Creating the new look.

My series Puffs of Smoke in Amazon Kindle include some humor, some shocking and some insightful stories. All 'Stories that Linger" For Amazon Prime members, the stories are free. All are priced $0.99. Good reading if you're waiting for a bus or a doctor. http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_0_8?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&field-keywords=puffs+of+smoke&sprefix=Puffs+of%2Cdigital-text%2C495

Creating new look

I'm going to try and create a new look for my blog with pictures. Can't promise how it will look. Should be a learning process.

Passing on mis-information

It is my opinion that people that pass on mis-information on Facebook are advertising their laziness and stupidity. Some people will pass on as fact, anything that is against science or big corporations. I think they blame corporations for all the ills of society. Since medications are produced by big companies, they must be bad. All new advances in technology are the result of research and testing by a large corporation, it must be bad. So don't buy a mobile phone, a new computer, don't go to the doctor, don't buy groceries in a supermarket, and don't do anything that supports large corporation. That way you can show your dis-approval for the 'greedy' corporations. Every time someone passes on scare stories without taking the time to research the subject they show their laziness. And the worst part is that these people keep the idea going that large corporations are out to cause us damage so they can make money. I ask WHY? How does a large company make money off my illness? Why do people think making their client list sick will make profits? Two cases come to mind. First MRR and the link to Autism. The person that made the original claim has been proven to be wrong and has now lost his license to practice medicine. The paper that printed the story has now made a full retraction. Second, Monsanto and GMO foods. The person that started the scare has now published that he was wrong and now finds that GMO crops are the way forward and are safe for both humans and the environment. If the people that start a rumor now come out and say they were wrong, why does the uneducated mass keep it going? It that the same kinds of crazy thinking that leads to people claiming the earth is still flat? Or killing witches? I just wish I could post on Facebook "You're showing your stupidity" every time I see a dumb posting.

Death

Death Death is a mysterious thing. We all know about it. Some actually celebrate it. Usually not for themselves but those that have already gone. We know we have to go, but most of us try to delay the actual trip. It’s not death itself that I think about. It’s about the ones of us who are left. I read in the paper where there is a huge outcry about a man who killed his five year old daughter. But nothing about the five year old boy that died in Laos for lack of fifty cents worth of antibiotics. Some shake their heads when they read about thirty-five people dying in Nigeria. But those deaths don’t affect me. I can’t get too upset about people half a planet away. It’s the ones I know that I hurt inside for. Some, mere acquaintances that I write words of sorrow to their loved ones. Others, that I know well, I feel a fleeting pain and I realize I won’t see them again. It’s the ones I loved that really hurt. I miss being able to share, to laugh, and to touch. Sometimes I can go for days and not think of them. Without warning, a thought will leap into my mind, something I could have shared and the realization that I can’t and it all comes back. The worst is when I dream I have something they would like, then instantly know I can’t. I know it will happen to all living things. I’m not afraid. I know that sometime in the future I too will go but I’m not in a hurry. All I want is that someone will miss me as much as I miss my loved ones. 'The Seventy+Years Young Opinionated Author'

Obesity vs healthy

I hate it when people try to blame Monsanto or the government for providing food for the people at an affordable cost and the buyer chooses unhealthy foods. What do they propose, station guards at every grocery store and when a woman reaches for a soda bottle, slap her hand and make her choose a carrot? Will they stand by the candy store and offer oranges to kids? A person would have to live in a cave not to know that sweets, fried foods and fast foods eaten all the time are unhealthy. I do like French Fries once every year or so. I even will eat a piece of candy every year and I have been known to buy a Taco Bell or two in my seventy years. Should I be denied a treat once in a while because other people eat and look like pigs?It is not some nebulous conspiracy that causes people to eat the wrong foods. Truth is, they want to. No one is forcing them. All the hoopla over GM foods is dying down now that the main person against it has come out and said he made a mistake and GM products are safe and should be used. I think some people have acquired the idea that big companies are bad and small is good. I'd like to know how a small company can get the money it needs for research, development and distribution? Will all those people against Monsanto send money to a small research plant to support it?

Rebel armies

Sitting at home I can only watch on television or read in the news about men fighting for the right to govern themselves. It sounds good but I don't have the slightest knowledge about either side. How do I know if they want freedom for all people or just freedom to dominate the population and impose draconian laws? If they win, will it be better or worse? As a species that can read and think, we don't do either very well. There are hundreds of examples in history which prove that just because an army won, doesn't mean it will be better. But we don't read those stories or think about it. Each new generation must make the same mistakes, all the while we are patting ourselves on the back and telling ourselves how wonderful a species we are. Seems to me the lowly cockroach might have the answers. They only eat and reproduce. There are no cockroach armies or rules of conduct. They have no 'carbon footprint.' They don't destroy the planet. They are just cockroaches and will outlive humanity.

The Will to Live

It bothers me every time I hear or read the phrase 'They had such a will to live'. That implies that those who died didn't have a strong enough will to live. I had nurse friends that complained about that same phrase. Only one thing is true for all people, animals and plants. That is 'they will die.' Maybe not today but someday. Another thing that bothers me are all the 'cutsie sayings' that get posted on Facebook or sent by email. 'If only everyone loved everyone' there would be no problems, the planet would thrive and we'd all be better off. There are some that try to deny human behavior and think that if we'd all walk around with a vacant smile on our lips, humans would suddenly evolve into a peaceful species. We have pictures of chimps armies going out to hunt other chimps, gorilla males fighting for females, and yet we don't think that human behavior is wired in out brains long before birth. Never in all the history of humans has their been peace. It's impossible. Or only possible if you all believed like me and let me make the decisions that control your life. My definition of what is good or bad is different from other people's. And therein lays the problem. I would have been stoned to death if I lived in some other culture. I would be imprisoned for thinking and saying thoughts if I lived in vast areas of this planet. As it is, through no doing of my own, I was born in a Western culture which allows for differences. To be born in the U.S., my ancestors had to fight to preserve my freedoms, my ancestors had to bleed to insure my freedoms. I haven't had to do any of those things and yet I reap the benefits.