Month: January 2014

The secrecy agents are at it again. Senator Travis Holdman, a Republican from over around Wells County has introduced at the Indiana General Assembly Senate Bill 101. This bill is also known as the “AG-GAG” bill. Its purpose is to keep secret all of the questionable practices of farmers in raising animals or crops, many of which wind up on the tables of Indiana families. It is known that some of the practices of confinement feeding of pigs, cattle and chickens are abominable. It is just that the farmers who engage in such practices want them kept secret. They want the public to be kept ignorant.
This type of legislation was introduced in the last session of the Indiana General Assembly and did not make it through to the governor’s desk. Hopefully, this will be the fate of this attempt at censorship. Hiding only confirms wrong doing. Think about it. If you are doing things you think would be judged wrong by the public, the only way to keep doing them is to hide them, keep them secret. Otherwise, an informed public may require change. Those that support this bill are proposing secrecy. Those supporters do not belong in positions of public trust because they betray that trust.
Several other states have passed such legislation. The bills are aimed directly at whistleblowers. It criminalizes whistleblowing. Whistleblowing employees have played a vital role in exposing animal abuse, unsafe working conditions, and environmental problems in industrial style farming operations. There are already adequate laws on the books to prevent or penalize misbehavior around private property. No more laws are needed particularly if hiding acts and practices the public needs to know about are what they do. The “AG-GAG” bill needs to die a not-so-quiet death.
States having AG-GAG laws already on the books include Iowa, Utah, North Dakota, Montana, and Kansas. Guess where the most livestock is raised. Shame on them.

Is it any surprise that we have political leaders that conduct wars for political gain as Robert Gates, former Secretary of Defense, says in his new book! This is not exclusive to one political party or another. Both Democrats and Republicans are guilty. The last war to really save our freedoms was World War II. Since then, none.

Korea in the 1950’s. That was one for the books. Thousands of lives later, we have a “truce” at the 48th parallel. During the fighting, our political leaders would not let the military fight for a win. Their hands were tied. We were afraid of China coming into the conflict. One wonders why we were there in the first place and what, ultimately, was accomplished. There was nothing there that threatened our national security.

Then came Viet Nam. Another one for the books. The “Domino Theory” at work. Our wise political leaders concluded that if we let Viet Nam go to communism, there would be a march of communism on across the globe. The French got out. We were there for years and years with great loss of life and no win. Ultimately, our country decided it was not worth it and left. I can see photos of the last helicopters leaving the US Embassy in my mind. Again, nothing there that really threatened our national security.

Then 9/11 and the Twin Towers came down. This gave George H.W. Bush the excuse to attack Saddam Hussein and Iraq. Admittedly, Hussein was a tyrant over the country and the people therein, but Iraq had nothing to do with the attack on the twin towers. Bush and Cheney used that tragedy as an excuse. The reason is contained in one word, “oil”. Otherwise, we had and have no interest in that country. And Hussein sure was no threat to our national security. He had no “weapons of mass destruction” and even if he did, no means to deliver them. We lost or maimed hundreds of troops in Iraq. Look what is happening there now: civil war between the Sunnis and Shiites. Was the cost to us in lives and money worth it? Our focus should have been on the capturing or killing of Osama Bin Laden who was no where near Iraq. Shame on Bush and Cheney.

Now we are still bogged down in Afghanistan. The Russians were there for ten years before us. They went home with some help to the Afgans from us. Then we decided to “save” the country from the Taliban. We have been there now for over ten years with no end in sight. Again, nothing to gain and only to lose or maim hundreds of our troops. Afghanistan is no threat to our national security. They have no air force and no navy capable of reaching North America. What are we doing there? Afghanistan issues should be the concern of and cost for Pakistan and India and maybe even Japan, not us. Shame on Bush, Cheney, and now President Barack Obama.

I have adopted the attitude of Pat Buchanan, a political conservative. He thinks we stick our nose into way too many places around the globe. We act like the global “policeman” and “savior”. We are neither. Buchanan believes more in a fortress America philosophy. Yes, attack our enemies world wide when they are identified and are true threats, but stay out of local conflicts and do not get engaged in lengthy ground wars or conflicts. Makes perfect sense to me. We need to tend to business at home.

