“Heaven on earth…”

Terry Dashner (www.ffcba.org)

To “get saved” is to bring heaven to us. It’s not necessarily a
gift given by God that gets us to heaven.

Recently I read an article published in a book entitled, What
does it mean to be saved? (John G. Stackhouse, Jr., editor,
Baker Academic, 2002). The author is Rikk E. Watts, and the
article is entitled, “The New Exodus/New Creational Restoration
of the Image of God.” The article is a Biblical-theological
perspective on salvation, and is–in my opinion–a landmark
study as to how the modern evangelical should view salvation in
Jesus Christ.

In the words of Watts, salvation is the “new creational
restoration” of man who is created in the image and likeness of
God and, therefore, His image bearer. Because man fell into sin
by disobeying God in the Garden of Eden, man lost his “light
bearing status” before God and His creation. Jesus came to
redeem man from his sin and lift him to the light bearing status
for which he was created. In Christ we are reflecting the light
of God as we walk in obedience to God–loving Him with all our
being and loving our neighbors as ourselves. So salvation is a
restoration of the “image-bearer” by becoming a new creation (II
Cor. 5:17) in Christ Jesus. It is the Holy Spirit that brings
the new life to bear (Titus 3:5-7).

May I share some more words of Mr. Watt’s that further supports
his thesis of “image-bearer” salvation?

Watts states, “Martin Heidegger once argued, our experience of
the present and expectations of the future can be constructed
only from the materials of the past. This is certainly the case
in regard to the Bible, whose Old and New Testaments from
Genesis to Revelation are profoundly shaped by Israel’s memory
of the exodus. But this is not all. Long ago Herman Gunkel,
noting how 2 Peter 3:6-7 describes the final judgment in terms
of the Genesis flood and how Matthew 24:37 likens the days of
the coming of the Son of man to those of Noah, argued that from
the biblical perspective, Endzeit (the last days) recapitulates
Urzeit (prehistory).”

Watts continues, “Several scholars have recently developed this
view, arguing that if there is a center to biblical theology, it
is the concept of new creation; as the Epistle of Barnabas 6.13
states, ‘Behold I make the last like the first things.’ Put in
more aphoristic terms, eschatology recapitulates protology.”

If God is enthroned in the heavens and the earth is His
footstool, then we are certainly at home as we posture ourselves
at His feet in devoted worship. Again Watts writes, “We do not
make a temple-palace for Yahweh; he has made one for us, and it
is not only the earth in its entirety but Eden and the
tabernacle. We do not form Yahweh in our image; he makes us in
his. We do not ‘open’ his eyes, ears, and so on; instead, he
gives us sight, hearing, and ultimately fills us with his
‘breath.’ Nor do we provide for him; rather, he has done
lavishly so for us.”

It’s not always obvious to us, but nevertheless it is true. We
become like the idols that we idolize. If I worship material
substance as my god, I become like the idolized thing–dead to
the things of God because my hearing and seeing have become like
the idol–deaf and blind. Israel worshipped idols and abused
God’s creation. She became as deaf and blind as the moot statues
of stone she prayed to. That’s why Isaiah 6:9-10 records Israel
as having eyes, she will not see, ears she will not hear. She
had become as deaf and blind as her idols, and judgment was
imminent.

There is coming with the return of Jesus Christ a unification of
heaven and earth. Remember the prayer He told us to pray? We are
to affirm the truth that as it is in heaven so shall it be on
earth. Again, we are not going to heaven, heaven is coming to
us. The Revelation of John speaks of a refurbished atmosphere
and earth by fire. It speaks about the new Jerusalem coming down
from heaven to earth. It says that Christ is coming again to the
earth on which we live. Jesus is quoted by John as saying,
“Behold, I make all things new.” So one might conclude that as
it was on earth when Adam and Eve walked the Garden of Eden in
innocence, so shall it be again. And this time, without the
tempter.

In light of this, what should we do with this “so great a
salvation”? We must realize that we are saved by believing in
our heart and confessing with our mouth that Jesus Christ is our
Savior. And we must recognize that we are being saved daily as
we surrender our will to the Spirit of God, asking Him to rule
over our hearts. Finally, we will be saved to the uttermost when
Christ glorifies our bodies at the resurrection. How should we
then live? Live everyday as the light-bearer we were created to
be. Let the light of Jesus shine through us until we are seen by
others as the true image of Jesus to this world.

Keep the faith. Stay the course. Jesus is coming soon. Keep
living as His Light to the world.

Pastor T

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Do you ever get stressed by the sheer amount of work and tasks to be done from day to day? Do you feel that 24 hours in a day is simply too short a time to get things done?

You are not alone! As our society progresses and the pace of life quickens, time is the most precious and scarce commodity. Whether it is things from work or personal stuffs that needs to be done, all you need is to know how to prioritize and organize yourself to get things done right. You would be surprised that a few simple tips will provide you with the tools necessary to accomplish more in less time and of course reduce your stress level at the same time!

In the first part of this series, we will take a look at the overall mindset you must adopt.

1) There is only a limited amount of time, it does not matter who you are, the same amount of time is given to each person. You cannot hope to do all things at all times. The key is to learn to prioritize your tasks. Invest a little time each day to list down all your tasks, big to small. Then list them in order of importance. You will find this initial planning could do wonders in helping you focus on the important things first. This way, you make full use of the time you have.

2) Stay focused on your tasks and do not be distracted by other stuff that may pop up along the way. The key is to stay focused in a relaxed manner. When I say focus, I do not mean that you have to carry on your task with a permanent frown on your expression. Learn to clear your mind of other distracting thoughts, and if you find yourself straining to maintain that focus, take a deep breath before carrying on.

3) When you set out to do a task, you must remember that getting things to move and eventually completing the task is your priority. You must not adopt the mindset that everything must be perfect before you move on. Distractions like these will tempt you to slow down or even stop halfway to try and make it a little more perfect. Just do it and get the task completed first, and when you have extra time, you can revisit and try to tweak it to as much closer to perfection as time permits.

4) Designate a special area for your productive work. For those working in the office, that will be your desk area. This is even more important for those working from home, as there are more distractions than those in the office. Set a special area in your house for productive work, the most likely place would be your study room, or if you do not have one, the kitchen top will be just as fine if you wish to make it your choice location.

In the coming issues, I will be discussing other critical areas that you can consider to adopt into your life for more productivity and less stress.

James Tan has dedicated his life to exploring the human mind’s potential in stress management areas after suffering a fatal auto accident, which has been the turning point of his life.

His website http://www.stress-relief-and-management.com contains various tips and advices, including a newsletter ‘Taming the Monkey mind’ and a free 28 part ecourse of stress managing tips.

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Meet a Cabernet cowboy named Jack. He rides the range in Monterrey County, on the 700-acre Galante family cattle ranch and vineyard in Carmel Valley, admiring the rows of vines that produce his estate grown Galante Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon and other premium varietals.

Jack Galante comes from a long line of historical Carmel residents, including his great grandfather J. F. Devendorf who founded the town of Carmel and later built the historic Highlands Inn. Since the beginning, when the Galante ranch was planted with grapes in 1983 to the development of the winery in 1994, Galante Vineyards has been rounding-up awards and accolades nationwide for their top-notch reds, to become recognized as one of the premier cabernet producers in Monterey County.

As a native Texan, I was immediately drawn to Jack and his partner Dawn, for their down-to-earth, cowboy style all blue jeans, boots and big smiles. But beyond the Texas charm are bold wines that speak for themselves, revealing hints of the heat of Carmel Valley with layers of fruit and earth.

Jack believes quality fruit is the secret to great wines. Our philosophy is to grow the finest grapes possible and let them speak for themselves through the wine. He points out that the extreme temperatures of the upper Carmel Valley (Cachagua) result in a long growing season with extraordinary hang time, producing cabernet sauvignon grapes that ripen slowly for intense, rich wines.

Seek out a bottle of the 1998 Galante Red Rose Hill Cabernet Sauvignon. The vineyard is aptly named, rising above a field of crimson roses, among the thousands of rose bushes growing on the ranch today. The wine itself is bold and rich in color, with a burst of dark berry and cherry fruits and medium tannins for a single-vineyard Cab that drinks well now, and should improve with age through 2008. Or sample the 1999 Rancho Galante, a vineyard blend of nice fruit, soft tannin that is easy drinking and pairs well with chicken, pork or beef.

As we head off into the sunset, Jack leaves us with a Galante Vineyards cowboy philosophy to remember, “Never follow good wine with water…unless you’re out of good wine.”

Eve C. White writes for websites such as DailyLuxe and LivingLuxe on all topics fine wine related.

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One of the things I like to do on my website is shine the spotlight on regular people like you and me who have chosen to do something a little unusual with their time and who have managed to live a unique cross-cultural experience.

So one of these special people is my friend Carol, a multi-talented highschool teacher, who, as I recently found out, is also an accomplished painter and pianist.

During the mid-nineties Carol decided to take a few years off and she went off to Turkey to teach English and Mathematics in a school in Istanbul. After all was said and done, Carol had lived for 7 years in Istanbul, thoroughly gotten to know Turkish culture and created a network of international and local friends that she still stays in touch with today. Turkey continues to be one of her favourite destinations and Carol tries to reconnect with her favourite country as often as she can.

In addition to that, Carol also has a special connection to a little town in Greece by the name of Parga and there is an interesting story behind this. We’ll soon hear about Carol’s international connections and her experiences and insights about Turkey and Greece.

Susanne Pacher is the publisher of a website called Travel and Transitions (http://www.travelandtransitions.com). Travel and Transitions deals with unconventional travel and is chock full of advice, tips, real life travel experiences, interviews with travellers and travel experts, insights and reflections, cross-cultural issues, contests and many other features. You will also find stories about life and the transitions that we face as we go through our own personal life-long journeys.

Submit your own travel stories in our first travel story contest (http://www.travelandtransitions.com/contests.htm) and have a chance to win an amazing adventure cruise on the Amazon River.

“Life is a Journey ­ Explore New Horizons”.

The interview with photos is published at Travel and Transitions - Interviews

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I know that there are seemingly endless home business ventures
available to us today, and it seems like there are more of these
“ventures” starting up on a daily basis. Before starting or
joining one those ventures please do me a favor and research,
research and when your think that you are done, research some
more What exactly do you want or expect to get after you join up
with any business venture? Look for a solid company that has
been around for years or even decades. Look for solid products
that can compete with other “like minded” products. What kind of
support or training will you actually receive? Do they offer you
a 100% money back guarantee if you should decide that the
venture may not be what you were looking for after all? Has the
market been over flexed? I know that most people do not have
many good things to say about MLM based companies, and I can
understand their frustrations. In most cases, only the top dogs
make any significant amounts of money, and for the most part you
will be hard pressed to make any money at all. Let’s not forget
about having to recruit your friends and family members. And how
about having to invest more of your time and money on self help
books and audio tapes and seminars? Now, here is the twist. What
would you say if you could be involved with a company that has
been in business for the last 19 years? What would you say if
that company made and manufactured an awesome line of products
that people use everyday of their lives? What would you say to a
100% money back guarantee? This guarantee, not only covers your
investment, but also covers every product sold. This is a
win-win situation if you are willing to commit yourself to your
business. You do not loose a penny, and what’s even better is
the fact that you will not loose any friends in the process.
Notice, that I did not mention how much money you are going to
make. You can make money in this business, but I will not make
any false claims or give you any false hopes. What would you say
to the fact that you will actually help people and their loved
ones live better and safer lives in the process? Email me at
StnypntNc@aol.com for more information. There is a real purpose
and need for these types of products, and the marketplace is
wide open. You have my word that I will not hassle or hound you;
neither will I make some sales pitch close in the process. I
believe in giving you as much information and facts as I
possibly can so that you can make an informed decision, a
decision that could very well change your circumstances. Thank
you and good luck to you in your search.

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Swimming pools are a wonderful addition to any home. They create an instant place for fun, relaxation, and exercise. Plus, water is extremely beneficial in any landscape. However, in feng shui, swimming pools can often create negative influence. That’s because swimming pools possess a great deal of energy in feng shui terms. It is also because swimming pools are often located at the rear of the home, and that is extremely inauspicious according to feng shui.

Even so, there are some instances when pools are a benefit to the homeowner. This would include a pool that is correctly sized, shaped, and positioned. In feng shui, certain pool shapes and sizes can create problems, such as poison arrows, which are harsh points of energy directed at the house.

On the plus side, pools positioned in certain locations can actually benefit homeowners. These are pools that are placed according to flying star feng shui. At their best, pools can be positioned to tap the “wealth star” — the secret location of prosperity that is tied to the direction of the front door. Another benefit of flying star placement is to overcome negative energies, as pools can offset negative energy from poor star placements.

Look at placing your pool in an auspicious location and follow feng shui’s design criteria to make sure your pool gives you great feng shui! Positioned right, swimming pools can add tremendous wealth luck to a home! If not, though, it can be a very negative influence that can harm your wealth. To be sure about your pool, though, consider checking in with a feng shui consultant.

The Top 6 Feng Shui Pool Rules

1. Select a shape that is auspicious.

The best shapes for pools are round, oval, kidney, or curving. This is because none of these shapes have any hard edges or points that can create a poison arrow effect that square-shaped pools often do. Other good choices include octagons and figure-eights.

2. Keep your pool size proportional to the size of the home.
Pools are better if they are not overly large. If they are too large for the home, they can “overwhelm” it, imparting much negative energy. Better to go with a smaller pool than one that is too large.

3. Place pools at the sides of the yard.
If possible, it is better to position swimming pools at the side of a yard rather than directly in the rear. If that can’t be accommodated, then do try to avoid having a pool that is directly in line with the rear center of the house. Pools that do can become menacing, as water behind you is considered bad feng shui.

4. Pools that embrace a home bring good luck.
These pools appear to wrap around a home or curve toward the home. These are a good design choice as they don’t have hard edges pointing at the house.

5. Locate pools in a favorable sector for feng shui periods 8 and 9.
Until 2043, pools should ideally be located in the North, Southwest, East, or Southeast sectors.

6. Incorporate the five elements around your pool.
Pools should be mixed with the other elements, such as metal (handrailings, pumps, electrical equipment), wood (plants, arbors, gazebos), earth (rock, cement surroundings or deckings), and fire (lighting). This helps to ensure that the pool is well-balanced and harmoniously incorporated into the landscape.

Kathryn Weber is the publisher of the Red Lotus Letter feng shui e-zine and is dedicated to helping her readers develop successful, prosperous, and supportive environments with feng shui. To subscribe, logon to www.redlotusletter.com and receive this special report Fr*ee “16 Feng Shui Secrets for Greater Prosperity.”

kweber@redlotusconsulting.com

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Identifying Link Partners

The first thing is to identify websites that would make suitable
link partners. These are sites that complement your own, and
therefore have a similar visitor profile to the type you are
looking for. For instance a website selling health food might
link up with a website about physical fitness. Be creative about
your choices; set up a spread sheet to keep track of your
approaches.

Visit the top 10 or 20 sites ranked in Google and Yahoo! for
your keywords and do some research on their link partners. You
will find not only do they have several link partners, but
partners that are quality sites for their content, linking
strategy, aesthetic appeal and so on. These are the sites you
should target for a link exchange request. Note: The major
search engines are reducing the number of links they’ll show for
each site, to cut down on search engine spamming. You may thus
find a specialized tool is necessary. A good one for his purpose
would be SEO Elite which is a complete reciprocal links exchange
management tool.

Assess the sites you short-list for their relevance and
complementarities to your own. Ensure that they are quality
sites (if they are link partners of the top ten sites in your
niche they generally will be, but take nothing for granted).

Assess them for:

Linking Website - this is the specific website linking to the
rival websites in your niche that you are benchmarking. In order
to find all of the websites that link to them go to Google and
enter this search criteria: link:www.targetedwebsite.com. Once
you do this Google will return a list of websites that link to
www.targetedwebsite.com. You will get a larger list by going to
Yahoo! and entering link:http://targetedwebsite.com. Note: that
for Yahoo you must include http://

Anchor Text used - is the actual text used within the link,
linking to the specified website. For example, the anchor text
in the following link would be “health food”. Health food
website.

Page Rank - is the actual Google Page Rank of the webpage
linking to www.targetedwebsite.com. In order to see the Google
Page Rank,

you’ll need to download and install the Google Toolbar for free
from: http://toolbar.google.com

Link Popularity - is the number of links that are pointing to
each of the webpages pointing to www.targetedwebsite.com. The
more the merrier. Go to a website like www.linkpopularity.com to
find each link partners link popularity quickly and
comprehensively.

Page Title - is the title of the page that is linking to
targetedwebsite.com. Does it contain the main keyword(s) for
your niche? If so, you should note the url (web address) of
those pages. You’ll want to approach those websites and try to
get them to link to your website.

* Getting links from webpages that contain your main keyword in
the page title is extremely powerful and is something many
people often overlook.

Number of Outbound Links - is the number of links located on the
webpage linking to www.targetedwebsite.com. The fewer links
there are located on the page, the more a link from them would
increase your ranking.

Once we’ve collected all of the information, we now can see
targetedwebsite.com’s linking strategy. We’ll need to calculate
the percentage of websites that contain the main
keywords/phrases in the page title, and the percentage of
websites that contain the main keywords in the actual anchor
text linking to www.targetedwebsite.com.

You’ll have to do this for the top 10-20 websites in your
keyword niche in order to properly establish the most beneficial
websites to seek link exchanges with.

The most beneficial sites will be those that:

a) Allow you to specify the anchor text that will be used in
their link to your website.

b) Websites with a PR OF 4 or more - don’t get too hung up on
page rank though.

c) Websites that will preferably carry your link in a relevant
page. Failing that, a website that has a well-organized links
page with a visible and hopefully prominent link in the
navigation bar, so that visitors can find it easily.

d) Should the website use a special links page, then ensure that
it carries no more than 30 links, otherwise the PR benefit from
that links page will be so diluted as make it worthless. Also,
there’ll be too many links competing with yours to get any
significant traffic boost.

Making Your Link Request

Now that you have established the websites you want to link
with, you need go out and actually ask them. How you do this
will determine whether your linking campaign will be effective
or not; it would be a great pity to do all the work above only
to mess it up with a shoddy links exchange request.

Firstly, websites that are worth linking to receive hundreds of
link requests. In order to get your request any attention,
prepare well so that it stands out from the crowd. You want to
show the webmaster that you have taken the time to peruse his
website and that your links exchange request is well considered.
You need to convince him/her that your website would make a good
fit with their own, that it is interesting, and his/her own
visitors would find it useful and beneficial. You also want to
make it as easy as possible for them to link up with your site.

When you write the links exchange request letter, personalize it
by using the webmaster’s first name if you can find it on
his/her site, make sure you have specified the website’s name,
and note and comply with any instructions the website may have
for exchanging links e.g. a web-based form, a code to cut and
paste on to your site and so on. Failing to do so would not just
be irritating; it shows that you have not really browsed the
site.

Be creative and bold with your email subject header. Being timid
and using a generic subject header like “Link Request” will
probably see your email deleted unread. Explicitly state which
page you’d like your link carried on and why. Oftentimes,
interestingly, you’ll get your links request approved without a
reciprocal link exchange. Some webmasters will consider either
that it may not make sense for them to have their link on your
site, or that your site is a valuable enough addition to their
site without a link in return. Most times though, a reciprocal
exchange will result.

Do not balk at approaching your competitors. Since no two
business entities are identical, it is possible for competing
websites to carry each others links and still benefit from the
total traffic carried by all. Imagine sites that sell unique and
therefore hard to find gift items. While obvious competitors, if
a surfer fails to find what they’re looking for on one site,
they may find it on the other, and vice-versa.

Page Rank

A word about Page Rank. PR is a measure of a website’s
significance derived and used by certain search engines chiefly
Google. While a positive indicator, you should not get too hung
up on it when identifying link partners.PR is gained and lost
often (every 3 months or so) so current PR is no indicator of
future trends. Further, PR is largely an indicator of link
popularity, is obscure in its derivation, and does not tell you
how suitable a website is as a link partner. Use it as an
indicative measure rather than a deciding factor.

Google PR increases as your link popularity does. Building links
with quality websites many of which will have low PR initially,
but websites that have the type of traffic your site needs will
invariably lead to a higher PR evetually.

Enjoy your Link Building.

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Advantages of Dish Network Services

Advantage #1. You get more digital channels for the same price, you get all the free features such as TiVo, up to 4 tv connections, free installation, and more.

Advantage #2. Dish Network cost about half the cost of traditional cable services and it seem like the taxes and surcharges are much lower. Also your bill is easier to understand and it can be viewed via the Internet. You can track all your viewing fees, pay tv fees up to the very minute with real time reporting.

Advantage #3. They provide great instant online and phone customer support - far and beyond the service offered through the big companies. No holding problems, delays, or automated calls.

Disadvantages of Dish Network Services

#1. Sometimes your dish tv goes out during a storm or during high winds. Cable is more reliable in tough, stormy times.

#2. No emergency reliability. Maybe you will never need it but if your dish does go out, you will have to wait longer for service.

#3. You may have to pay extra for your local channels, and almost everyone is watching and demands their local channels. This should be included in all packages, most do come with your local channels.

Research Your Choices.

Make sure to do your due diligence in order to make a wise choice in choosing your cable service. We hope this advice is helpful for you in making a sound choice on your home cable service

Juston Garland - Staff Writer for http://www.Nationwidebillrelief.com strives to help customers save money by describing his past and present situations and researched companies and internet experience.

Nationwidebillrelief.com provides quick and easy access to the best deals available in Internet services, home loans, local and long distance services, home and auto insurance. Visitors can compare prices and find the providers that can best meet their needs and current budget - all for free.

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In 1997, Congress passed the FDA Modernization Act, which required the FDA to review all drugs that contained mercury and determine their adverse effects on humans. For many years, Thimerosal, a mercury-based preservative, was added to childhood vaccines in multi-dose bottles, basically to increase profits for vaccine makers.

Its important to know that Thimerosal is not a necessary component for vaccines. If they are packaged in single dose vials, the preservative is not needed. There is mounting evidence, that shows our government knew about the dangers of adding Thimerosal to vaccines. Research by WFAA-TV revealed that the FDA began asking questions about the dangers as far back as 1972. By 1992, the preservative had been removed from dog vaccines and contact lens solutions because of its risks. And yet the government refused to order its removal from childhood vaccines for 10 more years.

In 2000, the FDA determined that infants were receiving much more mercury than was considered safe under EPA guidelines. A twelve-to-fourteen month old child, receiving the mandated vaccines under the Immunization Schedule, often received four to six shots during one doctor visit. Consequently over time, the child would be injected with as much as 40 times the amount of mercury considered safe.

Twenty years ago, autism only affected one in 10,000 children. However, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics, by January 2004, the incidence of autism rose to one in every 166 children. The Autism Autoimmunity Project reports that the disorder strikes 1 in 150 (or 1 in 68 families) today.

During the 1990s, some 40 million children were vaccinated and the number of Thimerosal containing vaccines given to children nearly tripled, and the financial rewards to drug companies as a result of the drastic increase were enormous. However, as the number of vaccines increased, autism rates inexplicably increased tenfold, according to the Spring issue of Mother Jones in 2004.

State by state statistics produced by the Department of Education, for the number of children aged 6-21 who have autism, compared the increase in cases over the 12-year period between 1992-93 and 2003-04, and the results were horrendous. In my home state of Ohio, in 1992-93 there were 22 cases of autism, in 2003-04 there were 5146 cases, or a 23,291% increase. In Illinois, there were only 5 cases 12 years ago, while there were 6005 in 2003-04. Mississippi had no cases of autism 12 years ago, but had 622 in 2003-04. Wisconsin had 18 cases in 1992-93 and 3259 cases in 2003-04.

Eli Lilly introduced Thimerosal in the 1930s with very little safety testing. According to a congressional report, a 1935 Eli Lilly internal document noted that Thimerosal was considered unsatisfactory as a serum for use on dogs. The product has been on California’s Proposition 65 list of known reproductive and developmental toxins for over a decade.

Its difficult to believe that anyone would by now even try to say there is no correlation between autism and the bombardment of mercury into the brains of children through their vaccinations in the 1990s.

Profits Over Safety

Autism is a source of devastation for the entire families. For some reason, it is 4 times more common in males than females, according to the Cure Autism Now Foundation. It involves a wide range of mild to severe symptoms, but each case seems to have 3 common symptoms: communication problems, impaired social relationships, and unusual patterns of behavior.

Autistic children develop unusual behaviors, such as twitching their fingers repeatedly, rocking, spinning, or rolling their eyes. A child may be progressing normally, but then begin to regress, losing speech, social skills and physical abilities.

Over the 1990s, parents and doctors began to notice that the onset of autism often followed the injection of vaccines with Thimerosal. At the turn of the century, Congress got involved in the debate. A House Government Reform Committee discovered a lack of research into the link between the increase in autism and childhood vaccines.

At that time, Republican committee chairman, Dan Burton of Indiana, noted that there were numerous conflicts of interest between federal research teams, policy-makers, regulators, health care agencies, and the vaccine makers who seemingly had the ability to influence decisions made by the FDA and CDC, regarding vaccines.

A four-month investigation by United Press International, determined that many members of the CDC’s Vaccine Advisory Committee had obvious conflicts of interest with vaccine makers through relationships that included: sharing a vaccine patent; owning stock in a vaccine company; payments for research; getting money to monitor manufacturer vaccine tests; and funding academic departments. UPI also found that the CDC had 28 licensing agreements with drug companies, and one university, for vaccines or vaccine-related products, and had eight on-going projects to collaborate on new vaccines.

