CAR PACKED, CLEARED FOR TAKE-OFF! The Great Western Rockies beckon. Blogging will continue lite till I arrive in Wyoming late next week. Meanwhile, honk if you like Rick Perry and Michelle Bachmann. I'll be ruminating on whether I'm beginning to like Michelle B better than Sarah P.

Later Alligator!

Photos WSJPhotos (see sidebar)

Ryle: Expecting Trials and Tribulations In Our Lives

TRIALS, we must distinctly understand, are a part of the diet which all true Christians must expect. It is one of the means by which their grace is proved, and by which they find out what there is in themselves. Winter as well as summer–cold as well as heat–clouds as well as sunshine–are all necessary to bring the fruit of the Spirit to ripeness and maturity. We do not naturally like this. We would rather cross the lake with calm weather and favorable winds, with Christ always by our side, and the sun shining down on our faces. But it may not be. It is not in this way that God’s children are made “partakers of His holiness.” (Heb. 12:10). Abraham, and Jacob, and Moses, and David, and Job were all men of many trials. Let us be content to walk in their footsteps, and to drink of their cup. In our darkest hours we may seem to be left–but we are never really alone.

~ J.C. Ryle

Religious Freedom and Inseverability Provision In New York Gay Marriage Law

WITHOUT DOUBT ALLOWING ORGANIZATIONS AND CLERGY to recuse themselves from performing and supporting gay marriage was a key ingredient in the New York bill's passage of the gay marriage act this week. The other vital ingredient is the inseverability of this provision. In other words, if any part of the religious freedom clause is over-turned in court, the entire bill goes down in flames and is null and void. This from the Daily Beast:

Governor Andrew Cuomo and three Republican senators negotiated language changes in the gay marriage bill that pushed it over the hump. Republicans wanted legal protection for religious organizations that refused to allow their buildings to be used for same-sex marriage ceremonies. The provision also prevents those organizations from being penalized by state government and provides protection for clergy or other employees who refuse to participate in such ceremonies. Perhaps most importantly, the final law included an inseverability clause that will prevent these protections from being overturned: if any part is ever found to be invalid, the rest will go down as well.

So whether you're for or against gay marriage---and let me make it clear that I am against it---these provisions are a bright spot in our country's shocking decline from Biblical principles on which it was founded. I believe that God loves all sinners, gay and straight, and I am chief among them. I also believe the practice of any and all sex outside of one-man/one woman marital sex is an abomination to the Creator. Our country will be judged sooner or later for this downward spiral.

It's also interesting to note that several heavy-hitting, wealthy hedge fund managers, especially Paul Singer who has a gay son, helped push, prode and fund this bill into law.

May God help us all.

Ridin' Commotion Toddy

@ THE RENO RODEO. Not for the faint-hearted.

I got western rodeos---moreover The West in general---on my mind.

Can His Fawning Media Save Mr. Obama From Being a One-Termer

IT'S THE BILLION $ QUESTION JOHN TAMNY ANSWERS this week in Forbes.

The short answer is no matter how much the MSM adores President Obama and portrays the economy as improving, people aren't fooled by the hype as our money buys less and less at the gas pump, the grocery store and the bank.

What can defeat the incumbency of Obama is the continual slide of the value of the dollar. Which is to say the slide of our buying power.

Nobody chronicles the fall of the dollar and its effects on presidential politics better than Tamny. It's why Jimmy Carter was a one-term president in spite of an adoring liberal hype. The public wasn't fooled because we felt the low-dollar policies in our shrinking wallets. However, Tamny qualifies his bets by saying the GOP better have a clue of how the falling dollar affects commodity prices across the board, or they don't deserve to be elected either.

It's all about the dollar, all the time. If you'll pardon my French, We need to get it up and keep it up.

Meanwhile, Gallup slumps.

