Are you what you eat? "Chewicide" (film)

Ashley Wells, CC Liu, Seven, Pat Macpherson, Amber Larson, Wisdom Quarterly; Keidi Obe Awadu, ChewicideMovie.com, LivingSuperFood.com

This is a healthier vegan option

Junk food, fast food, the SAD (Standard American Diet), and highly-processed foods all contribute to our American problems with healthcare and paying for it. "I'm saving money on the 99 cent menu but paying for it at the doctor's office."

Despite all the great and not-so-great (i.e., "official") information on better dietary practices, we still suffer epidemics of man-made chronic disease brought on by chewicide.

Junk food: U.S. men are getting fatter

Chewicide, what's chewicide? Munching brought on by emotional-eating, low self-esteem, the impact of psychological craving brought on by advertising campaigns and empty calories from corporations that favor profit by compromising the health of their consumers.

The use of GMOs, hidden in foods we all eat particularly corn chips, is causing perforations in the lining of our stomachs -- by design. This is the way Monsanto's Roundup-ready pesticide and pest resistant products kill insects, by exploding their stomachs.

French fried slayers: starch, acrylamides, plasticized oil, dipped in red sugar

 
Well, wuddintcha know? They have the exact same effect on school children, working adults, acne-ridden teens, and anyone else who eats conventional, non-organic food. What are the chances?

• AUDIO: Filmmaker appears on Pacifica Radio's Inner Vision Monday: PLAY (download) June 30, 2014 1:00 pm

Whether it's consuming the flesh of animals fed GMOs or plants injected with GMOs or condiments utilizing GMO foods (like the 50 pounds of high fructose corn syrup the average American eats on top of the 162 one-pound sacks of sugar one is trying to digest without developing cancer, diabetes, OCD, ADHD, autism, brain fog, fatigue, erectile dysfunction, depression...), we take in too many harmful ingredients, additives, and calories. Yet most of us are suffering from malnutrition -- a lack of nourishment in spite of the surplus of salt, sugar, and fat our brains' crave.

There is an antidote to the madness and disease: conscious eating of actual food

 

Be conscious or commit chewicide

Companies induce us to eat more (by adding excitotoxic MSG, artificial flavorants, other addictive glutamates, "natural" flavors that are synthesized using petrochemicals, sterilizing preservatives, mold inhibitors, attractive colorants, etc.)  then an entire industry capitalizes on the effect of our standard American diet with ineffective, but highly profitable, medical "treatments," pharmaceutical interventions, surgeries, and radiation sessions to address our symptoms.

But we keep eating. Money doesn't grow on trees, so the only way for corporations to make good money from food is by processing it and selling it at an exorbitant price compared to how much it cost to make. A pound of potatoes, for instance, is worth almost nothing wholesale. But fry it, salt it, bag it, and even a few ounces spells obscene profits. Who cares if consumers' suffer in the transaction?

The best antidote to chewicide is mindful "conscious eating." It is certainly worth the effort to change our lifestyles from committing chewicide to nourishing ourselves on living foods (fresh, green, preferably sprouted). When we let food be our medicine, suddenly we do not need medicine. Food is Nature's perfect answer to all of our health problems. Eating with gratitude, while relaxed and joyful, and  according to one's biomechanics, blood type, and Ayurvedic dosha may also be helpful. Learn more or join the movement

• What's wrong with American men? As Americans we like to pride ourselves on being the best country in the world [WQ EDITORIAL: when everybody knows that's Switzerland]. However, it's clear that other countries... More proof we're fat. Here's what the average American man looks like compared to other men... How do YOU measure up? Artist compares "average" shape of men from around the world...
• VIDEO: Hey, why are you so FAT?
• "If you don't move, you get fat." But how can you move when you're exhausted, and your brain and heart are telling you they're starving, and when plastics and chemicals are making you obese even as you diet? Meanwhile, the diet industry, food corporations, and cancer.... 30th over 1,000 people gathered at IP Church in Los Angeles to hear a Pacifica-sponsored speech by the acclaimed Canadian addiction specialist, physician, and bestselling author Gabor Mate.AUDIO: Poor SLEEP makes us fat, demented American men are fatter than other men... The study adds to a growing body of evidence that there's "an intimate relationship between the amount of sleep we get and our ability to maintain a good, healthy body weight," says sleep expert Helene Emsellem, director of the Center for Sleep and Wake Disorders in Chevy Chase, Maryland. But Americans don't seem to be getting the message that we need seven to nine hours per night. More than 1 in 5 of us...
• How Western diets are making world sick It had a visceral potency to it when you could see it directly there." In a conversation on Fresh Air, Patterson tells Terry Gross that the effects of urbanization are making people everywhere in the world both fatter and sicker.

