How Not To Hunt For Easter Eggs

Easter is supposed to be a time of peace, atonement, reflection, and in Connecticut... rioting at a child Easter egg hunt. Yep! The "I want free stuff and I will behave badly if you don't give it to me now" mentality takes no break for Easter. A free Easter egg hunt in Orange, Conn., turned into a chaotic "mess" this year when parents rushed the field and ignored staff members' instructions. It was, "My child wants his free stuff first, I guess." What a lesson for the little ones to learn on a sacred day.

I remember attending these same kinds of Easter egg hunts with Jane when she was a little girl. They were simple, fun and a free event in every U.S. city an town. Children arrive at certain times for age group "hunts" for plastic eggs filled with trinkets or candy and  just plain candy that are spread about the hunt area for easy access foe all kids. That way bigger kids can't push littler ones away and grab more goodies. Even a slacker like me could find enough eggs to make me happy at those hunts. It's organized and precise fun for children. At an Easter egg there is no need to rush to the front or act selfishly to find plenty of goodies. The small ones have fun, and mom and dad get to watch a memorial child moment all free, courtesy of charities that provide the experience.

But we live in the age of entitlement, the "I want free stuff' era". Selfishness, not brotherly/sisterly love, rules today.  The simple Easter egg hunt of yesterday that was organized and co operative is now as chaotic as a free food line.  This event in Orange Connecticut, hosted by PEZ Candy USA, was forced to end early though. "Unfortunately people chose to enter the first field prior to anyone from PEZ staff starting the activity. The crowd moved to the second field, waited for only a couple of minutes and proceeded to rush the field without being directed to do so and before the posted start time," a statement from the company said. Parents pushed their kids into the hunt area to get an advantage and "egged" them on to grab whatever they could get prior to the official start. Someone should throw eggs at those parents.

The sensible, normal parents at the hunt, those who understand the value of the hunt is not to loot the field of candy first, but to share in a communal event of generosity and care for others  reported many kids had to leave without any Easter eggs. At least one said their child got pushed and got a bloody nose. (Sounds like a Christmas shoe sale event). A PEZ representative described the parents as being like "locusts." One parent commented on the company's Face book page expressing their disappointment over what happened Saturday afternoon. "This event was a joke to put it mildly," Susan Kristie Nandori DeRosa said on Face book. "We have a 3 year old. The parents first of all were letting their uncontrolled children pick up eggs prior to the start. Then when the event started all the parents rushed in and we're picking up the eggs."

PEZ said they laid out 10,000 eggs for the Easter egg hunt and distributed candy and coupons to participants as they left to try and remedy the situation. But greed and stupidity won out over sharing sensibly. Oh, wait....that's normality today.

The Apology Tour

The apology tour continues every day in the United Sates. The PC, liberal, in the bubble world in which we live demands "apologies" from public officials for anything that is not considered politically correct. This includes sexist statements, either made in jest or for humor. My question is why is this apology strategy necessary or even healthy?

An apology tour example comes from Alabama Gov. Robert J. Bentley. Bently just admitted that he has lusted for an aide and that he made sexually explicit comments to her. Wow! A male who made sexist comments. Is this shocking? Anyway, the governor's political adviser, one Rebekah Mason, was the victim of the governor's comments that he told Mason he enjoys standing behind her and touching her breasts. It's not nice that he said such things. Maybe Rebekah should have given the gov. a swift kick down below or just had a chat with the governor's wife about such remarks.

But no. This is the age of political correctness, one in which free speech, even bad speech, is condemned publicly and the speaker humiliated into making a public apology.  Putting a scarlet letter on the one who miss spoke is the tactic of the day. Governor Bentley denied that his sexual advances led to what he called a "physical affair" with Mason. Therefore, Governor Bentley said he apologized for his actions to Mason, to Mason's family and to his own family. In a press conference in the Capitol, Bentley apologized to Alabama's on a day he called difficult for him. Strange.....Why can't the voters just determine at the ballot box whether Bentley deserves to continue serve in their place. Does an orchestrated dog and pony show apology really mean anything?

Here's  some of what the governor said at his apology tour press conference. "Since that time I have apologized to members of my family, to Mrs. Mason and her family and I apologized then for any conversations and behavior then that was inappropriate. Today I want to apologized to the people of the state of Alabama and once again I want to apologize to my family. I am truly sorry and I accept full responsibility."

I think the only thing the Governor should publicly apologize for is his wasting time with that apology.  Ms. Mason is capable of handling the Governor's bad behavior in private or in court if that doesn't work. To make a stupid comment a public policy issue just shows how dumb politics and we the people have become.

Mind Control In School

Thought control has arrived at one American elementary school. I am not surprised. In the age of political correctness, adult free speech has long been limited by the liberal agenda's 11th commandment- "Thou shalt not say anything that may hurt my feelings."  Changing the language to promote a social agenda is a favored liberal tactic today. What better way than to promote that nonsense in the elementary schools. Brainwash them while they are not capable of fighting back.

