Month: November 2011
Women in Afghanistan ~ Still Subject To Islamo-Fascist Rule (thanks to the PC crowd)
What do I mean by “the PC crowd.” I mean that many on the Democratic left view Islamic values as equal to Western ones, or Judeo-Christian ones. So when Ann Coulter says, “We should invade their countries, kill their leaders, and convert them to Christianity,” you have the Left in this country up-in-arms. But as you will see in the second video… this is historically how you install justice into a closed society.
In other words, the same people who produce such heart-wrenching clips of women being thrown into jail for rape are not willing enough to unshackle the military’s hands and allow them to do what they did in changing the exact same thing in Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, and feudalistic Japan. They cannot get one without the other.
In His Own Words (Serious Saturday)
A young student asks Dennis Prager about Palestinian History
Racist Democrats
PBS Firing Line ~ What Have We Learned from the Failure of British Socialism? (Taped on Jul 25, 1977)
To All The Veterans, Thank You for Your Sacrifice ~ Silence and Respect On This Day
Water Bottle “Health” Myths ~ Dispelling Urban Legends RPT Style
I am importing this from my old blog as well as updating the information herein based on information received by my youngest son from a teacher at his high school. This isn’t a “dig” directed at the teacher, rather, this is a good opportunity to deal with just a small aspect of things believed to be true when they are in fact, not. Something that afflicts us all! I also deal with a myth regarding plastics at a post correcting some information used by a local pastor in regards to the “great garbage patch/island” floating in the ocean. A fun adventure into other eco-myths.
Here is the import/update:
I have worked at Whole Foods long enough to hear many of the “health myths” that typically float through the customer base there. One of these myths about health and product is found in the scare about plastic water bottles. It started in an email referencing a masters thesis by a student at the University of Idaho. Skeptoid writes this about the study:
The media, according to Snopes, ran with the story even though there was no peer reviews of the students work. They have this part of the myth as false. Another worth-while article to read is on my Carol Rees Parrish, R.D., M.S., entitled, “Bottled Water Myths: Separating Fact from Fiction.” In it it is pointed out that,
In the section entitled “Q&A: Bisphenol A and Plastics,” from the John Hopkins website, this nugget is found in a sea on useful information:
And the Sydney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center links the above pages as responses to the supposed publishing of studies by John Hopkins supporting these claims. The only problem is that they have not published such papers: “Another hoax email that has been circulating since 2004 regarding plastic containers, bottles, wrap claiming that heat releases dioxins which cause cancer also was not published by Johns Hopkins” (source). Like many other areas in life, on needs to find out “where the beef is” in regards to separating myth from fact. A good 4-and-a-half minute video that deals with many aspects of this myth is dealt with by Dr. Joe Schwarcz, author of Brain Fuel: 199 Mind-Expanding Inquiries into the Science of Everyday Life:
Even author of Bottlemania: How Water Went on Sale and Why We Bought It, Elizabeth Royte, mentioned in an interview that this is a myth of grand proportions. (You can hear this interview dated 1-22-09 on the Dennis Prager show.) There are much better reasons to stop using water bottles than hocus-pocus… in the interview she even seemingly convinced Dennis of this. Again, the folks at Johns Hopkins sat down with Dr. Rolf Haden, assistant professor at Department of Environmental Health Sciences and the Center for Water and Health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, who dispelled the myth saying, “This is an urban legend. There are no dioxins in plastics. In addition, freezing actually works against the release of chemicals.” The main reason one would not want to reuse water bottles is that bacteria will grow in the hard to wash bottles, if you do reuse them a time or two, vinegar or baking soda would be recommended.
Another article bullet points some “healthy” information for the consumer of urban legends to consider:
✦ Bottled water regulation is at least as stringent as tap water regulation. Under federal law the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) must pass bottled water regulations that are “no less stringent” than Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulations. The law does not allow the FDA to set standards that produce a lower quality product. As a result, FDA regulations mirror EPA regulations very closely and are more stringent in some respects because FDA applies additional food, packaging, and labeling regulations.
✦ Bottled water is substantially different from tap. About 75 percent of bottled water is from sources other than municipal systems such as springs or underground sources. Much of the bottled municipal water undergoes additional purification treatments to produce a higher quality product that must meet FDA bottled water quality standards, packaging, and labeling mandates. In terms of safety, tap water has more documented health-related case reports compared to bottled water. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends bottled water for individuals with compromised immune systems to reduce the risks associated with tap water.
✦ Bottled water containers are a tiny fraction of the solid waste stream. Many people have turned to bottled water to replace other portable drinks containing sugar and calories, producing little increase in total waste. In any case, single-serving plastic water bottles amount to just 0.3 percent of the nation’s solid waste. Bottles used in water coolers are recycled at high rates and have even less impact on landfill waste. Taxing and banning either type of container will not matter much in terms of overall waste.
✦ Plastic bottles are safe for consumers. The chemicals which environmental activists suggest are a problem are not even used in the PET plastic used for single-serving water bottles. Bisphenol A, a chemical found in large five-gallon water cooler jugs and other food containers exists at such low trace levels that there have been no reported health problems and the FDA, along with several scientific organizations around the world, have not found any problem with this substance.
Here is a great 20/20 John Stossel presentation:
Debka File is Reporting that the U.K. expects Israeli attack on Iran next month with U.S. logistical support
(Some 2009 commentary by Hitchens on this)
From Debka File
A senior Foreign Office official says British government ministers have been told to expect Israeli military action in the wake of the UN watchdog report “as early as Christmas or very early in the new year,” the London Daily Mail reported Thursday, Nov. 10. The ministers were told that Israel would strike Iran’s nuclear sites “sooner rather than later” – with “logistical support” from the US.
According to the British paper, which has good military and intelligence ties in London, President Barack Obama would “have to support the Israelis or risk losing Jewish-American support in the next presidential election.” The bigger concern is that once Iran is nuclear-armed, it will be impossible to stop Saudi Arabia and Turkey from developing their own weapons to even out the balance of nuclear terror in the Middle East.
debkafile’s military sources add that Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan has told Obama more than once this year, “If Iran gets nuclear arms, Turkey will get nuclear arms.”
The Daily Mail goes on to report that in recent weeks, British Ministry of Defense sources confirmed that contingency plans had been drawn up in the event that the UK decided to support military action.
Acid Every Day = Mission from God
More Violence from the Peaceful Left (Language Warning)
(Giggady) `O.W.S. is a Quagmire!` What a Great Post by Gateway Pundit! (Update: 7 Dead So far)
This is with thanks to Gateway Pundit... what a great post!
Thanks to the successful Bush Surge in 2007-2008, that Obama and democrats opposed, the number of US fatalities in Iraq has gone from over 100 a month down to a handful or less a month.
In October 5 heroes were killed while serving their country in Iraq.
In September 3 heroes were killed while serving their country in Iraq.
Gateway Continues:
Currently, 45,000 U.S. troops are stationed in Iraq.
Last month there were 2,000?… 3,000?… Possibly 5,000 far left protesters setting up Occupy squatter camps in city parks across the country. In the 10 days at least 4 of these protesters were found dead in pup tents.
Police say one person died at the Vancouver Occupy tent city on Saturday. (The Province)
From these figures we can confirm that your odds of surviving a tour in Iraq is now greater than the odds of you surviving a night in a pup tent at an Occupy protest.
It’s a quagmire.