Moms Speak Up is collaborative blog of writers from various backgrounds. We're talking about the environment, dangerous imports, health care, food safety, media and marketing, education, politics and many other hot topics of concern.
About Us
We are women, parents, consumers, voters and much, much more and we're fed up with the "business as usual" attitude of politicians & greedy corporations. It's time for us to speak up and be heard!
Here is Republican candidate Fred Thompson’s take on energy and global warming, in his very own words:
“Some people think that our planet is suffering from a fever. Now scientists are telling us that Mars is experiencing its own planetary warming: Martian warming. It seems scientists have noticed recently that quite a few planets in our solar system seem to be heating up a bit, including Pluto. NASA says the Martian South Pole’s “ice cap†has been shrinking for three summers in a row. Maybe Mars got its fever from earth. If so, I guess Jupiter’s caught the same cold, because it’s warming up too, like Pluto. This has led some people, not necessarily scientists, to wonder if Mars and Jupiter, non signatories to the Kyoto Treaty, are actually inhabited by alien SUV-driving industrialists who run their air-conditioning at 60 degrees and refuse to recycle. Silly, I know, but I wonder what all those planets, dwarf planets and moons in our SOLAR system have in common. Hmmmm. SOLAR system. Hmmmm. Solar? I wonder. Nah, I guess we shouldn’t even be talking about this. The science is absolutely decided. There’s a consensus. Ask Galileo.â€
Is this the man you want running our country? Do you want Fred Thompson to have nuclear capabilities? Not that he has a snowball’s chance in hell but still…please say no!
You can look at all the presidential primary candidates and their views on key environmental issues here.
I urge you to go take a quick look to see where your candidate stands and while you’re there, take note of how completely anti-environment all the Republican candidates are save for John McCain who seems to have a modicum of common sense, despite his dismal voting record on environmental issues.
God help us all if the Democrats don’t win in 2008…
This YouTube video is just a portion of this awesome film. It’s actually Chapter 5. But believe me, chapters 1-4 are also totally worth watching and if you go here, you can watch the whole thing from start to finish.
It’s about twenty minutes but it will be some of the most illuminating, eye-opening minutes you’ve ever spent watching any indie documentary. Show it to your kids and send the link to friends and family. Everyone in America should watch this film.
In New Jersey, children who attend preschool or daycare will soon be required to have annual flu vaccinations, despite protests from many parents who don’t think the government should be able to tell them what substances, toxic or otherwise, they must inject into their children.
Of course, I find this reprehensible because while it is in the public interest for all people to be vaccinated and I did choose to have my kids receive the normal childhood vaccines, having the government tell you can’t refuse something you feel could be irreversibly dangerous to your child is actually pretty scary.
I wonder how many people will object when they mandate that we must all be microchipped because it’s in the public interest?
But I digress, because what I really wanted to touch on besides the forced flu shots is water fluoridation.
If you want to talk about having something dangerous forced upon you without your consent, you need only turn to you kitchen faucet. In most counties, townships etc. in the US, water is fluoridated without the consent or permission of those who have no choice but to drink it.
So what’s wrong with fluoride, you ask? Well, for one thing, it’s not medical grade fluoride. It’s actually a by-product of the phosphate industry that is considered toxic waste until they put it in your drinking water.
Additionally, fluoride is a cumulative poison. On average, only 50% of the fluoride we ingest each day is excreted through the kidneys. The remainder accumulates in our bones, pineal gland, and other tissues.
Is this bad?
Well, considering that fluoride is directly linked to thyroid disease, damage to the male reproductive system (and we wonder why male sperm counts are down 50% in the last half century?) and a whole host of other potentially dangerous health problems, I’d have to say yes. It’s bad.
Shockingly, the US Public Health Service first endorsed fluoridation in 1950, before one single trial had ever been completed.
Have you ever read your toothpaste tube? The directions state that you should NOT swallow toothpaste. Why? Because it’s not meant to be ingested and yet we drink it in our water everyday.
The dental community acknowledges that fluoridated water does little or nothing to stop pit and fissure cavities, the most common kind of tooth decay and too much will actually cause dental fluorosis where the enamel of the tooth is eroded.
