Why Inlaws should not exchange Christmas presents

What to get for the in-law you don't know very well? You know, the one who married the Sister Who Didn't Quite Fit In. How about some Serendipity World Famous Frrrozen HOT Chocolate?

The gift has been sitting in the corner of my kitchen for six months, while the in-law mulls over the implications of despoiling the meticulous, pink ribbon wrapped packaging.

Enough. It's in the way. I'm going to open it and sample the frrrozen hot chocolate inside.

Equipment needed: scissors, small knife, nail file (to repair broken nail). There is quite a bit of packaging as you can see here. No matter, the fine print says that this package makes exactly two (2) mugs of either hot or frozen chocolate. I'm wondering how the contents of two 1-cup size cannisters of chocolate powder could produce so little chocolate.

Oh, I see:










Please note that this exotic presentation of two 6-ounce servings of chocolate came all the way from China. Which, in the light of recent news about food from China, gave us pause.

We decided to take the risk, and split the first serving, choosing the hot chocolate recipe. Next month when our coastal town actually warms up, maybe we'll try the frozen version (add ice and blend).

Here is the full complement of packaging:















Now, there is actually more than just chocolate in this kit. There are two tiny-mouth glass bottles filled with Garnishes: freeze dried marshmallow bits in one and cinnamon sugar in the other. We tried some of the marshmallows--the five or six pieces that were small enough to coax through the narrow bottleneck. Their texture depends on how long you wait after putting them in the chocolate: styrofoam, gummy bears, or puddles of marshmallow flavoring.

The cannisters are nice, the sort of thing you hold on to because you know you are going to find a perfect use it, along with the other little baskets, boxes, vials, tubes and cunning little bags patiently waiting in your drawers and closets for the magic moment.

The pink ribbon, when ironed, will do for a wedding or baby present. The plastic, being the non-recyclable kind, will find its way to one of our local middens to await future archaeological exploration, or will perhaps wind up in the sea, as much of our garbage eventually does, for the entertainment of marine life.

I generously let Steve have most of the chocolate--after all, it's HIS Christmas present. I lean back and think about that plastic box and all its parts, plus 4 ounces of chocolate powder and the petrified marshmallows being loaded into a container full of identical boxes and shipped all the way from Shanghai. What better way to celebrate the last hours of ancient sunlight?

There's a remote possibility that a certain person might read this post and be offended. To that person I say, your gift has provided us with hours of thought-provoking entertainment.

Their worst dreams come true....

The nightmare scenario: The illegal immigrant problem becomes so bad that the government closes the borders to keep out the flood of people seeking a better life. But despite military enforcement, the illegals keep coming. Emboldened, they organize armies and fight against the military. After a protracted struggle, the illegals actually wrest a large border area away from the government.

Thus was the state of Texas born, and the Mexicans sent packing from their own territory.

More later.

The daily gripe

We hear it every day. We read it in the letters to the editors. If it weren't for the soldiers who defended our country (and by extension, they imply, our right of free speech) we wouldn't be able to criticize the war. So we should just shut up.

I beg to differ. No soldier has defended our country since World War II.

Was there ever a chance that tiny Korea would launch a successful attack on the U.S.? How was our country threatened by the little third-world nation of Vietnam? Was Panama a threat? How about Grenada? I don't think the folks in Kosovo were coming to get us. Afghanistan? Laughable, though there were some people IN Afghanistan who were a threat to us. Too bad we didn't go after THEM.

Even I knew that there were no nukes in Iraq. But suppose there were? What would Saddam gain by attacking us with those nukes, even if he had missiles capable of reaching us?

Iran? The people who rule Iran want to keep on ruling Iran, not be obliterated by the certain response from the U.S. and Israel if they dared to unleash their hypothetical nukes on anyone.

While there are plenty of individuals who might give their lives to destroy the U.S., no sovereign nation on earth is anywhere near that foolish.

Meanwhile, most nations have learned from our adventures that we only attack countries that don't have nukes. (Yes, Virginia, our government knew there were no nukes in Iraq.) So the choice for them is to either pretend they have nukes when they don't (Saddam, even though he couldn't disguise his lack of nukes from the IAEA), or do their best to get the nukes before we attack them (Iran and North Korea). Can you blame them? After all, this is what the U.S. Soviet arms race was about--deterrence, not a desire to out-bomb the other country.

Does this mean I hate soldiers or think they're not honorable people? Not at all. Soldiers sign up for the military for the most honorable of reasons: they want to protect our country.

