Flap Your Lips Friday
Posted by Michelle Moquin on February 24th, 2012
Good morning!
“Changing to a ‘Smart Meter’ is a dumb idea.” I know this statement sounds trite. But I don’t know a better way to express my thoughts. I have been fighting our local utilities company, proudly displaying a photo of a “Smart Meter” with a big “X” across it, in our front living room window. I think it expresses my thoughts clearly, and they get the picture. They’ve been going around, doing the switch but not here. Our home is probably the last home in our block that doesn’t have one.
About a month ago I got a phone call telling me that I could “opt out” – wonderful.
The other day I decided to opt out, only to find out that I have to pay to opt out. Are you kidding me? Nope. PG&E, our local gas and electric company, wants me to pay $75.00 + $10.00 every month to keep our analong meter. What a rip off. Now we have to pay for a meter we don’t want and more importantly for something that is not good for our health. Now some of you might not agree with me, but from all that I read here and on the net, I don’t want this new meter.
What do you think? Read this and start flapping your lips.
Harvard Medical Doctor Warns Against Smart Meters
Dr. David Carpenter MD, a graduate of Harvard Medical School and a physician who has worked in the area of electromagnetic fields (EMFs) and public health for over 18 years, has a few choice words for power companies that are forcing smart meters down the throats of their customers all over the United States.
Dr. Carpenter adamantly insists that there is no evidence whatsoever that smart meters are in any way safe for human beings. He goes on to say that there is, in fact, ample evidence that demonstrates “convincingly and consistently” that exposure to radiofrequency radiation (RFR) at elevated levels for long periods of time increases the risk of cancer, damages the nervous system, and adversely affects the reproductive organs.
Dr. Carpenter says that an informed person should demand that they be allowed to keep their analog meter.
The two minute video interview with Dr. Carpenter below is well worth watching.
If you are having smart meters forced upon you where you live, know that California power customers have recently won the battle to keep their analog meters. There is both an annual and monthly charge for this “inconvenience” to the power utilities, but at least customers now have a choice to opt out where they did not before.
This precedent for opting out in California should make it easier for others with smart meters who don’t want them in other areas of the United States to be able to get their analog meters back as well.
While smart meters reduce workload and increase profitability for the power companies, they do so at the expense of the health of their customers. Opting out is the only “smart” way to deal with this corporate incursion.
*P*G*&*E*R*I*P*O*F*F*I*
Blog me.
Lastly, greed over a great story is surfacing from my ‘loyal’(?) readers. With all this back and forth about who owns what, that appears on my blog, let me reiterate that all material posted on my blog becomes the sole property of my blog. If you want to reserve any proprietary rights don’t post it to my blog. I will prominently display this caveat on my blog from now on to remind those who may have forgotten this notice.
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michelle
Aka BABE: We all know what this means by now :)
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February 24th, 2012 at 10:15 am
How very govermental, you MAY keep the analog which doesn’t adversely affect your health but you must pay for the privilege, it’s enough to make you pack your bags…and maybe we will need to in order to be and stay healthy at some point soon…
Howie, I have to keep rereading, that’s amazing info you’ve got there, friend. Thanks for always sharing it with all of us.
Luv, Zen Lill
February 24th, 2012 at 10:23 am
This sermon is more pertinent today than it was 18 months ago when it was given by Rabbi Schlomo Lewis of Atlanta. It’s well worth reading, no matter what your religion or beliefs. It is a real eye-opener and totally relevant to today.
As a rabbi I have a compelling obligation, a responsibility to articulate what is in my heart and what I passionately believe must be said and must be heard. And so, I am guided not by what is easy to say but by what is painful to express. I am guided not by the frivolous but by the serious. I am guided not by delicacy but by urgency.