Thought and speech control hit New Jersey kids recently. It all started when a New Jersey sixth grader was chatting with a classmate and the subject of vegetarianism came up. Oh my! We adults are supposed to smile and say that "vegetarianism is "healthier" and that everyone should eat that way (I say, no way).  But small children have been too busy being kids and thinking rationally to be subject to such behaviors. New Jersey ants to indoctrinate the small humans to change that. What better way than telling them to stop thinking and speaking for themselves. parroting the left agenda is far more politically correct.

One student (referred to as C.C. in legal documents) made no bones about where he was coming from, telling his classmate (referred to as K.S.) that “it's not good to not eat meat” and that “he should eat meat because he'd be smarter and have bigger brains." O I agree. But one last comment sent the adult PC police to stop such free thinking. When he said the K.S. that “Vegetarians are idiots,”  the idiots that inhabit the politically correct world pounced.
They demand that such subordination be stopped! How awful they think, is it when a child actually thinks and speaks for himself. So the school district said that C.C.’s punishment was five lunch-time detentions during which he had the “opportunity to speak with staff about his actions, with an intention of preventing future instances of such conduct.”  I have not seen such thought control since I read the novel 1984. Hmmmmm I wonder if the school thought police fed him only vegetables at those detention lunches.

But that is not enough for a heathen who dos not practice liberal orthodoxy!  In addition, the Montgomery Township school board in which the school operates claimed that C.C. committed “harassment, intimidation, or bullying” of a classmate.

Soon an administrative judge entered into this free speech issue (C.C. v. Board of Ed., 2016 WL 958848) The District concluded that C.C. made verbal communications that were reasonably perceived as being motivated by a distinguishing characteristic between the two boys, namely vegetarianism, which substantially interfered with the rights of K.S. and had the effect of insulting or demeaning him. In other words "He hurt K.S.' feelings. Wow! We all know that the P.C. police only approve of hurting the feelings of those who expose their intolerant stupidity. "Not fair, Not fair" they intone, when someone says something to them they do not like.
The judge, a P.C. advocate himself, referred to New Jersey's anti bullying law that is posted on the school district's web site, which states:

“Harassment, intimidation or bullying” means any gesture, any written, verbal or physical act, or any electronic communication, whether it be a single incident or a series of incidents, that is reasonably perceived as being motivated either by any actual or perceived characteristic, such as race, color, religion, ancestry, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, or a mental, physical or sensory disability, or by any other distinguishing characteristic, that takes place on school property, at any school sponsored function, on a school bus, or off school grounds as provided for in section 16 of P.L.2010, c.122 (C.18A:37-15.3), that substantially disrupts or interferes with the orderly operation of the school or the rights of other students and that:

(a) a reasonable person should know, under the circumstances, will have the effect of physically or emotionally harming a student or damaging the student's property, or placing a student in reasonable fear of physical or emotional harm to his person or damage to his property;
(b) has the effect of insulting or demeaning any student or group of students; or
(c) creates a hostile educational environment for the student by interfering with a student's education or by severely or pervasively causing physical or emotional harm to the student.
And that he judge sided with the school district last week, ruling that C.C.’s comments “are reasonably perceived to be motivated by the distinguishing characteristic of K.S. being a vegetarian.” Those New Jersey kids now know that saying something that the P.C. is against is tantamount to an offense against society. Down with free speech and thinking. Up with robotic parroting of stupidity!

I say such behavior by the judge and deluded adults in that school and on the school board that labels like “harassment,” “intimidation,” and “bullying” can amount to much use of those terms to stifle innocent and rationale conversation. The consequence of making normal argument a "crime' is that once the law defines certain speech with such labels, it's too easy for these labels to be applied in other areas as well, which eliminates free speech. The P.C. world now controls so much of what we say by creating stupid labels that are so ill-defined and potentially so broad that we may as well sew the mouths of our kids shut.  Kinda sad, I think.

Typical Reaction To The Belgian Attack

Another act of what the media and politicians call "terrorism" hit the charming, non political nation of Belgium the other day.  Those terrorists killings are infrequent and affect a small number of people. Car accidents, for example, kill more people in one day than all the acts of terrorism this century have killed. So why does the media become hysterical and saturate us with the same information, non stop in hysterical tone? It's because sensationalism sells.

At first glance one might think the terrorists are paying for advertisements to get out the news of their killings, for the mediums behave as if the average person is really threatened by such deeds, and because the mediums wholly exaggerate the damage done by them. The blanket media coverage assured for any act of violence is reckless. The media must ‘report,’ but does it need to promote the event by reveling in the violence caused, as it manifestly has done to Islamic State brutality? Of course not. Would not normal balance of importance be a better policy when reporting such events?

