Being introduced to asbestos is absolutely the primary influencing factor for this rare cancer. After exposure to asbestos, the time to progression of the mesothelioma disease may be two to four decades. As a result of job related exposure, mesothelioma is nearly 3 times more likely in men, than in women. Because the amount of occurrences goes up with age, there are almost ten times more instances in the males more than age 64 than in the men in their midlife.

Developing Cancer of the mesothelium is a severe sickness, which, currently, has a very bad degree of long-term continuance. However, if it is recognized early on, care are then in existence that might significantly prolong the patient’s life. New approaches continue to be and are being developed through clinical trials.

Whenever the nation is confronted by a problem or crisis Congress feels that they must pass some sort of legislation in order to give the impression that they are doing something to fix the problem.

The legislation usually only addresses the symptom and not the cause, just like Doctors today who are no longer healthcare providers but pill pushers, they prescribe one medication for the illness and another for the side affects, without regard to the damage cause to vital organs such as kidney and liver.

When there is a problem congress passes legislation, and when there isn’t a problem congress passes legislation and then passes more legislation to deal with the problems the legislation causes.

When you put a bunch of crazy people and lock them in a building you have an Asylum, when you have a bunch of lawyers together in a building you also have an asylum.

We as a nation expect and demand too much from the politician in Washington, next we will be asking them to pass a law banning hurricanes and floods, which will have the same affect as Sarbanes-Oxley.

No legislation Congress can pass will stop the criminal mind from circumventing it. When you have people using all their creative powers to come up with ways to circumvent existing laws that are flaw to begin with.

When you have a bunch of Senators and Representative and their staff, most of who have never spent a day in business legislate conduct and behaviors for businessman, you end creating more problem than you set out to fix.

The reputation of lawyer is just below that of Witch Doctors and Rain Dancer, yet we send them to Washington to set up laws to govern every area of our lives.

Sarbanes-Oxley also known as Sarbox is intended to restore faith in U.S. financial system, but is storing vast amounts of data the answer: This may help prosecutors later to convict the wrong doers but it does not provide the transparency needed.

Under Sarbox publicly traded companies must have policies and controls in place to secure, documents and process material information dealing with their financial results.

This piece of legislation was intended to be apply to publicly traded companies with revenues over 25 millions,
But like every other bad medicine it has side affects that must be dealt with.

Some large companies are making small Corporation public and private institute Sarbanes-oxley internal controls, as a condition for doing business with them. This is very costly venture for small companies that need every penny to grow their business.

If Sarbox was intended to protect the investing public what right do large corporation have to demand that private companies comply?

Over the last ten years the Fortune 500 companies have loss over 15 million jobs while small businesses have created 20 million new jobs. But many of this small company need to pour their resource into their businesses in order grow and in some cases to stay in business.

These creators of wealth must be allow to continue their ingenious work and provide fuel to our economy without impediment from Sarbox,

Venture Capital money is to expensive and SBA loans are sham so how can small companies comply with these expensive internal control without cutting back on hiring and other vital areas.

Why are small companies being held to higher standard when the law requires something less?

I keep hearing that relief is on the way, but I Hope it comes from the Securities and Exchange Commission and not from Congress the last thing we need is another piece of legislation.

What good are internal controls when the people reviewing them are the ones abusing them, Sarbox requires public companies to improve their corporate reporting and oversight and to increase operational transparency, accountability, and truthfulness.

I don’t think that any one in their right mind believes for second that had Sarbox been in the law at the time it would have stop the people at Enron and worldcom.

If they want laws to deal effectively with Enron and Worldcom like problems maybe they should get Ken Lay (Enron) and Bernie Ebbers (Worldcom) to write them.

In 1933 When President Roosevelt was asked why selected a person of such questionable character as Joseph P. Kennedy to head the newly created SEC, Roosevelt Replied “It takes a crook to catch a crook”

So lets make Ebbers and Lay Pay their debt to society by drafting legislation to protect the investing public from the likes of them.

Maybe we should enforce the laws already in the book and make sure these people spend a very long time behind bars as an example to anyone thinking of doing the same.

We can also stop letting Hollywood set the moral standard for our children, kids today spend an enormous amount of time behind the tv screen and too many weekends at the theater.

