2007 New England Patriots go undefeated, greatest NFL team of all time.

On Sunday, November 4, 2007, at 4:15pm EST, everyone in America should be watching a football game in Indianapolis, Indiana.

The 2007 New England Patriots are 8-0. The Indianapolis Colts are 7-0, and they are the only team in the NFL with any hope of defeating the Patriots this year. When the two teams play in Indianapolis this week, it will the first time in NFL history that two undefeated teams with at least 7 victories have played each other. The Patriots are going to decimate the Colts this week and go on to become the first undefeated NFL team since the 1972 Miami Dolphins.

’07 New England Patriots points scored each week this year: 52, 49, 48, 34, 34, 38, 38, 38

Points per game: 41.1 points through week 8

Average margin of victory: 25.5 points through week 8 (no win by less than 17 points)

7 of 8 victories by 3 touchdowns or more.

The 2007 New England Patriots are without a doubt the greatest NFL team ever assembled, coached by one of the greatest NFL coaches of all time. We should all just sit back and enjoy the dominance, as we will not see such greatness and dominance in the NFL again for a very long time.

footnote: The Patriots Quarterback, Tom Brady, (who already has 2 Super Bowl MVP awards.) is on pace to throw 62 touchdown passes this season. That is 13 more than Payton Manning had two seasons ago, when he broke Dan Marino’s mark of 48. Brady is completing 74.2 percent of his passes, which could shatter Ken Anderson’s completion record of 70.55 set in 1982. Brady’s current quarterback rating of 136.2 tops Manning’s 121.1 season record set in 2004.

For all of the talk about Randy Moss being bad in the locker room, he is still quite possibly the most gifted NFL receiver of all time. You’ll recall, Randy Moss played for the 15-1 Minnesota Vikings, a team that set the NFL record for most points in a season. He played with Daunte Culpepper the year he threw 39 touchdown passes. Now he plays with Brady, who might be the greatest Quarterback of all time. He and the Patriots are going to have a very productive year to say the least.
History will Remember Brady to Moss as the greatest Quarterback and Wide Receiver tandem ever paired together on one team.

From John Czarnecki at http://msn.foxsports.com/nfl/story/7418962 :”Now whether Belichick and his staff may have benefited from similar tactics during New England’s three Super Bowl runs is certainly open to debate, but what the team may have done in past seasons has no bearing on what he and his players are accomplishing this season.

NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, who needed to protect the integrity of his sport, handed down the stiffest penalties in league history on the Patriots and Belichick: $750,000 in fines and the loss of a first-round draft pick.

And there’s a reason why.

The league’s popularity is intertwined with gambling from $5 office pools to the billion dollar Las Vegas sports books. If millions of fans thought the games were crooked, they probably wouldn’t bet or ultimately watch the action on television.”

Everyone should get a flu shot.

I went and got my flu shot today,

thanks to flucliniclocator.com.

The various strains of influenza virus, which spread throughout our population each year, are far more deadly than most people realize, and even cases which do not end in death often cause great losses in productivity and wages every year. According to one source, “Influenza was responsible for the most devastating plague in human history — the “Spanish” flu that swept around the world in 1918 killing 675,000 people in the U.S. and an estimated 20–50 million people worldwide. (A disease that attacks a large fraction of the population in every region of the world is called a pandemic.) (It is uncertain where the flu first appeared, but it certainly wasn’t in Spain.)”

From what I have been reading, it is a good idea for as many people in the population as possible to get one each year to better protect the group as a whole from the most deadly strains of the virus. The American Lung Association runs an online flu shot clinic locator, visit the site and find the nearest flu innoculation site for you, today.

Baby’s first Halloween.

Today Jennifer said she noticed that the closer we get to Halloween, the more the baby’s poo is starting to smell like the insides of a pumpkin, she then added, well, maybe that means it will start smelling like candycanes the closer we get to Christmas!

Popular Bumbo “Baby-sitter” seats recalled for causing serious head injuries to infants.