The purpose of terrorism is not to destroy or kill. It is to pursue a political cause through the massive publicity that is attached to terrifying incidents. Modern society aid and abets this goal by acting hysterically when a terrorist act occurs. No doubt the ignorance of many today, those cell phones and other technologies are making us stupid, about the most basic truths makes this possible. That's sad. So 20 people are killed in Brussels and the government there over reacts by essentially shutting down the nation for "security reasons".  Instead of telling Belgians that the government is doing it's best to protect citizens from all threats, it pretends it can stop crazies of the ISIL ilk. This further promotes fear in the population, knowing that such claims are a lie.

It would be preferable for people today to create real prospective about those terrorist attacks, the first of which is that it is of very little threat to most of us. Secondly, politicians should level with their constituents and admit the histrionics around providing security are a waste of time and money, that instead governments will do their best to stop terrorism. Nothing more is possible. Thirdly, Paris got it right w after their own terrorist killing event. Parisians said they weren't bullied and quickly got Paris back to it's normal functioning. Moving on quickly is always best in such instances. Fourth, citizens should demand that the mediums knock it off. That is, report the story once and move on. Embellishing what has happened and imagining more grim events is a form of terrorism itself. The public would do better to ignore medium over saturation and distortion of the terrorists bad behavior.

It's unlikely any of this will happen, and the terrorists appreciate the help they receive in promoting their insanity.

Where's The News Value?

It's time for another of my rants about the death of real news reporting. Let me do it by using a sample of what most say is the national newspaper of the United States, U.S. A. Today. Here are today's 'Top Stories' as U.S.A. today bills it on it's on-line version of it's front page. Note that only one of the top stories is of real value to a human with a working brain. The rest belongs in a gossip rag one can find at the checkout counter of a supermarket.

1) 5 things you need to know Monday (included are reports on two pro athlete retirement announcements, and a story on wrestler Hulk Hogan's sex tape scandal)
2) U.S. man held in girlfriend's death at resort (why is this single crime report so important to you and me? is not criminal behavior part of the human condition? Domestic crimes of this nature happen frequently. I think it's not as unusual, important or newsworthy as U.S.A. Today makes it appear to be?
 3) William, Kate and kids play in the snow (How bad is it when this "Royal moment" takes front page prominence over real concerns that people should read)
 4) Inventor of modern email dies (Raymond Tomlinson, widely credited as the inventor of modern email, died Saturday. He gave us the @ symbol. Nice to read, but on the front page?)
 5) Sanders to Clinton: 'Excuse me, I'm talking' (In a Democratic presidential campaign debate, socialist candidate Bernie Sanders told Hillary Clinton to shut up while he was speaking. Isn't that what more than 100 million Americans have been doing for years?)
 6) Major milestones mark 'Downtown Abbey' finale ('Downtown Abbey' is a TV series. Sad to say, for most brain dead Americans, TV shows contain the milestones of their lives)
 7) China bans images of gay people on TV (There may be a few other more important atrocities China commits that this pander to political correctness by mainstream mediums like U.S. A. Today)
 8) EU seeks to close Balkan migrant route at summit (How did this real news story make the list? Some editor at U.S. Today must have fallen asleep and let this one get by)
 9) Sneak peek: Captain America's new 'Civil War' (Another story about a childish movie to be released soon)

Is U.S.A. Today kidding? Probably not. They are pandering to the anti intellectual, frivolous nature of modern man and woman. And it is sad. When adults are fed pabulum as news they become both less informed about what really is important, and less interested in the same. Oh well, as long as the population has their cell phones and idiotic apps, at least they will be happy.

Trivial Earth Hour Symbolism

We just had another Earth Hour. Did you know that? No? Well, the environmental extremists will be after you for "not caring' to yet again "saving the planet' or whatever silliness the global warmed nuts claim to be fact. In 178 countries and territories around the world, once every March millions of people are switched off their lights for Earth Hour, an annual event to highlight what they claim is the global threat from climate change. More than 350 world landmarks including the Empire State Building and the Eiffel Tower were dark for 60 minutes starting at 8:30 pm. local time Saturday. I doubt it will save the planet, but it sure darkens culture world-wide in that it is another baseless herd mentality trendy behavior.

This year's Earth Hour theme was "Places We Love". That would be the mountains, rivers, beaches, reefs, forests and national parks that organizers say are in peril from climate change. Environmentalists do love nature. It's people they seem to be clue less about. Why struggle to solve real problems and work to understand how things really work, when you can make yourself feel morally superior with an empty and meaningless gesture? That's what Earth Hour and all the other save the planet gestures amount to. Perhaps instead, the environmental crazies should worry about saving themselves. Humans can't change climate, and nature is far more powerful than humans and humans are just another species living on earth (for a while). If nature needs correcting it will do it itself, as it has always done in the past.

Well, at least the environmental Nazis aren't insisting on more bike paths. The point of Earth Hour is to propagandize even more (and I thought we were at our environmental propaganda limit already) for stopping what they call man-made climate change. The Earth Hour lights out event began in Sydney, Australia as an initiative of a conservation group called World Wildlife Fund in 2007. It caught on everywhere, because in this age in trendiness over reason people believe what the trendy tell them to believe, the following year because, well, many people who save the planet have empty, disorganized lives that they prefer to not to try to save. Better to demonize fossil fuel, I guess.

How trendy does this cause sound to you? This year, Face book users are being asked to change their profile pictures and donate their social feeds to show support for Earth Hour. Now that's trendy!

Actually, nothing is more “green” or “environmentally friendly” than using fossil fuels like petroleum and gas for energy. It is “recycling” in every sense of the word, drilling tiny pin-pricks into the ground, barely penetrating the surface of this giant ball of matter, to suck out drops of fossil remains of long dead plants and animals. When burning fossil fuels, all of it still remains here on earth where it has always been. We merely reorganize the elements into different compounds and relocate it to a different altitude, from below ground to the surface with a tiny portion of it winding up temporarily in the atmosphere until it gets sequestered yet again into more plants and animals, a cycle that shall repeat and renew. That's true recycling.

Earth Hour is more like a religion than a rationale. It gives people a nice warm fuzzy feeling inside, without a scientific basis for its claims. Kind of makes me wan to turn out the lights 24/7 just to hide from the environmental nuts.

The Irish Pub

I don't drink alcohol often but am fascinated by the appeal of the Irish pub. Even when it's not St. Patrick's day it's not hard to find an Irish pub....most places in the world, not just in Ireland. So I wonder why the Irish have set the world standard for what we call the local tavern. Hmmm,  Dublin, Ireland itself has 666 licensed pubs. I did some research about this, meaning you better get a stiff pint of Guinness to help you endure the reading of what I am going to write below Irish pubs. How did the Irish pub get started on it's reign of popularity?

Many claim that it was because of an 1843 Irish law that required recently deceased bodies to be delivered to the most immediate barroom in order to be sequestered in the establishment's cold storage until burial.  They mandated the body be put on ice. This created the relationship between mourning and imbibing that is a tenant of the pub tradition. You know the stereotype. The Irish brood and philosophize about the tragic moments in their lives while sipping beer in their pubs

But the first pub predates that ,law by quite some time. It dates from roughly 900 AD. and it still exists, as does another of those early pubs that was established in roughly 1100 AD. Another impetus to the popularity of the irish pub is a chain of convenience stores in Ireland called Spirit groceries. In Ireland in the 19th to early 20th century it was the equivalent to the convenience stores of today, being the place where Irish locals bought kitchen staples, household hardware, candy and yes... a pint of beer. It kind of imprinted beer as a daily habit for the Irish, not as a substance people use "to get drunk:. What followed Spirit's beer v ending habit was the family friendly atmosphere of the Irish pub. In those days travelers could stable their horses, stay the night, and drink a pint or two added to the hospitable pub tradition.  Today anyone can enter any Irish pub and be greeted and accepted as well as any local. I have found fewer friendlier places for strangers than a pub in a city, town or village in Ireland.

In the early twentieth century the Irish pub morphed into the community meeting place. More barrooms sprung up, with luxurious woodwork, mirrors and small private rooms, called snugs. In a snug even a  priest or police officer could drink an afternoon beer out of the public eye. Eventually, women joined the pub ritual, meaning the combination of all of the above influences listed above, plus a few modern flourishes, gave us the beloved pubs we know today that have spread to just about every beer drinking city in the world.

No doubt, Americans are mostly responsible for the spread of pubs outside of Ireland.  The 19th-century Irish immigration, spread the Irish population across the world. Wherever the Irish settled, they put down pub roots, and in no place more than the United States. Though St. Patrick's Day was generally a non drinking holiday in Ireland, it became an alcohol infused celebration in America and elsewhere. This increased the need for Irish themed pubs everywhere in the world. Americans were pleased to be the primary agents of that spread.. By the 1980s, the brewers of Guinness Stout and other corporations began deliberately building Irish style pubs around the world to better dispense their beer.  Irish pubs can now be found with ease even in places like Nepal , Azerbaijan, Uganda, Argentina, Japan,  and Ghana.

Still the best Irish pubs are still found in Ireland. They are practically a sanctuaries for near non drinkers like me, for anyone who enters one can nurse a single pint of Guinness and engage in stimulating and fun conversation with a myriad of characters, all with an Irish pub band rhapsodizing in the background. Even I will drink to that!

