The Blaisdell Blog

 You have a better chance of acquiring autism from Neanderthals than Tylenol.   Let me explain why. First, I love Gary Larson cartoons.   They will make me laugh every time.   But part of humor is making a caricature of reality.   So, let’s start by clearing our minds of the “Cavemen” depicted in Larson’s cartoons, old 1950’s movies and elementary school stereotypes.   I became fascinated with Neanderthals decades ago and am currently doing extensive research on them for a new book.   That interest was intensified when my husband and I took part in the Human Genome Project.   This massive, world-wide project began in October of 1990 and was completed in 2003 with 92% of the sequence completed (100% in 2022).   Among the many useful and important findings of this project was proof that all humans of European or Asian descent have 2%-4% Neanderthal DNA.   This residual DNA is the result of interbreeding between Neanderthals and modern ...

  The United States has a program that allows aliens to buy their way into this country.   It is called the EB-5 visa.   Let’s say you are not poor or brown or worried about raising your children in a lawless nation.   [I can relate to this last one, I am fearful of my grandchildren growing up in Trump’s America.   But I digress.]   Let’s say, instead, that you are an outstandingly wealthy person from a predominantly Caucasian country.   With the EB-5 visa you can pony up around $1,000,000 in an infrastructure project or business here in the U.S.   You then create (or maintain) 10 (no, I did not forget to add a zero or two to that number) permanent full-time jobs for qualified U.S. workers.   [Of course, if in the mind of the oligarch, there are no “qualified” American workers, those 10 jobs are waived.]   Done and done, you can then get on a fast track for permanent citizenship.   No muss, no fuss, just come to us. For example, i...