Month: September 2006

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September 11th… never forget and never forgive

Never Forgive... Never Forget
Tomorrow will be about speeches and posturing… but hopefully we’ll hear more. Where do we go from here… what will we be doing September 12th?

Part of the challenge we face is the natural reserve we have in the west to facing a proven enemy. Many of our past presidents from Wilson, Roosevelt, Truman and Clinton were not immune to the revulsion of the use of force, except in some cases on Americans. Here’s a quote that sums up our internal challenge in dealing effectively with terrorism:

 President John F. Kennedy is quoted as saying: “Forgive your enemies, but never forget their names.”  This is a nice sentiment…. except for the forgiveness part.

As Tucumseh Sherman once said, “war is hell.” We can’t expect to fight terrorism without getting our hands dirty. Our success in beating back the threat is recognizing from where it evolves and taking effective action. We do speak of this in our culture…. in surprising ways.

There’s a line in ‘Pirates of the Carribbean’ that goes to the heart of decisive action and it’s goes something like this…” Jack, this is how you lost the ‘Pearl’ in the first place. People are easier to search when they are dead.” I would add: Dead Terrorists tell no tales.    

Something occurred to me the other day…that sounded very ‘unWestern’ of me… but we are in a new era and a new kind of war. I’ve noticed that none of the families of the terrorists have ever paid a price. No fear, shame or embarrassment… they even get a payoff! When a bomb goes off by a suicide bomber… the families of the terrorists always get a handsome ‘payout’ from their terrorist masters… somehow, this ‘incentive’ needs to be taken away. It is clear that families of terrorists need to live under the same fear as their family member’s victims. This will take some changes in thinking…. or we could face the problems of ‘Eurabia’ or ‘Canadistan’.

One can go after the source of money… but something more immediate and direct needs to happen. Any ideas?

Roger Freberg

I have included some blogs that I have found interesting… not all I agree with … but I presented them for your amusement. To me, the important message of nine eleven is that we still have the freedom to speak and to be heard… but if we don’t meet the challanges ahead… we will lose even that.

other Blogs:

Five Years Ago the World Stopped
MySpace Providing an outlet for Terrorism
Good Coming from war on Terrorism
compassionate words from a liberal
Abu Ghraib … not a nice place anymore
the Reality Show

Nutty Blogs:

The Tao Of Politics
Drinkin’ too much Brandy
Disappointment

Nutty Theologians

what do you think our response to 9/11 should be?

 

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Want to be ‘Dead Sexy?’ ……Watch what you eat!

I'm dead sexy....

 An interesting study was done to see if men who do or do not eat red meat are more attractive to women….  here’s a brief ‘top line’:

“… showed that the odor of donors when on the nonmeat diet was judged as significantly more attractive, more pleasant, and less intense.”

Now that our man on the left is on a carbo or the zone diet and off red meat… I guess this means he’s now more attractive to women? I guess… he probably smells great!

There’s a tale that before soldiers would go into the jungle… they would go off meat or fish for a couple of days to avoid being ‘detectable.’ That’s the only thing I have ever heard remotely connected to this study.

So, what do you think?

Now, from where I sit, this doesn’t mean becoming a vegetarian… and what we really don’t know is whether eating or not eating red meat is all that important in the grand scheme of things. My guess is that there are far greater issues that influence attraction.

But I do wonder sometimes…. when my wife leans over and says,’ you smell really nice.’ I never can remember what I did? What kind of soap did I use? It leaves me totally confused and searching for answers… but then, maybe that’s the plan….

Roger Freberg

Here’s a few blogs on what women like or don’t:

ITALIAN MEN
LonelyGirl15FanClub
ParisHiltonPUNKED
With DixieChicks on her mind (viva T.K.)

 

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ASPARTAME? There has to be a PRIZE for playing this game!

Are you the WOMAN enough? Feelin' frisky are ye?

Some of you know that I am a diabetic… and that I lost a great deal of weight  by changing my diet and my life style some 6 years ago. However, one of the things I realized from the beginning was the need to continue to make changes along the way… or I might find myself in the same spot I was when this sleigh ride all began.

I used to rely on “diet Soda’ to not only introduce a jolt of caffeine but a measure of sweetness in an already fatless, skinless almost tasteless diet. I do ‘spice it up’ with various seasonings… but I’ll get into this later.

Back to ASPARTAME. I guess it all depends on how healthy your immune system is to start with…. most diabetics have a compromised immune system and it doesn’t take much to bring on ‘neuropathy’ and some of the other fun stuff. 6 years ago, I actually read that aspartane was GOOD for diabetics! We know more now.

Here’s a couple of articles WITH EXERPTS to think about:

DIABETES AND ASPARTAME

“Unfortunately, many patients in my practice, and others seen in consultation, developed serious metabolic, neurologic and other complications that could be specifically attributed to using aspartame products.”

A CLEAR AND PRESENT DANGER

“The author traces the nonscientific basis and political machinations that led to FDA’s unwise approval of aspartame, The sweetener now permeates many processed foods and beverages, and is used by two-thirds of the American population.”

ASPARTAME CONSUMPTION

“Potentially more worrisome is the 10 percent of aspartame that is absorbed into the bloodstream as methanol (wood alcohol). The Environmental Protection Agency defines safe consumption as no more than 7.8 milligrams per day of this dangerous substance. A one-liter beverage, sweetened with aspartame, contains about 56 milligrams of wood alcohol, or eight times the EPA limit!”

HAVE I SCARED YOU TO DEATH, YET?

Well, needless to say… I have substituted more coffee and V-8 Juice ( has some sugar) for the unreasonable amount of diet cola I was consuming… it appeared to be affectnig Laura’s eyes… but when she got off the aspartane wagon… her vision recovered. Coincidence? Probably not… and it is amazing how my recurring neuropathy has retreated.

So what else have I learned in the 6 years of being needle/drug free? Obviously, I can still control much of my diabetic issues with diet. Although I have made some modifications… I have toned down the amount of vegetables I eat ( although I consume most of the broccoli from Greenfield, California myself).. I no longer measure the consumption by the trailer.

I have also added some of the so-called ‘good fats’…. like… avocado! For lunch I will sometimes have and toasted open faced seasoned avocado sandwich with a ‘dolup’ of sour cream!

At dinner, I will usually have more chicken that I did in the past…. but the rest is fairly much the same.

So, the key in any diet conscious person’s mind has to be… to stay flexible and alter your behavior to reflect the new realities.

Here’s a BLOG on Diabetic diets:

Diabete’s info Blog

DiabetesBeaten.com

 

Roger Freberg

 

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Willie Brown, San Luis Obispo & Cal Poly?

Finest display of used bubble gum in the entire world! Dis is high culture indeed!Golly momma, lookie what the big city feller said about us in de Tribuuune!”

Well, the horses and buggies went out and the tongues were wagging when “Bootstrap” Willie Brown was quoted in the local San Luis Obispo paper :

“Willie Brown tells Angelides to stay in SLO, “wherever there are no known systems of technology and communications”…

Not to be slighted the Telegram Tribune which boasts around a full 16 pages on a good day fired off an editorial! Here’s a few of the quotes that …well… shucks… just shows how much corn is growing in some of the ears around here:

“Just us rubes here, Willie”           ( Yee-ha!)

“It’s a simpler life, the SLO Life. And now the rest of the world knows our little secret. Thanks a bunch, Willie.”        
(… there’s several ways to read that, boys… oh yeah.. yeeeehah!) 

“We don’t know about Dinuba or Chico…”         
( frankly, you gotta travel to know about other places, dude)

Now, I don’t kid you when I say that there are folks in these parts that have never been to the big city of New York, fear the bay area and evil Elay … and there are some who have never been out of the county …and are PROUD of it! Hard to believe it’s 2006. Old hippes around here refer to themselves as ‘hobbits’ and this land as ‘middle earth’… get the picture? Frankly, I think too many generations have married their sisters.

On a positive note, many local young men and women see that San Luis obispo county has little to offer them … intellectually, socially or for a future for themselves or their families … and they move on to greater glory. Unfortunately, it’d be really nice if they took some of the ‘hobbits’ with them. Oh ….there I go again being a ‘disturber of the peace.’

Cal Poly.... One of the bright spots at Cal Poly is folks like my wife who teach there. However, if she had to depend on the assets of the university she’d still be typing on a Smith-Corona (remember those?). By the by, I think Cal Poly just got their first computer but I think it’s working on Windows 3.1. They have their issues. 

I am asked so often why my children did not go to Cal Poly? I always answer them by saying,” because they could do better.”

Steve Martin starred in a movie called “My Blue Heaven” that was filmed here. It was about a squeeky clean community filled with federal witness protected felons… ah… the town was named “Friburg”. Hmmmmm…. very funny, boys. Anyway, in the movie, they referred to the town as the ‘place you go when you die’… a good place… but not a fun place…. it wears thin after a while.

Truth hurts.

San Luis Obispo has many charming things about it. It’s a great place to relax… but when you want to put your brain and your body in gear… it’s also great, because it’s only 200 miles from either Los Angeles or San Francisco.

They don’t call it “SLO” for nothing.

Roger Freberg

PS– I have to tell how “Bootstrap Bill” Willie Brown got his name … I was up in Sacramento back in 1991 getting then Senator Ken Maddy and former Assemblywoman Andrea Seastrand to sign a few hundred ‘Welcome Home’ proclamations for the men and women who fought in the first Gulf War… and there… I listened to Willie Brown discribe how he had ‘pulled himself up by the bootstraps’ to the pinacle of greatness that he now enjoyed. It was a good speech… but he wasn’t wearing boots… so this ol’ boy wasn’t too impressed.

The picture atop is of San Luis Obispo’s main tourist attraction… a wall in which one can deposit their used chewing gum… drinking beer with gum isn’t great, so before entering the bar, students made a contribution to our culture… I guess they ran out of desks.

 

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Sports: it’s a guy thing!

A true fanatic... but NOT a cute guy... sorry ladiesWell, we’re talking about ‘sports’ again… so you gals can head out to the mall. heh heh

Not that any of us guys didn’t know this… but guys like sports and many women don’t. There really is a science behind male fanatic behavior.  Ah ha! you say…. that means SOME women like sports? Yep, the women who like sports are just about the most beautiful creatures that God has ever placed on this earth…. I know… I married one and produced daughters who love sports too… especially football.

If you don’t believe me that women who love sports are a RARE commodity… I have PROOF! This past weekend, while my daughters and my wife and I were all watching football (down boys… only two of those females are single), we watched an ad for eharmony.com.

A Football Loving Couple brought too you by eharmony.comWhat was so unusual about the ad you ask? Well, this is kind of an ‘advanced dating’ site that delves deep into your personality and looks to see if you can share the housework and if she can watch football while giving you a sensual backrub.

 The eharmony man said that he was looking for a woman who liked to watch football… and the only thing they now apparently fight about is the fact that she is a Brown fan and he is a Steeler. Holy , drop the remote, Batman! I could just see millions of guys logging on to eharmony…. while their girlfriends/whatever were out at the mall.

Go get a good one this time, guys! The guy pictured on the left FOUND his football loving fiance’! Continue reading “Sports: it’s a guy thing!”