It IS the economy stupid

I came across this political cartoon the other day by Corky Trinidad and it got me to thinking about what this country would be like if all the Iraq war money went to something else.

First, do you know how much money the United States is spending on the war? zFacts has an interesting chart that updates continuously and a few frightening facts. Here is an excerpt from an article at The Coloradoan “The Iraq War is costing more than $400,000 for each troop in the field. We are spending over $240,000 per minute for this war. The war costs each American household $138 per month. By 2017, the United States will have paid $1 trillion in interest on money borrowed to finance the war. This nation deserves better.”

Now, what can you do with $1 trillion dollars? Here are some suggestions from an article in The New York Times :

• Public health: treat every American whose diabetes or heart disease is unmanaged plus a global campaign to immunize millions of children.
• Education: Universal preschool for every three and four year-old child in the U.S.
• Rebuild New Orleans
• Real national security: we could put into place all those recommendations by the 9/11 Commission that haven’t been done

All of this could be done and we’d have some money left over! Or, how about this? Instead of a puny little “economic stimulus” check (my $300 should cover about 3 tanks of gas, if I’m lucky) the government could send every American enough money to REALLY stimulate the economy!

Economics Nobel Prize winner Joseph Stiglitz and Harvard Professor Linda Bilmes have published a book, “The Three Trillion Dollar War.” This book should be must reading for all of us because it details the true costs of the war in Iraq. The war is a legacy that will be with us for several generations as we deal with the debt the nation has incurred and the massive number of wounded veterans that will need continuous medical care.

As a nation we need to wake up and smell the coffee because someone has left the pot on the burner for too long. There is an election coming up in November. Let’s hope we can do some good then.

Affordable Health Insurance

A good friend of mine is recovering from a much needed but complex surgical procedure. While she is facing a bit of time recovering, the surgery has resolved a situation that was causing her considerable pain. My friend is also fortunate in that she has health insurance. For many of us here in the United States having health insurance is a luxury we can’t afford.

I’m one of those people who does not have health insurance. It has been about seven years since I’ve had any - either the company I’ve worked for in the past didn’t offer it or, primarily, because I’m self-employed I can’t afford it. Oh sure, I’ve responded to who knows how many ads for “Affordable Health Insurance” only to find that my home mortgage is less than what they want for useful health insurance. I said useful insurance because you can get a little bit of nothing, and mostly useless insurance, for $100 to $200 per month, but the type of coverage I had years ago working for a corporation generally starts at $500 or more a month.

I’ve also got a friend who moved to Scotland several years ago to attend college. His wife and children moved with him while he works on his degrees. Recently he found out that his oldest son has autism. This is what he said in a recent e-mail to me: “He's [my friend’s son] been getting tons of help thanks to the blessing of universal health care (why this isn't a political no-brainer back home I'll never understand).”

I’ve got to admit the lack of some type of universal health care system is something I’ve been wondering about. My guess is that the pharmaceutical and insurance corporations are keeping their politicians well fed and away from that topic. Besides, as long as members of Congress have lifetime insurance benefits why should they care about people like me?

The United States probably can’t do what most European countries have done, but there has to be a way to make health insurance affordable to the average American. Big corporations get discounts because of the number of employees they have. How about a program that is nation-wide for all of the people like me? Lump us all together and give us a group discount!

Personally, I’d rather have insurance than worry about loosing everything I have to illness.

Pictures from home

Every human, every plant, every animal, everything we have ever known has come from one place: Earth. We argue over borders, fight over territory, and pollute the land, soil, water, and air. It is our only home. We think of it as limitless, with endless resources available for us. It is not. Earth is a lovely planet, but it is finite and fragile. To help illustrate this I have collected a series of images of our home -- from near to far. Each image has a link back to its source if you want more information on the picture.

The first image was taken from orbit by a satellite. What you are looking at is the ocean in the vicinity of the Bahamas. The Web site is "Earth As Art".

This next picture was also taken from Earth orbit by the crew of the International Space Station. Here you can see some of the curve of the planet.
Now we've moved out of Earth orbit. This picture was taken by the Apollo 8 astronauts during one of their orbits of the moon. What a lovely, blue world.
We continue to move out in space away from Earth. This image was taken by the Mars Global Surveyor. For more information about this image you can also read this article from the National Geographic News. The image you see here has been greatly enlarged - go to the Mars Global Surveyor link to see the actual image.
This last picture is part of the first family photo ever taken of the planets of our solar system. You are looking at home from 6.4 billion kilometers away. Earth is a pale, blue dot less than the size of a pixel. Click on the image to view the whole family.

Hold the plastic

Go to the grocery store and you may hear “paper or plastic?”, but mostly the bagger just stuffs everything into lots and lots of plastic bags. Go to any store and purchase something, even if it is only one small item what do they do? They stuff it in a plastic bag. Do we really need all those bags? In one word, NO!

Here are some interesting facts for you from a company called ChicoBag, which sells a reusable alternative to the plastic bag:

• The average American uses between 300 and 700 plastic bags per year.
• If everyone in the United States tied their annual consumption of plastic bags together in a giant chain, the chain would reach around the Earth not once, but 760 times!
• Plastic bags don’t biodegrade, they photo-degrade—breaking down into small toxic bits contaminating soil and waterways and entering the food-chain when mistaken for zooplankton or jellyfish.

Here are a couple of other things to think about before you grab that bag:

• Plastic bags are made from petroleum – something that has gotten VERY expensive lately. It is also a limited resource, one that we will run out of in the not too distant future (less than 30 years according to some sources).
• Because the bags are so light weight they wind-up all over the place. Many animals and endangered wildlife are killed or injured because they get tangled in the bags or ingest them.
• Check out this from the Earth Resource Foundation or this one from Californians Against Waste.
  

One easy alternative is to ask for paper bags in the grocery store. The bags are already made from recycled materials and many stores accept empty bags in recycle bins. My local Publix takes plastic bags, paper bags, and Styrofoam products. Another idea when shopping for just one or two items is to pass on the bag altogether. Most products are already in packaging, so just carry them without the bag. You might also consider a re-usable bag. There are many types and sizes available.

In January of this year, New York City passed a bill requiring large stores to collect and recycle their bags. China, India, and Australia are all considering bans on the bags. Clearly we need to change our habits. We need a new bag.

Spring Fling

I've been out of town on a vacation with some friends, so I'm a bit late in my usual postings. Also, I didn't want to post on All Fool's Day - or April Fool's Day as it is more commonly called. Did you know that the tradition of April Fool's Day goes back to the sixteenth century? The generally accepted theory is that its origins go back to the creation of the Gregorian calendar. Want more info? Check out this short article or this longer one here (although their page background makes it a little hard to read - just highlight the text with your mouse to solve the problem).

My friends and I stayed at a lovely bed and breakfast in Matlacha, Florida. This was the view from our porch:
We also had the opportunity to watch a pair of osprey raising their three chicks:
I had lots of time for picture taking and caught this pelican as it floated by:

We went to Sanibel Island and enjoyed the beach and later toured the J.N. "Ding" Darling National Wildlife Refuge:
And then there was the big event on Saturday, March 29th, at the 17th annual Mullet Toss on Matlacha:
The idea is to see how far you can throw a dead mullet fish. You are not allowed to stuff it with rocks or other objects to make it heavier (and easier) to toss; however, you can roll it in the dirt to get a better grip on it. If you go, be careful where you stand as sometimes the fish fly off course and land amid the spectators. Personally, I tried to be very careful!