Thread: BASIC LIST / SUGGESTED ITEMS FOR LONG TERM SURVIVAL

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Episode 713- Steward Rhodes on Opperation Sleeping Giant

Posted on July 29, 2011 by Modern Survival| 3 Comments

Audio: [ 1:08:48 ] http://www.survivalpodcast.net/audio/20 ... -giant.mp3

http://oathkeepers.org/oath/

Today we are joined by Stewart Rhodes, founder of Oathkeepers. Oath Keepers is a non-partisan association of currently serving military, reserves, National Guard, veterans, Peace Officers, and Fire Fighters who will fulfill the Oath they swore, with the support of like minded citizens who take an Oath to stand with us, to support and defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic, so help us God.

5 Tips to avoid becoming a Victim as Crime gets Worse

Monday, July 25, 2011

As I was finishing with this article my wife comes in and tells me someone tried to mug her. At around 4 PM today she dropped my son by a friend´s house and since it was just a couple blocks away she walked back. A car pulls next to her and a guy with a baseball cap comes out of the passenger’s seat and hurries walking in her direction. We don’t play baseball here and baseball caps are mostly used by people that want to cover their faces. White baseball caps are “gangsta” for some reason and criminals or criminal wannabe’s favor them. She sees that this person is walking straight towards her instead of the more normal thing to do which would have been to keep a distance given that the wide sidewalk allows it. As he gets within a couple feet of her she runs across the street, nearly gets run over by a car, but when she looks back the would-be mugger has already turned around and quickly walks back to his car. Other than some cold sweat and a bit of palpitations she’s ok.

By pure coincidence I was writing now about avoiding exactly this type of crime, everyday crime in a society that is far more dangerous than the one we used to know not that long ago.

My wife has been robbed and kept at gun point several times. She instinctively knows these things by now. Women, children and elders are favorite victims chosen by predators. This same scumbag that was looking for an easier victim probably wouldn’t have gone after me. Now my 100 pound wife, hitting her and snatching her purse is not much of a challenge for one of these animals.

As the economic crisis continues, it’s a given that this sort of thing will become more and more common even in places and countries where it didn’t happen before. That’s where people that aren’t used to it get caught off guard. This is not about egos or being the biggest, meanest son of a gun, its about applying a common sense approach to problems people may not have a lot of experience with. This goes for everyone, tactical guys that pack heat on daily basis, ladies that don’t carry a gun or any other weapon, or my 87 year old grandmother.

I’m making this clear because the internet commandos are quick to remark that they would have shot the guy at least ten times, then do a ritual to enslave their undying souls. Truth is that even people that have been into dozens of gunfights will tell you the same thing: Avoid the conflict whenever you can. Its only in movies where people get into senseless gunfights all the time. Lethal Weapon would have been a very boring movie if after killing the first guy the weapons are taken away from the lead characters, they are suspended until the shooting is cleared, then they get sued by the “victims” family, and then you spend the rest of the movie watchin Mel Gibson and Danny Glover going through their accounts seeing how they will afford the legal expenses after getting fired from the police department. Even in “good” self-defense shootings you may spend a night or two in jail and that’s only the fun part, the real nightmare begins when you have to pay for your legal defense. Avoiding the use of force and escaping is always the best alternative when such a thing is possible.

If my wife was Anne Oakley and she had shot everyone that every tried to rob her, we’d be broke by now. By this I don’t mean that you shouldn’t fight when you must. Your life is priceless and indeed its better to be judged by twelve than carried by 6, when you had no other choice that is. We talk plenty about fighting, for a change lets talk about not making any mistakes and learning how to avoid the problems in the first place.

1) Not looking rich. This is clear enough but there’s more to it than it seems. Of course having all the gold all over you is an open invitation for criminals but there are more subtle considerations too. You shouldn’t dress like a dirt bag, but you can still dress like ordinary Joe or Jane that is making a honest effort to make it to the end of the month like most people these days. For ladies other things come into play. My grandmother and my wife, they usually don’t take their purses when they are going out to buy something, just the money in a pocket. This removes the purse from the equation in the criminal’s mind: Nothing to snatch. The plan has to be different, gets more complicated. Maybe the victim has money in a pocket, maybe not. Better to just go for one with a purse so as to be sure. Today my wife took her purse, she says this wasn’t a good idea.

