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Centers of the battle
We know why God loves cities. We also know why God hated Sodom.
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Sunday showdown: Both parties look to sway fence-sitters for this weekend's healthcare vote
Abortion debate: Pro-lifers differ on abortion provisions found in the healthcare bill
Ken Blackwell praises Sen. Tom Coburn's warning to Democrats changing their nay votes on healthcare. 
Good morning!
On this day in 1962: President Kennedy announced an air and naval blockade of Cuba, following the discovery of Soviet missile bases on the island.
Welcome to our daily (except Sundays) open thread, where you, the commenters, choose the topics of conversation.
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1,186 more days til we get our country back!
1/20/13 end of an error
http://www.facebook.com/Justus331
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And on this day President Obama announced a major blockade of Fox News and any other media outlet that does not support and back his socialist agendas for America. He will later in the year after he gets health care reform (I am back to calling it health care reform because it really is going to reform the way health care is delivered in America) changed he will then get back to work on banning freedom of speech, the right to bear arms and other little things he can do to re-write the Constitution into something that all socialists around the world (in their failed economies and all) can love and appreciate as the United States slides into oblivion (but a happy oblivion because we won’t have any war-mongerers or profit-mongerers and we will be happy, happy, happy all day with our single payer health care system, 100% taxes and all government and union jobs).
Obama, Obama, Obama!
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“Blessed is the man who makes the Lord his trust, and does not respect the proud nor such as torn aside to lies. ” Psalm 40:4 NKJV
God’s abundant love and healing grace encompass you today.
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Cuban Pete – Desi Arnaz and Lucille Ball
They raved about Sloppy Joe
The latin labarrio
But Havana has a new sensation
He’s really a modest guy
Although he’s the hottest guy in Havana
And here’s what he has to say
They call me Cuban Pete
I’m the king of the rhumba beat
When I play the maracas I go chick chicky boom, chick chicky boom
Yes sir, I’m Cuban Pete
I’m the craze of my native street
When I start to dance everything goes chick chicky boom
The senoritas, they sing and how they swing with this rumbero
It’s very nice, so full of spice
And when they’re dancin they bring a happy ring the maraquero
Singin’ a song, all the day long
So if you like the beat
Take a lesson from Cuban Pete,
And I’ll teach you to chick chicky boom, chick chicky boom
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Sorry “turn” aside
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1. Could be soon. We can take the congress back next year.
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In hindsight, Kennedy should have apologized to Cuba for spying on them and for our treatment of them during the Spanish-American War.
Then he could have asked them nicely to pack up the missiles and send them back to Moscow.
Then LBJ could have talked about how well Kennedy had handled the situation.
After that, I bet Kennedy would have won the Nobel Peace Prize.
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Did anyone else see the obscure little news item about Hampton University, a traditionally black college, election a white woman as homecoming queen and the controversy it kicked up. One woman was quoted as saying she wanted someone who “represented her”. Me personally? I think it is great. Elect a black homecoming queen at a traditionally white school. Elect a white one at a traditionally black school. I especially love it when men start attending colleges that were traditionally all female.
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JUSTUS331
If Obama is who he seems to be, not only will he be re-elected, I believe he will call for a third term. Obama is very cool and calculating. It’s very creepy.
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IAF #2
He’s working on all that right now. Isn’t that what CZARs are for?
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Hey, I’m looking forward to free health care, $25/mo. spending money, a free place to live, and just enough food to subsist on so I won’t be overweight. Isn’t that what they have in CUBA?
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Are you sure CUBA was Kennedy’s fault?
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When Vietnam was hot and heavy the press said that was all Nixon’s fault.
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When Kennedy was alive were there protests against Vietnam?
When he died I’m surprised they didn’t rename America after him–the United States of Kennedy. Their family pretty much took over–rich from bootleg. I hope their legacy is over. We’ll see in the next elections in Mass.
Kennedy was so influencial he was able to marry his new young wife even though that was against Catholic rules. He did try to get his previous marriage annulled–children and all. But she said no thank you. Is she still alive?
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KBells and Justus – Let’s vote every incumbent whose seat is up for grabs out of office in the midterm elections. I’m serious. Thet will send a very loud message that we are tired of the corruption and politics as usual.
We may lose a few good ones, but they can always run again next time.
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13. I never understood how a war started by a Democrat, escalated by a Democrat and ended by a Republican became Republican war.
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Spin, KBells, it’s all spin.
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I heard a woman from Cuba say yesterday that Health care in Cuba is so bad that she had to share a bed in the maternity ward. I asked twice. That was “bed” not “room”.
