Why I am voting for Lamar and Bill . . .

I had a friend that asked me whether I was going to vote for Lamar Alexander.  If you look thru my previous articles, you’ll know that I campaigned for and supported Joe Carr during the primary.  My response was that I am voting for Lamar for the same reason that I would have crawled over broken glass to vote for Romney.  Even a weak Republican, like Romney was preferential to Obama.

I attended a meeting over the weekend with Senate candidate Danny Page ~Independent~ and Constitution Party candidate for governor, Shaun Crowell.  I like Danny Page and agree with him on more than I do Lamar.  After hearing him in person, he almost persuaded me to vote for him; however, his wife piped up in response to an answer by Charlotte Bergmann about why she was running as a Republican and not under the Constitution Party.  First off, I resented the question to Ms. Bergmann as to why if she was a constitutionalist, she was running as a Republican instead of under the Constitution Party.  I could understand the question if Ms. Bergmann was running as a Democrat, but Republican?!?  Really?!?  The implication was that the Republican Party doesn’t believe in the Constitution.  Sir, if you read their platform, they are exactly in line with the Constitution.  We believe in limited government and a strong national defense.  The problem isn't with the Party; it is with some of those that call themselves Republicans.  Ms. Bergmann explained that if you want to have influence in the direction that the government is going, you need to be a part of those that are making those decisions.  Look at Ted Cruz.  Do you really think that he would have gotten as much support and been able to educate as many citizens if he ran as an Independent or 3rd party?  I have been saying that we need to take over the Republican Party from the inside ~like the leftists did with the Democrat Party. ~ I knew that even if Romney won in 2012, that we constitutional conservatives were still going to have our work cut out for us.  One election isn't going to fix what is wrong in this country or in the ruling class of D.C. ~both Republican and Democrat~.  We need to clean house from top to bottom.  Danny Page’s wife then stood up and objected that Republicans were giving us crappy candidates and people were staying home because of it.  Her tone was combative and accusing.  My contention is that the time to have these fights is within the primary.  Danny Page was not in the primary process because of an agreement that he had with Joe Carr.  I can respect that, but don’t complain about the Republican candidate for Senate if you did not take part in the process.

The ironic thing was that not five minutes later when defending her support for Amendment 1, Mrs. Page actually used the term “baby steps” in the fight against abortion.  She admitted that her goal is to completely get rid of abortion; ~she used the term abolitionist~ but that voting for Amendment 1 would be a baby step in the right direction.  So she is for using baby steps to accomplish her goal with abortion ~which I totally agree with~ but not when it comes to baby steps to changing a political party.  We have seen what can happen if you work within the Republican Party on the local level.  We had a Republican county commissioner that was acting more like a Democrat than a Republican.  He was called out on it in the local GOP steering committee meeting.  It was a beautiful thing.  The result?  He changed his vote.  That is how we change things.

What if Danny Page were to take enough votes from Lamar and got the Democrat senate candidate elected?  Do you really think that sending a Democrat to the Senate is going to teach the GOP elite a lesson?  Do you really think that retaining Harry Reid as Senate Majority leader would be a good thing or preferable over Mitch McConnell?

If you want to stop Obama and the Democrats YOU have to show up and vote on Election Day.  Sitting home is how we got a 2nd term of Obama.  If you want to change the direction of our country and stop Obama and the Democrats, you have to do more than show up on Election Day.  It is bigger than one election.  Showing up and voting is just the beginning of your civic responsibility.

I Feel So Much Safer Now . . .

Yesterday I attended the Shelby County Commission Committee Meetings.  One of the highlights was a discussion with the head of the Shelby County Health Dept and representatives from the local hospitals on the subject of Ebola.  You never know what you will find out when you begin to take self-governance serious and go to these meetings.  I felt like I was in an infomercial for the flu shot.  Think I'm jesting?  Here is the report from Mike Mathews of ABC 24.  Note to Mike Mathews and ABC 24, the flu isn't 100% preventable even with the flu shot.  See this study.  It estimates that the flu vaccine is only about 59% effective.  Full disclosure:  My daughter who has a compromised immune system due to her transplant did get a flu shot.  I do not want my child in an emergency room or hospital this season.  While the flu vaccine is not 100% effective, I do want to give my daughter the best chance at not getting the flu.

Now back to Ebola and Shelby County.  Ms. Madlock reiterated that it is not airborne nor spread by casual contact; although the virus was in all bodily fluids of a person including sweat and that the virus can live on surfaces for 2 hours.  I wish I could have asked her for clarification on that info.  According to the CDC ~hat/tip MidSouth Sentinel~ the Ebola virus can travel through air, but they made that admission in a very sneaky and hard to find manner. The following statement is under Low Risk Exposures:

Close contact is defined as
a)  being within approximately 3 feet (1 meter) of an EVD patient or within the patient’s room or care area for a prolonged period of time (e.g., health care personnel, household members) while not wearing recommended personal protective equipment (i.e., standard, droplet, and contact precautions; see Infection Prevention and Control Recommendations)
b)  having direct brief contact (e.g., shaking hands) with an EVD patient while not wearing recommended personal protective equipment.
The footnote explains that For purposes of monitoring and movement restrictions of persons with Ebola virus exposure, low risk is interpreted as some risk.

"The implication of this statement is very, very clear: Ebola DOES in fact travel through the air."  Also, if it can last for a couple of hours on a hard surface, there doesn't seem to have to be direct contact, just touching a hard surface after an infected person does.  We've also been told that unless an Ebola patient is showing signs of the disease, that they are not infectious.  Since the symptoms of Ebola are similar to the flu, how many of us stay home when feeling a bit under the weather?  Just living in reality here.  Why do you think there is such a market for over-the-counter flu medications?

