Voting & Parental Rights

I will always vote in favor of parental rights.

I will always oppose anyone, any measure, any proposition that negatively affects parental rights. Always.

Parental rights are so valuable, so cherished, so important. How can anyone, in good conscience, vote against them? Do we really want the government to raise our children for us?

It's frightening how many people actually want to live under socialism...communism...Frightening how so many people want a limit on the number of children anyone can have.

If someone wants to live in a communist country, they should move to one! I'm sure they'd quickly change their minds.

Culture Of Fear

I was reading True Mom Confessions the other day, and one of the confessions was "I know there's no such thing as a 'low risk' pregnancy" WHAT?!?! This confessor allowed comments on her post so I *had* to leave one!

I wrote that the vast majority of pregnancies are low risk. I thought this was common knowledge. If pregnancy were inherently dangerous, "high risk", the human race would have ceased to exist a very long time ago!

The medical industry's propaganda that pregnancy, labour & birth are so dangerous, is criminal. So very many women are fearful of pregnancy, labour & birth. It shouldn't be this way. The medical industry is so powerful. So powerful that our entire society believes that pregnancy/labour/birth MUST be managed by a physician because of "all the things that could go wrong".

What do people think women did before the specialist/surgical profession of obstetrics came along? How many women survived pregnancy/labour/birth before then? Millions, billions. How many women still survive pregnancy/labour/birth WITHOUT medical supervision, interventions, obstetrics, etc? Millions!

It's depressing how many women I've encountered that are so scared of the very thing their bodies were made to do, and to do well.

The Many Dangers Of Motrin

http://www.motrin.com/page.jhtml?id=/motrin/products/1_2_1.inc&sec=warnings

Warnings
Allergy alert:
Ibuprofen may cause a severe allergic reaction, especially in people allergic to aspirin.
Symptoms may include:

* hives
* facial swelling
* asthma (wheezing)
* shock
* skin reddening
* rash
* blisters

If an allergic reaction occurs, stop use and seek medical help right away.

Stomach bleeding warning:
This product contains a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID), which may cause stomach bleeding. The chance is higher if the child:

* has had stomach ulcers or bleeding problems
* takes a blood thinning (anticoagulant) or steroid drug
* takes other drugs containing an NSAID (aspirin, ibuprofen, naproxen, or others)
* takes more or for a longer time than directed

Sore throat warning:
Severe or persistent sore throat or sore throat accompanied by high fever, headache, nausea and vomiting may be serious. Consult doctor promptly. Do not use more than 2 days or administer to children under 3 years of age unless directed by doctor.

Do not use:

* if the child has ever had an allergic reaction to any other pain reliever/fever reducer
* right before or after heart surgery

Ask a doctor before use if the child has:

* problems or serious side effects from taking pain relievers or fever reducers
* stomach problems that last or come back, such as heartburn, upset stomach, or stomach pain
* ulcers
* bleeding problems
* not been drinking fluids
* lost a lot of fluid due to vomiting or diarrhea
* high blood pressure
* heart or kidney disease
* taken a diuretic

Ask a doctor or pharmacist before use if the child is:

* taking any other drug containing an NSAID (prescription or nonprescription)
* taking a blood thinning (anticoagulant) or steroid drug
* under a doctor's care for any serious condition
* taking any other drug

When using this product:

* take with food or milk if stomach upset occurs
* long-term continuous use may increase the risk of heart attack or stroke

Stop use and ask a doctor if:

* the child feels faint, vomits blood or has bloody or black stools (these are signs of stomach bleeding)
* stomach pain or upset gets worse or lasts
* the child does not get any relief within first day (24 hours) of treatment
* fever or pain gets worse or lasts more than 3 days
* redness or swelling is present in the painful area
* any new symptoms appear

Keep out of reach of children. In case of overdose, get medical help or contact a Poison Control Center right away.
(1-800-222-1222)

A Personal Post! Woo!

Another school year is upon us! I never did get those records back from that satellite school. We'll be using a different satellite school this year. I need another filing cabinet for our records & lesson plans.

The girlies are excited about starting school & so am I. We have a few more weeks, but some of us want to start RIGHT NOW!

Summer hasn't been terribly hot, thank God! We still have August & September, though...I think September is hotter than all the other months. I can't wait for Autumn! There's something energetic & magical about October & November...

We've been going to the gym, I've started the Total Body Makeover program, so by the time my birthday comes around, I'll be in better shape, and definitely stronger! The girls swim & play in the little water park while Troy & I relax in the shade after working out.

I have to look for some things in the garage, so I'd better get going.

Warnings Against Gardasil Vaccine

HPV Vaccine Blamed for Teen's Paralysis

..
http://articles. mercola. com/sites/articles/archive/2008/08/02/hpv-vaccine-blamed-for-teen-s-paralysis. aspx?source=nl


A month after 13 year old Jenny Tetlock was vaccinated against the HPV virus, she missed the lowest hurdle in gym class. It was the first sign of a degenerative muscle disease that 15 months later left her nearly completely paralyzed.
Her father, Philip Tetlock, a professor at UC-Berkeley, has embarked on an odyssey to find out whether the vaccine, Gardasil, is to blame.


Tetlock is not the only one concerned. The public watchdog group Judicial Watch has been periodically obtaining adverse event reports on Gardasil from the FDA. 10 deaths have been linked to Gardasil since September 2007, and there have been 140 reports so far this year of serious side effects such as miscarriage and Guillain-Barré syndrome.
MERCK HPV GARDASIL VACCINATIONS UNSAFE REACTIONS OCCURING

MERCK HPV Vaccine GARDASIL which some wanted as a MADATORY VACCINATION for every girl is now having some severe setbacks and some terrible adverse reactions.

PLEASE WATCH AND KEEP IN MIND THAT THEY WANT BOYS TO GET VACCINATED and THIS IS JUST PART OF THE GRAND EUGENIC SCHEME TO INFECT YOUR CHILDREN!!

Dr. Mercola's Comments:

Once you educate yourself and know the facts about Gardasil, the truth about HPV, and the statistics of cervical cancer, it will become quite clear just how outrageously useless -- and dangerous -- this vaccine really is.

..The FDA, in not-so-rare form, insists there's no medical reason to be worried about the side effects of Gardasil. "We're monitoring the safety of the HPV vaccine very carefully, and the only adverse event that causes some concern is fainting after the vaccine," says Robert Ball, director of the FDA's office of biostatistics and division of epidemiology.
He continues to say, “Higher rates of Guillain-Barré have been associated with the swine flu vaccine and possibly with the meningitis vaccine Menactra, but it is no more common in those who get Gardasil than in those who don't.
Alright. Let’s say you agree with the idea that the cases of Guillain-Barre syndrome are pure coincidence, despite the fact that they occur within days or weeks of vaccination.
But what about the deaths?

Infant deaths following Merck’s rotavirus are routinely disguised under the label SIDS (sudden infant death syndrome).
So what do we have when healthy teenagers drop dead for no reason? SAD -- Sudden Adolescent Death? Will that be the next big thing? Will there be SAD campaigns, with physicians educating the public about proper sleeping positions until you’re well into your 20’s?

Let’s get real.
I recently read a comment online from one mother who said she’d do anything in her power to make sure her children were protected, and she couldn’t understand “the narrow-minded opinions” and “fear mongering” of Gardasil nay-sayers.
“Would you rather your daughters died of cervical cancer?” she wrote.
Well, that’s just it, right there! As I will show you, the chances of your daughter dying of cervical cancer are already VERY LOW, and the possibility of Gardasil sparing them from cervical cancer is so RIDICULOUSLY LOW that no reasonable person could argue for the use of this HPV vaccine if they knew all the facts.
How Likely are You to Develop and Die From Cervical Cancer?

According to the CDC, cervical cancer used to be the leading cause of cancer death for women in the United States. However, in the past 40 years, the number of cervical cancer cases and the number of deaths thereof have decreased significantly. It is believed that this decline is the result of many women getting regular Pap tests, which can find cervical pre-cancer before it turns into cancer.
According to the U.S. Cancer Statistics: 2004 Incidence and Mortality report, 11,892 women in the U.S. were told that they had cervical cancer in 2004, and 3,850 women died from the disease. The American Cancer Society mirrors these statistics, estimating that about 3,870 women will die from cervical cancer in the U.S. in 2008.
Well. We’ve already lost 18 girls, some as young as 12, in the effort to spare them from the mere possibility of cervical cancer later in life. Others have developed debilitating and potentially life-threatening ailments within weeks of being vaccinated, and others still have had spontaneous abortions or given birth to babies with birth defects.
Also consider this: Cervical cancer usually develops in your late 20s to mid 30s. The protection period of Gardasil is estimated to be 5 years. That means, if you receive your first set of shots when you’re 10 years old, you’d need at least 2 to 4 additional booster shots to make it through your 30s. And THAT means you’ll have to expose yourself to the potential side effects of Gardasil over and over and over again.
But now to the real clincher, and I want you to read the following section as many times as you need to let this truly sink in…

U.S. statistics show there are 30 to 40 cervical cancer cases per year per one million women between the ages of 9 and 26, which is the age bracket that Gardasil targets (and was tested on).
According to Merck, Gardasil was shown to reduce pre-cancers by 12.2% to 16.5% in the general population. So, instead of ending up with 30 to 40 cases of cancer per million, per year, in that age bracket, the HPV vaccine can potentially bring it down to 26 to 35 cases of cervical cancer.
What that means is that you would have to vaccinate one million girls to prevent cervical cancer in 4 to 5 girls.
Further, about 37 percent of women who develop cervical cancer actually die from the disease, so vaccinating ONE MILLION girls would prevent 1 to 2 DEATHS per year, at the bargain-basement price of $360 million per year, plus potentially lifelong suffering for an untold number of women, which has no price tag.
Is this REASONABLE?

Understanding the HPV – Cancer Connection

There are more than 100 types of human papillomaviruses (HPVs). Of them, about 40 types of HPV affect your genitals or sex organs, and can cause genital warts, for example. 10-30 strains can lead to cervical cancer. The remainder can cause to skin infections and common warts on your hands and feet.
The CDC web site states that certain types of HPV can infect your cervix and lead to cervical cancer over many years. (This may be one of the reasons why cancer rates keep dropping, because there’s sufficient amount of time to treat any abnormalities if you’re getting regular Pap smears.
It also says that in 90 percent of women infected, HPV clears up on its own within two years, at which point your cervical cells go back to normal. It is only when the HPV virus lingers for many years that these abnormal cells could turn into cancer.
Additionally, it’s important to know that the vast majority of abnormal Pap tests do NOT equate to cancer. Even abnormal Pap tests showing pre-cancerous cells of the CIN II grade clear by themselves without treatment 40 percent of the time.
And, current treatment of pre-cancers has limited the progression to actual cancer to only 1 percent. So, just like the polio vaccine, Merck's HPV vaccine is coming out at a time when cervical cancer is already on a steady decline, and anyone who starts talking about how Gardasil has reduced cervical cancer rates in the next few years is likely talking absolute nonsense.
Informed Consent: Understand the Numerous Dangers of the HPV Vaccine