Women, gun laws intersect in Santa Barbara

Sonali Kolhatkar (uprisingradio); Crystal Quintero, CC Liu, Pfc. Sandoval, Wisdom Quarterly

University students gather near Royce Hall at UCLA to pay tribute to the Isla Vista victims during a candlelight vigil Monday made front page of LA Times (Wally Skalij/latimes.com).

  
Misogyny and Gun Laws, Isla Vista

A mass killing in the Santa Barbara County town of Isla Vista on Friday resulted in seven people dead, including the suspected perpetrator, and 13 injured.

Twenty-two year old Elliot Rodger, a privileged young man of half-Anglo, half-Chinese descent, is alleged to have stabbed his three male roommates and then turned to a sorority on the UC Santa Barbara campus.

• For a "misogynist gun spree" there sure were a lot of male victims, stabbing deaths, and car injuries. But never mind that! We must focus on guns. Guns are the problem. This doesn't happen in China. In China mass murderers use knives. Is Rodger a new Candy Jones, another Monarch Butterfly?

Guns don't kill people. It's mostly the bullets.

There he killed another young man and two women. Rodger also struck several people with his car as he drove around Isla Vista shooting at people before ending his own life [the planned containment of all programmed shooters]. Shortly before his killing spree, Rodger posted a 137-page document detailing his life story and his motivation for the killings, as well a seven-minute YouTube video.

• AUDIO: Robyn Thomas and Katie McDonough
• AUDIO: entire program with host Sonali Kolhatkar

Rodger’s mother warned authorities about him after he began posting disturbing video earlier this year. But the young man managed to convince police that there was no reason to detain him.

Elliot Rodger has been linked with the so-called “Men’s Rights” movement. In his video and written “manifesto” he lamented being constantly sexually rejected by the white blonde women he was attracted to, and he resented men who enjoyed popularity with women. 

 

The killings have also prompted New York’s [opportunistic] Republican Congressman Peter King to call for enhanced background checks for gun sales. Richard Martinez, the grieving father of Christopher Michael-Martinez, who was among those murdered, made an impassioned plea at a press conference. More

GUESTS: Robyn Thomas, Executive Director of Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, based in San Francisco, Katie McDonough, assistant editor for Salon, focusing on politics, culture, and feminism. She wrote the commentary, “Elliot Rodger’s fatal menace: How toxic male entitlement devalues women’s and men’s lives.”

Commentary

General editorial consensus, Wisdom Quarterly

You a woman? (damnhangover.com)

Wait. Is Wisdom Quarterly opposed to guns or not? Opposed. We are opposed to ALL guns. But we are NOT anti-gun advocates.

Why, if you oppose all guns, are you not anti-gun?

When we as Americans finally advocate that guns be taken out of the hands of militant killers (police) and government agents (soldiers), we will say "no more guns." The anti-gun lobby, however, is part of the police state -- unwittingly so -- because all it asks for or demands in the wake of these very predictable incidents is that they be mandated out of the hands of citizens. What should be put in their place? "Give them more psych meds" seems to be the implicit answer. Dr. Drew (LovelineShow.com, May 27, 2014) was advocating forced institutionalization and forced drugging of anyone a psychiatrist says needs it. Is that the world we want? Should we bring back personality-numbing electroshock-therapy now in the nicer chemical guise?

College students return to class after UC Santa Barbara rampage (David McNew/SCPR.org)

 

"I do not perform for gender" (TOI)

Citizens are not the main problem. Authorized-criminals in uniforms and undercover are the main problem. Let's do something about that instead of using every sensationalized and possibly set up situation as the pretext to launch social media campaigns ("I'm a radical, I'm on Facebook!"), "hashtag activism," and Democratic gun-control drives. Look at Canada: full of guns and no where near the problem of anyone getting shot. Why? It's not the guns.

