NRA Demands Convicted Stalkers And Abusive Boyfriends Be Allowed To Own Guns

Thank you for posting this! I’ve recently lost friends because they insisted that ANY mention of sensible gun regulations was “pushing for a gun ban”. I grew up on a farm using guns and I know plenty of responsible gun owners who DO emphatically support and promote sensible regulations like this that help minimize criminal gun use while not actually banning guns. Perhaps if someone is concerned with owning weapons, they will learn the restraint and self control necessary to avoid random violence that could result in restrictions. This could only be a good thing since such restraint is necessary to being a responsible gun owner.

The Fifth Column

Caricature of Wayne La Pierre by Donkey Hotey cc 2012

This is how we know the NRA is not interested in gun safety or gun regulations.  Their agenda is to placate the gun manufacturers.  It’s always been that way and it looks like it always will…

Addicting Info

The night is dark, every breeze stirs the summer bushes and startles her. Is he there? Or is she imagining things? If only the street light were closer to her car. She tells herself that she only needs to make it 12 more steps to her car. And then she is there. Her hand trembles so badly that she drops her keys. But finally she is inside her car, locks the doors and leans back letting out a slow sigh of relief.

“I’ve been waiting for you,” comes a familiar voice from the backseat. She can feel the cold muzzle of his…

View original post 652 more words

Good cirl bunting news from England

Thank you for sharing this! I love seeing successful local actions like this. People often feel there’s nothing we can do, but everything you do to improve things locally has an effect. Enough local actions will result in global transformation.

Dear Kitty. Some blog

This video is called Cirl Bunting singing (Emberiza cirlus).

From Wildlife Extra:

Cirl buntings make a comeback in south Devon

The cirl bunting once faced extinction in the UK. However, it is now making a comeback in its south Devon stronghold.

In November 2008 the RSPB purchased Labrador Bay in Devon from Teignbridge District Council.

A contributing sum of £100,000 towards the purchase came from Devon County Council as compensation for what had been predicted to have a significant impact on cirl bunting habitat – the South Devon Link Road.

The plan for Labrador Bay was to have a reserve that would provide a safe-haven for this colourful bunting, providing all the vital elements it needed to flourish: safe nesting habitat and plenty of food, seeds in the winter and insects in the summer.

Cath Jeffs, cirl bunting project manager said: “At the time of purchase, we estimated…

View original post 342 more words

Truthout Daily Digest Thursday, 26 June 2014

There are several very important stories in today’s digest.

I would add to the top story on Piketty, that it’s not just capitalism that is inherently flawed, but socialism as well.

Even though the intention of socialism is good-to correct the excesses and inequality built in to capitalism, by starting from the same premise as capitalism it inherits some of the same flaws.
I believe it’s time to abandon economic and social systems rooted in the ideas of money, production, and power over.

By starting with the central idea of production and profit both capitalism and socialism leave out by their design the most fundamentally important and central aspects of life. Instead they centralize the peripheral, and marginalize the core of life.

We can do better. For most of humanity’s long prehistory we did better, and many indigenous societies still do.

Charles Eisenstein’s book Sacred Economics is available online to read for free. It can also be downloaded as an epub or pdf file, or purchased in print form.

I don’t believe Eisenstein’s book is the last word on this but it is a great beginning.

Go here to read it- http://sacred-economics.com/read-online/ .

ohnwentsya

The Compelling Conclusion About Capitalism That Piketty Resists

Fred Guerin, Truthout: The excesses of capitalism are not simply a question of bad management and a political unwillingness to properly regulate it by imposing the right sort of checks and balances, but symptoms of a fundamentally and irretrievably flawed system that tends toward destruction of human and other life.

Read the Article

Water Cut-Off in Detroit Violates Human Rights, Say Activists

Thalif Deen, Inter Press Service: A severe water crisis in the financially bankrupt city of Detroit has prompted several NGOs and activists to appeal for UN intervention in one of the world’s richest countries.

Read the Article

Courage: Showing Solidarity With Whistleblowers and Defending Our Right to Know

Margaret Flowers and Kevin Zeese, Truthout: In this interview, Sarah Harrison of the Courage Foundation talks about the public’s right to be informed, whistleblowers’ need for solidarity and the dangerous precedents being set around the world to deny public access to information.

Read the Interview

FreeHer: Formerly Incarcerated Women Demand an End to Mass Incarceration

Victoria Law, Truthout: On June 21, 2014, formerly incarcerated women, family members and advocates gathered in Washington, DC for the FreeHer rally to draw attention to the mass incarceration of women and to demand their freedom.

Read the Article

Hurry Up and Wait: Bashing the VA

Douglas Jamiel, Truthout: Have national misgivings toward conflicts since World War II found their way into budgeting for the VA, the agency tasked with caring for the less-fêted soldiers who prosecuted these ill-conceived engagements, or is ideology preventing proper funding of the most efficient health care system in the United States?

Read the Article

The Boehner Lawsuit: The Caucus Room Conspiracy Continues

The Daily Take Team, The Thom Hartmann Program: This week, Speaker of the House John Boehner emphatically announced that he was planning to sue President Obama, claiming that Obama has “exceeded his authority.” This is simply a GOP tactic to prevent Obama from doing anything meaningful for the American people.

Read the Article

The Next Steps for the EPA’s Clean Power Plan

Mary Anne Hitt, OtherWords: Every state should concentrate its carbon-reduction efforts on truly renewable energy alternatives. Let’s create more productive jobs in industries that don’t pollute our air and water or disrupt the climate.

Read the Article

Iraq’s Depleted Uranium Threat

John LaForge, Consortium News: Over the past two dozen years, the massive damage that the United States has inflicted on Iraq’s population, infrastructure and environment includes residue from American “depleted uranium” weapons, which can cause cancer and other illnesses.

Read the Article

Shredding the Fourth Amendment in the Post-Constitutional US: Four Ways It No Longer Applies

Peter Van Buren, TomDispatch: Americans are told (and often believe) that they retain rights they no longer have. Citizens passively watch their rights disappear in the service of dark ends, largely without protest and often while still celebrating a land that no longer exists.

Read the Article

Will German Workers Declare Independence?

John Clay, Arbeitskammer: At a time when Americans are looking abroad for alternative economic strategies to rebalance our unequal economy, some worker advocates in Germany are asking if an American form of cooperative enterprise might be the way to economic independence.

Read the Article

Paul Krugman | An Innovation Lesson From Germany: Less Disruption, More Quality

Paul Krugman, Krugman & Co.: Germany manages to be an export powerhouse despite its very high labor costs. How do the Germans do it? Not by constantly coming out with revolutionary new products, but by producing very high-quality goods, for which people are willing to pay premium prices.

Read the Article

Economic Update: Analyzing Incarceration

Richard D. Wolff, Economic Update / Truthout: Updates on health economics; Mississippi political lessons; and what’s wrong with a Harvard economist. Wolff interviews Victor Wallis on the economics and politics of US prisons. Response to questions about the gender wage gap, real estate bubbles and the “ultra rich.”

Listen to the Radio Segment

BuzzFlash A Drone May Be Filming You Through Your Bedroom Window Right Now, Really Mark Karlin, BuzzFlash at Truthout: If you are doing something you don’t want to see posted on YouTube or on a government or corporate computer, remember that someone may be recording you. Read the BuzzFlash Commentary Iraq: A Disaster Stamped “Made in the USA” Read the Article at BuzzFlash Supreme Court Curtails Obama’s Recess Appointment Power Read the Article at The Washington Post The Ghoulish Trollery of Dick Cheney Read the Article at Salon Report: Accidental Shootings Kill Two Kids Every Week Read the Article at Al Jazeera America Obama Attacks Republicans for Appeasing Climate Deniers Read the Article at The Guardian Too Big to Jail: Confessions of a Goldman Sachs Brat Read the Article at The Daily Beast Charles P. Pierce | John Boehner and His Frivolous Lawsuit Read the Article at Esquire

Just Posted: New Videos on EarthShift TV by Lada Ray!

Thank you Lada!

Futurist Trendcast

4 new videos on the EarthShift TV YouTube channel, based on some of the latest articles.

Russia-EU Pipeline Explosion & Mercenary Cover-up in Ukraine

Gas Wars: Why Is Ukraine Refusing to Pay for Russian Gas?

Distorted Reality: Ukraine is a Disposable Lemon to Be Thrown Out

Judgment and the Future of Humanity 

Please like, comment, share!

Subscribe to EarthShift TV to receive timely notices of new uploads.

