The road to U.S. imperialism

Dear Editors:

In response to the many (although fewer by the day) who continue to spout that George Bush did not mislead this country into war, I have the following comments. The administration itself proclaimed on numerous times up until the time for the call for war that Saddam had no weapons of mass destruction and posed no threat to the U.S. or its neighbors. For example, in Cairo on Feb. 24, 2001, Secretary of State Colin Powell said: “(Saddam Hussein) has not developed any significant capability with respect to weapons of mass destruction. He is unable to use conventional power against his neighbors. The (U.S.) policy of containment has effectively disarmed the Iraqi dictator.” 

Later, on May 15, 2001, Powell added that Saddam had not been able to “build his military backup or to develop weapons of mass destruction for the last 10 years. America has been successful in keeping him in a box.”

In July 2001, Condoleeza Rice also described a weak, divided and militarily defenseless Iraq. “Saddam does not control the northern part of the country. We aim to keep his arms from him; his military forces have not been rebuilt.”

These are but a few snippets that clearly indicate that the administration knew Iraq was in no way a threat to this country or anyone else. Hans Blix found no WMD but was forced to cut his inspections short because of U.S. actions. John Kerry said in his presidential campaign (and I paraphrase) that this is the wrong war at the wrong time, with the wrong enemy. I wish he had had the insight and guts to say that in the spring of 2003. 

Furthermore, the Bush administration presented a clearly untrue myth that al-Qaeda and Iraq were somehow related and in cahoots. This was utter bunk. Osama bin Laden repeatedly called for the overthrow of the Ba’thist regime in Bagdad. In fact, months before 9/11, he urged Muslims to rise up against Iraq’s secular regime. Not the rhetoric of two bad guys in bed together.

Perhaps with good intentions or not, Mr. Bush took us to war. A war that not only smacks of American4 imperialism, it is American imperialism. Our founding fathers clearly stated that imperialism would not and should not be part of this new experiment called the United States. To date, this war has cost 35,000 to 50,000 Iraqi deaths, some 2,200 brave American men and women, and $250 billion of our (and our children’s) treasure, with no end in sight. For what?

There are white lies and black lies. What color of lie was utilized by the Bush administration to go to war is open to debate, but it is clear that reality was misrepresented and manipulated to gain public support to project U.S. imperial power into the Mideast. All under manufactured guises. This imperial foreign policy is not in keeping with our American heritage (there are a few exceptions). 

We are all blessed to be Americans. It is past time for us to question our leadership, a leadership that is taking us down a path that smacks in the face of our great Republic. A Republic founded on the principles of equality, the rule of law, free speech and the right to change horses when we’re headed down the wrong road.

– Erich Bussian, Durango

The roots of pharmaceuticals

Dear Editors,

Most medical doctors are hostile toward the use of nutritional supplements. They parrot that they are ineffective and possibly dangerous due to a lack of scientific evidence supporting them. Not true. Mountains of evidence exist. And it points to some fascinating and highly effective nutritional supplements.  

To obtain new drugs, pharmaceutical chemists, like myself, rigorously study nutritional supplements (i.e. natural products). Once a single active ingredient is identified a chemist makes a “copy cat.” The drug companies then call it their own. Simply put, if the study of nutritional supplements did not exist, then drugs would not be possible.

Most every drug sold today has a natural-based predecessor. Drug companies and medical doctors obfuscate this historical fact. They like patients to think that drugs are intuitively invented out of thin air. This helps foster the very profitable belief that drugs are the only option for health. Understanding that nutritional supplements guide drug development will allow you more choices in health care – inexpensive and safe ones. Consider the following examples:

- Pseudoephedrine is an ingredient found in over-the-counter cough syrup. It is a knock-off of the active ingredients found in “Mormon tea.” In 2004, the Annals of Emergency Medicine noted that pseudoephedrine is so damaging to the heart that it can elicit a heart attack among users – even healthy ones. In sharp contrast, naturally-occurring Mormon tea can be safely used as a cough suppressant. Today however, it is black listed while pseudoephedrine remains on the shelves of every corner grocery store in America.

- Ritalin and many other stimulants are knock-offs of the active ingredients found in ma huang, AKA ephedra. Ritalin is an amphetamine. As such, it can cause addiction and brain cell death. Despite false propaganda, Ma huang is a safe and effective stimulant that increases mental focus without damaging the body. Ma huang is black listed while Ritalin is dispensed to children.

