1) LINDSEY LOHAN QUITS SHOW BIZ TO BECOME HIGH SCHOOL GUIDANCE COUNSELOR.
2) AL SHARPTON TO JOIN CAST OF "DUCK DYNASTY."
3) MILEY CYRUS SAYS SHE WILL BEND OVER BACKWARDS TO ENTERTRAIN TROOPS.
4) OBAMA VOWS TO UPHOLD CONSTITUTION AND ALL PROMISES MADE TO OPRAH.
5) JOE BIDEN WINS "DANCING WITH THE STARS."
6) IGGIE AZALEA PREGNANT WITH BILL CLINTON'S BABY.
7) ROSIE ODONNELL PREGNANT WITH HILLARY CLINTON'S BABY.
8) MILITARY WITHDRAWS FROM AFHGANISTAN: REASSIGNED TO CHICAGO.
9) COMMANDER OF CHICAGO TROOPS LONGS FOR PEACEFUL DAYS FIGHTING ISIS.
10) ALL THE CHILDREN IN THE STATE OF KANSAS ADOPTED BY BRAD AND ANGELINA.
Thursday, April 23, 2015
Monday, April 20, 2015
TEN THINGS WE THINK WE KNOW
Someone once said a little knowledge is a dangerous thing. It could also be said that misinformation that passes as fact can be a dangerous thing, too. Erroneous information can distort issues, prejudice our thinking, and possibly cause us to take a wrong turn in making everyday decisions in our lives. Below is a list of items that our "comon wisdom" has ordained as fact. Some are serious, others just plain silly. How many of the these have you regarded as fact?
Myth: Breast cancer is the leading cause of death in women.
Truth: While nearly fifty thousand women a year die from breast cancer, cardiovascular disease kills half a million women annually.
Myth: Our forest are swiftly disappearing:
Truth: We have more forest acreage today than we did a century ago. According to the US Forestry Service, our country grows 22 million cubic feet of wood a year, while cutting down 16.5 million cubic feet a year, a net increase of 36 percent annually.
Myth: Cinderella's slippers were made of glass.
Truth: In the original version of Cinderella written in Old French, her slippers were made of white squirrel fur, or "vair." Years later, subsequent translations mistook "vair" for "verre", which means glass. Cinderella has been wearing glass slippers ever since.
Myth: Teen smoking is on the rise.
Truth: Recent studies have found that 15 percent of current high school seniors smoke at least a half pack of cigarettes daily, compared to 20 percent of seniors in 1979.
Myth: Sharks must keep moving or die.
Truth: While most species of shark breath by swimming with their mouths open, other species, such as the sandtiger, nurse, bull and lemon sharks can breath without having to swim.
Myth: Handguns are the leading cause of death in children under the age of ten.
Truth: Fewer than fifty children a year under ten are killed by handguns. By comparison, twice that number annually drown in five-gallon buckets, and five times that number drown in bathtubs.
Myth: The term "shyster" is derived from the Shakespeare character of Shylock.
Truth: "Shyster" is actually derived from from an unscrupulous American lawyer named Scheuster, who practiced law in the 1840's.
Myth: Urban sprawl is rapidly overtaking our nation.
Truth: Cities and suburbs comprise a mere 3 percent of the total US land area. In fact, according to the Pacific Research Institute, the amount of government protected land has tripled in the past thirty years.
Myth: Lemmings are furry little animals that follow one another to their death.
Truth: Lemmings do not follow each other into the sea and drown. Being migratory animals, they leave their home areas when food becomes scarce, and will forge rivers and streams to find new food sources. Unfortunately, sometimes they attempt to swim across bodies of water that are too deep for them to negotiate. The result is that large numbers will drown.
Myth: The total number of police officers killed in the line of duty is increasing.
Truth: Figures from the US Bureau of Statistics show that in 1979, 134 police officers were killed nationwide. Last year it was fewer than one hundred.
It is a truism that knowledge is power. But wrong information can be as dangerous as no information at all.
Myth: Breast cancer is the leading cause of death in women.
Truth: While nearly fifty thousand women a year die from breast cancer, cardiovascular disease kills half a million women annually.
Myth: Our forest are swiftly disappearing:
Truth: We have more forest acreage today than we did a century ago. According to the US Forestry Service, our country grows 22 million cubic feet of wood a year, while cutting down 16.5 million cubic feet a year, a net increase of 36 percent annually.
Myth: Cinderella's slippers were made of glass.
Truth: In the original version of Cinderella written in Old French, her slippers were made of white squirrel fur, or "vair." Years later, subsequent translations mistook "vair" for "verre", which means glass. Cinderella has been wearing glass slippers ever since.
Myth: Teen smoking is on the rise.
