Happy Chinese New Year - Year of the Dragon

One of my favorite ancient cultures celebrates the New Year of the Dragon today just as it has since before western calendars were ever created.  The Chinese have held onto beliefs and practices from asrtrological to medicine, art to music longer than most people can even imagine.  We should all take time to learn and explore the Chinese people and culture.

If we did we would find in many ways the Chinese have contributed to the march of mankind.  Many people in America are concerned that made in China is a bad thing but one must remember those things made in China for export to America are made to specifications given to the Chinese by American companies.

There are many things in medicine, herbs, art, culture and history where the Chinese origins represent the highest quality in the world.  We owe them a debt of gratitude for these many contributions.  So I say to you and my many Chinese friends:

Please enjoy the photos from the celebrations of New Year across China in this, the Year of the Dragon, beginning January 23, 2012.

 

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Obamaville January 23, 2012

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The Games People Play Now

What a week in America we just experienced.  NFL payoffs led to heart-stopping games and the New York Giants and New England Patriots in the Super Bowl.  With the bitter rivalries between teams and their location in two of the best media markets in the nation is should be a Super payoff for the teams, for the advertisers and for Indianapolis, host of the Super Bowl.

On the never ending political front Omaha continued raising millions of dollars in non-stop campaign events.  Here in the land of the free and home of democracy you could have dinner with the president for about $38,500 a ticket.

Not bad for economic stimulus.  You and your wife, or girl friend for some politicians, could go out to dinner with the president for just $77,000.  That means your tickets cost three times the average annual personal income and one and a half times the total annual household income of all Americans.

No indication of class warfare or political elitism in those numbers huh?  Are you ready to spend three years working to buy dinner for two with the president?

That is just part of the problem with politics in America.  It is not the politicians but the parties that are behind the illusion.  Or is it?

Only once in our history did we elect a president from NO political party, our founding father George Washington.  So what gave rise to the power of the Democratic and Republican parties?

Historically, the Democrats got their start in the 1830's and Republicans in the 1850's.  Both began as policy differences with those parties that did win elections.  The following were all legitimate parties, most of which elected presidents, in our early history.  One other thing they have in common is all are extinct.

Federalist Party
Democrat-Republican Party
National Republican Party
Anti-Masonic Party
Whig Party
Liberty Party
Free-Soil Party
The Know-Nothing Party
Greenback Party

Politics, however, entered the national scene by the 1796 when Washington decided he'd had enough of public service.  You should know, however, that the people who would make politics an American institution were all involved in the debates regarding who would succeed George.

In the middle was Alexander Hamilton, the 1st Treasury Secretary of the US under Washington.  Then there was John Adams, the Vice President under George who became  the second president after George.  Thomas Jefferson, the Secretary of State under George who lost to Adams in 1796 for president but beat Adams in his re-election campaign in 1800 becoming our third president.

Finally, Aaron Burr, former governor and senator from New York. who ran for president in 1800 against Jefferson but settled for vice president under Jefferson.  He might have become president in 1808 as well had he not challenged his bitter enemy Alexander Hamilton in a duel and killed him in 1804.  By the way, in 1800 Burr and Jefferson tied, both beating incumbent John Adams, as Hamilton now mastered the backroom deal and brokered the election in the House of Representatives.

So, we have always had political parties trying to manipulate our politics and elections.  However, until the 1900's there were many parties fighting it out and presidents from many of them.  What happened next, and please rest assured I know this is an over simplification but necessary to keep from losing the interest of readers, the states, who have always controlled the elections, began trying to manipulate the elections.

This was done so the states could protect themselves from special interests in Washington and probably started with the anti-slavery issue, then the economic issues like the gold standard.  As states watched the federal government get bigger and bigger as we went from 13 to 50 states, the power of the states slipped away.

With so many political parties controlling the policy agenda, the states wanted a stronger role.  So after the modern Democrat party was founded in the 1830's and modern Republican party in the 1850's, states tried to manipulate the election outcome through the use of primary elections and caucus's which remain in place to this day.  Both were efforts to allow the states to limit parties by increasing the complexity and cost of running for office.

