#Centers for Disease Conrol

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Queens University Belfast study: New research shows illegal levels of arsenic found in baby foods

Queens University Belfast study: New research shows illegal levels of arsenic found in baby foods

The U.S. has a child obesity problem. According to the Centers for Disease Control, Child Obesity facts:

Childhood obesity has more than doubled in children and tripled in adolescents in the past 30 years.1, 2 The percentage of children aged 6–11 years in the United States who were obese increased from 7% in 1980 to nearly 18% in 2010. Similarly, the percentage of adolescents aged 12–19 years who…

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hubert hc

“fearing great heights, bow down at the waist. servitude suits you. defy your fate only by bloodying the path so carefully paved and tread before you. if the goddess will not love you, if your father will not love you, if your mother cannot be reached or touched or felt, then love the anti-christ, and put her on a pedestal no man, especially you, cannot reach.”

people forget.

the holy kingdom of faerghus was once a part of the andrestian empire, and the andrestian empire was once the place considered ‘holy.’ it was blessed by seiros herself---seiros’s blood, her very crest, ran through each royal’s veins starting from wilhem himself, its first emperor. seiros loved the empire as she loved her husband and her children. the andrestian empire was loved by sothis herself, and they were her faithful children. 

that was a thousand years ago. wars have rocked fodlan since. the empire has lost ground and power, and propserity. even the religion which once lavished itself upon them has divided itself away---the andrestians, who once wrote the rules to which every devout person lived, is now relegated to being called ‘the western church.’ their traditions and rules deemed old or wrong or un-righteous or warped by time by the kingdom, always vetoed by the archbishop at the center of a new world.

but a vestra does not forget anything---least of all their storied traditions.

house vestra, at first glance, would not seem to be an important house. and in many ways it is not. it does not conrol the military, the economy, religious affairs, or any sort of public ruling. house vestra is viewed by many to be little more than a glorified house of servants---little more than butlers or secretaries in charge of servants, public and private meetings. their official duty is titled ‘household affairs.’

but only the master of the house can control what goes on in it. and the vestras run a tight, meticulous ship.

the vestras know every contact every emperor has ever come in contact with. the vestras know every known poison, every known common courtesy and tradition and proper forms of ettiquette in dagda, brigid, duscur, the kingdom AND the alliance (pity it is, that the kingdom and the alliance would be different, but their children learn anyway, before they learn to tie their boots or read). hubert is fluent in sixteen dialects of a total of eleven langauges and speaks them with perfect pronunciation. hubert memorized every known assassination in the history of fodlan (and how to prevent it from happening in the future) before he turned six.

but the power of house vestra does not come from their many talents. it comes from their Superior breeding and Superior Child Rearing and impressive arsenal of information dating back a thousand years (that they, again, never forget) meaning they are the perfect family, the only family, that can control every aspect of the royal family’s life. 

and they do so. with vigor.

how the emperor stands and sits and how he chews his food and wears his crown and how he waves, who he talks to (if he talks to anyone at all, some emperors are far too stupid, not that a von vestra would ever say such out loud), how he talks to them. the vestras control strategy, the vestras control the emperor’s goals, and they control these goals before the emperor even makes their own, so in tune are they with their lords, who they worship as holy beings---pharoahs more than emperors, rulers with divine holy right living in their veins, a power that must be tended to with tradition, with order, with meticulous guidance and knowledge no one but a von vestra could ever hope to possess all at once.

hubert, an only child, had impossible expectations on his shoulders.

hubert’s father was a devout man. his mother was a quiet woman, who never talked. his father liked it that way. when hubert would try to get affection from his mother, her hands would go limp, and his father would glare. hubert was raised on the bottle by nurses---an oddity for the time period, but one the vestra’s saw necessary. they needed their child to be tough---to be solitary. they did not want to spoil him. he was too important a servant to the cause.

hubert was born four years after the empire’s firstborn son. this already put him at a disadvantage. he would have to catch up. hubert’s father had meticulously planned to have a child every time the emperor and patricia did---but unfortunately all hubert’s siblings had died in childbirth or worse. a disappointment to be sure, but one that could be rectified with the proper discipline instilled in hubert. they would try to have more children over the years---to match the emperor and patricia. but hubert’s mother would die from birthing complications when he was only four.

thankfully, a vestra never forgets. so hubert can still remember his mother’s limp hands, her pale face, muscles not even strong enough to pull her mouth into a frown. she was not beautiful, nor ugly. but she looked like hubert, weak-limbed with hard, dangerous eyes, even though she never spoke in the little time he had with her in between study sessions and time spent with him.

