Monday, March 13, 2017

A philosophical case against weight loss

Our lives are finite.  What does it matter?  Twenty years of svelteness followed by 500+ years in a grave.  #2 Even if you do lose all that blubber there's a 90% chance you'll regain some or most of it.  It's harder to maintain after all.  Dieting is Boring.  #4 Some fat apparently bolsters your immune system.  Finally too many ketones ain't good.  

228 comments:

  1. And then there's losing too much weight. That can and does happen, and isn't it always a bad thing? Like you've contracted a disease or you're anorexic. I lost a LOT of weight several years ago and more than one person asked me if I were sick. Then I started hearing that I was too skinny. My first reaction was that there's no such thing but really there is. People with cancer waste away and die. One of the biggest parameters we watch with my MIL (who has small cell lung cancer) is whether she's maintaining her weight. But society is so pervasive and women especially are judged on how they look, and despite the plus size (as if a 10 is a plus) models it will never be sexy to be a big girl. Some men prefer it so they say but you have to have a shape, you can't just be fat. Plus the diet industry is a multi billion dollar business and Marie Osmond makes money doing those NutriSystem commercials. So for all the arguments about how that extra 20 pounds probably won't kill you (unless you're diabetic or you have high blood pressure, then you really should lose the weight), I don't think anyone's going to go out and eat one of those Grand Macs. Actually at my job the clique kind of rates your lunch on how healthy it is (read small and unsatisfying). I did bad today because I had a Rice a Roni cup thing but on the positive side it was barely a mouthful, so I didn't get slammed too hard.

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  2. Worked with a guy once who was looking for one of those special formulas in the store 'cause he said he had to gain weight. Poor guy.

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    1. Just returned from Burger King, having taken the Mrs.
      to the clinic. 4 hours tests and waiting and we were starved. IMO somewhere between anorexic and overweight
      is about normal: humans historically have been overworked and underfed through the ages. But, how
      can we watch 'My 600 lb Life' and feel superior?

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    2. Saty is right. As you know a few years back I was about 60 lbs. overweight and lost most of that in less than a year. Co-workers were concerned. I wanted to mainly lose weight around my gut but the way it works is you lose weight everywhere and you can't help that.

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    3. Actually the Burger King at the Ardsley Travel Plaza off I-87, the one mentioned in the link is pretty good. Ate there many times. Can't seem to find the one at 13 Jackson Ave. in Hastings-on-Hudson mentioned by Google though. Has anyone actually eaten there?

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  3. How soon before we veer our way back to Trump? Re BK it was a couple of those triple whoppers with cheese that did me in.

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  4. We learn that in all the episodes of 'The A-Team', Mr. T.
    never once stated, "I pity the fool..." Can we call that the MR T Effect?

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  5. One of the surest human behaviors is when there's a major snowstorm looming people hit the supermarkets in droves ("I'll have 2 lbs. of Ovengold"). Probably a large # are low on food so it makes sense but I also think many already have food in the pantry but they think they're gonna die.

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    1. I would think if you get 12-15" snow overnight, the place will get pretty quiet for awhile. Snow Day!

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    2. The Mormon Church encourages members to set enough food in storage to last a year. Not sure how many
      of them do. Probably goes back to their founding
      when they first planted the desert..first couple of
      years a bit skimpy. You get into long range food storage, you're looking a lot of cans. Dunno, maybe a chef would go with hanging hams and a potato cellar?

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    3. Bearing in mind just a week ago we had temps in the 50's and 60's but there's no climate change.

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  6. Estimates are 14-20 million folks are gonna lose their health insurance. So what's Plan B look like?

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  7. Have you noticed that the new talking point is 'choice'?
    Not better, cheaper, more accessible, healthier. All bad:
    but you get to 'choose', presumably the best doctor and hospital (if your chosen plan permits that), presumably
    whether to carry the new more expensive insurance or not.
    GOP, the pro-choice guys. Dunno, looks like it will unravel and Mr. T and Paul Ryan will have a WWF cage match
    on the White House lawn. It will be Yuuuuge....
    -any predicitions?

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    Replies
    1. They say most people with fairly good health insurance
      get it through their employer. IMO, the millions that will lose it will be by choice, based on the causative
      phrases in the GOP Plan, to wit:
      "Insurers can substantially raise premiums on older enrollees, charging them up to five times more"
      For example, those over 50 might expect a rise from
      $1700/year to $14,000/year. We are reminded that Paul Ryan is an accountant, not a doctor.

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    2. Our system lacks stability. So they replace Obamacare with something else now let's say in four years we have a Democrat president and both Houses of Congress become Democrat. So now they replace RepubliCare or RyanCare with something else. Everything is in flux and sometimes your Blue Cross card works and sometimes it doesn't. One year your doctor is in the network and the next year he's not. You're just trying to get a couple of polyps removed.

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    3. Any predictions? All in all every day goes by and I want to move to Europe more and more. I'm guessing it's not the norm over there to work two or three jobs.

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  8. We talk very seriously about leaving the country. Every day it gets worse. Kellyanne Conway, microwaves that turn into cameras? I'm surprised you haven't got to that yet but the healthcare stuff is enough to take your breath away. I anticipate having to work until 70 just to keep health insurance. Scott says that won't be happening but I think he's just trying to cheer me up.

    I heard Putnam County (where I grew up) got 8". How much snow did you get? Will the EPA guy use this as proof that climate change isn't real?

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    1. I just shoveled out my car which took extra long because the plow came thru the opposite and made an embankment. Snow wet and heavy the worst kind to shovel. I'm guessing 12".

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    2. I didn't know what to do with the microwave/cam comment. I read about it and said sounds about right for them. Thought BB would say something. She seems a hybrid Palin/Bachmann creature w/a touch of the blonde from Three's Company.

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  9. Re: food storage, this is a huge business. You have stuff made up for the preppers, in five gallon buckets, enough food to outlast the apocalypse. Like $2500 but it feeds you for a year or something. I'm not sure why people buy bread. Maybe they figure if the power goes out they can make sandwiches. I do tend to keep a lot of food in the house for just two people. If you're willing to eat beans and rice I could probably feed two for a month at least and then there's all of the stuff I have in the freezer. I tend to keep ingredients vs complete meals but we have a gas range so no one's going hungry. One thing I don't have is a microwave (or camera if you're Kellyanne) so not only do we not have to worry about surveillance from that direction I don't have to worry about radiation in my food. I know they say they're safe but surely they can't be healthy. We use a hot air popper for popcorn and you can learn to heat or reheat almost anything on a stove.

    I think a lot of people in a lot of very red states are going to be very pissed when they lose their healthcare. The Democrats may see a surge out of this. They say the grassroots are over the top since the election. Who knows, control of Congress may swing in 2018.

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  10. The preppers are big on the freeze-dried food you find in the camping stores like Gander Mountain. Actually some of the stuff ain't bad. I have to admit I was a little bit put off by the mandated change from analog to tv signals. I can even understand how certain chronic tinnitus sufferers can believe the CIA is behind the Hum since they're into weird stuff anyway but I never suspected my toaster oven or microwave or washing machine. Guess I'm not up on stuff.

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  11. One of the nice things about that digital signal they're required to put out is that you can put up an antenna and boom, free tv like it was in the old days. We did that for a couple of years and even out here where we live we got 11 channels and all the major networks. It was a good system but we eventually succumbed and went with DirecTv. It's such a ripoff, 250 channels and you only watch 5. It probably wouldn't bother me to go back to free tv but there's a few shows he really likes. Plus I like NFL Network.

