Swallow This

Here we go again with
Mickey Mouse and Rin-Tin-Tin 
--Old Army Cadence Call 

I'm crazy for trying and crazy for crying
And I'm crazy for loving you 
--Crazy, Patsy Cline 

No escape from the mass mind rape
Play it again jack and then rewind the tape
And then play it again and again and again
Until your mind is locked in 
--Bullet in the Head, 
Rage Against the Machine
  ___________________

Is gun control a real life issue or just another hot-button topic used by both parties to keep We the People in a constant state of emotional upheaval?  The issue serves to polarize and harden the plaque in our partisan arteries, without demandingd any rigorous proof which might substantiate the taking of one side over the other.

Meanwhile, our national "debate" hinges on the straw man argument: You are for gun control, or you are for unfettered Wild West violence.  Good, compassionate limp-wristed liberals vs. insane, gun-toting bloodthirsty tea baggers.  Only, the reality is not so facile. Who speaks for common sense today?

Let us use the figure of 30,000 annual gun homicides in the United States (this figure includes justifiable use of firearms).  30K is a lot of dead people, but so what?  Dead folks are helpful to society in many different ways; in fact, they are essential lest we deplete our raw resources. Requiescat In Pace.

Why do we get crazy about gun deaths but barely raise a whisper about the approximately 100,000 annual U.S. deaths due to  wrongly prescribed pharmaceutical drugs and drug reactions and interactions?  There is one death (accidental or intentional) every 24 minutes in the U.S. due to drugs found in our own medicine cabinets; 61 deaths per day, on average, or 22,265 deaths per year.  How do you legislate drug safety?

Good liberals decry the gun lobby and take easy pot shots at those who embrace their guns, but a far bigger and more nefarious lobby is that of Big Pharma, whose products will kill every one of us far more efficiently and in larger numbers than will guns any day of the week.  Insidiously, too.

If gun deaths are unacceptable, then so too are prescription drug deaths, or tobacco-related deaths, or alcohol-related deaths.  We tried to legislate the latter with the Eighteenth Amendment and the Volstead Act but found out that our citizens have a remarkable facility for circumventing the law.  Banning things rarely works in a free society, though legislation may. The caveat is that a free society must sign on to the strictures. We abide by a Bill of Rights which accords us the right to weapons ownership.

The issue comes down to power and control of our lives. Are we a liberal or a conservative society?  Is the Federal government  allowed or legally able to force background checks and then to use these as investigative and intelligence tools?  Why and how can the government use private legal purchase of firearms to establish a national database for firearms purchasers?  Further, is such a warrantless intrusion into our rights of privacy and ownership consistent with what we are as Americans?

Why do we have a Fourth Amendment?  We should get clear on this when discussing Second Amendment infringements.

Guns look scary and go "BOOM!", and when used destructively, the results can be spectacular.  Because it is a simple, discrete item, it is easy to focus on.  We are susceptible to being riled up by the press and our leaders like marionette puppets chittering on about the latest train wreck dujour, whether personal or political (or best -- a combination of both).  Yet we ignore the many other forms of death which stalk us every day of our lives, some of which may be as easily legislated as gun ownership and may be more productive in terms of protection.

It seems that we have an unspoken covenant that condones certain methods of self-destruction, while opposing gun violence. But why is the death wrought at the end of a gun any different from that caused by any number of other mundane modalities?

What are willing to swallow? At the current mortality rate from prescription drugs, we have more dead bodies stacked up every 11 days than we do victims of all spree shootings since 1980.  Where is our sense of perspective?  All of this death without one extended magazine or assault rifle.

Guns are viewed as symbols of freedom by many Americans.  In fact, we would not have our nation had the citizens not owned firearms; it was not via mediation that the Brits decided to leave us to our own devices.

We are also a nation of death, and one form is as serviceable as the next.

The Land of Milk and Cookies

I don't care if you're full
Just eat it, eat it, eat it, eat it
Open up your mouth and feed it
--Eat It, Weird Al Yankovic

these hips are mighty hips.
these hips are magic hips.
i have known them
to put a spell on a man and
spin him like a top
--Homage to My Hips,
Lucille Clifton

You can't always get what you want
But if you try sometimes
You just might find
You get what you need
--You Can't Always Get What You Want,
The Rolling Stones
____________________

Ranger Question of the Day:
If Obama were CEO of a major corporation,
would they retain him after four years?
___________________

Ranger does not do food articles, usually, but this one can be tied to tactical issues.

The first thing that returning prisoners of war crave are dairy products -- usually milk and ice cream as these are comfort foods that hearken back to days when they enjoyed the comforts of home.

In our little corner of the universe the grocery stores are having trouble keeping organic milk products stocked. The suppliers are in a bind because of increased feed costs due to increased petroleum costs; organic feed is more expensive than ordinary forage.

In addition, smaller bottles of milk are often not available, and we can only guess that is because people are buying smaller bottles because they cannot afford the larger ones. It is a strange day in the USA when one cannot purchase the kind of milk one desires.

Now that is change one can believe in.

And speaking of food issues, Mrs. Obama's "Let's Move" campaign to reduce the rate of obesity and introduce better food choices has been heralded by Better Homes and Gardens and other middle-brow outlets geared to makes us feel good about something today. Of course, she has gardeners maintain a vegetable garden outside of the White House. But how are Americans supposed to eat proper meals if they are unemployed or impoverished, or just too tired from trying to piece together a living to cultivate a garden?

What if you rent in a high-rise and or a high crime area, and you have no arable land available to you? It sounds very homey with retro overtones of Victory Garden, but how does that square with the reality of modern life?

If one is living on a fixed income, one must maximize the number of calories one may purchase with one's limited food allotment. Those foods are often high-carbohydrate and poor quality, laden with high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) and other cheaper ingredients. Obesity rates are correlated to social and economic disparities. It costs money to purchase organic fruits and vegetables and to eat well. Ironically, cheaper food can often be purchased from China and South America. For people living on the edge, carbon footprints are not a concern.

Republicans often point to the weight of lower-income people as justification for cutting food programs, but people often become heavy from making poor food choices. It sounds easy and good to say "Let's Move", but the national blight of obesity has arisen from multifold causes. It's not easy to shake your thing when you're hungry or undernourished.

Most articles on the Move initiative offer unverified glowing reviews -- noting that stores like Walmart are increasing their fresh food choices and reducing the amount of HFCS. However, these moves were in play before Obama's program, a response to a segment of the market which is more informed and has the discretionary funds to pay more for healthier food choices.

Until the Department of Agriculture stops subsidizing monster processed food corporations like Monsanto, Archer, and ConAgra and their unlabled GMOs, obesity and it's evil twin of diabetes and other weight-related health woes will continue, unabated. Though a recent report stated that the rate of increase in the number of newly obese was decreasing, that still leaves over two thirds of us overweight or obese (and growing, no pun intended).

Until the interests of Big Agra and Big Pharma are reined in, obesity will be a growth industry.

--Jim & Lisa