What Democracy?!

I was debating Greece and her corrupt politicians with a friend today.

"Why should the rest of Europe, especially Germany, bail Greece out?"

Whenever I enter into a discussion on Greece and the dire economic situation that exists, not only in Greece, but in Spain, Portugal, Ireland, etc., I always answer the question with a question. "Why is it that the people must always pay the price for the corruption of thievery politicians?" Some people have such short-term memories, it amazes me. In an old post, back in 2012, I wrote about how Greece should have never entered the EU. Goldman Sachs helped Greece fudge their books to hide Greek sovereign debt so they could join the Euro. Who is responsible for Greece's debt? The politicians who desperately wanted to become a part of the joke of an experiment called the Eurozone. They conspired with Goldman Sachs to make things seem much better than what they really were. Who is paying, and who has been paying for this ghastly mistake? The people of Greece.

The Euro is a nightmare. Trying to get so many different countries to manage their monies and economies under one roof and under one currency is futile. Germany has always been fiscally conservative in nature while other countries such as Greece are a mess. Add corruption, cronyism, tax evasion, an almost non-existent manufacturing base, etc. to the mix, and Greece was an accident waiting to happen.

The majority of Europe is in a recession, as are many other countries. Next in line is Spain, Ireland, Italy ...

I'm a firm believer in change. Change is good and it is necessary. After 40 years of Nea Dimokratia and Pasok, it is only fair to let someone else have a go at it.

Today began the collapse of the misery of conservative economic policies that simply do not work and it took the founders of Western civilization to begin the world-wide push back.

Democracy ...

The term originates from the Greek "δημοκρατία" (rule of the people), which was found from δημος (people) and κράτος (power or rule) in the 5th century BC to denote political systems then existing in Greek city-states. The term is an antonym to αριστοκρατία (rule of an elite). While theoretically these definitions are in opposition, in practice the distinction has been blurred historically. The political system of Classical Athens, for example, granted democratic citizenship to an elite class of free men and excluded slaves and women from political participation. In virtually all democratic governments throughout ancient and modern history, democratic citizenship consisted of an elite class until full enfranchisement was won for all adult citizens in most modern democracies through the suffrage movements of the 19th and 20th centuries.

People think we live in a democracy. What are the merits of democracy?

Democracy is based upon propositions that are not true and what is not true is always more fascinating and satisfying to the vast majority of people than what is true. Truth scares the living daylights out of whole populations and provides people with a finality that collides with their incurable search for justice. The fraud of democracy is more amusing than the fraud of religion.

I am a liberal at heart, always have been, but I'm progressive. I can't stand any form of conservative governments (Reagan, Thatcher, Bush, Bush Jr., etc.). I don't subscribe to any form of communist ideologies because as we have seen that system doesn't work. I also dislike fucktarded politicians who call themselves socialists (George Papandreou and his father). You are either on the left or on the right. There is no in between. There is no center. Period.

Conservatives are job destroyers, not job creators. They put the needs of banksters above the needs of their people. It's the world according to Friedman, and the two dunces - Reagan and Thatcher - did more damage than all other conservatives combined. We are still recovering from their 'let the financiers and wall street' rule the world experiment, and a huge failure at that. The trickle down theory doesn't work. The main goal of all conservatives is to concentrate global wealth and income - according to the latest Oxfam study - to 80 fucktarded billionaires (whose wealth exceeds that of 1/4 of the planet's inhabitants). Let that sink in for a minute dear readers. 80 fat cats from the top 1% own as much as the bottom 3.5 billion people on the planet. 1% own 48% of the world's wealth - 52% is owned by 99%. 

And people are surprised that a leftist party - Syriza - won the Greek election?!

Above I mentioned that I am progressive ... I am also a realist. I see things as they are. Austerity doesn't work but at the same time a country rife with corruption and an almost non-existent manufacturing base has to change its way of doing business. Greeks have to work hard in a corruption-free economy. Greeks have to pay taxes. Their entire economy for the longest time was the laughingstock of Europe. The red tape impasse has to be eliminated, corruption has to be wiped out, tax collection has to be effective, and their labor markets have to become more flexible and open to new markets. Protectionism has to be eliminated. Tsipras wants to 'clamp down on all-inclusive resorts' ... not a very rational way to make your economy more flexible and inclusive, is it?

As far as Germany is concerned, 54 billion Euros is a lot of money that has been lent to Greece with the promise that the money would be paid back. That comes to 1,300 Euros for every hard-working, tax-paying German. Germans have seen their living standards decline faster in the past 20 years than any other European country despite the fact that their productivity has risen. Greece can't blackmail the rest of Europe to finance its deficit. Greece makes up 1% of Europe's GDP. Any threat by Alexis Tsipras will be taken with a grain of salt. Greece can't afford threats because the Eurozone can do without Greece. You can't continue to spend more than you earn without running into trouble. The irony is that civil workers in Greece are paid more than their equivalents in Germany and they get to retire earlier. 

So how can the world's oldest democracy solve it's economic woes?

Foreign investors are not willing to buy Greek bonds as a result of the last governments' fraudulent bookkeeping. Can you blame the investors? EU countries can loan Greece money, but if Greece fails to meet its obligations with regard to the bailout conditions that were agreed upon, that will not happen. The only other option left is for Greece to print its own money which would mean leaving the Euro.

It was great to see Greeks dancing into the night yesterday. It brought a smile to my face. If your party wins you are happy. This happiness, of course, is illusory. It will not last. The winning candidate soars as high as a kite, but ultimately comes down with a thump (as do all politicians). To politicians beating the other party brings them joy (happiness is something to be got by taking it away from the other asshole).

And the promises! A promise after all is just that - a fucking promise. I have yet to come across a politician who didn't promise his/her base the world. The chances of a politician fulfilling even a third of his/her promises is miniscule.

Getting back to the fraud of democracy (and religion), people turn, as we have seen in Greece these past few days, to the ancient promises, which are false but provide some form of comfort to those who have suffered immensely through years of successive corrupt governments. Out of all of those ancient promises there is none more comforting than the one to the effect that the meek shall inherit the earth. It is at the heart of all religions, and it is at the heart of most political systems.

