On the Banks

You're Unlikely to Go Wrong Assuming Everything the Mainstream Media Says About Alternative Medicine is False

 

 

You may have seen NBC's hit piece on the mother whose son had just died – the piece that uses the family's tragedy as an excuse to go after Larry Cook's FaceBook group "Stop Mandatory Vaccination." That piece is titled: "On Facebook, anti-vaxxers urged a mom not to give her son Tamiflu. He later died."

Before I read that article, I had never really looked into elderberry extract as a possible flu remedy. We do take elderberry/zinc lozenges sometimes, and we avoid pharmaceuticals as much as possible. (No, I would never use Tamiflu.) But I had never really looked into the elderberry component of it.

Until I saw this, from the NBC hit piece:

"The mother also wrote that the “natural cures” she was treating all four of her children with — including peppermint oil, Vitamin C and lavender — were not working and asked the group for more advice. The advice that came in the comments included breastmilk, thyme and elderberry, none of which are medically recommended treatments for the flu."

Because I've read a fair bit of mainstream medical reporting and I've seen how much outright propaganda gets published in "reputable" outlets masquerading as journalism, this last sentence jumped out at me.

"Really?" I thought to myself. "Did Brandy Zadrozny (NBC's ace medical journalist, who has carved out a niche for herself harrassing mothers of children who are ill or have died–but only the ones who question medical orthodoxy) really look into all of these treatments and determine that none of them are recommended for the flu?

So I decided to check. 

The first one was the easiest. Even the CDC knows that breastmilk can be beneficial in protecting against the flu virus and other pathogens. Here's what it has to say on the matter (bold mine):

“A mother’s breast milk contains antibodies and other immunological factors that can help protect her infant from flu and is the recommended source of nutrition for the infant, even while the mother is ill.”

and:

“When an infant has flu, the mother should be encouraged to continue breastfeeding or feeding expressed breast milk to her infant. Infants who are ill need fluids to stay hydrated and breast milk is the best option.”

OK fine. But what about this kooky elderberry stuff? Surely that must be a bunch of woo-woo hippie crackpot nonsense?

Turns out, nope.

A study in 2004  of 60 patients found that those who took elderbery syrup within 48 hours of the onset of symptoms experienced relief of those symptoms an average of 4 days earlier than did patients given a placebo syrup.

Another study, in 2009, showed a dramatic improvement in flu symptoms in a group treated with elderberry extract as compared to a placebo group. And last year, a study published in the Journal of Functional Foods identified some of the mechanisms of action that make elderberry extract effective against the influenza virus.

Zadrozny might argue that just because there are studies supporting the use of elderberry extract against the flu, that doesn't mean that it is a "medically recommended treatment" for the flu–which is what she said it was not, in her hit piece against the grieving mother and the facebook group. But that statement is just vague enough ("medically recommended" by whom? Any doctor? Any medical professional?) to be untrue. Of course there is some medical professional out there who recommends elderberry extract as a treatment for the flu. More importantly though, there is scientific evidence supporting that recommendation–something Zadrozny is unaware of, and likely does not care about. After all, the purpose of her article was not the upholding of scientific accuracy.

Moving on to Thyme. 

So, in the short period of time I spent looking up Zadrozny's claim, I did not find anything supporting the role of thyme in fighting off the flu. HOWEVER, I did find quite a bit about its properties as a potent anti-microbial agent, its ability to fight off bacteria, some viruses, and even superbugs. So... yay thyme! Who knew? I certainly wouldn't have, had it not been for Brandy Zadrozny's over-the-top hit piece on a grieving mother. 

By the way, since the premise of the NBC article was that it was irresponsible of the mother to not give her ailing son Tamiflu, but to try some of these other (scientifically supported) remedies instead, I thought it worth pointing out that the makers of Tamiflu are currently being sued for misrepresenting the efficacy of the drug. According to the Lanier Lawfirm:

"Drug company Hoffmann-La Roche (OTCMKTS – RHHBY) bilked U.S. federal and state governments out of $1.5 billion by misrepresenting clinical studies and falsely claiming that its well-known influenza medicine Tamiflu was effective at containing potential pandemics, according to a recently unsealed whistleblower lawsuit. 

"The lawsuit claims the drugmaker’s scheme involved publishing misleading articles falsely stating that Tamiflu reduces complications, severity, hospitalizations, mortality and transmission of influenza. The company then used those articles to aggressively market the drug to the government for pandemic use. Relying on the supposed truthfulness of Roche’s claims, federal and state governments spent about $1.5 billion to stockpile Tamiflu to combat influenza pandemics, according to the complaint."

There's a lot more to say about the NBC piece, and I plan to write more about it soon. But I just wanted to share with my readers something I learned here: That while it is never a good idea to assume anything, and is a disastrous idea to build any kind of article or argument on assumptions, some assumptions can be a good place in which to start poking around. And this is one of them: The assumption that most of what the mainstream media has to say about alternative medicine (or you can substitute Beach Balls here) is flat-out wrong. This isn't always true of course, but it's a good place to start.

Anyway, thanks NBC, and thanks Brandy Zadrozny. Without your tireless efforts, I might never have known just how useful elderberry extract (and possibly thyme) can be against the flu! 

