I generally avoid eating anything good for me. Itâs an offbeat manifestation of the same death wish (or, more accurately, immortality wish) that inspires smoking and drinking. I like to reject the idea that my body is vulnerable and requires care.
So Iâve had mixed feelings about a recent spate of news indicating that my diet may not be so bad after all. First, Dr. Atkins is in full renaissance with a new book claiming he was right all along about lots of beef being key to good health. (I love that my bossesâ bossesâ boss is on this diet; business trips are one steakhouse after another.)
Then, it turns out that at least two drinks each day are good for you. Whah? Iâm going to have to retool my list of vices here.
Finally, I belatedly discovered last week that tomatoes â while botanically a fruit â were declared to be legally vegetables by the U.S. Supreme Court in a case called Nix v. Hedden in 1893. Who knew?
This last has inspired me to form a new public interest litigation firm to secure equal legal rights for my preferred diet and its practitioners. For my first case, Iâm going to have chocolate cake declared to have vitamins.
Posted by Marie Gryphon on February 7, 2003DIET TIPS
Where I live our two best local sportscasters are both "girth challanged", so for several weeks they accepted diet tips phoned in from viewers, one of which was to be read each time a foul ball found the metal roof of the stadium.
The diet mafia ended the practice as insensitive after two games but the tips presented even in so short a time deserve to be preserved.
1. There are no calories in cookie fragments. Once a cookie has been broken all the calories leak out.
2. You will not gain weight if the person you are having lunch with eats more than you do.
3. No matter how many calories you consume at a meal, you can zero them out if you put artificial sweetener in your coffee.
4. Food that tastes bad has no calories.
5. Food eaten at the ball park has no calories.
(readers are invited to add to this list)
Posted by: John on February 7, 2003 6:06 PMI hit this is amusing forum searching for 'Ketchup is a Vegetetable.' Marie, be careful, I think cleverness and irony were made illegal as part of the patriot act, or can they just 'detain' you for it? Here it is: http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi? dbname=107_cong_bills&docid=f:h3162eh.txt.pdf. That's the drugery, I couldn't get through it. Here's the version from America's finest news source: http://www.theonion.com/onion3847/bill_of_rights.html. Histerical, and they really got it.
I read a few messages, and think this forum is about is about posting 'interesting' sites, so I put a lot in this message. Anyway, about school bullying. I grew up around real low lifes in high school, traumatized me: violence, drugs, even guns around in the 70's. Anyone go through that in their teens? NO BULLYING. NO WAY. NEVER. I hadn't thought of legislation for that, I thought 'teachers without lawyers' or better still 'parents without lawyers' working together would be a start. They both must be French organizations, though. And where ever those 'Doctors without Borders' go, trouble seems to follow. Not every 'loves being reduced to a social sterotype'. (http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/) Not amazing, but good, I think. Only to prove a point, there are all kinds of laws that are different for non-adults. You can think of some. It took 3-4 years to get over it, if one ever does. I'm still one of the mild, more determined than ever not to be like that. It's not in my nature, I could not change it if I wanted to. I AM a fruit fly. A pale caucasion one, but it really ticks me off that I only hear about voilence when it's in a white suburban high schools, -- Trent ... Strom... still there! http://www.louisville.edu/update/. This is bank ones apology to The University of Louisville for offering a promotional T-shirt that showed a caricature of a Black couple with a list of "10 Reasons Why Beer is Better Than a Black Man." to anyone who applyied for a credit card. I don't think it got them their 1.9 million dollar contract back, though. That's straight from the school. The bank doing that, or rather some pinhead (formerly) in their marketing dept.. I can see it: 'Reason for termination: losing 1.9 million $ contract promoting racisim on behalf of the bank'. How did that one slip by?
I'm just happy that no bombs are falling on me and I can drive to the grocery store for my ketchup. Anyway, if it's acceptable to fund you're own presidential campaign, what democrat has REAL money this time? (shhh...ketchup) If Bush stays in, I hope (I'd pray, if I had a god) that the hawks are done, and Powell can help mend our relationships with... the whole world, it seems. He is still a good man. He tried so hard. Congress likes him (do they like any one else in the executive branch? Ashcroft, he doesn't like them looking at de-classified documents? This is from last summer, but I Republicans and Democrats were livid, and the Washington Post is ok with me: http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A41859-2002Aug20?language=printer.
