A friend of mine, Ramled, on Facebook posted a link to this video that demonstrates what monogamy and true love can do and look like. The clip isn’t long and it’s a heart warming little interlude to the day. I thought I’d toss it up here to break up all the doom and gloom of ‘my candidate can beat up your candidate’. Enjoy.

60 Plus year old piano duet, inspiring

-By Martha Montelongo

Gov. Jerry Brown has an interesting definition of “third world.”

In an interview with a San Francisco radio station last week, Brown said California would become “a Third World country” unless the state builds a ghastly $100 billion high-speed rail line that’s been fraught with mismanagement, cost overruns and shaky ridership projections.

It’s an odd claim, considering many third-world nations are characterized by crumbling infrastructure, failed boondoggle projects and constant budgetary trouble. In much of the third-world, a new leader will pour massive amounts of a nation’s fortune into a single prestige project, only to have it fail when poor planning, bureaucratic incompetence and malfeasance slowly eat up all the funds.

By this definition, California seems currently on track to become America’s third-world state. Just like high-speed rail, the same spending lobby is promoting a nearly $1 billion per year tax hike so that a politically appointed panel can dole out favors to cronies. The $1 billion in new taxes under Proposition 29 goes into a lockbox that only this politically-influenced commission can access. Not even in cases of waste or abuse can the Governor or the Legislature make any changes! Proposition 29 sounds like it was plucked straight from the playbook of some Latin American dictator or Middle Eastern sheikh.

Jerry Brown ought to find the nearest dictionary. Pouring money into boondoggle projects while neglecting vital services like education and public safety is the surest way for California to join the third-world. Until California can figure out how to pay for what it already has, voters need to say no to more new spending.

(Published with permission)

This week there is even more evidence that the ruinous taxation and out-of-control spending of California politicians and the state’s big spending lobbyists have pushed the Golden State over the edge. Today, the state announced massive cuts to essential services like schools and police. About $980 million will be slashed from the budget, with K-12 education and law enforcement bearing some of the biggest cuts. And yet, Sacramento politicians are handing out fat pay raises to their staffs.

As California circles the drain financially, each and every year more and more expensive ballot measures and initiatives are proposed to sap the state’s resources. And despite the fact that California can’t pay for the basics, the spending lobby wants to add other massive obligations to the budget. One in particular is the so-called California Cancer Research Act, a plan that creates a brand new $855 million spending program that duplicates many programs already in place. This boondoggle, which will come before voters on the June ballot, commits the state to the same kind of auto-pilot spending that bankrupted her in the first place. It includes an additional $16 million per year to spend on new government employees, adding to California’s growing pension burden.

Voters need to send a clear message to Sacramento that the way out of this financial crisis is figuring out how to pay for what the state already has before spending more money on new programs and entitlements. Voting no on this ballot box boondoggle in June is a good first step.

A fear has been implanted in uninformed America–Chemophobia-the irrational fear of chemicals.

“Trike” was a normal degreaser used for various metal parts. Many panicked over the thought of getting cancer from a common degreaser used in thousands of locations. Trichloroethylene (C2HCl3) was used so frequently, that typical names such as Trichlor, Trike, Tri, or Tricky were commonplace.

The big stick was the ominous label CARCINOGEN.  Of course, the documented TLV (Threshold Limit Value) is 200ppmillion. But the ACGIH classified it as cancer “not suspected for humans”.  To date, there has been no change to the exposure limit because the EPA cannot prove TCE exposure to cause cancers.

But 1 mile away, in sight of the writer’s house, lies a Superfund Site in Skyland (Asheville, NC). CTS of Asheville manufactured hearing aids and automotive parts. Before plating, parts were cleaned using TCE. CTS, vacant since the 1990’s, still worries about TCE contamination exacerbating the cancer scare.

The  site was assessed by the EPA in 1985, 2001, and 2006. In each instance, they concluded the site did not warrant qualification as Superfund. Finally, in soils under the building, the EPA found the highest TCE concentration (830ppm).

As a result, in 2008, EPA sampled 72 private wells. Continued samples of these wells revealed no  TCE results. Today, over 105 private wells are being monitored. Seven of those are considered to have TCE. However, the acceptable lower limit for TCE is 5 pp[billion], and is significantly lower than 20 years ago (200pp[million]). But there still has been no cancer.

Back in 1930, Wikipedia reports that for 20 years, TCE was used as an inhaler (tradenames: Trilene & Trimar), and an analgesic for millions. The maximum dose was ~1000ppm. This was extensively used in obstetrics, and especially during pregnancy. Taking these dosages relieved pain, but never resulted in cancer in any of the millions inhaling it. TCE was substituted for earlier anesthetics such as chloroform and ether.

Bioassays by the National Cancer Institute showed kidney cancer in some mice and rats. It was therefore reported TCE was “reasonably anticipated to be a human carcinogen”, based on animals. One review of kidney cancer rated obesity and cigarette smoking as higher risk factors for kidney cancer.

“Reasonably anticipated” doesn’t square with “cancer not found”. To date, ACGIH has carcinogenicity “not suspected for humans”; mutagenic—not available; teratogenic–not available; developmental—not available.

US Superfund Sites (2010). Red: National Priority List, yellow: proposed, green: deleted (usually cleaned up).

The health risks of TCE have been studied to excess.

Here is a classic example of the EPA spending almost $50 million to cleanup the Skyland, NC, Superfund Site–unnecessarily. Multiply that by ~100x for all the TCE Superfund Sites that have been, or will be, cleaned up. Could a transparent case of chemophobia be worth that to allay misguided fears?

Looking at chemicals we see daily can be eye-opening:

Ethanol (grain alcohol) is manufactured, and has an LD50 (50% rats given 7060 mg ethanol/Kg weight–was lethal dosage).

Marijuana (Delta 1-3,4 trans-tetrahydrocannabinol) has an LD50 for rats at 42 mg/Kg.

Caffeine in coffee (3,7-dihydro-1,3,7-trimethyl-1-H-purine-2,6-dione), and has an LD50 at 355 mg/Kg.

Horse radish (allylisothiocyanate)has an LD50 at 339. Ibuprofen [2-(4-(2-methylpropyl)phenyl)propionic acid]has an LD50 of 1050, and is manufactured.