It is truly a sad state of affairs that the world is not made privy to the videos and new information that is reported directly from Palestinian resources that decry the actions of militant radical factions such as Hamas. The following news clip from Al Jazeera broadcasting needs to be brought to public awareness.
I look forward to a time when news reporting brings only good news, unbiased and honest news.
On a basic level in relation to who we are, how we seek to define ourselves, and what do to one another mundanely……
It is a nice humbling lesson to learn through nature what it is that we fail to achieve as human beings. It is sad when people continue to insist on failing to look beyond their own petty grievances!
In light of all that has been happening in Israel these past months, it is interesting to see how one side can defend the rocket fire into israel as simple launching of “firecrackers” as Iranian president Ahmedinejad purports.
50Kg of steel launched into an urban area is more than just a firecracker. Even if the rocket does not explode on direct impact and is for some reason delayed (which can be even more deadly), given the sheer magnitude and proportion of these rockets, this is significant.
Living a comfortable life in North America free of these sorts of daily horrific realities by no means qualifies anyone to judge against Israel. Nobody in ANY of the G8 countries would ever stand for this kind of terrorism. Yet the world expects Israel to bend over backwards and continue to carve away its borders and relent to people who willingly use their women and children as human shields for their unprovoked attacks. Having visited Israel ourselves, and having grown up in a country with marked civil unrest, I can appreciate just how patient Israel has been to date.
Perhaps Reuters and the Associated Press should consider the real media values and footatge rather than continue to shoot the self-same footage from the same cordoned-off areas that look war-torn. Visit www.honestreporting.com and live a more informed life.North American cinema has even capitalised on what happens in the middle east in movies such as The Kingdom and Babel. The realities of people blowing themselves up, and statements of rest will not be afforded until every [infidel] Jew is cast into the sea smacks of holocaust rantings. Are we so immune and willfully blind to allow this to continue and happen again? Do these sorts of words not disturb people?
Does the world not want to recall that Israel was established as a homeland for the Jews? There was no single country that was willing to take in the Jews during the holocaust. When the nazis put a boatload of Jews bound for North America, they were turned right back to Germany for certain extermination.
A nation of arm-chair politicians, nobody seems to recall the holocausts of the past. Israel has no booming natural resources to speak of, no oil, gold, or diamonds, only its Jewish heritage. No other nation in this world would ever cede to a militant few and carve up its border to maintain “peace.” Israel is as small as vancouver island. When you elect to live in a country and are accepted as a citizen, it is incumbent upon you to live according to the law and constitution of the land. Driving bulldozers into public places and killing infants and their parents, boarding buses with innocents to make a political-religious statment, and launching rockets into densely populated urban centers does not make a political or religious statement. It deems you a coward, a pest, and an intolerant infidel who is incapable of cohabiting peacefully within the country that has taken you in. If you disagree with the laws of that particular land, then move elsewhere, but don’t go killing innocents and resort to using women and children and expect that the world should be sympathetic.
There are many reports being released now that include very significant findings in terms of the effects, benefits, and losses we face when it comes to antioxidants. Long touted as the means to prevent cancer, stay healthy, and never catch-a-cold remedies, antioxidants come with very complex biochemical names, as well as some very complex side-effects, and problems.
Through my journey with cancer I have discovered many different ranges, clasess, and strengths of antioxidant, and one must VERY careful and selective about what to put in your mouth, let alone in your veins.
Vitamin C was reportedly the most powerful antioxidant known, begetting fame and notariety by Nobel scholar and chemist, Linus Pauling. In some select cases, intravenous vitamin C (acorbic acid) has been useful to a very select few individuals. Taking vitamin C by mouth will not give you the same sort of distribution within your body as intravenous (I.V.), since drugs administered I.V. are 100% available to almost all tissues; in medical circles this is referred to as bioavailability. Oral bioavailability of vitamin C reaches its peak at 200mg orally, or around 500mg oraly if you take Ester-C (a slightly different type of vitamin C that has been chemically altered to be better-absorbed). If you take more than this orally, congratulations, you will either experience diarrhea, or will have wasted the rest of the vitamin C as all your body will be doing with the rest of the vitamin C is filtering it out via your kidneys.
