sfzombie13

i found this on facebook, and it pretty much sums it up. "Found on an educated post: Ray S Richardson, This op-ed of mine published in the Charleston Gazette may answer your question: CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- In the aftermath of the most recent environmental disaster to hit my home state of West Virginia, I have been wondering how it is that we continue, year after year, to allow the polluters to contaminate us, sicken our people and rip apart our beautiful mountains. Is there something endemic to the area that we welcome and even encourage those who rape our land, steal our patrimony and belittle us all at the same time? You bet there is. A monoculture economy, geographical isolation, lack of opportunity and a set of cultural adaptations perpetuate the misery. In an extractive economy, it's easy for a few people, or a few families to dominate the way in which wealth is generated. A few oligarchical families, many of them residing outside our state, control our industry and business, guide our leaders robotically and hold the rest of us hostage. Our most talented people -- those unlucky not to be the sons and daughters of the oligarchs, meaning most of us -- learn quickly (if they don't flee) that the only jobs that aren't down a hole or in a poison factory consist of maintaining the status quo and serving the ruling families. So the educators, civil servants, political and legal class are bought out easily. As for most of us "Crikkers," when all that's open to you is a future down a hole, or in a poison factory, (or in prison) you learn obedience rather than individuality, and that becomes the "right" way to teach your children. And of course, the most powerful tool for teaching these children that authority is absolute and must be obeyed without question is religion. The fundamentalist cult of personality/social club that is the Appalachian Protestant church is ideally suited to teaching the kids that it is their lot to labor, and to die, and as the old song says, "There'll be pie in the sky by and by." On the whole, it is a misery-industrial complex, and that's why most people who have talent, means, or even good looks flee as quickly as they can. The Kanawha Valley, and most of Southern West Virginia beyond it, is a blighted land, willfully ignorant, active only in perpetuating its misery and that of its children. It will not change. It does not want to change. Not even God could save Sodom, because the people were complicit in their own misery, and willfully blind to reality. So it is in my home, and I weep for it. Rabel, of Alum Creek, is an Emmy Award-winning broadcaster, author and a native of West Virginia." _________________________________________ Si hoc legere scis nimium eruditionis habes

what would be a good way to fix this? i don't want to start a war, i just want to be safe. it's not much use to write to a representative who has been paid for by the coal industry, any of them. i did anyway, in the off chance it will help, and am encouraging everyone i know to do the same. i am asking all on here to join me in voicing outrage. there are three communities i frequent on the internet, one is facebook, one is dz.com, and the third is on the dark side. facebook doesn't count, as everyone is already talking about it, but here is where i think it would make more of a difference. well, maybe the other site would be better at activism, but it is on the shady side and i don't want to get too involved in that. please help us. the rest of the country has forgotten about us. _________________________________________ Si hoc legere scis nimium eruditionis habes

best i remember is that i have never had a shot before the age of 10. i know this is not true, there is even a schedule of immunizations i looked at once to prove it. and just who do you think you are telling me i am wrong? big industry has never lied, paid for false results in tests, or done anything not in the best interest of people in need. my ass. it happens all the time, just like i said it does, and no, i don't need citations for that. i can look around and see many people without safe drinking water to know what happens when industry is left in charge of any type of oversight. when i said to not listen to most studies, perhaps i should have said to examine the study closely to see who did it and how it was conducted. there are some that are good, based on sound science. some of them are inconclusive, most say the vaccines are safe. my opinion, based on reading a lot and filtering most of it away, is we need to re-think the vaccination schedule. hep b at what age? yes, i suppose you could have a youngster exposed, but the odds would be extremely long. and anyone who has done any research on the hpv vaccine, i mean recent research (i guess i need to spell things out slowly for some on here) would also doubt the effectiveness. hell, the last i heard, even the developer of that one was talking about how it was blown out of proportion to make money. i am not advocating not vaccinating, just going back to a more reasonable schedule. and yes, there was mercury in vaccines, it is called thimersol for those too lazy to look it up. now this part needs to be researched (i don't care enough to look right now) it was only trace amounts, but it is flipping mercury! sounds like you could have been one of those calling our water safe just because 1 ppm of 4mcmh (or whatever it is)doesn't show adverse effects in humans. and yes, i am a little upset over this (the water thing, not the vaccine thing-that don't concern me anymore) mainly because this is how shit starts. let common sense be pushed aside once, it takes that much more to get it back. _________________________________________ Si hoc legere scis nimium eruditionis habes

turns out to be 300,000 and funny thing is that it seems that it's no longer news. the state has sold control of the government and regulation to big industry over 100 years ago, so fat chance to get any help there. why has there been no outcry with this?? how many people have to get sick and what has to happen before someone takes notice? this is a state, not a third world country here. and it's not a state of emergency anymore, because the water company says the water is safe now. yeah right. if this happened in any major metropolitan area, heads would be rolling by now. it's been almost two weeks, wake up. _________________________________________ Si hoc legere scis nimium eruditionis habes

