In 1982 Tylenol was poisoned in one location, once. But from then on we have changed packaging so the product won't get poisoned. Now many of our products are too difficult to open, even for the rightful owner. Surely, there's a way to make items easier  for the customer while still keeping us safe. Have we overreacted?

In 2001 the shoe Bomber was caught trying to blow the plane up. He failed and will get free room and board in prison. But since then airline security has been more effective. Not only can't you carry a firearm in your overhead storage bin, you can't bring a lighter or certain kinds of liquids. Now everyone goes through a metal detector, followed by requiring that we have to take our shoes off. I was asked to take all my paper money out of my pockets. When they returned my money I acted angry saying that I had thousands of dollars but they were not returned to me. Have $20 dollar bills been used to blow something up?

There have many reports of sexual misconduct. They came after Bill Cosby and Harvey Weinstein were found committing disgraceful sexual behavior. I don't know anyone who approves of rape. These revelations led to the me/too movement encouraging women to go public of their experiences of sexual verbal or physical abuse, especially if the accused is a prominent entertainer or businessman with deep pockets. 

Many of the reported assaults were unbelievably bad. But there were more complaints of verbal abuse. We understand that too. A boss repeatedly asks his employee to go out him knowing she doesn't want to. A boss brags about the size of his private part. But what does this lead to? Did a man touch  a woman's rear while both were drunk? Did he try to kiss a date but she didn't want or like it. Are they to be considered sexual misconduct?

My daughter recently attended a class mandated for all employees. They were told that if a man says a woman looks nice in that outfit, or says he likes her new hairdo it is now considered sexual harassment. Is this behavior verboten?

Now our important issue is racism. What America did to the indigenous people here is unforgivable. Buying African slaves and bringing them here to work hard, with no freedom, heartless. After 1865, while slavery had been abolished Jim Crow discriminated against these freed slaves as well as anyone of African descent. I experienced it in 1964 while traveling through the Southwhere there were water fountains and rest rooms that were only for whites and separately ones only for "colored." I am dark and feared being in trouble for using the facilities reserved for whites but the alernative was using a filthy restroom for blacks. I was there when Lester Maddox refused to serve people of color. He was later elected governor.

Have we become too sensitive about even traces of racism. We are not allowed to use the word beginning with the letter that follows "m." If we find that someone, other than a rep singer or a member of the cited group, has, we ostracise the person, sometimes ruining their career even if it had happened only once decades ago. Their ancestors left Africa 300 years ago. We do it to be nice. Was it? We created affirmative action which included bussing students to locations that were foreign to them.  Colleges and businesses were told to give black applicants preferential treatment when applying to college or for s job. Affirmative action was ruled unconstitutional. They were then saying they are giving preferential treatment because of their diversity which lately has a sine qua non for a great workforce and college atmosphere. One wonders how they survived without diversity. Today, diversity trumps excellence and past merit. 

We now have an estimated  11+ million illegal immigrants living here. Recently a caravan of thousands tried to storm the wall. Failing to do so, they must remain in camps in Mexico. The Mexicans are revolting against those who want to get into America illegally. They are against illegal immigration. Now they know how we feel. 

The President wants to build a wall along the border in California, Arizona and New Mexico. The liberals are protesting. Does that mean that they want an open border? If the word gets out, we'll have tens of millions of people to make room for and provide them with all their needs - housing, food subsidies. healthcare coverage, free education, et al.  To be against mass migration from Latin America is said to be a racist and xenophobic. It's not their fault for sneaking in. Are we under-reacting about it it?

After the death of a famous singer, whose medical data was shared by several of the hospital staff, we overreacted. We were now so overacting that it is hard for person to get his own test results while in in the hospital. The hospital administrator was contacted to explain this absurd policy. She explained that if I got the results, I might drop some on the floor of my room and someone could  come in and steal them and use them for some dastardly deed. I told the administrator that if she ever changes careers, she should be a defense attorney.I was told to fill out a form authorizing them to give me permission to give my data to me. Then I was told that I couldn't get the results until I left the hospital.

There has been cases of hacked computers. We don't want to be hacked. Now it seems that whenever we call a business we must provide our logon,  password and secret code, or we can't get helped. I called a healthcare billing agency about yet another error in their billing to me. I said that I wanted the manager call me. She did. We were talking about the billing problems and then she wanted me to prove who I was and  asked for me to verify myself with birthdate, address etc. I asked her why she was doing that then. I asked her do many people call to challenge someone else's charges?

I called my credit union to request a free planner, which I never got last year. The woman knew me and knew that the only reason for the call was the planner. I was asked to give her my account number and to remember how much was my latest transfer. I asked her do many people call for someone else and request a planner for the actual customer? Are we going too far?

It seems with all these issues the problem is not only reacting but also the lack of judgement They can't realize how ridiculous it is.

Misleading Studies

 Many studies by well-educated people seem to get the results they  want. Here are: some examples:

We always heard the experts use the term again and again "income inequality." What is the goal? Is it income equality? That didn't work in Russia nor the countries under Russia's rule.'' The more appropriate  term should be the "income gap."

But the income gap is very overstated. The study measures the income before taxes. It should be measuring the after tax income including bonuses for the well-to -do. The researchers also used the low income people without including the government subsidies which are valued at $30,000 for a family of four. It is $50,000 in Hawaii. The uncounted subsidies in food stamps, Medicaid, breakfast and lunch meals at their children's public schools, the earned income credit, housing subsidies, refundable $2,000 credits per child, and so on. This means that 3% are actually below the poverty level, not 12.5%. But for anyone to be living in the bottom 20% is still unacceptable. The rich are too rich and the poor are too poor.

In healthcare we are compared to the other developed nations. The analysis failed to recognize some causes for this. America has a problem with violence and massive substance abuse. So if a person is rushed to the hospital while dying, this counts as a lost patient. Our people are more obese which causes organic problems like heart disease, kidney failure, and diabetes. This adds to our medical costs but are not found in most first world countries. We are more heterogeneous, with some not seeing a doctor until it's too  late. So our costs have to be much higher. We also do highly expensive operations to save even a fetuse's life while in utero. We count our birth rates counting those who are born dead. Then other countries count only children's death when they are at least one year old.

The U.S. also does needed surgeries very quickly in a few days or weeks. To get a hip replacement might take a week or so. In many of these countries, especially single payer systems, that operation would start in as much as a year. The U.S is still number one in all the serious conditions like heart failure, cancer treatment, brain surgery to name a few. So these studies are comparing apples to oranges. It can only be because the study was biased. 

Then there are the claims that America's public schools are nowhere near that of other first world. Again it is apples and oranges. These other countries are homogeneous, share the same language, values and practices. We have a very heterogeneous country. A share of our public school students can't speak English. Others are from their cultures or a family that put less emphasis on education.  This is not say the public schools are perfect and don't need improvement. I beg to differ. I think that even their curricula are in need of change by teaching students to think as well as memorize as it is now.

The conclusion - don't believe something because you heard it from  experts. We have to begin to think for ourselves.