The panel of "experts" was also asked if they were prepared for isolation since we are being told that only a few hospitals in the nation have specially built isolation units with negative airflow.  Again, the answer was not reassuring. Apparently, isolation consists of a private room with a private bathroom. The patient's room would have limited individuals with access to the room who would be “protected”.  She said that that many hospitals do have the special isolation units which they use for case of tuberculosis, but that Ebola wouldn't warrant the use of these units.   Here is the link from the CDC that provides this information.  Not sure why the CDC made such a big deal about these units when bringing the first Ebola patients to the US happened.  My guess, is it's all about optics.  As it happens, my family has experience with isolation.  My dd was put in isolation when she was in ICU at Le Bonheur as couple of years ago.  We had to gown and mask up when we entered her room.

CDC Guidelines for Isolation for Ebola

Someone did text Commissioner Roland about the disposal of a dead body. He passed along the question. Ms. Madlock said that they were going to send out information on the CDC guidelines to all the mortuaries and funeral homes. Commissioner Justin Ford, whose family is in the funeral home business, asked about autopsy to determine the cause of death with Ebola and was told that there would be no autopsy. The CDC guidelines were to double bag the body and then either cremate or put body in a hermetically sealed coffin.  Mr. Ford then asked about whether there could be a service and was told that he would receive the guidelines from the CDC.  My impression was that Ms. Madlock was irritated at this line of questioning.  I don't think she was ready for such a specific question.

Bottom line:  I was not reassured.  Many contradictions and unanswered questions.  Ms. Madlock said that the SC Health Dept was sending out guidelines to all the licensed doctors, healthcare facilities, school nurses etc.  I'm sure they'll be as excited to get and read them as Ms. Madlock was in coming and answering questions from the Shelby County Commissioners.  While I am not panicking ~and I am not advocating panicking~ I am not reassured about how ready Shelby County is for Ebola.  I am praying that there isn't an outbreak and that Ms. Madlock is correct.  In the meantime, I am taking my own precautions for my family.  We cannot depend upon the government to do it.

Update:  I received these from a friend.  Apparently this is what the Shelby County Health Dept. sent out to all of our healthcare facilities etc.

With the nurse who cared for Duncan contracting the disease, it appears that Ebola might be a bigger deal than Ms. Madlock and her staff are letting on.  

Protect Your Kids; Protect Yourself

With the diseases that are flooding across our southern border and then being shipped across the country by the federal government ~trust me, chicken pox is the least of my worries~.  Schools are bracing for up to 50,000 illegal kids.  With Ebola, enterovirus, and TB in our schools and in our communities, what is a mom to do?  Panic?!?  I've done that.  Be angry?!?  Absolutely!  But the bottom line is that I have to protect my family.  I have to protect my kids.  I cannot depend upon the government ~especially this current regime~ to protect them.  I can't keep my kids isolated from the world.  That is not practical.

My belief has always been that God created us with a wonderful defense system called the immune system.  I have never been a germaphobe believing that the way to a good immune system is to exercise it.  That is how our immune system works.  This is also the science behind immunizations.  Introduce an antigen into the body and then the immune system produces antibodies that fight the invader.  Antibodies also neutralize toxins and activate complement which assists in killing bacteria, viruses and infected cells.  This is called adaptive immunity.  Each of us is different and each of our immune systems are different.  We all come into contact with different germs and bugs, but most of the time, our immune system protect us.

This brings me to the story of the thieves during the plague that ravished Europe on and off for centuries; literally wiping out villages and large populations.  The story goes that there were thieves that pillaged the villages after the plague had wiped out the population.  Why were these thieves immune from the plague?  As the story goes, these thieves were perfumers who rubbed themselves with certain plant oil extract which protected them from this most contagious disease.  Old wives tale?!?

Fast forward to today; science is catching up to these ancient practices.  Studies have found that certain essential oils have antimicrobial properties.  This study cites cinnamon and clove as being antimicrobial and anti-fungal on different bacteria and fungus including on E-coli ~I wish I would have had this information when my daughter caught an E-coli bug which resulted in her kidney failure~.  This study shows the effectiveness of cinnamon bark, lemongrass and thyme against respiratory tract pathogens.  Another study shows how the phytochemical eugenol (found in cinnamon and clove showed prominent anti-mold activity.  Orange oil is high in d-limonene ~a powerful anti-oxidant~which has been studied for it's ability to combat tumors growth.  What was it that our moms pumped into us when we started sniffling?  Why orange juice, of course.  Did you know that the aspirin has it's roots ~literally~ in nature?  From the Aspirin Foundation, "The active ingredient in aspirin, acetyl salicylic acid, is a synthetic derivative of a compound, salicin, which occurs naturally in plants, notably the willow tree."

So what's my point?  I believe in medicine and science.  Just like God gave us brains to use in the advancement of civilization in other areas, the same can be said for medical science.  So I am not going to advocate for throwing out all modern medicine ~unlike many others who are on the "all natural" bandwagon and believe that Big Pharma is bad~.  What I am doing however, is sharing what I am doing for my family as an added precaution.  My family is using a blend of essential oils that is formulated to support healthy immune function. Wild orange essential oil, combined with clove, cinnamon, eucalyptus and rosemary offer a fragrant, natural and effective alternative to synthetic options for immune support.

I also have soap with the protective blend of essential oils at every sink.    I clean with it as well.

Here a couple of studies that show the effects of a protective blend of wild orange, clove, cinnamon, eucalyptus and rosemary on influenza ~flu~ and MRSA ~staph~.

For more information on what essential oils are and their history, just email me.

It's up to us as parents to protect our families as best we can.  Essential oils are one of my weapons to do just that.