Peaceful Penetration

Do you recall, while in history class in high school or perhaps in grammar school the term, "Peaceful penetration?" I recall the expression used in the history of warfare when one power had concurred another and the looser, with normal human reproduction of the time and place would prevail eventually as a majority party and so have won the war. All religions excepting one have mellowed over the short span of recorded human history.Almost all of us can live with the thought that everyone should be able to live with religions other than their own. Everyone embracing a religion knows theirs is "the true" one and live up to a point by its teachings. Those teachings are called allegorical by most true believers. For example where a holy writing calls for parents to stone their children to death for some mentioned reason, most would interpret that to mean severe punishment and not death. That's an example from the Christian Bible.
How can non believers cope with a religion that has all the answers including principals of governing and permits no competition? Eventually, by "peacful penetration," it should prevail shouldn't it? What are the ways such a movement can be minimized? So this blog asks the question, what peaceful solutions are possible? That is a question that must be a major challenge of the future. I can propose one solution that is unacceptable, namely, join it.

More about running

I mentioned previously that according to the USATF(track and field) last year there were 30 million runners in our country. Compared to all other sports added together that trivializes the other sports or actions that may be called exercise sports. I wonder if all other fun activities of we humans were added to exercise sports such as cross word puzzles, card playing, chess and all others other than reading, that running would still come out first.
Now consider this. As a species we have adopted the attitude that work or exercise should be avoided. The great criminal lawyer, Clarance Darrow once said he would defend a working man to the death but would never be one himself. For more periods of history than I like to imagine, humans have had slave societies for the haves and the have-nots were often the slaves. It is only more recently that males treated their mates as other than slaves and the women accepted it. Even today that reasoning seems to be evident with abusive males. On a shelf I have a line of running trophies. Each is someones idea of the perfect human male physic although once I was given a female trophy. Looking at the trophies I marvel at the fantastic anatomical structures each demonstrates. Visiting "rest" homes I see countless older humans dressed to cover those remarkable attributes. Why the inactivity? Many ethnic groups came to our land after having worked endless hours to provide the opportunity for their children to have opportunities the parents did not have. Four such groups come to mind. Italians, Irish, Chinese and Africans. Think of the scholars who are now Americans who are extractions of the four. Perhaps most of the offspring have had the attitude of working that they will not have to work their butts off like their parents did.
So, my thesis is that the above are a significant part of our population who profess to dislike it and therefore avoid exercise. If I am correct please tell me why the 30 million of us are runners. Once the attitude of avoiding exercise is accepted at a young age then that attitude seems to be reinforced all a persons life. I believe if once the average non-runner realizes he or she has the ability and the equipment to run, running may be tried. Once tried it will become so worthwhile in physical and mental health that the idea will sweep our country. Thinking ahead, with little or no Alzheimer's or strokes or much arthritis and with half the breast cancer in women and fewer heart attacks in all, the reduction in health costs will drop markedly. Consider this; if a small group of enterprising people were to get together and publish my book, "Come Run With Me," they would not only do a tremendous amount of good for our senior citizens but could benefit financially themselves. Please remember this, I started when completely out of shape when 80 years of age and now run regularly for the fun of it at over 90..

