Is there any reason to discuss any subject seriously for the next week and a half? 

I love it that Christmas is in the middle of the week this year. It makes every thing stop. It nearly makes Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday meaningless.

Right? Tuesday is Christmas Eve. I am invited to a cousin's this year that begins their holiday at 12:00 noon on Christmas Eve in preparation of everyone else coming to the house by 3:00 PM for dinner. Then the dinner is finished and they all sit around the tree exchanging Christmas Eve gifts and singing carols while the piano plays. I mean mistletoe in the door between the living room and the rest of the house. This is the cousin that has hey rides on Halloween so all the neighbor children have a safe and fun time.

Right? To the hilt.

I sincerely believe the political dialogue in the country hurts this nation more than it helps. So, for now. Right now. I believe stepping back from the dialogue is more important than you have idea, because, a season of love should be enlightening and a time of rebirth and renewal. That can't happen if the old ghosts still walk the haunts of our minds.

Good night.

The storms aren't local anymore. They are so expansive they have names.

December 22, 2013
15:30:18Z
UNISYS Enhanced Infrared Satellite of north and west hemisphere. (click here for 12 hour loop)

December 22, 2013
15:15 gmt
The Weather Channel Current Temperature Map

"State by State Impacts" (of Gemini click here)

December 22, 2013
1045 AM EST
Associated Press

Saturday's severe weather outbreak, which swept across the central and southern U.S., brought tornadoes and wind gusts that ripped roofs from barns and hurled trees into power lines, officials said. At least two people were killed.

The threat for severe weather will lessen on Sunday, but there will still be damaging wind gusts from the eastern Gulf Coast region to the Mid-Atlantic states. Additionally, flood watches have been announced from Georgia to Virginia.

"This storm has summer-like amounts of Gulf moisture and winter-like atmospheric dynamics," said weather.com meteorologist Nick Wiltgen. "The combination has wrung out extraordinary amounts of rainfall – 3 to 10 inches Saturday alone – over a very large area. We'll be watching rivers rise for days as all this water runs off."...

Well said.

What does flooding look like when freezing temperatures arrive?

Saturday December 21, 2013 Gouverneur, NY 

Photographer states: Sleet and freezing rain forecast until Sunday pm.

Salute to local farmers.

Paige Witherington (click here) is the farmer at Serenbe Farms, a 30-acre certified organic and biodynamic farm adjacent to a housing development outside Atlanta. It's one of more than 200 or so subdivisions with an agricultural twist nationwide.

Pure Genius.

...It's called development-supported agriculture, a more intimate version of community-supported agriculture — a farm-share program commonly known as CSA. In planning a new neighborhood, a developer includes some form of food production — a farm, community garden, orchard, livestock operation, edible park — that is meant to draw in new buyers, increase values and stitch neighbors together....

Local food sources don't have to worry about transportation costs. They also are cognizant of local preferences. There is also less pesticide use because of the proximity to housing complexes. The 'green acres' will even promote a healthier chance at CLIMATE. Plants produce 'water vapor.'

I am rather surprised at the willingness of Americans to throw the baby out with the bathwater.

I refuse to give up my eye supplement. Absolutely refuse, because I absolutely know it makes a difference. 
If I don't take it daily, I begin to have pain in my right eye with hours of the missed dose. 

That is no joke. 

Before I tried an eye vitamin there was no relief for it. It is not excruciating pain, but, I have a genetic condition that can and has injured the tissue of the eye. This sincerely helps. 

The Optomologist I see has pharmaceutically based lutein dietary based supplements if I chose to use them. He recommends it in many instances for older adults. 

A panel of physicians (click here) wrote today in a major medical journal about which vitamin and mineral supplements are bad and which are null, and how we keep buying them. 

James Hamblin 

December 17, 2013

"We believe that the case is closed— supplementing the diet of well-nourished adults with (most) mineral or vitamin supplements has no clear benefit and might even be harmful. These vitamins should not be used for chronic disease prevention. Enough is enough."

So reads an authoritative editorial today in one of the widest-read U.S. medical journals, Annals of Internal Medicine. The authors are five physicians from Johns Hopkins School of Public Health and Warwick Medical School in the U.K., including one of the journal's senior editors. Each has at least five letters worth of postgraduate degrees after their name.

"Beta-carotene, vitamin E, and possibly high doses of vitamin A supplements are harmful," they specify. "Other antioxidants, folic acid, and B vitamins, and multivitamin and mineral supplements are ineffective for preventing mortality or morbidity due to major chronic diseases."...

It is a great study. It was conducted for 12 years and involved a large number of participants; the error is small. The date is good, however, I think there is misinterpretation of the results. Not by the researchers, but, by the media and the people. 

This study focused on longevity and disease fighting ability of vitamins. There are some key words folks are overlooking. "Adults with NO nutritional deficiencies, a multivitamin supplement in a well-nourished elderly population."

This study does not throw vitamins out completely. There are issues such as folic acid and vitamin supplements in women that are pregnant, there are problems in our nation with poverty and poor diet as well as malnourished adults and children. So, while this study is more than welcome it is not conclusive for all populations of adults.

What I did like about it is the fact it nearly outlaws MegaVitamin Supplements. There goes GNC, although that chain of vitamin stores offers protein supplements as well. 