In the world of oncology/cancer, taking high dose vitamin C (ascorbate) is extremely dangerous! Don’t! In a systematic review of medical and laboratory medicine in 2007, I.V. ascorbate over 10mMol concentrations given in three different cancer cell lines caused cancer to grow by as much as 333%! The ascorbate causes release of hydrogen peroxide in the cancer cells in successful cases, however, like any other cell or living entity, cancer cells also want to live and will adapt any way the can to accomplish this. The cells change their chemical structure quite rapidly to prevent the ascorbate from continuing to release hydrogen peroxide. This is achieved through modification of surface proteins on the cancer cells called MMP1, MMP2 and TGF-b (matrix metalloproteinases 1 & 2, and transforming Growth Factor beta). Basically these altered proteins rearrange their stuctures therein becoming impervious to the effects of I.V. ascorbate. it is basically like giving cancer cells rubber a suit of armour and a get-out-of-jail-free card.
The following news report was just recently issued through Reuters from Journal of the National Cancer Institute, January 7, 2009:
In the large Women’s Antioxidant Cardiovascular Study, participants who took beta carotene, vitamin C, vitamin E, or a combination of supplements had no significant reductions in their risk of cancer.
The clinical trial, which involved 7,627 women who were followed for an average of 9.4 years, was conducted by Dr. Jennifer Lin and colleagues at Harvard Medical School in Boston, and is published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.
The patients were randomly assigned to a placebo group, or to 500 mg ascorbic acid daily, 600 IU alpha-tocopherol every other day or 50 mg beta-carotene every other day. Overall, 624 women developed invasive cancers and 176 died from their disease.
Compared with women who took placebo, the relative risk of developing cancer was almost identical in the vitamin C group, the vitamin E group and the beta carotene group.
There was also little difference of dying from cancer in any of the groups. The risk increased by 28 percent in women who took vitamin C, decreased by 13 percent in those who took vitamin E, and decreased by 16 percent in the beta carotene group.
“We observed no overall associations of the three antioxidant supplements, taken singly or combined, with total cancer incidence or mortality. Duration of supplementation also did not appear to alter the associations of these supplements with risk of cancer or mortality due to cancer,” Lin and her colleagues write.
The findings “suggest that there are no overall benefits or risks of vitamins C and E and beta carotene supplementation in the primary prevention of total cancer incidence or cancer mortality,” the authors conclude.
Dr. Demetrius Albanes of the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, Maryland notes in an editorial that despite the lack of overall benefits with antioxidants, two of the study’s findings “deserve additional mention.” First, there was a trend toward protection against colorectal cancer with vitamin E supplementation. Second, there was an elevated lung cancer risk in the women who took beta carotene supplements.
Albanes adds that clinical trials with negative results or those with outcomes that are unexpected are not failures; “they have and will continue to shed light on the causes of cancer and help us discover the means for its prevention.
Continue to live healthy, informed, safe and self-aware lives. Live immune.
I had a CT this last week which was a little disappointing, but by no means a real set-back. I have been put on a new regimen of chemo called Fulfiri; it should really be called full-o-fury because it really packs a punch! As soon as it starts going through your veins you start drooling, stomach gets really gnarly, and you start sweating up a storm (this is the result of actecylcholine release, common side-effects of mushroom poisoning for example). One shot of atropine (anticholinergic drug) later and things resolved nicely. Too bad though that the nurse who adminstered the shot pricked herself with the syringe after she gave me the shot. Obviously she was really worried, and our reassurance that I’m clear of anything blood-borne and an otherwise clear health history, combined with another poke to draw blood for a lab test to confirm this, and she was breathing easier. The first thing I ever remember learning both in nursing school and medical school was to NEVER NEVER NEVER recap a needle after you have used it on a patient. A lesson learned the hard way! If you ever have to receive a needle for something whether it is a flu shot or an intravenous being started, don’t be afraid to remind the nurse or even the physician to never recap the needle (it will spare both you and them a lot of needless headaches).
I found this really really sweet cartoon clip and it really serves to draw a nice smile on the most grumpy of shnooks (hopefully there are no more pop-up ads with the cartoon):
Hope you enjoyed!!!
It is wonderful to be home following a four-day stay at one of Toronto’s premier entertainment facilities, the hospital.
