Gary's Blog

The enclosed .pps file is loaded with a lot of wisdom and beauty.   I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

Note: When I clicked on the following link a message came up that said “Open file using Microsoft PowerPoint”.  Say “OK” and the presentation should start.

You will need to “Left Click” with your mouse to advance the presentation.  That way you can soak in the message and the beauty of the picture before going on to the next slide.

THE_SONG_OF_THE_BIRDS

I have mentioned health related issues introduced by Dr. Mercola before. He does get me thinking. The following is what I read today about the second most valuable ingredient to our survival.

“Are You Paying 1,900 Times More for Unhealthy, Earth-Damaging Water?

If you drink bottled water, yes, you are!

Bottled water typically costs more than $1.50 per bottle, which is 1,900 times the price of tap water.

Yet, that very same bottled water that you’re paying a premium for is, in about 40 percent of cases, simply bottled tap water, which may or may not have received any additional treatment.On top of that, most municipal tap water must actually adhere to more strict purity standards than the bottled water industry.

Further, while the EPA requires large public water supplies to test for contaminants as often as several times a day, the FDA requires private bottlers to test for contaminants only once a week, once a year, or once every four years, depending on the contaminant.

An independent test performed by the Environmental Working Group revealed 38 low-level contaminants in bottled water, with each of the 10 tested brands containing an average of eight chemicals including disinfection byproducts (DBPs), caffeine, Tylenol, nitrate, industrial chemicals, arsenic, and bacteria were all detected.

So what you are paying for is often no different, or even worse, than the water that comes out of your faucet.

When you factor in other elements, like the chemicals that can leach from the plastic bottle and its impact on the environment, bottled water becomes a losing proposition no matter how you look at it.

Drinking From Plastic Bottles is Not a Wise Health Move”

To read the full article visit Dr Mercola’s thoughts on water.

I do not drink city water for two very good reasons. First, I do not feel the chlorine and fluorine in the water is healthy for me. Second, I have a well. If I lived in a city I would be using my water distiller to remove the chlorine and fluorine from my water as I used to do before moving to the country.

Yes, it is true I am a fan of good health and nutrition and living and eating as we were meant to live and eat.  One of the best e-mail newsletters I subscribe to is by Dr Mercola.

No, I do not read all of his e-mails as they come almost everyday.  I do, however, read the subject line and if it interests me, I read on.

As an example, today’s e-mail, May 4, 2010, had the subject: OBESITY CONSPIRACY: The U.S. Government Scandal that’s Really Making You Fat

You can read it at http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2010/05/04/how-the-us-government-contributes-to-the-obesity-epidemic.aspx

As I may have mentioned before, I do not eat red meat.  Growing up I ate it all the time.  I loved it then and I still sometimes crave it now.  However, red meat of years gone by is far different from the red meats of today.  Why they even add red dye to the meat to make it look more appealing in the meat departments at your local food store.

I recently learned that (and I guess I knew this all along, I just didn’t formalize it in my mind) grass fed, free range beef is far superior to the big corporation beef farms.  Do some research or go to http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2010/03/23/how-grassfed-cows-could-save-the-planet.aspx and be shocked at what you read.

No, I do not earn a penny from promoting Dr Mercola.  I even tried to see if they offered an affiliate program.  His information simply fits in with that my beliefs are about nutrition, at least what I have read so far.

I also do not consume many dairy products.  My only shortcoming is ice cream.  I recently learned two things about milk.  One is that not all cows produce the same kind of milk.  Read what Dr Mercola says about this at http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2010/04/27/does-drinking-milk-cause-upperrespiratory-congestion.aspx.

The other thing I learned was the different effects pasteurized versus raw milk have.  Well, actually I knew raw milk was better but was scared off by the hype the it could be unhealthy, which it can be when you get it from the wrong source.  Learn more at http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2010/05/01/mark-mcafee-interview.aspx.

