You might remember Michael Crichton's fiction novel "The Andromeda Strain" about the epidemic spread of a deadly virus. My memory of the book was (spoiler alert) it ended with the self-destruct mechanism of the compound where the scientists and laboratories were was canceled with forty five seconds remaining. In typical Hollywood fashion, the subsequent movie (1971) opted for a mere eight seconds to spare before the labs would have been blown up, spreading the disease they'd finally contained.
Then you probably recall the movie "Outbreak" (1995) with an all-star cast, including Dustin Hoffman, Morgan Freeman, Renee Russo, Kevin Spacey, Cuba Gooding, Jr. and Donald Sutherland. The plot is characterized on the Internet movie database this way: "Extreme measures are necessary to contain an epidemic of a deadly airborne virus. But how extreme, exactly?"
In 2008, "Andromeda Strain" was released as a TV mini-series, with this description: "A crack team of top scientists work feverishly in a secret, state-of-the-art laboratory to discover what has killed the citizens of a small town and learn how this deadly contagion can be stopped."
Not that any of these should be considered machinations by Hollywood to incubate fear into the public for subsequent flu virus outbreaks...
But if it isn't enough for you to see the results of a web search for "truth flu shot" or "swine flu hoax", this eight minute video should give you good reason that the fear mongering and panic seeding is absolutely intentional.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_pWGJYwraMk&feature=player_embedded
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
A Victory - There Really Are People with Integrity!
Saw this on Drudge Report earlier today, and then again in a newsletter I get...
Planned Parenthood leader resigns after watching ultrasound of abortion procedure. It is one of my daily prayers that God would put an end to abortion in this country, an abominable practice we tolerate, yet still ask for His blessings. If that isn't evidence of a MERCIFUL God, I don't know what is. But as Thomas Jefferson once said, "I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just, and that His justice cannot sleep forever."
(Incidentally, the Susan G. Komen Foundation which claims to fight breast cancer is a major contributor to Planned Parenthood - if you support Komen and oppose abortion, you may want to re-think your position.)
Be encouraged.
Planned Parenthood leader resigns after watching ultrasound of abortion procedure. It is one of my daily prayers that God would put an end to abortion in this country, an abominable practice we tolerate, yet still ask for His blessings. If that isn't evidence of a MERCIFUL God, I don't know what is. But as Thomas Jefferson once said, "I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just, and that His justice cannot sleep forever."
(Incidentally, the Susan G. Komen Foundation which claims to fight breast cancer is a major contributor to Planned Parenthood - if you support Komen and oppose abortion, you may want to re-think your position.)
Be encouraged.
Sunday, November 1, 2009
Chocolate & Vanilla, your only choices
Imagine going to Baskin & Robbins, or Bresslers, or any of those other ice cream parlors whose trademark is a bewildering variety of flavors, and being told that chocolate & vanilla are the only flavors available.
"But I had raspberry swirl just last week!" you meekly protest, seeing dozens of buckets of other flavors under the glass.
"That was last week, that's no longer a flavor", comes the flat response.
"What about all these other flavors I'm looking at in front of me?"
"Chocolate, or vanilla", the worker says, unmoved by your growing disbelief that those are the only choices you're being given. You know good & well that there are other flavors, but the question is posed as if it were as cut & dried as "regular or decaf".
This is pretty much how the American public is manipulated into accepting things they would normally reject, and do so vehemently. The difference is that chocolate & vanilla may be both quite acceptable to you, even though you'd rather have something else.
But now we have either government run health care (the option you're supposed to accept), or the continued health care crisis (which the media & government have helped to create), "unbridled corporate greed" (a mantra of socialists), etc.
Joe Galloway, in his otherwise respectable article entitled "Hope for change gives way to 'No, We Can't'", says that the proposed health care bill would "include a public option...to provide competition for insurance companies and a negotiating lever to lower the price of pharmaceuticals."
First, when has the government ever fostered competition in the private sector? Second, the best way government can encourage competition (they can't actually provide it) is to reduce the burdensome regulation that prevents smaller companies from having any chance in the marketplace, effectively squeezing them out.
I haven't read the health care bill, nor do I intend to. I have, however, read the Constitution, and see no justification for the government being involved in any way in health care.
"But I had raspberry swirl just last week!" you meekly protest, seeing dozens of buckets of other flavors under the glass.
"That was last week, that's no longer a flavor", comes the flat response.
"What about all these other flavors I'm looking at in front of me?"
"Chocolate, or vanilla", the worker says, unmoved by your growing disbelief that those are the only choices you're being given. You know good & well that there are other flavors, but the question is posed as if it were as cut & dried as "regular or decaf".
This is pretty much how the American public is manipulated into accepting things they would normally reject, and do so vehemently. The difference is that chocolate & vanilla may be both quite acceptable to you, even though you'd rather have something else.
But now we have either government run health care (the option you're supposed to accept), or the continued health care crisis (which the media & government have helped to create), "unbridled corporate greed" (a mantra of socialists), etc.
Joe Galloway, in his otherwise respectable article entitled "Hope for change gives way to 'No, We Can't'", says that the proposed health care bill would "include a public option...to provide competition for insurance companies and a negotiating lever to lower the price of pharmaceuticals."
First, when has the government ever fostered competition in the private sector? Second, the best way government can encourage competition (they can't actually provide it) is to reduce the burdensome regulation that prevents smaller companies from having any chance in the marketplace, effectively squeezing them out.
I haven't read the health care bill, nor do I intend to. I have, however, read the Constitution, and see no justification for the government being involved in any way in health care.
Saturday, October 31, 2009
I'm back...with a few more movie- and book recommendations
It's been a while, and a lot has happened since I last posted.
For one thing, my dad died about a month and a half ago. He had an email list of about 150 people to whom he'd send almost daily dispatches, and I've tried to pick up where he left off. I don't have nearly the time that he had to devote to it, but I've been trying. Many of those on the list have given some very positive feedback, so I'm encouraged.
A few months before he died, he was soliciting help on setting up a website to archive the hundreds of articles he'd written in the past several years. He had a taker, and while it is setup, it's still under construction, and I'm going to do what I can to see it through to completion (with the designer's help).
During that process, though, several people suggested he set up a blog, but he wasn't comfortable enough with idea to pursue it. I'm only a little comfortable with it myself, hence my return to this venue to remedy that.
Now, the few more movie- and book recommendations...
Movies:
"The Global Warming Swindle". This is also known as "The Great Global Warming Swindle", and can be found under either title searching either YouTube or Google Video.
"Flywheel". This is a very low budget ($25,000, I think) movie made by the people at Sherwood Baptist Church in Albany, Georgia. They are better known for two other movies they made later, with my recommendations following. This movie is about a used car salesman who realizes he isn't being honest with people (?!), and decides to start doing things right. Great moral, even if isn't a blockbuster movie.
"Facing the Giants". Also low budget ($100,000, if I remember correctly) by Hollywood standards, but received critical acclaim, and was even given some publicity during an installment of ABC's World News Tonight. It's a very inspiring story of a football coach struggling against several giants in his life. Very poignant. I've heard that some women who didn't particularly care for football movies really loved this one.
"Fireproof". Same people made this movie, with a somewhat bigger budget, and this time with a well known actor in the lead role - Kirk Cameron. This has a tremendous, pro-marriage message. Every married couple ought to go see this, whether you're newlyweds or have been married for decades.
Books:
"Iron Web" by Larken Rose. I normally don't read fiction, but dad spoke so highly of it (and its author) that I decided to read it. I read it the weekend after my dad left the hospital after his pancreatic cancer surgery, staying up late each night. You may not find it on the New York Times bestseller list, but that's unfortunate, because it ought to be. It's very well written, suspenseful, and though provoking. You probably won't find it at Barnes & Noble, either (and shouldn't look), but instead, either order it directly from Larken, or ask your local bookstore to order it for you. That way, you're supporting a local business, rather than a large national chain. I like the big stores as much as the next guy, but if we don't give the mom & pop stores some of our money, they'll be gone.
"The Cancer Industry" by Ralph W. Moss. This book will make you mad, which is a good thing, because people need to wake up and know what's going on with arguably the most profitable disease known to man. This isn't the first exposé I've ever read on cancer, but it's certainly the best written and most thoroughly documented.
That's it for now...until I blog again.
For one thing, my dad died about a month and a half ago. He had an email list of about 150 people to whom he'd send almost daily dispatches, and I've tried to pick up where he left off. I don't have nearly the time that he had to devote to it, but I've been trying. Many of those on the list have given some very positive feedback, so I'm encouraged.
A few months before he died, he was soliciting help on setting up a website to archive the hundreds of articles he'd written in the past several years. He had a taker, and while it is setup, it's still under construction, and I'm going to do what I can to see it through to completion (with the designer's help).
During that process, though, several people suggested he set up a blog, but he wasn't comfortable enough with idea to pursue it. I'm only a little comfortable with it myself, hence my return to this venue to remedy that.
Now, the few more movie- and book recommendations...
Movies:
"The Global Warming Swindle". This is also known as "The Great Global Warming Swindle", and can be found under either title searching either YouTube or Google Video.
"Flywheel". This is a very low budget ($25,000, I think) movie made by the people at Sherwood Baptist Church in Albany, Georgia. They are better known for two other movies they made later, with my recommendations following. This movie is about a used car salesman who realizes he isn't being honest with people (?!), and decides to start doing things right. Great moral, even if isn't a blockbuster movie.
"Facing the Giants". Also low budget ($100,000, if I remember correctly) by Hollywood standards, but received critical acclaim, and was even given some publicity during an installment of ABC's World News Tonight. It's a very inspiring story of a football coach struggling against several giants in his life. Very poignant. I've heard that some women who didn't particularly care for football movies really loved this one.
"Fireproof". Same people made this movie, with a somewhat bigger budget, and this time with a well known actor in the lead role - Kirk Cameron. This has a tremendous, pro-marriage message. Every married couple ought to go see this, whether you're newlyweds or have been married for decades.
Books:
"Iron Web" by Larken Rose. I normally don't read fiction, but dad spoke so highly of it (and its author) that I decided to read it. I read it the weekend after my dad left the hospital after his pancreatic cancer surgery, staying up late each night. You may not find it on the New York Times bestseller list, but that's unfortunate, because it ought to be. It's very well written, suspenseful, and though provoking. You probably won't find it at Barnes & Noble, either (and shouldn't look), but instead, either order it directly from Larken, or ask your local bookstore to order it for you. That way, you're supporting a local business, rather than a large national chain. I like the big stores as much as the next guy, but if we don't give the mom & pop stores some of our money, they'll be gone.
"The Cancer Industry" by Ralph W. Moss. This book will make you mad, which is a good thing, because people need to wake up and know what's going on with arguably the most profitable disease known to man. This isn't the first exposé I've ever read on cancer, but it's certainly the best written and most thoroughly documented.
That's it for now...until I blog again.
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