Something everyone should read

As someone who has type 2 diabetes, this is something to read here:

(CNN)Drinking two or more sweetened drinks per day could greatly increase your risk of diabetes, according to new research.In fact, it could double it.Diet soda may do more harm than goodDiet soda may do more harm than goodIn the study, two or more 200-milliliter servings of sweetened drinks, consumed daily, were found to double the risk of developing the condition. Given that standard 12-ounce drinks cans are more than 300-milliliters, this means just 1 and a half of these drinks per day could double your risk.But more importantly, the level of risk was about the same regardless of whether the drinks used sugar or artificial sweeteners. So choosing the diet option may make no difference, as both types were seen to result in two times the risk of having diabetes.”Not all studies have been able to look at sugary and artificially beverages separately,” said Josefin Edwall Löfvenborg, a nutritionist at the Karolinksa Intitute in Sweden, “(but) it’s getting more and more established that soft drinks increase risk of type II diabetes.” – Source: Drinking two sugary drinks per day? You could be doubling your risk of diabetes – CNN.com

It is amazing the people who will not heed this warning. I never did, when I was younger. I always thought to myself, “Diabetes? That’s an old people disease.” Well, here I am 44 years old, a type 2 diabetic and you know what? It is a real danger, to ones life. Here is hoping that young people today, are a bit smarter about all of that, then I was. 🙁

 

 

Why I haven’t been blogging

This is one of those blog postings that I’ve meant to write for a while.

My friends I’m simply going to be honest with you. I have quite frankly gotten bored with politics. Back in 2006, when I started blogging, President George W Bush was in the White House, the Iraq war was in full swing which I was totally against and the Democrats and basically the progressive left was against it. There was a reason for my writing.

Well, needless to say my reasons for writing have basically evaporated. Not to mention that blogging has gotten a bit more partisan than it used to be. And also too, there was a bit more sense of community among the bloggers, people helped each other out.

Nowadays, it seems like the blog and Community has become partisan and basically an ego trip contest to see whose ego is the biggest. One thing I can honestly tell you about this blogging thing,  it was never about me or my ego or who I am or anything like that. I was simply a voice for those who either didn’t have time or didn’t have the ability to write about what they were feeling.

Now, about Trump, I can honestly say that he does have good ideas on three issues:

1. Free trade: let’s just be real folks globalism is killing America and I would like to see that reined-in, in a big way. The amount of imports in this country from China, from Japan and from other places is, killing our manufacturing base in this country. I think if Donald Trump could do something with these free trade agreements to make them more favorable for the United States of America that would be great.

2. Illegal immigration: let’s just be real folks our Southern border is wide open. I believe that if Donald Trump could do something about the illegal immigration problem in this country; such as enforce the laws that are already on the books and have ICE agents carry out that enforcement, like they’re supposed to then maybe something could be done.

3. Foreign policy: let’s just be real folks the Cold War is Over. And I think it’s about time that someone like Donald Trump has went through our foreign policy commitments and told these countries that the Cold War is Over and that we should not be providing protection to these people for free anymore. Furthermore, I think Donald Trump should realign our foreign policy to protecting America First and not getting it involved in matters that are not of our concern. The solution to terrorism is full-scale bombing operations and wiping out these terrorist cells and that can be done without boots on the ground you’d be amazed what a 80,000 ton bomb can do to a terrorist headquarters. I simply do not believe that Donald Trump believes in prolonged conflict like what we had in Iraq. Furthermore I believe that Donald Trump would stand up to the neoconservative Hawks in the Republican Party and would tell them, no, we’re not going to do what you want, we’re going to put America first.

That’s the good things about Donald Trump. Now, here’s what I don’t like about him. The fact is folks Donald Trump tends to be a bit of a loose cannon. Donald Trump also has a problem with bashing women; to the point where even as a guy, it bothers me.

