The Tao of Politics

One of my main concerns is: how can I make a difference? There are thousands of political blogs out there. It’s easy to get lost in that ocean. So I may blog about politics on occasion, or I may blog about health issues, depending on where my interests lead me, and where I feel I can contribute something of significance.

Saturday, September 30, 2006

I think Captain Tammy Duckworth, Army veteran and candidate for Congress said it best: "Instead of a plan or a strategy, we get shallow slogans like 'mission accomplished' and 'stay the course.'" Thank God we have patriots like her who can speak truth to power, and who actually have credibility.

Here’s a good article on how foods can help fight disease. Eating lots of vegetables may lower your risk of developing lymphoma. Maybe we also need an article on how foods can actually make us sick.

Pecans may inhibit oxidation in the blood vessels and lower risk of heart disease. They also contain a lot of vitamin E, phytonutrients, and unsaturated fats. Pistachios, however, have the highest percentage of monounsaturated fats, and are actually part of a Mediterranean diet.

We reported some time ago that omega-6 fatty acids promote the growth of prostate tumors. These fatty acids are found in abundance in an American diet, mostly in the oils we use, like corn oil. Here is an article that discusses how increasing omega-3s and decreasing omega-6s actually reduce growth rate of prostate tumors.

This article rates the twenty most popular diet web sites. Aetna InteliHealth, MayoClinic.com, and MedicineNet.com are supposedly the top three. I would be careful, however, using a web site wherein you have to input personal medical information, particularly those sites operated by insurance companies. I fear that your personal information can be used to make decisions on whether to deny coverage, how much coverage you receive, and on how much premiums cost.

Listen to my song, Get the Hell out of Iraq. (See lyrics here.)




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NOW AVAILABLE

As reviewed by Miss Cellania, you now get four books in one volume, including, for the first time in print, The Tao of America. Click here for more information about this volume, including excerpts.

The Tao of Politics Anthology, now available as e-book (only $6.00), or as paperback.

Also check here for The Tao of Love. And for a good time, anytime, visit Miss Cellania online.

Friday, September 29, 2006

A lot of people are trying to blame President Clinton for 9/11. A lot of people are trying to blame President Bush. A review in the New York Times of Bob Woodward’s new book, State of Denial, says, “in the weeks before the Sept. 11 attacks, Mr. Tenet believed that Mr. Rumsfeld was impeding the effort to develop a coherent strategy to capture or kill Osama bin Laden.” Did you read that? Impeding! It then goes on to say, “On July 10, 2001, the book says, Mr. Tenet and his counterterrorism chief, J. Cofer Black, met with Ms. Rice at the White House to impress upon her the seriousness of the intelligence the agency was collecting about an impending attack. But both men came away from the meeting feeling that Ms. Rice had not taken the warnings seriously.” Warnings not taken seriously! Sounds to me like there is plenty of blame to go around. How does Bush keep getting elected, and keep pushing his agenda when books like this exist? Does the country have its head in the sand? Will Bush’s winning streak continue on November 7? Let us hope not.


Listen to my song, Get the Hell out of Iraq. (See lyrics here.)




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NOW AVAILABLE

As reviewed by Miss Cellania, you now get four books in one volume, including, for the first time in print, The Tao of America. Click here for more information about this volume, including excerpts.

The Tao of Politics Anthology, now available as e-book (only $6.00), or as paperback.

Also check here for The Tao of Love. And for a good time, anytime, visit Miss Cellania online.

Thursday, September 28, 2006

Wow. George War Bush’s approval rating in New Jersey is 30 percent. How low can you go? I’m thinking Menendez is going to hold his Blue Senate seat.

Are you following the midterm races? Here is a pretty good site. I think we have a reasonable chance to regain the Senate.

I couldn’t believe this the other day when I read it: 100 million Chinese people are mentally ill. (No jokes, please.) That’s like 1 in 13. That is a lot, isn’t it? Well, in North America about 1 in 4 adults will suffer from mental illness in a given year. Jeez. Thank God for Prozac.

Red wine has been shown to slow Alzheimer’s disease in mice. Does that mean it works in humans? What is it about the red wine that works? Is it the resveratrol? The antioxidants? It’s not the alcohol because the control group that drank just alcohol did not display the benefits same benefits as the wine group did. Of course, slowing Alzheimer’s is not the same as stopping it, preventing it, or reversing it, so there is still plenty of work to be done in this field.

BTW, I am so glad that NYC may ban trans fats from all its restaurants. Everything I read indicates that trans fats are really bad for us, and sometimes people need to be protected from themselves. It has happened before. We stopped using DDT didn't we? It was bad for us. Good for NYC.

