Everybody Limbo!

Did you know that for almost a year now, you have not had to worry about babies being in limbo?

That's right. Back in April of 2007, Pope Benedict XVI revised the Roman Catholic teaching about limbo, saying that there was "reason to hope that babies who die without baptism can go to heaven."

I have a couple of questions:
Was this based on a report from NASA?
What century is this?
Isn't Limbo a novelty dance with a stick that was popular in 1950's America?

To answer number one: no. It was based on findings of the "International Theological Commission," which aired the document on "Origins," which is the documentary service of "Catholic News Service," which is the news agency of the "American Bishop's Conference."

In other words, Hard Science.

To answer number two: in my world, it's 2008. In Roman Catholic World, it's 1172.

In answer to number 3, "Limbo" is a state of maximum happiness without communion with god. Having not committed any personal sins, theologians taught that unbaptized babies went to Limbo. For an atheist, "Limbo" sounds like a pretty good place to be. A state of maximum happiness without having to deal with all the god stuff? Count me in! It would be like the America I always dreamed of!

See, when you are born, you are born with the human element of original sin because of that pesky Eve, her apple, and her desire to for free thinking. If you are born with the human element of original sin and are not baptized, and then have the unfortunate experience of dying before you are baptized, then you get to burn in hell. Even though all you did was be born.

This is what the faithful believed. The actual teachings stated that infants who die unbaptized wind up in Limbo.

Apparently, the former and current pope had been looking for more study on this subject partially because of the issue of abortion. All those zygotes and blastocysts and embryos and fetuses floating around up there were troubling them. I believe I would have been more troubled about the emotional well being of the living, adult faithful who were not only dealing with the death of a child but the metaphysical torture of believing that their child was either burning in hell or floating in limbo. Then again, I am also concerned that grown ups are spending time and money putting together circular studies and issuing edicts on such things in the first place.

The revelations last year make it clear that there's reason to hope, but they can't be certain of salvation because Scripture does not say.

So that leaves the faithful in... limbo?

Remember That Bridge?

If you work at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, you can’t really forget it because not only is the site just northwest of the campus, but the twisted pieces of the original bridge are laid out on the west bank of the Mississippi River for investigators. It’s a daily reminder of what happened last August.

This week, the state legislature overrode a veto of a transportation bill by the governor. He vetoes anything with a tax increase attached because of a pledge he made to a special interest group before he was elected the first time, and it’s the opinion of many, including myself, that he has his sights on national office. He can’t very well renege on his pledge now, can he? Even if he has hamstrung the state government and passed on higher fees and property taxes to the citizens of Minnesota in order to “keep his promise,” hurting our schools, neighborhoods, and families in the process. What will really matter is that he can say that he never technically raised taxes.

The bill has passed, and Minnesota drivers will start seeing gas taxes go up by two cents per gallon in April of 2008. It’s being phased in over the next few years with 3.5 to follow in fall of 2008 and 3 more over the next three years. Republicans are grandstanding about government spending and burdens on taxpayers, but legislators who pushed a stadium bill raising taxes and the republican governor who signed it can just shut right up, I think.

While the governor is saying that this tax will propel us from 28th to 7th, Minnesota is actually number 35 out of 50 in the rate at which we tax gas; the first increase puts us to 30th, and the fall increase would put us at a tie for 21st. Including the whole increase over the next three years and figuring that no other state will raise gas taxes, Minnesota will still be number 16 (Rankings from the National Petroleum Institute, further information from Minnesota 2020). Beyond that, a new survey shows that Minnesota has some of the lowest gas prices in the country. We pay an average of $3.03 per gallon, which is 13 cents cheaper than the national average, and only Wyoming, New Jersey, and Missouri have lower average prices (StarTribune, AAA).

Furthermore, MNDoT is essentially broke, and our transportation infrastructure is 20 years behind and in need of upgrades and repair. Again, see: that bridge and the numerous other bridges and roads in need of attention. MNDoT has been spending half its money on new projects and expansion as opposed to preservation and repair, and revenue from the existing gas tax has been going down because it has not even been adjusted for inflation over the last twenty years.

I don’t get it, and I don’t get all the bitching. Where do people think the government gets its money? Government grants? When the government does anything; when the government pays itself; we pay for it. That’s the deal with taxation. Are the governor and opponents of this tax suggesting that this money should come out of nowhere when we are already facing an almost billion dollar deficit? They would probably say that it should come out of all those programs for old, sick, and poor people because it's spending that is out of control in this one-sided coin. It's not a lack of revenue. Taxpayers complaining about this are probably also complaining about their property taxes going up in the last few years. Well, guess what: our property taxes have been going up, in part, because our governor has been passing on costs to the counties and local governments, which have to pay for local roads, schools, and infrastructure.

Apparently, it’s OK for the citizens to pay more in sales tax for a professional sports stadium and subsidize a billion dollar private industry that most people won’t witness, but it’s bad to raise revenue for our roads, bridges, and transportation initiatives.