Another thing that kind of bothers me too and I know this is probably going to make me get some static from people who actually read this blog and that is this:

Folks let’s just be real:  Donald Trump is a very wealthy man. I have a sneaky suspicion that Donald Trump is going to try to use his wealth and his business connections to try to Curry favor with those who are perceived as enemies of America. This my friends is extremely problematic and could pose a problem for the United States of America. Not to mention the Office of the President of the United States. It would also put Congress in a very precarious position.

One of the main reasons why I stopped writing is because the partisanship and blogging has turned quite frankly into rancid rancor and I simply don’t believe that blogging was never intended to be like that. I never played the partisan game very well at all. I’m all for convictions and vision for what America should be and all that good stuff, but political partisanship or loyalty to a party was never my bag at all. Both of these parties are two sides of the same coin anymore and that coin is basically special interest and Corruption. You know One hand washes the other. I have a sneaking suspicion that Donald Trump would play that game to the hilt and I believe sometimes it would not be in America’s best interest.

So as far as who I’m voting for; at this stage in the game I have no earthly idea who I’m going to vote for it certainly isn’t going to be the Democrats or Hillary Clinton. Now as far as who I would vote for I think it depends on how things are come election day. Outside of what happened with Amanda Carpenter, I really don’t see anything that would stop me from voting for Donald Trump at this point. I would like to see him tone things down a bit and become a bit more presidential or stately, but knowing Donald Trump I don’t think that’s going to happen at all.

So, at this point Ladies and Gentlemen, this is where I’m at. I’ve lost the motivation to write about politics. But, not what I feel to be wrong morally. So, I’m not going to just disappear. I’m just not going to be writing about the headlines as much. I’m not going away, I’m just going to be a bit more selective about what I write about on this blog and what I care to spend time on.

I’m also considering going back and trying to get on with another trucking company maybe take another refresher course if I can get a place that offer it and go back to work driving truck.

I’ve spent a lot of time on YouTube watching Trucking video blogs which are very awesome by the way. If by chance I decided to go back out and drive again and finally am able to go solo in a truck I might start a video blog series on what I do. I’m undecided whether I am going to post those videos here or start a trucking blog and post them there. I’d really like to get back to work because sitting around here has gotten beyond boring.

Another issue that has distracted me away from this blog is my dad’s health. My dad is suffering with a bulged disc in his back and this is a different one from the one he had before back when I tried to go on with Celadon. This one’s in a totally different spot on his back and it is been hurting him bad in fact just earlier here we had a little issue with him when he was in the bathroom and we like to have never gotten him out of there he’s now on the couch with a pillow behind his back in a wet wash cloth on his head and he is trying to get the pain to ease off. So now I’m having to deal with that and that’s one of the reasons why I haven’t just jump back out on the road to drive truck. With this man, that being me, family comes first and trucking career and blogging come second.

I hope you all understand and I hope you all don’t give up on me as a blogger. But right now, life is taking precedence over this blog.

Thanks for reading,

Charles Patrick Adkins

Video: I have mental health issues and that’s okay.

I cut this video for a reason. Because I want to inspire other people to come out of the shadows and face their personal demons, like I finally did. This isn’t about me or self promotion or anything like that. It is about letting the world know, that it is perfectly okay to admit, that you are not perfect mentally or physically.

Enjoy the video:

P.S. the reason I am talking so low, is because it was early in the morning and I didn’t want to wake up my Mom. She’s upstairs, but still she can hear me. 😀

Videos: Glenn Beck reveals disorder

The Videos:

The Story via The Blaze:

Glenn Beck on Monday revealed the true extent of his health issues, saying he can no longer keep what has happened a secret from his friends, his staff or audience, whom he considers to be his family.

If you have sensed a change in Beck — maybe you even thought he was losing interest in his program — Beck said it is because he was told he may only have several functional years left, and his health conditions were causing such excruciating pain that it was difficult to do live programming.

“Tonight’s show is not for the casual fan or, really, anyone in the press,” Beck said. “This is a one-on-one between friends. No one in the media ever does a show like this, because it is crazy. … But I believe that by not talking with you openly, it destroys everything of real meaning and value — namely, our trust.”

