State Department being gutted. Will we be left defenseless? Who knows?

Our so-called president is busily emptying out the State Department.  With as cozy as he appears to be with Russia, this just makes him look even more guilty, in my eyes, than he ever has.

Oddly, he has a whole "Cadre of Agency" from various places who are more than willing to forward what seems like an "agenda".  Can the Republican party not connect dots?  Can they not see what is happening?  We do not need or want a civil war here.  But we can't just roll over and play dead, either.

With this I end my involvement in the sad outrage.  I'm done.  I am just going to knit for the hospital where my daughter died.

She was one of the victims of the crap medical care that we have here in the US.  She didn't get help soon enough because the company had it's OWN medical coverage, which was woefully inadequate, but was a hack of the Affordable Care Act that the Republicans forced upon the legislation, that employees of companies who had their own medical plans in place would be ineligible.

The only reason she got any help at all was that she was too sick to work anymore, and had to quit her job because she thought it was killing her.  (Well, it turns out that it was.)
Anyway, this put her into the uninsured group, who were eligible, in California for Medicaid, and gave her the chance to finally get a test that could have saved her life, if only she had gotten it sooner......

So, if you have a stake in this game, wake up and fight.  We can't let this happen.  It's all the lives of our children we are fighting for.  Think of them ... THINK of them.

Exercises to help stop Vertigo

These are the sheets that I got two years ago from the ER.  I have had something called Menieres since 1978, and this has helped me to get through some serious vertigo attacks.

Left side

Right side

Sunday Stealing Comment prompts a reply about cancer rates and cures...

This is an article about what is going on in Europe,

LINK to Telegraph Article

Who is blocking these new lifesaving treatments, and why?  We should start asking questions,  BIG questions!

AH!  The love of Money, the root of all evil.  That's my diagnosis!

You won't forget this weight loss advice!

Go HERE, and learn the real truth about weight loss!  

Updated to be less Vague: Sorry! Natural Resilience to Major Life Stressors Not So Common - Association for Psychological Science

Thanks to Elle, who shared this...

Natural Resilience to Major Life Stressors Not So Common - Association for Psychological Science

In my usual wayward way, I misunderstood the point.

 You do need people who care about you to help, but that's what humans do.  They help each other.  We all need more help than we usually get.  

Keep up the good fight! 

10% Human, the book

"Dr Derrick MacFabe began his medical training in neuroscience and psychiatry.
During high school, he had worked with children with special needs, many of whom were autistic and had gastrointestinal (GI) problems. Later, whilst working as a qualified doctor at a hospital, MacFabe encountered patients with GI troubles who were deemed crazy or neurotic, and sent to the psychiatry ward instead. He also treated a patient who, like Miss A in Belgium, was admitted for sudden psychosis and was thought to be schizophrenic. But his GI symptoms gave away the true cause of his illness."

I think all persons who are struggling with diagnosis' should read what this amazing book sets forth so clearly.  We owe it to ourselves.

I'm thankful this book fell into my hands at just this moment.  It is a vindication of my daughter's long, arduous struggle to make sense of what was happening to her mind and body as she fell more ill.  She had only part of the picture but she was right!  The gut biomass has tremendous influence on our whole well being.

Something interesting for M.

http://m.medicalxpress.com/news/2015-12-cultural-revolution-gut-microbiome.html

For Smellyann.  My daughter found this, and I'm no where near a computer, so am sharing it in hopes you, a very brilliant lady, will see it soon!  We share an interest in such things, the three of us.

This is from my kindle.  I hope it is helpful, exciting even.
Ps,  a kindle is a bit of a pain to blog from!  Lol!

Thankful Thursday: The Nothing Box, and a video called, "The Ugly Truth About Medication" with Dr. Kevin Cuccaro - Part 1 and Part 2

I am thankful for the difference between the brains of Men and of Women, except for this one feature......

I want the Nothing Box.  I'm going to try to make one for my brain.  It's called the "Emptying the Mind" box by Buddhists,  and that's what the Peace Bell is for.



Happy Be Here Now Day!  I have to go get a crown on a molar.  Hopefully I'll live to write Five Minute Friday, and friday9.

Kudos to Pina!

 Now for something I'm also very Thankful to be able to post here.  This relates directly back to a discussion about what our health care system has actually become, in that it isn't set up to actually cure, but to drag too many things into chronic treatment levels.  Kudos to Larj, and to Bee, for bringing these things into my awareness and raising them above merely my suppositions and into reality.  Thank you.



