Europe - GMO's - Prop 37

Owen Paterson is an Environment Secretary in Europe, and he believes that GMO's should be made available in the UK. Frankenstein foods have always had a bad sentiment attached them, but this man believes that farmers could benefit from the biotech. In relation to this article I did some digging and I found something relevant.  Last year in our good old state of California, we had a proposition on the 2012 ballot called prop 37. It would have mandated the labeling of genetically modified organisms or GMO's but lost from a campaign led by Monsanto. They grow genetically modified organisms. If you look at the donations list against the proposition you may be surprised. Monsanto donated over 8 million dollars to the opposition of this proposition. That's not all if you go further down the list you might see some brand names that you recognize. Pepsico, Coca-Cola, Kelloggs, Campbell's, E.I. Dupont, Hershey, and Heinz Foods all donated funds against this proposition. Using basic critical thinking skills and deduction we can assume all of these labels use GMO's in their food, and why wouldn't they? It is a cheaper alternative to regular crops, and they grow faster. But we still don't know the full effects of what they do on the human body, but that hasn't the stopped the EU from banning it. Until now. These companies may have won on prop 37, but the idea that we have a right to know what we are putting in our bodies still stands. At what point do we let corporations dictate our knowledge of food. This rationale is barbaric and I expect more from America.

Works Cited:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2291334/Time-Europe-let-British-farmers-grow-GM-food-says-environment-minister.html?ito=feeds-newsxml

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/07/prop-37-defeated-californ_n_2088402.html

http://ballotpedia.org/wiki/index.php/California_Proposition_37,_Mandatory_Labeling_of_Genetically_Engineered_Food_(2012)

Homemade Alcohol Kills - In Libya

There have been five hundred and fifty one people poisoned by homemade alcohol. Fifty-one of these people have died. This was allowed to take place because alcohol is illegal in Libya. Because of the laws of Islam, these people who choose to partake in what we as Americans can acknowledge as an accepted freedom in western culture, ultimately died. The problems were caused by an amount of methanol in the alcohol. It caused blindness, and several different types of organ failure in some patients. This is a modern day tragedy. It is my personal opinion that religion can do much good in this world. Unfortunately it also has had a dark history, such as the Crusades (in concern with the Catholic Church). I do not simply think we should do away with religion. It has allowed us to (within moderation) control the masses and stop the spread of anarchy. But I do believe we should be able to be righteous human beings, without the forethought that a deity will be pissed off if we get drunk on a Friday night. Religion's repression of humanity's basic wants and needs such as sexuality, societal standards standards of living, and repression of cognitive thinking are not only archaic, they also disillusion ourselves into thinking we can be perfect. We as humans are flawed, and only by accepting this simple fact can we move on.

Works Cited:

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/world/2013-03/12/c_132228490.htm

Government Politics at its best: Debt Ceiling

Federal Debt Ceiling (National Debt)

I did some research on this topic, so I decided to pick a current event related to it. The debt ceiling is basically something created by Congress to keep the U.S. from amassing too much debt. Now the president does not have full control of the government’s ability to spend taxes. The president collects all the taxes and submits them to Congress. Congress makes a budget in concern with what it wants built and puts a cap on how much the president can borrow. But unfortunately for the president, Congress most of the time dictates that he must spend more then the taxes pay for. So congress has the scapegoat to blame the President for not being frugal when it is Congress’s fault that he has to borrow so close to the debt ceiling. Now the reason the debt ceiling is such a big deal is that if we hit that amount of U.S. debt, we could have a government shutdown. People working for the government would not get income or be forced to take days off. Any companies hired by the government would not get income for work they had done and it would cause a loss of faith in the U.S. dollar. In my next blog post I think I will cover the Sequester.

 Article: http://topics.nytimes.com/topics/reference/timestopics/subjects/n/national_debt_us/index.html

Sources: http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2011/04/12/135314575/the-debt-ceiling-explained