Paul Sancya/AP/File- Delaware Attorney General Beau Biden, who died Saturday, introduces his father, Vice President Joe Biden, at the Democratic National Convention in Denver in 2008
Read on for why this man was so exceptional and how you can benefit from his example.
A Truth Journal: Beau Biden: He Gave Politics - And Humanity - A Good Name: From Denny: Beau Biden, a rare person in politics, government or anywhere: he was known as a person of exceptionally good character. Many of us are saddened at his passing as much as his family. When we lose a person of such goodness and moral strength who spent his life in service to his country and his family we are all reminded of his example for all of us to do better.
One of those rare politicians given generous authentic praise from both sides of the aisle...
A Truth Journal: Heckled First Lady Michelle Obama: Accused As Angry Black Woman? Come On; Really?: From Denny: Now First Lady Michelle Obama is accused of being the archetypal "angry black woman" for daring to stare down and get in the face of an inept protester who just thought the First Lady would tolerate her rudeness. Where do people get these ideas about how this was a racist heckling incident with white entitlement overtones?
Well, never to be a shrinking violet from controversy on my blog, let's start with the "angry black woman" stereotype...
Somewhere along the way the truth has been buried. Yet scandal after scandal emerges from the Obama administration while Romney stumbles with international gaffes. All this explains why the polls reveal two-thirds of America thinks we are on the wrong track.
Throw out your funny challenge of the day - Normal is Boring... Step Aside
* * * Support Warriors Pearl Foundation - helping homeless female military veterans come home. Visit Denny Lyon Gifts @ CafePress.com - - see what's new!
South Louisiana is primarily Catholic and we like our champion demon-chasing warrior saints. Honoring him is serious business.
Here in Louisiana we celebrate with none other than a St. Patrick's Day Parade, complete with official bead-throwing and green beer freely flowing.
Since all good holy days have a serious component along with the feasting here's some brain food to feed you too. Be sure to check out my other St. Patrick's Day posts at the end of this post. Lots of interesting historical trivia, quotes, poems, Irish blessings and funny thoughts too.
But when you are burning books that are in a foreign language you can't read, don't you think it would have been smart to consult a few locals to sift the books for you, instead of indiscriminately burning everything?
They would easily spot the religious books and set them aside. But no, the military employed their usual stupidity, need for speed and just marched onward.
Poems From A Spiritual Heart: Love Gift: From Denny: Have you ever thought about how your words can dramatically affect another person's view of themselves a hundred years from now? This poem is a recounting of an actual event in my life as it affected me deeply when I realized the incredible power of a small act of kindness.
Beautiful Illustrated Quotations: 12 Funny Quotes About Prayer: From Denny: Prayer is a wonderful thing. It can bring us comfort, calm our fears and inspire us. It's also quite amusing to view it in terms of the human condition called "whining." There is also "bargaining." Once you grow past those two obvious pitfalls you discover "peaceful communion."
Have a great Memorial Day holiday, chill out to shed yourself of some stress, enjoying some time with family and friends. Be sure to lift your glass to toast those who came before us, sacrificing their lives for our freedom during war time or those who sacrificed as good friends to help keep us balanced in the mundane places of life. Take time to remember the best people in your life and celebrate them this special holiday."
Learn how to wear your hair long, beautiful, sexy and in fashion - even if you are older.
From Denny: Check it out. For generations women have been told, "You can't wear your hair long after you start to age, usually after age 40." Well, think again! Of course, like anything, there is an art to doing it well. Here, stylist to the stars, Louis Licari, demonstrates how to carry off those longer hair styles for an older woman. The key is to wear the style with layers that help lift and open the face. Check out these startling makeovers.
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The latest trend in cheap highs for teens - your kitchen spice rack.
From Denny: The latest idiot "get high" trend among kids is to rummage through the family kitchen spice rack. So, what spices can get you high you ask? As much as I know about forgotten foods like spices and herbs even I didn't ever consider them in this light.
Late night comic Conan O'Brien joked about this disturbing trend among teens: "According to health officials, teenagers have started smoking nutmeg to get high. Is this recession bad or what?"
Nutmeg
Smoking, snorting or ingesting large amounts of nutmeg can give you some serious side effects:
* increased heart rate
* blurred vision
* convulsions
* feels like a bad case of the flu
* delirium
* hallucinations
* vomiting
* irregular heart rhythms
* severe headache
* drowsiness
* coma
The frightening thing is that it takes as long as four to five hours before a user feels the mind-altering effects of nutmeg. Nutmeg is very slow-acting. So, what do they usually do? Yes, you guessed it; after 15 to 20 minutes they decide to ingest even more nutmeg to the point of toxic levels, chasing after that euphoria.
Curious teens keen to experiment are smoking and eating very large amounts of nutmeg in particular. They are seeking that quick high. What they get is a quick trip to the hospital emergency room because of violent convulsions. All it takes is just one tablespoon of nutmeg swirled into a drink to be toxic.
Most cooks use spices sparingly and certainly never considered them as potential drugs to get high. According to Deborah Blum, author of “The Poisoner’s Handbook,” says some spices can definitely be both naughty and nice during this holiday season.
Says Blum: “We tend to think of herbs and spices as wonderfully healthy because they’re natural plant products. But natural doesn’t mean safe and many plants contain toxic compounds, which they evolved to fend off grazing animals and predatory insects. Could you kill someone with a well-spiced holiday cookie? Not likely, you’d have to shovel in so much spice that this would be one inedible treat. But are holiday spices simply benign little flavoring agents? Not entirely.”
She says nutmeg is one of those spices that can bite back when misused.
“Nutmeg has popped into the news recently because teenagers have tried smoking it for its hallucinogenic effects,” she says. “The problem is that these are pretty marginal effects and too much of the compound can make you pretty sick and dizzy. But if you poke around in the spice cabinet, you’ll run across other risky compounds.”
Cinnamon oil
Another spice that can be toxic and is used by teens to get high? Cinnamon. At our house we use cinnamon on our morning oatmeal or in cinnamon-sugar or in baked goods.
Cinnamon oil is what teens are ingesting since the 1990's. The symptoms of cinnamon abused from inhaling or ingesting are:
* nausea
* abdominal pain
* welts on the skin or other irritation
* eye irritation (they got it into their eyes)
* rapid heart beat
* light headedness
* facial flushing
* shortness of breath
Clove oil
Another kitchen cooking spice also the favorite of teens who want to get high? Cloves. Actually, it's clove oil. Some have injected it. What symptoms that caused were acute respiratory distress and non-cardiogenic pulmonary edema which is fluid building up in the lungs so much so you can't breathe. Doctors were able to save this crazy kid who might as well have been labeled a walking Christmas clove ornament.
Vanilla
Did you know that too much vanilla can mess you up too? Twelve ounces of synthetic vanilla extract also contains the dangerous 35 percent ethanol. Ethanol does not react well with the human nervous system when taken in large amounts and can depress it as well as your breathing.
Ingesting too much vanilla bad symptoms are:
* depress the central nervous system
* depress the respiratory system
* flushed skin
* gastrointestinal distress
* hypothermia
* hypotension
Decorative Sprinkles
You have got to be kidding me?! Now it's those cute sugary sprinkles that have issues. Those beautiful Martha Stewart advocated silver dragees, silver balls that look like silver BBs, have a lawsuit against them alleging they are toxic. Bakers have used them for decades in everything from shortbread cookies to gingerbread houses.
Could you poison yourself with too much silver like in these silver dragees?
“I wouldn’t worry,” says Blum. “Too much silver could turn you a lovely silver blue but you’d have to be swallowing those little silver balls by the bucket load. With any of these, you’d have to work very hard at making yourself or anyone sick.”
It doesn't help there are video tutorials on YouTube to encourage this stupid abuse of kitchen spices. If you are a parent, keep tabs on just how much nutmeg, cinnamon, cloves and vanilla are still in the pantry.
*** Cinnamon photo by Shariff Che'Lah @ featurepics.com
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*** Stunning new study to tell us why not to spank our kids now as it causes heart disease later in life.
photo by istockphoto
Childhood physical abuse leads to heart disease
From Denny: A controversial new study from Canada is out about how former childhood physical abuse leads to significantly higher risk of heart disease and heart attacks later in life. Spanking is something of which I've never been a fan. Now many are wondering if this constitutes child abuse and will it lead to heart attacks?
From Dr. Esme Fuller-Thomson, professor of family and community medicines at University of Toronto, who is also the study's lead author: "Individuals who reported they had been physically abused as children had 45 percent higher odds of heart disease than their peers who had not been abused, despite the fact we had adjusted for most of the known risk factors for heart disease.
How large was the Canadian study?
Geographically it covered two Canadian provinces and involved 13,000 people. Within the study it was found there were seven percent were reported as physical child abuse. Of those seven percent there were four percent who reported they were also diagnosed with heart disease. The report was published in the journal "Child Abuse & Neglect."
Did the study explain the correlation of physical childhood abuse with increased risk of heart disease?
Dr. Fuller-Thomson believes "childhood stress causes lifelong abnormalities in the body's reaction to potentially stressful situations. Children who always have to be vigilant that a parent is not going to come home and beat them - kids who can never relax and are always scanning the environment - may grow into adults who react to almost any stressors. I am against spanking in general. Using words and time-outs tends to be more effective over the long term in instilling self-discipline. You want to minimize physical punishment."
There have been similar studies proving that childhood stress also affects the brain, severely impairing the ability to learn. When stress chemicals bathe the brain it's difficult to focus upon much of anything outside of fright or flight. This study linking childhood stress from abuse to heart disease later in life is no surprise since stress chemicals constantly pumped into our bodies takes its toll eventually.
Please, if you care about your child's future health, don't spank them - no matter how badly behaved they are. Take your time-out and think of a wiser more long term effective strategy as a discipline that does not involve violence. Look at it this way, they won't grow up to resent you. After all, when you get old, it's that same child who chooses your nursing home. :) If you want them to choose wisely later for you, then think twice about choosing wisely for them now while they are young.
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*** Two Hollywood celebrities are sharing how they suffered with postpartum depression after the births of their children, hoping others will seek help.
Actress Gwyneth Paltrow at Toronto International Film Festival, photo by AP
Actress Gwyneth Paltrow suffered from postpartum depression
From Denny: Postpartum depression cuts across all economic, race and cultural lines to affect new mothers just after giving birth. It may be their first, second or even third child. Each pregnancy can be different from previous ones.
The tough thing about this disorder is that it makes a woman feel such low self-esteem that she doubts her ability to be a good mother, even months after the birth. Too many women feel they are alone in feeling this way.
Celebrity actress Gwyneth Paltrow and "New Moon" star Bryce Dallas Howard have decided to go public with their personal trials and painful experiences to help other women suffering from this particular and other mood disorders. They are hoping other women will quit hiding their suffering and seek help. It's OK to admit they are not as excited to be new mothers as they thought they would be. If you are experiencing this, see your doctor and talk it over to see if this could be an issue.
Women are society's primary caregivers around the clock
As it is women are the primary caregivers in society, caring for the new born as well as the aging parents or grandparents in their last years. Women carry a lot of the long term stress of physical and emotional burdens of society, especially in America. Women tend to attribute these negative feelings to something else, not realizing they may be suffering from postpartum depression or perhaps a generalized depression. A generalized depression could be a result of sleep deprivation and a poor diet. Once those factors are addressed the depression can easily lift.
Here is how Paltrow described how she felt immediately following the birth of her second child, son Moses: "It was one of the darkest and most painfully debilitating chapters of my life." It was a surprise to her since she had such a wonderful experience after the birth of her first child. She said she experienced an incredible euphoria and was expecting the same after this second birth.
How many new mothers suffer pregnancy related mood disorders?
According to the medical site, WebMD, there are about 800,000 women each year in America who just don't experience that sense of wonderful joy after giving birth. That's about one in five new mothers, about 20 percent, who suffer from perinatal mood disorders.
Pregnancy related mood disorders don't always present as depression, though these are the most common. In some women they can appear as anxiety or panic disorder, agoraphobia and obsessive-compulsive disorder. Fewer still suffer from intrusive, unwanted thoughts that are frightening to them because those thoughts are about hurting the baby. So, they tell no one about those destructive thoughts which only makes matters worse.
Bryce Dallas Howard's struggle with postpartum depression
Bryce Dallas Howard revealed how she was struggling with postpartum depression after giving birth to her son in 2007. "In those moments after giving birth, I felt nothing," she told People Magazine. "I definitely felt I was a rotten mother - not a bad one, a rotten one. Because the truth was, every time I looked at my son, I wanted to disappear."
Howard went on to relate she tried to distance herself emotionally from her son by referring to him as "It" instead of by his name. She also said she could not tolerate breast feeding him because of the intense pain.
More women need help than seek help. About 80 percent of new mothers do experience some of the "Baby Blues" as doctors label the experience. However, sometimes, doctors can confuse the Baby Blues with serious postpartum depression so it's important to seek a second opinion if you are told not to worry about the depression or negative thoughts you are experiencing.
Baby Blues versus Postpartum Depression
How do you know the difference? Baby Blues can be similar to a mood disorder yet those symptoms fade away within a couple of weeks as your body gets its balance back hormone wise.
So how can you know if what you are feeling is within the range of what's considered normal or if it's something far more serious? Karen Kleiman has written several books about this subject. She is the executive director of the Postpartum Stress Center in Rosemont, PA. She tells new mothers and pregnant women to "Trust your instincts and if you think something isn't right, it probably isn't." Don't override those instincts with the doubts of second guessing; get some help. Kleiman said, "It doesn't mean something terrible is going on, but you should get help."
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