First of all, the Gardasil vaccine contains just four types of HPV out of the more than 100 strains. So if you contract one of the 96+ types that aren’t included, you’re out of luck. And, if you’ve already been exposed to one of the four types of virus in the vaccine, it doesn’t work against those either.
This means that even if you accept the risks and get vaccinated, your chances of getting some form of HPV are still very high. Whether or not the HPV virus will lead to genital warts or cervical cancer, however, depends in large part on the state of your immune system.
Gardasil, on the other hand, can damage your immune system, and can potentially lead to death. The main causes of death include blood clots, acute respiratory failure, cardiac arrest, and “sudden death” due to “unknown causes” shortly after receiving the vaccine. Again, 11 of the reported deaths occurred within 2 weeks of vaccination, and 7 within 2 days, so whatever the mechanism that induces death, it’s quick and efficient.
Other side effects include:

Miscarriages and spontaneous abortion
Genital wart outbreak, even in patients who had tested negative for HPV and genital warts prior to vaccination
Facial warts and warts on hands and feet
Anaphylactic shock
Loss of consciousness
Grand mal seizures
Coma
Paralysis
Says Tom Fitton, President of Judicial Watch, “Given all the questions about Gardasil, the best public health policy would be to reevaluate its safety and to prohibit its distribution to minors. In the least, governments should rethink any efforts to mandate or promote this vaccine for children.
It’s also important to know that Merck has NOT evaluated Gardasil’s potential carcinogenity or genotoxicity.
is currently no way of knowing how the HPV vaccine affects fertility, birth defects, cancer, if it can pass through breast milk, or if it can alter your genes or the genes of your future children (genotoxicity).
However, five subjects who got the vaccine around the time of conception had babies with birth defects, whereas no birth defects occurred among the subjects who received a placebo. Likewise, earlier last year when there were “only” 1,637 adverse reports, 18 of 42 women who had received the vaccine while pregnant experienced side effects ranging from spontaneous abortion to fetal abnormalities.
Also remember that you cannot sue Merck if your child dies after receiving the vaccine.
Drug companies have cleverly manipulated the government so that they are immune from prosecution. Instead they’ve made the U.S. taxpayers foot the bill for the hundreds of millions of dollars that are paid out to families of children who are harmed or killed every year from vaccines.
And even though it is nearly impossible to get one of these payments, more than $1.5 billion has been paid out to affected families already. So ponder on these stats if you haven’t already taken a firm position on the vaccine issue.
Good Example of How to Fake a Safety Study

In yet another less-than-ethical twist, Merck was permitted to use an aluminum-containing placebo instead of a standard saline placebo. Since Gardasil contains 225 mcg of aluminum, using an aluminum-containing placebo may paint an entirely inaccurate picture of its level of safety, since you’re apt to get similar, detrimental side effects in the placebo group.
In fact, about 60 percent of those who received either Gardasil or the aluminum placebo had systemic adverse events including:

Headache
Fever
Nausea
Dizziness
Vomiting
Diarrhea,
Myalgia (muscle pain)
Gardasil recipients had more serious adverse events such as gastroenteritis, appendicitis, pelvic inflammatory disease, asthma, bronchospasm and arthritis.
You should also know that aside from being injected with four types of HPV proteins, girls and women who receive this vaccine also receive the following adjuvants:

1.
Aluminum adjuvants, which have been linked to neurological damage including multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer’s disease, and Parkinson’s disease

2. Polysorbate 80, which has been linked to infertility in mice.
3. Sodium borate, a main ingredient in roach killer.
How To Reduce Your Risk of Cervical Cancer to Virtually Zero

The following have been shown to be associated with increased risk of cervical cancer:

Nutritional deficiencies, especially vitamin A and folate
Mineral deficiency (zinc, selenium, calcium and iron)
Smoking
Birth control use
Douching
It is believed that smoking has more to do with the progression of an HPV infection to cervical cancer than any other single factor, as smokers with HPV go on to develop cervical cancer much more frequently than infected non-smokers.
Cervical cancer is also well documented to be caused by an infection acquired through sexual contact. So in addition to avoiding smoking and eating a nutritious diet, it is behaviorally avoidable.
According to a New England Journal of Medicine study, the use of condoms reduces the incidence of HPV by 70 percent, offering FAR better protection than Gardasil’s protection rate of 12.2 to 16.5 percent.
As I’ve already mentioned, in 90 percent of all cases, your immune system is strong enough to clear up an HPV infection without ANY treatment. So maintaining a strong immune system is vital to beat HPV as well as any other infection or disease.



>>READ ON<


....

Another Long Time

Been a while since I've posted here. Just had lots going on, really.

Spent 5 weeks visiting my sister & nephews, which was loads of fun! It went by quickly but seemed a long time. Somehow.

I'll try to post here more, I do have things to say, you know ;)

Midwifery Course

I got my packet a few weeks ago, I just have to come up with the money to buy my books! So I'm having an online Tupperware party so that I can earn money to buy some of the books I need. I hope I get a good turnout! I'd like to start this course ASAP!

Risky Business

Abortion clinics operator is charged
Bertha Bugarin, 48, allegedly ran medical facilities where improper procedures were performed. She has pleaded not guilty.

By Tiffany Hsu, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
February 8, 2008


By the time paramedics arrived, the patient was lying in a pool of her own blood, her pulse racing and her blood pressure dangerously low.

The woman, identified only as Angela P. in records of the Medical Board of California, had gone to the Clinica Medica Para la Mujer de Hoy in Santa Ana in the summer of 2004 for an abortion.

Dr. Phillip Rand, then in his early 80s, performed a vaginal suction procedure, despite having determined that Angela was about 20 weeks pregnant, well into her second trimester. She was given no anesthesia or painkillers.

