Right To Free Speech Is Being Violated In The US

This is absurd. A guy from North Carolina has been threatened with legal action by the North Carolina Board of Dietetics and Nutritionists for blogging about his healthy diet.

The blogger in question used to be an overweight, insulin-dependant, type 2 diabetic and due to managing his diet and having healthy eating habits he has now managed to maintain normal blood-sugar levels and become insulin free.

He blogs about his experience and gives diet tips so others can do the same. From what I have seen from his blog, he doesn't tell people to go off their insulin or anything, he just promotes a healthy diet.

From his blog post, which you can find here, he says:

"In January (2012), the state board opened an investigation into my blog and told me to stop advising people through my blog postings, publicly or in private. No matter if it was for compensation or for free. Essentially, the board told me that not only could I not charge people to talk about diet, I could not talk to my friends about diet.

The board made it clear that talking about diet without a license is a crime and they could take me to court."

So talking about diet without a license is a crime now is it? What about all the other bloggers out there who talk about their diet and share diet tips? What about the internet marketers out there who are promoting dietary supplements and weightloss formulas? What about Michelle Obama who is known to share her diet tips and give dietary advice on daytime television shows? Why aren't they targeted? Why this man?

My guess is because he is talking about something that could actually really change peoples lives. It is well known that type 2 diabetes can be managed through a healthy diet, but the pharmaceutical companies who make big profits from the sales of drugs like insulin don't want us knowing that. They don't want people to be healthy, they want people to be sick so they can keep selling their medications and making a disgustingly huge profit.

Fortunately this man didn't have to take his blog down, but he did have to change a few things. Also from his blog post which can be found here.

"In response to this investigation, I did three things:

1) stopped doing my published advice column.

2) took down my diabetes support package links.

3) and made my disclaimer more prominent. Additionally, I added a disclaimer at the bottom of every page.

Because I complied with their order to stop speaking and to change what I say and what I publish, the board concluded that I am in substantial compliance and closed the investigation.

All this means is that the board has violated my First Amendment rights by silencing me and altering how I express my opinions."

Here is a comment from one of his readers on another blog post about the issue which can be found here:

"I’m sorry you have to deal with this, Steve.

For what it’s worth, I’ve been scanning your website here for at least a year and don’t recall reading anything that would be dangerous to the general public or people with diabetes. But what do I know? I’m not a dietitian certified by the state of North Carolina. I’m just a physician who’s been treating diabetes for 30 years.

Perhaps the NC Board of Medicine will come after you next.

An issue like this comes down to how much time and money you want to spend fighting it. The Board of Dietitians has more time and money than most individuals, and they know it. That’s why most folks capitulate to the Board.

The libertarian-leaning Institute for Justice might be interested in helping you since this appears to be a First Amendment issue. Here’s the link: http://www.ij.org/cases

 My sense is that the Institute for Justice works on some cases without charge.

Good luck.

-Steve"

Isn't this sad? As you can see in the first quote, this man apparently isn't even allowed to talk about his diet with his friends. We are all guilty of doing that. Does that mean that we are also criminals who are breaking the law? It seems that according the the North Carolina Board of Diabetics and Nutritionists, advocating healthy eating habits and talking about our diet without a license is breaking the law. Not only has this mans right to free speech been violated, everyones right to free speech has been threatened.

There is also an interesting article on govtslaves.info about the topic that is worth reading.

Something That Concerns Everyone

Unless you have been living under a rock recently, you would have heard of SOPA -Stop Online Priacy Act. Wikipedia, Reddit and an estimated 7000 other websites, blacked out for 24 hours in protest of SOPA and many people, including myself changed their facebook profile pictures, in protest to SOPA to something like this:

Source

SOPA was a bill introduced by a US representative to "expand the ability of U.S. law enforcement to fight online trafficking in copyrighted intellectual property and counterfeit goods."


Sounds fair enough, right? I mean, I am someone who writes, makes music and videos, creates art and designs logos and websites. Last thing I want is someone stealing my work and claiming it as their own but SOPA was taking things a little too far.


SOPA wasn't just about protecting intellectual property. It threatened free speech. Something that is to me, much more important than holding exclusive rights to my intellectual property.

SOPA would have allowed law enforcement to block entire domains simply because someone posted copyrighted material on a single blog.

Imagaine waking up one day and sitting down to update your Blogger blog, only to find that the entire Blogger.com network had been shut down, simply because one user had posted copyrighted material on their blog. Or going to see what's happening on Facebook and find that it has been shut down because one user posted a copyrighted photo on their profile.

SOPA would have completely changed the internet that we know and love, into something entirely different.

After the blackout protests on January 18th, 2012 the SOPA bill was put aside for another time later on. We won the battle, but he haven't won the war... Yet.

Something much scarier has come up. ACTA -Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement.
From Wikapedia:

"The Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) is a multi-national agreement for the purpose of establishing international standards for intellectual property rights enforcement. The agreement aims to establish an international legal framework for targeting counterfeit goods, generic medicines and copyright infringement on the Internet, and would create a new governing body outside existing forums, such as the World Trade Organization, the World Intellectual Property Organization, or the United Nations."

Uh, did that just say generic medicines?

According to this agreement, people who are sick and can't afford expensive brand-name medicines will have to go without.

I understand wanting to weed out those who produce and sell knock-off designer handbags and shoes, but generic medicine? My mother relies on generic medicine to stay alive and well. She can't afford the brand-name medicines that she is prescribed. She has to rely on the cheaper versions that our local pharmacist provides. Without generic medicines, she will have to go without. Eventually without those medicines, she will get very sick and die.

ACTA is now not just threatening our right to free speech, it is now threatening lives. I am not being over-dramatic either. There are billions of people who can't afford brand name medicine and rely on generic medicine. If generic medicine is banned, then they have to go without. Many peoples lives, or quality of life depend on generic medicine.

This is frightening. Apparently, intellectual property is worth more than peoples lives.

Information on how we can fight ACTA can be found here. Spread the word. Inform people about how this agreement will effect those who depend on generic medicine to stay healthy or even alive. Contact members of the European Parliament.

https://www.laquadrature.net/wiki/How_to_act_against_ACTA

We can't allow this to happen. Peoples lives and quality of life depend on it. It is incredibly important that we fight this.