Just like your mom told you—eat more vegetables

“Unlike fat-soluble vitamins (such as vitamin A, E and D) that our bodies can store for future use, the water-soluble vitamins (vitamin C and vitamins B1, B2, B3, B5, B6, B12 and folic acid) can only be stored in small amounts or not at all. Since vitamins cannot be produced by the body and can only be obtained from the food we eat, they are called "essential nutrients." Vegetables' rich concentration of water-soluble vitamins is just one reason why the U.S. government guidelines for a healthy diet recommend filling at least half of your plate with a combination of vegetables and fruits.

Eating a variety of vegetables as a regular part of your meal plan helps you to stay slim and provides the energy and vitality necessary to really enjoy daily life. All of us depend on complex carbohydrates for energy and vitality. The starchy portion of complex carbohydrates is converted into glucose, which is used to produce energy in our cells. However, the energy contained in glucose can only be released in combination with vitamins and minerals.

The most important of these include all of the B vitamins, vitamin C and minerals like zinc. Vegetables are concentrated sources of these nutrients essential for turning carbohydrates into energy rather than storing them as fat, and vegetables provide them for the least calories. So, eating plenty of vegetables rich in complex carbohydrates is a sure way to help you stay both slim and energized.”

From WHFoods Weekly Newsletter, by George Mateljan, Jan. 26, 2015

Last week I made pickled fresh beets, but the best part is the beet tops/greens, which I just love. I think they are tastier than kale, mustard greens, or collard greens, and of course, there’s the bonus of the roots.  I occasionally have a baked sweet potato for breakfast. Also, helps me remember Mom’s garden delights of 30 years ago.

• The top greens are an excellent sources of vitamin-A; 100 g leaves provide 6326 IU or 211% of RDA. Vitamin A is required for maintaining healthy mucus membranes and skin and is essential for vision. Diet rich in this vitamin are known to offer protection against lung and oral cavity cancers.

• They are excellent vegetable sources for vitamin-K; 100 g provides 400 ug of this vitamin that is about 333% of recommended intake. Vitamin K has potential role bone health by promoting osteotrophic (bone formation and strengthening) activity. Adequate vitamin-K levels in the diet help limiting neuronal damage in the brain; thus, has established role in the treatment of patients suffering from Alzheimer's disease.

• 100 g of fresh leaves contain 30 mg or 50% of daily-recommended levels of vitamin C. Vitamin C is a moderately powerful water-soluble antioxidant, which helps the body develop resistance against infectious agents and scavenge harmful oxygen-free radicals.

• This leafy vegetable is notably good in many B-complex groups of vitamins such as riboflavin, folate, niacin, vitamin B-6 (pyridoxine), thiamin, pantothenic acid, etc., that are essential to the body as part of co-enzymes during the metabolism in the body.

• Its leaves are also rich source of minerals like magnesium, copper, calcium, sodium, potassium, iron, manganese, and phosphorus. Potassium is an important component of cell and body fluids that helps controlling heart rate and blood pressure by countering effects of sodium. Manganese is used by the body as a co-factor for the antioxidant enzyme, superoxide dismutase. Iron is required for cellular oxidation and red blood cell formation.

Obama and Bush on the sanctity of human life

Thirty-six percent of abortions are for black babies. Seventy-nine percent of surgical abortion clinics are in minority neighborhoods. The last official proclamation President Bush made in 2009 was for the Sanctity of Human Life Day. President Obama consistently praises the work of Planned Parenthood and one of his first acts in 2009 was to rescind Bush's order on embryonic stem cell research, even though research had progressed beyond the need for it. In 2002, Bush signed into law the Born-Alive Infants Protection Act, which extends legal protection to children who survive an abortion attempt. Obama was not in the U.S. Senate in 2002, but he was in the Illinois Senate and voted against such a bill for Illinois (word for word the federal bill). To my knowledge, no one else voted against saving aborted born alive infants.

Walk for Life, 2015

“Planned Parenthood clinics performed 327,653 abortions in fiscal year 2014, according to Planned Parenthood of America's latest annual report — 487 more than the previous year and an average of 37 abortions per hour.

Planned Parenthood received $528.4 million from government grants and reimbursements last year, accounting for 41 percent of its revenue.

The federal government is barred from paying directly for abortions through Title X family planning grants and reimbursements, but federal funds do pay for Planned Parenthood operations, including the clinics where abortions are performed, CNS News reported.

Documents filed with the IRS for 2012 showed that [PP President Cecile] Richards received total compensation of $492,200 that year.”

Newsmax Jan. 25, 2015

No charges by FBI against Officer Wilson in Ferguson investigation

“Federal investigators interviewed more than 200 people and analyzed cellphone audio and video, the law enforcement officials said. Officer Wilson’s gun, clothing and other evidence were analyzed at the F.B.I.’s laboratory in Quantico, Va. Though the local authorities and Mr. Brown’s family conducted autopsies, Mr. Holder ordered a separate autopsy, which was conducted by pathologists from the Armed Forces Medical Examiner’s office at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware, the officials said.

The federal investigation did not uncover any facts that differed significantly from the evidence made public by the authorities in Missouri late last year, the law enforcement officials said. To bring federal civil rights charges, the Justice Department would have needed to prove that Officer Wilson had intended to violate Mr. Brown’s rights when he had opened fire and that he had done so willfully — meaning he knew that it was wrong to fire, but did so anyway.”  New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/22/us/justice-department-ferguson-civil-rights-darren-wilson.html?_r=2

 http://blackcommunitynews.com/justice-department-no-civil-rights-charges-in-ferguson-case/

Iowa Freedom Summit 2015 Scott Walker Speech

Talks about the death threats he and his family were getting from leftists, Marxists, progressives and Democrats four years ago.  If you were there protesting and helping, shame on you. I’m so glad he didn’t back down; Wisconsin is a better place today because of Governor Walker.

Charles Murray, “Coming Apart”

The elite in the U.S. marry each other after years of expensive pre-school, elementary and private high schools, living in neighborhoods where they never meet anyone not like themselves. Within their "super-ZIPs" they vote heavily Democratic and pretty much approve consistently for Democrat sponsored programs which keep the low income and middle income people out of their exclusive neighborhoods. When your parents and I were growing up, there was much more mixing of classes, a secretary might marry a CEO or a nurse a doctor. Not so much today. Doctors now marry doctors, and lawyers marry lawyers. They move to mcMansions segregated into neighborhoods with strict building codes, and they send their kids to private school where they might rub shoulders with the Obama daughters. Usually they don't send their kids to day care, free or expensive, because mom is the best educated care taker and can take them on trips to Europe or teach them French. None of their kids will go to community college, free or otherwise, but they'll vote for any plan that will keep them away from their Yale and Harvard bound kids.

65% for the poor, low income, and retired.

Charles Murray had a chapter in his book about working class men who weren't working. New York Times just recently caught up and did a lengthy article on the problem of men who don't work at all. Charts, stats, and everything like that.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/12/upshot/unemployment-the-vanishing-male-worker-how-america-fell-behind.html?_r=0

The Economist has a similar article about the new elite—children of the educated, married, and wealthy.  "Intellectual capital drives the knowledge economy, so those who have lots of it get a fat slice of the pie. And it is increasingly heritable. Far more than in previous generations, clever, successful men marry clever, successful women. Such “assortative mating” increases inequality by 25%, by one estimate, since two-degree households typically enjoy two large incomes. Power couples conceive bright children and bring them up in stable homes—only 9% of college-educated mothers who give birth each year are unmarried, compared with 61% of high-school dropouts." Education and class; America's new aristocracy. The Economist.

http://www.economist.com/.../21640331-importance...

