The day has arrived for New Year’s Resolutions. But given the past experience that our best-laid resolutions will fade away before they even get off the ground, we often dismiss new year’s goal making as irrelevant and useless. Still. Experts say that we tend to do better with our resolutions than we give ourselves credit for, and that with a few tweaks our resolutions can become part of a valuable annual self-inventory that can have a major payoff.

“Many institutions do an end-of-the-year strategic analysis, where they take stock before going forward into the new year,” says Temple University psychologist, Frank Farley, a past president of the American Psychological Association. Likewise, this is a perfect time for us as individuals to take a “personal assessment” of ourselves and decide how things have gone in the past year by asking, How’s my relationships going? How’s my work life going? How’s my health?” he says, In this culture, we “pretty much accept that a fresh start will occur in the new year and that we can put the old behind us.” Easy for him to say. I’m not so sure we can all let go so easily.

The new year represents a tremendous opportunity for self-improvement, agrees psychology professor John Norcross of the University of Scranton. According to research by Norcross and colleagues, 75% of resolution makers will be successful in mid-January, 50% will still be sticking to it by the end of the month and 40%-45% can claim success six months out. “If you look at it as the glass being half full, that nearly 50% are making their resolutions stick for at least six months is impressive,” says Norcross, whose research examines self-change in general and new year’s resolutions in particular. And it’s even more striking, given that the typical new year’s resolutions deal with smoking, exercise, finances and similar “life-sustaining issues,”

So, now set realistic goals. In January track your progress by charting your changed behavior. February and beyond cultivate social support, get friends who can help you with your goals. The only thing we can be sure of is that time will pass and we all hope that we can survive the stress that comes with life. Our short fixes of instant gratification like smoking, eating indulgences, booze and excessive spending on things we really don’t need ruin us. We wouldn’t need a new year’s resolution if we would just look in the mirror a little longer and love yourself and care for you. Look at your reflection, it can’t be that bad, you drag it around wherever you go. Cheers!

Commercial sponsors have gone wild. I spoke of the possibility of corporate sponsors taking over our school systems. Professional sports arenas are named after a product or service and our college teams have sponsors driving them crazy. The University of Oregon and Nike have partnered since 1996 on athletic apparel and continue to push the envelope with football uniforms. This team has worn a different combination for each game. The sports information director Dave Williford said the last time they wore the same outfit in back-to-back games was not certain, but it was probably 2003.

There are currently 12 uniforms of Oregon football and they are planning a new one for the new year. Nike! Give it a break! What if the sponsor was Vera Wang? Would these guys be wearing a different wedding gown for each game too? Why Not ! We love corporate profits and useless advertising. Even our elected politicians are bought by lobbyist that pay for their campaigns. (That’s a different days rant. Back to football) Luckily this is a great team and stand 12-0 heading into the Bowl Championship Series title game January 10^th against Auburn in Glendale, Arizona.

According to Williford, Oregon has 4 helmets, 5 jerseys, 4 pairs of pants, 4 sets of socks and 4 pairs of shoes in various colors including neon. That creates a possible 1,280 combinations. That does not include a throwback ensemble or the BCS title-game outfit, considered single entities. Before this mess, the school had one outfit from 1890-1925 and then they only changed the color. Now the coach and team captains can choose whatever combination they want including neon socks and Nike Zoom Alpha Talon cleats for the title game. I can’t buy all this gear for my kid and why should the kids be exposed to all this fanfare. Play ball that’s all!!!
Nike’s contract with this team, released to their local newspaper The (Portland)Oregonian after an open-records request, showed that the athletic department received a CASH payment from Nike of $500,000 in 2008-09. Nike also provided Oregon teams with $1.95 million worth of gear that year as well as much as $150,000 in extra gear as requested by athletic department officials. Come on now !!! There are bare assed kids in Africa. Get Real!! A new agreement extends the partnership to 2018 with increases in each category: $250,000 in cash, $550,000 in team gear and $50,000 in extra gear. Kaching!!!$$$$$$ So, keep buying those Nike sneakers you got to have; it pays for neon socks on your favorite teams.

