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Friday, November 4, 2005

WELL...I geared up and attempted a mission to Clichy-sous-Bois, the Paris "suburb" -- really a high-rise ghetto just outside the city -- where there has been rioting all week. But when I got to the RER station, they said that no trains were running there. So I'll need to figure out how to get a ride, or plot another train route when there is a bit more daylight -- rather than depending on fussy Paris cab drivers. I have some clear ideas for daytime photos in mind; let's see if they vaguely line up with reality, or if I can get out that way any time soon.

Regarding "Avian Influenza," at this point, I am about 90% convinced that it's a scam. The issue as stated is so serious, I've even suspended my "Don't believe a single word the government says" editorial guideline; I've been open minded about this. But a few things have set off my bullshit sniffers lately.

What I find curious is that apparently there is nothing unusual about influenza in birds, indeed, influenza is all about birds, so the threat is constant; that this particular flu resists human infection; that a global shock-panic has set in; and suddenly, billions of dollars are changing hands for drugs that have no demonstrated effectiveness and for vaccines for viruses that don't exist. I find it galling that Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is directly in line with the cash flow.

I am not saying that there will not be some kind of outbreak. This issue has been news in Europe (at least) for a year, and when I heard about it my first impression was that it was a biowarfare project aimed at North Korea.

Meanwhile, as usual, the theme is fear and its incestuous first cousin, control. We now, thanks to news reports, have to think about shutdowns of the mass transit systems; travel restrictions; quarantines enforced by the media...oops I meant the military...it seems they are itching to declare martial law. We had better not be itching to escape from freedom.

So please...be free! It's better for me that way. Oh, and better for you and the rest of us.

First have a peek at this...posted here a few days ago...

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/110205I.shtml

Then...

http://www.rense.com/general67/avianflufright.htm

I'm also receiving some information from readers about how deadly vaccines are. If I were a parent, nobody would be sticking my infant with needles. When I can weed through those I'll post any interesting links, if applicable. But a lot of people are onto this issue, in part due to excellent work over the years by Mothering magazine, which has not shut up for a minute.

Here is a bit from the Wall Street Journal from yesterday...not sure where the rest of the article is available (WSJ is strictly subscriber access) but this gives you the drift:

Generics Challenge Roche's Tamiflu Claims

By Nicholas Zamiska And Jason Dean
01:07 am, 11/03/2005
The Wall Street Journal (Internal Content)

Recent, surprising reports that generic Tamiflu can be made quickly and easily may have important implications for the global supply of the drug, which is seen as a hedge against a bird-flu pandemic.

The reports also raise questions about why Roche Holding AG, Tamiflu's maker, said it would take years for its rivals to copy the drug.

In early October, with world-wide concern about bird flu spreading, the Swiss pharmaceutical company was under mounting pressure to allow other manufacturers to produce the antiviral drug as well. Roche resisted, saying Tamiflu -- widely considered the most effective drug in fighting avian influenza in humans -- was too difficult for other companies to manufacture. Roche even pointed to a potentially "explosive" chemical step in the production process and said repeatedly that it would take several years for anyone else to make Tamiflu.

Yet even as Roche executives were warning of the rigors of the process, scientists at Taiwan's National Health Research Institutes and at Cipla Ltd., an Indian generic-drug manufacturer, had already finished reproducing Tamiflu, according to both entities.

--

And an email...

Hey Eric --

I don't have any particular "evidence" to proffer with regard to the purported avian influenz scam, but intuitively it does feel like yet another scare tactic. It's easier for Bush & Co. to deal with natural disasters like hurricanes and avian flu, and even dramas like 9-11, than to actually run the world's largest democracy in any kind of coherent way. Or the avain flu scare may just be a paranoid outpicturing of our collective semi-unconscious fears, which perhaps amounts to the same thing, given that 3-D life is an illusion or a dream anyway. Whatever the case may be, it seems to be "just what the astrologer ordered," with Uranus in Pisces in mutual reception with Neptune in Aquarius. To me, "avian flu" is a fairly literal translation of Uranus-Neptune, given their traditional keywords. Uranus can relate to flight or the airborne, and Neptune to anything organic like a flu bug. As reflected by the Uranus-Neptune mutual reception, avian flu is hard to predict and difficult to diagnose, impossible to contain yet spreading at the speed of lightening, aqueous yet airy, nebulous and amorphous yet electrifying, dissipating yet galvanizing, dissolving yet catalyizing - all of the usual Neptune vs. Uranus dichotomies. To me this combination of energies conjures an image of lying semi-comatose in the opium den (Neptune), but with your finger in the electrical socket (Uranus) at the same time. I see it as catching us asleep at the switch and waking us up with an electrifying jolt at the same time. Or maybe not. It's just too hard to predict, based on the astrology and based on the (lack of) evidence. At any rate, I look forward to your further sharings on homeopathy! Now I've really scared myself...
 
Love, Eliz.

Check back later in the weekend for a bonus article available by email.