The Boeing story is a good example of how the pursuit of corporate profits can affect we commoners. Boeing is just another American company, churning out aircraft and doing their best to make a profit. They aren’t looking to hurt anyone. They do not want their planes to crash any more than their passengers do.

Boeing’s 737 Max planes are fitted out with larger engines placed farther forward on its wings, which tends to push the plane’s nose up. So Boeing installs an automated system designed to make the adjustments necessary to push the nose back down. The new model is approved by the FAA in 2017 and sales began to flow. Boeing is so happy about this they crow about it on their Website: “The 737 MAX is the fastest-selling airplane in Boeing history with about 5,000 orders from more than 100 customers worldwide.”

This is Boeing’s latest victory in their race against rival Airbus. There are really only two passenger plane manufacturers on the playing field. Boeing has done everything they can to make these planes attractive to airlines around the world. One big selling point is that the 737 Max is so similar to the older 737’s that airlines don’t have to spend money training their pilots to fly them. Although now the world is beginning to think some training would have been a good idea because these planes are not just like their predecessors.

Last October Indonesian Lion Air Flight 610 went down within minutes of leaving the airport, killing all 189 people on board. A couple of weeks ago Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 had a nearly identical crash resulting in the death of all 157 passengers and crew. Both pilots were flying 737 Max 8s. We learned from the Lion Air flight data that the automated system pushed the plane’s nose down and the pilot responded by aiming the nose higher twenty-six times before hitting the water. Twenty-six times! In other words, the pilot and the computer were locked in a deadly battle for control of the plane. Experts believe the system was taking in a faulty sensor reading.

This morning The New York Times took the story one step further with Doomed Boeing Jets Lacked 2 Safety Features That Company Sold Only as Extras. The article explains how the two fatal Max 8 might have been avoided if the planes had come equipped with two (optional) safety features. Buzz! This does not look good for Boeing, I must say.

Although Boeing declined to disclose the price of the two safety features, The Times did some digging and learned that “Gol Airlines, a Brazilian carrier, paid $6,700 extra for oxygen masks for its crew, and $11,900 for an advanced weather radar system control panel” for a previous version of the 737. So these special features can be pretty pricey.

Add-on features can be big moneymakers for plane manufacturers.

In 2013, around the time Boeing was starting to market its 737 Max 8, an airline would expect to spend about $800,000 to $2 million on various options for such a narrow-body aircraft, according to a report by Jackson Square Aviation, a consultancy in San Francisco. That would be about 5 percent of the plane’s final price.

To save money and because the two, potentially life-saving, features were billed as “optional” by Boeing, both Lion Air and Ethiopian Airlines declined to purchase Boeing’s “angle of attack indicator” and “disagree light.” Had the planes been equipped with these two features, the pilots might have stood a fighting chance.

But U.S. Airlines all opted for the optional safety features, didn’t they? Not exactly.

The three American airlines that bought the 737 Max each took a different approach to outfitting the cockpits.

American Airlines, which ordered 100 of the planes and has 24 in its fleet, bought both the angle of attack indicator and the disagree light, the company said.

Southwest Airlines, which ordered 280 of the planes and counts 36 in its fleet so far, had already purchased the disagree alert option, and it also installed an angle of attack indicator in a display mounted above the pilots’ heads. After the Lion Air crash, Southwest said it would modify its 737 Max fleet to place the angle of attack indicator on the pilots’ main computer screens.

United Airlines, which ordered 137 of the planes and has received 14, did not select the indicators or the disagree light. A United spokesman said the airline does not include the features because its pilots use other data to fly the plane.

At this point in time, all U.S. 737 Max aircraft have been grounded pending further investigation. As you may know, the United States waited until dozens of other countries grounded their 737 Maxes before following suit. Canada dragged its feet, too. I have to admit, the delay had me biting my nails.

A few years ago this story would have gone right over my head, but with Bob’s busy flight schedule, I am fixated. I hear that Boeing is going to make this right by elevating both sensors from optional to standard. I hope they also recommend some kind of pilot training for this next generation of planes. 737 or not, this is not the same beast and pilots all over the world deserve to know what they are dealing with.