So while taking multivitamins in healthy adults are completely unproductive, there is also the issue of people facing health challenges such as cancer and treatments of radiation and chemo that need nutritional supplements. That sometimes comes in the variety of drinks such as Ensure and Boost and there is that one for diabetics...Glucerna. I think the best approach to this is to consult with a personal physician about any dietary supplements.

This study also points to fields open to research such as Vitamin D. It cites three trials where one actually showed Vitamin D helped prevent falls in the elderly, another that reduced risks of fall and one stating it increased falls in the elderly. So, while this study is important it does point to needed research to refine the effects of some of the Vitamins. 

It does make conclusive statements about most multivitamins in well nourished adults. I think one of the upsides of this study is the fact it has conclusive facts about vitamins preventing chronic disease or as a treatment for such things as cancer. There is no effect on these issues and quite frankly chronic disease and dangerous disease such as cancer needs the supervision of physicians.

Most people believe the way Presidents of the USA are elected has been unchanged since 1776.

That is incorrect. The USA Constitution is not the Holy Bible scribed by Apostles witnessing history and deriving insight from it's passing.

The election of President Jefferson was nearly a disaster. As a result Article II, Section 1, Clause 3 was replaced by the 12th Amendment. Article II, Section 1 of the USA Constitution prescribes the understanding of the Executive Branch of the country.
This is Article II, Section 1, Clause 3 of the original US Constitution:

The Electors shall meet in their respective States, and vote by Ballot for two Persons, of whom one at least shall not be an Inhabitant of the same State with themselves. And they shall make a List of all the Persons voted for, and of the Number of Votes for each; which List they shall sign and certify, and transmit sealed to the Seat of the Government of the United States, directed to the President of the Senate. The President of the Senate shall, in the Presence of the Senate and House of Representatives, open all the Certificates, and the Votes shall then be counted. The Person having the greatest Number of Votes shall be the President, if such Number be a Majority of the whole Number of Electors appointed; and if there be more than one who have such Majority, and have an equal Number of Votes, then the House of Representatives shall immediately chuse by Ballot one of them for President; and if no Person have a Majority, then from the five highest on the List the said House shall in like Manner chuse the President. But in chusing the President, the Votes shall be taken by States, the Representatives from each State having one Vote; a quorum for this Purpose shall consist of a Member or Members from two thirds of the States, and a Majority of all the States shall be necessary to a Choice. In every Case, after the Choice of the President, the Person having the greatest Number of Votes of the Electors shall be the Vice President. But if there should remain two or more who have equal Votes, the Senate shall chuse from them by Ballot the Vice-President.

This is the 12th Amendment in it's entirety.

Amendment XII (1804)

The Electors shall meet in their respective states and vote by ballot for President and Vice-President, one of whom, at least, shall not be an inhabitant of the same state with themselves; they shall name in their ballots the person voted for as President, and in distinct ballots the person voted for as Vice-President, and they shall make distinct lists of all persons voted for as President, and of all persons voted for as Vice-President, and of the number of votes for each, which lists they shall sign and certify, and transmit sealed to the seat of the government of the United States, directed to the President of the Senate;—The President of the Senate shall, in the presence of the Senate and House of Representatives, open all the certificates and the votes shall then be counted;—The person having the greatest Number of votes for President, shall be the President, if such number be a majority of the whole number of Electors appointed; and if no person have such majority, then from the persons having the highest numbers not exceeding three on the list of those voted for as President, the House of Representatives shall choose immediately, by ballot, the President. But in choosing the President, the votes shall be taken by states, the representation from each state having one vote; a quorum for this purpose shall consist of a member or members from two-thirds of the states, and a majority of all the states shall be necessary to a choice. And if the House of Representatives shall not choose a President whenever the right of choice shall devolve upon them, before the fourth day of March next following, then the Vice-President shall act as President, as in the case of the death or other constitutional disability of the President—The person having the greatest number of votes as Vice-President, shall be the Vice-President, if such number be a majority of the whole number of Electors appointed, and if no person have a majority, then from the two highest numbers on the list, the Senate shall choose the Vice-President; a quorum for the purpose shall consist of two-thirds of the whole number of Senators, and a majority of the whole number shall be necessary to a choice. But no person constitutionally ineligible to the office of President shall be eligible to that of Vice-President of the United States. If the entire Electoral Process can be eliminated and rewritten in the USA Constitution, the Second Amendment is NOT impervious to change and/or elimination. "MY cold dead hands, holds life in esteem without insult by Wall Street profits!" And that rifle could never have killed Claire Davis or any of the lives of children lost to violence in the USA. The patriots that shot those guns and won a war establishing our US Constitution would NOT be applauding what the NRA applauds today.

When does this epidemic of violence going to end?

Arapahoe County Sheriff Grayson Robinson (click here) holds a picture of Claire Davis, 17, at a briefing at Arapahoe High School in Centennial, Colo., the day after the Dec. 13 shooting. Davis died Saturday.

Claire Davis, (click here) who loved riding horses and doing well in school. Her friends say she was always happy and always offered a shoulder to cry on.

Is this the way the holidays are going to be from now on? Celebratory killings by disturbed young people allowed to carry military weapons? Is It? Is this the legacy of The Second Amendment to the USA Constitution?