Wheat Belly Diet: Quick & Dirty-2 | By Dr. William Davis

Good morning Facebook friends, relatives and fellow grain/sugar-free folks!

Haven’t checked in for awhile to post a progress/update.

May was a frustrating month for me having broken one barrier earlier in the month by dropping below 230. Just seemed I was yo-yo-ing all month.

But in recent days I really ratcheted up my protein intake and experienced a good speed up in metabolism and weight loss.

I began, as some of my Facebook followers know, at about 280 (279.9 to be more precise) in late August 2015 after watching a repeat (his original was from 2012 I believe) of Dr. Davis’ on his PBS pledge-week special. I was not familiar with the detox approach, but rather devised my own plan based on his “Quick & Dirty Part 2” outline.

At first, I simply eliminated toast and cereal and orange juice as my normal breakfast and switched to bacon and eggs or omelettes and green tea.

I did that for a week or so and at about the same time, if we were out to eat, I ordered sandwiches either with no bun or bread. I was thrilled with how easy that was and how well I felt doing it.

And I was amazed how fast my ankles and facial edema and inflammation melted away. Soon enough the actually pounds/weight-loss followed. I initial goal was to lose the 70 of the 279.9 and crack the 210 barrier in 12 months.

By the end of October I accepted a Facebook page/group challenge to take a walk everyday of November – rain – shine – snow – whatever. I did it and can count on one hand the number of days I’ve missed since then.
Seriously.
Outdoors.
Indoors on my treadmill or at our high school or at a mall.

I began feeling (and looking if I do say so myself) terrific! Now, enough of all that.

This morning, the last day of May 2016, the scales read 222.7! —- 57.2 pounds!

12.8 pounds from my goal weight of 209.9!

And there’s 91 days to go until the end of August to accomplish just that!

Read More:

Wheat Belly: Quick & Dirty 2

By Dr. William Davis, cardiologist

Wheat Belly: Quick & Dirty 2 | Dr. William Davis

The Official Wheat Belly Blog

https://www.facebook.com/OfficialWheatBelly/?fref=nf

Grain/Sugar-Free and Wheat Belly support group

(based in Michigan and created & moderated by my friend Bonnie Jean Peavy and filled with great discussions, tips and recipes)

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1011979952157048/

 

 

“Legislature Must Stop Raiding School Aid Fund” – from the Fix the mitten blog

Agree on all this. I’d further make the argument that since Proposal A, there are no specific revenue streams earmarked solely for K-12. Simply because those streams dump into the SAF does not negate the fact that those streams, since they replaced previous revenue streams earmarked solely for K-12, remain set asides and may not be appropriated for higher ed, pensions and certainly not community colleges. Why on earth the MASB, MASBO, MASA, MEA, AFT, SEIU and so forth haven’t long ago filed a lawsuit to ensure that happens is beyond me.

Read the full blog post here: Legislature Must Stop Raiding School Aid Fund – Fix the mitten

Whom Will We Honor Memorial Day? | HowardZinn.org

A column Howard Zinn wrote for Memorial Day 1976. His column was cancelled directly afterwards.

 

Whom Will We Honor Memorial Day?

 Posted on June 2, 1976 by Howard Zinn Website

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Memorial Day will be celebrated … by the usual betrayal of the dead, by the hypocritical patriotism of the politicians and contractors preparing for more wars, more graves to receive more flowers on future Memorial Days. The memory of the dead deserves a different dedication. To peace, to defiance of governments.

In 1974, I was invited by Tom Winship, the editor of the Boston Globe, who had been bold enough in 1971 to print part of the top secret Pentagon Papers on the history of the Vietnam War, to write a bi-weekly column for the op-ed page of the newspaper. I did that for about a year and a half. The column below appeared June 2, 1976, in connection with that year’s Memorial Day. After it appeared, my column was canceled.

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Memorial Day will be celebrated as usual, by high-speed collisions of automobiles and bodies strewn on highways and the sound of ambulance sirens throughout the land.

