Comments

Episode-1752- Listener Council Q&A for 3-25-16 — 16 Comments

  1. Funny, I was thinking yesterday about sending in a question about the EE bonds. I have three; 2 from 95 and 1 from 97. A little more than 1% interest. I was thinking of cashing them in. They are worth just over face value but maturity is about 10 years away. So based on John’s advice, Ill keep them.

    It’s a possible but unlikely scenario, but what would happen if there was a dollar crisis, and we went to a different currency? I wonder if they would still redeemable, even if for the new currency. Or, we actually end the Fed. It sounds like a smart move to keep them, though I wonder about those “what ifs”. Any thoughts?

  2. Regarding the negative quotes from Alexis de Tocqueville in the history segment… the book is large and I wanted to provide the quotes that suggested that the same problems we have today were already a problem in the 1830s and obvious even to a foreigner. Nevertheless, these critical statements were in response to the fear of the French Aristocracy. If Alexis had not addressed their concerns, his book would have been dismissed.

    He was speaking as an aristocrat and some of the things he said were not critical at all, but said in admiration. Yet we would see them as derogatory. For example…

    “The surface of American society is covered with a layer of democratic paint, but from time to time one can see the old aristocratic colours breaking through.”

    He is saying that America is a nation of aristocrats and that we are all just like Alexis. (That was meant as a compliment.)

    And what Alexis concludes is that democracy is not only a necessity (we have no choice) but it is actually desirable, an ideal, and should be the goal of every aristocrat.

    “I should have loved freedom, I believe, at all times, but in the time in which we live I am ready to worship it.” — Book Four, Chapter VII.

    Alex Shrugged

  3. Yes, that’s it. I like the new sponsor segment far more than the pre-recorded message. Also, we’ll all of it is better, really. Lol

  4. Jack has me thinking on the treasure chest thing. I am just starting some woodworking as I have just set up a shop, with some neat 1950s Craftsman tools but that is another story.

    Anyways, anyone out there care to say what you would pay for something decent? Thinking use salvaged pallet wood which is often very nice.

  5. Jack, I’m glad to hear you like Korean food and cooking. My wife is from South Korea and we eat homemade Korean dishes at least 3-4 times a week. I can’t imagine a life without it! Couple things I wanted to add to the show regarding it. First is that perilla leaves are very easy to grow and are a valuable ingredient in many Korean dishes. My wife literally threw a handful of seeds off our deck one year and we now have fresh perilla leaves (we call them sesame leaves) every year without fail. We live outside of Atlanta – lots of hot weather, rain and clay soil. Many Korean grocery stores stock seeds and perilla and various Korean varieties of peppers can usually be found there. I’ve grown green and red Korean-style peppers too (peppers are “gochu” in Korean. “Gochu-jang” that you mentioned on the show literally means pepper paste). Finally, there is a Korean cooking YouTube channel I really like and recommend. The visual quality is incredible, the cooking is amazing and this lady really exhibits the “follow your passion” mindset. From what I remember, she walked away from a succesful restaurant career to pursue this YouTube channel full time. She now has cookbooks and various other things out as a result. The channel name is “Maangchi”. Here is a link. Also, Jack I really like the new show format. https://www.youtube.com/user/Maangchi

  6. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.galalooapps.preppantryandroid

    For the question about keeping a fully stocked Pantry, I found this app a month or two ago and use it every time I bring groceries into the house or use something out of my pantry. I do not use it for things like milk or fresh vegetables. You can set different locations so I use it for more than just food. You can make locations for the medicine cabinet, first aid kits, bug out bags, even different locations like at your cabin. It is supposed to be able to be shared across devices for an entire family to use. I have not tried this yet but in the comments many people complain that feature does not work.

  7. Any idea what intermittent fasting is. Skipping a meal a week? Not eating for a day a month?

  8. Jack – J-choke – good call! Indeed – we grow it and love it. Gotta top the list for permanent producers with basically NO work. Actually yes, NO work, except to harvest. We grow it next to driveways in gravel fill. Rages it. Amazing. I like to say if you could have two items to survive I might pick j-chokes and a .22 rifle.

