Fire Consumes 146 Young Women, 7 Remain Unidentified

On March 25th, in the year 1911 a fire consumed 3 floors of a New York sewing factory in a mere 30 minutes.  Even though fire rescue arrived within minutes, limited resources, elevators, and minimal fire escapes insured nothing could be done to keep scores of girls from leaping to their death to fall some 80 feet, attempting to escape the fire.

One onlooker describes the scene in utterly unimaginable phrases, "thud, dead, thud, dead, thud, dead, thud, dead...the first 10 shocking, but to look up and see scores more that too must somehow come down...the sound a body makes upon striking the concrete before becoming a pile of lifeless bone, flesh and clothes..."  Worse still is the fact that some of them didn't even make it to the ground, and were instead impaled upon the metal fence that surrounded the building.  All this because of cramped unsafe working conditions, and doors locked to keep union organizers out of the factory.

I only just learned of this event in a Human Rights class I am taking, and would like to begin a movement or process to possibly identify those 7 girls that yet remain unidentified.  This incident is more commonly known as the "Triangle Waist Factory Fire":

This event was the beginning of of labor standards we have today.  It would seem that enlightenment comes only from death and suffering.

Texas Water Wrongs

"We decide in this case whether land ownership includes an interest in groundwater in place that cannot be taken for public use without adequate compensation guaranteed by article I, section 17(a) of the Texas Constitution. We hold that it does."


The Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association hailed the ruling, saying it means property owners will have a reliable source of water, ignoring the fact that ground water can at times be a finite resource, and that wells can and do get pumped dry.  This decision literally turned water into oil, making it a private land owner's property, rather than a communal good.  The problem with the decision as the conservationist in me sees it, is that water doesn't exist in pockets section off in relation to barbed-wire fencing.  The water table exists at different levels in different areas, but is most often one large overlapping entity, called aquifers.    


This ruling basically said that you get to use as much water as you always have, and that you can't be denied water directly under your land without proper compensation.  The problem as I see it, is that the decision doesn't assist newly created water districts in 'conserving' the amount of water that can be captured in Texas.  In fact, the decision exacerbates the problem Texas has now that you are allowed to capture as much water as you can get to the surface.  Shallow wells have been going dry, as the recent droughts have forced farmers and ranchers to dig deep and drill more wells, just to keep water tanks from drying up.  


Compound the problem with what corporations like Eron Oil and Gas are allowed to do with dozens of industrial depth wells within a few acres that supply their frack sand mining operations.  The last operational numbers I saw for a single plant were 3,700 gallons per minute or about 2 billion gallons per year.    That's about an average sized swimming pool every 7 seconds.  


This decision was made by conservatives, for conservatives, who have no wish what so ever to 'conserve' anything.  There are two truths herein that need to be addressed.  One, we are using more water than wells can produce, forcing us to dig deeper, and two, Texas lawmakers seem bent on sending us even deeper, abandoning all notion of conserving our most valuable natural resource.  Who knew the establishment of water rights could turn out so wrong.

Read more here: http://www.star-telegram.com/2012/02/24/3761508/texas-supreme-court-ruling-on.html#storylink=cpy

The Days of Gold

"When there's trouble in the economy I know I can put my trust in gold."

I think gold is great.  It is pretty, it never rusts, it's a great conductor, it's easy to meld, weld, and solder.  In fact, it's only drawback- its weight, I find appealing.  If you don't believe me, find a gold bar, or stack of gold coins to hold, and bounce it up and down in your hand to feel its weight.  The super heavy result still surprises me, even though I have handled gold on many occasions.  However, the geologist in me fully appreciates a wide range of what scientists call rare Earth metals, and their properties.  So it isn't "Gold", to me, it's just gold.

Recent market trends have the price of gold climbing, and as a result, there's a new gold rush on.  I can think of at least two television programs based on the process of sluicing.  There are literally thousands of groups of people sifting gold out of the Earth as often and for as long as weather will permit, right now.  They risk life, limb, friends, and family for the shiny sparkly sand.

What happens when mankind takes to space, where you can find a single asteroid, with one hundred times more gold than has been mined to date, and brings it back here?  People are paying over $1500 for something that there is more of every day, and it doesn't deteriorate.  If the law of supply and demand applies, the price of gold can not continue to rise indefinitely.