I will watch for Part 2.

Here it is.



 These, together, are around 40 minutes. 

Music Monday- "Put a Little Love in Your Heart" And Alive Inside" Documentary

This lovely song has been a little Ear worm for several days, so I'm infecting all of you with it! ;-) "Tis a lovely thing on the whole.

Happy Martin Luther King Day, and I think this Man of Peace should always be remembered for his dedication to Peace, Equality, and Universal Love.

The original.. co-songwriter/singer Jackie DeShannon

Jackie wrote this, with her brother, in the late 60's.

One simple act, putting a little love in your heart, that could change the balance in a murderous world.  We can't be reminded often enough that we are, all of us, one big family.

About "Alive Inside"

This film is a thing of Beauty, straight from the Heart, and is a very powerful testament to the power of our brain to preserve personality, even when it's only avenue is the part of the brain that keeps musical memories alive, and which has been denied expression in some cases for ten years.  Musical memory is like a "backdoor" into a person's personality, and it has shown amazing promise for enriching lives, if activated.

It was originally released in October of 2010, and eventually went viral in January 2011.  It is a documentary about just how powerfully humans react to music, why that is, the universality of this, and how it has transformed people who have been institutionalized with Alzheimer's and other dementia for years.

You can find "Alive Inside" on Netflix and probably other places as well.  Another plus about music therapy is that in listening to Music, dementia patients come alive and responsive, and that certainly is an improvement to them being constantly medicated!  Also, they can stay home longer with their own families.

Please feel free to take the links and re-post them in order to spread the circle as widely as possible.
I'm doing it as a way to honor my sister's bravery in facing her disease.

Thankful Thursday, medical care for all! And other stuff

Getting signed on to the new healthcare has been a big, long process to go through, but our personal story, the biggest one, is that now all our daughters have coverage!

And so do many of the younger people, especially children, as they are now covered for preventative care who were not.  Thank you God that the United States has now joined the rest of the world, or nearly all of it, in providing this benefit for people who were born with strange ailments that a modern industrial world is capable of creating in the gene pool!   I'm so glad for families that now are covered!

I saw my doctor today for the yearly check up, and got a new pneumonia shot that includes some strains that weren't in the old one.  So, if you had a shot when you were 65, you might want to ask about it, if you are of that age, or more.  It's rather costly, but having had pneumonia once, I thought it ill advised to pass on this protection.

I'm very thankful that I have such a wonderful doctor.  I hope that you all do, too.

Let's see, when I arrived back home there was this:

Heavens!  It was a hardcover, too!
Color me tickled Pink.

I love it when I can get a bargain in a hard cover. This is one of the best Succulent books around.
And, I am so happy to have found it used. I'm going to go crazy this winter planting stuffffff....

Dark side of a Bain success

Dark side of a Bain success

From Salon, via DH, who cares a more than a tinker's damn about the truth, unlike a certain candidate for public office.

It's long, but every word is worth reading.  What have we become????

The ACLU's PDF on the exponential growth of For Profit Prisons:

www.aclu.org/files/assets/bankingonbondage_20111102.pdf

What on EARTH have we become as a people???

You Tube from a report on Private Prisons:



There are at least four other programs in this series.

And yet another from RT News.



Why are so many people in prison in our country?  It's an industry, a money maker.  Is it right to do something just because you can?  

Cathy meets Matt...

Matthew T. Hall, a reporter for the Union Tribune, wrote an article about the Supreme Court's 5 to 4 decision over whether the Congress had the constitutional authority to write Laws of the Land.  Any fifth grader knows that they do.  But that aside:

Cathy Clark, who fought hard and long for this day to be good for 30 million people, has a lot to say, in counter attack, to the naysayers of local politics, Brain Bilbray, who should know better, and Duncan Hunter JR., who is as close to a political hack as can be got.  Bilbray says - I'm quoting the article - "rising costs make it harder for small businesses to hire workers." Hunter says that - again from the article, "if Congress doesn't repeal the law, it will impose new taxes and higher costs on families and businesses."

In Mr. Hall's article, Cathy Clark says (and I concur) that these are "scare tactics".  Hall quotes her as saying of naysayers," You're entitled to your own opinion, but your not entitled to your own facts, and the fact is that this is going to save a lot of people's lives, and it's going to save a lot of people a lot of money."