Every sports complex’s name has already been changed to some store’s name. They all used to be named after a prominent person. Not any more; but let’s not stop there, let’s name everything after some corporate sponsor. Even our schools. Well, this is not some sarcastic joke. Throw out schools named after our founding fathers like George Washington or Andrew Jackson. Who the hell are they anyway, our kids are more familiar with Nike or Coke or Burger King

Los Angeles schools are facing budget cuts and decided to come up with the great idea to seek corporate sponsors. Yes, let capitalism take over our sources of education. The football fields at local public schools in the second largest school district in the country soon may be brought to students by Nike. Facing huge budget cuts, the Los Angeles school board unanimously approved a plan to allow the district to seek corporate sponsorships as a way to get money to the schools. Does that mean our first grader will look like a Nascar driver covered from head to toe in advertising?

The district is not the first to look for private dollars as a way to close public budget gaps. Districts in Sheboygan, Wisconson and Midland, Texas have offered naming rights for their stadiums for years. I’m sure my son’s high school football team wants to wear the Pampers logo. The Los Angeles school district is the largest to offer and if accepted, the plan could generate as much as $18 million for the schools. Ok, maybe he won’t mind if they get all new equipment. We all sell out our ethics for money. It’s the american way!!

This is typical of all governing entities to seek other sources for revenue rather than clean up their books and try to cut spending. All who voted found this notion to be disconcerting and at least distasteful but nevertheless went ahead with the plan, after all, it’s easier. Rename the Academic Decathlon the Viagra Classics or rename the Drill Team Championships the Vagasil Tour. Yes!! Let Corporate America Prevail!!!

The districts have some limitations, thank God! No alcohol, tobacco or firearms can be promoted. No companies that promote high-calorie or high-fat foods will get play, either. Josh Golin, the associate director for the campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood, said,” They really have an unrealistic idea of the amount of money they can raise with the kind of restrictions they are talking about.” Yes, most corporate sponsors promote products that are not healthy.

Talk about heroic deeds. We can all be a hero or at least do something in our lives that we know will end up doing something good for someone. Yes, we can write a check to a charity but who knows how that money will be spent? Look at the earthquake money pledged for Haiti? 59 million dollars is still unaccounted for. There is a few options, try the National Marrow Donor Program.

If you decide to donate blood stem cells, this program will protect the confidentiality of its anonymous donors for at least one year after a transplant. They can make contact only if both parties consent. There is a guy, Matt Hoffman , a senior defensive end at Rowan University in Glassboro, N.J. He skipped a game to donate stem cells after he was found to be a match for a man he didn’t know. It has been a year passed and Warren Sallach, a road maintenance worker from Brenham, Texas called the young football senior to tell him that he saved a life. His life.

Hoffman gave up the final football game of his junior season to undergo the donation procedure in Philadelphia. They will meet for the first time in Salem, Va., at the presentation of the Gagliardi Trophy, Division III’s equivalent to the Heisman. Hoffman is one of the four finalists. The Rowan footbal team led an on-campus drive to enroll students in the Be The Match registry for the doner program, and Hoffman was one of the 371 people who signed up.

When lymph nodes in your neck, underarm and groin become swollen and the antibiotics don’t work and you realize after many rounds of chemotherapy isn’t helping; there is a college kid who is willing to receive shots for five consecutive days before the transplant to raise his own blood stem cell count; who needs to sit out his final game because if he returned to football too quickly; he too would be in serious risk. Everyone is at serious risk at this point.

Nevertheless, the transplant was successful, Sallach’s most recent tests show no sign of lymphoma and Hoffman went back to football and this season had 65 tackles, 8 sacks, and 3 forced fumbles, leading the team to a 9-1 record. He was named the New Jersey Athletic Conference defensive player of the year. Move over Snookie and The Situation, this kind of stuff Jersey should be know for not those characters.

The airports are a mess. I still envision those days of my childhood of the statuesque stewardesses and handsome confident pilots and the service given to each and every customer from the staff at Pan Am and Trans World Airlines. If there was a delay, no problem you would be given a meal voucher at a local restaurant or even a free hotel night. If we were held up on the plane, no problem, free blankets and pillows and extra snacks and drinks even a tour of the cock-pit and for your trouble you got to wear your own personal shiny wings. A pin you kept forever. AAH!! Memories! Now to the present.

