Reviews by Hubie Goode:A Vegetarian Thanksgiving

Is a Vegetarian Thanksgiving Really Possible? It is if You Look For It!

by Dale Blackburn

A vegetarian Thanksgiving?

Come on, let's get real. What do you think of first when you hear the word "Thanksgiving?" Family clustered around the dining table? That goes without saying. But for most of us, the biggest image is most likely of roast turkey spread out upon a table with gravy.

That used to be the me. But not since I became vegetarian. Not since I became "aware" of the suffering of animals and the cruelty of factory farms. How did it happen? I watched a movie called "Earthlings" on YouTube and it hit me hard. It really started me thinking about the nature of animals and their treatment in this country (and the world, for that matter). If you're interested, do a search and you can watch it too for free on YouTube.

And I'm not the only one thinking about this. At this time of the year, all over the country, there is a celebration called "ThanksLiving." People get together for a fun day of compassionate eating by skipping the turkey and all things made of meat. It's a movement that is getting larger, year by year.

Did you know that 300 million turkeys are killed in anticipation of the Thanksgiving holiday? They spend their short lives crammed in cramped sheds with little room to move around. They're artificially inseminated, then bred to gain enormous amounts of weight. They suffer heart attacks, broken limbs, lameness, and death from this genetically-induced accelerated rate of growth. Is this a humane way to treat an animal? I don't think so.

In light of the treatment of turkeys, in the Phoenix area, a restaurant called "Green New American Vegetarian" is serving up a vegetarian (actually 100% vegan) feast on the third Thursday of November. The menu consists of a meat substitute and many of the traditional dishes like mashed potatoes, roasted corn, brussels sprouts, asparagus, and of course, pumpkin pie.

As owner Damon Brasch says, "It's not just for vegetarians and vegans. It's for everyone. We had many many many omnivores come last year who said that this was one of the best Thanksgiving meals they ever had. " And as a participant at last year's event, I can attest that the food was delicious - virtually to the gourmet level. The turkey substitute was made from seitan, a wheat gluten, and was ultra-tasty. How Damon and his crew got it to taste like the REAL bird is beyond me. (And yes, I still remember what turkey tastes like. I've only been a vegetarian for two years.)

Even if you don't live in the Phoenix area, it is just possible that a restaurant or two is celebrating a vegetarian Thanksgiving in or near your home town. If you live in an urban area, the likelihood increases. You should go online and do a search for the name of your city and the keywords: "vegetarian thanksgiving." You just may be surprised at what you find!

Reviews by Hubie Goode: Checking Health Fallacies

Checking Health
Fallacies

Due to my recent excursions into the Los Angeles subway system, I have been ill all week. I believed that my lack of catching any colds and such had a lot to do with my diet of 80% fruits and veggies, and although that may have been a great help to my overall health, it is by no means a miracle shield against the germs flying around on crowded subways and public buses. But don’t worry, I have successfully managed to defeat the bug with my usual tricks of the trade. Now, of course, I am ten pounds overweight, due to the fact that feeding a cold is a major part of defeating it. So, therefore, I pigged out at the Hometown Buffet and, of course, Hooters. Now I am fat.

I also was home for taking frequent hot showers when chilled and being able to take naps for the headaches due to sinus pressure. Sudafed helped some, although I am generally against taking too many medications. They tend to mask symptoms, and don’t cure anything. But it did allow for rest and the ability to overfill the needed requirements of white blood cells to devour the invading virus. ... so now I am fat.

It’s ironic that last week I started writing about health and immediately was taken for a ride by a cold. So, I thought I would continue this week, if that’s okay with you... I have lots of info on health, and some of it may not be information you generally think about, so I hope you’re okay with that. BTW, whenever I sit down to write to you, I generally have some Boney James music playing in the background. His latest album “Send One Your Love” is great smooth jazz. I highly recommend.

So let’s get on with the “health fallacies” of our program today.

All in one vitamin supplements can be misleading as to the amount of nutrients they provide. They can supply about 100% of some nutrients, trace amounts of others, and leave out some vital ones all together. Consumers often think vitamins can be a replacement for a balanced diet and can miss some important stuff as a result. The thing about vitamins that you don’t hear is that tablets often go right through you. Go to any public gathering and see if the port-a-jons aren’t full of vitamin tablets at the bottom when they dump into sewage. You’d be amazed! And that’s all money those people will never see again while getting only about 3% of the benefit from a tablet.

Breast infections from breast feeding is not necessarily a sign that breast feeding should be stopped. Nursing with the infected breast will help to cure the infection, which is called “Mastitis”. Milk is not infected by the breast infection... but I gotta tell ya, I would think twice about putting my baby’s mouth on it. As a man I can only write about this, not recommend it. Although, I have heard it said that breasts “know” when something is missing from a baby’s system and therefore produce more of that chemical need, I don’t know how true that is, but if it IS true, that’s not evolution people! Praise God!

B15 may be in trouble these days as the medical community is having second thoughts as to it’s effectiveness and safety. The FDA, the masters of Big Pharm, say it has no therapeutic value and there have also been some high profile doctors who have said it could be harmful. There also is no standard profile for the drug, so it could be made of anything. It’s known as Pangamate.

Getting a rash after an injection of Penicillin is not always an allergic reaction. The rash is often a result of the illness. True allergic reactions are things like, hives, swelling in throat, joint pain, and chest constriction.

Milk and dairy products may not help ulcers. Calcium in the milk helps to create the need for acid secretion that will aggravate an ulcer. Antacids with high buffering capacity are better, and of course food also acts as a buffer. It will help to begin a grazing diet if you have ulcers. This way you always have something in the tummy and your sugar levels won’t swing wildly either, but of course that food you graze on should be raw veggies and fruits. I have found myself that some meat just before bed time keeps the acid stomach away and I can sleep, probably because it takes the system 8 hours or so to dissolve meat. But don’t miss the idea of blood alkalinization. Most of the food in the grocery store is NOT food, and it causes an acidic blood stream. Natural foods will make the blood more alkaline and get you off of any ulcer medicines. But the effect is very fragile and can be ruined by ONE donut.

Get some “Prime PH” from this website: www.balance-ph-diet.com/alkaline_nutritional_supplement.html
I highly recommend.

Corrective shoes for kids with foot problems rarely do any good. Children regularly outgrow any lower limb problems without any help. Severe cases may require casts, and splints and such, but wedges for pigeon toes and bowlegs or knock knees do not correct the basic deformity.

Make sure that your aspirin has entertic coating or it could lead to stomach stress in the future. Buffered aspirin really doesn’t work, and it’s just a marketing name anyhow. Tests have shown that aspirin taken with the coating works the way you would expect it to, preventing tummy stress.

Not all cholesterol is bad for you. The good kind, HDL: High Density Lipoprotein, is associated with reduced risk of heart disease. It blocks the production of the low density cholesterol, which clogs the arteries. Long distance runners, joggers, moderate drinkers, and the college educated are more likely to have the better cholesterol. Overweight persons and heavy smokers, plus the less educated, have more levels of the bad stuff and are at greater risk.

Dark circles beneath the eyes are probably hereditary. There is no medical evidence that fatigue or lack of sleep cause bags and dark circles. That’s more old information that was wrong that we today still take as truth. Time to upgrade our everyday knowledge people.

Well, that’s all I have for today. I hope my blog is bringing you some info you can use, and I hope to see you again soon. Have a great day, and remember... you be good. :-)

Reviews by Hubie Goode: Checking Your Life for Health Hazards

Checking your life
for health hazards

Did you know that aluminum cooking pans should be thrown out if corroded or marked with pits surrounded by white deposits? Evidence has show that food cooked in corroded aluminum pans absorbs the metal. This is dangerous to you because it causes: Impaired kidney function, brain and nerve cell problems, behavioral abnormalities. (!)

Foam insulation releases formaldehyde gas after installation in a house. This is dangerous to you because it causes: Respiratory problems, eye irritation, skin rashes, nausea, headaches and dizziness. You can have your house tested by the government health service or perhaps find a private company to do it for a fee.

