For years the FDA defended Aspartame, and made it difficult for competitors to get access to the market. Then in mid December (2008) they approved Stevia which Coca Cola has developed as an alternative to Aspartame. Coke would be jointly liable for the damage Nutri-Sweet (Aspartame) has caused and needed an alternative to give discerning consumers confidence in their products.

Stevia was approved under the “Substantially Equivalency” provision of the Food and Drug Act. By claiming the product is found in nature it is exempt from scrutiny or study. I point out that lots of toxins and poisons occur in nature. What needs consideration is how these ingredients affect humans. I am not convinced Coke hasn’t jumped from the frying pan into the fire, and that Stevia is safe for human consumption. I also think a prudent person shouldn’t assume because the FDA says its OK, that it is! The only people who can prove Stevia is safe are the scientists. Politicians and bureaucrats are not very convincing to me!!! In matters of food safety, manufactured products should be judged dangerous until proven safe.

By the way Searle is a subsidiary of Monsanto, and the Aspartame approval is the work of former Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfelt of the Bush Administration (that in itself should say enough).

Corrupt Russian officials are creaming off about $120bn (£61bn) a year – the equivalent of a third of the national budget, a senior prosecutor has said.
The country’s new President, Dmitry Medvedev, has pledged to tackle the problem – although correspondents say few expect things will change quickly. Reuters – Friday, 6 June 2008 18:12 UK

Comment
Corruption is prevalent in all levels of government and is seemingly not considered too serious a crime in North America. There is not much outrage when corruption is exposed. Corruption is more serious than the money that is lost from the public purse. When corruption becomes wide-spread the country becomes sick. The systems don’t work and there is a breakdown of society. Our reaction to corruption is a measure of the restraint and the level of integrity we demand. When there is corruption exposed we must (for the sake of the country) oppose it strongly, because it threatens the entire country. Rome wasn’t defeated, it collapsed from within. Corruption is a very real Trojan horse for America – let’s not repeat history, but learn from it.

Among the greatest threats to the US and Canada is not terrorism from the outside not terrorist from the inside but the threat of the breakdown of society through corruption.

Paul Weigel

The Comment:
Everyone is jocking for position in the battle for control of the greatest field of resources to be harvested in this century. The arctic may contain 25% of the world energy resources. These are new resources, yet to be tapped. The oil companies and the Peak Oil promoters claim they haven’t found any new oil in 25 years. Oddly enough they don’t include the oil found off the coast of Brazil estimated to be as much as in Saudi Arabia (a lot), or the heavy oil of Canada (a very lot), or what they are expected to find in the Arctic (a ton).

It is odd that they don’t include ANY of the new finds and still base their peak theory only on existing reserves which by-the-way are project to last for another 100 years in some cases. Furthermore, when investigating the sources of the data that support the Peak Oil theory, I could only find oil company source data. There is NO independent data available. Apparently, only the oil companies know for sure how much oil they have available to them, and they don’t let others do independent research on their reserves.

I am not suggesting that the oil companies are lying to us, but I am saying that the mouse is clearly in charge of the cheese.

Here is a question that needs answering. Everyone knows how outrageously profitable the oil business is, yet they haven’t built a single refinery in 20+ years. They also don’t seem to concerned about finding more oil. So it would appear that they are not reinvesting in this very profitable business. Instead they are taking all the profits and doing something else with them. So why???

I laugh and cry when the daily news asserts that “prices climbed to record highs today on concerns about supplies or refining capabilities.” But the thing that makes me the most mad is the common attitude that if you question the peak oil theory you are either an idiot or an enemy of humanity. The corporate owned media is brainwashing the entire population into thinking that if you challenge their story, you must be minimized. The most diabolic thing is that the people who reject legitimate discussion on the topic are those who are promoted as rationale and progressive by the establishment.

The thought control is evident in a few other areas such as the theory of evolution verses intelligent design(see the film Expelled), and Global Warming. Where are the forerunners and boat rockers who don’t mind asking the tough questions.

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By Barbara Lewis
LONDON (Reuters)
Speaking about the increasing price of oil:

QUOTE: ……Investors have been drawn in by a weak U.S. currency, which has made dollar-denominated commodities relatively cheap for holders of other currencies.

Speaking to Reuters during a visit to Venezuela, OPEC Secretary General Abdullah al-Badri said the soft dollar was one of the factors that could keep pushing oil higher.

Tanker tracker Petrologistics said on Wednesday OPEC’s oil output in May had risen by 700,000 barrels per day (bpd) compared with April.

Extra OPEC crude has had little impact as the market has instead focused on short-term refinery problems, which are symptomatic of chronic underinvestment.

The Comments

It is clear from these reports that prices have NOT been established by supply and demand. Wealthy investors are using commodities as hedges against the devaluating US dollar. You can’t read that in the major media because they defend the system. They defend the system, because it is a system developed by and promoted by large corporations. In fact any questioning of the system is considered blasphemy, which is punished and that has quieted a lot of intelligent and knowledgeable people.

There has not been an increase in fuel consumption by 12% this year, nor has there been a 12% decrease in supply, so what justifies a 12% increase in the price? The Answer: nothing! The markets are not free, they are distorted significantly by speculators who know that the consumer has few if any alternatives. With the consumer up against the proverbial wall, speculators have driven the price up regardless of supply and demand ratios.

Oil supplies have increased and consumption is at its lowest in the year, yet prices have increased dramatically. Price increases are justified by paper thin excuses over fears of supply problems. Even when those fears never materialize, the prices continues to increase and the medias continues to defend the system and its abuses. They assert that the problem is OPEC, which keeps people from pointing their finger at the real problems and demanding the government does something about them.

Governments have not protected the consumer from the abuses of the system. They have failed not because they didn’t know what was happening. The housing crisis was a disaster waiting to happen and the government did nothing. It has effectively transfered the wealth of millions of citizens to the wealthy, turning the country into a labor camp.

If the markets were truly free, then they would reflect the actual price a consumer was willing to pay for a product. The fact that this week 84% of Americans had concerns about the economy and high energy prices, indicates that the market does not reflect the consumer’s willingness to pay the price the market is dictating. Furthermore, it is not just the US which is bidding for world oil. Countries with far weaker currencies should effectively lower prices if it was market driven. The markets are far from free. They are being manipulated by speculators who are holding the entire world hostage and extorting from them their life blood.

The idea that markets can operate freely is idealism in this present world. General Motors has more revenue than the majority of countries in the world. When there are corporations with the financial capacity to dominate markets there is no hope of truly free markets. The consumer becomes the victim of extortion. In the case of food, people go hungry, become weak and sick, and even die in third world countries, because of market speculators and the irrational defense of the myth of free markets. There is something wrong with a system that can destroy lives and kill people in the name of profit?

Paul Weigel

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