Diabetes and high fiber breakfast cereal

I was watching a medical segment on Fox News this morning with Dr. David Samadi which was a display of breakfast cereals and which ones are high in fiber and therefore help fight diabetes.  So I looked it up, and found . . . an article published in 2004, 11 years ago.

http://www.webmd.com/diabetes/news/20040618/high-fiber-cereal-ward-off-diabetes

and from 2006

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16443861

and from 2008

http://jama.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=183081

So maybe someone from the cereal companies was just doing some clever marketing.  Eating cereal at breakfast makes me hungry all day, so I don’t do it.

Governors who rule from Democrat glass houses

shouldn’t lob missiles at Indiana.

Connecticut has the same law as Indiana about religious freedom, as do almost 20 states.  Shame on you, Gov. Dan Malloy,  Democrat. There is also federal law—not only the Bill of Rights, but the 1993 Religious Freedom Restoration Act signed by President Clinton. Barack Obama as a state senator in Illinois helped pass Illinois’. . . although perhaps that not a good example since he lied about his beliefs to get elected in 2008. He probably lied then too. The LBGT lobby is very hostile to Christianity. The real aim isn’t bakeries and florists, but churches.

“The first RFRA was a 1993 federal law that was signed into law by Democratic president Bill Clinton. It unanimously passed the House of Representatives, where it was sponsored by then-congressman Chuck Schumer, and sailed through the Senate on a 97-3 vote.

The law reestablished a balancing test for courts to apply in religious liberty cases (a standard had been used by the Supreme Court for decades). RFRA allows a person's free exercise of religion to be "substantially burdened" by a law only if the law furthers a "compelling governmental interest" in the "least restrictive means of furthering that compelling governmental interest." “ http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/indianas-religious-freedom-restoration-act-explained_900641.html#!

http://www.nbcconnecticut.com/news/local/Malloy-to-Bar-State-Travel-to-Indiana-Amid-Religious-Freedom-Law-Backlash-298010911.html

http://thefederalist.com/2015/03/30/connecticuts-governor-doesnt-understand-his-own-states-rfra/

No gay person has ever been hurt or discriminated against by the RFRA, whereas many by choice kept their sexuality hidden for decades for fear of their careers and wealth or disappointing their own families.  Being “out” never hurt librarians, hair dressers, or musicians.  Perhaps there was a bigger story?

Shallow memes by Democrats

This is what happens when unbelievers try to be theological and tell Christians what to believe and do.

When did Jesus ever tell sinners to continue as usual whether the sin was greed, lying, sex or telling others how to live? What did he tell Zacchaeus the tax collector who was cheating his own people?  He was really hard on hypocrites and haters, which right now the winners in that class are representatives of the LBGT community who demand service and ruin people’s livelihood after living years in the closet hiding who and what they were, voting for a man who lied about his true beliefs.

 Zaccheus stopped and said to the Lord, “Behold, Lord, half of my possessions I will give to the poor, and if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I will give back four times as much.” And Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because he, too, is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.”

Close to Hayers Gap, VA, but still in Virginia

I’ve now cycled 502 miles.

That means I’ve cycled the distance between Columbus and Mt. Morris, past Mt. Morris, which is only 455 miles.

There’s more to it than surgery and hormones

It would appear there’s much more going on in being male or female than surgically changing the genitals or adding hormones. I guess scientists are bigots.

“Differences in male and female rodent sexual behaviors are programmed during brain development, but how exactly this occurs is not clear. In the preoptic area (POA) of the brain—a region necessary for male sex behavior—the female phenotype results from repression of male-linked genes by DNA methylation, according to a study published today (March 30) in Nature Neuroscience.

There is very little known about how the brain is masculinized—and even less about how it is feminized—even though the question has been studied for more than 50 years, said Bridget Nugent, study author and now a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Pennsylvania.

These sex differences in the brain are programmed toward the end of fetal development, through to one week after birth in rodents. In males, testicular hormones drive masculinization of the brain; this was thought to occur by direct induction of gene expression by hormone-associated transcription factors. Because a feminized brain occurred in the absence of ovarian hormone signals, most researchers assumed that the female brain and behavior was a sort of default state, programmed during development when no male hormones are present. But the downstream mechanisms of how hormones can modify gene expression were not previously known.”

http://www.the-scientist.com//?articles.view/articleNo/42555/title/Female-Brain-Maintained-by-Methylation/

http://waltheyer.typepad.com/blog/2012/08/data-shows-male-to-female-transgender-brains-are-not-feminized.html

http://www.nature.com/neuro/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nn.3988.html

Ferguson the play

LOS ANGELES (March 30, 2015) — Would you indict Darren Wilson for the shooting of Michael Brown? The controversial shooting will be reenacted on stage in FERGUSON, a new play based on actual grand jury witness testimony. Written by journalist and documentary filmmaker Phelim McAleer and presented by Theatre Verité Collective, four performances of FERGUSON take place as a guest production at the Odyssey Theatre, April 26 through April 29. The audience is the jury. How will you vote?