A Day To Be Irish

Another St. Patrick's Day is here and this American holiday is a fun holiday. Uh, I did not make a mistake when I wrote that St. Patrick's Day is an American holiday.  That's because, though there was a kind of national Irish celebration day in Ireland first, that was so sedate that it was hardly noticed in any Irish city, town or village. When the Irish mass emigration to the U.S. happened in the late 19th century, those Irish immigrants made St. Patrick's Day a real celebration, a kind of  shouting that "we are from Ireland and proud of it", as a way to be noticed in a more welcoming way.

Over the years cities from coast to coast in the U.S. have cultivated their own St. Paddy's Day traditions throughout the centuries. Some cities dye their rivers green. Others put on carnivals, pageants, concerts, block parties, pub crawls and even long processions of marching bagpipers (The first St. Patrick's Day parade was held in Boston, not in Ireland). People also make it a day to wear green, drink at an Irish pub and follow a leprechaun to its pot of gold. With an Irish heritage of 33.1 million Americans, far more than the population of Ireland itself, it makes sense that St. Patrick's Day rules in the United States.

Anyway, celebrating being Irish on March 17 each year isn't evenly distributed across America. If you're looking for a smashing time on March 17, you might have to stray from home. A site called WalletHub compared the 100 largest cities across 17 key metrics to find out which among them are worthy of the Irish's approval when it comes to celebrating their ancestry. The data set ranges from “number of Irish pubs and restaurants per capita” to “lowest price for a three star hotel on St. Patrick's Day” to “weather forecast” for the holiday.

And the winner is! Well, Boston, as most people would expect is the winner. it has a huge Irish population, culture and tradition. Here in Portland, a city with hardly an Irish ancestry, the holiday is almost ignored, apart from the usual pub or bar that dresses itself in green, green beer and that sort of thing on March 17th. Portland didn't even make a top hundred list. I suspect it is near the bottom of most lists. But my former home New Orleans, which has a big Irish population, the city is number 17 on the list.  I do miss the numerous St. Patty parades in New Orleans. Only there do the (often intoxicated on green beer) float riders toss potatoes, cabbages, onions, carrots and other stew ingredients to the parade watchers so they can go home and make their own St. Patrick's Day Irish stew.

I hope your March 17th will be filled with a little luck and allot of fun. As the Irish say..............
'May your glass be ever full.
May the roof over your head be always strong.
And may you be in heaven half an hour before the devil knows you're dead.'

Heads Down

Everyone, Heads Down! I fell like shouting that every time I am in public because that seems to be the majority position for most humans today. They have their heads down, of course, so they can see the screen on whatever mobile device they are carrying.  What brought this to mind is the huge number of walkers I see in my neighborhood displaying the same heads down position. I haven't yet run down any of then with my car as they shanty along the street, oblivious that they have drifted into the automobile lane. I swear that I am trying to avoid them!

It's fall here, the leaves are beautiful, nature is gorgeous and yet they either put their heads down and punch their fingers on their cell phone screen or the second most recognizable human position is used instead. That would be the head up, but head glued to a cell phone, mouth chattering way at whatever inconsequential garbage they speak into their phones. That they miss the beauty of the real world around them in favor of a imaginary one inside of an electronic device is rather sad. Have humans gotten to the point in their evolution that they can not engage the natural world at all? Do we have to live inside our virtual world even when what is there is vastly inferior to nature's beauty?

When not hiking I see the electronic gadget addicts using everywhere else. A recent study says that the average American teenager spends 9 hours each day using a cell phone or some other electronic devise. That's more than those kids sleep at night, and when added to the sleep total means the next generation is present and engaged in the real world about 7 hours per day. Good luck to the world of the future.

No matter where we go now the heads down position is the most common one. I suspect if an app is ever developed that allows a user to disappear into the virtual world, I may be the only human left on the planet.

A License For Stupidity

Frequently I am reminded that people in today's society are not necessarily as smart as the technology they embrace. I have long had a theory that as the masses get more and more apps. and devices to which they become addicted, they exercise their brains less and less on matters of both common sense and substance,. And, it shows in their "they can't be that dumb" behavior. If you are mumbling that I am a nut and just rambling nonsense, here is another example to convince you of my idea that as machine take over for humans, the human brain becomes more an afterthought that the primary agent of humanity.

A Sardinia, N.Y., woman's arts and craft project landed her in jail the other day after police say she created a phony license plate for her car out of cardboard. That's right! The woman didn't want or could not afford to buy the state required insurance and registration fees needed to be issued a license plate, so she actually believed she could make a license plate out of cardboard and finger paint that would fool police. Sheriff's Office deputy pulled over Amanda Schweickert, 28, on Wednesday after noticing her license plate looked a bit off. I suspect Amanda may look a little off too!

The police officer's suspicions were confirmed when he realized the plate was actually made out of cardboard and poorly painted to resemble a New York license plate. Amanda also didn't have registration or insurance required, but she surely has a vivid imagination. The police officer booked her with possessing a forged instrument, operating a vehicle with a suspended registration and three traffic infractions. Maybe there should be a charge for "stupidity" too.

Recognizing what I do, that society is becoming more and more dumb the county sheriff's office that nabbed Artistic Amanda then took to Face book (I find it hard to believe that civilization has fallen so badly that police departments make announcements on Face book) to remind other residents that cardboard licenses plates aren't a good idea.    Well, maybe a judge will incarceratE Amanda and the prison she will visit can assign Amanda to one of those driver's license work sites prisons have.  She can learn to make her personalized license plates correctly while she is in jail.

Capitalism Is Moving

Capitalism is changing. Traditional capitalist countries, first Western European nations, and recently the United States seem to be running from capitalism toward a more socialist view that attacks "the rich" and take more and more of their money to finance entitlements for "the poor" (I am not sure how the poor are defined by the anti capitalists). It's interesting to see western countries gravitating to a failed economic system in lieu of what has proved to be the best one (capitalism) for the most residents since it was introduced. 

Now comes word that New York City is no longer the home of the super rich. Beijing is the new “Billionaire Capital of the World.” The Chinese capital has overtaken the Big Apple as home to the most billionaires with 100 to 95 for New York.  This news comes courtesy of Hurun, a Shanghai (lots of Billionaires there too) that publishes a monthly magazine and releases yearly rankings and research about the world's richest people and their spending habits. The Hurun study comes months after reports suggested China now has more billionaires than the United States, highlights how China’s elite are continuing to accrue vast wealth despite a bad Chinese stock market and weaker Chinese economy.

Maybe the U.S. should send Berrnie Sanders, that crank old guy who blames all our troubles on what he claims is a "rigged economic system" that enhances the rich and keeps more and more people poor. Ok, Bernie is an out of touch demagogue stooge Presidential candidate that the Democrats allow to "challenge, corrupt and incompetent diva Hillary Clinton for the Democratic party's nominated candidate for the U.S. Presidency. But it would be fun to see the Chinese population run Bernie out of town when he speaks of his fantasy that capitalism is evil. 

Hurun says that China’s new wealth creation is the result of Chinese free market behavior taking over.  Sad to say, capitalism is found in a more pure form in China than it is in any western nation, the United States included. Beijing took the billionaire race lead from New York after adding 32 new billionaires last year, while New York gained four.  Another nation that used to hate capitalism, Moscow, came in third place in total billionaires in the population, with 66 billionaires. Hong Kong and Shanghai came in fourth and fifth with 64 and 50, respectively. Worse for the United States, China had a particularly high proportion of self-made billionaires compared to the United States. The United States has long been known as the place where a person has the best chance to rise from poverty to super rich.

The bus outside leaves for Beijing in 15 minutes. Will you be on it?

Ever-Growing Plastic World

Ever since the invention of plastic the world and its people have moved to a more "artificial mode" of behavior.  It's harder to find real people nowadays. And just as humans have become more plastic, so has the planet as a whole. Statistics show that the use of plastic has increased 20 fold in the past half century and that production is expected to double again in the next 20 years. Amazingly,  nearly a third of all plastic packaging "escapes collection systems." No wonder I keep stepping on those plastic water bottles people toss on the sidewalk.

As for where the rest of the plastic goes, more than 8 million tons of plastics end up entering our oceans each year, where the pieces can survive for hundreds of years. There are believed to be 165 million tons of it in the ocean right now. We're dumping the equivalent of one garbage truck's worth into the ocean per minute. And that's projected to jump to four per minute by 2050, This is all according to a report released by the World Economic Forum and Ellen MacArthur Foundation. The report also gave a warning: By 2050 the world is on track to have more plastic, by weight, than all the fish in the world's oceans.

What doesn't end up in the ocean is likely be put in a landfills. So those two places, the oceans and landfills those two resting places contain about 70% of our plastic. Despite all the bins that I have at home, the ones I use to separate the plastic from the other trash, just 5% of plastics are effectively recycled. It makes one wonder why we have so much one time use plastic packaging, the goofy snap plastic containers that venders give us. Re usable packaging, even old fashioned wood products might work better. More recycling, reusable packaging, and compost able plastic packaging, to me sounds more real than plastic.

National Cupcake Day

This year National Cupcake day was celebrated on leap year day, February 29th. But the noble cupcake has become more of a fundraiser food than a food onto itself. It seems that an endless array of organizations, the SPCA is one example, use National Cupcake Day here as a kind of bake sale fundraiser. It's understandable because cupcakes are simple to make and so small that many fatties (me included) don't seem to notice we are gorging on cake when we eat a cupcake. If there is such a thing as a comfort food, the cupcake has to be it.

