“The U.S. government clearly sees the writing on the wall. What lays
ahead for America is a day of unbearable reckoning. The financial
collapse will wipe out savings accounts, pensions, investment funds and
equities of the working class, all across the nation. Imagine bank
accounts being reset to zero, “bank holidays” enforced at gunpoint. That
will unleash a wave of violent protests, social chaos and even talk of
revolution. The government will almost certainly respond with a
declaration of Martial Law, the rolling out of highway checkpoints, and
before long, the use of live ammo on unruly protesters.”
"Whenever destroyers appear among men, they start by destroying money,
for money is men's protection and the base of a moral existence.
Destroyers seize gold and leave to its owners a counterfeit pile of
paper. This kills all objective standards and delivers men into the
arbitrary power of an arbitrary setter of values."
- Ayn Rand in "Atlas Shrugged"
“The greatest single distinguishing feature of the omnipotence of God is that our imagination gets lost thinking about it.”
- Blaise Pascal
“Is there a greater tragedy imaginable than that, in our endeavour
consciously to shape our future in accordance with high ideals, we
should in fact unwittingly produce the very opposite of what we have
been striving for?”
- Friedrich Hayek
“Gold was not selected arbitrarily by governments to be the monetary
standard. Gold had developed for many centuries on the free market
as the best money; as the commodity providing the most stable and
desirable monetary medium.”
- Murray N. Rothbard
“I love to think of nature as an unlimited broadcasting system though
which God speaks to us every hour; if we still only tune in.”
- George Washington Carver
The Crossroads of Humanity...
Secret history of the Freemasons...
World War III is coming...
MYTH: Gun control reduces crime...
Human dubstep beatbox...
Square foot
garden tour...
Gravity...
[NSFW]
Use your brain
eat wisely...
Bill Cooper explains it all...
Living like a
Hobbit...
Does
death exist?
A friendly reminder...the
Pope is probably the Anti-Christ...
Sandy Hook official story is full of question marks
part III...
Dogs
love baby bath time...
History of Nintendo...
I wanna be a billionaire so frickin' bad...
Why
professional athletes go broke...
Things that you (and your doctors) should be asking...
Why are health care costs so
absurdly high?
10 most
awesome video game fan films...
The
extraordinary science of junk food...
Healthy food is
key...
How to
fix Obamacare...
30 of history's
greatest "conspiracy theories"...
Sandy Hook official story is full of question marks
part IV...
Ommmmmmm...
Ergothioneine...a new vitamin?
Here comes the
sun...
doo doo doo doo...
Superfoods to have in your pantry...
Cat-friend vs. Dog-friend...
Willow glass...you are great!
Understanding
pole shifts past and present...
Phi physics...
What
gun control looks like...
8
animal misconceptions...
Police state...
Sandy Hook official story is full of question marks
part V...
Why the DHS bought billions of ammo rounds...
Some
cool birds you have ever seen...
Is the US
becoming like Nazi Germany?
One of the greatest mysteries...the
Ark of the Covenant...
Beware years ending in
13...
Thunder god vine wipes out cancer...
You say you want a
revolution?
BP oil spill conspiracy...
Remove foods with
additives to stave off disease...
Ancient Atlantic mariners?
What Big Pharma doesn't want you to know about
natural healing...
10
online documentaries you can watch for FREE...
Ancient acoustic generator found in Peru...
It's beneficial when you have
minimal dentistry involved...
Giant
obelisk discovered in the Atlantic?
Combining your food for optimum health...
One World Government...
Sandy Hook official story is full of question marks
part VI...
Going over
The Deep End...
Physics interview that goes deep...
An ultra-light camper you can set up in an hour
A great alternative for anyone without a vehicle hefty enough to tow a
traditional trailer, the Tail Feather's a sub-500lb modular camper that
fits in the bed of a small pickup or on a modest utility trailer, and
can be fully assembled in less than an hour using just a screwdriver,
though presumably longer should you be doing so after a brunch full of
them.
Find out what they've got going on inside right here...
A Spiritual Catch-22
Facing Reality
I’ve always known that we are spiritual beings having a human experience, yet I’ve never heard it described in such a thought provoking way.
Having a title like the one above opens the flood gates for a
discussion of ‘What is Reality?’ There seems to be a consensus these
days that reality is what you make of it. You, alone, determine how you
are going to react to or view a situation. This is true, but there is a
catch…a Catch-22 to be exact. If you have never read Heller’s book,
Catch-22 was an air force rule that stated only insane pilots could not
fly on bombing missions that not only put their lives in jeopardy but
killed as many if not more civilians than strategic enemy targets and
men. If a pilot refused to fly, which was proof the pilot was sane
because he understood the situation and therefore could not be excused
from the mission. If a pilot kept quiet and did not express his views
about bombing missions, he was sent on them because he was not objecting
to going. Either way the pilots were, to be polite, between a rock and a
hard place.
Much the same can be said of life in the third dimension. We are
souls having a human experience and to make this experience worthwhile
we souls are given a human body and an ego in order to understand
polarity and all things that we are not. How can we truly know what love
is if we have never experienced hate? What light is without dark?
Inside our 3-D selves is a blending of light and dark and we must to
face that darkness within if we are to grow. Our souls have to sit back
(no doubt often in horror) as they watch their human half struggle to
overcome polarity in all forms without committing egregious acts.
One of the hardest things for a person to do once they have embarked
on their spiritual path, is to admit they have a dark side. Their
refusal amounts to hoping that, by ignoring their dark side, it will go
away. Unfortunately, that is not the case. Our dark side is there to
teach us who we are. This does not give us permission to go out and hurt
others or commit horrendous acts. Rather it shows us the wide range of
reactions we can have to different situations, reactions that run the
gamut from breathtakingly beautiful to disgustingly bad. What must be
remembered is that we should not be judged because we have such a wide
range of reactions; they are part and parcel of life. These reactions
occur inside us and are not made real until we act upon one of them. It
is our choosing of how to act in relation to any given situation that
determines our
reality.
If we choose to act from the heart and not from the darkness within
then we will have much more enjoyable experience and, thereby, a much
more enjoyable life, as will those with whom we interact.
Let this robot fix you a drink
Quite possibly the coolest robovention since the
KURATAS,
Bartendro's a party-friendly, counter-sized "precision
cocktail-dispensing robot" that lets you select one of a number of boozy
concoctions from a menu on your smartphone or tablet, before it
automatically "mixes" and pours it directly into a cup via a series of
booze-pumping tubes, which you may know more colloquially as "veins".
Keep reading to watch it do its thing...
With the support of a $3.4 million
National Institutes of Health
grant, researchers at the University of Pittsburgh are developing an
artificial lung to serve as a bridge to transplant or recovery in
patients with acute and chronic lung failure.
Each year, nearly
350,000 Americans die of some form of lung disease, with another 150,000
patients needing short- and long-term care. Unfortunately, current
breathing-support technologies are cumbersome, often requiring patients
to be bedridden and sedated.
Strange but True: Weird Home Remedies
That Really Work!
Dear Reader,
Today's newsletter has two purposes. First, during my more than 20 years
as a practicing physician, I've collected many wonderful suggestions
for home remedies from patients, other doctors, and friends. Today, I'd
like to share several of them with you. Some of these remedies are
simple, inexpensive fixes for things like the common cold that
conventional medicine often cannot solve. Others are alternatives to
commonly recommended medical treatments — such as the potentially
harmful medication for toenail fungus — that can have toxic side effects
that just aren't worth the risk.
My second goal today is to introduce you to the redesigned
Newport Natural Health website.
Not only does the site feature an improved search function to help you
find information from earlier newsletters, but it also includes an area
for comments by readers. I do hope you'll take advantage of that. You
might want to tell others about a home remedy of your own or discuss how
a supplement or other treatment worked for you. I would love to see the
website become a forum where readers can exchange information, ask
questions, and connect with one another. If enough people participate,
we can develop a community where ideas and encouragement are freely
exchanged for everyone's benefit.
Now, without further ado, let's take a look at some unusual — but effective — ways to deal with everyday complaints.
Blisters
My patient Alicia shared this unusual blister treatment, which several
other people have also mentioned. Pour a small amount of Listerine on a
cotton ball, and apply it to the blister 3 or 4 times a day. Doing this
will kill germs and dry out the blistered area, helping ease the pain.
Bug Bites and Stings
This category has several interesting solutions.
| • |
Rub the inside of a banana peel on an itchy bug bite or painful
sting to soothe itchiness and inflammation. |
| • |
Treat
fire-ant bites and/or stings (fire ants do both!) by rubbing
the area
with any antiperspirant that leaves a white, chalk-like
residue on the
skin. It prevents the painful sensation of being
on fire. |
| • |
Use an aluminum-containing roll-on deodorant on mosquito bites
to relieve itching and swelling. |
| • |
For
a bee sting, remove the stinger quickly, either by pulling it out
with a
pair of tweezers or scraping it loose with a credit card or
similar
hard object. Then mix 1 teaspoon of meat tenderizer with
just enough
water to create a paste. Slather the paste on the sting,
leave it there
for 15 minutes, and rinse it off with plain water. If the
sting is still
red, place an ice pack on the skin for about 15 minutes. |
Burns
We all get minor burns from time to time. Here are a couple home remedies to try.
| • |
Instead
of using a special burn cream, apply a thin layer of
ordinary
toothpaste to the burned area. Bandage as you normally
would. Clean the
skin daily when you bathe, reapply toothpaste
if necessary, and keep the
burn covered while the skin heals. |
| • |
Apply
a thin layer of mustard to the burned skin. It may sting a bit
at
first, but the mustard eases pain and reduces the likelihood of
blistering and scarring. |
Chapped Lips
Treat dry, cracked lips with a layer of raw organic honey. The antibacterial properties of the honey help with healing.
Common Cold
Here's a method to help reduce the likelihood of getting a cold, and another helpful remedy for those who already have one.
| • |
To avoid getting a cold, simply gargle with plain water 3 times
every day. This
is one remedy that has science on its side. In
2005, researchers in
Japan found that the 3 daily water gargles
reduced colds by close to 40
percent! |
| • |
If you have a cold, homemade chicken soup can boost your
body's own immunity and combat inflammation. Adding a pinch
of cayenne pepper can ease congestion. |
Constipation and/or Diarrhea
Whether you'd like your bowel movements to be more (or less) frequent,
here's one simple solution: apples or applesauce. Apples contain pectin,
which softens stools. But apples can also help counteract diarrhea. If
raw apples are not your favorite fruit, applesauce is a good substitute.
Coughs
Coughs are always annoying, especially when they keep you awake all night. Here are two things that can help.
| • |
Before
going to bed, spread a thin layer of Vicks VapoRub on
the soles of your
feet, and then put on a pair of socks. I know
it sounds strange, but
everyone to whom I've recommended
this has reported sleeping cough-free
through the night. |
| • |
For an effective homemade cough syrup, mix together the
following ingredients: |
|
| o |
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper |
| o |
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger |
| o |
1 tablespoon honey |
| o |
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar |
| o |
2 tablespoons water |
|
|
Adults can take 1 to 3 teaspoons, as needed, to control
coughing. Keep leftover cough syrup in a closed container. |
Craving for Sweets
Stir 1 teaspoon of baking soda into 8 ounces of warm water. Rinse your
mouth with the solution, but do not swallow. Your cravings will
disappear for hours.
Excessive Perspiration
Here's an easy, nonchemical way to reduce heavy underarm sweating. Cut
an ordinary potato (any type) in half and rub the cut side on your
armpits. I'm not sure why this works, but many people report success
with it.
Halitosis (Bad Breath)
Here are three easy ways to improve bad breath without using breath
mints and sprays that often contain sugar, alcohol, or unhealthy sugar
substitutes.
| • |
Bad breath is often due to excessive dryness in your mouth.
