Can My Cell Phone Company Make Me Pay My Bill?

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I am the 99% Occupy Wall Street Tshirt gear

Wear Occupy Wall Street, Tshirt and gear. Get ready!
http://www.cafepress.com/politicprotest.309642925#

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Bill Maher: How would Jesus run for president?

On Friday night’s Real Time with Bill Maher, liberal talk show host Bill Maher proposed a hypothetical: What if Jesus ran for president today?

Let’s just say he thinks it probably wouldn’t turn out well.

This video is from HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher, broadcast Friday, Sept. 30, 2011.

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The Rich Get Richer, The Poor Get Poorer

Thanks to right wing policies over the last two decades, the middle class have been systematically destroyed. So the wealthiest can gain even more profit while shipping jobs out of the USA.



Tax rates on the top tax bracket:
1918 77%
1921 73%
1923 56%
1924 46%
1925 28%
1929 24%
Great Depression
1945 94%
1955 91%
1965 70%
1975 70%
1980 70%
1982 50%
1987 38%
1993 38%
2003 35%
2008 Great Recession
2011 "Effective" tax rate--17% and still declining.
2012 Great Depression II?

Similar Point of View:
http://pushedleft.blogspot.com/2010/12/rich-get-richer-poor-get-poorer-and.html

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What Has America Become?

I will dissect this article without much effort.
But primarily, it is sophomoric.

• Whites can talk about blacks all they want.
• I sat in the smog check station yesterday and bitched about blacks and whites with a black guy.
• We even ragged on Obama.

• They do nothing for the victims?
• A free attorney is provided for the victim and criminal.
• Over 200 People who have been in prison for 30 or more years, have been found innocent through independent DNA testing.
• What did the courts do for them?

• They don't teach that it is ok to be gay in school, they teach not to hate others for their differences.

• Do you know how many children Bush killed in Iraq?
• More than planned parenthood.

• We are all socialist.
• Do you get a check from the government?

• Without Mexicans, your tomatoes would cost $4 each and that's just tomatoes.
• Does anyone actually believe that Jesus would take this position?
• Not a chance.

• If you protest against Obama's policies you are a terrorist?
• This guy, and most "christian" conservatives, have a short memory.
• It was the Bush administrations that said "if you are not with us you are with the enemy."
• I think Rumsfield said it but the administration repeated it for years.

I'll skip the nativity comparison.
This guy didn't graduate high school, I'm sure of that.

*He's comparing Katrina to the Gulf Oil Spill.
Are you kidding?

Finally, "What happened to the land of the free and the home of the brave?"

Am I free to be who I want to be?
Mexican, gay, christian, democrat, republican, Independent?
Yes, I'm in America, not some third world country.

Is this the land of the brave?
Do all of our troops vote the same? Are they all one religion?
No. Are they still brave? Hell yes!

Does it take gut to go against the establishment and fight for those who have little or no rights?
Always. Both sides of these arguments are brave to some degree.
And both are right to some degree as well.
The world works because of balanced ideologies, not one sided dogma.
The difference between me nd most people I know, is that I lived with black people, I know gay people and so I have less false concepts of them.

Right or wrong, they are people and Jesus loves them all equally, without hesitation. If he were here right now, he would have a long heartfelt talk with the author of this editorial about compassion and love.

And remind him that he was tortured and died on the cross so that this guy would have to freedom to chose.

-Dennis M. Sweatt
http://twitter.com/sweattshop
http://www.facebook.com/dennis.sweatt1
http://sweattshop-graphic-artist.blogspot.com/p/logos.html

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141 Reasons Sugar Ruins Your Health

By Nancy Appleton PhD & G.N. Jacobs

Excerpted from Suicide by Sugar

Used with permission

1. Sugar can suppress your immune system.
2. Sugar upsets the mineral relationships in the body.
3. Sugar can cause juvenile delinquency in children.
4. Sugar eaten during pregnancy and lactation can influence muscle force production in offspring, which can affect an individual’s ability to exercise.
5. Sugar in soda, when consumed by children, results in the children drinking less milk.
6. Sugar can elevate glucose and insulin responses and return them to fasting levels slower in oral contraceptive users.
7. Sugar can increase reactive oxygen species (ROS), which can damage cells and tissues.
8. Sugar can cause hyperactivity, anxiety, inability to concentrate and crankiness in children.
9. Sugar can produce a significant rise in triglycerides.

