the incorrigible nonconformist

Anything that ticks off The Establishment.

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Meat Industry and Republicans Don't Want Americans Healthy.

Newest battle of the Dietary Guidelines Committee against big business, Republicans and the meat industry.

[hentaidaddy666]

Sir, sir, if you con, SIR IF CONTINUE TO RAISE YOUR VOICE I’M GOING TO HAVE TO ASK YOU TO LEAVE SIR.

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60 Minutes report on Lumber Liquidators health and safety violations as well as misleading labeling.

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Lumber Liquidators Guilty of Fraud and Health Violations.

60 Minutes found that Lumber Liquidators' Chinese-made laminate flooring contains amounts of toxic formaldehyde - a known carcinogen- that do not meet health and safety standards. Some of Lumber Liquidator's laminate contains up to 20 times the allowable amount of formaldehyde. See the 60 minutes report below.

Not only is this alarming news, but during the investigation, it was found that Lumber Liquidators has also been fraudulent by labeling their products as CARP 2 compliant when they are not. That is misleading advertising and misleading the public that their products are safe when they are not. The company just announced it is now involved in a class action lawsuit as well.

Our best advice: if you want hardwood flooring, stick to the real stuff, not the fake, manufactured from plastics and layers of cheaper materials stuff. Natural, made from natural products is always best over manmade prefabricated materials loaded with toxins.

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/lumber-liquidators-linked-to-health-and-safety-violations/

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What Your Tongue Says About You.

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Steve's Dome Home in Thailand.

I love the inside of this place. Very me. See the video on this month's Green Circkles. http://circkles.com/greenpage.php

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Juries That Make Laws: So Crazy, it Just Might Work.

I recently had to do two days of jury duty, but it gave me the ability to see our judicial system up close and personal and got me to thinking about the entire process. What if we used our jury system to deliberate on governmental decisions as well as legal? Why not? We have all the instruments already in place.

Just imagine what our world would be like if the public were actually making our governing decisions rather than a corrupt group of so-called representatives that can be bought and coerced into passing legislation that only benefits Corporate and Political America.

It would be a true democracy: true representation of the people by the people. As Abe Lincoln is famous for saying, but which we never really received, it would be "Government by the people, for the people" in it's  truest form. What if the purpose of judges and lawyer's was to protect the jury from outside influence (which yes, they already do, but this would be heightened) while they deliberate on laws, bills, amendments, regulations etc., and their purpose was to educate the jury (give their arguments and present evidence) on the proposed regulation or legislation (case.) Jury selection would still be random for every case. We would have no need for State or House Representatives anymore, or their job would drastically be altered to be maybe more political advisors and contacts for the public. The jury would then be doing the talking for citizens ( the representatives for the public) not corrupted state representatives with their own personal agendas.

Take Monsanto, who now wants to be allowed to use an ingredient of agent orange to spray our food supply with because Roundup no longer works on the super weeds and super bugs they created by using it. Say Monsanto had to go before a jury and plead their proposal or case to be allowed to use this new poison. The judge and lawyers would research this new "wonder pesticide" (2,4-D)  and educate the jury with their evidence (much like they already do) so they could make an educated decision since it's impossible for jury members to know everything about everything in our world. The lawyer's jobs would still be to select the most impartial jury for the case, and the jury would decide on wether to pass or decline bills, amendments, regulations, legislature etc based on each side's presentation - just like we do for legal cases now.

The jury would still have to try to remain as impartial as possible while hearing the "facts" or research for the case, but at least they would not be able to be bought off or bribed into their decisions - something we definitely don't have now in our political system. The people making our most important legislation would be the Mom and Pops who actually have to live by it and know exactly how it would affect them and their fellow citizens and their lives. Instead of some Rich Cat in Washington telling us peons down below how we should live and what we should put up with who never comes into contact with most of it himself, and worse yet, doesn't care about Joe America one bit because he's going to get a big, fat campaign contribution from Monsanto next election term.

Now I've broken this idea down into it's most basic interpretation so anybody reading it would get the jest. It would have to be much more detailed before implemented,  but that's not my purpose here. Mine is just to get the idea out there and get people thinking outside the box. That's what I do.

It would be amazing, and such a healthy way to handle legislation, makes me wonder why our founding fathers and other influential political figures never thought of it.  But even if they had, they would never  allow something like true representation by the people to come to fruition: they would lose their control over the process which they never would allow because after all, people cannot possibly be smart enough to govern themselves (sarcasm). So instead, they decided to not give us true representation but the elusion of representation and democracy just so we wouldn't notice we didn't really have it. Yeah...I get it now. And We the People, have never done anything about it.

The judge (Judge Berenato), who served on the case I was on, did do one cool thing that I was able to mention to her after the court proceedings were concluded. She ordered the court to "all rise" for the jury, not her, when we entered the room. Some progress toward my idea above I guess, but still so far to go.

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Sponsor a Beehive America!

We believe the only chance the honeybee has of having any future at all is to encourage and support the distribution and implementation of bee colonies in remote areas that are isolated from agricultural pesticide spraying.

Your sponsorship will go toward setting up bee colonies in areas of the United States that are isolated from agricultural pesticide sprays, such as in the Rocky Mountains where the terrain does not permit farming or crop dusting.

We educate and establish participants of our program in the best ways to set up and maintain honeybee hives in organic conditions.

The Circkles.com Sponsor a Beehive Project.

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As Long as Lobbyists are Allowed to Sway Votes, This is not a Democracy.

I recently read a quote that said, “Nothing will change until we take the careers out of Washington.” So true. And I think the American public is slowly, but surely, starting to realize that “democracy” flew out the window decades ago. We have not been experiencing a democracy in this country. Many say its a oligarchy. Yes, that would also be true. But no matter what you want to label it, there is nobody in congress or the House of Representatives that is actually representing the people.