It will also be celebrated by the display of flags, the sound of bugles and drums, by parades and speeches and unthinking applause.

It will be celebrated by giant corporations, which make guns, bombs, fighter planes, aircraft carriers and an endless assortment of military junk and which await the $100 billion in contracts to be approved soon by Congress and the President.

There was a young woman in New Hampshire who refused to allow her husband, killed in Vietnam, to be given a military burial. She rejected the hollow ceremony ordered by those who sent him and 50,000 others to their deaths. Her courage should be cherished on Memorial Day. There were the B52 pilots who refused to fly those last vicious raids of Nixon’s and Kissinger’s war. Have any of the great universities, so quick to give honorary degrees to God-knows-whom, thought to honor those men at this Commencement time, on this Memorial Day?

No politician who voted funds for war, no business contractor for the military, no general who ordered young men into battle, no FBI man who spied on anti-war activities, should be invited to public ceremonies on this sacred day. Let the dead of past wars he honored. Let those who live pledge themselves never to embark on mass slaughter again.

“The shell had his number on it. The blood ran into the ground…Where his chest ought to have been they pinned the Congressional Medal, the DSC, the Medaille Militaire, the Belgian Croix de Guerre, the Italian gold medal, The Vitutea Militara sent by Queen Marie of Rumania. All the Washingtonians brought flowers .. Woodrow Wilson brought a bouquet of poppies.”

Those are the concluding lines of John Dos Passos angry novel 1919. Let us honor him on Memorial Day.

And also Thoreau, who went to jail to protest the Mexican War.

And Mark Twain, who denounced our war against the Filipinos at the turn of the century.

And I.F. Stone, who virtually alone among newspaper editors exposed the fraud and brutality of the Korean War.

Let us honor Martin Luther King, who refused the enticements of the White House, and the cautions of associates, and thundered against the war in Vietnam.

Memorial Day should be a day for putting flowers on graves and planting trees. Also, for destroying the weapons of death that endanger us more than they protect us, that waste our resources and threaten our children and grandchildren.

On Memorial Day we should take note that, in the name of “defense,” our taxes have been used to spend a quarter of a billion dollars on a helicopter assault ship called “the biggest floating lemon,” which was accepted by the Navy although it had over 2,000 major defects at the time of its trial cruise.

Meanwhile, there is such a shortage of housing that millions live in dilapidated sections of our cities and millions more are forced to pay high rents or high interest rates on their mortgages. There’s 90 billion for the B1 bomber, but people don’t have money to pay hospital bills.

We must be practical, say those whose practicality has consisted of a war every generation. We mustn’t deplete our defenses. Say those who have depleted our youth, stolen our resources. In the end, it is living people, not corpses, creative energy, not destructive rage, which are our only real defense, not just against other governments trying to kill us, but against our own, also trying to kill us.

Let us not set out, this Memorial Day, on the same old drunken ride to death.

Published by the Boston Globe  • June 2, 1976

Republished at Common Dreams

Source: Whom Will We Honor Memorial Day? | HowardZinn.org

Florida LLC makes contribution to super PAC after receiving Ex-Im loan | OpenSecrets Blog

A super PAC based in Alexandria, Va. first caught scrutiny months ago when it received a mysterious contribution from a Florida-based limited liability company. In November, the company, Evermarine LLC, had given $100,000 to Conservatives for Effective Government — by far the group’s largest contribution, but which it forwarded on within 48 hours to the super PAC supporting Sen. Marco Rubio‘s presidential run. The double contribution seemed fishy to some. The donor says it was a mistake. But what went unreported about the luxury yacht vendor run by Florida businessman Lou Sola was that it arranged a large infusion of cash from the federal government less than two months before making its $100,000 political contribution, … read more…

Source: Florida LLC makes contribution to super PAC after receiving Ex-Im loan | OpenSecrets Blog

They Tilt Right, but Top C.E.O.s Don’t Give to Trump – from The New York Times

An analysis of political donation from chief executives shows broad support for Republican candidates. Except for the presumptive nominee.

The C-suite leans right. Republican candidates have drawn overwhelming support from the highest-paid chief executives in the country this election cycle, according to an analysis by the Center for Responsive Politics conducted for The New York Times. That may not be so surprising, given the Republicans’ reputation as the party of business. But none of the people on this year’s highest-paid list contributed to the campaign of Donald J. Trump, a fellow businessman and the presumptive Republican presidential nominee. Their unwillingness to support Mr. Trump, at least so far, is a further indication that the party’s new standard-bearer is struggling to connect with some of its most … read more

Source: They Tilt Right, but Top C.E.O.s Don’t Give to Trump – The New York Times

New tax forms show strong ties between pro-Rubio group and campaign | OpenSecrets Blog

With the 2016 election cycle bringing previously unmatched amounts of “dark money” spending by politically active nonprofits, one group stands out for blazing its own trail: Conservative Solutions Project, the 501(c)(4) social welfare organization supporting Sen. Marco Rubio’s (R-Fla.) aborted presidential campaign.

In an election cycle that saw an influx of single-candidate dark money groups, most have chosen to spend on opposition research and polling, so far, rather than joining the scrum with millions of dollars of supportive advertisements. But CSP spent millions on ads and mailers that were never reported to the FEC, using funds from donors whose identities will remain hidden.

New tax documents obtained by the Center for Responsive Politics show that within weeks of Rubio throwing his hat in the ring on April 13, 2015, the nonprofit had raised $13.8 million — $13.5 million of which came from a single, unnamed donor. And most of the money that went out the door went to firms and consultants running the group or to other agencies closely linked to Rubio and his campaign.

Click here to read the full article…

Source: New tax forms show strong ties between pro-Rubio group and campaign | OpenSecrets Blog

From the CURMUDGUCATION blog: ESSA = Regulatory Baloney

ESSA: Regulatory Baloney Posted by Peter Greene: 28 May 2016 10:35 AM PDT Legislators write and pass laws. But the laws they create are sometimes vague and sometimes contradictory, a weird quilt of intentions and tissue. So it falls to other parts of the government to turn laws into regulations. And that’s where we are now with the Every Student Succeeds Act (the latest version of the Big Bunch O’Federal Education Laws, the sequel to No Child Left Behind). Many eyes (not all eyes, unfortunately– it would be great if all eyes were paying attention, but eyes have been diverted by the dumpster fires that are our primary season, among other things) have been watching John King and the Department of Education, because it’s at this stage of the game that King gets to “interpret” ESSA to suit his own ideas of what it ought to say. This is what Arne Duncan was talking about last December when he told Politico that the USED lawyers were smarter than the members of Congress, and this is what Lamar Alexander has been talking about in his scorching calls to war against John King’s USED . Alexander has been crystal clear– if King tries to turn himself into America’s School Superintendent, Alexander is going to come after the secretary with every garden tool in the Congressional woodshed.

Read the full blog post here: CURMUDGUCATION: ESSA: Regulatory Baloney

Spring Build-Up and Inspections

My Adventures in Beekeeping

Wednesday night Anne Marie Fauvel, beekeeper and educator from Grand Valley State University, spoke to the Kalamazoo Bee Club about spring her spring to-do list. Below is an overview of the information covered. This was originally written for the Kalamazoo Bee Club’s blog.

This time of year new beekeepers are always anxious to get into their hives, but aren’t entirely sure what they should be doing or looking for. Anne’s presentation covered two important components for this time of year: why a spring build-up is important and what to look for during spring hive inspections.

Spring Build-Up

One important notion to keep in mind, is that peak nectar flow is in July and if you want a maximum amount of healthy foragers in your hive, you need to start thinking about build-up now. Consider that the queen is busy laying eggs now and these eggs will take about 21 days to hatch…

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Mississippi: Legislators Strike Back at Superintendents for Seeking More Funding

Mississippi lawmakers punished the state’s superintendents by defunding their association. This was in retaliation for the superintendents support for Initiative 42, a referendum calling upon the legislature to fund the schools adequately.

Mississippi has extreme poverty, and Schools that are underfunded. Imagine the nerve of those superintendents, sticking up for the children!

“The move creates an uncertain future for what has traditionally been Mississippi’s most powerful school lobbying group. The long-term power of the association was already in question after lawmakers voted this year to make all superintendents appointive. Traditionally, the elected members of the association, especially those in the state’s largest school districts, have wielded the most political power.

“Initiative 42 would have amended the state Constitution to require the state to provide “an adequate and efficient system of free public schools.” Supporters said it would have blocked lawmakers from being able to spend less than the amount required by Mississippi’s school funding formula, and would have allowed people to sue the state to seek additional money for schools.

“Gov. Phil Bryant and legislative leaders opposed the measure because it could have limited legislative power and transferred some power to judges. They warned that it could have led to budget cuts to other state agencies. Lawmakers placed an alternative measure on the ballot, which made it harder to pass the measure. Voters ultimately rejected any change by a 52 percent to 48 percent margin.”

Diane Ravitch's blog

Mississippi lawmakers punished the state’s superintendents by defunding their association. This was in retaliation for the superintendents support for Initiative 42, a referendum calling upon the legislature to fund the schools adequately.

Mississippi has extreme poverty, and Schools that are underfunded. Imagine the nerve of those superintendents, sticking up for the children!

“The move creates an uncertain future for what has traditionally been Mississippi’s most powerful school lobbying group. The long-term power of the association was already in question after lawmakers voted this year to make all superintendents appointive. Traditionally, the elected members of the association, especially those in the state’s largest school districts, have wielded the most political power.

“Initiative 42 would have amended the state Constitution to require the state to provide “an adequate and efficient system of free public schools.” Supporters said it would have blocked lawmakers from being able to spend less than the amount…

View original post 86 more words

Report Demonstrates that Greater Investment, Well Distributed, Raises School Achievement

Last week the Educational Testing Service published an important report, Mind the Gap: 20 Years of Progress and Retrenchment in School Funding, Staffing Resources, and Achievement Gaps, on why it is important for school districts to have sufficient funding and more specifically the ways in which funding matters most. The report’s authors are Bruce Baker, the school finance expert at Rutgers University and David Sciarra and Danielle Farrie of the Education Law Center.

The report is technical, but one is struck by its clarity and its plain good sense: “How much you spend in a labor intensive industry dictates how many individuals you can employ, the wage you can pay them, and in turn the quality of individuals you can recruit and retain. But in this modern era of resource-free school reforms, the connections between revenue, spending, and real, tangible resources are often ignored, or, worse, argued to be irrelevant… The primary resources involved in the production of schooling outcomes are human resources—or quantities and qualities of teachers, administrators, support, and other staff in schools. Quantities of school staff are reflected in pupil-to-teacher ratios and average class sizes. Reduction of class sizes or reductions of overall pupil-to-staff ratios require additional staff, thus additional money, assuming the wages and benefits for additional staff remain constant. Qualities of school staff depend in part on the compensation available to recruit and retain the staff—specifically salaries and benefits, in addition to working conditions. Notably, working conditions may be reflected in part through measures of workload, such as average class sizes, as well as the composition of the student population.”

janresseger

This blog will take a short late-spring break for the rest of the week.  Look for a new post on Tuesday, May 31.

Last week the Educational Testing Service published an important report, Mind the Gap: 20 Years of Progress and Retrenchment in School Funding, Staffing Resources, and Achievement Gaps, on why it is important for school districts to have sufficient funding and more specifically the ways in which funding matters most.  The report’s authors are Bruce Baker, the school finance expert at Rutgers University and David Sciarra and Danielle Farrie of the Education Law Center.

The report is technical, but one is struck by its clarity and its plain good sense: “How much you spend in a labor intensive industry dictates how many individuals you can employ, the wage you can pay them, and in turn the quality of individuals you can recruit and retain.  But in this…

View original post 761 more words