The Bishop and the Butterfly: Murder, Politics, and the End of the Jazz Age
    Richard Day's picture

    DDT FOR YOU AND ME

    By Richard Day on Fri, 09/04/2009 - 10:27pm |

    A brave and passionate man will kill or be killed.

    A brave and calm man will always preserve life.

    Of these two which is good and which is harmful?

    Some things are not favored by heaven. Who knows why?

    Even the sage is unsure of this.

     

    The Tao of heaven does not strive, and yet it overcomes.

    It does not speak, and yet is answered.

    It does not ask, and yet is supplied with all its needs.

    It seems at ease and yet follows a plan.

     

    Heaven's net, casts wide.

    Though its meshes are course, nothing slips through.

     

    Tao Te Ching (Ch-73)



    File:DDT.jpg
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    Photo taken by me of an old commercial moth killer containing DDT

     

    So who is the biggest pig in the media today? Sorry rush. Sorry O'Reilly. Sorry Sean & Savage. You have been usurped.

     

    Beck was born in Mount Vernon, Washington in February 1964, and raised a Roman Catholic. His mother and one of his brothers committed suicide and a sibling had a fatal heart attack.[3] He graduated from Sehome High School in Bellingham, Washington in 1982.

    Beck was admitted to a special program for non-traditional students at Yale University while he was working for a New Haven-area radio station, having received at least one of his recommendations from Senator Joe Lieberman. During this time Beck took a single theology class, dropping out around the time of his divorce.[5]beck is a self described recovering alcoholic and drug addict.[6] He also has a diagnosis of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. [7] He and his first wife divorced amid his struggle with substance abuse. Beck cites the help of Alcoholics Anonymous in his sobriety, and he eventually converted to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints,[8] which teaches against the consumption of alcohol.

    Beck applied for a special permit to place a six foot wall around his home citing "security concerns" and "angry audiences."[9]

     

    This was very illuminating to me. The guy is a psycho. We have all lived through troubles. Some incredibly painful.  But I mean this guy at a young age saw his mom and brother just give up on life and another just taken from this world for no good reason.  So he is a recovering drunk and drug addict which tells me there are other things on record somewhere. But I digress.

     

    He had the opportunity to got to Yale and he blew it. Really nothing but a high school diploma; just like rush.  No interest at all in opening up his mind, in pursing knowledge. None at all.

     

    I bring him up today, because the corporate oligarchy decided once again to use him as a tool for their own edification. You know how sometimes you think an issue has been resolved?  Well it never is. Not totally.

     

    I grew up watching propaganda films about the miracle of DDT.  Then the experts decided in America that DDT had to many disturbing effects on humans. Then the World kind of banned it.

     

    Well Beck shows up yesterday and says that 500 million are dead because of the ridiculous banning of this wonderful pesticide:

     

    I watched in astonishment today as Glenn Beck simultaneously attacked Van Jones while advocating the reuse of the banned pesticide DDT.  Perhaps Glenn Beck is looking for more sponsorship from the pesticide industry given the loss of his other sponsors.  Regardless, once again Beck claimed to use "facts" in his support of DDT but some more research into his "facts" reveals just how misinformed Beck is.

    Beck first credits DDT with saving millions of lives.  For sure DDT did help to reduce the mosquito population and concurrently decrease diseases such as malaria in some areas.  However according to Nature magazine in places like India and Central America the rate of transmission after the use of DDT actually increased.  Beck also ignores the development of ways to deal with malaria which are just as effective and less harmful than DDT.  Using methods like bed nets instead of DDT in the country of Vietnam has actually decreased deaths from malaria by 97%. 

