The Intellectual Insurgent

What Greater Evidence Of Self-Hate Than The Refusal To Reproduce?

2009-09-19T14:17:00.000-07:00

A friend of mine sent me this video. The ominous warnings about the extinction of Europeans are absolutely hilarious.

Then I remembered this video that another friend sent a week or two ago and it occurred to me that the fact that this was voted the Best Commercial in Europe may perhaps explain all this.

Muslims like themselves enough to reproduce. Europeans hate themselves so much that the funniest thing they could come up with in a commercial is an anti-family, child-hating annoying 40-second clip of noise. Such is the deadend of Godless secularism. Bye bye.

What Ever Happened To The Dancing Israelis?

2009-09-11T06:51:00.000-07:00

From WhatReallyHappened.Com

The Five Dancing Israelis Arrested On 9-11
As the world watched in disbelief and asked the question...

...Mossad operatives were seen dancing with joy.

A Mossad surveillance team made quite a public spectacle of themselves on 9-11. The New York Times reported Thursday that a group of five men had set up video cameras aimed at the Twin Towers prior to the attack on Tuesday, and were seen congratulating one another afterwards. Police received several calls from angry New Jersey residents claiming "middle-eastern" men with a white van were videotaping the disaster with shouts of joy and mockery.

"They were like happy, you know … They didn't look shocked to me" said a witness.

[T]hey were seen by New Jersey residents on Sept. 11 making fun of the World Trade Center ruins and going to extreme lengths to photograph themselves in front of the wreckage. Witnesses saw them jumping for joy in Liberty State Park after the initial impact. Later on, other witnesses saw them celebrating on a roof in Weehawken, and still more witnesses later saw them celebrating with high fives in a Jersey City parking lot. It looked like they're hooked in with this. It looked like they knew what was going to happen when they were at Liberty State Park."

One anonymous phone call to the authorities actually led them to close down all of New York's bridges and tunnels. The mystery caller told the 9-1-1 dispatcher that a group of Palestinians were mixing a bomb inside of a white van headed for the Holland Tunnel. Here's the transcript from NBC News:

Dispatcher: Jersey City police.
Caller: Yes, we have a white van, 2 or 3 guys in there, they look like Palestinians and going around a building.
Caller: There's a minivan heading toward the Holland tunnel, I see the guy by Newark Airport mixing some junk and he has those sheikh uniform.
Dispatcher: He has what?
Caller: He's dressed like an Arab. (*Writer's note: Why would this mystery caller specifically say that these "Arabs" were Palestinians? How would he know that? Palestinians usually dress in western style clothes, not "sheikh uniforms")

Based on that phone call, police then issued a "Be-on-the-Lookout" alert for a white mini-van heading for the city's bridges and tunnels from New Jersey. White, 2000 Chevrolet van with 'Urban Moving Systems' sign on back seen at Liberty State Park, Jersey City, NJ, at the time of first impact of jetliner into World Trade Center Three individuals with van were seen celebrating after initial impact and subsequent explosion. FBI Newark Field Office requests that, if the van is located, hold for prints and detain individuals.

When a van fitting that exact description was stopped just before crossing into New York, the suspicious "middle-easterners" were apprehended. Imagine the surprise of the police officers when these terror suspects turned out to be Israelis!

According to ABC’s 20/20, when the van belonging to the cheering Israelis was stopped by the police, the driver of the van, Sivan Kurzberg, told the officers: "We are Israelis. We are not your problem. Your problems are our problems. The Palestinians are your problem."

Why did he feel Palestinians were a problem for the NYPD?

The police and FBI field agents became very suspicious when they found maps of the city with certain places highlighted, box cutters (the same items that the hijackers supposedly used), $4700 cash stuffed in a sock, and foreign passports. Police also told the Bergen Record that bomb sniffing dogs were brought to the van and that they reacted as if they had smelled explosives.

The FBI seized and developed their photos, one of which shows Sivan Kurzberg flicking a cigarette lighter in front of the smouldering ruins in an apparently celebratory gesture.

The Jerusalem Post later reported that a white van with a bomb was stopped as it approached the George Washington Bridge, but the ethnicity of the suspects was not revealed. Here's what the Jerusalem Post reported on September 12, 2001:

American security services overnight stopped a car bomb on the George Washington Bridge. The van, packed with explosives, was stopped on an approach ramp to the bridge. Authorities suspect the terrorists intended to blow up the main crossing between New Jersey and New York, Army Radio reported.

"...two suspects are in FBI custody after a truckload of explosives was discovered around the George Washington Bridge ... The FBI ... says enough explosives were in the truck to do great damage to the George Washington Bridge."
WMV video download (545kB)

It was reported the van contained tonnes of explosives.

What's really intriguing is that ABC's 20/20, the New York Post, and the New Jersey Bergen Record all clearly and unambiguously reported that a white van with Israelis was intercepted on a ramp near Route 3, which leads directly to the Lincoln Tunnel. But the Jerusalem Post, Israeli National News (Arutz Sheva), and Yediot America, all reported, just as clearly and unambiguously, that a white van with Israelis was stopped on a ramp leading to the George Washington Bridge, which is several miles north of the Lincoln Tunnel.

It appears as if there may actually have been two white vans involved, one stopped on each crossing. This would not only explain the conflicting reports as to the actual location of the arrests, but would also explain how so many credible eye-witnesses all saw celebrating "middle-easterners" in a white van in so many different locations. It also explains why the New York Post and Steve Gordon (lawyer for the 5 Israelis) originally described how three Israelis were arrested but later increased the total to five.

Perhaps one van was meant to drop off a bomb while the other was meant to pick up the first set of drivers while re-crossing back into New Jersey? If a van was to be used as a parked time-bomb on the GW Bridge, then certainly the drivers would need to have a "get-away van" to pick them up and escape. And notice how the van (or vans) stayed away from the third major crossing -the Holland Tunnel- which was where the police had originally been directed to by that anti-Palestinian 9-1-1 "mystery caller". A classic misdirection play.

From there, the story gets becomes even more suspicious. The Israelis worked for a Weehawken moving company known as Urban Moving Systems. An American employee of Urban Moving Systems told the The Record of New Jersey that a majority of his co-workers were Israelis and they were joking about the attacks. The employee, who declined to give his name said: "I was in tears. These guys were joking and that bothered me." These guys were like, "Now America knows what we go through."

