What Are We Eating! ***

http://health.yahoo.net/experts/eatthis/truth-about-your-weight-gain

Bac o bits? Avocado dip? Favorite Fast Food Hamburger? Not me; never again! I don't like cow hooves for lunch.  Check out the article. It was on the front page of Yahoo.com moments ago. There are some "related" news articles too.

Dahr Jamail writes about MST ***

Dahr Jamail, an unembedded independent journalist, has posted a very informative article.  Jamail is truly a heroic reporter for he tells it like it is, not as they would wish it is.  His website is listed to the left in blogs I follow. Its not a pretty story but people need to be informed of some things.  Females are being urged to NOT enlist in the military because of the dangerous situation.

The statistics available probably reflect just a 'drop in the bucket' as the  statistics in the civilian sector.

After you read this hopefully you will inform any and all young women you can find.  Too many lives are being ruined.

update Dec 27th: reading Phillip's post tonight, he mentions a blog of a homeless man, Tony.  Of course, Tony gets comments. One was another blogger I just for some reason linked onto.  Jayherron falls right in with Jamail's post. MST.  http://jayherron.wordpress.com/

Some Things are Good to Know, Ya know? ***

By Melissa Breyer

More from Care2 Green Living blog

Pity the poor poinsettia. All it ever wanted was to be a nice emblem for the holidays: To be patiently wrapped in red foil and hoisted on hostesses, to festoon festive Christmas sweaters, and to be eternally mimicked in plastic. But somewhere along the way it picked up a bad-girl reputation as a lethal beauty -- lovely to look at and terribly toxic if tasted!

But are the rumors true? Are pretty poinsettias potentially poisonous? About 70 percent of the population will answer yes, and although every year there is a bumper crop of stories explaining otherwise -- the myth persists. And myth it is. Poinsettia's are not poisonous, merely the victim of a popularly enduring urban legend.

It all started back in the early part of the 20th century when the young child of a U.S. Army officer was alleged to have died from consuming a poinsettia leaf -- a story which was later retracted.

But, as these things have a habit of doing, the toxic potential of the poinsettia took on a life of its own. Now many people treat poinsettias as persona non grata (or poinsettia non grata, as the case may be) in their households.

According to the American Medical Association's Handbook of Poisonous and Injurious Plants, other than occasional cases of vomiting, ingestion of the poinsettia plant has been found to produce no ill effect. And other experts have weighed in as well.

The Society of American Florists worked with the academic faculty of entomology at Ohio State University to thoroughly test all parts of the poinsettia and conclusively established that there were no adverse effects. In 1975, the United States Consumer Product Safety Commission denied a petition to require warning labels for poinsettia plants.

As for your pets, the American Veterinary Medicine Association of America does not include poinsettias on its list of plants that are a threat to animals. The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals states that ingestion of poinsettias may cause mild to moderate gastrointestinal tract irritation, which may include drooling, vomiting, and/or diarrhea -- but nothing severe or fatal.

Mistletoe, on the other hand? Not so innocent. Along with inspiring smooching if stood underneath, mistletoe can cause gastrointestinal distress, a slowed heartbeat, and other reactions if ingested, due to the presence of harmful chemicals like viscotoxins. Although not thought to be fatal, it can cause severe reactions.

In pets, mistletoe may cause gastrointestinal disorders, cardiovascular collapse, dyspnea, bradycardia, erratic behavior, vomiting, diarrhea, and low blood pressure. Yikes!

So keep the mistletoe securely fastened above your door, but fear the poinsettia no more.

Just My Opinion ***

It does

one well

to dwell

on life

from the

viewpoint

of an ant.

Delivering the Message ***

Viewing pictures of demonstrators protesting treatment of Julian Assange, there was one of a woman holding a sign proclaiming:  "Don't Shoot The Messenger"

Point noted.

Let's Stand for Truth ***

Sign the petition


WikiLeaks: Stop the Crackdown



By Avaaz



We urgently need a massive public outcry to defend our basic democratic freedoms. Sign the petition to stop the crackdown -- let's reach 1 million voices this week!

http://www.avaaz.org/en/wikileaks_petition/?slideshow

You or I Could Be Next to Be SILENCED***

This comes from   http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/

Why I'm Posting Bail Money for Julian Assange
By Michael Moore

December 14, 2010 "Information Clearing House" -- Yesterday, in the Westminster Magistrates Court in London, the lawyers for WikiLeaks co-founder Julian Assange presented to the judge a document from me stating that I have put up $20,000 of my own money to help bail Mr. Assange out of jail.

Furthermore, I am publicly offering the assistance of my website, my servers, my domain names and anything else I can do to keep WikiLeaks alive and thriving as it continues its work to expose the crimes that were concocted in secret and carried out in our name and with our tax dollars.

We were taken to war in Iraq on a lie. Hundreds of thousands are now dead. Just imagine if the men who planned this war crime back in 2002 had had a WikiLeaks to deal with. They might not have been able to pull it off. The only reason they thought they could get away with it was because they had a guaranteed cloak of secrecy. That guarantee has now been ripped from them, and I hope they are never able to operate in secret again.

So why is WikiLeaks, after performing such an important public service, under such vicious attack? Because they have outed and embarrassed those who have covered up the truth. The assault on them has been over the top:

**Sen. Joe Lieberman says WikiLeaks "has violated the Espionage Act."

**The New Yorker's George Packer calls Assange "super-secretive, thin-skinned, [and] megalomaniacal."

**Sarah Palin claims he's "an anti-American operative with blood on his hands" whom we should pursue "with the same urgency we pursue al Qaeda and Taliban leaders."