We are at war. We are at war with an enemy as savage, as voracious, as heartless as the Nazis, but one wouldn’t know it from our behavior. During WWII we didn’t refer to storm troopers as freedom fighters. We didn’t call the Gestapo, militants. We did not apologize for Dresden, nor for The Battle of the Bulge, nor for, nor for D-Day.
Evil ultimate, irreconcilable, evil threatened us, and Roosevelt and Churchill had moral clarity and an exquisite understanding of what was at stake. It was not just the Sudetenland, not just Vienna, It was the entire planet. Read history and be shocked at how frighteningly close Hitler came to creating a Pax Germana on every continent.
Not all Germans were Nazis. Most were decent, most were revolted by the Third Reich, most were good citizens hoisting a beer, earning a living and tucking in their children at night. But, too many looked away, too many cried out “I didn’t know.” Too many were silent. Guilt absolutely falls upon those who committed the atrocities, but responsibility and guilt falls upon those who did nothing as well. Fault was not just with the goose steppers, but with those who pulled the curtains shut, said and did nothing.
In WWII we won because we got it. We understood who the enemy was and we knew that the end had to be unconditional and absolute. We did not stumble around worrying about offending the Nazis. We did not measure every word so as not to upset our foe. We built planes and tanks and battleships and went to war to win — to rid the world of malevolence.
We are at war. Yet too many stubbornly and foolishly don’t put the pieces together and refuse to identify the evil doers. We are disgracefully politically correct.
Let me mince no words in saying that from Fort Hood to Bali, from Times Square to London , from Madrid to Mumbai, from 9/11 to Gaza, the murderers, the barbarians, are radical Islamists.
To camouflage their identity is sedition. To excuse their deeds is contemptible. To mask their intentions is unconscionable.
It is not the 1930s. There is no Luftwaffe overhead. No U-boats off the coast of long Island . No Panzer divisions on our borders. But make no mistake; we are under attack. Our values, our tolerance, our freedom, our virtue, our land.
Now, before some folks roll their eyes and glance at their watches, let me state emphatically, unmistakably: I have no pathology of hate, nor am I a manic Paul Revere, galloping through the countryside. I am not a pessimist, nor prone to panic attacks. I am a lover of humanity; all humanity. Whether they worship in a synagogue, a church, a mosque, a temple or don’t worship at all. I have no bone of bigotry in my body, but what I do have is hatred for those who hate, intolerance for those who are intolerant, and a guiltless, unstoppable obsession to see evil eradicated.
Today the enemy is radical Islam, but it must be said sadly and reluctantly that there are unwitting co-conspirators who strengthen the hands of the evil doers. Let me state that the overwhelming number of Muslims are good Muslims, fine human beings who want nothing more than a Jeep Cherokee in their driveway, a flat screen TV on their wall and a good education for their children, but these good Muslims have an obligation to destiny, to decency that thus far for the most part they have avoided. The good Muslims must sponsor rallies in Times Square, in Trafalgar Square, in the UN Plaza, on the Champs Elysee, in Mecca condemning terrorism, denouncing unequivocally the slaughter of the innocent. Thus far, they have not. The good Muslims must place ads in the NY Times. They must buy time on network TV, on cable stations, in the Jerusalem Post, in Le Monde, in Al Watan, on Al Jazeena condemning terrorism, denouncing unequivocally the slaughter of the innocent. Thus far, they have not. Their silence allows the vicious to tarnish Islam and define it.
Lighten up, Lewis. Take a chill pill, some of you are quietly thinking. It’s not that bad. It’s not that real.
But I am here to tell you It is! Ask the member of our congregation whose sister was vaporized in the Twin Towers and identified finally by her charred teeth if this is real or not. Ask the members who fled a bus in downtown Paris , fearing for their safety from a gang of Muslim thugs, if this is an exaggeration. Ask the Arab terrorist infiltrators who target pizza parlors, nursery schools, city buses and playgrounds if this is dramatic, paranoid hyperbole.
