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The New York State attorney general’s office accused four national retailers on Monday of selling dietary supplements that were fraudulent and in many cases contaminated with unlisted ingredients.
The authorities said they had run tests on popular store brands of herbal supplements at the retailers — Walmart, Walgreens, Target and GNC — which showed that roughly four out of five of the products contained none of the herbs listed on their labels. In many cases, the authorities said, the supplements contained little more than cheap fillers like rice and house plants, or substances that could be hazardous to people with food allergies.
At GNC, for example, the agency found that five out of six samples from the company’s signature “Herbal Plus” brand of supplements “were either unrecognizable or a substance other than what they claimed to be.” In pills labeled ginkgo biloba, the agency found only rice, asparagus and spruce, an ornamental plant commonly used for Christmas decorations.
At Target, the agency tested six herbal products from its popular “Up and Up” store brand of supplements. Three out of six – including ginkgo biloba, St. John’s wort and valerian root, a sleep aid – tested negative for the herbs listed on their labels. But the agency did find that the pills contained powdered rice, beans, peas and wild carrots.
Here are the products that were analyzed by the attorney general, along with the test results that were described in cease-and-desist letters that the agency sent to the four retailers.
From GNC, Herbal Plus brand:
Gingko Biloba:
- No gingko biloba found
- Did detect allium (garlic), rice, spruce and asparagus
St. John’s Wort
- No St. John’s Wort found
- Did detect allium (garlic), rice and dracaena (a tropical houseplant)
Ginseng
- No ginseng found
- Did detect rice, dracaena, pine, wheat/grass and citrus
Garlic
- Contained garlic
Echinacea
- No echinacea found
- Did detect rice in some samples
Saw Palmetto
- One sample contained the clear presence of palmetto
- Other samples contained a variety of ingredients, including asparagus, rice and primrose
From Target, Up & Up brand
Gingko Biloba
- No gingko biloba found
- Found garlic, rice and mung/French bean
St. John’s Wort
- No St. John’s Wort found
- Found garlic, rice and dracaena (houseplant)
Garlic
- Contained garlic
- One test identified no DNA
Echinacea
- Most but not all tests detected Echinacea
- One test identified rice
Saw Palmetto
- Most tests detected saw palmetto
- Some tests found no plant DNA
Valerian Root
- No valerian root found
- Found allium, bean, asparagus, pea family, rice, wild carrot and saw palmetto
From Walgreens, Finest Nutrition brand
Gingko Biloba
- No gingko biloba found
- Did detect rice
St. John’s Wort
- No St. John’s Wort found
- Detected garlic, rice and dracaena
Ginseng
- No ginseng found
- Detected garlic and rice
Garlic
- No garlic found
- Detected palm, dracaena, wheat and rice
Echinacea
- No echinacea found
- Identified garlic, rice and daisy
Saw Palmetto
- Contained saw palmetto
From Walmart, Spring Valley brand
Gingko Biloba
- No gingko biloba found
- Found rice, dracaena, mustard, wheat and radish
St. John’s Wort
- No St. John’s Wort found
- Detected garlic, rice and cassava
Ginseng
- No ginseng found
- Found rice, dracaena, pine, wheat/grass and citrus
Garlic
- One sample showed small amounts of garlic
- Found rice, pine, palm, dracaena and wheat
Echinacea
- No echinacea or plant material found
Saw Palmetto
- Some samples contained small amounts of saw palmetto
- Also found garlic and rice. http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/02/03/sidebar-whats-in-those-supplements/?emc=edit_th_20150203&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=68808761&_r=0
The multi- billion dollar supplement industry is the modern day equivalent of the traveling snake oil salesmen of the past,who would travel from town to town with a wagon full of bottles of “medicine” that they claimed would cure just about everything. Usually,the stuff they sold contained opium,morphine,or cocaine,so the customer got stoned from the “medicine” even though it didn’t cure anything-except maybe a toothache or headache.
People are still searching for some kind of magic pill to cure them,when in most cases their ailments can be traced to the person not exercising,or not eating right,or not getting enough rest,or some combination of the three.
As long as you eat a balanced diet,stay away from excessive intake of sugars,fats,oils,and excessive carb intake-you should not need supplements.
Some people,who are recovering from diseases or surgeries may need extra vitamins/minerals,which you can get from a decent multi-vitamin.
