RECIPE: Vegetarian Stock Powder

Over the years, I’ve met, known, and been friends with several vegetarians in my lifetime, and quite frankly, all of them have been very pleasant people, kind, generous, giving, well-mannered, studious, professionals, and in most cases, religious, specifically, Seventh Day Adventist, a Christian sect that practices the Jewish custom of meeting on Saturdays (the Sabbath) for corporate worship, and resting from their labors.

They weren’t at all radicalized or “high pressure” animal rights activists, mean greenies, or other off-the-wall types — just plain ol’ nice, family, folk.

And as a tenet of their faith, they are vegetarian — some lacto-ovo, some pescatarian, some vegan. And you know you’ve made friends with them when they invite you to share a meal with them — that’s true of any people, religious, or not — and I have always considered it great honor to share a meal with them. One such time was Thanksgiving several years ago, when I was

The Wild Wild West of Cannabis

Believe it, or else, cannabis is among the least governmentally-regulated consumer items. Over-the-counter/non-prescription medications like aspirin, beverage alcohol, and gasoline, are far more regulated.

The lack of regulation is, at least when it comes to THC, the ostensible primary reason why it’s sold and consumed… as it has been for tens of thousands of years — long before POTUS Richard Nixon came along with his “War on Drugs.”

Anecdotally, various news stories in states where it is legal, in one form, or another (medical, and/or recreational), have found that significant discrepancies exist in the reported, or claimed, concentration of THC, versus the levels found when independent analyses were performed.

Despite “seed-to-sale” tracking systems, which are typically for taxation accounting purposes, some states have seemed to have unofficially adopted a laissez-faire approach toward the sale of cannabis, meaning that while there are some laws on the books regulating cannabis, some of them largely go unenforced, except for the ones concerning taxation. Spirituous beverage is more highly monitored and taxed at the federal, state, and local levels.

A recently published, peer-reviewed scientific analysis found that, in samples obtained in three cities in the State of Colorado, the claimed, or purported levels of THC on the packaging labels were significantly inflated.

In a recent research article published in the peer-reviewed analytical scientific journal PLOS One (an Open Access, i.e., accessible without charge, science venue covering 200+ subjects published by the Public Library Of Science), 23 samples of 12 differently-named cannabis flower types from 10 dispensaries in 3 Colorado cities, found that the THC levels claimed on labels differed from 2% to 56.5% from the observed levels as tested using High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) when performed by a third-party lab. Only 3 samples fell within the reported range stated on the packaging.

The authors wrote, in part, that, “The average observed THC potency was

How To Let Trans Children Play School Sports Fairly

Becky Pepper-Jackson has presented as a girl since fourth grade. The 12-year-old is at the center of a legal dispute that is at the Supreme Court.
Credit: ACLU of West Virginia

Supreme Court won’t enforce West Virginia law banning trans athletes from girls’ teams
https://www.npr.org/2023/04/06/1165133771/trans-law-west-virginia-supreme-court

—//—

Hey, I’m ALL FOR transgender & LGBTQIA folks, indeed, for ALL people — I don’t give a shit about how anybody gets freaky with it, how they present themselves to be, whether they stand, or sit, to pee, or any such nonsense. That’s their axe to grind, not mine… live and let live, you know. If Warren Buffett wants to wear a floral kimono, muumuu, or hot pink mini-skirt, more power to him.

BUT, I DO have a suggestion which I think is meritorious, and most WORTHY of consideration when the topic of gender — NOT SEX — enters the picture when determining whether

Here’s What Happens When AI Writes A Cooking Website

My name is Viktoria Perry and I love cooking. Whether I’m whipping up a quick and easy stir-fry or baking a delicious cake, cooking is one of my favorite hobbies. I love to try new recipes and create my own dishes, and I’m always up for a challenge. Whether I’m in the kitchen or out and about, I always enjoy spending time with my family and friends.

AI, or Artificial Intelligence, is all the rage at the moment. It’s the “In Thing,” the proverbial hot potato of the moment, the “cool kid on the block.”

But folks are quickly finding out that it’s not what it’s all cracked up to be.

I mean, seriously… AI can’t kiss you goodnight, say ‘hello’ in the morning, prepare your breakfast, and so many, many more things that it’s impractical to enumerate them.

You know, one would think, or hope, that if an individual was going to write something, and ostensibly speak with an authoritative voice, that person would first check to ensure that what they thought, was correct, and if not, hasten to correct it BEFORE writing. Otherwise, anything written would be just pure useless blather.

Opinions — purely subjective beliefs, i.e., a “conclusion held with confidence but not substantiated by positive knowledge or proof” —  are one thing — although sometimes, opinions have some basis in fact or rationale, such as, for example, folks that hate cilantro, often do so because many of them say it tastes soapy, or worse.

But apparently,

Life Imitates Art — The Man Who Planted Trees

The forest doesn’t need us.

It was here before us, and it will be here after we leave.

The forest will survive despite our abuses of it.

We are the ones who need the forest.

 

“The Man Who Planted Trees”
A short story by Jean Giono
Featuring the Paul Winter Consort & Jean Giono
Narrated by Robert J. Lurtsema
The work won an Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film in 1987.

“The Man Who Planted Trees” is 1953 fictional short story by French author Jean Giono, who in a 1957 letter to a Digne, France city official wrote, “Elzéard Bouffier is a fictional person. The goal was to make trees likeable, or more specifically, make planting trees likeable.”

The book, which was translated into several languages and distributed without charge, was so well received that many thought it was a true story, thus somewhat necessitating such a letter.

The story illustrates the magnitude of difference that one person can make to the earth.

“The Man Who Planted Trees” tells a tale of Elzéard Bouffier, a simple man of determination, who, after losing his wife and son, retreated to a desolately remote part of France, which land he thought “was dying for want of trees.” So, with his dog and sheep as his solitary companions, he began his life’s work — daily planting one hundred acorns.

Over 30 years, laboring in peace without interruption, and in complete anonymity, Elzéard’s planting of trees resurrected and transformed a once desiccated landscape, relentlessly ravaged by winds, and forsaken by people, into a verdantly vibrant, vigorous, and thriving region, filled with people and life of all kinds.

---

Life imitates art.
—————————

Manipur man converts barren land into 300-acre forest

Meanwhile, Loiya is certain that the task of growing a forest and nurturing it is going to be “a lifelong mission” although he now works in a pharmacy to earn a living and to sustain his family.
Published: 13th November 2022 12:41 PM — Last Updated: 13th November 2022 12:41 PM

IMPHAL: A 47-year-old man in Manipur’s Imphal West district has converted barren land into a 300-acre forest with a wide variety of plant species in 20 years.

Moirangthem Loiya, who hails from

Do NOT feed these foods to your dog!

If you,
your loved ones, or others,
have a canine companion,
there are certain “human” foods that you
MOST DEFINITELY
DO NOT
want to feed to it.

For example, onions, garlic, etc., are Alliums, which is to say that, they’re in the Allium genus. Essentially, that’s ALL onion-type vegetables, which includes leeks, shallots, scallions, chives, wild garlic, wild onions, etc.

They’re TOXIC to dogs.

Here’s another especially potent one: Xylitol. (zy-lih-tall)

Xylitol is a sugar alcohol used as a sweetener in many “human” foods, such as chewing gum, and in some so-called “low cal” foods.

Xylitol is HIGHLY TOXIC to dogs. It’s like fentanyl is for humans — it is SO POTENT even the smallest, teeny tiniest bit can kill.

Here’s another one: Chocolate.

Dogs are not capable of

Researchers: “Lazy Stoner” Stereotype NOT Supported by Evidence

“Lazy stoner” NO MORE!

UK Researchers Find Cannabis Abstainers LESS Motivated Than Cannabis Consumers

—>This is NOT A JOKE!<—

Ms Martine Skumlien is a PhD student in the Department of Psychiatry, University of Cambridge, United Kingdom. Her research centers around the impact of regular cannabis use on brain and cognition, with a particular emphasis on use in adolescence, in which she utilizes behavioral data along with fMRI in her work.

Ms. Martine Skumlien, MRes, is a researcher affiliated with the Department of Psychiatry, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK -and- Clinical Psychopharmacology Unit, Clinical Educational and Health Psychology Department, University College London, London, UK, and was lead researcher of a team of 16 that recently published their findings in the 14 August 2022 edition of the peer-reviewed International Journal of Neuropsychopharmacology.

In the research entitled “Anhedonia, apathy, pleasure, and effort-based decision-making in adult and adolescent cannabis users and controls,” [also at: International Journal of Neuropsychopharmacology, pyac056, https://doi.org/10.1093/ijnp/pyac056] the results showed that non-cannabis users “had higher levels of anhedonia than cannabis users.” Anhedonia is the clinical term referring to the inability to feel or experience pleasure.

In their conclusion, the researchers wrote, “Our results suggest that cannabis use at a frequency of three to four days per week is not associated with

Common Sense Gun Reform Laws

“Common sense isn’t so common, anymore,” goes one woefully pithy saying.

And, it certainly seems true — at least when it comes to matters of politics in this period.

But, exactly WHAT IS “common sense”?

Common sense could be the proverbial “moving target” which changes with every whim, and puffing wind of doctrine.

But, let’s hit the “pause” button for a moment and examine some matters surrounding firearms, aka “guns” and at least the two most recent tragedies in Buffalo, NY and Uvalde, TX, both sites of mass murders by 18-year-old gunmen armed with AR-15 style rifles.

Campaign flyer for GOP Arkansas U.S. Representative, Jay Dickey, CD-4.

Hyperbole aside, is there ANYTHING which could have been done to have prevented either holocaust?

Quite possibly, yes.

So, let’s examine some facts, and what laws ALREADY EXIST (or not) pertaining to firearms that might have prevented such carnage, and if they were useful — or not.

First, in BOTH cases, the perpetrators were aged 18.

Second, in BOTH cases, the firearm used — an AR-15 style rifle with a high-capacity ammunition magazine — was legally purchased.

Incidentally, that was also the firearm of choice used in numerous other massacre-style killings.

With respect to the Federal Government, there is NO law requiring establishing a comprehensive database of such massacres, and because of that, there is none. The ONLY such databases are maintained by private, non-governmental entities. That should not be so.

The Department of Justice maintains all sorts of statistics about crimes, and their perpetrators, but not on matters like this.

Why not?

That’s because a GOP Representative from Arkansas’ 4th Congressional District, Jay Dickie Jr. (1939-2017), put a “rider” onto a budget item in 1996 which has since been monikered as the “Dickie Amendment” which specifically forbade the Federal Government from studying such things.

At the time of his terms in the House of Representatives, Dickie described himself as an ardent Second Amendment supporter, which essentially translated into being “the NRA’s point person in Congress,” as he later described his role in a July 27, 2012 Op-Ed co-authored with Dr. Mark Rosenberg, MD.

“One of us served as the NRA’s point person in Congress and

How To Make The World’s Greatest Spaghetti

LEFT to RIGHT: Spaghetti noodles, tomato-based meat sauce, freshly grated Parmigiano Reggiano cheese

Ever get tired of eating mediocre spaghetti?

Of course you so.

But, how can you make your otherwise boring spaghetti a world-class dish?

It’s easier than you think.

Naturally, there are a few (very few) “secrets,” or tips-n-tricks, that everyone should know, and understand, in order to improve the character and quality of the dish.

So, let’s get started right away!

Here’s what you’ll need to get started…

Ain’t Skeered of COVID-19? Try this on for size.

Let’s pretend that you’re an “anti-vaxxer,” that for whatever insane reason, you’re not going to ever receive any FREE COVID-19 vaccination.

Let’s also pretend that you get infected with COVID-19.

And, we’ll further pretend that because of the infection, you get really, really, really sick — as in “intubated in the ICU” sick.

Should you even be there? Should you even be treated, or cared for? Should anyone have mercy upon you because you made the decision to NOT receive (reject) a FREE vaccine? After all, you’re just wasting oxygen, and taking up space.

Shouldn’t the resources that are being expended upon you, and your care (because you didn’t care enough to get vaccinated), be expended upon others who did? After all, you made the conscious decision to NOT care enough about yourself, or others, to get vaccinated.

Freedom is not, nor has it ever been, an “I’ll do what I want, where I want, when I want, how I want, because I can” type of proposition.

