To spray or not to spray...that is our country.

I keep hearing mixed reports as to whether or not the aerial spraying in Dallas County was affective in eradicating the West Nile carrying mosquitos. Some reports say yes. Others aren’t so sure. I know around our swimming pool in the evening, they are gone. Like zero in attendance. Before the spraying we were being driven inside with the buzzing creatures attacks.

But one thing is for certain, a centralized body of government made a decision for the health of us all to try and ease the problem of deaths due to this dreaded disease.  That is communism according to some who have objected to the spraying. While I am not sure it ranks up there with the theories of Karl Marx, it was a bit off putting to some to have bureaucrats make decisions for us like that.

The good news is that they looked at it long and hard and made a well-informed decision based on science, medicine and a real population need. They also had a lot of open dialog and forums to hear from all sides – including doctors and scientists. But many of my “liberal” friends objected. Too much intrusion into our lives, they scolded.

I reminded them, this is how the Right sees Obamacare. It is part and parcel the same. Government taking over healthcare for society. And while those of us with half a brain know that is NOT what is happening, there are still those fundamentalists who argue that just because it has a mandate in it, it is socialism. And because the skies were filled with government planes spraying chemicals it was a plot to poison us all. (No, really, I heard that.)

Spraying in Dallas County was NOT an act of social upheaval and conspiratorial attacks on our freedoms. It was an act of county-wide health control practiced sparingly in our state. It is little different than crop dusting. Now I know the Green Party will stand up and shout for Organic America, but a recent article in the New York Times explained that there seems to be no real benefit between organically grown vegetables and those using the more modern methods. While I am not sure I’d side with that piece of science totally, I will say that the spraying did much more good than any harm it might have caused to your carrots and radishes in your organic garden.

It wasn’t DDT. It wasn’t a carcinogen. It was an organically developed pesticide that kills mosquitos – and more importantly kills the carriers of West Nile Disease: a disease that was killing hundreds of citizens in Dallas, Tarrant and Denton counties. And it does its work without affecting people, pets and most pollen carriers – namely bees, although to hear the bee industry and regular people talk, it was the end of the world as we know it. (Thanks to R.E.M. for the lyrics.)

I do hope our country can get back to harmonious discussion of issues and that things like spraying for mosquitos do not carry the life and death arguments as seen between neighbors here in Dallas. Let’s save those really big arguments for whom we should invade next. We’ve got a war winding down in Afghanistan. It’s time to send our troops somewhere new.

Suggestions?

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There are a few strings attached

I heard today that they have placed three more woods on the endangered species list, which means guitar makers will be without the use of Madagascar Rosewood and Honduras Mahogany soon. The third wood is an African wood not used in the making of guitars, mandolins, lutes or pianos.

Might not mean much to my non-guitar playing friends, but it says to me that alternative woods are going to have to come on line faster than ever. It also says we are cutting down a lot of trees.  To be sure, most of them are cut for furniture and housing, but still, without these precious woods for instruments; carbon fiber guitars are the wave of the future.

So the next time someone comes along talking about regulating the things we use– the natural resources we consumer, the next time you poo-poo them for being liberal and a jerk and an alarmist…remember, guitar players, your next guitar may be plastic, because we cut down too many trees.

 

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Not So Fast, Mr. Tea Partyer

 I received a response from a gentleman in Nebraska about my Labor Day Blog– the one yesterday about the ten moments that changed America’s ability to have reasonable discourse about our goals and future. Let me quote from his letter:

“America is not about Social Security or the wars we have fought and won or lost and it is not about the men who served it in the White House. It is about the people’s will to get the government off their backs and leave them alone. Your attack on the Tea Party is un-American and shows the leftist leaning of your political views. It is the Tea Party that is saving America from itself. The reason the Tea Party has not gotten behind Obama’s job bills is that they cost money. That’s tax payer (sic) money, and we don’t want that. … The only thing that can save America today from its Godless ways is returning to Jesus and his bible.”

I think James Tally’s letter proves my article’s point.

The Tea Party member is too concerned about the cost of helping another American than he is getting both a neighbor and a country back to work and on her feet. A nation working will pay off the debts and raise revenues faster than a nation on unemployment. But the Tea Party is too focused on Grover Norquist’s no new tax pledge, that they can’t see how ground up economic policies work.

Theirs is not a simple idea; it is a simple-minded notion.

A country going through the type of near-depression we encountered in 2008-2010 has to be given a spark to get the economic engine pumping again. (Even Ronnie Reagan knew that and acted upon it to get America out of Stagflation in the early 1980’s.) And I stand on my notion that the Right has helped sit on job creation, tax reform and economic stimulus, because they knew it would get the economy revved and that would get the Democratic incumbent reelected by a wide margin, if not an outright landslide.

Mr. Tally, I am neither un-American or a Leftist; however, I am a bit left of liberals on a lot of issues facing America today. (I don’t think the Affordable Healthcare Act went far enough and I want Guantanamo closed yesterday.) I am not a communist, a Baptist or a hands-off free market junkie. I am a free thinker. I realize that America needs to lower taxes. We need to cut spending. And I would imagine that if I said let’s begin that cut with bringing world-wide troops home and diminishing the Pentagon’s budget, you, Mr. Tally, and those like you, would put up the biggest howl.

No, you want your way or no way. Big military spending makes you feel safe and secure and protected. No new taxes and lower taxes makes you feel economically privileged. In both cases they, in the long run, make our wonderful country poorer.

This is a complex world, Mr. Tally. It has complex problems. And while you bring the name of Jesus up in the latter part of your letter as the only hope for America, I still believe that he would have us pass a job’s bill to help our neighbors out of the tough times of unemployment. But then again, he would have us feed them, clothe them and house them. And I am afraid that Jesus would never fit into the Tea Party’s agenda for this land. He would be called a socialist. His ideas and ideals are far too radical for you to stomach. So, I’d be careful evoking his name in your cause.

I borrowed this picture from the Internet and from the show The Newsroom. It says a lot about the Tea Party in it. It has to be stopped.

Punitive Politics

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Major article coming Labor Day

This Monday look forward to my blog's return with a major article on America and her history.

I have been tackling this for three weeks while I have been away. It is about the crossroads where our country finds itself today. About the impasse and the morass that has set in with our government and our leaders. It is about the disfuctionality of the political process.

It is 27 pages long, so you can come back to it several days if you'd like to read more. I started to release it in sections, but thought, no, one big article and you can work your way through it as you wish.

It will be live Monday.

Until then, have a safe and fun weekend and Hook 'em Horns.

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