Posted inHome life

NAD+ is my new Fountain of Youth dream supplement

It's only been three days since I started taking NAD+, which grabbed the attention of my wife and me when we read about it in a TIME magazine piece, "Is an Anti-Aging pill on the Horizon?" Anti-aging products from skin creams to chemical peels are part of a $250 billion industry, but scientists have yet to discover a longevity elixir that stands up to medical scrutiny. A group of researchers believe they’re getting closer, however, thanks to a compound called nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide, or NAD+ for short. “NAD+ is the closest we’ve gotten to a fountain of youth,” says David…
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Posted inCurrent affairs

Why calling shooters “mentally ill” won’t reduce school massacres

Following the most recent school shooting in Florida that resulted in 17 deaths, Trump and the NRA are resorting to their usual blather about mental illness being the problem, not guns.  This is crazy.  The United States doesn't have more mentally ill people than other countries with vastly fewer school shootings. What distinguishes our country is the number of guns we have. With around 4% of the world's population, we have about 48% of the world's guns. Also, most school shooters aren't really mentally ill. My wife is a retired psychotherapist. She understands mental illness. And she understands that most…
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Posted inCurrent affairs

Seventeen young lives cut short. We need a real culture of life.

Four days ago seventeen people were shot to death at a Florida high school, fourteen students and three staff. It infuriates me that there's any debate about what needs to be done: ban the AR-15 and other assault rifles along with high capacity magazines, and strengthen background checks for all gun purchasers.  More could be done, of course. But this is a good place to start. The surviving students at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School understand this. They're pressing hard for gun control legislation.  Shut up and listen! That’s the message seething students have for President Trump and other gun-friendly lawmakers,…
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Posted inHome life Marijuana

Cannabis cartridges are a long (good) way from rolling a joint

Well, it's been a couple of years since I last wrote about how to imbibe marijuana. Time for an update from this 69 year old baby boomer who is still learning new cannabis tricks in our happy new world of legal pot here in Oregon and elsewhere. As I said in "Tips for 'vaping' marijuana if you want to go first class," there's a lot to like about buying cannabis flower/buds, grinding it up, and vaporizing the weed rather than rolling a joint -- which was usually the only way we Flower Children smoked it way back in the late…
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Posted inBooks Health

“Everything Happens for a Reason and Other Lies I’ve Loved” is a great book

Kate Bowler has written a book about her struggles with several serious health problems, with the worst being a stage 4 colorectal cancer diagnosis. It is funny, sad, moving, inspiring, and so much more. From the first page to the last, I was deeply engrossed in her story.  "Everything Happens for a Reason and Other Lies I've Loved" is one of the most moving books I've ever read. Even though I don't believe in God, and Kate Bowler does, I felt wonderfully close to her as I finished her marvelous book in a few transfixed sittings. She and I have much…
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Posted inCurrent affairs Sustainability

Early spring on our property shows need for Oregon cap-and-trade bill

Global warming is real. We humans are causing it. Urgent steps need to be taken to reduce carbon emissions. These three facts are borne out by some photos I took a few days ago of how vegetation is leafing out much earlier than usual on our ten acres in rural south Salem, Oregon. We've lived here for 28 years. This is really unusual plant behavior for February 4. The green shoots screamed to me, Global warming is making us do this! Now, I'm old enough (69) and have lived in Oregon long enough (47 years) to run the risk of…
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