Archive for the ‘culture’ Category

Report from Louisiana: Medical Marijuana Eases Blanco’s Last Days

Posted: September 2, 2019 by Pat Austin in culture, Uncategorized
Tags: , , , ,

Former Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco died August 18; she had been suffering from ocular melanoma.

Whether or not one agrees with her politics, pretty much everyone will concede that Governor Blanco was a class act. She was always gracious and kind, and her love for the state of Louisiana was never questioned. She caught a lot of heat during Hurricane Katrina, but no one ever questioned her love of the state or the city of New Orleans.

Last week The Advocate reports that toward the last days of her life Governor Blanco turned to medical marijuana for relief from the pain of her advanced disease.

Medical marijuana was made legal in Louisiana in the 1970s but it took until 2019 for all of the loopholes, regulation, and proper framework to be put in place. Now the drug is distributed as an oil by nine pharmacies throughout the state. It is legal in about thirty-three states in the U.S.

In July 2019, Blanco entered hospice care and by August was receiving medical marijuana. The drug was immediately effective on her and relieved her from the blackouts that she had from morphine. Her family insists that the oil returned a valuable quality of life to Blanco’s last days.

From The Advocate:

Blanco-Hartfield [Blanco’s daughter], put half a milliliter of oil under her mother’s tongue. “Within 60 seconds, her whole body relaxed,” Blanco-Hartfield said. “She smiled and a peacefulness came over her. It was amazing.”

The following day, Blanco-Hartfield gave her mother a mixture of two milligrams of crushed methadone that had been dissolved with a peppermint into water and half a milliliter of marijuana oil.

“All she had to do was let it go down her throat,” Blanco-Hartfield said. “By that night, she was smiling, eating, laughing and drinking. She could speak one-word commands. We never imagined we’d see that again. It made all the difference in the world that she no longer had to take the morphine.”

According to the family, Governor Blanco was able to rest comfortable, eat, and participate in important family events in her last days, and they believe that if the drug had been available sooner, Blanco may have even lived longer.

The drug remains very expensive, but if it does in fact provide such relief to terminal and to suffering patients, certainly it should be accessible.

Link to The Advocate story: https://www.theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/news/politics/article_1a4e44be-cb6a-11e9-8292-fb567939e0f0.html

Only to the Boomers is this a Revelation

Posted: September 2, 2019 by datechguy in culture, Uncategorized
Tags: ,

A man’s got to die of something.

DaTechGuy

There are some pieces that just make one’s jaw drop this one dropped mine:

Behold the killing fields that lie before us: Bob Dylan (78 years old); Paul McCartney (77); Paul Simon (77) and Art Garfunkel (77); Carole King (77); Brian Wilson (77); Mick Jagger (76) and Keith Richards (75); Joni Mitchell (75); Jimmy Page (75) and Robert Plant (71); Ray Davies (75); Roger Daltrey (75) and Pete Townshend (74); Roger Waters (75) and David Gilmour (73); Rod Stewart (74); Eric Clapton (74); Debbie Harry (74); Neil Young (73); Van Morrison (73); Bryan Ferry (73); Elton John (72); Don Henley (72); James Taylor (71); Jackson Browne (70); Billy Joel (70); and Bruce Springsteen (69, but turning 70 next month).

A few of these legends might manage to live into their 90s, despite all the … wear and tear to which they’ve subjected their bodies over the decades. But most of them will not.

This will force us not only to endure their passing, but to confront our own mortality as well.

Until the rise of the Boomers and the 60’s generation the idea that life is finite was a simple norm that was a steadying and centering influence in culture.

But in this post Christian era there is a half of the culture that this piece for whom this piece will be a revelation.

And it is that fact that drops my jaw to the floor.

 

A Rare Misstep , Tabib and Jon Sable, Puig’s visits their targets, Everybody (but one) Loses, No Wondermark Environmental Cup For you Meat Eaters Among the Poor! Under the Fedora

Posted: August 23, 2019 by datechguy in culture

While I like very much the idea of buying Greenland particularly in the context of keeping China and Russia out I really think there is no percentage in the President canceling the meeting with the Danish Prime minister over her reaction to the suggestion. A lot of these country might not have a lot of power but they do have face and it’s the type of thing people remember when you need a favor.

Of course I’m sure there’s a danegled joke there somewhere.

That’s about the only thing President Trump has done in a while to annoy me, not bad, not bad at all.

I must confess I’ve always thought middle eastern women (particularly Iranians) are some of the most beautiful in the world that I’ve ever met. That’s why whenever I see congresswoman Rashida Talib,  who while not in the class of the the women I’m describing is not an unattractive women,  a quote from the old Jon Sable comic book from the 80’s comes to mind. “I never did like terrorists, not even the pretty ones.”.

Now given the context that quote might be a tad unfair to congresswoman Talib but given the groups that wanted to sponsor her trip to Israel, only a tad.

Let me put it another way there was a cute story at Powerline about newly acquired Cleveland power hitter Yasiel Puig visit to camp Simcha described as:

“It is the only kosher overnight summer camp for children and teens with cancer, and it hosts children battling other diseases, most of which are terminal.”

there is a great picture of Puig sitting with a kid with a multi colored Yarmulke in the piece. Take a look at that picture and when you do remember that if someone managed to blow that kid up the folks that Talib supports would throw a party for him and give his family a pension for life.

After all who the best paying job in the Palestinian territories is killing a jew:

Celebrations and firecrackers have been wildly going off near the home of the car rammer since Friday’s attemped homicide. 

When our reporter approached the Harimi home, the dead driver’s family had only one queston “How is the boy that Harimi ran over?” 

That concern was a surprising to hear. 

Our reporter found out what the Harimi family was really asking . 

The Harimi family wanted to know if their son had accomplished the proverbial coup de grace and whether he had actually put this young Jew to death?

Simply put: If Nahum succumbs, G-d forbid, the Harimi family will be honored with cash for life from the Palestinian Authority, and honor would be bestowed upon the family. 

They are lucky that they’re fighting Jews and not Sicilians.

You’ll have to forgive me if I don’t get excited about Kamala Harris’ drop in the polls.   Or environmental idiot Jay Inslee’s withdrawal from the race.  With 20+ democrats running it’s guaranteed that 20 + of them will lose. I’ll save my cheering when the last Democrat loses in November of 2020.

Finally when I was a kid my favorite TV show was the 1950’s British TV show the Adventures of Robin Hood. There was an episode in the 1st season called the Miser which begins with the following exchange:

Lady de Courcier: Good Morning William.

Sir William de Courcier: A good morning did you say? It may interest you to know that I’ve just been down to the kitchens. And you do know what I found our minions feasting themselves on? Dishes of broth. And do you know what was in the broth? Meat, MEAT!

Lady de Courcier: They have to put something in the broth my dear.

Sir William de Courcier: But not meat! Do you know what the price of beef in Nottingham? Why it’s eating money!

I thought that it was a bit of over the top fiction but apparently 800+ years later the elites of our time haven’t changed:

The Economist

✔@TheEconomist

More poor people are eating meat around the world. That means they will live longer, healthier lives, but it is bad news for the environmenthttps://econ.st/2NfwKWd 

Embedded video

999

Twitter Ads info and privacy
2,383 people are talking about this

Yeah who DARE those poor folks get a bit of meat to eat and live longer. If they keep up like that they’ll never win the coveted Wondermark cup for environmental awareness.

Under the Fedora Latin and English, Biden & History, NYT vs Alex Stephens, LGBTQ vs Legal Documents, Dick’s Vs Guns

Posted: August 22, 2019 by datechguy in catholic, Church doctrine, culture, elections, politics, primaries
Tags: , , , , , ,

My post on Canon Turner’s 1st Mass got a lot of attention considering it wasn’t instalanched and I wanted to make a point that might have been unclear.  I have been to the Latin mass before just not a high mass of the type that was on display.  Personally I think it would be healthy for both the vernacular and the Latin masses to both be offered in all parishes.  It would be a perfect illustration of Christ as fully human and our brother while also fully Divine as our God.  I think it’s healthy to remember both.

I don’t see why anyone is surprised that Joe Biden got the decade wrong that RFK & MLK were assassinated.  Given the historical ignorance of the young who tend to vote democrat these days and the attempts to re-write history such a mistake makes perfect sense.  Of course, maybe 1968 identifies as a year in the 70’s

Speaking of re-writing history the NYT 1619 project attempt to reframe a false history as true has actually been going on for a long time by the left.  It’s been a full generation since Mary Lefkowitz Not out of Africa and the backlash she got for refusing to teach myth as history the only difference is now their bold enough to admit it and no amount of facts such as the Vice President of the Confederacy’s attack on the founding fathers for opposing Slavery and considering it evil will stop it.  What happened with Lefkowitz was the broken window theory of this type of thing

On a similar subject that’s a pet peeve of mine on twitter this week the subject of Transgenders altering their birth certificates to change their birth sex/name is something I think is very wrong.  A birth certificate is a legal document recording an actual event.  Namely a person was born of a particular sex to a particular set of parents on a particular date at a particular place.  These are all facts and are not subject to the whims or vanity of others.  Now if you wanted to create a document that was a “certification of live birth”  where a city can certify that a person who has a different legal birth name and a different legal birth sex was in fact born at a particular place on a particular year that would be a fair compromise but we have no business changing the written record.

Finally there is word that Dicks Sporting goods which made a big deal about being woke on guns is considering discontinuing guns altogether.  It actually makes perfect sense when you consider the reaction by gun owners to the company’s previous move:

“I’m not furious, not at all. They made a business decision. I get it. They want to step out of their non-political lane and become corporate activists. I can calmly step out of my lane, too. And given every chance I get, I will not use their products,” he said.

If buyers of guns with long memories are still angry and not going to your stores and you have no interest in getting their business back it’s a logical business decision to stop carrying items that might appeal to that customer base, the remaining guns and hunting items in this case,  and move to a set of items that appeal to the customers you still have.

It’s the same principle that MSNBC and the NYT is using when moving away from reality why give facts when your remaining base will only pay for propaganda?

Older Entries
Newer Entries