censoring medicine: Politics not science

 LegalInsurrection blog links to the latest twiiter expose on how discussions about covid were censored by a think tank.

Independent journalist Matt Taibbi examined Stanford University’s ‘Virality Project,’ which was ostensibly meant to combat “disinformation.” Actually, however, it appears to have targeted COVID content that ran counter to the establishment narrative.

So a private thinktank, not a government interfering with free speech, right? 

Uh... NO.

Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey...described the program: Federal health officials in the Surgeon General’s Office, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Health and Human Services collaborated in a “censorship enterprise called the Virality Project, which procures the censorship of enormous quantities of First Amendment-protected speech.”

Disinformation warriors worked overtime to suppress “false” claims about the side effects of COVID vaccine, especially the true claims. Since the Food and Drug Administration officially (and speedily) approved COVID vaccines, any reports of side effects were automatically disinformation.

The Virality Project recommended that social-media companies suppress “stories of true vaccine side effects” and “true posts which could fuel [vaccine] hesitancy.” The project “routinely framed real testimonials about [vaccine] side effects as misinformation, from ‘true stories’ of blood clots from AstraZeneca vaccines to a New York Times story about vaccine recipients who contracted the blood disorder thrombocytopenia.”

there is a long line of twitter posts, links, and refernces.

This would barely be acceptable if Covid was a severe disase (think smallpox or plague), but in today's world, it has larger implications.

@mtaibbi

·

Follow

http://44.To recap: America’s information mission went from counterterrorism abroad, to stopping “foreign interference” from reaching domestic audiences, to 80% domestic content, much of it true. The “Disinformation Governance Board” is out; but truth-policing is not.

10:09 PM · Mar 17, 2023

Now alas the crazies will say conspiracy theory. 

Nuances are important: Which is why one needs free speech. By censoring free speech, you let the crazies and paranoids think they were right.

and one of the results is a loss of trust in the medical community, and in vaccines which save millions of lives but do have side effects that could kill a small number of people.

So do you stop people from spreading conspiracy theories that could result in hundreds dying, or do you use the power of the government to censor such talk?

We saw this dilemma here in the Philippines, with the debacle over the dengue vaccine, which was given to thousands of poor children at risk from that disease.

The Dengue vaccine here in the Philippines had side effects  that made getting complicated dengue more common, and probably killed a dozen kids (alJ says many more died ).

.

as the film reports: the bad publicity from these deaths resulted in a lack of trust in other vaccines, and as a result dozens of kids dying of measles, etc.

So by the time Covid came around, one would suspect people would not get the vaccine. But that was not true, in part because a lot of us knew people who died of covid: not the elderly (elderly deaths are considered normal) but of the young and healthy middle age folk.

But once the omicron varient started, herd immunity meant the death rate was down, and not a lot of people are getting boosters, although they are still giving it to kids.

Our case load is low: But I suspect that it is because no one is being tested unless they are sick enough to go to the hospital.

The Haunted Red House of Bulacan

The Red House of Bulacan, where Filipinos were tortured and killed, and where women were raped by Japanese soldiers is again in the news.

PhilInquirer:

MEMORIAL TO HORRORS The Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (Cedaw) is recommending the preservation of the Ilusorio Mansion (1997 photo on left), also called Bahay na Pula (2019 photo, right), in San Ildefonso, Bulacan province, as a memorial to the horrors experienced by young girls, their mothers, aunts, and even their grandmothers, who were forced into sexual slavery in this house by the Japanese Imperial Army during World War II. The UN body says the Philippines violated their rights by failing to provide them with reparation, social support, and recognition for their ordeal. —JOAN BONDOC / TONETTE T. OREJAS

Read more: https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/?p=1744675#ixzz7wGcwbmFC

this second article also reports on the use of comfort women in that house. The survivors and their families want the story to be remembered.

Yes, I know, this week is about Women's day, but why do I feel a lot of this emphasis on women is because political correctness

 it wasnt just the comfort women who suffered in the house: men and boys captured as suspected anti Japanese guerillas were tortured and killed there, including, we suspect, Lolo's cousin.

wikipedia page

The house is now in ruins but reported to be haunted.

How to make people mistrust doctors

 Sheesh. 

.....

Family news

 I am now almost recovered from my post shingles pain. I still have arthritis/aches and pains, but I can live with that.

Right now it is TagInit (the dry hot season before the monsoons hit). Usually it hits 90 degrees F with 90 percent humidity, so I tend to stay inside during the afternoon with the airconditioner on.

Since it is dry season, the city is fixing the streets around our house.

With the opening of the economy after covid, there are new shops and apartments being built in our area (and a new mall a mile from here near the new city hall).

To control traffic, the main street is one way, and there is a fence down the middle of the street to encourage traffic flow and discourage the tricycles from weaving in and out of traffic and causing accidents. Traffic is especially heavy near the Palenke up the street, and the city square nearby where they hold parties etc. all the time, complete with a ferris wheel and a night market with street foods. 

But two blocks before the plaza, traffic is diverted to an alternate street: the street around our house that has long been used to divert traffic in the opposite direction. And the heavy trucks (usually carrying dirt/ gravel or during harvest time, rice) were breaking the older street, breaking the pipes beneath the road that carry water, and sometimes even breaking the lid over the drainage ditches. 

So for the last week we have a bunch of workers who have torn up the street and are laying gravel, presumably to be covered with cement in the near future.

When the heavy machine was pounding the old road into pieces, it was two men, but now we have eight of them out there doing heavy work in the hot sun.

They have a huge jug of water, and the neighbor is letting them get water from her pump, and our cook is giving them ice to keep the water cold, I gave the cook a small amount of money to buy them pandesal (small rolls) or other snacks for merienda, the mid afternoon snack. '

Money is tight....Lately the banks have gone crazy and I am having trouble getting my checks cleared: not just my personal checks but the cashier checks from a small pension I get regularly.

Usually I am on a budget, and cash a check to cover food and expenses every week. It takes 21 bank days to clear, so I try to plan ahead. Then last week, the check didn't clear.... and didn't clear... and didn't clear. I finally asked what was the problem, and was told it now will take 45 days to clear a check. 

This happened during the covid shutdown, when the bank would be contaminated and closed, and they weren't sending physical checks to Manila and then overseas to clear, but now I suspect it is just a way for the bank to cope with inflation (keeping that money longer means they get the interest on the money. Not much from me, but multiply that by hundreds and you see the scam).

So I arranged for my US bank to wire me money, as I did during the covid shutdown, and it should arrive Monday.

The Whale

 We just watched the film the Whale.

Excellent acting.

The Whale is a double reference: not just to the protagonist's morbid obesity, but to a subplot about Moby Dick, which alas is never made clear in the film.

As a doctor, I found the film alas too realistic, 

It shows the challenges and frustrations of those of us who try to intervene with people who refuse to give up habits that are endangering their lives. Here it is eating (gluttony) but in medicine usually the problem affecting their health that we can't fix is usually alcohol or drugs or a promiscuous lifestyle.

we see this type of patient, who is stubborn, and has no insight into life: indeed, it's almost as if there is a part of their personality that is missing. And so it is here with the main character.

The main character has a major disconnect with reality. This is shown late in the film: his obsession is saving  his money to let his daughter inherit oodles of money when he dies. The money is cheap grace so he will be forgiven when he dies and his daugher will again love him.

 And never mind that his ex wife and daughter were not just deserted but that they ended up living living in poverty and could have used some of that money.

The love of his life was not a guy he met in a gay bar, but one of his students.

Harvey Weinstein anyone?

This student later committed suicide, which was of course blamed on his father's cultlike Christian church that rejected him for being gay.

Yet this ignores the high rate of psychiatric problems, including suicide,  of young people who were sexually exploited by teachers or clergy as young adults.

The protagonist seems oblivious to this fact (also a common response by those who abuse the young).

 They were in Love.

 Bah humbug. He seduced a student. An immature student. Am I the only one noticing he was probably banned from seeing his daughter and had to teach on line  not because of "homophobia" but because he was probably a registered sex offender and forbidden contact with underage students?

But of course, to explain the student's suicide, the film pulls out their favorite straw man type figure, the believing Christian, who seem to come right out of the latest Left Behind movie: you know, those who spout out of context bible verses at you to convert you.

These Christians seem more common in Hollywood films than in reality where the average Christians is the nice Lutheran Lady who brings you a plate of food when you're sick, or the Catholic next door who drives you to the doctor for your chemotherapy, or the Baptist guy down the street who will come to change your electric fuse when the lights go out and you don't know what is wrong.

Sigh. 

But in other ways, the film gets it right: for example, showing the struggle of caregivers who face trying to help people who just won't help themselves. The psychological lack of insight that they are causing their own problems is alas common in some patients.

The film gets most of the medical complications of morbid obesity correct. (something treatable with time and intensive intervention).

But I do have a problem in that, although the film implies depression was behind the guy's problem, it ignores that depression is a treatable disease.

This is a tragedy because all of these problems could be treated: Bypass surgery for morbid obesity, medication to control his high blood pressure and Congestive heart failure, medication and psychiatric therapy to help him confront his depression and guilt. 

And dare I say: maybe finding a real life clergyperson with experience in treating the sickness of souls to intervene. Or at least encouragement to join an AA group, which also could teach him to forgive himself, and ask forgiveness of others he hurt. He didn't need to eat himself to death to to punish himself.

I give the movie a 3 out of 5 stars: and warning: Very depressing film.

Films for Lent

there are few movies about religious believers that are high quality and get things right. 

Most of them are placed in the past, where believers actually believed and where you can pretend our ancestors never faced the same dileemas we face in these modern, corrupt times...

But modern ones? Rare: they present believers as ridiculous idiots and get things wrong, making one want to throw shoes at the screen when something especially absurd is shown.

But where is a contemporary film or tv series that takes on issues that resonate in today's world?

The book Brideshead Revisited has been made into a film, which cut out a lot of plot and characters and nuanced stuff, and there are rumors that they plan to refilm it again which I'm suspect will be politically correct and unwatchable.

Well never fear.

Someone has posted the 1981 mini Series  on youtube.

quick, before the copyright cops find it's there.

   

The scenery is great, and the characters are played by classic actors such as Jeremy Irons, Sir Lawrence Olivier etc.

From a Catholic point of view, it is accurate in portraying the pre Vatican II church, with all it's flaws and rules.

 The characters include a wide spectrum of believers and non believers: From the father, who rejects the faith because his holier than thou wife drove him away, his mitress,the lovely essentially agnostic Julia, the lovable Sebastion whose mother doesn't seem to worry he is gay but keeps trying to push him to stop drinking and makes it worse, Charles, his friend and narrator, 

So where would I fit in? I'd be Cordelia, the plain sister who simply helps people.

the audiobook is here LINK 

Happy Pi Day

 LINK

Pi Day is celebrated on March 14th (3/14) around the world. Pi (Greek letter “π”) is the symbol used in mathematics to represent a constant — the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter — which is approximately 3.14159. Pi Day is an annual opportunity for math enthusiasts to recite the infinite digits of Pi, talk to their friends about math, and eat pie.

Some things that still work

 With all the bad news (much of it seems to be caused by corruption, political correctness, or just sloppyness/incompetence) it's nice to know that some things work.

SpaceX just brought some astronauts back from the ISS.

The four astronauts on the SpaceX Dragon capsule, named Endurance, splashed down late Saturday (March 11), wrapping up a five-month mission to the International Space Station. Returning on the capsule were NASA astronauts Josh Cassada and Nicole Mann, Japan's Koichi Wakata and cosmonaut Anna Kikina of Russia, who splashed down in darkness after streaking over the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Tampa Bay, Florida at 9:02 p.m. EST (0202 GMT on March 12).

 

The successes in the space race would only be seen as news if something went wrong I guess.

headsup Instapundit.

Best comment about this there:

I find this just amazing. This is done with no fanfare, just doing a day job. I am 76 and remember Sputnik and the start of Space explorations. Its a Damn shame that it has taken so long to get where we are. We should have had a permeant base on the Moon, with trips to further points.'

how films can teach about the American dream

 I just read that the actor Topol just died. Remebered HERE.

So I dug out this film to watch (the family watches film or TV together every evening).

this film is a classic, and covers the story of both the importance of traditions that stablize families in times of poverty, but also confronts how people adjust in the face of change: not just the marriage of the daughters but when political oppression causes people to leave their homes.

  but somehow didn't win a lot of awards: it lost best picture at the Oscars to the French connection, a good film but not a classic.

yet in these days where everything is about America's sin and racism, one forgets that the reason many came to America was that they were fleeing oppression, ethnic cleansing (Russian Jews and from VietNam), famine (like the Irish) or extreme poverty (like Italians and eastern Europeans)  or maybe just lower class people who came for jobs (yes, Trumpieboy I'm talking about your mom) because they had no way to improve their lot in their homelands

Which is why the Jewish community and others fled to America, and sympathize with others who similarly want to come to the USA.

and it is the reason that, with the borders essentially being open, that there are a lot of people to help them in their trip (yes, this includes NGO's helping the drug gangs who know how to get people across the border.)

Myself, I think a bit of regulation is in order but that might mean compromise, not bluster (trumpieboy) or pretending the problem doesn't exist (Biden)

On top of this is the well funded manipulation of history about Americas racism, which is causing resentment and hatred to flare up, including crime and destruction of small businesses that often are run by recent immigrants. 

I am old enough to remember racism in the 1950s, but things have changed, and teaching history to inflame emotions and point guilt to "white people" (A term I first heard on NPR and wondered if this meant my Filipino/ethnic American/ Hispanic family or other hard working ethnics not considered oppressed by the elites who run this scam) 

This is different than teaching it in context of how things have changed, and how we can make things better (teach math and English skills).

Fine, teach black history. But don't forget the coffin ships, the pogroms, the ethnic cleansings, or those who fled the famines of Europe or the dire poverty where the peasants and workers had no opportunity to improve their lot so came to America. 

A bit if history might put things in perspective.

Kuya asked where did they go, and how did they pay for it? Good question. Some did sell their homes etc. and had money, some were helped by their relatives who had moved to other countries and sent money and would welcome them when they arrived, but others just went the best they could and relied on the kindness of strangers.

By remembering the extreme poverty of one's ancestors that brought them to America, one can sympathize with those trying to cross the border. And remembering their ancestors who fled oppression would cause them to sympahize with others who face the same thing today, both immigrants fleeing oppression or those facing racism in the USA.

But where are the stories of what happens when poor immigrants get to the USA? A lot of the annoyance is because the idea that they get welfare. Money is tight right now, and saying tax money has to go to support immigrants who don't want to work causes resentmen (as does competing with immigrants who do want to work for blue collar jobs).

the Catholic church  has outreaches to help these immigrants, but even the Catholic papers tend to talk about the help given, not about how the immigrants find jobs and raise families.

But there is a film abou that:

Post earthquake Recovery efforts in Turkey/Syria continue

 It's been a month since the severe earthquake in Turkey/Syria hit, and it hasn't been in the news much, so I thought I'd check in. 

Here is a BBC report:

Sigh.

Several things to notice: NPR report here.

Many have left for other areas, presumably to government shelters or to live with relatives.

But some have stayed: Some people don't want to leave because what is left of their possessions are being stolen by looters. 

And it's wintertime, so it's cold when you live in tents.. And simple things taken for granted in the modern world are lacking: not just electricity and gas for cooking, but clean water for drinking, bathing, and washing clothes/diapers.

Sigh.

Earthquakes in that area of Turkey/Syria are alas common, and often older homes are the ones that collapse, because they are not built up to standard.

But one of the backstory of these buildings collapsing is corruption.

From StrategyPage:

The big earthquake and its aftershocks killed over 46,000 people in Turkey and damaged over 200,000 buildings (one report said 215,000).,,.

