Blast from the Past: June 8th, 2009 - Maine Wants to Add Warnings to Cellphone Packaging

My June 7th, 2009, column in The Times-Standard on cell phone dangers, “Are young people facing a brain cancer epidemic caused by cell phones?” was one of the few “mainstream” articles on the subject ran by any major newspaper in the nation this year.

 The cell phone industry has managed to put off controversy about the health care effects of using cell phones thus far with massive lobbying efforts designed to hide the science behind the concerns.

Cracks are appearing in the cell phone lobby’s claims however, and the industry’s assertions that they are safe. They may lead to a major shake-up someday in how we use these handy devices.

I want to thank The Times-Standard for having the guts to allow me to run my warning about cell phones. It wasn’t the kind of article local cell phone advertisers wanted to see for sure. 

But it ran. Special thanks to Managing Editor Kimberly Wear for putting it in print. You can’t hide the truth forever…

Here’s the tip of the iceberg:

The state of Maine has declared its intentions to be the very first state in the country to add warnings to all cell phone packages. As you might have heard before, many scientific studies claim that cell phones’ electromagnetic radiation can cause brain cancer. The proposal will be discussed at a January 2010 session that is “usually reserved for emergency and governors’ bills,” says Glenn Adams from The Huffington Post.

A similar effort is taking place in the city of San Francisco, California. Mayor Gavin Newsom wants San Francisco to become the first city in the nation to require warnings.

As it Stands, this was one of my more controversial columns that I wrote for The Times Standard.

Blast from the Past: Jan. 1, 2016 - A New Way to Live Day By Day?

Editor's Note: I'm posting past articles while I take a blog break. I still had no idea how bad the Trump regime would be in the coming year. Photo: Me in Hawaii on New's Day.

Alexander Pope, in his An Essay on Man reminds us that..."Hope springs eternal in the human breast."

Every year we like to believe that we're starting over. Erasing last year's mistakes. Getting a clean slate. Wiping away bad memories. Starting over.

We make resolutions that we may, or may not, keep.

What would we do if we didn't have our Gregorian 
 calendar to tell us this was the first day of every new year.

Would we wander around without hope of change in our lives because the days never turned into years? 

Would we have to stop having birthdays and anniversaries?

Would we defy Father Time and stay at one age? Forever frozen in a fantasy called life. 

Just what would it mean to stop marking time?

Would holidays fade away into tribal memories? 

Would our sense of time slow down? Would we count our days like pearls, valuing the here and now?

Just fleeting thoughts in an old man's mind on New Year's Day.

As it Stands, this was one of my more reflective posts since I started blogging in 2008.

Blast from the Past: Dec. 29, 2019 - Post Trump: 9 New Rules for Future Presidents

Editor's Note: I'm on a blog break right now so I'm running old posts for your entertainment.

Enjoy...

After Trump leaves the White House (which will need immediate sanitizing) Congress should come up with new rules for future candidates running for president.

No one (outside of Trump's cult followers) wants to watch the office of the president descend to the depraved depths it did under the Trump regime again.

To ensure this doesn't happen, I propose the following 9 new rules (in addition to whatever other requirements there are) in order to become the President of the United States.

1) The candidate CAN NOT have past or present mafia connections. 

2) The candidate MUST have an excellent understanding of the Constitution, and American history.

3) The candidate CAN NOT have a Twitter account!

4) The candidate MUST have a moral compass and not be a renown liar.

5) The candidate MUST show at least 10 years of personal taxes to the public.

6) The candidate CAN NOT ask a foreign power to help them get elected.

7) The candidate MUST believe in science, not conspiracy theories, by acknowledging there's a global warming crisis and America must do everything possible to stop it from getting worse.

8) The candidate MUST strengthen ties with all of our allies, and always keep America united against dictators, and rogue governments.

9) The candidate MUST respect the power of Congress and the Senate and not defy/attack the balance of power our founder's built into our government.

As it Stands, don't you wish these 9 new rules were used in the 2024 election? We wouldn't be dealing with Trump now. 

Blast From the Past: Dec. 28,2021 - When All You Have Is Hope

There are so many world-shaking events happening simultaneously it seems like our society is on a spin cycle of chaos.

First and foremost, our democracy faces its greatest threat since the Civil War. Republicans have morphed into an authoritarian party led by a wannabee dictator who's actively working on overthrowing our electoral system. We've become a dangerously divided nation in the 21st century.