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BTW – Chas – I’m not on much in the evenings, but add my prayers to everyone else’s. Take care of your eyes.
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And I thought everything was GWB’s fault.
I remember the blockade, and I remember my parents staring at each other when my sister and I asked questions. They were really worried about a third world war, so the missiles didn’t go over well in our house. But they kept a lid on their feelings so we wouldn’t get too upset. They took it seriously. I think I read the newspapers to find out what was what.
New2me, I think you are thinking of a later Kennedy generation, a son of Robert Kennedy who divorced his wife and wanted to have it annulled. I don’t think the RCC went along with that. They are still alive.
KLasko, I am with you on voting out incumbents. I am having a debate with one of my co-workers, a fellow Repub, who doesn’t like the Repub gubernatorial candidate. Well, I can understand that, but get rid of the Dem stranglehold. Nothing upsets the applecart in this state. They say the governor’s races in NJ and VA are a test for Obama, and all I can say is, I hope they are right and that Repubs win. Or independents, I don’t care. Just let the legislature know that new taxes and programs they can’t pay for won’t fly.
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KIM: Is it possible, just possible that there is a color blind generation coming forth? I believe so! PTL!
I remember the Cuban crises well. Plattsburg, NY, across the lake from our home town, had a stratigic air base. As my wife and I were traveling south on vacation, we wondered if we would ever return home. Not a very pleasant time for the world. Still isn’t.
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And it was sweet to read that Momoffour and her husband met while reading the same book in the Bible (Isaiah). Certainly gave them plenty to talk about.
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CHAS, I’m not on much in the evenings either but I did skim through yesterday’s WV. Thoughts and prayers.
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It sure did, NJL. And still does…
Random, your response to me yesterday…I KNEW the Holy Spirit was not leading me to take that part time job, but I did it anyway. There’s a personal example of sin…Not that I was a working woman, but that God did not want that for me now, and knowing it, I still went ahead. For two months straight, I have felt sick to my stomach, and have had episodes of my heart racing. I believe it is because I was openly rebelling against what God wanted for MY family. Now that there is peace with Him, I feel much better, even as I’m still working there part time for a few more weeks…
NJL–Deeds won’t win in Virginia! 8*)
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I hope you’re right about VA, Momoffour, but I can’t predict NJ. This is a very strange state. We have the highest property taxes in the country and the current governor has said he will raise them more, and I still don’t know that they’ll kick him to the curb. He’s very wealthy and “donates” money to get endorsements — which one church pastor gave after much “soul-searching” and $87,000.
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sarcasm on : Roger, I can’t be saying the things I said. I am a white trash southern bigot/racist or haven’t you been reading what I write. And what others are accusing me of. (sarcasm off)
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Momoffour – “NJL–Deeds won’t win in Virginia! 8*)”
Darn Skippy! I’m doing what I can to make sure he doesn’t win in my state.
Deeds really hurt himself when he came out of the gate with negative attack ads. Even if I was inclined to vote for him based on platform (which I’m not), I was biased against him based on his negative ads (strike 1). Strike 2 – he’s from downstate. We’ve had enough downstate governors handing upstate money to downstate projects. And strike 3 – in this election which is a statement about the current democrat stranglehold on the national scene, a vote for the democratic candidate will be seen as a vote of confidence in President Obama and Congress.
Unfortunately, I will be voting for a Democrat for my state Delegate. The candidate that the Republican party put up in my voting district is uacceptable – voting out the Democratic incumbent for him would be unpalatable.
Jersey – I’m hoping the Republicans can pull out a win in the race in NJ.
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Klasko, glad to meet a fellow Virginian 8*)
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People keep saying “vote them all out,” but if we do that in my congressional district we would vote out a conservative Republican who generally votes the way I would, in favor of a far left Democrat who’d give away the store.
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Happily agreeing w/all of you on Deeds, a mediocre candidate at best and lousy prospect for an executive position. VA might be turning purple, but not yet. Unless the Community Organizer in Chief rallies his troops, McDonnell will be our next governor.
NJL, if that third-party candidate is a spoiler for NJ Republicans, the Dems could spin it in 0bama’s favor. Otherwise it’ll be a big win for the GOP – you think?
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VA greetings to MOMOFFOUR and KLASKO from a recovering New Yorker
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Likewise Momoffour and Nana.
Nana – I feel your pain. I was raised in upstate NY in the Syracuse area. I ran away from home when I was 17 to join the army and married it. Never looked back. Ny’s a great state if they could only overcome their politicians and NYC. My mother and brother still live there.
