Vegetarin Diet and Vegan Diet

My wife and I stopped eating meat last August. She went completely Vegan, and I am a Pesca-Vegetarian (still eat fish, so far), and the results have been incredible. My wife had been trying to talk me into this for the longest time, but I could never imagine giving up red meat, chicken, or pork. Then I watched a video on an Empirical study based on the China Study. I am only mentioning the "Forks over Knives" video because it is what changed my mind about eating animal meat, permanently. I believe you can find it free, borrow it from a friend, or just read about the study on-line, but after that there is nothing to buy (besides changing to a whole food and grain diet) and it is life changing. Again, I am not selling anything and have nothing to gain by telling you about this irrefutable evidence on what our body needs, and does not need. 45 pounds just fell off my body with little to no exercise, and my wife dropped 50 pounds. We just started an exercise program at a local gym and we feel wonderful. No more heartburn, indigestion, or blotchy skin. I am 56 and my wife is 44, and I have not felt this good in 20 years. I just wanted to share this because it is for everybody. #1 question from everyone is how do you get your protein? Answer: Beans, rice, baby spinach, green vegetables, peanut butter, legumes, quinoa, tempeh, seitan, tofu, and the list goes on. I recently posted a picture on my Facebook; it is a picture of a gorilla and he is "saying", "I am a Vegan, ask me how I get my protein". That says it all! It amazes me how foreign this concept is to most; even spell check cannot find seitan and tempeh. Along with Tofu (use firm) you can flavor the wheat proteins however you want to work as a substitute for any meat dishes you like. It has been fun learning a whole new way to cook and find our nutrition, and now we are hitting the gym to tone up and stay strong. For you skeptics and "gorillas" out there, check out Body Builder Billy Simmonds, and he will dispel all the myths for you. Again, I do not know Billy and there is nothing to sell. All you have to do is start changing your grocery store purchases to healthier food. I had to share because this could save your life. Still not convinced? You can watch Sanjay Gupta's "The Last Heart Attack" for free on You Tube. Find out what many doctors do not want you to know. Coronary bypass is big business! Peace and stay strong!

Sheriff Joe Reveals His True Self

Sheriff Joe Arpaio called the Feds investigating him "President Obama and his band of merry men". That would make the President Robin Hood, and, by his own admittance, Arpaio is the evil, and corrupt Sheriff of Nottingham!

Tea Party Express is Way Off Track

I understand the frustration of U.S. citizens with the state of our economy, unemployment, failing infrastructure, and Congress. I do not understand how many think it can all be fixed yesterday by keeping tax cuts for the rich, throwing out Hispanic immigrants, and most of all, by the Tea Party. The Tea Party is an all too predictable non-solution to a plethora of problems that have manifested themselves over several years, and are due to neglect and criminal behavior by our "leaders" and big corporations. So should we just replace the perpetrators of this malice with a bunch of misinformed, misled, impulsive altruists, who will be re-inventing the wheel with a bad plan?!
All you have to do is look at the ranting of Christine O'Donnell, or Sarah Palin's past half-baked comments to get a taste of the chaos that would ensue if they were to take power. A more recent example was last Friday night on the Bill Maher show when he paneled the editor of bigjournalism.com and co-founder of the St. Louis Tea Party, Dana Loesch. Her statements of the "facts" that the Democratic Party was the ruling majority for the last 4 years of the Bush administration (it was the last two), the corporate bailout cost more than the War in Iraq (the bailout, which has all but been paid back, totaled far less than the costly, ill-advised war), and that the new health-care plan will cost us 1 trillion dollars (a plan that pays for itself)is proof that they are just reciting the claims of the right and really have no voice of their own. When she said a "huge" amount of black conservatives are now stepping forward, it almost made the rest of the panel fall out of their seats with laughter. When asked "where are they" by John Legend and Al Sharpton she named them all in about 15 seconds. I commend Ms. Loesch for going on this Democratic friendly talk forum, but she made it clear why many "Tea Partiers" before her have wisely declined rather than display their inept policies and poor grasp on the issues and history.
I agree with their basic premise of cutting waste in government and ending cronyism, but the fact is they do not know what they are doing, saying, or how to get us where we want to be. They are just screaming for results without any answers. Please do not fall prey to this knee-jerk political power grab by a bunch of novice legislators. We voted for change and gave the Democrats the power to make it. Rome was not built in a day, and the catastrophic policies of the Bush Administration, and the Republican Congress that was in charge for 6 of those 8 years, will not be overcome in less than 2 years. Do not panic! Let them finish what they have started. We do not want to go back where we just were, or worse.