Belmont and Fishtown, fictional cities of Charles Murray

“To represent the classes at the two ends of the continuum, I give you two fictional neighborhoods that I hereby label Belmont (after an archetypal upper-middle-class suburb near Boston) and Fishtown (after a neighborhood in Philadelphia that has been white working class since the Revolution). To be assigned to Belmont, the people in my databases must have at least a bachelor’s degree and work as a manager, physician, attorney, engineer, architect, scientist, college professor, or in content-production jobs in the media. To be assigned to Fishtown, they must have no academic degree higher than a high school diploma. If they work, their job must be in a blue-collar, service, or low-level white-collar occupation.

Here’s what happened to the founding virtues in Belmont and Fishtown from 1960 to 2010:

The text covers marriage, industriousness, honesty, and religiosity.

http://www.aei.org/publication/belmont-fishtown/

In 1960 9% of the men in Fishtown were not in the labor force; by 2000 it was 30%.  But the unemployment rate was about the same.  The men just didn’t work.  They might get some cash under the table, or work minimally for awhile to qualify for benefits, but then would quit.

Combine men who don’t work with single women raising children, and things don’t look good for Fishtown. Low church attendance and very low civic involvement. Even the men whose income is above poverty level do not participate in the community to make it better and stronger.

Mayo Clinic on Chicken Soup for a cold

“There's no cure for the common cold. But if you're sick, chicken soup may help you feel better. Researchers say that chicken soup acts as an anti-inflammatory and temporarily speeds up the movement of mucus through the nose. This relieves congestion and limits the amount of time viruses are in contact with the lining of your nose. Plus, soup and other liquids help loosen congestion and prevent dehydration.”

http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/common-cold/in-depth/health-tip/art-20048631

Vitamin C (after you have the cold), Echinacea, and zinc not recommended.

http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/common-cold/in-depth/cold-remedies/art-20046403?linkId=11832223

The President’s hope to tax 529 plans for college tuition

“The President wants to allow the Internal Revenue Service to begin taxing distributions from so-called 529 plans, even if they are used as intended to fund legitimate educational expenses such as college tuition. The Obama plan is to treat withdrawn earnings from these savings plans—which are funded with money that’s already been taxed—as regular income to the beneficiary. Therefore this money will be taxed again before it can be used to pay for higher education.

But the President’s plan would only apply the new taxes to withdrawn earnings on money contributed to these accounts in the future. All past contributions to 529 plans would continue to grow and then be withdrawn tax-free to pay for school.  . .“ 

Nice for families like the Obamas who have daughters heading for college soon.  His plan won’t affect his family (assuming he has a 529—don’t know if millionaires use them). Wall Street Journal

Article 1, Section 8 of the Constitution says it is Congress who is supposed to be proposing taxes and collecting taxes.  The President only gets 6 assignments, and 5 of those deal with security and protecting the nation.  Oh well . . .he certainly isn’t the first. He’s got a lot of company on this one.

The folks at Catfish Corner—Chicago

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MVRXiVDOFqo&x-yt-ts=1421914688&x-yt-cl=84503534

Obama’s new proposals are anti-marriage

"The Obama policies [SOTU speech] would also increase anti-marriage incentives in the welfare system. While the two-earner credit would reduce marriage penalties in some cases, the expanded EITC for non-parents and for absent fathers is larger than the two-earner credit and is blatantly anti-marriage. Absent fathers and other males would receive this new EITC credit only as long as they were not married. When they marry, the new credit would be removed. Overall the Obama policies increase rather than decrease penalties against marriage in welfare. Policy should seek to reduce marriage penalties, rather than take another strike against it."

http://dailysignal.com/2015/01/21/obamas-new-tax-plan-discriminates-stay-home-parents/?

Marriage is our society’s strongest protection against childhood poverty. Do we really another reason to discourage it?