Now our spoiled needs are fulfilled with Airport Apps that thankfully put you first in those long lines thanks to terrorism and weather delays everywhere. With all the hassles of air travel, the Air Transport Association expects holiday travel to increase by 3% with 43 million passengers going places. While the usual groundwork like showing up early with boarding passes in hand and packing as lightly as possible still applies, an array of travel applications for your new smartphone can help you tackle just about any problem that might arise at or on your way to the airport. So before you leave home this year, take a moment to download a few of these aps to help you navigate the holiday crush.

For traffic and parking, Google Maps are (Free). I like to avoid traffic jams. It gives you color-coded lines that correspond to the intensity of traffic and road conditions. For parking, Smartpark for JFK Airport in New York ( Free). You can search for and reserve a parking spot. I hate circling for parking loosing precious moments and possibly missing my flight. Go to m.smartparkjfk.com from your mobile browser to place a reservation. There are also various 99cent aps with names like Find My Car and Car Finder that can help you remember where you parked that car (Free).

For flight information there is Flight tracker ($4.99) will track your flight or Flight caster ($1.99) will track your domestic flight or Next Flight ($2.99) will help you beat the crowd to a seat on the next flight out when yours is cancelled. Plug your origin, destination and departure date into this iPhone app for a list of available nonstop flights for the current and following day. You can drill down to the flight details for terminal and gate information. So you don’t have to elbow your way to a monitor at the airport amid the chaos. Airport info personnel? Travel agents? They all died!!!

For airport navigation a must for the family is Gate guru (Free) helps you find your way inside the airports. You’ll know if there is a Starbucks after security or exactly where the bookstore is during your delay and where is the nearest bar to your gate. User ratings and photos can help avoid unappealing restaurants.

For airport checkpoints, try MYTSA (Free) to find out which checkpoints are backed up or if you can bring that snow globe through security (the answer is NO).

For last minute hotels when they really screw you, try ORBIZ (Free) when you have to book an airport hotel or rental car this helps to shop for and book last minute, same-day reservations right from the phone. And most important OLD MACDONALD ($1.99) to keep your toddler occupied. Doodle Kids (Free) to play with animals or draw.

Now that I spent most of my time on my phone or in airports. I think I’ll throw the phone out and stay home, snuggle under the covers and enjoy my family. That’s a good vacation.

The church services are over all the holiday presents have been opened; the kids are out of school until the beginning of next year. It’s time for a winter vacation and if you still have lots of holiday spirit in you, the most interesting displays are in a Hong Kong Christmas with giant Santas and lots of purple glitter, the city is giving mainland Chinese a taste of over-the-top yuletide décor. So, buy your tickets and book a flight to Hong Kong. You will not be disappointed.

Once you have arrived visit the 20 foot tall replica of Barcelona’s La Sagrada Familia cathedral at the Elements mall in West Kowloon or wander among the 100 Nordman fir Christmas trees shipped in and placed in the Pacific Place mall in the Central district. Then see the two-story rotating wooden head at the Times Square mall in the shopping mecca of Causeway Bay. There is also the moving three-tiered cake decorated with purple glitter at the Harbor City Mall. All giant displays of a magical place. Pose in front of the 40-foot tall Christmas tree made up of oversized plastic champagne flutes to a large crystal teardrop, with the Hong Kong skyline in the background.

China doesn’t traditionally celebrate Christmas. Chinese New Year, which occurs in late January or early February(depending on the lunar calendar), is the traditional family holiday. But many Chinese are becoming better acquainted with Christmas by way of Hong Kong, a former British colony where the holiday is more openly celebrated- and a new hot tourist destination for a generation of richer Chinese travelers. Thanks to the absence of sales taxes, prices of luxury items can be 30% lower than in China. In the past 5 years, 17 malls measuring over 100,000 square feet each have opened.

There is the display of the two-story-high puppets of Santa and his rocking horse. The New Town Plaza hosts nightly laser shows. In the western part of the world, people go home to be with family but in Hong Kong, people go out and spend money on lavish holiday displays and spend money. Have a Happy.

It is the season of love, to cherish those around you, keep in touch with those you remember who made you feel good. So, we buy gifts, share a card, eat a meal with or send flowers or gift baskets full of food or other indulgences just to be different and to depart from our usual daily grind. Yes we call it the Holidays. Basically, we celebrate life, each other and the sanity of civilization; the respect for our fellow man.

