You Are Under Attack

Published: Fri, 07/26/13

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In This Issue:
Obamacare, the New ACORN? By Richard C. Young
You Are Under Attack By Richard C. Young
Join Me on a Great Health Mission! By Richard C. Young
Wonder Where the Food Stamp Money is Going? By Richard C. Young
Unions Killed the Golden Goose in Detroit By E.J. Smith
If You Drink Beer Read This! By Richard C. Young
Detroit: Why States Will Secede from the Union By E.J. Smith
The Next Right-to-Work State Could be Washington By E.J. Smith
Sell the Howdy Doody Puppet By E.J. Smith
The 150 Healthiest Foods on Earth: #5 By Richard C. Young

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Obamacare, the New ACORN?

The Obama administration wants to know all about you. And it plans to use Obamacare as an information-gathering tool. The administration also plans to include the community organizing strategy of voter registration in many of the facets of Obamacare information gathering. Were you aware of all of this? John Fund outlines the full disgrace of Obamacare for you here.

Indeed, voter registration is among the goals of the folks hawking Obamacare. ThePeople’s World newspaper reports: “California’s Secretary of State Debra Bowen is designating the state’s new Health Benefit Exchange, Covered California, as a voter registration agency under the National Voter Registration Act. That means Covered California will be incorporating voter registration into every transaction — online, in-person and by phone — it has with consumers.” It seems as if some Obama supporters have found a new way to fill the void left by the bankruptcy of ACORN, the notorious left-wing voter-registration group that saw dozens of its employees in multiple states convicted of fraud.

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You Are Under Attack

The Eric Holder desired strategy is to retreat, to not stand your ground, to not use the necessary force to defend yourself or your family members. Instead, turn your back (a really fine play against oncoming trouble) or backpedal like an NFL cornerback. I don’t know about you, but I wouldn’t want may back exposed. And if you’re in my camp, your backpedaling skills are probably severely lacking.

You know who runs away? Remember the Raggedy Ann and Raggedy Andy stories? Sure you do, and with fondness, so you know it was the Fuzzywump and his little cousin, the Geewhiliker, who were always running away in fear. They were also lame losers.

Eric Holder claims, “It’s time to question laws that senselessly expand the concept of self-defense.” Holder wants states to review their adoption of Castle Doctrine laws. Nonsense! Florida, my home state, was one of the first to adopt Castle Doctrine status and since has sensibly added stand your ground wording. No state, in my view, will withdraw from the Castle Doctrine, nor should it. Eric Holder is playing politics in a most transparent and farcical way. Rather than adopting the Holder’s run for your life approach, all Americans living in states that have not passed the Castle Doctrine need to press their state legislators to do so. And all states want stand your ground wording.

You and family members want to take the NRA’s handgun safety course and apply, as Debbie and I have done, for your concealed weapons permit. Concealed weapons permits are now available in all 50 states. There is zero downside in preparing to protect yourself and your family. Next up, order a copy of From my Cold Dead Fingers, Why America Needs Guns by Sheriff Richard Mack. Finally click to my Top 10 Shotguns feature (on this site) as an introduction to the first weapon you will require in your home arsenal. You and your family will be well served in making richardcyoung.com home base for all your armaments needs. The 2014 mid-term elections will draw keen attention to stand your ground. Attorney General Eric Holder and President Obama are on the wrong side of national sentiment, as well as the views of the Founders. They deserve to take a whupping in the midterm elections. Will Americans, like our Founders wished, stand their ground?

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Join Me on a Great Health Mission!

For decades I was a runner. My weight held at a steady 180 pounds throughout my running days. About 15 years ago, knee and lower back issues caused me to switch to walking, which today I do plenty of daily. Well, maybe it’s the fewer calories I am burning, or maybe it is my lower metabolic rate as I get older, or, more likely, it’s my addiction to carbohydrates, especially carb-packed pasta, pizza and organic health shakes (40 carbs per). But at my recent visit to my new and much liked concierge doctor in Key West, I got a report on two numbers I did not like, so I decided to rectify my situation. First, my skinny 180-pound self was, to be kind, a thing of the past. Second, my Very Low Density Lipoprotein 3 (VLDL3) reading was a couple of ticks higher than I was comfortable with. It was time for battle!

My battle commander in this endeavor is three-time Science in Society Journalism winner Gary Taubes. Gary is a contributing correspondent for Science magazine. All I would need was between the cover of Gary’s Why We Get Fat. I am preparing a mini series of insightful quotations from Gary’s great book and will begin the series shortly. Meantime, here is the fuel from Gary’s book that I am using to kickoff my weight reduction and lower VLDL3 mission.

Gary writes that the most fattening foods are the ones that have the greatest effect on our blood sugar and insulin levels. These are the concentrated sources of carbohydrates, particularly those that we can digest quickly: anything made of refined flour, liquid carbohydrates, and starches. These foods flood the blood stream quickly with glucose. Blood sugar shoots up; insulin shoots up; WE GET FATTER. Bingo, so I kicked off my plan under this guiding Taubes principle. I am avoiding such carbs and even going so far as to slap on the age-old 20 carbs per day limit (for an initial three weeks) originally proposed by Dr. Atkins.

How am I doing? I am making progress—down 13 pounds. My goal is to lose a pound a week. If you do not think a pound of fat is a lot take a gander at my graphic. After I have completed my Gary Taubes mini series for you. I will report back as to my progress deploying the science wisdom of Gary Taubes.

In closing, I know I have left you hanging on why I am so concerned about VLDL3. My next post in the series will deal specifically with this reading. If you do not know your reading, I would have some blood drawn and find out. You will be comforted, or perhaps not, that you have taken such a worthwhile preventive health initiative. If you do not like your reading, you can simply join me on my little crusade. We both have nothing to lose and lots to gain. Not weight, of course.

Warm regards,

Dick

The rampant increase in the number of food stamp recipients under the Obama administration has been unconscionable, but wait until you hear what recipients are doing with their funds. The New York Post details how Americans are sending food to relatives and friends in the Caribbean countries Haiti, the Dominican Republic and Jamaica.

“Everybody does it,” said a worker at an Associated Supermarket in Prospect Lefferts Gardens, Brooklyn. “They pay for it any way they can. A lot of people pay with EBT.”

Customers pay cash for the barrels, usually about $40, and typically ship them filled with $500 to $2,000 worth of rice, beans, pasta, canned milk and sausages.

Workers at the Pioneer Supermarket on Parkside Avenue and the Key Food on Flatbush Avenue confirmed the practice.

They said food-stamp recipients typically take home their barrels and fill them gradually over time with food bought with EBT cards.

When the tubs are full, the welfare users call a shipping company to pick them up and send them to the Caribbean for about $70. The shipments take about three weeks.

It was the unions that killed the golden goose in Detroit.They should be de-certified and dropped in a shallow grave never to again see the light of day. It’s really only a matter of Outcome Analysis. The Wall Street Journal lays out the grisly details.

United Auto Workers President Bob King, speaking publicly on the Detroit bankruptcy filing for the first time Monday, said he is outraged at how the city’s 20,000 public-sector employees have been treated by the governor and the city’s new leadership.

“I know how bargaining can work in difficult crisis situations,” Mr. King said. “In the auto industry, labor with management, the community and government, we all worked together and look at the industry now.”

Al Garrett, head of American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Council 25, said the city didn’t try to bargain with unions in good faith.

“Part of this is to create a narrative that people say there is nothing else they can do” but file for bankruptcy, Mr. Garrett said, referring to comments by Messrs. Snyder and Orr about the dire state of the city’s finances. “We say there is something they can do. They can sit down at the bargaining table.”

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If You Drink Beer Read This!

You know I am on my Gary Taubes (Why We Get Fat) based anti-crabs weight loss program. This article from FoodBabe.com on beer sure adds fuel to the fire in terms of what carbs to get rid of first.

When you drink beer, there is almost a 100% chance that you don’t know what you are drinking (unless you quizzed the beer companies like I did). The ingredients in beer are not required by law to be listed anywhere on the label and manufacturers have no legal obligation to disclose the ingredients. For regular beer, calorie levels and percent alcohol are optional and for light beer calories are mandatory but alcohol levels are optional.

Michele Simon, a public health lawyer, author of Appetite for Profit, and president of Eat Drink Politics told me the reason that beer companies don’t disclose ingredients is simple: they don’t have to.

“Ingredient labeling on food products and non-alcoholic beverages is required by the Food and Drug Administration. But a whole other federal agency regulates beer, and not very well. The Department of Treasury – the same folks who collect your taxes – oversees alcoholic beverages. That probably explains why we know more about what’s in a can of Coke than a can of Bud. You can also thank the alcohol industry, which has lobbied for years against efforts to require ingredient labeling.”

I figured if the beer companies aren’t required to tell us the exact list of ingredients, I needed to investigate this for myself and asked them the pointed questions until I got the truth.

First of all, I was able to obtain a baseline list of “legal” additives allowed in beer from the book “Chemicals Additives in Beer” by the Center of Science and Public Interest. This list allowed me to ask specific questions about each beer I investigated. For example – beer sold here in America can contain several of the following ingredients:

Monosodium Glutamate (MSG) – alcohol is already addictive with some people, but with MSG?! Holy smokes.

Propylene Glycol (an ingredient found in anti-freeze)

Calcium Disodium EDTA (made from formaldehyde, sodium cayanide, and Ethylenediamine)

Many different types of sulfites and anti-microbial preservatives (linked to allergies and asthma)

Natural Flavors (can come from anything natural including a beavers anal gland)

High Fructose Corn Syrup

GMO Sugars – Dextrose, Corn Syrup

Caramel Coloring (Class III or IV made from ammonia and classified as a carcinogen)

FD&C Blue 1 (Made from petroleum, linked to allergies, asthma and hyperactivity)

FD&C Red 40 (Made from petroleum, linked to allergies, asthma and hyperactivity)

FD&C Yellow 5 (Made from petroleum, linked to allergies, asthma and hyperactivity)

Insect-Based Dyes: carmine derived from cochineal insects to color their beer.

Animal Based Clarifiers: Findings include isinglass (dried fish bladder), gelatin (from skin, connective tissue, and bones), and casein (found in milk)

Foam Control: Used for head retention; (glyceryl monostearate and pepsin are both potentially derived from animals)

BPA (Bisphenol A is a component in many can liners and it may leach into the beer. BPA can mimic the female hormone estrogen and may affect sperm count, and other organ functions.)

Carrageenan (linked to inflammation in digestive system, IBS and considered a carcinogen in some circumstances)

Bankruptcy expert David Skeel makes the case that federal bankruptcy has precedent over state law. Skeel isn’t suggesting a federal bailout, but isn’t that the next step? If pension debt by irresponsible states becomes every state’s problem, then why wouldn’t a fiscally responsible state want to succeed from the union? The unintended consequences of federal bankruptcy law may be that we’re all in this together whether we like it or not. Stay tuned.

A very similar argument, along with a related argument about state sovereignty, led the Supreme Court to strike down the first municipal bankruptcy law passed by Congress in 1936. But two years later, in United States v. Bekins, the court reversed course, concluding that a slightly amended bankruptcy law didn’t violate the Contracts Clause or interfere with state sovereignty.

Detroit’s pensioners, in short, would ultimately prevail only if they could persuade the Supreme Court to overturn Bekins—which would in effect invalidate federal municipal bankruptcy law altogether, since the same logic would apply not just to pensions but to any obligation protected under state law.

It is unlikely the Supreme Court would take this step. The court has interpreted Congress’s bankruptcy powers (which also are spelled out in the Constitution) very broadly. And the power to facilitate the adjustment of debt lies at the heart of bankruptcy.

If Washington state wants to create jobs and encourage Boeing to stick around then passing right-to-work laws makes perfect sense. State Senator Michael Baumgartner plans to introduce legislation that could do just that.

As Boeing continues to expand its operations in South Carolina and fears the company is looking for an exit out of Puget Sound grow, the debate over making Washington a right-to-work state is gaining steam.

South Carolina is a right-to-work state. In it’s simplest form, that means employees do not have to join the union in a job where there is a union presence. Unions can operate, but they can’t require employees to join them.

Washington is not a right-to-work state and some are concerned that as Boeing looks to improve its bottom line and reduce its labor costs it will continue to look to set up shop outside of Washington.

“Our economy can’t afford that,” says state Senator Michael Baumgartner. “We have to be on a level playing field. This is one of the key issues that can make our state more competitive. Otherwise, we’re going to see jobs continue to leave the state, and equally important, we’re not going to see jobs come to the state.”

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Sell the Howdy Doody Puppet

One step towards solvency in Detroit is to sell its assets including those at the Institute of Art. It’s called bankruptcy. As John Fund writes:

The Detroit Free Press asked New York and Michigan art dealers to evaluate just a few of the 60,000 items in the Institute’s collection. The experts said the 38 pieces they looked over would fetch a minimum of $2.5 billion on the market, with each of several pieces worth $100 million or more. That would go a long way toward relieving the city’s long-term debt burden of $17 billion.

Just the idea of selling art to avoid painful budget cuts that could send city-employee retirees into poverty in their old age elicits howls of anger. “Bidding stuff off is completely ridiculous,” Bill Shearrod, a grant manager for a Detroit nonprofit, told the Detroit News. “The DIA is the spirit of Detroit.” Local philanthropist A. Alfred Taubman said “it would be a crime” to sell any part of the collection. “It’s not just an asset of Detroit, it’s an asset of the country,” he told the Detroit Free Press. Michigan attorney general Bill Schuette issued a statement asserting that the art is actually held by a charitable trust and not owned by the city. But federal bankruptcy law trumps any state law, so his argument is on shaky ground. Kevyn Orr, Detroit’s emergency manager, took note of the criticism in his first news conference after Detroit’s bankruptcy was announced on July 19. “Nothing is for sale, including Howdy Doody,” he said. But his spokesman Bill Nowling later explained that Orr couldn’t take anything off the table in negotiations with creditors: “We’ve got a responsibility to rationalize all the assets of the city and find out what the worth is and what the city holds.

Jonny Bowden, Ph.D., C.N.S., has created one of the most vital books on the health of your family you will ever find, The 150 Healthiest Food on Earth . The lavishly illustrated, 358-page weighty tome gives you more vital information on foods that can keep your family healthy than any other publication I have ever come across. And I am always on the look out. I have given the book to family members and often advise it for others. I have now selected a “Great 10” list of food choices to share with you. My goal here is pass on ideas that perhaps you did not previously know about.

Horseradish: Johnny Bowden explains that a study from the University of Illinois shows that horseradish has substantial quantities of allyl isothiocyanate, which is believed to play a role in the prevention of tumors and in the suppression of tumor growth. Johnny continues in noting that Glucosinolates in food increase the liver’s ability to detoxify carcinogens. Horseradish contains 10 times more Glucosinolates than broccoli. Wasabi, or Japanese horseradish, contains isothiocyantes that have shown a significant anti-inflammatory effect and also killed many human stomach cancer cells in a test tube test.