Oil from Russia, or how Biden put us in danger

 

What in the world is GERD?

A relative has been ill with GERD since a few days after the Super Bowl, so about 2 weeks. She's really feeling yucky and hasn't been able to get in to see her doctor. Ouch. So I looked it up. Don't you love it when you're told to talk to your doctor?

"Nearly everyone has heartburn now and then. But heartburn is also the most common symptom of gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), so talk to your doctor if:

• Your heartburn happens 2 or more times a week
• Your heartburn gets worse
• Your heartburn happens at night and wakes you from sleep
• You’ve had heartburn now and then, but for several years
• You have difficulty or pain when swallowing
• Your discomfort or pain interferes with your daily activities"

We've Facetimed a little and she seems beyond those symptoms. Here's some additional signs. She definitely sounds like she has laryngitis.

"Chronic heartburn is the most common symptom of GERD. Acid regurgitation (refluxed material into the mouth) is another common symptom. But numerous less common symptoms other than heartburn may be associated with GERD. These may include: Overview: Symptoms of GERD - About GERD

• Belching
• Difficulty or pain when swallowing
• Waterbrash (sudden excess of saliva)
• Dysphagia (the sensation of food sticking in the esophagus)
• Chronic sore throat
• Laryngitis
• Inflammation of the gums
• Erosion of the enamel of the teeth
• Chronic irritation in the throat
• Hoarseness in the morning
• A sour taste
• Bad breath"

Living Water John 7:37-52

UALC Lytham Road Sermon and questions. February 27 | UALC Sermons | Lytham Road Campus - YouTube

1. Reread John 7:37-52. Jesus caused division between people who believed him and people who rejected him. Why do you think he caused such strong reactions?

2. In the sermon this week we learned about traits we might share with the Pharisees who said “no” to Jesus. One trait was the temptation to care too much about outside appearances. How or where in your life do you experience this temptation? How does our culture encourage this obsession with image-management? Why does this draw us away from Jesus?

3. The Pharisees also got tripped up by “categorizing” people. (He would know “what kind of woman she is (Luke 7:39).” Or He eats with “sinners.”) Is this a struggle for you too? What’s the understandable reason we do this? What’s the danger?

Other sources

What does John 7:38 mean? 

"During the Feast of Booths, Israel remembered God's miraculous intervention during their time in the wilderness. As part of the celebration, priests would carry water to the altar in the temple, recalling God's provision of water from the rock (Exodus 17:1–7). On the last, most important day of the festival, priests would circle the altar seven times with a container of water. This is the moment Jesus makes this claim, which began in verse 37. These words continue a theme Jesus has used before, including with the Samaritan woman in Sychar (John 4:10–13), and the people near the shores of Galilee (John 6:35).

Jesus' reference to the Scriptures here probably includes more than one single verse or passage. Proverbs 18:4 and Zechariah 14:8 involve similar themes. Given the priestly ritual's connection to the story of water from the rock, Jesus might have had Psalm 78:12–16 in mind. Likewise, the idea of life, or God's truth, being a stream or spring is common in the Bible. The imagery implies something living, pure, and life-giving (Revelation 22:1–2).

As used by Jesus, this internal spring, or stream, is indicative of the Holy Spirit, which comes to live inside all who come to faith in Christ. This indwelling, however, will not begin until after Jesus' ascension (Acts 2:1–4), a point made in the next verse.  https://www.bibleref.com/John/7/John-7-38.html

Got Questions? Rivers of Living Water

Earlier, Jesus had told Nicodemus that one had to be born of water and the Spirit in order to enter the kingdom of God (John 3:5). Most likely, Jesus’ reference to water here was simply to physical birth, in contrast to spiritual birth (John 3:6). In John 4:10 Jesus tells the Samaritan woman that He could give her “living water.” This was in contrast to the physical water that the Samaritan woman came to the well to retrieve. That physical water would run out, and she would need to continually return to get more. But Jesus offered the woman water that would never run out—water that would become within the believer “a spring of water welling up to eternal life” (John 4:14). Jesus later would return to this theme when He stood up in public and said, “If anyone is thirsty let him come to Me and drink” (John 7:37). In this way, He was again offering Himself as the water of life and telling all they could come to Him and receive that never-ending life.  https://www.gotquestions.org/rivers-of-living-water.html

Read the hard parts, Living Water

John 7:38 is not an exact quote from the O.T.  Yet it clearly refers to the Holy Spirit, a reference to the Trinity a word not used in Scripture. Author examines Old Testament prophecy. https://readthehardparts.com/rivers-of-living-water-john-7/

This California author finds a social justice message in Galilee reference

This is where my thoughts go when I read John 7. In John 7, Jesus finds himself with a group of people who do not believe in him, who whisper behind his back, who plot to kill him all because they believe that the Messiah could not possibly come from Galilee. The Messiah could not have come from Galilee some say because Galilee was not Jerusalem or Bethlehem. Galilee may have been a place of social dissent and political protest. Some believe the people there engaged in social banditry, taking from the rich to give to the poor. It isn’t clear, but it is suspected that some of this dissent and protest took violent forms. So Jesus could not be the Messiah because the Messiah could not engage in economic, political and social protest.

In the midst of this unrest, Jesus speaks and says, “Stop judging by mere appearances, but instead judge correctly.” Jesus is saying don’t look at me and where I’m from and draw the wrong conclusion. Don’t assume that I am not the Messiah, do not assume that I don’t have value, don’t assume that I can’t change the world. Jesus continues to challenge us this way today. When we meet someone who doesn’t look like we do, or believe like we do or worship like we do, or that does not have what we have, I hope that we will hear Jesus shouting in our ear, “Stop judging by mere appearances, but instead judge correctly.” My creation has value, my creation can change the world, and I often use those from the least likely places to teach humanity how to love.

When Jesus later says, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them. By this he meant the Spirit,” I suspect that he meant those who are thirsty to know how to judge correctly, will have their thirst quenched.

Let’s pray that rivers of living water flow from us, that we judge all of our neighbors correctly. Let’s listen for Jesus’ voice in unexpected places, for rivers of living water to come from our most unfamiliar neighbors.

Stop judging by mere appearances, but instead judge correctly . . . Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them. By this he meant the Spirit. (John 7:24 and 37b-39a) 

 https://magnifications.org/magnifications/2015/06/05/can-the-messiah-come-from-galilee

The Pharisees react to Jesus' words

The affairs of the temple were carried out by hundreds of Levites, all with specific jobs. There were various classes of priests who administered not only the sacrifices, but others who were gatekeepers, janitors, singers, musicians, and guards who were subordinate to the ruling officers. 7 The guards or officers, when questioned by the chief priests and Pharisees for not doing their job, replied "Never man spake like this man." It was not a small thing to refuse to carry out the orders of the temple rulers. Jesus' preaching was so powerful that these men sent to apprehend him were powerless to do so, being overcome with might of his words and person. The Pharisees were extremely angry and belittled these officers by suggesting they had been deceived by Jesus as were many of the people. The point is clear, these temple officers should have followed their leaders and known better than let Jesus' words sway them. They belittled them by supposing that no Pharisees had believed in him. However, that was not true. Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathaea had believed, but not openly.

They implied that the reason many of the people were believing in Jesus was because they were the ordinary people who did not know the law as the rulers and thus were cursed by their ignorance. Two things are apparent in their statement. First, the Pharisees generally had contempt for the common man who they considered the lower class who did not have the wealth, education and position they enjoyed. As the superior elite of Israel they saw masses as inferior, execrable and worthy of damnation. Second, the Pharisee, chief priests and rulers believed that Jesus was threatening their lucrative position as the rulers in the temple and controller of the temple monies. Jesus warned the people of them in Matthew 12:38-40. Jesus said they loved wearing long distinctive clothing and being addressed with titles. They loved the seats of honor in the synagogues and feast rooms, and worst of all these vile rulers swallowed up the property of helpless widows while they prayed long prayers for them. If you turn on your TV to the religious channels you will see their descendants are around even today. If the people believed Jesus and followed Him, their position and income would greatly suffer. Note that these were the people who opposed Jesus Christ, accusing Him to the people.

