I’ve been paying more attention to Food Freedom issues. Food Freedom is interesting because, like the War on Drugs, it’s an issue where the hippie, I-♥-socialism crowd agrees with the liberty crowd. We agree on the problems, but, unsurprisingly, recommend exact opposite solutions.

Last month, I watched The World According to Monsanto, which is available for free online in ten parts:

The movie presents very strong evidence i.m.o. that genetically modified (GM) foods got a pass from the F.D.A.’s testing despite indications that they caused health problems. Scientists in the U.S. and Britain lost their jobs for insisting on publishing findings suggestive of the dangers of GM foods.

Shelly Roche makes the case against GM foods in this short video:

It also seems that Big Media (surprise, surprise) has been complicit in suppressing the dangers of GM foods. During last year’s epidemic killing honey bee the mainstream press unanimously ignored the possibility of GM foods killing the bees, even when speculating about long lists of possible causes.

Fox “News” spiked the Monsanto story and fired a pair of journalists:

Anyway, back to the documentary. I could imagine the socialists in the audience saying “We need more rules! We need better rules! We need stronger government!” This is the socialist approach to everything — the force of government.

In fact, government is not our protector from powerful companies like Monsanto. Government is their enabler through the granting of privilege and elimination of competition. This has always been the case. More than anything else, realizing this made me a libertarian. Government doesn’t protect me from the powerful, it protects the powerful and grants them privileges.

To my socialist friends, I would point out:

- Monsanto has written seed laws and gotten legislators to put them through, that make cleaning, collecting and storing of seeds so onerous in terms of fees and paperwork that having normal seed becomes almost impossible. (source) More freedom would legalize competition.

- Much legislation is designed to cut down on Monsanto’s competition:

More freedom would legalize competition.

- Obama has put a former Monsanto vice president in charge of America’s food safety: Obama appoints Monsanto fox to guard food safety hen house.

- In much of the country, it is illegal to label milk “hormore free” or “rbgh free”. (source) Again, more freedom would legalize competition.

The failures detailed in The World According to Monsanto, and evident elsewhere suggest to my libertarian mind that we should get rid of the F.D.A.. Government is incapable of regulating something so important with such incentive for corruption. Private organizations like the Organic Consumer Association would do a much better job, and we would have the liberty to decide for ourselves whom to trust. Private organizations will believe in their cause and be passionate about it.

What am I personally doing about my food? I joined my local co-op, which helps me avoid GMOs, at least in my groceries.

Want more advice? Top 4 Ways to Identify & Avoid Genetically Modified Foods:

1. Look at the PLU sticker on fruit.

• 4 digits = conventionally grown
• 5 digits beginning with 9 = organic
• 5 digits beginning with 8 = GM

2. Buy local and talk to your farmers. (85% of prepackaged/processed foods contain GMOs)
3. Avoid the four top GMO crops: soy, corn, canola & cotton seed.
4. Encourage “GMO free” labeling. (which, I think, is illegal)

“Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past.” ~George Orwell

This is a great, one-hour documentary about our Federal Reserve System. The first step in getting rid of our inflatable, fiat currency is make every realize we have one.

UPDATE: This popular video is incorrect in several respects. Bankers do not end up owning everything. They certainly profit from the transactions, but they sell their debts. $1,111.11 simply does not create $100k of new money in the banking system. The proposals at the end are sorely misguided. For accurate criticism of the monetary system, go to mises.org.

I’ve watched this educational cartoon approximately five times since discovering it a few months ago. It presents the simple, tragic absurdity of our monetary system.

For example, most people believe that if individuals, companies, governments all saved and got out of debt, society would be prosperous, when the opposite is true. If everyone began saving and paying off their debts, there would be no money. Money is debt. Without debt, there is no money.

Watch at least the first three parts for an explanation of this. As an aid, I summarize each part and transcribe the many great quotes presented in the videos.