And maybe the real culprit is our educational system, where kids are being taught at every level that everything is relative, and that there are not absolutes.

If everything is relative then this individuals did not commit any crime after all they were just out to make a few bucks and their tactic were well within the scope of relativity.

Today we live in a society where even judges are offended by the Ten Commandments, it’s understandable it is very offensive to be told “Thou shalt not steal” somebody might actually obey and refrain from stealing.

There is a bible verse that says “Do not be deceived God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sow” we have been sowing too much into relativity and not enough into absolutes.

And now we are paying the price, you always reap more than you sow, if you sow one tomato seed you will reap a tomato plant with lots of tomatoes.

So lets start by reforming Sarbox and increase transparency and not bureaucracy, lets allow the creative minds that have giving us 20 million new jobs in ten years and great technological advances continue to work without hindrance.

Maybe we don’t have the answer but until we can come up with a workable solution we should refrain from passing legislation or maybe we should elect fewer lawyers to public office.

Joseph Quinones is President and founder of Genesis Corporate Advisors, prior to that he was President and founder of JDQ financial Group, Inc. a full service broker dealer which Mr. Quinones proceeded to build up from a one man operation to the point where it employed many traders, and advised numerous clients while generating millions in revenues.

For additional information please visit: http://www.genesiscorporateadvisors.com

A fair definition of Consumer Culture would be: relying on the owners of industry to produce for the people the main subject of their lives, that is, producing a culture for the people that revolves around consuming the products of this economy. The difficulty that many people have with this is that the interests of the ruling class are not quite the same as those of the ruled class. Corporations, such as Starbucks, WalMart, Nike, Adidas, Macintosh, and Shell, all manufacture their products in countries that exploit the working class. Many of the workers labor twelve to sixteen hour days in dirty, unclean factories, under threat of a violent military regime or the agonizing poverty created by Capitalist, Free Trade, and embargo policies of the United States and other nations. To trust those who created such a global calamity would be a great mistake. Trusting them to create culture for us, to create something beautiful, unique, and personally challenging to fill our lives — to trust them to complete this task is only to make ourselves the slaves to their media. What concentrated economic powers have done to satisfy their interests has already been demonstrated. To trust them to make for us the meaning of life would just mean that we’re subjecting ourselves to the mental shackles they so desperately wish to put on us. The message they give to you dominates conversations, thoughts, secret dreams, and painful aspirations. Social control is established in this means by Consumer Culture.

One of the prime indicators of Consumer Culture is television. Mega-corporations fight with each other over the will of the people, by developing newer and more captivating advertisements, by dumbing down plot lines for television shows so they capture more viewers, special interests get their views in and the public just follows along. That is why television has become the daemon in the nightmares of every Freethinker. The History Channel, which is hosted by an American corporation, rarely displays the United States government in any negative light. The show Cops never shows a police officer failing to capture his victim. The plot lines for most sitcoms revolve around things like money, romance, popularity, and other themes that easily capture attention but always fail to plant something meaningful. Television programming has gone so far as to place advertisements as a part of the plot. Here, in the living room of every family, there rests a machine that is constantly feeding ideas to a listening audience. The plot lines, the themes, the ideals, the suggestions, hidden implications and subliminal advertising, all of it is to create a grasp of the way people think and act. By their means of massive distribution, the media has molded the opinions of billions of people. And who is it that holds the keys to this uninterrupted stream of suggestions to the public? It is anyone who has the money. That is the sole requirement that is necessary to reaching the minds of the public: who possesses the wealth.

Consumer Culture will naturally incite a feeling of loathing and disgust when investigated by any independent thinker. Moreover than its innate failure to produce meaning or purpose beyond our immediate atmosphere, it is a detriment to something else: progressive change. This phrase progressive change is a very general term, meaning when society reforms, revolves, or adaptates to a new condition that is more beneficial to civilization. While every person is always in a state of perpetual evolution, sometimes steering towards good, sometimes falling towards bad, always in flux — while we are always changing and progressing through life, the term progressive change here indicates a change in our customs, our laws, our culture, our ideals, our way of life, as it pertains to us collectively. It is a matter of interrelation. By indicating to my brothers and sisters what I believe should be the order by which we adhere to collectively, I am making a position on the matter of social progress. How can we change the ways we interact in a way that increases our benefits of working together in a mutual and cooperative environment? That is what progressive change means.