According to the National Abortion Federation, vacuum aspiration procedures are normally performed on women who are up to 14 weeks pregnant. After 14 weeks, a more complicated procedure, known as dilation and evacuation, is standard.

“A suction abortion is not appropriate at 20 weeks,” said Vicki Saporta, president of the federation.

Angela P.’s experience was cited in a 2004 medical board accusation against Rand as “barbaric” and a “severe departure” from a reasonable standard of care. Rand surrendered his license in 2005.

Rand was one of at least six doctors with histories of malpractice complaints, addiction or medical board actions who were employed by a chain of Southern California abortion clinics, according to court and medical board records.

Now Bertha Bugarin, 48, who authorities say manages the clinics, has been charged with practicing medicine without a license on five patients in February and March 2007, according to a statement from Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley’s office. Her sister Raquel Bugarin, 49, is accused of helping with the procedures. Both have pleaded not guilty.

The two sisters were arrested last summer, but a protective order filed in the case has made information difficult to obtain. Bertha Bugarin’s attorney, Rickard Santwier, declined to comment, as did her sister’s attorney, Christopher Chaney.

The prosecutor, Deputy Dist. Atty. Carolyn Nakaki, would not discuss the case or details of the sisters’ connection to the clinics.

A fictitious name statement from 1991 filed for the business lists Bertha Bugarin as the person behind Clinica Medica Para La Mujer de Hoy, although paperwork filed with the medical board lists Nicholas Braemer, a Torrance doctor who lost his license in 2000, as the sole registrant of the clinics between 1991 and 1999.

The clinics, which according to an associate of BerthaBugarincatered primarily to low-income Latinas, operated in several Southland locations.

Cooley’s statement refers to offices in Baldwin Park, Huntington Park, Los Angeles and Panorama City, operating either under the name Clinica Medica Para La Mujer de Hoy or Community Women’s Medical Clinic. Public records contain references to four more locations, in Chula Vista, North Hollywood, Torrance and Santa Ana. One clinic doctor said in a deposition for a 2002 malpractice suit that there were nine clinics.

Since the early 1990s, at least 12 personal injury and malpractice lawsuits and one wrongful death suit have been filed in Los Angeles County against Bertha Bugarin, the clinics or both. The defendants in the suits denied most of the allegations.

At least six of the 13 cases ended in settlements or judgments against the defendants, according to court records and attorneys. The records of one case have been disposed by the court, and another case was dismissed when the plaintiff failed to hire an attorney or show up for a status conference. In the remaining cases, resolutions were not clear from the court files, and several attorneys involved in the lawsuits said they didn’t recall the outcomes.

According to a letter from Bertha Bugarin’s accountant contained in a court file, Bugarin developed the clinics herself, hiring the doctors to work on an on-call basis.

Bertha Bugarin was arrested Aug. 1 and released on $500,000 bail. Her sister was arrested Sept. 6 and released on $100,000 bail. Each could face up to six years in state prison if convicted.

Some doctors associated with the clinics have had repeated problems with the medical board. Braemer, the Torrance doctor who appears on some public records as owner of the clinics, admitted to the board in 1994 that he performed an abortion in 1987 that removed only one arm of the fetus. The patient expelled the rest of the fetus the next day.

The board put Braemer on probation for five years, but then accused him at least three times of violating the probation terms, which included only performing abortions in approved facilities. Clinica Medica was not an approved facility under his probation terms.

In 1999, the board accused Braemer of leaving a fetus’ cranium and placenta inside a patient during a 1996 abortion at the Panorama City clinic.

The woman eventually spent a month in a Torrance hospital having her bowel repaired and multiple abscesses drained, the board said.

Braemer surrendered his license in 2000, after a medical board investigation of several Clinica Medica clinics. Without a physician present, unlicensed receptionists performed ultrasounds on undercover investigators posing as patients, according to medical board records. In the board’s record of the surrender, Braemer also admitted gross negligence in the 1996 abortion. Braemer could not be reached, and calls to several of his former attorneys were not returned.

Other doctors who performed abortions at the clinics include:

* Torrance-based Mohamed Dia, who surrendered his license in 1999. He admitted to the medical board that he used a van to bring a bleeding patient to a hospital after perforating her uterus and leaving part of the fetus in her body during a 1996 abortion at Clinica Medica.

* San Diego-based osteopath Laurence Reich, who surrendered his license in 2006 after pleading no contest to misdemeanor criminal charges of sexually exploiting two patients during abortions in 2000 at clinics not associated with Bugarin. His conviction was expunged in 2004 after he completed a yearlong probationary period and paid the court a $100 restitution fine, according to a Van Nuys court file.

One of the patients, Sherman Oaks resident Yvette Chambers, 43, said in a phone interview that Reich groped her breasts and asked explicit questions during an abortion at a Van Nuys clinic.

An earlier board accusation in 1982 had accused Reich of sexual abuse in three cases in 1981 and 1979. Reich asked the women to masturbate and rubbed their genital areas, according to the accusation, which led the board to put Reich on probation for 10 years until 1994. Reich could not be reached for comment, and his attorney, Santwier, declined to comment.

* Santa Monica-based Glenn Edward Miller, an admitted alcoholic whose license was revoked by the medical board in 2005 due to repeated substance abuse relapses. Miller was on probation for performing obstetrical procedures while under the influence of alcohol when he began working in Bugarin clinics in about 2003, according to board records.

That same year, Miller and Rand settled a malpractice lawsuit filed by a woman who said they gave her an abortion at a non-Bugarin clinic in 2002 even though she was not pregnant, rupturing her uterus in the process, court records said. Miller could not be reached for comment.