Makecertain you're drinking lots of water,
not only to moisten
the tissue inside your mouth but also to remove any
small
bits of food that may be lodged between your teeth. |
| • |
One
of the easiest remedies for bad breath is eating a little
plain yogurt, but be sure it does not contain sugar. The live
bacteria in yogurt counteract the bacteria responsible for bad
breath. |
| • |
Keep
a bunch of ordinary or Italian parsley on hand. Chewing
parsley after
eating can naturally freshen your breath and serve
as a mini-toothbrush.
|
Headaches
I've received a lot of positive feedback on these three interesting ways to stop a garden-variety headache.
| • |
Tension
headaches often occur from unconsciously clenching
the jaw. Try holding
a pencil gently between your teeth. This
forces your jaw muscles to
relax and eases the headache. |
| • |
Another
way to relieve headache pain is by pinching the spot
between your thumb
and index finger for up to a minute. You
may have to pinch fairly hard,
according to people who tell me
this works. |
| • |
Similarly,
pinching the area between your upper lip and nose
for 5 seconds can
relieve a headache. It may take several
pinches to get the full effect,
but this method is reportedly very
effective for stress or tension
headaches. |
Indigestion
If you're troubled by
indigestion, try one of these home remedies.
| • |
Combine 1 teaspoon of lemon juice, 1 teaspoon of ginger juice,
and 2 teaspoons of raw organic honey. Mix well, and drink it
after a meal. |
| • |
Or you can add 1 tablespoon of lemon juice to 1 cup of warm
water, and drink it before a meal. |
| • |
Combine
1/2 teaspoon of baking soda and 4 ounces of water
for instant relief
from heartburn, especially if it's due to eating
a high-fat meal. |
Intestinal Gas
Get rid of gas with one of these simple tricks.
| • |
Chew
chopped-up bits of ginger root. If that's too spicy, try
drinking a cup
of ginger tea or taking 500 mg of a ginger
supplement. Ginger is an
excellent anti-inflammatory that's
loaded with healing properties, so you'll be doing your overall
health a favor, too. |
| • |
Another
solution is to take activated charcoal tablets, which
absorb intestinal
gas. You can find these supplements at most
health-food stores. They
can also help after you've eaten
something iffy and aren't feeling well.
Just follow the dosage
instructions on the product you choose. |
Leg Cramps
If you've ever been awakened by leg cramps during the night, you know
how painful these can be. My patient Carl shared a simple remedy with
me. It's a bit odd, but he and several others say it works well.
| • |
Place a bar of soap — wrapped or unwrapped — under the
sheets near your legs, and say good-bye to leg cramps. |
| • |
Another solution that some people find helpful is taking a
potassium supplement (99 mg) before bed. |
Lower Back or Foot Pain
A tennis ball is all you need to relieve lower back or foot pain. Use
the tennis ball to massage and relax muscles that are deep and hard to
reach or require a lot of pressure to loosen up. Just sit in a
comfortable chair, put the tennis ball on the floor, and roll your foot
or lower back over it, using as much pressure as feels good. You can
also lean up against a wall or lie on the bed, put the tennis ball
between your lower back and the wall or mattress, and roll around on it
to relax those muscles. It's like a getting a massage without leaving
home.
Splinters
My patient Jenny shared this clever trick for getting splinters to come
out when they're deeply embedded and difficult to latch onto. "When I
was little, I would run around on the back porch without wearing shoes,
and I would get a lot of splinters," she explained. "When they were too
deep to get with tweezers, my mom would tease them out with hydrogen
peroxide. Just pour peroxide on the area where the splinter is located,
and let the bubbles lift it toward the surface so that it's easier to
pull out."
Sties
Sties are common and painful eye problems that trouble some people
regularly. If you're one of them, try this: Warm a slice of raw potato,
and hold it against the affected eye for a few minutes. Like a warm
compress, it will draw out infection and ease inflammation and pain.
Stuffy Nose
Sinus infections and seasonal allergies are common this time of year. If
you are suffering from a stuffy nose due to either one, try one of
these remedies.
| • |
Irrigate your nasal passages with saltwater. You can buy
premade saltwater nasal rinses at most pharmacies. |
| • |
As
an alternative, make your own saline rinse, using 1
teaspoon of non-iodized salt and a pint of lukewarm distilled
or filtered water. Mix well to dissolve the salt. For inserting
the solution into your nose,
you will need to purchase a bulb
syringe, usually found in the
baby-products section of the
store. To apply, fill the bulb syringe with
solution, lean
forward over the sink while tilting your head slightly
backward,
and gently squeeze the bulb to release the solution into your
nose. Some experts recommend tilting your head to the side,
but I find
it easiest to tilt it backward — the choice is up to you.
