Saturday, January 29, 2005
FAT SICK
Now that being overweight is being listed as a disease, a person can call in fat-sick any day of the week - even on holidays , if you can think of some little twist to make such an action pay off in hard cash.
There's no doubt remaining about overweight being a common cause of time-off requests. Fat folks find it more difficult to keep up with with common office and plant routines without a great deal of huffing and puffing when moving about, even in ergonomic Edens designed and budget built with delicate wire, glass and soft metal or plastics. Modern work-place furnishings are designed by skinny workers for other small-seated persons. Only on rare occasions does one meet with the grandiose executive easy chairs once so common. One reason for the seeming disuse has been the rise of a secondary level of control in most industrial plants which determines how executives should be fed, exercised, properly supplemented with precisely the correct combination of vitamins and supplements in whatever combinations are in style with magazine editors or publishers at the given moment.
There was a time when the average citizen might turn with some logic involved, to his family doctor for an opinion concerning his body weight by today an editor, publisher or an Internet guru might be more easily accredited concerning such important matters.
A common sense crisis exists.
If millions of fat people should take to bed rest to cure their illness, we are at a impasse where deep trouble prevails: Who will wait on the rest of us? The waitress who brings your meal is fat. The attendant who supervises your purchase of fat priced gasoline for your fat-featured car, and so is the sales person who huffs and puff taking a pair of shoes from a shelf for you to try on while they watch to give instant approval. There seems to be no faster way to achieve weight gains than by standing or sitting behind a cash register all day or night. Notice how many car divers who pass you are fat. Go on, try again. Turn your head just a bit more. Now you can see them.
Never have we had such opportunity for home remedies to prove themselves.
A.L.M. January 29, 2005 [c388wds]
Friday, January 28, 2005
SPECIAL TV TREAT
I have profited today, I feel, from watching and listening to the ceremonies which made Dr. Condoleezza Rice our Sixth-sixth Secretary of State.
The amazing thing was the lack of pomp and yet it was very typical of the way the average American view on such events. So often frills and and meaningless flap doodle attachments only make such official recognition tiresome and devoid of individual associations which are vital to continued significance
Very often conscious attempts to keep[such ceremonies simple come across as having trivialized the subject. A facade is formed which seem to lack sincerity and the producers are accused of trivializing the subject.
The oaths taken during yesterday's ceremonies were not new. They were set, patterned and very serious. They were incantations. They were litanies, in a sense ideals and goals of perfection obtainable. President George W. Bush was also George Bush, Citizen at one and the same time. He and Dr. Rice thanked each other for shared associations and decisions. Each of them voiced special feelings for the outgoing Secretary of State Colin Powell and many of us at home thought prayerful words thanking him as well for work well done in times of war and strife.
I liked the conversational aspects of the exchange of sentiments was especially good and I think many viewers felt better than being faced with formal speeches. We feel a new sense of assurance that here were two people who would be heading up important actions in our government in the future. They knew each other well and would work as a team. Both had "matured" in many ways because they had shared many memorable experiences in the last four years. George Bush speaks and acts with courage and aplomb; Dr. Rice with new confidence and, now, with authority which has some real bite to it.
Fifteen member of the opposition party stood against Dr. Rice becoming Secretary of State. They allowed petty political considerations to warp the common rules of politeness which have made it possible for them to be where they are today. Shame.
A.L.M. January 28, 2005 [c360wds]
Thursday, January 27, 2005
STUDENTS OF...
Both ancient and recent experiences would suggest that Mankind remains subservient to the violence of Nature. He has developed no real, complete defense.
Within the space of a fortnight we have experienced costly floods, avalanches of snow, rock and mud and creeping; leaping walls of flame have sent sacrificial billows of smoke and ash into the heavens over dense forests and grassy plains. As a centerpiece of the costly the menu of such horrors we also had a major earthquake deep below the surface of the Indian Ocean, generally west of Bangladesh and north of the Maldive Islands. That blast started the biggest Tsunami known to man with powerful waves measuring well over thirty-five feet high sweeping over eleven low-lying nations and doomed seas of doomed humanity. The total number of people injured is beyond counting and the soul-sapping loss of property and personal belongings by millions of people is beyond even general estimates.
A central concern with all of this - even though we hesitate to actually put it into words - is: why? What could possibly be the underlying cause of such a strange series of disasters? What might have engendered the force of it all? It is natural that we worry about others, possibly, which must,then, are out there just waiting to happen.
We are well-school by book-learning and my individual experience to feel that for every action there has been a cause. We can't just "forget about it." Nor, can we properly defend ourselves and those we love if we don't know what,who and where the opposition - the "enemy" might be. I meet with those who tell me:"Forget about it. Those things happen,and there's nothing you can do about stopping any of them - so ignore them. They have been happening for centuries. That's just the it is and the way it has always been!"
