Columns

Column #326       December 3, 2021

Do you remember 1975's Pet Rock fad? Lots of people bought them and the “inventor” became an overnight millionaire. The pet rock fad didn’t have the staying power of other collectibles so it only lasted one year.¹

Baseball cards, Barbie dolls, Tonka trucks, artwork, model trains, antique cars, coins, stamps, and other memorabilia generally have been popular with collectors for generations. It follows because people like to collect items which remind them of their past. Even so, values rise and fall with the times as new generations come and go and the cycles boom and bust.²

Column #325      November 26, 2021

There’s few things more certain in life than an action causing a reaction. When it comes to actions and reactions most of us think of our high school physics classes where we learned about Newton's Three Laws of Motion. (1) In order for the motion of an object to change, a force must act upon it. (2) There are calculable relationships between acceleration, force, and  mass. (3) Any time a force acts from one object to another, there is an equal force acting back on the original object.¹

But do you realize that the forces of actions and reactions extend far beyond the physical world. Here’s a viewpoint from The Laws of the Universe. “In every waking moment we are creating and altering our lives. Our present situation and future is and will be a product of our thoughts, our visualizations, our intentions, our emotions, our feelings, our beliefs, our attitudes, our expectations and what we will (or will not) allow ourselves to experience shapes your life.”²

Column #324     November 19, 2021

The FDA has told us that while it can conduct a review of 329,000+ pages of documents in 108 days to approve the Pfizer vaccine, it now asks for more than 20,000 days (55 years) to make those same documents available to the public.

Just so you have the full picture, here’s the federal government’s record:

Column #323    November 12, 2021

Our health and well-being are dependent on very complex, interrelated systems. Just as the universe of galaxies, our own solar system, our little planet, and our own bodies are all tied together in a delicate balance of moving and living parts—so is our economic system that governs our food supply and other essentials required for survival.

Even though many economists think otherwise, economic outcomes are not something that can be calculated with certainty like in the physical sciences. In chemistry, reactions can be reproduced precisely. In mathematics, the combinations, subtractions, multiplications, and divisions of units are predictable. In physics, weights and measures are calculable therefore outcomes are certain. But economics is a social science—and that’s different because it deals with people and that involves emotions.^{1 2}

Column #322      November 5, 2021

Getting healthy and staying that way has been my primary focus since 1999. Prior to that I was just another ignorant American who ate the Standard American Diet (SAD). I assumed that if what I ate tasted good, my body would figure out how to function with whatever I fed it and I’d live to see another day. The only fly in the ointment was that all my friends were starting to struggle with chronic diseases (some had died). I was also feeling “old” and beginning to think I’d better start getting annual checkups because I might be needing some meds like everyone else.

Luckily I didn’t take the checkup route. After working with professional livestock nutritionists and reading some of the recommended scientific literature, I learned about the Omega-3 deficiency and what it meant. I learned about the importance of essential nutrients and what it takes for any whole food choice to be a complete food that optimizes health and well-being. Everything I learned was based on nutritional, biological, and anthropological science and, the neatest thing was, the best food was grass-fed beef which I raised on my ranch. So I changed my diet and got into the grass-fed meat business believing that everyone would want to be healthier.

Column #321    October 29, 2021

As with all living things, we too are focused on survival. It’s not only instinctive but it’s built into our DNA. All of our senses are involved. Sight, smell, taste, feel, and hearing are the five basic senses. But there are more senses, such as our lizard brain, that are more subtle.

When faced with an out-of-the-ordinary threat it’s the lizard brain that initiates the fight or flight response. It’s like a very powerful drug that instantly takes over the body and mind—which can be troubling in more ways than one. Usually it doesn’t happen frequently, but when the fear response button is pushed again and again and again on a daily basis, animal bodies fail to perform optimally and survival actually falls into question.^{1 2 3}

Column #320    October 22, 2021

This original sin isn’t about religion, it’s about how immune systems work and don’t work. In fact, it could be about how a vaccine can end up killing you. Even the CDC and NIH are fully aware of the phrase “Original Antigenic Sin.” It’s not anti-vaxxer radicalization. It has been discussed in scientific papers for decades. It’s about the way vaccines train the immune system. You’ll find many references to this topic in medical journals and even on the CDC’s own website.¹

For the scientific explanation I’ll refer to a report in the September 2017 Journal of Autoimmunity, Volume 83, titled “Original antigenic sin: A comprehensive review.” Here is the Abstract word for word:²

Column #319    October 15, 2021

A recent poll indicates 38% of the population approves of Biden’s performance. Does that mean 38% of the folks reading this column do not understand what it takes for businesses to thrive? If so, then the public and private education systems are doing a horrible job of educating Americans about free enterprise and how it works. So, maybe I need to explain how even a little business, like Slanker Grass-Fed Meat, must function in order to be sustainable.¹

Professional politicians, bureaucrats, the military, and nearly all other government employees (including teachers and professors at universities) have a totally different perspective on life than do folks in the private sector. It’s built into their DNA by time-tested risk and reward influences.

Column #318     October 8, 2021

We always enjoy hearing from customers. Well, maybe not “always.” There’s the old saying that no matter what you do you can’t please everyone. But doing your best to please loyal, supportive customers is critically important for keeping a business sustainable.

The main objective of our business is to encourage the consumption of the healthiest food known to exist. Our grass-fed meat, Omega-3 meat, and wild-caught fish is just that. We don’t try to make them appear to be more than what they actually are—which is the world’s most perfect health food. Unfortunately, at least for humans, they are far from the world’s most popular food.

Column #317     October 1, 2021

Civilization depends on integrity. Today though, there’s a bunch of very powerful folks in the Radical Far Left who don’t have any integrity. They are driven by an ideology that defends and increases their positions of power at all costs. But they aren’t alone. In the mix of extreme views are radical folks on the other side of the isle—the Radical Far Right.

It may have been in the late 1960s when I read a commentary Jim Dines’ wrote in his financial letter about liberals and conservatives. In it was a circle with labels for various political factions around its circumference. What struck me was how the left and right were basically the same at the top and the bottom. I never forgot that image.