When I think of my father I think of the day he died. I think of his temper and obstinate assuredness. And I think of the fact that he was there at every important event of my life. He was there. And that is what I find most important in my thoughts.

Someone once said “90% of life is … just showing up.” I shared this quote with my son today as we ate our Father’s Day breakfast, a delicious confection of Dungeness Crab Eggs Benedict, honeydew melon, and hash browns prepared by my seventeen year old boy. Like so many things shared by father’s to their seventeen, eighteen, and nineteen year old sons and daughters he didn’t subscribe to the quotes logic and sentiment. He said, “That doesn’t make sense. What about the times when you show up and don’t do anything?”

I’m sure I disappointed him and failed to convince him with my brief uninspired retort, “Well, that would make up the other ten-percent. Wouldn’t it?” Nothing further was said; and I’m sure he didn’t give it another thought. But I hope, like so many of the things I try to impart onto my children that a time will come that the quote and its sentiment might settle in his mind and create wisdom.

Truly, I don’t know if “just showing up” is 90-percent of life, or if it’s 60%, 70% or if it’s a moving target. I tend to believe its more like 95%. All that is good or bad in your life “is” because you are or were in it; you were involved. You were participating. You showed up.

From childhood to adult hood the most seminal moment in my life came at age eleven, January 5, 1976. While returning home from my paper-route I unwisely attempted to cross a busy four lane street through heavy late afternoon traffic. I failed. A blue Cadillac whose driver never imagined a paper boy on bicycle suddenly appearing before his windshield smashed into me at full speed, some 35 miles per hour. The driver never having touched his brakes.

The event is fresh in my mind because I just relived it last Monday night. Since that cold and rainy night on NE 8th Street at Crossroads in Bellevue, Washington 33 years ago the event has invaded my mind every few years. And by invading my mind I don’t mean to say I think about or remember it. I mean to say I relive it and experience flying through the air. I feel my forehead smashing against the curb as my upside down body descends to the concrete sidewalk. My body feels the unsteady dizziness that pulled me back to the concrete after standing up once I landed. It’s not remembering. I’m there again. It’s as real as this computer on my lap.

I’m sure the meeting of my brother and his Mom this past weekend triggered this episode. His Mom was a big part of mine and my Dad‘s life in the year preceding the accident. They had split up by the time of the accident. But her surprise visit to me after my return home from the hospital was very important to me then and remains so today.

In experiencing the crash again, I see my Dad. He was there. He showed up. While lying on the sidewalk I was immediately surrounded by strangers. Someone had a blanket and covered me up. And I asked someone else to call my Dad to tell him “I would be late getting home”. In the intervening time before seeing my Dad an ambulance arrived. Paramedics examined me and cut up my brand new Swabbies (pants) I’d received for Christmas, not two weeks earlier. Though I was still a month from my twelfth birthday I didn’t cry. No tears came as I calmly thanked those who helped me, and apologized for causing everyone so much trouble. I remained perfectly lucid and emotionless as I explained to the medical technicians where my hurts and aches were that they couldn’t readily see. But when they took scissors to my first ever non-hand-me-down pants I began to weep.

The paramedic stopped cutting. “Am I hurting you?” he asked. “No”, I said, “But you’re ruining my new pants”. “You’ll get some new ones. It’ll be OK.” He didn’t know. He didn’t know they were my only ever new pants. And he didn’t know they wouldn’t be replaced. They would be sewn.

I was put on the gurney and loaded into the ambulance. Before the doors could close I heard a familiar voice. I heard my Dad. He had come. He poked his head in the ambulance door ever so briefly, saw that I was alive, said something reassuring. And then said, “I’ll see you at the hospital”.

I felt so much better. I feared that he would be mad. My Dad never handled unexpected bad news well. His typical response was to grimace and soon yell at whoever or whatever was his provocateur. In the case of my car-bike accident he may have lambasted the stranger who called him. He may have cursed every slow driver that impeded his two-mile drive from home to the scene of the crash. He may have shoved those who had curiously gathered around the ambulance as he pushed into the vehicles doorway. But he and I never talked of such things. He never made me feel bad for the accident that reconfigured my bones, and my hand specifically. All he did was make me feel better by being there.

There is no need to romanticize my father. He was flawed in so many ways. But he never missed one of my sporting competitions, or school events. He was at my wedding though he said he wouldn’t be because he didn’t believe in interracial marriage. Repeatedly time and again, he showed up. And every time he did I was glad.

