rant about North Korea


jts

Recommended Posts

Interesting game. First side to move loses. If NK strikes first, Pyongyang gets turned into a smoking hole in the ground. If USA strikes first, China steps in, followed by all hell breaking loose. Conclusion: nothing will happen.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Confusion!

23 minutes ago, jts said:
5 hours ago, anthony said:
17 hours ago, jts said:

Calling Yaron Brook and Craig Biddle hate mongers to prove that Kim Jong Un is not a monster is not valid reasoning.

What? I have not called them hate-mongers.

I did not say that you did.

Who were you talking about or to, Jerry?  The introduction of 'hate mongers' seems unmoored ...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

5 minutes ago, william.scherk said:

Confusion!

Who were you talking about or to, Jerry?  The introduction of 'hate mongers' seems unmoored ...

It was merely a point of logic, not an accusation. Perhaps you are looking for a fight. I'm not.

It is a common fallacy. Say something about Islam, get accused of being a hate monger or a racist. Disagree with some doctors, get accused of hate mongering doctors. (I learn from many good doctors but I disagree with all of them on something, without hatred.) Call Kim Jong Un a monster, the speaker has personal problems. You probably can find this fallacy on a list of fallacies.

.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

5 minutes ago, jts said:

Disagree with some doctors, get accused of hate mongering doctors.

Disagree with the entirety of medicine as monstrous quackery or 'cut, burn, poison,'  a person might get mislabeled as an idiot, whereas the problem is not being stupid to the point of cretinism, the problem is abandoning a rigorous "Objective" epistemology in favour of whoopee.  In a pinch, a label might be attached that suggests a steadfast bigotry. But that wouldn't be nice.

Thanks for clarifying. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 6/16/2018 at 8:36 PM, Michael Stuart Kelly said:

Anyway, I disagree with Brook, but I wish him well and hope he finds some serenity one day.

 

Serenitiy, yes, but also help with his rhotacism. It's really not that hard to cure it: Both sides of the back of the tongue pressed to upper teeth, front tip of the tongue curled upward:

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, william.scherk said:

Disagree with the entirety of medicine as monstrous quackery or 'cut, burn, poison,'  a person might get mislabeled as an idiot, whereas the problem is not being stupid to the point of cretinism, the problem is abandoning a rigorous "Objective" epistemology in favour of whoopee.  In a pinch, a label might be attached that suggests a steadfast bigotry. But that wouldn't be nice.

Name calling ('whoopee') is another fallacy. Using such words as 'idiot' and 'bigotry' tends to put a damper on rational discussion. I am not convinced that drugs are based on rigorous Objective epistemology.

I will explain my rejection of drugs by a reasonably concrete example. High blood pressure.

You can take a HBP drug and it will lower blood pressure, no doubt. Who can argue against that? All the peer reviewed scientific studies and the experience of doctors and experience of patients shows that it lowers blood pressure. Fact. I'm guessing you would call that rigorous Objective epistemology. Anyone who argues against this drug is an idiot and a fool and whatever other nasty names you can think of. Are we on the same page so far?

Ask an important question. Why does the patient have HBP? Dr. Johnston told me "We are not good at causes", speaking for the whole profession. Most symptoms are not the problem but a body response to a problem. In the case of HBP it might be plaque in the arteries, causing obstruction to flow of blood, requiring higher pressure to produce an adequate flow of blood. I'm not saying this is the only possible cause but it is a possible cause.

So the HBP drug works if by 'works' we mean merely that it lowers blood pressure. And there is plenty of scientific evidence that it lowers BP. So what's the problem?

Does it remove the plaque? No. The obstruction to flow of blood is still there, requiring more pressure to produce an adequate flow of blood. So what we have now is an inadequate flow of blood. Plus the drug is a poison, which is why it works.

