Frankenfoods

Last night the son and his girlfriend came over to our home to watch a movie and hang out as they tend to do a couple of times each week.  I think they spend a few nights over at her parent's home each week and then a couple of nights hanging out with friends. On a rare occasion the son comes home from work and stays home, usually to catch up on sleep.  Anyway, girlfriend brought over the New York Times newspaper for me to read (she works at Starbucks and gets them there) so I went on upstairs with the paper, some coffee and a book (The Book Thief) and left them to their movie.

Wow, I MISS the New York Times newspaper.  Once upon a time we had it delivered to our home daily but the expense was too much and I canceled it.  Then I asked the library if they would subscribe to it and they did for awhile but it was too expensive I guess and they canceled as well.  So Starbucks is the place to go get the newspaper if I want it bad enough.  I did not know that but then again I don't go to Starbucks.  The girlfriend also brings us these expensive coffees because she gets more than she can drink each week as a employee perk but I turn my nose up at most of them because 1) they are not organic coffees,  2) they are not free trade and 3) they aren't French roast.  I love organic, free trade French roast coffee and that is about all I will drink when it comes to coffee.

So I am up in my room reading the paper when I see several stories that catch my attention.  The first story is about plus sized women's clothing.  64% of American women are overweight.  64%!!!  A third of those women are obese, which means way, way, way overweight.  I wonder what the numbers are for men?  Since this was an article about women's clothing though, it didn't say but I'm guessing it's probably just as bad, maybe a tad lower.  Isn't that incredible?  I mean, isn't that horrible and why aren't we doing something about it?  I told my husband that everyday--EVERY.SINGLE.DAY--I eat foods that are genetically modified, have hormones and antibiotics added to them and I'm trying REALLY HARD to not eat them, to eat healthy. I go out of my way to avoid these foods but they are everywhere, everywhere, everywhere.

Most people are not aware of how contaminated our foods are and it shows.  It shows up in their bellies, and on their waist lines, it shows up in early periods for girls as well as in huge boobs (for the guys, I just wrote boobs, now you slobber you poor saps), and it shows up in early heart disease, diabetes, and in mental disorders such as ADHD.  We, as a nation, are SICK.  Agribusinesses are killing us--slowly yes, this stuff doesn't happen overnight, it happens slowly day by day and week by week and year by year until finally you get cancer, you have a heart attack--whatever, these frankenfoods we eat every single day are killing us nonetheless.

Oh and I saw an article about the deficit and the role our two stupid wars play in that; as well as those dumb ass tax cuts for the rich that Republicans and Republicrats don't want to expire soon; a new pill that could take the place of surgical abortions and how cheap they are, and much more besides to blog about.  Oh just all sorts of news I could go into and I will later I promise but now I gotta get ready for work.  I guess I'm going have to start going to Starbucks if for no other reason than to buy a newspaper.

Belly Up

My momma put me to sleep on my belly when I was a baby.  It was common back then to do so whereas nowadays new mothers are told not to do that at all as the baby could possibly get tangled in blankets and smother or something to do with crib death I think.  Well I don't know about that.  I put my babies on their bellies and with blankets I might add. Anyway, I like to sleep on my belly.  It's a long standing bad habit I have.

I remember one of the things I missed the most while hugely pregnant was being able to sleep on my belly.  As soon as that baby came out I tried sleeping on my belly but when my milk came in and my boobs got even bigger than they already were (we are talking about d sized cups or larger in a woman who was a b cup at best pre-pregnancy), well then I STILL couldn't sleep on my belly because those things HURT.  Eventually I quit the breast feeding, my boobs shrank down again to a more normal size (and was I ever glad, I did NOT like having huge melons on my chest and I don't care what guys want) then I was able to resume with the belly sleeping.

As I've gotten older I've noticed that my back starts hurting me and it forces me to sleep in another position.  This is nature's way of telling me to exercise the stomach muscles even more but even so sometimes the back still hurts and I can't sleep like that.  Then I figured out a trick; I could bend one of my legs up and it took the pressure off the small of my back. From then on I was back to sleeping on my belly.  That is until last night.  I woke up several times noting that the leg I had bent was bothering me and I had to move off the belly and onto my back or lay on my side.  I am one of those sorts of people who can't lay still for long.  I must change position at least 20 times each night, if not more, but I always want to fall asleep on my belly.

