putting things into perspective

 

Hurricane devestates Mexico.

 I have a life so vaguely heard that Alcapulco Mexico was hit by a hurricane last week, but I didn't realize it was this bad:

Newsweek Oct 25

Hurricane Otis made landfall as a catastrophic Category 5 hurricane early on Wednesday morning, smashing into Mexico's southern Pacific coast.

the problem? It went from an ordinary storm to a category 5 hurricane within 12 hours.

"This is pretty much a worst-case scenario, as residents have little time to find a safe shelter and protect life and property from this life-threatening storm," weather analyst Colin McCarthy said.

and things continue to be bad. Aid is getting there, but it takes time and the locals are lamenting about the lack of food etc. and blaming the government.

 And the press is blaming Global warming of course. 

Sigh.

Been there, done that.

In our prayers.

Wartime Nursing in the caves of Okinawa

History lesson of the day: rememberances of High school students drafted to nurse the soldiers in the Battle of Okinawa.

This web page tells their story and has photos of them today.

Just a reminder: War is hell.

So surrender the hostages, arrest the murderers and both sides stop firing expensive missiles at each other in Gaza.

Easy peasy peace plan

 one: Release the hostages

two: arrest the terrorists who killed people.

three: stop the press from changing the subject 

Four: resettle Gaza folk into Iran. They started it. They have lots of money to send weapons to Gaza and mercenaries to Syria.

so why isn't anyone proposing this?

Because there is an agenda: Iran wants to destroy the Abraham accords where the Arabs who are sick and tired of the problem want to make peace. 

For Iran it is a twofer: One: They have the world ignore their helping Syrian's president to stay in power (hint: hundreds of thousands of Sunni refugees, many who fled to Turkey or Europe)

Two: It distracts the world from the recent uprising there by women who are being killed for not wearing a head scarf, and that one of these women just won the Nobel Peace Prize for supporting human rights in that country.

Dirty little secret: Gaza voted for Hama, and Hamas' charter says it was founded to kill all the Jews.

as one Jewish journalist wrote:

October 7 was so horrific it threatened to ambush the Palestinian cause itself. These activists are not stupid. They’ve seen the videos. They know what happened. Because the savagery was done in the name of Palestinians, they saw the danger that their cherished cause could be forever contaminated. So what did they do to save the world’s most popular victims? They did what people have done for centuries: They changed the subject and blamed the Jews. That always works.

and in the background: China and Russia stirring the pot by encouraging their minions to protest.

Putin should know better: After China takes over Taiwan and Luzon, Siberia is next on their list. 

Family news: Sick dog

 Our small dog had developed a hernia, which I got fixed years ago when we had her fixed not to have puppies. 

The hernia returned (poor healing due to malnutrition as a puppy left her with slow healing). Usually I would periodically push the intestines back in and it didn't bother her, but then late last week it grew huge, hurt her when I touched it, and she was not eaing well, just sleeping outside my door all day.

So we took her yesterday to the Vet to have it fixed. Today we brought her home, and she is happy to be home: Went outside to do her business then came back and drank oodles of water, which she then vomited up. No problem except that it was underneath my bed, where she often hides.

So we moved the bed and cleaned it up: lots of undigested medicine in the vomitus...so I will have to give her medicine later.

In the meanwhile, this week is Undas, the day of the dead, or in Catholicism All Saints day.

The entire country takes off and travels to their home village to honor the dead: You go to mass, then visit the grave. You decorate the grave with flowers, and lots of candles... while the family visits the grave, you hold a family reunion: eating sandwiches etc..

we sent the maid who took two of her brothers to clean it up and trim the flower bushes in front of the grave. The site was intact but someone stole our lock. Oh well. 

I will probably visit tomorrow before the rush. And the relatives often leave flowers too (he was the one in the family who went to work in the USA so he could support their family after his older brother died of a heart attack, so he is their second father).

they don't really celebrate Haloween here in the provinces, although they do have a lot of ghost stories on local TV.

In the USA, they used to start celebrating Christmas after Thanksgiving and now I hear they start the sales as early as Haloween. Well, here in the Philippines the celbration starts in October: even the bank was putting up Christmas decorations when I went there last week.

In the meanwhile, Lolo's granddaughter is on school break so is visiting. Her and her mom are planning to visit Joy's home village next week, but I don't know the details.

Me? I am busy doing nothing but nursing a sick dog.

Sigh.

Family night movie: Why families count

 My granddaughter came home so we could celebrate her birthday. She now has graduated and has a teaching job in Manila: They don't pay well but after a year's experience she will be able to get a job overseas with better pay. 

Sigh. A typical Philippine story: Few jobs and poor pay for the jobs that are here. So people migrate overseas. 

I have the big screen TV in my room (it was bought for Lolo before he died.) Traditionally the family meets in the room to watch TV after supper, usually an old movie.

So last night, we watched the old black comedy Raising Arizona, which she hadn't seen before. The backstory of the film is about the wish for a family.

and the film ends with this line:

And it seemed real. It seemed like us and it seemed like, well, our home. If not Arizona, then a land not too far away. Where all parents are strong and wise and capable and all children are happy and beloved. I don’t know. Maybe it was Utah.” – H.I. McDunnough

And of course, what he is referring to is that Utah was founded as a refuge for the LDS, i.e. the Mormons, a misunderstood sect, but one whose practices emphasize family. They encourage family meetings, the idea that children are a blessing, and community: the symbol is the beehive, of cooperation.

In theory it is a good way of life, and like pre Vatican II Catholicism, the rules encourage responsibility, caring for others, and family stability. In a world of drag queen story hours and the moral chaos of the mainstream Protestant churches (and in many areas this includes Catholic churches) one can see the attraction of someone making rules to live by, even if one can't always follow the rules.

Since the age of drugs, the sexual revolution and rebellion since the 1960s, the family is seen by the culture as a prison to escape from. Freedom they cry, but Non Servium is the phrase I believe would be a more accurate description. That is what Satan said when he found the Creator was planning to become a human being for awhile to teach them how to live... something that disgusted Lucifer because humans were ickky: they had bodies, they gave birth, they raised kids, they worked for a living, and they died. Not like the angels who were so superior and who should be ruling these humans as their slaves, not teaching them by example which requires getting your hands dirty. 