  9. Sugar and cancer: Here is an example I stumbled across some time ago that really drove the point home to me about sugar. Suppose you have a blood sugar level of 100 mg/dl. If you are average in size, then you have about 5 L of blood. Multiply out the numbers and cancel the units and you come up with 5 g of sugar. Just ignore the fructose component for the moment and consider that what you have amounts to a teaspoonful of sugar.

    So what happens when you eat a bowl of fruit loops, a no fat bagel with synthetic cream cheese, followed by a banana pineapple fruit smoothie topped off with a fructose injected no fat yogurt? Basically, it is really astounding that the human body is able to process that intake without immediate death. Of course after a relatively short number of years you develop insulin resistance, the excess glucose and fructose is turned into saturated fat, and the inflammation that is associated with all of this predisposes you to cancer.

    If you think you can down 400 plus grams of processed carbohydrate per day, you are probably kidding yourself. Basically all you are doing is becoming a permanent cash flow for the processed food and pharmaceutical industry. And there is nothing new about any of this. These industries know exactly what they are doing, and so does the FDA. The food supply is designed to make you sick and then profit from the consequences.

  10. Jack,

    I think Michael and Sue Laprise are a great addition to the Expert Council. I was tempted to fast forward through their segment, since my three daughters are in their 30’s, but decided to listen anyways. I was very pleased with what they had to say, and really enjoyed and agreed with their philosophy regarding the raising of children.

    When we were raising our daughters, we sought to give them a wide variety of experiences outside of the government schools they attended. We also supported, as best we could the paths they chose in life. Our oldest daughter has special needs as a result of a car accident when she was 16 months (yes, months) old that gave her a traumatic brain injury. She is now 37, married to a man with some special needs of his own, but overall doing well. I remember watching a movie while she was growing up, called “To Race The Wind”. I’m not sure if it’s still available for viewing. The movie is the life story of the first man who was blind that graduated from Harvard Law School. The premise of the title comes from his love as a young boy of trying to “race the wind”. When he fell, his mother would tell him to get up and try racing the wind again. Such a far cry from the teacup kids of today. I used her example with my daughter, and would tell her to get up when she fell, assuming she wasn’t hurt, and it helped build a resilience in her that has helped her overcome what even the so-called “experts” said she would not be able to achieve.

    As parents, and grandparents, we need to view each child as unique. I really loved Sue’s thought about not putting them in a box to begin with, as that only serves to limit our vision and theirs about what they are capable of.

    I will be looking forward to other questions these two answer on your show, as they have a log of wisdom to share.

    • Thanks Rick! I so wish every child could be treated as if they have special needs because they do. We’ve noticed so many times when a family has a child with special needs they are much more aware of the unique individual nature of each of their children.

      It’s our hope to touch hearts and minds of parents AND grandparents so that they’ll begin to looking at life learning from the perspective of real skills rather than levels and grades.

  11. Jack,
    Love the new format.
    Geoff Laughton’s description of what California could be with proper management brought tears to my eyes. I love my state. We are leaving. My children are 6th generation Californians. None of them live here. We plan to walk to freedom in Texas ourselves, God willing, within the next year, though it grieves me deeply. My parents bought our 5 acres in 1962. I was raised here and raised our kids here. It’s just so sad.

    I love the addition of Michael and Sue Laprise. Even though my kids are grown I am so inspired by them. We homeschooled our kids but we followed traditional methods and curriculum. How I wish we had never let our kids be put in the box. I can make a difference with my grandkids, though. At least I can once we get to Texas, which is where they are.

  12. Welcome to TEXAS!! If you’re near by come look us up. I’m a California girl – Pomona, Fort Jones, Malibou Lake, Santa Cruz and there is so much beauty there that I miss but I’m a freedom loving parent.

    I wonder how we can encourage more grandparents to help raise the grandkids outside the government school as in days of old?