A Boy at the Ocean



The first day of summer, and
The seashore and the sand.
The sun and the surf
Bringing forth great mirth.
A surge of sensation
And the energy of elation;
And just knowing the simple joy
Of being a little boy.

Changing Partners

Today, with a divorce rate of over 50 percent, it is obvious that most couples are making a serious mistake in choosing their life partners. Women and men sometimes marry with the expectation that after marriage each will be able to change the undesirable personal characteristics of the other partner. When the other mate does not change as expected, many problems can arise in the marriage. Most often, each partner will want to change the other person and not himself or herself. But it is much easier to change oneself than to change others.

Many people think that after marriage they can change the perceptions, opinions, and attitudes of their partner, but this is not always possible. Once individuals have reached adulthood, their personality has already been shaped by a combination of their genetic makeup, family values and background, and the environment in which they were reared. Someone once said that all families are dysfunctional - they are just dysfunctional in different ways. As a result of living in a such a family, almost everyone has some good and some bad personality characteristics.

A marriage in which a partner attempts to change himself or herself rather than the other person is the best way to cope with differences. Without determination, perseverence, commitment, adaptability, and time, many marriages are doomed to failure from the start.

Usually, when a woman marries a man, she expects him to change. But, curiously, when a man marries a woman, he expects her NOT to change.

One should never marry a person that they are unhappy with in the courtship phase, Don’t depend upon the potential for change. Most often, when people change after marriage, it is for the worst.

Marry for character, not for chemistry. Over the years, the chemistry will change and become diluted; but over time character will grow and florish. If a person is not kind, considerate, thoughtful, and responsible during the courtship phase, they most likely will not develop those traits after marriage.

You should marry someone who makes you happy but, at the same time, you should want to make the other person happy. Some lucky individuals find a “soul mate.” A soul mate is another person with whom you have the combination of good chemistry, compatibility, common interests, and common life goals. Now, if you haven’t already found that person, good luck. Just remember that old proverb: look at both sides of the creek carefully before drinking the water.

Afterthought: In a dating or married relationship, were you ever successful in changing another person to be more like you wanted them to be? Has someone ever tried to change you? Were you or they successful?

Food for Thought

When I was a child, someone came up with the question, “What is worse than eating an apple with a worm in it?” The answer, of course, is eating an apple with half a worm in it. When I was growing up, my family had an apple tree in the back yard. I sometimes would climb into the tree, pick some apples to eat, and occasionally chomp into one with a worm in it. Sometimes there was only half a worm before I discovered it; but the apples were so good, I didn’t care.

Some Americans might be surprised at the filth, insect parts, and excreta permitted in their food by the Food and Drug Administration. “Natural contaminants” such as rat hairs in peanut butter and fly heads in macaroni and cheese are permitted by the FDA. People who have grown up on farms on which pesticides were not used are familiar with all sorts of “natural contaminants” in their fruits and vegetables.

The FDA has, in fact, has produced a booklet titled “Food Defect Action Levels” in which it lists the maximum amount of insect parts, excreta, and filth permitted in the foods we eat. Here are some examples:

CHOCOLATE AND CHOCOLATE LIQUOR
· Insect filth: Average is 60 or more insect fragments per 100 grams when 6 100-gram subsamples are examined OR any 1 subsample contains 90 or more insect fragments
· Rodent filth: Average is 1 or more rodent hairs per 100 grams in 6 100-gram subsamples examined OR any 1 subsample contains 3 or more rodent hairs

MACARONI AND NOODLE PRODUCTS
· Insect filth: Average of 225 insect fragments or more per 225 grams in 6 or more subsamples
· Rodent filth: Average of 4.5 rodent hairs or more per 225 grams in 6 or more subsamples

PEANUT BUTTER
· Insect filth: Average of 30 or more insect fragments per 100 grams
· Rodent filth: Average of 1 or more rodent hairs per 100 grams

CHERRIES Brined and Maraschino Insect filth
Average of 5% or more pieces are rejects due to maggots

DATES, PITTED Multiple
Average of 5% or more dates by count are rejects (moldy, dead insects, insect excreta, sour, dirty, and/or worthless) as determined by macroscopic sequential examination

