Tuesday, September 3, 2024
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Sanitize your linens-and fight off a could

by Emily Hsieh

We’re just at the beginning of cold and flu season, and now’s the time to put a little extra thought and effort into minimizing sicknessinducing germs and bacteria from spreading among your family members and throughout your home. And one of the simplest and most straightforward ways to do this is by keeping your linens spic-and-span.

Though how often you wash your sheets is clearly a personal decision, there are scientific arguments for washing your bedding weekly to benefit your health.

According to ehow.com and examiner.com, laundering sheets weekly (in hot, 130-or-more degree water) gets rid of the dead skin cells (fodder for bacteria) and allergy-inducing dust mites that accumulate after a few nights’ sleep. If you or someone in your family is prone to sweating—or if you’ve got Fido cozying up in bed—consider washing every couple days to rinse out dirt and pet dander. Don’t ignore your mattress pad either—it’s a good idea to wash it biweekly or at least monthly.

Pillows are another consideration. To ensure you’re not resting your head on a big pile of germs—you should be washing your pillows at least every six months. Follow the manufacturer’s instructions when washing them, though generally you should be able to clean them in your home washing machine, and with down ones in particular, it’s a good idea to throw in a couple clean tennis balls while drying which helps keep feathers fluffy. Investing in zippered pillow protectors is also key: they act as a barrier between your pillow and its case (the latter of which should be washed at least weekly) to keep the former nice and sanitary.

Comforters and blankets need proper maintenance as well. Your comforter should we washed monthly (and your duvet weekly). ­Read the care instructions on the label, since chances are you’re going to need a front-loading commercial size washer to accomplish this. Make sure it’s dried properly to avoid mold and fungus from growing. Blankets should also be washed or dry cleaned monthly.

Towels, as we previously discussed, also need TLC—with washcloths and hand towels, in particular (since they’re actually used to wipe off the dirt and oils off your skin), there’s a real risk of spreading staph infections and pinkeye. It’s also a good idea because bathrooms are warm, humid breeding grounds for bacteria to begin with. Washing bath towels weekly, and smaller, more frequently used towels even more often that that, is the best way to tackle the germ problem.

Protests over Bolivia’s antiracism law

by the El Reportero’s news services

Evo MoralesEvo Morales

­By Oct. 11 at least 17 journalists, including the executive director of Bolivia’s leading daily, El Deber, were on hunger strike in protest at the government’s recently approved ‘law against racism and all forms of discrimination’, which the media claims threatens press freedom.

The law, which was signed by President Evo Morales on Oct. 8 following its approval by both houses of congress (without debate), has sparked an unprecedented battle between Morales and the country’s media, the overwhelming majority of which is owned by business interests hostile to his government. So far, the media is leading the challenge to the government, though it is being backed by the UN and the Roman Catholic Church.

Newest targets: immigrant moms

Babies: from chattel…to anchor babies…to terror childre

by Gebe Martínez, Ann García and Jessica Arons

­In the throes of electoral politics, conservatives are suggesting we change the U.S. Constitution to denycitizenship to babies born to undocumented women. This cynical strategy explicitly targets the Latino community to get rid of these new voters rather than do the hard work of cultivating them.

It is fueled by sexism and racism, tapping into a long history of population control — government efforts to curb growth among disfavored populations. During slavery, the children slave owners sired with their slaves were deemed slaves themselves. They could be sold as chattel, increasing the wealth of the owners rather than the size of their families.

Chinese women in the 1800s were labeled prostitutes and denied visas to join their husbands who labored on our railroads. And black women, Native American women, and Latinas were routinely sterilized without their knowledge or consent as recently as the 1970s. Conservatives’ rhetoric is particularly insulting, likening the human birthing process to that of farm animals.

“They come here to drop a child. It’s called ‘drop and leave,’” says Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC). Graham’s comments are especially shocking given his past leading role as a sponsor of comprehensive immigration reform legislation aimed at uniting, not dividing, families. His comments buoyed the push to end birthright citizenship, creating an echo on Capitol Hill where conservative leaders called for hearings on the issue.

