Author: Henry Barnard

I am a voracious reader and also enjoy writing. I often have a very different point of view than the popular one. I do see value in debate, and thought it might add to the public debate on controversial issues if I were to express my contrarian opinions. I also started keeping my poems recently (I've written little pieces my whole adult life but never kept any); and I've been a photographer now for over 25 years. So I will be adding an occasional poem and hopefully interesting photograph to the blog along the way, just to spice things up.

Fat

Twenty years or so ago, it was the low-fat craze — they demonized fat. Then we discovered the body needs fat, and was especially low in Omega 3 fats, so the mantra was eat the right fats. But now the pendulum has swung all the way over to the over consumption of fat — the Keto diet recommends that 70% of what you eat should be fat. The Keto people are even now apologists for how “healthy” saturated fat is. Crazy.

But don’t let it upset you. Just wait another 20 years and fats will be all bad again.

My Story

Oz Politics

My Wizard of Oz analogy for American politics: if you are a Republican, you have no heart; if Democrat, no brain. And Oz is offering everyone free everything when we all know nothing is free, right?

My Story

I?

Ask yourself the difficult but essential question, Who am I?

My Story

End Game

Don’t worry — everything gets resolved in the end.

My Story

Democratic Party Civil War

I think you could make a case for the Democratic Party coming apart. This new, younger, quasi-Socialist faction really doesn’t sit well with the old guard of the party. Will be interesting who gets the ultimate nomination, given this obvious division. I think that selection process will make the division that much wider.

Hard to imagine the Dems beating Trump when their party is so divided. If they nominate a conservative, the radicals will bolt; and if they nominate a radical, the old guard will.

My Story

Sugar Addicts

I’m on vacation in Charleston, and every morning I go to a bakery selling “gourmet donuts.” I buy a cup of coffee there, not a donut. But every morning, without fail, I see a parent come in with their children, and they excitedly buy these donuts that have an incredible amount of sugar and unhealthy fat — just way over the top, yet the parents feed their kids this stuff without a thought in the world, no hesitation at all.

I just have to think that the parents are really just completely clueless about nutrition and food to be doing this, for clearly they would not intentionally harm their own children, would they? They simply must have no idea at all how really bad refined sugar is for health, for each one of these donuts is like a sugar nuke — the sugary frosting is so incredibly thick (that’s the “gourmet” part, I guess), and so must be an intense explosion for the taste buds as well as an incredible surge of dopamine. All this a strong reinforcement for a food that could not be worse for health. Makes one wonder about how reprehensible these parents really are — or does ignorance excuse them?

I also see the same people show up every morning at the donut shop — sugar addicts, whether they know it or not.

My Story

All That Glitters

I have an investment analyst who has the theory that a very long sideways move will have an exceedingly large and long breakout to the upside or down when the breakout finally does happen. Gold has been in a sideways movement now for 7 years. I think its time has come, especially as the Fed seems to be talking easy money again. The government thinks nothing of trashing the currency if that is the way to keep the bull running. I leave it to you whether that is wise.

My Story