Getting Real In the Whole Foods Parking Lot

Sunday, The Most Important Thing A Father Can Know

GOD CREATED HUSBANDS AND FATHERS to be the moral/spiritual leaders and role models of their families and households in a fallen world. To the extent a man, any man, abdicates his role of spiritual leader and defers it to his wife, or to no one, he will most certainly lose respect with of the women and children he purports to love. Sometimes his leading seems like a lonely uphill climb, but keeping his reservoirs filled for moral excellence, godly living and fortitude is far preferable to the alternatives. A man who submits himself to his Maker in front of his family, grows in stature and respect with his children.

Far too many men, for whatever reasons----peace at any price, cultural correctness, busyness and other priorities, feminism---have shrunk from their fundamental role of spiritual leader in their families: leading blessings at meals, leading prayers and Bible readings,setting standards for what is read and watched at home, family and community worship, praying for children and loved ones. When this abdication happens, it's only a matter of time before cracks in family life begin to manifest and things begin to fall apart. Sooner or later there's a disintegration when a father fails to lead spiritually.

Men are not marginalized by women so much as by their own unwillingness to lead morally and spiritually in their families---whatever the costs. Being a financial provider isn't enough. Being a spiritual/moral provider in loving, firm ways covers a multitude of other wrongs and weaknesses. Even when the rest of the family grumbles, being that kind of spiritual leader brings him growing respect---and every man must earn respect---in the eyes of his loved ones, especially his children. Would that more men would step up to the plate, and live there. God designed it that way. This world and its progeny would be much better for it.

Happy Father's Day!

Leaving Manhattan

WEINER HAS A DEATH WISH, NONETHELESS PLOTS COMEBACK
HOME BUT TIRED.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Monday Update

AM BACK IN MANHATTAN WITH G-BOY AND GIRLY-G. My focus has been solely on them in Rhinebeck and here since I'll be leaving soon for the Rockies for the rest of the summer. In addition, the Internet at my European-style little hotel has mostly gone down so I'm forced off-line. Hope to be back as I can soon. Will link a few things before it crashes and kicks my off again.

Sarah Palin Takes President Obama To Task For Wanting To Give Away Our Missile Defense Secrets to Russia

.....IN THE NAME OF FRIENDSHIP, YOU UNDERSTAND...

GOD LOVE HER. Whether she ever holds elected office again, political celebrity superstar Sarah Palin has a very important role to play in checks and balances, especially by calling out President Obama for wanting to have a smoozefest with the Russians on missile defense. Here's what she wrote on Facebook a>yesterday:

As Governor I fought the Obama Administration’s plans to cut funds for missile defense in Alaska. So imagine how appalled and surprised I was to read this article by former Clinton CIA Director James Woolsey, appropriately titled “Giving Away the Farm,” concerning President Obama’s latest bizarre actions relating to missile defense.

President Obama wants to give Russia our missile defense secrets because he believes that we can buy their friendship and cooperation with this taxpayer-funded gift. But giving military secrets and technologies to a rival or competitor like Russia is just plain dumb. You can’t buy off Russia. And giving them advanced military technology will not create stability. What happens if Russia gives this technology (or sells it!) to other countries like Iran or China? After all, as Woolsey points out, Russia helped Iran with its missile and nuclear programs. Or what happens if an even more hardline leader comes to power in the Kremlin?

Don't know about you, but I think this kind of exposure is very important to our national security and thank her for her timely political blast. Read more on her Facebook page or at Business Insider.

Roaring 2000s, When Discretion, Dignity, Leaving Some Things to the Imagination Came To Die A Thousand Deaths

KRISTIN POWERS: WEINER LIED TO ME, THE COUNTRY AND SHOULD STEP DOWN

TASTELESSNESS UPON TASTELESSNESS

IT'S EARLY MORNING IN WESTERN WASHINGTON on the D.C.-Bethesda border. Pre-dawn songbirds sing through my open window as early light slowly rolls into the our nation's capital. Will be a scorcher of a day here--- as well as up and down the East coast---with temperatures soaring into the high 90s. I'm leaving in an hour for Rhinebeck on the Hudson to join family for a visit outside Manhattan. Within a couple of days temperatures should settle back down into a more comfortable mid-70s range.

As I contemplate being with grandchildren soon, my thoughts turn to the sickening news of the past few weeks (and months and years) involving sexual exposures and scandal that have to boggle even the most jaded minds. As Arnold and Lady Gaga lead the way and set the complete lack of moral tone, can John Edwards, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, Anthony Weiner--just to name a very few---be far behind? I shudder to think how some of these people will follow up their latest outrageous behaviors with even more. How much air and media time they consume; how they are setting the tragic role-model tone for our impressionable young people. Sadly, it's not just one political party or group; it's on both sides of the aisle.

Rep. Anthony Weiner's press conference yesterday was a low point for our country. Tearfully admitting his guilt on this and other occasions, that he had lied to save his skin wasn't enough. No, no! he followed up his mea culpa with regret (that he'd been caught) and determination that he won't resign from office. What a pathetic show.

We seem to be stuck on stupid and getting more so all the time.

One thing about social media and Twitter is it gives all of us more rope to hang ourselves even faster with poorer and poorer taste. I hope society will give each of these flagrant men---and women---what they deserve sooner rather than later---not to be re-elected, hired and profit off their depravity.

If we think they've injured themselves and families, think what it does to the law-making process here in D.C. I used to think the greatest threats to our national well-being is the threat of terrorism and financial collapse. I've changed my mind. I think moral decay is unwinding our country and moral fiber at warp speed. We should be extremely concerned. We should be extremely protective of our young people and our lives too. Sometimes, often, we need to walk away from the news and take a rest from the depravity that seems to assault us at every turn. God help us all survive another round of sexual profit-taking and indiscretion.

Sunday, Angel of the Lord Then Incarnation of The Messager

EMMANUEL---GOD WITH US. GOD WITH YOU, WITH ME.

Kate's Fabulous and Adorable Fascinator

ONE OF THE MOST INTERESTING THINGS about British fashion, not found in the states, is the high hat couture which is so deeply embeded in their culture. Prince William's beautiful bride Kate, a trend setter down to her little toe, embodies it with this adorable fascinator. Her look here works so well as she continues to make white the fashion color of the year.
Meanwhile, not to be outdone on another occasion, the Prince ups the ante for the hat brigade,

Why Such A Virulent Strain of E. Coli In Europe Now?

DR. MARC SIEGEL WRITES TODAY a perceptive and prescient piece at Fox News addressing why this deadly, extremely toxic strain of E. Coli is spreading throughout Europe at the moment. His answers are right on, in my opinion. If he's correct, we can expect to see much more of this in the future unless some critical 'lifestyle' changes are implemented soon for both cows and humans.....

It's doubtful these much needed changes will happen in our instant gratification culture except on a very small scale. Still it's worth noting what Siegel---and I--- think make ripe the conditions for this scary outbreak:

First, most cattle today are grain fed, rather than grass fed.

A grain diet--- fast food for cattle---is unnatural and changes the pH of cows' intestines. The changed intestinal pH causes E. Coli---the 'unfriendly' bacteria---to proliferate while killing off friendly flora/bacteria that keep cattle healthy. This phenomenam often creates toxic meat products----especially those processed and used in fast food chains----as well as toxic manure that's over-ladened with various evolving strains of E. Coli.

When toxic manure is used to fetilize fruits and vegetable crops, produce becomes contaminated. When eaten contaminated food can make us sick or kill those with weak immune systems.

To review, factor # 1 causing this deadly E. Coli outbreak spreading through Europe is toxic manure over-burdened with E. Coli from grain-fed cattle.

I will continue with Factor 2 later.

Knowing When To Leave: Bearnice King Leaves 'Prosperity Gospel' Eddie Long's Church In Atlanta

ANN COULTER: ANTHONY WEINER'S WEINER ROASTSAYING IT HAS NOTHING TO DO with 'Bishop' Eddie Long's legal machinations involving four young men who've accused him of coercing them into underage sex with him, Rev. Bearnice King--MLK's daughter---has announced she's leaving Long's church in Atlanta where she attended and occasionally preached. Her announcement has come shortly after the news that Long has settled out of court with his four accusers.

(No news as to what that settlement entailed; however, it's rumored the four young men each have new houses, new wardrobes, new cars, new flat-screened TVs and cell phones and 401Ks funded for life from Long's prosperity fund.)

