The Fallacy of Redistribution

Sometimes Mr. Obama's economic naivete and lack of history is stunning—or scary. With the revelation this week of the tape on which he says he believes in economic redistribution of wealth to some (unspecified) extent, comes the need for a history lesson. Not from me, but from Dr. Thomas Sowell, African-American economist at Stanford's Hoover Institution. He schools Obama on what happened in the Soviet Union when government began taking over the agricultural output of the nation's farmers. Guess what? The farmers simply stopped producing and millions of people died of starvation under Stalin. Sowell points out that people are not widgets that can be moved around according to a plan. If people don't like the plan, they react with intelligence and emotion. And people innately don't like what they have produced being taken from them by people who produce nothing (i.e., government). 

Dr. Sowell, author of more than 30 books on history and economics, has the perspective that our president seems to lack. If you have any inclination to vote again for this president, I encourage you to read this short piece (and others) by Dr. Sowell. (This is not a pro-Romney article. It is an article about the lack of historical perspective relative to one of Obama's stated goals.)

Dr. Sowell's article is here. 

Why Don't They Run Into Each Other?

Check out FlightRadar24.com for a real time look at every plane in the sky, updating in real time about every 30 seconds.

Kruidenier Cadillac

Mike at Vintage-Snapshots.com came across a photo taken on Locust Street in Des Moines, Iowa, in 1914 (the year my father was born), and was kind enough to share a digital copy with me.

The photo is important to me as it features the sign for the Kruidenier Cadillac Company, founded by my great-grandfather, Dirk Kruidenier, in the early 1900's (on the right side of the photo). Dirk Kruidenier emigrated from Holland with his family as a six-year-old in 1854 and settled in Pella, Iowa, moving later to Des Moines where he engaged in business and ultimately became the Cadillac dealer in the region. His son, Edward, also worked in the business and my father and his two brothers grew up around cars as young men. I don't know what happened to the dealership, but am grateful for this photo. (More on Dirk Kruidenier here.)

Thanks again to Mike for the photo and the detail enlargement:

Whole Foods, Trader Joe's, and Others Are M.I.A.

Why have the organic and healthy food industry leaders failed to come out in support of Proposition 37 in California that would require labeling of GMO/GE foods? (Read about these graphics here.)

Frankinfoods

This week only (or perhaps they'll extend it) you can watch online a new documentary movie on the dangers of GMO/GE foods. Genetic Roulette contains the testimony of numerous scientists, doctors, farmers, and others on the increasingly abundant evidence of the impact of genetically altered foods—ESPECIALLY on children.

For all practical purposes, America's supply of conventional corn and soy is all GMO/GE food. This film has renewed my commitment not to eat any conventionally-grown food. But organic food is not free from danger either. Scientists have discovered that the Bt bacteria (bacillus thuringiensis) that is the mainstay of organic pesticide production for brassica crops, is harmful to humans. Bt, which has been inbred into GMO/GE crops, has been found to have harmful impact in the human gut when those GMO/GE are consumed. But that means that organically-grown crops with Bt residue might be something to care about when Bt has always been considered "harmless to humans." (Of course, in organics the Bt is not inbred into the crop and is subject to thorough washing, etc., of the organic crops.)

This is a powerful movie. If you eat anything with conventional grain, corn, or soy in it (especially soy-based infant formula), please give this movie a watch. It's over an hour long, but well worth the time. You can watch the entire documentary here.

Note: If you live in California, please vote "Yes" on Proposition 37 in November. If Prop 37 passes, food produces would be required by law to label their foods as containing GMO/GE foods, something they are not now required to do (in contrast to Europe where such labeling is required). The Cornucopia Institute has more information about the Prop 37 initiative. If this initiative passes in California, the nation's biggest food state, it will bode well for it becoming law nationally.