Category: Uncategorized

Before reading the rest of this, keep in mind that I am now attempting to educate my readers on some interesting health issues.
The following two articles are about the mouth and how it could relate to an individual’s overall health.

First from Cardiology Advisor on 2/11/25:
“°Dental flossing is associated with a lower risk for ischemic and cardioembolic stroke and atrial fibrillation (AF), according to a study presented at the annual American Stroke Association International Stroke Conference, held from Feb. 5 to 7 in Los Angeles.
Data were included for 6,278 dentate participants without a prior history of stroke and 6,108 without prior AF who were followed over a 25-year period. The researchers found that 65 percent of the stroke-free cohort reported flossing. Flossers had significantly lower rates of vascular risk factors, periodontal disease, and dental caries. Overall, 434 individuals were identified as having strokes during the follow-up period: 146 thrombotic, 102 cardioembolic, and 95 lacunar subtypes. Dental flossing was associated with a significantly lower risk for ischemic stroke, cardioembolic stroke subtype, and AF, but not thrombotic or lacunar stroke. A significant dose-effect was observed between flossing frequency and the reduction in incident ischemic stroke. The reduced rate of AF mediated a small proportion of the cardioembolic stroke risk reduction.”

The second article from Science Alert on 2/21/25:
“In recent years, a growing number of scientific studies have backed an alarming hypothesis: Alzheimer’s disease isn’t just a disease, it’s an infection.
One such study, published in 2019, suggested what could be one of the most definitive leads yet for a bacterial culprit behind Alzheimer’s, and it comes from a somewhat unexpected quarter: gum disease.
In a paper led by senior author Jan Potempa, a microbiologist from the University of Louisville, researchers reported the discovery of Porphyromonas gingivalis – the pathogen behind chronic periodontitis (aka gum disease) – in the brains of deceased Alzheimer’s patients.
It wasn’t the first time the two factors have been linked, but the researchers went further.
In separate experiments with mice, oral infection with the pathogen led to brain colonization by the bacteria, together with increased production of amyloid beta (Aβ), the sticky proteins commonly associated with Alzheimer’s.”

I find both of these articles very interesting because two of today’s biggest individual health issues are Atrial fibrillation and Alzheimer’s. … could one’s mouth and gums be related to both?
3/26/25

“Quid pro quo” is a Latin phrase meaning “something for something” or “this for that,” signifying an exchange where one thing is given or promised in return for another.
In Illinois there appears to be a good example of “quid pro quo.”
First the “quid:
From BlazeMedia News:
A new bill that will soon be passed along for a full vote in the Illinois state House which takes aim at religious schools and parents who homeschool their children.
On 3/19 lawmakers on the House Education Policy Committee gathered to consider HB 2827, better known as the Homeschool Act.
The bill not only requires all private and religious elementary and secondary schools to register with the state annually, but it also requires these schools to share sensitive information about their students, like names and home addresses. It also requires these private schools to make plain their policies and specifically promise not to restrict hairstyles ‘historically associated with race’ or ‘ethnicity.’
“Furthermore, the bill requires all homeschooling parents and guardians — who must have a high school diploma or the equivalent — to fill out a homeschool declaration form about their homeschooled children and submit the form to the public school or school district the children would otherwise attend. The form must be resubmitted every year that the children are homeschooled, or the child may be considered truant.
“Homeschooling parents and guardians who fail to comply with the measure could face misdemeanor charges, WTTW reported.
The bill was introduced by state Rep. Terra Costa Howard (D-Glen Ellyn) and enjoys more than a dozen cosponsors, all of whom are Democrat, many of whom are women, and at least one of whom has blue hair.”
Rep. Terra Costa Howard says, “… children who are being homeschooled are at greater risk of abuse and neglect.”
However, this is not supported by the two peer-reviewed studies that have been produced,” countered Will Estrada, senior counsel at the Home School Legal Defense Association.
“This bill targets homeschool parents and treats us as criminals, guilty until proven innocent,” said Aziza Butler, a former public school teacher who now homeschools her children.
“We believe [this] is religious persecution,” added homeschool parent Latasha Fields. “That’s what we believe. We believe it really is because this bill invades our privacy, is unconstitutional, and it does. It threatens, and it overreach[es], and it interferes with parental rights.”