The February 6 quake killed over 6,000 people in Syria. The Turkish government says around two million survivors are now living in temporary accommodations.

A second earthquake occurred on February 20. It did far less damage but seriously hindered relief operations. All Turkish media report the February 6 quake as the worst natural disaster in the history of modern Turkey. '

There are political consequences. Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan is facing intense criticism for his slow response to the massively destructive February 6 earthquake

The earthquakes have also made governmental failure to enforce construction standards an election issue. What lies behind the failure? A substantial number of citizens think it was corruption by national and local officials.

italics mine.

Here in the Philippines, if you build, you have to have the city engineers approve the building. The concrete blocks must be reinforced by iron bars, and be able to support the upper floors (which is why we never put the second floor on our old house: it was built 40 years ago and the engineers said it wouldn't support it).

Poor quality construction  material is a problem. So often you pay extra to buy western or Japanese/Taiwan products (and hope it is not mislabled) since local and Chinese imports might not be up to standard.

So yes, corruption kills. And that could have election consequences in Turkey, and of course, what happens in Turkey (a NATO country) has implications not only for NATO but for the war in the Ukraine. 

I didn't live here in the Philippines after the big 1990 earthquake, or after Mt Pinatubo erupted, but since we get hit by typhoons every two to three years, some of the problems of recovery is similar.

There are a lot of people out there helping those displaced or hurt by the earthquake. The international groups get most of the publicity, but private help by relatives, friends, and from the large Turkish diaspora.

We saw this after the big typhoons. The private relief often is wasted because of logistical problems, but here, after typhoons, often famlies got a car and filled it with stuff for their relatives. And of course, families took in friends, relatives, and even strangers who needed shelter.

 Now, one thing we noticed when we were hit by a bad typhoon and had no water or electricity for a week, was that our neighbors all came here to charge their cellphones so they could get in touch with relatives.

yes, we have landlines here (which we use for business) but most countries now have cellphone towers and cheap cellphones. When I first came here, I had to go to internet cafes to go on line because the landline internet was slow. But now we have fast internet. When there is no electricity, we use a generator, and usually cellphone towers are working. so, we can check  our cellphones to get on line. 

The report from the local telecom companies there is a month old, but apparently they did respond to help keep communications up.

State-owned Türk Telekom said that it has also dispatched base stations, and said that its 105-person Türk Telekom Search and Rescue Team had deployed in the area. Both telecoms companies said that they were making domestic mobile and landline calls free, as well as WiFi hotspots in affected regions. However, the operators called on citizens to only use the phone for emergency calls.`

and yes, Elon Musk offered to help, but was told Starlink wasn't needed. 

The Turkish government reportedly declined an offer for SpaceX's Starlink dishes, which are not licensed in the country, claiming they had sufficient satellite connectivity.

 We had satellite cable tv and satellite internet years ago when I worked in isolated areas with the IHS. So I presume this is what they are talking about.

Manipulating the news

 The slow release of the twitter files that show how the federal government and others (often NGO's claiming to be independent but who receive government funding) were censoring twitter (and probably other social media sites) is a "duh" moment for most of us who wondered about this.

Max Taibbi Thread here.

Lots of this is about US politics, but some is about censorship of the anti vax nuts, who hated vaccines long before the questions of the mRNA vaccine came up. 

Indeed, the fact that these crazies started the questioning was one reason pushed not to believe this stuff, at least until Joe Rogan blew up the narrative and some countries banned certain vaccines.

I got the AZ (british) vaccine, an adenovirus based shot, mainly because originally the DOH here in the Philippines refused to sign a liability waiver paper that would forbid anyone getting side effects from the vaccine to sue Pfizer. (so instead of having it available in January, it didn't arrive until October or so, and by then I guess the DOH figured it was safe since few reports of problems were resported). So we got all sorts of different vaccines from all sorts of countries, but here I got the AZ and our employees, who were lower risk, got the Chinese vaccine, which didn't help much but was better than nothing.

Right now, except for testing everyone before admission to the hospital, and wearing a mask in the bank, the Covid story is pretty well ignored: Latest statistics:

162 new cases and 12 new deaths in the Philippines 

When I got the AZ vaccine, I was aware of the risk of blood clots (that made a lot of countries not give it to the young) but since I am high risk, I figured the cost benefit ratio was okay for my age and comorbidity cohort.

But when it came to the mRNA vaccines, instead of admitting the problem and letting people chose, the story was censored even when experts, not paranoid crazies, tried to raise the question if we should be giving so many shots to low risk types.

Here is one tweet on the thread:

WTF? Censor "true posts which could fuel hesitancy".

If things weren't so polarized, maybe one could have a discussion of such things. 

Fat old ladies with asthma, yes get the shot. Thin male athletes who probably are immunie thanks to the omicron version probably not. And babies? Why?

Censorship is not just bad, but illegal in the USA.

And the hysteria about Trumpieboy and the protest complaining that voter fraud was not investigated was the story for the last two years, but now that Elon Musk is having known liberal reporters investigate Twitter's censorship problem, I suspect more folks will prefer the propaganda of Fox news over the propaganda of the elites who want to guide you in thinking.

One person, reading how the CIA and others manipulated stories to get the correct folks elected in effect quipped: Well, why not? The CIA manipulates elections all over the world, so why not in the USA?

