Kennedy and the KGB

Since I don't read Russian, I have no way to evaluate the nuances of this story. But it's another in the interesting line of stories just emerging after Edward Kennedy's death last week.

"Shortly after the announcement of Ted Kennedy's death, I had already received several interview requests. I declined them, not wanting to be uncharitable to the man upon his death. Since then, I've seen the need to step up and provide some clarification.

The issue is a remarkable 1983 KGB document on Kennedy, which I published in my 2006 book, The Crusader: Ronald Reagan and the Fall of Communism (HarperCollins). The document is a May 14, 1983 memo from KGB head Victor Chebrikov to his boss, the odious Soviet General Secretary Yuri Andropov, designated with the highest classification. It concerns a confidential offer to the Soviet leadership by Senator Kennedy. The target: President Ronald Reagan."

Was Princess Diana's death caused by the French health system?

"The horrific accident illustrated the difference between the French and U.S. approaches to emergency care -- a relatively small piece of the French medical system, but deemed by some people to be the best in the world and often cited as a model for U.S. health care overhaul.

When rescue workers arrived, Diana was conscious, uttering, "My God" and "Leave me alone" to the swarming paparazzi. Although she had suffered internal injuries, she did not arrive at the Parisian hospital for 110 minutes -- too late for the surgery that some speculated could have saved her life."

Looking far ahead

"Never look down to test the ground before taking your next step; only he who keeps his eye fixed on the far horizon will find the right road."

Dag Hammarskjold
1905-1961, Statesman and Secretary-General of U.N.

From the compassionate Senator: "Kennedy 'joked about Chappaquiddick' Biographer reveals deadly incident was a 'favorite topic of humor'"

"One of Sen. Ted Kennedy's favorite topics of humor was the incident at Chappaquiddick Island, Mass., in 1969 in which he drove off a bridge and left behind a 28-year-old woman who drowned, according to a biographer who reminisced about the iconic Democrat on a Washington, D.C., talk show this morning."

How to Keep Your Teeth From Dissolving

"Researchers have warned people to beware of the damage that acidic beverages have on teeth. Yet, for some, the damage and problems associated with drinking sodas, citric juices, or certain teas may have already begun to take effect.

In a recent study, Dr. Mohamed A. Bassiouny revealed three steps to rehabilitate teeth that suffer from dental erosion as a result of the excessive consumption of these products."

Whey Protein Improves Heart Health

"A whey-protein-rich ingredient may improve blood vessel function in healthy individuals, reports a new randomized, double-blind study.

Two weeks of supplementation resulted in a 1.5 percent improvement in blood flow. According to the researchers, the whey protein-derived ingredient may work via an angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE)-inhibitory activity.

ACE inhibitors work by inhibiting the conversion of angiotensin I to the potent vasoconstrictor, angiotensin II, thereby improving blood flow and blood pressure."

What you haven't done

"You'll seldom experience regret for anything that you've done. It is what you haven't done that will torment you. The message, therefore, is clear. Do it! Develop an appreciation for the present moment. Seize every second of your life and savor it. Value your present moments. Using them up in any self-defeating ways means you've lost them forever."

Wayne Dyer
Author and Speaker

"From the beginning": Echoes of Genesis 1.1 in the gospel of John

John 1.1 ("In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God") is the most obvious echo in the gospel of Genesis 1.1 ("In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.")

However, there are other echoes, especially in chapters 7 and 8. But the most compelling one I see is in 8.25:

"Then said they unto him, Who art thou? And Jesus saith unto them, Even the same that I said unto you from the beginning."

"From the beginning," and "in the beginning" indicate eternity, especially the eternity of God. That Jesus describes Himself as having spoken something "from the beginning" is -- in Johannine writings -- a clear indication of divinity.

"Suncream may be linked to Alzheimer's disease, say experts "

"The frightening possibility of Alzheimer's disease being induced by suncream is being investigated by academics."

Believing the scripture

"When therefore he was risen from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this unto them; and they believed the scripture, and the word which Jesus had said."

We sometimes like to make a dichotomy between Jesus' words and the written scriptures.

But there is no dichotomy here. Instead, the disciples believed (trusted in) the written word. They likewise trusted in the words spoken by Jesus. The 2 go together. Making a false dichotomy solves no problems, and instead puts a wedge into the biblical faith.

"Had ye believed Moses ... "

Pondering the connection in John 5.46-47.

Jesus makes a direct connection between believing Moses, and believing Him (that is, Christ).

"For had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me; for he wrote of me. But if ye believe not his writings, how shall ye believe my words?"

