Screw 'Em! (Pardon my hockey-speak)

Two reasons for this post:

First, to recommend what may be my all-time favorite movie, Miracle, the story of the USA ice hockey team's victory over the Soviets in the semi-final match at the Lake Placid winter Olympics in 1980. (The USA went on to win gold.) Kurt Russell played the role of the USA coach, Herb Brooks, and this clip is of Brooks' speech to his players just before the game where they defeated the Soviet team who had DOMINATED ice hockey for years—undeniably the best in the world. The USA team was a bunch of college hockey players who defeated the Soviet professionals. I get tears and chills every time I watch Miracle, and especially this clip. (And by the way, if you haven't watched Miracle, or watched it lately, make it your next movie to see!)

Second, to show a little five-year-old guy who has memorized the speech from Miracle and who delivered it on the "Ellen" show this past week. You'll love the key line from Kurt Russell's speech delivered with five-year-old naiveté!

From the movie—Kurt Russell as Herb Brooks. Watch this first since a couple of words in the child's version are hard to understand:

The little guy delivering the speech at home:

The little guy on "Ellen:"

The Kool-Aid Flows in Sweden

President Obama had been president for 12 days when the Nobel Peace Prize nominations were concluded. Here's a run-down of his first 12 days in office which, apparently, qualified him to win the prize. (If not the activities of his first 12 days, what then? Running a presidential campaign?)

This short video opinion from The Times of London gets it right.

Cure for Diabetes?

Kathy Freston, author, health researcher, and blogger at HuffingtonPost.com is writing a series of articles on nutrition and disease based on interviews with leading doctors and researchers who advocate a plant-based diet. I commented on her first article regarding cancer a couple weeks ago, and her second interview is now online which deals with diabetes and a plant-based diet. In her second article she interviews Dr. Neal Barnard, president of the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine and adjunct associate professor of medicine at the George Washington University School of Medicine. Bottom line: the epidemics of obesity and Type II (adult onset) diabetes go hand and hand. Diabetes can be significantly helped if not completely reversed by eating a plant-based diet of whole foods.

You can read Freston's first interview on cancer here and the second (today's) interview on diabetes here.

Swine Flu

I hope no one who reads this is planning to take the swine flu vaccine. I have resisted posting the huge amount of information available concerning the potential dangers of this vaccine, but since the government began making the vaccine available yesterday, millions of people are going to begin lining up to inhale the vaccine or receive a shot.

Rev. George Malkmus of Hallelujah Acres has written extensively about the dangers of the vaccine, but in this article addresses the question of mandatory vaccinations—what is the possibility of the government mandating vaccinations and how should we respond? I encourage you to read his article. (Fair warning: Rev. Malkmus is a very conservative Christian minister and health researcher. If you don't like the news-source affiliations he mentions in the article, fine. Don't shoot the messenger—focus on the message.)

Many younger folks don't know or remember that there was a "swine flu epidemic" fear and vaccination program in 1976, very much like the present program. 60 Minutes (how I miss Mike Wallace!) did a show exposing the shoddy job done by the CDC with that vaccine and documenting the thousands of people who were injured by it. That 60 Minutes broadcast aired one time and, as I understand it, has never been aired again. (Hmmmm . . . .)

I encourage you to watch it -- it may give you second thoughts about this current vaccination campaign:

Swine Flu 1976 & Propaganda
by Dianequiose-4