Misogyny (hating women) is a problem. Let's address that, not as the violent aberration of a young mental health patient but as the everyday garden variety violence of mostly "well adjusted" men and lots of women. When someone says or does something as outrageous as Rodger, it is said people rush to say, "Not all men." And that's true. But you know what? Yes all women. The oppression that is part and parcel of our society affects ALL females all day long, even jerks gems like Sarah "Caribou Barbie" Palin and FOX News' Ann Coulter, who contribute to the problem and oppression rather than advocating any viable solution.

 

SlutWalks across the USA and world

What are we doing in our daily lives? You don't have to be a Ukrainian FEMEN sextremist or Russian Pussy Rioter or Indian anti-rape bus striker (do you want a death penalty for rape out of revenge that replaces actually addressing the systemic problem?) or topped/topless American "SlutWalk" ("We know you aren't him") participant to do something. Male ally Hugo Schwyzer was no ally. There is a lot we can do, all women and all male allies. 

• SlutWalk protests against sexual violence go global (CNN, May 10, 2011... A statement by organizers of a forthcoming SlutWalk protest in London... According to the SlutWalk Toronto website, women have historically...
• SlutWalk marches sparked by Toronto remarks (BBC)

Psychedlic medicine heals emotional injuries

Xochitl, Pat Macpherson, CC Liu, Wisdom Quarterly; KPCC Health Care Correspondent Stephanie O'Neill (SCPR.org)  URBAN SHAMANISM

Altar of the Buddha in Indonesia. Theravada style, flooded in green light. The statue looks similar to one in #Borobudur temple holding Dharmachakra mudra (teaching gesture). It differs from complicated and colorful altars of Mahayana and Tantrayana (Vajrayana) Buddhism because the Buddha is not a god but inspiration for our human potential. It consists of a brass periphery for incense and candles, flowers, oil lamps, water bowls, and sacred cremation relics. May 15, 2014 prior azimuth of Moon on Vesak (Dragono Halim/flickr).

.

Psilocyben can treat cancer, anxiety

Research into the therapeutic potential of illegal "psychedelic" drugs to treat an assortment of mainstream mental health conditions is undergoing a modern-day renaissance.

A host of published studies in the field is showing promise for psychedelics, such as psilocybin -- the active ingredient in "magic mushrooms" -- to help treat alcoholism, depression, drug addiction, and severe anxiety caused by serious or terminal illness.

Other studies are finding that MDMA, also known as the party-drug "Ecstasy," may be valuable in treating PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder).

"These drugs...were researched extensively in the 1950s and the 1960s, through the early '70s," says Dr. George Greer, medical director for the nonprofit Heffter Research Institute, which raises donations for psilocybin studies worldwide. "There were hundreds of studies that were very promising."

Abuses in Medicare drug use

But the psychedelic '60s changed all that.

LSD and other hallucinogens, once confined to the lab, exploded into mainstream culture after the pied-piper of psychedelics, Timothy Leary, urged a generation to try LSD and other hallucinogens as a way to "turn on, tune in, drop out." Many followed his advice, some with bad results. And that triggered a backlash that led the federal government to criminalize psychedelic drugs in 1970.

A year later, U.S. President Nixon launched the "War on Drugs" [made famous by right wing sweethearts Pres. Ronald and First Lady Nancy Reagan].

Those measures helped to create a stigma that brought an end to the early phase of psychedelic research, says Rick Doblin, founder the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS).

Psilocybin treats alcoholism

"There is this tendency when drugs become criminalized for their non-medical use, their medical use then subsequently also becomes suppressed," says Doblin.

But since early 2000, a new willingness to look again at these drugs has shifted the research landscape. And thanks to the fundraising efforts of MAPS and the Heffter Research Institute, modern-day psychedelics studies are now happening at top academic research facilities, including Johns Hopkins University, New York University, the University of New Mexico, and UCLA.

"These agents have very broad applicability within psychiatry and can be used for mood disorders, eating disorders, personality disorders," says Dr. Stephen Ross, a psychiatrist and psychedelics researcher at NYU School of Medicine. "They can be used for so many things that our treatment have not improved in recent years."

