Valentina Gomez: Quote Without Comment

 

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If you believe Jonathan Cahn, you are betting against the house.

Recently I was sent a link to a video posted by the Messianic Jewish minister and author, Jonathan Cahn. A Messianic Jewish minister is a Jewish individual who believes in Yeshua (Jesus) as the Messiah and adheres to Christian beliefs as presented in the New Testament.

At first, I wrote Cahn off as just another crank scaring gullible people with prophesies of the "end days". Then I learned that Cahn's most recent book, The Dragon's Prophecy: Israel, the Dark Resurrection, and the End of Days, is a number one best seller. That got my attention.

Within just a day of its release, the book reached No. 1 on Amazon's Global Bestseller List. It was also number 1 on the New York Times Bestsellers List and still holds that position today. This fellow is getting the word out and getting very wealthy doing it. He has sold millions of books. I am impressed.

But, I am not impressed enough to believe this dude. I am 77 years old and I have heard this bumph for my whole life. My mother and I did not believe it then and I still don't. Most, if not all, those "prophets" from the '50s are now dead and many of the ones  who replaced them are gone as well.

Jack Van Impe died on January 18, 2020, at the age of 88, following a fall.

Tim LaHaye died on July 25, 2016, at the age of 90, following complications from a stroke.

Hal Lindsey, in The Late Great Planet Earth, predicted that the world would end sometime before December 31, 1988. He was wrong. In later years he hedged his bets but at the ripe old age of 93 he is still patiently waiting.

David Jeremiah has not made any specific predictions about the exact date when the world will end but it could happen at any moment. Jeremiah's focus is on spiritual readiness rather than setting specific timelines for apocalyptic events. David Jeremiah is now 82. Time is running out on his prophesies.

Jonathan Cahn is a Johnny-come-lately to all this silliness as he wasn't born until April 12, 1959 but he still has a big "whoops" in his resume. He wrote another book, the Mystery of the SHEmeeTAH, in which he predicted the end of the U.S. as we know it would happen on September13, 2015. Of course, it didn't happen.

I am not alone in taking issue with these self-proclaimed prophets. Click the link and read what Pastor David O. Dykes, Green Acres Church, Tyler, Texas, had to say, "Over the last decade there has been an alarming growth of neo charismatic/Pentecostal influence into conservative politics. I have always considered myself politically and theologically conservative, but there are some religious nuts who have hijacked part of the conservative movement. There has been a rise in the number of people who are calling themselves modern day prophets and are making predictions – about world events. One of them is best-selling author, Jonathan Cahn.

Why am I so confident Cahn will be wrong again?  Well, I have more than a thousand years on my side. Some worried the world would end in the year 1000 AD, reflecting apocalyptic fears associated with the millennium and supposedly found in the Bible. 

 

If that is not an early enough date for you, I could reach back farther into the past but I am sure you have caught my drift. If you believe this scare talk, you are betting against the house. More than a thousand years of continuous wins by the "I-don't-believe-it" crowd puts prophets like Jonathan Cahn on the wrong side of the table. 

 

If you would like to read another take, but one in the same vein as this one, check out:

The Agony of Deceit post that says, "Jonathan Cahn does not resemble a biblical prophet but resembles more a charlatan." Well said.

What to do in today's falling markets.

The markets all around the world have gone into tailspins. Why? There are lots of theories, all have a wee bit of truth, but no one has a compete handle on what is driving the losses. So, what does one do? I agree with The New York Times writer: do nothing. Be patient. This will pass and surprisingly soon. There is even a good chance that this global tumble will be followed by some markets actually reaching new highs.

If you have been in the market, Canadian or U.S., for some time, you can take solace in your portfolio bottom line. Even after today's crashing numbers, I bet you are very nicely in the green. Stay focused on your wins and you will get through this intact.

Journalist must not even appear biased

Recently, a well respected local columnist wrote a column which appeared in the local paper. The local paper is owed by Post Media and many believe Post Media has a hate on for the federal Liberal party. Furthermore, many readers believe that this hatred results in biased reporting.

The column in question said that Finland’s poverty rate was of 0.1 per cent. To put this in perspective, the poverty rate in Canada was given as 7.4 per cent according to census figures.

Whoa! Can that be true? Can Finland actually have a poverty rate of 0.1 percent? A little research revealed the figure may be one reported by MacroTrends. Curious, I looked for the MacroTrends figure for Canada. It was 0.0 percent.

The MacroTrends figures are highly suspect. Heck, I heard from the columnist and even he admitted  "Any source that says Canada's poverty rate for 2022 was zero percent is laughable." And that is a quote.

The columnist went on to tell me, my "point was that Finland's poverty rate is significantly below that of Canada and the United States." That is another quote. But, is it also an assumption? The columnist compared a "laughable" poverty rate figure for Finland and a proper census figure for Canada. Is some bias against the ruling federal Liberals creeping in here? Has the columnist bent over backwards to put Canada's poverty rate in the poorest light?