View original post

Recent Relationship Patterns as Realities Split

Thank you Laura!

Laura Bruno's Blog

I’ve alluded many times to a splitting of realities/timelines and what I call the “Cosmic ‘Are You Sure?!'” but wanted to share today about how I see these two factors affecting relationships. Many clients and loved ones have experienced simultaneous breakthroughs in stuck areas of their lives, only to find breakdowns of long-term relationships. This pattern often occurs anyway, because as we shift our own restricted energies into new, expansive directions, those who felt comfortable with the lesser version of us can feel threatened by the change. That dynamic just seems majorly magnified right now, so I wanted to assure people that if you’re experiencing it, you’re not alone. Entire swaths of our culture are choosing either perpetual victimization, fear and ignorance or liberation, love and joy.

Fence sitting continues to become uncomfortable and borderline impossible, which can result in fence sitters lashing out at people who represent the side…

View original post 3,504 more words

Nature’s Tonic~

Thank you Cindy! These are so vivid! Such lovely colours!

Water is a healing balm,

bringing those who contemplate calm.

Essence of life.

Absence of strife.

Water is wine,

for the soul.
Cheers to you with water’s natural high~
“While men believe in the infinite some ponds will be thought to be bottomless.” Thoreau

View original post

A message from Mother

Thank you Aisha! What a beautiful new moon beginning message!

aisha north

Dear family of light!
As I sat down to channel today I could feel something special in the energies as I connected to them. I usually feel a distinct tingle when I start by grounding myself, but this time, it was as if a stream of love floated up through my entire body up to my heart where it connected with the energies coming in. It was such a powerful but loving experience, my body trembled and it brought tears to my eyes.  As usual, I welcomed the CCs and asked them for today’s message, but this time, they told me that they would “give the floor over to someone else”. And this is the message that came through:

Welcome dear ones, it gives me great pleasure to be able to communicate in this way with you all. I am the Serene Mother, the one that gives life, the one…

View original post 599 more words

Journey into the Gate – Aurora Dreamflight for 27 – 29th June 2014

Thank you Laura! For everyone who has not yet read the background on this, some people have established shared dream experience-if you search my blog I have links to the background info, and how to become involved if you are interested.

Multidimensional Ocean

Welcome once again into the dreamflight program. We are glad to welcome you onboard the Aurora once again for the summer months. Our crew is in great need for a rest and they are so looking forward to meeting you again, to explore the Earth with you, to visit other regions of space with you, to take you home for a short trip, or just to swim into the Earth oceans with you and with the wild life of your beautiful planet.
This weekend we have decided to do a time travel exercise, and to take through different gates that link your dimension through other dimensions.

View original post 164 more words

Dietary Prevention of Age-Related Macular Degeneration | Care2 Healthy Living

Plant-Based Foods That Fight Macular Degeneration

Dr. Michael Greger
Anyone who has gotten a bad sunburn knows how damaging the UV rays in sunlight can be. Imagine what those same rays are doing to back of our eyeballs (our retinas). The eye is designed to take sunlight and focus it like a magnifying glass into the back of our eyes. Thankfully, we have a layer of cells called the retinal pigment epithelium that supports and protects our delicate retinal eyesight machinery. The layerbuilds up yellow plant pigments like zeaxanthin from our diet, absorbing blue light and protecting the retina from photo-oxidative damage. The yellowing of our corneas when we develop cataracts may actually be our bodies’ defense mechanism to protect our retinas. In fact, when cataracts are removed, the risk of blindness from macular generation shoots up (because we removed the protection). Instead of trading one type of vision loss for another, it’s better to pigment the back of our eyes though diet instead of pigmenting the front of our eyes with cataracts. The pigment in the back of our eyes is entirely of dietary origin, “suggesting that the most common cause of blind registration in the Western World could be delayed, or even averted, with appropriate dietary modification,” according to authors of a study on age-related macular degeneration.

Where in our diet do we get these pigments? The egg industry brags that eggs are a good source, but have nearly six high-lutein, free-range, certified organic eggs a week for three months and the pigmentation in one’s eyes may only marginallyincrease (see Egg Industry Blind Spot). Instead of getting the phytonutrients from the egg that came from the chicken that came from the corn and blades of grass the chicken pecked on, we should get it from the source. One cup of corn and a half cup of spinach a day for three months seems to dramaticallyboost the protective eye pigment in subjects. If you click on the above video, you can see a comparison of the amount of these phytonutrients from eggs compared to corn and spinach. If we cut out the middle hen and get these nutrients from plants directly, we see a substantially bigger increase in protective eye pigment.