The “pro quo?”
From BlazeMedia News Media:
Three of the Democrat cosponsors of the Homeschool Act are among the top recipients of political donations from the Illinois Federation of Teachers (IFT). Since 2010, the campaigns for state Reps. Costa Howard, Katie Stuart, and Janet Yang Rohr have received more than $630,000 in donations total from the IFT, according to watchdog group Illinois Policy.

Hmmm! There you have it. An illustrative example of “quid pro quo” in real life!
3/25/25

Yes, just as he promised, President Trump is eliminating the Department of Education (DofE). Is this what the people want? Granted those who run the teacher’s unions are against the dismantling of the Department of Education, but where were they as the education stats were tanking?

According to the U.S. Government’s own statistics, the U.S. Government’s Annual Report card, 22% of ALL 8th grade students are COMPLETELY illiterate and …
1 in 3 eighth graders are functionally illiterate, according to the Nation’s Report Card. The worst 8th grade literacy rate EVER recorded.
Is this something the DofE should be proud of?

In 2022, only 26% of all 8 grade students scored Proficient or above in math.
Is this something the DofE should be proud of?

Since its establishment in the late 1970s, the Department of Education has spent more than $3 trillion. Yet according to a White House fact sheet, academic performance has stagnated. Despite a 245 percent increase in per-pupil spending, math and reading scores have declined, and U.S. students consistently rank behind peers in other developed nations.
Is this something the DofE should be proud of?

If the DofE were a business it would have been bankrupt a while ago. It’s failing our youth and deserves to be just an unpleasant memory!
3/24/25

On Sundays I talk about individuals who we can all admire and praise. This week this individual is Jhontel Jackson, a 34-year-old content creator from Baton Rouge, Louisiana. When he drove through his neighborhood, he noticed a collapsed fence that had clearly been neglected for years. The posts were completely rotten, and the entire fence was in desperate need of replacement.
Basically Jhontel had two choices … do something or do nothing.
From The Bright Story:
“Rather than ignoring it, Jackson decided to take action. ‘I saw that she needed help, and I knew that if she could afford a new fence, she would’ve already had one.’

Jackson didn’t know much about the homeowner—just that she was a single mother taking care of her kids and her own mother. However, as he soon found out, the woman had been through much more than just a broken fence. She had recently been in an accident that completely totaled her car and caused serious neck injuries. Adding to her struggles, the woman had also lost her husband about three years ago.
When Jackson offered to build a new fence for free, the woman was taken aback. ‘She was completely surprised that I was willing to do it for free. She was also overwhelmed because she had previously received quotes for the job that were well over $6,000,’ Jackson recalled.
Without hesitation, Jackson went ahead and built the fence for free.

The total cost for the project was ‘just over $2,000,’ a price Jackson was happy to pay. ‘That’s because everything I use is built to last, so they never have to worry about the fence falling over again,’ Jackson said.

After completing the work, Jackson didn’t stick around to see the mother’s reaction. ‘As soon as I was done, I was off to help the next person. That’s just how it goes for me—I rarely get to interact much with the people I help.’

A double bonus … he did it for free, and he didn’t stick around for any accolades!
3/23/25