We're now in the second year of a pandemic that is still surging around the globe. The latest variant, Omicron, is spreading faster than its two predecessors.

The holiday season has been a story of airline cancellations due to Omicron and the particularly bitter winter weather. Thousands of people are stuck in airports as the year comes to a tired end.

The effects of climate change become more obvious every day. Historic tornados and snow falls. Drought. Wildfires. Sea levels rising. Historic heat in areas we've not seen before. Globalists and governments unable to (or unwilling to) meet the growing environmental challenges facing the earth.

The only thing left is hope.

As the recently passed Desmond Tutu once said, "Hope is being able to see that there is light despite all of the darkness."

As Albert Einstein so finely put it, "Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. The important thing is not to stop questioning."

One of my favorite inspirational quotes is by former president Barack Obama,

"Hope is that thing inside us that insists, despite all the evidence to the contrary, that something better awaits us if we have the courage to reach for it and to work for it and to fight for it."

As it Stands, in 2026 Americans are still hoping that Trump and his cult will disappear and democracy will be restored.

Blast from the Past: Dec. 28, 2015 - How to Cultivate a Political Cult of Paranoia

Editor's Note: While I'm on a blog break, I thought running past posts would be fun. This one was written while Trump was running for president in the Republican primary. I had him pegged at the outset.

Donald Trump is a demagogue with money who can mine fear, white identity politics and right-wing populism where spoils and rewards are given to good “real Americans” and the Other is, by definition, punished and excluded.

He's inspiring a gathering cult status among a fearful segment of society who are seeking deliverance from all of their woes. 

The Boston Globe explores the concept: Recently, a few political scientists have begun to discover a human tendency deeply discouraging to anyone with faith in the power of information.

It’s this:

Facts don’t necessarily have the power to change our minds. In fact, quite the opposite. In a series of studies in 2005 and 2006, researchers at the University of Michigan found that when misinformed people, particularly political partisans, were exposed to corrected facts in news stories, they rarely changed their minds.

In fact, they often became even more strongly set in their beliefs. Facts, they found, were not curing misinformation. Like an underpowered antibiotic, facts could actually make misinformation even stronger… “The general idea is that it’s absolutely threatening to admit you’re wrong,” says political scientist Brendan Nyhan, the lead researcher on the Michigan study. The phenomenon — known as “backfire” — is “a natural defense mechanism to avoid that cognitive dissonance.”

Trump has become a hero for the angry and resentful white “silent majority” who feel that they are somehow being marginalized in “their” country and that “the blacks,” immigrants, Muslims and terrorists are out to get them."

This is how low politics have sunk.

Trump is a cult leader, carnival barker, and TV show host turned Republican 2016 presidential primary leader and is being slavishly followed by a money-hungry media that records every hateful thing he says with glee. 

Will sanity win out in the end and send Trump packing in the Republican primary? I guess we'll find out next February.

As it Stands, to everyone's surprise Trump did win the primary.

Blast from the Past: Looking for Laughter in the Waning Days of 2020

 

Editor's note: I'm taking a blog break, but I don't what to leave my readers hanging. So, I'm resurrecting past columns. Enjoy.

Laughter has become a rare commodity in 2020.

The reason, as we all know, is the worst pandemic to hit America in over 100 years, a crippled economy, and a president that's completely out of control.

It's tough getting guffaws when people are wondering where their next meal is coming from, or if they'll be evicted from their homes. 

Despite the massive wave of challenges there are still people who manage to laugh. My theory is humor is in our DNA.

I got a good laugh today after reading about some guy back east - where the snow is coming down like a solid white blanket - who gave his neighbors (and social media) something to laugh about.

He used a flame thrower - I'm not making this up - to melt the snow on his driveway. The kicker was he dressed up like Cousin Eddie in National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation.

What a hilarious sight - seeing your neighbor wearing a white bathroom and snow cap with flaps swinging a flamethrower from side-to-side by his curb.

The point is, I'm always looking for a good laugh. In the Era of Trump this is almost Mission Impossible, unless you make an effort to turn away from all the shiny objects Trump waves every day.

If you can't find anything to laugh about around you, don't be afraid to look for comedians on TV and social media. I consider them First Responders for people who are bummed out.

Laughter is a balm for the suffering soul. It's a power that shouldn't be underestimated. Especially when times are dark.

I take heart with poet Robert Frost's quote; "If we couldn't laugh, we would all go insane."

As it Stands, this old post is still relevant today.