The Half Baked Lunatic

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: CONTACT: EnergyByAloe 425-296-6616 (Voice) 866-293-6994 (Fax) Shop@EnergyByAloe.com http://Shop.USAloe.com http://www.EnergyByAloe.com Sleep Aid Found To Be Useful For Extinguishing Forest Fires Washington D.C., June 5 2009 – In addition to being the healthiest and most effective natural sleep aid on the market, local distribution company EnergyByAloe has shown positive data that AloeRest™ is very effective at extinguishing forest fires. “The biggest problem we’ve found” says EnergyByAloe owner David Workman “is keeping enough AloeRest in stock.” Indeed, during the two day test trial in which numerous forest fires were started in the Washington DC area, one almost got out of control because of a shortage of AloeRest. “It was a close one,” says Workman, “we almost had to More...

I’ve been mailing out a lot of packages lately, and the staff at my local post office just seem to drive me crazy.  Here’s a typical interaction: “How would you like this to be mailed, sir?” “Whatever is cheapest – there’s no hurry.” “Well, we can send it Parcel Post for $4.90 which will get it there in 3 to five business days, priority mail for $10.35 which is two to three days, or $25.15 for overnight express mail.” “Whatever is cheapest – there’s no hurry. Parcel Post is fine.” “Ok, would you like to add delivery confirmation or insurance?” “Does that make it any cheaper?” I asked, hoping she’d get the hint. “No sir, it does not.  Delivery confirmation is only More...

  Following the hugely successful launch of AloeBoost and AloeRest, I am happy to announce that USAloe is now shipping their third product, AloeControl. AloeControl™ is your unfair advantage in the struggle to maintain a healthy weight. In each healthy 2oz serving you'll enjoy a unique blend of the world's finest fruits, vegetables, and natural ingredients designed to help you control your appetite, efficiently burn calories, and provide you with the essential vitamins and minerals that are MISSING in today's typical American diet. The four core components of AloeControl™ include Appetite Control, Metabolic Enhancers, Digestive Aids, and Core Nutrition. Get all the details and the ingredient list at: http://shop.usaloe.com/products-aloecontrol.aspx I don’t mean to brag, but More...

Like everyone else, I’m completely outraged by the whole AIG bonus issue. Bonuses should reward exceptional performance and positive results.  Where’s the accountability? This has been hashed to death in the press, so I’m not going to go into all the reasons why it’s just rotten to the core. But let’s back up a little bit and see how this fits in with the bigger picture of executive compensation.  This has been an issue for many years, well before the economic downturn. It’s a big thorn in the side of many shareholders of large companies. Executive compensation needs to be tied not only to performance, but also to their own personal risk.  For example – a hired CEO brought in to More...

It sure is interesting living in Washington D.C. I’m not talking about the inauguration yesterday, which was spectacular by the way – but in general, you just can’t get away from politics here. The latest issue that’s getting my goat is this idiotic push to make Washington DC the 51st state.  The DC license plates proudly proclaim “Taxation without Representation” and there are posters all over the city pushing for DC statehood. The underlying issue is the fact that DC has no representation in congress.  Some residents feel that More...

  All my life, I've seen these crazy news reports about people suing someone else, often times getting huge sums of money, for something that was partially - or mostly - their own fault.  We all cringe when we hear these stories, but it's a real issue that goes deep into our pockets. Our whole society has a warped mentality that someone else should be responsible for ... your own bad decisions, your health problems, your physical handicap, your depression, your failed investments, your smoking/drug habit, or the fact that your kid can't swim yet she snuck down and found an open door and decided to try a few laps in the hotel pool at midnight (yes, the hotel had to pay). That "someone else" usually is your employer, your government, your doctor, your neighbor, or the store that sold you the gun which your wife used to shoot your brother (yes, the store owner had to pay). The cost to society for all this overhead is astonishing.  It's disgusting. I'm not talking just about the money More...

  GM has been in trouble a long time, no doubt about it. It's easy to blame management for their slow change to smaller cars, corporate inefficiency, etc.  But face it: it's the unions that are mostly to blame for GM's downfall.  Or, if you prefer, it's managements fault that they didn't have a backbone - and they let the unions walk all over them. I have many issues with the whole philosophy of unions. Yes, there have been times when they've been helpful - when working conditions were abysmal, unsafe, the pay was equivalent to slave labor, and there weren't any other options for workers. But for the most part those times are long past. Let's look at unions from a couple of different angles. I have absolutely no compassion for any company that mistreats employees, but I don't consider providing only a basic health plan as "mistreating" anyone.  Many of the benefits More...

  Back in 2004, I was invited to be a guest speaker at the Seattle chapter of The Ethical Culture Society, a non-religeous group that lives their lives by a strict code of ethics rather than religious principals.  Although I was never an official member of the society, my family attended quite a few meetings that year, and I actually gave two different talks - the following is the first one I did on February first, 2004.  I'll post the second one tomorrow. * * * * * The Words and Intentions of a Politically Correct society David M. H. Workman   When I was growing up, we had two cardinal rules in our house that were mandated by my mother.  The first was no gossiping.  We were not allowed to say anything negative about someone behind their back.  If there was something we didn’t like about someone, we spoke to them about it personally, and in private. The second wasn’t as much of a rule as a philosophy.  It was my mother’s goal to see the elimination of all prejudices worldwide.  I was raised with the fundamental principle that it doesn’t matter what someone’s social or financial status is, or what their education, race, heritage, sexual orientation, or gender is – every person on this planet deserves to be treated with courtesy and respect at the very least. My mother was very serious about More...

  My posting yesterday on global population made me think of one of the best social commentaries to hit the theaters since Muffin Man.  Idiocracy is a scathing remark on one of the worst trends of modern times: educated and intelligent people are having less kids and uneducated and lower intelligent people are having more. The movie projects this out 500 years to a society that is .... well, akin to 500 generations of Homer Simpson inbreeding with his second cousin. Nothing is sacred in this movie - they take on pop culture, pollution, corporate marketing, government incompetancy, and the religious right (which is primarily responsible for humanities lowered IQ in the first place.)  I love it!  

  I am a very staunch "pro-life" advocate, but the biggest threat to life on this planet is the over population of the human species. I just can't buy the argument that humans have some innate right to survival at the expense of all other species.  Yes, our growth rate is slowing, but it's not enough. There's an old example used to illustrate where humans are on our population trajectory.  You've probably heard this before, but to review: you have a jar with two microbes, and the net growth rate of the microbes is such that the total number of microbes doubles every minute (factoring in both birth and death rates), and the jar is just big enough so that it will fill to the brim with microbes in one day.  So you put the two microbes in the jar at midnight, and the jar is full at midnight the next day. The crux of the example is that at one minute before midnight, the jar is half full.  Two minutes before midnight the jar is a quarter full, and three minutes before midnight the jar is only an eighth full. Ok, it's not a perfect explanation - humans can not completely "fill up" the world and there are numerous other factors More...