Obfuscate(v):To confuse, bewilder, or stupify.
According to an experiment I saw conducted on the Discovery Channel, the answer is YES. On the show, two men ordered a number of professional drug testing kits, ate a few bagels, along with some poppy-seed cake (one man ate the bagels, the other the cake), and tested themselves over a period of about a day. One of them tested positive for 18 hours, and the other for almost as long. So be sure to avoid this when your next job interview comes up.
There is something to be said for home schooling. My youngest brother is currently being schooled by my mother, and he is having an easier and more enjoyable time than he ever had in the public school system. He actually seems to be retaining a lot of what he is learning! This is further evidence of my correctness in being disappointed by the government school system.
(January 2004)
In a society of oppression, the man who boasts he has never committed a crime is a fool.
(January 2004)
Here is an addition to a past consideration. I heard that the Canadian law about easing pot laws did not make it through. Better luck next time! Also, right here in Connecticut, the smoking ban that has caused so many to fume elsewhere is now law here. The funny part about it is that liquor stores will now be open till 9:00pm, a 1-hour change from the previous law. These two mandates were enacted at the same time. Ha ha!
(January 2004)
Now that everyone is going back to school for the fall, I've turned to questioning this entire "No Child Left Behind" program. How, exactly, does one force another to learn? It seems an impossible task. After all, no matter how many times somebody tells me something, I can still choose not to heed the words. Remember this as more and more tax dollars are routed into 'fixing' problem and slow students, and less is available for those who actually make an effort (or else more is demanded from the outside).
(September 2003)
It is a wonderful experience to know that a man can bring a gun into work, and NOT get in trouble for it. Seriously, this does make me happy.
(May 2003)
Interesting pieces of news: in the Netherlands, a recent smoking ban mimics the US by not allowing restaurants or bars to house smokers. The twist, though, is that they are talking about marijuana, not cigarettes (I imagine those are imapcted as well). As you may know, pot is legal in places like Amsterdam, but due to these new laws, people will have to toke up in the streets, rather than in the bars. Meanwhile, Canada is easing its pot laws, making possession of small amounts only worthy of a fine, thus eliminating criminal records for thousands of people who frankly don't deserve them. Just to add to inanity of all this, I thought I'd mention that thanks to the smoking ban, the fine you will recieve for smoking a cig in a bar in New York is about $50 more than that you will get for smoking a joint! Will somebody please end all this madness?
(May 2003)
The company that I work for, Pace Motor Lines, Inc., recently participated in "Touch a Truck", which is an event where children can come and see trucks from various companies, and talk to drivers, etc. I think that this is an extremely good idea. Children need some real-world stimulation. They need to begin to understand the good aspects of industry at the earliest age possible.
There has been a lot of misapprehension regarding the trucking business over the years, especially in densely populated areas like ours. People need to remember that if it weren't for trucking, we would not have millions of services readily available to the general public, or spread over such vast spaces. If companies like mine did not exist, very few people would be able to obtain or maintain the cars that clutter our streets. To give one precedence over the other is ludicrous; they must co-exist. Remember, big business, and little else, is responsible for the relative comfort in which we live.
(May 2003)
Who are we to decide who an employer hires?
(May 2003)
President Bush was recently criticized for his flamboyant entrance onto the USS Abraham Lincoln, when he flew and landed a jet on the carrier. Why is this wrong? What is so bad about a politician showcasing himself in order to boost morale and keep support? I have not agreed with many things that the president has done, but not this particular move. Isn't the reason people voted for him because he did the best job of self-advertising?
(May 2003)
Here's an interesting thing. We Americans are so gung-ho about Democracy, as if it was some philosophic principle, but democracy as such only means that the majority rules. This is actually a statement of fact, since no system of government exists where the majority of people actively oppose it. No such government COULD exist. True, some peoples are opposed to their government and live under it begrudgingly, but if the majority accepts an unwanted fate, it's essentially a sanction by that majority for the government in question to continue its policies. In other words, even when democracy is not the moral conviction of a ruler, he remains in power precisely because of it. So the world is already free for democracy, if anyone cares to implement it.
(April 2003)