* George Dalton Flanigan, who was hired as an independent contractor at five Bugarin clinics in 2002, according to court documents. That same year, at an unnamed hospital, he delivered a dead baby using a vacuum procedure after refusing to perform a cesarean section, according to a board accusation that led to a 2007 decision to put him on probation for five years. Both Flanigan and his former attorney Arthur Selesnick declined to comment.

tiffany.hsu@latimes.com

Times staff writer Daniela Perdomo contributed to this report.

New Course

I sent the first payment for my *new* midwifery course! I should have the registration packet today or tomorrow :) I'm so excited!!!

This course is so much more affordable than the NMI one. [$800 vs $12,000] I would have never been able to afford it!

Thimerosal Linked to Autism in Confidential CDC Study

Controversy is mounting regarding the Center for Disease Control's (CDC) Thimerosal Vaccine Safety Data-Link Study (VSD) presented to the public at the July 15, 2001, Institute of Medicine (IOM) meeting on "Thimerosal-Containing Vaccines and Neurodevelopmental Outcomes." Thimerosal is the mercury preservative used in vaccines and other biologics. The CDC study evaluated nuerodevelopmental injury and cumulative exposures to Thimerosal at one and three months of age by studying the health records of over 100,000 children at four HMOs.

The organization SAFEMINDS (Sensible Action for Ending Mercury-Induced Neurological Disorders) has obtained an earlier, confidential February 2000 version of the VSD study through the Freedom of Information Act, as well as transcripts from a scientific review of this earlier study, which took place at Simpsonwood Retreat Center in Georgia. Serious disparities exist between the neurodevelopmental outcomes of the two different versions of the study. For over a year, SAFEMINDS and Congressman Dan Burton (R-Indiana) have been requesting the VSD raw data from the CDC for independent review. So far their requests have been denied.

The Texas firm Waters and Kraus leads the consortium of 25 law firms in as many states in the first civil suit brought against vaccine manufacturers and alleges that the February 2000 confidential version of the VSD study clearly demonstrates "an exposure to more than 62.5 micrograms of mercury within the first three months of life significantly increases a child's risk of developing nuerodevelopmental orders such as speech and language delay, autism, stuttering, and attention deficit disorder." In fact, the study indicates that children at this exposure level are more than twice as likely (2.48) to develop autism as those not exposed. Waters and Kraus note: "Courts of law have generally upheld that a relative risk of 2.0 or higher is sufficient to substantiate that a given exposure causes disease.

When the VSD study was presented at the July 2001 IOM meeting, the relative risk of autism had been reduced to 1.69. According to Mark Blaxill of SAFEMINDS, all previous versions of the study had used the same dataset. Yet for the version presented at the IOM meeting had an additional 34,334 children added to the database. The majority of the additional children were added by altering the inclusion criteria, as well as by updating the HMO data cycle by adding an additional year, 1998. The additional children were too young to have been diagnosed autistic since they were just turning two at the time the analysis was performed. Autism is diagnosed on the average at 44 months.

When the author of the VSD study, Tom Verstraeten, first presented the confidential version for scientific review by a panel of experts at Simpsonwood in June 2000, he said, "One thing that is for sure, there is certainly an under-ascertainment of all these [neurodevelopmental disorders] because some of the children are just not old enough to be diagnosed. So the crude incidence rates are probably much lower than what you would expect because the cohort is still very young."

The FDA and EPA called for the removal of mercury in infant vaccines beginning in 1999. At that time, vaccine manufacturers agreed to have thimerosal-free vaccines available at the beginning of 2001 and later offered voluntary exchange for all remaining thimerosal vaccines still on the shelf. In July of 1999, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), under the leadership of pediatric vaccinologist Dr. Neal A. Halsey, met with officials from the CDC to ask that the birth dose of Hepatitis B be pushed back as far as six months of age. The CDC and members of its National Immunization Program (NIP) refused, arguing that there was no evidence of harm done. They didn't want to undermine public confidence in the vaccination program. After much negotiation, the CDC released an ambiguous and weak statement that suggested that in certain low-risk populations physicians could wait until babies were two months of age before they administered their first hepatitis B vaccine.

The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), the CDC committee that recommends the vaccines for the Childhood Immunization Schedule, has yet to state a preference for thimerosal-free vaccines. It was the ACIP that approved of the additions to the Childhood Immunization Schedule of hepatitis B and Hib in the late 1980s and early 1990s, two thimerosal-containing vaccines that pushed infant ethyl mercury exposure levels far above any existing federal methyl mercury exposure guidelines.

At the June 2000 Simpsonwood meeting, the following comment was made by a participant, "This association leads me to favor a recommendation that infants up to two years old not be immunized with thimerosal-containing vaccines if suitable alternative preparations are available... Forgive this personal comment, but I got called out at eight o'clock for an emergency phone call, and my daughter-in-law delivered a son by C-section. [This is] our first male in the line of the next generation, and I do not want that grandson to get a thimerosal-containing vaccine until we know better what is going on..."

SAFEMINDS, a group founded by parents of children suffering from what they know to be mercury-induced neurological disorders, believes that everybody's child should have had this knowledge and option in June of 2000.

Just how much thimerosal is too much for an infant? It depends on whom you ask. Chair of the IOM's Immunization Safety Review Committee, Dr. Marie McCormick, gave assurances to the public last October that it would be rare for any child who follows the vaccine schedule to exceed federal guidelines for methyl mercury exposure. Yet the confidential CDC study found that "the majority of children in their cohort exceeded the EPA limits at one and three months of age." The EPA guidelines allow for 0.1 mcg per kilogram of body weight per day. Depending on her weight, a three-month-old infant who received 62.5 micrograms of mercury in one day would exceed the EPA guidelines upwards of 78 times. And, as researchers were quick to point out at the latest IOM meeting on thimerosal, the EPA's safe limit is based on gradually ingested methyl mercury via fish consumption. It was never meant to be used as a safety limit for injected bolus doses of ethyl mercury, which permeate the blood-brain barrier.

