Natural News tests flu vaccine for heavy metals, finds 25,000 times higher mercury level than EPA limit for water

Natural News - Mercury tests conducted on vaccines at the Natural News Forensic Food Lab have revealed a shockingly high level of toxic mercury in an influenza vaccine (flu shot) made by GlaxoSmithKline (lot #9H2GX). Tests conducted via ICP-MS document mercury in the Flulaval vaccine at a shocking 51 parts per million, or over 25,000 times higher than the maximum contaminant level of inorganic mercury in drinking water set by the EPA.(1)

The tests were conducted via ICP-MS using a 4-point mercury calibration curve for accuracy. Even then, the extremely high level of mercury found in this flu shot was higher than anything we've ever tested, including tuna and ocean fish which are known for high mercury contamination.

In fact, the concentration of mercury found in this GSK flu shot was 100 times higher than the highest level of mercury we've ever tested in contaminated fish. And yet vaccines are injected directly into the body, making them many times more toxic than anything ingested orally. As my previous research into foods has already documented, mercury consumed orally is easily blocked by eating common foods like strawberries or peanut butter, both of which bind with and capture about 90% of dietary mercury.

Here are the actual results of what we found in the influenza vaccine from GSK (lot #9H2GX):

Aluminum: 0.4 ppm
Arsenic: zero
Cadmium: zero
Lead: zero
Mercury: 51 ppm

All tests were conducted via calibrated, high-end ICP-MS instrumentation as shown in these lab videos.

Doctors, pharmacists and mainstream media continue to lie about mercury in vaccines

As you take in the scientifically-validated fact that mercury exists at very high concentrations in flu vaccines, keep in mind that most doctors, pharmacists and members of the mainstream media continue to stage an elaborate lie that claims mercury has "already been removed from vaccines."

Never mind the fact that the use of mercury is admitted right on the package containing the vaccine vial. And now, Natural News has scientifically confirmed the mercury content of flu vaccines using high-end laboratory instrumentation. The existence of high mercury in flu shots is irrefutable.

Anyone who claims mercury has been removed from all vaccines is either wildly ignorant or willfully lying. And anyone who would knowingly allow themselves to be injected with mercury is probably already a victim of the kind of brain damage well known to be caused by mercury.

Insert admits "no controlled trials"

Shockingly, the package insert for this flu shot readily admits the vaccine has never been subjected to scientific clinical trials:

"There have been no controlled trials adequately demonstrating a decrease in influenza disease after vaccination with Flulaval," the package insert claims in tiny text (that no one reads).

This is printed right on the insert, yet no one in the mainstream media will ever report this astonishing admission. This statement, all by itself, is a confession that flu shot marketing is a fraud.

Across the board, flu shots are heavily propagandized and promoted with the implication that they have zero risks while offering 100% protection. No one in the mainstream media ever questions this claim even though the package insert openly admits the claim is complete hokum and has never been subjected to scientific scrutiny.

No evidence of safety or effectiveness in pregnant women

But that's not all the insert admits. It also says:

"Safety and effectiveness of Flulaval have not been established in pregnant women, nursing mothers or children."

And yet everywhere you go in America, there's a Walgreens, CVS or Wal-Mart pharmacy promoting flu shots for pregnant women. Never mind the fact that flu shot safety has never been established in pregnant women, and never mind the obvious fact that you should never inject a pregnant women with mercury in the first place!

Who needs scientific proof when you've got the full propaganda of the media and the government to back you up? Anyone who dares question the scientific validity of flu shot safety for pregnant women is immediately attacked as being an opponent of all vaccines.

Apparently, the only requirement to be accepted by the vaccine community is to believe in medical fairy tales while abandoning all critical thinking and scientific skepticism. In the vaccine industry, genuine science is simply not allowed. No wonder two former Merck virologists filed a False Claims Act with the federal government, accusing the company of knowingly fabricating its vaccine efficacy data to trick the FDA.

Never proven safe or effective in children, either

Flu shots are heavily promoted for children, right alongside mumps and measles vaccines. But it turns out flu shots are never scientifically tested for safety or efficacy in children.

Check out what the insert for this vaccine directly admits:

"Safety and effectiveness of Flulaval in pediatric patients have not been established."

It's right there in black and white... an open admission. Yet flu shots are aggressively marketed to parents and children as if they were Tic-Tacs. The real beauty of the entire vaccine industry scam is that no scientific evidence is required! You don't have to have any proof, all you have to do is believe in vaccines as a matter of faith.