So instead of helping, he rebelled, and he taught Adam and Eve to rebel:Rules are meaningless, indeed rules are evil because they stop you from doing what you want to do. In rebellion lies your freedom he argued:Do your own thing and become like god. 

so what happens when you destroy rules?

From a recent book podcast,,,,

In Live to See the Day, Nikhil Goyal offers a searing portrait of three Puerto Rican children struggling to survive in Philadelphia’s impoverished Kensington neighborhood. Drawing on nearly a decade of reportage, he follows the youths’ personal—but not unique—journeys through violence, homelessness, incarceration, and substance abuse as they strive to defy their designated fate in the modern U.S.' socioeconomic system.

their answer of course is to throw more money at the problem: which in some ways will help but in the long run it will make it worse because it enables those who don't want to follow the rules. 

One could argue that the problem is a mindset that sees self over family, and a corporate mindset that sees profit (send jobs overseas) over the need to support their workers.

so what is the result? Compare his picture to the lower middle class neighborhood of the 1950s Kensington. There was some violence, and a lot of alcoholism, but not the widespread drug use in the street. Homelessness was rare, because usually a family or friends were around to help: to quote Robert Frost:

 ‘Home is the place where, when you have to go there, They have to take you in.

But you know, behind all the headlines that emphasize the chaos of the cities, families are still there: like Gallileo saying "but it moves", I can only say: But it still exists: 40 million caregivers can't be wrong.

In the Philippines, the problem is different: it is that the families are torn apart because to get a decent job, you need to work in the city, or overseas.  

and in the Philippines, the family is even more vital: because it is the family who does the care for the children, the elderly, the handicapped. True, people go overseas to work, but it is not to get rich, but often to send money home so the extended family can pay school fees, have a decent house, and have enough to eat. And this is true not just in the Philippines but in many third world countries.

Well, anyway, that is what I have against this Pope. He is talking to the margin he claims. Fine. But he is not offering them advice on how to live their lives, but seems more to be wanting to push the idea that getting rid of chastity because it is out of date and oppressive needs to be done: ignoring the reason why all societies have rules here to protect the family. 

yet as Catholic culture article points out:

chastity cannot be reduced to a collection of rules and regulations. Chastity is the holy and habitual self-control of sexual impulses.

and the dirty little secret is that without self control of sexual impulses the family will not exist. And the ripple effect results in a Kensington with homeless drugged out zombies on the streets and robbery and assaults accepted as normal.

accepting the weak and helping them without condemnation and saying go and sin no more is not the same as saying no problemo bro go and do your own thing.

Alas according to Francis, if you object to the synod telling you that loving reptiles and praying for demons and blessing sin is required, well, then you are rigid (i.e. bad). 

Well, fine. 

But holding fake meetings full of those who have an agenda to make the church of what's happening now a reality is evil.

and what is more evil is that there is no talk about ordinary folk and the problems we face. Nor is there support for ordinary folks who try to keep the rules: indeed, the dirty little secret is that the younger generation doesn't even know that there are rules at all.

Sigh.

Chinese propaganda joins the Hate Israel Crowd

 weibo, a chinese social network discussion area says that the people are increasingly anti Israel.

https://www.whatsonweibo.com/chinese-social-media-responses-to-the-israel-hamas-war-pro-palestinian-sentiments-and-anti-semitic-discourse/

Over the past two weeks, a noticeable pro-Palestine sentiment has emerged on Chinese social media, which is closely tied to the alignment of Chinese scholars and the government’s position.

italics mine. 

discussion of how pro Palestinian articles in the Chinese press . It's all about being a victim of imperialism of course (/sarcasm)

but it's not just routine leftist support of the poor Palestinian victims or rants against the evil Israelis: 

Alongside the recent surge in pro-Palestine sentiments on Chinese social media, there has also been a clear rise in anti-Semitic expressions, including hate-filled comments and images targeting Jews, often referencing to Nazi Germany or the Holocaust.

more stuff about how China has had Jews living there for 1000 years and a lot of Jewish refugees fled there during WWII. However, the terrorists are playing the victim card so they are heroes to the social media: 

Chinese online reactions,...are deeply intertwined with echoes of China’s own national suffering and its modern history, 

italics mine. 

Chinese suffering presumably means suffering from the evil Great Satan of the west I presume, not the suffering of the Great Leap Forward Famine, the Cultural revolution, the Laogai camps etc. 

Of course, we all know why the social media and propaganda in China is instructing people to turn against not just Israel but promoting hatred of all Jews:  They need Arab oil, and have been buying a lot from Iran, who is the one funding and training the present day Hamas terrorism in Gaza.

-----------------

another Weibo article warns about posting bad stuff.

Weibo Watch: Walking on Eggshells In today’s Chinese social media environment, both foreign brands and local influencers must tread carefully, as even minor missteps can trigger significant consequences.

the irony? China steals intellectual content all the time but hey I could get censored because as they warn us: 

This is original content by What's on Weibo that requires investment. You are free to link to this article, but please identify this website or author when you base content on this source or quote from it. Support us by becoming a subscriber. Do not reproduce our content without permission. Copyright (C) https://www.whatsonweibo.com. Read more at: https://www.whatsonweibo.com/weibo-watch-forgotten-allies/

Urban warfare with a side of drugs

 There is a lot of clueless news stories about what Israel faces if they try to weed out the Jihadi terrorists from Gaza.

the best analysis of what Israel and the local population will face comes more from military sites than the MSM who lacks expertise and are biased (I mean, the NYTimes spread the hospital hoax for days because they didn't check the story but believed the propaganda news release).

Urban warfare is wicked, especially when the defenders can hide in a city where they know where to hide (and in Gaza this includes tunnels and hostages, both Isarelis who were kidnapped and locals who support them).

The Philippine military faced a similar problem when Islamic terrorists took over the city of Marawi, where the majority of people by the way did not support these terrorists.

Here is a lecture/essay on the story about the lesson of the Marawi seige.

 the site has a long list of podcast discussions there for background of the problems the military would face in this urban warfare situation of Gaza.

Tunnels anyone?

One difference between Gaza and Marawi:

luckily for the Philippines, the local Muslims did not help them because they were negotiating with the government at the time for a peaceful solution (one reason the outsider ISIS types did this was opposition to the peace process). 

