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Jun

2024

Are Schools Pushing Drugs?

Another Reason for Home Schooling Your Children

I’ve heard this story for years from others. A niece of ours felt she had to put her son on some ADHD drug.

A tiny bit of background. She will feed him Fruit Loops cereal for breakfast.

Fruit Loops: Additives:

Natural Flavours: When unspecified this is usually something like MSG which can be very damaging.

Red 40: synthetic food dye, very toxic and linked to hyperactivity in children. (Banned in several countries)

Blue 1: Synthetic food dye. Linked to allergies and hyperactivity

Yellow 6: Cancer and hyperactivity

BHT: (Butylated Hydroxytoluene) synthetic preservative linked to cancer and other health problems.

Hydrogenated Vegetable Oil: high in trans fats - linked to heart disease.

So, you feed your kid something that causes hyperactivity or so called ‘ADHD’. And then … you have to give him drugs to counter the chemicals in the food.

Another part of the problem is that no young boy should be asked to sit still in a classroom for hours at a time.

All that said, though, why would a teacher or school faculty member have anything to say about administering drugs to a child in their care. But that has been going on for some time, I think.

This young man, if he acted up at school, it would initiate a call from someone at the school to momma. Saying that he was being difficult or over-emotional or some such. The cause of this they would blame on the fact that he hadn’t taken his pill or it wasn’t strong enough or he needed a different one or… etc.

The medical industry, which includes psychiatrists, is trained on the basis of ‘symptom - pill’, ‘symptom - pill’. What pill should be used for what symptom? This has long since filtered down into public schools in the USA and Canada. Health nurses in schools then even teachers are weighing in and judging whether a child should be on some anti anxiety or ADHD drug.

This has been going on for quite some years.

A close relative who is a doctor in a fairly upscale town, told me a story about an doctor/acquaintance. This goes back about 20-25 years. This friend of his, a doctor, moved into the town. Set up practice. He was of a mind that he didn’t want to hand out drugs willy-nillly. A patient would come in with a cold. Doctor tells him or her that the cold will be gone in 10 days whether or not they are taking a drug for it. Patient didn’t want to hear it. “Just gimme the drug!” Within a year this doctor packed up and left. The patients just wanted their pills. They would see the advertising on the Television and tell the doctor what they wanted.

It’s much worse now. So many people feel they are educated on the subject of symptoms and drugs from watching the pharmaceutical ads on TV.

So, why would you send your kid to a bunch of drug pushers. (read: public schools)

Another major issue with putting your kid on an ADHD drugs or something similar is that once they reach adulthood they are going to switch to some other drug. This is a very real situation, particularly with Ritalin. Do your own research. Don’t just listen to doctors or school staff. Ask questions.

Your child’s brain is developing until they are 25. Life is tough enough - why make it more difficult.

The beauty of home schooling is that your child can learn in a couple of hours a day, much more than he or she does sitting in a classroom for 6-8 hours. There are dozens of homeschooling resources online and elsewhere. It has become much more ‘mainstream’ than it was 30-40 years ago.

The Classical Learner (https://classicallearner.com/) is a great one. There are many more though. The whole homeschooling thing has been growing like mad the last few years.

There are those wanting to make the education of their kids way too complicated. Kids want to learn. Biggest thing I found is to just put interesting stuff in front of them and stand back.

If you are nervous about the subject and want read a couple of books, I would suggest pretty much anything by John Taylor Gatto or John Holt. Gatto was a teacher in some of the rougher parts of New York City for 30 years. Got awards and everything.

If you got this far and have read this article, then you are at least curious about alternatives to public schooling. Please take a minute and look through some of my other articles.

Jun

2024

Guns, Drugs and Big Pharma – A Common Thread

Guns, Drugs, and Big Pharma - Common Threads

Every time I’m around police of any sort and have a chance to ask a certain question, I do.

I’ve asked this question of SWAT teams in Toronto, Canada and Sheriffs in small towns in the US of A. And the answer is pretty consistent. Almost word for word, really.

The Question

First time this came up was at a small trade show I was working in a town in Southern Oregon. The fellow in the booth next to me was a Sheriff. Doing some publicity. He came in one morning and told me that there had been a ‘gun’ incident the night before that he had to attend.

I asked him, "How many gun incidents are drug or alcohol related?” He looked at me kinda funny, like I was a few bricks shy of a load or something. He replied, “All of them!” He expounded but that was basically it.

A more recent conversation with a SWAT cop when I was working at the Royal Winter Fair last November in Toronto. There had been an incident - some sort of demonstration earlier in the day at the Fair and they were walking around keeping at eye on things. They were chatty so I asked the one guy the same question- his reply was almost exactly the same. He gave me the same ‘Are you an idiot?’ look and said, “All of them?”

(As an aside: He went on to tell me that of the several gun incidents that they get each week, and all of the guns that they confiscate, not one has been previously owned by a legal gun owner.)

It is quite well known now, pretty much general knowledge, that some key side effects of anti-depressants are things like, depression, suicidal ideation, and violent outbursts.

Robert F Kennedy Jr. is running for President of the United States - and I’m kinda hoping he wins. Not too fond of other options.

Kennedy, in one of his talks pointed out that a proper investigation into the causes of school shootings and such, has never been done. This is pretty scary. The pharmaceutical industry makes mucho dineros from their drugs. If a study like this was done and discovered that a major contributor to these violent shootings in schools and otherwise was their drugs, the shit would hit the fan.

Billions of Big Pharma’s dollars would just evaporate.

(Note: A very large percentage of of gun homicides are committed by inner city gangs and the like.
“Gun involvement— in gang related homicides increased from 73% in 1980 to 92% in 2008 (figure 41)” https://bjs.ojp.gov/)

There is no monitoring system for the Pharmaceutical Industry. Many think that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) actually regulate and monitor the drugs manufactured. This is a fallacy. They never do any of their own testing on the drugs produced by the drug companies. They read the summaries of the testing. At best someone will review some of the research details.

A good book covering this aspect of the FDA is ‘Bitter Pills’ by Stephen Fried.

So, what is the common thread here? Of all this gun violence? Does anyone really know. Lots of anecdotal information. Lots of fingers pointing. Lots of people really certain as to what the answer is. But most of that ‘certainty’ is based on emotion.

Not any actual research. In fact as I pointed out earlier here, the Pharmaceutical companies are likely terrified of a proper investigation into causes of gun violence in relation to their drugs.

There is no doubt at this point that gun crime, school shootings and such things are inevitably connected to drugs.

Get rid of the guns and you will still have children on drugs for depression that cause worse depression and more severe symptoms such as suicidal ideation.

One of the issues with the R&D on drugs produced by pharmaceutical companies is that they really don’t know how these drugs work. They don’t have to show this for FDA approval.

Here is an excerpt from ‘Bitter Pills’:

“He said the the FDA and the drug companies don’t know how most of the drugs we take actually work. For FDA approval, the companies simply need to prove that their products do work somewhat better than a placebo, a sugar pill It is helpful to be able to offer an informed guess as to whey they work, but it isn’t required. For example the Floxin package insert said the drug was ‘thought to exert a bacterial effect on susceptible micro-organisms by inhibiting DNA gyrase**’.

“Bitter Pills” by Stephen Fried Page 29

(**gyrase: a bacterial enzyme)

There is no doubt at this point that gun crime, school shootings and such things are inevitably connected to drugs.

Big Pharma has a lot to answer for.

Jan

2024

Play and Homeschooling – What fun!

The Importance of Play

I’ve read recently a number of books on home schooling, education and also some references on exercise. With these and other references, there is a definite stress on the subject of ‘Play’. And the importance of just having fun in what you are doing.

I just finished reading The 5 Hour School Week by Aleena Amuchastegui. A pretty good sales pitch on home schooling. Already sold on the subject long since, I’ve been availing myself of some more recent texts on the subject. Including a more recent one by John Taylor Gatto.