2) Minimizing exposure. How often do people go willingly into “bad parts of town”, dark streets, places they don’t know well enough? How many times people confess they knew they were walking into the mouth of the wolf? Avoid these situations whenever you can, try getting home while there’s daylight. 4pm seems safe, but there’s no one on the street here at that time. People are working and kids are still in school here. At 5PM though the kids go out and parents pick them up, there’s more people on the street. If there’s a route where you know there’s cops or security, chose that route to your destination instead of others, even if it’s a longer drive or walk. This also applies to other strategies. For example parking close to the buildings you’re going to so as to minimize that parking walk and being closer from help. As noted in a previous post, the time it takes you to enter or exit your home or garage is a window of opportunity for criminals. While not going nuts about it and living life, still try to minimize this sort of situation as much as possible.

3) Being aware of your surroundings. This is probably the most important trait. Shooting 3 bad guys in 5 seconds is a nice ability to have, but its better to avoid them entirely in the first place. Your chances of getting hurt or killed drop to zero, so does the financial cost of your little anecdote. That’s clearly the best possible outcome. My wife she’s good at this part. She noticed this person and avoided him, ran. If she hadn’t noticed him all she would have felt was an explosion of getting hit, “a flash of white” as a lady that got hit the back of the head when mugged once described.

4) Assessing people around you. So you notice people in your surroundings, could they be a threat to you? In my wife’s case, he was dressing a way that, in our social and cultural environment it clearly has a negative implication. If self-claimed bad guys and criminals wear white caps, then you react to such a garment. The actions and body language often speak more than clothing. Criminals are known to dress well, even wear suits to look less conspicuous. You cannot dismiss females either. More and more women are seen committing crimes, either on their own or with other partners.

5) AAA: Assess, Analyze & take Action You can´t remember everything you read, but this would be a good way to assimilate all of the above in an easy to remember rule of thumb. Assess your situation. Who’s around you? Analyze. Are any of these individuals a possible threat to me? Most of all and much faster and easier to assimilate, is any of this out of place? If your gut feeling tells you something is wrong, then you probably instinctively picked up something you didn’t register on a conscious level. If the little red light in your brain is blinking, then pay more attention. Take action, DO something. My wife told me of a time when, while in a store, a suspicious looking person walked in. Since she makes sure to stay near the door when in a store, as he walked in she walked out before even noticing what she was doing. Such fast reaction to situations your gut instinct tells you they are wrong is the kind of reaction you want to achieve. One time while waiting to cross the street I heard a loud bang that sounded like a gunshot. Without thinking I took a step forward, putting a large cement column between myself and the source of the sound. This part is important, all of the above means nothing if you don’t DO something. Freezing is the only thing you’re not allowed to do here. Freeze and you are game. Run, fight, cry out for help but do something.
It is not my intention to scare anyone with all this. Life just goes on, and an ounce of prevention has always been a great investment.
Take care everyone.

FerFAL

http://www.themodernsurvivalist.com/archives/1482

http://www.missouristormshelters.com/

INSTANT SURVIVAL TIP: Primitive ways to stay cool

26 Comments

A heat wave is about as predictable in the summer as the presence of watermelon at farmer’s markets. If you live in an area that doesn’t usually experience high temperatures, you may find yourself and your family in danger of heatstroke. As a lifelong desert rat, here are a few tips to help you stay cool, or as cool as possible, when summer heat soars.