Indeed, they mention the local Muslim insurgents helped the evacuating/fleeing  population instead of joining these militants.

But the end result of the battle was a destroyed city.

The costs of the Battle of Marawi were high. Opinions on infrastructure damage vary but aerial imagery indicates that huge swathes of the city have been devastated by the fighting – the mass destruction flattening entire city blocks. The World Bank estimates it may take two decades to restore Marawi to its original condition. However, the true price of the battle is that paid by the people of Marawi and the lives of those fighting in it. 165 members of the AFoP were killed in action, with over 1000 injured. Some reports indicate over 1000 insurgents were killed in the siege, which also took the lives of 47 civilians. The fighting drove over 400, 000 people from their homes.....

The Marawi experience suggests that such small teams, operating seamlessly alongside engineers, artillery and armour – as well as combat medics and military police – fighting as combined-arms sections, platoons, combat teams and battlegroups, are essential

They discuss who it took so long for the Philippine military to overcome them: The militants knew where the AFP was because they had drones, and they knew where to hide to ambush them. And the militants used middle eastern sources to beam pleading from kidnapped local hostages against the attack.

The Philippines used the social media to get their story out to bypass the MSM who often picked up the insurgent propaganda via their middle eastern contacts.

Like Gaza, they had tunnels in Marawi, and stored their munitions in mosques so that the Philippine military could not flatten these areas for fear of upsetting locals.

Snipers and RPG bombs and booby traps to stop soldiers from entering buildings also used by militants.

their analysis is that it took months for the Philippines to clear the militants who learned how to fight in the Middle East.

In Gaza, the population has had anti Israeli propaganda aimed at them for years, and an Arab street who believes the sophisticated anti Israel propaganda that is happily spread by a clueless local media (and alas the western media).

But the lesson of Malawi is that it will take months to clear the terrorists

Alas the propaganda outlets will continue to push every lie put out by the Hamas propaganda ministry.

Yes, I know: 300 thousand Palestinians fled Israel in 1948 and still want to go back. They have a reason to fight. And the IRA had reasons to terrorize people for 100 years too. And the communists insurgencies defended people's rights for 100 years.

But resorting to terrorism only makes things worse.

 (this is why those countries don't want to resettle the Gaza refugees: they cause trouble for the guest country... and remember: Hamas and Hezbollah are Iranian proxies).

Finally, one of the under reported stories about this is the connection of drugs with terrorism.

Sigh.

 one of the untold stories of Marawi is the presence of Shabu (Meth) in that area. 2017 article.

THE recovery of P10-million worth of shabu from the house of a former mayor of Marawi City established the "close relation" between illegal drugs and the ongoing uprising in the country, Malacañang said on Saturday.

And 2023 article. says it's still going on there.

so what does shabu have to do with Gaza? 

Captogen smuggling thanks to Syria and Iran is destablizing the Middle East.

guess what the Hamas murderers were taking when they murdered innocent civilians? Captogen (a form of Meth)

there is a connection between criminal gangs, drugs, and terrorism. 

I suspect few Yanks watching the latest Denzel Washington Thriller noticed that the backstory of the local Mafia was about importing captogen and using a local winery to cover this smuggling.

Screen rant has an article about this: Equalizer 3’s Italian Mafia & The Real Camorra Syndicate Explained,,,, 

The movie accurately portrays the inner workings of the Camorra, including their involvement in drug trafficking, money laundering, and kidnapping. While the storyline is fictional, it aligns with real-life events, such as the seizure of a large shipment of Captagon pills from the Camorra by Italian government officials in 2020.

Sigh.

conspiracy theories

 

It's hard to stay ahead of reality at The Babylon Bee. We had this written last night only to wake up and see the White House doing exactly this before we had the chance to publish pic.twitter.com/Xheyvt2CrB

— Joel Berry (@JoelWBerry) October 23, 2023

.............

I was not quite clear on what Bishop Overbeck meant in his response, so as soon as the briefing had ended, I went up to him & twice asked explicitly if he meant we need to set aside Apostolic Tradition—and twice he said “yes”, that this is what he meant. (4/4) #SynodonSynodality

— Diane Montagna (@dianemontagna) October 21, 2023

chose civilization over barbarians

 once, when Genghis Khan's (or his successor's) hoards were planning to invade Egypt, they asked the Crusader states to help them, pointing out that the Muslims were their common enemy. The French king thought that was a good idea, but the Pope, who had eyewitness accounts of their atrocities including the massacres of Baghdad, sent a letter urging them to chose civilization over the barbarians. One result: These states stayed neutral and stopped that invasion, altough a later one did succeed.

the problem with supporting Palestine is that a lot of their suffering is man made: No, not Israel but the fact that they are not welcome in Arab countries. Millions of refugees in other parts of the world have been resettled after various wars and made a life, but the UN and the Arab countries preferred to keep the Palestinian people hostage as refugees. This let a lot of Arab dictators and the Iranian dictatorship to point to Israel ("look squirrel") to distract their own people from their corruption and atrocities... 

It also meant letting the radicals take over and educate the population if they killed all Israelis they too would be rich. And indeed, it is this culture of hatred why a lot of Arab countries don't want them: These so called refugees destablize their host countries. And of course to make it worse, Hamas and Hezbollah are Iranian proxies: and although no one wants to say it out loud, the idea is for Iran to take over the middle east. 

Ah but the radical left, who has taken over the Democratic party and much of the MSM and universities, prefer to shout PC slogans than look truth in the face. 

So do you side with the barbarians whose one sided propaganda is not questioned, or do you side with those trying to remove the barbarians who hide among civilians hoping that if they are killed, or their weapons are destroyed, that they can show innocent bodies to pretend that killing civilians was the aim of Israel? 

So the MSM spread Hamas propaganda of a hospital destroyed by an Israeli bomb, implying that this was a deliberate attack on civilians. However it turns out that it was probably an errant missile of their own that fell into a parking lot (causing a huge fireball of rocket fuel, but no crater as an Israeli missile would have left) and few deaths.

But the story was not pulled for several days, resulting in world wide riots against Israel (openly saying their aim was to kill all Jews, not just in Israel). Because leftism.

so where is the outrage against this fake news?

So todaý's propaganda? two hostages allowed to leave Ah, but what about the rest of them? Releasing the hostages and arresting those who planned this might actually stop the war, but never mind. Instead we have repeated sob stories of innocent civilians who are caught in the middle, and the Arab world and the leftist world has taken over the narrative with propaganda.

