Latest Social Issues Articles

The Tyranny of Seatbelt Laws…

Tue, 01 Sep 2009 20:37:27 -0700

Now, Illinois is not the only state in this nation that has created these unconstitutional seatbelt laws. In fact, the only state that doesnt have a seatbelt law is New Hampshire, and I applaud them for having the courage to stand up to the federal government and tell them No, we will not subject our citizens to such intrusive laws simply to receive your bribe money, but that is an article in itself. This is an article about a friend of mine named Jon who one day decided to stand up to this gang of thugs known as the government and did his best to defeat this behemoth against impossible odds. It is an article about how we have lost our freedoms, even in the smallest of matters, and how too few of us care.

Personally, I wear a seatbelt. I have always worn my seatbelt, and certainly since long before legislators decided to make a law forcing me to. But if I decided not to wear one for whatever reason, I dont think its right that I be forced to wear one by government mandate. What right have they to determine the level of risk I am willing to take with my life What right have they to tell me how to conduct my affairs whilst driving in my car, which is my private property In fact, I remember that when the law was passed I almost decided to stop wearing my seatbelt just to say screw em, but I didnt. I know quite a number of people who felt the same way I did. Yet I just kept wearing my seatbelt, kept obeying like all the good little sheep, only vaguely aware that a tiny bit of my freedom had been taken away, that a tiny portion of my ability to determine what is best for me had been delegated to strangers, that a smidgeon of my private, personal life had been intruded upon by faceless bureaucrats working for the heartless state.

But, as many people would say, what difference does all that matter They pass these laws for your own good. The same can be said for a myriad of other laws. After all, citizen, you are too stupid and juvenile to look after yourself. You cant possibly make such tough decisions on your own, without the governments help. Besides, we live in a democracy, right And what the majority says, what the majority wants must be correct. But we dont live in a democracy, we live in a republic, and I urge those of you who dont know the difference to learn on your own what the differences are. One of the purposes of a republic is to keep the majority from abusing minorities. Majority rule is not always fair and just, in fact many times its very tyrannical. It has been referred to as the tyranny of the majority. This nation was set up at its inception to protect the ultimate minority, the individual. It was supposed to be set up in such a fashion as to prevent the government, or the majority, from infringing upon the God given rights of the individual. Seatbelt laws are a perfect example of how these fine concepts have been forgotten and discarded by so many living in this nation.

These concepts were not lost on Jon, however. He received a citation for not wearing his seatbelt and decided he was going to try to fight it. He wasnt a sheep. He wasnt just going to simply follow the herd, grumble a little, pay the extortionists and just go merrily on his way without so much as uttering a protest. He wasnt going to just stand there while the shepherd known as government grabbed him and had its way with him. He would challenge the law, and challenge the legality of how such laws are enforced. Sure, he would have to do so in their courts arguing with their judges and follow their convoluted words, but his voice would speak out against what they were doing and he would be heard.

Now, Jon made a mistake. It was a simple mistake most of us would make. When he went to court the first time he was asked to plead and he pled not guilty. By doing so he more or less admitted that the court had purview and could judge him on whether or not he was guilty of this particular crime. Of course, many of us would have done the same believing that we are not guilty of committing a crime when in reality what we want to do is challenge the validity of a certain law and the proper function of the court in regards to that law. He had no real understanding of what he was doing, or even what the charges were against him, yet the judge asked him to enter a plea. This is actually true of most of us, that we have no real understanding of courtroom procedure, as the legislators and lawyers of this nation have so perverted the English language when writing these laws as to make them nearly impossible to understand. Theres a reason most people refer to such language as legalese. If youre mad about the Hispanics not wanting to learn English, you should be livid about lawyers and judges who dont wish to use it. Jon got a continuance.

