FIRST WOMAN ELECTED PRESIDENT

November 8, 2016, Hillary Clinton became the first woman elected President of the United States.  She won the popular vote, but Donald Trump will be inaugurated because he won the electoral college vote.  Al Gore was elected President of the United States in 2000, but George Bush was inauguarated.  Al Gore and Hillary Clinton would have been much better Presidents than George Bush or Donald Trump in every way, but due to the establishment of the electoral college system, two inept men (Bush and Trump) will have served as President.  The electoral college system is a horrible, no-good, very bad system.

CYSTIC FIBROSIS

I have an unusual genetic disorder that seems to resemble cystic fibrosis.  After struggling with this for the past forty three years, I have decided that it has given me insights into cystic fibrosis.  I have read the research on cystic fibrosis.  The main problem in CF is poor utilization of the chloride ion. Chloride is one of our electrolytes.  Electrolytes are essential for life.

I believe that the poor utilization of chloride results in the flawed metabolism of the fat-soluble vitamins:  A, D,E, and K.

Vitamin A is important for normal lung development.  The flawed metabolism of vitamin A results in lung damage.

Vitamin K is important for blood clotting.  The flawed metabolism of vitamin K results in bleeding.

The flawed metabolism of vitamin E seems to result in depression.

The flawed metabolism of vitamin D results in peripheral neuropathy.

Chloride is essential for breathing.  Of course this relates to lung development.  I do not believe that anyone with CF should take vitamin A or beta carotene supplements.  A great deal of zinc is also required for metabolizing vitamin A and beta carotene.  Beta carotene especially drains the body of zinc.  Simply eating fruits and vegetables and also eating pre-metabolized vitamin A, such as is found in eggs, milk, yogurt, and cheese along with pancreatin for absorption might supply sufficient vitamin A. Taking more of the vitamin in food or supplements than the body can metabolize simply damages the lungs.

People with CF should not take vitamin K supplements.  Just eating the green vegetables might be sufficient.  Certainly intravenous vitamin K should not be given.  Intravenous chloride might help. Intravenous potassium chloride, sodium chloride, magnesium chloride, etc. might help.

Vitamin E supplements should not be taken.

Peripheral neuropathy is complicated.  Besides the chloride, chromium deficiency and magnesium deficiency are involved.  Intravenous chromium will completely eliminate the pain and loss of proprioception.  After this treatment, oral supplements of pancreatic enzymes and chromium can maintain the proprioception and freedom from pain.   Magnesium deficiency results in the numbness.  Magnesium is difficult to absorb.  It must be taken with pancreatic enzymes and whole grains.  Sugar drains magnesium out of the system.  Also alcohol and other substances drain magnesium out of the system.  Two much magnesium will just result in diarrhea which will result in magnesium loss.  The supplement Betaine hydrochloride (basically hydrochloric acid) will supply chloride, but it can also provide too much acid.  A premetabolized form of vitamin D, such as Rocaltrol is helpful.

ELECTION BLUES

A year ago I was dreading the beginning of another election season.  It would be all the partisan bickering all over again.  Even though it continues all the time anyway, it gets worse during election season.  Now this is worse than I ever imagined it could be.  The Republican party has gone totally insane.  The idea of any of these candidates becoming President of the United States is appalling. Now I understand how Hitler seized power in Germany.  When millions of people are very stressed economically, they look for lunatics to save them.  It was Wall Street and the Banks that brought down the entire world economy.  The taxpayers bailed out Wall Street.  But no one has bailed out the taxpayers.  They are hurting.  They are desperate.  And because of all that, we could end up with some one like Donald Trump as president.  He appears to have no comprehension of what is going on in this country or in the world.

Hillary is one of the most experienced and knowledgeable candidates ever to run for president.  Yet, this year no one wants a knowledgeable or experienced person.  Everyone wants a lunatic.  In 2004, Robert Reich wrote a book called REASON.  In effect, he said that reason will save us.  People will not want lunacy. At the time, I was encouraged by this thought.  But he was wrong.  People do not want reason.  The Republican Party prefers lunacy.  If they can't win by rational arguments, they have found that they can win by insane ideology.  They can't out think liberals, so they will out-lunatic us.

I have often heard people say, "What is this world coming to?"  Now I truly fear for America.

SIR HENRY NEVILLE WROTE "SHAKESPEARE"

The recent discovery of a Shakespeare First Folio in France (Wed., 11/26/14 in N.Y.Times) is fascinating; even more fascinating is the fact that Neville is written on the first page.  According to the book The Truth Will Out: Unmasking the Real Shakespeare, by Brenda James and William Rubinstein, the actual author of the works of Shakespeare was Sir Henry Neville, a member of the House of Lords in England.  It was not considered appropriate for a member of the House of Lords to write poetry and plays; but obviously Neville/Shakespeare was compelled to write.  And he was one of the best English writers in history.  Actually Neville and Shakespeare were cousins and they ran across each other at the Globe Theater where Shakespeare was parking horses.  They had a conversation and Shakespeare agreed to appear to be the author of Neville's plays. 

Neville was plotting against Queen Elizabeth I (a Protestant Queen).  He had hoped that one of his plays would spark a revolution.  Queen Elizabeth questioned both Shakespeare and Neville; she sent Shakespeare home and locked Neville in the Tower of London.  Neville, depressed and sitting in the Tower, began writing Hamlet.

The lifespans of the cousins, Shakespeare and Neville, were very similar:
Neville was born in 1562 and died in 1615 at age 53.
Shakespeare was born in 1564 and died in 1616 at age 52.

I had never given any thought to who Shakespeare was, taking it all at face value, although I knew that many scholars felt that Shakespeare could not have written these works.  He had almost no education and had never travelled abroad; some of the scenes in the plays take place in France and Italy.  The authors of  The Truth Will Out, build a very convincing case for Neville being the actual author.

RAPE AND ABDUCTION

I am very concerned about all of the reported rapes and abductions on our campuses.  It appears to be a much bigger problem now than it was many years ago when I was in college.  Why?

I am not blaming the victims.  There is no excuse for rape and abduction. I think there is a male backlash against women's rights and that is one reason for these rapes.  The other reason is alcohol. Many of these women have been drinking.  Again, I am not blaming the women, but alcohol is a major problem.  For some reason women seem to think that they should go out and get drunk just like the men do.  They call this equal rights or equality.  I call it stupidity.  I am a first generation feminist.  I don't believe that just because men do stupid things that women should do them also.

Men go out drinking, get drunk, get killed in car accidents or fall in a lake or drown.  They also "celebrate" their 21st birthday, have 21 drinks and drop dead.  I think this is male stupidity.  I don't see any reason for women to emulate it.  Not long ago a woman went out by herself, got drunk, got in a car accident, refused to accept help from strangers because of her confusion, wandered around a neighborhood, and pounded on someone's door. The man in the house also behaved stupidly.  He said that he could not find his cell phone.  But he found his gun.  If he had been smart, he would have realized that he was armed and prepared.  He could then have searched again for his cell phone and sat down facing the door and called the police.  Instead, he opened the door and blindly fired his gun. If  he was afraid of someone breaking in, why would he open the door?  If several people had been there they could have killed him. Both the man and the woman behaved thoughtlessly and both of their lives were destroyed.

The women who go out and get drunk are becoming helpless and putting their lives in the hands of others.  We cannot trust our safety to others in this manner.  If a woman really feels a need to get drunk, she should seek help from AA.  Otherwise, she should buy a bottle of alcohol and drink it at home.  Same goes for men.

RELIGION LOSING SWAY IN AMERICA

A new Pew Research Center poll has reported that religion is losing sway and influence on American life.  This poll also found that these religious people felt that Democrats and the Obama Administration are unfriendly toward religion.  Obviously, from the findings, we can see that these religious people who were polled were Christian fundamentalists.  These are very prejudiced people. They have taken over radio and television and are constantly expounding their biases.  They are driving many people out of the churches and even into atheism.  In my opinion it is a good thing that they are losing influence on American life.

I grew up in the Presbyterian Church.  I am a Christian.  I do not subscribe to any of their "teachings." My ancestors came to this country seeking religious freedom.  They were being persecuted for their religious beliefs by the kings of Spain and France, in the name of the Catholic Church.  Surprisingly, the country of Germany was a place of refuge in those days (the 1600's).  Jews and Protestants went to Germany seeking freedom.  However, the kings of Spain and France pursued them even there. The city of Manheim, Germany was destroyed at least three times by the kings' troops. Eventually my ancestors sailed to America.

Now the American constitution gives us religious freedom. However, these fundamentalist groups who call themselves Christians, would deny us religious freedom.  They want control over what we believe, what we do, and even how we pray.  They do not believe in religious freedom even though it is in our constitution.  They dislike Obama because he tries to enforce the constitution.  They do not want to allow women reproductive freedom.  They want to control women's lives based on their non-Biblical views.  They want this nation to be totally  Fundamentalist "Christian," even though we have Christians of differing views, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, atheists, and others.  They want to enforce their views on all of us, just as the Catholic Church tried to do in Europe centuries ago.  The Catholic Church drove the Europeans out of the Church by these methods.  Now the people of Europe are non-religious.  Don't our Fundamentalists ever wonder why?

We were promised religious freedom in America and I hope and pray that we can maintain it.

CHANGING SCIENCE AND MEDICINE

Bringing about changes in science and medicine has always been a difficult process.  Although scientists and physicians are thought of as being open-minded, the fact is that once they have been taught certain "truths" they seem to be even more resistant to change than most people.  It apparently took a hundred years before scientists accepted the theory of continental drift.  Dr. Heimlich had great difficulty convincing the medical profession how to save people from choking to death.  A more extreme example was poor Dr. Ignaz Philipp Semmelweis (1818-1865).  He was a Hungarian obstetrician who discovered that physicians were spreading puerperal fever to women who were giving birth,  by not washing their hands before delivering babies.  Up to thirty percent of women who gave birth in hospitals died, whereas women who gave birth at home did not. By ordering students to wash their hands before examining women, Dr. Semmelweis greatly cut the death rate.  However, he was unable to convince his colleagues of the necessity of hand-washing.  At times he resorted to standing outside the door to the surgery room and physically forcing physicians to wash their hands.  Finally they had him committed to a mental institution.  Imagine the gall of telling physicians that their hands were not clean! 

People in general have been just as bad.  They have been fighting the theory of evolution for a hundred years.  Although the mainline churches accept evolution, the religious fundamentalists rage incessantly about the impossibility of evolution and explain that it is "only a theory," not understanding the scientific meaning of "theory," or choosing not to understand it.  The sad thing is that they resist allowing their children to be properly educated about evolution.  A minister in England about one hundred years ago wondered when the earth was created and decided to determine the answer from the Bible.  He calculated that it happened about six thousand years ago.  Actually recorded history is only 5,000-6,000 years; so he did a fair job in a sense.  All people have wondered about creation.  Every civilization has a creation story.  People have always wanted to know when the universe was created and how.  The Bible is for spiritual guidance, it is not a scientific text.  It is sad that people feel the need to stick with the theory of the minister in England.  At least they are not still insisting that Atlas is holding the earth on his shoulders, or the earth is sitting on the back of a turtle. 

Actually, the Bible itself gives a somewhat evolutionary form of creation.  It has life beginning in the ocean, then the birds and sea-beasts, finally animals on the earth, and last of all human beings.  This was a remarkable insight in my opinion.  But why, in an age of science, are people clinging to such absurdities as people living in the age of dinosaurs?  Naturally these people are closed to the idea of climate change.  And the gas, oil, and coal companies are taking advantage of this mind-set to insist that there is no problem.  After all, these corporations are making a lot of money and do not want to limit their pollution.  What does it take to open peoples' minds?