Blue Mass Group

I have found that it takes a lot for the MSM to get worked up about consumers’ rights.  Some outlets do seem to have caught on, however, to the slow poisoning of American consumers who believe ads about sunscreen products.  I saw a piece on CNN.com yesterday, and the NYTimes has an editorial today:

The F.D.A. proposed new safety standards and a new ratings system for sunscreens last August. That was followed by the required comment period, an extension of that period – and a long silence from the F.D.A.

In the meantime, the Environmental Working Group, a Washington research organization, issued its own warning about sunscreens. After collecting studies on sunscreens, the group recommended only 15 percent of those on the market with S.P.F. ratings of 15 or higher. The others either did not protect skin enough from some radiation that can cause skin cancer or included ingredients linked to possible health hazards.

So some credit is due to the media.  On the other hand, this editorial takes a sort of Bertie and Jeeves tone toward the issue: “Oh do stay out of the sun, and wear a comical hat while you’re at it!”  When you look at the Environmental Working Group website, you may wonder why there isn’t a panic, a mandatory recall and a little more outrage in the reports.  

In other words, it’s been a year, darnit!  Why are we still slathering American children with bioaccumulating neurotoxins, reproductive and developmental toxins and cancer-causing chemicals – MOST – I SAY THE VAST MAJORITY – of which are ineffective at preventing sun damage?

United States Army Veteran Benjamin LaGuer

This picture in it’s stillness and silence speaks of who Ben LaGuer was, and still is. It suggests something very different than the distorted version of LaGuer given to us by Kerry Healey’s mudslinging gubenatorial campaign and from those who are against Governor Patrick.

His determination to clear his name of a 1984 rape conviction has kept him in prison for the last 25 years, and he is serving a life sentence. All along the way LaGuer has had opportunity after opportunity to take an easier way out by confessing, starting with the 2 year plea bargain they tried to hand him. Year after year the parole board has denied LaGuer’s parole because of his stand.  

Patriots see their nation as a people and not a place When asked to serve, a Patriot asks for whom and not for what Patriots seek unity when others hide behind division A Patriot sees one not many Above all, Patriots love their country as they do their own family, friends and selves Have a Grand 4th Everyone  

Pork is often in the eye of the beholder. From a distance, it’s easy to criticize someone else’s earmark. $50,000 for a dance festival? $25,000 for a town’s anniversary? Are these wastes of money? The Globe seems to think so. (What else to make of the headline “Lawmakers feeding pet projects: Bacon comes home to every corner of the Commonwealth”?).

For every bridge to nowhere, money flows to deserving projects and disadvantaged communities.

One item calls for $200,000 to be disbursed to the Boston Symphony Orchestra so the renowned group can renovate and repair Tanglewood. There is $25,000 in state taxpayer money to pay for the town of Halifax to have its 275th anniversary next July Fourth. There’s enough to cover a merry-go-round in Holyoke, a ballfield in Fitchburg, and new seats at a theater in Medford.

In the $28.2 billion budget approved yesterday by the House and Senate, there are scores of earmarks to fund pet projects in legislators’ districts in nearly every corner of Massachusetts. Beckett. The Berkshire Museum in Pittsfield, the Merrimack Repertory Theatre in Lowell, and the Bing Theatre in Springfield are all beneficiaries. The Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, which charges $16.99 for admission, is getting $300,000 of taxpayer money, which a legislative aide said would go toward securing a Division II college basketball tournament.

God Bless America. ============ IN CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1776 The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. – That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, – That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety [...]

I have always been a life long enjoyer of the magic and spectacular wonder of Fireworks parading across the night’s sky.   Last night however I decided to forgo attending the display at the former Fort Devens and was just sitting at home when it went off.  It was one staccato booming report after another devoid of the color and pageantry. Due to I assume atmospheric conditions the reports rattled the house, shook windows and was felt as much as it was heard.  The day’s news had been about the death toll in Afghanistan exceeding that of Iraq and the sending in of more troops to deal with the failed war on terror there. Another big story has been the government coming to grips with the reality of the hundreds of thousands of Soldiers who will spend countless years recovering from the impact of war that we so gallantly recreate in our parks for the amusement of the citizenry.  As the reports continued a sense of sadness overcame me as I contemplated why it is we celebrate the anniversary of the creation of the greatest experiment in personal freedom humanity has ever attempted by reminding ourselves of the death and [...]