Susan's Musings

This section of my web site is for unstructured self-expression. Sort of a blog. Your comments are appreciated. In any case, I get to vent. Essays, monographs, poems, book reviews, and comments.

Please visit my separate economics blog.

Corporations as people

This legal fiction did not begin with Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission in 2010. The earliest action was the 1886 decision on Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad by the US Supreme Court. That case involved the taxation of railroad properties and grew out of the California Constitution of 1879 (the first post-statehood) which denied railroads the right to deduct the amount of their debts (i.e., mortgages) from the taxable value of their property, a right which was given to individuals.

In the 1886 decision, the justices avoided the question of whether corporations were entitled to the same rights as individuals granted by the 14th Amendment. The 2010 decision held that the First Amendment prohibits government from placing limits on independent spending for political purposes by corporations and unions. (2-8-2012)

What you NEED to know about the Canadian tar sands

Please watch this video of a presentation by Garth Lenz titled "Provincial Distance in a Tar Nation." This was given at TEDxVictoria, an independently organized TED event, on October 21, 2011. Garth is a Fellow of the International League Of Conservation Photographers, one of only sixty photographers worldwide to receive this honor. The slideshow is on his website. (1-19-2012)

The PC argument for vegan

Yet another article listing recent instances of bad food and inhumane treatment of food animals, with the conclusion to just eat vegan. There is something intrinsically wrong with this argument. Let me see . . . Okay, let's recall the plight of the people confined in Nazi concentration camps. Some were Jewish, some were not. Can we infer from the camps that, because Jewish people were murdered en masse, we should avoid Jews? Or Poles? Neither conclusion has any logic, or merit. If something or someone is being abused, are we meant to look the other way? or try to stop the abuse?

Another weakness in the pro-vegan argument is that while it poses itself as an alternative to meat-eating, which requires the rearing of livestock for food, it totally ignores the plight of the abused vegetables. Bashing cattle over the head with an axe is bad but spraying strawberries with poison is okay? Not in my world.

If the vegan diet has any worth, it has got to be something that it accomplishes directly. Moral pride does not qualify. (1-12-2012)

Better to do?

Doesn't Sarah Palin have anything better to do than criticize the official White House holiday greeting card? I read an article about her criticism in the LA Times. It amazes me that (1) she faulted the card at all, (2) the LA Times reported it, and (3) she criticized the inclusion of the family dog and the absence of "American foundational values" and a Christmas tree. What has American foundational values got to do with a pagan winter solstice holiday that was co-opted by the Christian church? (12-29-2011)

Diet and disease

In 1939 Weston A. Price, an Ohio dentist, published Nutrition and Physical Degeneration. This book presented his findings from over ten years' research into peoples around the world. It documented the sharp contrast between the excellent health of some people and the dreadful health of others, the sole difference between the two being their diet. The groups with the excellent health ate their traditional foods, foods that had nourished their ancestors for hundreds of years. The groups with the dreadful health ate industrial foods, what Price called the modern foods of commerce, the displacing foods of modern civilization. Excellent health was almost no dental cavities, uncrowded straight teeth, no deformities, and almost no illness. Dreadful health was many dental cavities, crowded, twisted teeth, facial and skeletal deformities, as well as mental and moral degeneration.

Price documented the physical and emotional effects of an industrial diet.

He studied "isolated remnants of primitive racial stocks in different parts of the world" and their modernized counterparts. He investigated "the Swiss in Switzerland, the Gaelics in the Outer and Inner Hebrides, the Eskimos of Alaska, the Indians in the far North, West and Central Canada, Western United States and Florida, the Melanesians and Polynesians on eight archipelagos of the Southern Pacific, tribes in eastern and central Africa, the Aborigines of Australia, Malay tribes on islands north of Australia, the Maori of New Zealand and the ancient civilizations and their descendants in Peru both along the coast and in the Sierras, also in the Amazon Basin."

In every case the people eating their traditional diet were healthy while the groups that had adopted industrial foods suffered deformities and disease, which worsened with each generation. To Price's disappointment, none of the healthy people ate a vegetarian diet.

In recent years statistical surveys have been conducted of modern American food consumption and, separately, illness. These surveys portray a clear pattern: as more and more industrial foods are eaten, illness rates increase.

The modern situation is the result of society's faith in capitalism and the widespread abilities of food corporations to control what you eat. The truth of diet as the basis for health is not a message that corporations want to become public. Similarly the medical industry has too much at stake to support that truth. Establishing and maintaining health is now done by individuals with considerable effort for the benefit of themselves and their families, an effort made in the face of corporate and political pressures. (12-13-2011)

Cooperation

I'm reminded of a phrase from a song in the musical "South Pacific" — "you've got to be carefully taught." That story was about a romance in the face of racial stereotyping and prejudice.

I wonder if all of us haven't been "carefully taught" to forget, and even vilify, the essential human cooperation that had to have been the social glue that enabled human evolution and civilization.

Humans only evolved within communities of extended families and willing friends to share the basics of survival and growth: food, shelter, clothes, medicine, education. They had to have relied heavily on each other, on cooperation, and the knowledge that ostracism led to death because you could not do it all by yourself.

What we've been convinced by corporate-funded PR is that the cooperation that is an intrinsic human trait and value is wrong, that what really matters is looking out for number one and let the Devil take the hind-most.

We have been so carefully taught that it is nigh impossible to imagine a way other than today's capitalism enabled by corporate oligarchy. The myth of rugged individualism may drown us yet.

Oh yes, subsistence living, so denigrated by industrialism while it hopes workers don't notice that they've traded subsistence on their terms with subsistence on industry's terms is . . . not the bogeyman it's been made out to be. In fact, as my dictionary reminds me, subsistence living is a life style where the necessities of life are obtained, albeit with little-to-no excess.

Is it not interesting that the lack of excess has been despised by the 1% (what a handy label!). They have successfully co-opted fundamental family values in order to justify, even celebrate, their own perversions.

I think I've gone further afield than I intended. My starting point is the great difficulty that we have imagining a different way of living. Is it possible to imagine cooperation as other than a financial transaction? (12-6-2011)

A 27-year old claret—delicious

Last night (10-28-2011) I drank a 1984 Château Pichon-Longueville Comtesse de Lalande of Pauillac. This wine was classified in 1855 as a Second Growth in the Médoc region of Bordeaux. It had been in my possession for about a year, a gift.

It was beautiful and delicious and fragrant. Medium bodied, graceful, with solid tannin. In the glass there was no hint of brown. At the end there was but the barest amount of sediment.

The cork was tightly seated and came out intact. The wine opened readily. Even in the newly opened bottle it shared itself with my nose, slowly. The fragrance and flavor courted the cooks while dinner was prepared and revealed themselves evenly throughout the meal.

A lovely wine, well-mannered and undemanding. I enjoyed it for itself and its exceptional pedigree. Thank you Gary! (10-29-2011)

What's wrong with greatness?

I just read a reference to a book by Tom Brokaw, The Greatest Generation, and was immediately repelled. Greatness is a comparison word, it refers to a comparison between two things. In a comparison one thing is more and the other less. I see no value in acting to be more than someone else, either as an individual, a generation, or a country. I prefer to focus on practices that support values, and not compare myself to anyone else. I don't want to be greater than someone else, I just want to be the best I can. (11-3-2011)

Where is the customer service, Amazon?

I want to ask Amazon why they refuse to pay the State of California sales tax on sales to CA customers. Today I am prompted on Amazon's home page to buy CA promotions, is this cheezy or what, given their explicit refusal to pay. But try to find a "contact us" and its sayonara baby. I guess they only want my money, not my questions or opinions. I am less than thrilled. (9-30-2011)

Obama is so over—well, maybe

Three-fourths through his Presidency, Mr. Obama has been found disappointing. Still a good speaker, he is surrounded by unfulfilled campaign promises. His claim as an effective compromiser has been disproved time and again as he abandons his party's position before it has to face even initial opposition. He is certainly no leader, offering at best clichés and generalities, when he offers anything at all. He conducted his campaign in seeming ignorance of the largest challenge to American stability since World War II—the economic collapse—and squandered his first year in office entrusting the economy to a team of people who disagreed on both the problem and the solution and whose actions proved to have little benefit to the working class. In short, Obama has proved he is just another politician, and not particularly adept. (8-26-2011)
Since I wrote this I've considered feedback, which mentioned the resistance Obama meets in Washington simply because of his skin color. That seems likely to me as my uncle in Pennsylvania told me, during Obama's campaign for the Presidency, that he would never live to take office. Frankly, that remark shocked me in California where I try diligently to be color-blind. I have had my fingers crossed ever since. And, voila!, Obama lives. But, he's not getting much in the way of cooperation. How can he persevere? I guess he has to outwit his opponents. While I see no evidence for this, perhaps the game is not over yet. Stay tuned. (9-8-2011)

Results Pilates

Pilates can be a highly effective practice and treatment. I met Carol shortly after a car accident. I found her an intelligent, thoughtful, and insightful person who uses Pilates as her tool to improve health in her clients. I recommend her to you without reservation. Results Pilates! (8-21-2011)

Guilty until proven innocent, coming to your neighborhood

Today's LA Times reports that the Supreme Court gave police the right to break into homes or apartments if they suspect the residents are destroying the evidence of illegal drugs. The article quotes Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. saying residents who "attempt to destroy evidence have only themselves to blame." Clearly, this Supreme Court Justice does not give a fig for the concept of innocent until proven guilty. Another step into the morass. (5-17-2011)

Subsidies

Why does the federal government subsidize businesses at the top of their food chain?