 Yup. Hiding among civilians will result in civilian casualties, but never mind. They are considered involuntary martyrs to the cause.

And the original story of course if forgotten. Anyone? Anyone?

cue to John Bachelor, who last time I looked was not Jewish so hopefully this won't get him ignored. As for me, I can only echo the words of JRRTolkien: “I regret that I appear to have no ancestors of that gifted people,"

............

,,,,,,,,,,,,

It's hard to stay ahead of reality at The Babylon Bee. We had this written last night only to wake up and see the White House doing exactly this before we had the chance to publish pic.twitter.com/Xheyvt2CrB

— Joel Berry (@JoelWBerry) October 23, 2023

sandfly infection

 

I ran across two articles on Leishmaniasis, 

  this article is about the spread of leishmaniasis. 

The cutaneous form is coming in with migrants from South America. 

But another form is a problem: visceral leishmaniasis, which is found in the Middle East. Another potentially life-threatening form of the disease, visceral leishmaniasis, affects the spleen, liver and bone marrow

the soldiers serving in the Middle East are at risk, AMEDD PDF on the disease

and a new study suggests this form may be gaining a foothold in U.S., not from the soldiers but from the dogs are rescued from Turkey by animal lovers and then placed in other countries. The dogs carry the disease, and local sandflies bit the dogs and then spread the disease to humans.

my notes on the disease are on my medical blog.

most of the cutaneous ulcers heal themselves but the more serious infections can be treated with anti fungal medicines: depending on the strain since some strains are resistant. I also investigate the vaccine problem... a good review article found here... 

update:

Satire anyone?

 

Pope Francis Glues Self To Sistine Chapel Ceiling To Protest Climate Change https://t.co/MRdQbGLkoi pic.twitter.com/0jDBlRZ0HN

— The Babylon Bee (@TheBabylonBee) October 19, 2023

..................

CNN Blames Fog Of War For Errant Reporting On Gaza Bombing, Russian Collusion, Jussie Smollett, Covington Catholic, Hunter’s Laptop, The Steele Dossier, Kyle Rittenhouse, Origins Of Covid (Continued) https://t.co/A5C295Pw7F pic.twitter.com/NiUKYwcQDx

— The Babylon Bee (@TheBabylonBee) October 19, 2023

.............

Greta's moral rules:
- killing 1,400 civilians —> good 👍
- using plastic straws —> bad 👎 pic.twitter.com/EMQcdfWoSr

— Dr. Eli David (@DrEliDavid) October 20, 2023

...............

facts you are not allowed to post about gun deaths

 Homicide rates vary by race.

During 2022, the national firearm homicide rate decreased for the first time since the sharp increase from 2019 to 2020. Nonetheless, the rate in 2022 (5.9 per 100,000) remained substantially higher than the 2019 rate....

The annual rate among Black persons during 2022 (27.5) was ... still substantially higher than in 2019 (20.5).

 

Among AI/AN persons, the rate during 2022 (9.3) exceeded the rates in both 2021 (7.7) and 2020 (7.9).

 

During 2022, the rate among Hispanic persons leveled off (5.5) but remained higher than that in 2019 (3.8).

 

Rates among non-Hispanic White and A/PI persons, although lower, also increased from 2019 to 2021, followed by a decrease in 2022..

graph

FYI: the rate of gun homicides in Europe are about 1.

Black lives matter.

This is a danger in the inner city: and it is a threat to the teenagers trying to be good. and it often overlaps other crimes.

Not that race is always accurate of course.

and they lump Black Americans together: not separating the more recent immigrant groups from those who were descended from slaves.And one suspects the homicide rate would be higher among Somali immigrants because there is a gang problem, but lower among those from Africa or the West Indies. 

and a lot of this is connected with drugs: Either by gangs selling drugs, or by people who are chronic users of drugs..

and the dirty little secret is that not all deaths by firearms are homicides:

I turn to the Minnesota data

Homicides and homicide rates spiked in 2020—a trend also observed nationally—while other manners of violent death did not.

 what does that mean? car accidents I presume are considered by them as violent deaths? Falls? drownings>

ironically not all firearm deaths are homicides:

Firearms were used in 45% of suicide deaths, 65% of homicide deaths and 54% of inter-personal violence homicide deaths.

Most firearm deaths, 75%, were suicide. 

italics mine. 

Minnesota has large racial disparities in suicide and homicide rates. Suicide rates in Minnesota are highest among the American Indian population, more than 70% higher than for the white population.

yes. The Indian Health Service has an aggressive outreach to fight the suicide problem on the reservations, which is often associated with drug or alcohol abuse problems.

Most people think of the reason they need gun control in the USA is mass shootings, but they are wrong.

The problem is gangs and suicide.

Many people understandably assume the high number of gun deaths in the U.S. is due to mass shootings, which receive frequent attention from the media. In truth, mass shootings account for only a small percentage of gun deaths in the United States. Rather, nearly two-thirds (63%) of gun deaths in the US in 2019 were suicides.

Again, back to the Minnesota data on gun homicide:

Homicide rates in the state are highest among the Black or African American population and the American Indian population, more than 10 times the rate of the white population.

italics mine. Essentially this is an epidemic that kills a lot of young people, mostlyyoung black men, but it is easier to cry racism than to rebuild a community with jobs creation, decent schools, getting rid of drugs, and helping churches rebuild their family outreaches.

Presumably poverty is part of the problem, except it is lower among the Hispanics, who tend to be poorer than these groups. Perhaps the culture of strong family connections in  Hispanic culture helps prevent the gangs and drugs, and one shudders when one sees young men without families being allowed to enter the US: because it takes family ties to stablize young men. 

Then we come to the anti depressant hysteria that is pushed every time a person goes amok and it is found they were on treatment. 

no statistics about drug use in homicides, or about perpetrators who kill being on such medication. 

However one does see this paradox in the suicide statistics:

Antidepressants were found in the systems of 29.8% of females who died by suicide, compared to 12.1% in males.

This suggests that undertreatment of clinical deperssion might be the cause. But again no data here about illicit drugs or alcohol: although it has long been known that alcholics have a high suicide rate. And of course alcohol has long been associated with domestic abuse . 

