PRISON PREP SCHOOLS

I was reading an article in the Wall Street Journal today, of all things for the WSJ to be reporting, about companies that will “prep” you to survive a sentence in a federal prison. Isn’t it interesting (and tragic) that such articles AND businesses are now commonplace? And by that I mean "necessary!"...because the US has become the leading force in encarceration on the planet, that we imprison more prisoners per capita than any industrialized nation in the world, with 2.3 million people behind bars, such services have sprung up. Some in earnest efforts to assist newcomers to survive the time they will spend in prison, and others more to profit from the exploding prison industry.

With the economic woes in the US, the loss of jobs, finding work for those with college degrees is difficult enough, let alone for the ex-con, with a “felony” on his record for life, and perhaps years of no work experience as he sat in prison. Perhaps a foray into prison counseling is something to consider, as they say to aspiring writers, write what you know. In this case, counsel and teach, what you know. Again, not surprising to find such an article in the WSJ, as it seems advising panicky white-collar criminals on what life is like behind bars has become a bull-market business, what with all the arrests on Wall Street for insider trading.

Many experts have suggested part of the reason for our not being able to recover more easily or quickly from the disasterous collapse of the financial sector caused by the unregulated practices of large Banks and Wall Street firms, resulting in a long, serious and frightening recession, is the fact that the US no longer manufactures hardly anything, that instead we’ve become a nation of consumers. Well seems there IS something we do manufacture, and that those who work for and ascribe to the massive American prison industrial complex, do profit from immensely.

To quote a NYTimes article from April 2008, “Indeed, the United States leads the world in producing prisoners, a reflection of a relatively recent and now entirely distinctive American approach to crime and punishment. Americans are locked up for crimes — from writing bad checks to using drugs — that would rarely produce prison sentences in other countries. And in particular they are kept incarcerated far longer than prisoners in other nations. Criminologists and legal scholars in other industrialized nations say they are mystified and appalled by the number and length of American prison sentences … whatever the reason, the gap between American justice and that of the rest of the world is enormous and growing.”

REMEMBERING DOLLY...

Would you be surprised to learn that americans (well, americans and Canadians) are, and have been, for at least two years now, consuming cloned meat products? I was!

To begin with we see little to nothing in the news anymore regarding cloning of animals, not since Dolly the Sheep really. Similar to the deregulation of the financial institutions (Govt's repealing Glass-Steigal allowed Financial Institutions to police themselves...and we all know how THAT turned out)the FDA seems to believe it isn't necessary to regulate cloned food products. In 2008 the FDA ruled products from clones and their offspring need not be labeled as such because they are "no different from food derived from conventionally bred animals."

The FDA took the same approach with dairy products containing BHG (bovine growth hormones), making it "voluntary" to label as such. Well, except in the case of BHG, the FDA decreed producers were "allowed" to advertise BHG-Free on their products! Seems Mondanto, who makes BHG, is dead set against this labeling, and in fact even has two lawsuits pending (against The Pure Milk and Ice Cream Co. of Waco, Texas) for actually choosing to NOT use BHG AND advertise the fact! Is it just me, or does it there seem to be some complicity between our FDA and corporations? Nah...just my paranoia showing again :)...the FDA was established to help assure safety in our food and drugs, right?

Getting back to the cloning...it seems the FDA once again feels it is enough to simply ask that producers (in this case, cloned products) "voluntarily keep milk and meat from clones out of the food and feed supplies until we finish assessing their safety." This is how it currently stands. We all know how his "voluntary" system works in corporations, asking them to police themselves. It would seem once again our FDA has let us down, jeopardizing the health and welfare of the American consumer, perhaps in favor of well, certain better paying customers or "persons" ...aka Corporations.

Unlike in the USA, Food safety representatives from the European Parliament's Environment, Public Health and Food Safety Committee (ENVI) have recently demanded a bill regulating animal cloning within a year. ENVI insists that meat or milk products from the offspring of clones be labeled and traceable. Why is it we have never seen the likes of such a bill, or that it has ever been put before the american consumer to have a say?


"The government, which was designed for the people, has got into the hands of the bosses and their employers, the special interests. An invisible empire has been set up above the forms of democracy." ~Woodrow Wilson

MY NEIGHBORS FIG TREE

When we first bought this house in Bakersfield we had delighted in seeing this large, beautiful tree right across the fence in our neighbors back yard. The leaves were large and tropical looking and upon closer inspection realized it was a Fig Tree. And sure enough, within months it produced a nice crop of delicious figs, many of which we were able to enjoy due to the large branches hanging over our side of the fence. Last summers crop was even more bountiful as the tree had doubled in size over the year. So we ate fresh figs, had figs in salads and I made fig jam. However, soon enough I was to learn of a discerning downside to the Fig Tree.

Alas and alack, come June of each summer I was to discover the large, irridescent, flying, aptly named "Fig Beetle" made this tree their summer home, and all too often was responsible for driving me from my veggie garden and lovely back yard into the house! Their large size, thunderous BUZZZing noise, and flight path, back and forth across my yard, filled me with dread. Because of the abundance of fruit on the tree last summer in particular, the beetles hung around until the very last fig had either been eaten or had dropped to the ground, into early September, before they either set off in search of other soft fruit or fig trees in the neighborhood, or perished. I like to hope more perished than not, and before laying their eggs in the ground nearby... the young larvae apprently emerge in the late spring as the figs ripen. This summer I am expecting a rather LARGE emergence, considering the numbers of the population last summer. The bigger the tree, the more figs, the more Fig Beetles!

This morning I noticed the small, initial leaf buds sprouting forth on the tree, and ALREADY the first crop (there are two crops per summer) of figs appearing! So with a strong resolve I set off to talk with my neighbor (whom I've never met) and see if we could find a solution or compromise on the issues I face this summer with HIS fig tree. I had recalled at one time, it was shortly after we'd bought our house, he and my husband had a short conversation over the fence, in which he'd mentioned his fig tree was becoming a nuisance, getting way too large and hard to control. Well, at THAT time I thought the tree lovely, had not yet met the Fig Beetle (!!), so had hoped he would NOT dispose of the tree. silly, uneducated, uniformed ME! Anyways, bearing that in mind, I walked around the block and knocked on his door. Long story short, he was very understanding and ammenable to 'cutting back' the tree, though not yet ready to completely destroy it. A good start. It is my hope that he will cut it back severly, and hence fig production will be greatly lessened, meaning the Fig Beetles that WILL come on scene this summer, will not linger as long. I'll keep you posted.