Best of the Web:


Alarm Clock

Best of the Web: Americans Are Living In 1984 - A people as gullible as Americans have no future

freedom is slavery
© dgp.utoronto.ca

The White House's 'death of bin Laden' story has come apart at the seams. Will it make any difference that before 48 hours had passed the story had changed so much that it no longer bore any resemblance to President Obama's Sunday evening broadcast and has lost all credibility?

So far it has made no difference to the once-fabled news organization, the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), which on May 9, eight days later, is still repeating the propaganda that the Seals killed bin Laden in his Pakistani compound, where bin Laden lived next door to the Pakistani Military Academy surrounded by the Pakistani army.

Not even the president of Pakistan finds the story implausible. The BBC reports that the president is launching a full-scale investigation of how bin Laden managed to live for years in an army garrison town without being noticed.

Chess

Best of the Web: Abbottabad residents still don't believe bin Laden lived there

NBC News' Stephanie Gosk has been reporting all week from Abbottabad, Pakistan, the city where Osama bin Laden was killed by U.S. forces in a secret raid. In a phone interview Friday, she responded to questions about the town and the local reaction to bin Laden's death and the revelation that he lived there for years.



What is the reaction to bin Laden's death in Abbottabad?

We've been here all week and have been able to get quite close to bin Laden's former compound - right outside the walls. And it's not just the media who are interested, but also the people who live in this town.

What is most interesting is how few people actually believe bin Laden was killed in that house or that he even lived there at all.

It will be interesting over the next few days to see what their reaction is to the news that al-Qaida has put a statement online confirming that bin Laden was killed and calling on Muslims around the world to rise up and avenge his death.

Bacon

Best of the Web: You Have Been Lied to About Cholesterol and Fats

bacon & eggs
© unknown
For decades we have been indoctrinated that cholesterol from saturated fat is the major harbinger of heart disease and death. The result has been big profits for unhealthy, cheaply produced no/low fat foods like margarine and Big Pharma's dangerous statin drugs.

Over several decades, this propaganda has diminished or even destroyed the health of millions while killing thousands who have been put on cholesterol lowering statin drugs. Simply put, cholesterol as the major heart disease threat is disinformation.

Bad vs Real Science

The original study that started the whole cholesterol/heart disease hypothesis was conducted on rabbits. They were fed enormous quantities of butter and lard daily, equivalent to a quart a day for humans. But those animals are herbivores, not omnivores. Herbivores are not equipped to digest animal proteins and fats. When a similar study was conducted years later on rats, which like humans are omnivores, there were no negative consequences whatsoever.

More impressive are the three epidemiological human studies involving tens of thousands of subjects over two to three generations. They all discovered higher death rates among those with lower cholesterol counts. Those studies were: The Framingham Study; The Honolulu Heart Program Study; The Japanese Lipid Intervention Trial.

Many agree that stress coupled with heavy refined carbohydrate and junk food diets (SAD) are the sources of most obesity, diabetes, chronic inflammation, and heart disease.

Syringe

Best of the Web: Are Vaccines Obsolete?

Image
© Salem-News.orgMany question the benefits.
Autism and vaccines, a surprising connection.

CBS has opened with the questions surrounding vaccination in broadcasting work by Helen Ratajczak.

"The article in the Journal of Immunotoxicology is entitled 'Theoretical aspects of autism: Causes--A review.' The author is Helen Ratajczak, surprisingly herself a former senior scientist at a pharmaceutical firm. Ratajczak did what nobody else apparently has bothered to do: she reviewed the body of published science since autism was first described in 1943. Not just one theory suggested by research such as the role of MMR shots, or the mercury preservative thimerosal; but all of them.

Ratajczak's article states, in part, that "Documented causes of autism include genetic mutations and/or deletions, viral infections, and encephalitis [brain damage] following vaccination [emphasis added]. Therefore, autism is the result of genetic defects and/or inflammation of the brain." ...

Magnify

Best of the Web: A Spoon Full of Sugar.... Is Toxic?

Image
© greenprophet.com
An academic lecture that lasts nearly 90 minutes usually will get about a million yawns and, if lucky, a hundred hits on YouTube.

But a recently discovered talk by a Bay Area doctor with a fresh take on the obesity epidemic recently rocketed the YouTube video to viral status. Supporting the thesis that sugar is nothing short of "poison," Dr. Robert Lustig, a professor of clinical pediatrics in the division of endocrinology at UCSF, clearly has hit a nerve. And his no-nonsense message about health and sugar is spreading through media channels like wildfire.


