And you thought cigarettes were bad for you - new study shows potato chips contain dangerous levels of cancer causing chemicals.

A California consumer legal group is campaigning to require warning labels on potato chips, saying they contain a chemical known to cause cancer and state law requires the warnings.

The chemical in question, acrylamide, is formed when starchy foods are baked or fried at high temperatures. Acrylamide is listed by the California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment as a chemical known to cause cancer.

According to the Oakland, California-based Environmental Law Foundation, tests it commissioned found levels of acrylamide in many of the nation's most popular potato chip brands far exceeded the levels requiring warning labels under California law.

Cape Cod Robust Russet potato chips exceeded the required warning level by 910 times, while Kettle Chips Lightly Salted chips exceeded the level by 505 times, the group said.

Come on folks - you know junk food is no fit offering to the temple of your body to begin with. Do you really need another reason to lay off the Lays?

The local paper has a column called "Speak Out" which is the published results of a phone-in message center where readers can call in and express their opinions, concerns and views on various going's on.

Given the local population, it gets pretty hairy sometimes. For example, a year or so back there was an actual ongoing debate on whether or not we could change a local resevoir-created lake (all of 12 feet deep in some places) into a body of salt water (by the addition of a lot of cattle salt blocks) for the purposes of importing humbacked whales to pick up tourist money. I shit you not. There was also one guy who called in to complain about the birds in the park who had buzzed him and apparently disturbed his toupee. Not only did he want something done about these dangerous and obnoxious creatures, he made it quite clear that if nothing was done by the city, one day Jesus was coming back and then we'd see about those birds. Needless to say, it's an interesting column.

Recently, there has been a lot of back and forth over welfare, medicaid and so on - mainly along the lines of "they're all just lazy slackers trying to get all they can for free, and they should just keep their legs shut, get a job and quit whining." How very...enlightened.

Anywho, I got all het up and wrote a bona-fide letter to the editor lambasting this petty-mindedness and referencing several religious tenets that are shared by a near unanimity of the population (the midwest is not exactly reknown for its diversity and religious variety). Took a week, but they actually ran it yesterday. I even got a nice call from some happy reader who really liked it. Cool.

I'm including the letter below, if you're interested. I'd link to an online copy, but they don't put editorials in their archives. Note in my signature at the bottom that I whipped out the rev on them (yeah, I'm an ordained minister - I just don't make a big deal about it for most occasions). Here in the Bible Belt, that sort of title confers some degree of credibility over the general rabble and I was unabashedly out to boot rear and take names.

It's not my best work (reading over it, I can see a little disjointedness in the argument and some places I could have made a stronger case) but it got the job done. Anyway, I feel better. :-D

Now if we could just do something about those damn birds.

Dear editor

It is with dismay and frustration that I have been reading the exchanges in the local Speak Out column regarding use and abuse of the social services systems. In many of the responses there has been a grasping, brutish and almost gleefully taunting attitude of "touch noogies" that I find hard to reconcile with the fact that many people in this community, and in this country in general, claim to be Christians and follow the teachings of that elevated soul.

In a country this resource-rich, this technologically advanced, and this heavily populated with purportedly deeply spiritual people committed to bringing the reign of God down onto the earth, why shouldn't there be free and easy access to health care, child care and basic life support for anyone who needs it? Why shouldn't anyone who wants to pursue higher education to enrich themselves and the world around them be able to do so as a matter of course? Why do we balk at providing the members of our society with the very things that we know make a society stronger, richer and saner?

It can't be a matter of belief. Perhaps I wasn't paying as much attention in Sunday School as I should have been, but at what point in the Bible did Jesus require the leper to 'earn'� his cure, or the blind to prove their right to their sight before healing them? How did I miss the part of the story of the adulteress where he picks up a stone and joins in with her persecutors, enlightening her with the righteous insight that if she didn't want to suffer the consequences of her actions, she should have kept her legs together? And I'm afraid I must have slept through the part of the loaves and fishes story where the disciples set up a checkout stand to make sure that everyone paid for their meal before getting their sticky fingers on any of the grub. I mean, sheesh - if those slackers wanted to eat, they should have brought something from home, right?

Of course, the objection is often made that although someone may be a Christian, we cannot expect them to be as perfect as Christ in their actions. And this is quite true. But it is also quite true that this is often trotted out as an excuse to go with our first knee-jerk attitudes of superiority, discrimination and fear of loss rather than facing up to the challenge of leaving these destructive habits behind for a better way. Let's face it - doing the right thing is hard work. Especially when it's so danged easy to just forsake and forget.

