ITEM: Compact fluorescent light bulbs, mandated to replace the century-old reliable incandescent bulb (at four times the cost) contain poisonous liquid mercury over 300 times the EPA’s standard accepted safety level. In addition, days after a bulb has been broken, vacuuming or simply crawling across the carpeted floor where the bulb was broken can cause mercury vapor levels to shoot back upwards of 100 times the accepted level of safety.

These figures are according to a report by the Maine Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) after a woman was quoted $2000 for cleanup of a broken compact fluorescent bulb in her house.

Several years ago we witnessed a strange and unexpected event between a dog and a cat. A fairly good sized German Shepherd spotted a much smaller, black house cat and broke into a dead run after the cat. The cat, startled by the dog and now instantly charged with adrenalin, struck off down the street as fast as he could go, in a black blur.

Now a dog chasing a cat is hardly news, but it was what the cat did that drastically altered the outcome of the chase. About a few seconds into the chase, the cat, without regard to the consequences, suddenly turned 180 degrees and planted five sharp claws on the dogs nose as the dog, trying to stop, ran into the cat.

A week or so ago, the Teamsters Local 601 held a meeting for the employees of the company which employs me. The reason for the meeting was so that the employees could introduce suggestions for the union to bargain for during the upcoming contract negotiations.

Out of over 500 employees covered by the union, only around 20 people showed up. The next day at work, one of the women who attended was complaining about how hardly anyone cares enough to get involved in their union meetings.

I couldn’t let that comment slip by, so I said, “Welcome to my world. Now you know how I feel. It infuriates me because people are too lazy, or just don’t care enough to read the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, or any of the writings of the founders.

“Some people don’t want to be confused with facts that contradict their preconceived opinions and prejudice.” – Geoff Metcalf

Headlines are screaming about the all too public dust up between the Obama White House and Fox News. Fox has obviously gotten under the too thin skin of the administration and the president seems both willing and enthused to accept poor counsel from the Rahm Emanuel ‘Chicago style’ wing of advisers.

Even the New York Times begrudgingly admits the White House “by deploying official resources against a troublesome media organization, seems to have brought a knife to a gunfight.”

What if we applied corporate standards to the “science” that is driving global warming policy?

Imagine the reaction if investment companies provided only rosy stock and economic data to prospective investors; manufacturers withheld chemical spill statistics from government regulators; or medical device and pharmaceutical companies doctored data on patients injured by their products.

Media frenzies, congressional hearings, regulatory investigations, fines and jail sentences would come faster than you can say Henry Waxman. If those same standards were applied to global warming alarmists, many of them would be fined, dismissed and imprisoned, sanity might prevail, and the House-Senate cap-and-tax freight train would come to a screeching halt.

About a year ago, I published an article [1] that blamed the government-sponsored speculation by the so-called under-served borrowers for the housing market crash. A reader signed as John questioned its plausibility and wrote:

“This article lacks validity. Author suggests that the poor caused the crash, which is totally absurd.”

Unfortunately, the claim that in an industrial or post-industrial society the primary source of the wealth of the rich is the exploitation of the poor has been a common myth for some 160 years now.

We physicians with all our training, knowledge and authority often acquire a rather large ego that tends to make it difficult to admit we are wrong.  So, here it is I freely admit to being wrong.  As a heart surgeon with 25 years experience, having performed over 5,000 open-heart surgeries, today is my day to right the wrong with medical and scientific fact.

I trained for many years with other prominent physicians labeled “opinion makers.”  Bombarded with scientific literature, continually attending education seminars, we opinion makers insisted heart disease resulted from the simple fact of elevated blood cholesterol.

Millions of Americans are politically informed, smart, active and angry.  They see many wrongs in our political and government system.  They are fed up with politics as usual, meaning corrosive corruption of politicians by corporate and other special interests.  They see little good in either the Democrat or Republican parties.  And they almost always share a common bond: They love and honor the US Constitution, even though they may see some flaws in it.  Yet they are also constitutional hypocrites.

Why do I say this?  Because Americans are overwhelmingly ignorant or misinformed about the constitutional paths for amending the Constitution.