It makes me uneasy to think that a big company like Boeing will squeeze their buyers to the point of declaring essential safety equipment “optional.” Sadly, this is just one example of how capitalism has run amok. The larger the corporation, the more they get caught up in the competition game. It’s easy to turn a blind eye when you have your sights set on a goal, but that doesn’t excuse Boeing.

Meanwhile, we simple wage earners read the news and shake our heads. We poke away at our consumer debt, plant gardens, stretch the leftovers into second meals, and hope the FAA keeps the Max 8 on the ground until Boeing makes them safe for everyone to fly.

At $156 million a year, David Zaslav earns ten thousand times more per hour than ten million American workers working for the Federal minimum wage of $7.25. I can’t get my head around that figure so I took it down a notch. At forty hours a week, he’s pulling in $75,000 an hour. Whoa!

Okay, say he works eighty hours a week. That’s still $37,500 an hour, enough for me to pay off my mortgage in two hours. Enough to give everyone dear to me half a million dollars with one month’s pay.

According to the New York Post, “Cable network operator Discovery had the biggest pay gap. Its CEO, David Zaslav, was the highest-paid among S&P 500 companies last year, at $156 million. That was 1,951 times the amount paid to Discovery’s median worker.”

Things sure have changed since the sixties when the highest CEO salaries were only twenty times the average working wage. I can’t say as I like the direction they’re going. Sky high, as it were. Rocketing out of orbit. No one can be worth this kind of money, especially when fourteen out of every one hundred Americans are stuck below poverty level.

About that minimum wage, there’s been some progress. This year 29 States have adopted higher minimums, several reaching $10.50, with D.C. poised to bump their $10.50 to $11.50 mid-year. Yay!

So there you have it, a little bit of good news to sweeten a bitter pill. Income inequality continues to reach new heights in this country. Those clinging to the hope that the United States is still a democracy rather than an oligarchy aren’t paying attention. Something’s gotta give.

Sources:
nypost.com/2015/08/25/chipotle-cvs-and-discovery-have-highest-ceo-pay-gap/
fortune.com/2015/08/25/ceo-worker-pay-gaps/
www.epi.org/publication/ceo-pay-continues-to-rise/
www.spaceanswers.com/solar-system/five-amazing-facts-about-the-new-horizons-probe/
pluto.jhuapl.edu/
www.census.gov/hhes/www/poverty/about/overview/
www.ncsl.org/research/labor-and-employment/state-minimum-wage-chart.aspx

As if we needed one more reason to boycott factory-farmed animal products, here comes another horror story. It all started earlier this year when the Department of Agriculture began issuing warnings to the poultry industry. H5N2 was knocking wild birds out of the sky, birds sick with highly pathogenic avian influenza. Within a few months, outbreaks began occurring in domesticated flocks.

In Iowa, avian flu spread wildly through tightly packed egg factories, prompting them to declare a state of emergency. Similar stories soon poured across the Midwest. In April, Minnesota lost 7% of its turkey production. To date close to 50 million birds have died of the flu or were killed to staunch the epidemic.

This is horrible on several levels. Egg consumers, especially bakeries and breakfast cafes are taking a hard hit as the price of eggs doubles. International exporters are losing money due to poultry bans from a dozen countries. U.S. Poultry farmers are starting over after being only partially compensated for the lost and culled birds. USDA officials are scrambling to determine how the disease is spread and there are murmurs of fear should the flu manage to jump species and begin infecting humans.

Not to mention the birds themselves; suffering and being put to death. No wait, that’s nothing new for them. The life of animals in Confined Animal Feeding Operations is so bad, that “premature” death is likely a blessing.

Bottom line, cramming thousands of animals into tight spaces is a recipe for disaster. To survive the stress of their environment, they are fed antibiotics and other unnatural fare. One whiff of virus and their immune systems succumb. This is no way to keep animals and a bad way to feed human beings.