Ten rules for a healthy diet? Start by losing weight, cut saturated fats, increase the other fats (mono-, polyunsaturated), cut cholesterol, increase fiber, cut sugar and salt, eat variety of foods, drink alcohol only in moderation, and drink lots of water.


Listen to my song, Get the Hell out of Iraq. (See lyrics here.)



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NOW AVAILABLE

As reviewed by Miss Cellania, you now get four books in one volume, including, for the first time in print, The Tao of America. Click here for more information about this volume, including excerpts.

The Tao of Politics Anthology, now available as e-book (only $6.00), or as paperback.

Also check here for The Tao of Love. And for a good time, anytime, visit Miss Cellania online.

Wednesday, September 27, 2006

I don’t want to get into a whole big thing about the brouhaha raging these days in Washington over who is to blame for 9/11, Clinton or Bush. But there is some misinformation circulating out there to which someone needs to respond. The major assertion from the right is that the Clinton administration did not give a comprehensive plan to the Bush administration for fighting al Qaeda. This assertion could revolve around semantics. One person’s comprehensive plan may not be comprehensive in another person’s eyes. But the 9/11 Commission Report, on page 197, says:

As the Clinton administration drew to a close, Clarke and his staff developed a policy paper of their own, the first such comprehensive effort since the Delenda plan of 1998.The resulting paper, entitled “Strategy for Eliminating the Threat from the Jihadist Networks of al Qida: Status and Prospects,” reviewed the threat and the record to date, incorporated the CIA’s new ideas from the Blue Sky memo, and posed several near-term policy options.
Then on page 201:

Within the first few days after Bush’s inauguration, Clarke approached Rice in an effort to get her—and the new President—to give terrorism very high priority and to act on the agenda that he had pushed during the last few months of the previous administration. After Rice requested that all senior staff identify desirable major policy reviews or initiatives, Clarke submitted an elaborate memorandum on January 25, 2001. He attached to it his 1998 Delenda Plan and the December 2000 strategy paper. “We urgently need . . . a Principals level review on the al Qida network,” Clarke wrote.
So there was a plan that was delivered to the new Bush administration, and it was comprehensive, whether or not it was comprehensive enough for Dr. Rice. So don’t tell us you didn’t receive a plan. That is just plainly contradicted by the 9/11 Commission Report.

What seems to me to be a likely explanation for what occurred in early 2001 is this:

Some counterterrorism officials think the new administration responds slowly simply because Clarke’s proposal originally came from the Clinton administration. [Time, 8/4/2002] For instance, Thomas Maertenson, on the National Security Council in both the Clinton and Bush administrations, says, “They really believed their campaign rhetoric about the Clinton administration. So anything [that administration] did was bad, and the Bushies were not going to repeat it.” [New York Times, 3/24/2004; Star-Tribune (Minneapolis), 3/25/2004]
If that is true, then that is truly regrettable. The new Bush administration appeared to be more concerned about playing petty politics than is was about protecting our country. I might argue that their approach has not changed in 5+ years.





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NOW AVAILABLE

As reviewed by Miss Cellania, you now get four books in one volume, including, for the first time in print, The Tao of America. Click here for more information about this volume, including excerpts.

The Tao of Politics Anthology, now available as e-book (only $6.00), or as paperback.

Also check here for The Tao of Love. And for a good time, anytime, visit Miss Cellania online.

Monday, September 25, 2006

All the rightwingers are bent out of shape over the National Intelligence Estimate which says that the Iraq war has increased the terrorist threat. They’re running around screaming that the terrorists wanted to kill us before we were in Iraq, so all this is nothing new. No one is disputing that the terrorists hated us before 2003. All the National Intelligence Estimate is saying, I think, is that the terrorists hate us more now that we are in Iraq; because we are in Iraq there are more terrorists out there to hate us; and because we are in Iraq, the risk of being hit by an act of terrorism is greater. Rightwingers are good at changing the subject, coming up with excuses for their failed policies, delivering rationales for why they're not to blame for the sorry state of things, and deflecting criticism. What they are not good at is taking responsibility for their stupid actions.


It looks like George Allen’s campaign for re-election is self-destructing. They were talking about this on one of the Sunday news programs yesterday, and that was before this latest story about Allen’s alleged use of the “N-word.” All these recent controversies have gotten Allen off message, and he is playing defense, a situation that no candidate wants to be in. The only problem, from a Blue point of view, is that there are six more weeks left in the campaign. In that amount of time anything can happen, so we can’t put this seat in the Democratic column yet, but I am very hopeful.

Listen to my song, Get the Hell out of Iraq. (See lyrics here.)


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NOW AVAILABLE

As reviewed by Miss Cellania, you now get four books in one volume, including, for the first time in print, The Tao of America. Click here for more information about this volume, including excerpts.

