Marc

Facebook no more!

 Life, Off Topic  12 Responses »
Apr 192012
 

I just don’t get it anymore. Not sure why I ever did, but I did, and now I’m done.

I’ve just grown tired of all the lame posts, all the posts informing me of where everyone is, and what they’re doing at every given moment of every day, the constant game requests, and especially the idiotic [and very annoying] repost requests.

Why do I need to subject myself to all that useless information. If you want me to meet you somewhere, to join in with whatever you’re doing, or you want to play a game, give me a call on the phone. I have one of those smart phones that I carry around with me constantly [for some other unknown reason].

So I’ve deactivated my Facebook account. I may come back. Who knows? I might find it important or even necessary, although I can’t imagine why, but I did say I was going to stop blogging, and you see how well that worked out.

I just wonder how many people will notice, or even care?

You can’t legislate morality!

 Health Care, Philosophy, Politics  3 Responses »
Apr 132012
 

You’d think yesterday’s death of a police chief, 8 days from retirement in New Hampshire, would finally shock everyone to that reality [although I doubt it], and realize what a colossal waste of lives and resources the war on drugs has been for this country.

Resources that would be better spent insuring everyone in this country had easy access to high quality, reasonably priced health care.

We learned it in 1933, when congress finally repealed the 18th amendment which tried to prohibit the sale and use of alcohol, but did nothing more than lead to a near complete breakdown of law and authority, and expand the influence of organized crime, that to this very day still wreaks havoc and generates corruption at all levels of society.

So why can’t we learn it now? It’s still taught in school isn’t it? Why after 40+ years haven’t we figured out what a colossal waste of valuable resources and lives the war on drugs has been. While the breakdown of law and authority has not reached the levels encountered during prohibition, there is no mistaking the lives it has cost, nor the magnitude and scope of the influence spawned by the world wide cartels controlling the drug trade.

As long as the demand exists for drugs, which have been in existence since the beginning of time, there will always be those willing to fulfill that demand. They’re called entrepreneurs. Others prefer the term criminal, but whatever you want to call them, they’re simply businessmen, fulfilling a need of society.

I would think at least Republicans would be applauding these job creators, not trying to stifle them!

I hate Dr Oz

 General Health  4 Responses »
Apr 112012
 

I’ve always thought of him [and still do] as nothing more than a shill for the vitamin and supplement industry, promoting products that do nothing more than line the pockets of himself, and the industry that produces the products he is constantly touting.

I’m not even sure why I bother watching him, but I did so yesterday, and it just further solidified my position.

His first guest was a self appointed diet guru. He was providing information on how to eat healthier, and while some of the info may have had some merit, two bits of information stood out that I had a great deal of trouble with.

The first was adding sugar to vegetables, supposedly to make vegetables taste better, encouraging people to eat them more. While eating more vegetables is certainly good advice, I’m not so sure adding sugar is such a good idea. Sure it will make your vegetables taste better, but adding sugar to anything will make it taste better. And how much sugar is enough or too much? Where do you draw the line? He didn’t provide that information.

The second thing that got me, was about energy drinks. His contention was instead of drinking the energy drink, simply swish it around in your mouth, and then spit it out. This supposedly will trick your brain into thinking it’s receiving an energy boost from the sugar.

Now while it may trick your brain into thinking it received an energy boost from the sugar, I doubt very seriously it can trick your body into performing like it just received the energy boost it never received. Trust me as someone who has bonked before, when that happens, your body needs real energy, not an imagined one.

He then had some expert, I think from the Mayo Clinic, talking about the importance of antioxidants. The contention was you need to increase your intake of antioxidants to counter the effects of breathing. It was implied [at least I inferred] that oxygen molecules from the air you breathe attach to your DNA (or something like that) increasing your risk of cancer, and only by increasing your antioxidant intake can you counter those effects.

There was also some mention of increasing the effectiveness of your white cells, i.e. boosting your immune system, to fight disease. At that point I couldn’t take it anymore, and had to shut it off.

I hate repeating myself, but YOU CAN’T BOOST YOUR IMMUNE SYSTEM. And even if you could, you wouldn’t want to. How can you control what effect a boosted immune system will have? Will it start attacking your good cells, and forget about the bad cells? That’s exactly what cancer is, and I don’t think it’s a risk worth taking.

Certainly you need to eat a healthy, well balanced diet, something most of modern society doesn’t do. It’s the surest way to helping prevent diseases, obesity, etc. Just don’t waste your money on vitamins and supplements you don’t need, and won’t do you any good, except maybe to cause the exact things you’re trying to prevent, and definitely lighten your pocketbook.

Instead, spend that money you’ve saved on a gym membership, new running shoes, or even a new bike, and get out and exercise more. You’ll find that a lot more beneficial.

Just my opinion!

 

10 surprising steps to staying cancer free

 General Health, Life  No Responses »
Apr 042012
 

Whenever I come across articles such as this one I’m intrigued. If only it were that simple. Exercise regularly, eat a healthy diet, get plenty of sunshine, and you’ll be healthy forever. The thing is, I already knew that, and it didn’t help.

Despite what you may hear or have heard, there is no magic formula! You can no more prevent cancer than you can boost your immune system. Maybe you can delay the inevitable, but truth be told, if you live long enough, you’re going to get cancer.