The envelope please:
1. Because they can. Congress folk have a substantial track record for granting subsidies after being encouraged by "donations," you know those things usually called bribes.
2. Because no one will notice. These subsidies do not make the front page. And no one gives press conferences to brag about them.
3. Because an industry representative, or a whole raft of them, has made the case that these poor businesses need to be encouraged and rewarded for some practice that makes the rest of us shudder.
4. Because the amounts either paid out by the government or not received in taxes will not be noticed. Even among the cries to reduce the deficit. Because they have been made invisible.
5. Because the government accounting practices make it impossible to find by the casual researcher.

In May 2011 some news outlets are publishing articles on:
a. the corporations that pay no tax
b. the corporations that receive tax credits (aka subsidies)

Are you reading these? Getting these? What part of zero-sum don't you get? For every dollar these corporations do not pay in taxes, you will be forced to pay. Do you really believe it is better for the country for you to pay than for them to pay?

I have recently been stirred up by an article on Alternet about the relationships between the price of gas and the subsidies to the oil companies (Jacked Up Gas Prices Are Creating a Windfall for Big Oil -- Time to End Their $4 Billion in Subsidies From Taxpayers). This strikes me as a sort of Catch 22. The oil companies get all the tax breaks and we get the pump fuck.

If it takes the price of gasoline to move us to act, better late than never. One of the many things we need is a version of the Alternative Minimum Tax that actually works to make highly profitable corporations pay their "fair share," by which I mean LOTS. (5-6-2011)

Disasters and the good old days

I've been remembering a song the Kingston Trio recorded in 1966 titled "The Merry Minuet":
  They're rioting in Africa, they're starving in Spain.
  There's hurricanes in Florida, and Texas needs rain.
  The whole world is festering with unhappy souls.
  The French hate the Germans, the Germans hate the Poles.
  Italians hate Yugoslavs, South Africans hate the Dutch.
  And I don't like anybody very much!

It seems disasters are common—natural disasters like earthquakes, technological disasters like Chernobyl, and sociological disasters like wars. Maybe the "good ole days" are merely the result of edited memories. (4-25-2011)

When local food is not enough or dangerous

I just want to point out, with regards to my advocacy of local food, the recent nuclear disaster in Japan illustrates one reason for not putting all our eggs in one basket, so to speak. We need food sources at greater distances as backup for crop failures and food poisoning. (4-16-2011)

Congressional polarization funded by corporate money and awash in ideology

There is a worth-reading interview on Alternet of Thomas Ferguson, Professor of Political Science at the University of Massachusetts, Boston, Senior Fellow at the Roosevelt Institute, and a member of the Advisory Board of the Institute for New Economic Thinking (INET). Ferguson presented a paper this month to the INET Conference at Bretton Woods titled "Legislators Never Bowl Alone: Big Money, Mass Media, and the Polarization of Congress". He explains that in 1994 Newt Gingrich, as Speaker of the the House of Representatives, installed a pay-to-play system in which Republican representatives were forced to compete to hold their positions on key committees and leadership posts by raising funds for the Republican party. The Democrats followed suit. This killed the seniority system and replaced it by a money-driven one. An increasing polarization of politics emerged. The Republican ideology of minimal restrictions on business, no taxes on the wealthy, and a determination to throw the rest of us to the dogs combined with a complete unwillingness to compromise becomes more visible day by day. Our political system is broken. Democracy based on representational government voted into office has been replaced by officials paid for by corporate contributions with the blessings of the major political parties. (4-16-2011)

Pithy

A friend of mine recently emailed me the following litany of modern problems: Deficits, crumbling roads, bridges, schools. The "dead hand" of ever increasing debt. Skyrocketing pension, prison, and health care costs. Three unfunded wars. The utter failure of the 401(k) to provide retirement security. Corporate welfare. The depletion of the world's fisheries. Offshoring jobs and profits overseas. Growing use of undocumented labor. The entitlement mentality. Government as both umpire and player. Yea, there is plenty of blame to go around. Greed is the cause. The results are entirely predictable. A permanent and growing underclass with no loyalty to the current system is being created.

My reply: America is becoming a third-world country. I think in all the grandstanding about self-reliance, budget deficits, and smaller government there are some important issues that are being ignored: principally, what is the proper role of government? Some would have you believe that government should get out of the way and let business do its thing. Well, the current state of affairs is what happens in that scenario. Government hasn't attended to infrastructure etc. Businesses have attended to short term profit and are doing pretty well, especially when they extort and otherwise compel taxpayers into insuring corporate losses. Have you noticed that no business is willing to insure my losses? This is very much a one-way street. Wealth is rising to the top leaving 99% of the population with the dregs, at best. Our lives and our futures are being sucked dry. And now, would you like a little radiation with that? (4-15-2011)

Fukushima, a name I didn't need to learn

American politicians are adept at pushing our buttons for individualism, self-reliance, and self-responsibility. They skip quickly over the evidence for interdependence. They regret the Clean Air and Clean Water Acts, thinking that their rarified elitism is enough to save them and their families from poisoned air and water. As for the rest of us, toughen up. The commitments to the Commons—the air and water that elude private ownership while being essential for life—prompted those Acts.

The possibility that the business practices of some American corporations might cause the sea levels to rise above some populated islands is of such insufficient political interest as to ensure America will not sign any international treaty on global warming until after Washington, DC is underwater.

The possibility that a nuclear power plant anywhere might release quantities of radioactive particles which will eventually circumnavigate the globe threatening the populations of all countries is of such insufficient political interest as to ensure there will never be an international treaty banning nuclear power—for the common good.

Or is it? Can we find nothing in our lives to impel us to consider the Common Good? What has happened to weaken our parental ferocity and our loving concern for our friends and neighbors? Why are we numb? Pray it is not permanent! (4-10-2011)

Magical thinking

As children we think if we cannot see something, it cannot see us—or hurt us.

We should have learned differently when we first looked through a microscope. Didn't your school have microscopes? If not, that was likely a result of the state's cutting funding to schools instead of raising taxes on the very rich. I mean, how important are microscopes anyway?

Being able to see things invisible to the naked eye is invaluable for realizing that things too small to see unaided really can hurt us.

And on to the next lie. Even though poison kills, there is some level below which it doesn't kill, below which it is safe, at least according to the FDA. So no problemo with that poisonous radioactive water Japan dumped into the ocean, it will be diluted and become safe.

Not so, the danger of radiation is the vibrational frequency of the radioactive particles, not their parts-per-million. In 1972 Dr. Abram Petkau, a Canadian scientist, discovered that low levels of radiation over a long period of time were more damaging than higher doses over a short period of time.

Japanese radiation is here now, in our bodies and in our food. There will be damage for generations (and you can bet the health insurers will find a way to duck the bills) but the good news is that you can act to protect and heal yourself. There are natural remedies which can help. See my entry for January 31 below. And I recommend the long discussion of radiation and remedies by Toni Reita, ND on her website; don't be put off by the spelling and factual errors (Chernobyl had been operational for two years before the explosion, not three months as Reita claims). (4-10-2011)

What goes around comes around

No, I'm not talking about deeds or thoughts or karma. Let me start with soap. You rub it on your skin and then rinse it off. You are, essentially, pouring it down the drain. Your local sewage treatment facility has to remove it from the wastewater before that water can be repurposed in landscape irrigation or released into waterways. The costs of that soap include the water purification and eventually the damage caused by its introduction into the environment.

If you're a label-reader, you know that many products labeled "soap" are not made of saponified fats (as are traditional soaps) but instead of chemicals like sodium lauryl sulfate. The life cycle of these chemicals begins with their manufacture in a factory and continues with them being poured down the drain and subjected to wastewater treatment.

This life cycle applies to all household cleaning products as well as personal hygiene and grooming products. Pharmaceutical drugs have a similar life cycle. After you consume them they are excreted, often only slightly changed, and flushed down the drain to the wastewater treatment facility.