A few days after the attacks, Urban Moving System's Israeli owner, Dominick Suter, dropped his business and fled the country for Israel. He was in such a hurry to flee America that some of Urban Moving System's customers were left with their furniture stranded in storage facilities. Suter's departure was abrupt, leaving behind coffee cups, sandwiches, cell phones and computers strewn on office tables and thousands of dollars of goods in storage. Suter was later placed on the same FBI suspect list as 9/11 lead hijacker Mohammed Atta and other hijackers and suspected al-Qaeda sympathizers, suggesting that U.S. authorities felt Suter may have known something about the attacks.

The Jewish weekly The Forward reported that the FBI finally concluded that at least two of the detained Israelis were agents working for the Mossad, the Israeli intelligence agency, and that Urban Moving Systems, the ostensible employer of the five Israelis, was a front operation. This was confirmed by two former CIA officers, and they noted that movers' vans are a common intelligence cover. The Israelis were held in custody for 71 days before being quietly released.

"There was no question but that [the order to close down the investigation] came from the White House. It was immediately assumed at CIA headquarters that this basically was going to be a cover-up so that the Israelis would not be implicated in any way in 9/11." Several of the Cheering Israelis discussed their experience in America on an Israeli talk show after their return home. Said one of the men, denying that they were laughing or happy on the morning of Sept. 11, "The fact of the matter is we are coming from a country that experiences terror daily. Our purpose was to document the event." wmv video download

How did they know there would be an event to document on 9/11?

It doesn't take Sherlock Holmes to connect the dots of the dancing Israeli Mossad agents - here's the most logical scenario:

1. The Israeli "movers" cheered the 9-11 attacks to celebrate the successful accomplishment of the greatest spy operation ever pulled off in history.

2. One of them, or an accomplice, then calls a 9-1-1 police dispatcher to report Palestinian bomb-makers in a white van headed for the Holland Tunnel.

3. Having thus pre-framed the Palestinians with this phone call, the Israeli bombers then head for the George Washington Bridge instead, where they will drop off their time-bomb van and escape with Urban Moving accomplices.

4. But the police react very wisely and proactively by closing off ALL bridges and tunnels instead of just the Holland Tunnel. This move inadvertently foils the Israelis' misdirection play and leads to their own capture.

5. To cover up this story, the U.S. Justice Department rounds up over 1000 Arabs for minor immigration violations and places them in New York area jails. The Israelis therefore become less conspicuous as the government and media can now claim that the Israelis were just immigration violators caught in the same dragnet as many other Arabs.

6. After several months, FBI and Justice Department "higher-ups" are able to gradually push aside the local FBI agents and free the Israelis quietly.

Osama bin Laden was immediately blamed for the 9/11 attacks even though he had no previous record of doing anything on this scale. Immediately after the Flight 11 hit World Trade Center 1CIA Director George Tenet said "You know, this has bin Laden's fingerprints all over it." The compliant mainstream media completely ignored the Israeli connection. Immediately following the 9-11 attacks the media was filled with stories linking the attacks to bin Laden. TV talking-heads, "experts", and scribblers of every stripe spoon-fed a gullible American public a steady diet of the most outrageous propaganda imaginable.

We were told that the reason bin Laden attacked the USA was because he hates our "freedom" and "democracy". The Muslims were "medieval" and they wanted to destroy us because they envied our wealth, were still bitter about the Crusades, and were offended by Britney Spears shaking her tits and ass all over the place!

A number of intelligence officials have raised questions about Osama bin Laden's capabilities. "This guy sits in a cave in Afghanistan and he's running this operation?" one C.I.A. official asked. "It's so huge. He couldn't have done it alone." A senior military officer told me that because of the visas and other documentation needed to infiltrate team members into the United States a major foreign intelligence service might also have been involved.

Bin Laden is not named as the perpetrator of 9/11 by the FBI:

When asked why there is no mention of 9/11 on Bin Laden’s Most Wanted web page, [Rex Tomb, Chief of Investigative Publicity for the FBI] said, “The reason why 9/11 is not mentioned on Usama Bin Laden’s Most Wanted page is because the FBI has no hard evidence connecting Bin Laden to 9/11.”

"So we've never made the case, or argued the case that somehow Osama bin Laden [sic] was directly involved in 9/11. That evidence has never been forthcoming" - Dick Cheney. To date, the only shred of “evidence” to be uncovered against bin Laden is a barely audible fuzzy amateur video that the Pentagon just happened to find "lying around" in Afghanistan. How very convenient, and how very fake.

There is no evidence, be it hard or circumstantial, to link the Al Qaeda "terrorist network" to these acts of terror, but there is a mountain of evidence, both hard and circumstantial, which suggests that Zionists have been very busy framing Arabs for terror plots against America.
"I think there is very compelling evidence that at least some of the terrorists were assisted not just in financing -- although that was part of it -- by a sovereign foreign government ... It will become public at some point when it's turned over to the archives, but that's 20 or 30 years from now" - Senator Bob Graham.

If the sovereign foreign government mentioned by Senator Graham was an enemy of the United States the "compelling evidence" would not be kept secret for 20+ years.

"Evidence linking these Israelis to 9/11 is classified. I cannot tell you about evidence that has been gathered. It's classified information." US official quoted in Carl Cameron's Fox News report on the Israeli spy ring.

"By way of deception, thou shalt do war"

Motto of the Mossad

If White People Did This, It Would Be Called Racist...

2009-09-08T14:30:00.000-07:00

NAZERETH, ISRAEL - The Israeli government has launched a television and internet advertising campaign urging Israelis to inform on Jewish friends and relatives abroad who may be in danger of marrying non-Jews. The advertisements, employing what the Israeli media described as “scare tactics”, are designed to stop assimilation through intermarriage among young diaspora Jews by encouraging them to move to Israel.

The campaign, which cost US$800,000 (Dh2.9 million), was created in response to reports that half of all Jews outside Israel marry non-Jews. It is just one of several initiatives by the Israeli state and private organisations to try to increase the size of Israel’s Jewish population.

Israel, whose Jewish population of 5.6 million accounts for 41 per cent of worldwide Jewry, has obstructed intermarriage between its Jewish and Arab citizens by refusing to recognise such marriages unless they are performed abroad. The advertising campaign is directed particularly at Jews in the United States and Canada, whose combined 5.7 million Jews constitutes the world’s largest Jewish population. Most belong to the liberal Reform stream of Judaism that, unlike Orthodoxy, does not oppose intermarriage.

One-third of Jews in the diaspora are believed to have relatives in Israel. According to the campaign’s organisers, more than 200 Israelis rang a hotline to report names of Jews living abroad after the first TV advertisement was run on Wednesday. Callers left details of e-mail addresses and Facebook and Twitter accounts. The 30-second clip featured a series of missing-person posters on street corners, in subways and on telephone boxes showing images of Jewish youths above the word “Lost” in different languages.

