Second Act

 Direct Answers
from Wayne & Tamara

Second Act
Q I am the mother of two girls.  left their father by getting into the car with the girls. While backing out of the driveway, their father jumped on the hood and tried to break in the front window. The oldest daughter, then 6, cried, “Mommy, Mommy, just let me out and Daddy will stop if I go to him.”
     I tried to drive away without killing my husband. It was a horrible way to see the last of their Daddy. The court fight was cruel and horrible. I fought for what was best for the children, while my ex fought to win a competition. Three years later, spent emotionally and physically, and drained monetarily, I gave up. My husband’s attorney gave my attorney two letters, written in pencil by my daughters, saying why they did not want to live with me. I walked away from my attorney minutes before the court hearing. I broke into sobs, ran from the courtroom, and walked around downtown the whole day and night in a pity party. I ended up giving the children to him. Later, I remarried. When my daughters were 19 and 21, I found my girls and we established some ties. I must admit they were not raised as I would have. I found them lacking and rude, though charming in many ways. I felt in time our bonds would iron these things out. My younger daughter has all but dismissed me from her life. My oldest daughter’s husband is abusive, and her father said, if she left him, her husband would get her children just like he did. Her husband forbade her to visit me with her child. One night I called and asked, if my current husband died and I moved near her, would she care for me if I became ill, or bring me groceries and medicine. That kind of thing.
     All she said was, “Well….” I did not press it further.  I have cried until I cannot cry. I always wanted girls. I dreamed of beach parties, taking children to the zoo, decorating for birthdays and holidays, and listening and laughing with them.  I am trying to raise puppies to have someone else who needs my love. Sometimes I feel God wants me isolated for some purpose, but I don’t know what.   Libby
A Libby, we can make poor choices, stay too long in a situation, and suffer the consequences. We can get caught up on the hamster wheel of “if only,” but that goes nowhere. It does not help and it does not heal.
What we need to do is face the harsh realities of today, and ask, what can I do now?  Today is the day we have. If we don’t act today, we will keep spinning the wheel faster and faster until we are tossed off, like those poor hamsters in YouTube videos.  One of the harsh realities to face is that your daughters have their own minds, their own rights, and the same rights for their children. You would like them to make a choice, but they are not ready for that choice. They may never be. Accepting that is the first step.
The second step is deciding not to sit around waiting for them to choose you. You want your daughters to take care of their mom. But they parted from you at such an early age, and with such vehemence from your ex, you may not seem like mom to them. Your daughters are not in your life now, but they appear to be stealing your life. Sometimes the only way out of a mess is to just start clawing our way out. The hardest times are always in the beginning, because we can’t see that we are making progress. But just the act of doing—what do I reach for next—will put you in the moment with what you can do and what you cannot do.
You have concerns about your future. Don’t wait for someone else to fix those concerns. We could give you an Encyclopedia Britannica’s worth of things to do, but you didn’t give us enough specifics about yourself. So we will prime the pump. Many people have written books with great ideas and resources for building a community of friends. That’s where to begin. Good things won’t fall into our lap because we wish for them. You can sit and look at the envelope with a bill in it, or you can open it, see the amount, and figure out how to pay it. A bill has come due. A bill incurred in part because of choices you made as a young woman. Accept it. You cannot sit on your hands, letting an event that may never happen dictate the rest of your life.  What you can do is face the question, what can I do today to make a success of my life?    Wayne & Tamara
write:  Directanswers@WayneAndTamara.com

“Beeting” Yourself to Increase Good Health

 “Beeting” Yourself to Increase Good Health
 W. Gifford-Jones, M.D. and Diana Gifford-Jones

  Would you like to improve your physical endurance? An exercise routine is the answer. Being physically and mentally active leads to a longer life. But diet can help too. You can start “beeting” yourself to improved health simply by adding beets to your menu. You should also know that nitrates in beets can treat more than one medical problem.
            Atherosclerosis, thickening of the inside lining of arteries, decreases the flow of oxygenated blood to coronary arteries. This results in anginal pain or heart attack.
            For years researchers have known that nitroglycerine eases angina. But they had no idea why it dilated coronary arteries and increased blood flow to the heart.
            Then, three U.S researchers received the Nobel Prize for proving it was nitric oxide (N0) that caused arteries to dilate. Early in life the inner lining of arteries processes large amounts of NO. But as we age the amount of NO decreases, often with disastrous consequences.
            In 2009, a research team at the University of Exeter in England reported a surprising discovery. They showed that athletes who drank beet juice for six days improved their physical endurance by 16 percent while cycling. Equally amazing, beet juice was even more effective than physical training!
            The active ingredient in beets is nitrate. This becomes converted into nitrite and finally to nitric oxide which is continuously synthesized in the endothelium (the inside lining of arteries). Lay this exceedingly thin layer of endothelial cells on a flat surface and they would occupy an entire soccer field!
            Nitric oxide has been labelled the “miracle molecule” as it helps so many diverse medical problems. For instance, since it dilates coronary arteries it can help to decrease the pain of angina and lower blood pressure.
            Experiments show that NO also adds lubrication to the circulatory system. After all, it impossible to eat beets and direct them only to coronary arteries. Rather, NO travels to all organs and in the process prevents blood platelets, part of the clotting process, from stick together causing a heart attack. It also decreases chronic inflammation, another factor associated with coronary attack.
            Other research shows that NO lowers blood cholesterol, triglycerides, increases good cholesterol and lowers bad cholesterol. It also prevents bone destruction by osteoclasts.
            Today, millions of North Americans suffer from asthma due to inflamed, constricted, mucous clogged airways. Part of the problem is pollution and allergies. Experts at Hammersmith Hospital in London, England, report that NO helps to maintain a biochemical balance in the air passages, decreasing inflamed airways.
            Another major problem worldwide is the epidemic of Type 2 diabetes. This disease causes insulin resistance, making it hard for glucose to enter cells. High blood sugar gradually destroys the circulatory system triggering a series of problems, the big one atherosclerosis. Decreasing the amount of blood to organs results in blindness, kidney failure, leg amputations and heart attack. NO helps to control these problems.
            What can you do to increase NO? Losing weight and exercising boost NO levels. But people with unhealthy endothelial cells may have diminished nitric oxide bioactivity as compared to those in good health.
            So why not improve the diet with foods rich in nitrate? Adding more beets is good advice. Other foods with a high content of NO include leafy green vegetables such as spinach, wild radish, kale and swiss chard.
            You don’t like any of these vegetables? Try dark chocolate and wine. Both increase NO. But remember moderation.
If you are interested in a safe, natural supplement, then NEO40 is yet another option.
Sign-up at www.docgiff.com to receive our weekly e-newsletter. For comments, contact-us@docgiff.com. Follow us Instagram @docgiff and @diana_gifford_jones