What are ‘nationwide injunctions?’
FYI from Fox News:
Nationwide injunctions are court orders that prevent the federal government from implementing a policy or law that has a cascading effect impacting the entire country, not just the parties involved in the court case.
Many of us probably do not recall any nationwide injunctions in years past. That would certainly be understandable as there hadn’t been very many of them.
How many have there been in the recent past?
From 1963 through 2020 there had been only 127 of them and 64 occurred during President Trump’s first term from 2017-2020.
There were 32 injunctions issued against the Bush, Obama and Biden administrations collectively since 2001, meaning the first Trump administration was on the receiving end of double the amount of nationwide injunctions than his two predecessors and successor combined, according to the April 2024 edition of the Harvard Law Review.
Are these nationwide injunctions are political? … Is the pope a catholic?
Of the nationwide injunctions during Trump’s first term, 59 of them came from a judge appointed by a president of an opposing party. Hmmm!
The Chief Justice of the Supreme Court somehow felt compelled to comment on this issue even though he and four other Justices recently ducked when they had a chance to address this issue.
From the Epoch Times:
Earlier this month, the Supreme Court declined to take up the administration’s appeal challenging a lower court order requiring the government to disburse $2 billion in foreign assistance.
Justice Samuel Alito said he was stunned by his colleagues’ decision and was joined by Justices Clarence Thomas, Brett Kavanaugh, and Neil Gorsuch in dissenting from their denial of the administration’s appeal.
“Does a single district-court judge who likely lacks jurisdiction have the unchecked power to compel the Government of the United States to pay out (and probably lose forever) 2 billion taxpayer dollars?” Alito asked. “The answer to that question should be an emphatic ‘No,’ but a majority of this Court apparently thinks otherwise.”
Note to Justice Roberts:
“When you have an opportunity to get it hit, you have to at least get in the batter’s box and swing at a pitch. Being critical from the on-deck circle will not suffice!”
3/22/25

Now to start out I need to be clear, before the other day, I had never heard of The Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service
(FMCS), and I will wager that none of you did either.

From the Federal Register:
“The Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, created in 1947, is an independent agency whose mission is to preserve and promote labor-management peace and cooperation. Headquartered in Washington, DC, with two regional offices and more than 70 field offices, the agency provides mediation and conflict resolution services to industry, government agencies and communities.
The Agency helps build better relationships through joint problem-solving and constructive responses to inevitable conflict. In turn, this improves the ability of organizations to create value for customers, shareholders and employees alike, and substantially benefits the national economy. The Agency concentrates its efforts on assisting employers and employees in coping with the demands of a rapidly changing workplace.”

So much for what FMCS was designed to do.

From Luke Rosiak at The Daily Wire, 3/19/25:
“The Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service (FMCS) occupied a nine-story office tower on D.C.’s K Street for only 60 employees, many of whom actually worked from home, prior to the pandemic. Its managers had luxury suites with full bathrooms; one manager would often be ‘in the shower’ when she was needed, while another used her bathroom as a cigarette lounge. FMCS recorded its director as being on a years-long business trip to D.C. so he could have all of his meals and living expenses covered by taxpayers, simply for showing up to the office.
FMCS is a 230-employee agency that exists to serve as a voluntary mediator between unions and businesses. As an “independent agency,” its director nominally reports to the president, but the agency is so small that in effect, there is no oversight at all — and it showed, becoming a real-life caricature of all the excesses that the Department of Government Efficiency has alleged take place in government.

“FMCS seemed, quite clearly, to exist for the benefit of those on its payroll, and not much else. One employee told me: ‘Let me give you the honest truth: A lot of FMCS employees don’t do a hell of a lot, including myself. Personally, the reason that I’ve stayed is that I just don’t feel like working that hard, plus the location on K Street is great, plus we all have these oversized offices with windows, plus management doesn’t seem to care if we stay out at lunch a long time. Can you blame me?’”

President Trump just shut it down. Who will miss the FMCS? Probably only its employees!
3/21/25

I just read in my local “newspaper” that President Trump is “going after judges!” How dastardly!
Who is he “going after?”

First: District Court Judge James Boarberg who commanded that a plane headed to Central America with multiple members of the Tren de Aragua gang on board.

Second:
From Daybreak Insider
“Judge Theodore Chuang’s ruling in favor of 26 current and former USAID workers seeks to “delay a premature, final shutdown” of the agency while litigation continues (Hill). Eric Daugherty: A judge just ordered Elon Musk’s DOGE to all but fully reinstate USAID after they dismantled it. That’s right. A judge is now singlehandedly running the executive branch.”

