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CALIFORNIA BLOGGERS

Looking for us? - Updated 03-08-2008

We are still blogging, just not doing much political or military blogging. Come and visit at:

Pal2Pal

Posted on 07 July 2007 at 06:25 PM in Weblogs | | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

13 January 2007

Global Warming? Hahahaha

It is nearly 11 AM at my house in Southern California and the thermometer reads 40 degrees, up from the low of 23 degrees in the early morning hours. Our fish pond had floating ice sheets in it this morning. We are freezing. Not only is it unseasonably cold for this area, but we have no gas. No gas means no running furnace, no working oven or burners and no relief from our gas lit fireplace. Late yesterday afternoon some idiot goofed with a backhoe and took out the major gas line for our street. I have a small electric space heater left over from years ago and someone's apartment living days. Naturally, with the recent move and all, that heater was buried in the garage under piles of excess furniture and boxes. We we were all down unloading the garage hunting for the thing by the middle of the night. I also found a laprobe I used to use for my Mother that is like a very small electric blanket.  So there we are, my son, my daughter-in-law, myself, two very cold dogs and two cats who pretended they were unaffected but suddenly decided they were lap cats when they discovered my lap blanket was a nice warm sleeping spot, all huddled together, at first playing a game and later sleeping all bundled up together.

So much for global warming.

IT'S FREEZING COLD IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA.

Posted on 13 January 2007 at 11:05 AM in Weather | | Comments (6) | TrackBack (0)

10 January 2007

TO ALL THE KIDS WHO SURVIVED the 1930's 40's, 50's, 60's and 70's !!

Passed on from my daughter. My added remarks are in bold.:

TO ALL THE KIDS
WHO SURVIVED the
1930's 40's, 50's, 60's and 70's !!

First, we survived being born to mothers who smoked and/or drank while they were pregnant.

They took aspirin, ate blue cheese dressing, tuna from a can, and didn't get tested for diabetes.

Then after that trauma, we were put to sleep on our tummies in baby cribs covered with bright colored lead-based paints.

We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors or cabinets and when we rode our bikes, we had no helmets, not to mention, the risks we took hitchhiking.

As infants & children, we would ride in cars with no car seats, booster seats, seat belts or air bags.

Riding in the back of a pick up on a warm day was always a special treat. (As 5 and 6 year olds, we took the canoe out on the lake in the Summer, stayed out all day down where the "catty-nine tails"  grew, hunting snapping turtles and picking lillies.  No one worried about us and yet there were no such things as life vests or safety equipment. We were all good swimmers.)

We drank water from the garden hose and NOT from a bottle.

We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle and NO ONE actually died from this.

We ate cupcakes, white bread and real butter and drank Koolade made with sugar, but we weren't overweight because WE WERE ALWAYS OUTSIDE PLAYING!

We would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as we were back when the streetlights came on. (There were no fences around school playgrounds and we spent hours playing hopscotch, dodge ball, jump rope, basketball, tennis, and daredevil moves on the jungle gyms on gritty blacktopped surfaces that left brushburns and embedded pebbles when we fell. We sucked it up and went back into the game.)

No one was able to reach us all day. And we were O.K.

We would spend hours building our go-carts out of scraps and then ride down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes. After running into the bushes a few times, we learned to solve the problem.

We did not have Playstations, Nintendo's, X-boxes, no video   games at all, no 150 channels on cable, no video movies or DVD's, no surround-sound or CD's, no cell phones, no personal computer's, no Internet or chat rooms....... WE HAD FRIENDS and we went outside and found them! (We couldn't wait for the first good snow/ice to go sledding down "suicide hill.")

We fell out of trees, got cut, broke bones and teeth and there were no
lawsuits from these accidents. (We walked the plank at new construction sites.)

We ate worms and mud pies made from dirt, and the worms did not live in us forever. (As 8 year olds, we sat in the dirt of our friend's parent's garden and pulled up all the carrots and ate them, dirt and all.)

We were given BB guns for our 10th birthdays, (I was 12 and it was a .22 rifle and I was sent to an NRA gun safety course before I could fire it), made up games with sticks and tennis balls and, although we were told it would happen, we did not put out very many eyes. (We had pea shooter fights through the drainage pipe that ran under the highway.)

We rode bikes or walked to a friend's house and knocked on the door or rang the bell, or just walked in and talked to them!

Little League had tryouts and not everyone made the team. Those who didn't had to learn to deal with disappointment. Imagine that!!