**Democrat Bob Beckel (Walter Mondale's 1984 campaign manager) said about Assange on Fox: "A dead man can't leak stuff ... there's only one way to do it: illegally shoot the son of a bitch."

**Republican Mary Matalin says "he's a psychopath, a sociopath ... He's a terrorist."

**Rep. Peter A. King calls WikiLeaks a "terrorist organization."

And indeed they are! They exist to terrorize the liars and warmongers who have brought ruin to our nation and to others. Perhaps the next war won't be so easy because the tables have been turned -- and now it's Big Brother who's being watched ... by us!

WikiLeaks deserves our thanks for shining a huge spotlight on all this. But some in the corporate-owned press have dismissed the importance of WikiLeaks ("they've released little that's new!") or have painted them as simple anarchists ("WikiLeaks just releases everything without any editorial control!"). WikiLeaks exists, in part, because the mainstream media has failed to live up to its responsibility. The corporate owners have decimated newsrooms, making it impossible for good journalists to do their job. There's no time or money anymore for investigative journalism. Simply put, investors don't want those stories exposed. They like their secrets kept ... as secrets.

I ask you to imagine how much different our world would be if WikiLeaks had existed 10 years ago. Take a look at this photo. That's Mr. Bush about to be handed a "secret" document on August 6th, 2001. Its heading read: "Bin Ladin Determined To Strike in US." And on those pages it said the FBI had discovered "patterns of suspicious activity in this country consistent with preparations for hijackings." Mr. Bush decided to ignore it and went fishing for the next four weeks.

But if that document had been leaked, how would you or I have reacted? What would Congress or the FAA have done? Was there not a greater chance that someone, somewhere would have done something if all of us knew about bin Laden's impending attack using hijacked planes?

But back then only a few people had access to that document. Because the secret was kept, a flight school instructor in San Diego who noticed that two Saudi students took no interest in takeoffs or landings, did nothing. Had he read about the bin Laden threat in the paper, might he have called the FBI? (Please read this essay by former FBI Agent Coleen Rowley, Time's 2002 co-Person of the Year, about her belief that had WikiLeaks been around in 2001, 9/11 might have been prevented.)

Or what if the public in 2003 had been able to read "secret" memos from Dick Cheney as he pressured the CIA to give him the "facts" he wanted in order to build his false case for war? If a WikiLeaks had revealed at that time that there were, in fact, no weapons of mass destruction, do you think that the war would have been launched -- or rather, wouldn't there have been calls for Cheney's arrest?

Openness, transparency -- these are among the few weapons the citizenry has to protect itself from the powerful and the corrupt. What if within days of August 4th, 1964 -- after the Pentagon had made up the lie that our ship was attacked by the North Vietnamese in the Gulf of Tonkin -- there had been a WikiLeaks to tell the American people that the whole thing was made up? I guess 58,000 of our soldiers (and 2 million Vietnamese) might be alive today.

Instead, secrets killed them.

For those of you who think it's wrong to support Julian Assange because of the sexual assault allegations he's being held for, all I ask is that you not be naive about how the government works when it decides to go after its prey. Please -- never, ever believe the "official story." And regardless of Assange's guilt or innocence (see the strange nature of the allegations here), this man has the right to have bail posted and to defend himself. I have joined with filmmakers Ken Loach and John Pilger and writer Jemima Khan in putting up the bail money -- and we hope the judge will accept this and grant his release today.

Might WikiLeaks cause some unintended harm to diplomatic negotiations and U.S. interests around the world? Perhaps. But that's the price you pay when you and your government take us into a war based on a lie. Your punishment for misbehaving is that someone has to turn on all the lights in the room so that we can see what you're up to. You simply can't be trusted. So every cable, every email you write is now fair game. Sorry, but you brought this upon yourself. No one can hide from the truth now. No one can plot the next Big Lie if they know that they might be exposed.

And that is the best thing that WikiLeaks has done. WikiLeaks, God bless them, will save lives as a result of their actions. And any of you who join me in supporting them are committing a true act of patriotism. Period.

I stand today in absentia with Julian Assange in London and I ask the judge to grant him his release. I am willing to guarantee his return to court with the bail money I have wired to said court. I will not allow this injustice to continue unchallenged.

P.S. You can read the statement I filed today in the London court here.

http://www.michaelmoore.com/

Old New Mama - Technology Great or Not or WHAT? ***

With all the new technology regarding fertility recently, a 65 year old


friend of mine was able to give birth. When she was discharged from

hospital and went home, I went to visit.



"May I see the new baby?" I asked.

"Not yet," She said I'll make coffee and we can visit for a while first."



Thirty minutes had passed and I asked, "May I see the baby now?"

"No, not yet," she said. After a few minutes had elapsed, I asked again,

"May I see the new baby now?" "No, not yet," replied my friend.



Growing very impatient, I asked, "Well, when can I see the baby?"



"WHEN HE CRIES." she told me.



"WHEN HE CRIES?" I demanded. "Why do I have to wait until he cries?"



"BECAUSE I FORGOT WHERE I PUT HIM. OK?"

Maxine Says ***

Maxine says:

My idea of a "Super Bowl"

is a toilet bowl

that cleans itself!

Isn't This the Truth? ***

People are still willing to do an honest day's work. The trouble is they want a week's pay for it.
Joey Adams