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No kidding – me, too, KLASKO, except the running away part. I grew up in Syracuse, moved to Albany to work in the legislature and happily retired in Fairfax.
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KIM: I knew there was a sweet honest Southern lady there! How could I tell? The way you get trashed is the clue!
Keep on keeping on.
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Kayvee – sometimes you have to start a backfire and burn some useful land in order to keep an out of control wildfire from spreading. In this case the out of control wildfire is Congress.
A wholesale voting out of all the incumbents in the House and as many in the Senate as are up will send a bigger message than just voting out the Dems. Both parties are part of the problem – they are both infected with the cancer of corruption, and if they have been in office more than 2 terms, it’s time for them to go back home and get a real job. There is nothing that precludes them from running again. (Although, I personally would like to see a 2 year hiatus between the time a representative leaves office and when he or she runs again for the same or any other office – but that’s just me.)
I don’t want to see politicians getting too secure in their jobs, and I definitely and sick and tired of the entrenched career politicians. Two year term limits and then go back and be a real citizen, subject to the laws you helped pass for the rest of us. And no retirement for life on the government after your (max) 2 terms. That will help limit career politicians (*cough*Byrd*cough*) and political dynasties (*cough*KennedyBush*cough*)
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Nana – Onondaga Hill. Attended Onondaga Central. You?
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I’ve been in VA all my life, Klasko and Nana.
I second Roger in encouraging Kim–keep on keeping on is right! There’s nothing like that sweet Southern hospitality…I *try* to be a “Southern Belle”, but sometimes there’s a little fighting redneck in me too, I must admit!
Well here I am actually home, and I’m spending all morning on here. I’m supposed to be babysitting, cleaning, and preparting for the evenings events. I should say g’day!
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KLASKO, no, but my brother and son did until I put my son in Faith Heritage School which !shock of shocks! turned out to be the very same building of the closed public school I had attended (Onondage Valley Academy)! I last lived in Westvale and am very familiar with Onondaga Hill and evirons. How nice to meet you! Busy day here….
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#24
Standing by what I said.
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So Nana – we’re neighbors twice!
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Momoffour – are you near woodbridge or Fairfax?
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Nope, in the beautiful Blue Ridge of central VA; but I have family in Fairfax…is that your area?
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#5 in a series of meditations on Chapter 5 of Staring at the Sun a book on existential psychiatrist Irvin Yalom. Yalom’s suggestions for dealing with the idea of death is thin gruel indeed compared to the glorious fantasy of believing in Heaven and Hell, so I am not sure why you are still reading my comments, though if you are you can post a comment saying you are not reading my comments.
I will finish up with Yalom’s summary of the thoughts of Greek philosopher Epicurus. #2 is the ultimate nothingness of death. If there is nothing, there is nothing to worry about.
#3 is Symmetry. We don’t exist before we are born; we don’t exist after we die. It all comes out in the wash.
See? Nothing to it. Though there’s more. Tune in tomorrow for less is more. More or less.
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by Yalom, not on.
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Nana’s in Fairfax, I’m in Woodbridge.
I love the Blue Ridge. Beautiful country.
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Klasko and Nana:
Hey neighbors. Born in Rochester, NY and raised in the outskirts. Pastored in Auburn and Palmyra, NY, now a resident of Woodbridge, VA. Have lived in Arlington, and Alexandria, where I was on the Police Dept, Fairfax County and PW County.
Deeds has run one of the worst campaigns I have ever observed, despite tons of cheerleading by the Wash Pest.
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MomofFour! Sorry for not responding the other day! Mom’s taxi service has been running overtime up here, and I don’t have much computer time these days.
Very exciting to hear that enrollment is up at your Christian school – God is good! It’s up a little at ours, too. Glad you enjoyed the article on GPCS.
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Yesterday, I mentioned that I am testing my blood glucose once a week because I am considered pre-diabetic. Someone suggested cinnamon.
After extensive research (two minutes with Google), I found this from the Mayo Clinic.
======================================
Question
Diabetes treatment: Can cinnamon lower blood sugar?
Is it true that cinnamon can lower blood sugar in people who have diabetes?
Answer
from Maria Collazo-Clavell, M.D.
Whether cinnamon can lower blood sugar is a topic of debate — but most research suggests that cinnamon isn’t an effective treatment for type 1 or type 2 diabetes.
