TheMillerCircle.org

Years ago, we began learning about possible contaminants to our water supply through nightmare stories like “Love Canal” which quickly got embedded into our lexicon. I looked into some of the recent issues about water quality and decided to install an RO (stands for reverse osmosis; reverse because normally the dissolved material (solute) goes through a filter, like a semipermeable membrane but with RO, its the solvent (water) that goes through leaving everything else behind…hence ‘reverse’) water filter attached to our normal water supply. An RO filtration system is based on a fine semipermeable membrane that allows water through but very little else. Then, when combined with a charcoal filter, you have a very high quality source of water, because, to begin with, our water supply is generally safe. But, as you know, more and more bottled water is being sold and it seems as though people are under the impression that our water supply is not safe, so that bottled water is the way to go. But, numerous reports indicate that this is not the case and that, quite often, the bottled water you see labeled as “spring water” is more contaminated than your tap water. Some brands do carry bottled, RO water and you have some assurances about that water quality because an RO filter system can take some very ugly water and make high quality drinking water out of it, but it is usually far more expensive.

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Now we can finally see why Bush and Cheney pursue the war in Iraq. ForeignPolicy.org has just come out with their list of failed states, something they have been tabulating since 2005 and, not surprisingly, Iraq is number two on their list, right after Sudan. The Fund for Peace, an independent research organization, put together the third annual Failed States Index. Using 12 social, economic, political, and military indicators, they ranked 177 states according to their vulnerability to violent internal conflict and societal deterioration. The strife in Sudan is another horror show, where violence in Darfur has resulted in the deaths of an estimated 400,000 people; if the Fund for Peace had accepted a more accurate estimate of Iraqi deaths, such as that published in The Lancet, Iraq might have been at the head of the class, with perhaps by now, something approaching a million citizen deaths. But Sudan is one of the poorest nations in the world and the United States, the richest, most powerful nation in the world, has been putting $ billions into Iraq. But, with Bush’s uncanny ability to apply his Medusa touch, to squander this huge sum of money and the added disaster of hundreds of thousands of lives, with millions of displaced citizens and our own blood gushing in the streets of Baghdad, with virtually nothing to show for it, well it turns out to be the perfect storm for Bush’s needs. Cheney’s too and throw all the neocons in this stew as well. Iraq as a giant failed state is just what Dr. Bush ordered for them.

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Michael Moore’s movie Sicko will be released next week. A good preparation for this event, which skewers our own health care system, is a tape recording of an interview with Amy Goodman on Democracy Now. It is well worth listening to his views and his experience in making this movie. Michael Moore proposes the most radical, but only sensible medical system change that will work and be affordable. We need to get rid of the private health insurance companies…cut them out entirely, something that no one, with the possible exception of Kucinich has proposed. A single payer plan, which will be revolutionary in its scope is the best way to solve our onerous health care problem. Yet, the good news is that we already pay more per capita than any other Western country on health care. The money is there…we need to pull the trigger.

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