Asia Rushes to the Aide of US in the Wake of Katrina
Wednesday, August 31, 2005
The Veneer of Civilization is Thin
They say that a catastrophe like Hurricane Katrina brings out the best in people. It also brings out the worst.
They say that a catastrophe like Hurricane Katrina brings out the best in people. It also brings out the worst.
Law enforcement efforts to contain the emergency left by Katrina slipped into chaos in parts of New Orleans Tuesday -- with some police officers and firefighters even joining looters in picking stores clean...
Inside the store, one woman was stocking up on make-up. She said she took comfort in watching police load up their own carts. "It must be legal," she said. "The police are here taking stuff, too."
Tuesday, August 23, 2005
A Book I Intend to Read...
Mad In America: Bad Science, Bad Medicine, and the Enduring Mistreatment of the Mentally Ill by Bob Whitaker is one book I intend to get ahold of and read.
It seems like every second person I meet is on some form of antidepressant. There is a rising tide of mental illness in North America, and aside from the usual causes of overwhelming guilt caused by unredeemed sin, one of the contributing factors appears to be the very drugs they administer for depression.
Remember what a doctor I quoted in an earlier blog post said? Drugs are things that if given to a healthy person, makes them sick.
Mad In America: Bad Science, Bad Medicine, and the Enduring Mistreatment of the Mentally Ill by Bob Whitaker is one book I intend to get ahold of and read.
It seems like every second person I meet is on some form of antidepressant. There is a rising tide of mental illness in North America, and aside from the usual causes of overwhelming guilt caused by unredeemed sin, one of the contributing factors appears to be the very drugs they administer for depression.
Whitaker
starts by debunking the effectiveness of these massively hyped wonder drugs -- antidepressants like Prozac, Zoloft and Paxil, and the new atypical antipsychotic drugs like Zyprexa. His research shows how they often are barely more effective than placebos in treating mental disorder and depression, despite the glowing adulation they have received in the mainstream media.
But he goes on to make the startling claim that these new psychiatric drugs have directly contributed to an alarming new epidemic of drug-induced mental illness. The very drugs prescribed by physicians to stabilize mental disorders in fact are inducing pathological changes in brain chemistry and triggering suicide, manic and psychotic episodes, convulsions, violence, diabetes, pancreatic failure, metabolic diseases, and premature death.
Whitaker originally was a highly regarded medical reporter at the Albany Times Union and also wrote off and on for the Boston Globe. A series he co-wrote for the Boston Globe on harmful psychiatric research was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in 1998. When he began his investigative research into psychiatric issues, Whitaker was still a believer in the story of progress that psychiatry has been telling the public for decades.
He said, "I absolutely believed the common wisdom that these antipsychotic drugs actually had improved things and that they had totally revolutionized how we treated schizophrenia. People used to be locked away forever, and now maybe things weren't great, but they were a lot better. It was a story of progress."
That story of progress was fraudulent, as Whitaker soon found out when he gained new insight from his research into torturous psychiatric practices such as electroshock, lobotomy, insulin coma, and neuroleptic drugs. Psychiatrists told the public that these techniques "cured" psychosis or balanced the chemistry of the brain.
But, in reality, the common thread in all these different treatments was the attempt to suppress "mental illness" by deliberately damaging the higher functions of the brain. The stunning truth is that, behind closed doors, the psychiatric establishment itself labeled these treatments as "brain-damaging therapeutics."
The first generation of antipsychotic drugs created a drug-induced brain pathology by blocking the neurotransmitter dopamine and essentially shutting down many higher brain functions. In fact, when antipsychotics such as Thorazine and Haldol were first introduced, psychiatrists themselves said that these neuroleptic drugs were virtually indistinguishable from a "chemical lobotomy."
Remember what a doctor I quoted in an earlier blog post said? Drugs are things that if given to a healthy person, makes them sick.
Monday, August 15, 2005
A Warning about 4-H
It can make you and your children very sad.
