Daily News Rush

Daily News Rush - Useful News Bits

Free Healthcare - not from Obama, but from Walgreens!  Walgreens must have taken a page out of the Wal-mart manual - what a brilliant marketing maneuver!  Walgreens Take Care Recovery Plan

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Drinking Piping Hot Tea May Cause Esophageal Cancer:  People who drink their tea very hot have a higher risk of developing esophageal cancer, a study suggests.  The British Medical Journal (who knows more about Tea than the British?) report said drinking black tea at temperatures of more than 70C significantly increased the risk.  The drink is traditionally drunk black and very sweet in the middle east, but the western tradition of adding milk cools it enough to remove the risk.  Add Milk or drink Iced Tea!  Steaming Hot Tea Cancer Risk - Video Link

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Google has a new service:  April 1, 2009 Google's New Approach to Email - The easiest email could possibly be.  As more and more everyday communication takes place over email, lots of people have complained about how hard it is to read and respond to every message. This is because they actually read and respond to all their messages.  Notice the date.

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Beautiful photos and quotes of the day - Sign up for these beautiful and free image and spiritual quotations of the day emails from Truthbook.com.  I use several of the photos for my desktop background - I just switch them everytime another beautiful photo or image arrives in my email.  

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You Can Stop Smoking by Jacquelyn Rogers -No fooling! 13 years ago today, April 1, 2009, I quit smoking using this practical smoking cessation book! I've been smoke-free ever since! If you smoke or know anyone who smokes, and can also read :), please tell them about this book!

Hypocrites! Boy banned from wearing Obama Mask

A Portland school principal banned a young boy who admits President Obama is his hero, from performing a 'I can do whatever I like' skit for his elementary school talent show.  The principal, Steve Powell, felt that the rubber likeness of the 44th president was "inappropriate and potentially offensive."

Dru Lechert-Kelly, 11, is a fifth-grader at Llewellyn Elementary School in Southeast Portland.  Principal Powell offered to let Dru perform without the mask, but the boy decided he would rather go roller skating than do the skit, which he practiced for weeks, without the mask.  Dru admires the President because he believes he will change the world and fix the economy, but mostly he admires him because he has a Wii hooked up to his flat screen TV in the white house!

While I don't share Dru's admiration of President Obama, I am certainly with him on this matter, there was nothing offensive about his routine in my opinion.  Fortunately, someone taped the routine and now, more people than ever will see it:

Local school says no to Obama act

Can anyone name any school principal who ever banned the wearing of Bush or Reagan masks? Seems like liberals only have tolerance for people and things they agree with.  Racism will continue in this world as long as liberals keep finding ways to perpetuate it.  Until all people can be equally critiqued, imitated, parodied, and so forth, racism will continue.  This little child was not a racist before the skit, but now he has a reason to wonder if he should be.  This is how racism is perpetuated - by even suggesting to a child that something might be racist, you give them reason to wonder if there is ever a good reason to be racist.  Let all people be treated equally - and racism disappears.  Republican philosophy dictates equality.  Liberal policy dictates that people are divided into various minority groups so they can be taken care of.  As long as we continue to divide people into groups, racism will continue. 

See the full story here: 
Boy banned from wearing Obama mask in skit

What Happens to All that Stuff you Buy? The Story of Stuff!

While good people may debate whether we need to clean up pollution for the sake of our health and the health of the environment, or for the sake of preventing climate change - we can all agree that things do need to be cleaned up. 

Watch this fast-paced, fact-based, 20 minute video entitled "The Story of Stuff" with Annie Leonard:
 

What is the Story of Stuff?

From its extraction through sale, use and disposal, all the stuff in our lives affects communities at home and abroad, yet most of this is hidden from view. The Story of Stuff is a 20-minute, fast-paced, fact-filled look at the underside of our production and consumption patterns. The Story of Stuff exposes the connections between a huge number of environmental and social issues, and calls us together to create a more sustainable and just world. It'll teach you something, it'll make you laugh, and it just may change the way you look at all the stuff in your life forever. 

