It was announced by the AP and National Transportation and Safety Administration that traffic deaths last year were at the lowest levels since 1949.
Many factors were attributed to this statistic heralded by the NTSA Director, such as seat belt use and raising drinking ages, safer cars and so forth.
But to this writer none of those statistics I feel are primarily responsible in the decreasing levels since '49.
The largest factor would appear to be that there are fewer drivers really on the highways progressively also traveling since air travel has become the preferred method since that time for most business travel and families, due to less time to get from here to there as also a consequence of our increasingly higher stress lifestyles, and also the fact that the boomers, the largest segment of the population, are aging and thus don't appear to be drag racing anymore on the streets and highways.
They are the ones most often getting the finger from the more aggressive drivers still left on the roadways.
Primarily, of course, our youth or even the police who seem to exceed the speed limit in most metro cities far more than those boomers driving their grandkids or themselves to the nearest work force center, many of whom after vast years of experience are still seeking work for which they are more than qualified even given the excessively tech focused job scene and market and all those jobs they formerly held lost due to the advent of the computer age.
While, of course, they are being interviewed by their children or those even younger than their children for many of those few jobs.
It was announced once again that there was a gain in the available jobs, and the unemployment rate had decreased.
Not surprising given that most of those benefits have run out for many, and the jobs which have been created most likely are those now tied into expanding our even increasing military due to the recent headlines in our involvement now in Libya and its civil war.
Those statistics also fail to recognize all the monies poured into expanding our highway and freeway systems since '49, so it would not appear that this statistic would be surprising in the slightest since there are better roadways also for those truckers and cars to traverse from state to state.
But ignoring the obvious does appear also to fit the agendas once again of those whose hold those questionably Constitutional jobs and functions, which also does not explain then the higher and higher insurance rates which are now off the charts in most parts of the country.
Maybe the biggest factor is also the progressively higher and higher gasoline rates and those ever increasing taxes, such as the recent 35% plus increase in the cost of gasoline, which has left quite a few Americans with the only remaining transportation left to them.
Walking to their next job interview.
Showing posts with label safety. Show all posts
Showing posts with label safety. Show all posts
Friday, April 1, 2011
Monday, March 1, 2010
SeaWorld Shamus Gone Wild: 2007 Cal/OSHA Report Quashed?
In doing further research due to mainstream media reports regarding last week's death of an experienced trainer at SeaWorld Orlando, I came across an investigative report published by the local news media in San Diego from 2007 with respect to an incident which occurred at the San Diego SeaWorld Park and then was subsequently investigated by Cal/OSHA.
Strangely enough, during the investigation of the 2007 incident, another incident came to light from 1987 involving a whale I am more than familiar with, Orky, that was aggressively pursuing a female trainer at a show me and my family attended back in 1983-84 before Marineland of the Pacific was purchased by SeaWorld and then closed, and Orky then subsequently transferred to SeaWorld San Diego.
During the 1987 incident, Orky apparently did get a male trainer against the ropes, as it were, which resulted in some broken bones and lacerations to the trainer's internal organs after being thrashed around.
Apparently, even after this 2007 incident, there was little change instituted with respect to true protection of those trainers such as mandating provision of life saving equipment (such as guns or harpoons) be available during training sessions or shows in order to protect the human population from such reoccurrences back then, other than those "noise buckets" most that have attended those shows have either seen, or if as in my family's experience, saw them actually used in order to distract or redirect the whale's attention.
But does appear they can be singleminded in their quests for either attention, or communicating their displeasure, if so inclined.
In fact, it appears from this article, that the OSHA review was quite cursory, and conducted by the state, rather than federal, OSHA authorities although this park is now not simply a national commercial conglomerate and venture, owned now by a global investment company out of New York to boot, but also a global park and industry.
The argument, of course, the park used was that they were "visited" by the U.S. Department of Agriculture two or three times a year, and had had no previous violations during this investigation.
And that Cal/OSHA "wasn't qualifed" to conducted the investigations, it appears, so the files in that matter were successfully supressed by the legal team for SeaWorld, who indicated that the USDA had oversight.