A Running Theory of Good Health

Evolutionists tell us our ancestors were tree dwellers until some found a better life on the ground. Then there was an advantage in being able to rise up on his legs to look for danger or food over the vegetation of the African Savannah. With the hardware each human possesses he must have had a good reason for it whatever the reason. The bones, muscles, tendons, arteries, veins and also upstairs, the inclination to run.
Think about it. After childhood most of us try to discourage exercise. Think of those of us who invent stuff to minimize exercise and to avoid using our fantastic hardware. Having been equipped for running and so well equipped what else of our anatomy may we fail to use? Suppose we have organs that are dependent on exercise to function properly and do not exercise? Suppose we have organs equipped for the food we ingested in the millions of years we have taken to be here and now. And suppose those organs are exposed to stuff they are not equipped to handle, what then?
Of course the answer is obvious, we could be poisoned. Suppose we know our livers are important in trapping unwelcome stuff and removes the stuff from our systems with the flow of blood through that organ. Once again suppose the exercise which our anatomy is equipped for is not utilized to it's fullest extent. Unless the exercise is present that organ fails to do its job?
Could that be the reason that running women have half as much breast cancer as non-running women? Is that why runners have fewer strokes, stronger bones, almost no Alzheimer's as well as fewer trips to physicians? Another wonder is, if the above reasoning is valid, can we say those problems not found in runners may be caused by environmental reasons? Environmental reasons that, if eliminated would solve many human mysteries? Autism comes to mind as well as atherosclerosis and heart attacks and even the likes of ALS and Parkinson's?
To take that thinking step farther, we know if a woman takes the likes of thalidomide, her child may be born a cripple. The same result is found in a cow eating the vegetation we call lupine while pregnant. We have to factor in the susceptibility of the mother in all the strange unaccountable problems of humans.
So that's my thinking for today. Other thoughts should be factored in the equation but the basis is that by the excess circulation of blood through the liver provides a flushing of that organ that rids the system of more stuff than almost any other exercise and results in better health for runners than for non-runners. Ahmen. End of serman. You can take it from there but, you older couch potatoes, get off your butts and relearn to run for two to two and a half more years of healthier life. I did it starting at 80 years of age and so can you even starting at 90.

The Reason for Runners' Good Health

It came to me suddenly on lane 7 of 12 I ran a few minutes ago on the Brattleboro High School track. I think I can identify the reason for runners living longer with much lower incidence of most reasons for most deaths among humans. I had been thinking of ideas of others such as that the liver is responsible for over 200 functions we learned in veterinary school. Also one person refuses to eat liver because it filters out so much waste from our bodies. He does not want that waste in his system. It is correct that the liver is a great cleansing organ of the body among other things. Now suppose when runners exercise much more blood is circulated all through the body including the liver where waste materials are not eliminated by typical slow circulation of blood.
It seems reasonable to me that some toxic substances may build up in the liver in those who lead a sedentary life as compared to the runner who regularly flushes a huge volume of blood through that organ while running. If my thinking is correct there is another possibility and that is that for every problem that is prevented by running, then each may be due to some toxic waste from the environment and not from some strange infective agent not identified. Examples are half as much breast cancer in women runners, many fewer strokes, much less heart disease and longer life all due to toxic stuff in the environment and not due to some unknown infection. It offers researchers a direction to study to be more successful in solving many problems. How's that for another sermon?

To Level Teachers' Fields in Educaton

It has been said in many ways that the finished product often depends on the raw material put in initially. So it is with education. A bright child well on it's way to learning before entering our public education system will be a superior finished product.(some exceptions) With the children in inner cities of most school systems the dropout rate by high school is astounding but understandable. To judge the performance of teachers by class progress as been done with the No Child Left Behind program is unfair to teachers in the inner cities. I have a suggestion to make to put the spotlight on the problem that many educators recognize but little has been done to rectify. Develop a test to be given to the class of students entering the system and to decide on a numerical rating for each class. Say a rating of from 1 to 10. In a suburban area near a school of higher learning as with a university, the children of parents of the area might be expected to be better prepared than those in a depressed inner city population. And a school might register an 8 out of a possible 10 where as the inner city children might be only a 2. Each teacher would spend the first week or so giving tests on vocabulary, reading and writing and arithmetic. At the conclusion it would be expected that the students would climb a given number of rungs of the ladder of learning based on past experience each of marking periods. Parents as well as the students should be told of the importance of learning as it will influence the kind of life the student will be qualified for when older. For a class of 8th graders leaped ahead from a scholarship grade of say 5 to an 8 that teacher might be declared Teacher of the Year or some other honorarium. The classes entering with a 1 or 2 would be shown in need of special education just as other handicapped children are. Many teachers are altruistic in teaching to help children, even disadvantaged children,that they should be recognized for progress in teaching these handicapped children and rewarded for that special contribution. Moreover, recognizing the intellectually disadvantaged should attract interest in improving the lot of the early education that is recognized by most as inadequate for groups of students in cities all over our land. So, coincidentally are gangs of marauding school dropouts in many cities over our land.

What You Don't know Wont Hurt You?

If you were my vintage you know what the Regular Army used to be. What do you know about it today and why don't you know much?. For example when was the last time you heard the expression, "KP" mentioned? How about,"MP?" I read that there are over 250,000 civilians connected with the troops as support,"Over There." In my day they wore uniforms and were paid soldier's wages, not twice as much. There were "Service Commands" to supply the needs of the troops. I wonder if the waiters who serve the catered food prepared by hirelings get to keep their tips?
Does everybody know that all an enemy has to do to beat our military is to pay off the caterers to stop feeding our troupes and it's all over. Are you so naive that you think people cannot be paid off to get away with anything? All it takes is big bucks. No doubt to get all the back-up military work privatized cost a lot to pay off those who approved the legality of it. We have to assume that over 50% of our legislators have been bought and paid for or the majority would not permit the wealthy minority to get away with it.
Here is a history quiz. Did you learn it in High School or before? Do you agree with it? I do.Who wrote it?
"Corporations have been enthroned and an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money-power of the country will endeavor to prolong it's reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until all the wealth is aggregated in few hands and the Republic is destroyed." Abraham Lincoln
It's happening before our open eyes. It's time for action.

The Short Life of a Diagnosis

The title concerns an issue reported in the N Y Times this morning. It raises some interesting ideas that I would like to mention and perhaps see some comments on. So come along to a conclusion I have reached and play detective with me. Where the issue raised In the Times concerns humans, as a veterinarian I shall add a bit about lower animals to help reach my final thoughts. First there are clues that we must accept. The first one being that pregnant mammals can, by what is ingested, affect developing embryos. The history of pregnant women injuring their developing embryos by what they eat must be agreed upon. An example is the resulting babies born defective from the mothers having ingested the drug, Thalidomide. the second clue, in lower animals an example is a cow ingesting a plant that must be called poisonous when deformed calves are produced after a mothers eating it.
The subject in the Times report was autism and the Asperger Syndrome which together are considered one by many experts.
The next clue concerns the observation of autism. It appeared in a significant number of cases about 1940 and Aspergers was first reported in German in 1944. Prior to those dates if the problem existed, it had not been recognized worthy enough to be named. I believe a case can be made that the problem did not exist prior to about those dates. That statement may be suspect and should be investigated.
Let's go on. If autism is a new disease, science has focused on symptoms and not cause. With such a newborn problem, what are the possible causes? Science must place it in the group with problems such as ALS, cancer and the likes. With autism, could it be in the catagory with such as gastric ulcers?
Between the cause and treatment of gastric ulcers in humans was a 20 or so year period during which time the veterinary profession had identified the cause and treatment for hogs as a bacteria and the treatment. For the higher mammal during the years to find the answer it was speculated that it had a psychological answer and patients were cataloged as certain types of personalities that were involved. scientific papers were published until someone made the discovery that the vet profession had solved that cause and cure 20 years before. The human solution was the same one that cured the pigs without addressing their personalities. My point here is that perhaps the vet profession could help solve the autism problem not even recognized in lower animals. So we are nearing some possible answers. The first question may be, "What could have happened in the environment at around 1940 that could have caused such a problem as autism?" Now let's leave that question to ask again shortly. In about 1940 a new problem appeared in the vet world. It was called hip dysplasia in dogs. It was reported in the literature as a genetic problem but and that but is important because the problem was soon identified in all breeds and genetic traits don't spread from one breed to all breeds in dogdome. Now we can ask the identical question asked above,namely,what could have happened in the environment at around 1940 that could have caused such a problem?" That presents another question, "Could there be something new in the environment that could have affected both humans and canines simultaneously?" Another question comes to mind, "But the problems are so different." an answer could be, "So are the species."
I have tried to answer that question and find that a substance classed as "grass" became popular at about that time and should be suspect until proven otherwise. The word grass stands for, "generally regarded safe." With such a classification and I don't know how that was arrived at, is it possible a toxic substance has flooded our food without having been thoroughly investigated? Of course with new preservatives and combination's of additives, could our testing of combinations of additives fallen through cracks?
We all know that preservatives starting with heating have saved countless human lives but if it is a preservative that depends for effectiveness on the rolling of the dice with some helped and others helped into the grave, a pause is suggested for investigating a possible injurious one.