Friday, July 01, 2005
MORE TOKEN TALK I have a strong feeling that tells me the much publicized "acceptance" of gun safety locks by Smith & Wesson a few years ago was political token talk only. We have not, I fear, been entirely enlightened on how one manufacturer came to be willing to start putting such safety lock gun trigger mechanisms on their guns, while others have remained quiet and non-noncommittal. Some said, at the time, they were being "blackmailed" into doing so. Politicians, from time to time, become aware of what they call a "public outcry" which demands that "something be done to get guns off our streets and to keep them from falling into the hands of children." The politicians responded to such a cry with - of all things - an idea of putting locks on triggers of weapons which is something like the old sayings of carts before horses. Certainly, there must have been more positive ways of eliminating, at least a portion of the guns which are "on the streets", in the schools and homes and so readily available to even the youngest of children. This seems now to have been a temporary ploy both by the pols and the gun makers, designed to stave this every adverse off a bit longer until the public cooled off a bit from the, at that time, a recent rash of random killings by kids with firearms. This past week I was in a city where a local gun show as being held. It occupied the largest exhibition hall in the area and every day the parking areas where packed solid with vans, trucks and cars and the vast majority of them bore license plates and ID and advertising signs from afar. It reminds me, in one sense, of the plight of a small child kept on a pacifier from infancy. It keeps the child quiet for the parents can watch TV, talk endlessly on their ever-present cell phones or go about their normal work - or lack of it - in peace and quietness but efficiency fades fast with fads and fakes and it often the parents who wonder why. To show their devotion,they off to the local "specialist". Overt physical action and therapy seem to come naturally. Normal growth denied by constant use of the pacifier or "Binky" nurtures violent conduct predictably and forestalls a child's natural need to communicate with others without tantrum tactics.. Disdained, he wishes to how toward others through physical acts. He pushes, shoves, tugs, elbows, kicks and takes other such action to express his displeasure with someone or something about him. Again, the parents are quick to note this "misbehavior:" and Retalin tablets, or some other preparation, are quickly brought into play. It sounds trivial, I know, but this sort of "easy way out" does give rise to frightening possibilities, when we try to answer the next question we must face: where did our drug culture" problems come from ...when did they start? A.L.M. July 1, 2005 [c506wds]
Thursday, June 30, 2005
LAB WORK If you are among those of us who did some lab work in Biology, you will, no doubt, remember quite well those weeks spent in a detailed study of a formerly alive creature of some sort that edged along for increasingly noisome weeks. The strong stench urged us to get on with the necessary work as fast as possible and well enough to forestall any need to repeat the project. We stepped up our efforts to get the necessary work done as soon a possible so we could get out of there. Maybe that's a quality we need in today's diplomatic problems. It is more and more incumbent for us to get the entire mess tended too as promptly as possible. I sometimes get the feeling that our "lab" people's haste is, at times, worthy of special attention. We are often puzzled by extended project work which is relaxed and easy-going by workers believe we feel like knowing that the specimen is going to be of less value and less worthy of study and closer examination if we allow it to go without proper protective chemicals or temperature control. A week or so into our college project was enough to drive the Biology Department's aroma-meters wild. For example,right now, in New York City we co continue to allow the United Nation's "Oil For Food" scandal to hang there as if it were a side of beef stuck on a high hook ...out of sight but beginning to smell stronger and stronger. Week after week more and more evidence finds its way to the forefront. Additional persons are being identified each week. One resignation occurred this past week and more can be expected en with the specific clause which doesn't allow resignation to absolve anyone of complicity in the million dollar scam against us all. Diversions are in progress,too. It has been rather suddenly determined they must build next door to the present structure in New York city ,another twenty-five storied building to house the present offices while the old HQ gets a complete renovation. We probably would not have heard anything of it all without the bladed pendulum of he oil scandal hanging above us. The present offices will move into the new building for as long as it takes to complete the extensive and expanded quarters. When completed the offices ll move back in to their present digs and the new building would be used to expand those which will no longer fit the space available. Each day the scandal continues unresolved only adds to the possibility that the United States will withdraw from membership and stop being the payee patsy for most of the groups expense while the till is being tapped by dishonest members. I, for one, have about lost all respect and patience with the United Nations. It does not do what it was intended to do. It no longer even attempts to do so. It is not the UN building in New York city which is in dire need of renovation, but the United Nations organization itself. A.L.M. June 30,2005 [c527wds]
Wednesday, June 29, 2005