It seems that almost every child makes cupcakes at one point because they are simple to do. It's a great way to teach a child how to make a cake. I did it with my own daughter, and I remember my mom making cupcakes with me. But I confess to not baking any cup cakes this year on National Cupcake Day. If I would have it would have been the plain yellow cupcake with vanilla butter cream icing. I like simplicity in my cupcakes. Why, if anyone serves me a cupcake with peanut butter or some other weird flavoring in it I will toss it out the window, my version of National Cupcake Throwing Day. Anyway as to alternative flavorings in cupcakes, there is already another cupcake day for that. In October there is an official National Chocolate Cupcake Day.

Here's the history of the cupcake. The cupcake evolved in the United States in the 19th century, and it was revolutionary because of the amount of time it saved in the kitchen. There was a shift from weighing out ingredients when baking to measuring out ingredients. According to the Food Timeline Web, food historians have yet to pinpoint exactly where the name of the cupcake originated. There are two theories: one, the cakes were original cooked in cups and two, the ingredients used to make the cupcakes were measured out by the cup. This may be enough history abut a small cake as you or I need to know.

Since their invention, cupcakes have become a pop culture trend in the culinary world. Just a decade or so ago, until the public became weary of cupcakes, they were super popular in the U.S. Some bakeries devoted themselves entirely to them. While chocolate and vanilla remain classic favorites, fancy flavors such as raspberry meringue and espresso fudge grew until there are now even savory instead of sweet cupcakes sold. There are cookbooks, blogs, and magazines specifically dedicated to cupcakes. I do like cupcake, but such singular devotion may be a bit much for even me.

Are you hungry for a cupcake yet?

Odd Cell Phone Morality

Here's another cell phone ruined my life story that also reflects the lack of ethics and order in the world of cell users. A woman named Leigh Ann Arthur who was a high school teacher for 13 years taught in Union, S.C.  The problem is that Leigh and much of the human population today leaves he unlocked phone cell on lying around her workspace. In her case it was a high school.

You guessed it!  Last week while she was on hall patrol duty for five minutes in between classes, the engineering and computer programming teacher at Union County Career and Technical Center's phone was too easy a target for one of her a 16-year-old students. He grabbed her phone and found a nude photo she had taken for her husband for Valentine's Day. Nothing wrong with a wife taking a nude picture for her husband, except the student took pictures from his cell phone of that and then he told the whole class that he would send them to whoever wanted them.  After class, the student told her, "Your day of reckoning is coming". It was only later she found out the photo had been sent and seen by most of the other students in her class.

Too bad for Leigh you might say. She had her phone stolen and some of its content unlawfully published. I bet you might say, that student will be expelled from school and possibly even prosecuted. You are wrong. The student thief has not been reprimanded in any way. But Leigh was fired. Yep. even though the student shared the photo through texts and on social media,  the school superintendent  of Leigh's former school district, David Eubanks, instead announced that Leigh was given the choice to resign or go through a process for dismissal. She resigned last Tuesday.

Who is the criminal here? I guess the cell phone is such a sacred device in this cell addicted world that right and wrong is somewhat convoluted when  it is involved in a crime. "I think we have a right to privacy, but when we take inappropriate information or pictures, we had best make sure it remains private," Eubanks said. Leigh can't believe she was the victim of a crime in her school and yet is being blamed for it.  She plans to press charges and has also complained to the Union Public Safety Department, which is investigating. "The whole premise of my privacy being invaded is being ignored and that's what's wrong," she says.

I agree and so does more than 1,000 people who have signed a petition to have her job restored. though Arthur says she's not sure if she'd take it.  Well, at least something makes sense in this cell phone mad world.

Gender Confusion

As a people, humans seem to be more confused than ever before.  There are few absolutes anymore because absolutes are guaranteed to "offend" at least some group of people who will cry loud enough to force political correctness on the general population. Fair is now foul and foul is now fair. A good example of this political correctness gone wild is right here in Oregon, the place where political correctness is lived every second of every day.

At Pacific University new signs outside more than 30 single occupant rest rooms around its campuses no longer identify a rest room as female or mail. Rather than "male" or "female," the bathrooms are now labeled "all-gender."  Mom always said there were two genders, male and female. But here there are more. The so-called transgendered crowd has won the bathroom day at Pacific. A few of those who don't like their birth sex and have decided to rename themselves as something between male and female approached the Student Senate last fall about replacing the single occupant rest room signs, and eventually received support from both the senate and school administrators. Down went male and female and up went signs the n multi gender approach.

It's really not a big deal. But when the norm conforms to what is not normal and elevates it to the norm, more of that confusion about identity results. The school says the signs are "an attempt to make people feel comfortable where it is unnecessary to differentiate gender." They feature a stick person leaning forward in motion while using a wheelchair, which depict an active "alter-abled" person. Isn't that sweet?  Are gender distinctions under attack? Are all gender multi-stall bathrooms next? Is this political correctness making transgenders more comfortable but the 99% of other humans less comfortable? Is this the age of the unidentified sex?

The attention seeking of the transgendered and other "exceptional" groups is ironic. They say that they want to be treated the same as everyone one else, but here is another example of "I'm different and need special treatment".  It seems to me the best way to be accepted for who you want to be is to not ask to be labeled differently.

