Category: Blogs

Wash your food. Really.

 

 

 

 

 

Always wash your fruit and veggies.  Food safety is people safety.

My kids have asked me why I wash their fruit, especially if I am going to peel it, an orange, or cut it, an apple.

For safety, I say.  Food safety.  Which isn’t really true.  To make the food safe for them.  Kid safety.

Now and again we read salad made scores of people sick. Recently in Oregon and Washington, customers purchasing store cut melon were sickened by salmonella. There is a safe bet to be made that the fruit was not washed well before being cut.

I have worked in grocery stores and in at least one major chain there is a procedure which includes a fruit wash for anything being cut, including cukes. The food is to be washing in the solution for the prescribed time and drained. This is supposed to be done with the strawberries used as fresh garnish in the bakery as well.

Since we cannot see pathogens on the skins of melons or oranges we must wash them off. Even more disgusting than that is who touched that fruit before you bought it and where has that hand been?

So, wash your fruit. I used dish soap, a drop, or veggie wash when we have it, to wash away the things I can’t see. When you cut through a melon, the knife comes in contact with the outside and then drags with it to the inside all that yuck. Even an easy peel orange risks contamination since your fingers are on the outside, then the inside.

Wash your food. The seconds it takes and the looks you’ll get are pittance compared to the agony which might follow. It’s not a certainty someone will get sick, but boy howdy!, if it happens, that’s bad. Do good. Here is a link to an article about the OR and WA issue.

 

How To Be A Libertarian or At Least Think Like One

Better Think; Think

[social_warfare]

How does one “be” libertarian?

As I ventured into liberty, I found there were some topics about which I knew nothing. Economics specifically. Libertarians love economics. So, I read a few articles and books and then more and it turns out there is a vast library of libertarian authors and thinkers who are authors with books just waiting to be read. And, there are articles. That so much exists is a testament to the thought that has gone into what it means to be a libertarian on purpose.

I’ve written a piece about how little D and R asks of its affiliates.  Being libertarian requires we do our homework.  With that in mind, I present a collection of essays and articles available with the click of a mousse for you to read.  Beginning libertarians will certainly find this a help in understanding how it is that libertarians do see the world differently  than other people.  That’s not good or bad it just is.  Once you start to see beyond the curtain, you’ll see the world differently too.

Click through these links.  They were intended to be consumed on a day for 30 days.  There is little reason to go faster.  The material is good, but these writers aren’t pulp fiction.  Dig in; enjoy.  Drop me a note or come find us around on Facebook.  We would love to chat.  Now, the list as presented in the EconomicPolicyJournal.com.  h/t Robert Wenzel

Make A List
The 30 Day Reading List that will Lead You to Becoming a Knowledgeable Libertarian

The list below will not make anyone a scholar in libertarianism or an expert in Austrian Economics, it is designed to introduce to the busy individual the essence of libertarianism. There are 30 articles listed below. If one reads one article, slowly and carefully, per day, by the end of 30 days one should have a very strong grasp of libertarian principles and a basic understanding of Austrian economics. The list contains articles on a variety of topics but does not cover all possible libertarian topics. More than anything it provides an overview of libertarianism and how libertarians think about issues of the day. The completion of the 30 days of reading should not be considered an ending point but rather the start of the beginning of a more detailed study.

Day 1 The Task Confronting Libertarians by Henry Hazlitt

Books by Henry Hazlitt on Amazon

Day 2 The Fascist Threat by Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr.

Day 3 Free Economy and Social Order by Wilhelm Röpke

Day 4 The Peculiar and Unique Position of Economics by Ludwig von Mises

Books by Ludwig von Mises

Day 5 What Soviet Medicine Teaches Us by Yuri Maltsev

Day 6 Economic Depressions: Their Causes and Cures by Murray Rothbard

Books by Murray Rothbard

Day 7 Is Greater Productivity a Danger? by David Gordon

Day 8 Taxation Methods Evaluated by Murray Rothbard

Day 9 Hitler Was a Keynesian by Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr.

Day 10 Seeing the Unseen by Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr.

Day 11 The Watermelon Summit by Thomas J. DiLorenzo

Books by Thomas DiLorenzo on Amazon

Day 12 Equality and Inequality by Ludwig von Mises

Day 13 How to Think Like an Economist by Murray Rothbard

Day 14 The Health Plan’s Devilish Principles by Murray Rothbard

Day 15 Vices Are Not Crimes by Murray Rothbard

Day 16 Repudiate the National Debt by Murray Rothbard

Day 17 The Fallacy of the ‘Public Sector’ by Murray Rothbard

Day 18 The Road to Totalitarianism by Henry Hazlitt

Day 19 The Many Collapses of Keynesianism by Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr.

Day 20 The Crippling Nature of Minimum Wage Laws by Murray Rothbard

Day 21 Who Owns Water by Murray Rothbard

Day 22 Defending the Slumlord by Walter Block

Day 23 The Freedom of Association by Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr

Day 24 How to Help the Poor and Oppressed by Walter Block

Day 25 Everything You Love You Owe to Capitalism by Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr.

Day 26 Is There a Right To Unionize? by Walter Block

Day 27 What If Public Schools Were Abolished? by Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr.

Day 28 Why Austrian ? an interview with Robert Higgs

Day 29 Economics and Moral Courage by Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr.

Day 30 Do You Hate the State? by Murray Rothbard

Also a must read is Robert Wenzel’s The Fed Flunks. It contains the story behind and the no-holds-barred speech he gave inside the New York Federal Reserve:

 

Robert Wenzel was Editor & Publisher of EconomicPolicyJournal.com and Target Liberty. He also writes EPJ Daily Alert and is the author of The Fed Flunks: My Speech at the New York Federal Reserve Bank.  His YouTube series is here: Robert Wenzel Talks Economics.