Whew! just in the nick of time, I'd say. She's wise to leave and never look back. Surely there's a more appropriate mission for her in the future than there.

More here.

GOP (Symbolically) Crushes 'Cap and Debt'

THE MSM HASN'T A CLUE; HAS FAILED US MISERABLYBUSINESS INSIDER: We're now in unchartered territory.

NATIONAL JOURNAL: GOP Votes Resoundingly, No more blank checks.

Executive Pay Increases in Tennessee Focuses On HCA's Obscene Fat Cats

GAMING THE TAXPAYER FUNDED HEALTHCARE SYSTEM WAS NEVER MORE PROFITABLE FOR HCA ET AL

I NO LONGER SUBSCRIBE TO THE TENNESSEAN---where I cut my teeth writing and reporting---but very occasionally skim my neighbor's paper delivered outside her door before the dawn's early light. This morning I snuck outdoors in my nightgown early and perused the headlines as I sat on my steps sipping my coffee. Two things caught my eye.

First this on executive pay increases for Tennessee execs in 2010. Rarely does much of anything disgust me anymore; however the gargantuan executive pay and increases of the top two CEOs both in the healthcare business (which fattens its coffers off Medicare and Medicaid, ie taxpayers monies)---HCA and Community Health Systems---really made me wince with disdain and disgust. How utterly, utterly ridiculous! I thought to myself.

I mean, how does this kind of hubris happen, even if it is paid in stock options? Why praytell aren't stockholders raising hell and doing something about this kind of outrage? Do stockholders and corporate boards hold anyone accountable anymore or are they all in bed together? Does everyone buy and hold stock for just a quick buck with absolutely no regard for what management is doing or the fact the company is being run into the ground?

To be clear, HCA the biggest, most disgusting culprit has gone public, then private, then public again last year. They wouldn't have gone public again unless they smelled a ton of money that could be made gaming some system. It's clear from the pay of their latest CEO that momentarily have made lots of money off their stock.

Still, what do these kind of payouts to CEOs do to the morale of the thousands of people who work for these companies and struggle to make ends meet and who aren't getting raises themselves? How can a fat cat CEO really lead? It can't be good for morale. It can't ultimately be good for every day stockholders either.ough It's time stockholders and taxpayers stopped these fat cats from skimming the cream off all the profits.

Read the whole thing.
Enough is enough... Declare me hereby thoroughly disenchanted and disgusted!

Summertime: We Come To The River For Many Reasons...

....TO GET OUT OF THE CITY, unwind and relax, tell tall tales and laugh mostly at ourselves with people who have a great sense of humor, and if we're lucky, to catch a few fish.....

This is one of those weekends that I---as a woman---am vastly outnumbered., being the only female at a fishing party involving three generations of guys. We're having so much fun. When I can't take any more, I steal away for a good hike in the nearby mountains. Today I wore myself out climbing. Finally the rain has passed for now, it's cool and the sun is shining brightly. Welcome relief!

Wounded Warriors Team Up Recently With NFL Celebs to Climb Kilimanjaro

THEIR AMAZING CLIMB HAS ENDED BUT MEMORIES, sense of accomplishment and camaraderie of their heroic feat will live on and on.

I've been aware of this climb for weeks, since former Titans head coach Jeff Fisher, one of the NFL stars picked to hike and help others to the top of Kilimanjaro, sent media updates back to Tennessee from Africa.

This is the kind of story that warms one's heart, for truly it shows that physical and mental injuries don't have to limit us to the extent they once did. Wounded Warrior Project has been a godsend to many injured vets coming back from Iraq and Afghanistan over the past decade or more. This climb is only one of the programs this organization has sponsored.

Full story here. Way to go guys and gals!

Michelle Glams Up Fit For a Queen

MEANT TO POST THIS EARLIER, but life has been happening at a blistering pace today. I'm late to the Obama party for the royals---and now it's even later, as I wind down on my way to the SoHo for a weekend of fly fishing.

In a nutshell, I heart Mrs. O's dress and think she looks fabulous....Nothing is more beautiful, imo, or feminine than an off-the-shoulder design for a tres dressy affair. Add black and you're ready to entertain royalty.