Fool Me 100 Times...

2009-08-24T11:50:00.000-07:00

Vaccine-Induced Disease Epidemic Outbreaks

by A. True Ott

The year was 1921. America was entering a decade of robust prosperity. Later called "The Roaring Twenties", it was a time of unparalleled economic expansion. Debt money from Wall Street banks was plentiful and easy to obtain. The "Great War" was over.

America was flexing her industrial muscles. Factories were being built and expanded in every major city. Automobiles began rolling off Detroit assembly lines in record numbers. The stock market began making millionaires. People were HEALTHY and HAPPY largely because the dreaded "world mystery disease" (which decades later became known as the "1918 Flu Pandemic") had disappeared. Two entire years had passed with no dreaded "mystery deaths" being reported. America had cause to celebrate, and celebrate they did!

As a matter of fact, the American Public in general was so optimistic and HAPPY in 1921, that relatively few people were unhealthy as well. For the first time in decades, hospital beds were empty. The fledgling American Medical Association, formed by John D. Rockefeller just a few years earlier, was worried. Business was sagging.

Profits from vaccines and drugs were spiraling. Something had to be done, and done immediately. False, faux epidemics of smallpox were created to solve the problem, and keep the Medical Mafia's cash registers ringing.

We know this dastardly plan actually happened, thanks to a citizen's WATCHDOG GROUP in Kansas City, Missouri named "The Advertiser's Protective Bureau", who filed, and successfully prosecuted criminal charges against the Missouri state chapter of the AMA the Jackson Medical Society. The 'Protective Bureau's" official report of this cold-blooded plot reads as follows:

"In the Fall of 1921, the health of the city was unusually good, but slow for the doctors. So the Jackson Medical Society met and resolved to make an epidemic in the city. According to the minutes of this meeting: 'MOTION WAS MADE AND SECONDED, THAT A RECOMMENDATION BE MADE BY THE COMMITTEE, TO THE BOARD OF HEALTH, THAT AN EPIDEMIC OF SMALLPOX BE DECLARED IN THE CITY. (Investigation later revealed that there was NO SIGN OF AN EPIDEMIC at the time, in the city, or anywhere in the state or region!)

'It was moved and seconded that a day be set aside, termed VACCINATION DAY, on which physicians would be stationed at ALL SCHOOLS, clinics, public buildings and hospitals to vaccinate "free of charge". (Vaccinations are never "free". The taxpayers are always forced to pay for every one of the "free" vaccines.)

"IT IS FURTHER RECOMMENDED THAT WIDE PUBLICITY BE GIVEN, STATING THAT VACCINATION IS A PREVENTIVE OF SMALLPOX, AND URGING THE ABSOLUTE NECESSITY OF VACCINATION FOR EVERY MAN, WOMAN, AND CHILD IN THE CITY."

The Protective Bureau proved in court that there WAS NO EPIDEMIC before the vaccinations!! The court records show that the Medical Society manufactured vast amounts of posters, fliers, newspaper stories and ads featuring horrific and lurid pictures of diseased children covered with massive smallpox sores and open wounds. Some pictures actually showed children's corpses covered with the same ugly sores. The PANIC-DRIVEN message was clear --- VACCINATE EVERYONE, or face a deadly public disease. There was a "sweeping epidemic" in the city; the disease was "highly contagious" and would "strike anyone who was not vaccinated" was the bill of goods sold! (Does this sound at all familiar today 88 years later??)

The Medical Mafia's propaganda blitz was successful, and over a million previously healthy and happy American citizens were hypnotized and terrorized into placing the vaccine toxins into their bloodstreams. All public school children in the region were vaccinated while at school! Parents who dared question the vaccination of their children were ostracized and publicly vilified.

THE COURT RECORD ON THIS CASE IS VERY CLEAR. In the weeks and months following the "mass vaccinations" the area's hospital beds were filled to over-flowing with VACCINE-INDUCED SMALLPOX CASES!

Tens of thousands of people became ill, and many hundreds of innocents died, and many more were permanently crippled! Of course, THE NEWSPAPERS THEN TRUMPETED HOW WISE THE MEDICAL ESTABLISHMENT WAS TO PROMOTE THE VACCINES stating how much worse the death toll would have been without the vaccination campaign!! Untold MILLIONS OF DOLLARS of profit was generated by this massive "medical" fraud.

Thanks to the ADVERTISER'S PROTECTIVE BUREAU, however; the massive fraud was exposed and criminally prosecuted to a successful conviction. During the trial, three amazing facts were proven beyond any "reasonable doubt".

Fact 1: The poster and advertising pictures showing the diseased and dying children used so successfully by the "doctors", WERE NOT EVEN CASES OF LOCAL SMALLPOX CASES AS THEY WERE BILLED TO BE! The Protective Bureau documented that they were pictures of ENGLISH CHILDREN who were victims of "court-proven" cases of SMALLPOX VACCINE POISONING!! One of the pictures was of a 5-week-old baby named Mona Stevenson, of Humphrey Street, Burnley, England. A previously healthy and happy baby, Little Mona had been vaccinated for smallpox at 5 weeks of age. Four weeks later, her pox-ridden little body was placed in a tiny coffin and buried. The horrific photos of Little Mona and others in England had previously been published in British newspapers where details of the resulting CRIMINAL TRIALS were also given. The full details of the trials, as well as the pictures, were also included in a comprehensively large medical book titled "THE HISTORY AND PATHOLOGY OF VACCINATION" by Edgar M Crookshank, MD professor of Bacteriology at the ultra-elite Kings College, London England.

Fact 2: Vaccines containing LIVE VIRUSES, weakened (i.e. attenuated) or otherwise universally causes more diseases than the vaccine ever could prevent.

Fact 3: Vaccine-Induced-Disease (VID) is an extremely effective socio-economic tool. It has the potential to generate BILLIONS OF DOLLARS OF WINDFALL PROFITS, while permanently changing the social structures of large groups of people.

2009-08-13T10:40:00.000-07:00

Texas Longhorns Fan?

2009-07-31T16:44:00.001-07:00

“…If a Jew needs a liver, can you take the liver of

an innocent non-Jew passing by to save him?

The Torah would probably permit that.

Jewish life has an infinite value,” he explained.

“There is something infinitely more holy and

unique about Jewish life than non-Jewish life.”
—

Chabad-Lubavitch Rabbi Yitzhak Ginsburgh

in “Jewish Week,” the largest Jewish publication in the United States

April 26, 1996.

