It's interesting that the Wall Street Journal is actually two entirely different publications in one. On the one hand, its news pages contain the most accurate, well-researched and balanced reporting you'll find in this country (though the topics covered skew toward the business community).
On the other hand, its editorial pages are entirely right wing with little regard for the truth and no regard for fairness. They are often inaccurate and always the untruths are in favor of their own biases.
The media needs to step-up to and stabilize our democracy's '3-legged stool' structure (WH, Congress and media). With the ratings/money/ designed news (in some cases paid for by the same lobbyists influencing our elected officials), we the people have lost our constitutional integrity.
Our Justice Department needs require and enforce similar 'truth' standards as done in advertising and labels of food intake. We, as 'the people', can require pure truth when we are counting on folks we elect and pay for to behave in our interest.
In the meantime ... viva la Internet
Mr. Potter,
Thank you for bringing these issues to light. Like a previous commenter, Maria C., I am having issues with UHC, I also had a hip arthroscopy to address bone spurs and some other issues with my hip, and UHC is refusing to pay. What is most distressing is that they have paid for this procedure in the past, but now are stating that it is experimental and unproven. Despite the fact that an external reviewer deemed the procedure NOT experimental in Maria's case, and ordered UHC to pay, UHC refuses to pay for my procedure. I currently author a blog about my experience with this procedure and have had countless emails from other UHC members telling me about their experiences, and UHC refusing to cover the surgery. Most patients with this condition are young and active, but suffering from hip pain. Hip arthroscopy is a minimally invasive procedure that can correct the anatomical deformity in the hip. Since UHC is denying coverage for this procedure, as well as the more invasive open procedure to correct the abnormality, young patients are left with no choice but to continue to suffer hip pain, until the joint has degenerated enough to need a total hip replacement.
I am reaching out to your organization to help get UHC and other carriers who do not cover this procedure, to realize that this is a highly beneficial procedure, that it is not experimental, and that there is plenty of peer reviewed literature to prove this.
The US EPA and waste industry are promoting the landspreading of Class B sewage sludge containing infectious human and animal prions on grazing lands, hay fields, and dairy pastures. This puts livestock and wildlife at risk of infection. They ingest large quantities of dirt and top dressed sludge with their fodder.
Prion infected Class A sludge "biosolids" compost is spread in parks, playgrounds, home lawns, flower and vegetable gardens - putting humans, family pets, and children with their undeveloped immune systems and hand-to-mouth "eat dirt" behavior at risk. University of Wisconsin prion researchers, working with $100,000 EPA grant and a $5 million Dept. of Defense grant, have found that prions become 680 times more infectious in certain types of soil. Prions can survive for over 3 years in soils. And human prions are 100,000 times more difficult to inactivate than animal prions
Recently, researchers at UC Santa Cruz, and elsewhere, announced that Alzheimer's Disease (AD) is a prion disease. "Prion" = proteinaceous infectious particle which causes always fatal TSEs (Transmissible spongiform encephalopathies) in humans and animals including BSE (Mad Cow Disease), scrapie in sheep and goats, and Chronic Wasting Disease in deer, elk and moose. Human prion diseases are AD and CJD (Creutzfeldt Jakob Disease,) and other rarer maladies. Infectious prions have been found in human and animal muscle tissue including heart, saliva, blood, urine, feces and many other organs.
Alzheimer's rates are soaring as Babyboomers age - there are now over 5.3 million AD victims in US shedding infectious prions in their blood, urine and feces, into public sewers. This Alzheimer's epidemic has almost 500,000 new victims each year. No sewage treatment process inactivates prions - they are practically indestructible. The wastewater treatment process reconcentrates the infectious prions in the sewage sludge.
Quotes from Dr. Joel Pedersen, Univ. of Wisconsin, on his prion research:
"
Our results suggest that if prions were to enter municipal waste water treatment systems, most of the agent would partition to activated sludge solids, survive mesophilic anaerobic digestion, and be present in
treated biosolids. Land application of biosolids containing prions could represent a route for their unintentional introduction into the environment. Our results argue for excluding inputs of prions to municipal wastewater treatment."
"Prions could end up in wastewater treatment plants via slaughterhouse drains, hunted game cleaned in a sink, or humans with vCJD shedding prions in their urine or faeces, Pedersen says"
(Note - This UW research was conducted BEFORE UCSC scientists determined that Alzheimer's Disease is another prion disease which may be shedding infectious prions into public sewers and Class B and Class A sludge "biosolids.)
The US EPA and waste industry are promoting the landspreading of Class B sewage sludge containing infectious human and animal prions on grazing lands, hay fields, and dairy pastures. This puts livestock and wildlife at risk of infection. They ingest large quantities of dirt and top dressed sludge with their fodder.
Prion infected Class A sludge "biosolids" compost is spread in parks, playgrounds, home lawns, flower and vegetable gardens - putting humans, family pets, and children with their undeveloped immune systems and hand-to-mouth "eat dirt" behavior at risk. University of Wisconsin prion researchers, working with $100,000 EPA grant and a $5 million Dept. of Defense grant, have found that prions become 680 times more infectious in certain types of soil. Prions can survive for over 3 years in soils. And human prions are 100,000 times more difficult to inactivate than animal prions
Recently, researchers at UC Santa Cruz, and elsewhere, announced that Alzheimer's Disease (AD) is a prion disease. "Prion" = proteinaceous infectious particle which causes always fatal TSEs (Transmissible spongiform encephalopathies) in humans and animals including BSE (Mad Cow Disease), scrapie in sheep and goats, and Chronic Wasting Disease in deer, elk and moose. Human prion diseases are AD and CJD (Creutzfeldt Jakob Disease,) and other rarer maladies. Infectious prions have been found in human and animal muscle tissue including heart, saliva, blood, urine, feces and many other organs.
Alzheimer's rates are soaring as Babyboomers age - there are now over 5.3 million AD victims in US shedding infectious prions in their blood, urine and feces, into public sewers. This Alzheimer's epidemic has almost 500,000 new victims each year. No sewage treatment process inactivates prions - they are practically indestructible. The wastewater treatment process reconcentrates the infectious prions in the sewage sludge.
Quotes from Dr. Joel Pedersen, Univ. of Wisconsin, on his prion research:
"
Our results suggest that if prions were to enter municipal waste water treatment systems, most of the agent would partition to activated sludge solids, survive mesophilic anaerobic digestion, and be present in
treated biosolids. Land application of biosolids containing prions could represent a route for their unintentional introduction into the environment. Our results argue for excluding inputs of prions to municipal wastewater treatment."
"Prions could end up in wastewater treatment plants via slaughterhouse drains, hunted game cleaned in a sink, or humans with vCJD shedding prions in their urine or faeces, Pedersen says"
(Note - This UW research was conducted BEFORE UCSC scientists determined that Alzheimer's Disease is another prion disease which may be shedding infectious prions into public sewers and Class B and Class A sludge "biosolids.)
Helane Shields, Alton, NH 03809
www.sludgevictims.com/pathogens/ALZHEIMERS-CJD-samepriondisease.doc
www.sludgevictims.com/pathgens/prions-composting.html
www.sludgevictims.com/pathogens/prion.html
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