A Drink A Day Keeps The Doctor Away?

Maybe its a glass of wine or a beer, instead of an apple a day that keeps the doctor away, at least the heart doctor. This information from the University of Florida would seem to indicate as much.

Did Some One Say the 'C' Word?

Not that 'C' word. The 'C' word I'm talking about is 'Cholesterol'. Read what Karen De Coster has to to say about it and the mistaken efforts to reduce it.

Why Do Jews and Muslims Fight?

Every once in awhile I will get into a conversation with someone from “around here” and invariably the topic of conversation will drift on to the Middle East. We usually end up agreeing that “them folks” have been fighting since dirt was new and will be fighting right down to the end of time. The other day, I got to thinking about it and asked myself “why is that?” Well, I think that I have come up with the reason. This reason I’ve come up with is pretty simple, and you may ask yourself, why has no one thought of that before. Just remember, we often overlook the simple solutions because it just don’t seem right that seemingly complex problems can have simple solutions. One reason I think we have missed the solution is that we are always concentrating on the differences between Jews and Muslims. That is not were the problem is. The problem stems from something they have in common. They don’t eat pork. Yeah, that is all there is to it. They fight because they are mad as hell and they are made as hell cause they can’t eat pork. Of course they don’t know that is why they are mad, but it is. They are kind of like two cats eating peacefully side by side at a bowl of food. If you walk up and grab their tails and start mashing them, they will begin to squall and cry and pretty soon they will stop eating and begin fighting each other. Now they really are not mad at each other but they are mad so they lash out at the closet thing to them.

Some of you may question if not eating pork would be sufficient to cause people to kill each other. I think you are missing the point. It is not so much that not eating pork will make you want to be a suicide bomber as it is that eating pork will prevent you from wanting to kill. Anyone who has just walked out of Dreamland after eating a slab of ribs, a half a loaf of white bread and drinking a couple of Coca Colas or a big glass of sweet tea will tell you that the last thing on their mind is killing anyone. What they probably want more than any thing else is to take a long nap. Could it be that there is some hidden chemical in BBQ that soothes human beings?

Well that’s the answer to why they fight, so what is the solution to get them to stop? I don’t know. Both groups think that pork is unclean so you are not likely to get them to start eating it. If that soothing chemical exists, maybe some chemist can isolate it, produce it synthetically (no pork involved) and start putting it in the Middle East’s water supply. I’m afraid that until they do, the Jews and Muslims are still gonna continue to dispatch each other to the next life with gruesome efficiency.

Another Good Article On Global Warming

This article from Telegraph.co.uk contains some interesting information on global warming and climate change.

What to do about Alzheimer's Disease

This article by Bill Sardi points to resveratrol (red wine), folic acid, vitamin E, ginkgo biloba, carnitine or the Chinese herbal huperzine as all being better than existing perscription drugs.

David Letterman is Funny

I laughed my ass off at some of these.

We Believe What We Want To Believe

Warning! There is some fairly technical language in this article that will probably have you reaching for your dictionary or surfing the wikipedia. What the article seems to say is that when we are left to our own devices, we make up our minds about what we believe, gather information to support that belief and routinely dismiss information that contradicts our belief. In short, we believe what we want to believe.

Why do we do that? I think it might be because we all want to do what we want to do. Unfortunately or fortunately, depending on your perspective, we have learned to do what is right. As my sister used to say, we are all born into innate depravity. As we grow up most of us are taught 'right from wrong'. When something comes along that we want to do, we feel we have to justify it in our minds. The hippies used to say, if it feels good do it. For most of us that doesn't work. We have to 'feel' that it is the right thing to do. So we gather the information that supports our belief, dismiss the nonsupportive information, believe what we want to believe and then do what we want to do.

Some times this works out OK, other times it brings disaster.

Why Are We Overweight?

Some of the answers in this article might surprise you.

US Going Bankrupt?

An article from the "Daily Telegraph" in the UK quoting "research by Professor Laurence Kotlikoff for the Federal Reserve Bank of St Louis" says that may be the case. The title of the article is 'US could be going bankrupt.' Could? After reading the article, I would say that the chances of the US going bankrupt are probably greater than the chances of the sun coming up tomorrow morning.

Political Continuity Is Counter Productive

I've thought a lot about this, especially lately. I believe that having the same people in the same public offices year after year is hurting this country. I know that there has been a lot of talk of term limits, but nothing ever seems to happen to change the status quo. I realize that at most levels of government, the people holding the offices are career politicians. I also realize that most people don't like to change careers. How many doctors have you seen give up a medical practice to go to law school? So, we can figure that these folks that are in public office are gonna stay there for life. If that is the case, how can we mitigate the damage they do?

My answer is (1) to have all public office holders run for re-election every other year and (2) make it illegal for any office holder to have the same office more than once. Simple enough, two year terms, no succession. In a perfect world, I would rather see citizen office holders who give up a couple of years of their life to serve on the water board, school board, in congress or as president, but that is not gonna happen. The next best thing is to have all these politicos rotating between jobs every two years. They will do a lot less damage that way and they still will be able to live out their lives swilling at the public trough.

Some Folks Never Seem To Get It Right

I am beginning to think that ole Al Gore is one of them. This Wall Street Journal Article casts some serious doubts on claims he made in his recent movie.

The true meaning of patriotism

This article does a good job of describing what patriotism is and what it is not.

Americans Are Angry

As I read this speech that Representative Ron Paul of Texas made to the Congress on June 29, 2006, I was reminded of something that Harry Browne said. 'The government is good at one thing. It knows how to break your legs, and then hand you a crutch and say, "See if it weren't for the government, you wouldn't be able to walk".'