 
The Pharisees had just condemned the people because they "did not know the law," but they were conveniently ignoring a principle rule of their law by condemning Jesus before letting Him defend Himself. Jesus had not appeared before the Sanhedrin and thus their condemnation of Jesus was based on second hand information. Also, many thought Jesus was a prophet and some referred to Him as "the Prophet" the one prophesied to come as mentioned earlier. Yet, no one had attempted to apply the rule of law stated in Deuteronomy 18:9-22 which God said was to be used to test if man was truly a prophet of God. These rulers were so incensed by Jesus they were letting their emotions rule their actions. Further, there was widespread belief that Jesus might be the Christ based on His miracles, claims of coming from God the Father, forgiving sin, and statement of His deity. This posed a direct threat to their biblical knowledge and leadership. Throughout the events that followed, the temple officials never followed the law and through illegal trials they condemned Jesus.

They were greatly surprised when Nicodemus, who was the Pharisee who had spoken to Jesus personally, spoke up and defended Him. (John 3) He reminded them of the law they supposedly knew and piously followed. The law of Moses provided that a man must be heard before he could be judged. Therefore their prejudicial judgment of Jesus was clearly illegal.

The Jewish rulers had an open contempt for their fellow countrymen in Galilee. The Galileans were liberal and their society was heavily influenced by Greek culture. The Judean Jews saw themselves as superior to the Galilean Jews because they lived in the city of David, the capital of Israel. Those who were condemning Jesus quickly replied with an insulting question which suggested that Nicodemus was a Galilean, even though they knew he was not. Scornfully they challenged the validity of Jesus' claims by exclaiming... "Search, look for no prophet ariseth from Galilee."

Gilead, our March book club selection

To avoid watching the news and the mess Biden has made of our lives, I've been reading the March book club selection while on the exercycle. Gilead by Marilynne Robison promises to be an interesting read, and I believe it's the first of a series. So I've looked for a few reviews. Her first novel was "Housekeeping" but it was about 24 years before she wrote her second.

But Gilead, a book about fathers and sons, where Housekeeping was a book about girls and women, and fragmentary where one of Housekeeping's achievements was its fluid narrative completeness, takes an opposing narratorial position with a protagonist whose insider credentials could not be stronger. In Genesis, in the story of Joseph, Gilead is the casually mentioned place left behind by the merchants who bought Joseph from his brothers. Robinson's Gilead is a small American town in Iowa in 1956. John Ames, a preacher in his mid-70s whose heart is failing him, is writing letters to his only child, now aged six, so that when the boy reaches an adulthood his father won't see, he'll at least have this posthumous one-sided conversation: "While you read this, I am imperishable, somehow more alive than I have ever been."

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2005/apr/16/fiction.alismith

"GILEAD is better than a good book. It is a slim, spare, yet exquisite and wonderfully realized story that will long stand as one of fiction’s finest reflections on the sacramental dimensions of life, especially the Christian life lived in the routines and wonderments of prayer. It is, like a good sermon, a passionate meditation.

The book is slender only in the number of its pages — a mere 247. Otherwise, it is a fuller, richer and more deeply textured novel than most contemporary fiction twice its size. Robinson makes use of a form — the epistolary novel — that is classic but one of the most difficult to pull off well. It can often seem forced and cumbersome and — to the contemporary reader more attuned to e-mail and instant-messaging rather than the carefully considered craft of composing a letter — irritating in its deliberate pace.

Robinson’s epistle takes the form of a letter from 76-year-old John Ames, a fourth-generation Congregationalist minister, to his just-about-seven-year-old son. Ames is suffering from heart disease, and his letter, written in 1956, is a summing up of the past sprinkled with anecdotes and advice and sketches of the present, especially of his son and his wife and his best friend, also a minister."https://www.pbs.org/wnet/religionandethics/2005/03/18/march-18-2005-book-review-gilead-by-marilynne-robinson/4232/

Putin invades Ukraine

Let's pray that NATO is up to the job, because Biden sure isn't. He left billions in matériel behind for ISIS, he's crippled our energy supply by shutting down Keystone, he's created the worst inflation in 40 years, he's weakened our military with wokeism, and did nothing but chatter and pout as Putin used Hitler's game plan of 1939. Those of you who voted for this because you didn't like Trump's strength, resolve and patriotism have helped create this disaster.

Huckabee is alarmed by Trudeau's tyranny, U.S. silence

 

"Can we see the tyranny that's already here? by Mike Huckabee

Perhaps, for Americans, the most shocking thing about the autocratic power-grab in Canada is the failure of our own government to speak out –- forcefully –- against it. Instead, the current administration is engaged in a similar process of trampling dissent, right here in the good old U.S.A.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau didn’t simply adopt temporary “emergency powers” to clear the streets of big rigs, as much of an overreach as that was. What he did appears to be even more serious, as he's shown no intention of relinquishing those powers now that the protest has been broken up.

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/ottawa-blockades-over-but-canadas-trudeau-says-emergency-powers-still-needed-01645469116?siteid=yhoof2&yptr=yahoo

In an update to the above story, the leftists in the Canadian parliament have shown themselves to be accomplices of this tyrant, voting to allow him to extend his “emergency” powers AFTER the emergency is over. Read this and be shocked.

https://www.nationalreview.com/news/canadian-parliament-votes-to-extend-emergencies-act-for-30-days/#slide-1

And Robert Spencer at PJ Media has a must-read commentary on what has just happened there. Note especially the new regulations for crowdfunding and payment platforms. He’s right: this is how democracies die, by starving dissenters financially.

https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/robert-spencer/2022/02/20/democracy-dies-in-canada-trudeau-government-to-make-some-of-their-new-authoritarian-measures-permanent-n1560716

On Monday, Tucker Carlson interviewed a man who'd been repeatedly kneed by police in Ottawa after cooperatively climbing down from his rig, kneeling before police and putting his hands behind his head. Ironically, this man, named Csaba Vizi, had come to Canada after fleeing Communist Romania. Video of him inside his truck shows him calmly describing to police how he’s going to surrender peacefully and get on his knees. Then he does so, and waits for them to take him away. But as he tells it, he heard someone yell, “Arrest him! Arrest him!” and he was pushed down onto his stomach. They piled on top of him. We see from other video taken from farther away that one cop very forcefully kneed him, over and over, as he lay on the ground. “I feel like I was beaten, but I took it like a man,” he said.

Yes, they had injured him, he said. “They break my body a little bit, but not my spirit.”

He said that when he came to Canada from Romania, he loved it there, especially the friendly people. He was “so happy.” It was like that for 20 years, but the last couple of years have been different. “It’s impossible to live here anymore,” he said.

https://video.foxnews.com/v/6298431733001#sp=show-clips

A quote from George Orwell featured Monday on Instapundit seems apt: “I have no particular love for the idealized ‘worker’ as he appears in the bourgeois, but when I see an actual flesh-and-blood worker in conflict with his natural enemy, the policeman, I do not have to ask myself which side I am on.”

It’s a shame to see a policeman treat a compliant ‘worker’ such as Csaba Vizi as a natural enemy. Those chilling video images depict an unforgivable abuse of power.

By coincidence, that Orwell quote led into discussion of an article by Glenn Greenwald that I was already planning to highlight in today’s commentary. Greenwald has a new piece on Substack called “The Neoliberal War On Dissent in the West.”

Greenwald comes from what used to be the political left; he would call himself a classical liberal, someone who believes in freedom and free thought, religious freedom, civil rights, equality under the law (as opposed to “equity”), and a government limited by the Constitution. But in the 21st century, classical liberalism has given way to “progressive” authoritarian neoliberalism, with its rigid beliefs, two-tier “justice” system and strict censorship. He knows these people well. And he has a big reality check for us.

We in America have no problem recognizing tyranny across the globe: A Chinese tank sitting ready to crush a lone protester in Tiananmen Square. An East German wiretapper spying on the lives of others behind the Berlin Wall before it fell. The censorship and even criminalization of all dissent. “Re-education” camps. Journalists silenced. We know it when we see it if it’s someplace faraway.

But when it’s right here in front of us, in a DEMOCRACY, we might have a little more trouble recognizing it for what it is: the same kind of tyranny. And if we do see it, there’s still something faintly heretical to some of us about admitting it out loud. It’s as if the idea of this happening in a Western democracy were so absurd it can’t be real. I’d liken this situation to one in which a horrendous crime has happened in your own neighborhood. “This just doesn’t happen HERE,” you likely think. Your neighborhood has always seemed...different. When it happens somewhere else, you take notice, but when it’s two houses down, you’re in shock.

When we were children and pledged allegiance to the Flag, and said “one nation under God,” we took for granted that the freedom given to us by God would always remain, that America was special, shielded by Divine power. It had existed for about 200 years, which to a child is an eternity. As we grew older, we knew there were wars and that freedom can be taken away by other human beings, but, other than the vague atomic threat from faraway Soviet Russia, we still had that feeling of comfort and safety inside our own borders. This was America.

We assumed that the Bill Of Rights protected us as individuals, even if we disagreed with the majority. Our country was set up as a democratic republic, not a pure, majority-rule democracy that might be prone to “popular” uprisings that squelched the rights of the minority. And it has lasted that way for a long time.

But now, even in America, we’re seeing despotism. It’s easy to point to situations in which “due process” doesn’t even apply. In civil asset forfeiture, for example, the government will seize your assets before you’ve even been charged with a crime, let alone convicted. It’s blatantly unconstitutional. Justin Trudeau has done something similar in Canada, freezing assets not only of the protesters but even of people who donated a few dollars to buy them meals. When we witness such tyranny in, say, Russia, we see it for what it is. IT’S THE SAME THING HERE.

Greenwald cites the decade-long repression of Julian Assange as another example. Then-Attorney General Eric Holder, after investigating for years, failed to find evidence of criminality, but financial institutions such as MasterCard, VISA, PayPal and Bank of America were pressured by the Senate Homeland Security Committee into terminating WikiLeaks’ accounts, crippling it.

Financial pressure is a standard weapon these days, with the government joining forces with corporations. GoFundMe tried to steal---I mean, divert, millions in donations intended for the truckers. When GiveSendGo raised millions more, Canadian courts blocked their distribution. The financial system is being used to crush dissent.

Greenwald notes recent protests against the Spanish government by people in Barcelona who wanted more autonomy. The government came down hard on the protesters, treating them like terrorists, seditionists and insurrectionists. (Sound familiar?) Protesters were treated violently, arrested en masse, charged with terrorism and sedition and given long prison sentences.

And when Julian Assange spoke up about how wrong this was, Ecuador rescinded his asylum at their London embassy. They cut off his internet access. Then they allowed London police to come and arrest him.

Anyway, Greenwald makes a critical point: The despotism we so easily recognize around the world is becoming entrenched right here, right now. We can't permit it. https://greenwald.substack.com/p/the-neoliberal-war-on-dissent-in?utm_source=url

Outwitting history, by Aaron Lansky, April book club selection

 https://www.judaismunbound.com/podcast/episode-203-aaron-lansky

  

A fascinating book--passing it on with supplementary material today to another Book Club member.  Hope I can remember it all by April. 

The rich, entitled, and egged

"Nearly 5,000 people have signed up to throw eggs at Jeff Bezos’ superyacht when it sails through the Dutch city of Rotterdam this summer. The planned protest comes in the wake of news that the billionaire Amazon founder’s $500 million vessel would require the dismantling of a historic bridge in order to reach open waters."

https://www.geekwire.com/2022/scramble-the-fighters-thousands-of-protesters-sign-up-to-egg-jeff-bezos-yacht-at-dutch-bridge-site/?

Hypothyroidism

https://www.terrytalksnutrition.com/DBfiles/InTheNewsFile/46859.pdf Michael Edwards.

I had no idea! Here's a comprehensive list of symptoms indicative of hypothyroidism in alphabetic order. I noticed my pathology report for thyroid lumps said hypothyroidism, so I looked it up. I don't know what's left.

 Allergic rhinitis

 Asthma

 Angina pectoris

 Atherosclerosis

 Conditions related to the cardiovascular system

 Carpal tunnel syndrome

 Carotenodermia (slight orange tinge to the skin, usually on the palms of the hands and soles of feet)

 Cold extremities, intolerance to the cold

 Coarse, dry, or thinning hair

 Constipation

 Decreased libido

 Dry, rough, and/or itchy skin

 Edema  Erectile dysfunction

 Fallen arches

 Fatigue

 Fibrocystic breast changes

 Fibromyalgia symptoms

 Headaches

 Hoarseness

 Infertility

 Hypercholesterolemia

 Hyperhomocysteinemia

 Hypertension

 Itchy and/or flaky scalp

 Memory loss

 Mood swings, irritability

 Muscle aches

 Menstrual irregularities (amenorrhea, oligomenorrhea, menorrhagia)

 Neck pain, stiffness, aches (especially in the back of the neck)

 Knee pain (due to fallen arches)

 Pallor (an unhealthy pale appearance)

 Pain in the trapezoid and/or neck area

 Psoriasis

 Poor mental concentration

 Polycystic ovary syndrome

 Postpartum depression

 Premenstrual syndrome

 Reactive hypoglycemia

 Recurrent infections

 Sluggishness, tiredness

 Shoulder pain

 Tinnitus

 Urticaria

 Vasomotor rhinitis

 Vertigo

Weakness

 Weight gain While weight gain, an inability to lose weight, and increased appetite can be sign

Do you like True Crime stories?

True crime and mysteries are genres I almost never read unless it’s on my book club list. However, a few days ago I heard J. Warner Wallace interviewed about his book, “The Person of Christ; why Jesus still matters in a world that rejects the Bible.” He tells about how using his skills as a detective he proves that Jesus is who he says he is—even without the testimony of the Gospels or New Testament (a cold case—no body). Talk about the glory of God in arranging things!   https://www.firstthings.com/blogs/firstthoughts/2022/01/a-detectives-case-for-christ? I’ve been a subscriber to First Things for years, and only recently found out about its podcast.

Wallace's story is amazing, beginning with his own—he was an atheist, didn’t even know very many Christians. But he and his wife decided to try a church because they thought maybe it would be good for the children. He heard the pastor say, Jesus was the smartest person who ever lived, and that set him on his journey. I can’t actually vouch for the book—haven’t read it—but thought the interview was great. https://www.amazon.com/Person-Interest-Jesus-Matters-Rejects/dp/0310111277/?

Political homelessness, those who've left the Left

 https://youtu.be/DQpic6cPwRY

Political homelessness

This discussion is co-sponsored by Tablet and is part of their monthly series called “The Turn,” which focuses on the political homelessness of our current moment. One guest says, "It gets hard to lie after awhile." I couldn't find the term "political homelessness" without finding dozens of articles on homelessness and politics. "When Tablet editor at large Liel Leibovitz saw the left giving up on everything he believed in, he changed politically, a shift he detailed in his recent article, "The Turn." Liel was joined in this video by writer Walter Kirn and Tablet's Editor in Chief Alana Newhouse for this December 27, 2021 conversation about The Turn and what to do next now that so many of us feel politically homeless."

"You may be among the increasing numbers of people going through The Turn right now. Having lived through the turmoil of the last half decade—through the years of MAGA and antifa and rampant identity politics and, most dramatically, the global turmoil caused by COVID-19—more and more of us feel absolutely and irreparably politically homeless. Instinctively, we looked to the Democratic Party, the only home we and our parents and their parents before them had ever known or seriously  considered. But what we saw there—and in the newspapers we used to read, and in the schools whose admission letters once made us so proud—was terrifying. However we tried to explain what was happening on “the left,” it was hard to convince ourselves that it was right, or that it was something we still truly believed in. That is what The Turn is about."

https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/news/articles/the-turn-liel-leibovitz

Lockdowns had little affect on mortality

A-Literature-Review-and-Meta-Analysis-of-the-Effects-of-Lockdowns-on-COVID-19-Mortality.pdf (jhu.edu)

“A Literature Review and Meta-Analysis of the Effects of Lockdowns on COVID-19 Mortality” By Jonas Herby, Lars Jonung, and Steve H. Hanke

About the Series The Studies in Applied Economics series is under the general direction of Prof. Steve H. Hanke, Founder and Co-Director of The Johns Hopkins Institute for Applied Economics, Global Health, and the Study of Business Enterprise (hanke@jhu.edu). The views expressed in each working paper are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the institutions that the authors are affiliated with.

Lockdowns in the U.S. and Europe had little or no impact in reducing deaths from COVID-19, according to a new analysis by researchers at Johns Hopkins University.