The Tao of Politics Anthology, now available as e-book (only $6.00), or as paperback.

Also check here for The Tao of Love. And for a good time, anytime, visit Miss Cellania online.

Sunday, September 24, 2006

Has everyone forgotten that in 2001 Bush and his cohorts came into office trying to resurrect the Star Wars program? That, to me, is one of the main reasons 9/11 happened. It seems to me that they deemphasized terrorism as a problem, when in fact it was a growing and imminent threat. They demoted Richard Clarke, a staunch anti-terrorism resource who had kept us safe under several administrations, both Democratic and Republican, and they tried to focus their attention on missile defense. Missile defense is useless, folks, when the terrorists are flying airplanes. The Bush administration was wrong about the threat of terrorism in 2001, just as they have been wrong about various other issues in the past 5+ years, including the threat posed by Saddam Hussein. We need some people in office who can get it right for a change.



Listen to my song, Get the Hell out of Iraq. (See lyrics here.)


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NOW AVAILABLE

As reviewed by Miss Cellania, you now get four books in one volume, including, for the first time in print, The Tao of America. Click here for more information about this volume, including excerpts.

The Tao of Politics Anthology, now available as e-book (only $6.00), or as paperback.

Also check here for The Tao of Love. And for a good time, anytime, visit Miss Cellania online.

Saturday, September 23, 2006

Political Note
You know, if Osama bin Laden is dead (news story) I don’t think it matters politically. I mean, we didn’t get him. Typhoid is supposed to be the culprit. If he’s dead, good. He should have been stopped sooner. The present administration certainly can’t take any credit. They dropped the ball at Tora Bora, then later stopped looking for him altogether. The world would truly be better off without bin Laden around. We would be safer, but still not safe. Other terrorists will arise in the future who still want to hurt us. Considering how the Republicans mishandled bin Laden, the country could use some different ideas about how to combat terrorism. We can accomplish that by electing Democrats in November.


Medical Note
Sorry but I don’t want anyone operating on my colon. That is why I don’t eat meat, and why I do eat a lot of fiber. New research, though, says that because so many young people don’t eat much fiber, they are now developing a disease of the digestive tract that is usually seen in much older people. If you don’t want anyone operating on your colon, I suggest that you too eat more fiber and less meat.

The above story points out a problem that I have been thinking about recently. If we eat an unhealthy diet, or unhealthy food, we often become unhealthy. But it doesn’t happen today or tomorrow. It often takes years and years for the effects of an unhealthy diet to become apparent. In the meantime we just stick our heads in the sand and continue eating an unhealthy diet. Something needs to be done about that. But it is hard to be heard when the major food producers spend billions offering us unhealthy choices. And if that was all that was happening it would be one thing, but while there are so many unhealthy choices out there, it is also very difficult to even find any healthy food, and something needs to be done about that.

Furthermore, while people are so concerned over E. coli in the spinach, and rightly so, it seems that they are not concerned about something like obesity that kills many more people each year. And I haven't even mentioned pesticides in the food. Are they safe? What is causing all these cancer deaths anyway? For me, I'd rather err on the side of caution. That's why I eat organic as much as possible.


Listen to my song, Get the Hell out of Iraq. (See lyrics here.)



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NOW AVAILABLE

As reviewed by Miss Cellania, you now get four books in one volume, including, for the first time in print, The Tao of America. Click here for more information about this volume, including excerpts.

The Tao of Politics Anthology, now available as e-book (only $6.00), or as paperback.

Also check here for The Tao of Love. And for a good time, anytime, visit Miss Cellania online.

Thursday, September 21, 2006

This clip from Countdown Tuesday night says that Bush may have ordered his troops to torture, which would be a crime. Isn’t there any accountability in Washington for those at the top?

Wow, this thing with the E. coli in the spinach is almost as bad as bioterrorism. Is anyone going to eat raw spinach anytime soon? Maybe not, and that is too bad, because as I reported earlier, salads have a lot of good nutrients.

The United States spends the most for medical care, but gets only mediocre care for its dollars.

Here is an article about the validity of using the Body Mass Index (BMI) scale to determine one’s desired weight.

“Our food is contaminated, our air is contaminated and our bodies are contaminated. Something is desperately wrong here, and we need to resolve the problem.” – Elizabeth Salter Green, WWF.

Listen to my song, Get the Hell out of Iraq. (See lyrics here.)



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NOW AVAILABLE

As reviewed by Miss Cellania, you now get four books in one volume, including, for the first time in print, The Tao of America. Click here for more information about this volume, including excerpts.

The Tao of Politics Anthology, now available as e-book (only $6.00), or as paperback.

Also check here for The Tao of Love. And for a good time, anytime, visit Miss Cellania online.

