Comments

Episode-1159- Listener Calls for 6-28-13 — 119 Comments

  1. (I hadn’t finished listening to the podcast, but I wanted to post this so you know).

    If you didn’t know the flu “vaccine” actually GIVES you the flu. That’s the purpose of it, however, the strain that it is, is a not so bad version. It is very common to get sick after taking the vaccine. (I would never take one, except being the marine corps you were forced to get the damn thing, and same as you, I got super sick afterwards).

    I’m no vaccine know it all, but I know that alot of vaccines work that way. The smallpox vaccine definitely works like that. They give you.. .i THINK cow smallpox.

    I hope a doctor takes on your challenge, because I was trying to look this information up myself, and man its not easy and its one hell of a lot of digging (for a person who has no idea about those things).

    • Regarding the Steve question, no questions asked I would build the battery backup system, and put it on wheels as a self container trailer so you can move it around. Good idea about using the main grid. I would probably not use it exclusively. The one positive about using it with the well is you’re verifying it works…. often. So perhaps I’d setup a schedule where maybe i use it one week out of the month, to keep it in use. Or just some sort of other system.

      Yes, for sure all transfers over 10k are reported as SARS. Its purely and exclusively procedural. Its just how it is. All SARS go are stored in FINCEN databases, which their data is accessible by all allowed parties, which I know specifically includes the FBI. If the “suspiciousness” is just the amount of money, there are no comments, and it is just includes the amount, however, for sure the actual form that is filled out is SAR, the same as if there was something actually suspicious. MOST IMPORTANT, is that there are WAYYYYY too many of these SARS and are completely and totally useless on their own, and as far as I know don’t flag anything. They’re used almost exclusively as extra information tacked onto a case, as far as I can tell is rarely if ever used as a starting point.

      • I 100% stand corrected on this.
        I asked a silver buddy of mine who works at BBT and he set me straight on it. This was his response.

        “Actually the SARS have nothing to do with the 10k threshold itself. Any cash transaction over 10k (deposit or withdrawal) must be accompanied by a Currency Transaction Report (CTR) which the IRS automatically finds out about. There is also what is called a Monetary Instrument Sales Log (MISL) which notifies the IRS of an official bank check purchased between 3k and 10k. Neither have anything to do with suspicious activity.

        SARS are pretty rare, I can tell you. They are a pain in the ass to fill out and nobody working at the bank wants to bother with them. Bank employees are generally lazy and tend to find ways to get around doing work rather than doing more. I’ve done I believe two in my 8 year career. (Deleted story) SARS aren’t automatically sent to the govt like a CTR though. SARS are basically sent up the ladder for a senior operations rep to review. IF they deem the interaction truly suspicious at that point, a Suspicious Incident Report (SIR) is then filed and the govt is notified. A good way to get a SAR sent up on you is to go to the same bank multiple times during the week and deposit large cash amounts in just under 10k increments. Oh, and I wouldn’t recommend asking bank employees about their SAR and CTR requirements either… Technically that’s grounds for a SAR right there.”

  2. A great book to get about vaccines is “The Vaccine Book” by Robert W. Sears MD. Its a very informative book NOT telling you your kid will die without them and isn’t telling you to avoid all of them either. He lists every vaccine, whats in it, how serious the disease is, how controversial the ingredients are and which brands are the safest. He also discusses side effects and how to tailor the vaccine schedule to your childs needs. Also he lists what vaccines can be avoided if you are breastfeeding and not putting your child in daycare. A lot of parents are choosing the 1980’s schedule for their children. The Schedule for 2013 is CRAZY.

  3. Day at the range & spa sounds good. Of course a day at the range and while she is out have the house cleaners come in and clean the house top to bottom. Maybe even have dinner cooked. Nothing finer than walking into your home and it’s all clean and you didn’t have to do it. This is all hear say have yet to experience it my self but I do fantasize about it. LOL

  4. As far as vaccines, the office we use with our kids does give you the information sheet before you get the shots. They actually have the parents sign the form saying they have read thru all the info. I was impressed that they actually did this, because it is a bit eyebrow-raising when you go thru it all.

    We have keep the vaccines to a minimum, DTaP, Hib, and PCV-13. From everything I read, these seem to be the most critical for infants and toddlers in the US. Pertussis is getting to be a real problem again especially since it spreads so easy, and adults are usually the culprit. They actually recommend adults get a Pertussis booster if you are around kids. Unfortunately they always tie it in with the other ones, so you get DTaP, Tdap, etc.

    Measles is appearing to have some flare-ups, and as we travel, I think we will probably get the kids MMR, but we are trying to hold off until they reach 5 or 6. Give the blood-brain barrier more time to form.

  5. Great to hear you answer my question on the tomato/lettuce duo. I’m definitely letting it go to seed and collecting all I can get. I love growing lettuce – especially the spring mix type. Super easy, super abundant harvest. It was a great boost to my gardening self-esteem (if you will) that tossing the lettuce seed down in a last ditch effort to get things planted turned out so well. I’m still a novice but have a few years under my belt now. I keep finding myself in the same boat every spring – WAY BEHIND and then totally overwhelmed when I get out there in the garden. Biggest lesson I learned this year is to stuff a rag in the mouth of the guy in my head telling me all the negative things like “it’s too late to plant that” or “this won’t grow here” or “you should have amended the soil 4 months ago” etc. I pushed through all that and just kept planting and trying new things. So far so good.

    I’m totally fascinated by your take on the amaranth. I’ll have to try your proposed experiment. Last year the volunteers grew all summer through the heat and some reached 8 feet in height. I was ecstatic that they did so well and I did nothing to make it happen. There are more volunteers in the same area this year and they are growing well again. Permaculture works, duh!

    TSP is out-of-control awesome. Keep it coming.

    Matt

    • Hey Matt first year gardening here in Jersey City, NJ. I’m sure you remember how you felt your first year, well thats me now. I build a woody bed and a swale and i’m going to try the spring lettuce. Got any other tips for a real newbie from jersey?

      Thanks for the help

      Dennis

      • Dennis,
        The only advice I can give is to of the things is wish I did. Start planning in the dark of winter, write plans down, keep records, observe everything you can.
        Also plant more than you need and if you are successful you can give it away or preserve it but if you have losses (pests, disease) you’ll hopefully have enough to harvest still. Last of all, have fun and learn from the setbacks!

    • @Matt, I live up here in Prince Edward Island, Canada, and this year has been ‘The year of the lettuce’, with the cool damp spring. What I do with romaine is plant some seed very densely and as they come up, I pluck them out with a spoon and transplant. I just dont have the time to ferret out each individual seed and carefully plant it. My autumn planted kale last year, is going to seed now, and holy crap!!!, the pods on the thing. And every year I try a new crop of something on the edge for my zone…This year is was watermelon ‘Moon and Stars’ from Burpee. My zone is a 5b, so it will be a long shot me thinks

      • Also, Jack talked about Tomatillos once and how prolific they are…Well I can 2nd that, I rescued some volunteers and moved them, and they are two feet tall now and taking off. Volunteers are more hardy than my seed started Tomatoes

  6. I think this might go down as a classic in my library. You and Stephen did on amazing job. You guys make a great “one, two” punch on topics like backup power. Just another great podcast. Thanks again Mr. Jack.

  7. On the water stuff you were talking about, if you dare to do the PVC solution, I doubt you make a hole any bigger than a 1/16″, especially if you are using a pressurize system. Unless you are looking to do a flood-and-soak method since you have basically dams to keep the water in the area you want.

    Is there any particular reason you don’t want a water softener? Another way to deal with hard water is with reverse osmosis, but I don’t recommend that because it waste so much water and energy in the process. Not to mention it is generally out of the price range of most individuals for the capacity you really need.

  8. Being in the drilling and water well industry for twenty years, I have to chime in on the pump/well call. Mr. Harris did his homework for sure, but as far as solar pumps go, we have installed one in a well as deep as 550′ in az. At that depth, on a overcast day with four panels, it pumped 2gpm. The part that was missed regarding the pump and pump size is the pump curve. The pump curve shows what the pump will do at what depth. So say (and I am pulling numbers I don’t remember exact numbers) a 1hp pump is designed to pump 7gpm at 350′ that is the top of the curve as you set the pump deeper its performance decreases. So say you set it at 500′ it becomes a 5gpm pump.
    Also the poly pipe is not needed since the well already has an existing pump, at point it’s just a matter of pulling it and putting the new pump on and changing the supply wire, because the solar pump can not run on the same wire as the ac pump. That is another cost issue that was missed is the submersible wire. That is a big cost and factor in pump replacement. Your talking 150′ of wire, not buying the poly pipe doesn’t offset the cost of the wire unfortunately.
    One more thing I caught was that Steven put in was a timer. Not even sure that would be necessary being that the storage tank would have a float in it and only turn on and run when the water gets below a certain point, and is easily adjustable, so that would mean you fill the 3000 gal tank once, you set the float to come on when the level drops to a third of the tank, for example, that’s 1000 gals that needs to be used before the pump even comes on.
    Just some extra things to consider.
    My opinion, if I had this guys set up, static water at 120′ with a 25 gpm pump already in it. That means its only 20′ into water and the well produces more than 25 gpm, awesome well!! What would do, build the above ground back up or get a generator, if money allowed, both, even for in home use, but for just drip irrigating, I doubt in San Diego you would use 1000 gals a week, more cost effective to left the system be and have some cheap back up power that can be used in other places. My humble opinion

  9. Great show as always! Have fun in Iowa! Catch you next time you’re here I hope.

  10. Hello,
    I’m an electrical engineer and figured I should chime in and give the national electrical code answer on the generator grounding question. If you’re thinking about installing a generator please check out a copy of the NEC from you library and understand the requirements, articles 250 & 702 cover generator grounding. Portable generators are not required to be grounded if they only supply equipment connected with cords to receptacles mounted to the generator. When portable generators are connected to the permanent wiring of a building they are required to be connected a grounding electrode.

    • Um isn’t that what I said? Not being a jerk just want to know if you took exception to something I said and if so what?

  11. Another way to save gas on an auto of any type is to give it a steering alignment.

    Best, Duncan

  12. Jack:
    When I was 4 my 13 year old cousin contracted chicken pocks and in less than a week every kid in my family that never had it….had it … It sucked for a little while but it wasn’t life threatening and we found out many years later my family did it on purpose so we would get it over with and none of us to this day has ever had the shingles

    Thanks for all you do!
    Shannon

  13. I have to weigh in on the vaccine issue…I am an RN and for some reason, the HepB vaccine doesnt take with me…but I wouldn’t argue w/vaccinating children…but by same token, when I was a kid, you got the chickenpox by exposure…so Isee both sides of the issue but would vaccinate for most things still today, maybe not chickenpox, but MMR, TDP HemB,and some others

  14. Jack:
    As for knowing what I know now…as with everything …it depends..have Lamar from simple solar cabins “he has a YT channel” on the show and ask him how he has lived off the grid for 15 years…he as a few solar panels and a couple of wind turbines and hasn’t paid a single electric bill in 15 years…but he lives in a tiny home he built for less than $2000, he will tell you it’s worth every penny to never be dependent on power lines…..but if you already have a meter loop you would be crazy not to at least utilize the cheap power you have while you can
    Thanks for all you do!
    Shannon

  15. I have been using greens of all kinds for cover crops. I have squashes, new zealand spinach, cucumbers, tomatoes, arugula, swiss chard all mixed in. I sometimes get a little mixed up which plant is which. I may know this or that looks like a squash, but which kind I’ll have to see when it produces something. Is that a weed over there or a small ground cherry .. I may not be totally sure .. I also have a few weeds and some lambsquarters. Some weeds I leave alone for awhile as I figure they help keep moisture in. Most all of my gardening ideas and approaches I get from listening to TSP or the forums.

  16. Don’t get a motorcycle to save money – until—
    I ride a lot, and have logged many thousands of miles over the years, so I kinda know what I am talking about. As a “commuter” be sure to think about (1.) real motorcycle clothing (summer & winter), not the REI stuff, (2.) tires every 5000 to 12,000 miles that will run about $300.00 a pair installed, (4) unless you can maintain it yourself you will pay close to $100.00/hour for service, and (5) there are many days of less than optimum weather, and you will just wish for your car.

  17. HI Jack i was thinking about the pvc drip system you talked about and wondered. have you looked into using a forestry hose for it? there alot more flexible and durable for what i gander

    • Before I had kids, I was pro-vax. In fact, you could have almost called me a zealot! When I got pregnant with my first kiddo though, I spent more hours than you can imagine studying both sides (because I’m open-minded.) In the end, I swung the other way, and we opted not to vaccinate our kids.

      Turns out, our middle child is part of the autism spectrum. (He had speech/language delays, so he didn’t get labeled Asperger’s, but anyone who knows about the syndrome would peg him as an Aspie now.) Anyway, I can’t “blame” his autism on vaccinations (since he got none), but what I know in my heart is this. Folks with autism seem to have much more severe chemical sensitivities. They seem to respond much poorer to toxins than non-autistic folks. And most importantly, there seems to be a huge link between gut permeability and autism.

      What does all that mean? By vaccinating children, you’re jacking with the immune system and changing gut permeability. You’re also introducing toxins that cross the blood-brain barrier. So while I can’t say that vaccines “cause” autism, I suspect that they make the symptoms a lot worse in people who’re particularly susceptible.

      When I was pro-vax, I remember thinking there was no way there could be a link between the two. Now, I’m not so sure. I will remind folks though that association doesn’t equate to causation. While it’s tempting to say, “Well, we started giving kids a bunch more vaccines and the rate of autism skyrocketed, so vaccines caused the problem,”, the two may simply be associated.

      A quick example that Tom Naughton used in “Science for Smart People”:

      A high percentage of red convertible owners are middle-aged, balding men. This neither means that owning a red convertible will cause you to become a balding, middle-aged man, nor does it mean that being a balding, middle-aged man will make you a red convertible owner my default. It’s more complicated than that, and we can’t jump to conclusions.

      Since I know my son has autism, I thank God every day that we haven’t vaccinated our kids. While I’m not convinced that vaccines cause autism per se, my gut tells me that I dodged a bullet with him. I’m certain that we wouldn’t be as lucky as we are had he received all the vaccinations on the “schedule”.

  18. Jack, I’m glad to hear you say read warnings and consider the risks of proceeding and NOT proceeding. Many people do too easily reject choices that are very likely to have benefit because they react only to the negative possibilities. As a veterinarian, I am sometimes asked “is this completely safe” in regards to a medicine, vaccine, procedure, etc. Nothing is completely safe. Choices in healthcare, even preventative care, are really about “weighed risks”. I suppose you can also say that about life choices in general.

    I’ll drop you a line about whether or not I might be able to help with the vaccine discussion.

    • I learned about informed consent the hard way. Fortunately, everything turned out OK, but I think I was lucky.

      Back when I was about 8 weeks pregnant with my first kiddo, I started spotting. I thought I was miscarrying, and I went to the ER. (I didn’t have a doc yet.) Turned out the baby was fine and I just had some unexplained bleeding (probably from my PCOS, actually.) Anyway, along with all the tests they did, they checked my blood type and discovered that I’m O-. They told me I’d have to get a shot of RhoGAM right then and there so that I wouldn’t develop antibodies to the baby (if the baby’s blood type was +.)

      I took the shot, didn’t question it, and because I’m blind, I didn’t want to pester anyone and make them read the insert.

      Weeks later though, I had been neck deep into my research on vaccines, and I learned that:

      1) RhoGAM contained mercury that crosses the placenta.

      2) Rh sensitivity doesn’t cause issues with the first pregnancy, and it ONLY causes issues if the mother’s blood mixses with the baby’s blood (which can happen at delivery). IF there are issues, then it just causes problems with subsequent pregnancies. It can even lead to infertility.

      So what did I do? I have chosen the RhoGAM vaccine AFTER delivery with all 3 of my kids. While I was certain that the risk of blood mixing at delivery was minimal, I didn’t want to risk future complications. I did NOT get the shot though until my kids’ blood types were confirmed as being +. That way, I was protecting my babies from the exposure AND I was protecting future pregnancies at the same time (on the off-hand chance that I had the opportunity to develop sensitivity.)

      After that experience, I took informed consent much more seriously.

  19. Steve Harris’ calculation for the well pump was fascinating. Here is what I would do:
    First, I would def pay .16 cents/day and stay on the grid. Since the chore is alreday being taken care of then I would go “poorcraft” and start building a back-up battery system. I would take it slow and start acquiring components on the cheap. Take Steven’s advice and source free or near free solar panels. Figure out more expensive items (inverter, controller) and watch for a sale. Salvage wire connectors and heavy gauge wire from auto salvage lot for low cost or no cost to connect the batteries. Check with local Golf Cart repair service to see if there may be a better /less costly method to purchase the batteries (this is more of a long shot) There may be many other low cost salvage routes to gather other components but since you don’t “need it now” you have the luxury to stetch it out and keep your battery backup system cost low.

    • going cheap on batteries is like going cheap on a gun, or tires or brakes… not a very good idea for something your health and safety are factors.

      • You misread what I wrote. I did not say go “cheap” as in used – but merely suggested a local golf cart repair shop may be willing to sell you new batteries at a lower cost if you ask…

  20. Jack,

    For your irrigation you might want to try the grey plastic electric conduit. It is UV stable so can be exposed outside. I don’t know that it will hold pressure, but that shouldn’t be an issue if keep your pressure down by feeding it from some kind of tank. I also don’t know if it will leach anything out into the water, but it would be something to look into and it is cheep.

  21. I took my wife to the range for the first time a few months ago. We dropped the kids off at school, stopped at Starbucks and headed to the range. Started her off with my US Survival Rifle .22, then she shot my Mosin Nagant a couple of times. We had met a buddy of mine there and he let her shot his M4 .22, AR 15 .223 and 9mm. We only spent a couple of hours there but it was an awesome time.

  22. Regarding the pump. There is a simple option pioneered by a company in nv. At http://www.simplepump.com . It appeared to be a low energy pump that could be retrofitted to wind building a propeller on the cheap, or just use the solar attachment.

  23. Well I have already built my own battery back up system, in 2008 when I was laid off. I have spent only about 300 ish on it. I have posted in the forums, http://thesurvivalpodcast.com/forum/index.php?topic=43672.0 ,about this but if you want an inverter. Look for ones businesses or people dont want because “they dont work” Most of the UPS systems will power many things in your house and just need a new battery. I have salvaged 2 750watt UPS and 3 2250 watt UPS systems that run 24 and 48 volt. Oh and they are pure sine too, no buzz from electronics or florescent lights! While it wont run a well pump it will power just about anything else in the house. I have bought 4 55amp hour batteries for about 35 each from our local battery suppler, they refer to them as “blem” batteries. They were used in pairs and the other one failed, these are the left overs that work but are not new. So far they have lasted 5 years and have made it thru over 40 power outages / brown outs. When you build a system take it slow and look for opportunities.

  24. Jack, since my earlier comment, I listened to the end of the podcast.

    I share your concern regarding overzealous animal control officers. However, to my knowledge, the handling of domestic animals after a rabies exposure is based on state law. If the man’s dogs had to be euthanized, it is likely they were not vaccinated and/or that he declined a quarantine period.

    Also, rabies is not self-limiting in the wildlife population because some species (notably raccoons) can survive with it for several months before succumbing to the illness.

  25. Wanted to comment on the crossbow issue. My experience is with two bum shoulders, both having had rotator cuff surgeries and both at 50% levels for strength and pain levels 3-5 every day. When I moved into bow hunting the draw really concerned me, so I bought a crossbow. I did OK with a rifle, so I assumed I would be OK with a crossbow. I was wrong! The noise is a big concern. Any shot past 30 yards, you have a good chance of the deer jumping the bolt. If you’re stationary hunting, enclosed stand, rifle rests, etc. the crossbow is not bad. However, if you do the ground hunt, stalk, or drive, techniques, you’ll soon tire of the bulkiness, weight, and awkwardness of the crossbow. To insure you’re ready for a shot, you have to keep it cocked. You cannot uncock, without shooting it with a bolt in it. Very awkward. After two years of using a high end crossbow, I bought a mid level conventional compound bow. Much better. I keep the crossbow at the farm, in a blind, but go with the compound when moving from stand to stand or stalking. On the subject of hurting my shoulders practicing, I never take more than five shots at a time. Every day when I come home from work, 1 at 15yds, 1 at 25 yds, 1 at 35 yds, 1 at 25, 1 at 15. Done. No pain. It’s the first shot that has to be perfect. I’ve never killed a deer on my 15th shot of the day.

  26. I don’t know a cure for hard water other than putting in a RO system…I hope someone does know another way….I don’t have that problem now but I have in the past, but, it has been 15 years since I had the problem so there might be a way….I heard you talk about the fire ant problem and fighting it with orange oil and molasses….I found that option 20 years ago and it works….but that also depends on the size of your spread and how many fire ant already populate the land….it will kill them but if your on 30 acres it gets costly

  27. Against my better judgement, I am going to comment on the childhood vaccine controversy. I am an internal medicine physician. I think a pediatrician would be better able to defend childhood vaccines, but I will give my perspective, as a doctor who treats adults.

    In general, I believe in vaccines, take them myself, and recommend them to my patients. I had the TdaP (Adacel) vaccine booster myself several years ago. I have been in private practice for 26 years, and taken a flu shot 24 or 25 of those years. I take a flu shot, not because I worry about dying from the flu or pneumonia, but because I take care of flu patients and don’t want to miss a week or more of work . In a few years when I am 60 years old I will get the shingles vaccine.

    Childhood vaccines are certainly more complicated than adult vaccines. The full schedule is here: http://www2.aap.org/immunization/izschedule.html#Birthon

    When I was in medical school around 1980, the vaccine schedule was easy to remember: DPT and oral polio at 2,4,and 6 months, 18 months, and 4-6 years. MMR was 15 months and 4-6 years. Several years later the HiB vaccine came out.

    I recently realized how much the schedule had changed when I began taking my granddaughter in for her well child visits. Five weeks ago I took her in for her 15 month visit. She got 3 injections as several were combination vaccines. I was given and read the vaccine handouts. She fretted for about 30 seconds and then was fine. No fever or fussiness that night.

    Certainly some vaccines are lifesaving (tetanus, diphtheria, HiB) and others are primarily for convenience (rotavirus, chicken pox). Often both parents work, and neither one can afford to stay home with a child with diarrhea or take 7-10 days off for chicken pox. Vaccines are expensive, $25-150 per vaccine per dose. Usually insurance companies will only cover a vaccine if it is “required”. The Hepatitis B vaccine was available for a dozen or more years before it was recommended for general use and then required. I seem to recall that Texas governor Mr. Perry was criticized for allowing the HPV vaccine to be added to the required list in Texas. I suppose if he had prevented it from being required, few parents would have paid $450 out of pocket for each daughter to get 3 doses of this vaccine. I’m sure someone in public health has calculated how many fewer death from cervical cancer will occur in Texas over the next 60 years due to his courage.

    I know measles is rare, but it has not been entirely eliminated from nature as smallpox has been. During my residency training in St. Louis, MO I had the unfortunate duty to pronounce dead a young woman who died from measles. She was a college student at Principia College just across the river in Illinois. This college is a Christian Science college and experienced an outbreak of measles. 128 students came down with measles, and three, including my patient died. http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/00000500.htm

    Chicken pox is particularly deadly in pregnant women. Early in my career I diagnosed a pregnant woman with chicken pox pneumonia and referred her to my local university hospital for hospital care. Despite all the resources of modern medicine, she and her baby died. A childhood vaccine would have prevented these deaths.

    There are many other arguments in favor of most vaccines. Herd immunity is one. If only a few people avoid vaccines, the risk of illness remain low as it cannot spread in a community. A few rare side effects are the price of protecting society from recurrent epidemics. The first polio vaccine (Salk) was an injection. The Sabin oral vaccine came out later and was preferred by parents as it avoided several shots. Unfortunately the live attenuated virus used could cause paralytic illness similar to natural polio in about one in a million children who had undiagnosed immune deficiencies. The vaccine compensation program was designed to help these victims. Eventually the oral vaccine was replaced by the current inactivated (killed) virus injection.

    The purported connection between autism and vaccines is a huge kettle of fish. The original peer-reviewed research in England has been retracted as scientific fraud. That doesn’t mean there isn’t a connection, just that we have no evidence of one. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MMR_vaccine_controversy

    RT Barr MD

    • You sound like a Cog in the machine man. Likely you will be like my wife, defend this stuff till the death until you retire and only then when not in the middle of it see the truth for what it is.

      • Jack is right about considering the risk and benefits. Consider the one vaccine that Jack (maybe, maybe, maybe?) is considering, the singles vaccine. If you look at the numbers (http://www.med.ucla.edu/modules/wfsection/article.php?articleid=294) The number needed to treat (NNT) is 175 for individuals 60+, meaning that you have to give 175 people the immunization to prevent one case of shingles, in this case, over a 5 year period. However, to prevent one case of post herpetic neuralgia (the chronic nerve pain after the shingles) you have to give 1087 shots for the same age group (“only” 704 for those over 70). Cost effective? If a doctor can’t tell you the NNT, and the period of time for which it is effective, for a particular treatment I would strongly advise a second opinion. Very few drug reps will know this statistic of the medications they push, and the doctors will not subsequently know it since the only information that is forwarded is lacking in serious analysis.

      • I’m not sure which part you think makes him a “cog”, and I can’t comment on every specific vaccine for humans (I am not having my kids take the HPV vaccine yet. Unless it is urgent, I prefer to wait several years for any new treatment to be tested out a bit more.)

        I do agree though that the autism-vaccine relationship has been throughly disproven, while there are many reasonable theories for the increase in autism. (This is an aside, but are you aware the autism/vaccine studies were funded by trial lawyers? There is strong evidence the researcher Wakefield didn’t just take normal funding for the research, but pocketed $$ from the trial lawyers to fudge the data.)

      • I made a typo above. There is no vaccine for singles, the absence of a mate or significant other; rather, I meant shingles.

        Regarding the issue of autism, it does seem that the scientific community considers this issue settled, and, as mention above, the original paper that caused the controversy a fraud. A bunch of lawyers conjuring up new problems to solve, or to at least make some money exchange hands, is not that unbelievable since that is what congress does all the time. All I can say is that I have personally talked with a woman with a child who was always abnormal behavior very early with no proximal cause known; a grandmother who had a grandchild who had normal development, suddenly change after her 15 month vaccination(s); and a father who would not even talk about what he thinks was the cause of his child’s condition though he did indicate he had a theory. I would not say it is all, but I think there are some cases where the vaccines injure children neurologically such as this one seems to indicate (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MMR_vaccine_controversy#United_States) and mechanistically this is reasonable (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acute_disseminated_encephalomyelitis#Causes_and_antecedent_history), and these types of injuries seem to have been noted for years(http://www.thinktwice.com/s_neuro.htm- I did actually google several of these articles and they are legitimate, appearing on Pubmed).

        Shifting gears to a fairly new news story, I am wondering what the Japanese researchers are noticing with the HPV vaccine that ours did not seem to notice or care about (http://www.bioportfolio.com/news/article/1522384/Japan-Suspends-Urging-HPV-Shots-For-Girls-Due-To-Adverse-Affects.html).

    • @RT Barr MD — You clearly care about people. Despite the way we tend to badmouth doctors, scientists, drug makers, and the like, I truly believe that MOST are people who just want to help because they care. I admire your courage for speaking up about a topic that IS controversial. Despite the fact that I fervently disagree with your POV, I applaud you. Seriously.

      That all being said, I remember being a vaccine zealot (as I described in previous posts.) While I was just a young adult with no no medical training, I was awfully closed-minded on the topic. I had no reason to challenge what I just accepted as fact — until I became pregnant and anti-vax folks started asking some impressive (and respectful) questions. I was SHOCKED that I could experience such a 180. After all, I thought I had it all figured out.

      Now, maybe it’s harder for a person in the medical profession. In fact, I’d almost bet on it. I personally know of folks who, like Jack’s wife, have completely changed their mind on the issue once they quit practicing. They were just as shocked at the 180 as I was.

      I have a couple questions for you to ponder, if you don’t mind. (You don’t have to “debate” if you don’t want to, OK. But at the very least, can you think seriously about a couple things?)

      1) How does one determine “hard immunity”? Clearly, antibodies don’t guarantee immunity. Perhaps one of the most famous examples was an outbreak of measles in the upper Midwest. Something like 60-70% of the people who contracted the measles were “immune” (had received the recommended vaccines and had antibodies.)

      2) If it’s nothing but vaccines that are keeping society safe, then why do folks care if I don’t vaccinate my kids (or myself)? I’m not talking about folks caring on a human level. I’m talking about folks caring for practical reasons. If your kid’s chicken pox vaccine works so well, why is my un-vaccinated child a threat? In fact, with things like FluMist, I worry more for my family’s health because folks shed live virus without having any symptoms of the flu. (When we’re sick, we stay home, but if we were shedding virus for weeks without taking those precautions, has does that benefit the greater good?)

      3) Why are the risks of the diseases over-stated while the adverse reactions from the vaccines under-reported? I recall looking at a compilation of data from historical sources and the CDC’s own records. The CDC’s own data showed a decrease of serious complications (or death — which is the ultimate serious complication, I guess) that seemed barely relevant after vaccines for a given disease were routinely used.

      The anti-vax folks have a tendency to under-state and the pro-vax people seem to over-state. I suspect reality is somewhere in the middle. The problem is, for those of us who have perfectly valid concerns about vaccinations, the answer isn’t MORE vaccinations. And I know how it works in the research world. Studies don’t get done if someone can’t make money off them. Of COURSE it’s in Big Pharma’s best interest (and the individual researchers themselves) to publish studies that confirm all these vaccines are safe. After all, you said it yourself, they don’t make money by “proving” otherwise. And the universities, hospitals, and research groups don’t get money either by finding against Big Pharma, Big Ag, and the rest of the lot.

      I know I sound like I’m wearing my foil hat, but I’m a realist. Money drives it all, and there’s no money in telling people to eat real food, move, sleep right, manage stress, and use drugs/vaccines only as a last resort.

      It’s amazing how the scientific method means nothing anymore. I’m always impressed by the logic that people use to “prove” stuff. Like I said in an earlier post, association doesn’t prove causation, and throwing out data because it won’t help prove your point certainly doesn’t help in the credibility department either. Rarely today do we find “studies” that stay true to the scientific method.

      Like I said… Just ask some questions with an open mind. And to be honest, I’m not even suggesting someone like Dr. Mercola. I think he’d dead on with some stuff and WAY out there on other stuff. If you’re like me, looking at raw data helps. Then you can draw your own conclusions. I will say though that it does get a little tough when comparing the chances of serious complications from a disease vs. serious complications from the vaccines that supposedly “prevent” them. Finding the raw data regarding the diseases isn’t hard. It’s all ont he CDC’s site. Getting accurate reports of vaccine injury (or symtoms/conditions that coincided with the administration of a vaccine) is a lot harder though. I’ve read more stories than I can count about folks who’ve gone so far as to fight with their physician to get him or her to make an entry with NVIC, but because the physician thinks there’s no relationship, it doesn’t get reported. The raw data still leaves tons of unanswered questions though.

      And one last thing — because you’re an MD and I haven’t gotten around to asking my doctor friend myself. You mentioned tetanus being a horrible disease for which we should be grateful that a vaccine exists. Don’t you get tetanus from horse or cow crap? And can’t one explain its prevalence in non-industrialized countries by lack of decent hygeine and sanitation and NOT lack of vaccination for c. tetani? I thought the association between tetanus and rusty nails came from the fact that before we understood the importance of good wound care, and when most of us were interacting with livestock on a daily basis, the risk of ANY infection was higher, especially when talking about a puncture wound. So if I’m out tromping in horse crap and I get a decent wound, wouldn’t that be a decent time to consider a tetanus shot? And if I hadn’t had one in a very long time, how can getting the shot keep me from getting sick if I’ve already been infected?

      I’m not trying to be a smart ass, seriously. 🙂 And yeah, I realize there’s a minute risk that I could come into contact with c. tetani from my dog or my cat’s poop, but it seems like those risks are practically non-existent, sort of like the risks of me getting struck by lightning when I’m sitting in my living room reading a good book. Yeah, it could happen, but I don’t worry about it.

      • You are so SPOT on about tetanus. The way MDs talk you would think every 3rd person who got a scratch died of it before vaccination. So completely false. You only get tetanus if you are the victim of a deep puncture wound or deep laceration. Yet today anyone that steps on a rusty nail is in grave danger of it should you ask the establishment.

        We must ask where this blind faith in the tetanus vaccine saving the world has its genesis. The answers are WWI and WWII. In WWI the new serum killed a shit ton of men but without it a lot more would have died. Of course this is due to DEEP tissue wounds received in battles on fields that at the time were full of manure as there were no chemical fertilizers.

        In WWII I think only 5 allied soldiers died of tetanus and the newer serum was a lot safer.

        I am actually not opposed to the tetanus vaccine but I think we over react to shit today. I have been told by MDs that I should get a booster tetanus shot if I am bitten by a non venomous snake, sorry but that is plain retarded. Exactly what part of a bite by a rat snake is a deep tissue laceration or puncture?

        The tetanus vaccine is a reasonable precaution but a new born baby isn’t going to be walking on nails in a field of cow paddies is it? If I got a deep puncture in my pasture you bet I would go get a tetanus booster, haven’t had one since the Army so it would make sense. If I see the big shift coming and society is about to go to hell it is likely something I would do in advance. But please day to day?

        Tetanus vaccine saved more lives in 10 years of war then it will ever save in peace time over 2 centuries, nothing can change that not even repeated dogma by the establishment.

        • @Jarrod – (sorry about the reply level)

          In this little bit of thread here you say..
          To @Modern:
          ‘Dr. Mercola, the quack that he is, exaggerates these dangers by misinforming the public.

          I believe you do the same.’

          To @Inbox 345:
          ‘Why, Yes I have read these studies, albeit a long time ago while in graduate school.

          I sincerely doubt you have.’

          So, @Modern is a ‘quack misinforming the public’, and @Inbox345 is a liar (as he states in his post that he, in fact, read the studies..)

          Some people are offended at such labels..

          🙂

        • And one must ask why Jarrod listens? I know why, LOL. I know who he is, LOL.

      • Dr. Mercola is WAY out there on the autism-vaccine connection and fluoridation of water. The man is a dishonest quack.

        • Thank you as you have just demonstrated how ignorance coupled with smear and slander by the establishment can be so highly effective. So go drink your fluoride (a know toxin) and take all vaccines and never question a one, go ahead.

          Sadly for the establishment people like you that will just say a guy is a quack because a person with supposed authority is a quack are rapidly declining in number.

          This is no different then the way the AMA attacked and lied about chiropractors for decades. Claiming that chiropractors “killed off thousands of people every year” and taught that to students in MEDICAL SCHOOL, despite not having one example of a single time a chiropractor killed a single patient.

          Yes, thank you for showing how effective unquestioning ignorance coupled with propaganda is.

        • The overwhelming body of evidence indicates that, *at low concentrations* (about 0.5 to 1 ppm) fluoridation of water is not harmful, but reduces cavities in the teeth. If the fluoride concentration gets significantly above that, it can be dangerous.

          The water of the county I live in naturally is fluoridated at these levels, so no additional fluoride is needed.

          Dr. Mercola, the quack that he is, exaggerates these dangers by misinforming the public.

          I believe you do the same.

        • Seriously you are a moron if you believe this crap. Putting fluoride in water to protect your teeth is about as intelligent as drinking sun tan lotion to protect your lips from sun burn.

          Yep fluoride in our water is good for us! Sure! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gfs3UPRsNxk

          Now explain that man! That is what you are drinking.

        • I must say, I find your powers of reasoning truly amazing! Name calling followed with “proof by vigorous assertion” is brought to a new level by you.

          Nonetheless, the body of scientific literature from varied scientific investigators from all over the planet (all funded by various, independent sources) has reached essentially the same conclusion on the matter: fluoride concentrations of 0.5-1.0 ppm (i.e., mg/L) help prevent cavities, while siginificantly high concentrations can be dangerous.

        • Ignorance is a thing not a name, your assertion of “all funded by various, independent sources” shows it also to be an accurate adjective. Independent, oh like Merck, Pfizer, Bayer, etc? Seriously the blindness at which society now accepts things is maddening.

        • I’ve been ignoring this nonsense for a bit now, but enough is enough. Have you actually read one single damn one of those POS “reports” you are collectively citing? I’ve personally torn about a dozen of them apart as being anything from poor quality to fraudulent. I got to that point and had enough of wasting my time with shitheads that want to sell industrial waste as a novel drug for use in the national water supply.

          Have you ever stopped to think “why the hell would FDA call the use of an herb a novel drug if you dare suggest it might prevent a disease or illness, but they will boldly proclaim that minute fluoride in the water supply prevents cavities without one single safety or efficacy study? Every study out there either is completely confounded or is a “no evidence” study. Not a damn one of them proves safety or efficacy. The closest a study has ever gotten to link minute fluoride in water to any effect was the recent study showing that the current “safe” levels cause dental pitting (also known as fluorosis). Similar studies has suggested a pretty reasonable amount of evidence that ANY amount of fluoride ingested disrupts a corresponding degree of calcium utilization which affects everything from bones to brain function.

          So if you want to play the game with using minute amounts that fail to show differences with confidence with shitty sample sizes and confounding factors, drink all the fluoride you want. But for those that advocate and defend putting an industrial waste in water and labeling it with a textbook definition of a novel drug (which by the way is the first and only drug that not only has the full support of the FDA dispite no safety and efficacy study, but is also added to the drinking supply of the entire nation), all I have to say is FUCK YOU!!! You have zero right to cite bullshit studies then try to force people to drink your shit.

        • Inbox486,

          Why, Yes I have read these studies, albeit a long time ago while in graduate school.

          I sincerely doubt you have.

        • Fine. Post any report that shows even one detail of the claims you are making to justify drugging my water, and I’ll happily point out why it is pure bullshit.

          In the mean time here are a few summery gems from .gov down under (http://www.nhmrc.gov.au):

          “There is consistent evidence that water fluoridation results in the development of dental fluorosis, however, the majority of dental fluorosis is not considered to be of ‘aesthetic concern’. The prevalence of fluorosis has been significantly reduced with more appropriate use of other fluoride sources.”

          So as long as you don’t “look” like shit, who gives a damn what it is actually doing to you…

          “Water fluoridation at levels aimed at preventing dental caries has little effect on fracture risk. Fluoridation at 0.6 to 1.1 mg/L may lower overall fracture risk compared to both no fluoridation and fluoridation at levels well above
          those experienced in Australia. ”

          So the effect is there but it isn’t “that” bad, and isn’t even as bad as some areas that are naturally worse.

          “There is no clear association between water fluoridation and overall cancer incidence or mortality. The evidence shows variations on either side of the effect, however only two studies present statistically significant results,
          one showing an increase and one a decrease in cancer incidence. ”

          So it might cause cancer, it might not. It is probably conflated with non controlled factors, but what the hell, lets just drug the entire water supply…

          So yeah, you want to drink something that has the only known internal effect of disrupting calcium in some BS hopes that as it passes across your teeth some fairy magic will cure your cavities, go nuts, but really (and I rarely use this word at all let alone in public) go fuck yourself if you think drugging my water supply is okay.

        • Hey Jarrod when you were in that lofty Graduate School did they teach you how to not be screwed over by other bloggers you write an article for? Or is it just dumb uneducated hicks like me from Texas who have never had a college course in our lives that can figure that stuff out. Now I have actually done presentations at schools like Princeton, MIT and Boston University but I am sure none would take me as a student.

          Don’t you think though a PhD. should know when he has taken his time to write an article for a fellow blogger though that said fellow blogger has screwed him over, you do know that was done to you right? I mean you have to have this basic ability to think and do research if you are a lofty PhD, don’t you.

          Given I found this in about 3 seconds with out even looking for it just to confirm who you were, I would think you would know what I am talking about. But I am just a dumb ass red neck that believes quacks right?

          It seriously saddens me that people with such a complete loyalty to the state and the states systems along with the corporatocracy’s version of independent research are responsible for educating our youth today. I bet you actually do see people like Monsanto and Bayer etc as the enemy then you turn around and swallow the so called research they fund as independent. I knew you were in the system, that is why you defend it. You may not work for Merck or Monsanto but their grants fund the institution you see as holly, the university system.

        • @Modern & @Inbox485 –
          Please stop feeding the troll.. 😉

          He’s wasting 15 minutes of your time for every one line unsubstantiated assertion.

          If someone’s saying something, that if it were in person, would get them punched in the nose.. they’re a troll.

        • @Insidious – I’ve said nothing worthy of being “punched in the nose”. Indeed, examination of the responses by Jack and Inbox work suggest quite the opposite.

          Bottom line, Dr. Mercola has a long history of quackery for his own personal gain. Research group after research group, from across the planet, have demonstrated this time and again.

          But somehow it is more plausible that Dr. Mercola is the one with integrity? Nonsense.

        • No, actually the bottom line is that you haven’t substantiated a damn thing you’ve said yet others have. The floor is yours should you care to nutt up and provide any support for your position. Otherwise I stand by my words and I’m done responding to you. And no, bitching about a Dr I never once cited and is one way or the other irrelevant to the facts at hand doesn’t discredit the fact that the “science” you claim supports drugging the water is pure bullshit. I’m sorry if you spent an entire graduate degree feasting on it without ever learning stats 101 or basic deduction skills and don’t want to admit it, but that is your problem.

        • History of Quackery might as well be a slur for how overused it is by the AMA, the FDA and the establishment. Don’t like something, see it as a threat, label it quackery, don’t prove it, just cite some studies that you funded, selected the researchers for and told them the results you wanted before it was even started and say the other guy is a quack. THIS is what passes for science today? Absolutely, who funds all “independent drug research”, Bayer, Pfizer, Merck, etc. Ag research is funded by Conagra, Monsanto, etc, I bet you trust that like a good little drone as well don’t you.

          Frankly if you look at the modern vaccine schedule for our children and think it is all just okay and waiting for some, doing less boosters and not doing others is quackery, you are simply an idiot, ill informed and ignorant or both.

          That isn’t name calling, that is fact!

          Further I will tell you off on the water thing as InBox485 did because he is right. If you think it is okay to DRUG the water supply of our entire population against their consent for good or bad by they way, fuck you, seriously. The average person doesn’t have a clue. You at least seem to be informed that drugging our water is what they are doing. So yea, fuck off!

        • Hmm, I don’t remember asserting that anyone should be forced to drink anything against their will. That is something both you and Jack asserted.

          Perhaps if you read more carefully and avoided straw man arguments and ad hominem attacks (Spirko’s forte’) you might be able to respond to what I actually asserted. It is (again):

          1. The majority of scientific evidence by a large variety of investigators demonstrates that a concentration of 0.5-1.0 ppm fluoride in water helps prevent cavities while having virtually no negative health effect. Concentrations significantly greater than that can be harmful.

          (For example, *one* study showed that concentrations of 100+ ppm caused negative health effects in male rats. Interestingly, a duplicate study did not observe this effect.)

          And the corollary,

          2. Dr. Mercola is an unethical quack for his anti fluoridation stance (as well as many other unsubstantiated claims for personal gain.

          Dr. Mercola is essentially the Alex Jones of the alternative health crowd.

          It has been more than 15 years since I kept up on the peer reviewed literature on the topic. My specialty is electrochemical engineering and a lot of my time was spent on the halides.

          I’m currently reading “Health Effects of Ingested Fluoride” by the Subcommittee on Health Effects of Ingested Fluoride, National Research Council. Once I find a direct link, I’ll be happy to post it.

        • Jack,

          You wrote,

          “Hey Jarrod when you were in that lofty Graduate School did they teach you how to not be screwed over by other bloggers you write an article for?”

        • Jack,

          (Somehow my last reply got posted before I finished it.)

          You wrote,

          “Hey Jarrod when you were in that lofty Graduate School did they teach you how to not be screwed over by other bloggers you write an article for?”

          It’s not difficult to find out who I am. In fact, if you check your email history, you’ll find that we have corresponded back and forth a bit in the past. (I’m the self identified Classical Liberal. I’m also one of the first listeners who sent you condolences on the passing of one of your good friends.) However, that was several years ago, so I doubt your email history is that ling. I know mine isn’t.

          Regarding your comment above, I honestly don’t know what you are referring to. I’m not aware of being screwed over by a blogger that I was writing articles for. Perhaps my memory fails me, but I cannot recall what you are talking about.

        • You wrote an article for a fellow blogger, he gave you a link to your site, but he cloaked the link back to his own site. He screwed you over and it takes a dumb ass hick like me to inform a PhD of this simple thing? LOL, may be you should read some “studies” on web marketing, at least most of those are actually independent.

  28. Here in Pennsylvania if you want to do the “free” cyber school, you still need the vaccines. If your kids need to get them to prevent other kids from getting it then why would a cyber student need it? As far as I know they don’t have a vaccine for a computer virus.

  29. Jack. I would advise against using the thin walled 1/2″ drip tube with holes punched in it. The holes will be far to big and inconsistent in flow rate. I use 125 psi poly-pipe with 1/32″ drilled holes with good results. It still puts out a lot of water so it needs a very short timing cycle. I would also consider using take apart flag drippers that deliver 2 gph . They can handle larger solids and you can pull it apart and poke a wire all the way down into the main line.

  30. Two product placement questions:

    1 – what is the cross bow you mentioned you are getting?
    2 – what is the inverter that Steven mentioned (searched on Amazon and can’t find one similar to the description he gave on the podcast).

    • Chris,

      The inverter I mentioned was an AIMS 240 volt 5000 watt inverter for about $500 and it WAS on amazon.com. Now… its not. Sounds like enough people went and purchased it that its sold out.

      I just did a complete search on amazon, its gone. Newegg.com does have it for $429 plus shipping.

      http://tinyurl.com/aims5000-240

      note, this is also a 12 volt inverter, there are 24 and 36 volt inverters out there, but if you get one of those, you’ll have a B*TCH of a time charging the batteries, let alone finding a 24 volt charger at a reasonable price.

      Stick with the 12 volts, and you’ll have duel zero awg cables going from the inverter to the batteries.

      Steve
      complete lessons on batteries at
      http://www.Battery1234.com

      • The inverter is back on Amazon – http://tinyurl.com/lstlfmw

        I would like to power my home well pump with it. I have measured the draw of the pump as 6.7A continuous and 49A surge at 245VAC. I measured this with a “Mastech MS2108 True-RMS AC/DC Clamp Meter with Inrush Current Measurement” http://tinyurl.com/mnwcuqn It integrates over 100ms for inrush.

        My concern is that the inrush current is about 12KW with is greater than the 10KW surge rating of this inverter. You recommend it for a well pump. Did you not consider inrush or do you believe it will work? If not do you have a recommendation for one that would work?

        I would like to power the house including the pump from my vehicle, a Dodge Durango with a 160A alternator. I would connect the 240V and a 120V inverters to it and run the 120V and 240V lines into the house. The pump does not run long to refill the pressurizer so the alternator should be able to recharge the battery drain from running the pump. I’ll have to time the refill and check on that. The Durango with the towing package does have a large battery.

        Does this seem reasonable? Is there a better way to do it? The pump is the real issue. I would like to avoid having to get a generator. Another small internal combustion engine to keep in good working order. I also have two cars available so I have backup there.

      • The Dodge Durango 160 amp alternator is NOT a light saber magically putting out 160 amps when the car is at idle, it makes 160 amps when its spinning at 8000 RPM, which is a gear up of the vehicle max RPM of 5000+ or more. So unless you are going down the road at 75 mph you are not getting 160 amps of power ability.

        1600 watts / 12 volts = 133 amps+ You’ll kill your car battery dead in 20 minutes OR LESS even with the truck at idle.

        I suggest that If you want to run a well pump, go get a 240 volt/120 volt generator. NOT a battery bank system.

        Steve

  31. In response to the motorcycle call. Just remember if you finance a motorcycle you will need full coverage about 1200 a year and you may not find yourself riding as often due to laziness or weather. I bought my bike with a small personal loan with a higher interest rate of 9 percent so Icould pay only 100 a year for insu rance and then paid the loan off quickly

    • And you do this with no real regard to what Mercola says or how often he has been proven correct right. How many Doctors now take as obivious what the man was called a quack for 15 years ago right. You are a skeptic because the CDC disagrees with him, the same CDC that puts out a ridiculous vaccine schedule for our babies today?

      You think Mercola linking vaccines to Gulf War Syndrome is wrong but the government studies that exist to cover the government’s ass are right? Let me tell you as a vet of that time, we were given some vaccines and we WERE NOT TOLD WHAT THEY WERE OR WHY WE WERE GIVEN THEM. We absolutely were given more injections then the ones they put down on our jacket, when I asked I was simply told “well some of them require two shots”, which other then an immune globulin is bullshit.

      At 18 like most kids I was a dumbass and didn’t know that. If you ask too many questions as a private you get told to STFU anyway and you do it. But today I wonder what exactly was in those extra shots, I wonder what was in the 3 pills we were told to just shut up and swallow.

      But go ahead doubt people who have done extensive research, been proven right time and time again. Then trust the same government that now is telling our Airmen, Soldiers, Marines and Sailors they are not allowed to read the NEWS.

      • When has Dr. Mercola been demonstrated correct? By someone other than himself?

        • The fact that the sun actually prevents skin cancer when overexposure doesn’t occur is now widely accepted, Mercola said this first.

          Main stream dentists are now using acupuncture as an anesthetic, Mercola said this could be done years ago.

          Mercola has recommended a low carb stye of eating as long as anyone including Atkins and Eades this is finally got so much evidence that you can’t deny it any longer depite the attempts by authorities to continue to slander anything with fat calorie and tell us any carb isn’t simply sugar, which chemically we know them to be.

          The role of vitamin D which he was called a nut for 20 years ago as to its ability to positively influence or prevent conditions from heart disease to diabetes to cancer is another one. We now have studies that do suggest that elevated levels of vitamin D may protect against certain cancers.

          The role of ketosis in cancer treatment would be another one. May if main stream news tells you this you will believe it http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/healthscience/2012/december/starving-cancer-ketogenic-diet-a-key-to-recovery/

          Again thank you for a clear demonstration of the power of chosen ignorance combined with main stream authority running a smear campaign.

          I don’t agree with Mercola on everything, but I also think he is smarter than me and know even in those areas I might be wrong so I stay open, do research and ask questions. But go ahead and believe sites like quackwatch, sites marketed as being grassroots that are actually 100% controlled by establishment medicine, just like say WebMd. Drink your fluoride, eat your glyphosphate and atrazine, swallow your aspartame and roll up your arm for the mercury and slave on brother!

        • Cite your independent reference that Dr. Mercola said this first.

          Dr. Mercola’s assertions about acupuncture were not originated by him. As he did not originate the claim, he cannot be credited with this.

          Dr. Mercola’s confidence about vitamin D and cancer are greatly in excess to the evidence supporting such claims.

          Of course, that is his SOP. Make wild, unsubstantiated based on inconclusive or unsubstantiated evidence … and then sell a bunch of supplements (making wild claims about them too).

        • These are all stances Mercola took, got called a quack for then it turned out they were true. Is he the very first person in history to state them, only a dumb ass would require that. Most of what we are relearning today about medicine was known long ago, even if the chemical reasons were not.

          What do you work for Merk or Pfizer or something?

          Again I thank you sincerely for showing what chosen ignorance and blind faith in people like the AMA results in.

        • You were the one that staked his credibility based on he said it first. Yet, you cannot demonstrate this.

          No, I do not work for Merck, Pfizer et al.

      • Part of the problem that I see constantly is that the public and media understanding of science is incredibly poor (some of the blame has to go to the science community who has largely given up talking to reporters for fear of being misrepresented.) Most of the time the science stories reported on in the media either draw conclusions that the study didn’t, totally miss the point, or think that one study is the be all-end all and will lead to the next big cure. Science works very, very slowly and today’s culture likes quick easy answers and quick fixes. I know that the 6th grade version of the scientific method is appealing for it’s easy order and checkoff list, but it’s taught that way for entry level understanding. It doesn’t always follow that nice order and many of the methods and math used in science take years of study to understand. Some of it actually requires training and more than a few hours on the internet to fully grasp! The same is true of many trades. I don’t expect everyone to pick up a journal article from a particular trade and suddenly be able to understand everything, but perhaps have a better tolerance for ambiguity. And just for the record I don’t work for a big drug company, or compete for funding, or whatever. I guess I should also state, since I’ve been accused of it before, am not a disinformation agent. Nor am I married to my job in such a way as to have an interest in defending it. In fact, I’d kind of like to move on to a different field.

        • @Charlie –
          Excellent points. Also worth mentioning is increasing complexity combined with decreasing attention spans.

          No ‘new source’ is interested in publishing a story with a headline that reads ‘Scientists believe there is a 15% probability that x is true, under conditions y and z.. but only if variable a is accounted for’

          So you get yes/no conclusions.

          Skepticism should be the default IMO.

          As a way to ‘narrow’ the things that are ‘true’ however (because I never have enough time/energy to investigate everything thoroughly), I like to use a couple of heuristics:

          – Is this idea/belief being constantly reinforced via propaganda?

          If so, I take the idea/belief to be FALSE. In my experience, the truth is STICKY, and things that are untrue are rejected by the mind, or invalidated by experience. So they have to be constantly repeated.

          Example:
          Someone says it is healthy to eat like x. I do so and feel better. My skin and hair are obviously healthier. The speaker doesn’t need to repeat his message.

          Someone tells me it is healthy to eat like y. I try it and experience inflammation, bloating, gain weight and my breath stinks. They repeat the message that it is ‘healthy’ via government and television.. forever.

          – Heuristic 2: (for ‘its ‘ok’ for you’) Just don’t do it.

          If it has no supposedly no beneficial effect and also no harmful effect why engage in it at all? Action implies additional risk. In other words, if fluoride isn’t markedly beneficial, even if it isn’t ‘measurably’ harmful.. there is no reason to ingest it, or to add it.

          I find this to be particularly true where there’s a ‘waste product’ being added to something. Even if ‘studies prove’ it has no ‘harmful effects’ why would I participate in this particular game of Russian Roulette?

        • While I agree with the overall point in you closing this quote comes to mind,

          “The lady doth protest too much, methinks.” ~Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Act III, scene II

          Many people mired in defending a position due to their station in life do so on a very subconscious level and don’t realize that is what they are doing.

          Note there is some real science out there we can use and many honorable good scientists but the vast amount of studies are clearly funded by the largest corporations and by big government. All such studies begin with an agenda and if you know science as well as you claim then you know money and an agenda will corrupt any study when the hand with the money is also the hand with the agenda.

          Another way to see this is if the corporations are writing the texts books, and by and large they are, well then the student has learned what he/she has been taught and no matter how pure their morals their basis for all activity is based on corrupted inputs.

          Here is a holiday weekend challenge, watch Doctored with an open mind you will never see the establishment the same way again. http://vimeo.com/61978600

          Seriously watch the absolute documented truth to what the AMA did for decades and then tell me how the establishment in medicine can be trusted at all in any way shape or form without first questioning every conclusion they publish. Some may be true but just to accept it today is something only a fool can do at least once informed to their track record.

          Here you go in HD for free so no excuse not to take a look http://vimeo.com/61978600

        • @Modern –
          There are two different things here..

          science – the practice and method of trying to discover what is ‘more true’ than what you believed yesterday (with the understanding that you will never arrive at TRUTH(TM))
          &
          SCIENCE – the Religion, keeper of all TRUTH(TM), and tool of the vested interests

          I think @Charlie is arguing for ‘science’.. while @Jarrod is arguing for SCIENCE

          This is of course the same as the distinction between Christianity (the spiritual practice) and CHRISTIANITY (the religion, keeper of all truth, etc.)

          🙂

          always IMHO

  32. I also have high calcium in my water. Many spray holes on my shower head have clogged over the years. I have been using my drip irrigation for a couple years with no clogs. I am using a 360 adjustable bubbler emitter. They come on a spike or just the head that attaches to the 1/2 inch hose. The emitter is adjustable by turning the cap on top. You can shut it off completely to customize your watering from season to season. If you unscrew the top completely you have the ability to clean it. I have not had to clean it, probably because there are no tiny holes. The water comes out from a slit rather than a pinhole. I can’t find the web store I bought from anymore, but these look to be the same style. You can just google adjustable bubbler drip irrigation to find similar emitters.

    http://www.dripirrigation.com/drip_irrigation_categories/98/drip_irrigation_parts/1014

  33. I would like to make a comment about your take on the grounding of generators and the risks vaccines. First I want to say I appreciate your show and how you approach it by asking people to think. The way you handled the NSA Website snafu was classy. You said that you believed the website was real because it fed into what you already believed to be true. That is so much the case for all people including me. We are much more likely to believe stories that fit our point of view and biases because we tend to be less skeptical. Now on to your comments on generators and vaccines.

    You said that the recommendation to ground generators was because the manufacture needed to cover their ass. But when you talked about the insert in the vaccines you seemed to have an opposite point of view. No mention of all the possible side effects as a CYA issue. This does not prove you wrong or right, it is just something that needs to be considered. I try to be skeptical about things that “fit” my preconceived ideas. The NSA website is a great example of why it is so important. Most of the time we don’t have the luxury of a disclaimer telling us that the info is not true. If you bring on vaccine experts, which would you believe? Neither side can empirically prove cause and effect. Do you believe the pro argument because you think Doctors do no harm? Do you believe the con argument because you think vaccine companies are money grubbing bastards? If I don’t have a degree in medicine it can be difficult do make a truly informed decision based on rational logic. Many people fall back on our feelings because that is the best we have to work with.

    I know that you said for people to read and be informed which is the right way. These complicated, emotional subjects need special consideration before we decide to reject the science that has raised man out of the jungle.

  34. Part of the grounding generators issue is that faults can work both ways across everything connected. A hot neutral from an ungrounded generator can make connected appliances dangerous too. Likewise a fault in a connected appliance can make the generator dangerous. I think of it kind of like the firewall in a car. Most cars go their entire service lives never needing it, and it is useless weight unless something bad happens, but when something bad does happen the firewall mitigates it to some degree.

  35. Upon reflection, I am going to bow out of the remaining conversations here. I have contacted Jack privately regarding confusion about one thing he mentioned.

    Thank you for your time.

  36. ‘Science is the belief in the ignorance of experts.’
    – Richard Feynman

  37. I highly recommend the Second Amendment Sisters for women who want to learn how to shoot: http://www.2asisters.org/ SAS has multiple firearms to try out, including .22 lr, and NRA certified instruction.

  38. I’ve reached my breaking point. While you do have good information on prepping and finances, your pseudoscience is ridiculous to the point of incredulity. There is hordes of factual evidence out there that you are ignoring in favor of low quality studies and made bull just because it agrees with what you want to believe.

    You accuse people of all the things that you are doing and making your arguments with logical fallacies piled on bad information. You talk about anyone who doesn’t agree with you as being close minded. You are doing all of the things that quacks and charlatans do to quiet opposition and evidence against them. You are not open mined. You closed your mind to facts and evidence long ago.

    So on this note, I’m done. Thank you for all the good information on prepping and finances over the years. Thank you for all the time and effort you have put into your show. I will no longer be listening, I am voting with my feet. I hope you break out of all the pseudoscience and scams before it hurts you or someone you love.

    Eric Duff
    Wyoming

    P. S. You seriously need to get the sexism under control too. Shooting and spa day? Really? That’s how you think someone should get their wife interested?

    • People like you are serious idiots, nothing in this episode was about climate change, I haven’t brought the subject up in over a year, if you want to buy into this bullshit go ahead.

      The reality is my belief or disbelief in climate change won’t have any effect on climate change and neither will yours.

      And Sexism? Really shooting and a spa day equal sexism, what a fricken moron.

      • Ummmm… Climate change? I’m pretty sure you aren’t paying attention to what you are reading.

        Flailing around while calling people morons and idiots doesn’t make you right. It makes you look petulant and childish. Work on your arguments and facts, maybe get rid of the “marketing”.

        • Again there is nothing in the episode or in these show notes about climate change until you brought it up. Yes you are clearly moron. You are picking a fight where none exists. You also said you were done and leaving, so I guess you are dishonest as well?

        • Nope, just the stunning utter confusion of where you are getting climate change from

    • What are you saying here? I mean, I kinda sorta am curious what you are so upset by, but what is it? I didn’t see the global warming reference Jack mentioned. Was that it? You clearly have gotten emotional about something and are emoting all over the place, but what was so upsetting? What pseudoscience was used? What fact was ignored (if it was a horde, could you provide just one concrete example)? It’s that whole grammar, logic, rhetoric thing. I’m assuming what upset you had some form (grammar), and there was some sort of logic that followed, but you have completely aborted the rhetoric portion, and your grievance is incomprehensible.

  39. OK – since it has been brought up. The whole “global warming” thing was an invention of the Club of Rome, who in 1991 published it as a method to “fit the bill to control humanity” while favoring the bankers and their power masters. Follow the money, their plan were actually devised in the 60’s.

    From Wikipedia (not exactly a right wing source).

    “Every state has been so used to classifying its neighbours as friend or foe, that the sudden absence of traditional adversaries has left governments and public opinion with a great void to fill. New enemies have to be identified, new strategies imagined, and new weapons devised.”[8] “In searching for a common enemy against whom we can unite, we came up with the idea that pollution, the threat of global warming, water shortages, famine and the like, would fit the bill. In their totality and their interactions these phenomena do constitute a common threat which must be confronted by everyone together. But in designating these dangers as the enemy, we fall into the trap, which we have already warned readers about, namely mistaking symptoms for causes. All these dangers are caused by human intervention in natural processes, and it is only through changed attitudes and behaviour that they can be overcome. The real enemy then is humanity itself.”[9]

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Club_of_Rome

  40. This is really, really disappointing to read. How can everything devolve so quickly into insults and ad hominem attacks? Jack, I was truly edified by your character a few weeks ago when you went out of your way to clarify the NSA website spoof and you weren’t to proud to eat some humble pie. You acted with dignity and grace. But this thread is the complete opposite of that. I can understand the irritation and frustration over the posts and I can’t even imagine the amount of this type of thing you deal with on a daily basis so I’ll cut you some slack. But I urge you to be the better man and ignore the insults from others and argue the facts alone. I have learned so much from you in the fields of business, entrepreneurship, gardening, prepping, health, economics, politics, big government, etc. I am on board with your take on almost all of it. So please refrain from losing it on people who disagree with you. Even if they resort to the basest forms of argument you should remain above the fray so to speak. Peace, my friend!

    Matt

    • @matt, this isn’t the first time I have dealt with this idiot, not the second, the third or the thirtieth for that matter. This guy is an idiot that has been giving me shit about global warming and threatening to stop listening for three years.

      If you don’t want to read stuff like this matt, don’t do it, no one puts a gun to your head and makes you. This dumbass and that is what he is, came to this set of show notes to once again start shit about global warming, again something I haven’t discussed for over a FULL YEAR. He just wants to start shit, 90% of the time I just delete his bullshit but every so often I let him show his ignorance.

      He uses many names and has posted under multiple names in the same thread. What he really needs is a good bitch slap, oh I know right Matt that is beneath me right?

      You know what, no it isn’t. I generally let stupid shit slide with most people. I either don’t respond or just delete their shit. Then there are a few, cowardly little snipers, who hide their real name and cause shit over and over and over again. Idiots too stupid to understand that I can track their activity and know who they are even when they change their names and use a fake email address.

      Such people are harassing me and do so consistently over time. If I ocassionally publically tell them to fuck off, so be it. Anyone tramatized by that can

      1. Simply not read such comments and if they do accept that they had the free will not to

      2. Grow up and accept that no man is required to be shit on repeatedly over time and if it happens and he bitch slaps the offender, it is called justice.

      or

      3. Get all offended and not be part of what I do, I won’t cry if anyone does this. This show has been done this way and I have been this guy since day one.

      Having class doesn’t mean you have to be a door mat for people.

      • Like I said, I can’t even imagine how much of this crap you put up with. I guess it just looked a bit unhinged to me since I didn’t know any of the inside story. No offense taken and I certainly wasn’t trying to shut you up or anything like that. I KNOW man-made global warming is a scam. I read many of Dr. Mercola’s articles and find them useful. I am very skeptical of main stream medicine too. Great show, great site, great work. Take care my friend.

  41. Steve,

    Maybe next time he could clue us in on what the hell is going on so that we can follow the discussion. For those of us reading, there was do mention of climate change and then Jack got all hyper about climate change. It was a little confusing.

    • Yes there was, Duff went off on not listening any longer because of my pseudo science and did bring up global warming.

  42. Screen shots are great. They can show just what kind of things someone tried to censor!

    • You said you were leaving and done with TSP, and so you are, you are done. It isn’t censorship this is MY SITE, not your site. It is not a public resource it is private property. Read this, specifically section 4. I don’t have time to deal with bullshit from people that just want to stir up shit and pick a fight, you are now banned from comments.

      http://www.thesurvivalpodcast.com/about-tspc/disclaimers-policies-2