It's All About Teeth

Only a few times in life do you get the opportunity to associate with a team of people who work together in perfect harmony like a well-oiled machine.  Hospitality Dental Group in Riverside, CA is just such a team.  Guided by their extraordinary leader, Dr. B., they are the epitome of industry and efficiency.  Dr. B. is a most interesting man and like the Dos Equis commercial on TV wherein you are introduced to the “most interesting man in the world,” you expect, at any moment, for him to turn to you and say, “stay thirsty my friend.”

You are greeted at the front door of Dr. B’s clinic by an obvious “pineapple motif.”  The pineapple has been a symbol of hospitality and “warm welcome” throughout the history of the Americas and was mentioned in the writings of Christopher Columbus.  Dr. B and his team continue that legacy in fine fashion.

Unlike most medical establishments that present a drab, sterile atmosphere, Dr. B’s office is a veritable museum!  His interests and expertise cover a wide range of subjects.  He is the consummate philatelist, dabbles in paleontology and has a collection of fossils from the Miocene epoch hanging on his walls.  As if that is not enough to keep him busy, he has been on several Safaris in Africa and has several artifacts from those adventures in his office!

This is a small selection of artifacts including; what else?, Teeth! from one of those Safaris.  Thank you Dr. B.

 To Dr. B, Gail, Darlene, and all you professional team members at Hospitality Dental Group, Thank you for your efforts on my behalf over the many years.

History and Biological Warfare

The bubonic plague that killed an estimated 25 million people in Europe, about 50% of the entire population at the time, is an Enterovirus, much like the respiratory virus that is attacking children throughout our country!  We have more to be concerned about than Ebola!

There have been several episodes of Bubonic plague throughout history.  The first recorded episode of the plague was in the Spring of 542 and killed 50 million people in the Roman Empire alone, when the world population at the time was only 500 million!  It was transmitted from port city to port city, shipping being the primary mode of transportation at the time.  It was only stopped when ports were closed and travel was severely restricted.  We need to close our airports to incoming traffic.

Black Death from pages of the Toggenburg Bible

Between 1340 and 1400 the plague struck again killing a third of the human population.  Some of the earliest instances of biological warfare were said to have been products of the plague, as armies of the 14th century were recorded catapulting diseased corpses over the walls of towns and villages to spread the pestilence.  The disease is actually credited with ending serfdom in many countries because so many people died that the few who survived were able to demand higher wages for their services.

Mass grave of plague victims, France, 1400's

Even though we are not faced with the same disease, the results can be the same.  In 1918 this country was hit by the Spanish Flu pandemic and the ensuing dramatic mortality rates.  Some believe that the disease was brought to this country by the American soldiers who were returning from the battlefields of World War I.  Go to any library and check the newspaper archives for the period and you will find records of victims in your area, no matter where you live.  Again, the disease was spread by people entering this country from other lands!  Time to close our borders.

1918 Spanish Flu in St. Louis

Closing our borders is especially important in light of the fact that we have a suicidal enemy that will resort to any means to bring about our destruction.  There is nothing to stop them from becoming infected and “walking amongst us.”

At a time when we need it the most it seems that our government is failing in its primary responsibility; defending and protecting our population.  Where is the defense for Sgt. Tahmooressi, who has been languishing in a Mexican prison for 200 days?  Where is the protection of our citizenry from the possibility of biological warfare being perpetrated on us by suicidal “radical Muslims” streaming across our open borders?

History Repeats Itself

As clearly pointed out by Karl Marx in the “Communist Manifesto,” the history of mankind has been nothing more than a history of “Class Struggle” between the upper class, the oppressors, and the lower class, the oppressed.  In early history, during the heyday of the Romans, it was the Patricians (aristocrats) pitted against the Plebeians (common people) who owned no land and whose only worth was the value of their labor.

Karl Marx

 During the middle ages, in Feudal society, the struggles continued between the Lords of the Manor (aristocracy)

Lord of the Manor

 and the Serfs who, again, owned no land and were veritable slaves!  A serf was required to tend the Lord’s lands and was rewarded with physical and legal Protection by the Lord and the right to work a portion of the land for his own subsistence.  The Serfs commitment to the Lord was a legal bond and the Serf did not have the freedom to move about the country or change “Lords.”

Serfs

In more recent history, specifically in “turn of the century” Russia, the battles continued between what Marx called the Bourgeois (pronounced like Booj-wah) and the Proletarians.  The Bourgeois were the upper class (Czar Nicholas & family and his cronies)

Czar Nicholas

Czarina Alexandra

Son, Alexei

Daughter, Anastasia

 who owned and controlled the means of production (industry) and, since the Proletariat owned no assets or land, their only means of support was by their labor which was only saleable to the Bourgeois.

Russian Serfs

This is the short history of man’s class struggle as described by Karl Marx.  In each of these historical societies there is a common thread that caused the eventual collapse of those societies; the lower class owned no land!  When a man has no assets he has nothing to lose!  He is more likely to reach a point of rebellion against the oppression of the upper class.

Karl Marx was in the right place at the right time.  The Czar had reduced the population to serfdom and Marx, through his manifesto, promised them equality and human rights.  Marx promised this through what he called Communism.  Initially, Communism was a Capitalistic system but Marx sought to perfect it with a few tweaks.

To Karl Marx, “Capitalism” had the seeds of its own destruction built in.  Over time, the Capitalist would continually increase his assets until the average citizen had nothing left of value except his day labor and would be forced to sell his labor to an ever expanding and oppressive Capital market.  Marx tried to circumvent this weakness in the Capitalistic system by disallowing the doctrines of inheritance and incorporation.  Under these doctrines, the power of any individual Capitalist would cease upon his death and the chance of any person or group of persons to amass overwhelming fortunes would almost be impossible.  Problems arose when the “State” became the “inherent” recipient of all those Capitalistic ventures and became the ultimate oppressor.  Once again, the common people were reduced to Serfdom!

Open rebellion in Russia, 1917

Our founding fathers built many “checks and balances” into our Capitalistic system of government but they did not dis-allow corporations or inheritance.  Legally, a corporation is a person; a person who, properly maintained, will live forever!  It is inevitable that a corporation, if left unchecked will, one day, own the entire world?  Corporations are a weakness in our form of government that past administrations have tried to mend with “Anti-Trust” legislation but it hasn’t worked.

Like all previous societies, ours is now at the stage where Russia was just prior to and after the Russian revolution of 1917.  The Bourgeois (billionaire industrialist) own all the means of production

Modern day Bourgeoise

and the Proletariat (working class) are bound to them by the sale of their labor.  We have, essentially, become Serfs!

Modern day Serfs