why winter is good for you



Bad weather is good for you, if it doesn't kill you first.

I grew up in Upstate New York. We had winter. Real winter. Winters there were long and hard. From November to May, winter brought cold, snow and ice. Lots of cold, lots of snow and lots of ice. Months and months of it.

Early on, by age 5, I learned that Nature could hurt you if you weren't prepared or paying attention. As a child, the first time I went out the front door in January without a coat or mittens, into below-zero weather, I learned something, something important. I learned never to do that again. It was painfully cold. My hands, nose and ears were ice cold in seconds. It hurt. If you do not know what it feels like, stick your head in the freezer for 5 minutes, that's what it feels like. That pain taught me something about Nature and about life. It taught me to be aware of my surroundings, evaluate reality, and to be prepared for what it may bring. It's a good way to avoid pain. Or death. Yes, a deep new snowfall is often picturesque and beautiful. It's also a pain in the ass, cold as hell, and it can cause you to be snowed in and stranded for days.

Later on, at 16, I learned to drive. I learned how to drive in snow and ice. If you are not careful and knowledgeable about driving in severe weather, like blizzard conditions or ice on the road, you can easily die. Or quickly slide right off the road and into a ditch. Nature can be beautiful and comforting. Nature can also be unforgiving and deadly. It's smart to be able to tell the difference. Living in the harsh natural conditions of Upstate New York winters, I learned the difference in my formative years. And, as a result, throughout my life, learning and applying this first-hand experience with hard and long winters has made me stronger and smarter and forced me to deal with reality. Because if you don't recognize or deal with reality, or prepare for it, it can cause you a lot of pain, or kill you. In real winter, if you go outside without paying proper attention, you can die.

I am lucky. I grew up with beautiful and deadly Winter. She was a harsh teacher. And she forced me to learn some valuable life lessons. For that, I am truly grateful.

Now I live in sunny warm Los Angeles. We don't have real winter. We don't even have four seasons, we only have two seasons: hot and hotter.






solar polluter



Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System

From Fox News

"Even as the Obama administration announces another $120 million in grants to boost solar energy, new reports indicate a centerpiece of the administration's green-energy effort is actually a carbon polluter.

Located in Southern California's Mojave Desert, the $2.2 billion Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System benefited from a $1.6 billion Energy Department loan guarantee, and a $539 million Treasury Department stimulus grant to help pay off the loan.

Yet it is producing carbon emissions at nearly twice the amount that compels power plants and companies to participate in the state's cap-and-trade program."


Huh. So the government gave $2.2 billion dollars in TAXPAYER FUNDS to a solar power plant that ended up actually polluting the environment at twice the acceptable rate? There are so many things wrong about that:

Green energy that doesn't work or isn't green

Extreme environmentalists

Global warming zealots

Wasteful government spending

Why is the government promoting and funding and forcing alternate power sources that don't work efficiently or are economically unfeasible? Or, in this case, why is the government wasting $2 billion of OUR money on a solar power system that pollutes?

Obviously, this is another brilliant government idea that, in reality, cost a fortune and went way wrong, making things w-o-r-s-e. And, according to liberals, we should have MORE government?






I stopped smoking in 1 day


I stopped smoking in 1 day. Thanks to electronic cigarettes. I smoked a pack a day for 50 years and, thanks solely to e-cigs, I stopped smoking in 1 day. It has been 3 years and 10 months since 1 smoked a cigarette. I don't even want a cigarette.

Thanks to using e-cigarettes instead of smoking cigarettes, I feel better, I feel 10 years younger, and I don't stink! Plus, I have saved thousands of dollars by using e-cigs as opposed to tobacco cigarettes.

I couldn't be happier.

And the government wants to prevent me from doing this???






medicare is stupid




Medicare.gov is stupid, really stupid.

I'm on medicare and today I went to log in to my medicare.gov account online. I did so in order to convert my monthly medical summary from snail mail to electronic delivery, which will save the government paper, time and money.

Medicare.gov is the government run website for medicare. I have an account there and my medicare info is kept there, online. I go to log in to my account and it won't let me. I get a notice that my password has to be updated every 60 days. This is for privacy protection. And the new password must be different from the previous six (6) passwords. That makes it IMPOSSIBLE for me to remember (or write down) my password, or store it on my computer, if I have to keep changing it every 60 days. I'm old - I am NOT going to try to dream up a brand new 8-16 character password every 2 months and write it down somewhere or try to remember it.

Being very annoyed at this, I find a feedback area on the website and decided to send feedback about this issue to the government. I clicked on "Submit Feedback to Medicare.gov". Nothing happened. It did not go to a feedback form or another page or anywhere. Nothing happened. I clicked on it 5 times, with the same result. This, of course, made me even more annoyed and disgusted. They invite you to send feedback but prevent you from doing so!

Thanks to the idiots who are forcing medicare recipients - old people - to do something they can't do - create and remember a new password every 60 days - I will no longer be using the medicare.gov website. Nearly 50 million people are on medicare in the United States. In trying to protect us, by forcing us to change our password every 60 days, medicare has made old people's lives more difficult. And that's just plain stupid!






wash your hands



Washing your hands often may prevent spreading diseases. When should you wash your hands? According to the CDC (Center for Disease Control):

Before, during, and after preparing food

Before eating food

Before and after caring for someone who is sick

Before and after treating a cut or wound

After using the toilet

After changing diapers or cleaning up a child who has used the toilet

After blowing your nose, coughing, or sneezing

After touching an animal, animal feed, or animal waste

After handling pet food or pet treats

After touching garbage


So, you pretty much have to wash your hands like 10-20 times day.

I think the CDC left off some other times when you should wash your hands. I would add:

After shaking hands with someone. "Hi, nice to meet you. Excuse me, I have to go wash off the germs you just infected me with."

Before, during and after sex

Before and after using your TV remote control

Before and after typing on a computer keyboard

Before, during and after using your dirty, filthy cell phone

AFTER washing your hands, because the faucet was full of germs when you touched it

After touching money. Unless you have a lot of it.

After voting for any politician






eat meat and die


from motherjones.com

"A new report released by the World Health Organization on Monday reveals that processed meats such as bacon, hot dogs, and sausage cause cancer. Red meat, while carrying a slightly lower risk than processed meats, likely does as well.

According to the organization, daily consumption of 50 grams of processed meats—defined as meats that have been transformed by salting, curing, or other taste-enhancing methods—increased the likelihood of cancer by 18 percent.

Processed meats, which are linked to an increased likelihood of bowel cancer, were found to be as carcinogenic as cigarettes, arsenic, and alcohol."



OMG! Processed meat is as carcinogenic as smoking? OK, everyone says smoking causes cancer. And, as a result, in many/most public places in America it is illegal to smoke. What about second hand meat, does that cause cancer too? Here's a thought: if processed meat causes cancer, if "Processed Meat Kills", why don't all the anti-smoking state and local governments in the U.S. make eating meat i-l-l-e-g-a-l, like they did with smoking in public!?






biopsy bullshit


I had a skin rash for a few weeks on my arms. Flaking skin, red welts. It did not itch and did not hurt but it was unsightly. I finally went to the dermatologist. He diagnosed me with eczema. He gave me some creams and made an appointment for me to come back in two weeks. I used the creams, 5 different ones, still had the flaking and red welts and went to the derm appointment two weeks later. My eczema was still the same, no improvement. Just in case, the doctor cut off a piece of my arm and sent it out to the lab for a biopsy test. The doctor said it would take like 3 days for him to get the results. One week later I am still waiting.

