NBA Champions; Just a Reflection

 As a citizen of Milwaukee you may imagine that I am very excited about the Milwaukee Bucks defeating the Phoenix Suns to win the NBA Championship; the first time in 50 years.

Well... I cannot deny that I am filled with a great sense of satisfaction and relief that it is over, but I have soured against the NBA and basketball, all professional sports really, over the last decade or so.

"What?!", you exclaim as the weight of my words finally reach you, "But you have Giannis! Fear the Deer!"

Sanctimonious athletes (absolutely not Giannis) with more money than they know what to do with making politically charged, often ignorant and false proclamations, espousing values that do not reflect the values of our great nation, the United States, you may think is enough reason to be jaded by professional sports. Add to that the expense of attending live events puts it out of the reach of any man of common means and you may say, "Yes, I understand where you are coming from."

But... that is not the reason I have given up on believing in sports. I love sports. I love competition. I was elated as a college student when the Brewers won the American leagues pennant in 1982, watching the crowds fill downtown Wisconsin Avenue from my dorm window.

It was when the Wisconsin Badgers lost the NCAA basketball Championship final to Duke some years ago, myself older and wiser, that I had pretty much had it. The Badgers had come back in the last minutes to win their games over and over in that March to get to the finals. And they were beginning to do it again. Then foul upon foul against the Badgers, the commentators wondering "Where" suggesting that it was actually Duke that committed the foul, and the message was clear.

On the positive that was the one NCAA Championship that dropped from the news cycle faster than a lead balloon. It was so blatantly obvious.

Big markets mean big money.

After the Green Bay Packers' Super Bowl run this last season I half jokingly remarked on an old high school classmates Facebook feed (and that is why we will never leave Facebook, all those minor acquaintances from our past who we connected to, because absolutely everyone was on Facebook, will never follow us to another platform).

So I remarked. "Don't you know that the NFL will never allow the Green Bay Packers more than one Super Bowl per quarterback?"

The Green Bay Packers franchise is legend itself but it is not a large market comparatively, especially as football merchandise marketing expands throughout the world.

Wisconsin and particularly Milwaukee also have a powerful storied basketball tradition, but if you think todays Milwaukee Bucks will be allowed to become a dynasty you are naive.

Fear the Deer? Right.

Bigger markets mean bigger money.

The point where I really gave up on it completely was when the NBA silenced its' coaches and members from speaking out against the genocide happening in China. And for what. Nothing but money.

Nothing but money is the reason all our institutions and corporations refuse to take a stand against China on human rights, or what many call crimes against humanity.

So I was working my farmer's market stand Tuesday, game day, and several other vendors asked me if I would be going down to the Deer District, as they knew I live in the city.

I said, "I thought of it. I thought of making some signs boards about the NBA silencing free speech and supporting genocide in China."

"They will kill you." I was told with all seriousness by know less than three others.

What has become of our society?

In fact a few vendors had mentioned fear in being part of the downtown crowds for game six. After all is this not when the wanton destruction of our cities began, long before BLM or Antifa, when sports fans began trashing their own cities upon winning championships?

What has become of our society? What has become of sports?

Maybe it was always this way.

The Shared Experience

Remember when over two thirds of the nation would watch the same Television show on any particular evening? And we couldn’t wait to get back to school or to work, that water cooler, to hear and share our reactions to the drama with our fellow human beings.

We had a shared experience. An experience we longed to share. We celebrated our commonalities and marveled at how others differed in their experience of the same event, expanding our horizons in the process.

There were characters we loved and hated, and they were not always the same among everyone, but there was well thought out reasoning for it all.

Now, with on demand everything, and an experience in front of every screen, we create individual experiences virtually, no human interaction required.

Thus are the dangers of the modern world.

But we still have sports…

And what of the shared experience of motherhood, that deeply shared joy, the wonder of creating life? Pregnancy is no longer a life one is bringing into the world, but a mass of cells, a burden one is not encouraged to carry.

Where does our future lie?

What once defined womanhood is now despised.

To be manly, that shared experience to protect and provide, is considered criminal.

Prayer in school?

Government will allow none to compete, particularly God.

The shared experience is now not shared but scripted, dictated, allowed only if it conforms to the manufactured greater good.

Global warming; so starved for the shared experience, so deprived of the true values of life, so disconnected from the ability to discern, people, especially our young, cling to anything for relevance.

To believe the threat is real, to believe what one is told, is all that is required to be responsible, in the know, a good human being.

Life and death, work and family, the growing and preparation of our food, stewardship of the land were once universally shared human experiences.

Things happened, people died, young and old. We grieved, we mourned together and we sought for God.

