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No More Teddy Bears

No more candle light vigils.  No more piles of teddy bears.  No more stacks of flowers.  No more fences covered with ribbons.  No more platitudes or speeches of remembrance.  We react compassionately to tragic events after the fact.  They fade from memory and we fail to act to prevent the next one.

There were probably a multitude of factors that collided in the Tucson shooting that left 6 dead and many more wounded.

First, it is much, much too easy to get guns in this country.  I read recently that there are 85 guns for every 100 people in the US.  If they were evenly distributed that would be almost be a gun for every man, woman and child in the US.

Secondly, access to health care in this country is atrocious Continue reading “No More Teddy Bears”

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Pesto

My girlfriend, “I just love this pesto shit.”

So I asked, “What sort of animal shits pesto?”

She replied, “I don’t care, I just love this shit.”

When she read the post she thought she should have said, “I don’t know, but I want one for a pet.  I just love this shit.”

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Kissed by Stephen Hawking

I am probably the only person on the planet who has been kissed by Stephen Hawking… in a dream.  Let me allow that to sink in for a minute, after all I am still trying to get over it myself.

In my dream I was at a house that was my parents, but not like any house they have ever lived in.  Stephen was tooling around his wheel chair.  Continue reading “Kissed by Stephen Hawking”

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Wealth Inequality = Social Problems

Nicholas Kristof in the New York Times Equality, a True Soul Food

He is summarizing a British report on the societal effects of wealth inequality. Currently in America “the wealthiest 1 percent of Americans possess a greater collective net worth than the bottom 90 percent.”  I do not understand why everyone, except the 1%, is not shocked and up in arms over this fact.  But that is me.

The basic premise of the study, backed up by tons of data is this.  With great wealth inequality you create a wide variety of personal and social stressors.  There are increases in crime, Continue reading “Wealth Inequality = Social Problems”

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Ace Hardware — Hip Hip Hooray

After about 3 weeks of casually looking when I was in a store anyway, I found a pair of gloves for yard work. “Big deal”, you say. Yes, because my primary criteron was to find a pair not made in China. I had checked all the usual suspects, China*Mart, the China*Mart want-to-be Lowe’s, etc. Every pair of gloves I picked had been manufactured in China.

I was close to an Ace Hardware store Sunday, so I decided to buzz in and see what they had in the work glove department. I picked up several pair, and they were identified as having been made in Pakistan. While this is not American made, I had decided that I would not be able to find a pair of American made work gloves and would settle for a pair made anywhere but China.

I am 100% sure that Pakistan needs the work much more than China. Having worked for a large retailer I know that they make a show of making sure their products are manufactured in factories with some modicum of humane treatment. I can only hope Ace Hardware does this too.

I bought them. Thanks Ace Hardware.

See I Want to Buy American

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Some Squirrelly Insights

It was sunny, but cold winter morning in St. Louis.  Robin and I were Supposedly, this photo is undoctored!!!preparing for our Sunday morning ritual of 99 cents bowling.   We were eating that great American breakfast of cereal and milk before we ventured out in -10 degrees (Celsius – that is) weather.  She had offered to fix some hot oatmeal or cream of wheat, but I had declined as we were running a little late.

Robin noticed them first as she was sitting closest to the window.  The backyard was just full of squirrels acting…well squirrelly.  There must have between 7 and 10 squirrels running across the yard, through the tree limbs, chasing each other.  Continue reading “Some Squirrelly Insights”

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Divorcing Susan G. Komen

Susan G. Komen Foundation Elbows Out Charities Over Use Of The Word ‘Cure’

I’ve been donating to the Susan G. Komen Foundation for years. It is not large amounts of money, $100 to $200 a year.  I rotate my charitable giving across several charities.

I first started giving to the Komen Foundation in honor of an ex-girlfriend that died of breast cancer.   Continue reading “Divorcing Susan G. Komen”