So after landing my new job as a Wal-Mart greeter,
a good find for many retirees,
I lasted less than a day……

About two hours into my first day on the job a very loud,
unattractive, mean-acting woman walked into the store with her two kids,
yelling obscenities at them all the way through the entrance.

As I had  been instructed, I said pleasantly, ‘Good morning and welcome to Wal-Mart.
Nice children you have there. Are they twins?’
The ugly woman stopped yelling long enough to say,
‘Hell no, they ain’t twins. The oldest one’s 9, and the other one’s 7.
Why the hell would you think they’re twins? Are you blind, or just stupid?’

So I replied,
‘I’m neither blind nor stupid, Ma’am,
I just couldn’t believe someone slept with you twice.
Have a good day and thank you for shopping at Wal-Mart.’

My supervisor said I probably wasn’t cut out for this line of work.

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Your best anti-swine
flu defense kit

The first salvo in worldwide epidemics is unfolding, much as I have been suggesting it would. This one is an influenza, not the dreaded bird flu. Nevertheless, it’s already proven to be a killer.

This virus, termed A-H1N1, has gene segments from North American swine, bird, and human flu strains and a segment from Eurasian swine. This is unusual and very worrisome. We’ve predicted mixed genetic strains for a long time. A virus that is more avian, but with human-to-human transmission, could be a worldwide horror similar to the Spanish flu epidemic of 1917-1918.

As a result, world governments are scrambling wildly to do “something.” But just doing “something” doesn’t mean that it will do any good. Sometimes, we have to let nature run its course.

You will possibly see forced action by governments. In Mexico, the government is requiring people to use masks. And they’re shutting down churches and businesses. I have seen suggestions that governments will shut down airports, quarantining people at the airports, and possibly grab them from their homes and offices. Travel may collapse. And there’s a growing prospect of forced vaccines. But vaccines (forced or voluntary) won’t stop this flu.

Hysteria has not peaked, yet. Fortunately, it hasn’t been as deadly in the U.S. as in Mexico. However, it’s spreading rapidly around the world.

In the jet age, it will be about impossible to contain a human-to-human transmission of an easily transmitted airborne pathogen. One early or lightly infected passenger in an airport could spread the disease almost around the world in a day, with no one even knowing. Trying to contain an easily spread virus is nuts. Instead, you must take action now — the right action.

Your best defense against the virus is a healthy immune system. If there are people sick around you, supplements are required immediately. Here are several you should have in your swine-flu defense kit (most of these are available at your local health food store or on the Internet). You’ll notice that several of them have what seem to be high doses. Sometimes short bursts of pharmacological doses of vitamins can dramatically empower an immune system that’s defending against a serious invader like a killer flu. I have not seen any toxicity from these doses used as I have outlined. If you suspect you are exposed to the virus, take:

If you do develop symptoms, add these to your regimen:

If you have significant symptoms, consider oxidation therapy (ozone, hydrogen peroxide, or ultraviolet blood irradiation) from an oxidation provider. I’ve seen it get rid of influenza very quickly, including my own case. I generally recommend it with the first symptoms of a flu infection, not waiting until it’s severe. Intravenous vitamin C (25-50 grams over a few hours) can also remedy symptoms quickly.

With this defense kit, you can fight the swine flu — or any flu — easily and without major doctors’ bills. So don’t panic — but do take action today to protect yourself.

If you’d like more information on how to beat the flu — or any other viral or bacterial infection, I’ve got a lot more on my website. In fact, I’ve written a special report on how you can protect yourself. Just follow this link to learn how to get this report for free.

Yours for better health and medical freedom,

Robert Jay Rowen, MD

Ref: Neurology, 2008 June 14.

Please read the whole thing before you make any judgments.

This letter was sent to the Wall Street Journal on August 8, 2008 by Alisa Wilson,
Ph.D. Of Beverly Hills , CA . in response to the Wall Street Journal article
titled “Where’s The Outrage?” that appeared July 31,2008.

Really. I can tell you where the outrage is. The outrage is here, in this middle-aged,
well-educated, upper-middle class woman. The outrage is here, but I have no
representation, no voice The outrage is here, but no one is listening for who am I?

I am not a billionaire like George Soros that can fund an entire political movement.
I am not a celebrity like Barbra Streisand that can garner the attention of the press
to promote political candidates.
I am not a film maker like Michael Moore or Al Gore that can deliver misleading movies
to the public.

The outrage is here, but unlike those with money or power, I don’t know how to reach
those who feel similarly in order to effect change.
Why am I outraged? I am outraged that my country, the United States of America , is in
a state of moral and ethical decline. There is no right or wrong anymore, just what’s
fair.

Is it fair that millions of Americans who overreached and borrowed more than they could
afford are now being bailed out by the government and lending institutions to stave off
foreclosure? Why shouldn’t these people be made to pay the consequences for their poor
judgment?

When my husband and I purchased our home, we were careful to purchase only what we
could afford. Believe me, there are much larger, much nicer homes that I would have
loved to have purchased But, taking responsibility for my behavior and my life, I went
with the house that we could afford, not the house that we could not afford. The notion
of personal responsibility has all but died in our country.

I am outraged, that the country that welcomed my mother as an immigrant from Hitler’s
Nazi Germany and required that she and her family learn English now allows itself to be
overrun with illegal immigrants and worse, caters to those illegal immigrants.

I am outraged that my hard-earned taxes help support those here illegally. That the Los
Angeles Public School District is in such disarray that I felt it incumbent to send my
child to private school, that every time I go to the ATM, I see “do you want to
continue in English or Spanish?”, that every time I call the bank, the phone company ,
or similar business, I hear “press 1 for English or press 2 for Spanish”. WHY? This is
America , our common language is English and attempts to promote a bi- or multi-lingual
society are sure to fail and to marginalize those who cannot communicate in English.

I am outraged at our country’s weakness in the face of new threats on American
traditions from Muslims. Just this week, Tyson’s Food negotiated with its union to
permit Muslims to have Eid-al-Fitr as a holiday instead of Labor Day. What am I
missing? Yes, there is a large Somali Muslim population working at the Tyson’s plant in
Tennessee . Tennessee , last I checked, is still part of the United States . If Muslims
want to live and work here they should be required to live and work by our American
Laws and not impose their will on our long history..

In the same week, Random House announced that they had indefinitely delayed the
publication of The Jewel of Medina, by Sherry Jones, a book about the life of
Mohammed’s wife, Aisha due to fear of retribution and violence by Muslims. When did we
become a nation ruled by fear of what other immigrant groups want? It makes me so sad
to see large corporations cave rather than stand proudly on the principles that built
this country.

I am outraged because appeasement has never worked as a political policy, yet appeasing
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is exactly what we are trying to do. An excellent article, also
published recently in the Wall Street Journal, went through over 20 years of history
and why talking with Iran has been and will continue to be ineffective. Yet talk, with
a madman no less, we continue to do. Have we so lost our moral compass and its ability
to detect evil that we will not go in and destroy Iran ’s nuclear program? Would we
rather wait for another Holocaust for the Jews - one which they would be unlikely to
survive? When does it end?

As if the battle for good and evil isn’t enough, now come the Environmentalists who are
so afraid of global warming that they want to put a Bag tax on grocery bags in
California; to eliminate Mylar balloons; to establish something as insidious as the
recycle police in San Francisco. I do my share for the environment: I recycle, I use
water wisely, I installed an energy efficient air conditioning unit. But when and where
does the lunacy stop? Ahmadinejad wants to wipe Israel off the map, the California
economy is being overrun by illegal immigrants, and the United States of America no
longer knows right from wrong, good from evil.. So what does California do? Tax grocery
bags.