But they are lied to from day one. Their honor is betrayed by the governments who send them to battle on the false pretext that they are "defending our freedoms." The soldiers are not there to protect our rights or sovereignty or democracy or freedom or apple pie.

We have seen that all wars of the last 60 years have been about nothing more than stuffing the pockets of war profiteers.

Our young people are our national treasure. Imagine their bitterness when they finally realize they've been duped. Aside from the terrible mental damage war inflicts on them, they will have to live with this betrayal all their lives. When will we stop throwing their future away so heartlessly?

And by the way, it's NOT socialized medicine

Take It From A Patient: Canada's System Works


Published on Monday, November 10, 2003 by CommonDreams.org

by Sandy Smith Madsen

"It is unconscionable that we ration health care by the ability to pay.... your heart breaks. Health care should be a given."
-- Kathryn Anastos, U.S. physician

Although I was born and raised in Tennessee, I was served well by Canada¹s universal health-care system during the 13 years that I lived in Canada. As a legal resident, I was entitled to the same high level of health-care benefits enjoyed by all Canadian citizens. I was free to go to any doctor, anywhere, anytime.

Three of my children were born in Canada. The bill for the birth of my youngest Canadian-born daughter was $3.00. This bill covered excellent prenatal care, delivery, and a private hospital room. It included visits to my home by a nurse and by my doctor, visits that were made as follow-up care after a normal, healthy delivery. While home visits by doctors are not standard procedure, in a country that views health care as a public service, it can happen.

There are now 43.6 million Americans without health insurance and another 40 million who are under-insured. U.S. employers are cutting back on health benefits, claiming they can¹t compete as long as the U.S. is the only major industrialized nation that expects employers to provide health insurance.

And the cost of insurance premiums continues to rise. Just imagine the consequences if a disease such as SARS should strike at some of our uninsured neighbors who are in the habit of taking two aspirins and waiting it out rather than seeking expensive medical care.

Little wonder that Americans are increasingly looking to Canada¹s single-payer system, and looking with envy. Yet opponents of the single-payer system recite a litany of horror stories. They charge that Canadians are "suffering and dying" while waiting for medical care. They claim that the Canadian system is a "disaster," and that it is "socialized medicine." Oddly enough, I knew nothing about these dire circumstances until after I returned to the U.S.

Canada does not have "socialized medicine." The Canadian government does not decide who gets care or when they get it; doctors and patients decide. Doctors are accountable to patients, not to the government. Most doctors are self-employed; they submit claims for payment to their provincial insurance plan. They are highly paid professionals who have considerable influence in determining their fees.

Want to see a doctor in Canada? Simply show up with your health-care card. Many Americans already know this, as they have been caught helping themselves to Canadian health care by means of counterfeit health-care cards.

Canadians are never denied care, or forced to wait for care, for lack of funds or because of a pre-existing condition. Patients requiring urgent care or primary care are never put on waiting lists. While it is sometimes necessary to wait for elective surgeries, or specialist care, if the delay is such that the patient¹s health will be harmed, all expenses are paid for the patient to access care in another location.

The United States spends almost twice the amount per person as Canada spends on health care, yet Canadians enjoy a lower infant mortality rate and a higher life expectancy. Studies in both the U.S. and Canada have found that survival rates are higher in Canada for most types of cancer.

Since Canadian health care follows you from the cradle to the nursing home, the loss of a job is not the disaster it is in the U.S. Unemployed you may be, but if you are unemployed in Canada, you still have your health care. While Canadians receive quality health care in return for their tax dollars, in the U.S we pay only slightly lower taxes and soaring health insurance premiums. With the loss of a job, all our paid premiums go up in smoke. In Canada, a major health problem does not lead to financial ruin.

Doctors seldom know if they are serving the rich or the poor. Perhaps that's why I found so many doctors who were genuinely responsive to my needs, rather than to my wallet.

The way my Canadian friends tell it, there are more Canadians who believe that Elvis lives than there are Canadians who want the U.S. health-care system.

Sandy Smith Madsen, of Nashville, is a doctoral student at Emory University and a member of the Tennessee Alliance for Progress media committee. Email: sandymadsen@earthlink.net

The next time you pick up a plastic bottle of water....

Ask yourself where it came from.

AlterNet: Rural Communities Exploited by Nestle for Your Bottled Water: "Bottled water costs way more than the few bucks you pay at the store. Across the U.S., rural communities are footing the bill for the booming bottled water industry. Nestle's advance on a small town in California is the latest example."

And where it's going...


Detail from a depiction of the two million plastic bottles used in the U.S. every five minutes. (Chris Jordan)