One of the most amazing things you will learn about in this video has to do with planned and perceived obsolescence.  Planned, or built-in, and perceived obsolescence is the deliberate intention on the part of a manufacturer to make products that become obsolete and/or non-functional after a certain period of time or amount of use so that the consumer will be under pressure to buy new products.  Ever wonder why you have to buy a new computer every few years?  Why don't they make computers that have replaceable parts?  Or what about fashion?  Ever wonder why it changes so often?  So you'll change more often!

After view this environmental video, you may wonder 'what can I do?' - well, here's a list of 10 things you can do starting today.  See the details for each point here:

The Story of Stuff - Another Way 

   1. Power down!
   2. Waste less.
   3. Talk to everyone about these issues.
   4. Make Your Voice Heard.
   5. DeTox your body, DeTox your home, and DeTox the Economy.
   6. Unplug (the TV and internet) and Plug In (the community).
   7. Park your car and walk…and when necessary MARCH!
   8. Change your lightbulbs…and then, change your paradigm.
   9. Recycle your trash…and, recycle your elected officials. *             
  10. Buy Green, Buy Fair, Buy Local, Buy Used, and most importantly, Buy Less.

  * Especially those whose party starts with the letter D! 

First Baptist Church Shooter May Suffer from Mental Illness due to Lyme Disease

Lawyer: "Lyme disease hurt shooter's mental health" - MARYVILLE, IL. - Chicago Tribune

So says an attorney for 27-year-old Terry Joe Sedlacek, the man charged with shooting and killing Illinois pastor, Rev. Fred Winters, as well as wounding several other people at the First Baptist Church in Maryville, IL Sunday morning, March 8, 2009.  Sedlacek's lawyer, Ron Slemer, says his client may have mental and physical health issues associated with Lyme disease, an illness caused by a tick bite he received several years ago. 

Chicago Tribune  read more....

Story from Aug 6, 2008 (last year) on Terry Joe Sedlacek - reveals he had Lyme Disease: 

Terry Joe Sedlacek was an avid hunter and outdoorsmen, it is not known when he may have contracted Lyme Disease - but tests for everything from West Nile to SARS finally revealed that Terry Sedlacek may have contracted two tick-borne diseases: Lyme disease and ehrlichiosis.  During his junior year in hight school, his parents began to worry that he was getting into drugs or alcohol because he started acting strangely, he lost interest in things that used to interest him, he seemed to become confused, and just started doing. 

Lyme disease diagnosis can be difficult - STL Today:

"These days, Sedlacek, now 26 and living in Troy, Ill., with Abernathy, has difficulty speaking. He's got lesions on his brain. He's taking several drugs, including anti-seizure medication."

STL Today  read more...

From Dr. James Howenstine, MD:

The overlooked relationship between infectious diseases and mental symptoms

"Parasitic infections which invade the brain (neurocysticerccosis) manifest depression and psychosis in more than 65 % of cases. These tapeworms produce cysts, swelling, and encephalitis in brains of patients. Other parasitic infections can produce psychiatric symptoms without direct brain invasion (giardia, ascaris psychosis, trichinosis, Lyme Disease) which clear after effective therapy. Meningitis or encephalitis was found in 24 % of 1300 cases of trichinosis reported from Germany. "

News with Views   read more...

Lyme Disease in humans - from USDA  Agricultural Research Service

Lyme disease is a multisystem illness involving the skin, nervous system, heart, and joints. Initially, symptoms resemble the onset of influenza, including severe headache, fatigue, joint and muscle pain, fever and possibly swollen lymph glands. About 60% of Lyme disease patients present with a characteristic "bull's eye" rash, or erythema migrans (EM) which appears at the site of the tick bite usually within 3 days to 1 month after the bite of an infected tick. Later stage symptoms may occur weeks after a tick bite and are more severe, including neurological complications such as facial palsy, irritability, and poor motor coordination. Further, cardiac problems including irregular heart beat and varying degrees of heart blockage causing dizziness may eventually occur. Third stage Lyme disease can occur months or years after the initial infection and may involve chronic arthritis or chronic neurological effects. Lyme disease is rarely, if ever fatal. Prompt treatment with antibiotics during early stages of the disease affords complete recovery. However, later stages are more difficult to treat. For this reason, it is important for patients to receive prompt diagnosis.

 USDA.gov  read more...

God help us.

