Super Chick

The largest breasts I have ever seen!
Really ginormous...
I mean really scary colossal...

...for a chicken. I am purchasing more and more organic, grain fed meat. Organic cost more, so we will just have to eat less meat in order to eat the best meat. And tonight's baked chicken proves why we need to do this. I had to slice the breasts in 3 sections in order to expect them to cook in a reasonable length of time. Years ago I simply placed the breast portion in the casserole as is.

Did you know?

The discovery that low doses of antibiotics make chicken grow faster was made in 1950. Since then, practise of mixing antibiotics (up to a dozen different types) in animal feed has become quite common, and scientist estimate that 70 percent of all antibiotics consumed in the United States are used for livestock production.

It's important to note that these low-dose antibiotics added to feed are not necessarily used to treat diseases or infections. Over 90 percent of the antibiotics used in livestock production are for "non-therapeutic" purposes, merely to enhance growth and weight gain in the animals.

Non-therapeutic usage of antibiotics has been especially common in poultry production. Since the 1980's, annual antibiotic usage in poultry production has increased from approximately 2 million to 10.5 million pounds, an increase of more than 300 percent! Although this is due in part to the overall growth of the poultry industry, that's still a lot of antibiotics used to make chickens grow faster.*

There was a time when fried chicken was a Sunday Dinner treat. We can now consume fried chicken every day if we wish (to have a heart attack at an early age). It should take a chicken approximately 8 months to mature (contingent on type and nutrition). To meet the demands of food production today a chicken can be ready in a matter of weeks. And they are bred to have larger breasts since that is what all the restaurants want for nuggets and strips.

Can we place all the blame on the Poultry Industry? What role does our own greed and impatience play in this? We want/we demand, without regard to our future or the world's. Our bodies not only grow larger but become resistant to antibiotics when we may need them to protect our health. This is a widely known issue that most of us continue to ignore.

*http://www.circleofresponsibility.com/page/19/poultry.htm


*note...
the Super Bowl and commercials were sadly lacking in originality so I had time to think about this.

Did God join Facebook?

Tonight when I checked in on Facebook I was startled to find God in my list of friend suggestions! I know He is everywhere, but usually He is a little more unobtrusive. He is cool like that. Doesn’t push Himself on us, just waits for us to reach out to Him.

Was He surprised that someone would impersonate Him, as I was surprised when I saw He had joined? Did He get tired of MySpace or is He looking for His children who haven’t contacted Him much lately?

Does He need to join Facebook to look at friends profiles to find out what they are doing?

Does He have to join in order to see their photos so He knows how they are changing?

Maybe He wants to sign up our birthdays on MyCalendar so He won’t forget about us and can remember just how old we are. That is too funny!

What does He think of Facebook? I wonder if He thinks His children are wasting a lot of precious time posting things like “Going to sleep.” Or “I’m bored.” when they could be praying, playing, planting, growing, singing, dancing, helping, feeding, reading, leading, following,… well, you get the picture.

Maybe He is remembering how excited His children were when the telephone was invented and they could talk with their friends. Or how amazed we were with that e-mail we thought was da bomb a few short years ago. Or, how we used to visit face to face, sharing hugs and wiping tears and really listening to each other.

Would God join Facebook? I dunno... I just can’t seem to see it. Maybe he would, just to be friendly with everyone. But I think He could get people’s attention in more magnificent ways. I am thinking my God is chuckling over the thought. After all, God is omniscient?

I wonder if He is on Twitter.

“O LORD, you have searched me and you know me
You know when I sit and when I rise;
you perceive my thoughts from afar.
You discern my going out and my lying down;
you are familiar with all my ways.”
Psalm 139:1-3

UNBELIEVABLE!!

I know you are expecting something about our Governor and, yes that was unbelievable, too. So sad for his family and for him. Yes, he failed to execute his job. He hurt his family. He disappointed us. We are all angry that this has happened. We feel duped. But, he was duped, too, by Satan!
" For we all have sinned and come short of the glory of God."
Romans 3:23 My post is not about those facts. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I phoned my rheumatologist for an appointment and I received a call back with this message. "Dr. B (maybe I should just say his name) would prefer that you see your primary physician."

I phoned the office again to ask why and was told. "I'm sorry, that is what he said and I cannot ask him again."

My prescriptions have run out and for a moment I was stunned. Then I remembered: At the last appointment, I asked Dr. B his opinion on a particular drug that he had prescribed (and that was working quite well). There had been much ado on TV from attorneys offering to represent you if you were on this drug. I simply asked his opinion and he explained that all NSAID's were equally risky. That we had to weigh the results with the risks. I assured him that the results were very good and my life was better now with this drug than before this drug.

I thought that was the end of the conversation, but then Dr B abruptly pulled out his prescription pad and said, "My policy is that if a patient asks questions regarding this drug, I take them off it."

I quickly stated that I didn't want to stop the drug, I simply wanted to be knowledgeable regarding it. He repeated, "That's my policy." and wrote a prescription for another drug. Then, instead of writing, follow up in 3 months or 6 months as in the past, he wrote on my chart, follow-up as needed.

Well, prescriptions are running out and an ENT has diagnosed another auto inflammatory condition; therefore, I phoned for an appointment.

What? Dr B's patients must be compliant and never ask questions?

This is very confusing. Every magazine, every medical news site, every talk show medical guest, all say, be your own health advocate. Speak up if you have questions or concerns. I spoke up, I had a question....and I was fired as a patient?

Confusing....I'm just saying.