Note to Congress: Trickle Down Economics is not Working for U.S.

The "Trickle Down Economics" theory has been tried before and has always failed the economically lower 80% of the population. Now Congress is trying to convince the American people that it is a valid solution again. How has that solution been working for us since 2001? Fat cat congressmen and their wealthy friends tell us that by continuing the Bush tax cuts for the rich that the money they pocket will somehow trickle down to the middle-class and the poor. Proponents claim that if the top income earners invest more into the business infrastructure and equity markets, it will in turn lead to more goods at lower prices, and create more jobs for middle and lower class individuals. Also known as the "Horse and Sparrow" theory in the late 1800's using the analogy if you fed the horse more oats, the sparrow would find more food in the horse's dung! Some claim this led to "The Panic" of 1896. Reaganomics, Supply Side Economics, or Keynesian economics, they all have the same result; the rich get richer, and the middle class and poor get the dung. If you remember the TV show "All in the Family" and it's Republican-minded main character Archie Bunker, you may remember he mistakenly, but more appropriately, would call it Nixon's "Tinkle Down Theory", which was supported by his hero and Republican President, Richard Millhouse Nixon.

Let's face it, the rich are holding onto their money in these unstable economic times, and the middle-class and poor have a lot less. We are in an economic stale-mate, and the middle-class, which set or country apart from the rest and made America the great nation it was, is disappearing. We are becoming a nation more like China, Saudi Arabia, and the nations of Africa. The upper 3% controls 80% of the wealth in the U.S., and the comical part is 20% of the people think they are in the upper 3%. I do not think the lower 80% are so delusional. If you want to see the money start to flow again, put it in the hands of the ones that spend it on groceries, to keep a roof over their heads, and buy the goods that keep small businesses thriving. President Obama is only trying to get taxes on the rich back to the levels they were in the 1990's! Back before the Bush tax cuts for the rich in 2001. Remember the Clinton years? We need to get rid of the loopholes and implement a flat tax in the long run, but for now the rich need to pay their fair share. We need to quit balancing the nation's budgets on the backs of the working people of this country.

It would be funnier if it were not so true.

Let's get off the illegal immigration merry-go-round once and for all

Why do illegal immigrants come to the U.S. risking life and limb to be treated like sub-humans? Answer: The majority of them come because they can make ten times the amount of money here in half the time that it would take them in Mexico, Guatemala, Costa Rica, and as far away as South America. I think any American faced with the same alternatives would be doing the same thing. Higher paying jobs are the main attraction. Who provides these jobs? Answer: American businesses, small and large provide the incentive for them to make the treacherous, but lucrative journey. So how do we stop illegal immigration, or at least reduce the influx to next to nothing? Answer: Stop providing the illegal jobs which are the incentive for their migration north. Another alternative would be to help make Mexico a more vital nation that can provide jobs and salaries comparable to ours, but let's ignore that option as unobtainable for now, and focus on our current problem. After all we are not going to turn Mexico into Canada overnight. Have you ever noticed that we have no walls on our Northern border, which is over twice the length of the border to the South, and the border patrol is a fraction of the size?