I had written: Families are protective against such violence: True...Except when they aren't:

Spouses were suspected as the perpetrator in 21.1% of homicide cases where the victim was female. The victim’s boyfriend or girlfriend was suspected in an additional 15.5% of cases.

 

drug and alcohol abuse not only is associated with homicides and suicides, they are a major factor in car accidents. and don''t forget the 100 thousand fentanyl deaths a year thanks to China and the Mexical cartels and the open border policies that make smuggling easy.

Sigh.

 

 

three cheers for brown rice

We grow organic brown rice. It is healthier: more vitamins, more fiber, and no chemical contamination.

But it costs more to grow (weeding by hand instead of herbicide for example) so the poor will continue to eat white rice, much of which is imported form places like Vietnam where they grow three crops a year.

Historically, eating mainly white rice but not supplemented by other foods was not healthy. 

Indeed, White rice led to hundreds of thousands dying... not just in Japan, China, and in India, but in the time of the original Philippine fight for independence and the early occupation which caused disruption of society,and the usual disasters (Taal) much of the rice eaten was imported white rice, so many died of this disease

the epidemic was stopped by using other foods and later fortifying rice with vitamins.

This is an excellent book examining the problems of disease in the early American occupation. It is on Scribd.

I should point out: white rice was considered better in Asian countries because the rich ate it, but it also has a longer shelf life (the oil in brown rice tends to spoil after six to 12 months).

Poor people originally did their own threshing and milling so essentially ate brown rice...but as they moved into cities or to uniculture plantations in rural area, they imported white rice to eat, (either from local farms or from overseas countries who produced it cheaply) and the disease, which was first described by Chinese physicians 4000 years ago, became epidemic.

there are a lot of more intellectual (i.e. boring) lectures on you tube about this disease. 

But this video is shorter and puts the disease into perspective by discussing how white rice almost destroyed the Japanese Navy 

Atlas Obscura has a short article on the history of the disease in Japan LINK and explains why this disease suddenly became epidemic: mechanical milling machines

Machine-milling made polished rice available to the masses, and as the government invested in an army and navy, it fed soldiers with white rice. (White rice, as it happened, was less bulky and lasted longer than brown rice, which could go rancid in warm weather.) Inevitably, soldiers and sailors got beriberi.

 and here, during her travels in rural Japan, Isabelle Bird, who was an adventuress but did have an interest in hospitals and illnesses, describes it thus in one of her letters (numberXX)

In the two villages of Upper and Lower Innai there has been an outbreak of a malady much dreaded by the Japanese, called kak’ké, which, in the last seven months, has carried off 100 persons out of a population of about 1500, and the local doctors have been aided by two sent from the Medical School at Kubota.

 

I don’t know a European name for it; the Japanese name signifies an affection of the legs. Its first symptoms are a loss of strength in the legs, “looseness in the knees,” cramps in the calves, swelling, and numbness. This, Dr. Anderson, who has studied kak’ké in more than 1100 cases in Tôkiyô, calls the sub-acute form.

 

The chronic is a slow, numbing, and wasting malady, which, if unchecked, results in death from paralysis and exhaustion in from six months to three years.

The third, or acute form, Dr. Anderson describes thus. After remarking that the grave symptoms set in quite unexpectedly, and go on rapidly increasing, he says:—“The patient now can lie down no longer; he sits up in bed and tosses restlessly from one position to another, and, with wrinkled brow, staring and anxious eyes, dusky skin, blue, parted lips, dilated nostrils, throbbing neck, and labouring chest, presents a picture of the most terrible distress that the worst of diseases can inflict. There is no intermission even for a moment, and the physician, here almost powerless, can do little more than note the failing pulse and falling temperature, and wait for the moment when the brain, paralysed by the carbonised blood, shall become insensible, and allow the dying man to pass his last moments in merciful unconsciousness.”

Sigh.

there are a lot of more intellectual (i.e. boring) lectures on you tube about this disease.

In the USA, we rarely see the entire syndrome but we do see brain damage from thiamine deficiency in chronic alcoholics:

with all the chronic druggies and alcoholics among the homeless in the USA, one wonders how many of them are developing these diseases, along with other vitamin deficiencies like scurvy, pellgra, or simple protein deficiency.

Sigh.

movie of the week

 quick before the copyright cops remove it.

the story is true, and asks the question of all of us who worked with the very poor who were oppressed by the rich and the local government: Do you turn to violence (aka liberation theology) or accept this with passivity and prayer?

if you say prayer, it implies withdrawal from the world.

Or maybe not:

When the Filipino people faced this under the first Marcos administration, too many western missionaries were cheering on the NPA etc. and insisted that was the only alternative.

But prayer and courage worked...

From February 22 to 25, 1986, hundreds of thousands of Filipinos gathered on Epifanio de los Santos Avenue to protest President Ferdinand Marcos and his claim that he had won re-election over Corazon Aquino... When Marcos ordered the military to arrest detractors, Cardinal Sin called upon the people to shield them. The Catholic radio organ, Radio Veritas, became a major control center for protest communications during the People Power movement....

and half a million Filipinos walked in front of the tanks on the EDSA highway praying the rosary and singing hymns... 

The result was re establishment of democracy with all it's imperfections.

one addition that makes one sad:

right now, Marcos Jr has just decided to erase the holiday of this peaceful revolution against his father; not a smart thing to do at a time when China threatens us, and a possible war if the Yanks decide to stop them.

Sigh.

musical interlude of the week

 

why not just arrest the murderers and enablers

 with all the kerfuffle/propaganda over the Middle East, the question no one is asking:

Why not just arrest the murderers, demand the Gaza government release the hostages, and freeze the bank accounts of their enablers?

(You know: All that money that Biden just "released" to Iran).

no: instead we have propaganda and Hamas cynically putting civilians in the way of harm for propaganda purposes.

and the world who once said "never again", sits back and pretends it is not happening.

This is not the first time this has happened.

The UN peacekeepers sat back and watched Rwanda massacres, and the world kept silent when after thousands were murdered, continued to keep silent when local rebels of the victim tribe came back in and chased out the perpetrators, who were civilians, in retaliation.

The last time the UN intervened to stop aggression was the Korean war: imagine what would happend if they did not, and the starvation and killings and economic catstrophe of NOKO included SoKorea?

