Green Living in the Bluegrass State

Monday, January 17, 2011

MLK Day - Was the Man Flawless or Clawless?

According to analysis today on NPR the upshot regarding MLK falls along these racial lines:

Whites - wanted him Clawless - made impotent, and to ignore the complicity of white America to his assassination. FBI had labeled him a threat to America. Lost popularity after criticizing the Vietnam war.
Blacks - wanted to raise him to sainthood, Flawless - ignoring his affairs and human foibles.

As reported he was not a serene man - instead a tortured soul haunted by his own failings but still working for freedom and justice for all of us! He experienced love in all it's forms: Eros, Philos and Agape. A mighty mountain shines brightly in the light while still casting a huge shadow.

None of this invalidates his work or message but instead affirms that all of us (as human beings) are capable of taking on the yoke he so nobly wore.

A personal observation - we are all in this together. A homily from two Christmas's ago rings in my ears: (forgive and bear with my paraphrasing:) "...as far as we know no one is actually in hell and we all will have to go to heaven together."

Recent Shootings and Gun Rights

Coming from a viewpoint of being terrified of guns but also acknowledging that they exist I may seem to talk out of both sides of my mouth.

Someone once told me the first step to being a slave is that they take your weapons away. Our country was founded on the premise that populace knows what is best for themselves. If the police and military get to have 30-round clips then so should every mentally sound citizen have that same availability. I am not advocating sedition but history shows that in some extreme (and not too rare) situations the people must rise up against the powers that be (in history they are called despots, tyrants, etc.) - there is a balance of power at stake with 2nd amendment rights.

The Arizona shooting has more to do with the neglect of our society to the mentally ill. Numerous people were concerned with his state of mind - yet did not know how to proceed. The question of whether this shooter acted alone still remains to be answered. He would have been an easy target for outside manipulation.

Solutions to issues like this should restrict the freedom of the few and not the many. If gun rights legislation is our most effective response to this and other shootings by deranged assailants (and I'm not sure it is), then do it with the least possible impact on our individual rights. Due process should always be the path to restriction of rights.

Thursday, August 12, 2010

Cloned Meat and Dairy: Why take the chance?

First saw this yesterday on the local television broadcast of the BBC news. Here is a link to the story on the web:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-10951108

Here's a quote from another recent BBC story:

Scottish Environment Secretary Richard Lochhead said consumers "deserve to know the origin of all foods they purchase" and he was "concerned to learn that the offspring of these animals have been reared in the UK for food production purposes without any authorisation from the Food Standards Agency".

This seems like hubris on part the scientists who advocate this for food production and just shortsighted greed for the cattle producers who adopt this practice. Nature has this wonderful thing called biodiversity, not just between species but within them. There is no such thing as a perfect cow. Genetic specialization can at first seem like an advantage but ultimately becomes a liability. Have you ever heard about the theory that the restricted diet of early African slaves has lead to the prevalence of hypertension in their descendants, modern African-Americans. Through a process of attrition the survivors became super body salt savers. What was then an asset has now become a disadvantage. (See more about super salt savers at: http://www.uh.edu/engines/epi618.htm)

Thank goodness Whole Foods Grocery has denied sale of these products in their stores. The risks seem to clearly outweigh the gains. And the public does not want this product! The FDA has approved this meat and dairy for sale in the US (more than two years ago!) - but why do we need to take the chance and introduce yet another risk factor into our food production? The advocates of this change in our food production don't want to be required to label their product - they know the majority of consumers would avoid a food product with the word "clone" attached to it!

Read more about it: