The Media's New Role . . . Obama's Parrot

It is quite amazing and notably funny that our media has literally become a "parrot" for President Obama.  I have never seen anything like it . . .



I laughed and cried all at the same time "because, it would be funny if it wasn't so crazy."

The Gods of the Copybook Headings

One of my favorite poems by Rudyard Kipling, this poem should be read and memorized by every young American. Kipling teaches that history repeats itself in the worse possible ways, and the only way to avoid terror and slaughter is to stay bound and rooted to self-evident truths. 

A little background: A copybook was a writing exercise book used to practice handwriting. The pages were blank except for horizontal rulings and a printed specimen of perfect handwriting at the top. The young man or woman was to repetitively copy the specimen down the page. The specimens were proverbs, quotations, commonplace hortatory or admonitory sayings — the ones in the poem illustrate this kind of thing. These little thoughts and principles became known as the copybook headings.

As I pass through my incarnations in every age and race,
I make my proper prostrations to the Gods of the Market Place.
Peering through reverent fingers I watch them flourish and fall,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings, I notice, outlast them all.
We were living in trees when they met us. They showed us each in turn
That Water would certainly wet us, as Fire would certainly burn:
But we found them lacking in Uplift, Vision and Breadth of Mind,
So we left them to teach the Gorillas while we followed the March of Mankind.
We moved as the Spirit listed. They never altered their pace,
Being neither cloud nor wind-borne like the Gods of the Market Place;
But they always caught up with our progress, and presently word would come
That a tribe had been wiped off its icefield, or the lights had gone out in Rome.
With the Hopes that our World is built on they were utterly out of touch,
They denied that the Moon was Stilton; they denied she was even Dutch;
They denied that Wishes were Horses; they denied that a Pig had Wings;
So we worshipped the Gods of the Market Who promised these beautiful things.
When the Cambrian measures were forming, They promised perpetual peace.
They swore, if we gave them our weapons, that the wars of the tribes would cease.
But when we disarmed They sold us and delivered us bound to our foe,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: "Stick to the Devil you know."
On the first Feminian Sandstones we were promised the Fuller Life
(Which started by loving our neighbour and ended by loving his wife)
Till our women had no more children and the men lost reason and faith,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: "The Wages of Sin is Death."
In the Carboniferous Epoch we were promised abundance for all,
By robbing selected Peter to pay for collective Paul;
But, though we had plenty of money, there was nothing our money could buy,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: "If you don't work you die."
Then the Gods of the Market tumbled, and their smooth-tongued wizards withdrew
And the hearts of the meanest were humbled and began to believe it was true
That All is not Gold that Glitters, and Two and Two make Four —
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings limped up to explain it once more.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
As it will be in the future, it was at the birth of Man —
There are only four things certain since Social Progress began: —
That the Dog returns to his Vomit and the Sow returns to her Mire,
And the burnt Fool's bandaged finger goes wabbling back to the Fire;
And that after this is accomplished, and the brave new world begins
When all men are paid for existing and no man must pay for his sins,
As surely as Water will wet us, as surely as Fire will burn,
The Gods of the Copybook Headings with terror and slaughter return!

Stock Market Crash in April?

Tom DeMark, the founder and CEO of DeMark Analytics, discovered a very scary trend found on the graph below, He joined Glenn Beck on radio this morning to discuss what the eerie pattern could mean for the United States that you can hear here.

This means that a 1929 like stock market crash might occur around April of this year. Tom DeMark has been in the investment business over the last 45 year and he stumbled upon this pattern at the end of 2013 when comparing patterns. 

What do you think?

“Well, we could have had it last week. There was a 10% chance that could happen. It probably won’t and the market will rally and we have seen the rally now,” Tom said. “There’s two scenarios currently: If the Dow Jones Average closes above 16,000 next Monday and Tuesday, then there’s a chance yes, we could go down. And it could be something comparable to 1987. We’re shifting things a little. Our two templates, 1929, 1987 are being adjusted. It’s possible that could happen.
“We have to have a trigger. The trigger would be we’d have to decline on the S&P average below 1762,” he continued. “We have been using that for some time… It’s so widely known right now, and we are a firm believer, that markets have bottomed because the last seller, figuratively speaking, has sold. We think a lot of people have sold based upon this comparison. So it may be premature right now, but it’s going to happen.”

This looks pretty spooky. Many experts feel a big crash is going to happen in the next 18 months, and Tom DeMark states that before a sharp decline, there is always a rally like we are having this week.

What We Know . . .

As we know, 

There are known knowns.

There are things we know we know.

We also know

There are known unknowns.

That is to say

We know there are some things

We do not know.

But there are also unknown unknowns.

The ones we don't know

We don't know.

Donald Rumsfeld

Low Carb Cheese Cake

My amazing wife, among her many talents, makes a wonderful low carb cheese cake.  She has taken the recipe found in Maria Emmerich's "Secret Weight Loss Recipes" and modified it to our family's taste.  It has quickly become one of my family's favorites. 

Low Carb Cheesecake = 1 gram carb per serving
Individual spring-form serving pans

Crust:

2 cups almond flour

1/4 cup coconut flour

1/2 cup butter melted

Pinch of salt

1/2 cup erythritol

Mix and press into spring-form pan.

5 (8 oz) packages cream cheese, softened

1 cup erythritol and 1 tsp liquid Stevia

1 TBS vanilla

1/2 cup whey Protein

1 cup sour cream

3 eggs

Preheat oven to 350F. Mix cream cheese, sweetener, protein and vanilla with an electric mixer

until blended. Add eggs one at a time, mixing on low after each until blended. Blend in sour

cream and pour over crust. Place a pan of water on the lower rack place cheesecake on rack

above. Bake for approximately 45 minutes until set. Watch carefully! 

Refrigerate overnight.

Freezes well too!

My wife will often bake them in individual sized pans (as in the picture above) so that I can pull one out of the freezer, let it thaw and cover it in whip cream and a sprinkle of berries.  Tastes fantastic!

One serving is = 1 gram of carbohydrate.

How Your Beard Will Save Your Life

I'm a clean shaven guy.  I always have been.

 My wife hates a "prickly faced" man and she's made that loud and clear over the last 21 years of our marriage.  No reason to grow one has ever truly availed itself.  Even during "Movember," the month of growing mustaches raising awareness for prostate cancer, I've not been all that inclined to let the stubble arise.  It has always been one of those things passed from father-to-son that, "hey, the Nally men are clean shaven." Yes, there is a cleanness and trustworthiness that arises from a man who is clean shaven and well groomed.

Beard World Champion 2013

But once in a while I've wondered, if God made men grow hair on their faces, what use does it have? Is it to keep Norelco and Gillette in business and provide jobs for a growing population of men?  Is it because the the invention of Velcro might cause men further problems?  I've been shaving my five-o'clock shadow off for years.  I'd just like to know what purpose it has.  If I lived in Alaska, I know it'd keep me warmer, but I don't live in Alaska and I don't plan on moving there any time soon. 

After 40 years of wondering, I've finally come across the answer.  While learning to be more "manly" and studying self rescue techniques of falling through the ice I came across the following:

Good advise when crossing the frozen pond or lake, and well received.  

But, THERE IT IS...in box #5.

"Your beard can also freeze onto the ice and save you."

The big daddy reason for a beard.  Wait till I tell my wife. . .