And in the eight years since his death not an event or holiday has passed where I didn’t wish for his presence. This includes last weekend when I MET his other son. A son who’s life he never acknowledged or participated in. His loss.

His failure as a father to my brother and his temper and his lack of ambition, selfish nature, and lack of personal fortitude are all forgiven. They are all forgiven, because he showed up. He was there for me when my body was broken and when so many other fathers never would have been home to receive the phone call to begin with.

Perhaps you too can forgive your father his failings. If he was there he has already exceeded that which 25% of all American fathers deprive their biological offspring.

I pray my children benefit from what I impart. But I know they gain from my presence. I know tucking them in, cheering them on, and disciplining their transgressions can only help them provide their children that which those future grandkids of mine need most from their Dad and their Mom. Their presence.

Ninety-percent of life is just showing up, that may be true. But when it comes to being a father, or a Dad, it might just be the whole ball game.

Comments are welcome. Thanks for visiting.

My Dad with his first Grandchild, Arica.

United States House of Representatives Seal (Photo credit: DonkeyHotey)

All my life I’ve never ever understood one aspect of the Pro-Life vs Pro-Abortion fight; and it has come up again this week as the U.S. House of Representatives debates a bill that would make abortion of 20 weeks of pregnancy illegal. My question is…why is it so darned important that pro-abortion (pro-choice…if you prefer) advocates hold on to the right to kill what is undeniably a viable human life so late in a pregnancy even if the pregnancy is the result of a rape? If my math is right 20 weeks is nearly five months.

As usual cooler heads always fail to prevail in the debate over abortion. It’s like common sense simply doesn’t exist on this subject. The lack of common sense produces insensitive Republican politicians making asinine statements like “legitimate rape” and that there “Was a low rate of pregnancy from rape” as AZ-R Trent Franks said yesterday. And it leads to Democrats defending the actions of murderers like the Philadelphia abortion quack Kermit Gosnell.

Yesterday the House Judiciary Committee passed the “Pain-Capable Unborn Child Act” on a strictly party line vote. It bans abortion 20 weeks after conception based on the premise that at 20-weeks unborn babies can feel pain. Democrats offered repeated Amendments, which were all rejected, including granting exceptions for cases of rape and incest. Upon having such Amendments rejected Democrats continually scorned Republicans, calling them insensitive, uncaring, brutal and other standard epithets for opposing their desire to ignore the fact that they want the right to choose killing a viable human life…regardless of its genealogy.

But the insults again led me to wonder what I have always wondered. If pregnant through rape or incest why not get an abortion LONG before the fifth month? Why wait so long? I accept the fact that I might be missing something, and I welcome a cool-headed pro-abortionist to explain to me why ignoring a human life is less important than allowing a pregnant woman to procrastinate endlessly…or at least through the entire nine month pregnancy. I am pro-choice and pro-human life. I believe a fetus in the first trimester is not human and a woman’s right to govern what happens to her own body should not be infringed. But I also believe a BABY in the third trimester is a viable human life, capable of survival outside the womb. It’s the 2nd trimester that’s a grey area I claim no strong feelings for, one way or the other; except to say when in doubt value life over choice and protect the innocent baby.

But when asked to extend the right to an abortion through the entire pregnancy I sincerely don’t understand. Isn’t it common sense that if you allow someone, anyone, man or woman, to procrastinate…they will? Or am I the only kid in school who only did his homework in the final couple days before it were due in spite of having the homework assigned some two-three weeks prior? By establishing a national law and understanding that you, the pregnant woman, MUST decide to keep or abort your pregnancy by the 20th week of your pregnancy…guess what…they’ll decide. And even if they pass the 20 week point having not decided a woman now as always still maintains the right to give up the child for adoption, a far more favorable option than the abominable choice of choosing to kill a viable human life.

Approximately 1.3-million abortions are performed in this country every year. That’s over 50 million since 1973 when Roe vs Wade became the law of the land, and only 1.3% of them were performed at 21 weeks of gestation or later. Between 88-92% of abortions are performed in the pregnancy’s first trimester. Is it so much to ask that the small percentage, the TINY percentage of women who can’t make up their minds in five months to get an abortion be prevented from doing so once that baby can feel the pain of being killed? I honestly don’t think it’s so much to ask. But I welcome someone explaining it to me.

Thanks for visiting. Comments are welcome.

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ARAPROSDOKIANS… (Winston Churchill loved them) are figures of speech in which the latter part of a sentence or phrase is surprising or unexpected; frequently humorous.