So today my hip was bothering me quite a bit at work.  This is not something I am used to. I certainly don't like it giving me problems or bothering me with aches and pains.  I got up several times from my desk and I went to the restroom to do some yoga moves in there (because no one can see me as there aren't any windows) trying to work this kink out of my hip.  I was only at my desk for two hours tops because I was working the circ desk mostly today and paging books and walking around and I didn't want to sit down for long because then that pesky right hip started aching again.  When it was time to go home I was walking to my car when my left ankle gave way and next thing you know I'm down on the sidewalk.  I caught myself mostly before I got to the ground and heck I didn't even scrap my hands or anything, but it scared me.  I took off my shoe and checked my foot and ankle and everything seemed okay. I waited a minute for my heart to stop racing and wiped a tear or two of pure frustration coming out underneath my sunglasses before I got up and went home.  Now it's time for bed and my hip is aching again but I reckon I better sleep on my back tonight whether I like it or not. 

My ankle is slightly swollen now and feels lightly sprained.  However, I've never had trouble with rolling my ankles or hip bones aching before.  Is it just because I'm getting older or is it the lack of dairy in my diet?  I can only think that I am not getting enough calcium in my diet and that I better start eating that cheese and drinking some milk again.

Check These Out

Got a lot I have to do but I have been reading your posts and I'd like to point out some that I think are interesting or worth reading.  So without further ado:

Dashiell
This guy is always spot on and I think everyone ought to read his posts. 

Reality Zone
Another blogger who combs through news articles and highlights those he believes are relevant.

Permaculture Media
Excellent blog about self sufficient living.

Welcome to Pottersville 2
Another lefty blogger that combs news sites looking for good articles to highlight.

Running "Cause I Can't Fly
This blog features interesting articles about physics, psychology, politics, you name it, and re-posts them for our consideration.

The Existentialist Cowboy
If you don't know Len you ought to head on over and get acquainted.

Finally, I've got a new blogger on my feminist blogroll that you should go check out,  Glaux's Nest.  She's a feminist, a witch, a writer, and she works in a library.   Good Goddess, what more could you want?

End of the Semester Musings

I have posted this to my library blog that I haven't used in a while but I thought I'd post it here as well. It's the end of the semester and the relief of another class finished is great. I love reading so many books and I want to keep that up so hopefully my next class will facilitate that.

I wanted to pass along this article about Shirley Jackson that appeared several weeks ago in Salon.  If you know me at all, you know I'm a Shirley Jackson fan big time.  And apparently, there are others out there who love her work too. About Jackson:

Jackson's style was as clean and unfussy as a Shaker chair, but unlike most practitioners of this mode of American prose (Ernest Hemingway and Raymond Carver being the exemplars), she did not smuggle in the maudlin under a mask of stoic realism. She's often described as a master of the gothic, a mode that in this country is typically associated with the lushly overflowing prose of Faulkner and Poe. ...and...One thing I do know: If I were stuck in an isolated cabin, with nothing but "Shirley Jackson: Novels and Stories" and the equivalent LOA volumes of Roth, Cheever and Carver to choose from, there would be no contest as to which book I'd reach for first, although it would mean dipping into the dreamy menace of "We Have Always Live in the Castle" for the third time. If it ever comes to that, I'd like to think that Shirley Jackson, that patron saint of oddballs, would look down on me from whatever pagan pantheon she inhabits and smile a wicked little smile.

Also wanted to recommend the book The Monstrumologist by Rick Yancey that I read this summer in the young adult literature class I recently finished up.  If you like  Poe or H. P. Lovecraft, that is, if you love a creepy atmosphere, the unknown, and the horror genre in general then don't miss this.  If you have teens in your library who like this book and want more you could steer them to Frankenstein by Mary Shelly or Dracula by Bram Stoker.

Food Addictions

Eating meat causes heart disease, impotence, and cancer.  This doctor is going to explain how chocolate is addictive, how meat is killing us, why sugar and cheese are food items we crave and how to stop eating these sorts of foods and get healthier as a result. He is also going to tell us how after three weeks we won't want to go back to eating these bad foods because we won't crave them like we once did. 



Who knew that cheese is a narcotic? 

A Living Wage

The economy is not doing better at all and now I feel very stuck here.  I should be grateful that I have a job, that my husband has a job too, but I know I have to help out the family an awful lot.  Rather than stick money in a retirement account I am giving money to my niece so she can have her wisdom teeth pulled.  Her teeth are bothering her an awful lot so it has to be done.  She doesn't have dental insurance nor the money to get the work done.  My nephew is out of vocational school but can't find a job in his field.  He's taken a minimum wage job because that is all he can find so I am helping him pay back his student loans.   My daughter has four kids and I do a lot for them.  Not that I mind at all because I love my grandchildren but I don't remember my mom helping me out so much when I had my kids in the house.  However, I don't want them to go without so what am I supposed to do?    My son has his car paid off but he needs a new muffler that he can't afford so guess who is helping him buy a new muffler?

Don't get me wrong , I don't mind helping my family at all.  But I think it says a lot about this economy that my husband and I must help the younger generation out because they can't get work that pays a living wage.  And THAT is the real problem in a nutshell.  I guess I shouldn't worry about a retirement anyway because I am going to have to work until I drop dead.  So says the republican, pull yourself up by your bootstraps, corporate masters.

Okay, last week of school and I got papers to write and books to read.  See  you peeps later.

Class Warfare

Dr. Kathleen Waldron tells us:

At the heart of the American Dream is economic mobility. It is the belief that the children of poverty and of privilege can end up in the same place; that as long as there is equality of opportunity, one’s starting point in life does not have to be a permanent barrier.

$ FOR WAR BUT NONE FOR THE POOR

Yesterday I read on Lisa's blog  about her relief concerning the extension of unemployment benefits and her musings on what kind of job she could look for in the future.  She has a master's degree I think but she isn't finding any jobs in her field.  The reason I am working on my master's is because of the job uncertainty our economy currently faces.  I am lucky in that having a bachelor's degree is why I was hired at the library to begin with. If I were to apply for the same position today with just a bachelor's degree I would not have been hired. The reason for this is Mitch Daniels changed the professional requirements in the state of Indiana for people working in libraries. When the new rules went into effect I could be "grandfathered" in but I wouldn't be able to be promoted and I would not be able to move to another library system. Once I got started and took the 5 classes needed for certification, I figured I should continue on and get the master's degree.  It's taken me awhile because I take one class a semester but I feel fortunate compared to the students I am surrounded by.  Most of them are having a very tough time getting a job even though they have a master's degree once they graduate.  The economic downturn has forced the closing of library branches all across the country and there are fewer jobs available for them to fill.  Librarians who were looking at retiring have had their nest egg wiped out by the crash on Wall Street in 2008, for example, and now they aren't going to be retiring anytime too soon. This is another strike against the newly minted librarians as they were told there would be room for them in the job market when the baby boomers started retiring.  It hasn't worked out that way for a lot of these students.  Some of them are lucky if they can work part time or page books.  Here they are shelling out all this money and going into debt only to be paid minimum wage and working part time.  Like I said, I know that I am lucky compared to a lot of other students.

Have we not been told all our lives that the way to climb the ladder to success is to get a good education and more specifically, to get a college degree?   And if one degree is good than two degrees should be even better, right? However, in this recession education is no longer a guarantee of economic success.  Many of the people laid off during the current recession had  professional jobs, had the degrees and the education they were told they needed in order to be successful.  You see, the educated workers of third world countries are cheaper than we are now so that is where the jobs are going.  This exporting of jobs has been happening to the working class for decades but now it's happening to the educated employees.