So after years of living with the illegal immigrants from the South, they have become a vital part of our economy. If we could just throw all of them out of the country then our problems would be solved, right? Wrong, the problems we are having with our economy would be compounded to such a degree that we might get the full blown depression we barely escaped. The businesses that exist due to the hard work of these illegal laborers would go under, big and small. So we put up more walls, hire more border patrol agents, call out for the National Guard, and kick, scream, and cry for our politicians to do something. For the National Guard to even slow illegal immigration, soldiers would have to stand hand-in-hand along the border, and even that would not stop it.

We blame our federal government for not doing what it takes. Our state government says they are finally going to do something to quiet the angry mob, so they put a band-aid on the problem, like a tourniquet on a severed carotid artery, it will only exasperate the problem, and fix nothing. If SB1070 goes into effect, the lawsuits that will follow will tax our already weak economy along with the loss of revenue from tourism in our state. The only people that will want to come here will be skin-heads, white supremacists, and tea baggers without a clue. We already have enough of them, and their trailers camped out in the desert will hardly replace the millions we get from conventions. Then after numerous racial profiling lawsuits against the state of Arizona, the Supreme Court will strike it down for what it is, un-Constitutional. What a waste of time, energy, and money.

How would real immigration legislation work? I give way to the words and ideas of political analyst, and activist, Robert Creamer, who says, "It would do so through a combination of smart and effective border enforcement, a crackdown on illegal hiring and unfair labor practices, modernizing the legal immigration system, and requiring those here illegally to register with the government, pass background checks, study English, pay taxes, and get in line to work towards citizenship." We already have the border enforcement which will be more effective if we can slow the flood of people down to a trickle. I think most immigrants would stand in line to register and get legal work permits, pay their due taxes for services rendered, and a lot of them would get in line to work towards citizenship.

So where is the sticking point? What is stopping this plan from being implemented and working? There are two major components; the ignorant, racists, and an opportunistic lobby that call this path to citizenship, amnesty, to protect their clients. They are part of it, but the biggest problem lies in the employers of these immigrants. I know some will say we have the toughest employer sanctions in the country in place. What good are these laws when no one enforces them? Besides a well publicized raid by our narcissistic Sheriff Joe Arpaio once every couple of months on an easy target, the vast majority of these employers go unpunished, and the problem continues. Now can you see the merry-go-round we are on, and have been on for a long time?! Business men need this cheap labor to continue to make higher profits, and avoid the cost of documentation, benefits, and the distribution of taxes. They are willing to spend the money to control the legislatures, federal and state, with donations and lobbyists. Meaning it is more profitable. Then the legislatures appropriately extol the virtues, and sanctity of businesses, and how they are the life blood of our country and economy. Then the two get together and tell US we need higher walls, more troops, SB1070, and keep us going around in circles while they profit, and nothing really gets fixed because they really do not want things to change! Do you really think Senators Jon Kyl and John McCain are going to get anything done that fixes the problem? I think it would have happened already. Instead they will bluster and blow rhetoric, while telling the angry masses what they want to hear so they can hold on to their lucrative power, and get re-elected. Then they will go back to Washington and bluster and blow to Congress about how something needs to be done, and after all of that posturing NOTHING will be realized from this show, except the status quo. Jan Brewer is not trying to fix the problem. As a journeyman politician she is catering to the loud, angry mob so she can actually be elected to a post for which she is not worthy. This is desperation politics that does nothing to help us, gets nothing solved, and keeps us chasing our tails.

I endorse Robert Creamer's solution, it is viable, and the key piece to making it all work would be bio-metric identification. This is a card the size of your driver's license that would carry every important piece of information about you from medical records, to citizenship on a micro-chip that is easily read by a scanner. A policeman can see if you are here illegally in a moment. Medical personnel would know your history in an emergency whether you could speak for yourself, or not. Stealing your identity would be next to impossible, protecting your vital financial information, and protecting your assets. Why don't we have these already since the technology has been around for a while? Because there are people afraid of the Big Brother bogey man who claim our rights will be trampled by this invasion into our privacy. A lot are the same people that want immigration "fixed", and are loud enough, and angry enough of a mob, to unknowingly support the people that are really against this technology. The technology that can makes the immigration problem solvable, and the solution possible, is not really acceptable to the people in control.