• Make ample use of every type of fan you own. Ceiling fans are a must, just be sure the fan blades are turning counter-clockwise, which blows the air downward.
• Turn off your fans when you leave home. Circulating air is meant to help keep your body cool. When no one is in the room, electricity is being wasted.
• If your home or apartment doesn’t have air conditioning, keep spray bottles filled with water handy. It’s amazing how a spritz of water on your face will help you feel cooler.
• Here’s an old trick I learned when I lived on a kibbutz. Just before bedtime, spritz your bedsheets with plenty of water, aim an electric fan toward your side of the bed, jump in and go to sleep, quickly!
• Use other people’s air conditioning! Last summer when our house was being renovated, the kids and I spent dozens of hours at the library, at Chick-fil-A and at Starbucks (they both have Wi-Fi!). Sometimes we’d go to the mall, but that was too dangerous to our budget. If you have friends and family who enjoy your company, pay them a visit.
• Soak in a tub filled with cool water. This will cool down your core better than a shower will.
• Wear your bathing suit around the house.
• If you’ll be outside, wet down a bandanna, place a few ice cubs down the center, diagonally, roll it up, and tie it around your neck.
• If the mornings are cool, open all your windows, let that cool air flow through your home, and then close them up as soon as the heat sets in. At that point, close your curtains, shades, or shutters. I love a bright, sunlit home, but in the summer, this works for me.
• Check the western exposure of your home. If you have windows that face west, check into inexpensive blinds from Home Depot or Lowe’s. Even, gasp!, aluminum foil taped over your windows, temporarily!, can help keep your home cooler.
• Watch the landscape workers in your town. You’ll find they always wear wide-brimmed hats, long sleeved shirts, and long pants. They know what they’re doing. It sounds counter-intuitive, but that extra fabric will protect your skin from the sun.
• If you need to do outside chores, do them in morning when the sun rises.
• Young children and the elderly are more susceptible to heatstroke. Pay careful attention to their needs. Check on elderly friends and relatives. In the great Chicago heatwave of 1995, hundreds of people died in less than a week. Most of them were elderly.
• If you must, douse your naked body with water and stand in front of a fan.
• Finally, think like a SurvivalMom. What can you do to prepare for the next heatwave?

http://thesurvivalmom.com/2011/07/19/instant-survival-tip-primitive-ways-to-stay-cool/

DIY Survival Gear Test - Throwing An Improvised Spear

Friday, July 29, 2011



Making your own improvised survival gear can be a great way to boost your confidence in your skills and abilities. The only problem is sometimes that gear doesn't hold up the way you planned. The best way to avoid this problem is to test it so that you will know how it performs and if there are any flaws that need to be corrected.

My recently improvised spear was put to the test and held up very well. After a few practice throws from about 25 feet, some fairly decent results were achieved. Now it takes quite a few practice throws to get it right and throwing a 5 1/2 foot improvised spear isn't as easy as it may seem. Using an old hackberry tree as a target, decent results were obtained after a couple of complete misses and a few glancing blows. My efforts actually came out as well as RW, Jr. for a change. Putting some hefty effort into my throw managed to sink the spear about 3/4 of an inch into the tree. It took some effort to remove the spear but the spear head remained intact and didn't come off the spear after it was removed. This was one of the main things that could have caused a problem. If the spear tip came off, it would be just another stick.

A picture of my best throw is shown above. Not too bad for an old guy with a pointy stick.



RW, Jr.'s spear throw turned out pretty decent as well and he managed to sink the tip solidly on target. Of course, Mrs. RW was closely supervising our activities and took her turn at throwing the spear also. Although most of her throws were glancing blows, she did manage to take a small chunk of bark off the tree being used as a target.

DIY survival gear is great to have around but it's important to make sure it works as intended.

Staying above the water line!

http://stealthsurvival.blogspot.com/201 ... owing.html

DISASTER MANAGEMENT: BE PREPARED AND ARMED
PART 2

By John Longenecker
July 30, 2011

NewsWithViews.com

Shortages are weapons of mass destruction

In Part I, I talked about how the household armed with lethal force will be more likely to survive in the absence of Police and EMS in time of disaster. Preparedness Lite is what I call the current crop of preparedness lectures that exclude guns from their preparedness checklist. Even Robert Kiyosaki, the voice of the Rich Dad, Poor Dad series, brings up the importance of being armed. Item #5 of Robert Kiyosaki’s preparedness list is buy a gun. [Internet search term Rich Dad, Poor Dad, Prepper Dad?]

It is not likely that America has shortages of anything. We don’t even have shortages of Gold.

We may have a shortage of Helium 3, but it’s only because we’re giving it away. Whose fault is that?

In the wonderful days of new car sales, up to and throughout the eighties, car salesmen, mechanics at both dealership and independents could punch a hole in your radiator and sell you a new one. Anyone could be as dishonest as they liked. J.D. Power and associates conceived of a thing called the Customer Satisfaction Index. With the CSI, automakers had a greater stake in pleasing the customer with a new product, Integrity, a whole new stock on the shelves in the retail automobile business. In the eighties, new car franchises would compete for the better rating with the Manufacturer, and get the pick of the litter for everything from new car inventory in the pipeline to prompt parts delivery to make the Service Department into heroes. J.D. Power was pure genius.

