Health and dis-ease

I am just drop-jawed in awe of Dustin Hoffman’s acting talent.  He can be anyone.    One of the roles he played was a new college graduate who receives advice to look for employment in “plastics.”

Plastics certainly have reduced the number of broken containers on the kitchen or dining room floor.  However, the concerns of the far left, all-natural tree-huggers seem to now be seconded by research institutions.

What are the health field’s uses and concerns about plastic?  I think that plastics have greatly increased sanitation levels.  Disposables may be wasteful, but in an infection-conscious environment, the waste is far outshadowed by the benefits in sterile equipment.

On the other hand, a doctor at Johns Hopkins University raises the concern that dioxins are bleeding from plastic wrap and plastic containers into food.  Dioxins are not good for people.  In fact, they are VERY bad – carcinogenic, to be precise.  This is not good news for all the microwave oven plastic accessories businesses.  Can the population make the switch back to (breakable) glass and ceramic dishes for cooking?

It is horrifically sad that a father reportedly killed his two-and-a-half-year-old son because he owed $4,000 of child support.

The atrociousness of this murder is exponentially compounded by the fact that this is not a novel event.  Each year parents, step-parents, babysitters, foster parents, and grandparents are found guilty of willful or negligent murder of children in their care.

Where is the country’s value system?  Why do we test people to see if they can correctly cut hair or draft a deed, but we totally “trust” something – I don’t know what – to insure that a wee human being will be nourished, nurtured, and protected by his parents.  What insanity!

The biological capacity to make a baby does NOT automatically endow the parents with the skills to raise it.   One may counter that there are mandated reporters to watch for abuse and then agencies in place to intervene, should it be deemed necessary.  If one further attempts to assert that these adequately manage the problem, this is not so.

Pre-parental training and testing is overdue.

“God is on OUR side” is a sentiment probably felt by any and every country involved in armed conflict.  God intended us to have enough land for OUR people (Hitler and Austria, United States and western expansion).  God intended that OUR religion dominate and that others disappear (just about everywhere.)  God intended that OUR ethnic group or race dominate and all others get the bleep out or be extinguished from the face of the earth (just about everywhere).  When you read the plain words, don’t they sound about as immature as a two-year-old with the gimmes?  So, why did and do countries adopt the manifest destiny philosophy?

Jingoism is belligerent, aggressive, and selfish nationalism (please see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jingoism for a fine definition and discussion.)  What a bizarre name it is for the concept!  How about patrarrogance? (Patriotic arrogance) Or egoarroblindagance?  Or xenobigotrism?  The United States certainly was filled with it after 9/11, although it had always been lurking under the surface of the consciousness.  Soon after the attack, copious cars were displaying American flags, especially ones which could be inexpensively purchased and hooked over the window.  Although it truly only proved that people could afford the flag and could figure out how to attach it, it seemed to represent an ugly “me first” attitude about America, its sources for oil, and its willingness to use military force to get what it wants.

However, many years have passed.  I have learned from the experience.  I am not particularly proud of this, but I will be honest:  before the attack on the twin towers, I felt that we were magically protected on our own continental boundaries (sorry, Hawa’ai and Alaska.)   It was as if I believed that a Star Trek force field was up, protecting the mainland.  Therefore, the invasion of 9/11 destroyed a faith I had.  Citizens of other countries probably would laugh at my naiveté, but the events truly led to a loss of innocence for me.  Now I am sadder and hopefully wiser.  (For example, when the four –day ban on air traffic ended, the first time I heard jet engines above, I had these thoughts:  “What is that sound?  Oh, I know that sound: it is the noise of an airplane.  I wonder what it is doing.  I think it will probably crash into the side of my house and into the bathroom where I am standing.”  That sequence NEVER would have occurred to me before Sept 11^th.)

Many of us are wiser.  (Just a few still think that pouring money into the military complex solves all problems.  From them, I get the Internet anti-Democrat jibes and “Pray for the soldiers” emails.)  Most of us are now recognizing that the song “God Bless America” is passé and the new song needs to be “God Bless the World.”