Well along comes someone who believes in 'natural remedies'. Chinese herbs. Maybe this is better because it is natural. Not so. Natural does not mean good. Poison ivy is natural. So is snake poison. This guy goes to a Chinese herbalist and get a herb that lowers BP just as the drug did. Does it remove the plaque? No. It produces the same result, inadequate flow of blood. Plus it is a poison. Chinese herbs are just poisonous plants and that's why they taste bad.

What is the correct procedure? Remove the plaque. Then with the obstruction to flow of blood removed, there is no need for HBP.

How do you remove the plaque? Ask how the plaque got there. Maybe diet had something to do with it. Maybe a change of diet would help. You don't need to go to a doctor to do that.

The above is just one example of the rule of thumb that most symptoms are body responses to a problem, not the problem itself.

Another example is pain. What is pain? Pain is a flashing red light. You can stop the pain by a drug (a poison). What did you accomplish? You stopped the flashing red light. The problem is still there but you don't know it. And as usual the drug is a poison and that's why it works.

Obviously many more examples could be added.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Quack. Quack quack.

2 hours ago, jts said:

Name calling ('whoopee') is another fallacy.

Oh. I thought whoopee was a nicer way of saying unmitigated hooey. Like 1859-era hooey about bacterial and viral infection, or wet spots where remains confused, rejecting notions about even novel genetic therapies.

Quote

Another example is pain. What is pain? Pain is a flashing red light. You can stop the pain by a drug

I get headaches from time to time, and try to prevent such by maintaining electrolyte balance, hydration and relaxed posture. Once in a while I get a crushing, partially-disabling headache that I haven't been able to prevent. Often in the past, the pain has been frightening.

I take 200 milligrams of deliberately-selected 'poison,' and within fifteen minutes the pain is gone. I get on with life.  The pain relief allows reactive clenching and stiffness to resolve, and also provides some anti-inflammatory agency.  I rarely get colds as I age, and I get the flu shot every winter, except this past winter when I was laid low with a stomach-flu. 

The administration of poison serves me well. One day, I will die. While we all wait for that ...

Every three months I have bloodwork. I see how a slow and steady loss of weight from my adult high is accompanied by a lessening of risk of pre-diabetes. Upping my meat-to-fat ratio by daily exercise leaves me lighter, fitter, springier and more alert. My doctor does little more than encourage me to continue whatever I am doing. He is my ally, not an enemy ...

16 kilos (~35 pounds) dropped so far. At some point I'll fit back into my tuxedo, but am happy enough with my progress.

When I wrenched my shoulder last year, I thought, "great, another year of painful healing," having diagnosed myself with bursitis.

-- "It doesn't sound like bursitis," said my doctor. "It sounds much more like a rotator-cuff injury." Oh.

I asked for a referral to a physiotherapist, and got one, after asking if the best practice was 'letting it heal' or getting some assistance from a professional.  Seven sessions later, and on to my own practical resumption of full activity, I feel 90% ...

Not a very interesting story, but true. We individually can do a great deal to help ourselves to optimum health through good nutrition and physical exercise, and we most of us hope that chronic or acute conditions beyond our control can be managed, reversed, lived through, or relieved via medical intervention. 

I have a lot of empathy for those folks who feel their health is entirely in their hands, and who fear or are confused by the medical systems we have today. I wish I could help those who blame themselves or unspecified plots for any issues they suffer from that may ultimately be beyond their control.

Eat a well-balanced diet full of plant-based foods, the closer to an unprocessed state the better. Exercise enough to feel good, better, best. And pass on any relatively rational 'tricks' you have found to defeat this or that malady or propensity.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 minutes ago, jts said:
1 hour ago, william.scherk said:

Quack. Quack quack.

Does that mean you can't explain what's wrong with what I wrote?

It's a reminder of epithets applied to medical practitioners. I use it one way, you use it another.  I don't think we can establish common ground in the epistemic realm concerning modern medicine, and I think you are pretty well stuck in a position you have held for some time. In other words, I don't think I have the persuasive powers of helping you past your antipathies.

