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Fun-Filled Friday: Christine’s Surgery, Easter Witch, Free Doughnuts, Tax Tea Party, And The Rappin’ Easter B!

This Easter weekend edition of “Fun-Filled Friday” is brought to you by the letter “E” (for Easter) and the number 7 (for the approximate number of hours of sleep I’ve gotten this week!). WHEW! It has been quite the doozy this past seven days, so let’s have a little fun, shall we?

My dear wife Christine has been battling a severe pain in the neck this year (besides me, of course!) and it turns out it was because of a herniated disc between her C4 and C5 that the neurosurgeon said had nearly slipped completely out. You might recall this picture from the 2009 cruise in January when Christine had to wear a sling because of numbness in her arm and excruciating pain. She was taking lot of hydrocodone, but the source of the pain needed to be removed. That happened this week.

Here’s Christine right after her surgery on Wednesday morning and she’ll be wearing a neck brace for the next couple of months while it heals. The doctor made an incision in the front of her throat to do the operation and he said it was a success. She already says the pain and numbness in her neck and arm that was there before is completely gone. YEAH! I’ve been taking good care of her since she was discharged yesterday morning and she’s been doing a lot of resting. Continue to think about and pray for her to have a speedy recovery.

In the United States, if someone calls you a “witch,” it’s not usually a good thing. But in the country of Sweden, an “Easter Witch” is apparently a VERY good thing. Today, a major publication there called DN.se named high-fat, low-carb (LCHF) diet advocate Dr. Annika Dahlqvist their “2009 Easter Witch of the Year.” She likely got that title as a result of her performance on Swedish television last month defending the consumption of saturated fat. I say, whatever it takes to get people’s attention, do it! And that’s what Dr. Dahlqvist is doing in Sweden. She won’t mind being called a “witch” if it means people will be exposed to the truth about healthy living!


This Sunday, our church will be holding three morning worship services to accommodate the heavy attendance that usually happens on Easter Sunday every year. Although we moved into a new building last month, it will still be a busy time at the church. But imagine my surprise when I received an e-mail early in the week from the church office with the graphics you see above. As a means of encouraging members to go to the early services to save room for visitors coming at 11:00am, they’re giving away free doughnuts and juice for breakfast between the first and second services. Why do churches do this kind of stuff? And it is done without regard to the negative impact all that sugar is having on the members. This really saddens me because it is a sober reminder of just how much work is left to do to educate our culture about health.

If you have a job in the United States and make over $30,000, then you obviously know what next Wednesday is: INCOME TAX DAY! That’s right, everybody’s favorite date on the calendar April 15th will be here on hump day next week and you’re happy about it, right? I saw this video posted on YouTube this week that gives some sobering statistics about income taxes that you might find interesting.

Incidentally, not everyone is happy with the ever-increasing income tax load and they’re making their voice count on April 15, 2009 with “Tax Day Tea Party” events all across the nation. It’s a way for you to voice your concern about the excessive spending that is going on in Washington, DC bailing out companies that ran their businesses irresponsibly while the average American foots the bill for it. If you think that’s wrong, then go participate in a “tea party” event near you next week.

Finally, it IS Easter weekend and if you’ve never seen this one-minute video clip called “The Easter Bunny Rap,” then get ready to have the biggest smile to grace your face in a long time because this is TOO CUTE! Have an AWESOME Easter holiday and we’ll talk at you again soon! Send me your FFF stuff anytime at livinlowcarbman@charter.net. Peace out!

April 10th, 2009 | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Category: 1
  • OnPoint

    I think you should skip the tea party, unless you did the same when Bush was in office. Remember Bush/Cheney – “Deficits don’t matter.” Also, do not forget the first $700 Billion was approved with no strings attached by Bush/Paulson. Many of the bonuses and such to overpaid execs were contractually stipulated and had to be honored by law, corporate welfare check or not.

    I’ve have my concerns about the stimulus size as well, but some of it is necessary – tax cuts to stimulate the economy, public works projects (maybe no bridges have collapsed in SC), extension of unemployment benefits, development alternative energy technologies to make the USA independent of foreign oil.

    Obama made the very unwise decision to add the costs of the war to the budget, instead of hiding it in a separate fund like his predecessor. Hence, he’s being blamed for soaring deficits based solely on pork barrel spending. And hence, the tea parties.

    Oh, and btw, I make more than $30k/yr, and my taxes have not gone up – in fact, they’ve gone down slightly my past two paychecks. Hey, this blog must be much more profitable than I thought! You must be making Oprah-money, which is why you’re experiencing a tax increase.

    In short, give the new president a chance.

    I don’t like government spending my money on programs that will take money out of my pocket and put it in the pockets of others who are looking for a handout. I’ve worked hard in my life taking on multiple jobs many times to pay the bills and it’s wrong for companies and individuals to look for a “bailout” just because they made some poor decisions. The tea party movement is a peaceful way for people to protest the temptation to keep spending and spending because someday those bills are going to come due and we won’t have the money to take care of it. Who’s gonna bail America out when that happens?