Obstetrician-turned- Congressman Phil Gingrey (R-GA) calls the product of “that dropping situation” an “anchor baby.” Arizona State Senator Russell Pearce (RMesa), the architect of SB1070, the state’s anti-immigrant law now being challenged in court, has conceded that his support for changing the Constitution is gender based.

He circulated an email by a former Minuteman official that reads, “If we are going to have an effect on the anchor baby racket, we need to target the mother.

Call it sexist, but that’s the way nature made it. Men don’t drop anchor babies, illegal alien mothers do.”

That type of ethnic profiling against pregnant women already occurred in Utah, even without any sanctioning legislation. Two state government workers sent the names of 1,300 people to law enforcement and the news media because they suspected them of being undocumented. The list included the due dates of pregnant women, a disturbing invitation for hawagon also claim to be “pro-life” and “pro-family.”

Yet they show no hesitation splitting up families through harsh deportation policies or dehumanizing immigrant women and their children with their hateful rhetoric.

By portraying immigrant women as animals who “drop” their offspring, immigration opponents stir up fears that foreigners specifically come here to have children in order to derive citizenship from those children, or claim government benefits. Or, as Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) has suggested, to “raise and coddle” future terrorists.

The fact is that most immigrant women come to the United States to work, not give birth. A child cannot even petition for his or her parents to become citizens until the child is 21.

What’s more, undocumented immigrants have never been eligible for welfare benefits, and new legal U.S. immigrants became ineligible in the 1996 welfare reform law President Bill Clinton signed.

Not coincidentally, two Congressional subcommittees held a joint hearing on seven bills or resolutions to limit birthright citizenship a few months earlier.

Cooler heads must prevail. Senator John Mc- Cain (R-Ariz.), who is in a tough primary election this month, originally didn’t object to birthright citizenship hearings but later opposed changing this part of the Constitution. And the top GOP candidates in California — both women —have also come out against denying birthright citizenship rights. But conservatives keep pushing fringe schemes such as denying pregnant foreigners permission to enter the United States.

So what do they suggest? Administering pregnancy tests to all women at the border? Political satirist Stephen Colbert rightly lampooned its absurdity, mockingly calling for a 2,000-mile latex border fence coated with spermicidal jelly. While ludicrous. this politically manufactured issue is no laughing matter.

We must remind the public that the only “anchors” in this debate are the dead weights that refuse to act responsibly and fix our broken immigration system by enacting comprehensive immigration reform. Targeting women and children instead is a cowardly way out.

(Gebe Martínez is a senior writer and policy analyst, Ann García is special assistant for immigration policy, and Jessica Arons is director of women’s health and rights program at the Center for American Progress. Prepared for Hispanic Link News Service, this commentary condenses a longer analysis which may be found at http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2010/ ­08/citizenship_debate.html).

­

Seeing red: When Worlds Collide

por José de la Isla Hispanic Link News Service

HOUSTON – The story about the true color red is one of many subtopics in an upcoming 90-minute PBS television program, “When Worlds Collide.”

The documentary is about the century after Columbus’ first contact with a whole new, previously unknown continent and what it meant to Europe and to New World people after 1492. The program is co-written and narrated by journalist, author and performer Rubén Martínez.

“It’s a story that matters today above all others,” says Martínez. “And as a result, the nature of identity and ethnicity was dramatically transformed right down to our own times.”

So relevant is it that he brings his own twin daughters into the picture to illustrate his point. They are, like many people, of mixed ethnicities. In the New World, the term mestizo has evolved. It is the term applied to talk about the continuing merger of people through marriage and birth, resulting in mixed ethnicities. This implies shared identities and personal histories.