 

 

I Talk with Ernie Hancock About Beach Balls, Beach Balls, Beach Balls!

 

Photo, public domain, via GoodFreePhotos.

 

Actually no, we talk about vaccine mandates, liberty, pirates, and the incredible protests going on all over the world now against medical tyranny.

See to the whole thing here!

 

What You May Not Know: California Denying Healthcare to Children

 

 

This is for my CA friends who don't yet realize what has happened here (and what will very likely happen elsewhere, for those of you not in CA):

NOBODY is able to get medical exemptions for vaccines required for school now. NOBODY. INCLUDING THE CHILDREN SB276'S ADVOCATES TELL US IT IS DESIGNED TO PROTECT.

And this is WITHOUT SB276 having passed. This is because of the State of California's explicit intimidation of doctors who do grant exemptions.

So... if you ever think you might want your child to forego, I don't know... even ONE of the required vaccines, or if you're concerned that something like the HPV vaccine might end up on that list one day... or if you just give a shit about the right of parents to make medical decisions for their own children... you might want to sit up and start paying attention now.

 

 

 

Video: No, You WON'T Be Able to Get a Medical Exemption Under SB276. You Can't Even Get One NOW.

 

So... that whole thing about how you'll still be able to get medical exemptions under SB276, if you "really need them"??? And in accordance with the CDC guidelines? Nope.

You can't even get one NOW. Here's the reality: 

 

 

Doctors who had been granting medical exemptions since the passage of SB277 have been maligned, persecuted, put on probation, or sued by the state for doing so. I've spoken with doctors (and their staff) who have given exemptions in the past, but are afraid to now because of what has happened to others.

These others include Dr. Bob Sears, the author of a book outlining alternative vaccine schedules for parents, and a vocal critic of vaccine mandate legislation. 

Dr. Sears was targeted by the California State Medical Board and accused of “gross negligence” for having written a letter recommending that a child be exempt from future vaccines. The child’s mother reported that he had experienced a severe reaction to a previous vaccine, and the Medical Board accused Dr. Sears of failing to obtain a detailed medical history. Dr. Sears was placed on a 35-month probation in 2018. (You can read news reports of the story here and here, and Dr. Sears’ account here.)

Likewise, Dr. Kenneth Stoller, another opponent of vaccine mandates, was served with a subpoena in May, by the San Francisco City Attorney’s Office, requesting his patient records related to all of the medical exemptions he had written since 2016. The subpoena was recently withdrawn, however the Medical Board of California has filed charges against him for having issued medical exemptions outside of the CDC guidelines. (This is despite the fact that current law does not require doctors to limit themselves to CDC guidelines when deciding whether or not to write an exemption.) 

Remember the outcry over the "one doctor" who was responsible for a third of all medical exemptions granted in San Diego? Remember how the media tried to portray her as somehow dishonest or unethical? The experiences of Dr. Sears and Dr. Stoller illustrate exactly why there were so few doctors in California willing to grant exemptions—and why there are none now.

The only dishonesty in this story comes from the people who promised, with the passing of SB277, that children would still be able to get medical exemptions, and that the determination for whether or not a child qualified for an exemption would be left entirely in the hands of that child's doctor.

It is clear that SB276 betrays that promise. But what is also apparent is that that bill was never even necessary to eliminate medical exemptions in California. That has already been achieved by sheer intimidation.

 

 

 

To the British Government: Stop Screwing Over Sick Kids

 

 

At a time when the rest of the world is coming to realize just how destructive, deadly, and counterproductive the War on (Some) Drugs has been, the British government is still seizing medicinal cannabis from children who need it. Well done, British government, well done. Maybe you can go back to torturing people in mental institutions too?

Emma Appleby's daughter Teagan has been using CBD to treat her seizures, with great success. Teagan has the same genetic condition that our daughter (seen above) has, Dup15Q Syndrome, and like our daughter, suffers from difficult-to-control seizures. I posted about their story earlier this year, when the CBD oil that they had purchased in Holland (because they were unable to get it in the UK) was seized from them at customs - EVEN THOUGH THEY HAD A PRESCRIPTION FOR IT!

Some background: In November of last year, "cannabis-derived medicine" became legal by prescription in England, Scotland and Wales. But that doesn't mean that the NHS will offer prescriptions for every kind of medicinal CBD product. As The Guardian reports:

Although several cannabis-based medicines have been prescribed by the NHS since it was legalised in November, full extract cannabis oils – which campaigners say are both more effective and cheaper – remain unlicensed and do not appear to have been given to patients.

However, they are available privately and a number of patients have gained access in that way.

The Applebys were finally able to get a private prescription for the oil that was helping Teagan, after having it seized at customs the first time they tried bringing it in from Holland. However she was then told that she would need an import license, which she could not afford.

Teagan's mom has since found someone who can import the oil legally, but just this week she was told by the doctor giving her the prescription that he will no longer be able to do so.

Miss Appleby says this likely means the request for NHS funding has been turned down.

"I haven't had confirmation yet, but I think it's for that reason the doctor is not prescribing any more," she said.

"This is a massive blow because they sounded quite confident the individual funding request (IFR) would go through and that she could have a prescription on the NHS."

It means the family must continue to find £2,500 every month to pay for the medication from abroad privately.

Emma currently has enough CBD oil to last for about another five weeks, and has found another doctor who can offer her a private prescription. But the price tag is exhorbitant (it is about TEN TIMES what we pay for our daughter's CBD oil in the US!). After her current batch runs out, she doesn't know if she will be able to afford more. Before starting CBD, Teagan was having as many as 300 seizures a day. Her improvement since starting CBD has been dramatic. Now though, she does not know what she will do:

"If she loses this medication it will kill her," she said.

"She was so poorly last year, I didn’t think she was going to come out of intensive care.

"It's improved her life so much - I can't go back to how she was."

As an aside: Emma Appleby could very likely have gotten the CBD in through customs, as some other parents do, had she kept quiet about it and not set out to make her story public. But she did make it public, and she did it for a reason: In order to help other families who are having a hard time accessing the medication that can help their children.

If you want to help Emma, and Teagan, in their battle to secure what should be easily available for all families, you can do so here. 

 

 

Daily Log: Saving Humanity by Learning How to Live with Tech.

 

 

I had some really amazing conversations at FEECON last month. Lots and lots of really smart, interesting, independent-minded people there, and lots to talk about. One of my favorite conversations was with another homeschooling mom (there were lots of those there too), whose name I didn't even get. Of course, the topic of "screens" came up. For me - and for a lot of parents, homeschoolers or not - this is my biggest challenge with our neuro-typical son. 

 

But this mom articulated it in a way that made me see the entire question differently. She said something to the effect of: "We're trying to figure out a balance between technology and 'real life', and to help our kids achieve this balance. And if we can get it right, it's one of the most important things we can do for the future of humanity."

 

I think she's right. Too much of the time, my own battle with technology, as a parent, consists of trying to find ways to limit it, to restict my son's "screentime." But there's so much more to it than that. This mom and I both agreed that we don't want to keep screens out of our kids' lives, we want them to be proficient in navigating the landscape that technology offers - a landscape that neither she nor I grew up with, and with which our kids are already far more proficient in many ways than we are.

 

But we also recognize that there are things we need as human beings - things like time spent in nature, face-to-face interactions with other humans, quiet time, to work with our hands, etc. - and that there are skills everyone needs to develop if they are going to be anything more than consumers and game players. Skills like: The ability to focus, to fend off distraction; the ability to think critically and evaluate the information one encounters; the ability to discern between substance and noise; and the nurturing of one's own moral compass.

 

Part of the problem with "screens" is down to the nature of the beast itself: From the physiological problems of exposure to blue light, to the way that communicating with others without seeing their faces changes both our communication and our ability to relate to others. But another part of the problem is just an augmentation of what we have always faced as humans: How to master our own minds. How to not just get sucked in to whatever attention-seeking piece of information happens to be floating around in front of us, but to focus on the things that we believe are important; How to not just adopt the viewpoints of the crowd around us, but really sit with something, think it through, and come to our own viewopoint; How to slice through all of the bullshit the world presents to us and distinguish between what is essential and worth spending time on, and what is not.

 

These are not new problems. The rate at which new information is being thrown at us may be new, but the underlying problem itself is not.

 

There's a lot more to say about this, but for now I just want to say that I now see this as THE big challenge for me as a homeschooling mom, and I'm going to be blogging more about it in the future. Partly just to help clarify my own thinking on the matter, because the God's honest truth here is that I have NO IDEA how to get this right. For myself, there have been a few times in my life when I really did have it right: In film school, when I was 100% focused on the work I was doing, all day long, and it was a beautiful thing; and again in the year and a half before I met my husband, when I was living on my own in Brooklyn, getting up and meditating every morning, going to ballet 3-4 times a week, teaching yoga and going to yoga classes, and also writing. It was so easy when I was on my own. But now, with a husband and two kids (I'm not complaining), one of whom needs lots of special care, and a day that is way too short for the list of things that Must Get Done... it is much more challenging. 

 

So that's my big challenge: Restoring peace and ...I'm not even sure what to call it... "right living"? "Balance" just sounds like jargon. I'll try to think of something better. Restoring the "real life" part of my life, and helping my son to have it too. And I suspect that the answer to getting it lies less in imposing restrictions on screens, and more in offering up meaningful (if not as immediately enticing) alternatives.

 

One of my favorite yoga teachers ever had this to say on the matter: "Learn to use technology, without letting it use you." That's the power I want to give to my son. 

 

Stay tuned as I work to figure this out.

 

 

 

 

CA Legislators Aim to Replace Doctors with the State in Granting Vaccine Exemptions - My Article for FEE

 

Image: Public domain.

 

From my article on Fee.org last week:

At the time, Pan assured parents that exemptions based on medical criteria would remain in place and would not be interfered with:

"If a physician feels that there is a genetic association in a sibling, a cousin, some other relative, it’s not safe for a vaccine, then they can provide a medical exemption for that vaccine—there is no limitation,” said Pan, during SB 277 hearings.

