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When I was 16 years old, I bussed tables a restaurant near my house. It was hard, heavy work, but I made decent money for a teenager. However, the toll it took on my back was tremendous. At one point, I had to take a couple of weeks off in order to recuperate.

When I returned, I wore a brace to increase support to my back. The brace was tight and uncomfortable. It also made me hot during the summer. I wore it anyway, though, because the alternative was a lifetime of immense back pain.

My back wasn’t protected from all damage. Anytime I would stand in the kitchen to wash dishes or cook at the stove, I would receive a lower back ache. This would happen basically anytime I stood on a hard surface without wearing good supported shoes or a padded rug. It never occurred to me that the solutions would be to go to a chiropractic physician.

Like some of you, I’ve been leery of the chiropractic profession. There were some in the field who promised things they simply could not deliver. Unfortunately, these false prophets seemed to give the whole profession a bad rap.

Now I know better. I met a chiropractor at my business networking group, and found out that we don’t have to live with chronic pain in our musculoskeletal system. Once I decided to give him a shot, I have never turned back and was so glad I did. He prescribed a plan that included adjustments and special shoe inserts that would straighten my back. My back has not felt this good in years.

I know some may be scared of having their back “cracked”, but there is nothing to be afraid of. You have nothing to lose and everything to gain. If you have chronic back pain, make an appointment with a chiropractic physician. You’ll be glad you did.

Now that the BP oil spill has become an ongoing topic of news and discussion, the subject of business ethics seems to be popping up from time to time. It’s almost laughable, if it wasn’t so heartbreaking; to think that major oil companies like BP has been pushing the limits to the max for years without having to face the music; ever.

Once you get the information about the many violations and how the very regulators meant to protect us and the oil company execs have been so conveniently lying in the same bed, does the picture start to come into view. There is no question of ethics because there are no ethical practices apparent in this relationship. With the old trick of smoke and mirrors, John Q. Public has been led to believe that our government is on our side but it just ain’t true!

If you think this is just in the big money of oil, think again. You find these very bedroom deals in the food industry, military arms, pharmaceuticals and any other type of “big” business in America. Just take a look at the government gatekeepers and where they come from. To use an old farm analogy; the foxes are guarding the henhouse and we have blindly let them.

Just like most accidents that occur these days the BP oil spill could have been prevented with some forethought and some additional money spent. Unfortunately, companies who do business in and are in America do the very same things that we accuse companies in countries like China and Russia do; they cut corners, pay off government officials and put people in harms way by not doing the right thing. And it’s all about the money because money is the God of the world; but that’s another story.

There has been something called a blowout preventer that has been available for years that has proven to be one of the best ways to cut off the flow of oil if something happens. The problem is they cost a lot of money; $500,000 to a million dollars for one that can withstand the depth of the BP well in the Gulf of Mexico. While that may seem like a lot of money; compared with the billions of dollars BP will spend for clean up of the oil and their reputation it’s a drop in the bucket. I hope that any oil company that has or is planning to drill in deep water will remember that BP really stands for Blowout Preventer.

I have mixed feelings about learning the Latin language. On one hand I believe that learning Latin will make learning all of the Romance Languages, which are Spanish, Italian, French, Romanian, and Portuguese. If one learns Latin than it will be a great help if they decide to learn one of these five other languages or any other Romance Language. There are more than just those five but those are some of the most common around the world.

On the other hand, Latin is a dead language. It is not used by any culture today. It is used sometimes. A few examples would be the names of plants, animals, and many other things related to science and medicine. The Catholic Church also uses it as a holy language. But other than these examples, Latin is barely used at all. If one learns Latin they will have very few opportunities in life to apply what they have learned. It is after all a dead language. It would be much more useful to just spend that time that you learned Latin learning one of the other languages. This would probably make it just as easy to learn the other languages.

In Mark Twain’s famous book, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, one of the main themes of the novel is the struggle between society’s morals and personal morals. Huck, the main character, has lived most of his life as a wild child. Alone for most of his life, Huck taught himself to survive. The only adult in Huck’s life was is abusive drunk of a father. Huck was an innocent child who had to develop his own conscience. When a well-respected woman named Miss Watson tries to civilize him, his own morals are morphed and mixed with that of the society.

