Kevin Pezzi, MD

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“To avoid criticism, do nothing, say nothing, and be nothing.”

— Elbert Hubbard, American editor, publisher, and writer (1856–1915)

Trivia: He and his wife, Alice Moore Hubbard, the noted feminist and writer, died aboard the RMS Lusitania, which was torpedoed and sunk by a German submarine on May 7, 1915, when they were heading to Europe to cover the war and interview Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany.

If you disagree with something I wrote, feel free to challenge it. Some of my viewpoints are the antithesis (exact opposite) of what they once were. That isn't flip-flopping; that is changing opinions with scant evidence to support them into convictions with a firmer foundation of facts.

My political philosophy is an amalgamation of libertarian, conservative, and liberal principles. My opinions have changed so significantly that my conservative friends might be horrified by how I strongly believe that liberals are correct on certain issues. I've previously written about some of them, but to make this more fun, I will present others as challenges in which I offer $100,000 to the first person who can refute the logic I used in forming that opinion. Please note that due to my limited time and difficulty using my hands after I broke my neck, I cannot quickly update my previously published opinions. However, now that I am balancing the promptings of head and heart, I strongly disagree with many opinions I expressed in my writings.

I like finding people who make me think, not necessarily those who agree with me. Genius Robert Heinlein said, “I never learned from a man who agreed with me.” If you can educate me, I'm all ears.

“Few people are capable of expressing with equanimity opinions which differ from the prejudices of their social environment. Most people are even incapable of forming such opinions.”
— Albert Einstein

“Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.”
— Albert Einstein

“The ultimate ignorance is the rejection of something you know nothing about and refuse to investigate.”
— Dr. Wayne Dyer

“If everyone is thinking alike, then somebody isn't thinking.”
— General George Patton

“Man's mind, once stretched by a new idea, never regains its original dimensions.”
— Oliver Wendell Holmes

“A lot of people risk their lives in a brief act of heroism, which is kind of cool, but Jill has what I call slow heroism. She is risking her professional life on something that her own calculations show may not work for a thousand years—may not ever. So I like to support people that are risking their lives.”
— ex-Microsoft billionaire brainiac Nathan Myhrvold speaking about Jill Tarter, who inspired the character played by Jodie Foster in the movie Contact. It takes a brilliant person to see that others who go against the grain of conventional wisdom may be sages although lesser minds often ridicule their ideas.

“I am not young enough to know everything.”
— Oscar Wilde

“You have enemies? Good. That means you've stood up for something, sometime in your life.”
— Winston Churchill

“Talk sense to a fool and he calls you foolish.”
— Euripides, Greek tragic dramatist (484 BC - 406 BC)

“It is socially unacceptable to be right too early.”
— Robert Heinlein

“I'd rather stand alone on the truth than with millions on a lie.”

“The most distinctive mark of a cultured mind is the ability to take another's point of view; to put one's self in another's place, and see life and its problems from a point of view different from one's own. To be willing to test a new idea; to be able to live on the edge of difference in all matters intellectually; to examine without heat the burning question of the day; to have imaginative sympathy, openness and flexibility of mind, steadiness and poise of feeling, cool calmness of judgment, is to have culture.”
— Arthur H. R. Fairchild

“It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat.”
— Theodore Roosevelt

“It has been my experience that folks who have no vices have very few virtues.”
— Abraham Lincoln

This reminds me of something stressed by one of my psychology professors, who said that society imposes rigid boundaries for what behavior is acceptable, and applies tremendous pressure trying to force people to conform to the behavioral expectations. Some of the most brilliant and productive outside-the-box thinkers led unconventional lives. One of the side effects of forcing people to think inside the box is that by lopping off outside-the-box behavior, potentially great outside-the-box ideas are lost, too.

