Kristy's Blog

It’s my contention that no matter what your political leaning that the public does not understand what it really believes. No one reads or investigates any more – they only listen to sound bites. If you’re violently opposed to either party, you’re missing what’s really going on – and playing into the hands of politicians.

Since I’m an Arizona resident, thought I’d give this a shot.

Mexicans don’t get any free benefits unless they have green cards. If you think they do, you are wrong. Free lunches at school is the only thing you got right (regarding benefits), and that’s only because you don’t have to show ID to get them. Contrary to popular myth, the majority of people taking advantage of the ER are Americans with no healthcare benefits, another reason we need to make healthcare a right and not a business.

FYI, most children of illegals are born in the US, giving them automatic US citizenship, so even the free lunch thing is right only part of the time. I don’t have a problem with the automatic citizenship thing – this country is so great because we are a nation of immigrants. We didn’t have strict illegal immigration policies on the books until the late 1930’s.

If only we would do what the Mexicans do when anyone applies for their green card (BTW, I have a Mexican green card, so I have this info firsthand) is run a background check and charge $200. The process took me 3 weeks. If we did the same and charged what the smugglers charged ($5000), we get a lot of money coming in PLUS the taxes they would pay.

Another thing, illegals being here is our fault. And not because of lax “border security”, which is laughable considering there is no border security on our Pacific and Atlantic coasts, nor on the Canadian board. We hire them. We hire them to build homes, clean homes, pick crops, wash dishes, etc. If we enforced laws punishing people who hire them, they would all go home. Better yet, why not slap a $10K fine on anyone hiring them (including private citizens that pick them up at Home Depot).

The boys never know
How all the girls feel
About dancing and singing
It makes your love real

They stand at the sidelines
With their arms closely folded
Surly attitudes blazing
To none they’re beholden

Do you not know we are moving
in the Ecstasy of song?
If you think it’s not sensual
You would be wrong.

Directions from Phoenix: (all mileage #’s are ROUGH estimates)
*******************
From I-17 to the I-40 junction at Flagstaff. Go west on I-40. Turn right at the Flagstaff Ranch Road exit. Go to the stop sign and turn right onto Old Route 66. Turn right at the Woody Mountain Campground onto Forest Road 231 (Woody Mountain Road) for 21 miles and watch for Forest Road 231A. Do not take Forest Road 231A but continue along Forest Road 231 for another .8 of a mile, looking for the second turnoff to the right. This is FR 231E and is also signed “Fernow Draw.” Stay on the main road and drive another 10-15 miles. We will be camping on the right side of the road on the edge of the canyon.

When Einstein was about age 3, his parents brought him to a pediatrician because he was not yet talking. Researchers have learned that Einstein had developmental dyslexia. More than a century ago, it was found that lesions of the left angular gyrus—ie, Brodmann’s area 39—induce acquired alexia. Therefore, it is possible that people with developmental dyslexia may also have abnormalities in this region, Kenneth M. Heilman, MD, suggested in his lecture at the 17th Annual Meeting of the American Neuropsychiatric Association. In his view, however, the high ratio of glial cells to neurons that was reported by Diamond et al was less a sign of Einstein’s dyslexia than an indication of the high degree of what Dr. Heilman refers to as “connectivity.”

After viewing photographs taken of Einstein’s brain before its dissection in 1955, Witelson and colleagues noted that Einstein had an enlarged left inferior and—unlike most human beings—undivided parietal lobe, suggesting that this bigger and more highly connected supramodal cortex gave Einstein an advantage in doing mathematics and spatial computations. In 1985, Geschwind and Galaburda posited that delay in the development of the left hemisphere of the brain may allow the right hemisphere, which mediates spatial computations, to become highly specialized. It was Einstein’s view that his own creativity was heavily dependent on spatial reasoning. Thus, the abnormal development of his left hemisphere may have led to the right hemisphere becoming highly specialized for spatial computations, Dr. Heilman theorized.

Read more: http://www.neuropsychiatryreviews.com/may06/einstein.html

Here’s a great interactive chart showing which supplements have actual scientific data backing up any potential benefits.

http://www.informationisbeautiful.net/play/snake-oil-supplements/

I received this in my email box recently and had a laugh. The scams are moving out of Nigeria and into the US Military…….

Hi,
I am a British soldier currently in Afghanistan. I am with the 40th Regiment Royal Artillery in Afghanistan. We hijacked a suspected Van painted black between the border of Pakistan and Afghanistan. The Door gunners sitting behind machine guns in the Black Van tried shooting at our direction but we lunched a combat backup attack on the Black Van none of the Taliban survived the attack.

Respectfully,
Gen Sir David Richards (right)

Kristina and I took the suggestion of Sheeba (Stephen’s wife) to take the sleeper train to the city of Mysore, with the intention of visiting the Kalakkad Mundanthurai Tiger Reserve, and the Elephant Reserve Kilamalai Reserve Forests.

We took the sleeper train to Mysore from Chennai, and this is a good way to go. It’s a 12 hour train ride, so if you can sleep through most of it, it makes use of time rather efficiently. Plus, you’re not wasting the day. I found the train to be very comfortable and on the way back, I slept the majority of the time, probably because I was tired.

Stephen made arrangements for a driver to pick us up (and surprise! he had a sign), and he drove us to the forest. Along the way, we saw numerous monkeys and deer. It was funny, the monkeys hung around the speed bumps (there are no speed limits and practically no traffic lights, even in the big city, so speed bumps are the only deterrent to fast driving). They knew the tourists would stop to see them and maybe throw them food.

We really hoped to see wild elephants or if we were really lucky, a tiger. We also had scheduled an elephant ride. Also, one of the fun things about this trip is that we got to sleep in a tree house. Yes, the house was at least 2 stories up in a tree, with branches through the floor. Amazingly, it even had a bathroom with a toilet and a shower. The view was nice and all of the walls rolled up so we could enjoy the breeze.

Since the town where the our resort was located was so close to the forest, almost every house and resort had electric fences to keep the elephants and tigers away. The elephants are pretty smart and know how to get through the fence: take a large tree branch and hit the fence until it’s down.

After we had lunch at the resort, we went for a mini-safari on a government vehicle which was so loud that I’m sure it scared everything but the monkeys away. We did, however, see a peacock. We then met with our hired safari driver who took us out to the Elephant Camp, where abadoned elephants were housed and cared for. One of their elephants was 75 years old, the youngest, 3.

My very first impression of Elephant Camp was the sight of a full size adult elephant, laying on his side in the river, having a bath by one of his caretakers. The elephants eyes were shut in pleasure, the caretaker was scrubbing vigorously. The elephant’s trunk lay above the water so he could breathe. We then saw the baby elephant in camp. We were told that she was abandoned by her mother. The elephant was adorable and reached out to us with her trunk.

Next we rode along the river, where we did see some wild elephants, 4 of them, 2 adults and 2 babies. The safari driver told us the next day he would take us for a safari on some private land (you can’t go into the preserve without being in a government vehicle). So we went to bed early.

During the night, we were visited by loud chipmunks/squirrels who fought loudly over a granola bar in Kristina’s backpack all night long. I briefly considered putting in earplugs, but decided not to do it.

Early the next morning, we did go on the safari, but unfortunately did not see any animals except peacocks. However, we did go on a really elephant hunt, where our safari guide bribed a friend with beer to track down elephants for us. We saw fresh elephant tracks, huge stalks of bamboo that had been bent by elephants passing and pretty fresh dung. I am sure we were only an hour at most behind them. It was a nice hike through the forest in any case.

I really enjoyed the trip out of the city, it was so quiet and peaceful and you could even see the stars. One bad thing: the pollution from the big cities hung over the forest, just as if you were in Los Angeles.