It's not that I don't care to help, it's just that I don't think it is possible.  I am happy to argue about something we each are closer to in epistemic values ... say, North Korea. North Korea and expectations, cynicism, pessimism, optimism, histrionics and so on.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, william.scherk said:

I get headaches from time to time, and try to prevent such by maintaining electrolyte balance, hydration and relaxed posture. Once in a while I get a crushing, partially-disabling headache that I haven't been able to prevent. Often in the past, the pain has been frightening.

I take 200 milligrams of deliberately-selected 'poison,' and within fifteen minutes the pain is gone. I get on with life.

The administration of poison serves me well. One day, I will die. While we all wait for that ...

If you like to do research on the internet, you might want to do some research on the dangers of painkillers. From the little I know, it seems painkillers can be extremely dangerous and can be addicting. I'm not motivated to do the research myself because I don't take drugs and never have pain.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, william.scherk said:

Got to run to the drugstore which has a special on Zinc.  TB continued ...

Pumpkin seeds for zinc.

The only supplements I take are those I can't get enough from food. They are kelp for the iodine, vitamin D when I don't get enough sun, methylcobalamin (the best form of B12). I started taking these after I quit salmon.

(I'm not sure what all this has to do with North Korea.)

In NK you probably would have difficulty getting your nutrients.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

16 minutes ago, jts said:

If you like to do research on the internet, you might want to do some research on the dangers of painkillers. From the little I know, it seems painkillers can be extremely dangerous and can be addicting.

True.  Good thing I didn't tell you which one, so you could imagine a general rule based on I don't know what. I choose ibuprofen for its effectiveness and for its safety profile. It is a non-opiate, so non-addicting, and it is used for otherwise term-limited time-resolved conditions like a headache. Some women prefer ibuprofen over other NSAIDs , aspirin, acetaminophen, or low-impact opiates like codeine -- for menstrual pain.  You, I assume, have never had menstrual pain, but it sounds like a bore whose only Nature Cure is pregnancy, menopause or death.

Recent research suggests (on a statistical basis) that ibuprofen can help prevent or delay the onset of Parkinson's Disease.

-- in North Korea, there is no pain.  

Edited by william.scherk
What about fermented cabbage with capsicum, isn't that painful?
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

15 minutes ago, william.scherk said:

It's a reminder of epithets applied to medical practitioners. I use it one way, you use it another.  I don't think we can establish common ground in the epistemic realm concerning modern medicine, and I think you are pretty well stuck in a position you have held for some time. In other words, I don't think I have the persuasive powers of helping you past your antipathies.

I explained how I see drugs for high blood pressure. I went slowly and tried to make it as clear as I could. You did not explain how you see drugs for high blood pressure. Your response was quack quack quack. What am I supposed to make out of your response?

Perhaps you have no response but instead have a blind trust in the authority of mainstream doctors and perhaps to you anything contrary to mainstream doctors is automatically quackery. I understand that most people think MD stands for Medical Deity but I don't worship doctors (not even the good ones) and I don't take orders from doctors.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, jts said:

If you like to do research on the internet, you might want to do some research on the dangers of painkillers. From the little I know, it seems painkillers can be extremely dangerous and can be addicting. I'm not motivated to do the research myself because I don't take drugs and never have pain.

 

Bill, your headaches sound like what in my family call the "eye-ache{", a form of migraine which no painkiller could conquer when I was young. Both my sons inherited it but have found relief in OTC and (I am glad you have too.

Pharma forever, say I.

JTS, I can tell you that Tylenol 3s are not addicting. I know this because the drugstore forgot to fax my doctor for a refill last week, so I have had none for 6 days now. I don't feel any withdrawal symptoms but I do feel a lot of arthritis pain.