Sources:

Health Impact News
Avian Flu Outbreak Among Chickens—How Long Can we Continue this Failed Food System? – June 25
“These animals are fed a completely unnatural diet of glyphosate-containing genetically engineered (GE) grains mixed with antibiotics—a surefire recipe for drug resistance and out-of-control spread of disease, both among animals and humans.”
“Amy Mayer, an Iowa Public Radio reporter told PBS5 that scientists are still struggling to figure out how the outbreak was able to spread as widely as it has.”

Rochester Home Page
Avian influenza causes egg shortage – June 24
“Nearly 50 million birds have died, mainly in the Midwest”

Times Free Press
Consumers feel the pain as bird flu outbreak causes egg prices to soar – June 22
“It’s normally a $35 to $45 expense — but not this time.
“I paid $80 for the case I bought last week,” she said. “I feel the pain, yes.”

Eco Watch
Avian Flu Epidemic Prompts CDC Warning of ‘Potential for Human Infection’- June 3
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has released an official advisory to warn health workers and clinicians of the potential for human infection of the devastating avian flu currently ravaging the Midwest.

Business insider
Dozens of countries are banning US poultry because of a huge bird flu outbreak – April 30
“Dozens of countries have imposed total or partial bans on U.S. poultry and poultry imports since an outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) was discovered in December.

Each of the top 10 importers has introduced restrictions. Total bans have been imposed by China, South Korea and Angola, whose markets were valued at nearly $700 million last year.”

Wall Street Journal
Escalating Bird-Flu Outbreak Takes Toll on U.S. Poultry Farms – April 24
“Researchers think it is spreading through the droppings of wild ducks and geese as they migrate to the upper Midwest to breed during the warmer months of the year. But it’s unclear how the virus enters already tightly managed poultry houses, which typically are enclosed to prevent exposure to pathogens and predators.”
“Farmers whose birds are determined through USDA testing to have a case of the influenza receive compensation from the agency for birds that must be destroyed. But payments don’t cover birds that die from the flu, which can rapidly move through flocks.”

Hawaii Tribune-Herald
Ag department warns of avian flu – April 1, 2015
The state Department of Agriculture warned Hawaii commercial and backyard poultry and bird owners Tuesday to be vigilant because of outbreaks of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) H5 along the Pacific migratory bird path.

Daily KOS
CAFOs and Avian Flu – February 25, 2007
“Stressed out animals fed an unnatural diet and living in filth on bare earth or concrete, or cramped into tiny cages, get sick very easily. Very easily. Only large and regular doses of powerful antibiotics make the business model viable.”

According to this AP News Story:

Japan has suspended some imports of U.S. wheat after a genetically engineered version of the grain was found on a U.S. farm.

The Agriculture Department announced the discovery of the modified wheat on Wednesday. No genetically engineered wheat has been approved for U.S. farming.

Japan is one of the largest export markets for U.S. wheat growers. Katsuhiro Saka, a counselor at the Japanese Embassy in Washington, said Thursday that Japan had canceled orders of western white wheat from the Pacific Northwest and also of some feed-grade wheat. He said the country was waiting for more information from the Agriculture Department as it investigates the discovery.

The unapproved and unmarketable wheat must have come from somewhere. And to be sure, between 1998 and 2005, Monsanto conducted 100 genetically modified wheat trials in Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Kansas, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oregon, South Dakota, Washington and Wyoming. Whether it blew into non-GMO wheat fields, was illegally planted or subversively dispersed by Monsanto remains to be seen. Worse, it remains to be seen how widespread the herbicide-resistant wheat is.

This discovery and boycott may have serious consequences for the American economy. From what I remember learning in Economics 101, the American dollar was pinned to wheat. Today, the United States exports half of its wheat crop, an $8.1 billion contribution to the economy. Stories abou the ramifications of a Western White Wheat boycott are all over the news today. Here’s one: America facing wheat export crisis as Europe and Japan lead the way in rejecting genetically modified crops

But as with most stories, this one has a silver lining. Beyond the economic ramifications of a possible global boycott of American wheat, there shines a glimmer of hope. Hope that when global resistance to U.S. GMO products hits us in the wallet, Americans will demand, at the very least, labeling of GMO products. Which in turn will help break the corporate stranglehold Monsanto and other big Ag companies have on our food supply.