In one preliminary 2006 study, cinnamon extract seemed to lower blood sugar in people who have type 2 diabetes. However, other studies haven’t confirmed these results. Likewise, cinnamon doesn’t appear to improve hemoglobin A1C levels — a reflection of average blood sugar level for the past two to three months — or cholesterol levels. At this point, it seems unlikely that cinnamon could play any role in diabetes treatment.
If you have diabetes, remember that treatment is a lifelong commitment of blood sugar monitoring, healthy eating, regular exercise and, sometimes, diabetes medications or insulin therapy. Consult your doctor if you have questions or concerns about your diabetes treatment plan.
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I now check my blood pressure regularly and my blood insulin regularly. Today I stabbed myself and my blood sugar level was about three times normal. Either I have somehow come down with instant diabetes in a flash or perhaps I am an incompetent measurer. I will stab myself again tomorrow morning, and try putting the strip in the gauge with the correct end first and see if that makes any difference.
In the meantime, I will check my mileage.
Next month my wife and I will celebrate 44 years of marriage. Not bad for two grumpy old atheists who are 80% incompatible.
The same day in November as our anniversary is grandparents’ day at the private school for very bright children where our granddaughter attends kindergarten. I will check to see if she wants us to attend and if she will agree to have the kindergartners throw a party for us.
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I lived in Falls Church for seven years and moved to Annandale. I liked it there; it would be impossible to be more convenient.
My wife wanted to be closer to her family, so we moved to N.C.
But we always made a trip every year to visit friends and the area. Last time, as I was driving up Shirley Hwy, it occurred to me, “I’m glad I don’t live here anymore.”
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Update on the young pregnant woman. We have not been successful yet in getting her to leave the abusive boyfriend. He went to a doctor’s appointment with her yesterday, the doctor put her on bedrest, so the boyfriend’s solution was to hit her on the way back to the car for putting the baby in danger and sexually assaulting her. Makes a whole lot of sense doesn’t it? Unfortunately my hands are tied on what I can and can’t do as she lives in another state and I only “know” her in computerland. I ask that you continue to pray for her.
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I think I mentioned it a long time ago, Chas, but I was born in Falls Church (lived there the first 6 months of my life). My grandparents lived in Annandale. They lived in a neighborhood that backed up to some REALLY neat playground. It may have been part of a school, or a park. But I remember it well to this day. It had a wooden maze/houselike structure. And TONS of huge tractor-like tires to run around on. I think there may have been tennis courts. Lots of good memories there! 8*)
MMacMurray–good to “see” from you! 8*) I know what you mean about the “taxi” service. My boys are all three on different sports teams this year, which means three different practice schedules, and three different game schedules, not to mention all the school and husband stuff!!
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Will keep on praying, Kim. What a difficult situation…
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NJL
I think it was Senator Kennedy who just died that wanted his marriage annulled.
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Klasko: If I could vote out Nancy Pelosi or Jane Harmon I would, but I’m constrained by the fact that I live in a different district. I see no sense in voting against someone with whom I agree, while those in California’s gerrymandered liberal districts will undoubtedly keep on being re-elected by those benefiting by the pork they bring. I’ll support my good man and work to keep yet another lefty from joining congress.
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KIM #50
prayers – that is so scary
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Got a phone call this morning from my brother, out taking his wife for a wheelchair walk, and he said he didn’t know if she was even “aware.” Because she’s going downhill so fast, nurses now say she has only days (earlier in the week they said a month).
Their youngest son is in college and driving home tomorrow. He has fall break next week, but normally he’d have classes Monday and Tuesday and then fall break, but he’s leaving early in the hopes of seeing his mother alive. So the prayer request now is that he’ll get home safely (he has a hard time staying awake at the wheel, and it’s something like a 5 1/2 hour drive) and in time to see his mother, and then that she will go Home.
Earlier in the week I received something that made me cry. My sis-in-law worked on Christmas cards Sunday, and I assumed she then put them aside for her husband to mail, but no, she went ahead and mailed them. Nothing like getting a Christmas card in October because the sender knows she won’t see December. She enclosed a portrait of her and my brother taken this summer, so it’s a precious card, but definitely bittersweet and it brought the tears!
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News2me: I don’t remember that about Teddy, but it’s possible. I’m sure about the Robert Kennedy son, though.
Nana, I have NO idea what will happen in NJ. None whatsoever.
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NJL
you are right, it was Joseph Kennedy
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http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33416595/ns/technology_and_science-science/?gt1=43001
‘Missing link’ primate isn’t a link after all
Expert: Ida is as far from monkey-ape-human ancestry as primate can be
A new analysis says that a 47-million-year-old skeleton of the most complete fossil primate ever found, unveiled May 19 at the American Museum of Natural History in New York, is actually as far removed from the monkey-ape-human ancestry as a primate can be.
