Well, after my last post on supplements and skepticism, I came across another one.  I think I'll take a moment to go through the claims and faulty reasoning in some of the FAQ on this one.  I became curious after reading some lipozene reviews, so I figured I look and see if lipozene really existed.  It does, and here is what I found on the site, with my commentary.

LIPOZENE AND METABO UP FAQ

ARE LIPOZENE AND METABO UP DIETARY SUPPLEMENTS  NATURAL? Lipozene® and METABO UP® are 100% natural. Of course they are, or they'd have to be evaluated by the FDA and reported as mostly useless.  For comparison, bird crap and arsenic are ALSO 100% natural, but I'm not gonna mix them in  my latte. ARE THERE ANY SIDE EFFECTS TO LIPOZENE AND METABO UP? There are no known side effects if taking Lipozene® or METABO UP® as directed. Of course, that's because there are probably NO effects.  WHAT IS IN THE LIPOZENE WEIGHT LOSS SUPPLEMENT AND METABO UP TABLETS? Lipozene® weight loss supplement contains Glucomannan, a 100% natural fiber from the Konjac  Root. METABO UP® contains Green Tea, Kola-nut, and Vitamins B6 and B12. There is also natural fiber in oatmeal, and any other plant food we eat.  Green tea works on your metabolism  with *gasp* caffeine!!! The reason green tea is better than cooked tea?  The preparation breaks down some of the caffeine in normal tea.  This is likely similar to the reason  that espresso has LESS caffeine than drip coffee.  Kola nuts are also a notorious source of caffeine. HOW DOES LIPOZENE AND METABO UP WORK? Lipozene® creates a dietary fiber sponge that makes you feel full, thus reducing caloric intake and adding fiber to your diet. METABO UP® contains Green Tea, which is proven to increase your metabolism safely so you burn more calories.  See above note. WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN LIPOZENE® AND LIPOZINE? Lipozene® is the weight loss supplement which helps reduce body fat. "Lipozine" is a common misspelling. As Lipozene® grows in popularity, the popularity of its alternative spellings increase. I wonder if this also makes them less liable for you taking their pills with no results? CAN YOU TAKE LIPOZENE AND METABO UP WITH MEDICATIONS? Lipozene® is 100% natural; however, we recommend you consult your health care provider before beginning any weight loss program and if you are taking prescription medications at the time, you advise your physician before taking any weight loss supplement, including Lipozene®. And hopefully your health care provider will tell you you're a jackass for wasting your money.  This is likely just to keep people from filing suits that they can't win on account of the fact that there are probably NO effects, never mind harmful ones, but will result in bad press for the company. CAN YOU TAKE LIPOZENE AND METABO UP IF YOU ARE PREGNANT? If you are pregnant or lactating, do not take Lipozene and Metabo Up. After all, bad production methods or even mistakes can turn a benign placebo into a toxic mess, and who wants the life or health of child on their hands?  Just ask China... HOW MUCH WEIGHT WILL I LOSE? Weight loss varies depending on each individual, but Lipozene® guarantees you will lose  weight and body fat, or your money back! Due to certain factors such as awareness of what you're eating while dieting, likely combined with at least a little more exercise than you're used to, and all the water they recommend you drink plus the little bit of caffeine in the pills, you ought to lose a little weight.  This gives them the "out" that you lost "something" so they are  off the hook when you call to complain. DOES LIPOZENE® HAVE AN EXPIRATION DATE? Lipozene has a shelf life of 2 years. You will find the expiration date stamped on the bottle. DOES METABO UP® HAVE AN EXPIRATION DATE? Metabo Up tablets have a shelf life of 2 years. You will find the expiration date stamped on the bottle. I'm not positive if I'm reassured that it has an expiration date, disturbed that it's 2 years compared to the few months that most of the real medication I've seen. WHERE IS LIPOZENE® MANUFACTURED? Lipozene is manufactured in the U.S.A. WHERE IS METABO UP® MANUFACTURED? Metabo Up tablets are manufactured in the U.S.A. I can think of better ways to support US jobs. HOW DO I TAKE LIPOZENE® WEIGHT LOSS SUPPLEMENTS?  It is safe to take Lipozene® up to 2 capsules, 3 times a day before each meal, for a total daily maximum dosage of 6 capsules. Based on clinical studies, recommended dosage for optimum results is daily maximum dosage of 6 capsules per day.     One capsule with an 8 oz glass of water before each meal is the dosage recommended for people who need to lose a few pounds. However, for people who wish to lose more weight in less time – 2 capsules can be taken at one time, 30 minutes before each meal.    For one 60 count bottle of Lipozene® ...   If taking 1 capsule twice a day, 30-day supply has been provided. If taking 2 capsules twice a day, 15-day supply has been provided. If taking 2 capsules three times a day, 10-day supply has been provided.   The recommended dosage on the label is intended for people who want to lose the most amount of weight in the shortest amount of time! Make sure to drink plenty of water and take your Lipozene® with at least an 8 oz glass of water, at least 30 minutes before each meal.   Of course it is.  Or was that optimum results for the company?  Again, you'll be consuming more caffeine, likely working out a little harder, and peeing a lot more.  Caffeine will help with that.  Or maybe it's because you'll eat less after drinking all that water 30 minutes before you eat.  Lots of common sense there without bothering with the pills.  Save your money for wholesome food and gym membership.