Comment: Watch Dr. Robert Lustig's 90 minute lecture: Sugar: The Bitter Truth


The U.S. will not get a handle on the obesity epidemic, Lustig says, if the public continues to view obesity as the result of gluttony and sloth. No one chooses to be fat, especially not the thousands of babies and toddlers in the United States who are obese or at risk for it. That's why obesity should be seen as a public health crisis on the level of AIDS rather than a personal responsibility issue, he argues.

Bad Guys

Best of the Web: I Don't Believe a Word This Government Utters...Especially in Regards to Bin Laden and 9/11

presto!
© n/a
I am sorry. But, after the past decade of lies, distortions, obfuscations, and out and out deception surrounding 9/11 and every other damn issue under the sun, I don't believe anything they say about anything anymore. (And, I know this shite ain't new, but as the brazeness elevates due to our unquestioning acceptance of information that is tenuous at best, and out and out provable lies at worst, it gets more surreal by the day).

So, when I heard there was a unexpected press conference about national security and knowing that they never tell any truth about REAL issues that threaten our national security, my gut reaction?...

'Don't tell me, they got Bin Laden. What a way to kick off Obama in 2012 corporate campaign'!

I choked on my grapes when the NYT pre-released the story.

Bacon

Best of the Web: High salt consumption not dangerous, new European study finds, but U.S. experts disagree

Image
Low levels of salt consumption are associated with a higher rate of cardiovascular disease and deaths, European researchers reported Tuesday, but U.S. experts promptly criticized the study, which contradicts the prevailing dietary wisdom. "This study might need to be taken with a grain of salt," Dr. Peter Briss of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention told the New York Times. Dr. Ralph Sacco of the University of Miami, president of the American Heart Assn., also criticized the study's design and conclusions, noting that the association would continue to stand by its guideline that Americans should consume no more than 1,500 milligrams of salt per day, well below the current average of about 3,500 mg per day. He argued that a vast amount of literature supports the current recommendation and that one study is not sufficient to make any changes in the guidelines.

The level of salt in the diet has been a highly controversial topic for at least two decades. Opponents of salt argue, and several studies have shown, that higher levels of salt increase blood pressure and are associated with higher rates of cardiovascular disease and deaths from heart attacks. Proponents, however, argue that only a small proportion of the population, at best, is susceptible to the deleterious effects of salt and that the rest of the populace should not have to give up the flavor-enhancing effects of the food additive. In that group, some have even suggested, low salt intake might even be deleterious.

Bizarro Earth

Best of the Web: US: There is nothing normal about celebrating death

Image
© unknown
I thought justice was about bringing people to trial for crimes they have committed, not targeted assassinations. It seems I was wrong. I thought disdain for Britain and the US was born from our imperialist foreign policy, not one man recording video messages. It seems I was wrong. First, NATO bomb Libya and kill three of Gaddafi's grandchildren, and people celebrate. What were the crimes of those children? Or is it acceptable to celebrate their deaths because they are 'the devil's spawn'?

Today, we are celebrating the death of former CIA employee Osama Bin Laden. Why are there no photographs of his body? Why was he buried in the sea? Why is he not on trial? Of course, we are not encouraged to question the official line.

Can one man be solely responsible for atrocities that kill thousands of people? As with Saddam Hussein, as with Muammer Gaddafi, the complete dehumanisation of Osama Bin Laden as an individual has served as the pretext for the killing of hundreds of thousands of people. If we were to follow the logic that the killing of one man called Bin Laden comprises 'justice' for the thousands of victims of 9/11, then what would 'justice' for the estimated one million Iraqis dead since the US and British-led invasion of Iraq entail?

Alarm Clock

Best of the Web: Osama bin Laden hideout 'worth far less than US claimed'

Image
© Faisal Mahmood/ReutersOsama bin Laden's compound in Abbottabad, described by US officials as being worth $1m. Local property experts estimate its value at a quarter of that sum
Pakistan property experts say US government description of '$1m mansion' was way off the mark, as further exaggerations come to light.

Osama bin Laden's house, described by the US government as a $1m (£605,000) mansion, is in fact worth no more than $250,000 say property professionals in Abbottabad, the town where he was killed.

Propaganda

Best of the Web: Did Osama Really Die on Monday in Abbottabad?

osama
© n/a
Islamabad - The claims regarding Osama bin Laden's death began almost immediately after Sept. 11, 2001 American invasion of Afghanistan.

In 2010 a website released photo of the body of Osama bin Laden and claimed that he was killed several years ago. But what is more surprising is that the very same photo was being circulated Monday after U.S. forces reported that Osama bin Laden was killed early Monday.

It was not clear why the same photo of "dead Osama" which was available with several regional agencies were released Monday once again to the media.

This led to speculations that "Osama's body might have been brought in to be later 'discovered' from the scene of clash with other Al-Qaeda militants.

The discovery of Osama's body from Bilal Town, Abbottabad has increased pressure on Pakistani security forces.