It's almost as if we just buy these products and then pour them down the drain without using them. So what good do they accomplish when we use them and does their value exceed the cost of the wastewater treatment and environmental damage? (4-8-2011)

Tar sands of Alberta, boon or boondoggle?

This story connects to an earlier one about Idaho's Lochsa River (10-20-2010). I recently became aware of the documentary film H2Oil, which has a website you may want to study. Oil can only be extracted from tar sands with huge quantities of water, water which is no longer available for drinking or any other human and natural use—and is quickly becoming an endangered commodity. The by-products, including the so-called greenhouse gases, can last as long as 150 years; the tailings ponds, where the extraction water is dumped, are now so large they can be seen from space. They continually emit toxins which are leached into the soil and water table and evaporate into the atmosphere where they can drift around the globe. Is this the price you are willing to pay to drive your car a little longer? And if you are, are you willing to force others to pay the same price? (3-25-2011)

Shrink government, outlaw abortion

What do reduction in government spending and legislating morality have in common? The same people want both: far-right Republicans and Tea Partiers. They apparently want the government to leave business alone while controlling women and homosexuals and . . . Their inconsistencies make it clear that they are mere grandstanders. (3-2-2011)

Equal rights for women

Isn't there a connection between the unwillingness of the country to pass the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) guaranteeing equal rights for women and the willingnesss of the country to prohibit abortion? If women truly had equal rights, could they be forced to carry pregnancies to term against their will? (3-2-2011)

Reducing state spending, one idea

The State of California recently spent close to one million dollars to replace the death chamber at San Quentin prison in Marin County (where I live). Add to this the controversy about the availability of the drug for lethal injection and its cruelty. Why not return to hanging or firing squad? Or stop executions altogether? How can a bankrupt state justify spending such huge sums to execute prisoners? The 2011 budget for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) is over $9 billion and represents 7.2% of the entire state spending. The CDCR employs about 62,000 people and incarcerates 1.4 million people. Of the 11 major organizations in the state budget, the CDCR's budget is greater than six; its budget is change less than that of Higher Education, almost 50% more than that of Natural Resources, and over 6 times as much as Environmental Protection. Should prisons matter this much? (3-2-2011)

Overinfluential California prison employees union

Do you think if Wisconsin is successful in stripping its state employees of the right to collective bargaining, California might be able to do the same for its prison employees union members? (3-2-2011)

The lie that is the germ theory

Louis Pasteur is generally credited with formulating the germ theory of disease, that germs cause disease. This idea was not really new with him, but he did support it with his experiments and it provided the basis for his vaccines and the pasteurization process first used with milk. The germ theory seems to be well accepted these days, even though it has been disproved. It has been claimed that Pasteur recanted on his death bed, where he rose up on his elbow, said "Bernard was right, it is all about the terrain. The microbe is nothing!", and died immediately afterwards. (There are several variations of his utterance, and there are claims that there was no such recant. See my longer discussion for a reasonable confirmation.) Bernard was Claude Bernard, a French physiologist. Bernard championed the notion that terrain, what he called the milieu intérior, was much more significant than the germs in the onset of the disease. Later researchers found compatible explanations: Royal Raymond Rife (inventor of the Universal Microscope in 1933) concluded germs were the result of disease, not the cause; Gaston Naessens (inventor of the Somatoscope) agreed and also showed that DNA is not the "independent" ruler of life as it has been portrayed, but instead is built from bits that come before it, and specifically those bits correspond directly to the environmental vibrational energetic state (the terrain). This is described by Patrick Quanten, MD in his article "The Origin of 'Germs'". (2-13-2011)

Patriot Guard Riders

My father was a career Marine and served in WW II and the Korean War. He would not talk about his experiences. After his death my mother did away with all records of his achievements and medals.

My mother's brother joined the Navy before WW II and found himself in Honolulu on December 7, 1941. His submarine, with an unusually small onboard crew including my uncle, shot down one Japanese plane. My family did not talk about it.

What a marvel to meet the Patriot Guard Riders who go out of their way to honor military veterans at their passing. At my express invitation, suggested by one of their own, they stood vigil at my uncle's memorial service and burial. They were sincere in their honoring of a veteran's service to his country. They were quiet and peaceful and supported the seriousness and sadness of the occasions. They helped me face my loss and find pride in my uncle's wartime military service. I deeply appreciate the Patriot Guard Riders.

They were at all times respectful. Yes, they ride motorcycles, and although I could not resist Steppenwolf's "Born To Be Wild" playing quietly in my mind, a legacy of Easy Rider, their behavior was impeccable. (2-7-2011)

Radiation sickness

My two cats and I have radiation sickness of 3 years' standing. How is this possible? Each cat was deliberately treated with radioactive iodine, I-131, for a thyroid disorder. The treatment was successful. What was completely unexpected is that the radiation did not completely leave their bodies and it was transmitted to mine. We have suffered upper-respiratory problems for about two years and an increasing disability. My keen online researching skills have so far been unsuccessful in finding any discussion of this kind of situation. The company that sells the radioactive iodine treatment claims that the radiation disperses completely in a short time period. Other discussions of the treatment admit to "side effects" without discussing the persistence of the radiation.

As I-131 undergoes radioactive decay it is eliminated from the body. The half life is 8 days. Thus the medical profession assumes it is all gone in a matter of weeks. The EPA says "in the body, iodine has a biological half-life of about 100 days for the body as a whole." Another source says "iodine-131's short half-life of 8 days means that it will decay away completely in the environment in a matter of months."

Well, my experience is different.

Good news! As of March 2011 the radiation is gone, eliminated by use of Biosuperfood, an herbal supplement invented by a Russian doctor (Michael Kiriac) and used to treat the human and animal victims of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, and two homeopathic remedies. What a huge relief. And just in time for Fukushima :( . (1-31-2011)

The Library of Alexandria

The Library was established about 290 bc by Ptolemy, Alexander's ex-general who governed Egypt. It became the primary and sometimes the sole repository of the written science, philosopy, and literature of the civilized world. It contained all that was known about the world. It was in large part destroyed in 392 ad by Alexandria's Christian community under the Patriarch Theophilus because it housed ideas foreign to theirs. Because its existence posed a challenge they could not withstand. Much of that lost scientific knowledge has been regained, some of re-appeared 1300 years later. Undoubtedly some remains lost. The destruction of the Library heralded in the Dark Ages. Can we conclude that Christianity caused the Dark Ages? (1-22-2011)

Honor and sovereignty

When is it honorable to violate a country's sovereignty? When you think you can benefit in the short term? When you feel safe from reprisals?

Isn't this clearly a case of "might makes right"? And isn't this what we try to teach our children is wrong?

So why is it okay in the international arena? Okay, there really are two issues here: (1) what can you get away with and (2) what is honorable?

But, really, who cares about honor, about morality?

Actually people care. The people who live in the country whose sovereignty is violated. And even many of the people who live in the country doing the violating.

"Not in my name" is what many Americans implore and demand of government regarding its foreign policies. That's nice. And then the government pats you on the head and says "don't worry, we'll do the right thing."

Thank God for WikiLeaks. Some of the truths of US dealings with Pakistan have come to light. Now we can see the truth of how the US government is violating Pakistani sovereignty and placing us all at risk of nuclear retaliation. I suppose we should be grateful for the disastrous flooding which must have diverted the Pakistani attention from our misdeeds. For how long? (1-20-2011)

Obama and Palin on the Arizona tragedy

It is wrong to blame Palin for the violent, deadly action of Jared Loughner, the shooter in Arizona. He was solely responsible. However, nothing we do happens in a vacuum. Certainly Palin's inflammatory, gun-slanted talk could provide a context. So too could the chemical stew that constitutes much of modern food which Loughner is likely to have eaten. There are many elements in our society that bring out the worst in us.

Palin rightly stated she was not directly responsible. It was perhaps disingenuous of her to claim that her words, while couched in a violent militaristic metaphor, were, or should have been, understood differently. That she was only exercising her freedom of speech.

Our actions, including speech, have consequences. They establish a context in which others act and react. (Why do you think I am writing this blog?)

Obama's speech took a different tack. While he repeated that none but the shooter was to blame for the carnage, he talked at length about each victim and reminded us that a civil society is civil. He showed us a way to grieve, a way to understand, and a way to go forward that was inclusive.

He demonstrated a rare leadership based on goodwill.

Obama's words will barely cause the blamers to pause. They clearly are not interested in being soothed. Their need to spread their fear and agenda is paramount. Let us listen with our hearts open. (1-14-2011)

Why do we pay so much for health insurance?

My host at Christmas dinner told me he will be paying $900 a month for health insurance for a family of three, up $100 a month from last year. I was shocked. This is a HUGE amount of money, especially in these times of shrinking wage income. Why are people willing to pay it? My best guess is that they fear that without it they risk losing their assets, especially their home, to pay for the huge bills that accompany major illness today.