You see, freedom has responsibilities.

In practice, that means you can’t

Lessons Learned, and Not Learned

What lessons could we learn from nicotine chewing gum?

You might be surprised.

Read on.

---

Having never been addicted to anything (or, anyone), the craving for a substance, other than food & water for sustenance, it interests me to understand the strong cravings that some have for non-food substances, including, for example, tobacco, spiritous beverage, or narcotics abused, or other illicit substances, including cocaine, methamphetamine, etc.

For years, I have, on a personal level, maintained that addiction was not what many were saying that it was, some years ago. And in the interim, from then until now, indeed, the definition, and our understanding of addiction has substantially changed, precisely because of our increased understanding of physiology, in conjunction with improved recognition of cause-and-effect patterns of human behavior.

For example, with smokers, they almost always fall into habituation through association with routine. Wake up, toilet, smoke, bathe, smoke. Drink coffee, smoke. Drive to work, smoke. Work a couple hours, smoke break. Work a few more, lunch break, smoke. Work a bit, smoke break. Off work, drive home, smoke. Get cleaned up, smoke. Watch teevee, smoke. Eat supper, smoke. Have cocktails/nightcap, smoke. And it all repeats itself the next day. That’s significantly serious behavioral reinforcement.

Those who make effort to quit, frequently forget the association of routine with smoking, and when determined to quit, they sometimes

Evangelicalism Poisons Christians’ Pool

The late, renown musician Greg Allman, with his Southern Rock group “The Allman Brothers Band,” recorded and performed a song entitled “Angeline,” which was written by band members Dickey Betts, Mike Lawler, and John Andrew Cobb. Greg had no part in the song’s creation, other than to sing, and record it, where is appears as Track 1, Side 2 (Track 5 on CD) of the band’s first Arista Records, Inc. label release, on their August 1980 album “Reach for the Sky.”

The song’s chorus contains the partial lyric “I never seen a woman who could look so good, and be so doggone mean. Yeah.”

I had forgotten the song’s title was Angeline, rather than Evangeline, but the point is, that the name “Evangeline” is a feminine one, and in a couple places in the New Testament, and in modernity, the “church” is frequently referred to as a feminine subject, a “virgin bride” which will “marry” Jesus Christ. And, I had not forgotten the song’s lyric “I never seen a woman who could look so good, and be so doggone mean.” 

That is a sadly perfect picture of the church today: Alleged to be beautiful (“a woman who could look so good,”) but whose attractiveness is marred to the point of repulsion, i.e., “be so doggone mean.”

The song’s final verse is:

Whoa, just a game that she loves to play,
leavin’ broken hearts all along the way.
She’s got friends that she ain’t never used.
She’s winnin’ now but she’s bound to lose.
Oh, Angeline.

Again, a picture perfect illustration of a very sad situation: Selfish use and abuse, then, abandonment, and ultimately, loss.

What many folks don’t realize (and, by “folks,” I specifically mean to refer to those who name Christ, or claim to be Christian), that many of the researchers and historical figures of importance in the history of healthcare and immunology were Christians.

Edward Jenner (1749-1823), considered widely as the “father,” or discoverer of vaccination, was himself a son of a Christian vicar, the 4th son, and 8th of 9 children, whose both parents died in 1754. But what is equally ironic, is that in his era, when he was actively developing a treatment and cure for smallpox, “Jenner was widely ridiculed. Critics, especially the clergy, claimed it was repulsive and ungodly to inoculate someone with material from a diseased animal. A satirical cartoon of 1802 showed people who had been vaccinated sprouting cow’s heads. But the obvious advantages of vaccination and the protection it provided won out, and vaccination soon became widespread. Jenner became famous and now spent much of his time researching and advising on developments in his vaccine.”

Religious-minded people of the era, Christians, specifically, were widely opposed to the concept of disease prevention by inoculation.

Sounds vaguely familiar, doesn’t it?

Sir Hans Sloane (1660–1753). Portrait by Godfrey Kneller, 1716. Copyright © The Royal Society.

And yet, in the time since Jenner’s era,

Nose/Mouth Protection Was Once Popular Among Right Wingers

The now-defunct Moral Majority was a far-right-wing, extremist political arm of a primarily Protestant Christian Fundamentalist organization founded by the now-late Rev. Jerry Falwell, Sr. (1933-2007), Founding Pastor of Thomas Road Baptist Church, in Lynchburg, VA, who infamously filed, and lost, a defamation of character lawsuit against pornographer Larry Flynt (1942-2021), Founder of the Hustler magazine empire, which was ultimately appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Based upon First Amendment principles, the SCOTUS found that Flynt’s plainly-marked parody depiction of Falwell fell under protected speech, holding that “the First and Fourteenth Amendments prohibit public figures and public officials from recovering damages for the tort of intentional infliction of emotional distress by reason of the publication of a caricature…” and noted that “the State’s interest in protecting public figures from emotional distress is not sufficient to deny First Amendment protection to speech that is patently offensive and is intended to inflict emotional injury when that speech could not reasonably have been interpreted as stating actual facts about the public figure involved.”

Moral Majority Report, July 1983, AIDS

In other words, the First Amendment protects parodies of celebrities or other public figures, even if they are intended to cause distress to the subjects depicted/portrayed.

Such a matter is now ongoing and involving soon-to-be-former U.S. Representative Devin Nunes, a Republican who has represented California’s 22nd Congressional District since 2003. CD 22 is in the state’s fertile San Joaquin Valley farmland area, and encompasses parts of Fresno, and Tulare counties, which includes portions of the cities of Fresno, and all of the cities of Clovis, Tulare, and Visalia.

Nunes is infamously litigious, and as some would characterize it, is thin-skinned, and becomes very “butt-hurt” when he is mocked, satirized, or parodied publicly, which has occurred regularly on Twitter, where the satire account “Devin Nunes Cow” (Nunes has interests in dairy farming in the district), and several other parody accounts, including some naming his mother, regularly poke fun of him.

Ironically, the two men Falwell and Flynt, later became good friends, and frequently appeared together in several public venues on college & university campuses, including on the Larry King Show.

Dr. Heather Murray, PhD, an Associate Professor of History at the University of Ottawa, Canada, (see her faculty page here) recently wrote the following, in part, about the matter of the far-right-wing now refusing to wear protective nose/mouth coverings (aka “face masks”) during the SARS-CoV-2 novel coronavirus (aka COVID-19) pandemic, whereas once, they were gung-ho to wear them, despite the fact that

Ever had ORIGINAL, AUTHENTIC, GENUINE Homemade Aioli?

Perhaps you’d be surprised at the MANY “knock-off,” el-cheapo, wanna-be, so-called “recipes” for AIOLI.

For some, it’s a Johnny-come-lately to the faux phood scene, a veritable “flash-in-the pan” — here today, gone tomorrow — and something, some trick of “the new and kewl” to attract, and FOOL, or DECEIVE, folks into believing that a great amount of effort, or love, went into making a food item.

Pretty pictures adorn all kinds of websites, magazines, and newspapers — online, and in print — that depict food as an artistic creation… and to be certain, there’s little doubt that some of it is. Certain cakes come to mind, for example.

The finished product… GENUINE, AUTHENTIC aioli.

But most food is not “art,” though it can, and should be, presented attractively. And the reason for that, the reason why food should be presented attractively, is that we FIRST ‘eat’ with our eyes. That is to say, that, what we see whets our appetite. However, for food made in a restaurant, the olfactory sensation is largely missing, because almost no one goes into any restaurant and smells the food cooking. It’s not like your grandma’s, or mama’s kitchen, wherein the savory aromas of food waft throughout the house, eagerly increasing your expectations as mealtime approaches.

But, back to the aioli.

At its essence, aioli is almost pure garlic in a spreadable form. I write ‘almost’ because it has olive oil in it, and cannot be made without it. And, there’s some salt, as well. But the amount, volume, quantity, etc., of salt is up to the maker. And though salt may not be 100% absolutely required, or a mandatory item like garlic or olive oil, it is HIGHLY recommended to be a constituent part of aioli. In other words, just put some in. Don’t neglect it.

Now, invariably, someone, some wisenheimer, will ask something like

American Healthcarers Pushed To The Brink May Never Recover

Things aren’t looking good for those working in American healthcare.

American healthcare will likely never be the same again. But, that matter aside, if folks are quitting en masse, who’ll “call the shots”?

As I have sadly maintained, MANY MORE need to die from COVID-19 — MANY, MANY more. Perhaps at least 3 to 4 times more, or even more, because apparently, at least 766,232 known COVID-19 related deaths in America are hardly enough, and more likely in excess of 900,000 still isn’t nearly enough. Folks don’t “believe” enough. When death touches very close to home, it will make a believer out of many of those foolish deniers.

And in fact, researchers from:
• Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), from the
• University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME), and
two independent researchers from
• Medical Development and Scientific/Clinical Affairs, Pfizer Vaccines, Collegeville, Pennsylvania and Center for Observational and Real-World Evidence, Merck & Co Inc, Kenilworth, New Jersey,
have all independently found that reported deaths from COVID-19 in the United States, and globally, have been significantly under-reported and underestimated.

The essence of what they all independently did was to compare the typical average, to-be-expected death rate, to the presently reported death rate from COVID-19, and added the two figures.

January 5, 2021
Estimation of US SARS-CoV-2 Infections, Symptomatic Infections, Hospitalizations, and Deaths Using Seroprevalence Surveys
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2774584

May 6, 2021, 12:58 PM ET
NEWS ITEM:
New Study Estimates More Than 900,000 People Have Died Of COVID-19 In U.S.
https://www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates/2021/05/06/994287048/new-study-estimates-more-than-900-000-people-have-died-of-covid-19-in-u-s

Published online May 13, 2021
Estimation of excess mortality due to COVID-19
http://www.healthdata.org/sites/default/files/files/Projects/COVID/2021/Estimation-of-excess-mortality-due-to-COVID.pdf

July 1, 2020
Excess Deaths From COVID-19 and Other Causes, March-April 2020
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2768086

July 1, 2020
NEWS ITEM:
COVID-19 Death Toll Underreported, Study Finds
VCU/Yale study published in Journal of the American Medical Association
July 1 2020 Last revised: 22 Aug 2021
https://www.virginiabusiness.com/article/covid-19-death-toll-underreported-study-finds/

Behavioral Dynamics of COVID-19: Estimating Under-Reporting, Multiple Waves, and Adherence Fatigue Across 92 Nations
https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3635047

October 15, 2021
Estimation of total and excess mortality due to COVID-19
http://www.healthdata.org/special-analysis/estimation-excess-mortality-due-covid-19-and-scalars-reported-covid-19-deaths
(This page was updated on October 15, 2021 to reflect changes in our modeling strategy. View our previous methods published May 13, 2021 here.)

Researchers have independently found that the COVID-19 pandemic has caused at least 6.9 million deaths worldwide, twice the number officially reported.

The IHME estimated total COVID-19 deaths by comparing anticipated deaths from all causes based on pre-pandemic trends with the actual number of all deaths caused during the pandemic.

In the United States, the analysis estimated over

Let’s Talk About AVOCADOS! (Confronting lies, ignorance, and fear in modern journalism.)

Yesterday, I happened upon a story (a poorly written, and unconvincing one, at that — and there are several) about a complaint that someone, or some group, was making to so-called “chefs,” who in response were removing the avocado from their menus, ostensibly because of some alleged character flaw characterized as “un-sustainability.”

Avocados are a nutrient dense, heart-healthy food, production of which is SUSTAINABLE, and lucrative, for this, and other nation’s economies… contrary to what the goddamn ignoramuses tell you. There are PLENTY of academically, statistically, economically, and scientifically validated facts about avocados in this entry, ALL from HIGHLY REPUTABLE sources which almost every one DIRECTLY CONTRADICT the goddamn lies and BULLSHIT that so-called “journalists” write, and hope to get you to believe.

What a crock!

“Sustainability” my ass!

You wanna’ know what’s “unsustainable”?

Life without water. Life without food.

Besides… the fucking avocados are Hecho en Mexico.

Yeah, you stupid motherfuckers… Mexico produces the lion’s share of the world’s avocados, followed by Dominican Republic, Peru, Colombia, Indonesia, Kenya, Brazil, Haiti, Chile, and Israel.

