Here we go again! A couple of weeks ago we had thousands on the Mall protesting a woman’s right to abortion…the bottom line of which is choice, letting people…specifically women…choose for themselves what they do with their bodies, and when. Now, several States…and the number is growing by the day…want to mandate a vaccination for, not women but little girls from the age of nine, for HPV, because they run the risk of cervical cancer later in their lives. The State of Va. wants to require that children who don’t have this vaccination not be admitted to school. This equates to removal of choice yet again. And, again, pertaining only to women.

Listen, those who are opposed and have no wish to have this vaccination foisted and forced on their daughters, may feel this way for many reasons and don’t they have every right to that choice ? How dare govt., the medical fraternity or anyone else require that our female children, from a very young age, be vaccinated in this manner and for the reason given? For one thing, this vaccination hasn’t been around nearly long enough for anyone to know what, if any, long term effects are. Like most vaccinations for a variety of health situations, it’s not a lifetime guarantee of eliminating the threat of cervical cancer. And why do most of the voices I heard this morning…in favor of said vaccine for our little girls, belong to men?

What about preventative treatment in our little boys? It’s long been said that circumcision of males appears to reduce the chances of cervical cancer in women, as seems to be evidenced in Jewish society. Why haven’t we mandated circumcision in every male birth? Heaven forfend!! And no, I certainly am not a proponent of this, either. It’s just incongruous to me that we, as a society, feel we can and should mandate perceived health concerns on our females. And just a thought…over the last few years we have discussed, debated, argued and chosen as our ‘defense’, the bringing of human rights for Muslim women with the threat that, if we don’t fight it now we all will be subject to Sharia Law, women relegated to second class citizenry ad infinitum. Just what do you think laws such as the Texas and VA proposal are offering?

Were I to be raising a daughter, now, you can be sure I would refuse this on her behalf.

It is, isn’t it?? Guess I slept through February and March only to awaken this morning with little but farce in the news. A candy bar is banned from the airwaves and now Prince is being accused of questionable behavior during his half-time SB show. LOLOL! Please!

Hands up those who thought his ’symbol’ guitar was suspiciously transformed into a phallic symbol? Okay…look in the mirror. See your arm? Better put it down…now. It is…was…a guitar and the most interesting thing about it is the unique design. Looked more like a banjo with pony-tails, I thought…and how easy was this to play, anyway? How about the marching band…with fluorescent piping outlining their bodies? Anybody think they magically were not wearing any clothes?

The only flaw in his/their performance or attire was his doo-rag-doo-rag-doo-rag-do, which was more of a “don’t”. Otherwise, his performance was brilliant, the marching band (and their uniforms) terrific…geez, it didn’t even look as though the rain touched any of them. The only reason I even watched the SB and well worth the wait.

But…if there is anyone who sees the guitar in a like-manner as the clothing/equipment police maybe you’d best check your own and if it does look like that guitar run…do not walk…to your nearest emergency room.

Why do the good people of Delmarva fear snow?

What is it about the white puffy moisture that causes so many people to fear for their lives? Why does normal life come to a complete end on this peninsula every time a stupid weatherman mentions that unmentionable,….”Chance of Snow”?

Like a flock of screaming children at recess, you run to the supermarkets, mini-markets and roadside stands to purchase Milk, Eggs, Bread and Toilet Paper. OK, so this leaves me to believe that the fear of snow brings about the massive hankering for French Toast which you apparently don’t have the digestive tract to properly handle, hence the toilet paper.

Question: When was the last time people in this area were literally ’snowed-in’ so bad that they were unable to leave their home because of the high snow? When was the last time the roads were so un-navigable that nobody, and I mean nobody, was able to drive including Police, EMS and newspaper delivery people? How many of you live so far from civilization that if you were snowed in and ran out of toilet paper, you would be too far away to walk to a neighbor’s house and borrow some? And finally, why are the elements to make French Toast so important to you in the event of snow?

