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Based on Karen Armstrong’s book, this film examines the concept of God in the three major monotheistic religions from the days of Abraham to modern times. Through analysis of historic and holy texts and incorporation of ancient art and artifacts, the program explores the deity written about in the Bible and the Quran. The evolution and intertwining of various Christian, Jewish and Islamic interpretations of God are also addressed.
can’t gt the vid to embed
check the link
http://staging.democracynow.org/2009/10/22/cia_invests_in_software_firm_monitoring
LISTEN
WATCH
JUAN GONZALEZ: “America’s spy agencies want to read your blog posts, keep track of your Twitter updates—even check out your book reviews on Amazon.” That’s the lead sentence to a new article on the website of Wired magazine titled “US Spies Buy Stake in Firm that Monitors Blogs, Tweets.”
The article reveals how the investment arm of the Central Intelligence Agency has invested in a software firm called Visible Technologies that specializes in monitoring social media sites, including blogs, Flickr, YouTube, Twitter and Amazon.
AMY GOODMAN: Noah Shachtman joins us here in our firehouse studio. He broke the story. He’s a contributing editor at Wired and editor of “Danger Room,” the magazine’s national security blog.
OK, lay it out for us, Noah. What did you find?
NOAH SHACHTMAN: So, the CIA, in 1999, set up an investment arm called In-Q-Tel that sort of makes investments in technologies that the spy agencies would like to see grow. And their latest investment is in this company called Visible, which basically takes blog posts and takes Twitter updates and takes comments on YouTube videos and sort of sorts them out and decides which people have the most weight in the blogosphere, which people are the most influential, and also filters out, you know, certain key words, decides whether certain posts are hostile or positive. And it’s basically a way for them to sort of keep track on what’s going on in Twitter, on the blogs, etc., etc.
JUAN GONZALEZ: And who does this firm normally supply this information to?
NOAH SHACHTMAN: Usually to companies like Microsoft. Right now they’re tracking the buzz on their Windows 7 release. They also do the work for Hormel, the processed meat company. When PETA was going after Hormel for some of their business practices, they kept track on the sort of anti-processed food activists. So it’s usually corporate clients, although there’s sort of a political spin to some of the work they do, as well.
JUAN GONZALEZ: So, in essence, they’re sort of like an intelligence operation for the corporate world on a normal—
NOAH SHACHTMAN: Yeah. They would say they try to spot trends and keep tabs on things, yeah.
AMY GOODMAN: But In-Q-Tel, you say, is the investment arm of the CIA. I think a lot of people would just be surprised by the CIA having an investment arm.
NOAH SHACHTMAN: Yeah, that’s right. In 1999, the CIA set up this sort of separate agency that would make investments on behalf of the intelligence agencies. It was a way to sort of develop certain technologies without going through the formal contracting process. Remember, back in 1999, that was like sort of the height of the dotcom boom. And there were a lot of these business incubators that were growing small businesses into something bigger. And In-Q-Tel was the CIA’s attempt to do the same thing.
JUAN GONZALEZ: Is it reporting it’s making money for the government?
NOAH SHACHTMAN: I don’t—it’s a not-for-profit—
JUAN GONZALEZ: Oh, not-for-profit, I see.
NOAH SHACHTMAN: —company, but I do believe that it has—many of its investments have panned out.
AMY GOODMAN: So, explain how Visible works. You talk about how it crawls over half a million web 2.0 sites a day.
NOAH SHACHTMAN: Mm-hmm.
AMY GOODMAN: Explain exactly. And then, how do people protect their privacy?
NOAH SHACHTMAN: Well, first they protect their privacy by not tweeting or not blogging. I mean, that’s the way they would have to protect their privacy, or to do it within a closed password-protected system. If you leave it out there, not only is the government going to read it, but Microsoft and Google just signed deals with Twitter and Facebook yesterday, where all the—all your tweets and all your blog updates will be very easily searchable by either Microsoft’s Bing search engine or by Google.
AMY GOODMAN: What’s the deal?
NOAH SHACHTMAN: The deal is basically that all your Facebook updates will be sort of fed into Microsoft’s new search engine, and people will be able to see what you post on Facebook or Twitter, or what have you.
JUAN GONZALEZ: And, of course, for the CIA, given the fact—the recent reports of how tweets and other social networking are used around the world sometimes to give advance notice on popular insurrections or—
NOAH SHACHTMAN: Mm-hmm.
JUAN GONZALEZ: For the CIA, this would be a sort of a normal direction for them to take, if they want to collect more intelligence.
NOAH SHACHTMAN: It would be. They’re probably already doing so, but just in a less elegant way. So this is probably—for them, they view it as a smarter way to get information they’re already interested in. The question is whether it’s aimed out at international audiences or whether it’s aimed in at domestic ones.
AMY GOODMAN: Noah Shachtman, you’ve also written about the US military using a fleet of unmanned spy blimps to keep tabs on would-be enemies in Afghanistan and Iraq.
NOAH SHACHTMAN: Mm-hmm.
AMY GOODMAN: Explain.
NOAH SHACHTMAN: Well, you know, the US military in Afghanistan—I just got back from there in September—is very interested in what’s called ISR—Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance. The idea is to see as much of what’s going on in Afghanistan as possible and to hear as much of what’s going on in cell phone conversations, or what have you. And so, these blimps are another tool to do it. There’d be cameras and listening equipment installed in these blimps in Afghanistan. It’s another way to kind of keep tabs on what’s going on.
AMY GOODMAN: And tell us what’s going on in New Jersey. In New Jersey, you have written about the Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division in Lakehurst.
NOAH SHACHTMAN: Oh, oh, yeah, right, right, right. So, in New Jersey, there is a—the Navy’s got a sort of R&D arm, and they’re looking to upgrade what’s in those spy blimps and really kind of update the surveillance equipment, make it much more powerful.
JUAN GONZALEZ: I’d like to get back for a second to this—you just happened to mention that remark that depending on whether this is being done, the social networking intelligence is being mined, internationally or domestically. Can the CIA conduct surveillance of Americans at home here, in terms of their communications?
NOAH SHACHTMAN: Well, they’re not supposed to. But, I mean, given the recent history of the US intelligence agencies looking inward as well as outward, it’s tough to imagine they wouldn’t. Also, remember, on the internet, it’s very tough to discern whether it’s a purely international conversation or whether a purely domestic conversation.
AMY GOODMAN: I mean, you say, “In-Q-Tel says it wants Visible to keep track of foreign social media, and give spooks ‘early-warning detection on how issues are playing internationally,’” but that tool can just be used inward?
NOAH SHACHTMAN: I mean, obviously, right? It’s the internet. There’s no—there’s no hard national borders, and all this stuff is already out in the public. So it’s a little hard to fathom that there wouldn’t at least be the temptation to use it domestically.
AMY GOODMAN: What’s the military’s policy on soldiers using Twitter?
NOAH SHACHTMAN: The policy right now is up for grabs, but there should be a declared policy in the next, I would say, two to three weeks. And surprisingly, the Pentagon looks to be having a fairly liberal policy when it comes to Twitter and Facebook and other social networks. There was a lot of confusion over the years about whether soldiers could use it or not. Some commands banned it, others allowed it to happen. But it looks like the Pentagon is actually going to come out with something that says, “Hey, look, use YouTube and use Twitter, but just do it smart.”
JUAN GONZALEZ: But that has, certainly during the Iraq war and the Afghanistan war now, opened up a whole new level of communication that didn’t exist before, of ordinary soldiers being able to get information out to their family or to people here in the United States that normally would not happened in previous wars.
NOAH SHACHTMAN: Yeah, that’s absolutely true. And in this period of confusion where it wasn’t clear what the regulations were, a lot of times insecure commanders would sort of slap down their soldiers if they printed something that maybe was a little bit subversive or, you know, didn’t quite hew to the party line. But hopefully these new regulations are going to sort that out, and you really should be able to have those soldiers take to YouTube, take to Twitter, you know, with a great deal of freedom.
AMY GOODMAN: Back to what you said at the beginning, saying the uses for Visible before, Visible tracking animal rights activists’ online campaigns against the company that was Hormel?
NOAH SHACHTMAN: Mm-hmm.
AMY GOODMAN: When it was working for Hormel. So, I see here you’ve got trillions of dollars being spent on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, actually trillions. And it seems like it’s very ripe and open money that can’t be tracked. It can also develop the spy technology under the guise of just war.
NOAH SHACHTMAN: That’s true, although the Pentagon also has plenty of money to—independent of the war costs, to develop spy technology. And the intelligence agencies, remember, their budgets are largely a black box. We don’t know how much they spend. And so, you know, there’s plenty of places where money for spy technology can be funded out of.
AMY GOODMAN: And this issue of how Hormel used Visible, now In-Q-Tel buying into it?
NOAH SHACHTMAN: Mm-hmm. Well, I mean, I don’t know too much more than the fact that they used it. I don’t have a lot of details. But, you know, the way Visible works is it kind of grabs all the blogs and all the tweets out there, then it sorts for certain key words, it sorts for a sentiment about whether things are positive or negative, and then it also sorts based on which bloggers and which tweeters are really important or not. And you can sort of see over time how a conversation develops. Technology then allows companies or the government to respond directly within a blog or within a Facebook page to those people. So, who knows? The commenter—the next commenter on your blog might be the CIA.
AMY GOODMAN: Well, we will leave it there. Noah Shachtman, I want to thank you for being with us. Noah Shachtman is a contributing editor at Wired magazine, and he’s editor of “Danger Room,” the magazine’s national security blog.
September 29th, 2009 by paulbradshaw
http://onlinejournalismblog.com/2009/09/29/the-end-of-objectivity-web-2-0-version
This week a new nail was driven into the coffin of the notion of journalistic objectivity. The culprit? The Washington Post’s leaked social media policy.
The policy is aimed at preserving the appearance of objectivity rather than its actual existence. It focuses on what journalists are perceived to be, rather than what they actually do.
And in doing so, it hits upon the very reason why their attempt is doomed from the start:
“Our online data trails reflect on our professional reputations and those of The Washington Post. Be sure that your pattern of use does not suggest, for example, that you are interested only in people with one particular view of a topic or issue.”
Our behaviour as journalists is now measurable. And measurability gives the lie to the pretence that journalists behave like scientists, impartially observing the petri dish of society.
That pretence has been crumbling for years. In 1976 the Glasgow Media Group’s Bad News study demonstrated how TV news favoured powerful groups by measuring a number of factors in news coverage. Dozens of other studies have followed a similar vein, using the measurability of journalistic output as their barometer. Meanwhile, depending where you sit politically, you’ll find a right-wing or left-wing media conspiracy to believe in.
Objectivity was always a phantom conjured by publishers to appeal to maximum audiences and advertisers [see comments fleshing out objectivity as method vs style]. Regulators then helped by requiring objectivity to broadcast in a limited bandwidth spectrum. The first nail in its coffin came with the end of those limits. As Dan Gillmor explained in The End of Objectivity:
“Objectivity is a construct of recent times. One reason for its rise in the journalism sphere has been the consolidation of newspapers and television into monopolies and oligopolies in the past half-century. If one voice overwhelms all the others, there is a public interest in playing stories as straight as possible — not favoring one side over the other (or others, to be more precise, as there are rarely just two sides to any issue).
“There were good business reasons to be “objective,” too, not least that a newspaper didn’t want to make large parts of its community angry. And, no doubt, libel law has played a role, too. If a publication could say it “got both sides,” perhaps a libel plaintiff would have more trouble winning.”
It was also born from 19th century beliefs in the scientific method and the search for abstract ‘truth’. But society is not a petri dish; and journalists are no scientists: their methodologies are flawed by the need for narrative and the rhythm of the deadline. And most don’t understand scientific methods at all.
So when you can not only measure the lack of balance in journalistic output, but also the lack of balance in journalists’ behaviour and relationships online, the game is well and truly up.
Imagine you’re a trainee journalist who has grown up in a Web 2.0 world: a member of countless Facebook groups; signatory to a dozen online petitions; tagged in Flickr galleries of protests and rallies. Oh, and your profile tells us not only your gender, but your ethnicity, religion, relationship status and sexuality. Will an offer of a job on the Washington Post now come with the request that you cut all ties to your previous life and wipe all records of your former existence as you join the monastic seclusion of Journalistic Objectivity?
Yes, journalists have opinions. And friends. And they rely on easily accessible sources.
Well, hold the front page.
So there lies the problem - but also the solution. Transparency is hastening the demise of the already crumbling notion of journalistic objectivity; but it also represents the best hope for journalistic integrity – and ultimately, for many journalists that was what the pursuit of objectivity was about.
As David Weinberger argues:
“Transparency subsumes objectivity. Anyone who claims objectivity should be willing to back that assertion up by letting us look at sources, disagreements, and the personal assumptions and values supposedly bracketed out of the report.
“Objectivity without transparency increasingly will look like arrogance. And then foolishness. Why should we trust what one person — with the best of intentions — insists is true when we instead could have a web of evidence, ideas, and argument?”
So keep your social media profiles, and make yourself available to a thousand potential sources rather than relying on the dozen in your contacts book. Link to your raw material and let people comment on the holes in your narrative. Engage with online communities if you expect them to engage with you.And stop thinking about the PR of how you look and focus on the journalism of what you do.
Written by Paul Bradshaw – Visit Website
http://lawprofessors.typepad.com/law_librarian_blog
Since 1982, the ALA has sponsored this event to remind us not to take our intellectual freedom for granted.
ALA reports that there were 581 challenges to books in schools and libraries in 2008; however,the Banned Books Week web sight informs us that the official ALA figures do not include ALL the challenges. Seventy to eighty percent of challenges are not reported to the ALA Office of Intellectual Freedom (though they do not provide supporting documentation for that figure, other resources indicate this data is supported by surveys undertaken by a variety of advocacy groups.) Banned Books does offer a nice mashup that maps the challenges.
At the ALA web site, you can review the differences between a challenge and an actual banning of books. They also provide information about the types of challenges and bans that take place in schools and libraries throughout the country.
On the web site, there is little information about the procedures ALA follows in response to these challenges or activities, or exactly how many are successful or unsuccessful. You can learn a little more about the challenges in this report by Roger Doyle at http://www.ila.org/pdf/2008banned.pdf.
A further exploration of the ALA web site reveals the Office of Lawyers for Libraries which holds regional advocacy institutes for lawyers retained to represent libraries on legal issues. In February they will be holding an Advocacy Institute in Los Angeles. You can also take advantage of a number of self help tools posted on the ALA Advocacy University web site.
Most of the resources focus on how to advocate for your library in terms of lobbying. There is only one paper based resource that focuses on lobbying for the library workers. There are no resources to help advocate for job security or academic freedom for individual librarians who are on the front lines battling censorship everyday. Oh wait, that was yesterday’s post.
In any case, Resource Shelf is doing a marvelous job keeping track of banned book resources to consult. This is a very important issue that I hope will all support.(VS)
Sen. Tom Coburn’s (R-Okla.) Chief of Staff: ‘All Pornography Is Homosexual Pornography’
By David Weigel 9/20/09 1:54 PM
One of the final events of the Values Voter Summit was a Saturday breakout session on “the new masculinity,” a wide-ranging topic that one speaker used to explain how any and all pornography could lead young people into homosexual lifestyles. That speaker was Sen. Tom Coburn’s (R-Okla.) chief of staff Michael Schwartz, a longtime conservative activist who has worked for the senator since 2005.
“Pornography is a blight,” Schwartz told an audience in a crowded room of the Omni Shoreham hotel. “It is a disaster. It is one of those silent diseases in our society that we haven’t been able to overcome very well. Now, I may be getting politically incorrect here. And it’s been a few years, but not that many, since I was closely associated with pre-adolescent boys, boys around 10 years of age. But it is my observation that boys of that age have less tolerance for homosexuality than just about any other class of people. They speak badly about homosexuality. And that’s because they don’t want to be that way. They don’t want to fall into it.”
Schwartz told the crowd about Jim Johnson, a friend of his who turned an old hotel into a hospice for gay men dying of AIDS. “One of the things he said to me,” said Schwartz, “that I think is an astonishingly insightful remark… he said ‘All pornography is homosexual pornography, because all pornography turns your sexual drive inwards.”
There were murmurs and gasps from the crowd. “Now, think about that,” said Schwartz. “And if you tell an 11-year-old boy about that, do you think he’s going to want to get a copy of Playboy? I’m pretty sure he’ll lose interest. That’s the last thing he wants! You know, that’s a good comment, it’s a good point, and it’s a good thing to teach young people.”
Here’s the final portion of Schwartz’s remarks.
so…
basically internalized or introverted sexuality equals homosexuality
same thing
?
oh
and that’s a bad thing
!Luh ah ah Jik!
the first vid in a 17 part series made by AronRa
check out his youtube page for the series and more of his work
http://www.youtube.com/AronRa
http://darwinwasright.homestead.com/1stFFoC.html
The U.S. population seems pretty evenly divided over whether the human species is biologically related to other animals or whether we were “specially-created” as part of a flurry of miracles. Even our collective politicians -seemingly all of them- are wrapped up in this controversy. Yet its hard to find even one of them who knows what its about. Why is it that there is such concern in so many grade schools (K thru 12) about teaching evolution, yet there is still a complete consensus among scientists all over America and the rest of the world -that evolution is the backbone of modern biology, and a demonstrable reality historically as well?
Most people really don’t understand science; what it is, how it works, what hypotheses and theories are, or even the purpose behind it. Sadly even those on your school faculty or state Board of Education often need an education themselves before they can be trusted to govern how or what our kids will be taught, and that’s why I thought I should speak up and do what I can to help.
To adequately understand evolution, you not only have to understand how to be scientific, (which is the real trick for most people) but you also have to know something about cellular biology, genetics, and anatomy, geology, particularly paleontology, as well as environmental systems, tectonics, atomic chemistry, and especially taxonomy, which most people don’t know squat about at all. Most people who accept evolution also tend to know a whole lot about cosmology, geography, history, sociology, politics, and of course, religion.
But to believe in creationism, you don’t have to know anything about anything, and its better if you don’t! Because creationism relies on ignorance. It is not honest research! It is a scam, a con job exploiting the common folk, and preying on their deepest beliefs and fears. Creationist apologetics depends on misrepresented data and misquoted authorities, out-of-date and out-of-context, and uses distorted definitions if it uses definitions at all.
There are basically two types of creationists; the professional or political creationists; these are the activists who lead the movement and who will regularly deliberately lie to promote their propaganda; and the second type which are the innocently-deceived followers commonly known as “sheep”. I know lots of intellectual Christians, but I can’t get any of them to actually watch the tele-evangelists, because they either already know how phony they are, or they don’t want to find out. But that only allows a radical fringe to claim support from they masses they now also claim to represent. So there’s nothing to stop them. Professional creationists are making money hand over fist with faith-healing scams or bilking little old ladies out of prayer donations, or selling books and videos at their circus-like seminars where they have undeserved respect as powerful leaders. All of them feign knowledge they can’t really possess, and some of them claim degrees they’ve never actually earned.
“You are a scientist, correct?”
“That’s right; I have a PhD in truthology from Christian Tech.”
Were it not for this con, they’d have to go back to selling used cars, wonder drugs, and multi-level marketing schemes. They will never change their minds no matter what it costs anyone else. So it is obviously the “sheep” whom I’m attempting to reach with this speech –so that they might not be sheep anymore, and will stop feeding fuel into that manipulative movement. Because its one thing to believe in something that might be true (like God in general or Christianity specifically) even though neither can be substantiated or tested in any objective way. But it is a whole other matter to willfully deceive others into believing things which are definitely not true -like creationism, especially when we can also prove that those doing this know their assorted arguments are bogus, and know they’re lying to our children, and that they hope to continue doing so under the guise of “education”.
Creationism extorts support through peer-pressure, prejudice, and paranoid propaganda, and sells itself with short, simplistic slogans which appeal to those who don’t want to think too much, or are afraid to question their own beliefs. Worst of all, it actually forbids critical inquiry, and promotes anti-intellectualism, and it is based on at least a dozen foundational falsehoods. First and foremost among them is the idea that accepting evolution requires the rejection of theism, if not all other religious or spiritual beliefs as well.
For decades those behind the creationism movement have tried very hard to portray the illusion that one cannot accept evolution and still believe in God. They know better, but they still want you to believe that evolution is atheist, and that it is either evolution without God, or God creating without evolution. That’s been their central claim since the creationism movement began. But this supposed controversy never was about whether or not there is a god. Most people believe there is a god, and they believe he is in control of all the seemingly-random events of our lives. This is true of most of the people who accept evolution also. Most of them believe in God as well, and they believe that God is in control of evolution; that evolution, like every other system in nature, is part of God’s design.
Of the couple hundred different, and often violently-conflicting denominations of Christianity, the largest of them by far is Catholicism followed by Orthodoxy. Both of these have stated support of evolution and denounced creationism. Pope Benedict recently described evolution as an “enriching reality” and described creationist contests against it as “absurd”. Both of the popes before him advised Christians ‘round the world to consider evolution to be “more than an hypothesis” and not to fear acceptance of that as being any challenge to their faith in Christ.
The early pioneers of evolutionary science were all initially Christian, (including Darwin) and many leading proponents of modern evolutionary science are still Christian today. For example, microbiologist Dr. Ken Miller, (who testified against intelligent design creationism in Kitzmiller v. Dover) -is a Catholic. Another outspoken proponent of evolution, Dr. Robert T. Bakker, (who has PhDs from both Harvard and Yale) is not only one of the leading, and most recognizable paleontologists in the world today, but he also happens to be a Bible-believing Pentecostal preacher; though he interprets Genesis differently than literalists would. In his book, Bones, Bibles and Creation, he says that to treat the Bible as though it were common history is to degrade its eternal meaning. One of the earliest geneticists, Theodosius Dobzhansky was an Orthodox Christian who many times professed his belief that life was created by God, but that nothing in biology made sense except in light of evolution. All these men agree that even if there really is a god, and even if that god is the Christian god, and even if that god created the universe and everything in it, =which they all believe- evolution would still be at least mostly true, and creationism would still be completely wrong.
Of all the developed nations throughout Christendom, only the United States has a significant number of creationists, and they’re the minority even here! Every other predominantly-Christian country tends to regard creationism as an incredulous, (if not insane) radical fringe movement which is an almost exclusively American phenomenon, and not taken seriously anywhere else. Poll after poll continues to reveal that, around the world, most “evolutionists” are Christian, and most Christians are evolutionists. So evolution is not synonymous with atheism, and creationism isn’t synonymous with Christianity either. Most creationists aren’t even Christians! There are millions more Muslim and Hindu creationists than Christian ones.
Regardless which religion they claim, creationism can be collectively defined as the fraction of religious believers who reject science, not just the conclusions of science, but its methods as well, and I mean all of them, from uniformitarianism and methodological naturalism to the peer review process and requirement that all positive claims be based on testable evidence. These people rely instead on blind faith in the assumed authority of their favored fables. In all cases, creationism is an obstinate and dogmatic superstitious belief which holds that members of most seemingly-related taxonomic groups did not evolve naturally, but were created magically, -that plants and animals were literally poofed out of nothing fully-formed, in their current state, unrelated to anything else –despite all indications to the contrary.
Creationists may side with western Abrahamic religions, (being the Judeo-Christian/Islamic mythos) in which there are conflicting versions of the same tales. Or creationists may belong to one of many eastern religions where the sacred stories of creation are much older, completely different, and dedicated to other gods and pantheons. But in every case, the proposed “creator” is supernatural, meaning that it is not a part of perceptible reality. Therefore it is undetectable by any testable means, and can only be assumed to exist for subjective emotional reasons, or as a result of cultural indoctrination, rather than because of any measurable evidence or logical rationale. In other words, there’s no way to say if its really there. Worst of all, there’s also no way to distinguish anyone’s gods or ghosts from the imaginary beings some primitive folks just made up either. This doesn’t mean no god exists. But it does mean that science can’t say anything about them. Because even if gods are real, they still don’t appear to be, and apparently don’t want to –since all the holy books demand they be believed on faith alone. As there is nothing anyone can verify and thus actually know to be correct about gods, then science is unable to make any comment about them at all. Because science can only ever investigate things with demonstrable evidence can be tested or measured.
From the creationist’s perspective, the method or mechanism of creation which these mystical beings use is nothing more than a golem spell where clay statues are animated with an enchantment. Or its an incantation in which complex modern plants and animals are “spoken” into being. That’s right, magic words which cause fully-developed adult animals to be conjured out of thin air. Or a god simply wishes them to exist; so they do. That’s it! There really is nothing more to it than that; pure freakin’ magic –by definition. Remember that the next time you hear anything from a creation “scientist”.
So for those who believe in God, the question really is how God created, and whether it was by one of many inextricably integrated natural systems he seemingly designed, or whether he simply blinked, wiggled his nose, wished upon a star and said “abra-cadabera”.
The 1st Falsehood of creationism:
“evolution = atheism”
so i thought i would type along while watchin this vid
as i tend to do in a stream of consciousness tag along style
i seriously got a lil scared about 2mins in and decided to leave it alone
but here’s the vid and my type along
edit: and here is the intro he speaks of
http://c0122981.cdn.cloudfiles.rackspacecloud.com/090917BananaManIntro.pdf
so he start’s off with the vague, open and loaded question
“are you concerned about what’s happening to our country?”
divisive but loaded to where pretty much anyone would say yes based upon their own ideals and paradigms
but as soon as you internally answer “yes”
he goes off to tag his issues and grievances like we held the same when the question was asked
“god-given liberties”
how does repressed responsibility projected as a space daddy give you liberties
liberty is the right and power to express oneself in a manner of one’s choosing
it is to be free of restriction or control
isn’t that what the religions of abraham do
don’t they have like 10 set-in-stone restrictions
and are you not allowed to choose and control yourself
but must be modeled after a misunderstood and misused palestinian shaman
don’t they have that “sin” shit
and the whole eden guilt trip
tha fuck is mike seaver talkin bout!
and i’m pretty sure kids can pray in public fella
they do it all the time
i think what folk don’t like is when you try to proselytize us in public
yes
they can freely open a bible in school
they can open any book of religion and fantasy they wish
so long as its appropriate and non interfering with school work
which is what you are there to do
don’t you go to school on the weekends for the bible?
in some public places the ten commandments are not wished for or wanted displayed by the public
they are tribal commandments from 15 centuries ago!
they are societal law and civil codes for a specific population
why would the public want such displayed?
to what ends?
what about every other tribe, group, cult, club, justice league or cabal
are we to be privy and reminded of their rules and regulations?
do you think so kirk?
and yeah
the gideons
nor any other religious sub sect are allowed to proselytize at schools
im down for lettin the gideons as long as e let the hare krishnas, pastafarians and ubermensch do the same
you with me there kirk?
yes kirk
most of the enlightened or educated folk in the country do not believe in space daddies or flying monkeys
that would tend to make quite a bit of sense ya
since they have the investigative and educated experience
and kirk
atheism has doubled because paradigms like yours and people like you are the alternative!
it’s really that simple
really
not due to proselytizing professors
um
see
what you’re doing there is projection
you are assuming others do what you do
i would surely say 61% of the students at such a high level of education as you speak of are already atheistic or agnostic
again it comes with being able to think your own thoughts or process information at such a high standard
the brainwashing thing is projection too man
dont worry its very normal and nobody really gets it yet
but like you said
the %’s are rising
so that should soon change
thank god the culture is changing!
are you at all familiar with american history
seriously man
thankfully we are evolving
and everyone is pretty much aware of your “alternative”
or the logic you present as the alternative
it’s not like the evil agnostic uni profs are the only voice in the wilderness
you yourself are already overexposed and hold the unique ability to outshine and actually help keep folk agnostic more than anyone who tries to parody you
you’re better than hal lindsey(p.b.u.h.)
im completely lost on that heart changing shit with the gospel
logic?
see…
in your world
folk thinking for themselves is sin
and
you imagine that is a good thing?
ah i think we’re past 61% now
ok
so now you feel threatened by some fellas theory of evolution
and have decided to hijack his work and add false propaganda
please tell me you get the irony of including hitler into that
right
c’mon now
right
wow
think of the intro we could write for the bible!
everyone who accepts and attends the origin theory over the creation theory has already heard all that about darwin
what with the upper education n all
hitler was also a christian there kirk
i’ll let you think your own thought on that for…
well
however long
as i’m only 2 mins in to this so far…
uh-oh
wait
oh your god!
you did not just use science to discredit your “opposition”
did you really just do that?
!wow!
yep
im out!
smile, dance and think about thought
-j
this…
“thing”
IS ridiculous
http://www.4degreez.com/misc/personality_disorder_test.mv
wow
there are even forums you can go to to seek help for your disorders!
tha fuck??!!
there are 14 yr old kids on there proclaiming fear and despair over being “diagnosed” by this test
oh wow
i cant even answer most of these loaded questions
shit
its structured to where if you have an emotion it has to place you in one of the categories lke “you’re doin it wrong”
so many of the forum post are about folk being afraid of the disorders and searchin for help
shit
psychology is either absolutely proper or disastrously wrong
sort of like reggae music
seriously
i mean
seriously
LOGIC!
anyways
yeah
reminds me of third grade
didn’t have as many laughs then though
so i’ve really been tryin to empathize with this bill
see if i can find the logic play
and how this is a means to an end
i did some extensive and exhausted web searches and most of what i’m herain and seein is a bunch of left leanin libbys cryin on how mommy and daddy are raisin them
how wrong it is that hey are tellin them what to eat
idk
i really want to slap them and say
“quit bitchin about the paradigm you created!”
“you made the bed, lie in it”
“KARMA”
here’s some of the propaganda i’ve received and come across
http://www.federaljack.com/index.php?s=organic <-where is that first vid from? and how scary are they tryin to be in their bullshit boo!
http://www.change.org/ideas/6133/view_blog/hr_875s_425_farm_to_fork_food_fascism_comes_to_america
http://www.opencongress.org/bill/111-h875/show
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=59474562131
http://www.thenhf.com/press_releases/pr_26_mar_2009.html
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=511973
http://www.opednews.com/articles/Response-to-Myths-and-Fac-by-Aaron-Lucich-090315-298.html
http://www.opednews.com/articles/CODEX-is-in-HR-875–learn-by-Abu-Ahmad-090511-625.html
http://www.opednews.com/populum/search.php?mode=AR&pg=30&from=183&to=0&search_requested=hr+875&submit=Site
idk
my utopian fairy tale would be that these folk said
“ok gub’ment”
“but we are responsible for our own life”
“we dont need nor want for you to do for us”
but again it dawns on me
that is a right sided logic
not left
right now the entity that thinks it owns and runs me has already told me what i can and can’t grow in my garden
they just said i was wrong for a garden of beautiful purple flowers last year
there are hundreds of plants/fruits/veggies that this authoritative entity tells me not to grow
so what does one do now?
what will you do?
the entire bill is listed below
but i’ve taken time to pull ou the prohibitive acts section here
i read that it’s not that organic farming is to become illegal like i keep hearin
and it seems to be focused on interstate commerce more so
even in the penalties section it is focused on businesses of people not their private use
but there is the lack of responsibility in the regulation and inspection by the government(although i wonder if that is only for interstate commerce as well
ya
responsibility is the only issue i see
imo
liberal dems fel entitled for someone to do for them and everyone else
in the projected solipsism of my way is the best way
then they bitch when the folk doin for them arent doin it the way they want
a libertarian rep wuld rather do it his way for him and bitch at himself if he does it wrong
SEC. 401. PROHIBITED ACTS.
It is prohibited–
(1) to manufacture, introduce, deliver for introduction, or receive in interstate commerce any food that is adulterated, misbranded, or otherwise unsafe;
(2) to adulterate or misbrand any food in interstate commerce;
(3) for a food establishment or foreign food establishment to fail to register under section 202, or to operate without a valid registration;
(4) to refuse to permit access to a food establishment or food production facility for the inspection and copying of a record as required under sections 205(f) and 206(a);
(5) to fail to establish or maintain any record or to make any report as required under sections 205(f) and 206(b);
(6) to refuse to permit entry to or inspection of a food establishment as required under section 205;
(7) to fail to provide to the Administrator the results of testing or sampling of food, equipment, or material in contact with food, that is positive for any contaminant under section 205(f)(1)(B);
(8) to fail to comply with a provision, regulation, or order of the Administrator under section 202, 203, 204, 206, or 208;
(9) to slaughter an animal that is capable for use in whole or in part as human food at a food establishment processing any food for commerce, except in compliance with the food safety law;
(10) to transfer food in violation of an administrative detention order under section 402 or to remove or alter a required mark or label identifying the food as detained;
(11) to fail to comply with a recall or other order under section 403; or
(12) to otherwise violate the food safety law.
Text of H.R. 875: Food Safety Modernization Act of 2009
111th CONGRESS
1st Session
H. R. 875
To establish the Food Safety Administration within the Department of Health and Human Services to protect the public health by preventing food-borne illness, ensuring the safety of food, improving research on contaminants leading to food-borne illness, and improving security of food from intentional contamination, and for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
February 4, 2009
Ms. DELAURO (for herself, Ms. ESHOO, Ms. DEGETTE, Ms. SCHAKOWSKY, Mr. ENGEL, Ms. CASTOR of Florida, Mr. MURPHY of Connecticut, Ms. SUTTON, Mrs. LOWEY, Ms. SLAUGHTER, Mr. HINCHEY, Mr. MCGOVERN, Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ, Ms. HIRONO, Mr. GRIJALVA, Mr. SCHAUER, Mr. NADLER of New York, Mr. BISHOP of New York, Ms. LINDA T. SANCHEZ of California, Mr. MCDERMOTT, Mr. RYAN of Ohio, Ms. GIFFORDS, Mr. FILNER, Mr. HALL of New York, Ms. LEE of California, Ms. PINGREE of Maine, Ms. KAPTUR, Mr. BISHOP of Georgia, Ms. MOORE of Wisconsin, and Mr. DEFAZIO) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce, and in addition to the Committee on Agriculture, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned
A BILL
To establish the Food Safety Administration within the Department of Health and Human Services to protect the public health by preventing food-borne illness, ensuring the safety of food, improving research on contaminants leading to food-borne illness, and improving security of food from intentional contamination, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE; TABLE OF CONTENTS.
(a) Short Title- This Act may be cited as the ‘Food Safety Modernization Act of 2009’.
(b) Table of Contents- The table of contents of this Act is as follows:
TITLE I–ESTABLISHMENT OF THE FOOD SAFETY ADMINISTRATION
TITLE II–ADMINISTRATION OF FOOD SAFETY PROGRAM
TITLE III–RESEARCH AND EDUCATION
TITLE IV–ENFORCEMENT
TITLE V–IMPLEMENTATION
SEC. 2. FINDINGS; PURPOSES.