Three months after the subjects stopped eating a cup of corn and a half a cup of spinach, the levels of these pigments remained relatively high, indicating that once we build our macular pigment up with a healthy diet, our eyeballs really try to hold on to it. So even if we go on vacation and end up eating more iceberg lettuce than spinach, our eyes will hold out until we get back.

Eggs can increase zeaxanthin levels in the blood, but they can also raise bad cholesterol levels and increase the risk of heart disease. Thus, as researchers conclude, “an egg yolk-based dietary strategy to increase plasma zeaxanthin cannot be recommended, and an alternative, cholesterol-free, food source is desirable.” One such alternative would be goji berries, which have up to 60 times more zeaxanthin than eggs. A modest dose of goji markedly increaseslevels in our body. Consumption of goji berries are an effective, safe whole food strategy to increase zeaxanthin in the bloodstream.

But we don’t need it in our blood, we need it in our eyes. A group of researchers performed a double-blind randomized placebo-controlled trial to test the effectiveness of goji berries at increasing pigment levels. To preserve eyesight in the elderly in traditional Chinese medicine, people are often prescribed 40 to 100 goji berries a day. In this study, participants consumed only about 15 berries a day for three months. Even at this small dose researchers found that goji berries could protect against loss of pigment and prevent the buildup of soft drusen, debris that builds up in the back of the eye. Both loss of pigment and buildup of drusen are associated with age-related macular degeneration.

Macular degeneration is the leading cause of legal blindness in older men and women, affecting more than ten million Americans, so increasing our consumption of these pigments as a society could significantly decrease the prevalence of blindness. In the above study, researchers gave the goji berries in milk so the butterfat could increase the absorption of these carotenoid pigments. A healthier way to get the same effect would just be to eat goji berries with nuts or seeds—in other words, goji trail mix.

Though they didn’t appear to boost a measure of immune function (Boosting Natural Killer Cell Activity), goji berries are one of the most antioxidant packed snacks out there. A tip on getting them inexpensively can be found in my video Are Goji Berries Good for You?

In health,
Michael Greger, M.D.

PS: If you haven’t yet, you can subscribe to my free videoshere and watch my live year-in-review presentations Uprooting the Leading Causes of Death and More Than an Apple a Day.

Related:
Best Nutrition Bang for Your Buck
Tricks to Get Adults to Eat Healthier
Combating Common Diseases With Plants

If you garden, you can grow your own goji berries. They are normally known and sold as Wolfberry or Chinese Wolfberry depending upon the garden catalog.
ohnwentsya

(Read the original article on Care2 at the link below. Includes video report.)

http://www.care2.com/greenliving/dietary-prevention-of-age-related-macular-degeneration.html

NASA: Mysterious signal is enigmatic, perplexing – CSMonitor.com

NASA: Mysterious signal is enigmatic, perplexing

NASA mysterious signal: Detected by two NASA spacecraft, X-ray emissions of unknown origin could lend insight into dark matter, a mysterious substance thought to compose more than 80 percent of all matter in the known universe.

By Mike Wall, SPACE.com Senior Writer / June 26, 2014

Perseus Cluster is seen in an image that uses data representing more than 17 days of observation time over 10 years.

X-ray: NASA, CXC, SAO, E.Bulbul, et

Two spacecraft have detected a possible signal of dark matter, the mysterious, invisible stuff that makes up most of the material universe.

NASA‘s Chandra X-ray Observatory and theEuropean Space Agency‘s XMM-Newtonsatellite spotted a spike of X-ray emission coming from more than 70 different galaxy clusters. While the origin of the X-rays remains unclear at the moment, they could be generated by the decay of a certain type of dark-matter particle, scientists said.

(Please click the link below to read full article on Christian Science Monitor-

http://m.csmonitor.com/Science/2014/0626/NASA-Mysterious-signal-is-enigmatic-perplexing?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_term=Science_final&utm_campaign=4_Newsletter%3AScience_Sailthru_LC&cmpid=ema%3Anws%3AScience%2520Weekly%2520%2806%2F26%2F2014%29 )