Tom Faranda's Folly

"Learning From Our Parents’ Heart Health Mistakes"

An article by the fine NY Times health writer Jane Brody, first published this past April.

Narrowed, aging blood vessels, which put most older American adults at risk for heart disease and strokes, are not inevitable. This fact was underscored by a newly published study of a population in the Bolivian Amazon. Among these indigenous South Americans, known as the Tsimane (pronounced chee-MAH-nay), coronary atherosclerosis was found to be one-fifth as common than in the United States. CT scans of the hearts of 705 Tsimane adults aged 40 to 94 revealed that nearly nine in 10 had clean coronary arteries and faced no risk of heart disease. The research team estimated that an 80-year-old in the Tsimane group has the same vascular age as an American in his mid-50s.

There's plenty of good stuff in this article, so hit the link. I am excerpting the section about the Bolivian Tsimane lifestyle.

So what can we learn from the Tsimane? Are medications, treatment with stents and other costly procedures our only hope for cutting coronary mortality further? Yes, if millions of Americans continue to spurn changes in their living habits that have been shown over and over again to be protective.

The Tsimane have a forager-horticulturist lifestyle. Tsimane men are physically active for an average of six to seven hours a day — accumulating about 17,000 steps a day — and Tsimane women are active for four to six hours a day, walking about 15,000 steps a day. Smoking is rare in this population.

The Tsimane diet derives 72 percent of its calories from carbohydrates, though not the overly refined starches and sugars consumed by most Americans. The Tsimane eat unprocessed complex carbs high in fiber, like brown rice, plantain, manioc, corn, nuts and fruits.

But the Tsimane are not vegetarians. Protein accounts for 14 percent of their calories and comes primarily from animal meats that, unlike American meats, are very low in artery-clogging saturated fat.

This does not mean we must return to hunting and gathering or subsistence farming to protect our hearts. But we’d do well to adapt the Tsimane example and modify our modern high-fat, highly processed, low-fiber and high-sugar diet and our extremely sedentary lifestyle.

The "Variety" article about Matt Lauer

Be warned it's gross. I don't usually post anything about this stuff - but making an exception.  The link has some of the less nasty text.

Despite being married, Lauer was fixated on women, especially their bodies and looks, according to more than 10 accounts from current and former employees. ... For Lauer, work and sex were intertwined. “There were a lot of consensual relationships, but that’s still a problem because of the power he held,”... he’d have to do it within his stable, where he exerted power, and he knew people wouldn’t ever complain.”

How could the NBC execs and co-host Savannah Guthrie not have known about this?

Late night ratings race: Colbert up, "Tonight Show" down

It pays (literally) to constantly attack Trump. I have friends who live for Stephen Colbert ...

Ten months after Inauguration Day, the trend is holding: For late-night hosts, being sharply critical of President Trump is a winning strategy. And that is bad news for “The Tonight Show.” Stephen Colbert, who has made Mr. Trump a nightly target, assumed the top position in the ratings race in February and has only increased his lead since then. His program, “The Late Show” on CBS, has taken viewers away from Jimmy Fallon, the cheerful host of NBC’s storied franchise, who has lost 21 percent of his audience year over year since the fall season began on Sept. 25. At the same time, Jimmy Kimmel has made ratings gains in the 11:35 p.m. slot on ABC.

Rugby: Wales v. New Zealand - great attacking rugby

Beautiful game played in Cardiff.

 

Bob Dylan had fake news figured out in 1964

Here's a great 65 second video as he confronts Time magazine (Soon to be owned by "Better Homes & Gardens" to buy Time Inc. ). "If I want find out anything I'm not going to read Time magazine, I'm not going to read Newsweek. ... I mean because they've got too much to lose by printing the truth." He sounds like you know who.

 

Publisher of "Better Homes & Gardens" to buy Time Inc.

Amazing. Ten years ago who would have thought a home/garden/recipe company would be buying Time Magazine and the other Time Inc. holdings. The link below is to the Wall Street Journal - excerpts below the link. No longer "Person of the Year" - now "Gardener of the Year"?

Meredith Agrees to Buy Time Inc. for $1..85 Billion Deal valuing publisher at $18.50 a share is significant bet on future of magazine industry

Meredith Corp. MDP 1.41% , the owner of Better Homes & Gardens and Allrecipes, has struck a deal to buy magazine publisher Time Inc. TIME 2.11% for $1.85 billion in cash, a significant bet on the future of the magazine industry as media companies try to find their footing in an increasingly digital world.

Meredith, based in Des Moines, Iowa, has agreed to pay $18.50 a share for Time, the fabled New York publisher of Fortune, People and Sports Illustrated, the companies said. The boards of both companies have approved the transaction.

That is a 46% premium to Time’s closing price on Nov. 15, before reports of Meredith’s renewed interest in a deal with financial backing from the billionaire Koch brothers. More recently, the stock closed Friday at $16.90. Including the assumption of Time’s debt, the deal is valued at $2.8 billion.

The deal caps the end of an era. Time, whose namesake Time magazine hit the newsstands in March 1923, emerged as one of the country’s great journalistic enterprises, shaping both the political and cultural landscapes. But in recent years, the magazine publisher lost ground as a shift among readers to digital platforms cut into traditional print revenue and a new generation of online rivals emerged.

***********

“The vision is the absolute premiere media company in the country with premium branded content on every platform,” Mr. Lacy said in an interview. “We’re very excited to bring these businesses together.”

Mr. Lacy said the combined company will have more than 10 billion annual video views and nearly $700 million in digital advertising revenue. “This is also a digital play for Meredith, one that transforms the company into a top 10 digital media company in the U.S.”

Tom Harty, Meredith’s chief operating officer, said that the combined properties won’t be entirely dependent on advertising thanks to their 60 million paid subscriptions, which will account for one-quarter of revenue.

Koch Industries lent Meredith a heap of money to do the deal -

... Meredith approached Time with a fully financed offer, including $650 million from a private-equity unit of Koch Industries called Koch Equity Development.

The backing of the Koch brothers, together with a group of bank lenders, immediately gave Meredith’s renewed effort greater weight. Koch Industries is one of the largest privately owned companies in the U.S., and the two billionaire brothers who control it, Charles Koch and David Koch, are known for supporting conservative causes.

Mr. Harty described the Koch investment as “passive” and said the firm “won’t have any influence on Meredith’s operations, including editorial.” Koch Industries, he added, has expressed no interest in acquiring any individual Time Inc. titles.

 

NY Times - Sugar & Salt - YIKES!

Two articles in the last week.

Here's the first. note that the sugar industry does dispute this ...

The documents show that in 1968 a trade group called the Sugar Research Foundation, known today as the Sugar Association, funded a research project on animals to shed light on the connection between sugar and heart health. But when the research pointed to a mechanism by which sugar might promote not only heart disease but also bladder cancer, the industry group ended the study and never published the results.

And salt! At least chocolate and wine (both in moderation) are still Ok ... for the moment...

While some studies have concluded that only people with hypertension on high-salt diets need to reduce salt intake, the overwhelming strength of scientific findings bolsters advice from major health organizations that most Americans should cut back on sodium for the sake of their health. Excess sodium is responsible for most cases of hypertension in Western societies, and hypertension is a leading risk factor for heart attacks, strokes and kidney failure.

Because salt added to our foods by processors and restaurants, not that from our saltshakers, is the main source of sodium in our diets, protecting the health of the most vulnerable requires a society-wide reduction in sodium.

The recommended daily intake for healthy American adults — 2,300 milligrams of sodium a day, or the amount in about 1⅛ teaspoons of salt — will be reflected in the new nutrition facts label, scheduled to take effect, depending on the size of the companies, beginning in mid-2018 until January 2021. Currently, the average American consumes more than 3,400 milligrams a day, an amount often found in a single restaurant meal. A lunch of soup and a sandwich can easily add up to a day’s worth of sodium.

However, an expert team reported last year in The New England Journal of Medicine that an average reduction of just 400 milligrams of sodium a day could save 28,000 lives and $7 billion in health care costs a year.

 

Farandaville Happy - Stepinac football wins 2nd State title in three years!

As they defeated Canisius 49-28, playing them on their home turf in Buffalo.

 

From the Lohud website -

Dominant second half earns Stepinac another state crown

The Crusaders were overwhelming in the second half, rolling up 40 points in a 49-28 victory at Canisius' Koessler Field to earn their second state title in three years.

"All year long we were working hard trying to be the best we can be," said junior safety Tyler DeCrescenzo, who had an interception and returned a fumble for a touchdown. "Our No. 1 goal was to win a state championship and we accomplished it. Nothing gets better than this.

The euphoria from last week's CHSFL championship win over St. Anthony's continued Saturday behind more brilliance from Trill Williams. The senior won his duel with Rutgers-bound Paul Woods, allowing just one reception head to head and registering an interception. He also scored three touchdowns on offense.

Awesome. The article mentions that Canisius defeated Stepinac in the first state championship four years ago, a game Tim played in. Stepinac has only missed the State championship game once and that was last year when they lost at the last second to Cardinal Hayes in the Metropolitan area championship game.

Fr. Rutler on "The Feast of Christ the King"

Which - for Catholics - is tomorrow. Fr. Rutler is a speaker and author of some note, and below is his weekly email letter.

A professor told me of two experiences he had when civilization was picking up its pieces after World War II. He was in the crowd when King George VI visited Cambridge University and was greeted with loud cheers. Then, as a U. S. soldier in occupied Japan, he watched as a vast throng became stone silent when the Emperor alighted from the imperial train, all heads bowed and eyes downcast. Hirohito no longer had divine pretensions, but the customary reverence was palpable. The one king embodied the familial aspect of a monarch as father, and the other was a reminder of a ruler transcending the ordinary commerce of life.

   On the Feast of Christ the King, the Church proposes a sovereignty both human and divine: the Holy One who walked the roads of this world as a man among men was at the same time of Heaven, the Supreme Being.

   This mystery stretches the limited intellect, as in the case of Pontius Pilate, who remains a fascinating psychological study, as he tried to figure out if Jesus was a king. Why he posed the question is not clear, and Jesus asked if the question was his own or a reaction to the cynicism of the mob. Pilate was a paramount cynic himself, not a skeptic who doubts whether something is true, but a man who doubts that truth exists at all. That is why Nietzsche, whose only god was selfish power, considered Pilate the only powerful character in the Gospel. But then, it was Nietzsche who said, “I am no man, I am dynamite.” Consistent with his claim, he ended up insane.

   Because Pilate was too vindictive even for the Roman imperium, the governor of Syria, Lucius Vitellius, removed him from the prefecture of Judea. One theory is that Pilate committed suicide in what is now Vienne in modern France. As for his birth, there is more confusion: possibly Tarragona in Spain, or more implausibly in the Perthshire Highlands of Scotland, or Forchheim in Germany, or most likely in the Abruzzi of Italy. You might say that he was born wherever men refuse to recognize truth when they see it, and destroy themselves when they have walked away from it. The moral chaos is more widespread now than in the academic groves of the classical world, and we see its effect in the campus riots of today and the mental floss of such philosophers as Michel Foucault and Jacques Derrida.

   This much can be said for Pontius Pilate: He inscribed that sign “King of the Jews” and would not remove it. It may have been sheer irony, the cynicism of a cynic. Or perhaps when he began to roam the hills of exile, he sensed that the ultimate and only choice in life is holiness or madness: “And they will go away to eternal punishment, but the virtuous to eternal life” (Matthew 25:46).

Another record for stocks - tax reform better get done - or else

Because the markets expect it to be done and it's already built into stock prices. And if it's not done - look for a painful drop.

S&P 500 closes above 2,600 for first time as Street bets on strong holiday shopping season

Time mag: Trump "Person of the Year" again?

UPDATE: Time says this: Trump 'incorrect' over Time person of the year claims, magazine says

Maybe he's in the running?

 

Meeting Mr. Barracuda

When I saw this 45 second vid I thought "That looks like the Cayman Islands" and in fact it's off Little Cayman. Little Cayman is much better known for it's magnificent wall diving, starting in 35' (we got there when we were living on Grand Cayman from '79-'81) rather than the closer inshore dive this must have been.

The commentary says this is a 5' barracuda, but I don't think it's that big. Curios creatures - we used to see them all the time when diving or snorkeling in Cayman.