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  12. So...my microwave oven is a CIA plant? Kellyanne, Spicer,
    Hucklebee's daughter and all the other Trump mouthpieces that try to explain him and his tweets on TV: he stays up at night watching and grading them it is said. The more outlandish the fake explanation, the better he likes it.
    Ooops, I think my digital watch is tracking my hand movements.

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  13. It's sad when even Fox News is calling them out on the lies.

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    Replies
    1. It is sad when the spontaneous prevarications come from the head of the US government: we expect them
      from used car salesmen, but....when the endless whoppers pour down on from on high, it's yuuuuuuge.

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  14. Why'd he fire Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara? I think that one even caught conservatives off-guard.

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  16. I bought this book.
    The History of the Christian Church in Eight Volumes
    Kindle version, 1.99
    The bias isn't as bad as I thought it was.

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    Replies
    1. Do you read such a book from beginning to end or scatter around? Lately when it comes to tomes I prefer to browse.

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    2. If that is the tome by Schaff, it is said to take about 4.5 years to read. Yikes!! It is a thorough
      history and pretty fair considering the author was
      a theology professor, eg. incapable of drawing any
      negative conclusions, but ably providing information from which we can draw our own. I tend to agree with Z-Man here, that such a detailed source might provide sources of personal interest in specific historical areas, rather that page by
      page serial reading like a novel. A great project,
      nevertheless.

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    3. Re Hell I find myself subscribing more and more to the annihilationist theory and I believe this is backed up more by the Scriptures (death of the soul, eternal death). A person has already suffered one million years in Hell so the punishment was meted out but in God's eyes does it still serve a purpose? Probably the minority pov but it must be in the volumes somewhere.

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  17. I'm already on chapter 9 (I got the free sample sent to me before I decided to buy it). It won't take me that long to read it, certainly not years by any means. I go through stuff like this cover to cover; no jumping around! The only thing that irks me is the tendency to quote sources in their original languages; a paragraph of German doesn't help me at all.

    I understand the GOP Healthcare bill is kind of a very lame duck at the moment. It's hard to be on the right side of kicking 24 million people off their health insurance. And I hear that they are rolling back mine safety standards. I thought Trump was so concerned about the miners...they die in droves even with all the inspections in place, what will happen when all there is is 'compliance visits'? Which brings me to another question: why is everyone so concerned about the fate of the miners' jobs after all? It's like they're some kind of special case. Their jobs got phased out by automation like everyone else's, and moving to clean energy just made it worse. But they aren't some kind of special case that's better than other groups that have lost jobs due to automation. Somehow they get special consideration, and I don't get that.

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    1. Coal mining: there are a few depressed places (W VA,
      S. Appalachians) where mining is the sole occupation
      available. Very doubtful it will come back-even the
      big strip mines in WY have cut back, the powerplants
      converting to natural gas. Trump is typical big bizz
      guy, throwing a short term fix and not worrying about
      next week. Medical question Saty: my wife had a sudden onset of extreme fatigue that lasted and still
      is, several days. Our whole family figured mini-stroke, since her mother had those. But so far all med staff we have talked to have eliminated that out of hand, without any other suggestions. Why don't they listen to their patients? Ryan continues to ignore not only the electorate, but all the big health and physician organizations. His Plan is an
      accountant's wet dream; a health professional's nightmare. Will he implode?

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  18. I'm not sure why the doctors don't listen except maybe they don't like to admit they don't know. Is she any better? ER doctors especially like things to be cut and dried, quick solutions for problems, get them in and get them out. Anything that requires contemplation or meditation isn't suited to their natures. I would continue to go to different doctors until you find one willing to listen. I hope she's doing better.

    I think Ryan is indeed going to implode. At least I dearly hope so.

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  19. Medical issues. Today I talked about the worldwide Hum with my doctor. Not to sound exotic but thus far it's the most accurate description of my tinnitus experience. I don't think most doctors subscribe to this though. Maybe I was looking for a more metaphysical explanation then I said if it's a bad nerve (probably the consensus view among doctors) would it or the feedback loop burn itself out eventually??? Leave an appliance going on indefinitely and the motor has to burn itself out eventually so how can tinnitus go on for a lifetime? I always find myself somewhat on a different page.

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  20. The conservatives are firmly on board the Trump train but you have to have a status report. Trump and Conway have already talked about major terrorist attacks that never happened and also the microwave cameras. At what point is Michelle Malkin et al gonna get that weird vibe going like maybe this is a flakey Administration with one oar just skimming the surface? Trump is raging now that his "watered down" version of the original travel ban has also been banned. I'm tired.

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  21. There's disarray on that train. The healthcare bill is a huge disaster. Conservatives are pissed that it isn't cruel enough.. more reasonable Republicans are concerned that it goes too far. There isn't a lot of public support for this bill. Meanwhile, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting is getting the ax and it has been revealed that the American people and not Mexico are going to pay for the wall.

    Just when you think it can't get any worse, it does. Why are shallots so hard to find in a grocery store? I only have Food Lion and Walmart to pick from.

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    1. Look I was never a big fan of ObamaCare but you can't just kick 20 million Americans off the rolls and call it progress. I'm sure Trump can afford a Swiss doctor. Most of us can't.

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    2. Swiss doctors yodel when they do a colonoscopy.

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  22. Cardinal Dolan said NY Catholics can eat corned beef today. I'm sorry but abstaining is abstaining.

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    1. Corned beef/pro choice?

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    2. I'm sure Chris has an opinion.

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    3. Muslims fast for a month during Ramadan: they must abstain "completely" from foods, drinks, intimate intercourse and smoking, before the break of the dawn till sunset, during the entire month. Rumors
      are they feast mightily after sunset. Friday fish=
      big filet-o-fish at the fast food places: Vatican
      perhaps has big investment in McDonalds. Burger King
      and Red Lobster? We ponder..does Jesus care?

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    4. Worked with a young Muslim guy who told me all about their fast. Then at sunset they'll eat the whole cow if they can.

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  23. Politics/Friendships Lady visited my wife today. She said she thought I was real smart and what did I think of Trump so far. Replied that he was batshit crazy. Found out she was a Trump fan. Well, she asked.

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    1. I find in my workplace those who hate Trump are very vocal about it. Those who are quiet I believe voted for him.

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    2. Definitely a flashpoint topic. People are naturally reluctant to change their minds, but when all those
      seniors voted for him, they can argue why he chooses to end 'Meals on Wheels'. The military spending: we already spend more than the next 20 countries...and that ain't near enough? Been watching an old Coneheads movie. How come I like that?

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    3. Schwarzenegger should have become president. At least he has some political experience.

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    4. The solution to Trump Tweets could be a Fact App:
      if anything untrue, blatant lie or baseless accusation is typed..the tweeter won't tweet.
      Tweetless, Trump could look presidential...and
      Kellyanne wouldn't look and sound so desperate.
      Win-Win.

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  24. I'm really hoping they can't pass this healthcare legislation.

    Apart from that I'm home alone this weekend (Scott is in VA at his mom's) and I really hate being home alone. These are the times I go to bed at 6PM.

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    Replies
    1. Make America Great Again! Cut meals on wheels for
      elderly shut-ins. Say what?