I wish Alexis Tsipras well in his attempt to bring real change to the people of Greece. They have suffered enough for far too long. As far as the meek inheriting the earth, that was written a long time ago to keep the elite class in line. It was written to serve as a warning.

Getting back to happiness ... the quest for happiness, as always, brings only unhappiness in the end. Real democracies are for the spectators, the electorate, the meek, who vote the politicians into office.

I try to imagine anything more absurd than the belief in democracy. Such false pretense. The fraud of democracy is more amusing than any other, more amusing than even the fraud of religion. It is like a disease, it is self-devouring. I am impressed by the feeling of distrust that follows all elections. The Greeks dancing in the streets last night did so with reservation and with fear in their eyes. You could see it. A lot of them had that 'can we trust Tsipras to do what he promised he would do' look on their tired faces.

I know the feeling of reservation. I have felt that way myself. Here in the US we have a government not of men, but of laws ... but these same men sit on benches to decide finally what the law is or what it should be. The highest function of politicians is to serve the state, but most are disingenuous and dishonorable.

I must admit that I am entertained. I enjoy democracy and all its ... what's the word I'm looking for? The joy of seeing politicians rise is superseded by the joy in seeing them come down. Why? Because they are all wasteful, extravagant and dishonest.

Lastly, I can't stomach the fact that Golden Dawn, a neo-nazi fascist party, came in third place. What kind of fucking democracy would allow a neo-nazi - Golden Dawn's fucktarded leader - to address the nation from within his cell block. The asshole is in jail. The pain in my parents' eyes was too much for me to bear. We sat watching the results and the commentary, along with each party's leader's address to the nation, and when Mr. Hitler-wanna-be started spewing his hate from jail, I had to get up and go outside. I couldn't watch my parents witnessing the degradation of their birthplace, their country, the birthplace of democracy itself being hijacked and morphed into a dysfunctional laughingstock for the whole world to see.

What democracy?!

Greece's Notorious Bureaucracy

A huge problem is Greece's notorious bureaucracy, which constitutes a real hindrance to entrepreneurial enterprise.

Below is an example of 'red tape impasse' for a food truck license. With the youth unemployment rate as high as it is these types of ridiculous hurdles have to be eliminated. And why can't permits be transferred or leased?!

By Lina Giannarou - January 26, 2015 - Kathimerini

On a recent Saturday night in the downtown neighborhood of Thiseio, a police car pulled over in front of Giorgos Glynos's Food Truck. A second police car, this time with screaming sirens, followed a little later. It's hard to imagine why the officers in the first vehicle had asked for backup, given that the two people who stood before them were simply cooks. In the meantime, passing drivers protested by yelling out of their windows. Underneath the dim street lights, the whole thing took on a cinematic quality.

"As they were taking us away in the police car, like common criminals, my business partner, who happens to be a cinematographer, said ‘What a powerful scene.’"

Humor was their crucial ally on that day, as it turned out. Earlier, Glynos, founder and one of the cooks on the Food Truck – a mobile canteen for high-end, yet largely unrecognized 'street gastronomy' – had been summoned to the Acropolis police station on six separate occasions. "Not once or twice. I was actually taken to the police station six times on the same day. I saw the on duty police officers twice that day," Glynos told Kathimerini. A different excuse was used each time, following some kind of complaint.

"During one of the visits I was told that the documents I had were not the originals required, but photocopies, even though I had been told by police officers that I should carry everything in photocopied form. On another occasion they told me I had to pay a certain fee for ‘taking over’ the street, even though I did have another type of permit. The last time I was taken to the police station the charge was illegal trading, even though the canteen has always operated with a cash register, not to mention the fact that at the time of our arrest there was plenty of flea market activity."

About a year-and-a-half ago, Glynos, an astrophysics graduate with a passion for food, decided to develop a different kind of food truck featuring his grandmother's recipes for gezleme, a Pontos delicacy made of traditional handmade phyllo pastry usually stuffed with spinach, fresh onions, feta cheese and mint. Besides an original take on street food, Glynos also wanted the business to be completely legitimate.

"I can't remember how many departments I visited in order to collect all the paperwork. I have all the necessary permits, if not more," he noted. The street canteen even features a HACCP food safety certification. The Food Truck, which Glynos calls 'Katina,' hit the road a few days ago, carrying a special B type street trade permit. This license allows the Food Truck to change location under certain conditions (business is not allowed at archaeological sites or at the seaside, for instance). The conditions were included in a law ratified by Parliament last year as part of reforms to liberate the market in Greece. Nevertheless, it will take a while for the kind of growth the amendments were meant to signal to actually materialize. Initially, responsibility for inspecting such businesses was handed over to the municipal police.

Greek police authorities eventually took over the task, but they appear to be in the dark regarding which type of permits are necessary in each case, resulting in professionals being hassled on a daily basis.

"Every time somebody files a complaint, whether it's a resident who's upset because we've parked outside their property or a store owner or even a competitor – although fellow food truck owners tolerate us because we don't sell competitive products, such as souvlaki and hot dogs – we have to go to a police station."

Things get even more complicated when one considers that there are numerous legislative ambiguities that allow, for example, someone to work as a street vendor across the region of Attica but not in municipal communities of more than 3,000 residents.

"In practice, we're only allowed to work on [the Saronic island of] Agistri," noted Glynos. "In other words, the way things stand, you can play cat and mouse with the police perpetually."

Nevertheless, just as he never stops thinking about adding new recipes to the Food Truck's menu (besides gezleme, Katina also serves hot soup, savory Kaisaria and Armenian pies, hot Mexican chocolate and mulled wine, among other delicious offerings), he is also determined to find a solution to the red tape impasse.

"Given that the youth unemployment rate stands at 60 percent and the authorities supposedly want to give fresh impetus to entrepreneurship, why is it that they can't issue a food truck license?" argued Glynos.