You are much better off getting all of your nutrients from foods than you are relying on supplements to make up for a poor diet or lack of exercise.
The modern day snake oil salesmen are no different than the snake oil salesmen from the old days-they just have better marketing gimmicks today.
Here We Go-“Gun Violence Is A Public Health Issue” Being Used For Anti-Gun Legislation
Posted: February 3, 2015 by gamegetterII in anti-gun asshatteryTags: abuse of power, anti-gun asshattery, anti-gun idiocy, Bloomberg, firearms.gun laws, Gun Control, Gun Laws, Gun Rights, guns
State lawmakers from Kansas and Missouri announced a bistate, bipartisan effort Friday to reduce gun violence.
Kansas Rep. Barbara Bollier joined Missouri Rep. Stacey Newman to pitch bills, recently introduced in Topeka and Jefferson City, that would establish firearms restrictions for people with domestic violence or stalking restraining orders or convictions.
“The public gets it completely,” said Bollier, a Republican from Mission Hills. A former practicing physician, Bollier described gun violence as “a public health issue.”
Newman, a Democrat from Richmond Heights in St. Louis County, said her bill includes language that would allow law enforcement and family members to restrict those considered “in crisis” from gun possession. That measure, she said, is similar to California legislation signed into law soon after the shootings near the University of California-Santa Barbara campus last year.
Rep. Joe Don McGaugh, a Carrollton Republican, described the bill as “patently unconstitutional” because it has too few protections for gun owners before a court strips them of their Second Amendment rights.
“Everyone wants to keep firearms out of the hands of someone who is not competent to own them,” McGaugh said. “But I think what we should concentrate on is the individual and not the gun. Missouri law already allows those who are threats to be committed for mental health issues.”
Rep. Rick Brattin, a Harrisonville Republican, said the bill is unlikely to get a hearing. He said that because the bill allows “any person” to file a petition for a gun violence restraining order, it could be used to harass law-abiding gun owners.
The representatives were joined by a small crowd that included representatives from the Hope House and Rose Brooks domestic violence shelters, the League of Women Voters, Grandmothers Against Gun Violence, the Kansas City Health Commission and the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence.
Murthy’s real-world experience consists of forming the group Dr’s for Obama,which then morphed into Dr’s for America,and writing an endless stream of anti-gun nonsense in the form of letters to Obama,congress and letters to the editor in many U.S. newspapers.
Murthy claimed he would not use his position as surgeon general to advocate for gun control.
He’s not-he’s getting others to do it for him,with the help of the usual suspects from the land of rainbows and unicorns-starting with the Brady campaign.
I smell Bloomberg’s $$$ in this horsepucky.
The anti-gun zealots are doing exactly what hizzoner claimed his millions would do,helped along by his front groups of like minded boot-licking sycophants.
Gun owners better start paying attention to this nonsense-as Bloomberg and his fellow wealthy anti-gun zealots are pushing this bullshit in every state that they think they might have a chance of getting it on the ballot,and then signed into law by fellow anti-gun zealots and imposed on gun owners second amendment right to keep and bear arms.
Bloomberg’s bootlicker stated the following…
“The public gets it completely,” said Bollier, a Republican from Mission Hills. A former practicing physician, Bollier described gun violence as “a public health issue.”
Murthy+Bloomberg+ existing anti-gun groups/orgs = I-594 like “gun control” measures being enacted in multiple states.
The NRA,GOA,NAGR,et-al allowed I-594 to be passed by voters by using lies,half-truths and obfuscation-and having said nonsense spewing forth from the tee-vee all across Washington state.
Voters who know nothing about firearms or gun laws do not understand that “gun control” laws only affect gun owners who follow the law in the first place-no additional “gun control” law will prevent “gun violence” because those intent on committing “gun violence” will do so no matter how strict the gun laws are.
Mexico,along with most of Central America have very strict “gun control” laws in place-yet these countries have the highest rates of “gun violence” on the planet.
It’s up to gun owners to call,write,e-mail,fax and to gather signatures of registered voters so that petitions can be delivered to Bloomberg’s bootlicking minions in the statehouses.
Pay attention,and work to stop this horsepucky-or we will all see nonsense like Washington state,Mass,Colorado,Conneticut,Commiefornia and NY state enacted in our own states.
