When therapists get hurt
“Physician, heal thyself” – usually used to suggest that the person should fix their own problems before trying to fix someone else. And when a therapist gets hurt all the armchair critics (social media proclamists) go off pointing the finger and telling that person what to do – even when the therapist is doing exactly what evidence suggests is the right thing to do.
Adam Meakins has hurt his back while lifting weights in the gym – he’s documenting his progress on social media, which I think is both a very brave thing to do and also something I’d love to see more of. If you want...
Source: HealthSkills Weblog - August 8, 2021 Category: Anesthesiology Authors: BronnieLennoxThompson Tags: Back pain Coping strategies Low back pain Pain conditions Professional topics Resilience/Health Science in practice pain management Source Type: blogs
Momentum Is Building to Restrain Risky Arms Sales
A. Trevor ThrallMedia reports recentlyrevealed that President Biden will revise the nation ’s Conventional Arms Transfer Policy, with an eye to elevating concerns for the human rights implications of arms exports. Such a move is long overdue, as we have argued in theArms Sales Risk Index reports over the past several years. Over the past twenty years, the United States has sold billions of dollars ’ worth of weapons to governments with horrendous human rights records. Tragically, some of those weapons have been used to kill civilians and political opponents.Congress has also been focused on the arms sales and huma...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - August 5, 2021 Category: American Health Authors: A. Trevor Thrall Source Type: blogs
Sunday Sermonette: Thuffering Thuccotash
Judges 12 describes what might be called the first civil war among the Israelites, though I ' m not sure that ' s really accurate since they don ' ' t have a central government and the religio-cultural unity created by the tabernacle and the pilgrimages seems to have vanished. Anyway, just to clarify the geography, the territory of Ephraim -- or I should say the putative territory, this is all fiction -- was in what is today central Israel on the west side of the Jordan. Jepthah and his army are based in Gilead, on the east side, in what is today Jordan. So what happens here is that the Ephraimites cross the river and end ...
Source: Stayin' Alive - July 18, 2021 Category: American Health Source Type: blogs
Wednesday Bible Study: Have you noticed anything missing?
Before I get to today ' s story (which is a doozy) I need to point something out. What was the single most important obsession of the Torah from the second part of Exodus through Deuteronomy? Right: it was the Tabernacle, the ark of the covenant, the altar, and the associated sacrifices and pilgrimages. Chapter after chapter detailed the rites, the required offerings, the duties and privileges of the priesthood. The Tabernacle was where Yahweh appeared to speak to the people, the pilgrimage festivals defined the rhythm of the year, the Tabernacle was where the people gathered to hear God ' s word and prepare for war. When ...
Source: Stayin' Alive - July 14, 2021 Category: American Health Source Type: blogs
Sunday Sermontte: GROUNDHOG DAY . . .
Ground hog day,Groundhog day,Groundhog day. . . Chapter 10 is just more of the same. First we get the names of a couple of random judges, about which we are told a couple of random factoids. (The thirty sons on thirty donkeys is of obvious theological importance.) Then, as usual, the Israelites turn away from Yaweh and they need saving, so this chapter is a setup for the next hero, whose story will play out in the coming chapters. Tola10 After the time of Abimelek, a man of Issachar named Tola son of Puah, the son of Dodo, rose to save Israel. He lived in Shamir, in the hill country of Ephraim.2 H...
Source: Stayin' Alive - July 11, 2021 Category: American Health Source Type: blogs
Sunday Sermonette: He seems nice
Judges 8 concludes the story of Gideon. He never does leave any Bibles in hotel rooms, but he does a couple of other things in this chapter that would probably be embarrassing to the people who do leave Bibles in hotel rooms should they actually read it. One is just the usual sadistic psychopathy, which probably explains why God likes the guy -- they ' re kindred spirits. The other, however, seems to be a serious sacrilege, a clear violation of one of the most important commandments, yet it is presented as perfectly ordinary and acceptable. I ' ll comment at the appropriate places.8 Now the Ephraimites asked Gideon, â...
Source: Stayin' Alive - July 4, 2021 Category: American Health Source Type: blogs
Wednesday Bible Study: Truly wack
As I promised you, the story of Gideon is bizarro world. I really don ' t know what to make of any of this.7 Early in the morning, Jerub-Baal (that is, Gideon) and all his men camped at the spring of Harod. The camp of Midian was north of them in the valley near the hill of Moreh.2 TheLord said to Gideon, “You have too many men. I cannot deliver Midian into their hands, or Israel would boast against me, ‘My own strength has saved me.’ Err, if the Israelites have an army that ' s sufficient to defeat the Midianites, why haven ' t they done it already? Just asking. 3Now announce to the army, â...
Source: Stayin' Alive - June 30, 2021 Category: American Health Source Type: blogs
Sunday Sermonette: The beginning of a truly crazy story
Here begins the story of Gideon. It encompasses three chapters, and eventually it gets truly insane. Why did the guys who leave Bibles in hotel rooms name themselves after him? Evidently, it ' s because they haven ' t read the Bible. Anyhoo . . . The first part of Gideon ' s story, Chapter 6 of Judges begins with a very surprising development -- the Israelites are being oppressed by the Midianites! In fact, the Midianites are like " swarms of locusts. It was impossible to count them or their camels . . . " That ' s odd. If you ' ve been taking notes you ' ll remember that in Numbers 7 the Israelites kill e...