But the drugs are powerful and must be used with caution, especially since it's believed they can exacerbate serious mental conditions, such as bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. However, used in a supervised setting with trained therapists, these drugs have the potential to offer properly-screened patients much-needed new treatment options.

Psychedelic Science: E for PTSD

"We are not at all referencing our work to the recreational drug-use world, which is rife with potential risks," says Dr. Charles Grob, director of the Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center and a pioneer in modern-day psychedelics research. "We are talking about developing a new model...to be used within medicine and psychiatry."

Grob says psychedelics offer a rather unusual paradigm in which many patients are reporting relief with as few as one or two supervised applications of the drugs, used in conjunction with limited psychotherapy.

"This is very different than conventional drug treatment, which, more often than not, administers a drug on a daily basis for weeks, months and even years," Grob says.

And research into these drugs is a bit less conventional as well. Because the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) classifies these illegal drugs as "Schedule One" substances -- considered risky with "no currently accepted medical use" -- scientists must adhere to strict protocols when researching them. Those include rules on how the drugs are used, handled, and stored.

But a greater challenge remains financing. So far, the government has yet to fund research into psychedelics. That leaves private donations as the sole source of funding.

Death by HIV "prevention" meds

Scientists in this field say they believe as more evidence into the varied uses for these drugs is collected and published the government will be more likely to grant research funding requests.

And as more time passes, Grob says, the stigma brought on by the excesses of 1960s counterculture will further fade.

"The '60s are long over. As the Moody Blues used to sing, 'Timothy Leary is dead'…and many of those with whom he fought have also exited," Grob says, "It's a new world and there is a greater need than ever for more effective treatment models for individuals for whom our conventional treatment models are often sorely lacking." LISTEN

• This is Part One of a Psychedelic Science series. See Part Two, Part Three, or Part Four
• AUDIO: Why and how reporting on scientific research warps findings The pressure to publish original research can mean scientists are neglecting to verify the work of others. In its current issue, the journal Social Psychology is trying a different approach... reporting on scientific research might actually warp the findings. Scientists face pressure to publish new discoveries, which in turn might influence what they study... There's work being published today that's part of an effort to fix this problem. NPR's Shankar Vendantam joined Steve Inskeep to talk about it.
  
• Conference examines medical uses of hallucinogens
• Study finds NO link between hallucinogens and mental problems
• Flooding in the Balkans kills dozens, more rain falls
• Thai lay meditation movement (DhammakayaPost)

Plasticity: Power of Affirmations, Aphrodisiacs

Dearbhla Kelly (durgayoga, layoga.com); Seven, Wisdom Quarterly

“What we are today comes from our thoughts of yesterday, and our present thoughts build our life tomorrow: our life is the creation of our mind.” - THE BUDDHA

  

Think affirmations are New-Agey and trite? I mean, really, as if, “I am the very source of abundance and love itself” taped on the mirror were going to pay that credit card bill in the drawer? 

I’m going to suggest that we rethink and try on the possibility that affirmations may be at the cutting edge of neuroscience and its sexy sister, PNI, or psycho-neuro-immunology.
 

See inside free (layoga.com)

And while an affirmation in and of itself may not be enough to pay bills, practicing affirmations can reshape our brains and thus cause us to incorporate behavioral changes, which can help us do everything from having more successful relationships to better managing our finances.

“Plasticity” refers to the brain’s ability to reconfigure itself, to establish and to dissolve connections between its different parts. Consider the phrase, “Neurons that fire together wire together” [video]. What exactly does it mean? More

Aphrodisiacs: Encouraging Love and Vigor
Arun Deva (layoga.com, Feb. 2014, p. 26)

Depression help (chin mudra)

We are all fascinated with aphrodisiacs -- the substances or activities that help build our strength and staying power in the bedroom as well as our overall vitality.

In Ayurveda, the study and use of these is significant. The Sanskrit term for aphrodisiacs is vajikarana, which means "that which imparts the strength of a horse."

Aphrodisiacs are applicable whatever one’s personal situation. Reproductive fluid, called shukra, circulates throughout the body and is responsible for courage, activity, love, delight, and vigor, according to the ancient Indian medical texts, the Sushruta Samhita and the Charaka Samhita. More

Also in this issue: massage oils, yogi food, meditation, depression help (mudra), Deepak Chopra, astrology, India.Arie, yogis feeding the homeless, Events Calendar, "Lights, Camera, Yoga!"