Burton’s committee specifically zeroed in on the increasing numbers of vaccines children had been given over the past 15 years and the correlating rise in autism all over the country. During a hearing on June 20, 2002, Burton repeatedly asked FDA and CDC officials what they knew and when they knew it. And when their memories appeared lost, Burton produced agency memos to refresh them.

One 1999 internal FDA memo stated that the FDA had an “interim plan … already in place for many years” to get rid of Thimerosal. Wording in the same memo revealed the FDA’s fear that it will be accused of being “asleep at the switch for decades, by allowing a dangerous compound to remain in childhood vaccines.”

In 2001, the CDC commissioned the Institute of Medicine to examine the Thimerosal-autism connection. The IOM’s first analysis found the hypothesis “biologically plausible” and called for further research. But a reanalysis by the IOM in 2004 rejected any link.

According to nomercury.org’s Lujene Clark, IOM committee meeting transcripts were leaked to outside parties and suggest that CDC officials pressured committee members to issue a finding rejecting any link.

“The CDC contracted and paid for this series of reports from the IOM,” says Clark. “They made it very clear that they wanted the IOM to give the nod, to say that ‘We see no problems.’ That’s very, very frightening,” according to Illinois Times on Feb 24, 2005.

Burton has even gone so far as to hint at bringing criminal charges if it turns out that government agencies were complicit with the drug companies in a cover-up. “Look, I don’t think it makes any difference whether it’s a private company or a government agency,” Burton said. “If they know they’re harming somebody and they continue to let it happen, then they should be held accountable.”

There’s no doubt that the drug companies knew of the dangers. The LA Times recently released a 1991 internal memo from the pharmaceutical company, Merck, that proves the company knew back then that the overuse of mercury in vaccines posed a dangerous health threat to children. The memo noted that 6-month-old children who received their shots on schedule would get a mercury dose up to 87 times higher than guidelines for the maximum daily consumption of mercury from fish.

In a 2003 committee report titled Mercury in Medicine, Burton concluded: “It should be crystal-clear by now that mercury is a toxic substance that does not belong in pediatric vaccines,” based on expert testimony and research from leading universities.

Bush Could Issue An Executive Order

Prior to the election, the advocacy group, Unlocking Autism, asked President Bush to state his position on Thimerosal. On Feb 25, 2005, the group issued an open letter to Bush reminding him that he expressed full support for the removal of mercury from childhood vaccines in a written response from the Republican National Committee dated September 22, 2004. The group requested that Bush issue an Executive Order completely banning the use mercury for pregnant women and children under the age of 18.

The group maintains that Bush has a duty to communicate his position on the removal of mercury from vaccines to other Republicans in Congress now that Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN) has introduced Senate Bill 3, which would immunize drug companies from all liability for vaccine-related autism caused by mercury poisoning.

“The fact that President Bush stated before the election that mercury should be removed childhood vaccines means he believes thimerosal could, in fact, cause harm. If the President … supports the removal of mercury from childhood vaccines, then surely he cannot support legislation that protects drug companies from accountability for the injuries caused by mercury,” said Shelley Reynolds, President of Unlocking Autism.

SafeMinds is a leading autism advocacy organization fighting to ban mercury from all medicines and to promote treatment research for those who have already been injured.

On Feb 28, 2005, SafeMinds announced its opposition to the bill HR 650, “The Vaccine Accessibility for Children and Seniors Act of 2005.” The group maintains that the title of the bill is deceptive in that it imposes barriers to legal remedies for the vaccine-injured.

According to Lyn Redwood, President of Safe Minds, “Each time legislation is introduced to protect the vaccine industry from product liability it is hidden behind a nice title or buried inside legislative minutia,” she said “In 2002 legislators attempted a comparable end run on our civil rights by inserting similar language in the Homeland Security Bill, literally in the dark of night. Only when the American people spoke up in outrage was the move repealed.

“When faulty tires on SUVs were rampant, legislators didn’t recommend that the tire or automotive manufacturers be protected from litigation,” Redwood said, “it is beyond comprehension that when there are increased questions about vaccine injury that legislators would introduce legislation to take away American’s rights.”

Evelyn Pringle
e.pringle@sbcglobal.net
Miamisburg OH

(Evelyn Pringle is a columnist for Independent Media TV and an investigative journalist focused on exposing government corruption)

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