I also have a prescription for medical marijuana but have not been able to afford to fill it yet.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 hours ago, caroljane said:

JTS, I can tell you that Tylenol 3s are not addicting. I know this because the drugstore forgot to fax my doctor for a refill last week, so I have had none for 6 days now. I don't feel any withdrawal symptoms but I do feel a lot of arthritis pain.

Addiction is different for different people. Some people get addicted to alcohol; some don't. Some people get addicted to gambling; some don't. A quick search shows that some people get addicted to tylenol.

A little anecdote about arthritis pain that probably doesn't prove anything. Many years ago my mother had arthritis pain. I did most of the food shopping for the family. I asked my mother what I should buy. She left that to me to decide. Her arthritis pain vanished and stayed gone. I don't know if this was a coincidence or not.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

23 hours ago, Blah blah blah said:

Blah blah blah

On 6/20/2018 at 1:42 PM, jts said:

Name calling ('whoopee') is another fallacy.

Blah blah blah cut poison burn

Ahem.

21 hours ago, jts said:
21 hours ago, william.scherk said:

I don't think we can establish common ground in the epistemic realm concerning modern medicine, and I think you are pretty well stuck in a position you have held for some time. In other words, I don't think I have the persuasive powers of helping you past your antipathies.

I explained how I see drugs for high blood pressure. I went slowly and tried to make it as clear as I could. You did not explain how you see drugs for high blood pressure. Your response was quack quack quack. What am I supposed to make out of your response?

Well, I suppose we both could reconsider the Principle of Charity, if it's not too late. That would require me to look over your argument in the best possible light.  

Quote

Perhaps you have no response but instead have a blind trust in the authority of mainstream doctors and perhaps to you anything contrary to mainstream doctors is automatically quackery

I'll give you a response. In it I hope you look for "What is WSS trying hard to say?"

On 6/20/2018 at 1:42 PM, jts said:
On 6/20/2018 at 10:45 AM, william.scherk said:

Disagree with the entirety of medicine as monstrous quackery or 'cut, burn, poison,' [...]

[...]

I will explain my rejection of drugs by a reasonably concrete example. High blood pressure.

You can take a HBP drug and it will lower blood pressure, no doubt. Who can argue against that? All the peer reviewed scientific studies and the experience of doctors and experience of patients shows that it lowers blood pressure. Fact. I'm guessing you would call that rigorous Objective epistemology. Anyone who argues against this drug is an idiot and a fool and whatever other nasty names you can think of. Are we on the same page so far?

I have to take this sentence by sentence. The topic sentence says we will get a reasonably concrete example. I can follow the words, but the example is not drawn from real life in that the specifics are muffled or absent. 

What is a normal, what is a high, what is a low blood pressure? Under what conditions, states of health or disease can a person's blood pressure deviate from the "good range."  What clues to an underlying cause are found after a diagnosis of high blood pressure?  

In this case, were we at the seminar table, after our main presentations, we would take questions from each other and from the folks in the crowd. My questions for you would start with, "Can we mutually-agree on a definition of the most-common diagnosis of HBP,"  and then I would after hearing from you fill in a few blanks from your presentation. 

So, if we concentrate on the most-common, most intractable, most studied kind of HBP, we can look at ranges of therapeutic treatments recommended and available.  We should remove as many of our expectations as we can.  I'll go and dig up a useful common denominator or commonly-described condition -- and at the end of the process give a gander across the types of therapies you may reject going in.

I'll take some time watering the garden in between updating here. 

Quote

Ask an important question. Why does the patient have HBP?

This is where we break for chit-chat between sessions.  What is the most common cause of HBP (besides the apparently inevitable uptick of age for some folks)?

Quote

Dr. Johnston told me "We are not good at causes", speaking for the whole profession.

Three questions then, and a follow-up:  

  1. Who is Dr Johnston?
  2. Who is the patient?
  3. When and where did this happen, and to whom?
  4. If speaking for a whole profession, can we go off during the chit-chat to test our knowledge of the current reigning model of high blood pressure?
Quote

Most symptoms are not the problem but a body response to a problem.