BIG BUCKET OF WORMS Our judicial system seems to be confusing the terms "God" and "Religion". The exhibition of the text of "The Ten Commandments" is an act which sets a small portion of the Judeo-Christian heritage in the form of words printed, etched, or formed in stone, metal, wood or on paper or a plastic material. Such a representation is not God. That "it" is not a deity. It is a prime irony of our time that the group of men and women who gather periodically to worry themselves sick about such matters, is a body which starts and closes its formations with a formal word of prayer. It is a statement made to show that God's will is to be the basis of their considerations, but that prayer is not God. Often in the process of their deliberations they take oaths as if an all-seeing, all-knowing God was among them. Those are symbolic oaths - verbalized entities, but they are not God. At times, such celebration of blessedness are accompanied by the ringing of bells, the firing of ceremonial cannon, displays of sky-searing fireworks, the marching to-and-fro of many feet - how petty a printed copy of the Ten Commandants posted to be praised for having guided me to make better choices. That statue,ha plaque, hat b banner ,that book-all are but symbols of the presence of God but they are not God. If we are to eliminate such symbols from our daily lives then the same must apply to other religious faiths. Gone forever will be the wearing of gaudy saffron-colored dresses and gowns worn by members of an oriental religion ...not their God - but a symbol of sacred meaning to them. Special hair-dressings, beards and mustaches must be restrained for they, too, are symbols in some groups, headgear worn indoors are ob ed forbidden and and ceremonial lighting of candles not being used for lighting for dispelling darkness must be drastically controlled,being a prime symbol of so many religions. You can think of others which must go, but what about older concepts which were often scandalous. Should that broken cross known to many as the swastika, be done away with? It has some purposed and limited use once each year of a year when sham-worship service was held within the church centuries once each year, but most recently it has been the symbol of Nazi Germany and of Adolph Hitler and his crowd. It has been respected widely in other civilizations and the famous writer Rudyard Kipling saw to it that everything he wrote was published with a swastika design in or on it somewhere. Others use the ancient symbol as a "good luck" sign. Think about it. What are these symbols of our religious feelings -images,in a sense? How do you think they differ from being God? A.L.M. June 27, 2005 [c495wds]
Tuesday, June 28, 2005
IS MILK ALWAYS MILK? Is the term "milk" now generic by nature? The manufacturer's of "soy milk" insist that it has been so general in use as to be considered generic and no merits protection in the market place. For many years it has been used as a term to designate the fluid portion of various plants - coconut milk, for instance, even Milk of Magnesia, a medication, and we use the term relative to milkweed in botany. It has been used regarding soybeans from ancient times in the Orient and from as early as 1650 in European writings. It is odd the use of the word has never been contended long before now. Milk producers insist that milk can only result from the process of lactation and that such a process does not occur in the soy bean. In recent years it has become common for those who stock grocery store shelves to place the soy milk products in the Dairy case with other 'Milk" products. That's where customers expect to find them. And, that where the soy bean producers find their products compete with the merits of milk as it is commonly processed now in cut-down versions. Soy "milk"is not equal to real 100% milk but it does equal and even surpass some of the 2% and Fat Free versions of milk which are the main sellers today in dairy display areas. Legislation is underway to permit the sale of soy milk as "milk" but the bills are being opposed by Dairy lobby workers and there is only a slight possibility of change - or clarification of the situation. Since so much emphasis has been placed on weight control in recent years many people no longer drink whole milk and those who do use milk at all, resort to those in which the fat has been removed, so the loss of calcium and other nutrients in the diet is not that noticeable if soy is used instead. The time has come for the Dairy Council and others to reconsider their manner of marketing and to get in touch with the times. Choices of family foods and drinks depend on many other factors today than they did twenty years ago. They dairy people over did the cut-down versions year ago, perhaps, in an effort to hold on to those people who went wild on weight loss. Some dairy people felt that , if the nutritional values were lowered, the customers would end up drinking twice as much of the lower-fat food just to feel full. That worked for a time, but people now think nutrition rather than quantities and the whole manner of eating has changed. There is nothing wrong with the lowered fat versions, but to place sales emphasis on them was costly. Few people realize today that the DuPont Company, makers of Nylon and Lycra, also make and market a "cut down" version of Lycra under the trade name of "Korspan." It is, at this time, Lucra's "low-priced partner" in the DuPont product line - kept competitive with foreign pricing. It will last as long as Lycra production is up and world need exceeds world production. Much depends on demand, you see. Wise companies have long engaged in what is called "OEM" ("other equipment manufacturers") work projects which others do for them to meet a special need from time to time and the smart firms knew the maxim used by card playing gamblers who insist one "has to know when to hold 'em and when to fold 'em." Dairy products promoters are learning the slow, hard way. Methods of promotion and of processing of foods must also vary with demand. The soy people are right with it, it would appear. A.L.M. June 28, 2005 [c632wds]
