Anthony Gucciardi at Truthout:
In a major victory for public health and what will hopefully lead to other nations taking action, a French court decided today that GMO crops monster Monsanto is guilty of chemically poisoning a French farmer. The grain grower, Paul Francois, says he developed neurological problems such as memory loss and headaches after being exposed to Monsanto's Lasso weedkiller back in 2004. The monumental case paves the way for legal action against Monsanto's Roundup and other harmful herbicides and pesticides made by other manufacturers.No word on what criminal sanctions Monsanto will suffer, but I hope "criminally poisoning" carries more than a fine.In a ruling given by a court in Lyon (southeast France), Francois says that Monsanto failed to provide proper warnings on the product label. The court ordered an expert opinion to determine the sum of the damages, and to verify the link between Lasso and the reported illnesses. The case is extremely important, as previous legal action taken against Monsanto by farmers has failed due to the challenge of properly linking pesticide exposure with the experienced side effects.
When contacted by Reuters, Monsanto's lawyers declined to comment.
SNIP
Francois, whose life was damaged by Monsanto's products, has now set the powerful precedent in the defense of farmers.
"I am alive today, but part of the farming population is going to be sacrificed and is going to die because of this," Francois, 47, told Reuters.
It is also important to note that Monsanto's Lasso pesticide was actually banned in France back in 2007 following a European Union directive that came after the ban of the product in other nations.
By contrast, here is how American judges deal with Monsanto's criminal attacks on farmers:
Her ruling to dismiss the case brought against Monsanto on behalf of organic farmers, seed growers and agricultural organizations representing farmers and citizens was met with great disappointment by the plaintiffs.Plaintiff lead attorney Daniel Ravicher said, "While I have great respect for Judge Buchwald, her decision to deny farmers the right to seek legal protection from one of the world's foremost patent bullies is gravely disappointing. Her belief that farmers are acting unreasonable when they stop growing certain crops to avoid being sued by Monsanto for patent infringement should their crops become contaminated maligns the intelligence and integrity of those farmers."
To the injury of contaminating the world's food supply with Frankenfood genes, and eliminating the ability of farmers to grow new crops from saved seed, Monsanto is adding the insult of suing farmers who object to to Monsanto stealing their livelihood.
And the Constitutional abomination of American judges who take Monsanto's side.
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Common Dreams: Arctic Methane in Vicious Cycle of Global Warming
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Krugman: The Amnesia Candidate
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The Keystone XL pipeline, for which Willard Romney has said he will personally begin digging the ditch any day now, is back in the news this morning. Trans-Canada, the company that is proposing the project, which is designed to bring the world's dirtiest carbon-based fuel from the ecological wastelands that are the tar-sands of Alberta to the ecological slaughter-pens that are the refineries of Texas, has come up with a new route for the pipeline, shifting its track eastward in Nebraska so as to avoid the environmentally delicate Sandhills region and, Trans-Canada hopes, placating the environmental community that raised such holy hell over the thing last year that the administration stalled on giving Trans-Canada a permit to start building it. As you can see from the map, the folks in Antelope, Boone, and Nance counties will now be blessed with having this dubious goo pumped through their backyards. Those of you inclined not to believe in coincidence will note that the new route was unveiled one day after Governor Dave Heineman — who's been caught between being, you know, a Republican, and wanting to get re-elected some day — signed a bill that would provide for an expedited local review process. The problem with the new route is that, while it does avoid most of the Sandhills, it still runs in dangerous proximity to our old pal, the Oglalla Aquifer. The thing to keep an eye on is whether or not this new route is sold to the country, and to the administration, as some kind of "compromise" by Trans-Canada. If that happens, then you'll know the skids are, well, greased.
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Taming the Tea monster: The monsters:
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1943 soldiers killed in Afghanistan; 4486 in Iraq.
For every U.S. soldier who dies in battle this year, 25 will die by their own hands.
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...... Since 1976, more than 1/3rd of all executions that took place in our country happened in Texas. Since 1976, Texas has executed 481 people. Truth Progress Why does Texas continue to execute people when many experts assert that the death penalty is not a deterrent to violent crime? Continue reading 'Don't Mess with Texas' Executions'
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Jesus (c. 30 CE):
Render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's, and unto God the things that are God's.
Bishop Daniel R. Jenky of the Catholic diocese of Peoria, Illinois (2012 CE) who obviously missed the above Jesus quote in his many readings on his way to becoming a bishop.
For 2,000 years the enemies of Christ have certainly tried their best. But think about it. The Church survived and even flourished during centuries of terrible persecution, during the days of the Roman Empire.
The Church survived barbarian invasions. The Church survived wave after wave of Jihads. The Church survived the age of revolution. The Church survived Nazism and Communism. And in the power of the resurrection, the Church will survive the hatred of Hollywood, the malice of the media, and the mendacious wickedness of the abortion industry.
The Church will survive the entrenched corruption and sheer incompetence of our Illinois state government, and even the calculated disdain of the President of the United States, his appointed bureaucrats in HHS, and of the current majority of the federal Senate.
…
In our own families, in our parishes, where we live and where we work – like that very first apostolic generation – we must be bold witnesses to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. We must be a fearless army of Catholic men, ready to give everything we have for the Lord, who gave everything for our salvation.
Remember that in past history other governments have tried to force Christians to huddle and hide only within the confines of their churches like those first disciples before the Resurrection locked together in the Upper Room.
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Hitler and Stalin, at their better moments, would just barely tolerate some churches remaining open, but would not tolerate any competition with the state in education, social services, and health care.
In clear violation of our First Amendment rights, President Obama – with his radical, pro-abortion and extreme secularist agenda, now seems intent on following a similar path.
Is there anything this President does which is not viewed as "radical" or "extreme" by the right?
And here's Jenky sounding every bit Santorumish as he pours it on as thick and ugly as any politician with an agenda and an audience.
This fall, every practicing Catholic must vote, and must vote their Catholic consciences, or by the following fall our Catholic schools, our Catholic hospitals, our Catholic Newman Centers, all our public ministries — only excepting our church buildings – could easily be shut down.
Yes, that's it. Obama the anti-Christ hard at work on shutting down every Catholic institution across the land.
It's going to be one very long, very ugly election season.
Discussion on the Church and other such institutions with tax-exempt status prohibited under federal law from electioneering here.
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