Truth: Recent studies have found that 15 percent of current high school seniors smoke at least a half pack of cigarettes daily, compared to 20 percent of seniors in 1979.
Myth: Sharks must keep moving or die.
Truth: While most species of shark breath by swimming with their mouths open, other species, such as the sandtiger, nurse, bull and lemon sharks can breath without having to swim.
Myth: Handguns are the leading cause of death in children under the age of ten.
Truth: Fewer than fifty children a year under ten are killed by handguns. By comparison, twice that number annually drown in five-gallon buckets, and five times that number drown in bathtubs.
Myth: The term "shyster" is derived from the Shakespeare character of Shylock.
Truth: "Shyster" is actually derived from from an unscrupulous American lawyer named Scheuster, who practiced law in the 1840's.
Myth: Urban sprawl is rapidly overtaking our nation.
Truth: Cities and suburbs comprise a mere 3 percent of the total US land area. In fact, according to the Pacific Research Institute, the amount of government protected land has tripled in the past thirty years.
Myth: Lemmings are furry little animals that follow one another to their death.
Truth: Lemmings do not follow each other into the sea and drown. Being migratory animals, they leave their home areas when food becomes scarce, and will forge rivers and streams to find new food sources. Unfortunately, sometimes they attempt to swim across bodies of water that are too deep for them to negotiate. The result is that large numbers will drown.
Myth: The total number of police officers killed in the line of duty is increasing.
Truth: Figures from the US Bureau of Statistics show that in 1979, 134 police officers were killed nationwide. Last year it was fewer than one hundred.
It is a truism that knowledge is power. But wrong information can be as dangerous as no information at all.
Friday, April 3, 2015
UNDER THE BLOOD MOON
Since April 4 will see both a lunar eclipse and a blood moon, I thought it was an appropriate time to post a poem I wrote titled UNDER A BLOOD MOON that was published in Loves Chance magazine.
UNDER A BLOOD MOON
We kissed
under the light of the blood moon
The cold and docile orb
distorted and bloated
like a distended organ
its face burnished, as if
in the grip of a feverish seizure,
swollen with passion
unblinking and unapologetic
in its lunar elegance,
almost begging us to touch it
Instead we kissed again,
daring our love to flourish
under the light of the blood moon
###
UNDER A BLOOD MOON
We kissed
under the light of the blood moon
The cold and docile orb
distorted and bloated
like a distended organ
its face burnished, as if
in the grip of a feverish seizure,
swollen with passion
unblinking and unapologetic
in its lunar elegance,
almost begging us to touch it
Instead we kissed again,
daring our love to flourish
under the light of the blood moon
###
Wednesday, March 18, 2015
FOOD POISONING
You've no doubt heard or read how evil corporations like Monsanto are slowly poisoning us by putting additives and chemicals in our food. The so-called experts advise us to "eat natural." Consume only that which comes directly from nature. Look for the list of ingredients, and if you can hardly pronounce any of them, don't eat it. For example, here is a partial list of ingredients found in one of our everyday foods you may very likely have in your own kitchen: glutamic acid, aspartic acid, histidine, leucine, E515, E300, E306, methylbut-1-YL, ethanoate, ethyl ethanoate, pentyl acetate, methylbutyl ethanoate, , ethyl ethanoate, yellow-orange E101, yellow-brown E160a, methylbutyl lutonate, ethane gas.
Wow! Scary stuff! What horrible Monsanto concoction contains this devil's brew of chemicals? Wait for it...wait for it...Nature's own BANANA!! That's right. Those substances and more can be found in every banana plucked off of every banana tree on the planet. Moral of story? Every edible plant and animal on earth contains a cornucopia of chemical ingredients. The concept of eating "natural" indicates a lack of biological knowledge on the part of its adherants.
One final question? What would companies like Monsanto have to gain by poisoning their customers? Sounds like a stupid business plan to me.
Wow! Scary stuff! What horrible Monsanto concoction contains this devil's brew of chemicals? Wait for it...wait for it...Nature's own BANANA!! That's right. Those substances and more can be found in every banana plucked off of every banana tree on the planet. Moral of story? Every edible plant and animal on earth contains a cornucopia of chemical ingredients. The concept of eating "natural" indicates a lack of biological knowledge on the part of its adherants.
One final question? What would companies like Monsanto have to gain by poisoning their customers? Sounds like a stupid business plan to me.
Tuesday, March 17, 2015
Birthday Poem
Since today is my birthday and also the one year anniversary of my little blog, I thought it would be appropriate to post a poem I had published several years ago about getting older.