So, America , although I can tell you where the outrage is, this one middle-aged, well-
educated, upper middle class woman is powerless to do anything about it. I don’t even
feel like my vote counts because I am so outnumbered by those who disagree with me.

Alisa Wilson, Ph.D. Beverly Hills , California

There are a lot more out there who think just like Alisa Wilson, the only difference,
she put her thoughts in an email that will reach thousands. I would like to keep this
going and see how big it gets.

Monday, April 20, 2009

Botanical “Nigella Sativa” Fights Pancreatic Cancer & More

Hot off the press, a Middle Eastern botanical, Nigella sativa, sometimes called black cumin oil, has been shown to inhibit the development of pancreatic cancer cells. The active ingredient, thymoquinone, offered anti-inflammatory benefits that stopped pancreatic cancer cells from releasing inflammatory mediators.

In a recent study conducted by Dr. Hwyda Arafat, an associate professor of Surgery at the Jefferson Medical College of Thomas Jefferson University, 67 percent of pancreatic cancer tumors were shrunken and proinflammatory cytokines in the tumors were significantly reduced with the use of thymoquinone from Nigella sativa.

Pretty cool, especially when it turns out that this same herbal extract (the oil from the Nigella sativa seed) has shown anti-cancer properties against prostate and colon cancers.

The flowers from this botanical are quite attractive, and the herb has been used both as a spice in foods and liquors as well as in folk medicine to treat a variety of conditions, including those of the respiratory, stomach, intestines, kidneys, liver, ciculatory, and immune systems. Clearly, there are a lot of traditional botanicals that have yet to find their way into “mainstream” integrative medicine!

LET’S ALL SURRENDER OUR WEAPONS — YOU FIRST!
by Ann Coulter
April 8, 2009

The rash of recent shooting incidents has led people who wouldn’t know an AK-47 from a paintball gun to issue demands for more restrictions on guns. To be sure, it’s hard to find any factor in these shootings that could be responsible — other than the gun.

So far, this year’s public multiple shootings were committed by:

– Richard Poplawski, 23, product of a broken family, expelled from high school and dishonorably discharged from the Marines, who killed three policemen in Pittsburgh.

– Former crack addict Jiverly Wong, 41, who told co-workers “America sucks” yet somehow was not offered a job as a speechwriter for Barack Obama. Wong blockaded his victims in a civic center in Binghamton, N.Y., and shot as many people as he could, before killing himself.

– Robert Stewart, 45, a three-time divorcee and high school dropout with “violent tendencies” — according to one of his ex-wives — who shot up the nursing home in Carthage, N.C., where his newly estranged wife worked.

– Lovelle Mixon, 26, a paroled felon, struggling to get his life back on track by pimping, who shot four cops in Oakland, Calif. — before eventually being shot himself.

– Twenty-eight-year-old Michael McLendon, child of divorce, living with his mother and boycotting family funerals because he hated his relatives, who killed 10 of those relatives and their neighbors in Samson, Ala.

It might make more sense to outlaw men than guns. Or divorce. Or crack. Or to prohibit felons from having guns. Except we already outlaw crack and felons owning guns and yet still, somehow, Wong got crack and Mixon got a gun.

After being pulled over for a routine traffic violation, Lovelle Mixon did exactly what they teach in driver’s ed by immediately shooting four cops. Mixon’s supporters held a posthumous rally in his honor, claiming he shot the cops only in “self-defense,” which I take it includes the cop Mixon shot while the officer was lying on the ground.

I guess Mixon also raped that 12-year-old girl in “self-defense.” Clearly, the pimping industry has lost a good man. I wish I’d known him. I tip my green velvet fedora with the dollar signs all over it to him. Why do the good ones always die young? Pimps, I mean.

Liberals tolerate rallies on behalf of cop-killers, but they prohibit law-abiding citizens working at community centers in Binghamton, N.Y., from being armed to defend themselves from disturbed, crack-addicted America-haters like Jiverly Wong.

