One year ago today: February 2, 2017, Farage on Trump
Five years ago today: February 2, 2013, my kind of day.
Nine years ago today: February 2, 2009, wind and surf.
Random years ago today: February 2, 2007, I never did get my $60.00.
I know, it’s pretty amazing how many people are just now beginning to fathom the amount of corruption in DC. It’s deep and wide and nobody, even the Trumpster, can fix it in four years or eight years. The late 1800s showed the world that the American federal government was intentionally kept week by the Constitution, and to some people that meant it was ripe for the plucking. You get slowly take over the administration and begin expanding federal power by slipping law after law between the Constitution and the people, convincing them it is for their own safety and protection. Until the federal government is more powerful than the states and the whole game starts over again.
This Rolex ad caught my attention, because like every kid, I wanted to invent a space suit that let me walk under water. Then I’d find all the treasures and be the richest man in the world. I had it all planned out, then I’d have four girlfriends. Wendy, Sheila, Debbie, and Judy. I hadn’t figured out the logistics on how that would work, hey, I was just a kid. But they’d all get along and love me, at least I was pretty sure that’s how it would work. And it would be okay because we weren’t married. But first I had to invent the underwater spacesuit. So when I see a picture like this, I’m like seven years old again wishing I was the one inside.
Oldest one in the world.
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I’m going to have to crawl under the house again, probably tomorrow. There is a newly discovered sag in the floor across from the bathroom hall. This place was full of illusions that later get revealed by the water level. It’s fun to work with but is one finicky tool. Here’s a photo of the car just because you haven’t seen one for a while. It running fine, at 50,000 miles. It wasn’t mine for a month before I slipped back into all my car habits. I simply must get the brakes fixed on the red scooter. Very few people know the real total cost of a car. I do.
And that’s where the car is parked across from in this shot. I was in Winter Haven again, it’s less than twenty minutes away even if I take the Highway 60 route. The cities around here tend to have short streets, as in ten or twelve blocks. So you get rush hour jams, not because of the volume of cars, but because the layout forces all traffic to be stop and go. The fact is, I know downtown Winter Haven more now that I do Lakeland. One is only half as far away, but the traffic makes both trips take the same time. And my motorcycle remains under the tarp.
That’s it, that is as interesting as I can make today. I was working with insulation and chicken wire. It wasn’t even that warm and I still went through a gallon of peach tea. And the now obligatory hour of music work. The way the new lady plays, I see that I have to spruce up a few of the passages where I used to just play through. Just a few spots where I don’t actually play an instrumental break, but give the impression that is what’s going on. It’s work. And I say again, don’t expect much else until this band sinks or swims.
ADDENDUM
But you may get specials like this addendum when insomnia strikes. Not to worry, for me it is mild and sometimes, like now, at 3:00AM, I was asleep, awoke, and cannot fall back asleep. So maybe insomnia is a severe label. It’s just that when I worked a job, it is disruptive as can be, which makes it severe. Now not so much. I’m wide awake, so I’ve got some comments on Monsanto, who I vilified as a hated corporation. I should explain that it is as much their political activities as the modified food that irritates me. They are constantly tinkering with the food supply using politics as a shield for some of the most questionable activities that nearly defy imagination.
What I wanted to specify is the part of genetic modification to which I object. It centers on food. I’m okay with related projects like biodiesel—but only if the bio part is not a government subsidized food crop. I’m also fine with the people who want to make better products out of spider silk and eradicate insect-born diseases. But I draw the line at the food supply, and in most cases, the cross-breeding of species that enter the food chain. I’m no expert in the modification process so don’t quote me. I’m 100% with the traditional methods of selective breeding and hybrid breeding, since it is really nature that combines the genes with mankind merely providing the opportunity.
Plus I have little objection to interspecies breeding; wheat is such a plant. It happened naturally, apparently around 6,000 B.C. What’s going on today is not natural. Genetic modification is transferring genes between species and by mutation. And that’s fine, up to the point it gets into the food supply. As I’ve said, the one thing in common with people who have non-inherited food allergies is that they have all been eating genetically modified food. It’s hard not to, since 90% of US corn is genetically modified and its byproducts become ingredients for so many other processed foods. I quit drinking soda because of high fructose corn syrup.
Same with the cotton crop, 90% isn’t natural. As long as it was not food, so what? But now I regularly see cottonseed oil listed as a food or used for food preparation. The worst is mutation, where they bombard seeds with radiation, seeking the mutants that have traits that Monsanto deems desirable. And they desire what they can sell, not what is good for you. Saying there is no proof something is unsafe means, to me, they just have stopped looking for such proof.
For clarity, my objection is cross-species modification and mutation, but only if it involves food, or is fed to animals that eventually become human food. (And a good part of my objection is that the people doing it don't seem to have a clue.) That [my disfavor] covers other practices as well, such as growth hormones and steroids. And I’m not against these activities for other purposes than food. However, the worst offence is the shadow marketing of the products. The cover-ups, the lies, and the constant pressure by GMO lobbyists to disguise this frankenfood behind misleading labels. This leads to entrenched corruption, such as Monsanto’s bids to change laws so as to make their companies irresponsible down the road. The whole thing smacks of evil.
I would be amenable to clear product packaging that specifies what has been modified and how, and by a new body of law that makes people who eat such food responsible for their own health consequences. It should also be up to such people to determine their own diet guidelines because I find warning labels placed on foods to be generally unpleasant to others.. If I can I avoid beef and it doesn’t come with a warning on every patty, then phenylketonurics can avoid diet soda.
I’m not inflexible on the modification process itself. For example, look what they’ve done with rice. That is one crop I consider an exception because it has so many thousands of species. Up to 12,000 depending on how you count them. They are constantly exposed to natural cross-breeding, so that is more like a giant genetic lottery. More borderline, to me anyway, is the relatively new Golden Rice, which is bombarded with corn genes to make it produce vitamin A. People should be warned that it is modified and if they persist in eating it and become sick later, the public should not have to pick up the tab. They should have the option to sue limited to holding the manufacturers of the rice accountable.
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