Never tested for cancer risk

Do flu shots cause cancer? The honest, scientific answer is that these shots are never tested for that. As the insert readily admits:

"Flulaval has not been evaluated for carcinogenic or mutagenic potential, or for impairment of fertility."

Believe it or not, the Flulaval vaccine also warns that no one should be given this shot if they've already received another flu shot at some previous time:

"Do not administer Flulaval to anyone... following previous administration of any influenza vaccine."

And yet, amazingly, people are encouraged to get flu shots year after year, even though the package insert directly warns against anyone taking a series of influenza vaccines.

Admission that flu shots contain formaldehyde and sodium deoxycholate

The same insert that admits this vaccine has never been proven safe in children or pregnant women also openly admits that it contains neurotoxic chemicals.

Per the insert, each dose of Flulaval contains up to 25 mcg of formaldehyde (a neurotoxin) and up to 50 mcg of sodium deoxycholate.

This is on top of the 25 mcg of mercury you'll get in every dose. And remember, this is mercury that's injected directly into your body, so you absorb 100% of this mercury (unlike mercury you eat, where most of it sticks to food fibers and is transported out of your body).

Total admission that flu shots cause seizures, convulsions and Guillian-Barre syndrome

Ever wonder what all these toxic chemicals and heavy metals cause in humans? Flu shots vaccines, it turns out, are already known to cause a huge number of devastating health effects.

Predictably, there is a massive disinfo campaign across the mainstream media, Wikipedia, medical journals and government propaganda agencies (CDC, FDA, etc.) to pretend that flu shots have no risks whatsoever. Yet the insert that comes with the vaccine openly admits the flu shot has been linked with a long, frightening list of serious adverse effects. As this Flulaval insert says (see photo below):

"In addition to reports in clinical trials, the following adverse events have been identified during postapproval use of Flulaval...

vomiting
chest pain
allergic edema of the mouth
anaphylaxis
laryngitis
cullulitis
muscle weakness
arthritis
dizziness
paresthesia
tremor
somnolence
Guillian-Barre syndrome
convulsions / seizures
facial or cranial nerve paralysis
encephalopathy
limb paralysis
insomnia
dyspnea
sweating"

Here's a photo of this section of the package insert, complete with the GlaxoSmithKline toll-free phone number:

If you take flu shots, you are being poisoned by quacks

The upshot of all this is that flu shots utterly lack any scientific evidence of safety of efficacy. We don't know if they work at all, in other words, and neither does the vaccine manufacturer. Neither do the doctors or medical staff who administer them. Flu vaccines are injected into people purely as a matter of blind faith in the very same companies that have already been convicted of felony crimes.

GlaxoSmithKline, for example, not only manufacturers this Flulaval vaccine... the company also committed multiple felony crimes and got caught bribing doctors, ultimately agreeing to pay a multi-billion-dollar criminal settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice.

Trusting a flu shot made by a corporation of felons is a lot like trusting the purity of heroin you buy from a street dealer. Both flu shots and street heroin have at least one thing in common, by the way: neither has ever been tested for safety.

We also know that flu shots contain neurotoxic chemicals and heavy metals in alarming concentrations. This is irrefutable scientific fact. We also know that there is no "safe" form of mercury just like there is no safe form of heroin -- all forms of mercury are highly toxic when injected into the body (ethyl, methyl, organic, inorganic).

The only people who argue with this are those who are already mercury poisoned and thus incapable of rational thought. Mercury damages brain function, you see, which is exactly what causes some people to be tricked into thinking vaccines are safe and effective.

Technically, you'd have to be stupid to believe such a thing, as the vaccine insert directly tells you precisely the opposite.

Share this story, spread the truth

Share this story with everyone who needs to know the truth about flu vaccines. This message needs to get out. Every fact stated in this article is 100% true and verified. The quotes from the Flulaval package insert are on-the-record statements from GlaxoSmithKline.

And for the record, I am not an opponent of the theory of vaccination. What I'm against is the continued use of toxic heavy metals and chemicals in vaccines. I'm also opposed to the wildly fraudulent marketing of vaccines. If any other product were marketed with the same lies and deceptions as vaccines, they would be immediately charged with fraud and misrepresentation by the FTC. But somehow when the vaccine industry commits routine fraud, everybody pretends it isn't happening.

Even with all the marketing fraud taking place, if the vaccine manufacturers would stop poisoning the population with vaccine additives (by removing mercury, formaldehyde and other chemicals from their products), nearly all opposition to vaccines would rapidly disappear.


Sources for this story include:
(1) http://water.epa.gov/drink/contaminants/basi...
(2) http://vaccines.naturalnews.com

Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/045418_flu_shots_influenza_vaccines_mercury.html#ixzz3JcaEhh5v

Communion In The Hand

Bowing of the Head

What Legalizing Same-Sex Marriage Will Accomplish

Making The Sign Of The Cross

Something To Smile About - Daffy Duck Quotes

My Heart Still Works

What Traditionalists Are About

Former lesbian on why it’s ‘cruel’ for Church leaders to go soft on same-sex relationships

LIFESITENEWS - Robin Teresa Beck, 59, lived through 12 lesbian relationships over the course of 35 years before her dramatic conversion to the Catholic faith and healing from homosexuality, just five years ago.

Read LifeSiteNews’ coverage of Robin’s dramatic story here. Read the full interviewhere.

Beck spoke with LifeSiteNews over the phone from her home in Michigan in the Detroit area about everything from the impossibility of creating a healthy gay relationship, to why lesbian relationships can never fulfill the emotional needs of women, to how she believes God looks on people struggling with homosexuality, to how the Church should approach homosexuals.

Her experience with same-sex attraction and the gay lifestyle gives her insight into what is at the heart of homosexuality and why it is fundamentally incompatible with the human person and with Christianity.

“Our Creator said that a man leaves his mother and father and comes together with his wife and the two become one flesh. God’s creative design was for men and women, not for men with men or women with women,” she said.

Beck explained further: “It’s like if one day I think my car should become a boat and I plunge it into a river thinking this is totally passible. But General Motors begs to differ. If I toss aside GM’s plan for the car and drive into the river, the car will sink and I will drown. God created us. He knows and tells us the way he made us to be. You have to put your soul in alignment with Scripture. From my experience, it is impossible to have a healthy gay relationship because it goes against the way God made us to be.”

Beck called it “cruel” for any religious leader to look favorably on homosexual relationships, saying if they only knew about the suffering, darkness, and brokenness tied to the lifestyle, they would never even consider condoning it.

“[P]eople do not see homosexuality for what it is,” she said.

“I think because I was so broken and so totally sickened by my sin that for me it was like: ‘I’m never going back there. I don’t care if Pope Francis gets in the chair and proclaims homosexual behavior is no longer a sin — which of course he can’t do — but if he did, I would be like: ‘No, I’m sorry. It is a sin.’ I don’t care who tries to tell me otherwise. I am just resolute on that.”

People who love God and neighbor need to reach out to people struggling with homosexuality with truth and love, Beck said.

“The Church needs to lovingly say to this person: ‘This is not who you are. Acting on same-sex inclinations is never going to bring you to a place where you can have a right relationship with God. In fact, if you go this way, you are heading down a destructive path. The good news is we love you, we are going to be patient with you. If you fall a thousand times, we will still be there for you.’” 

Religious leaders need to start confronting homosexuality head-on, Beck said, because it’s the only way to offer any real help to people struggling in this area.

“Priests need to stop people-pleasing. They need to speak the truth in love. If people pack-up and go away, well, so be it. When their lives get broken, they’ll be back. And they’ll be back at a place that truly is a hospital, where people can find true comfort and healing.” 

Beck said religious leaders need to start leading the faithful in acts of repentance for all the ways in which humanity has strayed from God’s plan for sexuality.

“We Catholics are in big trouble. It’s as if we are just taking orders from the world instead of from God. People need to get on their knees and repent. The Pope needs to call us to get on our knees and repent. The Church is supposed to be the light. We are supposed to stand fast with Truth and not compromise with the world.”

To those struggling with unwanted same-sex attraction, Beck has words of hope and consolation.

“God can heal you of the struggle,” she said. “I know it’s not a very popular message, but I know it’s true because for 35 years I was in it and now, thanks to him, I am no longer. If God can heal me, God can heal anybody.”

Human Life & Rights

Which Bible Translations Is The Most Accurate?

Want to know which bible translations is the most accurate?