In fact, new permits can only be issued to members of special groups such as the disabled and large families, while these licenses cannot be ceded, transferred or leased.

"If a person sets up a business, he or she will hire an employee, will pay VAT and income tax," noted Glynos. "We could all get together in a particular place where each of us could sell his or her own specialty, just like in other countries. At the end of the day it's really not that complicated to figure out a way."

Greece's Nightmare

I have grown to admire Paul Krugman greatly because where others ignore the truth, he tells it like it is. Anyone who really believed the harsh austerity measures imposed on Greece would work was in denial. I have always said (see prior posts) you can't cut spending and expect an economy to grow. In an economic downturn revenues are reduced, unemployment rates rise, etc. Greece needs to spend in order to get its economy growing. It's that simple.

If you look at the US, the meltdown that occurred in 2008 was handled properly. By no means can I compare the US and Greece's economies. Unemployment is down and continues to drop, the housing market is up, our GDP grew 5% in the past two years, the deficit is down over 30%, the stock market is at an all-time high, consumer confidence is at a six-year high, etc. Obama didn't cut spending - he increased it. That is how you get an economy to grow.

I will elaborate more on what needs to be addressed by the new Greek government in another post.

Below is Krugman's opinion which appeared in today's New York Times in its entirety:

"Paul Krugman - January 26, 2015 (New York Times) - Ending Greece's Nightmare

Alexis Tsipras, leader of the left-wing Syriza coalition, is about to become prime minister of Greece. He will be the first European leader elected on an explicit promise to challenge the austerity policies that have prevailed since 2010. And there will, of course, be many people warning him to abandon that promise, to behave “responsibly.”

So how has that responsibility thing worked out so far?

To understand the political earthquake in Greece, it helps to look at Greece’s May 2010 “standby arrangement” with the International Monetary Fund, under which the so-called troika — the I.M.F., the European Central Bank and the European Commission — extended loans to the country in return for a combination of austerity and reform. It’s a remarkable document, in the worst way. The troika, while pretending to be hardheaded and realistic, was peddling an economic fantasy. And the Greek people have been paying the price for those elite delusions.

You see, the economic projections that accompanied the standby arrangement assumed that Greece could impose harsh austerity with little effect on growth and employment. Greece was already in recession when the deal was reached, but the projections assumed that this downturn would end soon — that there would be only a small contraction in 2011, and that by 2012 Greece would be recovering. Unemployment, the projections conceded, would rise substantially, from 9.4 percent in 2009 to almost 15 percent in 2012, but would then begin coming down fairly quickly.

What actually transpired was an economic and human nightmare. Far from ending in 2011, the Greek recession gathered momentum. Greece didn’t hit the bottom until 2014, and by that point it had experienced a full-fledged depression, with overall unemployment rising to 28 percent and youth unemployment rising to almost 60 percent. And the recovery now underway, such as it is, is barely visible, offering no prospect of returning to pre-crisis living standards for the foreseeable future.

What went wrong? I fairly often encounter assertions to the effect that Greece didn’t carry through on its promises, that it failed to deliver the promised spending cuts. Nothing could be further from the truth. In reality, Greece imposed savage cuts in public services, wages of government workers and social benefits. Thanks to repeated further waves of austerity, public spending was cut much more than the original program envisaged, and it’s currently about 20 percent lower than it was in 2010.

Yet Greek debt troubles are if anything worse than before the program started. One reason is that the economic plunge has reduced revenues: The Greek government is collecting a substantially higher share of G.D.P. in taxes than it used to, but G.D.P. has fallen so quickly that the overall tax take is down. Furthermore, the plunge in G.D.P. has caused a key fiscal indicator, the ratio of debt to G.D.P., to keep rising even though debt growth has slowed and Greece received some modest debt relief in 2012.

Why were the original projections so wildly overoptimistic? As I said, because supposedly hardheaded officials were in reality engaged in fantasy economics. Both the European Commission and the European Central Bank decided to believe in the confidence fairy — that is, to claim that the direct job-destroying effects of spending cuts would be more than made up for by a surge in private-sector optimism. The I.M.F. was more cautious, but it nonetheless grossly underestimated the damage austerity would do.

And here’s the thing: If the troika had been truly realistic, it would have acknowledged that it was demanding the impossible. Two years after the Greek program began, the I.M.F. looked for historical examples where Greek-type programs, attempts to pay down debt through austerity without major debt relief or inflation, had been successful. It didn’t find any.

So now that Mr. Tsipras has won, and won big, European officials would be well advised to skip the lectures calling on him to act responsibly and to go along with their program. The fact is they have no credibility; the program they imposed on Greece never made sense. It had no chance of working.

If anything, the problem with Syriza’s plans may be that they’re not radical enough. Debt relief and an easing of austerity would reduce the economic pain, but it’s doubtful whether they are sufficient to produce a strong recovery. On the other hand, it’s not clear what more any Greek government can do unless it’s prepared to abandon the euro, and the Greek public isn’t ready for that.

Still, in calling for a major change, Mr. Tsipras is being far more realistic than officials who want the beatings to continue until morale improves. The rest of Europe should give him a chance to end his country’s nightmare."

Greece's Election

Greece's opposition Syriza party is leading the ruling New Democracy conservatives in the last nine polls published ahead of the country's election Sunday.



Syriza's lead varies from 2.8 percentage points to 6.7 points but is trending upward. In four of these polls, which are rolling ones, the lead rose sharply from Thursday to Friday evening, when the last polls were published.

Syriza has alarmed markets by urging massive debt forgiveness and wanting bailout deals rewritten.

The number of undecided voters remains significant. All but two polls show it near or above 10 percent.

The centrist party To Potami is in third place in four polls, while the extreme right-wing Golden Dawn party is third in another four. They are tied in the ninth poll.

Hyperplastic & Adenomatous Polyps

I looked up hyperplastic and adenomatous polyps so I could better understand the difference between the two that Dr. Collazzo removed from my colon.