There was a nice piece on frontline on the other night about the in-fighting inside the Bush executive branch and how the hawks won out. (http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/iraq/view/) I wasn't for this starting, but I'm for finishing what they started now, and doing it right, and I'll pay any amount of taxes not to leave those people in shambles, if it's viable, if it's working. But who will do it. I Heard exiled Iraqi of the INC, Kanan Makiya on NPR the other day. Compelling, hopeful, scar. An Arab teaching at Brandeis, who has had his troubles with the State Department. He advocates 'de-Ba'athification' named after after de-nazification, the term we coined for how wet put Germany (well half of it) back together after occured after WW II. Now we know that government and society was corrupted from top to bottom (it was in their records!) and we systematically dismantled every institution and built them back up again, no that's it's amazing that they pulled it off there. Of course, fear of the soviets helped, and we seem to not be afraid of anyone now. This show is a REAL gem. I don't know who to trust or who will be there, but this guy is articulate and really wants his country back so badly, maybe too much. Take an hour for this, if nothing else: (http://www.theconnection.org/shows/2003/03/20030325_b_main.asp) 'Dreaming of Democracy' (3/25/03). It's an hour long show you can listen to. It's an every day program called "The Connection" produced by Boston's NPR affiliate (WBUR)so if you like it - www.theconnection.org. Well, Is he another Nelson Mandala? Will they accept him back, after 35 years in exile. He advocates, Truth and reconciliation. Is there a Desmond Tutu there? I'm not sure if the INC will even be a force? This man is so articulate and enthusiastic I don't know whether to be scared or hopeful. (Like you could know these days!) I feel like my head is being spun in a million directions every day. (but I'm sort of used to that, with mania and all) Back to the U.S. I don't see how the hawks could afford another one, but it seems that anything can happen, this time. Now, I've admitted being mild (i.e. - a wimp) But if you want to really got scared, go to some sites about 'pysops' - horrible images of huge razor blades, the scariest sounds, truly nightmarish stuff developed and in labs for our minds. They figure out just how what our most basic fears are. You WILL be scared.(www.publiceye.org/frontpage/911/boin.html) I got out of this on very soon though.
And did this chinese general really exist? The Art of War by Sun Tzu
(http://www.psyop.com/SUNTZU.htm. They say it's the basis for all this. But it is science now as well. You'll hit all the institutionalized stuff about the training, the units, the plans, etc.. Imagaine having a job as a 'psyops' professor. I'd sooner take the gas pipe, bad day at the office dear? And I never see 'psyops' on a military recruitment ads. They always say you can train in computers, or be a pilot, vitually anything. I guess that includes learning to psychologically traumatize people. How they could have delivered that shock message over TV with everyone watching. That was meant for soldiers, but hit everyone who was watching. Politicians usually use a milder form of 'psyops' as a pre-text for war, even if they bring up passed bloodshed against their constituents. But you know what that was (911). Rumsfeld messed me up emotionally the most, looking like he was enjoying it. I admit it, I was duped. They really got to me, and to to whole world to some extent, it seems. That's what I think happened, but I'm crazy, really: bi-polar (aka manic depression), so don't listen to me on that one. But a lot of brilliant people are/were (not me, but if you Katherine Graham's Personal History, you'll see that her husband, Phil Graham brought the Washinton Post from a nothing paper to the New York Times level. Sadly, he took his life. It's a really inspirational story, because, Katherine Graham, a self admitted doormat 50's housewife, (albeit very rich) took over as publisher and it was her that put the entire newspaper on the line during watergate and reprinting of the pentagon papers. The amazing thing is, she admits how insecure and inadequate she felt during almost the entire time. Well, I'd be spooked being threatened by John Mitchell and Nixon's justice dept.. It's a shame that you don't hear of her more. Here is a nice interview with her: http://www.bookpage.com/9702bp/nonfiction/personalhistory.html. The book is a bit slow reading (it is a personal history), and relating to that much weatlth was impossible for me, but it's riveting at times.
One other thing: will someone get our civil rights back? I haven't got a sight on this, but now the INS has been move from justice to homeland security, the FBI has been nice enough to help enforce imagration law, explaining why they want to 'chat' with 11,000 Iraqi nationals living in the U.S.. 11,000 - tell me they are not just going fishing. That is unacceptable in the 'land of the free', we have to get our civil rights back. I heard they used to declare war, and civil rights went way down on the chart, but at least they came back after the war. Now, they make permanent legislation. Oh sorry, I forgot, it's a different world. I heard this reported on CNN, and they are visible, if nothing else. I CAN'T vouche for the whole site, but this is where I found it. 11,000. Most of them are probably people we work with, they go to home depot and walmart. They are thrilled to be out of there, and they have to have they get a call from that friendly FBI agent. That is so sad, that would break my spirit - thinking I had made it out. It will probably be just fishing, but the trauma of that phone call, when you thought that was over. Tell me what is right about the number 11,000. I think they should check their figures again.
http://www.peacenowar.net/Iraq/News/March%2021%2003--FBI.htm
Well, My prediction is look for (or look away from) more scare tactics in the Bush 2004 campaign, even if Bush is way ahead. You remember how paranoid Nixon was about the 72 election. I came across a site where someone had put together links to now de-classified documents concern the U.S. meddling and eventual overthow of the Allende government in favor of Pinochet and his death squads and the disappeared. Obviously, it's someones opinion, but you get to the documents. It's more eerie and scary, like a ghost coming back. What is relevant is that I saw the word 'detainee' and in this case, a lot of the request for surveilance were coming from the new government. I don't think that is happening now at all, or will happen, but it was interesting. I'd never thought of it happening that way. http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB8/nsaebb8.htm
Sorry if this is out of context but I'm just a bit manic at this time. good night. -fp
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