Then there’s the two biggest factors contributing to cancer, the environment, and your heritage. Two items you have little, if any, control over. It’s been pretty well established, if your parents lived to be 100, you’ll likely do the same.  Of course living in a polluted environment has been known to cancel that out.

So while there’s nothing much new in this article, and there’s at least one step I have a problem with, i.e. talk to your doctor about the benefits of taking a statin drug, I had some time on my hands, and there were two items included that I have stressed repeatedly since my diagnosis, which I felt were worth repeating.

The first being,

Ditch the vitamins and supplements. Unless you’re addressing a confirmed vitamin deficiency, are considering pregnancy or are already pregnant, you can steer clear of multivitamins and save money without sacrificing your health, …………..

I still contend, all the hype surrounding the taking of vitamins and supplements is nothing more than a well designed scam to separate you from your money. I’m also of the belief, it was the taking of various vitamins and supplements, during my life, that contributed to my diagnosis. You can get all the vitamins you need naturally, simply by eating a well balanced, nutritional diet.

And the second most important thing is to

Get an annual flu shot. Having the flu triggers inflammation, which can set the body up for serious problems when it’s most vulnerable, he says. The flu vaccine, …….., helps the body tone down its harsh immune response. “I want [people] to think of a flu shot in terms of not just what it means today but a decade from now,” ……

Even if you don’t want to do it for yourself, at least do it for others, so there’s less likelihood you’ll pass along the flu to unsuspecting friends and relatives, and especially those with compromised immune systems.

I’ll also add to drink lots of green tea, and get lots of sunshine! Just be careful not to burn. Remember, you can’t overdose on Vitamin D from the sun, but you can from a supplement.

A few quick thoughts

 My MCL, Philosophy, Politics  4 Responses »
Mar 302012
 

I had a few moments, so I thought I’d share a few thoughts that were on my mind this morning (for whatever reason), as I contemplated the ten years since my diagnosis with MCL.

How is it possible I’ve managed to survive all this time without ever having received any treatment, and so many others have not? Am I so unique? Are there others who have gone as long or longer? I sure would like to know.

Everybody has good moments and bad moments, but it’s the ability to learn from those bad moments, and not dwell on them, that separates greatness from not so great.

And finally, with all the talk about the Supreme Courts deliberations over the Affordable Care Act (AKA Obamacare), I was wondering. Why is it unconstitutional to force people to purchase health insurance, yet not unconstitutional to force health care providers to provide free health care to individuals in cases of emergency (reference the EMTALA)? Is it because emergency room care isn’t health care, as someone recently told me?

Sorry! But you should all should know by now I can’t resist the occasional political rant. I just find that not as easy to walk away from as I would hope. :)

 

 Posted by at 7:04 am  Tagged with:

The law of supply and demand

 Politics  3 Responses »
Mar 262012
 

For anyone who is of the misguided belief the US government has any more control over gasoline and oil prices than they have over other commodities, allow me to introduce you to the little known concept of supply and demand.

It sort of goes like this. When demand exceeds supply, prices go up, and companies increase production to fill the void. When the opposite is true, and supply exceeds demand, prices fall, and companies cut back on production.

Eventually a point of equilibrium is reached, and prices stabilize. It’s a simple concept, and it’s what free market economics is based upon. It’s what drives businesses to expand or contract, to invest or divest.

So why is it so many people have a hard time grasping that concept when it comes to energy prices? What makes people think we can just tell large, independent, global, multinational corporations, such as Exxon-Mobil, BP etc. to drill for more oil in the US (without considering supply/demand dynamics), and they will immediately cede to our requests? Do they think these large, independent, global, multinational corporations will do that out of the goodness of their hearts?

Get real! Oil is a global commodity, controlled by the large, independent, global, multinational corporations. It’s shipped all over the world. Transferred from country to country. Oil from from Saudi Arabia, and other middle eastern countries is shipped to North America, and in turn, oil produced in the US is shipped to China, Japan, and all points west to fill demand. The concerns of the US do not trump those of the rest of the world.

Even if we opened up every available inch of land to drilling, and required the large, global, independent, multinational corporations to increase drilling in the US [forget free markets], with the intent of reducing our dependency on foreign oil, don’t be of the illusion that will lead to an over supply, and a decrease in the price of oil in the US. The greater likelihood is prices will increase as a result, because supply will have to be reduced elsewhere (to keep supply and demand in equilibrium), and it’s more difficult and expensive to produce oil in the US.

And how do you suppose those countries, where oil production would have to be cut back, would react to such an independent action by the US? Countries were, for many, oil production is their sole source of revenue.

And besides, why would we want that? Why would the population of the US want the increased pollution, and lower quality of life, associated with expanded oil production, when there are far cheaper, and more plentiful alternatives available?

It makes no sense to me, but who am I to tell the people of Texas, Oklahoma, the Gulf coast, etc. not to destroy their environments and quality of life, in the misguided attempt to save a few bucks.

No, our best interests continue to lie in reducing our dependency on fossil fuels altogether, regardless of where they come from, and switch to renewable energy sources.

Not only will it be good for the environment, but it will also be good for the US economy, not to mention reducing our dependency on countries [and corporations] that don’t have our best interests at heart.

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