Here’s the whole article:

JAPAN SUSPENDS IMPORTS AFTER MODIFIED WHEAT FOUND
BY MARY CLARE JALONICK AND NIGEL DUARA
ASSOCIATED PRESS May 30, 2013 10:59pm

WASHINGTON (AP) — Japan has suspended some imports of U.S. wheat after a genetically engineered version of the grain was found on a U.S. farm.

The Agriculture Department announced the discovery of the modified wheat on Wednesday. No genetically engineered wheat has been approved for U.S. farming.

Japan is one of the largest export markets for U.S. wheat growers. Katsuhiro Saka, a counselor at the Japanese Embassy in Washington, said Thursday that Japan had canceled orders of western white wheat from the Pacific Northwest and also of some feed-grade wheat. He said the country was waiting for more information from the Agriculture Department as it investigates the discovery.

“In most countries the unapproved genetically modified wheat would be a target of concern,” Saka said. “The Japanese people have similar kinds of concerns.”

USDA officials said the wheat was the same strain as a genetically modified wheat that was designed to be herbicide-resistant and was legally tested by seed giant Monsanto a decade ago but never approved. Monsanto stopped testing that product in Oregon and several other states in 2005.

The Agriculture Department said the genetically engineered wheat is safe to eat and there is no evidence that modified wheat entered the marketplace. But the department is investigating how it ended up in the field, whether there was any criminal wrongdoing and whether its growth is widespread.

The mystery could have implications on the wheat trade in the U.S. and abroad, as evidenced by Japan’s suspension of imports on Thursday.

Many countries around the world will not accept imports of genetically modified foods, and the United States exports about half of its wheat crop.

Japan imports 90 percent of its wheat, or about 5 million metric tons annually, including 3 million metric tons from the U.S., according to Toru Hisazome, an official with the Ministry of Agriculture in Tokyo.

Japan, which bans the import of genetically modified foods, suspended a tender for 25,000 metric tons of western white wheat, mainly used in Japan for making cakes, he said.

“We don’t have the exact information from the U.S. side yet,” Hisazome said.

Import orders for other types of U.S. wheat would not be affected, he said.

South’s Korea agriculture ministry said it will increase inspections of wheat imported from the U.S.

American consumers also have shown increasing interest in avoiding genetically modified foods. There has been little evidence to show that foods grown from engineered seeds are less safe than their conventional counterparts, but several state legislatures are considering bills that would require them to be labeled so consumers know what they are eating.

While most of the corn and soybeans grown in the United States are already modified, the country’s wheat crop is not. Many wheat farmers have shown reluctance to use genetically engineered seeds since their product is usually consumed directly, while much of the corn and soybean crop is used as feed.

The modified wheat was discovered when field workers at an Eastern Oregon wheat farm were clearing acres for the bare off-season when they came across a patch of wheat that didn’t belong. The workers sprayed it and sprayed it, but the wheat wouldn’t die. Their confused boss grabbed a few stalks and sent it to a university lab in early May.

A few weeks later, Oregon State wheat scientists made a startling discovery: The wheat was genetically modified, in clear violation of U.S. law. They contacted the USDA, which ran more tests and confirmed their discovery.

“It looked like regular wheat,” said Bob Zemetra, Oregon State’s wheat breeder.

The tests confirmed that the plants were a strain developed by Monsanto to resist its Roundup Ready herbicides and were tested between 1998 and 2005. At the time Monsanto had applied to the USDA for permission to develop the engineered wheat, but the company later withdrew its application.

The Agriculture Department said that during that seven-year period, it authorized more than 100 field tests with the same glyphosate-resistant wheat variety. Tests were conducted in in Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Kansas, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oregon, South Dakota, Washington and Wyoming.

During that testing and application process, the Food and Drug Administration reviewed the variety found in Oregon and said it was as safe as conventional varieties of wheat.

USDA officials declined to speculate whether the modified seeds blew into the field from a testing site or whether they were somehow planted or taken there, and they would not identify the farmer or the farm’s location. They said they had not received any other reports of discoveries of modified wheat.