Being an occasionally tactless person, I probably mentioned the risk of denied claims, a situation that seems to happen more and more. If your claim for a major medical intervention needed to save or extend your life is denied, what are your choices? Are you any better off than if you had no insurance? Is there another way to protect your assets from overwhelming medical bills? Is there an insurance product that must pay claims? Please comment! This is not a rhetorical question. (12-28-2010)

Local food, part 2

"Primitive" people have always eaten local food. If there was no food, they moved on. If there was food, they learned how to choose and prepare it to maximize nutrition. For example, Inuit thrived on a diet of sea mammals and fish. . . .

When Europeans arrived on these shores most of what is now the continental USA was populated by people eating local food. Yes, they traded for specialty items, but they could only survive where they did because there was local food.

So why, if you live in northern Minnesota or southern Arizona, do you feel it necessary to eat foods primarily imported from more moderate climates? Because you've been sold the idea that it is your birthright to eat whatever you want whenever you want. Not only to eat foods out of their natural season in your location, but to eat foods that would never grow in your location. Foods like green beans in December or avocados in Minnesota.

Who benefits from this massive importation of food? Importers, truckers, purveyors of gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel. Probably not you—because the nutrition of such food is sub-standard —and not the farm workers who produce the food. (12-21-2010)

Local food is not enough

Buying and eating locally-grown food has a number of benefits:

• Money spent by consumers remains in the local economy.
• Crops can be picked when they are naturally ripe, which maximizes their flavor, aroma, and nutrition.
• A continued local demand encourages the farmers to adhere to sustainable practices, which maintains or improves the quality of the soil, and minimizes runoff and the use of synthetic fertilizers, herbicides, and pesticides. This makes for a healthier environment for all residents, human and otherwise.
• The farmers represent a population that lives near its place of work, improving the social stability of the region and reducing the environmental damage caused by auto-based transportation.
• Social security can be improved by supporting local agriculture. The more food that is produced locally, the less vulnerable populations are to food shortages and price extortion from foreign producers.

Certainly it is in our best interests to protect local agricultural land. This includes protecting it from commercial or residential "development."

But there is a place for imported food. Humans have been eating imported foods for thousands of years. Some of the basic staples in our kitchens are imported: olive oil, coffee, spices, etc. I for one am not willing to give up salt, sugar, tea, chocolate, and lobster. (12-20-2010)

Tax and spend

Aren't you even slightly fed up with the phrase "tax and spend," didn't we get enough of that empty rhetoric during John McCain's campaign? What are these people thinking? What else do governments do but spend, and how else do they finance that except with taxes? (11-28-2010)

European boundaries

There is an absolutely fascinating video on YouTube that shows the change of national boundaries in Europe over 10 centuries in 5 minutes. (11-15-2010)

Lochsa

The Lochsa River rises in the Bitterroot Mountains of north central Idaho just west of Lolo Pass. The first European Americans to see it were Lewis and Clark in 1805 on their westward expedition of discovery. The name is Nez Perce for rough water. The area is gorgeous and considered by some as the "last wild." The river was included in the 1968 National Wild and Scenic Rivers Act. It runs unchecked 70 miles to its junction with the Selway River where the two become the Middle Fork of the Clearwater River. The Clearwater National Forest lies on its north side, the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness on its south side. Two-lane US Highway 12 follows the Lochsa River and the Clearwater River from Lolo to Lewiston, 176 miles, passing through several locations of the Nez Perce National Historical Park, managed by the National Park Service, and 63 miles of the Nez Perce Indian Reservation.

This area is endangered by corporate desire to wrest a profit from the tar sands of Alberta. How? The extraction of oil from the sands requires huge equipment which is being built in Asia and shipped to the West Coast, then up the Columbia River to the Port of Lewiston, Idaho. From there the oil companies want to haul the equipment over Highway 12 through Montana and into Canada. Some 274 loads are planned, up to 210 feet long, 24 feet wide, 30 feet high, and weighing up to 675,500 pounds. These dwarf normal traffic and require rolling road closures.

The locals are resisting this use of a scenic highway—the Northwest Passage Scenic Highway—along a federally-protected river and in federally-protected forest, seeing it as a cheap new way to open up Canada's oil sands at the expense of one of America's national treasures. They created a website FightingGoliath.org to publicize the threat and mobilize resistance. Please give them your support. (10-20-2010)

Meet Toxo

Toxo, short for Toxoplasma gondii, a protozoan parasite, may have contributed to the domestication of cats. More . . . (10-20-2010)

Microsoft Word 2007

I was exposed (!) to Word 2007 for the first time on Wednesday, what a shock. I cannot say I like it. It does away with the whole menu bar thing, with drop-down menus. Which I have come to love. Microsoft replaced it with a "Ribbon" which needs a mouse to access, not shortcut keys. That's a total bummer for me, as I seek to protect myself from the likes of Carpal Tunnel something-or-other by sticking to the keyboard as much as possible. (9-24-2010)

The problem with health care

The problem with health care in America is
(1) the health insurance industry which ensures profits by minimizing risks—increasing premiums, refusing coverage for risky customers, and denying claims;
(2) the AMA member physicians who are intent on fee-for-service, rely on expensive treatments including surgery and prescription drugs, and limit the number of medical school graduates; and
(3) the pharmaceutical industry which ensures profits by compelling MDs to prescribe their drugs, defining health conditions as illness caused by lack of drugs, and advertising their products in the public arena.

None of these three blocs negotiate with each other, none dictates to the other. Instead they preserve the status quo, defend their turf, and look to increase profits.

This is the medical-industrial complex, the MIC. Their influence over the political state ensures their hegemony. Their ability to block limitation is equally impressive and dismaying.

It may be that the so-called health care crisis, whose main features are unsustainable costs and worsening public health—paying more for less—will strengthen the public resolve for viable solutions. Such worthy achievement will require:

• an ability to look beyond AMA medicine for effective, affordable remedies
• a preference for prevention over treatment
• a resistance to the fear and insecurity promoted by the MIC
• an empathy for the poor and disenfranchised
• a desire and ability to conceive a health care system without the MIC

As long as the MIC controls the public discussion and ability to envision a different system, the MIC will prevail and continue their domination. And worse, their hegemony threatens to undermine our political democracy. (9-19-2010)

Making a difference with food

Rebecca Thistlewaite wrote a super article titled "Do you have the balls to really change the food system?" which is published on Grist. The article was originally published on Honest Meat. Read it! (9-16-2010)

Hegemony and the US health care crisis

"Hegemony and the U.S. Health Care Crisis: Structural Determinants and Obstacles to a National Health Insurance Program" by Mehdi S. Shariati published at Payvand News is an invaluable discussion of the current state of health care in America. Over many pages it describes the structural causes of the current health care crisis.

It's important for us to understand (1) where we are and (2) how we got here. Only then can we realize our current situation is not inevitable nor without solutions. And to understand the effort needed to correct the ills—corrections made ever-so-difficult by the forces arrayed against us.

Keep in mind: the current situation was carefully established to separate us from our money, and with wanton disregard for our health. The American health care system—the medical industrial complex—exists only to rip us off.

As long as our laws and our taxes favor them over us, we're screwed.

As it stands today, our political will might buy us a small box of popcorn at the matinee. This is no accident. Our political apathy, our feelings of powerlessness, our alienation from the political process, all shape our inability to correct the problems.

The dream of democracy tells us we can change the status quo. Let's make "single payer" a reality! Let's improve our health, lower our medical costs, increase good jobs, and strengthen our democracy.

What's not to like? (9-15-2010)

The nature of scientific knowledge—global warming is scientific reality, but what about vaccines?

Scientific knowledge is based on the collective vetting of claims by experts. The UN-sponsored Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has accepted global warming as a reality. But why should I accept the vaccines-are-good-for-you story of "leading medical researchers"? Read the entire article. (9-15-2010)

Obsession becomes reality

When we obsess over a past or possible future event, we risk shortening our life. We certainly invite the object of our obsession, be it disease, unemployment, or some such other, to manifest itself now. Obsession causes our life energy—chi, qi, or prana—to be directed to a negative process and be diverted from our cells. Obsession depletes our vital cellular processes, and bodily distress results.

Childhood abuse can cast a long shadow. Our efforts to ignore or forget it hurt us physically and emotionally until we acknowledge the past and quit obsessing over it. How we were mistreated by omnipotent adults, especially parents, will shape our adult lives until we stop our obsession with it. (9-1-2010)

Why are Americans so gullible?

