DISQUS

Bostonian_Queer_in_Dallas · 1 year ago

Okay...now this will sound even insane from the Bostonian Queer...being in my late fifties, I've been around probably too long. And as an educator, I have seen many years of kids and our culture and all evolve. I've had this gnawing thing in my gut for many years that we've been killing ourselves with plastics. Cancers, ADD in kids, asthma, allergies, etc etc ad nauseum. It just seems to me, and I've no real science behind this, that in the second half of the 20th C and into the 21st, it seems more and more that this shit may have poisoned us and that industry even knew it but got away with it. Maybe this is pure tinfoil hat but our grandparents did not have the amount of cancer per capita that we do. But one thing is very clear...peak oil is not far off and plastic is made from oil. History showed that the Romans, having made a technological advance with lead line aquaducts, poisoned their brains and their empire died out. Thus a techno advance, such as television or plastic, poisoned the culture and the culture died out. This comment should not even be posted. It's just weird.

OlderAndWiser · 1 year ago

And not only plastic, many other deadly products as well. My mother died in 1948 from kidney failure and cervical cancer. I've always maintained that she was poisoned from working at Union Carbide's battery division during WWII, but it would take more research and effort that I'm able to muster to find other employees from that era at her workplace who suffered similar fates over the years.

Bostonian_Queer_in_Dallas · 1 year ago

Up until Ronnie Raygun, there had been good progress in having a
watchdogging government keeping an eye on shit. Through brilliant
propaganda, and a complicit media, Reagan convinced us that government
regulation was hurting us. It was not hurting us. This was about setting the
clock back to pre FDR government where business can do whatever it likes.
Jimmy Carter, in historical hindsight, is looking less and less awful now. I
was living abroad and missed his entire term but I am seeing now that
because he was realistic in many ways, it destroyed him. Big business is
laughing at us. They are howling at the American consumer. "Let's create a
product that people really don't need but we'll create a perceived need
through TV ads." Example: my partner bought a Swifter. With that refill that
costs a fortune. I showed him what the Swiss do...you take an ordinary rug
brush on a pole...you place a small cotton towel under it....you spritz some
deluted Mr Clean or some green cleaner on the floor...you mop. Now just wash
the cotton cloth you cleaned with. Nothing goes in the landfill and the
whole device cost pennies and did a better job. We do not need the Swifter.
But Johnson and Johnson or whoever makes this thing are laughing at the
IDIOT consumer who fell for the concept. The list is endless of products we
buy at top prices and don't need. He bought an electric steamer. Why. You
put water in a pot, put in a small metal basket, and it steams fine. There
are hundreds of crap things out there made in China that no one needs. For
my entire life I have never understood why we would need an electric can
opener.

OlderAndWiser · 1 year ago

Have you ever seen severely arthritic hands? Even those pull-type cans are difficult for people who have arthritis--so, they made little plastic devices to get around that one...

Bostonian_Queer_in_Dallas · 1 year ago

Yes I know there are people who need certain devices because of disability.
I guess the electric can opener is a poor example, as my mother could not
eat without one. But there are tons of other examples of things we just
don't need that consume energy as well as oil for plastic.

OlderAndWiser · 1 year ago

I agree. But lazy (too busy?) people often adopt energy saving devices invented to help those with disabilities. I often wonder about those "rolling chairs" I see on TV, for instance, and the ubiquitous "handicapped" temporary tags you see hanging from a vehicle's rearview mirror. Reminds me of the time I saw an SUV (with its workout spa logo), complete with woman dressed out in workout spandex, in a "handicapped space" right at the door at the supermarket.

Bostonian_Queer_in_Dallas · 1 year ago

saw that once...watched a guy in wheelchair key a new Caddy in a
handicapped parking space after a woman got out and ran into a store

OlderAndWiser · 1 year ago

Bostonian, I agree with you more than you think. And don't ever heat anything up in plastic in your microwave...it gets into the food. This is not tinfoil hat territory, either.

But anything oil wants to do, it does...even if it means slow death for so many. Profits, not regulation, is the answer for this WH even as it continues to bankrupt the US.

Õ¿Õ · 1 year ago

It's hard to get away from plastic. I never heat food in it but I use it for storage, always washing it in the sink. I try to limit the amount of chemicals I get exposed to. Like I've mentioned before, don't let them spray in here and only use Ivory soap for showering. Also, only use stainless steel for cooking. No aluminum.

Õ¿Õ · 1 year ago

Also no colognes or deodorant.

Õ¿Õ · 1 year ago

But it's a trade off. For years, organic food afficianados tried to get Julia Childs to come out against chemical use on crops. She finally told them it's either that or starvation and she lived a long life. People live generally longer now than they ever have.

Õ¿Õ · 1 year ago

Our livers do a great job of filtering out the chemicals. The trick is to limit the amount of work it has to do. I also take a liver supplement.

Õ¿Õ · 1 year ago

I love a small can of salmon with some crackers for lunch at work. (yeah I know, mercury) I also try to eat a tin of sardines every week or so. Keeps my coat shiny...

Õ¿Õ · 1 year ago

Fuck, you can't get away from it all 100%.

jr · 1 year ago

"toxics help your child get closer to God"-Wal Mart CEO Lee Scott

OlderAndWiser · 1 year ago

No, you can't get away with it 100%. There are just too many products out there to monitor, and even with "good information" you sometimes get fooled. My solution is to use glass (like Corningware for casseroles and roasters), cast iron, stainless steel (not always affordable as a set, but can be piece by piece). If we didn't have so much, we wouldn't have all those leftovers to store most people don't bother eating anyway and which are stored in the ubiquitous plastic containers.

The waste in this country never ceases to amaze me...I'm still in shock over seeing the amount of wasted food in a "typical" affluent household in an NBC report. And I'm ashamed of the little bit we do waste sometimes. Sometimes, my lunch is very strange, though, from eating leftovers...

Indigo · 1 year ago

Strange leftovers re-visualized = tapas. Very stylish. :-)

OlderAndWiser · 1 year ago

Ever made burritos with hummus, cheese and salsa? Quite different indeed. Mixing up cultures can be fun sometimes.

Indigo · 1 year ago

Sounds yummy!  I'll try it.

Õ¿Õ · 1 year ago

I have those tiny single serving plastic containers with the screw cap that doesn't leak for food storage. I cook just enough for about two meals. Cook and take work as left overs. I never throw anything away in the garbage. When I cook veggies, I don't use oil or salt so what's leftover is composted.

Õ¿Õ · 1 year ago

You can use oil in it for seasoning and it will compost but it attracts varmits.

ClayPotts · 1 year ago

Once the "mine is bigger than yours" macho neocons figure out that their male offspring's tiny genitals are due to the plastic baby bottles, laws will be passed that force women to breast feed.

OlderAndWiser · 1 year ago

My granddaughter wants to breastfeed my great-grandson when he's born...unfortunately she has to work, and will use a breast pump and the milk will have to be drunk by baby from a "Playtex" type bottle which has plastic liners...this can't be very good; nature made it easy for babies--man has made it difficult.

Milli · 1 year ago

Unless these toxins puts the fetuses of white, Christian, women in danger, the Bushies could care less.

cwzilla · 1 year ago

tthe so -clled pro lifers are more worried about the quanity of life than the quality life
and as far as republicans and dicks go just cause they tend to be huge dicks doesnt mean they have one