“We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty. When the loyal opposition dies, I think the soul of America dies with it.”
— Edward R. Murrow, American journalist (1908-1965)

“You will not do incredible things without an incredible dream.”
— John Eliot

NOTE: Several family members were brutally slaughtered recently, so I will take a break from writing. Their deaths erased my affinity for writing about politics or the economy, thus I'll later limit myself to health and brainpower in addition to completing my book on rapidly overcoming racism and bigotry. BTW, the two men who murdered my father are still on the lam; I am offering up to $100,000 for information leading to their arrest and conviction.

East meets West, China poisons our products, die, Americans!
If a restaurant intentionally poisoned you, you'd never eat there again. If only some of the outlets in a large chain intentionally poisoned you, you'd still avoid them all if you couldn't reliably differentiate the risky versus safe ones. So why do we buy from China?

Fisher-Price is recalling almost one million toys because their paint contains excessive amounts of lead. What's particularly troubling about this is that Fisher-Price has had a long-standing relationship with the Chinese vendor that applied the paint. Fisher-Price is practically synonymous with “quality toys,” so they must have imposed various quality standards on their vendors, including a prohibition against using leaded paint. Yet it happened. Again.

In June, the toy maker RC2 Corp. recalled 1.5 million wooden railroad toys and set parts from its Thomas & Friends Wooden Railway product line (source). Before that, there were so many reports of other contaminated products, foods, drugs, supplements, and herbs that you would need a team of researchers working full-time to keep track of all of them. A few months ago, The New York Times reported that Chinese producers routinely and intentionally add melamine to rice protein and wheat gluten in animal feed products to falsely inflate their protein levels.

The New York Times also detailed (F.D.A. Tracked Tainted Drugs, but Trail Went Cold in China, June 17, 2007) how a state-owned company in China exported diethylene glycol, a syrupy poison used in some antifreeze, as safe, pharmaceutical-grade glycerin. Instead of cooperating, the Chinese blocked an investigation by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). On Oct. 27, 1997, Mary K. Pendergast, then deputy FDA commissioner, wrote “The U.S. imports a lot of Chinese glycerin and it is used in ingested products such as toothpaste.” She stressed the need to learn how that poison was introduced, which might “prevent this tragedy from happening again.”

A decade later, Chinese-made diethylene glycol was mixed into medicine that killed at least 100 people in Panama. Chinese toothpaste containing that toxin was found in the United States and seven other countries.

In Fascinating Health Secrets and The Science of Sex, I cautioned against consuming food or herbs from China, given their indifference about food safety and their rampant pollution that ensures that many of their food and herbal products are inevitably contaminated. Here is a relevant quote from The Science of Sex:

Based on the recent news reports, I am no longer half joking about them trying to poison us because they can’t nuke us. They are poisoning us, and it is intentional, not an accident. I don’t fault the FDA for not detecting this problem sooner because the FDA does not have the resources to inspect every food shipment into the United States. However, it is sheer lunacy for the FDA to give the Chinese the ability to poison us as they did with feloniously contaminated food because we don’t need any food from China; our farmers can grow enough to feed us and still export to other countries. Our Congress is evidently unconcerned about American farmers producing enough food, because it has paid billions of dollars as subsidies to farmers to encourage them not to grow food. Then we turn around and buy food from the Chinese—utterly idiotic! The FDA wants to prohibit Americans from buying prescription drugs from Canada**, yet it permits food and herbal imports from a country—China—that intentionally poisoned us. Does anyone in Washington have any brains? Why not ban all food and herbal imports from China? Add toys to the list, and the next generation of American kids will be smarter, because lead is a known neurotoxin.

My brother and I previously sold some Chinese-made storage accessories through our GarageScapes company, but we discontinued them after tiring of their stunningly pathetic lack of quality control. Not only was their quality control horrendous, but it did not improve even after exhortations that “you'd better improve, or else.” Sheer apathy.

That was no aberration. After purchasing countless other Chinese products, I am convinced that they don't give a hoot abut quality or ethics. Whether it is a badly chipped storage rack or a tainted medicine that kills humans, the Chinese don't care. Period. So why do we buy from them?

Anyone who answers “price” is penny-wise and pound-foolish. I won't paint with a broad brush and assert that all Chinese products are junk, but a surprising number are.

I think the American perception of value is distorted by what I call the Wal-Mart effect. You know—you buy something that seems to be a bargain, but you are myopically focused on price, not quality. I will be the first to admit that I, too, was once this stupid. Then it hit me: many of the seemingly great bargains were anything but. For example, one fall in which I did very little baking I had three mixers fail that I purchased from Wal-Mart. When I was young, I bought a relatively inexpensive made-in-America mixer for my Mom as a Christmas present. That mixer was still going strong over three decades later—and my Mom baked more than Martha Stewart and Better Crocker combined! (Several thousand cookies later, I am fortunate that I discovered an easy way to lose weight.) Thus, you and I could save money by purchasing better-quality items that might cost more but last a long time. Furthermore, our landfills wouldn't be filled with so much junk that dies prematurely. Recycling is good, but what's even better is obviating the need for recycling, or delaying it for many years.

Were it not for our involvement in World War II, the Chinese would have been permanently enslaved by the Japanese—at least the Chinese who weren't exterminated, as many were. I think it is natural to express gratitude to someone who saves your life, but I have never seen any evidence that the Chinese feel the least bit grateful for what we did for them. To my knowledge, they never even sent so much as a Hallmark card after the war. Instead, they became bellicose. Their truculence and “to heck with you” attitude even extends to friendly corporations such as Fisher-Price and others who give them work.

Imagine if you'd saved the life of someone's father and then given that person a job, yet he repeatedly and intentionally poisoned your products and killed your customers for decades. Aside from being aghast at the lack of gratitude, wouldn't it be reasonable to fire that person? Of course. Ergo, it's time to fire the Chinese and give jobs back to Americans. We've given the ungrateful Chinese too many chances to amend their behavior, and they continue to spit in our faces.

The American patience for Chinese intransigence is growing thin. I think that a candidate in the upcoming Presidential election could guarantee his election by seizing this issue and illustrating how inexpensive made-in-China goods often cost more in the end in addition to imperiling our health. We could put millions of Americans back to work and have higher-quality products that are safer and more durable by banning imports from China.

Incidentally, the primary reason why we prevailed in World War II was because of our industrial capacity. In the past few decades, the American economy has shifted to one based on services and information, not industrial production capacity. Industrial production capacity is a national strategic asset, yet it is one that our leaders seem to have forgotten.

We don't need to wait for our leaders to wake up, however. We could achieve immediate effects by boycotting corporations that incorporate Chinese products into their goods, especially ones intended for human or animal consumption. Remember the old ad jingle: “East meets West, La Choy makes Chinese food, swing American”? It's time to amend that. “East meets West, China poisons our products, die, Americans!”

Update: A few weeks later, there was yet another massive recall because of made-in-China toys being contaminated with lead. This latest recall involves 800,000 Mattel toys, including 675,000 Barbie accessories. According to an AP report, this is the third major recall of Chinese-made toys in the past few weeks necessitated by lead contamination.

One needn't be a psychiatrist to know that there is something seriously wrong with China and the mindset of some of its people. We saved them in World War II, and soon thereafter they and the Russians—another one of our WW II allies—were out to get us any way they could. The Chinese attack has been relentless and multipronged. Do you think this chronic lead contamination problem is just a mistake? Perhaps not. If they want to beat us—and they do—they could get an edge by poisoning our kids with lead so the next generation of Americans is less intelligent. Unfortunately, the lead contamination problem is just the tip of the iceberg. China is our enemy, and they have more up their sleeve than just lead. We now know about some of the other hazards, but some won't be discovered for years, AFTER untold damage has been done. Then the Chings (“CHINese Gangsters”) will apologize to us, just like they always do, while they are secretly giving each other the high-five for a job well done as they celebrate the stupidity of Americans for being so blind to the war they're waging. Wake up, Americans. Stop buying made-in-China products, and tell Wal-Mart, the #1 supporter of made-in-China junk, to find suppliers in other countries.

If you analyze Wal-Mart's success, it boils down to one primary economic fact: We rewarded them and made them multi-billionaires because they gave us low-cost goods. However, when these low-cost goods have a short life span, or when they are contaminated with lead or other risks to our health, it's clear that the value of what Wal-Mart is giving us is highly suspect.

Update #2: A smart student sent the following complaint to me:

My response to her:
You seem to be a highly intelligent person yourself, so I am a bit surprised by how offended you were. Let me try to make a distinction:

From your message: ""Chinks" is a highly offensive, racist term used predominantly by non-Asian Americans to describe the Chinese . . . in a demeaning, derogatory, condescending manner."

Chings is NOT the same word as Chinks. I made it very clear that I was referring to Chinese gangsters (criminals, ethically-challenged individuals, etc.), not all Chinese. Chings is a neologism I coined.

I think highly of many Chinese — probably you, too! :-) — so I never intended that as a global denunciation of all Chinese people. I DID intend it as a way to verbally lambaste the Chinese who commit the atrocities I mentioned. Anyone who intentionally poisons millions of people over a period of decades deserves to be called something far harsher than "Ching," but I usually don't use profanity.

So, there's a distinction here. I was clearly referring to the "bad Chinese," not ALL Chinese. If you've written much, you know that authors often relax their standards of proper English usage in an attempt to spice up their writings and to more effectively communicate their feelings. A few weeks ago, the publisher of Forbes magazine used the word "ain't" in an editorial . . . amazing! I've heard others use more contentious language, such as the famous "N-word." Since I am probably one of the few people who truly loathes racial discrimination AND has a viable plan to help eliminate it, I do not want to contribute to the problem by using epithets that stereotype people — but, in fairness to myself, I don't believe I did that. As I mentioned above, I think it was obvious that I had my finger pointed directly at one subset of Chinese: the ones who evidently don't give a hoot about their fellow human beings.

An actual conspiratorial policy in place? Nah, of course not. That would suggest a Machiavellian scheme motivated by "the usual suspects": greed and power. Not very appealing, but perhaps understandable. The reality is probably even more grim: a decades-long pattern of execrable behavior that evinces their utter apathy and contempt for people in the United States and others around the world who have been repeatedly victimized — even killed — by the callous disregard shown by the Chinese who think nothing of poisoning others.

I am glad that you are offended by racism, because I am, too. I hope that you are equally intolerant of the racism that some Chinese have manifested by sending us foods and other products laced with myriad toxins so many times for so many years that it can no longer be excused as simple incompetence and by using lame alibis like, "Sorry, I didn't know that lead is toxic." The Chinese people aren't bumbling idiots; they know better, but a distressing minority of them act like wanton criminals. Incidentally, that is wanton (lacking in morality), not won ton (the soup). If their apathy isn't rooted in racism (a xenophobic devaluation of others), how do you explain their actions? We've already ruled out stupidity. What's your guess?

It's either blatant racism, or something equally abhorrent: their utter apathy and contempt for their customers around the world — which, if you think about it, certainly does smack of racism. Caucasian Americans have no monopoly on racism. In my opinion, by poisoning us for many years, the Chinese have manifested a racist inclination to view us as expendable rubbish that's less important than their profits. Again, Chinese with that attitude deserve a term far more derogatory than "Ching."

I am particularly offended by how Americans have repeatedly extended a hand a friendship, and a helping hand in time of need, to countless people around the world, only to later have them figuratively (and often literally) thrust a fist in our faces in return. If you are of Chinese ancestry, you can thank your lucky stars that you weren't alive and living in China during World War 2. As I mentioned before, Japanese soldiers raped and murdered innumerable Chinese women — even young girls! The Japanese had such a commanding lead over other nations in that region that they never could have recovered without being rescued by Allied Forces (90+% of which was American might).

What might have stopped the Japanese from behaving like savages? Do you think they'd wake up one day and suddenly realize that their prior actions were an unconscionable moral abomination that revealed a deep character flaw in their culture? I doubt it. Had the Japanese won WW2, you — being a hot young female — wouldn't have had the luxury of spending your day reading my web site and then writing to me to nitpick about whether it is politically correct to use the word "Ching" to bash Chinese people who do evil things and evidently don't give a hoot about it. Instead, you probably would have been raped a dozen times or more by Japanese soldiers whose culture taught them that they are so superior to others that non-Japanese people are less valuable than dogs. Don't believe me? Do some research, learn more history, and listen to the words of people who witnessed and experienced the many Japanese brutalities that gave us a transparent view into their souls. Yes, the Japanese people have changed for the better in the interim, but only because the United States forced them to change. Go ahead and denounce American rectitude as people around the world love to do in finding fault with "the Great Satan," the United States, but our virtue is a light-year ahead of anything you could get from others who inexplicably have no conception of their own shortcomings.

From what I've read in various journals, some professors think that, deep down, we're all racist. We all think we're superior to folks on the other side of the ocean, and even on the other side of the bleachers. If you receive a good education in college, you will learn WHY people think the way they do, and WHY that innate xenophobia once served us so well in earlier times during our evolution. Racism is often viewed by highbrow intellectuals as being something of an atavistic trait that doesn't befit us modern, cultured folk, but hey, we're all racist to some degree because it's in our genes. Although Caucasians in the United States have long been denigrated as being the worst racists in the world, I think that what you're seeing is a classic case of psychological projection. Are white Americans racist? Yes, of course we are, but much less so than many others who would wipe us off the face of the Earth if they could. There is perhaps no more clear-cut manifestation of racism than the desire to subjugate and kill others who aren't "us." Criminally negligent and intentional poisonings (yes, intentional: do your own research to verify this), as the Chinese have done, can also be construed as a vicious manifestation of racism.

Time to get out the red pen.

Did you pick (a)? Good!

Pick (b)? God help you.

You said one thing that mystifies me: "Your use of the word, "Chings", only confirms the stereotype that white people from your state are narrow-minded and believe themselves superior, to the point of considering members of other ethnic (be it American or otherwise) backgrounds or cultures to be subpar."

I've met many people who were incensed by what some Chinese have done, but have you ever met or heard of anyone who thinks that Chinese people are subpar? You must be kidding! The "white people from [my] state," as you phrased it, have a stereotype of Chinese people that is, if anything, complimentary. Mention "college student," and what's the first thing that pops into the minds of many people? Young, irresponsible party animals. Booze, drugs, iPod-like priorities.

Now mention "Chinese student," and what's the first thing that pops into the minds of many people, including me and lots of us other hicks here in Michigan? Bright, ambitious, studious, dedicated, hard-working, quiet, responsible. Lots of books. No boozing it up.

Now if that's a stereotype, it's certainly not a negative one. So, when the hicks I hang around with aren't busy making moonshine or keeping up with world events by reading The National Enquirer in our outhouses, we don't bash Chinese people by calling them "Chings" — except when they poison us . . . again, and again, and again. It's called righteous indignation.

I realize that you have probably been indoctrinated by the thought police in college who take a simplistic view of how racial perceptions are formed and expressed. First, while the word "stereotype" has a negative connotation, some stereotypes are rooted in reality. For instance, my stereotype about Chinese students being smart and industrious is buttressed by facts showing that they have higher IQs and better grades.

Finally, calling me "narrow-minded and prejudiced" is categorically wrong. Unlike the racial "leaders" in our country who perpetuate interracial tensions by mindless truculence and inflammatory rhetoric that fuels divisiveness, I could do more to end discrimination in 15 minutes than those leaders have done since the inception of the United States. (See my book on Rapidly Overcoming Racism, Bigotry, and Homophobia.)

One of my grandfathers was murdered by his co-workers because he was an immigrant from Italy — or an Italian-American, to use today's PC way of appending one's ethnic ancestry onto his citizenship. At that time, Italians were viewed as being subhuman. In the minds of the lily-white (they thought) "real" Americans who murdered my great-grandfather, a dirty Dago like that didn't deserve to take a job away from a "real" American.

By the way, that is just one of the many reasons why I loathe racial or ethnic discrimination, and why years ago I presented a rapid way to erase racism. If you want to learn more, organize a lecture at your college in which I'd explain how to give racism a long-overdue KO punch. Professors and other members of the thought police are great at stomping their feet and pouting about discrimination, but they don't have any viable plan for truly changing how people think. At best, they just make people so fearful of being labeled bigoted, biased, or a racist that they keep their thoughts to themselves. Does this really solve the problem? No, it simply sweeps it under the rug.

My plan is better: it doesn't hide the dirt, it gets rid of it.

UPDATE: Since the Chinese government has little regard for human rights, they could use their power to impose such steep penalties for manufacturing contaminated products that no one would dare do it. But China won't crack down. That's OK with President Obama, who just (1-19-2011) gave another lecture on civil rights to the President of China, but he didn't complain about the toxic junk they sell to us.

Inexplicably, the federal government recently implemented draconian penalties for any American selling items, or even reselling them, that may be contaminated. (See the CPSC Handbook for Resale Stores and Product Resellers and then follow their advice to visit their website frequently for updated information—as if you have time!) Thus, if you sell an item for $1 at a garage sale and don't do everything they insist you must beforehand to test for possible toxins, one itsy-bitsy mistake could ruin your life as the feds imposed financial penalties, even if that item never harmed anyone!

Is that all? No. The tyrants—excuse me, bureaucrats—in Washington also mandate that you perform safety inspections and ensure the product meets all listed criteria. Wouldn't it make much more sense to put the burden of compliance on manufacturers?

Isn't this odd? The U.S. government is willing to ruin your life if you sell a contaminated or otherwise unsafe item even though you did not manufacture it and don't know about its hazards. However, President Obama is willing to lecture China on human rights yet let Chinese manufacturers off the hook for intentionally making dangerous products, yet he lets the CPSC go to war against Americans who sell those things. Does. Not. Compute.

Related articles

Made-in-China junk

Notes

1. Cadmium in Children's Jewelry: 100 Times Recommended Maximum Exposure If Mouthed or Swallowed: This study tested 69 pieces of cadmium-laden jewelry, mostly charms and necklace pendants, many labeled for children and imported primarily from China. [link to original article]
2. 'Toxic Toy Crisis' Requires Fresh Solutions, Experts Say
3. Recalled Toy Beads, Aqua Dots, Did Contain High Level Of Poisonous Chemical, 'Date Rape' Drug, Study Shows
4. Recalled Toy Beads Still Available In The UK, Warn Doctors
5. China says it’s cracking down amid anger over tainted food
6. Chicken jerky treats from China linked to mystery illnesses, deaths in dogs
7. China to reinvestigate human flesh capsule claims: “powdered remains of dead babies”
8. Calif. Investigates Skin-Lighteners for Dangerous Mercury
9. Alarming Levels Of Mercury And Arsenic Found In Chinese Freshwater Ecosystem
10. Rice Grown In United States Contains Less-Dangerous Form Of Arsenic
11. U.S. accuses China of instigating plot against DuPont
12. Chinese-made toys headed for Flint stopped at U.S. border because of lead concerns
13. China suspected of Facebook attack on Nato's supreme allied commander: Beijing cyber-spies accused of using fake social networking accounts in bid to steal military secrets from the west
14. Arsenic Found in Brown Rice Syrup, Organic Foods, Baby Formulas

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