The lockdowns during the early phase of the pandemic in 2020 reduced COVID-19 mortality by about 0.2%, said the broad review of multiple scientific studies. Sheltering in place, about 2.9%

“They have contributed to reducing economic activity, raising unemployment, reducing schooling, causing political unrest, contributing to domestic violence, and undermining liberal democracy,” the report said.

Why do governments create inflation? Milton and Rose Friedman

"Inflation is a disease, a dangerous and sometimes fatal disease, a disease that if not checked in time can destroy a society (long list of examples Russia and German after WWI, China after WWII, Brazil in 1954, Chile in 1973, Argentina 1976)  

"No government is willing to accept responsibility for producing inflation, even in less virulent degree.  Government officials always find some excuse--greedy businessmen, grasping trade unions, spendthrift consumers, Arab sheikhs, bad weather, or anything else that seems even remotely plausible. . . none of the alleged culprits possesses a printing press on which it can turn out those pieces of paper we carry in our pockets; none can legally authorize a bookkeeper to make entries on ledgers that are the equivalent of those pieces of paper."

"The more basic question is, why do modern governments increase the quantity of money too rapidly?  Why do they produce inflation when they understand its potential for harm?

From "Free to choose: a personal statement," by Milton and Rose Friedman,  p. 253-254, pb, 1990

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CARES_Act  The CARES act under President Trump

https://www.whitehouse.gov/american-rescue-plan/  is our best example of a government creating inflation.

https://www.ncsl.org/ncsl-in-dc/publications-and-resources/american-rescue-plan-act-of-2021.aspx

https://www.investopedia.com/american-rescue-plan-definition-5095694

When friends disagree about voting, guest blogger Nancy

You are describing your party. 

Your party has let over 1.2 million people from all around the world into our country illegally and those are only the ones they managed to stop temporarily. 

Your party is allowing them to vote in local elections in some states. 

Your party wants to let them vote in all elections in the future. 

Your party wants to send out ballots to all who they show are registered without cleaning the voter rolls of those who have died or moved or now have dementia and those who have not voted in years. 

Anyone at those addresses could vote in those other persons names because your party does not require ID. 

 Your party wants to allow people to collect as many votes as they can to drop in boxes in large bunches setting up possible vote buying. 

Your party wants to accept votes cast up to 2 weeks past Election Day. 

Your party brought out boxes of votes to count late on election night after they told observers to go home because the counting was done for the night. 

How the hell is the party that wants fair and honest votes the one who is trying to steal elections?!!!

Biden is president. Not Trump. I do not agree with the way Trump handled the aftermath of the election. Many of the lawsuits he filed should have been filed before the election to challenge the unconstitutional ways some voting laws were changed. They were thrown out because of timing. I believe with all my heart that the instigators of all the violence on the 6th were not Trump voters. I have seen evidence supporting my opinion. I agree that some in the crowd were far right loonies. But no Trump rallies were ever violent. In fact most of the crowds were quite friendly and even cleaned up after themselves.

Have you seen news of the latest Durham report? Filings that show proof that the Clinton campaign had the Trump campaign, Trump and the Trump presidency hacked? The filings also show how the Clinton Campaign paid to use those hacks to create the illusion of a Russia connection to Trump. Brings back memories of how she paid for the now proven false Russian collusion dossier.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/donald-trump-really-was-spied-on-2016-clinton-campaign-john-durham-court-filing-11644878973 

https://video.foxnews.com/v/6297460219001#sp=show-clips

https://thehill.com/regulation/court-battles/594126-durham-alleges-cyber-analysts-exploited-access-to-trump-white-house 

Truckers or the ladies in pink hats or the J-6 rioters: who is a bigger threat?

The truckers are 90% vaxxed as are most of the people supporting them. This has gone way beyond the vaccine. So now you hear all the media and political lies about Confederate flags, racism, and insurrections. I’m vaxxed too, although losing faith in it daily. Today I learned that a friend of mine who is vaxxed and boosted, has had Covid twice, which means she also has natural immunity, and she is extremely sick. (She also works with animals, and increasingly we see items about them being vectors). I have another friend who has had cancer, heart surgery, and hepatitis flares before 2020 when Covid started—she’s now had her fourth shot, which means they are rolling that out for the extremely immune compromised and we’ll all be next. She’s now having many incidents of A-fib, a known hazard/outcome for the vaccine. She’s 65, and in precarious health. I’m sure she decided to take the risk, but others should have that choice too without having their lives destroyed by the media and government. Also, although there are required vaccines in many places, there have been exemptions in the past, and also there definitely should be health exemptions, like young men with heart problems should be able to decide their risk. They know the natural immunity is real, they know there are test for natural antibodies, so why are the refusing to consider it. There are many things to protest. As in the 16th century. It's why millions of Christians are called "Protestants."

And it’s possible for 8,000 truckers to stop a government, but not a few hundred yahoos, unarmed in silly costumes. This “insurrection” and “take over the government” meme is just pandering to the worst sort of Democrats, the totally unhinged ones. Half a million women in pink hats on Trump’s inauguration day milling around and screaming in DC were far scarier.

Daniel Joseph Donahoe, down the rabbit hole

 My book collection has a provenance, a genealogy, a history. So today I write about "Early Christian hymns; translations of the Verses of the most notable Latin writers of the early and middle ages," Daniel Joseph Donahoe, The Grafton Press, 1908. I checked my shelves because I read an article by Anthony Esolen, "The Song of a Crippled Man." 

 Hermann Contractus was born with deformities--he couldn't walk or talk until he was seven or eight years old, but had a sunny disposition and a brilliant mind.  Young men came from all over Europe to study with him.  He was a master of ancient Latin, Hebrew, theology, astronomy and music. His music and poetry is still used to this day in the Catholic church.

Esolen provided a recent translation by John Henry Newman of Alma Redemptoris Mater from the Roman Breviary.

Mother of the Redeemer, who art ever of heaven

The open gate, and the star of the sea, aid a fallen people,

Which is trying to rise again; thou who didst give birth,

While Nature marveled how, to thy Holy Creator,

Virgin both before and after, from Gabriel's mouth

Accepting the All hail, be merciful towards sinners.

So you see I needed to go to the shelves of my own library to see if I had anything for Hermann the Cripple, b. 1013, d. 1054, and I found "Early Christian Hymns," by Daniel Joseph Donahoe. The introductory material on p. 151 states:

HERMANN CONTRACTUS The son of the Swabian Count Wolfrat of Voringen, Hermann was born in 1013, and died in 1054. He was surnamed Contractus, or the Lame, on account of a physical defect. Educated at the monastery of Reichenau, and after-ward admitted as a member of the fraternity, he added greatly to the reputation of that house, which had been noted for its learning from the time of St. Berno. He is famous as a chronicler of his time. He also devoted himself to mathematics and music, and constructed watches and instruments of various kinds. He wrote a number of hymns, besides producing a didactic poem on "The eight chief vices." The "Alma Redemptoris" and the beautiful anthem "Salve Regina," found in the Roman Breviary, are his, although the last words of the latter were added by St. Bernard of Clairvaux. The Vesper hymn, "Ave Regina Coelorum," is probably of a later period. 

https://archive.org/details/earlychristianhy00dona/page/152/mode/2up

 In an on-line source   http://lawlit.net/lp-2001/donahoe.html I found that  Daniel Joseph Donahoe (1853-1930)  was born of Irish parents at Brimfield, Massachusetts, on February 27, 1853. He is well known as a lawyer in Connecticut, and has been a judge at Middletown, Connecticut, since 1883. He was admitted to the bar in 1871.