The next time Jon went to court he was not allowed to make his arguments. He was not allowed to challenge the law. He was not allowed to challenge the courts jurisdiction over him. When he asked his questions the judge told him he was dangerously close to a contempt of court charge. He had pled not guilty and all the judge was interested in was seeing the evidence that he was in fact not guilty and hearing from witnesses. But that wasnt what Jon s case was about. He didnt believe a crime had been committed. There was no victim. There was no harm done to another. There was no property damaged. The judge didnt care. He proclaimed Jon guilty and demanded the fine be paid. If the fine wasnt paid, he threatened Jon with a charge of contempt of court and jail time. This is an example of how lives get ruined by a law that seems so simple, that is supposed to protect people from themselves, and yet all it does is steal from innocent people who believe they should be the ones to determine for themselves what safety measures to take while driving, making them victims of the heartless state. And where there are victims, there is crime.

And what of this contempt charge What of this tool the courts use to be able to silence dissent without so much as even pretending to care Have not the courts earned our contempt by upholding such blatantly unconstitutional laws Is it not despicable how they victimize the public with extortionist schemes meant to pick the pockets of the citizenry The courts are allowed to show contempt for the individuals it drags before it with impunity, but God forbid they should show the contempt the courts deserve or they will be thrown in a cold cell for as long as it takes to break them. Its even conceivable that one could be declared an enemy combatant by showing such disdain for these extortionists and be thrown in some hell hole in some foreign land and then tortured until one screams The courts in the United States of America are the best courts in the world Now please stop and then breaks down in tears. This is certainly not fair or just. This is certainly not why these courts were set up. And then they wonder why people hold them in contempt This is just another way for them to infringe upon ones first amendment rights. They cant even follow their own laws yet they expect us to.

And so they threatened to throw my friend Jon into jail for not wearing his seatbelt. He buckled and paid the fine. What would you have done Jon told me that he believed it was his duty to challenge tyrannical laws. If only more people felt like him, if only more people would refuse to roll over and simply pay their fines without challenging those who wish to rule over us. If only more people would use the courts as a tool to challenge unfair, unjust, unconstitutional laws rather than as a simple venue to determine whether someone is guilty or not guilty of a crime that should never have been a crime in the first place. If just a few more people would take a stand then maybe things would start to change. Maybe those who would rule over us would start to realize that we are thoughtful, powerful human beings that no longer wish to be pushed around. Maybe they would start to treat us like adults who can make their own decisions rather than as children who need their hands held and constant guidance along the way. And speaking of children, it is they who are the real losers the longer these tyrannical laws remain valid in our system. They are being indoctrinated and becoming used to this government tyranny, and it is they who may never know the true meaning and the joy of freedom and liberty. Perhaps we could all learn something from Jon. Perhaps it is the duty of every freedom loving American to challenge tyrannical laws. If you dont wish to do it for yourself, perhaps you can do it for the children.

Gossip or Gospel: Are Women the Real Victims of the Celebrity Culture?