Sitting in the ER was almost as dynamic as those shows make it out to be, though this was as I was experiencing something called febrile neutropenia, and the fever and chills were not an enjoyable aspect of the stay. There was a man who was brought in by police who was having a hard time staying in his “quiet room” before being seen by the on-call psychiatrist. It took almost one hour and three bouncer-sized mastadons of the security team to keep him quiet quite literally.
My wife and I sat in horror as another man who was sitting with his girlfriend and her son and for no apparent reason he started punching her in the back of the head when she would not return his affectionate advances to her in the ER waiting-room; it is saddening to see just how far we fall, how much power some people allow others to assume over them, and what they allow themselves to live with [though at times it is not as though there is much choice to be had].
When I was admitted for my stay I finally settled to sleep in the ER (as there were no hospital beds to be found yet). I was lulled to sleep by the sounds of two psychotic patients (one threatening suicide, and the other who believed himself to be some patron saint); someone being treated for a head injury from a bar brawl and his notably upset girlfriend close-by; a very upset toddler who was allergic to peanut-butter and covered in a rash….the list continues from ‘A’ to zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz…as I nodded off.
I had a small site of infection on my hip (folliculitis) that turned into something called cellulitis (inflammation of the thin layer of fat under the skin). I had taken a quick dip in the hot tub last week right after the gym for less than five minutes and thought perhaps it could have caused the problem. According to my oncologist though, when you have a low immune system (often marked by a low neutrophil count), one is prone to any kind of infection, and most commonly, you cause your own infections. Neutrophils are one of the components of your immune system that go to battle for you as soon as bacteria find a way in; having a low number of these means that the bacteria, which grow very rapidly can vastly outnumber neutrophils in a very short time and therein cause more damage. At least five types of bacteria live on a person’s skin at any time, as well as at the back of the nose and back of one’s throat. A lowered immune system allows these bacteriae to open shop and start a party, one you may really not enjoy being part of!
Many IV pokes and antibiotics later its nice to be back home with my wife and kids, curious george stories, and back to studying.
Sometimes I think there’s too much to get done, and then take too much time to sit and think. My son was asking me a question about a particular toy of his, and it got me thinking, why was it round?!? I then thought about pizza as dinner time was approaching, and then the question was asked, but why a square box???? Ok. We are peculiar! People in general, not just me, but the way we do things, and sometimes the rationale……
I really think we need to go through life with signs pinned on our shirts (like license plates) that state “only one whacky quirk a day allowed.” Here are some more gems to think about particularly for those for whom English is a second language:
Exactly just how important does a person have to be before they are considered assassinated instead of just murdered?
If money doesn’t grow on trees then why do banks have branches?
Since bread is square, why is most sandwich meat round?
Why do you have to “put your two cents in”…but it’s only a “penny for your thoughts”? Where’s that extra penny going to?
Why does a round pizza come in a square box?
What did cured ham actually have?
How is it that we put man on the moon before we figured out it would be a good idea to put wheels on luggage?
Why is it that people say they “slept like a baby” when babies wake up like every two hours?
If a deaf person has to go to court, is it politically correct to still call it a hearing?
If you drink Pepsi at work in the Coke factory, will they fire you?
Why are you IN a movie, but you are ON TV?
Why do people PAY to go up tall buildings and then PAY for binoculars to look at things on the ground?
How come we choose from just two people for President and fifty for Miss America?
Even as a health professional I wonder why doctors leave the room while you change? They’re going to see you naked anyway.
If a 911 operator has a heart attack, whom does he/she call?
THEN, I am reminded that this is North America. Having lived previously in South Africa, Bulgaria, and the Caribbean, it makes it all the more funny to consider the norms of life here comparatively:
1. Pizza can get to your house faster than an ambulance.
2. There are handicap parking places in front of a skating rink and only stairs going up.
3. Drugstores make the sick walk all the way to the back of the store to get their prescriptions while healthy people can buy cigarettes at the front.
4. People order double cheese burgers, large fries, and a diet Coke.
5. Banks leave both doors to the vault open and then chain the pens to the counters.
6. We leave cars worth thousands of dollars in the driveway and put our useless junk in the garage.
7. We use answering machines to screen calls and then have call waiting so we won’t miss a call from someone we didn’t want to talk to in the first place.
8. We buy hot dogs in packages of ten and buns in packages of eight.
9. We use the word ‘politics’ to describe the process so well: ‘Poli’ in Latin meaning ‘many’ and ‘tics’ referring ‘bloodsucking creatures’.
10. They have drive-up ATM machines with Braille lettering (okay so the machines are made in bulk but still…).
We were fishing around for some funny stuff and came across this clip…
….Mr Bean changes into a bathing suit while wearing a suit.
I was approached by someone who wants to lose weight, and he asked me what I thought about home gyms……
Sort of clinches it don’t you think?
“I am entitled!” “I have every right to express myself and convey what is bothering me.” “You wouldn’t believe what ***** said to ME!” Should this person be surprised that their relationships and work life are suffering?! Is it surprising that people tend to avoid them? There is a huge problem with the innate human condition, namely the felt entitlement to be critical and undue in our comments towards others, particularly behind their backs or in social gatherings. The human condition is such that we focus readily on the negative and particularly on others and shift the focus outside of ourselves, after all, who wants to see a stain appear on one’s own psyche? What many of us do not realize is that a simple utterance has now created something tremendously negative, and even more, has also created a powerful force that will challenge every essence of our very being as well as that of the other person who may even have cursed.
The Esoteric Nature of Lashon Hara (Evil Speech)
The book Tomer Devorah (Rabbi Moshe Cordovero, ZT’l) addresses the meaning of נושא עון “carrying of the sin” explaining that when a person sins, a demon can be created משחיתים. The will of the created demon is actually to destroy the person that created him. The law of creation is such that a parent must support her/his progeny, and the demon is considered a child of the sinner. It is through the commission of more sins that the demons survive, as they need the power of additional sins of their parent. Every sin creates demons and speaking badly (Lashon Hara) is no exception.
When the parent does repent (Teshuva) and distances her/himself from sinning, the demon that was created from sins has no support and thus nothing from which to derive sustenance. Incensed by this they turn on their host parent and creator, and strive to destroy that person. G-d saves the parent from death by demon(s) by allowing them to be supported via their parent’s merits. If for example the parent gave charity (tzedaka), prayed in a quorum of ten (minyan), or helped someone in some other way, his demons feed from those achieved commandments (Mitzvot). Unless complete repentance is performed, the demons continue to feed off his parent’s merits. If repentance is not done, the demon(s) have the power to take away their parent’s merits leaving them barren and drained of spiritual achievements on the Day of Judgement. Clearly in the matter of נושא עון “carrying the sin,” G-d carries and suffers the sins of the Nation, though this causes pain to the שכינה (Divine Spirit). It pulls the Divine Spirit down to the impurity of this world (שכינתא בגלותה The Divine Spirit in the Exile). This descent tugs The Divine Spirit toward the Klipot (lower world) and it must support the demons. This causes the Divine Spirit so much pain because the enemies of G-d feed off the Holy Divine Spirit.
In Chesed LeAvraham, (Rabbi Avraham Azoulai, ZT’l), it is explained that since the destruction of the Holy Temple until today, the world falls continually further into the Klipot along with the Divine Spirit. This means that each progressive day can be a further descent from that of the previous day. For this reason, we pray that G-d should raise the fallen Succah of David הנופלת דוד סוכת from falling further into the klipot. Given this, it is possible to understand that the negative interaction between just two people can serve to bring all of us down together since we are ALL connected to G-d physically and metaphysically.