Wilhelm Hegel is not a name that is well known to most Americans. It is the opposite of integrity and good faith. Hegel wrote that governance ought to preside over crisis. This cannot happen in a free country without first sabotaging societal safeguards. The predators – officials who govern with this sort of management style – then move in. The trick is to be seem needed or to seem necessary. Our Founding Fathers and contemporaries reported this when they knew that necessity has been the cause of more societal disaster than nearly anything else. This spells political success, but the nation is looted, the predator’s idea of success. The application of Hegelian thought betrays a very dangerous, self-indulgent agenda which is incompatible with liberty, i.e. takings. It is a cold-blooded governance of cruelty and older anger.

Hegelian principles are not differing opinions on the same goals in America, they are hostile to the United States as just another prey.

Isn’t it about time Americans caught on to this scam?

Food shortages are engineered for takings in various ways. Availability of corn is engineered by converting corn to fuel and garnering up all the available crops. People go hungry in the name of the environment. Nothing new here except a valid case study in a long list of them.

Then, genetically engineering food crop seeds to produce only one generation makes a shortage of food as commanded by law. Who wrote such a law? Food is not in short supply, it is regulated to be in short supply as part of a spiteful model.

Energy is not in short supply, it is being legislated away by refusing to drill for domestic oil, discouraging coal burning, and more, all for spite.

[Marxism isn’t only a political belief system, it is a mindset of spite. The kind of people who become Marxists and Statists are cruel and vicious to be sure, but you can also find spiteful persons who adopt Statist policies purely for the satisfaction of being spiteful. This is a disease which has grown out of the easy-out divorce models. Three generations of broken homes make angry children who carry that wound of abandonment with them into adult life. All they know is that they like bugging people.

Jerks like Saul Alinsky give permission to these angry fellow travelers to be spiteful to others. Broken homes unleash millions of minions of heart-broken kids to seek justice which they will never find in politics, but they can extract revenge. It all serves the Marxist purpose of chaos, and we then see in retrospect why no-fault divorce was fought for so fiercely; an endless supply of minions. Shortages are a tool of the spiteful. Starvation in other countries is one such example and it’s no accident there any more than it is here.]

The point for disaster preparedness is this: shortages can be anticipated. In fact, better count on them. There are Americans who urge you to buy precious metals, experts who talk about saving food and seeds, experts who educate people on community preparedness, and experts who advocate being armed with lethal force.

Anticipate shortages as a hostility to our way of life.

The Pantry-level Brain Drain

Shortages are engineered, socially engineered. In this country, you have to actively screw things up to get the results we see.

When NASA cuts back, where do all of the engineers go? Many talented people report that they have job offers from around the world. Already.

Sovereign nations can offset their debt by taking on new pantry-level skills and talent. I just coined the word pantry-level. Pantry-level is entry level or lateral level entry of specialized, high-demand technical skill and talent such that a host nation can make a ton of money with new items to sell, develop, or export. In other words, they no longer have to go hungry with nothing to export.

Helium 3 is an isotope which is rare on earth, but in fairly abundant supply on the moon. Helium 3 is essential for the manufacture of nuclear fission. The eggheads know what is does and what it’s for, and it’s fairly important to any agency or sovereign who wants to lead in the 21st century.

This is no accident. You can call it a transfer of wealth if you like, but that’s too vague; the real name is a brain drain, and it puts America in the back seat again.

There isn’t a bus long enough to have rear seats far enough at the back of the bus for us where we’re going. It’s just another engineered shortage.

Preparedness is now a survival skill

The main thrust of preparedness is independence of a community from its public servants. You can try and depend on public services for this and that and somewhat comfortably -- that’s what they’re for! -- but if they let you down because they are overwhelmed, it’s not their fault, it’s yours. You are the Sovereign in this country, and the maximum effective range of an excuse is Zero.

Preparedness Lite has people keeping a flashlight handy with a few batteries. Preparedness True has a year’s supply of batteries as if your flashlight is the only light in the house for weeks and weeks. Get the idea?

Survival is not a matter of staying alive after a disaster’s shock or infrastructure insult, but of quality of life. It is eating well, being comfortable, being unstressed, being safe from whatever you can, and making sure others do well, too. After all, you are there and services are not.

Do this as a community where you remember that servants may come and go -- they may never even show up -- but the Sovereign remain always. If you don’t, there won’t even be a Sovereign in this country any more. The takings, remember? Those endless takings.