Notions of racial and ethnic purities have no meaning in this context, until or unless those behaviors are superimposed in the natural course of events. The storyline for “When Worlds Collide” mercifully does not get bogged down in overworked comparisons of one group versus another. Instead, it is about reciprocity.

The story is about culture and continents and the clash that occurs between differences and the eventual accommodation. Too often, when stories about conflicts are told, the part about the resolution is left out, giving the impression it’s been some kind of continuous embattlement. Take red for instance. Before contact, Europeans did not have a true red color for their textiles.

They had a dirty orange instead. However, the native people of what is now the “Americas” mass-produced a true red dye, coming from the cochineal, an insect that feeds on prickly pear cactus. That is how the true reds in Rembrandt’s master work painting The Jewish Bride got there. They came from cochineal dye. At one point, this true red ranked only behind gold and silver in value.

New plants and foods (maize, tomatoes, potatoes, peppers, beans, sweet potatoes, chocolate, peanuts, sugar, tobacco) revolutionized European tastes and health because the average person in the so-called New World was probably better fed than those of Europe. Martínez touches lightly on other aspects of culture contact. One that has interested me, and went mostly nuanced in the documentary, is how Christian theology was challenged to explain what this New World thing was all about. At first contact, the Americas were alternately believed to be Eden, Paradise and Utopia. Some explorers placed it in other mythological locales.

The New World saga, a half millennium old, coincides with the rise of the European nation states and colonialism, as they later became known. We ­have been imbued with accounts in support of national identities, war, conquest and imposed iron wills instead of shared traditions and technologies. A more balanced view, for our next half millennium, may help put things in perspective.

Too often, interpretations of history are not intended to instruct but to rationalize for one side or the other. Unfortunately, historical accounts are often used, like propaganda, to advance ideas about an inevitable dominance or superiority. The days of those notions are over. The objective truth is starting to prevail. It shows that the story behind the history is one about how different ethnicities (meaning people from differing histories and traditions) share their knowledges, exchange and trade goods, and blend through bloodliness. Early in his beautifully filed account, Martínez says the mixing of ethnicities was one of the most dynamic eras of human history, when the new was conquered by the old. In the context of the Americas, the question still remains, which one was new, and which one was old?

Produced by Carl Byker with cinematography by Mitch Wilson, “When Worlds Collide” airs Sept. 27 on PBS. Hispanic Link.

[José de la Isla writes a weekly commentary for Hispanic Link News Service. His 2009 digital book, sponsored by The Ford Foundation, is available free at www.DayNightLifeDeathHope.com. He is author of The Rise of Hispanic Political Power (2003). E-mail him at joseisla3@yahoo.com.]

The agenda of the Illuminati (eighth part of a series)

by Marvin J. Ramirez

­Marvin  J. Ramírez­Marv­in­ R­am­í­r­ez­­­­­­

EDITOR’S NOTE: Given the important and historical information contained in this 31-page article on the history of the secret and evil society, The Illuminati, El Reportero is honored to provide our readers with the opportunity to read such a document, which mainstream media has labeled it, a conspiracy theory. To better understand this series, we suggest reading the previous articles published in our editorials. This the eigth part of a series.

The following is a transcript of a recording distributed in 1967 by Myron C. Fagan. He had hoped that if enough Americans had heard (or read) this summary, the Illuminati takeover agenda for America would have been aborted, just as Russia’s Alexander I had torpedoed the Illuminati’s plans for a One World, League of Nations at the Congress of Vienna from 1814-15.

In the early 1850’s; the Illuminati held a secret meeting in New York which was addressed by a British Illuminist named Wright.

Those in attendance were told that the Illuminati was organizing to unite the Nihilist and Atheist groups with all other subversive groups into an international group to be known as Communists.

That was when the word: “communist” first came into being and it was intended to be the supreme weapon and scare word to terrify the whole world and drive the terrorized peoples into the Illuminati oneworld scheme.

This scheme: “communism,” was to be used to enable the Illuminati to foment future wars and revolutions.