He [has] written 'The Holy Maid of France,' a sequence of eight idyls, a poetical narrative of the life of Joan of Arc, in the Springfield Sunday Republican, and is a contributor to many Irish-American periodicals, such as the Boston Pilot, Donahoe's magazine (to whose proprietor he is not related), etc." [Source: D. J. O'Donoghue, The Poets of Ireland: A Biographical and Bibliographical Dictionary of Irish Writers of English Verse 112 (Dublin: Hodges Figgis & Co.; London: Henry Frowde, Oxford University Press, 1912) (Gale Research Co., reprint 1968)] [Daniel Donahoe died at Middletown, Connecticut. See W. Stewart Wallace, A Dictionary of North American Authors 123 (Toronto: The Ryerson Press, 1951)]

Poetry

D.J. Donahoe, Idyls of Israel and Other Poems (New York: John B. Alden, Publisher, 1888)(Middletown, Connecticut: Lucius R. Hazen, Publisher, 2nd ed., 1894) [online text]

___________, A Tent by the Lake, and Other Poems (New York: John B. Alden, Publisher, 1889) [online text]

___________, In Sheltered Ways: Poems (Buffalo [N.Y.]: Charles Wells Moulton, 1895)(1894)

Daniel J. Donahue, The Rescue of the Princess: A Song of the Great Dawn (Middletown, Connecticut: 1907) [online text]

_____________, Songs of the Country-Side (Middletown, Connecticut: The Donahoe Publishing Co., 1914) [online text]

Writings & Translations

Daniel Joseph Donahoe, Early Christian Hymns; Translations of the Verses of the Most Notable Latin Writers of the Early and Middle Ages (New York: The Grafton Press, 1908) [online text] (London: T. Werner Laurie, 1908)

__________________, Early Christian Hymns. Series II. Translations of the Verses of the Most Noted Latin Writers of the Early and Middle Ages (Middletown, Connecticut: The Donahoe Pub. Co., 1911).

 How did I get this book I took from my office shelves by Donohue?  

When I was employed by The Ohio State University Libraries I thoroughly enjoyed the annual used book sale sponsored by the Friends of the Libraries.  I should ask some of my retired colleagues about the history of it and when it started, but it hasn't been offered for a long time--maybe two decades. I could almost swoon (it's a librarian thing) even remembering it, because not only did all the librarians contribute gift books to their own campus library, but many non-faculty and non-OSU people contributed, and the proceeds went to the Friends organization to enhance the libraries' collections with special purchases or equipment we couldn't otherwise afford. We were not allowed to sell or give away directly from our libraries to faculty who may have been collectors (in my case, of old veterinary titles), but before I would send boxes of books to the sale, (or to the dumpster in the case of journals) my assistant Sarah Terry would do a brief Author/Title search on each and a list would be prepared so my faculty could go to the sale in the main library basement "armed with information" after checking their own collections.

Hospital condemns man to death for not wanting vaccine when he's already extremely sick

 Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston is refusing a heart transplant for David Ferguson Jr. whose wife and parents I heard on Candace Owens podcast this week. It was heart breaking. He's very ill, and extremely immune compromised; he is in stage 4 heart failure, and they want him to become a guinea pig for a vaccine, already known to be a challenge for the hearts of young men. And there are evil people sending him messages about how he deserves to die--for not taking an experimental vaccine when he's already at death's door. This China virus has been a great success--for the CCP. Has destroyed the moral fiber of our nation.

https://abcnews.go.com/Health/boston-hospital-denies-heart-transplant-man-covid-19/story?id=82486765

Anti-slavery collection at Oberlin

"It is proposed to make in the college library an anti-slavery collection, complete as possible, for the future historian, in which shall be gathered every book, every pamphlet, every report, every tract, every newspaper, and every private letter on the subject. For such a collection nothing is unimportant. Scattered here and there these documents are all but worthless, but gathered in one collection they would be priceless." Rev. Henry Matson, librarian at Oberlin College, quoted in the Oberlin Weekly News, February 29, 1884.

Internet Archive (American Libraries collection) Oberlin College, Oberlin, Ohio

https://archive.org/details/antislavery

This would be a good source for Black History Month particularly the autobiographies.

On making new friends at this age

Six years ago I wrote about the joy of new friends I'd made in the previous 15 years.  Since I didn't use surnames in the article, I had to pause and recall the names and faces. It's been hard to make new friends in these pandemic times, although I did renew some during the days we were taking care of our dying son, and his old friends from 30-40 years ago turned up to support him and us. It seems these days most of our new friends have been made during the summer at Lakeside, like the Priors, the Jankes, the Robys, a Bible study group at the Women's Club and a group of conservatives. I'll miss that when it's gone (just talked to the realtor today).

https://collectingmythoughts.blogspot.com/2016/12/make-new-friends-but-keep-old.html

In this blog, I mention new people I'd met since retiring in 2000--in the retirees' luncheon group, in our Bible study group at church, in an Ohio history group, in book club, and in the Pregnancy Center where I volunteered.

Just another bit of I told you so wisdom from my mom . . . 

Harmful for children--and everyone else

"It has become clear that the “follow the science” narrative – which has effectively shut down reasoned democratic debate and imposed harmful, life-altering rules on our children – was a political tactic to silence dissent, not an evidence-based philosophy for our protection. Two years into this political catastrophe, parents and citizens have begun to demand a meaningful say in the democratic process and a substantive role in the decisions our children are living with every day."

https://www.thecentersquare.com/illinois/op-ed-mistreating-children-as-following-the-science/article_66096e20-89d5-11ec-bc13-87c5710287b2.html

Masks and dis- mal- information

It's no wonder people don't trust the "fact checkers." Anyone can read the label on the box of the masks we've all been wearing for 2 years. We can see the photo of the label which Politifact gives a "false." Then the checker does double back flips to tell us not to believe our eyes, or common sense. Or even me who told you almost 2 years ago there was no peer-reviewed research on mask efficacy and safety published before the current epidemic. I was checking every 2 weeks for anything that could justify muzzling children (aka child abuse) and loyal Americans. Zip. Nada. Zilch.

I also suggested two years ago using a mask to protect yourself if you are high risk with co-morbidities (like me), and I was ridiculed and declared a hater for not wanting to protect others. Yet, that is also now being promoted as a reason to wear flimsy masks by both the CDC and medical web sites.

Yesterday I was given a small N95 mask at Marc's, a grocery store, brand Moldex. Impossible to use and has staples next to skin. Probably meant to be stored at the workplace, but won't fit into a pocket or purse, or side tray in a car. There are 2 elastic bands for holding it to the head with collapse resistant Dura-Mesh® shell and soft foam nose cushion. It read, Warning: Misuse may result in sickness or death. IMO, if used properly you could suffocate.

Old drug shows some promise in fighting lung damage of Covid, Disulfiram

But will Disulfiram be able to survive the politics of the Democrats in the lap of Big Pharma?

https://udumbara.net/decades-old-drug-may-help-protect-against-severe-covid-19-symptoms-study

Other drugs approved for different uses have shown some success against COVID-19, including ivermectin, hydroxychloroquine, and fluvoxamine, though U.S. health officials primarily recommend ones such as paxlovid that are specifically approved for combating the illness.

I looked at one of the studies on Ivermectin (a meta-analysis of published articles) and found something in the small print. Note: Ivermectin must be used in the very early stages of the disease and symptoms.

"Conflicts of interest.
Pharmaceutical drug trials often have conflicts of interest whereby sponsors or trial staff have a financial interest in the outcome being positive. Ivermectin for COVID-19 lacks this because it is off-patent, has many manufacturers, and is very low cost. In contrast, most COVID-19 ivermectin trials have been run by physicians on the front lines with the primary interest of finding the best methods to save human lives and minimize the collateral damage caused by COVID-19. While pharmaceutical companies are careful to run trials under optimal conditions (for example, restricting patients to those most likely to benefit, only including patients that can be treated soon after onset when necessary, ensuring accurate dosing), many ivermectin trials do not represent the optimal conditions for efficacy.
Two ivermectin trials to date involve very large financial conflicts of interest [López-Medina, Together Trial] — companies closely involved with the trial or organizers stand to lose billions of dollars if ivermectin efficacy becomes more widely known. The design of these trials favors producing a null outcome as detailed in [López-Medina, Together Trial]. Note that biasing an RCT to produce a false positive result is difficult (suppressing adverse events is relatively easy [Evans]), but biasing a trial to produce a false negative result is very easy — for example, in a trial of an antiviral that works within the first 24 hours of symptom onset, trial organizers only need to avoid treating people within the first 24 hours; or with a disease like COVID-19, organizers only need to select a low-risk population where most people recover quickly without treatment. We note that, even under the very suboptimal designs, these trials produced positive results, although without statistical significance.

Designed to fail. Additional upcoming trials including ACTIV-6, COVID-OUT, and PRINCIPLE have been designed in a way that favors finding no effect, with a number of methods including late treatment, selecting low-risk patients, fasting administration, very high conflict of interest medication sourcing, and dosing below current clinical practice. For discussion see [Goodkin].

