A Genetically Modified Opinion

 

A Genetically Modified Opinion

I recently had a fight argument discussion with someone about GMO food.  That’s Genetically Modified Organisms, for people with a life.

These days just about everything we eat or at least lot of what we eat is a result of GMO.  Corn, wheat, anything with seeds has been modified by really smart people to result in massively increased production of crops also resistant to insects and disease.

Pigs, cattle, chickens and such have been selectively breeded and or also genetically modified to grow larger, and fatter and also be disease resistant.

It is this selective breeding and genetic modification that has allowed the world to feed a population that has quin-trouple-fippled in the last hundred years.  There are areas in the world suffering from famine, but nothing like what we would have without improved farming methods including GMO produced foods.

The argument against GMO food is, I believe, that we do not know what these foods, untested over a long period of time might do to our bodies.

Will they turn out to cause cancer, birth defects, or who knows what else?

Anti GMO people are concerned with:

Five sets of ethical concerns have been raised about GM crops: potential harm to human health; potential damage to the environment; negative impact on traditional farming practice; excessive corporate dominance; and the 'unnaturalness' of the technology.  (Oh yes, I can Google)

I guess these are valid concerns, Hell, I’m not smart enough to debate these fears.  However, the concerns do remind me of the 1950’s scare movies like “The Attack of the Killer Tomatoes.”

What I do find interesting about the fight argument discussion over GMO food, is almost anyone I have met that has concerns with GMO food, believes that people who do not want to take the Covid vaccine are knuckle dragging Neanderthals.

If eating chips made from GMO corn is dangerous, how is injecting the vaccine directly in our body not concerning?

Again from Mr. Google:

mRNA vaccines teach our cells how to make a protein—or even just a piece of a protein—that triggers an immune response inside our bodies.

I do not really understand the above, but it sure sounds scarier to me than eating a chip made from corn that has been modified to fight off corn pandemics.

Now, if you think I am trying to make an argument for NOT taking the new Covid vaccines; You are wrong.

If you believe I am advocating GMO foods for all; you are also wrong, I don’t really care.

This is what I do believe. 

When really smart people develop stuff that after diligent testing is determine to be safe and highly beneficial to the world, then I will probably trust those people.

I will eat corn chips made from GMO corn seeds.  I will take the Covid vaccine.

It makes no sense to me to avoid the vaccine but eat the chip…or vice versa.

Yet, and I may be wrong, it is my perception that people who will not take the vaccine, will eat the chip, and those who strongly advocate the vaccine are leery of eating the chip.

Go figure!

 

THE 2020 2021 OLYMPIC GAMES

 

THE 2020 2021 OLYMPIC GAMES

Well, the Olympic Games are over.  Did you miss them? 

I did…most of them anyway.  They are just not what they used to be.

Maybe we need Russia to hate and root against again.  Some good old patriotic vitriol to spice things up.

This year it was difficult to root for some of our athletes who were determined to use this world stage to show the rest of the world that the USA sucks.  It is one thing to use an athletic field to make a political statement at home, I did not like our dirty laundry put out for the world to see.

I wonder what North Koreans thought when they saw purple haired soccer players kneel in protest of racism in the USA.  I’ll bet they wished they had the freedom to kneel in protest of starving to death.

Anyway, these Olympics are just not as exciting as they used to be. 

Maybe it is because many events take place late at night our time, with zero people in the Covid Stands.

Maybe it is because there just does not seem to be the same US vs. Them country rivalries.

Maybe it is because many of our athletes are too intent in telling the rest of the world that the US is a racist mean-spirited country.

Probably it is because every time I turned on the TV to watch it was always volleyball, or people endlessly swimming laps in a pool. 

What happened to the pole vault, discus, 100 meter dash, boxing and long jump? Did I blink and miss them?

There was golf, where the same professionals that I see every week played for a medal instead of money…as if that medal won’t generate money eventually.

I did watch women’s basketball.  I don’t usually see women pro-basketball on TV.  The women are very, very good.  It was interesting watching 6 foot-five US women dominating their 5 foot-nothing Japanese opponents.  Interesting, not very exciting.

Gymnastics did dominate TV on some days. I do like gymnastics every four years,  but without Simone Biles, it was just not as much fun.

Simone was having mental issues that are not unlike the dreaded golfing “Yips.”  Except the Yips in golf means you can’t make a three foot putt, in gymnastics it apparently means you can land on your head and never walk again. 

Simone is probably the best ever at her sport, she knows when it is not safe for her to perform, but I did miss her.

Maybe these young ladies would not have such mental issues if they were not driven to practice and excel at such a young age.  They miss out on a lot of the growing up most young ladies experience.  The pressure to excel is huge and most are not mature enough to deal with it.

Along with the pressure to succeed, many of these girls were sexually molested for years by a monster doctor who they trusted with their injuries, stamina and health. 

He is now in jail for 175 years; little comfort to those abused young athletes.

One of these ladies, since retired from the sport, was McKayla Maroney. McKayla won medals in 2012 while enduring a broken foot that the monster doctor lied about so she would perform.  She broke the foot because the maniac coach forced her to practice in an event in which she was not even entered.

McKayla won gold and silver medals even with the injuries and the mental anguish from the monster doctor.  Yet, what has she become famous for? 

While standing on the podium to receive her silver medal she made a face that indicated the was disappointed in the silver.  She was ridiculed for making a face in a short instant when the camera was on her.

Performed with a broken foot, was driven to exhaustion by a maniac coach, sexually molested for years by a monster doctor, and she was criticized for making a face!

Why do I bring up McKayla?

Recently McKayla is in a commercial which is a parody on her Olympic medal-stand face.

I think it is a riot, and speaks to her character that she can make fun of something she has been criticized for.

In case you don’t have a TV, or only watch commercial free PBS, here is the commercial.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vFiywyiUAp8

The funniest part in the commercial for me, is when the frisbee geeks drone in unison “Thank you McKayla.” 

When I think of what she has endured, along with Simone and many other young abused girl athletes, I think the thank you is deserved.

“Thank you McKayla” “Thank you Simone.”

 

 

Here We Go Again

 

Here We Go Again

With the resurgence of the new Covid variant, it looks like we (New Jersey) will be required to mask up again.  Not mandatory yet, but more and more I see people with masks at the supermarket.  I would bet anything that all these people are vaccinated. 

Why so sure?  Because 70% of those over 12 in Jersey are vaccinated.

Also, those that don’t get vaccinated are prone to avoid the masks.

How do I stand on masking?  As if a cranky old man’s opinion means anything, I give it a big MEH!

I do believe in science.  Science is by my Googled definition;

the intellectual and practical activity encompassing the systematic study of the structure and behavior of the physical and natural world through observation and experiment.

Key words being “Study” Observation” and “Experiment.”

So, the SCIENCE of masking and Covid still involves study, observation and experiment.  The science has not been established; current science opinion has been established by a majority of scientists.  Not the same.

Still, wearing a mask can not, for the most part hurt, especially for retired old cranky people who spend about 30 minutes a week in a “Mask Up” environment.

The mask thing reminds me of meal time in college.  

In our fraternity, we were required to wear a jacket and tie for meals.  A nice tradition going back to the hoidy-toidy frat rules of the early 1900’s.  Many members loved this rule as they were still hoidy-toidy.  Many did not like the rule as it was antiquated and stupid.

The hoidy-toidy (maskers) demanded the jacket and tie, or you could not eat.

Everyone else (anti-maskers) wanted to eat, so all wore a jacket and tie to meals. 

But rules can be sticky and results are not always what rule makers are expecting.

The hoidy-toidy all came to meals fresh scrubbed and in their finest jacket and tie.  The rest came to meals with outrageous flowery clip-on ties and flamboyant seldom washed and stained with Chef Boyardee’s finest sauce, jackets.

Masks are kind of the same.  While some double mask with hospital approved masks, many, if not most, strap on crappy cloth things, often not covering their main breather…THE NOSE…and removed whenever they need to…TALK UP CLOSE. 

Further, when wearing the mask and within 20 feet of someone smoking a cigarette, I can smell the smoke.  Pretty sure the covid shit, which I can not see, can get through the mask as easily as the smoke which I can see.

You can require a tie; you cannot require class or taste.

You can require a mask; you can not enforce the behavior.

Still, it can’t hurt, so rather than get the stink eye or get into a political hoo-ha with others, I will wear the damn thing.  As a protest that only a few old-school college friends will understand, maybe I will also wear a crappy tie clipped on to my tee shirt.

Meanwhile, unless you have the antibodies or have a doctor’s recommendation against it because of some other condition, you might want to get the shot (s).