Physicality of Loshon Hara
The body is a magnificent creation, and with that, it is important to consider that there is a power afforded to the frail human form to create, as too there is the capacity to destroy as outlined above. There are two regions of the body that create, namely the upper world of the body and the lower world of the body. The lower world of the body is involved in bringing children into the world, where a combination of profound physical and spiritual connection with one’s spouse serves to draw down a powerful connection from on High, and ultimately can result in conception and the breathing of a spirit and soul into a little body. There must be a very strong physical and emotional bond between husband and wife before the Divine Light will visit down between them and breathe the life of a good soul between them as they seek to bring a child into the world, if this is His will. The physicality of procreation will bring about physical changes and perhaps a child, but the nature of what that soul is enclothed in is contingent and dependent upon the purity and bond between the partners in its making, namely the parents and how they have invited G-d to help them. Speech is no different as it is initiated by one person, but requires a participant to bring it into the world through even passive acknowledgement. It should be understood then that the tongue and the procreative organ (two manifestations of covenant between G-d and man) are interlaced. Their rectification will therefore be interdependent. Correction of one’s faculty of speech as with guarding of the covenant of one’s procreative organ (expression of one’s true love for one’s spouse in marital holiness), depend upon and influence one another. It can be for no other reason that the word Milah applies not only to the Hebrew word for tongue, but to the performance of circumcision as well. Speech is derived from the upper world of the body, and is also a function of thought and contemplation. If one were to simply blurt out exactly what they were thinking or feeling as a function of a purely physical urge, it may be likened to a goat bleating perfunctorily in the field. A purely physical act of speech without contemplation of where our powers of speech stem from, to whom we are addressing our thoughts, the nature and ultimately the impact/consequence of what we say, constitutes a waste of the organs of speech. Consider the following: a heart muscle is capable of beating only so many times before it dies. If a heart beats faster all the time, the natural outcome will be a shorter life for that person or organism given that the quota of beats will be used up that much sooner. It is no different with speech. The numbers of words we are allotted in life are indeed limited. What we say, how we say it, and when we say it, are all things we have control over. Lastly, consider that words possess the power of prophecy. When we issue threats, it is very important to consider that the comment made in haste and/or anger can actually come to fruition. When we curse ourselves or others, there are many instances where those curses take hold and present themselves in physical reality. It is known that there are particular Hebrew characters (otiyot) relegated to each part of the head and mouth as they pertain to speech, and depending upon their enunciation can bring about good or harm.
There is only one way to look at the power of speech, namely as a form of creation. Speech is achieved through multiple levels of thought as well as a separate set of physical levels. It makes sense in that we have the ability and opportunity to use our speech wisely and for constructive purposes, and words used in such a way will serve only to build, dedicate, and preserve what is pure, helpful, and ultimately beautiful. Good words, words that have been thought through, and spoken with gentle, loving-kindness will build relationships. Anything contrary will only destroy and cause suffering. Perhaps now, the notion of bringing in a negative power or even a demon through a contraction of speech and Loshon Hara can be appreciated on a much more serious level.
Putting It Together
The power of the number two is significant as it is an inherent part of creation. The old adage of it takes two to tango verily applies. Rabbi Yisrael Meir Kagan, the Chofetz Chaim, produced phenomenal works on Shmirat Halashon (Guarding Speech), and outlines that on its simplest level, poor speech occurs on a level between at least two people, and bears the power to create untold pain, suffering, and loss for others in an untimely and lasting fashion. A wholly and beautiful contrast to this lies within the power to bring down the Divine Light by simply learning Torah together. Not even an angel can withstand the power of this light that comes down between two people learning Torah. Another example lies in the collective completion of the Talmud by a number of individuals, where each is considered as if he had completed the entire Talmud himself. This too follows in regards to a prohibited labour (malacha) performed on Shabbath with the sharing of a labour to avoid punishment. The irony abounds where two can have the choice to exercise a power to either create or destroy.
G-d shields Himself from us through many contractions and levels of filtration from one realm (Sefirah) to the next. We can reach Him with considerable strength of character, learning and piety, and most of all through acts of Loving Kindness (Chesed) and Charity (Tzeddakah).
It is by no coincidence that the mouth is constructed of one circular orbicularis oris muscle which is in turn covered by two red/vermilion borders we call lips. Just as good things can bring about reward, so too it goes with bad things, that they return almost in a circular fashion to their origin. Red is the colour of blood, and what we share and shed becomes our responsibility. When we purse our lips in anger, the lips become white and blood is drawn away, in turn, words that issue forth at this point may too result in a drawing away of the blood of another and may cause pain or embarrassment; what the Torah also refers to as a shedding of blood. We should therefore exercise our lips by keeping them tightly bound together until the words we wish to issue are thought out with clarity, purpose, and purity. Rosh Hashana, the Jewsh New Year marks a time of achieving our physical and spiritual best. It also requires that we make a blessing on apples dipped in honey. If what we take in is sweet, is it not essential that what comes out of our mouthes be even sweeter?
