Adventures in $40 eyeglasses

Well, this looks interesting.
No pun intended.

http://tinyurl.com/yts7hj

Exposed: The Toxic Chemistry of Everyday Products

_____________________________________

Exposed: The Toxic Chemistry of Everyday Products and What's at Stake
for American Power by Mark Schapiro

The comestics industry exempted itself from oversight in the 30's
when the FDA opened for business.
Opened for business. Isn't that cute?

And so, among other things, there's lead in lipstick.

He covers the toy industry and electronics as well. Plenty of heavy
metals and carcinogens in electronics manufacture. Cadmium, Chromium,
Mercury and Lead. They are reasonably safe while we are using them.
When they break down they get into the bloodstream and DNA.

Apparently the European Union has been watching manufacturers and
bringing legislation that ensures better quality products for its
citizens. How? Well, they comprise a bigger marketplace than the good
old US of A. And the governments provide healthcare. It's just how
the numbers add up.

It was a fascinating interview on Fresh Air. I think the book will be
a great peek under the covers of the free market system that keeps us
glowing warm.

The book is not yet in the Milwaukee Public Library system.

Dear Santa ...

Verandananda

When death comes to find you, may it find you alive.

- African proverb
__________________

Perhaps you think you did not make the world, but came unwillingly to
what was made already, hardly waiting for your thoughts to give it
meaning. Yet in truth you found exactly what you looked for when you
came. There is no world apart from what you wish, and herein lies
your ultimate release. Change but your mind on what you want to see,
and all the world must change accordingly.
courseinmiracles.com/ ... /lesson132.htm

__________________

The mind of a Wayfarer is plain and direct, without artificiality.
There is no rejection and no attachment, no deceptive wandering mind.
At all times seeing and hearing are normal. There are no further
details. One does not, furthermore, close the eyes or shut the ears;
as long as feelings do not stick to things, that will do.

- Kuei-Shan (771-854)
__________________

When you are old, you become impatient with the way in which the
young applaud the most insignificant improvements - the invention of
some new valve or sprocket - while remaining heedless of the world's
barbarism.
Julian Barnes - Flaubert's Parrot

__________________

If you know that everything comes from the mind, don't become
attached. Once attached, you're unaware. But once you see your own
nature, the entire Canon becomes so much prose. It's thousands of
sutras and shastras only amount to a clear mind. Understanding comes
in midsentence. What good are doctrines?
- Bodhidharma (d. 533)
__________________

"When I get a little money I buy books; and if any is left, I buy
food and clothes."
-- Desiderius Erasmus
__________________

Little progress can be made by merely attempting to repress what is
evil; our great hope lies in developing what is good.
-- Calvin Coolidge

__________________

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is
that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our Light, not our
Darkness, that most frightens us.
Marianne Williamson, Return to Love

__________________

Just as a man shudders with horror when he steps upon a serpent, but
laughs when he looks down and sees that it is only a rope, so I
discovered one day what I was calling "I" cannot be found, and all
fear and anxiety vanished with my mistake.

The Buddha
__________________

You may have a fresh start at any moment you choose, for this thing
we call failure is not the falling down, but the staying down.
—Mary Pickford, actress
__________________

Hate is too great a burden to bear. It injures the hater more than it
injures the hated.
- Coretta Scott King
__________________

The sooner we use up all the oil, the sooner we can stop caring about
the Middle East and global warming, and move on to a cleaner, safer,
alternative.
So, please: guzzle gas. For the children.

Ayn Marx

__________________

"No question that the enemy has tried to spread sectarian violence.
They use violence as a tool to do that."— George W. Bush, Washington,
D.C., 3/22/06

__________________

Fearful people are more dependent, more easily manipulated and
controlled, more susceptible to deceptively simple, strong, tough
measures and hard-line postures. ... They may accept and even welcome
repression if it promises to relieve their insecurities.
George Gerbner
__________________

The obscure we see eventually. The completely obvious, it seems,
takes longer.
Edward R. Murrow

__________________

If you're not laughing by now you don't fully appreciate the situation.

Summer reading - 2006

Guns, Germs, and Steel, by Jared Diamond.

Blink, by Malcolm Gladwell

The Tipping Point, by Malcolm Gladwell

Freakonomics, by Steven D. Levitt

Buddha's Nature, by Wes Nisker

The End of Suffering, by Russell Targ

In Persuasion Nation, by George Saunders

________________

Yes, I am digging through the files.
Things may appear out of order.
I am looking for some poems to read
while a drummer drums. How very beat.

Smoothie Recipe

Frozen cherries,
banana,
orange juice,
chocolate protein powder.
Mix. Drink.
Yum.

Two Recent Poems

Beautiful. Betty.

After some time of waiting,
reading about writing,
listening to the flute Muzak and
successfully ignoring my pounding
ear infection, the doctors assistant
brings a jasmine tea.
How. Beautiful. Betty.
_______________________

Beautiful. Betty. Addendum.

I should have read her the poem and then handed it to her. But, I
didn't. I told her it was a poem first and then handed it to her.
That was not in our best interest.
As she started to read it her head began to bob back and forth as if
hoping to catch a ride on a rhyme. Sadly, for her, it was a short
freight train of free verse and all the box car doors were closed.

David White 8/31/06

Curiosity Kills Cat

Curiosity kills cat. So we say. We do not speak of the cat dying.
There's never any question of old age or natural causes. Was it
suicide or accident? A mob hit? Black ops? Hoax? Urban myth?
Intentional dis- or mis-information? Or, is it just what some
authority figure says instead of shut up?

Cat or otherwise, do you have questions of your own?

MuZingers (Muse + Zinger)

If it's called propaganda when they do it,
what's it called when we do it?
___

Some say that life begins at conception.
When does free will begin?
___

A binary, or dualistic thought that seems to explain - everything is
love or a call for love.
___

Terrorism is war conducted by the poor.
War is terrorism conducted by the rich.
- Charles P. Mountford

Verandananda, Swami of the Front Porch Swing

sI'm twenty seven years
And always sought the Way.
Well, this morning we passed
Like strangers on the road.

- Kokuin (10th century)

___________________________

Spring has its hundred flowers,
Autumn has its many moons.
Summer has cool winds,
Winter its snow.
If useless thoughts do not
Cloud your mind,
Each day is the best of your life.

- Wu-Men-Hui-Kai (1183–1260)

Links

I think I will start a Label for links.

Here are some I found interesting.

woodtype.org

oilposter.org

censusscope.org

breathingearth.net

laughteryoga.org

Primordial Zoupe

Alphabet Soup
Conversion Kit
$9.95

you wonder
if you won't
some day be
in to a can
with your spoon
well in hand ...

you stand in a field
the wind blows
thee oats are
sowing you
isn't that wild?

____________

David L. White
1974

PharmAgra

- text for satire ad -

PharmAgra

"Cultivating chemical dependence the world over."

Helping businesses eat away the lining of your soul.

Washington Offices on Lobbyist Lane

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(Our sincere apologies to serious believers.)