 

From my friend Graham: "13 Rules for Life"

Graham, who I first met in Jamaica, when I was teaching there, way back in the late 70's! I deleted #13, something about a bedpan...

1. Never give yourself a haircut.- specially after 3 drinks.
2. You need only two tools. WD-40 and duct tape.

        If it doesn’t move and should, use WD-40. If it moves and shouldn’t, use the tape.

1.  The  five most essential words for a healthy relationship;” I apologize” and “you are right”.
2. Everyone seems normal until you get to know them.
3. When you make a mistake, make amends immediately.  It’s easier to eat crow while it’s still warm.
4. The only good advise you mother gave you was, “go! You  might meet somebody!”
5. If he/she says that you are too good for him/her – believe them.
6. Learn to pick your battles; ask yourself; will this matter  in one year from now? How about one month? One week? One day?
7. Never pass up an opportunity to pee.
8. If you woke up breathing, congratulations! You have another chance!
9. Living well is the best revenge. Being miserable because of a bad or former relationship just might mean that the other person was right about you.
10. Work is good for survival but its not that important retirement is better.

 

 

Beautiful op ed: "A Day for Gratitiude"

Beautiful. Unfortunately the WSJ has a paywall - I've excerpted quite a bit below the link.

A Day for Gratitude. Enjoying the blessings of freedom.

Thanksgiving brings the counting of our blessings. Naturally an American thinks of the blessings of freedom and of the people who guarantee that we can continue to enjoy such blessings. In a lovely 2012 piece in the New York Times, Jennifer Rawlings describes what it’s like to spend Than ksgiving with this crew:

Thankfully the military family always has room for guests at its holiday table. I’m not in the military. I’m a performer who has had the privilege of entertaining the troops overseas, and I have been a frequent guest of the men and women in uniform during the holidays. I remember the first time I sat down for Thanksgiving dinner with the troops, in Kosovo in 2002. My plastic tray was full of food in various shades of brown. I didn’t know where to sit, I was alone and missing my kids. A group of soldiers waved me over, and shuffled their M-16’s to make room for me at the table. In many ways it was like sitting with my own family: everyone was talking at once and asking questions.

“My name is Andrea. I’m from Mississippi. Where are you from?”

“Can you please pass the Tabasco sauce? It makes the turkey taste better.’

“Do you want to see a picture of my kids? I haven’t seen them in five months. I’m going to call them after lunch and wish them ‘Happy Thanksgiving.’”

...Everyone at the table wove me into their conversation. I learned about their lives, their families, their jobs and their hearts. They told jokes and great stories. They reminisced about Thanksgiving at home with their families. A couple soldiers got choked up as they spoke about home. But like any good “brother” would do, another soldier would chime in with a one-liner to keep the spirit light. No tears or drama at this family table, just camaraderie and support. Taking time to celebrate and be thankful, and focusing on the moment of gratitude — not the loss.

The Marine Corps Association and Foundation quotes a 2008 letter from Iraq that expresses the same spirit. A young lance corporal explains to her parents that she had been “expecting a very homesick Thanksgiving.” That was before the welcome she and her comrades received when their convoy arrived at Camp Fallujah: “None of the posts had young Marines at them; Officers and Staff [non-commissioned officers] manned them all. The command decided that the young Marines were going to have the night off to get some good chow.” Senior officers then served the meal, which seems to have helped put everyone in a good mood. The young Marine writes :

So, as I went to bed, I felt very Thankful and indeed blessed for a great life. Tomorrow, I am sure will be full of fighting and disaster, along with the added stress of little sleep and cold days and even colder nights.

But, for tonight, it’s Thanksgiving and everything is okay.

The association also recounts the experience of Pfc. Richard Holgin, whose Marine unit was near Korea’s Chosin Reservoir in November of 1950:

One day they brought our chow up by truck to where we were. Wow! It was Thanksgiving dinner. I was 17 years old. We all lined up. The mess kits were oblong. One side had turkey, and the other side mashed potatoes and something else. No frills. I put my tray down on this 55-gallon drum and my hot coffee froze in my tin cup. I hurried up and ate the rest of my stuff before it froze.

It would be a long time before Pfc. Holgin or any of his fellow Marines enjoyed another hot meal. A few nights later they were attacked by twelve divisions of the Chinese army.

Seven years earlier, U.S. troops had been engaged e lsewhere:

On 29 November, 1943, The Pittsburgh Post ran an article written by Richard Johnson, a United Press writer who was with the Marines at Tarawa. It read, “Back home about now, folks are settling down to celebrate Thanksgiving Day over heaping platters of turkey and fixin’s. Out here on this tiny Pacific atoll, which has just been bought with the blood of United States Marines, those of us who survive join fervently in those thanks. First of all, we are thankful that we are alive.”

 

Newsweek makes Charlie Manson - Trump comparison

Newsweek still exists? The Trump Hitler comparison no longer works I guess.

 

Rodney Dangerfield's birthday today - he'd be 96

Here he is on Carson many, many years ago. With some one liners I hadn't heard.

Planned Parenthood: “Al Franken is a Leader for Women”

So said Cecile Richards, head of PP.

Franken raised more than $81,500 from feminist abortion rights groups for his Senate campaign, “making him the highest recipient of such cash of any congressional candidate.”

 

Rugby: Ireland v. Fiji

Played in Dublin with the Irish not fielding their full first team. Exciting game.

Ireland concerned about USA becoming economically competitive again

From a Journal column yesterday.

Even the Irish Are Getting Nervous How you know U.S. tax reformers are on the right track.

“People are respecting our country again, believe me,” said President Donald Trump today before a meeting of his cabinet. He was summing up the results of his 12-day trip to Asia with his typical immodesty, but at least when it comes to his signature domestic policy, the statement appears to be on the mark.

“We’re going to give the American people a huge tax cut for Christmas. Hopefully that will be a great, big, beautiful Christmas present,” said Mr. Trump. “Corporate rate will be reduced from 35 percent all the way down to 20 percent, which will make us competitive again, and companies won’t be leaving our country.” He added that “our tax plan will return trillions of dollars in wealth to our shores so that companies can invest in America again.”