There’s more to survival than surviving. Freedom and liberty have to live, too, and come out intact with you on the other side.

John Longenecker’s book

Click here for part -----> 1, 2,

Safer Streets 2011: Disaster management: The better preparedness model will be armed

© 2011 - John Longenecker - All Rights Reserve

John Longenecker is author of "Even Safer Streets 2011 — The Second Amendment as a Mainstream Value."

John Longenecker is Publisher of CONTRAST MEDIA PRESS, liberty books for corporate social responsibility expressed in terms of American Liberty. Social Responsibility need not be only Green – it can be Red, White and Blue. Go to www.ContrastMediaPress.com

He can be reached at John@ContrastMediaPress.com

Website: GoodForTheCountry.com

E-Mail: john.ljr@verizon.net

E-Mail: John@LibertyNut.com

http://www.newswithviews.com/Longenecker/john118.htm

Food, Control and the Growing Police State

by Szandor Blestman
July 28, 2011



Food has always been a tool the elite have used to control the masses. When you control the food supply, you control everything, even life and death. A starving man is more likely to sell his soul for a potato then someone with a full tummy. The relatively free market of food production and distribution that has been in place in this nation for a few centuries now has led to unrivaled prosperity. Food can, in fact, be grown for practically nothing if you have the land, the time and can afford to buy just a few heirloom seeds to grow the organic vegetables necessary for good health. This will save you money, is better for you than grocery store vegetables which may be genetically modified or may contain unwanted chemicals, and helps you to become less dependent on the state for your survival.

It is the last part of the above statement that frightens government officials. They want you dependent on them. For some, it makes them feel important. Others may just want to feel needed or helpful. Still others may just want the paycheck. Whatever the case, they don't seem to just want to leave you alone to your own devices. Perhaps that's why they're attempting to pass laws making it illegal to grow your own garden. Perhaps that's why they want to make sure you're a compliant grass farmer just like your neighbors. Perhaps that's why they're trying to control the food necessary for life.

There was much reporting done on the story of Julie Bass from Oak Park, Michigan, who was arrested for growing a garden in her (gasp) front lawn. There was so much reporting on this story, in fact, that the city of Oak Park decided to drop the charges. They had claimed that the citizens of Oak Park were in favor of such ordinances that made it a crime to have anything but nicely manicured, inedible, Kentucky bluegrass lawns (an exaggeration, but you get the idea). I think they were rather surprised when the Bass's neighbors came out decidedly against the arrest. Rather than apologizing and admitting they were wrong like normal people would do, however, they did what you would expect of government control freaks who think they're perfect. They found something else to charge poor Julie Bass with. Things get tough for you once you're on the government's shit list.

As Julie Bass's further adventures in the world of government abuse unfold, I hope she continues to receive the support of her neighbors and things turn out well for her. There are others who are not quite as fortunate as her, however, when it comes to the government's longing for complete control over food. There are other victims of inane policies of local government gangs. The homeless in Orlando are a good example.

Now, you'd think that government officials would want to help the disadvantaged such as people who have lost everything due to the economic downturn. That's what government officials would have us believe in many cases, that they are there to help when one is down and out. Why, then, would they want to make sure the homeless are hungry? Why would they want to arrest people for feeding other people who can't afford to buy a sandwich? Why would they wish to appear so callous about those who they are supposed to be helping? Perhaps they don't like the thought that they aren't the only ones who care about the plight of less fortunate people. Perhaps they simply don't like someone trying to muscle in on their charity monopoly. I'm not sure, but there is something terribly wrong with a system that decides to arrest people for helping.

There is a man, a super activist so to speak, who is trying to rectify this situation. His name is Julian Heicklen. He is a 79 year old activist who is trying to show us all what it means to truly fight tyranny and become free. He is going to Lake Eola Park in Orlando Florida on August 18th to help the "Food not Bombs" people distribute food to anyone who's hungry, including homeless people. Many have already been arrested by the not overly compassionate Orlando police for such acts of kindness. He also plans on engaging in other non violent illegal activities such as distributing Fully Informed Jury Association literature to people at the Orange County Court Complex and taking pictures of police officers doing their work to point out the ridiculousness of tyrannical laws, but it is the distributing of food down there that has really piqued my interest. The other activism is important as it sheds light on practices the controllers would like to keep secret, but one must truly wonder what on earth was going through their heads when they decided to make it illegal to help others who are less fortunate.