According to Dr. Boyd Haley, head of the chemistry department at the University of Kentucky, and an internationally recognized researcher on the toxicity of mercury compounds, says no amount of thimerosal is a safe amount. He says, "It is well known that infants do not produce significant levels of bile or have adult renal capacity for several months after birth. Bilary transport is the major biochemical route by which mercury is removed from the body, and infants cannot do this very well." Haley adds that thimerosal is more toxic than mercury and that "giving a ten-pound infant a single vaccine in a day is the equivalent of giving a 100 pound adult 40 vaccines in a day." He goes on to say, "We are not talking about causing death; we are talking about causing autism. As a scientist, you have to ask yourself, what's the most obvious neurotoxin that these children are being exposed to that could cause this? Thimerosal."

According to a participant at the scientific review of the confidential CDC study held at Simpsonwood, "The number of dose-related relationships are linear and statistically significant. You can play with the numbers all you want. They are linear. The increased incidence of neurobehavioral problems in the past few decades is probably real. I work in the school system where my effort is entirely special education, and I have to say that the numbers of kids getting help in special education is growing nationally and state by state at a rate we have not seen before... we don't see that kind of genetic change in 30 years."

It is now estimated that 17 percent of US children under the age of 18 are suffering from learning and/or behavioral disabilities. California's Department of Developmental Services just released it sobering statistics for 2001. It reported a 20 percent increase over the previous year 2000 for diagnoses of level-one autism.

[See also our overview and link to the full text of the original ground-breaking, "Report to the Legislature: Changes in the Population of Persons with Autism and Pervasive Developmental Disorders in California's Developmental Services System: 1987 through 1998"].

Level-one autism is the number one disability in the state of California, accounting for 35 percent of all new cases. Of the 16,802 persons with level-one autism in the California system, two-thirds of them are between the ages of birth and 13.

How could a mistake of such magnitude have been made - one that has seemingly impacted a generation of children around the world? The FDA approves vaccines in a vacuum; they are not required to study cumulative exposures or the synergistic effects of receiving multiple vaccines in a single day. After the FDA approves a vaccine, it is reviewed for inclusion on the CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) Vaccine Schedule. In reviewing policy decisions that brought about the approval of the ill-fated rotavirus vaccine, Congressman Dan Burton found that the ACIP is riddled with conflicts of interest: committee members own stock in drug companies that make vaccines; committee members own patents for vaccines; conflicts of interest waivers are granted for members for a year at a time, and there are no public members or parents who have a vote in the same committee.

Executive Director of the American Association of Physicians and Surgeons Jane Orient, MD, has long argued that because vaccines are state and federally mandated, the manufacturer and the physician are relieved of liability for adverse effects. On the other hand, physicians who advise against a mandated vaccine face increased legal liability if a patient is infected with that disease. Neither vaccine manufacturers nor medical personnel have any impetus to follow up on the safety or rationale of the product they are administering.

It has been almost three years since Lynn Redwood, a nurse, mother of an autistic son, and one of the founders and current president of SAFEMINDS, first came across an FDA report mentioning that children who received vaccines within thimerosal might possibly exceed federal guidelines for mercury exposure. She went on to have a lock of her son's hair tested, and it revealed levels of mercury and aluminum at almost five times the acceptable amount. Redwood says, "I want parents to know what happened to their children, and I am starting to lose faith that our government and its various agencies are doing anything about this."

__ From SAFEMINDS [Sensible Action for Ending Mercury-Induced Neurological Disorders]

Caught Up

I thought we were going to have school well into the Summer, but Chloe is caught up. Actually, she's ahead!

Annika is right on target, so YAY! They were dreading having to do school work in Summer!

I don't even want to think about Summer. I'm really enjoying this cold, wet Winter, especially since last Winter was so warm & dry. I will always prefer Winter to Summer, though :)

We bought 2 trampettes, running shoes, and a few other things, we are determined to be fit this year! Next, we're getting bikes!

I can't decide if I want the pink Hello Kitty bike or the red bike with the big basket in back...

I *Knew* This So~Called Study Was Flawed!

Study "Disproving" Mercury-Autism Link Published in Journal with Financial Ties to Vaccine Manufacturers
by Mike Adams

(NewsTarget) While the mainstream press is widely reporting a new study "disproving" any link between autism and mercury-containing thimerosal in vaccines, no one has bothered to point out that the study was published in a medical journal stacked full of ads from the very same drug companies that manufacture and market vaccines. The Journal, the Archives of General Psychiatry, is the pro-drug psychiatric arm of the American Medical Association, a pill-pushing organization tarnished by a history of conspiracy against alternative medicine and the promotion of toxic substances like cigarettes with full-page ads in its flagship publication, JAMA.

From the outset, the fact that this study appears in a pro-drug, pro-psychiatry journal should bring pause to any scientific-minded person. There is obviously a serious conflict of interest here, especially if this study is to be taken as "fact" and applied to public health policy. There also need to be a close look at any financial links between the researchers involved in this study and various vaccine manufacturers, as virtually all pro-drug "science" (if you can call it that) being published these days is influenced by Big Pharma money.

The only truly honest, independent, peer-reviewed medical journal operating today is PLoS Medicine, an open-source journal that takes no money from drug companies. Notice that the autism/mercury link study did not appear in PLoS Medicine? No, it had to be published with a home field advantage in a pro-drug publication that maintains a strong bias in favor of pharmaceuticals and chemicals.