Abraham Lincoln was the first and only third party candidate in our history to win the presidency as he led the four year old new Republican party to victory in 1860.  Ever since the two major parties have controlled the outcome through the caucus and primary strategies.  Though third party candidates like Ross Perot in 1992 and Teddy Roosevelt in 1912 most likely changed the election outcome by their presence.

So what is the conclusion in how to get America back from the political parties and fat cats who control or influence the parties?  Realistically, it won't happen.  It hasn't happened since the founding of our country and it may be integral in order for our style of limited democracy to succeed.

There are three powerful forces who can lose sight of the public good and use our political system for their own gain, power and greed.  First, those People with a lot of money.  Make no mistake, money and greed are a part of every political party and a temptation to every politic candidate.

Second the political parties who lust for power and control and do this by convincing various demographic, social, class and cultural groups that their particular party is good and the other is bad.  These two parties use every federal and state technique possible to make it impossible for third party candidates to succeed.

Finally, there are the politicians who do get corrupted by the system, the money People, or the political parties.  Now before you protest I know there are many politicians in both parties or Independents who are dedicated, honest and actually do try to serve the public good.  They haven't got a chance right now however.

I believe we don't need institutional change to make our system responsive, useful, and a lot more concerned about the American people than their own ideological followers.  In spite of our many problems we still have the most successful nation on earth and we remain the envy of most everyone.

We can strengthen our system and reduce the tremendous influence of Fat Cats and corruption, whether financial or moral, with two simple legislative initiatives that won't cost the government a penny to approve but could change the face of government forever and for the good.

First we need meaningful campaign finance laws which President Obama and our political parties refuse to address because it is the very corrupt system that got them in control and elected in the first place.  Second we need conflict of interest and ethics laws passed for our politicians that stop them from figuratively and literally getting in bed with special interests.

They will be the topic of future stories.
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South Carolina Primary - Gingrich & Palin versus ABC & CNN

Winners and Losers

Well the final days of the South Carolina primary have been everything we can expect from a state that started the American Civil War.  There was so much smoke blowing over Fort Sumter in Charleston yesterday it may take weeks for the politicians and media to emerge from the fog.

There are times you have got to love the rough and tumble world of democracy American style and there are times you have got to love the Constitutional freedoms America has protected that leave the rest of the world in shock.

If you want a show come to America and watch the elections because there is not a country on Earth that does it like America.  Now, if you listen to the Main Street or Lame Street media reports you would draw two conclusions.  First the Republicans are self-destructing and second that Obama is going to be anointed to a second term.

Fortunately, the American people long ago knew better than to believe the media as long before politicians hit the bottom of the list of least respected occupations the media were right at the bottom, next to lawyers.

There is a reason no more than five million out of 310 million people watch a network news show every night.  There is a reason newspapers are dying, while network and cable television news continue to decline in viewers every year.

People don't trust the media any more than they trust politicians.  That may very well be the saving grace for our nation.

The media would have you believe the Republicans are destroying each other in South Carolina and there is no chance they can recover in the general election.  Did they forget that just four short years ago the same thing was happening to the Democrats?

In 2008 Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama were brutally fighting it out in South Carolina as Obama accused former President Bill Clinton of fanning the flames of racism to win over votes for his wife.  Did the media today forget how nasty the 2008 Democratic show had been?

Well Obama did win the primary but he did not become the consensus leader until June 3, 2008, and Hillary did not withdraw until June 7.  That is over four months from now yet the media acts as if this Republican primary campaign should be over.  Nonsense!  It will be over when the people, not the media, decide.

So ABC News, along with the Washington Post, tries to trash the Romney and then Gingrich campaigns in the final days before the primary with much hyped exposés and CNN jumps on the band wagon when two days before the primary John King, CNN moderator, opened the last presidential debate by asking Gingrich if he told his ex-wife in 1999 that he wanted an "open" marriage so he could continue an affair.

When ABC and CNN take the lead and are blindly followed by most of the lame street media in allowing such babble to dominate the presidential campaign coverage there is a serious disconnect with reality.

Gingrich, being the gregarious opportunist that he is, promptly blasted the CNN host, the national media, and the liberal universe drawing two standing ovations before the debate had hardly begun.   It was a performance equal to anything the legendary populist Huey Long of Louisiana (Democrat) achieved on the national political stage 75 years ago.