“I have never lied to you, but I have omitted a few really important facts because — they scared me,” Beck admitted, beginning to swallow back tears. “I didn’t have any answers, and the answers I was being given at the time meant … the end of our time together.”

Regardless of what you think of Glenn’s politics; this is a very moving story. Being this bad off and not really knowing what is going on, really stinks.

What pisses me off, and it really does; is the classless idiot crap of the left and the comments being made on the liberal blogs about this story. Want examples? Go here, here, here and here.

That right there, is the left of today. The left does not seem to care about who they leave classless comments about and how that might hurt someone. Because you have to know that, if this was a popular liberal media figure and this sort of thing was happening to them; and Conservatives made fun of it, there would be outcry that would deafening. Having said all of that; seeing the left is not too concerned about a man on the right almost died from this sickness, I am just going to say this and I will deal with the fallout, if any at all. I truly hope that President Barack Hussein Obama DIES with a bad case of ASS CANCER! I really do. Because the way I see it, turnabout is fair play.

Now, go chew out that, you freaking bunch of idiot communists! 😡

Off vaping and nicotine

I wrote a while back that I was off the smokes and now vaping. I then wrote about how I was stepping down the nicotine levels. Well, I now have some good news to report.

I can now officially report that I am now officially off the vaporizer. I stopped like a week ago. Now, was it hard to do it? Oh, you flipping aye right it was! I still miss the thing; I still crave the nicotine. However, it is more of a mental thing, than an actual physical craving. I would love nothing more than to go down to the tobacco shop and pick up a new wick and a nice bottle of mountain dew flavored e-liquid at about 6 or 7 mg of nicotine. But, I made a choice to stop and I am going to try my darndest to keep that promise to myself.

Let’s just be real about it; nicotine is just as bad as marijuana, heroin, cocaine and alcohol — it is addictive, it is very unhealthy and ultimately, it can kill you. Smoking cigarettes or vaping; or any other form of nicotine can turn you into a full on nicotine junky — and basically, being quite honest with you, I am one. I get it from my Father, he smokes, and has smoked since he was 13, so he says. Now, does the knowledge of these facts make me want to see nicotine, vaping and cigarettes outlawed or more tightly regulated? Nope. One cannot legislate or regulate morality. If you outlaw sin, the outlaws will find ways to sin — legal or not.

I personally feel that, as someone who has a nicotine addiction, nicotine addiction should be treated the same as any other addiction. It is the same mentality, it is the same pain, it is the same feeling of, “I cannot stop this”, and it is treated like a flipping joke. I have the personality of an addict; that if one is nice, twelve has to be better. I did that when I was drinking; and I did it when I was smoking and then vaping. There are people who disagree with that, and I am here to tell you, that they are stupid; and those who say that have never, ever been addicted to anything in their lives.

The reason I say that I do not favor the tightening of vaping regulations or any other form of nicotine regulations is because my starting back to smoking that I have done, off and on since age 19; was my own personal choice. I made the personal choice, because of stress to start back to smoking. I also have made a personal choice to stop again. Mainly, because I was asking my parents to pay for my habit. This is when I knew it was time to stop. If I were working and had normal weekly paycheck; heck, I would still be puffing away! However, I am not in that sort of a situation, so, I knew I had to stop.

The reason I made the choice that I made, was because of a job prospect; that ultimately ending up blowing up in my face. The stress from all that, sent me back to the smokes. It was not a fun time; and I quite frankly, I wish I had never even sought after that foolhardy mission.

Either way, I am hoping that I can keep this up. Pray for me, as I need it much.

Status update from Jim Hoft over at Gateway Pundit

Like I wrote on here before, I have not always agreed with Jim Hoft over at Gateway Pundit; But, this ordeal here is harrowing to read.