NOT ‘Murka.

A business intelligence report on the global avocado market wrote this, in part, about the fruit:

“Avocados contain vitamins A, B, C, E, and K, including 25 essential nutrients. It also contains phytochemicals, like beta-sitosterol and antioxidants, like lycopene and beta-carotene. The essential nutrients are increasing the demand for the fruit, globally, and therefore acts as a major driving force behind the growth of the avocado market. The demand for avocados is increasing globally due to their health benefits as it increases vision, prevents heart-related diseases, and helps in improving digestion. The increased demand across the globe has resulted in increased production. According to FAOSTAT, avocado production was 5.7 million metric ton in 2016, which has increased by 12.7% and reached 7.1 million metric ton in 2019.”

FAOSTAT is the Statistics Division, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.

So… that’s not enough facts, figures, and statistics about avocados?

You’re about to get more than you can shake a stick at. So, sit tight, and hold onto your hat. We’re about to go on a whirlwind ride!

Here are more facts, figures, and statistics about avocados, from NASS, 2020 (National Agricultural Statistics Service — i.e., your tax dollars at work):

In 2020 the United States produced 206,610 tons of avocados. That same year, economic value of U.S. avocado production was $426 million. California’s 2020 avocado production value was $411,720,000, with 47,300 acres in production, which yielded 3.98 TONS / ACRE.

For comparison, the U.S. Gross Domestic Product in Q3 2021 was $23.173496 TRILLION. California’s avocado production DOES NOT even make it into the state’s Top 10 most valuable agriculture products, which are:

• Dairy Products, Milk — $7.47 billion
• Almonds — $5.62 billion
• Grapes — 4.48 billion
• Pistachios — $2.87 billion
• Cattle and Calves — $2.74 billion

• Lettuce — $2.28 billion
• Strawberries — $1.99 billion
• Tomatoes — $1.20 billion
• Floriculture — $967 million
• Walnuts — $958 million

In California, avocados are the 16th most valuable crop. Tomatoes, strawberries, hay, oranges, rice, tangerines, almonds, pistachios, broccoli, and lettuce all outpace the state’s avocado production value.

The U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis found that in Q2 2021, the value of California’s Gross Domestic Product was $3,290,170 million ($3.29 TRILLION), and accounted for 14.5% of U.S. GDP.

In the U.S., a total of 52,720 acres were in stable avocado production. Certain varieties, such as the Hass, have a tendency to bear well only in alternate years. That’s a 50% reduction biennially. How would you like it if your income fluctuated like that?

In the past decade, U.S. avocado consumption the U.S. has doubled, and is now about

Dog Came to Me in a Dream and Said…

…and Dog said, “Don’t get the vaccine.”

I was going to vaccinate Dog against rabies.

So, I asked Dog, “Dog, do you want to get the vaccine?”

Dog said, “I’m worried that it’ll make me sterile.”

I reminded Dog that she’d been spayed since shortly after she adopted me, about 5ive years.

Dog then said, “I need to be free to make my own decision.”

I reminded Dog that

America’s Test Kitchen & Chinese Junk

Occasionally, I read the numerous emails sent out by “America’s Test Kitchen.”

And when I write “numerous,” I mean NUMEROUS. They’re practically bordering on SPAM.

And, they almost always want you to buy some cheap, Fabriqué en Chien Chine (tr. “Made in China,” but, it might as well be “Made in Dog”) junk. Hmm… Chinese junk. Seems there is an historical watercraft called — interestingly enough — a “Chinese junk.”

China, Miscellaneous Scenes: Junks near Ningpo
Creator: Fong, Ali
Subject: Hartung’s Photo Shop
Local number: SIA RU007263 [SIA2008-2923]
RU 7263 – Arthur de Carle Sowerby Papers, 1904-1954 and undated, Smithsonian Institution Archives
Place: Ningbo Zhuanqu (China)
Repository: Smithsonian Institution Archives

And ATK’s latest flop is… testing silicon spatulas.

Yes, you read that correctly – silicon spatulas. It must’ve been a VERY slow day week in the test kitchen.

While I once found them informative, they’ve been slipping. And one thing that gripes me about ATK is that many of their “recommendations” aren’t worth a hot hoot in Hades. As an example, consider a venerable, almost ubiquitous, household kitchen appliance… the blender.

Not too long ago, ATK, as they usually do, produced a video comparing various brands of the kitchen appliance. That one, of course, happened to be about blenders. Their hands-down, long-time winner was the Vitamix 5200, priced at $449… BUT! Made in Cleveland, Ohio, and FULLY guaranteed — everything about it (i.e., “a motor blender base and any containers purchased together”) will be repaired, or replaced AT NO EXTRA COST — for 7 years if ANY part fails “due to a defect in material or workmanship or as a result of normal wear and tear from ordinary household use.” FINALLY! FINEST QUALITY MADE IN AMERICA!

ATK’s “next best” choice model was the Breville brand Hemisphere Control model, priced around $200 – Made in China, and with only a limited, one year guarantee.

While the site and accompanying video(s) show excerpts from their “tests,” and the host gives an adequate description of the “tests” and their staff’s findings – the advantages and shortcomings of each of them – one thing they fall grievously short on is… 1.) CLEANING, and; 2.) LONG TERM DURABILITY TESTING.

Granted, ATK conjures up some “torture” tests that most cooks won’t come close to performing, such as plunging a searing hot skillet into an ice water bath, or banging the thing on a concrete block… just to see what would happen. In industry parlance, that’s called “destructive testing,” meaning that the piece, or thing, being tested is likely to be damaged, or destroyed in the process.

I happen to own a couple Breville brand products, one of them being the no-longer-manufactured Hemisphere model blender, and the other one being the still-manufactured Breville brand Barista Express model espresso machine with integrated grinder.

The TOTAL purchase price for BOTH items – shipping + tax included – was around $1000+/-.

Now, to give kudos to the Australian company, their design team

Another One Bites The Dust: Healthy 36yo Alabama Man Didn’t Last 30 Days Against COVID-19

COVID-19 wins again!

On July 20, Josh Tidmore, an otherwise healthy 36-year-old Alabama man, came home from work with “a slight cough” and at the time, thought it was just “sinus trouble.”

By August 11 — a mere 23 days later — he was dead.

He leaves behind a 35-year old widow, Christina, and 3 orphaned children.

Josh Tidmore, an otherwise heathy 30-year old Alabama man didn’t last 30 days against COVID-19

Josh believed the lies he read on Facebook about the coronavirus, and unwisely thought he was “healthy enough” to overcome it. Christina said that neither one of them “knew anyone who got real sick from COVID, and figured we would be ‘OK.'”

Was she ever wrong.

Deadly wrong.

Christina explained their reluctance to get vaccinated, in part, by saying,“It wasn’t a political thing, we didn’t want to because we didn’t want to; and the information is such a fight right now, and we thought we were young and healthy it will be okay, and we will wait to see if there is better information.”

There wasn’t.

Christina, who was neither vaccinated, had earlier contracted COVID and recovered. Josh wasn’t so lucky.

Christina and Josh both tested positive for COVID-19 on July 26, and then quarantined for two weeks.

A few days later, Josh was admitted to Marshall Medical Centers South, in Marshall County, AL, and from there, he only got worse.

Christina’s traumatic “wake-up call” came at the hospital when she witnessed Josh die from cardiac arrest, directly caused by the deterioration of his lungs from the COVID-19 infection.

Christina saw and heard Dr. Jenna Carpenter, MD, a Critical Care Pulmonologist who, with her team was caring for Josh, “run a ‘code'” on Josh — medical parlance for ‘his heart stopped beating, so we’re going to pound on his chest until his ribs break, inject strong chemicals into his veins to irritate his heart, and then shock the beejeebers out of him… all in the hope that his heart will decide to start beating once again.’

It didn’t.

Another One Bites The Dust: Pregnant Alabama RN & Fetus Die of COVID-19

Family says, “We’re glad she’s not suffering.”

Alabama Family On Pregnant RN & Fetus Dead from COVID
Published: Aug. 23, 2021, 5:39 p.m. – Updated: Aug. 24, 2021, 7:27 a.m.

Haley Richardson, RN, a 32-year old Labor and Delivery Nurse who worked at Ascension Sacred Heart Hospital in Pensacola, FL and lived in Theodore, AL in Mobile County, died of COVID-19 on August 20, 2021. She was NOT vaccinated. The baby within her – whom she had named Ryleigh Beth – had died 2 days before she did.

Her widower, Jordan Richardson, will be taking care of Katie, their 3-year old daughter whom she orphaned. She was pregnant with the couple’s second child, which died in utero 2 days before she did.

Haley and Jordan Richardson with daughter Katie.

Jason Whatley, a family friend whose wife was maid of honor at Haley’s wedding, reported that Haley contracted COVID-19 in late July or early August, about three weeks before she died, and said that, “She was home sick for about a week and then her heart rate went up.”

Haley was initially admitted to the University of South Alabama Health system’s Children’s and Women’s Hospital in Mobile, then after a few days, was transported to the ICU at USA Health’s main hospital campus also in Mobile.

Haley’s mother, Julie Mulkey said, “After about three or four days in the hospital, the OB told her that she was going to lose the baby. And she continued to get worse and worse. At some point, they basically told her that we’ve got to start treating you as if you didn’t have a child. We’ve got to do what we can for you because the baby is going to pass anyway.”

Mr. Whatley said physicians treating Haley had earlier placed her on a transfer waiting list to the University of Alabama at Birmingham hospital to be connected to a ECMO (Extra-Corporeal Membrane Oxygenation) machine, sometimes also called a “heart/lung machine,” which

Another Moron Has Died

Guess who’s saying “Death to Republicans!“?

The coronavirus.

Morons.

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The leader of an anti-mask movement in Texas has died from COVID-19.

Caleb Wallace, 30, who created a group called the San Angelo Freedom Defenders that conducted a rally to combat what he called “COVID-19 tyranny,” has died after spending over a month in the hospital, according to a message posted by his wife, Jessica Wallace, on a GoFundMe page to raise money to cover his hospital bills.

“Caleb has peacefully passed on. He will forever live in our hearts and minds,” Jessica Wallace wrote in a post on Saturday.

Caleb Wallace checked into the Shannon Medical Center on July 30 after contracting COVID-19, according to The New York Times.

Earlier that month, he organized a rally for people who were frustrated with the COVID-19 mitigation measures that had been put in place to contain the current surge in infections.

Caleb Wallace reportedly started feeling symptoms associated with COVID-19 — shortness of breath, high fever and a dry cough — on July 26, and they worsened the next day, according to the San Angelo Standard-Times.

He initially refused to go to the hospital and get tested for the virus, instead opting to take ivermectin — an anti-parasite medication used mostly in livestock that the Food and Drug Administration recently urged people not to take to treat COVID-19 — along with high doses of Vitamin C, zinc, aspirin, and an inhaler.

“Every time he would start to cough, it would turn into a coughing attack, and then that would cause him to completely go out of breath,” his wife Jessica said. “He was so hard-headed. He didn’t want to see a doctor, because he didn’t want to be part of the statistics with COVID tests.”

On July 30, however, a relative took him to the hospital, where he remained until his death.

Within days after his hospital admission, he was placed on a ventilator – a “breathing machine” that mechanically inflates the lungs with oxygenated air through a tube stuck down the throat.

“He couldn’t breathe on his own,” Jessica said. “The first week

Recipe: Simple Mexican-themed Meal

A simple dish like pinto beans can quickly and easily become a hearty, tasty, complex-flavored dish with the addition of a few ingredients. Seen here, are the beans with all extra ingredients added, just before cooking in the pressure cooker. When pressure cooking beans, it’s NOT necessary to soak them. Simply rinse them off, throw ’em in the pot, fasten the lid, and cook away! They’re ready in a jiffy! How long’s a “jiffy”? About 15-20 minutes +/- depending upon how well you like ’em cooked. No more soaking overnight baloney!

Beans and cornbread.

There you have it!

How much more simple could it be, eh?

And honestly, that’s a meal unto itself.

If you wanted, you could add some rice to it, either separately, or mixed in.

But, we’ll just concentrate on the two, for now.

So… here’s what you’ll need for the beans & cornbread.

Are you ready!?!