The civilized society of Huck’s time said that slaves were as much someone’s property as an ox or a horse. When Huck escapes from his father, Miss Watson’s slave, Jim, joins him on his journey. The fact that Jim is an escaped slave bothers Huck’s conscience because he believes that he had a part in taking Miss Watson’s property. Several times in the book Huck ponders turning Jim in but because he is a true friend, Huck listens to his heart and not his head and always decides that he would rather “go to hell” for doing something that society called wrong: Helping Jim escape to freedom.

Huck had been taught by society that what he was doing was wrong. Huck decided to do what was “wrong” because he knew it was right. This is a lesson that I think that all teenagers and young adults should learn when they are becoming more and more independent in life. That no matter what the world tells you, you know what’s right.

This is one of my favorite times of the year; NFL Playoffs! Most of the time, I have at least one of the teams I follow in the hunt and in the playoffs, but not this year, so my significant other is wondering why I am watching the games? I watch because these are the best of the best there is in professional football and it’s just fun to watch!

Because I don’t follow all the teams it also gives me the chance to see some of the talent I hear and read about but don’t watch every week. I feel the same about the NBA playoffs, the World Series and the Olympics that come every four years. By the way, they Winter Games are only a month or so away and while I never watch speed skating or downhill skiing during the year, I will be  watching as usual when these events are happing in conjunction with the Winter Olympics. What can I say, I admire talent and skill in any sport.

If you have ever tried to find nutrition information and an eating program to go with it you will be amazed at what you read. The range is unbelievable from the strictest raw vegan to the high fat Atkins Diet that was so popular a few years ago. The question is; who is right? We can put a man on the moon but cannot figure out what the best eating plan to get and stay healthy is. You also don’t know who’s in bed with whom. Does the meat and dairy industry finance the research for the high fat diets? Does the local and slow food movements behind the vegan and vegetarian diets? Who knows????

If you are a consumer, how do you cull through all this mess? You can’t even trust the USDA as they have turned their backs on any science that doesn’t prove their stance as well. So science is out if it’s not what they want to hear? How crazy is that? Just like anything else we need to have open transparent discussions and look at ALL the science so people know for sure what they should eat to be the healthiest they can be. You would think congress would like this since it would cut down on the cost of health care. Duh.

Over the past two weeks I have noticed a couple of polls and surveys where it is said that the independents that had moved a little bit to the left for the elections last year are now moving right. I don’t know about other parts of the country but in the area that I live that has a bit of a right leaning populous those individuals that had moved from right to independent are even more left leaning today than they were last year.

They are seeing the same thing that I am seeing and it doesn’t make since at this time in our country’s history; politics over policy, which seems to be the right’s game plan these days. Of course when you have a group of people struggling to keep our health insurance and keep credit coming into our businesses so we can continue to make a living, no one gives a crap about the politics. We need polices to be changed so we can afford to purchase a home, send our kids to college and eventually retire as we’ve been told all these years. So maybe some are moving back to the right but I don’t see it where I live.

I have just read another article on the dangers of texting while driving and all I have to say to all of the people who are texting while they are driving is; grow up! Supposedly there is this “urge” to deal with your phone calls and texts just as soon as they arrive. It’s like having an addiction and some people just don’t know how to deal with it! I only had to think about half a second to figure this one out; turn off your phone when you are driving your car. There is nothing that is so important that it can’t wait until you get to your destination.

If there is such a dire thing (Twitter and/or Facebook are never dire things) then let your spouse or assistant monitor your incoming email for you while you are driving. To put yourself and others in danger because you can’t find the off button on your phone should be a chargeable offense. It’s one thing to answer a call over your Bluetooth where you can keep your eyes on the road and another totally different thing to read while driving; it just can’t be done! As a teen there was a story about a man who got into a fatal crash because he was reading the newspaper while driving. It was hailed as a dumb thing to do. Now we’re supposed to forgive those who are writing while driving? I don’t think so.

I had lunch today with one of my favorite people. He is one of my favorites because he is a thinker and he is funny! Don calls it like he sees it and never throws punches below the belt and is a moderate in these crazy times. Since I had not talked to him in over a month or so I had to ask him about healthcare. He simply stated, “What a circus” and then went on to say this.

“Ask anyone on the street if they enjoy paying what they pay for their healthcare, having to get a high school grad at the insurance company to approve your doctor’s care that spent 9 years preparing to take care of you and thought the care they got was worth the money they paid? No one will say yes unless they make a lot of money or have government health insurance or both. Now ask yourself why the party (Republicans) who profess to follow Jesus Christ, who was dark skinned and who went around healing the sick and the poor are so against making sure the sick and the poor have adequate healthcare? Welcome to the nut farm called politics!”