AMBER ALERT REAL CONCERN

 AMBER ALERT
REAL CONCERN
By Joe Ingino
Editor/Publisher

“I live a dream in a nightmare world”
   
   In this modern age of technology.   It appears that we must question every motive.    After all for the longest of time the old rule of thumb in controlling the masses by governments was to keep them misinformed.    Misinformation creates opinion.  Opinions have polar positions.  Positions that divide intellectual rational thought.   Compromising reason and logic.
I remember vacationing in   Cuba.  I rented a car and decided to head out for a personal excursion.   I stopped at the local gas station and asked for a map.  The attendant looked at me and asked.  Do you want a Cuban map for a dollar or a real map for twenty.   I quickly asked what do you mean a Cuban map.   He said. Cuban maps were made in Russia.   They are only to be sold to Cubans as intentionally all the points of reference are way off.   The real maps imported from Europe have the accurate distances between towns and cities but cost more as most of the locals can’t afford twenty bucks.
I quickly asked, what the purpose of such misinformation.   The attendant looked at me with a grin and said.  Castro along with the Russians like to keep a tab on all citizens.   Gas is rationed.   Miscalculation of gas consumption would tell the officials that you were up to no good.   
I could not believe my ears.
Then in the back of my mind my ignorant North American pride kicked in and whispered, ‘THANK GOD I LIVE IN A FREE AND DEMOCRATIC WORLD’.  Where we do not have to be monitored.
Then it hit me like a ton of bricks....  Come on Joe.  You live a dream in a nightmare world.   Don’t be fooled and don’t fall for the old social misconception as you are no better off than those Russian/Cuban maps. To think we have choice?   We do not have choice.  We have options. The government today has more control of our every interaction then they ever did.   Look at this AMBER ALERT fiasco.... really some kid gets taken (normally by a parent) thousands of miles away from me and I get an Amber Alert.  The most recent was a seven year old girl in Bayfield ON.
Ontario Provincial Police have cancelled an Amber Alert for a seven-year-old girl who was last seen in Bayfield, Ont., just south of Goderich on the shore of Lake Huron, after she was found safe.
In the initial alert, police said the girl was missing since approximately 6 a.m. on Wednesday.
The OPP issued the provincewide alert just after 10:45 a.m. and less than 40 minutes later the seven-year-old was reported to have been found safe. Officers alleged the girl was abducted by a woman. It’s not clear what, if any, charges might be laid in connection with the incident.
Like really... I need to be alerted about this?  What is the real exercise here?   Was there ever a seven year old involved?   I remember before COVID-19.   I received numerous AMBER ALERTS.   On all matters, including a false emergency notice on Pickering Nuclear.   Since then and since COVID.  The Amber alerts had stopped.   Now the vaccine is introduced to the masses with little or no real consequence as a result of being vaccinated..yet the government is pushing to have everyone vaccinated.... and I we start getting AMBER ALERTS.   Does the government know something we don’t?  Could we assume there is another threat in the horizon that we are being kept in the shadows as to such time as it explodes in our face as Covid did?
Can we assume that these AMBER ALERTS are a kind of sound check on social response?

The Chaotic Roll-out of Covid-19 Vaccines

  The Chaotic Roll-out of Covid-19 Vaccines
by Maj (ret'd) CORNELIU E. CHISU, CD, PMSC,
FEC, CET, P. Eng.
Former Member of Parliament Pickering-Scarborough East
   Currently, Canada has four covid-19 vaccines approved, Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna, AstraZeneca-Oxford and Johnson and Johnson, with very different efficacy rates.
Vaccine efficacy refers to the percentage reduction of disease in a vaccinated group of people compared to an unvaccinated group, under ideal conditions.
Pfizer-BioNtech and Moderna both have been determined by Health Canada to have efficacy rates of around 95 per cent. AstraZeneca-Oxford has an efficacy rate of 62 per cent while Johnson & Johnson has an efficacy rate of 66.9 per cent.
The questions these varying efficacy rates raise for the public, are: how these vaccines will be administered and who determines who will receive the highest efficacy rate vaccines.
"Medical experts" in Canada say that the latest approval of the Johnson and Johnson vaccine with a perceived lower efficacy rate should not give Canadians the green light to hold off on getting inoculated in order to wait for other doses with higher efficacy rates. So is it the advice of experts that people should accept whatever they are given, without any choice?
That attitude, of wanting to have a choice, will end up lengthening the time it takes to get the pandemic under control, said Dr. Peter Juni, scientific director of Ontario's COVID-19 Science Advisory Table.
Interestingly Juni compared the differences in efficacy to high octane versus low octane gas. Most engines, he said, just need gas. How nice!  I wonder how often he puts low octane fuel in his BMW.  Is he as good at medicine as he is at engineering?
"If people start to do that", he continued, "they actually prevent Canadians from moving slowly back to normal." Wow…..
Dr. Zain Chagla, an infectious diseases physician at St. Joseph's Healthcare Hamilton, takes more of a common sense approach, saying that debates over efficacy are going to be part of the challenge of getting people vaccinated.
"I think there is obviously something we have to deal with here," he said.
This controversy over efficacy and choice has created confusion and was raised by none other than the "experts" in Canada's National Advisory Committee on Immunization (NACI) over the messaging of the AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine, which NACI has recommended against for vaccinating people aged 65 and older "due to limited information" on its efficacy in that age group.
Despite different efficacies, trials have shown that those who did become infected after getting vaccinated experienced only mild illness, said Dr. Sumon Chakrabarti, an infectious disease specialist in Mississauga, Ont.
Putting it bluntly, the expert advice offered to us is: given the opportunity to get vaccinated, "Just take it" whatever the efficacy is because if not……….
Some other "medical experts" suggest that the J&J vaccine is good for less accessible, marginalized communities. Hmm….
That means, in their expert thoughts vaccine preference should not be a consideration with the vaccine rollout being such a massive undertaking, including: vaccine availability, vaccine prioritization schemes and vaccine registries.
Dr. Supriya Sharma, Health Canada's chief medical adviser, has stated that vaccination with a vaccine with 66 per cent efficacy does not mean a person will have a 34 per cent chance of contracting COVID-19. Is she an expert in statistics as well?
"While each of the vaccines Health Canada has authorized has different efficacy numbers, the reality is that you will have a greatly reduced chance of getting COVID-19 with any of the ... vaccines that have been authorized," Sharma said.
Her message to Canadians is that when it's their turn, "you roll up your sleeve" and "take the vaccine that's offered to you". Basically telling you, do not comment you have no choice…..
So here we are, and the question is: Where are our political leaders to lead us out of this mess?
Relying on "experts" who express contradictory opinions without taking any responsibility or suffering any consequences, they bend and wave as the Covid-19 wind blows, ruining the economy, frightening people, isolating them from loved ones and from the community, confining them as virtual prisoners.  These actions are definitely not the hallmark of effective leadership.
We expect leadership and responsibility from our political leaders. They cannot hide behind the experts anymore. They need to take bold action to return us to normal life as quickly as possible. We elected you to act on our behalf, not to hide.
So let us see what is going on with the distribution of vaccines available to Canadians and how the vaccination is proceeding. At present we are in a very sad state on the pace of vaccination. Many countries are far ahead of us.
Provinces have established their own priorities without consulting each other. That means, that with interprovincial travel not yet completely banned, the pandemic will continue to rage relentlessly. So let's take a look at the most populous Canadian province, Ontario.
Ontario has focused its initial vaccination efforts on those in long-term care, high-risk retirement home residents, some health-care workers and people who live in congregate care settings. At the time of writing this article, 1.88 per cent (276,193) of the population has been fully vaccinated. The provincial government has said it aims to begin vaccinating Ontarians aged 80 and older starting the week of March 15, the same day it plans to launch its vaccine booking system, which will include a service desk and online portal. Good luck!
It has said the rollout will look different in each of its 34 public health units.
Several regions in Ontario have moved ahead with their plans to vaccinate the general public using their own booking systems to allow residents aged 80 and older to schedule appointments.
The province has also said it will extend the interval between doses of COVID-19 vaccines for up to four months. On what sound medical basis are the manufacturer's recommendations being disregarded?
Toronto began vaccinating police force members who respond to emergency calls on March 1 and has also started offering vaccines to people experiencing homelessness.
The province has said the recently approved AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine will go to residents between the ages of 60 and 64. Isn't this cutting it too close? We're dealing with human physiology.  Age 65 is not a hard and fast boundary. Shouldn't AZ-O go to younger people with better immune systems?
Nevertheless, a pilot project is set to launch Friday at more than 300 pharmacies in Toronto, Kingston and Windsor to give the Oxford-AstraZeneca shot to those aged 60 to 64.  
The health minister has also said the AstraZeneca-Oxford shot could be used in correctional facilities, but further details haven't been released.
With this said,  the questions remains: How do we get out of this mess?

Ask your MP and your MPP.

Torn

 Direct Answers
from Wayne & Tamara

Torn
  Q I'm writing to get your opinion on a problem brought about by my ex-fiancée,   a woman I truly loved many years ago. We had been dating about five years, and I asked her to marry me four months before the bitter end. At that time I was in the military and she was a junior in college. I was scheduled for additional training the following year, after which I planned on tying the knot. She tearfully accepted my proposal. Her parents brought her to visit me during her spring break that year, after which she informed me she was pregnant by some other guy, was so sorry, et cetera.
That was, of course, the end of us. I still have bad dreams about it more than 50 years later. She ended up marrying the father, then divorced him five years later. She’s been married, off and on, in the years since and is currently single. I married a nice, pretty girl a couple of years after the breakup and have been married to her 50 years. She’s been a great wife in every respect but one—she’s not a great lover. She always treated sex as a wifely duty and never liked to cuddle much. I, on the other hand, love physical touch and miss it when I don’t get it. Every time I try to initiate it, she stands there frozen, hoping I’ll go away. Or she pushes me away altogether. It’s gotten so bad I hardly ever try anymore. Other girlfriends I had before I was married were always warm and loving, including my ex-fiancée, so I don’t think I have chronic BO or anything. Now for my problem. My ex-fiancée has begun tweaking me on social media. She requested that I follow her (twice) and I denied both requests. Now she is liking some of my posts, and last week I responded by liking one of hers. Then, against my better judgment, I posted a link on her page to a Matt Monro song called And We Were Lovers, which reminisces about an old lost love. She came back with “you were and always will be my one true love.” Of course, that made my heart go pitter-patter, but I resisted the urge to immediately respond in kind. I have given no response at all yet, and don’t know if I ever will. She was the love of my life before the cheat, but I don’t think she is the same person I fell in love with early on. I really miss her tender touch, but I can’t get over the fact she swore to love me forever but failed to add, just not exclusively. I think I know your answer to this, but should I respond and reestablish communication with her, as I long to do, or should I block her and go no-contact? Either way, we will never be getting together again, even if that were possible, because she lives far away, and I won’t do anything to jeopardize the marriage to my faithful spouse. Besides, her cheating forever smashed any hope of reconciliation. I just think it would be fun to find out what she has been doing in her life all these years.
 Tom
A Tom, leaning over the edge, leaning over the edge, leaning over the edge. How long before you lose your balance?  She reappeared in your life of her own accord and for her own reasons. You turned her down twice, but she didn’t accept your No. She persisted until she got her foot in the door. What dire straits must she be in?
Her persistence caused you to double-think yourself. You imagine it would be “fun” to reconnect, but the real fun will begin when she entangles you in what she is trying to solve by contacting you.   
For 50 years, you mislabeled her. You thought of her as your one true love, but you weren’t her one true love. You didn’t know who she was then, and you don’t know who she is now. Without knowing it, she is preying on your decades without physical affection. Your wife is exactly who you married. Marriage does not change people into what the other person wants. At any point, you could have said, “I can’t live like this,” but you did not. You are so starved for affection, you think a woman who showed you what she showed at least one other man, is your one true love. But what she has done by coming into your life again is to heat up your hunger. If you intend to stay with your wife, communication with this woman must cease. All it does is spotlight what your marriage has always lacked. If you satisfy this hunger, then you have a marriage to end, and that includes 50 years of attachments, memories, and family connections.  Is it worth it?