It may come
out the other nostril or your mouth, which is
perfectly normal. You can
repeat the process several times
daily. Some patients report that adding
a teaspoon of baking
soda or a few drops of baby shampoo to the
saltwater makes
it more effective. If you choose one of these options,
be sure
to mix the solution thoroughly before use. |
Toenail Fungus
If you've ever had toenail fungus, you know how difficult it can be to
treat. Many physicians prescribe oral medications, such as Lamisil or
Sporanox, but those remedies can have very serious side effects,
including liver damage and life-threatening allergic reactions. Here are
two much safer ways to eliminate toenail fungus. Just remember that it
can take months to heal infected toenails, so be consistent and
persistent.
| • |
Apply
a liberal layer of Vicks VapoRub to the infected toenails
after bathing
and before going to bed at night. You may want
to wear a pair of thin
socks to protect your sheets. |
| • |
Alternatively,
use tea tree oil, a natural antiseptic, in the same
way as Vicks
VapoRub, by applying it directly to the infected
toenails. Tea tree oil,
which can be purchased at most
health-food stores, is fairly strong smelling, but it is effective
if used twice daily. |
Urinary Tract Infection
If you read my earlier newsletter on
urinary tract infections,
you know that I recommend treating them with a supplement called
D-mannose rather than with overprescribed antibiotics. If you're
uncomfortable while waiting for the D-mannose to provide relief, try
drinking 1/4 teaspoon of baking soda mixed in 8 ounces of water. This
will make your bladder less acidic, and it will also inhibit bacterial
growth responsible for the infection.
Home remedies can be highly effective, but like most things, what works
for another person may not help you. So I encourage you to try various
approaches to find one that fits.
This is a topic we'll be revisiting in the months ahead. If there's a remedy you'd like to share, please
join me on Facebook, where you can leave a comment or just say "Hello!" I would love to hear from all my readers, including you.
Thrive in Health & Wellness,
Leigh Erin Connealy, M.D.
| The Daily Reckoning Presents |
Zombie Nation
By Bill Bonner |
|
|
Creating and sustaining a nation of zombies is expensive.
Large sections of the US population have been turned into zombies.
Retirees. Medicare dependents. Food stamp recipients. Disabled
people. They are not necessarily bad people. They are not
necessarily dishonest or lazy. But rather than add to wealth, they
consume it. And when you have too many of them, your society
consumes more wealth than it produces and you are on the road to The
Downside.
But the feds are not only creating individual zombies, they are also
creating corporate zombies. An obvious example: “green” energy.
Without subsidies, loan guarantees, tax benefits and direct
giveaways, the industry as we know it would not exist. Nor would the
ethanol industry in the Midwest. Nor the security industry in the
Northern Virginia suburbs of Washington, DC.
The financial industry too, as we know it, would not exist either.
Much of it would have been swept away in the financial storm of
2008-09. That story is well-known, but not well understood. Most
people believe the authorities acted heroically, saving the nation
from a depression. But what the authorities really did was to take
the public’s money and give it to cronies on Wall Street in order to
prevent them from suffering the losses they deserved. The government
transferred nearly $2 trillion in various forms from the public
purse to the pockets of the financial industry. With that kind of
backing, most of the old investment firms survived. The new ones
that might have replaced them never saw the light of day.
Industries need to be sustained by the government when they cannot
sustain themselves. This is practically the definition of
“malinvestment” — putting capital and energy into investments that
don’t pay off. When an industry is only profitable with government
backing it means that the industry uses resources — labor, energy,
raw materials — and turns them into finished products that are worth
less than the inputs required to make them. The more of these zombie
industries the government supports, the poorer the society becomes.
“Rentier” is a French word that has leaked into English. It doesn’t
mean zombie literally, but it describes people who have found a way
to exploit the system for their own benefit — people who have legal
entitlements to income streams. In other words, “rentier” describes
a class of folks who contribute absolutely nothing to national
prosperity — zombies.
Before the French Revolution, favored groups were able to secure
special privileges and monopolies giving them the right to income.
