Politics: How do they affect your personal life?

[bsniadajewski]

Re: Politics: How do they affect your personal life?

pizza (the cheese sometimes and sometimes some meat(s)

Mmmm. Pizza...with cheese (and sausage + mushroom of course).

Around the globe, there are many cultures where people can't afford meat, or it's not readily available. (And they do show much healthier stats than we do in cancers, heart disease, diabetes, and osteoporosis). When a family can afford to buy meat, it is used as a flavoring, where they carefully dice it down to small pieces, brown it, and let it cook along with the 95+% of veggies (and or beans) in a cooking po

And of course there are cultures, as I've alluded to in other posts, where there are no plants to use as food, especialy in the tundras of Alaska, Northern Canada, Greenland and Siberia, where hunting and fishing are necessary for survival (food and clothing).

[Qqmike]

Re: Politics: How do they affect your personal life?

Reminds me of an (old) email joke that was floating around, various versions, I happened to save this one:


For those of you who watch what you eat, here's the final word on nutrition and health. It's a relief to know the truth after all those conflicting nutritional studies.

1. The Japanese eat very little fat
and suffer fewer heart attacks thanus.

2. The Mexicans eat a lot of fat
and suffer fewer heart attacks than us.

3. The Chinese drink very little red wine
and suffer fewer heart attacks than us.

4. The Italians drink a lot of red wine
and suffer fewer heart attacks than us.

5. The Germans drink a lot of beer and eat lots of sausages and fats
and suffer fewer heart attacks than us.

CONCLUSION:

Eat and drink what you like.
Speaking English is apparently what kills you.
- - - - -

I wonder if there are studies done on how, if at all, living in USA adversely effects your health. Wasn't there a recent PBS special on this? How immigrants come here, without the3ir homeland family/community support, with daily stress of 8-5 and pay-the-bills focus, traffic, and such, and observe consequent health issues? Something like that. I do believe studies have been done on how people's health changes when they acculturate here with fast food diets and such.

[bsniadajewski]

Re: Politics: How do they affect your personal life?

Looks like it's not so much diet (unless it's fast food), but the overall lifestyle that is the real killer.

BTW, I wonder what joke would say about ... the English!

[Snowhog]

Re: Politics: How do they affect your personal life?

CONCLUSION:

Eat and drink what you like.
Speaking English is apparently what kills you.

That is hilarious!

[oshunluvr]

Re: Politics: How do they affect your personal life?

I'd like to point out that we are the only country on the list that has food available everywhere 24 hrs a day in virtually every city and it's available cheaply and very quickly. I've never come across a drive-thru in Paris or Rome or anywhere else (except Mexican border towns). I'd wager a months pay that at least part of the underlying reason is all the chemicals used to preserve that food for the quick-prep service. That, combined with the demands of our society is whats killing us off. I read somewhere that USA life expectancy is getting shorter but I can't remember where.

Sorry for dumping on the joke stream... :P

[woodsmoke]

Re: Politics: How do they affect your personal life?

That analysis reminds me of one time when I will be at a conference on hardware integration. There were all sorts of guv mucky mucks there and there was one Ambassador, big guy, kind of scaly skin. He was talking to the captain of the station while contemplating a food plate in his hand.

He held up this delicacy on a toothpick and said something like;

"You know Captain, I must say, that no matter where I go in the universe to a function like this....they always have what you Earthlings call..."Swedish Meatballs!".

woodalwayslikedswedishmeatballssmoke

[DoYouKubuntu]

Re: Politics: How do they affect your personal life?

Thanks to Qq, not only for the excellent post regarding veg*n diet benefits, but also for coincidentally stating how I feel, which is "the facts are out there--if you're interested, look them up!" That's what I did in 1988--when it was a lot harder to find information on things like factory farms--and then had my "I'm a BLEEPING hypocrite!" epiphany, and stopped participating in the animal cruelty that is the meat industry. It's really not that hard. KFN, of all places, is blessed with a plethora of intelligent people. Surely you can look up information for yourselves.

