Glenn Beck Explains Kyoto

Out-Orwelling Orwell

Philadelphia's smoking ban takes effect today; from 6abc.com: "The city's Health Department will begin enforcement of the smoking ban signed into law this month by Mayor John Street."

I've been to Philadelphia and smoking is the least of its problems. As usual, though, officials always take the path of least resistance when dealing with the city's problems. Corruption and crime run rampant in Philadelphia and the schools surely have problems, but if Joe Sixpack lights up in a bar - look out! Since police are incapable of fighting crime and politicians are incapable of fixing schools and fighting their own internal corruption, they target the easy catch. "Vote for me! I'm tough on smoking! Who cares if your kids can't read, your street has 18 potholes that need to be filled, or the crack house is so busy it needs an occupancy permit; I'm tough on the real problem of the city - smokers!"

Once again, the anti-smoking crowd has out-Orwelled Orwell. If you recall, the one thing Winston Smith was able to do at will, was smoke. He was even allowed to smoke while under arrest.

Those people who are employed to enforce the ban should should be fired and replaced with policemen and the police should be allowed to do their jobs without fear of accusations of profiling or discrimination. But, that's an issue for another day.

Spinach versus Hurricanes

One would think that spinach doesn't stand against a hurricane. Spinach contaminated with E. Coli gives no warning, cannot be tracked with the aid of satellites, and can show up in a myriad of places. Hurricanes, on the other hand, give plenty of warning, can be tracked, and we know where they come from.

When a few people die and a few hundred are sickened by food contaminated with E. Coli, the food in question is pulled from the shelves nationwide. People throw out whatever they have on hand. Let's assume that 10 million people in the U.S. eat spinach. Let's say this tops out at 1000 sick and 4 dead; that's 0.0001 and 0.0000004 probability, respectively. That being said, I wouldn't take my chances and I'd toss the stuff out, too. Hopefully, no more people will die from this.

It would seem to me that my chances of being in peril are far greater when a hurricane comes my way than when I pick up an item at the grocery store. Perhaps this is a testament to our post-The Jungle system of inspecting food, food storage, and other areas of food sanitation.

Look at the difference in reaction to spinach and Hurricane Katrina. Spinach was purged from everywhere with an efficiency seldom matched elsewhere. When people were warned of a dangerous hurricane, many chose to stay behind and then blamed the government for inaction. When people are warned about an E. Coli outbreak, they act and act quickly. So does our government. We are so used to strict system of food inspection and sanitation that when a little blip like this occurs, it's immediately acted upon. We give no thought to any dangers in the food we eat yet there are real, albeit statistically low, dangers. We'll continue to brave hurricanes but if we have a 10^-6 chance of being sickened by contaminated spinach; into the trash it goes.

Determination

I discovered this hole in the dryer transition tube last night and, at first, it puzzled me. Then my wife said that it looked like something chewed through it. She was right. It turns out that the lint buildup around the exterior vent flap was enough to keep the flap open. That, of course, is an open invitation. I set a mouse trap in the laundry room and got one about two hours later. The next trap still hasn't caught anything. Anyway, first thing I did this morning was clean the lint out and now the flap flaps like it should. Then I measured the height of the flap opening to the ground - 21.5 inches! A mouse (or mice) scaled (or jumped) 21.5 inches up and into the tube and then chewed through the tube! Wow. I put a new tube on and I know now that I need to check the flap and the tube from time to time.

The Great Aspirin Conspiracy

Not being one who likes to ingest medicine past the expiration date on the packaging, last week I threw out a bottle of aspirin that had 'exp 08/06' typed on the label. The bottle contained slightly more than half of the original 300 it had when I purchased it. I don't remember when I bought it but I would guess not more than three years ago.

On my next trip to the supermarket, I had aspirin on my list. I noticed that a bottle of 300 costs $2.99 but a bottle of 100 costs $2.69. Ok, I thought, the 300 is more bang for my buck...until I looked at the expiration dates on the bottles. The bottle with 300 expired in November, 2008. The bottle with 100 expired in November, 2007.

At this point I wondered about the whole aspirin production process and if the aspirin maker actually runs a line for the 100 count bottles and a line for the 300 count bottles with some kind of special additive in the pills that gets added to the '300' bottles. Maybe the pills that go into the 100 count bottles were actually made some time in 2005 and the pills for the 300 count were made within the past few months. Maybe the unsold 300 counts are sent back to the manufacturer and then repackaged in 100 count bottles. Then I just thought the heck with it, they got me either way. Aspirin is cheap compared to most other OTC stuff anyway, let alone what prescription medicines cost. So I bought the 100 count bottle and wondered how many pills will get thrown away on December 1, 2007.

For the Birds

The NFL season starts tonight with the Steelers hosting the Dolphins. All the usual mouthpieces have made their predictions and I will too; except that I will comment on what will not happen.

• The Eagles will not win more that 9 games this year. I am not as optimistic as some when it comes to the Eagles this year.
  


• The Steelers will not repeat.


• You-know-who on the Cowboys will not stay out of trouble. The media WILL follow him around like a puppy follows a butcher throwing meat scraps.


• Monday Night, or whatever night they are on, Football on ESPN will not be a success like it was on ABC.


• The Colts will not win the Super Bowl.

Ok, so I don't get paid to say those things like some guys do but those are my predictions.

Avoid the Memory Hole

ABC is doing a two-part special entitled The Path to 9/11 which will be aired on September 10th and 11th. Already, some people are outraged at this because, believe it or not, the show starts the path before January 20, 2001. I've read that it also doesn't absolve the Bush administration from fault either. Of course, some on the left want this special pulled because it appears that Freedom of the Press doesn't apply when citing inaction of the previous administration on the problem of terrorism. Sure, cite inaction all you want from January 20 through September 11, 2001 and I'll agree with you on most of it. However, to think that Clinton was the bulwark of anti-terrorism is just plain nonsense. Plus, 9/11 would have happened even if Gore were elected. It may have happened on July 11 or December 11 but it would have happened; thanks mostly to years (which includes the first months of 2001) of listlessness.