We Felt Like Willy Wonka With The Golden Ticket - What An Honor To Bid Farewell to The Greastest Entertainer EVER

2009-07-08T11:17:00.000-07:00

The First Black President Says Nothing When A Black Former Lawmaker Is Imprisoned By Israel - You Keep The Change

2009-07-03T08:19:00.000-07:00

Nearly a day after the detention of former US lawmaker Cynthia McKinney by Israeli forces, Washington has yet to make a reaction.

Israeli Navy detained former US congresswoman and Nobel Prize laureate Cynthia McKinney and twenty other human rights activists on board a relief boat outside Israel's territorial waters on Tuesday as they were heading to Gaza on a humanitarian mission. Tel Aviv claims the boat was trying to break Israel's two-year siege on Gaza.

Ms McKinney -- the 2008 Green Party nominee for President of the United States-- has accused Tel Aviv of violating the international law by seizing an aid vessel in international waters. "This is an outrageous violation of international law against us. Our boat was not in Israeli waters, and we were on a human rights mission to the Gaza Strip," McKinney said in a statement. "We are asking the international community to demand our release so we can continue our journey," she added. "My wife and I are very concerned about her safety," Cynthia's father told Press TV in a phone call. Bill McKinney said that the US government should support Cynthia's message and added, "Her major concern is human." Green Party leaders have called on the White House and the US State Department to intervene and demand the immediate release of all the activists.

On Monday, the International Committee of the Red Cross warned of dire humanitarian situation in Gaza, saying 1.5 million Palestinians living in the coastal sliver are 'trapped in despair' because of the continuing Israeli blockade on the territory. Since June 2007, when Israel imposed a blockade on the territory, no raw material has entered Gaza, stalling any attempt to rebuild the strip. According to the humanitarian agency report, seriously ill patients were not receiving the treatment they needed and thousands of Gazans whose homes were destroyed during Israel's three-week Christmas war were still without shelter.

What Exactly Is Being Sold?

2009-06-15T14:27:00.000-07:00

The graphic image is on a 50-foot billboard at the intersection of

Houston and Lafayette Streets in downtown Manhattan

Another Beautiful Day In Lucerne

2009-05-24T15:51:00.000-07:00

This Would Be Front Page National News If This Were Muslims or Catholics...

2009-05-06T09:28:00.000-07:00

Jewish Women Fight Holy War

Orthodox members of the Israeli parliament drafted a bill to amend an existing law that regulates behaviour at holy places, to include a prison sentence for women wearing a prayer shawl or reading aloud from the Torah near the Wailing Wall. They originally proposed a seven-year jail sentence, but this has now been changed to three years.

The Israeli Supreme Court reaffirmed the women's right to pray aloud at the wall, but said that because it upset the Orthodox community they should not be allowed to do so in front of the Wailing Wall. Instead, the court told the government to prepare a separate place for the women next to an archaeological site, away from the main wall.

Separate But Equal in a supposedly "secular" "democracy".

Orthodox Jews Are Protecting Their Pedophiles

The Brooklyn district attorney's office last month announced a hotline for alleged Orthodox sex abuse victims, says it has 19 active cases of alleged sex abuse in the borough's Orthodox Jewish community. And advocates say the problem extends beyond Brooklyn.
"If you're a pedophile, just go to one of the orthodox communities. You're probably safest there," said New York State Assemblyman Dov Hikind, himself an Orthodox Jew. "It's sad for me to say that, but it's true."

Follow The Money...

2009-04-29T10:08:00.000-07:00

From Dr. Mercola:

Your Fear Will Make Some People VERY Rich in Today's Crumbling Economy

According to the Associated Press, at least one financial analyst estimates up to $388 million worth of Tamiflu sales in the near future10 -- and that's without a pandemic outbreak. More than half a dozen pharmaceutical companies, including Gilead Sciences Inc., Roche, GlaxoSmithKline and other companies with a stake in flu treatments and detection, have seen a rise in their shares in a matter of days, and will likely see revenue boosts if the swine flu outbreak continues to spread.

As soon as Homeland Security declared a health emergency, 25 percent -- about 12 million doses -- of Tamiflu and Relenza treatment courses were released from the nation's stockpile. However, beware that the declaration also allows unapproved tests and drugs to be administered to children. Many health- and government officials are more than willing to take that chance with your life, and the life of your child. But are you?

Remember, Tamiflu went through some rough times not too long ago, as the dangers of this drug came to light when, in 2007, the FDA finally began investigating some 1,800 adverse event reports related to the drug. Common side effects of Tamiflu include:

Nausea
Vomiting
Diarrhea
Headache
Dizziness
Fatigue
Cough

All in all, the very symptoms you're trying to avoid.

More serious symptoms included convulsions, delirium or delusions, and 14 deaths in children and teens as a result of neuropsychiatric problems and brain infections (which led Japan to ban Tamiflu for children in 2007). And that's for a drug that, when used as directed, only reduces the duration of influenza symptoms by 1 to 1 ½ days, according to the official data.

But making matters worse, some patients with influenza are at HIGHER risk for secondary bacterial infections when on Tamiflu. And secondary bacterial infections, as I mentioned earlier, was likely the REAL cause of the mass fatalities during the 1918 pandemic!

Where did This Mysterious New Animal-Human Flu Strain Come From?

Alongside the fear-mongering headlines, I've also seen increasing numbers of reports questioning the true nature of this virus. And rightfully so. Could a mixed animal-human mutant like this occur naturally? And if not, who made it, and how was it released?

Not one to dabble too deep in conspiracy theories, I don't have to strain very hard to find actual facts to support the notion that this may not be a natural mutation, and that those who stand to gain have the wherewithal to pull off such a stunt.

Just last month I reported on the story that the American pharmaceutical company Baxter was under investigation for distributing the deadly avian flu virus to 18 different countries as part of a seasonal flu vaccine shipment. Czech reporters were probing to see if it may have been part of a deliberate attempt to start a pandemic; as such a "mistake" would be virtually impossible under the security protocols of that virus.

The H5N1 virus on its own is not very airborne. However, when combined with seasonal flu viruses, which are more easily spread, the effect could be a potent, airborne, deadly, biological weapon. If this batch of live bird flu and seasonal flu viruses had reached the public, it could have resulted in dire consequences.

There is a name for this mixing of viruses; it's called "reassortment," and it is one of two ways pandemic viruses are created in the lab. Some scientists say the most recent global outbreak -- the 1977 Russian flu -- was started by a virus created and leaked from a laboratory.
Another example of the less sterling integrity of Big Pharma is the case of Bayer, who sold millions of dollars worth of an injectable blood-clotting medicine to Asian, Latin American, and some European countries in the mid-1980s, even though they knew it was tainted with the AIDS virus.

