Ripoff
You may have heard that the FDA recently concluded that a common ingredient in over-the-counter cold medicines doesn ' t work. That ' s a gift link to a NYT essay byRandy C. Hatton andLeslie Hendeles. This may not seem like such a big deal in itself, but there was never any good evidence that it worked in the first place and pharmacologists have been telling the FDA that it doesn ' t work for decades. The fact is that a lot of over-the-counter products that have FDA approval probably don ' t work. Oh, and by the way just about 100% of the so-called " supplements " and homeopathic " remedies " don ' t work either.Thes...
Source: Stayin' Alive - September 29, 2023 Category: American Health Source Type: blogs
Wednesday Bible Study: My apologies
This endless yammering is totally frosting my pumpkin. I ' m not sure what to do about it, however, because these chapters are long and it seems like an awful lot to do two of them at once. But what the hell, we have to get this over with. In Ch. 15, Eliphaz castigates Job for complaining to God, basically, and just says, as MacLeish translates it, " In Adam ' s fall we sinned all/We ' re like the flies the creep and crawl/Across the dusty windowpanes, " IIRC, or something like that. In Ch. 16, Job essentially adds the would-be comforters to his afflictions, which is fair enough. What Job doesn ' t know, however, is that t...
Source: Stayin' Alive - September 27, 2023 Category: American Health Source Type: blogs
Inexplicable irrationality
For mysterious reasons, there have been anti-vaccination movements since vaccination was invented.* The eradication of smallpox from the earth; the near eradication of polio (which terrified the population in the 1950s); and the near elimination of measles, mumps, rubella, diphtheria, typhus and other diseases which formerly maimed and killed many children; and many other triumphs ought to have convinced people that vaccination was an unalloyed benefit to humanity. But somehow it ' s profitable to deny this obvious reality.The near miraculous success of the Covid 19 vaccines turns out to be one more opportunity for charlat...
Source: Stayin' Alive - September 25, 2023 Category: American Health Source Type: blogs
Sunday Sermonette: Life sucks and then you die
Ch. 14 is yet more of the seemingly eternal lamentation and despair, now all about mortality. This does seem a bit ambiguous about the possibility of an afterlife. Job seems to be saying that there isn ' t one, but there is at least a hint of some sort of possible resurrection in the future, or anyway a question about the possibility. At least that ' s how I read it. But no, there really isn ' t any.14 “Mortals, born of woman, are of few days and full of trouble.2 They spring up like flowers and wither away; like fleeting shadows, they do not endure.3 Do you fi...
Source: Stayin' Alive - September 24, 2023 Category: American Health Source Type: blogs
Hard Times in the Country
The AP recently reported onthe disappearance of maternity wards in rural areas: Alisha Alderson placed her folded clothes and everything she needed for
the last month of her pregnancy in various suitcases. She never imagined
she would have to leave the comfort of her home in rural eastern Oregon
just weeks before her due date. But following the abrupt closure in
August of the only maternity ward within 40 miles, she decided to stay
at her brother ’s house near Boise, Idaho — a two-hour drive through a
mountain pass — to be closer to a hospital. . . .A growing number of rural hospitals have been shutt...
Source: Stayin' Alive - September 22, 2023 Category: American Health Source Type: blogs
Wednesday Bible Study: Yeah, this is getting tedious
Sorry for the limited posting of late, I ' ve been distracted by a few issues. Proposal hell, small town politics, memorial arrangement for my mother -- yeah, I have excuses. But I ' ll get back to it.Meanwhile, I have to admit the Book of Job is getting very tiresome. It ' s long-winded and repetitive. Apparently the profession of editor had not been invented in the 6th Century BCE so the author indulges himself with an endless and tedious stream of imagery. I ' m tempted to fast forward but for now we ' ll just stay with the program. Basically, it ' s the same argument. The " comforters " are telling Job he must ha...
Source: Stayin' Alive - September 20, 2023 Category: American Health Source Type: blogs
Sunday Sermonette: More of the same
In Chapter 12 Job rambles on with the same basic idea. God is all powerful, he does whatever he does, and it ' s impossible to discern justice in his whims. The obvious question occurs to me. Why worship this psycho? Especially since the righteous often suffer and the wicked may be rewarded. But that was, after all, the original bet -- that he will continue to worship God. Okay, but don ' t ask me why. 12 Then Job replied:2 “Doubtless you are the only people who matter, and wisdom will die with you!3 But I have a mind as well as you; I am not inferior to y...
Source: Stayin' Alive - September 17, 2023 Category: American Health Source Type: blogs
More on idiocy
Wow. I got a comment on my previous post claiming that the reason people don ' t believe in climate change is because " liberals " have made wild claims about it that have not come true. Man, you need a glass navel to see. In fact the consequences are happening faster, and are more severe, than even the most dire predictions of a few years ago. The truth is the exact opposite of what you claim. This idiot also claims that we shouldn ' t do anything about it because - China, apparently, although he omitted the name. In the first place, logically, the question of whether it is true is completely separate from the questi...