It’s something in liberals’ DNA: They think they can pass a law eliminating guns and nuclear weapons, but teenagers having sex is completely beyond our control.

The demand for more gun control in response to any crime involving a gun is exactly like Obama’s response to North Korea’s openly belligerent act of launching a long-range missile this week: Obama leapt to action by calling for worldwide nuclear disarmament.

If the SAT test were used to determine how stupid a liberal is, one question would be: “The best defense against lawless rogues who possess _______ is for law-abiding individuals to surrender their own _______________.”

Correct answer: Guns. We would also have accepted nuclear weapons.

Obama explained that “the United States has a moral responsibility” to lead disarmament efforts because America is “the only nuclear power to have used a nuclear weapon.”

So don’t go feeling all morally superior to a country whose business model consists of exporting heroin, nuclear bombs and counterfeit U.S. dollars, and of importing Swedish prostitutes, you yahoo Americans with your little flag lapel pins.

On the other hand, the Japanese haven’t acted up much in the last, say, 64 years …

Fortunately, our sailors didn’t wait around for Obama to save them when Somali pirates boarded their ship this week. Stop right now or I’ll ask the U.N. to remind the “international community” that “the U.S. is not at war with Somali pirates.”

Gun-toting Americans are clearly more self-sufficient than the sissy Europeans. This is great news for everyone except Barney Frank, who’s always secretly wondered what it would be like to be taken by a Somali pirate.

Police — whom I gather liberals intend to continue having guns — and intrepid U.N. resolution drafters can’t be everywhere, all the time.

If a single civilian in that Binghamton community center had been armed, instead of 14 dead, there might have only been one or two — including the shooter. In the end, the cops didn’t stop Wong. His killing spree ended only when he decided to stop, and he killed himself.

“The shooter will eventually run out of ammo” strategy may not be the best one for stopping deranged multiple murderers.

But it’s highly unlikely that any community center in the entire state would be safe from a disturbed former crack-addict like Wong because New York’s restrictive gun laws require a citizen to prove he has a need for a gun to obtain a concealed carry permit.

Instead of having Planned Parenthood distribute condoms in schools, they ought to get the NRA to pass out revolvers. It would save more lives.

COPYRIGHT 2009 ANN COULTER
DISTRIBUTED BY UNIVERSAL PRESS SYNDICATE
1130 Walnut, Kansas City, MO 64106

Gutsy Germs Succumb to Baby Broccoli

Video clips of Johns Hopkins researchers Jed Fahey and Paul Talalay are available at: http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/Press_releases/2009/04_06_09.html

Newswise — A small, pilot study in 50 people in Japan suggests that eating two and a half ounces of broccoli sprouts daily for two months may confer some protection against a rampant stomach bug that causes gastritis, ulcers and even stomach cancer.

Citing their new “demonstration of principle” study, a Johns Hopkins researcher and an international team of scientists caution that eating sprouts containing sulforaphane did not cure infection by the bacterium Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori). They do not suggest that eating this or any amount of broccoli sprouts will protect anyone from stomach cancer or cure GI diseases.

However, the study does show that eating a daily dose of broccoli sprouts reduced by more than 40 percent the level of HpSA, a highly specific measure of the presence of components of H. pylori shed into the stool of infected people. There was no HpSA level change in control subjects who ate alfalfa sprouts. The HpSA levels returned to pretreatment levels eight weeks after people stopped eating the broccoli sprouts, suggesting that although they reduce H. pylori colonization, they do not eradicate it.