Yes, and one reason that there is so much distrust of the Ukraine narrative is not just the Russian bots, but because the CIA funded the media years ago to overthow a pro Russia president there, and a lot of the money to do this was via Omidyar money.

and just because the Omidyar group funded Ressa and Rappler to oppose Duterte, it's no reason to believe that this was the CIA trying to manipulate the Philippine elections in the same way they did in the Ukraine.

It didn't work because Duterte had grass roots support because cleaned up Davao. 

The anti Duterte English language website Rappler was essentially started with money from the Omidyar group, the same ones behing the press manipulation in the Ukraine years ago... 

But they overlooked one thing: the funding was illegal.

Filipinos love Yanks but not when they are pushed around by outsiders, so Ressa had to pretend it was a gift, and then the gov't said ah and did you pay taxes on it?  And this was spun by the western press as if she was a heroine.

But anyway, on the long twitter thread, they discuss various government funded NGOs, and a disinformation specialist named Renee DiResta 

Matt Taibbi @mtaibbi · 13h 33. This is the Censorship-Industrial Complex at its essence: a bureaucracy willing to sacrifice factual truth in service of broader narrative objectives. It’s the opposite of what a free press does. Matt Taibbi @mtaibbi · 13h 34. Profiles portray DiResta as a warrior against Russian bots and misinformation, but reporters never inquire about work with DARPA, GEC, and other agencies.

In the video below from @MikeBenzCyber , Stamos introduces her as having "worked for the CIA": ...she has become the public face of the Censorship-Industrial Complex, a name promoted everywhere as an unquestioned authority on truth, fact, and Internet hygiene, even though her former firm, New Knowledge, has been embroiled in two major disinformation scandals.

and then up pops this photo: Okay folks nothing to see here. Just move along.

The Hands of Cormac Joyce

 I read the book many many years ago and the film is on TCM, which we don't get in the Philippines, but there is a fuzzy copy HERE with watermark for those of you who want to see this classic story about the Irish fishermen who had the choice to evacuate or stay when a storm hit their island.

It stars Stephen Boyd and Coleeen Dewhurst as the parents.

More about the film here. on the Stephen Boyd Blog.

Stephen plays the father, Cormac Joyce, who is the apple of his son’s eye. A storm is brewing off the coast, and as the islanders flee for the mainland, Cormac is determined to stay. When he injures his hand while trying to pull his curragh ashore, his son decides to stay with his father to protect their home from the storm. The wife also stays and the weather the huge waves of the Atlantic storm together.

We have lived through five or six typhoons, including two bad ones, and the wind is horrific. Luckily we live inland and our house is built of concrete, and is on higher ground (three feet above the road), and not near the river, so the main danger is flying objects or the roof being blown off.  That last one is dangerous for the old wooden traditional homes, or the flimsy houses in our area (we live downtown, not in a gated community), and years ago our chicken houses were flattened in one severe typhoon. Luckily we had just harvested the chickens, so we didn't lose any poultry, but it cost too much to rebuild especially since the relative who ran the place decided to move to the UK and join his wife, a nurse.

Usually the people near the river or on low ground are evacuated: many go to relatives or friend's houses, but some go to the Gym which is the local evacuation center up the street, on higher ground. And yes it floods, so many homes near the river are destroyed, but we only had our house flooded once, with four inches of water. Our neighbors stayed home, but asked if they could move the cars into our meeting room so the engines wouldn't be flooded.

The flooding can be fast: Once Ruby was attending a concert in Manila, and the typhoon was mild and supposed to be south of Manila, but late in the afternoon it changed course, headed north, and got stronger. The flooding was so bad that they couldn't go across the high bridge (30 feet over the river) so took refuge in a gas station/shop. And then the waters got worse, and they had to take refuge on the roof of the shop, since the current was too strong to wade to the nearest two story house fifty feet away. So they spent the night in the wind and rain, and we were worried sick because we couldn't reach her phone. By morning the flood had gone down, the winds had passed, and they contacted us so we had a neighbor pick them up with his truck.

Often the deaths in typhoons are from storm surge, floods, etc. 

which is what happens in this film to the elderly neighbors who refused to leave their home. Sigh.

Ironically, the movie was filmed in Australia and played on the Hallmark Hall of Fame, which before it evolved into Romance central used to have films of classic stories as TV specials.

 

It is based on the short novel by Irish Writer Leonard Wibberley, who is best known for the satire The Mouse That Roared. 

a short preview from You tube. 

One reason I posted about this was not just that it was a good story, but because in these days when I read nonsense about living "simply" or having a carbon free lifestyle, I always shake my head in despair: Because I spent most of my life working in areas where outsiders might think were romantic happy happy indigenous types, but in reality were living a dirt poor existance where only the strong family ties and a moral system that emphasized the family before one's own desires managed to keep one alive in hard times.

and that is the theme of this short film.

lolo would have been 98 today

Crash landing on.... Bollywood?

 BBC has an article about how the popularity of K dramas has soared in India.

They fall in love but must cross several hurdles - including the line that divides their countries - before they can be together.

If you narrated this story to an Indian a few years ago, their first thought would probably have been the 2004 Bollywood film Veer-Zaara... as star-crossed lovers from India and Pakistan, neighbouring countries that share a tense relationship.

That is, until the 2019 Korean drama Crash Landing On You (CLOY) swept in with a similar premise - centred around neighbours South and North Korea - but with wildly different results.

Plot: a spoiled but unwanted step daughter in a rich family is hang gliding and a storm results in her landing in the DMZ, where she is rescued by a North Korean officer who hides her.