I know that this is not a debate about the Twins’ Stadium. That’s a done deal, and the taxpayers were not given a say. What I find amusing is the relative furor over this gas tax and what it actually means. It will provide funds that will put Minnesotans to work, and it’s estimated that the economic benefits of such investment outweigh the cost as much as 8-1 (Texan Governor’s Business Council). It’s long over due, and the revenue will still not make up for the ground we have lost over the past 20 years.

My Lip Balm is owned by Clorox

I won't allow Clorox in my house, let alone on my face. Now, of course, I am not literally putting bleach on my lips, but I am putting Burt's Bees there, and they are owned by Clorox.

After my bottled water rant, I realized that I had not checked up on my organic food companies in a while to see who had been bought out by whom. For instance, I knew that Cascadian Farms was owned by General Mills and Boca was owned by Kraft which is, in turn, owned by Phillip Morris, but I figured that things had probably changed a bit since I last checked in.

I made a quick pass through my kitchen and bathroom and wrote down the brands I have. I then checked through a few sources to see who I was actually giving my money to.

Tom's of Maine: Colgate
Bearitos: Hain Celestial Food Group
Burt's Bees: AEA Investors (Clorox)
Avalon Organics: Hain
Westbrae: Hain
Muir Glen: General Mills
Santa Cruz: Smuckers
Spectrum Naturals: Hain
Celestial Seasonings: Hain
Kashi: Kellogg
Rudy's Organic Bakery: Charter Baking Company
Barbara's Bakery: Weetabix
Seeds of Change: M&M Mars
Annies: Solera Capital

I am still looking into:
Amy's
Dr. Haushka (I believe this is a German nonprofit)
Country Choice Organic
Republic of Tea
Frontera
Good Karma

These guys seem to still own themselves:
Aura Cacia: Frontier Co-op
Frontier: Frontier Co-op
Pacific Natural Foods
Newman's Own
Eden Organics
Cliff/Luna Bars

Other companies still unsullied by takeovers:
Weleda
Organic Valley
Seventh Generation
Peace Cereal
Applegate

It's not easy to shop. Now I have more decisions to make and questions to ask about certain products.

1. Is there a locally produced, independently-owned alternative?
2. Can I make it myself?
3. How much do I love the product?
4. How nefarious do I find the controlling interest or parent company?
5. Do I even need this thing?

In many cases, I do have alternatives. We get our organic milk from a local farm in returnable bottles. There's a great salsa company just down the street. We joined an organic CSA for the upcoming season. I can get a lot of locally produced, organic, bulk grains from the co-op and make certain things. I make my toothpowder. There are other organic seed companies. We get our coffee from Peace Coffee.

It just adds one more level of awareness to my shopping habits and opens up new areas where I can improve what I do in our home. It reminds me of how far away we are from our food. Do I really want beans and tomatoes in cans? Sure, it's convenient, but there's bisphenol-A in the lining of over half the cans of food out there, and that's a chemical that mimics estrogen and can lead to reproductive impairment (this chemical is in the plastics of many water bottles as well). Yum!

I know that I can't be perfect in all things, but I can be better. The first step is always finding the information, and passing it on.

Organic Industry July 2007
Organic Industry January 2008
List from Seventh Generation
Organic Investors July 2007
Hain Celestial Food Group

Another Blog?

But of course!
Four was not enough.

Please welcome the new arrival, babywhumpus.

It's pretty self explanatory, really, but you might want to go back to the beginning, anyway, if you are at all interested.

America's Next Top Genius Ape

Wednesday night was Television Night. Dorkchic got me into America's Next Top Model because she might be evil, and the new cycle started that night. Lest my IQ drop too far, we planned to watch Nova directly afterwards. Little did I know how comparable these two shows would be.

On the Model show, there was pushing and screaming and crying; women were being held off from having actual physical fights within the first few hours of meeting each other. We were witness to pettiness, arrogance, stupidity, greed, immaturity, and instability all rolled up into 35 women aged 18-24. It makes me proud of my gender.

On Nova, it was "Ape Genius," where there was teamwork, culture, love, grief, learning, and snacking. Researchers are learning about the capabilities of the ape brain and finding that it far surpasses what we had initially thought. Observation of chimpanzees over the decades has even forced us to reevaluate our definition of "human." It was an excellent program that made me look at my nearest relatives in the animal kingdom in a new way.

In the Nova program, they showed studies that were done first with human children and then with chimps. In one study, they had to watch the researcher go through a series of tasks to get to the gummi bear. Both chimp and kid were able to get the treat. I wonder if the models would have been able to do it. The treat would probably have to be something other than a gummi bear though. Maybe a cigarette or a packet of Sweet-n-Low.