Let's Chill - Scientists and others Skeptical of Global Warming

Chill.

I'm very sorry that people feel the need to walk away from the global warming debate with the growing list of global warming skeptics.  Frankly I'm quite disappointed.  It's frustrating to realize that apparently it's OK for some people to express their opinions, but not others - especially if that opinion disagrees with theirs.  I'm sorry if half the country chooses not to walk in lockstep with a false consensus that is not supported by historical facts. 

When I discovered my religion and began to absorb its teachings, I felt liberated and free from the fundamentalism of institutionalized religion - I certainly don't want to put myself in another setting where I have to restrict myself to certain topics or cater to other people's opinions - that's what I was liberated from.  People say that 'everything is politics' - I think everything is spiritual on some level as well. 

Frankly, I get tired of hearing that everybody should believe in global warming by now.  Why?  Because Al Gore does?  Don't make me laugh.  Does anyone else deserve any credit for having done research that just might point them in another direction?  Global warming alarmists try to intimidate scientists and others who dare to speak out against global warming - but don't be intimidated - just let them know your research has led you to a different conclusion - then point them to this article or one of the important links listed below. 

I have done a fair amount of research on global warming, claims have been made by global warming theorists - yet there is no evidence to support their claims.  I have looked at the supposed evidence and it does not hold up under scrutiny.  There is no reason for me to deny true science, I would be happy to accept it, if only there was evidence to support it.   I and many others are still not convinced.

We have had many discussions about global warming in the past, apparently this is an important issue for many people, perhaps they have something invested in it - time, money, who knows.  I think the whole global warming thing is a strategic tactic on the part of liberal democrats.  Their strategy might be to clean up the environment - maybe their previous tactics didn't work, so they're trying FEAR tactics this time around. Maybe their strategy is to invigorate the economy while cleaning up the environment.  The global warming industry is set to become the next 'BIG OIL' - the new black, you know!  And people like us are standing in their way!  So what do they do?  They try to intimidate us and they get people like you who fall for this nonsense to help them!  Cleaning up the environment is noble and I will do whatever I can to support a clean environment, boosting the economy is fine too, if it's done with integrity and honesty. 

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Here are just a tiny, tiny, tiny, tiny fraction of what's available out there in terms of people and organizations who for many good reasons are skeptical of global warming: 

Al Gore vs John Coleman - Coleman is the founder of The Weather Channel:

• http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2008/06/john_coleman_vs_al_gore.html
  

From Heartland:  The world’s largest-ever gathering of global warming skeptics will assemble March 8-10, 2009  in New York City for The 2009 International Conference on Climate Change to confront the issue, “Global warming: Was it ever really a crisis?”

1. http://www.heartland.org/events/NewYork09/newyork09.html
2. http://www.heartland.org/full/24814/Former_Astronaut_Says_Earth_Not_in_Peril_from_Global_Warming.html
3. http://www.heartland.org/events/NewYork09/PDFs/NationalReviewAd.pdf
4. http://www.heartland.org/NewYork08/newyork2008-ppt.html
5. http://www.globalwarmingheartland.org/news.html

ABC News Reporter John Stossel expresses skepticism about global warming:

• http://www.publicintegrity.org/blog/entry/458/?gclid=CMvoobTVlJkCFQEpGgodk3qlaQ

SENATOR JAMES INHOFE CHAIRMAN, SENATE ENVIRONMENT AND PUBLIC WORKS COMMITTEE

For years, Senator James Inhofe of Oklahoma has been the global warming skeptic's voice in the senate:

• http://epw.senate.gov/speechitem.cfm?party=rep&id=263759

The American Policy Roundtable: The Great Global Warm Up - "8 Arguments against Global Warming"

• http://www.aproundtable.org/tps30info/globalwarmup.html
  

Politico.com - "Scientists urge caution on global warming"

• http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1108/15938.html

Armed with statistics from the Goddard Institute for Space Studies and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Climate Data Center, D’Aleo reported in the 2009 Old Farmer’s Almanac that the U.S. annual mean temperature has fluctuated for decades and has only risen 0.21 degrees since 1930 — which he says is caused by fluctuating solar activity levels and ocean temperatures, not carbon emissions.
....At the Cato Institute, senior fellow Patrick Michaels, a contributing author of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, said most of Washington is already too deeply entrenched in the global warming mantra to turn back.
....Despite the growing science, the world’s leading crusader on climate change, Al Gore, is unconcerned.

