Gun related violence is unacceptable: There has been a spate of school shooting and other gun related incidents in US, the most recent being in movie cinema in Aurora Colorado and a Sikh temple (Gurudwara) in Wisconsin. In the rest of the world, we hear of occasional such incidences; last major one that we can remember was in Denmark last year. In many countries, such a large number of gun violence is almost unheard of. Aurora shooting has left 12 dead and more than 50 injured, Wisconsin has left six dead and several injured. Gun related violence requires serious attention from all of us to do everything possible to prevent such killings of innocents in future. Prudence and common sense demands this as our duty to our children and society. 

Constitution, culture and US politics: Right to carry arm has its roots in the early gunpowder control incident of 1975. The independence movement from British soon inscribed it in populous psychology. Higher courts have always upheld the right of carrying arm for self-defense. The US was won over from the indigenous Indians by way of superior power of guns of early settlers, while Indians only had spears, bow and arrows. Then the westward movement of those settlers also required arms. Hence gun ownership is ingrained in American culture.

US history is witness to the fact that gun owning is a very sensitive issue. Politics and psychology has played it such that second amendment right to carry arm is almost taken to be a mandatory duty and not just a right. Supporters of carrying arms, like National Rifle Association (NRA) and Gun Owners Association of America (GOA), besides the manufacturers and vested interest lobbies have further created a hype of an invisible enemy. 

Need of today: Times have changed since independence of US. We do not have wars with our neighbors and Wild West is no wilder. We all must respect necessity of owning guns for self-defense and pleasure of hunting.  However, common sense tells us that these do not require automatic and semi-automatic weapons. Ownership of gun must be allowed but some common sense rules and laws must be enacted to avoid and prevent accidents and the guns going in the hands of criminals. There should be some rational control for its purchase and records with appropriate authority. Most of the old British Empire (now British Commonwealth countries) has such gun control laws, which works fine. They have minimal accidents with guns because they are simply not around as much as we have in US.

Some relevant statistics:  Some of these tell us the simple truth that it is simply larger number of guns around that creates many of our problems.

• US have about 5% of population of the world but have 50% of all the guns of the world.
• In US there are more than 80 guns per 100 citizens, as compared to less than 10 in most of the world. Even guns, are closely monitored by proper licensing and records with authorities in almost all countries.
• In US there are more than 11,000 homicide deaths per 100,000 populations as compared to around 100 in countries like UK, Japan, Australia and Canada. That means homicides are almost 1000 times more in US.
• The correlation of larger number of guns with big numbers of homicides and accidents is so obvious.
• One reason given for such incidents is that it tis the work of psychopaths and mentally ill people. However, US do not have any disproportionately higher number of such people than the rest of the world.
• The kind of arsenal that we find used in such accidents truly belongs to the soldiers in army and certainly not needed by civilians.

Other relevant facts: 

• Gun related crimes are much smaller in number in countries with good gun control laws
• Gun related accidents are almost unheard of in countries with gun control laws
• One can relate with the groups and people wanting to own guns in this violent world of recent days, but for such needs appropriate weapons for defensive use may be licensed and registered by authorities
• There is no reason that high powered and multi bullet magazines may be allowed beyond some reasonable number of shots in a magazine
• In US there are almost as many guns as the population and some of these are left easily accessible to children causing risk of accidents
• In countries like Switzerland, almost every adult has a gun, but they are all trained in militia and teach their children how to respect such lethal weapon and hence have only rare gun related accidents
• Abundance of gun availability has caused four of our US president’s lives in 11 assassination attempts

Conclusion: It is high time that we legislate some common sense laws about guns within the ambit of constitution instead of living in paranoid fantasy about some non-existent threats. Let us all work on it with our hearts and souls and stop ranting about the constitutional rights of owning arms, which is harming us more than doing good.

We must at least have some common sense laws enacted to ensure that such arsenal do not fall easily in the hands of criminals. Proper permitting procedure and registration of weapons will reduce such possibilities. Substantially. Multiple numbers of guns in majority of the households also poses a risk of accidental injuries to our children because they are not always secured well and children are not trained to respect these lethal “toys”.

We should at least define the following through legislation:

• What criteria should be used to allow the possession of guns?
• What is the largest caliber gun allowed to any civilian?
• What should be biggest magazine capacity for civilian use?
• What kind of arsenal can be owned by anyone?

If we did not define this, the present laws do not clearly tell who can buy and own even larger cannons and nuclear weapons. It is our duty to sort such an important matter in an amicable way and prevent potential risks to our society.

Should you allow your children to have silver amalgam?

Decide it yourselves, here are some pertinent facts.

In this article:

•  Why is this discussion important?
•  Why the controversy?
•  Who is right?
•  My take on this subject

Introduction:

Filling started by some French, who brought it to the USA in 1930s. The filling, which has been named “silver filling”, has almost always been more than half mercury alloy. As per Wikipedia  article within the first decade it was deprecated by the American society of dental Surgeons (ASDS) and was declared malpractice because of its mercury content, which was known to be harmful. In the past 30 years or so the controversy is because there are some resin composites are available to replace the old mercury filling but Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and American Dental Association (ADA) are not budging from their position of supporting silver mercury filling and not recommending the new resin compound. The controversy continues after 150 years, when many patients remains either ignorant or confused.

Why is it important to common citizens?

Population of the world is coming to nearly seven billion humans. Everyone has 32 teeth. Many of them get affected by caries. Many need root canals and dental filling. Depending upon available facilities to treat the patients there are an awful lot of people who will have filling in their lives. The filling normally stays in the tooth for the rest of the life. Mercury is known to emit vapors in people using chewing tobacco or gums or suffering from teeth grinding. The vapors are inhaled and are toxic to brain and kidney. Its placement in teeth is too close to brain and nerves for comfort to many and hence raising an outcry. It is also important to some extent that silver amalgam is durable, cheaper and easy and hence perhaps has FDA and ADA support.

Yet another issue is the disposal of mercury amalgam at its removal or death of person, which adds mercury load of sewerages and environment, which is a concern. Additionally there may be some other issues due to filling in patients, including allergies and immunotoxicity.

Who is right?

As per another Wikipedia article, there has been much review of literatures without any definitive conclusion, though it seems perhaps slightly leaning against the filling. The WHO reports  that mercury from amalgam accounts for 5% of total mercury emissions and that when combined with waste mercury from laboratory and medical devices represents 53% of total mercury emissions. Use of mercury dental amalgam has been banned in Scandinavian countries. Other countries are looking into restricting its use.  Many health problems are alleged to be caused by amalgam are chronic illnesses, oral lesions, birth defects, mental disorders, autoimmune disorders, neurodegenerative diseases and multiple sclerosis.  Some dentists feel so strongly that they advise removal of mercury filling, which is advised to be done as per protocol, which is elaborate and expensive.

Some people feeling strongly about the mercury amalgam have sued FDA. In response in 2009 the FDA’s Ass. Comm. Randall Lutter and Charlie Brown negotiated and, for the first time, the FDA issued this frank and serious warning about amalgam on their website: “Dental amalgams contain mercury, which may have neurotoxic effects on the nervous systems of developing children and fetuses.”

Dr Mercola is strong proponent of Consumers for Dental Choice founded by Charlie Brown, which are striving hard to take on FDA to ban mercury amalgam.

MY Take and Comments on the issue:

1. Despite the fact that silver mercury amalgam is used for over 150 years, there has not been any definitive study and adverse outcome. This does not mean though that three are not any risks.
2. I would personally not accept mercury amalgam to be used in my children or grand children because elf a long time that they have to live with it.
3. Almost a third to half of dental surgeons in USA has already stopped using mercury amalgam. But you need to ask to confirm. My Dental surgeon Dr Ayeez Lalji of Royal Dental   and of Anderson Dental Group  tells me that he has not been using mercury amalgam since 1992.
4. New composite resins are yet to be studies and its untoward effect, if any, needs to be brought to light.
5. I would not have my mercury filling removed and changed to new resins for myself because I feel I am past that age to have its benefits and that I have had its adverse effects by now, which has not been overtly many.
6. If there is any definitive indication of adverse effects of mercury amalgam, yes, I would have it removed or changed to resin.

 Greed is the precursor of dishonesty and corruption.

 We need to watch continuously what our elected representatives are doing to ensure that they keep doing good public service.

I was emailed the following article claimed to have been written by Charlie Reese, who has been a journalist for almost all his life. He wrote for Orlando Sentinel and retired in 2008. I tried to verify on Wikipedia and Snopes.com. He seems to have written this column in 1985 under similar head, which was then modified.

Though he wrote this column 25 years ago, it clearly reflects a down to earth true picture of the situation of our country, politics, parties and society today.  Charlie Reese has put the blame fairly and squarely on the elected representatives (congress plus Supreme Court), who are responsible for the decisions, legislations, changes in our cultural and moral values and judgments that impact each one of us every day. However, it must also be remembered that we elect these representatives and it is our duty to watch them to ensure that they continue doing the “right” things and not those things which are against our collective interests.

To achieve this we must insist on transparency and accountability by these representatives. These two elements, it may be said, are the parents of a good democracy and governance. I believe that the electorates are not absolved of their duty by voting once every few years only; they should be continuously vigilant to ensure that the elected representatives are doing what they said they would and act in the best interest of the country and all concerned. Their actions must be transparent and they must remain accountable.