Electric blankets can be hazardous to people with occlusive arterial disease. Uncontrolled heat can lead to GANGRENE by increasing metabolism but not circulation. (!)

Hair dye contains something called Paraphenylenediamine, a chemical that can cause damage to the eyes. Some 89% of long term hair dye users tested developed cataract problems. The extent correlated with the length and frequency of use. Besides, whatever you put on your skin is absorbed into the blood stream, be it hair dye or suntan lotion, and many chemicals are not made for your consumption. Where does all this cancer come from? Hmmmm.

Sensitivity to foods may be increased when they are consumed with alcohol. You may be allergic to one or the other, the food or the alcohol. Too bad because if you have high cholesterol you SHOULD drink some wine every day. The wine grabs hold of the artery clogging cholesterol and drags it out of the system when you wiz. But you have to judge these things for yourself.

Mascara. Ugh! Bacteria can build up in opened tubes of mascara and lead to eye infections. Don’t keep a tube of mascara past six months.

Caffeine can produce the same symptoms as anxiety neurosis. Insomnia, headaches, muscle twitching, restlessness, and irritability. Try to monitor your intake of caffeine per day from all sources, coffee, tea, cola, chocolate, and even some headache remedies have caffeine. It’s a drug people. And yet millions are addicted and un alarmed.

Prescription drugs can cause more harm than good if combined with other medicines or even some foods. Before Big Pharm representatives write that ticket for chemical good health, make sure they tell you about the incredible side effects that can happen. You know, like your head exploding or some such thing.

Vitamin C and aspirin can be a bad mix. Given a long period of exposure to mixing the two, experimental results showed ulcers in the stomach as a result. Of course, too much acid in the stomach can be a problem anyway, and they are both additional acid.

Use eye drops sparingly, especially commercial brands. They relieve redness by constricting blood vessels so eyes will look whiter, once again medicine covers symptoms instead of providing help, if you use eye drops for too long and too often, varicose veins can develop and you’ll have permanently red eyes.

Kidney failure can be caused by mixing aspirin with acetaminophen or phenacetin. Don’t take aspirin and Aleve at the same time.

Do you have toxic plants in your house? Plum pits, apple seeds, apricot pits, morning glory seeds, English and American ivy, holly, hyacinth, hydrangea, lantana, Japanese yew, Virginia creeper, lily of the valley, daffodil bulbs, azalea, rhododendron, rhubarb leaf blades, sweet pea, wisteria, nightshade, Jack in the pulpit, water hemlock. (Yes! HOLLY!)

If you have heart disease, ice water could be harmful to you. Sudden drops in body temperature can cause stress. It can also cause cramps if taken right after a good workout for the same reason. There are those who say you should never have a cold drink with a hot meal, since it spoils the digestive fire needed for good food assimilation. I have seen that proven true myself.

Steak has more saturated fat in an average serving than many other meats. This can lead to heart disease and cancer. Besides, most meat these days has so many chemicals from all the manipulating animals go through just for a faster and easier buck, like hormones for bigger cows, and antibiotics that end up in your own system, it’s safer to just go shoot some wild deer if you really need meat. Make sure the cattle is grass fed and organic, more expensive I know, but you won’t be killing yourself just so the big meat companies can make the payments on their Ferarries.

Also, the worst combo you can eat is having a potato with that steak. The proteins and starch mix is way too much stress on your gut, no matter how much you love the combo. Try some grilled veggies instead and watch out for the overload of crap they want to serve you along side the meal. (Warm water to drink, or room temp wine. Beer will not help you.)

Try to get your older folks to do a liver cleanse every six months or so. The medical establishment has about ten or more drugs in their purse or medicine cabinet and these older folks cannot clean their systems like they could when they were young. Slower metabolism can result in an accumulation of drugs and eventually an overdose. Things like sleeping pills and antidepressants can be deadly after a year of not cleaning out the system.

Cut flowers can kill you. They can contain high levels of pesticides that can be inhaled and cause headaches and blurred vision, and also muscle weakness. About 18% of flower arrangements are polluted.