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  25. Speaking of bedtime last night I was watching on my tablet a 1 1/2 hour conference given by the late Dolores Cannon. For those of you who don't know she was the grandma of the whole New Age movement and so in this talk she touched on past lives and some other really out there topics like simultaneous time (Hitler and Trump may co-exist after all). I don't agree with the whole package but the reason I bring it up is after about a half hour of this friendly middle-aged lady sunk in a comfy chair talking and talking to her audience I became so drowsy I could have slumbered off right then and there. Next time you have trouble nodding off try her.

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    1. Supposed to be watching March Madness NCAA basketball
      and watch your bracket picks go to heck.

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    2. How come nobody's into hockey?

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    3. There are diehard hocky fans, golf fans, tennis fans
      and even curling fans. Odd, I like college basketball but dislike pro basketball. Once knew a Jr. High kid that knew the name and record of every
      pro wrestler. I'm wondering about TLC (the Learning
      Channel): today's schedule is eight hours of 'Yes To
      The Dress", sort of a tepid bridal gown shopping show. Is that really 'Learning' channel material?

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    4. If we believe alt-fact, fact-alt, alt-alt news, Mrs.
      Cannon passed away back in 2014. Can we assume she is either raising consciousness in Universe 12A (12th century Finland), or has been reincarnated as
      as a wildebeest in the South Luanga Nat'l Pak in Zambia. Your guess is as good as Saty's...

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    5. You're a hard data guy. If you can't crunch the numbers it doesn't exist. What Lista said about the codfish. Many people are looking for answers.

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    6. I've heard more than one guy say they prefer college over pro basketball. Why ain't there college golf?

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    7. Isn't it interesting how popular quantum mechanics has become. Everyone latches on to it. Ms. Cannon claimed we are constantly going in and out of slightly different realities. For instance that wine glass you left on the counter is gone or there's an extra sawbuck in your wallet that wasn't there before. Quantum is sexy. Whether there's any truth to what she said all I knows is I have to go to the same job in the morning:)

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    8. The problem of quantum mechanics is that it is a
      mathematical probability relating to sub atomic
      matter; to ramp it up from there to psychology is a
      stretch requiring a series of equations approaching infinity. IMO, we are stuck in the real world, at least the one where we were born, live, can see and touch. True, for the mystics to ponder otherwise is
      a pleasing pastime and if I wake up tomorrow on a planet where everything looks like Tahiti, no one is fat and a Trump is a card term..I'll let you know. As for the missing wineglass, I have left
      coffee cups, both full and empty, in a plethora
      of places, including the top of the truck, out on
      a fence post and the chemical reagent storage room
      (where a supervisor found it all turned to mold. He
      asked if I was stupid enough to leave it there, and
      in some desperation I replied, "Oh that. Leave it alone, it's an experiment. BTW, I don't recall..did
      Lista say I looked or smelled like a codfish?

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    9. She said you have the spirituality of a codfish. IMO theoretical physicists and the medical profession couldn't be further apart. The former talk about things the latter would send you to a shrink over.

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  26. Shit Jimmy Breslin passed. I thought he had already passed - lol. I kinda confuse Chuck Berry with Little Richard. Betty White - still alive!

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    1. Yeah, I though Chuck Berry died when I was a teenager.
      We are victims of information overload. Your typical
      robot doesn't have that problem.

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    2. I'm sure the conspiracy boards are already lighting up - "what have the assholes at CERN done?" - and personally I'm less enthused about CERN's work than you. Mini-black holes, who needs 'em? The thing with celebs passing is they happen in clusters and that creates confusion. Some years is a bumper crop.

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  27. My state representative is a bit overboard, even for a Republican. His typical response to a constituent:
    "Dear XXXXX,
    Thank you for contacting me about your global warming/education concerns. Here is my honest reply. The global warming theory is nonsense. The vast majority of credible scientists say so. In fact, there is mounting evidence the planet is starting to cool. Remember the big email scandal involving the top scientific experts in Europe supporting the global warming initiative. Do you remember the discovered and well publicized emails from these scientists in which they admitted global warming was a hoax – part of an agenda to grow government in the name of saving the almighty environment? Global warming ranks right up there with Al Gore’s phony ozone scare. I hope the legislature enacts legislation to eliminate this ridiculous nonsense about global warming and climate change from all our textbooks. The left-wing has created a new religion, and it’s called ‘the environment.’ I wish they would pay more attention to real religion. Maybe we could make real progress in this country. People need to wake up and rediscover critical thinking once again. Too many people are falling victim to these scams foisted on us all by liberal zealots with ulterior motives. In closing, Idaho is a conservative state, and therefore has a conservative legislature. You should not be surprised we will not support liberal constructs and obsessions. Our legislature does a great job of separating the wheat from the chaff. Global warming is chaff. Thanks again for your contact.
    Sincerely,
    Dan Foreman
    Senator – District Five "
    We elected THAT?

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    Replies
    1. Be like Chris and quit politics. Your blood pressure will thank you.

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  28. Replies
    1. That was a real letter. The constituent brought it to
      the newspaper, which published it yesterday. The state
      legislator is the one which authored a bill requiring the death penalty for women getting an abortion and for the physician performing it. Of course it was shot down immediately by the all GOP state congress.
      (Idaho has spent millions of tax dollars fighting the courts over abortion, privatization of prisons and
      seizure of federal lands. Nice state: awful politics.

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  29. I can't get over that. He's supposed to represent all the people, not just the ones who think like him. I guess you could say that about all politicians.

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  30. The cretin represents himself. He won't go far.

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  31. In the fake@altnews Department,
    we note Breitbart has started a counter boycott against the
    1100 advertisers that left them. I checked out the 'the other side' at NewsMax and got infected with RW cookies and
    had to reboot. One of the cookies tasted Russian.

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    Replies
    1. I've only looked at Breitbart once or twice and that only fleetingly. The more you say don't look aren't people gonna look? Is it as dangerous as a mini-black hole?

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    2. OK so you're a hard data #'s crunching guy. Is Breitbart an empirically racist misogynistic xenophobic site or are they racist xenophobic misogynistic because Sear's and Dick's Sporting Goods says they are? Empirical evidence vs. subjectivity, just sayin' as we say around here.

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    3. IMO, it is the internet spawn of the old Limbaugh,
      Savage, Medved, Coulter 'talking head' type news POV. There are some studies which indicate sort of a closed system, where fans soak in similar similar
      propaganda type misiniformation. Like 'Hillary ran
      prostitution ring of young girls' 'Michell Obama really is a transgender spy'. If it were the Onion
      it would be funny. That it is taken seriously by
      citizens strikes me as sad and tragic. You see, I'm stuck with a state legislator that rose out of
      that muck..the reinforced opinion that scientists are not critical thinkers, progressives are evil communists and the Pink Ladies were Nazis. IMO
      fake news is OK-believing it is quite incredible.
      Did Dick's Sporting Goods get bought by Bass Pro,
      or was that Cabela's?

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    4. Libs don't have closed systems? Why'd you throw Michael Medved in there?