One patient reported their experience with one of the remote outpatient ivermectin/fluvoxamine trials: they were offered enrollment 7 days after symptoms (receipt of medication would be even later), were offered $400 to participate, and reportedly target healthy people [twitter]. ACTIV-6 also reportedly does not ship study medications on the weekend, adding additional delays [twitter (B)]. https://ivmmeta.com/ivm-meta.pdf

Where are the healthy people studies?

 Because I've been blogging almost 20 years, I receive a lot of inquires from publicity people promoting books, nutritional plans, diets, religions, higher education, and appeals for money.  Today it was a drug treatment program in Massachusetts.  Out of curiosity I decided to look at the main page, then clicked around on the links.  I found a guide for substance abuse for LGBTQ. "I wonder how deep into the guide I can got before it's my fault (society)?  Not to worry.  It was point number one.  

I know there are healthy people who are "marginalized" (the latest term for blaming society).  Why are there no studies on them?  Maybe they could be role models, or perhaps blaming others is part of the pathology of the disease, and which keeps the helpers and caregivers employed?

Adele is called a trans hater because she loves who she is

 

  

https://pagesix.com/2022/02/09/adele-says-i-love-being-a-woman-at-gender-neutral-event/

“A decade ago, if someone had said a woman would [be criticized] for the thought-crime of saying she liked being a woman, I would have laughed at such a ludicrous suggestion. Now it is happening,” she wrote.

Sonja remembers February 9, 2020 with Phil

Sonja wrote on Facebook today: I miss my Philly B with every beat of my heart-he was the best friend a girl, like me, could ever ask for. [She was going through treatment for breast cancer and he for brain cancer. Her close friend Annie had just died of kidney cancer. All were members of UALC.]
2 years ago, this day, as he was in the battle for his life against Glioblastoma, his concern was for me, and my shattered heart on losing Annie, that is how Phil was.

 
The following are our text messages from the 9 & 10th of February 2020 [not included here] …I still treasure them to this day. He also “demanded” we take a picture together, which we then laughed and laughed, as we came up with the name for us “The Egg Heads”.

 
I went down and spent the 9th with him and then again, the following day, before I had radiation, as the Glioblastoma was kicking his ass, we ran some errands together, then picked up a pizza, and had lunch together. As we sat across the table from each other, we had a conversation that no besties should ever have, one of dying, it is still too personal for me to share, but it guts me every time I think of it…lots of beautiful silences, lots of tears, and most of all lots of pure love, that only two true friends can have for each other.

 
Phil made everything ok for me, he was my rock, a source great wisdom for me, my sounding board, and also my source of great belly laughs, especially when he would call me after work, and we would watch “Emergency” together. He had the biggest heart in the world, and it was also an ornery heart, which is probably why we were besties-ha! Not a day goes by that I don’t think of him…

Valentines Day is always hard, because that became [our] day, not for the reasons you would think, but because it was the day that we reconnected, oh so many years ago, and he “introduced” me to his meaning of it (and no, I won’t share that either, but it is hilarious), so every Valentine’s Day after that, he would wish me a “Happy VD Day” (and again, not what you think).

 
Damn, I miss him, I miss Annie…I hate February, I just hate it, and I hate it more that these 2 important people to my heart, have now been gone for 2 years. F*ck Cancer, just f*ck it to Hell, where it belongs.

Mis- Dis- and Mal- Information--our government warns us

 If there were ever a whiff of fascism of the gestapo in the air it would be the warning yesterday from the Department of Homeland Security.  Democrats called Bush a fascist and warned us that Trump was a fascist, I remember the cartoons, the nighttime hysteria on the talk shows, and the social media crazies. But that definition doesn't fit.  Fascists urge a bigger and more restrictive government, they invade other countries, and at least President Trump wasn't doing that.  Lowering taxes and strengthening (rather than expanding) our border just doesn't sound like Hitler or Mussolini to me.  But in the current administration, those restrictions under cloak of  "public health" abound.  Now DHS has sent out a formal warning on Mis- Dis- and Mal-  Information.  And it is the arbiter of what is information, fact, gossip, fantasy, knowledge, fiction, narrative (the latest buzz word), conspiracy theory, or day dream.

The United States remains in a heightened threat environment fueled by several factors, including an online environment filled with false or misleading narratives and conspiracy theories, and other forms of mis- dis- and mal-information (MDM) introduced and/or amplified by foreign and domestic threat actors. These threat actors seek to exacerbate societal friction to sow discord and undermine public trust in government institutions to encourage unrest, which could potentially inspire acts of violence.

The proliferation of false or misleading narratives, which sow discord or undermine public trust in U.S. government institutions: 

For example, there is widespread online proliferation of false or misleading narratives regarding unsubstantiated widespread election fraud and COVID-19. Grievances associated with these themes inspired violent extremist attacks during 2021. 

Malign foreign powers have and continue to amplify these false or misleading narratives in efforts to damage the United States.

In short, if you ask any questions about the Democrat run government, you are a terrorist.

Doctor muses on racism from the Left

"As Covid fear was waning, unnerved by the thought that we might regain our happy lives, the government-media complex blared that our society is systemically infected with racism and white people must repent.

The deafening drumbeat of race, racism, and more race is leaving its mark. New York City is using race as a criterion allocating Covid-19 treatments. That will certainly erode trust in the medical system. President Biden is undermining the legitimacy of the Supreme Court by pledging to fill a vacancy, not the best person, but a black female. The issue is not that black female bright legal scholars do not exist, but that the only stated criteria were gender and skin color. Of course, it didn’t matter that Bush nominee former California Supreme Court Justice Janice Rogers Brown was a black female when her confirmation for the U.S. Court of Appeals for D.C. was delayed for two years for the crime of not supporting affirmative action.

To prove their anti-racist creds schools, corporations, and government entities instituted diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) “training.” Is that like house-breaking a dog? Are white people to be figuratively rapped on the nose with an old newspaper? And if obedience school is unsuccessful, we can tax them into submission.

California’s year-old, “first-of-its-kind” Reparations Task Force has determined that reparations should be limited to descendants of slaves who were “kidnapped from their homeland.” Black immigrants are excluded because they have a country to which they can return if they are unhappy with the racist United States. Missing the irony, California’s black female slave descendant Secretary of State posited that Barack Obama had the gumption to run for president only because he was not a descendant of slaves. Thus, he was not—these many generations later—“stunted” by the psychological impact of slavery that left slaves with only enough energy to merely survive. Moreover, Obama did not have limitations “drilled in his psyche.” Exactly who is doing the drilling today? California elected officials? Television shows with black stars? Teachers? Homeboys in the ‘hood? Absentee Parents?

Wow! So black people can’t aspire to greatness if they had a slave as an ancestor. Talk about the bigotry of low expectations. Show me the excuse for the success of slave descendant entrepreneur and philanthropist Madame C.J. Walker, considered the first female millionaire in the United States in 1910. And James Derham who went from slave to physician and treated patients of all colors in Louisiana in the 1700s.

Mr. Antiracism himself, Henry Rogers (aka Ibram X. Kendi) may have bamboozled corporate America into spreading the toxic instruction to find racism in every action and thought in every minute of one’s waking hours. Disturbingly, the American Medical Association as part of its Health Equity Plan aims to “excise the myth of meritocracy.”

With big money at stake, professional football players are chosen for their ability, not their skin color. Is winning games more important than saving patients’ lives? Should we not be teaching our students to be scientifically curious, compassionate, and have the health of individual patients as their prime concern. Should physicians not attain knowledge at the highest level possible?

Now it seems that political agendas, not patients have taken precedence. A medical school group called White Coats for Black Lives is making the rounds at medical schools. Its stated goals are (1) to “dismantle dominant, exploitative systems in the United States, which are largely reliant on anti-Black racism, colonialism, cisheteropatriarchy, white supremacy, and capitalism;” and (2) to rebuild a healthy future for marginalized communities by abolishing prisons, establishing federal universal health care, ensuring reproductive and environmental justice, and “queer and trans liberation.” Many of us want to improve health care for those who have poor access—black, white, and otherwise. But let’s not sacrifice quality care for individual patients for a broad political movement.

After two years of manufactured fear, negativity, and learned helplessness courtesy of loudmouthed ideologues fomenting unrest, we need a dose of reality. White people are not stamped with the mark of the devil. Every friendly gesture is not a feeble attempt at reparations. It’s just a fellow human being cheerful. Plenty of black and other persons of color have intelligence, strength and ingenuity. We are able to do more than merely survive."