Good Health Includes Healthy Financials

  Good Health Includes Healthy Financials
 W. Gifford-Jones, M.D. and Diana Gifford-Jones
Vaccines are now reaching the wider community, and Spring is near. As we emerge from isolation, there are predictions for the “Roaring 20s” ahead. But is this a good time for an assessment of your financial health?
If you reach your 90s and are in good health, congratulate yourself.  You are among the fortunate.  In fact, more and more North Americans are living longer.  In Canada, between 1921 and 2011, average life expectancy at birth increased from 57.1 years to 81.7 years, a gain of nearly two and a half decades.
In the U.S., the Population Reference Bureau reports that the number of Americans ages 65 and older will more than double from 46 million today to over 98 million by 2060, and the 65-and-older age group’s share of the total population will rise to nearly 24 percent from 15 percent.
It sounds promising.  But many people who reach old age are not in good health.  Theodore Roosevelt, the 26th U.S. President, had it right. “Old age is like everything else,” he said.  “To make a success of it, you’ve got to start young.”  If you start thinking about how to pay for healthcare needs when you are already old, there’s not much you can do when a crisis arises.

George Clooney was looking on the bright side when he said, “I'm kind of comfortable with getting older because it's better than the other option, which is being dead.”  But George Clooney doesn’t need to worry about money.
It doesn’t take a genius to know, you’ll compound any future health challenges by not having enough savings to help you manage the added costs.  CARP, formerly the Canadian Association for Retired Persons, reports that 12 million Canadians do not have a pension plan and 600,000 people over 65 are living in poverty.

Across North America, depending on where you live, you can expect wildly different levels of support from governments and employers in the event of a medical emergency.  Canadians tend to believe that a universal healthcare system will look after them in every case.  Americans used to benefit from employer plans that carried over into retirement years.  But times have changed.

The Canadian public purse has limits, and as boomers age, there will be hard choices to make.  In the U.S. and Canada alike, no matter where you are, private insurance is a good idea.
A recent survey for the Sun Life Canadian Health Index showed that among respondents who have had someone close to them suffer a health issue, 29 percent indicated it “caused them to re-evaluate their finances.”

A rainy-day fund may not be top priority for people in their 50s who are paying for children’s education, paying off mortgages, and ready to take the next available flight to southern beaches.  But regular deposits into a savings account or low-risk investment can add up over time.  By the time you are in your 70s, needing money to pay for extra physiotherapy, increased dental care, or drugs not covered by regular insurance, you’ll be happy you had the foresight to save.

Take care of your financial affairs.  If you’ve got the time to do it, make sure you are investing in your long-term health by paying off debt, living within your means, and regularly setting aside money as a buffer against unexpected healthcare costs.  If you are already in your golden years with medical or long-term care costs that are crippling your financial well-being, then talk with an advisor about how to stretch your dollars.  Finally, if you are well along into the later stage of life, then do what you can to inspire your grandchildren to avoid senseless mistakes and to start saving for the big crisis.

Change Your Heart Health in Three Months or Less

 Change Your Heart Health in Three Months or Less
 W. Gifford-Jones, M.D. and Diana Gifford-Jones
   It’s said, “Being wrong is acceptable, but staying wrong is unacceptable.” So think twice if you believe a high fish diet alone is providing you with enough essential fatty acids (EPA and DHA) to decrease your risk of heart attack. We were shocked when blood tests showed, despite our healthy diets, that our absorption of fish oils was not making the grade.  What are people getting wrong? And how can you get it right?
Oil and water do not easily mix, and most oils pass through your water-based body until enzymes in the small intestine break down fats. But it’s a mistake to believe this process is perfect.
We wrote previously about a supplement called Omega3X which uses digestive enzymes to facilitate absorption of essential fatty acids. And we promised to put it to the test and report back to you.
First, we stopped taking any omega supplements but continued a diet rich in fish. Then we tested our blood using the Omega-3 Index. We both failed. (Giff 5.56% and Diana 5.47%) These scores placed us barely above the “undesirable” high risk zone as measured at 4% or lower on the Index.
Then, for three months, we took Certified Naturals Clinical Omega-3X Fish Oil, a specific product containing MaxSimil that breaks down the hard-to-digest triglycerides of fish oil into more readily absorbed monoglycerides.
Then another blood test. The results were compelling. The measurement of the two most important omega-3 fatty acids (EPA and DHA) was now in the category of low risk for coronary heart disease – a result of between 8-12% on the Omega Index. (Giff 9.64% and Diana 11.64%)
You can visit www.docgiff.com to read the advice shared with readers for years.  First, to decrease your risk of a fatal coronary attack, you gain advantage with high doses of vitamin C. Dr. Linus Pauling, a Nobel Prize recipient, observed that most animals escalate vitamin C production when confronted with stress, but humans lack this ability. Then Dr. Sydney Bush, an English researcher, showed that high doses of vitamin C opened clogged arteries, a huge discovery.
Any vitamin C product will do, but we recommend Medi-C Plus because its powdered form makes high doses easier to take and because it includes lysine, which builds strong cell walls.
Second, our experiment shows it is important to supplement with omega 3. But not all omega supplements are equal. MaxSimil, developed by a Canadian company, is a fish oil that is absorbed three times better than typical fish oils. It’s produced from small fish like sardines and anchovies rich in omega-3 fatty acid.
Fatty acids help prevent heart attack by decreasing cellular inflammation. Researchers have reported for years that chronic inflammation is a factor in coronary attack. Now, the Omega-3 Index can accurately measure the amount of these fatty acids in our red blood cells.
Studies also report that people consuming fish oils show decreased blood triglycerides, decreased total cholesterol, lower bad cholesterol, and raises good cholesterol. These patients also had fewer irregular heartbeats and heart attacks.
Low levels of essential fatty acids have been associated with mood imbalances and joint problems.
The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition has reported that the Omega-3 Index is just as important as cholesterol blood level. It’s alarming that nearly half of all North Americans are in the high-risk category for heart attack.
The message is clear. If you want to be certain that you are absorbing essential fatty acids, get a blood test to measure EPA and DHA. Send a single drop of blood using a test kit provided by OmegaQuant. Your result is mailed to you.
Take it from a 97-year-old, it’s never too late to reduce the risk of a coronary!
Sign-up at www.docgiff.com to receive our weekly e-newsletter. For comments, contact-us@docgiff.com. Follow on Instagram, @docgiff and @diana_gifford_jones