It sure seems that gullibility is an epidemic. But perhaps it is that the unfounded beliefs held by others, even your friends, that make the rounds of social conversation and emails are just particularly visible. One person suggested that the capacity for credulity and deception, including self deception, is basic human nature. Another said Americans believe anything their government tells them; this seems like a special case of the human capacity for self-deception. Well, if there is no possibility that gullibility will cease in the near future, what can we do to protect ourselves from it? I think the first thing to do is to commit ourselves to avoiding gossip and rumor. The second is to check facts. For example, when you get those emails from supposedly well-meaning friends, that they have received from others, about a computer virus that will cause Armageddon, don't pass it on without first verifying yourself that it is accurate. If you can get email, you can search the Internet for information. A search engine, Google is my favorite, is your best friend. In addition, there are websites that explain all varieties of mis-information, among them Snopes (www.snopes.com). (8-27-2010)

Health insurers are pimps and extortionists

Health insurers and the American Medical Association (AMA) are bedfellows, partners in a hegemonic alliance. Private health insurance only covers AMA-approved medicine. This relationship looks a lot like the insurers are pimping for the AMA. It also looks like extortion of customers—a protection racket.

If I were able to choose a medicine for an illness and if money were no object, I would choose one that worked without harming me. Those criteria eliminate most of AMA-approved medicine.

The AMA is surely spending money to preserve its own hegemony (preponderous influence) and that of the private health insurers. Most visibly they did this in 1961 when they hired Ronald Reagan, then an out-of-work B-actor, to speak in opposition to a bill that would have provided medical care for seniors, a program later known as Medicare. The AMA acted to preserve their fee structures and their dominance of medicine.

The health care crisis is an inevitable outcome of (1) the designation of health care as an economic commodity (the commodification of health care), (2) its control by the private medical care industry, (3) the industry's use of a powerful lobby, and (4) the almost powerless political class. (8-27-2010)

Sergey's search

The July 2010 issue of Wired magazine has an article about Sergey Brin, co-founder of Google, who thinks he runs the risk of Parkinson's disease because of a mutated gene he has on the 12th chromosome, LRRK2. He hopes to avoid that disease by looking in the data from the testing of pharmaceutical drugs.

Young man, old model. Drugs are a failed model, regardless of the "scientific method" that is followed to test them.

Brin does know that chemistry is not destiny. He may not know of the concept of "intercepted heredity" recognized by Dr. Weston A. Price in the 1930s. Dr. Price's explanation is that a genetic or otherwise inherited vulnerability is most likely to manifest in the presence of malnutrition, and that it can be avoided by a nutrient-dense diet.

Malnutrition? In a very rich man? Dr. Price's malnutrition is not a matter of calories or quantity but nutrients. He found that if you seek sound health, there is no room for junk food, that every bite of food can reinforce your health—or damage it.

Modern diseases, other than contagious ones like plague, are the result of nutrient deficiencies—malnutrition. Ironically, pharmaceutical drugs often exacerbate the same deficiencies that cause the illness.

Sergey would be better served researching nutrition and health. I like his ideas for analyzing large data sets, but he'll get farther if he focuses on nutrition research. The website of the Weston A. Price Foundation is an excellent resource for information on a nutrient-dense diet. (8-12-2010)

Junk mail

I never thought much about how junk mail finds its way to me, but began to when I first got mail addressed to my dead uncle (by name) at my street address. It outraged me. Here is what I found:

The USPS sells your name and address to direct marketers! You know there are two kinds of unsolicited junk mail. Some of it is intended for prospective customers and some of it is intended for actual customers. You can limit the latter by informing the businesses you patronize to not share your account data. The junk mail for prospective customers, like those "welcome to the neighborhood" pieces, are sent to people who file a permanent change of address with the post office, after which their name and address are "automatically" shared with direct marketers who add the data to mailing lists. Here's the process:

1. unsuspecting person files a permanent change of address (COA) with the post office
2. USPS adds the COA data to their National Change of Address Service (NCOA) database
3. NCOA database is available via license to service providers
4. licensed service providers use the NCOA^Link product to access the COA data and sell it to direct mailers
5. direct mailers add the COA data to mailing lists which they sell to many organizations and businesses
6. unsuspecting person gets junk mail addressed to them at their new address.

Aren't you thrilled? What recourse do you have?

• Don't file permanent change of addresses with the post office. Instead (1) inform each person and business individually and directly and (2) file a temporary COA with the post office.
• Opt out on the website www.dmachoice.org by the Direct Marketing Association.
• Don't give your name and address away casually, such as on warranty cards and contests. When you do, write in large letters "Please do not sell my name or address." (8-9-2010)

The future of moral disapproval

I don't think the opponents of Prop. 8 should get their hopes up. It seems unlikely to me that the Supreme Court will accept Judge Walker's opinion. Moral disappoval is at the heart of so many laws and wars. There is a huge vested interest in it. I cannot imagine the Court's willingness to admit that moral disapproval is no grounds for laws as well as for constitutional amendments. (8-9-2010)

Moral disapproval no basis for denying constitutional rights

What a concept! Chief U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker ruled yesterday in the case seeking to overturn California's 2008 Propostion 8 which amended the CA constitution to ban same-sex marriage. Walker said evidence of the Prop. 8 campaign showed that the most likely reason for its passage was "a desire to advance the belief that opposite-sex couples are morally superior to same-sex couples." He went on to say Prop. 8 violated the 14th Amendment’s rights to equal protection and due process of law. Appeals are planned (of course, there is no end to moral disapproval). (8-5-2010)

Please stop with the high alcohol wines!

I am so tired of them! A California 12% alcohol wine is mostly a memory. The current trend overwhelms food and my alcohol tolerance. I begin to suspect today's winemakers are deliberately hiding their lack of skill and/or poor quality grapes under the guise of high alcohol, high extraction. (7-22-2010)

Columbus brought genocide to the Americas

I'm reading Lies My Teacher Told Me by James M. Loewen. Now I know why others hated high school history as I did. It turns out Columbus is not the unadulterated hero he has been made out to be. He delivered slavery, slaughter, rape, infection, and mutilation to the Native Americans. By 1555, 63 years after his first voyage, all of the original 8 million Native Haitians were dead or gone. On his first voyage Columbus kidnapped 10 to 25 Natives and took them to Spain. On his second yoyage, the next year, he enslaved 1000. In all he sent about 5000 slaves across the Atlantic. Other European nations quickly followed his lead in enslaving first the Native Americans, and when they ran out of them, the Native Africans.

Rascism began on Columbus' watch. Before 1492 the European nations had neither the concept of Europe as a whole nor the concept of a "white" race. All Europeans were white. It took the introduction of Native American and African slaves, both dark-skinned, to highlight their "whiteness." "Europeans increasingly saw 'white' as a race and race as an important human characteristic."

As equally fantastic as the impact of Europeans on the Native Americans was the impact of the Native Americans on the Europeans. The European discovery of America transformed European institutions: religion, economy, government, food, medicine, philosopy, and society. (6-28-2010)

So, Mr. Obama, where goeth your presidency?

Have you confined yourself in your preconceived ideas like Mr. Carter? Will you learn?

Your demand for health care reform seemed to be grounded in the death by cancer of your grandmother and the aggregate cost to the nation expressed in GDP. I for one was willing to believe in your sincerity. But the ensuing debacle changed my mind. You acted as if you were not motivated by either of these events.

How could you abandon your grandmother to the morass that is modern "health care," an oxymoron of gigantic proportions? What caused the cancer and the "health care" that could not help her are embedded deeply in the American Way of Business. True medicine is absent.

And you stood silently by. Why? (6-21-2010)

Empty web pages

Today I encountered, for the first time I believe, a webpage with zero content, only JavaScript code which presumably meant to construct on the fly a web page with actual content, perhaps from XML. For me, running XP and IE7, the page was empty with no message. I'm sorry, but I think this is a disgrace. (6-4-2010)

Plant medicine

Plants can heal people. You can learn how to select plants and use them therapeutically. You can heal yourself with plants. Read the entire article. (6-1-2010)

Whence America's "greatness"?

The July 2010 issue of Harper's Bazaar has an article on Sarah Palin's daughter Bristol, who achieved notoriety by being "outed" as an unwed pregnant teenager during her mom's campaign for VP. The article ends with her opinion of Obama's performance as President: "I think he is making more Americans become dependent on government, and he's acting like government can and should take care of everyone. That is completely contrary to what made America a great nation. We should be expected to take responsibility for ourselves."

Spoken by a 19-year old whose education stopped in high school. I'm commenting on this only because so many college graduates say the same thing—that self-responsibility is what made America great. They either have not studied history or they are blinded by ideology.

If you are going to repeat this drivel, you owe it to yourself to discover the truth, what really "made America a great nation." And don't stop there, consider what's so great about a "great nation." Pride in something you inherited is not enough.