It's not just a contrast in politics as it is about the culture clash between affluent south Korea and the less prosperous north.

In contrast to the all too often boring sex scenes that seem to be put into Western movies to waste time so they don't have to write a plot, the K Dramas are usually PG... and unlike the ladies of the Hallmark Dramas, who never seem to worry about family or money, these films resonate with the up and coming middle classes, caught in dilemmas between tradition and modern freedom.

as the BBC notes:

Plot lines in Korean shows and Bollywood films frequently revolve around the impact (family and tradition) has on protagonists - from choosing who they can love, the careers they can pursue, the obligations women have to their husband's household and the social net provided by families.

 A lot of K dramas are now on Netflix, but here in the Philippines we can watch them on the Korean station, or "tagalized" (dubbed in Tagalog) on the local stations.

this is a list of some of the best dramas, and this video has short reviews of some of the best romances. 

Back to mass time

It's Sunday morning, and time to go to church.

Actually, since elders were banned from going inside the church for two years, and then I got Dengue and was too weak to attend, and then I got shingles and the pain medicine knocked me out, I haven't been to church a lot in the last three years.

And no, I don't consider on line services worth it: receiving God in the Eucharist is the center of the Catholic mass, and the rest is just prayers or boring sermons.

Well, anyway, I am now a lot better, so we went to the early mass here in Gapan. 

I go with Kuya, who is half Catholic and half Baptist, but like me not a true believer who just parrots stuff and obeys, but just one who wants to say hi to God.

The 5:30 am mass has a lot of men there, who attend the early service so they can go to work. And the church is full, but not packed like the later services. 

Every week, they have the statue of the week on the side of the altar. Usually I have to look up whose feast day it was, but today it was Jesus with someone kneeling or groveling at his feet. So I checked, and yup, the gospel is about the Transfiguration, where Jesus took a few apostles up a mountain and suddenly turned bright and started talking to two guys who Peter figured out was Moses and Elias, and as usual he started babbling to cover up his nervousness about building some shelters for them at which point they heard a voice and that really freaked them out and they fell on their faces. Then Jesus came up and told them not to be afraid, and everything was back to normal.

My aunt explained that such a miracle was for them to remember when the shit hit the fan and Jesus was killed. Didn't work for Peter and Andrew who fled, but John remembered...

Even though it was 5:30, we did have music and a small choir there. Hey, this is the Philippines. And it was ordinary Filipino style music, but not the loud happy happy praise music like I am hearing right now from the pentecostal church service held in our meeting hall, which is full of young folks who like that kind of thing.

 Garrison Keillor, of Prarie Home Companion, is still on line with a blog.

Last Sunday his essay was about attending mass: although it was at the local Episcopal Cathedral, one that supports peace and justice, and is nice enough to mention it's memorial healing service for the Red Lake school shooting on it's Wikipedia page. The church seems to be high church (aka similar to the Catholic services or that of many Lutheran churches). 

So go and read it with pleasure.

an excerpt:

I remembered as I came into the cathedral that there is no music at the 8 a.m., no chipper Bach chorale to brighten the mood, no rousing opening hymn, just this scattering of folks in the vastness, like the Church in apostolic times, a few believers hiding out in the catacombs, hoping men in heavy armor don’t break in and bust our heads.

I knelt and prayed for my loved ones, that they be spared my anxiety.

..... What I found inspiring were two Scripture readings, one from the prophet Micah, where the reader faced the line, “O my people, remember what happened from Shittim to Gilgal that you may know the saving acts of the Lord,” and she slowed down when she saw “Shittim” and got traction and very carefully pronounced it “shi-team.” I was the only one in the sanctuary immature enough to enjoy this moment. There were no 13-year-old boys there, just me. I could tell from her voice that the reader had been dreading this for an hour, trying to decide between “shy-tim” and “shi-team” and fearing that she’d slip and pronounce it phonetically and a marble angel would fall and crash and red lights would flash and people would require treatment for post-traumatic stress.

And then moments later she read from First Corinthians that we do not find God through wisdom. No, God chose what is foolish to shame the wise, for God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom.

The thought of God’s foolishness is a radical one, seldom mentioned in church, and near me were some highly educated people, including a man who got his Ph.D. in classic philosophy from Harvard and here I sat, a writer of limericks and a lover of juvenile jokes (Knock-knock. “Who’s there?” Eskimo Christians. “Eskimo Christians who?” Eskimo Christians, I’ll tell you no lies.) and when I went forward for Communion I felt foolishly happy.

.....The world is a mess but dread gets us nowhere so cheer up and then go do what you were put here to do. I was put here to cheer you up. So smile.

Duck stamps

 Ann Althouse reminds us that this year is the 80th anniversary of the Duck Stamp.

WTF you might ask? These stamps:

no, duck stamps are not used for postage, but required for hunting permits.

But like a lot of stamps, stamp collectors buy them, and some people buy them because the money used to buy the stamps is used to buy land for wildlife habitat:

Friends of the Stamp webpage discusses the history of the stamp

They explain: because of overhunting, diversion of wetlands to farming, etc. migratory birds were being threatened, so the government decided to step in and preserve some land for them. The problem? How to fund these purchases.

Voila: Make hunters pay for it by requiring a stamp on their hunting permits.