Wait! Look what just popped up in my local newspaper. In order to be "more inclusive" two school fraternities, male social clubs on campuses, have announced that they are welcoming for membership all transgendered applicants. Gee, I sure hope they provide inoffensive bathroom facilities for them.

Leap Year

Did you notice it? I refer to another leap year day coming and going away. You would think that something that happens every four years would garner more notice. But this is the modern age where cell phone apps, not human cognition, rule the world. Traditions, like those that are associated with leap year, are much less often remembered. Julius Caesar is the guy who started leap year almost 2000 years ago. If you paid attention in science class you know that leap days are needed to keep our calendar in alignment with the Earth's revolutions around the Sun. But forget that because I want to mention some of the traditions of leap year day that you probably missed.

One tradition is that ladies propose marriage to men on leap year day. That may also explain why so many men are hiding on February 29th.  According to an old Irish legend St. Brigid struck a deal with St. Patrick to allow women to propose to men one time every four years. This is believed to have been introduced to balance the traditional roles of men and women. In some places, leap day has been known as “Bachelors’ Day” because of this. A man was expected to pay a penalty, such as a gown or money, if he refused a marriage proposal from a woman on Leap Day. I didn't get a proposal again this leap year day. That shows that women are still the smarter sex.

Another leap year day tradition is that people born on February 29 are all invited to join 'The Honor Society of Leap Year Day Babies'. Too bad for me that I wasn't born on leap day because I surely will never get into any Honor Society any other way than that. I probably belong in a Dishonor Society, but never mind that.  I read that the Guinness Book of Records says that there is a family that produced three consecutive generations born on February 29. That family should buy lottery tickets.

Another leap day tradition says that being born on leap day is bad news. In Scotland, it used to be considered unlucky for someone to be born on leap day, similar to the belief that Friday the 13th is considered an unlucky day by many. Also, the Greeks consider it unlucky for couples to marry during a leap year, and especially on leap day.  But then, Greece has been losing steadily since Alexander the Great passed on. I doubt Greece needs to blame a day for its steady decline

Anyway, may you be around for the next leap year and for many others thereafter.

On Selling Girl Scout Cookies

It's that time of the year. No, not "that" time. Instead I refer to the time of the year when little girls sell their cookies, Girl Scout cookies. When my own daughter was small I remember walking the neighborhood and knocking on doors offering those Girl Scout cookies for a sale. It is supposed to be a life lesson for the little girls in how hard one must work to sell. Since I seemed to do most of the talking and selling while Jane merely piped in with a "Are we finished yet. I want to go home now" every 15 minutes," I was the one who learned that selling was not fun.

The competition among Girl Scouts to sell their cookies and earn those merit badges for doing so is intense.  The parents who owned or worked at high traffic retail businesses used to sell the cookies there for their daughters. Not fair, said I and most other parents who walked with their children  to help see. I remember one friend of Jane's who's parents owned a very popular business selling cases of those cookies.  The business and mom and dad sold the while the Girl Scout daughter took the credit.

Even today the Girl Scout organization seems not to care who or how the cookies are sold. Revenue for the Girl Scouts is dependent on selling those cookies. The kids (or parents) are unpaid labor who bring in huge profits for fat car employees of Girl Scout Inc. They pay themselves huge salaries that are largely the product of profits from the cookie sales. I understand that now a girl scout is allowed to sell on line now. Well! Girls Scouts  today are learning all the dirty aspects of capitalism.

Today I read the most amusing of all scout cookie vending stories.  According to my local newspaper one Girl Scout is selling her cookies by vending them in front of marijuana store here in Portland. The liberal government in Oregon legalized the sale and use of marijuana this year for adults. (I guess so that more people can get high and drive their autos like homicidal maniacs). The scout set up shop in front of 'Foster Buds Medical and Recreational Dispensary' the other day so she might sell to them while their so high they won't even know what they purchased.

Hmmmm The Girl Scout's aunt was quoted in the newspaper article as saying, "There aren't' any rules against it". Another life lesson for this little girl. If you can behave immorally but evading the rules, do it. The druggies who run Foster Buds say they are "proud" to have Girl Scouts selling their cookies outside the door of their shop. And the Girl Scout organization spokesperson says that the organization "recommends that if a minor cannot enter the premises unaccompanied, she should not sell Girl Scout Cookies in front of the business." That's it! The Girl Scouts "recommends", not forbids selling their. Profit does rule the Scout credo.

As for the little girl selling and her clue less parents the no ethics stance on selling cookies rules too. In just a couple of hours last year one child in San Francisco sold more than 200 boxes of Girl Scout cookies while selling in front of another marijuana shop.  Hmmmm Maybe next year the Girl Scouts should sell marijuana laced cookies in front of those shops.