• Pinto beans
• Cornmeal
• eggs
• buttermilk and/or soured milk
• canned corn
• ground beef
• oil/lard
• LARGE can crushed/diced tomatoes
• salt
• black pepper
• Badia brand “Complete” seasoning
• bacon
• baking powder
• oregano
• paprika
• cumin
• garlic – fresh, or powder
• onion (player’s choice – red, white, yellow, sweet)
• red pepper flakes and/or cayenne
• cheese – mozzarella, cheddar, Colby, or PepperJack
• 10-inch iron skillet
• coffee
• cinnamon
• coriander
• smoke flavoring/seasoning (Colgin brand ONLY)
• Worcestershire sauce (Lea & Perrins ONLY)
• Pressure cooker

NOTE: Milk can be clabbered/curdled using a small amount of vinegar or lemon juice (both are acid). Soured milk should not be discarded, and can be used in cooking, in lieu of buttermilk or milk, and can be added to buttermilk.

If it seems like a lot of ingredients… IT IS!
And, it’s WELL WORTH IT!
Besides… any cook worth their salt will use numerous spices, herbs, and seasonings… because NOBODY BUT NOBODY enjoys bland food.

Research: Moderna’s mRNA COVID-19 Vaccine MORE EFFECTIVE Than Estimated

Scientists and researchers have released their findings of the effectiveness of Modern’s mRNA COVID-19 vaccine. Initial scientific estimates were that the vaccine would have an effectiveness of 68.5%. But after the lengthy process of laboratory analysis of large groups of participants, scientists found that the vaccine is 96.1% effective after both doses have been given. And, only about one-half of one percent of the recipients had any serious side effects – a phenomenally low rate.

The long-awaited results of an immunity effectiveness study of Moderna’s mRNA COVID-19 vaccine have been released.

And, there’s GREAT NEWS!

In part, laboratory test findings of  30,415 individuals who participated in the study from July 27, 2020 to October 23, 2020, have shown that the Vaccine is

MUCH MORE EFFECTIVE THAN PREVIOUSLY ESTIMATED!

Sneak Preview

The paper entitled “Immune Correlates Analysis of the mRNA-1273 COVID-19 Vaccine Efficacy Trial” – on the preprint server (a “sneak preview” before being officially published in a scientific journal) – may be found here: https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.08.09.21261290v1

Pertinent excerpts in red from the paper follow. 

Effectiveness First Estimated At 94%

Background — In the Coronavirus Efficacy (COVE) trial, estimated mRNA-1273 vaccine efficacy against coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19) was 94%. SARS-CoV-2 antibody measurements were assessed as correlates of COVID-19 risk and as correlates of protection.

How do we identify correlates of protection?

• “Correlates of protection are generally identified by comparing the immune response of those protected by the vaccine and so called ‘breakthrough cases’, where clinical disease manifests despite prior vaccination. In the case of the COVID-19 pandemic, the numerous vaccines developed have proven very effective with low incidences of breakthrough cases making the identification of potential correlates of protection a slow process. As a result, comparisons with previously published data relating to both natural infection and vaccine studies have been drawn.”

Blood Levels Checked 3 Times

Methods — Through case-cohort sampling, participants were selected for measurement of four serum antibody markers at Day 1 (first dose), Day 29 (second dose), and Day 57: IgG binding antibodies (bAbs) to Spike, bAbs to Spike receptor-binding domain (RBD), and 50% and 80% inhibitory dilution pseudovirus neutralizing antibody titers calibrated to the WHO International Standard (cID50 and cID80). Participants with no evidence of previous SARS-CoV-2 infection were included. Cox regression assessed in vaccine recipients the association of each Day 29 or 57 serologic marker with COVID-19 through 126 or 100 days of follow-up, respectively, adjusting for risk factors.

Neutralizing Antibody Levels Highly Predictive Of Immune Protection

• Vaccine 96.1% Effective
• Vaccine EXTREMELY Safe — under ½ of 1% had serious side effects

Results — Day 57 Spike IgG, RBD IgG, cID50, and cID80 neutralization levels were each inversely correlated with risk of COVID-19: hazard ratios 0.66 (95% CI 0.50, 0.88; p=0.005); 0.57 (0.40, 0.82; p=0.002); 0.41 (0.26, 0.65; p<0.001); 0.35 (0.20, 0.60; p<0.001) per 10-fold increase in marker level, respectively, multiplicity adjusted P-values 0.003-0.010. Results were similar for Day 29 markers (multiplicity adjusted P-values <0.001-0.003). For vaccine recipients with Day 57 reciprocal cID50 neutralization titers that were undetectable (<2.42), 100, or 1000, respectively, cumulative incidence of COVID-19 through 100 days post Day 57 was 0.030 (0.010, 0.093), 0.0056 (0.0039, 0.0080), and 0.0023 (0.0013, 0.0036). For vaccine recipients at these titer levels, respectively, vaccine efficacy was 50.8% (−51.2, 83.0%), 90.7% (86.7, 93.6%), and 96.1% (94.0, 97.8%). Causal mediation analysis estimated that the proportion of vaccine efficacy mediated through Day 29 cID50 titer was 68.5% (58.5, 78.4%).

 

See also:

Antibody Levels Help Predict Immunity After A COVID Shot 

: Shots – Health News 

https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2021/08/23/1029827996/new-evidence-points-to-antibodies-as-a-reliable-indicator-of-vaccine-protection

 

Terms to help understanding:

• cID – Culture Infective Dose, the amount of an infective agent which will produce infection in 50% of the cultures

• CI – Confidence Interval, statistical term indicating a range of values, and the probability at which a certain value will be found in that range

• IgG – Immunoglobulin G, also known as antibodies, a protein component of blood & body fluids, produced by immune response cells called plasma cells, is a defensive response to bacteria, viruses and exposure to other harmful antigens to prevent infection; is the most common type of antibody; IgA (15%), IgD, IgE, IgG (70-80%), and IgM are the types; each one has a different role; IgM responds first, increases, then gives way to IgG; IgA is found in tears, saliva, gastric secretions, breast milk, protects mucosal areas, including sinuses & lungs; IgD role not completely understood, not typically measured; IgE associated w allergies, allergic diseases, parasitic infections. The body has a “catalog” of IgG antibodies that can be rapidly reproduced whenever it’s exposed to the same antigen.

• mRNA-1273 – scientific “shorthand” for Moderna’s mRNA COVID-19 vaccine

• titer – a lab test measuring the concentration of any particular substance, such as antibodies, in a given volume of fluid (blood); used to determine immunity

• inverse correlation – a mathematical relationship between two things, in which when one is high, the other is low, and vice versa

• efficacy – the ability to produce desired results, as “effectiveness,” i.e., does it work?

• hazard ratio – the chance of an event occurring in the treatment, or control, group of a study

• immune correlates – a shortened form of “immune correlates of protection,” refers to immunity, asks the question “has immunity been obtained?” and is determined by a measurable immune response to a vaccine, statistically proven to protect against a particular disease

• serologic marker – refers to serum, the non-cellular component of blood, which includes antigens, antibodies, etc.; a measurement of findings associated with disease, or treatment

• SARS-CoV-2 – Sudden Acute Respiratory Syndrome COronaVirus 2, the scientific name of the pathogenic (disease causing) virus that causes COVID-19

• Cox regression – statistical term named for prominent British statistician Sir David Cox (b.1924), for a predictive model which determines the time is takes for a specific event to happen

• causal mediation analysis – mathematical test determining: 1.) Total effect of X on Y; 2.) Relationship between X and M; 3.) Relationship between M and Y, controlling for X, and; 4.) Determining if M is a full, or partial mediator. Mediation is the process through which an exposure causes disease.

Phil Valentine Has Died

“Yes, the rumors are true. I have COVID. Unfortunately for the haters out there, it looks like I’m going to make it. Interesting experience. I’ll have to fill you in when I come back on the air. I’m hoping that will be tomorrow, but I may take a day off just as a precaution. It’ll be a game time decision.”
– Phil Valentine’s July 11, 2021 message on Facebook shortly after his positive diagosis with COVID-19

Phil Valentine is dead.

Nashville-based talk radio show host Phil Valentine has died of COVID-19.

https://www.wkrn.com/news/conservative-talk-show-host-phil-valentine-dies-after-covid-19-battle/

During a live broadcast today (Saturday, 21 August 2021) at 4:15PM on SuperTalk 99.7 WTN, several of Phil Valentine’s coworkers & close friends announced they had spoken with his brother Mark, who confirmed the 61-year-old had died earlier in the afternoon.

Following his infection with COVID-19, Mr. Valentine had been hospitalized at Williamson County Medical Center, in nearby Franklin, TN, a tony suburb south and sightly west of Nashville, since July.

On July 11th, mere days after his positive diagnosis, he

Cancer-Causing Sunscreen Sold In America

Summer just doesn’t get any better, does it?

First, the COVID-19, and then, just when you think it’s safe to go in the water… delta variant emerges.

Back to square one.

And now, as if sunburn wasn’t enough, there’s cancer-causing sunscreen.

It’s almost like the bizarre reducēs in the 1993 Bill Murray movie “Groundhog Day.” By the way, the word “reducēs” (pronounced ree – doo – sees), is the nominative, accusative, and vocative masculine and feminine plural cases of “redux.” So now, you know.

Surely, by now, you’ve heard, or read, the news:

Carcinogenic substances, including benzene – a highly flammable industrial chemical – have been found in independent laboratory analyses performed upon 294 unique batches of sun care products from 69 different companies by Valisure a privately held New Haven, CT-based pharmaceutical analytical services company.

On May 25, 2021, Valisure published the laboratory findings that 78 sun screen and after-sun skin care products in which they found benzene, and in part, wrote that,

“Valisure LLC has tested and detected high levels of benzene, a known human carcinogen, in several brands and batches of sunscreen, which are

“Kill All The Republicans.”

If coronavirus disease could talk, that’s what it would say.

Because right now, those whom have resisted getting vaccinated are largely conservative White Republican men.

A recent poll conducted by Monmouth University’s Polling Insitute found that 73% of self-identified Republicans oppose face mask and social distancing guidelines in their state, while 16% of those who remain vehemently opposed to getting the vaccine “believe Covid is a hoax or they are unlikely to get infected. Which means there may be very little that can be done at this point to change their minds,” said Patrick D. Murray, Founding Director of Monmouth University’s independent Polling Institute. Among those who admit they will not get the vaccine if they can avoid it, 70% either identify with or lean toward the Republican Party, and only 29% of Republicans blame vaccine opposition for most of the recent rise in COVID-19 infection cases.

Ron DeSantis (b.1978), Republican Governor of Florida since January 8, 2019, barely defeated Andrew Gillum, the Democratic Mayor of Tallahassee by a margin of 0.4%. At age 42, he is the nation’s youngest governor.

And they’re dying like flies in places like Florida, where Republican Governor Ron DeSantis — who himself is vaccinated with the Johnson & Johnson/Janssen single-dose viral vector-type vaccine — has steadfastly refused to do anything to protect his state’s citizens from the ravages of coronavirus disease infection, and has staunchly refused mandating face/nose covering use in public spaces, and even recently signed an executive order PROHIBITING school districts from requiring staff and students to wear protective masks.

That, as news of findings published by the CDC of an outbreak in Provincetown, Barnstable County, Massachusetts – a resort town and summertime getaway location on the tip of Cape Cod – occurring among fully-inoculated individuals after participating in summer events and large public gatherings between July 3 and July 17, in which 469 cases of COVID-19 infection were identified among Massachusetts residents who had traveled there, of which 346 (74%) occurred in fully vaccinated persons. Testing identified the Delta variant in 90% of specimens from 133 patients.

The “great unknown” — even among researchers — throughout development, testing, and emergency approval of the Moderna and Pfizer/BioNtech mRNA type vaccines, and the Johnson & Johnson/Janssen viral vector type vaccine has been:

Nashville, TN Conservative Talk Radio Host Phil Valentine Hospitalized With COVID-19

Earlier, a friend had notified me that Phil Valentine, a Nashville, TN-based WASP Republican talk radio show host, affectionately known as “Uncle Phil” by listeners, is hospitalized with an infection of COVID-19.

Oh!

The irony!

