Success Warrior: The Blog That Embraces ADHD

Obama is doing better than even I expected

Long time readers will remember a post that I wrote a couple of years ago where I stated that since my candidate was suffering from a media induced blackout, I hoped that Obama would win.  Not because I bought his "hope and change" bullshit for even a second.  A quick look at his voting record, campaign contributions, and support of W's programs was evidence that he had been bought off like all the rest. 

No, my hope was that people would believe in all his marketing mantras and that he would get into office and then show people that he was the same as the rest.  Washington D.C. business as usual.  Votes sold to the highest bidder.

And he has done a much better job than I could have imagined.  I thought he would string the American People along for a couple of years.  200 days into the job and he's out of the closet already.  His approval rating is plummeting and his push to give Big Insurance trillions of dollars at the expense of the American People (expense in both wealth and health) is going to really be his undoing.

He has promised that this deal is going to go through, no matter what opposition there is to it.  It appears that's true even if the opposition is from the American People. 

Not only has he gone above and beyond in showing how corrupt our government is, he has shown that our "democracy" is a complete con game.  We don't have a democracy.  Our representatives don't represent us.  They haven't for a long time.  I've been saying this for quite some time but now, because of Mr. Hope and Change, people are starting to realize that their votes for Republicans and Democrats are wasted. 

You don't get change by voting in the same ole, same ole.

Another great thing about Obama as president is that spin is losing its power.  People are turning to the Internets more now in search of the truth.  Democrats have tried to say that all the opposition at these health care town halls were organized by the Republicans.  People aren't buying it.  Too many people oppose this plan and not all of them are Republicans.  In fact, I haven't seen many articles about Republicans this go 'round.  On some of the issues, they have watched the public outrage and then jumped on board and then tried to pretend like they had been leading all the time.  This time, it's fairly quiet.

The fact that Obama used so many of sweet spots to get elected is actually working against him now.  People are watching more closely.  He made so many promises that the people wanted and now they are watching those key points to see if he'll deliver.

Had McCain been chosen to be president, people probably would have mumbled and grumbled about all these things (he would have been doing the exact same thing) but people would have expected that.  In Obama, we have this huge build up of HOPE for a change, for a government responsive to the will of the people, for transparency, for a government that cares about the people.  The build up was so huge that there is now a matching let down (let down is too soft of a word).  The dichotomy between what was promised and what is being delivered makes the whole situation more outrageous.

Instead of ending wars, he's looking to start more.  Instead of helping people, he's helping Wall Street.  Instead of transparency, there's more secrecy because if we knew what the government was doing with the bail out money, there would be instant riots.  What kinds of cars are being bought with the Cash for Clunkers money?  Don't ask the government, they aren't saying.  You know why?  People are buying Cadillacs and H3s that get 19 mpg.  So much for green.  We only know this because sales people have come forward to let us know.  This paragraph could go on and on with all the broken promises and I'm sure that somewhere on the net, there's a list of all of them (which at this point has to be just about everything Obama ever said - are there any promises left to break?).

Obama is doing his part and doing it beyond my expectations.

Now, we need the American People to do their part.  There's too much talk of the Pavlovian response to all this about voting Republicans back into office because the Democrats are screwing everything up.  How many times do we have to switch back and forth between the two sides of our single party system before people realize that they are exactly the same? 

When will people quit letting CNN, MSNBC, and FOX tell them who is a "viable" candidate?  When will people stop trying to vote for the one that is supposedly going to win (like there's a freakin' prize for guessing right!) and start actually voting for the one that they want?

How much pain is it going to take before people unplug from the system?

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Remember, I'm going to be funding my return to college by being an affiliate of BeachBody.com products so please visit the site and make a purchase, no matter how small.  Insanity has been released so go check it out.

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Catch 44 of Statins

Statins are the number one drug sold in the world.  Statins are used to lower cholesterol. 

The first Catch 22 is something that I've already covered.  Cholesterol is the bodies healing response to inflammation in the body.  It's a good thing.  It's the inflammation that's the bad thing.

The best analogy that I have been able to think of to demonstrate what Big Pharma and doctors are trying to do is this: 

Say you went into the doctor's office with a sore throat, aches, pains, a fever, and lethargy.  The doctor returns and says, "Whew boy, your white count is off the charts!  I'm going to give you a prescription that will bring your white count back down into the normal range."

That's not what happens though.  Instead, they give you antibiotics to deal with the disease that is triggering the body's white count reaction.  48 hours later, you feel better.  10 days later and you're pretty much good to go (but you should start a round of probiotics to build your immune system back up).

The cool thing is that high cholesterol is usually caused by lifestyle so you don't even have to go to a doctor to fix it.  And you don't need to take statins for the rest of your life.

The second part of the Catch 22 is that CoQ10 has been proven to help prevent heart problems.  This is a good thing. 

The bad thing is that statins inhibit the body's ability to use CoQ10.  Research has shown that statins don't help people over the age of 65 (if I remember correctly) prevent heart attacks.  The drug that is supposed to help stop heart problems is actually part of the problem.  No surprise there.  Big Pharma runs such a huge con game that I'm no longer surprised when the truth comes out.

It will probably take years and years for the truth to get out to the masses.  There is so much misinformation to undo and the "live how you want -take a pill for the side effects" attitude of so many people to change.  You can drink Coke and eat Cheezy Puffs while watching Dancing with the Stars if you follow it up with a Lipitor. 

Or you could drink water and eat an apple and go dancing yourself and skip the Lipitor.

Tomorrow, I'll be doing a follow up post on my Vibram Five Fingers.  I've worn them for the last 3 days and need to report on how they feel now.

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Remember, I'm going to be funding my return to college by being an affiliate of BeachBody.com products so please visit the site and make a purchase, no matter how small.  Insanity has been released so go check it out.

Feel free to "friend" me on Facebook

Bonus Post - For Mark: Health Care in Canada

Today's post is going to be a follow-up on Vitamin D (I know, I know, I said that I wouldn't belabor it but a reader's email reminded me of a funny story).  That story will be coming tonight sometime, as usual.

This is just a bonus post for Mark and is kind of lengthy video (about 22 minutes or so).  For the most part, I have backed out of doing political posts but I've been covering the health care issue because this blog is mostly about health.  Seems to be a good fit.

In the comments of a recent post, Mark trotted out the Republican mantra "waiting time" for socialist medicine.  This is not to imply in the least that Mark is a Republican.  He's way too smart to vote for a Republican or a Democrat. 

"Keep doing what you've always done and you're going to get what you've always gotten."

Keep voting Republicans and Democrats into office and we're going to keep getting screwed (and so is the rest of the world as they use our military to destroy entire countries).

Anyway, this video made by a guy in Canada quotes the actual waiting times so it should put the issue to rest for Mark.

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Remember, I'm going to be funding my return to college by being an affiliate of BeachBody.com products so please visit the site and make a purchase, no matter how small.  Insanity has been released so go check it out.

Feel free to "friend" me on Facebook

A Drug Free America?

Did you see the report that shows that in larger cities (and probably every where that tap water is "treated" and reused) the water contains all the prescription drugs that 'Merkins take?

All the anti-depressants, anti-anxiety, antibiotics, cholesterol reducing, blood pressure reducing, penis hardening drugs that people take are being spread out to everyone that drinks water from a tap or uses it for cooking.

People in Philadelphia are drinking a pharmaceutical cocktail with 56 different kinds of drugs in it. 

That just can't be good for the body but it does explain why the  morning wood has been more severe and yet I haven't been anxious about it and it doesn't raise my blood pressure.

Gambling on Health Care

Oregon is going to have a lottery to decide which few thousand of the state's 600,000 uninsured will get some insurance this year.

I really don't think I need to add anything else to the statement this plan already makes.

Article

Random Thoughts from the Headlines

W gave a big fat veto to healthcare for 4 million kids, supposedly because there might be some abuse of the system.  If that's the case, we need to shut down every government program in place.  It's not the case though.  There's just too much money at stake in healthcare.  This is changing though because every year, there are fewer and fewer people with health insurance.  When insurance companies can't make money, they will start lobbying for a change.  Probably something we don't like but it will be a change.  How about making health insurance mandatory like car insurance? 

Pennsylvania is adding a couple new slot parlors and Massachusetts is adding three new casinos.  The government makes a lot of money off of casinos so these things are going up all over the country.  I read that the government gets about half the take so people protesting in PA are pretty much out of luck.  We are headed for some pretty rough times financially as a country and lotteries and casinos are just going to make things worse.  Desperate people are going to risk money they can't afford hoping to be the big winner and solve all their financial problems.  There is likely going to be a lot of get rich quick infomercials in the next couple of years and the people making the commercials are going to get rich quick.

Should Obese People Pay More For Health Insurance?

Last year, I wrote a paper for college where my position was that under the current system, people who knowingly engage in high risk activities should pay more for insurance (which they already do for life insurance and car insurance) and that this should be expanded to cover health insurance.

I ran across an article yesterday that said this was in practice now and that the "high risk activities" has been reduced to pretty much just one thing: obesity.  Companies are checking the BMI of their employees and those that are obese pay more for health insurance.  Some companies charge one rate but give discounts to people who are more fit.  This is the same thing but worded so as to not be charging more for obese people, just less for not-obese people.

This type of discrimination has been authorized by the government as long as the difference in fees isn't more that 20%.

I can see some problems with this.