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10 May 2018:  Who is the racist?

Some people accuse President Trump of being a racist.  But who is the racist, really?  Let’s look at Trump vs. Obama.

Obama spent 8 years as President with a Congress that was largely controlled by Democrats.  That’s 96 months.  In those 96 months, what did Obama and the Democrats accomplish to improve the condition of black people?  The answer is nothing!  At the end of 8 years of Obama’s reign black people were no better off by any objective measure than they were when Obama was elected.  That’s 8 lost years for black people.

After less than 18 months of President Trump’s administration, black employment rates are significantly higher.  President Trump has done more to help black people in 18 months than Obama did in 96 months.  His approval rating among blacks has doubled since his election.  It seems rather obvious that, once you strip off the propaganda rhetoric and look at results, it is Obama that is the racist.  He did nothing to help “his people.”  In contrast, President Trump has in 18 months done much to help blacks.

Of course, neither did the Democrat controlled (for the most part) Congress do anything to improve the conditions of black people.  (I should qualify that as poor black people.  Middle class and upper class blacks seem to be doing fine.)  Based again on results, one would have to conclude that most of the Democrats in Congress are also racist.  If they actually cared about black people instead of only caring about the black vote, then they would have done something to improve the condition of the people whose votes they so covet.

Do Republicans get a “ride” on this?  No way.  Most Republicans in Congress are simply Democrats in disguise -- part of the “swamp” that surely does need to be “drained.”

Just don’t call President Trump a racist.  That would be a lie.  By their deeds and lack of deeds, Obama has proven himself to be the racist, in contrast to President Trump who has actually been a significant benefit to black people.

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29 January 2018, A Testimony

Below is an excerpt of an email I recently sent to a friend who, like me, has lung cancer.  (Personal parts are omitted, and grammatical corrections added.)  I commend it here to any who may be interested to read it.

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I don’t know your feelings or beliefs about Jesus Christ, but I would like to take this opportunity to bear witness of Jesus and the gift of eternal life that is His to bestow according to His judgment.  I pray you will read through this and consider it, at the same time forgiving my inadequacies of expression.  I realize I ask much when I ask you to read it through and consider it [with open mind], as most who will read it do not know me. When my daughter was an infant she developed colic, which caused her much discomfort.  When my daughter was about three months old, as I was sitting up in bed reading the bible, the colic struck and she began crying.  As the colic was not calmed by the comforting of her mother, I prayed to God that he would heal my daughter from the colic.  As a result, there were two miracles that occurred.  The first miracle is that God gave to me 100% faith that He would heal my daughter.  Never before and never since have I had such faith, and I pray to God that it might return to me, for it was faith not born of me myself but given to me by the Lord.  Before I even finished praying, the colic left her and never returned, which is the second miracle.  There are those who claim this was purely coincidence, but in so saying they deny God. Another miracle I witnessed, much more recently, concerns the death of my father.  He suffered from dementia, but had several good weeks with various degrees of lucidity from the end of June until the latter half or so of September.  For his last month, however, he had very little quality of life as the dementia deepened.  In early October, after he had been placed under hospice care, a hospice chaplain contacted us to ask if they could hold a short service to honor his military service, as requested by the VA, and we of course agreed.  It was to be a private service with just Dad, the chaplain, and my wife and I.  On the morning of the service I first went to see if Dad was awake and lucid enough to participate.  He appeared asleep and, not wanting to wake him, we held the ceremony without him.  During the ceremony, after ascertaining I was a Christian, the chaplain asked what my prayer was for my father.  I answered [to the effect] “That he might die peacefully in his sleep as soon as possible” for his life was without any quality.  Upon conclusion of the ceremony, we again looked in on Dad and he appeared asleep as before and we did not disturb him.  A few minutes later, Dungeness Courte started trying to reach us by phone.  They succeeded after we returned home from errands, and informed us that Dad had died that morning.  There are many who would consider this also a coincidence, but I do not. There are those who might consider me a fool, saying Dad had likely died earlier in the night.  But regardless of what hour Dad died, it was no less a miracle, for God knew in advance the day and time of the service, and knew in advance what my prayer would be, and if God answered my prayer before I uttered it this would be even a greater miracle than if He had waited for my prayer. So in the span of 40+ years I have witnessed at least three miracles and I know (that is I have complete faith) that Jesus is the Son of God and has the power and authority to give eternal life to those who believe in Him.  He has also sustained me through my ordeal with cancer (which is not yet complete), despite my many failures and sins, for I have no power to sustain myself but rely on Him.  (I wish I could say I rely on Him always, but all too often I act without thinking first of God, and this is a sin.)  If you will allow Him, He will sustain you too.  This is my testimony today to you; my hope is that you will consider it; my prayer is that you will believe.  I promise you this, that what I write here is from the heart. In the spirit of brotherly love, from a deeply flawed follower of Christ, Hal

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7 September 2017:  Is ex-President Obama a racist?

In my opinion, ex-President Obama likely is a racist.  He does not like black people.  Wait!  How can I say this?  After all, Obama himself is black.  

Well, let’s take a look at his eight years of playing golf and whether he did anything in those 8 years to benefit black people.  Surely if Obama cared about black people, during his 8 years as the MPPP (Most Powerful Person on the Planet) he would have materially helped them in some measurable way.

How about an increase in high school graduation rates among black youths?  Nope.  No improvement there.  What about a lower rate of unwed teen (or pre-teen) pregnancy?  Nope.  No improvement there.  How about lower gang membership?  Nope.  No improvement there.  Number of 2-parent households?  Nope.  There just is no objective, measurable criteria by which one can demonstrate any improvement in the black community in the 8 years that Obama wasted as President.  

The truth is that Obama just did not, and does not, care about black people.  If he cared, he would have done something for them when he had the power to do so.  He could have chosen as “poster example” families with two parents and held this up as an ideal for black people to strive for.  He could have done a similar thing to encourage black people to stay in school and graduate.  He had the opportunity to truly inspire black people, but all he did was hold them down.

Yes, he held them down.  He made excuses for criminal behavior.  He encouraged hatred of the police.  He did what he needed to do to keep black people dependent on the government.

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6 September 2017, Fox News downplays EMP effects

An article by Holly McCay on FoxNews.com, “Millions of American lives could be at stake as North Korea threatens to attack power grid,” drastically downplays the potential, if not very likely, threat of an EMP device.  Such a device has the potential to disable not only the electric grid, but all unprotected electronics within range of the EMP event.

What does this mean?  It means that an EMP device could effectively disable nearly everything over wide parts of the USA, Canada, and Mexico.  Anything with an embedded computer or and electronic circuit board will not work.  So, it would be more than a few days or a week without electricity.  It would be months or years without electricity.  No heat for homes.  No running water.  No gas for cars, busses or trucks, since the pumps won’t work -- and the cars, busses and trucks won’t work anyway since their electronic components would be fried.  You won’t even know what time it is -- your digital watch and cell phone won’t work.

Grocery shelves will run out of food and water within hours as people take all they can, likely without paying since cash registers won’t work.  Those without stockpiles of food and water will begin to die within a few days to a few weeks depending on their health.  Without refrigeration there will be no way to prevent the decomposition of those who have died.  Without mechanized transportation there will be no way to remove corpses from cities. Disease will be rampant.

Without electricity, hospitals will be unable to care for the patients they have, much less new ones.  Anyone dependent on any form of automated or mechanized life support will die.  Most surgeries will be impossible to perform.

Life as we now know it will cease to exist.  Within a year or less 300 million or more people in North America will die.  Those who survive will find themselves in a 3rd world country, forced to eke out an agrarian existence without electricity.

That is just the USA and parts of Canada and Mexico.  What about the rest of the world?  It would fare little better.  Without a USA to protect it, Europe would be overrun by Russians, perhaps by Chinese, and perhaps Iran or North Korea. The ultimate death toll would not be told in the millions, but in the billions.  And the USA?  It would be defenseless, not really even exist as a nation, and would be overrun by Canada (the best hope), or Mexico, but perhaps by Russia or China.

So, come on, Fox News.  If you are going to do a piece on the effect of an EMP device on the USA, don’t paint a picture of inconvenience.  Tell the truth, that upwards of 90% of the population of the USA could perish in the first year after an EMP attack.  And then extrapolate what would be the consequence of that for the rest of the world.

But don’t stop there!  Think -- who would benefit from the USA being turned into a 3rd world country by the likes of North Korea?  That would be Russia, China, Iran, North Korea (assuming it had not been obliterated upon detection of a missile aimed at the USA), Iran, and their allies.  And to think that of all the potential beneficiaries, only North Korea would face any significant threat of retaliation.  So what is the real incentive for Russia and China to attempt to convince North Korea to play nice?  They would suffer little or no consequence of an attempt, successful or not, by North Korea to detonate an EMP device over the USA, but their reward of a successful attempt would be great indeed.

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6 September 2017, Did CNN Lie? (Again)

Michael D'Antonio’s hack piece, “Trump is doing to the Dreamers what was done to him,” published today on CNN’s website, appears to be at best grossly biased and perhaps a lie.  Mikey (that’s Mr. D’Antonio to you if you actually believe the propaganda published by CNN) knows the truth, he just didn’t write the truth.

The truth is that the DACA program is illegal.  The executive order that established the DACA program was an unconstitutional usurpation of Congressional authority.  The President cannot [legally] unilaterally (e.g., by decree) modify existing laws or create new laws.  DACA is clearly unconstitutional.  And because it is unconstitutional, President Trump is obligated to end it.

He is doing this in a delayed and most humane manner that puts no one at risk, if Congress does its job and encodes the intent of the DACA program into a bill for the President’s signature.  

So, Mikey, your accusations are at best ludicrous.  My personal opinion is that you, shall we say, play fast and loose with the truth.

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5 September 2017, The Rise of Totalitarianism

I was going to put this in chronological order, but decided to put my response to it all up front.  The readers, if there are any, can decide for themselves to read what prompted my response on The Rise of Totalitarianism.

“Dear [name deleted],

“We share your love of the environment and in our own way we do our part.  However, we see an even greater near term threat, and that is the rise of totalitarianism from the left.  Absolute insanity is gaining traction; for example, some California legislators want to make it a criminal offense, with jail time, for using the “wrong" gender pronoun.  The violence and hatred coming from the left, the “mainstream” left, is, in our opinion an immediate threat — much more immediate than the environment.

“Not to mention that apologist, spineless Obama who did all he could to encourage rogue nations like Iran and North Korea, the latter of which now has a hydrogen bomb and has no reservations about selling nukes to the highest bidder.  The threat of an EMP device launched from North Korea and detonated over the USA is something Obama should have “fixed” during his 8 years of playing golf.  There are very few options left; diplomacy has proven not to work with N Korea and a military option may be all that is left.  An EMP device that succeeds in taking out the electronics in everything from the electrical grid to your cell phone will result in about 90% of the population of this country dying, and probably billions globally after the USA becomes a 4th world country.

“Even without the threat of 300 million deaths in the USA alone, the totalitarianism that is inherent in the attitudes and actions of the progressives, liberals, or whatever you want to call them, is an absolute evil, just as bad in its own way as Hitler was. 

“When freedom and democracy are once again secure in this country, which today they are not, then we will have time to do more for the environment.  In the meantime, we are ready to defend freedom, democracy and the Constitution against the totalitarianism of the left.

. . .

“I must say that I cannot understand your passion or your single minded focus when the 'father' of 'climate change' (Al Gore) is demonstrably one of the biggest hypocrites alive today, with an electric consumption perhaps a hundred times greater than the average American family.  What an absolute jerk he is.  Maybe 10% of your time should be spent exposing him, and only devote 90% to exposing Exxon.

“Frankly, we think the country may be irreparably damaged (reached its political tipping point) and its survival as a nation is in question.  It is even possible there will be civil war, and if that happens it will be a much worse blood bath than the first civil war.  So you can go “nail” Exxon if that’s the most productive way you can think of to spend your time.  We plan to do what we can, while battling my cancer and my wife’s depression, to preserve freedom and democracy so that when you’ve solved the climate problem this will be a free country where people can live in relative peace and harmony, and Christian bakers won’t be driven out of business by the totalitarian left.

“When you have personal news you want to share, please write, email, or phone.  When you have anything else to share, please share with someone else.

Still a friend”.

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This is what led up to my essay.

My wife forwarded this to a friend who is particularly concerned about climate change, or global warming if you prefer.  He reacted from his single issue perspective which colors everything he does.  But first the item my wife forwarded.  I wish I knew the author, as I’d like to shake his or her hand.  It was written in response to events of the recent horrific flooding in Houston.

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AUTHOR UNKNOWN (to me):  

“We are still a great people. The rescuers remind us of that. But we lack the culture or the politics to reflect that greatness. The noble impulses that lead men to risk their lives in flooding are there. But our society no longer has the vessels to hold and sustain those impulses. The media doesn't quite know what to make of the rescuers. You can see the itching to return to the stories that it knows and likes. Russia. Trump hit pieces. People punching each other in the street over politics. It swerves at the first sight of a Confederate flag on a rescue boat or Ted Cruz's Sandy vote. It doesn't want to dwell on the best of us. Behavior like that doesn't make sense anymore. Generations have grown up with leftist protesters as their definition of heroes. Look in a history book and the last 70 years consisted of "heroes" who marched around waving signs until they got everything they wanted. And everyday in the news there are more "heroes" marching for illegal aliens, transgender bathrooms, the supremacy of black lives and any other identity politics cause. But waving a placard to the adulation of the media isn't heroism. Saving lives is. Our culture has quickly forgotten that less than two decades ago, men carrying half their weight climbed to the top of the World Trade Center to save lives. They died there. The America of a hundred or even fifty years ago, would have immortalized them. Ours drowned them out in tantrums, in whines, in anger and outrage, in malicious noise. They were a dangerous reminder that we were a great people. And our destroyers desperately wanted us to forget. They wanted us to sink to the bottom. Not to rise to the moment. The secret of so much of our greatness was simply that we tried. We took our best and we made it the cultural norm. Every people tell themselves that they are wonderful and destined to rule the world. The Germans and the Russians believed it and it led them to ruin. But we told each other that we were decent and we became decent. We told our children that the moon could be theirs. And it was. We told them that we could cure diseases. And we did. That we would prevail over the atom bomb. And we did. That we would change the world. And we did. But more importantly, we told them about sportsmanship. We told them to stand up for principles. To take pride in hard work. To believe in the future. To tell the truth. To help old ladies across the street. To tie knots well. To sacrifice for family. To see themselves as heroes, however unlikely. We made all of those things into a culture. That was the secret. Anyone could have done it. You just had to believe. And that culture has been slowly dying. Some days it looks almost dead. Our culture and politics exist to give us permission to lie in the mud. That has become their unhidden purpose. Decency is a dead language. Shock value is our entertainment. Contempt and outrage are our national discourse. The Chinese build cities and islands. We yell at each other over the Internet. It's hard to remember a time when writing the Great American Novel was an ambition. The American novel is dead. Literature, like art, has become segmented into high brow garbage and low brow garbage. The aspirational middle brow culture is dead. The movie theater is filled with billion dollar adaptations of comic books, Disney rides and cartoons. The handful of teens who can be pried away from their phones long enough to watch something they'll forget five minutes later aren't even the target audience. America is a stopover territory on the way to the real markets in the teeming cities of China. How does a culture like that deal with heroism? It can't. It doesn't have the vocabulary for it.”