(a) Findings- Congress finds that–
(1) the safety of the food supply of the United States is vital to the public health, to public confidence in the food supply, and to the success of the food sector of the Nation’s economy;
(2) lapses in the protection of the food supply and loss of public confidence in food safety are damaging to consumers and the food industry, and place a burden on interstate commerce and international trade;
(3) recent ongoing events demonstrate that the food safety program at the Food and Drug Administration is not effective in controlling hazards in food coming from farms and factories in the United States and food and food ingredients coming from foreign countries, and these events have adversely affected consumer confidence;
(4) the safety and security of the food supply require a systemwide approach to prevent food-borne illness involving the integrated efforts of Federal, State and local agencies; a thorough, broad-based, and coordinated approach to basic and applied science; and intensive, effective, and efficient management of the Nation’s food safety program;
(5) the task of preserving the safety of the food supply of the United States faces tremendous pressures with regard to–
(A) emerging pathogens and other contaminants and the ability to detect all forms of contamination;
(B) the threat of intentional contamination of the food supply;
(C) a growing number of people at high risk for food-borne illnesses, including an increasing population of aging and immune-compromised consumers, together with infants and children;
(D) an increasing volume of imported food, without adequate monitoring, inspection, and systems for prevention of food safety problems; and
(E) maintenance of rigorous inspection of the domestic food processing and food service industries;
(6) Federal food safety standard setting, inspection, enforcement, and research efforts should be based on the best available science and public health considerations, and food safety resources should be systematically deployed in ways that most effectively prevent food-borne illness;
(7) the Food and Drug Administration, an agency within the Department of Health and Human Services, has regulatory jurisdiction over the safety and labeling of 80 percent of the American food supply, encompassing all foods except meat, poultry, and egg products, as well as drugs, medical devices, and biologics;
(8) rapid technological advance and the expansion and globalization of industries in all areas of Food and Drug Administration jurisdiction present challenges and require leadership beyond the capacity of any one agency or agency head to provide;
(9) in the food safety area, the Food and Drug Administration implements provisions of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act that are 70 years old and that antiquated law limits the Food and Drug Administration’s role largely to reacting to and correcting food safety problems after they occur, rather than working with the food industry to systematically prevent problems;
(10) the Food and Drug Administration’s effectiveness is further impaired by fragmentation of leadership and management within the Administration, as major food safety responsibilities are dispersed across the Administration’s Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, Center for Veterinary Medicine, and Office of Regulatory Affairs;
(11) there is no official with the full-time responsibility and budget authority for food safety at the Food and Drug Administration and food safety competes unsuccessfully with the drug and medical device programs for senior agency management attention and resources; and
(12) improving Federal oversight of food safety requires a modern food safety mandate, clear authorities, and a dedicated official within the Department of Health and Human Services with budget authority to manage an integrated organizational structure and report directly to the Secretary.
(b) Purposes- The purposes of this Act are–
(1) to establish an agency within the Department of Health and Human Services to be known as the ‘Food Safety Administration’ to–
(A) regulate food safety and labeling to strengthen the protection of the public health;
(B) ensure that food establishments fulfill their responsibility to process, store, hold, and transport food in a manner that protects the public health of all people in the United States;
(C) lead an integrated, systemwide approach to food safety and to make more effective and efficient use of resources to prevent food-borne illness;
(D) provide a single focal point within the Department of Health and Human Services for food safety leadership, both nationally and internationally; and
(E) provide an integrated food safety research capability, including internally generated, scientifically and statistically valid studies, in cooperation with academic institutions and other scientific entities of the Federal and State governments;
(2) to transfer to the Food Safety Administration the food safety, labeling, inspection, and enforcement functions that, as of the day before the date of the enactment of this Act, are performed by various components of the Food and Drug Administration and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration;
(3) to modernize and strengthen the Federal food safety law to ensure more effective application and efficient management of the laws for the protection and improvement of public health; and
(4) to establish that food establishments have responsibility to ensure that all stages of production, processing, and distribution of their products or products under their control satisfy the requirements of this law.
SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS.
In this Act:
(1) ADMINISTRATION- The term ‘Administration’ means the Food Safety Administration established under section 101(a)(1).
(2) ADMINISTRATOR- The term ‘Administrator’ means the Administrator of Food Safety appointed under section 101(a)(2).
(3) ADULTERATED-
(A) IN GENERAL- The term ‘adulterated’ has the meaning given that term in section 402 of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (21 U.S.C. 342).
(B) INCLUSION- The term ‘adulterated’ includes bearing or containing a contaminant that causes illness or death among sensitive populations.
(4) AGENCY- The term ‘agency’ has the meaning given that term in section 551 of title 5, United States Code.
(5) CATEGORY 1 FOOD ESTABLISHMENT- The term ‘category 1 food establishment’ means a food establishment (other than a seafood processing establishment) that slaughters, for the purpose of producing food, animals that are not subject to inspection under the Federal Meat Inspection Act or poultry that are not subject to inspection under the Poultry Products Inspection Act.
(6) CATEGORY 2 FOOD ESTABLISHMENT- The term ‘category 2 food establishment’ means a seafood processing establishment or other food establishment (other than a category 1 establishment) not subject to inspection under the Federal Meat Inspection Act, the Poultry Products Inspection Act, or the Egg Products Inspection Act, that processes raw seafood or other raw animal products, whether fresh or frozen, or other products that the Administrator determines by regulation to pose a significant risk of hazardous contamination.
(7) CATEGORY 3 FOOD ESTABLISHMENT- The term ‘category 3 food establishment’ means a food establishment (other than a category 1 or category 2 establishment) that processes cooked, pasteurized, or otherwise ready-to-eat seafood or other animal products, fresh produce in ready-to-eat raw form, or other products that pose a risk of hazardous contamination.
(8) CATEGORY 4 FOOD ESTABLISHMENT- The term ‘category 4 food establishment’ means a food establishment that processes all other categories of food products not described in paragraphs (5) through (7).
(9) CATEGORY 5 FOOD ESTABLISHMENT- The term ‘category 5 food establishment’ means a food establishment that stores, holds, or transports food products prior to delivery for retail sale.
(10) CONTAMINANT- The term ‘contaminant’ includes a bacterium, chemical, natural toxin or manufactured toxicant, virus, parasite, prion, physical hazard, or other human pathogen that when found on or in food can cause human illness, injury, or death.
(11) HAZARDOUS CONTAMINATION- The term ‘hazardous contamination’ refers to the presence of a contaminant in food at levels that pose a risk of human illness, injury, or death or are capable of reaching levels that pose such risk during the shelf life of the product.
(12) FOOD- The term ‘food’ means a product intended to be used for food or drink for a human or an animal and components thereof.
(13) FOOD ESTABLISHMENT-
(A) IN GENERAL- The term ‘food establishment’ means a slaughterhouse (except those regulated under the Federal Meat Inspection Act or the Poultry Products Inspection Act), factory, warehouse, or facility owned or operated by a person located in any State that processes food or a facility that holds, stores, or transports food or food ingredients.
(B) EXCLUSIONS- For the purposes of registration, the term ‘food establishment’ does not include a food production facility as defined in paragraph (14), restaurant, other retail food establishment, nonprofit food establishment in which food is prepared for or served directly to the consumer, or fishing vessel (other than a fishing vessel engaged in processing, as that term is defined in section 123.3 of title 21, Code of Federal Regulations).
(14) FOOD PRODUCTION FACILITY- The term ‘food production facility’ means any farm, ranch, orchard, vineyard, aquaculture facility, or confined animal-feeding operation.
(15) FOOD SAFETY LAW- The term ‘food safety law’ means–
(A) the provisions of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (21 U.S.C. 301 et seq.) related to and requiring the safety, quality, nutritional composition, labeling, and inspection of food, infant formulas, food additives, pesticide residues, and other substances present in food;
(B) the provisions of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (21 U.S.C. 301 et 11 seq.) and of any other Acts that are administered by the Center for Veterinary Medicine of the Food and Drug Administration;
(C) the provisions of the Public Health Service Act that relate in any way to studying, surveying, containing, or preventing food-borne illness; and
(D) the provisions of this Act.
(16) FOREIGN FOOD ESTABLISHMENT- The term ‘foreign food establishment’ means any category 1 through 5 food establishment or food production facility located outside the United States that processes or produces food or food ingredients for consumption in the United States.
(17) INTERSTATE COMMERCE- The term ‘interstate commerce’ has the meaning given that term in section 201(b) of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (21 U.S.C. 321(b)).
(18) MISBRANDED- The term ‘misbranded’ has the meaning given that term in section 403 of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (21 U.S.C. 343).
(19) PROCESS- The term ‘process’ or ‘processing’ means the commercial slaughter, packing, preparation, or manufacture of food.
(20) STATE- The term ‘State’ means–
(A) a State;
(B) the District of Columbia;
(C) the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico; and
(D) any other territory or possession of the United States.
TITLE I–ESTABLISHMENT OF THE FOOD SAFETY ADMINISTRATION
SEC. 101. ESTABLISHMENT OF THE FOOD SAFETY ADMINISTRATION.
(a) Establishment-
(1) IN GENERAL- There is established in the Department of Health and Human Services an agency to be known as the ‘Food Safety Administration’.
(2) HEAD OF THE ADMINISTRATION- The Administration shall be headed by the Administrator of Food Safety, who shall be appointed by the President, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, for a term of 5 years, and who may be reappointed.
(3) DELEGATION- All the authorities and responsibilities assigned to the Secretary of Health and Human Services in the food safety law are hereby assigned to the Administrator.
(b) Duties of Administrator- The Administrator shall–
(1) administer and enforce the food safety law;
(2) serve as the food safety leader within the Department of Health and Human Services and coordinator of all Department activities related to ensuring the safety, quality, and proper labeling of the food supply;
(3) represent the United States in relevant international food safety bodies and discussions;
(4) promulgate regulations to ensure the safety and security of the food supply from all forms of contamination, including intentional contamination; and
(5) oversee within the Department of Health and Human Services–
(A) in consultation with the Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, all activities related to foodborne illness surveillance and investigation of foodborne illness outbreaks;
(B) implementation of food safety inspection, enforcement, and research efforts to protect the public health;
(C) development of consistent and science-based standards for safe food;
(D) coordination and prioritization of food safety research and education programs with other Federal agencies;
(E) prioritization of food safety efforts and deployment of food safety resources to achieve the greatest possible benefit in reducing food-borne illness;
(F) coordination of the response to food-borne illness outbreaks with other Federal and State agencies; and
(G) integration of food safety activities with State and local agencies.
SEC. 102. CONSOLIDATION OF FOOD SAFETY FUNCTIONS.
(a) Transfer of Functions and Resources- For each component of the Department of Health and Human Services or the Department of Commerce specified in subsection (b), there are transferred to the Administration all functions, personnel, and assets (including facilities and financial resources) of those components as of the day before the date of the enactment of this Act (including all related functions of any officer or employee of the component) that relate to administration or enforcement of the food safety law, as determined by the President.
(b) Transferred Functions and Resources- The components referred to in subsection (a) are–
(1) the Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition of the Food and Drug Administration;
(2) the Center for Veterinary Medicine of the Food and Drug Administration;
(3) the National Center for Toxicological Research of the Food and Drug Administration;
(4) the personnel and assets of the Office of Regulatory Affairs of the Food and Drug Administration used to administer and conduct inspections of food establishments and imports and conduct laboratory analyses and other investigations relating to food safety and enforcement of the food safety law;
(5) the personnel and assets of the Office of the Commissioner of Food and Drugs used to support–
(A) the Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition;
(B) the Center for Veterinary Medicine;
(C) the National Center for Toxicological Research; and
(D) the personnel and assets of the Office of Regulatory Affairs described in paragraph (4); and
(6) the personnel and assets of the National Marine Fisheries Service of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration of the Department of Commerce used to administer the seafood inspection program.
(c) Renaming and Reservation of Agency Identity- The Food and Drug Administration in the Department of Health and Human Services is hereby renamed the Federal Drug and Device Administration and may be referred to as ‘FDA’.
(d) Sharing of Facilities and Resources- The Food Safety Administration and the Federal Drug and Device Administration shall enter into such agreements concerning the sharing of facilities and other resources as may be appropriate to make efficient use of such facilities and resources and achieve their respective missions.
SEC. 103. ADDITIONAL DUTIES OF THE ADMINISTRATION.
(a) Officers and Employees- The Administrator may–
(1) appoint officers and employees for the Administration in accordance with the provisions of title 5, United States Code, relating to appointment in the competitive service; and
(2) fix the compensation of those officers and employees in accordance with chapter 51 and with subchapter III of chapter 53 of that title, relating to classification and General Schedule pay rates.
(b) Experts and Consultants- The Administrator may–
(1) procure the services of temporary or intermittent experts and consultants as authorized by section 3109 of title 5, United States Code; and
(2) pay in connection with those services the travel expenses of the experts and consultants, including transportation and per diem in lieu of subsistence while away from the homes or regular places of business of the individuals, as authorized by section 5703 of that title.
(c) Bureaus, Offices, and Divisions- The Administrator may establish within the Administration such bureaus, offices, and divisions as the Administrator determines are necessary to perform the duties of the Administrator.
(d) Advisory Committees-
(1) IN GENERAL- The Administrator shall establish advisory committees that consist of representatives of scientific expert bodies, academics, industry specialists, and consumers.
(2) DUTIES- The duties of an advisory committee established under paragraph (1) may include developing recommendations with respect to the development of new processes, research, communications, performance standards, and inspection.
TITLE II–ADMINISTRATION OF FOOD SAFETY PROGRAM
SEC. 201. ADMINISTRATION OF NATIONAL PROGRAM.
(a) In General- The Administrator shall–
(1) develop, administer, and annually update a national food safety program (referred to in this section as the ‘program’) to protect public health; and
(2) ensure that persons who produce, process, or distribute food meet their responsibility to prevent or minimize food safety hazards related to their products.
(b) Comprehensive Analysis- The program shall be based on a comprehensive analysis of the hazards associated with different food and with the processing of different food, including the identification and evaluation of–
(1) the severity of the potential health risks;
(2) the sources of potentially hazardous contamination or practices extending from the farm or ranch to the consumer that may increase the risk of food-borne illness;
(3) the potential for persistence, multiplication, or concentration of naturally occurring or added contaminants in food;
(4) the potential for hazardous contamination to have cumulative toxic effects, multigenerational effects, or effects on specific categories of consumers;
(5) opportunities across the food production, processing, distribution, and retail system to reduce potential health risks; and
(6) opportunities for intentional contamination of food or food ingredients.
(c) Program Elements- In carrying out the program, the Administrator shall–
(1) adopt and implement a national system for the registration of food establishments and foreign food establishments, as provided in section 202 of this Act;
(2) adopt and implement a national system for regular unannounced inspection of food establishments;
(3) require and enforce the adoption of preventive process controls in food establishments, based on the best available scientific and public health considerations and best available technologies;
(4) establish and enforce science-based standards for–
(A) potentially hazardous substances that may contaminate food; and
(B) safety and sanitation in the processing and handling of food;
(5) implement a statistically valid sampling program with the stringency and frequency to independently monitor that industry programs and procedures that prevent food contamination are effective on an ongoing basis and that food meets the standards established under this Act;
(6) implement appropriate surveillance procedures and requirements to ensure the safety and security of imported food;
(7) coordinate and collaborate with other agencies and State or local governments in carrying out inspection, enforcement, research, and monitoring;
(8) implement a national system to identify the food products posing the greatest public health risk and to analyze the effectiveness of existing food safety programs, in conjunction with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other Federal agencies;
(9) develop public education, risk communication, and advisory programs;
(10) implement an applied research program to further the purposes of this Act;
(11) coordinate and prioritize food safety research and educational programs with other Federal agencies and with State and local governments; and
(12) provide technical assistance to farmers and food establishments that are small business concerns (meeting the requirements of section 3(a) of the Small Business Act and the regulations promulgated thereunder) to assist with compliance with the requirements of this Act.
SEC. 202. REGISTRATION OF FOOD ESTABLISHMENTS AND FOREIGN FOOD ESTABLISHMENTS.
(a) In General- Any food establishment or foreign food establishment engaged in manufacturing, processing, packing, or holding food for consumption in the United States shall register annually with the Administrator.
(b) Registration Requirements-
(1) IN GENERAL- To be registered under subsection (a), a food establishment shall submit a registration or reregistration to the Administrator.
(2) REGISTRATION- Registration under this section shall begin within 90 days of the enactment of this Act. Each such registration shall be submitted to the Secretary through an electronic portal and shall contain such information as the Secretary, by guidance, determines to be appropriate. Such registration shall contain the following information:
(A) The name, address, and emergency contact information of each domestic food establishment or foreign food establishment that the registrant owns or operates under this Act and all trade names under which the registrant conducts business in the United States relating to food.
(B) The primary purpose and business activity of each domestic food establishment or foreign food establishment, including the dates of operation if the domestic food establishment or foreign food establishment is seasonal.
(C) The types of food processed or sold at each domestic food establishment or, for foreign food establishments selling food for consumption in the United States, the specific food categories of that food as listed under section 170.3(n) of title 21, Code of Federal Regulations, or such other categories as the Administrator may designate in guidance, action level, or regulations for evaluating potential threats to food protection.
(D) The name, address, and 24-hour emergency contact information of the United States distribution agent for each domestic food establishment or foreign food establishment, who shall maintain information on the distribution of food, including lot information, and wholesaler and retailer distribution.
(E) An assurance that the registrant will notify the Administrator of any change in the products, function, or legal status of the domestic food establishment or foreign food establishment (including cessation of business activities) not later than 30 days after such change.
(3) PROCEDURE- Upon receipt of a completed registration described in paragraph (1), the Administrator shall notify the registrant of the receipt of the registration, designate each establishment as a category 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5 food establishment, and assign a registration number to each domestic food establishment and foreign food establishment.
(4) LIST- The Administrator shall annually compile a list of domestic food establishments and a list of foreign food establishments that are registered under this section. The Administrator may establish the manner of and any fees required for reregistration and any circumstances by which either such list may be shared with other governmental authorities. The Administrator may remove from either list the name of any establishment that fails to reregister, and such delisting shall be treated as a suspension.
(5) DISCLOSURE EXEMPTION- The disclosure requirements under section 552 of title 5, United States Code, shall not apply to–
(A) the list compiled under paragraph (4); and
(B) information derived from the list under paragraph (4), to the extent that it discloses the identity or location of a specific person.
(6) SUSPENSION OF REGISTRATION-
(A) IN GENERAL- The Administrator may suspend the registration of a domestic food establishment or foreign food establishment, including the facility of an importer, for violation of a food safety law that is either repeated or could result in serious adverse health consequences or death to humans or animals.
(B) NOTICE AND OPPORTUNITY FOR HEARING- The Administrator shall provide notice of an intent to suspend the registration of an establishment under this paragraph to a registrant and provide the registrant with an opportunity for an administrative hearing within 3 days. The Administrator may issue a written order of suspension following the hearing, if the Administrator finds that a violation described in subparagraph (A) has occurred.
(C) JUDICIAL REVIEW- The issuance of an order of suspension under subparagraph (B) shall be considered to be a final agency action subject to judicial review in accordance with the provisions of chapter 7 of title 5, United States Code.
(7) REINSTATEMENT- A registration that is suspended under this section may be reinstated based on a showing that adequate process controls have been instituted that would prevent future violations and there are assurances from the registrant that the violations will not be repeated.
(c) Transitional Provision- During the 6-month period following the date of the enactment of this Act, a food establishment is deemed to be registered in accordance with this section if the establishment is registered under section 415 of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (21 U.S.C. 350d).
(d) Repeal- Effective at the end of the 6-month period following the date of the enactment of this Act, section 415 of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (21 U.S.C. 350d) is repealed.
SEC. 203. PREVENTIVE PROCESS CONTROLS TO REDUCE ADULTERATION OF FOOD.
(a) In General- The Administrator shall, upon the basis of best available public health, scientific, and technological data, promulgate regulations to ensure that food establishments carry out their responsibilities under the food safety law.
(b) Regulations- Not later than 1 year after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Administrator shall promulgate regulations that require all food establishments, within time frames determined by the Administrator–
(1) to adopt preventive process controls that–
(A) reflect the standards and procedures recognized by relevant authoritative bodies;
(B) are adequate to protect the public health;
(C) meet relevant regulatory and food safety standards;
(D) limit the presence and growth of contaminants in food prepared in a food establishment using the best reasonably available techniques and technologies; and
(E) are tailored to the hazards and processes in particular establishments or environments;
(2) to establish a sanitation plan and program that meets standards set by the Administrator;
(3) to meet performance standards for hazardous contamination established under section 204;
(4) to implement recordkeeping to monitor compliance with regulatory requirements;
(5) to implement recordkeeping and labeling of all food and food ingredients to facilitate their identification and traceability in the event of a recall or market removal;
(6) to implement product and environmental sampling at a frequency and in a manner sufficient to ensure that process controls are effective on an ongoing basis and that regulatory standards are being met;
(7) to label food intended for final processing outside commercial food establishments with instructions for handling and preparation for consumption that will destroy microbial contaminants; and
(8) to provide for agency access to records kept by the food establishments and submission of copies of records to the Administrator, as the Administrator determines appropriate.
(c) Specific Hazard Controls- The Administrator may require any person with responsibility for or control over food or food ingredients to adopt specific hazard controls, if such controls are needed to ensure the protection of the public health.
SEC. 204. PERFORMANCE STANDARDS FOR CONTAMINANTS IN FOOD.
(a) In General- To protect the public health, the Administrator shall establish by guidance document, action level, or regulation and enforce performance standards that define, with respect to specific foods and contaminants in food, the level of food safety performance that a person responsible for producing, processing, or selling food shall meet.
(b) Identification of Contaminants; Performance Standards-
(1) LIST OF CONTAMINANTS- Not later than 6 months after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Administrator shall publish in the Federal Register a list of the contaminants in foods that have the greatest adverse impact on public health in terms of the number and severity of illnesses and number of deaths associated with foods regulated under this Act. Where appropriate, the Administrator shall indicate whether the risk posed by a contaminant is generalized or specific to particular foods or ingredients.
(2) PERFORMANCE STANDARDS-
(A) ESTABLISHMENT- The Administrator shall establish by guidance document, action level, or regulation a performance standard for each contaminant in the list under paragraph (1) at levels appropriate to protect against the potential adverse health effects of the contaminant.
(B) TIMING- The Administrator shall establish a performance standard under subparagraph (A) for each contaminant in the list under paragraph (1)–
(i) as soon as practicable; or
(ii) in the case of a contaminant described in subparagraph (C), by the date described in such subparagraph.
(C) SIGNIFICANT CONTAMINANTS- The list under paragraph (1) (and any revision thereto) shall identify the 5 most significant contaminants in the list (in terms of the number and severity of illnesses and number of deaths associated with foods regulated under this Act). Not later than 3 years after a contaminant is so identified, the Administrator shall promulgate a performance standard under subparagraph (A) for the contaminant.
(3) REVIEW; REVISION- Not less than every 3 years, the Administrator shall review and, if necessary, revise–
(A) the list of contaminants under paragraph (1); and
(B) each performance standard established under paragraph (2).
(c) Performance Standards-
(1) IN GENERAL- The performance standards established under this section may include–
(A) health-based standards that set the level of a contaminant that can safely and lawfully be present in food;
(B) zero tolerances, including any zero tolerance performance standards in effect on the day before the date of the enactment of this Act, when necessary to protect against significant adverse health outcomes;
(C) process standards, such as log reduction criteria for cooked products, when sufficient to ensure the safety of processed food; and
(D) in the absence of data to support a performance standard described in subparagraph (A), (B), or (C), standards that define required performance on the basis of reliable information on the best reasonably achievable performance, using best available technologies, interventions, and practices.
(2) BEST REASONABLY ACHIEVABLE PERFORMANCE STANDARDS- In developing best reasonably achievable performance standards under paragraph (1)(D), the Administrator shall collect, or contract for the collection of, data on current best practices and food safety outcomes related to the contaminants and foods in question, as the Administrator determines necessary.
(3) REVOCATION BY ADMINISTRATOR- All performance standards, tolerances, action levels, or other similar standards in effect on the date of the enactment of this Act shall remain in effect until revised or revoked by the Administrator.
(d) Enforcement-
(1) IN GENERAL- In conjunction with the establishment of a performance standard under this section, the Administrator shall develop a statistically valid sampling program with the stringency and frequency sufficient to independently monitor whether food establishments are complying with the performance standard and implement the program within 1 year of the promulgation of the standard.
(2) INSPECTIONS- If the Administrator determines that a food establishment fails to meet a standard promulgated under this section, the Administrator shall, as appropriate–
(A) detain, seize, or condemn food from the food establishment under section 402;
(B) order a recall of food from the food establishment under section 403;
(C) increase the inspection frequency for the food establishment;
(D) withdraw the mark of inspection from the food establishment, if in use; or
(E) take other appropriate enforcement action concerning the food establishment, including withdrawal of registration.
(e) Newly Identified Contaminants- Notwithstanding any other provision of this section, the Administrator shall establish interim performance standards for newly identified contaminants as necessary to protect the public health.
SEC. 205. INSPECTIONS OF FOOD ESTABLISHMENTS.
(a) In General- The Administrator shall establish an inspection program, which shall include statistically valid sampling of food and facilities to enforce performance standards. The inspection program shall be designed to determine if each food establishment–
(1) is operated in a sanitary manner;
(2) has continuous preventive control systems, interventions, and processes in place to minimize or eliminate contaminants in food;
(3) is in compliance with applicable performance standards established under section 204, and other regulatory requirements;
(4) is processing food that is not adulterated or misbranded;
(5) maintains records of process control plans under section 203, and other records related to the processing, sampling, and handling of food; and
(6) is otherwise in compliance with the requirements of the food safety law.
(b) Establishment Categories and Inspection Frequencies- The resource plan required under section 209, including the description of resources required to carry out inspections of food establishments, shall be based on the following categories and inspection frequencies, subject to subsections (c), (d), and (e):
(1) CATEGORY 1 FOOD ESTABLISHMENTS- A category 1 food establishment shall be subject to antemortem, postmortem, and continuous inspection of each slaughter line during all operating hours, and other inspection on a daily basis, sufficient to verify that–
(A) diseased animals are not offered for slaughter;
(B) the food establishment has successfully identified and removed from the slaughter line visibly defective or contaminated carcasses, has avoided cross-contamination, and has destroyed or reprocessed such carcasses in a manner acceptable to the Administrator; and
(C) applicable performance standards and other provisions of the food safety law, including those intended to eliminate or reduce pathogens, have been satisfied.
(2) CATEGORY 2 FOOD ESTABLISHMENTS- A category 2 food establishment shall–
(A) have ongoing verification that its processes are controlled; and
(B) be randomly inspected at least weekly.
(3) CATEGORY 3 FOOD ESTABLISHMENTS- A category 3 food establishment shall–
(A) have ongoing verification that its processes are controlled; and
(B) be randomly inspected at least monthly.
(4) CATEGORY 4 FOOD ESTABLISHMENTS- A category 4 food establishment shall–
(A) have ongoing verification that its processes are controlled; and
(B) be randomly inspected at least quarterly.
(5) CATEGORY 5 FOOD ESTABLISHMENTS- A category 5 food establishment shall–
(A) have ongoing verification that its processes are controlled; and
(B) be randomly inspected at least annually.
(c) Establishment of Inspection Procedures- The Administrator shall establish procedures under which inspectors shall take random samples, photographs, and copies of records in food establishments.
(d) Alternative Inspection Frequencies- With respect to a subcategory of food establishment under category 2, 3, 4, or 5, the Administrator may establish alternative increasing or decreasing inspection frequencies for subcategories of food establishments or individual establishments, to foster risk-based allocation of resources. Before establishing an alternative inspection frequency for a subcategory of food establishments or individual establishments, the Administrator shall take into consideration the evidence described in paragraph (2)(D) and the overall record of compliance described in paragraph (2)(E) for such subcategory. In establishing alternative inspection frequencies under this subsection, the Administrator shall comply with the following criteria and procedures:
(1) Subcategories of food establishments and their alternative inspection frequencies shall be defined by regulation, subject to paragraphs (2) and (3).
(2) In defining subcategories of food establishments and their alternative inspection frequencies under paragraphs (1) and (2), the Administrator shall consider–
(A) the nature of the food products being processed, stored, or transported;
(B) the manner in which food products are processed, stored, or transported;
(C) the inherent likelihood that the products will contribute to the risk of food-borne illness;
(D) the best available evidence concerning reported illnesses associated with the foods processed, stored, held, or transported in the proposed subcategory of establishments; and
(E) the overall record of compliance with food safety law among establishments in the proposed subcategory, including compliance with applicable performance standards and the frequency of recalls.
(3) The Administrator may adopt alternative inspection frequencies for increased or decreased inspection for a specific establishment and shall annually publish a list of establishments subject to alternative inspections.
(4) In adopting alternative inspection frequencies for a specific establishment, the Administrator shall consider–
(A) the criteria in paragraph (2), together with any evidence submitted from the individual food establishment supporting a request for an alternative inspection frequency, including the establishment’s record for implementing effective preventive process control systems;
(B) whether products from the specific establishment have been associated with a case or an outbreak of food-borne illness; and
(C) the establishment’s record of compliance with food safety law, including compliance with applicable performance standards and the frequency of recalls.
(e) Effective Date- The inspection mandates shall go into effect 2 years after the date of the enactment of this Act.
(f) Maintenance and Inspection of Records-
(1) IN GENERAL-
(A) RECORDS- A food establishment shall–
(i) maintain such records as the Administrator shall require by regulation, including all records relating to the processing, distributing, receipt, or importation of any food; and
(ii) permit the Administrator, in addition to any authority transferred to the Administrator pursuant to section 102, upon presentation of appropriate credentials and at reasonable times and in a reasonable manner, to have access to and copy all records maintained by or on behalf of such food establishment representative in any format (including paper or electronic) and at any location, that are necessary to assist the Administrator–
(I) to determine whether the food is contaminated or not in compliance with the food safety law; or
(II) to track the food in commerce.
(B) REQUIRED DISCLOSURE- A food establishment shall have an affirmative obligation to disclose to the Administrator the results of testing or sampling of food, equipment, or material in contact with food, that is positive for any contaminant.
(2) MAINTENANCE OF RECORDS- The records in paragraph (1) shall be maintained for a reasonable period of time, as determined by the Administrator.
(3) REQUIREMENTS- The records in paragraph (1) shall include records describing–
(A) the origin, receipt, delivery, sale, movement, holding, and disposition of food or ingredients;
(B) the identity and quantity of ingredients used in the food;
(C) the processing of the food;
(D) the results of laboratory, sanitation, or other tests performed on the food or in the food establishment;
(E) consumer complaints concerning the food or packaging of the food;
(F) the production codes, open date codes, and locations of food production; and
(G) other matters reasonably related to whether food is adulterated or misbranded, or otherwise fails to meet the requirements of this Act.
(g) Protection of Sensitive Information-
(1) IN GENERAL- The Administrator shall develop and maintain procedures to prevent the unauthorized disclosure of any trade secret or commercially valuable confidential information obtained by the Administrator.
(2) LIMITATION- The requirements under this subsection and subsection (f) do not–
(A) limit the authority of the Administrator to inspect or copy records or to require the establishment or maintenance of records under this Act;
(B) have any legal effect on section 1905 of title 18, United States Code;
(C) extend to any food recipe, financial data, pricing data, or personnel data;
(D) limit the public disclosure of distribution records or other records related to food subject to a voluntary or mandatory recall under section 403; or
(E) limit the authority of the Administrator to promulgate regulations to permit the sharing of data with other governmental authorities.
(h) Bribery of or Gifts to Inspector or Other Officers and Acceptance of Gifts- Any person or agent or employee thereof that gives, pays, or offers, directly or indirectly, to the Administrator or any employee or other designee thereof authorized to perform any duty under the food safety law any money or other thing of value, with intent to influence the discharge of any duty under such law, shall be imprisoned for not more than 5 years, fined in accordance with title 18, United States Code, or both. Any Administrator, employee, or other designee that solicits or accepts any money or other thing of value from any person, with intent to influence the discharge of any duty under the food safety law, shall be summarily discharged from office and imprisoned for not more than 5 years, fined in accordance with title 18, United States Code, or both.
SEC. 206. FOOD PRODUCTION FACILITIES.
(a) Authorities- In carrying out the duties of the Administrator and the purposes of this Act, the Administrator shall have the authority, with respect to food production facilities, to–
(1) visit and inspect food production facilities in the United States and in foreign countries to determine if they are operating in compliance with the requirements of the food safety law;
(2) review food safety records as required to be kept by the Administrator under section 210 and for other food safety purposes;
(3) set good practice standards to protect the public and animal health and promote food safety;
(4) conduct monitoring and surveillance of animals, plants, products, or the environment, as appropriate; and
(5) collect and maintain information relevant to public health and farm practices.
(b) Inspection of Records- A food production facility shall permit the Administrator upon presentation of appropriate credentials and at reasonable times and in a reasonable manner, to have access to and ability to copy all records maintained by or on behalf of such food production establishment in any format (including paper or electronic) and at any location, that are necessary to assist the Administrator–
(1) to determine whether the food is contaminated, adulterated, or otherwise not in compliance with the food safety law; or
(2) to track the food in commerce.
(c) Regulations- Not later than 1 year after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Administrator, in consultation with the Secretary of Agriculture and representatives of State departments of agriculture, shall promulgate regulations to establish science-based minimum standards for the safe production of food by food production facilities. Such regulations shall–
(1) consider all relevant hazards, including those occurring naturally, and those that may be unintentionally or intentionally introduced;
(2) require each food production facility to have a written food safety plan that describes the likely hazards and preventive controls implemented to address those hazards;
(3) include, with respect to growing, harvesting, sorting, and storage operations, minimum standards related to fertilizer use, nutrients, hygiene, packaging, temperature controls, animal encroachment, and water;
(4) include, with respect to animals raised for food, minimum standards related to the animal’s health, feed, and environment which bear on the safety of food for human consumption;
(5) provide a reasonable period of time for compliance, taking into account the needs of small businesses for additional time to comply;
(6) provide for coordination of education and enforcement activities by State and local officials, as designated by the Governors of the respective States; and
(7) include a description of the variance process under subsection (d) and the types of permissible variances which the Administrator may grant under such process.
(d) Variances- States and foreign countries that export produce intended for consumption in the United States may request from the Administrator variances from the requirements of the regulations under subsection (c). A request shall–
(1) be in writing;
(2) describe the reasons the variance is necessary;
(3) describe the procedures, processes, and practices that will be followed under the variance to ensure produce is not adulterated; and
(4) contain any other information required by the Administrator.
(e) Approval or Disapproval of Variances- If the Administrator determines after review of a request under subsection (d) that the requested variance provides equivalent protections to those promulgated under subsection (c), the Administrator may approve the request. The Administrator shall deny a request if it is–
(1) not sufficiently detailed to permit a determination;
(2) fails to cite sufficient grounds for allowing a variance; or
(3) does not provide reasonable assurances that the produce will not be adulterated.