And there is some interesting information has come to light recently regarding the dangers? of exercising in a less than light mood. Well, not ‘dangers’ exactly but … Apparently the stress of exercising while ‘serious’ is not nearly as effective as when one is treating like it play.

I’ve often used exercise to lift myself out of some rather serious moments in my life. That said, I DO find ‘play’ is a much better way to do study, exercise or just do life.

In the book, 5 Hour School Week, the author shows how her children changed so much being home schooled. All the stresses weighing the family down seemed to lift, just fly away. It was still work but the children were learning because they wanted to not because they had to.

These children will never need Ritalin or any mood altering drugs. I don’t know what the stats are on home schooled kids vs. industrial schooled kids regarding drugs like Ritalin but I’d put money on the fact that it is pretty rare with home schoolers.

One, they don’t have the stresses and two, they don’t have a staff trained to watch for certain indications that, in their minds would warrant the prescribing of a mood altering drug.

I’m a huge proponent of home schooling. I have two sons that were mostly home schooled. All the arguments against these two men, just don’t stand up to the results. And this goes by far for the majority of home schooled kids.

Social Skills or Relationships

They generally have better social skills than most industrial educated kids. Lots of reasons, one being that they generally have social intercourse with more different age groups. I noticed that my youngest was more than comfortable at a very young age keeping up a conversation with an adult. And fine with kids his own age.

Parents Qualifications

There is no shortage of websites, blogs, and groups that help parents with a curriculum. If you want to go that route. Younger children, it is more like, ‘what do you want to learn today?’

The basic math skills, grammar, reading and writing come pretty easily. Beyond that, there is so much now online…!

If you read through other articles, posts and pages on this website, you will see that I’m more than a little against drugs. They have their place. Most people aren’t going to get a tooth pulled without some freezing. I’d rather be knocked out to have my appendix removed.

Giving a child a drug like Ritalin because he or she can’t sit still, when they really should not be sitting still, well, that’s just a crime. Children can learn very quickly if you let them. Very quickly.

Reading

Stressing about when a child is reading is pretty silly. Generally, they will read when they are ready and want to. As one of the authors above stated, one child will read at four years old and the other at 7, 8 or 9. At 14 or 15 years old, you will not be able to tell which learned at what age.

It is not a competition.

If homeschooling is something that you have thought about, don’t discount it out of hand. Do some reading. The four books that I recommend here are very good. And there are some great websites and blogs out there. Do your homework before you decide.

Don’t read all the negative stuff.

If you were looking to get your car fixed, you would look for a successful mechanic. Check out some successful homeschoolers.

Dumbing Us Down by John Taylor Gatto

Weapons of Mass Instruction by John Taylor Gatto

The 5 Hour School Week by Aleena Amuchastegui

how children learn by john holt

Jul

2023

The Lost Art of Looking – Observation

Observation - Looking - A Lost Art

The majority of people just don’t look.

This is a bit of a rant.

I know way too many people that will only ‘see’ things through the filter of the media. Whatever science the media claims to be so, then that is so, no matter what they see in from of them.

I’ve noticed this quite dramatically over the last three years. A friend’s daughter who I chat with from time to time is fourteen years old. She is in a public high school and gets ostracized from groups because she actually observes things. She says to me “People just don’t look!” She does find it a bit tough but she refuses to compromise with what she sees in front of her.

Like a doctor friend of mine that for most of his career was constantly being investigated by the Ontario College of Physicians. He would not randomly give out drugs. He had stacks of books in his office on healthy ways to solve medical problems. Big Pharma, I’m sure hated him for this. And believe it or not they control, at least partially, the ‘Health’ government entities. Like the CDC and FDA in the United States and Health Canada.

I’m pretty sure that there was no one at some pharmaceutical company sitting there specifically saying “We gotta get this doctor!” But the people in Health Canada and the FDA and the like that get supported or get bonuses from Big Pharma are supported and get bonuses because they target people like my doctor friend.

This was taken to the extreme over the last few years. If any doctor had a cure or suggested alternatives or even questioned the position put forward by politicians and Big Pharma, they were immediately censured. And censored. And these attacks, cowed others so that they would fall in line.

