Most lobbying ends up as bribery, direct or indirect, open or disguised. It should be strictly prohibited, and all bribery of government personnel should result in long prison terms for both parties.
Surprise! California has recently become the state with the highest poverty rate. Occasionally it takes a long time for the affects of bad policy to become apparent.
What do you think the rich do with their saved money, put it in their money vaults and swim in it? Reality is not a Disney cartoon.
If the rich want a benefit from the money they've saved, they have to spend it on goods and services. The providers of goods and services earn a living by their work, and that's how it "trickles down", not by any charitable impulse on a part of the rich.
Your paranoid portrayal of simple economics displays your malice, not the malice of the rich.
Some of the chemicals that make up soy aren't good for you. Some is OK, but don't make soy your primary protein source. Fermented soy products have lower amounts of the bad stuff.
Iron, like zinc and copper, can be a problem in quantities that are not hard to achieve. I wasn't aware of the "too much iron" report, but note also that among the elderly iron deficiency is also a potential problem.
Red meat, chocolate, and some of the (to my mind) nastier tasting vegetables are the richest sources of iron.
We have excellent feedback systems in the body to produce exactly the right amount of cholesterol.
Yes, there are bodily feedback systems to control the amount of cholesterol. Other than that, your statement is wrong in so many ways I can't enumerate them all. Excess cholesterol and problems with the various forms of cholesterol make it an intermediate cause of much cardiovascular disease.
Some moral systems can be defined objectively. Although claiming that selfishness is good is controversial, many systems accept that self-destruction is bad. Science can measure some forms of destruction and tie them to the behavior that causes the damage.
So, if a moral system identifies self-destruction as bad and a person has a character flaw that leads to self-flagellation, that bit of "moral character" can be seen to be bad and science can be used to flesh out the details and support the general conclusion.
Increasing food sensitivities of children have been blamed on just about anything that's changed over the last century and some things that haven't changed. Although there are some tantalizing clues, we basically just don't know yet.
In addition, a lobby for US sugar producers caused high tariffs on foreign sugar, so American producers wouldn't have to compete with cheap cane from the Caribbean and Brazil. To some extent, the tariff backfired on them, as food manufacturers switched from cane sugar to corn syrup when the cane sugar prices went up.
Some pharmaceuticals so old that they're off patent still sell for multiple thousands of times the cost of materials. The only time you'll see that in the supplement industry is in homeopathic products. Most supplements have multiple suppliers and low cost-of-entry for new suppliers, extreme gouging is mostly found among companies that do things like have 30 minute radio shows.
Learn some history. The "corporations are (like) people (before the law)" came from a corporation trying to evade paying for goods it had received, arguing that corporations don't have to pay because they don't have the financial responsibility that people have. The court said "Yes they do. Pay up." The initial corporations-are-like-people decision was to the disadvantage of the corporation and rightly so.
Free speech is for everyone, and limiting it by the sort of people involved is very dangerous.
"Profit-based legal entities" are essential to modern civilized human life, yet you seem to have an objection to them.
There are hundreds of supplement companies. Some do thorough quality control. Some do less well. Some supplement companies to nothing but sell pills made from powders bought in bulk from outside the U.S. (even China), relying on their vendor to do the Q.C.. It's not easy to tell which companies are selling good, uncontaminated, full strength fresh product.
Try to learn which brands are reputable; be wary of extremely strong claims. Read labels carefully. Most products from non-flamboyant companies are decent quality.
Supplement companies do not have the financial reserves to do the testing for unpatentable products, nor can they get a loan for a product that will never pay back the cost of the testing.
Universities frequently test odd things, and the small scale tests they run often give supplement companies a clue for possible new products. The scale of such tests are orders of magnitude below what the FDA requires. The supplement companies probably can't afford the bribes, either.
FWIW, it seems that there are a number of different ways to deal with cancer, some of which depend upon timing. When a cell is healthy, the goal is to protect it from the kind of damage that causes cancer; vitamins and minerals are helpful then. When a cell is somewhat damaged, sometimes it can be reverted to a healthy state; in some cases vitamins and other supplements help. In other cases, the damage can't be repaired, and we want the body to attack the cell and break it into harmless pieces. We want the damaged cell not to reproduce; some medicines and a few supplements slow reproduction of cancerous cells, some discourage the formation of blood vessels that would bring nutrients to the cancer. If a cancer is established in one place, the goal is to prevent it from establishing itself in other places, and the things that help toward that goal may differ from what works on other aspects of cancer.
Being absorbed through the skin is not an all-or-nothing affair. Some small portion of many things regarded as "not absorbed through the skin" do, in fact, get through.
Analgesic cremes such as Ben-Gay do reduce pain, and that wouldn't happen if they got no further than the epidermis.
For another example, vitamin C in water solution can reduce the effects of a sunburn.
Slashdot Mirror
He's cheating! I want to cheat, too!
Most lobbying ends up as bribery, direct or indirect, open or disguised. It should be strictly prohibited, and all bribery of government personnel should result in long prison terms for both parties.
Surprise! California has recently become the state with the highest poverty rate. Occasionally it takes a long time for the affects of bad policy to become apparent.
What do you think the rich do with their saved money, put it in their money vaults and swim in it? Reality is not a Disney cartoon.