Both of my children’s baby teeth came in with enamel hypoplasia where the enamel was already damaged. The dentist speculates that it’s actually dental fluorosis from drinking so much fluoridated water when they were in utero. Nice. Think my county water department will pay our dental bills?
Oh, and it’s totally in your breastmilk, moms. Your babies are being fluoridated whether you like it or not.
FLUORIDE WARNING FOR INFANTS
Does your drinking water contain added fluoride? If so, keep it away from infants under the age of one. This directive was issued recently by an unlikely source: the American Dental Association (ADA). Read the whole thing and see why fluoride is also now being considered a neurotoxin that’s dangerous to developing infant brains. It’s horrible.
I could go on and on and on about water fluoridation because the facts are really, REALLY jaw-dropping but in the interest of brevity, you can read about it at the Fluoride Action Network if you want more information.
If you thought baby bottles containing BPA (Bisphenol-A) was bad, I’m sorry to report it gets worse. The Environmental Working Group just released their report on BPA in baby formula and it’s not pretty.
Please go to their site and read EVERYTHING and if someone you know is formula feeding a baby, please tell them about this disturbing new information.
There’s also a link on the site to take action and send a letter to formula makers to tell them to get rid of the BPA ASAP!
This Saturday, November 17, presidential candidates will gather in Los Angeles for the first ever Presidential Forum on Global Warming and America’s Energy Future. The event will be a critical opportunity to hear from the candidates on their positions and to spotlight the climate crisis as one of the most important leadership challenges facing the next president.
Thanks to you and thousands of other activists, energy and global warming are taking center stage in the 2008 campaign. This forum is an opportunity for you to hear from the candidates directly about where they stand on these issues you care so much about.
More than a thousand people will fill the theater to watch the event, and due to overwhelming interest, we are giving everyone the chance to tune in!
The event, which is sponsored by Grist and Living on Earth, will start this Saturday at 5:10 EST (2:10 PST) with remarks from Laurie David and a welcome address from Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. Each of the candidates will then get 30 minutes on stage to talk about their vision for solving our energy problems and answer questions on their policies.
Here’s the schedule on Saturday, November 17:
5:30 EST-Congressman Dennis Kucinich
6:00 EST-Senator Hillary Clinton
6:30 EST-Senator John Edwards
It will probably be available to watch non-live at some point but either way, try to watch!
The Axe Effect, brought to you by the same people who also bring us those fabulous Evolution of Beauty videos (Dove). Be sure to click the different “Choose a Vixen†options under the girls and take note that this is something you actually download to your computer (PC only) and use your voice to “command†your “Vixen.†Nice. Glad to see we’ve come SO far since the “women’s lib†era in which I was raised.
Barbie’s Fashion Fever Shopping Boutique. Only slightly less insulting and stupid than those Teen Talk Barbies from 1994 that exclaimed “Math is tough! I love shopping!†this toy lets you shop ’til you drop with your ATM card and “you never run out of money!â€
My daughter showed me the vomitrocious Beauty Cuties website where “Beauty is our duty!†and then we sat there and ragged on it together. Ahhh…mother-daughter bonding; I do love it so. Note that the dolls look frighteningly similar to a certain other line of nasty, trashtacular dolls that I love to hate.
Got anything to add to this list or a post about something in the same ballpark? Let me know.
Aqua Dots, one of this season’s hottest toys, is being recalled because the balls contain a coating that is converted into the date rape drug, GHB (gamma hydroxy butyrate) when ingested. Two children are already in non-responsive comas after eating Aqua Dots (called Bindeez in Australia).
For additional information, contact Spin Master at (800) 622-8339 between 9 a.m. and 6 p.m. ET Monday through Friday, or visit the firm’s Web site at www.aquadotsrecall.com
Fisher Price “Laugh & Learn Kitchens” are being recalled for a potential choking hazard. For additional information, consumers can also contact Fisher-Price at 888- 812-7187 between 9 a.m. and 7 p.m. ET Monday through Friday and between 11 a.m. and 5 p.m. ET Saturday, or visit the firm’s Web site at www.service.mattel.com.