Junk science and faulty conclusions
Aside from these obvious and worrisome conflicts of interest, the conclusions being made about autism and vaccines in the mainstream media are simply not supported by the study. The (distorted) logic we're hearing goes like this:

Yes, vaccines used to contain mercury. And yes, all those little kids were injected with mercury. And yes, autism rates skyrocketed. But then when the mercury was taken out of the vaccines, the autism rates didn't come back down. Therefore, the logic goes, vaccines are safe!

This is such sloppy cause/effect logic that it makes the idiot CNN Health editors who published a story about "junk foods being good for your waist" look like sheer geniuses!

What's wrong with the logic? Consider the use of mercury in the vaccines: It was used as a preservative chemical to prevent vaccine spoilage. When the mercury was removed, it was replaced with other preservative chemicals that are also toxic to the human nervous system. Thus, the continuing increase in autism rates following vaccination may be due to the toxic chemicals that replaced thimerosal. While mercury injections probably initiated the increase in autism, the toxic substance has been replaced with other dangerous chemicals that are continuing to increase the risk of autism.

Here's an example to explain this a bit more:

We all know that sodium nitrite in processed meat causes cancer, right? Well, let's say that for ten years, somebody feeds all the kids sodium nitrite and cancer rates skyrocket. Then, they take all the sodium nitrite out of the food and replace it with a different cancer-causing chemical that they keep feeding the kids. Guess what? The cancer rates don't come down. Therefore, the logic goes, sodium nitrite didn't cause cancer in the first place!

Notice that when mercury was removed from vaccines (which is not entirely true, by the way, bringing into question yet more details about this study), the rates of autism did not drop? This means the vaccines remain dangerous to children. Autism continued to climb right alongside vaccination rates, indicating the possibility that something in the vaccines (or a combination of various chemicals) may very well be responsible for the increase. Based on the fact that thimerosal was replaced with other toxic chemicals in the vaccines, there is absolutely no scientific way to clear thimerosal of any harmful effects. There are too many variables operating now, and no study can isolate one variable (thimerosal) out of many and prove it to be harmless.

The truth is that scientists have no idea what's causing autism. They acknowledge the alarming increase in the rates of autism now being observed in the population, but with this new study, they claim, "Mercury is safe!"

Let me add this study to the enormous stack of other B.S. studies from modern medical researchers. Let's see, I have a study here that declares aspartame to be safe. A second study in my database says that Vioxx is safe. Another study says Teflon is safe. And yet another study claims that cigarette smoke doesn't cause lung cancer or heart disease! In fact, for virtually every toxic chemical created by industry, there's a B.S. study proclaiming its safety! The history of science is full of such nonsense, all funded or influenced by the corporations that manufacture and sell these toxic chemicals or drugs.

The fact that industry has managed to create yet another study declaring a toxic substance (thimerosal) to be safe when injected into children is certainly not surprising. This is an industry that is not bound by the rules of logic, ethics or common scientific sense. It simply finds ways to influence researchers, cherry pick studies and distort science to get whatever results it wants. That's how we're now hearing things like, "Mercury is safe to inject into children!" -- an idea that's utterly absurd at any dose.

What the mercury / vaccine study actually proves
Even if you believe the results of this study, it only demonstrates that removing mercury from vaccines does not reduce vaccine toxicity to children. Autism rates are still on the rise, right along with vaccination rates. Multiple toxic chemicals and substances are contained in vaccines, and the mercury in thimerosal may have simply been one factor among many.

The only reasonable, scientifically-minded conclusion we can draw from the study is that removing mercury from vaccines does not reduce autism in children. If removing thimerosal from vaccines made them safer, we should have seen autism rates go down, but we did not! Autism rates continued to climb in direct correlation to vaccination rates, indicating that mercury is not the only toxic substance causing neurological problems in children.

Notice, carefully, that this is nothing close to what's being reported in the mainstream media, where headlines are blaring junk science nonsense like, "Vaccines pose no risk for autism" (San Jose Mercury News) and "Thimerosal Does Not Cause Autism" (Slashdot, which should know better). Even WIRED News got it wrong with: "California Study Finds No Link Between Vaccines, Autism."

The correct headline should be, "Removal of Mercury From Vaccines Fails to Halt Rise in Autism."

Or, "Removing Mercury From Vaccines Does Not Make Them Safer."

Nobody reported that. Apparently, telling the truth about research involving vaccines is not a popular option in the mainstream media (MSM). Businessweek, publishing a HealthDay report by Randy Dotinga, invokes particularly bad logic with this opening statement, "Adding to a growing body of evidence that rejects the idea that immunizations boost autism rates, a new study finds no proof that incidences of the disorder dropped after makers of most childhood vaccines stopped using a mercury-based preservative in their products."

Huh? How does a study focused only on mercury "reject the idea that immunizations boost autism rates?" Did the author of that report not notice that autism rates continue to increase as vaccination rates go up? Eliminating one chemical from the causative factors does not in any way clear the safety of all the other chemicals or ingredients used in vaccines.

The mainstream media, which repeatedly demonstrates astonishing ignorance on issues of nutrition and health, also seems to have very little ability to interpret scientific studies and reach reasoned conclusions about what those studies do or do not prove.

Was the vaccine study another example of corrupt science?
Besides, this entire discussion is based on the idea that we can trust the research in the first place. If there's one thing we've learned about modern medicine since watching all the Vioxx scandals, Avandia cover-ups and scientific corruption in research circles, it's that drug companies can help create whatever research conclusions they want.