The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke the law was unheard of. They actually sided with the law! (The police pretty much ignored us, but if there was interaction it was a threat to tell our parents. That was enough.)

These generations have produced some of the best risk-takers, problem solvers and inventors ever!

The past 50 years have been an explosion of innovation and new ideas.

We had freedom, failure,   success and responsibility, and we learned HOW TO DEAL WITH IT ALL!

If YOU are one of them . . CONGRATULATIONS!




You might want to share this with others who have had the luck to grow up as kids, before the lawyers and the government regulated so much of our lives  for our own good .
And while you are at it, forward it to your kids so they will know how brave (and lucky) their parents were.

Kind of makes you want to run through the house with scissors, doesn't
it?!

The quote of the month is by Jay Leno:

"With hurricanes, tornados, fires out of control, mud slides, flooding, severe thunderstorms tearing up the country from one end to another, and with the threat of bird flu and terrorist attacks, are we sure this is a good time to take God out of the Pledge of  Allegiance?"

For those that prefer to think that God is not watching over us....go
ahead and delete this.

For the rest of us.....pass this on.

Posted on 10 January 2007 at 05:22 PM in Personal | | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

03 January 2007

Herpes/Alzheimer's link?

Know anyone who fits this description? I do and it couldn't happen to a more deserving guy.  A very mean thing to say, but he is a scumbag, so don't shed any tears. It isn't just genital herpes though. If you suffer from regular cold sores, you could be a person at risk.

Herpes Might Cause Alzheimer's
By Robin Lloyd
Senior Editor
posted: 03 January 2007
02:24 pm ET

Updated 3:01 p.m. ET

New research supports growing concerns that herpes plays a role in the development of Alzheimer’s disease, the most common form of dementia.

The latest work, announced today, shows a link between a gene and herpes simplex 1, or HSV. The form of the ApoE gene called ApoE-4 is the leading known risk factor for Alzheimer’s. And HSV is the form of herpes that causes cold sores around the mouth. More than 80 percent of Americans are infected with HSV.

The researchers, at the University of Rochester Medical Center, found that ApoE-4 effectively puts out a welcome mat for the herpes virus, allowing it to be more active in the brain.

“The data suggest that ApoE-4 may support the ability of HSV to be a more virulent pathogen,” said Howard Federoff, lead author of the research published online in the journal Neurobiology of Aging.

The research involved measuring the activity levels of HSV in the brains of mice with different forms of the human ApoE gene.

The team found that the virus infiltrates brain cells about the same whether or not mice have the ApoE-4 form of the gene. But in mice with the ApoE-4 version, the virus is less likely to be latent and thus more likely to multiply.

Scientists have known for several years that the ApoE-4 gene plays a role in Alzheimer’s but the idea that it works in concert with the herpes virus is new.

Ruth Itzhaki of the University of Manchester has conducted several studies showing a correlation between herpes and Alzheimer’s. Patients suffering from the dementia disease who also have the ApoE-4 form of the gene also have more herpes DNA in the brain regions that are affected by Alzheimer’s, she found. And people with the ApoE-4 version of the gene who have HSV are more likely to get Alzheimer’s than those who lack either the gene version and the virus.

Also, other scientists have found that people who frequently break out in cold sores are more likely to have the gene that makes them more vulnerable to Alzheimer’s.

HSV is a chronic infection that lives in people for a lifetime, periodically flaring up. The virus is usually latent, locked inside cells, but occasionally stress, fatigue, certain foods and even sunlight can spark the virus into an active phase that damages cells and causes cold sores.

 

Posted on 03 January 2007 at 12:57 PM in Health & Medical | | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Blogs at risk?

The Skipper at Barking Moonbat Early Warning System has a post up today that every blogger, whether large or small, should take note about. The Skipper writes:

The End?

In Democrats, Politics

This blog currently has nearly 900 registered members and reaches an audience of several thousand people every day. This blog discusses political issues and frequently recommends members and readers contact their government representatives regarding critical legislation. This blog does not have the time or resources to file quarterly reports and a mountain of paperwork to the government on a regular basis. This blog also does not relish the thought of having to pay a $100,000 fine for not submitting aforementioned paperwork.

What does all this mean? It means that if Nancy Pelosi and her cronies in the Democratic Party have their way, this blog will have to shut down. It will also mean the end of Freedom of Speech in America. It will also be the beginning of the end for all freedom loving people in this country. Are you prepared to live in the new Democratic Party controlled police state?