He certainly fits the typical anti-COVID-19 vaxxer profile:
• Southern
• White
• Republican
• Conservative
• Male

The last FaceBook update from him was February 5, 2020, which consisted of a link to a podcast entitled “I’m Calling Bovine Scatology,” which is a “polite” way of saying “bullshit,” and the episode posted was entitled “They Closed Down the Economy for the Spanish Flu?”

• Business Insider picked up the story and wrote in part that, “A conservative radio talk-show host who had told followers that they were “probably safer not getting” the COVID-19 vaccine if they weren’t at high risk is now hospitalized in serious condition with the coronavirus, his family said.

“Phil Valentine, who hosts “The Phil Valentine Show” on WWTN-FM in Nashville, Tennessee, contracted COVID-19 more than a week ago and “has since been hospitalized & is in very serious condition,” his family said in a statement on Thursday.”

• All Access Music Group of Malibu, California wrote on their website that, “Posts by his family on social media confirm that CUMULUS News-Talk WWTN (SUPER TALK 99.7 WTN)/NASHVILLE afternoon host PHIL VALENTINE is in the hospital “fighting for his life” after contracting COVID-19.

“VALENTINE had voiced skepticism about the COVID-19 vaccine on the air and opposed government efforts urging the public to get vaccinated, touting

COVID-19 Vaccination Resistance: Let Them Die — So Close Yet So Far Away

Let them die.

I’m sick and goddamn tired of their INSANE conspiratorial bullshit.

LET THEM DIE.

“Actions have consequences,” they’re frequently fond of saying, and then perversely take some sense of pride in portraying themselves as “victim” — a role which they have gleefully derided and mocked over the years as they attempt to justify their various perverse positions.

Now, they want to assume that very role.

LET THEM DIE.

They mistakenly think that they’ll be some kind of pretend political “hero” for their imaginary “lost cause.” Heroes almost always end up dead.

LET THEM DIE.

Everyone has a proverbial and practical expiration date, and just like milk and other dairy products, which can be soured relatively quickly or ruined prematurely if not properly cared for by refrigeration, so can the human body be ruined if improperly cared for by smoking, excessive consumption of food and/or beverage alcohol intake, sedentary lifestyle, lopsided dietary intake, regular consumption of nutritionally deficient foods, and other forms of improper and inadequate care, including deliberate neglect, and wanton failure to prevent malfunction and disease.

LET THEM DIE.

Physicians cannot, and will not, treat patients who refuse to cooperate with the course of treatment.

LET THEM DIE.

Engrave upon their headstones “s/he wanted, and chose to die from a preventable disease.”

LET THEM DIE.

LET THEM DIE.

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In The Last Mile Of Our Battle Against COVID, The Enemy Is Us

Time may have come for more aggressive tactics on vaccinations.

In a scene from the movie “The Matrix,” revered by conspiracy theorists, the hero is offered a choice between the blue pill of comforting illusions and the red pill that offers nothing more than the truth.

The correct answer, of course, is the red pill that reveals the hidden forces that control the world.

These days, Americans are being offered an even more fateful binary choice.

Do you maintain the comforting illusion that

Lower Your Blood Pressure Without Medicine Or Exercise

Take a deep breath — this one is gonna’ knock your socks off, because…

“Not only is it more time-efficient than traditional exercise programs, the benefits may be longer lasting.”

— Dr. Daniel H. Craighead, PhD, Post-Doctoral Fellow, Assistant Research Professor, Integrative Physiology of Aging Lab, Department of Integrative Physiology, University of Colorado Boulder, referring to research findings of a 5-minute breathing exercise upon lowering blood pressure

And, it’s easy!

How easy is “easy”?

Dr. Craighead said the exercise called “IMST can be done in five minutes in your own home while you watch TV.”

These findings are significant, because 65% of adults over age 50 have above-normal blood pressure, which puts them at greater risk of heart attack or stroke, and less than 40% meet guidelines for recommended levels of aerobic exercise.

“It’s basically strength-training for the muscles you breathe in with,” said Dr. Craighead, who added that,“it’s something you can do quickly in your home or office, without having to change your clothes, and so far

Research: Psilocybin Improves Depression

Better living through chemistry.

Because corrupt Republican President Richard Nixon’s 50-year lost cause, failed social experiment of the “War on Drugs” and Nancy Reagan’s “just say no” have never, and will never, work, nor ever benefited anyone who needed help — only those who perpetuated the war.

And, because no one — NO ONE — has ever said “when I grow up, I want to become an addict,” nor waked up one day and said, “gee… I think I want to become an addict.”

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In September 2018, Johns Hopkins researchers suggested that psilocybin should be re-categorized from a schedule I drug — one with no known medical potential — to a schedule IV drug (the lowest classification) such as with prescription sleep aids, but with somewhat tighter control, and summarized their analysis in the October print issue of Neuropharmacology, a peer-review professional journal.

Dr. Matthew W. Johnson, Ph.D., Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Johns Hopkins is one of the world’s leading researchers, and most published scientists on the effects of psychedelics on humans, and has conducted original and innovative research in the behavioral economics of drug use, addiction, and risk behavior. Dr. Johnson earned his Ph.D. in experimental psychology at the University of Vermont in 2004.

Dr. Johson spoke with JHU reporters about the research, and said, “We want to initiate the conversation now as to how to classify psilocybin to facilitate its path to the clinic and minimize logistical hurdles in the future. We expect these final clearance trials to take place in the next five years or so. We should be clear that psilocybin is not without risks of harm, which are greater in recreational than medical settings, but relatively speaking, looking at other drugs both legal and illegal, it comes off as being the least harmful in different surveys and across different countries. We believe that the conditions should be tightly controlled and that when taken for a clinical reason, it should be administered in a health care setting, monitored by a person trained for that situation.”

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One Dose Of Psilocybin Improved Neural Connections Lost In Depression, Study Says

By Joseph Guzman, July 6, 2021

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The psychedelic psilocybin mushroom has shown promise in treating depression, and a number of clinical trials into the fungus’s therapeutic effects have been conducted in recent years.

But now, a Yale University study published in the peer reviewed professional journal Neuron July 5, 2021, has shed light on how the compound psilocybin —the active ingredient found in so-called “magic mushrooms” — may produce antidepressant effects.

Researchers administered a single dose of psilocybin to mice and used a laser-scanning microscope to visualize dendritic spines in the rodents’ brains in high resolution. Dendritic spines are small protrusions found on nerve cells that play a key role in transmitting information between neurons. Previous laboratory experiments demonstrated promise that psilocybin, and the anesthetic ketamine, could decrease depression.

Stress and depression degrade and reduce the number of neuronal connections.

Within 24 hours of the single psychedelic dose, researchers observed an immediate and lasting increase in

Open Letter To White Republican Men

There is hope only for the living. As they say, “It’s better to be a live dog than a dead lion!”
— Ecclesiastes 9:4 (NLT)

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Dear White Republican men,

 

Whatever you do, DO NOT EVER — as in NEVER, EVER — GET VACCINATED AGAINST COVID-19.

And for goodness sake, REFUSE to wear a mask EVERYWHERE you go.

Your resulting infection with, and death from, COVID-19’s delta variant will leave society better off — MUCH, MUCH BETTER.

We don’t

Bacon Dangerous? More Than You Probably Wanted To Know.

NOTE TO THE READER: It’s almost impossible to discuss food and its preparation these days without getting into history, and business ethics practices. But before you go off half-cocked, know for a certainty that in NO WAY am I opposed to the consumption of pork, nor of bacon, neither of the flesh of any animal. Presumably, because you’re now more curious, you must read further to more precisely determine what is meant by the headline — especially, and particularly if you enjoy bacon.

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Earlier, I had replied to a friend who complained about having eaten “a cheeseburger for lunch and was tired and sleepy for most of the afternoon.”

My initial thought and response was “carbohydrate-induced somnolence,” and I wrote that “the meat patty was the only source of protein in the meal – if all you had was a cheeseburger. If you had fries with them, [that was] more simple carbs.”

Giving a rather simple analogous explanation, I stated that, “the (most likely highly-processed white) bread: Simple carbs – they burn quickly – like a bottle rocket. Up quick, burns out just as quickly.”

And from there, I wrote further about the addition of cheese on the burger, by writing “Cheese: Most likely “American” which is not genuinely cheese.”

From Cheese.com:
“American cheese is processed cheese made from a blend of milk, milk fats and solids, with other fats and whey protein concentrate. At first, it was made from a mixture of cheeses, more often than not Colby and Cheddar. Since blended cheeses are no longer used, it cannot be legally called “cheese” and has to be labelled as “processed cheese,” “cheese product,” etc. Sometimes, instead of the word cheese, it is called “American slices” or “American singles.” Under the U.S. Code of Federal Regulations, American cheese is a type of pasteurised processed cheese.”

From TasteOfHome.com:
“… it’s not actually cheese—at least, not legally. The FDA calls it “pasteurized processed American cheese product.” In order for a food product to be a true “cheese,” it has to be more than half cheese, which is technically pressed curds of milk. Each slice of American contains less than 51% curds, which means it doesn’t meet the FDA’s standard.”

And, here’s the Code of Federal Regulations on the matter:
Title 21, Volume 2 — 21CFR133.169 — Revised April 1, 2020.
PART 133 — CHEESES AND RELATED CHEESE PRODUCTS

Subpart B – Requirements for Specific Standardized Cheese and Related Products

Sec. 133.169 Pasteurized process cheese.

Food — it’s production, variety, growing, farming, harvesting, preparation, etc. — is an interest of mine, and like many others, I enjoy not only a good meal, but also have an interest in some understanding about the whys and wherefores of a particular dish’s origins — its history — which also give greater, and a more full understanding to us in numerous ways.

Nitrite-free, dry cured, air dried, pork bellies which will become bacon.
Image by The Elliott Homestead.

For example, the simple, almost ubiquitous dish of beans and rice is a fully complemented dish, meaning that it has a full and complete range of proteins. Beans, by themselves have very little protein, and are primarily carbohydrates, and the same holds true for rice – very little protein, and is primarily a carbohydrate. And the proteins that each separate food has – the rice and the beans – are not “complete” proteins, meaning that individually, they do not contain the 9 essential amino acids which are found in “complete” proteins, and which are necessary in order to build and repair protein tissues (muscles) in the body.

Without exception, ALL animal-based food — regardless of the origin/source — contain complete proteins, and that includes eggs, as well as muscle and organ tissue, though it does not include fat. Fat, however, is never found outside the presence of protein. Fats and proteins could be thought of as “kissing cousins,” because they’re ALWAYS found in combination with each other. They are NEVER apart. Where there’s fat, there’s protein. As an example, consider natural peanut butter — that is, peanut butter which only added ingredient is salt. Peanuts and salt SHOULD BE the ONLY ingredients in peanut butter, and technically, as well as legally, they are, but so many other products are mistakenly called “peanut butter” when they’re actually “peanut butter spread” or something else entirely different.

A simple, even cursory, examination of the labels of Jif®, Skippy®, Peter Pan®,  and other brands – including their websites – demonstrates that in the exceeding majority of cases, their most well-known, and most widely-sold products are NOT authentically genuine peanut butter. Each of those, and others’, products labels and websites state that their products are “peanut butter spreads,” rather than being “peanut butter.”

Peter Pan® brand is manufactured and distributed by Conagra Brands, while Jif® is owned by The J.M. Smucker Company, and Skippy® is owned by Hormel Foods, LLC.

The previous citations were necessary in order to understand what follows, to demonstrate that just because people call a thing by some name, the name by which they call it is not necessarily the proper term. A four-legged animal with hooves and horns could be a bull, a boar, a ram, or a buck, and are all males of the species of cattle, hogs, sheep, goats, and deer. But they’re not females.

And while we’re continuing on the topic of food…

I have come to loathe most commercially-available “bacon.”

Why?

Not only does it taste retched, but also because in the classic, traditional sense, it is NOT bacon.

Yes, it comes from a hog – and not always pork bellies – but the method in which it’s made (“processed,” would be a much more accurate term) bears little resemblance to traditional bacon. Modern “bacon” is flash-smoked, pressure-processed with nitrites, salt-cured, and hustled out the factory door just as quickly as possible in order to continue reaping corporate profits for their Wall$treet masters.