Not in Kosovo. A human-rights investigator for the Council of Europe is calling for an international probe into allegations that former Kosovo guerrilla fighters killed some prisoners in order to sell their internal organs on the black market as chaos engulfed the southern Balkans in 1999. There is evidence that Kosovo Liberation Army members held captives at detention centers in Albania and selected groups for execution so that their kidneys could be sold. The current government denies the allegations.

The investigator, Dick Marty, a Swiss prosecutor, also investigated the existence of secret prisons in Europe run by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency. He also alleges that the current Prime Minister Hashim Thaci of Kosovo has links to organized crime. Renewed international attention to the organ-trafficking allegations could damage Kosovo’s image among international countries. Could such disregard for human life really exist in this stage of the civilized world? Yes, capitalism is at work. Money is to be made for anything.

We are not discussing cannibalism in a jungle or Biblical human sacrifices for religious rituals, not that those practices should have been acceptable; we are discussing that in this century we are selling human parts for profit.!!! There is no reason for such despicable behavior other than to accumulate as much money as we possibly could in any way. This almost makes Mr. Madof who stole millions for his own profit look kind.

It’s Christmas and everyone in town is feverishly speeding around cutting people off and rushing into their favorite stores to buy their favorite foods or last minute gifts. If you are lucky enough to be invited to visit someone, or the courage to invite people into your private space, your home, whatever holiday you celebrate could be a very good thing. Or, you can be alone brooding about the sadness and poverty you and much of the world is experiencing.

The churches or various places of worship weather it is a large cathedral or a small storefront on a busy street, all the “clergy” are happily scheduling as many hours of worship services that pass the monetary collection baskets as possible. These hosts are eagerly awaiting all those guilty souls to visit with their $100 bills with tears in their eyes because they miss someone who has died this past year or they simply feel guilty for not going to their place of worship each and every week. After all, these places need a steady flow of people, I mean cash each week.

Just sit back and look at what the human race has become. The retailers are happy because under the guise of the fictitious jolly guy in the red suit, we stop everyday life and purchase things we hope you want and spend billions trying to please. We empty our wallets under the guise of a poor magical baby being born 2000 years ago meanwhile the keepers of that myth are pedophiles, living in luxury and having closeted sexual fantasies far away from abstinence.

Religion is a very dangerous thing. We are currently suffering many human losses because of the fight over religious beliefs. Women are being tortured because of religious beliefs. We must regroup and go back to worshiping the basics that are universal to all living things here on earth in the present. Lets in part follow some of the teachings in Greek Mythology. Worship the sun God and the God of the sea and be grateful for the food and herbs and the animals that nourish us. Preserve these simple but precious nutrients so easily given to us. And preserve the natural drinking water and the fertile farm lands. Keep them free from greedy corporations that in the interest of profits pollute our seas, buy the rights to our drinking water and mutate our food all in the interest of filling their collection plate.

We got the tickets to the holiday shows, we’re preparing the food, now the presents and we’re all set for the holidays. I think I’ll go all American and buy iPhones for anyone that doesn’t have one already. After all, Steve Jobs is American and has done a great job for his company recently with all his new inventions taking off. The stock alone just about tripled in the last six months and that iPad is in every bag and briefcase. Lets help the economy and buy American. NOT!

Academic researchers estimate that Apple Inc.’s iPhone-one of the best-selling U.S. technology products-actually added $1.9 billion to the U.S. trade DEFICIT with China last year. How is this possible? The researchers say traditional ways of measuring global trade produce the number but fail to reflect complexities of global commerce where the design, manufacturing and assembly of products often involve several countries.

Trade statistics in both countries consider the iPhone a Chinese export to the U.S., even though it is entirely designed and owned by a U.S. company, and is made largely of parts produced in several Asian and European countries. China’s contribution is the last step-assembling and shipping the phones. So the entire $178.96 estimated wholesale cost of the shipped phone is credited to CHINA, even though the value of the work performed by the Chinese workers at Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. accounts for just 3.6%, or $6.50, of the total, the researchers calculated in a report published this month.

The result is that “even high-tech products invented by U.S. companies will not increase U.S. exports,” wrote Yuqing Xing and Neal Detert, two researchers at the Asian Development Bank Institute. This is an ongoing problem and a basis for political battles waging in Washington and Brussels over what to do about China’s currency policies and its allegedly unfair trading practices. The research also found that Chinese labor accounts for only a few dollars of the iPod’s value, even though trade statistics credited China with producing its full value. The moral of this story is that American inventors are F--ked and our economy is F--ked and we are all duped that we will ever buy American again. Oh the holidays get me going!!

