It has been a very weird week. I spent last weekend writing my Old Man and the Sea article. I wanted to make it the best article I’d ever written as I hoped to convince more people to support Ron Paul. You might not think that writing an article is tiring, but after writing one I’m mentally and physically drained for at least two days. Then I had to head to the shore after work and clean the condo. I don’t know if this is why I’ve been so tired all week. I haven’t had the desire to log onto the site when I get home at night. My eyes have been closing by 9:00 pm every night. The markets were falling all week and the world seems like it is falling apart. I felt like there was a darkness clouding my thinking all week. I just don’t feel normal. Is it just me, or are other people feeling this way?
I also ran across the story below during the week. Japanese researchers have discovered that people with diabetes have a 74% greater chance of getting Azheimers. Just the news I needed to hear to cheer me up. My Dad died of Alzheimers. His brother died of Alzheimers. His sister has Alzheimers. My mother has two sisters with Alzheimers. Every time my mom tells me the same story for the 3rd time, I find myself thinking about when it will get me. When I’m at my desk and I can’t remember someone’s name or what it was I was about to do, a pang of doubt creeps into my mind. I was diagnosed with diabetes about five months ago. So now I have a 74% even greater chance of getting Alzheimers. My Dad got it in his early 70’s. That means I have maybe 25 good years left.
I could choose to be depressed by this situation, but it gives me a sense of urgency. As I walk to my office every morning I look down at the Ben Franklin quotes which have been inserted in the walkway and this one inspires me to keep plugging ahead:
“Lost Time is Never Found Again”
When I was diagnosed with diabetes, my doctor told me to lose weight and sign up for a diabetes class to learn about how I would need to live my life. I’ve been partially successful, as I’ve lost some weight, but I never signed up for the course. I tend to put off things that I don’t want to do. I think everyone tends to do this to some extent. I’ve also been writing for three years about the impending disaster that awaits our country due to our fiscal policies and massive debt. But again, I would put off preparations because in the back of my mind I hoped I was wrong. I’ve done more than most, but not enough.
I’m done wasting time. I called and scheduled my diabetes class at the local hospital. It’s time to really get in shape and give myself the best chance to fight off Alzheimers for as long as possible. I truly think things are going to go downhill faster than most people think. So I got off my ass and went out to buy a gas powered generator at Lowes. This purchase generated some interesting comments from a few people. As I pushed it up to the cash register, the cashier looked at it and asked, “Are you expecting something bad to happen?” I responded that I was trying to prepare in case of trouble. I pulled my Honda Insight up to the door and the nice guy from Lowes and I picked up the generator and slid it into the back of the car. A guy stopped as he was walking into the store and asked me what that was. I told him it was a generator. He thought it was funny that I was loading a big honking generator into a hybrid car.
Then I started to get in my car and a middle aged lady suddenly yelled out to me that she supports Ron Paul. She had seen my Ron Paul 2012 Magnet on the side of my car. I responded that he was our only hope. She said it wasn’t fair that he wasn’t getting enough air time on the MSM. She asked me if I was involved in his campaign. She wanted to know how to get involved. I gave her the website of the local Ron Paul support group. Then I told her to look for my Old Man and the Sea Op-Ed which will be in the local paper this week. It gives me hope when I see that middle aged suburban housewives with their daughters are understanding that Ron Paul has the right message.
Lastly, I’ve been somewhat annoyed by the fact that as the popularity of TBP has skyrocketed in the last few months, with visitor counts at all-time highs, the site makes less money every month. For someone with a business background, my efforts in generating revenue from this site have been a miserable failure. The google ads were doing well until google pulled the plug. No one seems to be clicking the new ads, as they are generating about $1 per day. The Amazon ad was pulling in a couple hundred per month and now is generating less than $100 a month. Not one person has opened an account at Everbank. The donation button resulted in an initial flurry of donations, mostly from the regulars on the site (thanks to everyone who made a donation), but there has been virtually no activity since. I did get one donation from a really famous political figure who I have the utmost respect for (I will not reveal his name). It blows me away that famous people read this site.
So, somehow I’ve turned the whole internet dynamic of increasing visitor counts into increased revenue on its head. The truth is that I could probably write articles with the specific purpose of generating revenue, but I have no interest in doing so. I’m trying to make a difference. Whenever I start to get annoyed by the lack of income, I think back to the reason I started writing in the first place. I want to leave my sons a country where they have a chance for a better life than I’ve had. My research for The Old Man and the Sea article has convinced me that winning or losing doesn’t matter. Fighting for the truth and fighting the good fight to the end is all that matters at the end of the day. I might get dejected, depressed, angry, and moody, but I’ll keep battling for the future of my kids.
I think we’ve created a somewhat dysfunctional support group at TBP, but it’s our dysfunctional support group. As things get worse over the coming months and years, hopefully our little community will function as a possible backbone for a new dynamic in our country based on local communities being self supportive. The government will not be the answer. Supporting local charities, helping your neighbors, and supporting your family are what matters. The ending will be the same for everyone who walks this earth. What matters is the course chosen on the voyage through life. Lost time is never found again.
I try to help the people in my community by donating to http://www.mannaonmain.org/.
I’m trying to help my country by donating to https://secure.ronpaul2012.com/.
We know bad times are ahead. Do what you can do to help make this a country you can be proud of.
Diabetes can Lead to Dementia
By Lenina C. | September 22, 2011 9:01 AM EST
We all know that Diabetes is a metabolic condition wherein the person has high glucose levels, the body has difficulty utilizing insulin, or simply because the body just can’t produce adequate amounts of insulin. This disease can lead to several complications like heart attack, kidney failure, and erectile dysfunction, to name a few.
But on top of these complications, the Japanese researchers found out that Diabetes can also lead to Alzheimer’s disease and Dementia. Alzheimer’s disease is a condition associated with loss of cognitive ability and has something to do with abnormal protein and tissue accumulation in the cerebral cortex of the brain. This is the most common type of Dementia.
There were studies conducted to justify the link between Diabetes, the risk of Alzheimer’s disease, and Dementia however, there were no conclusive results revealed. This is exactly the reason why a group of Japanese investigators decided to do a thorough search for answers themselves.
The Japanese researchers have been conducting studies on heart diseases since 1961 in Hisayama. Then in the year 1988, a glucose tolerance test was done to more than 1,000 adult residents of Hisayama to observe the status of the glucose production of their bodies. After 15 years, the researchers, performed a follow up assessment and, found out that 232 of the 1000 participants had dementia.
In the whole course of the study, researchers discovered that Alzheimer is the most common type of Dementia.
“Our findings emphasize the need to consider diabetes as potential risk factor for all-cause dementia,” the researchers said.
Participants with high genetic risk and an unfavorable lifestyle were almost three times more likely to develop dementia versus those with a low genetic risk and favorable lifestyle.