Crowd funding. If you contribute, you get a copy of the script—which is the actual words of testimony.

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/ferguson-the-play

                    

The wedding cake order

Monday Memories, the class of 1958

Looking through this photo of the 50th class reunion of the class of 1958 published in the Mt. Morris Times, October 16, 2008, I’m reminded again how many friends I had in this class.  We moved back to Mt. Morris  from Forreston in March 1951, and Sandy Davies who lived a few houses away became one of my first friends.  I was in 6th grade and she was in 5th. In 7th and 8th grade I was very close to Doree Dumont and Carol Samsel.  We had great fun in the summer break—Doree’s mom had a summer house outside of town with a swimming pool. Carol was a lot of fun and we spent hours playing cards—her mom was terrific. Good snacks.   In High School, Carolyn Kielsmeier and I worked together as editors of the yearbook.  Connie Frey and I, although on opposite sides of the fence politically, have become friends through Facebook and are in an e-mail discussion group together. I dated a few boys from this class, but won’t mention their names.  Don’t wish to embarrass them. Several members of this class were also members of the Church of the Brethren and we were in CBYF together. Dick Butler and I are FB friends—although I don’t think he ever posts anything, as are Carol and Connie and Ken Duncan and Kay Egan and Rodney Miller. I probably couldn’t pick them out of a police line up today, but having the names in the article did jog the memories.

Religious freedom in Indiana

Hate mongers are making the Indiana law (based on the federal law) about homosexuality—or 2% of the population, only a tiny fraction of whom want to be married. In 2008 Barack Obama ran on the law of the land, both DOMA and Don’t ask don’t tell, then in 2012  announced he had evolved about his beliefs as the gay lobby became more powerful and he already had the conservative black vote (black Christians are more conservative than white).  Then his closest adviser and friend, David Axelrod, admitted in his recent book that Obama lied in order to get elected.   The 75% of the population who say they are Christian apparently don’t matter in the push to squash another viewpoint on God’s purpose for creating us male and female. And to these haters and bigots, the first amendment protections don’t matter.   Should the owner of a bakery be required to make tiny KKK cupcakes for a child’s party?  Should a Jewish deli be required to sell ham?  Do Muslim retailers need to sell products made with porcine parts or lard or allow dogs in their stores and taxis? Should Christian trinket stores be required to sell little statues of Hindu gods? Do Jewish fraternal organizations on college campuses need to pledge Muslim members? Are churches protected from the hate speechers—can pastors preach from the book of Romans?

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2015/03/28/thousands-protest-religious-freedom-law-indy/70596032/

http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Society/2015/0324/Indiana-religious-freedom-act-Does-it-protect-faithful-or-legalize-prejudice-video

http://www.charismanews.com/us/48263-obama-lied-about-gay-marriage-to-deceive-blacks-during-election-says-adviser

http://www.charismanews.com/us/48944-34-000-black-churches-break-ties-with-presbyterian-church-usa

About the Masons

From What Hath God Wrought by Daniel Walker Howe. Many of our founding fathers were Freemasons, including George Washington and Benjamin Franklin. But an incident in 1826 brought about the demise of the movement. In 1826, a man named William Morgan attempted to publish a book about the secret rituals of Freemasonry, much to the horror and strong objections of the masonic community. After his home was ransacked for the manuscript, Morgan disappeared. His kidnappers, including the Sheriff of Niagra County, were Freemasons who were never fully prosecuted, due to the protection and collusion of other Masons. Thus began the rise of Antimasonry as the first "third party" in American politics.

"Freemasonry, introduced into America from Britain in colonial times, had been an important force in the young republic. Its members had constituted a kind of republican elite, with Benjamin Franklin and George Washington prominent among them. The international Masonic brotherhood satisfied longings for status, trust, and metropolitan sophistication in an amorphous new society; its hierarchies and secret rituals offered a dimension lacking in the stark simplicity of much of American Protestantism. Freemasonry promoted the values of the Enlightenment and new standards of politeness. Its symbols of the pyramid and the eye had been incorporated into the Great Seal of the United States. Its ceremonies graced many public occasions, including the dedication of the United States Capitol and the construction of the Erie Canal. But in the Morgan episode, Masonic commitments of secrecy and mutual assistance led to disastrous consequences. To be sure, the Masonic brotherhood succeeded in the short run, protecting members from legal punishment and preventing Morgan from publishing all but the first three degree rituals, which appeared in print a month after his disappearance. But, as American Masonry's most recent historian has shown, 'it lost the larger battle in the court of public opinion.' During the decade after the Morgan affair, thousands of brothers quit the order and hundreds of lodges closed. Although Freemasonry recovered its numbers after the Civil War, it never recovered the influence it had wielded in the first fifty years of independence.”

