The Downhill Cannabis Express

Perhaps an arbitrary question, but wouldn’t it have been prudent to evaluate the untoward health effects of cannabis before jumping off liberal groundswell of cannabis approval. Today I am going to talk about another as yet previously unknown side effect from cannabis.

Recreational use of cannabis is associated with a 1.5-fold increased risk for atrial arrhythmias, according to study findings presented at the American Heart Association Scientific Sessions 2023, held in Philadelphia, PA, from November 11 to 13.

The analysis included 17 cohort studies (4 prospective observational) with 81,269,314 participants from North America, Europe, and Oceania. The patients had a mean age of 46 years (range, 41-72), and 45% were women.

Recreational cannabis use was associated with a significantly increased risk for atrial arrhythmias (OR, 1.55; 95% CI, 1.13-2.13), with a high degree of heterogeneity observed (I2 =99%). Meta-regression analysis showed that mean age was not a contributing factor (P =.58).

While atrial arrhythmias are often not life threatening, they can significantly increase the risk of stroke. What is even more amazing about this atrial arrhythmia-cannabis causal relationship is that age is not a contributing factor! Perhaps this should have been looked into before the rush to legalize its use. Just saying!

11/16/23

The Mendacious IPCC !

Apparently the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change “substantially underestimated the role of the sun in global warming.” Which means it overestimated man’s role. Which is no surprise, given the IPCC’s shameful history of politicizing the climate and fabricating a temperature threshold that has no basis in science.

Oops! … but no apology from the mendacious IPCC.

From Capital Research Center:

In early March, the New York Times cited a recent report by the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), with the headline, “Climate Change Is Speeding Toward Catastrophe”:

“Climate time bomb? One would think this should be cause for genuine alarm. However, note that the IPCC website has a disclaimer: “IPCC endeavors to ensure, but cannot and does not guarantee the accuracy, accessibility, integrity and timeliness of the information available on its Website” (emphasis added). How many websites have a disclaimer regarding supposed “facts,” the accuracy of which cannot be guaranteed—especially on such an important topic? Yet “immediate and drastic” changes to the entire world economy are necessary?”

But this is not the first time for the mendacious IPCC!

“The IPCC was caught in a massive lie by the Wall Street Journal in 1996 when it deleted conclusions contained in the report The Science of Climate Change 1995, approved for publication. The deleted lines

-None of the studies cited above has shown clear evidence that we can attribute the observed [climate] changes to the specific cause of increases in greenhouse gases.

-No study to date has positively attributed all or part [of the climate change observed to date] to anthropogenic [man-made] causes.

-Any claims of positive detection of significant climate change are likely to remain controversial until uncertainties in the total natural variability of the climate system are reduced.”

Oops! … but no apology from the mendacious IPCC.

But wait! When the IPCC finds something that does not fit its predetermined conclusion, it cannot get away from its intrinsically mendacious proclivity … it merely does not leak its conclusion to the New York Times, or perhaps the equally mendacious NYT simply “forgets” to publish it.

From I&I:

According to James Taylor of the Heartland Institute, “scientists have documented, and even the IPCC has admitted, “that temperatures were warmer than today throughout most of the time period that human civilization has existed. Temperatures would have to keep warming at their present pace for at least another century or two before we reach temperatures that were common during early human civilization.” Therefore, “there can be no climate crisis – based on the notion of dangerously high temperatures – when humans have thrived in temperatures much warmer than today for most of the last 12,000 years.”

I am sure that even the mendacious IPCC would agree that 12,000 years is quite a long time!

11/14/23

The Real Cost !

The following is from a piece from Fox Business:

Middle-class families in California are getting slammed with an “unreasonable” cost-of-living-penalty for simply residing in the Golden State, according to a new report.

“According to data from the Transparency Foundation’s Cost of California Report, a typical middle-class family of three earning $130,000 a year faces a financial burden of more than $26,000 because of higher living expenses.

“The foundation’s data showed that on every household budget, the cost to live in California is exponentially higher compared with the national average, according to Transparency Foundation Chairman Carl DeMaio, who laid blame on “costly mandates and bad policies.”

“DeMaio is calling on residents to demand a true cost-benefit analysis on every state law, regulation and mandate that is not imposed in other states. 

Here are the costs for California versus the national average in each category, according to the Transparency Foundation: 

  • Housing: Homeowners pay 32% more in California and renters pay 47% more
  • Gas: 25% more on average
  • Food: Grocery bills are 4% higher
  • Water: 47% higher
  • Health care services: 42% higher
  • State and local taxes: 14% higher
  • Child care: 34% higher
  • Electricity: 48% higher
  • Car insurance: 22% higher
  • Health insurance: 3% less
  • Homeowner’s insurance: 68% less

This should be a warning to those who live outside of California …    

Consider what would happen to our country if Gavin Newsom, the present governor of California, became President! OMG!

11/13/23

Christie Werts

 “Life is always full of tough choices.”

That could well have been said by Christie Werts who is deservedly my Sunday choice for someone that we can all admire.

The background is a bit complicated so bear with me.

Christie Werts, 48, married Wesley Werts, 45, in 2018. Both have children from their previous marriages: Mrs. Werts’s 15-year-old son, Vance, and 21-year-old daughter, Megan; and Mr. Werts’s son, Austin, 14, and daughter, Dakota, 10.

Mr. Werts’s ex-wife had struggled with drug addiction, leading to him winning custody of Austin and Dakota. The couple divorced in 2015. “She had a total of six kids,” Mrs. Werts said. “Two with my husband, then the rest each had a different father.”

From Epoch Bright:

In 2021, the couple found out Mr. Werts’s ex-wife was expecting again and 33 weeks pregnant; her sister had called them from hospital because the expectant mom was still doing drugs and very sick due to COVID-19. There was no one to take care of the baby.

Christie Werts was once a foster child, and said, “as if it was a sign from God, that she often dreamed of a blonde-haired, blue-eyed baby even before they learned about the child.”

“I told my husband, ‘We should take him,'” Mrs. Werts said. “We didn’t know race, we didn’t know gender, we didn’t know anything—I just knew we wanted to take this baby. I just knew that I felt like he could be with brothers and sisters instead of going into the system. We were already in love with this child.”

Baby Levi was born on Aug. 23, 2021, after his mother was induced at 33 weeks. She passed away four days later from a stroke resulting from a blood clot.

However, the whole process of adopting Levi was not easy. 

The Wertses reached out to Child Protective Services, who told them Levi could not leave the state of Texas because he still had a biological father. If the couple wanted to keep the baby out of care, they would have to move to Texas and become foster parents.

Subsequently the  Wertses sold their home in Ohio, and Mrs. Werts, who works in information technology, moved with the couple’s three youngest kids to Texas. Mr. Werts had to work out of state as a crane operator, so his wife worked extra hard to help their children adjust to the move.

The family then began the painstaking process of registering as “foster to adopt” parents, including 60 hours of classes, home checks, and house modifications, all while hoping nothing would complicate the process.

“Personally, because I believe in God, I felt like it was kind of God’s plan from the dreams, preparing me,” Mrs. Werts told The Epoch Times. “I’ve always known that God is real and that He works in our lives. But when you witness something that you have dreams [of], that God put in your heart, and then it turns into reality, I think my faith got even stronger.”

The Wertses moved back to Ohio in mid-December 2022 after finding a homeowner who supported their adoption journey and offered them a six-month lease-to-buy option on a farmhouse. After traversing every hurdle, they officially adopted 17-month-old Levi by virtual court proceeding on Jan. 24, 2023.

Truly an unbelievable story about a truly praiseworthy couple.

11/12/23

“Quote Socrates and Read Beowulf” vs DJT

As many of you are already aware, I often listen when Senator John Kennedy (R,LA) speaks.Recently he said the following:

“We’re playing footsie, and we have for years with Qatar. Qatar does provide the electricity for Gaza. In effect, they give it to Hamas and the Biden administration allows it. The Biden administration allows billionaires to live in Qatar and not just from Hamas, but also from ISIS. The Biden administration sends a message of weakness when it refuses to enforce the oil sanctions on Iran, when it cut and ran in Afghanistan, when it removed the sanctions on Russia’s Nord Stream II pipeline, when it gave Iran $4.5 billion in cash from the International Monetary Fund. And I could go on.”