Michelle looks like a mill. Like her hair. Love her sedate earrings. And hate to admit, I really like the unexpected, edgy necklace, even around the queen. It may be controversial, but I still like it.. She has the dress, the height to pull it off, and in this case she's successful. The Obamas are an imposing, attractive couple who own the world right now. (And I wouldn't vote for him---ever.) But they are a striking twosome.

Did Kate Blow Michelle Out of the Fashion Water In London?

FIRST, IT'S ANOTHER DAY WITHOUT WIFI AT HOME AND IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD though we did wake up with electricity, and for now it's a beautiful day. But more bad weather is on the way. I've run over to 'Whole Paycheck' for a little wireless while Comcast works on our outage problems.

Am tired of posting dramatic photos from Joplin of dark, ominous clouds and think a little fashion might lighten things up a bit, especially since more ominous clouds are on the way.

The headline at The Daily Mail is something to the effect that tanned Duchess Kate blew Michell out of the water in the fashion department.

Is it true?

Off hand I'd say she did. Best part is Kate did it with a British designed dress---Reiss---which she paid under $250 for. Anyone who thinks good looks requires an expensive price tag (or guarantees a beautiful presentation)is living in the land of couture myth. A $5,000 dress does not in any way avert a fashion disaster. Style and taste always trump cost.

I like Kate's dress, but I don't love it. Don't think the nude color is as becoming, though she carries it off with her Seychelles honeymoon tan. The cut and cross design are just enough and not too much going on for her small frame. I like her kitty heel shoes and purse and think the overall effect is lovely.

I agree with Liz Jones that her hair is a bit too long and could use a trim. Long, shiny hair is fabulous, but knowing how long is long enough is a trick every woman needs to learn. The Duchess looks fabulous at her age with her beauty genes, so it would be hard for her to miss. I give Kate an A- to a B+ in the photo above. Like the rest of the world I can identify with her style preferences, especially since
I'm built a lot like her though a good deal shorter.

Now as for Michelle, I'm not wild about her hot pink, over-sized bolero and flouncy bedspread-print dress. Her style on me would make me---and indeed Kate---look like I/we had escaped from a freak show. It would wear me rather than the other way around. Having said that, I don't hate her look either. It's definitely in keeping with Michelle Obama's look. For a woman her stature and size, she carries it off more times than not.

Michelle is more than willing to take a fashion risk whether it works out or not. And sometimes it doesn't. So while I'm not crazy about anything I've seen her in on this trip so far, I'm not repulsed by any of it either. She's a good looking woman who knows who she is and clearly has fun dressing...some would say she has too much fun. But that's another story.

So, yes, Kate rules above. But Michelle's still in the race. I'll be on the look out for something I love on the First Lady during this tour. Surely she has lots more up her sleeve. But hopefully no more over-sized, hot-pink boleros.

Tuesday, More Weather All Around

I'M BEGINNING TO GET SPOOKED TALKING ABOUT THE WEATHER. In the wee hours of the morning today, the darkest hour before dawn, one of the worst isolated thunderstorms I've ever seen and heard blasted through West Nashville, lighting it up like a Christmas tree and booming like it was the end of the world.

Before it was over, the power was out---no electricity, no internet, no lights, no nothing, and heard a blast from an electrical transformer nearby. My blackberry charged overnight so I saw the time was 4:45 am. Afterwards, I cranked up my little solar/wind-up radio from Brookstone and connected with the outside world. Then Martha yelled from her place, Do you believe that storm!? Again!

Later I left for several hours and by the time I got back around noon, NES had restored power and the sun was shining. Tonight is fairly calm, but more strong storms are predicted for to Wednesday and Thursday. No one is looking forward to more of this, least of all the poor people in the mid-West and Missouri who are reeling from tornadoes and wild storms.

Eerie Night In Tennessee

SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS are forecast again tonight as lightning strikes all around. Then deadly calm, and sounds of cicadas and tree frogs.