Now here is my question.How did it happen that two obviously left-leaning judges were selected for these two cases? To me it sounds like a “S vs S” situation. … “Serendipity vs Skullduggery.”
Even though this could possibly be “serendipity,” my money is on the latter, and I believe that it should be looked into.
3/20/

Has there been a change in the path to citizenship and the issuing of green cards to some individuals? It appears to me that in some cases there is quite a dichotomy. Let me elaborate. A friend of mine has a son who has been teaching in Guatemala for many years. At some point he married a Guatemalan woman and subsequently they had a baby girl. The baby is now five years old and at this point the wife cannot legally come to the U.S. The five year old and the father can both come to States legally, but the wife cannot. She has been trying to come to the U.S. legally for at least five years, and thus far … nothing!
Now contrast this to Mahmoud Khalil. I am sure that most are familiar with him. He came to U.S. on a student visa. He enrolled at Columbia University, and within only a few years was able to get a green card. At the present time he is in the process of being deported because of his antisemitic actions at Columbia. Those on the left are bellyaching because he is married to a U.S. citizen, and at the present count nineteen law firms are vying to come to his rescue.
My question is why the dichotomy between and Mahmoud Khalil, and the Guatemalan wife who has been attempting to do everything legally. She has been waiting in line for years to get to first base, while Khalil has been fast-tracked to a green card. Both are married to a U.S. citizen, and as best I can tell, no law firms are standing in line to plead her case.
This makes me wonder how Khalil was able to move so rapidly through the process from student visa to green card.
Can anybody explain the dichotomy between Mahmoud Khalil my friend’s daughter-in -law? Is there something fishy going on? Did Khalil or a backer of his expedite his receiving a green card? Did any cash change hands? Does this suspiciously sound like a quid-pro-quo situation?
3/19/25

Agree or disagree with the following … a drop in the price of eggs is a good thing. Undoubtedly, a good thing.
From the Epoch Times Morning Brief:
Egg prices in the United States have dropped by $1.85 since the Trump administration unveiled a plan to combat bird flu and reduce costs, according to Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins.
The Department of Agriculture reported that, having stopped culling defenseless hens for bird flu mania, the price of eggs is falling. A dozen eggs now costs less than when Trump took the oath … now just over$6.00 a dozen.

Agree or disagree with the following … a drop in the price of gas is a good thing. Undoubtedly, a good thing.
From Forbes:
The average price of gasoline in the U.S. dropped for the third straight week, falling to $3.03 per gallon, according to GasBuddy—reaching the lowest average price for the month of March since 2021.
The price fell 0.6 cents from last week’s average of $3.04, and is down 8.9 cents from one month ago and 36.7 cents from a year ago, hitting the lowest March price in four years, GasBuddy reported Monday.

Agree or disagree with the following … a drop in the rate of inflation is a good thing. Undoubtedly, a good thing.
From Newsweek, 3/11/25:
“Inflation plummeting, new data shows.” The inflation rate has plunged to its lowest point since December, 2020— when Trump was last in office. Recall that Biden-flation peaked at over 11.5% back in June 2022!
Newsweek cited Truflation, a blockchain-based provider of real-time economic data. The non-governmental service reported yesterday that inflation has slowed to around 1.3%, falling below the 1.5% mark at the start of March, less than half of December’s 3.1% rate. Inflation is also now well below the Trump team’s stable target of 2%. Even though Trump promised that inflation would come down, however to me the amazing thing is how rapidly inflation has come down. Undoubtedly, a good thing.
3/18/25

In 2021 the Taliban overtook the equipment after the botched 2021 Afghanistan withdrawal done so by former President Joe Biden.
From Townhall:
“Now President Donald Trump is demanding the return of a staggering $7 billion in U.S. military gear left behind during the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan under the Biden administration. Trump has called on the Taliban to recover the equipment, which includes advanced weapons, vehicles, and other critical resources. The request has sparked debate with Trump arguing that the gear should never have been abandoned in the first place. However, the Taliban is refusing to give it back to its rightful owners.”
How will Trump deal with this challenge?
It will certainly be interesting!
3/17/25