10.  Sugar reduces the body’s ability to defend against bacterial infection.

11.  Sugar causes a decline in tissue elasticity and function – the more sugar you eat, the more elasticity and function you lose.

12.  Sugar reduces high-density lipoproteins (HDL).

13.  Sugar can lead to chromium deficiency.

14.  Sugar can lead to ovarian cancer.

15.  Sugar can increase fasting levels of glucose.

16.  Sugar causes copper deficiency.

17.  Sugar interferes with the body’s absorption of calcium and magnesium.

18.  Sugar may make eyes more vulnerable to age-related macular degeneration.

19.  Sugar raises the level of neurotransmitters: dopamine, serotonin, and norepinephrine.

20.  Sugar can cause hypoglycemia.

21.  Sugar can lead to an acidic digestive tract.

22.  Sugar can cause a rapid rise of adrenaline levels in children.

23.  Sugar is frequently malabsorbed in patients with functional bowel disease.

24.  Sugar can cause premature aging.

25.  Sugar can lead to alcoholism.

26.  Sugar can cause tooth decay.

27.  Sugar can lead to obesity.

28.  Sugar increases the risk of Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis.

29.  Sugar can cause gastric or duodenal ulcers.

30.  Sugar can cause arthritis.

31.  Sugar can cause learning disorders in school children.

32.  Sugar assists the uncontrolled growth of Candida Albicans (yeast infections).

33.  Sugar can cause gallstones.

34.  Sugar can cause heart disease.

35.  Sugar can cause appendicitis.

36.  Sugar can cause hemorrhoids.

37.  Sugar can cause varicose veins.

38.  Sugar can lead to periodontal disease.

39.  Sugar can contribute to osteoporosis.

40.  Sugar contributes to saliva acidity.

41.  Sugar can cause a decrease in insulin sensitivity.

42.  Sugar can lower the amount of Vitamin E in the blood.

43.  Sugar can decrease the amount of growth hormones in the body.

44.  Sugar can increase cholesterol.

45.  Sugar increases advanced glycation end products (AGEs), which form when sugar binds non-enzymatically to protein.

46.  Sugar can interfere with the absorption of protein.

47.  Sugar causes food allergies.

48.  Sugar can contribute to diabetes.

49.  Sugar can cause toxemia during pregnancy.

50.  Sugar can lead to eczema in children.

51.  Sugar can cause cardiovascular disease.

52.  Sugar can impair the structure of DNA.

53.  Sugar can change the structure of protein.

54.  Sugar can make the skin wrinkle by changing the structure of collagen.

55.  Sugar can cause cataracts.

56.  Sugar can cause emphysema.

57.  Sugar can cause atherosclerosis.

58.  Sugar can promote an elevation of low-density lipoproteins (LDL).

59.  Sugar can impair the physiological homeostasis of many systems in the body.

60.  Sugar lowers enzymes ability to function.

61.  Sugar intake is associated with the development of Parkinson’s disease.

62.  Sugar can increase the size of the liver by making the liver cells divide.

63.  Sugar can increase the amount of liver fat.

64.  Sugar can increase kidney size and produce pathological changes in the kidney.

65.  Sugar can damage the pancreas.

66.  Sugar can increase the body’s fluid retention.

67.  Sugar is the number one enemy of the bowel movement.

68.  Sugar can cause myopia (nearsightedness).

69.  Sugar can compromise the lining of the capillaries.

70.  Sugar can make tendons more brittle.

71.  Sugar can cause headaches, including migraines.

72.  Sugar plays a role in pancreatic cancer in women.

73.  Sugar can adversely affect children’s grades in school.

74.  Sugar can cause depression.

75.  Sugar increases the risk of gastric cancer.

76.  Sugar can cause dyspepsia (indigestion).

77.  Sugar can increase the risk of developing gout.

78.  Sugar can increase the levels of glucose in the blood much higher than complex carbohydrates in a glucose tolerance test can.