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    5. Can't speak for Libs; but the ones I know personally tend to be widely read and listen to a broader range of news (I often watch BBC and the German and Japanese newscasts on PBS and look at the
      Israeli and Arabic news sites) I do Daily Kos, but
      not Huffington Post. Hard to compare -bleeding hearts' to Neanderthals, though. I never listen to
      radio, but looked up a listing of RW shows. Medved
      was on the list and sounded familiar. He IS on the
      board of directors of The Discovery Institute, the
      west coast anti-evolution group (with whom I have had some edgy correspondence). But the far left and far right are so far apart on just about every issue, they apparently need their own realities.
      I have some far right friends-we just discuss the weather and our kids, ya know?

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    6. Left-wingers only go for left-wing stuff and right-wingers go to their place. We need to get out more.

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  32. I've never bought anything from Amazon, Apple, Craig's List or E-Bay and other than my old computer and BP machine, have
    never owned a cellphone, smartphone or Kindle. In what universe am I, anyhow?

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    Replies
    1. You're living in a time warp. How is T.Rex?

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    2. You nailed it: explains why I can't adjust the time
      on the VCR player and until a few weeks back thought that tweeting was about ornithological sounds. ..was 7 mo old when they bombed Pearl Harbor and an experienced second grader when Trump
      was born and still don't understand rap. Ya know?

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  33. Pilotless Airliner concept
    is underway. 737 full of international passengers, Heathrow
    to LA-no pilots, just stewardesses. An enterprising Yonkers
    type might leap ahead of the concept and offer UberAir, where your customer calls in for a quick drone flight to
    Buffalo. At day's end the UberAir drone lands in your back
    yard with a load of cash. Z-Man sells the franchise and retires to the Finger Lakes region.

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    1. A part of me wishes Edward Snowden had worked at CERN. Can't keep up with the latest technology. Have they cured Death yet?

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  34. In the Dare Goes Da Judge Department, we note that Trump's source on the 'Ombama Wiretaps' (a yuuuuge reliable
    source-a top legal expert) has been removed from the air
    by FoxNews. Are they becoming mainstream alt-true, or what?

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    Replies
    1. This is interesting from a psychological perspective. Is paranoia/conspiracy theorizing contagious? If Trump's original allegation has all the hallmarks of paranoia why did such a bright legal mind, ok why did a notable legal mind try to validate it with further assertions? Lastly with Trump's sidelining himself with these and other side issues can he fulfill the office in a competent fashion? Is this itself grounds for removal?

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  35. I think the grounds for removal are getting more firm by the day. Currently the president and his team are under investigation by the FBI. Apparently being under investigation by the FBI was enough to get HRC disqualified from becoming president (according to Trump)...now it's just the new normal. Napolitano might have thought he was going to get brownie points with the administration by backing up their baseless claims.. now he's out of a job and nobody in the administration cares about him. If the FBI finds stuff they will bring it and that's a whole new can of worms.

    He's just digging a hole imo. The budget is yuuuugely unpopular, his red state loyalists are appalled to see their Medicaid, Meals on Wheels and other benefits getting ready to be cut and in a move that surprised no one with two functioning brain cells, America, not Mexico, is paying for the wall. At what point do these loyalists turn on him?

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    Replies
    1. "At what point do these loyalists turn on him?" When
      Limbaugh, Breitbart and FoxNews have an epiphany and
      report actual substantiated facts?

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    2. Hey Saty Rich Lowry of Nat'l Review is starting to tepidly criticize him (took a while). A thin crack so will Michelle Malkin head towards shore? Hey BB just 'cause Medved ain't down with the idea we're not derived from apes doesn't make him a bad guy. Good family man, pays his taxes, faithful to wife, willing to give a kidney, doesn't support the simian theory...EVIL.

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  36. Watched a little of the boring SCOUTUS hearing. Ted Cruz,
    "Don't you think Citizens United is wonderful, that Corporations are citizens and Scalia walked on water?"
    "Oh, yes indeedy" Ummm, corporations, like abortions, are
    not in the constitution, Citizens United brought us politicians who are corporate profits and Scalia (the strict constructionist) said that the reason for not infringing citizen weapons was NOT, as stated in the constitution " a well regulated militia" but protection from
    criminals, paperboys and things that go bump in the night.
    Sorry, that is not strict constructionism...that is the most
    activist judge in history. Is it time to replace the Supreme
    Court with the panel of judges from "American Idol"?

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    1. Gorsuch seems like a nice guy. There's no pleasing Chuckie Schumer though.

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    2. Nice guy. So was Merrick Garland . The derivation of the word poli tic derives from the Greek Poli (elected by the people) and the Greek
      tic (a bloodsucking insect). I guess we should be
      grateful he didn't nominate Kellyanne?

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    3. Well we wouldn't be in this mess if Scalia wasn't murdered (sarcasm).

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    4. I see some Redditites still debate that theory. We learn that he had a history of heart problems and diabetes and turned down security for his hunting trip. Retire early if you can, IMO.

      Delete
    5. Not only that many still debate the death of Andrew Breitbart himself.

      Delete
    6. Up early this morning? My newspaper came at 3:15 AM
      and I'm waiting for a breakfast place to open. Scalia, Breitbart, Hoffa: I'm guessing they are in
      the same place as Elvis..wherever that is. I recall
      that comedy skit where some East Tenneseeans are roaming the woods in their pickup and they see Elvis, who flees into the forest. One grabs a gun
      and shoots him, stating that they need a body to
      prove their sighting.

      Delete
  37. I understand that the farmers are not too pleased with Trump. Being directly affected by climate change they aren't thrilled with the idea of the administration doing nothing about it, and in terms of immigration farmers are very vocal in stating that immigrants are the ones bringing the crops in. A few years back millions of pounds of produce rotted on the ground in Georgia because of an immigration crackdown and there was no one to work. So it seems that the salt of the earth is finding that Trump isn't so savory. I can only hope this spreads as more of the loyalists discover that they have been had in the most blatant of ways.

    ReplyDelete
  38. Today's CERN joke:
    How many theoretical physicists does it take to change a light bulb?
    Two- one to hold the light bulb, the other to rotate the
    universe.

    ReplyDelete
  39. Steven Hawking said he doesn't think he'd be welcome in Trump's America.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Poor Dr. Hawking.."Lock him up! Lock him up!"

      Delete
    2. Wondering if I should tackle a Hawking ebook. Guy at work read one and said he felt like he was being lectured.

      Delete
    3. Probably a disconnect. The quantum guys look around and see differential equations, LaGrange
      subsets and hyperbolic matrixes. We see flowers.

      Delete
    4. Do you believe in the Butterfly Effect? A butterfly fluttering its wings in Brazil can effect the weather in Central Park or Trump's hair in DC.

      Delete
    5. It makes sense in terms of the mathematics of Chaos
      Theory: some minimal effect causative effect which
      may go in any of several directions, eg weather,
      the Trump doo or weird chromosome gap. It goes without saying the explosives scientists don't like
      it, uncertainty being uncomfortable.

      Delete
    6. Seems to me the theory of chaos should help explain Trump's election but I haven't formulated it. A beetle in Sao Paulo pooped on a leaf which sent out a vibration and then an albatross landed on the prow of a ship which caused a man in a cafe...dunno, the mathematics is complicated.

      Delete
    7. IMO, one of the Chaos Theory problems is that it can
      explain almost anything, but always in hindsight. In considering CT applied to the Trump election, is
      it possible he was losing hair, went to his barber,
      asked for a transplant, they found an arctic yak,
      used the egg, did in vitro fertilization with a jack rabbit, harvested the hair cells & viola- the
      doo. The Make America Great hat then didn't fall down over his face, formerly disinterested voters
      took notice, the Russians realeased all their hacks,
      Z-man a few million others didn't vote, Manifort
      grabbed a Breitbart reporter, a large number of
      illiterate voters couldn't figure out their ballots,
      CERN lost a black hole and here we are. Chaotic
      enough?