Like him or not old Newt fanned the flames and rallied the people against the media and in the process, the media obsession with protecting President Obama may have backfired.  Just two days before the debate Sarah Palin came out of mothballs to help save Newt from the "elite" media with a "kind of" endorsement Sarah Palin style.

Just when the liberals were certain Palin had been blasted into oblivion by three years of media massacre of her and her reputation, Sarah comes to Newt's defense.  It is very likely when the dust settles after this primary Gingrich will turn around his imminent collapse according to the media and win the primary, and the liberal media will have awakened the Momma Bear of Alaska.

There you have it, the winners and losers, and the primary is not until tomorrow.  South Carolina gave us Obama, Hillary and Bill Clinton tossing charges of racism four years ago.  Now they have given us an energized Newt Gingrich and Sarah Palin.  It could be an interesting year.

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Lyme Disease - the Secret Pandemic Sweeping America

 

 

The following are links to the seven part series on Lyme Disease that appeared in the Coltons Point Times.  If you know anyone suffering from the disease or with symptoms this series may be of help.

Part 1 - http://lymediseasesecretpandemic.blogspot.com/2010/12/lyme-disease-secret-pandemic-sweeping.html

Part 2 - http://lymediseasesecretpandemic.blogspot.com/2010/12/lyme-disease-secret-pandemic-sweeping_20.html

Part 3 - http://lymediseasesecretpandemic.blogspot.com/2010/12/lyme-disease-secret-pandemic-sweeping_61.html

Part 4 - http://lymediseasesecretpandemic.blogspot.com/2010/12/lyme-disease-secret-pandemic-sweeping_2895.html

Part 5 - http://lymediseasesecretpandemic.blogspot.com/2010/12/lyme-disease-secret-pandemic-sweeping_7907.html

Part 6 - http://lymediseasesecretpandemic.blogspot.com/2010/12/lyme-disease-secret-pandemic-sweeping_21.html

Part 7 - http://lymediseasesecretpandemic.blogspot.com/2012/01/lyme-disease-secret-pandemic-sweeping.html

Obamaville - Campaign 2012 - A Millionaires Delight?

With just two days until the GOP primary in South Carolina a new player has unexpectedly joined the Republican fracas as the Obama White House has officially broken a promise to stay on the sidelines of the GOP primary politics.

Apparently the Obama advisors just can't resist a chance to influence the vote and for the first time this election the White House Press Secretary, Jay Carney, used the podium of the White House to blast Mitt Romney over his personal income tax comments.

To be fair, Romney was left unprotected and unprepared by his campaign staff on the issues relating to releasing his income tax records.  For a campaign that has maintained a sharp focus on the economy for the long haul and the battle against Obama for the presidency, this was a serious media blunder.

Sensing blood in the wind, the Chicago gang of Obama simply could not resist joining the effort to distort and smear their probable opponent.  In perhaps a blunder on their own part, it was rather odd they left the hatchet job to the White House Press Secretary, paid for by US tax dollars, when all the good Obama mouthpieces are with the campaign and not on the government payroll.

But then they also have President Obama, also on the taxpayer payroll, racing around the country raising hundreds of millions of campaign dollars while acting like a president.  In another related development the Obama campaign is starting to air political campaign commercials in battle ground states even though he is unopposed and the GOP opponent will not be selected officially until the end of August.  By my calendar that is still six months away.

So Romney comments on his probable tax rate of 15%, speakers fees of $300,000 and is ill-prepared to defend his right to be successful, make a lot of money, and be an example for others.

Carney used the White House podium to say Romney is evidence of the need for the millionaire's tax to prevent the rich from paying lower tax rates than middle class Americans.  This is what he had to say.

“The president feels very strongly that everybody needs to pay their fair share and that everybody, therefore, gets a fair shot at the American dream,” the White House press secretary Jay Carney said at his press briefing.

"That includes millionaires who might be paying an effective tax rate of 15 per cent when folks making $50,000 or $75,000 or $100,000 a year are paying much more,” Mr. Carney added.

Though he tried to keep Obama out of the fray by saying his comments were not "specifically" discussed with the President, anyone with any knowledge of the workings of the White House knows nothing is said by the Press Secretary without the approval of the President.

