Category: Politics

For about a decade, ear candles have been a common sight at business that specialize in natural health products. Proponents claim that they are about the most effective and safe way of ridding the ear of accumulated wax, even safer than the methods employed by doctors. But like any device, they require that the user exercise care and common sense. That’s what this story is about. In another case of the government insisting on protecting people from themselves, the FDA is going to regulate them and the consumer will pay the price.

Welcome to The Twilight Zone of the North Carolina legal system.

It’s a Friday night and you and your best friend are hanging out at your house. Since both of you have already seen this week’s episode of Sabrina the Teenage Witch, and you don’t have enough money to go out, you decide to fill the time by playing with the new deck of Tarot cards that you purchased the day before at Border’s.

During the social revolution that was synonymous with the sixties, perhaps nothing was more controversial than the rise of black militancy. This is a history that is rapidly becoming forgotten, as roughly half of the population was not yet alive during during the height of the “Black Power” movement. School textbooks have given them scant reason to realize that this movement grew out of peaceful attempts to bring integration to the South, and simple equality to the rest of America.

In many ways, the demonstrations in Seattle to shut down the World Trade Organization conference were like something out of the sixties, with one big difference. In those days there was no Internet and we rarely heard news from inside the demonstrations, only the official police version. This time, though, there was plenty of online information from the demonstrators, offering us a view of what it was like to be in the center of the demonstration. Whether or not you support the actions of the demonstrators, the look is fascinating.

About a decade ago, a friend who is well versed in Tibetan Buddhism made a pilgrimage to Lhasa, Tibet's capital. Upon his return, he told me that Tibet “no longer existed,” that the Chinese had utterly destroyed the country and it's culture. Unfortunately, this fact is not always so obvious to American tourists who are not as astute as my friend. Tourists to Lhasa are herded through the few restored Buddhist temples and come away somewhat satisfied with the Chinese rhetoric that religious freedoms have been restored and that Beijing's modernization programs are improving the lot of the native Tibetans.

The United States and Canada agree on nearly everything. To be sure, there are some differences; mostly revolving around Cuba and a few squabbles over trade issues. During the Vietnam war, of course, Canada became “a haven from militarism” and refused to turn U.S. draft dodgers and deserters over to U.S. authorities, but many feel that was part of a secret deal to keep American prisons and military stockades from overfilling. For the most part there's not a whit of difference between the two countries and Canada can be depended upon to support the U.S. in all regards.

During the last four months of 1964, a historical battle was fought on the Berkeley campus of the University of California over the issue of political speech. The Berkeley "Free Speech Movement" had its beginning on September 14th of that year, when Katherine Towle, the Dean of Students, wrote to the heads of all off-campus organizations to inform them that the sidewalk at Bancroft Way and Telegraph Avenue, always considered to be city property, was actually the property of the university and that tables, fund-raising, membership recruitment, or speeches would no longer be permitted there.

I’m sure that right wing media maven Rush Limbaugh doesn’t know it, and he would be appalled at the suggestion, but he could become a poster child for the New Age. His recent hearing loss is almost a textbook example of how many alternative medical practitioners believe that diseases manifest on a physical level.