CLICK HERE

It's Easy to Forgive The Mistakes of Others

Christians

“There are in the sight of God only two classes of people; the once-born and the twice-born; those who are born of woman, and those who are born of the spirit of God. The first are just men; the second are children of God; the first are humanists, the second are Christians; the first are of the world, the second are of the kingdom of God.”  

Archbishop Fulton Sheen (The Mystical Body of Christ)

National Cathedral Hosts Islamic Prayers; Lone Protester Interrupts Service

Church & Ministries - The Washington National Cathedral hosted it first Muslim prayer service Friday afternoon in an effort to promote interfaith prayer and improved global relations between Muslims and Christians.

UPDATE: 3:31 p.m. The Muslim prayer service held at the Washington National Cathedral was briefly disrupted by a protester, according to a local NBC report.

"Jesus Christ died on that cross over there!" a woman said loudly, immediately after announcements at the beginning of the service were made. "He is the reason why we are to worship only him. Jesus Christ is our lord and savior!"

According to the NBC report, she continued, "We have built, and allowed you here in mosques across this country. Why can't you worship in your mosque, and leave our chuches alone?"

The protester was then escorted out of the cathedral, News4's Kristin Wright reported. She was removed without incident, but she continued her protest once she was taken to an adjoining space.

The Catholic church set in Washington, D.C. altered its visitor tour schedule in order to host traditional Islamic Friday prayers called Jumu'ah. The service was led by South African Ambassador Ebrahim Rasool, and held in the Cathedral's north transept, an area considered "almost mosque-like" because of its arches and limited iconography.

Although this is not the first time the Cathedral has welcomed Muslims to join in on its interfaith services and events, it is the first time it has invited Muslims to lead their own prayers within its walls.

Rev. Canon Gina Gilland Campbell was scheduled to offer a welcome to start off the service.

According to the National Cathedral website,Campbell wanted to hold the historic service because she believes that "powerful things come out of praying together."

The site further explains "Leaders believe offering Muslim prayers at the Christian cathedral shows more than hospitality. It demonstrates an appreciation of one another's prayer traditions and is a powerful symbolic gesture toward a deeper relationship between the two Abrahamic traditions."

Not everyone supports the Cathedral's gesture. American Family Association Director of Issue Analysis Bryan Fischer said the Muslim prayer service violates the Ten Commandments.

"The first one of the Ten Commandments is what, you—talking the nation of Israel, true for individuals but this was the Ten Commandments for a nation – you shall have no other Gods before me. Allah is another God," He explained on his Focal Point podcast.

This is not the first time the National Cathedral has invited controversy with its services. In June the Cathedral invited openly transgendered Episcopal priest Rev. Cameron Partridge to preach from its pulpit in honor of LGBT pride month. Openly gay Episcopal Bishop Rev. Gene Robinson presided over the Sunday service. The Cathedral also hosts gay marriage ceremonies.

Planners hope Friday's service will inspire Muslims around the world to be hospitable to Christians.

The service was scheduled to be livestreamed onto the Cathedral's website so it is accessible to everyone.

Catch Me When I Fall

'Tis the Season ...

The Truth About Some "Anti-Social" People

The Crucial Difference in Animal Welfare and Rights

CFACT - During a speech at the Animal Rights 2001 Convention, Bruce Friedrich said, “If we really believe that animals have the same right to be free from pain and suffering at our hands, then, of course we’re going to be, as a movement, blowing things up and smashing windows.” Blowing things up? That’s pretty strong language for the Vegan Campaign Coordinator of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, otherwise known as PETA. Many Americans believe PETA is a mainstream animal welfare group promoting humane treatment of animals and providing local animal shelters for stray or abused cats and dogs. But the facts reveal otherwise.

Animal Welfare vs. Animal Rights

Like most animal rights groups, PETA is not an animal welfare organization. Animal welfare groups seek to ensure the humane treatment of animals like a local humane animal shelter. Rather, as pointed out by Animalscam.com, animal rights groups seek equal rights for animals with humans to prevent people from using or owning animals in any way. Animal welfare organizations have been around for centuries. Animal rights groups emerged in the 1980s with the rise of PETA.

Animal rights groups defend their position by claiming many other animals are psychological beings just like humans, with an experiential welfare of their own. Therefore, humans and animals are the same and equal, and we have no right to use animals for food, clothing or medical research.