See: USDA Food Safety Inspection Service circular, “How is bacon made?” –and– “What are the methods of curing bacon?” –and– “What are nitrosamines and what cooking methods minimize their formation?” –and– “Can bacon be made without the use of nitrite?”:
https://www.fsis.usda.gov/food-safety/safe-food-handling-and-preparation/meat/bacon-and-food-safety

Traditional, original “Old Skool” bacon was/is often smoked in a smokehouse, which not only imparts unique flavor and aroma, but is an important part the preservative curing process – the main intent of which was/is to retard the spoiling process – or turned rancid, the term applied to fats and oils which have spoiled – “spoilage” being oxidation, including discouraging growth of

Smart Phones and Dumb People

Recently, I got to wondering about why some folks haven’t fully embraced the COVID-19 vaccines available in the United States. “Fully embraced” as in a significant majority of folks who have received it nationwide. That includes the naysayers, most folks in the South, certain Republicans, and some others… including — believe it, or else — some healthcare professionals. Anti-vaxxers are excluded, of course, because they’re against every vaccine. Idiots.

Would that there were one for stupidity. It should be mandatory at birth, and for everyone. Maybe if it were called a “smart pill,” that’d help. We have “smart phones,” and plenty of dumb people. It just isn’t right.

But I digress.

Some folks have said that they don’t “trust” the vaccines, for one reason, or another. So far, no one’s been abducted by aliens after receiving a COVID-19 vaccine, and that I’m aware, no one’s hair has tried to call Bill Gates after they received a COVID-19 vaccine. But Congress and the Department of Defense have released videos of what we once called “UFOs” – Unidentified Flying Objects. Now they’re called UAPs — Unidentified Aerial Phenomena. But I still like UFO. Still, no one knows what they are. Hence, the name. And quite fortunately, there’ve been no reports of folks growing tails and swinging from trees afterward, either. But doubtless, some have eaten bananas. Point for lower primates: 15 – love.

So we’ve moved from the known (stupid folks who don’t get vaccinated), to the unknown (mysterious video imagery of UFOs making some very impressive maneuvers).

But what is it that we don’t know? And how do we know what we know? As the late Donald Rumsfeld, then Secretary of Defense once said

Transsexuals In Iran Have Governmentally-Subsidized Transition Surgery

And in America, some Banana Republican-misled states’ officials want to deny are denying transsexual people basic human rights… even denying them fundamental equal rights – American Civil Rights – guaranteed to everyone (but denied to them) by the U.S. Constitution.

Go figure.

Again, in Iran – a far right-wing religiously-run conservative state government – transsexuals have sexual reassignment surgery at government expense. And, it’s A-OK with their nation’s imams (powerful religious leaders).

But in America, Banana Republicans (Banana Republics need Banana Republicans, rights?) are the embodiment of “Just say ‘NO!'” to everything – civil rights, voting rights, equality under law, etc.

They are literally “Governmental Deconstructionists” hell-bent upon destroying government, rather than strengthening it, and by extension, as part and parcel of that grand objective, are de-funding it through various and sundry tax cuts for the wealthy.

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Iran: How Transgender People Survive Ultraconservative Rule

– Deutsche Welle, DW – 16.05.2021
by Monir Ghaedi 

Iran’s state subsidizes gender reassignment surgery while prohibiting homosexuality. A long and continuing history of activism has helped transgender people bolster their community despite the discrimination they face.

Before getting gender-confirmation surgery, Saman Arastoo had pondered all of the consequences. At the age of 40, he had built an acting career in Iranian cinema and theater as a woman. He knew that his decision would hurt his career, but he had plans to replace it. Now he spends most of his time making sure that trans boys and girls do not rush into sex-change surgery — a rather easy option in Iran.

Saman Arastoo has achieved a certain measure of success as a theater director in Iran

Despite Iran’s rigid attitudes toward sexuality, its capital, Tehran, has been dubbed one of the world’s hubs for sex-reassignment surgery. Transgender individuals live and work with no legal barriers in the country. The government even helps with the costs of hormone medicine and gender reassignment surgery for those who want it.

The procedure became legal following a transgender woman’s campaign in the mid-1980s. Maryam Khatoon Molkara met Ruhollah Khomeini, then Iran’s religious and political leader, and told him how she had been put into a psychiatric institution and forcibly injected with male hormones. Moved by her story, Khomeini issued a decree, allowing the operation and endorsing civil rights for transgender people.

When it comes to other forms of non-heterosexual identity,

Research: 550,000+ Firearm-Related Hospitalizations 2000-2016

States in the Deep South lead the nation in average per capita firearm-related hospitalizations.

Average Firearm Injury Hospitalization Rate per 100,000, 2000–2016

1.) Louisiana – 24
2.) Tennessee – 18
3.) Alabama – 16
4.) Missouri – 16
5.) Maryland – 16
6.) Michigan – 14
7.) Illinois – 13
8.) North Carolina – 13
9.) South Carolina – 13
10.) Mississippi – 13
11.) Arizona – 13
12.) Arkansas – 12
13.) Delaware – 12
14.) Pennsylvania – 12
15.) Nevada – 12
16.) California – 12
17.) Oklahoma – 11
18.) Texas – 10
19.) Kansas – 10
20.) Indiana – 10
21.) Ohio – 10
22.) Kentucky – 9
23.) Virginia – 8

The national average is 10.

Ongoing and recently updated research by the RAND Corporation – a nonprofit, nonpartisan, research organization working in the public interest to develop solutions to public policy challenges to improve communities nationally, and worldwide by making them healthier, and more prosperous, safer, and more secure – showed that nationally:

“In 2018, 39,740 individuals in the United States were killed by firearms, making firearm violence the second leading cause of injury death in the United States (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], undated).

“As part of the Gun Policy in America initiative, RAND researchers developed a longitudinal database of state-level estimates of inpatient hospitalizations for firearm injury between 2000 and 2016. This database was first released in 2021 and is free to the public.

RAND researcher Dr. Andrew Morral, PhD who is the Senior Behavioral Scientist, and Director of the National Collaborative on Gun Violence Research there, tweeted recently (April 28) that:

“Why are firearm hospitalizations not correlated with gun ownership in observed state hospitalization data or our estimates? Because they chiefly result from criminal assaults (vs. suicides) and these are not correlated with household gun ownership.”

Why are firearm hospitalizations not correlated with gun ownership in observed state hospitalization data or our estimates? Because they chiefly result from criminal assaults (vs suicides) and these are not correlated with household gun ownership https://t.co/pqVOh9t4bT

— Andrew Morral (@AndrewMorral) April 29, 2021

This type of research is a phenomenally difficult proposition, and highly complicated undertaking, and the entirety of the paper is spent detailing and explaining their methodology, and sources, because not every state provides information to, or participates in HCUP, the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project.

As well, data had to be compared and cross-referenced with other similarly related databases, such as the FBI’s annual UCR – Uniform Crime Report.

And then, they get into the math – the statistical analysis – and explain the formulae used, which then has to be checked with other external mathematical models to determine, and ensure a high level of accuracy. In short, this is not “relaxing reading” by any stretch of the imagination – it is highly technical explanations of phenomenally difficult work, which only indirectly points to the significance of their findings.

HCUP is the Nation’s most comprehensive source of hospital care data, including information on in-patient stays, ambulatory surgery and services visits, and emergency department encounters. HCUP enables

Gun Ownership + Carrying + Impulsivity = Increased Firearm Violence Victimization & Death Risk

Think you need a gun “for protection”?

Think again.

The glibly superficial “good guy with a gun” notion is but a trite and specious fallacy.

Research has shown that “that individuals in possession of a gun are over four times more likely to be shot in an assault than those not in possession.”¹

Thus, while gun carrying itself is not a violent behavior, “it potentially marks heightened risk among gun carriers.”

And indeed, “research has demonstrated a strong link between (gun carrying) and gun violence victimization.”¹

“The finding has important implications for states and campuses considering open carry laws α while these policies may be intended to increase safety, they may have the unintended result of increasing gun violence victimization.”²

“On average, guns did not protect those who possessed them from being shot in an assault.³ Although successful defensive gun uses occur each year, the probability of success may be low for civilian gun users in urban areas. Such users should reconsider their possession of guns or, at least, understand that regular possession necessitates careful safety countermeasures.”

“Impulsivity was identified as

Houston, TX Hospital System To Fire Employees Who Refuse COVID-19 Vaccination

Houston Methodist Hospital, a not-for-profit 8-hospital system – 4 of which are ANCC Nursing Magnet status accredited – and academic medical center, with over 2502 beds in the Houston, Texas metro area, has publicly announced that they will fire any employee who refuses to get a COVID-19 vaccination.

The Houston Press and Houston Chronicle reported today, Thursday, 22 April 2021, that Bob Nevens, the hospital chain’s Director of Corporate Risk and Insurance, and Jennifer Bridges, a Houston Methodist Registered Nurse at the system’s Baytown facility, are on schedule to be fired soon if they don’t comply by obtaining a COVID-19 vaccine within the hospital system’s deadline of June 7, 2021.

Dr. Marc L. Boom, MD, the hospital system’s CEO, had the idea to require all employees to get vaccinated against COVID-19 in order to keep their jobs, and offered $500 incentive bonuses to any employee who demonstrated proof of vaccination. Houston Methodist was the first hospital system nationally to make COVID-19 vaccination mandatory for employees.

Houston Methodist Hospital

And to this point, a clear majority – 84% – of the hospital system’s 26,000 employees have received at least 1 COVID-19 vaccine dose as of Tuesday this week, according to Houston Methodist’s Director of Public Relations Stefanie Asin.

Houston Methodist’s Human Resources Department has stated that the hospital system will consider requests from employees who don’t want to be vaccinated for medical or for religious reasons.

However, neither Mr. Nevens nor Nurse Bridges are refusing COVID vaccination on those grounds. And neither Mr. Nevens, who is a 10-year hospital system employee, nor Nurse Bridges, who is a 7-year employee, consider themselves “anti-vaxxers,” and both have for many years received the annual influenza vaccine.

Mr. Nevens and Nurse Bridges have both said that their reluctance to receive COVID-19 vaccinations arises fromtheir concerns with the vaccines’ emergency approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, rather than the more well-known and much lengthier standard, traditional, and much more well-known approval process.

Nurse Bridges said that as a Registered Nurse, “I’ve taken every vaccine you’re ever supposed to take. We just want more

The Alabama Attorney General’s Office Has IDIOTS Working There

This matter was just brought to my attention.

The figure 0.3% is 3/10ths of 1% (three tenths of one percent) – NOT “three one-thousandths” as they incorrectly wrote.

Any grade school child should be able to tell the difference.

Note the emboldened text highlighted in purple on the lower portion of the page.

And examine the dates…

NO ONE has caught that gross error since the time it was written – 2 years 4 months 20 days
or 28 months 20 days
or 124 weeks 3 days
or 871 calendar days

and updated –
1 year 7 months 26 days
or 19 months 26 days
or 86 weeks 2 days
or 604 calendar days.

If the folks working in that office are that dimwitted, or lazy – take your pick – what does that say about the rest of the state government?

Remember: Steve Marshall’s incompetency is precisely why former Governor Bentley wanted him in that office, in order to avoid prosecution.

The history of it all is utterly Machiavelian – Steve Marshall fired Matt Hart, a former Federal Prosecutor who was a tenaciously aggressive and fearsome Special Prosecutor for the State, who

Research Study Finds COVID-19 Numbers Vastly Underestimated

This is some of the first proven and confirmed evidence that what we have been told by the experts is 100% accurate and true.

“Typhoid Mary” Mallon (1869-1938), was an impoverished, illiterate Irish emigrant to the United States who worked primarily as a cook, and who became infamous for spreading typhoid fever, which at the time was an incurable, easily-spread, often deadly disease, for which no vaccination existed.

People who DO NOT KNOW THEY ARE INFECTED ARE SPREADING THE DISEASE BECAUSE THEY DO NOT HAVE SYMPTOMS.

It is a REPEAT of the classic example first shown by “Typhoid Mary” Mallon (1869-1938), an Irish emigrant to the United States who worked as a cook (one of the highest paying jobs at the time), and was actively infected with typhoid fever, yet NEVER – NOT EVEN ONCE – showed any signs of infection.

Tragically, however, as was common in the era in which she lived, she had low education and was practically illiterate, and her refusal to heed the advice of experts, and her insistence upon working in kitchens, resulted in the deaths of many people whom she thereby infected with typhoid fever because of her deliberately wanton disregard of advice, and disobedience to the order of law. She, however, claimed that she was being persecuted for being Irish and poor.

Her case was the first, and a prime example of the dangers of ignoring sound expert medical and scientific advice. As well, her case demonstrated the differences in attitudes toward public health between now, and then, because she filed lawsuits against the governmental authorities that detained her, and forbade her from either working, or being in public, and quarantined her. At the time, there was no vaccine against typhoid.

And throughout the remainder of her life, and up to the time she died, she never – not even once – ever showed signs of typhoid fever infection. And she did not die of typhoid fever. She died of

Death and Dying: By the Numbers In America

QUESTION: How many people in the U.S. die each day from overdoses involving PRESCRIPTION opioids?

ANSWER: According to recent data published by the Center for Disease Control (CDC), approximately 41 people/day (14,965) are dying from an overdose involving prescription opioids. This CDC website – https://www.cdc.gov/rxawareness/index.html – provides resources for individuals struggling with opioid drug abuse.

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330,147,087

That’s the estimated population in the United States as of this writing, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s Population Clock.

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.

539,320

CORONAVIRUS may NEVER “Go Away”

Welcome to the “new” reality.

But, just for a moment, let’s play “What if?”

What if the United States’ failed response (because of the inactions and deliberate failures of the previous administration) was the primary cause of the mutated, more virulent variants?

It’s entirely plausible.

Otherwise, how to explain that the United States, with the world’s 3rd most populous nation – China and India each have WELL OVER 1 BILLION MORE – has ABSOLUTELY THE WORLD’S WORST COVID-19 INFECTION RATE?

Other nations, most notably New Zealand, have had phenomenal success in keeping the disease at bay, relatively speaking, as have a few other nations, including China, India, Greenland, Australia, other Scandinavian nations, and… well, you get the picture.

Perhaps there should’ve been a sign:

Choose One: Your Life, or Your Freedom.

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“When Will It End?” : How A Changing Virus Is Reshaping Scientists’ Views On COVID-19

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-variants-insight/when-will-it-end-how-a-changing-virus-is-reshaping-scientists-views-on-covid-19-idUSKBN2AV1T1

CHICAGO (Reuters) – Chris Murray, a University of Washington disease expert whose projections on COVID-19 infections and deaths are closely followed worldwide, is changing his assumptions about the course of the pandemic.

Murray had until recently been hopeful that

How To Quickly Vaccinate Everyone

This morning, bright and early around 0300 (that was the timestamp upon it, I was blissfully asleep then), I received an email from a friend and his better half whom are expats in Kitahiroshima on the island prefecture of Hokkaido, in northernmost Japan, near where her parents reside.

He wrote in part that “Vaccinations for coronavirus have started here but only for those with the highest priority (which makes sense).”

In that message, he also included a copy of an email communique from the United States Department of State which read in part, “The United States Government does not plan to provide COVID-19 vaccinations to private U.S. citizens overseas.”

In my reply, I wrote in part,

New International Guidelines For Cannabis In Treating Chronic Pain

New Guidelines Issued on Medical Cannabis for Chronic Pain

International task force shares recommendations for dosing, administering.

by Ryan Basen, Enterprise & Investigative Writer, MedPage
September 13, 2020

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Chronic pain patients can be treated with medical cannabis following one of three protocols based on patient characteristics, according to an international task force at the virtual PAINWeek meeting.

Note the words “NO OPIATES” PROMINENTLY displayed on the label.

Citing limited clinician knowledge about medical cannabis treatment and the opioid crisis, one task force member said the recommendations are timely.

“We as a task force believe it’s extremely important to bring [medical cannabis] to patients,” Alan Bell, MD, of the University of Toronto, told MedPage Today. “Our main focus was to provide directions to clinicians.”

Medical cannabis has been suggested to treat chronic pain, the task force noted, but too many providers still do not utilize it because there has not been accepted guidelines about dosing and administration. Others prescribe medical cannabis without knowing how patients can properly dose.

“There’s a huge knowledge gap and no way clinicians can fall back on a specified dosing regimen,” Bell said.

Led by Arun Bhaskar, MD, of Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust Pain Management Centre in London, the 20-clinician Global Task Force on Dosing and Administration of Medical Cannabis in Chronic Pain used a modified Delphi process. Among their recommendations:

• Treat the majority of patients along the “routine” scale. This means

Contradicting Tennessee Governor Bill Lee On Abortion

Bill Lee is the 50th Governor of the State of Tennessee, a Republican, and is serving his first term in office, having been elected in 2018.

Vice President Kamala Harris two days ago Tweeted:
“On the 48th Anniversary of Roe v. Wade, we recommit ourselves to ensuring that everyone has access to care—including reproductive health care—no matter their income, race, zip code, health insurance status, or immigration status.”

On the 48th Anniversary of Roe v. Wade, we recommit ourselves to ensuring that everyone has access to care—including reproductive health care—no matter their income, race, zip code, health insurance status, or immigration status. https://t.co/2CMdjihsXV

— Vice President Kamala Harris (@VP) January 22, 2021

Tennessee Governor Bill Lee included the Vice President’s Tweet with a response of his own:
“Abortion isn’t healthcare.”

Abortion isn’t healthcare. https://t.co/hpHnvw5pso

— Gov. Bill Lee (@GovBillLee) January 22, 2021

I’d like to address this entry to Governor Lee, and to every other person who, for whatever reason, opposes abortion – though opposition to the procedure is mostly religious-based, and that itself presents a Constitutional problem, insofar as our nation is not established upon any religion, and I mean specifically to refer to the “Establishment clause” of the First Amendment. I am NOT going to argue religion, that is for theologians, and I am not making a theological argument.

First, it is a very dangerous precedent to write a law that not only eliminates one’s ability to make an independent, and informed decision (about that, or any other private matter), but mandates that the government tell you (or anyone) what to do in your private life. That is the essence of what is happening with this type of argument. Proponents are: 1.) Forbidding exercise of Constitutional rights and freedom to make a free-will decision, and; 2.) Essentially forcing the pregnant woman to give birth to the child.

Regardless of whether one agrees, or not, that abortion should be discouraged, or even made illegal, the essence of what is happening is that, when government gets involved in a personal, private matter, there is no longer just a woman, and her physician, in that private treatment room, but 535 other people – 435 Representatives, and 100 Senators. And that’s just too many people in one small room.

Whenever government steps in and makes decisions for you, you no longer have freedom, you no longer have liberty. And whether they realize it, or acknowledge it, or not, that’s what the anti-abortion activists want – for government to make your decision, or more accurately, to deny you the ability to make a decision… one with which they disagree with upon religious grounds. Not only is that is the VERY antithesis of so-called “smaller, less intrusive” government (something about which GOP types have clamored about), but it is “Big Brother” government, another thing about which most right-wing, and GOP-type folks complain.

Second, contrary to the claims made by

Outgoing CDC Director Dr. Robert Redfield, MD is a FAILURE as a leader.

Dr. Robert R. Redfield, MD – 18th Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

But allow me to be more explicit.

Dr. Robert R. Redfield, MD is a goddamn moron for whom I have no professional respect.

Why do I write that?

Like his soon-to-be former boss – the outgoing 45th President – he is, and remains, an ineffectual (mis)leader, under whose oversight the agency, like America, has languished, and suffered significant loss. Furthermore, also like his soon-to-be former boss – the outgoing 45th President – he refuses to accept responsibility for any of it.

The outgoing President, himself an utterly incompetent goddamn know-it-all moron, has a knack and penchant for identifying and naming the most utterly incompetent boobs to important positions within the administration.

Does that mean Redfield is a “most utterly incompetent boob”?

Not necessarily.

Of course, if you’ve been paying the least bit of attention for the past year, or so, you’d know the moronic and utterly idiotic things he’s done, and the equally moronic and contradictory things he’s said to justify, in response to the coronavirus pandemic in the United States.

But here below, read what he said recently in an interview with NPR’s Mary Louise Kelly on All Things Considered. • [Commentary in italics, within brackets, preceded with a •, following Redfield’s remarks.]

Outgoing CDC Director Warns Of Pandemic’s Peak:
“We’re About To Be In The Worst Of It”

January 15, 20216:07 PM ET
Heard on All Things Considered
by Mary Louise Kelly

Mary Louise Kelly: “Why has the U.S. done so much worse than the rest of the world?”

Robert Redfield: “I think this virus has a unique ability to have differential pathogenesis in different people. And what it really does is it exploits the underlying health condition of the individual it infects. And so, I would argue one of the reasons we’re having more significant death in this country than, say, Sweden is because unfortunately, the underlying health conditions — with obesity, diabetes, heart disease, kidney disease and the significant health disparities that we have in these illnesses in our nation — haven’t been effectively addressed.”
• [Pass the buck, please. There is EXACTLY ONE research paper in the entire National Library of Medicine with the subject “differential pathogenesis” in its title which is about COVID-19: Molecular Aspects of COVID-19 Differential Pathogenesis. The gist of the paper’s findings is that a type of the female hormone estradiol increases the levels of Angiotensin-Converting Enzyme 2 (ACE2), and that ACE2 apparently has some role in preventing severity of symptoms associated with COVID-19 infection, although, “ACE2 expression is dramatically reduced with aging in both genders. The levels of ACE2 expression, which could be sex- and age-dependent, have a protective role against lung and kidney injuries that could impact the severity of COVID-19 illness in male vs. females and old vs. young individuals.” As well, TMPRSS2, a cellular transmembrane protease, has a role in the severity of the disease, insofar as the “expression levels of TMPRSS2 protein are regulated by levels of androgen and androgen receptors … women and children have a lower level of androgen and androgen receptors than men, and therefore, TMPRSS2 could play a potential role in the severity of COVID-19 pathogenesis in men.” The study’s authors also write that, “it could be possible that the expression levels of ACE2 and TMPRSS2 impact virus infectivity and pathogenesis among different groups of individuals, considering the variation in the expression levels in older men compared to the women and children.” It is well known that individuals with comorbidities of hypertension, diabetes mellitus, heart diseases, and cerebrovascular disease, are at increased risk for poor outcomes, and increased risk of mortality, if infected with COVID-19, and the authors specifically state that the treatments for such conditions may very well place such individuals at increased risk for poor outcomes by writing that they “could be linked to the ACE2 function during SARS-CoV-2 infection and the cardio-metabolic treatments that may interfere withACE2–virus interaction.” The study’s authors conclude that, “variations in the expression levels of SARS-CoV-2 receptors and co-receptors, due to physiological and co-morbidity conditions, could impact the differential pathogenesis of COVID-19.” Contrary to what Dr. Redfield says, the virus does NOT have “a unique ability to have differential pathogenesis in different people.”]

Kelly: “But in terms of how the U.S. has responded, in terms of how the CDC has responded … are you able to defend the Trump administration’s record on this as anything other than a catastrophic failure?”

Redfield: “Well, I’m actually very proud of the response that CDC has done. I think if I have one criticism that

“Just say ‘NO’” has never worked. Here’s what does.

Freedom.

What a concept, eh?

The very idea that you have a brain, and therefore, can think independently to decide FOR YOURSELF what you want, or ought, to do, continues to frustrate others who think that they know better than you do what personal decisions you should make for yourself!

It’s an adult decision.

Why, it’s nothing short of… LIBERTY!

ENOUGH! of the “Nanny State”!

Take your religion home, and GET IT OUT OF GOVERNMENT!!

Practice it PRIVATELY, with your family, friends, and other like-minded individuals. STOP forcing your PRIVATE religious ethics and morals upon others by writing public laws that mirror your private interpretation of your religion.

Thomas Jefferson wrote a letter to the Danbury Baptists that cited the establishment clause of our nation’s Constitution, which as he wrote, erected a “a wall of separation between Church & State,” or as we now say, between government, and religion.

Religious nuts have been trying to tear it down, ever since.

And they’re STILL TRYING TODAY!

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‘Drug Use For Grown-Ups’ Serves As An Argument For Personal Choice

If you grew up scared of what illicit drugs could do to you — hearing about all the horrors that could befall you from everyone from Nancy Reagan to your parents — the threat may have felt very real: If you actually took a puff off that joint that the kid who slept through math class offered you, it could lead to failed relationships, chronic unemployment, self-destruction.