Life is meant to be enjoyed and the best way to enjoy life is to be healthy.  Getting healthy and staying healthy does not mean that you have to give up some pleasurable things or perhaps I should say seemingly pleasurable things.  It simply means that we need to re-educate our bodies to crave the healthy foods instead of the poisonous food-like products we currently consume.

So we need to eat healthy foods and we also need to exercise.  In the spring, summer and fall get outside and take a 30 minute walk each day.  Better yet, adopt a homeless dog and take him/her for a walk with you.  You both will get exercise and you will have a true companion/friend for years to come.

Actually you should go for those walks in the winter also, even if you live in the cold north lands.  Winter is a beautiful time of year when you get outside and do something.

This is a long one but stick with it and discover just how much truth there is here. It’s not meant to be funny just a sad reflection of Britain today!  Could be USA, November elections are coming.

The Squirrel and The Grasshopper:

REST OF THE WORLD VERSION
The squirrel works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building and improving his house and laying up supplies for the winter. The grasshopper thinks he’s a fool, and laughs and dances and plays the summer away.

Come winter, the squirrel is warm and well fed. The shivering grasshopper has no food or shelter, so he dies out in the cold.

THE END

THE BRITISH VERSION (or USA version)

The squirrel works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter.

The grasshopper thinks he’s a fool, and laughs and dances and plays the summer away.

Come winter, the squirrel is warm and well fed.

A social worker finds the shivering grasshopper, calls a press conference and demands to know why the squirrel should be allowed to be warm and well fed while others less fortunate, like the grasshopper, are cold and starving.

The BBC shows up to provide live coverage of the shivering grasshopper; with cuts to a video of the squirrel in his comfortable warm home with a table laden with food.

The Daily Mail informs people that they should be ashamed that in a country of such wealth, this poor grasshopper is allowed to suffer so while others have plenty.

The Green Party, Greenpeace, Animal Rights and The Grasshopper Social Housing Commission demonstrate in front of the squirrel’s house.

The BBC, interrupting a cultural festival special with breaking news, broadcasts a multi cultural choir singing ‘We Shall Overcome’.

A socialist rants in an interview with Andrew Marr that the squirrel got rich off the backs of grasshoppers, and calls for an immediate tax hike on the squirrel to make him pay his ‘fair share’ and increases the charge for squirrels to enter the congestion zone in London .

In response to pressure from the media, the Government drafts the Economic Equity and Grasshopper Anti Discrimination Act, retroactive to the beginning of the summer. The squirrel’s taxes are reassessed. He is taken to court and fined for failing to hire grasshoppers as builders, for the work he was doing on his home, and an additional fine for contempt when he told the court the grasshopper did not want to work.

The grasshopper is provided with a Social Housing Commission house, financial aid to furnish it and an account with a local taxi firm to ensure he can be socially mobile. The squirrel’s food is seized and re-distributed to the more needy members of society – in this case the grasshopper.

Without enough money to buy more food, to pay the fine and his newly imposed retroactive taxes, the squirrel has to downsize and start building a new home.

The local authority takes over his old home and utilizes it as a temporary home for asylum seeking cats who had hijacked a plane to get to Britain as they had to share their country of origin with mice.

On arrival they tried to blow up the airport because of the British apparent love of dogs.

The cats had been arrested for the international offence of hijacking and attempted bombing but were immediately released because the police fed them pilchards instead of salmon whilst in custody.

Initial moves to make them return  to their own country were abandoned because it was feared they would face death by the mice.

The cats devise and start a scam to obtain money from people’s credit cards.

A News night special shows the grasshopper finishing up the last of the squirrel’s food, though spring is still months away, while the Housing Commission house he is in, crumbles around him because he hasn’t bothered to maintain it. He is shown to be taking drugs.

Inadequate government funding is blamed for the grasshopper’s drug ‘Illness’.

The cats seek recompense in the British courts for their treatment since arrival in Britain .

The grasshopper gets arrested for stabbing an old dog during a burglary to get money for his drug habit. He is imprisoned but released immediately because he has been in custody for a few weeks. He is placed in the care of the probation service to monitor and supervise him.

