In the late 1970s through about the mid 1980s I was immersed in all things medical. I worked a number of medical venues and was even a triage and crash team member at several institutions on the West coast.

This was the time of Durk Pearson and Sandy Shaw and their much touted and maligned book Life Extension a Practical Scientific Approach of which I both purchased and read several copies in an attempt to full grasp as much as I could ... to the chagrin of my best old ex-friend Darrell who thought the concepts highly dubious at best.
 

One of those proponents was Dr Denham Harman who formulated the 'free radical theory of aging' of which I subscribed early on and made attempts to compensate for within my own metabolic pathways. I would take SOD complex (superoxide dismutase) which was only available as injectables and sub lingual tablets which looked like yellow saccharin.

I was surprised at his contemporary criticism of the Pearson and Shaw book on television as "designed to sell products" after their glowing, gushingly complementary references to both him and his work. However, this did not diminish my pursuit of the non FDA approved uses of prescription drugs and the so-called 'nutraceutical'.

Yes, thalidomide breath ... I have little regard nor use for the FDA or the CDC. They are simply more of the governmental interference and glut imposed on the consumer.

Though I was never one to megadose anything because it was simply not my nature, I did take those substances I sought out in somewhat elevated doses and the list was long and full of nootropics and other aspects of metabolic, neurologic, and circulatory supportive substances ...

Then there were the immune stimulants and I was on heavy doses of T Cell Prep and B Cell Prep by then Cardiovascular Resarch (and now Ecological Formulas) and I really think these two preparations had a striking impact on my ability to ward of infections of all kinds.

This, coupled with the fact that I became a hygiene freak when I departed the Navy gave me impetus and foundation for all the reading I did subsequently and I have modeled various aspects of my supplementation based on the voracious early career study I did on the West coast when my interest was strong.

Denham Harman was born on St Valentine's Day February 14, 1916. He passed six years back November 25, 2014 at age 98. He was a Ph.D. Chemist and a physician trained at Stanford University. He completed his internship a year before I was born.

His free radical theory of aging was initially rebuffed by the scientific community, but later recognized as an insightful scientifically relevant treastise on aging which became one of the most cited publications in the field of gerontological research.

I was entirely too unsophisticated and only beginning my cultivation of a knack for critical thinking at the time to reject anything presented in a verifiable scientific manner and I read then pondered and re-read Dr Harman's theory often in the early 1980s. It was a central and supportive aspect to my understanding of the nature of human physiology in general.

Career realignment and technological focus has left me no longer the medical conversant I was early on. It all has left me a man though no longer on a mission, simply well versed in various aspects of health care which the orthodox medicine ignored and criticized until well after they began to lose credibility due to their rejection of valid therapeutics outside the realm of surgery and pharmacology.

It was all kind of like the day of reckoning the chiropractors had with the AMA via a grassroots movement which simply would not be silenced. Orthodox medicine would have been much better off had they only shut their stupid faces and stopped pushing the cutting of people and popping pills as the only therapies around.
 

Mom and I went to Fort Jackson National Cemetery to pay our respects to my late stepfather, Johnny H Pruett. It seems like ages since we lost him four years back and he and my biological father are two of those individuals for whom I regularly give thanks.

In this holiday season on the cusp of Thanksgiving it is appropriate to remember him and all he did for me at this time. It tempers the season with a touch of wistful introspection as I note the distinct lack of his presence in my life.

For this and so many other reasons I honor him now and always.
 

Marion Shepilov Barry March 6, 1936 – November 23, 2014 Typical no character democrat

I remember the Marion Barry debacle. Crack smoking Mayor. Democrat. Shitbird. Didn't even lose political support because of the character of his constituents.

There needs to be a reckoning with the taint imparted by the liberal core educators allowed to indoctrinate the children of the Republic. Why this was ever tolerated by the Republicans I'll never know.

Marion Barry Jr aka Marion Shepilov Barry was an American politician who served as Mayor of the District of Columbia from 1979 to 1991 and 1995 to 1999. The typical law breaking protodemocrat, he was a public tragedy long before the democrats became the organized crime they are now.

On January 18, 1990, he was arrested with a former consort, one Hazel Diane "Rasheeda" Moore, in a sting located at the Vista International Hotel involving the FBI and Washington DC police for crack cocaine possession and subsequent use.

It seems that Ms Moore was an FBI informant who invited Barry to her hotel room and insisted that he smoke freebase cocaine prior to sex. Agents watched on camera from an adjacent room and waited for Marion Barry to accept her offer.

During the videotaped arrest, Barry went into a tirade of sorts against Ms Moore saying "Bitch set me up... I shouldn't have come up here ... goddamn bitch". Such a stellar performance.

Over time, things devolve to where such is the nature of the democratic party which has become a bunch of vote stealing criminals running at large without observing nor respecting the rule of law or even a modicum of civil behavior.

I have associates who differentiate between "liberal" and "leftist". However, I choose to group them all together for those who allow illegality turning a blind eye to it in their presence just because it benefits them directly or indirectly are just as culpable as the scum who perpetrated the fraud which was the elections held in certain states with democrat governors.

Since they can't even attempt to police their numbers choosing instead to enjoy the ill gotten gains from cheating, unscrupulous, immoral, and criminal behaviors they have absolutely no redeeming virtue whatsoever.
 

In my life I watched Esther Rolle in various roles as a function of that television available to me.

She was an American actress and star of stage and screen born November 8, 1920 who lived through November 17, 1998.

I regularly viewed the comedy Good Times and participated in the antics of the family of Florida Evans.

A lot of people watched that program for Jimmy Walker. I watched it for Esther Rolle.

Her credits went far beyond this and toward the end of her career the film Rosewood had her portray a character called Aunt Sarah, a sweet woman who was murdered in the acompanying fray and I cried with Don Cheadle as he rode the train after escaping in her casket.

From Maude, Touched by an Angel and Murder She Wrote through Fantasy Island, Driving Miss Daisy, Cleopatra Jones, and even Poltergeist: The Legacy she was an award winning actress who passed from the sequela of diabetes too soon and she was always instantly recognizable by me and for whom I would take pause to enjoy yet another character in her vast repetoire.

She had a knack for portraying family and was always someone to whom I could relate.