Get motivated,get organized,protest,do whatever it takes-but do not allow this kind of bullshit to become law-in any more states.
The anti-gun zealots will never,ever stop-unless they attain their goal of a ban on all civilian ownership of firearms.
Hunters say that now there’s not enough deer in Ohio
Posted: February 1, 2015 by gamegetterII in huntingTags: archery, bowhunting, coyotes, deer hunting, hunting, muzzleloader hunting
DROPPING DEER NUMBERS
2009-10 DEER KILL
261,000
2014-15 DEER KILL
175,000 (estimated)
“Years of liberal bag limits, fostered by the sale of discounted antlerless permits starting in about 2007, definitely knocked down the herd, wildlife officials acknowledge. But the build-up over decades in the number of Ohio’s whitetails, considered among the most robust and trophy-worthy in the country, clearly showed the strains of food competition. Ohio deer in recent years have taken longer to mature, to grow in body size and antler dimensions, and to produce young.
A smaller, better-fed herd should begin to reverse some of the physiological impacts, said biologist Mike Tonkovich, deer project leader for the wildlife division. In terms of managing the herd size, the acceptable number of deer on the landscape must fit what the human population — read: farmers — can tolerate.
Some hunters believe the herd has passed the point of going in the wrong direction.
“Our hunters are hanging on by a thread,” Dennis Malloy, one of two Ohio field representatives for the national group Whitetails Unlimited, said after the summit.
The future of deer hunting in Ohio might be more in flux than in doubt, but the numbers suggest the recent golden age of sorts has passed.
Hunters killed more than 261,000 deer during the 2009-10 season after tagging about 252,000 the season before. The kill has dropped annually since, from 239,400 in 2010-11 to 191,400 in 2013-14.
Through last weekend, this season’s whitetail harvest totaled 173,096, down 8.4 percent from the same point last year. When the season closes today, the final numbers likely will be around 175,000 — lower than any season since 2001-02.
The gun harvest has experienced a similar decline, having fallen every year since 2008. Hunters checked nearly 117,000 whitetails that year, and only 65,485 in the most recent gun week, in December.”
Notice that Mr. Tonkovich did not even mention coyotes as one of the reasons for the decline in deer herd numbers.
I’ve had e-mail discussions with Mike Tonkovich in the past,he’s always responded to questions,and I’ll be the first to admit the guy does know what he’s doing-for the most part. The recent increase in the ‘yote population isn’t something the ODNR people seem to have noticed. Most don’t spend all that much time in the field,including the wildlife officers.
ODNR needs to start listening to those of us who spend more than a few days out in the fields and woods of Ohio.
I know that ODNR is pressured by both farmers-due to crop damage caused by deer,and by insurance companies,due to cars hitting deer, to reduce the deer population. As the article states,ODNR instituted low-cost doe tags,created urban zones where the doe tags were valid all season,not just until the day before gun season. Until this year,hunters were allowed to harvest 18-24 deer statewide by harvesting the max number in each zone.
Years of these policies,combined with the explosive growth of the coyote population,have reduced the deer population far too much. The recent changes made by ODNR are to little,too late. It’s going to take years for the deer population to recover-and it’s never going to recover unless the coyote problem is addressed.
Fawn predation by the ‘yotes is only going to increase,because not enough people hunt them. Unless the ‘yote population is knocked down by at least half-the size of the deer herd is going to decrease to the point there are very,very few deer-it will be like deer hunting was in Ohio during the 1970’s-when you could hunt the entire week of gun season and not see a single deer.
This year,Ohio harvest to a county by county bag limit,and limited hunters to a total of 6 deer statewide,as before,only one buck may be taken no matter where in the state it’s taken you can only take one,the rest must be does.
That’s still too many does,ODNR should limit the harvest to two deer per hunter so the herd can increase in population again.
ODNR’s claim that there is not enough food for more deer is pure bullshit-the only way there would not be enough food is if farmers stopped planting corn and soybeans.This fall,Ohio is going to institute WMU’s-(Wildlife Management Units)
Western states have been using this method for decades,most have had success using WMU’s.
I’m all for Ohio going to WMU’s,although it will make the hunting regs more confusing,it will allow wildlife biologists to manage game populations more effectively,because they can manage each area for the optimum deer population.