“The highlight of the study is that we identified a food that, if eaten regularly, might potentially have an effect on the cause of a lot of gastric problems and perhaps even ultimately help prevent stomach cancer,” says Jed W. Fahey, M.S., Sc.D., an author of the paper who is a nutritional biochemist in the Lewis B. and Dorothy Cullman Cancer Chemoprotection Center at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

The discovery that sulforaphane is a potent antibiotic against H. pylori was reported in 2002 by Fahey and colleagues at Johns Hopkins. “Broccoli sprouts have a much higher concentration of sulforaphane than mature heads,” Fahey explains, adding that further investigation is needed to affirm the results of this clinical trial and move the research forward. The study, published April 6 in Cancer Prevention Research, builds on earlier test-tube and mouse studies at Johns Hopkins and elsewhere about the potential value of sulforaphane, a naturally occurring biochemical found in relative abundance in fresh broccoli sprouts. (http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/press/2002/may/020528.htm) Sulforaphane appears to trigger cells in the body, including in the gastrointestinal tract, to produce enzymes that protect against oxygen radicals, DNA-damaging chemicals, and inflammation.

In the new report, the team also shows that when H. pylori-infected mice sipped broccoli-sprout smoothies for eight weeks, there was up to a fourfold increase in the activity of two of these key enzymes that protect cells against oxidative damage. In addition, the number of Helicobacter bacteria in the mice’s stomachs decreased by almost a hundredfold it did not change in infected control animals that drank plain water. The researchers also noted a greater than 50 percent reduction in inflammation of the primary target of this bacterium – the body of the stomach – in treated mice but not in controls.

In a related experiment, the team fed the same dose of broccoli sprouts for the same amount of time to H. pylori-infected mice that had been genetically engineered to lack the Nrf2 gene that activates protective enzymes. “These knock-out mice didn’t respond,” Fahey says, which confirms previous findings for a role of Nrf2 in protection against H. pylori-induced inflammation and gastritis.

Classified a carcinogen by the World Health Organization, H. pylori is a gastrointestinal tract germ that manages to thrive in the lining of the stomach despite the strength of natural acids there that rival that of car batteries. Afflicting several billion people – roughly half of the world’s population – this corkscrew-shaped bacterium has long been associated with stomach ulcers, which now are frequently cured by antibiotics. Research strongly suggests that the bacteria also are linked to high rates of stomach cancer in some countries, that strains resistant to standard antibiotics are prevalent, and that multiple courses of standard antibiotics do not always eliminate the infection.

Working in Japan where there is high incidence of chronic H. pylori-infection, the research team gave 25 H. pylori-infected subjects two and a half ounces (70 grams) per day of broccoli sprouts for two months. Another 25 infected people consumed an equivalent amount of alfalfa sprouts which, although rich in phytochemicals, don’t contain sulforaphane.

The researchers assessed the severity of Helicobacter infection at the start of the study, after four and eight weeks of treatment, and again eight weeks after intervention was stopped. They used breath tests to assess colonization by H. pylori bacteria and blood tests to judge the severity of inflammation in the stomach lining; in addition, they looked for antigens in stool samples to help determine the extent of the infections.

“We know that a dose of a couple ounces a day of broccoli sprouts is enough to elevate the body’s protective enzymes,” Fahey says. “That is the mechanism by which we think a lot of the chemoprotective effects are occurring.

“What we don’t know is whether it’s going to prevent people from getting stomach cancer. But the fact that the levels of infection and inflammation were reduced suggests the likelihood of getting gastritis and ulcers and cancer is probably reduced.”

In disclosure of a potential conflict of interest, Fahey is a cofounder of, but holds no equity in, a company that is licensed by The Johns Hopkins University to produce broccoli sprouts. A portion of the proceeds is used to help support cancer research, but no such funds were provided to support this study.

“It’s exciting that a chronic bacterial infection that poses great hazards to hundreds of millions of people globally can be ameliorated by a specific dietary strategy,” says Paul Talalay, M.D., John Jacob Abel Distinguished Service Professor of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics and director of the Lewis B. and Dorothy Cullman Cancer Chemoprotection Center at Johns Hopkins’ Institute for Basic Biomedical Sciences.