So while it is morally unthinkable that a drug company would knowingly contaminate flu vaccines with a deadly flu virus such as the bird- or swine flu, it is certainly not impossible. It has already happened more than once.

But there seems to be no repercussions or hard feelings when industry oversteps the boundaries of morality and integrity and enters the arena of obscenity. Because, lo and behold, which company has been chosen to head up efforts, along with WHO, to produce a vaccine against the Mexican swine flu? Baxter!11 Despite the fact that ink has barely dried on the investigative reports from their should-be-criminal "mistake" against humanity.

According to other sources,12 a top scientist for the United Nations, who has examined the outbreak of the deadly Ebola virus in Africa, as well as HIV/AIDS victims, has concluded that the current swine flu virus possesses certain transmission "vectors" that suggest the new strain has been genetically-manufactured as a military biological warfare weapon. The UN expert believes that Ebola, HIV/AIDS, and the current A-H1N1 swine flu virus are biological warfare agents.

In addition, Army criminal investigators are looking into the possibility that disease samples are missing from biolabs at Fort Detrick -- the same Army research lab from which the 2001 anthrax strain was released, according to a recent article in the Fredrick News Post.13 In February, the top biodefense lab halted all its research into Ebola, anthrax, plague, and other diseases known as "select agents," after they discovered virus samples that weren't listed in its inventory and might have been switched with something else.

It Was Bird Flu A Few Years Ago - Now It's Swine Flu. When Will The B.S. Stop?

2009-04-26T10:38:00.000-07:00

Eager to incite panic and expand the Messiah's already bloated ego, the U.S. government has declared a "swine flu public health emergency". Apparently, some people in Mexico have died from the flu - or at least that is the official proganda line being disseminated these days - and all of us in America should be in a panic.

Almost four years ago, the bird flu was the fashionable pandemic on its way to America's shores. Now it's the swine flu. Same bullshit, different animal.

So, let's see what we are dealing with.

The latest case was a 35-year-old woman from California who was hospitalized for the flu but had recovered fully.

New York City Health officials reported today that at least eight students at a private high school had "probable" swine flu.

About 200 of the 2,700 students attending St. Francis Preparatory High School in the Queens borough of the city missed school earlier in the week due to fever, sore throats and other flu-like symptoms, prompting school officials to notify the health department. Investigators interviewed more than 100 students and their family members. All had mild symptoms and none were hospitalized.

Ok. Still waiting to hear about the public health emergency.

Dr. Richard Besser, acting director of the CDC, noted that, compared to cases in Mexico,
“what we’re seeing in this country is mild disease,”
and that the U.S. cases would not have been detected without increased surveillance.

Ahhhh, maybe we are now onto something.

The U.S. will begin screening travelers at the nation’s borders and isolating people who are actively ill with suspected influenza, the director of Homeland Security said today. No travel restrictions are issued currently, but that could change, she said.
Janet Napolitano said she’d ordered border officials to start passive surveillance protocols to screen people at U.S. borders. asking "Are you sick? Have you been sick?"

Isolating people with the flu? People with AIDS are not isolated, but the flu will get you quarantined?

Ahmedinejad Makes A Pitch For The NWO - The Hegelian Dialectic In Action

2009-04-21T19:33:00.000-07:00

Excerpts of Ahmedinejad's speech at the UN "Racism" Conference:

Ladies and gentlemen, look at the Security Council which is the legacy of World War I and II. Based on what logic have they been given the right to veto? With which human and divine value is this logic compatible? Justice, equality in the eye of law and human dignity or discrimination, injustice, violation of human rights and belittling the majority of nations and countries? This Council is the most supreme decision-making centre for maintaining peace and security in the world.

After the Second World War, by exploiting the holocaust and under the pretext of protecting the Jews they made a nation homeless with military expeditions and invasion. They transferred various groups of people from America, Europe and other countries to this land. They established a completely racist government in the occupied Palestinian territories. And in fact, under the pretext of making up for damages resulting from racism in Europe, they established the most aggressive, racist country in another territory, i.e. Palestine. The Security Council endorsed this usurper regime and for 60 years constantly defended it and let it commit any kind of crime.

Worse than this is that some Western governments and America are committed to support genocidal racists while others condemn the bombardment of innocent human beings, the occupation of their land and the disasters that took place in Gaza. Even before they kept silent, not responding to all the crimes of that regime, and supported it. Dear friends, ladies and gentlemen, what has been the source of recent wars such as the Americans' attack on Iraq or the wide military expedition in Afghanistan? Has it been anything else than the selfishness of the American government of the time and the pressures by those in possession of wealth and power to expand influence and hegemony, support weapon manufacturers, destroy a great culture that is thousands of years old, destroying possible and potentials risks by the countries of the region against the occupying Quds regime, and looting the energy resources of the Iraqi people?

In fact why were one million people dead and injured and a few million people forced to leave their homeland? Why were hundreds of billions of dollars worth of damage inflicted on the Iraqi people and hundreds of billions of dollars of costs for the military invasion imposed on the American people and America's allies? Was attacking Iraq not orchestrated by the Zionists and their allies in the previous ruling government of America which was on the one hand in power and on the other the owner of arms manufacturing companies?

They are thinking of maintaining their power and wealth. And the people of the world and even their own people are of no value to them. Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, the true root of racism is the lack of human understanding as God's chosen creatures and deviation from the true path of human life and human missions in creation. Due to negligence in worshipping God with awareness and pondering on the philosophy of life and the path towards human perfection - which leads to the natural outcome of being committed to divine values and mankind - the horizon of human insight has declined. And limited and temporary interests became the criteria of evaluation and actions by human beings. Therefore, the seeds of evil power took their shape and by neglecting fair chances for others' growth, it added to the boundaries of its development.

In such a way that it changed to an ugly and uncontrollable racism that today it is threatening the global peace as the most dangerous factor. And it is an obstacle on the way of achieving peaceful life in the world. Undoubtedly, racism should be recognised as the symbol of ignorance of the depth of history and a sign of dogmatism against mankind's general growth. Therefore, we should look for the signs of racism under conditions and situations in a society where poverty of knowledge and lack of understanding would be spread. Therefore, the main means of fighting such symptoms is to promote general awareness and deepening public understanding towards the philosophy of mankind's existence and the truth about the human-oriented world. Its requirement or outcome is a return to spiritual and ethical values and human virtues and finally the belief in God. The global society should start a united cultural movement for enlightening certain suffering and undeveloped societies as much as possible and uproot this hideous and evil phenomenon.