It is the season to go to plays, musicals, theater and ballet. Yes, the season to see a performance of “The Nutcracker Suite” is a tradition from the halls of Lincoln Center in New York to the local ballet troupe. A time to reflect and see the gracefulness of a nimble woman tiptoeing about a great stage in a fine tutu high on her toes. An extremely fit young man lifting and hopping about her and lifting her effortlessly, gracefully miming a romance to endless music. Then there is an all male” Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo” troupe playing both roles in full tutu if necessary. Yes, this is becoming seasonal entertainment as well.

Believe it or not, this group of male ballet dancers have been around for 36 years. Thank God they admit and call themselves a comic ballet troupe. These guys don’t only get what’s nutty about ballet; they show you what’s wonderful. No, I’m not getting paid anything to say this. Modern dance isn’t safe from this group either sometimes they pose as avant-garde accompanists, performing on kazoos, aspirin bottles and spray cans, among other things. The rest of the music is recorded as the announcer states the musician's music has not arrived from Russia yet. (Ha Ha)

A crowd favorite is when one guy in full tutu takes a sip of water, maneuvers himself, I mean herself methodically and laboriously upside down to the microphone and gargles. Well, I guess you have to be there to see this kind of humor. The Trocks aren’t just about jokes. They unearth ballets practically no one else is doing. If they can’t compete with real women, they come close and poignantly well with the correct placement of their heads and shoulders. This group may show you how to laugh at ballet, but they also teach you to love it. I am proud that I am willing and able to step out of the mold and accept and try something different in my expectations of things. Yes, a all male comic ballet troupe might fit in that category.

Holiday time is food time for lots of people at one time. So millions of wide eyed people who learn that everyone is going to your house for the festivities immediately turn to the Food Channel or to the suggestions from the celebrity chefs. The whole idea of those holiday cooking shows is to inspire home cooks to try something daring. You don’t want to be compared to grandma’s casserole that only she can make with her distinctive choice of flavors.

These chefs love the attention and air Christmas specials. They even have a TV chef holiday cook off. For example for the main dish you have Paula Deen vs. Ina Garten. These two hefty women represent the all American basic cook, but each rub me the wrong way anytime I see their shows. Paula at a quick glance reminds me of Barbara Bush until she opens her mouth to talk that never shuts up with her monotone southern drawl. She loves her greasy fried chicken and loves to roll her hands with large diamond rings on rolling around in a large tub of butter or flower coating those rings and expecting me to eat that stuff after you think she was rubbing hand lotion all over her body. Sorry, about my rant but I can’t contain myself anymore. Well, she wants me to make a “Christmas Ham” big deal, I could have thought about that without her “expert” advice. My son is a certified chef and he wouldn’t go near food with a ring on or without a clean cotton coat or apron on. Ina is a chubby soft spoken woman who seems to emerge out of her backyard garden with every herb imaginable and will stuff and cook a duck and serve it to her husband and friends all in a half hour. Oh! If we could only do that too.

Then there are the younger hotties like Giada De Laurentiis vs. Rachael Ray. These two should not be even considered in the same race. Rachael is a Oprah baby who never went to any chef school who spends an hour instructing you everyday how to make a sandwich with easy ingredients found in a supermarket; yeah go to the deli and tell them what you want. But that Giada is perfection in every way If you can pronounce her name. It doesn’t matter she speaks perfect English for an Italian chef and she is a great dish to look at. You must see her show especially the part when with an open mouth she takes a bite of whatever and the slow jazz music kicks in and she moans and groans with ecstasy from the mouth watering flavors and I think I’m in a porno and then the show is over. Sorry, but she is great to look at. Well, Rachael has a Christmas pasta dish but Giada has Penne with shrimp. See what I mean. I love when she sucks on the shrimp. Sorry again.

There are the two guys too. Mario Batali vs. Bobby Flay. They’re guys. Who cares. Bobby has a simple spicy shrimp dip cause he’s a simple guy and Mario Batali who loves to eat; you can tell by looking at him, has a much classier Shrimp Marsala. Well that’s because he wears chef cloths and has restaurants all over the world. Ultimately, It doesn’t matter what you eat, everyone is there to see each one again, to share gifts and to tell you how great it tastes or even better, “remember the time you served us that awful crap, we’ll never forget that Christmas.” Yes, we should always remember the holidays with our friends and family.” The most important thing to buy is a large bottle of Pepto Bismol. Ahh that pink goop taste.