Ask them, ask all of them. Ask the American GI’s we sit next to on planes who are here for a brief respite while we fly off on our Delta vacation package. Ask them if it’s bad. Ask them if it’s real.
Did anyone imagine in the 1920’s what Europe would look like in the 1940’s. Did anyone presume to know in the coffee houses of Berlin or in the opera halls of Vienna that genocide would soon become the celebrated culture? Did anyone think that a goofy-looking painter go from the beer halls of Munich and jail to the Reichstag as Feuhrer in less than a decade?
Did Jews pack their bags and leave Warsaw , Vilna, Athens , Paris , Bialystok , Minsk , knowing that soon their new address would be Treblinka, Sobibor, Dachau and Auschwitz Death Camps?
We cannot be hypnotized by eloquent-sounding rhetoric that soothes our heart but endangers our soul. We cannot be lulled into inaction for fear of offending the offenders. Radical Islam is the scourge and this must be cried out from every mountain top. From sea to shining sea, we must stand tall, prideful of our stunning decency and moral resilience. Immediately after 9/11, how many mosques were destroyed in America ? None. After 9/11, how many Muslims were killed in America ? None. After 9/11, how many anti-Muslim rallies were held in America ? None. And yet, we apologize. We grovel. We beg forgiveness.
Should there be a thirteen story mosque and Islamic Center only a few steps from Ground Zero? Despite all the rhetoric, the essence of the matter can be distilled quite easily. The Muslim community has the absolute, constitutional right to build their building wherever they wish. I don’t buy the argument. When we can build a church or a synagogue in Mecca they can build a mosque here. Can they build? Certainly. May they build? Certainly. But should they build at that site? No — but that decision must come from them, not from us. Sensitivity, compassion cannot be measured in feet or yards or in blocks. One either feels the pain of others and cares, or does not.
If those behind this project are good, peace-loving, sincere, tolerant Muslims, as they claim, then they should know better, rip up the zoning permits and build elsewhere.
William Burroughs, the novelist and poet, wrote “After one look at this planet, any visitor from outer space would say I want to see the manager.”
Let us understand that the radical Islamist assaults all over the globe are but skirmishes, fire fights, and vicious decoys. Christ and the anti-Christ. Gog U�Magog. The Sons of Light and the Sons of Darkness; the bloody collision between civilization and depravity is on the border between Lebanon and Israel . It is on the Gaza Coast and in the Judean Hills of the West Bank . It is on the sandy beaches of Tel Aviv. It is in the underground schools and on the bullet-proofed inner-city buses in Israel. It is in every school yard, hospital, nursery, classroom, park, theater in every place of innocence and purity.
Israel is the laboratory — the test market. Every death, every explosion, every grisly encounter is not a random, bloody orgy. It is a calculated, strategic probe into the heart, guts and soul of the West.
In the Six Day War, Israel was the proxy of Western values and strategy while the Arab alliance was the proxy of Eastern, Soviet values and strategy. Today too, it is a confrontation of proxies, but the stakes are greater than East Jerusalem and the West Bank . Israel in her struggle represents the civilized world, while Hamas, Hezbollah, Al Queda, Iran, Islamic Jihad, represent the world of psychopathic, loathesome evil.
As Israel , imperfect as she is, resists the onslaught, many in the Western world have lost their way displaying not admiration, not sympathy, not understanding, for Israel’s galling plight, but downright hostility and contempt. Without moral clarity, we are doomed. Hanna Arendt, in her classic Origins of Totalitarianism, accurately portrays the first target of tyranny as the Jew.
We are the trial balloon. The canary in the coal mine. If the Jew/Israel is permitted to bleed with nary a protest from ‘good guys,’ then tyranny snickers and pushes forward with its agenda.
Moral confusion is a deadly weakness and it has reached epic proportions in the West; from the Oval Office to the UN, from the BBC to Reuters to MSNBC, from the New York Times to Le Monde, from university campuses to British teachers unions, from the International Red Cross to Amnesty International, from Goldstone to Elvis Costello, from the Presbyterian Church to the Archbishop of Canterbury.