But the UN learned their lesson: So the UN did nothing when China took over Tibet causing millions to flee.

and what about when official governments kill people?

Who stopped Mugabe from getting North Koreans in to help him massacre 20 thousand of the minority tribe who supported his opposition? His later destruction of the economy caused hundreds of thousands to flee and caused a famine, but never mind.

Who stopped Idi Amin when he killed his opposition Not the UN... Tanzania did it.

The UN did nothing when the communist Pol Pot took over Cambodia and killed hundreds of thousands (ironically the Vietnamese intervened and stopped it)

One can feel sorry for the Palestinians who suffer when the UN refuses to resettle them in new lands. But remember, these people voted a terrorist group to run Gaza and looked the other way when these leaders stole aid money meant to run the place, and now who cynically uses them as human shields for propaganda purposes:

and now they are saying the US should let them resettle? Why not local countries?

Gaza is traditionally Egyptian territory but Egypt doesn't want them because the dirty little secret is that the refugee camps are sources of terrorism against other ocuntries that let them live there. 

Kuwait threw them out after they helped Sadam Hussein's solders take over and terrorize locals and OFW before the first Gulf war.

It's an old story: The bad guys flee and pretend they are refugees, and then bully/terrorize the real refugees and essentially take over these camps, and recruit idle and often angry young men to join them. 

they then bite the hand that feeds them (the country that took them in).

Similar to how Somalian refugees in East Africa hide terrorists,

 or after World War II, how German POW camps had Nazis essentially taking over these camps

The UN often ends up helping the bad guys because the children of light do not recognize the depth of evil that exists and often object if the host country tries to clean the criminals out of the camps. So too often human rights activists become co enablers, or worse, patsies for manipulators whose agenda might not be as pristine as they think it is. 

Theoretically the UN should have powers to do a lot of things, but do you trust them?

time for the harvest

 Kuya is trying to get the rice harvested: in the past we had it cut by hand and used a small thresher to separate the grain, but now we rent a harvester thresher, so have to wait our turn to use it/

We only have a few fields because years ago, land reform forced the sale to those who worked the land an limits the amount of land a person can own. (and no I don't own land: Non citizens cannot own land, houses or businesses here.).

When we first moved here, our employees would take a few days off to help relatives on their farm to cut the grain by hand, and we had a small thresher for our famers and friends to use. Now, however, the owners are often elderly and seeking to sell their land, and the younger ones don't want to do that heavy work, so we rent a harvester/thresher machine for harvest.

Right now, we have to take our turn using it, and today it is cloudy and supposed to rain, so we are postponing the harvest of the second fields to tomorrow. 

In the future I suspect we will also start planting the seedlings by machine instead of by hand.

Traditionallly you prepared the field by flooding and turning it over, and then you planted seedlings. 

You can grow seedlings yourself in pans, or buy them (usually good hybrid rice) from the local rice institute etc.

The winter harvest depended on rain, which was not always available, so you just cast the seeds and hoped it grew. we now irrigate for the second harvest, but this is expensive.

After you cut it, you have to dry it, usually in the sun on a flat surface (roadways are commonly used) or if it rains too much, by the rice dealer which costs money.

the first few minutes of this video show how it is done:

the discussion is about keeping the price of buying rice from local farmers high, because right now with the high price of diesel and fertilizer it is going to be hard to make a profit. There is a narrow line between keeping the price high enough for farmers but low enough for poor people to eat rice... and to complicate things, importers of rice want to import more to make a profit. 

Alas, smuggling cheap rice (and even selling fake rice) is a big problem.

Theoretically, with fertilizer and irrigation, you could just fertilizer, plant seedlings etc. and get three harvests, but so far we still rely on rain for the main harvest.

Kill civilians, cry when they hit back. Rinse and repeat

OFW never left patient as Hamas came to killhttps://t.co/RZpWtv8d1T

— Inquirer (@inquirerdotnet) October 12, 2023

.........

why kill a caregiver who is obviously not Jewish, and an old lady in bed who is obviously not a soldier?

Because they can.

Soldiers shoot back. 

this is one of the reasons I do not feel sorry that Israel is fighting back: because I saw this when I worked in Africa. Hospitals and school personnel were killed because they were civilians without weapons and easy targets.

 because we didn't shoot back.

If the leaders of Gaza wanted to protect their civilians, they would release the hostages. They would collect those behind the atrocities and arrest them. And they would let in neutral observers to see this is done

not a UN that has an agenda (keep them in camps instead of resettling them in other lands because it keeps them in a job  and lets their friends steal the money).but maybe Sweden or China?

 but they won't: because they will continue to post propaganda that will be believed by the naive children of light who underestimate the power of selfishness, greed, power and hatred. 

these terrorists are Islamic radicals, but those who killed my friends in Africa were communists, but it was just an excuse: tribal differences or Islam, it doesn't matter. 

The danger is that if you are not strict in stopping those who do atrocities, they end up taking over. And then the real killing begins.

Think French revolution Think Taiping Rebellion Think PolPot.

So when you hear exaggerated sob stories about Israel's attempt to rid Gaza of these rabid soldiers are hurting civilians, remember you are being gaslighted.

Civilians were warned to leave by Israel. Why didn't all of them leave? I suspect many were prevented leaving,  and because weapons being targeted by Israeli bombs are strored in civilian areas and the propaganda machine needed pictures of dead babies.

the cry is now that the water and electricity and internet were stopped. Apparantly the infrastructure relies on Israel, and they just can't understand why maybe the Israelis are mad at them?

Again I say: Release the hostages, round up those known to have been involved in killing civilians, and voila, peace...

Instead, they celebrate them as heroes to be emulated

The reason for the hostages, both the Israelis kidnapped and the local civilians, is to force Israel to do urban warfare, which is very dangerous. 

Here in the Philipppines the seige of Marawi when a Philippine city was taken over by a splinter group of Islamic terrorists will give you the idea of what is being faced. 

A million fled and most of the local Muslims didn't support them which is why, unlike the terrorists of Gaza, there were no major massacres of local civilians by this group.

So maybe a million Gazans should flee. Oh they won't? Why not?If Iran has sent millions to buy rockets, they can surely afford a couple hundred buses to evacuate civilians. Resettle them in Iran. Lots of Arab areas in Iran so they will settle in easily.

as for lamenting they have no electricity or internet or running water? uh, we have that every typhoon. They didn't prepare for this? You mean they thought Israel would continue to supply these things after being attacked? 

