The Seen and the Unseen

I just posted a tribute to Ron Paul, so in that spirit, here's a quote from French economist Frédéric Bastiat from his essay in 1850 entitled "That Which is Seen and That Which is Unseen".

In the economic sphere an act, a habit, an institution, a law produces not only one effect, but a series of effects. Of these effects, the first alone is immediate; it appears simultaneously with its cause; it is seen. The other effects emerge only subsequently; they are not seen; we are fortunate if we foresee them.

There is only one difference between a bad economist and a good one: the bad economist confines himself to the visible effect; the good economist takes into account both the effect that can be seen and those effects that must be foreseen.

Yet this difference is tremendous; for it almost always happens that when the immediate consequence is favorable, the later consequences are disastrous, and vice versa. Whence it follows that the bad economist pursues a small present good that will be followed by a great evil to come, while the good economist pursues a great good to come, at the risk of a small present evil.

Portrait of Frédéric Bastiat from Wikipedia

Tribute to Ron Paul

Check out this tribute to Ron Paul. I really like this guy.



Apparently they showed this video at the Republican National Convention today. That kind of surprised me ...

Juice Fast and Herbal Cleanse

About three weeks ago, mostly inspired by the documentary "Fast, Sick, and Nearly Dead", Emily and I decided to try a juice fast. We did it for four days and felt really good about it. We have been planning to do an herbal cleanse for several weeks and decided we'd put it off another week so we could start with a juice fast. It was really hard the first two or three days, but not too bad the fourth. Emily ended up feeling sick near the end and had to eat some food. I felt like I had more energy at the end, but I also felt like I needed more substance at that point.

Then, about two weeks, we began taking some herbal supplements that supposedly help cleanse the body of toxins. I had tried some herbal cleansing of my sinuses a couple months ago and felt like all my worst sinus problems came back as the herbs, obviously doing something, seemed to be breaking up mucus and clearing out all the junk my body had produced and/or stored in that area. This lasted maybe 3-4 days and then I felt quite a bit clearer, the nasty symptoms slowed down and then stopped, and I felt like things were moving the way they were supposed to. Based on that experience, I have felt motivated to see what a whole body cleanse might do for my allergies and overall health.

Herbal Supplements

Since the juice fast and the last two weeks of herbal treatments with a diet of vegetables, fruits, beans, nuts, seeds, limited whole grains ... and not much else, I've lost about 12-13 pounds in three weeks. I wasn't expecting that, but my stomach does look a little better and I have mostly felt better. I got a bit dizzy and lethargic a couple days ago and, not really wanting to lose any more weight, I decided to introduce a little meat into my diet, which seems to be helping my dizziness/weakness and I think may be helping my weight to stabilize. I think the diet had more to do with the weight loss than the herbs, but the herbs have definitely had an effect on my digestive system - in a good way. Things are definitely working better in that department.

This coming week begins the full regimen of herbs including a combination that supposedly cleanses the bloodstream. I'll report on further positive/negative symptoms as I go along. I can't promise it will be regular or timely (see my posting track record - not always really good), but I'll do my best.

For the sake of posterity (and you, dear reader, if you're interested), the herbal combinations were inspired by Dr. Christopher and sold under his name. He died several years ago, but his company continues to operate. Although we're taking them slightly different than prescribed, the cleansing kit found here contains all the herb combinations we're using.

Inception

On a recommendation from Emily's sister, we watched the movie "Inception" last night. It was SO good!

The idea is based on a technology that doesn't exist - in the movie, it allows people to share dreams. Once I got past that bit of fantasy (didn't take me long), I just dove in and thoroughly enjoyed the movie. I don't want to say too much about the details of the plot because I think that would make it less enjoyable for you to watch. Briefly though, it begins by introducing us to a group of people who are paid to steal ideas from peoples' subconscious minds while they're dreaming (they call this theft 'extraction'). The group is then hired to implant an idea into a man's subconscious with the idea that it will take hold and become his own (inception). That's when things start to get a little crazy.

I was so impressed. The plot reveals itself slowly throughout the movie. As it became clear what was happening, I was so impressed by the beauty of the plot and the way in which the story was weaved. After a single viewing, I don't see any plot holes, which is satisfying. Once you get past the basic premise (shared dreaming) and one or two of the assumptions that I found hard to believe, the rest of the story fits together pretty neatly.

The best part of the movie for me was the mental gymnastics it demanded. Trying to keep track of everything that was going on in multiple levels of dreaming while keeping tabs on the characters as they're developing and as information from their past is unveiled that helps us understand them better - it was a bit of a workout. I really enjoyed that.

There was a scene in one of the dreams where gravity is changing and then it is completely lost (I can't explain why - just watch the movie). Some of those scenes were so much fun to watch. The guy who got to have all the fun was an actor named Joseph Gordon-Levitt. I was really impressed by him. Emily was the one to notice that as a child, he was the main character in a cute little Disney flick called "Angels in the Outfield". He did a great job in that film too.

As the main character, I thought Leonardo DiCaprio did a fantastic job. Some years ago, I didn't like him, though I can't really say why. I think it was all the hype from Titanic (a shallow reason, I know), which I never saw. But in all the films I've seen him in lately, I think he's fantastic. He did a GREAT job in this one.

The only downside to the movie was the violence. Except for one instance, which is extremely sad, the only deaths occur in dreams, which means no one actually dies. But it's still very violent to watch it. Still, I'm planning to watch it again soon just so I can put everything together now that I understand the whole plot. Very cool movie.

Fat, Sick, & Nearly Dead

Emily and I watched a documentary last night called "Fat, Sick, & Nearly Dead". It was really cool! Similar to the idea behind a documentary we watched recently called "Forks Over Knives", but a little different. The movie last night showed the progress of several peoples' health as they conducted vegetable/fruit juice fasts. The results were amazing and inspiring.

The guy making the documentary, Joe, lost a LOT of weight by doing a 60-day juice fast. The picture above shows a before and after version of Joe. Joe made his own juice from fresh vegetables and some fruit. He was able to eliminate his prescription medication completely - medicine that was intended to help control a pretty annoying autoimmune disease - can't remember the name right now.

He traveled across the US for the second half of his fast and talked to a lot of people. Most of the people he talked to seemed to think he was crazy for doing the fast. But some of them expressed interest and a few actually followed his example and tried it. He met a man at a truck stop who had the same rare autoimmune disease and this guy decided to try a 10-day fast. He started out at well over 400 pounds - I think it was around 460. After 10 days, he felt so much better and had lost so much weight, he decided to continue it for a full 60 days. Over the next few months, he lost over 200 pounds and it was so cool to see the before and after. Not just the physical, but the mental and emotional state of the guy. He became so much happier and more confident.

Emily and I are planning to do an herbal-assisted cleanse over the next couple months. After watching this movie, I think we're going to try a week-long juice fast to start it out. I'm excited to see what it can do.

One thing I've taken away from these two documentaries is the potential for a plant-based diet to dramatically improve health and guard against some of the chronic diseases so prevalent in western society. I've seen some improvement in my own health from experimenting with such a diet and I'm going to experiment with this diet more in the next few months. I'm hoping I can report some happy results from that experiment as I go along.

One version of such a diet is shown in the following food pyramid by Dr. Fuhrman. I think it makes a lot more sense than the food pyramid published by the FDA.

Plant-based diet food pyramid