One might consider this politics as usual but there are a couple of potential issues that might benefit Romney as his taxes are released.

First, most of his income came from investments, not salary, just like Obama advisor Warren Buffett and most millionaires.  There is a fixed tax rate of 15% for such income so that is the law.  Romney has supported comprehensive revision of the entire tax code.

While the capital gains tax, which is lower than individual tax rates, favors the wealthy, it was set up to encourage the investment of such funds into building businesses which generates jobs.  If anything, reinvestment in America seems to be a good thing.

Romney is the only presidential candidate who has called for a means test to limit capital gains to only the rich, $200,000 plus income.  The media and political pundits forget that many Americans are subject to this tax for their mutual funds and other investments.

According to U.S. News almost half (42%)  of all Americans use 401(k), IRA, Keogh or other type of retirement account.  A record low 23% of Americans expect to receive pension income, while 20% expect stocks and mutual funds to be a major source of retirement income.  Withdrawals from retirement accounts are taxed as normal income while stocks and mutual fund withdrawals are taxed at the lower capital gains rate.

In addition, when the Romney taxes are released don't be surprised if it shows Romney gave more to his church than anyone else, quite possibly more than all the other candidates and President Obama combined.  His other charitable contributions may also dwarf the other candidates.

Taxes are complex.  There are thousands of pages of US tax code.  It needs an overhaul but attacking classes of taxpayers and calling for the redistribution of wealth is no way to achieve it.  All candidates and both political parties must work together to make the system fair and just.

Lyme Disease - the Secret Pandemic Sweeping America

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Lyme Disease - the Secret Pandemic Sweeping America

Part 7 - The Final Chapter

It has now been 2 years since I began my personal journey with Lyme Disease and 20 months since I wrote the first of the "Lyme Disease - the Secret Pandemic Sweeping America" series in the Coltons Point Times.

Many people including friends strongly opposed my commitment to seeking out a natural cure for a disease the medical community virtually ignores, a disease that is sweeping the sleeping nation.

The path was far more difficult and painful than I expected in that the practitioners in the various alternative medicine disciplines knew little more than the traditional medical people about the disease, yet they were far advanced in testing potential treatments and cures.

Here in America the entire drug approval system and federal regulation favors the pharmaceutical giants to the extent of making it nearly impossible to get US approval for new drugs including natural compounds from small business or health practitioners.

So here was my personal case history.  Lyme Disease markers were found in my system 24 months ago.  By June of 2010 I was unable to function physically with numb hands and arms, aching joints, and an inability to balance when I tried to walk.  In October and November of 2010 over 100 gallons of propane leaked into my house from the propane tank just outside the kitchen window.  It killed my 240 pound Irish Wolfhound and nearly killed me.

I did not discover the propane leak until late December.

By November my only treatment for Lyme was natural and required 15,000 mg of vitamin C and 15,000 mg of salt every day.  My nutritionist, Michael Guidry of Alexandria, Virginia, was guiding me through a series of natural treatments and procedures that seemed to be having a positive effect.

At the same time I was going to my Chinese doctor, Dr. Shi-hua Wu in Chinatown, Washington, D.C., who provided a custom herbal tea (24 different herbs) and acupuncture.  Dr. Wu is a well known teacher and master of Eastern Chinese medicine, he is a master herbologist, and has performed acupuncture for 55 years since leaving China.

My sudden turn for the worse, unbeknownst to me, was the propane poisoning.

My brothers from Kentucky, sensing I was far sicker than I admitted, came to Maryland and literally carried me to the SUV for a mad dash to Lexington, Kentucky.  There waited Dr, Debbie Alsheimer, a practitioner of functional health.  I had no clue what that meant.  Yet in my condition and pain anything would have been better.

She used a combination of bio-feedback, identifying nutritional deficiencies, physical therapy and exercises, and plain old intuition to give me a program to attack the many treacherous tentacles of Lyme.

Because of my inability to exercise, let alone even walk, I found out that between January of 2011 and October of 2011 I also pinched five nerves in my neck to shoulder region, nerves that controlled things like the blood and oxygen flow to the brain and caused false readings from my sensory preceptors.  Doesn't that sound academic?