Part 1

-Early banking.
-The shift of currency from gold to paper.
-The shift of goldsmiths from artisans to bankers.
-The evolution of lending gold, to lending depositors gold, to lending non-existant gold.
-Runs on the bank.
-Government legalizes lending fictional money.
-The advent of the fractional reserve system.
-Central banks supporting local banks.

“Some of the biggest men in the United States, in the field of commerce and manufacture, are afraid of something. They know that there is a power somewhere so organized, so subtle, so watchful, so interlocked, so complete, so pervasive, that they had better not speak above their breath when they speak in condemnation of it.”
- Woodrow Wilson

“Each and every time a bank makes a loan, new bank credit is created – new deposits – brand new money.”
- Graham F. Towers Governor, Bank of Canada 1934-54

“The process by which banks create money is so simple that the mind is repelled.”
- John Kenneth Galbraith, Economist

“Permit me to issue and control the money of a nation, and I care not who makes its laws.”
- Mayer Anselm Rothschild, Banker

I’m certain this diverges with the Austrian Economic point of view. I’ve heard this video series called socialist because it proposes government control of the monetary supply. I think the first two and half parts are an effective expose on the banking system. The ending is suspect.

See the rest:

part2
part3
part4
part5

-We Are Change brings 9/11 Truth to the European Parilment
-9/11 Truth documentary ZERO premiers at EU Parliament

See Also:
-Japanese MP, Fujita, says UN can lead new 9/1 investigation
-Former German Defense Minister Andreas von Bulow says 9/11 inside job
-Former MN governor Jesse Ventura questions official 9/11 conspiracy
-Gore Vidal calls for reinvestigation of 9/11
-“Top comedian and actress Margaret Cho has joined Willie Nelson and Charlie Sheen in questioning the official 9/11 story”
-Sydney conference of engineers and scientists challenges NIST report

Don’t let the media fool you. The movement is big, and growing.

Discovery channel acquires academy-award-winning documentary Taxi to the Darkside, then decides it’s too controversial. (Read More)

The New World Order: “Do Not Worry. Everything is Fine. Fear your neighbor & Trust the government.”

See Also: Court Gags ex-SAS Man Who Made Torture Claims

Excellent discussion with PBS’s Bill Moyers, Rabbi Michael Lerner, and Dr. Timothy P. Weber about Christian Zionism, Israel, Iran, and dispensationalism, which about 1/3 of Evangelicals believe.

Dr. Weber: “this is one group in a long line of similar groups . . . which combined a firm belief in bible prophecy and a particular political agenda that has gained more and more power as the years have gone by.” He explains their belief if the Jews get to the Holy Land and stay there, the Temple of Solomon will be rebuilt (and Dome of the Rock destroyed), the anti-Christ will rise, Armageddon will occur, and Jesus will return. Rabbi Lerner points out their belief that all unconverted Jews will then burn in hell.

Rabbi Lerner: “I think that movement has three different parts. One part is people whose primary agenda is conservative politics in America and who are using the issue of Israel as another part of their support of conservative politics. if the US moved away from Israel they would move away from it. The second part are people who are dispensationalists, who believe that getting Israel into a huge battle with the Arab states is going to be good for bringing Jesus back onto our planet. . . . It’s a theological concept. And then there are people who genuinely care about Jews, descent good people, in this movement who unfortunately are being manipulated for a political agent that is very very different, and in my view is not at all in the best interest of the Jewish people or of Israel.”

Dr. Weber: “In previous attempts to understand Bible prophecy Iran does not show up . . . they [dispensationalists] adjust the scenario to fit. Dispensationalists know how to change the subject.”

Rabbi Lerner: “Ahmadinejad is really one of the best allies of the Christian Right and the Jewish Right.”

—
Max Blumenthal’s deeply disturbing 10-minute documentary of the recent Christians United for Israel conference shows what seems like a harmless collection of crazy people, until you realize how powerful they are. Senator Joseph Lieberman, former House majority leader Tom DeLay, and former Senator Rick Santorum were in attendance.