PETA believes that animals deserve the most basic rights. These include consideration of their own best interests regardless of their usefulness to humans. Like humans, they are capable of suffering and have interests of their own. Therefore, animals are not ours to use–for food, clothing, entertainment, or experimentation, or for any other reason. “Our goal,” PETA President Ingrid Newkirk told the Animal Rights 2002 Convention, “is total animal liberation.”

Those that raise animals disagree. Pets are normally loved by their owners and well cared for. Farm animals are raised in an “environment that reduces stress and recognizes the science-based behavioral, physiological and physiological needs of each species,” notes animalagalliance.org. “Regardless of species,” notes animalagalliance.org, “an animal held in an environment that creates undue stress will not thrive,” reducing productivity for the farmer. The same is true for biomedical work. Good research demands good treatment of test subjects.

Animalrights.net has identified over one hundred animal rights groups. Besides PETA, one of the largest is the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS). HSUS was established in 1954 by splintering from the conservative American Humane Association, a true and highly respected animal welfare organization. HSUS became an animal rights organization in the 1980s after seeing the financial success of PETA.

Many people accuse HSUS of deliberately playing off its name. Activistcash.com reports that HSUS’s fund raising campaigns leads donors to believe HSUS is a pet loving organization, working on behalf of dogs, puppies, cats, kittens. Like nearly all animal rights organizations, HSUS does very little to help improve animal welfare in any community. Although HSUS could afford to operate humane animal shelters in every state, it operates none. Rather, it is in the forefront of the effort to legally redefine pets as “companions” and their owners as “guardians.”

Like many other animal rights groups, HSUS pours huge sums of money into referendum and legislative campaigns to stop any use of animals. “Along with other heavy hitters like the Fund for Animals and Farm Sanctuary,” notes activistcash.com, “HSUS scored a big victory in Florida in 2002 when a ballot initiative passed that gave constitutional rights to pregnant pigs.”

Among other things, the new rights for Florida pigs banned farmers from using “gestation crates.” The crates are necessary to humanely keep sows healthy during pregnancy and to prevent them from accidentally rolling over and crushing their newborn piglets. The new law did nothing to improve the welfare of pigs, but did make pig farming economically unsustainable. The Fund for Animals and Farm Sanctuary accomplished exactly what they wanted. Today there are virtually no pig farms in Florida.

HSUS, PETA and other animal rights groups increasingly achieve their goals of “total animal liberation” by employing an “any means necessary” philosophy. A growing number take the law into their own hands, crossing the line from peaceful protest to violent crime. For instance, PETA’s Friedrich emphasized the use of violence in his speech at the 2001 Animal Rights Conference, “I think it would be great if all of the fast-food outlets, slaughterhouses, these laboratories, and the banks that fund them exploded tomorrow! Hallelujah to the people who are willing to do it.”

The Dark World of Violence and Terrorism

Two of the most violent animal rights groups are the Animal Liberation Front (ALF) and the Earth Liberation Front (ELF).  Both are groups considered by the FBI as terrorist organizations whose purpose is to bring about social and political change using force and violence.

ALF is described by the FBI as a loosely organized movement committed to ending their perceived abuse and exploitation of animals. Established in Great Britain in the mid-1970s, the American branch of ALF began its operations in the late 1970s. Individuals do not “join” ALF by filing paperwork or paying dues, but simply by engaging in “direct action” against companies or individuals who utilize animals for research or economic gain. The FBI’s Domestic Terrorism Section Chief, James F. Jarboe, testified to the House Resources Subcommittee on February 12, 2002, “direct action generally occurs in the form of criminal activity to cause economic loss or to destroy the victims’ company operations.”

Despite the destructive aspects of ALF’s operations, its operational philosophy usually discourages acts that harm any animal, human and nonhuman. Yet, ALF activists have engaged in a steadily growing campaign of violent activity against fur companies, mink farms, restaurants, and animal research laboratories. In his February 2002 congressional testimony, Jarboe said, “ALF has become one of the most active extremist elements in the United States.” He continued, “Estimates of damage and destruction in the United States claimed by ALF during the past ten years [are] more than 45 million dollars.”

Both ALF/ELF declare solidarity between the two groups and have crossover leadership and membership. The FBI’s Executive Assistant Director of Counterterrorism/Counterintelligence, Dale L. Watson, testified before the Senate Intelligence Committee on February 6, 2002 that during 1996 to 2001 ALF/ELF together committed approximately 600 criminal acts in the United States resulting in damages in excess of 42 million dollars.

