Security, Texas-style

Texas recently installed metal detectors at the Capitol, subjecting all visitors to inspections of purses, bags, briefcases, etc.

Well, not all, there are some people who are allowed to pass with no inspection:

• Lawmakers
• State employees
• Texans who are carrying a concealed handgun (as long as they have their concealed handgun permit with them)

How hard is it to get a concealed handgun permit?

You need:

1. Proof of having lived in Texas for six month
2. Proof of citizenship, age and identity
3. No violent crimes or felonies in the last ten years
4. Attend a class on gun safety
5. Fill out application, pay $140 fee and wait 60 days

The Iceland volcano and American health care

According to our friend Rush Limbaugh, the recent eruption in Iceland is due to God's anger about the passing of health care reform in the US.

Apparently this is not God's first geography mistake, after mistakenly ordering the invasion of Iraq in response to a bunch of Egyptians and Saudis flying planes into buildings.

If anything, maybe the Norse gods are retaliating against the UK for their attempt to impose ruinous debts on Iceland.

Quality fade in America

I read an enlightening book called Poorly made in China which introduced me to the concept of quality fade.

The idea is that instead of thinking about how to create a better product, you spend your time fiddling with the ingredients, substituting cheaper ones, making the containers thinner, cutting back on quality control, etc.

(Eg when a Chinese company puts a stick "No Animal Testing" on a cosmetic product, it doesn't mean they care about animal rights, it just means that they do no testing whatsoever.)

What was initially a low margin (or perhaps you were even selling it at a loss) product slowly become profitable over time. Eventually this gets pushed too far and people die of food poisoning or decide they hate your products.

Paul Midler has a blog that has some great stories, such as this one:

Tainted Chinese Fluoride. A water works company in Massachusetts has been getting its fluoride from China, and it believes that what they’ve been receiving is actually a kind of counterfeit. From one report:

Department of Public Works Director Rob Desmarais said after he mixes the white powder with water, 40 percent of it will not dissolve. ”I don’t know what it is,” Desmarais said. “It’s not soluble, and it doesn’t appear to be sodium fluoride. So we are not quite sure what it is.”

Desmarais said the residue clogs his machines and makes it difficult to get a consistent level of fluoride in the town’s water. Since April the fluoride pumps in Amesbury have been turned off and they will stay that way until Desmarais can find out what’s in the fluoride that’s imported from China.

America has been taking a page out of China's playbook, especially when it comes to food products. After I read about an "innovative" procedure that injects ammonia into e-coli tainted beef "fatty trimmings", I've pretty much sworn off hamburgers in the US. (Read McDonald's hilarious response where they claim ammonia is okay just because it's naturally occurring). To make it even better, the wholesalers mix the ground beef from various suppliers *before* any testing takes place, in order to ensure that no one can be held responsible in the case that someone gets poisoned.

Something that I really appreciate in Europe is that the protectionism around various countries' agriculture industries has to some extent prevented a dominant company like ADM from rampantly corrupting policy at the EU level.

I cannot escape the high fructose corn syrup

I hadn't realized how pervasive it had become in the US. It's in the juice, yogurt, ketchup, you name it.

Reading the paper today, it also looks like corn syrup causes high obesity in rats (compared to regular sugar).

Thank God that the EU has a pretty small quota on its use. I heard the quota was more about supporting sugar cane from old colonies than health benefits, but hey, at least they are right for the wrong reason.

I'm starting to feel like a foreigner in the US again:

I had breakfast in a fancy restaurant for breakfast today (surrounded by about 40 catholic priests... some kind of tradition here apparently. I was amazed at how young the priests were compared to the geriatric ones I'm used to seeing in Spain) and they gave me some kind of weird sweet gluey liquid (no doubt consisting mostly of high fructose corn syrup) for my waffles. Strangely enough they told me they had real maple syrup. So I asked them for some real maple syrup, but they brought another container of the same stuff. Finally I told the waiter that I had lived in Canada and knew that this most definitely was not maple syrup.

He said "Oh, okay, I can bring you some real maple syrup. But most customers complain that it isn't sweet enough."

Not exactly the Mediterranean diet

It's pretty shocking how bad the food is here in the US:

The horseshoe sandwich, a platter-size, open-face Springfield original, consisting of bread, meat and a pile of French fries smothered in a thick cheese sauce.

Field House adds an extra layer of grease by stuffing the meat and fries into a tortilla, which stands in for the bread, and dunking the mass in a deep-fryer before ladling on the cheese sauce. The resulting colossus, called the "Shoe Burrito," weighs in at 2,700 calories—the equivalent of five Big Macs.

The sad thing is that even if you wanted to eat healthy, there are just no options in many places. Luckily there's a Whole Foods and a Trader Joes near to where we are staying.

On vacation

In the land of the free (or at least for those who can afford a good lawyer).

The laptop is fully loaded with Spongebob Square Pants (Bob Esponja Pantalones Cuadrados) for the flight. This is the current hit show among the preschool set in Spain. I think kids love the show because the characters are so stupid that they make the kids feel like geniuses.

Yesterday the kids were coming off the school bus all yelling together "Bob Es-Pon-ja! Bob Es-Pon-ja!"

Yes, Americans have no clue what neutral gear is

With all the stories of Toyotas accelerating out of control in the US, the question that always comes to my mind is "Why don't they put the car in neutral?"

I finally have the answer. This person thought that his car would flip over if he switched into neutral.

On the other hand, I wouldn't want to be in a rental car and try to figure this one out while my car is going out of control:



The whole thing reminds me of the mess around Audi back in the 80s when people were turn them on with the accelerator floored (instead of the brake) and flying out of their garage.

Baby snatching epidemic in the US

When we our kids were born in the US, I remember the elaborate security measures that they took to prevent any possibility of our baby being taken from us. Special bracelets were installed that would automatically set off alarms, close airlocks, release the hounds, SWAT teams, etc.

It's good to know that the zeal for protecting babies has reduced the chance of having your baby stolen from 1 in 400,000 (5 times less likely than being killed by lightning, which is the gold standard for unlikely events) to less than 1 in 1,000,000.

I'm sure that in Spain, the watchful eye of grandmother would prevent any harm from coming to the baby. (Except perhaps death from overheating by having too many blankets)

Now I remember why I left

Turning on the TV in my hotel room, I was graced with the reappearance of the wonderful Sarah Palin. Although I've found that right wing politicans are probably just as corrupt in Spain as they are in the US, at least they are not as painfully stupid. (I supposed to me everyone in Spain sounds so terribly smart with their excellent command of Spanish grammar... grrr... )

I remember doing this in highschool during little speech I had to do, but I didn't really expect it of a presidential candidate....

Written on her hand:

• "Energy"
  
• "Budget [crossed out] (Cuts)"
  
• "Tax"
  
• "Lift American spirits"
  

What I miss from America

• Real breakfast. With french toast, lots of maple syrup and links.
  
• Weekend brunch. It was always a great no-stress way to catch up with friends.
  
• Reasonable movie times
  
• Reasonable dinner times. 11pm is not reasonable, sorry.
  
• Neighbors that will talk to you.
  
• TV programs that start (and stop) at their advertised times.
  
• Windows without bars
  
• Parking
  
• NPR. I'm starting to like En Dias Como Hoy though.
  
• "The customer is always right" (as opposed to "We have your money, why should we care?")
  
• 1-800 customer service numbers. Any customer service, for that matter. Did you know that 807 customer service numbers are technically illegal in Spain? Does anyone care? Doesn't seem like it.
  
• Internet shopping.
  
• Not paying sales tax on internet shopping.
  
• Not paying shipping on internet shopping.
  
• English language book stores with science fiction books other than by Jean Auel. (My trusty Kindle has mostly solved that problem)
  
• Spanish immersion public schools. Yes, we actually had a Spanish immersion public school in our neighborhood in the US. Here we have to pay lots of money so that they get some Spanish as opposed to everything in Catalan.
  
• Volunteers and community spirit. I find people here are too quick to say "it's the governments problem" rather than fixing the problem themselves.