Government Shutdown. Guatemala’s Hunger. Public Banking in America. Danger of Root Canals. Pyramid Repair. Haiti.

 

For “Summary Saturday”, News, Some New, Some Old:

Partial Government Shutdown May Be Needed To Restore Fiscal Sanity
'It May be Necessary to Partially Shut Down the Government in Order to Secure the Long-Term Fiscal Well Being of Our Country'

“Texans would have been hit with the biggest tax increase in the history of our country if Congress failed to act on the American Taxpayer Relief Act in the early hours of 2013. The question I faced was, "Would Texans be better off with a massive tax increase?" In good conscience, I could not allow this to take place. I don't believe Washington needs more money; I believe Texans should keep more of their hard-earned dollars, which is why I voted for the act. This bill, while admittedly not perfect, makes tax cuts permanent for nearly all Texans.

In December 2010, it was the two-year extension of the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts. In the spring of 2011, a government shutdown was narrowly averted by a midnight vote on Capitol Hill. The following summer brought us to the brink once more when the president walked away from the negotiating table on a deal surrounding the debt ceiling. And, of course, Congress rang in the new year with a last-minute escape from the largest tax increase in American history.

Over the next few months, we will reach deadlines related to the debt ceiling, the sequester and the continuing appropriations resolution that has funded federal operations since October. If history is any guide, President Obama won't see fit to engage congressional Republicans until the 11th hour. In fact, he has already signaled an unwillingness to negotiate over the debt ceiling. This is unacceptable. The president should immediately put forward a plan that addresses these deadlines, and he should launch serious, transparent budget negotiations.

The biggest fiscal problem in Washington is excessive spending, not insufficient taxation. Tax cuts didn't cause this problem, so tax increases won't solve it. If we don't reduce spending and reform our three biggest entitlement programs - Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security - then we will strangle economic growth, destroy jobs and reduce our standard of living. With the national debt above $16 trillion, and with more than $100 trillion in unfunded liabilities hanging over us, our toughest fiscal decisions cannot be postponed any longer.

The coming deadlines will be the next flashpoints in our ongoing fight to bring fiscal sanity to Washington. It may be necessary to partially shut down the government in order to secure the long-term fiscal well being of our country, rather than plod along the path of Greece, Italy and Spain. President Obama needs to take note of this reality and put forward a plan to avoid it immediately.”    More at: http://www.chron.com/default/article/Obama-must-engage-Congress-4165856.php By U.S. Sen. John Cornyn

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As Biofuel Demand Grows, So Do Guatemala’s Hunger Pangs     

José Antonio Alvarado and his family harvested corn in November on a highway median in Guatemala, where farmers struggle to find land.  Richard Perry/The New York Times

GUATEMALA CITY — In the tiny tortillerias of this city, people complain ceaselessly about the high price of corn. Just three years ago, one quetzal — about 15 cents — bought eight tortillas; today it buys only four. And eggs have tripled in price because chickens eat corn feed.

Meanwhile, in rural areas, subsistence farmers struggle to find a place to sow their seeds. On a recent morning, José Antonio Alvarado was harvesting his corn crop on the narrow median of Highway 2 as trucks zoomed by.   “We’re farming here because there is no other land, and I have to feed my family,” said Mr. Alvarado, pointing to his sons Alejandro and José, who are 4 and 6 but appear to be much younger, a sign of chronic malnutrition.

Recent laws in the United States and Europe that mandate the increasing use of biofuel in cars have had far-flung ripple effects, economists say, as land once devoted to growing food for humans is now sometimes more profitably used for churning out vehicle fuel.  But many worry that Guatemala’s poor are already suffering from the diversion of food to fuel. “There are pros and cons to biofuel, but not here,” said Misael Gonzáles of C.U.C., a labor union for Guatemala’s farmers. “These people don’t have enough to eat. They need food. They need land. They can’t eat biofuel, and they don’t drive cars.” “  More at: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/06/science/earth/in-fields-and-markets-guatemalans-feel-squeeze-of-biofuel-demand.html?pagewanted=all

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Public Banking in America, by Victoria Grant

12-year old Victoria Grant explains why her homeland, Canada, and most of the world, is in debt.

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97% of Terminal Cancer Patients Previously Had This Dental Procedure...