1. Where there’s a will, I want to be in it.

2. The last thing I want to do is hurt you, but it’s still on my list.

3. Since light travels faster than sound, some people appear bright until you hear them speak.

4. If I agreed with you, we’d both be wrong.

5. We never really grow up, we only learn how to act in public.

6. War does not determine who is right – only who is left.

7. Knowledge is knowing a tomato is a fruit. Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.

8. They begin the evening news with ‘Good Evening,’ then proceed to tell you why it isn’t.

9. To steal ideas from one person is plagiarism. To steal from many is research.

10. Buses stop in bus stations. Trains stop in train stations. On my desk is a work station.

11. I thought I wanted a career. Turns out I just wanted paychecks.

12. In filling out an application, where it says, ‘In case of emergency, notify:’ I put ‘DOCTOR.’

13. I didn’t say it was your fault, I said I was blaming you.

14. Women will never be equal to men until they can walk down the street with a bald head and a beer gut, and still think they are sexy.

15. Behind every successful man is his woman. Behind the fall of a successful man is usually another woman.

16. A clear conscience is the sign of a fuzzy memory.

17. You do not need a parachute to skydive. You only need a parachute to skydive twice.

18. Money can’t buy happiness, but it sure makes misery easier to live with.

19. There’s a fine line between cuddling and holding someone down so they can’t get away.

20. I used to be indecisive. Now I’m not so sure.

21. You’re never too old to learn something stupid.

22. To be sure of hitting the target, shoot first and call whatever you hit the target.

23. Nostalgia isn’t what it used to be.

24. Change is inevitable, except from a vending machine.

25. Going to church doesn’t make you a Christian just as being in a garage doesn’t make you a car.

26. Where there’s a will, there are relatives.

Finally:

I’m supposed to respect my elders, but its getting harder and harder for me to find one now.

Thanks for visiting. Comments are welcome.

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What a month of news we’ve all experienced!

• The U.S. Justice Department is spying on reporters from Associated Press and from FOX News
• The IRS is/was targeting political groups that oppose the President for harsh scrutiny
• The NSA is collecting massive amounts of data on Americans by collecting phone records and internet activity

And we won’t even get into the Benghazi affair or the newly developing State Department Prostitution scandal.

The three bullet points above point to a Federal government out of control and trying hard to grow even more powerful. It’s trying to control its people. People who increasingly choose what they call “security” over freedom. People who increasingly are willingly giving up their God given and Constitutional Rights in hopes that the big and powerful and all-knowing Federal government will take care of them. People who are becoming sheep. Or “evolving” might be the better word into “Sheeple“.

CNN reported this morning that a Pew Research poll showed a majority of those surveyed believed it was OK for the NSA to gather the phone records of millions of Americans. According to the new poll, 56 percent of Americans think it’s A-OK that the National Security Agency

Headquarters of the NSA at Fort Meade, Maryland.

is secretly tracking millions of people’s phone records to investigate terrorism. These Sheeple are reflecting their view that terrorism is lurking behind every door and we need to look under everyone’s bed to track it down.

Danah Boyd at the Writers on Writing about Technology roundtable at Yale University marking the publication of The Best Technology Writing 2009 (Yale University Press), to which boyd contributed. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Microsoft Researcher Danah Boyd writes today, “It’s disturbing to me how often I watch as someone’s likeness is constructed in ways that contorts the image of who they are. This doesn’t require a high-stakes political issue. This is playground stuff.” In her article, Why Believing “Nothing to Hide” Leaves you Vulnerable”, Boyd correctly points out, “A surveillance state will produce more suspect individuals.”  And I would ask “Who’s watching the watchers?”, “Who’s judging?”.

You want a clear example of how innocent and benign activity can be twisted into something nefarious? Consider this: I belong to a large organization of people who regularly gather together to ritualistically eat human flesh, and drink human blood. And we pray to and worship a 3-headed God. It’s true. Me and my multi-million member organization do exactly as just described. Should I be jailed, or at least shunned? Well, only if you believe everyone in the Catholic Church is guilty of dangerous activity in their worshipping practice.

Last week I had to turn down an opportunity to be a host/escort on my 14-year-old daughter’s school field trip. I had done this before with her and her two older siblings. But the school district has since established a policy that no parent can accompany these kids on a field trip, though they be needed, unless finger-printed first. For me, that was a bridge-too-far. I don’t mind them doing a background check on me to find if I have any kind of criminal history of hurting children. But to willingly give up the privacy, that is my own fingerprints, and be treated like a criminal just to accompany a class of teenagers, ALONG WITH TEACHERS AND OTHER PARENTS, is taking security beyond what is reasonable. And I don’t give a damn if others are willing to surrender their rights in this manner. I wasn’t; nor will I ever. Seriously, people…lets think about the likelihood that anyone who is a parent or guardian of one of the teens on this field trip is going to try to hurt any of the other kids…while in a public place…with 30 other kids…and 4-5 other adults. What are the odds? Now what are the odds that this person would do this after having passed a background check? I acknowledge some pedophile could have changed their name. But…once again…what are the odds? The answer is…astronomical.

The mistake of taking each incident mentioned above, issue by issue, leads one to miss the big picture. One who would is missing the forest for the trees, to fall back on clique`. I accept President Obama’s words that the IRS scandal is bad and “they need to get to the bottom of it”. But I reject his claim that NSA fishing through millions of phone records amounts to a necessary evil for the protection of Americans. General Warrants by the British were one of the main causes of the Revolutionary War. They’re also the reason for the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution prohibiting unreasonable search and seizure of any American’s property and requiring a judicial warrant be issued based on “probable cause”. No reasonable person could ever say probable cause exists for scrutinizing who a person talks to on the phone or in emails, let alone what was said or written, absent any previous suspicion of the person’s potential guilt. Though the possibility that information gathered in such fishing expeditions could some day be turned and twisted against any individual is extremely high, and not just Libertarian paranoia.

Our country was founded on the principle of individual freedom. It was with the concept of the people running the government, not the other way around. But the government and the compliant news media have gone so far in recent years to paint a fear in so many people of a need for overly intrusive government that a majority or near majority have evolved into a gullible and needy populous reliant on the Shepard (Government) to lead them, feed them and protect them. If the Sheeple continue to graze in the field in which they are led, we’ll continue to eat only that which we are fed. And we will never know the taste and nutrition of the greener pastures that grow in the vibrant sun at the edge of the cliff and the beauty which can be seen from such a place.

Thanks for visiting. Comments are welcome.

Total Broadcasting Service. When you want marketing help that you can understand and afford.

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The story in the link below explains just the latest Obama Administrations abuse of power:

Obama administration defends phone record seizure, does not confirm Verizon report – U.S. News.

The National Security Agency’s (NSA) mission is to protect Americans from foreign threats. It has no authority to spy on Americans. And spying on Americans to determine their foreign correspondence is a cynical claim designed to further expand government power.

If our ultimate goal is security, we could all be completely safe at all times if we were all locked in a box and had our pre-screened food brought to us daily. But it wouldn’t make for much of a life. As Americans we have always thrived on living life, taking chances, exploring; all of which are byproducts of a free society. If we continue to place our security over freedom we won’t have any freedom left, and we can start considering decoration ideas for our individual box.

Thanks for visiting. Your comments are welcome.

Call 425-687-0100 if you want to realize what I did. BTW- I’m now at 202 lbs.

When my wife and I made the decision to represent AdvoCare as Distributors we did it because we were so totally impressed with the products and the people representing Advocare. Our friends and AdvoCare mentors are such wonderful and impressive people, which we’ve learned even more so in the nearly one year we have been accepting their teachings and guidance. But one thing they warned us about, and others within the AdvoCare family warned us about has come to pass when I absolutely didn’t think it would. We were warned that a lot of people would outright reject Advocare without ever hearing about it because they were convinced it was a “Pyramid Scheme“. I didn’t think this was such a threat because I didn’t think there were going to be that many people my wife and I encountered who were THAT stupid.

Ok…Ok…that was mean.

Not stupid. How about ignorant?

Better…but still a little too demeaning.

Let’s stick with “ill-informed”.

Anyway, there have been a lot more of those ill-informed people that I ever thought possible.

If you’re one of those stup…errr…ill informed people you probably became that way through absolutely no research done on your part. My guess is you asked someone about Multi-Level Marketing or maybe it was because of you specifically asked someone about AdvoCare and this person being equally stup…errr…ill informed said to you, “I heard its a pyramid scheme” and that was it. You were done with AdvoCare or Multi-Level Marketing completely. You made no effort to learn from someone who knew better, you didn’t even bother to evaluate the intelligence or wisdom or experience of the person who gave you that false information. In all likelihood this person who gave you this bad, incorrect information was not accomplished in any way. But their word became your Bible, on this subject anyway.

It’s amazing how many people take the words and advice of friends and family who have no credentials, no accomplishments, no resume`, education, or bank account in which to measure their advice as worth while. Don’t get me wrong. I’ll take friendships from where ever they’re offered. But in the words of Sales Trainer Tom Hopkins, “I won’t take advice from anyone more screwed up than I am”.

You, the ill-informed one, need to know what a pyramid scheme actually is because neither Advocare nor most other multi-level marketing companies are “pyramid schemes” They are closer to what “Rich Dad, Poor Dad” author Robert Kiyosaki called “the perfect business”.

The definition of “pyramid scheme” from Wikipedia is: A pyramid scheme is a non-sustainable business model that involves promising participants payment or services, primarily for enrolling other people into the scheme, rather than supplying any real investment or sale of products or services to the public.

Bernie Madoff was busted in 2008 for operating the biggest pyramid scheme in U.S. history, totalling $65-billion dollars in fraud. He did it by taking new investors money to pay off earlier investors. And then he kept getting more and more investors, all of them paid off with money that came from newer investors. The obvious end result of this is that eventually Madoff ran out of new investors, and the stock market crash of 2008 painted Madoff into a corner in which he couldn’t escape. Investors kept asking him for their money. He paid out as much as he could, but couldn’t keep up. The dier economy left him fewer and fewer investors and eventually he was caught and arrested, December 11, 2008. Madoff made no investments. He sold no products. He just took from Peter to pay Paul.

Advocare sells products. AdvoCare sells the finest health and nutritional supplements in the world. The company has hundreds of thousands of satisfied customers; most of whom take the products and never work it as a business. And not one AdvoCare Distributor is paid a dime for signing-up another. AdvoCare is a products driven company. And it is a for-profit company. It’s been around for over 20 years and you don’t get to stick around that long by being a pyramid scheme. A pyramid scheme is not successful in signing up famous national spokespersons like Drew Brees, Jason Whiten, Matt Hasselback, Sam Bradford, Michael W. Smith, Doug Fister, Veronica Campbell-Brown…and so many others. A pyramid scheme doesn’t sponsor NCAA football Bowl games, like the AdvoCare Independence Bowl. A pyramid scheme doesn’t sponsor Nascar races or race cars, like Advocare.

I once had someone actually tell me, regarding multi-level marketing, “I have a problem making money off the labor of others.” I told them of my previous employers. This broadcast sales company had a single owner, a General Manager, and a Sales Manager, in descending order of rank and/or responsibility. Not one of them sold anything to any customer (In truth I think the Sales Manager made a few sales every year…but not much) or made any of our products. They made money off the labors of the Sales Staff. We had a sales staff of between 40-45 people. They sold everything and were paid a wage based on how much they sold. The Sales Manager made a living based on how much the sales staff sold. The General Manager’s salary was raised based on whether the sales staff sold. The owner increased his wealth or earnings based on how much the sales staff sold. Are you beginning to get the picture?

The Classic Business Pyramid

Multi-Level Marketing became tied to the idea of what a Pyramid Scheme was over 20 years ago when the U.S. Justice Department charged Michigan based Amway Corporation with being a “pyramid scheme”. Amway defended itself, and won in court. It isn’t and wasn’t a Pyramid scheme. Unfortunately though for them and other MLM’s the label stuck. Amway was a billion dollar sales company in the U.S. prior to the lawsuit and a damning 60-Minutes tv profile. They have since fell on very hard times and a bad reputation within the United States. But Amway is still one of the top 25 business companies, in revenue, in the country thanks to the fact that the reputation-damaging false charges didn’t diminish Amway’s over-seas sales.

Multi-Level Marketing companies have existed successfully in this country for nearly 150 years. The Fuller Brush Company being one of the first and longest lasting. A couple of others you may have heard about are Avon or Mary Kay Cosmetics, and Tupperware…just to name a few. Multi-Level Marketing simply means you are creating leaders who lead a sales force and get paid according to that sales force’s level of success. But unlike the Classic Business Pyramid as shown in the picture above, the sales force of a well run MLM has its own sales force under them (If they choose to.) The fact is most buyers of Mary Kay Cosmetics never sell Mary Kay Cosmetics. That includes my wife. She’s bought Mary Kay for over 20 years and hasn’t sold a single lipstick container. Nobody accuses Mary Kay of being a Pyramid scheme.

I’ve never sold Amway or any other Multi-Level marketing product/company in my life, either. But all this information is on-line and free to find for anyone who looks.