There is a message sent and consequences when free speech on campus is only for those championing Palestinian rights.
There is a message sent and consequences when the media deliberately doctors and edits film clips to demonize Israel .
There is a message sent and consequences when the UN blasts Israel relentlessly, effectively ignoring Iran , Sudan , Venezuela , North Korea , China and other noxious states.
There is a message sent and consequences when liberal churches are motivated by Liberation Theology, not historical accuracy. They differ greatly.
There is a message sent and consequences when murderers and terrorists are defended by the obscenely transparent. “one man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter.”
John Milton warned, �Hypocrisy is the only evil that walks invisible.
Madrid Gay Pride Parade bans Israel’s Gay group. The Israeli Gay Pride Contingent from Tel Aviv was not allowed to participate in the Spanish gay pride parade.
The only country in the entire Middle East where gay rights exist, is Israel . The only country in the entire Middle East where there is a gay pride parade, is Israel . The only country in the Middle East that has gay neighborhoods and gay bars, is Israel .
Gays in the Gaza would be strung up, executed by Hamas if they came out, and yet Israel is vilified and ostracized, uninvited to the parade.
Looking for logic? — Looking for reason? — Looking for sanity? It is exhausting and dispiriting. We live in an age that is redefining righteousness – where those with moral clarity are an endangered, beleaguered specie.
How do we convince the world and many of our own that this is not just anti-Semitism, that this is not just anti-Zionism, but a full-throttled attack by unholy, radical Islamists on everything that is morally precious to us?
How do we convince the world and many of our own that conciliation is not an option, that compromise is not a choice? Everything we are. Everything we believe. Everything we treasure, is at risk.
The threat is so unbelievably clear and the enemy so unbelievably ruthless, how anyone in their right mind doesn’t get it is baffling. I know that there are those sitting here today who have turned me off. But I also know that many turned off their rabbis seventy-five years ago in Warsaw, Berlin , Amsterdam , Cracow, Vilna. I get no satisfaction from that knowledge, only a bitter sense that there is nothing new under the sun.
Enough rhetoric. A few weeks ago on the cover of ‘Time’ magazine was a horrific picture with a horrific story. The photo was of an eighteen-year old Afghani woman, Bibi Aisha, who fled her abusive husband and his abusive family. Days later, the Taliban found her and dragged her to a mountain clearing where she was found guilty of violating Sharia Law. Her punishment was immediate. She was pinned to the ground by four men while her husband sliced off her ears, and then he cut off her nose.
If nothing else stirs us; if nothing else convinces us, let Bibi Aisha’s mutilated face be the face of Islamic radicalism. Let her face shake up even the most complacent among us. In the holy crusade against this ultimate evil, pictures of Bibi Aisha’s disfigurement should be displayed on billboards, along every highway from Route 66 to the Autobahn, to the Transarabian Highway. Bibi Aisha’s face should appear with the caption “Radical Islamic savages did this.” And underneath “This ad was approved by Hamas, by Hezbollah, by Taliban, by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, by Islamic Jihad, by Fatah al Islam, by Magar Nodal Hassan, by Richard Reid, by Ahmanijad, by Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman, by Osama bin Laden, by Edward Said, by The Muslim Brotherhood, by Al Queda, by CAIR.”
If a house is on fire and we chose not to wake up our children, for fear of disturbing their sleep, would that be love? Our house is on fire and I must arouse you from your slumber.
During WWII and the Holocaust, was it business as usual for priests, ministers, rabbis? Did they deliver benign homilies and lovely sermons as Europe fell, as the Pacific fell, as North Africa fell, as the Mideast and South America tottered, as England bled? Did they ignore the demonic juggernaut and the foul breath of evil? They did not. There was clarity, courage, vision, determination, sacrifice, and we were victorious. Today it must be our finest hour as well. We dare not retreat into the banality of our routines, glance at headlines and presume that the good guys will prevail. The world is on fire and we must awake from our slumber
This is not my usual post but it is important to me. I too, hate those who hate.