And he did go on:

“President Biden and his team think while we’re in the middle of a bar fight or a prison riot, they want to quote Socrates and read Beowulf and think if we’re just nice guys, that we can be partners with Iran and we can’t. We have to wipe Hamas off the face of the earth.”

To me “Quote Socrates and Read Beowulf’ is a classic line and will go down as such!

Seriously, if we want peace, Biden has got to go. The only way to peace is through strength, and from my perspective this means Donald Trump. It has taken long enough, but others are getting the same idea.

From The Epoch Times:

“Real estate tycoon Robert Bigelow, the biggest donor to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ 2024 presidential campaign, said he’s now backing former President Donald Trump, in part because the security threat posed by the unrest in the Middle East requires the “strongest commander” and that the former president is the obvious choice.”

Calling President Trump a “bull” and Mr. DeSantis “dinner,” Mr. Bigelow told The Financial Times in an interview Wednesday that he believes the former president’s campaign has built up significant steam, making him hard to beat.”

Bigelow continued, “I’ve got to look at who would probably be the strongest commander, with the most experience,” Mr. Bigelow told FT. “And that’s only one guy,” he continued, while calling President Trump “streetwise” and “a hell of an [expletive] kicker if he needed to be.”

At this point Senator Kennedy, Robert Bigelow, and I agree!

11/11/23

The Manchurian President ?

If you are an author there are some things that you would be hesitant to put in your new fictional novel, because they have already been used, and everybody is already familiar with that particular plot line. For instance, if one were to write about a “Manchurian Candidate,” your work would be suspect, as The Manchurian Candidate is a novel by Richard Condon, first published in 1959. It is about the son of a prominent U.S. political family who is brainwashed into being an unwitting assassin for a Communist conspiracy. 

If one were to write a novel based on a similar person, especially a politician, who is being used as a puppet by an enemy power, that author would probably be labeled a plagiarist. 

Now using some free association, combining a “Manchurian Candidate”and “plagiarist,” and guess what? … you would have Joe Biden. Everyone is familiar with examples of JB’s past plagiarism, but … Manchurian Candidate?

For a while I have had my suspicions that JB might be a sort of Manchurian Candidate, but his actions of late have increased my suspicions. Before I get to the present mess in the MidEast, let’s think back and analyze some of JB’s past actions. Where to start!

On the first day of his presidency, JB cancelled the Keystone Pipeline. Remember that prior to his first day in office the U.S. was energy independent, but one might ask if it was JB’s plan to torpedo that independence? To me the answer is … “yes!”

Anyone with a functioning brain could have predicted what JB’s war on fossil fuels would lead to. Namely, a significant rise in gasoline prices, which would inevitably lead to rampant inflation as fossil fuels are an intricate part of everyday life. 

At this point since everyone except the elitists is suffering from Biden’s inflation, one could ask, “Is this Biden caused inflation purposeful?” If a Manchurian Candidate wanted to destroy the way of life for Americans, is there a better way? 

Likewise  let’s think about JB’s open border policy. It certainly appears that he is purposely allowing millions of illegals to come into this country. These illegals could well be anybody. Could some of them be terrorists?  Possibly! … Or more likely, probably! Why would JB  allow millions of unscreened illegals to come into our country, willy-nilly? I could certainly understand why a Manchurian Candidate would do something so potentially nefarious, but why would JB? … unless!

Similarly, abandoning Afghanistan and leaving a zagillion dollars worth of weapons behind. Are some of these weapons being used by Hamas? Again, why? The same Manchurian Candidate question.

Additionally, we have our possible Manchurian Candidate tiptoeing around with Iran. Giving them billions of dollars when it is apparent that Iran is funding Hamas and Hezbollah. Can anybody explain to me how this can be good for America? 

The beat goes on and on! 

Perhaps writing a book titled, “The Manchurian Candidate 2” is not so far-fetched after all!

11/10/23

“Nixon vs Fitzgerald”

To be honest right upfront, I had been confused about the prosecuting of an elected official for something that he does while in office. Attorneys prosecuting Donald Trump in an obvious example of vendetta often get on their high horse and proudly proclaim that “no one is above the law!” While this kind of statement plays well with the liberal media and the uninformed reader, is appears to be a statement that is “true, true, but unrelated.”

True … no one is above the law. However, there is already a mechanism for adjudicating possible criminal activity by the President. It is called ‘impeachment.’

From The Epoch Times:

The former president had filed a motion to dismiss the case on Oct. 5, claiming the absolute immunity conferred to a U.S. president as outlined in the ruling of Nixon. v. Fitzgerald. Prosecutors argued that such an argument put President Trump above the law, as no one, even the president of the United States, should escape prosecution for serious crimes. The indictment against President Trump alleges crimes that depend on the state of mind, that he sought to defraud through “dishonesty, fraud, and deceit” in the aftermath of the 2020 elections, while President Trump maintains that he sought to investigate allegations of fraud in the 2020 elections.

In the new response, attorneys argued that the prosecutors misunderstand the scope and purpose of presidential immunity.

From Trump’s lawyers:

“To allow the president to be sued for his actions in office would ‘require the President to hesitate at every turn, conscious of the very real threat that one of many hundreds of prosecutors around the country may one day question his motives and seek to imprison him for his actions as President,’ they argued.”

They also argued that preventing criminal prosecution for official acts does not put the president “above the law,” because the proper process to indict a president should come from Congress.

Trump’s attorneys continued:

“The text of the Constitution—namely the Impeachment Judgment Clause—straightforwardly supports Presidential immunity from criminal prosecution absent conviction in the Senate. A convicted party is liable to criminal prosecution. Thus, a President who is not ‘convicted’ is not liable.”

“As the Supreme Court held in Nixon v. Fitzgerald, the President must have the ability to make decisive—and often unpopular— decisions regarding matters of public concern.”

To me it is still obvious that the 2020 Presidential election was ripe with fraud … fraud in multiple states. To prosecute Donald Trump because he wanted to look into these fraud allegations in the 2020 election is merely a vengeful vendetta, the goal of which is to prevent Mr. Trump from running again. 

Recall that these fraud allegations could have been addressed by the Supreme Court after the election, but SCOTUS ducked their responsibility and refused to address this issue … consequently the country is still paying for their reticence.

Hopefully this case will be thrown out otherwise the country may well be having to ask the Supreme Court if it has heard of ‘Nixon vs. Fitzgerald!’

11/9/23

EV Trucks ?

After reading the following article from BlazeMedia, I am uber convinced that those who are pushing for an all electric transportation system do not know their arse from a hole in … !

The article is about the feasibility of switching semi-trucks and other large vehicles to fully electric.

The article is titled:

“Trucker perfectly dismantles electric vehicle narrative in 2 minutes: “You would need to pack 50,000 pounds of batteries!’”

The individual speaking is Chace Barber, trucker and founder of Edison Motors. He advocates for a push toward hybrid semi-trucks, as opposed to fully electric, because of two basic reasons.

“A logging truck uses about two and a half megawatts of power per day. The extra capacity in the battery means you need a three-megawatt battery pack. The biggest one is like a Tesla semi, which is like a one-megawatt. So you need three megawatts to run an electric truck,” Barber said.”

He went on, “That would mean you would need to pack 50,000 pounds — 40,000, 50,000 pounds of batteries just to do a full day.”

“Not only would the weight of such batteries cause many issues, but the braking system would need to be immediately and drastically improved in order to increase the stopping power.”

Barber then described how electrical infrastructure has not been updated in North America in some time and revealed that the grid is nowhere near the level that would be required to power all the essential vehicles.

“Let’s say we can even get those batteries down to the same weight where it’s reasonable, the grid infrastructure — we haven’t invested in our electrical grid since the 1950s, 1960s, ’70s.

In  B.C. [British Columbia] alone, there’s 5,000 logging trucks that haul logs,” he explained. The present power infrastructure could not handle the logging trucks alone … and that’s without even taking EV autos into consideration.

So what do we have?

On one side we have California’s Gavin Newsom and all of the EV fanatics in Washington pushing the country into a future with only EVs. It is a good bet that this crowd has never driven a truck, much less even ever ridden in or touched a truck.

On the other side we have someone who actually knows a lot about trucks telling us that going all EV is impossible.

Who should we trust and believe? … Hmmm!

11/7/23

“Bob” Rohloff

This Sunday there is a bit of a twist from my usual Sunday heroes.

The idea of continuing to work after retirement is an issue that some of us   already have or will have to deal with. However, the idea of working after age ninety is most likely something that few, if any of us, will have to deal with. 

Robert “Bob” Rohloff of Appleton, Wisconsin, has been barbering for 75 years, and this year, at the age of 91, he’s fulfilled a bucket list dream by opening his very own barber shop.

Mr. Rohloff says knowing the trade is one thing, but personality is 90 percent of the business. “You have to be a people person,” he told The Epoch Times. “You’ve got to be a good visitor, a good listener, and a good person, and that’s the main thing. My dad was that way, and I grew up that way.”

Mr. Rohloff started his barbering apprenticeship in 1948 as a junior in high school. He attended vocational school every Monday and cut hair in front of a barber board on Thursday nights. Three years later, at the age of 19, he achieved his barbering license.

Mr. Rohloff knows he cannot work forever. But in the meantime, the nonagenarian firmly believes that staying occupied is vital.

“I have so many of my friends that have died, retired being in front of the TV. They don’t last long,” Mr. Rohloff said. “I look at retirement as being able to do what I want to do, but I don’t look at it as quitting working, and I don’t think people should. I think they should work as long as they can.”

Certainly Bob Rohloff is a unique individual, and his philosophy is one that should be admired by many … oops, except by me as I retired at 62y/o!

11/5/23

What Will Biden’s Legacy Be ?

My son is a history teacher and has told me multiple times that something is only considered “history” after twenty-five years have transpired.

On 11/1/23 I read multiple things which made me wonder how history will consider Joe Biden. What will be the thing that history will remember him by? What will his legacy be? 

Perhaps his most formidable memory will be his foreign policy? … including his disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan. Perhaps his shelling out of billions of dollars to an Ukraine-Russia war … a war that could not be won.

Perhaps it be will his inflation. Inflation that was primarily caused by his crippling of fossil fuel production in the U.S. Inflation that will have ruined the lives of many! 

Perhaps it will be the zagillions of dollars that he funneled to Iran even though everybody, except possibly him and his cronies, knew that this money was being used to support terrorists groups like Hamas and Hezbollah. 

Perhaps it will be his inept handling of Covid. His policies ruined many small businesses. Our country’s children will be paying the price for his snuggling up to the teacher’s unions for their entire lives! Our military recruiting is way down, surely partially the result of his heavy-handed military vaccine mandates.

Perhaps it will be the receipt of basic payola from foreign countries that Joe Biden attempted to underhandedly lateral to his son?

Although all of the above will be historical contenders for his failed presidency, after just reading three separate things, I predict that what Joe Biden will be remembered mostly for is something which has not yet occurred. I predict that sometime in the next few years there will be another terrorist attack(s) as a consequence of Biden’s open border policy. After reading the following three things, I challenge you not to be similarly fearful.

First, I listened to Alejandro Mayorkas, the United States Secretary of Homeland Security testify before a Senate sub-committee. During this hearing as headlined by the New York Post, “Alejandro Mayorkas admits 600,000 illegal ‘gotaways’ crossed border in 2023, and calls immigration system ‘broken’” Mayorkas is “in-charge” and by his own statement is clearly incompetent. 

Second,

On 10/31/23 Republican senators sounded the alarm on the Biden administration’s border policies after Border Patrol agents caught illegal border crossers who were carrying explosive devices that Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) said were “tailor-made for terrorism.”

Four Republican senators said that over 8 million illegal border crossings have taken place under President Joe Biden’s watch, while asserting that explosive devices found on some border crossers in recent days represent an elevated risk of terror acts against the homeland.

Of the 600,000 “getaways” how many are potential terrorists who have access to explosive devices?

Third, from the Washington Times:

Terrorist threats against the U.S. reached “a whole other level” after the Hamas attack on Israel, FBI Director Christopher A. Wray told Congress on Tuesday, saying the big players in terrorism have all renewed calls to attack America and its interests. He said the level of threats has heightened since President Biden took office …”

Ergo, putting these three recent news items into perspective, I feel that Joe Biden will be historically remembered for an upcoming terrorist attack stemming directly from his inane border policies.

11/2/23