WMU’s are better because the bag limits can be adjusted for each unit,meaning higher bag limits in some,lower bag limits in others. This will allow the statewide deer herd to be healthier,and if managed correctly, we should see more big bodied deer,and bucks with heavier antlers,and bigger racks.
The change to WMU’s will help the deer herd,as long as ODNR starts urging hunters to kill ‘yotes.
Fur prices are reasonable this year,so hunting ‘yotes funds itself,skin ’em out,salt and dry the hides,sell the hides,and you can even turn a profit.
Hmmmm…
Posted: February 1, 2015 by gamegetterII in anti-gun asshatteryTags: anti-gun asshattery, anti-gun idiocy, Bloomberg, Gun Control, Gun Rights
BBC News – UK Suicide Bombers #$%$ Strike
Muslim suicide bombers in Britain are set to begin a three-day strike on Monday in a dispute over the number of virgins they are entitled to in the afterlife. Emergency talks with Al Qaeda have so far failed to produce an agreement.
The unrest began last Tuesday when Al Qaeda announced that the number of virgins a suicide bomber would receive after his death would be cut by 25% this February from 72 to 54. A spokesman said increases in recent years in the number of suicide bombings has resulted in a shortage of virgins in the afterlife.
The suicide bombers’ union, the British Organization of Occupational Martyrs ( B.O.O.M.) responded with a statement saying the move was unacceptable to its members and called for a strike vote. General Secretary Abdullah Amir told the press, “Our members are literally working themselves to death in the cause of Jihad. We don’t ask for much in return but to be treated like this is like a kick in the teeth”.
Speaking from his shed in Tipton in the West Midlands, Al Qaeda chief executive Haisheet Mapants explained, “I sympathize with our workers concerns but Al Qaeda is simply not in a position to meet their demands.
They are simply not accepting the realities of modern-day Jihad in a competitive marketplace. Thanks to Western depravity, there is now a chronic shortage of virgins in the afterlife. It’s a straight choice between reducing expenditures or laying people off. I don’t like cutting benefits but I’d hate to have to tell 3,000 of my staff that they won’t be able to blow themselves up.
Spokespersons for the union in the North East of England, Ireland, Wales and the entire Australian continent stated that the change would not hurt their membership as there are so few virgins in their areas anyway.
According to some industry sources, the recent drop in the number of suicide bombings has been attributed to the emergence of Scottish singing star, Susan Boyle.
Many Muslim Jihadists now know what a virgin looks like and have reconsidered their benefit packages.
http://news.yahoo.com/dead-philippines-awaits-answer-costly-terror-raid-060228797.html
The Middle East–Telling Fact from Twaddle, by Fred Reed
Posted: January 31, 2015 by gamegetterII in UncategorizedClassic Fred…
Fred Reed nails it on theburningplatform.com:
Many Americans wonder why the US military has such a dismal record of failure in its wars in Moslem territories. Do we not have the most modern forces in the world? How can a force armed with fighter-bombers, B1s, night-vision goggles, helicopter gunships, heavy armor, and advanced remotely-piloted vehicles lose routinely to lightly-armed goatherds?
Journalistic old-hands in the regions, men who have spent decades following the wars and the complex and shifting alliances, say quietly that the cause is American ignorance of both the lands and the people. Virtually no one in the United States has any notion of the region, they say, though all seem to have strong opinions. Policy thus rests on self-assurance buttressed by factual vacuum.
Journalism being what it is today, reporters cannot say openly that the US, from the White House to the Pentagon to the public, is (as…
View original post 99 more words
Dobyns prepares ‘21 questions’ for indifferent-to-date legislators
Posted: January 31, 2015 by gamegetterII in Uncategorized
Determined not to let a thus-far deliberately indifferent Congress ignore the wider implications of “fraud upon the court” by Department of Justice lawyers in his case, retired ATF Agent Jay Dobyns has prepared a list of 21 questions lawmakers should ask of Attorney General Eric Holder and ATF Director B. Todd Jones. He posted the queries, along with links to media accounts, on his website Friday, and mirrored it to elicit support from forum members on CleanUpATF, the site that first posted allegations of “walked” guns from Operation Fast and Furious being found at the murder scene of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry.