(f) Enforcement- The Administrator may coordinate with the agency or department designated by the Governor of each State to perform activities to ensure compliance with this section.
(g) Imported Produce- Not later than 1 year after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Administrator shall promulgate regulations to ensure that raw agricultural commodities and minimally processed produce imported into the United States can meet standards for food safety, inspection, labeling, and consumer protection that are at least equal to standards applicable to such commodities and produce produced in the United States.
SEC. 207. FEDERAL AND STATE COOPERATION.
(a) In General-
(1) AUTHORITY- The Administrator shall strengthen and expand food-borne illness surveillance systems to–
(A) inform and evaluate efforts to prevent food-borne illness; and
(B) enhance the identification and investigation of, and response to, food-borne illness outbreaks.
(2) FOOD-BORNE ILLNESS OUTBREAK- For purposes of this section, the term ‘foodborne illness outbreak’ means the occurrence of 2 or more cases of a similar illness resulting from the ingestion of a common food.
(b) Food-Borne Illness Surveillance Systems- The Administrator, in collaboration with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, shall enhance food-borne illness surveillance systems to improve the collection, analysis, reporting, and usefulness of data on food-borne illnesses by–
(1) coordinating food-borne illness surveillance systems, including complaint systems, in order to–
(A) produce better information on illnesses associated with foods, including sources and risk factors for infections by emerging pathogens; and
(B) facilitate sharing of data acquisition and findings on a more timely basis among governmental agencies, including the Food Safety Administration, the Food Safety and Inspection Service, and State and local agencies, and with the public;
(2) augmenting such systems to improve attribution of a food-borne illness outbreak to a specific food;
(3) developing improved epidemiological tools for obtaining quality exposure data, microbiological methods for classifying cases and detecting clusters, and improved tracebacks to rapidly and specifically identify contaminated food products;
(4) expanding capacity of such systems for implementation of fingerprinting strategies for food-borne infectious agents, including parasites and hepatitis A, in order to increase pathogen discovery efforts to identify new or rarely documented causes of food-borne illness;
(5) allowing timely public access to de-identified, aggregate surveillance data;
(6) at least annually, publishing current reports on findings from such systems;
(7) exploring establishment of registries for long-term case follow-up to better characterize late complications of food-borne illness;
(8) increasing participation in national networks of public health and food regulatory agencies and laboratories to–
(A) allow public health officials at the Federal, State, and local levels to share and accept laboratory analytic findings; and
(B) identify food-borne illness outbreaks and attribute such outbreaks to specific foods through submission of standardized molecular subtypes (also known as ‘fingerprints’) of food-borne illness pathogens to a centralized database; and
(9) establishing a flexible mechanism for rapidly supporting scientific research by academic centers of excellence, which may include staff representing academic clinical researchers, food microbiologists, animal and plant disease specialists, ecologists, and other allied disciplines.
(c) Improving State Surveillance Capacity- The Administrator, in collaboration with the Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, shall improve capacity for surveillance in the States by–
(1) supporting outbreak investigations with needed specialty expertise, including epidemiological, microbiological, and environmental expertise, to assist identification of underlying common sources and contributing factors;
(2) identifying, disseminating, and supporting implementation of model practices at the State and local level for–
(A) facilitating rapid shipment of clinical isolates from clinical laboratories to State public health laboratories to avoid delays in testing;
(B) conducting rapid and more standardized interviewing of cases associated with major enteric pathogens, including prior to designation of clusters as food-borne illness outbreaks;
(C) conducting and evaluating rapid and standardized interviews of healthy control persons;
(D) sharing information on a timely basis–
(i) within public health and food regulatory agencies;
(ii) among such agencies;
(iii) with the food industry;
(iv) with healthcare providers; and
(v) with the public;
(3) developing, regularly updating, and disseminating training curricula on food-borne illness surveillance investigations, including standard sampling methods and laboratory procedures;
(4) integrating new molecular diagnostic tools for parasites into web-based consultation services for parasitic infections to accelerate the identification of these food-borne infectious agents;
(5) supporting research to develop and deploy new subtyping methods for salmonella, E. coli, campylobacter, and other pathogens, to increase the speed and accuracy of diagnoses;
(6) determining minimum core competencies for public health laboratories, and developing self-evaluation and proficiency-testing tools for such laboratories;
(7) facilitating regional public health laboratory partnerships to leverage resources, including equipment and physical space, and increase surge capacity;
(8) providing technical assistance, which may include the detailing of officers and employees of the Administrator, to State and local public health and food regulatory agencies;
(9) partnering with the Food Safety Administration to increase communication, coordination, and integration of food-borne illness surveillance and outbreak investigation activities; and
(10) developing and periodically updating response and interview procedures so that such procedures are standardized and tested.
(d) Program Activities- The Administrator shall carry out activities to support core food safety functions of State and local public health laboratories, including–
(1) establishing fellowships, stipends, and scholarships to address critical workforce shortages;
(2) training and coordination of State and local personnel;
(3) establishing partnerships between private and public laboratories to facilitate sharing of positive enteric specimens and improve surge capacity;
(4) strengthening capacity to participate in existing or new food-borne illness surveillance systems; and
(5) purchasing and maintaining data systems hardware and software and laboratory equipment.
(e) Plan To Improve Food Safety Capacity at the State and Local Level-
(1) GOALS- The Administrator shall leverage and enhance the food safety capacity and roles of State and local agencies and integrate State and local agencies as fully as possible into national food safety efforts, in order to achieve the following goals:
(A) Improve food-borne illness outbreak response and containment.
(B) Improve the contribution of food-borne illness surveillance and investigation to the prevention of food-borne illness.
(C) Strengthen oversight of food safety at the retail level.
(D) Strengthen the capacity of State and local agencies to carry out inspections and enforce safety standards in food processing establishments, as part of a national strategy and plan to provide an adequate level of inspection and achieve compliance with safety standards in such establishments.
(E) Make more effective use of the Nation’s combined food safety resources to reduce the burden of food-borne illness.
(2) SURVEY- In preparation for development of the plan required by paragraph (3), the Administrator shall, not later than 1 year after the date of enactment of this part, complete a survey of State and local capacities, and needs for enhancement, with respect to–
(A) staffing levels and expertise available to perform food safety functions;
(B) laboratory capacity to support surveillance, outbreak response, inspection, and enforcement activities;
(C) information systems to support data management and sharing of food safety information among State and local agencies and with counterparts at the Federal level;
(D) legal authorities of State and local agencies to support the roles of such agencies in a national food safety system; and
(E) organizational arrangements for managing and coordinating food safety activities.
(3) PLAN- Taking into account the goals established in paragraph (1), results from the survey required in paragraph (2), and consultations with State and local agencies and other food safety stakeholders, the Administrator shall, not later than 2 years after the date of enactment of this part, develop, publish, and begin implementation of a plan that includes the following elements:
(A) Criteria for assessing the adequacy of State and local capacity to perform food safety functions as part of a national food safety system.
(B) Priorities for enhancing the capacity of State and local agencies.
(C) Action plans for meeting the highest priority capacity needs, including budget requirements and financing plans that take into account Federal, State, and local resources.
(D) Improved coordination and information flow among Federal, State, and local agencies to strengthen food-borne illness surveillance, outbreak response, and investigation and to ensure that agencies at all levels have the information on origins and causes of food-borne illness that such agencies need to plan preventive measures.
(E) Integration of the inspection and compliance programs in food processing establishments of the Food Safety Administration and State and local agencies, including–
(i) joint planning and priority setting to ensure that the collective effort has the greatest possible impact on achieving compliance with food safety standards and reducing food-borne illness;
(ii) elimination of barriers to the free flow of information among the Food Safety Administration and State and local agencies with respect to inspection and compliance programs and integration of State and Federal inspection and laboratory data systems;
(iii) steps to expand, and ensure the vigor and consistency of, State inspection of processing establishments under contract to the Food Safety Administration; and
(iv) reliance by the Food Safety Administration on State inspection and food sample analyses in Federal enforcement activities.
(4) FOOD SAFETY CAPACITY BUILDING GRANTS- The Administrator shall make grants to State and local agencies to enhance State and local food safety capacity and programs and support achievement of the goals established in paragraph (1). In awarding such grants, the Administrator shall take into account the criteria and priorities established by the Administrator under paragraph (3).
(5) REPORT TO CONGRESS- Not later than 1 year after the date of enactment of this part, and on an annual basis thereafter, the Administrator shall submit to Congress a report that describes–
(A) progress made in implementing this section, including any obstacles to such implementation; and
(B) any legislative recommendations or additional resources needed for full implementation.
(f) Service Agreements-
(1) IN GENERAL- The Administrator may, under agreements entered into with Federal, State, or local agencies, use on a reimbursable basis or otherwise the qualified personnel and services of those agencies in carrying out this Act.
(2) TRAINING- Agreements with a State under this subsection shall provide for training of State employees.
(3) MAINTENANCE OF AGREEMENTS- The Administrator shall maintain any agreement described in paragraph (1) that is in effect on the day before the date of the enactment of this Act until the Administrator evaluates such agreement and determines whether to maintain or substitute such agreement.
(4) COMMISSIONING- Where necessary and appropriate to fulfill the provisions of this Act or other food safety law, the Administrator shall, as part of any service agreement, commission qualified State and local regulatory officials and inspectors to assist the Administrator in carrying out the food safety law and accord such commissioned officials and inspectors access to information in possession of the Administrator as if they were Federal employees.
SEC. 208. IMPORTS.
(a) In General- All imported food under this Act shall meet requirements for food safety, inspection, labeling, and consumer protection that are at least equal to those applicable to food grown, manufactured, processed, packed, or held for consumption in the United States.
(b) Certification System- Not later than 2 years after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Administrator shall establish a system under which food products offered for importation into the United States shall be certified by the accredited foreign government in the country of export or by an accredited certifying agent meeting all applicable standards under this section.
(1) Category 1, 2, and 3 food establishments shall secure certification of products from the accredited foreign government in the country where the products are produced and must enter the United States through ports designated by the Administrator.
(2) Category 4 and 5 food establishments shall be certified either by–
(A) the accredited foreign government in the country where the products are produced; or
(B) a certifying agent that has been accredited under subsection (c).
(3) Beginning not later than 5 years after the date of the enactment of this Act, food from category 4 and 5 food establishments that is not certified by an accredited entity described in subsection (c) shall not enter the United States except through ports of entry that are located in a metropolitan area with an accredited food testing laboratory.
(c) Certification Standard-
(1) IN GENERAL- A foreign government or third party agent requesting accreditation to certify food for entry into the United States shall demonstrate, in a manner determined appropriate by the Administrator, that food produced under the supervision of the foreign government or third party agent, respectively, can meet standards for food safety, inspection, labeling, and consumer protection that are at least equal to standards applicable to food produced in the United States.
(2) REQUEST BY FOREIGN GOVERNMENT- Prior to accrediting a foreign government, the Administrator shall–
(A) review and audit the food safety program of the requesting foreign government (including all statutes, regulations, and inspection authority); and
(B) determine that the exporting country–
(i) administers a food control program that requires food exporters to implement hazard control measures for physical, chemical, and biological contaminants;
(ii) ensures sanitary operations of facilities;
(iii) utilizes testing and verification programs; and
(iv) administers an effective enforcement program.
(3) REQUEST BY A CERTIFYING AGENT- Prior to accrediting a certifying agent, the Administrator shall–
(A) review the training and qualifications of auditors and other employees used by the agent;
(B) ensure that any such auditors have completed such training as may be required by the Administrator for the conduct of food safety inspections; and
(C) conduct reviews of internal systems and such other investigation as the Administrator deems necessary to determine that the certifying agent is capable of auditing food establishments–
(i) to assess the adequacy of systems and standards in use; and
(ii) to ensure that food approved by the agent for import to the United States meets the requirements of this Act.
(4) CERTIFICATION TO ACCOMPANY EACH SHIPMENT- As a condition of accrediting any foreign government or certifying agent, such government or agent shall agree to issue a written and electronic certification to accompany each shipment intended for import to the United States from any food establishment which the government or agent certifies, subject to requirements set forth by the Administrator.
(d) Audits; Inspections- Following any accreditation under subsection (c), the Administrator may at any time–
(1) conduct an on-site audit of any food establishment registered under section 202, with or without the certifying agent; or
(2) require a certifying agent to submit an onsite audit report and any other reports or documents which the agent requires as part of the audit process, including documentation that the food establishment is in compliance with registration requirements and prior notice requirements for food imported to the United States.
(e) Limitation- A foreign government or other certifying agent accredited by the Administrator to certify food for import to the United States under this section may certify only the food products or food categories for importation to the United States that are specified in the grant of accreditation.
(f) Withdrawal of Accreditation- The Administrator may withdraw accreditation from a foreign government or certifying agent–
(1) if food approved by the foreign government or certifying agent is linked to an outbreak of human illness;
(2) following an investigation and finding by the Administrator that the programs of the foreign government, or a foreign food establishment certified by the certifying agent, are no longer equal to those applied to food grown, manufactured, processed, packed, or held in the United States; or
(3) following a refusal to allow United States officials to conduct such audits and investigations as may be necessary to ensure continued compliance with the requirements of this section.
(g) Renewal of Accreditation- The Administrator shall audit foreign governments and certifying agents whenever needed, but no less than once every 3 years, to ensure the continued compliance with the requirements set forth in this section. Renewal of accreditation shall occur following each satisfactory audit.
(h) Required Routine Inspection- The Administrator shall routinely inspect food before or at entry into the United States to ensure ongoing compliance with food safety law and where appropriate, as part of the audit of any certifying entity.
(i) Enforcement- The Administrator may–
(1) deny importation of food from any foreign country if the government of such country does not permit United States officials to enter the foreign country to conduct such audits and inspections as may be necessary to fulfill requirements under this section;
(2) deny importation of food from any foreign country or foreign food establishment that does not consent to a timely investigation by the Administration when food from that foreign country or foreign food establishment is linked to a food-borne illness outbreak or is otherwise found to be adulterated or misbranded;
(3) promulgate regulations to carry out the purposes of this section, including setting terms and conditions for the destruction of products that fail to meet the requirements of this Act; and
(4) establish such fees as are necessary to carry out the implementation of the accreditation and inspection programs required under this section.
(j) Detention and Seizure- Any food imported for consumption in the United States may be detained, seized, or condemned pursuant to section 402 or recalled pursuant to section 403.
(k) Certifying Agents- Entities eligible for accreditation as a certifying agent under subsection (c) may include–
(1) a State or regional food authority; or
(2) a foreign or domestic cooperative that aggregates the products of growers or processors for importation.
(l) Avoiding Conflicts of Interest With Certifying Agents-
(1) IN GENERAL- To be eligible for accreditation under subsection (c), a certifying agent shall–
(A) not be owned, managed, or controlled by any person that owns or operates an establishment whose products are to be certified by such agent;
(B) have procedures to ensure against the use, in carrying out audits of food establishments under this section, of any officer or employee of such agent that has a financial conflict of interest regarding an establishment whose products are to be certified by such agent; and
(C) annually make available to the Secretary, disclosures of the extent to which such agent, and the officers and employees of such agent, have maintained compliance with subparagraphs (A) and (B) relating to financial conflicts of interest.
(2) REGULATIONS- The Secretary shall promulgate regulations not later than 18 months after the date of the enactment of this Act to ensure that there are protections against conflicts of interest between a certifying agent and the establishments whose products are to be certified by such agent. Such regulations shall include–
(A) requiring that domestic audits performed under this section be unannounced;
(B) a structure, including timing and public disclosure, for fees paid by food establishments to certifying agents to decrease the potential for conflicts of interest; and
(C) appropriate limits on financial affiliations between a certifying agent and any person that owns or operates an establishment whose products are to be certified by such agent.
SEC. 209. RESOURCE PLAN.
(a) In General- The Administrator shall prepare and update annually a resource plan describing the resources required, in the best professional judgment of the Administrator, to develop and fully implement the national food safety program established under this Act.
(b) Contents of Plan- The resource plan shall–
(1) describe quantitatively the personnel, financial, and other resources required to carry out the inspection of food establishments under section 205 and other requirements of this Act;
(2) allocate inspection resources in a manner reflecting the distribution of risk and opportunities to reduce risk across the food supply to the extent feasible based on the best available information, and subject to section 205; and
(3) describe the personnel, facilities, equipment, and other resources needed to carry out inspection and other oversight activities, at a total resource level equal to at least 50 percent of the resources required to carry out inspections in food establishments under section 205 and food production facilities under section 206–
(A) in foreign establishments and production facilities; and
(B) at the point of importation.
(c) Grants- The resource plan shall include recommendations for funding to provide grants to States and local governments to carry out food safety activities and inspections of food establishments and food production facilities and include resources to audit such programs.
(d) Submission of Plan- The Administrator shall submit annually to the Committee on Appropriations of the Senate, the Committee on Appropriations of the House of Representatives, and other relevant committees of Congress, the resource plan required under this section.
SEC. 210. TRACEBACK REQUIREMENTS.
(a) In General- The Administrator, in order to protect the public health, shall establish a national traceability system that enables the Administrator to retrieve the history, use, and location of an article of food through all stages of its production, processing, and distribution.
(b) Applicability- Traceability requirements under this section shall apply to food from food production facilities, food establishments, and foreign food establishments.
(c) Requirements-
(1) STANDARDS- The Administrator shall establish standards for the type of information, format, and timeframe for food production facilities and food establishments to submit records to aid the Administrator in effectively retrieving the history, use, and location of an item of food.
(2) RULE OF CONSTRUCTION- Nothing in this section shall be construed as requiring the Administrator to prescribe a specific technology for the maintenance of records or labeling of food to carry out the requirements of this section.
(3) AVAILABILITY OF RECORDS FOR INSPECTION- Any records that are required by the Administrator under this section shall be available for inspection by the Administrator upon oral or written request.
(4) DEMONSTRATION OF ABILITY- The Administrator, during any inspection, may require a food establishment to demonstrate its ability to trace an item of food and submit the information in the format and timeframe required under paragraph (1).
(d) Relationship to Other Requirements-
(1) CONSISTENCY WITH EXISTING STATUTES AND REGULATIONS- To the extent possible, the Administrator should establish the national traceability system under this section to be consistent with existing statutes and regulations that require recordkeeping or labeling for identifying the origin or history of food or food animals.
(2) EXISTING LAWS- For purposes of this subsection, the Administrator should review the following:
(A) Country of origin labeling requirements of subtitle D of the Agricultural Marketing Act of 1946 (7 U.S.C. 1638 et seq.).
(B) The Perishable Agricultural Commodities Act of 1930 (7 U.S.C. 499a-t).
(C) Country of origin labeling requirements of section 304 of the Tariff Act of 1930 (19 U.S.C. 1340).
(D) The National Animal Identification System as authorized by the Animal Health Protection Act of 2002 (7 U.S.C. 8301 et seq.).
(3) CERTAIN REQUIREMENTS- Nothing contained in this section prevents or interferes with implementation of the country of origin labeling requirements of subtitle D of the Agricultural Marketing Act of 1946 (7 U.S.C. 1638 et seq.).
SEC. 211. ACCREDITED LABORATORIES.
(a) Establishment of Program- The Administrator shall establish a program for accrediting laboratories to perform sampling and testing for purposes of this Act. Such program shall include–
(1) standards for appropriate sampling and analytical procedures;
(2) training and experience qualification levels for individuals who conduct sampling and analysis;
(3) annual onsite visits to audit the performance of an accredited laboratory; and
(4) such additional requirements as the Administrator determines to be appropriate.
(b) Requirements- To be accredited under this section, a laboratory shall–
(1) prepare and submit an application for accreditation to the Administrator;
(2) meet required tests and standards established by the Administrator; and
(3) comply with such terms and conditions as are determined necessary by the Administrator.
(c) Accrediting Bodies- The Administrator may approve State agencies or private, nonprofit entities as accrediting bodies to act on behalf of the Administrator in accrediting laboratories under this section. The Administrator shall–
(1) in making such approvals–
(A) oversee and review the performance of any accrediting body acting on behalf of the Administrator to ensure that such accrediting body is in compliance with the requirements of this section; and
(B) have the right to obtain from an accrediting body acting on behalf of the Administrator and from any laboratory that may be certified by such a body all records and materials that may be necessary for the oversight and review required by subparagraph (A);
(2) reevaluate accreditation bodies approved under paragraph (1) whenever–
(A) the Administrator determines a laboratory accredited by the accrediting body is no longer in compliance with this section;
(B) the Administrator determines the accrediting body is no longer in compliance with the requirements of this section; or
(C) no less than once every 5 years; and
(3) promptly revoke the approval of any accreditation body found not to be in compliance with the requirements of this section.
(d) Revocation of Accreditation- The Administrator shall revoke the accreditation of any laboratory that fails to meet the requirements this section.
TITLE III–RESEARCH AND EDUCATION
SEC. 301. PUBLIC HEALTH ASSESSMENT SYSTEM.
(a) In General- The Administrator, acting in coordination with the Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and with food safety and research programs of the Department of Agriculture, shall–
(1) identify on an ongoing basis the priorities for collection of epidemiological data and for other food safety research and data collection that are most important to implementing the food safety law and reducing the public health burden of food-borne illness;
(2) have full access for purposes of implementing the food safety law to the applicable data and data systems of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, including data made available to the Centers by a State;
(3) provide appropriate support and input on the design and implementation by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the States of an active surveillance system that provides information on the incidence and causes of food-borne illness which is timely, detailed, and representative of the population of the United States;
(4) based on data and information obtained from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the States, and other sources, assess the incidence, distribution, public health impact, and causes of human illness in the United States associated with the consumption of food, and conduct research and analysis to devise effective and feasible interventions to reduce food-borne illness;
(5) maintain a state-of-the-art DNA matching system and epidemiological system dedicated to food-borne illness identification, outbreaks, and containment; and
(6) utilize surveillance data created by means of monitoring and statistical studies conducted as part of its own inspection.
(b) Public Health Sampling-
(1) IN GENERAL- Not later than 1 year after the enactment of this Act, the Administrator shall establish guidelines for a sampling system under which the Administrator shall take and analyze samples of food–
(A) to assist the Administrator in carrying out this Act; and
(B) to assess the nature, frequency of occurrence, and quantities of contaminants in food.
(2) REQUIREMENTS- The sampling system described in paragraph (1) shall provide–
(A) statistically valid monitoring, including market-based studies, on the nature, frequency of occurrence, and quantities of contaminants in food available to consumers; and
(B) at the request of the Administrator, such other information, including analysis of monitoring and verification samples, as the Administrator determines may be useful in assessing the occurrence of contaminants in food.
(c) Assessment of Health Hazards-
(1) IN GENERAL- Through the surveillance system and analyses referred to in subsection (a) and the sampling system described in subsection (b), the Administrator shall–
(A) rank food categories based on the hazard to human health presented by the food category and specific chemical and microbiological hazards associated with foods in those categories;
(B) identify appropriate industry and regulatory approaches to minimize hazards in the food supply; and
(C) assess the conditions affecting the likelihood that emerging pathogens and diseases, including zoonosis, will affect the safety of the food supply and possible strategies for minimizing the potential risk to public health associated with emerging pathogens and diseases.
(2) COMPONENTS OF ANALYSIS- The analysis under subsection (b)(1) may include–
(A) a comparison of the safety of commercial processing with the health hazards associated with food that is harvested for recreational or subsistence purposes and prepared noncommercially;
(B) a comparison of the safety of food that is domestically processed with the health hazards associated with food that is processed outside the United States;
(C) a description of contamination originating from handling practices that occur prior to or after the sale of food to consumers; and
(D) use of comparative risk assessments.
SEC. 302. PUBLIC EDUCATION AND ADVISORY SYSTEM.
(a) Public Education-
(1) IN GENERAL- The Administrator, in cooperation with private and public organizations, including the cooperative extension services and building on the efforts of appropriate State and local entities, shall establish a national public education program on food safety.
(2) REQUIREMENTS- The program shall provide–
(A) information to the public regarding Federal standards and best practices, and promotion of public awareness and understanding of those standards and practices;
(B) information for health professionals–
(i) to improve diagnosis and treatment of food-related illness; and
(ii) to advise individuals at special risk for food-related illnesses; and
(C) such other information or advice, including on safe food handling practices, to consumers and other persons as the Administrator determines will promote the purposes of this Act.
(b) Health Advisories- The Administrator, in consultation with other Federal departments and agencies as the Administrator determines necessary, shall work with the States and other appropriate entities–
(1) to develop and distribute regional and national advisories concerning food safety;
(2) to develop standardized formats for written and broadcast advisories;
(3) to incorporate State and local advisories into the national public education program established under subsection (a); and
(4) to present prompt, specific information regarding food found to pose a threat to the public health, including by identifying the retailers and food establishments where such food has been sold.
SEC. 303. RESEARCH.
(a) In General- The Administrator shall conduct research to carry out this Act, including studies to–
(1) improve sanitation and food safety practices in the processing of food;
(2) develop improved techniques to monitor and inspect food;
(3) develop efficient, rapid, and sensitive methods to detect contaminants in food;
(4) determine the sources of contamination of contaminated food;
(5) develop food consumption data;
(6) identify ways that animal production techniques could improve the safety of the food supply;
(7) draw upon research and educational programs that exist at the State and local level;
(8) utilize the DNA matching system and other processes to identify and control pathogens;
(9) address common and emerging zoonotic diseases;
(10) develop methods to reduce or destroy harmful pathogens before, during, and after processing;
(11) analyze the incidence of antibiotic resistence as it pertains to the food supply and develop new methods to reduce the transfer of antibiotic resistance to humans; and
(12) conduct other research that supports the purposes of this Act.
(b) Contract Authority- The Administrator may enter into contracts and agreements with any State, university, Federal Government agency, or person to carry out this section.
SEC. 304. WORKING GROUP ON IMPROVING FOODBORNE ILLNESS SURVEILLANCE.
Not later than 180 days after the date of enactment of this Act, the Administrator shall establish a diverse working group of experts and stakeholders from Federal, State, and local food safety and health agencies, the food industry, consumer organizations, and academia. Such working group shall provide the Administrator, through at least annual meetings of the working group and an annual public report, advice and recommendations on an ongoing and regular basis regarding the improvement of food-borne illness surveillance, including advice and recommendations on–
(1) the priority needs of regulatory agencies, the food industry, and consumers for information and analysis on food-borne illness and its causes that can be used to prevent food-borne illness;
(2) opportunities to improve the effectiveness of initiatives at the Federal, State, and local levels, including coordination and integration of activities among Federal agencies, and between the Federal, State, and local levels of government;
(3) improvement in the timeliness and depth of access by regulatory and health agencies, the food industry, academic researchers, and consumers to food-borne illness surveillance data collected by government agencies at all levels, including data compiled by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention;
(4) key barriers to improvement in food-borne illness surveillance and its utility for preventing food-borne illness at Federal, State, and local levels; and
(5) specific actions to reduce barriers to such improvement, implement the working group’s recommendations, with measurable objectives and timelines, and identification of resource and staffing needs.
SEC. 305. CAREER-SPANNING TRAINING FOR FOOD INSPECTORS.
(a) In General- The Administrator shall make a grant to an entity described in subsection (c) to provide training to Federal, State, and local food inspectors.
(b) Use of Funds- The Administrator may make a grant under this section to an applicant only if the applicant agrees to use the grant to provide regular, standardized, graduated, career-spanning training, based on a curriculum developed by the Association of Food and Drug Officials, to Federal, State, and local food inspectors.
(c) Eligible Entity- An entity described in this subsection is an entity that–
(1) is described in section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 (26 U.S.C. 501(c)(3));
(2) has the capability to train not less than 1,000 food inspectors per year; and
(3) offers both on-site and off-site training for food inspectors.
SEC. 306. FOOD-BORNE ILLNESS HEALTH REGISTRY.
(a) Purpose- The purpose of the registry under subsection (b) is to stimulate research on the trends, sources, health outcomes, and preventive strategies related to food-borne disease.
(b) Registry- For the purpose described in subsection (a), the Secretary of Health and Human Services, acting through the Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, shall develop and maintain a registry, to be known as the Food-Borne Illness Health Registry, consisting of data on the trends, sources, health outcomes, and preventive strategies related to food-borne disease.
SEC. 307. STUDY ON FEDERAL RESOURCES.
Not later than one year after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Comptroller General of the United States shall complete a study on the Federal resources being dedicated to food-borne illness and food safety research and submit a report on the results of such study to the Congress.
TITLE IV–ENFORCEMENT
SEC. 401. PROHIBITED ACTS.
It is prohibited–
(1) to manufacture, introduce, deliver for introduction, or receive in interstate commerce any food that is adulterated, misbranded, or otherwise unsafe;
(2) to adulterate or misbrand any food in interstate commerce;
(3) for a food establishment or foreign food establishment to fail to register under section 202, or to operate without a valid registration;
(4) to refuse to permit access to a food establishment or food production facility for the inspection and copying of a record as required under sections 205(f) and 206(a);
(5) to fail to establish or maintain any record or to make any report as required under sections 205(f) and 206(b);
(6) to refuse to permit entry to or inspection of a food establishment as required under section 205;
(7) to fail to provide to the Administrator the results of testing or sampling of food, equipment, or material in contact with food, that is positive for any contaminant under section 205(f)(1)(B);
(8) to fail to comply with a provision, regulation, or order of the Administrator under section 202, 203, 204, 206, or 208;
(9) to slaughter an animal that is capable for use in whole or in part as human food at a food establishment processing any food for commerce, except in compliance with the food safety law;
(10) to transfer food in violation of an administrative detention order under section 402 or to remove or alter a required mark or label identifying the food as detained;
(11) to fail to comply with a recall or other order under section 403; or
(12) to otherwise violate the food safety law.
SEC. 402. FOOD DETENTION, SEIZURE, AND CONDEMNATION.
(a) Administrative Detention of Food-
(1) EXPANDED AUTHORITY- The Administrator shall have authority under section 304 of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (21 U.S.C. 334) to administratively detain and seize any food regulated under this Act that the Administrator has reason to believe is unsafe, is adulterated or misbranded, or otherwise fails to meet the requirements of the food safety law.
(2) DETENTION AUTHORITY- If, during an inspection conducted in accordance with section 205 or 208, an officer, employee, or agent of the Administration making the inspection has reason to believe that a domestic food, imported food, or food offered for import is unsafe, is adulterated or misbranded, or otherwise fails to meet the requirements of this the food safety law, the officer, employee, or agent may order the food detained.
(3) PERIOD OF DETENTION-
(A) IN GENERAL- A food may be detained under paragraph (1) or (2) for a reasonable period, not to exceed 20 days, unless a longer period, not to exceed 30 days, is necessary for the Administrator to institute a seizure action.
(B) PERISHABLE FOOD- The Administrator shall provide by regulation for procedures to institute a seizure action on an expedited basis with respect to perishable food.
(4) SECURITY OF DETAINED FOOD-
(A) IN GENERAL- A detention order under this subsection–
(i) may require that the food be labeled or marked as detained; and
(ii) shall require that the food be removed to a secure facility, if appropriate.
(B) FOOD SUBJECT TO AN ORDER- A food subject to a detention order under this subsection shall not be transferred by any person from the place at which the food is removed, until released by the Administrator or until the expiration of the detention period applicable under the order, whichever occurs first.
(C) DELIVERY OF FOOD- This subsection does not authorize the delivery of a food in accordance with execution of a bond while the article is subject to the order.
(b) Appeal of Detention Order-
(1) IN GENERAL- A person who would be entitled to be a claimant for a food subject to a detention order under subsection (a) if the food were seized under section 304 of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (21 U.S.C. 334), may appeal the order to the Administrator.
(2) ACTION BY THE ADMINISTRATOR- Not later than 5 days after an appeal is filed under paragraph (1), the Administrator, after providing an opportunity for an informal hearing, shall confirm, modify, or terminate the order involved.
(3) FINAL AGENCY ACTION- Confirmation, modification, or termination by the Administrator under paragraph (2) shall be considered a final agency action for purposes of section 702 of title 5, United States Code.
(4) TERMINATION- A detention order under subsection (a) shall be considered to be terminated if, after 5 days, the Administrator has failed–
(A) to provide an opportunity for an informal hearing; or
(B) to confirm, modify, or terminate the order.
(5) EFFECT OF INSTITUTING COURT ACTION- If the Administrator initiates an action under section 302 of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (21 U.S.C. 332) or section 304(a) of that Act (21 U.S.C. 334(a)) for a food subject to a detention order under subsection (a), the process for the appeal of the detention order with respect to such food shall terminate.
(c) Condemnation of Food-
(1) IN GENERAL- After confirming a detention order, the Administrator may order the food condemned.
(2) DESTRUCTION OF FOOD- Any food condemned shall be destroyed under the supervision of the Administrator.
(3) RELEASE OF FOOD- If the Administrator determines that, through reprocessing, relabeling, or other action, a detained food can be brought into compliance with this Act, the food may be released following a determination by the Administrator that the relabeling or other action as specified by the Administrator has been performed.
(d) Temporary Holds at Ports of Entry-
(1) IN GENERAL- If an officer or qualified employee of the Administration has reason to believe that a food is unsafe, is adulterated or misbranded, or otherwise fails to meet the requirements of this Act, and the officer or qualified employee is unable to inspect, examine, or investigate the food when the food is offered for import at a port of entry into the United States, the officer or qualified employee shall request the Secretary of Homeland Security to hold the food at the port of entry for a reasonable period of time, not to exceed 24 hours, to enable the Administrator to inspect or investigate the food as appropriate.
(2) REMOVAL TO SECURE FACILITY- The Administrator shall work in coordination with the Secretary of Homeland Security to remove a food held in accordance with paragraph (1) to a secure facility as appropriate.
(3) PROHIBITION ON TRANSFER- During the period in which food is held, the food shall not be transferred by any person from the port of entry into the United States, or from the secure facility to which the food has been removed.
(4) DELIVERY IN ACCORDANCE WITH A BOND- The delivery of the food in accordance with the execution of a bond while the food is held is not authorized.
(5) PROHIBITION ON REEXPORT- A food found unfit for human or animal consumption shall be prohibited from reexport without further processing to remove the contamination and reinspection by the Administration.
SEC. 403. NOTIFICATION AND RECALL.
(a) Notice to Administrator of Violation-
(1) IN GENERAL- A person that has reason to believe that any food introduced into or in interstate commerce, or held for sale (whether or not the first sale) after shipment in interstate commerce, may be in violation of the food safety law shall immediately notify the Administrator of the identity and location of the food.
(2) MANNER OF NOTIFICATION- Notification under paragraph (1) shall be made in such manner and by such means as the Administrator may require by regulation.