1700 private carriers flitting off to Davos carrying pampered liberals, celebrities and vacationers

This is how seriously liberals take climate change/global warming. I want a clean environment for everyone, potable water for desperately poor countries. I don't want billions wasted so political hacks and non-profit CEOs in the U.S. and Europe can feel good about themselves.

http://www.breitbart.com/national-security/2015/01/20/1700-private-jets-fly-to-davos-to-discuss-global-warming/

The influx of private jets is so great, the Swiss Armed Forces has been forced to open up a military air base for the first time ever to absorb all the super rich flying their private jets into the event, reports Newsweek.

“Decision-makers meeting in Davos must focus on ways to reduce climate risk while building more efficient, cleaner, and lower-carbon economies,” former Mexican president Felipe Calderon told USA Today.

Davos, which has become a playground of sorts for the global elite, is expected to feature at least 40 heads of state and 2,500 top business executives. Former Vice President-turned-carbon billionaire Al Gore and rapper Pharrell Williams will be there as well; each plans to discuss global warming and recycling respectively.

Free stuff

I’ve been lured with free stuff. The entitlement generation. I’ve never paid much attention to “Silver Sneakers,” and wasn’t sure if I was supposed to have it or not. But after 10 years on Medicare, they finally sent me a card—probably because the price of my policy has gone up. The theory is, if Seniors stay healthy, then we’ll cost the insurance company less. I’m guessing it is more like, if you’re already healthy, you can use this perk—free passes to exercise facilities.

So this morning I went to the one closest to my house Metro Fitness and tried out 2 machines, but only for a total of 15 minutes. I’m nursing a sore hip (bursitis) so I don’t want to do anything to aggravate it. I did the treadmill for 10 minutes and a reclining bike with a back rest for 5. It had all the digital bells and whistles where I could enter my age, weight, check my heart rate, calories, distance, etc.

There are also “free classes” for seniors daily. There were chair aerobics today that I looked in on. One facility further away has a whirl pool and other goodies, but I don’t want to drive another 3 miles in the morning traffic. I have an exercycle at home and am using a free program on the internet having cycled 139.2 miles since Dec. 26 and lost 10 pounds (not from exercise because that doesn’t do it, but from not eating my favorite snacks, desserts, having wine with dinner, and sandwiches at lunch). I’m also in an exercise class at church that is about $1 a session. I could also walk around the condo grounds or the block for free. Yes, I’m on the government dole.

Anyway, I just wanted to thank the rest of you taxpayers for a perk that costs much more than if I had a private membership the way the other people using the facilities do.

The Private Library

Today I found the sweetest, beautifully written, and most informative blog about books and collecting (which I don’t do, but like to read about it) called The Private Library.  Unfortunately, it ended three years ago.  I did find this:

For many years L.D. Mitchell's blog The Private Library showed collectors that it is possible to build a collection without the benefit of much money. He published numerous articles on every imaginable subject of book collecting, he wrote about the most beautiful, the most important, the most common, the most attractive, the most unusual, the most interesting, the most extraordinary, the most amazing ... books one could read, buy, collect and simply enjoy. The Private Library has become an irreplaceable resource for all booklovers. Since April 2012, it is a static archive. L. D. Mitchell will no longer post new original content.  https://www.ilab.org/eng/documentation/952-provenance_and_the_private_library.html

Standardized testing

Two bills have been introduced to reduce the number of mandated testing in schools--low quality, redundant, and way too many. NCLB expired 8 years ago. I never met a teacher who liked it. Why is it still around? Children get something like 20 standardized tests a year. No one is doing well with that system except the lobbyists for the testing companies.

I went back and checked the history of standardized tests. "In 1914, Frederick Kelly invented the multiple-choice test. By the 1950s the average public-school student took three standardized tests before graduation." Maybe those were nationwide, because it sure seemed like more--like once a year. But I was a good student and poor test taker. I never took an SAT or ACT or GRE and was an A student.

The first bill, co-sponsored by Rep. Suzanne Bonamici (D-Ore.) and Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) and introduced Tuesday, would empower states to reduce the amount of low-quality and redundant testing given to students. While it would not affect the number of federally mandated tests given in schools, it would allow states to use federal funds to audit their assessment systems.

