One Man's Opinion

All that gloating over Toyota 's and other foreign companies' troubles have come back to haunt American manufacturers big time.  Now it's Fisher-Price 's turn to recall 10 or 11 million toys for defects that have already harmed very small children.  American workmanship, once touted as the best in the world, has clearly gone down the drain.  Whether it's automobiles, drugs, food or toys, Made in USA  is  a seal of disapproval for shoddy manufacturing.  The assembly-line mentality of producing countless items cheaply and rapidly, without too much regard for quality, has finally failed all over the place. It's not cheap labor elsewhere or less regulations that have allowed other countries to out-produce the U.S.  It's the better technology and care put into the products, which even Americans recognize and prefer over their own products.  Whole industries or product lines have virtually disappeared from the American manufacturing landscape because ...

Interrogation tapes that show how casually some American soldiers have killed unarmed and non-threatening  civilians in Afghanistan have surfaced.  The soldiers themselves have admitted that those killed were in no position to harm them.  They were picked at random, grenades thrown at them and then shot.  Just like that.  The "excuse" being that the soldiers were under a lot of stress and under the influence of illegal drugs and so forth. But, this is what Joseph Conrad masterfully describes in Heart of Darkness and Francis Ford Coppola shows in Apocalypse Now:  the dehumanizing effect of war, especially against people of color and ethnicity that is perceived to be intrinsically inferior to the white man.  So, much more of this savagery is to be expected from the perennial "good guys" from the USA.

In the "best" fascist and totalitarian traditions, the U.S. government has burned close to 10,000 copies of a book published by a former Lt. Col. in the U.S. Army about the war in Afghanistan, claiming that it contained sensitive information that would endanger "national security."  The author claims that he has consulted with the Army and had even deleted certain parts of his book, to make sure that there was nothing objectionable.  Apparently, that wasn't enough to satisfy the increasingly-secretive American government. I would bet that the book does contain embarrassing information to the U.S. government, and the "national security" issue is just a convenient excuse to censor it.  The more information that comes out of that war, the more it shows that there is very little heroism and a lot of criminal activity on the part of U.S. troops over there.  That and the corruption of private contractors paints a not very pretty picture.  So, book-burning ...

The rich keep getting richer, economic crisis or no economic crisis.  In fact, the crisis brought about the "bailout" to Wall Street, and we all know how that has turned out.  Case in point: Citigroup, who received $45 billion in government money went on playing fast and loose with its books, and now will pay $75 million to settle the case over charges brought against them by the Securities and Exchange Commission.  At the same time, it has been announced that the company will pay huge bonuses to its top 25 executives. Do the math, and then tell me if this isn't a sweet deal all around.

Cuba's move to increase self-employment while reducing the government payroll is not necessarily a bad thing from the socialist perspective.  What this and other measures adopted by the Revolution will do is test the resolve of the Cubans to stay true to the principles of the "new man" as espoused by Che Guevara.  The question to be answered is: Can you look out for yourself without being selfish, to the point of caring very little for your neighbor's well-being? If the Revolution has been truly successful, then it won't matter too much that a private sector exists within the socialist system, because people will do the right thing and greed won't rule in Cuba.

Now, I can understand the concept of "damage control" when something goes wrong.  But, what the makers of the Similac powder formula have done is simply outrageous and untenable; almost as bad as having beetle parts in their product.  To tell parents that there's really no cause for concern about this egregious health violation is to, literally, add insult to injury. This is another example of how the corporate world thinks nothing of its social responsibility; their only concern is the "bottom line."  They are worried about their image, so they would have us believe that this is a minor thing. Next thing will be the claim that it's actually good for babies.

ADHD, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, is on the rise worldwide, or so they say.  Children are being medicated everywhere with Ritalin, at the drop of a hat.  There are skeptics who point out that, as a whole, people have become less tolerant of certain behavior associated with childhood, and doctors are much more inclined to oblige them by prescribing medication freely. Anyone who has had children knows that there's usually one who drives you crazy, but dealing with it comes with the territory, and more often than not, it's just a phase that the kid outgrows.  Being a good parent takes a lot of patience and stamina; it's not for the fainthearted.  Nor for people who are self-centered and see their children as a burden or something that prevents them from enjoying their individual "pursuit of happiness."