      Delete
    8. In a weird cosmological sense it's almost like the only way the Cubs could win the World Series is that Trump became president. Ponder;)

      Delete
  40. Trying to check my March Madness bracket and the breaking news simultaneously. Did I miss the GOP congress voting to
    repeal itself or what?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thing is Trump's trying to do everything in his first 100 days instead of spreading it out over the course of one term like a normal president. If you worked with someone like that it'd be annoying.

      Delete
    2. Ryan's TrumpCare bill was pushed by claiming O-Care
      would implode: with Price as head of Trump's Health & Human Services, IMO, they will cut funding off,
      watch it disintegrate and blame Obama. Win-Win for
      GOP: Lose-Lose for US citizens. Where's Bernie?

      Delete
  41. But the healthcare bill got pulled, didn't it?

    Maybe there's hope after all.

    ReplyDelete
  42. Saw Trump heading for the Presi-copter on the news this afternoon. Real long black over coat to just above the ankles. I'm guessing that is the CEO look, based on my
    experience. We had a delegation visit our operation, a dozen guys all wearing black calf-length overcoats. After
    they passed through my lab, I asked the local exec if they
    were a bunch of undertakers? He replied, "Nope, that is the new owner, the little guy...the rest are his sycophants.

    ReplyDelete
  43. Trump is running the country like he's running a corporation. He's supposed to get his way, his wishes re whatever subject are supposed to be followed through but it doesn't work that way. Shaw can raise her glass for today.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. While the process was coming to a head, Trump was interviewed. Asked if 20 million would lose their
      healthcare, he said "No, if that is in the bill, I
      won't sign it. Alt-?

      Delete
    2. A Trump doppelganger?

      Delete
  44. Astronomy Trivia Department-
    We learn that the red giant Betelgeuse has a diameter large enough to engulf the orbits of Mercury, Venus and Earth. It's name derives from the Arabic, mistranslated into 'Armpit of the Giant' in reference to its location in
    the Orion constellation. But it is enough to remember that
    Betelgeuse is pronounced 'Bettlejuice'. Hence the movie.
    You heard it here first.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. & in news sure to excite Stephen Hawking there's a black hole hurtling thru space at millions of miles per hour. It was apparently dislodged by gravitational waves. With the Trump election and the Cubs World Series win ever feel like we passed some type of event horizon?

      Delete
    2. A hurtling Black Hole? Is it heading for CERN?
      (God acts in mysterious ways) :)

      Delete
    3. People continue to die from cancer the world over and here we have a 17-mile long underground tunnel whose sole purpose is to smash subatomic particles together at speeds close to the speed of light. I might be repeating myself.

      Delete
  45. Attempting to assess the 'replace & repair' fiasco, it is
    clear the far RW GOP in congress is and will continue to be
    a problem. Less clear, but I strongly suspect, the implosion of Obamacare will be hastened by Trump's cabinet
    secretary, a long enemy of Obamacare: he will interfere where he can, cut funding, fire personel etc. When done,
    Obamacare will be shredded. Trump will blame the Democrats. IMO, but after careful study.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. As one conservative who passionately did not want Hillary to win sitting through the Trump presidency is painful. We already wasted two weeks on bogus wiretapping claims and we just had a major terrorist attack in London. Meanwhile he's been publicly feuding with Arnold. Isn't there some grounds for being unfit for the office?

      Delete
    2. No. The constitutional requirements for office are-
      natural born citizen
      35 yrs or older
      resided in the US for at least 14 years
      Grounds for Impeachment-
      Treason
      Bribery
      other high crimes and misdeamenors
      ---it seems a stretch, but some wonder if the Trump
      tax returns might show bribes in relation to overseas businesses. But that would have to have
      been done after becoming president. Perhaps he
      will get bored or frustrated and do a Sarah Palin
      walk away?

      Delete
    3. So basically you can be as crazy as a loon and still serve, that's not grounds. Trump can be talking to little green men about the next health-care bill.

      Delete
    4. Yep. Ex felons, Madonna, Anthony Weiner, you name it. Guy I used to work with said he would date any woman with two legs and a heartbeat and those gals could be pres too. The founders put a lot of faith in the voters.
      Maybe they should have thought a little harder?

      Delete
    5. I had vaguely thought somewhere along the line if a president say had 8 different personalities and it prevented him from running the country in a minimally competent fashion that would be grounds for impeachment. No fine print BB?

      Delete
  46. Putin's critics are an endangered species.

    ReplyDelete
  47. We went to Publix in Wake Forest today. It's so far away we brought a cooler. What a great store. They walk your groceries out to the car and load them for you. The produce department was smashing, they have a great deli and bakery (with black and white cookies, I nearly died right there) and lots of beautiful cheeses. We found a nice selection of Gardein products and other vegetarian meats and spent a fortune. We can't go all the time because it's far away but it was a nice experience. There are plans in the works to build one in Durham but that's still 45 minutes away. I keep a cooler in my car all the time in case I come across something I have to have.

    I didn't know a black hole could be mobile. How does one track such a thing? In other news I read about a theoretical astrophysicist who's researching bursts of energy waves coming from far away and who's theorizing that aliens are using those bursts to propel a spacecraft. It's an interesting thought.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Saty the black hole news was on the news sites yesterday and as usual I can't understand the stuff and I don't think the writers can either. I don't think the aliens would want to come here. "Take me to your leader." I don't think so.

      Delete
    2. Well for what it's worth, if you google 'trump is an
      alien' you get 23,300,000 articles. (That is more reading than Saty's 8 vol history of Christianity)

      Delete
    3. The black hole collision, absorption and gravitational kick were deduced from electromagnetic
      wave reception. Now, if there was a baby wooly bug
      transversing the parabolic wave collector, we note
      a Chaos Theory of misinterpretation. How about a
      second opinion here? BTW, the full story is supposed to be covered in a June 10 article; don't remember if it was Astrophysics Today or Cosmopolitan. Ever notice that the original Star Trek (Shatner) didn't have black holes? Tribbles and
      Vulcans but no BHs. "Kirk to Scotty: can you beam me out of this black hole?" "Scotty to Kirk; can't hear you captain, nothing, not even your smartphone
      microwave transmission can escape a black hole."

      Delete
    4. I don't get it. Trump is trying to do the normal workload of four years within 100 days. Is a meteor supposed to hit the Earth or something?

      Delete
    5. I like you liked the original Star Trek in a hokey way but it needed something. A great Leonard Nimoy role: the Columbo episode entitled "A Stitch in Crime."

      Delete
  48. He's trying to do so much because he knows his time is limited, and I don't mean just to four years. He wants to do as much damage as he can before they oust him.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That's a good theory. He does act like he's on the run.

      Delete
  49. Is America Great Again yet?

    ReplyDelete
  50. From the Always Blame Sasquatch Department:
    Exhibit A

    ReplyDelete
  51. Replies
    1. Trump is becoming Kim Jong-un Lite.

      Delete
    2. The Trump base wanted change. They were not concerned whether for the better or for the worse.