Within a few weeks he has killed a guinea pig in a botched robbery.

A commission of enquiry, that will eventually cost £10 million and state the obvious, is set up.

Additional money is put into funding a drug rehabilitation scheme for grasshoppers.

Legal aid for lawyers representing asylum seekers is increased.

The asylum seeking cats are praised by the government for enriching Britain’s so multicultural diversity and dogs are criticized by the government for failing to befriend the cats.

The grasshopper dies of a drug overdose.

The usual sections of the press blame it on the obvious failure of government to address the root causes of despair arising from social inequity and his traumatic experience of prison.

They call for the resignation of a minister.

The cats are paid £1 million each because their rights were infringed when the government failed to inform them there were mice in Britain .

The squirrel, the dogs and the victims of the hijacking, the bombing, the burglaries and robberies have to pay an additional percentage on their credit cards to cover losses, their taxes are increased to pay for law and order, and they are told that they will have to work beyond 65 because of a shortfall in government funds.

THE END!!

I found this most creative and thought you might enjoy it as well.
Simply visit:
http://fc01.deviantart.com/fs13/f/2007/077/2/e/Animator_vs__Animation_by_alanbecker.swf

This is weird

History Mystery

Have a history teacher explain this—– if they can.

Abraham Lincoln was elected to Congress in 1846.
John F. Kennedy was elected to Congress in 1946.

Andrew Johnson, who succeeded Lincoln, was born in 1808.
Lyndon Johnson, who succeeded Kennedy, was born in 1908.

John Wilkes Booth, who assassinated Lincoln, was born in 1839.

Lee Harvey Oswald, who assassinated Kennedy, was born in 1939.

Both assassins were known by their three names.
Both names are composed of fifteen letters.

Booth and Oswald were assassinated before their trials.

WHO FIGURED THIS OUT?

INCREDIBLE
1) Fold a NEW $20 bill in half…

2) Fold again, taking care to fold it exactly as below

3) Fold the other end, exactly as before

4) Now, simply turn it over…

COINCIDENCE?

YOU DECIDE

As if that wasn’t enough…
Here is what you’ve seen…

Firstly The Pentagon on fire…

Then The  Twin Towers.


And now .. look at this!

TRIPLE COINCIDENCE ON A SIMPL E $20 BILL
Disaster (Pentagon)
Disaster ( Twin Towers )
Disaster (Osama)???

It gets even better 9 + 11 = $20!

Creepy huh?

Boy, it has been some time since I last posted on my blog. Now that taxes are done and I am caught up on some other pressing matters I may have time to write more.

My Mom had open heart surgery about 3 weeks ago which has also slowed me down (it slowed Mom down even more). It’s very hard on someone in their 80’s to quickly recover from such a surgery. Doctors know how to repair the heart. It’s the person’s body that has a hard time with the recovery.

In my Mom’s mind she thinks she should be able to get up and move around quickly and her body says “Oh no you can’t.”

As I see it people have two or perhaps three choices:

1. They can live a healthy life so that when they become old their body will be able to handle challenges.
2. They can live recklessly and hope that modern medicine and time can heal whatever goes wrong with their bodies.
3. They can plan on not living into old age and not have to deal with the challenges of growing old.

I am not saying that Mom did not take care of herself, because she did. She just grew up in a time in history when there were many challenges, like the first Great Depression and World War II. Not as much was known about staying in shape and good healthly living.

However, for right now we, the USA, have something far more important to think about and take action on. Our Constitution, which has kept us FREE for over 230 years, is in danger of being run through the chipper.

I receive a lot of emails from people who are concerned about how our current Federal government is being run. Whether you believe what Congress and the president are doing or not, you must read both sides of the happenings that are taking place.

As an example I just read an article by Michael Connelly, Ret. Constitutional Attorney regarding the recently Health Care bill that was passed. According to him much of what is in the bill is Unconstitutional. You can visit Snopes at http://www.snopes.com/politics/soapbox/connelly.asp to read the full story.