In my opinion, the reason this is so is that it will gradually squeeze out a whole class of "middle men", the ones who now get between patients and their doctors.   No one should be making a profit somewhere in that middle.  They are agents of neither doctors nor of their patients, and they need to find other jobs!  Granted, it will not pay as handsomely as the ones they vacate, but at least the money that now goes to them will be better spent.

Thank you, Matthew T. Hall, for your kind permission to quote your article, and thanks also go to the Union Tribune for giving their consent as well.

Updated to insert a link:  HERE is the full article.

I love that she is encouraging others to get involved.  In her words, from the UT article:

" “Just saying, ‘Oh well, I voted,’ it seemed to me that wasn’t enough anymore,” Clark said. “If I could help engender that same passion in someone else and they could see that they actually did make a difference, then I’ve contributed something to society.” "

Random Thoughts about everything and anything...

My sister's got new pain meds, specifically for her back, and they are working well.  The horrible pain she was having is now under control.  She still has to find out what's causing it, but it gave us the chance to have a very lively and happy chat this afternoon, like the good old days and about everything under the sun, including a project we both want to do.  We wanted to use an ink jet to make the transfers for a garden sign.  I found the way to do this on the web!  Didn't I just say recently that  I LOVE THE INTERNET!!   I could not believe how generous people are with their expertise on just about any crafting topic that you can think of to plug into a search engine.  It's mind boggling.  Modpodge will also do this sort of thing but is it still around?  I should Google it, eh?

Knitting Report:

I redid the sweater swatch for Ele's sweater with smaller needles.  I hope this bamboo/silk yarn is light enough to carry the pattern well.  It's a very beautiful color, and the pattern is lovely.  It's also a lot easier than I thought it would be.  WS is all purl stitch.  I'm thinking of knitting it in the round if my brain can wrap itself around to that.   Right now my brain is still working on that New Paradigm. 

G's Noro sweater is going to be an interesting thing to sew together, and I only wish that I could have knit the whole thing, and knit it in the round. I actually like sewing things together, but the band has to match perfectly, and if it doesn't, I'll tell her not to let anyone take any three quarter views of her wearing it.

I finally got around to uploading pictures to Flickr and using the new beta uploader which seems to work amazingly well.  My only complaint is that it's a real TRIAL to then get the file of photos into a new set.  It's like a maze of dark and muddy pathways to get that done.  Why did they not do better at connectivity for your files?  Oh well, I'm sure that I'll find something about how to do it more efficiently using the old up loader.  Grimaces and GRITS TEETH!!!

Speaking of New Paradigms,  I'm still trying to calm WAY WAY down.  I need to get that other person out of my personal tree.  It's only big enough for one person, and it's MY tree!

Today was an awesome day, with the Romney/Obama Care (after all Romney did it first) Blockade coming down, and the right of the Congress to actually MAKE LAWS being re-iterated by the Supreme Court.  Sadly there will be a spoiled rotten group, too many of whom are being treated to a lavish living by Lobbyists stuffing dollars in their suit pockets, in said Congress who will be trying to Repeal this Health Care Bill.

Why don't they all just say "Let them eat cake", so that we can say, "OFF with their Heads!!" ?

Matt Hall did a story about Health Care today that I will quote later on as soon as I hear back about permissions.  Great Story in the paper today!  Go Matt!



I leave you today with an example of Industrial Beauty.

Who ever designed this is a genius.

Friday Fil in, for my DH

1. I knew it was love when...DH took me in his arms and we danced for the first time!

2. My heart can be broken but you always heal over time, and with the help of others.

3. A dog is a sentient being, and one that gives a person unconditional love even when they clearly do not deserve it.

4. My how you have helped me to change, my lovely DH.  You taught me that some people can be trusted with a human heart. ♥

5. Can you see the changes you've made?

6. And the love you gave me is the reason for them.

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to resting and knitting, tomorrow my plans include clearing the ceramics table and shopping for frits and glaze body,  and Sunday, I want to go eat some fish and chips!

Health Update: That "thing" at the beginning of the week was "most likely a Coronary Arterial Spasm", according to the Cardiologist.

Sort of a "shot across the Bow".
So, I don't do "political" now.
Some doggerel to celebrate
Not being in a coffin, prostrate.

I will still talk about Healthcare, Animals rights, Human Rights, Heroes for the Planet, Walk with Beauty and Accidental Art, and of course, Knitting and Ceramics and any jewelry I succeed in making.  That should keep me busy enough.*

Anyway, sooner or later, because the people can't be bought and sold by any amount of money or for very long, we will have our democracy back and money won't be buying it so blatantly.  If you are ignorant, then educate yourselves.

