WHAT IS REALLY TO BLAME FOR OBESITY

For years, as a society, we are getting fatter and fatter, eat more and move less. The very poor who have to do manual labor may stay slimmer but often use their salaries to drink beer and stuff themselves with grilled ribs, other fat meats, fried foods and much other in empty calories. We walk less, put wheels on our gym shoes, use people movers and escalators and anything that saves time and energy but allows us to get fatter.

I can't remember which kids' animated movie it was that showed people who lived off the world in a community where they had all grown so fat that they could no longer walk. It is a frightening thought but not as unlikely if things don't change for humans with intelligence and sufficient money.

GM, Segway unveiled an idea for a two-wheel, urban vehicle prototype. Fortunately the Japanese are seldom as bese as Americans (Sumo wrestlers excluded here) but if they begin to get pounds on, they will want bigger cars, won't they? After all, our obese people complain if they are forced to buy two airplane seats to have enough room for both cheeks to be seated.

Thankfully, people have had money and have been going to gyms so they can learn to live longer and be stronger and healthier. Will they lead the way to new means of transportation, save energy, learn to have fun and use energy other than burning calories from the neck up only?

THE NATIONAL CENSUS

NDN, (I could not find that is an acronym), is a progressive think tank. One of their bloggers wrote of his concern about how the census information will be gathered, who will be included, and how that eventual information will be used politically. Click here for the article by Simon Rosenberg, published by the Huffington Post.

We should all be concerned by the hanging of a census worker a couple of days ago. Most of us will immediately think of the doctors who tried to help pregnant women who would be bringing unwanted children into the world. The shameless scare tactics by those violent few who would rule the world their way in our democracy must not be tolerated.

For more on this, look here. An article by Devlin Barrett and Jeffrey McMurray states in part: "MANCHESTER, Ky. — A U.S. Census worker found hanged from a tree near a Kentucky cemetery had the word "fed" scrawled on his chest, a law enforcement official said Wednesday, and the FBI is investigating whether he was a victim of anti-government sentiment.

Bill Sparkman, a 51-year-old part-time Census field worker and teacher, was found Sept. 12 in a remote patch of the Daniel Boone National Forest in rural southeast Kentucky. The law enforcement official, who was not authorized to discuss the case and requested anonymity, did not say what type of instrument was used to write "fed" on his chest."

It is still unknown as to how and by whose hand he died but, whatever the reason, he was a federal worker and it is a federal crime to attack a federal worker because of his job.

We should all stay tuned. It is another assault on our rights as Americans made from within our own country.Simon Rosenberg, Huffington Post

WHAT EXACTLY DOES THE WORLD WANT FROM THE USA?

In his UN speech, Obama wisely tells the world not to expect us to do it all. The USA has fostered that view because the last administration went into IRAQ telling the world if you aren't with us, you are against us...so we'll do it all ourselves.

In an article by the Associated Press, he lets the world know we no longer have intentions of 'going it alone'. "Those who used to chastise America for acting alone in the world cannot now stand by and wait for America to solve the world's problems alone," said Obama in put-up-or-shut-up comments before a packed U.N. General Assembly hall. "Now is the time for all of us to take our share of responsibility for a global response to global challenges."

It is about time that we, as Americans, stop being grandiose and carefully examine our priorities and limitations.

"So Obama's message at its core was not new.
But it was delivered in an unmistakably new, more humble tone."

I hope that Legislature gets caught up to the times...that while their salary, perks, and benefits have not changed, they think they can go on spending money...business as usual (as in the past Administration). It hasn't occurred to them, yet, that Americans might like to have some of their own money rather than sharing so much of it with them!

MY VERSION OF VACATION

There is little new in this world when you've been in it for several decades, only variations on a theme. Tourist sites are for the younger, especially those with small children whom they can push in strollers and let scream so that we elders may appreciate being too old to have them. Occasionally a few senior masochists are strong arming the little ones, while they appear to be aging before one's very eyes. These white haired wonders are ludicrously quick to tell you that the kiddies are their grandchildren (as if you hadn't filled with pity on sight).