If you pretend to be like the Ostrich and bury your head in the sand when danger or potential danger is nearby then don’t be alarmed about what may happen when the November elections approach this year.

Maxine is one of the smartest women going.

Let me get this straight. We’re going to be gifted with a health care plan written by a committee whose chairman says he doesn’t understand it, passed by a Congress that hasn’t read it but exempts themselves from it, to be signed by a president who also hasn’t read it and who smokes, with funding administered by a treasury chief who didn’t pay his taxes, to be overseen by a surgeon general who is obese, and financed by a country that’s broke.

What the hell could possibly go wrong?

I had read this before and it is worth sharing it with you today.  Life is way too short and much too unpredictable to let a day go by without letting those you love and care about to not know how much they are loved.

One day a teacher asked her students to list the names of the other students in the room on two sheets of paper, leaving a space between each name.

Then she told them to think of the nicest thing they could say about each of their classmates and write it down.

It took the remainder of the class period to finish their assignment, and as the students left the room, each one handed in the papers.

That Saturday, the teacher wrote down the name of each student on a separate sheet of paper, and listed what everyone else had said about that individual.

On Monday she gave each student his or her list. Before long, the entire class was smiling. ‘Really?’ she heard whispered. ‘I never knew that I meant anything to anyone!’ and, ‘I didn’t know others liked me so much,’ were most of the comments.

No one ever mentioned those papers in class again. She never knew if they discussed them after class or with their parents, but it didn’t matter. The exercise had accomplished its purpose. The students were happy with themselves and one another.

That group of students moved on.

Several years later, one of the students was killed in Vietnam and his teacher attended the funeral of that special student. She had never seen a serviceman in a military coffin before. He looked so handsome, so mature.

The church was packed with his friends. One by one those who loved him took a last walk by the coffin. The teacher was the last one to bless the coffin.

As she stood there, one of the soldiers who acted as pallbearer came up to her. ‘Were you Mark’s math teacher?’ he asked. She nodded: ‘yes.’ Then he said: ‘Mark talked about you a lot.’

After the funeral, most of Mark’s former classmates went together to a luncheon. Mark’s mother and father were there, obviously waiting to speak with his teacher.

‘We want to show you something,’ his father said, taking a wallet out of his pocket ‘They found this on Mark when he was killed. We thought you might recognize it.’

Opening the billfold, he carefully removed two worn pieces of notebook paper that had obviously been taped, folded and refolded many times. The teacher knew without looking that the papers were the ones on which she had listed all the good things each of Mark’s classmates had said about him.

Thank you so much for doing that,’ Mark’s mother said. ‘As you can see, Mark treasured it.’

All of Mark’s former classmates started to gather around.. Charlie smiled rather sheepishly and said, ‘I still have my list. It’s in the top drawer of my desk at home.’

Chuck’s wife said, ‘Chuck asked me to put his in our wedding album.’

‘I have mine too,’ Marilyn said. ‘It’s in my diary’.

Then Vicki, another classmate, reached into her pocketbook, took out her wallet and showed her worn and frazzled list to the group. ‘I carry this with me at all times,’ Vicki said and without batting an eyelash, she continued: ‘I think we all saved our lists’

The density of people in society is so thick that we forget that life will end one day. And we don’t know when that one day will be.

So please, tell the people you love and care for, that they are special and important. Tell them, before it is too late.

I deleted all of the stuff about sending this on to everyone you love and care about because I do not go for those “send this and you will be blessed with great fortune, etc.” type of letters.

If you care about someone you will share this with them without having to be told in an email that you need to forward this or else…

In our everyday life to get by or to just merely to survive, we often forget to let those we care about and love know just how much they mean to us.  We may think, “Oh, they know I love them.  I don’t need to say it or show them.”

Think back to the times when someone acknowledged to you how much they cared and how it made you feel.  It does make a difference.  Plus you never know if you or they will be here tomorrow to let them know how you feel.

So take a moment now and write a short note to a friend or loved one and let them know how much they mean to you.  You will feel great and if you give it to them, they may just treasure it for many years to come.