Right. My equivalent of a "Doctor Johnston" told me that among the causes of HBP are sedentary lifestyles, sodium-potassium imbalance, obesity, diets of stodge, fatty, fudgy, shelf-stable hi-fructose sodium-boosted stodge.

Dr Johnston is as old as me, slim, bright-eyed, apparently fit and hearty. I asked him more detailed questions. Are plaques a cause or a result of life-style clogging agents or high blood pressure themselves? -- which was a risk factor for the other, or were both independent variables?

He showed me some information that portrayed classic "narrowing of the arteries" as a result of injury to the arteries resulting from high blood pressure syndromes. Tiny fissures in the walls open under pressure, and the eddies of circulation are the 'seed-bed' for subsquent plaques. Who knew?

I saw a hundred slides of Doctor J. If I had to summarize as to how he explained  causes, the answer was Your Lifestyle, mainly.  That was not at all satisfactory. I drilled him on his own BP. Was he on HBP medication?  He answered yes, he was, and told me which one. I forget which one. 

I drilled him on "lifestyle." Did he have a bad relationship with salt, fat, sedentary habits, whiskey, tobacco, methamphetamines. Negatory on those. So ... what was "the" cause of his HBP, and could his case speak for everyone of all the cases?

He chuckled, of course not. My HBP is the result of a funny little polymorphism on a protein-production pathway, which has knock-on effects in my thyroid, which "jacks up" my metabolism just to put me at greater risk of stroke or heart disease.

Yikes. Each case seems to point to humans doing really stupid modern things with their bodies, eating less and less plant foods, sitting around on giant behinds composed of bad choices.  But then there was a kink somewhere genetic for a significant case here and there.

The dangers I became alert to were mostly "Why do we care about HBP?" The clearest answer, which I wrote on my sandwich wrapper, was "Knock-on effects" ...

Quote

In the case of HBP it might be plaque in the arteries, causing obstruction to flow of blood, requiring higher pressure to produce an adequate flow of blood. I'm not saying this is the only possible cause but it is a possible cause.

So the HBP drug works if by 'works' we mean merely that it lowers blood pressure. And there is plenty of scientific evidence that it lowers BP. So what's the problem?

Does it remove the plaque? No. The obstruction to flow of blood is still there, requiring more pressure to produce an adequate flow of blood. So what we have now is an inadequate flow of blood.

I don't know where you went during the chit-chat over sandwiches, Jerry.  Presumably to that juice-bar across the boulevard. But anyway, you probably checked over the above quotation, to make sure you had the general gist right.  

You discovered that lowering blood pressure prevents further damage to arteries. 

Now, bellies full of various plant-based foods, updated by inquiry, we get back to the hall.

Quote

Plus the drug is a poison, which is why it works.

If we plug in a name here, we can go beyond "poisoning" as a means of action.  Let's pick a drug, shall we? How about the most common one internationally? Let's say ... well, there isn't a single recommended titan of prescription policies. It depends on the nature of the individual case. I pick Lisinopril solution. This takes me into the fascinating world of engineering at the cellular processes level. I put the "pathway" data at the bottom**.  I can't say it sounds like a poisoning story, because it is unclear what dies. The drug seems to offer a fine-tuning of some stressed machinery, in effect slowing down a rampaging Mustang to a steadier trot.

Ultimately the drug -- even if it were to poison a tiny granular aspect of virus, which it doesn't -- is prescribed for a reason. Not just because high blood pressure is a thing to poison out of you, but that the condition almost inevitably shorten a life through increased risk of a rack-full of circulation system death rattles.  Averting those future crises is a healing of sorts. Depending on the risks to a particular patient, if lifestyle corrections will not be made, or if they make no difference, choosing Lisinopril can seem like a calculated or rational choice of 'poison.'

