When Will It Be Safe To Eat Again?
I hate to bring up questions when I don’t have any answers, but I am going to do it anyway. The news today contains a recall of beef, expanding t0 21.7 MILLION pound of hamburger “possibly” containing e. coli. Believe me, if this stuff was safe, the manufacturer would not be recalling it. That’s a lot of money off the hoof.
It seems like every day there is another recall of something that will kill either you, your children, or your pets. Some days it’s meat. Some days it’s designer lettuce. Some days it’s dog food. Some days it’s toys. The only thing that is sure is that it is happening more and more often and that makes me nervous as hell. I don’t understand why the problem is getting worse and I have no idea what to do about it. I’m not sure anybody does or it probably wouldn’t be happening.
Labor Day?
As far as I can tell, Labor day is an idea whose time has gone. I have always been ambivalent about labor unions. They seem to have done just about as much harm as good. There has always been the odor of crooked dealings about them, even though they righted a wrong or two many decades ago. But, whether they were a positive or negative influence in America many years ago, in our current day they have squandered all the influence they ever had.
Labor unions are now simply irrelevant. Just what is a union supposed to do when the corporation that it is negotiating with simply decides to move its manufacturing operation to Thailand? What does their rule book say about that? Do they call a strike? Who do they go on strike against? The businessmen whose greed caused it to be moved? The politicians that greased the rails for the big-money interests that control them? The Thai workers who will have very little say in things either? Read more
Wall Street vs. the Real Economy
I will admit that I don’t really understand all of the ins and outs of economics. I took classes in this subject while at university, and I have read a number of textbooks in the field. I still find some facets of economics to be confusing. However, since I have often heard the experts talk about it, and since they are obviously full of crap, I think I am justified in writing on this subject. So I think I’ll just go ahead and have a rant. Consider that to be your rant warning. ;o)
What we hear about on the financial news, day in and day out, is the stock market. Wall Street is king. I understand that some small people have money in the stock market, usually in retirement plans that they don’t have a clue about, and on which stock brokers earn a better living than do the investors. But the bulk of the money made in the stock market is made by people that are already rich. Read more
Why Am I a Curmudgeon?
Over the years, I have come to believe that we are giving up control over our lives to big corporations and to the government that those corporations have purchased. When we feel that we have no control, we are right. This blog will explore the concessions that we have made and the actions that we need to take to retain our lives as freely functioning people. It is not a liberal vs. conservative thing. It is not a Democratic vs. Republican thing. It is not an America against the world thing. It is a life with dignity thing.
We do what the media tells us to do. Major corporations wield vast influence over the media and what they tell us. The government is similarly controlled by big money interests. This is not a conspiracy. It is simply the rich people telling everybody else what to do in order that they can make more money. It’s hard to blame them. Since we are letting them do it, we are the ones that we must blame. Read more