Acupuncture needles can give you hepatitis. Insist on disposable needles when having this procedure, don’t rely on someone else’s cleaning habits.

Utensils and pots which have copper can be poisoning you. Direct exposure to copper over a period of time will not pass through your system, and this is deadly. Just don’t use this stuff, it rubs off on the food and is absorbed, then you eat the food and .... well, you get the idea.

Your bicycle seat could be killing you. (hehehe..) Hard leather seats can compress the nerves in the pubic area, leading to impaired sexual response in men. Women always have impaired sexual response. ;-) Add extra padding and angle the seat downwards.

Non-stick cookware has fluorocarbon resins. This means that fluoride can be transmitted to persons with allergies to fluoride, and that can be toxic. Never overheat food in non stick pans or pots. Never use it after it becomes scratched, chipped or peels either. Throw it away. You get enough fluoride and chlorine in your water when you shower or bathe and it’s slowly killing us all. Did you know that when you shower in city water containing chlorine that the steam produced is chlorine gas? You know what they killed people in Vietnam with?

Chlorine gas.

Speaking of your tap water... metals can build up in the top layer of the water over night because they leach out of the plumbing, and that includes lead sometimes. Make sure you give your child plenty of water from the tap, a cold glass of fluoride, chlorine and lead will make him woozy and complacent at school. Just don’t use the hot water ever for anything if you can help it. So what if the water in the bottles come from a municipal source? As long as it has been purified, it’s better for you. Don’t let yourself be killed by ignorance and monetary concerns that our government embraces despite the fact that you pay their salaries.

Reviews by Hubie Goode: STILL Living With Freud Pt 7?

After all our advances in science and medicine, Are We Still Living With Freud? Pt. 7

The proposed idea that life is significant or worthless, depending upon its sexual promise, is a huge lie. Sexual determinism is, as the kids say: #$##@!!!@# %%^^%&&&!

So what is it then, what is the determinism that makes mankind what it appears to be? What we have to remember is that throughout history is moving a very significant force. That force is NOT Darwin’s natural selection, Marx’s economic determinism, or Freud’s libido. The force is indeed the will of God. There is nothing else more significant in the life of mankind other than the will of God for man’s existence.

Life is successful or not based on it’s conformity to or rebellion from the will of God. The Apostle Paul said it best: “For we can do nothing against the truth, only for the truth.” Nothing of any significance, nothing that lasts, nothing of consequence, nothing that matters can truly be accomplished except that which is for the truth. Just ask Nazi Germany, Russian Communism, or any big society of the past that is no longer with us. All energy expended for those things that are not the will of God, is lost forever.

Just take in to effect that America was indeed founded on principles from the Word of God, America a Christian nation in its’ inception, has had only one form of government in all it’s 233 years, while nations all over the globe have had anywhere from a handful to a dozen or more in the same time period. Life, happiness, accomplishment and eternal happiness are all accomplished within the will of God. The key to all REALITY in life, to every good work that matters is the INTELLIGENT human will responding positively to the Will of God.

The one principle, if followed, will bring a thousand blessings to the soul and will save that soul from a thousand problems. It is a huge mistake to reduce mankind to a sexual thing and no more. Such a come down for the special creation of mankind is the grossest sort of recidivism and reductionism.

Freud can be said to be one of the greatest deceivers of all time, and that’s no overstatement. He has confused millions as to the nature of man and God and it has been passed down generationally like a family curse throughout society. The professional opinion of all this is stated this way:

The sudden discovery of Freud’s work and ideas by intellectuals and artists. As Havelock Ellis said at the time, to the master’s indignation, Freud was NOT a scientist, but an artist. After eighty years of experience, his methods of therapy have proved, on the whole, costly failures, more suited to assuage the unhappy rather than to cure the sick. We now know that many of the central ideas of psychoanalysis have no basis in biology. .... As Sir Peter Medawar has put it: it contains nuggets of isolated truth, but the general theory of it all is completely false.” (Modern Times 1983)

Freud responded by calling his critics “insane”. Freud’s practice was picked up in an ominous way by the totalitarian society, the idea that dissent was a form of mental illness, demanding hospitalization, blossomed in the Soviet Union and became a powerful tool of political repression.