As the holiday-shopping season is in full force, there is one thing most consumers won’t be leaving home without: an overdraft cushion. After all, Macy’s and other stores plan to be open soon for a continuous shift of 80 hours straight to sell as much junk they possibly can before the December 25^th deadline. Rather than face the embarrassment of being declined a purchase, 75% of consumers are opting to pay a fee- sometimes as much as $34- each time they overdraw on their debit-card account according to Moebs Services Inc. The only savings power I can think of, is to buy as much crap you possibly can at once and be charged the overdraft once. Each time you go to a different register you will be slapped with the fee again. We all know you don’t have any money for the junk I mean precious gifts. Lets not be embarrassed on line with a decline. That’s most important in society, not our ability to pay for what we take. Sounds a lot like credit cards.

Previously, that fee would be automatically charged without a customer’s explicit consent. If consumers don’t opt for the overdraft, the bank will now decline the purchase. The large acceptance of overdraft fees comes as a surprise to some, as many analysts and banks expected consumers to balk at the prospect of more fees. However, the truth of the matter is that 60% of consumers have signed on and experts except the numbers to rise in the near future. Yes, we want more options but are we that willing to do it at such a price of putting us deeper in debt. What good is the sale at Macy’s if we are going to pay possibly more than the regular price for some junk after the overdraft fee is applied at the register?

Consumer advocates have questioned even allowing the choice, saying it opens the door for the banks to profit from people struggling paycheck to paycheck. “What concerns us about it is that so often the very people who should least be opting in for overdraft protection are those who do.” said Gail Cunningham, a spokeswoman for the National Foundation for Credit Counseling.” Smaller banks charge overdraft fees of $25 on average, versus $34 for large banks.

Eventually we will all realize that all the junk we bought wasn’t worth it when you take in account all the overdraft fees we accumulated. However, being able to buy whatever you want without being denied by anyone is priceless. Burn that card. We’re all poor anyway. If the Federal Government can just make that tab go higher everyday, then why can’t we do it too. We’re Americans after all.

　

Lets talk bonuses. More than 70 percent of Americans say big bonuses should be banned this year at Wall Street firms that took tax-payer bailouts, a Bloomberg National Poll shows. I wonder if that 70 percent were eligible foe bonuses would vote against it. I doubt it. This life is all about money and the pursuit of it is the American dream.

An additional poll stated that one in six favors slapping a 50 percent tax on bonuses exceeding $400,000. Only 7 percent of U.S. adults say bonuses are an appropriate incentive reflecting Wall Street’s return to financial health. I agree. We need to get some from the fat cats who manipulate the market with their hefty hedge funds and sophisticated large share marketing tools to reap great profits for them leaving the average small investor for scrap shares left after the large swings in a stock reap big profits for them. The average small investor does not have privy to investing profits.

A large majority also want to tax Wall Street profits to reduce the federal budget deficit. With U.S. unemployment at 9.8 percent, resentment of bonuses and banking profits unites Americans across political, gender, age and income groups. JPMorgan Chase & Co. Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon got a bonus package for 2009 valued at $17 million. That’s a bonus for one guy. We have officially enterd the middle ages when the rich were in the castles and the very poor lurked in poverty around the massive structures.

The American people bailed these large firms out and immediately they paid their employees very large bonuses. I blame this atrocity on the current administration for not at least creating a congressional committee to oversee the distribution of our bail out money. Cash bonuses to securities industry employees in New York City grew 17 percent to $20.3 billion, for work in 2009. U.S. Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va., this year proposed a 50 percent tax on bonuses of more than $400,000, though it failed to win backing from Congress or the Obama administration. Screw you taxpayers the fat cats in Congress and our savior Obama just turned their backs on you . Happy New Year. Not.

Mexico, the birthplace of corn, is edging toward the use of genetically modified varieties to lower its dependence on imports, but strong opposition among some growers and environmentalists, who see altered corn as a threat to native strains, has kept the wheels turning slowly. Yes, we now have crops that have genes that have been manipulated to give them pest resistance or other desirable traits. Sort of a make over or plastic surgery for our food where the best of that original food used to grow.