Japan is regularly the top buyer of Northwest wheat, said Blake Rowe, CEO of the Oregon Wheat Commission. He said reductions in wheat sales would affect farmers in Idaho and Washington as well as Oregon, because the wheat is blended together.

Oregon sold $492 million in wheat in 2011, the most recent data available, and 90 percent of it went overseas, Oregon Department of Agriculture spokesman Bruce Pokarney said.

“If those markets are closed off – you can do the math,” Pokarney said.

Duara reported from Portland, Oregon.

Tim Fought and Jeff Barnard in Portland, Malcolm Foster in Tokyo and Youkyung Lee in Seoul, South Korea contributed to this report.

Written in Ethiopia by Kamari Maxine Clark, a professor of Anthropology at Yale, the essay addresses the source of crimes against humanity. She writes:

Violence in Africa begins with greed — the discovery and extraction of natural resources like oil, diamonds and gas — and continues to be fed by struggles for control of energy, minerals, food and other commodities. The court needs the power to punish those who profit from those struggles. So do other judicial forums. At a summit meeting here last week, leaders of the African Union proposed expanding the criminal jurisdiction of the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights to include corporate criminal liability for the illicit exploitation of natural resources, trafficking in hazardous wastes and other offenses.

My first thought was, “Replace Africa with Anywhere and this is still true.” And then I saw the part about Corporate Criminal Liability. Of course! If global corporations are to enjoy the benefits of “personhood” they should also be as accountable as individuals for criminal acts. You might say they were guilty of their own ICC – Inordinate Corporate Crime.

Any time anything becomes a commodity the chase to squeeze as much profit from it begins. I first realized this in the 1970’s while grooming horses on America’s race tracks. Horses, their grooms and exercise boys were worked until exhaustion while the owners wore fancy hats and/or smoked cigars in their catered grandstand boxes.

Not even wholesome food is exempt. Last week Amy informed me that twenty years of enthusiasm for Quinoa has transformed it into commodity to the point where the very farmers who grow it cannot afford to eat what was once a staple of their diet. Read more at The Guardian.

I can’t think of anything more criminal than lining your pockets with profits from natural resources that you don’t have to pay full price for. Oil, gold, diamonds, cocoa, lumber, coal – the list is endless. It’s worst than taking candy from a baby because the baby didn’t make the candy or toil to harvest it and babies shouldn’t be eating candy anyway.

In the guise of providing inexpensive commodities to the masses, multi-national corporations often count on the labor of people who make a couple of dollars a day at best. In most cases, the savings are not passed down to the consumer or used to pay the laborers a just wage but rather to fluff up the wallets of those wealthy officers at the top. This realization always gets my dander up so it was refreshing to see it being taken seriously by Ms. Clark.

She goes on to say:

The I.C.C. should be empowered to prosecute corporate crimes — and not be restricted to genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity and crimes of aggression…

I couldn’t agree more and hope that some day the ICC can do something about Inordinate Corporate Crime.

The last time I went to a doctor was four years ago.  My girlfriend thought I might have a kidney infection, so I went.  It turned out to be a sore back muscle, but the doctor was nice enough to write me a prescription for Cipro anyway.  You never know when you might need a broad spectrum antibiotic sometime on down the road.

I wouldn’t even be thinking about getting health insurance if Bob’s new position at Central Carolina Community College didn’t come with a plan for him and an option for me.  After reviewing my CCCC options, we decided to ask the folks down at Farm Bureau for a quote.  They insure our home and car, we thought, why not our kidneys, too?

So I find myself comparing health insurance plans this morning.  It’s a distasteful business no matter how you slice it.  First off, I’d rather be supporting a single payer national health-care-for-all plan than the health insurance industry.  I don’t really want health insurance; I want affordable health care.

Personally, I think health insurance is a racket whose goal is making enough profits to keep their investors happy and their CEO’s in stock options and million dollar salaries.  One third of every dollar paid into the for-profit Health Insurance companies goes towards administration, marketing, lawyers, CEO salaries and stock options while health care could easily be provided using only three cents out of every dollar to cover administrative costs.