So here you go......


I know what you're thinking.  Why the hell is there a mannequin on top of that cruiser?  The answer is one of only a few things more embarrassing than adult acne.  A New Yorker got busted using the mannequin to travel in the carpool lane.  I'm thinking to myself, isn't it easier to just pick up a bum that needs a new street corner or something?  To be fair, I don't have any idea how much time he/she was saving by not driving in the regular lanes, but in my experience, it is NEVER very much.  And it certainly isn't worth having to pay a ticket.

My Dad's girlfriend got busted for about $200 driving in an HOV lane up here, and I would be PISSED.  Oh well, better others than me.

With all the websites on the net that try to sell supplements that will allegedly help you to lose weight, it was nice to see quick trim fast cleanse reviews.  Granted, the bottom have of the page is a bunch of links to similar products, the review of quick trim fast cleanse was incredibly basic, and I've never even heard of the product, but likely the people to read it are not accustomed to thinking critically and maintaining skepticism about advertised claims.

Leeanne and I are getting back into shape, and it was a little bit of discussion to decide not to buy any of that kind of stuff for her.  She is doing incredibly well, making huge progress, and feeling great.  The trick?  Calories in, calories out, maintain lean mass, drink plenty of water.

The toughest part is maintaining an accurate record of what we eat, but even though I'm not going to the gym just yet, even I am making some progress.  I'd like to get my body fat down to the low 10s, but I've got some work to do!!  Maybe soon I'll post the best advice I've watched/read/heard/used.  Keep posted.

Well, I finally submitted this here blog to a free directory that promises to generate traffic and links for my site.  I'm not exactly sure how it works, but got my blog in there.  I'm sure it's incredibly simple, but I'm just dense for some of this stuff.  Seriously, I think the only reason I'm able to maintain a blog is because of this blogging software that takes care of all the heavy lifting.

I also use Entrecard, which is pretty cool, and kinda like a social networking site, I suppose, but I don't have nearly enough time to peruse the other blogs and make the amount of e-friends that I need.

At any rate, I hope I got it all right and did what I was supposed to, because usually Leeanne is the one that figures out the networking and traffic such and stuff, then coaches me.  I get to do all the construction and electronic projects.  It's a good system.

A sweet little girl walked into the bathroom while her mother was getting ready for work one morning

"What are you doing, Mommy?" she asked.

"Well, pumpkin, I'm putting on my very best wrinkle cream," answered the mother.

"Oh," said the little girl, walking away. "I didn't realize wrinkles were that much work.  I just thought they were natural."

