A Brief History
On November 1, 1951, the U.S. military conducted Operation Buster-Jangle in which U.S. soldiers were exposed to atomic explosions in Nevada so that the effects could be studied. Nobody asked the soldiers for consent, and many of them were probably draftees as well. 6,500 of these unfortunate men were used in 7 separate explosions, 5 of which were above ground (atmospheric), and the remaining 2 were underground (“cratering”). Of course, the men were lied to about the “safety” of these tests, and they were exposed to harmful radiation from inhaling radioactive dust and marching on irradiated ground.
Over the years, the U.S. government has engaged in a variety of activities that were absolutely unhealthy for the unlucky participants who were included either involuntarily or under false assurances of safety. Below 9 additional incidents are listed that demonstrate how the “benevolent” U.S. government has proven to be bad for one’s health.
Digging Deeper
9. Atomic Weapons Production and Testing.
In addition to the above-mentioned operation, all the atmospheric testing done between 1945 and 1963 exposed people to radiation for hundreds of miles around. Food growing in fields was irradiated, and even cows milk was contaminated. The people who mined uranium and built various nuclear devices were often irradiated to the point that in 1990, the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act was passed to give a pittance to the victims of nuclear testing and production. (Maximum payout is $100,000, which is pretty bad if you are dead from radiation-induced cancer.)
8. Ketchup is a Vegetable.
During the notoriously health-unfriendly Reagan Administration in the early 1980s, the Food and Nutrition Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture sought to categorize the condiment ketchup (or catsup) as a vegetable so that school lunches would meet their vegetable requirement. Opposed to children who come from well-off families, less well-off kids often get their main and only meal at school, so this was seen as a tremendous slap in the face of poorer American children. The same clowns who tried to pull this number also claimed pickle relish was a vegetable and said that the sauce on school pizza should qualify as a vegetable serving as well. The amount of tomato paste required to constitute a serving of vegetables was set at 2 tablespoons, and when in 2011 an effort was made to increase that minimum requirement, Congress shot it down.
7. “Gun Free” Zones.
Distraught over mass shootings, the public demanded action to prevent future occurrences. Instead of doing something to prevent mentally unstable people from getting their hands on guns, the various levels of government, including the Federal Government, came up with whitewash laws they call “gun control” to appear as if they are doing something. One of those reactionary ideas was to declare certain public areas “gun free.” Though laws vary from place to place, citizens are now prohibited from carrying guns in such places as schools, universities, libraries, parks, courts, bars, etc., even if those citizens have concealed carry permits. The result is that should a mentally deranged gunman go “postal” in such a zone, the victims will be without a means to protect themselves until the cops arrive, and by then many innocent people may already be dead or wounded. These zones may as well be called “crazy shooter” safety zones or something like that because the only person safe there is the crazy shooter.
6. Healthcare.
How many times did you hear “We have the best healthcare system in the world” during the “Obamacare” debates? Although some of the finest doctors in the world practice in the U.S., they are not available to everyone. At a time when every other major civilized country has national healthcare, the U.S. has Medicare that does not include dental coverage! Seriously, do old people not get tooth problems? You bet they do, and when they do, if they are not rich, they can easily go broke having their mouths treated. Although the Affordable Health Care Act is the law of the land, there is not much that is affordable about it. The vast majority of personal bankruptcies are still caused by health-related expenses. Oddly enough, U.S. Congressmen and Senators get subsidized healthcare for life, so they are less apt to be overly concerned about their countrymen.
5. Idiotic Homeopathic Medical “Treatments.”
Although it is pretty much recognized that people must be protected from themselves and each other, the U.S. government still allows charlatans to sell phony diet pills, penis-enlarging pills, energy supplements and other quacky products that may not only be ineffective, they may also pose a health risk. Real drugs and medicines are regulated, but these ripoff products are not, and the scammers are permitted to continue to sell them to a gullible public.
4. Advanced Meat Recovery.
Also known as AMR, advanced meat recovery consists of using mechanical means to remove meat from bones in a more thorough and efficient manner than cutting by hand could have done. It also, however, results in bits of bone landing in hamburger and sausage. Additionally, when these bits are pureed into “pink slime,” that horrible mush is treated with ammonia to kill germs. In 1997, tests found that bits of spinal cord material were found in such meat, meaning there was a risk of contracting Mad Cow Disease from meat processed the AMR way. Instead of then prohibiting this process, the government now requires that inspectors (too few of them to do a reasonable job) ensure there are no spinal cord parts in AMR-processed meat. Other techniques include mechanically separated meat (MSM) and mechanically reduced meat (MRM). They are also kind of iffy.
3. Project MKUltra.
Project MKUltra was A CIA program that tested various ways to control people through the use of drugs, especially LSD, from 1953 to 1973. Soldiers, American and Canadian civilians and even employees of the CIA were experimented on without their consent. This project stemmed from other similar projects that began right after World War II when the U.S. employed Nazi “scientists” to continue their evil experiments in the U.S. Not surprisingly, when the heat got turned up when people began to get inquisitive about the program, CIA Director Richard Helms ordered all records destroyed in 1973. In 1975, Congress investigated the program but was stymied by the lack of records.
2. Guatemala Syphilis Experiment.
As if ruining the health and lives of its own citizens was not enough, between 1946 and 1948, the U.S. government conducted “research” in Guatemala where unsuspecting prisoners, soldiers and mental patients were intentionally infected with syphilis and gonorrhea through either sex with prostitutes or by means of direct inoculation and studied. Though they did not give their consent to these studies, at least they got medical treatment to test the efficacy of different medicines. This revolting story was not revealed to the public until 2010.
1. Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment.
From 1932 to 1972, the U.S. Public Health Service conducted a study on African-American men to test the progression of syphilis. Never told that they had the disease or that there was a cure, these poor men were lured into the study with a promise of free meals, free “medical care” and a free burial. The government researchers intentionally allowed these men to suffer the misery of the disease and eventual death rather than successfully treating them with penicillin which was readily available. Instead they lied to the poor men and told them the had “bad blood” and that that was what they were being treated for. If this is not sickening enough, when 250 of the men registered for the draft, the draft board told them they had syphilis and ordered them to seek treatment. And most sickening of all, the researchers prevented the men from receiving proper treatment.
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Historical Evidence
For more information, please see…
Challis, Mr Stephen. The Gun Free Killing Zones of America. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2013.
Eisnitz, Gail A. Slaughterhouse: The Shocking Story of Greed, Neglect, and Inhumane Treatment Inside the U.S. Meat Industry. Prometheus, 2006.
Jones, James H. Bad Blood: The Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment, New and Expanded Edition. Free Press, 1993.