Our position should be to have a military so superior in capability that no other nation on earth would ever challenge it. It is to carry the biggest sword and not have to use it. Beyond that, to mind our own business and let other nations work out their own destinies. In case no one has noticed, we are broke. We need to concentrate on getting this country back to health monetarily, economically, scientifically, and politically. Nothing short of this will do. Otherwise, our time in the sun is limited.

It took only 40,000 Facebook posts on General Mills Facebook page to get them to respond. Cheerios, the top selling cereal in the United States, is GMO free. The company says that original Cheerios are made using only non-GMO corn and that the sugar is from pure, non-GMO cane sugar. The primary grain in Cherrios is oats and there are no GMO oats being grown. What corn involved has been corn starch.

The big deal here is that this giant food company responded publicly to calls from consumers for non-GMO products. The voices in the market are getting louder. People first want to know if GMO’s are in foods they buy and, secondly, when they know foods are GMO free, they prefer them.
The dam has, indeed, been broken with this announcement from General Mills. Watch, there will be movement toward other foods being touted as “GMO-Free”. Ultimately, the big chemical/seed companies will not win this battle.

Is it any surprise that we have political leaders that conduct wars for political gain as Robert Gates, former Secretary of Defense, says in his new book! This is not exclusive to one political party or another. Both Democrats and Republicans are guilty. The last war to really save our freedoms was World War II. Since then, none.
Korea in the 1950’s. That was one for the books. Thousands of lives later, we have a “truce” at the 48th parallel. During the fighting, our political leaders would not let the military fight for a win. Their hands were tied. We were afraid of China coming into the conflict. One wonders why we were there in the first place and what, ultimately, was accomplished. There was nothing there that threatened our national security.
Then came Viet Nam. Another one for the books. The “Domino Theory” at work. Our wise political leaders concluded that if we let Viet Nam go to communism, there would be a march of communism on across the globe. The French got out. We were there for years and years with great loss of life and no win. Ultimately, our country decided it was not worth it and left. I can see photos of the last helicopters leaving the US Embassy in my mind. Again, nothing there that really threatened our national security.
Then 9/11 and the Twin Towers came down. This gave George H.W. Bush the excuse to attack Saddam Hussein and Iraq. Admittedly, Hussein was a tyrant over the country and the people therein, but Iraq had nothing to do with the attack on the twin towers. Bush and Cheney used that tragedy as an excuse. The reason is contained in one word, “oil”. Otherwise, we had and have no interest in that country. And Hussein sure was no threat to our national security. He had no “weapons of mass destruction” and even if he did, no means to deliver them. We lost or maimed hundreds of troops in Iraq. Look what is happening there now: civil war between the Sunnis and Shiites. Was the cost to us in lives and money worth it? Our focus should have been on the capturing or killing of Osama Bin Laden who was no where near Iraq. Shame on Bush and Cheney.
Now we are still bogged down in Afghanistan. The Russians were there for ten years before us. They went home with some help to the Afgans from us. Then we decided to “save” the country from the Taliban. We have been there now for over ten years with no end in sight. Again, nothing to gain and only to lose or maim hundreds of our troops. Afghanistan is no threat to our national security. They have no air force and no navy capable of reaching North America. What are we doing there? Afghanistan issues should be the concern of and cost for Pakistan and India and maybe even Japan, not us. Shame on Bush, Cheney, and now President Barack Obama.
I have adopted the attitude of Pat Buchanan, a political conservative. He thinks we stick our nose into way too many places around the globe. We act like the global “policeman” and “savior”. We are neither. Buchanan believes more in a fortress America philosophy. Yes, attack our enemies world wide when they are identified and are true threats, but stay out of local conflicts and do not get engaged in lengthy ground wars or conflicts. Makes perfect sense to me. We need to tend to business at home.
Our position should be to have a military so superior in capability that no other nation on earth would ever challenge it. It is to carry the biggest sword and not have to use it. Beyond that, to mind our own business and let other nations work out their own destinies. In case no one has noticed, we are broke. We need to concentrate on getting this country back to health monetarily, economically, scientifically, and politically. Nothing short of this will do. Otherwise, our time in the sun is limited.