Thu, 13 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0800

Dubbed 'Katona's car-crash' television interview, the former Atomic Kitten singer appeared on ITV's flagship daytime programme with Philip Schofield and Fern Britton last Wednesday. Confused, distracted and slurring her words, the -at times incoherent- Katona claimed that any adverse effects in her demeanour or behaviour were caused by her taking prescribed antidepressants. Aggressively denying Fern Britton's claim that, since going into rehab for drug addiction, Katona may have resorted to alcoholism and "supplanted one addiction for another". Katona foresaw that this would "blow up into a big huge thing now" and made no bones about expressing it. She, of course, was completely correct. Whatever the reason for her inability to appear cogent and controlled, certain portions of the media dived on the fact that this was 'train-wreck' viewing. Slapped on Youtube minutes after the programme aired live on Wednesday morning, the videos already have received over a million and a half viewings. What's more, the vitriol with which people comment on the clips is almost unbelievably harsh. The outpouring of scorn and derision in material published both in print and on online, according to Kirsty Fairclough, lecturer at Salford University, is a result of the 'bitching culture' that has become rife in the British press. Especially boisterous, it would seem, are publications like Heat Magazine and Closer that are aimed predominantly at women and are shot through with a feeling of severe cynicism and voyeuristic features. The rise of this new era of 'post-feminism', Fairclough states, has come about because women, who have supposedly achieved social equality with men, now find themselves in competition with other women. "Take gossip blogs." Fairclough writes, "You can watch Britney Spears' downfall in almost real time. And the market for this kind of coverage really shows there is a real paradox within society today. Women are routinely condemned for behaviour that men would not be - and are being condemned by other women." Citing similarly destructive behaviour from Pete Doherty and Russell Brand, Caroline Davies and Amelia Hill from the Guardian claimed yesterday that: "Male stars receive less criticism." They continue, "While [Brand] has admitted problems in the past with drugs and alcohol he receives favourable press. Yet Katona's drug problems have provoked savage condemnation." These assertions may well be true, but whatever the furore surrounding sexism in the media, shouldn't we first look at the inherent belligerence of the press in general? That is to say, why did ITV producers and Kerry Katona's management think it suitable to broadcast her in that state in the first place? Obvious from her speech and demeanour within the first few minutes of the interview, why wasn't she stopped the second she got into the studio and told not to go in front of the cameras? Everyone must have been able to see what it would 'look' like, so the reluctance to pull her from the show has to be geared around the fact that certain people were keenly aware that this would make 'great' television. The backlash may have been intensified by the fact that Katona is a woman, a mother of four and was once crowned queen of ITV's I'm a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here!. At the heart of the matter however, is surely the decision to broadcast anyone like that in the first place. Before the media is sexist or biased in anyway, it is clear that it has enormous capacity for cruelty. What's more, if the media does employ double standards for men and women then it must run both ways. Or is it the case that the press are inherently misogynistic? It's certainly hard to see the praise heaped on Katona in the early part of her career as coming from an institution that demonises women. The 'triumphing over adversity' articles, the countless 'Parent of the Year Awards' are not tags so freely associated with or handed out to male celebrities. Where there would seem to be a genuine bias however is between the media's fondness for cruelty or kindness. Until that inequity is addressed should it matter whether those on the receiving end are male or female?

The Rate Of Jobless People Is Still On Fire

Fri, 31 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Our jobless rates are still on fire this week as some more of our bigger companies have said to the news stations that they will be laying off more people. When will this stop happening? I hope that it will be soon. There aren't enough jobs in this country for all of the people that are getting the boot because we don't have the jobs for the people that are already out of work. If this problem keeps on going as it is now, not only will it be on fire but it will be one of the biggest fires this country has ever seen. This problem will have a landslide effect at every level of business. It has started with the big banks and companies, and it will keep going until it hits the small businesses as well. With all of these people losing their jobs, they will have to cut corners to make ends meet, which in turn will cause that company to lose business or sales. If it keeps going, these companies will in turn have to start laying off to keep their business going, and the same thing will keep happening until there is nothing left. Whole towns can become affected by this chain of events and in most cases, this town will die or dry up. If this happens most of the areas that have only one big business can kill several small towns around it if the business goes down. In this country we have so many small towns that might live off of this one bigger city in regards to their business. With all of these companies that are closing or just laying off, they are putting a lot of these smaller businesses in trouble as well as themselves. I was looking in our hometown paper today and noticed that there weren't any ads for hiring of jobs in the 10 small towns and cities that this paper covers. This should be telling us that these places are in trouble again of melting away. Most of the bigger plants that used to be in this area have either closed down or just left this area. Now all we have for businesses are small family shops that just don't need any people other than family to run these shops. With so many places and all of their people out of work, these same people might have to move out of this town or city to find work, which can make this town become a ghost town, which we haven't seen in a long time.