And for all of you who think it's hilarious to talk about the dead animal product you ate for dinner, it's not funny. Really. Nor does it piss me off. It does NOTHING but make me think "if they only knew the facts..." I always give people the benefit of the doubt, so my belief is that most people, once truly informed about the way meat gets to their plates and assuming they care about other sentient beings, would lose their lunch at the sight of cut up dead animals.

How many of you claim to love animals? How many have pets you love and pamper and consider members of the family? Would you be willing to have your pet treated the way OTHER sentient beings are on factory farms? Would you let your pet be inhumanely slaughtered? Are you willing to butcher and cook and eat your pet? If not, you have some serious reflection to do. You simply CANNOT call yourself an animal lover if you're participating in the abuse that defines factory farming. So either admit what you are--a hypocrite--just like I did back in '88, or stop calling yourself animal lovers. You can't have it both ways.

[GreyGeek]

Re: Politics: How do they affect your personal life?

I'd like to point out that we are the only country on the list that has food available everywhere 24 hrs a day in virtually every city and it's available cheaply and very quickly. .....

That's probably because we are the only country which, back in the 1950s when our Congress was debating how long fossil fuels would last us, took the advice of a LAWYER named Zap who said that we would find ALL the oil that would would ever need when we need it, for the foreseeable future. They rejected the counsel of PhD geologist M. King Hubbert, who stated that the US would peak in oil product in 1970 and the world would peak around 2005-2010. They set the price of oil subsidies to maintain a price per barrel of less than $10. It rose to $4.75/barrel in 1973. As a result of the Arab oil embargo it jumped to $9.35/barrel in 1974. It has been rising steadily every since, reaching $87/barrel in 2011. It was briefly higher in 2008. With that decision by Congress the migration from the core of towns to the suburbs went into high gear. Right now it is impossible in most cities and towns in America to have a job without owning a car. When I was a kid you could set your watch with the tramway bus arrivals and departures. Now, a trip of three miles in a bus can take more than an hour because there are so few running and they have huge routes to cover. Even then, I frequently see buses drive by which are empty, and the bus driver doesn't even stop at pickup points because no one is there. Yet, our city subsidizes buses with $7M per year. If they sold the 40 passenger buses and replace each of them with two or three 12 passenger vans which ran smaller routes more frequently and more reliably, they might take back the "drive to work crowd".

The fuel prices also determined the housing industry models as well. The homes in suburbia became single level, uninsulated rambling ranch houses. Only within the last ten or fifteen years have they gone vertical with good insulation and fuel efficient furnaces and appliances. A day late and a dollar short. The model around the world has been and is for citizens to live in vertical buildings within walking distance to their jobs. Many, if not most, do not own cars or have a drivers license. The autobahn in Germany was built by Hitler to carry tanks and heavy military equipment quickly around the country, which is why it is holding up so well. As a summer job I helped build the US Interstate highway around Kearney, Nebraska. It was supposed to last for 50 years. Corruption kept the Calcium content too low, despite government "checks", and twenty years later the fractured and broken concrete was covered over with asphalt. Now, twenty years after the last re pavement, they are redoing it.

Anyway, I remember in the late 50's paying only 15 cents a gallon for gas. With that kind of fuel price cars had no incentive to be anything but chrome plated belch-fire V8s which got 15 mpgs and carried 30 gallon fuel tanks to give them a decent range. My first car was a fastback 1949 Chevy with a slant-six engine which gave me 28mpg on the highway. As a struggling college student in 1962 I needed that economy, even if gas was less than 25 cents per gallon. As an irresponsible teenage I borrowed my dad's 1957 Plymouth with a 357 HP engine at 11:45PM, with an admonition to be back by 1:15PM when his night shift ended. I got onto the I25 Interstate ramp, which was right next to the Samsonite parking lot in South Denver, and decided to go to Colorado Springs and back. Most of the time the speedometer needle was pegged above 120mph, except when I slowed down a bit to pass through fog banks. About 140 miles and 1.5 hours later I drove into the Samsonite parking lot to pick up my dad just as he emerged from the employee entrance. "What did you do with the gas?" he asked, seeking an explanation as to why a tank which was full had less than two hours before had an 1/8th of a tank left. He assumed I had siphoned some out to give to my friends. He didn't realize that the millage indicator had accumulated an additional 140 miles. I never told him.

