Sunday, September 14, 2008

Toys Of Tyranny

Toys of Tyranny
I got up this morning as I usually do to go to work. 4:50 AM, wake up, get ready, get in the car and head to work. I was listening to the radio and on Sundays there's really nothing on (shocker). However, this paticular Sunday I was most amazed at the subject matter. A group of experts were discussing childrens toys. Sounds boring I know but check this out. One paticular expert (if memory serves me correctly it was a psychologist and educator) was discussing how modern toys DON'T stimulate our childrens imagination and in fact do THE OPPOSITE. See the toys of yester-year (legos, blocks, and the such) stimulated the imagination to create and to individualize. This expert was saying (to sum it up) that in fact modern toys only do one thing, and that the child often only has to push a button, or can ONLY use the toy in a certain predesigned way. This expert was saying that this is teaching our children to be PASSIVE and NOT THINK for themselves; and in fact this was a paticular form molding to think along a certain way.

No this expert didn't belong to any group; this was just a concerned educator who was saying it the way it is. She went on to say that these toys are better suited for a DESPOTIC government and not a free nation. This is not something I thought about before (not conerning toys anyway). Are our children being manipulated to think along a certain passive, go with the flow, and don't think philosophy? I know what I think.... How about you?
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Saturday, September 6, 2008

Don't Vaccinate Before You Educate By Mayer Eisenstein

A few years ago I had a very difficult time trying to find any research speaking out against Vaccines for a term paper in nursing school. The problem was that my school didn't carry the publications speaking out against them, and EBSCO Host (the online directory they allowed us to use) also failed at this miserably. I ended up with an overwhelming amount of pro vaccine literature. I ended up giving a gentle nod of approval to the pro vaccine camp at that time, but I was always bothered by one thing: why were so many of the experts writing these articles collecting money from the vaccine and pharmaceutical companies? This peeked my interest, and I knew I would have to do more research in the future to give both sides of the argument equal access.

The author Mayer Eisenstein MD, JD, MPH has established a medical practice with other physicians in the Illinois area. He has between 20,000 to 30,000 thousand (going off of memory on that number) patients from birth and not one of them has autism. Some of his patients that went to other clinics and received vaccinations prior to coming to him have autism, but that's beside the point. Dr. Eisentein tells the reader his bias up front and then gives arguments for and against vaccines in the book. He gives articles from established journals both for and against vaccines. He gives both sides of the argument a voice, and to truly make an INFORMED decision you have to have that...

Dr. Eisenstein makes some very good points that most parents and consumers of healthcare are not aware of. Some of which are:

The chicken pox vaccine is made from aborted fetal lung tissue (as is the rubella vaccine). He learned this from one of his patrons but couldn't confirm it until he contacted Merck himself. They listed it as Diploid tissue in the vaccine’s pamphlet. Some people might have moral objections to this, and they deserve to have this information. There is also at least one study that says the chicken pox vaccine might lose 3% of it's effectiveness per year giving your child 0% immunity by about 35 years of age. Of course the older a person gets the risk of severe illness or death becomes much greater.

The polio vaccine used to be made from primates. This transferred the simian virus over to some humans while being vaccinated for polio, and the simian virus became part of their DNA. This simian virus has been found to be a carcinogen, and can be transferred to future generations potentially leading to cancer in the children of the vaccinated individual. They don't use primates anymore, but what are we using now that could be doing more harm than good?
The Hepatitis B vaccine is no longer mandated in France. There have been studies that have linked it to Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Multiple Sclerosis. The CDC doesn't agree with this, but than again they won't fund any studies on it either.

Here are some things you find in vaccines: Ethelyne glycol (also known as antifreeze), Thimerisal (a mercury based perservative), aluminum and others.

Now I'm not telling you to not get your children vaccinated (you do the research and discuss it with your doctor). All I'm saying is that there is a fair amount of information out there that parents are never informed of prior to receiving vaccines for their children. I worked in a clinic setting and read the pamphlets are still being given to parents. The section dedicated to the potential side effects (or risks) barely composes a paragraph; where the sections advocating vaccines can go on for multiple pages at times. This is pretty one sided, and dare I say this nurse doesn't feel it really gives parents all the information in order to make an informed decision. I don't think that should be too much to ask. There are plenty of benefits to vaccines and your physician will give you tons of information on that… But I implore you to not vaccinate before you educate yourself on the risks being conveniently left off the immunization information pamphlet at your doctors office. You do the research, you discuss it with your physician, and than and only than can you make An INFORMED DECISION…..