Freud also seconded the notion of Social Darwinism, one has to marvel at the imagination that created the idea of libido directing the person before all other possibilities and then applied it to society as a whole. Let’s put it out there on the table, Freud believed that society was only after a “piece of ass” as its’ main drive for accomplishment. Irregardless (not a word, I know, just seeing if you are paying attention) Invented by Darwin and then helped along by Freud, cultural Darwinism stays with us as pop culture that is subtly believed. Out of all this comes the notion that there is some “force” that makes it all happen. (May the force be with you)

So now we have been programmed to believe some rather amusing ideas in our so called advanced age. School books and advertisements on television tell us there is something “dynamic” about the world that makes it an exciting place to be. How easy it is therefore to believe that history itself possesses a force that will bring us all to progress, riches, enjoyment and even utopia if we will just cooperate with that force. Cultural Darwinism means nothing unless it connects to humanity itself the possession of a life force, a cultural libido.

Many modern, cultic, and pagan religions have built their appeal on such a presumption. The presumption that there is a reality that exists all around us without the controlling influence of God himself. The New Age movement insists that we live in harmony with nature, moving along with its’ life force, and then we will enjoy happiness. I still remember the harmonic convergence of 1983 or so.. I am not sure, but I remember the music group Yes was involved and it was just after 1982. Throngs of people all got together to harmonize and humm on the same wavelength. This was supposed to bring in a new era or some such thing, I wonder where it is? I was told as a young person to hold onto imaginary goals and truly believe them and they would come to pass, simply because of my connecting to that sort of mystical, magical force of the universe thing. Well, I used to really love model Cindy Crawford, back in my twenties. I “thought” about her a lot, for a long time. I never “married” Cindy Crawford. When I tell these proponents that sort of thing, they tell me I didn’t truly believe. Really? Where’s the measuring rod for that? How much would have been enough? How much would not have been enough? The New Agers carry their propaganda everywhere, calling people to cooperate with the destiny they say is built into the social structure.

When Freud gave us the idea of determinism, he caused the world to concentrate on determinism to the point of addiction. He also legitimized the idea of determinisms, and now we are flooded with them. It seems there is someone somewhere writing a book about a new determinism every day, just go to your local self-help bookstore and see for yourself.

Freud left Austria in 1938 and died of mouth cancer the next year in England. His life work can best be summed up like this:

This hunger for the soul of faith can find no nutriment in the harsh, cold, severe and matter of fact sobriety of psychoanalysis. Analysis can give knowledge and nothing more. For the very reason that it has no place for faith, it can only supply us with facts, with realities, but never with philosophy. This is its’ limitation. No other philosophical method can so successfully lead man into the recesses of his own ego: but, being an intellectual discipline and not an affective one; it can never lead him back to altitudes that transcend his own ego. It dissolves, divides and separates; it shows to each life its’ own meaning; but it cannot weave the separate parts into a greater reality of meaning. If it is to be supplemented and until it becomes truly creative, the enlightenment it effects must have superadded to them a conjoining and confusing technique; psychoanalysis must be must supplemented by psycho synthesis. Perhaps this will be accomplished by the science of tomorrow. Freud’s work is still largely undone, and the world awaits the bright minds that will put feet to his most outrageous ideas.
- Stefan Zweig

Of course, this statement has some New Age overtones, for they must remain secular and populist. But I really have to wonder, as we come closer and closer to the end of the Mayan calendar in 2012 and we still await the return of Planet X; which will turn the Earth over again like it does every 3,600 years or so... when society looks back on the Freud era, let’s say 300 years from now, will it too, like the 2012 scare and the twelfth planet, be seen as a footnote, a movement that belonged more to the mind of one man than to an overall reality of mankind.

Fin

Reviews by Hubie Goode: Are We STILL Living With Freud Pt 6?

After all our advances in science and medicine, Are We Still Living With Freud? Pt. 6

Fortunately, for Psychology itself, the rejections of Freud’s hypotheses began in the professional sector. They, his partners in the field, believed he was practically addicted to the emphasis on the sexual determinism he so heartily professed. Professionals such as Bleuler, Jung, Adler and most of his personal associates broke with him over this. The world may have loved him, but his compatriots analyzed him into repudiation, despite the refusal of the outside world to listen to them.

What are those things which have firmly ingrained themselves within our mental makeup to the extent that we no longer question our programming. We barely even realize the source of many of our casually held truths about life and ourselves.

Freud drew a picture of the human being consisting of the Id, Ego and Superego, motivated by libido and guided by the life instinct or death instinct. These of themselves are concepts for many a late night of ruminating over a hot cup of tea by the fireplace, but the overemphasis on them has caused people to forget a number of essential characteristics that cannot be ignored.

The first and foremost point is that mankind was made in the image of God. And God said, “Let us make man in our own image, after our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the Earth.” So therefore, God created man in his own image, male and female he created them.” Genesis 1:26-27 Here in the Bible is the basic truth of the universe, and also the basic truth you need in understanding the basic nature of mankind. We are special creations, not like the beasts of the field, but like the creator of the universe.

It is in great error then to say that a man is nothing more than a collection psychological forces. Even more of an insult to say we are merely a subspecies of the rest of animal nature. Freud’s view suggests all of this, as he forced a concentration on himself by mankind and created a kind of casual forgetfulness of the of the one who created the protons, electrons and neutrons in an atom and also the mighty planets that rotate around our sun in much the same fashion.

In contrast to Freud’s view, and Darwin’s also for that matter, the Word of God teaches that man is a tripartite being, made of body, soul and spirit. The body of man was created out of the dust of the ground and not from the water, that dust, I might also mention, can be traced directly back to the stars. In fact all elements for life and the world that we see come from the stars, this is the “dust” scripture is talking about. All the elements from the periodic table travel over great distances in space to reach our home planet. Calcium travels inside the light beam of far off starlight and the plants absorb it, the cows eat plants, we drink the milk and we have calcium in our bodies. Freud and Darwin knew nothing of this. Astrophysics has proven this with observable measures.

Freud in his concept of the ID, would have us believe that it is your essential component and exists in a kind of autonomous reality. Freud sees mankind as a result of his environment, his pressures, his happy opportunities that just come his way (luck), and the purely human condition in which he exists.

Who are you gonna believe? The creator or the creation. Our essential nature reflects that of the nature of God himself, and anything else is a lie. The soul grows from an interaction with body and spirit and is the way in which we communicate with the outside world. The person who believes God knows that he can be possessed, in a literal sense by the redemptive power of God. Because of your acceptance of Jesus as savior and Lord, the believer knows he can posses the spirit of the living God by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Therefore daily contact can be had with heaven itself, (amazing huh?) All joy, fulfillment and capability can be had each and every day with the creator of the universe through this Holy Spirit, and what sin basically is, is the breaking of this connection. According to God, reality is this way. There is an entire surrounding reality which everyone would right now be a part of if only mankind had not chosen to break with God. All these things you may be saying to yourself that are really just imaginary B.S.as you read this, like angels, heavenly places, face to face commune with the creator or even, let’s say, the ability to bring into being those things that are not merely from an act of will, would be plainly obvious to you if we were not existing as the only perversion in God’s reality. (Due to our disconnection)

Freudianism must inevitably lead to despair, in fact he held that the death instinct eventually triumphs in each and every person’s life. He, like the character Larry David plays in the ignorant movie “Whatever Works”, would interpret spontaneous leaps out of the window in order to kill himself as a positive assertion that the death instinct was winning inside of his psyche.

Perhaps his biggest influence on mankind can be summed up in the idea that man does what he does and becomes what he becomes. Freud believed that sex is the motivation for everything. A person succeeds or fails in relation to the amount of cooperation a person gives his libido. Are you pursuing the satisfaction of the sex drive enough? Just ask Maxim magazine readers if you think this is not the case. “Dude, get a better job... you’ll never get laid.”

more in part 7