I guess one of the reasons that 4-H exists is to help develop youth in rural areas to have some expertise in farming. Part of a farmer's job is to sell what he raises, usually for consumption, which is great if you are raising carrots and peas, but traumatic if you are raising things that exhibit personality. The more personality something has, the harder it is to contemplate it on your dinner plate.
This year Hannah and Ben both raised a pig and a goat each and Ben raised a rabbit. Ben worked with his goat so well that it grew very attached to him and followed him around like a puppy. Hannah's wasn't quite so well trained, but they were very amusing to watch and you could definitely see that they had different personalities.
As part of the 4-H program, if you raise an animal in imitation of farmers, you must auction it off. As the time for loading the animals up for the trip to the butcher's drew near, faces got longer and longer. In the end, there was hardly anyone who wasn't crying, either because their "pet" was going away to be eaten, or because they were in sympathy with the kids.
I think next year we will have dairy goats instead.
It can make you and your children very sad.
I guess one of the reasons that 4-H exists is to help develop youth in rural areas to have some expertise in farming. Part of a farmer's job is to sell what he raises, usually for consumption, which is great if you are raising carrots and peas, but traumatic if you are raising things that exhibit personality. The more personality something has, the harder it is to contemplate it on your dinner plate.
This year Hannah and Ben both raised a pig and a goat each and Ben raised a rabbit. Ben worked with his goat so well that it grew very attached to him and followed him around like a puppy. Hannah's wasn't quite so well trained, but they were very amusing to watch and you could definitely see that they had different personalities.
As part of the 4-H program, if you raise an animal in imitation of farmers, you must auction it off. As the time for loading the animals up for the trip to the butcher's drew near, faces got longer and longer. In the end, there was hardly anyone who wasn't crying, either because their "pet" was going away to be eaten, or because they were in sympathy with the kids.
I think next year we will have dairy goats instead.
Saturday, August 13, 2005
In Search of the Perfectly Clean Home
Ok, so it isn't perfect, but it is a great deal cleaner than it was a few days ago. With only six children at home (five of mine and a grand-daughter), and two extra neighbor children, I have had to do a great deal of the cleaningk while being ably assisted (somewhat) by my youngest kids.
Something the anti-QF crowd doesn't understand because they likely won't experience it is that the more kids you have, the more organized and efficient you can become. What this means is that even though I am down a quart with kids at the agricultural fair, I have been able to clean the downstairs thoroughly and keep it that way even with eight kids here, ranging in age from 13 to 2 months old. Moreover, I did it in a relatively short time.
I couldn't have done this twenty odd years ago when I first started out having kids, but it is a job that you grow into as time goes by and children get added to the mix. I didn't do much today (cleaned the kitchen, made meals, cut Garnet's hair, washed windows, did lots of dishes, swept and washed the floor, several loads of laundry, cleaned the bathroom and my office, fed the baby, played with the baby, caught two free range draft horses of my neighbor's and returned them to secure paddocks, etc.). The thing is, if I had really been motivated, I could probably have all of this done by noon (with the exception of the draft horses and feeding the kids who like to eat more than once a day) and had the afternoon for goofing off. Instead I decided to take a more leisurely pace with it and spread it out over the day.
No, it isn't perfect, but it's good enough.
Ok, so it isn't perfect, but it is a great deal cleaner than it was a few days ago. With only six children at home (five of mine and a grand-daughter), and two extra neighbor children, I have had to do a great deal of the cleaningk while being ably assisted (somewhat) by my youngest kids.
Something the anti-QF crowd doesn't understand because they likely won't experience it is that the more kids you have, the more organized and efficient you can become. What this means is that even though I am down a quart with kids at the agricultural fair, I have been able to clean the downstairs thoroughly and keep it that way even with eight kids here, ranging in age from 13 to 2 months old. Moreover, I did it in a relatively short time.