Americans should be the masters to which the Supreme Court serves

Is our Supreme Court partisan?! I thought they ruled by interpretation of the law, not along political lines. They recently dismantled the McCain-Feingold bill, and upended 100 years of political campaign contribution regulations. They voted 5-4; with the 5 votes awarding corporations and unions to openly contribute to political campaigns with no restrictions on the dollar amounts, coming from the "conservative" justices, Kennedy, Thomas, Roberts, Alito and Scalia. Justice Anthony M. Kennedy wrote, "If the First Amendment has any force" while defending his broad interpretation of the right to free speech, in justifying his vote. The loudest dissenter of the 4 justices voting against the ruling was Justice John Paul Stevens, the most conservative of the 4, "liberal" justices which included, Ginsburg, Breyer and Sotomayor; he called it "profoundly misguided." Justice Kennedy also said that there was, "No basis for allowing government to limit corporate independent expenditures." Stevens countered with, "In the context of election to public office the distinction between corporate and human speakers is significant. Although they make enormous contributions to our society, corporations are not actually members of it."

How does this happen when for the last 100 years, the last 20 years in particular, the law has focused on regulation of corporate campaign contributions? The approving justices argue that the people control the actions of their respective corporate employers and unions with their voices, therefore their word will be heard louder and clearer. I can see this being slightly true when it comes to unions, but thinking the employee of large corporations has any voice heard by the decision makers of the company is naive at best. In the case of unions, yes the member has a vote, but if the union has its own agenda, the member has little choice but to go along, or quit. There are few people these days that can get out of the union without losing their jobs, or can afford to just quit their job because the union did not listen to them. Teddy Roosevelt was the first President to recognize the negative influence corporations could have on our Democratic process, and started the regulation process, he said:

"Limitless corporate spending...is one of the principle sources of political corruption...not one (special interest, corporate) voice is entitled to a vote in Congress, on the bench, or any representation in any public office."

Now after over 100 years of attempting to put a cap on the powerful, and biased influence of corporations, special interest, and unions, 5 of the people appointed to protect our rights, and uphold the law, as interpreted by our Constitution, have chosen to go against decisions made over a long period of time by very intelligent people on both sides of the aisle, and the experts that guide their decisions. President Obama called it, “a major victory for big oil, Wall Street banks, health insurance companies and the other powerful interests that marshal their power every day in Washington to drown out the voices of everyday Americans.”

What could these 5 have been thinking? Obviously they had an agenda, and obligation to fill that went against all common sense, and popular thought that served the people and benefited Americans, but was very profitable for the real power they serve, big business. To accomplish this they interpreted the First Amendment to equate financial contributions with free speech. A very Capitalistic interpretation of Democratic law in which to hand the main influence on our future over to the very people that lied, stole, and misrepresented themselves to US all, for direct profit and gain for themselves, and to the detriment of the American people and our Republic. The money these entities contribute to campaigns influences our elected officials, and prove to be a much louder voice, canceling the vote of the American citizen. These funds give special interest a voice in Congress that they are not entitled to by any interpretation of our Constitution. There will be huge, unregulated caches of money used to spread the propaganda of for-profit operations against the fiscally handicapped non-profit operations that work for US and protect our rights against the perpetual assault on America's best interests by these opportunistic, selfish, and greedy enterprises. Large corporations only employ 20% of the work force. Why should they have the lion's share of the influence on the laws meant to protect all of us? This will result in the further devaluation of each Americans vote, and the apathy that follows, resulting in lower voter turnout.

It is a logical and proven fact that the lower the voter turnout during election time, the less the will of the people is served. It also results in a higher number of Republicans taking office over their Democratic opponents. Now you know the masters our Supreme Court really serves.