Simple Thnigs Are Best

I am having an appreciation moment. I better type quickly before all the aggravating moments society shoots at us pop back into my mind. I do believe the old adage that the simpler things in life are most important to keeping us sane. Even if you suspect my insanity disproves that, I will remind you that I would be more of a raving lunatic without the simple to soothe me. Do we not retreat into simplicity when things go sour for us?

I was reminded of the simple is good philosophy as I watered my front lawn this morning, in cool, sunny beauty. Portland has had one brief sprinkle of rain the past 59 days. My lawn is thirsty, my garden begging for a drink. I have a sprinkler system that waters but I have it set for every other day. Too much water can make a lawn pee like a child who drinks too much before bed time. When I water myself I can regulate the flow better and commiserate with nature at the same time. For me, watering the lawn on a cool morning is like baking cookies. It relaxes me.

Each of us has our own list of simple but great. Besides the watering and baking I naps, reading, my favorite pair of lounging shorts (No worry. I won't show you a picture of me in them...it's not pretty), my morning coffee, something said with humor by a stranger, un crowded grocery stores at 7 am, a smile from a child, a reprieve from political talking points by people I do not trust, dessert and...well..I am a man..donuts, fetching my morning newspaper from my well-watered lawn at 6 am, domestic tranquility, a once a month splurge for a Carl's Jr., hamburger, being asked to help someone I care for who needs the help, bakeries and old fashioned diners, unexpected thrift store bargains, nostalgia, retirement from work and the freedom to be a bum without being classified as one, watching my favorite team play a football game, and looking at the landscape and realizing how lucky it is so beautiful and unspoiled.

Those are a few of the simple things that keep me going, putting my right foot in front of my left so I can walk through life in peace and ignore the maddening crowd.

On Tearing Down Statues

There is a movement in this country among the extreme left, and not so extreme left sheep who imitate all the left creates in its agendas, to tear down statues erected long ago by people they admired in the day. The wanted who  to honor the face on the statue, not to make a social statement about any matter in this age. Many leftists today want to erase that history as quickly as ISIS or Al Quida does the same when it enters and occupies an area. Tearing down statues to remove history that offends current sensibilities is the trendy social media cause of the day. But the reality is that tearing down history to soothe a current social agenda is idiotic and destructive to a society.

The recent frenzy, largely the result of politicians seeing votes in doing so and a media driven cause celeb to do it, has sparked a rash of take me down behavior, both legal and anarchical tear downs.  But if a society removes its outmoded memorials because of today's views, is it guilty of erasing its past? Is it fair to judge our once heroes by today's ethical standards? Or should we see these excisions as necessary to the nation's survival?  Never mind answering. Most answers are fueled by hate and frenzy, on both sides of the equation.

Today's villainous statue was yesterday's sacred one, and  and if left will be tomorrow's anything. When we remove a current historical monument because a single behavior of the hero at the time it honors is now regarded differently, negatively indicates we have lost faith in our ability to interpret history and apply it. instead we eliminate that which offends us, sort of a modern day book banning to "protect" society. 

Rewriting history is not new here or anywhere for that matter. Tearing down the statues of heroes of a past legacy, that a segment of the society sees as still a threat to its new agenda. From Roman statues being pulled by "liberated' populations" centuries ago, to as recently as the fall of the Soviet Union empire we saw the new wave remove the heroes of the old, pulling down statues on impulse or via a planned conspiracy, all in an attempt to say "We are in charge now and will determine what is history". It may not be democratic, but it seems to be a way for the new to erase the old before beginning the new era.

Removing statues to Thomas Jefferson and George Washington because they were both slave holders, the norm of the day everywhere in the world, would be like removing the statues to Martin Luther King because he had a proclivity to "dehumanize" women by patronizing prostitutes. Only the ignorant or fanatical judge the past by a current social norm. The worst of humanity is that segment that acts as moral judge and jury of the past in order to impose political correctness today. What is disheartening is not that there are haters of our civilization out there, the leftist statue removers, but that there seem to be fewer defenders of or cultural ideals.

The generous of statue removal is political correctness, a media that cheering the removals and sells more because of it and the lack of education of the populace. Those three drive the dictatorship of the few (the left) while the rest of us are silenced by threats to brand us as "haters" "racists" or "fascists". Language is beautiful when used properly and with a judicious agenda. When used to coerce and push hate, as the statue movement does, it is a threat to the society's health and welfare.

