Tying together prevalent politics with pressing matters, it is noteworthy that this week marks a prominent political anniversary from just the last presidential season.
Four years ago this week former President Ronald Reagan passed from this plane of existence.
President Reagan was a much liked fellow by both Democrats and Republicans. His name and memory has even been invoked positively by presumptive Democratic presidential candidate Barrack Obama, who wasn't even yet a prominent national politician when Reagan died just four years ago -- and Obama is about as polar an opposite of Reagan politically as they come.
I liked Ronald Reagan though not always agreeing with him.
Health care and a push for federal predominance in its management is prominent in this election cycle.
Is federalizing health care all it's cracked up to be?
Reagan and Alzheimer's and Rumsfeld and Aspartame
Remember the mixed up 1969 comedy 'Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice' from Hollywood? That was in the midst of Reagan's terms as California governor. ThHe movie was substantially about manipulation. Confidantes finessed other confidantes to accept bad things as good things.
It was in California that I was raised when Reagan was governor. He was not one to be pressed or cajoled into doing anything. However, he could be manipulated. I observed this many times. This article is about one of those times.
Déjà vu
The American people elected him President Reagan and one member of his transition team was the CEO of pharmaceutical giant GD Searle (clear up to 1985). This man had been the youngest Secretary of Defense ever under Gerald Ford. His name was Donald Rumsfeld. Yes, the same man who also became the oldest Secretary of Defense ever for most of this century under the administration of President George W. Bush.
Searle had been unsuccessfully trying to obtain approval for aspartame (now best known as Nutrasweet) for almost two decades. The reason for the lack of success by Searle was due to extensive and consistent studies that noted aspartame was damaging to the brain (among other problems).
According to a former Searle employee Rumsfeld assured the company that, "no matter what, he would see to it that aspartame would be approved" prior to the 1980 presidential election.
Reagan took office and the head of the FDA who had blocked aspartame was suspended. A former Defense Department contract researcher named Dr. Arthur Hull Hayes replaced him at the recommendation of Donald Rumsfeld. Chemical weapons were part of the Defense Department studies of Dr. Hayes under the oversight of Donald Rumsfeld. Does a chemical weapons expert to head up the Food & Drug Administration seem like an appropriate choice?
The first major action of Hayes as FDA Commissioner was approval of aspartame for dry foods. This was a direct contradiction to the FDA's own advisors and the FDA's own Public Board of Inquiry recommendation. His last act in that position was approval of aspartame for diet drinks. He left the FDA after a very short term to become senior medical advisor for the public relations firm of GD Searle. His salary there far exceeded that which he received from the FDA.
Ironies initiated
In 1994 former President Reagan wrote his now famous letter to the American people about his newly diagnosed Alzheimer's. This condition has skyrocketed in the American population through the last two decades.
In 1997 Dr. Russell Blaylock, M.D. released his book, 'EXCITOTOXINS: The Taste That Kills'. This book I have highly recommended since first learning of it in 1998. Dr. Blaylock ties with intricate detail the explosion of Alzheimer's to the entrance of aspartame (Nutrasweet) and its overwhelming of the marketplace. He noted that the most injurious delivery for this well documented brain-damaging ingredient is in a liquid form.
I have told people for many years that every swig of diet drink kills brain cells. As bad as sugary sodas are, if you won't give up soda then you are better off with the sugary variety than the diet variety.
It is a tragic irony that Reagan succumbed to Alzheimer's after being manipulated into bringing about the approval of this substance most likely responsible for the sudden explosion to epidemic status of this horribly debilitating disease.
Now his widow, Nancy Reagan, is busy promoting a wild goose chase into stem cell research for Alzheimer's. This is a great whitewashed hope against the reality of the connection between Alzheimer's and the aspartame that her husband approved.
Greater irony still is that stem cell research is conducted by extracting cells from human embryos that are killed. Ronald Reagan was staunchly anti-abortion and must be turning over before ever getting in his grave that his death would be used for such a platform. Defenseless against Alzheimer's in his waning years, he is now defenseless at his end against this use of himself to promote use of aborted baby tissues.
More ironies
Oh, the intricate ironies through all of this. Monsanto bought GD Searle with its prized Nutrasweet.
Monsanto was founded originally in 1901 with the sole purpose of producing saccharine -- another toxic artificial sweetener -- for the United States market.
The head of the forerunner to the FDA, Dr. Harvey Wiley, M.D., came hard against this harmful substance. Another Republican then was president of the country. His name also began with an R, and he was also an independent not to be pressed or cajoled into doing anything.
President Teddy Roosevelt roared at Dr. Wiley, "Anybody who says saccharin is injurious to health is an idiot." This very unscientific, emotional outburst severely damaged Wiley's status with President Roosevelt. It turns out that Roosevelt was a diabetic who loved sweets and saccharine was vital to his sweet tooth.
Wiley blamed himself for this failure and cited it as the turning point for the food industry being able to turn the Pure Food & Drug Act on its head. Wiley therefore resigned his position. It was more than half a century after that before this harmful product was finally deposed.
Most tragic of ironies
It has been said that those who don't learn from history are doomed to repeat it. That has certainly been the case with regard to the history of artificial sweeteners -- and the federalization of health matters.
The newly elected President Ronald Reagan was manipulated to the harm of Americans with Nutrasweet. The newly deceased Ronald Reagan was then manipulated to the harm of preborn Americans with regard to stem cell research.
Shakespeare never wrote a more ironic tragedy.
Christopher C. Barr writes Naturally Speaking from Arkansas: The Natural State … naturally! You may write him at P. O. Box 1147, Pocahontas, Arkansas 72455 or by e-mail at servantofYHVH@hotmail.com.
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