Author: Aren Cambre

When speed enforcement gets out of hand

The United Kingdom is the poster child of an abusive police state. Thanks to its 6,000 automated speed cameras:

  • 4,500,000 drivers, 28% of all UK licensed drivers, have speeding convictions.
  • 900,000 drivers, 7% of all UK licensed drivers, are one conviction away from a driving ban.
  • 92% of moving violations are speeding tickets.
  • Almost $200,000,000 of revenue is raised annually with traffic fines.
  • Half of speeding violations are for less than 10 mph over the limit.

This is the sorry state where automated enforcement will bring us.

If you aren’t outraged, you haven’t been paying attention.

Sources: http://www.carkeys.co.uk/news/2007/march/30/12839.asp (most) and http://www.cfit.gov.uk/mf/reports/ar2004/index.htm (licensed driver count)

Organic food is bad for the earth

Organic shoppers think they are doing the earth a favor with their organic purchases. The Organic Trade Association even says: “Organic agricultural production benefits the environment by using earth-friendly agricultural methods and practices” followed by a litany of environmental plusses like less greenhouse gas, nicer to animals, etc. (source)

However, a lengthy UK study found that organic methods can hugely increase land usage, energy consumption, and environmental impact. For example, organic tomatoes use 642% more land, organic milk produces almost 100% more soil and water pollutants, and organic chickens cause 341% more resource depletion.

Like I mentioned in an earlier article, organic methods would be cheaper if they were really more “earth-friendly.” This isn’t a stretch; major inputs to food prices are energy, labor, and land. If you use more, you have to charge more. Organic products are 10% to 40% more expensive simply because they use that much more energy, land, and resources than conventionally-farmed materials.

Want to do the earth a favor? Stop buying resource-intensive versions of conventionally-produced products.

(Props to the Dallas Observer blog article that clued me in to the subject!)

Close-minded liberals won’t win Bush Library debate

Southern Methodist University is almost assured the George W. Bush Presidential Library. This is a fantastic opportunity for the university. However, some who claim the mantle of liberalism are practicing extreme close-mindedness as they agitate to scuttle the project.

To be fair to liberals involved in the library debate, most haven’t engaged in third grade, ad hominem attacks. Most of the informed argument is about a think tank, part of the proposed library package. Indeed, the anti-library petition, started by Andrew Weaver and George Crawford, states: “the operation of the think tank will not be accountable to SMU or the United Methodist Church that owns the University.” (source) Read between the lines: “we don’t like dissenting thought if we can’t control it.”

The irony with Andrew Weaver is particularly rich. In a 2005 review of a book about the religious right, he slammed institutions where “debate and dissent are discouraged,” and he whined about tactics of “political hardball and takeover bid.” What else is he trying to do with this 11th hour, anti-library campaign but squelch even the possibility of a dissenting viewpoint? What else is this campaign besides “political hardball and [a] takeover bid” to hijack the will of SMU’s Board of Trustees? Andrew whines about others, then does what they do wrong with even greater fervor? According to an account of hardball tactics bordering on harassment, this isn’t Andrew’s first time at this.

Fortunately, the overall picture is looking good:

  • People are not taking the anti-library petition seriously, and it isn’t commanding respect. Even a silly “impeach Bush” petition has far more signatures! “‘To reach the conclusion that this petition represents an overwhelming expression of concern would not be accurate,’ said Patti LaSalle, associate vice president for public affairs at SMU. ‘We’ve also received many letters from United Methodist members and leaders expressing favor for the presidential library.'” (source)
  • Student support appears to be strong. No organized, student-based opposition has taken off, and the Student Senate fully endorsed the entire package.
  • There is no sign of any Trustee dissent. To wit, Rev. Mark Craig, an SMU trustee and Senior Pastor of Highland Park United Methodist Church, said that the library opponents are “a fringe group, a marginal group without any standing other than the fact they happen to be one of 8 million United Methodists[.]” (source)
  • Faculty opposition is going nowhere, does not appear to represent anywhere near a majority of the faculty, and is even being viewed by some as an untimely, 11th hour revolt. The only credible movement within the Faculty Senate is to oppose an executive order established early in the Bush presidency. Indeed, the entire SMU History Department, which includes library supporters, is concerned about this order.
  • There is no credible movement to separate the think tank from the rest of the package. SMU President Gerald Turner has made it clear that “the library complex is an all or nothing venture.” (source)
  • Many faculty members have clearly stated their support of the library:
  • There is introspection on prior opportunities SMU frittered away, including losing what eventually became University of Texas at Dallas because of prior objections to conservative views.
  • The last recalcitrant, lawsuit-happy tenants of the University Gardens complex, where the library might be built, has been evicted. While his case is technically on appeal, it is unlikely to go anywhere now because SMU’s ownership of the property is clear.

As a lifelong, active United Methodist and an alumnus of SMU three times over, I am thrilled that SMU has been selected to receive the Bush library. I strongly support this, and I am glad that the opposition has had little effect on the debate.

Aren’s 9 Diet Rules

I just dug up a 10 year old medical checkup form. Despite significant muscle mass gains, I am 15 pounds lighter than 10 years ago! Here are the rules that helped me lose weight and maintain the weight loss:

  1. Don’t eat when not hungry. We eat a lot of food because of craving, not hunger. How do you tell the difference? Think of how you feel if you have eaten nothing in 8 hours. It’s a grinding feeling. Craving is just a dull, psychological feeling. If your digestive should signal true hunger when you need food. (Actually, it signals true hunger even when you don’t need food. More below.)
  2. …or eat fresh produce. If I cannot resist the craving, I eat unprocessed fresh fruit or vegetable. That doesn’t fully satisfy my craving, gradually retraining it. Additionally, fresh produce is much better for me than junk food snacks.
  3. It’s OK to feel hunger. In nature, animals eat all they can find because they don’t know where the next meal comes from. That’s why my dog is constantly starving. She forages all the time. If I fed her all she wanted, she would be a blimp. Humans share that same evolutionary programming. However, as humans, we can choose not to forage constantly. We can choose to feel hunger before meals.
  4. Many “healthy” foods are really junk foods. Anything packed with calories with relatively minimal nutritional value a junk food. This includes:
    • Fruit juice is junk food, even non-sweetened fruit juice. They are so packed with calories that you’re better off with sugary soft drinks. The same goes for smoothies. The average “original” size Jamba Juice smoothie is a 480 calorie bomb! That’s about three and a half soft drinks!
    • Stuff with trans fats are junk foods. Trans fats’ peculiar harm is more than just weight gain. Still, foods full of trans fats are often still bad for you even without the trans fats.
    • “Healthier” junk food is still junk food. It’s just marginally less deadly. Wendy’s removed the trans fats from its fries, but they are still bad for you. Remember when Snackwell cookies and other low fat products first came out? People started eating them as if they are healthy. In fact, these “healthier” products often had about as many calories as the originals, sometimes more!
  5. “Healthier” junk foods have a high opportunity cost. “Healthier” potato chips, popcorn, crackers, or other junk foods provide virtually no health benefit and offset better foods, ones with actual nutritional qualities. In high school, I knew kids who had a bag of potato chips with every lunch. That is a travesty; those potato chips offset something healthier like fresh fruits or vegetables.
  6. Exercise. Diet and exercise go hand and hand. While only one of the two is better than neither, you have to do both to get best results.
  7. Quit blaming the dog. This is euphemistic for society’s tendency to blame others for our own failings. You have to take personal responsibility. Just because the restaurant put two meals’ worth of foot in front of you doesn’t mean you have to eat it all.
  8. Don’t gorge at restaurants or special events. It’s OK to be be satiated without being stuffed, and you’ll save money to boot!
  9. Don’t buy into alternative medicine. Stuff like detoxification, coffee enemas, grapefruit diets, etc. are usually proven bunk, and even if they don’t harm you, they’re a distraction from good nutrition. You’re too valuable to be a living pseudo-science experiment.

Your skeptical side may suspect I am preaching but not practicing. You’re partly correct. I don’t follow these rules perfectly all the time.

I want to lose another 10-15 lbs to get rid of belly fat. (I may have ab muscles underneath them?) I’ll have to crank down these rules further. I think it’s an attainable goal, but we’ll see!

Never mind

I have switched back to WordPress from Drupal. I thought I was going to switch to Drupal, but I’ve changed my mind.

First, I thought I had all this other data that would make sense in a CMS. In fact, I don’t. Well, outside of a possible academic project, which would require its own CMS separate from my stuff, I don’t.

Second, I could not get Drupal to work properly and offer all the features of WordPress. For example, I tried installing a component that would let you click on categories, but that product screwed up the whole site.

I am probably back to WordPress for the time being. It works, and it’s simple. Why not stay with it?