So, some local tyrants have decided not to allow the local serfs to grow vegetables in their front yards. They've decided that only they are allowed to help the needy, and they're doing a real poor job of it. If that's not enough to convince you of the immorality of many local governments that the common folk are supposed to be protected against, then I would point out the slew of kids' lemonade stands that have been shut down recently. Many stories of this occurring have been circulating lately and all I've heard about is people shaking their heads and complaining. Recently, however, someone has decided to do something about it.

Robert Fernandes has decided to create a website that promotes an event called Lemonade Freedom Day on August 20th, 2011. The idea is to spread the word that selling lemonade is not a crime and should not be treated as such. Don't you remember being a kid and setting up a lemonade stand? I remember doing so, only I sold Kool-Aid. I'm fairly certain that millions of children across this nation have fond memories of similar experiences. Why would someone want to steal such a valuable activity from modern youth? Why would anyone want to criminalize such a delightful piece of summertime Americana? Could it be that perhaps they wish to suppress the entrepreneurial spirit that helped build America? Could it be that their lust for control is so overwhelming to them that they couldn't care less about the children affected? Could it be that they are simply trying to drill into the heads of our youth the idea of obedience to law, no matter how onerous, bad, or immoral the law is? As I see it, authority has grown so far out of control that it has made itself illegitimate.

There are a couple of things that tie all these news stories together. The first is that none of these laws would matter if it wasn't for the enforcers, the police. All of these so called crimes would not have made the news if the police had simply said "no" when asked to arrest the perpetrators or shut down their operations. But the police in this nation seem to no longer be able to think for themselves. They have become the automatons of the state, excusing their actions because they are "just doing their jobs" just like the German Nazis excused their actions during World War II. I would point out that their job includes upholding the Constitution of the United States of America. I would point out that their job includes saying "no" to enforcing bad laws when ordered to. If things were running properly and the system wasn't so corrupt, perhaps that's what would be happening. In a perfect world, the brave peace officer who stands up to the corrupt government official would become a hero and be rewarded while the corrupt government official would get his comeuppance. Instead, we have a world where any "law enforcement officer" is punished for standing up to the system and lives in fear of losing his job or worse if he does what's right.

The other thing that ties these stories together is the common folk. It is their apathy that has allowed the system to deteriorate to this point. It is their going along to get along and simply not saying anything that has allowed the system to become so corrupt. It is their shrugging their shoulders and keeping their heads down that has allowed evil to win as much as it has, as the proverbial saying goes. Those in government have come to believe they can simply do as they please. They have come to believe that whatever they say is law and the people will grumble and moan, but simply obey and not do anything else about it. Well, that seems to be changing. The people spoke up about the Julie Bass situation and they're taking action to correct the other injustices mentioned above. Methinks that perhaps the government officials have pushed the envelope just a little too far and more than enough people can now see just how much the tyranny has grown. Next month should be an interesting one as the people attempt to trim it back.

http://www.weeklyblitz.net/1611/food...g-police-state

Walnuts belong in your medicine cabinet

July 29, 2011 by Bob Livingston

The omega-3 fatty acids found in walnuts help lower cholesterol levels; protect against heart disease, stroke and cancer; ease arthritis and other inflammatory diseases; and fight depression and mental illness.

If you have a bag of walnuts sitting in your food pantry, you need to move them quickly. They belong in your medicine cabinet.

At least that’s the view of the Food and Drug Administration, which last year sent a warning letter to Diamond Foods, Inc., because the packaging “misbranded” the product, causing them to be drugs.

The FDA’s letter says in part:

“Based on claims made on your firm’s website, we have determined that your walnut products are promoted for conditions that cause them to be drugs because these products are intended for use in the prevention, mitigation, and treatment of disease.”

The labels cited studies indicating the omega-3 fatty acids found in walnuts helped lower cholesterol levels; protect against heart disease, stroke and cancer; ease arthritis and other inflammatory diseases; fight depression and mental illness; and provide other health benefits.
The FDA ordered Diamond Foods to correct the violations or face seizure of products or court injunction.

Life Extension Magazine reported on the letter in its August 2011 edition and cited a number of published articles highlighting the health benefits of walnuts. In other words, the FDA is ignoring the science that proves the healthful benefits of a natural food.