The circle of life, the enduring of our tragedies made our victories all the more worthwhile; made humankind what we have become today, or had become.

Today’s tragedy, this virus, is a shared experience of worldwide proportion.

Yet we are not allowed to share the experience. We are not allowed to share sickness and health, life and death. We are told what to think and how to act and if we do not think and act appropriately, then we are a danger.

If only we were like Red China.

We are just beginning to understand the threat, yet so many are eager to proclaim their personal enlightened understanding, no matter how flawed. Most all judge this fluid situation, this virus, from a static perspective, helpful to none. But as long as we get our fifteen minutes.

I saw a comparison of the Spanish flu numbers with the COVID-19 numbers on Facebook; a network we place too much value in. But the Spanish flu numbers came from a two year course, and it most likely started long before it was recognized as a new contagion. We are just beginning with COVID-19.

This is how we form arguments these days? This is how we convey the dangers or lack thereof?

Are we all too disconnected to recognize the disconnect?

COVID-19 is in no way a threat to the existence of humanity, but the death rate is high, tragically high. Fortunately the young appear to be spared, a fact which in an earlier age would have been rejoiced over.

When we are allowed to share this experience, we will all come out stronger by living through it; life portends death.

We value our own lives too little if we are willing to be dictated to without question. We value the lives of others far too little if we do not bestow our trust upon them as fellow human beings and act responsibly in return.

Personal behaviors naturally change in the face of crisis, but faith in our creator and our fellow man should never change.

The Declaration of Independence:

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”

Liberty; it is the ultimate shared experience in human history. An experience that many of the powers to be wish us never to share again.

The Morality of the NFL

I have an ulterior motive to this post, just to be clear. I want the Green Bay Packers to win the Super Bowl.

Sure they could have been the number one seed if the obvious pass interference penalty committed by San Francisco, not called by the officials, had been booth review in the final two minutes as it should have been in their game against Seattle.

And if the no calls against the 49er’s and imaginary calls against the Packers had not occurred, when they played each other earlier in the season, momentum would have been very different and it at least would have been a much more exciting game.

Will home field advantage for the 49er’s include an advantageous selection of officials. It should not, but will it?

And how did the Eagles get into the playoffs if not by some highly questionable calls against the Packers, early in that game that led to an Eagle’s victory. And when looking at the standings at the time of that game, fan interest in the NFC East would have tanked if the Eagles had lost.

Further what do highly paid football players really know about civil rights, not to mention history, contemporary or otherwise, that they should be protesting our flag; this great nation that has given them so much?

Professional sports in general have declared that money reigns supreme. The NBA has literally put a gag on free speech and endorsed the violation of human rights on a massive scale in order to protect their lucrative Red Chinese market.

Can any man of modest means even afford to attend a professional level sports event? Certainly not as a family.

Is life only about the money? Is life about being popular?

How would an NFL official answer those questions?

But non of this is the point of this post. I desire to question the moral compass of the entire NFL, players, owners and the organization itself on a single point: Diet.

You would think that with all the combined experience and medical professionals involved in the day to day workings of the NFL that they would have a better understanding of an appropriate diet for high performance athletes than your average American. I believe they actually do have a better understanding.

How could they not?

Yet they are remaining silent as the people of this nation drift into chronic illness on a massive scale. As pharmaceutical companies rake in billions managing illness rather than creating health, and Big Agriculture’s grip on the throats of Americans grows stronger, they say nothing.

Big Agriculture is an unsustainable system of monoculture promoting highly processed foods. It is a system that depletes our soils, leaving them bare for substantial periods promoting erosion on a massive scale, that kills the essential bacteria in the soil that enable plants to absorb the nutrition that we need with the use of herbicides (glyphosate, AKA roundup) and chemical fertilizers, and that destroys the biodiversity of the planet, a biodiversity that we are learning is so crucial to a viable eco system. Big Agriculture is a system of money that is older and more deeply entrenched than any other in the world.

If NFL players desire a true Goliath to take on, I see none stronger. But are they really mentally capable of understanding the issue of food?

Probably so, but certainly they are absolutely capable of understanding how diet effects performance and healing.

Yet the NFL and its players remain silent as the nation devolves into a nutritional wasteland fraught with chronic disease; resulting in the loss of quality of life, early death, not to mention financial distress.

The issue of diet should be front and center among NFL players, as Big Agriculture and the promotion of the vegan diet go hand in hand in America’s de-evolution and the destruction of their fellow player’s careers.

No one wants to point out that Andrew Luck ended his career with a heartfelt press conference in which his reasoning read like an anti-vegan promotional, his inability to heal front and center.

Yes Andrew Luck is vegan.

Some have attributed the possible end of Cam Newton’s career to his vegan lifestyle. Is that racist? Cam Newton is black and Andrew Luck is white. I have not heard the same claims against Andrew Luck.

“The Game Changers”, a movie that took a long time to come out of production, espoused the superiority of the vegan diet over diets that included animal products.

Debunking of that film has been done by many. It was pointed out by Dr. Shawn Baker MD, a veteran and high performance athlete in his own right, that among the NFL players of the Tennessee Titans highlighted in the film all but one are no longer playing; their careers ended or on hold due to injuries and apparent inability to heal.

Why has not the NFL condemned the film?

The vegan diet, when whole foods based, has been shown to be beneficial on a short term basis. Only a very few around the world have appeared capable of sustaining their health on a purely vegan diet long term. The truth is however, that most vegans eat a vegan diet that consists of highly processes foods, the impossible burger being a prime example.

And that is the way Big Agriculture wants it.

“The Game Changers” also appears to enjoy pointing to athletes, such as Tom Brady, who are eating what they call a plant based diet as a vindication for their vegan cause. The problem with that argument, also pointed out by Dr. Baker, is that Tom Brady eats more meat than the average American.

Have the Green Bay Packers gone animal based in their diets? Remember, this post is all about getting the Packers to win the Super Bowl.

The Green Bay Packers appear to be plagued with far fewer injuries this year than in the past or across the league currently. Their performance has not been stellar yet they have found a way to win.

I believe they would be the dominant team in the NFL but for Aaron Rodgers’ poor performance.

His entire game has been off since his former girl friend had him on a mostly vegan diet, according to a report in 2018. At the moment he claims to be following Tom Brady’s eating style, but perhaps Tom is not being completely honest with Aaron as to what he eats. They may be facing each other in the Super Bowl you know.

And those New Englanders are known for cheating.

Danica Patrick, a woman performing in a man’s world, Aaron Rodgers’ current girl friend, promotes a high protein diet. I would like to think that Aaron is following her advice but it does not appear that way to me.

Ever since Aaron Rodgers changed to a supposedly plant based diet years ago, he has had that deer in the headlights look to him and his passes have been off… a lot. Let us not fool ourselves Packers’ fans, that look has not gone away.

His performance has been poor, his passes have been off the mark, for quite a while. It is not just his receivers.

Brain fog is a typical symptom of a plant based diet and disappears near immediately with a substantial infusion of meat.

Tell Aaron to eat a steak! or two or three! We want to win!

The NFL is the ultimate testing grounds for the benefits or ills of the type of diet a player choses to eat. Diet is an issue that is affecting millions, if not billions, around the world.

If the NFL players want a cause that will truly do some good, a great good… Why do they not take up a cause they are expert in?

It is about winning for everyone.

As for Aaron Rodgers I wish him the same as I do all my vegan, vegan leaning acquaintances or just plain everyone, including myself; a breakfast from that great movie, “The Big Country.”

Happy New Year!

Dr. Shawn Baker has given up a more lucrative direction in his practice to promote health creation rather than disease management.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y4a41L_9cFo
Forget Veganuary, join World Carnivore month:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a3hBoI_SQ0M
Regenerative agriculture:
https://www.regenerativeagriculture.co/

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving everyone. I have heard, more than usual this year, that Thanksgiving isn’t something we should celebrate. I was surprised to hear some customers around the farmer’s market, in which I sell my microgreens, appear to go out of their way to not say Happy Thanksgiving hearing “Have a Happy Winter” more than once.

Yes, I am an urban farmer and on my business’ FaceBook page I made this post.

One Family Urban Gardens

29 mins ·

“Have a Happy Thanksgiving everyone and don't forget that we will be at the West Allis Farmer's Market Saturday November 30th. If Thanksgivings greetings may have offended some let me say my microgreens are still just as nutritiously packed.”


I apologize that I haven’t met my goal of a monthly post for this blog. I will up my efforts for 2020.
Let me leave you with a bit of a riddle, and I will answer it in my comments Friday.

Riddle me this....

So I heard a story today, not too uplifting on the eve of Thanksgiving, that fast food restaurants have to take extra precautions these day concerning upset customers attack workers, jumping over counters even. Milwaukee has several such stories not to mention the continuous rash of auto theft, car jackings. etc. leading to further tragic outcomes.

So what is the difference between Milwaukee and the movie “Mad Max”?

Lists

I have a long list of things to do. It did not start out long, but as some things get left undone and new tasks are added; it grows weekly.

It is a list of expectations I put upon myself.