I couldn't have done this twenty odd years ago when I first started out having kids, but it is a job that you grow into as time goes by and children get added to the mix. I didn't do much today (cleaned the kitchen, made meals, cut Garnet's hair, washed windows, did lots of dishes, swept and washed the floor, several loads of laundry, cleaned the bathroom and my office, fed the baby, played with the baby, caught two free range draft horses of my neighbor's and returned them to secure paddocks, etc.). The thing is, if I had really been motivated, I could probably have all of this done by noon (with the exception of the draft horses and feeding the kids who like to eat more than once a day) and had the afternoon for goofing off. Instead I decided to take a more leisurely pace with it and spread it out over the day.
No, it isn't perfect, but it's good enough.
In Search of the Perfect Peach
I just finished licking the peach juice off my fingers of the most indescribably delicious and delectable peach I have eaten in the past ten years. It was brought to me in a basket with three other peaches with instructions given to the bearer that they were to be delivered to me and me alone. These peaches came ripe off the tree of the brother of my next door neighbor, who generously wanted to share this rare booty with me. Why rare? Most fruits and veggies are picked before they are ripe and before all the normal phytochemicals are in them. This accounts for much of the tastelessness of most of the produce we are forced to eat thanks to modern agricultural methods.
How I wish that all our fruits and vegetables were allowed to ripen the good old fashioned way. Maybe our kids would want to eat them then.
I just finished licking the peach juice off my fingers of the most indescribably delicious and delectable peach I have eaten in the past ten years. It was brought to me in a basket with three other peaches with instructions given to the bearer that they were to be delivered to me and me alone. These peaches came ripe off the tree of the brother of my next door neighbor, who generously wanted to share this rare booty with me. Why rare? Most fruits and veggies are picked before they are ripe and before all the normal phytochemicals are in them. This accounts for much of the tastelessness of most of the produce we are forced to eat thanks to modern agricultural methods.
How I wish that all our fruits and vegetables were allowed to ripen the good old fashioned way. Maybe our kids would want to eat them then.
In Search of the Perfect Baby
Christians who are in favor of birth control as a form of good stewardship should be aware of the fact that the very same arguments they use as an excuse for limiting their families are the same ones used for aborting them. They should also know that their arguments contribute to the building pressure to abort and destroy "imperfect" babies in the name of "good stewardship." Just because we can do something is no argument for deciding whether or not we should do it.
Will someone please tell these clowns that life is terminal? No one (with only two notable exceptions that I can think of) gets out of it alive. The possibilities of pain, disease, disability, imminent death, economic hardship, and the stunting of parental aspirations and self development are not sufficient argument for denying anyone the chance of life.
Christians who are in favor of birth control as a form of good stewardship should be aware of the fact that the very same arguments they use as an excuse for limiting their families are the same ones used for aborting them. They should also know that their arguments contribute to the building pressure to abort and destroy "imperfect" babies in the name of "good stewardship." Just because we can do something is no argument for deciding whether or not we should do it.
Families with a history of cancers and other inherited diseases may soon be able to ensure their babies do not have the genes responsible by opting for IVF instead of natural conception.
Fertility regulators are considering whether to widen the rules which already allow parents to ensure babies are not born with faulty genes that will inevitably lead to conditions such as cystic fibrosis and Huntington's disease.
This would enable clinics to offer parents the opportunity to prevent their offspring inheriting genes for conditions that may develop later in life, even though not all people with the genes will ever get the disease.
The move is likely to prompts ethical debate for two reasons. First, it might encourage families with no history of fertility problems despite other family health problems to seek IVF. Secondly, it would mean the destruction of embryos capable of forming life with no guarantee that genes they carried would be responsible to later disease.
Will someone please tell these clowns that life is terminal? No one (with only two notable exceptions that I can think of) gets out of it alive. The possibilities of pain, disease, disability, imminent death, economic hardship, and the stunting of parental aspirations and self development are not sufficient argument for denying anyone the chance of life.
Friday, August 12, 2005
My Kids Are Tops
This weekend is the local agricultural fair complete with horses, pigs, goats, sheep, chickens, cows, and other farm type animals. Both Hannah and Ben have their goats and pigs entered in the 4H projects. Hannah won Grand Championship in Goat showmanship and her goat was the Grand Champion goat. Ben got Reserved Champion goat.