The fact is name-calling, or demeaning something you don’t know about or understand, by calling it a pyramid scheme is a lot easier than taking the time to learn about it. And that’s why stup…errr…igno…ummm…I mean ill-informed people will continue to believe Advocare and other MLM’s are pyramid schemes. They’re just to lazy to learn the truth.

Thanks for visiting. Comments are welcome.

Go to our website, read our story and try some AdvoCare. You won’t regret it.

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Me at 203 lbs. the day ending my last 24 Day Challenge; down from 245lbs.

Since my wife and I happily became Advisors with AdvoCare the most frequent objection to trying the products has been “I can’t afford it”. And I get this objection because of my failures in properly explaining AdvoCare. I’ve trained many sales people in my 20 year sales career as owner of Total Broadcasting Service, radio advertising and video marketing; and with my previous employers. When someone tells you “they can’t afford” your product or service you are guilty of one of two things. Either you have failed to build in the mind of the customer enough value for your offering, or you have failed to show them how they CAN AFFORD your products or services.

My wife and I have enjoyed tremendous benefits from using some of AdvoCare’s more than 80 different products. The benefits are so great we’ve made them a priority in our regular spending. And that’s what potential customers need to do. They need to make their health and appearance a higher priority. And they need to do some simple math. As an AdvoCare Advisor-Distributor its my job to help them with both. So here we go…

According to a January 2013 Gallup Poll only 35.9% of Americans are a “normal” or healthy weight. Of the remaining 64.1% of you, 40.6% are obese. BTW- that’s about 1% higher than when First Lady Michelle Obama started her “Let’s Move” physical fitness campaign in 2008. So things are getting worse, not better (in more ways than one. But THAT’s another blog). That’s over 86-million Americans with considerable motivation to find the finances necessary to get into shape. And in case you were wondering, if you are 30-40 pounds heavier than when you graduated high school you are probably obese. And it’s costing you money.

Obesity leads to heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, and other chronic health conditions. Obesity may not lead to arthritis and joint pain, but I can tell you from personal experience it does make such conditions worse. According to the website diabetes.org, they surveyed medication use and cost of 128 patients (75 women, 53 men). The average patient took between 4 and 5 medications per day. The monthly cost of these drugs ranged from $80 to $115. These estimates did not include the cost of syringes or home glucose monitoring supplies. These two items increased monthly drug costs by at least $55. Thus, the total estimated monthly drug cost for these patients ranged between $115 and $170. That’s over $1380 per year. Also, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) if you have blood pressure and are prescribed one of 18 different medicines you’re spending between $65-$195 per month, $780-$2340 per year. And how much do you spend on pain medicine, for aching backs and joints caused by your overweight?

When you do the AdvoCare 24 Day Challenge you will spend no more than $7.91 per day and you’ll need to give up a few unhealthy food choices you’ve been making. When you give up morning coffee, fast food, soda, and maybe a breakfast sandwich or other daily snack you will be saving between $12-$15 per day, which is between $288- $360 over the entire 24 days of The Challenge. Add to your savings the fact that you will probably be eating less, and healthier, and THAT will also save you money.

Even when not on the Challenge my wife and I save money with AdvoCare products. For instance we drink Spark daily as a source for energy, mental clarity, and as a morning wake-up drink. We no longer drink coffee, which we used to drink daily. As Advisors with a 40% discount on the retail price of AdvoCare products we spend about $0.75 on each Spark drink or $1.50 per day. Compared to just a $3.00 latte; that saves us $45.00 per month. We were never “energy” – drink people, like Red Bull. But a lot of people are, and if you are…you’re spending over $4.50 on every drink. Spark contains no sugar and 21 vitamins and minerals and costs 1/3 of what you’re spending.

Spark is loaded with 21 different vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients. It contains no sugar. And it works!!!

We also enjoy AdvoCare’s Meal Replacement Shakes daily at breakfast or lunch. We enjoy the chocolate flavor, as well as the mocha chocolate. Others like the Berry or Vanilla. The Shakes cost us $1.93 each meal. Any meal at any restaurant or fast-food sandwich is going to cost you at least $3.00. Yes, a bowl of Cheerios is a little cheaper. But it’s a lot less nutritious and far less filling. If you’re like me, when you eat a bowl of Cheerios or any other breakfast cereal you’re hungry again in an hour. That danish or donut you buy adds to your cost. Doesn’t it? And Meal Replacement Shakes contain:

* Only 220 calories
* Balanced meal for optimal nutrition and weight management
* 24 grams of easy-to-digest protein
* High in dietary fiber (5-6 grams)
* 50% of the Daily Value of calcium
* 26 vitamins and minerals
* 1:1 ratio of proteins to carbohydrates

And my family loves AdvoCare Snack and Meal bars. They have quite a variety. The new RAW flavor is a favorite. It’s a less-processed snack bar high in fiber and other nutrition. It’s great for eating on the run. And our cost is only $1.60 per bar. 

I guess with the Snack and Meal bars, the Meal Replacement Shakes, and Spark my message is these are not expenses. They’re replacements for what you would otherwise spend your hard-earned money on and in most cases they’re far less expensive. So don’t think of AdvoCare as an additional expense. Think of it in most cases as a substitute expense, and less of it.

Lastly, most people get started on AdvoCare with the 24 Day Challenge. But if you feel you can’t spend the $190 retail price (less with AdvoCare membership) then you can do it gradually. The first 10 days of the Challenge includes the Herbal Cleanse, Spark, and Omegaplex. Get those three outside the typical bundle and you only spend $76.40. Order the remaining Meal Replacement Shakes, MNS MAX, and additional Spark one week later when your next paycheck comes. You can do that for your health, your future, maybe your children. Right?

See? You can afford it.

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Since June of 2012 to May 2013 Sonja is down OVER 40 lbs.

Click on the link below for a good, but obvious editorial the Seattle Times has decided to present…finally.

Editorial: Obama’s weak record on freedom of the press | Editorials | The Seattle Times.

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Having worked in the press corps and associated with so many fellow reporters it gives me no pleasure at all to tell you that many of them are not the brightest bulbs on the Christmas tree.

I start my blog with this, somewhat obvious, statement because for all the hullabaloo surrounding the White House lately and their evident abuse of power the one question I’m waiting to have answered has not even been asked yet. And that fact alone should convince any reasonable person to be concerned for the intelligence of our fourth estate. Who originated the idea of blaming an anti-Islamic YouTube video for the terrorist attacks in Benghazi, Libya last September 11? To me the fact that eight months have passed without that question being asked, let alone answered points to a complicity at the highest levels of the Obama Administration.

Here’s what we know now about Benghazi.

1) The President, Secretary of State Clinton, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney,

Jay Carney

and UN Ambassador Susan Rice lied, repeatedly, about the nature of the attack for up to two weeks after its occurrence.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.

2) We know the President, Carney and Hillary lied about the reason for the lie. Blaming talking points they said were crafted by officials of the intelligence community. We now know that State Department and White House “leadership” were instrumental in shaping the ultimate talking-points that proved to be a lie.

3) We know the State Department, headed by Clinton, ignored repeated requests for better security at the Benghazi consulate.

4) We know four Americans, including Ambassador Christopher Stevens, were killed in the pre-planned attack which had nothing to do with any video.

5) We know President Obama was involved in a tight re-election bid and that his campaigns over-riding theme was that Bin Laden was dead and Al Qaeda was on the run (only they weren’t). And we know Mitt Romney’s failure to press Obama on the Benghazi issue made him look weak and allowed Obama the high ground; especially after CNN’s Candy Crowley’s

CNN Sr Political Correspondent Candy Crowley at Obama Rally in Houston, Texas

unprecedented intrusion into their Presidential debate in favor of Obama in a statement that ultimately proved untrue.

6) And we know that State Department spokesperson Victoria Nuland wrote in a private email that “building leadership” (State Department building) was not satisfied with the talking points on Benghazi. Who was the building’s “leadership”? That would be Hillary Clinton, the Secretary of State. Who was Nuland’s immediate boss? Uh..huh…

What we don’t know is who originally fabricated the lie that in large part rescued Obama’s campaign and went a long way toward assuring his re-election. But connecting the dots doesn’t make it difficult to draw a line straight to Hillary Clinton, and then from her straight to Obama himself. Perhaps someone will connect the dots now that increased scrutiny is being focused on the apparent abuse of power by the Obama Administration.

The revelation last week that the powerful IRS focused much tougher scrutiny on Conservative or Tea Party groups seeking non-profit status only confirms what individuals in this group have been saying for more than two years. According to an article in USA Today yesterday a Tea Party group had its application approved 90 days from submission in February 2010 and that no other Tea Party group would get their tax-exempt status approved for 27 months.

Early reports of this story following IRS Director of Exempt Organizations Lois Lerner said the abuse of the Conservative groups was limited to 2012 and was limited to lower level employees in a IRS field office in Cincinnati, Ohio (Yes…THAT Ohio. The state that singlehandedly decided the 2004 Presidential election and the state that was expected to again be a deciding swing state in the 2012 campaign). Only what Lerner and media reports didn’t tell us was that the blocking of Conservative groups tax-exempt status began in 2010 and that the Cincinnati IRS office was the sole location where such applications were directed from all across the country. In other words, there was a nationwide abuse of power over right-leaning organizations that seriously hampered their fund-raising capabilities through two elections. Or do you not believe that individuals and corporations are more likely to give money to an organization if it’s a registered non-profit and such donation is tax deductible? The answer is obvious. And money wins elections. And through this conspiracy money-raising efforts by those who would oppose Obama and Democratic ideals were seriously hampered.

But the abuse of power doesn’t stop there. In another unprecedented act of power, or abuse thereof, the Obama Justice Department subpoenaed the phone records from 20 different phone lines used by Associated Press reporters in April and May of 2012. AP President and CEO Gary Pruit said,  ”There can be no possible justification for such an over broad collection of the telephone communications of The Associated Press and its reporters. These records potentially reveal communications with confidential sources across all of the newsgathering activities undertaken by the AP during a two-month period, provide a road map to AP’s newsgathering operations and disclose information about AP’s activities and operations that the government has no conceivable right to know,”. Democrats please note: this is not some right-wing GOP operative slamming the Obama DOJ. THIS IS THE ASSOCIATED PRESS!

Attorney General Eric Holder said Tuesday that he had recused himself from the subpoena process in the AP case. He then revealed in testimony Wednesday before a House committee that no such recusal exists, at least, not in writing. This is the head law-enforcement officer in the country admitting he didn’t keep a written record of his involvement in a leak investigation that he called the worst he’d been witness to in his career. Really? So it’s a big case with big unprecedented decisions being made and our Attorney General felt no need to have record of his recusal. Am I alone in finding no credibility in this statement?

We’ve seen this all before. Forty years ago a second-rate burglary, initially ignored by all the national press, grew into a story of abuse of power by a President and his Administration that was wide-spread and involved many different angles, stories, and victims. When the White House finally released about 100 pages of emails over the Benghazi matter yesterday it was only a small gesture. Because there are more, a lot more. Anyway…it reminded me of Nixon releasing SOME of the tapes.

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Related articles

• AP Reporter to Carney: Doesn’t the Responsibility Rest With the President? (foxnewsinsider.com)
• White House reels from 3 scandals (bostonherald.com)
• Obama Unmasked: From IRS Politics to AP Wiretapping (americanclarion.com)
• GOP demands more despite Benghazi email release (wtvm.com)
• Obama INTENTIONALLY leaked IRS Scandal Friday to Divert Attention from Benghazigate (pumabydesign001.com)
• With IRS, Benghazi and AP, is Obama under siege? (usatoday.com)
• Obama Scandal Scorecard (minx.cc)
• Cal Thomas: Answers on Benghazi, IRS unlikely (omaha.com)
• ‘Son of Watergate?’ (chicagotribune.com)
• AP, IRS, Benghazi: how can Americans trust President Obama now? | Crystal Wright (guardian.co.uk)

via Shocking Benghazi Revelations: Gregory Hicks Full Testimony 5-8-2013 – YouTube.

I was absolutely shocked in the days following the September 11, 2012 attacks on the U.S. Embassy in Benghazi, Libya at how the mass media let President Obama, Hillary Clinton, and Obama’s UN Ambassador Susan Rice lie and lie repeatedly about what happened in the killing of 4 Americans including the murder of an American Ambassador. The first U.S. Ambassador killed in 30 years.

I continue to find it remarkable that ABC, NBC, MSNBC, CNN, CBS, the New York Times, the Washington Post, NPR and most other major news organizations have let the Obama liars get away with it.

Mitt Romney blew the election by not hammering this subject more. And we all suffer because of his weakness.

But ultimately the truth will out. As seen in this courageous testimony by State Department official Greg Hicks, people will begin to speak. They’ll have to. And the cover up administered by President Obama himself will be revealed. It was despicable and shameful to make up this vulgar story that the Libyan terrorist attack on the anniversary of 911 was a spontaneous demonstration spurred by an anti-Islamic video.

If you are not an Obama apologist and contrary to Hillary Clinton’s opinion think this DOES matter, then spread the word. Share this blog and this video all over the internet.

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