NEW YORK – Remember Ida, the fossil discovery announced last May with its own book and TV documentary? A publicity blitz called it “the link” that would reveal the earliest evolutionary roots of monkeys, apes and humans.
Experts protested that Ida wasn’t even a close relative. And now a new analysis supports their reaction.
In fact, Ida is as far removed from the monkey-ape-human ancestry as a primate could be, says Erik Seiffert of Stony Brook University in New York.
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I’m waiting for Barney Frank, the great high and mighty financial wizard, to get voted out.
But as Al Franken won, comedians might be someone you should vote for these days. I never thought Al Franken was all that funny but I do think Barney is very quick witted. I wouldn’t hire a financial wizard based on his wit tho. I’ve seen him on Youtube taking the regulators to task for trying to put some control over Fanny and Freddie before the crash. And I do realize that it was Bushes fault for letting Barney and the other Dems control the money for the past several years.
Whoops! Is the Bush motivation blog? I was so motivated I got carried away.
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Oh Cheryl, that made me cry. How sweet of her. Hospice nurses are some of God’s Angels here on earth.
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So many people getting sick and dying.
What is the percentage of cancer in people these days?
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Is cancer coverage part of the NEW healthcare?
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This comment taken from Discovery.com, is intended only for mature married gentlemen. It refers to the wooing habits of Australian redback spiders, who make black widows look crude, so to speak.
Unless the gentleman spider engages in enough foreplay, the female files for divorce or eats him. Exactly 100 minutes are required. Apparently the female sits there with a stopwatch, saying, “No, not there. THERE!”
“Based upon our data of the timing of premature lethal cannibalism, it appears
as though females are not tuned to select male size, but rather the duration of
courtship,” co-author Jeffrey Stoltz told Discovery News.
Females don’t even discriminate once the 100 minutes are up, Stoltza added, so
other males can even scramble in at that point and win her favor.
Stoltz, a University of Toronto researcher, and colleague Maydianne Andrade
analyzed Australian redback spiders bred from a population collected in Sydney.
They focused on the spider’s unique mating ritual.
A male first performs a lengthy “courtship dance,” Stoltz said, where it
vibrates the female’s web and wraps it in his own silk to reduce the emission of
pheromones that could attract other males.
He then drums on her abdomen with his palps, and may alternate between drumming
and web dancing. If he does this for less than 100 minutes, Stoltz said that
“the male will exclusively remain on the female’s abdomen and then will insert
his intromittent organ and perform a copulatory somersault and the female will
begin consuming him.”
If he meets her desired courtship threshold, he may be able to mate and survive.
If not, he’s usually eaten and then other males enter her web, sometimes
fighting with each other to get to her.
“Females appear to act as a referee and strike at males with their forelegs as
males escalate aggression towards one another,” Stoltz added.
The bizarre process may help to explain why male widow spiders are often so much
smaller than females. For this species, males carry 1 to 2 percent of the body
weight of a typical female.
Smaller males likely mature faster and can therefore mate earlier in life,
Stoltz explained, and tiny males could be better equipped to scramble faster
towards females and their webs. Bigger females, on the other hand, may have
greater reproductive success, so the species winds up with enormous females and
minuscule males.
========================
Also, I want to know if these two Canadian researchers are married and if their spouses know what they do for a living.
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Re the Christmas cards in October. At least she is letting people know.
We had a friend that died and then had her family wait to send out invites to get together to remember her.
I felt so bad that I didn’t get to talk with her before she died.
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CHERYL D.
prayers
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Ken – Hey neighbor! This blog world is getting smaller and smaller! We should all have coffee sometime.
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KIM #50
I hope that girl erases her emails so her boyfriend doesn’t see them. That is a scary situation. Too bad you couldn’t notify the police where she lives.
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Kayvee – you do what you have to do.
But in the meantime, I’ll keep advocating a clean sweep in Nov 2010.
We’re good.
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Cheryl,
You have my prayers.
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Praying, Cheryl.
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Cheryl – your SIL and her family and you are in my prayers.
Kim – praying for your cyberfriend.
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Watch out!
WV and Palin running neck and neck.
When all the people come out of the woodwork to work over Palin it will get even bigger.
Did I forget to mention Palin and her book that is coming out in Nov.?
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Praying, Cheryl D, and for your cyberfriend, Kim.
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CHERYL D:
God bless your brother for his faithfulness. And you for loving them so.