Personally, I like silver.  Because it oxidizes, you have to polish it, to keep its luster.  So, every day there's a little less of it, and some day in the far far future, it may become very rare or be all gone.  Its price also makes it easily attainable.  One ounce of gold. would purchase over two pounds of silver.  Silver coins also have a familiar ring, when handled together.

Silver or gold, it makes no matter, because these metals aren't really rare, at the moment, at all.  With gold, people are hard at work trying to flood the market with it.  Every day, there is more gold in the marketplace, yet its price continues to rise.  I think there's a market correction coming.

Illegal Tuition

"I am sick of illegals getting all the benefits, and not paying their fair share."

I was told it takes five years residence to qualify for food stamps.  The notion that supports this, is that within that time, the individual would have paid any number of taxes, through sales transactions and property rental or ownership payments to have earned such coverage.  The term "illegal" is not descriptive in characterizing what specific social services one has earned.

Taxes are not interchangeable, nor are they collectively part of one big pot.  Driver's license fees, inspection, and registration fees go to pay for roads, bridges, and other transportation needs.  Hospital and educational programs are funded mainly through property taxes.  So paying your fair share of any government service is or should be based on how long you have utilized those sorts of services.  Whether or not one paid in-district rates, or in-state rates would have nothing to do with one's status as a citizen, but rather if you were a resident of that district or state, and for how long.

While all of this is true, "illegals" are still missing out on paying the all important income tax.  Which is why amnesty is so important, and the part of the conservative stance that makes no sense to me.  Clearly there are people in America who don't have a social security number.  They failed to wait in line and now find themselves here, not paying their fair share.  In my head, the right thing to do is fine them, give them a social security number, and force them to begin paying income tax.  Keeping them from becoming legal citizens keeps them from paying only income taxes.

The point here is that illegals pay taxes, and they'd pay more if conservatives allowed them to.

Catholic Health Care

"We (Catholics) should not be forced to pay for procedures we don't morally believe in."

Was there ever a time when religious people opposed organ, tissue, or blood transplants?  Was there ever a time when the church forbid heart transplants, believing that putting one man's heart into another would be akin to a physical possession?  I am almost certain that the church was opposed to blood transfusions, at the onset of this scientific miracle.  Religions' job is or has been, to stand in the way of scientific progress, based on faith-based belief and tradition.

The problem of course, is that the medical profession is not a belief based system.  It is a scientific based world, that demands results, verifiable tests, and careful observation.  When something saves lives, then that is what is practiced.  In some cases, birth control, or reproductive medicine is indeed a life saving necessity.  For any church or religious institution to deny someone medical care, because they personally feel morally conflicted about the procedure is them 'playing God' over someone else's life.  Hopefully, society would laugh at someone who would attempt to deny a heart transplant to a patient, because he or she thought it would make the person become someone else.  Hearts are organs, not the spirit, or soul of a person, and to deny someone a life saving procedure is the embodiment of "wrong".

Making a medical insurance premium payment does not make you the arbiter of what medical procedures someone else is entitled to.  Medical decisions should be made between doctors and patients, not 3rd party peanut gallery attendees dressed in red robes and pointy hats.  If an organization is going to offer health insurance, then unless they are members of the American Medical Association, what they believe should not come between health care providers and recipients.

Churchs and religions have been wrong about medicine in every case for the entire history of mankind, so why are democrats still giving way to traditional faith based beliefs, within medical decisions?  What was evil yesterday, and an unthinkable act, is now today a common practice that saves lives.

Democrats, for the love of life saving medicine, stop letting religions set health care policy!

Thank You

I would like to offer my sincere gratitude to everyone who offered my potential campaign their donations, support, and well wishes.

Sadly, the afore mentioned goal was not reached, so I will not be making a congressional run this election cycle.

All donations made through paypal have been denied, and all the cash donations will be in the mail, and on the way back to their respective donors, by week's end.

Your generosity, well wishes, and supportive outreach is the most heartwarming thing I've experienced in quite a while. You have all made a real difference in my world and my perception of those in it.

From the bottom of my heart, "Thank You". If ever, there is anything I can do to help, support, or aid you in your endeavors, please don't hesitate to ask. For all of you now have a friend, in me.

This Blog has re-opened in support of the Occupy Wall St. Protests

Please feel free to peruse the past entries at your leisure, now.

I wish all of you well.

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Here's what I found when I visited the Occupy Dallas camp site: