Failure

Being on a trip has allowed me to do things that I normally do not do, like going to McDonalds. No, I will not be talking about the evils of that restaurant. I do not come to eat, I come for the WiFi and the endless $1 iced tea. Instead I want to talk about the local newspaper that McDonalds provided.

The headline was that local healthcare businesses were going to lay off people. Shocking. Of course it was not mentioned that healthcare in America is a giant sink hole of disaster. The paper proposed that this layoff was the fault of the legislature which had "failed" to pass the extension of Medicaid required to fill in gaps in ObamaCare.

Two points I think are important. The first is that the article was not an editorial. Thus the article had the pretense of objectivity. Notice also the use of the word "failure." A loaded word that was designed to show that the Missouri had "failed." No, the Republicans had decided that to expand Medicare was a bad idea, they had not failed. Of course they could have been "dead wrong." My observation is not that there is a correct choice, I don't care about such things much anymore. It is that more and more the media is not even pretending to pay homage to the myth of objective journalism.

Never forget that you are being played. Never trust anything you read, see, or hear in the media. Of course you can trust me! No, you can't trust me either. I am just as biased as anyone else. As unlikely as it is, I could be wrong. The solution is to seek out books and articles you disagree with. Read them. Do not read the same old sources that already agree with your preconceived notions. Expand your horizons beyond the "usual suspects." Read critically. I doubt that most readers noticed the use of the pejorative word "failed." Be the person that notices such things.

Never forget that you are being played

Nanny Of the Year Award

Gonorrhea

Not a very happy title I know. Here is some more happy news from Medical Xpress.

(Medical Xpress)—The CDC has issued a report detailing its findings in attempting to trace the increasing difficulty in treating gonorrhea, a sexually transmitted disease (STD) that can cause severe discomfort, serious medical problems (such as sterility) for both genders and in very rare cases, death.

Gonorrhea is a bacterial disease that has been around for thousands of years, if not longer, plaguing human populations. In more recent times, it's had to evolve to survive as humans learned to treat it using penicillin and other antibacterial agents. Over the past thirty years in particular, gonorrhea has evolved to the point that there are very few treatments left (ceftriaxone along with either azithromycin or doxycycline) and now, it looks like its poised to get the best of those as well, which will mean those who contract the disease in the very near future will find that doctors have no way to cure them. 

Well at least you can be happy that I will post no pictures!  

Hmm, do I need to point out the obvious? Yes, I guess we need the obvious. In a world with incurable venereal diseases monogamy is an obvious choice, yet marriage keeps declining as a percentage of the population especially among those with the lowest incomes. 

Years ago I saw a skit on the comedy show “Living Color.” Two people were about to have sexual relations. They talked about their previous liaisons. Suddenly every person either had ever had sex with appeared in the room. The woman was clearly upset that some of the man’s previous partners looked better than she did. The man that appeared in his group was explained by the man saying “I was in jail once.” The skit never did explain the white (both actors in the skit were black) meek accountant that appeared on the woman’s side of the bed.

Often comedy can bring forward important points in a memorable way. When you sleep with someone you are also sleeping with every person they ever slept with. 

I Corinthians 6 talks about this issue:

¹² ”I have the right to do anything,” you say—but not everything is beneficial. “I have the right to do anything”—but I will not be mastered by anything. ¹³ You say, “Food for the stomach and the stomach for food, and God will destroy them both.” The body, however, is not meant for sexual immorality but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. ¹⁴ By his power God raised the Lord from the dead, and he will raise us also. ¹⁵ Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ himself? Shall I then take the members of Christ and unite them with a prostitute? Never! ¹⁶Do you not know that he who unites himself with a prostitute is one with her in body? For it is said, “The two will become one flesh.” ¹⁷ But whoever is united with the Lord is one with him in spirit.

 ¹⁸ Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a person commits are outside the body, but whoever sins sexually, sins against their own body.¹⁹ Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; ²⁰ you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies.

A Fun Version Of the Frozen Theme

Burning Her Bridges

No longer drinking the kool aid ...