I found a risk of poverty figure for Finland for 2022 published by Statista. It was 12.3 percent. This figure defined poverty as being below 60% of the median income. I could not find a comparable figure from the same source for Canada. But, I did find this figure from Statistics Canada: 9.9 percent of Canadians lived in poverty in 2022. But it is hard to compare this number to the Finnish number. It is not an apples to apples comparison.

I decided the Low-Income Measure (LIM) may be a better choice to use for the Canadian number. It considers household poverty to kick in when an adjusted income is below 50% of median household incomes. I found that themost recent data available has approximately 12.0% of Canadians living at or below the Low-Income Measure (LIM) calculated for 2022. This is the same year as used in the Finnish number.

I could continue this research but I believe I have made my point. The columnist used a laughable (his word) figure to make the point that Canada is lagging far behind Finland when it comes to solving the problem of poverty. Assumptions are not acceptable and his assumption may well be wrong. Period. Canadians should be able to expect more from their newspapers.

Heart Failure Life Expectancy Calculator

I found two Heart Failure Life Expectancy Calculators online.(https://www.omnicalculator.com/.../heart-failure-life...). AND the Seattle Heart Failure Model (https://depts.washington.edu/shfm/app.php?width=1536&height=864).

 

I'm going to show these calculators to my heart doctor when I see him next in about five months. I'm interested in hearing his opinion as the calculated results seems so different. Doctors are reticent to give a patient with HF an estimate of their life expectancy. A calculator lets them off the hook, so to speak. 

 

If you go to the first link shown and scroll to the bottom of that page, you will fine an assortment of more cardiovascular system calculators.

 

And what were my results? Drum roll, please.

 

 

 

And the Seattle Heart Failure Model was a bit more optimistic.

 

 

Examples of my photography. All but one image shot with a point-and-shoot.

 

Bruce Cockburn

Face-painting

 

School bus shelter in American prairies.

 

 

 

 

 

 Colourful hair and colourful covid-19 face mask

Joan Barfoot, award-winning London author

Children's Museum

California surfer.

Model at fashion show. Shot with a point-and-shoot.

 

Karate class. Just who is the instructor?

Pfizer Covid 19

 https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/the-pfizer-covid-19-vaccine-doesnt-prevent-transmission-antivax-disinformation-goes-viral-again/

How to find an Ann Coulter article using the Wayback Machine

Wayback Machine

Ann Coulter

http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/289574

Ann Coulter claims she's the victim of hate crime

http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/289433

One of the best articles on how to spot heart failure

10 Signs of Heart Failure You Should Never Ignore

When it comes to drug abuse, particularly prescription drug abuse, are we getting the whole story?

A lot of reporters have won awards reporting on the drug overdose situation. One can be forgiven for thinking that the avalanche of award-winning articles have presented the only take on the drug overdose epidemic. A relatively recent piece by Randy Richmond, of The London Free Press, touches on some of the ideas that have not been widely discussed but note the article was written in late 2021. The linked article below was written a full three years earlier and there are other similar pieces going back decades. An under reported position, I'd say.

For another perspective, read:

We Can’t Go Cold Turkey: Why Suppressing Drug Markets Endangers Society
Nick Werle and Ernesto Zedillo

Today, opioid agonist treatment (OAT) for addiction maintenance is the gold standard for treating opioid use disorder. As a chronic, relapsing mental health condition, opioid use disorder is not susceptible to a cure, per se. But evidence-based treatments employing OAT can help patients stabilize their lives, manage their addictions, reintegrate into society, and reduce the harmful consequences of drug use.

 

Maintenance therapy has been shown to be more clinically effective and more cost effective than detoxification.12 Abstinence-based treatments are common in the United States, where they often follow the model for alcohol abuse treatment, with the goal of lifetime abstinence, but there is little evidence of clinical efficacy.

 

Abstinence-based treatment can increase mortality risk: While heroin withdrawal itself is rarely life-threatening, putting people with opioid use disorder into withdrawal poses a high risk of overdose, because a period of abstinence leads to reduced tolerance.14 This risk of overdose explains why abstinence-based treatment approaches for alcoholism are dangerous when applied to people with opioid use disorder: Relapse to alcohol use is rarely fatal, but relapse to fentanyl-laced heroin often kills.

The government has long sought to suppress consumption with a medication that would “cure” opioid addiction outright. But evidence shows that this goal can be deadly, because using medication to keep someone abstinent further raises overdose risk. Many drug courts and treatment programs now rely on naltrexone, which is sold under the brand name Vivitrol as a wonder drug for stopping opioid use. Naltrexone is an opiate antagonist that triggers immediate withdrawal and blocks opioids’ pharmacological effects. But this abstinence is costly: Overdoses are more common following cessation of naltrexone treatment.