(b) Recall and Consumer Notification-
(1) VOLUNTARY ACTIONS- If the Administrator determines that food is in violation of the food safety law when introduced into or while in interstate commerce or while held for sale (whether or not the first sale) after shipment in interstate commerce and that there is a reasonable probability that the food, if consumed, would present a threat to public health, as determined by the Administrator, the Administrator shall give the appropriate persons (including the manufacturers, importers, distributors, or retailers of the food) an opportunity to–
(A) cease distribution of the food;
(B) notify all persons–
(i) processing, distributing, or otherwise handling the food to immediately cease such activities with respect to the food; or
(ii) to which the food has been distributed, transported, or sold, to immediately cease distribution of the food;
(C) recall the food;
(D) in conjunction with the Administrator, provide notice of the finding of the Administrator–
(i) to consumers to whom the food was, or may have been, distributed; and
(ii) to State and local public health officials; or
(E) take any combination of the measures described in this paragraph, as determined by the Administrator to be appropriate in the circumstances.
(2) MANDATORY ACTIONS- If a person referred to in paragraph (1) refuses to or does not adequately carry out the actions described in that paragraph within the time period and in the manner prescribed by the Administrator, the Administrator shall–
(A) have authority to control and possess the food, including ordering the shipment of the food from the food establishment to the Administrator–
(i) at the expense of the food establishment; or
(ii) in an emergency (as determined by the Administrator), at the expense of the Administration; and
(B) by order, require, as the Administrator determines to be necessary, the person to immediately–
(i) cease distribution of the food; and
(ii) notify all persons–
(I) processing, distributing, or otherwise handling the food to immediately cease such activities with respect to the food; or
(II) if the food has been distributed, transported, or sold, to immediately cease distribution of the food.
(3) NOTIFICATION TO CONSUMERS BY ADMINISTRATOR- The Administrator shall, as the Administrator determines to be necessary–
(A) provide notice of the finding of the Administrator under paragraph (1)–
(i) to consumers to whom the food was, or may have been, distributed; and
(ii) to State and local public health officials; and
(B) provide notice to the public of the names and addresses of retail locations at which recalled food products were available for sale.
(4) NONDISTRIBUTION BY NOTIFIED PERSONS- A person that processes, distributes, or otherwise handles the food, or to which the food has been distributed, transported, or sold, and that is notified under paragraph (1)(B) or (2)(B) shall immediately cease distribution of the food.
(5) AVAILABILITY OF RECORDS TO ADMINISTRATOR- Each person referred to in paragraph (1) that processed, distributed, or otherwise handled food shall make available to the Administrator information necessary to carry out this subsection, as determined by the Administrator, regarding–
(A) persons that processed, distributed, or otherwise handled the food; and
(B) persons to which the food has been transported, sold, distributed, or otherwise handled.
(c) Informal Hearings on Orders-
(1) IN GENERAL- The Administrator shall provide any person subject to an order under subsection (b) with an opportunity for an informal hearing, to be held as soon as practicable but not later than 2 business days after the issuance of the order.
(2) SCOPE OF THE HEARING- In a hearing under paragraph (1), the Administrator shall consider the actions required by the order and any reasons why the food that is the subject of the order should not be recalled.
(d) Post-Hearing Recall Orders-
(1) AMENDMENT OF ORDER- If, after providing an opportunity for an informal hearing under subsection (c), the Administrator determines that there is a reasonable probability that the food that is the subject of an order under subsection (b), if consumed, would present a threat to the public health, the Administrator, as the Administrator determines to be necessary, may–
(A) amend the order to require recall of the food or other appropriate action;
(B) specify a timetable in which the recall shall occur;
(C) require periodic reports to the Administrator describing the progress of the recall; and
(D) provide notice of the recall to consumers to whom the food was, or may have been, distributed.
(2) VACATION OF ORDERS- If, after providing an opportunity for an informal hearing under subsection (c), the Administrator determines that adequate grounds do not exist to continue the actions required by the order, the Administrator shall vacate the order.
(e) Remedies Not Exclusive- The remedies provided in this section shall be in addition to, and not exclusive of, other remedies that may be available.
SEC. 404. INJUNCTION PROCEEDINGS.
(a) Jurisdiction- The district courts of the United States, and the United States courts of the territories and possessions of the United States, shall have jurisdiction, for cause shown, to restrain a violation of section 202, 203, 204, 208, or 401 (or a regulation promulgated thereunder).
(b) Trial- In a case in which violation of an injunction or restraining order issued under this section also constitutes a violation of the food safety law, trial shall be by the court or, upon demand of the accused, by a jury.
SEC. 405. CIVIL AND CRIMINAL PENALTIES.
(a) Civil Sanctions-
(1) CIVIL PENALTY-
(A) IN GENERAL- Any person that commits an act that violates the food safety law (including a regulation promulgated or order issued under the food safety law) may be assessed a civil penalty by the Administrator of not more than $1,000,000 for each such act.
(B) SEPARATE OFFENSE- Each act described in subparagraph (A) and each day during which that act continues shall be considered a separate offense.
(2) OTHER REQUIREMENTS-
(A) WRITTEN ORDER- The civil penalty described in paragraph (1) shall be assessed by the Administrator by a written order, which shall specify the amount of the penalty and the basis for the penalty under subparagraph (B) considered by the Administrator.
(B) AMOUNT OF PENALTY- Subject to paragraph (1)(A), the amount of the civil penalty shall be determined by the Administrator, after considering–
(i) the gravity of the violation;
(ii) the degree of culpability of the person;
(iii) the size and type of the business of the person; and
(iv) any history of prior offenses by the person under the food safety law.
(C) REVIEW OF ORDER- The order may be reviewed only in accordance with subsection (c).
(b) Criminal Sanctions-
(1) OFFENSE RESULTING IN SERIOUS ILLNESS- Notwithstanding section 303(a) of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (21 U.S.C. 333(a)), if a violation of any provision of section 301 of such Act (21 U.S.C. 301) with respect to an adulterated or misbranded food results in serious illness, the person committing the violation shall be imprisoned for not more than 5 years, fined in accordance with title 18, United States Code, or both.
(2) OFFENSE RESULTING IN DEATH- Notwithstanding section 303(a) of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (21 U.S.C. 333(a)), if a violation of any provision of section 301 of such Act (21 U.S.C. 331) with respect to an adulterated or misbranded food results in death, the person committing the violation shall be imprisoned for not more than 10 years, fined in accordance with title 18, United States Code, or both.
(c) Judicial Review-
(1) IN GENERAL- An order assessing a civil penalty against a person under subsection (a) shall be a final order unless the person–
(A) not later than 30 days after the effective date of the order, files a petition for judicial review of the order in the United States court of appeals for the circuit in which that person resides or has its principal place of business or the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia; and
(B) simultaneously serves a copy of the petition by certified mail to the Administrator.
(2) FILING OF RECORD- Not later than 45 days after the service of a copy of the petition under paragraph (1)(B), the Administrator shall file in the court a certified copy of the administrative record upon which the order was issued.
(3) STANDARD OF REVIEW- The findings of the Administrator relating to the order shall be set aside only if found to be unsupported by substantial evidence on the record as a whole.
(d) Collection Actions for Failure To Pay-
(1) IN GENERAL- If any person fails to pay a civil penalty assessed under subsection (a) after the order assessing the penalty has become a final order, or after the court of appeals described in subsection (b) has entered final judgment in favor of the Administrator, the Administrator shall refer the matter to the Attorney General, who shall institute in a United States district court of competent jurisdiction a civil action to recover the amount assessed.
(2) LIMITATION ON REVIEW- In a civil action under paragraph (1), the validity and appropriateness of the order of the Administrator assessing the civil penalty shall not be subject to judicial review.
(e) Penalties Paid Into Account- The Administrator–
(1) shall deposit penalties collected under this section in an account in the Treasury; and
(2) may use the funds in the account, without further appropriation or fiscal year limitation–
(A) to carry out enforcement activities under the food safety law; or
(B) to provide assistance to States to inspect retail commercial food establishments or other food or firms under the jurisdiction of State food safety programs.
(f) Discretion of the Administrator To Prosecute- Nothing in this Act requires the Administrator to report for prosecution, or for the commencement of an action, the violation of the food safety law in a case in which the Administrator finds that the public interest will be adequately served by the assessment of a civil penalty under this section.
(g) Remedies Not Exclusive- The remedies provided in this section are in addition to, and not exclusive of, other remedies that may be available.
SEC. 406. PRESUMPTION.
In any action to enforce the requirements of the food safety law, the connection with interstate commerce required for jurisdiction shall be presumed to exist.
SEC. 407. WHISTLEBLOWER PROTECTION.
(a) In General-
(1) PROHIBITION- No Federal employee, employee of a Federal contractor or subcontractor, or covered individual may be discharged, demoted, suspended, threatened, harassed, or in any other manner discriminated against, because of any lawful act done by the employee or covered individual to–
(A) provide information, cause information to be provided, or otherwise assist in an investigation regarding any conduct that the covered individual reasonably believes constitutes a violation of any law, rule, or regulation, or that the covered individual reasonably believes constitutes a threat to the public health, when the information or assistance is provided to, or the investigation is conducted by–
(i) a Federal regulatory or law enforcement agency;
(ii) a Member or committee of Congress; or
(iii) a person with supervisory authority over the covered individual (or such other individual who has the authority to investigate, discover, or terminate misconduct);
(B) file, cause to be filed, testify, participate in, or otherwise assist in a proceeding or action filed or about to be filed relating to a violation of any law, rule, or regulation; or
(C) refused to violate or assist in the violation of any law, rule, or regulation.
(2) DEFINITION- For the purposes of this section, the term ‘covered individual’ means an individual who is an employee of–
(A) a food establishment;
(B) a food production facility;
(C) a restaurant;
(D) a retail food establishment other than a restaurant;
(E) a nonprofit food establishment in which food is prepared for or served directly to the consumer;
(F) a fishing vessel; or
(G) an agent of any of the above.
(b) Enforcement Action-
(1) IN GENERAL- A covered individual who alleges discharge or other discrimination by any person in violation of subsection (a) may seek relief under subsection (c) by filing a complaint with the Secretary of Labor. If the Secretary of Labor has not issued a final decision within 180 days after the date on which the complaint is filed and there is no showing that such delay is due to the bad faith of the claimant, the claimant may bring an action at law or equity for de novo review in the appropriate district court of the United States, which shall have jurisdiction over such an action without regard to the amount in controversy.
(2) PROCEDURE-
(A) IN GENERAL- An action under paragraph (1) shall be governed under the rules and procedures set forth in section 42121(b) of title 49, United States Code.
(B) EXCEPTION- Notification under section 42121(b)(1) of title 49, United States Code, shall be made to the person named in the complaint and to the person’s employer.
(C) BURDENS OF PROOF- An action brought under paragraph (1) shall be governed by the legal burdens of proof set forth in section 42121(b) of title 49, United States Code.
(D) STATUTE OF LIMITATIONS- An action under paragraph (1) shall be commenced not later than 90 days after the date on which the violation occurs.
(c) Remedies-
(1) IN GENERAL- A covered individual prevailing in any action under subsection (b)(1) shall be entitled to all relief necessary to make the covered individual whole.
(2) COMPENSATORY DAMAGES- Relief for any action described in paragraph (1) shall include–
(A) reinstatement with the same seniority status that the covered individual would have had, but for the discrimination;
(B) the amount of any back pay, with interest; and
(C) compensation for any special damages sustained as a result of the discrimination, including litigation costs, expert witness fees, and reasonable attorney’s fees.
(d) Rights Retained by the Covered Individual- Nothing in this section shall be construed to diminish the rights, privileges, or remedies of any covered individual under any Federal or State law, or under any collective bargaining agreement.
SEC. 408. ADMINISTRATION AND ENFORCEMENT.
(a) In General- For the efficient administration and enforcement of the food safety law, the provisions (including provisions relating to penalties) of sections 6, 8, 9, and 10 of the Federal Trade Commission Act (15 U.S.C. 46, 48, 49, and 50) (except subsections (c) through (h) of section 6 of that Act), relating to the jurisdiction, powers, and duties of the Federal Trade Commission and the Attorney General to administer and enforce that Act, and to the rights and duties of persons with respect to whom the powers are exercised, shall apply to the jurisdiction, powers, and duties of the Administrator and the Attorney General in administering and enforcing the provisions of the food safety law and to the rights and duties of persons with respect to whom the powers are exercised, respectively.
(b) Inquiries and Actions-
(1) IN GENERAL- The Administrator, in person or by such agents as the Administrator may designate, may prosecute any inquiry necessary to carry out the duties of the Administrator under the food safety law in any part of the United States.
(2) POWERS- The powers conferred by sections 9 and 10 of the Federal Trade Commission Act (15 U.S.C. 49 and 50) on the United States district courts may be exercised for the purposes of this chapter by any United States district court of competent jurisdiction.
SEC. 409. CITIZEN CIVIL ACTIONS.
(a) Civil Actions- A person may commence a civil action against–
(1) a person that violates a regulation (including a regulation establishing a performance standard), order, or other action of the Administrator to ensure the safety of food; or
(2) the Administrator (in his or her capacity as the Administrator), if the Administrator fails to perform an act or duty to ensure the safety of food that is not discretionary under the food safety law.
(b) Court- In an action commenced under this section:
(1) IN GENERAL- The action shall be commenced–
(A) in the case of a civil action against a person, the United States district court for the district in which the defendant resides, is found, or has an agent; and
(B) in the case of a civil action against the Administrator, any United States district court.
(2) JURISDICTION- The court shall have jurisdiction, without regard to the amount in controversy, or the citizenship of the parties, to enforce a regulation (including a regulation establishing a performance standard), order, or other action of the Administrator, or to order the Administrator to perform the act or duty.
(3) DAMAGES- The court may–
(A) award damages, in the amount of damages actually sustained; and
(B) if the court determines it to be in the interest of justice, award the plaintiff the costs of suit, including reasonable attorney’s fees, reasonable expert witness fees, and penalties.
(c) Remedies Not Exclusive- The remedies provided for in this section shall be in addition to, and not exclusive of, other remedies that may be available.
TITLE V–IMPLEMENTATION
SEC. 501. REORGANIZATION PLAN.
(a) Submission of Plan- Not later than 180 days after the enactment of this Act, the President shall transmit to the appropriate congressional committees a reorganization plan regarding the following:
(1) The transfer of agencies, personnel, assets, and obligations to the Administration pursuant to this Act.
(2) Any consolidation, reorganization, or streamlining of agencies transferred to the Administration pursuant to this Act.
(b) Plan Elements- The plan transmitted under subsection (a) shall contain, consistent with this Act, such elements as the President determines appropriate, including the following:
(1) The timetable for transfer and identification of any functions of agencies designated to be transferred to the Administration pursuant to this Act that will not be transferred promptly to the Administration under the plan.
(2) Specification of the steps to be taken by the Administrator to organize the Administration, including the delegation or assignment of functions transferred to the Administration among the officers of the Administration in order to permit the Administration to carry out the functions transferred under the plan.
(3) Specification of the funds available to each agency that will be transferred to the Administration as a result of transfers under the plan.
(4) Specification of the proposed allocations within the Administration of unexpended funds transferred in connection with transfers under the plan.
(5) Specification of any proposed disposition of property, facilities, contracts, records, and other assets and obligations of agencies transferred under the plan.
(6) Specification of the proposed allocations within the Administration of the functions of the agencies and subdivisions that are not related directly to ensuring the safety of food.
(c) Modification of Plan- The President may, on the basis of consultations with the appropriate congressional committees, modify or revise any part of the plan until that part of the plan becomes effective in accordance with subsection (d).
(d) Effective Date-
(1) IN GENERAL- The reorganization plan described in this section, including any modifications or revisions of the plan under subsection (c), shall become effective for an agency on the earlier of–
(A) the date specified in the plan (or the plan as modified pursuant to subsection (c)), except that such date may not be earlier than 90 days after the date the President has transmitted the reorganization plan to the appropriate congressional committees pursuant to subsection (a); or
(B) the end of the 12-month period beginning on the date of the enactment of this Act.
(2) STATUTORY CONSTRUCTION- Nothing in this subsection may be construed to require the transfer of functions, personnel, records, balances of appropriations, or other assets of an agency on a single date.
(3) SUPERSEDES EXISTING LAW- Paragraph (1) shall apply notwithstanding section 905(b) of title 5, United States Code.
SEC. 502. TRANSITIONAL AUTHORITIES.
(a) Provision of Assistance by Officials- Until the transfer of an agency to the Administration, any official having authority over or function relating to the agency immediately before the date of the enactment of this Act shall provide the Administrator such assistance, including the use of personnel and assets, as the Administrator may request in preparing for the transfer and integration of the agency to the Administration.
(b) Services and Personnel- During the transition period, upon the request of the Administrator, the head of any executive agency may provide services or detail personnel to assist with the transition.
(c) Acting Officials-
(1) IN GENERAL- During the transition period, pending the advice and consent of the Senate to the appointment of an officer required by this Act to be appointed by and with such advice and consent, the President may designate any officer whose appointment was required to be made by and with such advice and consent and who was such an officer immediately before the date of the enactment of this Act (and who continues to be in office) or immediately before such designation, to act in such office until the same is filled as provided in this Act.
(2) COMPENSATION- While acting pursuant to paragraph (1), such officers shall receive compensation at the higher of–
(A) the rates provided by this Act for the respective offices in which they act; or
(B) the rates provided for the offices held at the time of designation.
(3) LIMITATION- Nothing in this Act shall be construed to require the advice and consent of the Senate to the appointment by the President to a position in the Administration of any officer whose agency is transferred to the Administration pursuant to this Act and whose duties following such transfer are germane to those performed before such transfer.
(d) Transfer of Personnel, Assets, Obligations, and Function-
(1) IN GENERAL- Consistent with section 1531 of title 31, United States Code, the personnel, assets, liabilities, contracts, property, records, and unexpended balances of appropriations, authorizations, allocations, and other funds that relate to the functions transferred under subsection (a) from a Federal agency shall be transferred to the Administration.
(2) UNEXPENDED FUNDS- Unexpended funds transferred under this subsection shall be used by the Administration only for the purposes for which the funds were originally authorized and appropriated.
SEC. 503. SAVINGS PROVISIONS.
(a) Completed Administrative Actions- The enactment of this Act or the transfer of functions under this Act shall not affect any order, determination, rule, regulation, tolerance, guidance, permit, personnel action, agreement, grant, contract, certificate, license, registration, user fees, privilege, or other administrative action issued, made, granted, or otherwise in effect or final with respect to that agency on the day before the transfer date with respect to the transferred functions.
(b) Pending Proceedings- Subject to the authority of the Administrator under this Act–
(1) pending proceedings in an agency, including notices of proposed rulemaking, and applications for licenses, permits, certificates, grants, and financial assistance, shall continue notwithstanding the enactment of this Act or the transfer of the agency to the Administration, unless discontinued or modified under the same terms and conditions and to the same extent that such discontinuance or modification could have occurred if such enactment or transfer had not occurred; and
(2) orders issued in such proceedings, and appeals therefrom, and payments made pursuant to such orders, shall issue in the same manner on the same terms as if this Act had not been enacted or the agency had not been transferred, and any such order shall continue in effect until amended, modified, superseded, terminated, set aside, or revoked by an officer of the United States or a court of competent jurisdiction, or by operation of law.
(c) Pending Civil Actions- Subject to the authority of the Administrator under this Act, any civil action commenced with regard to that agency pending before that agency on the day before the transfer date with respect to the transferred functions shall continue notwithstanding the enactment of this Act or the transfer of an agency to the Administration.
(d) References-
(1) IN GENERAL- After the transfer of functions from a Federal agency under this Act, any reference in any other Federal law, Executive order, rule, regulation, directive, document, or other material to that Federal agency or the head of that agency in connection with the administration or enforcement of the food safety law shall be deemed to be a reference to the Administration or the Administrator, respectively.
(2) STATUTORY REPORTING REQUIREMENTS- Statutory reporting requirements that applied in relation to such an agency immediately before the date of the enactment of this Act shall continue to apply following such transfer if they refer to the agency by name.
SEC. 504. CONFORMING AMENDMENTS.
(a) Executive Schedule- Section 5313 of title 5, United States Code, is amended by inserting at the end the following new item: ‘Administrator of Food Safety.’.
SEC. 505. ADDITIONAL TECHNICAL AND CONFORMING AMENDMENTS.
Not later than 60 days after the submission of the reorganization plan under section 501, the President shall prepare and submit proposed legislation to Congress containing necessary and appropriate technical and conforming amendments to the Acts listed in section 3(15) of this Act to reflect the changes made by this Act.
SEC. 506. REGULATIONS.
The Administrator may promulgate such regulations as the Administrator determines are necessary or appropriate to perform the duties of the Administrator.
SEC. 507. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.
There are authorized to be appropriated such sums as are necessary to carry out this Act.
SEC. 508. LIMITATION ON AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.
For the fiscal year that includes the date of the enactment of this Act, the amount authorized to be appropriated to carry out this Act shall not exceed–
(1) the amount appropriated for that fiscal year for the Federal agencies identified in section 102(b) for the purpose of administering or enforcing the food safety law; or
(2) the amount appropriated for those agencies for that purpose for the preceding fiscal year, if, as of the date of the enactment of this Act, appropriations for those agencies for the fiscal year that includes such date have not yet been made.
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Text of S. 425: Food Safety and Tracking Improvement Act
S 425 IS
111th CONGRESS
1st Session
S. 425
To amend the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act to provide for the establishment of a traceability system for food, to amend the Federal Meat Inspection Act, the Poultry Products Inspections Act, the Egg Products Inspection Act, and the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act to provide for improved public health and food safety through enhanced enforcement, and for other purposes.
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
February 12, 2009
Mr. BROWN introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry
A BILL
To amend the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act to provide for the establishment of a traceability system for food, to amend the Federal Meat Inspection Act, the Poultry Products Inspections Act, the Egg Products Inspection Act, and the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act to provide for improved public health and food safety through enhanced enforcement, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE; TABLE OF CONTENTS.
(a) Short Title- This Act may be cited as the Food Safety and Tracking Improvement Act.
(b) Table of Contents- The table of contents for this Act is as follows:
TITLE II–ENFORCEMENT AND RECALL FOR MEAT, POULTRY, AND FOOD
TITLE I–TRACEABILITY OF FOOD
SEC. 101. TRACEABILITY OF FOOD.
The Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (21 U.S.C. 301 et seq.) is amended–
(1) in section 301, by inserting at the end the following:
‘(oo) The failure to comply with any requirement of section 414A (relating to the traceability of food).’; and
(2) in chapter IV, by inserting after section 414 the following:
‘SEC. 414A. TRACEABILITY OF FOOD.
‘(a) Establishment of System- Not later than 3 years after the date of the enactment of this section, the Secretary shall establish a traceability system described in subsection (b) for all stages of manufacturing, processing, packaging, and distribution of food.
‘(b) Description of System- The traceability system required by subsection (a) shall require each article of food shipped in interstate commerce to be identified in a manner that enables the Secretary to retrieve the history, use, and location of the article through a recordkeeping and audit system, a secure, online database, or registered identification.
‘(c) Records-
‘(1) IN GENERAL- The Secretary may require that each person required to identify an article of food pursuant to subsection (b) maintain accurate records, as prescribed by the Secretary, regarding the purchase, sale, and identification of the article.
‘(2) ACCESS- Each person described in paragraph (1) shall, at all reasonable times, on notice by a duly authorized representative of the Secretary, allow the representative to access each place of business of the person to examine and copy the records described in paragraph (1).
‘(3) DURATION- Each person described in paragraph (1) shall maintain records as required under this subsection for such period of time as the Secretary prescribes.
‘(d) False Information- No person shall falsify or misrepresent to any other person or to the Secretary, any information as to any location at which any article of food was held.
‘(e) Alteration or Destruction of Records- No person shall, without authorization from the Secretary, alter, detach, or destroy any records or other means of identification prescribed by the Secretary for use in determining the location at which any article of food was held.
‘(f) Advisory Committee-
‘(1) IN GENERAL- In order to assist the Secretary in implementing the traceability system under subsection (a), the Secretary shall convene an advisory committee (referred to in this subsection as the ‘Committee’).
‘(2) MEMBERSHIP- The Committee shall consist of 13 members appointed by the Secretary which shall include–
‘(A) an equitable number of food safety and tracking technology experts, representatives of the food industry, and consumer advocates; and
‘(B) officials from the Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition and the Office of Regulatory Affairs of the Food and Drug Administration and the Agriculture Marketing Service of the Department of Agriculture.
‘(3) CHAIRPERSON- The Secretary shall appoint a Chairperson of the Committee.
‘(4) MEETING- The Committee shall convene not later than 180 days after the date of enactment of this section and periodically thereafter at the call of the Chairperson.
‘(5) REPORT OF COMMITTEE-
‘(A) IN GENERAL- Not later than 1 year after the date of enactment of this section, the Committee shall submit to the Secretary and the Office of the Commissioner a report that describes the recommendations regarding the most practicable approach to providing for the traceability of food, including the most efficient means of implementing the traceback of contaminated foods.
‘(B) CONSIDERATIONS- In developing the report under subparagraph (A), the Committee shall consider the following approaches to providing for the traceability of food:
‘(i) A national database or registry operated by the Food and Drug Administration.
‘(ii) Electronic records identifying each prior sale, purchase, or trade of the food and its ingredients, and establishing that the food and its ingredients were grown, prepared, handled, manufactured, processed, distributed, shipped, warehoused, imported, and conveyed under conditions that ensure the safety of the food. The records should include an electronic statement with the date of, and the names and addresses of all parties to, each prior sale, purchase, or trade, and any other information as appropriate.
‘(iii) Standardized tracking numbers on all shipments. These numbers would identify the country of origin, the unique facility registration number, date of production, and lot number (if applicable).
‘(iv) Recall performance standards for each food or commodity type.
‘(v) Safeguards for the combining, repacking, or otherwise mixing of items of food, particularly fresh produce.
‘(vi) Other approaches that enable the reliable tracking of food and food products.
‘(g) Authorization of Appropriations- For the purpose of carrying out this section, there is authorized to be appropriated $40,000,000 for the period of fiscal years 2010 through 2012.’.
TITLE II–ENFORCEMENT AND RECALL FOR MEAT, POULTRY, AND FOOD
SEC. 201. FOOD SAFETY ENFORCEMENT FOR MEAT AND MEAT FOOD PRODUCTS.
(a) In General- The Federal Meat Inspection Act (21 U.S.C. 601 et seq.) is amended–
(1) by redesignating section 411 (21 U.S.C. 680) as section 414; and
(2) by inserting after section 410 (21 U.S.C. 679a) the following:
‘SEC. 411. NOTIFICATION, NONDISTRIBUTION, AND RECALL OF ADULTERATED OR MISBRANDED ARTICLES.
‘(a) Notification to Secretary of Violation-
‘(1) IN GENERAL- A person (other than a household consumer) that has reason to believe that any carcass, part of a carcass, meat, or meat food product of an amenable species (referred to in this section as an ‘article’) transported, stored, distributed, or otherwise handled by the person is adulterated or misbranded shall, as soon as practicable, notify the Secretary of the identity and location of the article.
‘(2) MANNER OF NOTIFICATION- Notification under paragraph (1) shall be made in such manner and by such means as the Secretary may require by regulation.
‘(b) Recall and Consumer Notification-
‘(1) VOLUNTARY ACTIONS- On receiving notification under subsection (a) or by other means, if the Secretary finds that an article is adulterated or misbranded and that there is a reasonable probability that human consumption of the article would present a threat to public health (as determined by the Secretary), the Secretary shall provide all appropriate persons (as determined by the Secretary), that transported, stored, distributed, or otherwise handled the article with an opportunity–
‘(A) to cease distribution of the article;
‘(B) to notify all persons that transport, store, distribute, or otherwise handle the article, or to which the article has been transported, sold, distributed, or otherwise handled, to cease immediately distribution of the article;
‘(C) to recall the article;
‘(D) in consultation with the Secretary, to provide notice of the finding of the Secretary to all consumers to which the article was, or may have been, distributed; or
‘(E) to notify State and local public health officials.
‘(2) MANDATORY ACTIONS- If the appropriate person referred to in paragraph (1) does not carry out the actions described in that paragraph with respect to an article within the time period and in the manner prescribed by the Secretary, the Secretary–
‘(A) shall require the person–
‘(i) to immediately cease distribution of the article; and
‘(ii) to immediately make the notification described in paragraph (1)(B); and
‘(B) may take control or possession of the article.
‘(3) NOTICE TO CONSUMERS AND HEALTH OFFICIALS- The Secretary shall, as the Secretary determines to be necessary, provide notice of the finding of the Secretary under paragraph (1) to consumers to which the article was, or may have been, distributed and to appropriate State and local public health officials.
‘(4) NONDISTRIBUTION BY NOTIFIED PERSONS- A person that transports, stores, distributes, or otherwise handles the article, or to which the article has been transported, sold, distributed, or otherwise handled, and that is notified under paragraph (1)(B) or (2)(B) shall cease immediately distribution of the article.
‘(5) AVAILABILITY OF RECORDS TO SECRETARY- Each appropriate person referred to in paragraph (1) that transported, stored, distributed, or otherwise handled an article shall make available to the Secretary information necessary to carry out this subsection, as determined by the Secretary, regarding–
‘(A) persons that transport, store, distribute, or otherwise handle the article; and
‘(B) persons to which the article has been transported, sold, distributed, or otherwise handled.
‘(c) Informal Hearings on Orders-
‘(1) IN GENERAL- The Secretary shall provide a person subject to an order under subsection (b) with an opportunity for an informal hearing (in accordance with such rules or regulations as the Secretary shall prescribe) on–
‘(A) the actions required by the order; and
‘(B) any reasons why the article that is the subject of the order should not be recalled.
‘(2) TIMING OF HEARINGS- The Secretary shall hold a hearing under paragraph (1) as soon as practicable, but not later than 2 business days, after the date of issuance of the order.
‘(d) Post-Hearing Recall Orders-
‘(1) AMENDMENT OF ORDERS- If, after providing an opportunity for an informal hearing under subsection (c), the Secretary determines that there is a reasonable probability that human consumption of the article that is the subject of an order under subsection (b) presents a threat to public health, the Secretary may, as the Secretary determines to be necessary–
‘(A) amend the order under subsection (b)–
‘(i) to require recall of the article or other appropriate action; and
‘(ii) to specify a timetable during which the recall shall occur;
‘(B) require periodic reports to the Secretary describing the progress of the recall;
‘(C) provide notice of the recall to consumers to which the article was, or may have been, distributed; or
‘(D) take any combination of actions described in subparagraphs (A) through (C).
‘(2) VACATION OF ORDERS- If, after providing an opportunity for an informal hearing under subsection (c), the Secretary determines that adequate grounds do not exist to continue the actions required by the order, the Secretary shall vacate the order.
‘(e) Remedies Not Exclusive- The remedies authorized by this section shall be in addition to any other remedies that may be available.
‘SEC. 412. REFUSAL OR WITHDRAWAL OF INSPECTION OF ESTABLISHMENTS.
‘(a) In General- The Secretary may, for such period, or indefinitely, as the Secretary considers necessary to carry out this Act, refuse to provide or withdraw inspection under title I with respect to an establishment if the Secretary determines, after opportunity for a hearing on the record is provided to the applicant for, or recipient of, inspection, that the applicant or recipient, or any person responsibly connected with the applicant or recipient (within the meaning of section 401), has committed a willful violation or repeated violations of this Act (including a regulation promulgated under this Act).
‘(b) Denial or Suspension of Inspection Pending Hearing- The Secretary may deny or suspend inspection under title I, pending opportunity for an expedited hearing, with respect to an action under subsection (a), if the Secretary determines that the denial or suspension is in the public interest to protect the health or welfare of consumers or to ensure the effective performance of an official duty under this Act.
‘(c) Judicial Review-
‘(1) IN GENERAL- A determination and order of the Secretary with respect to the refusal or withdrawal of inspection under this section shall be final unless, not later than 30 days after the effective date of the order, the affected applicant for, or recipient of, inspection–
‘(A) files a petition for judicial review of the order; and
‘(B) simultaneously sends a copy of the petition by certified mail to the Secretary.
‘(2) REFUSAL OR WITHDRAWAL OF INSPECTION PENDING REVIEW- Inspection shall be refused or withdrawn as of the effective date of the order pending any judicial review of the order unless the Secretary directs otherwise.
‘(3) VENUE; RECORD- Judicial review of the order shall be–
‘(A) in–
‘(i) the United States court of appeals for the circuit in which the applicant for, or recipient of, inspection resides or has its principal place of business; or
‘(ii) the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit; and
‘(B) on the record on which the determination and order are based.
‘(d) Remedies Not Exclusive- The remedies authorized by this section shall be in addition to any other remedies that may be available.
‘SEC. 413. CIVIL PENALTIES.
‘(a) In General-
‘(1) ASSESSMENT- The Secretary may assess against a person that violates section 411 (including a regulation promulgated or order issued under that section) a civil penalty for each violation of not more than $100,000.
‘(2) SEPARATE OFFENSES- Each violation and each day during which the violation continues shall be considered to be a separate offense.
‘(3) NOTICE AND OPPORTUNITY FOR HEARING- The Secretary shall not assess a civil penalty under this section against a person unless the person is given notice and opportunity for a hearing on the record before the Secretary in accordance with sections 554 and 556 of title 5, United States Code.
‘(4) DETERMINATION OF CIVIL PENALTY AMOUNT- The amount of a civil penalty under this section–
‘(A) shall be assessed by the Secretary by written order, taking into account–
‘(i) the gravity of the violation;
‘(ii) the degree of culpability of the person;
‘(iii) the size and type of the business of the person; and
‘(iv) any history of prior offenses by the person under this Act; and
‘(B) shall be reviewed only in accordance with subsection (b).
‘(b) Judicial Review-
‘(1) IN GENERAL- An order assessing a civil penalty against a person under subsection (a) shall be final unless the person–
‘(A) not later than 30 days after the effective date of the order, files a petition for judicial review of the order in–
‘(i) the United States court of appeals for the circuit in which the person resides or has its principal place of business; or
‘(ii) the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit; and
‘(B) simultaneously sends a copy of the petition by certified mail to the Secretary.
‘(2) FILING OF COPY OF RECORD- The Secretary shall promptly file in the court a certified copy of the record on which the order was issued.
‘(c) Collection Actions for Failure To Pay Assessment-
‘(1) REFERRAL TO ATTORNEY GENERAL- If a person fails to pay a civil penalty assessed under subsection (a) after the order assessing the civil penalty has become a final order, or after the court of appeals has entered final judgment in favor of the Secretary, the Secretary shall refer the matter to the Attorney General.
‘(2) ACTION BY ATTORNEY GENERAL- The Attorney General shall bring a civil action to recover the amount of the civil penalty in United States district court.
‘(3) SCOPE OF REVIEW- In a civil action under paragraph (2), the validity and appropriateness of the order of the Secretary assessing the civil penalty shall not be subject to review.