Talalay directs the lab where, in 1992, his team discovered the health-promoting properties of sulforaphane. A longtime proponent of cancer prevention and chemoprotection, Talalay eats fresh broccoli sprouts regularly, as does Fahey.

“I like them,” Fahey says. “I eat them all the time, but not every day. Variety is the spice of life: I eat blueberries on the other days.”

In addition to Fahey, the authors of the paper are Akinori Yanaka, Atsushi Fukumoto, Mari Nakayama and Souta Inoue, Tokyo University of Science, Japan; Masayuki Yamamoto, Songhua Zhang, Masafumi Tauchi, Hideo Suzuki and Ichinosuke Hyodo, University of Tsukuba, Japan.

The Key to Personal Freedom
by Alexander Green

Dear Reader,

Due to rising unemployment and the sharp contraction in the economy, personal bankruptcies are hitting record levels, up more than 50% from a year ago.

There is another factor here too, of course. Millions overreached.

In some ways, this is understandable. It’s natural to want to improve our circumstances, enjoy the best life has to offer and “go for the gusto.”

Without moderation, however, our wants have no natural limits.

True, some of us have fewer desires than others. Yet conservative spenders don’t necessarily lack ambition, imagination or even money. More often than not, they have spent years cultivating an attitude of restraint.

Freedom, after all, is not the absence of responsibility. It is the absence of restraints imposed by others. To be truly free, however, we must generally impose severe restraints on ourselves.

That often means delayed gratification… or settling for less… or simply doing without.

This is bitter medicine to the thousands of consumers who hang on to their material desires like caterpillars to a cabbage leaf. Especially when the media glamorizes the materialistic lifestyle, their neighbors - who may be two payments from the edge - are living high, and advertisers bombard them daily with subtle - and not-so-subtle - messages meant to stir their cravings.

There is a reliable defense, however. And it begins with your frame of mind.

If you or someone in your family suffers from the “urge to splurge,” here are four steps to help reclaim your personal freedom - and, perhaps, your credit rating:

1. Recognize that we are wired to feel dissatisfied with our circumstances. It’s in our genes. An early human who was content with what he had - who spent his days lazing on the African savannah admiring the clouds and thinking “ahh, life is good” - was far less likely to survive and reproduce than his neighbor who spent every waking moment trying to gain some advantage.
2. Understand the psychology of desire. We all tend to “miswant” - to want things we don’t really need and won’t appreciate once we acquire them. Remember how your last major purchase failed to “do it for you” and you’re less likely to believe that this time will be any different.
3. Stop regarding life as an ongoing competition for social status. Opt out of the game - even if everyone else seems to be playing it - and you can’t be controlled or disappointed by the opinions of others. Do work you enjoy, even if it’s lower paying. Spend your time and money collecting great memories rather than more stuff.
4. Instead of focusing on what you want, try appreciating what you already have. Nothing cures your craving for the next bauble like the thought of losing your partner, your children, your health, or the things you already own.

In “On Desire: Why We Want What We Want,” William B. Irvine argues that many of us lack “a sense that we are lucky to be living whatever life we happen to be living - that despite our circumstances, no key ingredient of happiness is missing. With this sense comes a diminished level of anxiety; we no longer need to obsess over the things - a new car, a bigger house, a firmer abdomen - that we mistakenly believe will bring lasting happiness if only we can obtain them. Most importantly, if we master desire, to the extent possible to do so, we will no longer daydream about living the life someone else is living; instead, we will embrace our own life and live it to the fullest.”

Sounds simple enough. Yet we face a powerful headwind.

Modern culture and our own heritage have programmed us to want ceaselessly, spend liberally and compete for resources in order to keep up with the Joneses. Millions today suffer from so-called “status anxiety.”

Their prison, however, is entirely self-imposed. Unbeknownst to most of them, the key is right between their ears.

Any of us can make the conscious choice to turn our backs on the consumptive lifestyle and live simply, happily and with dignity.

Idealistic? Perhaps. But then freedom often is.