In a democratic republic, statues that offend or are outdated are removed because the collective wants them to be replace. It is done by the majority in the community, often by vote, not by a tyranny of the few. Today, liberal tyranny reflects how much society has degraded and how defenseless it is when those who oppose statue removals or any other of leftist hate agenda becomes a feel good cause that we shrug and accept because we fear the liberal scarlet letter, H (Hater). The canary in the mine today is mindless leftist hate such as we see in the tearing down history in order to more easily impose a bigoted agenda.

Ideally, a vote by the community would satisfy all parties. But today the extreme right and extreme left are like unsupervised children, demanding their way is the right way, and they will settle for nothing less that what they decide is right. In former times the extremists would eventually disappear due a lack of substance, but today a dishonest and empty media and the platform of the internet assures us that a small minority of haters will decide our culture. It's sad. Someone should build a statue to democracy before we forget complete what it is.

Jerry Lewis

An icon of comedy, 91 year old Jerry Lewis, has died of natural causes. A part of laughter surely departs with him. As a child I grew up loving those wacky Jerry Lewis movies so the death of one of the last great old style comics hurts a little. I can't image many people not knowing who Jerry Lewis is or having never seen one of his many classic movies, made mostly in the 50's and 60's. They were slapstick, what some people say is crude comedy. But comedians say that doing that kind of physical comedy is the most difficult thing a comic can do, and Lewis did it better than any human who ever lived.

The critics always hated Lewis. But most people loved his work. It was old fashioned funny without ever getting cheap laughs with jokes about sex or violence. Maybe the most damaging thing done to disparage Jerry Lewis was that the nation of France presented him with a Merit of Legion  award for his comedy. The French and I agree on only one thing, that Jerry Lewis is one of the funniest people to ever appear before a camera. Here is clip of a scene from 'The Bell Boy', which shows Jerry Lewis' timing and brilliance.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XK_jXwP8M_s&ytbChannel=VintageComedyClips

This is not eulogy. Lewis is still with us in his films that will run incessantly I always said that when Jerry Lewis when he does die, I will be impacted. I was right. My childhood was filled with many Jerry Lewis movies. I remember them vividly, and I remember how I laughed then and still laugh now when one appears on TV and I happen to see it.

But Jerry Lewis will be remembered as well for those MD telethons in which he raised over 2 billion dollars for research. Lewis always said that the one thing that would make his life complete was finding a cure for muscular dystrophy. I think his attempts to help find that cure made his life more complete than he realized.

Dull Boring And Bland

One of my favorite named towns in Oregon continues t make news because of its name. That would be Boring, Oregon. Boring is about 15 minutes from my own city here and is noted for the rich farm land that produces wonderful fruit. In summer many Portland area residents pick strawberries, blueberries, raspberries etc.. on Boring U Pick farms. For about half the price of grocery store fruit and veggies one can pick fresh ones.

Boring is also on the way (another 25 minutes) to Mount Hood, the highest mountain in the U.S. and to my kind of pilgrimage, Joe's Donuts. in adjacent Sandy, Oregon. For many years in succession, Joe's has been awarded the title of best donuts in Oregon. They are old style, hand made donuts worth a drive to get. Hmmm Maybe I should build a shrine to Joe's donuts on the top of Mt. Hood.

I am off topic. Anyway, Boring was in the news for adding a third member to the triad of sister cities. In addition to Dull, a village in Scotland, a third sister city tie was announced . Bland, Australia has joined forces wit the other tow dreary places to promote themselves to tourists as places to see when in the area. Dull and Boring became sister communities in 2012, after a Scottish woman passed through the U.S. town on a cycling holiday. That tie  has boosted the profile of both places. So Dull officials just hosted the mayor of the region of Bland, New South Wales, at a reception to celebrate the third member of a club self labeled as the 'League of Extraordinary Communities'.