The shame would outlive you.

But drugs are a more complicated matter than they’ve been made out to be, according to Dr. Carl L. Hart. In his new book Drug Use for Grown-Ups, the Columbia University professor of psychology and psychiatry zealously argues that drug use should be a matter of personal choice — and that, in more cases than not, personal choice can lead to positive outcomes. His positions may seem quite extreme to some but they also, by and large, make a lot of sense — and are backed up by ample research.

A major reason drugs have such a negative public image, Hart asserts, is racism. He notes that after the Civil War, some Chinese railroad construction workers smoked opium and, sometimes, established “opium dens” to do so. Over time, more and more white Americans visited these dens to smoke opium too. That in turn led to broader, bigoted social fear among whites, like, for example, the sentiments captured in H.H. Kane’s 1882 report:

“The practice spread widely…Many women and young girls, as also young men of respectable family, were being induced to visit the dens, where they were ruined morally and otherwise.”

Then there was the post-Civil War use of cocaine among some Black day laborers, something Hart writes was at first encouraged by white employers because of the productivity it could promote. Soon enough, however, articles appeared widely that tried to make a connection between African American cocaine use and criminality. One particularly egregious article in The New York Times in 1914, cited by Hart, even reported that some police in the South “who appreciate the vitality of the cocaine-crazed” were switching to higher-caliber weaponry capable of “greater shocking power for the express purpose of combating ‘the fiend’.”

But horrifying history aside, one of the book’s most eye-opening aspects is its challenge of the long-running association between drugs and addiction. First the basics: Addiction, according to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 5th Edition (DSM – 5), must be a source of distress for a drug user. It must also interfere with a person’s job, parenting or personal relationships. Other indications of addiction may be

What We Don’t Know About COVID-19 CAN Hurt Us… And Probably Will

If you think healthcare is expensive now, wait until ALL those with COVID-19 start getting sick as they age, after the Banana Republicans trash the “preexisting condition” healthcare provision in the PPACA, and insurance companies return to “cherry picking” and denials.

Won’t that be more fun than a barrelful of monkeys?!

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COVID-19’s Long-Term Harms: What We Don’t Know Yet Could Hurt Us

Infectious diseases have afflicted humans for hundreds of thousands of years, shaping communities and cultures. The ways pathogens affect human health have been studied extensively for decades. We have learned that any given microorganism can be protean, or capable of changing, in its manifestations — from patients who experience no symptoms at all, to those who become acutely ill yet recover fully, to those who suffer chronic infection and live with the ever-present threat of deteriorating health.

In stark contrast, we have coexisted only one year with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2, the virus that causes coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), and are still learning the diverse ways this novel virus affects human health. During the first week of December, the National Institutes of Health convened a two-day workshop involving public health officials, medical researchers, and patients dedicated to discussing the post-acute health consequences of COVID-19. One of the primary goals of the meeting — to provide a definition for the long-term sequelae, or health consequences and symptoms, following acute COVID-19 — proved elusive. Variably termed “chronic COVID,” “long haulers” and “long COVID” by physicians, patients and the media, whatever you call it, the protracted symptom complex following COVID-19, seemingly affecting all organ systems, has emerged as an unanticipated, devastating outcome of the pandemic.

The earliest data out of Europe and the United States painted a concerning picture: The majority of hospitalized patients remained symptomatic weeks or months after their acute illness, the most common symptoms being fatigue and shortness of breath in approximately half of patients studied. Even patients who were never hospitalized had persistent symptoms several weeks later. Over ensuing months, the full gamut of persistent symptoms emerged, ranging from chronic fatigue, sleep disturbance, cognitive impairment, fast heart rates and exercise intolerance. The exact incidence of these symptoms and their time-course

How does the COVID-19 vaccine work? Ask the women who developed it!

Drs Emmanuelle Charpentier-L & Jennifer Doudna-R 2020 Nobel laureates creators of CRISPR gene editing tool

The mRNA vaccine which has been developed first by Moderna, then by Pfizer-BioNTech (Moderna was first to develop a vaccine, first to deliver it to FDA for research, but second receiving approval), and others, is truly amazing and remarkable for many reasons, not the least of which is that it, and the fundamental underlying science behind it – gene editing/splicing – has been made possible in significant, if not whole part, by women.

This is quite possibly the first disease to ever be primarily resolved by the research of female scientists.

A team of 2 women

Should I wash my groceries?

The visible portion of crud which came off after washing in dish washing detergent (Dawn®), and a wee bit of common, unscented household bleach.

Bluntly, hells fucking YES!!

And pandemic goofiness aside, AT ALL TIMES one (meaning YOU, dear reader) should wash fresh produce with a bit of unscented dish washing soap/detergent, and a wee bit of unscented common, household bleach.

No one knows what kind of “cooties,” germs, pathogens, bacteria, and otherwise bad “bugs” – including bug poo – have settled upon fresh produce.

In this example, I washed a bunch of celery, 3 green bell peppers, a bunch of cilantro, several jalapeño peppers, and 2 heads of broccoli.

How did I wash them?

In a basin of cool water I dissolved some Dawn® brand unscented dishwashing detergent/soap, and about a quarter cup of common, unscented household bleach. Suds are NOT necessary.

Simply dissolve the additive ingredients by gently stirring the water. The basin should be at least half full of water.

Place the ingredients/vegetables to be washed

A COVID-19 vaccine was ready January 13, 2020 – long before the pandemic began.

Margaret Keenan, a 90-year old Irish-English grandmother, was the world’s first to receive a coronavirus vaccination.

While the world is crowing about Margaret Keenan, a 90-year old Irish-British grandmother of four, being the first in the world to receive a coronavirus vaccine yesterday, on Tuesday, December 8, 2020, around 0630 local time (GMT) – she received the version collaboratively developed by the American company Pfizer and German company BioNTech – the American biotechnology company Moderna, in Massachusetts, had long had a vaccine developed.

Moderna had already designed a COVID-19 vaccine – mRNA-1273 – by January 13.

It was only recently, on  November 16, that they reported a 94.5% efficacy rate.

Moderna developed their vaccine only two days after the genetic sequence had been publicized internationally by Chinese researcher Professor Dr. Yong-Zhen Zhangm Ph.D. His humanitarian act of scientific generosity resulted in him being temporarily forced out of his lab.

Professor Dr. Zhang believes science holds the key to predicting viral outbreaks with similar accuracy as with which we now anticipate typhoons and tornadoes. He said, “If we don’t learn lessons from this disease, humankind will suffer another.”

Moderna’s vaccine design only took one weekend to develop at their Massachusetts facilities.

In fact, Moderna had completed development of their COVID-19 vaccine mRNA-1273 before the Chinese government had acknowledged the disease was transmitted by human-to-human means, and more than a week before the first confirmed coronavirus case in the United States – January 21.

And by the time the first American coronavirus death was reported a month later, on February 29, Moderna’s mRNA-1273 coronavirus vaccine had already been manufactured and shipped to the National Institutes of Health to begin its Phase I clinical trial.

All of that was long before the President had made any announcement about his “Operation Warp Speed,” the public-private partnership to develop a coronavirus vaccine, and yet even 2 months before Bloomberg News reported on April 29 that such a plan was in the works.

Regarding the announcement of the first known coronavirus-related death, it should be noted that, following autopsy results in mid-to-late April, the Santa Clara County California Medical Examiner’s office reported on April 21 that the first known COVID-19 related death occurred in United States on February 6. The first death was previously thought to have occurred in Kirkland, Washington on February 29. The New York Times reported that, “The virus has an incubation period of 14 days and people who die of it are often sick for at least three weeks, so the individual who died on February 6 could have been infected — and transmitting the infection to others — in early January, experts said.”

In essence, what that means, is that for the entire time the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic has infected well over 15 million – and counting – in the United States, we had the tools we needed to prevent it, as well as the death of over 250,000 Americans… and counting.

So, that begs the question: If Moderna had a vaccine ready in January, why has it taken until now – December, very nearly a year later – to have a vaccine readily available?

Moderna, a publicly-traded company (stock symbol: MRNA) with operations and headquarters in Massachusetts, is a biotechnology firm focused exclusively upon development of vaccines using mRNA – messenger RNA. Their vaccine is the first in the history of vaccine development to use mRNA.

Drs. Emmanuelle Charpentier-L & Jennifer A Doudna-R, are 2020 Nobel laureates, and creators of the CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing tool

Vaccines made using mRNA are fundamentally different from any other vaccine ever made. The history of vaccination began on May 14, 1796, when a country doctor from Gloucestershire, England, Dr. Edward Jenner, MD, first took some fluid from a cowpox blister and scratched it into the skin of James Phipps, an 8-year-old boy.

Dr. Jenner developed his vaccine while he was still a medical student, after noticing that milkmaids who had contracted a disease called cowpox, which caused blistering on a cow’s udders, did not catch smallpox. However, unlike smallpox, which caused severe skin eruptions and dangerous fevers in humans which often led to death, cowpox led to few ill symptoms in those women.

Science has come a very long way since then. While traditionally, vaccines were first made using active, live, then attenuated, then inactivated, or dead cells from the organism or virus. Throughout the history, the process of making vaccines used chickens’ eggs for the protein they contained, and were literally injected into the shell of an egg. Some are still made that way.

Most recently, two women have forever changed health, medicine, and many other life sciences, which gives hope to millions, and holds untold promises. Dr. Emmanuelle Charpentier, Ph.D., Director of Infection Biology at the Max Planck Institute, and Professor Dr. Jennifer A. Doudna, MD, Ph.D., Professor of Chemistry, Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, Li Ka Shing Chancellor’s Professor in Biomedical and Health at the University of California Berkeley, in October 2020 won the Nobel prize in chemistry for the development of the revolutionary CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing tool which has been described as enabling “rewriting the code of life.”

Drs. Emmanuelle Charpentier-L & Jennifer Doudna-R, are the 2020 Nobel laureates in chemistry, and creators of the CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing tool.

Cas9 is a type of modified protein and acts like a pair of scissors that can cut parts of DNA strands. CRISPR stands for Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats, in essence, a repeating mirrored DNA sequence in genomes that repeats. The technology has worked in most every organism that it has been used on, including plants, animals, microbes and humans.

By using the gene editing platform CRISPR, which could be thought of as cut-and-paste, the idea is to remove parts of a genome using RNA as a means of guiding to a particular place within a genome, genes can then be modified to eliminate mutated, or harmful parts.

The ability to use such sophisticated gene splicing technology holds enormous promise.

As it relates to the coronavirus, the gene splicing technology uses a very small portion of messenger RNA (mRNA) from the coronavirus genome, and produces a gene that codes for the spike protein – the characteristic protruding part seen on images.

The coronavirus has 4 proteins, the spike is 1, and is the part that enables the virus to invade cells. By using only that part of the virus, it causes the body to produce antibodies that neutralize that spike protein. RNA vaccines cause the body to make only that spike protein. Then, encased in a fat molecule mRNA then enters cells, and sends a coded message to the body to make the protein, which in turn causes an immune response.

RNA vaccines have many advantages, which, unlike other vaccines produced other ways, they stimulate the production of killer T-cells which stop the coronavirus from replicating. And because mRNA vaccines are produced in test tubes or tanks, rather than being cultivated in cells (such as in eggs), they should be relatively quick and easy to produce.

The use of mRNA to treat disease, even genetic-based disease, such as cystic fibrosis, is brand new, but holds exciting possibilities. Moderna is perhaps one of the most promising mRNA therapeutics research firms in the world. And under the leadership and direction of Chief Science Officer Dr. Melissa Moore, Ph.D., Moderna has developed, and publicized, the scientific blueprint for a unique form of cancer therapy using mRNA which when used used, ensures its mRNA is made only inside cancer cells. Ryan Cross reported in Chemical and Engineering News on September 3, 2018 in “Can mRNA disrupt the drug industry? Messenger RNA technology promises to turn our bodies into medicine-making factories. But first Moderna—and a long list of old and new competitors—needs to overcome some major scientific challenges.” and wrote in part that, “Moderna scientist Ruchi Jain designed an mRNA that causes cancer cells to self-destruct but is recognized by, and destroyed in, healthy cells.”

Dr. Moore has a distinguished scientific pedigree, and