When our government now censors or bans what was before considered generally acceptable and we are complacent with that, well we have just happily accepted being herded like cattle.  

And what do cattle do? Anything and everything they are led to do! 

What happens when you do everything you are led to do? You happily remove choice, individuality, self-motivation, expression, desire, and most importantly the pursuit of happiness. 

Be that cow if you want but I’m proud to be an American. An American as defined in the United States Declaration of Independence: Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness!

These rights are not given to us by the government. We have them even if the government does not respect them.  They cannot  be taken away from us, and we cannot give them away.  

Equality, rights, liberty, opportunity, and democracy.

Moo!

#cow, #equality, #rights, #liberty, #opportunity, #democracy, #life, #liberty, #PursuitofHappiness, #ProudToBeAnAmerican

I recently was diagnosed with hypokalemia or severe potassium deficiency which came as a shock to me as I’ve never had that issue before. Could be my age or changes to my blood pressure medication or just stress perhaps from recently moving and not eating fresh over processed foods.

Sadly the symptoms of weakness and fatigue, muscle aches and stiffness, I just contributed to the recent move which occurred daily, evenings after work.

As I started researching more and attempting to understand why I would have this condition it occurred to me that even though I have been eating potassium rich foods in my diet, was I really getting the nutrients that are typically associated with those foods? Perhaps my normal consumption all these years has been sufficient but now eating those same potassium rich foods are no longer as nutritious. I had this discussion with my bud when I lived in Columbus, Ohio as he has been dealing with potassium deficiency for 15 years now. I’ve watched and been a part of the many issues associated with this condition. The “K’ counting and documenting and eating the daily requirement and it occurred to him that perhaps these foods are no longer as rich in potassium or other nutrients as they once were.

Since moving to South Carolina Midlands and seeing crops grown on farmland that is basically sand, how are these fruits and vegetables getting the nutrients they need? Man introduced! We are adding chemicals to these foods as the soil itself is not sufficient in nutrients to normally feed them. After decades of farming in our country our soil is basically just something to hold the plant’s roots in.

I guess for now I will have to just double my intake to compensate for these foods that just decades ago were much richer in vitamins and minerals than the varieties most of us get today.

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/soil-depletion-and-nutrition-loss/

#FoodDeficiency

It so saddens me as this is not the first time I’ve run across our LGBTQ community being so hateful and judgemental of others not in accordance of their personal views. Do we forget the hate and persecution directed at us that we’ve all faced thru the decades and now that we ALL enjoy a more accepting climate, we are the ones that spit out the most hate and condemnation of any person, group, or government official including our President that has any viewpoint or value system that differs or seems different from our own? And it is utterly disgusting that our community and especially the NLGJA could not embrace this opportunity and at least counter Marshall McPeek’s comments at the time of being said and turned it into a positive situation. Poor choice of words on his part, agreed but as anyone in the writing profession or any bilingual person familiar with the languages that to this day use grammatical gender in everyday conversation – he – she – it (neutral); he was not exactly wrong. Our community within the last couple decades created other sexual identity terms: sex & gender (traditional), cisgender, transgender, and transsexual. Science has shown and proven that “gender” is not even entirely of one body and that there can actually be multiple “genders” in one body but this is going to take several generations for people to even grasp or understand this. “Male” and “female” has been ingrained across multiple societies and cultures since man began to label and name everything it observed. So come on “queer as folk” give this man a break and listen to what the man said, look at him as a person and think of his character and whether he really meant his choice of words to be interpreted literally as most of you have taken to the moon to mean. We are supposed to be a diverse, loving, caring, and understanding group of people but now that we have gained major acceptance and understanding in many of our societies we have become nothing more than hateful people demanding that our viewpoints and beliefs are absolute and that anyone not accepting of them are the ultimate “haters”. Seems very Ku Klux Klan, White Supremacists, or Christians Against Gays to me and I for one am totally ashamed that our LGBTQ community has become nothing more than these other “hate” groups. Accept the man’s apology and perhaps allow him to clarify and elaborate what his thoughts were at the time of presentation where his choice of words failed. He is after all a talented media man and perhaps we should take advantage of his skill set and perhaps invite him in educating others of inclusiveness of transgender and nonbinary journalists. And just for the record, as a gay man of 58 years I have NEVER heard of a nonbinary journalist and I challenge many of you in the LGBTQ community if you have heard the same. Move on with love, awareness, acceptance, and the ability to educate others and quit with the condemnation of anyone not accepting, aware, or having the ability to understand what WE are all about! 🏳️‍🌈 ❤️🧡💛💚💙💜

https://www.nbcnews.com/feature/nbc-out/meteorologist-addresses-lgbtq-audience-things-its-journalism-conference-n908161

Meteorologist addresses LGBTQ audience as ‘things and its’ at journalism conference
At a reception sponsored by Fox News, Ohio-based meteorologist Marshall McPeek addressed the LGBTQ audience as “ladies and gentlemen, things and its.”
by Tim Fitzsimons / Sep.10.2018 / 12:58 PM ET

PALM SPRINGS, Calif. — NLGJA: The Association of LGBTQ Journalists issued an apology on Sunday after an emcee at its annual conference welcomed a crowd of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer news professionals as “ladies and gentlemen, things and its.”

“We’ve worked hard for many years to make NLGJA an inclusive organization for transgender and nonbinary journalists,” the organization said in a statement. “People were understandably hurt and offended by last night’s remarks. As journalists, we understand uniquely that words matter. We apologize and are committed to working to make NLGJA more inclusive and diverse.”

Marshall McPeek, chief meteorologist for Sinclair Broadcast Group-owned Fox 28 and ABC 6 in Columbus, Ohio, made the offending remarks on Saturday evening during the conference’s closing reception, which was sponsored by Fox News. McPeek apologized later that same evening for his comments and resigned his NLGJA membership shortly thereafter.

News of the incident spread beyond the Palm Springs conference after reporter Mary Emily O’Hara, who was in the audience, captured the moment in a widely shared tweet.

McPeek’s remarks cast a pall over the event and several attendees walked out. Monica Roberts, a transgender writer from Houston who was present during Saturday’s closing reception, wrote about the incident Monday on her blog, TransGriot.

“While I am happy McPeek came back later and apologized and NLGJA an organization I’ve been a member of for several years has released a statement about it, the damage was still done,” Roberts wrote. “No Mr. McPeek and by extension, NLGJA and FOX News, there were no ‘things and its’ in that Hotel Zoso room that September 8 night. There were trans, gender non-conforming (GNC) and non-binary (NB) people in there. There were your trans, GNC and NB media colleagues in that room.”

Jeez, my doctors office drives me crazy. You literally have to DEMAND what you want done. They won’t refill my Adderall script unless I come in for a Med Check and “Would I like to schedule an appointment?” – which typically is months out. “NO!” I need the drug script as I will be out of them this Friday and I shouldn’t be expected to be taken off of a controlled drug and risk withdrawal symptoms just because I wasn’t advised that I have to have a 3 month Med Check in order to get a controlled drug script filled. Let’s not get into the fact that my doctor’s office doesn’t have the technology to email the controlled script to my pharmacy so I have to pick up a script every month and hand carry it to my pharmacy until I learned recently that I could get three scripts written the later two post dated and present them all to the pharmacy at the same time. And also let’s not get into the fact that my Insurance company insisted that I use this drug because my former drug, Provigil, is too expensive to be filled by my current Insurance provider. So my Insurance provider puts me on a controlled drug that is addictive solely because of cost and not being considerate of my health and risk that I could potentially become addicted to the cheaper drug instead of giving me the more expensive non-addictive drug. I am so glad open enrollment on Healthcare.gov is open again and is still in place so I can get off of this WORST Insurance provider I have ever had. As a knowledgable Licensed Healthcare Insurance Agent I always stress to friends and colleagues that one has to take control of their own health and know exactly what to ask for each time you go to the doctor’s office. Like always come with a list of questions to ask, always demand that the doctor take the time to answer those questions. And this is the hardest part because who really knows the ins and outs of what you need to do such as always being sure where you go is covered on your insurance plan; to be sure when you are referred to a specialist that they are on your plan; to be sure when you are prescribed a drug, it is covered on your insurance plan; to ALWAYS ask questions of the drug being prescribed to you directly to your doctor and to always research the drug after leaving the office; to always get that next appointment on the books before leaving the office; to always take control of how YOU want issues of your health managed. All this alone makes for one to never go to a doctor and just live by: “If I don’t know about it, it can’t hurt me.”