People are going crazy over this new way to have corn in Mexico. The natives are very superstitious. “We are the children of corn. It’s our life, and we need to protect it,” said Jose Velasaco, a corn producer in the southern Mexican state of Chiapas, where he grows two native varieties. According to Mayan legend, the gods created humans from corn. The plant is still used in some religious rituals. This controversy with all its religious karma belongs in a Spielberg movie staring Nicholas Cage with the wrath of God coming out of a corn field parting the stalks and bringing a flood. Oh that is something like another movie.

Protests have been staged across Mexico, and a coalition of 300 groups has led a campaign called “Sin maiz no hay pais,” or “Without corn there is no country.” Did the scientists have to put this test tube stuff in Mexico and get those people so mad? They don’t have much. Don’t mess with their worshiped corn!!

Opening the doors to genetically modified corn, its opponents fear, would contaminate native varieties, such as the red Xocoyol or the black Yautsi, increase dependence on foreign companies and possibly harm the nation’s environment and health. Supporters of the modified seeds say they would help Mexico win agricultural independence from the U.S., from which it imports as much as nine million tons of yellow corn annually for livestock feed, most of it genetically modified. No wonder Harry the horse has been trotting faster lately.

Some opponents also worry that the altered corn will hurt the environment. In some parts of the U.S., pests have evolved resistance to pest-resistant corn, leading to an increase in the use of pesticides, rather than the intended decrease. God help us all. What have we gotten us into now.!!!

Recently we have entered a new frontier full force commercially. Yes, for the first time, a commercial spacecraft returned to Earth from orbit successfully in record time. The flight, by the Space Exploration, Technologies Corp. or Space X went flawlessly from the launching of its Falcon 9 rocket ,with a Dragon capsule riding on top, from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida to splashdown of the Dragon in the Pacific Ocean 3 hours , 19 minutes and 52 seconds later.

The mission was the first demonstration for NASA of a spacecraft designed to ferry cargo and perhaps eventually astronauts to the International Space Station. Yeah! Forget earth, send some champagne and chocolates to my space cabana in about 3-4 hours.

Space X has a contract worth $1.6 billion for 12 flights to take cargo and supplies to the space station. With the imminent cancellation of NASA’s Ares I rocket that was to take astronauts there, the space agency will be hiring private companies to provide astronaut transportation as well. Now that we allow private corporations to enter space, how long do you think before greed, corruption and trash being orbited will take place. Space was safe we assumed as long as the government regulated its traffic. Not anymore.

Space X is in a strong position to win at least part of the astronaut-carrying business. Here we go again with the wild west and the covered wagons who got there first to claim territory and do as they wish. The Dragon already has a pressurized cabin and has been designed from the beginning with the intention of carrying people. Please don’t hire that guy who got fired from the airlines who cussed at the customers, took wine and pulled the emergency chutes as he left his job.

The corporate owners also are making a pitch that the Dragon could also be used for deep-space missions. Yes, lets muck up as much uncharted territory as we possibly can. F---K Earth. We’ll be arriving at the space station in approximately 3 and one half hours. Who wants a vodka on the rocks. We’ll throw the bottle out in orbit when you’re done. Have a pleasant flight.

In this very religious season of the year we reflect on whatever form of God we believe in and if you’ve ever read the Old Testament of the Bible much of the stories that lead people to ’believe’ deal with miracles. Those who choose to believe that the impossible can be possible should be interested in the compelling story about a farmer in Brazil that thousands visit every day to perform miracles of some sort that helps physically and mentally people. The skeptics and the believers are there.

They call him John of God who removed tumors, scraped cataracts from eyes and probed peoples nostrils with a scissor with no complaints of pain from his faithful all in the interest of comfort all done without the benefit of anesthesia or sterilization because no one experiences physical pain there. A remote town known as Abadiania is where he performs these modern day miracles in a place simply called La Casa, a spiritual center where all faiths are welcome. Some say he is a medium that channels the spirits of more than thirty doctors and saints to cure cancer; the paralyzed walk and the blind see. Many come to be healed of a physical ailment some are praying for a miracle and others are simply looking for spiritual wholeness.