Imaginary Lover

 

Imaginary Lover
Q Four years ago I cheated on my husband and left my marriage. Since then I have worked hard to learn from this life experience. I have done this by going to therapy regularly where I was diagnosed with depression and placed on antidepressants.
     Reflecting back now, I have come a long way. No longer am I the person I was four years ago. This has come through hard work and tremendous self-examination. I have begun dating a man who I care for deeply. We have been dating for two months, and it appears we are really connecting. Since I am in my mid-30s, obviously I bring a history to this relationship which he has asked me about.  How much do I share about my past? He knows I was married, and I explained the reasons why we broke up. I know the affair is not the reason. There were plenty of red flags long before I acted out.    I explained why I believe our marriage did not work but left out this detail. I ask myself how it would benefit our relationship if I shared this information with him, and if I did share it, would he hold it against me in the future?
     Most recently I shared with him that I was diagnosed with depression and am taking antidepressants. His reaction to this information was quite shocking. Rather than being understanding, he expressed concern whether the drugs alter my personality so much he truly does not know who I am. I was so stunned all I could do was cry, because I felt judged. Here I worked so hard to become a healthy adult, only to be questioned about whether my personality was genuine because of the drugs.  So, I pose this question to you. Do I share with him about my affair? Am I being deceptive if I don’t tell him? When do you tell someone this kind of information? He felt I should have told him immediately about my depression rather than wait two months. My feeling is you have to know and trust that individual before you share such vulnerable information. I am still feeling hurt after his depression reaction.
Candice
A Candice, there is a line in George Orwell’s book 1984 that goes something like this. “If you want to keep a secret, keep it from yourself.” Stop seeing this as a secret you need to divulge.There is one main question in your letter. This is our answer. Why would you consider telling this man about previous cheating, once he said, “I don’t know who you are.” It sounds like self-punishment to us. You want to put him in a position to punish and reject you.
A better question to ask us is, should I break up with him? Our answer is yes. He made two claims. Your personality is false because you are “under the influence” and you should have told him immediately. Apparently, he has a list of assumptions about the woman for him. He knows who she will be without having met her. We don’t know all the qualities on his list, but that person has as much substance as a child’s imaginary friend.   His list, however, does tell you who you are dealing with. He is not looking for the one for him. He is looking for the one he invented in his mind. And he already gave  himself an out—I don’t know who you are.   If this is his reaction to a common, legally prescribed medication you need to take, don’t tell him anything more about yourself.   He’s negated the two months of dating and the two months spent learning who you are.   You cried over his remark. Make that cry the cry which comes at the end of a relationship.  We have advice for the next man you date. Some information belongs solely to you. It doesn’t affect anyone else, and it does not belong to anyone else. There is no requirement to share all of your secrets, especially if that person might use them to injure you.
 Where does the desire to confess come from? You regret doing it, and you learned your lesson. You married the wrong person, couldn’t face ending it, and added another misstep. You know you will never do it again. The issue has been resolved all time and forever.
Yet you still feel guilty. You don’t need to confess and be forgiven by some third party. Once a lesson is learned, that ends it.  Wayne & Tamara write:  Directanswers@WayneAndTamara.com

FRAUD PREVENTION MONTH

 

FRAUD PREVENTION MONTH
By Joe Ingino
Editor/Publisher

“I live a dream in a nightmare world”
   
   March is Fraud Prevention Month and as such we must sit back and wonder what is a fraud.   I remember once in conversation with lawyer friends of mine.   Their definition had to fold.  One, you had to get caught.  The second was based on the understanding and how you defined  the term.
By dictionary definition, FRAUD: a person or thing intended to deceive others, typically by unjustifiably claiming or being credited with accomplishments or qualities.  wrongful or criminal deception intended to result in financial or personal gain.
Well if this  stands true.   Coca Cola/Pepsi ads are they not fraudulent?
They claim to quench thirst when in reality they make you want more.
Are cell phone companies not committing a fraud by charging us rates for speeds that we need special conditions to achieve?
Or how about the TV service providers.  Claiming that they offer 1,000 channels but fail to tell you that half are repeat.   In reality you have to subscribe to the rest and you actually may get 50 free channels.
  Is that not a fraud?  I guess much like my lawyers friends had stated.  No one is complaining and the suppliers of these services are not being called out and or caught in the act of deception.  How about your gas or hydro companies.   They compete on the basis of basic rates, but fail to tell you of all the over charges.  Such as delivery charge, maintenance, administrative, convenience, safety and any that they dream up.   Is this not a fraudulent? I live a dream in a nightmare world.... a world full of misconceptions, misinformation and mass confusion.    Society is falling apart and we are becoming victims of our own misconceptions and understanding of society.  We are easily influenced and persuaded.   We can’t even define ‘FRAUD’ unless we tag along a criminal element or that act of which is forcibly accepted due to the fact that we truly do not understand the real intent of services and goods being presented to us.     I remember social scientist at the University always harping about the end of civilization coming to be due to three things.  1. War  2. Famine 3. Disease....  I would have never figured out that the 4th would be ignorance and just plain stupidity...  Is our nightmare world that far gone that we can only live in our dreams and justify reality in confusion?

The Canadian Military at the crossroads

The Canadian Military at the crossroads
by Maj (ret'd) CORNELIU E. CHISU, CD, PMSC,
FEC, CET, P. Eng.
Former Member of Parliament Pickering-Scarborough East

As a former serving member in the Canadian Forces, a veteran from the war in Afghanistan and a serving member for the entire 41st parliamentary session in the National Defence Committee in the House of Commons, I cannot stay silent on what is happening in the leadership of the Canadian Forces today.
Promotions often based on who you know rather than merit have become  routine in the forces, and this has generated most of the problems arising in the military today. A deterioration of the military ethos and ethical principles has created the monsters of today.
A fundamentally ignorant and complacent political establishment that is completely lacking in military experience, has significantly contributed to the creation, at the highest level, of a military leadership that has become a cast unto itself in knowingly promoting their own self interests.