Source: Stayin' Alive - September 16, 2023 Category: American Health Source Type: blogs
Small Town Blues
A couple of weeks ago we had a tornado that knocked out power for a whole lot of people for a day. Okay, no biggie maybe. But yesterday we had a downpour of Biblical proportions that washed out three bridges. This has never happened here before, not even in hurricanes. A town of 1,500 people has no way ever to pay for three new bridges. We ' ll see what kind of help we can get from the state, but meanwhile there are people who live between two of the bridges who are completely isolated from the road system. I don ' t know what they ' re going to do. This is getting to be the new normal everywhere. Yeah, it ' s disturb...
Source: Stayin' Alive - September 14, 2023 Category: American Health Source Type: blogs
Wednesday Bible Study: Inverse theodicy
One solution to the theodicy problem is that Job must in fact be wicked and deserve his fate. That ' s the one he gets from Zophar in Ch. 11. However, the whole point of the book is that it isn ' t so: Job is a perfect and upright man. By the way MacLeish cast Zophar as a communist. That isn ' t evidently relevant to the original concept, but he was inventing what modern ideologues might say to Job. Anyway, Job isn ' t getting any comfort from any of these Bozos.11 Then Zophar the Naamathite replied:2 “Are all these words to go unanswered? Is this talker to be vindicated?3 Will your ...
Source: Stayin' Alive - September 13, 2023 Category: American Health Source Type: blogs
The last bumper sticker: The Sacred Text
Okay, we ' ve finally come to the end of this tedious exercise. The U.S. Constitution is the strongest guarantor of freedoms in history. Again, I ' m not sure what the political point is supposed to be here. As far as I know the only people who want to repeal the Constitution are conservative Republicans, notably the followers of Donald J. Trump. But as a liberal of the non-neo variety, I do take issue with the statement.For some reason Americans are inclined to see the Constitution as equivalent to holy scripture. It ' s the infallible word...
Source: Stayin' Alive - September 11, 2023 Category: American Health Source Type: blogs
Sunday Sermonette: Job talks back
In Chapter 10, Job complains to God about the injustice done to him, and yearns again for death. Satan doesn ' t win the bet -- Job doesn ' t curse God or renounce him. But he walks right up to the edge. He wants an explanation. We ' ll see if he gets one.10 “I loathe my very life; therefore I will give free rein to my complaint and speak out in the bitterness of my soul.2 I say to God: Do not declare me guilty, but tell me what charges you have against me.3 Does it please you to oppress me, to spurn the work of you...
Source: Stayin' Alive - September 10, 2023 Category: American Health Source Type: blogs
The next bumper sticker: political science
As usual, Ramaswamy ' s glib slogans aren ' t self-explanatory, but I think we can figure out what he ' s pretending to be thinking about with this one:There are three branches of the U.S. government, not four.One would guess that this is a reference to the bullshit concept of the " Deep State. " What that actually means is of course the career civil service -- federal employees who don ' t get replaced wholesale every time the party in power changes, and who have legal protections to make sure that doesn ' t happen. Sometimes it also includes the military. (Sometimes it ' s the Deep State that ' s persecuting Ronald...
Source: Stayin' Alive - September 9, 2023 Category: American Health Source Type: blogs
Possibly the most ridiculous bumper sticker of them all...
Continuing with the Ramaswamy bumper stickers, we get this bizarre assertion:The nuclear family is the greatest form of governance known to mankind.I don ' t understand how this is even supposed to be a political statement. Public policy doesn ' t dictate people ' s household structure or their living arrangements, which nowadays are generally similar the world over. The nuclear family is not a form of " governance, " it ' s a social arrangement. And looking at the dark backward and abysm of time*, it ' s a fairly recent invention. On the African savanna, before we made the Big Mistake of agriculture, we believe...
Source: Stayin' Alive - September 7, 2023 Category: American Health Source Type: blogs
Wednesday Bible Study: Don't ask questions
Job ' s response to Bildad is essentially an extended riff on the immense power of God, his inscrutability, and oh yeah, he does not offer justice. The righteous may suffer and the wicked may prosper, and we can ' t ask why. If you leave it at that, the answer to the theodicy problem is that God is not good, he ' s entirely capricious. I ' ll actually buy that.9 Then Job replied:2 “Indeed, I know that this is true. But how can mere mortals prove their innocence before God?3 Though they wished to dispute with him, they could not answer him one time out of a thou...
Source: Stayin' Alive - September 6, 2023 Category: American Health Source Type: blogs