According to Watson, arson is the tool of choice for ALF/ELF. ALF/ELF activists consistently use improvised incendiary devices equipped with crude but effective timing mechanisms, often constructed using instructions found on ALF/ELF websites. ELF, for instance, claimed responsibility for the arson fires set at a Vail, Colorado, ski resort in October 1998 that destroyed eight separate structures and caused $12 million dollars in damages. In a communique issued after the fires, ELF claimed that the fires were in retaliation for the resort’s alleged destruction of the last remaining lynx habitat in Colorado.

In another example, a jury convicted ALF activist Rodney Coronado of arson in the multi-million dollar 1992 torching of a Michigan State University animal research lab. During the trial in came out that days before Coronado committed this terrorist crime, PETA President Ingrid Newkirk requested he FedEx her any documents he stole prior to torching the facility. The FBI intercepted the FedEx package and found the stolen documents and a video of a masked Coronado committing the crime.

Particularly disturbing is a donation by PETA of $45,200 to Coronado’s “support committee” and a “loan” of $25,000 to his father. The father never repaid the loan, leading many to speculate Coronado was working for PETA.

Coronado received a sentence of 57 months in federal prison in 1995. Following his release, Coronado openly confessed to at least six other arsons for which the statute of limitations had passed. While speaking to over 100 college radicals at the American University in January 2003, Coronado demonstrated the “correct” way to build a firebomb out of household materials. A few days later, ALF activists tried to burn down a McDonald’s restaurant in Chico, California, using a firebomb that matched Coronado’s recipe.

Coronado got his start with the Sea Sheppard Conservancy Society. Sea Sheppard protects fish and animals of the sea by ramming and sinking fishing ships, firing machine guns and throwing acid on their decks. The Capital Research Center’s Organization Trends February 2004 issue reports Sea Sheppard’s fleet of boats, called “Neptune’s Navy,” has sunk at least ten ships and rammed countless others around the world. According to activistcash.com, Coronado assisted in sinking two of these ships in Iceland in 1986.

Paul Watson, one of the original co-founders of Greenpeace, formed Sea Sheppard after Greenpeace threw him out in 1977 for his violent actions. He told the 2002 Animal Rights Convention, “There’s nothing wrong with being a terrorist, as long as you win.” Like most terrorists, he also justifies his violence by shifting blame to others. “We should never feel like we’re going too far in breaking the law,” continued Watson, “because whatever laws you break to liberate animals or to protect the environment are very insignificant compared to the laws that are broken by that parliament of whores in Washington. They are the biggest lawbreakers, the biggest destroyers, the biggest mass-murderers on this planet right now.”

Watson’s goal is to ultimately force the shut down of the global fishery industry. He has a “seething hatred of the people whose livelihood he threatens,” notes activistcash.com. However, this goal does not prevent him from eating fish, or even hamburgers for that matter. In this Watson differs from most animal rights extremists, who are usually avid vegetarians that demand everyone else follow their lead.

Economic and Social Violence

Not all violence by animal rights advocates against people and corporations is physical. While ELF burned down a resort to protect the lynx in the fall of 2001, the Washington Times broke the story on December 17, 2001, of a lynx fraud by seven federal and state wildlife biologists. The biologists planted fur of a rare and threatened Canadian lynx on rubbing posts in the Wenatchee and Gifford Pinchot National Forests in the state of Washington. DNA testing of the samples matched that of a lynx living inside an animal preserve and an escaped pet lynx being held by one of the biologists until its owner retrieved it.

Had the fraud gone undetected environmentalists and animal rights advocates would have used the evidence to invoke the Endangered Species Act, closing roads to vehicles and banning off-road vehicles, snowmobiles, skis and snowshoes, livestock grazing and tree thinning. Such closures historically have decimated the local rural economy. Nonetheless, the guilty biologists claimed they were merely “testing” the reliability of lynx survey methodology and received no discipline.

In their single-purpose zeal to protect all animals from man in every way, animal rights organizations can do tremendous economic and social damage, often to people and causes they otherwise claim to support. In one of hundreds of examples, the anti-fur campaign that started in the 1970s traumatized Inuit native Canadians who depended on the fur trade for a living.

The tragedy started with a feel-good, well-coordinated and funded campaign against the fur trade by numerous environmental and animal rights groups supported by Hollywood celebrities. Public outrage resulting from pictures showing the clubbing of seals led politicians to ban Canadian seal products in the United States in 1972 and the European Economic Community in 1983. Finding more humane methods of harvesting the seals was never an option. Activists demanded and got a complete ban.

The bans destroyed the seal-furring industry, deeply embittering the native Inuits. They claim the “feel-good” environmentalists, animal rights activists and Hollywood celebrities have no understanding of what’s involved with wildlife, or have any consideration about what effect their actions have on the rest of the world.

While many animal rights supporters are unaware of this unintended consequence, ignorance is not an excuse for the leaders of the animal rights groups. Stephen Kakfwi, the Premier of the Northwest Territories, told the January 30, 2003 New York Times, “I’m still bitter about what was done to us. We pleaded with Greenpeace and the others. We told them that we will have to turn to oil and gas and mining for jobs” in order to survive. The animal rights groups apparently didn’t care even though they claim to be against oil and gas exploration and development as well. They continue their relentless anti-fur campaign today.

Animal Welfare, Not Animal Rights

No one doubts that many animal-oriented industries needed to be more humane in their treatment of animals. Yet, throughout recent history, human beings adopted more and more humane standards of animal “welfare” for their pets, livestock, and laboratory animals. It makes sense. Farmers know that cared-for livestock animals produce more and better products. Medical researchers know that their scientific work is meaningless without healthy lab animals.

Animal welfare and user groups are optimistic. Research and better technology will allow improvements in animal welfare in the future. However, in an attempt to turn ordinary Americans against the responsible stewardship of animals, animal rights activists use shrill rhetoric, headline-grabbing stunts, and violent crimes to prevent humans from using or owning any animal. This could have terrible consequences for our way of life.

The people who are doing the most to promote animal welfare today are the very ones that the animal rights movement wants to put out of business. So watchdogs of this issue like those at Animalscam.com are correct in recommending that if you want to support the humane treatment of animals, support your local animal shelter, your local humane society (not the animal-rights-oriented Humane Society of the United States), or your local zoological park. Because animal welfare groups deserve your help. Animal rights extremists do not.

- See more at: http://www.cfact.org/2004/05/07/crucial-difference-in-animal-welfare-and-rights/#sthash.VwaxQ5Ch.yYVdsx0Z.dpuf

Riding A Wave of Hope With Ricochet

Thought For The Day: Negativity

What My Mother Taught Me About Mindless Prayer

I was all alone, and the pain was coming back. “Oh gosh. Oh dear God.” Quickly it escalated to an electric pitch. Sudden and unexpected these words gasped out: “Jesus, Mary and Joseph, I love you, save souls.” More like a scream this time: “JESUS MARY JOSEPH! I love you, save souls!” The pain abated almost as quickly as it came.  And as my mind cleared, I thought, “Wow, that prayer really helped.”

Labor with my second child had been underway for 12 hours already, and I was in the transition stage–meaning, it was almost as bad as it was going to get. My husband was bringing our two-year-old son to a friend’s house so that we could go to the hospital unencumbered; hence for a time I had to handle the pain solo. After we got checked in, my husband continued to pray Hail Marys with me and for me, when I could no longer speak during contractions. To our surprise, our Catholic nurse joined us with every prayer. Despite the agony induced fog I was in, I could still realize what a gift it was to be surrounded by prayer. These prayers were far, far more efficacious in handling the pain than any of the breathing exercises or pain management techniques we used during the birth of our first child.

After our little Lucy made her debut (90 minutes after arriving at the hospital), my mind kept going back to the power of prayer. Certainly, the Blessed Mother was present with us, assisting me in my time of need. But the most surprising moment in the whole experience was when the holy names of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph practically erupted out of me. There was no thought involved; at that time, thought was hardly possible. All my lofty plans to “offer it up for so-and-so” had gone out with a definite puff of “I’ve had enough! Surely I’ve offered up enough? Who could possibly expect me to offer up more? I AM DONE.” Pain and fear were the only things on my mind, until those holy names illumined my thoughts and gave both relief, and a purpose for the pain. Reflecting on the efficacy of prayer, I realized—not for the first time—the debt of gratitude I owe to both my parents. In this particular case, my Mom plays the leading role.

My Mom and Dad gave me a treasure, THE treasure: the Faith; and within that treasure are so many riches, including prayer with its several types. When my siblings and I were kids, I remember so many times when Mom taught us aspirations—”Jesus, Mary and Joseph, I love you, save souls,” among others, and also ideas regarding when to use them. We’d be driving through a neighborhood, and somebody would say “Hey Mom, there’s a statue of Mary in that person’s yard!” and Mom would say some variation of “you can use that as a reminder to say a quick prayer, maybe ‘Mary my hope!’” Or, upon hearing someone take the Lord’s name in vain, Mom would tell us, “Just say to yourself ‘Blessed be the name of Jesus.’” And once, when our car hit black ice, I remember Mom shouting “Oh God, HELP US!” We laughed about that one afterwards, for the sheer drama of it; but really, it was a profound moment. When in need, Mom knows Who to call on first. And the car didn’t crash.

Prayer in general is a treasure of the Church. That is an article all to itself. Aspirations, or ejaculatory prayers, have a more specific place and purpose. St. Paul tell us in 1 Thessalonians 5:17-18: “Pray without ceasing. In all circumstances give thanks, for this is the will of God for you in Christ Jesus.” To pray without ceasing requires not a constant flow of formulaic prayers, but rather a spirit of prayer. While liturgical prayer (the Mass and liturgy of the hours, for example) and community prayers (such as the Rosary, and the Way of the Cross, among others) are both more exalted and more central to one’s life of Faith, personal prayer, including aspirations, is that which helps one to form a spirit of prayer, and ultimately to participate better in both liturgy and communal prayer. For it is not possible always to be in Mass, or to say the Rosary from morning until night while still performing the duties required to live a healthy human life. To have a spirit of prayer is to keep in mind God’s presence throughout the day, and to lift up one’s thoughts to him when possible. Francis Cardinal Arinze, Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments from 2002 to 2008, put it this way:

But the injunction (to pray always) becomes possible if we understand it to mean to have a spirit of prayer throughout the day, to strive to remain united with God without trying at every moment to have an express conscious awareness of his presence. It is possible to offer the major actions of the day to God by some brief ejaculatory prayer.

In other words, ejaculatory prayer is effective in raising our minds to God when there is no time to say anything more formal. In some way it truly makes him present to us. In addition, the habit of remembering God’s presence essentially brings about an ease of action so that, when the frailties of humanity make it impossible to consciously direct our thoughts or actions to him, we do it all the same, unconsciously. In some sense, it’s as if constant repetition creates a worn path by which he can present himself to one’s mind when one’s mind cannot seek him.

The Holy Name of Jesus provides the archetype of the mightiness of an aspiration. His name has power. Recall this passage from Philippians 2:8-11: “He humbled himself, becoming obedient unto death, even to the death of the cross. For which cause God also hath exalted him, and hath given him a name which is above all names:  That in the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those that are in heaven, on earth, and under the earth:  And that every tongue should confess that the Lord Jesus Christ is in the glory of God the Father.” There was nothing new under the sun; sinful day following sinful day, vanities following upon vanities, until the Incarnation. And the Incarnate Word allowed himself to be named, named so that we might know him and call upon him. It is not that the letters or the composition of the name have intrinsic value; but rather he whom the name recalls gives significance to it. God himself took flesh, and was born a human like to us in every way, except for sin. And like every other human being he was named. The name of Jesus would be of little import apart from the Word who became flesh and died so that mankind might have eternal life.

In The Wonders of The Holy Name, Fr. Paul O’Sullivan writes, “He was called ‘Jesus,’ so that when we say ‘Jesus,’ we offer to the Eternal Father the infinite love, the infinite merits of Jesus Christ; in a word, we offer Him His own Divine Son Himself; we offer Him the great Mystery of the Incarnation.” The good Bard may indeed have written, “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” Oh dear, dear, Shakespeare, elsewhere I hasten to sing your praises. But in this I heartily disagree. There is at least one Name like unto none in beauty, power, and goodness. Souls are saved, suffering redeemed, demons struck with terror all through this one name.

Thank you Mom, for teaching me to invoke it.

By Elizabeth Anderson

Elizabeth Anderson is a 2009 graduate of Christendom College. After graduation she worked for several years for Population Research Institute, resigning to become a stay-at-home mother. She currently resides in Michigan, with her husband, Matthew, and their two small children.

Source: Crisis Magazine

Editor’s note: The image above titled “The Virgin in Prayer” was painted by Sassoferrato between 1640 and 1650.

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