He cites the following article and as I read it, there is cause for concern:

Pelosi Targets Grassroots Freedom of Speech
-- by Amanda B. Carpenter (HUMAN EVENTS ONLINE)

House Speaker-to-be Nancy Pelosi (D.-Calif.) (pictured at right) has pledged to take up a lobbying reform proposal that would impose new regulations on speech by grassroots organizations, while providing a loophole in the rules for large corporations and labor unions.

The legislation would make changes to the legal definition of “grassroots lobbying” and require any organization that encourages 500 or more members of the general public to contact their elected representatives to file a report with detailed information about their organization to the government on a quarterly basis.

[CONTINUE READING HERE]

Posted on 03 January 2007 at 12:32 PM in Government & Congress | | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

02 January 2007

Why Mitt Romney's LDS faith should not worry those of faith

I have been reading on multiple blogs and news articles that Mitt Romney's MormonMitt_romney (Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints) faith may be prohibitive in his quest for the Presidency. I've read several posts that liken the LDS faith to a cult. I have seen remarks similar to the ones made about John F. Kennedy's Catholicism that call into question whether Gov. Romney would put his church above his duty to the country in the role of President. All the negative remarks have one common thread, they know virtually zilch about the core beliefs of those called Mormons.

Let me state that I think Mitt Romney is the very best potential candidate on the horizon. He is exceptionally smart, he is experienced, he is not only good looking, but has a commanding presence and charisma, he is a skilled public speaker, and he is a man comfortable with himself. These are all qualities we should be looking for in our leaders. Even his critics recognize all these positive traits and yet they will end with the question:  do we really want a Mormon (likening it to be a kook) in the White House?

With that in mind, I think it time that the basis of the LDS faith be discussed. The idea of a cult is ludicrous. Here are the LDS "Articles of Faith."  Secularists will hate it, but mainline and evangelical Christians and those of Jewish faith (Jesus was a Jew and a Prophet, afterall) should embrace the ideals (if not the doctrine) as articulated in the "Articles." When considering these "Articles" and the suitability of a Mormon becoming our President, Articles 11, 12, and 13 say it best.

The Articles of Faith are a vital part of the LDS canon and are published in the Pearl of Great Price. They were composed by Joseph Smith to concisely represent key elements of LDS doctrine.

 

1. We believe in God, the Eternal Father, and in His Son, Jesus Christ, and in the Holy Ghost.

2. We believe that men will be punished for their own sins, and not for Adam's transgression.

3. We believe that through the atonement of Christ, all mankind may be saved, by obedience to the laws and ordinances of the Gospel.

4. We believe that the first principles and ordinances of the Gospel are: first, Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ; second, Repentance; third, Baptism by immersion for the remission of sins; fourth, Laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost.

5. We believe that a man must be called of God, by prophecy, and by the laying on of hands by those who are in authority, to preach the Gospel and administer in the ordinances thereof.

6. We believe in the same organization that existed in the Primitive Church, namely, apostles, prophets, pastors, teachers, evangelists, and so forth.

7. We believe in the gift of tongues, prophecy, revelation, visions, healing, interpretation of tongues, and so forth.

8. We believe the Bible to be the word of God as far as it is translated correctly; we also believe the Book of Mormon to be the word of God.

9. We believe all that God has revealed, all that He does now reveal, and we believe that He will yet reveal many great and important things pertaining to the Kingdom of God.

10. We believe in the literal gathering of Israel and in the restoration of the Ten Tribes; that Zion (the New Jerusalem) will be built upon the American continent; that Christ will reign personally upon the earth; and, that the earth will be renewed and receive its paradisiacal glory.

11. We claim the privilege of worshiping Almighty God according to the dictates of our own conscience, and allow all men the same privilege, let them worship how, where, or what they may.

12. We believe in being subject to kings, presidents, rulers, and magistrates, in obeying, honoring, and sustaining the law.

13. We believe in being honest, true, chaste, benevolent, virtuous, and in doing good to all men; indeed, we may say that we follow the admonition of Paul--We believe all things, we hope all things, we have endured many things, and hope to be able to endure all things. If there is anything virtuous, lovely, or of good report or praiseworthy, we seek after these things.

Disclaimer: The Squiggler is a woman of faith, but with no love for any organized church-going religion. That said, when my children were young and I believed it my duty to give them a religious grounding, I chose the local LDS church. I chose it for one very specific reason -- the very best youth program and family unity programs of any church I investigated. I've never regretted that decision.

Posted on 02 January 2007 at 03:30 PM in Presidential Politics 2008, Religion | | Comments (1)