      Delete
    3. What is the Trump Base exactly? Fans of the Apprentice + Evangelicals + Michelle Malkin?

      Delete
    4. The demographics are quite complicated; many, if not most un/under employed wanted a change and believed Trump. Social conservatives voted for him,
      with no alternative, fiscals mostly as well. Gerrymandering in WI, which has more dems than GOP
      gave him a miniscule majority and a total electoral
      slate; there is also extensive gerrymandering in NC,
      TX, VA, PA, MI and elsewhere. Throw in evangelicals
      white militias and people who hate political correctness and that should cover it. We note a bit
      of splintering on the far right, who seem to think
      Trump isn't mean enough towards Env, Ed, Health,
      Soc Sec: they are few, but active..just look at their congressmen torpedoing Trumpcare. IMO, the
      GOP split will be an interesting affair, with sort of a power struggle..like Ryan must go vs Bannon must go. Feel the Bern.

      Delete
    5. Post began with weight loss and here we are again. IMO a good chunk of the Trump "base" are those who wanted Hil to go down in defeat at all costs. Trump was the default choice. They don't have the Trump travel mugs, t-shirts or tinfoil hats.

      Delete
    6. IMO, Hillary's worst enemy was (is) congressman
      Trey Goudy (NC). He and his committee investigated
      Benghazi, e-mail over the course of 6 separate times, found nothing, but damaged her considerably.
      He is a fierce interrogator, arrogant and relentless. Naturally, he will not investigate Trump
      and the Russian hacks, considering them just lies.
      He is at the top of my villain list; slithering
      ferret, arrogant weasel, partisan hack. He and his
      ilk make me more nervous than immigrants or terrorists, sorry to say.

      Delete
    7. Diets: eat less, burn more calories. Simple as that.
      Throw in the range of people's metabolisms and it
      starts to get more complicated. With few exceptions,
      dieters invariably gain it back. Ketones = bad.
      Although methylethyl ketone is great for dissolving
      most any plastic. In the Keystone Pipeline Department, we are happy to report that 34 jobs will
      be created once it is up and running. Too bad Sears
      will likely lose 100,000 jobs when they go under.
      Kellyanne says getting 34 jobs was Trump's success:
      the Sears debacle is Obama's fault. Why do I feel
      like Michelle Malkin?

      Delete
  52. In NC we have in the news that HB2, which has not been repealed, is going to cost the state over three billion dollars in lost revenue. Thousands of jobs that were going to come here with expansions, etc have been lost as companies take their business elsewhere. The new gov is a Democrat but he's up against a Republican legislature. I'm glad that McCrory's gone but this guy isn't going to be able to make a lot of headway. Once again, NC is in the headlines. I think the last time it was that our democracy was rated on a par with Cuba. What a place to retire, eh?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Better than Mississippi. The progressive areas of
      NC are very impressive: Raleigh-Durham up there with
      Si Valley, Boston-Cambridge, etc. The dried up tobacco acres and the rest of the GOP part of thestate seem about equivalent to S Carolina. At least from this distance.

      Delete
  53. That's us, slap in the middle of the dried up tobacco acres 45 minutes north of Durham. It's a different world out here.

    ReplyDelete
  54. Mathematical Theology Dept:
    It is said that when we die, we will be reunited with loved ones. Presumably those loved ones will have been united with theirs, going back to the time of Jesus. So the loved one thing is a long chain of mostly ancestors we never knew.
    We consider that before Jesus, some 45 billion people died.
    It seems that theologically, they will not be in heaven. Since that time, another 60 billion people have died, most non Christian. If we throw in reincarnation, the paradigm
    shifts dramatically (eg. of the 105 billion that died, how
    many were reincarnated, died again, reincarnated for 10,000
    generations, dying each generation along the way) and the population of heaven would be pretty small...as it is for
    predestinationists and some S. Baptists. We ponder the Muslim wing with its plethora of virgins, but continue.
    Let us guess that roughly 50% of the 60 million deaths since
    Jesus' time were Christians of one sort or another. We futher guess that (throwing out the mean and rigorous S. Baptists and predestination types) 70% went to heaven and we
    (St Peter) has the records of 21 billion heavenly souls.
    Disregarding the occupants of hell, we ponder how long it
    will take us to find our decease loved ones and acquaintances among a population 3 times that of current Earth? Is CERN even working on this? :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. (At least it ain't the Trump topic) The CERN type would probably say when we die we simply move into an alternate timeline where we're still alive. That complicates matters even further leading to the now fashionable theory on reddit that maybe we're dead and don't know it (but still report to work?). Reuniting with loved ones, man maybe after my first goblet of brandy later I'll have a new insight.

      Delete
    2. I'd assume I'd be reincarnated without the raging tinnitus but you never know. Saty must have some thoughts.

      Delete
    3. I guess it depends on your Karma Bank. You could come back as a Chuck Berry type, a Monarch butterfly, hammerhead shark or a single mother.
      But you wouldn't remember your former self or your
      tinnitus. Would you? I'm guessing I was a Viking
      berserker back when; or a meadowlark..need a séance,
      no?

      Delete
    4. Inevitably, we ponder the Donald's former self.

      Delete
    5. "..that maybe we're dead and don't know it". I would
      venture that is the case of all dead people. Just saying. Ever notice that there is scant evidence
      of the netherworld? It's not like Jimmy Hoffa shows up in concrete boots, walks into a Detroit
      bar and gives a dissertation of his years of whatever. But it would be fascinating.

      Delete
    6. Scant evidence...that has always bothered me. People who die tragic deaths, imo it would almost seem an obligation to reappear and comfort the living. Instead for the most part nothing. Been perusing the Yonkers Ghost Investigators website, imo needs some professional polishing.

      Delete
    7. The deja-vu thing which I've gotten from time to time but can't put my finger on it. The scientific explanation eludes me...neurons, memory, stress, over-awareness. Is it a Twilight Zone where you're living the same life over and over with minor variations?

      Delete
    8. IMO, deja vu is a brief disconnect in the neural pathway. The brain is full of stored memory based on electric circuitry/chemically directed and like
      anything else, glitches happen. I have dreams, typically lost in a large building, which seems vaguely familiar, but probably just left over from some dream last year. As we age, the brain becomes less efficient: woke up last night and thought, "who was that actress that was married to
      Richard Burton, starred in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
      and Cleopatra. Could see the familiar face, but no
      name. Jane or Jennifer came to mind. Went back to
      sleep feeling pretty dumb. As I was making instant
      coffee at 6AM 'Elizabeth Taylor' popped into my mind, even though it was concentrating on finding
      a spoon. There is such a thing as a false memory,
      I think. It goes like this: I told you that yesterday. No you didn't. Yes I did, I remember.
      No you didn't, I don't remember. We conclude that
      one person in the discussion had a false memory.
      If that happens again tomorrow, will it be deja vu?

      Delete
    9. Re-runs of 'Twilight Zone' are still pretty scary
      and weird sometimes. Ahead of its time. Leaves you
      thinking. More than say 'Gilligan's Island'.

      Delete
    10. Deja-vu. You should begin with science but I always find scientific explanations just a touch lacking.

      Delete
    11. Rod Serling and Gilligan and yet I like both.