79.  Sugar reduces learning capacity.

80.  Sugar can cause two blood proteins – albumin and lipoproteins – to function less effectively, which may reduce the body’s ability to handle fat and cholesterol.

81.  Sugar can contribute to Alzheimer’s disease.

82.  Sugar can cause platelet adhesiveness, which causes blood clots.

83.  Sugar can cause hormonal imbalance – some hormones become underactive and others become overactive.

84.  Sugar can lead to the formation of kidney stones.

85.  Sugar can cause free radicals and oxidative stress.

86.  Sugar can lead to biliary tract cancer.

87.  Sugar increases the risk of pregnant adolescents delivering a small-for-gestational-age (SGA) infant.

88.  Sugar can lead to a substantial decrease the in the length of pregnancy among adolescents.

89.  Sugar slows food’s travel time through the gastrointestinal tract.

90.  Sugar increases the concentration of bile acids in stool and bacterial enzymes in the colon, which can modify bile to produce cancer-causing compounds and colon cancer.

91.  Sugar increases estradiol (the most potent form of naturally occurring estrogen) in men.

92.  Sugar combines with and destroys phosphatase, a digestive enzyme, which makes digestion more difficult.

93.  Sugar can be a risk factor for gallbladder cancer.

94.  Sugar is an addictive substance.

95.  Sugar can be intoxicating, similar to alcohol.

96.  Sugar can aggravate premenstrual syndrome (PMS).

97.  Sugar can decrease emotional stability.

98.  Sugar promotes excessive food intake in obese people.

99.  Sugar can worsen the symptoms of children with attention deficit disorder (ADD).

1. Sugar can slow the ability of the adrenal glands to function.
2. Sugar can cut off oxygen to the brain when given to people intravenously.
3. Sugar is a risk factor for lung cancer.
4. Sugar increases the risk of polio.
5. Sugar can cause epileptic seizures.
6. Sugar can increase systolic blood pressure (pressure when the heart is contracting).
7. Sugar can induce cell death.
8. Sugar can increase the amount of food that you eat.
9. Sugar can cause antisocial behavior in juvenile delinquents.
10. Sugar can lead to prostate cancer.
11. Sugar dehydrates newborns.
12. Sugar can cause women to give birth to babies with low birth weight.
13. Sugar is associated with a worse outcome of schizophrenia.
14. Sugar can raise homocysteine levels in the bloodstream.
15. Sugar increases the risk of breast cancer.
16. Sugar is a risk factor in small intestine cancer.
17. Sugar can cause laryngeal cancer.
18. Sugar induces salt and water retention.
19. Sugar can contribute to mild memory loss.
20. Sugar water, when given to children shortly after birth, results in those children preferring sugar water to regular water throughout childhood.
21. Sugar causes constipation.
22. Sugar can cause brain decay in pre-diabetic and diabetic women.
23. Sugar can increase the risk of stomach cancer.
24. Sugar can cause metabolic syndrome.
25. Sugar increases neural tube defects in embryos when it is consumed by pregnant women.
26. Sugar can cause asthma.
27. Sugar increases the chances of getting irritable bowl syndrome.
28. Sugar can affect central reward systems.
29. Sugar can cause cancer of the rectum.
30. Sugar can cause endometrial cancer.
31. Sugar can cause renal (kidney) cell cancer.
32. Sugar can cause liver tumors.
33. Sugar can increase inflammatory markers in the bloodstreams of overweight people.
34. Sugar plays a role in the cause and the continuation of acne.
35. Sugar can ruin the sex life of both men and women by turning off the gene that controls the sex hormones.
36. Sugar can cause fatigue, moodiness, nervousness, and depression.
37. Sugar can make many essential nutrients less available to cells.
38. Sugar can increase uric acid in blood.
39. Sugar can lead to higher C-peptide concentrations.
40. Sugar causes inflammation.
41. Sugar can cause diverticulitis, a small bulging sac pushing outward from the colon wall that is inflamed.
42. Sugar can decrease testosterone production.
43. Sugar impairs spatial memory.
44. Sugar can cause cataracts. 

