Forced Sterilization (Vasectomies) For Mentally Impaired

Here is an excerpt from an article on CNN.com today:

From 1907 through the 1970s, more than 60,000 Americans were forcibly sterilized. Some, like Holt, were in institutions, while others were deemed "feeble-minded" or had "unfit human traits." Others were children of alcoholics whose parents couldn't care for them.

What is your opinion on this?  I do not think it is fair.  In fact I am deeply upset about this.  Why should intelligent Americans be the only ones that have to put up with dirty diapers, screaming babies in the middle of the night, rebellious teenagers, and kids that are of legal age yet still act like preadolescents?  No sir... it just isn't fair.  What do you think?

Quick Relief for Insect Bites, Stings, and Poison Ivy, Oak

Mosquito bites, bee stings, wasp stings, spider bites, and on and on...  What can I do to stop the pain and itching?  Here is my answer.
Rubbing Alcohol (Isopropyl Alcohol)
I keep a spray bottle of rubbing alcohol handy all the time for many different reasons, not the least of which is relief from bites and stings.  The second I feel a bite of sting I reach for the bottle and spray the bite mark.  I have found that the pain and itching disappear immediately.  Another thing the rubbing alcohol is good for is poison ivy and poison oak.  Even if you have already scratched the affected area go ahead and spray with rubbing alcohol and the itching will instantly disappear.  Yes, the alcohol will burn somewhat but that is a relief compared to the itching.
Keep a spray bottle of rubbing alcohol, preferable 90% or stronger, handy at all times.  It will become one of your best friends.

You Might As Well Take My Ass To Jail

My little sister sent me this joke and I just had to share it.

  A Virginia State trooper pulled a car over on I-64 about 2 miles south of the Virginia/ West Virginia State Line. When the trooper asked the driver why he was speeding, the driver said he was a Magician and Juggler and was on his way to Beckley WV to do a show at the Shrine Circus. He didn't want to be late.
The trooper told the driver he was fascinated by juggling and said if the driver would do a little juggling for him then he wouldn't give him a ticket. He told the trooper he had sent his equipment ahead and didn't have anything to juggle. The trooper said he had some flares in the trunk and asked if he could juggle them. The juggler said he could, so the trooper got 5 flares, lit them and handed them to him.
While the man was juggling, a car pulled in behind the patrol car. A drunken good old boy from West Virginia got out, watched the performance, then went over to the patrol car, opened the rear door and got in.  The trooper observed him and went over to the patrol car, opened the door asking the drunk what he thought he was doing. The drunk replied, “You might as well take my ass to jail, cause there ain't no way I can pass that test.”

Racism: A Natural Phenomena?

Racism... not something we enjoy talking about or reading about, but is it something that just naturally occurs in nature?
Let's be clear... I'm not talking about bigotry, hatred, or hypocrisy.  We often associate these behaviors with racism, and for good reasons in many cases.  Let's just take a short moment and consider racism in it's purest form if we may.
First of all, just how prevalent is racism?  The short answer is that it is EVERYWHERE.  I see racist behavior in even those individuals and organizations who claim to espouse a referendum of a non-racism or anti-racist behavior.  In fact, I don't know that I can really tell you that I know anyone, other than maybe some (all?) politicians who even act like they are not racists.
Sure, we see the hand-holding and the choruses of freedom songs being sung by mixed crowds with big eutopian smiles on their faces as if this is the way it should be for everyone and all time, but let's be realistic.  This, too, is a natural phenomena.  Realistic or not, there have always been and there will always be idealists among us.  These are usually younger (but not always) people who cling to ideals yet seem not to have any semblance of a grip on reality.
Let us take a look at the planet as a whole.  As a rule (with many exceptions), our planet is made up of people of similar race living in micro-societies that are making an effort to work together and form a workable worldwide societal solution.  There is some degree of blending of races in our local ethnic villages (for lack of a better term) but we naturally seem to group together and make our abodes among those who are similar to us in race, creed, and religion.  This just seems to be a natural thing.  This is the way it has been for thousands of years and anything that differs from this just doesn't seem natural.  Those who live and mix with others are usually members of a society where laws (written by politicians) are trying to make it seem as if the world would be a better place if we all just mixed into one group and "got along."  The funny thing is that these same politicians tend to live in exclusive communities that are made up of folks who are of the same race as themselves.  Yes, there are exceptions.  There are always exceptions.  The problem here is that some people seem to think that we should make exceptions be our rule.  This, in my opinion, is nothing more than trying to go against nature.
We all have an affinity for others of our own race.  Is this racism?  Yes!  Is there anything wrong with this?  No!  We are not all activists like the KKK and the NAACP.  These groups give racism a bad name.  Racism is a natural phenomena.  That's just the way it is.