To insure healthy profits, the health insurance plans come with yards of small print, loopholes designed to help them avoid paying claims.  And then there’s all the stuff they plain refuse to insure from the get go.  Click on “more” to see the impressive list of health care benefits excluded by the Blue Options HSA plan.

I think the recently passed H.R.3200 – America’s Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009 is really just a pre-emptive bailout for the health insurance companies.  Since mandated insurance coverage doesn’t come into effect until 2014, I’m not sure I’m ready to stop wearing my black rubber “uninsured” bracelet.

Furthermore, I’m healthy and invested in keeping myself that way.  My health care plan has been my local food diet, lots of sleep and a good balance between desk, yard work, friends and down-time.  Putting money into good food and leisure time makes more sense to me than putting it into a Health Savings Account.  Investing money into a plan designed to pay off if something terrible happens just feels wrong.

Sure, I realize most people will say that paying $175 a month to insure against something catastrophic is simply smart risk management.  One bad car wreck could easily send us into bankruptcy and cost us our home.  But every time I write that check, I’ll feel like I’ve just walked up to the betting window at the track and put my money on a horse to lose.

BlueCross BlueShield of North Carolina

Your plan for better health

Limitations and exclusions

Like most health care plans, Blue Advantage and Blue Options HSA has some limitations and exclusions. When your application is approved, and you become a member, you will have access to your benefit booklet online. It will contain detailed information about plan benefits, exclusions and limitations.

This is a partial list of benefits that are not payable.

• Not medically necessary
• Investigational in nature or obsolete, including any service, drugs, procedure or treatment directly related to an investigational treatment
• Any experimental drug or any drug not approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the applicable diagnosis or treatment. However, this exclusion does not apply to prescription drugs used in covered phases II, III and IV clinical trials, or drugs approved by the FDA for treatment of cancer, if prescribed for the treatment of any type of cancer for which the drug has been approved as effective in any one of the three nationally recognized drug reference guides:
  1. The American Medical Association Drug Evaluations
  2. The American Hospital Formulary Service Drug Information
  3. The United States Pharmacopoeia Drug Information
• Side effects and complications of noncovered services, except for emergency services in the case of an emergency
• Not prescribed or performed by or upon the direction of a doctor or other provider
• For any condition, disease, illness or injury that occurs in the course of employment, if the employee, employer or carrier is liable or responsible for the specific medical charge (1) according to a final adjudication of the claim under a state’s workers’ compensation laws, or (2) by an order of a state Industrial Commission or other applicable regulatory agency approving a settlement agreement
• For a health care professional to administer injectable prescription drugs which can be self-administered, unless medical supervision is required
• For inpatient admissions primarily for the purpose of receiving diagnostic services or a physical examination. Inpatient admissions primarily for the purpose of receiving therapy services, except when the admission is a continuation of treatment following care at an inpatient facility for an illness or accident requiring therapy
• For care in a self-care unit, apartment or similar facility operated by or connected with a hospital
• For custodial care
• For domiciliary care or rest cures, care provided and billed for by a hotel, health resort, convalescent home, rest home, nursing home or other extended care facility, home for the aged, infirmary, school infirmary, institution providing education in special environments, in residential treatment facilities, except for substance abuse treatment, or any similar facility or institution
• For respite care, whether in the home or in a facility or inpatient setting, except as specifically covered by your health benefit plan
• Received prior to the member’s effective date
• Received on or after the coverage termination date, regardless of when the treated condition occurred, and regardless of whether the care is a continuation of care received prior to the termination
• For telephone consultations, charges for failure to keep a scheduled visit, charges for completion of a claim form, charges for obtaining medical records, and late payment charges
• Incurred more than 18 months prior to the member’s submission of a claim to BCBSNC, except in the absence of legal capacity of the member
• For cosmetic purposes except as specifically covered by your health benefit plan
• For any services that would not be necessary if a non-covered service had not been received, except for emergency services in the case of an emergency
• For benefits that are provided by any governmental unit except as required by law
• For services that are ordered by a court that are otherwise excluded from benefits under this health benefit plan
• For care that the provider cannot legally provide or legally charge or is outside the scope of license or certification
• Provided and billed by a licensed health care professional who is in training
• Available to a member without charge
• For care given to a member by a provider who is in a member’s immediate family
• For any condition suffered as a result of any act of war or while on active or reserve military duty
• In excess of the allowed amount for services usually provided by one doctor, when those services are provided by multiple doctors
• For palliative, cosmetic or routine foot care
• For dental care, dentures, oral orthotic devices, palatal expanders and orthodontics except as specifically covered by your health benefit plan
• For dental implants
• Dental services provided in a hospital, except when a hazardous condition exists at the same time or covered oral surgery services are required at the same time as a result of a bodily injury
• For any treatment or regimen, medical or surgical, for the purpose of reducing or controlling the weight of a member or for treatment of obesity, except for surgical treatment of morbid obesity
• Wigs, hair pieces and hair implants for any reason
• Received from a dental or medical department maintained by or on behalf of an employer, a mutual benefit association, labor union, trust or similar person or group
• For sexual dysfunction unrelated to organic disease
• Treatment or studies leading to or in connection with sex changes or modifications and related care
• Music therapy, remedial reading, recreational or activity therapy, all forms of special education and supplies or equipment used similarly
• Hypnosis except when used for control of acute or chronic pain
• Acupuncture and acupressure
• Surgery for psychological or emotional reasons
• Travel, whether or not recommended or prescribed by a doctor or other licensed health care professional, except as specifically covered by your health benefit plan
• Heating pads, hot water bottles, ice packs and personal hygiene and convenience items such as, but not limited to, devices and equipment used for environmental control
• Devices and equipment used for environmental accommodation requiring vehicle and/or building modifications such as, but not limited to, chair lifts, stair lifts, home elevators, and ramps
• Air conditioners, furnaces, humidifiers, dehumidifiers, vacuum cleaners, electronic air filters and similar equipment
• Physical fitness equipment, hot tubs, Jacuzzis, heated spas, pool or memberships to health clubs
• Eyeglasses or contact lenses
• Orthoptics, vision training, and low vision aids
• Fitting for eyewear, radial keratotomy and other refractive eye surgery, and related services to correct vision except for surgical correction of an eye injury. Also excluded are premium intraocular lenses and services related to their insertion beyond what is required for insertion of conventional intraocular lenses
• Routine hearing examinations and hearing aids or examinations for the fitting of hearing aids except as specifically covered by your health benefit plan
• Routine hearing examinations except as specifically covered by your health benefit plan
• Evaluation and treatment of developmental dysfunction and/or learning differences
• For routine eye examinations, except as specifically covered by your health benefit plan
• Medical care provided by more than one doctor for treatment of the same condition
• Clomiphene (e.g., Clomid), menotropins (e.g., Repronex) or other drugs associated with conception by artificial means
• For maintenance therapy. Maintenance therapy includes services that preserve your present level of function or condition and prevent regression
• For massage therapy services
• For holistic medicine services
• For services primarily for educational purposes including, but not limited to, books, tapes, pamphlets, seminars, classroom, Web or computer programs, individual or group instruction and counseling, except as specifically covered by your health benefit plan
• For genetic testing, except for high risk patients when the therapeutic or diagnostic course would be determined by the outcome of the testing
• Services whose efficacy has not been established by controlled clinical trials, or are not recommended as a preventive service by the US Public Health Service, except as specifically covered by your health benefit plan
• Shoes of any type, unless part of a brace
• For any condition, disease, ailment, injury or diagnostic service to the extent that benefits are provided or persons are eligible for coverage under Title XVIII of the Social Security Act of 1965, including amendments, except as otherwise provided by federal law
• For conditions that federal, state or local law requires to be treated in a public facility
• For vitamins, food supplements or replacements, nutritional or dietary supplements, formulas or special foods of any kind, except for prescription pre-natal vitamins or prescription vitamin B-12 injections for anemias, neuropathies or dementias secondary to a vitamin B-12 deficiency

Your coverage may be canceled by BCBSNC for failure to pay premiums and for false statements on your application, among other reasons. Coverage for dependent children ends at age 26. Members will be notified 30 days in advance of any change in coverage. A waiting period for coverage of pre-existing conditions may apply to your coverage.¹ These pages contain available benefits only. They are not your insurance policy. Your policy is your insurance contract. If there is any difference between these pages and the policy, the provisions of the policy will control.

