New Posts
Enlightenment or Endarkenment? Two Philosophies That Impact Issues Today
(Ed’s note: The following article is amazing for its comprehensiveness, yet brief overview of two divergent philosphies that war against each other today. A MUST read.)
An electoral shift to the right, or “right-wing” influence in media, education, entertainment, business, law enforcement, the military, or medicine might be deplored as a return to the Dark Ages of superstition and repression, and a rejection of the Enlightenment, which brought science, prosperity, and freedom.
It is popularly believed that, during this dark era and the “Middle Ages,” obscurantist Christians deliberately rounded up classical texts to destroy them, everyone thought the earth was flat, and scientific and technological advancement was virtually nonexistent (tinyurl.com/yf6azpsj).
The phrase “Dark Ages” was first used to describe the Middle Ages by the Italian scholar Francesco Petrarch (1304–1374 AD). He thought that classical antiquity was the Golden Age, and that he lived in an age of decline. Some historians use the term to refer more specifically to the Early Middle Ages (c. 475–c. 800 AD), from the collapse of the western Roman Empire until the rise of the Carolingian Empire, sometimes considered the first phase of the Holy Roman Empire, in the late eighth century A.D.
Our Own Disaster from Helene in the South
Readers may have noticed the gap in the last two posts. Well, hurricane Helene devasted my area (East Central Georgia), and I have been pre-occupied with dmaage and repairs from that event. Just now getting back into the sadde.
If interested, you may want to check out this video.
Model Emergency Health Powers Act Turns Governors into Dictators
This legislation is a serious threat to our civil liberties. Indeed, “this law treats American citizens as if they were the enemy,” stated George Annas, chairman of the Health Law Department at the Boston University School of Public Health (San Francisco Chronicle, 11/25/01). It must be exposed to the light of day in the next month and a half.
Under this Act, any Governor could appoint himself dictator by declaring a “public health emergency.” He doesn’t even have to consult anyone. The Act requires that he “shall consult with the public health authority,” but “nothing in the duty to consult … shall be construed to limit the Governor’s authority to act without such consultation when the situation calls for prompt and timely action.” The legislature is prohibited from intervening for 60 days, after which it may terminate the state of emergency
only by a two-thirds vote of both chambers.
Ed’s Note: While this article is dated, recent events, such as the Covid epidemic, demonstrates that such powers are still a great danger to America’s freedoms.
Departing in Peace: Biblical Decision-Making at the End of Life (Book Review)
by William (Bill) Davis, reviewed by Ed Payne
With the dramatic advance of medical technology, it is increasingly likely that Christians will be asked to decide whether to discontinue life-sustaining medical treatment for aged or very young family members―and possibly other loved ones involved in accidents. Christians also ought to consider what instructions to leave regarding their own treatment. Often these decisions create deep anxiety: Does God command us to take all possible steps to preserve life? Is declining treatment tantamount to murder (or suicide)? As an elder and hospital ethics consultant, Bill Davis has talked, walked, and prayed with people through more than thirty end-of-life situations. Laying a sound scriptural foundation, he argues that Christians can be strongly pro-life yet rightfully decline burdensome or ineffective medical treatments. Providing a variety of case studies and biblical, ethical insight, Davis guides readers in making difficult decisions for themselves and others, preparing advance directives, and facing new realities in American hospitals.
Available on amazon.com
Anatomy of an Epidemic: Magic Bullets, Psychiatric Drugs, and the Astonishing Rise of Mental Illness in America (Book Review)*
In this astonishing and startling book, award-winning science and history writer Robert Whitaker investigates a medical mystery: Why has the number of disabled mentally ill in the United States tripled over the past two decades? Every day, 1,100 adults and children are added to the government disability rolls because they have become newly disabled by mental illness, with this epidemic spreading most rapidly among our nation’s children. What is going on?
Anatomy of an Epidemic challenges readers to think through that question themselves. First, Whitaker investigates what is known today about the biological causes of mental disorders. Do psychiatric medications fix “chemical imbalances” in the brain, or do they, in fact, create them? Researchers spent decades studying that question, and by the late 1980s, they had their answer. Readers will be startled—and dismayed—to discover what was reported in the scientific journals. (Ed: No chemical imbalances.)
Then comes the scientific query at the heart of this book: During the past fifty years, when investigators looked at how psychiatric drugs affected long–term outcomes, what did they find? Did they discover that the drugs help people stay well? Function better? Enjoy good physical health? (What the did find was) that these medications, for some paradoxical reason, increase the likelihood that people will become chronically ill, less able to function well, more prone to physical illness!
This is the first book to look at the merits of psychiatric medications through the prism of long-term results. Are long-term recovery rates higher for medicated or unmedicated schizophrenia patients? Does taking an antidepressant decrease or increase the risk that a depressed person will become disabled by the disorder? Do bipolar patients fare better today than they did forty years ago, or much worse? When the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) studied the long-term outcomes of children with ADHD, did they determine that stimulants provide any benefit?
By the end of this review of the outcomes literature, readers are certain to have a haunting question of their own: Why have the results from these long-term studies—all of which point to the same startling conclusion—been kept from the public?
In this compelling history, Whitaker also tells the personal stories of children and adults swept up in this epidemic. Finally, he reports on innovative programs of psychiatric care in Europe and the United States that are producing good long-term outcomes. Our nation has been hit by an epidemic of disabling mental illness, and yet, as Anatomy of an Epidemic reveals, the medical blueprints for curbing that epidemic have already been drawn up.