During my own military career when I was deployed in Afghanistan as a military engineer, I noticed gross mishandling of taxpayers' money and faulty management both by the military and the public service. I mentioned this to my superiors' in daily meetings but what was a captain's word in view of a general's?
Then as a conservative member of the National Defence Committee I warned the then Minister of Defence, the Hon. Jason Kenney, with all risks assumed, to beware; blindly believing information the superior military leadership was relaying to him without the necessary confirmatory questions would be a mistake.

These inadequacies in leadership, both political and military, have lead to the current reality, and the men and women in uniform who serve the country with pride do not deserve this.
More than five years ago, an external review into sexual misconduct in the military was conducted and yet sexual misconduct remains a very serious and widespread problem among other issues, reaching the ranks of the head of the military.
Neither Conservatives nor Liberals are looking good in this story. General Vance was appointed under the Conservative government, while Admiral McDonald was appointed by the Liberal government.

But we really shouldn't focus only on party politics. To support the women and men in the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF), we should instead be focused on the long-standing and deep-seated problem of the contemporary military's deteriorating culture. This problem has gone unnoticed and unchecked for a long time.
These issues were left to deteriorate by a political leadership ignorant of military affairs. In 2013 I brought to the attention of the then chair of the defence committee and current conservative opposition critic on defence matters, an issue related to a female soldier in my riding who had been the victim of multiple abuses, including sexual misconduct. The issue was shelved and forgotten and I was not able to follow up. It was considered a minor problem.
The question remains: how a Defence Minister with a military background and in charge for years now, could have been ignorant about what goes on in the higher echelons of the Canadian Forces.

The question is also addressed to the leader of the conservative opposition who seems to tout his military experience for the purposes of self promotion, without ever really touching on the very serious problems in the military which need to be fixed urgently.
I have personally stated several times, both publicly and privately that the problems in the military start at the recruiting stage and this should be seriously addressed.

As the House of Commons National Defence Committee has recently begun its own study into "addressing sexual misconduct issues in the Canadian Armed Forces", the obvious question arises: how many members of the committee have any military service or experience to really understand where the current military culture stands and have access to classified documents.

The Canadian military gives priority to operational readiness, demanding from its members unlimited liability, universality of service, total dedication to work, uniformity, hierarchy, obedience, as well as loyalty to the group and mission before self.

The Canadian military then needs a comprehensive strategy that acknowledges its institutional role and responsibility in preventing sexual misconduct along with all other forms of discrimination and violence in exercising their mandate.

There are many political interests in play now, working to weaken our military. That is the wrong approach. It is important to re-establish the positive role that the armed forces have played in the history of our country. They are an important institution of our country and should remain that despite the serious problems that have arisen; which should be efficiently dealt with.

I strongly believe that the vast majority of serving members are dedicated to Canadian values and strongly advise against the temptation to generalize negative facts.

It is indeed unacceptable for superior officers to lack leadership and be morally weak. The fact that they exist raises the obvious question of why they were not better vetted when they were considered for promotion.

I sincerely believe that it is important to continue to trust our military and respect and support the men and women who serve our country with dedication and dignity.
 

CPAC: 'Conservative Pussies' of America Conference! Phony Big Talk But No Real Action!

 CPAC: 'Conservative Pussies' of America Conference!
Phony Big Talk But No Real Action!
by Larry Klayman
This is the week that was and will always be for the so called American Conservative Union’s (“ACU”) conference, otherwise misnamed as the Conservative Political Action Conference or “CPAC” for short.
Run by a Republican lobbyist hack, Matt Schlapp, who I refer to as “Matt Schlock,” which means “rubbish” in Yiddish, this self-proclaimed conservative organization, will this Sunday showcase Donald Trump, a presidential candidate in 2016 who was initially shunned by Schlock and his Republican establishment lobbyist minions. Only after The Donald won the White House, did this despicable group conveniently and opportunistically throw its lot in with him and his supporters. And four years later, The Donald is again being exploited by CPAC to rake in hard cold cash for ACU’s greedy coffers.
CPAC is a play to pay operation. Just ask Tom Fitton of Judicial Watch, which has been donating about fifty thousand dollars a year for the “privilege and honor” of his receiving awards and speaking slots at the conference, as reflected on my former group’s 990 tax returns. Indeed, the gathering of so called conservatives who make a living just talking but doing little to nothing in terms of real meaningful action, has become a self-congratulatory televised hot air session to boost their own egos and donor fundraising.
Couple this with the ultimate purveyor of phony watered down crap, Fox News, which is trying to win back conservative viewers and thus ad dollars after its move left, having seen its television ratings sink even lower than CNN and MSNBC after it threw President Trump under the bus and quickly declared Biden the winner of the 2020 presidential election, desperately attaching itself to the CPAC charade.

The likes of this less than dynamic if not disgraceful duo of CPAC and Fox News was among the inspirations for the subtitle of my new book “It Takes A Revolution!,” and was coined “Forget the Scandal Industry!” That is because for most self-proclaimed conservatives, simply grousing about the mounting if not stage 4 cancerous takeover of our nation by socialists, communists, atheists, radical blacks, radical Muslims, radicals of the Marxian Jewish left, radical gays, lesbians and transgender and radical feminists –many of whom are also card-carrying members of this former group – is simply a means of self-aggrandizement and clever marketing for cash.
As you read this column, one might say that the author is in a dark pessimistic mood. Indeed, when it comes to the two-faced do-nothing Republican lobbyist and establishment hacks that seek to pass themselves off at CPAC as real action figures if not “superheroes” representing conservatives, people of faith and all those who believe in the vision and creation of our Founding Fathers, that may be true. But, despite this, there are fearless and true patriots afoot. Presently they are lurking in the shadows of the hinterland, fearful that the Biden-Harris FBI, which has become the “Gestapo of the Left,” will round them up as the this once legitimate agency has been doing with those patriots who were present on January 6, 2021, in the nation’s capital in protest of the fraudulent 2020 elections and the general rank corruption of the three branches of government.
But you will not see these courageous conservatives and patriots showcased at CPAC, sharing the self-congratulatory back scratching stage with the likes of Matt Schlock and his “pay to play” Republican establishment do nothing hacks.
And, you will not read about these patriots on traditional conservative websites, since these sites are now censoring their authors and contributors out of fear that the “Biden-Harris Gestapo” will turn its sights on them, putting them out of business as the left is attempting to do with persons like Mike Lindell of My Pillow fame. It is verboten for instance to make reference on these websites to the events of January 6, 2021, as not an uprising of criminals, but instead the natural reaction of an American people having been put down by the ruling class for far too long – a ruling class that feathers its own nest at the expense of the citizenry.
Indeed, uprisings such as witnessed on January 6, 2021, were predicted by the greatest of our Founding Fathers, Thomas Jefferson, who proclaimed that when the people fear the government there is tyranny, but when the government fears the people there is liberty. Jefferson predicted a violent revolution every twenty years or so, as he understood the natural degeneration and mounting tyranny of the ruling class, furthered by a corrupt federal judiciary, unelected and thus not accountable to We the People, would be the match that lights these flames.

