Giving up Caffeine: Week 1

Well, I've gone a week without any caffeine. Still craving my Dr Pepper like no kidding. Substituting mineral water with little bits of raspberry syrup - if it's ice cold and fizzy, it helps. I've eaten way too much this week - probably compensation - but one thing at a time. Aw hqiz, it's Christmas, after all. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Once I no more got de shake and piss for trouser, I can worry about portion control again, and it should be a lot easier if I'm not pumping myself full of Aspartame, which is an appetite stimulant anyway. Those in the know would have me give up the mineral water too, since CO₂ leaches calcium from the bones, but for the love of Mogg's sister, I can't live on rice cakes and water. I get plenty of Calcium supplentation from the world's best source, so I'm going to pay my dime and take my chances. Maybe next year. Maybe not. We shall see.

Headaches. This should help

I never get headaches, at least not since I was a kid. For the last month or so I've been plagued with incessant ones - not migraines, thank Mogg, but enough to keep me on edge and not feeling my best. Had my BP checked, saw the doc, he made supportive noises and gave me a few generic solutions, said to come back and schedule an MRI if nothing has gotten better by the New Year.

Tonight I think I finally figured out what's going on.

I got new glasses several months ago. New prescription that works fine for distance and reading, but left my midrange woefully inadequate - specifically, the distance at which I keep my monitor. Tonight the pain had settled in the back of my neck, and I realized that for months I've been sitting at my monitor craning my neck upward to get the very maxiumum magnification out of my progressive lenses. And with lousy posture, too.

For an experiment, I grabbed some reading glasses that I use for small, small print and slipped them on over my regular ones. Lo and behold, I could actually see the screen without bending my neck, and immediately I felt a release of pressure in the back of my head. As soon as the new year rolls over and my insurance benefit kicks in, I'm going to have some new specs made up designed for working at my desk. That should take care of my headaches forever... knock wood.

Achtung! You *will* buy our insurance, and you *will* like it.

"Every Senate Democrat (plus the two Independents, Joseph I. Lieberman of Connecticut and Sanders) went on record declaring that the so-called individual mandate that is the heart of the health care bill -- that is, an unprecedented federal mandate that requires individuals to purchase a product in the private market, on pain of taxation should they choose to disobey -- does not violate the Constitution.

In other words, every single Democrat in the Senate is now on record in support of the belief that the federal government literally has the power to order its citizens to use their own after-tax dollars to buy something it wishes them to buy, details to be filled in later."
-Bill Pascoe, in CQ Politics

Like the man said: "In a word, wow." More at the link.

I can only hope that this quiet little vote sounds the death knell for the political career of every one of these communist hqiz-eaters. That's my story, and I'm sticking to it.

Oh Yeah? Well, why the hqiz not?

From CNN, with regard to the piece of terrorist camel-hqiz who tried to blow up a Northwest flight:

"It was unclear whether Mr. Abdulmutallab’s name was entered into the Terrorist Identities Datamart Environment list, which includes people with known or suspected contact or ties to a terrorist or terrorist organization. That list is maintained by the United States National Counterterrorism Center. It includes about 550,000 names.

Those people, however, are not necessarily placed on the federal government’s so-called no-fly list, which prohibits persons entering the United States because of known or suspected terrorists links."

Sheesh, people. That much should be a no-brainer, given our history. Abdulmutallab was brought to the attention of the US authorities months ago, by his own father. This man should not have been allowed within 3,000 miles of the United States or any vessel traveling in our direction.

I know that the various agencies charged with protecting our borders are full of good, dedicated individuals doing their best to keep us safe. But the lack of cooperation and collaboration between the various fiefdoms - and I use that term with all due deliberateness - frustrates me no end. And with politics, internal and external, playing such a huge rôle in daily operations, I fear me that I see no immediate solution at hand, which could result in yet another terrorist success at the expense of our nation's citizens.