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Monthly Archives: June 2016

Once Again


The recent hype over gun control measures shows how little our 535 seat fillers do for us. The Dupublican majority is holding the legislature hostage until they (hope) a like minded President arrives. With the apparent candidate plowing through the country with absurdities as speeches and the leadership scrambling to figure out what to do about him, with him or about him, the “American People” they are so fond of citing have a non functioning Congress. It should be crystal clear that we “the American people” need to insure a change in Congressional leadership. It doesn’t matter that each state may have a productive representative, what matters is that the current leadership is so anti “American people” that it can’t even pass or discuss common sense legislature to protect us from violence. Thank you NRA, super PAC’s and other anti “American People” supporters. I will offer again the path to better government: elect legislators who are for us and not looking for a free ride as a member of Congress. “Our Congress” has been a failure for over 15 years, the real Congress members have all but died or retired and we are left with the power hungry ne’er-do-well. This situation has been exacerbated by the election of a non white President, which in reality should make no difference if the Legislature was really interested in the welfare all of the “American People” that they so often quote (as if they asked us all our opinions). As voters our responsibility is to ignore all political rhetoric, government speak and the high sounding phrases and get the facts before re electing anyone to Congress. We can no longer afford to be single issue  or poorly informed  voters.

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How Acid RefluxImproved My Health


I have had acid reflux for years and until recently had not made any big dietary changes. I have never been a big or moderate water drinker due to years ago drinking water from a tap that while not being bad water, it just had a strange taste to me. My excuse for years was that “I didn’t drink water because fish have sex in it” a quote attributed to W.C. Fields. What changed for me is due to the effects of certain food and drinks on the reflux condition. I have stopped drinking acidic or carbonated drinks, minimized alcoholic drinks. Reduced the intake of spicy foods and further reduced salt to essentially nothing except for what’s required for recipes and what is already in some prepared foods . The good part: blood pressure has dropped about 10 points (more or less), a lot fewer flare ups of reflux and a better nights sleep. My take away is when you have a health issue , pay attention to how your body reacts to your conditions and how whatever mediations you take effect you for better or worse, then make a good dietary decision.

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Huff Post Article


Short article about Rush Limbaugh makes the point of ” who is the bigger fool , the fool or the people who follow them”. There is a short audio clip which is not linked here but is available on the Huff post website.

Rush Limbaugh Has Quite A Conspiracy Theory About Obama And The Internet

“It’s total control.”

06/20/2016 07:13 am ET

Rush Limbaugh has attacked President Barack Obama before, but the conservative chat host took a particularly, er, creative route on his June 17 radio show.

MediaMatters.org caught this gem in which Limbaugh accused Obama of exclusively blaming the internet for homegrown terror during a speech to the families of Orlando massacre victims, and claimed the president and fellow Democrats would use that rationale to “control the internet.”

“Obama’s takeover of the internet will not be to prevent these kinds of things from happening,” Limbaugh said. “He’s got an entirely different agenda. All the Democrats do. It’s total control. It’s limiting access to information. It’s about shutting down opposition. That’s why they want control of the internet.”

Limbaugh, host of Premier Radio Networks’ “The Rush Limbaugh Show,” has previously claimed that Obama was jealous of Donald Trump and compared the commander-in-chief to Adolf Hitler.

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Do Not Call Registry


Most of us are aware of the national “Do Not Call Registry”. This was supposed to stop the unwanted calls from sellers, promoters and scammers. The registry was great at first now in the electronic age we live in, it has become ineffective. I have found that most cell phones have a method of blocking these calls and I suggest you use it. Some of us who still have land lines may have a phone set up that also has this feature. I was made aware of this recently and saw that the system I have has this feature. It has worked better than the do not call registry. If you still have a landline look at the instruction book that came with your system you may have a tool the allows you to block these calls. Another option that helps is a phone message that screens some calls. Do not use a message that gives your name, phone number or states whether you are home or not. Simple message example: ” This call is being screened. Leave a message – no message, no call back”.

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No More


No More sound bites, buzzwords, catch phrases please! These snippets do  more to obscure and obfuscate the facts than an outright lie. It appears that the media and the people who write or invent these snippets seem to think that the readers are unable to understand a complete thought or sentence. The politicians for years have hired writers who in their push to grab headlines write like ad writers (no offense). Ad writers express ideas to get your attention as they have a limited time to get your attention (often seconds). This writing method has  crossed over to political writers who through the attention grabbing style of writing tell the public nothing but hint at something which leads to speculation and self-definition based on innate biases. Apparently truth is not as comfortable as a lie (we should recognize that as we have been hearing it from legislators for years). It is unfortunate that telling lies and  shading the truth has become the order of the day for many folks running for office. If your message cannot stand alone then perhaps it’s not a good message or its incorrect according to public sense. The electronic age has brought us to the point of receiving these  targeted messages seemingly forever. We see them online when we do anything, on the tube, in movies and on and on. We need to smarten up and recognize what we are receiving daily in the most innocent ways. Our electronic devices may just be our worst enemies.

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Hard To Find Justice


The path to justice has many side roads, yet these side roads have travelers who through their various views do not see the clear path until the unthinkable happens, then it is still difficult for them to see that their destination is the same. These divergent beginnings often do not immediately allow for a connection which could  lead to a unified front bringing about a permanent and just solution. Even when the sides agree there is still the original anti part of the agreement which colors the known facts and evidence. This applies to many areas such as Politics, race relations, religious issues and human relations. Let’s have Justice for all or justice for none, there is no middle ground. 

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Water Works


Everyone has done it!



By Jordyn Taylor May 27, 2016

Source: Wikimedia Commons

Peeing in the shower is awesome. There’s no aiming! No wiping! No butt-cheek-toilet-seat contact! It’s so great, a survey once found that 61% of Americans admit to doing it.

Another benefit to peeing in the shower? It saves water.

This Is How Much Water You Save When You Pee in the Shower

Flushing the toilet accounts for around 27% of Americans’ water usage, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. Standard toilets use 1.6 gallons of water per flush, while older toilets use between 3.5 and 7 gallons.

Those saved gallons of water add up over time — especially when everyone gets on board.

In 2014, students at England’s University of East Anglia campaigned for their school’s 15,000 pupils “to take their first wee of the day while having their morning shower,” according to the BBC. Over the course of a year, the school would save enough water to fill 26 Olympic-sized swimming pools, according to the students’ calculations.

This Is How Much Water You Save When You Pee in the Shower

Source: Wikimedia Commons

It’s not a perfect solution: Unless you’re washing your hair while you whiz, there’s a good chance you’re still wasting some water while you pee in the shower. Who among us, mid-shower pee, hasn’t stared off into oblivion as the hot water cascaded down our bodies?

All mammals pee for approximately 21 seconds, according to Discover. Meanwhile, a standard shower head uses 2.5 gallons of water per minute. If your pee exits your urethra at the standard mammalian rate, around 0.875 gallons of water will leave your shower head in the time it takes you to finish peeing. Still, it’s less than a standard toilet flush.

It saves paper, too… if you wipe after peeing on the toilet. Suppose you use 10 squares of toilet paper per pee-wipe, and your toilet paper roll contains 500 total squares. If you pee in the shower just once a day, you’ll save yourself a roll of toilet paper every 50 days. Hurray!