If the rich want a benefit from the money they've saved, they have to spend it on goods and services. The providers of goods and services earn a living by their work, and that's how it "trickles down", not by any charitable impulse on a part of the rich.
Your paranoid portrayal of simple economics displays your malice, not the malice of the rich.
Some of the chemicals that make up soy aren't good for you. Some is OK, but don't make soy your primary protein source. Fermented soy products have lower amounts of the bad stuff.
Iron, like zinc and copper, can be a problem in quantities that are not hard to achieve. I wasn't aware of the "too much iron" report, but note also that among the elderly iron deficiency is also a potential problem.
Red meat, chocolate, and some of the (to my mind) nastier tasting vegetables are the richest sources of iron.
Yes, there are bodily feedback systems to control the amount of cholesterol. Other than that, your statement is wrong in so many ways I can't enumerate them all. Excess cholesterol and problems with the various forms of cholesterol make it an intermediate cause of much cardiovascular disease.
Salting and smoking are traditional ways to preserve food. Better than food that's rotted, but still not as good as well-prepared fresh food.
Dude, that's gotta hurt.
Some moral systems can be defined objectively. Although claiming that selfishness is good is controversial, many systems accept that self-destruction is bad. Science can measure some forms of destruction and tie them to the behavior that causes the damage.
So, if a moral system identifies self-destruction as bad and a person has a character flaw that leads to self-flagellation, that bit of "moral character" can be seen to be bad and science can be used to flesh out the details and support the general conclusion.
I see what you've done there and you're not getting away with it.
Increasing food sensitivities of children have been blamed on just about anything that's changed over the last century and some things that haven't changed. Although there are some tantalizing clues, we basically just don't know yet.
The last common ancestor of sheep and Wales is quite recent.
-- it's a joke.
You've got it backwards. Eating poor quality foods makes you sick and stupid, and those things in turn make you poor.
Some enzymes in food help break down the food before the body breaks down the enzymes. Bromelain and papain are the obvious examples.
Numerous scientific studies demonstrate the longevity and health benefits of fatty fish consumption.
In addition, a lobby for US sugar producers caused high tariffs on foreign sugar, so American producers wouldn't have to compete with cheap cane from the Caribbean and Brazil. To some extent, the tariff backfired on them, as food manufacturers switched from cane sugar to corn syrup when the cane sugar prices went up.
Why do you think repeating yourself is interesting?
Working for pay is ethical. Paying for work is ethical. Both are major essential parts of the Free Market.
Some pharmaceuticals so old that they're off patent still sell for multiple thousands of times the cost of materials. The only time you'll see that in the supplement industry is in homeopathic products. Most supplements have multiple suppliers and low cost-of-entry for new suppliers, extreme gouging is mostly found among companies that do things like have 30 minute radio shows.
Learn some history. The "corporations are (like) people (before the law)" came from a corporation trying to evade paying for goods it had received, arguing that corporations don't have to pay because they don't have the financial responsibility that people have. The court said "Yes they do. Pay up." The initial corporations-are-like-people decision was to the disadvantage of the corporation and rightly so.
Free speech is for everyone, and limiting it by the sort of people involved is very dangerous.
"Profit-based legal entities" are essential to modern civilized human life, yet you seem to have an objection to them.
A side note on quality control.
There are hundreds of supplement companies. Some do thorough quality control. Some do less well. Some supplement companies to nothing but sell pills made from powders bought in bulk from outside the U.S. (even China), relying on their vendor to do the Q.C.. It's not easy to tell which companies are selling good, uncontaminated, full strength fresh product.
Try to learn which brands are reputable; be wary of extremely strong claims. Read labels carefully. Most products from non-flamboyant companies are decent quality.
Some governments are formed partially to create and promote fraud. As the USSR did for Lysenko.
Supplement companies do not have the financial reserves to do the testing for unpatentable products, nor can they get a loan for a product that will never pay back the cost of the testing.
Universities frequently test odd things, and the small scale tests they run often give supplement companies a clue for possible new products. The scale of such tests are orders of magnitude below what the FDA requires. The supplement companies probably can't afford the bribes, either.
Vitamin C reduces the incidence of many cancers.
FWIW, it seems that there are a number of different ways to deal with cancer, some of which depend upon timing. When a cell is healthy, the goal is to protect it from the kind of damage that causes cancer; vitamins and minerals are helpful then. When a cell is somewhat damaged, sometimes it can be reverted to a healthy state; in some cases vitamins and other supplements help. In other cases, the damage can't be repaired, and we want the body to attack the cell and break it into harmless pieces. We want the damaged cell not to reproduce; some medicines and a few supplements slow reproduction of cancerous cells, some discourage the formation of blood vessels that would bring nutrients to the cancer. If a cancer is established in one place, the goal is to prevent it from establishing itself in other places, and the things that help toward that goal may differ from what works on other aspects of cancer.
Being absorbed through the skin is not an all-or-nothing affair. Some small portion of many things regarded as "not absorbed through the skin" do, in fact, get through.
Analgesic cremes such as Ben-Gay do reduce pain, and that wouldn't happen if they got no further than the epidermis.
For another example, vitamin C in water solution can reduce the effects of a sunburn.