‘(d) Refusal or Withdrawal of Inspection Pending Payment- If a person fails to pay the amount of a civil penalty after the order assessing the civil penalty has become a final order, the Secretary may refuse to provide or withdraw inspection under title I of the person until the civil penalty is paid or until the Secretary directs otherwise.
‘(e) Penalties in Lieu of Other Actions- Nothing in this Act requires the Secretary to report for prosecution, or for the commencement of an action, any violation of section 411 in any case in which the Secretary believes that the public interest will be adequately served by the assessment of a civil penalty under this section.
‘(f) Remedies Not Exclusive- The remedies authorized by this section shall be in addition to any other remedies that may be available.’.
(b) Conforming Amendments-
(1) Section 1 of the Federal Meat Inspection Act (21 U.S.C. 601) is amended by adding at the end the following:
‘(x) Person- The term ‘person’ means any individual, partnership, corporation, association, or other business unit.’.
(2) The Federal Meat Inspection Act (21 U.S.C. 601 et seq.) is amended–
(A) by striking ‘person, firm, or corporation’ each place it appears and inserting ‘person’;
(B) by striking ‘persons, firms, and corporations’ each place it appears and inserting ‘persons’; and
(C) by striking ‘persons, firms, or corporations’ each place it appears and inserting ‘persons’.
SEC. 202. FOOD SAFETY ENFORCEMENT FOR POULTRY AND POULTRY FOOD PRODUCTS.
(a) In General- The Poultry Products Inspection Act (21 U.S.C. 451 et seq.) is amended by adding at the end the following:
‘SEC. 32. NOTIFICATION, NONDISTRIBUTION, AND RECALL OF ADULTERATED OR MISBRANDED ARTICLES.
‘(a) Notification to Secretary of Violation-
‘(1) IN GENERAL- A person (other than a household consumer) that has reason to believe that any poultry or poultry product (referred to in this section as an ‘article’) transported, stored, distributed, or otherwise handled by the person is adulterated or misbranded shall, as soon as practicable, notify the Secretary of the identity and location of the article.
‘(2) MANNER OF NOTIFICATION- Notification under paragraph (1) shall be made in such manner and by such means as the Secretary may require by regulation.
‘(b) Recall and Consumer Notification-
‘(1) VOLUNTARY ACTIONS- On receiving notification under subsection (a) or by other means, if the Secretary finds that an article is adulterated or misbranded and that there is a reasonable probability that human consumption of the article would present a threat to public health (as determined by the Secretary), the Secretary shall provide all appropriate persons (as determined by the Secretary), that transported, stored, distributed, or otherwise handled the article with an opportunity–
‘(A) to cease distribution of the article;
‘(B) to notify all persons that transport, store, distribute, or otherwise handle the article, or to which the article has been transported, sold, distributed, or otherwise handled, to cease immediately distribution of the article;
‘(C) to recall the article;
‘(D) in consultation with the Secretary, to provide notice of the finding of the Secretary to all consumers to which the article was, or may have been, distributed; or
‘(E) to notify State and local public health officials.
‘(2) MANDATORY ACTIONS- If the appropriate person referred to in paragraph (1) does not carry out the actions described in that paragraph with respect to an article within the time period and in the manner prescribed by the Secretary, the Secretary–
‘(A) shall require the person–
‘(i) to immediately cease distribution of the article; and
‘(ii) to immediately make the notification described in paragraph (1)(B); and
‘(B) may take control or possession of the article.
‘(3) NOTICE TO CONSUMERS AND HEALTH OFFICIALS- The Secretary shall, as the Secretary determines to be necessary, provide notice of the finding of the Secretary under paragraph (1) to consumers to which the article was, or may have been, distributed and to appropriate State and local health officials.
‘(4) NONDISTRIBUTION BY NOTIFIED PERSONS- A person that transports, stores, distributes, or otherwise handles the article, or to which the article has been transported, sold, distributed, or otherwise handled, and that is notified under paragraph (1)(B) or (2)(B) shall cease immediately distribution of the article.
‘(5) AVAILABILITY OF RECORDS TO SECRETARY- Each appropriate person referred to in paragraph (1) that transported, stored, distributed, or otherwise handled an article shall make available to the Secretary information necessary to carry out this subsection, as determined by the Secretary, regarding–
‘(A) persons that transport, store, distribute, or otherwise handle the article; and
‘(B) persons to which the article has been transported, sold, distributed, or otherwise handled.
‘(c) Informal Hearings on Orders-
‘(1) IN GENERAL- The Secretary shall provide a person subject to an order under subsection (b) with an opportunity for an informal hearing (in accordance with such rules or regulations as the Secretary shall prescribe) on–
‘(A) the actions required by the order; and
‘(B) any reasons why the article that is the subject of the order should not be recalled.
‘(2) TIMING OF HEARINGS- The Secretary shall hold a hearing under paragraph (1) as soon as practicable, but not later than 2 business days, after the date of issuance of the order.
‘(d) Post-Hearing Recall Orders-
‘(1) AMENDMENT OF ORDERS- If, after providing an opportunity for an informal hearing under subsection (c), the Secretary determines that there is a reasonable probability that human consumption of the article that is the subject of an order under subsection (b) presents a threat to public health, the Secretary may, as the Secretary determines to be necessary–
‘(A) amend the order under subsection (b)–
‘(i) to require recall of the article or other appropriate action; and
‘(ii) to specify a timetable during which the recall shall occur;
‘(B) require periodic reports to the Secretary describing the progress of the recall; or
‘(C) provide notice of the recall to consumers to which the article was, or may have been, distributed.
‘(2) VACATION OF ORDERS- If, after providing an opportunity for an informal hearing under subsection (c), the Secretary determines that adequate grounds do not exist to continue the actions required by the order, the Secretary shall vacate the order.
‘(e) Remedies Not Exclusive- The remedies authorized by this section shall be in addition to any other remedies that may be available.
‘SEC. 33. REFUSAL OR WITHDRAWAL OF INSPECTION OF ESTABLISHMENTS.
‘(a) In General- The Secretary may, for such period, or indefinitely, as the Secretary considers necessary to carry out this Act, refuse to provide or withdraw inspection under this Act with respect to an establishment if the Secretary determines, after opportunity for a hearing on the record is provided to the applicant for, or recipient of, inspection, that the applicant or recipient, or any person responsibly connected with the applicant or recipient (within the meaning of section 18(a)), has committed a willful violation or repeated violations of this Act (including a regulation promulgated under this Act).
‘(b) Denial or Suspension of Inspection Pending Hearing- The Secretary may deny or suspend inspection under this Act, pending opportunity for an expedited hearing, with respect to an action under subsection (a), if the Secretary determines that the denial or suspension is in the public interest to protect the health or welfare of consumers or to ensure the effective performance of an official duty under this Act.
‘(c) Judicial Review-
‘(1) IN GENERAL- A determination and order of the Secretary with respect to the refusal or withdrawal of inspection under this section shall be final unless, not later than 30 days after the effective date of the order, the affected applicant for, or recipient of, inspection–
‘(A) files a petition for judicial review of the order; and
‘(B) simultaneously sends a copy of the petition by certified mail to the Secretary.
‘(2) REFUSAL OR WITHDRAWAL OF INSPECTION PENDING REVIEW- Inspection shall be refused or withdrawn as of the effective date of the order pending any judicial review of the order unless the Secretary directs otherwise.
‘(3) VENUE; RECORD- Judicial review of the order shall be–
‘(A) in–
‘(i) the United States court of appeals for the circuit in which the applicant for, or recipient of, inspection resides or has its principal place of business; or
‘(ii) the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit; and
‘(B) on the record on which the determination and order are based.
‘(d) Remedies Not Exclusive- The remedies authorized by this section shall be in addition to any other remedies that may be available.
‘SEC. 34. CIVIL PENALTIES.
‘(a) In General-
‘(1) ASSESSMENT- The Secretary may assess against a person that violates section 32 (including a regulation promulgated or order issued under that section) a civil penalty for each violation of not more than $100,000.
‘(2) SEPARATE OFFENSES- Each violation and each day during which the violation continues shall be considered to be a separate offense.
‘(3) NOTICE AND OPPORTUNITY FOR HEARING- The Secretary shall not assess a civil penalty under this section against a person unless the person is given notice and opportunity for a hearing on the record before the Secretary in accordance with sections 554 and 556 of title 5, United States Code.
‘(4) DETERMINATION OF CIVIL PENALTY AMOUNT- The amount of a civil penalty under this section–
‘(A) shall be assessed by the Secretary by written order, taking into account–
‘(i) the gravity of the violation;
‘(ii) the degree of culpability of the person;
‘(iii) the size and type of the business of the person; and
‘(iv) any history of prior offenses by the person under this Act; and
‘(B) shall be reviewed only in accordance with subsection (b).
‘(b) Judicial Review-
‘(1) IN GENERAL- An order assessing a civil penalty against a person under subsection (a) shall be final unless the person–
‘(A) not later than 30 days after the effective date of the order, files a petition for judicial review of the order in–
‘(i) the United States court of appeals for the circuit in which the person resides or has its principal place of business; or
‘(ii) the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit; and
‘(B) simultaneously sends a copy of the petition by certified mail to the Secretary.
‘(2) FILING OF COPY OF RECORD- The Secretary shall promptly file in the court a certified copy of the record on which the order was issued.
‘(c) Collection Actions for Failure To Pay Assessment-
‘(1) REFERRAL TO ATTORNEY GENERAL- If a person fails to pay a civil penalty assessed under subsection (a) after the order assessing the civil penalty has become a final order, or after the court of appeals has entered final judgment in favor of the Secretary, the Secretary shall refer the matter to the Attorney General.
‘(2) ACTION BY ATTORNEY GENERAL- The Attorney General shall bring a civil action to recover the amount of the civil penalty in United States district court.
‘(3) SCOPE OF REVIEW- In a civil action under paragraph (2), the validity and appropriateness of the order of the Secretary assessing the civil penalty shall not be subject to review.
‘(d) Refusal or Withdrawal of Inspection Pending Payment- If a person fails to pay the amount of a civil penalty after the order assessing the civil penalty has become a final order, the Secretary may refuse to provide or withdraw inspection under this Act of the person until the civil penalty is paid or until the Secretary directs otherwise.
‘(e) Penalties in Lieu of Other Actions- Nothing in this Act requires the Secretary to report for prosecution, or for the commencement of an action, any violation of section 32 in any case in which the Secretary believes that the public interest will be adequately served by the assessment of a civil penalty under this section.
‘(f) Remedies Not Exclusive- The remedies authorized by this section shall be in addition to any other remedies that may be available.’.
(b) Conforming Amendments- Section 5(c)(1) of the Poultry Products Inspection Act (21 U.S.C. 454(c)(1)) is amended in the first sentence–
(1) by striking ‘, by thirty days prior to the expiration of two years after enactment of the Wholesome Poultry Products Act,’; and
(2) by striking ‘sections 1-4, 6-10, and 12-22 of this Act’ and inserting ‘sections 1 through 4, 6 through 10, 12 through 22, and 32 through 34’; and
SEC. 203. NOTIFICATION, NONDISTRIBUTION, AND RECALL OF ADULTERATED OR MISBRANDED EGGS AND EGG PRODUCTS.
The Egg Products Inspection Act is amended by inserting after section 20 (21 U.S.C. 1049) the following:
‘SEC. 20A. NOTIFICATION, NONDISTRIBUTION, AND RECALL OF ADULTERATED OR MISBRANDED EGGS AND EGG PRODUCTS.
‘(a) Notification to Secretary of Violation-
‘(1) IN GENERAL- A person (other than a household consumer) that has reason to believe that any egg or egg product (referred to in this section as an ‘article’) transported, stored, distributed, or otherwise handled by the person is adulterated or misbranded shall, as soon as practicable, notify the Secretary of the identity and location of the article.
‘(2) MANNER OF NOTIFICATION- Notification under paragraph (1) shall be made in such manner and by such means as the Secretary may require by regulation.
‘(b) Recall and Consumer Notification-
‘(1) VOLUNTARY ACTIONS- On receiving notification under subsection (a) or by other means, if the Secretary finds that an article is adulterated or misbranded and that there is a reasonable probability that human consumption of the article would present a threat to public health (as determined by the Secretary), the Secretary shall provide all appropriate persons (as determined by the Secretary), that transported, stored, distributed, or otherwise handled the article with an opportunity–
‘(A) to cease distribution of the article;
‘(B) to notify all persons that transport, store, distribute, or otherwise handle the article, or to which the article has been transported, sold, distributed, or otherwise handled, to cease immediately distribution of the article;
‘(C) to recall the article;
‘(D) in consultation with the Secretary, to provide notice of the finding of the Secretary to all consumers to which the article was, or may have been, distributed; or
‘(E) to notify State and local public health officials.
‘(2) MANDATORY ACTIONS- If the appropriate person referred to in paragraph (1) does not carry out the actions described in that paragraph with respect to an article within the time period and in the manner prescribed by the Secretary, the Secretary–
‘(A) shall require the person–
‘(i) to immediately cease distribution of the article; and
‘(ii) to immediately make the notification described in paragraph (1)(B); and
‘(B) may take control or possession of the article.
‘(3) NOTICE TO CONSUMERS AND HEALTH OFFICIALS- The Secretary shall, as the Secretary determines to be necessary, provide notice of the finding of the Secretary under paragraph (1) to consumers to which the article was, or may have been, distributed and to appropriate State and local health officials.
‘(4) NONDISTRIBUTION BY NOTIFIED PERSONS- A person that transports, stores, distributes, or otherwise handles the article, or to which the article has been transported, sold, distributed, or otherwise handled, and that is notified under paragraph (1)(B) or (2)(B) shall cease immediately distribution of the article.
‘(5) AVAILABILITY OF RECORDS TO SECRETARY- Each appropriate person referred to in paragraph (1) that transported, stored, distributed, or otherwise handled an article shall make available to the Secretary information necessary to carry out this subsection, as determined by the Secretary, regarding–
‘(A) persons that transport, store, distribute, or otherwise handle the article; and
‘(B) persons to which the article has been transported, sold, distributed, or otherwise handled.
‘(c) Informal Hearings on Orders-
‘(1) IN GENERAL- The Secretary shall provide a person subject to an order under subsection (b) with an opportunity for an informal hearing (in accordance with such rules or regulations as the Secretary shall prescribe) on–
‘(A) the actions required by the order; and
‘(B) any reasons why the article that is the subject of the order should not be recalled.
‘(2) TIMING OF HEARINGS- The Secretary shall hold a hearing under paragraph (1) as soon as practicable, but not later than 2 business days, after the date of issuance of the order.
‘(d) Post-Hearing Recall Orders-
‘(1) AMENDMENT OF ORDERS- If, after providing an opportunity for an informal hearing under subsection (c), the Secretary determines that there is a reasonable probability that human consumption of the article that is the subject of an order under subsection (b) presents a threat to public health, the Secretary may, as the Secretary determines to be necessary–
‘(A) amend the order under subsection (b)–
‘(i) to require recall of the article or other appropriate action; and
‘(ii) to specify a timetable during which the recall shall occur;
‘(B) require periodic reports to the Secretary describing the progress of the recall; or
‘(C) provide notice of the recall to consumers to which the article was, or may have been, distributed.
‘(2) VACATION OF ORDERS- If, after providing an opportunity for an informal hearing under subsection (c), the Secretary determines that adequate grounds do not exist to continue the actions required by the order, the Secretary shall vacate the order.
‘(e) Remedies Not Exclusive- The remedies authorized by this section shall be in addition to any other remedies that may be available.
‘SEC. 20B. REFUSAL OR WITHDRAWAL OF INSPECTION OF ESTABLISHMENTS.
‘(a) In General- The Secretary may, for such period, or indefinitely, as the Secretary considers necessary to carry out this Act, refuse to provide or withdraw inspection under this Act with respect to an establishment if the Secretary determines, after opportunity for a hearing on the record is provided to the applicant for, or recipient of, inspection, that the applicant or recipient, or any person responsibly connected with the applicant or recipient (within the meaning of section 18), has committed a willful violation or repeated violations of this Act (including a regulation promulgated under this Act).
‘(b) Denial or Suspension of Inspection Pending Hearing- The Secretary may deny or suspend inspection under this Act, pending opportunity for an expedited hearing, with respect to an action under subsection (a), if the Secretary determines that the denial or suspension is in the public interest to protect the health or welfare of consumers or to ensure the effective performance of an official duty under this Act.
‘(c) Judicial Review-
‘(1) IN GENERAL- A determination and order of the Secretary with respect to the refusal or withdrawal of inspection under this section shall be final unless, not later than 30 days after the effective date of the order, the affected applicant for, or recipient of, inspection–
‘(A) files a petition for judicial review of the order; and
‘(B) simultaneously sends a copy of the petition by certified mail to the Secretary.
‘(2) REFUSAL OR WITHDRAWAL OF INSPECTION PENDING REVIEW- Inspection shall be refused or withdrawn as of the effective date of the order pending any judicial review of the order unless the Secretary directs otherwise.
‘(3) VENUE; RECORD- Judicial review of the order shall be–
‘(A) in–
‘(i) the United States court of appeals for the circuit in which the applicant for, or recipient of, inspection resides or has its principal place of business; or
‘(ii) the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit; and
‘(B) on the record on which the determination and order are based.
‘(d) Remedies Not Exclusive- The remedies authorized by this section shall be in addition to any other remedies that may be available.
‘SEC. 20C. CIVIL PENALTIES.
‘(a) In General-
‘(1) ASSESSMENT- The Secretary may assess against a person that violates section 20A (including a regulation promulgated or order issued under that section) a civil penalty for each violation of not more than $100,000.
‘(2) SEPARATE OFFENSES- Each violation and each day during which the violation continues shall be considered to be a separate offense.
‘(3) NOTICE AND OPPORTUNITY FOR HEARING- The Secretary shall not assess a civil penalty under this section against a person unless the person is given notice and opportunity for a hearing on the record before the Secretary in accordance with sections 554 and 556 of title 5, United States Code.
‘(4) DETERMINATION OF CIVIL PENALTY AMOUNT- The amount of a civil penalty under this section–
‘(A) shall be assessed by the Secretary by written order, taking into account–
‘(i) the gravity of the violation;
‘(ii) the degree of culpability of the person;
‘(iii) the size and type of the business of the person; and
‘(iv) any history of prior offenses by the person under this Act; and
‘(B) shall be reviewed only in accordance with subsection (b).
‘(b) Judicial Review-
‘(1) IN GENERAL- An order assessing a civil penalty against a person under subsection (a) shall be final unless the person–
‘(A) not later than 30 days after the effective date of the order, files a petition for judicial review of the order in–
‘(i) the United States court of appeals for the circuit in which the person resides or has its principal place of business; or
‘(ii) the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit; and
‘(B) simultaneously sends a copy of the petition by certified mail to the Secretary.
‘(2) FILING OF COPY OF RECORD- The Secretary shall promptly file in the court a certified copy of the record on which the order was issued.
‘(c) Collection Actions for Failure To Pay Assessment-
‘(1) REFERRAL TO ATTORNEY GENERAL- If a person fails to pay a civil penalty assessed under subsection (a) after the order assessing the civil penalty has become a final order, or after the court of appeals has entered final judgment in favor of the Secretary, the Secretary shall refer the matter to the Attorney General.
‘(2) ACTION BY ATTORNEY GENERAL- The Attorney General shall bring a civil action to recover the amount of the civil penalty in United States district court.
‘(3) SCOPE OF REVIEW- In a civil action under paragraph (2), the validity and appropriateness of the order of the Secretary assessing the civil penalty shall not be subject to review.
‘(d) Refusal or Withdrawal of Inspection Pending Payment- If a person fails to pay the amount of a civil penalty after the order assessing the civil penalty has become a final order, the Secretary may refuse to provide or withdraw inspection under this Act of the person until the civil penalty is paid or until the Secretary directs otherwise.
‘(e) Penalties in Lieu of Other Actions- Nothing in this Act requires the Secretary to report for prosecution, or for the commencement of an action, any violation of section 20A in any case in which the Secretary believes that the public interest will be adequately served by the assessment of a civil penalty under this section.
‘(f) Remedies Not Exclusive- The remedies authorized by this section shall be in addition to any other remedies that may be available.’.
SEC. 204. NOTIFICATION, NONDISTRIBUTION, AND RECALL OF ADULTERATED OR MISBRANDED ARTICLES OF FOOD.
(a) Prohibited Acts- Section 301 of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (21 U.S.C. 331) is amended by adding at the end the following:
‘(pp)(1) The failure to notify the Secretary in violation of section 311(a).
‘(2) The failure to comply with–
‘(A) an order issued under section 311(b) following any hearing requested under section 311(c); or
‘(B) an amended order issued under section 311(d)(1).’.
(b) Notification, Nondistribution, and Recall of Adulterated or Misbranded Articles of Food; Civil Penalties Relating to Foods- Chapter III of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (21 U.S.C. 331 et seq.) is amended by adding at the end the following:
‘SEC. 311. NOTIFICATION, NONDISTRIBUTION, AND RECALL OF ADULTERATED OR MISBRANDED ARTICLES OF FOOD.
‘(a) Notification to Secretary of Violation-
‘(1) IN GENERAL- A person (other than a household consumer or other individual who is the intended consumer of an article of food) that has reason to believe that an article of food when introduced into or while in interstate commerce, or while held for sale (regardless of whether the first sale) after shipment in interstate commerce, is adulterated or misbranded in a manner that, if consumed, may result in illness or injury shall, as soon as practicable, notify the Secretary of the identity and location of the article.
‘(2) MANNER OF NOTIFICATION- Notification under paragraph (1) shall be made in such manner and by such means as the Secretary may require by regulation.
‘(b) Recall and Consumer Notification-
‘(1) VOLUNTARY ACTIONS- On receiving notification under subsection (a) or by other means, if the Secretary finds that an article of food when introduced into or while in interstate commerce, or while held for sale (regardless of whether the first sale) after shipment in interstate commerce, is adulterated or misbranded in a manner that, if consumed, may result in illness or injury (as determined by the Secretary), the Secretary shall provide all appropriate persons (including the manufacturer, importer, distributor, or retailer of the article) with an opportunity (as determined by the Secretary)–
‘(A) to cease distribution of the article;
‘(B) to notify all persons–
‘(i) that produce, manufacture, pack, process, prepare, treat, package, distribute, or hold the article, to cease immediately those activities with respect to the article; or
‘(ii) to which the article has been distributed, transported, or sold, to cease immediately distribution of the article;
‘(C) to recall the article;
‘(D) in consultation with the Secretary, to provide notice of the finding of the Secretary to all consumers to which the article was, or may have been, distributed and to appropriate State and local health officials; or
‘(E) to notify State and local public health officials.
‘(2) MANDATORY ACTIONS- If the appropriate person referred to in paragraph (1) does not carry out the actions described in that paragraph with respect to an article within the time period and in the manner prescribed by the Secretary, the Secretary–
‘(A) shall require the person–
‘(i) to immediately cease distribution of the article; and
‘(ii) to immediately make the notification described in paragraph (1)(B); and
‘(B) may take control or possession of the article.
‘(3) NOTICE TO CONSUMERS AND HEALTH OFFICIALS- The Secretary shall, as the Secretary determines to be necessary, provide notice of the finding of the Secretary under paragraph (1) to consumers to which the article was, or may have been, distributed and to appropriate State and local health officials.
‘(c) Hearings on Orders-
‘(1) IN GENERAL- The Secretary shall provide a person subject to an order under subsection (b) with an opportunity for a hearing on–
‘(A) the actions required by the order; and
‘(B) any reasons why the article of food that is the subject of the order should not be recalled.
‘(2) TIMING OF HEARINGS- The Secretary shall hold a hearing under paragraph (1) as soon as practicable, but not later than 2 business days, after the date of issuance of the order.
‘(d) Post-Hearing Recall Orders-
‘(1) AMENDMENT OF ORDERS- If, after providing an opportunity for a hearing under subsection (c), the Secretary determines that an article of food when introduced into or while in interstate commerce, or while held for sale (regardless of whether the first sale) after shipment in interstate commerce, is adulterated or misbranded in a manner that, if consumed, may result in illness or injury, the Secretary may, as the Secretary determines to be necessary–
‘(A) amend the order under subsection (b)–
‘(i) to require recall of the article or other appropriate action; and
‘(ii) to specify a timetable during which the recall shall occur;
‘(B) require periodic reports to the Secretary describing the progress of the recall; or
‘(C) provide notice of the recall to consumers to which the article was, or may have been, distributed.
‘(2) VACATION OF ORDERS- If, after providing an opportunity for a hearing under subsection (c), the Secretary determines that adequate grounds do not exist to continue the actions required by the order, the Secretary shall vacate the order.
‘(e) Remedies Not Exclusive- The remedies authorized by this section shall be in addition to any other remedies that may be available.
‘SEC. 312. CIVIL PENALTIES RELATING TO FOODS.
‘(a) In General-
‘(1) ASSESSMENT- The Secretary may assess against a person that commits an act prohibited by section 301(pp) a civil penalty for each such act of not more than–
‘(A) $100,000, in the case of an individual; and
‘(B) $500,000, in the case of any other person.
‘(2) SEPARATE OFFENSES- Each prohibited act and each day during which the act continues shall be considered to be a separate offense.
‘(3) NOTICE AND OPPORTUNITY FOR HEARING- The Secretary shall not assess a civil penalty under this section against a person unless the person is given notice and opportunity for a hearing on the record before the Secretary in accordance with sections 554 and 556 of title 5, United States Code.
‘(4) DETERMINATION OF CIVIL PENALTY AMOUNT- The amount of a civil penalty under this section–
‘(A) shall be assessed by the Secretary by written order, taking into account–
‘(i) the gravity of the violation;
‘(ii) the degree of culpability of the person;
‘(iii) the size and type of the business of the person; and
‘(iv) any history of prior offenses by the person; and
‘(B) shall be reviewed only in accordance with subsection (b).
‘(b) Judicial Review-
‘(1) IN GENERAL- An order assessing a civil penalty against a person under subsection (a) shall be final unless the person–
‘(A) not later than 30 days after the effective date of the order, files a petition for judicial review of the order in–
‘(i) the United States court of appeals for the circuit in which the person resides or has its principal place of business; or
‘(ii) the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit; and
‘(B) simultaneously sends a copy of the petition by certified mail to the Secretary.
‘(2) FILING OF COPY OF RECORD- The Secretary shall promptly file in the court a certified copy of the record on which the order was issued.
‘(3) STANDARD OF REVIEW- The findings of the Secretary relating to the order shall be set aside only if the findings are found to be unsupported by substantial evidence on the record as a whole.
‘(c) Collection Actions for Failure To Pay Assessment-
‘(1) REFERRAL TO ATTORNEY GENERAL- If a person fails to pay a civil penalty assessed under subsection (a) after the order assessing the civil penalty has become a final order, or after the court of appeals has entered final judgment in favor of the Secretary, the Secretary may refer the matter to the Attorney General.
‘(2) ACTION BY ATTORNEY GENERAL- The Attorney General shall bring a civil action to recover the amount of the civil penalty in United States district court.
‘(3) SCOPE OF REVIEW- In a civil action under paragraph (2), the validity and appropriateness of the order of the Secretary assessing the civil penalty shall not be subject to review.
‘(d) Penalties Deposited in Treasury- All amounts collected as civil penalties under this section shall be deposited in the Treasury of the United States.
‘(e) Penalties in Lieu of Other Actions- Nothing in this Act requires the Secretary to report for prosecution, or for the commencement of any libel or injunction proceeding, any violation of section 301(pp) in any case in which the Secretary believes that the public interest will be adequately served by the assessment of a civil penalty under this section.
‘(f) Remedies Not Exclusive- The remedies authorized by this section shall be in addition to any other remedies that may be available.’.
The Pharmacratic Inquisition DVD – Official Online Edition
1:51:19
How deep does the rabbit hole go? Gnostic Media is proud to present the official online edition of The Pharmacratic Inquisition 2007. If you enjoyed “Zeitgeist – The Movie”, you will love this video; the creators of this video are listed as one of the sources for the Zeitgeist Movie. The Pharmacratic Inquisition 2007 is a video version of the book, “Astrotheology & Shamanism” by Jan Irvin & Andrew Rutajit. The painstakingly detailed and heavily footnoted research in the book comes to life in this video and is now available to you for FREE! For further research of the claims made in this video, please read AstroTheology & Shamanism – this book is available to order as a combo with the DVD. Thousands of years ago, in the pre monarchic era, sacred plants and other entheogenic substances where politically correct and highly respected for their ability to bring forth the divine, Yahweh, God, The Great Spirit, etc., by the many cultures who used them. Often the entire tribe or community would partake in the entheogenic rites and rituals. These rites were often used in initiation into adulthood, for healing, to help guide the community in the decision process, and to bring the direct religious experience to anyone seeking it. In the pre literate world, the knowledge of psychedelic sacraments, as well as fertility rites and astronomical knowledge surrounding the sun, stars, and zodiac, known as astrotheology, were anthropomorphized into a character or a deity; consequently, their stories and practices could easily be passed down for generations. Weather changes over millenniums caused environmental changes that altered the available foods and plant sacraments available in the local vicinity. If a tribe lost its shamanic El-der (El – God), all of the tribe’s knowledge of their plant sacraments as well as astronomical knowledge would be lost. The Church’s inquisitions extracted this sacred knowledge from the local Shamans who were then exterminated…It is time to recognize the fact that this Pharmacratic Inquisition is still intact and destroy it.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601068&sid=aSp9VoPeHquI
By Jonathan Tirone
Sept. 7 (Bloomberg) — The dollar’s role in international trade should be reduced by establishing a new currency to protect emerging markets from the “confidence game” of financial speculation, the United Nations said.
UN countries should agree on the creation of a global reserve bank to issue the currency and to monitor the national exchange rates of its members, the Geneva-based UN Conference on Trade and Development said today in a report.
China, India, Brazil and Russia this year called for a replacement to the dollar as the main reserve currency after the financial crisis sparked by the collapse of the U.S. mortgage market led to the worst global recession since World War II. China, the world’s largest holder of dollar reserves, said a supranational currency such as the International Monetary Fund’s special drawing rights, or SDRs, may add stability.
“There’s a much better chance of achieving a stable pattern of exchange rates in a multilaterally-agreed framework for exchange-rate management,” Heiner Flassbeck, co-author of the report and a UNCTAD director, said in an interview from Geneva. “An initiative equivalent to Bretton Woods or the European Monetary System is needed.”
The 1944 Bretton Woods agreement created the modern global economic system and institutions including the IMF and World Bank.
Enhanced SDRs
While it would be desirable to strengthen SDRs, a unit of account based on a basket of currencies, it wouldn’t be enough to aid emerging markets most in need of liquidity, said Flassbeck, a former German deputy finance minister who worked in 1997-1998 with then U.S. Deputy Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers to contain the Asian financial crisis.
Emerging-market countries are underrepresented at the IMF, hindering the effectiveness of enhanced SDR allocations, the UN said. An organization should be created to manage real exchange rates between countries measured by purchasing power and adjusted to inflation differentials and development levels, it said.
“The most important lesson of the global crisis is that financial markets don’t get prices right,” Flassbeck said. “Governments are being tempted by the resulting confidence game catering to financial-market participants who have shown they’re inept at assessing risk.”
The 45-year-old UN group, run by former World Trade Organization chief Supachai Panitchpakdi, “promotes integration of developing countries in the world economy,” according to its Web site. Emerging-market nations should consider restricting capital mobility until a new system is in place, the group said.
The world body began issuing warnings in 2006 about financial imbalances leading to a global recession.
The UN Trade and Development report is being held for release via print media until 6 p.m. London time.
To contact the reporters on this story: Jonathan Tirone in Vienna at jtirone@bloomberg.net
logic play!
whoa
nobody is obligated
but somebody is tryin to oblige
wtf
Joe Rogan and Randall Carlson chat about catastrophe, ancient civilizations, consciousness, DMT, and our future as a species…
Dr. Andrew Moulden (Interview): What You Were Never Told About Vaccines
Published: 21 July 2009 7:48 AM MSTPosted in: Autism, Featured, Interviews, Vaccine Reactions
http://vactruth.com/2009/07/21/dr-andrew-moulden-interview-what-you-were-never-told-about-vaccines
Interview with Dr. Andrew Moulden
*English Version*
07/21/09
1.) Dr. Moulden, can you tell us a bit about your background?
I am 44 years of age and have spent my entire adult life in academia, university, and clinical health science studies, practice, and research. My affinity for the brain and behavioral sciences stemmed from a genuine desire to find answers to many unanswered questions, questions such as – Why are we here? What makes us human? and What causes illnesses like schizophrenia, dementia, multiple sclerosis, learning disabilities, and many other often debilitating illnesses.
My area of expertise is in neurobehavioral assessment of brain and behavioral disorders – www.BrainGuardMD.com
My Bachelor’s degree was in Biological Psychology. I graduated valedictorian with an 88% cumulative average from Nipissing University, North Bay Ontario, Canada, in my core area of specialty. My Masters degree was in Child Development with my main thesis in language and neurocognitive development in children and adolescents (Laurentian University). My Undergraduate course grades in Brain and Behavior (98%) and Neurobiology (94%) were straight “A’s”. I achieved a similar level of academic success during the Masters and PhD degrees.
My PhD was in Clinical-Experimental Neuropsychology. I completed a sub-specialization in Cognitive Neuroscience at the University of Ottawa during the PhD degree. My PhD comprehensive exams were on Acquired Brain Injuries and Post Concussion Syndrome. I worked with the Mild Brain Injury Association as a group leader and also the Head Injury Association of Toronto, during the PhD training. My PhD comprehensive exam was on acquired Brain Injuries. My clinical work was devoted to detecting acquired brain injuries.
I was a Natural, Sciences, Engineering, and Research Council of Canada scholar, an Ontario Mental Health Foundation scholar, an Ontario Graduate scholar, and received 27 Awards/scholarships for academic, research, clinical, and teaching excellence during my University training. I was ranked in the top 1-5% of medical residents during my emergency medicine residency rotations in Ottawa.
I have taught enrichment courses on Brain and Behavior, Neurology, Neuropsychology, and Neuropsychiatry at the University of Ottawa (1993-2005) and full courses in Neurbobiology at Atlantic Baptist University in Moncton, Newbrunswick Canada.
My clinical training during the PhD was in Clinical Neuropsychology at the Baycrest Hospital, Rotman Research Institute – University of Toronto, and the Credit Valley Hospital, Ottawa Health Sciences Center memory Disorders Clinic. The PhD thesis was in Functional Brain Imaging and Neuro-Electrophysiology at the Univiversity of Toronto. I subsequently completed a medical degree at the McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario.
During the PhD my extra-curricular training was in Behavioral Neurology and Clinical Neuropsychology. My clerkship electives training during medical school was in Clinical Neurology. My residency training was in Psychiatry/Neuropsychiatry. I received the licentiate of the Medical Counsel of Canada (2006) having passed the core knowledge (LMCC 1) and clinical skills (LMCC 2) exams consistent with the United States Medical Licensing Exams (USMLE parts 1 and 2).