2 connections, positive ("had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me") and negative ("if ye believe not his writings, how shall ye believe my words?")

I'm all for strong, hard-nosed research. I'm for asking hard questions. But our -- as a culture -- doubts about Moses has led to our current doubts about Christ. The 2 go together. They have to.

What Soviet Medicine Teaches Us

This is an important -- and thought-provoking -- article. The author is Yuri N. Maltsev, who worked as an economist on Mikhail Gorbachev's economic reform team before defecting to the United States.

"In 1918, the Soviet Union became the first country to promise universal "cradle-to-grave" healthcare coverage, to be accomplished through the complete socialization of medicine. The "right to health" became a "constitutional right" of Soviet citizens.

The proclaimed advantages of this system were that it would "reduce costs" and eliminate the "waste" that stemmed from "unnecessary duplication and parallelism" — i.e., competition."

Obama's death march continues: when will we stop cutting this pseudo-liberal Obama so much slack?

"KABUL, Aug 25 (Reuters) - Four U.S. servicemen with the NATO-led force were killed by a roadside bomb in southern Afghanistan on Tuesday, the alliance said, making 2009 the deadliest year for foreign troops since the overthrow of the Taliban in 2001."

How humor helps

"Good humor is a tonic for mind and body. It is the best antidote for anxiety and depression. It is a business asset. It attracts and keeps friends. It lightens human burdens. It is the direct route to serenity and contentment."

Grenville Kleiser
1868-1953, Author

Milk

I was just thinking about how much I love milk.

There. I said it. In our current fat and carb and cholesterol obsessed time, I like milk.

Whole milk, in case you were wondering. One of my brothers once said that drinking whole milk was like drinking bacon fat.

Well, given that I like fairly chewy bacon, I guess I have to plead guilty. (My wife sometimes buys the lean bacon, and I wonder: what's the point? Bacon should be disgustingly fatty. That's what makes it good).

Skim milk is for pussies. Or women. Men should drink whole milk, the kind with a taste that pampers your tongue.

When I first got out of college, I had no money. And it was a sacrifice, but I drank nearly a gallon of milk a day. I still go through huge amounts.

Because it's good. And fun to drink. And -- in the end -- quite good for you. What other things can claim that?

How to be distinguished

"There is only one way in the world to be distinguished. Follow your instinct! Be yourself, and you'll be somebody. Be one more blind follower of the blind, and you will have the oblivion you desire."

Bliss Carman
1861-1929, Poet

Eat Fat With Tomatoes to Absorb All the Nutrients

"Tomatoes are a good source of the antioxidants lycopene and beta-carotene. But if you eat a tomato without adding a little fat, your body is unlikely to absorb all these nutrients."

Talks Michael Pritchard's water filter turns filthy water drinkable

Working toward a goal

"If we fix a goal and work towards it, then we are never just passing time."

Anna Neagle
Actress

Enjoying every minute

"Learn to enjoy every minute of your life. Be happy now. Don't wait for something outside of yourself to make you happy in the future. Think how really precious is the time you have to spend, whether it's at work or with your family. Every minute should be enjoyed and savored."

Earl Nightingale
1921-1989, Author and Radio Announcer

Black Tea Fights Diabetes

"Black tea, long known for its antioxidants, immune boosting and antihypertensive properties, could have another health benefit.

Researchers studied the polysaccharide levels of green, oolong and black teas and whether they could be used to treat diabetes."

Reader's Digest plans prearranged bankruptcy

This is, I suspect, a victim not so much of the internet (most Reader's Digest subscribers probably don't use the net that often) but of demographics: their subscribers are elderly, and literally dying off. The current economy didn't help, either, but this is a magazine that has weathered decades (it was founded in 1922). Economies can be weathered. Demographics are harder to shake.

"NEW YORK (Reuters) - Reader's Digest Association Inc, whose namesake magazine has been a staple of dentists' offices for generations, said on Monday it planned to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy for its U.S. businesses as part of a prearranged plan with lenders to cut debt by 75 percent."

Anything you want

"You can have anything you want - if you want it badly enough. You can be anything you want to be, have anything you desire, accomplish anything you set out to accomplish - if you will hold to that desire with singleness of purpose."

Robert Collier
Writer and Publisher

What To Do If Force Vaccinated

The hysteria about swine flu continues unabated. While the reality is that swine flu -- clinically speaking -- is no different from your average, garden-variety flu that comes around every year, there is a really dangerous trend toward forcing vaccinations -- especially for health and medical providers -- for this flu. Here are some suggestions if you are forced to be vaccinated.

How to Beat and Prevent Osteoporosis Naturally

"(NaturalNews) As we age, our bones begin to erode, which to some extent is normal and a natural result of aging. However, some of us lose so much bone that our skeletons become weakened and deformed and in severe cases we incur loss of bone density in multiple places. That is osteoporosis, and it frequently causes fractures of the hip, spine and forearm. At its worst, bones can become so frail that they can crack and break under the body's own weight!"

Obama's Tone-Deaf Health Campaign

"It didn't take chaotic town-hall meetings, raging demonstrators and consequent brooding in various sectors of the media to bring home the truth that the campaign for a health-care bill is, to put it mildly, not going awfully well. It's not hard now to envision the state of this crusade with just a month or two more of diligent management by the Obama team—think train wreck. It may one day be otherwise in the more perfect world of universal coverage, but for now disabilities like the tone deafness that afflicts this administration from the top down are uninsurable."

Doing the right thing

"People of character do the right thing, not because they think it will change the world but because they refuse to be changed by the world."

Michael Josephson
Radio Commentator

Obama's healthcare horror

Some more great insights -- on health care reform, Pelosi, Palin, Obama, and class differences in America -- from Camille Paglia:

"And what do Democrats stand for, if they are so ready to defame concerned citizens as the "mob" -- a word betraying a Marie Antoinette delusion of superiority to ordinary mortals. I thought my party was populist, attentive to the needs and wishes of those outside the power structure. And as a product of the 1960s, I thought the Democratic party was passionately committed to freedom of thought and speech."

Living consciously

"Living consciously involves being genuine; it involves listening and responding to others honestly and openly; it involves being in the moment."

Sidney Poitier
Actor and Author

Culture and politics

"The central conservative truth is that it is culture, not politics, that determines the success of a society. The central liberal truth is that politics can change a culture and save it from itself."

Daniel Patrick Moynihan

"Take that off, you look ridiculous!"

Bad Vestments

Why socialism doesn't work

"The problem with socialism is that eventually you run out of other people's money."

Baroness Margaret Thatcher

10 Lepers

I'm trying to puzzle out some connections that seems to be floating around Luke 17.11-19:

"And it came to pass, as he went to Jerusalem, that he passed through the midst of Samaria and Galilee. And as he entered into a certain village, there met him ten men that were lepers, which stood afar off: And they lifted up their voices, and said, Jesus, Master, have mercy on us. And when he saw them, he said unto them, Go shew yourselves unto the priests. And it came to pass, that, as they went, they were cleansed. And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, and with a loud voice glorified God, And fell down on his face at his feet, giving him thanks: and he was a Samaritan. And Jesus answering said, Were there not ten cleansed? but where are the nine? There are not found that returned to give glory to God, save this stranger. And he said unto him, Arise, go thy way: thy faith hath made thee whole."

First off, the number of the lepers -- 10 -- seems pertinent. (My rule of thumb: if the Bible gives a number, it's important. It's our job to figure out why it's important).

I'm wondering if there's any relation to the contemporary Jewish requirement that there be a minyan (a minimum of 10 men) to hold certain religious rites, including public worship. I don't know if the 10 rule was already observed in first century Palestine. The bigger question I'm wondering is whether this was a synagogue. Would lepers -- being ritually unclean -- have had separate synagogues?

Also -- could the 10 hearken back to Gen. 18.32? ("And he said, Oh let not the LORD be angry, and I will speak yet but this once: Peradventure ten shall be found there. And he said, I will not destroy it for ten's sake.") The number in Gen. 18 is used in some rabbinic arguments for the minimum for a minyan. In Luke 17, there were not 10 found to give thanks. But there was one, and he a "stranger." (Possibly indicating a non-Jew, or a Samaritan (vs. 11) Jew, or a God-fearing gentile).

"The International Community"

Another piece from Voice of America which begins, "The international community expresses outrage ..."

Always remember: when the term "international community" is used, it's a code. It means actions or thoughts which are approved the current US administration, and US poodles around the world.

The US will tolerate any kind of dictatorial actions, heinous crimes, or repression. What will not be tolerated are countries which will not bow the knee to the US.

This is why, for example, China or Israel can commit grievous human rights abuses, while if North Korea or Libya do the same thing, it sets off the Hillary doll. It's because the North Koreans and Libyans don't care if they please the US. That's the one (and only) offense we won't tolerate.

Circumstances and disposition

"I am determined to be cheerful and happy in whatever situation I may find myself. For I have learned that the greater part of our misery or unhappiness is determined not by our circumstance but by our disposition."