Why Consumer Culture would be viewed by progressive revolutionaries as a threat is obvious. By directing the attention and the awareness of the public on a lifestyle that requires playing by the rules of the system, social and political change stagnates. The thoughts and ideas of the people in this society are focused on the issues that the corporations want them to be focused on. Profit is the sole interest of those broadcasting the message of Consumer Culture; so one can only truly expect to see a constant barrage of suggestions and implications on how to behave, what to buy, how to treat other people, who to admire, and what to believe on the matter of government, economy, society, and culture. All of these will be profit-driven. What is the message that it brings? It demands that people consume: a big car means that it’s easier to sleep at night, a stylish jacket will attract the attention of the opposite sex, absolute true love is only one phone call away, you can make a million in three and a half days by following this seven-step plan, peace of mind can be obtained with four easy payments, consume, consume, consume.

The immediate interest of a true consumer, then, is a self-interest that can only be satisfied by the products of this corporate mechanism. It is true that greed has become nature’s way ever since the dawn of the idea of property. But our corporate system has greatly refined humanity’s taste for elegance, luxury, and pleasure. In the Capitalist system, a person can get just about anything they want, so long as their pockets run deep enough. Such wonderful and pleasant schemes befall sleeping minds. The individual’s interests then are focused on getting the wealth necessary to satisfy their consumption; they will be more willing to steal, to take advantage of the misfortune of others, to befriend and betray, to manipulate and deceive, to exploit the good will of another for wealth. All consumers serve this social order as employees and workers. They all trade their hours and their strength to labor in exchange for the wealth necessary to keep up their lifestyle. Consumer Culture’s effect then is to create division and disorder among the public, to let their blood and drain their strength. And its secondary effect is to make it a goal for us to serve the financial dominion with our employment.

Consumer Culture is bent on the competitive spirit. It asks that people throw their strength and energy against each other in order to achieve and accomplish. By seeking their satisfaction through the goods and services of their corporate overseers, the first goal will be to accumulate money to procure these substances. The impulse of greed becomes second nature. The person is always either engaged in some manipulation of their comrades or constantly under suspicion of the intentions of their siblings. Targets of property crime generally tend not to be the most wealthy. Those who steal from their fellow humans tend to be just as poor as their victims. Consumer culture has tempted daemons, and they are coming out. This system of free enterprise only asks individuals to seek and benefit from the misfortune of others. In a negotiation, if the individual with the strongest need is usually at the whim of the other’s mercy. In a situation where someone has a strong enough need, they will enter into an agreement regardless of the terms; this, in effect, creates a slavery of one in favor of the other. So it has become the will and the nature of our Capitalist society to seek the misfortune of others.

To make others need you so that you can satisfy your own self-interest at their slavery. That was the original idea of Capitalism. It was practiced by the coal barons who shut down their mines just to create an artificial winter in the cities, making the price go up along with profits. It was an idea expanded upon by all of the companies that worked to dominate their industry, gnashing against each other in the competitive field of business. And in its final state, this idea produces a way of life for people where they need the corporate product to satisfy their sense of meaning. This is the way our social order has been organized since the existence of property. But only with the emergence of Consumer Culture has it become so cutthroat in its tendency. Everyone is praying for the misfortune of others, only so that the newly arising need of others would be the stepping stone to their wealth. In such a world, all men and women are constantly seeking to exploit each other, never willing to trust, totally afraid to share, and certainly terrified of the idea of putting energy, will, and strength towards a collective effort.

The first effect of Consumer Culture is apparent: it creates a lust for worldly possessions that makes individuals hurt each other. Beyond this, it asks that, in order to satisfy the interest of the corporate product, we must exchange our labor and time. Our desire for the products of these corporations was manufactured by the marketing and advertising industry, feeling that it could create a sense of willingness to trust, desire, and protect the corporate world and its relationship to us — that is, Consumer Culture. In the United States, we labor forty hours a week to earn the money necessary to satisfy these wants. A workday will consist of one to two hours preparation before work, to put on our uniform and eat. Public transit could take up to an hour to get you to where you work. Eight hours fly by. Another hour to get home. Twelve hours of the working class, blue-collar laborer are spent just for an eight hour payday. The modern inconveniences leave us with three hours to ourselves before we dive in to unconsciousness like we were dying. So much is sacrificed; we lose so much of our time, our energy and our strength in this mad rush to serve the corporate interest. Millions of people are in debt, because their working lifestyle spoiled their patience and turned them in to mindless animals seeking to cure their pain — to cure it with the corporate product.

The debt consolidation industry continues to reap its profits as payday loan stores pop up alongside funeral parlors and pawn shops in the ghettos. It has always been the intention of the lords of industry to make the people need them — to force them into a situation where they would agree to the terms of any contract. Consumer Culture is simply the sophistication of this method. By controlling all forms of media and all information, corporations are capable of gaining more social control; and this is accomplished by making the people need the system more, by changing their attitudes. With all of our time and efforts sacrificed to this monolithic beast, we have few moments to ourselves. Those few moments are spent trying to kill the pain that came with this type of lifestyle. We don’t read old books about philosophy and political theory. We don’t admire the ideas of Locke, Machiavelli, and Bentham, nor do we appreciate the poetry of Shelley, the prose of Thoreau, or the written word of Paine. Consumer Culture has buried the working public and it has left them with no way to get out and no chance to plan or plot for their escape. When people are put into these type of oppressive situations, where so much must be given to live, where so many sacrifices are made to appease our constant inner turmoil, in this type of world situation, people will be bitter, cynical, and hopeless. They will turn against each other with ferocity, sometimes to seek out vengeance or mastermind an exploitation; after living in this type of conditioned society, we seek to lessen our pain by causing the same misery on others. And anyone who is capable of surviving without making the same sacrifices as us is instantly detested and hated, as though we were xenophobic to outsiders.

Can you imagine trying to develop a revolutionary and progressive movement in this type of atmosphere in Consumer Culture? If you asked your coworker to unionize with you, they might tell you that they can’t afford to go on strike because they’re still making payments on their new car. Or they might have no idea what the principle of solidarity means, or what a true working class ethic might entail. Eleven to twelve hours of their day is spent in either preparing or going to work or actually laboring. What’s left over isn’t spent in intensive thought on social issues or matters of political justice. The other three to four hours left over is used in a mad rush by the citizen to alleviate the pain that was built up over the day. It’s the kind of pain that comes from doing thousands of mindless, repetitive tasks in a single day. The kind of misery that boils from supervisors and managers treating demanding obedience and respect constantly. It is the stress from customer service jobs and bruises that come from physical labor employment. When work ends, people run from their place of employment, seeking refuge in some escapist, fantasy-inducing activity. The next three to four hours used to help them forget what was necessary to get to this point of the day. Drug addictions become favorite pastimes in this type of environment. By teaching people to need and satisfy their needs, Corporate Culture turns people into self-destructive zombies who serve the interest of the wealthy class.

Like a person inflicted with a burn wound, the employee released from his labor in capitalism seeks to relieve his pain immediately and quickly. And the only cure for the suffering caused in this life is constantly advertised, on television, radio, buses, billboards, and a million other places where billions of eyes will be watching. They cause our pains and then are quick to profit off of our headful of suffering. To so control the lives of the common people, by forcing them into eight-hour daily slavery, by dominating their media with a pro-consumption message, by manufacturing these conditions that put chains on the wrists of every person — this is real tyranny. Capitalism can produce nothing else, and this Consumer Culture is just the most refined and sophisticated form of wage-slavery in any post-industrial part of the world.

They ask us to seek satisfaction in cooperation with each other in order to secure their interests. That is the principle effect of Consumer Culture. As Libertarian-Communists, Anarcho-Syndicalists, and Revolutionary Socialists, whatever name we decide to call ourselves, we must oppose Consumer Culture, and any other chains that the oppressors attempt to put on us and our fellows.

[Author's Notes: Started on Monday, May 15, 2006. Completed on Sunday, May 28, 2006.]

www.punkerslut.com

For Life,
Punkerslut

Punkerslut (or Andy Carloff) has been writing essays and poetry on social issues which have caught his attention for several years. His website http://www.punkerslut.com provides a complete list of all of these writings. His life experience includes homelessness, squating in New Orleans and LA, dropping out of high school, getting expelled from college for “subversive activities,” and a myriad of other revolutionary actions.