A few weeks ago my wife showed me something she wanted to buy on the internet. It was called the “bumbo” baby seat.

Today I read the following at http://icanearn.com/news-politics/bumbo-seat-recall/ :

“The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, in cooperation with the firm named below, today announced a voluntary recall of the following consumer product. Consumers should stop using recalled products immediately unless otherwise instructed.

Name of Product: Bumbo “Baby Sitter” Seats

Units: About 1 million

Manufacturer: Bumbo International, of South Africa

Hazard: If the seat is placed on a table, countertop, chair, or other elevated surface, young children can arch their backs, flip out of the Bumbo seat, and fall onto the floor, posing a risk of serious head injuries.

Incidents/Injuries: CPSC has received 28 reports of young children falling out of the Bumbo Baby Sitter seat, including three skull fractures, which occurred when children fell out of chairs that had been placed on tables.

Description: The bottom of the children’s seat is round and flat with a diameter of about 15 inches. It is constructed of a single piece of molded foam and comes in yellow, blue, purple, pink, aqua, and lime green. The seat has leg holes and seat back that wraps completely around the child. On the front of the seat in raised lettering is the word “Bumbo” with the image of an elephant on top. The bottom of the seat has the following words: “Manufactured by Bumbo South Africa Material: Polyurethane World Patent No. PCT: ZA/1999/00030.” The back of the seat contains the following “WARNING” – “Never use on a raised surface. Never use as a car seat or bath seat. Designed for floor level use only. Never leave your baby unattended as the seat is not designed to be totally restrictive and may not prevent release of your baby in the event of vigorous movement.”

Sold by: Target, Wal-Mart, Sears, Toys R Us, Babies R Us, USA Babies and various other toy and children’s stores nationwide, and various online sellers, from August 2003 through October 2007 for about $40.

Manufactured in: South Africa

Remedy: Consumers should never use the infant seat on a table, countertop, chair, or other elevated surface. Consumers can contact Bumbo to obtain new warning label stickers and instructions, free of charge. The new warning label will state: “WARNING – Prevent Falls; Never use on any elevated surface.” Consumers should use the Bumbo seat at ground level, but should never leave a child unattended.

NEWS from CPSC
U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission”

“

A nice picture of Fallow deer.

Air Force completes investigation into “loose nukes” it flew over US.

I just read a good article explaining how the Air Force says it’s soldiers ended up flying a B-52 mounted with six nuclear-armed cruise missiles (each more powerful than 10 Hiroshimas according to the article’s author) from North Dakota to Louisiana on August 29, 2007. Click on these sentences to read it for yourself; very interesting, very sad, and very scary.

Breast milk can spread AIDS to babies, you can help by sending your AIDS-free breast milk to Africa.

Doctors have known since 1991 that AIDS can be spread from mother to child via infected breast milk consumption. Now you can do something to help. The International Breast Milk Project, ships frozen breast milk from all over the world to babies in need. Time magazine article about the Madison Cassady Program which allows mothers whose childrenhave passed away to share their remaining breast milk with children in need in Africa, read below to see how to donate:

When a mother loses her baby in the critical care unit, she often has breast milk in her freezer. The gift of giving this donation of life through our Madison Cassady Program can be emotionally healing and fulfilling to both the grieving mother and life saving to the receiving baby. The donation may serve as a special way for a mom to honor the memory of her baby.

Our team is standing by to help answer questions along the way. Contact us now by calling 866-930-8220 and ask for Robin, email robin@breastmilkproject.org, or view our entire Madison team’s contact information here.

Two Ways to Donate Milk

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There are two ways breast milk can be donated through this program: 1) Mother qualifies as a donor, allowing the milk to process for use by other babies, and, 2) Mother does not go through qualification process. Regardless of what option the Madison Mom chooses, all supplies and shipping costs are paid for by the program. For the convenience and comfort of the mother, the phlebotomist will go to her home. We ship FedEx Ground for outgoing shipments and will supply a pre-paid FedEx Standard Overnight return label to bring the milk into the Bank. The mother can be assured that the breast milk donation she is making will make a difference whichever method she feels comfortable using.

