April, 2012 - Bettina Network's Blog

Archive for April, 2012

Need to know more about Apple Cider Vinegar?

Friday, April 27th, 2012

copyright Bettina Network, inc. 2012

I read your blog on a regular basis and have tried many of the things you’ve talked about.  I am today on a quest to know more about Apple Cider Vinegar.

We stayed in one of your Bettina homes and they had a bottle of Organic Apple Cider Vinegar in the bathroom with a rag next to it.  I wasn’t sure what that was for and I kept meaning to ask the family and kept forgetting because I had too much on my plate at the time.

Did I miss something really good?  That is the first time I’ve seen vinegar in the bathroom. What I would like to know is why was it in the bathroom?

What is the difference between it and white vinegar?  I’ve switched to Apple Cider Vinegar from the anti-perspirant I used to use, thanks to you, and it is great.  I feel so clean when I splash a little of it under my arms before going out.

When I first started reading your blog, I have to say I was a bit skeptical with some of what you talked about.  I haven’t yet tried Vitamin A on my face, although I bought a bottle and want to try it when I am not going anyplace that day because I am a little worried about smelling ‘fishy’.  I’ve seen in other places where that is considered one of the gold standards for wrinkles so you know I am going to try that soon also.  But today, please write more about Apple Cider Vinegar – and does it have to be organic? and there are several brands on the market which say different things.  One says it has the “mother”.  Another is distilled – another pasteurized, etc.

Thanks!  Hope I am not going to far asking for too much, but if you start with why I encountered the vinegar in the bathroom I would much appreciate it.

Ed Note:  Thanks for your questions.  We put your note to us in the blog because others may have the same questions and we would like you to know we have asked for an answer and hope it will be published soonest.

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Want to join us? Have a home that you want to open to become one of Bettina Network’s Hedge Schools? Call us and lets talk – or email us.

Ed. Note: Members of the Bettina Network Lifestyle Community can contribute to the Bettina Network Blog whenever they have anything they want to say and be heard by this fantastic group of people. Send your blog to bettinanetwork@comcast.net or mail it to us at P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238 or call us on the telephone at 617-497-9166 to tell us what you want to say and we will write it for you.

Volunteer with Bettina Network Foundation, inc. to work estate sales; to help move items from one home to another; to contribute your ideas on how we can better use our resources in this effort to relieve and eliminate homelessness and poverty. We also need photographers; designers; and more. However much or little time you have, we are grateful.

Send your event information to be included in Bettina Network’s Menu of Events to: bettina-network@comcast.net

This is a curated blog so you cannot write your responses at the end of each entry. TO RESPOND TO THIS BLOG email bettina-network@comcast.net or info@bettina-network.com

TO LEARN MORE about Bettina Network, inc. try www.bettina-network.com

IF YOU ENJOY OUR BLOG, USE OUR SERVICES TO BOOK ACCOMODATIONS WHEN YOU TRAVEL!

1-800-347-9166 inside the U. S. or 617 497 9166 outside or inside the U. S.

Society Overwhelmed by Pedophilia?

Thursday, April 19th, 2012

copyright 2012 Bettina Network, inc.

ED. NOTE:  I had to think long and hard before publishing this, however, it was a breakfast table discussion and everyone was very passionate about this so we print it for you to read and think about.

Breakfast started innocently enough with one guest having read an article that morning about a priest being defrocked because of the sexual abuse of children.  None of us was particularly interested in the topic until one person put forward her theory and then the breakfast table came alive.

We have all heard and read more than we ever wanted to know about this disease.  It has taken center stage often over the past several years and we wanted to know what has caused such a large outbreak.  What has happened to society that this is something we have to worry about and from which we have to protect our children?

What changed and has moved forward and grown in the same time frame that Pedophilia has been on the rise in the society and is related!!!

If you have gone to a major fashion show over the past 30 or more years and especially watched the shows of the hot, new and well-known fashion designers,  whose clothes command four, five and sometimes six figures, I am sure you’ve noticed that the models are about 13, 14, 15 years old.  They look more like little boys than young women who can carry off elegant designs. The designers and their models – the children – who strut down the runways, have had an enormous influence in the society – as has their “strut.”

Years ago – in ancient times – back in the 1950’s, one had to be 35 years or older to be a model because the clothes were very elegant and meant for women, not for  the too thin, malnourished-druggie looking young kids who are too underdeveloped to be the women they are trying to mimic and replace.  We wondered if some of these young children weren’t pre-puberty!  And where were their parents?