Jobs Like Flood Waters: Here And Gone

Fri, 31 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0700

If you have been watching the news about the jobless rates that keep going up, some will say that it is like watching flood waters that are here and gone. Every day, the news on lost jobs are never getting any better. In fact, they are just getting worse. These companies that keep laying off people are just like the flood waters that will hit a city or town so fast and leaving just as fast. We never know when either of these things will hit next or how big of a hit they will cause. These floods of water or people will leave an impression that will last a lot longer than any of us will believe. If you could imagine that all of these people, estimated to be 209,600 by the end of the year, were like drops of rain, we would be hit by this world's worst rainstorm and flood, and this would be a flood of humanity. The painful truth to all of this is that we aren't out of the woods yet because we still have a little over two months of this year left. We really need to tell someone that we think will listen to tell these companies that they should stop with all of the lay-offs for the time being and let this country try to heal before they hit us anymore. These big companies might not have profits as big as they want it and maybe they could trim the salary from some workers, such as the supervisors, office personal, and their hiring officers by asking them to take a cut in pay. Big companies should try to find ways of cutting costs and not people's jobs. If this keeps going, and I'm afraid that it will, these companies will be out more than their profits. They will be brought down to our level and they won't be happy at all, but this will be on their heads because they won't have anybody left to make their parts. If this trouble keeps running this course, I'm afraid the next round of lay-offs will be in the clothing markets, as people will stop buying new clothes and will start to buy second hand clothes. In some areas of the heaviest lay-offs this is already starting. Your second hand stores have already seen a change in their customer counts. They are predicting this raise to continue and keep going for some time to come.

How To Cross The Road Safely

Fri, 31 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Crossing the road is the most dangerous part of any voyage of walking. The road is the part where the cars are most likely to hit you and so you must take care to avoid them. Many people die when crossing the road and hopefully this article will help to curb this old tradition and help you to walk more safely. Many people will know of the main three things to remember when crossing the road, stop look and listen. It's good advice and adhering to these simple three rules will see you over the road safely in almost every case. In this article I will go through the three rules to follow and how best to use them in your every day road-crossing. Perhaps try practising crossing smaller roads first before building up to large ones. Never try to cross a motorway, that's just stupid. The first thing to do when reaching a road is to stop. If you just carry on without stopping you might get hit by a car or worse, a lorry. Stopping at the side of the road will allow you to assess your surroundings and start to begin thinking about the next two rules. If you can, try to cross at a designated pedestrian crossing. These zones will have coloured lights to help you cross and motorists will be expecting you and so should be driving more slowly. Stop at the side of the road, even if you don't think there will be traffic it's always better to be safe than apologetic. The next thing to do is to look and see if anything is coming. It sounds obvious and it is but you'd be surprised at the amount of people that just walk blindly without looking into the road. If you don't look and see if anything is coming then you won't be able to accurately judge whether it is safe to cross. Remember that the human sense of smell is not as well developed as dogs so we must rely on eyes. When looking be sure to use both eyes as depth perception is important. You need to be able to see how far away the car is and how fast it is driving to make a good estimate as to whether you can cross safely in time. Look both ways, cars drive on both sides of the road. You'll also need to use your ears to listen for cars. We can't do echolocation like bats but we can hear what direction things are approaching from. This technique is pretty handy if you can't see round a corner or your view is obstructed for some reason. The best use of ears when crossing the road is a supplement to your eyes. Do not rely on listening but use it as an aid for vision, some cars are pretty loud so you'll be able to hear them a long way away. After combining these three techniques you should be fit to cross the road safely. Only cross when you feel it is safe. Never run across a road, you may trip over and lose your window of opportunity and get crushed under some wheels. Use your senses and keep alive, good luck.

Trick Or Treating, A Growing Source Of Terrorism

Thu, 23 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Does the thought of Halloween make your skin crawl and your knees shake? This ghostly time of the year leaves many people looking over their shoulders and sleeping with the lights on out of fear a spirit might be near by. However, what if it is not the thought of beings from the underworld walking the earth that causes waves of fright to run down your spine. What if your biggest fear is hearing a knock at your door. On the evening of October 31st hearing a knock at your door could spell trouble indeed, as trick or treaters rule the night. The age old tradition of knocking on people's doors for a treat is likely to originate from All Soul's day where the poor would knock on people's doors and beg for food. They were often given cakes known as "soul cakes", fruit and sometimes money. This tradition has now turned into the custom that we know as trick or treating. The annual practice of trick and treating can be a source of innocent and harmless fun. However, it can also result in incredibly threatening, intimidating behaviour and violent incidents. Trick or treating is a fun activity to take part in when your are a child. Choosing a spooky outfit to wear can be fun and venturing out after dark can be an exciting novelty. Often children are supervised by an adult who takes them round local friends' houses, where they can knock on their doors saying "trick or treat". In theory the idea is that the person whose door they have knocked on should give them a treat to save a trick being played on them. Normally some sweets will be given and the children can move on to a different house. However, if no sweets are given, children usually leave disappointed, but do not trick the person, as this is simply an empty threat. Not all episodes of trick or treating are so idealistic. On the evening of Halloween large groups of unsupervised kids, teenagers and even adults roam the streets. Sometimes they dress up and sometimes they do not even bother. They knock on strangers doors demanding certain treats and if the person refuses the word trick is taken to extreme levels. A common way these people like to get their revenge is to throw eggs at doors or cars. Flour is often used, as is silly string to make sure the maximum amount of mess is caused. People may knock or doors or they may simply skip that stage and terrorise certain individual's property. The houses of people not very popular at school or work can become the victim of a mass trick or treat attack, with paint thrown over walls and bricks thrown through windows . I have also seen eggs and flower over cars with abuse written into the mixture. Prank calls can even form part of the attack. This evening is seen by some people as an excuse for abuse and antisocial behaviour. Many people live in fear of this night, especially those who know that they are unpopular, those who live on their own, or the elderly. These people who cause a night of terror may think about who they want to target, however, many victims are random. The malicious trick or treater seems to not take into account the fact that they may be terrifying a sick old lady, or wake up young babies and children. These socially inept people also ruin the night for those who want to have innocent fun, as it is simply not safe to let youngsters out even when supervised. The tradition of trick or treating looks set to stay for now. I just would encourage people to think about their actions. If you are going to partake in this Halloween activity, please try to visit people you know and make sure children are supervised. Maybe even ask an older sibling to go out with your child as this may seem more socially acceptable for the kids. Make sure you feel safe letting your children out on this night, as although it is sad to even think they may be in danger, it really isn't worth taking the risk if they could find themselves getting caught up in violence. To those who are worried about the evening of Halloween, draw your curtains, invite friends round if possible and do not open the door.

How To Keep A Drunk Driver From Damaging Your Life

Wed, 22 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0700

There are a lot of people that drive when they are drunk. We call those people drunk drivers. They think they can drive while intoxicated but that's not true at all. They cause car crashes, and they damage their lives and other people lives. They think that they will not get caught by the cops, and they think nothing will happen. They are oh-so-wrong when they think like that. Anything is possible when there is a drunk driver. They can hit someone walking, hit another car or cars and cause accidents, or drive into someone's house and hurt or kill the people in them. They think they are having a good time, but when they hit someone or something, their nightmare begins. There are thousands of drunk drivers out there so you need to be careful and watch out of them. This people are caught on camera and put on the news to show people what they did. They can cause a high-speed chase and cause severe body counts of dead or injured people. They can cause a car pile up that can be very big, damage properties, and can even cause someone's car to fly off the bridge and it hit thr ground or fall into the water. When they drive like this, cars can flip over and over, causing injury to so many people and even their kids that are in the cars. They don't necessarily have to be in a car. They can be in a truck, motorcycle, tracker, four wheeler, etc. We see this everyday. You would think that people would get the hint to not drive when they are drunk, but they don't and they still do it. These people know what can happen when they're sober, but when they drink it goes right out of the window and the carelessness begins. We have so many people in jail because of this and what they have done. We have so many people buried in the ground because of drunk drivers that it is scary to let your kids get behind the wheel anymore. For the people that were drink and driving, they now have to live with the fact that they killed or hurt. It will be hard to find a job for them because of this wrongdoing. Think before you go out and drink. Make sure you have someone that is sober that can drive you home so this will not happen to you or to someone else.

Work Until You Drop? Not Me, I'm Retired!

Tue, 21 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0700

My friend Homer loves to work even though he reached retirement age almost 15 years ago. He worked for a global aeronautics company until they dismissed him almost a decade ago when he reached 70 years of age. This prompted him to sue, claiming the company had dismissed him because he had reached his golden years. He won the right to keep his job in court and has been hard at work since then. He really doesn't need the money, he just enjoys working. I've never been afflicted with that weird disease! Fortunately he's the only friend I have that didn't welcome retirement. If there had been another one, some of their desire to keep working until they dropped, might have rubbed off on me. Fortunately, except for Homer, my circle of friends doesn't include anyone with an overwhelming yearning to work when it's not necessary. Thankfully I discovered fishing at an early age and its helped shape my attitude toward working. The old concept that if you don't work, you don't eat, pay the rent or pay the electric bill has also made me aware of my fiscal responsibilities, which has prohibited me from fishing as much as I liked. I've worked when I've had to, but by nature I'm a lazy man. Fortunately retirement effects some different than others. Homer would like to work at his present job until he falls over dead in his office chair. I, on the other hand, would like to fish until I collapse and fall out of the boat. There's a bumper sticker hanging in my study that reads, "A Bad Day Fishing Is Better Than A Good Day At The Office!" which perfectly sums up my idea of work versus relaxation. I've often wondered though, what commercial fishermen do when they retire? Do they head for the golf course or do they whip out that special fishing lure and head for a spot on the lake that they've staked out for future fishing? Not everyone has the inclination or ability to let life pass them by as they sit staring at a fishing pole. My wife has told me that I should do something more rewarding with my free time than catching the same old fish over and over again. They're not the same fish of course, but for her, if you've seen one crappie, you've seen them all. To please her, I visited our local senior center. At first it scared me because there were so many old people there, but after I calmed down I found that I could volunteer to help with charitable events, the annual marathon race, local fishing tournaments for kids and a host of other programs that would keep me active. While some of these programs are well worth any donations of time and money, they really weren't for me. Not finding anything that I wanted to volunteer for, I decided to find a hobby other than fishing to keep me busy and to appease my wife. I've always appreciative of nature, so I decided to make bluebird houses. It was fun for a while until I started adding up the time it took me to make one bluebird house. I could go down to the bird supply store and buy one for less than I could build one with my own two hands. That's when I decided to cut the walls and roofs and drill out the round hole of three bird houses at the same time. It worked. After I had the components laid out on the work table in my garage, it took only a few minutes to nail them together and "Presto!", I had three beautiful bluebird houses built in just a little more time than it took me to make one! It didn't take me long to get bored with this project. After all, if you have more than ten birdhouses in your front yard, people think you're strange and walk past your front yard in a hurry when they're going for a stroll. I never saw any bluebirds, but there were plenty of sparrows nesting where the bluebirds should be. I thought briefly about making a garden but then that would get in the way of spring fishing, which everyone knows is the best time of year to catch the big ones. Someone suggested golf, but there's just too much walking in that sport and riding a cart feels like you're cheating. I even had the insane thought of finding a job somewhere, but then I decided I was getting senile, so I lost that idea in a hurry!