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N2M: So many people simply dieing. Come Lord Jesus!
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Cheryl,
Your post brings tears to my eyes. My mothers best friend died in the month of October when I was ten years old, she was a wonderful Christian woman who never married, we loved her so much. In December of that year her mother gave my mother a gift which her daughter had purchased for my mom for Christmas, it was a lovely box of stationary – it meant so my to my mother.
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Friends,
Here is another “clip” of Gregg Frazer’s long post where he responds to a fellow evangelical (one more moderate in his theology) on why rebellion/revolution is NEVER permitted in the Bible and that includes the American Revolution. The Bible teaches the American Revolution was a sin on par with witchcraft:
Regarding your comparison between the Saul/David situation and the Othniel situation and your conclusion that it is as “simple” as God saying He wouldn’t listen to Israel when they cried out for deliverance from Saul: if these were the only two passages in Scripture, that “simple” explanation might fly as representative of the Old Testament record. But they’re not the only passages and uprooting them from the context of the rest of the Old Testament record can lead to faulty views such as this. For example, there are plenty of tyrants in the history of Israel after Saul who are not removed despite pleas from the people. If it’s as “simple” as you’ve made it, God should have interceded on behalf of all of the others. Also, God does not only recognize kings of Israel (His people) who’ve gone through a special anointing ceremony to be His “anointed.” Romans 13 says that all rulers are “ministers of God” and “servants of God.” And God refers to pagan civil rulers as His “servants,” His “shepherds,” and His “anointed” (see e.g. Jeremiah 25:9; 27:6; 43:10; Isaiah 44:28; 45:1). So, what applied to David re Saul applies to all civil rulers AS FAR AS TAKING OUR OWN INITIATIVE IS CONCERNED. GOD may remove a ruler or even raise up a deliverer to remove a ruler or use the sinful rebellion of people to remove a ruler – but we have no authority or permission to do so on our own initiative. It isn’t up to us to decide, but rather God. You talk of having “a time to have the Spirit come upon you” — as if that were up to you to generate. As if you were in control of the Spirit of God!!! God can send His Spirit; God can raise up a deliverer; God can determine that it’s time for a tyrant to fall – but that doesn’t mean we can or that we can simply decide that we are such deliverers!
You say that “’appointed’ authority can come under judgment themselves and their former slaves can even be the ones to take them out.” True. What is NOT true is the notion that WE get to decide when that time has arrived or that, contrary to clear command from God, we can do it our own way on our own timetable. You ask why the Declaration of Independence can’t be an example of this – BECAUSE THERE WAS NO REVELATION TO THE AMERICAN REVOLUTIONARIES TO TRUMP THE BIBLICAL COMMAND NOT TO REBEL. God did not reveal to them that this was an Othniel situation and He did not reveal to them that He had appointed an Othniel to deliver them! Othniel didn’t decide on his own – He received revelation from God.
Re your creative exploitation of Ecclesiastes 3: first, “a time for war” does not equal a time for rebellion or revolution, as you imply on occasion. War is a quite different entity than revolution, which may/may not be accompanied by war. To say there is a time for “war” tells us nothing about “revolution.” Second, you suggest, by the way that you refer to it, that God declaring that there is a time for each of the things listed indicates that they are good things or things of which God approves. That is not necessarily the case. So, even if there were a “time for revolution,” that would not necessarily make it a good or acceptable thing. And, the sense in which it would be good would be when God decides – not someone without the authority to do so – namely, us. Third, I notice that you conveniently leave out the first sentence of verse one: “There is an appointed time for everything.” That speaks of God’s control – of God’s plan. God has appointed times for events – they do not happen randomly or outside of His plan. That’s my view – not yours.
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Jon – from this side of history, I was inclined to believe that the colonies were in the sin of rebellion. And then I read Thomas Paine’s Common Sence and his Biblical argument and now I am less inclined to believe that the colonists were in sin. Thay did everything they could to sue for redress of their grievances from the king, and to no avail. I think it was becoming less and less expedient for England to govern the colonies, given the time constraints in communications back and forth. The colonial break away was just a matter of time.
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that’s Common Sense. arghh!
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Cheryl;
YOU have my prayers, how very sad.
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Just checking in so no one thinks I left without saying goodbye. I’ll be around until they pull the keyboard out from under my cold, dead hands.
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I thought you must still be calculating grade averages Peter.
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So umm that Pay Czar guy..anybody else think its a bit out of line to mandate pay scale for private business without congressional approval? If even then?