For a full week I have been very anxious and nervous about the results yet I am forced to keep waiting - for the lab to do the testing, send the results to the doctor, and for the doctor to let me know the outcome. The procedure is taking too long, or the results are too slow to get to the doctor, or both. A week? Two weeks? A month? That's not acceptable. Patients throughout America are sitting on pins and needles awaiting biopsy results and being told whether or not they have cancer. In some cases, the biopsy results can mean life or death, yet these patients are being forced to wait weeks or longer to find out their lab results. That's bullshit. Biopsy bullshit.

The U.S. labs that do biopsy testing MUST speed up the process and/or get the results to the doctor faster. Why? Because biopsied patients in the United States of America should NOT have to wait weeks, or months, to find out if they have cancer!!!






California floodslides



Here comes El Nino. It's here already, in Los Angeles. Recently we had huge rainfall and mudslides which closed the main road from Los Angeles to Las Vegas and stranded hundreds of motorists for days.

The worst is yet to come.

According to meteorologists, in L.A., "We will encounter numerous stormy periods. The biggest problems will result from heavy rainfall. These storms could produce flash floods and all the associated calamities. If we receive large amounts of precipitation in short periods, flooding could develop in unexpected areas. Mudslides and debris flows will likely start in the numerous burn areas across the region. After extended periods of rainfall, the potential for mudslides will spread to all the foothills and mountains.

Coastal flooding will also be a major problem. Strong storms can produce enormous waves. Combining elevated surf with increased sea levels, due to the warming, increases the likelihood of damaging tides and flooding. Numerous piers and coastal structures have been destroyed during previous El NiƱo events."


Oh, great! Flood and mud. Floodslides. As for me, I live at the base of a small mountain in the heart of Los Angeles. Just what I need this winter, to be swept away in a furious flash flood or a murderous mudslide! So, what will I do? Well, I could move before El Nino hits. I could move to what will become a warmer, safer Alaska this winter. Or maybe I will beat the rush and move to Cuba, soon to be the #1 travel destination in the world, as soon as the Castro brothers finally die and Donald Trump builds a bunch of casinos and hotels there. Or, I could simply stay here in Los Angeles and hope to survive numerous floods and mudslides (floodslides) this winter, a winter which will prove to be extremely miserable weather-wise. Hmm, yes, maybe I will just stay in L.A. and buy some new rain gear -- and a kayak.






anti-oxidants can kill you



Since the term "antioxidants" made the leap from the realm of biochemistry labs and into the public consciousness in the 1990s, Americans have come to believe that more is better when it comes to consuming the substance that comes in things like acai berries, green tea and leafy veggies.

A provocative new study published Wednesday in the journal Nature raises important questions about that assumption.

Antioxidants — which include vitamins C and E and beta-carotene, and are contained in thousands of foods — are thought to protect cells from damage by acting as defenders against something called "free radicals" which the body produces as a part of metabolism or that can enter through the environment.

That's all great for normal cells. But what researchers at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center found is that antioxidants can work their magic on cancerous cells, too — turbo-charging the process by which they grow and spread.

Researcher Sean Morrison and his colleagues conducted experiments on mice that had been transplanted with skin cancer cells (melanoma) from human patients. They gave nothing to one group. To the other they gave doses of N-acetylcysteine (NAC) which is a common antioxidant that's used in nutritional and bodybuilding supplements and has been used as a treatment for patients with HIV/AIDS and in some children with certain genetic disorders.

The results were alarming: Those in the second group had markedly higher levels of cancer cells in their blood, grew more tumors and the tumors were larger and more widespread than in the second.

"What we're starting to learn is that there can be bad cells from cancer that appear to benefit more from antioxidants than normal cells," he said in an interview.



Here we go again. Everything that we were told was good for us turns out to be for us. Antioxidants: ANOTHER good thing turns out to be bad for us!

C'mon, you stupid scientists, something is either good for us, bad for us, or neither good nor bad. Make up your minds, stop doing a 180 on everything we consume, get it right the first time!