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New Years Resolve, Binge or Be

copyright © 2009 Betsy L. Angert.  BeThink.org Another year has come and gone.  Everywhere she goes she hears people speak of New Years resolutions.  They all say this time will be different.  I will decide to do as I had not done previously or at least had not done well.  Countless commit to a life of calorie counting.  Others merely muse that they will exercise more.  Drugs, drinking, there are also discussions of these concerns.  People are confident.  This year I will deliver myself from what I think evil.  A few philosophize as to their personal career path.  Change is the objective.  A greater goal is thought to be golden.  As Author Mary Anne Radmacher reflected and now millions whisper as their mantra, "Live with intention . . .  Choose with no regret. . . . Do what you love. Live as if this is all there is."  Therein lies the problem.

Consumer Confidence Rises; Democracy Declines

March 21, 2007: Benjamin Barber explains why consumer culture is bad for humanity copyright © 2009 Betsy L. Angert. BeThink.org Great News!  The good life will soon return to America.  Auspiciously, months before the holiday shopping season began, Americans were told that after more than a year of fiscal recession, or what some have characterized as akin to an economic depression, consumers were optimistic.  The confidence  index and other indicators were much improved.  Manufacturing executives assured the public, the engine that drives the free enterprise system was in a "sustainable recovery mode." In the very near future, products, and people's sense of need, would be fabricated again. Everything will be right with the world, economically.  Few feared the threat that, long ago, Americans had come to accept.   The foundation of a democratic system had eroded in favor of consumption.

Calories Do Not Count. Cellular Considerations Do ©

• Written in Response to those at Daily Kos that thought the earlier post might be lost in the mania of Monday Morning.

Dear reader, you may have read one of my earlier exposés on health, habits, feelings, and fats, “WEIGHT. BALANCING FAT WITH FEELINGS, HABITS WITH HEALTH ©”. Perhaps you saw my missive on soda, “CHILDHOOD OBESITY. ADULT ON-SET DIABETES. OSTEOPOROSIS. SODA ©”. In that piece, I discussed the deleterious effects of simple sugars, caffeine, and carbonation. In many discussions, I spoke of eating and weight. I offered that body image was not the cause of many poor eating programs. These treatises might have caught your attention or not. Nevertheless, in a world where people are obsessed with topics such as these, I offer some more thoughts on the subject.

People ponder, “How many calories might I eat or burn? Will exercise bring me bliss? What is my heart rate, my blood pressure, and how are my Triglycerides? What is my HDL, [High Density lipoproteins] or LDL [Low-density lipoproteins]? Is my glucose level good?” BMI [Body Mass Index] is an important concern, or is it. I contend our weight may not be the issue. Calories are not the contribution that counts, cellular considerations do.

The USA In Our Chevrolet Looks Bad. Ford Did Not Have A Better Idea ©

For years, we have heard General Motor’s executives complain of costs. They say the cost of doing business in America is too high. According to corporate administrators, American laborers insist that employers cover health care expenses. Companies must honor pensions awarded in the past, and then there are those wages, oh, those wages. The management has cried out; they cannot continue do business under these circumstances and still make a profit. General Motor’s bosses plead for understanding and ask their workers to sacrifice their wages and benefits. Even when the laborers comply, it is never enough.

Chief executives at General Motors, and in other American companies, ultimately take control. They cut and cut; overhead must go. Production and producers be damned, the bottom line lies with the shareholders. To boost the numbers corporations have reduced the workforce. They have decreased the dollars paid out for health care. They have eliminated many sick days and are unwilling to provide benefits for families. Now, they are “Offering [a] Buyout Deal to More Than 125,000 Workers.” Though not all news reports mention this, if the employees accept the deal they must forego once expected health benefits.

The New York Times article, G.M. to Offer Buyout Deal to More Than 125,000 Workers, seems to paint a rosier scenario than some other media sources. They quote Robert Betts, president of the U.A.W. local at the Delphi plant in Coopersville, Michichan, as saying “the offers were attractive.” Mr. Betts claims, "If someone is going to give you $35,000 to take your pension, that's good," He continued. "I think a whole lot of people are going to hit the road over this."

“Wonderful” said stockholders; shares of G.M. rose shortly after the news was released. Is the action good; or is it only one more blunder in a longstanding series of shortsighted solutions?