Quote:

My trip to Los Angeles the weekend of August 16th was wonderful. I saw several friends. I spoke at a rally for media fairness. I played the part of an Obama rodeo clown chasing a cow across the stage. It was great fun.

It wasn’t until late Saturday night that I started feeling ill. And I brought what I thought was a cold virus back home with me to St. Louis.

The next week I felt horrible and took cold medicine to try to shake this late summer “virus.” It wasn’t until Thursday when I woke up with no sight in my left eye that I knew something was terribly wrong.

That is when I checked into the hospital and my life changed forever.

via Facing the Horror: How Disease Nearly Took My Life But Grace Saved Me | The Gateway Pundit.

I also believe that good Doctors and having the insurance or money to afford those doctors might have helped too. But, I digress. 😀

Either way, go read the rest of that. Looks like ol’ Hoft got really close to death’s door. Maybe it will lighten him up a bit. But, somehow I doubt that one. 😉

 

 

Another Republican talking point about Obama’s healthcare law proven wrong

This is good news for people like me, who will soon be working for a living again, and will most likely need help from this new healthcare law.

The Story:

One of these days, a dire prediction about Obamacare will come true. Today isn’t it.

The Administration on Thursday released new information about the “Federally Facilitated Marketplaces.” Under Obamacare, every state must have an exchange—a place where people without employer-sponsored insurance can find insurance. Some states are running their own exchanges. Others are asking the federal government to do most, or all of, the work. Those federal-run exchanges are the FFMs.

To be successful, exchanges must have enough plans to generate some competition. The whole idea of the exchanges is to let people shop around, seeking the best combination of benefits, service, and prices—just as they might shop for a car, an accountant, or any other good or service. Yes, that’s probably more of a conservative idea than a liberal one. But, for competition to take place, insurers must participate. And conservatives have predicted the insurers would stay away, because of Obamacare’s supposedly onerous regulations and a fear that the whole system is doomed to collapse.

Even liberals like me have worried how the insurers might act—and, sure enough, some carriers really do seem wary. But plenty aren’t. On Thursday, the administration announced it expects the FFMs to have more than sufficient competition. At least one new insurer will be offering plans in about three-fourths of the FFMs, according to the administration, and 90 percent of “target enrollees” (people the administration is hoping will use the exchanges) will be able to choose from at least five different insurers. Given the poor state of competition that exists in many states today, the administration says, that’s a big improvement.

The data is preliminary and sketchy—and the improvement may not be as dramatic as the administration made it sound. “I would characterize it as modest plan competition,” Caroline Pearson, vice president for health reform at Avalere Helath, told Sarah Kliff of the Washington Post. “In most markets, there seems to be a bit more choice than what’s available in the market today. But we’re certainly not seeing a wild influx of plans into the market.” 

via Obamacare Insurance Options: Looks like exchanges will have plenty | New Republic.

Believe me when I tell you, I am not a huge fan of President Obama and I was not too keen on the idea of “Obamacare.” However, I will tell you this, if anyone knows all about the cost of rising healthcare in this Country — It would be me. I had to cancel my health insurance that I was getting through the COBRA program. It just kept going up and finally, I simply decided to stop putting out that kind of money; and this was back when I was working full-time as a straight truck driver.

Needless to say, I am glad to hear that the Republicans might just be wrong on this little issue here. 😀

Oh, and by the way, I have some pretty darned good reasons for feeling this way too. 😡

Others: News DeskThe Plum Line and Wonkblog

 

Health Update

I wrote about this already once. But, I thought I would give my readers an update on my situation.

It is officially official: I have diabetes and high blood pressure. 😥

Here is the picture that officially declares my days of ” Work Hard, Live Fast, Die Hard and Leave a good looking corpse.” over for good:

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On a more positive note: I have been cleared by my doctor to go drive truck. I will just have to eat three square, sensible meals a day. I have to, of course, cut down on portions. ( 🙁  ) I already drink diet soda; so, I am covered there. I will be going on Tuesday, after the holiday here and getting my note to take back to the clinic, which will get me my DOT card; and then, I have to go down to the Secretary of State and get my license switched back to Interstate from Intrastate. THEN, I will be, hopefully, calling this company and getting a bus ticket out to the training school/main terminal.