At the opposite extreme I find a great many people waiting to point out why and this seemingly haphazard series of events is my fault as part of a mankind which does not do that which is see to be good and proper in the sight of almighty God. How they came to such active analysis of the inner workings of God's mind, is never explained, but they extract all they can drain from their pet peeve - be it purification of the waters of the Chesapeake Bay, peace in Palestine, Justice in Judea, or ballots for illegals - and find ways to show how our neglect, our selfishness, our growing greed and activated avarice eat at the foundations of the Earth itself and at our civilization such as it may appear to be at that moment.
I have a feeling it is something deeper than all that. We are not all that we think ourselves to be. We have yet a long, long way to go. This Earth, this creation of endless wonders, universal in-gatherings of solar bodies and seminal substances we have not yet even heard about - much less known. We have yet to see and feel the total complex powers of Nature.
We keep our God small enough to comprehend.
As the weaknesses continue begin to show in our system, new revelations will come about and a even better life will emerge. We are still in the learning stage of our being and some lessons we learn do not come easily at all.
A.L.M. January 27,2005 [c570wds]
Wednesday, January 26, 2005
BY CHANCE?
Some wonderful changes appear to have come into being largely through
the mysterious element of chance
It may be that this continent on which we live was “discovered” by
wandering Norsemen long before Columbus set off to find a route to the riches
of India and, on the way, chanced upon the Caribbean Islands. There is also a
theory now being talked around that we were also discovered from the other
direction. It is widely held someone from China visited our Pacific shores,
probably at about the same time as the Norsemen hit the eastern edges of what
is now Canada. He, or they, may have drifted with Pacific currents which
still bring us occasional reminders of Asia, or they may have been a bit
later trying to find a new route to the markets of Europe.
No one knows because chance leaves no records on purpose. We find
some by accident, however, and our intense studies are based on, yes ...on a
chance of finding proofs some day ... somewhere.
Only when we get into the areas of religious concerns do we shy away
from the idea of chance.
What is providential and destined by a deity vies with the very idea
of chance happenings. I cannot agree with the Deist view that holds the
Universe came into being due to more or less accidental circumstances
prevailing at the time. It has been, it seems, set up as a giant clock-work
mechanism of some type which has been ticking away and running down ever
since. That would be chance, but it seems to me, to be a wider concept which
demands more than such a trite and trivial categorization.
When your child is in the process of being born at the hospital, you
don’t want the doctors and nurses to be doing things by chance, do you?
Think about it from time to time. To put your reliance on chance is
risky at best. If you lose a dollar of two on the lottery from time-to-time,
trusting to chance, the loss may not be too great, and that should be the
extent of such ventures for most of us.
To “bet you life” or any portion thereof, is foolishness.
Much in Mankind’s history which may seem to have happened by chance
really came about from the concerted mental and physical efforts of scores of
people in the past who contemplated and worked diligently trying to make
their world a better place in which to live. We are doing it now in our space
ventures and in countless other ways, and, in truth, we leave very little to
chance.
We don’t trust it...and wisely so.
A.L.M. January 26, 2005 [c455wds]
Tuesday, January 25, 2005
YEA OR NAY!
I am currently occupied in my annual phase of evaluating the wisdom of either continuing the use of the Electoral College system in our presidential elections,or junking the antiquated system completely.
The subject comes up every November when many people reflect on what they consider to have been the “iffy” points of recent or ancient elections. Very often great effort goes into such studies concerning that which may happened had voters not been subject to the oppressive elements of the Electoral College system.
The arguments set forth seems violently revolutionary to some, but others see the suggested changes as logical improvements to the system. It is easy to show that we do not vote for the candidate, but rather for the elector who will,then,in turn, vote for a candidate of chosen according to hard, set rules of based on studies of the make up of the area concerned with such things as population. trade, wealth and stature among other places of like interests and nature. Tradition plays a prominent role in determining where the votes will go. The whole thing appears to be very un-democratic and citizens hearing of it for the first time sometimes do not believe that such a an archaic system exists -much less prevails. At times criticism gets as far as our Congress but the last time that happened the house junked it and the Senate restored it. So, it stayed about the same it has been for many, many years years.
We hear little about it save in actual election times when millions of citizens either discover or re-discover how critical Electoral College systems are when we chose president or vice-president. In years past,I tended to side with those who wish to eliminate the Electoral College system; but it now seems we had best pause and, at least,question our observing the same old rituals as if they have not been questioned at all. It is time we re-examine this process.
Can the subject be brought forward for some responsible body to study and evaluate to decide if we should leave as is - undisturbed and festering, or opened up and examined to see if it is in keeping with with modern conditions or uncertain traditions? Isn't it time for us to see if we need to exorcise our old election litany? How can we allow it to go on-and-on year after year; decade after decade and never questioned as to genuine value?
. But, the question remains: who will cast the first stone? The Electoral College system is a clumsy, corroded, creaky leftover from a former era of our rather curious political life in this country – an era long-since departed with all its other frills. But, who among us is ready and willing to throw the first stone... to destroy it?