Martha Washington
1732-1802, First American First Lady

Catholic churches -- Roman and otherwise

When I was a student at Moody Bible Institute, a church history professor that Rome was not "catholic" (in the "universal" sense) because of its name: The Roman Catholic Church.

Either Rome was Catholic or Roman, but it couldn't be both, or so he argued.

I repeated this once in an online discussion, and someone called me on the carpet, saying that Roman churches called themselves "Catholic," but not "Roman Catholic," and that RC was a term used by those who disagreed with Rome.

I started looking, and realized that the one who said that was right. Roman churches don't call themselves Roman Catholic.

But I saw something interesting yesterday. It was a young child's baptismal certificate, and while it said "Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church," it said that the baptism was "according to the rites of the Roman Catholic Church."

I'm guessing they used the term in contradistinction to the rites used by Eastern Catholic churches, which are in fellowship with Rome, but use a Byzantine rite. Anyone else seen Rome using "Roman Catholic" to describe herself?

Eliminating mess

"Write a goal every single month to eliminate a mess from your life, and when you do - abundance will come in."

Raymond Aaron
Success Coach and Speaker

Lex orandi and transubstantiation

If we follow from the argument (Lex ordandi, lex credendi) that what is found in the liturgy is what is really believed, or at least the most succinct distillation of what is believed, I'm wondering how 2 crucial parts of the liturgy can permit belief in a remaining presence of bread and wine in the Sacramental meal.

Specifically, these:

1) When the communicant receives the elements, he is told, "The Body of Christ," and "The Blood of Christ." If there is a presence of both Body and bread, Blood and wine (the Lutheran doctrine), why is there no mention of the bread and wine? Most Lutherans would argue that a continuing presence of bread and wine is a confessional statement; why no mention of that in the formula?

2) The singing of the Nunc Dimittis after the Communion.

"Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace : according to thy word.
For mine eyes have seen : thy salvation,
Which thou hast prepared : before the face of all people;
To be a light to lighten the Gentiles : and to be the glory of thy people Israel." (BCP, 1662)

St. Simeon, of course, had seen the Incarnate God there in the Temple. But by singing this, we are confessing not that we believe we have received, but that we have seen the Savior. "Seen" as in a visual, seeing of the Savior. We are not confessing to seeing bread or wine -- we are confessing that we have seen the Savior.

There are other questions, of course, about transubstantiation, but these seem to be important liturgical ones.

A French Revelation, or The Burning Bush

I've got to admit to being a bit uncomfortable posting this. Primarily because I disagree with the Council for Secular Humanism, and what they stand for. But they have done us a favor by bringing this to our attention.

The take home message from this? Watch for someone's theology. Especially for someone we're putting in a position of power.

People who imagine that theology (religious faith, beliefs, however you wish to describe it) can be separated from our day to day lives are kidding themselves.

Theology is the most important thing we can know about someone. And every one has a theology. Both "there is no theology" or "I don't believe in God" are theological statements. Likewise those attributed to George W. Bush in this article.

"Incredibly, President George W. Bush told French President Jacques Chirac in early 2003 that Iraq must be invaded to thwart Gog and Magog, the Bible’s satanic agents of the Apocalypse."

How We Can Lead Others in the Health Care Revolution

"There are a lot of things we want to change, but in order to succeed, we decided to target the areas where we could be most successful. We came up with a strategy that is really modeled after how the shift occurred in the tobacco industry. After decades of mass fraud and deception, the truth about the dangers of smoking finally won and became common knowledge."

Behind The Clinton 'Rescue' In North Korea

"The capture of two US reporters of Chinese descent, who worked for Al Gore, and their subsequent rescue from North Korea's clutches by former President Bill Clinton was a setup from the beginning. Nothing reported about this story comes close to the real truth. As I covered the story in a prior brief, the initial capture of the reporters on the frozen Yalu River (where no one could prove which side of the China-NK border they were really on) was a predictable tactic used by North Korea to obtain secret concessions from the US."

Where you're going

"If you don't know where you are going, you will wind up somewhere else!"

"Yogi" Berra
Baseball Player and Team Manager

Doing good

"I expect to pass through this world but once. Any good therefore that I can do, or any kindness that I can show to any fellow creature, let me do it now. Let me not defer or neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again."

William Penn
1644-1718, Religious Leader and founder of Pennsylvania

Seeing good

"The world can change in an instant. So can the way you choose to see it. Why not choose to see the good in yourself and others."

Bob Perks
Author and Speaker

Reasons and results

"Waiting is a trap. There will always be reasons to wait. The truth is, there are only two things in life, reasons and results, and reasons simply don't count."

Dr. Robert Anthony

Obama's revealing body language

"I am stunned that the official White House Blog published this picture and that it is in the public domain. The body language is most revealing.

Sergeant Crowley, the sole class act in this trio, helps the handicapped Professor Gates down the stairs, while Barack Obama, heedless of the infirmities of his friend and fellow victim of self-defined racial profiling, strides ahead on his own. So who is compassionate? And who is so self-involved and arrogant that he is oblivious?"

Shibboleths

I'm intrigued by sounds that we can't make.

Sounds that a 2 year old routinely say are impossible for adult (or even later child) learners to master. The most obvious example are the click consonants found in some southern African languages, such as Xhosa, which I'm told are virtually impossible to master after infancy. Here's an example of such:



But there are other, less egregious examples that are nonetheless still hard for language learners. I was listening to a video this morning. A Dutch speaker was speaking in English pronounced "with" as "wis." The English "th" sound is one of those difficult for native Dutch speakers to master. (I'm reminded of a book I read in high school in which a native Dutch speaker, attempting to learn English spoke of having to exaggeratedly say, for example, "thee-ank you" to try to get the sound out).

But our friends in Amsterdam aren't the first, of course. Judges 12.5-6 recounts the first recorded such problem:

"And the Gileadites took the passages of Jordan before the Ephraimites: and it was so, that when those Ephraimites which were escaped said, Let me go over; that the men of Gilead said unto him, Art thou an Ephraimite? If he said, Nay; Then said they unto him, Say now Shibboleth: and he said Sibboleth: for he could not frame to pronounce it right."

The world as a mirror

"The world is a great mirror. It reflects back to you what you are. If you are loving, if you are friendly, if you are helpful, the world will prove loving and friendly and helpful to you. The world is what you are."

Thomas Dreier
Author

The 3rd Bush administration

I tend to ignore random political comments from bystanders.

A woman pressed the issue this morning. Looking for something at Wal Mart, she said, "Everything's so expensive now!"

I grunted, or made some noise indicating that I'd heard the comment.

She repeated herself, and said, "Don't you think so?" The best response I could come up with was, "They're cheaper here than they would be elsewhere."

She continued. Don't get me wrong: she was a nice person, not a nut, and probably just being friendly. "What do you think they're going to do about health care?"

For me, the good news is I don't think they're going to do much of anything. In other words, their status quo will mean that we retain what parts of our health freedom we still have.

But I said something non-committal, like "I'm sure they're trying to do something," hoping she would be satisfied. She wasn't. She went on to the point of this discussion, "What do you think about what the president's doing?"

Sigh. I feel bad for the true believers. Month after painful month goes along, and this train wreck of a presidency continues to do nothing. But for the believers, it's hard to watch. It reminds me of the reactions of conservatives to the Bush administration. Action after action showed conservatives that Bush was not one of them, and had no intention of rewarding their support.

Now our friends who supported Obama have come to realize that this is yet another imperialist, big government, war-mongering administration. They desperately want to believe that what they're seeing is not true. Many of them imagined that Obama promised things he didn't (such as about the wars). Now reality is setting in. They keep thinking things will get better, that this administration will show a more progressive, enlightened face. It won't. But realizing that is hard.

Creativity, thinking, and guts

"Be creative. Use unconventional thinking. And have the guts to carry it out."

Lee Iacocca
Automobile Executive and Author

The flu and those who don't understand health

"The lottery, they say, is a tax on people who can't do math. Similarly, flu vaccines are a tax on people who don't understand health."

Mike Adams, The Health Ranger

(My only difference would be this: flu vaccines are attacks on people who don't understand health).

Habits of success

"You are what you repeatedly do. Excellence is not an event - it is a habit."

Aristotle
384-322 BC, Greek Philosopher and Scientist

Chlorine in Your Baby Carrots

"The small cocktail or “baby” carrots you buy are made using the larger crooked or deformed carrots which are put through a machine which cuts and shapes them into cocktail carrots. You might have known that already. But what you might not know is that once the carrots are cut and shaped into cocktail carrots, they are dipped in a solution of water and chlorine in order to preserve them."

Why are the Chinese Government and the US Drug Companies So Afraid of Facebook and Twitter?

"Following riots in the western region of Xinjiang, China’s central government has taken steps to block citizens from accessing foreign Web services. In addition to crippling Internet service in general, the authorities have blocked Twitter, removed unapproved references to the violence from search engines, and have now apparently moved to bar citizens from accessing Facebook."