And surely we cant be objecting to the cost, since the investment to savings ratio is so high. One recent study published in the American Journal of Psychiatry in Nov. 2004, showed that certain basic nutritional deficiencies (a situation that food stamps help prevent) can result in a 51% increase in antisocial and violent behavior in children by age 17. And it's not just intangible rewards we reap. In fact, a study quoted in the October 1998 issue of National Geographic pointed out that for every $400.00 invested in a single mother, the state of Utah discovered that it saved $400,000.00 over the lifetime of her child in other social service expenditures. Of course, those are 7-year-old figures and no doubt the numbers themselves have changed since then. But I doubt the ratio between them has wandered far too off the mark.

That's a thousand-fold return, folks. If there was a stock out there that was quoted as bringing in even a quarter of that, the same people who complain about 'wasting'� money on social services would be selling their grandmother's christening dress on eBay for the money to buy in. But why would they do that? After all, if we the people are expected to fair for ourselves in the cold, hard world shouldnt businesses be expected to do the same, without us hard-working folks carrying them around on our back by purchasing stock?

Of course, those stocks pay us back in cash dividends (if were lucky), and those quarterly checks make a substantially bigger impression on our attention than the 'invisible'� savings that increased social services would provide in lower taxes, less crime and cheaper health insurance (since uninsured patients often can't pay and wait until an injury or illness is serious before seeking care, hospitals raise rates all around to cover the gap, and that results in insurance providers raising premiums to cover their costs). Like the environmentalists say, there's no 'away'� to throw the trash; what you refuse to someone today will simply be taken out of your pocket tomorrow - with interest.

But if caring for each other is a basic tenet of our espoused beliefs, and the end result is to save us far more money than we invest upfront as well as providing ourselves and our children a safer and more peaceful community to enjoy those saving in, why is there still this undercurrent of anger, resentment and gnawing stinginess at the prospect of being our brother's keeper? I vote for fear. Fear that there won't be enough for everyone, that life is a zero-sum game - anything you get is less for me.

But generosity and compassion come from love, and love can only multiply our resources, not divide them (just ask any parent of more than one child). For our sake and the sake of the community we live in, we need to let go of our fear - the fear that says "anyone else's gain is your loss"� and that convinces us that other people deserve to suffer for their mistakes or flaws, perhaps because we've had to suffer so much for ours. We also need to wake up to the stark reality that if God hasn't pulled the plug on someone else's oxygen supply yet, maybe that's a hint that He views their life as somehow valuable or even vital to His grand work. And that the quality of their life and their future might just end up affecting the quality of our own.

As the Missouri Department of Social Services says on their web site, "A true measure of a society is the extent of its concern for those less fortunate - its intent of keeping families together, preventing abuse and neglect, and encouraging self-sufficiency and independence." By this measure, I think we are falling far, far short of the mark.

Of course, it's your life - if you want to fill it with fear, mean-spiritedness and parsimony that's your choice. But just remember that the world you create today is the one you have to live in tomorrow. And that doesn't exactly sound like heaven on earth to me.

The Rev. Soni Pitts

Edit: Ack - sorry for the MS Word crap-code random character generator effect. I think I got them all.

In the morning hear the Way; in the evening die content. -- Confucius

Insightful guy, that K'ung-fu-tzu (Confucius). I wrote about a similar concept in my article Is Your Life Ready For Groundhog Day which explores living life in such a way that every day is self-contained perfection (although it took me a few pages to get my point across - I'm nowhere as erudite as the Master).

And as an addendum to all of the above, I'll throw in Ashleigh Brilliant's exquisite advice on making your life smoother and more interesting:

"Try to relax and enjoy the crisis."

Showing the rest of the world that it is possible to provide clean and green power and support a hydrogen-based fuel economy in one slick economic dance move, Canada is slicing a new cutting edge in energy production by developing a wind/hydrogen hybid system that uses wind to power the grid and to electrolyze hydrogen from water for fuel.

One of Canada’s remote eastern provinces has launched a project integrating wind energy with hydrogen production as a demonstration of one path to the possible "hydrogen economy" of the future.

The wind farm will continue to generate electricity into the province’s grid, but it also will power electrolysis equipment to produce hydrogen from water. The hydrogen will be used in fuel cells for industrial, farm and household needs. It also will be stored as a fuel for an internal-combustion engine to generate backup and primary electricity and for a small fleet of shuttle buses, say project officials.

Ladies and gentlemen, I think we've just been served. Daaaammn.