I'm visiting a couple who are even older than I, with similar disregard for paying even the senior's slightly lowered, exorbitant fee for the pleasure of climbing to the top of a lighthouse (Sherpa not included). One of us has had a time share here for many years. Click here. We have the luxury of time to sit in a Hot Tub with the patience of a fishing enthusiast, or just to watch the grass grow (similar time expenditures). If we wish to chase a little white ball around green grass in the hot sun, only a cart requires payment. Most people get a lot of exercise this way; stooping to place the ball on the tee, swiping it with a golf club, then walking ALL the way to the cart!

My activity tastes seem not to vary from the things I like to do at home. I read a lot, observe, talk to any one who will respond, and soak up the foreign ambiance from the scenery and territory around. The area has the store, The Dollar Tree, in which everything is just a dollar! There are no ethnic restaurants (actually I think I did see one Chinese restaurant somewhere) but I've had to go cold turkey on Thai, Indian, Japanese, and all the others around home. Happily, there is broadband though it is like dial up without the transmission noise.

I'm quickly realizing the joy of reading without constant phone interruption. Old age makes me appreciate life's simpler pleasures as I look around at the frenetic actions of people looking for more of something they are unable to define. It occurs to me that I'd forgotten feeling a need to cram a lot of living in the few vacation weeks from work. Once again I watch others living life like a blivet (cramming three pounds of manure into a two pound bag). We old folk haven't slowed down; we just no longer have a need to speed up!

It is great to enjoy a change and I am fully appreciating these two weeks. The thought of being back home is, however, looking like a preview of a movie I'd like to see.

OCRACOKE ISLAND

Ocracoke Island is off North Carolina Coast. Since it can only be reached by Interstate Route 12 which continues from land to the island, that continuation is a free ferry (vehicle, and/or humans and others). The way to get the is south on Route 12. However, Route 12 stops at water's edge and continues on the Island. Thus the government fills in the gap with a free ferry.

In so many ways, America begins om North America's Outer Banks. To read more about Ocracoke Island, click here.

CYA-IS IT POSSIBLE ANY LONGER?

There used to be privacy and ways to protect yourself. We pay for security systems, lock our cars, leave nothing of value showing, wear nothing of value...and the list goes on and on. When the economy is doing well, there is crime. When the economy is NOT doing well, there is crime. Technology was supposed to make our lives easier and safer. Did it?

Today I received and email warning me, if I have a GPS, not to leave my home on it. I was advised to leave a nearby garage, corner store, or such so that if the GPS is stolen, the thieves would not be able to use it to find my house. There were cautions about mobile phones. It was said that someone stole a cell phone and texted to 'hubby', asking for the bank pin number which he immediately sent, thinking it was his wife. The account was cleaned out before she discovered her phone missing and could let her husband know, apparently.

Whether these examples actually happened or not is less relevant than the fact that they easily could. I am NOT PARANOID. They really are out to get me!!!!

AMERICANS NEED A HEARING AID

It seems that any time an American has to spend money they didn't think they had to pay before, they seem to be blaming Obama for 'tax increases'. Many have no idea whether the tax increase is local, state, or Federal.

Have people such short memories that they don't realize you cannot maintain a country with the services they use without constant expenditure for maintainance? This country has been too lax for too long and the infrastructure was in dire need of help. Obama is, without doubt, working on it and using the stimulus package to create jobs with it so the benefit is cycling around with great relief to many.

With so many Americans in poverty and families with children hurting for all that children need to grow up healthy, both physically and emotionally, is there a good reason why there should not be luxury tax? After all, people have choices about whether they want jewels, furs, yachts, cigarettes, and those things we could easily live without. Most who have to drive to work don't have a choice about buying gasoline. Taxes begun on phones when they first came out should be reconsidered as should those on necessary utilities. After all, how many of us can do without water, gas or oil to heat, cook, wash and dry clothes?

Our Legislators have become too self-serving and most have lost touch with the 'common man'. Priorities should be re-examined so that life becomes more fair for all...not Socialistic equality, but measuring what people need to live and be healthy. In the long run. It would benefit all of us, lower crime, waste, and medical bills which get paid by everyone for those who take little responsibility for themselves.

Let us give media laryngitis to Beck, Limbaugh, Grant, and those others who would rather see Obama (and thus our country fail) so they can retain their whacked out audience and get richer at a disgraceful cost to the integrity of the country.