December 12, 2012

Any Third Wayers in the house tonight? I need that fairy tale again.

I'm having trouble falling asleep tonight, and it would be really comforting if a Third Wayer could read me that fairy tale again? You know, the one where the Liberal is ridiculous, quite possibly a Republican shill working for Karl Rove, for claiming that Dodd-Frank was little but cover for the bankers? I particularly love the part where Dodd-Frank eliminates too big to fail, that there's now an orderly way to unwind and shut down banks when they don't behave.

I'll be here in bed with my iPad, waiting for another performance of the fairy tale.

Hopefully that fairy tale will do the trick, but if not, maybe we could do the one where the NDAA doesn't authorize the President to throw any American in jail, forever, with zero judicial oversight. Or the one where the President never said he wanted to cut - not slash -... ah, never mind.

Regards,

First-Way Manny

December 8, 2012

Craziest thing: Anyone here with Psoriasis?

Wonderful and weird thing happened in my family, wanted to share it:

For years, my nephew had pretty bad psoriasis on his entire scalp. Even with nightly topical treatment of a cortisone (in oil, under a shower-cap), it wasn't well controlled.

Parents started giving him a tablespoon of lecithin each day, and the psoriasis vanished pretty quickly. Gone. Zero treatments needed anymore, and not a hint of psoriasis. For a couple of months now, and it hadn't ever gone into remission in the years he had it prior.

So why lecithin?

Lecithin is a common food supplement derived from soybeans that has a lot of choline. It turns out that:

1. 50% of psoriasis sufferers have non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (hepatic steatosis)
2. fatty liver can be reliably induced by a choline-deficient diet.
3. most Americans get less, often far less, choline than the Adequate Intake level set by the Institute of Medicine.

Putting these together, it hints that psoriasis sufferers may not be getting enough choline, and the choline in lecithin might have fixed the boy's problem. Could be coincidence that the psoriasis disappeared when they started trying the lecithin, but it's a heck of a coincidence. And these are not crazy people.

Anyway, I wanted to share the info. If anyone's tried lecithin and had good or bad experiences, I'd be very interested to hear about it.

December 7, 2012

Vote to cut entitlements? Then I pledge $100 to primary you in the next election.

That's the message I'm sending to my elected representatives.

If they vote to touch entitlements, then I'll contribute to replace them with another Democratic candidate who actually embraces Democratic principles. They're entitlements because we paid for them in full, and we're entitled to them, the way we're entitled to the money in our bank accounts.

Shared sacrifice, my ass. The wealthiest 5% of Americans got a $1 trillion tax gift break over the last ten years - let them pay it back, with interest, before we go after the old, the poor, and the sick.

December 6, 2012

"serious entitlement reform... It's not that tough."

Guess who said that today?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1014&pid=327619

All of the nice thoughts I was thinking... blown to hell. At least I have a shot again at winning that steak dinner.

December 6, 2012

Craziest @#$%ing thing. Suddenly, America agrees with Bernie.

Here's what Bernie said today:

And it suddenly struck me: Hey! Fuck! America agrees! With gusto! Damn, you bet! Bernie's gone from Socialist nut to truth-teller, even though he hasn't changed a word!

Remember a couple of years ago, when all of Washington from the President down to the Chief Lobbyst for AARP agreed that the only sensible thing to do would be to cut the hell out of adjust Social Security?

Things seem to have changed since the Republicans got pureed in an election that was theirs to lose, given that we're in the fourth year of a depression. They ran on a platform of turning the 99%'s pain up to 11. For the first time in decades, that was not a winning strategy. Seeing this, first weather-vanes like Chuck Schumer and Deval Patrick suddenly turned into Liberals, followed by a bunch of other senators, and seemingly, now the President.

God bless Harry Reid. He's been on the right side the whole time, and proud of it. Nancy Pelosi's been good as well.

Social Security and Medicare are far from secure - Social Security is a huge pot of money that the Predator Class continues to circle with eyes like saucers, saliva pouring from their pie-holes, and their sacks of cold cash are a mighty tempting treat to our elected officials. And Medicare does have an actual problem in that we choose to have health care costs that are twice what others pay.

But American voters have spoken: we're sick of being on the receiving end of forced economic sodomy. We're with Bernie now.

Excelsior!

December 5, 2012

I might be totally wrong. It feels pretty good.

Most DUers are surprised to hear that I was an early and ardent supporter of Obama's original run for President.

Don't believe it? Go check DU2, it's all there.

Obama said the right things, that he'd fight for working Americans, end the unconstitutional powers that Bush had grabbed, and so forth. I figured that the other two Democrats with a serious shot already had pretty nasty records (voting for wars, economic assault on the 99%, etc.), that they were certainly not Liberal/Progressive by any stretch of the imagination. At least Obama *might* hold fast to Democratic principles if he got into office. And if he did... his power to explain and convince are unmatched by any President since FDR. We could have someone to lead us out of the swamp.

Then he got into office.

Ouch.

As far as I'm concerned, Obama's first term started with a heroic save of the bankers, an anemic trickle-down "stimulus", and giving a pass to admitted torturers. Then he laid down on the couch and watched TV, getting up occasionally to pass some reasonable legislation on social issues, to make clever statements about needing to cut - but not slash - earned benefits (a.k.a. entitlements) and to get rolled by the Republicans on economic issues. (Actually, he'd roll himself - craziest thing to watch.) Yeah, I'm simplifying - but we're still in a depression, aren't we? But the Predator Class is doing fantastically, aren't they?

After the election, I assumed that Campaign Obama would turn back into On The Couch Obama. A few weeks ago, I predicted that that we'd have a Grand Bargain by early January that would include the same cuts to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid that Obama proposed last year, that Elizabeth Warren would never be allowed on the banking committee, that the filibuster would remain unchanged, and so forth.

Now it seems that things may have changed. I might be wrong on Obama's post-election plans. We're not out of the woods yet, but the momentum seems to be in the right direction. If so, I'll be pretty damned happy. Other than having to pay for a fancy steak dinner for the DU member who'll win a bet we made. Ah, that'll make me happy too.

Maybe we can turn this flaming pile of manure around. Let us pray. And let's keep the pressure up! Tell your elected representatives that the Third Way is going away, and now they have to play like good Democrats.

Regards,

First-Way Manny