The FDA, which claims to look out for the health of Americans, is doing just the opposite. It obviously wants Americans to remain fat, unhealthy and ignorant. How else to explain an agency that ignores the science behind the health benefits of natural whole foods while allowing food manufacturers to get away with the spurious claims they make on the health benefits of processed foods like potato chips and breakfast bars with simulated fruit products they pass off as real fruit.

And it’s not just walnuts the FDA hates. The FDA hates many natural foods like cherries, blueberries, pomegranate juice and green tea. All of these natural foods provide scientifically proven health benefits, but the FDA ignores the science and regulates whether and how those benefits can even be stated on their packaging.

The FDA is proving itself to be an out-of-control bureaucratic nightmare that is working contrary to the health interests of Americans. It should be at the top of everyone’s list of government alphabet soup agencies to get the ax.

http://www.personalliberty.com/alter...icine-cabinet/

Cooling the brain may help induce sleep

July 29, 2011 by Personal Liberty News Desk

According to the American Psychological Association, more than 60 percent of adults have trouble sleeping at night. Recently, researchers discovered that people with sleep disorders could find relief by wearing a specially designed cap that cools the brain.

Insomnia increases the metabolism of the brain’s frontal cortex. A reduction in metabolism in this part of the brain is needed in order to get a restful night’s sleep. Scientists have found that one way to achieve this is through a process called “cerebral hypothermia.”

Participants with sleep disturbances wore a cap that cooled their heads, and over the course of the study were able to sleep for the same amount of time as the healthy control group, about 89 percent of the night.

“The most significant finding from this study is that we can have a beneficial impact on the sleep of insomnia patients via a safe, non-pharmaceutical mechanism that can be made widely available for home use by insomnia sufferers,” said principal investigator and lead author Eric Nofzinger, M.D.

This treatment is designed to treat primary insomnia, which occurs when a person is unable to fall asleep and has no coexisting condition that could be the cause of this problem.

http://www.personalliberty.com/news/...eep-800561991/

Consolidation of seed companies leading to corporate domination of world food supply

Wednesday, July 27, 2011
by: Ethan A. Huff, staff writer

(NaturalNews) Throughout the history of agriculture across the globe, farming has always been a diversified sector of the economy. Small, self-sustaining, family farms were the order of the day in most cultures. Even as small farms grew larger and more specialized over time, many of them still saved seeds or purchased them from other farmers, which kept control of farming in the hands of the people.

But today everything has changed, as large chemical and agribusiness firms have acquired or merged with seed companies and other agricultural input companies. They have successfully gained a foothold on genetically-modified (GM) crops with transgenic traits.

These primary factors and several others have facilitated a crescendo towards the global domination of agriculture by corporations, and thus the world's food supply.

The dismal state in which we find ourselves today did not come overnight, of course, but it did pick up rapid speed after the introduction of GM crops in the mid-1990s. Since that time, multinational corporations like Monsanto, DuPont, and Syngenta have seized a significant amount of control over the global seed industry, which has greatly limited agricultural diversity and freedom.

The ability to patent both seeds and seed traits has also added injury to insult, as the ability to obtain natural or heirloom seeds is becoming increasingly difficult, and many farmers feel they have no choice but to go with the flow.

Professor Philip H. Howard from the Department of Community, Agriculture, Recreation and Resource Studies at Michigan State University published a study in 2009 entitled Visualizing Consolidation in the Global Seed Industry: 1996 - 2008 that analyzes the trend in agriculture towards corporate dominance.

The report, which was featured in a special issue of the journal Renewable Agriculture, provides both an extensive data analysis of agriculture's dramatic transformation over the past several decades, as well as a highly-informative visual analysis of this truly shocking hostile takeover situation.

The 'Big Six" pharmaceutical and chemical companies have acquired, created joint ventures with hundreds of seed companies over the past 15 years

In order to help assist his readers in understanding the state of the seed industry, Prof. Howard developed a very informative graphic that displays the reality of who really controls the seed industry.

Monsanto, DuPont, Syngenta, Bayer, Dow, and BASF collectively own or partially-own hundreds of formerly-independent seed companies -- and Monsanto, of course, dominates them all.

You can view the graphic for yourself at the following link: http://www.naturalnews.com/files/seedindustry.pdf

As you will see, the blue circles in the diagram represent seed companies, while the red circles -- which happen to all be chemical or pharmaceutical companies -- control the vast majority of them. Solid gray arrows indicate complete ownership of a company, while gray lines indicate partial ownership.

One of the most obvious first impressions to be gathered from the diagram is Monsanto's excessive and widespread control over the seed industry. According to Prof. Howard's analysis, Monsanto acquired more than 50 seed companies just during the time represented by his study period, which spans the years between 1996 and 2008.

Monsanto had little-to-no involvement in the seed industry prior to the mid-1980s, but since that time has been rapidly eating up seed companies and furthering its development and control over the food supply through GMOs. Today, Monsanto is the world's largest seed company, and the transnational behemoth continues to acquire or otherwise create "partnerships" with various independent seed companies that are still in existence.

Behind Monsanto, the other five of the "Big Six" that Prof. Howard illustrates -- DuPont, Syngenta, Bayer, Dow, and BASF -- collectively own or control a great portion of the remaining major seed companies not owned or controlled by Monsanto. And one of the biggest factors that has contributed to this dismal setup is GMOs and transgenic, patentable seed traits that are shared among the industry players.

The "Big Six" each have agreements with one or more of the others; their overall success has largely hinged on GMOs and increased control of agricultural inputs

The only thing worse than Monsanto and the dominance of the seed market are the cozy relationships with one another. Prof. Howard's analysis reveals that every company in the "Big Six" has at least one mutual relationship with one another, and they together share corporate control of the seed industry.

Monsanto has established cross-licensing agreements for its transgenic patents with every single other company in the mix, while Dow has agreements with all except for Bayer. And Syngenta has agreements with Dow, Monsanto, and DuPont, while BASF has agreements with Dow and Monsanto.

What does this all mean? It means that the already-disturbing oligarchy that controls the seed industry is shaping up to become a total monopoly with Monsanto at the helm, of course. And as transgenic technology continues to develop, which forces farmers to either go with the flow or leave the business, there may soon be no other choices in farming besides whatever Monsanto has to offer.

One would think that farmers would be more aware of this takeover and resist it. But the "Big Six" effectively fly under the radar, in most cases, by selling their seeds and chemicals through various vendors and under different names. According to Prof. Howard, this is how they effectively maintain an illusion of competition and choice in the midst of their takeover.

How things got this bad and how the situation can be fixed

Real competition in the seed industry has been systematically deconstructed over the years for numerous reasons. Besides blatant industry consolidation and takeover by drug and chemical companies, many farmers have simply been willing to accept the latest seed technologies, even when it has meant having to give up their seed saving freedom, and being forced to rely on the intensive use of chemicals and other synthetic interventions in order to farm.

Prof. Howard explains that a concept known as the "agricultural treadmill" has been a major contributing factor in the demise of the seed industry. Because demand for food is largely inelastic, any increase in production will cause crop prices to fall.

So as new farming technologies emerge, farmers that adopt them first inadvertently force all the other farmers to adopt them as well, just to maintain the same level of revenue. If they do not adopt them, or fail to keep up with other farmers on the treadmill, they will eventually fall off, or be forced out of the farming business altogether.

Other factors include changes in policy that have decreased the barriers to accumulation that have prevented agricultural takeover in the past. By developing patented, transgenic traits, seed companies have been able to overcome a barrier to accumulation in agriculture.

When farmers cannot save their GM seeds, the corporate owners can effectively maintain a continual, yearly cash flow just from selling seeds and their corresponding pesticides and herbicides, which in turn makes agriculture a vastly more profitable enterprise for preying corporations like Monsanto than it used to be.

So what is the solution? Prof. Howard suggests improving antitrust enforcement, which will prevent the continual shift of seed company ownership and gradual accumulation of the food chain by a few large companies. Another idea is to create policies that fight against the agricultural treadmill phenomenon, and that instead promote independent, self-sustaining agricultural systems that maintain control of food with the people rather than the corporations.

Perhaps the most effective suggestion -- and one that we here at NaturalNews strongly advocate for as well -- is to end the practice of granting patents on living organisms.

By re-establishing this most-effective obstacle to accumulation, there will be no more incentive for multinational biotechnology companies like Monsanto to focus on dominating agriculture because there will be no more opportunity for the massive accumulation of wealth and capital through patented seeds.

Sources for this story include:

http://www.seedbuzz.com/knowledge-center/article/visualizing-consolidatio...

http://www.naturalnews.com/files/seedindustry.pdf

http://www.naturalnews.com/033148_se..._Monsanto.html