My father has had polyps removed and 3 of his brothers died of colon cancer.

Below is a summary of colon polyps:

Colorectal cancers usually begin as benign polyps that grow from the mucosa. Some individuals are more likely than others to develop polyps, especially those with a personal or family history of polyps and/or colorectal cancer, and those that carry specific genes for hereditary forms of colorectal cancer. New information has also indicated that individuals who have type 2 diabetes and those who are considered obese are also at greater risk for developing polyps and colorectal cancer.

Most polyps remain benign and are often termed hyperplastic polyps. The likelihood that hyperplastic polyps will become cancer is very low.

Other benign polyps are sometimes referred to as pre-cancerous. These polyps are not malignant, themselves, but have a chance of becoming cancerous if not removed.



Examples include adenomatous and hamartomatous polyps. Adenomatous polyps that have tubular or villous characteristics have a higher chance of becoming cancerous. Adenomatous and hamartomatous polyps are also the types of polyps that are usually associated with hereditary colorectal cancer syndromes. The only truly malignant polyp is one that has been shown to contain invasive carcinoma. Sometimes the carcinoma is confined to the polyp, and other times it has invaded one or more layers of the intestine.

Adenomas usually grow on a stalk, resembling small mushrooms. They tend to grow slowly over a decade or more. The risk of an adenoma developing into cancer increases as the size of the adenoma increases and with the amount of time they have been growing in the colon. Adenomas that are malignant are called adenocarcinomas. In the very early stages, abnormal cells are contained inside the polyp and can be easily removed by colonscopy before they develop into invasive cancer. However, as cancer cells grow and divide within the polyp, they can eventually invade nearby colon tissue and grow into and beyond the wall of the colon or rectum. If the cancer becomes advanced, the tumors will grow though all of the tissue layers of the colon rectum, and may metastasize, shedding cells into the circulatory system, spreading the cancer to other organs such as the liver and lungs. 



This is why individuals with a family history of colon cancer or polyps need to have a colonoscopy. As invasive and uncomfortable the procedure may be, it is important so that any polyps that are found can be removed.

If you have relatives who have had colon cancer or polyps, please get screened. A colonoscopy can literally save your life.

3 Polyps / Colonoscopy

This morning I had my colonoscopy. They removed 3 polyps, 1 was hyperplastic and 2 were adenomatous.



Dr. Collazo told me all 3 will be sent for a biopsy and he will call me with the results. He 'snared' them off and cautherized the areas. There are no nerve endings in your colon so you don't feel any pain.



I have had some cramping and bleeding which is normal.

The amount of doctors' appointments one has to endure during and after cancer are unbelievable. The endless appointments with surgeons, radiologists, oncologists, hematologists, gynecologists, mammogram techs, ultrasound techs, etc. are exhausting.

As the months drag on, you realize this is part of your 'new normal' ...

After seeing your gynecologist, you have to have an ultrasound of your pelvis. Then you go back to your oncologist. After seeing your oncologist for the umpteenth time, you have to have a colonoscopy ... then it's back for some lab work to check your markers (that appointment is next in line for me).

It's all worth it because what we have to endure is part of our journey to stay in remission.

So I thank Dr. Frazier, Dr. Gupta, Dr. Fleischer, Dr. Hyett, Dr. Collazzo and all of the support staff for keeping a close eye on me. I am so grateful to have these wonderful human beings in my corner fighting along with me.

Noah's Flood and Atlantis

People have been searching for Atlantis ever since Plato published the story back in 359 BCE. They have been looking for evidence of the Great Flood ever since the story was published in the Bible.

Physical evidence confirms that floodwaters damaged the Great Pyramid and other structures on the Giza Plateau. Khafre, the tallest pyramid was damaged by the flood except its top. A cap was left on the top of this pyramid that now acts as the high-water mark for Noah’s Great Flood. The evidence shows that this flood was caused by the same cataclysm that destroyed Atlantis.

According to Robert Ballard, a well known archeologist, he has found proof of the flood in the Black Sea in Turkey.

ABC News: "Four hundred feet below the surface, they unearthed an ancient shoreline, proof to Ballard that a catastrophic event did happen in the Black Sea."

By carbon dating shells found along the shoreline, Ballard believes they have established a timeline for that catastrophic event.

According to researcher Martin Gray, archeologists have found silt fourteen feet deep around the pyramids. As water from the Ocean flooded the Mediterranean Sea, it overran the Basin, submerged the pyramids, and ran out into the desert. When the water went back to the sea, it took tons of debris from the desert and deposited it along the way. This water from the ocean left behind its unique signature, which is traceable by science. The silt contains many seashells and fossils that have been radiocarbon-dated to be 11,600 years old. This evidence alone can be used to date the flood, the three main pyramids, and the Sphinx. Also, when the Great Pyramid was first opened, incrustations of salt one inch thick were found inside it. Chemical analysis has shown that the salt has a mineral content consistent with sea salt. This is further proof that the pyramids were submerged by flood waters that came from the Atlantic Ocean. When it comes to the Great Flood, there is too much physical evidence to simply dismiss the story as a myth.

According to both Plato and Ignatius Donnelly, Egypt was an Atlantis colony. If the pyramids were in place during the flood, they would have sustained flood damage. If they were damaged by the floodwaters, we would be able to see the damage. Even today we can see the destruction clearly on the Great Sphinx and the three larger pyramids: Khufu, Khafre, and Menkaure. The ground in the area is still littered with debris knocked loose by floating objects. Khufu and Menkaure were completely submerged by the flood waters.

Cancer and Flu Season

It's important for cancer survivors to prepare for the flu season.

If you have a current or past diagnosis of cancer, you may be at higher risk for complications if you get the flu. The best way to prevent the flu is by getting a flu shot every year.

As a cancer survivor, you should receive the seasonal flu shot, not the nasal spray vaccine. Remind your family to also get the flu shot as this will also reduce your risk of being exposed to the virus from others around you.

Treating Breast Cancer with Malaria Drug

A drug that treats malaria may make breast cancer tumors more responsive to treatment.