Check out these statistics for the state of New York:

Professional and business services (e.g., legal, accounting, and employment services) lost 68,300 jobs—more than any other employment sector—a decline of 5.9 percent. Nearly half of the jobs lost were in professional, scientific, and technical services. This industry includes accounting and legal services, advertising, and scientific research, and has a highly educated workforce: 70 percent of employees had at least a college degree in 2008, compared to the statewide average of 37 percent.

So how does that feel?  More education just means more debt as far as I can tell.  If you are unable to get a decent paying job, you will never be able to pay off those loans.  Even if you declare bankruptcy, those loans are almost impossible to have forgiven.  It's class warfare plain and simple.  Tell everyone they need more education, more job training, and make them pay for it, then give them a low paying job, if that even, and require them to pay off the loan forever and ever.  THIS IS ECONOMIC SLAVERY! 

The only sure way to make it in this economy is to be the CEO of a large corporation or rich to begin with, buy the politicians who will craft legislation to benefit the hoarding of your wealth, and then pass it down to your heirs.  Everyone else must fight for the crumbs and hope for some luck.  That is why the teabaggers are up in arms.  Their economic security is crumbling but rather than go after the wealthy, those who are stealing from them, they fight against "illegal" immigrants and other poor and oppressed groups.  Fighting over the crumbs, which is that old standby of "divide and conquer" at work. Rather than blame the deficit on extending unemployment benefits, why don't they blame the tax cuts for the rich?  Ah, but they believe that big lie of capitalists and imagine that someday, SOMEDAY, they too will be wealthy.

In order for us to start winning this war (class warfare, remember?) we are going to have to convince these teabaggers to join US in our struggle against the wealthy, that it is in their interest to fight the multinational corporations and those who control most of the wealth rather than kiss their asses and kick those around them down.  There is no ladder to climb anymore folks.  The ladder is on fire and those on the middle rungs are being flung off.

Teenagers From Outerspace

I found a cheesy movie when I was looking for program ideas for teens and astronomy. This is one of the items that came up. It is a B movie from 1959 called "Teenagers From Outerspace" and the most common review is "it's so classically bad that it is good!"



And remember books will still tell us the truth even after the evil government destroys all knowledge. Bwahahaha!

You can also go to this website to see the entire movie and write a review.

What To Do?

So I have bummed you out about all the chemicals that we stew ourselves in.  Sorry about that.  I hate being a "Debbie Downer" but someone's got to state the obvious around here and hey, I all too willing to do just that.  What can you do to live healthier though?  What do I do?  First off, I will tell you that I am 46 soon to be 47 years old.  I weigh 120-125 pounds, have low blood pressure, no cavities, and lots of gray hair (that I continue to color although that too is bad for me), eat a vegetarian (semi-vegan) diet, and exercise every week.  The older I get the more important that exercise becomes.  Gravity takes its toll unless you fight like hell against it.  Anyway, here is what I do personally for myself and my health.

 

• Exercise includes weight-bearing push-ups, squats, and some free weights at least three times a week.  I walk for 20-30 minutes per day as fast as possible without getting totally winded and uncomfortable as well as do yoga once or twice a week.  When I finish my degree, I will increase the yoga and the free weight bearing exercise.  I fully intend to renew my membership at the YMCA.
• I eat primarily fruit and veggies, most of these organic.  I also eat nuts, seeds, beans, and rice.  I eat organic or free-range eggs from local farmers I trust. Honey is my sweetener of choice.  I eat some dairy like milk, butter, ice cream.  I eat less and less dairy and feel MUCH better for it. When I do eat dairy I try to make sure it's organic.  I use organic olive oil most of the time and sometimes I use organic butter. 
• Make sure I am getting enough sleep.  I like to sleep 8-9 hours at a time.  Sometimes schoolwork overwhelms me and I stay up late but I can tell immediately that I am not my best.  I could tolerate less sleep when I was in my 20s but nowadays lack of sleep takes too much out of me.
• I take a multi-mineral and vitamin supplement daily.  I swear by Sourcenaturals.
• I use bio-identical hormones and will continue to use them for as long as I can.  
• I think getting 15-20 minutes of early sunlight each day does wonders for my mental health.  I get seriously depressed when the weather is gloomy for days on end.