As the fashion industry changed and the models became ever younger with the clothes designed to make young girls look like young boys, pedophilia began its rise.

We were not worried about offending anyone in this conversation because it was just us talking around the breakfast table about something we all had been thinking, but no one had the courage to say out loud because we all thought, maybe we were on the wrong track and had gotten the wrong opinion – after all, would not the media, the magazines, the arbiters of good taste, who love to criticize and find the flaw in everything, have come out knocking this if such a horrid pedophilia-encouraging development were connected?  But that “wrong” opinion was shared by everyone around the table.  A couple felt relieved to be able to say these things out loud and not be put down or ridiculed.

It has been difficult to be over 35 and a size 12 or 14 and find clothes that are elegant and wonderful on your body.  We’ve had many friends talking about “augmenting” their breasts and we wondered – what on earth for – the clothes you buy don’t fit anyone, even a size 4 who has a breast-size larger than a 32 double A. – The ideal female figure to fit into these clothes is stick straight – with none or very few curves which are then hidden and minimized.

The “glamour” “top” models are curve-less.  The older models who have to think about retiring or about getting into something else, are about 35.  When someone still looks pretty terrific at 49 it is considered quite an achievement.  We knew and know women in their 60’s, 70’s and 80’s who look sensational.  It was a common occurrence decades ago.  Today, we consider them over the hill and ancient.  In the 1950’s they were the ones wearing the designer original clothes and looking exceptionally good in them because their age and experience allowed them to carry off these beautiful clothes.

We didn’t know how this phenomena of the rise of the 13 to 20 year old super model connects with pedophilia, but it certainly appeared to us that one was the genesis of the other.

We knew there were pedophiles in society before today.  But the difference between today and way back in ancient times is in the numbers and the fact that today, children are not safe and parents have to keep a vigilant, constant eye out for adults trying to solicit their child.  And the children walking down the adult runways in the top fashion shows in New York, Paris, etc. have changed the age range – and the definition of what is sexy.  Years ago, it was a mature woman.  Today, it is a child.

When the definition of what is sexy is changed to a 13 year old emaciated child either with make-up to look like someone on an extended bad drug trip or naturally looking like that because that is indeed their problem, then it seemed to us that increasing incidents of pedophilia and increasing numbers of pedophiles in this society is the natural result.

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Want to join us? Have a home that you want to open to become one of Bettina Network’s Hedge Schools? Call us and lets talk – or email us.

Ed. Note: Members of the Bettina Network Lifestyle Community can contribute to the Bettina Network Blog whenever they have anything they want to say and be heard by this fantastic group of people. Send your blog to bettinanetwork@comcast.net or mail it to us at P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238 or call us on the telephone at 617-497-9166 to tell us what you want to say and we will write it for you.

Volunteer with Bettina Network Foundation, inc. to work estate sales; to help move items from one home to another; to contribute your ideas on how we can better use our resources in this effort to relieve and eliminate homelessness and poverty. We also need photographers; designers; and more. However much or little time you have, we are grateful.

Send your event information to be included in Bettina Network’s Menu of Events to: bettina-network@comcast.net

This is a curated blog so you cannot write your responses at the end of each entry. TO RESPOND TO THIS BLOG email bettina-network@comcast.net or info@bettina-network.com

TO LEARN MORE about Bettina Network, inc. try www.bettina-network.com

IF YOU ENJOY OUR BLOG, USE OUR SERVICES TO BOOK ACCOMODATIONS WHEN YOU TRAVEL!

1-800-347-9166 inside the U. S. or 617 497 9166 outside or inside the U. S.

A Weight Loss Tip!

Wednesday, April 11th, 2012

copyright Bettina Network, inc. 2012

Over the breakfast table we heard about cinnamon and weight loss.  We tried it and amazingly it works.  We tried the suggestion which said have a cup of warm milk (whole milk – preferably non-homogenized and non-pasteurized, but if you can’t get that the regular pasteurized milk is fine.  The non-homogenized is available under the “Sky Top” brand available at Whole Foods and possibly other places.

Make sure the cinnamon is the real cinnamon or Ceylon Cinnamon.  After trying it for a couple weeks I am down 6 pounds.

I would suggest you try this for a few weeks and then go off the cinnamon.  The body is an amazing thing – it acclimates to what you are doing very easily so to keep the cinnamon for weight loss viable, give it up after a few weeks and take it up again later.

You might try raspberry ketones as a substitute for the cinnamon in warm milk when you give it up.  We have not tried this, but I heard about it on Dr. Oz.  He said his “medical group” looked into this and found it effective for weight loss.

We also ‘googled’ cinnamon for weight loss and found many articles saying how great it is – so our bed & breakfast guest who talked about this and got everyone excited about the possibilities knew what she was talking about.

We also understand it might be effective against diabetes because of how Ceylon cinnamon acts in the body relative to your blood sugar levels.

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Learn More About How We Use Your Donation!

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______________________________________________________________

Want to join us? Have a home that you want to open to become one of Bettina Network’s Hedge Schools? Call us and lets talk – or email us.

Ed. Note: Members of the Bettina Network Lifestyle Community can contribute to the Bettina Network Blog whenever they have anything they want to say and be heard by this fantastic group of people. Send your blog to bettinanetwork@comcast.net or mail it to us at P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238 or call us on the telephone at 617-497-9166 to tell us what you want to say and we will write it for you.

Volunteer with Bettina Network Foundation, inc. to work estate sales; to help move items from one home to another; to contribute your ideas on how we can better use our resources in this effort to relieve and eliminate homelessness and poverty. We also need photographers; designers; and more. However much or little time you have, we are grateful.

Send your event information to be included in Bettina Network’s Menu of Events to: bettina-network@comcast.net

This is a curated blog so you cannot write your responses at the end of each entry. TO RESPOND TO THIS BLOG email bettina-network@comcast.net or info@bettina-network.com

TO LEARN MORE about Bettina Network, inc. try www.bettina-network.com

IF YOU ENJOY OUR BLOG, USE OUR SERVICES TO BOOK ACCOMODATIONS WHEN YOU TRAVEL!

1-800-347-9166 inside the U. S. or 617 497 9166 outside or inside the U. S.

Two Thousand &5, Seven Years Later

Monday, April 9th, 2012

copyright Bettina Network, inc. for Jonathan Betts Fields 2012

 

Kid musicians battle the id

further justice through thick and then

permeate airwaves with soul and posture

colorful words, diaphragm of opera

from Shakespeare to Jay Z, defying nostalgia

sleep new dreams and pray for contagion

well blended harmony’s the weapon we’re waving.

 

Speaking voices are perfectly proper

they laugh as would English speaking sea otters

returning to homes that float or submerge

to wash away souls, you’ll need more than dirge

we don’t sink or swim, we’re one with the water

if we were to leave we’d abandon our power

we hold hands through inverted rain showers.

 

Zatarain’s ain’t got nothin’ on me –

neck cocked back like an expected sneeze

horns high in the sky, catchin’ the breeze

high hat attacks the air – killer bees

strings intertwined – tangled webs they weave

toe tappin’s impossible without bendin’ knees

sea perseverance, revitalize New Orleans.

 

 

I could hear applause in the distance. The woman from the registration table saw me wandering a bit and ushered me in the correct direction. I visited Shady Hill School to support the new friends I met over a three-course breakfast at a Bettina Network home. I could hardly wait to partake in the celebration straight from New Orleans.

 

I thought I missed them. Then, in walked a league of extraordinary men and women. A palpable increase in energy met the trumpet, trombone, tuba, two drums and the voice. The esteemed Executive Director and the mother of the younger drummer completed the entourage. The performers reemerged as teachers, and continued to represent the Ellis Marsalis Center for Music and Musicians’ Village professionally, passionately and extremely well.

Their workshop, entitled “Vision, Perseverance and Revitalization” was one of many during Shady Hill School’s Diversity Conference. For middle school students to entertain large notions like “Social Justice” and “Equity Through the Arts” could have been a daunting task; the school’s staff made it age relevant and all wore smiles while they worked. The kids were comfortable and eager take their music lesson serious, possibly borrowing a page from the acutely gifted drummer boy.

 

Calvin, the band leader and head teacher instructed the students to listen to the global sound and to identify the role of each instrument in the piece they were to play. The band played Duke Ellington’s “C Jam Blues.” The Shady Hill students listened. Then they were divided into sections, and the auditorium became a conglomeration of progress. For brief moments, some instruments synched: first were the strings & percussion sections. Then the brass and woodwinds danced. All the while, you could hear the Ellis Marsalis Center musicians chiseling away unnecessary sounds.

 

The Jazz Workshop Ensemble began playing with the speed of ducklings following their mother across a busy street. Once across, the piano and drums were occupied by a new set of feet and hands, and the trip began again. The trips back and forth steadied the ensemble’s sway and allowed for inspired improvisation. Before the last group began their end-of-workshop recital, Calvin shared some knowledge that reached beyond playing in a jazz band: “If you can’t hear the person next to you, you’re playing too loud.”

Much love,

Jonathan Betts Fields

www.GlobalJon.com

MeLlamoGlobalJon@gmail.com

facebook.com/GlobalJon ~ twitter.com/GlobalJon

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Learn More About How We Use Your Donation!

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______________________________________________________________

Want to join us? Have a home that you want to open to become one of Bettina Network’s Hedge Schools? Call us and lets talk – or email us.

Ed. Note: Members of the Bettina Network Lifestyle Community can contribute to the Bettina Network Blog whenever they have anything they want to say and be heard by this fantastic group of people. Send your blog to bettinanetwork@comcast.net or mail it to us at P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238 or call us on the telephone at 617-497-9166 to tell us what you want to say and we will write it for you.

Volunteer with Bettina Network Foundation, inc. to work estate sales; to help move items from one home to another; to contribute your ideas on how we can better use our resources in this effort to relieve and eliminate homelessness and poverty. We also need photographers; designers; and more. However much or little time you have, we are grateful.

Send your event information to be included in Bettina Network’s Menu of Events to: bettina-network@comcast.net

This is a curated blog so you cannot write your responses at the end of each entry. TO RESPOND TO THIS BLOG email bettina-network@comcast.net or info@bettina-network.com

TO LEARN MORE about Bettina Network, inc. try www.bettina-network.com

IF YOU ENJOY OUR BLOG, USE OUR SERVICES TO BOOK ACCOMODATIONS WHEN YOU TRAVEL!

1-800-347-9166 inside the U. S. or 617 497 9166 outside or inside the U. S.

Another Civil War in America

Friday, April 6th, 2012

copyright Bettina Network, inc. 2012

This could be subtitled “democracy vs dictatorship”.

It was a very exciting morning to be a part of a discussion on this topic which I had not thought about in terms of our being in the middle of a civil war between those who want us to be a democracy and those who prefer the corporate structure to carry over into our government structure and who would like our president to be a corporate-type leader rather than the head of a democratic government.  It has been staring me in the face for years and I just didn’t get it.  This breakfast was like a light coming on – hey, that is really where we are.  It is becoming more overt and not happening on a covert level anymore, so the din is getting louder from those who object and who are fighting to  maintain a democracy against those who are moving to take it over and convert it into a corporate-type structure (more so than it is already).

Corporate executives are not elected by the general populace – sometimes by an executive committee and sometimes by just a couple people at the top – appointed by those who control behind the scenes.

I have been very upheaveled about the political scene and what is going on with the Democratic and Republican parties, but to think of it as a civil war and a huge fight between the forces of democracy and those trying to turn this country into a dictatorship is a new idea.

The discussion moved fast and furious.  It started with a few minutes talk about the media’s role.  It was about the hundreds of millions of dollars  being spent on political campaigns.  We have gone crazy trying to secure power for four years by spending like ‘drunken sailors’.

Projected from the primary to the Presidential Campaign it looks as though some two billion dollars or more will be spent.  Spent on what?  It will be spent on the media, the poll takers, the candidate and his retinue.  Even on clothes so the political candidates and their families will look the part – remember the fight which broke out between Sara Palin and those who thought she spent too much of the campaigns money on clothes?  That was but a drop in the bucket compared to the amount spent on poll takers.  They must live off these campaigns – telling them on a minute by minute basis almost where everyone is -what the public is doing – which way they are leaning, etc.  IT seemed to us that an honest politician wouldn’t need so much money if he or she didn’t feel they needed to support the poll taker companies in high style.  When did that happen?  You can’t run today – or so some politicians think – if you can’t afford to pay the multi-millions to the pollsters.

The money spent with the media will also be enormous – no wonder their reporting is so skewered.  Would the media be able to survive without the political campaigns?  It is spent, apparently – according to this breakfast table talk – to entertain the masses who will get caught up in the drama of it all and not see the lack of substance.

We have had breakfast table talk in the past about how campaigns and the politicians in the Senate and the House are looking more and more like Southern politicians from the days of Huey Long and friends – or even Strom Thurman and his buddies.  The fighting, name calling, oppressing one group against the other to get the public angry so they will vote for you out of that anger and need to be protected against the sub-humans, etc. – that all has been going on in the Southern United States for generations.  It was very entertaining; vicious; lively and when it was over everyone went back to being friends and family.  This political fighting is such that when it is over one won’t be able or want to go back to being friends and family.  We will all be us and them, the good and the bad, those who are with us and the enemy outside of our group.

This breakfast conversation  had more than a modicum of truth.  Our businesses are oligarchies with the little guys struggling to succeed under the weight of the oligarchies which are  tryiing to make sure they don’t succeed – or if it looks as though the little guys may be on to something in their struggling businesses, to gobble them up before they get too strong a toehold.  I had not thought of our politicians as fighting it out for the corporate leaders to be the power people and to destroy the democratic leaders because they get in the way.

Corporations in a democratic society are an anomaly to begin with.  They have money and power and have been gradually taking over trying to move us to the brink of fascism or, at the very least, dictatorship.  We have reached the tipping point and all of a sudden everyone is waking up to see they may soon be living in a country which is on its way to becoming controlled by the few – with the vote gone – the democracy a thing of the past – and where did these corporate fellows come from?  They used to stay in their corporations, working hard to make lots of money and now they are all over the place running for office or putting up multi-millions for their minions to run for office and the country changes.  And I do mean fellows because women don’t fit in this scenario.  Well, maybe they fit a little as distractions to push up front with the name calling, the anger making, an excuse for the rough stuff.

I was amazed to hear what is going on in Michigan.  Democracy is being replaced with a dictatorship or worse under the name of saving the state from bankruptcy or worse.  Democracy does have its problems and to solve them can be a messy process, especially if you want to solve the problems in the context of the democracy and not change to the more efficient fascist model.  The democratic model will be lots of people involved trying things that don’t work and hitting on some that do work almost by accident; being concerned about the freedom and interest of the minority as well as the majority; and being ethical in choices even though it is not the most expedient way to do things.  If you prefer the dictatorship, fascist model that is efficient, quick and oppressive to the many who then have to live under that system then your results will be quick and look good for a time, until the price, all those who have to live under that dictatorship, have to pay becomes obvious and they begin to have to pay the price of no freedom, no vote, no voice in their government, etc.

It was quite a breakfast and will cause me to think long and hard about choices in this coming election time!!!  And in the times after this one – to make my choices dependent upon who respects this system more and wants to see it maintained and refined along the lines of a democracy – not changed into something less with the excuse that dictatorships work better.  What is not said – they work better for the very few who succeed and thrive while the sacrifices of the many  become more destructive to those who have to support the success of the few.

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Learn More About How We Use Your Donation!

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______________________________________________________________

Want to join us? Have a home that you want to open to become one of Bettina Network’s Hedge Schools? Call us and lets talk – or email us.

Ed. Note: Members of the Bettina Network Lifestyle Community can contribute to the Bettina Network Blog whenever they have anything they want to say and be heard by this fantastic group of people. Send your blog to bettinanetwork@comcast.net or mail it to us at P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238 or call us on the telephone at 617-497-9166 to tell us what you want to say and we will write it for you.

Volunteer with Bettina Network Foundation, inc. to work estate sales; to help move items from one home to another; to contribute your ideas on how we can better use our resources in this effort to relieve and eliminate homelessness and poverty. We also need photographers; designers; and more. However much or little time you have, we are grateful.

Send your event information to be included in Bettina Network’s Menu of Events to: bettina-network@comcast.net

This is a curated blog so you cannot write your responses at the end of each entry. TO RESPOND TO THIS BLOG email bettina-network@comcast.net or info@bettina-network.com

TO LEARN MORE about Bettina Network, inc. try www.bettina-network.com

IF YOU ENJOY OUR BLOG, USE OUR SERVICES TO BOOK ACCOMODATIONS WHEN YOU TRAVEL!

1-800-347-9166 inside the U. S. or 617 497 9166 outside or inside the U. S.


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