HOWIE
February 24th, 2012 at 11:58 am
Michelle:
I am going to Flao my Lips now about your Post.
You have the right to keep your analog electric meter from PG&E. They should make it an option to receive the new digital “Smart Meter”.
Instead you are being charged $75.00 + $10.00 every month just to keep you good ole reliable meter which doesn’t give off Radio Frequency (RFR) and you feel is healthier for you, your loved ones and your neighbors.
radiofrequency radiation (RFR) at elevated levels for long periods of time increases the risk of cancer, damages the nervous system, and adversely affects the reproductive organs.
I disagree that the harm these new meters would cause when cell phones, which everyone carries on them from the age of 3 through the rest of their lives, gives off this same radiofrequency radiation yet one holds the cell phone about 2 inches from one’s ear and brain.
Many Oncologists (Cancer Doctors) consider Cell Phones a factor that has increased the number of Brain Cancers and Tumors in bhumans, yet the entire world is addicted to walking, driving, eating out at restaurants, having sex and being impolite by holding that little cell phone as if it were glued to their ears.
What do you feel about Cell Phones Michelle? Are they not harmful for the same reasons mentioned above? — Just as the new Electric Meters from PG&E? I really want to know how you justify the use of cell phones but you are totally against the new Electric Meters>
Michelle, I am sorry for taking up so much space on today’s blog. I really believe in what is written in my comment about complacency and misguided Americans who do not know who we are fighting in the Middle East or why, and who the clear enemy is. Terrorism is a side affect of War backed by Islamic Zealots.
HOWIE
February 24th, 2012 at 4:44 pm
The nerve of PG&E in the Bay Area. They will charge you extra monthly if you decide to have your smart meter removed.
First they poison you, then they charge you monthly for removing the poison.
The STARK on the SCOTUS are disgusting.
Nancy
February 24th, 2012 at 4:46 pm
Fiber Helps You Live Longer
In a recent study, researchers followed more than 388,000 volunteers, ages 50 to 71, and found that men and women who consumed the most fiber were 24% to 59% less likely to die from infections, heart disease or respiratory illness than those who did not.
Possible reason: Fiber may steady blood sugar, lower blood lipids and control inflammation. Recommended: 21 to 25 grams of fiber daily for women and 30 to 38 grams for men from naturally occurring plant-based sources, such as grains, legumes, vegetables and fruits.
Commercially made foods that are fortified with fiber were not studied.
Source: Yikyung Park, ScD, staff scientist, National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, Maryland, and leader of a study of more than 388,000 people, published in Archives of Internal Medicine.
February 24th, 2012 at 4:49 pm
I agee with you Zen Lill, that was a very interesting post about aliens Howie made.
More, more, more. Howie. I’ve got deadlines to meet. I need more meat to finish my plot.
Kent
February 24th, 2012 at 5:00 pm
Howie that piece needs to be placed everywhere there is a congregation of the thoughtful.
February 24th, 2012 at 5:18 pm
I understand you very well Howie. I also know that it will not be heeded here in America because the white boy will use the plight of Israel as a political tool to gain office.
Guilt absolutely falls upon those WHITES who committed and continue to commit the atrocities they do against OTWs , but responsibility and guilt falls upon those WHITES who did and continue to do nothing as well.
Fault was and is not just with those WHITES who maim, kill, and discriminate at will, but with those who pulled and continue to pull their curtains shut, and say and do nothing.
To camouflage their identity is UNCIVILIZED. To excuse their deeds is contemptible. To mask their intentions is unconscionable.
It is not the 1700s, 1800s or the 1900s. There ARE no “WHITE ONLY” declarations proudly displayed. No hordes of angry WHITE MOBS threatening the existence of OTW communities .