Marilyn M. Singleton, MD, JD, (Oakland-California) board-certified anesthesiologist and immediate past President of Association of American Physicians and Surgeons

This time next year we'll be laughing; a memoir by Jacqueline Winspear

 Our book club met yesterday (via Zoom) to discuss Jacqueline Winspear's memoir.  She is the author of the Maisie Dobbs series, that my husband loves and has read every title on the list.  I've only read a few of them.  Because it was on our 2021-2022 list and he loves her, I bought the book for him as a Christmas gift so I could read it! https://jacquelinewinspear.com/books/this-time-next-year-well-be-laughing/

I didn't find the memoir all that compelling, but what I enjoyed were those memories with which I could identify although I am 15 years older and grew up "across the pond." She is British (now lives in California) and grew up with WWII stories told by her parents and I lived in northern Illinois hearing my parents' stories of the Great Depression.

Two chapters (the book is not linear and each seems to stand alone as if she had written them for a class, and maybe she did) resonated for me--horses and neighbors.  Young Jackie loved horses and wrote about her first encounter in her long relationship, even to this day, with horses.  Sort of like mine.  I remember the day (although not the date) I fell in love with horses.  I think it's memorable because when our family was living on highway 64 in little Mt. Morris I probably never saw a horse except in the movies or in a parade.  My grandparents lived on a farm between Franklin Grove and Ashton, but there were no horses.  When we moved to Forreston in 1946 to a small farm house on the west edge of town there was a fenced 10 acre field right at our back yard that had several horses. I was fascinated; I fell in love. From that day forward I wanted a horse, I dreamed about owning a horse, I drew pictures of horses, I began reading all the horse series like Black Stallion and Marguerite Henry. When I finally got a 2 wheeler bike, it became a horse, at recess during play time I WAS a horse, and when in 1947 we moved to a better home, I became acquainted with the Ranz men, Charlie and Raymond, father and son horse and cattle dealers who had a barn--with horses! When I was old enough to earn my own money, it was saved quarter by dime in my "Marathon" bank (my dad delivered fuel oil for Marathon). How much money can an 8 or 9 year old earn to save for a horse?  By delivering the Rockford Morning Star through the snow and rain, and by babysitting by age 10, apparently a lot. We moved back to Mt. Morris in March 1951, and that summer I babysat for $5/week (a magnificent sum for an 11 year old). Like Jackie's parents, mine had made a promise--I could have a horse if I had enough money. By the time I was in seventh grade I had saved $100.00--about $1,000 in today's value.  I counted several times a week. One day I came home from my babysitting job and there on the railing of our house on Hannah Avenue was a leather, western saddle (not sure about the bridle).  My dad got my old friend Raymond Ranz to look at a horse I wanted--a lovely roan mare my friend Mary Ann owned. He declared her "unsound"-- she had a hip problem which is probably why Mary Ann was selling her. Then dad found a chestnut and white pinto gelding owned by the Orr family who lived a few miles away on the road to Dixon.  I had never seen the horse, but he was bought sight unseen by me, and my dad rode him to our house on Hannah (how he went back for his car I don't know).  And my happy story ends there, because if you ever want to fall out of love with horses, just own one and try to support their upkeep on what a 12 year old can earn!

One of the other stories in her memoir was about her neighbors at the Terrace, one of the places the Winspears lived.  There were the Martins and Jenners who took her to Sunday School (may be the only mention of church in her memoir), Elsie who took care of her own mother, two nosy sisters, the interesting Polly who apparently was a prostitute, Auntie Marion and Uncle Bryn, and Pat and Ken, teachers who had no children of their own. So I immediately wandered back to my old neighborhood on Rt. 64, with the Aufderbecks on one side and the Crowells, Ruth and Earl, on the other. Further down the street were the Ballards, my great grandparents, and the Potters. Behind us were the Rittenhouses, the Zickhurs, the Balluffs, and the Leopolds, plus some others whose names I've forgotten. Mike and Tommy and I would ride our tricycles up and down Hitt St. and around the corner to Mike's house. But I seemed to wander in and out of the houses of the neighbors--don't remember anyone telling me I couldn't. 

 Ruth and Earl had a box of toys that were charming--much more desirable than those I had to share with my siblings.  Ruth made two cloth dolls for me, Blue Doll and White Doll, and I still have White Doll. Earl would actually play with us in the back yard--casting his fishing line for us to catch, although no one could. One of our neighbors was a chicken hatchery, and we were free to walk in and look at the baby peeps, who were just about eye level for a five year old. The Burkes lived across the street and also owned a filling station and auto repair shop.  So I knew women could have careers because Minnie ran the station and repaired cars. Although I didn't know this until she died and I read her obituary, Minnie's brother was married to my Great Aunt. So we were sort of shirt tail relatives.  When Tommy's dad (they lived next to my great grandparents) went hunting or trapping, I'd go down and inspect the skins nailed to boards in the garage.  Tommy's dad had been a famous baseball player, Nelson Potter, so everyone in town knew him. When we grew up Tom was the valedictorian of our class and I was the salutatorian, so we sort of remained friends until his death a few years ago.  He became a professor of philosophy at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nelson_Thomas_Potter_Jr.  He may have been the smartest man to ever leave our little town.  Ruth died in 1950 when she was about 49 from heart problems--I was devastated, and remember to this day that phone call. Earl died in 1965 and I remember waving to him as I walked past the campus where he sat every day with the other old men when I was in high school.  In 1949, my great grandfather died, and we came from Forreston to attend the funeral.  I met people I'd never seen before--all members of my grandmother's family.

 

White Doll in center 

Putting this here

 Yesterday I had to return a scarf to Talbots before it was too late for a Christmas return.  My hair is white now, and although coral used to be my go-to color, it just doesn't work for me anymore.  So after doing business with the cashier, I decided to browse a bit.  There was a table with new arrivals so I decided to take a look.  One really cute springy T was in pink with darker roses.  Then I decided that after Valentine's Day it might be a bit seasonal.  So I picked up one that was royal blue with black and white narrow stripes. Hmm.  That might a nice 3 season style, I thought.  So I took it back to the cashier to check on the price.  With the amount I'd just put on my account, with the amount I still had from some other deep in the past exchange, the $65.50 T-shirt came down to $5.74.  Sold!  I wouldn't dream of paying $65 for a t-shirt (made in Vietnam), but this didn't seem like it, even though it was.  Royal blue is one of my favorites, and if it's not too hot, I think I can wear it late spring into summer. Also a new wrinkle.  The tag announcing that it is an "authentic Talbots" is sewn to the lower left front of the shirt.  What's up with that? 

 I'm still learning to use my new smart phone, and because of lack of strength I need both hands.  The mirror's beveled edge gives the table cloth and my shirt and extra ruffle, but this is the general idea.

  

A CNN vocabulary guide by Mike Huckabee

 If leftists burning down cities, assaulting police and looting businesses is “mostly peaceful protest,” then what is it called when working people stage a genuinely peaceful protest of a leftist government that’s destroying their businesses and violating their rights?

(A.) “Sedition”

(B.) “A threat to democracy.”

(C.) “Insurrection driven by madness”

(D.) All of the above.

Click here to see the answer (as if you don’t already know):

https://www.foxnews.com/media/cnn-freedom-convoy-protest-sedition-threat-democracy

Fentanyl poisoning

It's not an "overdose," or an "addiction," it is poisoning and some people should be held accountable.. Fentanyl, a synthetic opioid, is 50 to 100 times more potent than morphine, and up to 50 times more potent than heroin. Even tiny doses, as little as two milligrams, the size of two grains of salt, is a fatal dose for most people. Teen don't have a fully developed brain for the problems of risk taking, and are accidentally poisoned. And the origin is China, just like Covid. Why does the president not act?

https://www.rand.org/blog/2019/09/tackle-fentanyl-like-a-poisoning-outbreak-not-a-drug.html

https://edmontonjournal.com/news/local-news/teens-tragic-tales-meet-some-of-children-who-died-from-fentanyl-poisoning

https://www.foxnews.com/us/fentanyl-poisoning-deaths-double-30-states

Fentanyl, Covid-19 and Public Health   https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/wmh3.355

Putin and Biden and sanctions

Presidents Clinton and Obama set the stage to weaken Ukraine, so there's no reason for Putin to fear Biden who bugged out in shame from Afghanistan. Why is Biden waiting to shut down the Nord Stream pipeline (a system of offshore natural gas pipelines in Europe, running under the Baltic Sea from Russia to Germany)? Why did he shut down our Keystone pipeline making us dependent on others and unable to export energy to European countries at risk of Russian terrorism?