Some tasks were taken off the list. They became irrelevant for varying reasons and some jobs were so contingent upon the completion of other duties, or things such as the season, they were removed.

Often I skip a weekly update to my to do list until I can shorten it significantly… otherwise I may become overwhelmed; unable to meet my expectations.

I have shopping lists for things I need to buy. I have lists of supplements and foods that would be beneficial to my current state of health.

Lists allow me to organize my thoughts and activities, to facilitate the completion of goals. They fortify my determination and bring me back into focus when I am distracted or disillusioned.

Lists are a great tool and help shape what I want to accomplish and become.

I always wanted to learn to sail. I briefly joined a sailing club when I returned to school and took some impromptu lessons. I would like to do it again. Sailing is not something on any list I have. I do not see it working into my current lifestyle.

I enjoy fishing. I long to fish. I have some of my grandfather’s fishing poles. A couple years back we got to the fishing spot my grandfather used to take us to; about an hour from our home. My wife and I caught a couple of small fish.

With deep concern over my diet, let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food, and the understanding that wild caught fish are the healthiest fish option you would think it would be on a list of mine somewhere.

It is.

I have a wish list tucked away of what I would like as part of my dream farm. A fishing spot is on that list and every once in a very great while I will look at the list and dream.

I made a list of people also. As I set to writing, works of fiction, and came to the point where publishing was actually a certainty, I made a list of people to whom I could self promote my books. It was a list of mainly media figures of like mind to myself.

Realizing that I may not be the next literary genius of my age, and coming to the understand that I would not be putting books out at a rate that would deserve the level of promotion I was seeking I never did an official promotional campaign.

But I had the list. I had made the determination and I did send or drop off a few books to some people locally.

Lists portend action.

And if I ever can afford my dream farm, it will be a place with plenty of fishing opportunities.

When we put things down on paper we declare intent.

Is it any surprise that with all the truly planned mass shootings across this country, the shooters had if not an outright hit list, some form of manifesto declaring their intent to kill and cause mayhem?

Back in the day, as they say, when I was in school, elementary and high school, it would be nearly unheard of for anyone to create such a list. If it did happen, the knee jerk response would be, ‘Were they arrested?’

If they had guns or not was not the primary concern, and if it was found that they were a gun nut the knee jerk response would be ‘Why aren’t they in jail?’ not  necessarily ‘Did they take their guns away?’

The question today is, why are the creation of such lists not met with the same shock and horror? Why do we react differently today? Why can we not recognize the obvious?

There is a simple illustration that can be applied to various social dilemmas of the day.

Back in the day again, in Milwaukee with its Germanic heritage, you could stand downtown on a Sunday morning, and there would not be a single car driving on the street. When you came to a crosswalk and the signal said “DONT WALK” you stood their and waited until the signal said “WALK”, …not a single car driving on the street.

In many counties across the United States it used to be that all the stores would be closed on Sunday.

What we tolerate and do no tolerate in society, what we expect of society and ourselves as part of that society, has a profound influence on how society functions, if it prospers or declines.

Most will poo poo the idea that violent video games are causing today's violence, particularly gun violence. I disagree. It is one of several major contributors to the moral crisis this nation is facing.

The public, young people have become desensitized to killing. They play games where the goal is to kill, where each level of accomplishment is based on killing proficiency and numbers. You could say they are acting in accordance with a preformed list of goals.

They are fulfilling what is expected of them in the game to succeed and receiving a thrill for it.

Law enforcement is continually frustrated by the fact that people are not reporting people with kill lists or that express similar social proclivities. Such acts however do not register with a generation in which killing has become common place, has been glamorized in their homes via video games, in movies and on the news local or otherwise.

This glamorous pursuit of worthless goals via video games is void of the mass destruction and turmoil of war, conveyed with the hypnotic influence of a flat screen. Advancement through violence, actions and words that degrade others, is the quid pro quo. It becomes what is expected.

Video games might not be driving your average person to become a mass murderer, but it is creating a culture where the truly disturbed no longer stand out. All this violence and degrading behavior seems all too normal and at the same time all too unreal.

Is any of it real even after the fact, after a shooting, when the promotion of political agendas fill the news reports often before the facts of the incident? Is that a normal human reaction, or simply what has come to be expected?

More hype for a society that gets its fix off the hype.

Deteriorating societal expectations, video games and social media being a significant part of this dilemma, stigmatizes those pointing to the degenerate, so most do not point.

The ability to discern proper behavior gone, people report the normal for behavior deemed by the media, pop culture, as inappropriate.

Is that the solution? That we should all be treated as degenerates?

Should we all be put on the government’s list?