Then, I will be there for a week of classroom and driver orientation and then a driving evaluation; and then out with a trainer for 4-5 weeks. Could be more, could be less, depending on how I do. I am, needless to say, praying that I do well and get my truck quickly. I am not naming the company for some very obvious reasons. I still have political enemies and because of a particular group of internet trolls who like to get people fired from jobs.  I will not elaborate on that bunch, except to say that, seeing I am getting back to work; I am going to be speaking with a lawyer and getting that posting about me taken down. I hope they’re reading here; because I am very serious about that.

Also too, and I was thinking of doing another posting, but I will just say it here. After this weekend, this blog will be going silent for a few weeks. I will not have a smartphone to post from. There is a boost phone that I want to buy, but at this time, I cannot afford it, and the only phone I will be taking, is a cheap phone that my mom used to use, before she got her new one. She offered to activate that one, until I can afford to buy my cellphone. I will be taking my laptop and might look into buying WiFi service from the truck stops that I will be stopping at. But, for the first few weeks, internet access won’t be happening, unless I get lucky and it is offered for free at the motel where I will be staying. I would like to get an Galaxy S4, which is a really nice phone. However, I do not want to get locked into a stupid two year contract. So, I am most likely getting this one here, because of the “hotspot” feature.

In conclusion: Pray for me, much. I just want to make it, and do well in life; like my Father did back in 1967 — when he left Middlesboro, Kentucky and came to Detroit looking for a better life.  I want to prove the naysayers wrong. I want to prove to myself, my family and my enemies that I can truly do all things through Christ, which strengthens me.

Pictures and video will come. Soon. I do promise you all that. But, for now. I have to go silent.

 

 

Health issues preventing me from going back to work

Believe it not….

Yes, I had to do this today….

As I wrote awhile back, I have wanted to go back into driving truck for a living. Well, I went today for my DOT physical and I got a bit of a surprise. I had sugar in my urine. So, I had to stab my finger and check my blood. My blood sugar was 275, DOT rules say nothing over 200. My Blood pressure was 160 over 100. For DOT regs, it must be no more than 140/90.

I was wondering why I was having headaches here as of late. I found my answer —- blood pressure. 🙄

Needless to say, I have a doctor’s appointment coming up next Wednesday at 2:00pm. As I have to see what on earth is going on here. I guess sitting around for 10 years doing nothing but writing has taken its toll on the ol’ body here. One thing I will mention, Diabetes does run on both sides of my family. I was hoping it would skip over me; I guess it is what they say, hope floats. 🙄

So, my DOT thing is on hold, till I can either get this under control or something.

Also too, full disclosure with me here: I went online today and applied for STATE medical insurance help.  I won’t take federal, unless I absolutely HAVE TO do it. But, now; I will be blunt with everyone: This sugar in the blood and high blood pressure stuff is NOT anything to play around with and I am not getting any younger.

So, honestly, I do not give two flips where it is coming from. I want to live and be healthy. So, at the point, politics is not in my realm of view at the moment. Sorry, but I am not dying young, just so I can say, “Screw the Government!” Why I see it, if the Republicans think that my dying young is somehow or another preserving some sort of freedom, then they can just go jump in the lake and I will call myself a Democrat again. I did not like Obama, for many reasons. His wanting to help people, like me, be taken care of, was not one of them. I am not much into “Mob Rule” at all, but I am not dying so some wealthy Republican can feel good about himself. If you know what I mean and I think you do! 😀

Anyhow, I will everyone posted on this. Needless to say, this was a huge shock to me. The last time I took a DOT physical, I passed with flying colors —- this was in 2003, 10 years later and now this; it sickens me a bit. For years, I was the epitome of health and now….this. 🙁 It was not the way I thought my life would turn out, that is for sure.

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