I was transferred to North Carolina some years ago by the retail company I worked for at the time. My store was in Hanes Mall in Winston Salem, we lived in a tiny town called Advance. Our first winter there was the worst in anyone’s memory. The snow wasn’t so bad, it measured almost 12 inches, but the following ice storm took out power lines all over the area. We were without power for 5 days. Since the state had very little snow in this area, local municipalities never felt the need to purchase snow plows or even road salt. Being from Pennsylvania, I was accustomed to driving in heavy snow and easily drove to and from work while many stayed home to wait it out. In our home, no electricity meant no cooking, we had an electric oven. We did have a fireplace and actually made some stew in it as well as heated up leftovers and such. Mostly, we ate out during the outage. The locals, who were not used to driving in snow made the most of it by working together. Farmers drove their big tractors around to neighbor’s homes, seeking lists of needed supplies before driving to the local filling station/mini-market. Folks with 4-wheel drive or who were brave ventured to Mocksville, to the supermarkets, armed with many shopping lists, especially for the elderly.

People just automatically came together to help one another in the ‘crisis’ as I believe they would here as well! They also used the time to play. A neighbor with a four-wheeler stopped by our home to let the kids grab their sleds and hold a rope as he pulled them through the neighborhood. He told us of a plan to gather at the top of a local road which had a nice hill for sledding that night. We drove (much to their astonishment) instead of walking the 3 miles with our sleds. They had a huge bonfire and a large farm tractor which would drive down the hill with a huge tow-rope, pulling the kids back up the hill so they could have more fun without getting so tired of the reverse trek.

But here, well, that’s a different story. As some of you may know, I run nearly 2 dozen weekly trivia gameshows at local (and not-so-local) restaurants and other venues. One such venue is a new game inside the private gated community, The Peninsula. For our premiere event last Sunday the staff had acquired reservations for more than 50 people to sit in a nice restaurant inside their community, with a warm fire, protected by a back-up generator, where their was plenty of eggs, bread and milk as well as a supply closet full of toilet paper, and enjoy a trivia game with a house-cash prize. Slowly but surely these reservations cancelled one-by-one until we had but one team left for the game. Why? “Chance of snow.”

By the end of the game that first massive snowfall of 2007 had grown to nearly an inch with ‘bitter’ temps in the upper 20’s and virtually no wind. Why should such a minor meteorological event prevent people from going out to have a good time? Why do we scare so easily? I don’t let such occurrences prevent me from events. When I was young I didn’t let blizzards prevent me from honoring my commitment to a girlfriend for a date to the movies. Why should I start fearing the white fluff now?

My final point is to encourage you folks to stop being so scared of your own shadows! You have to live your life to enjoy it. Your end will come, but here on Delmarva it is very unlikely it will be caused by hunger due to a snowstorm. Get out and live!

With the old, current and about-to-be enacted laws directed at smokers and smoking, wonder how long it will be before this becomes mandatory treatment for smokers or, at least, accepted regimen for those who may wish a smoker to quit…be it family, personal physician or govt. body…despite the smoker’s defiance?

Can’t happen, you say? Well, not today, not tomorrow…the further research has to be carried out, clinical studies and trials, aftereffects. But “what if”? Seems to me smokers are seen to be a much bigger, more serious threat to society at large, than those who suffer from…let’s say severe depression. The above article talks of several modalities to administer this “therapy”:

a technique called deep brain stimulation, in which electrodes are implanted in the brain to switch off particular areas

Can you say ECT…often used, even in the unwilling, to treat depression and a variety of other illnesses, many times as an aversion therapy and too frequently among the young.

Just curious…but wouldn’t surprise me a bit

Prime Hook National Wildlife Refuge manager Jonathan Schafler continues his crusade against cigarette butts in Delaware, by posting these signs in areas where smokers drop a lot of butts.  (That’s everywhere if you start looking around!)

Click for large version.

Jonathan tells me, he is developing a character that will accompany the slogan. I like his idea of a 5 cent deposit on cigarette butts.

 

RonR, asked that I comment on last nights meeting at the Lewes Library on Wind Power, so here it is.

The meeting was very well attended, including Representatives Gerald Hocker and Joe Booth. It was standing room only. A Representative from the MD legislature was also in attendance, as well as representatives from other interested citizen groups, plus the general public.
The film Kilowatt Ours speaks for itself, a documentary that highlights all the negatives of using coal to generate electricity, from strip mining off mountain tops in WV and KY and the resultant waste, floods and mud slides that destroy towns and negatively impact people’s lives, to the emission of greenhouse gas carbon dioxide, and worst of all to the emission of mercury. We here who are down wind of the Indian River Power Plant get sprinkled with the mercury, as do the fish.
UD Professor Willett Klempton’s excellent presentation covered the advantages to Delaware if we sign on to off shore wind farms to generate electricity. Obviously it is clean, would not contribute to global warming, can generate more electricity than DE needs thus can be sold at a profit to the state, will withstand a Cat 3 hurricane, and can be easily positioned not very far out as to be invisible from the beaches. The downside is that the cost to the user would be about 3 cents more per kwh than coal, but much cheaper if the environmental costs are added to the cost of coal.
He also included an update on global warming, which is increased by the burning of fossil fuels like coal. The most striking and dramatic and worrisome part were the maps indicating the impact of the melting of Greenland’s ice on our Delaware and the Delmarva Peninsula with the rise in sea levels. (By the way, the melting of the arctic ice caps does not raise ocean levels, because the ice is already part of the ocean. Greenland ice is over land, therefore not part of the ocean.) Even by 2040, there will be significant inundation of our coast, and by 2100 Delmarva will become an archipelago! Lewes, Rehoboth, Dewey, Bethany and Fenwick will be submerged, and the Chesapeake will inundate portions of western Delaware.
People have to begin to accept this and act upon it, with the rest of the globe, right now. The longer we wait inactive, the closer we get to the point of no return in this rather sudden global crisis that we people have wrought upon ourselves.

Now we understand what to do: Minimize the emission of CO2 from the burning of fossil fuels. Wind, solar and geothermal energy, and CO2 recyclable fuels like ethanol from trees and plants, all then become no-brainers, except to the brainless!!!

We’ve been lied to about the “needle exchange” bill that passed the Delaware General Assembly. Local lawmaker Pete Schwartzkopf (14^th District) defended his support for this free needle distribution program many times on my radio show. Here is what Pete, and other supporters of the bill said, and what we are now learning is the dirty truth about the bill:

#1 “This is a very controlled operation with specially marked needles”

“Program participants will get state-issued ID cards” “They will show the card to exchange workers to get clean needles and to police to show that they are exempt from drug paraphernalia laws. “The clean needles won’t be marked, as was once planned”

#2 “This only effects Wilmington”

Oh really? “Although the exchange program will operate only in Wilmington, anyone with an ID card can have needles anywhere in Delaware without being prosecuted for possession of paraphernalia.”

#3 “The State is not flooding the streets with more needles, you have to exchange a needle to get a needle”

“the exchange won’t have to be even, one dirty needle for one clean one.”

I’m wondering what the exchange will be! Can Sussex smack users go to Wilmington, get an ID and several needles, and be free of prosecution after shooting up on the boardwalk? If the above quoted News Journal article is correct, then we’ve been sold a crock of lies concerning this “clean needle” law.

As NRG Energy attempts to get approval for constructing a second coal fired electricity generating plant at Indian River, Delawareans are being presented with an opportunity to construct wind powered generators just off of our coast. We are fortunate to have near ideal conditions for wind power, and can supply all our electrical needs and then some from the wind.

Coal burning not only increases the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide into our air, but also produces deadly mercury compounds plus an array of toxic gases like oxides of sulfur and nitrogen and finally, emphysema and lung cancer producing fly ash. Moreover, the strip mining of coal lays waste our mountains and streams of the likes of West Virginia and Kentucky. NRG’s proposal claims they can do carbon sequestration, “putting the stuff away somewhere”, but the technology is not yet economically feasible, according to Leonard Schwartz, Professor of Mechanical Engineering at UD.

A documentary film called “Kilowatt Ours” demonstrates these negative aspects of coal mining and burning, yet our national government has been promoting the coal industry, exactly the opposite of what we should be doing. This film will be shown again in Sussex County in early January, along with a presentation by Dr. Willett Kempton from UD. When the date is set, I will announce it here.

Since the decision on the future of power generation in Delaware is now being considered by the Legislature, it is imperative that citizens contact their Representatives and Senators to express concern about another coal fired plant at Indian River.

For additional information on this topic:

http://abettersussex.blogspot.com/
http://www.cleartheair.org/regional/factsheets/factsheetDEfinal.pdf