Readers' Comments

It is worth highlighting as well what happened when Gov. Scott Walker began to sell off Wisconsin public properties and contracts to private industry. Among other things, a private contractor in late 2012 caused [http://host.madison.com/news/local/ask/catching-up/catching-up-capitol-marble-floor-damage-could-cost/article_d5a6579e-9a00-11e2-9c08-001a4bcf887a.html $20,000] in damage to the treasured State Capitol marble floor by allowing battery acid to spill onto the floor. It would figure that Local 1 of the first AFSCME union in America represents the dwindling public sector workers in the Capitol.

I'm all for self-defense, but if my friend told me someone was trying to steal the radio out of my car, I'd call the police. If a "Defend Your Ground" law makes it ok to grab a knife, run out the door, chase that person down the street, and stab him to death in the back, then obviously there's something very wrong with the way the law is written. If just one person can get away with that, then that law needs to be revised. The law doesn't save lives, people who act responsibly save lives, and murderers shouldn't be protected under any "Stand Your Ground" law.

DDT was, I believe the first synthetic pesticide. Somebody can find what happened with this staff circulating in environment. One of the lessons what was from this DDT story was that the future pesticide cannot be stable and have to decompose quickly. Other conclusion was very simple to rich - the pesticide should be spread at time when the pollinators (at least daily pollinator – honeybee - is not working). The farmers were obligated to use pesticides after sunset. Now seems to be the lesson of DDT was forgotten by Monsanto, Bayer, Syngenta etc. They went to Bt and Neonicotinoids inserts into plants bodies. They were probably assuming that the inserts will be eaten by humans and it is the end of the pesticide travel and end of a problem. Wrong, the Neonicotinoids are circulating and remain in environment harming non-target invertebrates, birds and fish. In the same meaner Neonicotinoids are invasive synthetic compound as DDT. Such DDT like stable pesticide should be mark for the future as the unacceptable idea. There is a smart idea; IPM (Integrated Pest Management) which give some time to rest the environment from synthetic blow. This technique was born on the base of chemical resistance reaction from pests (like is the Varroa example). It assumes use synthetics only when necessary and not the same for 5 years. Any other time (if possible) it should be use organic/natural pesticides like formic acid. Such 5 year plan based on observation, practice and wise judgment is not easy or comfortable, but it is absolutely necessary for surviving natural and balanced environment. Please do not assume I am supporting synthetic (unnatural) pesticides in any way. I prefer using minimum of organic pesticide in IPM manner only; Thought it cost me a time, energy etc. I encourage others to give up their comfort from the "scientific ideas" of big chemical corporations.

Are all Americans as heartless bastards as you? What a sick society you live in. Shame on you all.

Your comments do not reflect the reality of actually working with patients infected with prion diseases, nor, do they reflect the possible mutations or variations which may occur spontaneously and shift the transmission rate rather quickly in human or animal populations. Whether writing about early Kuru in Indonesia to current Deer Wasting in Wisconsin, the public should be made aware of all aspects of this terrible disease. Your information presents as if you are employed or wish to be employed by big agriculture. Do you live in Wisconsin? Does your family live in Wisconsin? Would you let your children eat deer that has been hunted and killed in the wilds of Wisconsin? Why? I can not refrain from telling readers that it is very difficult to have humans or animals tested for prion diseases because laboratories can not decontaminate testing items or surface areas. Only temperatures above 450F can kill prions. Most surgical autoclaves do not produce temperatures this high, not alone standard laboratories. For this reason England was using disposable surgical trays to remove certain soft tissues such as tonsils. Is this being done in the United States? Furthermore, if you can only test one deer out of possibly ten deers that you suspect of having a prion disease because of testing challenges, then the public is being exposed to further unnecessary dangers. It can take twenty years for a prion disease to come to fruition, meaning the manifestations of the first symptoms becoming visible to the sheer horror of family, friends and loved ones. I suggest reading "A Deadly Feast" because it is one of the oldest books written about prion diseases before distortion and hubris was added to the mix. For that matter, perform a video search for patients dying of a prion disease and watch in horror. The last time I saw a video showing this on television was over fifteen years ago and you have to ask yourself, why?

...and I'm cleaning house. I keep a printout handy of the list of ALEC's corporate sponsors as well as ALEC legislators. My family has made drastic changes over the past two years as to where we shop and what products we buy. The corporations supporting ALEC also throw massive funding at extremists during elections and in doing so are doing much more damage than simply hitching their wagons to the Koch enterprise.

We haven't stepped foot into Walmart in years, nor Best Buy (for reasons not associated with ALEC), we no longer stop in at Wendys or McDonalds (we make it a point to eat at local, non-franchise, restaurants). We've refinanced our home and now have a mortgage with a reliable credit union where we do all of our banking. Kraft Food is out thanks to it' use of GMO products, and we no longer purchase Coke or Pepsi products, etc. etc.

Our boycott list had grown so long that we decided to make a new list limiting ourselves to businesses we felt exhibited some ethics. It was tough at first, but now it’s become second nature.

So far as possible, we're making the changes necessary to reflect our displeasure with irresponsible business practices. We are not amused by ALEC and it's vision for America nor are we willing to participate in a corporate takeover over of government. They’ve taken this far enough already.

Thanks CMD for dragging ALEC into the light. I’ve been posting links to alecexposed.com for years. Your work is amazing.

anything recent?

I'm carefully going through the listing of ALEC supporters and culling them out of my patronage until such time as they dump ALEC. May mean having to pay a little more in some instances, but ALEC is an evil organization and it's immoral to support it with my purchases.

I just dumped AT&T phone and internet services because of their support for ALEC and its agenda

I remember when Roe vs. Wade - what legalized abortion - had not yet been passed. When women with money would simply fly to a country where they could have an abortion, vs. the "coat-hanger" abortions, which killed women who were raped, or who couldn't afford raising a child, more than just eliminating the fetus. If this country provided funds for both child-care, and an adequate minimum wage that did not require food stamps, this discussion would be very different...

There are many documented cases of stand your ground laws that have been credited with saving lives through the use of firearms. There is little mention of these instances, although there seems to be a certain fondness for denigrating the surviving victims(s) of these instances while calling for sympathy for the perpetrators. The basic law should be, was the person using force under stand your ground in danger according to the specific of the law in his case. If a legitimate threat is perceived, then use of whatever force is necessary to eliminate the threat should be allowed. This should not mean that the victim should be able to legally chase a perpetrator down the street to shoot him. If there is a person intent on harming another, who is engaged in threatening behavior which might be construed as life threatening, then the victim of these actions should have the full weight of the law to support him in defending his or her life, and the lives and wellbeing of those in his charge. When these rights are stripped, the victim has less rights than his attacker, and violence against the innocent will thrive.