Monday, October 8, 2007

A lot of what I am about to say comes from  an essay by George Lakoff and Mark Johnson.

So... how we govern our lives is based a lot on metaphors. After I read this essay, it became quite apparent to me and so I would like to discuss one metaphor in life I found particularly interesting. The metaphor of the Chemical.

"It is both beautiful and insightful. It gives us a view of problems as things that never disappear utterly and that cannot be solved once and for all. All of your problems are always present, only they must be dissolved and in solution, or they may be solid in form. The best you cna hope for is to find a catalyst that will make one problem dissolve without making another one."

"The chemical metaphor gives us a new view of human problems.  It is appropriate to the experience of finding that problems which we thought were "solved" turn up again and again. The chemical metaphor says that problems are not the kind of things that can be made to disappear forever. To treat them as things that can be "solved" once and for all is pointless."

It goes on to say that to live by this metaphor would be to accpet it as a fact that no problem ever dissapears forever and that instead of directing our energies towards solving those problems, we should direct them towards finding out what catalysts will disolve your most pressing problems for the longest time without making worse ones.


To live by this metaphor would also mean that my problems have a different kind of reality. Temporary solutions would be an accomplishment rather than a failure. This is the kind of metaphor I wish I lived by more often. Problems would be a part of the natural order of things rather than "...disorders to be cured." The way I would understand my life and the way I would act in it would be different. But it is so much easier said than done. 

Wednesday, October 3, 2007

So. I rarely have a moment anymore to blog. I wonder why. Maybe it's because I have a 4 month old. Or maybe its because I don't know what to write about. All I know is that I am sick of the government. Now don't get all fussy, just hear me out.
In talking with David, we discussed a few things regarding politics. First, we let the government run our lives. Really we do. I am speaking specifically of a few things. The first being the fact that the government wants us and encourages us to poke our tiny babies with needles full of :
  aluminum hydroxide
• aluminum phosphate
• ammonium sulfate
• amphotericin B
• animal tissues: pig blood, horse blood, rabbit brain,
• dog kidney, monkey kidney,
• chick embryo, chicken egg, duck egg
• calf (bovine) serum
• betapropiolactone
• fetal bovine serum
• formaldehyde
• formalin
• gelatin
• glycerol
• human diploid cells (originating from human aborted fetal tissue)
• hydrolized gelatin
• mercury thimerosol
• monosodium glutamate (MSG)
• neomycin
• neomycin sulfate
• phenol red indicator
• phenoxyethanol (antifreeze)
• potassium diphosphate
• potassium monophosphate
• polymyxin B
• polysorbate 20
• polysorbate 80
• porcine (pig) pancreatic hydrolysate of casein
• residual MRC5 proteins
• sorbitol
• sucrose
• tri(n)butylphosphate,
• VERO cells, a continuous line of monkey kidney cells, and
• washed sheep red blood

(Extracted from Nexus Magazine, Volume 5, 5 )
In fact, I got a congratulatory card from Governor Ed Rendell on our new baby. Attached was an immunization record with sweet words telling me to take my baby in for his shots.

Some of the above listed agents have been linked to SIDS, Autism, ADHD, diabetes, and all other autoimmune diseases. It's crazy!

Don't worry, I realize that there is overwhelming evidence to support either side but I am a firm believer that infants should not be injected against their will with such things that could possibly harm them. Let them make the choice at least...when they are older. And seriously, who likes seeing their babies cry? Not me. Isn't it true that after the vaccine they get sick anyway?

My sister forwarded this article to me in which Bush will veto a bill that calls for the removal of mercury in childrens vaccines. "The flu vaccine, which continues to be manufactured with mercury, is recommended for all pregnant women, infants and children despite the fact that the Institute of Medicine in 2001 recommended against the policy of exposing these same sensitive groups to thimerosal containing vaccines.

Mercury is the second most toxic metal known to man behind Uranium. Thimerosal is used in vaccines not because it is good for you, but purely because it prevents vaccine contamination. Yet some have questioned why thimerosal is even considered for vaccines because there are obviously safer alternatives to preventing contamination. Questions also remain about how pharmaceutical companies conduct vaccine research and how the government regulates those companies.

Just one more interesting tidbit.
"The combination of the Hepatitis B vaccine and the HiB vaccine more than doubled the amount of mercury children in the 90s. "If you take a ten-pound baby in, and it gets four shots on that one day, which is a common practice - that's equivalent to giving a 100-pound person forty shots in one day...".
 
I think I'll pass on that.

 

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