Gettysburg, where the guns are forever silent

                                 Located below: Gettysburg presented as a silent movie
                                 without the captions.  The irony about this battlefield is
                                 that you find yourself engulfed in a tremendous feeling
                                 of  peace while walking throughout it.   Incidentally, the
                                 town of Gettysburg looks nostalgically preserved in time.
                                 Its ambiance reminded me of Meadeville Pennsylvania.

                                 Meadeville was a town where I vividly felt the Spirit of
                                 the Union, as union was defined between 1862 and 1865.
                                 In the South, there are places where you can feel the Spirit
                                 of the Confederacy.  Well, Meadeville was where a person
                                 can vividly feel the spirit of the Union ... the Yankee Union:

Parts of Medical Exam Reports

                                                    First Page of Allergy Test Results

         
                                        Part of a Transcription after an Exam

A Summary of Medical Condition

Detox Pathway Test Results

The inordinate level of acetaminophen mercapturate in the test results is a sign of a high
level of a toxic metabolite known as N-acetyl-p-benzoquinoneimine (NAPQI) which is
produced in persons hypersensitive to acetaminophen and other "Cytochrome P-450 
inducers." 

The damage cause by NAPQI is reversible liver damage, on the cellular level.  The
mercapturate simultaneously is produced as an antidote during a hypersensitivity re-
action.  It neutralizes the NAPQI.  Now, it is possible that more NAPQI exists than 
mercapturate.  So, the test result only showed how much mercapturate was being 
produced during an adverse reaction to acetaminophen.  It didn't show how much 
NAPQI was being produced during the same reaction.

In chemistry, amine (a-m-i-n-e ) or eimine ( e-i-m-i-n-e)  signifies an ammonium 
compound.   Plus, cyto (c-y-t-o) refers the cells, in chemistry vernacular. 

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15035644

Also in the test result chart is an extremely high level (literally off-the-chart) of  Sali-
cyluric acid.  It is proof of salicylate (aspirin) hypersensitivity.   In fact, a combination
of salicyluric acid and glucuronic acid forms salicyl acyl and phenolic glucuronide.
Moreover ... in quotations:

  "One possible origin of the type I hypersensitivity reaction is reaction of drugs such 
    as acetylsalicylic acid and its metabolites being complexed with human serum al-
    bumin.  Albumin, being transporting molecule abundant in blood plasma is able 
    to bind large array of ligands varying from small single carbon particles to long 
    hydrophobic tailed lipidic acids (e.g. myristic acid). 

  This non specificity is possible because of multi domain scaffold and large flexibility 
  of inter-domain loops, which results in serious reorientation of domains.  Hypothesis 
   that acetylsalicylic acid metabolites may play indirect role in activation of allergic re-
  action has been tested.    Binding of acetylsalicylic acid metabolites in intra-domain 
  space causes significant increase of liability of domains IIIA and IIIB. 

  One of metabolites, salicyluric acid, once is bound causes distortion and partial unfold-
  ing of helices in domains IA, IIB and IIIB. Changed are both directions and amplitude 
  of relative motions as well as intra-domain distances. In result albumin is able to cross-
  link of adjacent IgE receptors which subsequently starts allergic reaction.

 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19689242
===================================

I didn't stop traveling after the 12,000 mile road trip; nor stop learning.

For those unfamiliar, in the Summer of Year 2012, I road traveled solo for six-
ty days, covering 12,000 miles in the process.  My travels didn't end with the
12,000 road trip, even though I intended it to be so.  I eventually ended up in
the Shenandoah Valley early in 2013, for a couple of months, after a stay in
Pittsburgh.  I then went to the Midwest, in the general Great Lakes vicinity,
and next back to Pittsburgh, only to take an unplanned trip into Florida.  In
fact, my trip to the Shenandoah Valley was due to the death of an individual
whose longevity evaporated, due to a medical condition that accompanied him
at birth. 

The Long Distance Learning Session

In having covered the distance that I did, I learned things that aren't learned
by politicians who show-up at airports, in order to stay in comfortable hotels
and give campaign speeches on what needs to be done in today's world;  in a
world to which they're completely out of touch, outside of listening to lobby-
ists who don't lobby for the common good, but only for self-seeking interests.

Below are photographic mementos of my recent travels, after the 12,000 mile
road trip of 2012.  If time permits, I'll include those one-line lessons I learned
on the road which I wouldn't have learned otherwise.  It's that which the Newt
Gingriches & Rush Limbaughes, as well as the John Kerries & the Joe Bidens
of this world, won't otherwise perceive & absorb.

As a score-keeper's note:  I traveled as far north & east as Boston/Cambridge,
as far west as Oxnard California, and as far south as the Space Coast of Florida.
My travels took me through:  1} Massachusetts, 2} Connecticut, 3} New York,
4} Pennsylvania,  5} Maryland,  6} West Virginia,  7} Virginia,  8} N.Carolina,
9} South Carolina,  10} Georgia,  11} Florida,  12} Alabama,  13} Mississippi,
14} Louisiana,  15} Tennessee,  16} Arkansas,  17} Texas,  18} Oklahoma,
19} New Mexico,  20} Arizona,  21} California,  22} Missouri,  23} Iowa,
24} Illinois,  25} Indiana,  26}Ohio.

