Liberty Intercept Blog

In 1986 Californians voted into law Proposition 65, also known as The Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act of 1986, the purpose of which was to protect the people of California from exposure, via drinking water and consumer products, to toxic substances which have been linked to cancer or birth defects. The act gives authority to California's Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment to maintain a list of chemicals shown by the FDA or similar national organizations to be carcinogenic or cause birth defects. Any company found to be dumping any of these substances into drinking water sources can be fined and required to discontinue the dumping. The act also states that any company which exposes consumers to significant amounts of these chemicals via their products must provide a warning on the product or in the store. Failure to comply with the necessary warning means the company can be sued by state or city government attorneys or private attorneys given proper notice to the company and the Attorney General.

My yearly tradition includes reading a physics approach to examining whether Santa Clause could exist and could actually deliver presents to children. This article was published in 1990 by Spy magazine. Since then, it has become the foundation for many chat room arguments about the possibility of Santa, and has been, as I understand it, cross checked and rebutted against by many. Its numerical approach to the circumstances necessary for Santa to do his work is delightful, as is its comically abrupt ending. The physics and analysis are all in good fun and they force adults to think about things differently and put themselves, albeit briefly, back into the shoes of children, to possibly think of magic as an explanation to what they are considering.  I know it works on me.

As I was reading Chris Brogan's (Human Business Works) recent article about change and fear, the paragraph that struck me was this one: "Before Netflix, Blockbuster was a sure thing. Before Zipcar, you owned a car, borrowed a car, or rented a car. AirBNB has changed hospitality options. Square gives everyone the ability to be a credit card merchant when that wasn’t true as recently as a few years ago without a lot of hassle." I was a loyal Blockbuster customer until Netflix made renting movies so easy. Once Hulu entered the scene with their free online TV shows, the computer became my central source of entertainment. It was only about 50 years ago that my family sat around a single small black and white TV that had only three channels of entertainment. Big changes.

Today's post is from guest Albert Greenhut of EMI.

This being an election year, we are hyper-aware of all the ways government impacts and affects our lives. The myriad taxes, foreign policy in the form of free trade agreements and import / export duties, even how private business interacts with the government, ongoing environmental debates, and so on.

Many of these ideas and changes have merit, but always seem to come with strings attached; some are just so convoluted and complex that it becomes difficult to determine who will be impacted and how. The view from the cheap seats allows me to ask, "what if a business could contribute toward solving many of these major issues while saving itself money and becoming more efficient?"

Today's guest post was contributed by Albert Greenhut of EMI. We happily welcome his input - Albert's photo and bio appear below the article.

I was once invited to be a salesman for a supply company. I have been told that I am personable and relatively well spoken, leading this HR representative to make such an offer. I mulled over this decision and turned down the offer because I thought that under the pressure of a sale I couldn’t perform, or that I would find my silver tongue corroding under pressure.