GMO Detection

I don't know which side of the fence you might be on when it comes to GMO ingredients in your food. Like many other people, I don't know whether they are good or bad for you. I do, however support the propositions on the November ballots in Oregon and Colorado that would require labeling on food to TELL you when there are GMOs in the product. In an interview, Michael Degrasse Tyson said he didn't understand what the fuss is all about because we have been genetically modifying plants and animals for thousands of years.
I agree with the fact, but we did it through "Un-natural" selection, breeding or cross pollinating for the traits we wanted. Now it's possible (in theory) to cross a banana with a strawberry (who wouldn't love that combo) in the laboratory and presto you have a new fruit, but you couldn't do that naturally, if you tried for a thousand years.
I've often said that food producers would sell us shit on a stick if they thought they could and these days much of what we buy in the supermarket has about the same food value.
Anyway that's my rant for the week. Here's an interesting chart from rodalenews.com showing who's supporting these propositions and who's not. There are some "organic" and "whole food" folks on the opposed side and it makes you wonder why...

It's Called - WEATHER!

Ever since the tornado tore through Oklahoma May 19 and 20th hitting a couple of schools with, gasp, children in them, the news has been full of news about tornadoes in Oklahoma. Even going so far as to break into regularly scheduled shows with "breaking news" about tornadoes in Oklahoma. "TORNADOES IN OKLAHOMA" is not a newspaper headline. They've been happening since the Wizard of Oz and long before that. (I know the Wizard took place in Kansas) 

If you live in a part of the country that experiences this sort of thing, you either accept the consequences or MOVE. I realize that this is devastating if it happens to you, but you have to move on with your life; and if you don't want it to happen again, then MOVE to a part of the country that doesn't suffer from floods, hurricanes, earthquakes, mudslides, etc.

I don't know when we moved from a country of self-reliance to a country of  "please FEMA help me", but it's an ugly trend that has to stop. In my youth it was always neighbor helping neighbor when disaster struck and somehow, we always made it through. You want smaller government, stop relying on them every time you stub your toe.

It's unfortunate when anyone loses their home and/or family through no fault of their own, but it's called life, so get over it.

What Are You Eating?

A local TV station here in Tucson has a segment called "Kitchen Cops" which focuses on the way restaurants treat your food before they serve it to you. They focus on food handling, but they, along with every other show of this type, never talk about the food itself and whether IT is worth eating in the first place.

I recently finished reading a book called "The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals" by Michael Pollan and it is scarier than any Stephen King novel I've ever read. Why? Because it tells the tale of the food we eat every day in clear concise English without any horror other than the truth of the matter. By the end of the book, you almost wonder if there is anything in your local supermarket that is worth eating. From the way we grow our crops in this country to the secrecy surrounding our commercial slaughterhouses, Mr. Pollan takes us on a journey following steer #534 from birth to slaughter to the table.

This book won't turn you into a vegetarian, (thank you, (insert deity name here)) but it will make you think twice before you buy that box of Kraft Macaroni & Cheese. I do find myself questioning more about where my food comes from (Did those blueberries really come all the way from Bogota?) and I am seriously supporting my local Farmer's Market and Co-Op.

Read the book and decide for yourself, you'll be glad you did.
 

Roe v. Wade

Today marks the 40th anniversary of Roe versus Wade. It gave every woman in American access to abortion procedures without having to slink down some dark alley to find a doctor who would take care of her. Over the past few years, several conservative state legislatures have done their best to chip away at Roe V Wade passing laws restricting women's reproductive rights. Texas is one of those. Today I heard on the radio, the heart wrenching story of a woman who had to put up with the indignity of an abortion under the new Texas law which is designed solely to keep women from having an abortion under any circumstance.

The woman found out through an ultrasound that her child's brain and spine are not developing properly. Although she desperately wanted a second child, she was told by the doctor  that the child would suffer all its life with pain and be developmentally challenged and also spend its life in and out of hospitals. She and her husband together decided that the best course of action, for the child, was to terminate the pregnancy.

Why any man thinks he has the right to determine what a woman should do with her body, I just can't fathom. Until men are able to get pregnant, I feel they should have absolutely no say in what a woman does with her own body.

Of course, I don't understand why anybody feels they have the right to meddle in another persons personal affairs. I rather prefer the northeastern attitude that it's nobody's business but theirs. so why should I meddle.

This evening on a talk show, I heard a woman say that today abortion should be a dialogue between the woman and her unborn child. Let me know how that works out.

Warren Buffet wrote an Op-Ed...
about how he and his wealthy friends should pay more taxes to help bring down the deficit. I'm not in disagreement with his thinking, we will never pay down the deficit without additional revenues {Almost anyone who's ever tried to pay off their credit cards will attest to that). Well, Mr. Buffet, if you and your friends want to help in this endeavor, you don't have to wait for our ineffectual congress to do their job, just go to this website and apply your millions directly to the problem. Feel free to come back as often as you feel you are able. (Please pass this information along to your friends).

Oil, oil everywhere...

According to a survey just out, the Obama administration has a 69% disapproval rating for how they have handled the BP oil spill so far. This is higher than the disapproval rating for how the Bush administration handled hurricane Katrina. The part that I find interesting is that none of the respondents had any idea as to how they could be handling it better; they just don't like the way it's being handed by the government.
I'm not sure who is responding to these kinds of polls, but I think that when some idiot has no useful followup to his opinion, you should just discount his response totally. BP evidently had no plan for dealing with this sort of situation and you would think that they would be the experts. If they have no clue as to how to handle this, then what should the government do except to refuse to let them drill in the first place.

Tomorrow is the National Day of Prayer.
Do I care?
No!
I'm not a Christian and don't believe- no wait, my beliefs have no place in this argument. I'll just say that I don't agree with either side in this matter. I just don't care about the National Day of Prayer, except to say that I have better things to do with my time.
However, here are some people who do care who's praying. An atheist woman in Wisconsin feels injured and abused by a national call to prayer. I say, get over yourself. If people want to spend their time talking to the sky, let them. It doesn't affect me. Atheists are just as rabid in their non-beliefs as fundamentalists are in their beliefs.
I wish both would find find something better to do than bother everyone else. The atheist quoted the sermon on the mount in saying that you should pray to god in private. Well, I believe that she should also rant in private and let the rest of us go on with our lives.