My advice is this : Don't watch Fox News, and always, ALWAYS, read the fine print and find out who is placing ads trying to get you to believe things on an emotional level rather than intellectual levels.  Stop letting them push your emotional buttons.  You are not stupid, not at all.  You have good instincts, and you are intelligent enough to sort through all the lies and meet the truth face on.  I love you for trying!  Thank you!  The Democracy depends on all of us thinking our way through things.  God Bless you!

And as for me, I'm looking forward to knitting, sewing, painting, sketching- since Bizarro gave me a clue today! (thank you Dan) Yay!- and making lots of interesting flower pots and/or lamp bases which I will share with you all.

Yesterday we ate some amazing artichokes- huge and round.  I've never seen these types before.   They are good without anything on them.  Delicious!

*PS: Yes, I am still going to read that 2 foot high stack of books by my bed but I'm also going to paste a picture of "Earth in Space" on the wall above that stack.  The tiny blue dot thing from Carl Sagan's Video of that name.  Piss Ant stuff, ya know?

The Rain in Spain....and, yes, I'm a bit blind today lol

Sorry for the lengthy revision.  The rain is in Spain....

Into each life a little rain high drama must fall.  It is over for now, that"rain", but I did get to meet some amazing, selfless super heroes.  I also received a lesson in why people, some of them a little on the irritating side, i.e. some bizarre characters acting out, are the way they are.  In the case of the latter, I can say, without fear of contradiction, that a whole lot more Love was needed when these incredible survivors were growing up and were needing it.  

The story begins while I was playing with "Dragons".  I was interrupted by an old Nemesis- cranked up to an unheard of level of pain.  It was so bad and unyielding to the usual "home"remedies of lying flat out on the bed and breathing calmly, that I got THE ride to the ER, and yet another night of sleepless amazement at how people, whom you never met, can care that much if you live. 


The long story, made shorter, is that, with so many little monitoring devises hanging from my digits, I was for once in my knitting life completely uncaring of the fact that all the "traveling knittage" was at home and out of reach!  I also did not have a heart attack but the indicators pointed to something going on. 

I've slept most of the day today, and plan to get back to knitting whenever I "get my groove back".  I look at both Love and at Life with a whole lot more tenderness and caring.  People everywhere would be different if they were not deprived of Love when they are small and helpless.  They also always look, as one very insightful Surgery Specialist said, at what you as a parent DOES, and not so much as what you SAY.


Sorry, no flowers, today but I have quite a few wonderful new memories of people who give a "hoot" about mankind,as well as newer insights into the adverse result of a child not being "loved properly", as my wonderful Turkish friend put it, once upon a time.

Also, some small pink (Yay!) pills and some small white (small yay) pills have entered my world. The last of them can give a nasty headache but do save dramatic trips in small square trucks, on occasion.

Happy knitting!

You can trust the FDA, yes?

The FDA is a very unfortunate department of our self government.  Oh, come on, you know that a Democracy is Self government, yes?  Well, the FDA is a terrible department, and it's because of who does the major portion of their research (Big Pharma) and to whom they look for "leadership" (Big Pharma provides money and "aid"n the form of research on the very substances that they want the FDA to approve).

If you take supplements when everything else failed you, this will be important to you.  If not, you might care anyway because we are all getting older AND the longer a person takes synthetic aspirin, the more likely the allergy to it will develop.... 

This is the latest thing that the FDA has done.

A quote from same, as few people tend to read things to the end:

" If DMAA is proven to be unsafe, it should be removed, plain and simple. If it is a New Dietary Ingredient, then by all means it should go through the NDI notification process as outlined by DSHEA. But let’s just stop this nonsense about it being illegal because it’s a synthetic botanical—that is not a requirement of DSHEA. That requirement comes only from FDA, and it is not supported by law.
Here’s the crux of the matter: If FDA fully enforces this guidance as drafted, we will likely lose between 22,240 and 41,700 nutritional supplements  from the market, at an economic loss of between $5.6 billion and $10.5 billion; the nutritional supplement market could shrink by between 28% and 52.5%, producing an annual loss for the industry of between $7.84 billion to $14.7 billion; and between 55,720 and 104,475 jobs in the supplement industry could be lost.
Let’s be clear: this is not about DMAA. This is the FDA setting in motion its draft guidance, which threatens our access to more than half of the supplements we all need to stay and get healthy."