    As for that $30,000 level where you are paying taxes, I originally had it at $50,000. But then taking into account all the new spending that is happening on Capitol Hill, I lowered it to $30,000 because it will be impossible for us to avoid paying more and more taxes in the coming years to take care of all these new programs and expenditures. You may not be paying it now, but you will.

    Actually, my taxes have remained relatively stable the past few years and so this has very little to do with my personal situation. It has much more to do with the theory that spending money on more and more programs like what is happening now will stimulate the economy. Why not stop the spending, find areas of the budget where current spending can be decreased or eliminated, and reduce the tax burden on those who are paying the taxes? That’s what a family has to do with their own personal budget, but that must not apply to Washington, DC. And if you put more money back into the pockets of those people who are employing others, then you give them the ability to raise pay, create new jobs, and make their business successful. It’s the American way–something lost these days.

    Okay, rant over. We now return you to our regularly scheduled blogging already in progress.

    –Jimmy

  • riceball

    hey jimmy!
    happy easters!

    cheeeeeeers!
    ZZ

    THANKS! I appreciate the added info on the new studies and I’ll be blogging about those soon. EXCITING THINGS happening, huh? Happy Easter to you, too!

    –Jimmy

  • riceball

    I’m happy to help, I’ve already sent them to my dad

    btw… after reading about the starch study with the mice, it got me thinking…if carbohydrate and insulin sensitivity is the real explaination for causing diabetes,(instead of just b/c of genes, especially type 2.), people from south china should have a lower chance of having diabetes than north, b/c ppl eat a lot more rice and veggies in south, where as in north people eat wheat. ..and a lot of wheat (in the old days)

    so I googled “diabetes, north, south” in chinese of course….
    and it ended up agreeing with my hypothesis..

    amazing or what? but of course the health administration think diabetes is very complicated and it could be b/c of the difference of the environment, the difference in genes, drinking water etc…

    made me laugh.

  • Tom Paine

    Are you protesting against tax hikes? President Obama got passed the largest middle-class tax cut in history.

    A protest against government debt? Where were the protests over the massive debt racked up by the Republicans?

    If you are concerned about debt and concerned about taxes, one presumes you favor drastic spending cuts. But what do you propose about Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security, particularly Medicare which is the culprit for much of the debt burden?

    Do you understand what would happen if we didn’t bail the banks out. Are you advocating letting major banks fail? Or are you advocating a government take-over instead?

    I love your low-carb advocacy. I lost 17 pounds easily. Thank you for that!

    THANKS Tom! I certainly don’t want a political debate on a low-carb blog, but I appreciate the opportunity to respond to your comments. That $13/week middle class tax cut President Obama and Congress passed won’t amount to any measurable difference to them once the bill comes due for all these programs and bailouts he has proposed.

    And you’re exactly right–the Republicans have sucked just as bad at it as the Democrats. This isn’t about supporting one political party over another, it’s about doing what is right. Nobody is willing to admit the tax and spend policies that have happened the past twenty years have gotten us in the financial mess we now face.

    Absolutely, spending cuts are in order and not the ones to national defense that Obama is favoring. We waste so much money on needless pork spending to appease individual members of the House and Senate that could better be served in the pockets of the American people. I’m amazed how people are so willing to give the government free reign to take our money and spend it frivolously on whatever they please. That’s just about as irresponsible as it gets–again, both major political parties are guilty.

    There are ways to reduce the costs of Medicare and other such government entitlement programs and it involves livin’ la vida low-carb. With all we know about how health improves on low-carb, why not save all that money they are forking out for prescription drugs and medical services and instead put them on a diet of meats, cheese, eggs, non-starchy veggies, etc.? We could take care of Alzheimer’s disease, cancers, heart disease, obesity, diabetes and so much more with the inexpensive use of a simple diet change. That alone would save BILLIONS annually in health care that would no longer be needed. I know it’s pie in the sky to expect this to happen, but it NEEDS to.

    As for the governments taking over the banks, auto industry, or other private businesses, I don’t want the government involved in anything except for the one thing they are obligated by the U.S. Constitution to do–protect the country against invaders. Keep us safe and leave the private sector alone to allow the market forces to deal with the consequences of poor business decisions.

    CONGRATULATIONS on your low-carb success so far, Tom, and KEEP IT UP!

    –Jimmy

  • OnPoint

    Jimmy, I didn’t think your comments were a “rant” at all, though mine might have been.

    I don’t want my money going to subsidize banks who made poor decisions either – or to GM for that matter. But how would you like the bank holding the insurance policy you are due to inherit, and that your parents have been paying for years, to become insolvent? Something had to be done, though the corporate welfare plan that began last fall was not the right thing. Things should have been thought through before execution.

