Podcasting since 2004; Conversations, conflicts, adventures and monologues from around the world.
Putting a show together lately has been a very frustrating struggle. In this edition I look at the recent developments related to the death penalty in the United States. My sources include the American Bar Association, the Christian Science Monitor and SCOTUS blog.
No notes as I would hope you would listen, something very significant is indeed taking place regarding the use of the death penalty throughout the US.
Making the rounds on several of my favorite NOLA bloggers, I was especially captivated by Ray’s post a few days ago on a specific house that several bloggers had helped to gut. He featured a video which I wanted to include on my blog as well. Its 8 minutes or so long and contains the first visit to the house after the storm and you see the very grim pictures as they remove everything from the house that no doubt looks nothing like it did before the storm.
I recommend you read Ray’s entire post, the struggle and the pain continues down in the Big Easy.
A few days in Berlin, among other reasons, to spend time with my dear friends, and to attend BarCamp Berlin.. which is neither a bar nor a camp.. just a nerd convention. Naturally there will be several podcasts and vlogs coming up related to issues here in Germany and beyond… I’m especially curious to discuss the experience of a new parent in Germany, what support the government gives you and that sort of thing.
For now, I require sleep.
It is a pretty well known fact that the US is the global leader in arms sales. Some will also have heard that Russia is second. But in fact, if you put together all the European Union numbers, in terms of total arms sales in the last 10 years, they come very close to tying the US. Somehow its not a very publicized fact, Europe sells almost as many weapons as the US.
And who gets those weapons? Which countries in the world? Better yet, which groups in the world? Places where there is civil war? Dictatorships? Or civil wars yet to come? I think of all those child soldiers in the world and wonder where their gun came from? USA? France? Probably both.
Global warming gets a fair amount of play in the media these days. There is even some, though surely not enough, mobilization to do something about it. Yet all over the developed world in all these lovely places with people that are so highly educated and experienced, people are engaging in the arms trade. Making money selling weapons for people to kill each other with. Trading stocks and benefiting while people arm themselves and carry out mass murders in the name of the latest cause or call-to-arms. Even in the US now, the favored presidential candidate Hillary CLinton has become the number one choice of weapons manufacturers… and yet people believe she will bring change and restore some sort of self respect for the nation.
With each passing year that arms dealers post record profits, more people die needlessly in the name of business and strategic defense. If that isn’t a threat to our world, I don’t know what is.
Beautiful night here in Amsterdam that I managed to get out and enjoy, spending some time with a new friend and catching jazz at ye old bimhuis. As I set out on my bike in the direction of centrum, On Point (one of my favorite podcasts) was on, doing an episode on a topic I often come back to that is highly under-reported, the toxicity of regular things all around us. Plastics, personal care products, even the finish they use on your ikea desk… once you start digging below the surface you’ll find that we’ve been lied to and in many ways slowly poisoned for decades.
Most importantly today I recommend you listen to this episode, especially to the first guest that talks about the inequality between the standards and testing of consumer products in the European Union versus those same products in the US. The fact is the EU has higher standards, to the point that many items that appear on the shelves in the US are not allowed to be sold here due to their links to all sorts of health problems.
I don’t mention this to gloat or even praise the work of EU officials, to me they are doing what should be the standard job and should probably be even more strict as more and more items are manufactured in places where standards are almost non-existant. It should be unacceptable what is going on with things like children’s toys and makeup in the US.. the entire FDA should be investigated, fire whomever is corrupt and unwilling to do their job, and get people in there who can enforce some real standards comparable if not MORE STRICT than the EU.
With all the useless garbage discussed at the so-called presidential debates in the US, how often has this issue come up? It should be right there in the top ten list of issues to grill candidates about and if they have no plans to improve things, boot them out of the running right now.
Lastly here is an excellent website for anyone concerned about consumer products, including my personal pet-peave: children’s toys. It is an excellent resource, bookmark it; use it. Don’t sit back and accept the poison they’re trying to sell you just because it looks nice or the price is right!