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Eye For An Eye


I just had cataract surgery on both eyes ( one at a time), results are very good. I would like to commend the staff in recovery and surgery as well the Surgeon. The staff at the Springfield clinic are all great and always  do a great job. My little issue with the clinic in general are the surveys you get after a visit or procedure. This survey appears to one of the many designed to provide information to the administrators or higher-ups who may or may not be  medically trained. These surveys in my opinion are useless in that they do not directly relate to the staff involved in the procedure so I have decided not to reply to them. A survey to get general information is kind of useless as there is no specificity on the staff. In this case there should be some questions or opinions related to the individual parts of the surgery. The surgery consists of a receptionist who checks you in, verifying who you are and why you are there (she or he already has this information on-screen in front of them but this is part of the check system). After that you see another  check in person who also verifies who you are and why you are there along with who is there with you. At that time the person with you receives a pager so they can be notified  when you are in recovery. Next  you see  what I call the prep nurse who again verifies who you and what you are there for. At this point you are outfitted with the remarkable and appropriate hospital wear (you know-the open back gowns that everyone loves), insert an IV line if required. Again all information is verified. This seems like a lot of  informational repetition but suppose at any point this was not done, things could go really wrong! Next up an anesthetist who verifies who you and what you are having done while telling you what state of consciousness you will be in and that some will be there to monitor your state at all times, this includes your oxygen levels, BP and the effect of the anesthesia. The surgery, well you usually do not know what’s happening there but consider that you wake up in recovery (a good sign) and some of the same questions come around again. Once you are fairly lucid you are offered a drink and perhaps a snack until you completely aware of what’s going on around you and where you are. After everyone is sure you ae able to understand what is happening you are allowed to leave. The next day you will receive a phone call asking how you are. None of these areas are covered on the “survey” which makes the survey in my opinion a waste of paper, postage and not much use in evaluating the real story, that is the story of the staff who actually  take care of you before, after and during your short stay.

Elections


The long season of elections is wearing me out. The ongoing attacks and counterattacks are at once ridiculous and unnecessary. I am not sure when we came to this point but all of rhetoric is off-putting and serves no good purpose. The merits of the candidate should be the focus not some past non relevant information. It is true that some candidates should not be candidates at all but this is America and that’s how we roll. Right now we have a race based too much on Race and sound bites that sound true but ring false. The truth is what comes out later but the falsehoods have already been implanted like a germinating plant. We already have a dysfunctional Congress and we certainly need to address that as much as possible in this electoral cycle but pressuring the current Congress is equally important as there are many members who should have been gone years ago as they have added nothing of note to our progress as a country if it did not directly benefit them. These are the “elder Statesmen” who make seemingly profound statements that in fact are no more than campaign speeches in disguise. We voters have lost the ability to reason out who actually represents the “American people” that they quote regularly. We cannot allow the 535 seat fillers to continue to do what they want to do in our names, in my opinion trust in the Government is lost due to the long serving Congress as we    have given them the OK to do what “they” think is correct and at the same time is a benefit to them and theirs. The political establishment is actually the voters as we have kept these folks in the job too long. I believe no one should  remain in the office long enough to be pensioned out, when we the American People look beyond the rhetoric we will see that the Congress is not representative of the voters who elected them. There could be a case made for long term service but I am hard pressed to see it.

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Ancestry


Many people who research their find that if their ancestry derives from the “African ” insurgence aka “slave trade” then the lost bibles are the only link to who they were. Many states in the lower U.S. do not have an easy way to search without specific information such as city, county and even then the information is erroneous or incomplete. Many census takers took down information based on what they thought as opposed to asking specific questions regarding spelling and understanding local speech patterns and words (innate Racism) . I have learned that sometimes guesses were made as to ages and even cause of death (or again understanding of information offered). These census takers were seasonal workers and up to “modern” times were primarily white. This misapplication or lack of details creates a gap in the ancestral line especially if the elder generations did not pass on that family history . There are many outlets for research but again you need to take what you see as incomplete until you can confirm from several other sources and compare details. You will find that a years difference in a date will make a quantum leap in your search. My search has been going on for a number of years and I still find small bits such as dates crucial in big discoveries. My opinion after trying Ancestry several times, that I can find as much information at no cost on the Family Search Website. It is important to ask living relatives as many questions as possible, even stories of deceased relatives could be clues. Remember language and certain words can be clues.