsletters from Center for Food Safety
Cool Foods
NanoAction
Together we will make our voices heard and stand up for True Food!

first gm crop europe liked: Calgene Flavr Savr tomato
United States, Canada, and Argentina together grow 80 percent of all biotech crops

. why did tech nation radio (2010-02-02)
recently razz a solar energy advocate, Rifkin,
about the Flavr Savr tomato? minute 33:
. the context was that "vintage Rifkin" was known for dark predictions,
so it was curious that his newest book is The Empathic civilization .
. and it's not just a matter of empathy,
but the fear of economic failure moving toward green too fast .
. Rifkin said the problem is the older generation
keeping alive the classic American Dream of cowboys
not empathizing globally (eg, natives)
the European Dream envisioned by esp'ly some West Coast Americans
is biosphere conscious
rather, they resist investing in a move from oil to solar .
. she laughed that someone referred to Rifkin as
"(isn't he that guy with the gmo tomato?)
. he gives context to that:
he took on monsanto for using gmo's based on gene splicing
[@] recombinant DNA tech
-- at the time he thought a much better approach to gmo
was marker-assisted selection,
which is just now replacing gene splicing .
. it's not engineering across species lines,
but cross-breeding within a family
. that's a good example for what he's talking about
when cheering on solar over oil:
just because it's the first tech doesn't mean it's the best .

. then he started getting into something that seem confused:
. the 3rd industrial revolution has a good chance
but conservatives will say empathy is collectivism,
liberals will say, individualism is selfishness .
[
but wouldn't that be a confusion with definitions?
I think he's stretching to not frame it as
a conservative vs liberal thing,
but the "(individualism) that empathy requires
refers to breaking out of the
group identification that is typically fueling religious wars;
eg, when Americans can see their self as
an individual rather than a christian,
that's a prerequisite to seeing the {arab, semite}
as an individual rather than a {muslim, jew} .
. I'm quite sure that real liberals
are all for moving to the solar economy
because, even without global warming being a real danger,
pollution with coal and oil is selfishly living
high at the expense of future generations .
. furthermore, the sooner we invest in it,
the sooner it becomes self-generating:
by using some of today's solar energy
to convert ever more land to solar energy collection,
we can soon have the energy to completely
wipe out water shortages,
and cover the globe with free internet
that empowers the 3rd world countries to
rethink their population growth policies .
. upon the convergence of free energy and robust robotics,
the world will soon have worldwide free robotics
with robots producing robots with free solar energy
-- it's all free .
. but it all depends on free solar energy
-- energy controlled by every home owner,
not aloof oil cartels .

. on the other hand, if global warming is indeed a real threat,
not acting soon will make it more difficult
to use the globe for solar:
tornadoes and hurricanes will often blow away expensive equipment .

. the current green tech is based on cereals fertilized by oil;
whereas, the world would be much more health eating legumes,
and using legumes as fertilizer .
. with huge amounts of free energy to de-salt water,
and to properly cook legumes,
there will be good health, strong teeth, and free food .
. furthermore, cows fed all legumes are healthier source of meat
than those finished with grains .
. they would have less saturated fat
and more omega-3 oils, like fish .
. it's too expensive now only because
cooking beans for livestock
is too energy-intensive until energy is free .]

. he wrote a book condemning gmo's in 1999:
The Biotech Century by Jeremy Rifkin (Paperback - April 5, 1999)

. that book is related to that tomato by
Featured History of FOET Biotech Initiatives: Pure Food Campaign
In 1992, the Pure Food Campaign (PFC) was established,
a coalition of organic farmers and restaurateurs,
consumer and environmental groups, and animal welfare organizations
opposed to the use of genetic engineering in food.
The PFC organized protests and litigation under the banner of
“An International Boycott of Genetically Engineered Foods”,
opposing the use of an engineered form of a bovine growth hormone (rBST) in dairy cows,
and the market entry of the genetically engineered “Flavr-Savr” tomato.
As well, the group demanded mandatory labeling of all genetically modified food products.

types of genetic engineering
. a history of biotech .
http://www.gmo-safety.eu/en/gene_transfer