*Review is taken from the book’s presentation on amazon.com.)
Sex differences in neurological pathways…
“Hidden” sex differences in neurological reward pathways suggest opportunity for improved psychiatric therapeutics… (You cannot change God’s biology!)
A new study in the Journal of Neuroscience has discovered underlying sex differences in the molecular pathways that drive reward-related behaviors. In particular, the study found differences and similarities in the ways males and females strengthened connections between two brain regions—the hippocampus and the nucleus accumbens—involved in reward signaling.
Males and females both suffer from disorders involving these pathways, like depression and substance abuse. However, the presentation and prevalence of these conditions can differ between the sexes, and certain standard treatments are more effective on average in males or females. The new paper’s findings encourage further research to determine if the molecular differences the authors discovered may underpin differences in disease progression or medication response, which could eventually lead to more effective treatments for mental health disorders.
The full article is here…
Book Review: The COVID-19 Vaccines & Beyond: What the Medical Industrial Complex is NOT Telling Us
This is the most comprehensive book on the subject among 15 I have read, documented with 624 references. I find the authors and endorsers to be among the most trustworthy professionals I have studied. Those who are urging COVID-19 shots worldwide, including the CDC and other U.S. public health agencies, along with most of academic and organized medicine, maintain a narrative that these vaccines are “safe and effective”—without qualification. A growing number of medical professionals, including independent physicians with extensive experience successfully treating severely ill COVID-19 patients, and hospital-based nurse and physician whistle-blowers, have revealed startling evidence of deception.
The detailed, painstakingly referenced data in this book should create cognitive dissonance in those who accept the “safe and effective” narrative. Here are a few examples that I believe to be irrefutable: There were 50,239 deaths within 14 days of COVID-19 shots among Americans 65 and older as of the summer of 2021 (several months after the rollout), according to the CMS database, as compiled by a whistleblower
Continued here… (See page of this reference)
Brain Dead People May Not Be Dead; A Family Prevents Organ Harvesting
It was 1989, and she was still a resident anesthesiologist, Dr. Heidi Klessig recalled in her book, “The Brain Death Fallacy.”
One day, her attending anesthesiologist told her to prepare a brain-dead organ donor for organ removal surgery.
Upon examining the patient, Dr. Klessig was surprised to find that the man looked exactly like every other critically ill, living patient and, in fact, better than most.
“He was warm, his heart was beating, and his monitors showed stable vital signs,” wrote Dr. Klessig. “Nevertheless, on his bedside exam, he checked all the boxes for brain death, and the neurologist declared him ‘dead.’”
Michigan Family Succeeds in Stopping Organ Donation
A Michigan state judge halted the harvesting of organs from a patient declared “brain dead,” in a case that highlights the shortcomings of organ donation cards and informed consent.
The family of 30-year-old Jaszmine Philips went to court to stop Gift of Life Michigan, the organ procurement agency working with Trinity Health in Muskegon, Michigan from harvesting her organs. According to news reports, Philips suffered from type-1 diabetes and showed no brain activity when she was admitted to the hospital. Philips’ driver’s license indicated she was an organ donor, but her family said she reversed her decision and indicated that multiple times.
Bioethics group admits most people declared ‘brain dead’ actually have brain function
On April 11, 2024, the National Catholic Bioethics Center (NCBC) issued a landmark position statement, acknowledging that at least half of patients diagnosed as “brain dead” still have partial brain function. The NCBC statement was prompted by the 2023 updated guideline for the diagnosis of “brain death” published by the American Academy of Neurology (AAN) together with the American Academy of Pediatrics, the Child Neurology Society, and the Society of Critical Care Medicine.
According to the NCBC, the 2023 AAN updated guideline marks “a decisive breakdown in a shared understanding of brain death” and “a formal breach in a longstanding consensus in law and public policy” because this guideline does not conform to the current legal standard for “brain death” under the Uniform Determination of Death Act (UDDA). The UDDA requires the “irreversible cessation of all functions of the entire brain, including the brain stem.” But a part of the brain called the hypothalamus continues to provide neuroendocrine function in most patients declared “brain dead.” Is the hypothalamus important? According to the NCBC:
The hypothalamus can be understood as a kind of ‘smart’ coordinating center in the brain which is involved in regulating temperature, salt-water balance, sex drive, and sleep. Recent studies show that it may play a role in phenomenal awareness and pain detection.
Read entire article…
Abuse of Referrals for Psychiatric and Neuropsychological Assessment
More than 300 years (after the false accusations of the Salem witch trials), physicians who stand out from the crowd (e.g., innovators, physician whistleblowers, successful competitors) or who fail to conform to official government narratives often face mandatory referrals for psychiatric (psych) or neuropsychological (neuropsych) testing imposed by hospitals, medical boards, and physician health programs (PHPs). These referrals fall under the general category of Fitness for Duty Evaluations (FFDE). Hearsay, rumor, and suspicion are often all that is needed to force physicians to undergo psych and neuropsych testing.
Referrals for psych and neuropsych testing are sometimes made for the purpose of stigmatizing the physician, damaging the physician’s reputation, and harming the physician’s psyche. No objective evidence is provided to support the referral, and the required testing is done for reasons other than quality care and patient safety.