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.