And if you destroy the West, who will keep it running when you take over the world?

who is going to keep the electricity on? China? 

Maybe. But remember, China, like Russia, is less restrained in protecting their own people than the Israelis. 

Google Wolf Warriors and Wagner group. and remember sometimes you get what you wish for.

Miscellaneious medical discussions

cross posting articles from my medical blog

many are not well edited because often I take notes as I research a subject as a way of learning about it. 

-----------------

a summary of the shennanigans to cover up Covid's origin. A video of Dr Campbell with an expert ,,, a bit technical..two copies of the video in case Youtube rmeoves it: alternative link

-------------------------------------

a discussion of transgender problems and follow the money. Alas, the video has been removed by Youtube. but google left my comments about the side effects of puberty blockers and hormones. I took these for endometriosis/fibroid tumors and cried for three months.

and then they wonder at the high suicide rate?

--------------------------

>Overcharging for covid vaccines in South africa: Al J article

an article reviewing the Dengue vaccine,, from the medical journal Lancet.

Dengue continues to be a major problem here, but the vaccine side effects made many parents avoid regular vaccines for their kids

..........

Malaria vaccine being hyped, but not very good.

I posted a shorter version of this on this blog. The problem? Only partial protection (so when the kid gets sick with a breakthrough infection, the news will go around the vaccine is no good, and parents will refuse the series of shots). The other problem? The study here was only on 400 kids.

so it should be going into second generation studies (of thousands) and still be considered experimental but it is being hyped as an approved vaccine. And of course no follow up for side effects.

---------------

Smallpox and Mpox vaccine: Discussion of the history of the most recent version of smallpox vaccine. Technical and mainly my notes...no conclusion because I haven't looked into it enough to have an opiniom

------------

Vaccine controversies on the advice to give another booster and also if your babies need the shot....linked to a video of Dr Campbell.

The essay also links to an article in the local paper about maybe those who approved of the dengue vaccine for kids here will be sued.

===========

Medical ethics: link to Dr Campbell discussing the Nuremburg code

-------------

Down's syndrome and the humanity of unborn children.

IVF discards many of these children, and prenatal testing results in their abortionn. So where are the voices in their defense of our children?

yes, the scientists insist seeing these embryos in the fridge as just a pile of cells, but often the moms think of them as Junior... and if Jeremiah is to be believed, the Lord has the same opinion.

---------

xenotranplantation: china is using pigs to grow organs to tranplant.

-------------

Destroying or diverting Prepfar, a program that supplies drugs for HIV positive people in Africa.

the US now seeks to use these funds to push population control and abortion so a few pro life types are trying to stop the program (or maybe just stop this part of the funding but being accused of trying to stop the program to tar them as bad). I have friends who run these clinics, and know some who have family members alive due to the program.

-------------

biohacking life...a link to a podcast about China hacking American experiments trying to build life

.................

Thank you for dying. Discusses a NYT article about how dying lowers the budget.

everyday heroes

........

..

One Indian also murdered in same manner....🙏 pic.twitter.com/rRBWOxaOUK

— Vikas (@HajelaVikas) October 11, 2023

.....

some commenters noted the Indian caregiver was alive, but no details. The point is that she risked death to care for her patient.

Side with the civilized, not the barbarians

 There is a story about a time when the Mongols were asking the crusader states to help them fight the local Muslims, so they could pass through and invade Egypt.

The king of France thought this was a great idea, but the Pope had received news of the horrible massacres, especially the destruction of Baghdad, and said do not help them: because one should always side with the civilized, not with the barbarians.

The usual idiots are rejoicing that Hamas soldiers massacred unarmed men, women and children. 

One expects this of barbarians but the shame is that the left in the US is rejoicing with them. 

They are siding with the barbarians, and more shame to them.

And of course, the anti war left will shout with anger about genocide when Israel destroys munitions hidden in civilian areas (a war crime to hide munitions in civilian areas because of the danger, but never mind: when they explode, and civilians are injured, they just shout it's Israel's fault.) Just ignore that Israel gave them ample warning to leave.

This has been going on for years. And it long predates the state of Israel.

Hatred is a choice: look at Yugoslavia, whose civil war killed hundreds of thousands because locals remembered hatred between ethnic groups, some of which went back centuries. This was blamed on religion despite the fact that few in that country went to church or mosque and the churches opposed the war.

There are religious ïssues behind the action:

 GetReligion has a list of them here, including the Jewish right wing desire to destroy the Mosque in Jerusalem and build a new Temple. Won't happen, of course, but hey it makes good propaganda to inflame hatred of Israel.

No, hatred is a choice in all these conflicts. 

So anyway, yes the Palestinians had a bad deal and the heavy hand of Israel makes it worse, 

But my question: missiles are expensive, so where did they get the money? Stolen from money meant to support civilians of course. 

but when every peace plan was refused, and when Palestinian terrorists have sponsored repeated attacks against civilians, even civilians outside of the area, occur, then one has to say: grow up. 

It's sort of like what Trump told North Korea; you can have resorts and money or you can continue to face starvation by promoting war and nuclear weapons. 

Ah, but making peace would mean the big shots would lose the ability to steal money and have power. Not logical but alas true. And so they spout propaganda that is alas believed by the naive children of light.

According to the scripture "the children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light." This observation fits the modern situation. Our democratic civilization has been built, not by children of darkness but by foolish children of light. It has been under attack by the children of darkness, by the moral cynics, who declare that a strong nation need acknowledge no law beyond its strength. It has come close to complete disaster under this attack, not because it accepted the same creed as the cynics; but because it underestimated the power of self-interest, both individual and collective, in modern society. The children of light have not been as wise as the children of darkness.

StrategyPage has a long analysis of the situation, Sacrificing Hamas, which can be summarized as saying the Mullahs of Iran were willing to sacrifice Hamas (and Gaza) to stop the growing agreements between the Sunni Arab world and Israel. 

It is a warning to these states that their proxies can do the same to destroy them too.

and any Israeli attack on Iran might take the pressure off of a government that is facing increased opposition due to...women's clothing of all things. 