With the obvious rank corruption of federal judges in particular, including Trump’s own hand-picked Supreme Court justices, who would not even hear The Donald’s fraudulent election challenges, this was the final straw giving way the American equivalent, in a small way, of the storming of the Bastille on July 14, 1789, which signaled the beginning of the French revolution. Not coincidentally, Jefferson was also one of the architects of the French Revolution.
Fellow patriots, in the words of Thomas Paine, these are not the times for sunshine patriots or summer soldiers, much less the do nothing but big talking empty self-proclaimed conservative clowns who this week are being showcased at CPAC. Given the dire and rock bottom state of the nation, now is the time to do more than talk, and instead act. And act not by fleeing to Cancun, Mexico, as CPAC sponsored blowhard Senator Ted Cruz did when his fellow Texans were literally freezing to death, is not what I have in mind and what the nation’s needs.

Read the Declaration of Independence and then my book, “It Takes a Revolution: Forget the Scandal Industry!,” which can be obtained on line at all major booksellers like Amazon.com and BarnesandNoble.com, as well as at www.freedomwatchusa.org, and learn how we can save the nation with peaceful and legal hard hitting actions, to try to avoid a bloody revolution breaking loose as it did beginning on July 4, 1776. And turn off not just Fox News but its slimy colleagues at CPAC, and get to work to revive the republic from the clutches and certain destruction of the socialists, communists and atheists as well as other radicals who, for now, have taken over the republic and enslaved all of us!

THANK YOU JO-JO-U-YO-YO

 THANK YOU
JO-JO-U-YO-YO
By Joe Ingino
Editor/Publisher

“I live a dream in a nightmare world”
   
      Not to take political sides in the recent American Presidential election results.   This is just me living my dream in a truly nightmare world.  I say this because it appears that since Joe Biden took office the gas prices at least here in Canada have jumped forty cents.
   The Central has another newspaper in the State of West Virginia and ever since Biden took office.   The oil and fracking that was doing so well has come to a halt.   With this the loss of jobs has gone through the roof.  To ad insult to injury.   The  Keystone XL pipe line was halted.   Canadian jobs lost not to mention the hit the U.S. steel producers took in the loss of much needed revenue in the production of the pipes that Trump has promised to use U.S. made steel.
   Now, I am not blaming Biden for killing industries as he has just started and appears to be a YO-YO in a China shop.  
No matter what he touches it appears to cost someone something.  In the U.S. the gas prices will soon see four to six dollars a gallon.  In Canada I see it by the summer to go up to three to four dollars.
   Remember during the Obama era.    All the auto makers cried bankruptcy.  All major corporation screamed ‘FIRE’.    Obama in the name of job preservation gave away billions.   Only to find that most of these corporation kept skeleton operation and used most of that money to open plants in foreign lands...
   Since Trump took office the government funding to industry stopped. He managed to turn the tables on major corporations and instead of working against them.  He worked with them in turn these corporations creating jobs.
   In the oil spectrum.  He turned the tables on the middle east and forced the Arabs to drink their own oil.  Causing barrel prices to drop to a historical low.   Trump did this by promoting and using the national reserves within the United States and purchase national reserves at a fraction of what  other administrations would buy for.
   In part this is why we all in North America enjoyed the lowest rates for gas in a long time.
   I am not just waiting to see how the economy comes crushing and the democrats are once again forced to dish out billion if not trillions to save the day.
Governments across the planet have been grappeling with this COVID pandemic.   It has brought economies to their knees and yet no one is to put blame where blame is deemed.    China caused this global pandemic.   Yet their economy is rebounding like never before and the rest of the world is left to deal with the aftermath.
Without shooting one bullet. China has managed to bring the world to their knees.   
Sadly we the common folk are left to deal with the reality of the incompetence of those representing playing the guessing game on how to deal with such global catastrophe.
Now the world looks at Biden to get the job done.   A man that has yet to bring those responsible to light of responsibility.
When Trump was in office.  Critics were quick to point fingers that Trump had some sort of interests in Russia...  That Russia did this and that..... never proven.    
The funny thing.... the Russians being communist have always hated the Chinese style communism as competitive and more controlled.     Then there was Trump.  Not only taking the boots to the Chinese economically but holding them publicly responsible for the pandemic.
Here comes Biden.   Everyone, uncle.    The Chinese are rejoicing in their effort for global dominance.   In America everyone is so busy and so pre-occupied with equality and the never ending of battle of the races that have lost the true essence of the enemy and the real global prejudice body that is killing us slowly one by one through this pandemic.
I live a dream in a nightmare world... and as such when I awaken I only wish I could dream forever as this nightmare world is not worthy of awakening to the realities that we need to acknowledge in the preservation of humanity.

Rush is dead! Now declare independence again! Time to Act on Rush’s Talk!

