I often hear others tout their personal spins on crock pot pork dishes and mention how long they cook and what those various ingredients include.

Some of my family members pride themselves in such porcine delicacies and some even go on and on about them.
 

First of all, I am not knocking anyone for their gastronomic proclivities and I suppose that the modern processing of meats in general have made the populace at large lax in their observance of Levitical food laws — and alas, there are even a number of those in my midst who do not recognize Leviticus as a valid food reference anyway.

Now, the pig is an unclean animal because it has cloven hooves but does not ruminate. Yes, I eat ham. I eat bacon. I have been known to consume pork with the greatest of gusto.

Those pork inclusions to my diet are typically cooked while well drained of rendered fat as a matter of attention to detail.

Pork products cooked in a crock pot typically are cooked in the rendered pork fat which is a repository for toxins and impurities imparted to it by a beast with no sweat glands which eliminates where it consumes and is my humble opinion and is a health hazard contributor of the highest order.

No amount of spooning the fat from the meat or even removal with a suction baster is sufficient in my eyes.

Just as I would never eat a possum nor other scavenger there are other Levitical food laws that I fail to observe. I suppose it just depends on the animal. For example, I will eat a crustacean like shrimp or lobster and scaleless cat fish but shun the frog, birds of prey, snails, lizards, bats, and most all of the other unclean animals.

I view the appetizing nature (or lack thereof) are my personal limiting factor in the food animal department.

Also, I could never eat a canine, feline, or rodent likely due to their dual roles as companion animals. I simply find the eating of some animals totally abhorrent.

So swine, though unlean will get consumed by yours truly depending on how it is cooked. Should it be slow cooked in a croc pot and allowed to simmer for hours in it's own toxic swine fat ... no thank you.

Violation of the Levitical food laws is a sin against health. They are not sins against the soul.

I've had several issues over the years with hosts becoming offended at my reaction to what was being served for dinner. I have attempted to temper my reactions to various foodstuffs over the years in the name of tact and poise. Making someone cry over a dish they are serving is not my idea of good interpersonal relations and I will consume what is offered to me during social interactions the name of polite company.

There is no excuse for allowing the perception of rudeness to raise it's ugly head.
 

In our age of inferior nutrition as the result of false academic studies by Harvard and other universities we are left with the requirement to supplement our diets with suitable high quality dense nutrition or suffer the consequences of these studies 'bought and paid for' by the modern food industry in that effort to enrich their coffers at the expense of the health of the populace.

Toward that end, I engage in a nutritional supplement program which has been in effect since the late 1970s because I simply do not trust any aspect of data set forth by the so-called higher educational systems whose primary focus is the almighty dollar rather than the truth.

This has been a telling feature of higher education over the years. The stupid yale students screaming for safe spaces, the disproven accuracy of scientific investigations falling to the realm of 'fake science' and of course, the ivy league institutions affixing their name as though it is some badge of credibility when they are the some of the absolute worst bottom feeding scoundrels of them all.

Once upon a time only some institutions were 'diploma mills'. Nowadays the vast bulk of them are and they go hand in hand with the public school system which is forced to "pass" the unsuitable and inept with the same credentials they provide to scholars after a set period of time. A college degree simply means you've paid your money and here's your paper. Too many stupid people walk around sporting masters degrees anymore.

No wonder the Asians are beating us on the so-called 'educational' front and the pitiful Americans can't compete effectively anymore ,,, but I digress yet again !
 

My issues with dietary supplements all surround the dreaded 000 capsule ... which is not only the largest, but one of the more common sizes for the intake of powders and particulates from herbals and such.

This horse choker frequently finds itself lodged in the upper esophagus of individuals who dare to go there because they are derived from gelatin and lack adequate surface moisture prior to swallowing.

As the capsule descends the esophagus it is hydrophillic and therefore absorbs that moisture indigenous to the path it is taking and ends up adhering to the side of the conducting tube early in it's travels.

The results is a feeling of something being caught in the throat.

Having experienced the ecstatic pleasure of this sensation a number of times over the years I now make sure that I swish all gelatin capsule supplement containers around in my mouth with some liquid — typically coffee in the early am. If the surface of a gelatin capsule is sufficiently moist it will not adhere to the mucosal lining of the esophagus nor lodge there to provide discomfort. It will slide right on down to the stomach posthaste.

So if you're like me and distrust the earlier mainstream nutritional data provided by the money grubbing fake data producing ivy league educational institutions who would just as soon sell you up the river as look at you ...

Just remember to give those dry capsules a good swish with whatever you're drinking and voila — no more stuck capsules in your throat to drive you crazy for that periods it remains above that point it should have passed immediately.

I'm sorry your teacher couldn't teach you better than this. Sometimes it's far better to acquire your own data and figure things out for yourself.
 

One of the continuing human tragedies of our existence is the propensity for child abduction whereby an individual captures and sequesters the child of another for various nefarious purposes and ends.

These tragedies play out on various local, state, national, and international stages all too often with profoundly cataclysmic consequences for those victims and their families.

Sometimes, justice prevails and lives are saved. Other times justice prevails but posthumously for the victim. Still other times the case goes cold and there is no justice for anyone.

Today is National Missing Children's Day. It has been observed since 1983 when it was proclaimed by President Ronald Reagan. Later in 2001 International Missing Children's Day arrived on the lame and oh so typically late global stage.

Back in the day there were faces on milk cartons captioned "Have you seen this child?" The evolution of the mechanics of of child abduction notifications is now pretty much the purview of social media. Then there are those of us who never go there ...
Those headlines which permeate the news all over are sometimes overshadowed by other current events. Regardless that taint of perversion and criminality remain the problem of the victims and their families. Sometimes the long arms of the law fall far too short.

I try to protect children from the monsters which exist in our midst. The abductors of children are individuals who need to be required to suffer the vigilance of we who would smash them into that oblivion they so richly deserve.
 

Heavy D Dwight Arrington Myers May 24, 1967 – November 8, 2011

I had several encounters with Heavy D, all of which were impromptu chance events in my personal life.

It had been my habit to watch the Arsenio Hall show before retiring during that spate of hell teaching in the local state technical college system.

One night he came on and did a song and dance number that was really striking with his characteristic vocalizations and dancing all over the stage.

Mr Hall came out afterward and marveled at his rhythm and those highly dynamic dance aspects saying how he thought these were manufactured by cinematic professionals when he saw them earlier and how he didn't realize the man could both sing and dance implying the prowess and agility of a much younger man.

Never having been a hip hop fan nor one of that fusion which was his trademark, it was indeed impressive even in my eyes.

Dwight Arrington Myers aka Heavy D, was a Jamaican-born American rapper, singer, actor, and record producer.

He was the leader of Heavy D & the Boyz, a quasi hip hop fusion group which included dancers/background vocalists.

They maintained a significant share of the hip hop audience in the United States through the better part of the 1990s.

Heavy D & the Boyz released five albums and did many live and television appearances during that time.

Heavy D's final live performance was on October 11, 2011. He passed the following November 8, 2011, in Los Angeles, California, at the age of 44 after collapsing outside his home in Beverly Hills, California.

After transport to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center his death was initially thought to be connected to pneumonia with autopsy confirming the cause of death to be pulmonary embolism likely caused by a recent long airplane trip.

The civil rights advocate Malcolm X aka El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz born Malcolm Little is honored this day thus far in Berkeley California as an early martyr in the civil rights movement.

There are varying degrees of celebration but like his cohort protomartyr Medgar Evers, that honor for being struck down while working for the good of all people, particularly the down trodden of their times is not universally accepted in the US.

The controversial black racial advocacy imposed early on in the black muslim movement 'by any means necessary' echos hollow without meaning in our 21st schizoid world.

The failures of identity politics drown memories of those who worked hard and long for civil rights to keep that recognition and esteem they once held with the masses they served.

I for one have never been a civil rights activist.

I do, however believe that we are all created equal.

I also believe that Malcolm X was murdered by those congregants of the Nation of Islam as a mechanism of some aspect of revenge.
 

Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.

Romans 12:19 Holy Bible, King James Authorized Version