“During a root canal, there is no way to sterilize your tooth; after the root canal, dangerous bacteria hide out in the tooth and are unreachable with antibiotics

Root-canaled and filled teeth harbor bacteria that morph into very toxic forms, which then can migrate to other tissues in your body and cause serious medical conditions, including diseases of your heart, kidneys, bones, and brain

There is no other medical practice that permits leaving a dead body part inside your body, because it triggers your immune system to attack

If you have a diseased tooth, or if you’ve already had a root canal, I highly recommend consulting a biological dentist about have it extracted.

Were it not for a brilliant pioneering dentist who, more than a century ago, made the connection between root-canaled teeth and disease, this underlying cause of disease may have remained hidden to this day. The dentist's name was Weston Price—regarded by many as the greatest dentist of all time.

Dr. Robert Jones, a researcher of the relationship between root canals and breast cancer, found an extremely high correlation between root canals and breast cancer. He claims to have found the following correlations in a five-year study of 300 breast cancer cases:

93 percent of women with breast cancer had root canals

7 percent had other oral pathology

Tumors, in the majority of cases, occurred on the same side of the body as the root canal(s) or other oral pathology.”

Complete article at: http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2012/02/18/dangers-of-root-canaled-teeth.aspx

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On This Day:

Pyramid mystery unearthed, Jan 12, 1984:

“On this day, an international panel overseeing the restoration of the Great Pyramids in Egypt overcomes years of frustration when it abandons modern construction techniques in favor of the method employed by the ancient Egyptians.

Located at Giza outside Cairo, some of the oldest manmade structures on earth were showing severe signs of decay by the early 1980s. Successful repair work began on the 4,600-year-old Sphinx in 1981, but restoration of the pyramids proved destructive when water in modern cement caused adjacent limestone stones to split. On January 12, 1984, restorers stopped using mortar and adopted the system of interlocking blocks practiced by the original pyramid builders. From thereon, the project proceeded smoothly.

The Great Pyramid is composed primarily of yellowish limestone blocks and was originally covered in an outer casing of smooth light-colored limestone. This finer limestone eroded and was carried away in later centuries, but the material can still be found in the inner passages. The interior burial chamber was built of huge blocks of granite. It is believed that construction of the pyramid took 20 years and involved over 20,000 workers, bakers, carpenters, and water carriers. The exact method in which this architectural masterpiece was built is not definitively known, but the leading theory is that the Egyptians employed an encircling embankment of sand, brick, and earth that was increased in height as the pyramid rose.”

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Massive earthquake strikes Haiti. Jan 12, 2010:

“On this day in 2010, a magnitude 7.0 earthquake devastates the Caribbean island nation of Haiti. The quake, which was the strongest to strike the region in more than 200 years, left over 200,000 people dead and some 895,000 Haitians homeless.

The earthquake hit southern Haiti at 4:53 p.m. local time. The nation’s capital, Port-au-Prince, a densely populated city located about 15 miles from the quake’s epicenter, suffered widespread devastation. Countless dwellings were reduced to rubble, while hospitals, churches and schools collapsed and roads were blocked with debris. Numerous government structures were heavily damaged or destroyed, including the presidential palace, parliament building and main prison. (At the time of the quake, Haiti lacked a national building code, and many structures were shoddily constructed.) In the aftermath of the quake, amidst fears that victims’ decomposing corpses could spread disease, trucks picked up thousands of bodies and dumped them into mass graves.

Governments and individuals around the world made donations and pledges of aid to Haiti totaling billions of dollars. However, on the first-year anniversary of the disaster, reconstruction efforts were still in their infancy. Thousands of people left homeless by the quake were living in tents, and only a small portion of the heavy debris resulting from the disaster had been cleared.”

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Yesterday:

The forecast was for one more sunny day before the rains come back, so we needed to make the best use of it.

Misty and I went to get Jay, and Ray came over to cut some branches off a tree in his son’s yard.  They were overhanging my driveway on the side lot, and I didn’t want to hurt either the tree or the motor home when I backed it into position in front of the cargo trailer.  Then he did a little work to the cargo trailer.

Jay and I moved all the things that were still covered by tarps in the space where the RVport used to be, into new places where they would be protected from the weather.  A washer, 2 RV stoves, 2 chest of drawers were stacked on top of each other in the carport in front of the storeroom.  Jay had to leave for about an hour, so I just fiddled about putting stuff away, and cleaning up that area.  Now we can see what we needed to do to that space to give the place more curb appeal, but it was too late to start on it yesterday.