I am not sure they are extraordinary. Boring does have quite a few antique shops of interest and a finny named bar in the center of the place (It takes about 5 minutes to drive the length of Boring). The Bar is named 'The Most Boring Bar', but I have not been inside to verify that. If not exciting, the most interesting thing about those three dreary cites is their names. Bland  and Boring are both named after early residents, William Bland and William Boring, while Dull’s name may come from a Gaelic word for meadow. Boring has a population of about 10,000, which makes it the big city among the three. Bland has about 6,000 people and Dull has a population of 84 Dull residents.

But Wait! That's not the whole story. The three sister cities have bigger plans to put us all to sleep.  They've found Ordinary and Dreary, both in the U.S., and think they could soon be part of the 'League of Extraordinary Communities'. Why, I am almost excited about that!

Pointing In The Wrong Direction

When protesters use inappropriate language or hand gestures to police officers is at least vulgar and disrespectful to society. But are they committing a felony or are they being simply disrespectful?  Because the U.S. is a democracy with individual rights guaranteed, there is no law against being disrespectful. There is a law against making a threat, but pointing the middle finger at a police officer is not threatening him or her.
As much as I hate vulgarity and disrespect, I am grateful to have free speech rights, and that they are protected by the courts her. That concept will be tested in Louisiana after a "finger protest" there got the pointer a citation for threatening a police officer. The pointer's lawyer and the ACLU say that Louisiana State Police troopers violated the Constitutional rights of their client after they arrested him for giving the police "the finger," this the American Civil Liberties Union of Louisiana said in a letter to Louisiana police Superintendent Col. Kevin Reeves.
"A Louisiana State trooper took retaliatory action against a driver who engaged in speech protected by the First Amendment," said  ACL Executive Director Marjorie Esman. "We appreciate that the job of policing in the 21^st century can be difficult, and we hope your officers will focus on more serious and legitimate threats to public safety." State Police spokeswoman Trooper First Class Melissa Matey said, "The Louisiana State Police has tremendous respect for the First Amendment even when the citizens we serve choose to be vulgar and disrespectful. This was an unfortunate incident which will be used as a training opportunity."
Hmmm They seem to agree that the police were excessive in citing the vulgar finger pointer. I agree, but the larger issue is why so many, and many are doing it, stoop to vulgarity like the finger pointer. It may reflect the vulgar culture in which we live today, and that is a crime bigger than all the finger pointer incidents out there. The pointing incident happened Dec. 28, 2016 when a man driving on Interstate 20 near Rayville gave "the finger" to a trooper he passed. The trooper then pulled the driver over and issued a citation for "public intimidation," a felony that carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $1,000 fine. Wow! That's a pretty stiff penalty.
Public intimidation in Louisiana is defined as "the use of violence, force, or threats upon (a public officer or public employee) with the intent to influence his conduct in relation to his position, employment, or duty," according to Louisiana law. "The driver used no violence, force, or threat on the trooper, and there is no evidence of intent to influence the trooper's official conduct," said the ACL. "His gesture does not fit the statutory definition of 'public intimidation,' and it was not a crime."The trooper engaged in "illegal First Amendment retaliation," she said. Among the freedoms this country provides is the right to criticize the government and public officials, including police officers".
I have to agree that people have the right to be idiots, including making vulgar gestures when frustrated. But I sure wish the world was a nicer, more tolerant place.

Group Think

In this age of  instant and consuming communication technology  have we moved into a new era of group think? You know group think. It's the state in which everyone seems to believe the same thing, largely because society coerces the individual to do so. How ironic we have group think at the same time that information is available more than ever. In medieval times there was one narrative and once source of information, churches and rulers of the area.  But now we have multitude of sources. Problem is, they are all in "agreement", all repeating the same narratives.

In the United States the group think narrative is overwhelmingly liberal, leftist scripted. That's largely because the media sources here are also overwhelmingly left, so there is little push back when the leftist group think script is promoted. It explains sudden shifts in public opinion, as in the case of transgender being a "third sex" or claims that Republicans are "racist" because they believe in tradition. The definition of group think is the practice of approaching problems or issues as matters that are best dealt with by consensus of a group rather than by individuals acting independently. And that is anathema to a democracy.

To identify group think one need only look at any of the progressive liberal groups that push an agenda. Look at 'Black Lives Matter' for example and you'll see many symptoms of group think. These include unquestioned belief in which BLM members  ignore possible moral problems and ignore consequences of individual and group actions., their violence when protesting for example.