CNN Does It AGAIN.

I know... I'm picking on CNN again.  Well folks, I can't help it.  Give them a gun and they shoot themselves in the foot.  Give them enough rope and they hang themselves.  I don't make this stuff up.  I'm not THAT smart.
So, you ask, what have they done now?  Well, if you remember a few days ago I wrote about a new scientific study that shows just how harmful soda's and artificial sweeteners are for your health.  Maybe you read that article on CNN.com.  Some of the CNN staff read that article and decided to do some research of their own to see if all of this hullabuloo is the real thing.  So how did they research the subject?  They went back and read the OLD research studies that have just been found to be flawed and based their findings on that.  Based on the old research they are saying that the new research is not correct.  They never said exactly why, but the group of CNN staffers all agree that soda and artificial sweeteners are not bad for your health. Okaaaaaay. 
Way to go CNN... you did it again!

A Note To the Honorable Reverend Jesse Jackson

Yes, Rev. Jackson, racism was involved in the Zimmerman/Martin debacle. Racism will ALWAYS be involved in incidents like this any time those involved are of two different races. Race was involved from the very outset in this incident beginning when Martin realized that "some Cracker" was watching him. Isn't that what Neighborhood Watch members do? You are calling for "Justice." Will you be satisfied when a black man kills Zimmerman and ends up serving a life sentence? Of course you will, because that will give you another chance to get your face on national television. And as for Martin not getting a trial by his peers, may I call to your attention that Zimmerman was the one on trial, not Martin... and the jury was not made up of Mr. Zimmerman's peers... unless you call one black/Hispanic woman his peer. Incidentally, she was as close to being one of Martin's peers as she was to being Zimmerman's peer. I know... that is all academic. The point is that you were able to get on CNN again will holding hands with the "oppressed" preaching your sermon of vengeance. Good for you "Reverend" Jackson.

Is Microsoft Going to the Dogs?

I sell a lot on eBay and I print my own shipping labels on my home/office printer... it saves me a lot of time at the Post Office and also saves me about 10% on postage.  The other day I had an especially large package to ship so I decided to ship it via UPS which is much cheaper than the USPS when shipping large boxes.  When I went to print the UPS label I had a problem.  The label that came out of the printer was all jumbled up and overwritten on the left side of the label.  No problem... I just printer another one... with the same result.  Wow.  I have an account with UPS so I made the phone call to see what the problem might be.  Well, as it turns out, Microsoft Internet Explorer is not compatible with the label printing program that UPS uses. I had to switch to Mozilla Firefox as my browser in order to print the label.  No problem... all's well that ends well, I guess. 
Now, I understand that this could be a problem on the UPS end of things, but I have also been having other new and recent problems with Internet Explorer.  After some automatic updates it seems that I am now using I.E. 10, and I have found several bugs in it already.  Don't ask if I tried to report these bugs to Microsoft.  Actually, I did, but I couldn't even understand the guys on the other end of the customer support line.  Yes, guys... plural.  I called twice and I believe I was speaking to guys to whom English is a second language... or third... or fourth.  I got pretty darn frustrated so I did some research, which always helps give me peace of mind.  lol.   What I found out is that it is virtually impossible to report a bug to Microsoft.  It is so frustrating that I won't even go into it.  If you really want to get upset just "Google" the words Microsoft bug report.  I read where one guy even paid $35 to register his complaint.  You can look the details up for yourself.  Yes, there are two sides to every story.  The only problem is that this is a story that repeats itself "ad nauseum."
I have used Google Chrome as my default browser and yes it is faster than Internet Explorer but there are a couple of I.E. features that I guess I have grown so accustomed to using that I hate to make the switch permanently.  Mozilla Firefox is a good browser but there is a definite learning curve involved in using it.  I may give it a test drive... who knows?
All I can say for sure is that lately Microsoft had been very disappointing for me.  Whatever.

Soda Enhances Arthritis Knee Pain?

