Finally someone comes to the rescue of Vitamin D, Thanks Mike

By the way the history of lard and how it came into its bad rep is fascinating.  It originates  at the turn of the twentieth century with stories from the packing houses and the rendering of lard.  In addition technical problems of lard turning rancid (I believe this is the oxidation of the fatty acids) have been an issue from time immemorial.

Currently there has been a renaissance of sorts in cooking  with lard (heard about it on NPR)for the  gustatory experience of foods using lard (ie biscuits).

No one has said anything about the serious deficit of vitamin D in our lives? That's the latest craze in medical schools.

I work as a healthcare professional and have the vantage point of seeing two publicly traded large healthcare providers operate in todays economy.

1) Volume in healthcare is down 20-30% over the last 4 years.  No recovery seen since the downturn of 2008-2010

2)Positions in healthcare have been eliminated each year for the past four and no new hiring is seen.  Hiring freezes have been the standard

3)Reimbursements are expected to be steeply cut

4)Salary and benefit cuts have been already implemented: hours cut to 30/week and no acrued vacation time.

I believe that the healthcare industry is headed for a sector recession.  This may not be seen in the broader economy as a recession but it should dampen the employment and economic figures at least 1-2 percentage points.  I'm not sure what to say about the share values in the market of these healthcare companies.  I suspect that we are headed into a Japanese-like economic state that will last for years and become the new norm.

If any day marked the day I became a conservative it was the day in my youth when I realized that freedom meant the obligation to do what is ethically (and from a Christian prespective morally) right.

I lived in Oakland county for many years. Detroit is sad but once was a fine city. I'm reminded of a proverb that says a people will get the king they deserve. So the people must demand that what is right must be done. How can the character (virtues) of the people be changed? Now there is a question for richochet members to ponder. The dilemma arises between the role of the community and the role of the individual in effecting change of character. De Tocqueville said that 'America is great because she is good.' The member comments above all reflect in some form that sentiment. Even Seattle maybe living off that residual (or might we all at this point). So Mitt might have some value here. The question is could Mitt inspire the people to restore goodness to their city?

"Chicago has strict gun-control laws. Chicago is run -- and has been run -- by powerful Democrats. Chicago is experiencing a severe crime wave."

My son went to college in Chicago and he was fond of saying the "Ahhhh, Chicago the city where corruption works..."  perhaps the strict gun control laws were never meant to reduce violence but are just one more tool in the hands of the city officials to carry on business as usual...

Here's a fun party.

Buy several good single malt scotches and a wall map of scotland.  Make sure the scotches selected come from several different regions of scotland.  Read the descriptions of   the geography, water supply, malts and soil characteristics for each region as pertaining to the scotch.  A good book on scotch will provide you with these details.  Mark the locations of the distillaries on the map.  Invite several friends and provide each with a fine glass suitable for sipping the scotch. 

Begin after dinner or hors d'œuvre depending on the amount of preparation you wish to exert.  Pour a small taste of a scotch into the glasses so that only you know the brand.  Then the fun begins.  Sample each in order and reveal the origin after the sampling. The correlation of brand and geography really educates the palate as you smell and taste the scotch.  The peatiness, maltiness, and even the air of the region comes out in each of the scotches.  You'll be amazed at that the character of the whiskey is truely tied to the land it comes from. 

If possible personal knowledge of the land is an added bonus.

Thank you for bringing this to the attention of Ricochet readers.  I heartily agree that the failure to understand the term myth correctly limits the hearer's (or reader's) depth of perception on any issue where myth is clearly the best word to use.  The fallacy of tying myth to fact and failing to understand its role in communicating truth I think is a symptom of scientific methodology controlling ones understanding of knowledge.  I somtimes think that living only an 'evidence based life' might be a life of deep intellectual poverty.   Perhaps we could have an executive order creating a program to help!

The best advise I ever heard about dating came from my third son.  He was in high school (International academy Detroit). Hetold me this story when he was in college.

He was listening to friends bemoan the dating struggles they occasionally would suffer through and a peer asked him "Duff why are you always in a good mood?"

Duff turn to him and said,  "I think the unhappiest people I know in high school are the ones who are dating someone.  So I've decide to avoid that trap.  Instead I think interactions between groups of guy and girls are safest and more fun."

The end of the story is good.  He starting dating later on a romantic level in college.  He met his wife to be in graduate school. Ten years after high school Duff and his lovely wife have made us brand new grandparents with the arrival of their first son Leif last spring.

Here! here! well said.

I've enjoyed this discussion immensely and katievs has the best summary statement of the problem presented in the initial discussion. This is an epistemologic issue about the nature of knowledge, what is knowledge and where does it come from.  Overall many have made wonderful and insightful comments that read like a short anthology on epistemology. I believe katievs hit the nail on the head though by pointing out that first to know something we must start with an unprovable assumption.  Atheist and believers can be equally accurate in their logic and interpretation but both begin with  assumption(s).  Humility (said to be the greatest of virtues) is required to accept the reality that we begin knowledge with a premise. 

1. married 

2. 24 

3. My only marriage of 35 years. (Note: 4 children 33, 30, 28 and 23 years old but only youngest two married )

4. Of note in the extended family of 13 cousins (age range 33 to 15) with 12 greater than 23 only 3 are married whereas by the same age range in my generation all seven of the combined families of siblings (my wife's siblings and mine) were married.