A second symptom is he BLM rationalization of every point the group claims to be true. This prevents their members from reconsidering their beliefs and causes them to ignore warning signs about what they pro port is true but may not be. Thirdly is the stereotyping by BLM members. This leads members of the group to ignore or even demonize out group members who may oppose or challenge the groups ideas. Thus the "Black Lives Matter" (but other lives apparently not as much) scenario.

A fourth symptom that BLM is a group think mess is that the group and other liberal or conservative group thinkers, pretend to be mind guards who act as self appointed censors to hide problematic information from members of the group. One way is by the use of slogans that are oversimplifications or untruths. The classic one for the BLM group is that "police are hunting blacks".

A fifth characteristic is that of  holding the belief that everyone should or does agree with the narrative of the group think organization. This lead members to believe that everyone is or should be in agreement with them. An example of this is "the system is rigged against minorities."

A fifth symptom is that there is great pressure for BLM members to conform. Pressure is often placed on members who pose questions, and those who question the group are often seen as disloyal or traitorous. It's why BLM uses hate rhetoric against any black who does not support the group.

The group think phenomenon is a growing one as we deaden our brains with superficial communication technology and tend to be herded to one group think or another. It is a threat to human freedom and individual thought.

Then And Now

As I am an old man now I was thinking the other day (old timers think allot and do little) about whether life is better for we who are breathing today than it was for the ones that we  visit in the cemetery. I have not quite come to a conclusion, so since I am confused let me confuse you as well by making a case for both views. Case one is that life is better for us than the last three generations. The explosion of invention and new technology makes it far more comfortable for us. When we are sick we receive better treatment and recover. Our technology makes life less boring today.

We have more free time to do more interesting things and we are less tired due to having to do strenuous labor (like tilling the farm fields). Medicine helps us live longer and feel better more often than those earlier generations. We have more opportunity today. We can travel more easily and more often and can be lazy without worrying about things get done because our machines do so much of what we used to do. All the modern inventions have made life better, proving that "the good old days" were really not so good.

Case two says we are worse off today. Life is more stressful and less meaningful. Instead of talking to each other, eating diner together and conversing about important things, we instead chat or post idiocy on cell phones. We are more informed on triviality, like actors and movies and trends and the reality world, but uninformed on the cerebral and what really should matter to us. We have closets of clothes, but dress poorly compared to the earlier times when a suit and tie was standard wear, even at sporting events.

We don't know our children as well because we don't relate to them anymore. Our kids are parented more by their technology than by their parents. Quantity has replaced quality. In those earlier times we knew what we believed. Our religion guided our life. Today our celebrity tweets enlighten us. Our technology is better today, but we are less free because of it. It enslaves us.

Maybe it' not fair to compare times because can only live in one. But those who do question probably do so because they feel some discomfort with or estrangement from our lives today. But perhaps those earlier generations felt the same way about their own lives. What do you think?

Blaming The Web Site

I know we in the United States are lawsuit happy, but news of a woman's suit against her husband may  be one of the more novel attempts to extract money from others with the frivolous lawsuit. The suit involves a woman only identified as "Mary" and a web site called Persopo.com that is a resource for people to check arrest records, marriage records, contract info etc. that is public record. Persopo not only pulls from public records but many different social and dating web sites around the internet.  Mary's husband checked to see if Mary was cheating with another person and hit the jackpot.

"When I searched her name it came up. She had accounts matching her name and email on cheating wives.com an many others. I just couldn't believe that this was the woman that i married," husband Frank said. The husband found enough evidence on Mary to fueled his divorce suit against her. Her match.com profile, for example, where stated she is “never married” for relationship status. Mary said it was unfair and wants Persoco to pay for providing information on her cheating. Nowhere in the lawsuit does it dispute if the information is accurate or not. Nor that she was having an affair on her husband with multiple men.


Mary is now stating that, “Persopo.com ruined my life by revealing private information about me.” She is currently seeking unspecified damages from Persoco. Apparently, for Mary, cheating is fine as long as you are not caught. If you do get caught, blame it on  the technology that nabbed you. It also reflects another instance of how technology is winning over humans. Using background check services is becoming increasingly commonplace. It seems logically that spouses might use it to check on a questionable husband or wife.