Overseas, there seems to be some concern that Mr. Trump and tax reformers in Congress are about to do exactly that. The long-running Cantillon column in the Irish Times noted over the weekend that Thursday’s U.S. House vote to cut taxes “is highly significant” and that most Republicans in America “are united behind reforming the corporate-tax system.” The column in the Dublin-based newspaper added:

This is unsettling for Ireland. Addressing the House this week, Paul Ryan – a proud Irish-American – cited the example of Johnson Controls, a company that has had roots in his home state of Wisconsin since the 1880s but is now based in Ireland. The new tax system will help make the United States &ldq uo;the most competitive place in the world”, he said. Worrying words for Ireland.

This is the corporate taxation equivalent of the New England Patriots suddenly becoming concerned about the competitive threat posed by the Cleveland Browns. With its 12.5% tax rate on business income, Ireland has for years been pulling corporate headquarters away f rom the United States and attracting investment from all over the planet. Ireland routinely has the fastest-growing economy in the euro zone, so we can only imagine how Europe’s also-rans feel about the prospect of the U.S. economy suddenly becoming much more competitive.

 

Anticipating Brigid's BIG birthday, Party #1

Yup, we'll be having some fun for a few weeks, in anticipation of the big 12/12 day! Our theme song?

The Fairfield/Stepinac contingent this past Saturday, hosted by Paul and Doreen - you can just see Brigid.

And a gorgeous cake from The Dessertist in Croton - and it was delicious -

The picture is from 2005, at Dunn's River Falls in Jamaica. Probably my all-time favorite picture. Samantha (The Dessertist) took it off a flash drive I gave her. It's a cropping of a larger shot.

Brigid launches the attack - just the right sized cake for eight -

Studiously studying my slice, in the background. I love cake.

Awesome afternoon!

 

Stepinac wins 3rd NY Catholic league title in four years

 

And will go to Buffalo Saturday to try and repeat their 2015 state championship.

Here's the LoHud coverage, but the second link from Newsday on Long Island is a little better.

After falling behind 14-0, Stepinac rolled over St. Anthony's 47-22 to take the CHSFL AAA League Championship

Here''s Newsday -

Stepinac’s Williams too much for St. Anthony’s in AAA final

The Crusaders’ Atrilleon “Trill” Williams accounted for 183 yards of total offense and four touchdowns as second-seeded Stepinac defeated No. 1 St. Anthony’s, 47-22, in the CHSFL AAA championship game at Mitchel Athletic Complex on Saturday.

Rich Reichert has been the St. Anthony’s coach for 31 seasons. He’s coached and watched some of the best players in the CHSFL’s history. So where does Williams rank?

****

“He’s right up there,” Reichert said. “He’s a playmaker. We tried to keep the ball away from him, but on the punt return [for a touchdown], he catches on one side, and goes to the other. He catches the ball well. He had two picks; the kid is a tremendous, tremendous football player. That’s why he’s going to Syracuse.”

St. Anthony’s (9-2) jumped out to a 14-0 lead in the first quarter thanks to an electrifying 75-yard punt return by Makhai Murphy, and an 8-yard touchdown run from Sean Bryan.

“We were energetic and rolling,” offensive tackle Christopher Wright said. “Everything seemed to be right at that point, but that obviously wasn’t the case.”

Stepinac (9-2) rallied with a 19-point second quarter — which included a spectacular 56-yard scoring run by Williams — and led 19-14 at the half.

“We lost the momentum,” Reichert said, “and we never seemed to get it back.”

The Friars tried a fake punt early in the third quarter on a fourth-and-6 from its own 31-yard line, but punter Jeremy Miller was stopped a yard short. Stepinac did not score with the short field, but after St. Anthony’s went three-and-out, Williams returned the ensuing punt 73 yards to give the Crusaders a 25-14 lead with 7:01 left in the third quarter.

 

 

 

Today - anniversary of the Gettysburgh Address

Here's a less then 6 minute video by Ken Burns, with some photos and video of veterans decades alter returning to Gettysburg.

 

Here's the miracle leading to today's Beatification of Solanus Casey

What a great story this is - he died in 1957. Lived for a number of years down the road, in Yonkers.

While he was in Detroit, his superiors insisted he keep journals of his contacts with so many people and there are more recorded healings then in all four Gospels combined. I heard about him in the 1990's from talks by two Capuchin Franciscans, Fr. Benedict Groeschel and Fr. Michael Crosby and then read this amazing book The Porter of St. Bonaventure's.

Here's the healing -

‘The scales began to fall’: Woman recounts miracle that led to beatification

In Chepo, Paula is known for being a kind soul, a religion teacher and catechist for school children who spoke out for the poor and suffering, all the while dealing with ichthyosis vulgaris, a disease that caused her skin to turn into scales and bleed. A genetic condition, there is no known cure for the disorder.

******

“My skin was like leaves all stuck together, and it was getting worse,” Paula said. “My hair stopped growing and my fingernails were giving me problems. When I was correcting exams and homework, my arm was causing problems, because when you grade papers you have your left arm rubbing against the desk.”

******

Fr. Timmers called to Paula that it was time for lunch in the Solanus Center’s dining hall. She rose from the tomb and heard a voice: “And you, what do you need?”

“I fell down to my knees, saw the cross and thought about Christ’s Passion and all the pardons granted, thinking I didn’t ask for anything myself,” Paula said. “I asked God for my legs and arms to be healed, and then I began to feel this current of heat in my body. I felt dizzy, like in a dream. After a long time, I got up.”

Paula joined Fr. Timmers in the dining room but quickly excused herself to the bathroom. That’s when she made what’s now deemed a miraculous discovery.

“I felt a lot of heat in my body,” Paula said. “I was thinking, ‘My God, what’s happening?’ I was afraid, my legs were so hot. My doctors warned me that my skin might crack open and bleed. I touched my skin, and the scales began to fall off, with no blood.”

There's more of course, if you hit the link above. This occurred in 2012, and was intensively studied before the Pope deemed it a miracle. The woman will be at the beatification.

 

Rugby: New Zealand v. France

Played in Paris last Saturday.

Corporate greed, or rather Corporate Board of Director stupidity

This is a great little video but it misses the main point which has nothing to do with corporate tax rates and everything to do with Corporate Board of Director governance. The Boards OK these absurd CEO payouts (and who puts the people on the Boards - very often the CEO's) which don't hurt taxpayers - but do hurt the stockholders in the companies. And who are the stockholders? you and I if you have any kind of mutual fund or retirement plan.