1. Milk becomes qualified for use as a nutritional product: Moms who have suffered the loss of their infant may have milk that they would like to donate to babies orphaned by HIV/AIDS in Africa. We take special care to accommodate each Madison mom based on her individual needs and situation. Madison Moms wanting to donate to our US Milk to Africa program will have to follow the same application process and guidelines as other donors. This process can take 6 weeks from the date of application. We have special coordinators standing by to assist Madison Moms through this process. For a better understanding of the US Milk for Africa donation process, please view our milk donation flow chart and read our FAQs.
   • Qualification process takes approximately 6 weeks
   • The donor will need to fill out an on-line Interview at http://www.breastmilkproject.org, click on donate now, International Breast Milk Bank (Africa) milk bank site and complete interview questions. If the donor does not have access to a computer, she should contact the IBMP Bank at 866/930-8220, to request a hard copy manual interview form. Interviews should be completed by the donor only.
   • Interview is reviewed. If there is nothing that would cause a disqualification, i.e. certain medications, a short Request for Patient Medical Information form will be sent to the mother for her doctor is to complete.
   • Once this form is received back at IBMP Bank, and all is well, a donor test kit is sent via FedEx Ground to the mother and arrangements for a phlebotomist to perform a blood test are made. The kit also contains a donor DNA collector swab which the mother will perform.
   • Approximately 3 weeks later, when both the blood work results and the donor ID results are received, we will be able to accept the milk to be prepared for use by babies in Africa and critically ill infants in the US.
2. If a mother chooses not to go through the entire qualification process, we may be able to accept the milk for research purposes. This option is for moms who may not want to go through the traditional donation process due to stress or other situations. This milk will be used for medical research. All of the costs associated with this milk donation will be covered by our organization. This program provides an option for Madison Moms who may be on medications that would not otherwise allow them to donate to our US Milk to Africa program. Milk for research slots are reserved for Madison Moms who are grieving and do not want to throw away their milk but do not want to go through the entire donation process.
   • Process takes 1-3 weeks, depending on if Madison Mom has had blood work done in last 4 months.
   • Madison Mom must fill out 10 minute online application for consent and confidentiality.
   • Madison Mom’s physician must fax copies of blood work (less than 4 months old) to International Breast Milk Project Bank, c/o Robin at 866-520-9703 or Madison mom must be willing to allow us to send a technician to her home to get new blood draw.
   • If Madison Mom does not have blood work less than 4 months old from date of application, for the convenience and comfort of the mother, a technician to draw blood will go to her home.

Madison’s Closet

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In addition to helping a mom to donate milk, we provide the additional service of helping Madison Moms to donate special items to infants orphaned by HIV/AIDS in Africa.. A donor mom might want to send a few special items of clothing or blankets to the babies in Africa as a means of healing. Moms also may choose to write a letter, a card and/or send photos. Packages may be shipped to:
International Breast Milk Project
c/o Madison Cassady Program
2600 14th Avenue NW
Rochester, MN 55901

We will send Madison’s Closet items 2-4 times per year and also send along with volunteers visiting Africa. If possible, prior to sending the items, please email us to let us know they are on the way. If you need help with the cost of shipping the items within the US, please let us know and arrangements can be made. You can email jill@breastmilkproject.org.

How Nurses, Lactation Consultants, and Other Medical Professionals Can Help

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We are currently working on updating our downloadable brochure and flyer for medical professionals, hospitals, and nurses to print for Madison Moms. The Madison Program is designed to take the work off of the nurses and medical staff facilitating milk donations. Our coordinators are happy to provide in-services and conference calls for your staff to answer any FAQs. We are also available to help hospitals set up systematic approaches to aid grieving moms with their donor milk. If you would like more information on how to get your hospital involved or to set up an in-service for your department, please email jill@breastmilkproject.org or call 507-261-3221. Because we ship coolers directly to the Madison Mom’s home, we encourage nurses to help donors store their milk at home when possible. This also helps hospitals from storing donor milk for long periods of time.