Dr. John Cannell: "Get vitamin D not the flu shot"

The presence of cheerful people

"You will find yourself refreshed by the presence of cheerful people. Why not make earnest effort to confer that pleasure on others? Half the battle is gained if you never allow yourself to say anything gloomy."

Lydia M. Child
1802-1880, Abolitionist and Writer

Peggy Noonan: Common Sense May Sink ObamaCare

"This is big, what’s happening. President Obama appears to have misstepped on a major initiative and defining issue. He has misjudged the nation’s mood, which itself is news: He rose from nothing to everything with the help of his fine-tuned antennae. Resistance to the Democratic health-care plans is in the air, showing up more now on YouTube than in the polls, but it will be in the polls soon enough. The president, in short, may be facing a real loss."

Exercise Fights Fatty Liver Disease

"Currently, patients with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease are encouraged to alter their lifestyles, but the focus has been on weight loss through dietary changes. But when patients were encouraged to be active for at least 150 minutes per week, they showed improvements in liver enzymes and other metabolic indices, which were not connected to weight loss."

A Kidney Stone's #1 Natural Enemy

Oil Pulling is a Simple, Inexpensive Method to Improve Your Health

"(NaturalNews) How do we break the inflammation cycle and encourage the body to operate at a heightened level of efficiency? Ayurvedic practitioners employ oil pulling as a simple, but powerful means to encourage the body in this process. By swishing sesame oil in one`s mouth, first thing in the morning, one stimulates the digestive system as well as the blood to cleanse and feed cells of the various organs. In this way, the stress that inflammation places on these organs decreases."

Being serious

"The one important thing I have learned over the years is the difference between taking one's work seriously and taking one's self seriously. The first is imperative and the second is disastrous."

Margaret Fontey
Author

Not with man's words

"But in all these speculations let our understanding have sufficient coherence with the rule of piety, and let us think of the Holy Spirit's words not as something that shines as a speech fashioned by frail human eloquence, but, as it is written, 'All the king's glory is within.' (Psalm 44.14 LXX - 45.13) and the treasure of divine meanings is confined, shut up within the frail vessel of the common letter (cf. 2 Cor. 4.7)."

Origen, On First Principles, "How Scripture should be understood"

What happens when you create

"When you create you get a little endorphin rush. Why do you think Einstein looked like that?"

Robin Williams
Comic/Actor

Learn How Banaba Leaf Extract Can Promote Healthy Blood Sugar Levels

"(NaturalNews) Diabetes and insulin resistance have swept the nation - and with them, a growing list of pharmaceutical drugs that cause as many problems as they solve, if not more. Many diabetes drugs now carry warning labels about their dangerous side effects, which can include an increased risk of heart failure. There's no question as to why so many people are searching for natural alternatives, like banaba leaf extract, that can help them manage blood sugar."

Vitamin D Crisis Unfolds as Americans Live Indoors

"(NaturalNews) Seventy percent of whites and 97 percent of blacks in the United States have insufficient blood levels of vitamin D, according to a study conducted by researchers from Harvard University and the University of Colorado, and published in the journal Archives of Internal Medicine."

Improving your aim

"When the archer misses the mark, he turns and looks for the fault within himself. Failure to hit the bull's eye is never the fault of the target. To improve your aim - improve yourself."

Gilbert Arland
Writer

Changing things

"You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete."

R. Buckminster Fuller
1895-1983, Architect, Author and Inventor

If you're worried about swine flu

Are you worried about swine flu?

Lots of folks are. Although the reality is that swine flu is no different from any other flu that millions get every year. Although that's not to take away how nasty flu is -- it's uncomfortable, it hurts, and under the worst circumstances, it can be deadly.

This is some very, very good advice for those concerned about this or any other flu.

What you want

"Beware what you set your heart upon. For it shall surely be yours."

Ralph Waldo Emerson
1803-1882, Poet and Essayist

Making progress

"Behold the turtle: He only makes progress when he sticks his neck out."

James Bryant Conant
1893-1978, Educator and Diplomat

Friends

"A real friend is one who walks in when the rest of the world walks out."

Walter Winchell
1897-1972, Journalist

What you are struggling with

"The forces you are struggling with, that you feel are holding you back - are illusions. They are not real - they never have been. See only the good that you desire in your mind."

Bob Proctor

Researchers Find Caffeine Effective Alzheimer’s Treatment

"If you happen to be a heavy coffee drinker, you might be helping your brain protect itself from Alzheimer’s disease.

While a number of advanced Alzheimer’s drugs and treatments have been developed in recent years, University of Florida researcher Gary Arendash believes coffee drinkers -- and other caffeine consumers -- are not just protecting themselves, but actually treating symptoms that might appear."