This excerpt is from delancyplace.com which sends e-mails about a variety of books.  Sometimes I just skim, but this one was an interesting part of America history about which I knew nothing, except I’d always had a negative view of the Masons. As we say in libraries, to the victor belongs the archives.  http://www.delanceyplace.com/view_archives.php?2760&p=2760 

 

Why don’t pro-life Christians celebrate The Annunciation?

http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2010/marchweb-only/22-41.0.html

“Most evangelical Protestants are today [March 25] sitting out as Roman Catholics, Eastern Orthodox, and some liturgical Protestants celebrate one of the most significant events in the New Testament: the angel Gabriel's announcement to Mary that she would give birth to Jesus.

One might expect American evangelicals to be among the most enthusiastic celebrants of what is known as the Annunciation. For starters, it focuses on two issues that theologically conservative Protestants have long defended against theological liberals: the historicity of the Virgin Birth, and Christ's unique divinity. In a theological sense, the Annunciation could be of greater significance than Christmas.”

Be prepared for a rather disappointing Protestant response.

Cats (or my cat) and coconut oil

I keep a small amount of coconut oil in a pill bottle inside the top drawer of my bathroom cabinet.  It’s very nice as a skin moisturizer, or make up remover, or for dry skin.  One morning Lotza had a runny nose (always, actually) and I swiped it with a touch of the oil because it looked irritated.  Of course, she licked it off—and loved it!  Now in the morning she sits on the counter top waiting for me to open the drawer.  First, she goes after the tooth paste, which I use first; then my thyroid pill because I do that an hour before eating; finally, it’s the coconut oil and she gets a smear.  One day I made the mistake of giving her a small amount with lunch.  Oh, she thought she was in heaven, but about an hour later, threw up her lunch, and probably breakfast.  I tried it again the next day, and the same thing happened.  It might be good for her, she might love it, but it’s not good for cleaning up carpet.

http://www.thedrakecenter.com/blogs/risks-and-benefits-coconut-oil-for-pets

Dinner was delicious

We had baked salmon with shallots (a type of small onion) and herbs (parsley and dill in lemon butter) and baked potatoes with a salad plate of fresh fruit, toasted pecans and mixed greens of kale, Swiss chard and baby spinach with onions and olives. We are celebrating the end of our colds—and Palm Sunday, of course.

Racism and Sexism charges a cover up for political bias

Can’t criticize her or it is racism.

Can’t criticize her or it is sexism.

Why are women a protected class after all this time?

I wonder if this would work in Lakeside?

“Occupants of the Rotonda in Tysons Corner, Va., must have their dog's mouth swabbed in the presence of a building authority. If pet waste is found outside the building, the waste will be tested and matched to the guilty dog's DNA, reported MRCTV, a site operated by the Media Research Center.” Newsmax.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/using-dna-to-catch-canine-culprits--and-their-owners/2014/12/26/8d833fc8-8247-11e4-8882-03cf08410beb_story.html

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/fairfax-neighbors-head-to-court-over-unscooped-dog-poop/2011/10/19/gIQAPCRkDM_story.html

What Americans really think about the recovery

According to a Pew Report on what the American public believes has happened in the economy, “72% say that, in general, the government’s policies since the recession have done little or nothing to help middle class people, and nearly as many say they have provided little or no help for small businesses (68%) and the poor (65%). These opinions have changed little in recent years, and differ only modestly across demographic and income categories. There are significant partisan differences in these views, though majorities of Democrats, Republicans and independents say that government policies following the start of the recession have done little or nothing for the poor and the middle class. Similarly, more think household incomes have recovered than did so two years ago. But while 51% say there has been a partial recovery in incomes (up from 42% in September 2013), just 4% say they have fully recovered. About four-in-ten 42% think household incomes have hardly come back from the recession.”

Many believe that banks, corporations, the wealthy have benefited from government policies since the “Great Recession.”  I personally think politicians have said very little about the poor in recent years, and increasingly emphasize the middle class not making progress.  And if they do move ahead, then they complain about a gap.

“The analysis in this report is based on telephone interviews conducted February 18-22, 2015 among a national sample of 1,504 adults, 18 years of age or older, living in all 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia (526 respondents were interviewed on a landline telephone, and 978 were interviewed on a cell phone, including 559 who had no landline telephone).”