He possesses no medical degree and little formal education. Reports of infection are hard to find there. The majority of healings do not involve physical contact. Dr. Jeff Rediger a ivy league professor of psychiatry with a masters degree in divinity went there and experienced unexplained bleeding from his chest after his visit. John of God takes no fees and does not take credit for what he does for people. He says it is the power of God working through him. He urges all who visit him to continue with all treatments prescribed by their doctors.

He sees people on Wednesday, Thursdays and Fridays and requires all to wear understating white. People don’t even flinch with the evasive procedures. Medical doctors believe it can be attributed to an intense immune reaction. Most people are there seeking help after their doctors said they cannot do anything else for them. There is a film of his work called “Healing.” Initially people are instructed to meditate in a healing room and not cross their arms or legs or open their eyes for three hours. After experiencing his own miracle of sorts Dr. Rediger felt afraid and out of control despite his own years of education. This event has changed his life in many ways in that he believes” that reality is both revealed and concealed by the world we see with our eyes and that none of us are who we appear to be.” After this experience all believe that there Is A God and the will to live is very important to our health.

Emotional healing can be more important than the physical for overall wellness. The body is something we are still trying to learn. How we each cope with problems is the secret to a good life. Perhaps this miracle worker is the closest thing to God we presently have on earth now.

E-books have now flooded the author’s world. Even those salacious magazines that would be delivered in the brown paper wrappers have been replaced by E-books. Just think how the women on the subway could read their romance novels without everyone opposite her seeing the covers of the books with the men’s bulging mussels and women with half of her cloths on. With her e-book, no one really knows what she is reading. Yes, now there are many readers who have traded the racy covers of romance novels for the discretion of digital books.

If the e-reader is the digital equivalent of the brown-paper wrapper, the romance reader is insatiable and unstoppable. Actually, they are a perfect couple. Romance is now the fastest growing segment othe e-reading market, ahead of general fiction, mystery and science fiction according to data from Bowker, a research organization for the publishing industry. Abandon those sweaty little novels for digital.

At All Romance, an online retailer that sells only e-books, sales have more than doubled this year and the most sought-after titles are usually the raciest. Now you don’t always have to show your significant other what you are reading. Barnes & Noble, the nation’s largest bookstore chain, is seeking romance readers more aggressively than ever. Traditionally they didn’t sell much in the romance category. Now it has already captured more than 25 percent of the market in romance e-books. Next year they expect the e-book sales to surpass the print sales.

You can now store hundreds of titles on a single device. You no longer have to worry about books being out of stock or out of print. Publishers have digitized nearly 10,000 titles, dating back to 2002. The down side is that many of the publishers have not secured the digital rights for the cover art. I thought that was the best part of the books. It always showed a handsome buff man dominating a partially clothed woman. Ladies keep all of your devices fully charged.

Lets talk music. Ozzy Osbourne a member of the popular rock band Black Sabbath till he left the band in 1979 recently had a concert at Madison Square Garden and is scheduled for about 20 more concerts in major arenas and cities around the country just in the next few months. This rock artist is now 62 years old and is still showing up at concerts to get paid well when movie and television artists like Seinfeld are sitting on a fortune of royalty cash every time their entertainment footage is shown anywhere. It is not like that for musicians who since Napster, their musical songs are constantly being pirated instantly with no royalty fees trickling down to the musical artists bank account.

Well, things are getting a little better for creative artists in Europe. Google Inc’s You Tube recently signed an agreement with three French royalty-collection societies to pay artists when their works are shown on the video-sharing website. Under the deal, the societies will receive payments from You-Tube. They in turn will then redistribute the money to their members.

This agreement applies only to content viewed in France, Belgium and Luxembourg and retroactively covers content viewed on You Tube since 2007 and up to 2013. This is real progress in the sad state of royalties being paid to the artist. For about 10 years, there have not been any real policies on the matter since being able to download and receive instantly from concert to listening device was made so available by each and every new hand-held phone or gizmo.

The director of the Society of Authors and Composers in France, Pascal Rogard, said “It shows that there is a middle ground between protecting authors’ rights and making [content] available online. We are looking to collaborate with so many European artists as possible.”

In September, You Tube signed a deal with France’s biggest music royalty-collecting society to pay composers when their songs are viewed on the website. So, dust off your guitar, record something and go to France. You won’t have to be like Ozzy and rely so much on ticket sales and t-shirts and CD’s to pay for your mansion.