If Monsanto can overturn a 93% majority of the public in California that wanted GMO labeling, and this agricultural bully has also managed to stop GMO initiatives on ballots in three other states so far just because they have millions of dollars to spend on negative ad campaigns and the Pro-GMO groups only have had $353,000 so far, than how can anyone say we live in a democracy? It is quite evident that what determines our laws is corporate money and nothing else. It sure isn’t what the people want when 93% of them can be overturned.

It is a sad fact indeed when one realizes that what millions of soldiers have died for and many million more civilians in past wars to ensure our freedom, right to vote, and uphold our right to fair representation was all for naught. Money determines everything in this country and that money coming from big corporations and fraudulent political representatives to protect their monetary interests and nothing else. “Home of the free, land of the brave?” Not any more. Home of the corruption of big money is now our slogan.

I also recently read a statistic that said only 34% of registered voters turned out to vote in the last election. Is this really a surprise? Why should they? Their votes don’t count anyway. Even in a presidential election, the politicians did not want to trust the ruling of our country to a bunch of voters and that is why they invented the Electoral College: Just in case public votes did not go the way the politicians wanted them to, they could override the public with the Electoral College. Democracy. What a crock! They just keep telling us it’s a democracy in Washington to stave off a revolution.  And they know the American Public is lazy enough, naive enough, and unmotivated enough to do nothing about it so they continue to get away with it.

Until Americans take an interest and actual action to stand up for their rights, Washington will continue to abuse us, abuse our rights, deny us our rights and control our lives. You call that a democracy?!

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Canadian Artist Mandy Budan has a very unique style. Read more.

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Can you Walipini?

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This Time it Hit Home.

What most people don't realize who have never been through one of these tragic fires is that it doesn't boil down to having a house left or not having a house left. I had the chance yesterday to talk to a few more of my neighbors, the ones at the very end of the canyon who got hit by the fire the worst in our area. One elderly couple said that even though they still have a house, and they were allowed to go home yesterday, they can't. It is just too much for them.

I keep having dreams that I'm running around frantically putting out fires or struggling to get my animals out) ever since last year's Crystal fire jolted me out of bed at 2:30 a.m. We had no warning when that fire hit. I watched flames come within 30 feet of my house, burning debris falling from the sky like a meteor shower all over my head, shirt, and my animals while I was frantically trying to load them up and what little else I had time to grab and run with.   I laughed at my friend's suggestion at first and said, "I don't think I'm suffering from post-traumatic stress syndrome, I think I'm just suffering from being through too many fires." Then she explained that most people associate PTSD with wars and so don't think of it in terms of natural disasters. But PTSD is caused by being forced into any stressful situation that you have no control over.

The first thing people always ask me when they find out I was one of the evacuees of the High Park Fire is, "Is your house still there?" Like that is all there is to one of these fires: that you either have a house or you don't when it's all said and done. After talking more with neighbors, it became clear that we are all dealing with PTS to some degree, because for the last 3 weeks we have all suffered the exact same circumstances, fears, anxiety, stress, sorrow, frustration, displacement etc., whether we had a house to go back to or not. These fires are not just about losing a house or not losing a house. Anybody who gets evacuated goes through the same exact thing as everybody else who is evacuated. It's just that the recovery time for those who lost their homes will take much longer. But we all experienced and are all feeling the same things right now. When people ask me if I still have a house and I say yes, then they look at me so surprised because I'm not jumping for joy and elated about that. The houses are the least traumatic thing about this whole ordeal; they are a convenience, a possession. It's the process of this whole thing that is where the trauma is.

And now everybody thinks because we are back home that it's life as usual: everything is back to normal. That is not the case. While the media and everybody not affected by the fire has moved on to other drama, our process of recovery is just beginning.When you first have to evacuate, you are kicked into survival mode and that's all you are thinking of. Now we've had the time to process everything that has just happened and what lies ahead. How things will never be the same for any of us ever again, and how every time we drive up the canyon, or take a walk, we will see the constant reminder of what we all just went through, and even years from now, feel that slight pang of fear, sorrow, depression or whatever emotion that was associated with it. THIS is the hard part; the aftermath of a disaster. THIS is where the construction, the healing, the work really begins.

Just talking to my neighbors is different. They don't look or sound the same since this natural disaster struck. You can see by the look on everyone's face in this canyon that we have all just been through hell and back. We're drawn even closer together because of this tragedy we all share, met people and neighbors we would have never met had this tragedy not struck, and those of us with houses left do not feel any different or more fortunate than those who lost theirs; that is the universal sentiment I am getting from everyone. We have friends, and neighbors who have lost everything and our sorrow extends to them. This tragedy affected our community, not just our houses. It affected people, not just property. The property is the least of our concerns, it can and will eventually be replaced. It's how to go back to feeling normal, living without being on pins and needles every time a chopper flies over or we smell smoke, looking at the canyon without being depressed because it just reminds us of what we have lost or almost lost: and it wasn't homes we lost or possessions, it was security, safety, normalcy, control, beauty, peace of mind, sanctuary. All of us see Redstone Canyon, and the other areas hit by the High Park Fire, as an extension of our homes. So even if we still have houses standing, the canyon - our extended home - took quiet a hit and it has changed. This canyon is just as much a part of our lives as our houses are and we all look at it that way. #firefightersmatter

~ Managing Editor, Circkles.com

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(via ART CIRCKLES: Powwows, Ned Shuchter, 'Wild' by Cheryl Strayed and more.)

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17 Fake Cell Phone Towers Found. Somebody is Listening, but who?

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Revenue grow at McDonald’s Corp. is nearly nil, and it is in trouble with governments in Russia and China due to health inspection violations and some would say, dirty politics against U.S companies in Russia…