I’m willing to bet green money that President Barack Obama has probably been “profiled” at least once in his life. Before he became famous as a senator, which put him on the fast track to the White House, he was just another well-educated and successful “black” man, who’s very likely been pulled over, or otherwise stopped and questioned by police, on the basis of his skin color. It would not surprise me in the least to learn that my suspicions about this are correct — though looking like a “white” person, I cannot imagine how would feel to be treated that way.

President Obama has said that he doesn’t regret saying that Cambridge Massachusetts police officers “acted stupidly” when they arrested “black” Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr.

Good for him!

Even though the cops are goin’ off about how could make it harder for police to work with “people of color,” and how that could even set back the progress in “race relations” that helped Mr. Obama get elected as the first African-American, “black” president of color — yeah right, as if that’s why anyone voted for him in the first place.

(See, I don’t think a “black” man was elected president because of “progress in race relations,” or any of that anachronistic nonsense that is supposed to be part of our shameful history. The Democrats didn’t get a “black” man elected president because Mr. Obama is smart man, who got elected president by looking like a “black” man. If Mr. Obama had blond hair, blue eyes, and a peaches and creme complexion, he would never have gotten away with talkin’ like an Ivy Leaguer. Rather, he would have been almost immediately dismissed as an “elitist,” out of touch with the “common” people.)

David Holway, president of the International Brotherhood of Police Officers said, “the president’s alienated public safety officers across the country with his comments.”

What? Does he mean that “racial profiling” — a nice term for bigotry in law enforcement — is a useful crime fighting tool? If so, then “white” criminals probably hope it continues to be implemented, and “white” men who are trying to break into houses can do so as cops drive by, without even fear of becoming a suspect.

Cambridge police Commissioner Robert Haas said Obama’s comments hurt — I wonder if they hurt as much as living with the fact that people who are not “white” are stopped by law enforcement disproportionately.

The rural Australian town of Bundanoon has banned the sale of bottled water — and it’s possibly the first town in the whole world to ever do so.

And they may not be the last as more and more people are beginning to recognize that bottled water is not only a scam, it’s bad for the environment as well. Producing and trucking clean water, in single-serving containers, requires a lot of energy, and landfills are getting filled with empty water bottles.

Over the past few years, at least 60 cities in the United States and a handful of others in Canada and the United Kingdom have agreed to stop spending taxpayer dollars on bottled water, which is often consumed during city meetings, said Deborah Lapidus, organizer of Corporate Accountability International’s “Think Outside the Bottle” campaign in the U.S.

But the Boston-based nonprofit corporate watchdog has never heard of a community banning the sale of bottled water, she said.
“I think what this town is doing is taking it one step further and recognizing that there’s safe drinking water coming out of our taps,” she said.

Bundanoon’s battle against the bottle has been brewing for years, ever since a Sydney-based beverage company announced plans to build a water extraction plant in the town. Residents were furious over the prospect of an outsider taking their water, trucking it up to Sydney for processing and then selling it back to them. The town is still fighting the company’s proposal in court.

Then in March, Huw Kingston, who owns the town’s combination cafe and bike shop, had a thought: If the town was so against hosting a water bottling company, why not ban the end product?

…

The measure will not impose penalties on those who don’t comply when it goes into effect in September. Still, all the business owners voluntarily agreed to follow it, recognizing the financial and environmental drawbacks of bottled water, Kingston said.

On Wednesday, 356 people turned up for a vote — the biggest turnout ever at a town meeting.

Only two people voted no. One said he was worried banning bottled water would encourage people to drink sugary beverages. The other was Geoff Parker, director of the Australasian Bottled Water Institute — which represents the bottled water industry.

Now, living in Florida, which is one of the few places on Earth where drinking bottled water makes some sense because the tap water tastes really terrible due to the large amounts of lime and chlorine in it, I am somewhat torn as I recognize that bottled water is a rip-off and a waste of environmental resources, but also that the tap water here, while perfectly clean and safe, tastes nasty.

But, since there are many options for improving the taste of Florida tap water — such as pitchers and taps with water filters, and refrigerators with built-in water filtration systems — there’s still little to no justification for folks to pay for a bottle of water as they would a bottle of soda or juice, and then to discard it into the trash where it will sit, perhaps for centuries, in a landfill with millions — maybe even billions — of other little plastic bottles.

Here is some music I created in my virtual studio. I wrote all of them as MIDIs in Cakewalk on a PC, and then converted them to MP3s with GarageBand on an iMac.

Truth to tell, I can’t actually play all that well (and some parts of my songs probably can’t be played by humans anyway) but I understand music theory well enough to write music on a computer, which can play every note perfectly.

It’s lots of fun. But go ahead and tell me I suck, if that’s what ya think — anything’s better than being ignored.

I am lonely, oh so lonely, here in this lonely place. If anyone would care to join me in being largely ignored — except by spammers — just let me know.

(BTW, this is a test to see if anyone’s paying attention.)

Some facts about Zinc:

Zinc is an essential nutrient and zinc deficiency — which is quite rare in North America — can cause rather serious health problems.

Zinc can be toxic at high dosages. Symptoms of zinc toxicity include nausea, vomiting, loss of appetite, abdominal cramps, diarrhea, and headaches. The maximum daily intake of zinc is 7 mg for 1 to 3 year-olds, 12 mg for 4 to 8 year-olds, 23 mg for 9 to 13 year-olds, 34 mg for 14 to 18 year-olds, and 40 mg for adults, including pregnant or lactating mothers.

Zinc can cause adverse interactions with several drugs, such as antibiotics, diuretics, and the arthritis drug penicillamine.

Zinc supplements may be useful if one is not getting sufficient zinc from foods like red meat, poultry, beans, nuts, crab, lobster, oysters, whole grains, and dairy products, but that’s all zinc supplements do. Zinc supplements are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.

Well, they’re finally gonna put the man in the ground today, so perhaps that’ll signify the end of the wall-to-wall news coverage — I mean, you’d think the guy was a former head of state or something, the way some folks are going on, especially in the media.

Sure, he was a talented performer who was among the biggest names in pop music back in the 1980s, but that’s really all he ever was, besides tabloid fodder.

Now, of course, my thoughts and prayers are with his family and friends who actually knew and cared about him, in person. But as far as everyone else is concerned — especially those clamoring for “Golden Tickets” to his funeral, and then Twittering, with glee, about having gotten them — cue the violins and cry me a river!