      Delete
    12. Agreed, scientific explanations tend cold and unspectacular, while the mystical opens all sorts of possibilities. We associate birth with the miraculous, yet it is ubiquitous in both the plant and animal kingdoms, the very definition of life.
      But we can't resist little kids, puppies, kittens
      and baby pandas: probably a POV from two angles.
      Was involved with an ammunition primer packaging
      project one time (mostly I crafted and inserted
      a tiny charge coated on electrical wiring to study
      a single event and whether it would propagate to
      an entire package and a couple dozen packages within
      a shipping box). The key was distance between primers and deflective ablation between them. The
      finale was to see how a pallet (3/4 ton) would react
      to a single 30-06 rifle bullet. The test pad consisted of a strong metal cage to reduce large
      shrapnel, an array of cameral and sensing equipment,
      an engineering marksman behind a pickup truck and
      me behind the marksman 25 yards from ground zero.
      The odds were probably 50-50 and a fairly large front office crowd was stationed 150 yards away up
      slope. The rifle shot and the target caused instant
      detotonaiton-the whole pallet went high order. A minute later, the purchasing mgr and his blond secretary came running down the hill. "Oh, we missed it! We heard up at the top of the hill, but
      didn't see it" She shook her hair and a few dozen
      spent primers fell out. From a scientific standpoint
      that added trajectory data to our experiment (and she got to see the film later. And I went back to
      building insertable electric detonators for further
      investigations. Which thanks to creative packaging
      engineering were successful. IMO, that type of experiment has more romance say, than liquid in a flask changing colors. Although an unexpected peak on an atomic absorption graph crossing a monitor screen that turns out to be zirconium hydride can be real exciting...but you have to be there. Hmm..
      you may be right; science is kind of boring.

      Delete
    13. Well I know someone who once had a very detailed dream of a certain painting in a house and a few weeks later went to an art exhibit and met a painter whose work was exactly like in her dream. Before that never met the artist or saw any of his work. I'm confining myself to the more solid cases of deja vu. My point about science is if something can't be touched or felt or sensed either by you or by scientific equipment then for science it doesn't exist. Science by default doesn't accept paranormal explanations was my gist so instead of simply saying we don't know they offer up a packaged explanation. Not against science just has limitations.

      Delete
    14. The beef us religious folk have with science is it doesn't fulfill the human spirit. For science you're born you live you die 'nuf said. Your life has no more meaning than a toaster manual. Science is useful in putting a smartphone together but most people want more.

      Delete
    15. Alt-science? Mine was the hippie generation and people always asked if I did drugs. I didn't, and
      replied that I was high on science. Which was true. Our small group designed, built and fired model rockets: some liked designing, some liked building and some liked watching them go up. I guess I was the only one that was hooked, because one became a janitor at the college, one a diesel
      mechanic, one a Buddy Holly impersonator and one
      a prospector, tax-dodger, woman chaser that finally
      had a heart attack on a small island in the Phillipines where he lived in a grass shack on the beach with a hootchy girl. Is there Karma in there
      somewhere?

      Delete
    16. My kids wanted me to write an autobiography. I started, but it sounded like an Abbot & Costello
      lab report.

      Delete
    17. Let's remember Einstein himself once considered the weirdness of quantum mechanics kind of alt-sciencey.

      Delete
    18. Methinks you won't be a science believer until the
      doctor cures your tinnitus?

      Delete
    19. I'm biased. Ditto the cancer people.

      Delete
    20. Trump has a low opinion of science. He just deregulated the amount of stuff coming out of power plant stacks. Let me know when Poughkeepsie, Albany
      and Schenectady find it cheaper to dump their raw
      sewage into the Hudson and Lorenz Park is turned into a feed lot for 5000 beef cattle. Make America
      Great, etc.

      Delete
  55. Karma and reincarnation.

    The life you get next is based on where your thoughts are at the moment of death. There's a story about a businessman who was dying and all he could think about was his business and the building he owned. He was reborn as a rat that lived in the building.

    I read an interesting article recently about a researcher who studies kids that have memories from a previous life. Most of the time the kids give detailed enough descriptions of self, home, business, children, names etc that it's possible to track down who the former self was. Occasionally they remember how they die. It seems that the memories fade as childhood passes and quicker if they are connected (by research) to their previous self.

    So the takeaway from all this is that reincarnation is real and it's crucially important that your consciousness be in the right place at the moment of death. Wherever it goes, there you are. All of life is basically practice for the moment of death.

    Now, karma. There are two kinds of karma, good and bad. Both equally bind you to material existence. There's a key to getting out of that too, which is to cultivate akarmic activities or those that don't accrue karma. How to do that is what we HKs spend all our time learning and practicing. Note that good karma from a past life can get you wealth, good looks, education, prestige in this life even if you're a jerk, which is what so often happens. (trump?) You spend the good karma in this life and then the next you're paying for being such a jerk.

    According to the Vedas there are 400,000 species of humans. They live all over the place; life is not limited to this earth. Some of this is transdimensional; there are indeed life forms on the moon, but we aren't able to see them. There are life forms everywhere is certain. Whether we have means to see and apprehend them is another question.

    Speaking of Christians I am well into Volume 2 and getting into the establishment of baptism as a sacrament.... BB, you forgot about the Jehovah's Witnesses who say only 144,000 people are actually going to heaven (the rest apparently continue to live on the earth). My coworker who is a JW told me that one of the elders in her congregation is one of the 144K. I asked her how he knew that and the answer was 'you just know'. Seems a bit sketchy to me.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes, the JWs are big on Rev 14:1-4
      . Not sure how they view the beast with seven heads, each having ten horns, the four apocolytpic horsemen, angels with bowls containing 7 terrible plagues, or
      the satanic 666. Some observers think that Rev is not
      understandable, while others think it can be used to
      prophecy, and others believe those to be false prophecies. Apparently going door to door and getting
      rejected is required to be considered for the 144,000.
      But the 144,000 is considered by most biblical scholars to represent 12,000 each from the 12 Tribes.
      Tis the Clockwork Orange of the bible, IMO.

      Delete
    2. I find Rev. fascinating but inscrutable. Far more interesting than reading about biblical genealogy.

      Delete
    3. Memories about past lives. This is another gripe about science, it automatically rules out these other possibilities so like with deja vu you get this techno-neuronic explanations you can't grasp. IMO science is technically hostile to religious claims.

      Delete
    4. Religious claims aren't technical, nor scientific
      claims religious. For example, Revelations is not
      scientifically testable, but there have been some
      incisive analyses done by biblical scholars. The thing with biblical archeology is that some are looking to prove, some are looking to disprove:
      that is hardly the scientific method. The existence of Jesus is practically a given; whether he was floating around in the heavens from the Beginning
      and the son of God is a construct of some debate.
      We need keep in mind that in religion there are well
      defined goods and bads. In science and objective
      history there is no good nor bad, stuff is found, evaluated, described based on reliable evidence.
      Remember, many Jesuits and other Christian thinkers
      in the past were good scientists as well...just have to keep stuff separate, or it gets complicated.

      Delete
    5. & so science still can't cure tinnitus and cancer. I would think we'd be farther advanced.

      Delete
    6. My doctor always pushes the specialists as most doctors do. ENTS/neurologists but the issue is insurers find any excuse not to cover stuff. Tinnitus ain't a malignant neoplasm. Second issue is no cure. Would the trips be worth it? You might get a free hearing aid but the noise would be there still. A cynical take.