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Thorn:
I wonder what happens if they pay more than the Czar says. That’s a question.
He wasn’t approved by the Senate, he is not an official Department head. The president says he didn’t sign off on it.
So, by what authority?
I don’t care about the execs, except that I greatly care that the government is doing this. Especially that this is nobody doing it.
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Jon –
Once again the reference to rebellion being as the sin of withcraft was directed to Saul, the anointed ruler of Israel. Saul’s rebellion was against God, not a governmental ruler or regime. You, or Greg Frazer if you are following his lead, persist on using that Scriptural citation against its contextual import. Its actual applicaton is nearly diametrically opposed to its use in the context of the American Revolution, in fact.
The stated reasons for the colonial resistance to British rule is that King George defied his governmental mandate to recognize their rights as British citizens. The Declaration of Independence describes a monarch in rebellion against God, denying the rights with which He intrinsically created His American men. Perhaps that British Crown is the more appropriate place to level the charge of rebellion as analagous to witchrraft.
It is interesting that Dr. Frazer argues that the leaders of he War for Independence were not anointed by God because there were no recorded divine revelations. Certainly it is possible that some of the Patriots sensed a divine rightness to their efforts. Must divine ordination be confined to a particular model?
It is flatly untrue that God nowhere in Scripture permitted insurrection agaisnt oppressive rulers. The Book of Judges contain a number of such rebellions, including an assassination. That these rulers were foreign oppressors is no excuse to discount the insurrections of Gilead et alia. They did rule over Israel. What was the King of far away England to the colonists?
Evangelical Christians in Emgland made many of the same arguments as Dr. Frazer. Evangelicals in America found Biblical warrants supporting independence. Dr. Frazer might actually be right in the overall argument that our founding farmers were engaging in sin, but I fear that his arguments, insofar as you have presented them, are overly broad, misunderstand or misstate the relevant history of the American War for Independence, and misapply some Scripture.
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Chas,
I wonder how much money the Czar makes?
I think its hypocritical to denounce the CEOs (the bad ones) for their poor performance and subject them to money restraints, while our poor performing Congress gets to spend all they want.
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Random Name re #48
I have been a type 1 diabetic since 1981. Different disease, different etiology, similar consequences. Mine is thought to be an autoimmune response gone haywire, with the body destroying the insulin producing cells in the pancreas. Sugar is necessary for cellular metabolism, insulin is the key to getting the glucose into the cells. I must inject insulin, other medicines or lifestyle changes will have no effect without it.
Pre-diabetes is slowly developing incipient type 2 diabetes, where the body develops a resistance to insulin, or cannot produce enough. Other medications, diet and exerecise, can sometimes control it. Occasionally additional insulin must be injected.
Glucose monitoring is important. When I’m lazy, I do 2 or 3 finger sticks a day. When motivated, 6 to 8. The A1C1 test is an important indicator of long term trends. Keep at it. The overall lifestyle changes used to manage the condition are beneficial for everyone.
I’ll pray for you, although I’m sure the mileage might vary.
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Pre-diabetes is slowly developing incipient type 2 diabetes, where the body develops a resistance to insulin, or cannot produce enough.
******Except when it isn’t. My son developed it at 16. He is not significantly overweight, nor did it take very long to develop. And, has to take Insulin before every meal, or he would die.
Yet, he’s “Type 2″ because he doesn’t have the markers, and his pancreas works a little (compared to the Type 1 where it doesn’t work at all.)
They are in the process of deciding that there are more “types” of diabetes than were previously thought.
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Random: 3 times normal? So your level is in the 250-300 range? That’s pretty bad for a “pre-diabetic.” I was diagnosed with a fasting level of around 450, and they wanted me in the hospital yesterday. Of course, I was 15, almost 16, at the time, so maybe they cared about me more than a “grumpy old atheist.”
As I understand it, anyone who goes too far over 100 is not normal. When you start talking 150+, you need to take some action, unless you don’t want to get to your 50th anniversary.
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Today I have been having fun with a forward type email.
1. Reply to me
2. Forward the email
Question: If you saw ME in the back of a police car what would you think I was arrested for?
Renee (we have been friends since 3rd grade and she now lives in Richmond) replied: “Killing some dumb*** that needed it.”
Malia: “Tailgating, arguing with the cop and ultimately resisting arrest.”
Amanda: “Embezzlement. Kim can stretch a dollar six ways from Sunday.”
So
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so now you all know me just a little better. Each one of these responses made me laugh. I was just a teensy bit jealous of the response Renee got from her husband. He said he hoped they were together because surely they would have been having fun.