For example, the people from whom we bought our first house in
France had a monopoly on the importation of tobacco from the New
World. I don’t know who granted this monopoly, but typically it was
the monarchy. And typically, such monopolies were given away either
to appease a potential adversary or simply to raise cash for the
crown by selling off a stream of future income.
The French crown was always short of funds. It found it could raise
substantial sums by selling the right to earn a “rent.” It might
sell the right to collect tolls on a highway or a river, for
example. Or it might sell the right to collect taxes (thereby
getting its own tax revenue up-front and letting the rentier deal
with the hazards of collection).
Any official document needed an official stamp. Naturally, the crown
sold off the right to stamp documents. If you wanted to make a
business deal, buy or sell land, or get married, you had to pay the
person with the stamp.
Over time, the rentier class grew larger and harder to support. More
and more of the kingdom’s energy went to support what was
essentially a group of parasites who produced nothing. This is part
of the explanation for the French Revolution. The system became so
inefficient and was made so fragile by waste that a relatively minor
setback — a couple years of bad harvests — caused widespread hunger
and revolt.
In modern, developed societies “rents” come in many forms. They are
often granted to favored groups in exchange for political support.
Old people vote, for example. Political parties seek their votes by
promising ever-larger health and retirement benefits. Rich people
make campaign contributions. Politicians typically grant them favors
too.
By the close of 2012, there were zombies everywhere. Throw a cream
pie from almost any street-corner and you were almost certain to hit
one in the face. If the street-corner were in Washington, DC, you’d
probably hit two or three of them.
A recent report in The Wall Street Journal confirmed that zombies
don’t work very hard. The Bureau of Labor Statistics has been
compiling detailed data on how people use their time. Researchers
tracked how many hours people slept, ate, watched TV and worked. And
guess what? They found that federal government employees put in 3.8
fewer 40-hour weeks than employees in the private sector. Here, the
cost of zombification is clear: if the zombies were forced to work
the same hours as people in the private sector, the government would
save $130 billion a year.
Meanwhile, over in the pentagon, R. Jeffrey Smith had his eye on the
zombies too:
Of the many facts that have come to light in the scandal involving
former CIA director David H. Petraeus, among the most curious was
that during his days as a four-star general, he was once escorted by
28 police motorcycles as he traveled from his Central Command
headquarters in Tampa to socialite Jill Kelley’s mansion. Although
most of his trips did not involve a presidential-size convoy, the
scandal has prompted new scrutiny of the imperial trappings that
come with a senior general’s lifestyle.
The commanders who lead the nation’s military services and those who
oversee troops around the world enjoy an array of perquisites
befitting a billionaire, including executive jets, palatial homes,
drivers, security guards and aides to carry their bags, press their
uniforms and track their schedules in 10-minute increments. Their
food is prepared by gourmet chefs. If they want music with their
dinner parties, their staff can summon a string quartet or a choir.
The elite regional commanders who preside over large swaths of the
planet don’t have to settle for Gulfstream V jets. They each have a
C-40, the military equivalent of a Boeing 737, some of which are
configured with beds.
|
And then, even after they retire...the zombies keep feeding off the
productive sector:
Updating a 2010 Boston Globe report that documented the practice,
CREW found that over the last three years, 70 percent of the 108
three-and-four star generals and admirals who retired “took jobs
with defense contractors or consultants.”
As Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., put it during a 2009 hearing on
Obama’s nomination of former Raytheon executive William Lynn to
become the deputy secretary of defense, “it’s an incestuous
business, what’s going on in terms of the defense contractors and
the Pentagon and the highest levels of our military.”
|
During the Presidential campaign, Mitt Romney mentioned that 47% of
American households now receive some form of support from the
government. In a better democracy, none of those people should vote.
They all have a conflict of interest. They should admit that they
find it difficult to separate their own personal interests from
those of the nation and abstain from casting a ballot. Instead, they
“vote their own pocketbooks” — usually coming down on the side of
diverting more resources from the productive sector to their own
personal consumption.
The zombies corrupt the system. The march to Stalingrad continues.
And the Downside takes over.
|
Peace, love and happiness...until next time...
| "The
reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one
persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all
progress depends on the unreasonable man." |
| - George Bernard Shaw, Irish playwright |