It means my senses went haywire.  When my hands touched something hot it felt frigid.  Large areas of my torso would suddenly become hot, or cold, for no reason.  I could pick up a scalding hot pan on the stove and not feel the heat.

By October of 2011, on another of my trips to Kentucky for treatment and analysis, a chiropractor who specializes in nerves, Dr. Mark Miller, found the five pinched nerves and started releasing them.  This will take a few months but I am well on the way to full recovery.

Today, after recent blood tests and physical exams by western doctors, I am free of any Lyme, there is no permanent nerve damage, no traces of the gas poisoning are left in my blood, and a program of traction, physical exercise, very limited dietary supplement and will power has me well on the way to full recovery.

Through it all I remained true to my goal of seeking only a natural cure for the disease.

Why me?  I mean why should I get well when millions of people are painfully and often permanently suffering from the little understood Lyme Disease pandemic that is sweeping our nation?

I can't say but this much I know.  What I have learned from the hundreds or maybe thousands of readers of my stories is that people need to know there is hope and there is help to conquer the disease.

So many people emailed me after reading the story telling me of the tragedy of the treatments and lack of results they achieved in their own battles against Lyme.  Even when a massive dose of antibodies did finally overcome the bacteria of Lyme we are yet to know the consequences of such a massive jolt on our immune system.

Over the years many forms of treatment actually wind up hurting us like how antibodies destroy our immune system, how chemotherapy treatment will destroy your organs and the long term consequences of massive radiation from cat scans,  MRI and excessive x rays.

I had a team throughout it all consisting of Michael Guidry, a nutritionist from Alexandria, Virginia; Dr. Shi-hua Wu, Eastern (Chinese) doctor, herbologist and acupuncturist from Chinatown, Washington, D.C.; Dr. Debbie Alsheimer, a functional health expert from Lexington, Kentucky; and Dr. Mark Miller, a chiropractor who knows nerves from Winchester, Kentucky, just outside Lexington.

On the mystical side I had LaKotahasie Frazier, a powerful Native Medicine Woman, healer and teacher, we call her Lakota.  Her Indian name is Buffalo Woman Comes Running and Lakota is of Abanaki, French and Lakotah descent.

I have long been a believer in Eastern Chinese medicine and Native medicine and prayers as a result of my friendship with the Hopi Indians of Arizona.  Medicine Wheels, sweat lodges and other Native ceremonies, like the Chinese practices, have been used for thousands of years to heal.

Of course there were others not of this dimension like Jesus and the Holy Mother Mary, endless sources of hope through faith and prayer.  Never underestimate the power of faith and prayer in life and healing.

In addition to the aforementioned there was one other thing unusual about my quest.  It was the use of an ancient Chinese herb used for thousands of years to heal.  Recently it was discovered this natural compound could do what the federal health authorities acknowledge has never been achieved in Western Medicine, provide a mechanism that results in the destruction of drug resistant cells in people.

Information from the company behind this natural compound will be released in the immediate future and a way for all Lyme victims to get immediate access to this compound through a clinical trial will be announced.

Ironically, virtually all those members of my team and the natural treatments and herbs they used to heal me ARE NOT ALLOWED OR COVERED under conventional health insurance programs or Medicare in the USA although they are allowed in the rest of the world.

If our politicians are serious about health care reform they will allow such time tested practices and herbs and redirect our health care system to heal the body, not just treat an illness or injury.

If you know anyone suffering from Lyme Disease please let them know about this series of stories and that an announcement is imminent about a natural way to overcome the disease with no harmful side effects.  Many suffer, a number have died, and we are all living in a sea of confusion about Lyme.  I hope I have helped people get through the maze and I want people to know there is real hope.

As Harry Chapin immortalized in words through the magic of music, we are all just travelers on the road to Kingdom Come.  We need not be victims as well.

Finally, I have created a blog containing the complete Lyme Disease series of seven articles I wrote so you can read them in one place. The link is

http://lymediseasesecretpandemic.blogspot.com/ /

and please share this link with anyone who might benefit from the series.

Back to Lyme Index:
http://lymediseasesecretpandemic.blogspot.com/
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