More about the stamps here.

they are not merely stamps: They have become a collectors item and there is competition to get your design on the stamp.

for movie trivia buffs, you might have run across duck stamps in the movie Fargo:

,,,(in) the 1996 crime-film classic Fargo, you may have noticed a minor stamp-related subplot: Norm Gunderson, husband of main character Marge Gunderson, is hard at work on a painting that he’ll enter into a stamp design competition (he comes in second place). 

there is even a movie about the contest: The Million Dollars Duck Film : available on Amazon Prime:

Animal planet version here:

Here is a short interview with the three brothers who have had their art chosen for the famous stamp:

 

Philippine history

 

the history of these atrocities is often minimized (a lot of articles insist the deaths were from shelling, while minimizing the deliberate killing of civilians out of anger by the Japanese soldiers).

Similarly, the fact that most of those dying in the Bataan Death march were Philippine scouts, not Americans, is often overlooked in the US version of history.

During the Japanese occupation, some politicians and businessmen tried to cooperate, hoping for independence, but found they were just being used.

Many young men including my husband's brother and cousin, joined local guerilla units and hid in the nearby mountains. 

Those caught, or suspected of hiding or withholding information, were often tortured and killed. Our cousin was captured and tortured to death in the notorious Red House. which I was shown when I moved here. The family of that cousin had a shrine to him that included a thank you letter from President Truman.

Luckily, Lolo's brother who fought with the Guerillas throughout the war, got away and survived the war.

At the end of the war, when Mac Arthur encouraged Philippinos to join in the fight, my husband, a teenager, joined his brother but he claims that by then the only think he did was patrol the streets.

The killing did not end after the Manila atrocities: The film mentions the Japanese who fled into the mountains north of here. What is not mentioned was that the soldiers continued to fight and many became isolated from their units and starved. Many of these soldiers would kill villagers to get food, and so often when they attempted to surrender, the locals did not believe them and killed them.

One trivia fact: The Mexican airforce who had expertise in mountain flying were used in this battle. This article gives some idea about this little known part of the war.

History of Hospice care

Back in the 1950s, My mother used to sew incontinence pads for the local cancer home run by the Hawthorne sisters: soft cloth on the outside but layers of newspapers within. We now use blue pads of course, which is a godsend for people with incontinence.

Another difference: back then, people were not told they had cancer, and often died in the hospital, mainly because they required IV or IM narcotics which could not be given at home. On the other hand, keeping people alive with tubes wasn't done then either.

 The Cancer home was run by a group of Dominican sisters in an order founded by the daughter of writer Hawthorne: So they are known as the Hawthorn Dominicans.

Plough Magazine has an article on their work in hospice care for cancer patients.

in Hawthorne, New York, the Dominican congregation of St. Rose of Lima lives a quieter charism. The sisters nurse terminal cancer patients. Their community was founded in 1900 by Rose Hawthorne Lathrop (the daughter of Nathaniel Hawthorne). Lathrop converted to Catholicism and took the religious name Mother Mary Alphonsa. She began by caring for incurable cancer patients on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, and the congregation carries on that work today, outside the city.

Hospice is often run by people of faith, who don't see death as the ultimate evil but as something we all have to face before being taken to our reward. Hence the emphasis by the sisters in the article, who not only are experts on comfort care but people of deep faith who care for people and prepare them for their death.

,,,Sr. Stella Mary was nervous when she began working with patients, but older sisters gave her two pieces of advice. “Remember, you are first a religious.” She would be trained in basic medical care, but her first work would always be to pray and love the patients. Nursing was a way to express that love.

The other piece of advice was more practical – all the patients are terminal. She wouldn’t be a surgeon whose smallest gesture could save a life or end it. Everyone came to the sisters to prepare to die, and hopefully to die well.

Rose Lathrop was not only the daughter of Nathaniel Hawthorne, but an author herself. Her sad marriage and death of her child influenced her to convert to Catholicism and become interested in social causes of the poor in NYC

And she was also influenced by the suffering and death from cancer of her fellow poet Emma Lazerus, whose poem graces the Statue of Liberty.

From TheWorkingNurse: 

Becoming an oncology nurse was a brave decision because cancer was a highly stigmatized disease, associated with “bad heredity,” poor hygiene and immoral behavior. There was also a popular belief, including among some scientists of the time, that cancer was cotagious.

She set up a small hospital in the slums and gradually her and her helpers took vows, first as lay women but then the group evolved to a congragation of nuns.

Howevere, the modern hospice movement owes it's origin to a pious Anglican British woman, Cicely Saunders:

 

While working at St Joseph’s, Cicely devoted herself to establishing a new kind of hospice that combined compassionate care with medical care. In 1967, her vision became a reality when St Christopher’s Hospice in Sydenham, London, opened. St Christopher’s became widely recognised as the first modern hospice because it was the first to combine teaching and clinical research, pain and symptom control with compassionate care.

With all the news of President Jimmy Carter going into hospice care, Hospice is again in the news.

NYTimes article here (behind paywall) gives a good description of how hospices work. 

Hospice teams provide crucial emotional and logistical support, as well. Social workers might assist in setting up a will, power of attorney or funeral arrangements. Spiritual care providers — religious or nondenominational — can help a person come to terms with the end of life through prayer or facilitating conversations with loved ones.

Modern hospice care often stresses home care. The problem? Often the care is overwhelming to caregivers, but hiring full time caregivers and inpatient hospice care is expensive. And with the increased number of people without family, more will need this option.

Sigh. 

another problem: Many people no longer have a religious outlook on life and death, and want to control it and are vulnerable to those who have another agenda, that of killing the aged and inconvenient.

Think I'm wrong? Look at Canada, where so called aid in dying went from killing those terminally ill to killing the handicapped and even poor people who can't get help within a a few years.

or look at the numerous popular films, tv shows, and books that have pushed the idea that killing a person, often one who has other options to live long with proper help, as the only and best way to care for them.

These people alas not only manipulate the media, but alas this mindset has long been pushed by teachers at major medical schools and in both ethical and mainstream medical journals for at least 30 years.

and the coming danger: The infiltration of the hospice movement, which traditionally was run by religious minded folk,  by the cynical and stealthy pro death euthanasia types, who push aid in dying as the best way to go (and never mind noticing that it saves money for the insurance companies/government who are too cheap to offer the more expensive alternative of inpatient hospice). 

Again, you might think I am being paranoid, but anyone who was familiar with the so called bioethics jounals know this is true.Thirty years ago,  when I helped coauthor an article in a medical journal about this, I did some research and I saw how a lot of journals were quietly pushing both medical rationing for the old  and the idea of compassionate killing as part of a doctor's job.

 Indeed, many medical schools today do not use the Hippocratic oath, that forbids the taking of life, but instead use more modern versions, such as the Oath of Dr Lasagna (written in 1964) that includes this line: 

Most especially must I tread with care in matters of life and death. If it is given me to save a life, all thanks. But it may also be within my power to take a life; this awesome responsibility must be faced with great humbleness and awareness of my own frailty.  

arrogant prick. Oh my, sorry...

At the same time, Soros' Open Society was funding  programs to "discuss" end of life care in public meetings, and they included people who had written pro euthanasia articles in ethical journals (something that was rarely noticed by the MSM articles about these programs).

And yes, political correctness was alive and well back then: One of my friends, a teacher of bioethics at a prominent Boston Medical school who opposed such things was essentially marginalized and ridiculed. 

I shudder at what might be going on now in the good old USA (I live in the Philippines). 

When I read this stuff I remember what one of my Objibwe patients took their beloved aunt to a specialist. Instead of examining her and recommending medicine for her behavior problems. Instead, he spent an hour trying to persuade her family to remove her feeding tube. When the family left the office, one told the doctor: That's the difference between you white folks and us: We don't kill our old people.

These pro death folks are not religious believers, but the problem is that most ordinary people are. So ordinary people need to be reeducated: which is why you see so many sentimental scenerios of killing the sick and handicapped in the MSM, films and best selling novels. 

Then they spread confusion:  they pretend the idea that refraining from extraordinary treatment is the same as killing someone. 

And ordinary people who don''t see this as manpulation so believe them. 

Worse, it leads the very pious and minorities who distrust doctors/the medical establishment to condemn anyone who says it's okay to refrain from extra-ordinary treatment.

Catholic ethicists know the idea that it is ethical to refrain from extraordinary treatment has a long history: for example, they often cite a Spanish admiral who refused leg amputation, pointing to the fact that refusing amputation, especially in the days before antibiotics, could save a life but leave somone crippled.

Nowadays, extraordinary treatment might be dialysis for the very elderly, using a respirator after a stroke or head injury, or tube feeding.

Food and water via a tube used to be considered extraordinary treatment, and still is for people dying where the bodily functions have shut down or where there is a severe stroke.

But in these days when tube feeding is often started for convenience of the nursing home, and then stopped for the convenience of the family or as stealth euthanasia, the line has blurred: Hence JP2 insisted removing the feeding tubes may now no longer be considered ethical in these cases.

Sigh.

Oh NO: Bad Bullwinkle

 From PhysOrg:

Moose could play a big role in global warming

why? Because Moose in Norway eat sapling trees. So after the area is clear cut for timber, the regrowth of the forest doesn't happen because the moose eat the saplings.

and so the saplings don't grow up to be trees, which bind up carbon dioxide.

but the moose eat mostly hardwood type trees, so the pine etc. can grow, which of course helps the forest industry (one can almost hear the autistic high school drop out cry HOW DARE YOU).

so maybe that part about binding up carbon dioxide is wrong, because it ignores that maybe pine also bind up Carbon. 

So they changed the subject: instead we will condemn the moose for harming biodiversity.

so what is the plan?

"We don't only regulate the amount of animals, we very carefully regulate the proportion of females, males and calves. So there's a stronger management for moose than for most livestock in Norway," he said. That means it should be possible to find the right balance between moose numbers and how forested lands are managed.

translation: KILL THE MOOSE.

Sorry Bullwinkle.

Bullwinkle of course is an American moose, and one wonders about the forest land of northern Minnesota or Maine, where moose still exist in the wild.

While one hears about the Amazon forest being cut down, one does not hear about another story: the reforestation of NE USA. As (poorly productive) farms were abandoned during the depression in the NE USA , they have now gone back to forest. Indeed, when hiking, one often finds apple trees, chimneys, and other evidence that it was once farmland.

So now the Moose are finding more areas to thrive. I remember years ago when I worked in a remote Pennyslvania town, and we had tourists for two reasons: One, a lax divorce law(long story) and two: Moose gazing visitors because the moose had moved back south into these forested areas.

I should explain to Non Yanks: the original Bullwinkle J Moose was a TV character: