This is the paperwork that came with my check. Please note that: 1) Nowhere is there a statement in the letter that says "By cashing this check you release the bank from any other prosecution"....like some are saying; and
2) there is a statement that says: This payment does not mean that you necessarily suffered financial injury or harm. (Nice way to try and get out of being held accountable in future court proceedings, eh?)
Thanks to the biotech industry’s relentless quest to control our food, McDonald’s, Burger King and even school cafeterias will soon be able to serve up apples that won’t turn brown when they’re sliced or bitten into. A new, almost entirely untested genetic modification technology, called RNA interference, or double strand RNA (dsRNA), is responsible for this new food miracle. Scientists warn that this genetic manipulation poses health risks, as the manipulated RNA gets into our digestive systems and bloodstreams. The biotech industry claims otherwise.
Like any non-organic apple, the new GMO Arctic® Apple will be drenched in toxic pesticide residues, untested by the U.S. Food & Drug Association (FDA) and likely unlabeled. And of course these shiny new high-tech apples will cost less than a pesticide-free, nutrient-dense, old-fashioned organic apple that turns a little brown after you slice it up. Unless we stop them, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) will approve “Frankenapple” this year. Background Non-organic apples top the Environmental Working Group’s Dirty Dozen list, for both the volume and the stunning array of pesticides consistently found on them. According to the Pesticide Action Network’s analysis of the most recent USDA data, apples tested positive for 42 pesticides, including organophosphate and pyrethroid pesticides. Both are endocrine disruptors, both have suspected neurological effects, and both are considered especially toxic for children. (Organophosphates are the basis for nerve gases used in chemical warfare, and have been linked to the development of ADHD in kids). Given such a grim report card, one could argue that it really doesn’t make any difference if we start tinkering with the apple’s genes. After all, unlike GMO corn or salmon, scientists aren’t injecting pesticides or genes from foreign plants or animals into the genes of apples to create the Frankenapple. They’re “just” adding a synthetic gene that reduces the apple’s ability to produce polyphenol oxidase, an enzyme that causes the apple to turn brown when it’s exposed to oxygen. The synthetic gene contains DNA sequences from four of the apple’s own genes that naturally govern production of polyphenol oxidase. This process of shutting down an organism’s ability to express a specific gene is called RNA interference. Does RNA interference make the Frankenapple hazardous to human health? OSF, the industry, and some scientists say, no. Others, including Michael Hansen of the Union of Concerned Scientists, say very possibly. Hansen says the process involves “manipulating tiny pieces of RNA which survive human digestion and can have significant impacts on the human body.” But that’s only the half of it, says Hansen. The chemical compound that is shut off in the engineered fruit, in order to make it not oxidize or brown, is a chemical compound that also fights off plant pests. What happens when the apple’s ability to fend off insects is compromised? Growers will need to spray greater amounts, of possibly even more toxic pesticides, on a crop already saturated with at least 42 types of pesticides. RSVP: Join the GMO Apple Protest in Chicago!
The biotech industry is so proud of its latest frankenfood, it’s giving Okanagan Specialty Fruits, Inc. (OSF), creator of the genetically modified Arctic® Apple, an award. We thought it would be fun to let them know what we think about that. So we’ve planned an event of our own, and we hope you’ll join in. The OCA, along with other consumer activists, will protest the GMO apple award ceremony on April 23, at noon, outside the McCormick Place Convention Center in Chicago. Join us for a press conference, rally and picket line, complete with free T-shirts, organic apples and posters. And everybody...this is important enough to write to and call your US and state reps about and tell them that this is totally unacceptable for not only us adults safety...but for our CHILDREN'S safety! To be fed this in our schools lunches is COMPLETELY & TOTALLY untolerable...PERIOD!
Minutes after the bomb went off at the Boston Marathon, while emergency crews and brave Bostonians scrambled to help their neighbors, Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) said it could be homegrown terrorists to blame.
Soon after, T.V. pundit Chris Matthews goes on air and asks, "…would you as an expert be thinking domestic at this point?"
Later, David Axelrod, a former Clinton and Obama advisor, let's out on air, "…. I'm sure what was going through the president's mind is – we really don't know who did this – it was tax day. Was it someone who was pro-you know…"
There's no doubt the U.S. has bad guys, we have the largest prison population in the world. The disturbing thing about these veiled statements is that it pushes the "war on terror" at home narrative, which attempts to justify eroding our civil liberties.
Since at least September 2005, the U.S. Department of Justice has publicly asserted that Americans who wish for less tax, a smaller government, or a greater adherence to the Constitution and Bill of Rights may be potential domestic terrorists.
The FBI has a label for it: Sovereign Citizen.
What's more, the "U.S. citizen as potential terrorist" narrative is even taught to military cadets at West Point.
A report written by Dr. Arie Perliger, director of terrorism studies at West Point's Combating Terrorism Center (CTC) reveals these irrational gems. Americans who embrace…
Civil activism
Individual freedom
Self-government
Strong convictions about the Federal government
Caution against corrupt and abusive politicians
Strong individual and constitutional rights… are potential terrorists.