Stuff I do not do at all or very rarely:

• Smoke cigarettes.
• Drink a lot of alcohol (I do have a glass of wine occasionally, once in a blue moon I will have a margarita even).
• Eat meat.
• No margarine. No corn, cotton or vegetable oils. 
• Use sun-tanning beds for a tan.

Other things I do to maintain my health:

• Use natural cleaning products. For example, vinegar, baking soda, borax, essential oils, and pure castile soap are all that I need.
• Use natural weed killers and pest control.

I also reuse rather than buy new.  Goodwill has provided a good deal of my wardrobe for years now.  Unless I cannot find what I want at Goodwill or other second hand shops, I rarely buy anything new.  And how is that healthy you ask?  It is healthy on your wallet honey, so you can afford to buy that organic produce you are going to eat tonight.

I will also add that I am not perfect and that sometimes I slip up and eat that ice cream cone from the D-Q because my grandchildren wanted to go there and I took them.  Or if I am really tired after work and school I do not get on the treadmill occasionally.  I am not a saint.  However,  I try hard to do what is best for me and for the environment.

Still, with all the toxins in our environment I wouldn't be shocked if I ended up with cancer.  A neighbor who was a nurse died from cancer just a couple of years back.  She was in her 30s and left behind 3 kids and a bereft husband.  She took care of her health but it was not enough.  No doubt, she was exposed to a lot of toxins and chemicals, not to mention radiation, at her work environment.  We are all exposed to thousands of chemicals every single day.  Know that and try to cut down a few hundred here and there.

Toxic Swamp

Once upon a time there was a woman who was chemically poisoned by her environment.  The produce she ate was grown from GMO seeds and sprayed with various pesticides and herbicides. The meat and dairy products she consumed were laced with growth hormones and antibiotics.  Therefore when she became sick the antibiotics proscribed for her were stronger and stronger.  In spite of this, sometimes the strong antibiotics would not work.  Many of the food products she bought had preservatives, coloring agents, or other toxins in them.  Many of these ingredients were never adequately tested for possible harm but harmful they were. She was fat and felt tired all the time.

The county or city where she lived took it upon itself to spray pesticides along the roadsides to kill weeds. The buildings she entered in town were sprayed with poisons regularly for pests.  Almost all of the products she bought from Walmart contained toxic chemicals. The products she used to clean her home were poisonous.  Even the makeup she put on her face and the lotions she used on her skin had toxic chemicals in them.  She lived in a toxic swamp although from the outside everything seemed safe and clean, tasted good, and looked okay.  If all these chemicals were dangerous wouldn't the government step in and outlaw them?  So it had to be safe she thought.  But the reality was she lived in a toxic swamp.  Her entire way of life was based upon poisonous chemicals. Her food, her clothes, her home, her car, her work environment--everything fueled by these poisons.

Then she got cancer.  She wondered how she got cancer and she was scared.  The doctors told her she would need to have an operation.  She would have to be poisoned with chemotherapy to kill the cancer cells.  Then she had to have radiation.  She did everything the doctors told her to do because they knew best.  Then six years later she died*. Even though she died, the government counted her cancer treatment a success because she made it past the five year mark from the start of her treatment.

The End.

*consider the woman whose breast cancer is diagnosed an average of 3 years earlier because of mammography; today she might live for 7 years. In 1985, using the older diagnostic tools, this same woman would have appeared to live only 4 years. Nothing has changed in terms of effectiveness of conventional therapy. So because most cancer patients can last the 5 years of slow poisoning with chemo and radiation, the true statistics of cure rates lie within the period of 6-10 years. Cancer victims are dying in the 6th, 7th, 8th and 9th years. These statistics resemble more of a cancer holocaust – 6% survival, not 42%. That means 94 out of 100 patients eventually die of chemo and radiation within a 10-year period. The success exists only on paper.



P.S. Hello, once again, to everyone from Crooks and Liars.