And this just in...

Princess Sparkle Pony posted this -
Princess Sparkle Pony's Photo Blog: Michael Steele's Latest Indignity? Sarah Palin Steals His Most Famous Line For Keeps, Also Dresses Weirdly

Is Palin trying to go all goth on us?  Seriously, I think I had that black velvet jacket back during my more gothy period in my early 20's.  Really though, she looks like she is ready to attend a funeral -- let's hope she is putting the nail in the coffin of Michele Bachmann.  I can't decide which of them is more annoying.

Dr Oz about Artificial Sweetners and Weight Loss

Although, I disagree with him about no evidence they are dangerous (aspartame wouldn't be banned in so many countries if there were no evidence) he does explain well why it doesn't help you to lose weight.  Personally I think that is true of all diet food (meaning anything that isn't naturally low fat or low calories).  True story -- I did not start gaining weight until several years ago when Britton needed to go on a diet because of blood pressure and cholesterol problems.  At that time I started buying mostly low fat foods instead of the normal types of food I had always bought and that is when I started gaining weight.  Maybe it was just a coincidence, but it is an awfully odd one.  Anyhow, I still think portion control is the key to weight loss rather than what you eat.

From The Larry King Show:

KING: Another question from King's Things, our Twitter: is there any danger in consuming artificial sweeteners.

OZ: I'm not a big fan of artificial sweeteners. I have to be clear in saying that there's no compelling evidence that they're dangerous, or they cause cancer in the doses humans normally take. But here's the real argument, Larry -- I mean, these products, the diet sodas, for example, that are commonly imbibed by Americans, I mean, they are sold by big companies that have marketing budgets. If they truly helped you diet, don't you think they'd present that data and show you can lose weight if you had a diet soda?

The reality is, Larry, you don't lose weight with diet soda. So they don't accomplish their main goal. In fact, if you sat down and had a cup of iced tea and a tablespoon of sugar, you know how many calories you'd get? Give me an idea?

KING: A hundred?

OZ: Twelve, 12 calories? I'd rather you put real sugar in a the tea, enjoy a little sweetness with it. Get your 12 calories. You're going to get your 12 calories anyway. Don't get fooled. When you have an artificial sweetener, Larry, what happens is your brain is smart enough to realize you're giving itself something sweet but no calories with it. It's reminding you, hey guy, you cheated me, give me back the calories you promised me. People who have artificial sweetener in their diet tend to get more obesity.

KING: We will try to be equal to that task. We'll be right back.

Brown Pumps

Bought new shoes today, a sort of Mary Jane style, I mean what the hell why not. They're surprisingly comfortable; I don't usually wear heels but these feel fine. Nothing fancy and certainly not high end in any way; cheap-o Payless shoes but they'll do! I like them too because they're a nice brown; I'm so tired of black!

My Girlie Plans for Today

After more than an entire winter, I think since last August, I am going to get a hair cut.  My friend KC got her license several months ago and she will be cutting it at the salon she works at.  So it is double fun!  I get to have my hair cut and I get to hang out with KC for a bit.

After that I have something else planned, though I am not sure how girlie it is.  I will be shopping for and hopefully buying the 64 gb iPad.  I suppose if they don't have any left at Best Buy I will have to order one, but Albuquerque isn't like big cities (LA and NYC) people weren't camping out over night to get one, so I think my chances are pretty good.

I would take before and after pictures of my hair, but my built in camera on the macbook doesn't seem to be working.  It does that sometimes and then starts working again at a later date -- I have no clue why.  Maybe I will try taking photos with my regular digital camera.

The Teenage Black Widow

This story is just totally sad. This girl should have never been married to be a "black widow" at 17 years old. Not that the men (or boys) they use are much different. You take teenagers that are confused anyway and mix in some religion, make them think they will be heroes and you can probably get a lot of them to do almost anything. Well, especially this girl who was probably not only a normally confused teenager but also grief stricken.

I hope she doesn't end up disappointed when she gets to heaven or wherever only to find hubby is busy with his 70 virgins.

Palin's got the look

I think the look works for her. In fact, I bet if we got her a nice knife and a Nazi hat she would be able to get a date with Jesse James.

Saudi woman blasts clerics in TV contest Her recitation on the show brings cheers, death threats

A very brave woman! Hissa Hilal, a poet, verbally and creatively attacked the religious controller with her art. Wearing black from head to toe, only her eyes could be seen, she read her poem on national television:

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates - It was a startling voice of protest at a startling venue. Covered head-to-toe in black, a Saudi woman lashed out at hard-line Muslim clerics' harsh religious edicts in verse on live TV at a popular Arabic version of "American Idol."

Well, not quite "American Idol": Contestants compete not in singing but in traditional Arabic poetry. Over the past episodes, poets sitting on an elaborate stage before a live audience have recited odes to the beauty of Bedouin life and the glories of their rulers or mourning the gap between rich and poor.

It was on this popular show she read her poem, which was:

a blistering poem against Muslim preachers "who sit in the position of power" but are "frightening" people with their fatwas, or religious edicts, and "preying like a wolf" on those seeking peace.

Her poem got loud cheers from the audience and won her a place in the competition's finals, to be aired on Wednesday.

It also brought her death threats, posted on several Islamic militant Web sites.

Her poem was seen as a response to Sheik Abdul-Rahman al-Barrak, a prominent cleric in Saudi Arabia who recently issued a fatwa saying those who call for the mingling of men and women should be considered infidels, punishable by death.

But more broadly, it was seen as addressing any of many hard-line clerics in Saudi Arabia and elsewhere in the region who hold a wide influence through television programs, university positions or Web sites.

It's encouraging to know Hilal received such praise and scores for her poem:
Hilal's 15-verse poem was in a form known as Nabati, native to nomadic tribes of the Arabian Peninsula. She criticized extremism that she told AP is "creeping into our society" through fatwas.

"I have seen evil in the eyes of fatwas, at a time when the permitted is being twisted into the forbidden," she said in the poem. She called such edicts "a monster that emerged from its hiding place" whenever "the veil is lifted from the face of truth."

She described hard-line clerics as "vicious in voice, barbaric, angry and blind, wearing death as a robe cinched with a belt," in an apparent reference to suicide bombers' explosives belts.

The three judges gave her the highest marks for her performance, praising her for addressing a controversial topic. That, plus voting from the 2,000 people in the audience and text messages from viewers, put her through to the final round.

Stop Violence Against Christian Women ONLY!

As those of you on facebook know, often times you get requests from friends to join various groups. A couple months ago I received a request to join a group called "Stop violence against women." Seemed like the right thing to do (not that I am sure fb groups really help anything), so I joined it. There was no hint of anything weird on their info page. Then today a little message popped up in my fb toolbar saying that the name of the group had been changed to "Stop violence against Christian Women." WTF? At first, I thought it was a joke, until I started reading down the group wall and seeing various bible themed messages left by the admin of the group. Of course, I left a message on the wall about my feelings on the name change and then left the group.

As far as I am concerned such a group can't claim to be an advocate for women (being that they don't care about all women) nor can they even claim to be Christian. I grew up going to church - I know what is in the bible and Jesus taught to love and help ALL people. I don't know how someone that claims to be a Christian even justifies that type of thing in their head. Then again, I don't know how fundamentalists justify a lot of the stuff they believe in.

Maybe Butter isn't as bad as you think

Pass The Butter .. Please.

This is interesting . .. .

Margarine was originally manufactured to fatten turkeys. When it killed the turkeys, the people who had put all the money into the research wanted a payback so they put their heads together to figure out what to do with this product to get their money back.

It was a white substance with no food appeal so they added the yellow colouring and sold it to people to use in place of butter. How do you like it? They have come out with some clever new flavourings..

DO YOU KNOW.. The difference between margarine and butter?

Read on to the end...gets very interesting!

Both have the same amount of calories.

Butter is slightly higher in saturated fats at 8 grams; compared to 5 grams for margarine.

Eating margarine can increase heart disease in women by 53% over eating the same amount of butter, according to a recent Harvard Medical Study.

Eating butter increases the absorption of many other nutrients in other foods.

Butter has many nutritional benefits where margarine has a few and
only because they are added!

Butter tastes much better than margarine and it can enhance the flavours of other foods.

Butter has been around for centuries where margarine has been around for less than 100 years .

And now, for Margarine..

Very High in Trans fatty acids.

Triples risk of coronary heart disease .
Increases total cholesterol and LDL (this is the bad cholesterol) and lowers HDL cholesterol, (the good cholesterol)

Increases the risk of cancers up to five times..

Lowers quality of breast milk.

Decreases immune response.

Decreases insulin response.

And here's the most disturbing fact.... HERE IS THE PART THAT IS VERY INTERESTING!

Margarine is but ONE MOLECULE away from being PLASTIC... and shares 27 ingredients with PAINT

These facts alone were enough to have me avoiding margarine for life and anything else that is hydrogenated (this means hydrogen is added, changing the molecular structure of the substance).

You can try this yourself:

Purchase a tub of margarine and leave it open in your garage or shaded area. Within a couple of days you will notice a couple of things:

* no flies, not even those pesky fruit flies will go near it (that should tell you something)

* it does not rot or smell differently because it has no nutritional value ; nothing will grow on it. Even those teeny weeny microorganisms will not a find a home to grow. Why? Because it is nearly plastic . Would you melt your Tupperware and spread that on your toast?

Share This With Your Friends.....(If you want to butter them up')!

Chinese Proverb: When someone shares something of value with you and you benefit from it, you have a moral obligation to share it with others.
Pass the BUTTER PLEASE

Aspartame (formaldehyde) doesn't help to lose weight

Several months ago I ran into an old friend of mine at a health food store. She was there looking for Agave sweetner. Even though she works out like a maniac (seriously - like a maniac) and watches what she eats, she could not manage to lose any weight and so she visited a doctor. That doctor told her that one of her problems was using Aspartame sweetner and sent her in search of all natural sweetner. So even though women (and men) take the risk of eating and drinking what is basically formaldehyde (you know, the stuff they embalm dead people with), it apparently doesn't even help to lose weight. What a rip off!

Frankly, I had always wondered. Years ago, my sister who had a terrible coke habit, switched to diet sodas and other no sugar foods. She drank at least a 6 pack per day (though I imagine more than that) and you would think that switching to a diet soda and no sugar foods, since she really didn't eat much, would have caused her to lose a few pounds, but no.