When it comes to swine, all of Ben's vast experience in keeping his bedroom in the condition of a pig stye has paid off handsomely. His pig won Grand Champion pig, and Ben won the Grand Champion swineherd ribbon as well. Not sure how Hannah did on that one. Probably not as well since she tends to be neater. One of the competitor's pig didn't do so hot. She had trained it to expect a good scratch all over every time she touched it with a stick. So instead of doing what a pig is supposed to do in these competitions, it would invariably lay down and practically roll over begging to be scratched, almost like a dog would.
Rumor has it that Sam has won second place with his rabbit. We'll see if rumor was correct when I pick them up in a little while.
This weekend is the local agricultural fair complete with horses, pigs, goats, sheep, chickens, cows, and other farm type animals. Both Hannah and Ben have their goats and pigs entered in the 4H projects. Hannah won Grand Championship in Goat showmanship and her goat was the Grand Champion goat. Ben got Reserved Champion goat.
When it comes to swine, all of Ben's vast experience in keeping his bedroom in the condition of a pig stye has paid off handsomely. His pig won Grand Champion pig, and Ben won the Grand Champion swineherd ribbon as well. Not sure how Hannah did on that one. Probably not as well since she tends to be neater. One of the competitor's pig didn't do so hot. She had trained it to expect a good scratch all over every time she touched it with a stick. So instead of doing what a pig is supposed to do in these competitions, it would invariably lay down and practically roll over begging to be scratched, almost like a dog would.
Rumor has it that Sam has won second place with his rabbit. We'll see if rumor was correct when I pick them up in a little while.
Tuesday, August 09, 2005
August Book Finds
Yesterday I went to Value Village and perused the book aisles. Their books cost more money than those I find at the St. Vincent de Paul thrift store, but I generally can find some books that I would really like to own. Here is a partial list of what I found:
The Heart's Code by Dr. Paul Pearsall. If you are interested in the discipline of psychoneuroimmunology , or how the emotional/psychological aspect of human life can influence the health and function of the body, then this is one book you will want to read. It contains an authoritative and comprehensive summary of some of the important scientific findings related to the emotions and cellular memory. I read this book a few years ago and it contains stories about heart transplant recipients who took on some of the traits and preferences of their heart's donor. Most people don't realize this, but their hearts have a "brain" in them that has something in the order of 80 million neurons which is as much as some parts of the cerebral brain contains. This brain in the heart is capable of storing information as well as transmitting it to the head and in some experiments has even over-ridden the head's instructions. Ever have the experience of knowing something "in your heart?" It kind of sheds an interesting light on some of the Scriptural instructions to guard our hearts, etc., at least for me.
The G-Index Diet by Richard N. Podell, M.D., F.A.C.P This is a "diet" book based on the use of the glycemic index, which is an approach to eating that I advocate and need to implement more consistently. I am going to be using this approach and starting back to the gym tout de suite et maintenant, s'il vous plait! If you don't know about the glycemic index, this is an index that tells you how fast a particular food breaks down into blood sugar. The lower on the index something is, the slower it breaks down to sugar and the slower and less of a rise in insulin levels your body experiences. Since you are producing less levels of insulin, you are also giving your body less of a signal to store food energy as fat instead of burning it for energy. Get it?
How to Have a Smarter Baby: The Infant Stimulation Program for Enhancing Your Baby's Natural Development by Dr. Susan Ludington-Hoe. This isn't so much for Sweet Baby James as it is for my own information and use with children I see in my practice. But if James benefits, so much the better. I would get this book and read it even if I didn't have James because it contains information in an area I am really interested in -- how to stimulate brain growth. Some of this information may still be applicable to older children and even adults, given the plastic nature of the brain.
The Experience of Childbirth by Sheila Kitzinger Anything by Sheila Kitzinger on the topic of childbirth is worth reading and should be read by expectant parents. It is sad the way that birth has been medicalized in North America into a disaster just waiting to happen and has been co-opted by a system concerned primarily with disease and things that go wrong. Sheila helps you to see things the way they should be. I am collecting her books when I find them to pass on to my daughters.