If I ever come to have the time do so, I guess that I could state which state had
the best & worst of this & that.  For now, prudence.

The northeast coast of Florida.

Downtown Saint Augustine, oldest city in the United States.

At port, in downtown Saint Augustine.

Metropolitan psychedelia, via sunlight & plate glass, Downtown Pittsburgh.

More psychedelia in the Pittsburgh region.

Progressive Field, Cleveland, in contrast to ...

... Heinz Field, in Pittsburgh

The Space Coast of Florida

The famous race track is on the main highway, in plain sight.

Baltimore trolley

A Chesapeake area suspension bridge

One of my alma maters: Located at the Gulf coast of Florida.

Add Chicago to the equation

Statistics hold that the Democrats were the ones who created jobs. Not the Republicans who caused a massive trade balance deficit.

The very Democrat-influenced City of Pittsburgh; home of six
Super Bowl Championships and other professional sports crowns,
as well as the birth place of commercial radio, the drive-thru
gas station, the public television station, robotics institutes,
wire cable suspension bridge, Bingo, motion picture theater,
air brakes, aluminum-shelled skyscraper, Zippo Lighters, etc.
It was thrown into havoc by Reaganomics.

Entry Note, aka ad limine statement, aka preliminary statement:

I am neither a Democrat nor Republican.  Thus, my writings aren't propaganda for
any one side of the two-sided American political system.  In addition, I am neither
a Communist, nor a Socialist, nor a neo-Confederate, a nor Oligarchist, nor a Nazi,
nor an Anarchist, nor Libertarian.  I am neither a member of the Green Party,  nor
the Natural Law Party, nor the Constitutional Party, nor the American Conservative
Party, nor the Modern Whig Party, etc., etc., etc.  All in all, this article is NOT an
advertisement for the Democratic Party.  However, it is a blanket condemnation
of the Republican Party and all things Republican.
________________________________________

A little while ago, I monitored a few minutes of the Rush Limbaugh Show, only to
find that the Viagra smuggler and his advertisers continue to lie to millions of right
wing conservatives, many of whom are located in socially isolated and backward
areas of America.  The following phrase from an advertiser who was selling some
type of book was stated in a tone of indignant certainty and end-of-the-world ur-
gency: "Republicans create jobs and Democrats lose them."

False.  He outright lied.  The opposite has been statistically true, for decades. 

Enter Harry Truman, a president who lost popularity at the end his presidency, to
the tune of an embarrassing 22% approval rating, as of February of 1952.  Now,
the typical Reagan admirer who can barely read his NASCAR program without
moving his lips would immediately assume that Truman's unpopularity was due
to a very high unemployment rate.  However, in 1952, unemployment was never
higher than 3.4%.  In fact, it was as low as 2.9% that year ... under the unpopular
Harry Truman, a Democrat.  The score in the post-WWII survey is Democrats 1
and Republicans coming to bat.

http://portalseven.com/employment/unemployment_rate_for_president_term.jsp?president=Harry%20S.%20Truman

At this point, keep in mind that the way of calculating the U.S. unemployment rate
was changed during the early Reagan years, around the time when the rate was 10.8%.
Therefore, the new way of figuring the unemployment rate made unemployment look
much less than it actually was during Reagan's second term.  This was equivalent to
playing with loaded dice.  Let's continue:

Under Eisenhower, the unemployment rate rose to 7.1%.  Thus, under a Republican,
the rate of unemployment doubled.  It later decreased to 5.1%..  However, when Ike
left the White House, the rate was 6.6%.  Thus, the unemployment rate under Repub-
lican Dwight D. Eisenhower was much higher than when he entered office.  It's now
Democrats 2 and Republicans 0.

At this point, keep in mind that the Republican platform then was much different than
it was today.  The Republican Party, even during the 1972 campaign, committed itself
to LOW military spending.  Let's continue the post-war survey:

At the fourth month of Kennedy's presidency, the unemployment rate was 7.1%.
It then decreased to 5.5% at the tragic end of his presidency.  The score is now
Democrats 3 and Republicans 0.