But dear friends, today the human society is facing a kind of racism which has an ugliness that has completely distorted the honour of mankind at the verge of the third millennium and it has made the global society shameful. The global Zionism is the complete symbol of racism, which with unreal reliance on religion has tried to misuse the religious beliefs of some unaware people and hide its ugly face. But what should be seriously considered are the goals of certain superpowers and those in possession of major interests in the world; those who try their best through economic power and political influence and wide media means, to lessen the crimes and ugliness of the nature of the Zionist regime. Here, the main issue is not ignorance and therefore, cultural movements on their own, are not sufficient to fight this evil phenomenon. But we should try to put an end to the misuse of international means by the Zionists and their supporters. And by respecting nations' demands, we should motivate the united governments to eliminate this clear racism and step on the path of reforming international relations and mechanisms with courage.

Undoubtedly, you are all aware of the extensive efforts by the institutes of global power towards creating a deviation on the path of the real mission of this important conference. Unfortunately in the literature supporting the Zionists, a clear participation and cooperation in their crimes can be noticed. And this adds to the responsibilities of the respectful representatives of nations in revealing this antihuman issue and improving relations and behaviours. We should be aware that to keep a huge global capacity, such as this conference, away from its real intentions, means helping to continue the most hideous sense of racism. Today the necessity of defending human rights is firstly, to defend the rights of a nation to be free to make decisions regarding important global affairs without the influence of certain powers; secondly, to take action to improve international structures and relations. Therefore, this conference is the arena of a major test and we will be judged by the world's public opinion today and tomorrow.

Also now, in this valued conference, addressing you managers, thinkers and all the world nations who are thirsty for peace, freedom, progress and prosperity, I would like to say that the unjust ruling of the world is reaching its end. This deadlock was inevitable since the logic behind this imposed management is tyrannical. This is because the logic of the mass movement of the world is divine, purposeful, humane and God-centred. It is a movement which opposes any policy or plan which is not in line with the interests of nations. Victory of truth over vice and the bright future of humanity and the establishment of a just global system is the promise of God and all prophets, and a common hope of all communities and generations. Achieving such a future justifies the reason behind creation, is the belief of all those faithful to God and the very high status of the human beings.

Formation of a global community, the practical possibility of a common global system materialising and finally involving thinkers, managers and people of the world to actively and justly participate in the macro and principle decision makings is the main path to this great destination. [Protocol No. 5]

Now we should collectively try to learn lessons from the past and understand the necessity for correcting this path by considering today's conditions. And on the same note and as the final word I would like to draw your attention to two important points.

First point: The improvement of the current international condition is hundred per cent possible. But we should know that this cannot be achieved without the cooperation of all the governments and nations. Therefore, we should benefit from the capacities of international cooperation to the maximum. My presence in this conference indicates my respect for this important issue, and the essential issue of human rights and support for nations' rights against the evil phenomenon of racism and cooperation with you, the thinkers.

Second: Considering the lack of efficiency of systems and international political, economic, security and cultural relations is necessary. In view of divine and humanitarian values and the true and real definition of human beings and based on justice and respect for the rights of all human beings across the world, confessing to the wrong management in the past and changing the views and performances, measures should be taken to reform the current structures. Therefore, a speedy change in the structure of the United Nations and the elimination of the discriminatory right to veto and a change in the financial and monetary system of the world must be on the agenda. Obviously, the lack of understanding for the urgency of this change will result in heavier costs due to any delay.

My dear friends, you should know that moving in line with justice and human dignity is like moving quickly on a stream of water. Let's not forget the valuable elixir of love and compassion. The guarantee for a clear future for human beings is a great asset that can keep us more aware and more hopeful than ever before. It can enable us to create a world full of love and blessing and can be free from poverty and hatred. We will also be able to profit from the blessings of God and have the advantage of having a decent management of a complete human being. Let us all have a share in this important issue, and hope for that bright and beautiful day. I would like to sincerely thank the President and the UN Secretary-General and all of you for your patience, wishing you dignity and success.

Secret Handshake?

2009-04-18T13:41:00.000-07:00

Fatal Unemployment

2009-04-14T14:36:00.000-07:00

Dennis, a former colleague of mine with whom I used to carpool, had been out of work since the summer. Sure, he found temp jobs from time to time, but nothing with stability or benefits and he often wondered how he would pay the bills.

He was prone to seizures. When we carpooled, he assured me that they only happened in the middle of the night and infrequently, thanks to the medication he had been on for years.

After I left the job, the company underwent significant downsizing and shed much of its workforce, including Dennis. He assumed that the one-month severance would be sufficient to carry him to the next job, but months later he was still without permanent work. And medical benefits.

The last time we spoke, he told me that he had suffered a grand mal seizure while at work at a temp job, which landed him in the hospital for three days and likely discouraged the employer from offering him a permanent gig. He couldn't afford the hospital bill, even after getting the charitable 80 percent discount, which only added to his stress.

And his seizures became more frequent with stress.

Without medical benefits, he could not afford the anti-seizure medication, so he was forced to choose between paying the mortgage and avoiding seizures.

That choice had deadly consequences. Today I received the phone call from his friend that he was found dead in his condo last week. It appears that he suffered a grand mal seizure, fell straight forward and either aspirated or hit his head in exactly the wrong spot. His mother usually stayed with him a few days during the week but, as unfortunate luck would have it, she was away on vacation.

Eerie timing.

Who Owns Organics?

2009-04-11T07:59:00.000-07:00

Is This The Way Around The Fed?

2009-04-09T19:01:00.001-07:00

From Detroit to North Carolina to upstate New York, at least a dozen communities are trying to encourage people to buy locally, creating their own currencies.

In the Berkshires, the bills are printed on the same paper as U.S. currency and by the same company — Crane & Co., based in the Berkshires town of Dalton, Mass. They feature local artists, heroes and historical figures and come complete with individual serial numbers, making them a tough target for counterfeiters. The program is made possible through private grant funding.

Roughly 2.3 million minted BerkShares have circulated through the community since the program's launch in 2006. Matt Rubiner, owner of Rubiner's Cheesemongers & Grocers, stands behind the local currency. "Philosophically, it's very much along the lines of the foundations that we set up our store under. Supporting local, sustainable producers. Keeping the community local wherever possible and so, when the BerkShares came along, that was right up our alley. We really embraced it," Rubiner said.

His shop takes special effort to buy local products and support local dairy farmers. "We begin to feel we can take care of ourselves maybe a little bit better," he said "Maybe it does bind us a little more closely."