And let's face it: Big Pharma will always produce science that protects its profits. Gee, Big Tobacco came up with all sorts of research that said tobacco smoke wasn't harmful and nicotine wasn't addictive. Some of that research appeared in peer-reviewed medical journals, too. Does that mean the research was scientifically accurate and "conclusive?" Of course not. It was just plain old junk science, hijacked by a powerful corporation with a clear profit motive.

If all that sounds familiar, it's because drug companies are playing the same game with science today that Big Tobacco played decades ago: Influence the science, bury the bad news and propagandize the good news. It's the oldest play in the spin book, and Big Pharma has patterned it perfectly from Big Tobacco.

You see, the relevant question in this discussion is not simply whether mercury-containing vaccines cause autism. The question at hand is whether we can even trust the "science" being conducted on this subject. Do the researchers who conducted this study have any financial ties to the manufacturers of those vaccines? Have they received any speaking fees? Do they own stock in those companies? If so, this completely discredits their research due to obvious conflicts of interest.

Now, I don't have any direct evidence that the researchers in this particular mercury vaccine study were corrupted or influenced by Big Pharma, but as an honest, independent think who knows the truth about drug companies, the mainstream media and the profit motive behind much of the science appearing in the press today, I maintain a default position of skepticism when it comes to reading these studies.

By default, I distrust the drug companies and any so-called "research" that claims injecting mercury into the bodies of children is harmless. That should be the default position held by any rational person who understands basic human biochemistry. Toxic chemicals and heavy metals must be distrusted from the outset.

The drug and chemical industries, notably, take precisely the opposite approach. To them, all chemicals and drugs are safe until proven dangerous. This is how dangerous drugs get released into the marketplace and only recalled after tens of millions of prescriptions have been written and many thousands of people have died. The drug companies routinely treat the population as drug testing guinea pigs, and the used of vaccines on children is no different.

I find it interesting that genuine scientific skepticism seems to vanish when the topic shifts to pharmaceuticals. Sure, all the skeptics and quack critics will go to town on topics like acupuncture, mind-body medicine or even the efficacy of botanical medicines, but when the discussion turns to things like mercury in vaccines or amphetamine drugs for kids with ADHD, all such skepticism immediately vanishes. They accept the safety and efficacy of such treatments without question. Rational thought is rapidly discarded. Vaccines simply must be safe. Why? Because everybody else in the medical industry says so!

Were the journalists injected with mercury, too?
With this whole charade about a study "disproving" any link between mercury and vaccines, the modern medical industry has once again shown its infantile intellect and its utter lack or scientific integrity or clear-headed skepticism. Is this study really the best they can come up with? A study that shows absolutely no drop in autism rates when ingredients are reformulated in vaccines? A study that didn't even attempt to take into account the other toxic ingredients in vaccines?

This is the new standard of "conclusive" science in medicine today?

Give me a break. The only thing that can be conclusively derived from observing all this is that mainstream media journalists continue to function at a very low level of scientific literacy, lacking any skills of mental reason by which scientific studies might be assessed. There is no thought that has gone into the media's reporting of this story; only bandwagon parroting of each other's bad conclusions of a study that, in reality, proves nothing. It's yet another hilarious mainstream media circle jerk, and the fact that so many people keep buying this dim-witted reporting just proves that this nation remains woefully deficient in basic science education.

One point worth mentioning here is that there is absolutely no requirement to have any real understanding of science, medicine, chemistry or physics to graduate from a top-notch journalism school. And when journalists have no idea what they're talking about, they go the default route and simply rewrite whatever was e-mailed to them in the corporate press release! Thus, modern skills of journalism do not require any independent thought whatsoever. They only require the ability to rephrase something already told to them by the spinmeisters at Corporation X.

Correct me if I'm wrong: Is there a single mainstream reporter -- even one? -- that reported the correct conclusion from this vaccine research?

I challenge you to find one. I've looked. There isn't one.

The dumbing down of the mainstream media is now complete. I can't wait to see what headlines will come next:

"Prescription Drugs That Killed Patients Found Innocent Since Patients Did Not Come Back to Life After the Drugs Were Removed"

Or:

"Radiation From Mammograms Found Harmless Because Death Rates Continued to Climb Even After Mammography was Halted"

Or my favorite: "Ephedra Herb Banned After Ten Deaths; Drugs Are Safer Because They Only Kill 100,000 Americans a Year"

I'm beginning to wonder if all the journalists have been injected with mercury.

http://www.newstarget.com/z022479.html

The Difference

When someone tells me that they homeschool their children, I get all excited. Then they say they go through a charter school, and I just say "Oh".

To me, there is a HUGE difference between independent homeschooling, and using a charter school.

Independent homeschoolers ~

*choose & buy their own curricula. Charter schoolers have to use the local public school's curricula.

*are free to teach their religious beliefs, morals, values, etc. Charter schoolers cannot.

*are not under the jurisdiction of the local public schools.

*have lessons for a few hours a day, and incorporate learning into their lifestyles. Charter schoolers [EVERY charter schooler I know] spend ALL day "doing school". I have 2 friends who charter school, and they go from 9-4.30 on good days.

*evaluate and grade their children's work & progress. Charter schoolers leave that up to the local public schools .

*do not get money from the government. Charter schools offer parents hundreds, and in some cases, thousands of dollars to use their schools. They give free computers & curricula. Well, in my mind goverment money equals government strings. I'm not having any of that, as tempting as the money may be.

I find charter schoolers to be quite frazzled, frustrated & exhausted. But I give them credit for trying to teach their children at home, and I understand TOTALLY, the burden of buying curricula & everything else...it gets expensive!

I thank God that we've been able to be independent.