Friday

Good morning,

Quote of the day:

“At my back I hear time's mighty chariot hurrying near.”

                                 Andrew Marvell

I had a conversation with several people about what the chemical companies are doing to us and our children. The largest poisoner that I can find is Monsanto. There have been instances of Monsanto sending corn to impoverished nations. The problem was the corn they sent had been treated with a type of poison to prevent insects from feeding on them once they were planted hoping to increase the yield. It was seed corn only. The people that received this corn did not read the instructions because they could not read. They immediately ground up the corn and fried up some corn cakes, ate them and the entire villages were killed. If I understand federal law correctly is is illegal for corn farmers to make their own seed corn they must buy their seed corn from Monsanto and Monsanto only because their seed corn has been treated with a hormone that will increase the number of kernels per cob and therefore the US will have more corn to use as a trade item worldwide. No mention is made as to the adverse effects this corn may have on humans. There are several chicken ranches owned by giant corporations that use feed for their chickens that has been treated with a hormone to make their breast grow to maturity much earlier than usual. A certain percentage of the chickens grow a mature breast while the rest on their bodies are very immature. The result is that hundreds of chicks are unable to carry the weight of the larger breast, fall down and die of starvation just inches from food (more corn treated with a hormone) and water. Most of the time the hormone infused feed is provided by Monsanto.

The same is true of cattle in feed lots. Calves are fed corn that has a growth hormone. The cattle mature much faster than normal. No mention is made as to what effect this hormone has on humans. You read a lot about “good grain fed beef”. Cattle are grazers, grass is their natural food. They are fed hormone treated corn because they can feed a hell of a lot more cattle in a smaller space (feed lot) and they mature much faster. Again no mention is made as to the possible dangers their growth hormones may have on humans. The bottom line is the governing issue. When it comes to possible dangers or an increase in the bottom line, what do you think they will do. I personally worked on an engineering project where we were designing a plant to make a hormone to give to dairy cows that could increase the amount of milk given by 40%. There was no concern about the possible dangers to humans. I am not scratching the surface as to what is happening out there.

The is an old story about Henry Ford II. It was reported that the rear bumper of the Ford Pinto had a bolt head just inches from the gas tank and just a small rear end collision could rupture the tank causing a conflagration. Henry Ford II was called into a meeting about this hazardous condition. Henry asked his attorneys about an estimate of what law suits would cost if nothing was done. Then he asked one of his engineers how much it would cost to recall all the Pintos and refit. The lower number was the law suits...so nothing was done and to hell with the danger to us all.

 

All of this being said, Both Monsanto and Ford are stock held companies.  This means that the investors (possibly you and me) expect to make money on their investment and if they do not I guarantee you that the Board of Directors would be replaced.  So who is the greedy ones here?     

                    This Date in History    March 6

1857 On this date the United States Supreme Court handed down one of the most infamous decisions ever made in the history of jurisprudence. It seems that a US Army doctor had a slave name Dred Scott that traveled with him on his various military assignments. Two of these assignments were in state of Illinois and the Territory of Wisconsin. These two were “free” states by what was called “popular sovereignty”. Popular sovereignty meant that before a state or a territory could become part of the United States they had a vote of the residents to whether they wanted to be a “free” state or a “slave” state. Both Illinois and Wisconsin had voted to be Free states. Dred Scot sued that since he had lived as a resident of both states he should be granted his freedom. The United States Supreme Court ruled that the United States Constitution did not recognize Negroes as human beings and therefore Dred Scot would remain the property of the US Army officer, popular sovereignty not withstanding and on top of that there were many free blacks already living in Illinois and Wisconsin. Well, all this did was throw fuel to the fire of secession and Civil War which erupted 4 years later. The Supreme Court had been stacked with five southerners along with Chief Justice Roger B. Taney being a supporter of slavery. This decision threw a big monkey wrench into the Republican Party whose only reason for its existence was the abolition of slavery. About this time Kansas and its next door neighbor Missouri entered the Union with Kansas being a free state and Missouri being a slave state. Everyone knew that trouble would be a-brewing there pretty soon. They were right.

1987 On this date the car ferry “Herald of Free Enterprise” was preparing to leave Zeebruge, Belgium (been there) for a cross channel trip to Dover, England. The fairly large vessel was loaded with 543 people, 84 cars and 36 trucks. It had been the practice in the past for the ferry to back away from the dock with the front clamshell doors still open and would closed them as it was turning around to head out to sea. The ferry normally would take on an inconsequential amount of water in this process. But on this day, the crewman that was responsible for closing the clamshell doors was asleep, I SAID ASLEEP, Y'ALL. When the ferry got turned around and was headed out to sea, the water pressure on the doors was so heavy that they could not close and soon the bilge and lower deck was flooded and when everybody on board went to one side to see what the hell was happening, the ship rolled upside down trapping all that were on the lower decks and throwing those on the upper decks into the sea. In all 186 people were drowned even if they were less than 100 yards from land. It took marine rescuers four days for them to retrieve all the bodies that were trapped under the ship. The ships company was found guilty “top to bottom with sloppiness”. As you might expect, new safety regulations were written for ferry operations. You know, closing the barn door after the horse escapes.

Born today:

1906 Polish writer Stanislaw Lec. He said “Is it progress if a cannibal uses a fork?” I wonder if Jeffrey Dahmer did.

1936 Washington mayor Marion Barry, Jr. He said “I am going to provide you with a copulation of answers to several questions.” It is compilation Marion, compilation for crying out loud. Marion was a tent short of a campsite anyway.

Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow.