Why There Are No Jobs in America

A short, hypothetical scenario created to illustrate why starting and running a business in America is so hard thanks to being forced to have the government as a partner. This "partner" contributes little and takes a lot, making the chance of success limited. It can be done, however—the author of the piece is a young entrepreneur who started and runs a very successful financial research firm. (Today [the date of publication], this piece is posted on the home page of its host site, but will migrate to the archives quickly. I'll try to keep the link updated. If not, search for "This Is Why There Are No Jobs in America" and the author's last name, Stansberry.)

U.S. debt, for the second time in history, is about to . . .

10 Signs the U.S. Is Becoming a Third-world Country

Read 'em and weep.

"No Reasonable Person Should Believe Our Advertising"

In a Huffington Post article, "The Dark Side of Vitaminwater," best-selling author John Robbins points out the twisted logic of Coca-Cola in their defense against a lawsuit brought by a public-interest group saying that Vitaminwater has no health benefits. Here's the opening to the article:

Now here's something you wouldn't expect. Coca-Cola is being sued by a non-profit public interest group, on the grounds that the company's vitaminwater products make unwarranted health claims. No surprise there. But how do you think the company is defending itself?

In a staggering feat of twisted logic, lawyers for Coca-Cola are defending the lawsuit by asserting that "no consumer could reasonably be misled into thinking vitaminwater was a healthy beverage."

Does this mean that you'd have to be an unreasonable person to think that a product named "vitaminwater," a product that has been heavily and aggressively marketed as a healthy beverage, actually had health benefits?

Or does it mean that it's okay for a corporation to lie about its products, as long as they can then turn around and claim that no one actually believes their lies?

Why I Want to Work for the Government When I Grow Up

“. . .government employees seem to work shorter hours, have more vacation time, access unbelievable healthcare, never worry about job security and even make more money than people slugging it out in the private sector.”

Those are the words of a federal careers expert, quoted in a depressing Forbes.com article about the cushiest jobs in America: working for the government. Read it here.

Ten Reasons Obama's Presidency Is in Serious Trouble

Excellent summary of Obama's presidency to date and why it's in meltdown -- article by Nile Gardiner of the U.K. Telegraph. Read it here. (And may the reasons double by November.)

"I Can't Believe Grownups Would Say Words Like That . . . ."

A great (short) interview with legendary investor Jim Rogers on the failed financial policies of the current administration. A sample:

I would abolish the Federal Reserve. I would cut taxes. I would cut spending in a draconian manner. A very draconian manner. The idea that you can solve a problem of too much debt and too much consumption, with more debt and more consumption, defies comprehension. I can't believe that grown-ups would say words like that out-loud. But that's what they seem to think - I don't know if they really believe it's going to work, but they just don't know what else to do, and you know they're all doing... for the next elections, so they're making things worse. There are plenty of ways to solve the problem. You let the people who go bankrupt go bankrupt. You let Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac go bankrupt, go out of business. You let AIG go out of business. You stop bailing everybody out. The Japanese tried it our way in the early 90s; they refused to let anybody go bankrupt, and they still talk about the 1990s as "the lost decade." Now they're talking about this decade as the second lost decade. Japanese stock market today is 75% below where it was in 1990. That is not a typo. It is down 75% in 20 years. Can you imagine if the New York Stock Exchange, or if the DOW Jones to use a better example, were at 4000? I don't think people would be very happy. Well, that's the equivalent of the situation in Japan right now. It didn't work in Japan; it's not going to work in the US.

Read the whole interview here.

Redefining Marriage

This week, U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker struck down the voter-mandated 2008 Proposition 8 in California that defined marriage as the union of a man and a woman. Somehow he took it upon himself to define society's most critical institution in direct contravention of the expressed will of the people. The decision will, of course, be appealed to the 9th Circuit (or 9th "Circus" as some refer to America's most liberal Circuit Court) and then to the U. S. Supreme Court.

Go here to read the brief analysis of this decision by Dr. Robert George (too many credentials to list; go here for my previous post about him), a staunch defender of Proposition 8. And here for a statement on the decision authored by George, Charles Colson, and Dr. Timothy George (no relation to Robert George), the authors of the Manhattan Declaration.

Men and Women

Someone sent this to me and I thought it was cute, but not altogether true. I don't think shopping is a male vs. female thing, but I do think shopping malls are. I (most men?) avoid malls like the plague. If we have to go, it's "get in, get done, get out." But I will spend hours shopping for something online. Thoughts?

"Wake Up, America!"

Dr. Michael Youssef is the founding pastor of the 3,000+ member, non-denominational Anglican Church of the Apostles in Atlanta. He is Egyptian by birth and world-traveled. He received his theological education in Sydney, Australia, and at Fuller Seminary in America, then a Ph.D in social anthropology from Emory University in Atlanta. He became an American citizen in 1984. But because of his Egyptian heritage, he knows the Arab world and the Muslim religion. And he believes America is blind to the Muslim agenda.

Much has been in the news of late about the proposed building of a $100 million mosque just a couple blocks from Ground Zero in New York City—a project that will most likely be funded by Saudi Arabia where Christians are not even allowed to worship in their homes. Youssef believes America is acting naively when it comes to its attitude toward Muslims—as Europe has done which is gradually becoming "Muslimized."

Please read Youssef's brief take on the New York City mosque debate, found here. In a short space, he gives an overview of the Muslim agenda that few in America are even aware of. (Thanks to my friend, Robert Orr, for the link to this article.)

Way to Go, Missouri!

Yesterday, Missouri voters became the first to formally tell the federal government to back away when it comes to mandating the purchase of health coverage. From the St Louis Post-Dispatch:

Missouri voters on Tuesday overwhelmingly rejected a federal mandate to purchase health insurance, rebuking President Barack Obama's administration and giving Republicans their first political victory in a national campaign to overturn the controversial health care law passed by Congress in March.

"The citizens of the Show-Me State don't want Washington involved in their health care decisions," said Sen. Jane Cunningham, R-Chesterfield, one of the sponsors of the legislation that put Proposition C on the August ballot. She credited a grass-roots campaign involving Tea Party and patriot groups with building support for the anti-Washington proposition.

Now—where are the rest of the states?

Read the whole article here.

Don't Drive Through the Drive-Thru

I'm a big fan of Dr. Michael Greger (M.D.). Every year he reads around 5,000 articles published in major medical and nutritional journals to uncover the latest research. He then summarizes the best of his findings in an annual DVD—tons of helpful information. This year's edition consists of two DVD's, he had so much to share.

Watching the latest edition this morning while riding my stationary bike, I was amazed at this finding: a major journal reported research conducted at the Cleveland Clinic on the content of fast-food hamburgers. That is, how much actual beef muscle tissue—what we think of as meat—is contained in fast-food burgers? They analyzed the burgers from eight national fast-food chains and found that eating them is roughly equivalent to eating a hot dog—the waste bin of the processed meat industry. The eight burgers were found to contain between two and 14 percent of actual beef muscle tissue. The rest of the burgers were made up of organ meat, blood vessels, nerves, fillers, and the like.

Fortunately, no brain or spinal tissue was found—that's been outlawed as I understand it, due to the prions in those organs that result in BSE (Mad Cow Disease).

I recall how my mother bought meat when I was small, from a local butcher shop in our small town in Alabama. She went into the shop, requested this or that cut, and we watched the butchers cut the meat off large sections of carcass. If she got hamburger, the raw meat portions were run through a meat grinder and wrapped. In other words, it was all meat. Even when a McDonalds opened in our town, it was years before I was allowed to eat there. My mother just didn't trust "hamburgers" that she couldn't see being prepared in front of her, I guess. (My other memory from those butcher shop visits was bringing home large wrapped portions of beef bones for our dogs, Sugar and Jet, to chew on. How they loved those bones!)

And this nut didn't fall far from the tree as I have returned to that same perspective. Not regarding meat, of course—that's off the menu regardless of its source. But I no longer put much trust in corporate food sources -- like fast-food or other chain or even standalone restaurants. It's too easy for food to be tampered with behind closed doors in the name of the bottom line. When I see advertising campaigns like the "Got Milk" ads featuring celebrities, I imagine the average consumer believes those ads are somehow health related when they have nothing to do with health, put profit. They have no idea of the gazillions of dollars from trade and lobbying organizations that go into producing those ads, purely for the purpose of selling a product that has been proven to have deleterious health effects.

Yes, the McDonald's jingle used to say, "Two ALL BEEF patties . . .," but knowing that "all beef" includes mostly the junk portions of the cow ought to be enough to cause anyone to avoid drive-thru's altogether.

Summer CSA (July 22)

My CSA share box gets seriously heavy in July, what with the tomatoes, potatoes, and melons. This was the harvest for this week: peppers, cucumbers, squash, eggplant, slicing tomatoes, "cherry" tomatoes, potatoes, watermelon, and a smooth skinned cantaloupe:

After the watermelon had cooled I split it and discovered it had yellow flesh! I can't remember ever tasting a watermelon as sweet as this. I emailed Sammy (the farmer) to get the variety name and to see if it was a hybrid or an open pollinated variety—if the latter, I could save the seeds. He said it was a hybrid that he got from Johnny's Selected Seeds, but couldn't remember the name. I looked on their site and Sunshine looks like it might be the variety. It was unbelievably good:

I also love the variety of "cherry" tomatoes Sammy grows. They rarely make it past the first day:

Giant Zucchini

This zucchini got too big before I noticed it, so I decided to just let it grow. I brought it in today since I was ready to pull the plant up. It's interesting that the longer this zucchini stayed on the plant, the weaker the plant got. It stopped putting out any new flowers and lots of the leaves began wilting. Since a plant's mission in life is to bear fruit and create seed for reproducing itself, I wondered if this zucchini being allowed to grow so large sent a signal to the plant that said, "Our work here is done." It weighs 4 pounds, 4 ounces:

In Praise of Compost

Back on June 2, I posted this picture of three "plants" (wasn't sure what they were at the time) that had sprouted at/near the base of a compost bin:

This is what they look like on July 24:

I think they are some variety of pumpkin squash, based on the early markings. I recall getting a pumpkin squash in my CSA share last summer which I never ate. It sat on my kitchen table through the winter and I composted it in the spring. So these plants are likely from those seeds. However, if the squash was a hybrid (rather than an OP [open pollinated] variety), it likely won't reproduce true to the parent. So it will be a surprise!

I think the robust growth of these plants is due in part to the alfalfa meal I put in the compost bin every time I add new raw material. It is a great nitrogen source for the bacteria and must be feeding these plants as well.

What Little Boys Do on the Way to School

This is a great video. It's a demonstration of how "balance bikes" -- bikes without pedals -- can be used to teach really little kids how to balance and steer bikes before they learn to ride with pedals. But the demonstration turns priceless seeing all the things this little guy does on his way to kindergarten, arriving just as the bell rings. The freedom and joy of being a tyke on a bike:

Pictures from Pella

Back when I joined Facebook, I started a Kruidenier Family Group for people with the last name "Kruidenier"—a rare enough name to create a small group. I haven't counted lately, but I think around 30+ Kruideniers have found the group and joined up from all over the world.

I looked at the Group's page the other day and found a note left by a nice lady in Pella, Iowa, who isn't a Kruidenier but lives in a house built and inhabited by a "Dirk Kruidenier" in the late 1800's. Dirk Kruidenier, and his wife, Wilhelmina Pluggers Kruidenier, were my paternal great-grandparents. I contacted the lady and asked for more information about the house. She and her husband had bought and renovated the house and lived in it for a number of years, but were selling it. She directed me to a local real estate web site where I found some pictures.

Pella, Iowa, (40-50 miles east of Des Moines) was founded in 1847—the settlement of around 800 Dutch immigrants who journeyed to America. I actually have the beautiful wooden trunk brought from Holland by Dirk Kruidenier when he emigrated with his parents as a six-year-old in 1854. He and Wilhelmina Pluggers were married in Holland, Michigan, (her hometown, also the daughter of "pioneer Dutch settlers") in 1877, and they lived in Pella in the house (below) where Dirk owned a "general merchandise store there, with considerable success" (from his obit). They moved to Des Moines, Iowa, in 1904 where he entered the wholesale carpet business. Then, in 1910, he along with his three sons became the distributor of Cadillac automobiles in the region: Kruidenier-Cadillac Co.

Here is Dirk Kruidenier:

And Wilhelmina:

These pics of their house are from the real estate web site, so not great quality. The lady who currently owns the house offered this info: 11-foot ceilings downstairs, transoms over all the interior doors for air circulation, plaster medallions on the ceilings in four rooms with a large hook for hanging gas lights, three bedrooms upstairs (plus a bath the current residents added) and a master bedroom and bathroom downstairs. She said they love the house and hate to sell it.

The design is unusual to me: the bulbous living room on the front of the house with dual front doors (?), one on each side of the porch (?):

The lady said the brick walls of the house were "three bricks thick!"

Nice detailing over the windows and in the brick work on the right:

The interior of the aforementioned living room with the curved front wall. I like the period wallpaper:

I'd never seen pictures of this house before. Nice to get a glimpse of where one's forebears lived—especially after coming to America with everything in a small trunk.

Dirk died in Des Moines of a heart attack at age 68 (1916), and Wilhelmina lived until age 80, also dying of a heart ailment of some sort. (Unfortunately, Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn wouldn't write Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease until 2007.)

I would love to have known them both.

Attentive Marketing

Today's stage in the Tour de France was one of the most exciting I've ever seen. They boys rode up a massive final peak in the Pyrenees with a screaming, twisting 20k downhill to the finish. I'll quench my inner sportswriter and not describe the entire thing and mention only a decisive event that determined the winner of the stage: When the leader of the Tour attacked near the top of the peak his chain popped off and his main rival sped past him and started the downhill with a 30-second lead, eventually displacing the unfortunate rider at the finish line as the new Tour leader.

Many of these very expensive bikes have a small accessory installed called a chain catcher that prevents chains from popping off the front rings (which happens rarely, anyway). But this rider's bike didn't have one installed (although I bet it will tomorrow).

I laughed when, about three hours after the race ended, a marketing email came through from Competitive Cyclist in Little Rock, Arkansas—a terrific seller of high-end road and mountain bike wares. They sell the best of EVERYTHING related to this sport, and I have gotten quite an education just from lurking about on their web site. The highlighted item in their marketing email? Chain catchers:

Selling on the news of the day. That's why they're the best in the biz.

Colin Campbell on the Flawed/Failed Strategy of the NIH

It's awesome to witness the macro-views of Dr. Colin Campbell, author of The China Study and Emeritus Professor of nutritional biochemistry at Cornell. In this Huffington Post piece, he calls on the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the "most prominent biomedical research institution in the world," to establish an Institute of Nutrition -- amazingly, not one of its 27 existing institutes is dedicated to that subject!

Is that amazing? The "National Institutes of HEALTH" has 27 institutes and centers that deal with everything except the connection between food (nutrition) and health.

In his piece, Dr. Campbell explains why this is needed: the "genome project" has been a failed exercise in promoting health. It serves other purposes, but its hoped-for ability to reverse major diseases by genetic manipulation has produced no results. Rather, laboratories like Dr. Campbell's, and others', have shown that nutrition has the power to suppress genetic tendencies toward disease. Yet this is being totally overlooked, if not ignored, by the NIH and other mainstream medical institutions.

He concludes:

As for health professionals who claim they cannot convince patients to change their dietary practices, this is not surprising when the professionals themselves are not educated in this field and are vested in a strategy that is the antithesis of good nutrition. It is time we recognize what nutrition can do and a good place to start is to establish an NIH Institute of Nutrition dedicated for this purpose.

What a Great Way to Eat!

Great second-week update -- with beautiful pics, recipes, and nutritional info -- on the "Healthy Librarian's" three-week test of Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn's "no oil" vegan diet. Seeing the pics of this food, and the positive results as noted by the Healthy Librarian, makes one wonder why everyone doesn't eat this way all the time.