Too often human beings become so enthralled with their technology they forget that it can be an enemy as well as a friend. It should be noted that we live in a digital age in which technology allows us to both hide and seek.

Hacksaw Ridge

I happened upon a movie on TV the other day. That shouldn't be news, but for me it is. I rarely watch movies on TV and even more rarely would I go to a movie theater to see one. My view of film today is that most of it is shallow, mere special effects and shock, little substance and poorly written. But when I am bored and in front of a TV I will sometimes turn it on an d peruse the listings. I saw that 'Hacksaw Ridge' was just about to begin and, having read good things about it as being an "adult film" in genre that has become a world for pre teens and teens, I found the station in time to watch.

What a powerful film it is. It is the story of Desmond Doss, a poor farm boy from Virginia and practitioner of the Seventh Day Adventist religion, one that does not allow its members to kill other human beings. In 1942 Doss had a military deferment, but after the United States entered W.W. II, Doss felt patriotic and decide to enlist in the army as a medical corpsman. Joining an army during a war as an avowed conscientious objector is about as appropriate as a Hollywood star making sense (about anything remotely complicated). But Doss wanted to save lives, not kill. He joined the army was harassed in boot camp and labeled a coward by all.

The movie is complicated, as good movies are, and I do not want to tell you the outcome. Instead, I urge you to see the film and learn why Doss became America's greatest war hero, without ever firing a shot or perpetrating a single violent act against another human being. I think you will be inspired by the film and perhaps will see humans as having greater potential for good than evil after watching. Imagine, a so called "war film" doing all that? But it does. The critics say the actor who played Doss and the film itself will win the Oscar for best actor and best film of 2017.

The film is popular with many people of all ages and demographics, a good sign I think, that there is still a market for serious film. In our superficial, throw-a-way culture we need more substance and less. 'Hacksaw Ridge' provides a little of that.

In Media, We Don't Trust

I have long believed that an impartial media on the U.S. is a thing of the past. Most of our mediums are slanted left or right, with the TV and newspaper mediums almost entirely left wing agenda oriented and the radio medium right wing directed. That's probably why few Americans believe what they read or see in the news media. A 2017 Gallop poll on the subject disclosed that 62% of Americans say news media favors one political party over the other, that more believe media favors Democrats than Republicans and that a clear majority of Americans say media is "often inaccurate". Too, Gallup asked those who perceive political bias in the news media to say which party the news media favors. Almost two thirds (64%) of those who believe the media favors a political party say it is the now leftist Democratic Party.

In a climate of bitter political partisanship, anti media rhetoric and diversified media options where any nut can find a web site that agrees with his or her view, just 32% of Americans now say they trust the media. The media attempt to destroy Trump and remove him from office, for example, is so obvious and unfair that news outlets are losing viewers and readers at a rapid pace. It used to be a "mistake" was a costly penalty for the journalist or outlet. Now, factual errors are seen as necessary it promoting the media narrative presented.

The old belief about the news media used to be that journalists make fewer mistakes than people in most businesses because they're being watched more closely and they know it. A journalist's mistakes are out in the open, they used to say. But no more. Most readers and viewers like the lies and half truths told when they suit the viewer or reader agenda. Fake news, particularly about the right wing and about Trump is fun, but most important news isn't interesting, many say. It used to be we wanted the truth, especially if it hurt. Today we want partisanship. Slants and lies are good when they support our own agenda.

Instead of the media reporting what we should know, it now publishes almost exclusively to giving us what we or they want to pretend is true. After all, agendas need that. It's sad because news mediums are supposed to be the guardians of democracy, unbiased reporters of fact. What we have today is journalism by agenda, mistake or deliberate lie. No wonder so many, particularly the young, pay more attention to triviality like 'The Game of Thrones' than to educating themselves about real world events that affect their real lives.

PEW Research this year found that only 18% of viewers or readers trust the media in any of its reporting. It didn't indicate if any of the 18% had working brains.

Hello Mr. Chips

It was inevitable. What is more obvious that a world addicted to technology, particularly communication devices, would decide to have microchips into their bodies to "improve" the effectiveness of machines. Perhaps it may be the first step to become robots, but surely it is an a minimum an astounding degradation of humankind. What has happened is that a Wisconsin business A local firm is embedding some of its employees with microchips.  Forty employees of Three Square Market, a firm that makes cafeteria kiosks aimed at replacing vending machines, voluntarily got tiny rice sized microchips embedded in their hands.