[ardvark71]

Re: Politics: How do they affect your personal life?

Anyway, I remember in the late 50's paying only 15 cents a gallon for gas. With that kind of fuel price cars had no incentive to be anything but chrome plated belch-fire V8s which got 15 mpgs and carried 30 gallon fuel tanks to give them a decent range.

Hi GreyGeek....

LOL!

Oh, but those were the cars though. The sound coming out the exhaust and the power were unmatched.

Hilarious, I love your description.

Regards...

[SteveRiley]

Re: Politics: How do they affect your personal life?

Congress was debating how long fossil fuels would last us, took the advice of a LAWYER named Zap who said that we would find ALL the oil that would would ever need when we need it, for the foreseeable future.

Given the deep thinking we've all illustrated in various threads the past few months, I'd encourage everyone to pick up/borrow a copy of Daniel Kahneman's Thinking, Fast and Slow. I'm 2/3 the way through it now. It's an amazing exposition on how people think, on how biases interfere with rational decision-making, and why people naturally prefer "experts" who support pre-derived conclusions. Kahneman relates numerous examples of experiments with large and small groups to support his points.

Right now it is impossible in most cities and towns in America to have a job without owning a car.

In 1995 my wife and I bought our first house, in the Grandview Heights neighborhood very close to downtown Columbus. I could take a bus or ride my bike to the headquarters building of American Electric Power, my employer at the time. In 1997, after barely driving it for two years, I sold my 1989 Mustang V-8 convertible and we became a one-car family. In 1998 we moved to Denver, where I was able to rely again on my bicycle and public transit -- the buses sported bike racks. In 2002 we moved to Seattle, and I rely purely on public transit now; the neighborhood we live in, Ballard, has bus stops everywhere. I haven't sat in the driver's seat of a car since 2007. And frankly, I don't want to, ever again.

I frequently see buses drive by which are empty

One half of the Seattle metro population lives north of downtown. One fourth lives south; one fourth lives east (west is water!). Our city council ignores these statistics, however, and decided to dedicate 40% of bus routes in the south and 40% in the east -- leaving only 20% in the north, where half the people live. Our city council is overly image-conscious, and the bus distribution closely matches a more obvious, visible statistic: race. So Jerry, I've seen the same thing in our south: huge rumbling articulated buses roaming about empty; while up here in the north we get the short buses that are too full and don't run frequently enough.

The model around the world has been and is for citizens to live in vertical buildings within walking distance to their jobs.

I got to experience this first-hand when I was spending so much time in southeast Asia. It's definitely a neat way to live, and actually gets people out of their own apartments and mingling with other humans with greater frequency.

[GreyGeek]

Re: Politics: How do they affect your personal life?

.....
I could take a bus or ride my bike to the headquarters building of American Electric Power, my employer at the time. ....

I lived 3.25 miles from the State Office Building (affectionately known as the SOB) and for a couple years rode my bike to and from work. When driving it would take me 15 minutes. After I got my leg strength up I could do the distance in 20 minutes on my bike. I rode the bike until I got hit by a truck and my foot got messed up.

In 1998 we moved to Denver, where I was able to rely again on my bicycle and public transit -- the buses sported bike racks. In 2002 we moved to Seattle, and I rely purely on public transit now; the neighborhood we live in, Ballard, has bus stops everywhere. I haven't sat in the driver's seat of a car since 2007. And frankly, I don't want to, ever again.

What part of Denver did you live in?

I was born at Porter's Hospital in South Denver and lived at 3000 So. Perl Street, Englewood, until I moved to Nebraska to go to college in 1961. I frequently rode my bike from home to the mountains via the Morrison road to hike, hunt and fish. Those two pine trees in the front yard that Google's street view shows were planted by my father when I was about 3 or 4. I have pictures of myself in the front year at 7 years old and those pine trees are about 4 to 5 feet tall. Now they are monsters.

