Johnny Also-Ran introduces bill to cripple "dietary supplement" industry

Here's a link to the bill on THOMAS, the Library of Congress legislative information website.

http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d111:s3002:

McCain's (R - Arizona) bill imposes even stricter regulations on the industry, which includes natural health products, nutritional supplements, hell, basically anything that isn't produced by a major drug company and might actually benefit your health or lifestyle, as well as granting the FDA sweeping new powers to crush the smaller businesses that fall into this category and protect the megacorporations that fund and influence the FDA itself.

Let's all let Johnny boy know that this legislation is not acceptable, and let's do it now:

Online feedback to Mccain's office

Phoenix Office:
5353 North 16th Street
Suite 105
Phoenix, AZ 85016
Main: (602) 952-2410
Fax: (602) 952-8702

We can also contact the bill's cosponsor, Byron Dorgan (D - North Dakota)

Bismarck office:
312 Federal Building
PO Box 2579
Bismarck, ND 58502
Phone (701) 250-4618
Fax (701) 250-4484

Remind them that this is an election year, and we won't support anyone who seeks to protect the big food and drug companies by limiting our access to dietary and nutritional options.

Yellowstone earthquake swarm dwindles

The Salt Lake Tribube reports:

Yellowstone earthquake swarm dwindles

The quakes around YNP are slowing off now, but this looks like it's becoming an annual event. Hopefully it's just things settling and letting off steam (pun intended?) and not a warning of a major seismic or volcanic event soon to come.

Should be an interesting summer out there either way, I'm excited.

Relaunching the blog for 2010

When I created this thing a couple years ago, I had big expectations, but little in the way of theme or focus, so posts were rare. I've got renewed interest in some of the topics though, so here I go again. What are those topics, you ask?

• Natural diet and healing - my evolving quest to return to a more traditional diet of natural and organic food and drink, as well as natural alternatives to modern medicine.
• Simple Living - ideas and experiences in letting go of some of the complexities and trappings of modern life and returning to a simpler, cheaper and more sustainable lifestyle
• Politics - though not a daily soap box rant about the goings on in Washington, I'll just post comments now and then on conservative libertarianism and the crucial constitutional issues that threaten the American way of life
• Conservationism - I find the term "enviromentalism" too tied to modern liberal and big government politics, with an accompanying assumption that an evironmentalist also adheres to the other agendas of those philosophies. I'm not here to comment on the related and not-so-related other issues, so I fall back to an older term, Conservationist, in the tradition of John Muir, President (Theodore) Roosevelt, and others. Each of us is a steward of the earth, we don't need overwhelming political crusades to keep our home safe and beautiful.
• Yellowstone National Park - my home, in a part time real way, and a spiritual way as well. The national parks are truly unique in that once you visit one, you fall in love with the place, and it keeps calling back. I'll post my thoughts on Yellowstone as they come to me.