Rugby: Ireland v. South Africa

Ireland not wearing their usual green shirts; dark blue since visiting South Africa are in green.

Biz journalist Maria Bartiromo on the tax cut

Formerly on CNN she is a bright light. Her Sunday show is the best Sunday interview show on television.

Two views: differences b/w Catholic Church & the Eastern Orthodox Church

Here's an interesting short video by an Eastern Orthodox priest (UPDATE: he seems to have mis-spoke over the Orthodox position on purgatory), and then a video from a Catholic perspective.

The speaker here, Jimmy Akin, is a convert to Catholicism. he was a Presbyterian from Texas.

 

NY City subways go politically correct

No more "Ladies and Gentleman". Good grief! Doesn't the system have other stuff to think about?

 

Rugby: Scotland v. Samoa - very entertaining

The Scots never could put the islanders away. The southern hemisphere countries are touring Europe - other matches to follow.

Discovered: An iPhone in 1860 - and even earlier?

In a couple of paintings. But could it be a Galaxy Android? The video is 90 seconds long.

Sal Vasta

Wonderful man, wonderful family.

Hit the link for the full obituary.

Salvatore Joseph Vasta, Jr. of Croton-on-Hudson, NY passed away on Veterans Day, November 11, 2017, at the age 89. He was born on August 29, 1928 to the late Salvatore and Maria (nee Sgroi), who both emigrated from Sicily, Italy. Salvatore had tremendous faith in God and a love of his country that was never ending. In 1951, he married the love of his life Patricia (nee Quinn) and together they raised nine children. He was honored to be a Seaman in the United States Navy (USSS Fred T. Berry) and served during WWII. He was a master mason for most of his adult life and built the "foundations" for many families in Croton-on-Hudson, where he was a life-long resident.

"What a cyberwar with North Korea could look like"

Computer v. computer. Could North Korea severely damage our infrastructure with a cyber (computer) attack? Short answer: yes.

Semper Fi. Marine Corps turned 242 years old yesterday

 

This was written by Kieran Michael Lalor, a NY State Assemblyman.

As we celebrate the 242nd birthday of the Marine Corps today, it is fascinating to explore why the smallest branch of the armed forces holds such a big place in American society.

To start, Marines historically have taken disproportionate casualties, a trend that has continued during the Global War on Terror. The Marine Corps makes up less than 11% of the U.S. military, but more than 23% of the Americans killed in action in Iraq and Afghanistan are Marines.

The Corps' history of battlefield success against long odds is also a primary reason why the sight of a Marine in dress blues or a bagpiper belting out the Marine Corps hymn has an immediate, positive impact on a huge chunk of the American population.

Marines protected Washington from three major British assaults during the War of 1812 and stopped the German advance at the Battle of Belleau Wood in World War I. Iwo Jima, Guadalcanal and Okinawa were bloodbaths, but the Marine Corps accomplished the mission and revolutionized amphibious warfare.

Even in less popular conflicts, the Corps added to its reputation. Outnumbered 8 to 1, the Marines broke through Chinese lines and inflicted devastating casualties on the enemy during the bitter cold Chosin Reservoir campaign of the Korean War. Leathernecks also distinguished themselves by fighting house to house in Hue City, Vietnam, and crushing the insurgency in Fallujah, Iraq.

The Corps' commitment to its own glorious history is remarkable, inspiring present and future generations of Marines. No Marine graduates boot camp without knowing about the battle for Tarawa, an island that was so heavily fortified during World War II that the Japanese commander charged with defending it bragged that it would take a million men attacking for 100 years to take it. Marines took Tarawa in less than four days.

Likewise, every Marine puts on the uniform knowing that he or she must live up to the standards set by Marine Corps giants like Lt. Gen. Chesty Puller (five Navy Crosses), Gunnery Sgt. John Basilone (Medal of Honor, Navy Cross) and Sgt. Maj. Dan Daly (two Medals of Honor). This creates an environment where every Marine wants to overachieve, perpetually propelling the Corps to new heights.

Finally, no organization has more zealous alumni than the Marines. A few good men have established more than 600 national Marine Corps organizations with thousands of local chapters. The largest such group, the Marine Corps League, has more than 900 community-based detachments throughout the U.S.

Enhancing the impact that Marine Corps alumni have on its storied reputation, many former Marines have made huge impacts on the world. The first American to orbit the Earth and the last ballplayer to bat .400, John Glenn and Ted Williams respectively, were proud Marines who served together. Fredrick Smith, who founded Federal Express, and former Secretary of State and White House chief of staff James Baker also claimed the title Marine. Even radio legend Don Imus speaks proudly of his Marine Corps service.

Because of this rich heritage, the Marine Corps' entire recruiting philosophy is essentially this: We pay less and take more casualties. Despite the seemingly uninviting pitch, new recruits keep pouring in. Even a few years back, when the other branches struggled mightily to fill their ranks as the Iraq War declined in popularity, the Marine Corps routinely exceeded its goals.

President Ronald Reagan summed up perfectly why America loves the Marine Corps when he said, "Some people spend an entire lifetime wondering if they made a difference in the world. But, the Marines don't have that problem."

Semper Fidelis!

-Kieran Michael Lalor

 ###
Assemblyman Kieran Michael Lalor, a former teacher at Our Lady of Lourdes in Poughkeepsie, is a Marine Corps veteran of Operation Iraqi Freedom and a frequent guest on the Fox News Channel. Lalor is of counsel to the law firm Wallace and Wallace LLP. He is a graduate of John Jay High School, Providence College and Pace Law School and lives in Hopewell Jct. with his wife Mary Jo and their four young children Katie, Riley, Mikey and Kieran Jr..

The ULTIMATE customer service call!

Yankee ingenuity!

 

Alcohol and health: cancer docs cite risks

From the NY Times health section - not good news

The American Society of Clinical Oncology, which represents many of the nation’s top cancer doctors, is calling attention to the ties between alcohol and cancer. In a statement ... the group cites evidence that even light drinking can slightly raise a woman’s risk of breast cancer and increase a common type of esophageal cancer. Heavy drinkers face much higher risks of mouth and throat cancer, cancer of the voice box, liver cancer and, to a lesser extent, colorectal cancers, the group cautions. “The message is not, ‘Don’t drink.’ It’s, ‘If you want to reduce your cancer risk, drink less. And if you don’t drink, don’t start,’”

For women, just one alcoholic drink a day can increase breast cancer risk, according to a report released in May from the American Institute for Cancer Research and the World Cancer Research Fund that was cited by ASCO. That report analyzed 119 studies, including data on 12 million women and over a quarter of a million breast cancer cases, and concluded there was strong evidence that alcohol consumption increases the risk of both pre- and postmenopausal cancer, and that drinking a small glass of wine or beer every day — about 10 grams of alcohol — increases premenopausal breast cancer risk by 5 percent and postmenopausal risk by 9 percent.

“The more you drink, the higher the risk,” said Dr. Clifford A. Hudis, the chief executive of ASCO. “It’s a pretty linear dose-response.”

Even those who drink moderately, defined by the Centers for Disease Control as one daily drink for women and two for men, face nearly a doubling of the risk for mouth and throat cancer and more than double the risk of squamous cell carcinoma of the esophagus, compared to nondrinkers. Moderate drinkers also face elevated risks for cancers of the voice box, female breast cancer and colorectal cancers.

The risk for heavy drinkers — defined as eight or more drinks a week for women and 15 or more a week for men, including binge drinkers — are multiples higher. Heavy drinkers face roughly five times the risk of mouth and throat cancers and squamous cell esophageal cancers than nondrinkers, nearly three times the risk of cancers of the voice box or larynx, double the risk of liver cancer, as well as increased risks for female breast cancer and colorectal cancer.

 

WSJ columnist - interesting take on the Virginia Governor's race

Won of course by the Democrat, in a now reliable Democrat state.

Virginia issues a warning to Trump and a setback to Sanders.

This column owes an apology to viewers of the Fox News Channel program, “America’s Newsroom,” where on Monday your humble correspondent predicted that Republican Ed Gillespie would upset Democrat Ralph Northam in the Virginia gubernatorial race. But this column was not the biggest loser on Tuesday night. Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders share that honor.

Mr. Gillespie’s formidable talents blinded this column to the fact that Democrats had selected their best candidate to win in a state that had already become reliably Democratic in statewide races. With the seemingly never-ending population boom in Northern Virginia driven by residents who profit from the Beltway swamp, this once-conservative state is now very challenging terrain for Republicans. The trick for Democrats in the Old Dominion, as in other swing states, is simply not to nominate people who disqualify themselves by promoting radicalism.

The editorial page of Virginia’s Richmond Times-Dispatch observes:

Republicans did have one major advantage: a strong candidate. Gillespie is a former head of the Republican National Committee who nearly pulled off an upset in a race against Sen. Mark Warner two years ago. He knows politics inside and out, and he knows public policy even better. His campaign produced a hefty briefing book detailing his extensive positions on a wide range of issues. Northam is gentle and genial and inoffensive, but he apparently decided to say as little of substance as possible about the issues, and trust the political winds to blow him into office.

What exactly does Mr. Northam believe? It could be difficult to tell, given what appears to be a despicable foray into racial politics, highlighted by his campaign’s cooperation with an outside group that produced an appalling slur against Mr. Gillespie’s voters. But most of the time, when he’s not trying to hold a lead in the closing stages of a campaign, Mr. Northam doesn’t come off as a kook. In fact, his preference for moderation has been a constant source of annoyance to leftist pundits.

Here’s how New Republic staff writer Alex Shephard described Mr. Northam’s primary contest with progressive darling Tom Perriello back in May:

In essence, it’s a Hillary versus Bernie rematch—the Democratic Party’s old guard squaring off against its younger, grassroots base. Northam is the reliable and cautious party stalwart: A former Army doctor, he speaks in a slow, deliberate drawl, is wooden on the stump, and carefully calibrates his message around proven talking points. An economic centrist, he sees little reason to overhaul a system that has brought jobs to the state. He even voted for George W. Bush —twice. (“Politically, there was no question, I was under-informed,” he says now.) But he has millions of dollars in his campaign war chest—crucial to a run in Virginia’s multiple media markets—and the endorsement of virtually every party heavyweight in the state...

Perriello, by contrast, has made a name for himself as an energetic champion of social and economic justice who can connect with voters in both blue cities and rural red districts. In 2008, after nearly a decade as a human rights lawyer and peace negotiator in Darfur and Afghanistan, he overcame a 34-point deficit to unseat six-term Republican congressman Virgil Goode in a conservative southern district. In Congress, he was a staunch supporter of Obama’s agenda, voting for cap-and-trade, economic stimulus, and the Affordable Care Act.

Mr. Perriello presented himself as a Baby Bernie, and voters rejected him. Increasing numbers of northern Virginians may now live off the fat of the land, but they still seem to understand that if you want to consume other people’s money, you have to let them make it in the first place.

 

So Virginia Democrats went with Mr. Northam. He didn’t scare off independent voters, he still attracted good turnout from base Democratic voters and he won the general election. This appears to be a valuable lesson in how Democrats can win nationwide. Almost all they have to do is not allow Marxist Bernie Sanders to take over their party.

Reassuringly for Republicans, some members of the Democratic coalition still don’t want to learn. The Journal’s Joshua Jamerson reports:

“Democrats will have to decide in 2018 if we’re going to nominate uninspiring establishment candidates or inspiring progressives who can connect with voters,” said Adam Green, co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, a grassroots group. Mr. Green said that Mr. Northam didn’t fit into the inspiring category.

Some leftists were even inspired to disrupt Mr. Northam’s victory speech on Tuesday night. He seems to have angered them by refusing to agree that federal immigration laws should be ignored in Virginia cities.

As for Mr. Sanders, Tuesday night must have been especially disappointing. After all, this was already bound to be a particularly sad week in the Sanders household. The 100th anniversary of Russia’s communist revolution is just one more reminder that the Soviet Union is no more.