PEPPER, GROUND Insect filth
Average of 475 or more insect fragments per 50 grams Rodent filth
Average of 2 or more rodent hairs per 50 grams

SAUERKRAUT Insects
Average of more than 50 thrips per 100 grams

WHEAT FLOUR Insect filth
Average of 75 or more insect fragments per 50 grams Rodent filth
Average of 1 or more rodent hairs per 50 grams

And last, but certainly not least - POPCORN

POPCORN Rodent filth
1 or more rodent excreta pellets are found in 1 or more subsamples, and 1 or more rodent hairs are found in 2 or more other subsamples
OR
2 or more rodent hairs per pound and rodent hair is found in 50% or more of the subsamples
OR
20 or more gnawed grains per pound and rodent hair is found in 50% or more of the subsamples Field corn 5% or more by weight of field corn.

Now, before you stop eating in disgust, you should realize that nature is not perfect and that eating some filth, excreta, and insect parts in your food, although aesthetically unappetizing, is not injurious to your health. The estimate is that individuals will eat between one and two pounds of insect parts, excreta, and filth in their food each year. So over the course of a lifetime, it is possible to eat one’s weight in such "natural contaminants." But the other alternative is less desirable: using more pesticides, which are known to be a detriment to health. And this is not to mention the prohibitive cost of our food if we tried to make it absolutely free of insects, excreta, and filth.
Back to the popcorn. On second thought, perhaps a more accurate term for it is POOPCORN. So the next time you go to the movies, be sure to order a great big tub of HOT BUTTERED POOPCORN.

Tocqueville’s Thoughts

One hundred seventy-five years ago, in May of 1831, a 26- year-old Frenchman by the name of Alexis de Tocqueville, who later went on to become an eminent political thinker and historian, embarked on a nine-month journey through the young United States of America. His ostensible purpose was to study its penal system. But the real reason he and his colleague Beaumont came was to get a firsthand view of the government of the world’s preeminent democratic regime at that time, with the view of taking the lessons learned back to France. Both Tocqueville and his colleague kept extensive journals of their travels and observations. Later, in 1835, Tocqueville published a work titled “Democracy in America.”

One of the first things that impressed Tocqueville during his travels in America was the lack of social classes. Americans didn’t seem as interested in where people came from or who their ancestors were as much as in what kind of person they were and what kind of skills they had. In addition, the hustle-bustle of the frantic commercial activity was certainly a contrast to what Tocqueville had seen in France. He observed with great interest the autonomy of township government in New England. But his most lasting impression was how little government control there was over the citizens as people managed their own affairs with little government interference.

In his book “Democracy in America” Tocqueville saw a future danger for America in the “tyranny of the majority,” in which the majority would use public opinion to persecute the minority. He saw a paradox in operation.While he realized that the power of the majority was needed to preserve democracy, he also understood at the same time that the tyranny of the majority could also destroy the democracy. He emphasized that the only way the majority could be reigned in was through maintaining the system of checks and balances that existed in the structure of American government.

Now, 175 years later, we see the same danger to our democracy that Tocqueville did. We have both the legislative and executive branches of government under the control of one party, controlled by corporate interests and religious fundamentalists, with a judiciary that is rapidly being hijacked by judges who have more of a Far Right political agenda than a sense of justice. We have a Congress that refuses to place a check on the power of the executive branch; we have in the Justice Department an Attorney General who thinks that the “inherent” power of the President is more important than the “inherited” powers of the people guaranteed by their Constitution. Now, we have a President who can imprison individuals without charges, and without benefit of counsel, for an indeterminate period of time. We have a President who can violate the “inherited” power of the people to maintain their privacy by spying on their activities without going through the process required by the Fourth Amendment. We have a President who has called for a constitutional amendment that would, for the first time in our nation‘s history, restrict rather expand the liberties of a specific minority of our citizens. And this President can continue to violate our liberties without fear of impeachment by this Congress.

I wonder what Tocqueville’s thoughts would be if he could return and observe our nation today, 175 years later? Would he find that his worst fear was being realized? Would he have a different view of the government in our "Democracy in America"?

Flip and Flop

Please allow me to introduce Flip and Flop, the President born with conjoined heads. Flip is on the left and Flop is on the right. Unfortunately, their brains operate independently of each other.