Getting rid of the unwanted: breathtaking comments from Justice Ginsburg

"Yes, the ruling about that surprised me. [Harris v. McRae — in 1980 the court upheld the Hyde Amendment, which forbids the use of Medicaid for abortions.] Frankly I had thought that at the time Roe was decided, there was concern about population growth and particularly growth in populations that we don’t want to have too many of. So that Roe was going to be then set up for Medicaid funding for abortion."

Supreme Court Associate Justice Ruth Ginsburg

Christians in Jerusalem want Jews to stop spitting on them

"A few weeks ago, a senior Greek Orthodox clergyman in Israel attended a meeting at a government office in Jerusalem's Givat Shaul quarter. When he returned to his car, an elderly man wearing a skullcap came and knocked on the window. When the clergyman let the window down, the passerby spat in his face"

Cancer Screening: Does It Really Save Lives?

"(NaturalNews) Anne is a good patient. She sees her doctor for regular checkups, has yearly mammograms, Pap tests, and colon cancer screenings, and she even paid for a full-body CT scan out of her own pocket. She figures she's doing everything she can to make sure she doesn't get cancer.

Truth is, Anne is doing nothing to prevent cancer. Although cancer screening is billed as a preventive service that saves lives, the best it can do is detect disease in its early stages, when it is supposedly easier to treat. Nevertheless, every year millions of Americans dutifully line up for their screenings, completely unaware that they may be doing more harm than good."

Unvisited tombs

" ... for the growing good of the world is partly dependent on unhistoric acts; and that things are not so ill with you and me as they might have been, is half owing to the number who lived faithfully a hidden life, and rest in unvisited tombs.”

Mary Ann Evans (writing as George Eliot) in Middlemarch

Gusto!

"To do anything truly worth doing, I must not stand back shivering and thinking of the cold and danger, but jump in with gusto and scramble through as well as I can."

Og Mandino
1923-1996, Author and Speaker

Becoming a saint

"Who is there who has escaped the belly of the whale that swallows up every fugitive from God but has been subdued by Jesus our Savior, that does not become like Jonah a saint filled with the Holy Spirit?"

Origen, On Prayer

'Shakespeare' by Another Name: an Amazon review

"William Shakespeare appears in history as a moderately successful businessman and theater promoter of whom relatively little biographical information is known. On the other hand, the plays, sonnets and poetry attributed to Shakespeare are well known, and still loved over 400 years later. What's difficult is connecting Shakespeare the man and Shakespeare the author and playwright. Mark Anderson (following in the path of many before him) posits that there's no need to try to connect the two -- because the author is, in fact, Edward de Vere.

This is a well-written and copiously footnoted book, a biography of de Vere which also makes the case for de Vere's authorship of the Shakespeare canon. In addition, the book gives a well-written and insightful view of late 16th century England and of life in Queen Elizabeth's reign. It's scholarly and entertaining -- a combination not usually found."

His Blood be on us

What sounds like a self-imprecation is more a blessing -- though those who said it probably didn't realize what they were saying.

Matthew 27.24-25: "When Pilate saw that he could prevail nothing, but that rather a tumult was made, he took water, and washed his hands before the multitude, saying, I am innocent of the blood of this just person: see ye to it. Then answered all the people, and said, His blood be on us, and on our children."

Compare this with Exodus 29.21: "And thou shalt take of the blood that is upon the altar, and of the anointing oil, and sprinkle it upon Aaron, and upon his garments, and upon his sons, and upon the garments of his sons with him: and he shall be hallowed, and his garments, and his sons, and his sons' garments with him."

By the sprinkling of blood, Aaron and his sons were made holy.

So those in the crowd who begged for Jesus' death.

His Blood was on them -- and they were hallowed by it. Hebrews 9.22: "And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission."

(Also worth thinking about is Ezekiel 36.25, a passage showing a pre-incarnation example of Baptism: "Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you."

What makes good things happen

"All I want to do is just go out there and play hard. If I do that, good things will happen. It's as simple as that."

Carlos Pena
All-Star Baseball Player

Conflicting philosophies

"'Philosophies that are incompatible cannot debate one another. There must be some common ground, some problem of life which both accept as crucial and to which the philosophies offer different answers. Otherwise instead of a debate there is simply the revelation of different premises or different concepts of the function of philosophy.' Between Christianity and Marxism there can be no meaningful 'dialogue.' Charles Hodge, the great 19th-century Calvinist theologian, put it this way: the last issue of history will be the conflict between 'Atheism and its countless forms and Calvinism. The other systems will be crushed as the half-rotten ice between two great bergs.' Neither the consistent Marxist nor the consistent Christian can hope for a reconciliation between the two systems; it is a question of total intellectual warfare. Members of both sides are convinced that their ultimate triumph is inevitable. The issue is basically a conflict in the realm of faith."