We are always looking for feedback from NICU nurses and physicians on how we can better serve Madison Moms.

“The Madison Cassady Program is a part of the larger International Breast Milk Project, which helps feed children orphaned by HIV/AIDS in Africa with surplus breast milk from mothers in the U.S. The Project was started by Cassady’s friend Jill Youse, who discovered she was overproducing breast milk after giving birth to her daughter Estella last July. She had more milk in her first month of nursing than she would ever need.”I used to joke that I had enough breast milk to feed a continent,” says Youse, 29.”  “I had a ton of it and I didn’t know what to do.” She and her husband Jeremy, a resident at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota, knew the nutritional value of breast milk and Youse felt an emotional connection to it as well. She didn’t want to dispose of it. So with her freezer filled to capacity, she went online to find uses for the extra milk. Breast millk can be kept frozen for several months, even longer in a subzero freezer.

Youse’s search turned up iThemba Lethu Orphanage in Durban, South Africa, which had established a breast milk bank in 2001. Babies infected with HIV, orphaned and abandoned because their mothers had succumbed to AIDS, are cared at the orphanage. In sub-Saharan Africa, three million children, age five and younger, are orphaned as a result of HIV/AIDS. Since the virus can transfer through breast milk, and formula is often mixed with unclean water by African mothers, iThemba Lethu relies on donated breast milk to feed the children there and boost their immune systems.

Anna Coutsoudis, who, in 2001 had started a “breast milk bank” for infant AIDS orphans in South Africa, Thanks to Jill Youse’s, Geny Cassady’s and Anna Coutsoudis’ efforts, thousands of babies are being given a chance at survival that they almost certainly would have missed otherwise.

More on Anna Coutsoudis, inspiration for the international breast milk bank, from Aegis.com:

“Anna Coutsoudis has watched HIV/AIDS spread across her country at an alarming rate. It its wake, the epidemic has left behind AIDS orphans, many of them infants. Ms. Coutsoudis is an associate professor of pediatrics and child health at the University of Natal. She is also the founder of a home for infant AIDS orphans.

She says, “Well, if we don’t do anything about the orphans, we are going to have a huge, huge problem. All these young children are going to be roaming the streets with no one to look after (them). And you know what happens when children don’t have boundaries, when children don’t have parental guidance or any guidance or any authority figures in their lives. They will mostly just run wild. And it’s actually quite a frightening thing. And most people just think of ‘shame, the orphans.’ But they don’t realize that it actually impacts on society as a whole.”

She named her home for infants iThemba Lethu, which she translates as, “I have a destiny.” It’s not an exact translation.

“iThemba Lethu is a Zulu word. The themba part actually means hope. When I first had the words ‘I have a destiny’ and I asked some Zulu friends for a translation, there was no actual word for destiny. There’s only a word for hope and hope is actually too soft, whereas destiny is a much stronger word. But unfortunately, there isn’t a Zulu translation directly for destiny.”

I feel refreshed. Thank you God. Remeber the Lotus. Protect your purity of heart. God loves you and appreciates your efforts everyday.

“Blessed are the pure in heart,” said Jesus, “for they shall see God.”

Yesterday I had a very cathartic venting of irrational anger and frustration. Afterwards, I ‘woke up’ and remembered how completely foolish it is to allow one’s self to be overcome with ingratitude and frustration based on the words or actions of others and one’s own shortsighted judgment. That thought liberated me from the things that had been keeping me tense and depressed; I realized only a fool could be so blessed and still feel overwhelmed with frustration, anger, and resentment.

Feeling as I did in light of all that I’ve been given smacked of ingratitude and when I realized just how ungrateful my attitude had become, I was embarrassed and ashamed of myself. I am better than that, I am more full of integrity, caring, and honesty than I have ever been in my life, and for that I will always be thankful to the people who I have been blessed to have in my life and who have helped me develop the strong character and morals that have allowed me to succeed in my life.

Writing that down felt really good.

