Stan Taylor's Beneath the Bamboo: A Vietnam War Story Radio Interview

This radio interview of Stan Taylor (My Dad), author of the book entitled Beneath the Bamboo: A Vietnam War Story, was given by radio personality Orv Graham on November 5, 2017.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mNU2MMt_hwU&feature=youtu.be

#vietnamwar
#vietnam
#military
#soldiers
#army
#usarmy

Trading with China....a bad idea? Or a good one?

Trading with China....a bad idea?  Or a good one?

If we stopped trade with China completely and started making our own stuff, would that really be a bad thing?

There's pros and cons, really.

The pros are:

1. More jobs for us

2. More company tax money for our own governments

3. Less economic growth for others. For developing countries that would sting them a bit, but for those that already have nuclear capabilities? If you think about it, when we fuel their companies via trade and, in turn, that contributes to their government tax money, doesn't that ultimately mean more money for their governments to develop weapons? In reality, by us continuing to buy things that are made elsewhere, we might inadvertently be ensuring our own future destruction. So, in turn, it would seriously seem better if we halted trade with countries that had the potential to destroy us.

The cons are:

1. More environmental pollution. If we made everything here that was previously made in China, the air may LOOK like the industry centers in China, and that's definitely not a good thing. Think Los Angeles...On a GOOD day!!!

2. Making the dogs angry. What I mean is...if you basically give money handouts so often and for so long of a time to certain countries, and then cut off that money supply by stopping trade, when what they're used to getting is gone, it'll cause some pretty major consequences. In some cases, even war. It's happened before. When we cut off some major resources to Japan because they tried to take over more territory, they ended up bombing Pearl Harbor.

It's all interesting to think about. On one hand, we *need to be* a more self sufficient country for the betterment of our citizens and governments. On the other hand, major consequences could arise if we ended up being that way.

The trick is to have balance without an increased chance for destruction, whether it be financially, physically, or even emotionally. This is something I feel any president should weigh before taking *any* action which could potentially affect the American population as a whole.

#trade
#trump
#presidency
#whitehouse
#china
#politics

Attention: Ebay Sellers

To: #ebay sellers. Use the advanced search to find completed auctions before pricing your items! #Collectibles #Marvel #vintagetoys

Baby Formulas

Baby formula shopping and testing has been quite the chore.  Yet, at the same time, quite the learning experience.  It would be better if Laurel was breast fed, of course, but due to the lack of her mother's production and now drying up, that’s not really an option.

So here’s what I have learned about American formulas so far.

1. They constitute of the following ingredients: Protein, fat, a carb, and vitamins, and most if not all contain a form of DHA and ARA.  Some also throw prebiotics and/or probiotics in there.  Many others add additional chemicals *supposedly* good for brain health.
2. The fat is usually an assortment of oils, which sadly includes soy (Speculated to cause early puberty as well as potential mental risks due to aluminum saturation during its time in the soil and during processing).  These also include Palm oil, which is kind of sketchy.
3. Most formulas contain at least *some* form of corn syrup or corn syrup solids that they use as the carb.  This is especially true of the formulas that are designed for sensitivity, which often has it as the #1 ingredient.  In any ingredient list, the closer to the top, the more of it happens to be in there.  The problem with this ingredient as the carb as opposed to lactose (The natural sugar found in breast milk) is the fact that lactose is a combo of glucose and galactose, whereas corn syrup solids are usually straight glucose.  This means they are absorbed by the body differently.  Straight glucose has been shown in some studies to make a fatty liver (And person overall) as well as raise a risk for Diabetes, etc.  Not only that, but using lactose instead of corn syrup solids is a better way for other reasons as well.  First off, the galactose in lactose helps to digest things more properly.  Secondly, lactose helps in calcium and phosphorous absorption.  Third, beneficial bacteria thrive more on galactose compared to the other sugars.  The only downside to all of this is the fact that lactose causes some babies to be gassy and fussy.  So you have to weigh the consequences.  Corn syrup solids as a first ingredient and no lactose, which can cause issues long term, or a gassy/fussy baby who is getting the lactose it needs.  It’s not a hard choice.
4. Another issue some babies (Including ours) have is a slight milk absorption issue.  You can deal with this in one of two ways.  You can use a partially hydrolyzed formula, or a basic amino acid /fully hydrolyzed formula.  The downside of using a fully hydrolyzed formula is the fact that corn syrup solids are usually the first ingredient AND they also don’t include any lactose.  The downside of using a partially hydrolyzed formula is the fact that the baby still might have slight issues.  Not as bad as using a non-hydrolyzed formula, but still a few issues here and there.  Oh, and also…the fully hydrolyzed formulas?  They STINK.  Badly.  Nutramigen by Enfamil, as an example, smells like the Staley overpass in Decatur, Illinois.

After thorough testing, we opted for a partially hydrolyzed formula, the Gerber Gentle Good start.  Basically, because corn syrup solids are NOT the first ingredient, AND it has lactose in it.  Yet it’s not full strength milk protein (AKA non-hydrolyzed) so it’s easier on Laurel’s tummy.  We *were* using Enfamil Gentle-ease *but* the first ingredient is corn syrup solids AND its second ingredient had soy in it.  Although we realize every formula has soy *oil* in some way, we didn’t want to see soy multiple times on an ingredients list due to the potential future issues it could cause.

So, that’s it.  My research is finally done!

Sex Candy

After watching a movie today which talked about the ins and outs (No pun intended) of blogging, apparently just by mentioning the words sex, single, or orgasm you can get quite a few lookers.  Which, in turn, means you should probably be pulling in your computer chair or shutting off your phone and looking for the real thing.  Hey, I'm just saying...

Spider-Man Homecoming

I recently saw Spider-Man: Homecoming.  My reviews of it are mixed. Truthfully, I STILL prefer the Tobey McGuire Spider-man movies. To me he'll always be the Spider-man that was supposed to be depicted in the movies. Now, prior to this *Homecoming film* they tried to make Andrew Garfield Spider-man, but in my opinion he was a little bit *too* quirky. With this new kid, well...although he's not *as* weird as Andrew, with him they focused more on the teen angst/high school aspect of the part and, in my opinion, they've dumbed down the character due to that. It's almost as if they're trying to match the intelligence of a typical *modern* teen with that of Peter Parker. Yet, in the comics, Peter Parker was way beyond his peers and it showed. Then there's the emotional aspect of it. At least when Tobey was playing the part, his turmoil seemed real and he was endearing as a character. With the new boy, you just can't *feel* for the kid and, without that connection, the part just doesn't seem to work. In addition, when Tobey played the part, he was witty but also intelligent, outspoken, and just *seemed* smart when you heard him talk. With the new kid, you start to doubt his overall intelligence. The main pros to this movie, in my opinion, were the (Spoiler alert!) reappearance of alien technology that first appeared in the first Avengers movie, and, of course, the occasional appearance of Iron Man. Out of the last two movies I have seen that were super hero related, I would truthfully have to say that Wonder Woman was about 300% better than this new Spider-Man movie. Sad, but most certainly true.

Doctors and Medicaid

The next time you go to a doctor, ask if they accept Medicaid.  If the answer is no, your doctor cares more about money than helping people in my opinion.  Although, yes, it's true that Doctors get reimbursed less for Medicaid recipients (Which is why, unfortunately, many of them don't accept it) whatever happened to the Hippocratic oath?  To help the sick means to HELP the sick, not help them only if they have a certain kind of insurance.  Shame on you, doctors.  Shame on you.

#medicine
#physicians
#doctors
#medicaid

Amazon Book Reviews - Be NICE!

I want to say this to anyone who has ever thought about writing a book review on Amazon. When writing book reviews, please don't leave bad ones based on just ONE part of a book. That's petty. Be better than that and look at the whole picture instead before leaving your reviews. I recently had a friend who had her entire book brought down because one reviewer didn't like how she ended her book, and her troll-like friends jumped on the bandwagon. No mention of the rest of the book and whether or not they liked it, she just got pegged with a 1 star because they didn't like how it ended. Really? What about the entire composition/storyline, character development, humor, etc., etc.? Sheesh. Some people just have nothing better to do than to bring people down.

#ebooks

President Trump

After reading a news snippet on the Trump administration trying to do away with the positive aspects of Michelle Obama's healthier America school lunch program, it has basically become the last straw for me.  Therefore, I hereby rescind my approval for President Trump. If giving Americans more jobs means screwing over the environment, the health of our people, and allowing greedy corporations to continue their morally apprehensible atrocities for the sake of the almighty dollar, I cannot continue to support such a person. When he first started his campaign, his Make America Great Again slogan with the promise of more jobs was enticing, but what I don't think a lot of us realized was *how* he planned on giving more Americans jobs. To him, apparently that means undercutting the people and rules which aim to do the right thing and, instead, replace them with incorrect people and paths which are morally inferior. Therefore, I can no longer support him. His *Great America* apparently means giving the fat cat corporations more room to continue screwing over the American public, peeing in the environmental aquifer of life, and continuing the uncanny rate of obesity. Strike three and you're out, Mr. President.

My Dad's book....

Greetings! Jonathon Jones (AKA Brent Taylor) here. As most of you probably know by now, I am the publisher and editor of my Dad’s (Stan Taylor) real-life story account of his time in the Vietnam War. The ebook, print book, and audiobook versions can be found on Amazon.com. Anyway, for those few out there who still can’t comprehend why the front of the book says Jonathon Jones instead of my Dad Stan Taylor or my real name of Brent Taylor, I wanted to explain why things were done the way they were done.
 When the book was first released, my father wasn’t ready to publicly come forward yet. He was okay with just being an anonymous soldier, the face of many. In addition, since I already had a few books published under my pen name we figured we’d just throw it in the mix. Besides, I was starting my life anew and he wanted me to have the funds to help me along.