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#88: I wish I could say what type I was. When I was first diagnosed, I was almost 16, and while I was a tad overweight, I wasn’t obese. I needed quite a high insulin ratio as well. So, they immediately assumed type 1.
But, I didn’t have the antibodies. And then they found that my pancreas worked a tiny bit: generally too much for type 1 and not enough for type 2. And non-insulin medication has had an effect on me, which it apparently usually wouldn’t for a type 1. However, I still need quite a lot of insulin, way more than I understand type 2 diabetics usually do.
So, it makes life a little annoying, since the first question anyone ever asks is whether I’m type 1 or type 2. And it’s a bit awkward to come back with paragraphs of analysis ending in an “I don’t know.” So I’ll join TRS in saying that there is more to diabetes than type 1 and type 2.
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CherylD, my prayers for your SIL, your brother and you and the rest of the family.
Kim, praying, too, for your young cyberfriend. This is very troubling.
(I’m going to try your email question, too. Thanks for sharing that.)
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Thorn: “I think its hypocritical to denounce the CEOs (the bad ones) for their poor performance and subject them to money restraints, while our poor performing Congress gets to spend all they want.”
Wouldn’t it be great if WE, the PEOPLE could subject Congress to pay restraints, force them to separate their pay raise from the rest of the government employees? Wouldn’t it be great if that were a NATIONAL REFERENDUM question????? They’d never get a raise again.
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I think the pay of Congress should be adjusted inversely proportional to the inflation rate. i.e. If if inflation is +4%, they are reduced 4%. If it is steady, they get +1%, if it goes down -4%, they get +4%.
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How about an hourly rate, let’s say $50/hr. Won’t cost too much. They never show up.
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NO! NJL, if we pay them by the hour they may stay in Washington.
We want them outta town. Go on boondoggle, just go away.
All they do is cause trouble when they’re in town.
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Okay then, Chas. We pay Congress according to how much they stay away. Make them more efficient by paying them proportional to how long it takes to get certain laws passed. If they get done in six months instead of 12, they still get the annual salary. But if they work 12 months, they get less. If they get done on less than six months, they get a bonus. But, they have to read every page of every piece of legislation. They have to pass a test on it with a score of 80% or higher. Perhaps that would get fewer massive bills.
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Anybody seen Peter L around here lately? I wonder if he got sent to detention for not putting his name on his paper.
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Michelle,
Thank you.
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#90 I was surprised I wasn’t lying on the floor in shock. So I suspected it is a very incorrect reading. I will test first thing in the morning tomorrow with a new test strip; then I will test with a new series of test strips; then I will call the advice nurse; then I will head out for my HMO.
Escalating steps if I get nutso levels with each test.
As I just got off from working out vigorously at the gym with no apparent ill effects, I am inclined to think I am just sufferingf from bad radings.
[clunk]
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At the gym, they had Fox News on the tellie. My brain has been corrected. If my insulin level is good tomorrow, I will assume there is some kind of cause and effect relationship, and watching Fox news will correct my blood sugar levels.
Though in between Fox I did see some Dr. Phil. He straightened me out about the balloon boy. I will try and keep my granddaughter from engaging in some wild hoax stunt involving a flying saucer. Though I did spy some little spinner toy that flies through the air when we visited the Boeing Museum a couple of weeks ago. Maybe she will start an airline and move it to South Carolina.
Sometimes I listen to talk radio while driving. Sometimes I watch television at the gym. I can see how the people of America, and the people of worldmagblog are so astonishingly well-informed.
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Random: Make sure your hands are clean before you test. But you probably know that.
FYI, I’ve never watched Fox News in my life, IIRC.
Nor do I listen to anything on the radio except music.
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KLASKO 67 and other neighbors, let’s do that some time. It’ll take some planning, but workable. Maybe to celebrate our new Gov. McDonnell?!
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Is this how a new church gets started in this century?
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NJL and Chas – let’s vote out the current crop and vote in some folks who will fix a few things like congressional salaries and perqs. Vot them ALL out and excise the cancer of corruption from our legislative body. We can do it.
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Nana – sounds like a plan. Email me: kmlask at verizon dot net. And you and I can do coffee.
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I’m with you KLasko. I’m still working on my co-worker.
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Being president is kinda like a CEO..does Obama have to give 90% of his pay back?
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KLASKO, I’ll work on that. I take mine black and unflavored!
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Nana – that’s how I take mine too!
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Nana – let me know here on the blog if you have trouble getting through to my email. I may have to loosen up my security settings.
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