Customer Heather Fisch stopped by Rubiner's to try a slice-of-the-day, saying she's a big supporter of BerkShares. "I think it's nice to have a constant little reminder that we're a community and we're in it together," Fisch said. "It's kind of like a Great Barrington pride moment. I'm a citizen of Great Barrington. Here's my BerkShare."

Historically, it's not a new phenomenon. Local communities printed their own currency during past recessions, as recently as the 1980s. During the 1860s, local banks printed money. New England's mills often paid their employees in scrip, a system of payment that could only be used at a company store or in the local town.

Robert Bench, a senior fellow at Boston University and former National Bank supervisor, says local currency efforts have proved successful in the past, helping to encourage consumers spend close to home. "I think it brings out the community spirit that's in everybody's self conscience," he said.

Imagine The Outrage If Any Non-Jew Wore Shirts Like This

2009-03-23T11:47:00.001-07:00

It is common practice in the Israeli military for soldiers to get custom-printed T-shirts with their unit's insignia along with graphics and text. A sharpshooter's T-shirt from the Givati Brigade's Shaked battalion shows a pregnant Palestinian woman with a bull's-eye superimposed on her belly, with the slogan, in English, "1 shot, 2 kills."

One must wonder why any wacko Muslim who says something silly gets a mic, but Israeli soldiers wearing T-shirts bragging about war crimes is conspicuously absent from the media. Did I mention that these shirts have to be pre-approved by the IDF?

So Much For All The Baloney About Peer-Reviewed, Double Blind, Published In Reputable Journals, blah, blah blah.

2009-03-13T12:13:00.000-07:00

Anyone who continues to put their religious faith in Big Pharma deserves what he gets.

By Sarah Rubenstein

We’ve followed plenty of controversies around drug trials, from ghostwriting to keeping quiet about unflattering results. But the latest news is particularly eye-popping: A prominent Massachusetts anesthesiologist allegedly fabricated 21 medical studies involving major drugs.

Yikes.

Baystate Medical Center in Springfield, Mass., has asked several anesthesiology journals to retract the studies, which appeared between 1996 and 2008, the WSJ reports. The hospital says its former chief of acute pain, Scott S. Reuben, faked data used in the studies.

Some of the studies reported favorable results from use of Pfizer’s Bextra and Merck’s Vioxx, both painkillers that have since been pulled from the market. Others offered good news about Pfizer’s pain drugs Lyrica and Celebrex and Wyeth’s antidepressant Effexor XR. Doctors said Reuben’s work was particularly influential in pain treatment and that they were shocked by the news.

“We are left with a large hole in our understanding of this field,” Steven Shafer, editor-in-chief of Anesthesia and Analgesia, told Anesthesiology News, which first reported on the retractions. “There are substantial tendrils from this body of work that reach throughout the discipline of postoperative pain management.”

Pfizer had funded some of Reuben’s research and had also paid him to speak on behalf of its medicines. “It is very disappointing to learn about Dr. Scott Reuben’s alleged actions,” Pfizer said in a statement to WSJ. “When we decided to support Dr. Reuben’s research, he worked for a credible academic medical center and appeared to be a reputable investigator.”

Wyeth said it wasn’t aware of any financial relationship between the company and Reuben. Merck had no immediate comment.

As for Baystate, it said a routine audit last spring was what flagged issues with Reuben’s work. Reuben, who is on indefinite leave, didn’t respond to the WSJ’s requests for comment. But his attorney said Reuben “deeply regrets that this happened.” The attorney also referred to “extenuating circumstances,” but didn’t elaborate on what they were.

The New World Order Makes Its Move Against The Food Supply

2009-03-11T10:52:00.000-07:00

Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., wife of Stanley Greenberg - a consultant who does "strategic consulting" on behalf Monsanto, among others - has introduced a bill (HR 875) that could potentially put all organic farmers and home farmers out of business.

And The Water Goes To...

2009-02-22T11:48:00.000-08:00

A few weeks ago at the Farmers Market, I got to chit-chatting with the organic avocado lady and asked her about the farm where they grow the avocados and how life is away from the city. She told me that, although her family loves being away from the hustle and bustle, there were so many frustrating aspects of farm life, primarily the politics of water. Recently, she explained, the municipality decided to cut water to the farms so that they could give it to...get this...CASINOS.

This article reminded me of the conversation and makes me wonder what kind of evil takes water from farms that grow the nation's food so that the towels of pathetic gamblers can be washed daily?

***

SACRAMENTO - Federal water managers said Friday that they plan to cut off water, at least temporarily, to thousands of California farms as a result of the deepening drought gripping the state.

U.S. Bureau of Reclamation officials said parched reservoirs and patchy rainfall this year were forcing them to completely stop surface water deliveries for at least a two-week period beginning March 1. Authorities said they haven’t had to take such a drastic move for more than 15 years.
The situation could improve slightly if more rain falls over the next few weeks, and officials will know by mid-March if they can release more irrigation supplies to growers.

Farmers in the nation’s No. 1 agriculture state predicted it would cause consumers to pay more for their fruits and vegetables, which would have to be grown using expensive well water.
“Water is our life — it’s our jobs and it’s our food,” said Ryan Jacobsen, executive director of the farm bureau in Fresno County. “Without a reliable water supply, Fresno County’s No. 1 employer — agriculture — is at great risk.”

The drought would cause an estimated $1.15 billion dollar loss in agriculture-related wages and eliminate as many as 40,000 jobs in farm-related industries in the San Joaquin Valley alone, where most of the nation’s produce and nut crops are grown.

'We're talking about a huge band of area that will be affected," Richard Howitt, professor of resource economics at UC Davis, told msnbc.com in an interview Friday. "I heard these predictions coming down the line, the $1 billion loss in revenue and 40,000 jobs, so I ran the numbers again. "

He delivered the grim statistics to the state Board of Good and Agriculture last week. He said new figures to be released later Friday showed even more trouble head for the state.
"As far as job losses? The answer is the majority of losses will be related to farms and farm work, the processing done for all farm commodities, and all those secondary jobs that roll through the valley economy," Howitt said.

California's sweeping Central Valley grows most of the country's fruits and vegetables in normal years, but this winter thousands of acres turned to dust as the state hurtles into the worst drought in nearly two decades.

The state's agricultural industry typically receives 80 percent of all the water supplies managed by the federal government — everything from far-off mountain streams and suburban reservoirs. The state supplies drinking water to 23 million residents and 755,000 acres of irrigated farmland.