Did you know that the first bill signed into law in the US was "pork," payoff to the big supporters of the new government? Private interests have influenced or controlled our government from its inception. Self-responsibility and self-interest are not mutually exclusive. Clearly, personal efforts to secure government gifts and patronage can be successful; TARP is just the most recent flagrant example. (6-1-2010)

The myth of multi-tasking

Multi-tasking, the presumed ability to do more than one thing at a time, is considered desirable because of efficiency. But neuroscientists tell us that dividing our attention between competing stimuli instead of handling tasks one at a time actually makes us less efficient. Personally I observe at least two problems with attempting to multi-task: (1) because I give neither task my full attention, each is not done as well as it could have been, and (2) if one task is talking to someone, I am inevitably rude and/or uncivil to that person because I am careless with my attention towards them.

There are a number of things that we try to combine. Walking and chewing gum are a traditional combo that is the butt of a joke. Driving and texting have proven themselves to be fatal. But even driving and changing the radio settings can cause accidents. There are spiritual practices that advocate giving any task your complete attention. This seems a good idea. (5-15-2010)

The truth about HSUS—"animal rights" means "no pets"

Watch this YouTube video titled "The Truth About HSUS" for a simple presentation of the Humane Society's real objectives to eliminate pet ownership "one generation and out. We have no problems with the extinction of domestic animals." (4-19-2010)

"England has 500 years more history (minimum!) than we do"

I found this remark in a comment to a New York Times essay, it was apparently written by someone living in Vermont. I hope I am not the only one who finds it offensive. The author seems to be referring to the entity known as the United States of America, which as a nation came into existence in the 1700s. And the majority of the population has, until recently, been of European ancestry. However the land occupied by the US has a history far older, and an indigenous population far older. An indigenous population that still remains, despite ongoing efforts to excise it. (3-18-2010)

CA Senate Bill 1277 for an animal abuse registry

This bill was introduced by Dean Florez on 2-19-2010. It establishes:

1. An animal abuse registry with public access via a website funded by pet food tax.
2. "Misuse" of the registry to be punished by fine and/or imprisonment.
3. The pet food tax will be used to pay for: the DOJ's costs to create and administer the registry website; costs to collect, administer, and audit the Animal Protection Fund; local governments for spay and neuter programs. The first two items are limited to 3 percent of the revenue, meaning that local spay and neuter programs get the lion's share.
4. Local governments will not be reimbursed for their costs associated with the registry.

I see a number of problems with this bill:

1. There is absolutely no need for an animal abuse registry and website.
2. Recognizing abuse of the registry is problematic.
3. Actual costs to undertake legal actions against suspected abusers of the registry are not covered by this bill, and will be covered by local taxpayers.
4. A tax on pet food to pay for the registry and website is a terrible idea. It makes pet owners pay for animal abusers. This is completely wrong. And it makes a disincentive, in these hard financial times, to feed your pets. This is altogether the wrong message.
5. The bill is imprecise in its discussion of the pet food tax. All it says is that "the store shall collect the charge from the customer at the time of sale [and] remit the charge collected to the State Board of Equalization on a quarterly schedule." There is no definition of pet food. The definition of store is "a retail establishment that sells pet food." Is pet food bought via a website and/or from an out-of-state business taxable? Will I be taxed on the meat I buy from the butcher to feed my cats? Will people who eat canned pet food themselves be taxed? Will vets who sell pet food be required to collect and remit the tax?
6. The pet food tax puts a costly administrative burden on the stores. Who will undoubtedly have to pass it on to their customers in increased prices.
7. The State Board of Equalization is not required to publicly account for monies received and paid out of the Animal Protection Fund and for its balance.
8. There is no limit to the amount of money the DOJ can spend on the registry and website. Nor is there any public accounting of these costs.

In 2010 the State of California and all too many of its residents face economic challenges that are overwhelming. There has been talk of reducing the prison population in an effort to reduce state expenses. What real benefit to the state is a bill that increases state and local government costs, provides for the imprisonment of certain people, and penalizes responsible pet owners—and all in the name of pet abuse? This is the wrong thing to do. (3-6-2010)

Response time

Many years ago I worked for a brokerage house that demanded the software applications developed in-house have sub-second response time. Is this quaint?

Now that we've adopted websites as a way to do things, including learn, when was the last time you had sub-second response time? I can't remember, it seems so long ago. Instead web pages take longer and longer to open—we could call it web bloat.

I just want to read a news article and I'm forced to wait 45 seconds or more for all the image files to open—over a DSL line no less. Those images are not really part of the article. They're ads, either for the website itself or its sponsors. Given a choice of response time or images I choose the former.

What about you? (3-3-2010)

Rationing medicine

The odd 2009 public "discussion" of health care raised the specter of rationed medicine. This eerily irrational and/or disengenuous talk, highlighted by unfounded claims, completely avoided mentioning the ways in which medicine is rationed:
(1) by ability to pay. Few doctors and hospitals will treat patients who cannot pay.
(2) by "covered " treatments named in insurance policies. Medical insurance routinely refuses to pay for treatments labeled "alternative," such as acupuncture—treatments which are truly effective (and cost-effective) and which in many cases are the best choice.
(3) by age. Doctors routinely ignore their elderly patients. They spend less time with them, order fewer tests, ignore symptoms—and write off their ill health as "age."
(4) by Medicare. Yes, some doctors do not accept Medicare patients, for the simple reason that Medicare pays so little. These doctors, and who can blame them, would rather devote themselves to patients who will pay their full fee. (2-10-2010)

Underwater mortgages

These days a home mortgage is described as "underwater" when the amount owed exceeds the value of the property. It is at this moment that a home becomes a consumer product instead of an investment. While it poses a real problem to the home owner—should I stay and pay or walk away?—there is a different side that is not so visible. For years, especially in large urban areas, home real estate prices rose so high that the only way we could justify buying them (and borrowing) was by considering the home an investment, and tight budgeting now was the price paid for a big nest egg at retirement when the home could be sold (cashed out). Indeed, in the San Francisco Bay area, the single largest investment that many middle class people make is their home.

Home buyers allowed this situation to happen by paying the high asking prices. Lenders cooperated by offering mortgages for these expensive homes. (And, as we so well recognize now, some of those mortgages were essentially unsecured.)

Can you imagine a different scenario where homes are bought at prices that can be comfortably paid in full within 5 years? Well, consider the automobile purchase. We know this is a consumer product, we do not expect it to appreciate or be something we can will to our children (as if it would last that long). We know that the value of a new car drops nearly in half within one year of purchase. So, if we borrow money to buy the car, we are "underwater" on it for some time. We don't mind that because we consider the cost of the car purchase to be an expense item in our budget.

I'd sure like to see a different housing market where at least some homes have price tags that can be paid in full within 5 years or so. But I imagine politicians will never allow this to happen, because their corporate masters would lose us as consumers, as sources of income, a completely unacceptable situation for them. (2-3-2010)

Women's rights vs. gay rights

How is it that women's rights, in the form of the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA), has been virtually abandoned and replaced in the public discourse wth gay rights? The ERA granted women—over 50% of the population—equal rights with men under the Constitution. That idea faded away in the 1970s when not enough states ratified it. Nowadays we face "gay rights," meaning social equality based on sexual preference—who we want to fuck. How did equal rights for women get supplanted by equal rights for homosexuals? Am I the only one who sees this as unbalanced? Is it a co-incidence that the people most in favor of gay rights are men? We women keep giving up our rights of entitlement to (1) heterosexual men (who want to fuck us) and now (2) homosexual men (who don't want to fuck us). Why are we still bending over for men? (2-2-2010)

Obama's 2010 State of the Union Address

I listened to Obama's State of the Union Address last night. What technology has wrought! I watched it online. Here are the comments I wrote down at the time, mostly with a sense of outrage. (1-29-2010)

Spend and save

Lately I've gotten a number of marketing pieces in the mail loudly promising SAVE—if only if I first SPEND. I am not fooled—SPEND and SAVE are contradictory, even mutually exclusive. The only way I can truly save is by not spending. How about you? (12-10-2009)

Obama's acceptance speech of the Nobel Peace Prize

All in all, an interesting speech. I hesitate to characterize it as well-written. Obama admits we are currently at war and will stay at war while providing grounds for new wars in the future. He spends a few words on the role of international institutions in the achievement and preservation of peace. He acknowledges Martin Luther King Jr. as saying "violence never brings permanent peace," then moves on to conclude "the instruments of war do have a role to play in preserving the peace." He declaims religious violence. And totally ignores economic violence. I found his speech disingenuous.
After thought: I think what Obama really said was we are the biggest baddass on the block and we'll do what we want. F__k you. Read the entire essay. (12-10-2009)

December 7, . . . 1941

For many years I have barely registered the significance of December 7th. Sometimes a radio announcement clued me in, sometimes a newspaper headline. My connection to December 7, 1941 was tenuous.