My reaction to that, though, is that it is my understanding that the USDA's primary concerns in visiting the park would be the food safety as a public venue, and just what type of inspection would they conduct with respect to these whales and their interactions with the trainers, other than check them for any viruses or communicable diseases that might contaminate any food sources consumed by the public?
Whereas OSHA is supposed to be charged with protecting the job site and working conditions of the trainers and staff, and would be the most definitely the appropriate state and federal authorities to so do with jobsite safety issues.
Apparently, Cal/OSHA is merely conducting "reactive" visits to these parks and not pro-active ones, since it apparently closed its file on SeaWorld after it's investigation of this 2007 incident after losing that round after the 2007 incident in a California court was either suppressed or ignored, and I would assume since OSHA is an agency that is over thirty to forty years old, the incident with Orky from 1987 which involved a male trainer who was slammed around by the whale that was the same one that was involved in the incident in 1983-84 that we viewed agressively challenging and chasing a female trainer, who then subsequently went after a male trainer that attempted to intervene and assist the "pursued" female trainer was simply viewed as the "risks" of the job by higher level management and most likely not reported at all.
Where has the federal OSHA authorities been due to the fact that this is fundamentally a national (and global) chain?
No one was hurt, luckily, in that 2003-2004 incident.
Let's hope the investigation into this latest tragedy involving another male orca that was captured in the wild, one that is linked now to three separate deaths in two different parks, results in some measure of protection for those trainers.
Perhaps in giving some credence to those suggestions some of those trainers made to the Cal/OSHA authorities as contained in this article which also apparently were ignored by corporate in order to reduce the risks which have now resulted in a violent death in Orlando.
In any event, just maybe if there had been harpoons and guns available to those trainers as a real distraction, or fewer shows and less stimulation of them since this "new and improved" show "Believe" I understand involves quite a bit of high tech gadgetry and stunts from all reports - Ms. Brancheau just might still be alive.
I mean there are actually about three to four of these shows per day, and now even huge screen TV's and loud, loud speakers with high tech "new age" type music accompanying the story line, and that would get on my nerves if I had to listen to it daily, much less three or four times per day.
But not to have adequate protectionary measures in force, or "shoot to kill" orders for some of these incidences that have subsequently resulted in human injury and now even multiple deaths begs the question, just whose life is more important?
I mean, there are no shortages of whales in captivity actually, as there are and have been numerous calves born each and every year due to the increase in the captive whale populations and their breeding programs throughout the world due to SeaWorld's past success as a commercial/educational venture in their efforts to domesticate and study them under their prior ownership, in large part.
And with tickets at over $250-300 for the average family for a visit to their parks, it would seem their profit margins have soared since the early days, and at this point, would seem to me that orcas like Tilly (and Orky before) are more of a liability than asset, what with all those vet bills and other expenses that are piling up as more and more of these incidents have occurred.
But I found really no published reports at this point tracking just how many injuries, major or minor, these trainers have been subjected to since it appears OSHA is not a frequent visitor pro-actively, nor logging or following up comprehensively on some of these reports at this now global billion dollar theme park enterprise.
Or apparently only superficially acting on them, or being quashed into submission due to corporate special interests at the state level that apparently have been sealing records, and using the California court system, at least, in order to silence and intimidate the critics, both from the public and even some in the field of animal science.
Or, perhaps in the case of some of those affected trainers, potentially the unemployment line?
http://www.10news.com/news/13343165/detail.html
Strangely enough, during the investigation of the 2007 incident, another incident came to light from 1987 involving a whale I am more than familiar with, Orky, that was aggressively pursuing a female trainer at a show me and my family attended back in 1983-84 before Marineland of the Pacific was purchased by SeaWorld and then closed, and Orky then subsequently transferred to SeaWorld San Diego.
During the 1987 incident, Orky apparently did get a male trainer against the ropes, as it were, which resulted in some broken bones and lacerations to the trainer's internal organs after being thrashed around.
Apparently, even after this 2007 incident, there was little change instituted with respect to true protection of those trainers such as mandating provision of life saving equipment (such as guns or harpoons) be available during training sessions or shows in order to protect the human population from such reoccurrences back then, other than those "noise buckets" most that have attended those shows have either seen, or if as in my family's experience, saw them actually used in order to distract or redirect the whale's attention.