Clinton Roosevelt, a direct ancestor of Franklin Roosevelt; Horace Greeley; and Charles Dana; foremost newspaper publishers of that time were appointed to head a committee to raise funds for the new venture. Of course, most of the funds were provided by the Rothschilds and this fund was used to finance Karl Marx and Engels when they wrote “Das Kaptial” and the “Communist Manifesto” in Soho, England. And this clearly reveals that communism is not a so-called ideology, but a secret weapon; a bogy man word to serve the purpose of the Illuminati.

Weishaupt died in 1830; but prior to his death, he prepared a revised version of the age-old conspiracy, the Illuminati, which under various aliases was to organize, finance, direct, and control all international organizations and groups by working their agents into executive positions at the top. In the United States we have Woodrow Wilson, Franklin Roosevelt, Jack Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, Dean Rusk, Robert McNamara, William Fulbright, George Bush etc., as prime examples.

In addition, while Karl Marx was writing the “Communist Manifesto” under the director of one group of Illuminists, Professor Karl Ritter of Frankfurt University was writing the antithesis under the direction of another group. The idea was that those who direct the overall conspiracy could use the differences in those two so-called ideologies to enable them to divide larger and larger members of the human race into opposing camps so that they could be armed and then brainwashed into fi ghting and destroying each other And particularly, to destroy all political and religious institutions.

The work Ritter started was continued after his death and completed by the German so-called philosopher Freidrich Wilhelm Nietzache who founded Nietzscheanism. This Nietzecheanism was later developed into Fascism and then into Nazism and was used to foment World War I and II. In 1834; the Italian revolutionary leader, Guiseppe Mazzini, was selected by the Illuminati to direct their revolutionary program throughout the world. He served in that capacity until he died in 1872, but some years before he died; Mazzini had enticed an American General named Albert Pike into the Illuminati.

Pike was fascinated by the idea of a one-world government and ultimately he became the head of this luciferian conspiracy.

Between 1859 and 1871 he, Pike, worked out a military blueprint for three world wars and various revolutions throughout the world which he considered would forward the conspiracy to its fi nal stage in the 20th century. Again I remind you that these conspirators were never concerned with immediate success. They also operated on a long-range view. Pike did most of his work in his home in Little Rock, Arkansas.

But a few years later; when the Illuminati’s Lodges of the Grand Orient became suspect and repudiated because of Mazzini’s revolutionary activities in Europe, Pike organized what he called the New and Reformed Palladian Right.

He set up three Supreme Councils; one in Charleston, South Carolina, one in Rome, Italy, and a third in Berlin, Germany. He had Mazzini establish 23 subordinate councils in strategic locations throughout the world. These have been the secret headquarters of the world revolutionary movement ever since.

Long before Marconi invented the radio; the scientists in the Illuminati had found the means for Pike and the heads of his councils to communicate secretly. It was the discovery of that secret that enabled intelligence officers to understand how apparently unrelated incidents, such as the assassination of an Austrian Prince [Arch Duke Ferdinand I ] at Serbia, took place simultaneously throughout the world which developed into a war or a revolution.

Pike’s plan­ was as simple as it has proved effective. It called for Communism, Nazism, political Zionism, and other international movements to be organized and used to foment three global world wars and at least two major revolutions.

WILL CONTINUE ON THE NEXT EDITION.

Honrando la memoria de Salazar

by Alejandra Matos

­IN MEMORIUM: Democracy Now has released a profile on the 40th anniversary of Rubén Salazar’s death. The video, on democracynow.org, includes footage of Salazar’s final TV interview and features discussion with L.A. Times reporter Robert López, University of Southern California professor Félix Gutiérrez and Rodolfo Acuña.

After trying for years to obtain files on the Salazar case, López may be one step closer. In an Aug. 19 article, he reported that the Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca has agreed to turn over “thousands of pages on the slaying” to the civilian watchdog agency that monitors the sheriff’s department so a report can be prepared.