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In response to this, our very liberal, single issue friend wrote back:

“Don’t know who wrote this.  Not smart. Here’s what I’m writing.  Researched climate science since I retired [in] 2009.   Its about the Earth math.  Like any system, Earth’s environment responds to a pulse of input like carbon.  How long does it take to respond to reach a steady but higher temp?  30 years.  Here’s the test.  If you apply a reverse pulse, how long does it take to get relief?  30 years, because the physical dynamics are the same. This happened in the 1970s when Exxon discovered they were already destroying the place.  Rather than man up, they voted to hire experts that knew how to confuse the public (mocking libtards) and discredit the same sciences that made them rich.  If  they decide to research how to apply a reverse pulse and then go do it (fat chance), to save their lifetime customers who were only ever given one kind of energy, your kids will see not climate relief in their lifetime (or yours). The Gulf of Mexico is a roulette wheel of grief and death.  Houston will cost $180B.  The bill should go to Exxon, but Sec State Exxon has a better idea:   you can pay it.  Exxon paid-Republicans:   “No problem, and climate is normal, its just nature, goes to the Dems deficit anyway.”   During the 30 year reverse response period, tipping points can be exceeded.  Run past a couple or three of those and climate is out of control, goodby humans. Bugs will be OK. Unfortunately for the planet, during the debate about atmospheric testing of nucs, nuclear winter was modeled and found to be a high risk threatening the common planetary good.  So, we are served by a treaty that everybody adheres to, even the N. Koreans.  Unfortunately, because Sec State Exxon is going to fix climate damage, which is "not happening," with nuclear winter, a sudden climate solution after crazy N. Korea (and hapless  S. Korea, Japan) get vaporized.   “Hey we didn’t know this would happen, but look, Exxon fixed 2 problems.”  End of democracy and life as we knew it.  They are going to dig up every last fossil molecule and meter out nuc bandaids for eons, because they can’t be stopped.  And they LOVE THEIR VOLUNTEER HEROES CLEANING UP AFTER THEIR GRIEF:  IRAQ, SYRIA, LIBIA, AFGHANISTAN, PAKISTAN, RITA, KATRINA, HARVEY, and this list will double and triple.

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2 April 2017, Garden Update

Over March 31 and April 1 we transplanted from the grow tent to an outside raised bed 2 broccoli plants, 2 romaine lettuce, 2 mustard greens, and one kale.  We earlier had transplanted a couple herb plants to a raised bed.  All are tolerant of or prefer cool weather, and tolerant of light frosts.  It was very windy last night, but all the plants seem to be okay this morning.  The peppers (bell, cayenne, and jalapeño) like warmer weather, so will remain in the grow tent for at least 2 or 3 more weeks, perhaps longer.   The garlic we planted 2 or 3 weeks ago in the raised bed are doing okay.

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21 February 2017, Grow Tent

A couple weeks ago I put up a 4′x4′x7′ grow tent inside the house and about a week ago planted a tomato seed, a jalapeño seed, and a green bell pepper seed.  I’m still waiting for the bell pepper to sprout, but the tomato and jalapeño have sprouted.  I’m using LED grow lights, currently 12 hours on and 12 hours off, but probably should do 18 on and 6 off.  I plan to start another hot pepper and some lettuce.

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22 January 2017, Open Letter on Climate Change and Islamic Terrorists

CLIMATE CHANGE:

I know there are folks who claim the world is not warming, but I am not among those.  And I know that among those who agree there is “global warming” there are those who deny it is caused [to any significant extent] by man.  I am basically undecided about whether humans are entirely, mostly, minimally, or not at all responsible for any effect on earth’s temperatures, though I shy away from “entirely” and “not at all.”  But I remain skeptical of the notion that we are doomed if we don’t take radical steps immediately to stop global warming.

Furthermore, the science (or “science”) of climate change has been highly politicized and I simply do not trust it.  As has been demonstrated by the recent election campaigns, the mainstream news media lies and distorts the truth unmercifully.  The NY Times publicly admitted they lacked integrity in covering the campaign and issued a printed rededication to integrity (which, unfortunately, was not sincere).  The mainstream media lacks integrity and cannot be blindly trusted.  They lack the discipline (or mental ability) to separate fact from opinion, and are largely an insular “country club” group with no idea whatsoever of the concerns of people who don’t need a dozen or more words to order a coffee drink at their local Starbucks.  I hold them in complete disdain, and firmly believe this is well deserved.

The question that has never been answered is:  what measures could be effective in reducing the rate of warming, and of these which are truly feasible?  I’ve not seen an answer to that question.  All I see is “climate change lemmings” trying to herd the entire world over a cliff.

ISLAMIC TERRORISTS:

I could not disagree more strongly with people who claim we have the Muslim Brotherhood because of our policies and Israel's policies in the middle east.  I heard the same thing over 10 years ago, only then it was Arabs instead of the MB, and I thought it was a ridiculous notion then and haven’t changed my mind since.  The MB is a group of insanely evil people who want world domination and the imposition of sharia law everywhere.  They are servants of the Devil.  There would be no problem if they and other militant, vengeful groups (e.g., Hamas) would agree to let Israel live in peace.  If they would do that and participate constructively in establishing a basis for mutual trust, Israel would be willing to accommodate the Palestinians peacefully and accept them as brothers.  Lacking their willingness to leave the world in peace, I pray for God’s blessing and help as Trump attempts to eradicate them from the face of the earth, just as was done to Hitler, for the Muslim Brotherhood is no less evil than Hitler.

One more thing, since it is relevant to the Muslim question, regards attitudes towards women.  Under Islam women have virtually no rights.  They are oppressed, sexual slaves to their husbands, subject to torture (beginning when the clitoris of a little girl is cut off without antiseptics, antibiotics, or anesthetics) at the whim of their husbands (or parents).  I know this is not universal, but it is relatively common and in some areas is virtually universal.  Anyone who sympathizes with these evil people cannot claim to be a friend of women but instead is a woman hater.  US policy did not turn these people into oppressors of women.  Furthermore, it is ludicrous that anyone (like Hillary Clinton) who accuses Trump supporters of “Islamaphobia” can claim to be supportive of women; Islam is inherently oppressive of women.  And speaking of Hillary, she has done more to damage women than just about anyone I can think of.  She is married to an insatiable adulterer that some would call a sexual predator, and has supported him strongly in his sexual "adventures.”  The current women’s protest in Wa. DC is so ridiculous because, what Trump has said or done in the past regarding women pales in comparison to the anti-women ravages of the Clintons.

What I see in all the protests against Trump (who is far from perfect) is the handiwork of the Devil and his minions who much prefer to destroy than be constructive.  I see much the same in the past behavior of both Republican and Democrat politicians who have kept black people enslaved in a welfare system that is designed, not to help them out of poverty, but to keep them in poverty.  The plight of black people has significantly worsened under Obama, with the continued breakdown of families, fewer two parent families, more pregnancy out of wedlock, more poverty and more despair.  There is absolutely nothing positive about all the anti-Trump demonstrations — they are all destructive.

I only hope that all the idiots (especially the “celebrity” idiots) who said they would emigrate if Trump were elected actually follow through with their promises and just get out of the USA.  May the door not bruises their hind ends on their way out.

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16 December 2016, Opted out of receiving e-cards

I just opted out of receiving e-cards from Jacquie Lawson.  (That means I asked to have my email addresses added to their suppression list so no one can send e-cards to me.)  There are a couple reasons I did so.  One is that I find the e-cards I’ve received in the past to be ... I don’t know -- let’s just say “unsatisfying.”  They attempt to be cute, but mostly are simply trite.  But that isn’t the main reason I opted out.  

The main reason is not even Jacquie Lawson’s fault; it is a combination of things, at the center of which is Flash and unbridled presumption, thoughtlessness, and greed.  First, Flash.  Good grief, how many times per week does this piece of junk software have to be updated to fix security holes? I’ve been asked at least twice a week (or so it seems) for months now (or so it seems) to update Flash.  Screw Flash!  Piece of junk software.

Then I get an email notifying me that I’ve been sent an e-card through Jacquie Lawson.  This, mind you, is minutes after I grudgingly updated Flash for the 2nd or 3rd time this week.  So I clicked on the proper link in the email notice and what happens?  The Jacquie Lawson web site puts up a page that says I either don’t have the latest version of Flash or have it disabled.  NO -- wrong!  I do have the latest version, having just updated it.  The problem with the web site is that it apparently cannot deal with my having set my browser to ask me before using Flash, and just assumes I don’t have it or have it disabled (neither of which is the case).