I was listening to PBS Newshour the other day on my Zune and one of the hosts was talking to a guy about the real estate market and what the recent sales meant.  Just when I was disagreeing with the first guest, the second came in to justify me!  What I'm guessing is that pretty soon, the people who still have money are going to start buying up all these foreclosures and unfinished homes to flip for some quick profit.  I sure would like to pick up some Outer banks foreclosures, by the way.  Some of those outer banks places are NICE.  But I digress.

At any rate, since most of those are going to be investments, they aren't likely to be paid for in cash, and if the economy even so much as hiccups, then whoever is holding the notes on those houses is going to be EXTREMELY nervous.  I'm thinking that real estate won't be solid for investment vehicles for at least 6-8 years.  Which is fine, because that just makes it more likely I can find my decent handyman special when I'm ready in 3 or 4 years.  Wish me luck.

It's getting pretty cold up here for me.  I was just thinking about all this snow and how unfamiliar it is.  Even at work when I go to the cooler or freezer, my fingertips get pretty numb.  I'm thinking maybe next year we'll have to take a winter vacation to panama city beach.  That's more the kind of winter a Florida boy like me needs.

Leeanne wants to take some vacation time and just all of us go do something fun, and that could be it.  Although, she also misses Vegas, and there are plenty of family-oriented things to do out there, contrary to popular belief.  It's actually become quite family oriented in some respects and places. 

Although.... Tahiti would be nice.  I always wanted to go to Tahiti and sit on the beach and drink alcohol.  Copious amounts of alcohol.

Speaking of drinking, I got an espresso machine on clearance for $30 bucks.  You'll be hearing more about that soon.

Well, it's friggin snowing AGAIN!!! That's an awful lot of snow for a city that supposedly never gets any snow.  Maybe that's just the cynic in me.  I'm just tired of turning an hour drive into a 2 and a half hour drive only to get stuck on my freakin street.  Kinda fun watching Leeanne fishtail the Explorer down the street while I push the truck side to side and get it going.

Even with all the snow, though, I'm overall pretty happy with Winchester.  The people are nice, and good enough, the city is relatively slow, the rent is affordable, all of my bills are lower than they were in Florida, and even cheap car insurance to boot.

I may end up just staying here for quite a while.  The deal sealer will be what kind of place we'll be able to buy when we're ready, but we'll see. 

Mesothelioma is a kind of cancer that is virtually always connected to exposure to asbestos, a very effective heat and flame retardant. mesothelioma lawyers, I would assume, will evenutually have to find new work, since asbestos isn't very proliferative today, at least compared to 4 or 5 decades ago.  Tobacco lawyers, however, may have plenty of time left in the arena.  Here are some apparently tasty candies designed to deliver a quick nico-fix to smokers who can't smoke; ostensibly at work, or maybe in a hospital or something, but almost certainly those guys with throat cancer whose necks might rot through if they take one more puff.

On the face, I'd say "Great, now smokers don't have to get those dirty looks when they come back in from a smoke break smelling like dirty ashtrays.  But a little deeper, and, well, I can see kids passing them around for the nicotine buzz that gets people hooked on cigarettes in the first place.  Sure, it's not as harsh as the smoke that wrecks teeth, gums, throats, lungs, fingers, etc, and hell, maybe they are perfectly medically safe.  But I don't want to see my kids, or your kids, hooked on anything.  I think that somebody is going to figure out that a nic-andy addiction is going to cause them some kind of loss of quality in their life and sue the manufacturers over it.  After all, it's America.

The first thing that caught my attention was that 28th ammendment thing.  There are only 27 ammendments to the constitution.  The last one had something to do with senator pay, I think. 

 

About the health plan question, point one is that it isn't designed to replace anyones health plan.  It's an option to provide lower cost care for Americans that don't have ANY or don't have enough.  That's why all the hubbub about being able to keep your plan if you're happy with it.

 

Under the proposed reform, nobody will be FORCED into the public option.  There may be forcing into SOME plan, which I probably won't agree with, but it won't be a PARTICULAR plan.  And that's the difference.

 

For the record, there is a lot to be positive about with this bill.  I think my favorite just might be the limit on profitability.  Now, in general, I'm inclined to believe and support a person or company making as much money as he/she/it possibly can through better products, better management, and better marketing.  HOWEVER, it seems to me that altogether too often, insurance companies make that profit by denying coverage to it's customers instead of providing it.  Add to that the fact that not a single insurance salesman or executive has ever made a diagnosis, offered a treatment, or cured a single illness.  I don't believe that many insurance companies actually EARN their profit.  Bill Gates and Warren Buffet can both get as rich as they want.

 

At any rate, the Health Care Reform is not going to be an overnight success, nor is it going to be a one time shot.  This is such a huge monster that it will likely evolve as long as our government is functioning and never be complete, and that's ok.  Hell, it's probably best.  What matters is that we get some kind of coverage to people without, and try to stop the ballooning of health care bills.

 

Again, though, this may all be moot.  The senate isn't as rock solid as it was for the Pres, and several democrats have changed their minds about running in the upcoming elections.  Expect a much more difficult congress and senate next year.  Obama may have wasted time trying to look political and reaching across the aisle.  He should have reached to the middle, and welcomed those who met him.  Any reform is better than none, and I think we may be stuck with none.

 

Tony

Here is an email I got today from my sister.  I really love getting them, because the arguments in them are usually flawed pretty horrendously, and often enough, are full of simple lies.  Sometimes, I think she sends them to me simply so I can get all worked up!  At any rate, I sent a mass reply, and that will be coming in tomorrow's post.  Meanwhile, enjoy the email, and the aside all the way at the end.



FINALLY SOME ONE ASKED HIM THE QUESTION!
ON "ABC-TV" Monday October 12, 2009
DURING THE "NETWORK SPECIAL ON HEALTH CARE"....  OBAMA WAS ASKED:


"MR PRESIDENT WILL YOU AND YOUR FAMILY GIVE UP YOUR CURRENT HEALTH CARE PROGRAM
AND JOIN THE NEW 'UNIVERSAL HEALTH CARE PROGRAM' THAT THE REST OF US WILL BE ON ????"
THERE WAS A STONEY SILENCE AS OBAMA IGNORED THE QUESTION AND CHOSE NOT TO ANSWER IT !!!
IN ADDITION, A NUMBER OF SENATORS WERE ASKED THE SAME QUESTION AND THEIR RESPONSE WAS."WE WILL THINK ABOUT IT."
AND THEY DID. IT WAS ANNOUNCED TODAY ON THE NEWS THAT THE "KENNEDY HEALTH CARE BILL" WAS WRITTEN INTO THE NEW HEALTH CARE REFORM INITIATIVE ENSURING THAT THAT CONGRESS WILL BE 100% EXEMPT !
SO, THIS GREAT NEW HEALTH CARE PLAN THAT IS GOOD FOR YOU AND I... IS NOT GOOD ENOUGH FOR OBAMA, HIS FAMILY OR CONGRESS...??
WE (THE AMERICAN PUBLIC) NEED TO STOP THIS PROPOSED DEBACLE ASAP !!!! THIS IS TOTALLY WRONG !!!!!
PERSONALLY, I CAN ONLY ACCEPT A UNIVERSAL HEALTH CARE OVERHAUL THAT EXTENDS TO EVERYONE.. NOT JUST US LOWLY CITIZENS... WHILE THE WASHINGTON "ELITE" KEEP RIGHT ON WITH THEIR GOLD-PLATED HEALTH CARE COVERAGES.
If you don't pass this around, may you enjoy his Plan!
*************************************************************************************************************************

WHAT???
The Republic has a CONSTITUTION???
 
 Amendment 28

Congress shall make no law that applies to the citizens of the United States that does not apply equally to the Senators or Representatives, and Congress shall make no law that applies to the Senators or Representatives that does not apply equally to the citizens of the United States.
 
Imagine what would happen if everybody passed this around? 
  




ASIDE:  I couldn't find any kind of interview for the date mentioned in the email, but with the help of snopes.com I did find the "interview" in question on youtube.  I was quite surprised that the question was posed, not by the moderator, but by an audience member.  Here it is for your pleasure.

As much as we like Virginia, the cold weather is kinda rough for us Floridians.  Seems like it's always dry and cold this winter.  Not too much fun because my nose is always running or dry, and my skin is drying out.  So is Leeanne's and the kids'.  We came across a humidifier at yard sale, but it didn't have a humidifier filter, so we passed on it.  Good thing, too, because I've been looking and can't even find a filter for it.  Must be pretty old, but I'd be pissed if I'd bought it and couldn't use it.  No wonder they're selling the thing.  I guess we'll just have to hold out until it warms up outside.

Well, as I've been searching for insurance quotes for the scuby, I'm amazed at how much better off my bills are out here.  In Florida, I would have had to pay MINIMUM $180 for both cars, and I'm gonna get it for just over half that here.  Partly because Florida has so many uninsurable illegals who cause a lot of damage, partly because of all the snowbirds who can't drive, and partly because the insurance companies use hurricane damage as an excuse, although there hasn't been any major hurricane damage in a few years, and no statewide damage in well over a decade.

That got me thinking, though, about home insurance quotes.  I found a website here that claims Florida is over twice as much as Virginia, but that it also doesn't account for Citizens, the last choice insurance for Florida.  The way it works is that they managed to get special deals from the state for sticking around when it's "not profitable" to insure in Florida.  A few years ago when those 5 hurricanes rolled through, most of the insurance companies hauled ass out of the state.  The few that remained raised their premiums and got more selective about who they would insure.  Citizens picked up an incredible amount of the state's property insurance, and increased their premiums something like 400% over the next few years, getting special permission from the state government each time.  Point of the history lesson: even though that site claims and average of $1300 yearly for insurance, it doesn't count Citizens, which was substantially higher.  My best quote was less than Citizens, and I had to pay $3200 a year!!!  Mind you, it was about 1000 sq ft, only two bedrooms and a great sized yard (yards don't cost much to insure.)

What a crock.

Well, I have a friend at work who had an extra car laying around, lol.  I asked her if she knew where I could get a cheap car, and she told me she had a Subaru that needed a motor, but that she would give it to me for free if I could come pick it up.  Being the gear head that I am, I asked what happened, and apparently she just wanted a truck with 4x4 drive, so she got one, and parked the scuby.  She was going to give it to her kid anyway.  He started it up every week religiously until he decided he didn't want it, then just stopped.  Eventually, it wouldn't turn over, so she figured the motor crapped out.  I figured, worst case, rusted rings, and being the guy I am, no problem.

Well, we went to get it last night and it wouldn't get out of park.  Supposed the battery was toast and there wasn't enough juice for the brake switch to release it, so we jumped it, and damn sure, it moved.  While we had it hooked up, I wanted to see if the motor was seized, so I turned the key and God almighty, it started turning!!  As I was trying to think in my head...timing, compression, fuel pump or filter, all the things that might be wrong instead of a seized motor to keep it from running, the damned thing fired up!!!  That's right, ran quiet as a happy cat and started in less than three seconds!!

All I have to do is clean it up and some maintenance, like brakes, windshield crack, etc, get me some insurance quotes, register the thing and drive the crap out of it!!  I sure do owe her one!!!

Well, we had a leak in the shower head downstairs, and since it's something really small, we don't like to call the landlord; we save our phone calls for the really troublesome problems, like the refrigerator, the stove, or when the Danze faucets simply wouldn't work.  I mean, I can change a faucet as easily as the next guy, but I have to put a limit on what I'm gonna spend for a rental house.  At any rate, I didn't realize that shower head hoses, the kind that detach from the wall, were so expensive.  I was thinking five or six bucks, but it was 15 dollars.  Granted, that was for a braided steel hose, but I couldn't find any pvc hoses at the Home Depot.  I bet Lowe's would have had one.  At any rate, I wasn't in the mood to drag the kids through another store, and neither was Leeanne, so we got a cheapo $2 shower head instead.  Problem solved, disaster averted.

...people have seemed to fall off the wagon already.  I mean, not too many people this year have actually said anything to me about having a new year's resolution to lose weight, but I work in a grocery store.  I see the sample trays slowing down, people refusing mayonaise on their sandwiches, buying more turkey, etc.  Of course, over the last week or so, things have been getting back to normal.  I wonder if they have all lost that last 15 pounds already, or if they gave up on the 50.  What happened to their weight loss products, diets, exercise equipment, etc?  Is it still getting used?  Or is it sitting in a corner, collecting dust like the Christmas tree discarded on the side of the road, so very special for just one day before being dumped.  Eh, where's my icecream?

I was discussing the health care reform bill with a friend of mine a few weeks ago, and he was A-OK with doctors making less than they currently do because he doesn't think they know as much as they think they do.  For the record, I believe that most doctors are GOOD doctors and I trust them WAY more, INFINITELY more than religion or advertising (unlike many many sad cases).  But I digress.  His mistrust stems from a rash that he had once upon a time.  He went to a dermatologist who named his rash "eczyma," not "dermatitis" like I've heard they call any rash they can't identify.  Turns out it's the same thing, which I'll have to tell him!  Well, the dermatologist was going to prescribe a medicine to see if it would clear up the rash, but he didn't want to pay for it.  Someone in his family told him to try a particular soap, he did, and it went away.  So he thinks they are all in cahoots and just trying to get more money, although she wasn't sure if the cream would even work.

Well, if you click here for eczema treatment information, like I did, you can learn just a bit, as I did.  Like the fact that NOBODY is quite sure what causes some rashes.  Well, if nobody knows why, then nobody can be sure how to cure it, even his family member.  Sometimes we get lucky and a home treatment works, more often it's a coincidence.  Either way, I'll keep my faith in doctors of all sorts.

Well, there I was listening to "The Skeptics Guide to the Universe," which you can find through the button in my sidebar, and they reported a scientific study which I was able to find here.  Heat of the meat?  Mice engineered to burn fat before carbs weighed just the same as regular mice, and with the same body composition.  After all the xenadrine reviews and weight loss gimickry that some scheisters in the industry have try to feed people, here is some definate, concise proof that the rest of us have been right all along.  Your body burns calories it needs, and stores the rest as fat, no matter where they started.

Now, that's not to say that some of them don't work, but it's not likely to be the ones that say they'll block your body from burning carbs and help you go straight to burning fat.  For example, even the xenadrine I mentioned above used to be pretty effective.  It contained an ingredient called ephedra which seems to be pretty good at jacking up your metabolism at the right dosage.  The problem was, it was linked to several deaths in otherwise healthy individuals. 

And that's the problem with these things.  If it actually works well, it IS a drug, period.  If it is a drug, the FDA should control.  If the FDA doesn't control it, then either a) it's not a drug and thus won't work, or b) it isn't understood to be a drug although it is, and is dangerous to use until the FDA has established safe guidelines for it.

A lot of reviews of green tea, though, for example find that only the caffeinated green teas help with weight loss.  Hmmm, green tea doing the work? Or caffeine?  We know that caffeine will speed up your metabolism, and is classified as a drug.  Yes, the FDA has unsafe limits for caffeine.  It takes several pots of coffee, but it's there.  Less than that extreme dosage seems to be safe, and thats why most diet pills can get away with using caffeine as an ingredient.  In fact, most of them DO.  I'll just drink the coffee.

At any rate, while there are benefits to eating wholesome food, this goes to show that where your body gets its calories isn't as important as how many calories it gets, and the important thing is to exercise and eat well.

Leeanne has decided to really get crackin on her crafting, and realized that she has all kinds of crap she doesn't need.  Not that it's crap, so much, just that it's crafting tools, and to me, it's crap.  Now, if any of it had a 1.5 hp 5000 rpm motor, well, I'd be REALLY interested in making birthday cards.  Such as it is, she figures that if she sells it all, she'll be able to get things that she needs, or at least, that she can use more often.  She's been working really hard on getting her website back together and has already collected about $60 from ebay in the last couple days.  We've also been talking about using a paid web directory to drive traffic to her site once she lists some of her handmade goods instead of just things that she's reselling.  Wish her luck!!!