Would Jesus Christ support a group with these leaders?

 I have a very religious friend who is solidly behind the Trucker Convoy Protest. I read the linked piece and immediately thought that even though my friend finds the convoy appealing, her Lord and Saviour would not.

If interested follow the link:

Who is who? A guide to the main players in the Trucker Convoy Protest. The following names and attached info is from the linked article.

James Bauder: a spreader of misinformation. He wrongly implied that billionaire George Soros may have been involved in the release of the COVID-19 virus. Soros is often the subject of anti-Semitic conspiracy theories spread online. 

Tamara Lich: a western Canada separatist.

B.J. Dichter: He has suggested Canada is suffering from the “stench” of “political Islam" and stated without providing evidence that some then-candidates for the Conservative Party of Canada have ties to "Islamic extremism."

Chris Barber: He has Confederate flags, plural, hanging on some walls in his home. I don't need to know more.

Roger Hodkinson: He has referred to the pandemic as “the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on an unsuspecting public” and said COVID-19 is “just another bad flu.” 

Randy Hillier: He appeared on RT (formerly Russia Today) to speak about the convoy, tweeting that Russian media "provides a platform for objective journalism, where Canadian (mainstream media) creates fabrications." One is left to wonder, "Is he crazy?"

Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine started, RT is being dropped by television signal carriers all around the world. According to the Columbia School of Journalism, the Kremlin-funded RT has been accused of spreading misinformation and is considered "an extension of former President Vladimir Putin’s confrontational foreign policy" featuring "fringe-dwelling 'experts.'"

Paul Alexander: He is a former science adviser to then-U.S. President Donald Trump. Alexander urged the administration to adopt a “herd immunity” approach to COVID-19 policies. He also publicized the use of the antimalarial drug hydroxychloroquine to fight a COVID-19 infection.

Daniel Bulford: He claims to have quit his job at the RCMP rather than following the organization's vaccine mandate to get vaccinated against COVID-19.

Pat King: He decries the "depopulation" of white people and has posted videos in which he makes racist remarks about Jewish, Muslim, and Chinese people.

Brian Denison: He is a former Calgary police officer who resigned after declining to get a mandated COVID-19 vaccination.

Freedom of Choice or Choice of Freedom?

I have a friend who, though vaccinated, thinks the vaccination mandates are wrong. I've tried telling her that she has freewill confused with licence. She won't even listen to the argument. I found an essay on freedom versus license posted by the Catholic Education Resource Centre. She wrote it off. She is not Roman Catholic.

The author saw freedom as taking responsibility for one's own life. Insofar as it is compatible with the common good, people should be allowed to choose freely how they want to live. On the other hand, licence is the throwing off of all responsibility. It is a carte blanche to do as we feel. As such, it is incompatible with virtue and destroys community.

Then I found a somewhat similar essay on a Seventh Day Adventist site: Freedom of Choice or Choice of Freedom?

Are vaccination mandates against the law of God? 

It is very hard to make a valid argument that laws enacted by the state for the preservation of life should be perceived by Christians as defying God’s law. From where, then, does this “freedom of conscience” come? Is this just worldly self-centredness? “It’s my body; I’ll do with it as I like”?

 

I am neither a Roman Catholic nor a Seventh Day Adventist but I agree, for the most, with both posts. I wish I could get through to my friend. I find my friend's position so damn self-centred and selfish. They fancy themselves Christian. No church to which I have gone would call this friend's actions Christian.

Face masks: a lot of bang for the buck!

There is good reason to believe that wearing a mask is a very low-risk protective measure which can deliver a large positive impact. In other words, masks deliver a lot of bang for the buck.

https://www.pnas.org/content/118/4/e2014564118?fbclid=IwAR0acQLrK5uzFbEsJE5E7lDgkcBVPB7b_2CjhPAy2yG2jDzEJ5H5ekpwVIk

Unspinning the misinformation web

I know a lot of folk who have fallen for misinformation and they are not all naive, simple folk. Some are well educated, degee-holding, university graduates. And some are reporters. 

Think of all the stories on liberation therapy that made the rounds some years ago. It was pushed on television news shows and in newspapers and magazines and it was totally false. Bright people died getting liberation therapy.

Now, fear of vaccines, most notably the COVID-19 vaccine, is the misinformation story of the year. And hundreds of thousands are dying because of the all-pervasive lies.

To fight misinformation I am posting the following links: read and learn.

FactCheck.org

Snopes 

If you would like to suggest other sites, please do. If I agree with you, I'll post the links.

The founder of Snopes, David Mikkelson,warned, "The fictions and fabrications that comprise fake news are but a subset of the larger bad news phenomenon, which also encompasses many forms of shoddy, unresearched, error-filled, and deliberately misleading reporting that do a disservice to everyone."