    I agree with you that taxes will go up. They would have if McCain had been elected too. But isn’t higher taxes worth the cost of independence on foreign oil (one of the potential benefits), which is a major national security threat?

    Our spending will be out of control for the next couple of decades, b/c a lot of the money is going to entitlements. Soc Sec and Medicare are the culprits, and tbh, there’s no chance at all that you or I (being nearly the same age) will collect a penny of SS before the age of 70, maybe 75. I don’t care what the little statements you get in the mail say.

    Obama was elected in part b/c he’s a fairly brilliant guy. I’m willing to give him a chance to see if his strategy of investing in the future will pay off. We can’t spend out way out of this mess, but we are at the beginning of a long readjustment cycle, and it’s possible some of the spending will pay off in ways that will make the debt more affordable.

    I think Obama knows our economy is going through a very necessary period of deflation, and he’s trying to soften the landing.

    To be fair, I think he sometimes skirts the boundaries of socialism (firing the GM CEO and speculating on compensation limits on Wall Street execs), and I don’t want any part of that, but I’m willing to give the guy a chance.

    I’m all for giving President Obama a chance, too, but I think he needs to slow down with the excessive spending programs and entitlements he is proposing. That’s all.

    –Jimmy

  • OnPoint

    I forgot to add, my rant is now done, too. :-)

  • Tom Paine

    You’re right, there is no need for a politcal back and forth so this will be my last comment and you can have the last word, if you like. I enjoy the nutritional content much better.

    However, we have an immediate financial crisis that will not be solved in an expedicious manner through people adopting low-carb diets.

    Your comment opposing “spending cuts (like) ones to national defense that Obama is favoring”, leads me to believe you think there is no pork or waste there. Why would you assume there is NO pork or waste in defense?

    Yes, it will take a boatload of money to get out of this mess, but that is what fiscal stimulus is all about. That eventually got us out of the last Great Depression – a huge fiscal stimulus called WWII.

    There have been bad recessions and depressions before, such as in the 1800s, and it took decades to get out of them. That is a cost on future generations also and it should be avoided.

    My point is you don’t spend your way out of recession, you pull back the reigns and give people more of their own money back in their own pockets in the form of tax cuts. That’s all. THANKS for sharing your feedback!

    –Jimmy

  • http://www.TheBunnellFarm.com Tom Bunnell

    If you start with the premise that all of the many trillions of dollars that George Bush and Dick Cheney along with there oil company and banking cronies, siphoned off from this worlds economy and the war they quagmired us in, again, in the oil company’s interest, and the complete and total impossibility of any man or government to right these wrongs and re-balance these powers that be and the economy at large, you will begin to see the actual dilemma that we are in and that we face today! — Simplistic solutions do not exist, if in fact any solution’s do exist at all!

    If processed and hybrid carbohydrates are in fact stimulant drugs like I say, they would in fact, have very much to do with what has occurred as well as what is occurring today and right now!

  • Lisa

    Dr. Annika Dahlqvist was interviewed in the nation’s biggest health TV show “Ask The Doctor”. Annika Dahlqvist was awesome and the TV show was great. It was almost all about low carb.

    http://blogg.passagen.se/dahlqvistannika/entry/fr%C3%A5ga_doktorn

    http://svtplay.se/v/1501163/fraga_doktorn/del_12_av_18?cb,a1364145,1,f,102775/pb,a1364142,1,f,102775/pl,v,,1501163/sb,p102775,1,f,-1

    Check out this one: (“Dagens Medicin -> Medicin Today” is sweden’s leading healt care newspaper for doctors and professionals)

    http://www.kostdoktorn.se/livsmedelsverket-avfardas-i-dagens-medicin

    I can almost feel the panic in the National Food Administration :-)

  • Ray Butlers

    Are you all aware that NO TAXES have gone up? These tea parties (or rather teabagging) is a silly Fox News media stunt. Don’t be a dope. Stay home and drink tea. Don’t dump it.

  • Matt

    “There are ways to reduce the costs of Medicare and other such government entitlement programs and it involves livin’ la vida low-carb. With all we know about how health improves on low-carb, why not save all that money they are forking out for prescription drugs and medical services and instead put them on a diet of meats, cheese, eggs, non-starchy veggies, etc.? We could take care of Alzheimer’s disease, cancers, heart disease, obesity, diabetes and so much more with the inexpensive use of a simple diet change.”

    This is spot on. Way more important than working on the pork problem since pork is a very small % of the budgetary pie, and a lot of “pork” projects are pretty good ways to spend money (infrastructure, safety, etc) though a bunch get a lot of press. But the big entitiement programs are so expensive and projected to grow and grow.

    Run for office already would you?

    I can’t lie, so being a politician wouldn’t work for me. :)

    –Jimmy