Biden has a REAL Russia, Russia, Russia scandal on his hands, and not a phony baloney good times fake story passed along to the Clinton campaign in 2016. Will the legacy media remain true blue?

https://www.brookings.edu/blog/order-from-chaos/2020/03/17/crimea-six-years-after-illegal-annexation/

https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1994-01-11-mn-10675-story.html

Biden ended 3 Trump measures that protected Europe from Russia and which allowed U.S. energy superiority and independence. "MedEast is the second major pipeline that the Biden administration has put a damper on: the first being the Keystone XL pipeline that would bring oil from Canada and North Dakota to the Gulf States. Canadian oil is heavy oil needed for U.S. refineries that retooled decades ago when U.S. light oil production was declining. Keystone XL would also provide more oil to the United States from an ally rather than being dependent on OPEC and Russia for oil. For several months since the pandemic began, Russia was the number 2 supplier of oil to the United States, competing with Mexico for that distinction. When Biden blocked the Keystone XL pipeline by canceling its Presidential permit, he blocked a project that went over and above existing standards to address issues such as carbon emissions, safety standards, and cooperation with indigenous people impacted by the pipeline.

Biden’s Keystone XL and MedEast pronouncements both overturn decisions made by President Trump. When Joe Biden agreed to set aside U.S. objections to the controversial Russian undersea Nord Stream 2 pipeline, he reversed former President Trump’s policy of opposing the project due to security concerns. The 760-mile Baltic Sea pipeline allows direct Russian natural gas supply to Germany and other western European countries and allows Russia to dominate the European energy market, making Putin a power player in continental Europe, where Russia already supplies over 40 percent of its natural gas." https://www.instituteforenergyresearch.org/international-issues/biden-anti-energy-onslaught-continues/

The Joe Rogan hypocrisy and double standard "scandal"

I'm waiting for all the bleeding heart blue media to count the number of times rappers have insulted and demeaned women, particularly black women, for money and then try to remove them from their platforms. Crickets. And how about a senator and former vice president and now president using the N-word in public speeches and putting down the race of candidate Obama and trying to smear Justice Thomas? Crickets x2. Why is that acceptable but a talk show comedian with a potty mouth isn't? Crickets x3. And oh, the black face on Democrat governors and comedians, just for fun, and an outspoken, nasty, mean View host? Crickets x4.

 
It's an old truism--if it weren't for double standards Democrats would have no standards at all.

Trafficking in Persons Report, 20th

As this 20th anniversary report is released, we and our allies and partners find ourselves confronting a crisis that has reached previously unimagined proportions. While urgency has always marked the fight against human trafficking, the implications of the COVID-19 pandemic have magnified the need for all stakeholders to work together in the fight more than ever. We know that human traffickers prey upon the most vulnerable and look for opportunities to exploit them. Instability and lack of access to critical services caused by the pandemic mean that the number of people vulnerable to exploitation by traffickers is rapidly growing. (2020)

https://bd.usembassy.gov/release-of-the-20th-annual-trafficking-in-persons-report/

https://sharedhope.org/2020/07/13/20th-anniversary-of-trafficking-in-persons-report/

https://www.insidernj.com/press-release/rep-smith-20th-annual-trafficking-persons-tip-report-released/

The link to the report was down and archived.

Change in focus under Biden--climate change, various "vulnerabilities" and discrimination.

This year’s Trafficking in Persons Report sends a strong message to the world that global crises, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, climate change, and enduring discriminatory policies and practices, have a disproportionate effect on individuals already oppressed by other injustices. These challenges further compound existing vulnerabilities to exploitation, including human trafficking. We must break this inhumane cycle of discrimination and injustices if we hope to one day eliminate human trafficking. (2021)

Natural immunity superior to vaccinated immunity

This is clear indisputable evidence that natural immunity is far more durable than vaccinated immunity: The Covid protection lasted for 650 days with no noticeable decline.

"Prevalence and Durability of SARS-CoV-2 Antibodies Among Unvaccinated US Adults by History of COVID-19" Jennifer L. Alejo, MD1; Jonathan Mitchell, MBBS1; Amy Chang, MD1; et al JAMA Network
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2788894

In this cross-sectional study of unvaccinated US adults, antibodies were detected in 99% of individuals who reported a positive COVID-19 test result, in 55% who believed they had COVID-19 but were never tested, and in 11% who believed they had never had COVID-19 infection. Anti-RBD levels were observed after a positive COVID-19 test result up to 20 months, extending previous 6-month durability data.5

Study limitations include lack of direct neutralization assays, the fact that antibody levels alone do not directly equate to immunity,4,6 the cross-sectional study design, a convenience sample with an unknown degree of selection bias due to public recruitment, self-reported COVID-19 test results, the study population being largely White and healthy, and lack of information on breakthrough infections. Participants were given only 1 month to complete antibody testing, which may have contributed to the 52% rate among those invited to test.

Although evidence of natural immunity in unvaccinated healthy US adults up to 20 months after confirmed COVID-19 infection is encouraging, it is unclear how these antibody levels correlate with protection against future SARS-CoV-2 infections, particularly with emerging variants. The public health implications and long-term understanding of these findings merit further consideration.

Scott Atlas of media bias

  

Trump on Truckers

"Facebook and Big Tech are seeking to destroy the Freedom Convoy of Truckers. The Freedom Convoy is peacefully protesting the harsh policies of far left lunatic Justin Trudeau who has destroyed Canada with insane Covid mandates. Now, thankfully, the Freedom Convoy could be coming to DC with American Truckers who want to protest Biden’s ridiculous Covid policies. Facebook is canceling the accounts of Freedom Convoy USA, and GoFundMe is denying access to funds that belong to the Freedom Convoy. This is unacceptable and extremely dangerous in any country that values free expression. TruthSocial is announcing today that we are welcoming the Freedom Convoy with open arms to communicate freely on TruthSocial when we launch – coming very soon! TruthSocial will fight back against Big Tech so we can protect our rights to free expression. Also, on top of everything, it is big news that Facebook daily users went down for the first time ever, people are tired of biased social media like Twitter and Facebook, and it’s showing in their numbers!" Donald Trump

Do as I say, not as I do--how progressive are Democrats

https://youtu.be/hNDgcjVGHIw

When Democrats have the power, just how progressive are they?

Start with housing.  The vote down low income housing--but they say they want it.

Then tax codes.  The wealthiest pay the lowest tax rate--but they are Democrats.  Texas is more liberal than Washington state on taxes.

What about education?  World class in every zip code? 140 districts in one county--Cook in Illinois. So there is great inequity in funding schools.  Same in wealthy Connecticut.  Liberals don't want to share. Than blame Republicans for the crises in blue states.

This video had about 6 million view when I watched it.

Pamphlet from 1916

A squirrley tail--noticed on Facebook

The Presbyterian church called a meeting to decide what to do about their squirrel infestation. After much prayer and consideration, they concluded that the squirrels were predestined to be there, and they should not interfere with God’s divine will.

At the Baptist church, the squirrels had taken an interest in the baptistry. The deacons met and decided to put a water-slide on the baptistry and let the squirrels drown themselves. The squirrels liked the slide and, unfortunately, knew instinctively how to swim, so twice as many squirrels showed up the following week.

The Lutheran church decided that they were not in a position to harm any of God’s creatures. So, they humanely trapped their squirrels and set them free near the Baptist church. Two weeks later, the squirrels were back when the Baptists took down the water-slide.

The Episcopalians tried a much more unique path by setting out pans of whiskey around their church in an effort to kill the squirrels with alcohol poisoning. They sadly learned how much damage a band of drunk squirrels can do.

But the Catholic church came up with a more creative strategy! They baptized all the squirrels and made them members of the church. Now they only see them at Christmas and Easter.

Not much was heard from the Jewish synagogue. They took the first squirrel and circumcised him. They haven’t seen a squirrel since.