      Delete
    7. True most insurers only cover tinnitus preliminaries up to CT, etc. Actuaries probably figure the odds of a cure are minimal, while the cost of pursuing a cure become too expensive to
      continue covering. I read one discussion on the subject where the sufferer sought depression counseling, which was covered and was about as content as one could get under the circumstances.
      Considering the religion/science conflict, the patron saints of hearing weren't all the effective
      either. Don't blame you for being discouraged.

      Delete
    8. There's also the close-mindedness among the medical profession. If you offer up you were reading it might be an actual noise we don't do fringe topics. If 90% of the population had it Schumer would say it's a public health concern.

      Delete
  56. Dear Diet Expert,
    I am due for an annual physical next month. I need to lose
    30 lbs before then. What should be my strategy? :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Classic 'tween a rock 'n' a hard place. If you do lose the 30 by next month everyone will have a weird expression at the doc's office like you have an eating disorder. I lost about 60 lbs. in somewhat less than a year mind you and there were some concerning question see. Honestly doctors confuse me.

      Delete
    2. Back in the day, we used to have Diet Contests at work. You sign up, weigh in and put down five dollars. Each week everyone weighs and records for
      six weeks. (Did we invent weight watchers?). So every one would lose weight each week. But there was one fat guy trailing behind in last place. The final week he lost 10 lbs and won. Ever hear of nuclear suppositories?

      Delete
    3. Dietician at work told me this isn't the way to go to shock your body just to lose weight quicker. Who can blame though the person who considers himself a fat slob. You want to look good NOW so as the next guy doesn't take the girl.

      Delete
  57. It seems the Canadian healthcare system is a bit
    more serious about tinnitus. An added plus is that were you
    Canadian, you wouldn't need expensive health insurance. The
    only downside is hungry polar bears.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That's a wealth of information but bottom line no cure. Might we go with different theories at this point? You know when medicine doesn't come up with a good explanation can you really blame folks for coming up with their own theories like the CIA? When all else fails blame them.

      Delete
  58. I think pretty much anywhere you go in the civilized world you don't need expensive health insurance. We're the only ones who don't care if people die or go bankrupt.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I always worry when I change jobs because then the BC card seems not to work and so you stick with a job that may not be a good fit. I'm guessing in a lot of the civilized world you have health insurance all the time regardless of personal circumstances. Most people have other things to worry about - new car, rent, food, laundry - 'twould be nice if health insurance wasn't one of them and yeah you shouldn't go bankrupt because you unfortunately came down with cancer.

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  59. Some states are trying to expand Medicaid now that the GOP plan failed. Meanwhile the Freedom Caucus shot the plan down because it didn't kick enough people off it. Why must we be this way?

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    1. We are this way because a minority of the electorate
      voted to be this way. Make America Great, etc. Based on what I think, the Russians elected their man. It is interesting to track H. Clinton's polls vs the planned and staged Russian hacks and leaks..and throw
      in the hundreds of US hackers paid by the Russians to
      inject fake Breitbart news into the mainstream. Collectively, we are pretty stupid. Ya get what ya
      pay fer.

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  60. BB made me look up Breitbart today which I hardly ever do but libs keep talking about it. Sleek design, looks good on the tablet, usual format.

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  61. How do we survive it? By not thinking about Trump every second of every single day. Look at the birds, feed the squirrels. Forget about the absolute surrealness of the Trump Presidency. It'll drive u nutz:)

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    1. Pee Wee Herman would have been better.

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  62. I was wondering if the Yonkers Ghostbusters were keep busy
    lately. A brief study suggests High Tor Mt and surroundings
    just upriver, is the home of numerous ghosts and sprites.
    Perhaps they reside there in the deep wooded hollows in the
    daylight, then roam across and down river (maybe just out
    behind your place). You would think, therefore, that the area Ghostbuster.Orgs would mount and offensive, something
    like hyperelectromagnetic exorcism, followed by a powerful
    street vacuum vehicle. Just wondering.

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    1. Hey BB Yonkers Ghost Investigators needs a demonologist. Put an ad in the Pennysaver?

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  63. Did you ever read the book Communion by Whitley Streiber? It was written about the UFOs that were seen in the Putnam/Duchess/Orange county areas (not sure if they got spotted in Yonkers). I saw them with my own eyes and I am absolutely positive that it wasn't planes flying in formation or whatever assorted malarkey they tried to pass it off as. I also have another story about a close encounter when I was about 9 or 10 and I am equally positive that it was an alien. My parents didn't believe me at first until they heard one of the neighbors saying they had also seen something. It's all true. Never mind Ghostbusters.

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    1. I heard of that book but never actually read it. My friend says he saw a UFO one night above Mahopac Ave. in Putnam County sort of a UFO triangle up there by Yorktown Hgts. BB is already going into debunking mode.

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    2. If one is not a debunker, is one is an enabler? When I was a kid, I saw a UFO hit Nicolai's house down the street. Awsome; green orb with an orange
      tail. Newspaper reported a meteor the next day and
      Nicolai's slept through with no damage reported. In
      HS, a bunch of us were walking along the beaverpond
      on Otter Creek east of town, we got scared when we
      saw three lights way up in the sky, slowly moving along. Some sirens started up in town, a deer crashed through the woods and a beaver slapped up
      the pond. We got ourselves into a real tither. Later, the fraternity at the college sent up some
      helium balloons with luminaries. Some sort of initiation (having been banned from painting the school colors on the genitals of the statue of Mercury in front of the student center for once).
      So a dozen or so weird bobbing lights headed up
      river and over downtown. Cause almost as much an
      uproar as when the HS homecoming riot of 1956.
      But never been kidnapped by grey skinny creatures with huge luminous eyes and zipped off to the planet of the cone heads. Thankfully.

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    3. When a group of aliens give you a colonoscopy then you'll believe.

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    4. Gee, I think Dr. Detweiler falls into that category.
      Was talking to a biologist for the Nez Perce Tribe this morning and got on the subject of Sasquatch. He said many native Americans strongly believe in its existence. That got be thinking about tribal culture and the evolutionary aspects of the old 'Primitive brain'- the amygdala. We note:
      "..philosophers have tried to use reason to convince us that emotion must be controlled by reason; however, emulation and blind acceptance,
      not reason, are the primary processes by which our neocortex circuitry is shaped during our formative years to inculcate in us their beliefs, to protect us from life's anxieties and to help us avoid reptilian (sinful) behavior. Finally, the chapter suggests that our history shows the uneasy balance between our amygdalae and prefrontal lobes has been responsible for myths and our philosophies, religion and science and is the possible source of the paradox represented by Newton's fascination with
      the Apocalypse, Kepler's belief in witchcraft and Hawking's reference to 'the mind of God' "
      -The Biology of Belief, Joseph Giovannoli
      ...if you believe in Voodoo, a curse can kill you.
      If you don't, the curse won't even give you the sniffles -Observations in Old Age, BB-Idaho

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    5. When the subject is esoteric/paranormal I begin with skepticism as you said. Always come up with logical explanations and if these fail admit of other possibilities. Sometimes debunking can become a habit and a sign of a closed mind (the need to debunk). This is how the Church does it when a candidate is up for sainthood.

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    6. IMO Sasquatch is debunking itself. You'd think lo these 200-300+ years some poor old Sasquatch would die and some wanderer or hunter would find the carcass in the woods. The Bigfoot craze has seen a resurgence though for some reason. A Trump presidency is too painful I guess.

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