1 – Pre-existing conditions are defined as those for which medical advice, diagnosis, care or treatment was received or recommended within the 12 months prior to the date that this coverage begins. You may receive credit toward the 12-month waiting period, if we receive your completed application within 63 days of the termination of your previous creditable health coverage.

Bob and I met Trace and his partner Kristin recently when they moved up here from the coast. Kristin is a media activist. and co-founder of Be Yr Own Hero.

Trace works at Eastern Carolina Organics, a marketing and distribution service for local organic fruits and vegetables. Trace also hand makes books and writes an excellent blog called Cricket Bread.

Basically, they both live and breathe Anarchy, something which up until now is a concept I’ve been having difficulty grasping. Fortunately, Trace does a masterful job of making the concept clear in his latest blog entry.

In his words, Anarchism is “community based, non-hierarchical, inclusive, effective, non-governmental, do-it-yourself, consensus-based, and sustainable.”

All those things we stand for as individuals, we can stand for together! Who knew? If there is any chance the working class can beat the corporations which run our world, this is it.

To date, we have ordered three of Trace’s hand made books and are quite impressed with his writing and his workmanship.

The notice by the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television, stated:
Illegal ‘sexual medication’ advertisements and other harmful ads pose a grave threat to society. They not only seriously mislead consumers, harm the people’s health, pollute the social environment, and corrupt social mores, but also directly harm the credibility of public broadcasting and affect the image of the Communist Party and the government.

Meanwhile, Chinese manufacturers of anti-impotence drugs arm wrestle with Pfizer over patent rights. Those crafty communists realize how important it is to feed their own corporate gods if they want their country to reap the full rewards of capitalism.

New Fish Snacker Offers Modern Take on ‘Loaves and Fishes’ for Today’s Lenten Observers
LOUISVILLE, KY – The world’s most popular chicken restaurant chain is offering fish for the first time nationally with the introduction of the new KFC® Fish Snacker. The company has asked the Pope himself for his blessing, with KFC President Gregg Dedrick sending a personal letter to the Vatican.
Apparently they were hoping to increase sales by announcing their social blunder to the world. It’s hard to imagine Catholics or anyone else falling for such a tasteless stunt.

As if this weren’t enough, on Sunday, camera crews caught footage of a rat-infested KFC in New York. Before you could shake a drumstick, the video was all over the evening news.
The parent company of KFC and Taco Bell – still smarting from last year’s E. coli scare – has been forced back into damage-control mode after television cameras caught rats scampering around a restaurant floor.

A TV crew discovered the rat infestation and began filming through a window of the building early Friday. About a dozen rats were filmed racing around the restaurant’s floors, playing with each other and sniffing for food as they dashed around tables and children’s high chairs.

Yum Brands stock closed Friday at $60.51, down 55 cents.
Video footage here:

Just goes to show you, the fast food business can be a real rat race!

Wikipedia’s definition: “Bling-bling” (sometimes shortened to simply “bling”) is a hip hop slang term which refers to expensive jewelry and other accoutrements, and also to an entire lifestyle built around excess spending and ostentation. In its essence, the term refers to the exterior manifestation of one’s interior state of character, normally displayed through various forms of visual stimuli.

So, there you have it, we thought. Until this morning when Bob pulled up a site for Bling H2O. As if bottled water wasn’t bad enough, here is water in limited edition, corked, frosted glass bottles handcrafted with crystals. And not just any crystal. Please note that these bottles are decorated with Swarovski crystals! As if this could possibly be of any importance.

I didn’t want to believe what I was seeing but a little voice whispered, “Behind every business plan is a targeted demographic.” Well, if this product has a buyer, this country has truly gone to the dogs. Which, by the way, have their own demographically targeted bottled water product in Molli’s Choice.

Eddie Izzard is right. Americans ARE the new Romans. We pledge our nationalism with our right hands over our hearts, provide bread and circuses for the anesthetized masses and drink tap water from frosted bling bottles.