- Cholesterol-lowering drugs (Lipitor, Zocor, Pravachol, etc.) known as statins are knock-offs of the natural ingredient found in red yeast rice. Akin to the drugs, red yeast rice can dangerously lower cholesterol and CoQ10 levels within your body. Like statins, it is not advisable to use red yeast rice to lower cholesterol. Both are poisons.

As a side note, if cholesterol-lowering drugs were the billion-dollar panacea that drug companies claim them to be, we could all eat red yeast rice at a fraction of the cost.

Unfortunately, they are not.

Aspirin™, the drug that your doctor tells you to take every day, is a knock-off of the active ingredient found in white willow bark. The side effects of Aspirin™ are so severe that they can cause a higher death rate relative to the populations who do not take it. Rarely brought to the attention of users, aspirin depletes the body of the essential nutrient folic acid. White willow bark is virtually unknown yet remains a safe and effective alternative to Aspirin™ for pain relief and any purported cardiovascular benefits.

The list goes on … most would be shocked to know that even painkillers and anticancer drugs were derived from natural sources, The tiny family of prescription pain killers used by doctors are knock-offs of the natural ingredients found in opium. Naturally occurring opium is safer and less addictive than the fast-acting drug knock-offs morphine, codeine and oxycodone.

Baicalein, an anti-cancer drug used among those who suffer from leukemia, is a knock-off of the active ingredient found in the roots of Chinese skullcap (Scuterllaria baicalensis). Chinese skullcap is a safe and effective natural cancer fighter that induces cell suicide (apoptosis) among leukemia-derived cancer cells.  

There are life-saving distinctions between a drug and its natural-based predecessor. A prescription drug is a single isolate. A nutritional supplement contains a multitude of active substances. This distinction makes drugs more dangerous and less effective than nutritional supplements.

As a single isolate, a drug does not target the underlying cause of illness. It only masks symptoms. Further, a drug isolate has no “buffers” to offset negative side effects. In sharp contrast, nutritional supplements utilize an array of ingredients to attack the illness at its core while striving to mitigate negative side effects.

If safe and effective, then why don’t drug companies distribute nutritional supplements? The answer is very simple. They clash with the drug-company business model. Natural medicine cannot be patented and subsequently monopolized. Only dangerous, manmade prescription drugs carry patent rights. And this is what satisfies a drug company’s voracious appetite for wealth.

Patent rights allow for checkbook science (the practice of funding, designing and interpreting the results of drug research), exclusivity and inflated prices. Add to that an army of good-looking, slick and foolish-thinking sales reps, and you have the world’s most successful business model – corporate drug dealing. While profitable, this model is currently killing an estimated 200,000 people every year.

Face the facts: Those who adhere to Western medicine are stuck with risky and expensive counterfeits of Mother Nature. Those who embrace Mother Nature by choosing nutrition are able to use natural cures without risking their lives.

– Shane Ellison, via e-mail

Demand your right to property

To the Editors:

Eminent domain is being used as the “power of first resort; not as a last resort.” Eminent domain is like a mugger, who says, “give me your property or I will take it!” Eminent domain says, “Sell me your property at my price on my terms or I will ‘take’ your property.”

The Citizens of Colorado must demand their Constitutional Right to acquire, possess and protect their property. We will not be misled by political bashing in an election year. We want to know each candidate’s own position on property rights not their version of their opponent’s position. We will be asking both the candidate and the opponent’s position, negative campaigning will not make points with the citizens of Colorado. Don’t use our precious property rights for a campaign slogan; if you are not ready to defend our property rights as an elected official.

It is time to quit blowing smoke. The government needs to get out of the business of “taking” property. U.S. Supreme Court v. Kelo stomped on our property rights and kicked mud on our Constitution, then they said, “Nothing in our opinion precludes any state from placing further restriction on its exercise of the taking power” including state constitutional law and state eminent domain statutes. Sign the petition; put the Citizens Initiative on the ballot in November. Read the Initiative at www.theccpr.com. More than 20,000 Colorado citizens have signed the petition at the Stock Show, and hundreds of petitions have been signed out to go to the communities. The petition is coming to your Colorado neighborhoods. Send your name, address, phone and number of petitions you want to circulate. Each petition holds 30 signatures.

Contact Kathy and Tom Fauth at fauths@earthlink.net or call us (303) 203-3132. Help us set up a place to meet the people in your neighborhood. We need contacts to call and places to stop.

– Kathy and Tom Fauth, via e-mail