as you said, it's better than just reporting the people receiving benefits, as i thought before. thanx for enlightening me, i seriously doubt that i would have bothered to research it had you not posted that link. i love being better informed on any subject. now, if we could get the govt. to do something about the water poisoning here. but the coal industry controls all the politicians as well as most of the people. _________________________________________ Si hoc legere scis nimium eruditionis habes

the op isn't ignoring science, he is questioning the drug culture pervasive in the us. and rightly so, how many children are at risk of hep a or b at that age? i would venture that the math and statistics are in his favor there at least. and as for the rest of them, the hpv vaccine has been coming under increasing fire of late, look it up. the vaccine's creator has even come out in opposition to it. and the flu vaccine is arguably one of the worst ideas to come along in a while. i say arguably because again, the drug companies are making boatloads of money from it, and they are the ones funding studies and pushing it in the doctors' literature. _________________________________________ Si hoc legere scis nimium eruditionis habes

so, either there is a much higher incidence of them, or they were way under diagnosed. or there could be a much higher rate of false diagnosis so that the industry can sell more medicine and make more money. this is what i choose to put faith in. they don't care about anything but money, if they actually cure a disease, they get no money to treat it. hence the debate against marijuana. _________________________________________ Si hoc legere scis nimium eruditionis habes

thanx again. i missed that part. now, having a very good understanding of how they get the numbers, i can say 100% that the number is inaccurate. i don't care what kind of statistical sample they use or the math they use to extrapolate the data, it will never be right. i can see that there is no other practical way to get the number, but they need to ensure that when they use this number, they put the margin of error along with the data. it could be far more than anyone knows, depending on who they contact. _________________________________________ Si hoc legere scis nimium eruditionis habes

thanx for the link, very informative. every time i have heard the unemployment rate mentioned anywhere on the news, it was always in relation to the number of claims filed. i thought it was what it was based on. i do have one more question, forgive my lack of understanding. where do they get the information? i have never heard of anyone being asked to provide that information to anyone. i have a lot of friends also who have never been asked any of these types of questions. do they just estimate the numbers? because it is not working like the link says it should, i can tell you that for a fact. not trolling, just trying to understand where the numbers come from. sounds to me like an estimate, not really accurate at all. _________________________________________ Si hoc legere scis nimium eruditionis habes

my daughter has done extensive research on this after having her own daughter. she has determined not to vaccinate on the schedule asked for today. it is simply insane to have that many shots at those ages (i don't have the numbers, but it is over 15x what it was in my childhood). i say, do the research you can, and DO NOT listen to most doctors or studies. almost all studies are paid for by drug companies, and who do you think benefits from the increased amount of them today? from totally skewed results to outright data fabrication. even doctors today do not have real information, almost all of it comes from pharmaceutical companies, either through studies paid for or literature inserted into medical texts. i perfectly understand the need for vaccinations, but i also understand the way most of the sheep in this country just believe anything that the so-called "experts" say. for example, look at what's happening in my area, big time chemical spill, then the experts come up with safe levels of said chemical in the water. then they say it's safe, and people start flushing out the systems and their plumbing comes apart due to the "safe" water. and turns out that they have been coming up with standards based on the WRONG chemical. and have you heard anything about the situation anywhere on the news lately? may not be related, but it is the same thing with different agencies. screw 'em, it's your kid, do what you feel is safe. nobody else has more of an interest in his/her safety. just asking the question and doing any research at all shows you'll be a good parent. _________________________________________ Si hoc legere scis nimium eruditionis habes

as far as stopping power for a pistol, the judge is hared to beat. the new rounds i saw that are made for self defense are pretty awesome, but a good 3" magnum slug is hard to beat. they are a little large for concealed carry, but i am going to get one at tax time this year. _________________________________________ Si hoc legere scis nimium eruditionis habes

no, i specifically said not against you personally, and i meant it. i was talking about those in here which do the bidding of their political controllers, spewing whatever soundbites are spoon fed to them. i must have replied to your post by mistake. carry on carrying on. sounds like you have the right idea anyway. i will admit to not having always agreed with you, but in general, i always did like your posts. now, i gotta figure out who i was replying to. to hell with it, nevermind. _________________________________________ Si hoc legere scis nimium eruditionis habes

enlighten me then _________________________________________ Si hoc legere scis nimium eruditionis habes

perhaps you should consider that until you, and everyone else, quits trying to justify the actions of one party and denounce the other, and instead see that they are BOTH equally to blame for the state we are in now, then you are PART OF THE PROBLEM! nothing personal against you, it applies equally to all who hold these beliefs. _________________________________________ Si hoc legere scis nimium eruditionis habes