“Congress doesn’t need to hold hearings on this,” Dobyns maintains. “They simply need to draft a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder and ATF Director B. Todd Jones demanding truthful and complete answers. This is all it will take. If the AG and Holder will answer honestly, this will be soon be resolved for good.”
The questions…
1. Who was briefing you on the status of Dobyns v. USA?
2. What were you told and are you satisfied that your briefings were accurate and complete?
3. When did you first see the two ATF Internal Affairs reports [‘Reports’] on ATF’s reaction, response and investigation of the Dobyns home arson and on ATF’s removal of Dobyns’s backstopped countermeasure identifications?
4. What did you do about the factual allegations of criminal conduct and policy violations contained in the Reports?
5. What was Deputy Director Thomas Brandon’s role in this matter and upon whose instructions was he following?
6. Who was disciplined based on the facts, evidence and recommendations contained in the Reports and to what extent?
7. Who ordered that the Reports be withheld from Dobyns and his attorney and why?
8. When did you first learn that DOJ attorney(s) advised Judge Allegra that the Reports were irrelevant to Dobyns v. USA?
9. What did you do about it?
10. When did you first learn of ATF Attorney Valerie Bacon’s attempt to scuttle the arson investigation and upon whose instructions was she following?
11. What did you do about it?
12. When did you first learn that ATF Internal Affairs investigator Christopher Trainor had been threatened/intimidated regarding his investigation/testimony/participation in Dobyns v. USA?
13. What did you do about it?
14. Why did ATF close their investigation into the threats on Trainor without completing it?
15. What did you do when Judge Allegra referred to you allegations of government fraud related to Dobyns v. USA?
16. Why has DOJ’s Internal Affairs refused to investigate the allegations of fraud against DOJ attorneys requested by a Federal Judge?
17. Have you prepared for prosecution any of the criminal conduct revealed in the Dobyns v. USA trial, namely Obstruction of Justice and Perjury?
18. If no, why not?
19. Is DOJ, ATF or any government agency conducting surveillance on Dobyns’s attorney James Reed or any other party adversarial to the government in Dobyns v. USA?
20. If yes, who, who has ordered it, and why?
21. Do you consider yourselves to have any personal responsibility, ownership or accountability for the conduct of DOJ Attorneys, Agents and/or government witness’s actions in any of these matters?
Supreme Court’s Erosion of the Fourth Amendment
Posted: January 30, 2015 by gamegetterII in Police state USSATags: police state, police state USSA
Since 2000, the court has decided 13 cases that significantly weaken the Fourth Amendment’s guarantee against unreasonable searches and seizures:
– Illinois v. Wardlow (2000) – Flight in a high-crime neighborhood may constitute reasonable suspicion for a warrantless stop.
– Board of Education v. Pottawatomie (2002) – Public schools can randomly drug test students who engage in extracurricular activities.
– Maryland v. Pringle (2003) – When drugs are found in a car, all occupants may be arrested even without particularized evidence connecting them to the drugs.
– Hiibel v. Sixth Judicial District Court of Nevada (2004) – A state can compel someone stopped by police to identify himself.
– Illinois v. Caballes (2005) – Police can use a drug dog to sniff around a car even without prior probable cause or reasonable suspicion that drugs are present.
– Samson v. California (2006) – Parolees can be searched without a warrant even if there is no reasonable suspicion or probable cause of criminal activity.
– Hudson v. Michigan (2006) – No suppression of evidence for violation of the knock and announce requirement.
– Herring v. US (2009) – Police can rely on information received from another law enforcement agency that there is a warrant out for the arrest of a person, even though the information is erroneous, which raises the bar for exclusion of illegally obtained evidence.
– Kentucky v. King (2011) – Police can search without a warrant under the exigent circumstances exception even if the police themselves created the exigency.
– Arizona v. US (2012) – Police can ask about immigration status if they have reasonable suspicion the person is not lawfully present in the United States, even though “reasonable suspicion” is based on racial profiling.
– Florida v. Harris (2013) – Alert by a drug-detection dog can constitute probable cause for search even without a showing that the dog is reliable.
– Maryland v. King (2013) – Arrestees can be forced to provide DNA samples even if they are not convicted of a crime.
– Fernandez v. California (2014) – Police can conduct warrantless searches under the consent exception even if a co-tenant objects to the search.
Starvin Larry 