But no longer. For the past few years I have been bonding with my mother's brother, now 90 years old. He told me about his experiences in Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941 and in that way made it very personal and close.

This December I am sorting through his papers in an effort to assume management of his affairs. Today I spent following up with his accounts. I knew the date but it was just a date, more interesting because of its proximity to my birthday. It was only tonight as I relaxed with dinner and a DVD that the 1941 event got my attention. All of a sudden it was urgent that I talk with him and acknowledge his service to America on this day 68 years ago. When I called the hospital the nurse said he was sleeping, I said I was calling because it was December 7th, and hung up. Three minutes later I called back and explained that he was in Pearl Harbor on that day, that it was a very significant date for him. Afterwards I wept because I didn't think to phone him earlier. (12-7-2009)

The limitations of scientific research

We are familiar with scientific research studies that rely on statistical analyses of data to suggest causal relationships. The point so often missed in the publication, and PR, of research findings is that only one factor in the data being analyzed can be variable at a time. This limitation is based on a "fact" taught to every college mathematics student: formulas with more than one unknown variable cannot be solved.

In the real world we know that effects have many causal factors. Gardeners are especially familiar with this truth, as the health and growth of garden plants depends on many factors, some obvious (like irrigation schedule, sunlight hours, air temperature, soil temperature, and nutrients in the soil) and some less obvious (like soil texture, pollinators, even perhaps sunspots).

Given the limitations of the analysis of research data, what degree of importance can be meaningfully granted to the findings? Is it wise to ground policies and laws on these findings? (12-7-2009)

Apologies to Captain, or how to avoid poisoning our cats

Disease in cats, as in people, is a result of poor food and environmental poisons. Our food supply is so compromised that even actions guided by the best intentions cannot avoid all the dangers. Hence this apology to Captain Courageous, my beloved Maine Coon cat. In modern America profit is more important than life. (12-5-2009)

More health—let's focus on remedying the true causes of illness

President Obama started a virtual firestorm with his commitment to health care reform and his determination that it would begin in 2009. At this moment Congress is considering a group of laws which they claim advance health care. But they have missed the point: true health care reform must start with remedying the true causes of illness. Read the essay! (12-1-2009)

Apathetic Americans

Why are people so apathetic in 2009 when they weren't in 1970? What are the causes of the "dumbing-down" of Americans? Inadequate education, inadequate nutrition, and environmental poisons. (11-22-2009)

Bicyling to school

When I was a school child I walked to grade school, it was about a mile each way. In high school I walked one-to-two blocks to a bus stop. Things have changed. Where I now live in suburban Marin County, CA, where I rarely see a school bus, parents have been driving their children to school for years. And in SUVs. One driver, one child, for the most part. Now that the price of gasoline has gone up I see children with or without parents bicyling to school. A welcome improvement to my mind. (10-26-2009)

American war crimes in Pakistan?

There is a similarity between America's war on the Taliban in Pakistan and Israel's war on Hamas in Gaza (December 2008). In both "wars" the aggressor was undeterred by civilian deaths caused by proximity to targets. Some time later the UN's Goldstone Report accused both Israel and Hamas of war crimes. Will America be similarly accused of war crimes? (10-26-2009)

Health care insurance is prone to immorality

Medical care is a humanitarian act. There is an intrinsic conflict in a health insurance company, a for-profit enterprise, paying for its customers' medical care. This business model sets profit and humanitarianism in opposition to each other. (10-23-2009)

An open letter to Prez Obama about being a help to the American people

Your election to the office of President of the USA will test—sorely—your true commitment to the people of America.
(1) You committed in your campaign to finding a cure for cancer.
(2) You committed to reforming health care.
(3) You face failure in capitalism in the form of the financial crisis, the unemployment crisis, and the home foreclosure crisis.

Hegemony may be your biggest foe.

Please don't be sidetracked by your desire for consensus in Congress and lose sight of the true needs of the American people—for good paying jobs, health, and affordable homes (not to overlook real education and families).

There are true cancer cures that have been and continue to be denigrated by the likes of the AMA. Instead, those worthies offer surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation—what I call slash and burn—which kills more surely than cancer. And pays them well.

P.S., I need a good job. I offer you my uncommon sense and open mind. (10-16-2009)

The problem with health care part 2

Recent news stories cite congressional arguments about extending health care benefits to people who don't take care of themselves. Now they're blaming the patient! As an excuse to deny coverage. (I am reminded of the saying about he who is without sin.) This is just like pre-existing conditions. Certainly how you care for yourself, the euphemistic lifestyle choices, is a factor in your health. But there are lots of other factors, many of which are unknown—by anyone.

It is simpler to say that everybody has a right to health. No exceptions.

If you get caught up in the funding issues, such as funding health care for some but not others regardless of the situation, you are on a slippery moral slope.

I say medicine for all.

Let the counties provide wellness clinics that provide information and services focused on keeping people well.

One aspect of the current "discussion" that leaves me cold is the notion of Congresspeople negotiating with each other about which medical procedures are "covered" and which are not in a "single payer" system. While I cannot see that a sex-change operation should be covered, I think this sort of judgment belongs in other hands. (10-2-2009)

The problem with health care part 1

1. "Health care" is a misnomer. What we're really talking about is the provision of medicine to patients.
2. One problem with our medical system is how providers get paid.
3. A second problem with our medical system is the nature of the medicine itself. MDs are so committed to prescription drugs and surgery that when one doesn't do this, he is castigated by his peers. Drugs and surgery have their place, but they are no panacea.
4. There are many effective remedies and treatment modalities other than drugs and surgery, but these are "not covered" by health insurance. Examples: accupuncture, manual therapy, Pilates, herbalism, aromatherapy. Not only are they effective, they are often less expensive and less apt to cause unintended consequences (aka "side effects").
5. People feel confined by their health insurance policies so that they only seek out treatments that will be covered, regardless of what would be the most appropriate and effective.
6. Most of the illnesses that cause us grief once we reach age 40 have environmental causes. This includes food, air, and water. Our nearly constant exposure to dangerous chemicals and a diet of processsed and industrial foods makes us sick, often with fatal illnesses. There is little that medicine can do to prevent or cure these illnesses. Doctors, hospitals, and pharmaceutical companies can take our money, but with little-to-no benefit. The current medical system is unable to address, let alone confront, these issues. They content themselves with denying coverage.
7. A third problem with our medical system is that third parties— the health insurance companies—actively interfere in the practice of medicine. They tell doctors what they can and cannot do to treat a patient. The fact that practicing medicine without a license is illegal does not stop this behavior.
8. A fourth problem with our medical system is that doctors are being squeezed financially by the insurance companies, and a growing number are quitting, either in protest with their inability to practice the medicine they learned in school or because they do not make enough money to pay their bills.
9. A fifth problem with our medical system is that a huge number of administrators are employed, by doctors, hospitals, and insurance companies, to deal with the coverage questions, with claims, and with payments. All of these workers represent a cost that is born by patients with no real benefit.
10. The health insurance system extorts huge premiums while providing as little useful medicine as possible. How can anyone talk about a family of four spending $24,000 a year on insurance premiums? This is a farce! What family can afford this? And what do they get in return? Probably less than $5000 in actual medical care, the rest is "just in case," but the fallacy here is that they get no credit for their payment several years later when a medical crisis occurs. This is an odd insurance model. (9-29-2009)

Michael Moore's recent talk at the Commonwealth Club

I heard excerpts this morning on the radio. He is a pretty good speaker, a tolerable level of a "and"s and "um"s. He talked about the possible demise of newspapers: he thinks they may be gone in a year. While the newspapers cite the internet as the cause of their financial problems, MM said the real problem is a lack of content. Newspapers are alive and well in Europe, and they have real content. American papers succumbed to the lure of short-term profits and laid off their beat reporters, so the meatiness of the content of the stories fell. Also, in the last 17 national elections, the papers backed the Republican candidate in 14. Republicans have been determinedly cutting financial support of education. Today we have 40 million illiterates and 40 million semi-illiterates (they read at a 4th-grade level). Hence, fewer readers of newspapers. He said the papers shot themselves in the foot. (9-28-2009)

My favorite bread baker—Metropolis Baking Company in Berkeley, CA

Metropolis makes bread with durum wheat flour, the same wheat Italians use to make pasta. The bread is phenomenal! It has not been carried in the groceries I shop for some years, to my endless disappointment. I thought they went out of business. Wrong!! They just sell their bread in different shops. Where I'm off to right now. Their website is www.metropolisbaking.com. (7-15-2009)

California's budget crisis . . . again

While my focus is California, where I live, I do understand other states are having similar gaps between income and outgo. I've watched the state legislature for the past years fail to pass a budget on time. They never really passed a budget in 2008 and now it is time for the 2009 budget and the deficit grows daily. It seems to me that the current situation is one where the legislature prefers to cut services and abandon state assets that benefit the poor and middle classes over raising taxes on the wealthy. It is easy to blame this on (1) the Republicans, who have vowed to NOT raise taxes, and (2) on Proposition 13 (1978), which, in addition to limiting real estate taxes to 1% of the purchase price (which I still favor), also changed the state constitution to require a 2/3rds vote to change taxes. I doubt the Democrats would raise taxes on the wealthy—if they could. So we're still left with a legislature that has failed, year in and year out, to perform their fiscal duty. Shame on them! (7-14-2009)

The nature of programming

I recently read a news article that blythely claimed in the coming economy software development will slip off the stage and become just another ho-hum production task. I was horrified. Who was the author trying to suck up to?