Source: Stayin' Alive - June 27, 2021 Category: American Health Source Type: blogs
Wednesday Bible Study: Sing that Thing!
Scholars believe that the song of Deborah and Barak is much older than the rest of the book in which it ' s embedded. In fact, many believe it is the oldest text in the Bible. Certainly it is the oldest Hebrew poem. Since I don ' t know Hebrew, I can ' t tell you anything about the rhyme and meter, which the translators don ' t attempt to indicate. Of course we don ' t know anything about the music either. Whether the existence of this more ancient text indicates that it is related to any real events of course we can ' t know, but I point out that the song does not accord with several of the factual details in t...
Source: Stayin' Alive - June 23, 2021 Category: American Health Source Type: blogs
NC Pediatricians/Physicians RISE Against CHEAP/PROFITEERING Hospital Executives: Maybe I'm Not " Disgruntled " . . . Or " Disruptive " . . . OR ALONE . . . After All.
First, read the following article (linked in red) at North Carolina Health News - " lifted " from a story/letter published at the Charlotte Ledger:The doctor won ' t see your newborn now - North Carolina Health NewsIt only under-scores the cheap, supremely arrogant C-Suite mind-set that I ' ve been blogging about . . . and fighting . . . as an inpatient Pediatrician covering the duty in small/rural/community hospitals in NC and Virginia . . . for over 20 years.Pediatricians that work for hospitals are " a-dime-a-dozen " . We ' re " interchangeable light bulbs " . We can be " replaced by nurses " . The gen...
Source: Dr.J's HouseCalls - June 23, 2021 Category: American Health Tags: ApolloMD APRN Central Carolina Hospital CMS Duke Lifepoint JCAHO LDRP medical scope creep Mother-Baby Care Pediatric Hospitalist Pediatrics Quality Assruance Source Type: blogs
Wednesday Bible Study: The first Groundhog Day
The structure of most of Judges is cyclical. The people start marrying outside of the tribe, and worshiping other Gods, so Yahweh sells them into slavery. Then a Yahweh-fearing champion arises, slaughters the slavers, and they are restored in Yahweh ' s favor until the champion dies and the whole things is repeated. There are some variations, a couple of the quite notable, but that ' s true of the Groundhog Day movie as well. What seems quite odd is that even while they are enslaved for years and decades, the Israelites still seem to have a well-equipped army for the Judge to command. You ' d think the slavers would be sma...
Source: Stayin' Alive - June 16, 2021 Category: American Health Source Type: blogs
Thank the FSM it's finally over
In the competition for worst book of the Bible, I give it to Joshua. The book is an unbeatable combination of abysmal literary quality and revolting content. Here Yahweh boasts of his atrocities. No, he doesn ' t seem nice. Skeptics Annotated Bible lists about 13 contradictions in this chapter but I won ' t bother, suffice it to say that many of the details of the narrative don ' t match up with previous accounts. Next time we move on to Judges, which is equally repulsive but a bit more interesting.24 Then Joshua assembled all the tribes of Israel at Shechem. He summoned the elders, leaders, judges an...
Source: Stayin' Alive - June 6, 2021 Category: American Health Source Type: blogs
Wednesday Bible Study: Joshua checks out
This is the penultimate chapter of Joshua. It ' s the first half of his farewell address, and it ' s just more of the same. Obey the law, don ' t have anything to do with other Gods, don ' t marry or have sex with people who worship other Gods, or you ' re screwed. Otherwise I ' ll keep all my promises. (Well, he actually didn ' t and won ' t in the future.) Same old same old as Moses. There ' s a bit more of this next time, then he gets buried, then we ' re on to Judges.23 After a long time had passed and theLord had given Israel rest from all their enemies around them, Joshua, by then a very old man,2 summoned ...
Source: Stayin' Alive - June 2, 2021 Category: American Health Source Type: blogs
Sunday Sermonette: At last a story with a point
Joshua 22 tells a simple story very elaborately, but at least it ' s clear why this is here. You may recall that three groups of Israelites wanted to settle on the east side of the Jordan, but God insisted that their military age men participate in the conquest of Canaan. Now their obligation is discharged, and they go home with their share of the loot. However, they feel isolated from the rest of the nation so they build their own altar. The people on the west side think they have committed apostasy, and send a delegation to investigate preparatory to bringing the whole army over and murdering them all. Along the way they...
Source: Stayin' Alive - May 30, 2021 Category: American Health Source Type: blogs
Sunday Sermonette: Is there an echo in here?
The concept of the cities of refuge is evidently one of Yahweh ' s most important ideas, because he repeats the instructions for them five times: Exodus 21, Numbers 35, Deuteronomy 4 and 19, and again here. Why this bears so much repetition I can ' t say, but this does give us some insight into the nature of the society organized around tribe and clan. The Torah at several points specifies lex talionis, summarized as " eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, " with the possibility in some cases of substituting monetary compensation. But it is not clear who decides these matters, and whether there are formally autho...
Source: Stayin' Alive - May 23, 2021 Category: American Health Source Type: blogs