This really, really sucks. I mean, with all that "No child left behind crap, you'd think the one thing Congress wouldn't want to endanger is a source of free educational programs - sometimes the only educational programs poorer children get. And really, the only source of crapless tv that any of us have to fall back on when cable and the networks keep producing line-ups that are filled with inane variations on the same crapalicious themes.

Cut-n-paste plea from Move On:

You know that email petition that keeps circulating about how Congress is slashing funding for NPR and PBS? Well, now it's actually true. (Really. Check at the bottom if you don't believe me.)

Sign the petition telling Congress to save NPR and PBS

A House panel has voted to eliminate all public funding for NPR and PBS, starting with "Sesame Street," "Reading Rainbow," and other commercial-free children's shows. If approved, this would be the most severe cut in the history of public broadcasting, threatening to pull the plug on Big Bird, Cookie Monster, and Oscar the Grouch.

The cuts would slash 25% of the federal funding this year—$100 million—and end funding altogether within two years. The loss could kill beloved children's shows like "Clifford the Big Red Dog," "Arthur," and "Postcards from Buster." Rural stations and those serving low-income communities might not survive. Other stations would have to increase corporate sponsorships.

Already, 300,000 people have signed the petition. Can you help us reach 400,000 signatures today? (Same link as above)

Thanks!

P.S. Read the Washington Post report on the threat to NPR and PBS

Sometimes we get lucky and the people do what is right for everyone involved, even when they have to work around rather than with the Federal Government to do so. The US Conference of Mayors provided just such a success story when they unanimously passed a resolution requiring their cities to meet or beat the emissions standards set by the Kyoto Protocol.

The people of the United States, and the rest of the world: 1
Federal Government: 0 (with mud on their faces)

GO TEAM!

Under the heading of things we already knew, but it's not official until someone in a white lab coat says it's so - crappy jobs can literally break your heart:

Dull, steady, unexciting jobs may make the heart beat in an unchanging, rapid rhythm, which in turn could lead to heart disease, British researchers reported.

The effect was clear even after taking into account factors such as smoking, poor diet and lack of exercise, all of which also can adversely affect heart rate, Hemingway said.

It may be possible to help prevent heart disease by changing workplace conditions, Hemingway said.

Much to the surprise of scientists, it turns out that that soul-sucking job of yours may literally be sucking the life out of you. Is it just me, or is anyone else wondering if all those years of college are wasted on the scientific community? (Or maybe the scientific community was just wasted during all those years of college)

Edit: Now that you're feeling all chipper about the effect crappy jobs have on your heart, check out the latest research that shows how being overweight actually makes you physically older. I tell you, that Dance, Dance Revolution game is looking better by the day.

As if the folks at the Gate's Estates don't control enough of our behavior, now MSN is helping China stifle bloggers who use such inciteful language as freedom, democracy and human rights in their blog headings.

Chinese bloggers, even on foreign-sponsored sites, had better choose their words carefully - the censors are watching.

Users of the MSN Spaces section of Microsoft Corp.'s new China-based Web portal get a scolding message each time they input words deemed taboo by the communist authorities - such as democracy, freedom and human rights.

Yeah, thanks guys. That's great. How about a round of Bronx cheers for MSN, your bastion of free trade (warning:Prohibited language in text, please delete) and globalization (warning:Prohibited language in text, please delete) for everyone - except their users.

Does anyone still need a reason to loathe Microsoft?

How ironic is it that a concert aimed at raising awareness of the pitfalls of greed and exploitation on a global scale is now falling prey to...greed and exploitation on a global scale.

Live 8 organizer Bob Geldof has condemned as "sick profiteering" the sale of free charity concert tickets on auction Web site eBay.

Tickets to the star-studded London show, which aims to pressure world leaders into fighting poverty, were given away to the winners of a text lottery. But they immediately started appearing on eBay for hundreds of pounds.

Geldof branded the site an "electronic pimp" and called for a worldwide boycott.

Full article

Yes, it's legal. Yes, we sort of expect it to happen. But come on folks. We can do better than that. This is the same sort of mentality that has people going through their family snapshots looking to see if there's a picture of their sister that they can put up on a pay-per-download site.

Believe it or not, the world will not come to a screetching halt if we as a people do not haul of every last piece of our lives that isn't nailed down to the floor out into our particular yard sale to see if we can make a few bucks off of it.

In other words, just because someone will buy it doesn't mean you have to sell it to them. Just say no.

Update 6.16.05: Bowing to overwhelming pressure and waves of pissed-off fans flooding the site with ridiculously high bids and false offers of tickets (to prevent sales and to confuse ticket buyers) Ebay has canned the sale of Live 8 tickets. Woohoooo!

"If you do not change direction, you may end up where you are heading."

--Lao Tzu