During my clinical residency training I was ranked in the top 1-5% of medical residents during rotations by my supervisors including my emergency medicine rotations in Ottawa.
I have elected to devote myself to neurobehavioral and neurocognitive assessments and research based upon my PhD and Masters training rather than practicing clinical medicine. I pursued a Medical degree solely to further understand brain and behavioral disorders, from a clinical medicine frame of reference, rather than pursuing a goal to become a practicing/prescribing physician.
For the past several years I have devoted myself to deciphering the neurobehavioral sequel associated with immune system hyper stimulation, neurodevelopmental disorders, and ultimately to vaccinations as the common environmental trigger for several brain and behavioral disorders I have studied since the undergraduate degree.
My work will be submitted for peer review in the upcoming several months. For now, peer review is available in the Tolerance Lost DVD series as I have translated the medical sciences into an information and presentation style that can be understood by the public at large, as well as the vaccine injury court special masters. Examples of the evidence of harm, I have cataloged in a ’see for yourself’ format.
2.) Dr. Moulden, we understand that you have made a revolutionary discovery. Can you tell us about it?
I would be happy to.
Through my extensive research and my work throughout the years, I have discovered that vaccinations are causing impaired blood flow (ischemia) to brain and body from clinically silent to death. These are strokes – across the board for all of us. I have reason to believe that all are being affected and all vaccinations ARE causing the overwhelming rise in autism, specific learning disabilities, attention deficit disorders, sudden infant death, gulf war syndrome, dementia, seizure disorders, some cancers it would appear, and much much more.
3.) What led you away from the rigid and possibly blinkered views of most of the rest of the medical profession?
The brain and nervous system is wired in a very specific format. Functions are localized to specific areas. Having studied brain and behavior, neurosciences, clinical neuropsychology, child neurodevelopment, functional brain imaging, clinical neurology, clinical neuropsychiatry, clinical medicine, immunology, hematology, tests and measurement, and understanding the tools and assumptions and techniques of mainstream medicine, I fell in the unique position of having being able to see clinical medicine problems, from a multitude of simultaneous areas of expertise and scientific knowledge. Relative to the human brain, I understood “rules and laws” of brain function relative to brain damage and the mechanisms of medical physiology that can uniquely cause unique patterns of brain damage in ways that my clinical skills could detect, that mainstream neuroimaging cannot. The initial “aha” moment was in 2001.
4.) What was it which caught your attention, what tipped you off and incited you to scratch the surface and investigate further?
I was seeing, autistic patients, coming out of medical school – they had a trans-cortical motor aphasia, isolation of speech syndrome, and very specific cranial nerve palsies that could ONLY be accounted for by ischemic stroke. Remarkably, my studies of schizophrenia, dementia, and research exposure to neuroimaging modalities and brain and behavioral assessments before medical school contributed to my ability to “see” what has been in front of our eyes all along – ischemic strokes and brain damages – from vaccinations. The problem has been we neither knew how to measure, when to measure or what to measure, let alone what the limitations were, of the tools we have been using to measure brain integrity, in health, disease and disorder.
It has taken the past several years to decipher how ischemic brain damages were happening in the autism we were seeing and the many other neurodevelopmental disorders. I now believe I have the answers for this, or so it appears and some solutions.
Wild polio caused the exact same brain damages as ALL other vaccines are. Indeed, Guillian Barre syndrome and a host of other neurological disorders is being caused by a common mechanism of injury – albeit from different triggers for different individuals. This is ischemia –from impaired blood flow in microcirculation units. We simply did not appreciate what was right before our eyes.
My first cases included several Autistic and Schizophrenic patients. They were showing the exact same acute onset palsies – paralysis. These brain damages were subtle – but measurable multiple, and were present in the pre-vaccine era for wild viruses like polio and infantile paralysis.
Once I was armed with the knowledge and skills of a medical doctor, a clinical neuropsychologist, a child neurodevelopmentalist, with research experience in neuroimaging, tests and measurement, scientific method design and analysis, functional localization of brain and behavioral disorders, and a broad base across several other scientific disciplines, I was able to see “the whole forest” despite the trees. Quite literally, I believe I have found and discovered a common mechanism towards acquired human disease and disorder – all of it. It is truly humbling.
5.) How have you been able to show this and how have you managed to demonstrate this? What medical imaging underlies it all? What medical imaging is the basis for it all?
I have quantified and expanded standard neurological and clinical neuropsychological tools of brain function and assessment. In essence, I have “digitized” the neurological and neuropsychological physical neurological exams across neurodevelopment using contemporary image enhancement software constrained to functional localization in the brain relative to end vascular, watershed territories – “the end of the road” for varied brain blood vessel areas. All of my tools and techniques are non-invasive.
I am now able to assess in the here and now, or looking back 50 years ago, to answer questions as to cause, in disease, neurodevelopment disorders, and much more. Remarkably, we can now advance diagnose sudden infant death syndrome, and I can answer questions relative to – Was this a shaken baby?, Did vaccines cause this person to have autism? Was this death caused by Gardasil? Did vaccines cause these damages? Since the mechanism to damages is common across all, when vaccines are involved – and sometimes even virulent infectious diseases.
6.) What is the basic information underlying your claims and what is the foundation of your beliefs?
Germs simply are not the only root cause of death, disease, and disorder. I have now conclusively shown that ALL vaccines, from infancy to geriatric, are causing the exact same brain damages irrespective of what disease or disorder comes out. The damages are specific to end vascular “mini strokes” that are beneath the resolution of our neuroimaging, but measurable in a before/after vaccination protocol. They are also directly measurable in real time – however, this involves techniques and technology I have not disclosed to the public as yet.
Remarkably, wild polio, pre-natal German measles, measles, tetanus, “Spanish flu”, etc.. all caused the exact same damages in the pre-vaccine era. We simply did not appreciate that a generic response in the human body was causing the paralysis and respiratory failure and more in from a non-specific immune response and instability of microscopic blood flow hemodynamics.
We have weakened viruses and bacteria, injected them into all of us and caused chronic illness and disease in an attenuated form, this is how these pathogens have always caused harm. It is the bodies response to foreign things entering it, especially under hypersensitivity states, that is causing neurodevelopment disorders and chronic illness and much more.
7.) You speak of epidemics. What is your understanding of an epidemic? How does it manifest?
The explanation of epidemic is simple, we are now seeing:
1 in 6 children with specific learning disabilities.
12-15% children with attention deficit disorder.
1 in 87 with autism spectrum – a 1700% increase over ten years.
1% sudden infant death
40 deaths and 15,000 substantive adverse Gardasil reactions
1 in 15 over 65 with dementia; 1 in 8 over 85
Chronic fatigue syndrome
Fibromyalgia
Seizure disorders
“West” syndrome
Global developmental delay
1 in 450 with type 1 diabetes
1 in 2 men and 1 in 3 women will develop cancer over a lifetime.
Gulf war syndrome affecting and disabling 250,000 troops and 42,000 deaths. These vaccinated soldiers show the exact same neurological damages after vaccination as the infants and children are exhibiting after each childhood vaccination. These are strokes – oxygen demand exceeding oxygen supply – conclusively!
This is just the tip of the iceberg.
These microscopic strokes are happening to the brain and body in immediate and delayed, waxing and waning, acute and chronic ways. This is receiving a plethora of clinical labels. In basic physiology – the base cause is common across the board.
There is no such thing as an acquired genetic epidemic. The epidemic is an acquired phenomenon, from environmental factors, for which I can now conclusively show, vaccinations are the mass culprit for most of this.
8.) What has the response been to your discoveries? How have they been received by the public / the world at large?
The public gets it. The chiropractors embrace it. The medical Doctors, including pediatric neurologists, are stunned by it. The pharmaceutical and organized medicine cartels – must deny it. The philosophy is “if they cannot deny the message, then they will discredit the messenger.” This is simply how the system works.
The evidence is now self evident. All you have to do now is receive the education you need to appreciate and see what is before your very eyes – layperson and Doctor.
My imaging is called the 12-IMAM – 12 “Eye” M.A.S.S. Anoxia Measures” based on the 12 cranial nerves. “MASS” stands for “Moulden Anoxia Spectrum Syndromes. Anoxia refers to impaired oxygen delivery to tissue.
9.) Are there other doctors, researchers and scientists who share your views and agree with you?
All of them – once they take the time to learn. It is 100% undeniable. There is NO way to refute what we can all see now. By example, gravity was with us since the dawn of creation. Sir Isaac Newton did not “discover” gravity – he simply put the conceptual framework forward as to why apples fall from tress.
I have simply put the conceptual framework science, measurement system, and explanations to “why are we getting sick” and “LOOK” all vaccines are causing the exact same neurological damages irrespective of what disease comes out, across the lifespan, This means that it is something the body does in response to immune stimulation that is causing disease and disorders – I now believe I know what this “something” is.
10.) In your opinion, what percentage of vaccines cause adverse effects?
It is in my considered opinion, all of them. I can now show the evidence to back this up. The damages have been clinically silent, but we are all being harmed along the same continuum from clinically silent to terminal disorders and diseases – across all organ systems. However, my ability to measure and prove my point, for the moment, is locked in on the brain functions and neurobehavioral and neuropscyhiatric and neurological conditions primarily.
11.) Do you think it is possible to determine in advance (using medical tests or clinical examination) who is most likely to react / which individuals are predisposed to very serious reactions to vaccines?
Yes, however, vaccines are not addressing the common cause of disease and disorder in human physiology. It is not the germs causing disease and death and chronic illness, it is the bodies common, generic, non-specific immune response and electrostatic instability of blood flow that is causing disease, and many states of autoimmunity, including multiple sclerosis, and much much more.
We do not need to vaccinate for all the pathogens on earth, since all pathogens are inducing disease and death and disability via a singular common set of mechanism. It is these mechanism that need to be addressed on an as needed basis. This is now do -able it always was. Louis Pasteur’s germ theory was just that – a theory. His contemporaries, Dr Antoine Bechamp and Dr Rudolph Virchow were closer to the truth as to the cause of disease. Remarkably, this means that much of what we are doing in western medicine is wrong – we have been practicing medicine in a state of confusing cause and effect and causing more harm, globally, than good…for over 200 years!
12.) Those who believe strongly in vaccines often claim that it is too early if a reaction takes place within only a few hours or too late if a reaction takes place several months or even several years after administration of the vaccine…. Within which time could the adverse effects occur in your opinion ? Could these side effects frequently been delayed ? How could you explain that some adverse events occurred so much time after the vaccination
Reactions are occurring for us all – within several minutes, This is a function of two things:
1) Non-specific immune hyperstimulation (a process involved in all immune hypersensitivity states – which I have called “MASS”),
2) An electrostatic instability of blood flow that impairs fluid dynamics and oxygen/nutrient delivery throughout the bodies 60,000 miles of end capillary blood vessel units which are required for life, healing, cellular function, wellness, and health.
The microscopic blood flow and vessels are being damaged, immediately and delayed, waxing and waning, acute on chronic, clinically silent to apparent. One part involves phase changes in blood flow from “fluid” to gel, and back again. This is “sludging” of blood flow. “Sludged” blood cannot traverse capillary units designed to allow red blood cells, which carry oxygen, through the capillaries, in single file.
In physics, Force equals Acceleration times MASS. This is known as Sir Isaac Newton’s “Big G” (for Gravity). As you increase MASS (as in sludged blood and agglomeration of other particles suspended in blood flow – including heavy metals and amino acids), without a net increase in force, then there is deceleration and no forward flow.
The brain (and other organ systems) do not have blood flow receptors. There are only blood pressure receptors. Accordingly, when flow is diminished, there are no signals to the body that something is wrong when pressure remains adequate. This all plays out at the microscopic level, sometimes at the angstrom level – we have no microscopes to see this live within the human body.
When an infant dies of “sudden infant death” or “no cause of death” after vaccination, the actual cause of death is impaired blood flow, in this case to the microscopic, watershed, end-capillary vessels in the brain stem controlling the central drive for respiration. The impaired blood flow has to be bilateral. This causes a cessation of breathing. Cardio respiratory arrest ensues in a perfectly healthy human. Coroners will not find cause of death as the cause of death “no microscopic capillary blood flow” in life is also present for us all in death – no blood flow.
Adverse events happen so far removed from vaccination as the damages are additive, on-going, and susceptible to other non-specific immune hyper stimulating events beyond simply vaccinations. The ischemic state can wax and wane. Auto antibodies can be formed against tissue that is now poorly perfused. The viscosity of the blood can fluctuate and vascular areas damaged from previous vaccinations are now uniquely susceptible.
However, the common mechanism of delayed pathology is almost always related to immunological tolerance, lost, impaired colloidal stability of blood flow, and loss of the carrying and dispersion capacity of blood flow. “The life of the flesh is truly in the blood – this is Electrostatics. There is no such thing as alternating or direct current in nature. It is all Electrostatic. In terms of formed elements in the blood, this is in the form of minute static charges in the realm of 100 thousandths of a volt that maintains blood flow as dispersed, spiral, fluid, with low bulk stress or agglomerated, laminar, “sludged” with high bulk stress.
The laws that govern blood flow in the human body are the same laws that govern movement in our universe. These are electrical and chemical forces. Cause is never to be found in chemistry. Chemical changes is an effect. Cause is found in electrical forces, that are a part of all substances that have Mass. Western medicine ignores the electrical nature of the human physiology, largely due to a lack of understanding, and an inability to profit off of basic facets of nature freely available to us all – electricity, electrostatics, and water…of all things. The body is 75% water by weight. Blood is 95% water. This water has an electrical component as much as all mass and matter in our universe has an electrical component. This electrical component is critical to blood flow, blood carrying capacity, healing, and functions at the cellular level.
13.) In your opinion, are all vaccines “suspect” or are there certain vaccines which are still “acceptable” and if yes, which one(s) ?
It is no longer an opinion as I now have conclusive evidence to show that ALL vaccines are causing the exact same damages for us all in the exact same manner that wild polio virus caused paralysis, respiratory failure (“Iron lung”), death, bleeding into the brain, and more.
It is the act of repeat vaccinations, properly spaced apart that is creating one part of the problem. It is the aluminum that is creating a second part of the problem. ALL other foreign substances in vaccines are creating a third part of the problem – like adding fuel to a fire. One does not need to be directly vaccinated to be vaccine injured.
Vaccines are not the only trigger that adds up to the problem. Sometimes, when the mother is immune tolerant to a specific antigenic determinant, vaccination to the mother will induce the “MASS” ischemic damages to the infant via breast feeding in the same manner that vaccination does – and cause autism (ischemic strokes). Sometimes this will cause “Mobius syndrome” in the prenatal life – 48% of these children have autism and/or childhood schizophrenia. Schizophrenia and autism are the same “beast” in pathophysiology (MASS ischemia) albeit the triggering sequence differs as a function of immunological. Electrostatic, and timing of damages in neurodevelopment.
The damages acquired are additive and summative with each vaccine. By example, I have now demonstrated that the teen girls that are having severe adverse effects from Gardasil, including death, are actually experiencing a completion of the additive neurovascular damages that were adding up with EACH childhood vaccine. These damages are also an additive for the infants and children in the same manner. These are all ischemic strokes. There is a “breaking point.” If this point is reached, in frequency, duration, or severity, in the toddler years, neuropdevelopmental disorders emerge. If it happens in a teen or adult, a different set of symptoms will emerge. The process is akin to a fast or slow “strangulation” of tissue by impaired fluid dynamics and microvascular circulation, integrity, and repair.
14.) In France, since the widespread Hepatitis B vaccination campaign here, many are claiming to suffer from macrophagic myofasciitis (Gherardi, Chérin et all). This is a condition caused by the abnormal stagnation of aluminum crystals resulting in an over-stimulation and over-reaction of the immune system and a whole host of related autoimmune and other problems…. Does your discovery confirm the existence of this kind of illness or have you unearthed a whole different type of condition?
Yes indeed. This is similar to the Arthus reaction from vaccination, the “Bordet phenomenon, the Sanarelli/Schwatrzman phenomenon, and type IV delayed hypersensitivity responses in mammalian physiology.” “M.A.S.S.” is a series of physiological steps that induces ischemia – to skin, brain, organ, and bone. Aluminum is a coagulator or flocculant. Aluminum has a plus three electrical charge. All positive cations are “coagulators” – they cause particles with mass to come together, agglomerate, sediment, “sludge”. Aluminum has 84 times the capacity to cause agglomeration (sludging) as does Sodium (Na+) – and element with a singular positive charge.
We use aluminum in water treatment plants, to cause “sludging”, agglomeration, and flocculation so that impurities in water sediment to the bottom of the water. We use aluminum in anti-antiperspirants since they cause “sludging” and blockage of the perspiration ducts in the arm pits. This same sludging is achieved in human tissue and blood flow from vaccinations with aluminum. The ischemic tissue attracts macrophages that attempt to “clean up” the damaged tissue as well as the sedimented aluminum. This causes an inflammatory response (or not). The aluminum cannot readily be removed from the tissue since the large positive charge (from Aluminum) derails the negative electrostatic carrying capacity of the blood where the aluminum has accumulated. The blood vessels, muscle, and fascia in the tissue area will be damaged from the on-going ischemia and the inability to remove aluminum from the area (an electrical charge problem). The macrophages and white blood cells will be called to this area to “clean up.” It is the act of the immune system chronically coming to this tissue area that perpetuate the problem and creates greater disease and the possibility for induction of an autoimmune response, or immunological tolerance through anergy or deletion.
Remarkably, the immune response, in biomechanics, that causes further tissue damages, in some instances, from macrophagic myofaciitis to Type 1 Diabetes to Parkinson’s disease, to Multiple Sclerosis, to Guillain Barre Syndrome, to Febrile seizures, to Autism-spectrum, to Crohns-Colitis, to Sudden Infant Death…to “you name it.”
15.) Are the toxic adjuvants in vaccines, like aluminum, the only ones which can trigger the reactions you mention or can vaccine antigens contribute to these reactions also? In other words, in your opinion, if vaccines did not contain aluminum, would this completely solve their toxicity problem or not? Do you feel that all vaccines should be banned, i.e. that it is the whole vaccination philosophy which is at fault, or is it only that vaccines and their ingredients need to be modified to made “good vaccines”?
Great question. You have clearly been reading some of my posted work. The problem is two-fold:
1) Electrostatic (positively charged cations like aluminum are pathological in this instance),
2) Immunological – this is “MASS”. Both categories represent a series of processes that can be launched independently or in collaboration which ultimately conspire to cause the mechanism to disease – ischemia – this is step one to all that follows.
It is in my opinion, backed up with conclusive evidence that all vaccines have to be banned. They are all causing ischemic brain and body damages and chronic illness and disease. Vaccines do not address the cause of disease from infectious agents – MASS and electrostatics of blood flow. It is MASS and the electrostatics that needs to be addressed, not vaccinations for every possible “bug” on planet earth.
Aluminum, mercury, squalene and other contaminants that have added to the vaccines, are equivalent to viruses and bacteria relative to causing damages to human tissue. They are foreign substances in human physiology that induce electrostatic and immunological responses – both of which derails blood flow as well as can lead to direct tissue damages in their own right.
Importantly, the vaccines are causing the exact same pathological sequence as wild polio virus does and did to cause paralysis and respiratory failure. This is the same mechanism by which:
1.) Thalidomide caused babies to be born with no arms and legs.
2.) Vioxx caused heart attack and stroke.
3.) Cholesterol lowering drugs are causing myalgia and mysositis.
4.) Spanish Flu killed 20 million in 1918.
5.) Swine flu vaccine caused paralysis (see www.VacTruth.com)
6.) Hep A/ Hep B vaccines are causing multiple sclerosis.
7.) A series of anthrax vaccines causes female vets to give birth to infants with no arms or legs 18 months after vaccination.
8.) All vaccines are causing autism spectrum and learning disabilities SIDS and ADHD.
9.) Repeat flu vaccines are causing dementia.
10.) Tetanus causes lockjaw – this is ischemic stroke, in evolution, to the brain from blocked blood flow.
11.) Vaccination induces Guillian Barre Syndrome (these are end vascular strokes – to descending motor tracts in the brain – brain damage!
12.) Smallpox killed and caused skin lesions – this was dermal ischemia – impaired capillary blood flow.
13.) Congenital rubella, in the pre-vaccine era, caused ischemic damages to brain body and lung.
Wild polio virus, measles, and congenital rubella etc. in the pre vaccine era caused the same damages we now see, in a different form, from vaccinations, There is and was no mercury or aluminum with the wild viral infections. Clearly, the problem cannot be solved by removing the aluminum adjuvants. The solution is the control of the electrostatic stability of blood flow and fluid dynamics in addition to controlling the non-specific, generic, immune response sequence, which I now know, and I have called “MASS.”
Remarkably, MASS and electrostatics contain the answers to pathology prevention as well as to key aspects towards recovery for those harmed – brain and body, across the “MASS” spectrum.
16.) What prevents your discoveries from being accepted and taken into account?
This is something I need to publish, however, I put all my efforts towards putting my evidence before the United States federal Circuit courts as the only way to stop this out of control train wreck is to hold the system accountable in court – broadly, else there will be no dis-incentive to the firms that make vaccines for profit to stop making vaccines available.
Remarkably, I have made the evidence so glaringly obvious, that you can quite literally, now see for yourself, in the here and now, and going back 70 years ago if damages happened then. This is achieved via the BrainGuardMD.com non-invasive, functional, neurovascular, neuromotor neuroimaging suite.
17.) Do you believe that vaccinations have eradicated epidemic diseases?
No, not at all. All we have done is translated “forest fires” for 1% of the population into chronic and acute “brush fires” for the entire population. Sanitation, nutrition, potable water, proper nutrition and hydration was eradicating epidemic disease. Virulent pathogens can be handles – we simply needed to control the “MASS” response in human physiology along with the electrostatics of blood flow. In this regard, there would have been no infantile paralysis or respiratory failure from wild polio, or death from Spanish flu, or H1N1 for that matter. We can handle the germs – all of them, we simply need to control the magnitude and nature of the immune system response to these virulent pathogens. The same pathological sequence has to be controlled, in human physiology, on an as-needed basis, irrespective of the pathogenic strain or virulence.
Polio is now known as aseptic meningitis and a bunch of other names. It never went away. Then again, it was never polio, the virus, that was causing the paralysis and disease – these were ischemic strokes from “M.A.S.S.” All other pathological states flow from this generic common first step to disease.
18.) Have you encountered opposition, hassles, threats or obstacles to the publication of your work in the leading medical journals?
Yes I have. including pulls of my talks as early as 2005 amongst other “pre-emptive” tactics that can be discussed at a later time. For now the issue is on the health and wellness of our fellow beings, my battles are irrelevant.
Organized medicine has not been kind, although it would have been kind if I simply “played ball.” At the time of my initial discoveries and proof causation proven tools, I was on the boards of directors of two organized medicine bodies in Canada, resident editor, and about to be posted to the newly forming Federation of Specialty physician in Canada. I chose to represent the truth and science and humanity rather than line my own pockets or accept career advancement for “selling out.” This is what a physician takes their oaths to do. This is what a scientist is bound to be true to. This is what a human being does for fellow beings. It is not about being better than ones fellow being, it is about helping one’s fellow being become better. We all have a part to play. As it turns out, these medical discoveries are my small part and the knowledge belongs to humanity, not my pocket book, and not buried in some pharmaceutical firms “knowledge vaults.”
My work frightens those in the know at the upper echelons, and now in the Federal courts. They will have to brand me a ‘quack’ and destroy my credibility, as they will not and cannot deny the evidence I now bring to bear.
It is no longer a simple matter of “are vaccines safe?” The repercussions with my “MASS” discoveries is that the entire medical model collapses – the germs are NOT the cause of disease, in an of themselves – this was never the truth, it was just theory.
19.) What are your ‘opponents’ main viewpoints and claims?
They have none. There are no other viewpoints anymore. The truth is self evident now – res ipsa loquitur. All they have to do is come and listen, come and look. ALL who take the time to learn and be educated with the evidence I can now show – are speechless, from pediatric neurologists to all medical and paramedical professionals alike. The vaccine courts have nothing to do with truth. We shall see what viewpoint emerges from that pit in time.
20.) In France, the authorities claim that it is only those from the back woods of France who are opposed to the Hepatitis B vaccine and that the link with multiple sclerosis has never been proven. What are your thoughts on this?
Multiple sclerosis is ischemic damages first, from impaired blood flow, from MASS and de-railed electrostatics of fluid dynamics in human blood. This is also Guillain Barre syndrome. The myelin sheaths around the nerve cables can be damaged by antibodies against myelin basic protein, or other theories like “molecular mimicry.” The bottom line is that the ischemic conditions are coming first. When this is perpetual, waxing an waning, the damages will slowly accumulate, The “cables” of white matter tracts in the grain are also vascular. Even blood vessels have blood vessels (the vasa vasorum) and the white matters tracts, targeted in multiple sclerosis, will be targeted for autoimmune destruction of they are experiencing on-going damages from ischemia. This is achieved with repeat vaccinations, “sludged blood flow”, “MASS”, and derailed fluid dynamics in the microcirculation, brain, body, and the interconnecting tracts of the nervous system.
21.) What are your thoughts on the fact that for well over a century, large numbers of doctors have blown the whistle on vaccines, coming together at conferences to inform the world of the dangers of this practice, but their papers, research and statements have fallen on deaf ears. How is it that their warnings have had so little effect?
Money makes the world go round. The medical model we currently have, is wrong. Some truly believe they are doing the greater good. The political system is controlled by corporate interests with deep pockets. They don’t know what they don’t know. Fear is used to control us all. They have lacked the proof causation proven techniques I have now acquired with the 12-IMAM measurement system. Science is only a man-made statistical, probabilistic, mathematical model that can just as soon discover truth as it can create truth de novo, or cover truth – if the end justifies the means, profit is involved, and they know of no other way to achieve the end we all seek.
22.) Have measures been taken against you in your work? Has anyone tried to keep you quiet, to prevent you from speaking about your work?
There is a restraining order that exists to this day that prevents me from speaking at doctors meetings in Canada. They came after my medical license. My sponsorship to present my work to the world congress of psychiatry, in Cairo, Egypt was canceled in 2005. No one wanted to fund my work – despite being a National scholar who received over ¼ million in 27 academic and research excellence scholarships during my post secondary studies. Our Canada Food and Drug Safety adviser of 40 years, Dr Shiv Chopra, was gag ordered and fired for blowing the whistle as well, on many things, least of which was the ruse of safe and efficacious vaccines.
I made it to the “Quack-watch” list within 24 hours of speaking in public about my work, for the first time, last October. I suppose this is a badge of honor – albeit in a manner that looks dishonorable to society as a whole.
I chose to walk away from Western medicine and 20 years of award winning post secondary education last year. I will not go back. I had no choice. My integrity and knowledge prevented continuing on. When the standard of care in medicine forces you to cause harm to a fellow being, and you know this, then one has an ethical dilemma or selective attention. If I remained in the medical profession doing what I now do, saying what I now say, they would take my medical license away, for whatever reason. You would then be told “you cannot listen to Dr. Moulden..he has lost his medical license.” They cannot take away something I choose not to use. My knowledge is not tied to renewing a license. If you drive for twenty years, and choose not to renew your drivers license, this does not negate the fact that you know how to drive a car.
The only person who knew the true magnitude and reach of my discoveries was Dr Bernard Rimland – founder of the autism research institute and Defeat Autism Network protocol in the United States. Unfortunately, Dr. Rimland passed away a year before I was ready to start coming public with my work.
Remarkably, some very prominent scientist-advocates in the autism spectrum world know of my work, however, my work threatens their organizations as well, which creates more blocks. One cannot justify spending a 5 year, 5 million dollar research grant assessing the effects of measles virus on macaque monkeys when someone has shown you that the germs are not causing the disease, let alone autism. You cannot justify charging families $5000 to receive gastrointestinal work ups, when it is now shown that the gastrointestinal problems are a symptom of the same pathology that is causing brain damages – ischemia.
23.) Have you ever been called in to testify in court?
I am before the courts now. Two “torpedoes” in the water I suppose. One case is an adult University professor who now has dementia after Hep A and Hep B vaccines. The other is a case of sudden infant death after DTap/MMR vaccine. These cases will be the litmus test and I have buttressed both with the same evidence – all vaccines, across all diagnostic end points, are creating the same measurable, reproducible, quantifiable, neurological ischemic damages. The courts are dragging their feet.
The following link to “Baby M.” tells the story – across the board. http://www.vaccinerights.com/forensics.html
24.) What, in your opinion, is the role of the WHO, and that of the CDC?
My opinion is that they are being controlled by the very groups that profits from selling us sickness and disease and symptom based palliative care based on lack of understanding as to the cause of human disease and disorder – in cause, prevention, and treatment. The entire grid of checks and balances has been corrupted, in knowledge, power, direction, goals, methods, beliefs, legislation, and appointments. Human health and wellness cannot be mandated at the end of a syringe or in a one size fits all anything. Cut, burn, and poison is not health care.
25.) Why do you think that your work represents one of the most important discoveries in the field of health?
It is the cause of disease and chronic illness including all of the neurodevelopmental disorders, dementia, many neurological disorders, and….well, pretty much most of what we have put labels to and not quite understood. We have been throwing watermelons at dartboards trying to hit the bulls-eye, not knowing where the bulls eye is. We have been making a mess of things and causing global, needless, pain and suffering, on astronomical numbers. What I have to bring to bear is quite literally a paradigm shift in all health care which takes us from the era of candle making to the era of the electric light bulb with answers, and solutions, that does not require putting foreign substances into our body. It is time we focused in on “bulls eye” in health and wellness. My work paves the way for this era and a return to natural healing arts, including chiropractic, naturopathic, osteopathic, herbology, and traditional Chinese Medicine. This is going to be a tough pill for allopathic medicine and pharmaceutical interests to swallow. Assuredly, with science and self evident truth to share, no one will ever buy or sell another vaccine, in the history to come. This is coming fast. I pray that I am not too late.
26.) What do you think of the measures currently being taken in various countries to bring in compulsory vaccination against a potential swine flu pandemic?
This is genocidal. Those that will be harmed will those that have received the most vaccines since the damages are additive from each vaccination. The younger generations will be hardest hit – immediately and delayed. We are about to inject MASS vaccinations, creating M.A.S.S. disorders, on mass scales. This will be brain and body damages for all.
The state has no right to meddle, by law or decree, with the sanctity of the human blood, body, or soul. This is the State imposing it’s will over the individual citizen. This is a looming catastrophe that will create the very thing it purports to avert and then some. We have been here before.
I have attached a second article for you to address this question – complete with pictures to show my point, and make a final heartfelt plea to the citizens of your Countries to please wake up from this titanic ride we are being taken upon – the iceberg is straight ahead. You must take control of the helm – we all must rise to this call, all Nations..now.
27.) Do you think it’s possible that governments might institute martial law including enforced and compulsory vaccination?
The laws have already been passed that support these very acts. Indeed, in the event of a civil uprising, the laws have been changed in North America such that the American military can come into Canada to quell civil up-risings. Once martial law is called, or a global pandemic is called, the individual citizen no longer has any rights, they must receive the vaccinations, else be deemed a threat to national security and public health.
28.) What, in your opinion, caused the 1918 “Spanish” flu pandemic?
Vaccinations – to the United States military personnel being deployed overseas.
Spanish Flu did not kill 20 million. It was the non-specific “M.A.S.S.” immune hypersensitivity response and loss of electrostatic control of stability of microscopic blood flow that caused clinically silent end vascular, watershed circulation ischemia.
Ischemic strokes to brain and body were as much a cause of the death from Spanish Flu as it will be with the next “outbreak” via vaccination vectors or wild virus vectors in the community.
You do not need vaccinations against Spanish Flu anymore than any other pathogenic strain, you need to control the mechanisms in human physiology by which all these v varied pathogens induce disease – this is MASS and electrostatics – also known as “Zeta potential.”
29.) What are your thoughts on the various therapies and disciplines used to treat vaccine adverse effects?
Call me. 1-877-NOW-I-CAN. Assessment first. Diagnosis second. Treatment third – we use darts now to hit bulls-eyes, leave the “watermelons” to allopathy. I have some answers that can be implemented immediately. However, the entire system has been thrown out of balance. The body can heal – brain included. You simply have to target several “bulls-eyes” simultaneously to restore the self healing powers God gave all of our bodies the capacity to do. This will be called the 12-IMAM MASS Victory health recovery series, solutions, and methods. For now, we can be found on-line, for help,
At www.BrightStepsForward.org, and www.Therapies4Kids.com.
You can create the best band-aids for the world, until the world understands it is sick, and “bleeding”, then “band-aids” do not make sense. When the patient, in this case the entire western medical system, is sick and in denial, one cannot offer treatments and new solutions unless the patient agrees what “bleeding” is. Until such time, you are all stuck and I cannot speak of answers, solutions, or “band-aids”, as my answers do not make sense yet – those in control of the medical system must admit the problem is real and exists. In this instance, admitting what the problem is also means admitting responsibility – personally, politically, and corporately – this is a heavy price tag to bear, and pill to swallow.
We will start helping those that seek help. I make no claims. I can cure nothing. If one happens to get better from seeing us – this must be coincidental.
30.) Once the “damage is done”, is there no hope or are there other approaches? Can anything be done to treat vaccine damage?
Yes. The body and brain can heal much the same way a diabetic foot ulcer can heal and a pressure (decubitus) ulcer can heal. This is all blood flow first – in pathology, and in healing. Electrodynamics, remarkably, is as much a part of the healing process as is oxygen, and control of MASS and “zeta.” The hepatic system is critical. The body can detoxify on its own – however, it must be placed in the proper physiological state.
Thankfully, vaccine injuries, relative to brain functions, have mainly disconnected the white matter connecting cables tracts while leaving the cortical “lightbulbs” (gray matter) intact. The white matter brain cables can re-connect. This means motor and language and sensory functions, including much cognitive function, can be fully recovered. The brains cables will re-grow and re-connect, perfectly and point for point on their own. One has to re-establish the balance on the human body – multiple organ systems. This is all do-able, however, it must be done on a case by case basis as there is no one size fits all here.
31.) You are involved in politics also…. Can you tell us what motivated you to go into politics? Vaccination policy could be considered to be a strategic position which is more monopolistic than anything else, don’t you think? Do you hope to change things through your work as a politician? Is your life not more in danger now that you are involved in politics, considering the stand you take on the subject of vaccination?
When the socio political system is sick and causing disease – it needs a physician. I cannot change this system treating seven patients a day and calling this life and a career.
I would rather change the system, to help the individual, rather than change the individual to help myself. The medical, socio political, and world banking system is controlled by the very groups that are making us all sick. Medical knowledge and scientific truth will not help humanity.
