Behind The Woodshed Blogcaster – October 6, 2013.

Distractions From Relevance

Healthy Choices

• Apple Passes Coca-Cola as Most Valuable Brand Not only has Apple replaced Coca-Cola as first among the 100 most valuable brands based on criteria that include financial performance, this is the first time that the soft drink known for slogans like “It’s the real thing” has not been No. 1.

UNhealthy Choices

• Highly toxic squalene MF59 adjuvant that caused Gulf War syndrome in military servicemen now being added to some civilian flu vaccines 
  “Compulsory vaccination has long been a requirement to serve in the U.S. armed forces, and it is well documented that many of the vaccines administered to servicemen over the years have been experimental in nature, meaning they contained untested adjuvants and other questionable additives. But it has recently come to our attention that the highly toxic vaccine adjuvant squalene MF59, which was first given to servicemen back during the first Gulf War and later linked to causing Gulf War syndrome, is now being added to some civilian flu vaccines.”
  

The Government Shakedown USA USA USA!

UNiversal Sickness

• Shutdown-palooza Is Sickening “Just about every single media outlet has been plastered with “shutdown” propaganda. It’s so thick that you can almost feel their fear, which is Americans may not really give a sh*t.”
• Money for nothing: Government shutdown costs $12.5 million per hour  Here’s the price tag for the first government shutdown in 17 years: about $1.6 billion a week, $300 million a day, or $12.5 million an hour.
• Feds Try to Close the OCEAN Because of Shutdown  “the National Park Service informed charter boat captains in Florida that the Florida Bay was “closed” due to the shutdown.”

Essentially UNessential Non-essentials

• Search for Idaho hiker hampered as government shutdown enters day two 
• U.S. pushing Trans-Pacific Partnership agenda despite government shutdown  “Talks on a trans-Pacific trade pact are forging ahead with hopes of meeting a year-end deadline, officials said Saturday, despite U.S. President Barack Obama’s absence due to the government shutdown.” ‘Winning the Race to the Bottom’: Obama Moves to Fast-Track the TPP
• US federal shutdown puts key science functions on hold 

UNessential Knowledge

• Faking of scientific papers on an industrial scale in China  ” But even as pirated DVDs, sports gear and clothing are rather common in China, these guys were up to something way more intellectual: they were forging scientific papers.”
• SAT Results For 2013 Show Low Rates Of College Preparedness  “The college readiness statistics are just one more piece of the puzzle in assessing the state of America’s schools, and the release comes amid a national hand wringing about just how bad public education really is and what direction it should take. Most states are beginning to teach to a new set of national standards known as the Common Core, but many parents and politicians are either unaware or skeptical. “

Human Resources For the Prison Industrial Complex

• Zero Tolerance Lunacy: Teen Faces Felony Charges for Possession of a Loaded Tackle Box  “They found four knives, all of them with blades of at least 2.5 inches, according to the arrest warrant. Three of them, including a fillet knife and a spring-assisted knife, were inside his tackle box in the trunk. A butterfly knife was found inside the pocket of the driver’s side door.
  “I enjoy fishing. I go fishing probably once a week, sometimes twice a week,” said Chitwood, who has been suspended for 10 days by Lassiter Principal Chris Richie. “I just forgot that it was in there. I had my fishing poles in the car, too.”
  He was charged with carrying a weapon in a school safety zone, which is a felony in Georgia.” ” If Cody is prosecuted, he could face anywhere from 2 to 10 years in prison and a $10,000 fine…for having a loaded tackle box.”
• Criminal: How Lockup Quotas and “Low-Crime Taxes” Guarantee Profits for Private Prison Corporations  “This report discusses the use of prison bed occupancy guarantee clauses in prison privatization contracts and explores how bed occupancy guarantees undermine criminal justice policy and democratic, accountable government. The report sheds light on the for-profit private prison industry’s reliance on high prison populations, and how these occupancy guarantee provisions directly benefit its bottom line. Also discussed are the prevalence of bed guarantee clauses, drawing on set of contracts that ITPI obtained through state open records requests. We also address how occupancy guarantees have harmed states, focusing on the experiences of Arizona, Colorado, and Ohio — three states that have agreed to these provisions to detrimental consequences. Lastly, the report discusses our recommendation that governments can and should reject prison occupancy guarantees.
  Download the full report” Criminal: How Lockup Quotas and “Low-Crime Taxes” Guarantee Profits for Private Prison Corporations
  

UNessential Regulations

• FDA Issues Ridiculous Guidelines to Confine Free-Range Chickens  “According to the Alliance for Natural Health, the new guidelines suggest farmers cover their pastures with netting of a roof to protect chickens from wild birds that may be carrying salmonella. They also suggest farmers construct walls around the pastures to prevent rodents and cats from entering. Roofs and walls—doesn’t really sound like a pasture anymore does it?” 

For Next Week . . . And What To Do About It

• Dianne Feinstein Accidentally Confirms That NSA Tapped The Internet Backbone   “During Thursday’s Senate Intelligence Committee hearing, Dianne Feinstein more or less admitted that they get emails via “upstream” collection methods. As you can see in the following clip, Feinstein interrupts a discussion to read a prepared “rebuttal” to a point being made, and in doing so clearly says that the NSA can get emails via upstream collections:
      Upstream collection… occurs when NSA obtains internet communications, such as e-mails, from certain US companies that operate the Internet background, i.e., the companies that own and operate the domestic telecommunications lines over which internet traffic flows.
  She clearly means “backbone” rather than “background.” “

Similar Posts:

• Behind The Woodshed Blogcaster – September 29, 2013.
• Behind The Woodshed Blogcaster – October 13, 2013.
• Behind The Woodshed Blogcaster – June 9, 2013.