Silenced Majority Portal

Gross Food: This Is Why You're Fat

Food like Elvis would love!! This Is Why You're Fat blog We've got Pizza Cones, and I believe those are Bacon Banana Maple Bars.  A 22,000 calorie burger, meatball sundae, and I'm not too sure about some of the others.  More at their site, with new ones submitted daily.

Creepy Food That's Real: Synthetic Estrogen in Progresso Soup etc.

Op-Ed Columnist - Chemicals in Our Food, and Bodies - NYTimes.com

Six pounds per American per year .. in the urine of at least 92% of Americans .. and now in our food.

The chemical industry says it's fine - read about that in the article.  But wouldn't they say that?  Other studies link it to breast cancer, ADHD, babies with mal-formed genitals, etc.

Consumer Reports magazine tested an array of brand-name canned foods for a report in its December issue and found BPA in almost all of them. The magazine says that relatively high levels turned up, for example, in Progresso vegetable soup, Campbell’s condensed chicken noodle soup, and Del Monte Blue Lake cut green beans.

The magazine also says it found BPA in the canned liquid version of Similac Advance infant formula (but not in the powdered version) and in canned Nestlé Juicy Juice (but not in the juice boxes). The BPA in the food probably came from an interior coating used in many cans.

From Nyc in Munich - Funniest DEVO "Whip It" Oktoberfest Cover Ever!

White House Giving Out Trick or Treat Goodies / Dentist Offers to Buy Back Candy

Wall Street Pumpkin Carving

Christian Broadcasting Company: Don't Buy Demonic Halloween Candy

Christian Broadcasting Network Warns Against 'Demonic' Halloween Candy "During this period demons are assigned against those who participate in the rituals and festivities. These demons are automatically drawn to the fetishes that open doors for them to come into the lives of human beings.(Pat Robertson's blog)Midnight is the Witching Hour and the Milky Way is part of the belief system of evil astronomers.  

Eating "Mike and Ike" can make you gay.

The Amazing Sculpted Halloween Pumpkins of Scott Cummins

Scott Cummins Doesn't Carve Pumpkins..He Sculpts Them - from If It's Hip It's Here blog - Read there how he does it and see more pumpkins.

40th Anniversary of Woodstock - "I Was There"

Writing now from Sleep over Sauce in Hayes Valley.  Made it to West Fest and word is that 70,000 people attended.  I know that busses were passing people by, and it's a milagro that we got back here as early as we did!  & it's not surprising that we didn't do much else after an afternoon in Golden Gate Park like that!

Met people from all over the world, really, and all ages.  There were quite a few who were actually "there" at the original Woodstock and/or hung out in Golden Gate Park and the Haight back in the "Summer of Love."  The Twelve Tribes were there in their bus, and the Merry Pranksters and a few other rainbow tribes, and there were at least 4 teepees and a dome.

 

The festival was solar-powered and litter was picked up continually, to leave a small footprint in the park ecologically but a larger one culturally.  I have never seen such a non-corporate event.  The Hells Angels sold shirts, and the 911 Truth people sold cookies, but everything was organic and usually local.  At one point, many many free DCs were distributed, but they were related to a project to turn Alcatraz Prison Island into an Island of Light. 

 

From the introductory Hendrix Guitar Play-a-Thon that opened the festival (led by Naruda Michael Walden) to the appearance of the original cast of HAIR which closed the event, there were a succession of super groups.  Off the top of my head I remember Nick Gravenites, Lesley West, Ray Manzarek, Denny Laine, and others from Sly, Allman Brothers, Moby Grape, Steve Miller and many more.  Highlights were a rousing version of the Who's "My Generation," led by Jerry Harrison of Talking Heads.  Linda and David LaFlamme of "It's A Beautiful Day" did a beautiful set, as did Jefferson Starship.

It's amazing to see how many people are still "letting their freak flag fly."  It's disheartening to think that we have not come closer to the dreams of the hippies - that goes for human rights, equality and justice, peace and freedom.  Through the four intervening decades, there have been threads of the spirit which have lived on and made some pragmatic changes.  If we had not ever gone through this late '60s/early '70s period of questioning of authority and of personal/communal exploration, I'll wager that we would be living under an even more warlike and authoritarian system.

These are just a few from many that I took, and there are more street scenes from along the Haight coming up, along with videos from both Westfest/Woodstock and from Meshell Ndge Ocello's in-store performance at Amoeba Records on Saturday night.

Haight Street on an October Evening

MN Court Says Bongwater is Illegal

Bong water is an illegal drug, Minn. Supreme Court rules - Minneapolis / St. Paul News - City Pages - The Blotter

According to a split decision by the Minnesota Supreme Court, a person in possession of more than 25 grams of bong water that contains a controlled substance can be prosecuted for a first-degree drug crime.