The only way out of the messes we have created is an informed, educated, participatory, democracy, for, by, and of the people. I hope to inspire citizens to re-claim what rightfully belongs to the people – their Nationhood, inalienable rights, Sovereignty, and control of the issuance and control of the credit and currency of the nation. If the people do not control these critical nodes, then usury, once in control will wreck havoc on every nation – in health, wealth, fundamental rights and freedoms.
There is nothing to fear but fear itself. Death is inevitable. One should fear more of what they did not do in life knowing what was right than not do what is right in life, knowing right from wrong. Ridicule, poverty, loss of status, wealth, or death – without faith, without hope, you are already dead. I choose to love, for myself and for our fellow man, simply because truth has guided me this way by the choices I have made in my own life. We all have choices to make.
You will never see a u-haul following a funeral procession – perhaps there is more to life than collecting possessions. God will never fault you for doing the right thing. Fault will be found in not doing anything, despite the ability, knowledge, and ability to do otherwise.
I welcome coming to your Country to penetrate this vaccine darkness with light – for one, and for all.
Dr Andrew Moulden MD, PhD
www.BrainGuardMD.com
www.VACTruth.com
www.BrightStepsForward.org
1-877-NOW-I-CAN
www.Therapies4Kids.com
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Dr. Andrew Moulden: Answers to Autism and Vaccine Damage
Published: 26 June 2009 10:09 AM MST
June 26, 2009
By Jeffry John Aufderheide
Dr. Andrew Moulden, who specializes in neuro-psychology and neuro-development, has identified a mechanism in which vaccines are causing damage and harming children: ischemia.
Ischemia, which is a deficient supply of blood to a body part, is due to a “sludging” of the blood after vaccination, contends Dr. Moulden. In turn, the sludging can block off blood flow and oxygen to certain parts of the brain (or other organs), called water shed areas, causing mini-strokes in the person receiving a vaccine. Yet, this is hardly a unique response in the mammalian species. What Dr. Moulden discovered is that ’sludging’ of the blood is a general response in the body due to anything foreign in the body, whether it be a virus, bacteria, fungi, heavy metal or even a vaccine.
I invite you to watch a two part interview conducted with Dr. Andrew Moulden (www.brainguardmd.com).
by DowneastDem
Tue Jun 30, 2009 at 02:41:39 PM PDT
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/6/30/748515/-Scientists-Visit-the-Creation-Museum
The Creation Museum in Petersburg, Kentucky opened in 2007 to present an account of the origins of the universe, life and mankind according to a literal interpretation of the Bible. The museum is used by many evangelical Christians as a backdrop to attack the moral relativism that they believe is ruining America. Visitors to the museum learn that the universe was created 6000 years ago (in six days) and dinosaurs and humans cohabited the earth.
Yesterday a group of scientists visited the Creation Museum.
- DowneastDem’s diary :: ::
The University of Cincinnati was hosting a conference for paleontologists from all over the world. During a break in the activities, a group of 70 scientists made the short trip to the Creation Museum. While the Americans are accustomed to the general hostility to science among many of their fellow citizens, many of the foreign scientists were shocked at what they found.
Tamaki Sato was confused by the dinosaur exhibit. The placards described the various dinosaurs as originating from different geological periods — the stegosaurus from the Upper Jurassic, the heterodontosaurus from the Lower Jurassic, the velociraptor from the Upper Cretaceous — yet in each case, the date of demise was the same: around 2348 B.C.
“I was just curious why,” said Dr. Sato, a professor of geology from Tokyo Gakugei University in Japan.
Poor Dr. Sato. Has he never read the Bible? Doesn’t he know that 2348 BC was the year of the Great Flood?
Of course, the godless Europeans were also taken aback by the exhibits:
“I’m very curious and fascinated,” Stefan Bengtson, a professor of paleozoology at the Swedish Museum of Natural History, said before the visit, “because we have little of that kind of thing in Sweden.”
It’s fun to laugh at the museum and the people that actually believe in the junk science presented there. But not all the scientists were amused:
“It’s sort of a monument to scientific illiteracy, isn’t it?” said Jerry Lipps, professor of geology, paleontology and evolution at University of California, Berkeley.
Lisa Park of the University of Akron cried at one point as she walked a hallway full of flashing images of war, famine and natural disasters which the museum blames on belief in evolution.
“I think it’s very bad science and even worse theology — and the theology is far more offensive to me,” said Park, a professor of paleontology who is an elder in the Presbyterian Church.
“I think there’s a lot of focus on fear, and I don’t think that’s a very Christian message… I find it a malicious manipulation of the public.”
More than 750,000 people have visited the museum since it opened. Each day, busloads of children from Christian schools throughout America arrive at the Creation Museum for special guided tours.
Rec list? There is a God!
Bart D. Ehrman is the James A. Gray Distinguished Professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He came to UNC in 1988, after four years of teaching at Rutgers University. At UNC he has served as both the Director of Graduate Studies and the Chair of the Department of Religious Studies.
A graduate of Wheaton College (Illinois), Professor Ehrman received both his Masters of Divinity and Ph.D. from Princeton Theological Seminary, where his 1985 doctoral dissertation was awarded magna cum laude. Since then he has published extensively in the fields of New Testament and Early Christianity, having written or edited twenty-one books, numerous scholarly articles, and dozens of book reviews. Among his most recent books are a Greek-English edition of the Apostolic Fathers for the Loeb Classical Library (Harvard University Press), an assessment of the newly discovered Gospel of Judas (Oxford University Press), and two New York Times Bestsellers: “God’s Problem” (an assessment of the biblical views of suffering) and “Misquoting Jesus” (an overview of the changes found in the surviving copies of the New Testament and of the scribes who produced them).
Among his fields of scholarly expertise are the historical Jesus, the early Christian apocrypha, the apostolic fathers, and the manuscript tradition of the New Testament.
Professor Ehrman has served as President of the Southeast Region of the Society of Biblical literature, chair of the New Testament textual criticism section of the Society, book review editor of the Journal of Biblical Literature, and editor of the monograph series The New Testament in the Greek Fathers (Scholars Press). He currently serves as co-editor of the series New Testament Tools, Studies, and Documents (E. J. Brill), co-editor-in-chief for the journal Vigiliae Christianae, and on several other editorial boards for journals and monographs in the field.
Winner of numerous university awards and grants, Professor Ehrman is the recipient of the 1993 UNC Undergraduate Student Teaching Award, the 1994 Phillip and Ruth Hettleman Prize for Artistic and Scholarly Achievement, and the Bowman and Gordon Gray Award for excellence in teaching.
Professor Ehrman has two children, a daughter, Kelly, and a son, Derek. He is married to Sarah Beckwith (Ph.D., King’s College London), Marcello Lotti Professor of English at Duke University. He lives in Durham, North Carolina.
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Fresh Air from WHYY with Terri Gross. Terri discusses with Bart about the book his books,
“Jesus, Interrupted: Revealing the Hidden Contradictions in the Bible (And Why We Don’t Know About Them)” -> audio
“God’s Problem: How the Bible Fails to Answer Our Most Important Question – Why We Suffer.” -> audio
“Peter, Paul, and Mary Magdalene: The Followers of Jesus in History and Legend.” -> audio
“Misquoting Jesus’ exploring how scribes — through both omission and intentio — changed the Bible.” -> audio
“Lost Christianities: The Battle for Scripture and the Faiths We Never Knew.” -> audio
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Heyns Lecture Series: Misquoting Jesus
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Conversations With History – Bart D. Ehrman
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How the Bible was changed
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The Colbert Report
By Luke Salkeld
For five happy years they enjoyed simple lives in their straw and mud huts.
Generating their own power and growing their own food, they strived for self-sufficiency and thrived in homes that looked more suited to the hobbits from The Lord of the Rings.
Then a survey plane chanced upon the ‘lost tribe’… and they were plunged into a decade-long battle with officialdom.
Pioneering: Eco-dweller Emma Orbach is delighted planning has been approved
Yesterday that fight, backed by more modern support for green issues, ended in victory.
The eco-community in the Preseli mountains of west Wales was set up in 1993 and lived contentedly away from the rat race round a 180-acre farm bought by Julian and Emma Orbach.
In 1998, it was spotted when sunlight was seen glinting off a solar panel on the main building, which was built from straw bales, timber and recycled glass.
When the pilot reported back, officials were unable to find any records, let alone planning permission, for the mystery hillside village surrounded by trees and bushes.
Brainchild: Architectural historian Julian Orbach came up with the idea
They insisted the grass-covered buildings should be demolished.
The eco-community endured a decade of inquiries, court cases and planning hearings.
The 22 villagers fought planners even when they were within hours of the bulldozers moving in to demolish their eight homes.
Now, however, they can celebrate, thanks to the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park Authority’s ’sustainability’ policy.
With green issues now getting a more sympathetic hearing, the commune has been given planning approval for its roundhouses along with lavatories, agricultural buildings and workshops.
Community founder Emma Orbach, a 52-year-old mother of three, said yesterday: ‘We are really excited and happy as it has been a very long battle.
‘Even when planning inquiries and court hearings went against us we were determined to fight on.
‘The villagers are pioneering a new lifestyle and are determined to prove it’s possible for people to live more simply.’
Tony Wrench, 62, who lives in the original roundhouse with his partner Jane, said: ‘We are very relieved and delighted.
‘We have been able to prove to the planners that it is possible to have a sustainable and low-impact community in the countryside.
Green: The houses use only solar power and get light from a roof window
‘We had to prove we were improving the biodiversity of the area and conserving the woodland and we did that. It’s great that our efforts to build a community using renewable resources have now been supported by the planners.
‘The planners have worked miracles in making a new policy which enables communities which are self sufficient to exist.’
Amid the celebrations over the victory, however, it seems that life away from the rat race has not run entirely smoothly for the pioneers of simple living.
The two founders, architectural historian Julian Orbach, 55, and his wife Emma are divorced, and the commune has been split into three entities.
Caught out: An aerial view of eco village Brithdir Mawr. The complex could not be seen from the road
The original 180-acre farm was divided up into the area around the farm, a section around the original roundhouse known as Tir Ysbrydol (Spirit Land) where Mrs Orbach lives, and 80 acres of pasture and woodland run by a community known as Brithdir Mawr.
Each community is independent and they co-exist as neighbours in a more traditional style.
Brithdir Mawr continues to support sustainable living based around the original farmhouse, with eight adults and four children sharing communal meals, looking after goats, horses and chickens – and also holding down part-time jobs to raise the £200 per month rent they each pay Mr Orbach, who lives in a house in nearby Newport.
The current residents now run businesses such as courses in furniture making and sustainable living for around £95 a head.
On their website they explain: ‘We are eight big people and four little ones who choose to live here: working, eating, meeting and laughing together. Being a community is a large part of what we do. To sum up the rest; we are striving towards a life in which our footprints are as light as they can be.’
One resident, Ben Gabel, 38, who runs a seed business with his partner Kate, said: ‘It is completely different to what it was. Most people would consider the set-up quite normal.
‘The kids watch DVDs and we run a business from the farm.’
a plast from the past via a friend’s re-found nostalgia
Here’s a real gem I recorded on Public Access TV back in the 90’s. I recently found the tape and want to share it with you all. If you like your religion peppered with profanity, “The Spirit of Truth” is the man for you. He does it all; reads from a giant phone-book size Bible, takes phone call and curses out callers with opposite opinions than his. This has to be seen to be believed. WARNING!!!: This man loves to drop the F-bomb! Enjoy! This was taken from a los angeles public access program in 1997. This is the only recording I have of him. I saw his show one week later, but he was very subdued, and didn’t curse. Then I never saw him again. I should have recorded the subdued version of him, but unfortunately, I didn’t. I really don’t know anything about this guy. I’ve researched this on the internet, but have never found any information. I even called the number on the screen back in ‘97, but never got through. What can I say, the guy remains a mystery. This video was originally 13 minutes, but the rest is filler and doesn’t add any impact to the piece. This is 8 minutes of the best stuff. Sorry that I don’t have more
nothing fancy, straight from the wiki
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rapture
The Rapture is a prophesied event in Christian eschatology, in which Christians are instantaneously gathered together to participate in the Meeting in the Air as opposed to the Second Coming of Christ, in which Jesus Christ is to set his feet upon the Mount of Olives. The Rapture signals some part of the Tribulation is to follow, the Second coming signals the end to the Church age. The rapture is believed to exit the Christians from the 7 Year period called the Tribulation. Christians who have died are to be resurrected to participate in the “rapture” at this coming of Christ along with those who are still living at the time of the event.
The primary passage describing the Rapture is 1 Thessalonians 4:15-17, in which Paul cites “the word of the Lord” about the return of Jesus to gather his saints. Although all Christian denominations believe in Christ’s return, there are two primary views regarding its nature:
- Amillenialists (such as Roman Catholics, and others), Postmillenialists (such as some Presbyterians, and others), and historic Premillenialists (such as Calvinistic Baptists, and others) hold that the return of Christ will be a single, public event. All passages regarding the return of Christ, such as Matthew 24:29-31, 1 Thessalonians 4:15-17, Revelation 1:7, etc, describe the return of Jesus in the clouds amidst trumpets, angelic activity, heavenly signs, a resurrection, and a gathering of saints. Although some (such as some Amillenialists) take this event to be figurative, rather than literal, these three groups maintain that passages regarding the return of Christ describe a single event, and that the “word of the Lord” cited by Paul in 1 Thessalonians 4:15-17 is the Olivet Discourse which Matthew separately describes in Matthew 24:29-31.
- Dispensationalist Premillenialists (such as many Evangelicals, especially in the USA) hold the return of Christ to be in two stages. 1 Thessalonians 4:15-17 is seen to be a preliminary event to the return described in Matthew 24:29-31. Although both describe a return of Jesus in the clouds with angelic activity, trumpets, heavenly signs, and a gathering of the saints, these are seen to be two separate events, the first unseen, and the second public. Dispensationalists are divided, however, on whether the first event comes before a period of Tribulation, or midway through it.
Etymology
“Rapture”, when used in eschatological terms, is an English word used in place of the Latin word raptus, taken from the Vulgate of 1 Thessalonians 4:17. In Koine Greek, this word is harpazo, which means “caught up” or “taken away.” The word “rapture” is an English transliteration of the word, but is not used in any Bible translation.
Doctrinal history
The concept of the rapture, in connection with premillennialism, was expressed by the American Puritans Increase and Cotton Mather. They held to the idea that believers would be caught up in the air, followed by judgments on the earth and then the millennium. [1] [2] The term rapture was used by Philip Doddridge (1738) and John Gill (1748) in their New Testament commentaries, with the idea that believers would be caught up prior to judgment on the earth and Jesus’ Second Coming. The concept of a pretribulation rapture was articulated by Baptist Morgan Edwards in an essay published in 1788 in Philadelphia.[3]
John Nelson Darby, considered the father of dispensationalism, first understood the pretribulation rapture in 1827.[4]. This view was accepted among many other Plymouth Brethren in England. Darby and other prominent Brethren were part of the Brethren Movement which impacted American Christianity, primarily through their writings. Influences included the Bible Conference Movement, starting in 1878 with the Niagara Bible Conference. These conferences, which were initially inclusive of historicist and futurist premillennialism, led to an increasing acceptance of futurist premillennial views and the pretribulation rapture especially among Presbyterian, Baptist and Congregational members [5]. Popular books also contributed to acceptance of the pretribulation rapture, including William Eugene Blackstone’s book Jesus is Coming published in 1878 and which sold more than 1.3 million copies, and the Scofield Reference Bible, published in 1909 and 1919 and revised in 1967.
The Catholic and Orthodox churches as well as the Reformed denominations have no tradition of a preliminary return of Christ and reject the doctrine, in part because they cannot find any reference to it among any of the early Church fathers and find its biblical foundation weak.[6]. Some also reject it because they interpret prophetic scriptures in either an amillennial or postmillennial fashion.
Proponents of a preliminary rapture believe the doctrine of amillennialism originated with Alexandrian scholars such as Clement and Origen[7] and was later brought wholly into Roman Catholic dogma by Augustine.[8] Thus, the church until then held to premillennial views, which see an impending apocalypse from which the church will be rescued after being raptured by the Lord. This is even extrapolated by some to mean that the early church espoused pretribulationism.[9]
Some Pre-Tribulation proponents maintain that the earliest known extra-Biblical reference to the “Pre-Tribulation” rapture is from a sermon falsely attributed to the fourth-century Church Father Ephraem the Syrian, which says, “For all the saints and Elect of God are gathered, prior to the tribulation that is to come, and are taken to the Lord lest they see the confusion that is to overwhelm the world because of our sins.”[10][11] However, the interpretation of this writing, as supporting Pre-Tribulation rapture, is debated.[12]
The rise in belief in the “Pre-Tribulation” rapture is sometimes attributed to Margaret MacDonald, who in 1830 had a vision that was published in 1840 (first account and in 1861 (second account).
In 1957, John Walvoord, a theologian at Dallas Theological Seminary, authored a book,The Rapture Question, that gave theological support to the Pre-Tribulation rapture; this book eventually sold over 65,000 copies. In 1958, J. Dwight Pentecost authored another book supporting the Pre-Tribulation rapture, Things to Come: A Study in Biblical Eschatology, which sold 215,000 copies.
During the 1970s, the rapture became popular in wider circles, in part due to the books of Hal Lindsey, including The Late Great Planet Earth, which has reportedly sold between 15 million and 35 million copies, and by the movie A Thief in the Night, which based its title on the scriptural reference 1 Thessalonians 5:2.[13] Lindsey proclaimed that the rapture was imminent, based on world conditions at the time. The Cold War and the European Economic Community figured prominently in his predictions of impending Armageddon. Other aspects of 1970s global politics were seen as having been predicted in the Bible. Lindsey suggested, for example, that the seven-headed beast with ten horns, cited in the Book of Revelation, was the European Economic Community, a forebear of the European Union, which at the time aspired to ten nations; it now has 27 member states.
In 1995, the doctrine of the Pre-Tribulation rapture was further popularized by Tim LaHaye’s Left Behind book series, which sold tens of millions of copies and was made into several movies.
The doctrine of the rapture continues to be an important component in fundamentalist Christian eschatology today.
Scriptural basis
Supporters of the doctrine of the rapture generally proof-text the following primary sources[13] in the New Testament (the following are quoted from the NKJV):
- “For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord.” (1 Thessalonians 4:15–17)
- “In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also.” (John 14:2–3)
- “For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to His glorious body, according to the working by which He is able even to subdue all things to Himself.” (Philippians 3:20-21)
- “And as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly Man. Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; nor does corruption inherit incorruption. Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed— in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible has put on incorruption, and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory.” “O Death, where is your sting? O Hades, where is your victory?” (1 Corinthians 15:49–55)
- “Now, brethren, concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him, we ask you, not to be soon shaken in mind or troubled, either by spirit or by word or by letter, as if from us, as though the day of Christ had come. Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition, who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God. Do you not remember that when I was still with you I told you these things? And now you know what is restraining, that he may be revealed in his own time. For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only He who now restrains will do so until He is taken out of the way.” (2 Thessalonians 2:1-7)
- “No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other left. Two women will be grinding with a hand mill; one will be taken and the other left.” (Matthew 24:36-41 [NIV])
Timing
One of the tenets of the dispensationalist interpretation of Bible prophecy is that in the prophecy of 70 weeks from the book of Daniel (Daniel 9:27), there is a break between the 69th and 70th weeks, lasting an unspecified period of time. The break between the 69th and 70th weeks is sometimes called “the great parenthesis.” Thus, the 70th week of seven years has not yet occurred. This seven-year period will mark the end of the current dispensation, and is referred to as the Tribulation. There is considerable debate among Christians who believe in the rapture regarding the timing of the rapture relative to the Tribulation. Most views hold that Christian believers will be either removed from or protected through the judgment of God’s wrath.
Pre-Tribulation
The Pre-Tribulation rapture is the view that the rapture will occur before the beginning of the Tribulation period. According to this view, the Christian Church that existed prior to that seven-year period has no vital role during the seven years of Tribulation, and will therefore be removed. Many people who accept Christ after the rapture will be martyred for their faith during the Tribulation (Rev 20:4). Saint John the Divine, which some believe is the apostle John, is seen in Revelation 4:1 as representing the Church caught up to Heaven. John hears the Trumpet and a voice that says, “Come up hither,” and he is translated in the Spirit to Heaven and then sees what will happen for those left on earth. The Pre-Tribulation rapture is the most widely held position among American Evangelical Christians.[citation needed] It has become popular in recent years around the world and through the work of dispensational preachers such as Dr. J. Dwight Pentecost, Tim LaHaye, Dr. J. Vernon McGee, Chuck Smith, Dr. Chuck Missler, Dr. Jack Van Impe, Dr. Grant Jeffrey, and Dr. David Jeremiah. [14]
Some who believe in a Pre-Tribulation rapture warn that the rapture is imminent, saying that all of the prophecies concerning the latter days have been fulfilled to the extent that the rapture could take place at any moment. Others suggest that certain requirements must first be met before a rapture can occur, such as these:
- The nations of the world must unify their currency onto a universal standard.
- There will be peace in Israel (Ezekiel 38).
- There will be a one-world government, to correspond to the 7th beast of Revelation, prior to the Antichrist’s 8th beast government.
- The Jewish temple in Jerusalem must be rebuilt in its original place.
- Observance of Old Testament commandments concerning animal sacrifices must be reinstated.
- There will be a great falling away and the Antichrist will be revealed. See: 2 Thessalonians 2
Mid-Tribulation
A minority view, with few proponents[citation needed] today, is that the rapture happens half-way through the seven-year Tribulation. This view is supported by the 7th chapter of Daniel (Verse 25), where it says the saints will be given over to tribulation for “time, times, and half a time,” which is interpreted to mean 3.5 years. That is, half way through the seven years of the tribulation. At this juncture, the Antichrist commits the “abomination of desolation” by desecrating the Jerusalem temple (to be built on what is now called The Temple Mount.) [15]
Prewrath
The prewrath rapture view is that the tribulation of the church begins toward the latter part of the seven-year period, being Daniel’s 70th week, when the Antichrist is revealed in the temple. The great Tribulation, according to this view, is of the Antichrist against the church at this time. The duration of this tribulation is unknown, except that it begins and ends during the second half of Daniel’s 70th week. References from Matthew 24, Mark 13, and Luke 21 are used as evidence that this tribulation will be cut short by the coming of Christ to deliver the righteous by means of rapture, which will occur after the sixth seal is opened and the Sun is darkened and the moon is turned to blood.[16] However, by this point many Christians will have been slaughtered as martyrs by the Antichrist. After the rapture comes God’s seventh-seal wrath of trumpets and bowls (a.k.a. “the Day of the Lord”). [17] The Day of the Lord’s wrath against the ungodly will follow for the remainder of the seven years. [18]
Post-Tribulation
The post-tribulation rapture (or “Post-Trib”) view places the rapture at the end of the Tribulation period, based on passages such as 1 Thessalonians 4:15-17, seen as quoting the words of “the Lord” as indicated in Matthew 24:29-31 (see table below). From this perspective, Christian believers will be on the earth as witnesses to Christ during the entire seven years, until the last day of the tribulation period.
The post-tribulation view brings Christ’s “appearing” and his “coming” together in one all-encompassing, grand event. Matthew 24:29–31; “Immediately after the tribulation of those days…they shall gather together his elect…“, is cited as a foundational scripture for this view. Pat Robertson describes the end times this way in his 1995 novel The End of the Age. Another supporting scripture is John 17:15-16, where Jesus prays that the Father not take his (Jesus’) disciples from the earth, but that he (the Father) would nevertheless “keep them from the evil one.” This is taken to preclude a Pre-Trib or a Mid-Trib rapture to heaven at any time. [19] Prominent authors supporting this view are Walter R. Martin, John Piper, George E. Ladd, Robert H. Gundry, and Douglas Moo.
| Matthew 24:29-31 ASV | 1 Thessalonians 4:15-17 ASV |
|---|---|
| Matthew 24:29 But immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken: 30 and then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. 31 And he shall send forth his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other. | 1 Thessalonians 4:15 For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we that are alive, that are left unto the coming of the Lord, shall in no wise precede them that are fallen asleep. 16 For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven, with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first; 17 then we that are alive, that are left, shall together with them be caught up in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. |
Pan-Trib position
This is a lesser-known position that maintains that the Scriptures are intentionally unclear about the relationship of the rapture to the Tribulation.[citation needed] As a result, believers could anticipate the return of Jesus to the clouds at any moment while yet watching for the rise of the Antichrist. This position claims to harmonize two seemingly contradictory threads, and believing that things will “pan out” in the end. This position, with its pun title, is often announced as a means of changing the subject during an eschatological debate and should not be viewed as an actual scholarly view, but exists rather as a view for one who chooses to avoid such controversial topics.
Date setting
Generally, believers in the rapture of the church no longer make predictions regarding the exact timing of the event itself.[citation needed] The primary scripture reference cited for this position is Matthew 24:36, where Jesus is quoted saying; “But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone” (NASB). Gary Demar has jokingly challenged “date setters” to sign a contract turning over all their assets to him on the day after they claim the Rapture is to occur (he has written a book, Last Days Madness, endorsing the preterist position and challenges many of the popular ideas of Bible prophecy).[citation needed]
Any individual or religious group that has dogmatically predicted the day of the rapture, referred to as “date setting”, has been thoroughly embarrassed and discredited, as the predicted date of fulfillment came and went without event.[20][21] Some of these individuals and groups have offered excuses and “corrected” target dates, while others have simply released a reinterpretation of the meaning of the scripture to fit their current predicament, and then explained that although the prediction appeared to have not come true, in reality it had been completely accurate and fulfilled, albeit in a different way than many had expected. Conversely, many of those who believe that the precise date of the rapture cannot be known, do affirm that the specific time frame that immediately precedes the rapture event can be known. This time frame is often referred to as “the season”. The primary section of scripture cited for this position is Matthew 24:32-35; where Jesus is quoted teaching the parable of the fig tree, which is proposed as the key that unlocks the understanding of the general timing of the rapture, as well as the surrounding prophecies listed in the sections of scripture that precede and follow this parable.
Some notable rapture predictions include the following:
- 1792 – Shakers calculated this date.[citation needed]
- 1844 – William Miller predicted Christ would return between March 21, 1843 and March 21, 1844, then revised his prediction, claiming to have miscalculated Scripture, to October 22, 1844. Miller’s theology gave rise to the Advent movement.
- 1977 – William M. Branham predicted that the Rapture would take place in 1977.[22]
- 1981 – Chuck Smith undogmatically predicted that Jesus would likely return by 1981.[citation needed]
- 1988 – Publication of 88 Reasons why the Rapture is in 1988, by Edgar C. Whisenant.
- 1989 – Publication of The final shout: Rapture report 1989, by Edgar Whisenant. More predictions by this author appeared for 1992, 1995, and other years.
- 1992 – Korean group “Mission for the Coming Days” predicted October 28, 1992 as the date for the rapture.[23]
- 1993 – Seven years before the year 2000. The rapture would have to start to allow for seven years of the Tribulation before the Return in 2000. Multiple predictions.
- 1994 – Pastor John Hinkle of Christ Church in Los Angeles predicted June 9, 1994. Radio evangelist Harold Camping predicted September 27, 1994.[24]
- 2011 – Harold Camping’s revised prediction has May 21, 2011 as the date of the rapture.[25]
2060 – Sir Isaac Newton undogmatically proposed, based upon his calculations using figures from the book of Daniel, that the Apocalypse could happen no earlier than 2060.[26][27]
Cultural references
Movies
- The first full-fledged rapture movie was A Thief in the Night. That film was followed by three sequels and a novel, and set up the genre of the rapture film. With only a few exceptions the genre died out by the end of the 1970s only to resurface again in the 1990s with such films as Apocalypse, Revelation, The Rapture, Left Behind: The Movie, and The Omega Code. Cloud Ten Pictures specializes in making end-time films.
- In 2002, Dirk Been and Joel Klug (former “Survivor” cast members) starred in the movie Gone, which is about three lawyers who are left behind in the Philippines. The film was nominated for ‘Best Christian Movie of the Year’ by Christian Beats magazine and was seen on the Dove Awards on national TV. “Gone” went on to be seen by an estimated 1.2 million people. It was written and directed by Tim Chey.[28]
Books
- In 1950, the novel Raptured by Ernest Angley was published. It’s a fictional novel based on the accounts foretold in the books of Daniel and Revelation. The novel focuses on a man whose mother is raptured along with other Christians, while he is left behind in the tribulation period.[29]
- Robert Heinlein’s 1984 book, Job: A Comedy of Justice described the troubles of a Christian man called Alex, who is moved from parallel world to parallel world, accompanied by his lover Margrethe. Halfway through the book, the Rapture occurs and Alex is taken up, but Margrethe is left behind because she is a pagan. The rest of the book describes Alex’s attempts to bypass the rules and save his true love.
- In 1995, Left Behind was published. The rapture is a major component of the premise of the book and its various spin-offs. These books greatly revived public interest in this concept.[citation needed] The plot of the book was used as a basis for a 2000 movie and a 2006 video game.
- In Mark E. Rogers‘ book The Dead, published in 2001, those chosen for salvation disappear in a blinding flash of light. It is possible for people who have been left behind to redeem themselves in the eyes of God; those who do are immediately raptured. Sacrificing oneself to help others is one way of being redeemed. Some characters are actually under attack by reanimated corpses, or by Legion himself, at the time of their rapture. The blinding flash of light totally disorients the corpses who witness it, rendering them incapable of any action at all for a short time. The humans are literally “caught up” “in an instant” by God.
- Daniel J. Gansle’s book, “Rapture Redux: Living with Hope and Purpose in the Last Days” (Infinity Publishing, 2007) tackles the contentious question of whether dispensationalist Evangelicals have gone too far in supporting war in the middle east (Iraq in particular) in order to hasten the Rapture and the return of Christ. The book also delves into how UFOs tie in with ancient biblical prophecies, the spiritual condition of the church just before the Rapture, Rapture timing theories, a fictional look into the post-Rapture world, and how the transforming belief in the Rapture doctrine is available to Christians today.[30]
Television
- On May 8, 2005, in Episode 19 in season 16 of The Simpsons titled “Thank God It’s Doomsday“, Homer predicts the rapture. After seeing a movie titled Left Below (a parody of Left Behind), he becomes paranoid and predicts that the rapture will occur at 3:15 p.m. on May 18. In another episode, Simpsons Bible Stories, the Simpsons fall asleep in church and wake up to find the Rapture occurring. Along with The Flanders family, Lisa is raised up to Heaven, but Homer pulls her back down so she can go to Hell with the rest of the family.
- In the Drawn Together episode “Lost in Parking Space, Part One“, Princess Clara, a devout Christian, warns her unconcerned housemates that the rapture is coming, even going so far as to contact a rapture hotline run by Kirk Cameron (star of Left Behind: The Movie). When her housemates later run off to the mall without her, she fears they have been taken off to heaven and she has been left behind.
- “Rapture” is the twelfth episode of the third season from the science fiction television series, Battlestar Galactica. In this episode Athena commits suicide in order to be reborn (raptured) on a Cylon ship.
- In the Aqua Teen Hunger Force episode “Kidney Car“, Master Shake is seen wearing a racing helmet upon returning from a demolition derby in which he wrecked Carl’s car. When questioned about the purpose of the helmet by a suspicious Carl, Shake claims it is “for the Rapture”.
- In the second episode of the fourth season of HBO’s “Six Feet Under” titled “In Case of Rapture“, a 49 year old Christian woman called Dorothy Sheedy abandons her vehicle which displays a bumper sticker “I BRAKE FOR THE RAPTURE!” having witnessed the accidental liberation of numerous helium filled ‘sex dolls‘ from the back of a truck. As they float off into the atmosphere she mistakes this event for the Rapture falsely perceiving them in heavenly white gowns and rushes into the middle of a busy road that she may join them in their ascent to Heaven, whereupon she is hit by a vehicle and instantly killed. Her husband is never aware of the reason for her running into the traffic but benignly accepts her death as God’s will without question or curiosity.
- Episode 20 of Season 4 of Supernatural is titled “The Rapture”.
Music
- At the height of the Jesus Movement in the late 1960s and early 1970s, the rapture figured prominently in popular songs by secular artists, such as “Are You Ready?” by Pacific Gas & Electric (#14 in August 1970) and “In the Year 2525” by Zager and Evans (#1 in July 1969). Also at that time, the song “I Wish We’d All Been Ready” was written and performed by Larry Norman, one of the founders of the nascent “Jesus Rock” movement in the early 70s.
- Other examples of apocalyptic themes like the rapture, the Anti-Christ, Armageddon and The Second Coming of Christ in Norman’s writing are: “U.F.O.” from the 1976 album “In Another Land“, Six Sixty Six” from the same album and “Messiah” from Stop This Flight.
- Examples of apocalyptic themes in Bob Dylan’s writing are “When He Returns” from the 1979 album Slow Train Coming and – quoting 1 Corinthians 15:49–55 – Ye Shall Be Changed, released on The Bootleg Series, Vols. 1-3: Rare And Unreleased, 1961-1991.
- Other songs about the Christian end times include “Goin’ by the Book”, “The Man Comes Around” by Johnny Cash, from the album American IV: The Man Comes Around, released in 2002, and “Tribulation” by Charlie Daniels. Noel Gallagher also refers to the rapture twice on the Oasis album Dig Out Your Soul, first on “The Turning” (“Then come on, when the Rapture takes me, Will you be by my side?”) and also on the following track “Waiting For The Rapture”. Sufjan Stevens’ song “Chicago”, from the album “Illinois”, may also be considered a Rapture song.
- American rock band Avenged Sevenfold released a song called “To End the Rapture” on their first album Sounding the Seventh Trumpet, also a biblical reference in relation to the Rapture. The band Pedro the Lion has a song entitled “Rapture” on their album “Control.” The song is about the rapture occurring while the male character in the song is cheating on his wife.
- The 90’s alt-rock band Polaris wrote a song called “Waiting for October” about a homeless man predicting the rapture to be on October 28, 1999.
Internet
- On August 2, 2001, humorist Elroy Willis posted a Usenet article titled; “Mistaken Rapture Kills Arkansas Woman”. This fictional, satirical story about a woman who causes a traffic accident and is killed when she believes the rapture has started, circulated widely on the Internet and was believed by many people to be a description of an actual incident. Elements of the story appeared in an episode of the HBO television drama Six Feet Under, and a slightly modified version of the story was reprinted in the US tabloid newspaper Weekly World News. The story continues to circulate by electronic mail as a chain letter.[31]
- One organization, the Rapture Fund, is offering a “Rapture Will” that provides terms by which a Christian can transfer his or her estate to the Rapture Fund in the event of the Rapture. The organization’s website indicates that funds are to be used for publication of the Gospel during the Tribulation.[32]
- Another website, Raptureletters.com, provides for a similar post-rapture ministry. It allows a Christian to add the name and email address of someone who the user believes will be left behind during the rapture. Utilizing a deadman switch, the site promises to send a generic, pre-written letter to every email address in the list on the Friday following the rapture, and every Friday after that.[33]
Video Games
- In the videogame BioShock the underwater city is called Rapture, named by its creator as a mockery of common belief. The name of the city also has an ironic quality, as the protagonist descends from the world above water to place a ‘judgment’ of sorts on the people of the city.