As for Republicans—including the one who now occupies the White House—they have a big problem if Democrats don’t ignore the lesson of Tuesday night. A great candidate like Mr. Gillespie couldn’t even make it close, losing by nine percentage points. Dan Clifton of Strategas Research writes today in a note to clients:

Virginia’s election results confirm what national data, special elections, and congressional retirements have been saying for some time – there is a wave election forming against the Republicans and the market will begin to price in a higher probability of a Democratic sweep in the 2018 midterm elections. The narrative this morning is that this will make tax reform more difficult to pass. We disagree. A similar narrative was raised exactly eight years ago regarding healthcare reform when Democrats suffered major losses in Virginia and New Jersey. Yet the exact opposite happened: As soon as the Democrats realized they were about to lose their majority, the party bridged its differences and passed healthcare. Only growth can save the Republican majority and this should force Republicans to get their act together.

This column added the emphasis on the political imperative of economic growth for the GOP. This is important to stress because Republicans can so easily be distracted into bidding wars they will lose with Democrats over who can create the most complicated tax credits for particular types of families. Tuesday’s lesson for Republicans is that they need to cut the corporate tax rate permanently and immediately to 20% so they can run next fall on American economic revival and job creation.

 

Election results from Moscow (Croton) on the Hudson

A great day for Democrats and bad for the group I voted for, Croton United (2 out of 3 of which are registered Democrats).

The mayor and all four trustees are now from the Democrat ticket.

http://104.131.165.179/elections/lohud-elections-results-2017/

And a sad day if, like me, you supported County Executive Rob Astorino. He has done an excellent job for the last eight years.

Rob Astorino knocked off in Westchester County Executive race

 

WSJ - "A Plumber With a Rifle" - the guy who shot the Texas killer

A short Journal editorial - I posted this The man who shot the gunman speaks (1 minute long)  a couple of days ago. He hit the murderer in the thigh and torso..

A neighbor saves lives in Texas with a legal gun and some quick action.

The world is trying to figure out what evil, or madness, caused Devin Kelley to kill 26 people and wound 20 more at the First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, Texas, on Sunday morning. But forgive us if we focus on Stephen Willeford, the local plumber who saved lives by grabbing his rifle and firing at Kelley.

Freeman Martin, the Texas Department of Public Safety chief, said Mr. Willeford “grabbed his rifle and engaged the suspect” as he left the church. Kelley dropped his Ruger AR-15 and fled, and Mr. Willeford jumped in a truck driven by another local resident, Johnnie Langendorff, and pursued the killer. After a 95-mile-per-hour chase, Kelley crashed his vehicle, where police found him dead a short time later. Police believe Kelley killed himself.

The two locals are being hailed as heroes since their quick action was the only deterrent to more murders until police arrived. Kelley, who was discharged from the Air Force for bad conduct, should not have been able to obtain a gun legally, but the Journal reports that the military failed to send his conviction record to the FBI. The harsh reality of mass murders is that often only the presence of someone with a legal weapon to shoot back can stop the rampage.

We saw this in Virginia this year when Capitol Hill police saved the lives of many Members of Congress. Security officers in Garland, Texas, prevented mass casualties by killing two jihadists in 2015 trying to shoot up a contest featuring cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad.

No one wants crowds of vigilantes looking for someone to shoot, but we’re sure glad Stephen Willeford had a rifle and knew how to use it. Like the passengers aboard Flight 93 on 9/11, or the Yanks who foiled a terror attack on a train in Belgium in 2015, he didn’t wait for orders to protect his fellow human beings.

        Appeared in the November 7, 2017, print edition.

Election reaction: One year ago today

"It is the end of the world." 

Article: "Why barbells are better than machines"

In my continuing quest to look like Adonis - or Fabio. Yuk Yuk Yuk. This is a good article, off the website Starting Strength - takes ten minutes to read.

Let’s just clear it up right here: barbell training is the best way to train for strength. Bar none. Nothing else even comes close to the effectiveness of barbell squats, presses, deadlifts, and the Olympic lifts for the development of strength, power, and muscular size. The reason barbells are so very valuable is that they are the most ergonomically-friendly load-handling tool in existence – they allow very heavy weights to be gripped in the hands and moved directly over the center of the foot. Their extremely adjustable nature allows small increases in stress to be applied to the whole body over the full range of motion of all your major leverage systems

Here's the end of the article -

Building strength means that you have increased your ability to produce force, which requires the use of progressively heavier weights. The use of machines is an inefficient way to accomplish this, since the ability to progress is limited by the inherent nature of isolation exercise; additionally, the absence of a balance variable limits the ability of the exercise to build “functional” strength that can be applied in normal human physical circumstances.

Strength is very important, and barbell training is the best way to build it.

 

The man who shot the gunman speaks (1 minute long)

According to the police report here, the gunman was hit twice and then shot himself.

The man who stopped the shooting - emotional -

 

NY Times: "Trying the Feldenkrais Method for Chronic Pain"

This is an interesting article on a method of chronic pain relief I'd never heard of. Worth reading - but see the Disclosure below. The author is the longtime (since 1976!) NYT health columnist Jane Brody. The entire column takes five minutes to read.

I had long refrained from writing about this method of countering pain because I thought it was some sort of New Age gobbledygook with no scientific basis. Boy, was I wrong!

The Feldenkrais method is one of several increasingly popular movement techniques, similar to the Alexander technique, that attempt to better integrate the connections between mind and body. By becoming aware of how one’s body interacts with its surroundings and learning how to behave in less stressful ways, it becomes possible to relinquish habitual movement patterns that cause or contribute to chronic pain.

The method was developed by Moshe Feldenkrais, an Israeli physicist, mechanical engineer and expert in martial arts, after a knee injury threatened to leave him unable to walk. Relying on his expert knowledge of gravity and the mechanics of motion, he developed exercises to help teach the body easier, more efficient ways to move.

Hit the link for the other 16 paragraphs.

DISCLOSURE: Here is the Feldenkrais Method wikipedia entry, which is somewhat negative ...

Mrs. Clinton responds to Democrat operative Donna Brazile's book

Which I had posted about here - Democratic operative Donna Brazile rats out her Party

Two (male) columnists attack Sarah Huckabee Sanders for her looks, weight, and accent

I'm kind of surprised it took this long for idiot columnists to go after her on a personal level. After all she's pretty effective as the President's press secretary.

Two male, liberal columnists this week launched personal attacks against White House press secretary Sarah Sanders.

Los Angeles Times columnist David Horsey mocked Sanders’ appearance, saying she “looks more like a slightly chunky soccer mom who organizes snacks for the kids’ games.”

