The Chip with the Chip in it

RFID (Radio Frequency Identification Devices) are touted for finding lost animals and people to saving lives. How can an implanted chip save a life? All your medical information is on/in it...and all a doctor has to do is to tune in to the radio frequency that is emitted from the chip to access your vital information.

Hmmm. That sounds good, doesn't it? Well, the largest chip maker is touting those very qualities as the reason that everyone should get chipped. But what is conveniently being overlooked is a report from Dow Chemical that showed that tests done in 1990 showed that the implants were linked to malignant tumors in test animals. A retired Dow Chemical toxicologist told the Associated Press "The transponders were the cause of the tumors." He didn't exactly mince words, did he?

The FDA has approved the chips. That doesn't surprise us as the approval of the chip took place just two weeks before Tommy Thompson moved from being secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (which oversees the FDA), to being appointed five months later to the board of directors of VeriChip Corporation. VeriChip is the leading brand name of RFID's. Of course, as a board member, Mr. Thompson receives cash and stock options of VeriChip.

Recently, the American Medical Association approved the chip. When the Associated Press asked them if they had seen the Dow Chemical report, the answer was "No". No one seems to be talking about, or even aware of the Dow chemical report that these radio frequency chips are the cause of malignant tumors. Why not? These chips are big, BIG business...and they have many plans for them.

Here are just a few ways in which the chips can be used: storage of your medical records, storage of all of your financial records so that you do not carry cash or have access to your cash (all transactions would be done through a national database), 'members of clubs' would use it as a way to recognize elite members, police forces could chip and track persons who had once been imprisoned...and of course, they can track lost dogs ...as well as people.

Privacy issues aside, some cancer specialists who reviewed the Dow Chemical study said that they would not allow any of their family members to be chipped until further study was done on the long-term safety of the device. It appears to us that the chip...has a chip!

Soaked

Lawns are like TV's. Everyone has a lawn, because everyone else has a lawn and always will have a lawn. No one questions 'lawn-ness'.

In light of the dwindling water supply and that fact that people are supposed to be conserving our precious commodity, why is no one thinking about natural landscaping?

Now, before you get me wrong and think natural means wild and untamed, I saw a natural landscape around a house in Sarasota, Florida that was 'manicured' and gorgeous! Beds of native flowers, pathways of seashells and gravel, a charming pond and shady pergola..but no lawn.

Because the plants were native, they flourished without any help from sprinklers or fertilizers. No one had to 'water', mow, thatch or fertilize. There were no hoses, rakes, spreaders, edgers, mowers or chemicals...and the 'garden' was lush and thriving.

If your lawn takes gallons of water, tons of chemicals and hours of mowing and care, it's because its not natural. Think about taking out the sod, (sell it to someone else who desperately wants to spend all of their free time maintaining it!) and put in pathways, ponds, and natural shrubs and flowering plants.

Then sit back, enjoy and marvel at just how well nature can take care of itself! No high water bills, no dangerous chemicals, and no effort!

Sicko Health Care

It's been interesting to read comments about the 'Sicko' movie. Some people are shocked to find that their insurance won't always cover them. Others want our government to fix it all and be their new safety net. Others have avoided insurance as well as doctors by being careful in their food and lifestyle choices and vow to steer clear of someone dictating to them about their own bodies.

There certainly seem to be two camps: one that wants someone to care for them, and the other that feel responsible for themselves. I'm of the latter group as I know I won't cheat myself, overcharge myself, or refuse to approve of my own treatment. I may misdiagnose myself, but I won't overmedicate myself. I also won't recommend extensive and expensive testing to prove all the things that are not wrong with me so I won't sue myself for negligence.

Think of all the time that I won't sit in waiting rooms. Think of all the diseases that I won't catch from germ ridden hospitals. Imagine all the old magazines that I won't have to read and all the money that I won't pay to specialists, insurance companies, HMO's, labs, technicians, hospitals and nursing facilities.

Socialized medicine? I lived in a country that had it. The doctors got very good at doing extensive procedures that would pay them the most, whether you needed it or not. Cheap? Taxes were high to pay for it all. Nothing is free....except freedom to choose to not let someone else be in charge of how you feel, and what is done to you.

I mean, being sick is bad enough, without someone charging you for it too!