More Alike Than Different by Lee Bussard This book was written by a man who is disabled and I picked it up because I am appalling ignorant about the lives of disabled people and want to know more.
A Treasury of Handmade Gifts by Kate Yeates I always have this dream of sitting down and doing some arts and crafts with my girls. Maybe this book will help me to actually do it.
Winnie the Pooh by A.A. Milne This is a read aloud for Garnet and Elodie.
A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle.
Harvard Classics -- These are some of those nicely bound hard covers of classic authors that are dark green in color and embossed with gold. I picked up one which contained works by Bunyan, Izaak, and Walton and another with works by Ben Franklin, Woolman and Penn.
There were a few others, but this is all I feel like commenting on for now.
Yesterday I went to Value Village and perused the book aisles. Their books cost more money than those I find at the St. Vincent de Paul thrift store, but I generally can find some books that I would really like to own. Here is a partial list of what I found:
The Heart's Code by Dr. Paul Pearsall. If you are interested in the discipline of psychoneuroimmunology , or how the emotional/psychological aspect of human life can influence the health and function of the body, then this is one book you will want to read. It contains an authoritative and comprehensive summary of some of the important scientific findings related to the emotions and cellular memory. I read this book a few years ago and it contains stories about heart transplant recipients who took on some of the traits and preferences of their heart's donor. Most people don't realize this, but their hearts have a "brain" in them that has something in the order of 80 million neurons which is as much as some parts of the cerebral brain contains. This brain in the heart is capable of storing information as well as transmitting it to the head and in some experiments has even over-ridden the head's instructions. Ever have the experience of knowing something "in your heart?" It kind of sheds an interesting light on some of the Scriptural instructions to guard our hearts, etc., at least for me.
The G-Index Diet by Richard N. Podell, M.D., F.A.C.P This is a "diet" book based on the use of the glycemic index, which is an approach to eating that I advocate and need to implement more consistently. I am going to be using this approach and starting back to the gym tout de suite et maintenant, s'il vous plait! If you don't know about the glycemic index, this is an index that tells you how fast a particular food breaks down into blood sugar. The lower on the index something is, the slower it breaks down to sugar and the slower and less of a rise in insulin levels your body experiences. Since you are producing less levels of insulin, you are also giving your body less of a signal to store food energy as fat instead of burning it for energy. Get it?
How to Have a Smarter Baby: The Infant Stimulation Program for Enhancing Your Baby's Natural Development by Dr. Susan Ludington-Hoe. This isn't so much for Sweet Baby James as it is for my own information and use with children I see in my practice. But if James benefits, so much the better. I would get this book and read it even if I didn't have James because it contains information in an area I am really interested in -- how to stimulate brain growth. Some of this information may still be applicable to older children and even adults, given the plastic nature of the brain.
The Experience of Childbirth by Sheila Kitzinger Anything by Sheila Kitzinger on the topic of childbirth is worth reading and should be read by expectant parents. It is sad the way that birth has been medicalized in North America into a disaster just waiting to happen and has been co-opted by a system concerned primarily with disease and things that go wrong. Sheila helps you to see things the way they should be. I am collecting her books when I find them to pass on to my daughters.
More Alike Than Different by Lee Bussard This book was written by a man who is disabled and I picked it up because I am appalling ignorant about the lives of disabled people and want to know more.
A Treasury of Handmade Gifts by Kate Yeates I always have this dream of sitting down and doing some arts and crafts with my girls. Maybe this book will help me to actually do it.
Winnie the Pooh by A.A. Milne This is a read aloud for Garnet and Elodie.
A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle.
Harvard Classics -- These are some of those nicely bound hard covers of classic authors that are dark green in color and embossed with gold. I picked up one which contained works by Bunyan, Izaak, and Walton and another with works by Ben Franklin, Woolman and Penn.
There were a few others, but this is all I feel like commenting on for now.
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