If you have decided to buy a purebred dog in the United States, AKC papers are critically important to your decision-making process. Your only other alternative to AKC papers, certifying that you are buying a purebred dog, is to have DNA testing on the dog prior to purchasing it. The breeder or owner may not grant this permission. Most people who buy a purebred puppy do so because they want a particular breed of dog with a particular set of characteristics. They choose the breed because they know something about it, because they know its strengths and limitations, or because...
1704/2017November 22, 2020
Causal Relationships between Diabetes and Heart Disease
The leading cause of death in the United States is heart disease, affecting one in four people (both men and women). Finding the cause, or following the causal links, may lead to strategies for prevention. One of the causal links appears to be Type II diabetes. Before they show signs of Type II diabetes, however, many people develop what is called Metabolic Syndrome or Syndrome X. There is evidence that Metabolic Syndrome predisposes people to both Type II diabetes and heart disease. The problem with diagnosing Metabolic Syndrome is that it consists of more than one symptom or marker. One...
1504/2017November 22, 2020
The Illogic of Sanctuary Cities
In the United States today, there appears to be a proliferation of “Sanctuary Cities.” Some states are declaring themselves as “Sanctuary States.” The consequence of this movement is to protect illegal immigrants, with criminal records, from being deported. The ostensible reason for this “protectionism” is to prevent parents from being separated from their children who were born in the US. As Barack Obama would say, “This is not who we are.” This reasoning for establishing Sanctuary Cities, in my opinion, is based upon emotion rather than logic and reasoning. In the United States today, American citizens who have been charged...
1404/2017November 22, 2020
Good Friday Liturgy
Today is Good Friday. Catholics do not celebrate a complete Mass on Good Friday. There is no Mass at all on Holy Saturday. There is a hiatus between Holy Thursday which commemorates the Last Supper and the institution of the Eucharist and Easter Sunday which commemorates Jesus’ resurrection from the dead. In the Church calendar, Jesus is dead and in his tomb. Just as Jesus’ disciples mourned him from the time of his death on Friday until Sunday when Mary Magdalene (Mark 16:9-11, John 20:1-2, 11-18) came and brought the good news that he had risen and she had seen...
1304/2017November 22, 2020
Using Imagination in Prayer
Many of us, when we think about praying or prayer, generally mean “talking to God.” Whether the prayer is a memorized prayer such as the Our Father, a spontaneous “Thank you God” whisper, reading prayers out of a prayer book, or asking for something, prayer is frequently vocal. We are talking to God. We either talk to God in our thoughts, we talk out loud or we sing. We believe that prayer is a way to contact God and have a conversation. But is that the only form prayer takes? Praying can also be meditative. Thinking about God is a...
1204/2017November 22, 2020
Regretting the Past only Leads to Spiritual Depression
Feelings of regret are not limited to the dying. Nor are they limited to the old. Most people have regrets now and then. Even Job had regrets. In fact, regrets come in all forms: regret over things not done or said; regret over things said and done; regrets over choices made; regrets over wasted talents and abilities; and so on. The list can be endless. The problem comes when we wallow in our regrets and let them suffocate us. Mother Angelica calls it having “Spiritual Hangovers.” There is nothing inherently wrong with having one or two regrets, what is wrong...
0804/2017November 22, 2020
0704/2017November 22, 2020
Illustrations that Never Made it into the Book
There was no way any of these pictures could have been included in the book, although I wish they could have been. When we went to Montalongon, we took the Mullaney’s with us. This picture of the four of us children was sent to me by Dorothy Mulaney in 2017. Left to right: Bill, Dorothy, Eddie, Pam, Bob. Although Eddie was the oldest and Bob the youngest of the boys, they were all the same size. Both Bob and I spent time in the hospital at Santo Tomas. This is one of the wards. Somehow Dad managed to get us...
0604/2017November 22, 2020
How I got Started Writing
Just before finishing my PhD, the UCLA School of Nursing offered me a job as an Assistant Professor. I was warned right away that UCLA was a “publish or perish” university. That meant that if I didn’t publish research papers, no matter how wonderful I was as a teacher, I would not get promoted or receive tenure. I did have seven years to “make the grade.” The question was, what was I going to do research on? The Northern Paiute were in northern Nevada so dropping in on them over weekends was not feasible. I needed something I could do...
0104/2017November 22, 2020
How I Decided on the Title for my Book
Someone asked me the other day, “How do you decide on the titles for your books?” For a moment, I was speechless. How did I decide? “It just came to me,” I said. And that was that. But then someone else asked and then someone else. Then, I realized, the title “just came to me” because it was natural. You see, we were rescued from the Los Banos Internment Camp only by the “skin of our teeth,” or “Only by the Grace of God.” We were to have been machine gunned at roll call that morning. Roll Call was always...