Is peanut butter really SATAN in disguise?

This blog post is about people with life threatening food allergies and how those allergies affect the people around them.  I could be wrong but I seem to be hearing about more different kinds of allergens and more life threatening allergens all the time.

I really don't have a lot to say on this topic. I just came to pose a question.  We've already started down a path. That is to say, ever greater responsibility is being placed on restaurants to provide warnings about an ever increasing number of potential allergens and offer non-allergenic alternatives.  I believe many schools ban peanut butter altogether. New health legislation is being introduced every day. 

My question is simple.  Is it fair for someone with a life threatening allergy to expect such accommodations?  This is not like the Americans with Disabilities Act.  In the case of disabilities, we have collectively agreed that some accommodations should be made.  But THIS isn't about where one can work or how someone can get to the bus or train.  This is about life or death.  Is it really appropriate to dump that responsibility on the local Shoneys or Cracker Barrel staff?  Consider this from the food service workers point of view.  You know they all swear that oath: First, serve no parm'.  But beyond that, are they prepared for a customer to place his life in their hands?  Is it even the tiniest bit logical or fair to expect them to be? 

I didn't start writing this in an attempt to change your mind.  I'm not even sure what I think yet.  I only believe we have started down a path that is becoming increasingly difficult on restaurateurs.   And I think it is beyond unfair to expect them to accommodate these issues.  I think if YOU have a life threatening allergy then its is 100% upon you, no one else, to protect yourself to whatever degree is necessary. 

Red Light Cameras: Only the WORST IDEA EVER...

In the last few years before I left New Jersey, I began to feel an uneasy us vs. them attitude towards the police and the government in general. When I realized it, I wondered why?  I’m a republican.  I’ve been pro-police all my life. Why should I now suddenly feel anti-police or anti-government?  Afterall, those laws are put in place to protect me, right? I’m a part of the system, right? Or am I?   

I really had to stop and think what is it that makes one feel like he is part of the system. The answer I came to was not intuitive. I believe having the choice to obey the law is what makes one feel like he is a part of the system. Of course, this REQUIRES having the choice to disobey the law as well. We need to decide to obey for our own sakes and for the safety of others.  Only then do we feel like this is what we want and what we choose.   

Who could say No to red light cameras?  They seem like a great idea, don’t they? Technology has advanced to the point where a system can monitor an intersection for traffic violations and automatically hand out fines. No opinions to get in the way. No one to appeal to for leniency either.  The problem is this:  A.) they never seem to pay for themselves because their presence at an intersection changes most people’s behavior. The number of fines collected does NOT measure up to the number of violations before the camera system was installed. Some communities have resorted to tinkering with yellow light timing to “catch” innocent people to generate the revenue needed to pay the millions of dollars on a system that was supposed to pay for itself.  B.) By giving the system the authority to hand out fines, we have elevated “the system” above the citizen making him feel like he’s no longer a part of the system.    

I believe the red-light camera system was the worst idea ever because it removed from us, the sense that we choose to obey or not. And by removing that choice, left us with the sense of being watched and monitored and forced to obey. Just what makes a person feel free or like a prisoner?  It’s having choices.  It is imperative that we NEVER place the law in the hands of automated systems. There is NOTHING more dehumanizing than discovering that a computerized system controls you.  I’m not saying it's necessary to break the law. But it is necessary to have the opportunity to choose to obey. Without that choice, you are beneath the system and irrelevant to the system.  

Watching what has happened between the police and the citizens in various communities around the country, it behooves us to examine why we feel like we are a part of the system or like inmates under the system. It is imperative we do this before things get worse. The red-light camera systems are only one piece of the puzzle. 

Why have a Disclaimer?

As I've said before on this blog, I hate deceptive advertising.  I hate companies that feel the need to make offers they never intend to fulfill.  Why lie?  Why not rather make an offer you can fulfill? For me, honesty and integrity is what builds credibility.  But I guess that isn't what drives a line of suckers through your door, is it?  Is that really in your best interests to have lots of look-i-lous OR would you rather have a trickle of customers who have already decided to buy from you before they ever get on the lot? Maybe its a reflection of how mobile of a society we have become; that no retail vendor is really interested in cultivating us as long term return customers.

My goal here today is to address car dealerships or really any business that chooses to advertise with a disclaimer that is indecipherable. We are not fools!  We know that if you have a disclaimer in your commercial that is in any way even the tiniest bit difficult to hear, that you are intending to trick us with false advertising. Its just that obvious.  Why do you persist in it? 

The Truely Big Lessons

As a young lad, I learned life's truly great lessons, big and small, near and far, up and down, from Sesame Street's lovable furry old Grover. He taught me to share, and now I share these thoughts with you.

Lately, every time I visit McDonalds, I wonder if they could get Grover to appear at their annual company meeting and give a lecture on Big and Small.  It seems apparent to me that over the years, the meaning of these words has been lost. Certainly, no one could disagree that the "Big" in BigMac is an outright lie. Have you looked inside one lately? There are 2 potato chip thin slivers of… well whatever passes for meat these days. Their "Big Breakfast" consists of the contents of a Sausage & Egg biscuit and a Hash Brown. Oh my… Can I eat all that? And yet, their "medium" beverage is a 32 ounce cup and their large is the size of a bucket.

Clearly, whoever sets their prices knows up from down; but this confusion over big and small is keeping me far rather than near.

The Truth of the Matter...

The Truth of the matter is, I really hate that phrase, "The truth of the matter". There was a time when "the truth of the matter" grabbed my attention like no other phrase.  It made my ears stand at attention waiting for some new kernel, a new seedling, a new fundamental grain of truth.  But now it just irritates me.

No, I haven't succumbed to the notion that everything is relative.  I still believe that there are some absolute truths.  But I also recognize that everyone has their own beliefs about what is true and what isn't. And therefor "Truth" is different for different people.

It bothers me when someone says, "The Truth of the matter is this",  because what they really mean is, "Suspend all your beliefs and listen to me.  I'm telling you something more important that anything you may happen to believe."  That's a very arrogant statement to make. I'm sure if you asked the speaker did he mean it that way, he'd probably say "no". But the truth of the matter is, no one who says "The truth of the matter is" is willing to discuss or debate or weigh out contradictory notions. They have an agenda or a moral high ground that gives them the right to tell me to forget what I think I know.

 Have you ever heard anyone say, "Well the truth of the matter is, maybe I was wrong"?  I haven't.

Speculating

They say, "it's where the smart money goes". So I've begun speculating on crude oil futures.  Except, I'm speculating that oil prices are going DOWN.  Big time...

If enough of you will join me in "speculating" likewise, we might just get the assholes who actually have the stocks to sell them off for fear that they will loose money. If enough people sell off, the price will drop.

Did you realize all these people running around saying "I speculate the price of oil will rise" are causing the price of oil to rise?  I'm deadly serious. It's not about supply and demand. It's about hype and fear.  Economists have been saying for a few years now that if it were just about supply and demand, the price would be about half what it is today. But the price is being artificially inflated by greedy assholes who keep saying "oh man, the price of oil is going to rise." Hearing that causes more greedy people to invest all their money in oil futures and causes the price to rise.  Fuck'em.  Don't believe it. 

Personally, I think it should be illegal to speculate on the price of something that can cripple our economy.  But if the greedy bastards are going to continue to speculate and profit from it, (and by the way, isn't that the definition of insider trading?) why not fight fire with fire?  

Its a shame that people are so incredibly stupid that they can't think 1 step ahead. If they did, they would realize even if they profit from a rise in crude oil prices, they loose it because everything else is more expensive. Well, here's where you can help.  Join me in "speculating" out loud every chance you get that the price of oil and gas is about to take a nose dive!  If enough of us do, we might just be able to cause a sell-off.  Keep in mind that there are many times more people like you and me than there are greedy bastards profiting.  So if we all do this, we could easily win the hype wars.

Deregulation and Free Markets in the power industry

In the last several months you must have seen the ads. They appear in the mailbox every week. “Switch to Electro-Juice and SAVE 10% on your electricity bills!” What is really happening is this:  Power Brokers (companies that produce nothing) have fought for and won the right to compete with our local generating station offering to sell you surplus power off the national grid.

Why is this bad?  Saving money is good, right?  Is it just me or has anyone else noticed that PSE&G (the company that services and runs the local generating station) hasn’t offered the same 10% discount? Why is that? It’s for the same reason that we hear in other industries all over the North-East. Salaries up here are higher and therefore it’s not cost effective to try to compete with energy generated down south.  So we don’t. We just shut down the generating station and become a power delivery company only. We just maintain the lines.  Their local monopoly was the only thing that kept local power generation afloat financially.

Now of course, we all believe in free markets right?  The free market will fix everything!  Here’s the thing.  When local high paying jobs are forced to compete with wages from other regions, the salaries don’t go down. They go away. The employees are terminated because nobody is willing to take a cut in pay.  

You may be thinking, hey it’s not my problem.  But consider this. Just what happened in California a few years ago? Why was it that suddenly they couldn’t generate enough power for the residents? What changed?  It wasn’t perhaps that a lot of older less profitable power generating stations went off line was it?  Unable to compete with grid rates perhaps? What happens when power brokers and speculators start manipulating amount of electricity available so they can increase demand and drive up the price. You think that after 5 or 10 years sitting dormant that PSE&G will just go over and fire up the local generating station?  No. By then it would cost millions to get that up and running again. It would be cost prohibitive to restore a generation station knowing that the price may just plummet again and make the investment impossible to recoup. Nobody would take the risk.   

I’m not a big fan of unions and I do believe in free markets. But allowing competition from outside the region is a bad idea.