No City, State and Klansmen on the OTWs borders. But make no mistake; we are under attack. Our values, our tolerance, our freedom, our virtue, our land.
Sensitivity, compassion cannot be measured in feet or yards or in blocks. One either feels the pain of others and cares, or does not.
THE WHITE BOY DOES NOT!.
Robert, rt
February 24th, 2012 at 5:23 pm
Where are the Women?
Last week, House Republicans held a hearing on women’s health, an issue that impacts millions of American women seeking safe and affordable coverage for basic preventive health care, including contraception.
The Republican majority refused to allow a female witness put forward by the Democratic Members of the Committee to testify; instead, they began the hearing with an all-male panel of witnesses.
On Thursday, House Democrats held a hearing to hear from Ms. Sandra Fluke, a law student at Georgetown University and the witness blocked from testifying.
During the hearing, Ms. Fluke spoke of the importance of affordable contraceptive coverage and shared stories of real women who would be affected by policies aimed at denying women access to basic preventive health care.
I have long supported a woman’s right to affordable and accessible reproductive health care and believe strongly that such care should be covered by insurance plans.
Congress must work to promote women’s health, not weaken it. To read my remarks from the hearing, please visit my website.
Congresswoman Pelosi thanks Ms. Sandra Fluke for her testimony on the impact of denying women coverage in health insurance plans at a House Democratic Steering and Policy Committee hearing.
Fighting for Marriage Equality
On Wednesday, the discriminatory Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) was declared unconstitutional in a ruling by a U.S. District Court in the Northern District of California.
This ruling is a victory for the liberty, civil rights, and equality of LGBT Americans and, indeed, all Americans. As a Member of Congress, I voted against DOMA when it come before the Congress in 1996.
By declaring the Defense of Marriage Act unconstitutional, we can right a wrong of our past; we can move closer to ending a fundamental unfairness in our nation; and we can look forward to the day when we discard this discriminatory law in the dustbin of history.
Maryland also made history on Thursday when the state Senate passed a bill legalizing same-sex marriage.
The bill has already been approved by the state’s House of Delegates, and now heads to the Governor Martin O’Malley’s desk, where he is expected to sign the legislation into law.
This week, our country has taken solid steps toward a time when all of America’s families enjoy the blessings of equal protection under the law.
As we celebrate an extraordinary moment in our nation’s history, we pledge to continue fighting – in the courts, in state legislatures, and in Congress – until all LGBT Americans are guaranteed fair treatment in our country.
Standing Up for Our Democracy
House Democrats are continuing the fight for disclosure to get unlimited, secret donations out of politics.
Two years ago, the Supreme Court’s decision in Citizens United v. FEC overturned a century of common-sense campaign finance laws and allowed unlimited corporate and special interest donations into our political campaigns.
To restore transparency and fairness to our political process, House Democrats have introduced the Disclosure of Information on Spending on Campaigns Leads to Open and Secure Elections Act of 2012 (DISCLOSE 2012 Act). To learn more about the legislation and efforts to ‘DISCLOSE, Reform, & Amend’, please watch my interview this week with Stephen Colbert.
Watch House Hearings Online
Recently, the House announced a new initiative to consolidate House Committee Hearings onto one site.
Previously, videos were only available on individual committee websites. To see live or recent committees hearings please click here.
Please feel free to forward this information to your family and friends. To learn more about these efforts, to express your views, or to sign up for email updates, please visit my website.
I am also on Twitter at http://twitter.com/NancyPelosi.
Sincerely,
Member of Congress
February 25th, 2012 at 7:26 am
Howie, I want to meet you. I can come to Miami at you convenience.
February 25th, 2012 at 7:32 am
Howie(2):
I agree with you. If you readers doubt the sincerity of the words you printed, I suggest they visit these two sites.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o6jX3YWN81Y&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s9kAVlnGMTU
Isar