In my world programming is rarely a paint-by-numbers production task. To the contrary, it is most always a research and development effort. Many job descriptions these days are for work in support of new, innovative products in a technical environment on the bleeding edge. The multiplicity of software technologies alone is enough to disprove the mechanical nature of programming. Those technologies are increasing. And the desire for product innovation is ever present. (6-11-2009)

Letter to Congress about health care (again)

Congress is closer to mandated private health insurance. What a crock! I've written about this before, but here I go again.

There are lots of misunderstandings of the current situation (virtually all of them sown deliberately by private health insurers). James K. Galbraith in The Predator State makes the point that health care is not a "market." It is instead "a label covering a class of goods and services, an enormously diverse class, adapted to the specific health condition of each individual patient. . . There is no unit of health care . . . Health care is therefore not a commodity that is bought and sold at a given price on an open market."

He continues to discuss the role of insurance and concludes "Insurance in general is therefore intrinsically a service that the public sector can competently provide at lower cost than the private sector, and from the standpoint of an entire population, selective private provision of health insurance is invariably inferior to universal public provision." (page 158)

He explains "Private health insurance companies would not exist except for their political capacity to forestall the creation of universal public systems."

If Congress is sincerely committed to both improving the quality of health enjoyed by the public and reducing the costs of health care, then it must promote a universal public health system.

I urge you to support this public health system. (6-9-2009)

Letter to Congresswoman Woolsey about health care

Dear Congresswoman Woolsey, It is simply amazing that the form of America's health care "system" is being addressed by Congress with an eye to improvement. Certainly the failures of the current system are endless and even mind-boggling. Health care delivery dominated by insurance companies is obviously a part of the problem, even the biggest part of the problem. Imposing structural changes on them will not fix the problem. Instead what is needed is a parallel public health system which patients can enter at will.

I urge you to support this public health system and to resist the predictable pressures from the insurance companies to act in their own best interests. (6-2-2009)

The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason by Sam Harris (2004)

This is a logically reasoned argument against faith. "Faith" is herein described as belief in something in the absence of evidence. (Thus faith is irrational.) It is religious faith that is addressed—and found dangerous to the future of humanity. More . . . (5-15-2009)

I type therefore I am

What is my life coming to? (5-9-2009)

Entitled or titled

Get a grip people! When you are referring to a book, you say "titled"!! As much as I am enjoying Conn Iggulden's new series of historical fiction about Genghis Kahn, I was so disappointed to find it discusssed on Wikipedia: "Iggulden's debut book was the The Gates of Rome, the first in a four-part series entitled Emperor." That would be "titled" in case you were asking. "Entitled" means to designate or furnish with proper grounds for seeking or claiming something, for example "his wealth does not entitle him to more votes." (4-27-2009)

A new model of affordable housing

Lately newspeople have been saying housing prices are at their lowest in 30 years—as if that is evidence the housing "market" has returned to sanity. NOT in my neighborhood. Starter homes have dropped—from $1 million to $850K. They are still unaffordable to the majority of the middle class and much higher than they were 30 years ago.

Marin County, CA has an affordable housing community. They advocate new homes for families earning $40K or less, they ensure the homes remain affordable by limiting resale profit to cost of living increases.

I suggest an additional program that advocates new and used homes for people regardless of income who will also promise to limit their resale profit to COL. The Marin Agricultural Land Trust (MALT) protects farmland from conversion to resorts and housing development by buying development easements. Perhaps we can copy this model with an Affordable Housing Trust. It can buy resale easements.

Homeowners who sell their resale easement should get an income tax credit from the state and federal governments, both when they sell the easement and when they sell the home. The AHT can be a non-profit group and get funds from gifts and government grants. And from their customers—the people who purchase the homes at below-market prices—who are obliged to pay them a fee at purchase time, perhaps 1–2 percent of the price. We might call this the Marin Residential Affordability Trust (MRAT). (4-27-2009)

Escape fiction

This phrase was popular years ago, and I used it myself to characterize the bulk of what I read. But no more. Which of the two words is more damning? Is "escape" an adjective or a noun? Are they independent or interlocked? I've read all my life, even, in desperation, cereal boxes. I found in fiction storytelling that, at its best, teaches. I've learned history, philosophy, and different ways of thinking about myself, my life, and my world. And been entertained in the process.

Escape is not bad. The difficulties of our lives demand intermittent relief. Fiction can be a better choice than TV, alcohol, or drugs.

The modern category that seems to have superceded "escape fiction" is "chick lit." While the old label carried whiffs of condescension and criticism, the new one is downright nasty and sexist.

I'm waiting for "dick lit." (4-19-2009)

The Sound of Music in an Antwerp train station

You have got to watch this YouTube video! (4-14-2009)

What are the ethics of pre-emptive violence?

What ethics justify violence, especially pre-emptive violence? Read the full essay. (4-9-2009)

"Health insurance" is an oxymoron

"Health insurance" is not insurance in the traditional meaning of the word. Real insurance is a "guarantee against loss by a specified contingency or peril." (Merriam-Webster) In contrast, modern health insurance covers the likes of colds—everyday illnesses—as well as critical illnesses like heart attacks, chronic illnesses like asthma, and trauma from accidents. The shocking statistics are that most people have critical and/or chronic illness.

Healthy people are the cornerstone of our society. The insurance paradigm is totally unsuitable for medical treatment of illness and trauma and proactive care, getting well and staying well should not be a source of corporate profit. Yes, doctors and nurses deserve compensation. But there is no reason to employ a middleman, especially one that adds cost but no value.

People use health insurance to cover their normal medical bills, largely because of the way in which the insurers have transformed the practice of medicine into a marketplace. As the cost of care rises and the environmental threats to our health increase, the cost of staying well increases. It should be no surprise that people want financial relief from the endlessly rising costs. What they really need is a medical system that is effective and cost efficient—one that works medically and financially.

This will only happen when governments at all levels organize medical care without the intrusion of the health insurance companies. Just bypass them, make them irrelevant. Provide the care we all need. And pay for it with taxes. Just do it! (4-7-2009)

American civilians in Afghanistan

Do you know how many American civilians are working in Afghanistan? Read on. (4-3-2009)

Cuba's Special Period

This morning's radio program proved inspirational. It was about Cuba's "Special Period" that began in 1991 with the collapse of the Soviet Union, Cuba's primary trading partner and supplier of gasoline, diesel, natural gas, etc. At that time Cuba relied heavily on its oil imports to power its industrialized agriculture and transportation systems. Their solution to the loss of oil and trade was local organic gardening and bicycles. They abandoned oil-based fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides in favor of compost, worms, and green manure. They replaced gasoline-powered tractors with oxen. They grew food in the country and in the cities, in patios and on rooftops. Local food production did not need the use of gasoline-powered distribution vehicles, instead they could deliver food throughout the cities by people on foot and bicycle. Many people moved to the country where they lived near the farms they worked. They were gradually able to produce enough food that the hunger bordering on starvation of the early days subsided; it took 3 to 5 years to restore the fertility of their soils in the aftermath of the oil-based fertilizers and herbicides which had previously dominated their agriculture. (2-10-2009)

Afghanistan and why we cannot succeed

Today's radio program discussed the reasons why America is intruding itself in the affairs of Aghanistan, a sovereign country, apparently without their invitation. The reasons and what America intends to accomplish. Well, the problems they cite for Afghanistan are the same as exist today in the USA. The solutions they plan have failed here, how can anyone realistically believe they will succeed there? It's beginning to seem as though these foreign interventions are just another American industry, this one brought to us by the military. (2-6-2009)

Microsoft joke?

How many Microsoft techs does it take to change a lightbulb? None, they just make darkness an industry standard. (1-27-2009)

The price of a home of your own

The constantly rising price of homes has impacted communities, the quality of family life, and the environment. Read the entire essay. (1-11-2009)

Read the older blogs.