An inexpensive malaria drug could be the answer for some women who are not responding to their cancer treatment, according to a promising but preliminary animal study.

In a recent study published in Clinical Cancer Research, researchers discovered the anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) can actually reverse drug resistance to the common breast cancer drug, tamoxifen. The researchers inserted cancerous tumors into mice with serious postmenopausal estrogen receptor-positive (ER+) breast cancer. ER+ breast cancers are some of the most common, and are often treated with tamoxifen. However, about 50% of women who are treated with tamoxifen won’t respond to the drug or become resistant to it.

HCQ is a drug that was originally developed to treat malaria, but it’s also used to treat diseases like lupus and arthritis. The researchers added HCQ to the mice’s treatment with tamoxifen and discovered that the malaria did in fact increase tumor responsiveness to the breast cancer drug.

How does it work? The reason some woman become resistant to tamoxifen is that a "pro-survival" cell pathway in the breast cancer cells becomes switched. HCQ turns off the modified cell pathway, which helps prevent resistance to tamoxifen.

It’s encouraging that there may be a solution for women not responding to cancer drugs.

Start of Clear Liquid Diet

Tomorrow I start my 'clear liquid diet' in preparation of my colonoscopy on Tuesday. I have off on Monday (MLK holiday) which works out great considering I have to drink 238 grams of Miralax mixed with 64 oz of clear Gatorade.

At 3:00 pm I have to take 2 Bisacodyl tablets, then 2 more at 9:00 pm.

I have had two colonoscopies before so I pretty much know what to expect. I'm going to be shitting my brains out. Busting a gut!

Hopefully, this will be the last procedure I have to have done for a while. I'm so tired of being poked and prodded.

The Great Depression

Random Facts about the Great Depression

Herbert Hoover (1874-1964), a Republican, was president when the Great Depression began. He infamously declared in March 1930 that the U.S. had “passed the worst” and argued that the economy would sort itself out. The worst, however, had just begun and would last until the outbreak of WWII (1939).f
People who lost their homes often lived in what were called “Hoovervilles,” or shanty towns, that were named after President Herbert Hoover. There was also “Hoover Stew” (food dished out in soup kitchens), “Hoover Blankets” (newspapers that served as blankets), “Hoover Hogs” (jack rabbits used as food), and “Hoover Wagons” (broken cars that were pulled by mules).

Chicago gangster Al Capone (1899-1947), in one of his sporadic attempts at public relations, opened a soup kitchen during the Great Depression. For millions, soup kitchens provided the only food they would see all day.

The Wall Street Crash of 1929 was one of the main causes of the Great Depression. “Black Thursday,” “Black Monday,” and “Black Tuesday” are all correct terms to describe the Crash because the initial crash occurred over several days, with Tuesday being the most devastating.

The stock market crash of 1929 was the most devastating crash in the history of the United States.

On “Black Tuesday,” October 29, 1929, the market lost $14 billion, making the loss for that week an astounding $30 billion. This was ten times more than the annual federal budget and far more than the U.S. had spent in WWI.

Thirty billion dollars would be equivalent to $377,587,032,770.41 today.

After the initial crash, there was a wave of suicides in the New York’s financial district. It is said that the clerks of one hotel even started asking new guests if they needed a room for sleeping or jumping.

The Dow Jones market peaked at 381 on September 3, 1929, and bottomed out at 42 in 1932, which is an amazing 89% decline. It did not reach 381 again until 23 years later in 1955 (that doesn’t include inflation losses).

Causes of the Great Depression are widely debated but typically include a weak banking system, overproduction, bursting credit bubble, the fact that farmers and industrial workers had not shared in the prosperity of the 1920s, and a government-held laissez faire policy.

One American sheep farmer found that he would not make money off of his sheep during the depression. Rather than watch his 3,000 sheep starve to death, he cut their throats and threw them in a canyon.

Dorothea Lange’s (1895-1965) famous photographs of migrant workers in California during the 1930s remain a moving pictorial record of the Great Depression.

A new look in women’s fashion emerged in the 1930s. In response to the economic crisis, designers created more affordable fashions with longer hemlines, slim waistlines, lower heels, and less makeup. Accessories became more important as they created the impression of a “new” look without having to buy a new dress.

During the worst years of the Depression (1933-1934) the overall jobless rate was 25% (1 out of 4 people) with another 25% taking wage cuts or working part time. The gross national product fell by almost 50%. It was not until 1941, when WWII was underway, that unemployment officially fell back below 10%.

Today the typical household has two wage earners, so even a 25% unemployment rate such as occurred during the Great Depression may not mean the same thing as it did in the 1930s.

Scholars estimate that nearly 50% of children during the Great Depression did not have adequate food, shelter, or medical care. Many suffered rickets.g
Some people who became homeless would ride on railroad cars because they didn’t have money to travel. Some famous men who rode the rails were William O. Douglas (1898-1980), U.S. Supreme Court Justice from 1939-1975; novelist Louis L’Amour (1908-1988); and folk singer Woody Guthrie (1912-1967). Some scholars claim that more than 50,000 people were injured or killed while jumping trains.

The board game Monopoly, which first became available in 1935, became immensely popular perhaps because players could become rich—at least in their imagination.

The “Three Little Pigs“—released May 27, 1933, and produced by Walt Disney—was seen as symbolic of the Great Depression, with the wolf representing the Depression and the three little pigs representing average citizens who eventually succeeded by working together.

During the Great Depression, a record 60-80 million Americans went to the movies every week. One of the biggest blockbusters was Merian C. Cooper’s 1933 King Kong. Other popular movies included The Wizard of Oz (1939) and Gone with the Wind (1939).

Chain letters seemed to have first begun in 1935 as a get-rich-quick scheme. The source of the letters is unknown, but the letters became so popular that post offices around the nation had to hire extra help.

African-Americans were the hardest hit during the Great Depression, and they were often the first to get laid off.c
Between 1930 and 1935, nearly 750,000 farms were lost through bankruptcy or sheriff sales.