- In Final Fantasy VIII, the special spell Rapture is available to Selphie Tilmitt when she reaches her limit break. This spell destroys all enemies by giving them wings and sending them directly to heaven.
References
- ^ Kyle, Richard G (1998). The Last Days Are Here Again: A History of the End Times. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books. p. 78-79
- ^ Boyer, Paul (1992). When Time Shall Be No More: Prophecy Belief in Modern American Culture. Cambridge, Mass: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. p. 75
- ^ Marotta, Frank (1995). Morgan Edwards: An Eighteenth Century Pretribulationist. Morganville, NJ: Present Truth Publishers.
- ^ Bray, John L. (1992). The origin of the pre-tribulation rapture teaching. Lakeland, FL: John L. Bray Ministry, Inc.. p. 24-25
- ^ Blaising, Craig A.; Darrell L. Bock (1993). Progressive Dispensationalism. Wheaton, IL: BridgePoint. ISBN 156476138X. page 11
- ^ Synaxis – About the Supposed Rapture
- ^ Lindsey, Hal, The Road to Holocaust, Bantam, (1989), p.77
- ^ Keeley, Robin, Eerdmans’ Handbook to Christian Belief, Wm B Eerdmans Publishing, (1982), p.415
- ^ The Last Trumpet – Grant Jeffrey’s Apocalypse Debacle
- ^ Byzantine Text Discovery: Ephraem the Syrian – Chuck Missler – Koinonia House
- ^ Online Bible Quotes, Study Commentary on Rapture Prophecy, A Sermon by Pseudo-Ephraem
- ^ The Last Trumpet – Pseudo-Ephraem
- ^ Hal Lindsey
- ^ Lindsey, Hal: The Rapture, Bantam Books (1983), p. 25
- ^ Relfe, Mary Stuart: When Your Money Fails, League Of Prayer (1981)
- ^ Prewrath Consortium: Prewrath Explained: Timeline
- ^ Frederick, William: The Coming Epiphany: Because You Need To Know The Truth About The End Times. Lulu Press (2007)
- ^ Rosenthal, Marv: “The Pre-Wrath Rapture of the Church: Is it Biblical?”, Regular Baptist Press (1991)
- ^ Gundry, Robert: “The Church and The Tribulation,” Zondervan (1973)
- ^ Strandberg, Todd. “The Date Setters Diary”. http://www.raptureready.com/rr-date-setters.html. Retrieved on 2007-06-22.
- ^ Nelson, Chris (2003-06-22). “A Brief History of the Apocalypse”. http://www.abhota.info/end1.htm. Retrieved on 2007-06-22.
- ^ “WILLIAM BRANHAM”. Cephas Ministry. http://www.cephasministry.com/william_branham.html. Retrieved on 2008-09-02.
- ^ “The World Did Not End Yesterday”. Boston Globe (Associated Press). 1992-10-29.
- ^ Nelson, Chris (2002-06-18). “A Brief History of the Apocalypse; 1971 – 1997: Millennial Madness”. http://www.abhota.info/end3.htm. Retrieved on 2007-06-23.
- ^ “We are Almost There”. http://www.familyradio.com/graphical/literature/waat/contents.html. Retrieved on 2008-07-22.
- ^ This is London Ltd. (2007-08-22). “The world will end in 2060, according to Newton”. http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/article-23401099-details/The+world+will+end+in+2060,+according+to+Newton/article.do. Retrieved on 2007-08-22.
- ^ Stephen D. Snobelen. “Isaac Newton and Apocalypse Now”. http://www.isaac-newton.org/newton_2060.htm. Retrieved on 2007-08-22.
- ^ ::Gone::
- ^ ISBN 0963677225
- ^ ISBN 0741440520
- ^ Woman Dies in Premature Rapture – Netlore Archive
- ^ The Rapture Fund
- ^ Rapture Letters
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Charleswayneward
External links
Support
- Rapture Ready (see also Rapture Ready)
- Rapture: Lord’s Coming from Biblecentre.org
- The Rapture of the Church, position statement of the Assemblies of God
- The Rapture of the Christian Church
- A chronological chart of Revelation, depicting multiple raptures
- Rapture Forums Website and Discussion board for the Rapture
- End Times Round Table (ETRT) Forum devoted to the pre-tribulation view of rapture with emphasis on current economic, political and environmental events as precursors
Opposition
- Revelation 20:6 is the first resurrection. If the dead in Christ rise first, What About the Rapture?
- Essays on Rapture from the Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary Library
- The Left Behind Deception by Steve Wohlberg (Adventist Review)
- Farewell to the Rapture by N. T. Wright (Bible Review, August 2001)
- Barbara Rossing Interview at Trinity Institute (‘, 2007)
- The Danger of the Pre-Tribulation Rapture Article by evangelist Brian O’Connell
- The Secret Coming of Christ How Secret Is It? From Bethel Church of God
Neutral
- The Rapture: Hoax or Hope? at Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance
- Rapture Insurance idea at Halfbakery
um
success…?
Church Universal and Triumphant, inc. “The Sounds of American Doomsday Cults – vol 14
performed and recorded 12/15/84 by church universal and triumphant, inc. featuring elizabeth clare prophet.
a document of the spellbinding chants, call-and-response decrees, hypnotic invocations and prayers performed against the demon rock’n'roll by the ultra-conservative new age church universal and triumphant, led by charismatic, gun-hoarding nutjob elizabeth clare prophet–who is believed by her followers to be divinely inspired by a host of ascended masters, including merlin the magician, hercules, william shakespeare, jesus christ, gautama buddha, the archangel michael, and other emo legends. humorous for its damnation of seemingly harmless rock stars like billy joel, which explains why negativland and other experimentalists would sample it, this mesmerizing, all-vocal performance should fascinate listeners interested in la monte young’s drones, kurt schwitters’ “ursonate,” or the stringent choral works of ligeti, penderecki and scelsi. -Faithway International Records
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from http://www.waxy.org
Back in the 1980s, a few thousand devoted followers of a religious sect called the Church Universal and Triumphant relocated to a 32,000 acre Montana ranch and began preparing for the Apocalypse. Claire Prophet, their aptly-named leader, predicted a devastating Soviet missile attack on the United States set for April 23, 1990. Responding to these doomsday visions, the sect began stockpiling weapons and creating fallout shelters to survive the attacks. (The church still lives on, albeit in a mainstream form.)
Audio recordings from internal church services surfaced sometime during the late-1980s and were released on Faithway International’s Sounds of American Doomsday Cults Volume 14.
The highlight of the batch is the Invocation For Judgement Against And Destruction of Rock Music , a three-minute roster of ’80s rock and pop stars sentenced to eternal damnation for various crimes against God. You might recognize it from Negativland’s “Michael Jackson” off of Escape from Noise, which samples it heavily. Follow the weirdness with this partial transcript.
“And we especially call for the judgement in this hour in the destroying of rock music directed specifically against children through the videos that were portrayed. And working specifically through these individuals for whom we call forth the judgement of the Sacred Fire at this hour before the Throne of Almighty God.
Michael Jackson, Prince, Bruce Springsteen, Tina Turner, David Boowie, Van Halen, Madonna, Huey Louis And The News, The Cars, Herbie Hancock, Bonnie Tyler, Stevie Nicks, Men at Work, ZZ Top, Paul McCartney and Michael Jackson, Weird Al Yankovic, Cyndi Looper, Pink Floyd, The Pretenders, Billy Joel, Billy Idol, Elton John, Neil Young, Sheena Easton, Patti Smith and Scandal, Fashion, Big Country, Morris Day and the Time, John Lennon, Appalonia 6, REO Speedwagon, David Gilmour, The Rolling Stones, Pat Benatar, Hall & Oates, Wham, Rebbie Jackson, Adam Ant, Bananarama, Christine McVie, Queen, Jack Cougar Mellencamp, U2, Fleetwood Mac, the Alan Parsons Project, Rick Springfield, the Thompson Twins, Missing Persons, Duran Duran, Police, Eurythmics, Culture Club including Boy George, Band-Aid, Relax, Stevie Wonder, Kenny Rogers, J. Iglesias and Diana Ross, Donna Summer, Dean Martin, KISS, Scorpions, Def Leppard.
And especially for the judgement of all movies including Beat Street, MTV, Street Beat, Miami Vice, Kid Video, Scooby Dooby Doo, Spinal Tap, Michael Sembello, Flashdance, 2010. And Andy Summers, Kenny Loggins, Phil Collins, Fire Incorporated, Olivia Newton-John, and the movie Ghostbusters.
And all other individual groups or individual artists who vibrate in consonance with them and with the vibration of the fallen angels and the demons of death and hell from the bottomless pit. We call forth thy flame now into the planes of Montair and for the full action of the will of God for the confounding and confuting of these images and this release of the plague of death and hell upon the planetary body. We accept it done now with full power according to God’s holy will through this, our decree.“
http://www.lionsgate.com/religulous
Bill Maher interviews some of religion’s oddest adherents. Muslims, Jews and Christians of many kinds pass before his jaundiced eye. Maher goes to a Creationist Museum in Kentucky, which shows that dinosaurs and people lived at the same time 5000 years ago. He talks to truckers at a Truckers’ Chapel. (Sign outside: “Jesus love you.”) He goes to a theme park called Holy Land in Florida. He speaks to a rabbi in league with Holocaust deniers. He talks to a Muslim musician who preaches hatred of Jews. Maher finds the unlikeliest of believers and, in a certain Vatican priest, he even finds an unlikely skeptic. Written by J. Spurlin
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http://jonesthought.wordpress.com/2008/08/17/zeitgeist
Zeitgeist, produced by Peter Joseph, was created as a nonprofit expression to inspire people to start looking at the world from a more critical perspective and to understand that very often things are not what the population at large think they are. The information in Zeitgeist was established over a year long period of research and the current Source page on this site lists the basic sources used / referenced and the developing Interactive Transcript includes exact source references and further information. A Q & A page is also being developed.
Now, it’s important to point out that there is a tendency to simply disbelieve things that are counter to our understanding, without the necessary research performed. For example, some information contained in Part 1 and Part 3, specifically, is not obtained by simple keyword searches on the Internet. You have to dig deeper. For instance, very often people who look up “Horus” or “The Federal Reserve” on the Internet
draw their conclusions from very general or biased sources. Online encyclopedias or text book Encyclopedias often do not contain the information contained in Zeitgeist. However, if one takes the time to read the sources provided, they will find that what is being presented is based on documented evidence. Non-Profit DVDs / Free Video Downloads are available through the Downloads page.
Furthermore, in October 2008 the sequel to Zeitgeist will be presented for free online. This feature length work will address the solutions to the problems presented in the original work. This work is entitled: “Zeitgeist – Addendum”
That being said, It is my hope that people will not take what is said in the film as the truth, but find out for themselves, for truth is not told, it is realized.
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zeitgeist,_the_Movie
Zeitgeist was first released on June 26, 2007 and topped the Google video charts most viewed videos. The film was translated into several languages and is distributed officially via Google Video and BitTorrent. Zeitgeist won the top award of Best Feature Documentary/Artivist Spirit at the 4th Annual Artivist Awards in 2007 in Hollywood, CA. An upcoming sequel has been announced. “Zeitgeist Addendum” will premiere at the 5th Annual Artivists Film Festival on October 2, 2008, at the Egyptian Theater in Hollywood, California. The film will be released for free online on October 3, 2008.
The film starts with a speech by Chögyam Trungpa about spirituality, followed by a series of musically synchronized clips of war and explosions culminating with one of the towers of World Trade Center collapsing during 9/11. Then there follows a sequence of clips showing the horrors of war. There is a short clip that shows a hand writing “1 + 1 = 2″, but is brushed away by another hand before the first finishes, and is replaced by a bible and an American flag. After a few more war clips, the film then quotes Jordan Maxwell’s Inner World of the Occult, criticizing religious institutions, governments, and the banking cartels who “have misled [the people] away from the true and divine presence in the universe.” This portion ends with more images accompanied by audio of a portion of a George Carlin monologue on religion.
The film’s first section, called “The Greatest Story Ever Told”, denounces the originality of many world religions, arguing they are mainly derived from astrological myths and traditions established long before them. In furtherance of the Jesus myth hypothesis, this part argues that the historical Jesus is a literary and astrological hybrid, nurtured politically in the interest of control.
Horus, the Egyptian Sun God, is introduced as having a number of attributes similar to many other religious deities which came after him, including but not limited to Attis, Krishna, Dionysus, Mithra and Jesus Christ; these attributes including virgin birth on December 25th, 12 disciples, burial for 3 days and resurrection and performing of miracles.
The film offers that the explanation for these common attributes is astrology, for example: death, burial for 3 days and resurrection is cited as being based on the winter solstice, where the Sun’s peak reaches its lowest point in the sky, resides there perceivably for 3 days, and starts to move north, symbolizing the rebirth of the all-powerful creator. Another Christian-astrological similarity highlighted is the way the three stars in Orion’s belt (called the “Three Kings”) align with Sirius on December 25th, the brightest star in the sky, and point to the Sun’s rise on the horizon. This is equated to the Nativity of Jesus, where three kings follow the star in the east to locate the birth of Jesus.
Christianity is then said to be a Gnostic myth, historized by the Roman Empire for social control of Europe through doctrines established at the First Council of Nicea. The Dark Ages, the Inquisitions and the Crusades are given as events which maintained Europe’s submission to The Vatican through Christianity.
The following quote is said in conclusion:
“ Christianity, along with all other theistic belief systems [...] empowers those who know the truth, but use the myth to manipulate and control societies. [...] It reduces human responsibility to the effect that “God” controls everything, and in turn awful crimes can be justified in the name of Divine Pursuit. [...] The religious myth is the most powerful device ever created, and serves as the psychological soil upon which other myths can flourish. ”
The second part of the documentary, entitled “All the World’s a Stage”, claims 9/11 was engineered to generate mass fear, initiate and justify the War on Terror, remove civil liberties from the general public, and for economic gain. The claims are followed by the immediate on-screen sourcing of clips from notable and credible television news, and clippings from notable and credible newspapers and magazines (shown on screen) to advance the claims that the United States government was warned about the impending September 11, 2001 attacks, that the planes were allowed to reach their targets, and that the World Trade Center buildings underwent a controlled demolition; basically that the events of Sept 11th 2001 were either orchestrated by, or allowed to happen by, a criminal element in the United States government. The film also gives a tour of notable and credible media to support the claims that six of the named hijackers are still alive, that Hani Hanjour could not have flown Flight 77 into the Pentagon, that no substantial plane wreckage was found at any of the three crash sites, that the Bush Administration covered up the truth in the 9/11 Commission Report, and that the mainstream media has failed to ask important questions about the official account.
The third part is called “Don’t Mind the Men Behind the Curtain”, a reference to the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz. The four main wars of the United States’ 20th century are argued by the film to have been started or engaged in purely to further the economic strength of a group of men. Events attempted to be exposed as fraudulent or staged are the sinking of the RMS Lusitania, the Attack on Pearl Harbor, and the Gulf of Tonkin Incident; all occurrences which carried the U.S into the First World War, Second World War and Vietnam War respectively.
According to the film, the U.S. was forced by the Federal Reserve Bank to become embroiled in these wars not to win but to sustain conflict, as it forces its government to borrow more money from the bank, with interest attached, thereby increasing the nation’s debt and the profits of those who own The Fed. The film gives a history of the Reserve, claiming it engineered the Great Depression to steal wealth from the American population and was responsible for the attempts to assassinate Louis McFadden, a congressman who attempted to impeach the Reserve.
This section also explores the possibility that there is a clandestine movement, promoted by the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America, to usurp the American constitution and US dollar, by merging the United States, Canada and Mexico into a North American Union that uses a single currency, the Amero, without the ratification of Congress. This currency union would create a super-state similar to the European Union, which together with the African Union and the proposed Asian Union would gradually be merged into a One World government. The movie concludes that under such a government, every human could be implanted with a RFID microchip which would be used to monitor individuals and suppress dissent. The movie ends, however, on an optimistic note, expressing confidence in the possibility of overthrowing oppressive forces and the ultimate triumph of revolution through enlightenment.
The fourth part, the Addendum, is titled “The Revolution is Now” and will premiere at the 5th Annual Artivist’s Film Festival in Los Angeles, California on October 2, 2008. It will address “the true source of the instability in our society, while offering the only fundamental, long term solution.”
Critical Reviews
http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/Content?oid=309650
http://www.boingboing.net/2007/08/06/jay-kinney-reviews-z.html
http://www.theglobeandmail.com
http://gauntlet.ucalgary.ca/story/12284
http://media.wildcat.arizona.edu
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/weekend/2007/0825/1187332519087.html
March 28, 2007
In an exclusive Shalom TV interview, US Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr. (D-DE) emphatically stated his commitment to the State of Israel, calling the country “the single greatest strength America has in the Middle East.”
Senator Biden further stressed that without Israel, one could only imagine how many battleships and troops America would have to station in the Middle East.
Meeting with Shalom TV President Rabbi Mark S. Golub in Washington, DC, the candidate for the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination said that it’s insulting for any American to suggest that Israel is somehow the cause of the war in Iraq.
“If, tomorrow, peace broke out between Israelis and Palestinians, does anybody think there wouldn’t be a full-blown war in Iraq? And, conversely, if Iraq were transported to Mars, does anyone think there would not be terrorism visited upon the Israelis every day?
“So let’s get it straight. Israel is not the cause of Iraq. Iraq being settled or not settled has nothing to do with Israel’s conduct.”
The Senator also expressed a sensitivity and empathy for Israelis who have had to live with terrorism.
“From 9/11, Americans can taste what it must feel like for every Israeli mother and father when they send their kid out to school with their lunch to put them on a bus, on a bicycle or to walk; and they pray to God that cell phone doesn’t ring.”
“I am a Zionist,” stated Senator Biden. “You don’t have to be a Jew to be a Zionist.”
Asked about Jonathan Pollard, sentenced to life-imprisonment for giving classified information to the State of Israel, Senator Biden opened the door to leniency, but not a pardon.
“There’s a rationale, in my view, why Pollard should be given leniency. But there is not a rationale to say, ‘What happened did not happen and should be pardoned.’”
A transcript of the Shalom TV interview follows
SHALOM TV: Many Americans believe there’s a link between America’s war in Iraq and the State of Israel and that if America didn’t have such a commitment to the state of Israel, there wouldn’t be these problems in Iraq.
What would you say to anyone who’s expressed that thought to you?
SENATOR BIDEN: It’s bizarre.
When the Baker Commission filed its report saying peace in Israel is related to Iraq, I was the first and only person in Congress to point out that if, tomorrow, peace broke out between Israelis and Palestinians, does anybody think there wouldn’t be a full-blown war in Iraq?
And, conversely, if Iraq were transported to Mars, does anyone think there would not be terrorism visited upon the Israelis every day?
The difference between now and before 9/11: many Americans can taste what it must feel like for every Israeli mother and father when they send their kid out to school with their lunch to put them on a bus, on a bicycle or to walk; and they pray to God that cell phone doesn’t ring.
Every day, every day.
So let’s get it straight. Israel is not the cause of Iraq. Iraq being settled or not settled has nothing to do with Israel’s conduct.
The second part is: people should understand by now that Israel is the single greatest strength America has in the Middle East.
Imagine our circumstance in the world were there no Israel. How many battleships would there be? How many troops would be stationed?
So I find it not only incorrect, but mildly insulting.
SHALOM TV: In the American Jewish community, there’s sensitivity to the plight of Jonathan Pollard.
What should be done now with Jonathan Pollard?
SENATOR BIDEN: If we don’t want to play into the argument that Americans who support Israel have dual loyalties, then you can’t deal with Pollard. He has to serve his sentence. There’s a rationale, in my view, why Pollard should be given leniency. But there is not a rationale to say, “What happened did not happen and should be pardoned.”
I was raised by a righteous Christian. My father was a gentle man. He was a white collar worker, high-school educated but a student of history and a devoted supporter of Israel.
My father could not understand how people could fail to understand that without an Israel no Jew in the world was safe. He couldn’t understand how support for Israel could be translated into being un-American.
My worry is that, if I were president, to go and pardon Pollard would make a lie out of the notion that there are certain rules. Period. You cannot give classified information. Period. Even to a friend. If this were great Britain, it would be the same thing.
So the standard has to be maintained, in my view.
SHALOM TV: Have you ever been at a Seder
SENATOR BIDEN: I have.
SHALOM TV: Give us one Seder memory
SENATOR BIDEN: My son married a young woman whose mother and whole family is a very prominent Jewish family in the state of Delaware, the Bergers.
Probably my most poignant Seder memory is not with the Bergers, but what happened right after I came back from meeting Golda Meir in 1973.
I had predicted that something was going on in Egypt. And I remember people talking about what it meant to them if Israel were actually defeated.
And there is this inextricable tie between culture, religion, and ethnicity that most people don’t fully understand–that is unique and so strong with Jews worldwide.
When I was a young Senator, I used to say, “If I were a Jew I’d be a Zionist.”
I am a Zionist. You don’t have to be a Jew to be a Zionist.
http://atheistblogger.com/2008/02/15/101-atheist-quotes
“The following 101 quotes are some that I have stumbled upon on the web, or seen in books / popular culture. Each quote was either written by an atheist, or is about atheism in general.”
- The fact that a believer is happier than a sceptic is no more to the point than the fact that a drunken man is happier than a sober one. The happiness of credulity is a cheap and dangerous quality. – George Bernard Shaw
- Faith means not wanting to know what is true. – Friedrich Nietzsche
- I believe in God, only I spell it Nature. – Frank Lloyd Wright
- We must question the story logic of having an all-knowing all-powerful God, who creates faulty Humans, and then blames them for his own mistakes. – Gene Roddenberry
- To surrender to ignorance and call it God has always been premature, and it remains premature today. - Isaac Asimov
- A man is accepted into a church for what he believes and he is turned out for what he knows. – Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain)
- Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by the rulers as useful. – Seneca the Younger
- Philosophy is questions that may never be answered. Religion is answers that may never be questioned. – Anonymous
- Not only is there no god, but try getting a plumber on weekends. – Woody Allen
- If I were not an atheist, I would believe in a God who would choose to save people on the basis of the totality of their lives and not the pattern of their words. I think he would prefer an honest and righteous atheist to a TV preacher whose every word is God, God, God, and whose every deed is foul, foul, foul. – Isaac Asimov
- Belief in the supernatural reflects a failure of the imagination. – Edward Abbey
- With or without religion, you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion. – Steven Weinberg
- I still say a church steeple with a lightning rod on top shows a lack of confidence. – Doug McLeod
- The world holds two classes of men – intelligent men without religion, and religious men without intelligence. – Abu’l‐Ala al Ma’arri
- Since the Bible and the church are obviously mistaken in telling us where we came from, how can we trust them to tell us where we are going? – Anonymous
- I distrust those people who know so well what God wants them to do because I notice it always coincides with their own desires. – Susan B. Anthony
- The invisible and the non-existent look very much alike. – Delos B. McKown
- Two hands working can do more than a thousand clasped in prayer. – Anonymous
- Atheism leaves a man to sense, to philosophy, to natural piety, to laws, to reputation; all of which may be guides to an outward moral virtue, even if religion vanished; but religious superstition dismounts all these and erects an absolute monarchy in the minds of men. – Francis Bacon
- The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction: jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully. – Richard Dawkins
- A God who kept tinkering with the universe was absurd; a God who interfered with human freedom and creativity was tyrant. If God is seen as a self in a world of his own, an ego that relates to a thought, a cause separate from its effect. he becomes a being, not Being itself. An omnipotent, all‐knowing tyrant is not so different from earthly dictators who make everything and everybody mere cogs in the machine which they controlled. An atheism that rejects such a God is amply justified. – Karen Armstrong
- It is not as in the Bible, that God created man in his own image. But, on the contrary, man created God in his own image. – Ludwig Feuerbach
- People ask me what I think about that woman priest thing. What, a woman priest? Women priests. Great, great. Now there’s priests of both sexes I don’t listen to. – Bill Hicks
- All the biblical miracles will at last disappear with the progress of science. – Matthew Arnold
- Blind faith is an ironic gift to return to the Creator of human intelligence. – Anonymous
- Be thankful that you have a life, and forsake your vain and presumptuous desire for a second one. – Richard Dawkins
- What can be asserted without proof can be dismissed without proof. – Christopher Hitchens
- In Christianity neither morality nor religion come into contact with reality at any point. – Friedrich Nietzsche
- It will yet be the proud boast of women that they never contributed a line to the Bible. – George W. Foote
- On the first day, man created God. – Anonymous
- I contend that we are both atheists. I just believe in one fewer god than you do. When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods, you will understand why I dismiss yours. – Stephen Roberts
- You do not need the Bible to justify love, but no better tool has been invented to justify hate. – Richard A. Weatherwax
- What’s “God”? Well, you know, when you want something really bad and you close your eyes and you wish for it? God’s the guy that ignores you. – Steve Buscemi (From the movie “The Island”)
- As far as I can tell from studying the scriptures, all you do in heaven is pretty much just sit around all day and praise the Lord. I don’t know about you, but I think that after the first, oh, I don’t know, 50,000,000 years of that I’d start to get a little bored. – Rick Reynolds
- Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day; teach a man to fish and he will eat for a lifetime; give a man religion and he will die praying for a fish. – Anonymous
- Calling Atheism a religion is like calling bald a hair color. – Don Hirschberg
- God should be executed for crimes against humanity. – Bryan Emmanuel Gutierrez
- To say that atheism requires faith is as dim-witted as saying that disbelief in pixies or leprechauns takes faith. Even if Einstein himself told me there was an elf on my shoulder, I would still ask for proof and I wouldn’t be wrong to ask. – Geoff Mather
- I do not fear death. I had been dead for billions and billions of years before I was born, and had not suffered the slightest inconvenience from it. – Mark Twain
- Of all religions the Christian is without doubt the one which should inspire tolerance most, although up to now the Christians have been the most intolerant of all men. – Voltaire
- And if there were a God, I think it very unlikely that He would have such an uneasy vanity as to be offended by those who doubt His existence. – Bertrand Russell
- Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent. Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent. Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil? Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God? – Epicurus
- I’m a polyatheist – there are many gods I don’t believe in. – Dan Fouts
- If it turns out that there is a God, I don’t think that he’s evil. But the worst that you can say about him is that basically he’s an underachiever. – Woody Allen
- A lie is a lie even if everyone believes it. The truth is the truth even if nobody believes it. – David Stevens
- Men rarely (if ever) manage to dream up a God superior to themselves. Most Gods have the manners and morals of a spoiled child. – Robert A Heinlein
- I refuse to prove that I exist,” says God, “for proof denies faith, and without faith I am nothing. – Douglas Adams
- It ain’t the parts of the Bible that I can’t understand that bother me, it is the parts that I do understand. – Mark Twain
- He that will not reason is a bigot; he that cannot reason is a fool; he that dares not reason is a slave. – William Drummond
- Remember, Jesus would rather constantly shame gays than let orphans have a family. – Steven Colbert
- Which is it, is man one of God’s blunders or is God one of man’s? – Friedrich Nietzsche
- Religion does three things quite effectively: Divides people, Controls people, Deludes people. – Carlespie Mary Alice McKinney
- Religion has caused more misery to all of mankind in every stage of human history than any other single idea. – Anonymous
- When a man is freed of religion, he has a better chance to live a normal and wholesome life. – Sigmund Freud
- They felt that science would be corrosive to religious belief and they were worried about it. Damn it, I think they were right. It is corrosive to religious belief and it’s a good thing. – Steven Weinberg
- Take from the church the miraculous, the supernatural, the incomprehensible, the unreasonable, the impossible, the unknowable, the absurd, and nothing but a vacuum remains. – Robert G. Ingersoll
- History teaches us that no other cause has brought more death than the word of god. – Giulian Buzila
- Atheism is a non-prophet organization. – George Carlin
- We are all atheists about most of the gods that societies have ever believed in. Some of us just go one god further. – Richard Dawkins
- A believer states everything must have a creator but fail to say how he was created. – Anonymous
- “There are no atheists in foxholes” isn’t an argument against atheism, it’s an argument against foxholes. – James Morrow
- People will then often say, ‘But surely it’s better to remain an Agnostic just in case?’ This, to me, suggests such a level of silliness and muddle that I usually edge out of the conversation rather than get sucked into it. (If it turns out that I’ve been wrong all along, and there is in fact a god, and if it further turned out that this kind of legalistic, cross-your-fingers-behind-your-back, Clintonian hair-splitting impressed him, then I think I would choose not to worship him anyway.) – Douglas Adams
- Properly read, the bible is the most potent force for Atheism ever conceived. – Isaac Asimov
- If all the Christians who have called other Christians “not really a Christian” were to vanish, there’d be no Christians left. – Anonymous
- An atheist is a man who has no invisible means of support. – John Buchan
- Gods dont kill people. People with Gods kill people. – David Viaene
- If God were suddenly condemned to live the life which He has inflicted upon men, He would kill Himself. – Alexandre Dumas
- Atheism is nothing more than the noises reasonable people make when in the presence of religious dogma. – Sam Harris
- I don’t believe in God because I don’t believe in Mother Goose – Clarence Darrow
- No philosophy, no religion, has ever brought so glad a message to the world as this good news of Atheism. – Annie Wood Besant
- I refuse to believe in a god who is the primary cause of conflict in the world, preaches racism, sexism, homophobia, and ignorance, and then sends me to hell if I’m ‘bad’. – Mike Fuhrman
- Faith does not give you the answers, it just stops you asking the questions. – Frater Ravus
- Believing there is no God gives me more room for belief in family, people, love, truth, beauty, sex, Jell-o, and all the other things I can prove and that make this life the best life I will ever have. – Penn Jillette
- Absolute faith corrupts as absolutely as absolute power but absolute power is corrupt only in the hands of the absolutely faithful. – Anonymous
- Gods are fragile things; they may be killed by a whiff of science or a dose of common sense. – Chapman Cohen
- The inspiration of the bible depends on the ignorance of the person who reads it. – Robert G. Ingersoll
- When one person suffers from a delusion, it is called insanity. When many people suffer from a delusion it is called religion. – Robert Pirsig
- I wonder who got the shit job of scouring the planet for the 15000 species of butterfly or the 8800 species of ant they eventually took on board Noah’s Ark. But at least we got that magical rainbow for all their trouble. – Azura Skye
- I have no need for religion, I have a conscience. – Anonymous
- Man has always required an explanation for all of those things in the world he did not understand. If an explanation was not available, he created one. – Jim Crawford
- I am against religion because it teaches us to be satisfied with not understanding the world. – Richard Dawkins
- What has been Christianity’s fruits? Superstition, Bigotry and Persecution. – James Madison
- The characters and events depicted in the damn bible are fictitious. Any similarity to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental. – Penn and Teller
- If god is the alpha and the omega. The begining and the end, knows what has passed and what is to come, like it states in the bible, why do people pray and think it will make any difference. – Mark Fairclough
- The finality of death is the coldest truth one must face. Religion makes the perfect distraction. – Anonymous
- Religion is the opiate of the masses. – Karl Marx
- If God created the world, then who created god? and who created whoever created god? So somewhere along the line something had to just be there. So why can’t we just skip the idea of god and go straight to earth? – Ryan Hanson
- If we expect God to subscribe to one religion at the exclusion of all the others, then we should expect damnation as a matter of chance. This should give Christians pause when expounding their religious beliefs, but it does not. – Sam Harris
- Atheists will celebrate life, while you’re in church celebrating death. – Anonymous
- Animals do not have gods, they are smarter than that. – Ronnie Snow
- I have observed that the world has suffered far less from ignorance than from pretensions to knowledge. It is not skeptics or explorers but fanatics and ideologues who menace decency and progress. No agnostic ever burned anyone at the stake or tortured a pagan, a heretic, or an unbeliever. – Daniel Boorstin
- I have never seen the slightest scientific proof of the religious ideas of heaven and hell, of future life for individuals, or of a personal God. So far as religion of the day is concerned, it is a damned fake… Religion is all bunk. – Thomas Edison
- Fundamentalism, of any type, due to its prerequisite lack of intelligent thought, could prove to be the worst weapon of mass destruction, of all. – David J. Constable
- To really be free, You need to be free in the mind. – Alexander Loutsis
- Most religions prophecy the end of the world and then consistently work together to ensure that these prophecies come true. – Anonymous
- Jesus hardly made the greatest sacrifice. He knew he would be resurrected anyway. – Anonymous
- Religion is like a virus that affects the behaviour of its host in such a way as to propagate itself further. – Jack Pritchard
- Religions are like pills, which must be swallowed whole without chewing. – Anonymous
- Today’s religion will be the future’s mythology. Both believed at one time by many; but proved wrong by the clever. – Steven Crocker
- The Bible – A Fairytale book of rules brainwashing millions. Obliviously used to help create war, kill, hate, judge and discriminate. – Anonymous
- Isn’t it enough to see that a garden is beautiful without having to believe that there are fairies at the bottom of it too? – Douglas Adams
“Please feel free to comment on these quotes, and inform me of the authors of any I have misquoted or marked as “Anonymous”. There are so many sources for these quotes it’s hard to keep track of who really said what!” -the atheist blogger http://atheistblogger.com/contact
http://www.jesuscampthemovie.com
Directed by Heidi Ewing – Rachel Grady
Produced by Heidi Ewing – Rachel Grady
Starring Becky Fischer – Mike Papantonio
Music by Force Theory
Cinematography Mira Chang – Jenna Rosher
Distributed by Magnolia Pictures
Release date September 15, 2006
Language English
Official sites
- jesuscampthemovie.com – official site for the film
- Levi’s parents site for reaction to film
- Jesus Camp synopsis – from Magnolia Pictures
- - about Magnolia (Pictures)
- Loki Films – Documentary filmmakers’ site
- Kids in Ministry International (KIMI), the sponsoring organization of the camp depicted in the film
- KIMI website page about using fetus dolls as prayer tools toward ending abortion in America (as depicted in the film)
- TV & Radio: Most complete listing of Becky Fischer interviews – video & audio
Television/Podcasting news reports and discussions
- The Alcove with Mark Molaro
- ABC News
- Good Morning America – discussion on video
- Good Morning America – Fischer, Papantonio, & Diane Sawyer – report and discussion on video
- World News Tonight – video report
- CNN
- A talk with Becky and Mike – discussion on video
- Headline Prime, Erica Hill talks with Fischer and Papantonio – discussion on video
- CBN News
- CBN News – video report and discussion with Pastor Becky Fischer
- MSNBC
- Scarborough Country – video report
- Other networks
- TV & Radio: Several Becky Fischer interviews – video & audio
