Why isn't America taking the help it so desperately needs to clean up this oil spill? It's a major tragedy that evokes emotion in nearly everyone, even when finger-pointing is all over the place.

Almost immediately, organizations called for hair and stocking donations to make booms to soak up the oil. Thousands of people participated and thousands more oil sucking booms were created with almost zero cost. Before they could be deployed to help contain the spilling crude, BP engineers claimed that commercial booms were more effective and they wouldn't be using the organic hair booms. WHAT?!?

People all over America pulled their resources and volunteer hours to help contain the oil spill and engineers are denying the use of the donated booms? sniff sniff sniff... smells like conspiracy to me! Who makes these commerical booms? BP of course! (and I'm sure many other deep-seeded corporations) So what if they "don't work as well" - use two of them! They're FREE!!

Here's a comparison of commercial booms vs. hair booms:

Looks like the hair booms work pretty well! Especially AT NO COST.

Thankfully, states are taking advantage of the donated hair booms.

A more important issue is: why haven't all U.S. vessels been deployed for spill containment and clean up? We have ships sitting idle on the Gulf coast that could be skimming all day, every day, working tirelessly to get the oil before the oil gets our coast. Give them some hair booms and get to cleanin'!

President Obama has denied help from 13 foreign governments by not waiving the Jones Act, which requires that all goods transported by water between U.S. ports be carried in U.S.-flag ships. The restriction was created to support the U.S. Mercantile industry (effectiveness to be disputed). Sometimes good intentions are the source of destruction! By accepting help from other countries, we can control, stop & clean up this monstrosity of destruction. Once American vessels can handle ALL the work alone, we can send the help away.

Let's get our ships out there and let's take help from willing countries! We're not the first to go through a terrible oil spill; there is experience and knowledge all over the world - we can learn from history!

Thought provoking on cigarettes...

Cigarettes are gross. They stink and they make people stink and they are just gross. Beyond that, it's been widely advertised (through the government) for generations that they're bad for your health! **this is after years of propaganda stating that cigs were GOOD for your health**

When I was just 7 years old, my little bro and I plastered "No Smoking" signs all over our house to show our mom how much we cared about her and wanted her to quit. Where did we get that idea? From school, of course! I'd like to think it worked, too, since she quit smoking that year.

At 11 years old, I vividly remember walking through the Oaks Mall in Gainesville Florida and complaining to my non-smoking mom how nasty it was that people were smoking inside. Soon after that, the Oaks Mall voluntarily banned smoking in doors. It was wonderful!

Right after college, I found myself back in Tallahassee lobbying with members of the Florida Restaurant Association and the Florida Hotel & Motel Association (now the Florida Restaurant and Hotel Association) against a law proposed to ban smoking in public places. Restaurants, hotels and other businesses said it was their right to choose whether they wanted to be smoking in their establishments. After all, the best vote is one with the dollars! There were already places like the Oaks Mall that had voluntarily banned smoking! We lost.

Now we have a complicated, draconian law regulating Florida businesses, which includes the entertainment industry (we're losing massive amounts of revenue because smoking is banned on movie sets, meaning that companies that can & want to, will shoot elsewhere). Rather than allowing me, the non-smoking Floridian, to choose where I spend my hard-earned money, my choices are limited. As a business owner, I can't capitalize on offering a non-smoking establishment.

So anyway, I came across this thought provoking piece from Dr. William C. Douglass. With my Constitution Colored glasses on, it's extremely interesting how our minds are molded through government propaganda...

Tobacco attack in Massachusetts

They're baking more than beans in Boston -- Massachusetts officials are roasting common sense and decency, too.

The state is getting ready to force stores that sell cigarettes to put up disgusting photos that show the alleged damages of smoking. Whether you smoke or not, you're going to have to stare at these awful state propaganda posters -- the new law says they'll have to go right next to the cash registers at some 9,000 convenience stores, pharmacies, gas stations and anyplace else with the nerve to sell tobacco products.

Shopkeepers who refuse to deface their businesses with oversized images of rotting teeth and black lungs will face hundreds of dollars in fines.

The only hangup right now, ironically, is more political correctness: Officials are trying to figure out how many languages the signs should be in. By the time they're done, these things will be a mile long, and stores will have to use them as wallpaper.

Even if you don't live in Massachusetts, you should care -- because you're paying for this bird-brained scheme. The program is being funded by $316,000 in federal stimulus money. That means some well-connected poster-maker is getting ready to print his ticket into the good life.

The rest of us won't be nearly as stimulated, especially if this catches on. Regardless of how you feel about smoking, there are plenty of industries out there that COULD get this kind of treatment someday.

Today, it's cigarettes. Tomorrow, some public health dummy may decide he doesn't like drinking, sex, bingo night or stinky cheese -- and you'll be forced to deal with whatever rules and obstacles he puts in your way.

If this was purely about showing people the true health ravages of their lifestyle choices, then your local fast food dive would be adorned with pictures of bloated, obese corpses.

But they wouldn't dare try that.

In America, it's OK to go after smokers. But don't your dare touch somebody's Big Mac!

A poster child for common sense,

William Campbell Douglass II, M.D.

P.S. Doesn't change my mind on the grossness of cigarettes, just opens my mind up more to deception and the underlying motives of our government...