Yes, Gasp, they went back on their word.  The article tries to explain why they did and just who will benefit.  So much for the People's Right to Know who is gnawing off their democracy's legs.  Don't look under the table, not just yet.  Just trust me, it's not termites.

Polish Dentist takes the bite out of breaking up...

Dentist pulls out all of her ex-boyfriend’s teeth after split

This absolutely cracked me up.  AT LAST!  But then, three years is pretty steep price to pay.  DH sent this to me so that I would smile.

To cheer the rest of you up who didn't enjoy that last bit, here's a little bit of Yankee Ingenuity with unused kitchen forks that will delight the handyman in us all.

A wine cork across the tines of the forks complete these handy tools for dusting harder to reach areas.

Now, doesn't that make you want to run out to Sally's to get some meat forks?

Good night!  Good Luck! 

Talk by Dr. Nancy Klimas on the latest clinical Advances on ME/CFS

Click on the link underneath the Vimeo if you're having trouble loading this. I may just rework this to have ONLY a link so that it's easier to use, plus there are other links to more current talks. Information on this and it's connection to orthostatic intolerance is a big step to understanding just how this disease works.  Thanks to a forum in Ravelry, and thanks for reading ..

Dr Nancy Klimas on the latest clinical advances on ME/CFS from ME-CFSCommunity.com on Vimeo.

I want to keep track of this research, and I guess a blog post is the best way.  Of major importance to myself is that lack of aerobic exercise can lead to many many changes in the body up to and including a little something called orthostatic intolerance.  This is not something that can be taken lightly.  It's that crashing into walls when you stand up and try to walk out a doorway sort of thing.  I'm finding Dr. Klimas' talks to be very beneficial and enlightening.

I got a sock heel knit. Yay!  At ceramics today we had a great time, slapping glazes on the bisque and telling each other what to think of what this world is coming to.  The fearless leader brought jelly bellies and chocolate animal crackers to share.  We wrote our club name on the broom to keep it from being permanently borrowed by persons unknown, never to be returned.  After all, it's the little things that count, you know?  And it was cold today.. Brrr.   On hotter days I've had to endure the heater, and this day, when it was freezing, not a single person asked for the heat.  Why is that?   I feel like I'm living in another dimension from time to time.  The Cold Zone.

Oh and something of interest.  They've figured out how to make artificial cabbage.  I know not why! (it's not to be eaten- it's just for fun).  HERE'S a YouTube. It really does look like fun to make.  I think you could probably try this at home if you are not under 13. 

Real Cabbage at the West End Market, Santa Cruz.  Why would anyone want to fake it?

By the way, if you try to log out of YouTube whilst trying to work with YouTube inside of Blogger, Google's Giant arm will reach out and snatch you bald i.e., Google will keep setting up nagging little yellow windows asking you if you don't want to sign back into something you just signed out of.  Try it!  See how grabby and anal the great Google's gotten.  Next thing they will do is to send someone to your door at 1 am to ask you if you want to switch to Chrome as a browser.  Just watch.  That's the next thing coming. 

Update Food Matters video. What I do besides knitting

It's time we hear more about this, instead of just gulping down a bunch of prescription drugs like guinea pigs.

There is a whole big segment of medicine that has existed since at least the 1930's that we don't normally hear anything about because there is no money in it!

Food Matters Documentary

Check out this site as well:  

Orthomolecular Journal site

Actually the Journal is now HERE and free.

http://orthomolecular.org/resources/omns/index.shtml

The Metal Marvel That Has Mended Brains for 50 Years

The Metal Marvel That Has Mended Brains for 50 Years

It's lithium, and it's easy to find, even in California. I've dug it up looking for Tourmaline.

The Abundance of Lithium

I didn't want this to get lost in all the Flak, because it's really important. For my sister, for any of you who have family that could be affected. Let's hope an Angel comes forward with the money to get this on the market. I can go dig it up at a local mine, but I certainly can't purify or refine it. Wish I could, I'd give it away if it will help people who are at risk.

Thanks to my DD for finding this.   I have been hoping something like this would be found.  There's a chance out there now for a million + people in the United States alone.

Today I go for a bone scan and happy that it's so.  I'm tired of being without my little metal supplements.  Calcium.  So many things are metals that you just don't think of on a regular basis.

Grannie advice:  Drink your Milk!

Hugs! and yes, I'm taking the socks to knit.  Dh and the doggie will probably run around the house and play chase!

I leave you with some Beauty, a Farmer's Market Dahlia from Santa Cruz