Today, more than ever, it's vital to be vigilant of what you do, say, and search for online (and offline). The government at the local, state, and federal levels, plus the mass media all irresponsibly target the wrong people – hard-working Americans like you and I. Lee Bellinger, Publisher Independent Living
You know, I understand and abhor the history of black slavery here in America and that there is still some who treat people wrongly because of their skin color today. With that said...I want to point out that there seems to have been a slant that either has gone unnoticed....or people are afraid to voice, because of the fact that the history of black people's troubles here in America was so horrendous that it just can't be compared to so don't even bother to state the obvious because it can't compare and it's ok for us but it isn't for you because you were the ones who did it to us first and worse! Well, I've never been the one to be so politically correct that when I see injustice and racial bias to keep my opinions to myself...and I'm not about to start now! You may say, what in the hey is she talking about? Well, here it is. Remember 17-year-old Trayvon Martin in Sanford, Florida who was shot by George Zimmerman on February 26 in 2012? Now, I thought (and still do!) that this was just a very sad tragedy and that too much of this happens so unneedlessly today. While watching this....I said to myself...you watch...instead of this staying as a tragic happening that had a lot of misunderstanding involved... the black community is going to play the "race card" and make this into a black-white thing. And sure enough...that is EXACTLY what was done! Nevermind that Zimmerman is not just white, but is also Latino....he LOOKS white, so we'll ignore that he isn't totally so and just blame the whites for this as we all know, it's the white man's fault just as it always has been because look at the not so distant past history of slavery! So, the Black Panthers put out a bounty on Zimmerman and threatened his life. And what was the reaction by most everyone? Oh, well, that's insignificant because most people condemn the group anyways. Excuse me? Then tell me why is it, that when most people condemn the KKK, if the KKK would put out a bounty on a black person, it would be taken seriously and newsworthy enough to be shouted about for days on end? (Racial double standards!) When you see someone being threatened by a group of extremists just because his skin is of a different color... even WHITE....then it's racist thinking and wrong...PERIOD! Now, Zimmerman was furthered vilified because Martin was touted as “a good kid, a mild-mannered kid with no criminal record whatsoever" by the Sanford Police Department, the media and his parents. So now, Zimmerman not only shot a BLACK youth, but one that was a very good black youth, so he's the devil incarnate! And everybody else got on board with this and the media ran on this platform with its news reports ad nauseum for days! Well guess what folks? Martin wasn't the little angel everybody made him out to be! "For a variety of reasons, none of them good, elements within the SPD and the Miami-Dade School District Police Department, or M-DSPD, conspired to keep Martin’s criminal history buried. Martin had been suspended twice already that school year (2011/12) for offenses that should have gotten him arrested – once for getting caught with a burglary tool and a dozen items of female jewelry, the second time for getting caught with marijuana and a marijuana pipe. In each case, the case file on Martin was fudged to make the crime less serious than it was". What? Everybody hiding the fact that this youth had a criminal record but was skating by and not being held responsible or accountable for his actions because there was and is pressure from the black community to stop suspending black youths in schools? "School districts across the country had been feeling pressure from the nation’s race hustlers to think twice before disciplining black students. Last year, the White House formalized the pressure with an executive order warning school districts to avoid “methods that result in disparate use of disciplinary tools.” Yes, this is exactly what is happening as is evident by Jesse Jackson addressing a large April 1, 2012, rally in Sanford, Florida. He implied that Martin had been profiled by his high school for being a black male and suspended for the same reason. “We must stop suspending our children,” Jackson told the crowd. So, what did all this pressure do? It made a police department FALSIFY police reports so Martin's true record (along with other black youths) couldn't be known!
Let's see here...Martin is a known criminal to his school, thus his parents had to have known, he apparently was into drugs...and just days after his non-arrest, he was allowed to wander the streets of Sanford high and alone... looking, in Zimmerman’s immortal words, “like he’s up to no good or he’s on drugs or something.” Looks like Zimmerman called THAT one right, eh? Had this happened the other way around...and a black man had shot a white youth who was touted as a good boy with no criminal record at all...and it came out later that he did have one, and that his actions on that day could have caused that black man some rightful concern...you bet that the black community would be shouting to the tree tops about racial bias in the white community for falsifying the youth's criminal records and not reporting it and then blaming the black man for shooting the youth when he was only trying to keep his community safe and the media would fall all over itself in reporting this. So, where is the media now? Why aren't they falling all over themselves in reporting that Zimmerman might of actually had a very good reason to be concerned and suspicious? That maybe, just maybe, he WAS being beaten up and just trying to defend himself? They aren't...and why? Because it was a WHITE (?) man who shot a BLACK youth, that's why! And God forbid that we tell the WHOLE story...and maybe put a black youth in the correct light, or at least a more correct light! THAT my dear reader....is called... RACIAL DOUBLE STANDARDS! Now, don't get me wrong here. I'm not saying that the shooting isn't tragic....because it is. And I'm not saying that Zimmerman was totally correct in his response to the circumstances at hand. What I AM saying is this...there is a SLANT now (and for some time) in our country of black racism towards whites and that it's being tolerated as ok because whites have done it towards blacks in the past. And if whites dare to complain, we are the racist ones and demonized as bad and not worthy of complaining because we did it in the past! Well my friend, racism is WRONG...no matter what the color, and should be shouted from the roof tops when it occurs so that it can be addressed. Racial double standards cannot be tolerated and the news media has to be unbiased and not dictated to by any ONE racial group as to shining a light upon it and reporting it! And for how long are the white people going to be held accountable for the past? I mean, really now. It wasn't the whites today who had slaves. It wasn't the whites today who treated black slaves horribly. How exactly are we to move onwards towards racial equality if the blacks continue to live in the past and point the finger of blame towards others? There comes a point when one must move beyond the blame and work towards making peace. And playing the "race card" whenever something happens to a black person and shouting accusations against other races that turn out to not be so true, isn't conducive towards meeting that end result of equality. It only serves to inflame the racial divide issue and keep the fires of racism alive! So, I'm standing up...and not being so "politically correct" and doing what is right and shining a light upon a racial inequality and reporting it. It's time now for those of us who are not black to stand up when a racial injustice is done to us and say it's wrong and demand that it is reported loud and clear, so that ALL racial injustice towards ALL races is denounced and not acceptable...and not just for the black race!! Resources and quotes: The Daily Caller WND
Today, we sometimes hear that the Second Amendment has outlived its usefulness, that it is a relic of our barbaric past and is no longer needed in the modern era. Horrific mass shootings by deranged individuals are cited as the primary reason for Americans to surrender their most effective firearms and rely solely on a state monopoly of force for their protection. This government-dependent attitude is shortsighted, historically ignorant, and extremely dangerous.
In each of the cases cited above, a necessary preliminary step on the road to democide was the confiscation of privately owned firearms. In Turkey, “reasonable” gun control laws enacted in 1911 permitted the democide of two million Turkish Christians a few years later. In Germany, the “commonsense” 1928 gun control laws of the Weimar Republic preceded Hitler’s Holocaust by a decade.
The Weimar politicians did not intend for their gun control laws to lead to the slaughter of millions of people, but it is an historical fact that those gun control laws permitted the Nazis to carry out their Holocaust. How? By making it economically and militarily feasible to round up and mass murder entire towns without any significant resistance.
In fact, the Nazis quickly learned that they needed only a hundred ordinary military policemen to exterminate towns of a thousand Polish Jews in a single day. Contrast that fact with the Warsaw Ghetto uprising. If the Jews had not first been disarmed, using previous gun registration lists as a map for confiscation, the Holocaust would not have been possible.
Likewise in the Soviet Union and in every other case, democide was preceded by “reasonable and commonsense” firearms registration, followed eventually by gun confiscation and then by the extermination of a despised minority population.
During the past two centuries, while America has avoided tyranny, Turkey, Germany, Russia and the other nations mentioned above have spasmodically lurched between monarchs, democratically elected leaders, and often quite popular dictators, allowing them frequent opportunities to commit democide against their unwanted minorities.
The situation is fundamentally different in America, because we have a centuries-old tradition of private firearms ownership guaranteed by the Second Amendment to the Constitution. The Second Amendment does not “grant” us this right; it puts into writing our God-given natural right to effective self-defense, including armed defense against tyranny.
“Pure democracy” has been described as two wolves and a sheep voting on their dinner plans. The two wolves might see this election as an expression of their highest democratic values, but for the outnumbered sheep, pure democracy is highly problematic. On the other hand, a republic has been described as two wolves and a well-armed sheep voting on dinner plans. The well-armed sheep can veto the outcome of the dinner election simply by brandishing its firearm. The sheep has inherent rights as a sovereign individual, including the right to self-defense, a right that cannot be stripped away by a simple majority vote.
So, when a democratically elected American president speaks of “fundamentally transforming” his country, and of his need to act outside the constitutional framework, the population should be on guard. When that leader begins to push for strict new “commonsense and reasonable” gun control laws, including national firearms registration in the name of “public safety,” the citizenry should be on high alert.
Can any glib politician, pundit or ivory tower academic give us an ironclad guarantee that tyranny will never arise in the United States? Not even a popular tyranny, like those of Ataturk, Stalin, Hitler or Mao? Can anyone assure us that today’s “commonsense” gun registration lists will not be used for future gun confiscation? Of course not.
The future may be unknowable, but history is well understood, and American gun owners know and understand the history of democide in the 20th century. That is why they will never accede to what is currently portrayed in the predominantly left-wing mainstream media as “commonsense and reasonable” new gun control laws.
