Wednesday, January 4, 2012

#108 - Running for Office=Must Be Wealthy

When our founding fathers sat down and brainstormed about what to include in the Declaration of Independence, I do not recall seeing an amendment stating that an individual needed to have a lot of money.  I thought our country was founded on the principle that ANYONE could run for public office.  Anyone, meaning any person who felt a calling to serve their country in a selfless way.  What has happened since 1776??!!!?? Because as I see it, not just anyone can run for office in 2011, as evidenced in a news report the other day, how one candidate spent $10 million in a presidential campaign in ONE STATE!!!! That translates to the following for me:
1. You must be very wealthy to run for office.
2. You must be a millionnaire to run for office.
3. You must be a multi-millionnaire to run for office.
4. You do not necessarily need to have a calling to serve the public.
5. If you have a desire to serve but no money, DO NOT run for public office.
6. Our election process has lost its focus.
7. Only a rich person will be president, in which case, he or she may not even begin to understand the average person they have been elected to serve.
8. We need to scrap the current system and go back to the original plan.
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 and Happiness.
                                                                          







Tuesday, January 3, 2012

#107- Paper or Cloth?

I heard a report on the radio this morning about using paper towels.  Now over the last few years we have all heard how using paper towels is more hygenic than using a cloth hand towel due to the bacteria that builds up on cloth hand towels.  You wash your hands, dry them with a cloth towel and the towel sits there, waiting for the next usage, whereas a paper towel gets thrown in the garbage after you use it.  I have never quite understood the theory that bacteria forms on the cloth towel (not being a chemistry or biology major, I chalked it up to ignorance on my part), since you just WASHED your hands with soap and water.  You did not wipe dirty, bacteria filled hands on the towel, so why should bacteria then grow after you dried your hands.  Well apparently experts (not sure who these experts are) have found that paper towels are LOADED with BACTERIA, especially recycled ones. You just can't win! I'm not sure if the news report was trying to tell us not to use paper towels, but my suspicion is someone from a cotton manufacturer leaked the report, to encourage a run on cloth towels at Sears or Kohls!  Wonder if Bounty or Scott stocks will drop today!