Company officials said it was for convenience, a way for them to bypass using company badges and corporate log-ons to computers. Now, they can just have their hands read by a reader, similar to using a cell phone to pay for goods. Hmmmm When humans make excuses to expand their toys capability at the expense of common sense and utility I see a loss of perspective about the old adage that man must control the machines, not be controlled by them.

The chip is not a tracker nor does it have GPS in it, so the boss can't track the movements of employees, company officials say. Not yet anyway! And to those  like me who worry about Big Brother having more control over our lives, Three Square Market President Patrick McMullan says you should, "take your cell phone and throw it away." Well, Mr. Mc McMullan I don't have a cell phone. Call me an un robot and non addict for making that decisions, but I am happy to not be  what you want your employees to be. In overuse, misuse of technology we lose some of our humanity.

The chips come from Biohax Sweden, a company that says it has nearly 3,000 people using it in Europe. The founder of that company, Jowan Osterlund, has struck alliances with companies to pay to have the chips installed in employees or pass them out at tech fairs. It's coming..... not Godzilla, but the microchip monster who wants to push humanity aside. Three Square Market employees say they were having the chip installed to be part of the larger team, and help develop the technology. Given that the employees are all geeks, I am not stunned about the implants. I would find it disturbing and surprising if non geeks bought into this idea.

A chip installation ceremony was held in the company's cafeteria, where Osterlund, a former tattoo artist, was on hand to perform the installation.  The entire process took about a minute. It started with Osterlund cleaning the skin, finding a spot in the hand to pinch, then asking the employee to inhale and exhale as he inserted a syringe, install the chip, and place a band aid over the spot.  It was done, a sort of funeral for humans and birth for microchip beings.

Calming The Body And Soul

The world in which we live becomes more and more dreary, contentious and unpleasant each day as humans who think they can remodel it with their technology or social planning ideas simply give many of us headaches instead. I feel one coming on just writing about this subject. But Alas! BBC network has a therapy for us to calm down those  anxious moments we experience in modernity. It's a web site that shows nothing but beautiful photography and sounds of nature, in several long installments that are said to calm us. Here is a sample, a 10 minute view of sights and sounds of the jungle.

http://televisions.reviewed.com/news/want-to-relax-the-bbc-just-released-40-hours-of-soothing-planet-earth-footage-for-free?utm_source=usat&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=collab

Did that do anything for you? Hmmm I honesty say that beyond a minute or two it didn't calm me. It more reminded me that technology can even intrude on nature to the degree that it makes it seem ordinary. Therefore I have a few calming mechanisms to pass on to you, things that work for me allowing me to escape a world I increasing find disingenuous and unpleasant. Here are some of the things that calm me.

1) any video showing a cell phone user falling down a street drain due to the obsession of looking at one's phone , even when crossing a street.
2) skinny fitness gurus who tell us that we are fat, lazy and doomed to a short life span, who have massive heart attacks at age 30 simply because their "healthy regime" is in fact a stress on a body that a would prefer donuts to jogging at 4 am
3) health alerts that advise against being a vegan or eating trendy grains like quinoa instead of rice and whole wheat
4) any of those rare news reports that say that police are not evil, hate segments of the population and should all be fired from their jobs
5) a day without more phony anti Trump stories
6) eating a greasy hamburger, french fries and a thick whole milk shake..while sitting next to a heath nut who pretends his salad is "better for him" than my meal
7) naps, retirement and financial security
8) watching another empty headed celebrity caught in an act of hypocrisy after reports that he or she took their private jet to deliver a global warming speech to a gullible audience of equally empty headed, trendy worshippers
9) proudly using plastic bags at a store that is "environmentally sensible"
10) slapping the next person who says he or she is "saving the planet"

Gee, just thinking about those things is already making me feel better.

Free Me From Anti Glutenism

Something on the nutritional front hacks me off.  It's this gluten free craze that is based on lies and trendiness. Very few people have problems metabolizing gluten. A tiny percentage of people are allergic to it, and another tiny percentage have Celiac disease. We are talking about 1 % of the population with celiac disease and .4 % with any kind of allergy to wheat. Yet go to a grocery store and you'll see a huge number of products, frequently a non gluten section that offers "gluten free".. Roughly one third of Americans say they want to cut down on gluten or not eat any gluten products? But why?