    Beck also seem to overlook the side effects of DDT.  After all, we could kill mosquitoes and stop the spread of malaria by spraying gasoline everywhere but would that really make sense given the side effects?  Beck uses a whooping two scientists to support his claim that DDT has no harmful side effects to humans.  One of Beck's sources is Bruce N. Ames who developed the Ames test used by tobacco companies in their attempt to prove cigarettes are healthy.  Needless to say Ames methods are questionable when applied to humans.  Thomas Jukes is Beck's other source who Beck claims "proves" their is no evidence of DDT being harmful to humans.  Jukes died in 1999 which makes Beck's claim curious since a number of studies have in fact proven the harmful effects of DDT on humans since 1999.  Did Jukes rise from the dead to refute these studies?

    The studies on DDT have shown, among other things, an increased risk of the following conditions in association with DDT:

    (1)  Developmental problems in the womb,

    (2)  Central nervous system problems,

    (3)  Infant mortality,

    (4)  breast cancer, and

    (5)  diabetes.

    Finally, Beck also completely ignores the evidence that DDT has significant environmental consequences.  Anyone with a basic knowledge of biology knows how DDT multiplies itself through the food chain to become more and more concentrated.  The effect is the top of the food chain like bald eagles being disprateley impacted by the pesticide.  The pesticide is largely blamed for the "eggshell thinning" that nearly killed off the bald eagle among other species.  Oh and by the way as humans we also sit on the top of the food chain.  Just another "fact" Beck may want to consider before he starts spraying his lawn with DDT   http://www.examiner.com/x-5738-Political-Buzz-Examiner~y2009m9d2-VIdeo--Glenn-Beck-attacks-Van-Jones-while-defending-DDT-pesticide

    Well I watched the entire beck piece, and it was ridiculous.  I mean he is blaming Joni Mitchell.  She personally is responsible for killing half a billion people. He uses as his expert a jerk who spoke to audiences all over the country, to juries all over the country, to Congress for Chrissakes (blesses himself) with his opinions that tobacco did not kill people.  So I did some other research besides finding beck's nutso past and found this:

    WITH MALARIA sapping so much life and potential, Uganda has been driven to spray the interior of homes with DDT. The insecticide, made infamous by Rachel Carson's "Silent Spring,'' has long been banned in the United States for wildlife devastation; among other consequences, it made bald eagles' eggs too thin for their young to survive. But malaria here in Uganda is so intense, top officials have answered local and international DDT critics by saying, as Vice President Gilbert Bukenya put it, "You can start with my house. Those shouting against it are shouting ignorance. They are simply not informed.''

    Uganda, a nation of 30 million people, had an estimated 10.6 million cases of malaria in 2006, according to the World Health Organization, with 70,000 to 110,000 deaths a year, according to government and university researchers. The disease seriously hampers economic development."I understand the environmental arguments, but sometimes they cry so much fear, their arguments become inhuman to the people. It's almost like they want the people to perish for the animals. No chemical has no side effects. But let us first reduce infant mortality. That is the environment I care about right now.''

    The government this month announced a goal of having an insecticide-treated mosquito bed net in 85 percent of households and spraying the interior of all homes in the most hard-hit of districts.

    According to UNICEF, just 10 percent of 5-year-olds live in a house with an insecticide-treated net. Bernard praised the goal but was highly skeptical that it would work. http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2009/06/27/malaria_ddt_and_desperation_in_uganda/

    And this:

    Now DDT is making headlines again. Many African governments are calling for access to the pesticide, believing that it's their best hope against malaria, a disease that infects more than 300 million people worldwide a year and kills at least 3 million, a large proportion of them children. And this has raised a controversy of Solomonic dimensions, pitting environmentalists against advocates of DDT use.    http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/04/AR2005060400130.html

    There is an issue here folks.This is not fantasy.

    This issue is reintroduced on MSM by a psychotic loser citing one of the most hated 'experts' in the world. He blames a folk singer who has read more facts on the issue than he ever will.

    But forget him for a second.

    There are people dying by the hundreds of thousands who apparently cannot afford a better remedy than DDT.

    What are your feelings regarding this Solomonic choice?