Holistic remedies for equine kidney failure

por Melissa Souza

• There are conventional and alternative options for treating equine kidney failure. Integrative medicine combines a little of both; however, alternative approaches that are holistic in nature are being sought more and more by veterinarians and horse owners alike. Holistic treatments take the whole horse, his environment, and his relationship with other animals and humans into account when deciding on treatment options.

Equine Kidney Failure

• When kidneys begin to fail, it’s due to nitrogen and other waste products from the blood that can’t be successfully removed. Adequate levels of water and electrolytes can no longer be balanced, so dehydration is common. A horse can experience heatstroke when the kidneys aren’t functioning properly. Without sweating, body temperature increases and blood can even be deflected to the skin and lungs. Colic is often a culprit of kidney failure, but even natural toxins in certain plants can create the illness.

Alternative Therapies Versus Conventional Medicines

• Holistic remedies are commonly used to treat a variety of illnesses in horses—treating kidney failure is no exception. Where conventional medicines like fluid therapy or diuretic agents don’t work, alternative medicine is employed. Among holistic options are orthomolecular medicine, homeopathy and natural supplements.

Orthomolecular Medicine

• During the 18th century, scientists began to look at the link between diet and health more closely in humans, and now veterinarians are paying attention. Orthomolecular therapy focuses on balancing the biochemistry of the individual; orthomolecular medicine implements vitamins, amino acids, trace elements or minerals natural to the body in appropriate amounts. This holistic approach is believed to be a beneficial way to prevent and treat kidney disease.

Homeopathy

­• Prescribing waterbased solutions with diluted ingredients is the system of medicine known as homeopathy. It’s believed that any substance producing a negative reaction in a healthy animal will, in turn, cure those symptoms in a sick animal. Homeopathic remedies treat the cause of the disease. With homeopathic remedies, knowing the cause of the kidney failure is key to proper treatment.

Herbal Medications

• Many herbal supplements look to plants and plant extracts for their tonics. Isolating a plant type can lead to specialized nutrition for any number of conditions in a horse.

Chinese herbalists believe supplements can allow for lower dosing of pharmacological ingredients if they’re required for treatment; other herbalists solely utilize herbal medications. The kidney is a major component of Chinese medicine and can be supported in many ways through herbal treatment.

A challenge Chávez will relish

­­by the El Reportero’s news services

Hugo ChávezHugo Chávez

The results of Venezuela’s ­26 September legislative elections pave the way for an exciting couple of years until the presidential race in 2012. The opposition did as well as expected, given that the playing field was not level. Despite appearances, President Hugo Chávez is only slightly bruised, and will use the result to rebuff those critics who accuse him of undermining democracy.

The vote is a very useful barometer of where the electorate stands after a difficult two years. Chávez, a consummate reader of the public mood, now has a full two years to rebuild and recover some lost support. The opposition has an even bigger challenge to find someone capable of challenging him in 2012. Venezuela, meanwhile, remains as polarised as ever.

Who was Mario Guerra Obledo? A piece of U.S. history worth retelling

by José de la Isla

HOUSTON — A story is circulating that Jerry Brown — California’s attorney general, former governor (1975 to ’83) and current gubernatorial candidate — plans to basehis pitch to Latino voters on having marched in the 1970s with César Chávez.

When the Field Poll found his GOP opponent Meg Whitman’s standing had jumped from 25 to 39 percent among Latino voters, several pundits observed, “So who’s César Chávez?” After all, Brown was last governor 27 years ago. Gary Taylor’s book, “Cultural Selection: Why Some Achievements Survive the Test of Time — And Others Don’t,” explains why.

The process of remembering begins when somebody dies and a survivor promotes the story or accomplishments of the deceased so that others don’t forget. Stories about successes spread until they become part of the culture and survive as memory through each retelling.

That is how we accumulate knowledge and understanding and even wisdom sometimes.