Though some people might have non Celiac gluten sensitivity, gluten free diets are a fad. By the way, gluten is nothing more than a  natural protein found in wheat, barley, rye and many processed foods. But marketers and producers are in love with trendy left wing fads,.. They sell. I suspect if it became trendy to drink water for the toilet bowl there would be enough people mindlessly doing it to make it profitable for  producers to make toilet water food and drink additives.

Sadly, the more addicted the population is to cell phones and social media sites the more crazes like gluten free advance from the tiny number of people who really are allergic to gluten to a huge base of people who think they are. Today, almost 30% of people who shop in the United States buy gluten free food products. Amazingly, 41 percent of U.S. adults believe "gluten free" foods are beneficial for everyone, That's 29% wasting money on nonsense. But then humans can be easily brainwashed.

There are quite a few mindless myths about the necessity to not eat gluten. They include the theory that one loses weight when eating gluten free, that celebrities endorse it so it must be true, that if you feel bad it must be because of your diet, that not eating wheat means you'll be gluten free (Among other foods, gluten is in certain supplements or medications, in salad dressing, even in those awful veggie burgers), and that abstaining from gluten will make the skin  clear and problem free.

So they waste their money buying expensive gluten free products and harass people who don't (me). It's the "I'm going to save the planet by not using plastic bags" syndrome.  Fact is the anti gluten craze has been fueled by lack of education and by people who report that their health is improved after going gluten free. In fact, if they feel better it is mostly a placebo effect of thinking they will or perhaps because they eliminate excess carbohydrates from their diets that make them feel sluggish. Eating a gluten free isn't necessarily healthier, nor is it  a method for losing weight. Many gluten free products are higher in calories, fat, sodium and sugar because they need to enhance the flavor and texture to make up for the lack of gluten

A balanced diet is the best diet, and if you eat what tastes good and it does not cause an allergic reaction you are probably miles ahead of the gluten free nuts.

Homelessness

In the United States we are living in the "Age of the Homeless". There is a tolerance today for so called homelessness that has legitimized homelessness as a state of being that is a person's right. What a change from the days when a person who had no home and lived on the streets was called a "hobo" or "bum", arrested by police on site and removed from public view. Often they disappeared to short term prison cells , followed by family or public institutional (churches, for example) assistance in treating the condition that encouraged the homelessness. The sheer volume of homelessness today should disgrace society enough to finally motivate it to help end it. It does not.

Homelessness was never sanitized and legitimized, until ti became an almost trendy alternative lifestyle for those who fell into it. Most homeless people are victims of a number of  causes of the condition, whether it be alcohol or drug abuse, mental issues, economic hardship, family problems or tragedy. Society still thinks all homeless are living in an undesirable way, and it wants to help, but the political leaders seem uninterested in investing in the cost of a solution. Instead, the numbers of homeless keep rising, and the number of social problems the homeless create rises in proportion to the numbers.

Perhaps the biggest reason so many are choosing or are forced into the homeless path is government. In the pre entitlement era, when individuals were responsible for their own welfare, there was no government intervention to assist the homeless. Now there is, but it is the worst kind of assistance imaginable, an enabling and ignoring assistance that only encourages more homelessness. Family and private institutions used to deal with most homelessness, and did it well. Today government creates a ridiculous number of unsuitable programs that pretend to help homeless population, a kind of "give the homeless guy a sandwich and forget about it" approach.

Homeless people have no money to pay for the few bare necessities needed for survival on the streets. Thus, the homeless turn to begging, stealing and other crime to assist in survival. Most Americans accept it with a shake of the head and a "It's sad' refrain. I wonder if our indifference to homelessness, or rather how we pretend to care about the homeless but do little to help, is a reflection of our detachment for m reality that our technology so often encourages.

I have no idea hoe to help the homeless other than insisting some responsibility be thrust into the homeless themselves as part of the solution. Perhaps ending the entitlement and  pseudo sympathy, the "just go away" approach would be a start. But I do know the acceptance of the condition of  homelessness and other social deviancy's is an indication that we as a society have some serious problems too.