It is pure joy to think of how lucky I am and how far I am going as I continue to follow my path as Jesus Christ continues to reveal it.

Thank God. I think I am the luckiest man on Earth.

The meaning of the lotus in relation to Shri-Lakshmi refers to purity and spiritual power. Rooted in the mud but blossoming above the water, completely uncontaminated by the mud, the lotus represents spiritual perfection and authority.

Lotus flower: Symbol of Spiritual Unfoldment

I am going to revisit my favorite part of the Bible, “The Beatitudes,” and then I’m going to bed.

From Wikipedia: “The Beatitudes (from Latin, beatitudo, happiness) is the beginning portion of the Sermon on the Mount of the Gospel of Matthew. Some are also recorded in the Gospel of Luke. In the section, Jesus describes the qualities of the inhabitants of the Kingdom of heaven and indicates how each is or will be blessed. The Beatitudes do not describe many separate individuals, but rather all the specific characteristics each must have to experience heaven. Biblical scholar and author Andrej Kodjak has stated that this opening of the sermon was designed to shock the audience as a deliberate inversion of standard values, but this shock value has been lost today due to the commonness of the text.^[1]“

October 2007: Another cute baby picture.

First Baby-boomer files for Social Security Benefits

From FoxNews.com:

“Kathleen Casey-Kirschling filed for early retirement Monday, becoming the first baby boomer to start collecting Social Security.

Born one second after midnight in January 1946, the retired teacher leads the way for as many as 80 million individuals who will qualify for the retirement payout.

“I think I’m just lucky to be at the top of the boom. I’m just one of many many millions and am blessed to have been in this generation and really blessed and to take my Social Security now,” Casey-Kirschling said during a ceremony held at the National Press Club featuring Social Security Commissioner Michael J. Astrue.

Casey-Kirschling said she supports anyone who wants to collect retirement benefits whenever he or she is eligible to take them. But many Washington officials and American workers are wondering if Social Security will be able to support them.

David Walker, the comptroller general of the Government Accountability Office, Congress’ legislative arm, warned the Social Security system will soon have more recipients coming than it can afford to pay out.

“We face a tsunami of spending due primarily to the retirement of the baby boom generation and rising health care costs,” Walker said. “So what’s happened is we’ve gone from 16 workers paying into Social Security for every person drawing benefits in 1950 to 3.3 to one today, and we’re going down to two to one by the time the boomers retire in big numbers and that’s about where it will stay over the long run.”

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“We’re going to have tens of thousands of baby boomers retiring every week over the next decade or so and that means that by time we get to 2017, just 10 years away, we will no longer be collecting enough payroll taxes to pay Social Security benefits,” said former Minnesota Democratic Rep. Tim Penny.

Under current law, Social Security won’t have enough money to pay promised benefits in 2041 but there is another crunch much, much sooner, the result of the the federal government relying on Social Security to pay for its annual spending.

When Social Security gets payroll taxes it pays out most of the money in benefits. The rest is supposed to go into a trust fund. Instead the government has been spending the money on other government programs, and putting IOUs into the trust. When Social Security needs the money it’ll turn to the government waiting for the payback. But the government won’t likely have any.

“This money has been borrowed, it’s been spent, and there’s no easy way to put it back,” Penney said.

The loan is expected to be called in 2017, when the largest bloc of the boomers — those born between 1946 and 1964 — will be retiring. By the mid 2020s, the federal government will have to fork over more than $200 billion a year, and then it climbs to more than $300 billion a year.

At the same time, all that is money that was being used for federal programs will no longer be available, meaning everything — from education to defense to the environment — will face a financial crunch.

Walker said over the next 75 years between Social Security, Medicaid and other entitlements, the federal government will be in a $50 trillion hole.

“Social Security represents about $6.4 trillion of that. Medicare represents $32 trillion of that. The surprising thing is that Social Security is the easy thing to fix,” Walker said. Fifty trillion dollars, to put it in perspective, is 95 percent of the estimated net worth of every American including every billionaire. Fifty trillion dollars is $440,000 per American household.”