Being recalled for lead paint:
• Pull-Back Action Toy Cars imported by Dollar General Merchandising
• Dragster and Funny Car toys imported by International Sourcing Ltd. of Springfield, Mo.
• Duck Family Collectable Wind-Up Toy, Dizzy Ducks Music Box, Robot 2000 collectable tin robot and Winnie-the-Pooh Spinning Top by Schylling .
• Big RedWagons imported by Northern Tool & Equipment Co.
This is nothing I didn’t already know but every time I read about it, it hits me in the gut like it’s the first time.
The real questions are, in my humble opinion, WHY is the EPA so useless and WHAT can we do about ridding our world of the toxins that currently pollute every cell of our bodies, including the cord bloodof newborn babies?
I know all the arguments about why we must “stay the course” in Iraq and while I despise the fact that our president has gotten us mired in something that has the potential to easily go on for another decade I do understand that leaving could make things worse for us. But make no mistake…I’m not saying I approve because I was NEVER in favor of invading Iraq in the first place.
That said, I’m not really writing to debate the occupation of war in Iraq. What I think doesn’t matter to Bush/Cheney Inc. any more than my views on the State Children’s Health Insurance Program matter to them.
What I am willing to debate is how Bush could go to Congress yesterday to ask for ANOTHER $45.9 billion emergency funding request for expenses related to U.S. military campaigns on top of the $147.5 billion he sought earlier this year. That’s $200 BILLION dollars requested in ONE year for a war that has already cost us $600 BILLION (Note: that figure does include operations in Afghanistan).
SIX HUNDRED BILLION DOLLARS SPENT ALREADY and Bush has the nerve, the absolute GALL to veto health care for 10 million children? The S-CHIP program would cost $30 billion over a five years and guess what? Unlike the debacle known as the Iraq War, the S-CHIP is actually a SUCCESS.
Say House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif) “For the cost of less than 40 days in Iraq, we could provide health-care coverage to 10 million children for an entire year.” And she’s right.
Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) said at a news conference “He repeatedly says no to health care, no to law enforcement, no to homeland security, no to stronger infrastructure but he says yes to this intractable civil war in Iraq…”
The American people should not be an ATM for the Bush Administration’s misguided and clearly delusional agenda. The buck has to stop somewhere and when you hear things like our soldiers don’t even have body armor or other basic necessities needed to successfully defend themselves, you gotta ask…WHERE is the money going? There have been no shortage of stories of waste and misuse of money intended to “support our troops” and help “win” a war that, in my opinion, isn’t even a war.
So WHY should we have to keep giving BILLIONS upon BILLIONS of our tax dollars for what amounts to a form of occupation that has cost countless American lives but not be allowed to direct our tax money to something that SAVES lives? Why are American children NOT a priority for this president?
The people have spoken and our president doesn’t hear us or even care what the people want. I thought America was a democracy but these days it feels more like an oligarchy or perhaps even a dictatorship.
Last year the Ocean Conservancy recovered as many as 10,000 Tampax plastic applicators (from the Tampax “Pearl” line of tampons) on beaches in the U.S.
Tampax spokeswoman Anne Hochwalt explains that plastic applicators provide “significant improvements in leakage protection and comfort” and reassures pesky dolphin defenders that the plastic pieces are “nontoxic.”
Implying that choice and empowerment are the real issues at hand, Hochwalt says “Our primary goal is to give women a choice in how they manage their periods. It’s about protection and confidence that the product will perform and not leak. We have learned over and over again that women will not make a trade-off in these areas.”
First of all, Tampax makes disposable pieces of plastic that will not likely ever be recycled and have a tendency to wash up on beaches but don’t worry…they’re non-toxic? Um…how about DISGUSTING???
How about trying something new and innovative like that earth-friendly plastic-like material made from cornstarch?
Second, how does an applicator help improve leakage protection? You use it and THROW IT AWAY, for crissakes!
Do they really think people are THAT dumb?
Tampax, my feminine product of choice for over 25 years, you disappoint me
MSU is now featuring “Call to Action” posts where we tell you about an issue and then we tell you how to do something about it. Here is the current Call to Action. Read! Act! Make me proud!