Another study dealt with delayed gratification. The kids were shown two plates. One had a single gummi bear on it, and the other had five. They were told that if they waited until the researcher came back, they could have five gummi bears, but if they wanted the single gummi bear right away, they could ring the bell and eat it. One kid ate the gummi bear before the researcher was even out of the room and then rang the bell. This study was originally done with cookies by sociologist Walter Mischel. I have not seen the tapes, but I guess that one little boy just sat there in front of the single cookie and wept. But he waited.

I could not picture the models participating in this experiment because I doubted that they would understand the instructions, and I could not imagine that they would be tempted by sweets in any case. I do think, however, that perhaps the 14 models remaining from ANTM should be put through some of the chimp experiments in which they use teamwork to procure food, pass on survival skills though copying and observation, and assist humans in accomplishing tasks.

In exchange, Miss J can teach the chimps to walk on heels, work their runway walks, and style their own photoshoots. If the models can understand the pointing experiment, where they must choose the cup that is pointed to in order to get the prize (again, an inappropriate snack), demonstrating the ability to share new discoveries, then they will be ahead of the young bonobo who found the experiment deathly boring and rolled around, exasperated, knocking over cups and not cooperating at all.

I can picture quite a few of the models reacting in the same manner as the bonobo to a number of different situations; time will tell.

But I don't think that ANTM was quite what Darwin had in mind.

Ringling Bros. O.R.

I guess I found this so terrifying, that I could not write about it for two years, but some crazy Italians did a study in October of 2005 determining that the presence of a clown can reduce children's anxiety during operations.

Of course, the image that jumped into my head was similar to the Gumby Surgery skit on Monty Python's Flying Circus, only the Gumbys are in clown make-up and giant shoes, flailing about with scalpels. Maybe there is also a monkey somewhere. They often travel together, I hear.

I cannot think of anything more horrifying, and the thought that clowns don't scare the bejezzuz out of all children is beyond me.

The doctors took 40 children, around seven years old, and divided them into two groups: the "Clown Group" and the "Control Group." The clown group was graced by two clowns for 30 minutes in the waiting room and for 15 minutes in the operating room. They used magic tricks, music, games, puppets, and bubbles to entertain them. A parent was also present, thank goodness. The control group had only their parents with them. No clowns. Oh, and psychologists observed and rated the anxiety levels of the children. I am presuming that the psychologists were attempting to blend into the background and were not wearing squirting flowers or dressed up as Sigmund Freud.

The study showed that anxiety levels were the same in the waiting room for both groups, but that in the operating room, the clown group showed lower anxiety levels.

I may need some reports on the psychological well being of the psychologists who observed this experiment; it just does not sound objective to me. They could be pro clown. They could be clowns in their spare time. They could be marginally insane with severe emotional problems. Who knows?

It turns out that 84% if the health professionals involved called the clowns a disturbance in the operating room. Really? Clowns? A disturbance? Pratfalls in the operating room getting you down? Juggling clamps and retractors not such a good idea after all?

I can't imagine walking into a waiting room and finding clowns. I don't know how I would have reacted as an child; I would hope that I would have burst into tears immediately in response to something foreign and scary in the already unfamiliar environment, but who knows? I know that there is a lovely slide of me as a child of around 3 perhaps, screaming and crying on the lap of the most terrifying Santa Claus ever, so I have reason to hope that my reaction to clowns in the operating room would have been similar.

What's next? Male strippers in the delivery room?

For future reference, I would not appreciate that, either.

Knitting Cheater

When it comes to relationships, I am all about one man; especially now that I found the right one. I am a monogamist and proud of it.

When it comes to knitting, I am a whore.

My polyamorous knitting habits are well established and have been since I began this habit a year ago. I can't settle for just one project. I need many. Different yarns, different garments, different sizes.

On Saturday, I had four projects going.

Now I have seven.

It's Monday.

I was not feeling excited about the almost-done fingerless mittens. It's my third pair, and we are so comfortable together that it's boring. The patches baby blanket will be colorful and cute when it is done, but as a work in progress, it's just not that interesting. I did not feel like working on the socks that I probably should just break up with; they do not seem right, but I can't bear to let go. The lace pattern shawl takes so much concentration for what seems like so little reward, though the yarn is gorgeous. Pretty, but complicated, and I can't take it out in public because it needs all my attention, the diva.

I kept looking at the pile of new yarn. It was so tempting and sexy, hanging out over in the corner of the room, acting aloof and emitting an aura of promise. We had no past, no hang ups. The future was a bright palette of possibility. There were no expectations and no preconceived patterns of behavior. No conditioned responses or lamentable repetition. It could be whatever I wanted it to be.

I could not resist. The sage green baby alpaca grande is becoming the Carie Cropped Cardigan. The organic cotton is going to be a Circles and Stripes Stroller Blanket. And I dug out some remnant cotton to make a Chubby Bunny. The new Malabrigo and Worsted Magic are shaking their cute little butts at me, and the Trendsetter Dune and Malabrigo Chunky are practically panting for it, but they will all have to wait. I can only juggle so many...