Now, four years after the passage of SB 277, and with a degree of mendacity that is frankly awe-inspiring, the Sacramento Bee reports that Pan

… is prepared ... to close what he considers a loophole that SB 277 inadvertently created. "I have dedicated my career to keeping children and our communities safe and healthy," Pan said, whose statement on the issue says some doctors are "monetizing their exemption-granting authority and profiting from the sale of medical exemptions."

After participating in a media campaign that demonized doctors for doing exactly what the new law allowed them to and what Pan explicitly promised they would be allowed to do, Pan proposed a new bill: SB 276, which would put the power to grant medical exemptions into the hands of government bureaucrats.

 

You can read the whole thing here.

You may have heard that this bill has been amended, to assuage the concerns of California's governor Gavin Newsom that it gave too much power to government officials to make medical decisions for families. It is true that the bill has been amended, but there is no sense in which it reduces the power given to state officials. If anything, it broadens them. I will be getting a short blog out about that, hopefully later today. 

 

 

Daily Log: Report From FEECON 2019 - Part 1

 

 

So I almost didn't make it to FEECON 2019. The first part was entirely my mistake. (Or, as some might put it: The expected consequence of my not being fully skilled in navigating life in a police state.) I had just recently been approved for "TSA-Pre" status - I know, I was as surprised (and honestly, a little disappointed in myself) as you are. And what I knew, but then forgot, was that I had to bring my passport with me when traveling, because my TSA-Pre status and my passport are both in one of my names, while my driver's license is in another. I knew this. I just forgot. 

What that ended up meaning was that I got to spend several more hours in - NOT the worst place in the world (that title is reserved for a small hotel in Wuhan) but close to it. The Los Angeles International Airport.

Here's what was interesting about that: Every single person I interacted with there was lovely. Which really messed with my head. Because here we are being treated like cattle by the TSA, people who can literally molest us with impunity, here we are being sniffed by bomb-sniffing dogs, told we can't even carry a water bottle through security... and everyone seems really comfortable with it. 

There's obviously a very very dark side to that, and I've written about that elsewhere. But there is also a positive side, and it is this: Human beings are very very resilient. We are capable of tolerating a lot of crap. And while tolerating crap is not a good practice in life, it can be a strength. What I think I saw at LAX (again, NOT the worst place in the world), was people being strong enough to still be decent and happy, even in the face of all this crap. And the truth is probably that a great many of them don't even see it is crap. That by itself is both kind of nice and deeply horrifying.

The second thing that almost prevented me from getting to FEECON was that, as I was figuring out whether I was going to get on another flight with a name change, or have my husband bring my passport to me, I found out that our daughter's feeding tube was stuck! Our daughter has a feeding tube (long story), and sometimes it gets stuck for a short while and we can't get anything through it. Usually it resolves within 15-30 minutes, a few times it has gone as long as two hours. This time it had been more than four hours. 

This is a huge problem, because while she can eat by mouth, she won't usually take her medication by mouth, or all of the water she needs to have. Her caregivers had tried everything we knew to get it to work, I had spoken in depth to both her dietician and a nurse, to get ideas for getting it unstuck, and still it wouldn't budge. So, after my husband arrived with my passport, I realized that I wasn't going to be able to go to FEECON after all, at least not today. Maybe I could catch a flight out in the morning. So, we started the long drive back from LAX to Burbank.

Then, about ten minutes away from the aiport, we get a call - the tube is un-stuck! So we turn around, I run back in, catch another flight, and make it to Atlanta!

By the time I get to the hotel, it's around 1:00am. I am bleary eyed and wobbly from travel, and go check in - only to be told that I'll be on the 17th floor. Ordinarily, this would be just fine. But this particular hotel happened to have been designed by someone with a sick, sick, mind. It's one of those hotels that is open in the center, so when you're at the bottom and you look up, you see stacks and stacks of railings. When you go up to the top and look down, you want to scream and scream until all those railings stop spinning and your stomach comes back down from the top of your skull and you can just go and cry in a corner somewhere.

Oh, and the only elevators they have are glass. 

So that's how my trip started. I'll post more tomorrow - maybe I'll even talk about the conference.

Oh, and that's me with Michael Strong and his wife, Magatte Wade - both rockstars. After talking with Michael especially for many years now online, it was great to finally meet him. 

 

Daily Log: Unbelievable Asshattery from the UK, and My Little Girl's Second EEG

 

 

This is my little girl, when we first discovered that she was having seizures. This was her second EEG, which we did at home. I've never posted pictures of her on my blog before, or on social media at all outside of parent groups. But I've decided to now, for reasons maybe I'll go into at some point.

Aeriel has had seizures since she was somewhere between nine months and a year old. She has had one nearly-two-year period of being seizure free (we don't know why), and another brief seizure-free period of a couple of months. She is now - knock serious wood - seizure free again, and I don't know how to describe what a relief that is. And also, is not. Because we are always aware that they could come back at any time. But to go for days and days and not see a single seizure, when she had been having dozens every day - is pretty awesome.

CBD has helped her, but it didn't entirely get rid of her seizures. We finally found a med that has knocked them out (for now), but she is also on CBD. And seeing how much it has helped her, it just enrages me more than I can say to see what is happening to families like Teagan's, in England, where they have now had the cannabis they had to go overseas to procure seized from them at customs FOR THE SECOND TIME. And after getting a prescription for it.

Here is the story:

The mother of a severely epileptic nine-year-old girl has had medical cannabis seized at an airport for the second time, even though she had a private prescription for the medicine.

Emma Appleby was accompanied on her trip to the Netherlands by Labour MP Tonia Antoniazzi, who has campaigned for greater access to medical cannabis.

Although several cannabis-based medicines have been prescribed by the NHS since it was legalised in November, full extract cannabis oils – which campaigners say are both more effective and cheaper – remain unlicensed and do not appear to have been given to patients.

However, they are available privately and a number of patients have gained access in that way.

“There seems no end to the stress and trauma of trying to access the medical cannabis that I have proved beyond doubt transforms the life of my daughter Teagan,” said Appleby, who was carrying a month’s supply of medical cannabis oil worth about £2,500.

“I am exhausted and shattered but I’ve seen how this medicine transforms my daughter’s life. I have to find a way forward. The NHS just won’t prescribe. This is unforgivably cruel and unfair.”

...

 

Teagan has the same condition our daughter has, Dup15Q syndrome. Her mom is on some of my FaceBook parent groups. So their story particularly hits home for me. But I am outraged over anyone being forcibly prevented from accessing treatments that might help their children. (Or, as I have posted elsewhere, being forced to use medical treatments against their will.) Here's the kicker, from the article:

A government spokesman said: “It is unlawful to import unlicensed cannabis-based products for medicinal use to the UK without a Home Office importation licence.

“There is an established regulatory system which enables the importation of these products to the UK via pharmaceutical wholesalers, so they can be dispensed to UK resident patients prescribed these products by a specialist doctor.”

He added: “Border Force has a duty to enforce the law and stop the unlawful import of controlled substances into the UK.”

 

And that's it. The law is the law, and there's no questioning it, or questioning those who enforce it. It's as if the Nuremberg trials never happened. As I've said a million times, and as I'll keep saying until I'm blue in the face, this is not civilized behavior. And a society that demands obedience to bad laws is not a civilized society. 

And I just wonder what it's going to take for enough people to wake up and stop tolerating this crap. To stop believing that the people with the guns and the prisons have some kind of legitimate authority over our lives. That they get to decide what medical treatments your child may have or may not have - or must have. What the hell is it going to take?

 

 

 

Daily Log: Best Day Ever, and a Realization

 

 

So yesterday was "the best day of my life!" for my son (one of many, in fact, to hear him tell it). But this one was pretty special. The studio where we both do kung fu had a "spring boutique" over the weekend, and I lugged a bunch of my Urban Yogini books over there to sell. I asked my son if he wanted to come with me, and he kind of reluctantly did. A little girl next to us was drawing portraits of people for a dollar, and my son decided he wanted to draw too, so he ran home and got some paper and colored pencils and brought them back. He started drawing pictures, and then started taking them around to people asking if they wanted them. A couple of people said they didn't want the ones he had done, but asked if he could draw something else for them. So he drew a dog for one person, another creature for someone else... he didn't ask for any money, but two of the people came over and gave him a dollar for the pictures. I don't think I've ever seen him so happy. Not because of the money, but because he had created something that people appreciated and valued. He's making plans now for their next boutique at Christmas time. (Yes, this is one of his drawings.)

This isn't a piece of news, but rather an observation about the news, and about sharing information: I used to frequently post stories about people being killed or abused by police or other government agents. I don't do that as much anymore, and I realized yesterday that there's actually a good reason not to. I realized that all of those stories, and all of our outrage about them, has just become a part of the landscape. Just as our outrage about the fact that we have to worry about school shootings has become part of what is "normal" now. And I think all of our posts and outrage about these things can just become wallpaper. I don't mean that we should be silent about it, or that we shouldn't be aware of what's going on, and help make others aware. Just that the more we fill the conversational space with these stories, the more we also help to normalize them, and to desensitize people to them. They just become part of what is expected.

So what's the solution? What is a better thing to do? I'm not sure, other than maybe share these stories in a different way, one that breaks through the wallpaper, gets people to see what's going on with fresh eyes. That, and offer up actual solutions, actions people can take to put a stop to what has become the norm.

 

 

Del Bigtree: How to Shut Up Anti-Vaxxers Forever

 

 

 

Generally, if I watch a video on YouTube, it's because I'm doing some other task that takes 10-20 minutes or so. so I don't usually watch videos much longer than that. But I am watching this one in pieces because so far, every moment of it is GOLDEN.

Del Bigtree is on fire, and he nails everything here. The stuff on Plotkin trying to cover his ass, and the asses of the other asses who might be called upon to testify on behalf of vaccines only to find that they are asked real questions... is PRICELESS.

And Del is spot on about this: We were pretty quiet about our healthcare decisions for our families, until a bunch of asshole politicians and pharma cronies decided to try forcing their decisions on us. We're not so quiet anymore. And that's a good thing, because it's long past time we had this conversation out in public. Maybe a lot more children will be protected from vaccine harm now, because we're not being so quiet. Maybe the next generation of "anti-vaxxers" won't, in fact, be "ex-vaxxers" like this one is.

Stay tuned.

 

 

 

Six-Year-Old Victim of the War on (Some) Drugs

This is Charly's story. Charly was six years old and had the same genetic condition that our daughter has. Her parents were treating her seizures with THC, but had to drive across state lines to get it, and could not get any advice from doctors on dosing, because the gang that runs the state they live in said they couldn't.

What the news report below doesn't say is that, after Charly had passed away and her mother had called 911, the gang members who showed up threw the family out of the house so they could search it for THC.

If anyone ever wonders why I despise the violent gang known as the state with every fiber of my being, please stop wondering that now. If you wonder why I refer to the monsters who enforce its laws as monsters, you can stop wondering that too. And if you want to help prevent more needless deaths like Charly's, one of the most important things you can do is to stop rationalizing and supporting predation and violence when it wears a uniform.

 

 

 

 

 

Charly's Voice Must Be Heard

 

 

I don't usually post things I haven't read, but I'm making an exception here. I literally cannot read this. I started to, and I can't. But I do know what happened, and I want others to know about this.

Charly was six years old when she passed away two weeks ago from seizures. She has the same condition our daughter has. The family called 911, and when the police came, the mother mentioned that they had been using THC to treat her seizures. Which is illegal in their state.

Instead of behaving like actual human beings, the officers forced the grieving family out of their house so they could search it for THC.

If anyone ever wonders why I refer to the monsters who enforce these laws as monsters - please stop wondering.

If anyone ever wonders why I detest the state with every fiber of my being - please stop wondering.

This is not just about the war on drugs. It's not even just about the state (although it largely is.) It is about our humanity. It is about blind obedience to authority, and it is about how so very many of us have sacrificed our humanity and our souls to an institution. There is no way any of us living in this time get to look back at any other period of history and shake our heads in disbelief. History is us. And we should be ashamed.


Charly's mother has asked that her story be shared widely. Here it is.

(Image public domain.)

 

 

 

The One Way to Spot Vaccine Propaganda

 

Image: Public domain. Source.

 

I've got an article on LewRockwell.com today, about how mainstream coverage of the vaccine controversy is little more than propaganda. From the article:

It’s that season again: Another outbreak of a benign childhood disease that only a couple of generations ago the vast majority of the US population contracted and recovered from, serendipitously occurring precisely at the time when legislators across the country are putting forward bills to strip parents of the right to choose whether or not to vaccinate their own children.

In this climate of interest-driven hysteria, it is important to be able to distinguish between reliable information on the issue, and misinformation. Here is one quick way to tell the difference:

 

You can read the whole thing here.

 

 

If You Don't Think the Conversation on Vaccines Is Being Controlled, Think Again:

 

 

 

Anne Mason, the author of this article writes:

Medium just removed my "Measles Scare Tactics Hurt Us All" article from their platform. If you think free speech exists in this country, think again. If you need a valid link to the article, please use this one at GreenMedInfo. They added valuable hyperlinks to the body of the article, so it's a better version to use anyway:

Without specifics, they determined I was in violation of their rules and explained that they "do not allow posts or accounts that engage in on-platform, off-platform, or cross-platform campaigns of targeting, harassment, hate speech, violence, or disinformation." So, my guess is "disinformation." My article was fully referenced. Every study and link I mentioned is backed up. Alarming, to say the least.

 

This is not the first time a social media platform has silenced someone who was critical of vaccines. Last December, Sayer Ji, founder of GreenMedInfo, wrote:

On Dec. 13th, 2018 Pinterest removed GreenMedInfo.com, one of the world’s most trafficked and widely referenced natural health research sites, from its platform, stating: “your linked website violated our misinformation policy. This policy includes things like promotion of false cures for terminal or chronic illnesses, and anti-vaccination advice.”

This action occurred after a number of other sites which either question the safety of vaccines, or are critical of the vaccine industry, reported similar de-platforming.

...Other platforms who have reported on Pinterest’s censorship include The National Vaccination Information Center (NVIC), Mercola.com, NaturalNews.com, and Health Impact News. You can learn more by reading, Eroding Freedoms: Pinterest Removes NVIC’s Boards, and Pinterest Censoring Anti-Vaccine Doctors and Pins Related to Vaccine Rights.

 

You can see the entire email Pinterest sent to GreenMedInfo.com, here.

Whatever a person's views on vaccines may be, anyone who values a culture of free and open debate on important issues should be very concerned by the current trend of social-media companies to establish themselves as arbiters of the truth, rather than as platforms for open discussion.

As both of these examples demonstrate, the vaccine debate is far from "settled." Both Mason's pulled article and GreenMedInfo.com reference peer-reviewed literature on vaccine safety, and both carefully cite their sources. This is in bold contrast to the vast majority of mainstream coverage of the topic, which typically repeats without support the assertions that "vaccines are safe and effective", and "vaccines do not cause autism," while regurgitating tired untruths about Dr. Andrew Wakefield and the 1998 Lancet paper.

There are, sadly, a great many people who don't care all that much about free and open debate, and who are quite happy to have their truths handed to them by gatekeepers. But I don't personally believe that there are as many of them as the social media giants are counting on. And unless they are able to get government to regulate their own industry (a move that would only benefit the existing power players, at the expense and possibly to the exclusion of newcomers), they will soon start to face some real competition from platforms promising spaces for genuine free speech. 

 

CORRECTION: The above has been corrected to read that only Mason's article was removed from the Medium platform. Her account has not been suspended, as was earlier stated. 

 

 

Who Are All those Anti-Vaxxers, Anyway?

 

 

The mainstream media would have you believe that parents who choose not to vaccinate their children (or even those who choose to delay vaccination, to space out vaccines, or to reject some vaccines) do so because they have listened to Jenny McCarthy or other celebrities with no scientific qualifications.

The reality – as anyone can find out for themselves by spending even a little time perusing "anti-vaxxer" groups on social media (search #WeDid) – is that the vast majority of parents who question vaccine safety do so because their own children have been severely injured, or have died, soon after receiving vaccines. Vaccine proponents will argue that these deaths and injuries were just coincidences, that the vaccines were not to blame, and for some fraction of these incidents they may be right (I discussed this more a few years ago, here.) Although I have to say that I sure don't remember ever hearing about perfectly normal children suddenly starting to have seizures, losing the ability to speak, walk, function, etc. overnight, when I was growing up.

But all of that is beside the point. The point is that an increasing number of parents are concerned about vaccine safety, not because they listened to some celebrity on a talk show and decided to disregard everything their doctors had ever told them, but because they experienced what they reasonably believe to be harm from vaccines, first-hand. 

The people in the photo above are attending a rally that was held yesterday, in Washington State, to protest proposed vaccine mandates there. Claire Wilbur, who was there, says that thousands of people showed up to protest the legislation. And the ones with their hands in the air? Those are the ones who are there because they have had one or more children injured or killed by vaccines.

 

 

How to Immunize Yourself Against Vaccine Propaganda - Jeremy R. Hammond

 

 

 

If you are getting your information on the vaccine debate from mainstream media, then what you are getting is not "information" but something else. It sure as hell isn't journalism.

Here's another fantastic piece from Jeremy R. Hammond:

"The Times would have us believe that the science on vaccines is settled. The reality is that there is a great deal of debate and controversy in the scientific literature about the safety and effectiveness of CDC-recommended vaccines. The demonstrable truth of the matter, as the Times editorial so amply illustrates, is that what the government and media say science says about vaccines and what science actually tells us are two completely different and contradictory things."

Oh, and by the Way... (Unvaccinated Schoolchildren Don't Pose Any Significant Risk to Immunocompromised Kids)

 

A new publication from Physicians for Informed Consent demonstrates why mandatory vaccination for schoolchildren doesn't actually help immunocompromised children in any significant way. This was one of the major arguments that the pharma employees politicians used to get SB277 passed in California. And it's just wrong.

What the publication doesn't say is that in some cases, vaccination can actually put those around the vaccinated child at higher risk. Pertussis (Whooping Cough) is a good example of this: The vaccine does absolutely nothing to prevent the colonization and spreading of the Pertussis bacteria, so even kids who are vaccinated against it, and are then exposed to it, are still able to pass it on to others. What the vaccine does do though is lessen the symptoms in those who are vaccinated. What this means is that children who are infected with Whooping Cough are less likely to realize they have it, and are therefore more likely to go to school, or to be in social/public situations where they may contaminate others.

I'm reprinting the entire document here (all three pages!) Citations are on the last page:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

How One County's Schools Systematically Exclude Minority Students from Quality Education

 

To be clear, I don't believe that "racism" is at the heart of most of the problems we are facing today, and I don't believe that eradicating racism (if that were even possible) will solve them. Most of them boil down to a lack of accountability, and that boils down to the monopoly state. With that said, if you don't think that there are structural and institutional barriers keeping some minority groups (and especially low-income minority groups) at a distance from opportunity and success, then you need to look a little more closely.

This is just one, very small, example: It's a documentary I made a few years ago, detailing how the Howard County School System - one of the top-rated public school systems in the country - enforced a policy denying choice (in the form of being able to change schools within the system) to parents. The doc also demonstrates how this policy of selectively denying access to the better schools was more stringently applied to minority families.

Watch and learn: Choice Denied: The Politics of Failure in Howard County Public Schools.

Oh and yes, the Howard County Public School System refused to speak to us for this project.

 

 

 

No, I Don't Support the Troops

 

I usually stay pretty quiet on Memorial Day. I know that it’s one of the times people are least likely to be open to hearing my views on war and the military. They’re all pumped up and righteous about honoring their fallen heroes, about “remembering those who died to protect our freedom”, so why would they want to listen to someone trash their holiday and tell them their beliefs are a lie? I’ve also grown tired of losing friends over issues that have nothing to do with our friendship, and I know that an argument with me isn’t going to change most people’s minds. There just doesn’t seem to be much point in speaking out about it in my personal circles - especially on days like Memorial Day.

But something happened recently that has changed my mind. Our daughter has a developmental disability for which she receives a lot of therapy each week. One of her favorites is equine therapy - therapeutic horseback riding - and one of her favorite therapists is a 16-year-old girl who I’ll call Kate. Kate is one of the most beautiful, intelligent, kind and caring young women I have ever met. She is also very strong, generous and - for lack of a better word - good. She has all the spirit and energy and exuberance about the world that everyone should have at sixteen. Kate has been riding since she was a small child and has a real gift for the work she does with our daughter. She has an uncanny ability to connect with the horses and with nonverbal little girls like my own. It is as if she was born to do this work.

I was sitting with Kate’s mom one day a few months ago, watching my daughter have her session with another therapist while Kate rode her own horse at the other end of the arena. She told me that Kate had one more year of (homeschooling) high school and I asked what her plans were after that. She said that she was hoping to join the Air Force.

My heart fell into my stomach and I was sure Kate’s mom saw the look on my face. We talked some more. She told me that it seemed like the best option available, that the Air Force would pay for Kate’s college, and that it appealed to her adventurous spirit. When my daughter’s session was over I left, feeling shattered and powerless. I knew there was nothing I could say to Kate to get her to change her mind, just as there was nothing her mother could say. She was sixteen years old - she wasn’t going to let a couple of grown ups tell her what to do with her life. We could try gently offering her other alternatives, but that was about it. Her imagination had already been sparked by something over which we had no power.

Over the next few weeks I couldn’t get my mind off of my conversation with Kate’s mom. I was worried about Kate, I was afraid for her, I was baffled by her choice. And the more I thought about it, the more I found myself getting angry. This wasn’t just some choice that had appeared out of thin air. This was something Kate had been primed for since she was a small child. Billions of dollars had gone into a global PR campaign, and the military had exerted a great deal of influence over the media she saw, from the movies and television shows she watched, to an advertising campaign that puts Leni Riefenstahl to shame, all aimed at creating an image of the U.S. military as a benevolent organization and soldiers as heroes. What I realized was that the military PR machine had been preparing her for a very long time. And now it had her.

Just as powerful as that machine though, were the values held and expressed by the culture she has grown up in: The ubiquitous yellow flags reminding her to “support the troops”; the “Thank a soldier” bake sales and care-packages; the military discounts offered by everyone but the local meth dealer; and most of all the two constant refrains that must never, ever, be questioned: “The soldiers are fighting for our freedom”, and “you can disagree with the war, but you must support the soldier.”

Well no, they aren’t, and no, I don’t.

I’ll be blunt: If you believe that the U.S. military is in the business of protecting the freedoms of U.S. citizens, you have been sold a bill of goods. With the possible exception of the War for Independence, this country’s military has never fought a defensive war - much less a defensive war against an aggressor that intended to take our freedoms from us. And for anyone who hasn’t noticed, our freedom has only diminished with each military engagement.

I suppose that reasonable people can disagree about the merits of specific wars or military actions - although if you really understand what war is about, it becomes harder to defend any of them. It is certainly a difficult task to defend any of the U.S. military’s actions in the last fifty years. Most of the rest of the world recognizes it for the violent aggressor that it is.

Must I support the soldiers who go to war, even if I am against that war? No, I mustn’t. If anything, I believe that we have a moral obligation not to support soldiers who agree to fight in immoral wars. At some point, we have to hold people responsible for their own actions. (There was a time when I thought the Nuremberg trials had settled this issue, but I now see that I was naive to think that.)

In my experience, those who “support the troops” - whatever their position on the war of the day - do not tend to do so out of a reasoned position about what war is, or what the U.S. military really stands for. They do it more out of base tribalism and a lifetime of consuming propaganda and growing up in a culture that glorifies militarism.

This glorification of the military, and of soldiers, is a weapon. It is a weapon that was used to recruit a beautiful young girl into a life of killing - and possibly dying - to serve the interests of the state and its corporate cronies. It is a weapon that is now being aimed at my own children, my son in particular, and that is why I am no longer willing to maintain a polite silence around my “non-political” friends about this. If you actively support the glorification of the military, then I have a problem with you. If you own a business that offers discounts to members of the military, then I have a problem with you. If you put a “support the troops” bumper sticker on your car, I have a problem with you. Because all of these things contribute to the mindless glorification of killing and dying for the state. All of these things help to support a cultural machinery that exists for the purpose of turning my son - and maybe yours - into cannon fodder. And yes, I have a problem with that.

Can we still be friends? I hope we can. But know that I have a real problem with your support for an organization that I believe to be fundamentally immoral and a direct threat to my family.

Do I expect to change anyone’s mind by expressing my views? I don’t, really. Except in this one sense: By refusing to be one more silent bystander, I can ensure that those who cheer on the war machine will know that not everyone shares their view. And that the children and teenagers who are watching will also see that opinion on this is not monolithic, that not everyone “supports the troops” and that maybe they should think very carefully about what they support and what they don’t.

There is a massive PR war going on right now and it is a war for the hearts and minds of young people - including the heart and mind of my son. I’m no longer going to stand by and pretend that I don’t object to it.