Monday, June 27, 2005
NEW LAWS The Virginia State Legislature has been in session and new laws will be forthcoming which go into effect he following July 1st which, on occasion, has created trouble people have thought July 4th's fireworks clamor has early. I don't see anything that is readily going to upset most people this ime around. They seemed to have worked out a few changes in existing laws but nothing which is likely to throw the monkey wrench into anything thing being planned. There are,however, 880 of them so I have not read enough of them say that trouble is not in our immediate future. You can't expect hat many regulations to come into being without disturbing someone. Many will be welcomed. There will be one which will, in theory, at least, will lower the cost of some foods. There will be a lower grocery tax on certain items. The present rate is set at four cents per dollar. That falls to 2.5 cents.There will be few ,if any, objections to this one and it has been long awaited even with some hang-ons. Food is being taxed farm more than most of us realize as more and more states, counties, cities and towns exact "meal taxes" and add to the cost of eating away-from-home meals. The new law allows exemptions on alcohol products, tobacco, pet foods and "prepared foods sold for immediate on use "which will continue to taxed at the present rates. Printing presses will be busy for a time re-stating exactly how the foods are to be consumed and when. People who are engaged in any kind of skin care work which can be included in the employment category called "estheticians" - and many will be "on hold" because the "industry" has not yet defined what it is or does exactly. It is set to go into effect July of 2007 if all goes well. A soon as those persons who do beauty treatments at spas decide what it is they do and set standards, it will be taxed by issuance of a Virginia state license allowing them to do so what ever it may be. This could well be viewed as a new record of some sort concerning the inventiveness of the tax -oriented mind of our legislators and of their strange ability to forecast potential fields of revenue even before they exist. I have never understood what it is that Bail Bondsmen do but they will need a license, too. Getting one is as complicated as what they do. One qualifies to pay a fee of $900 every two years; plus "taking a course" and passing " a competency test." Beginning July 1st it will be illegal for a TV screen to be in any position in a car so that can be viewed by the driver. This will, no doubt, inspire a statewide study into the proper placement of mirrors and other reflective material which will turn one-half of the rear view mirror into a TV image. There must be eight or ten more new laws coming up. Better get a list and check them out. Like all restrictive laws, they apply to other people. A.L.M. July 27, 2005 [c544]
Sunday, June 26, 2005
VIOLENCE TODAY We talk a great deal about how to deal with the problems of "violence" in our society, but I sometimes wonder if we really understand the situation and actually intend to "do" anything to try to eliminate the costly condition. I don't know that violence is any more pronounced in the present era than it has been at times in the past. It is more apparent, to some degree, because of the tremendous advancements made in our systems of communications in recent years. It is "closer" to our daily lives even when it is removed from us, physically, by miles, oceans or space. I remember crime being present in my own three-quarters of a century-plus awareness of such a thing. I think the "violence" of my early years could be said to have been pretty much in line with that of today with with subtle differences as the degree of cruelty involved, and different attitudes concerning the "rights" of others about us. I don't think we really knew what was going on then, either. Society, I'm sure, has never been without "violence". The very first time a human encountered another human who got in his way or disagreed with him in the simplest action resulted in violence of a sort, I am sure. Violence, one might say, has been done the word itself in that it now encompasses only dire doings involving physical harm, death, dismemberment or combat. Different people see violence in a variety of ways. Many people live by violence of some sort and have little genuine desire to conform to rules which might eliminate it. The theory of The Dominant Male in our civilization has often led much to be desired in fairness and equity in the home, in business and in religious observances, as well. His shoulders, his stamina, his inventiveness and his determination are all needed to maintain his forward movement one impedes his path that enemy has to be dealt with. For that reason, and others of a like nature, we tend to think of violence as a Rambo-like, he-man, super-male thing which is only the more obvious manifest ion of it, really. Man is not alone in doing because of tremendous strfides in our communication's abilities. violent things. Women are right in there doing their share and children, too - acting so often in imitation of their parents or other leading adults. We need to study our social structures before we can expect to make any worthy progress in the ease some of the stress of lawlessness in our lives. To violate the basic rights of society is just as destructive as the physical action we tend to cloth violence in before we deal with its ravages. The seeds of underlying violence may been slower, and much more subtle- even go unnoticed. Think about some of the nasty, little things which occur almost daily in, our lives - then we are beginning to see how deeply it is implanted as a part of our culture. There is no easy, band-aid treatment. A.L.M. July 26, 2005 [c543wds]
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