My wife and I bought our current car in June of 2002, a Saturn SL2. Our plan was to run it through retirement until it fell apart. It now has 86,000 miles on it, has about 30K miles left on its second set of tires, and gets as much as 33mpg in town and 42mpg on the highway. When the car dies our plan is to use the bus to do shopping, etc...

I am already tired of driving, and my wife doesn't want to drive at all. I renewed my license this year, for another 6 years. It will probably be my last drivers license.

....
Our city council is overly image-conscious, and the bus distribution closely matches a more obvious, visible statistic: race....

Lincoln is a really beautiful town, and with a university that has 30,000 students and a large part of its faculty from all over the world we see people from all cultures wearing their ethnic clothing. No one gives a second glance. The rich part of town is down South of Old Chaney Road, focusing around Pine Lake Road. from 14th to 84th. A large middle class population lives on the far north side of town, North of Superior Ave. The rest live in between. The most crime laden section of town is just South of the State Capital building down to South Street.

Since the bus is subsidized by the city the council controls the routes. Most of routes are in between. Only one goes North of Superior, and part of two go South of of Old Chaney Road. Most of the rich folks drive SUVs and I have never seen a passenger on a bus at the South Pointe stop. Even then, where I live east of the airport, the buses are mostly empty. Even the poor need cars to get to work. Of course, we have the richest poor people in the world, but relative to our over all standard of living, they are poor.

[DoYouKubuntu]

Re: Politics: How do they affect your personal life?

Most of the time the speedometer needle was pegged above 120mph

I didn't know we shared a common ailment--lead foot syndrome. Granted you said you did that as an irresponsible teenager, and I kind of suspect you don't do it now. Prior to my brain surgery I routinely drove 90MPH, topping 100 when I wasn't paying attention [to the speedometer]. Post-craniotomy, I don't quite know how to explain it, but I became a little phobic about driving at all, and particularly driving really fast. I rarely drive now, and when I do I even more rarely go above 70-75. Quite a difference from before. (And, no, I never get tickets. I have this built-in 6th sense of natural radar. I can't explain it, but I just KNOW when there's a cop ahead.)

Moving on...here's what I had for dinner last night:

[img width=400 height=266]http://www.smartassproducts.com/images/blog/blogger/fajitas_two.jpg[/img]

Delicious, greasy, satisfying fajitas. Here's my recipe for anyone who's interested.

[SteveRiley]

Re: Politics: How do they affect your personal life?

What part of Denver did you live in?

I had only a very short time to find and buy a house when Microsoft relocated us. Knowing that I'd be spending a fair amount of time traveling, my primary goal was to get as close to the airport as possible. So we bought 2722 S. Salida Way in Aurora -- a distressingly boring and utterly ordinary suburb. I did a fair amount of work on that place; I have no clue why the garage door is now in such disarray. All that matters is when we sold it, I recouped all my investment in upgrades plus profit

Fortunately, we were there for only three years before Microsoft moved us again. If I had known anything about the town, and had to go back, I'd probably look in Washington Heights.

[ScottyK]

Re: Politics: How do they affect your personal life?

So we bought 2722 S. Salida Way in Aurora --

Small world, I grew up at 715 S Norfolk St, a few short miles down Buckley Rd at Mississippi Ave. Folks sold the house back in 2010 and moved here to Oklahoma. Last word is that the house in Aurora has lost an additional $30,000 in value since they sold it.

[Qqmike]

Re: Politics: How do they affect your personal life?

DYK, your fajita looks good, very appetizing!

Unfortunately, I can't eat avocados that way. (But, strangely or not, I like them coarsely chopped in guacamole with lemon, hot chile, garlic powder, and onion--makes no sense.) Some people can't eat soy (in the Boca) for various reasons, as you know. But then, there's substitutions--beans, lightly sautéed zucchini, sliced portabellas, and such.

On a more serious note ... WHERE in your very excellent recipe is the hot peppers?! Anything will do--any picante [sauce], chopped jalapenos, chopped green/red hot chiles, anything at all.