A.L.M. January 25, 2005 [c487wds]
Monday, January 24, 2005
ON THE HOUSE!
When too many business firms start to show concern about my financial well-being, I get a bit wary. When I feel besieged by offers to more or less assure me that my future well remain solvent and above bankrupt levels – at least, I begin to hide or stay out of the way while the “snow” falls. Beautiful! Maybe, but snow can turn to treacherous ice, ice to water and water, mixed with solid particles becomes gooey mud.
Some of the offers “make sense”....not exactly the best of good sense, but it is true, for instance, that many people today are in serious debt situations as a direct result of excessive buying using a selection of credit cards. It's the economic epidemic of our time, with scores of people becoming obligated to make repayments far in excess of their earning powers.
It can certainly not be accidental that, at this critical junction of plastic cards with with pay-up documentation, business firms pop up in print and on TV and radio offering - so often in a humorous, light-hearted camaraderie's - to bail out all those who have slipped into this shopping swamp. They stand read to lend such put-upon persons sufficient funds to pay off the mountain of credit card debt but to enable them to burn, mutilate, bury, flush or cut and deep-six the fragments thereof in whatever way suits their concept of finality.
Fine. You may say that, and feel tremendously relieved and even grateful. That which you don't know, can't hurt you – or, can it do so in time? You have borrowed money from a new firm with which to pay off the total of you credit card debts. The critical is this: the obligations which were yours where agreed upon in relation to your earning power to repay them,but the new debt you are now under is a totally different type of loan covered by other regulations and you now may find your home is in hock. If you fail, now, to meet your payments from your income your house can be the way the obligation is paid.
If you are contemplating such a escape from being a plastics prisoner, think it all over with special care. Determine the exact nature of he transaction and what collateral usually assigned. Get rid of the cards anyway. Avoid a common pitfall in which calls for plans to borrow from Peter to pay Paul. Be especially careful in seeking a quick rescue from those who seem to be too eager to help you solve your personal pecuniary problem.
A.L.M. January 24, 2005 [c446wds]
Sunday, January 23, 2005
B-LIZZARD BUYING!
We've heard so much about global warming that people can't believe we are having a ”blizzard” in much of the nation.
It's cold in the northeast and central states – and it is also windy and the two together with plenty of white, fluffy snow piling up and making pagodas out of square roofs make what may, technically, be called a ”blizzard”. If it can hold out; last for several days and nights or a week, it can be spoken of years from now with even more authority as having been a true blizzard. You've got a great store of tall stories about tall snow falls in “The Great Blizzard of '83” and others of that era which have been told and with cracker barrel red-hot, wood-fired stoves as background.
In those ancient days the storyteller himself would usually start with complaints about existing weather conditions outside such as: “Hit don't snow no more likkit usta!”
As we have advanced in transportation capabilities our understanding of snow has gone the other way. One inch of the white stuff now causes consternation aplenty among such groups as school board members, plant managers, day care center workers, school principals, working mothers of every type and, well, just about every one, it seems, if you start to list those who might be affected.
The sudden appearance of actual snow also increases the urge to stock up on foodstuffs. A inch of snowfall can trigger a food shopping safari the like of which is seldom seen at any other time. Forest-like displays of bread, milk in any form, cereal in the usual eighty-five flavors and combinations there of are all swept from the shelves of the stores and super-stores causing more trucks to be dispatched from warehouses hundreds of miles away to help clog the already traffic-jammed roads leading to the area where the pre-snow. locust-like scavengers have done their early bird food shopping.
Buying as such a critical time is a real art.
I watched carts waiting in the long lines at the harried checkout person's point, and it was interesting to see that most of the foods purchased were those which involved baking, frying, broiling, basting, grilling or some other procedures which demands electric, gas and other utilities be in working condition during the extreme weather conditions ahead! Carts loaded with fully-prepared, ready-cooked, table-ready treats were few. Many shoppers seem to buy on the promise that since they'll be home anyway they will have extra time to cook things. After loading the bottle and cartons of milk, bread in every form possible, and super-large boxes of dry forms of wheat, oats, corn with attractive additives, they forget to get extra sugar for all of that combination, extra butter or jams and jellies.
Finger foods often in demand during bad weather – are ignored except potato chips which are a prime shelf-clearing item.
The household needs, too, there is some erratic shopping to be seen. It is during the continuing days and nights of the blizzard confinement that you wish you had bought more toilet tissue, some batteries, more soda drinks of any kind and color, razor blades, toothpaste and maybe some dill pickles.
There is a marked need for one of the super-stores to put together Emergency Kits containing food and creature comforts to see a family through such perilous times. Imagine everything you need, assembled by experts and boxed for quick pick-up. One inch of snow would trigger the Emergency Kit sale!
A.L.M. January 23, 2005 [c605wds]
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