So, why do I have my browser set this way?  Because I am sick to death of the unbridled presumption, thoughtlessness, and greed of other companies’ web sites which automatically play videos.  Sometimes the video (with annoying audio of course) is buried deep down the page and is difficult to find and stop, but usually not.  Often the videos are accompanied by text (e.g., an article of some kind), and I usually prefer to just read the text rather than watch a video, but the companies with these web sites (news sites are a prime example) don’t like that and attempt to force feed video.  To combat this, I set up my browser to ask before playing a Flash video (controllable individually by site, and in mass for “all other sites).  The arrogance and thoughtlessness of web site with these auto-play videos is incomprehensible to me.  

Maybe I should just delete Flash from my computer completely and just not bother visiting sites that don’t work without it.  Well, I’m not quite there yet, but it is “on my radar.”

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15 November 2016:  Are Obama and Hillary anarchists?

The answer to this question, it seems to me, depends on who is in power within the federal government.  When far left or “progressive” (what a misnomer!) Democrats are in power, and specifically when Obama or Hillary is in power, then, no, they are not anarchists.  However, when a conservative or populist Republican is in power (or about to be in power), then, yes, both are very much anarchists.

Now why would I say such a thing?  Well, it is very easy to explain and quite obvious once explained.  The proof, now that President-elect Trump is poised to be in power this coming January, is that neither Obama nor Hillary has made any attempt to quell the riots perpetrated by their supporters over Trump’s election victory.  By not speaking out for calm and peace, by not denouncing the riots, both Obama and Clinton tacitly endorse these destructive and criminal mob actions.  They would rather allow people to die than to speak up for calm.  Their deafening silence in the face of wide spread mob actions, their unwillingness to call for peaceful protests instead of violent and destructive riots, is positive proof that they condone violence and coercion to achieve their political goals.  Both are traitors to democracy and deserve nothing but contempt.  Both are totalitarians in thin, nearly transparent disguises.

Yes, if the American people choose anyone but Obama or Clinton, then they are anarchists, openly approving hatred, coercion and violence to achieve their elitist political ends.

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25 Jun 2016, Fed Up With Politicians!

I am fed up with politicians from both major parties.  Both parties are more interested in preserving the status quo than in fixing anything.  Today I received yet another donation request from the NRCC (National Republican Congressional Committee).  Below is my response to them, reprinted here in its entirety (minus my full name and address and one typo correction).

==== BEGIN QUOTE ====

To: [email protected]

I am voting for Trump.  I make my donations to his campaign.  Meanwhile the Republicans entrenched in power are still trying to undermine the will of the people by attempting to effectively nullify all the Republican primary elections.  The Republican party is not deserving of my donation precisely because you are actively trying to undermine the will of the people.

Because of this I have decided to register as an Independent.  In a few days I will no longer be a member of the Republican party.  The Republican Party and the Democratic Party are both riddled with graft and corruption and both are on a path to hell (in the biblical sense).

Please do not bother me again with requests for donations to the Republican Party.  I don’t give money to the devil’s workers.

Sincerely yours,

[name and address withheld]

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Of course, my message to the Democratic Party is the same, only a bit stronger, inasmuch as the Democrats are actively anti Christianity, but strangely pro Islam as well as solidly socialistic.

Quite frankly, I am glad I am not any younger than I am (approaching 70) because, especially if Hillary gets elected, I don’t think I want to witness what this nation will become.  Were Hillary to be elected I would hope that a few states would secede from the USA to form a new government which adopts the same Constitution as the USA and actually follows its Constitution instead of skirting around it.  Hopefully this new nation would not tolerate the criminal, neo-Nazi attacks that the radical left has been making against Trump supporters.

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6 January 2016, My Diet in Words and Photos

Last January, almost a full year ago and just before my operation for cancer, a PEG (percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy) tube was placed in my abdomen. The tube hangs out of my abdomen several inches and goes directly to my stomach.  All my nutrition and hydration goes through the PEG tube because, without a tongue or epiglottis, I cannot eat or drink by mouth.

After my operation I started (last January) on a commercial liquid diet (see the post of 7 March 2015) of a product named IsoSource, but quickly tired of it and started evolving toward a diet entirely of real food, abandoning the “lab food” completely.  Since then, my diet has continued to evolve.  Whereas initially I relied a lot on potatoes and eggs for breakfast (potato to keep my weight up), I eventually stopped eating carbohydrates entirely (as much as I am able) because they are converted to sugar, which feeds the cancer.  Here is a photo of a potato and egg breakfast from last May.  Keep in mind that I no longer eat potatoes.

I also occasionally liked to get a “machaca burrito” for lunch or dinner.  I don’t eat them any more because of the carbs and because rarely eat beef any more. With that in mind, here is a photo of the machaca burrito.  It was both huge and delicious (or so Karen tells me).  The photo does not do it justice.  If my cancer ever reaches the “remission” stage, I will celebrate with a machaca burrito (just one!).

Here is another photo of the potato-based breakfast, this time with steamed eggs.

In October my diet changed rather dramatically.  While visiting my parents in Arkansas I subsisted on pre-cooked shelf stable Indian food, augmented with fresh vegetables.  Here is a photo of some of the pre-cooked food I bought.

After getting home I found some Tasty Bite brand Indian food on sale at a local country store.  A bit later, it showed up (in one variety only) at Costco at a very good price.

These Madras Lentils make a great base for stewing fresh vegetables.  I don’t use them every day, but they are a real time saver when I do use them.

For protein I use eggs (as can be seen in one of the photos above), chicken, occasionally turkey, and goat.  Rarely, but very rarely, I will have a little beef, and once in a great while I will have some uncured bacon (no nitrates or nitrites).  A while back I bought a whole goat (frozen in large pieces), which weighed about 35 pounds.  Supposedly goat is healthier than chicken, and it is very lean.  By “large pieces” I mean, for example, the hind legs were each all one piece.  I used a saw (well washed!) to cut the frozen goat into pieces small enough to fit in our crock pot, vacuum sealed the pieces, and returned them to the freezer.  This is what it looked like when I finished sealing it (one piece not shown because it was already in the crock pot).

I cook it in the crock pot until the meat is falling off the bones, then separate the solids from the broth or juices, put the veggies (carrots, onions, whatever) in with the broth, and then separate the goat meat from the bones and silver skin (connective tissue), discarding the latter two.  Since I normally only eat a small portion of meat one meal per day, one piece of goat cooked in the crock pot will last me for several days.  I bought the goat from a local country store.  I was disappointed to find out it was not locally sourced, so will try to find local goat for my next purchase.

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6 Jan 2016, Cancer Update

[For background information and context for this post, please refer to my posts of 1 March 2015, 7 March 2015, and 13 July 2015.]

My radiation and chemotherapy treatments for head and neck cancer were concluded in May 2015, and a CT scan was scheduled for September to determine the effectiveness of these treatments.  Between May and September life continued without any truly significant events. The CT scan in mid September provided both good and bad news.  The good news was that there was no sign of cancer in my head and neck.  However, the cancer had metastasized to my lungs.  

My oncologist said he wanted to start another round of chemotherapy soon, but that we could wait 8 weeks or so if I wanted to try an alternative approach.  I might have imagined this, but it seemed to me at the time that he was actually encouraging me to look into “alternative” medicine before starting more chemo.  His only caution was to avoid the cancer “clinics” in Mexico.

Given that brief interlude before commencing more chemo, the first thing I did was to visit my parents in Arkansas (over 2000 miles from our home in Washington state).  I would not have considered this except for the fact that my mother was declining rapidly (she was 96) and not expected to live to the end of the year, so it was either see her then or never see her again at all in this life.

I had expected the trip to be very difficult, since I could not talk and had to eat via the feeding tube in my abdomen.  And it was difficult, but a few things made it manageable.  One, I was able to get a late morning flight that did not require getting up before 5 AM.  (It is close to a three hour drive to the airport.)

Two, I flew non-stop from Seattle to Kansas City.  With my limitations, a longer day and having to change planes would have been extremely taxing.  As it was, I was unable to eat lunch.

Three, I stayed overnight with my sister-in-law (SIL) in Kansas City.  This broke up the trip very nicely.  She has a Vitamix blender, so I had no trouble liquifying food to eat.  Also, for some inexplicable reason (inexplicable because I cannot taste my food) I had a strong desire for east Indian food.  I was able to find and easily navigate to an Indian supermarket not too far out off my route from the KC airport to my SIL’s house.  I was delighted to purchase several single serving boxes of pre-cooked shelf stable (no refrigeration needed) Indian dishes.

Four, by the grace of God (meant literally) I did not have to spit or clear mucous from my throat at the airport or during the flight.  (Please recall that I cannot swallow my saliva, so periodic spitting is necessary, and I produce a lot of mucous in my throat that I need to clear out manually several times a day.)

The following day I drove to Arkansas, about 3.5 hours -- not a big deal.  I got settled in a hotel room with a full kitchen and then went to see my parents.

There is not really anything of vital interest to others regarding my parents.  I was there for several days, starting on October 3, and am very glad I went because my mother died not many days after I returned home.  

As far as my health goes, the trip may have been a real blessing.  I followed up on my craving for Indian food by doing most of my shopping at a couple of Indian grocers in Bentonville, AR.  I did use fresh vegetables from a “normal” grocery store, but relied heavily on the shelf stable Indian food.  I also found and started using an herbal juice sold at one of the Indian grocers.  Photos of the shelf stable food (one example) and herbal juice are shown below.

My diet in Arkansas is significant, as you will see.  First, after three days on this diet I felt like I had a lot more vitality.  I literally felt like jogging everywhere I went instead of walking (but I reined myself in and walked).  I continued the same diet after I got home, and have continued it since.  I still use the shelf stable boxed food, but not as a mainstay in my diet; instead, I use it as an occasional short cut.  Mostly I cut up fresh vegetables for every meal, and occasionally use organic frozen vegetables as another short cut.  For protein I use raw almonds, fish, and goat meat.  (I had goat once in Mexico when I still had my tongue and liked it very much.)

If you examine the photo of the herbal juice you will see the words “Basic Ayurveda.”  This ultimately led me to an Ayurvedic doctor (board certified) in Bellevue who I am going to for treatment.  My oncologist and my primary care physician both approved of this.  When I saw my oncologist December 9th, he scheduled a CT scan for January 8th (two days from now) to check on the progress (or, hopefully, regress) of the cancer in my lungs.  I will see him on January 11th to get the results of the CT scan.

In the meantime, I feel terrific!  I have no outward symptoms of cancer, but that does not mean much at this stage of the game.  The upcoming CT scan will be the definitive test of whether my diet and the Ayurvedic treatments have been of any significant value in fighting the cancer.  A lot of people are praying for me, and I am very grateful for that.

I’ll post another update after I see my oncologist on January 11th.

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21 July 2015, Garden Update

20 July:  I harvested what was left in another 4-foot row of carrots, about a half dozen red onions, and one purple cauliflower.  The miniature Hereford cow across the street enjoyed the cauliflower leaves.

18 July:  I planted spinach, carrots, and radishes in the area vacated by the harvest on July 16.

16 July:  I harvested a 4-foot row of carrots and two rows of beets.  I also pulled all but one chard plant.  The cow across the street loves chard.

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13 July 2015, Garden Update and Personal update

The two 4x8 raised beds on the east side of the house are getting close to having to be completely harvested and replanted.  The red onions are not quite ready, but the green onions need harvesting very soon, as do the beets and chard.

We are having a hard time keeping up with the garden (i.e., consuming what we grow).  This is partly due to planting too much of one thing, e.g., chard, and partly due to a dramatic change in our lives that was initiated by my contracting cancer of the tongue.  On 29 January 2015 I underwent radical head and neck surgery to remove the cancer.  I lost my entire tongue, top half of my larynx, all my lower teeth and part of my mandible, and  a multitude of lymph nodes.  As a result, I am unable to talk, swallow, or eat by mouth.  I am now on a liquid diet that goes through a tube in my abdomen directly to my stomach.  I started tube feeding using a commercially prepared liquid manufactured specifically for tube feeding, and did that for about two months, at which time I began making some of my own liquid food by putting normal food in a blender with sufficient water to liquify it and thin it enough to go down my feeding tube.  I eventually discovered the manufactured food was causing an adverse reaction, and have transitioned completely off the manufactured food.

The tomato plant in the pop-up greenhouse has plenty of ripening tomatoes.

The patty pan squash and the herbs are doing well in the 6x6 raised bed.  Some basil there is doing well also, now that it is shaded by the squash.  We do have squash blossoms, so it won’t be long before are harvesting squash.

The artichoke and potatoes in the fire pit garden are both doing well.

The artichoke does okay being watered from well water, but really thrives when it gets rain.  So far we have three artichokes.  (Only one is clearly visible here.)

The watermelon (no photo provided) is not doing well and almost certainly will not produce anything edible.  It is healthy, but really needed to be started inside.  By the time it got established well it was too late in the season for it to catch up.

Kales and lettuces are doing well -- growing faster than we can eat them.

The tomato in the tire is finally doing pretty well.  I got it as a starter plant and the main shoot just was not doing very well, but new shoots were thriving.  So I cut the main shoot off, and the plant really came to life.  We should be getting ripe tomatoes before long.

The strawberries are doing well (but no photo).

The Chinese peas are doing quite well.

The pole beans are doing okay too.  No beans yet, but the plants are growing well and beans should follow shortly.

Finally, the green corn is doing very well -- the ones that germinated that is.  We hope they will pollinate.  It is a concern due to how few stalks we have.  You can see that it has been bent over a bit by the wind.

Here is the irrigation system I ended up with.  I run a short hose from the well pump to a PVC pipe that runs under the grass to the west end of the 9 raised beds in the back yard.

The pipe runs to each of the 9 beds.

The flow at each bed is individually controlled.

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7 June 2015, Garden Update

In early April a house guest helped plant the two 4x8 raised beds on the east side of the house.  This is what they looked like by early June.  The bed in the foreground has (left to right) red onions (from sets), carrots, spinach, beets, more red onions, and chard.  The bed in the background has red onion, radishes, and carrots.

My wife planted the 6x6 raised bed.  It has thyme and rosemary (nearest two rows), kale, patty pan squash, and some ornamental flowering plant.  There is some basil too, but it is all but impossible to see in this photo.

Finally, this is representative of what the raised beds in the back yard look like.  Not shown are the fire pit (potatoes and an artichoke) and the pop-up greenhouse (tomato and some more starts).

At this point, work remaining to be done includes leveling the walking area and installing a watering system.