Max Blumenthal: “CUFI lobbies Congress for an expansion of Israel and a unilateral attack on Iran.”

Rep. DeLay: “[the second coming] is what I live for. I hope it comes tomorrow . . . we have to be connected to Israel to enjoy the second coming.”

Attendee: “I’m looking forward to Armageddon, and I’m looking forward to the cleansing of the Earth.”

Attendee: “When we disappear you better start to worry, because if you haven’t seen the Left Behind series, it’s scary.”
Max Blumenthal: “The one with Kirk Cameron? Growing Pains?”

Attendee: “The one who forces Israel into a peace treat with Arabs is the Anti-Christ.”

Attendee: “Another reason we support Israel is because we have a common enemy, the Muslims.”

Attendee: “We are fighting what is behind the Muslim people, which is Satan.”

Attendee T-shirt: “Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Morals are Worse than Animals.”

The Israeli right-winger Max interviewed seemed happy to overlook these beliefs. Perhaps they regard these dispensationalists the same way Stalin regarded his “useful idoits.”

SEE ALSO:
Pat Robertson says agreement with Palestinians risks “wrath of God.” I think his God supports ethnic cleansing.

Blackwater founder thinks he’s doing God’s work. Major connections to Christian fundamentalists.

Jewish American author on his recent book: Overcoming Zionism.

It seems impossible: nuclear reactions at room temperature, electro-chemists succeeding where nuclear physicists have long failed, elements changing — the stuff of alchemy. Yet many scientists can’t ignore it. They keep saying: “excess heat” and “tritium” and “helium” (byproducts of nuclear reactions). Skeptics have come down hard against cold fusion. Who dares to imagine the end of the fossil fuel age? MIT’s chief science journalist resigned over what he deemed a fraudulent rebuttal to cold fusion. Research is rarely funded, but continues. Private companies have formed around the technology.

The possibilities of cold fusion speak to everything that’s best about mankind. It is a rare opportunity to see ourselves as good, beautiful, ingenious and suited to create a better future for all.

Watch the five-part documentary, or skip to part three to be convinced it works.

See also: Patterson Power Cell.

Aaron Russo’s recent documentary America: Freedom to Fascism made me curious about this old movement. The documentary didn’t make a tight legal case against the income tax system, Federal Reserve, and IRS, but it certainly created doubts about the legality of these systems and institutions. It also dispelled my perception that the movement is obscure and paranoid. He interviews former IRS agents, and quotes Supreme Court Judges and former Presidents. He quotes Paul Warburg, member of the Council on Foreign Relations and architect of the Federal Reserve who said:

“We shall have World Government, whether or not we like it. The only question is whether World Government will be achieved by conquest or consent.”

Ominous, surely. Were I to defend it, the best I could say is it’s taken out of context. I have more questions than answers. Since I began paying attention, I’ve come across the following:

-Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul on the Federal Reserve
-A statement from a juror in an income tax trial
-31 Questions about the Internal Revenue Service
-The Browns of Plainfield New Hampshire are (as of June 2007) taking a stand against what they perceive is an illegal tax. It’s looking more and more like a siege by federal authorities.
-An ongoing legal case, the USA vs. Bill Benson. Bill Benson authored a book about the 16th Amendment called “The Law That Never Was.”

So, is the income tax legal? In Russo’s documentary, you can watch bureaucrats and politicians dodging and convoluting what ought to be a simple question. I don’t claim to know the answer.

The profound implications suggested by the tax truth movement seem much more relevant that the celebrity gossip, and local crime stories which seem to blare from every other television in America. We should take pride in debate, regardless. This issue deserves to be engaged.

PBS’s Bill Moyers recently hosted a 90-minute documentary, “Buying the War,” on the media’s roll in selling the Iraq War to the American public. Watch it here. Or read my summary here.