GAMBLING WITH TIME
What is age
but an illusion
That melts like a sugar cube
inside our minds
Sweet and sour
raw and spicy
For there is no time except
for the play that skims through your head
Because life is like
betting on a longshot
The over/under
some abstract number
The odds pivoting
like a roulette ball
When the only sure thing
is that there is no sure thing
So place your bets,
then read em and weep.
GAMBLING WITH TIME
What is age
but an illusion
That melts like a sugar cube
inside our minds
Sweet and sour
raw and spicy
For there is no time except
for the play that skims through your head
Because life is like
betting on a longshot
The over/under
some abstract number
The odds pivoting
like a roulette ball
When the only sure thing
is that there is no sure thing
So place your bets,
then read em and weep.
Wednesday, March 4, 2015
2001: A SPACE TRAJEDY
One of my favorite films of all time is Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY, which was released in 1968. Based on a short story by the iconic Sci-Fi author, Arthur C. Clarke, it depicts a 21st century where flying to the moon is as routine as hopping a plane to LA. Enormous space stations orbit the earth, and the moon itself is fully colonized. Such was the vision of life in the coming turn of the century.
I have viewed the movie countless times. The first time was in 1968 along with two of my buddies at the old McVickers theatre in downtown Chicago. It was a mindblowing experience, partly because we were watching the movie stoned. But even straight, it was an exhilirating experience thanks to the Oscar winning special effects.
I watched SPACE ODYSSEY again a couple of weeks ago on one of the cable channels. This time, instead of exhiliration, I felt a sadness--sadness over what could have been compared to what is.
Kubrick, Clarke and other visionaries of their day were wrong. Flights to the moon are not commonplace. We have not colonized the lunar landscape. There are no massive space stations orbitting earth. And to think we had such a great start in the 60's.
At the beginning of the 1960's, President Kennedy made a famous speech in which he declared that by the end of the decade we would put a man on the moon. With the finest scientific minds in the country and a sufficient budget, we achieved the goal in less than a decade. That first moon landing was followed by five more, the final one taking place in April of 1972. Subsequently, we built space shuttles ande a space station. There was still talk of colonizing the moon and setting foot on Mars.
We are now 14 years past 2001, and there is no space odyssey. No human has set foot on the moon in 43 years. We have yet to step foot on Mars. Thanks to President Obama's policies, we no longer have any space shuttles, and the only working space station belongs to the Russians.
So what happened to the dreams and visions of the 60's and 70's? In a word: government. Nasa took control of the space program, and when that occured, space exploration went from a scientific endeavor to a political endeavor. Budgets became political footballs. Goals and strategies became political footballs. No one had to worry about success and achievement to further their careers because careers were propped up by political pull and bureaucratic inertia.
In the interim, we have seen a virtual explosion in other technologies, such as computers, the internet, cellphones, tablets, smart TV's, streaming, texting, etc. Buy a computer, smartphone or MP3 player, and within a few years it becomes obsolete because of lightning advances in the technology. And in every single instance, these innovations were the creations of free enterprise and individual entrepeneurs--not a government agency like Nasa or the FCC.
The lesson to be learned is simple. Endeavors by private enterprise are dynamic, efficient, goal oriented. Endeavors by government agencies, on the other hand, are ponderous, inefficient and stunted by political whims and in-fighting.
Had our leaders in Washington thrown space exploration to the private sector a half century ago instead of relegating it to a bureaucracy that stifles innovation and long-range planning, I dare say we would be having those routine flights to the moon, and colonies on Mars.
That is why it saddens me to watch Kubrick's masterpiece of filmmaking. Thanks to government, our space odyssey has become as empty as space itself, our dreams and visions trapped in a vacuum.
Open the podbay doors, Hal...
I have viewed the movie countless times. The first time was in 1968 along with two of my buddies at the old McVickers theatre in downtown Chicago. It was a mindblowing experience, partly because we were watching the movie stoned. But even straight, it was an exhilirating experience thanks to the Oscar winning special effects.
I watched SPACE ODYSSEY again a couple of weeks ago on one of the cable channels. This time, instead of exhiliration, I felt a sadness--sadness over what could have been compared to what is.
Kubrick, Clarke and other visionaries of their day were wrong. Flights to the moon are not commonplace. We have not colonized the lunar landscape. There are no massive space stations orbitting earth. And to think we had such a great start in the 60's.
At the beginning of the 1960's, President Kennedy made a famous speech in which he declared that by the end of the decade we would put a man on the moon. With the finest scientific minds in the country and a sufficient budget, we achieved the goal in less than a decade. That first moon landing was followed by five more, the final one taking place in April of 1972. Subsequently, we built space shuttles ande a space station. There was still talk of colonizing the moon and setting foot on Mars.