Jailing and having women die in custody because they refuse to wear a headscarf should have energized the left in the West who usually cares about human rights: indeed one jailed leader of the protest just won the Nobel Peace Prize. 

And one wonders these supporters of Islam were when China decided to reeducate their Uighar people, or when the Rohingye were chased from a land where they had lived for generations. 

hey the BLM protests have resulted in increased crime and are becoming unpopular so they have to protest something. 

alas these protests bodes poorly for ordinary Muslims in the USA who just want to raise families and be part of a free society, because now they will face more suspicion of being possible terrorists by too many of the public there.

Sigh.

Gaslighting and lies anyone/?

 Manipulating people by gaslighting and by ridicule.

a lesson on how good, loyal folk can be manipulated by sociopaths and narcissists. 

Right now, when the Pope is spreading confusion by contradictory statements,manipulations, lies, gaslighting,  and by saying both A and B at different times: so that if you quote A YOU are the problem because he also said B... if you object, you are accused of of disloyalty by his minions. 

There is a lot of similar gaslighting and lies are going on in the latest shennanigans of the so called Synodal meeting in Rome.

 The assumption is that meetings let all have a say. But anyone who has been at some such meetings know this is nonsense: They are to manipulate you into group think.

We had done to us in the 1960s and 1970s... a meeting supposed to represent everyone stressing that everyone should give their honest opinion... but the meeting is run by those with an agenda and includes extras who are known to agree with the predetrmined agenda. So even if you suspect many in the group agree with you, they keep quiet in the face of criticism... Don't disagree with them, or you are called disloyal or rigid or a hundred variations of stupid... easier to keep quiet.

Am I being cynical? Yup. 

The dirty little secret about all this synodality stuff is that these meetings have the conclusion predecided by those running it: they are a sham meetings. 

We saw Pope Francis pull this trick a couple of years ago in a meeting about the family, where the plan was to have the bishops approve of allowing divorced and remarried outside the church to receive the sacraments although living in sin. 

Some bishops notieced the already prewritten report (italics mine) on the meeting included this, so they made it known and that part was removed: But someone snuck it in in a small footnote, and voila soon the Pope was telling bishops on the phone it was okay, pointing to the footnote to support his opinion. 

Yup. The footnote trick of sleezy crooked lawyers, and no one said: Wait a second. Because loyalty to the Pope. (italics and sarcasm mine).

Ah, but is he pope when the election was irregular and manipulated by a powerful group who wanted to change the church? Not my area of expertise, but a lot of people are questioning it because it was politically manipulated by the StGallen group.

what about now? Is unity and niceness is more important than calling out a liar? That is what we see in the Trad community: Respect above all else.

 Mr Matt, call your office

Censoring Viganò? Michael Matt responds. pic.twitter.com/nlHzNNmXeh

— Michael J. Matt (@Michael_J_Matt) October 2, 2023

Sigh.

the latest atrocity?

when asked point blank by four important bishops if he supported blessing of gay couples, a ceremony that the press and the woke are insisting is the church's stealth way to approve of gay marriage, the Pope, after saying marriage is sacred, went on to ignore common sense and reality when he said no this is charity and individuals could discern by themselves whether or not to do it. LINK

Excuse me, I am a physician.

I often treat people whose behavior is literally killing themselves. 

I am charitable and try to help them, but I would not be a good physician if I said: OK go ahead and pig out on junk food to someone who is obese, or it's okay to have a double chocolate shake to a diabetic, or don't tell a person with COPD to stop smoking, or say hey, one or two drinks are okay to a known alcoholic, or tell a person or a couple joints on a weekend won't hurt you, when you suspect that the person is into all sorts of drug use because his grandmother keeps losing her pain pills from her purse.

this might work for ordinary folk, but we docs know that there are some who will twist what we said to justify their dangerous behavior.

Ditto with sexual practices that endager one's health.

So do you follow common sense and recognize reality, or do you pretend everything is sweetness and light and evil does not exist.

So the Pope pretends what he is doing is charity, but what he is actually doing is sending a message that wink wink it's okay to have sex outside of marriage, and in today's world that means people will think the Pope said that there is nothing is wrong with promiscuity... 

because it might hurt their feelings if you say: do this you are endangering your health (STDs, MPox), your family, your children's welfare, or in this case endangering your soul

FAMILY NEWS

Ruby is teaching English and Philippine literature at high school level in Manila. Her description of what she is teaching reminds me of my advanced placement English classes in high school: which makes sense since it is an international (private) school.

Of course, although I enjoy that type of analysis of literature, it is a bit over my head, since I tend not to be sensitive to such nuances.

Joy is busy with her business, and is taking the day off after three days of trade fairs in Manila.

Kuya is at the farm harvesting rice.

We now rent a harvester/thresher to do this, which is faster but you have to schedule it because a lot of people use the machine.

when we first moved here, the rice was cut by hand, but we had a small thresher that could separate the rice from the straw. But now it is done by machine. We still plant by hand (planting seedlings in mud for the major summer harvest, just casting rice for the second winter harvest that often doesn't give a good yield and requires irrigation so it is more expensive to grow and harvest).

In other news, the maid reports a young girl was attacked by a street dog and died "from rabies".

When there is funding the city gives out free rabies shots (right now, they are short of funds thanks to covid etc). But the girl died in a few days, which can occur with a facial bite, but maybe it was actually from infection. I'll ask Dr Angie next time I see her.

GMA article says there was 122 people died of rabies last year. Of course it could be more, since not everyone goes to the hospital.

When covid hit, a lot of people threw their dogs on the street: very sad. An old lady who lost her husband had her dog thrown out by her grown children when they moved in with her. The dog was ugly, with malnutrition and mange. So we fed it. Mange treatment was expensive, but I had some ivermectin here and that worked as well as the expensive one from the vet. The bad news? She's on her third set of puppies...usually the puppies disappear when half grown. Usually for pets, (she is friendly to all) but we don't check too closely because pooe people have been known to eat dogs here, and right now the price of food has gone up and it is a major crisis for the new president. Import cheap rice to keep the price of rice down? (will help the city poor, but make the rice dealers rich), or wait til the harvest (ah but will local rice be bought at a low price because of the low price of imports?),

They are doing something, but I don't know the details except Kuya had a government order last week but it was cancelled at the last minute.

as for me: I'm living a life of leisure as a retired lady. No problems, no money...oh well.