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I Want To Be A Morning Person But I Can't Sleep

8 Steps to a Better Nights sleep

Usually if you are having trouble getting out of bed, it may be the problems you have getting into bed. The body is on a cycle, going to bed after midnight effects that cycle no matter what age you are.


1. Eating before bed keeps your stomach and metabolism working and interferes with deep, healing sleep.

2. You must realize that if you want to make changes in your life you have to remove the phrase "I can't help it." There is no such thing. The ego makes up that phrase early in our life to make for not understanding how to change. Now you are a grown up.

3. You cannot fix problems or schedule the next in bed, in your head and expect a good nights sleep. As a matter of fact, you will inhibit your ability top recall dates and times by putting unnecessary stress on your body and mind just before you go into the most healing part of your day.


4. Stop eating after 8pm. You do not need anymore food to survive the night than the 3 or 4 meals you have already had. Nightmares are caused by late night eating. Your dreams turned into horrors because you are digesting in bed.

5. If you find your mind habitually drifting into problem solving and scheduling, interrupt that thinking with a list of good things in your life. This works.

6. Catch yourself during the day if you say or think, "I'm tired of ___." I'm tired of being fat, I'm tired of being late, etc. Stop feeding your mind junk food that has no emotional value.

7. You can tell yourself when to wake up in the morning, just before you go to sleep. My father taught me this and he learned it in Viet Nam. After you close your eyes, repeat the time you want to wake in the morning. "I will wake up at 7:30am, I will wake up at 7:3o in the morning, I will be up at 7:30. And you will.

8. When you get under the covers, try breathing The 8's. Breath in for 8 seconds, hold it for 8 seconds, breath out for eight seconds. Calms the mind and gives more oxygen to your brain.

A few hours after the sun goes down is when Melatonin starts to produce in your brain. It is time for bed. Go to bed, lay there and get used to being in the bed at that time. Tell yourself during the day you will be in bed by 10pm. And soon you will.

Do not expect these steps to a better nights sleep to work overnight. Realize, this will take time and eventually you will change your current habits. That is really all we are doing is changing a habit into a better one. Not changing your life. That can take decades.

Average sleep needed by humans.

Newborns (0-2 months) = 12 to 18 Hours

Infants (3 months to 1 year) = 14 to 15 Hours

Toddlers (1 to 3 years) = 12 to 14 Hours

Preschoolers (3 to 5 years) = 11 to 13 Hours

School-aged children (5 to 12 years) = 10 to 11 Hours

Teens and preteens (12 to 18 years) = 8.5 to 10 Hours

Adults (18+) = 7.5 to 9 Hours

Raise taxes now!

Taxes haven't been this low since 1958.
Reagan raised taxes in a recession, that's how he got out of it.
The middle class have seen wages lowered for ten years, even more this month. The rich are wealthier than they have ever been.
Most commodity traders don't pay taxes because of a loop hole among thousands of loopholes for the wealthy. If Bush's tax policy created jobs, where are they?
Raise taxes now!

Raise taxes now -- the elders of the economy say so

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- First it was Greenspan. Now one by one, other elders of the economy are speaking out against deficits, and they're making the surprising argument for higher taxes.

Former Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan was first and has taken the most extreme position, arguing that all of the Bush tax cuts of 2001 and 2003 should be allowed to expire.

Greenspan, no fan of big government and an initial backer of the Bush tax cuts, allows that higher taxes now could lead to slower economic growth, but has said that chipping away at the deficit is more important.

Joining him -- at varying degrees -- are David Stockman, former budget director in the Reagan White House, and former Treasury Secretaries Robert Rubin and Paul O'Neill.

The White House and most Democrats have argued for keeping the tax cuts in place for most households, but letting them expire for those earning more than $250,000, about 2% of the country.

Extending the tax cuts for everyone would cost the government $3.7 trillion over 10 years. Taxing the high-earners would get back about $700 billion of that.

David Stockman joins Greenspan at the far end, saying the nation can't afford to extend the tax cuts now. "You have to pay your bills. I say we can't afford the Bush tax cuts," Stockman told NPR this weekend.

http://money.cnn.com/2010/08/09/news/economy/elders_economy/index.htm

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Can Americans cut Carbs from their Diet

Many people are still seriously confused about what types of food to eat to lose weight, and it's not really their fault. The conventional nutritional dogma of the last decade has been pushing a low-fat or fat-free diet on Americans, misleading them into thinking they've got to cut out fat to lose weight.

