Azaran on 4/3/2025 at 15:25

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All we can do is try and lead a healthy lifestyle, especially from middle age onward, when the body and metabolism become less forgiving of abuse.

Vitamin D deficiency is one of the most serious contributors to ill health, and often ignored because it has no symptoms. And it increases (https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4153851/) the risk of Alzheimer's.

I always had my suspicions that many old age ills could be either caused, or worsened, by people staying indoors and becoming less active as they get older. Especially since among elderly family /couples and acquaintances I've seen, whenever someone got Alzheimer's, it's invariably been the person who goes out less, thus less sun, less activity, etc.

Tocky on 19/4/2025 at 03:18

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We go to Tishomingo state park and rent one of the old CCC cabins on the lake there just to get drunk and tell stories with my sister-in- law and her boyfriend who I like immensely and not just because he knows how to leave a steak pink but not bloody. Anyway, My sissypoo told a story I got a kick out of.

When she was 23 she went to the Grand casino in Tunica to try and drink her boyfriend Jerry off her mind. There were velvet ropes but they were between her and the bar so she stepped over them. Fuck velvet ropes right? So she goes to the bar and sits next to some old guy and they strike up a conversation and she bitches about Jerry and all the crap he got away with because of his ice blue eyes and eventually he asks her name and she asks his. Merle is his so she says, "Merle? Your mother must have still been having labor pains to hang that one on you" He laughs, they all laugh. They talk about an hour and get on well. He tells her if he was twenty years younger he would make her forget about Jerry and she says if he was then Jerry could fuck himself. When she gets up to leave she stumbles a bit so two burly guys with the old guy pick her up and lift her over the velvet ropes.

Once back with her girlfriends they are all amazed at her. Don't you know who that was? No. That was Merle Haggard, he has a concert here in a half hour. Maybe you have to know country music but if you do then you know that was like meeting Loretta Lynn and not knowing it. Ah to be young and oblivious and pretty. Always step over the velvet rope.

demagogue on 20/4/2025 at 23:00

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I went to a Trump protest march yesterday in my city in the US. Each one gets bigger & bigger. Anyway, the small group that we walked next to from the parking garage to the park where the protest was starting were from the same church, and we chat about how many churches have been taken over by Trump-mania, but there were churches like theirs that recognized how flagrantly anti-Christian everything he stands for is, and that resistance is also part of their religious duty or service.

And this is in Texas ... Well, the stereotype is that it's very religious and deep red, but actually it's a lot more purple (Democrat supporting) than people realize, especially the cities, first because it's very Latin/Catholic, but also it's a rich state that gets a lot more people coming in than going out, so it's more cosmopolitan than people may think.

The other data point is that the main theme of that march was that at the root of Trump-mania, at the level of its grassroots support, is a particular kind of Christian nationalism, well Christian white nationalism, that's, again, pretty flagrantly anti-Christian. I think the MC for the protest was also a clergyman, which would explain why he appeared so personally worked up and invested in it. He had a cut-out white inner-collar thing, though it didn't look Catholic, but something; but what do I know?

I could do a deep dive into it, but for now I'll just point out that there's definitely a nominally "Christian" side to this fascist thing happening in the country, although it's probably more nuanced than people might think at first, even to other Americans, since religious groups themselves are also at the forefront of the resistance.

Starker on 21/4/2025 at 00:13

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I'm not religious and I come from a very much protestant-influenced culture, so perhaps this is a bit difficult to understand for me, but it seems to me that any organised religion where the high-ranking members live in palaces is not that much different to the evangelical fire-and-brimstone style leaders of megachurches who fly around in private jets and constantly beg their followers for money.

Religion aside, though, any decent person should feel nothing but disgust over people being ripped apart from their families and injustly imprisoned. The fact that the MAGA cult sees it as a source of amusement and entertainment just goes to show how unabashedly fascist the movement has become.

mxleader on 9/5/2025 at 17:27

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I've been using Spotify for about five years or so now and have never tried Amazon music. I also live stream music from various favorite radio stations when I'm too lazy to be my own DJ. When I lived in Arizona (Just moved back to WA State three months ago) I streamed all my favorite Seattle stations. I also was streaming a number of BBC radio stations but now they've changed so you only get one or two channels out of the BBC if you are in the US. I'm thinking of finding a vintage portable radio and going that route but I do sometimes tune into local radio using my HAM radio.