that's the same as everyone saying the unemployment rate is x, based on people receiving benefits. clearly there are persons who have exhausted the benefits before getting jobs, many more times than can be counted. who accounts for this? _________________________________________ Si hoc legere scis nimium eruditionis habes

glad to hear all went well. and thanx for the tip about dogs and la quinta. _________________________________________ Si hoc legere scis nimium eruditionis habes

it's not just you. i didn't know they were so common in the us, nor did i know that the first school shooting was in 1764. three children survived when four indians went onto a campus in pa. so much for the assault weapons ban helping reduce anything. i'm pretty sure they didn't have anything better than muzzle loaders and flintlocks then. well, they were indians, they could have used bows as well. now, the source is wikipedia, but i didn't have time to look further. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_school_shootings_in_the_United_States _________________________________________ Si hoc legere scis nimium eruditionis habes

put a solar panel charger on the roof, would help in the daytime. or if you get stuck with a dead battery. not like you can walk with a can of electricity. _________________________________________ Si hoc legere scis nimium eruditionis habes

i was thinking of a brown recluse. of course, i'm not a doctor, but have seen several of them on humans. cute cat, hope he's all right. _________________________________________ Si hoc legere scis nimium eruditionis habes

and we can't operate like some countries which are almost entirely ran by renewables (not going to list any sources, look them up and pay attention to who you listen to). everyone says that the price of alternative fuel is not cost effective, but that cost is highly subsidized by the government, they could tax the hell out of hydrocarbon energy production and subsidize renewables. that would level the playing field long enough to jump start the industry. the subsidies should have an expiration, otherwise we would be in another govt regulated disaster. of course, then you get politics involved, and it all goes to hell. _________________________________________ Si hoc legere scis nimium eruditionis habes

i am very much with you on the standards. we need them to be set for solar power to be viable also. if there were standards for types of connectors, then you could convert all appliances, except for heat producing ones, to use dc without converting it to ac first. tv's, stereos, computers, etc. could all be used just by plugging in to the wall and selecting the proper voltage at the outlet. i have mentioned it before on heere, years ago, but it was said that the manufacturers would never adopt the same standard. i disagree. if it were set for them, like the ac wall outlet standards in all countries, they would have no choice. and as for the vehicles, if i could find a backer willing to sign a non-disclosure agreement, i would love to have some financing so that i can develop my idea for an electric car which would produce it's own electricity. all it needs is two regular car batteries, and would run nearly forever. there are a few bugs to work out, but i'm not an engineer, just the idea man. for less than a grand, i could come up with the prototype, but the business isn't going that good yet. kind of a catch 22, i don't want to tell anyone about it so they can't take it, and it's hard to get financing without telling someone about it. _________________________________________ Si hoc legere scis nimium eruditionis habes

well, it gets stranger and stranger. i know a dude who hinted at more nefarious activities in the area, he has a ts clearance and due to his job, has an update every hour we cannot get (one of the few times i miss being in). we exchanged a few texts, can't say anything there, but he said i would shit my pants if i knew what they think was going on. then there was a post on facebook reminding everyone of the warning back in the fall (i remember seeing it and thinking it was bullshit at the time) about fema using an emergency in area 3 (wv is in the middle of this area) to declare martial law. it isn't getting that bad yet, but it may in a few days if things aren't back to normal. don't let this catch anyone unprepared. please ensure you have basic supplies laid in for situations like this. i don't think everyone should have a fallout shelter stocked for a year, but the basics for at least a week would be nice. i'm just glad we could help out friends and family. _________________________________________ Si hoc legere scis nimium eruditionis habes

nice display of skill. when i was an overhead crane operator, i used to sneak up on the guys digging steel and knock off their hardhats with the dogs. the would get me back by putting cans of paint on top of the huge heaters and call me over. the cans would explode and leave paint marks on the ceiling (it was over 50 feet high). _________________________________________ Si hoc legere scis nimium eruditionis habes

ya know, it doesn't look like anything happened there at all. the tanks are in tact and the dikes have not been breached. some say it has leeched into the river from underneath, rumor. i have also heard that it may have been leaking for at least 6 days, also rumor. some say it isn't water soluble and that it is lighter than water. i don't know, just that a lot of people are really inconvenienced. we opened our house to friends, have had a steady stream since this am. looks like it may be this way for at least a week or more. i watched the news conference and it was a lot of "we don't know", not a lot of info yet, except they don't know it's dangerous but they don't know that it's not either. _________________________________________ Si hoc legere scis nimium eruditionis habes

two things i can see with this. first, when you use one device to do many things, it usually does them poorly. second, when you use one device to do everything for you, it makes that device irreplaceable. be careful, a lot of people can't do anything without their phones today. _________________________________________ Si hoc legere scis nimium eruditionis habes