During the Depression, distressed farms were sometimes sold at “Penny Auction” (forced auctions) in which farmers would assure that a distressed neighbor would be able to buy back his own farm by holding bids down to pennies, nickels, and quarters. They would dissuade those who wanted to make higher bids, sometimes symbolically with dangling nooses at the auction scene.

The Hawley-Smoot Tariff Act of 1930 increased U.S. tariffs which, in turn, decreased international trade (especially in the farming sector) and helped spread the Great Depression worldwide.j As it spread, it became partly responsible for Nazism in Germany and for WWII (1939-1945).

As businesses and farms closed during the Great Depression, an alarming number of Americans began turning to crime—such as Bruno Hauptmann, who kidnapped and murdered aviation hero Charles Lindbergh’s 20-month-old son; John Dillinger, a kind of Robin Hood hero; Lester M. Gillis (“Baby Face” Nelson); Machine Gun Kelly; Pretty Boy Floyd; Ma Barker and her Boys; and the famous Bonnie and Clyde, who were actually despised by other Midwestern bandits who felt they lowered the standard of the profession.

The Golden Gate Bridge was constructed during the Great Depression.

A number of great structures, including the Empire State Building and the Golden Gate Bridge, were completed during the Great Depression, providing many jobs to the unemployed.

As news of the stock market crash spread, customers rushed to their banks to withdraw their money, sparking disastrous “bank runs.” Nobel prize-winning economist Milton Friedman argues that the 1930s market crash itself did not cause the depression, but rather it was the collapse of the banking system during waves of public panic during 1930-1933.

The most famous demonstration during the Great Depression was held by the “Bonus Army.” It consisted largely of WWI veterans who requested financial bonuses that were scheduled to be given in 1945 to be paid instead in 1932. The U.S. Army was called in to disperse them.c
Democrat Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1882-1945) became president in March 1933 and promised a “New Deal for the American people.” During his first hundred days, he attempted to create jobs by establishing federal organizations that were nicknamed “Alphabet Agencies,” such as the TVA, NRA, CCC, and WPA. Economists and historians continue to debate whether Roosevelt’s actions actually deepened and lengthened the Depression.

Economist John Maynard Keynes (1883-1946) gained popularity during and after the Great Depression for consistently arguing for government intervention in the economy and for his suspicion of laissez faire policies.

In the mountain communities of Appalachia, whole families were reduced to dandelions and blackberries for their basic diet. Some children were so hungry, they chewed on their own hands.g
An early form of Social Security began Aug 14, 1935, to implement social insurance for the elderly who did not have enough money to support themselves.

By the 1930s, thousands of schools were operating on reduced hours or were closed down entirely. Some three million children had left school, and at least 200,000 took to riding the rails.

During the Great Depression, many people tried apple selling to avoid the shame of panhandling. In New York City alone, there were as many as 6,000 apple sellers.

When the Depression struck, Mexican-Americans were accused of taking jobs away from “real” Americans and of unfairly burdening local relief efforts. Some were “encouraged” to return to Mexico.

On May 6, 1929, Joseph Stalin predicted to a small group of American communists that America would experience a revolutionary crisis and that the American communist party should be ready to assume the leadership of the “impending class struggle in America.”k
In spite of the New Deal and the “Indian New Deal” of 1934, most Native Americans remained bitterly poor during the Great Depression. The “Indian New Deal” (which was also called the Indian Reorganization Act) was a complex and multi-faceted legislation which reversed the Dawes Severalty Act of 1887 and granted tribes more autonomy.

Discrimination during the Great Depression against women was common, both officially and unofficially, because they were seen as taking away jobs from men.

While the Great Depression affected most of the country, up to 40% of the country never faced real hardship during those years.

During the Great Depression, nearly 1.5 million women were abandoned by their husbands.

The Great Depression changed the family in several ways. Many couples delayed marriage, and divorce rates and birth rates dropped. Some men also abandoned their families; a 1940 poll revealed that 1.5 million married women were abandoned by their husbands.

In 1936, main economic indicators (except unemployment) regained the levels of the late 1920s...but after the federal government cut spending with the expectation that the private sector would step in, the economy took another sharp downturn until WWII.

Californians tried to stop migrants from moving into their state by creating checkpoints on main highways called “bum blockades.” California even instated an “anti-Okie” law which punished anyone bringing in “indigents” with jail time.d
During the Great Depression, hundreds of thousands of families traveled west on Route 66 to California, following what John Steinbeck in his famous novel The Grapes of Wrath called “The Mother Road.”

While John Steinbeck highlights the plight of migrant farm families in The Grapes of Wrath, in reality, less than half (43%) of the migrants were farmers. Most migrants came from east of the Dust Bowl and did not work on farms.

Severe drought and dust storms exacerbated the Great Depression because it dried out farmlands and forced families to leave their farms. On May 9, 1934, a dust storm carried an estimated 350 million tons of dirt 2,000 miles east ward and dumped four million tons of prairie dirt in Chicago. The drought and dust killed tens of thousands of animals.

In 1932, half of all workers in Cleveland, Ohio, were jobless. And in Toledo, Ohio, four out of five were jobless.

Every major country, including the United States, abandoned the gold standard during the Great Depression. In fact, leaving the gold standard was a predictor of a country’s economic severity and the length of time for its recovery. However, Herbert Hoover argued that abandoning the gold standard was the first step toward “communism, fascism, socialism, statism, and a planned economy.”

As he did during WWII, Joseph P. Kennedy (JFK’s father) amassed an enormous amount of wealth through real estate (among other ventures) during the Great Depression. Without this money, he could not have financed his son’s successful run for the presidency.

Though the United States has only been in a recession for less than a year, some scholars state that there is no comparison between the current economic condition in 2009 and that of the 1930s. For example, in the 1930s, unemployment reached 25% and the GDP dropped 25%. In 2009, unemployment is currently at 8.1% and the GDP has so far dropped 2%. Additionally, the situation today is very different because the U.S. didn’t have the “social safety net” in the 1930s that it has today.

Some scholars speculate that a “Great Depression” in 2009 would lead to more T.V. watching as an escape, longer lines at the ER, laid-off office workers migrating to the country, and even online banking runs. Overall, it would be less visible and more isolating than the 1930s' Depression.

Some scholars find the 2009 economic condition more troubling than that of the 1930s' Great Depression because debt in 2009 includes not only stocks but also millions of homes, property, local governments, and entire nations. Also, in contrast to the 1930s, the U.S. is now a debtor nation and more households in the U.S. are in far greater debt.

Avoiding Chemicals in Your Home

By Dr. Marisa Weis (founder of Breastcancer.org)

If you’re like me, home is a haven. Between extended clinical work hours and traveling to medical conferences, I don’t get enough at-home time. But I’ve had to learn how to protect my “fort” from chemicals in rugs, furniture, wall papers, curtains, etc. Just the other day, my mother bought me an inflatable mattress as a gift. But when I opened the box, a puff of strong plastic chemical fumes came out. So, I boxed it right back up and returned it. That’s not what I want my guests to sleep on.

When I wanted to replace my old gross shower curtain, all the vinyl plastic options had a strong plastic smell. So instead I bought a polyester fabric liner that works just as well without a dose of chemicals.

But when it comes to chemicals from all the stuff in our homes, you can’t just depend on smells, odors, and fumes to alert you to their presence. Many chemicals that I want to avoid are odorless. I’m talking about groups of industrial chemicals that commonly go by their initials. All of them begin with the letter P: PVC (and a related additive, phthalates), PCBs, and PFCs. These chemicals are often found in shower curtains, carpets and other flooring, insulation, and appliances. Plus, these same materials and products are present in other places where we spend lots of time: such as our workplace and car.

These chemicals, once considered miracle products, have been found to cause health problems, some of them severe. The chemicals are released as gasses from the products they’re in, accumulate in air and dust, and wind up inside our bodies. Because they break down slowly, they can hang around for decades. And unlike some other chemicals in products, these “P” chemicals are seldom listed on labels.

The highest concentrations of these chemicals are generally found indoors. Since most of us spend most of our time at homes and offices, it can be difficult to avoid them completely.

Fortunately, many of these chemicals aren’t sold anymore. Others are being phased out. And while substitutes are being created, their safety is untested. So, as long as we still share our living and working spaces with these invisible and sometimes odorless compounds, it’s a good idea to minimize or avoid exposure to them.

Let’s look at each type.

Chlorine-based culprits:

Both PVC and PCBs are chlorinated organic compounds. This group of chemicals is considered a global pollutant. These chemicals accumulate in our body fat.

Polyvinyl chloride (PVC)

PVC is also known as vinyl. Developed in the 1920s, vinyl is a fine white powder created from chlorine and ethylene (a chemical that comes from natural gas). It’s then mixed with other chemical additives and formed into sturdy plastic products such as siding, window casings, blinds, shower curtains, containers, plumbing pipes, and medical equipment — even the rubber duckies that kids play with in the bathtub. I’ll bet it’s also used to make blow-up mattresses like the one I just returned.

PVC contains large amounts of phthalates. These chemicals are colorless and odorless and make vinyl more flexible. There are many different phthalates, but some of the most common begin with D, such as DEHP, DAP, and DiNP. Vinyl home flooring may contain as much as 40% DEHP.

Phthalates are endocrine disruptors, which means they may be able to act like a hormone or affect how other hormones act in the body. Endocrine disruptors throw off the body’s hormonal balance by blocking or mimicking hormones. Because estrogen may make hormone-receptor-positive breast cancer develop and grow, many women try to limit their exposure to these chemicals that can act like estrogen and other hormones.

Phthalates don’t bind to the material they are part of. This means low levels of them are released constantly. This is why a new vinyl shower curtain makes the bathroom smell bad for a few days. (Even if you stop noticing the smell after a while, the phthalates are still being released.) Once released into the air, phthalates, and DEHP in particular, tend to cling to surfaces (like walls, furniture, and even clothing), where we can accidentally touch it or breathe it in.

PVC items may contain other questionable components. For example, a study of shower curtains by the Center for Health, Environment and Justice found that all five of five shower curtains tested contained heavy metals. Heavy metals are a group of toxic metals, such as lead, that are generally harmful to living things.

Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs)

PCBs are man-made chemicals first introduced in 1929 and widely used for nearly half a century in flame retardants, dyes, and plastics. They come in many colors and textures.

PCBs were banned in 1979 because research showed they caused cancer in animals and also affect the immune system. Although they’re no longer sold, they may be in home products and materials made before then, such as fluorescent light ballasts (the mechanism that regulates the current to the bulbs), cable insulation, thermal insulation material, adhesives, caulking, and appliances such as refrigerators and ovens.

The most likely place to find PCBs is in older buildings, which may contain contaminated construction materials such as ceiling tiles, insulation, roofing, and floors. High levels of PCB contamination have been found in homes whose floors were (or were once) covered with a wood finish called “Fabulon,” popular in the 1950s and ‘60s.

Regardless of how and when they first arrived, PCBs don’t break down in the environment. So they may linger in your household dust. Researchers have found that inhaling PCB-laden dust is less of a problem than touching or swallowing it.

Most Americans have measurable amounts of PCBs in their bodies, but the highest levels have been found in people born before 1980. In one study of homes with very high concentrations of the chemicals, people had 50 times the acceptable daily intake level. Cleaning can make a difference. People living in buildings where the carpets were vacuumed often and people took off their shoes before entering had lower levels of PCB dust.

Fluorinated foes:

Perfluorinated compounds (PFCs)

PFCs are fluorine-containing chemicals used to make materials oil- and water-repellent. They’re used on carpeting, furniture, clothing, food packaging, cookware, and in industry. PFCs are in Scotchgard fabric protector, Stainmaster soil-resistant carpet, and Shaw’s R2 stain-repellent fiber. These chemical formulas are trade secrets, so the health effects of these products are hard to track.

PFCs also break down very slowly, so can remain in the environment for many years. PFCs tend to accumulate in our liver, kidneys, and bile and can be transmitted to babies through the placenta and breast milk.

In animal studies, PFCs have been shown to be endocrine disruptors. They also can affect the immune system, the liver, and the pancreas. They may also cause developmental problems in babies who are exposed in the womb.

One PFC, PFOS (perfluorooctane sulfonate), is a byproduct of chemicals formerly used to make Scotchgard products. It hasn’t been made in the United States since 2002 and was recently restricted internationally.

Another PFC, PFOA (perfluorooctanoic acid) is found in brands including Stainmaster, Teflon, and GORE-TEX. Scientists have linked PFOA exposure to many different health problems and two rare cancers. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Science Advisory Board considers PFOA a likely human carcinogen.

Though many companies are working to reduce and ultimately eliminate PFOA, it is still legal. Similarly, manufacturers are switching to newer replacement chemicals, but little is known about them yet.

Tips to reduce your exposure:

The hazards of chemical exposures depend on a lot of things including amount of exposure (dose), frequency of exposure, duration of exposure, and age when exposed. In this and other Think Pink, Live Green expert columns, we look at things in your life that go in, on, and around you. Whenever there’s a significant concern coming out of the lab or from human studies, we want to help you make the best choices. If something may pose a hazard, in the absence of solid research in people, we lean on the Precautionary Principle. Basically it means that it’s better to be safe than sorry. Our goal is to help you make the best choices for you and your family. Because we know all these “P” chemicals linger in the environment for many years, it’s not clear if products containing them that are really old are ever safe to use. Your best bet may be to get rid of any items that contain them.

And while we can’t get rid of any chemicals that are already inside us, there are steps you can take to minimize any further exposure. I’ve grouped the tips by type of chemical.

PVC

Avoid or discard and replace any home furnishings labeled “vinyl” or that have the recycling symbol “3.” Even if the products are very old, the risk is likely still there.

Don’t buy unlabeled plastic products.
Look for items labeled “phthalate-free.”
Avoid or remove vinyl flooring, particularly the Congoleum with Scotchgard Protector brand. Instead, consider authentic linoleum, tile, cork, bamboo, or stone flooring. The U.S. Green Building Council’s Buyer’s Guide to Green Floor Materials is a good resource.

Toss those PVC vinyl shower curtains! Replace them with a curtain made from cotton, hemp, linen, bamboo, polyester (nylon), or the less toxic PEVA vinyl instead. Don’t buy one made from unlabeled fabric or material.
Find non-PVC products in Pass Up the Poison Plastic — the PVC-Free Guide for Your Family & Home, published by the Center for Health, Environment, and Justice.

PCBs

Bust the dust. One suggestion: have everyone remove their shoes before they come into your home. (This doesn’t work for me since I have a shoe addiction, plus for parties and business meetings, people generally prefer to keep their shoes on.) Vacuum floors often with a HEPA filter-outfitted vacuum cleaner. Damp mop floors and wipe surfaces frequently, and wash your hands to avoid absorbing or swallowing particles.
Dispose of or properly recycle furniture, appliances, and other materials likely to contain PCBs. These might include heirloom or thrift-shop pieces — anything manufactured between 1929 and 1979. (Items marked ANo PCB are safe, because they were made after 1979.) Find companies licensed to handle hazardous waste, or take the items to your local hazardous waste disposal site.

Do not sand floors that may have been treated with Fabulon wood finish. No lab tests are available to determine this, but if you plan to sand, contact an asbestos-abatement service for advice on protecting yourself. Or get a professional floor refinishing group that’s trained in handling these chemicals to do it. Another option, place “greener” flooring over the wood.

PFCs

Avoid furnishings treated with stain- or water-resistance products, including nonstick pans (such as Teflon brand) and “performance” fabrics that are chemically treated to resist water and sunlight.

Don’t apply stain repellants such as Scotchgard to furniture or belongings.
Buy untreated carpets and other household items; if you’re offered Scotchgard or other protective treatment at the store, tell the salesperson you don’t want it. It’s also a good idea to avoid most imported rugs because they may contain PFCs. You can check the tag or asked a salesperson.

If you must waterproof something — hello, winter boots — use less toxic water repellants, such as Nikwax and Greenshield brands. Do any spraying outside with good ventilation.
If you have PFC-treated furnishings in your home, put an untreated fabric slipcover over chairs or a sofa. Replace any carpet or rugs with versions made of organic wool or another natural, untreated fiber.

Do you think you have any of these problematic “P” chemicals in your home? How do you plan to deal with them? It may be a good opportunity for green redecorating!

Cowboys robbed by reversed call

For those of you still screaming and yelling about the Dallas Cowboys' good fortune last week against the Detroit Lions, here is your revenge. On fourth-and-2 late in the fourth quarter of Sunday's NFC divisional round playoff game against the Green Bay Packers, quarterback Tony Romo lofted a deep pass to wide receiver Dez Bryant. He made what appeared to be an amazing catch. Wow. But wait! Packers head coach Mike McCarthy threw the challenge flag and while everyone in the nation rolled their eyes and made jokes about Jerry Jones paying off the referees, official Gene Steratore came through with the ruling. Call overturned! Incomplete pass! If you look at another angle, it appears the ball might have popped loose.

Here is the wording of the NFL rule regarding this play:

"If a player goes to the ground in the act of catching a pass (with or without contact by an opponent), he must maintain control of the ball throughout the process of contacting the ground, whether in the field of play or the end zone. If he loses control of the ball, and the ball touches the ground before he regains control, the pass is incomplete. If he regains control prior to the ball touching the ground, the pass is complete."

Bryant had control of the ball!

The Cowboys were robbed!



After catching the pass, and maintaiing control, Bryant reaches out with the ball to cross the goal line.

Dallas beat the Seahawks early in the season. Instead, the Packers will be playing Seattle next week.