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On Immunization and Freedom

Health and freedom seem to be the ultimate end of any function of the government. Without life and good health, how can we be free, seek happiness or raise a family. Thus, the ultimate and deepest implications of immunization are societal as well as scientific. Small Pocks, HPV, German Measles, all take their toll on society because they are so contagious; their significant danger is the purpose for immunization and litigating a requirement for them may be a safe and easy way to end the curse of many preventable diseases. The controversy does not center on whether they work or not. Vaccination works. The odd increase in disabilities and ailments over the last 100 years is what causes so much tumult, in the public square, at the mention of vaccines. ADD, auto-immune, and neurological disorders have been on a steady rise as the commonplace usage of vaccines have risen. Many nations who do not have common vaccines have other problems, however; they deal with measles and whooping ...

Open the Box

Have you ever wanted a website that just did all the work for you. You log in, then with a swivel of the mouse and tap of the keyboard, you get what you want, no searching and squinting and irking. Maybe you didn’t even know such a site could, would, or should exist. It does; at least for music anyway. There is a place so perfect, so simple, so personal, it evokes a pandemonium of inner glee once you understand its ease and simplicity. It is like having greatness before you, wonderfully presented in the glow of your screen; a digital display of online perfection. Looking upon this site, you won’t help but feel moved and cherished; as if someone out there knows you are an individual who has a song or artist or sound that is a part of you, an extension of who you are. That someone goes unhailed and unthanked, bus has left behind what many have stumbled upon : Pandora dot com .

The Story of Coffee: A Tragedy?

The most commonplace product seems to live what can easily be considered an exciting existence. Particularly underappreciated as a globally desired product, the intriguing story of coffee is widely unknown. Most coffee beans are hand picked, dried, and nurtured for months, before they are sorted, selected, and sewn into rough, humble, burlap bags, all by hand. They are heaved, from mountaintops and valleys, onto the back of workers who carry them to local markets. At these markets, they earn pennies for their labor, while the beans make their journeys around the globe. There is a sad ending, however, to the life of a coffee bean because many brewers –particularly in the US- abuse, ignore, and overlook the nature of coffee. Its delicate disposition, cultivated through months of toil and observance, respect and care, goes unnoticed as each bean is smashed and torn and destroyed; plucked from its should-be actualization of perfection and perverted into a caffeine infused, wannabe-sin...


Café Finesse

A "gentleman's drink," "hood," whatever you want to call it, is a meticulous matrimony of espresso and steamed milk, knit together to become what is commonly known as a cappuccino. The cappuccino stands as one of the most misunderstood experiences available almost nowhere but offered everywhere. I cannot count the times I have ordered a cappuccino only to receive a mound of foam with abandoned espresso lamenting its extraction on the bottom. It is the wet kitten of coffee. The cappuccino is more than just espresso and milk. It is not only espresso and foam either. The ceremonial blending of the elements is as tender and sensitive and romantic as a first kiss. The cappuccino is not a coffee drink, it is the coffee drink. It is not espresso but a perfection of it. Ordering a cappuccino "to go," as they say expecting a paper cup, is somewhat of a culinary indiscretion, but carelessly serving steamed milk, foam and espresso is a barefaced disregard fo...

Mike "FairTax" Huckabee

All of us will get a monthly rebate that will reimburse us for taxes on purchases up to the poverty line, so that we're not taxed on necessities. That means people below the poverty line won't be taxed at all. We'll be taxed on what we decide to buy, not what we happen to earn. We won't be taxed on what we choose to save or the interest those savings earn. The tax will apply only to new goods, so we can reduce our taxes further by buying a used car or computer. This segment is from Mike Huckabee’s campaign website , a portion of his “FairTax” tax reform plan. I read this surprised and impress. It seems like a more than reasonable attempt to revert to a constitutional taxation process. Excise taxes, or what is commonly called consumption tax, is what the constitution outlines as a fair way to tax. Only the earnings one spends is taxed says the founders. I read it again, “All of us will get a monthly rebate.” At this point I was inevitably forced to squirm with a joyf...

Counting Votes

If our votes are counted by a private corporation, then the vote can go to the highest bidder. You know, the US spend millions trying to create a pen that would write in space when the Russians used a pencil. Can't the system that has worked in the past, though not as "advanced," be the safest way to ensure accurate counting of the vote? Assuming the Diebold machines cost less than the paper ballots, we can still assume that the loss of democracy is a greater price we will pay. It's a price far greater than the inconvenience of accuracy.