The CEO of General Motors was on CNN last week proudly announcing that, since gas prices are not projected to decline in the foreseeable (and presumably unforeseeable future), GM will slash production of some gas guzzlers and begin production of a couple of new highly fuel efficient models. By 2010. 2010!! What planet are these guys from?

–Why has it take Detroit so long to realize that fuel prices will make it likely that people will want economy cars?

– Why aren’t they more worried about Japanese autoamakers with their hybrids and compact cars taking U.S. market share? 2010? That will give plenty of time for Honda and Toyota to conquer the market— and make Toyoto the number one car maker in the world, finally surpassing GM (Rosen predicts)

 

The U.S. (Bush administration) has fought againt the importation of cheaper Canadian drugs saying they may not be up to U.S. safety standards, but allows American pharmaceutical companies to important drugs from China where there is little or not inspection. Question: why aren’t Americans angrier about this? Why had the media not picked up on this in any significant way?

Bush in the Middle East

 

Irony heaped on irony….Bush lecturing the Middle-East about democracy….freedom of speech, not persecuting those who disagree with you, allowing all religious ideas….to bad there isn’t enough self-reflection to see how he has undermined democracy at home: spying on Americans, signing agreements to override the will of the legislature, staffing the Justice Dept. with lackeys who put loyalty to the president over loyalty to upholding the law, excluding real science in favor of bogus science, and, for that matter, making every effort to exclude dissenting opinions.

 

Anyway, the CNN reporter said that most in the Middle-East are “hugely skeptical” of his words.

We had no trouble at all bombing Iraq to remove a dictator and presumably to have access to Iraqi oil fields….but Secretary Gates has said that there is no way the U.S. military would invade Myanmar. Why the reticence?  I guess there is no monetary profit to be gained….U.S. corporations stood to  gain a lot from and Iraqi invasion, but nothing to be gained, I guess by invading Myanmar….except saving thousands of innocent lives. [in Iraq we killed thousands of innocents]

Sometimes when I am in a perverse mood l like to check out the opinions at Fox news. Today’s opinion by Steve Milloy is an elequent and logically argued piece which slams global warming activists— and persuasively argues that they are all extremists in constant denial of the facts that there is no global warming. Since his conclusion is absurb, but his style impressive I checked out who this guy really is— and— no surprise— he is paid lacky of the energy industry and also tobacco industry and a highly paid lobbiest for other industries all which are threats to human health in one way or another. The scary thing in this case is not that such articulate lobbiests exists, but they are allowed to publish columns on a major news network, albeit cable. In simple words, it is Fox news acting as a propaganda agent for corporate interests. Maybe I shouldn’t be surprised……but all the candidates continue to appear on Fox…no one boycotts it as they should….

Scary! Two articles on the front page of the WashingtonPost today: 1) the drug company Merck seems to have marketed the painkiller Vioxx using deceptive practices, failing to warn the public about the dangers of the drug and also making their own in-house research appear to be the work of independent researchers.

And (2) the government now announces that many every day plastic products contain a dangerous chemical bisphenol A which can lead to cancer of the prostate, breast cancer and other negative health effects…..and that the original research which said it was safe was done by a scientific firm which “was also working for the chemical industry.”

 

…..in both of these cases human live were endangered because of industry put profits over people. The trend in the U.S. government has been greater deregulation, and a gradual replacement of government functions by the private sector in the belief that the market can do better. The result is more profits for industry, and more people harmed or killed by their products.

Spring is here which is the start of the Japanese school year. It’s kind of funny because in Europe and America we start school in the fall…..which is nice because the autumn mood is conducive to study….in the spring time I think we want to go outside and enjoy the nice weather…..by the way, sorry to my Shudo students yesterday about the classroom change. …but the new classroom Per.4 seems nice. If anyone has trouble downloading my textbook, send me an e-mail about it.

Welcome to my blog! I will be raising some key sociological, economic and moral-intellectual questions relevant for our time and space here, such as:

1) are we headed or a “perfect storm” recession?

2) What will happen to Japanese and American society in the near future, as the rich get richer and the educational levels drop?