When a politician cites ‘everybody knows’ and I know dozens of people that disagree with what that politician is stating, then we have a problem. The problem is that way too many people listen to what that politician is saying instead of observing for themselves what is going on around them.

If one has a different opinion or even better, that person does some research or looks around to see if something is true or not, if they, in any way question what the leading politicians or media says, they are slammed, one and all, as being ‘anti-science’.

One size does not fit all.

One cannot generalize.

There are knowledgable doctors and learned scientists that disagree with much of what is put forth currently by politicians, the media and Big Pharma.

Climate Change

Vaccines - Viruses

War - Russia - Ukraine - USA

Don’t question any of these things.

Common knowledge in a troubled marriage: “there are two sides to every story.”

But, again, people don’t want to look.

I think, sometimes, that this has a lot to do with our education system. Dumbing us down. Growing up I was astounded as to how well read my father and his generation were. And now I’m astounded as to how well read my generation are compared to the current generation. It is so easy to con people that don’t know history.

There is a great book on this called Dumbing Us Down by John Taylor Gatto. A fairly short read. And brilliant.

There is a quote attributed to Siddhartha Gautama (Buddha), I’m pretty sure this is not exactly what he said:

“Believe nothing, no matter where you read it, or who said it, no matter if I have said it,
unless it agrees with your own reason and your own common sense.”

But to do this, you have to look. Sometimes, as silly as it seems, one has to practice looking. Something as simple as going for a walk, talking to someone new. Get away from newsfeeds and the like. It’s refreshing. One finds out how wonderful people are.

The Art of Looking.

If you would like to do some proper research in spite of what your 'friends' might say, here is some good reference material. List of books/authors

Dumbing Us Down by John Taylor Gatto

Inconvenient Facts by Gregory Wrightstone

Dissolving Illusions by Suzanne Humphries, MD

Jun

2023

Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder and Marijuana

ADHD and Marijuana

Recently on our travels across the country we found a good friend recently prescribed ADHD medication. For various symptoms such as inability to concentrate, memory issues, etc.

Not the first time I’ve come across this phenomenon. The medical ‘profession’ and the pharmaceutical industry are, in this day and age, completely focused on symptoms. Rarely, anymore, does one find a doctor with the inclination or the time to look to find causes.

Easier, quicker and more financially rewarding to hand out drugs that hopefully, mask the symptoms. That way one has a lifetime patient (income).

A quick search will find some common manifestations of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

- having a short attention span and being easily distracted

- making careless mistakes – for example, in schoolwork

- appearing forgetful or losing things

- being unable to stick to tasks that are tedious or time-consuming

- appearing to be unable to listen to or carry out instructions

- constantly changing activity or task

- having difficulty organizing tasks

And some short and long term effects of marijuana:

- affects judgement

- reduces reaction time

- sleepiness

- attention problems

- alters sense of time and place

- impaired body movement

- impaired memory

- impairs memory and thinking

- impairs learning functions

- weakens the ability to learn

The similarities are quite obvious. Any medical practitioner worth his or her salt should be able to see and know this if they bothered to look.

Add to this problem are the side effects of Adderall and Ritalin, which are the most prescribed drugs for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder:

restlessness
difficulty falling asleep/interrupted sleep
paranoia
exacerbation of existing mental illnesses
nervousness
agitation
anxiety
psychosis

There are numerous solutions to ADHD that don’t involve drugs. Whether the so called disease is caused by marijuana or some other situation. Allergies. Mineral depletion.

If these side effects are caused by marijuana, partially or otherwise, ask your doctor or do your own research for ways to handle the cause. It’s not because your body is short on the vitamin Ritalin. And the whole brain chemical imbalance thing has been debunked numerous times. So, don’t go there.

I’m not a doctor but it may be as simple as stopping the use of marijuana and doing some sort of detox. Or it could be something more serious. In his book, A Dose of Sanity, Dr Sydney Walker gives an example of someone that been prescribed an anti-anxiety drug when with proper research he found the cause to be a brain tumour. But that takes a bit of time to discover. Time that most doctors won’t take.