Farms supplied by flows from the state’s system of pumps and canals would also see cutbacks but still get 15 percent of their normal deliveries, said Lester Snow, director of the Department of Water Resources.

This year, both the state and federal reservoirs have reached their lowest level since 1992.
Dwindling supplies would have to be routed to cities to ensure residents, hospitals and fire crews have enough to meet minimum health and safety needs, said Don Glaser, the federal reclamation bureau’s Mid-Pacific Region director.

The water shortages are so severe most cities will have to start mandatory ration programs by summertime, and residents will be asked to reduce their usage by 20 percent, Snow said.
“You’ve got to think about water as a precious resource,” he said. “It may seem a stretch to conserve 20 percent of your water, but that’s nothing in comparison to the consequences of the drought and job loss in agriculture.”

2009-02-20T10:15:00.001-08:00

Victims Of Persecution Or Arrogant People Who Push The Limits?

2009-02-05T14:35:00.000-08:00

"You know very well, and the stupid Americans know equally well, that we control their government, irrespective of who sits in the White House. You see, I know it and you know it that no American president can be in a position to challenge us even if we do the unthinkable. What can they (Americans) do to us? We control congress, we control the media, we control show biz, and we control everything in America. In America you can criticize God, but you can't criticize Israel."

Israeli Spokeswoman Tzipora Menache on whether she was worried about negative ramifications the Israeli onslaught on Gaza might have on the way the Obama administration would view Israel.

If You Put Your Faith In These Glorified Drug Dealers, You Deserve What You Get

2009-02-05T12:58:00.000-08:00

Drug Companies & Doctors: A Story of Corruption By Marcia Angell

Hat tip to Rick for sending this my way.

Recently Senator Charles Grassley, ranking Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, has been looking into financial ties between the pharmaceutical industry and the academic physicians who largely determine the market value of prescription drugs. He hasn't had to look very hard.

Take the case of Dr. Joseph L. Biederman, professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and chief of pediatric psychopharmacology at Harvard's Massachusetts General Hospital.

Thanks largely to him, children as young as two years old are now being diagnosed with bipolar disorder and treated with a cocktail of powerful drugs, many of which were not approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for that purpose and none of which were approved for children below ten years of age.

In June, Senator Grassley revealed that drug companies, including those that make drugs he advocates for childhood bipolar disorder, had paid Biederman $1.6 million in consulting and speaking fees between 2000 and 2007. Two of his colleagues received similar amounts. After the revelation, the president of the Massachusetts General Hospital and the chairman of its physician organization sent a letter to the hospital's physicians expressing not shock over the enormity of the conflicts of interest, but sympathy for the beneficiaries: "We know this is an incredibly painful time for these doctors and their families, and our hearts go out to them."

Because these psychiatrists were singled out by Senator Grassley, they received a great deal of attention in the press, but similar conflicts of interest pervade medicine. (The senator is now turning his attention to cardiologists.) Indeed, most doctors take money or gifts from drug companies in one way or another. Many are paid consultants, speakers at company-sponsored meetings, ghost-authors of papers written by drug companies or their agents, and ostensible "researchers" whose contribution often consists merely of putting their patients on a drug and transmitting some token information to the company. Still more doctors are recipients of free meals and other out-and-out gifts. In addition, drug companies subsidize most meetings of professional organizations and most of the continuing medical education needed by doctors to maintain their state licenses.

No one knows the total amount provided by drug companies to physicians, but I estimate from the annual reports of the top nine US drug companies that it comes to tens of billions of dollars a year. By such means, the pharmaceutical industry has gained enormous control over how doctors evaluate and use its own products. Its extensive ties to physicians, particularly senior faculty at prestigious medical schools, affect the results of research, the way medicine is practiced, and even the definition of what constitutes a disease.

In view of this control and the conflicts of interest that permeate the enterprise, it is not surprising that industry-sponsored trials published in medical journals consistently favor sponsors' drugs—largely because negative results are not published, positive results are repeatedly published in slightly different forms, and a positive spin is put on even negative results. A review of seventy-four clinical trials of antidepressants, for example, found that thirty-seven of thirty-eight positive studies were published. But of the thirty-six negative studies, thirty-three were either not published or published in a form that conveyed a positive outcome. It is not unusual for a published paper to shift the focus from the drug's intended effect to a secondary effect that seems more favorable.

Many drugs that are assumed to be effective are probably little better than placebos, but there is no way to know because negative results are hidden. One clue was provided six years ago by four researchers who, using the Freedom of Information Act, obtained FDA reviews of every placebo-controlled clinical trial submitted for initial approval of the six most widely used antidepressant drugs approved between 1987 and 1999—Prozac, Paxil, Zoloft, Celexa, Serzone, and Effexor. They found that on average, placebos were 80 percent as effective as the drugs. The difference between drug and placebo was so small that it was unlikely to be of any clinical significance. The results were much the same for all six drugs: all were equally ineffective. But because favorable results were published and unfavorable results buried (in this case, within the FDA), the public and the medical profession believed these drugs were potent antidepressants.

Clinical trials are also biased through designs for research that are chosen to yield favorable results for sponsors. For example, the sponsor's drug may be compared with another drug administered at a dose so low that the sponsor's drug looks more powerful. Or a drug that is likely to be used by older people will be tested in young people, so that side effects are less likely to emerge. A common form of bias stems from the standard practice of comparing a new drug with a placebo, when the relevant question is how it compares with an existing drug. In short, it is often possible to make clinical trials come out pretty much any way you want, which is why it's so important that investigators be truly disinterested in the outcome of their work.

In recent years, drug companies have perfected a new and highly effective method to expand their markets. Instead of promoting drugs to treat diseases, they have begun to promote diseases to fit their drugs. The strategy is to convince as many people as possible (along with their doctors, of course) that they have medical conditions that require long-term drug treatment. Sometimes called "disease-mongering," this is a focus of two new books: Melody Petersen's Our Daily Meds: How the Pharmaceutical Companies Transformed Themselves into Slick Marketing Machines and Hooked the Nation on Prescription Drugs and Christopher Lane's Shyness: How Normal Behavior Became a Sickness.

One result of the pervasive bias is that physicians learn to practice a very drug-intensive style of medicine. Even when changes in lifestyle would be more effective, doctors and their patients often believe that for every ailment and discontent there is a drug. Physicians are also led to believe that the newest, most expensive brand-name drugs are superior to older drugs or generics, even though there is seldom any evidence to that effect because sponsors do not usually compare their drugs with older drugs at equivalent doses. In addition, physicians, swayed by prestigious medical school faculty, learn to prescribe drugs for off-label uses without good evidence of effectiveness.

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