“Climate deniers fall into the same camp as people who still don’t believe we landed on the moon,” said the former vice president’s spokeswoman, Kalee Kreider. “We don’t think this should distract us from the reality.”

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People can hold different opinions for very good reasons, and that is is quite unfair for global warming alarmists to voice their opinions without allowing others to freely voice their dissenting opinions without fear of intimidation.  It doesn't really matter what I think in the long run, it only matters whether they are persuasive enough to change my mind.  Intimidation is a poor substitute for facts.

It is my sincere hope that people will consider and accept that others are free to hold differing opinions, and that we can even be happy about this.  Debates are fun - let's debate and get to the bottom of this whole thing! 

Let's chill (no pun intended) and refocus our efforts on finding the truth about global warming - without fear of intimidation.  Surely we can all agree that there's too much pollution in the world - getting rid of pollution will make the world a better place to live and will surely assuage the fears of those who sincerely believe in global warming. 

Faith-Based Partnerships in the Obama Administration

The LA Times writes in a 2/9/09 editorial titled:  The new faith-based initiative  

Quote:      The president directs what will now be called the White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships "to ensure that services paid for with federal government funds are provided in a manner consistent with fundamental constitutional commitments guaranteeing the equal protection of the laws and the free exercise of religion and prohibiting laws respecting an establishment of religion."   

"But government underwriting of such activities violates the 1st Amendment's prohibition of an "establishment" of religion."   

"Obama's initiative establishes an advisory council, which will refer legal questions about "programs and practices" to the attorney general."

Daily News Rush response:  No it does not - because it does not discriminate on which religion or religions can take advantage of the faith based initiative.  If the government is establishing religion -then they would have to choose just one.

If you're a faith based program, one would presume that you can be trusted to have a little faith.  If the government refuses to help people of faith, then it is discriminating against religious people.

Remember, the constitution says "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof".  By refusing to help people of faith, it is creating a law against the free exercise of one's religion. 

If monies do go to secular groups and/or atheists, but not to religious people, then it is truly discriminatory.

That said, Obama's faith-based clarifications might keep the ACLU and other lawyers very busy; which either fulfills an under-the-table campaign promise, or signifies real change - change that protects people of faith!  Imagine that! 

Male Testosterone Causes Economic Shrink

Interesting tidbit of information from the NY Times:

A fascinating British study supports that conclusion with evidence from the drool of financiers. The researchers, using the saliva of male traders, tracked natural variations of testosterone in the morning and the amount of profits they earned for the firm that day.

“We found that a trader’s morning testosterone level predicts his day’s profitability,” reported the study, published last year in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Higher testosterone meant more risk-taking and, usually, more money.  read more....

Bill Gates: How I'm trying to change the world now

Obama's Energy Speech - Sale - Washers & Dryers

Obamarama Sale!

Washers & Dryers!

President Obama said today, 2/5/09, in his Energy Speech that creating more energy efficient appliances will spur innovation, create jobs, conserve energy, and save consumers money. 

Well great, I'd love to have a new washer and dryer, even though the set I have still works and it's paid for - I'll just drop them off at the dump or the Goodwill store.  I'm ready to do my part to stimulate the economy by buying a new, energy efficient washer and dryer set...... as soon as I get my stimulus check!  What...? I'm not getting a check?  They're going to spend a trillion dollars (925 billion at last count) and I don't get nuthin'?  How will I ever pay for my new washer and dryer then? 

Serious Questions:

1. How will we pay for these new appliances?
2. What will we do with all of our old appliances?  

Obama scraps Oil Drilling Land Leases - a bargaining chip with the GOP?

President Obama has scrapped the oil drill leases that President Bush signed back in November 2008, which would have allowed US oil companies to drill within the United States.

Obviously this will result in more job losses and creates an unstable atmosphere in which to conduct business in the United States.

This step is surely a move by Obama to force the GOP to sign the spending bill - the near trillion dollar so-called Stimulus Bill. 

Source:  Washington Post