TRANSPERSONAL BOUNDARIES: HOW TO PREVENT UNWARRANTED POLICE SEARCHES OF YOUR CAR

According to the American Civil Liberties Union, unwarranted police searches are on the rise, and it’s important that all of us help the police know proper boundaries. It is your civic duty to do so, and that requires that you yourself know your Constitutional Rights. If you are pulled over while driving, understand that the police cannot search your vehicle without a search warrant or probable cause such as a visible open container of alcohol. In the U.S. we are protected from warrantless searches by Article 4 of the Bill of Rights in the U. S. Constitution. Beware of trick double questions such as, “You don’t have anything to hide do you? You don’t mind if I take a look in your car?” If you say “No” do you mean “No, I don’t have anything to hide” or “No, I don’t mind if you search my car” ? Be polite but clear about answering the second question only: —No officer, I do not give my consent to search my car.” You don’t have to give a reason why, it’s your right to withhold consent. If the officer asks you to step out of your car, make sure you roll the windows up first and lock the car doors immediately after you step out. If you are questioned as to why you locked the doors, say because you always lock your doors when you step out, and because you want to be very clear that you are not giving consent for a warrantless search of your vehicle. Know also that you have a right to ask for police officers’ business cards; they are required by law to carry them and give them to you upon request. Officers are more likely to be mindful of the letter of the law if they know that you know who they are. Remember, a traffic violation is not a reason to search your car. If you are detained without probable cause and without a warrant, you may say, “Officer, do you have a warrant for my arrest?” If the officer says “No,” you may say, “Then I am free to go.” Be courteous and never physically resist a police officer or run away, but know your rights. Take care of yourself, so the police don’t have to. For more detailed information, see the on-line video BUSTED sponsored by the ACLU.

PHYSICAL BODY: STUDIES LINK BRAS AND BREAST CANCER

Sydney Ross Singer and Soma Grismaijer, authors of Dressed to Kill, report that wearing a bra all day long increases the risk of breast cancer by 125 times. According to the World Health Organization, the primary cause of cancer is chemical toxins. Normally, toxins in breast tissues are flushed by lymph fluid into the lymph nodes in the armpits and upper chest. Bras constrict this natural lymphatic flow, creating a metabolic environment of anoxia (low oxygen) and high toxicity associated with tumor growth. Singer and Grismaijer’s review of the literature, including a Harvard study, shows that the longer you wear a bra each day, the higher your risk of breast cancer. Since the lymph system depends on movement to flush tissues, wearing a bra all-day combined with long periods of sitting and lack of regular exercise will raise your rate of risk even higher. In addition, bras may raise the temperature of the breasts, causing subtle changes in hormone function. Without a bra, the movement caused by simply walking during the day is enough to keep lymph moving throughout the breasts.

For more information please visit: www.bio-medicine.org

UNITY CONSCIOUSNESS: THE REFUSAL TO MERGE

I commute up the Pacific Coast Hwy from Santa Monica to Cal State Channel Islands where I teach, and over and over have noticed a phenomenon that I call ‘the refusal to merge’. Every year during the rainy season, workers have to close a lane along the east side of the PCH to push mudslides back off the road from the surrounding bluffs. This is a regular event that folks living in Malibu and surrounding areas are quite familiar with, because it happens routinely every year. Workers place warning signs and orange cones directing traffic to merge into one lane, and over and over, drivers refuse to merge. Instead of slowing down 10 mph and merging early on into one lane in an organized fashion, they race along in two lanes until there is no room left to merge. The result? A bottleneck that causes the cars in the remaining lane to have to come to a complete stop so that a line of stopped cars in the closed lane can merge. What is the problem? Can’t drivers in Southern California read road signs? Unfortunately, the problem is not one of literacy. The problem is one of cooperation and willingness to merge before impending danger forces you to alter your path. The stubborn refusal to merge affects everyone: I’ve often seen traffic backed up for miles because of this behavior—all for no reason. If people knew how to merge, traffic could flow along even while road workers did repairs. This example raises a deeper social issue about the willingness to accommodate needs of the larger social group that epitomizes the current posture of the United States in regard to the global community. Can we respond in a timely fashion to the signs telling us to cooperate with those around us? Can we change our behavior before we are forced to? These are questions that face us all individually and as a nation. Can we let go of our attachment to oil, for example, before we bring scarcity and conflict upon ourselves and the world? Can we let go of our fetish for large, inefficient, dirty cars? Can we adapt before danger looms and we are forced to change? The solution is so easy and within our grasp: a willingness to cooperate.

For more information visit: http://world.honda.com/FuelCell/

THINK PEACE