Soldier mental crisis, suicides, violence (video)

Pat Macpherson, Pfc. Sandoval, CC Liu, Wisdom Quarterly; DemocracyNow.org, 11-11-13

Doing our best to hit noncombatants by remote control and dismiss it as collateral damage, yet our soldiers still suffer from cubicle-killer-PTSD (AmericasDroneWars.com)

 

US general's open confession

On the 11th anniversary of the US Military-Industrial Complex's illegal invasion, occupation, and droning of Afghanistan, Democracy Now! takes a look at the invisible wounds of war here at home.

Since the war was initiated by Dick Cheney, George Bush, Donald Rumsfeld, Condoleeza Rice, John Ashcroft, and other Bush administration officials, corporate movers and shakers, and CIA/NSA/FBI principals on Oct. 7, 2001, less than a month after the pretext the MIC used for its planned "war on terror" -- the 9-11 false flag operation. At least 2,000 US soldiers have died. Some 2.4 million US soldiers have suffered and killed in Afghanistan and Iraq, and the psychological toll of the wars is mounting.

Is it suicide if the VA drugged me first?

Last year, the Veterans Administration "treated" (not cured) almost 100,000 US War on Iraq and Afghanistan veterans for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Soldier suicides reached an all-time high this year, with many more nonactive duty veterans taking their lives in addition to active duty losses.

Kill today, get raped, or both? (forbes.com)

In Colorado Springs, the commanders at Fort Carson have come under scrutiny for their handling of mental health concerns, with a 2010 joint NPR-ProPublica investigation finding that as many as 40 percent of Fort Carson soldiers had mild traumatic brain injuries missed or ignored by Army health screenings.

Cyclops baby result of US uranium bombs

Meanwhile, in 2009 the Colorado Springs Gazette published a startling series called "Casualties of War," written by investigative reporter Dave Philipps. His book (today's Democracy Now! guest), Lethal Warriors: When the New Band of Brothers Came Home, shows how a wave of violence swept across Colorado Springs when the 506th Infantry Regiment, known as "the Band of Brothers," returned home from their first tour killing innocents in Iraq.

 

What am I doing here? (govexec.com)

Also joining are Georg-Andreas Pogany, a retired Army sergeant who is now an independent veterans’ advocate and investigator, and Graham Clumpner, a veteran of the US War on Afghanistan and Colorado regional organizer for Iraq Veterans Against the War. 

Democracy Now! is on the road broadcasting from Colorado Springs, the home of five major military installations: Fort Carson, Peterson Air Force Base, the U.S. Air Force Academy, Schriever Air Force Base, and the Cheyenne Mountain Air Station.

• Untold Story of War: US vets face epidemics of trauma...
• "If not now then when?": Climate talks open in Poland...
• "Unimaginable" devastation as Philippines hit by worst storm
• Washington vote to label GM food defeated by corporations
• "The NFL's bully problem": sports violence and rape...
• Change the mascot: NFL team to drop Redskins name, logo?

Pacifica Evening News

• L.A. City Council honors Mexican poet Javier Sicilia
• Environmental coalition seeks regulation of drilling waste
• Save City College by Jae Michael
• What is Twitter's public offering for San Francisco?
• BART safety hearing draws worker criticism
• Walmart workers strike throughout Los Angeles area

Uprising Newsfeed

• Goliath: Life and Loathing in Greater Israel
• Why Sen. Dianne Feinstein is Big Brother’s Loyal Sister
• Walmart workers up the ante on Black Friday protests
• Bhopali documents ongoing factory disaster in India
• How real is Congo’s peace?
• Arguing for our lives: Guide to Constructive Dialogue

Sojourner Truth Newsfeed

• Sorry, Venezuela taters: Not the Greece of Latin America
• Millions against Monsanto: 5 lessons from battle against GMOs
• Can Congress, Hawks, and Israel Lobby wreck US-Iran talks?
• Targeting Wall Street, Robin Hood tax comes to Washington
• S. American leaders should help Hondurans for democracy
• Fuel removal from Fukushima's Reactor 4 threatens Apocalypse