Neighbor Martha hollered over there's a tornado warning north of Nashville where one has been spotted a little while ago. The recent spate----swarm, as Drudge calls it---of deadly tornadoes in the South and Mid-West has left everyone on pins and needles.

Don't think I'll sleep in my nightgown tonight, in case I/we all have to make a quick get-away. I can never remember a time when there was ever anything quite like this viral outbreak of such deadly proportions. Like a big hurricane year, this is one for the record books. And it's not over yet.

In The Wee Hours Of The Morning.....

....I WOKE UP WITH AN EERIE FEELING as strong gusts of wind whoosed through my half-open windows and evil-sounding thunder clapped in the distance. As the wind got worse and thunder louder, I lay shivering in my nightgown wondering What would I do if I suddenly heard the roar of a tornado and had only minutes to act? Would I go get neighbor Martha as I fled? Take refuge in my car? Head down the hill to the creek culvert that goes under the big 4-lane highway nearby? Sleep with my clothes on nights where nasty weather is predicted, like again tonight, for fast escape?

I live on the second floor of a two-story 4-unit condo building where I normally feel extremely safe. My second floor location allows me to keep my windows and French doors to the deck open whenever I like; I simply don't worry about break-ins. Not that they couldn't happen, it's just that strategically it's much less likely. I'm also on higher ground here, such that the historic flooding that overwhelmed Nashville last year and came all around, mercifully, didn't come close to our building.

See this and this.

I actually felt guilty that flooding came so close yet we were so unscathed while thousands of others were devastated.

Anyway, I must have fallen back to sleep as I reviewed possible escape routes in my mind. But this morning seeing the news of the horrendous devastation in Joplin, Missouri last night, I can only pray for mercy and compassion for its people and families and know that only by the Grace of God go any of us.

As next-door neighbor Martha left for work this morning, I met her outside on the steps and said, Martha we really need to get a tornado plan so let's think about it and talk some more.

She agreed but said she didn't like the culvert idea....for obvious reasons if the creek is high....the culvert would be underwater. Still, it the water going through the culvert is not high, it would still be my first---get low as possible---choice. We're going to tour this possibility later today and size up our alternatives---including prayer and knowing, when you're time is up, it's up. Still we God gave us brains to make preparations for the worst in the eventuality it happens.

Sunday, The Pre-Incarnate Christ In the Old Testament

CrossReference+ Episode 8 from HeadHeartHand Media on Vimeo.

Totally Agree With Pippa's Diet Which Eliminates Most Carbs, Gluten and Sugar

SOMETHING TO CHEW ON: THE DIET THAT SHOOK UP TENNIS @ WSJ (HT:TOM)ABOVE, THE BREADLESS SANDWICH AKA A SALAD

LET'S FACE IT, AT HER YOUTHFUL AGE, KATE'S SISTER PIPPA would still look fabulous even without the Pilates---which undoubtedly tone her body---and even without her disciplined diet.

Still, it's terrific she's starting these habits early, in her twenties. That's because if she continues the low-to-no carbs shtick, which essentially eliminates the deathly gluten as well as too much insulin in the body, and if she stays off sugar, by the time she gets to middle age, she'll still have her great figure, strong bones, good looks and wonderful vitality, just like her mother.

The real test of any sustained lifestyle habit is years later when you're the same weight you were at 21, have all your teeth and healthy bones with the energy of a 18-year old. Conversely, bad lifestyle habits---regular sugar consumption in myriad forms, gluten and carbs and lack of vigorous, regular exercise and sleep deprivation--not to mentions cigarettes and too much booze--start to age and decay us from the inside out and weigh on body and soul, not to mention our looks, sooner rather than later.

I didn't wise up about diet and nutrition in earnest until my early thirties. I learned over time to gauge my energy and looks by what I'd done and eaten the day before. I don't eat any of the stuff Pippa shuns---except very, very occasionally---and when I do, I feel it the next day and vow Never Again!

There are many universal myths floating around the world, but none more potentially life-threatening than myths about diet and disease. Since I'm about to run out the door for a while, let me tell you the biggest food myths of all time:

Myth 1. Simple carbs may be bad, but complex carbs are vital for energy and we should eat them every day.