Wednesday, September 20, 2006

Pet Peeve Time
Yesterday I went to lunch, and when I got back in my car to leave, the battery was dead. Fortunately I called AAA, they came and gave me a new battery -- $100+. I was happy to get the battery and to be able to continue on my way relatively quickly – I am busy these days -- but the whole episode pissed me off to a certain extent. I bought the car new in December 2003. That was not even three years ago, and so far this is the SECOND battery I’ve had to replace. I don’t know why I’m going through so many batteries so fast. Are they poor quality to begin with? Is there something about the fact that even after I turn off the ignition and get out of the car, the interior lights stay on for what to me is an inordinately long period of time? If it was up to me the lights would go off when I get out of the car and close the door. I don’t like having the lights stay on like they do. That is a crazy way to design a car – I don’t care if it’s convenient for some people and helps them at night when they need to be able to find their way inside the house. If you need that much help, carry a flashlight, or do something about your outside house lights. (A neighbor of mine has lights along his driveway that are obviously solar powered, and they come on when the sun goes down.) This thing about the battery is just really awful, though. I just got through driving back from New Jersey a couple of days ago. Think about the inconvenience if I had gotten stuck with a dead battery while I was on the road somewhere, maybe in rural Maryland. Or what if the battery had died while I was stuck in all that traffic around the Delaware Turnpike? Give us better batteries. We’ll pay for them. Not everybody is lucky enough to have AAA, and not everybody can afford to replace their battery every few months.

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NOW AVAILABLE

As reviewed by Miss Cellania, you now get four books in one volume, including, for the first time in print, The Tao of America. Click here for more information about this volume, including excerpts.

The Tao of Politics Anthology, now available as e-book (only $6.00), or as paperback.

Also check here for The Tao of Love. And for a good time, anytime, visit Miss Cellania online.

Tuesday, September 19, 2006

Al Gore has suggested instituting a pollution tax, and eliminating the payroll tax. This idea may never gain traction, and I don’t really know what the impact of it would be if it did, but it is these kinds of ideas that the country needs. But with the reins of government in the hands of just one party, that effectively stifles ideas like these. Couldn’t we use some different ideas about our nation’s fiscal concerns? And couldn’t we use some different ideas about how to handle issues such as the situation in Iraq? Elect Democrats in the fall. They have different ideas.

BTW, President Bush’s approval rating has risen to 44 percent. Don’t let the Republicans pull this election out, folks. Get the message out. The truth will set us free. Donate to the cause – anything to stop the insanity.

300-600 IUs daily of Vitamin D, increasing depending on your age, but without retinol, reduce pancreatic cancer risk by 43%. Conversely, in a study of 88,000 nurses, those who took two or more aspirin per week for twenty years had a 58% greater risk of developing pancreatic cancer.


An article to be published in the November 2006 issue of the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease contends that restricting caloric intake may stop or reverse symptoms of the disease.

All the talk these days seems to be about tainted spinach and E. coli, but that shouldn’t make people stop eating raw vegetables. Research has found that those who eat salads have more nutrients in their blood than people who don’t. And the disparity is particularly great between whites and blacks, which is really too bad for the blacks.



Listen to my new song, Get the Hell out of Iraq. (See lyrics here.)



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NOW AVAILABLE

As reviewed by Miss Cellania, you now get four books in one volume, including, for the first time in print, The Tao of America. Click here for more information about this volume, including excerpts.

The Tao of Politics Anthology, now available as e-book (only $6.00), or as paperback.

Also check here for The Tao of Love. And for a good time, anytime, visit Miss Cellania online.

Monday, September 18, 2006

Recently we talked about the health benefits of green tea. The conclusion seemed to be that green tea helps against heart disease but not against cancer. This article contradicts that. In case you can’t access this article, here it is in full:


Anti-Cancer Compound in Green Tea Identified
Monday September 18, 2006 (1038 PST)


ISLAMABAD: Spanish and British scientists have discovered how green tea helps to prevent certain types of cancer.

Researchers at the University of Murcia in Spain (UMU) and the John Innes Center (JIC) in Norwich, England have shown that a compound called EGCG in green tea prevents cancer cells from growing by binding to a specific enzyme.

"We have shown for the first time that EGCG, which is present in green tea at relatively high concentrations, inhibits the enzyme dihydrofolate reductase (DHFR), which is a recognized, established target for anti-cancer drugs, " says Professor Roger Thorneley, of JIC.

"This is the first time, to our knowledge, a known target for an anti-cancer drug has been identified as being inhibited by EGCG," he added.

Green tea has about five times as much EGCG as regular tea, studies have shown. It decreased rates of certain cancers but scientists were not sure what compounds were involved or how they worked. Nor had they determined how much green tea a person would have to drink to have a beneficial effect, he said.

Thorneley said EGCG is probably just one of a number of anti-cancer mechanisms in green tea.

"We have identified this enzyme in tumour cells that EGCG targets and understand how it stops this enzyme from making DNA. This means we may be able to develop new anti-cancer drugs based on the structure of the EGCG molecule," Thorneley explained.

The scientists decided to look at ECGC after they realized its structure was similar to a cancer drug called methotrexate.

"We discovered that EGCG can kill cancer cells in the same way as methotrexate," Dr Jose Neptuno Rodriguez-Lopez, of UMU, a joint author of the research published in the journal Cancer Research.

EGCG binds strongly to DHFR, which is essential in both healthy and cancerous cells. But it does not bind as tightly as methotrexate, so its side effects on healthy cells could be less severe than those of the drug.

Thorneley said EGCG could be a lead compound for new anti-cancer drugs.

The findings could also explain why women who drink large amounts of green tea around the time they conceive and early in their pregnancy may have an increased risk of having a child with spina bifida or other neural tube disorders. Women are advised to take supplements of folic acid because it protects against spina bifida.

But large amounts of green tea could decrease the effectiveness of folic acid.
"This enzyme, (DHFR), is the one folic acid supplements are given for. Folic acid deficiency leads to neural tube development defects," Thorneley added.




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These are a couple of stories that my computer ate the other day on the way to publication:

About thirty percent of Americans are obese, according to an OECD report. In France, 9% are obese, and in Japan about 3% are obese.


Here is a very interesting article on Omega-6 fatty acids. Of course they are ubiquitous in our society because of the oils we use to cook. Omega-6 is not bad for us. In fact it is essential. Too many, however, might cancel out the beneficial effects of Omega-3 fatty acids, and that is bad. This is discussed in the book, The Queen of Fats, by Susan Allport.


Listen to my new song, Get the Hell out of Iraq. (See lyrics here.)


, , , , , ,



NOW AVAILABLE

As reviewed by Miss Cellania, you now get four books in one volume, including, for the first time in print, The Tao of America. Click here for more information about this volume, including excerpts.

The Tao of Politics Anthology, now available as e-book (only $6.00), or as paperback.

Also check here for The Tao of Love. And for a good time, anytime, visit Miss Cellania online.

Saturday, September 16, 2006

I know there’s supposed to be a controversy raging these days between the president and some members of Congress over strategies for interrogating detainees, but I’m just cynical enough to wonder if this is a real controversy or if it is an election year ploy dreamed up by Karl Rove, or some other politician. What makes me wonder that? I saw a poll the other day that 60% of the people disapprove of Congress and therefore are more likely to vote against Republicans in the fall. The problem therefore becomes, how do you get people to approve of the job Congress is doing and vote to keep them in the fall? One way to accomplish that might be to have Congress stand up to the president and SEEM like it is doing its job by providing checks, balances, and oversight for an unpopular president. I’m not saying that’s what is going on right now. And the way the current showdown is being spun in the media is that the GOP is divided, which might mean the ploy is backfiring if it is a ploy at all. See, I’m just afraid that the GOP is going to find some way to pull off the upcoming elections and retain control of Congress. I would be VERY disappointed if that happened, and I don’t want the American people to be fooled again and let them off the hook. Bush and his crowd have done a crummy job for six years and they need to leave now. The sooner the better.



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NOW AVAILABLE

As reviewed by Miss Cellania, you now get four books in one volume, including, for the first time in print, The Tao of America. Click here for more information about this volume, including excerpts.

The Tao of Politics Anthology, now available as e-book (only $6.00), or as paperback.

Also check here for The Tao of Love. And for a good time, anytime, visit Miss Cellania online.

Friday, September 15, 2006

One way to reduce blood pressure is to eat whole grain foods.


It’s hard to believe that Coke spent $2.2 billion in 2004 on advertising. McDonald’s spent $700 million. With this barrage of advertising, is it any wonder that advocates for healthy eating, who have much smaller budgets than these food giants do, cannot be heard about the din?


Here’s more research on the cancer-fighting compounds found in broccoli.


Drinks that contain ascorbic acid and sodium benzoate may therefore contain benzene which is a carcinogen. That means I’m going to toss that lemonade I have in the refrigerator. You never know where the bad stuff is lurking, folks, so you really have to be constantly on the alert and check your labels. I am really angry about this. I thought I was doing a good thing by drinking the lemonade. It turns out I may have been poisoning myself. Who do I sue?


Listen to my new song, Get the Hell out of Iraq. (See lyrics here.)




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NOW AVAILABLE

As reviewed by Miss Cellania, you now get four books in one volume, including, for the first time in print, The Tao of America. Click here for more information about this volume, including excerpts.