The second bill, reintroduced by Rep. Chris Gibson (R-N.Y.) and Rep. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) on Wednesday, takes a more extreme approach on the issue of standardized testing. The Student Testing Improvement and Accountability Act would allow states and schools to scale back federal testing so that a student would only be tested once every few years -- once during grades three through five, once during grades six through nine, and so on. The bill was first introduced in 2014.

Aren’t you glad the president has so much free time?

While thousands of young people were gathered in DC for the Walk for Life yesterday, President Obama chose that time to meet with--wait for it--young people who have YouTube channels. Oh my. Of course, he's a huge supporter of abortion. But even if it weren't the Walk for Life event when hundreds of thousands promote the sacredness of life, this just seems like pandering. The "youth" who supported him in 2008 have moved on, disillusioned ready for something other than slogans. The new faces, new ideas in Washington are the young, dynamic and diverse GOP in Congress. Send in the drones and tax and spend away their future is about all he has for them.

He met with YouTube creators Bethany Mota, GloZell Green (eats Fruit Loops in her bath water to draw her audience) and Hank Green, but won’t meet with Netanyahu, invited to speak to Congress.  I’m guessing some of the following of GloZell don’t even know he is the President.

http://hotair.com/archives/2015/01/23/obama-white-house-in-meltdown-over-netanyahus-proposed-speech-to-congress/

I’m so glad I’m not a Democrat; this is embarrassing following so closely to the Paris fiasco.

Al Sharpton and Eric Holder

Will Holder eat humble pie or chicken out?  Will Rev. Al ever back down from the shakedowns of corporations? An FBI investigation has not found enough evidence to charge Darren Wilson with the federal crime of depriving Michael Brown of his civil rights, according to multiple sources familiar with the investigation. 40 investigators, 200 people interviewed. CNN really parses its words. This reporter wasn’t pleased. Not a single quote from those who believed Wilson.

http://www.cnn.com/2015/01/21/us/ferguson-darren-wilson-civil-rights-charges/index.html

My TBR list is growing

I've got to stop saying yes--to books to review. They are piling up. Chicks on the Right by Miriam Weaver and Amy Jo Clark; Countdown to the Apocalypse; why ISIS and Ebola are only the beginning by Robert Jeffress; American dreams; restoring economic opportunity for everyone, by Marco Rubio; America in retreat; the new isolationism and the coming global disorder, by Bret Stephens; Practical theology; spiritual direction from Saint Thomas Aquinas, by Peter Kreeft.  I think I even said Yes to one yesterday, but I’ve forgotten the title.  I reject more than I accept. However, I did take a sack of books and magazines to the library yesterday for the book sale.

Father Mario Majano on the sanctity of life

This morning on EWTN (repeated from yesterday's March for Life) Fr. Mario Majano spoke to a stadium of thousands of young people and in his homily he talked about young heroes, telling the story of one young woman who rejected an abortion for 3 crisis pregnancies, one a rape, one when she was unmarried with a young child to care for, and one after being treated for a tumor when she didn't know she was pregnant. I thought he was going to reveal one of the children to now be famous, but then he said, "Thanks, Mama," because he was one of them. (All healthy and normal.) http://oloschurchtp.com/people/fr-mario-majano

I checked the website of his parish and see it has a ministry (and staff) for Haitians, Africans, and Ghanans, as well as speakers of Spanish.

Lower deficit and State of the Union

Obama took credit in the SOTU for the lower deficit, but it was the spending cuts demanded by the House Republicans and the 16 day shutdown that did that.  He also can't take any credit for increased fuel production which is making us an exporter and safer from dependency on the middle east, Africa and South American sources.  It was fracking that turned that around, lowered gas prices, and put money in the wallets of Americans. He has dragged his feet everywhere he could to satisfy his base on energy. And it's not air quality or climate change--they don't want the U.S. to be strong.