Gary North, Marx's Religion of Revolution, p. 3

Pathematics

I suffered from math instruction throughout my childhood.

(In their defense, my teachers no doubt suffered more than I ever did. But that's another story. : )

But friend and aerospace engineer Dean Driver has come up with a system that perhaps makes math learning less painful for the math-phobic like myself. I'm not one to evaluate the merits of the system, but it seems like a good place to start.

Pathematics.

The Most Powerful Health Recommendation of Dr. Andrew Weil

Those who are happy

"We deem those happy who from the experience of life have learnt to bear its ills without being overcome by them."

Carl Jung
1875-1961, Psychiatrist

'Life Force' Linked to Your Ability to Withstand Stress

"Your ability to withstand stress-related, inflammatory diseases may be related to your personality. Especially in aging women, a lack of the personality trait known as extroversion may signal that blood levels of a key inflammatory molecule have crossed over a threshold linked to a doubling of risk of death within five years."

Yesterday, tomorrow -- and today

"Yesterday is a canceled check: Forget it. Tomorrow is a promissory note: Don't count on it. Today is ready cash: Use it!"

Edwin C. Bliss
Author

Who blew up the London subways on 7/7/05?

Americans -- and the rest of the world -- continues to suffer from the shock of the 9/11 events. What we sometimes forget is that a similar incident occurred in London on July 7, 2005, when there was a series of monumental subway explosions. As with the events on 9/11/01, the official explanations of the 7/7 events have odd holes in the stories. This is a fairly good introduction to the anomalies of the 7/7 official story.

Conspiracy fever: As rumours swell that the government staged 7/7, victims' relatives call for a proper inquiry

Israeli authorities threaten demolition of 500 church buildings in Jerusalem

"Israeli forces have recently stepped up demolitions in the Old City of Jerusalem, in accordance with the Municipality's published E1 plan for the city, in which officials articulate a detailed plan to push out the Palestinian Christian and Muslim populations, while simultaneously increasing construction of Jewish-only homes and housing developments."

Experience the many benefits of coconut oil

Why cutting calories isn't the answer to losing weight

If one of your goals is to lose weight (believe it or not, I'm thinking in terms of Independence Day here in the States -- declaring your independence from fat!), you've heard over and over that the secret to losing weight is to take in less calories than you expend in exercise.

That's a fallacy.

Here's why:

Enthusiasm!

"Nothing great was ever accomplished without enthusiasm."

Ralph Waldo Emerson

The greatest gift

"The first great gift we can bestow on others is a good example."

Thomas Morell
1703-1784, Classical Scholar

Can Your Diet Prevent Depression?

"Depression is an established risk factor for the development of coronary heart disease (CHD). Dietary factors resulting in lower levels of omega-3 fats not only increase CHD risk, but may also cause depression."

Agave: A Triumph of Marketing over Truth

"The popularity of agave syrup, also called agave nectar, is on a meteoric rise -- thanks in large part to clever marketing which positions the product as a healthy alternative to sugar and artificial sweeteners."

Quick and (Almost) Painless Ways to Kill Distractions

"Are you spending more time dealing with emails, IMs, phone calls, and random stray files than actually working? Here are ten actions you can do right now to kill distractions and get back to work."

Learn How to Detox with a Coconut Oil Cleanse

"(NaturalNews) With fad detox methods around every corner, it's hard to know which one can provide a healthy cleanse without unpleasant side effects. A coconut oil detox is an excellent way to cleanse without using complicated formulas or living off nothing but water for days on end. Coconut oil is a powerful cleansing food that also provides plenty of natural energy during a detox."

How to save more money on your cell phone bills

I've mentioned before about how you can save money on your cell phone bill. Here's another idea for cell phone savings -- and it's one you can use on your landlines, too.

800-GOOG-411 (800-466-4411) will also connect to businesses in Canada. (The programs asks for "city and state"; just give the city and the province for Canadian calls).

This is a good way to save if your cell plan -- like mine -- charges extra for calls to Canada.

(I'm not sure if 800-GOOG-411 can be dialed within Canada. But I did find that it works for calls to the country from the states).

The one who does something

"It is time for us all to stand and cheer for the doer, the achiever - the one who recognizes the challenges and does something about it."

Vince Lombardi
1913-1970, American Football Coach