But does appear they can be singleminded in their quests for either attention, or communicating their displeasure, if so inclined.
In fact, it appears from this article, that the OSHA review was quite cursory, and conducted by the state, rather than federal, OSHA authorities although this park is now not simply a national commercial conglomerate and venture, owned now by a global investment company out of New York to boot, but also a global park and industry.
The argument, of course, the park used was that they were "visited" by the U.S. Department of Agriculture two or three times a year, and had had no previous violations during this investigation.
And that Cal/OSHA "wasn't qualifed" to conducted the investigations, it appears, so the files in that matter were successfully supressed by the legal team for SeaWorld, who indicated that the USDA had oversight.
My reaction to that, though, is that it is my understanding that the USDA's primary concerns in visiting the park would be the food safety as a public venue, and just what type of inspection would they conduct with respect to these whales and their interactions with the trainers, other than check them for any viruses or communicable diseases that might contaminate any food sources consumed by the public?
Whereas OSHA is supposed to be charged with protecting the job site and working conditions of the trainers and staff, and would be the most definitely the appropriate state and federal authorities to so do with jobsite safety issues.
Apparently, Cal/OSHA is merely conducting "reactive" visits to these parks and not pro-active ones, since it apparently closed its file on SeaWorld after it's investigation of this 2007 incident after losing that round after the 2007 incident in a California court was either suppressed or ignored, and I would assume since OSHA is an agency that is over thirty to forty years old, the incident with Orky from 1987 which involved a male trainer who was slammed around by the whale that was the same one that was involved in the incident in 1983-84 that we viewed agressively challenging and chasing a female trainer, who then subsequently went after a male trainer that attempted to intervene and assist the "pursued" female trainer was simply viewed as the "risks" of the job by higher level management and most likely not reported at all.
Where has the federal OSHA authorities been due to the fact that this is fundamentally a national (and global) chain?
No one was hurt, luckily, in that 2003-2004 incident.
Let's hope the investigation into this latest tragedy involving another male orca that was captured in the wild, one that is linked now to three separate deaths in two different parks, results in some measure of protection for those trainers.
Perhaps in giving some credence to those suggestions some of those trainers made to the Cal/OSHA authorities as contained in this article which also apparently were ignored by corporate in order to reduce the risks which have now resulted in a violent death in Orlando.
In any event, just maybe if there had been harpoons and guns available to those trainers as a real distraction, or fewer shows and less stimulation of them since this "new and improved" show "Believe" I understand involves quite a bit of high tech gadgetry and stunts from all reports - Ms. Brancheau just might still be alive.
I mean there are actually about three to four of these shows per day, and now even huge screen TV's and loud, loud speakers with high tech "new age" type music accompanying the story line, and that would get on my nerves if I had to listen to it daily, much less three or four times per day.
But not to have adequate protectionary measures in force, or "shoot to kill" orders for some of these incidences that have subsequently resulted in human injury and now even multiple deaths begs the question, just whose life is more important?
I mean, there are no shortages of whales in captivity actually, as there are and have been numerous calves born each and every year due to the increase in the captive whale populations and their breeding programs throughout the world due to SeaWorld's past success as a commercial/educational venture in their efforts to domesticate and study them under their prior ownership, in large part.
And with tickets at over $250-300 for the average family for a visit to their parks, it would seem their profit margins have soared since the early days, and at this point, would seem to me that orcas like Tilly (and Orky before) are more of a liability than asset, what with all those vet bills and other expenses that are piling up as more and more of these incidents have occurred.
But I found really no published reports at this point tracking just how many injuries, major or minor, these trainers have been subjected to since it appears OSHA is not a frequent visitor pro-actively, nor logging or following up comprehensively on some of these reports at this now global billion dollar theme park enterprise.
Or apparently only superficially acting on them, or being quashed into submission due to corporate special interests at the state level that apparently have been sealing records, and using the California court system, at least, in order to silence and intimidate the critics, both from the public and even some in the field of animal science.
Or, perhaps in the case of some of those affected trainers, potentially the unemployment line?
http://www.10news.com/news/13343165/detail.html
Thursday, May 7, 2009
Food Safety Legislation Threatens Small Farmers, Citizen Consumers
“Control oil and you control nations; control food and you control the people” - Henry Kissinger
In wake of the recent health "threats" due to the peanut/salmonella scare, Mexican tomato/salmonella scare and swine flu scares, Congress has been gearing up in order to supposedly "protect" the American citizens and consumers with two bills now in committee.
The first, HR 875 or The Food Safety Modernization Act, is an attempt by Congress to appoint an agri-business connected "Food Czar" over the enforcement of regulatory standards mainly directed toward America's small business farmers, placing complicated governmental hoops for small farmers to jump through that in its provisions basically strips them of their rights to farm their own land.
The penalties for non-compliance of this Food Safety Czar's edicts or any of the provisions of this Act can result in forfeiture of their lands and property.
One provision of this Act, the National Animal ID System, requires small farmers to immediately tag and identify all animals born on their farms with expensive identifying equipment within a mere 48 hours of birth. The penalty for non-compliance is a fine in the amount of $500,000, ten years imprisonment and/or forfeiture of their property.
Interestingly, for large corporate agri-businesses the same provisions only require identification of one number in every 800,00 animals.
Another provision requires small farmers to create easements on their lands for warrantless governmental inspection and entry at will. It would also eliminate allowance of "seed banking" by small farmers for future crops.
This bill was introduced by Rosa Deloro whose husband has Monsanto as a client, and who herself has received over $180,000 in agri-business donations.
In its provisions, it is a blatant attempt by the large agri-businesses and Congress to seize control of our food supply, and force us to consume their products rather than those of less expensive and locally grown produce from small area farmers.
Michael Taylor, a former Monsanto employee, is lobbying now for a position in the Obama Administration as the Food Safety Czar in furtherance of the large agri-business communities agendas of total control of our food production and delivery.
Since large agri-businesses rarely simply sell in local markets, it actually will eventually more than likely result in greater contamination and diseases which now occur during transportation and processing to large industrialized out state processing plants, and will place significant barriers on also organically grown food supplies.
The second bill, HR-759 or FDA Globalization Act of 2009 will vastly expand the FDA's authority over our food supply by granting full authority to define and enforce science based standards for the production and harvesting of plant sources in the global market place.
Our economy wasn't enough, now our food sources and supplies are going under global control and dominion through our own FDA.
The definition of "science based" of course is left totally open so that it can be defined in any manner this regulatory body determines is in the interest of "science," and again as with many federal regulatory bodies including and especially our IRS, without direct Congressional oversight in any manner whatsoever.
Most likely those in charge of these regulatory standards will have agri-business backgrounds, and who's to say that certain organically based food sources would not meet their definitions of "science based."
It also places the small farmer under the same requirements as it does the large industrial agri-businesses, and would require all farms to register with the FDA (of course for an annual fee), create extensive written food safety plans, keep copious electronic records and MANDATE certification in so-called "good agricultural practices."
This bill also seems intended to feed the "science" and "technology" fields Mr. Obama and the globalists in the federal govenment are so enmored with, and who also make rather large campaign contributions to federal legislators' campaign chests.
Local small farmers are already metriculous in their practices due to the very fact that they depend on word of mouth and a strong reputation in order to stay in business.
The USDA already has unilateral authority to shut down any farm that is not in compliance with existing standards and seize any and all contaminated products.
What is missing is better screening of those products that enter this country from the global markets at the point of entry, and also the large agri-businesses and their transport methods to large national or foreign processing plants which can contaminate bulk food sources on a more massive and national scale.
The bulk of small business farmers' products are sold locally, as opposed to the larger agri-businesses, so it appears the attacks on the small business farmers are an attempt to seize total control of our food sources and market, and expand their farms and fields through forefeitures, and not simply in order to insure the safety of the quality of food sold at your local grocery.
Below are the bills, and they are now in Committee most likely to be heard prior to Memorial Day.
Please contact your Senators and House members in order to preserve freedom over our own food sources in this country, and protect those small farmers who are the backbone of this nation:
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=h111-759
http://www.opencongress.org/bill/111-h759/show
http://www.congress.org/congressorg/officials/congress
In wake of the recent health "threats" due to the peanut/salmonella scare, Mexican tomato/salmonella scare and swine flu scares, Congress has been gearing up in order to supposedly "protect" the American citizens and consumers with two bills now in committee.
The first, HR 875 or The Food Safety Modernization Act, is an attempt by Congress to appoint an agri-business connected "Food Czar" over the enforcement of regulatory standards mainly directed toward America's small business farmers, placing complicated governmental hoops for small farmers to jump through that in its provisions basically strips them of their rights to farm their own land.
The penalties for non-compliance of this Food Safety Czar's edicts or any of the provisions of this Act can result in forfeiture of their lands and property.
One provision of this Act, the National Animal ID System, requires small farmers to immediately tag and identify all animals born on their farms with expensive identifying equipment within a mere 48 hours of birth. The penalty for non-compliance is a fine in the amount of $500,000, ten years imprisonment and/or forfeiture of their property.
Interestingly, for large corporate agri-businesses the same provisions only require identification of one number in every 800,00 animals.
Another provision requires small farmers to create easements on their lands for warrantless governmental inspection and entry at will. It would also eliminate allowance of "seed banking" by small farmers for future crops.
This bill was introduced by Rosa Deloro whose husband has Monsanto as a client, and who herself has received over $180,000 in agri-business donations.
In its provisions, it is a blatant attempt by the large agri-businesses and Congress to seize control of our food supply, and force us to consume their products rather than those of less expensive and locally grown produce from small area farmers.
Michael Taylor, a former Monsanto employee, is lobbying now for a position in the Obama Administration as the Food Safety Czar in furtherance of the large agri-business communities agendas of total control of our food production and delivery.
Since large agri-businesses rarely simply sell in local markets, it actually will eventually more than likely result in greater contamination and diseases which now occur during transportation and processing to large industrialized out state processing plants, and will place significant barriers on also organically grown food supplies.
The second bill, HR-759 or FDA Globalization Act of 2009 will vastly expand the FDA's authority over our food supply by granting full authority to define and enforce science based standards for the production and harvesting of plant sources in the global market place.
Our economy wasn't enough, now our food sources and supplies are going under global control and dominion through our own FDA.
The definition of "science based" of course is left totally open so that it can be defined in any manner this regulatory body determines is in the interest of "science," and again as with many federal regulatory bodies including and especially our IRS, without direct Congressional oversight in any manner whatsoever.
Most likely those in charge of these regulatory standards will have agri-business backgrounds, and who's to say that certain organically based food sources would not meet their definitions of "science based."
It also places the small farmer under the same requirements as it does the large industrial agri-businesses, and would require all farms to register with the FDA (of course for an annual fee), create extensive written food safety plans, keep copious electronic records and MANDATE certification in so-called "good agricultural practices."
This bill also seems intended to feed the "science" and "technology" fields Mr. Obama and the globalists in the federal govenment are so enmored with, and who also make rather large campaign contributions to federal legislators' campaign chests.
Local small farmers are already metriculous in their practices due to the very fact that they depend on word of mouth and a strong reputation in order to stay in business.
The USDA already has unilateral authority to shut down any farm that is not in compliance with existing standards and seize any and all contaminated products.
What is missing is better screening of those products that enter this country from the global markets at the point of entry, and also the large agri-businesses and their transport methods to large national or foreign processing plants which can contaminate bulk food sources on a more massive and national scale.
The bulk of small business farmers' products are sold locally, as opposed to the larger agri-businesses, so it appears the attacks on the small business farmers are an attempt to seize total control of our food sources and market, and expand their farms and fields through forefeitures, and not simply in order to insure the safety of the quality of food sold at your local grocery.
Below are the bills, and they are now in Committee most likely to be heard prior to Memorial Day.
Please contact your Senators and House members in order to preserve freedom over our own food sources in this country, and protect those small farmers who are the backbone of this nation:
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=h111-759
http://www.opencongress.org/bill/111-h759/show
http://www.congress.org/congressorg/officials/congress
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