I am a very large man and I also happen to have osteoarthritis.  My arthritis, while not totally debilitation, results in fairly significant pain from time to time... so much so that I consume far too much ibuprofen and Naprosyn in an effort to curb the pain.  My worst pain is in my knees and I always figured that it was a direct result of my weight.  In an effort to control my weight I use Splenda, a well-known artificial sweetener, in my coffee.  I drink a lot of coffee.
Recently I have been reading about how artificial sweeteners actually are worse for you than the sugars that you are trying to avoid by using them and I decided to cut out all artificial sweeteners from my daily diet.  In an effort to cut back on sugar consumption I also decided to eliminate all soda drinks from my diet.  These decisions were made only a few days ago.
Since I made those changes in my diet I have noticed an extreme change in my body... extreme.  My days are usually filled with pain... so much pain that I hate to even mention it to my wife anymore.  The last couple of days have been virtually pain-free and I have been feeling great.
While reflecting on my new-found pain-free life I remembered reading about arthritis pain possibly being associated either with soda, sugar, or artificial sweeteners so I did a quick Google search this morning and found what I was looking for.  Last year Harvard University released the results of a study they had conducted on the relationship of soda consumption and pain.  The study concludes that there is a definite possibility of a link between drinking soda and experiencing arthritis pain from osteoarthritis... especially in the knees.  Also the study concludes that this pain is not weight-related.  In fact, people with less body mass were actually affected more than the larger people in the study.  If their pain was worse than my pain has been being, I certainly do feel sorry for them.  Here is a link to that study:

 http://abclocal.go.com/kabc/story?section=news/health&id=8889220

It is too early for me to draw any definite conclusions but it certainly is not too early for me to report that I feel great and I hope this absence of pain is something that will continue.  I will keep you updated as to whether this condition persists and as of this time it is only my best guess that cutting soda from my diet could be the reason for my lack of pain recently.  We will see...

Fish Oil May Cause Prostate Cancer?

According to an article on CNN.com Fish Oil has been linked to prostate cancer.  How many other foods are taking for out health that may possible causing our premature demise?  Are we ever going to be able to believe the people who are telling us exactly what we should and should not eat in order to insure our future health?

http://www.cnn.com/2013/07/12/health/salmon-cancer-time/index.html?hpt=hp_t3

Where Are The News Channels?

I am a news junkie.  I watch news channels and I search the net for interesting news stories every day.  Even though there are billions of people on our planet a huge number of cameras being carried by many of those same people, it is becoming more and more difficult to find newsworthy events that are getting coverage these days.  I remember when Headline News (HLN) was a "pure" news channel.  I would watch HLN at every opportunity because I love to watch news.  Real news is not a result of a script... it is a conglomerate of real-life, real-time events that are occurring all over the planet at any given moment in time.  Real news is everywhere and is easily documented in this day and age of advanced technology and instant communications.  But real news is becoming more and more difficult to find on the television.  There must be a reason for this and, if I am guessing correctly, the reason is not pretty.
News Channels have become Entertainment Channels.  Why is this?  My guess is $$$.  The corporate bottom line has become more important that the substance of the product in this day and age therefore the sponsors of the News Channels dictate what these channels include in their programming.
No, Proctor and Gamble does not call CNN and tell them which programs to schedule.  But CNN knows which type of programming will draw the masses that the corporate sponsors want to reach with their advertising dollars, therefore they are wielding a lot of influence in regard to the programming we see on the News Channels.
I mentioned "the masses" that the advertisers are wanting to reach.  Unfortunately these masses do not include a high percentage of "news hounds."  Many of these people are not interested in pure news but prefer drama and entertainment to a good news story.  Therefore the News Channels have changed their format to include drama and entertainment as their top priority and pure news has taken a back seat.
The latest fad is the televising of courtroom drama.  Maybe the fad isn't so new but it's dominance of the "News Channels" certainly is.  We can probably thank the judge who allowed television cameras in the courtroom during the O.J. Simpson trial for much of this.  Most of us watch quite a bit of that trial and that fact did not go unnoticed by the sponsors and the networks who know a dollar when they see it.  I am not against courtroom television.  I only wish the trials could be shown on channels other than the News Channels.  My news programming has been trumped by this courtroom drama.
I sit here waiting for the latest courtroom trial to come to an end so that I can watch some news again... at least until the next big televised trial comes up.  Oh well...