WONDERFULLY MADE

I was reading an interesting question on a discussion board the other night.  The board was a place where medical students and residents pose questions to each other. The question had to do with whether supplemental oxygen can address shortness of breath in cases when a patient has pump failure or COPD (assuming at the same time), the patient has adequate O2 arterial saturation.  In the event that some readers have wondered about this themselves, providing O2 per mask or cannula can not...

LAND OF HOPE AND DREAMS

LAND OF HOPE AND DREAMS

This afternoon I plopped on the couch while my wife Deena was watching a rally where former President Barak Obama was speaking. It was in Wisconsin, that he was just concluding his remarks. The repeated rounds of applause were positively thunderous. As he was about to introduce Vice-Presidential candidate Tim Walz (D), Bruce Springsteen’s voice could be heard in the background singing “Land of Hope and Dreams.” Springsteen has always been a favorite musician of mine, at least since “The...

The Connecticut Shore

THE CONNECTICUT SHORE

Deena and I had an opportunity this past weekend to spend time on the Connecticut shore.  We stayed on the ocean’s edge in the Mercy by the Sea retreat center run by the Sisters of Mercy, a Catholic charity.  Deena and I are Protestants, but no one was checking ID’s.  It was a wonderful interlude where we could enjoy the peace of nature with the silent ambience of an organization that branched off centuries ago from the Carmelites.  This post is an account of our stay. THE...

Ties That Bind: The Meaning of Peace

TIES THAT BIND: THE MEANING OF PEACE

This post is a word study on the New Testament word for “peace.”  Given the polarized state of the nation in 2024, it is imperative that we all give the next President of the U.S. a chance, regardless of our personal opinions. In this sense the party out of power becomes part of what is known as the “loyal opposition.” The country needs a healing and this will not happen overnight. This post examines those ties that bind and the meaning...

Lord of the Flies

LORD OF THE FLIES

One of my favorite books growing up was William Golding’s Lord of the Flies. Possibly, some of you are not familiar with this work. Lord of the Flies was Golding’s first novel, and he would go on to eventually win a Nobel Prize for literature (in 1983.) I’d like to use Golding’s work and this post to illustrate how post-modern societies devolve into tribalism when sufficiently stressed, using the U.S. as a case study. In the instance of the U.S.,...

The MAGA evangelican and the dog-eating Haitian

THE MAGA EVANGELICAL AND THE DOG-EATING HAITIAN

Those of you who have read the New Testament even casually have likely heard the parable Jesus mentioned between the Pharisee and the Tax Collector. The Pharisees (and the Sadducees) were the two main religious groups in Judea back then. Of the two, the Pharisees were the more conservative, taking the Law of Moses literally and representing the more rural parts of Israel. These are the ones who gave Jesus grief. The Sadducees were more liberal, because they tended to...

ON THE TRAIL OF CANCER ONE YEAR LATER

The very beginning of my cancer blog can be found here OCTOBER 23, 2024 (M) The pathology on my bladder washing (where normal saline or some other sterile solution is used to irrigate the bladder and then retrieve the solution which is sent to the lab for analysis came back this morning. It read: “Final Diagnosis View trends “Bladder, washing: Benign Benign urothelial cells. Note: ThinPrep examined.“ Without reading into this more than what is reasonable, I think this is...

The Persecuted Church in China

THE PERSECUTED CHURCH IN CHINA

I have deliberately blurred the featured image to preserve the anonymity of the people in this photo. Worshippers may be arrested without warning in the Peoples Republic of China (PRC) and the persecution they are experiencing is getting worse than it has been in the past. For this reason, it is difficult to know with any degree of certainty how many Christians there are in China, today. CHRISTIANITY COMES TO CHINA As far as we can tell, Christianity first arrived...

If

IF

Senator Kirsten Gillibrand and Congresswomen Nancy Mace and Anna Luna are reported to have announced recently that committees in both house of Congress will again take up the topic of unidentified aerial phenomena (particularly reported in the vicinity of Malmstrom Air Force Base in Montana.) House hearings are tentatively scheduled for November 13th. Barring unforeseen developments, the Senate committee will meet before the Holiday recess as well. The topic of unidentified flying objects (aka unidentified anomalous phenomena) is getting more attention...

Dust in the Wind

DUST IN THE WIND

We all reach a point where we wonder “What is this all for?”  The word “this” can mean any one of a number of things.  “This” can mean trying to buy your first home and being priced out of the market. “This” can mean trying to keep your kids off the street with mixed success.  It can mean finishing your college degree and not finding a job.  Or, “this” can mean trying to save your marriage, or staying sober, or working your entire life just to...

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