As Americans cut fats from their diet (and also the protein that's often abundant in full-fat foods), they replaced them with carbohydrates -- and not the good kind in vegetables. Partly as a result of Americans' reliance on unhealthy carbs -- bagels, pasta, pretzels, rice, potatoes, etc. -- a full two-thirds of the U.S. population is overweight or obese, and nearly one in four is considered obese, not just overweight.

The idea that cutting carbs from your diet can lead to weight loss is beginning to catch on though, and as the new study above points out, even moderate reductions in your carb consumption can help you shed extra pounds.

Cutting Carbs, Not Fat, Helps Reduce Body Fat

Researchers from the University of Alabama at Birmingham revealed that when 69 overweight people were given a diet with a modest reduction in carbohydrates for eight weeks, they had 11 percent less deep abdominal fat than those given a lower-fat diet. Further, during a second eight-week period in which calories were reduced by 1,000 each day, those on the lower-carb diet lost 4 percent more total body fat.

An important point is that the reduced-carb diet promoted the loss of deep belly fat, also known as "visceral fat," even when no change in weight was apparent.

Visceral fat is strongly linked with type 2 diabetes, heart disease, stroke, and other chronic diseases. It is thought that visceral fat is related to the release of proteins and hormones that can cause inflammation, which in turn can damage arteries and enter your liver, affecting how your body breaks down sugars and fats.

While it's often referred to as "belly fat" because it can cause a "beer belly" or an apple-shaped body, you can have visceral fat even if you're thin. So even if you aren't trying to lose weight, cutting unhealthy carbs in your diet could have a positive impact on your levels of visceral fat, and thereby potentially reduce your risk of chronic disease.

Fructose: The Biggest Carb Culprit

People on low-carb diets lose weight in part because they get less fructose, a type of sugar that can be made into body fat quickly. Although fructose is naturally found in high levels in fruit, it is also added to many processed foods, especially in the form of high-fructose corn syrup. If your only source of fructose came from eating an apple or orange a day, keeping your total grams of fructose to below 25 per day, then it would not be an issue.

But what many completely fail to appreciate is that fructose is the NUMBER ONE source of calories in the United States and the typical person is consuming 75 grams of fructose each and every day. Because fructose is so cheap it is used in virtually all processed foods. The average person is consuming one-third of a pound of sugar every day, which is five ounces or 150 grams, half of which is fructose. This is 300 percent more than the amount that will trigger biochemical havoc, and this is the average -- many consume more than twice that amount.

Evidence is mounting that excess sugar, and fructose in particular, is the primary factor in the obesity epidemic, so it's definitely a food you want to avoid if you want to lose weight. Does this mean you need to avoid fruit too? As you can see in this table, some fruits are very high in fructose, so munching indiscriminately on the wrong ones could set you back.

Fruit Serving Size Grams of Fructose Limes 1 medium 0 Lemons 1 medium 0.6 Cranberries 1 cup 0.7 Passion fruit 1 medium 0.9 Prune 1 medium 1.2 Apricot 1 medium 1.3 Guava 2 medium 2.2 Date (Deglet Noor style) 1 medium 2.6 Cantaloupe 1/8 of med. melon 2.8 Raspberries 1 cup 3.0 Clementine 1 medium 3.4 Kiwifruit 1 medium 3.4 Blackberries 1 cup 3.5 Star fruit 1 medium 3.6 Cherries, sweet 10 3.8 Strawberries 1 cup 3.8 Cherries, sour 1 cup 4.0 Pineapple 1 slice (3.5" x .75") 4.0 Grapefruit, pink or red 1/2 medium 4.3

Fruit Serving Size Grams of Fructose Boysenberries 1 cup 4.6 Tangerine/mandarin orange 1 medium 4.8 Nectarine 1 medium 5.4 Peach 1 medium 5.9 Orange (navel) 1 medium 6.1 Papaya 1/2 medium 6.3 Honeydew 1/8 of med. melon 6.7 Banana 1 medium 7.1 Blueberries 1 cup 7.4 Date (Medjool) 1 medium 7.7 Apple (composite) 1 medium 9.5 Persimmon 1 medium 10.6 Watermelon 1/16 med. melon 11.3 Pear 1 medium 11.8 Raisins 1/4 cup 12.3 Grapes, seedless (green or red) 1 cup 12.4 Mango 1/2 medium 16.2 Apricots, dried 1 cup 16.4 Figs, dried 1 cup 23.0

If you struggle with insulin resistance, which you would know by measuring your fasting insulin level and seeing if it is over 5 OR if you have any of the following conditions, you'll need to be particularly careful about limiting your fructose intake to 15 grams per day or less.

• Overweight
• Diabetes
• High blood pressure
• High cholesterol

These "Healthful" Carbs Should be Avoided Too

Many dieters snack on pretzels in lieu of potato chips and other salty snacks, believing them to be healthier alternatives. But eating pretzels is akin to dipping a spoon straight into a bowl of sugar, as that's precisely the way your body responds to this refined carbohydrate snack.

Don't be fooled by the fact that they're "fat-free" – remember it's the carbs that are the culprit.

Your body prefers the carbohydrates in vegetables rather than grains because it slows the conversion to simple sugars like glucose, and decreases your insulin level. Grain carbohydrates, like those in pretzels, will increase your insulin resistance and interfere with your ability to burn fat -- which is the last thing you want if you're trying to lose weight.

Even cereals, whether high-fiber, whole-grain or not, are not a food you want to eat if you're concerned about your weight. If they contain sugar, that will tend to increase your insulin levels even more … but even "healthy" sugarless cereals are an oxymoron, since grains rapidly break down to sugar in your body, stimulating insulin production and encouraging weight gain.

Of course, increasing numbers of people are now aware that refined carbs like white sugar and white bread may make you pack on the pounds. But many are still being misled that "good" carbs like whole grains and fruit won't. Remember, whether it's a whole grain, a sprouted grain or a refined grain, ALL grains rapidly break down to sugar, which causes your insulin resistance to increase and will make your weight problems worse.

This is NOT the case with vegetables, however. Vegetables will NOT convert into sugar the way grains do, and most Americans need to eat far more vegetables. Eating carbs in the form of vegetables may make your carb intake higher, but will not be a hindrance to your health goals. One caveat, corn and potatoes do not count as vegetables; they act much more like grains as far as your body is concerned.

So What Should You Eat to Lose Weight?

Many people resist the idea of cutting grain and sugar from their diets, wondering what else there is to eat if they avoid bread, potatoes, pizza, baked goods and other unhealthy carbs.

The truth is, there is a wonderful variety of delicious foods available that are not processed, full of fructose or based on refined white sugar and flour. I've outlined many of them in my comprehensive nutrition plan, and this is the place I recommend you start if you want to tweak your diet to lose weight or just become healthier.

This program will take you from the beginner stage through intermediate and advanced, allowing you to make healthy changes to your diet and lifestyle one step at a time, at a pace that feels comfortable to you.

My program comes from decades of experience in which I have researched extensively, conferred with my professional colleagues, and most importantly, successfully treated tens of thousands of patients. Many are struggling with weight issues, but I am certain that if you adhere to the recommendations in my program, you will reach your weight loss goals.

Again, the details are outlined in my nutrition plan, but generally speaking a "healthy diet" is qualified by the following key factors:

• Unprocessed whole foods
• Often raw or only lightly cooked
• Organic or grass-fed, and free from additives and genetically modified ingredients
• Come from high-quality, local sources
• Carbohydrates primarily come from vegetables (except for corn or potatoes)

To round out your weight loss program, you'll also need to have an effective exercise regimen, and for this intensity is key. High-intensity, burst-type exercises such as Peak 8 can significantly cut down on the amount of time you have to spend exercising, while optimizing your ability to burn body fat. Full instructions on how to properly perform these exercises can be found in this previous article.

 http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2011/07/08/cut-down-on-carbs-to-reduce-body-fat.aspx