The survival of remembering is a lot like natural selection in evolution. Yet, most worthy accomplishment stories die of someone to do the retelling.

After Brown followed Ronald Reagan as California governor in 1975, he pulled MarioObledo away from a Harvard Law professorship by appointing him Secretary of Health & Welfare. Obledo had been a co-founder in 1968 of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF) and had already helped set a new civil rights platform for the nation.

He pioneered the Armendáriz defense during the draft and forced Selective Service to operate more legally and less arbitrarily.

As counsel for a group of drug-abuse workers, one of the first national organizations to advocate for more treatment and less criminalization was launched.

Obledo’s open-door policy was universally known. Many got in to see him (especially good, humble, salt-of-the-earth types with reasonable beefs) who otherwise would never have made it past a receptionist intern on the first floor. If a Spanish-speaker or foreign-language-speaking person called, he wanted that person responded to in his native language. “Just in case my mother calls,” he explained.

Then a series of stinging accusations rocked Sacramento. It was alleged that the newfound access to government was something else. A chain of inferences were made to connect state support for drug-rehabilitation programs to a prison gang, then to organized crime and a drug-related murder. All this was tied to Obledo’s tenure in office because a murder victimhad made an appointment to see an Obledo aide in Sacramento.

The Readers Digest was chief among media enflaming the story, along with some local Sacramento newspapers that passed along the sensationalistic, unsubstantiated rumors and allegations like tabloid news and other histrionics.

The governor, the secretary himself, the attorney general, a regulatory commission and several newspapers undertook lengthy investigations. All of them, of course, uncovered absolutely no wrongdoing.

The intended guilt-by-association assertions did not even leave behind the usual cow-pie smell.Obledo was that clean.

So why would serious professional people, who are not circus clowns, go to such absurd lengths to construct such an imaginary story. Taylor answers that others compete against a version of reality at odds with their point of view. Heroic stories, survive after the hero dies — like those passed on by Plato, St. Paul, and James Boswell — because the survivors pass along the story well enough to make it part of the culture.

That’s why it’s important to remember Mario Obledo, who fought the good fight and who won for all of us. He was an originating member of Jesse Jackson’s Rainbow Coalition, a successor group of Rev. Martin Luther King’s crusades, and Obledo served as national president of the League of United Latin American Citizens. He was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1998 by President Bill Clinton

for his many accomplishments.

Citizen Obledo passed away Aug. 19, at age 78, in Sacramento. Among his survivors, I hope, are those who retell his story. Hispanic Link. E-mail ­joseisla3@yahoo.com.

Boxing

Saturday, Oct. 2 — at Monaco

(Showtime)

Carl Froch vs. Arthur Abraham

Saturday, Oct. 2 — at Newark,

NJ

Zab Judah vs. Michael Clark

Friday, Oct. 15 — at Montreal,

Canada

IBF super middleweight title:

Lucian Bute vs. Jesse Brinkley

Adrian Diaconu vs. Omar

Sheika

Friday, Oct. 15 — at TBA, USA

(Showtime)

Antonio Tarver vs. Nagy

Aguilera

Saturday, Oct. 16 — at

Hamburg, Germany

WBC heavyweight title: Vitali

Klitschko vs. Shannon Briggs

Friday, Nov. 5 — at Detroit, MI

Evander Holyfi eld vs. Sherman

Williams

Saturday, Nov. 6 — at Las

Vegas, NV (Showtime)

WBO featherweight title: Juan

Manuel Lopez vs. Rafael

Marquez

Saturday, Nov. 6 — at TBA,

USA (Showtime)

IBF bantamweight title:

Yonnhy Perez vs. Joseph

Agbeko

Vic Darchinyan vs. Abner

Mares

Saturday, Nov. 13 — at

Arlington, TX (HBO-PPV)

Manny Pacquiao vs. Antonio

Margarito

Guillermo Rigondeaux vs.

TBA

Mike Jones vs. TBA