In any case, Jerry, after we discuss the "pathway" stuff from down below, we will have a fuller explanation of how a drug "kills" (poisons) its quarry.

 

Quote

Well along comes someone who believes in 'natural remedies'. Chinese herbs. Maybe this is better because it is natural. Not so. Natural does not mean good. Poison ivy is natural. So is snake poison. This guy goes to a Chinese herbalist and get a herb that lowers BP just as the drug did. Does it remove the plaque? No. It produces the same result, inadequate flow of blood. Plus it is a poison. Chinese herbs are just poisonous plants and that's why they taste bad.

What is the correct procedure? Remove the plaque. Then with the obstruction to flow of blood removed, there is no need for HBP.

How do you remove the plaque? Ask how the plaque got there. Maybe diet had something to do with it. Maybe a change of diet would help. You don't need to go to a doctor to do that.

The above is just one example of the rule of thumb that most symptoms are body responses to a problem, not the problem itself.

I love it. Love it. It has so much common sense. And I am hungry for another snack and break from the seminar.  A couple of points I do want to bring up in our chit-chat. You still have some of your chilled V-8, yes?

So, so-called natural remedies or concoctions or whatever can be said to have pharmacological - physiological properties or not. If yes, they actually act as a drug meaning they can alter aspects of metabolism, they have a dose-response, and a structural relationship with bodily chemistry. They survive the gut. Etc.

But showing that "lifestyle" choices of sedentary self-malnourishing can cause or will cause the greatest proportion of HBP ... given that people do not obey even the most rational strictures when faced with bodily fuckups ... doesn't get the dog to the pound.

I mean, the issue is the extra risk of stroke and other cerebral fuckups due to HBP, and the coronary explosions and fuckups and the kidney fuckups and the mental fuckups, yes indeed.

You or I don't make those decisions difficult for ourselves, right, Jerry? To the best of our ability we try to follow the Doctor Johnson road:  do not be sedentary, make sure your potassium-sodium balance does not fuck up, exercise or increase your risk with each stone you gain, do not overdo salt, do not smoke, do not binge on or overdo alcohol, seek stress-relieving behavioural changes ...

[10:16 | Under editing cloud][1:11 |  The clouds lifted]

Spoiler

bigstock_Presentation_In_Auditorium_2926

** from the sidebar to a cool visual interactive at http://smpdb.ca/view/SMP00150 (screencap bottom-most here. It is so cool.)

The renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system (RAAS) is a homeostatic mechanism for regulating hemodynamics, water and electrolyte balance. During sympathetic stimulation or when renal blood pressure or blood flow is reduced, renin is released from granular cells of the juxtaglomerular apparatus in the kidneys. In the blood stream, renin cleaves circulating angiotensinogen to angiotensin I (ATI), which is cleaved by angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) to angiotensin II (ATII). ATII increases blood pressure using a number of mechanisms. First, it stimulates the secretion of aldosterone from the adrenal cortex. Aldosterone travels to the distal convoluted tubule (DCT) and collecting tubule of nephrons where it increases sodium and water reabsorption by increasing the number of sodium channels and sodium-potassium ATPases on cell membranes. ATII also stimulates the secretion of vasopressin (also known as antidiuretic hormone or ADH) from the posterior pituitary gland. ADH stimulates further water reabsorption in the kidneys via insertion of aquaporin-2 channels on the apical surface of cells of the DCT and collecting tubules. Second, ATII increases blood pressure through direct arterial vasoconstriction. Stimulation of the Type 1 ATII receptor on vascular smooth muscle cells leads to a cascade of events resulting in myocyte contraction and vasoconstriction. In addition to these major effects, ATII induces the thirst response via stimulation of hypothalamic neurons. ACE inhibitors inhibit the rapid conversion of angiotensin I to angiotensin II and antagonize RAAS-induced increases in blood pressure. ACE (also known as kininase II) is also involved in the enzymatic deactivation of bradykinin, a vasodilator. Inhibiting the deactivation of bradykinin increases bradykinin levels and sustains its effects causing increased vasodilation and decreased blood pressure (mechanism not shown). Lisinopril, an ACE inhibitor, is structually similar to enalaprilat, the active metabolite of enalapril; it contains a lysine group substituted for the alanine constituent of enalaprilat. Unlike enalapril, lisinopril lacks the ester component that is hydrolyzed from enalapril and as such, lisinopril does not require in vivo activation. Lisinopril competes with angiotensin I for binding to ACE and effectively inhibits the conversion of angiotensin I to angiotensin II. The resulting decrease in angiotensin II concentration confers blood pressure lowering effects to lisinopril. Increased levels of bradykinin resulting from inhibition of its breakdown may also contribute to the effects of lisinopril. Lisinopril may be used to treat hypertension, congestive heart failure and renal nephropathy.


References


Lisinopril Pathway References


Bader, M. (2004). Renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system. In S. Offermanns, & W. Rosenthal (Eds.). Encyclopedic reference of molecular pharmacology (pp. 810-814). Berlin, Germany: Springer.

Peters, J. (2004). ACE inhibitors. In S. Offermanns, & W. Rosenthal (Eds.). Encyclopedic reference of molecular pharmacology (pp. 2-5). Berlin, Germany: Springer.

Prinivil. (2009). [Electronic version]. e-CPS. Retrieved August 22, 2009.

Stanfield, C.L., & Germann, W.J. (2008). Principles of human physiology (3 rd ed.). San Francisco, CA: Pearson Education, Inc.

______________________________

-- this is just a  part of the whole shebang. Click and go.

pathwaysSnap.png

 

Edited by william.scherk
Some giant flowers are growing on the zucchini plants; should we do them Italian-style? It involves fresh herbs, onions, garlic, hot peppered *meat* boo hiss we love it and a potload of simmered spice tomatoes. And the BBQ.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

15 hours ago, jts said:

Addiction is different for different people. Some people get addicted to alcohol; some don't. Some people get addicted to gambling; some don't. A quick search shows that some people get addicted to tylenol.

A little anecdote about arthritis pain that probably doesn't prove anything. Many years ago my mother had arthritis pain. I did most of the food shopping for the family. I asked my mother what I should buy. She left that to me to decide. Her arthritis pain vanished and stayed gone. I don't know if this was a coincidence or not.

 

Did her joints also shrink back to normal size?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

 

14 minutes ago, jts said:

Dunno.

 

Why not? This was your mother for heavens sakes, you bought all her groceries. Did you not notice if her knuckles unknotted and her fingers slimmed back down?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

55 minutes ago, caroljane said:

Why not? This was your mother for heavens sakes, you bought all her groceries. Did you not notice if her knuckles unknotted and her fingers slimmed back down?

So far as I know it was just pain, no deformity of knuckles or very little. That was in the 1980s. I didn't buy all her groceries, just most, for me and her both. I bought what I wanted, mostly fruits and veggies, and she accepted it. I tried to suggest to her that the diet had nothing to do with the vanishing of the pain but she was convinced the diet did it.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The thrilling promise of a de-nuclearized Korean Peninsula is one thing.  Trusting the DPRK to adhere to promises is another thing. According to the Guardian's reporting, the DPRK is continuing work at the nuclear complex that produce fuel for its bombs. 

All the same, though, the article contains cautions about over-interpreting the satellite data ...

Quote

“Continued work at the Yongbyon facility should not be seen as having any relationship to North Korea’s pledge to denuclearise,” the experts warned. “The North’s nuclear cadre can be expected to proceed with business as usual until specific orders are issued from Pyongyang.”

Despite the lack of clarity on any nuclear deal, South Korea has pushed ahead with diplomatic efforts. The two sides met for military talks this week aimed at restoring communication lines, and railway officials agreed to explore connecting the two countries by rail.

Checks will begin next month on long-unused lines that once allowed travel across the entire peninsula. Talks began a decade ago, but were suspended amid rising tensions. South Korea already has a gleaming steel and glass station just south of its highly militarised border with the North, with tracks marked for service to the North’s capital, Pyongyang.

Kim singled out the South’s advanced railway infrastructure during his meeting with Moon in April, acknowledging in a rare admission of weakness that the North lagged far behind its neighbour. But progress on the nuclear issue and the lifting of sanctions would have to come before any joint rail projects.

I should also note a raft of stories out of the South Korean media (who knows how much is Faye) that the propaganda machinery in the North is being re-tooled. In other words, the harshest and most psychotic reiterations of the Evul USA meme-factories are no longer driving North Korean coverage -- at least in its relationships with the Demon Imperialist Aggressor and its running dogs ...

This extract from Google Faye is hideously formatted, but has links to follow for those interested in the details of changing propaganda.

Spoiler

North Korea erasing anti-United States propaganda after summit

4 days ago - North Korea erasing most anti-US propaganda. By Eileen AJ Connelly ... The changeextends to the country's government-controlled media.

North Korean Propaganda Changes Its Tune on U.S. | RealClearPolitics

North Korean Propaganda Changes Its Tune on U.S.. Andreas Illmer, BBC News June 25, 2018.North Korean Propaganda Changes Its Tune on U.S..

North Korean propaganda changes its tune - BBC News - BBC.com

5 days ago - Pyongyang's propaganda changes from blasting the US as enemy to a much more conciliatory note.

America, explained by a North Korean propaganda book - Vox

Jun 12, 2018 - I fake-interviewed a real North Korea propaganda book. ... Titled The US Imperialists Started the Korean War, the book is a sweeping indictment of American ... Was that just a lie or did events on the ground change?

North Korea in US Propaganda: How the Media Distorts Your View of ...

https://www.johnlaurits.com › News, Math, + AgitProp › Empire, War, + Imperialism
  1.  
Jun 19, 2018 - North Korea / DPRK in US Propaganda .... Peninsula will require an end to our regimechange war in Syria and a public statement that the U.S. ...
 

Reporters thought this video was North Korea propaganda. It came

Jun 12, 2018 - ... the United States had just produced North Korean propaganda, ... or take actions to renew their homeland, or change the course of history.”.

North Korea plans to skip annual anti-U.S. rally - Chicago Tribune

www.chicagotribune.com/news/.../ct-north-korea-anti-us-rally-20180625-story.html
  1.  
2 days ago - North Korea has decided to skip one of the most symbolic and politically charged events of its ... North Korea Changing Tone ... with anti-American propaganda slogans at Pyongyang's central Kim Il Sung Square, in North ...

How North Korea's propaganda leaflets are changing - NKNews

Feb 21, 2018 - How North Korea's propaganda leaflets are changing ... support for the deployment of a U.S. anti-missile system to South Korea, as well as in ...

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

If you haven't ever had a chance to watch North Korean television news, here's an example from two months ago, when Kim and Moon did their historic theatre.  It is in Korean, and subtitled in Korean, but you can go into the toolbox and change it to English.

 

Edited by william.scherk
Time change
Link to comment
Share on other sites

24 minutes ago, william.scherk said:

If you haven't ever had a chance to watch North Korean television news, here's an example from two months ago, when Kim and Moon did their historic theatre.  It is in Korean, and subtitled in Korean, but you can go into the toolbox and change it to English.

 

And South Korea KNOCKED OUT GERMANY in the World Cup!

This is one happenin' peninsula !

Link to comment
Share on other sites

"Trust, but verify," said someone. Could it be that the DPRK hasn't yet commanded a shift in its actual missiles+nukes activity? From the Daily Caller's Asian correspondent, Ryan Pickrell.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now