‘him’ is tybalt. edelgard’s oldest brother, the boy everyone assumed would one day become emperor, if luck permitted and he produced his crest.

tybalt was an older boy, (four years older, remember?) with auburn hair, and a smile that could melt gold into embers, a particular talent with horses. hubert was told to worship him. but instead he loved him like apollo loved the sun. when hubert’s father beat him, he pictured a glorious future, dragging the sun behind him on a chariot, racing through the clouds. when his tutors spoke of sin and hell and the wife hubert would one day have to take in order to continue his household---hubert pictured heaven instead, side by side, serving his first, most secret love.

but tybalt did not produce a crest, not at eight, and not at nine, not at ten, or eleven, or twelve.

but edelgard did. just a minor crest of course---but that was enough to make her a viable heir, where tybalt was not. 

she was five. and where hubert could have resented being pulled away from his crush---he was falling deeper and deeper into depression as his future, and his father’s religious fixations---became more real and terrifying to him. edelgard was five years old, three years younger than hubert. and while hubert loved tybalt---and always would, because a vestra does not forget---spending time with edelgard did something that time with tybalt did not. it made him ignore his whole terrible life.

tybalt was a kind boy, a prince among princes, but edelgard was boisterous and rambunctious, an adorable bouncy little girl who was both bratty and a self-assured know-it-all in the adorable way only girls can be. with tybalt, hubert had begun picturing his father’s hell every time he saw him. no more clouds. only dirt&disease, bone-rotting flesh and eternal damnation.

but edelgard never forced him to see the clouds in the first place. she was high maintenance. to a fault. she was silly, and ridiculous, and sharp as a tack. she did not make him picture heaven or the sun---though she had grand beliefs about the future of the empire, goals far beyond what tybalt ever held.

instead she brought him down to her world, as only a child can. for the first time, with edelgard, hubert knew family, and he knew requited, platonic love, as edelgard made no secret of her affections with hugs and cheek kisses that hubert did not care that he would be punished for later. edelgard made him feel like a person, instead of an object or a servant.

and all that would change, for the worse, by hubert’s own hand. but hubert would never forget how special that little girl was.

edelgard and tybalt both left one night no more than three years later. his father had something to do with it, hubert knew.

and as hubert attacked every branch member of his house---his own father, who attempted to kill him in turn for disobeying him, as he stood his ground running outside the house to try to find edelgard (somehow tybalt started to fall by the wayside. surely the angel could protect himself. surely only the child needed him.). only to be attacked for three days straight. he did not eat, or sleep, he let himself soil himself if it meant another yard off the grounds of the von vestra estate to find her. but eventually he was taken down. and tortured. he did not beg for the goddess’s forgiveness as he was told to. he knew she would not listen. (she never had before. a vestra remembers.)

in his father’s dungeons, in which he realized some lessons he had learned from his house were not really just in case of emergencies... he stopped fearing the goddess. he stopped fearing hell. he began to crave it---a sadomasochism working its way into his heart.

he would attend lessons, repeat the motions, learn, and learn, and learn, paying special attention now, with spite bit into his tongue. but he would not be whole again until he saw edelgard and she explained everything, until the hate in his heart had a name and his vengeance worthy opponents.

he would follow the path he was given, the path he had always wanted, to be by the emperor’s side. he would make her dreams come true---and make everyone, even the goddess herself pay with blood. sothis forgot her children---turned her backs on the empire. but hubert remembers everything, and he’s here to burn it all to the ground.

despite his vitriol and his passion. hubert is ruled by fear, like a snaked coiled in a corner. he does not feel he can stand on his own two feet. he relies on edelgard for purpose, for clarity. he is most comfortable when treated as a servant of her will, as a mere extension of edelgard and nothing more. he no longer wants to be human. despite his fascination/aesthetic of the dark and occult, hubert still remembers those clouds, that chariot, flying through the air, being in love and holding that love tight to his chest. he wishes sometimes, to be a pegasus rider. but such roles are reserved for women. he’s better suited for groveling at their feet---not in prayer for the goddess, but digging himself deeper into the dirt & blood, to protect his emperor from things a child should not see.

[opedguy]

Time to Open Up the Country

LOS ANGELES (OnlineColumnist.com), Apri 28, 2020.--With coronaviurs cases AKA SARS CoV-2 or Covid-19 cases hitting the grim milestone of 3,127, 951 and 216,987 deaths worldwide, it’s time for Washington to begin opening up the country. Whatever damage the coronavirus did to the health, safety and welfare of Americans, it pales in comparison to the damage done to ordinary citizens by shutting down the economy.  Infectious disease experts have had their way with 73-year-old President Donald Trump, insisting on extreme mitigation efforts around the country, especially in New York City, shutting down businesses, sending the U.S. economy into the next Great Recession.  Infectious disease experts aren’t concerned on the human toll unemployment takes on ordinary citizen, only about mitigation efforts to stop the spread of the virus.  If there’s anything learned in the last month of national “shelter in place” orders, it’s that the coronavirus is not that lethal.

           While it’s true that a small fraction of the infected population develops life-threatenting symptoms, may even die, it’s also true that the vast majority of U.S. citizens have flu-like symptoms or no symptoms at all, the so called asymptomaic variety.  National Institutes of Health Infectious Disease Chief 80-year-old Anthony Fauci estimated that up to 50%, maybe more, of the population infected with coronvirus are asymptomatic.  What that should tell elected officials is that the costs of shutting down the economy far outweigh the benefits of mitigation efforts.  Billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates insists that the entire country must be tested before the economy can reopen.  Gates can’t figure of why that’s the case other than repeating talking points from infectious disease experts, consumed with testing and contact tracing, to ascertain who’s potentially infecting others.

            With at least half the population without symptoms, that speaks volumes about how low risk the virus is for the average person. Whatever vulnerable populations exist with the coronavirus, there’s nothing to stop those individuals from continuing to shelter-in-place, self-isolate, distance, wear masks, wash hands or do whatever mitigation efforts makes them feel safe.  For the vast majority of people, there’s no reason to keep the country shut down anymore.  When you look at the case of 49-year-old  emergency room [ER] Dr. Lorne M. Breen  who committed suicide yesterday.  Reports that Breen was overwhelmed with stress serving the frontlines on the war against coronvirus at New York’s Columbia Presbyterian Hospital speaks volumes about what happens when you overload otherwise normal people with stress.  Breen succumbed to intolerable stress by ending her life.

            Coronvirus cases hit 1,029,878 with 58,640 deaths in the United Statets, a grim reminder about the toll taken by the Wuhan-based SARS CoV-2 virus that came out of nowhere, causing a spiraling epidemic, then jumping borders to 210 countries around the globe.  China kept the spiraling epidemic a secret with World Health Organization’s 55-tear-old Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus who kept 66-year-old Chinese President Xi Jinping’s dirty secret for three months until declaring a global pandemic March 11.  Tedros knew in December that a spiraling infectious disease crisis in Wuhan, threatened the world.  But Tedros kept Xi’s secret and infected the rest of the world. Instead of quarantining China in December, Tedros let million of Chinses tourists travel to the Europe, the United States and beyond over the 2019 holidays and Chinese New Year, infecting the world with SARS CoV-2.

            :Today’s epidemic in the United State has become a political football, kicked around by Democrat and the media.  Blaming the White House for a lack of testing, Democrats and their friends in the press have justified the nationwide “shelter in place” orders, throwing millions of U.S. citizens into unemployment and homelessness.  Poor testing “is probably the No. 1 problem in America, and has been from the beginning of this crisis,” said Democrat Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, chairman of the National Governors’ Association.  Hogan repeats the same talking points as the infectious disease community knowing that the country is too big, with its 328,2 million population to test everyone—nor is it necessary.  Knowing that at least 50% of SARS CoV-2 cases are asymptomatic should tell elected officials that there’s far less risk to ordinary citizens than first expected.

            Testing every many, woman and child makes zero sense going forward. Only patients exhibiting severe symptoms should be tested at all.  With so many asymptomatic cases, infectious disease officials should treat coronvirus no different than the seasonal flu.  If the Centers of Disease Conrol {CDC] wishes to recommend people wear masks when shopping in grocery or department stores, the let them spell out the guidelines. Shelter in place orders have gone too far preventing ordinary citizens from working and earning a living. No U.S. citizen, for whatever reason, should be denied a livelihood because the infectious disease community thinks there’s risk of infection.  Mitigation efforts can be continued while the economy opens up, including asking fans to wear masks at sporting or entertainment events. “No masks, no work, no service, no exception,” said Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine.

About the Author

John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He’s editor of OnlineColumnit.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma

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