as I’ve been saying for years…

A new study shows that cigarette smoke can prevent allergies by decreasing the reaction of immune cells to allergens.

I’ve smoked for 54 years and have never found anything I was allergic to, while almost everyone around me has become allergic to more and more substances. I’ve asked many smokers about their allergies, and found out that it isn’t just me. My assumption has been that smokers have stronger immune systems, so are less affected by alien substances.

I think it is more than just not-smoking that has led to increased allergic reaction. Modern humans have become fearful of so many things that could be harmful. Although scientists know better, other organizations seeking political power and/or donations have pushed the idea that if a substance is harmful at some dosage level, then it is harmful at any dosage level. Thus, because extreme exposure to sun can occasionally cause skin cancer, then any exposure should be avoided. Many people now believe that laying outside to tan (or even in a tanning bed) is a foolish flirtation with cancer. If trans-fat isn’t good for you, then you should avoid it completely. The list goes on and on.

I recall that, a few years ago, new homes were being built tightly, to conserve energy, resulting in no fresh air, and making residents sick until they starting piping in fresh air to their cooling systems. Even pets have become sicklier, as their owners have eliminated one pollutant after another.

In the U.S. we are extreme about what we fear. All of our food products are now freshness-dated, and many people simply throw food away when it passes the date… even when it still looks and smells fine. Guess whose idea that was? Follow the money.

Pseudo-science has turned Americans into frightened pansies who are losing their natural resistance to alien substances. The human body can develop resistance to almost anything harmful, if it has to, but when we artificially isolate ourselves from the natural world, we become weaker and more vulnerable.

Doesn’t it also seem likely that, if you develop an allergy, and medicate to lessen the symptoms, that you have made yourself even more dependent on the medication… and more vulnerable to the allergic reaction?

School teachers are a good example of immunity. In a typical elementary classroom, one or more children have a cold almost every day, so teachers are exposed continuously. Given the normal fear of most people, teachers should be sick continuously… but they’re not. Over time, they develop an immunity to the constant barrage of germs.

There are lessons to be learned from these examples. Americans used to be tough folks, working in dirty jobs, living in less clean environments, and over half the population smoked cigarettes… unfiltered ones. Now the air is cleaner, our home environments are far cleaner, only about 20% of us smoke and almost never indoors, yet we have become a sickly, overweight population.

We used to eat anything that tasted good or was cheap. We didn’t much know or care what was in it or how it was processed. Are we healthier now? Hell no, we’re not.

Health care costs have skyrocketed, a higher percentage of us are suffering from dementia, childhood asthma is rampant, and clinics and hospitals are constantly hiring.

When are we going to question the advice that has been pushed on us?

What a bunch of losers!

The Minnesota legislature is controlled by the local Democrats, called DFLers. After years of trying, they finally passed a medical marijuana bill, but, at the last minute, watered it down to include only TERMINALLY-ILL patients.

They will undoubtedly claim that they wanted something that our lame GOP governor wouldn’t veto… something is better than nothing, ya know? They’re right in that claim… he intends to veto even that pathetic bill, but does that justify what they did? Hell no, it doesn’t… they took him largely off the hook by chickening out in advance.

Marijuana can help terminally-ill patients, but they are, after all, by definition, going to die. The real value of medicinal marijuana is for thousands of patients who are going to live… and marijuana can often be the difference between dying and living for them. All those people were sacrificed by one late and cowardly amendment to the bill.

While they were caring not for sick people, they also declared not wearing a seat-belt to be an offense for which cops can now stop you… and charge you.

Our liberal legislators seem to be totally incapable or unwilling to keep their damned noses out of every aspect of our business. They think they know what is best for every one of us, regardless of our individual situations, and they’re willing to FORCE us to comply for our own good.

That attitude is SICK, ELITIST, AND TOTALITARIAN.

A day at Art-A-Whirl and back in time

There are few things I enjoy doing more than stepping back into history, and yesterday was all about that. I used the annual Art-A-Whirl in NE Minneapolis as the impetus and focal point to revisit a couple of places. Sometimes things happen to coincide in a way that produces rather spooky results.

In the 70’s I visited the Northwestern Casket Company briefly on insurance business, and was delighted to find a company that had been in business, in the same place, since Civil War days. I recall a 100-year-old clock in the office, still working, and office furniture that might have been as old.

In 2005, I was visiting an old friend in that part of town and sensed that the place I had visited 20 years earlier was nearby. I drove around until I found the old building, and took a couple of photos of it. It looked to me as if the casket company was gone, and I posted the photos and my regrets at the demise of the company on my website.

Not long after, I got an email from someone at the Casket Company insisting that they were NOT gone, and that they would prove it if I wanted to take a tour. A tour of a company well over 100 years old? There are few things I could want more.

I called a couple of friends I knew would be interested in joining me, plus the friend who lived near NWCC. He fixed lunch for us and we went over to the massive old brick building with the huge name painted on the bricks.

We were given a tour by the company president David Koll, and it was marvelous. Although the company was by that time small and less active by comparison with it’s earlier days, the building added great interest.

Oh, to have seen the company operation at it’s peak… hauling logs in by rail to their own sawmill and dry kiln, and watching craftsmen build caskets of all kinds, followed by the custom interiors created by the ladies on the 3rd floor. Putting interiors on purchased metal caskets had become the bulk of the company’s business.

This day, I was with another friend, and drove by my old friend Ed Contoski’s house, and saw him outside, so we stopped for a few minutes to find out Ed’s latest activities (Ed should be a whole other blog). From Ed’s, we drove up by the St. Mary’s Orthodox Cathedral you can see from Ed’s dining room. It’s an impressive old church from the outside, with a huge central dome and other smaller ones. I was surprised to see that the church was an Art-A-Whirl stop too, so we parked and went in. There was a service just finishing as we got there, and we were directed to the church’s tea room for some great tea, pleasantly sweetened with a dab of Huber’s jam.

When the service ended we entered the church proper and stood surprised at what we saw… a truly magnificent room under the huge dome, with an incredible iconostasis in the front and paintings all around. Additionally, there was an exhibit of more recent, smaller icons. Words cannot do justice to the interior of this cathedral, but they have a website with lots of photos.

From St. Mary’s, we drove to the nearby casket company building. Yes, the casket company was indeed gone, but the huge building, plus the carriage house, were filled with people touring the artist’s studios. There were many remaining vestiges of the building’s prior appearance, but I had hoped for a small historical “shrine” to the company that built the building in 1855 and occupied it for 150 years. The story of that company reveals much about the ways in which our nation has changed over that time.

It’s a little ironic that a building that was built to produce fine hand-crafted caskets now displays hand-crafted art. Another small twist of fate… one of the people I invited on that 2005 tour of the casket company was Joan Nygren, who, for several years, has done the massive Design and Production of the Art-A_Whirl catalog.

I hope someone is recording the story of Northwestern Casket Company for posterity. It’s possible that the company itself is still in business in a different location. I think I’ll try to find out. With a great deal of luck, perhaps I’ll be the one to put at least some more of their long history online to share.