We are now 14 years past 2001, and there is no space odyssey. No human has set foot on the moon in 43 years. We have yet to step foot on Mars. Thanks to President Obama's policies, we no longer have any space shuttles, and the only working space station belongs to the Russians.
So what happened to the dreams and visions of the 60's and 70's? In a word: government. Nasa took control of the space program, and when that occured, space exploration went from a scientific endeavor to a political endeavor. Budgets became political footballs. Goals and strategies became political footballs. No one had to worry about success and achievement to further their careers because careers were propped up by political pull and bureaucratic inertia.
In the interim, we have seen a virtual explosion in other technologies, such as computers, the internet, cellphones, tablets, smart TV's, streaming, texting, etc. Buy a computer, smartphone or MP3 player, and within a few years it becomes obsolete because of lightning advances in the technology. And in every single instance, these innovations were the creations of free enterprise and individual entrepeneurs--not a government agency like Nasa or the FCC.
The lesson to be learned is simple. Endeavors by private enterprise are dynamic, efficient, goal oriented. Endeavors by government agencies, on the other hand, are ponderous, inefficient and stunted by political whims and in-fighting.
Had our leaders in Washington thrown space exploration to the private sector a half century ago instead of relegating it to a bureaucracy that stifles innovation and long-range planning, I dare say we would be having those routine flights to the moon, and colonies on Mars.
That is why it saddens me to watch Kubrick's masterpiece of filmmaking. Thanks to government, our space odyssey has become as empty as space itself, our dreams and visions trapped in a vacuum.
Open the podbay doors, Hal...
Friday, February 20, 2015
THE ONE PERCENT LIE
If Barack Obama accomplished anything during his presidency, it has been to popularize the term one percent. In doing so, he has revealed his true political leanings byinjecting classic Marxist class warfare rhetoric into political discourse. Who among us has not heard the phrase bandied about over the past six years? What is it supposed to signify? Marxist doctrine tells us that the one percenters are those ultra rich folks who are the top one percent of the income level. In turn, they are the wealthy elite who run the country and exploit everyone under them on the economic ladder. They are evil, and we are to fear them, and ultimately dislodge them from their lavish estates so they can no longer control the rest of us.
But who exactly are these one percenters we are told to distrust and despise? Are they money-grubbing, profit mongering, cigar chomping ruthless capitalist barons as leftists would have us believe? Are they members of an exclusive club whose membership is severely restricted?
The University of Michigan Panel Study of Income Dynamics decided to investigate. Their finding were eye opening, to say the least. The study completely obliterates the notion that the rich get richer, the poor get poorer, and that everyone in between is in a perpetual state of economic stagnation from which there is no escape. Here is what the study found:
By age 60, almost 70% of the working population will spend at least one year in the top 20% of income earners; 53% will have at least one year in the top 10% of earners; 11% will spend at least one year in the top 1% of earners. And to dispel the idea that the one percenters have exclusive membership in a highly restricted club, only a microscopic .06% remain in the top 1% for more than a decade.
What these numbers show is that income status in the US is quite fluid. People go up the ladder, down the ladder, back up the ladder, and so forth. The idea that the top 1% is a private club is demolished. People come, people go.
What doesn't change is the left wing's attempts to instigate class warfare, where the rich devour the poor, and people are forever locked into their economic status like medievil serfs. In truth, upward mobility is the hallmark of a free market society. All that is required is hard work, dedication and goals. While success is not guaranteed, failure is not pre-ordained by some ruthless elite hiding in their mansions.
But who exactly are these one percenters we are told to distrust and despise? Are they money-grubbing, profit mongering, cigar chomping ruthless capitalist barons as leftists would have us believe? Are they members of an exclusive club whose membership is severely restricted?
The University of Michigan Panel Study of Income Dynamics decided to investigate. Their finding were eye opening, to say the least. The study completely obliterates the notion that the rich get richer, the poor get poorer, and that everyone in between is in a perpetual state of economic stagnation from which there is no escape. Here is what the study found:
By age 60, almost 70% of the working population will spend at least one year in the top 20% of income earners; 53% will have at least one year in the top 10% of earners; 11% will spend at least one year in the top 1% of earners. And to dispel the idea that the one percenters have exclusive membership in a highly restricted club, only a microscopic .06% remain in the top 1% for more than a decade.
What these numbers show is that income status in the US is quite fluid. People go up the ladder, down the ladder, back up the ladder, and so forth. The idea that the top 1% is a private club is demolished. People come, people go.
What doesn't change is the left wing's attempts to instigate class warfare, where the rich devour the poor, and people are forever locked into their economic status like medievil serfs. In truth, upward mobility is the hallmark of a free market society. All that is required is hard work, dedication and goals. While success is not guaranteed, failure is not pre-ordained by some ruthless elite hiding in their mansions.
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