Utter hogwash! Simple as well as complex carbs mess up your blood sugar, set up food cravings, and rob our energy. They also cloud our minds and depress our emotions. That's why when I have a rare helping of brown rice, which has virtually no gluten, I have it at an evening meal. It always guarantees I get sleepy earlier. But who wants to feel tired and sleepy all day?

Myth 2. We need carbs for energy, especially when we exercise a lot.

Oh yeah? Not on your life. I've found after years of high and low-altitude hiking that sustained energy never comes from eating carbs or sugar. Carbo-loading is a myth. Instead I get my energy from dried unsulphured fruits----figs and plums, proteins, non-starchy veggies with lots of olive oil and water. Sure a few nuts and seeds thrown in are fine, but carbs from grains are deadly and are not the answer to energy. Fats, proteins, non-starchy veggies and sugars found in dried fruits, along with water, are where it's at.

Myth 3. A Low fat diet prevents heart disease and obesity.

Hogwash cubed! Truly the biggest myth of all is the low-fat myth which has spawned a global obsession with low-fat food products with no nutritional value and plenty of toxins and salt. Eating natural fats like olive oil, (not awful stuff like margerine) meats and even butter are so much better for us and give us vital energy that lasts all day. It's the gluten and insulin from carbs and sugar that clog our veins, cloud our minds, set us up for Alzheimers, cancer, multiple sclerosis, depression and many other diseases too numerous to mention.

AND, our obsession with low fat synthetic foods for weight control are laughable. If you don't believe me, try it for a few weeks and see for yourself.

Besides eating fruits, all kinds of proteins and lots of non-starchy vegetables---kale, brocolli, fennell, zuchinni, squash, cucumber, avocado etc----I drink lots of room temperature water and a glass of red wine several times a week. I have a dry, dry martini about once a year, and have grown to dislike most all other alcohol except a dry red. White wines including champagne leave me feeling bad-to-wretched the next day. Red wine leaves me energized, ready to climb a mountain in the morning. Moderation is the key. I also drink black coffee in the morning.

I almost never eat sweets or desserts in any form, unless I make something like an apple crisp or pumpkin pie occassionally. It's the surest way I know to feel miserable for a day or two. If I'm going to sin on sugars, make it fermented sugar in the form of red wine. And leave the ice cream and cake to the de-energized dead and dying.

Like I say, Pippa looks fabulous, as does her sister, Kate. But the real test of their radiant looks and health will be how they feel decade after decade.

After Saturday's Rapture Comes Obama's Fantasy For Israel and Palestine, Then War

OBAMA AS WOODROW WILSON PROMISING FOREVER PEACE RIGHT BEFORE RISE OF HITLER, NETANYAHU AS REALIST AND STATESMAN



JUST IN CASE THE WORLD DOESN'T END SATURDAY, there's something that should really concern us: President Obama wants to dictate/negotiate Israel back to the dark ages. Don't you remember when Israel was only nine miles wide in some places, before The Six Day War in 1967?

James Lewis writing at American Thinker gets right to the point:

Obama has just given an eager world his fantasy answer for the last sixty years of Arab-Israel conflict. The Great One's long-awaited solution is for Israel to pull back to the cease-fire lines of the 1948 War of Independence, or what Obama, in a moment of historical amnesia, calls "the 1967 borders." People have fought and died over those borders since 1949, not 1967. Make that sixty years of regular warfare

He continues,

Robert Frost wrote that "Good fences make good neighbors." It's also true that "bad fences make bad neighbors." The Green Line is militarily dreadful, as the map shows. Obama's proposal is therefore strategically destructive.

What's worse, by raising impossible expectations in the Islamic world, expectations that are bound to be disappointed, Obama will end up making things much worse rather than much better. We'll be very lucky if a major Middle East war doesn't break out in the next few years, among emerging nuclear powers.....

The "1967 borders" are an invitation to catastrophe, just as the Peace of Versailles led to Hitler and World War II. Woodrow Wilson came back from Versailles announcing Peace Forever to a skeptical American public. But the Germans and the French (and V.I. Lenin) knew better. They knew there would be another war.

Like Woodrow Wilson, Obama yearns for that grandstanding photo-op. This whole administration is driven by one Himalayan ego.

Read the whole thing then pray for the rapture Saturday because there will be war in the Middle East between Israel and Hamas et al before the end of the year. 100% guaranteed.

Barry Rubin has more at Pajamas.

From the Ever Ridiculous The Sky Is Falling Crowd: May 21 Doomsday Complete With Rapture Is Beyond Ridiculous

WE MUST TRULY BE GOING OVER THE EDGE, if anyone really takes all this nonsense seriously.

So what does the true Master of the Living, Eternal Universe say about the second coming? From Matthew 24:36,

But of that day and hour knoweth no man, not the angels of heaven but my Father only.

So anyone who pretends to know is manifesting ignorance and arrogance beyond measure.

Briefly, A Few Words On DSK and AS

MEN WHO WANT THEIR CAKE & EAT IT TOO ARE IMMATURE BORES

IF YOU HAVE TO ASK WHAT OR WHO THESE INITIALS STAND FOR then you haven't been living on the same planet I have the past few days or you've been in some sort of drug or alcohol-induced stupor.

Nothing really surprises me anymore when I take time to reflect on the fallen state of our world and our innate sinful human nature, though I'm often momentarily shocked.

Two cases in point of shock, but not surprise, are the Dominique Strauss-Kahn caper with an African immigrant chamber maid at the Sofitel Hotel last Saturday (it was all about power and domination, not sex) and the love-child revelation of Arnold Schwarzenegger (to assuage his gargantuan ego and need for exotic excitement) with a woman on his household staff, whatever that means---I'm not sure I really want to know.

Both DSK--who's about-to-be- the erstwhile head of the IMF and a blogger at the HuffPo (oh that Arianna loves to smooze with anything that reeks of power!)---and AS are victims of their own grandiose sense of self-importance, power, privilege, false sense of superiority. Both these married men are victims of their own hair-raising sense of entitlement. Each is a master of their own decaying universes and examples that prove having it all in the worldly sense ain't really what's it's cracked up to be.

It never has been.

Neither is being a ladies man what's some say it's cracked up to be. When I think of womanizing men my antenae go up and---rightly or wrongly---I think of things like this. Ugh.

If you stop and coonsider it, is anyone really surprised by DSK or AS? Certainly Maria knew her husband was a womanizer on some level for years, maybe even before she married him. Maybe she thought she could reform him. Even so she had to be caught off-guard by how close it's been playing out to her everyday life. The fact that Arnold lived a double life with another woman in their home has to be incredibly painful to the core. And deeply embarrassing.

I could go on, but mercifully won't.

There is Shakespearian drama in falls such as these men may finally experience. Getting by with stuff for decades doesn't mean we will get by with them forever or there will never be any consequences. In fact delayed consequences and falls are often the worst kinds of all.

I don't delight in any way in watching all this unfold. In seeing grown men shatter themselves and fall on their own pitards. None of it is pretty, though perhaps somewhat instructive as cautionary tales. I think I should also add in this fallen world, but by the Grace of God go any of us.....

Last Week, This Week

LAST WEEK was the perfect, low-energy week to be knocked off my computer first by Comcast, then Blogger. I say low energy because there simply weren't any things happening here or abroad that piqued my interest enough to learn more and write about. My enthusiasm was---and still is somewhat---at a low point around the announcements of GOP hopefuls who will or won't be candidates for president next year, especially in the aftermath of Osama bin Laden's dramatic demise May 2.

Newt? Trump? Romney? Huckabee? My eyes glaze over. Paul? I doubt it, I really do. Sarah Palin? She's completely fallen off my radar and frankly too much of a political celebrity to be a viable candidate for anything in the foreseeable future. President Obama is a shoo-in unless something very, very unforeseen happens.

Conservatives should spend time and money getting a majority elected in the Senate and keeping and expanding it it in the House.

But that was last week, and this is now. I plan to come back bright-eyed in the morning and catch back up with myself online. Writing about all that yawning has got me doing it in earnest!