Sin and the sink stopper

This morning I pulled out the stopper in the bathroom sink drain.  Oh yuk.  It was awful.  I wiped it off—lots of black gunk.  But there was more because the stopper is plastic (bad design) with many edges and crevasses especially near the top.  It’s not that I never clean that sink—and it looked fine until I pulled out the stopper. I wiped it many times with a paper towel, each bringing up a new layer.  Then I soaked it and watched black chunks float loose, then I sprayed it with a Clorox bathroom cleaner—more stuff.

It’s like sin, isn’t it?  You don’t see it at first—all covered up and looking nice because it’s below the slick marble of your good intentions.  Then you start poking around and the horror sets in.  Sin is covered over and really black.  It might take a lot to get rid of it. Like the cross and Jesus’ sacrifice.  But even then, we’re supposed to take care of what he did for us, daily and not let the build up put us and others at risk. Confess it and make amends before the gunk takes over.

Midlife Cardiorespiratory Fitness, Incident Cancer, and Survival After Cancer in Men

Good news.  Cardiovascular fitness in midlife may protect against cancer, not just heart disease.  Aren’t middle age?  Well, tell your sons, or grandsons.

Free article. http://oncology.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=2203829

• High CRF was associated with reduced incident lung (HR, 0.45 [95% CI, 0.29-0.68]) and colorectal cancer (HR, 0.56 [95% CI, 0.36-0.87]) in white men.

• High CRF is associated with a one-third risk reduction in all cancer-related deaths among men who developed lung, colorectal, or prostate cancer at age 65 years or older compared with low CRF.

• High CRF is associated with a two-thirds reduction in cardiovascular death compared with low CRF among men who developed cancer at age 65 years or older.

http://generalfitness.tripod.com/id4.html

http://www.ucdenver.edu/academics/colleges/medicine/sportsmed/cusm_patient_resources/Documents/Training%20for%20Cardiovascular%20Fitness.pdf

Owner of about a dozen IHOP restaurants sells them due to Obamacare costs

Yes, Scott Womack, who testified against Obamacare before Congress, is still in business—but Obamacare is taking its toll. He has sold off full service and switched to more restaurants with hourly employees to avoid the mandates.  Is this sound business practice, Mr. President? 

http://dailysignal.com/2015/03/22/this-longtime-ihop-owner-sold-his-restaurants-because-of-obamacare/?

The Affordable Care Act created an employer mandate, which was supposed to go into effect Jan. 1, 2014, but was delayed for one year by the Obama administration. The mandate requires companies with more than 50 employees to offer “adequate” coverage or face a tax penalty.

Even though he reduced his labor costs by moving into quick-service dining, Womack still took a sizable hit on health insurance. His insurance provider boosted rates by 40 percent in one year, forcing him to cut back on coverage.

He offered the plan to all 180 employees. Only two of the 140 hourly workers signed up. . .

Rather than helping existing and aspiring franchise owners expand by adding jobs, locations and more hours for their employees who need them most,” said spokesman Matthew Haller, “the law’s arbitrary definition of ‘large employer’ and ‘full-time work week’ have contributed to the steady increase in part-time employment in America and have been a drag on new franchise business formation.”

Americans spend 4.3% of their household income on “food away from home.”  Looks like as that cost goes up,  more Americans will be fixing dinner at home.  Fewer people will be working in the restaurant industry, which helped many students and housewives bring in some extra dollars.  That might pay off in obesity.

Speaking of delays, there have been more than 49 significant changes made to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act: at least 30 that President Obama has made unilaterally, 17 that Congress has passed and the president has signed, and 2 by the Supreme Court. Why?  Because 1) it’s unworkable on a national level for businesses of all types, and 2) as special favors for those who support the president’s policies. http://www.galen.org/newsletters/changes-to-obamacare-so-far/

What is the Census Bureau’s definition of “family”?

The 2010 version states: “A family consists of a householder and one or more other people living in the same household who are related to the householder by birth, marriage or adoption.”

The 1930 version is strikingly similar: “Persons related in any way to the head of the family by blood, marriage or adoption are counted as members of the family.”

But before 1930? If you do genealogy research, you may have noticed a difference. Family is more closely what we would call  unrelated “occupants.”  The pre-1930 version is more what we would call “household.”

The 1920 version: “The term ‘family’ as here used signifies a group of persons, whether related by blood or not, who live together as one household, usually sharing the same table. One person living alone is counted as a family, and, on the other hand, the occupants or inmates of a hotel or institution, however numerous, are treated as a single family.”

The 1900 Census version: “The word family has a much wider application, as used for census purposes, than it has in ordinary speech. As a census term, it may stand for a group of individuals who occupy jointly a dwelling place or part of a dwelling place or for an individual living alone in any place of abode. All the occupants and employees of a hotel, if they regularly sleep there, make up a single family, because they occupy one dwelling place …”

http://blogs.census.gov/2015/01/28/statistical-definition-of-family-unchanged-since-1930/