Under Texas Democrat, Lyndon Johnson, the unemployment rate was never over
5.6%.  When Johnson left office the rate was a very low 3.4%.  It's now very con-
vincing.  Democrats 4 and Republicans 0.  Rush  Limbaugh propagates lies.

http://portalseven.com/employment/unemployment_rate_for_president_term.jsp?president=Lyndon%20Baines%20Johnson

When Nixon entered office, the unemployment rate was 3.5%.  It increased to 6.1% and
was 5.5% when he resigned.  Under yet another Republican's presidency, the unemploy-
ment rate rose.  Democrats 5 and Republicans 0.

http://portalseven.com/employment/unemployment_rate_for_president_term.jsp?president=Richard%20Milhous%20Nixon

Under Ford, it rose to 9.0%.  Yet, the economy was vibrant, to the point of the United
States being the #2 exporting nation on earth.  Thus, the health of the economy showed
the moral acceptability of Distributive Justice, in terms of Welfare payments and food
stamp allotments.  None the less, the unemployment rate was 7.5% when Ford depart-
ed from the White House, meaning that is rose 2 percentage points during his presiden-
cy.  Democrats 6 and Republicans 0.

http://portalseven.com/employment/unemployment_rate_for_president_term.jsp?president=Gerald%20Rudolph%20Ford

Under Jimmy Carter, the unemployment rate dropped to 5.6%.  Then came April 1980.
The rate started rising.   At the end of Carter's presidency, the rate was the same as it
was when Ford left office.  This is a tie.  Thus, it's still Dems 6 and Repubs 0.

http://portalseven.com/employment/unemployment_rate_for_president_term.jsp?president=James%20Earl%20Carter

Under Reagan, the unemployment rate sky-rocketed to 10.8%.  Then came a change
in the calculation of the unemployment rate, making the statistic look not as bad as
it was.  Plus, Reagan increased federal jobs, and used the taxpayer to get the unem-
ployment rate to drop.  The added feature was that the pay rate of certain types of
jobs recaptured by those previously laid-off dropped dropped.  Therefore, Reagan's
unemployment decline was artificial in more than one way.

Even though the way to calculate the unemployment rate was changed for Reagan's
second term, the rate still would have decreased a bit, if the calculation method used
during the Carter years was used during Reagan's second term.  This means that the
Republicans get one point, even though the decline in the rate was done at the ex-
pense of taxpayers ... and also done at the expense a private citizen's purchasing
power, in as far as concerning housing costs and disposable income.

This is the Republicans' only score.  You now see why the Republican campaign
managers throughout America create Ronald Reagan Hype.

They don't use Ike, because he was vehemently against exorbitant military spending.

They don't use Nixon, on account of him resigning in disgrace.

They don't use Ford, even though he managed to get unemployment to drop to 7.5%.

They don't use George Bush the First, because he championed the Americans with
Disabilities Act, and today's Republican is heartless and ruthless.

George Bush the Second destroyed the future of America.  So, Republicans sing the
praises of the unemployment rate decrease during Reagan's second term, while never
admitting that Reagan caused the rate to sky-rocket in the first place.  Quite frankly,
any action would have gotten the Reagan-induced 10.8% unemployment rate to go
down.  Do not be deceived.  Ronald Reagan was exceptionally stupid, exceptional-
ly worthless, and void of any foresight.  He was a very fake actor.

Concerning the other recent presidents:

Under the first George Bush (Herbert Walker Bush), the rate was as low as 5.0%,
early in his presidency.  It then rose to 7.8%.  When he left the White House, the
rate was  down to 7.3%.  Thus, it was almost the same unemployment rate as the
one in existence when Jimmy Carter left office.

When George Bush the First entered office, the rate was 5.4%, meaning that it rose
1.9% during his presidency.  He elected to not use the artificial means to lower the
rate as did Reagan, because the Berlin Wall had collapsed.  There was no cause to
increase the size of the military and the non-military federal government.  In as
much, the score is now Democrats 7 and the Republicans 1.

During the Clinton years, the unemployment rate steadily dropped.  Arkansas native,
William Jefferson (as in Jefferson Davis) Clinton, inherited a 7.3% unemployment
rate.  Under him, it went as low as 3.8%.  When Clinton left office, it was 4.2%.
Democrats 8 and Republicans 1.

Under the second George Bush, the rate did a roller coaster act.  He inherited a 4.2%
rate.  It elevated to 6.3%, dropped to 4.6%, and then rose to 7.8% at the end of his
presidency.  The Great Recession ensued.  Democrats 9 and Republicans 1.

Under Obama, the rate was as high as 10%.  It is presently at 7.4%.  There is no
debate that the 112th Congress deliberately sought to sabotage the Obama presi-
dency, displaying hypocrisy in the process.  One example of its hypocrisy goes
as follows:

The US Congress liberally gave debt ceiling limit increases to Republican Ronald
Reagan (18 times) and Republican George WMD Bush (7 times.)   Yet, the TEA
Party congressional members used the ceiling increase as a weapon of economic
blackmail during the Obama years, sending America's credit rating downward in
the process ... thereby sabotaging all of America, in the attempt to unseat Obama.

The final score is Democrats 10 and the Republicans 1 in Job Creation.

In conclusion, the unemployment statistics are on the side of the Democrats, show-
ing that Rush Limbaugh and TEA Party politicians lie, in order to gain popularity.
This constitutes Republicans gaining power and influence by fraud.

For unemployment stats, additionally refer to:

http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/data/UNRATE.txt