Some naysayers out there have speculated that because my name (Or should I say pen name) was on the book, that I actually wrote it instead of my father. Let me make something clear. I did NOT write this. I just tidied it up a little. I am the editor which means that, yes, I did have to fix some grammar issues and even change some sentences around, but the entire story was his. In fact, it took him months to type it all out, which wasn’t always an easy task for him because so many decades had went by. When the memories did start flooding back to him, apparently not all of them had the best results. During certain parts my mom even told me that he broke down. Especially when he talked about the end results of Mother’s Day as the book progressed.

So, to summarize, yes, my father wrote the book and, yes, it is fully based on his life experiences before and during the Vietnam War. I thought we made that perfectly clear at the beginning of the book when I inserted “Published for my Father”, but perhaps I should have also inserted the words *and Edited* to make my role in the book’s creation a little clearer. Now that the book has been out a while and my dad’s okay with being known since he has talked to a few people about it since it first came out, I don’t know how easy it would be to re-do the title page to show his name as opposed to my pen name, and also change the search function on Amazon so it comes up under Stan Taylor as opposed to Jonathon Jones. So for now we’re just going to leave it until I can figure out if it’s even possible to make those changes.

Anyway, the origin of how the book got rolling is an interesting one. When he first handed it to me back in 2012, I pretty much rolled my eyes and dreaded reading it. After all, what does a tree-hugging pacifist who mainly writes books on antiques, vintage toys, dating guides, and an occasional short sci-fi story know anything or care anything about war? Luckily, I gave him the benefit of the doubt and started to read it. I figured at least I might get a little insight on what his early life was actually like. Although my Dad was always a great talker, he didn’t really talk about his life back then. I would get an occasional tidbit about his early childhood and what my Step-Grandpa Bill was like when my Dad was younger, but I never really heard anything about his time in Vietnam. It was like he managed to keep those memories locked up so tight that not even he could recall them on purpose. I mean, I saw his pictures, captions near those pictures, some letters, medals, and other paperwork in the past, but that was all that I knew about.

When those hidden memories of his did finally creep back into his head and made their way on paper, I have to admit that I was taken back. I suppose it’s true when they say that sometimes there’s much more to a person than meets the eye. All of my life I had known my Dad as the hard worker, the funny man, and as he was in my younger days…the guy who seemed to envelop himself in tons of past-time hobbies. Drinking, bowling, softball, you name it. My Dad always tried to keep his mind constantly occupied with things, but it wasn’t until I read his life story that I figured out *why* he probably did all of that. It was to mentally escape what he went through by always filling his mind with other things.

It wasn’t until 2012 that the flood gates opened. When his memories came rushing back, they made their way into his head full throttle. I’m sure it was painful to remember and to write about, but at the same time by doing so I think he learned quite a bit. In my opinion his flashbacks made him re-learn about the value of strong friendships, integrity, the differences between bravery and young recklessness, about loss, and most of all about family, whether his own or the ones he made out on the battlefield so long ago.

When I read his story, I was amazed at the kind of life he had once lived and had kept hidden from his family and friends. I think, finally, by letting it all out and meeting others like himself who went through the same kinds of ordeals…he has more closure than he ever has before. In my opinion, that’s all that anyone could ever ask for. So I want to thank you for reading his story, and equally thank him for allowing me to publish it.

Brent Taylor
(AKA Jonathon Jones)

#veterans

#vietnamwar

#vietnamvets

#vietnamveterans

The UNITED States of America?

I feel the states should be separate entities entirely (Like European countries are) without an overall title and they completely govern and protect themselves, or United with all of their rules and, in turn, get federal benefits and protection. Otherwise it's the Divided States of America and that title just doesn't make any sense. Agree or Disagree?

Teens and Expectations

A lot of young people have low self esteem for a variety of reasons. If it's not due to parental influence or, in some cases, lack thereof, it can also be a result of their peers. Or, in more extreme cases, a deep innate depression that makes it highly difficult for them to establish a normal sense of self-worth.
However, with that said, I have a distinct feeling that our society's ever-escalating desire for physical perfection or, in some cases, our extremely abnormal perception of it, certainly isn't helping matters.
One example hit me just recently as Shauna was trying on clothes in the maternity section of Target.
Nearby was an underwear rack, so I took the cart with Logan in it to the aisle to see what they had. Truthfully, it's to the point where it almost feels wrong looking at the example on the front. The models, which are a fry cry from what I recall seeing in the 70's and 80's, are chiseled 6-pack toting skin statues, armed with what I can only describe as grossly and hopefully pictorially exaggerated outlines in their trunks. Something that, if real, would more than likely need a license just to carry. They're that ridiculous.
The women's underwear racks aren't much better. Somehow throughout the years women went from having faces that matched their bodies in age as well as a little bit of meat on their bones to something you'd only see in a serial killer's cut-and-paste scrapbook. Faces that look fourteen and bodies that look twenty-five, with skinny arms, legs, and torsos, but somehow ample breasts and buttocks which, in no way shape or form, matches the rest of them.
All of these hybrid freaks aren't the norm but, rather, the exception. Yet these are the goals that society pushes us to accept as being normal. No wonder kids are so screwed up. They are constantly given aspirations that are usually impossible to reach.
Perhaps it's time for a change....

#teen
#models
#teens
#selfesteem
#confidence
#depression
#expectations