Writing a Great Flower Note Card

Mon, 20 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0700

You stare at that tiny card and stress over what to write. Should you be witty? Just sign your name? Simply say, "Congrats!"? It can be really confusing to know just what to put on a flower note card to be included with the bunch of flowers that you're giving to someone. Those flower note cards are small, so you really want to make the most of the space that you have. Here are some tips on doing just that. Skip the name. Unless your flowers will be delivered to an office or anywhere there are a lot of people and the flowers might be mistaken for someone else, save space and don't write the recipient's name. The delivery person will be delivering them straight to the recipient in most cases, so it's not necessary. Keep it short. There's nothing worse than straining to read crunched up writing on the edge of the card because the writer ran out of space! Keep in mind that you don't have much surface area and keep the note short and sweet. Make it meaningful. Mention something special. For example, if you are giving roses to someone you visited the rose gardens with, you can include that incident in the note, to remind them of the fun times you had together. Write neatly. If you aren't good at writing, print the note, instead. The idea is that the recipient can read it and that's going to be awfully hard to do if you end up writing illegibly. While you can have someone else write the note, it's best in your own handwriting, since this makes the whole gift that much more special. Get inspired. Still not sure what to write? Then turn to some poems for inspiration. There are also some amazing quotes out there that can be easily found online and these work particularly well if you are looking at giving a gift for something that could use words of inspiration, such as a promotion or a birthday or even an anniversary. Mention the special occasion. If you are giving flowers for a special occasion, you'll want to mention that. Just a quick note is fine "Congrats on the promotion" works well. Of course, adding more information can make the note card more personal and is a good idea. Add a touch of you. There's nothing wrong with the standard flower note card, but if you want it to be extra special, why not add your own touch, a tiny doodle or something that you enjoy. If you usually sign letters "XOXO", then do this on the note card. It will help you be consistent and make the gift that much more personal. Sign the note. You never know how many bunches of flowers the person will be receiving for this special occasion so be sure to sign your flower note card, or they might not realize who it is from. Unless you wish to remain anonymous, in which case, leave your signature off the card! What you write on the flower note card will make the flowers mean something. While a bunch of flowers are nice to have, they certainly don't mean that much unless you know who they came from and why. Flowers make great gifts, but it's a good idea to make that note count, too, so be sure you write something special on it! Turn it into something the recipient will want to keep and that will make their heart sing. Following the above tips can help you do just that.

Life Damage And Destruction Due To Methamphetamine Use

Tue, 14 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0700

You might wonder why methamphetamine use would be considered a social issue. It is society that suffers in so many ways when this terribly hazardous drug infiltrates a community. As with alcohol and other drugs, methamphetamine knows no respect of persons and anyone or any family member can be at risk of becoming addicted to this man made drug sometimes when they try it only once. The rich and the poor alike can be susceptible to this drug and its life altering and threatening addiction. It has grown in its use to include the entire country and it is found in the smallest of towns to the largest of cities. It can be found on the streets of the meanest neighborhoods or even in the homes of doctors or lawyers. The consequences of becoming addicted to this drug and never pretty and are often fatal. Intervention is usually necessary if a person addicted to methamphetamine has a prayer of recovering. The production of methamphetamine itself is extremely dangerous. Many people have dies in the attempt of making this powerful drug that is sniffed, smoked, or injected. There is a very strategic cooking process involved with highly explosive materials and this has caused those trying to make it to be severely burned or blown up all together. Even the fumes from this toxic concoction are hazardous. It has been found being made in homes where children are present and have already been exposed to the deadly drug. The use of methamphetamine causes a person to have an extreme euphoric reaction that can last for hours on end with only one use. When they use it several times or more, some users will stay awake for days on end without any sleep or food at all. When a person becomes severely addicted it can cause hallucinations and extreme paranoia. They will often pick their skin because they feel like there are miniscule invisible bugs crawling on them. Sometimes it is the toxins in the drug itself that can cause sores to form on different parts of the body. Long time methamphetamine users often end up losing their teeth because of the toxins in the drug. Methamphetamine is usually cheaper to use than cocaine and this is how many addicts first end up trying the drug. It does not have to be smuggled into the country like cocaine because it is made right here in the good old United States. The Methamphetamine labs are being found everywhere and destroyed, but users and sellers continue to make new ones. Methamphetamine has become one of, if not the biggest drug problem in many areas of our country. It has truly become a plague on our land. It ahs already damaged so many lives and the potential for it to destroy even more will remain until someone finds a way to stop this drug from being produced and sold.