The Tao of Politics Anthology, now available as e-book (only $6.00), or as paperback.

Also check here for The Tao of Love. And for a good time, anytime, visit Miss Cellania online.

Thursday, September 14, 2006

There is a study that says that drinking 17+ ounces of green tea per day can lower the risk of heart disease in women by 31% and in men by 22%. Cool. I currently drink two cups of green tea daily, which equals about 16 ounces. (There was a sale on green tea at my grocery store recently, and I picked up like a dozen boxes at about half price. Awesome!) The only problem is that tea is a diuretic, so I have to increase my consumption of water to avoid getting dehydrated and having headaches, but c’est la vie. Oh, and apparently the green tea protection does not extend to cancer. Too bad, except to say that, if the green tea helps with cholesterol, then by extension it helps somewhat with cancer, because some diseases like prostate cancer are linked to high cholesterol. I learned this several years ago when I had to have a biopsy (no fun!) One of the things my doctor recommended was green tea. (There has been some discussion recently about green tea extract. I can’t seem to find a reference for it, but I think some recent studies were conducted using green tea extract, and I personally have taken it.)


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NOW AVAILABLE

As reviewed by Miss Cellania, you now get four books in one volume, including, for the first time in print, The Tao of America. Click here for more information about this volume, including excerpts.

The Tao of Politics Anthology, now available as e-book (only $6.00), or as paperback.

Also check here for The Tao of Love. And for a good time, anytime, visit Miss Cellania online.

Wednesday, September 13, 2006

I watched the President’s speech commemorating 9/11 on Monday night. I was struck by a particular passage:

“We are now in the early hours of this struggle between tyranny and freedom. Amid the violence, some question whether the people of the Middle East want their freedom, and whether the forces of moderation can prevail. For 60 years, these doubts guided our policies in the Middle East. And then, on a bright September morning, it became clear that the calm we saw in the Middle East was only a mirage. Years of pursuing stability to promote peace had left us with neither. So we changed our policies, and committed America's influence in the world to advancing freedom and democracy as the great alternatives to repression and radicalism.”

I found it particularly interesting when he described America’s policies in the Middle East then and now. In some ways I felt that he was rewriting history. He said nothing about the role that oil plays in the equation. The impression I have of the last 60 years is that we wanted Middle Eastern oil, and we were willing to look the other way in many instances in order to ensure a steady, cheap supply. In some ways that is what Bush said, adding that while the surface appeared calm, it was only a mirage. Nice image, and it is true that the calm was only a mirage, because really they hated our guts, to a large extent because of our policies; but did those doubts he spoke of really guide our policies, or did the availability of oil guide our policies? I rather believe it was the latter. In fact I think “pursuing stability to promote peace” could read, “pursuing stability to promote ready access to Middle Eastern oil.”

And he said nothing about three things: our using the Middle East as an object for our own purposes; the creeping Americanization of the Middle East; and our steadfast, often uncritical support for Israel. All of these factors, and many more I am sure, added fuel to the fires that have raged against us in recent years. And while we have now “committed America’s influence in the world to advancing freedom and democracy,” (that could read "pre-emptive war") is this really a new policy, or is it just a repackaging of the old policy? I mean, we have always been committed to pursuing our national interests in the Middle East. Now we are pursuing them with 140,000+ troops on the ground, and with blood flowing in the streets of Baghdad.

The president said “we changed our policies.” Have we really changed our policies? Have we stopped “pursuing stability to promote peace” as he said? What about Saudi Arabia? Are we trying to advance “freedom and democracy as the great alternatives to repression and radicalism” in Saudi Arabia? Since most of the 9/11 hijackers were Saudi, doesn’t it seem reasonable to think we might have focused some of our attention on that country? Have we? It seems reasonable to think we might have invaded Saudi Arabia instead of Iraq. You could make a good case that Saudi Arabia was a much bigger threat to us than Iraq was, particularly because we had actual evidence that something like twelve Saudis helped blow up the Twin Towers and the Pentagon, whereas I don’t think there was any evidence of Iraqi involvement.

Also, it seems that the spread of freedom in the Middle East has often resulted in democratically elected governments like the one we now have in Gaza. Good job.

When the president talks about the forces of moderation, he’s talking about the United States, right? And when he talks about tyranny, he’s talking about the terrorists, right? Just checking.

And if we have changed policies in the Middle East, ostensibly from seeking peace to seeking war, does that mean the next president to occupy the Oval Office will follow the same policies? I certainly hope not, and I know a Democrat won’t. Don’t you think something as important as a Middle East policy should have broader support than just among a bunch of neocons? Otherwise we have absolutely no continuity in foreign policy.

I really think that when someone tries to rewrite history, he or she should wait until all the people who remember that history are dead. And while they are trying to rewrite that history they should give us something other than the Cliff Notes version of it. Some citizens among us actually do a little thinking sometimes, and we might be offended by a president who offers up such a simplistic, myopic view of the world. I know some of us certainly were offended by a speech that often seemed to politicize an occasion like 9/11 that should have been non-political. Oh, and by the way, do the people in the Middle East want their freedom? I think the answer is yes, they want their freedom from the United States.


Listen to my new song, Get the Hell out of Iraq. (See lyrics here.)

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NOW AVAILABLE

As reviewed by Miss Cellania, you now get four books in one volume, including, for the first time in print, The Tao of America. Click here for more information about this volume, including excerpts.

The Tao of Politics Anthology, now available as e-book (only $6.00), or as paperback.

Also check here for The Tao of Love. And for a good time, anytime, visit Miss Cellania online.

Monday, September 11, 2006

9/11 Tribute
Alejandro Castano, 35, Englewood, N.J.





Much has been written about Alejandro Castano who died five years ago at the World Trade Center. Here are some resources where you can read previous tributes, some by people who actually know him and love him:


New York Times

CNN

September 11, 2001 Victims

United in Memory Quilt

9/11 Heroes


I don’t feel that I can really add anything to what has been said and written before, but I can remember Alejandro Castano on this day; we can all remember Alejandro; and I can offer this song, One Day in September, in remembrance and tribute. Alejandro, you are honored, remembered and loved. Forever.


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(Note: there were 2995 other victims on 9/11. You can read their stories and tributes at 2996, Honouring the 9/11 victims.)
Governor Mike Huckabee is a Republican, so I would probably never vote for him, but he has been doing something really great and he deserves credit. Apparently he has recently lost about 100 pounds, and he has begun an initiative in his home state of Arkansas to help his citizens lose weight and become healthier. The politicians in Washington could learn a lot from Mike Huckabee. With obesity reaching pandemic proportions, it’s good to see someone like Mike Huckabee, who has a great deal of visibility, take responsibility for his health, lose weight, and take the message of healthier living to the people. That message may be greeted with resistance at first, but eventually it may do a lot of good. And it’s a better message than just war, war, war, or tax cuts for the rich while the poor are getting poorer. It’s all about a happier, healthier life for all. Hats off to Governor Mike Huckabee of Arkansas.

In the past few days both George War Bush and Duck! Cheney have loudly and confidently said that the Republicans will retain control of Congress in the elections this fall. This is a political ploy. I remember in 2000 when Bush was not much on substance, but would often say that he was going to win. I’m not sure about all the details of this ploy, but I know it is a ploy, just like if you’re a politician you are supposed to ask for the vote – whenever speaking to a group of people, always say, “Please vote for me in November.” These are some ways of manipulating voters. Act confident; ask for the vote – these things work, especially on people who don’t do much reading, or who don’t really care much about the nuances of a logical argument. Let us hope it doesn’t work this time. Let us hope that on November 8 the Republicans have to once again eat their words, just like they have had to eat them recently with regard to their pre-war statements of 2002 and 2003.

You know it’s bad when Germany is criticizing the US for violating the rule of law.

Dr. Dean Ornish of Reversing Heart Disease fame has this article in Newsweek on lowering cholesterol without taking drugs.

Listen to my new song, Get the Hell out of Iraq. (See lyrics here.)


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NOW AVAILABLE

As reviewed by Miss Cellania, you now get four books in one volume, including, for the first time in print, The Tao of America. Click here for more information about this volume, including excerpts.

The Tao of Politics Anthology, now available as e-book (only $6.00), or as paperback.

Also check here for The Tao of Love. And for a good time, anytime, visit Miss Cellania online.

Sunday, September 10, 2006

I watched the movie Flight 93 last night, not the theatrical version, but the A&E version. After seeing it I feel that George War Bush has dishonored those brave citizens onboard that plane.

When confronted with the evil of 9/11, those brave citizens were in quite a quandary. They had to make a decision, and they had to make it fast. The people on the ground who were in touch with them told them the truth. Armed with the truth, the members of Flight 93 took a vote – very touching, very democratic – and decided to fight back against the terrorists who were threatening the plane, as well as other targets then unknown. Very heartrending.

What would have happened if the passengers on that plane had not been told the truth? They would not have been able to respond effectively against that real and imminent threat. Under such circumstances we might have lost the White House or the Capitol on that day. That is almost unthinkable.

The American people and the American Congress were not given the truth about the war on terror. They were told that somehow Iraq was an imminent threat to our country, more imminent than Al Qaeda, more imminent than Iran, and more imminent than North Korea. Because of this threat which was not true we were called upon, on several occasions, to take a vote, just like the passengers on Flight 93. In 2002 we voted to go to war. In 2004 we voted to re-elect the president who took us into a war based on falsehoods. Just like would have happened with the passengers on Flight 93, having false information has prevented our citizens from responding effectively to real and imminent threats. We’re over there in Iraq when we should be focusing our attention and resources on dealing with terrorism and making our country safer.

The passengers on Flight 93 seemed to know what to do and how to respond, almost as if it were a lesson from a civics class. Their actions on that day were heroic. What was President Bush’s response? Let’s remove Saddam Hussein from power, a Saddam Hussein who everyone knows or should know, and even the president has admitted, had nothing to do with 9/11. This was not a heroic act. I personally think it was despicable – mainly because of misleading the American people. It has also not helped that we have lost so many soldiers in this unnecessary war. And this is why I think President Bush has dishonored the brave passengers on Flight 93. He dishonors their memory by taking the emphasis off terrorism and shifting it to Iraq. And he has dishonored their heroism. Their actions on that day were heroic. President Bush’s actions since that day have been far from heroic. Those passengers gave us a shining example of what heroes could be. George War Bush has given us a shining example of a politician who would do or say anything to further his political agenda.

I think you honor the people who died on 9/11, including those on Flight 93, by really fighting the war on terrorism, not by getting distracted by Iraq and pouring more American lives and money into a war that was a bad idea to begin with.


Listen to my new song, Get the Hell out of Iraq. (See lyrics here.)


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NOW AVAILABLE

As reviewed by Miss Cellania, you now get four books in one volume, including, for the first time in print, The Tao of America. Click here for more information about this volume, including excerpts.

The Tao of Politics Anthology, now available as e-book (only $6.00), or as paperback.

Also check here for The Tao of Love. And for a good time, anytime, visit Miss Cellania online.

Friday, September 08, 2006

USA Today says the war in Iraq “has proved to be a devastating blunder.” Read more of this opinion article here.

The controversy over silver or mercury dental fillings seems to be continuing. I still have some of these fillings in my mouth. I’ll be glad when I can get rid of them all.

Many coffee selections at places like Starbucks are loaded with calories and saturated fat, sometimes the equivalent of consuming a Quarter Pounder with cheese, but people are often not aware of what they are getting when they order one of the beverages.

This article goes further to say that some restaurant meals that are supposed to be healthy are not healthy after all. The article relates to conditions in the UK, but I daresay that it could easily apply to conditions here in the US.

As if we didn’t have enough to think about, we should all probably try to get enough choline in our diet. The good thing is, I eat a lot of peanuts anyway, so maybe I don’t have to worry?

And here is an article on living to be 100.


Listen to my new song, Get the Hell out of Iraq. (See lyrics here.)


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NOW AVAILABLE

As reviewed by Miss Cellania, you now get four books in one volume, including, for the first time in print, The Tao of America. Click here for more information about this volume, including excerpts.

The Tao of Politics Anthology, now available as e-book (only $6.00), or as paperback.

Also check here for The Tao of Love. And for a good time, anytime, visit Miss Cellania online.

Wednesday, September 06, 2006

Crooks and Liars over the past few days has been talking about the fact that the Bush administration had ample warning in the summer of 2001 that a terrorist attack was imminent, and yet DID NOTHING ABOUT IT. There are references to John Ashcroft, Condoleezza Rice, and Bob Kerrey. There were many crises in the 1990s, but I always had a feeling that our government was trying to do something about them. Sometimes we were successful (Y2K), and sometimes we weren’t (Oklahoma City), but I don't think it was for lack of effort. I will say one thing: I do believe the timing of the 9/11 attack was carefully chosen. It took place very soon after George War Bush took office, just as the 1993 attack on the World Trade Center took place very soon after Bill Clinton took office (one month). I don’t think this timing was an accident. In both instances they caught a new administration off guard, before it was fully prepared – while it was still learning the ropes, as it were. The main difference, as far as I can see, is that in 2001 George War Bush et al had ample warning, and yet DID NOTHING ABOUT IT. To me that is a crime. The American public should know about this. There should be national outrage. The media should adequately cover this story. If they did, I dare say Bush’s approval ratings would be even lower.


Listen to my new song, Get the Hell out of Iraq. (See lyrics here.)


, , , , , ,



NOW AVAILABLE

As reviewed by Miss Cellania, you now get four books in one volume, including, for the first time in print, The Tao of America. Click here for more information about this volume, including excerpts.

The Tao of Politics Anthology, now available as e-book (only $6.00), or as paperback.

Also check here for The Tao of Love. And for a good time, anytime, visit Miss Cellania online.