Sometimes personal greed, corporations, interested groups and their lobbyists are always there to deflect honest legislators who primarily wish to do public service. Temptations are too great at times to resist. But with transparency in their action and ongoing accountability, the possibility of deviation under the influence of legal lobbying or corruption may be avoided. If we relax these conditions, we run a risk of those representatives getting a free hand and start making decisions on many issues as they think fit and not necessarily in our best interests. Worse still they may amass a lot of power, become authoritarian and create havoc.

Being a student of history, I do not ever forget that Hitler and Mussolini were also elected by their fellow countrymen but basically because of not having such checks and balances, they became terror for their country and the whole world. Such further examples are seen even today, when a number of such elected or unelected dictators have been facing their deeds in the International Criminal Court in Hague. I would not bet either that many more will not stand in the same court after their misdeeds. I would dare say that many of such misdeeds may be stopped before they occur, if we insist on transparency of work by our elected representatives and their continuous ongoing accountability, thus sparing many innocent people from their tyranny and damages from their unchecked work by citizens.

I am so impressed by Charlie Reese’s understanding of the place of elected representatives in our life that I am tempted to reproduce the whole article I received; here it is:

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545 vs. 300,000,000 People -By Charlie Reese

Politicians are the only people in the world who create problems and then campaign against them.
Have you ever wondered if both the Democrats and the Republicans are against deficits, WHY do we have deficits?
Have you ever wondered if all the politicians are against inflation and high taxes, WHY do we have inflation and high taxes?
You and I don’t propose a federal budget. The President does.
You and I don’t have the Constitutional authority to vote on appropriations. The House of Representatives does.
You and I don’t write the tax code, Congress does.
You and I don’t set fiscal policy, Congress does.
You and I don’t control monetary policy, the Federal Reserve Bank does.
One hundred senators, 435 congressmen, one President, and nine Supreme Court justices equates to 545 human beings out of the 300 million are directly, legally, morally, and individually responsible for the domestic problems that plague this country. I excluded the members of the Federal Reserve Board because that problem was created by the Congress. In 1913, Congress delegated its Constitutional duty to provide a sound currency to a federally chartered, but private, central bank. I excluded all the special interests and lobbyists for a sound reason. They have no legal authority. They have no ability to coerce a senator, a congressman, or a President to do one cotton-picking thing. I don’t care if they offer a politician $1 million dollars in cash. The politician has the power to accept or reject it. No matter what the lobbyist promises, it is the legislator’s responsibility to determine how he votes. Those 545 human beings spend much of their energy convincing you that what they did is not their fault. They cooperate in this common con regardless of party.
What separates a politician from a normal human being is an excessive amount of gall. No normal human being would have the gall of a Speaker, who stood up and criticized the President for creating deficits. The President can only propose a budget. He cannot force the Congress to accept it. The Constitution, which is the supreme law of the land, gives sole responsibility to the House of Representatives for originating and approving appropriations and taxes. Who is the speaker of the House? John Boehner. He is the leader of the majority party. He and fellow House members, not the President, can approve any budget they want. If the President vetoes it, they can pass it over his veto if they agree to.
It seems inconceivable to me that a nation of 300 million cannot replace 545 people who stand convicted — by present facts — of incompetence and irresponsibility. I can’t think of a single domestic problem that is not traceable directly to those 545 people. When you fully grasp the plain truth that 545 people exercise the power of the federal government, then it must follow that what exists is what they want to exist.

If the tax code is unfair, it’s because they want it unfair.
If the budget is in the red, it’s because they want it in the red.
If the Army & Marines is in Iraq and Afghanistan it’s because they want them in Iraq and Afghanistan …
If they do not receive social security but is on an elite retirement plan not available to the people, it’s because they want it that way.
There are no insoluble government problems.

Do not let these 545 people shift the blame to bureaucrats, whom they hire and whose jobs they can abolish; to lobbyists, whose gifts and advice they can reject; to regulators, to whom they give the power to regulate and from whom they can take this power. Above all, do not let them con you into the belief that there exists disembodied mystical forces like “the economy,” “inflation,” or “politics” that prevent them from doing what they take an oath to do.

Those 545 people and they alone, are responsible.
They and they alone, have the power.
They and they alone, should be held accountable by the people who are their bosses.
Provided the voters have the gumption to manage their own employees…
We should vote all of them out of office and clean up their mess!

============

If most of us keep an eye on daily decisions of the congress, maybe it will remain streamlined and honest. In fact in this day and age of internet, if there is an issue requiring public opinion and sentiments, it can be easily obtained from them on internet. Recently for example when the congress was wrangling over the debt ceiling issue for weeks, the polls showed that the American populace wanted the same settled ASAP. Because it was delayed to the 11^th hour, those good meaning congress members have not only triggered many unforeseen events causing uncertainty in our economy and stock market but have also affected the whole world because of additional European economic weakness. That is clear disservice of the nation by their elected representatives. They may have done that in good faith but not budging from their party political agenda when the national interest is at risk is certainly not accepted by electorates. 

Except perhaps a few lucky ones, we all must have had experienced this in our childhood. There was someone at school or playground, which was feared by many because he had created a reputation of a bully. All knew that if you displease him, he will beat you or get you beaten by his goons. Almost all of us relate to this situation.

I was listening to Nick Davies, the Guardian reporter, who doggedly went after Rupert Murdoch and News of the World story for many years and as we speak he is answering in British parliament. While talking to Amy Goodman on her radio show, Nick used this phrase “bully on the playground” about Rupert Murdoch. Murdoch and his deputies were feared by politicians, reporters and many alike because according to Nick they were capable of causing harm if someone is prying into their wrong doings. The person may find reprisals from Murdoch quarters in the shape of suddenly and accidentally harmful and bad news appearing in media causing the person to lose his/ her credibility or suffer losses from the leaking of their secrets to public. Their ominous presence was felt by all.

We see bullies in all walks of life. We are aware of it but do not take notice of it because we keep minding our own business. I think that is the reason such bullies are created in our society.  Let us see how these bullies come into existence?

I think there are two distinctly different reasons for such bullies hurting us. In both cases the ultimate blame falls on us, the victims. In one we allow power to be concentrated in any one’s hands, without thinking twice of the possible consequences and that person becomes a bully right under our noses. In other, the victims are aware of the nuisance of perpetrator is causing, which is allowed to get progressively worse only to avoid a quarrel, practicing appeasement, while that bully amasses power. This power may be social, political, religious, monetary, or any such permutation.

We have seen such appeasements in history on a larger canvas also. Major examples will be that of Churchill allowing Hitler to invade European countries one by one and not taking enough steps to avert a war. Another would be again the British Empire decorating Robert Mugabe with Knighthood despite evidence of his wrongdoings. Yet others examples will be that of Junta in Myanmar (Burma), many developing countries, many middle Eastern countries, continuing totalitarian and dictatorial regimes in for many decades in Tunisia, and Egypt which is now partly corrected by great sacrifices of people, who were the victims.  Other situations in Middle East are gradually coming to head like in Libya, Syria, and Yemen etc.

Take for example politics of vested interests. In the last three to four centuries, until about 60 years ago, Britain, the mother of democracy, had colonized almost half of the world. Following the British suit other European powers also did the same. Spain was probably most successful. They colonized almost whole of Latin America. This was all done through gun power, muscle, might and being able to divide and overpower the indigenous people one way or the other or in some cases because of appeasement practiced by victims. These are all historical facts.

Even the USA was a British colony until just over 200 years ago. Fortunately US could and did get freed from British earlier than many others. But we should criticize ourselves also; even in the US with a strong constitution protecting citizen’s rights, slavery continued for several decades until 1865 when Abraham Lincoln officially abolished it. Irony is that it took another hundred years to bring the true spirit of emancipation desegregation in practice and provide voting power to African Americans in the US. In between, as everyone knows, 1919 summer was the worst time for lynching young discriminated blacks. We have many such examples almost everywhere in the world. Anyone who is allowed unilateral and totalitarian power can cause havoc for all by getting together some like minded paid hooligans. Hitler and Mussolini are the best examples. Although they both were elected representatives of the people, because they mustered up power by the fear of their personally controlled paramilitary forces, causing Nazism and Fascism to prevail in their countries.

So what we learn is that despite of having democracy, the vested interests do prevail. For example the British, the Mother of Democracy goes around the world and colonizes so many countries, while preaching democracy within their own country. Almost all the countries that have been given independence during the last century, a democratic government were installed. But more than half of those countries have autocratic, dictatorial or totalitarian regimes despite the democracy been installed.

With recent Arab Spring becoming successful the hope of democracy flourishing in many countries has become more viable. However, it must be remembered that democracy does not mean going and giving vote and then going away for a few years and returning again after a few years to do the same. The elected representatives must be made accountable during their whole tenure to keep them working honestly as “social workers” instead of taking up politics as their business for the life and becoming monarchs of their constituencies. This measure added with transparency by usage of modern media networks will root out corruption, legal or illegal, and bring order into the governance overcoming bullies gradually but forever.