******

Another columnist, the New York Times’ Frank Bruni, similarly went out of his way on Friday to bash Sanders for her personal characteristics, in this case her way of speaking.

Bruni wrote that Sanders is “serving a function other than communication, which turns out not to be her forte.”

“To listen to her pronounce ‘priorities’ is akin to hearing the air seep out of a flat tire, and she leaves half of the consonants on the curb,” Bruni added parenthetically, mocking Sanders for her Southern accent.

Horsey apologized for his description of Sanders in an update to his column ... “I want to apologize to Times readers — and to Sarah Huckabee Sanders — for a description that was insensitive and failed to meet the standards of our newspaper. It also failed to meet the expectations I have for myself. It surely won’t be my last mistake, but this particular error will be scrupulously avoided in my future commentaries. I’ve removed the offending description,”...

Don't count on Frank Bruni apologizing.

Fr. George Rutler: Column on the 100th anniversary of the Russian Revolution

Fr. Rutler's latest weekly email - A good, short read. He is the pastor of St. Michael the Archangel Church in Manhattan and an author and speaker of some note.

Sunday, November 5th, 2017.

Celebrating the bicentennial of the French Revolution in 1989 was awkward and unlike our nation’s festivities of 1976, because the American Revolution did not have a Reign of Terror. The Russian people are in a situation even more perplexing when it comes to the one-hundredth anniversary of the October Revolution on November 7. (The dating confusion is because Russia was still on the old Julian calendar in 1917.) The Russian Revolution unleashed the horrors of Communism that led to the deaths of at least 94 million people in various countries, by genocide, execution, purges and famines caused by collectivization.    History is not ardently pursued in our schools these days, and when it is modified as Social Science, it often distorts historical reality. In a survey of youths between the ages of sixteen and twenty-four, twenty-eight per cent had never heard of Lenin, and fully half had never heard of Stalin, while nearly two-thirds were unaware of the existence of history’s worst mass murderer (65 million deaths), Mao Tse-Tung. The death of Fidel Castro was marked by many media commentators as something to be mourned, and Che Guevara appears on t-shirts as a chic hero.    In countries at least nominally Christian, the assaults on the Church by revolutionaries took a more subtle form through subversion. There is the witness of Bella Dodd, an organizer of the Communist Party in the United States and head of the New York State Teachers Union. After her return to the Church in 1952 under the guidance of Archbishop Fulton Sheen, she detailed how the Communist Party in the 1920’s and 1930’s strove to infiltrate American seminaries and other church institutions, often through the exploitation of the naïve and what, according to Soviet expert Vladimir Bukovsky, Lenin had called “useful idiots.”    There still are Russians old enough to remember seeing priests nailed to the doors of their churches. Their nation remains conflicted about their revolution, and still hesitant about what to do with the repeatedly embalmed corpse of Lenin; but facing his tomb from across the great square, Krásnaya plóshchad, is the Kazan Cathedral, restored in 1993. On its façade is written in bold Cyrillic letters: “Christ is Risen.” Since the “Second Baptism of Russia” when the old Soviet Union fell in 1988, 29,000 churches have been built there, at the rate of three per day. In that period the number of seminaries has increased from three to over fifty.    That is a picture far different from many places in the West, where innocuous Christianity has failed to resist the bacillus of secularism, as churches close and seminaries shrink. People who have suffered the consequences of evil in the East have expressions more ponderous and sober than the chuckling countenances of soft spokesmen for Christ in the West. The centenary of the Russian Revolution should be a time for reflection and resolve

 

Army deserter Bowe Bergdahl beats the rap.

Dishonorable discharge? That's it? I wonder how the guy who was shot in the head while searching for him and is now bed-ridden, feels about it? Here are two videos - i agree with the guy in the second one -

 

Ex-CIA opinion -

 

Democratic operative Donna Brazile rats out her Party

UPDATE: Here's how CNN covered it - Former DNC chair torches Clinton in new book

This is pretty amazing. A long excerpt from her book as she exposes the efforts to deny Bernie Sanders the Democratic nomination. This was published in Politico and it's a ten plus minute read. Should be the end of the Clintons, but it won't be.

 

Inside Hillary Clinton’s Secret Takeover of the DNC. When I was asked to run the Democratic Party after the Russians hacked our emails, I stumbled onto a shocking truth about the Clinton campaign. By DONNA BRAZILE November 02, 2017

I had promised Bernie when I took the helm of the Democratic National Committee after the convention that I would get to the bottom of whether Hillary Clinton’s team had rigged the nomination process, as a cache of emails stolen by Russian hackers and posted online had suggested. I’d had my suspicions from the moment I walked in the door of the DNC a month or so earlier, based on the leaked emails. But who knew if some of them might have been forged? I needed to have solid proof, and so did Bernie.

So I followed the money. My predecessor, Florida Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, had not been the most active chair in fundraising at a time when President Barack Obama’s neglect had left the party in significant debt. As Hillary’s campaign gained momentum, she resolved the party’s debt and put it on a starvation diet. It had become dependent on her campaign for survival, for which she expected to wield control of its operations.

Debbie was not a good manager. She hadn’t been very interested in controlling the party—she let Clinton’s headquarters in Brooklyn do as it desired so she didn’t have to inform the party officers how bad the situation was. How much control Brooklyn had and for how long was still something I had been trying to uncover for the last few weeks.

By September 7, the day I called Bernie, I had found my proof and it broke my heart.

*********

Donna Brazile is the former interim chair of the Democratic National Committee. Excerpted from the book Hacks: The Inside Story of the Break-ins and Breakdowns that Put Donald Trump in the White House to be published on November 7, 2017 by Hachette Books, a division of Hachette Book Group. Copyright 2017 Donna Brazile.

Rugby: New Zealand v. Australia 3rd match

Since New Zealand had already won the first two matches this was a "dead rubber". Played two weekends ago - New Zealand was missing five of their first choice players.

 

Farandaville: New family member receives visitors!

Yesterday morning as Judy and Regina (who wrote the poem I posted a couple of days ago Our friend Regina's poem ) come by to check out Rylai (her name comes for a character in the Dota game and is pronounced RyeLie).

Here's a great picture of Rylai taken by Regina -

and the three - including Brigid - hanging out at the cage.