 Rush is dead!
Now declare independence again!
Time to Act on Rush’s Talk!
By Larry Klayman
This week the dean of conservative talk radio sadly died. Rush Limbaugh was an icon, far surpassing any of his rivals. And, while we mourn his passing, leaving a huge void in the lives of many of his followers comprised mainly of conservatives, libertarians, people of faith and all those who believe in the vision and creation of our Founding Fathers, we must also reflect that Rush, like any mortal, was not the Moses who would have lead us back to the promised land! He was a very wise man, but he spent his life in a radio studio, not the trenches of the Deep State embodied in the cesspool that has become our nation’s federal and state capitals, which has become a breeding ground for government tyranny.
Over the last many months leading up to the fraudulent presidential election that put the Manchurian braindead Joe Biden candidate in office as the illegitimate 46th president of the United States, along with his evil lying witch of an illegitimate vice-president Kamala Harris, I had said over and over again that even President Donald Trump was not our political messiah. Not only is there only one Messiah, Jesus Christ, whose Divine Providence, along with the Father’s, we must now summon, as did our Founders, to return the nation to its intended state as a beacon of freedom, rather than the current socialist/communist/atheist tyranny now being foisted upon us by the left.
As it was proclaimed in our “first” and most sacred Declaration of Independence, written primarily by a mortal whose intellect, wisdom and prophesy far surpassed any other mortal, Thomas Jefferson:
“When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bonds which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. – That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, – That whenever, any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Government long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. – Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over the States. …”
I cannot urge you more to read and digest this Declaration over and over again, along with my own manifesto, which is dedicated to Jefferson in my new book “It Takes a Revolution: Forget the Scandal Industry!,” and once you have completed this homework assignment, ask yourselves this fundamental question:
Who was and is worse? A king who attempted to overly tax the colonies to pay for the rest of this empire, confiscate our guns, and hijack our legal system back to London, or the current “rulers” who are the tools of socialists, communists, radical blacks, radical Muslims, radicals of the Marxian Jewish left, radical feminists, radical gays, lesbians and transgenders, and radical atheists, and also want to overtax us and take away our guns and thus our right of self-defense to boot. The answer is even more self-evident today than it was back on July 4, 1776, in my birthplace and the birthplace of liberty Philadelphia! It’s time to again declare independence and wage a second American revolution, as Jefferson predicted would someday become inevitable again.
The events at the Capitol Building as now being spun by many political persuasions, but for different self-serving reasons, than it was carried out by criminals, is a bold-faced lie. Sure there were a few bad people on all sides, but the majority were ordinary Americans who simply could not take the rank corruption, lying, and deceit of our present government any more. They rose up, much like the French did on July 14, 1789, with their storming of the Bastille, when they saw no other recourse to the tyrannical rule of King Louis XV and his equivalent of Kamala Harris, Queen Marie-Antoinette.
Having witnessed what for the left and the likes of Biden, Harris, Pelosi and the rest of their comrades was unimaginable given their arrogance, they have now summoned over twenty thousand troops to defend their fortresses in the swamp. But the irony, as revealed in recent weeks, is that these troops, much like the Capitol police, many of whom welcomed if not escorted the revolting citizens into the Capitol Building on January 6, 2021, are not on the side of Biden, Harris and their ilk, but instead We the People. And Biden and Harris understand that they are at real risk of being overthrown by the same troops who now “guard” them. That is why they are being sent to quarters to bunk in quarters away from the White House and other bastions of the present leftist occupation of Washington, D.C.
Yes, it’s time to try to wage a peaceful and legal revolution as I write in my book, before all hell breaks loose. Now is the time, and with the death of Rush, it is now even clearer that the future, if there is to be a future, belongs to us alone!

PATHWAYS TO HOMELESSNESS #3

 PATHWAYS TO HOMELESSNESS #3
 Written by,  Sharleen Cainer, BSW RSW
   It's a real shame. My mother used to say that, and it pertained to anything from a volcanic eruption taking out an entire village, to missing the shoe sale at Calderone's. The shame of it all.
As a society we historically used shame routinely with children in efforts to correct their unappreciated behaviours. Boys were trained to feel shame if they cried or showed emotion. Girls were trained to feel shame if they engaged in sexual activities, while the boys were considered conquerors when they engaged in sexual activities. I used to ask who the boys were supposed to be having sex with, if the girls were "bad" girls when they were ready to participate.
Feelings of shame lead us to feel self hatred, diminished self esteem, and incompetence. Unresolved issues of shame take us down a dark lonely path filled with pitfalls and inability to engage in adult life. It is the birth of mental illness for many. So, the logical thought would be, the use of shame is passe. Well, no it is not, it is live and well, existing in an email headed your way. Professionals now write emails to each other, about a 3rd party, with implications that one should have known better, or the 3rd party is not skilled enough, but should be, and so on. The 3rd party is usually copied on the email so she can see the demeaning comments and can only comment after the fact, when the other participants have moved on. That is corporate shaming.
The cyber bully is the top performing purveyor of shame and self hate affecting many kids today. One in three to be exact. Many of these young people have taken their lives as a result of the emotional pain, fear of attack, and debilitating feeling of shame, which usurps their ability to communicate their suffering. Children and young adults are the constant recipients, participants, and instigators of cyber bullying.
Moving into adulthood we all hold feelings of shame because nobody got through childhood or their teenage years unscathed.  Often times, we are faced with challenges that we have no idea how we are to mitigate. Attempts to curb the impending disasters fail, and people often will take a seat on their own personal "runaway train" and wait for the wreck to happen. The lack of self esteem, the over abundance of shame and the crowning glory of self doubt, fuel the engine straight into disaster.  
A disaster for many is the loss of home, the loss of income, and the loss of family. For Indigenous people, the loss of culture, the loss of language and the barriers to health, education, appropriate housing, are extra burdens to be carried.  Shame was used by governments to prohibit Indigenous culture. Shame was used to take language from children, shame was used to limit education, health, and housing. The Indigenous were inundated with shame.
Afro-Canadians carry shame that is intergenerational and deliberate. We are all familiar with the escalating incidences of violence against visible minorities, black youth in particular.  We used to worry about the girls walking home alone, now we worry about the boys, regardless of if they are walking, driving or just taking out the trash. The escalation of racial violence in the states escalated very easily, and is emulated by Canadians, despite our protests that we are better than that.  We wish we are better than that. How is it that so many people suddenly unleash a hatred for their fellow man.  Black on black crime is born out of long-suffering shame. It is systemic shaming that comes from not being respected in school, not being respected in the community. It comes from having their culture usurped and used and dismissed as light entertainment. It comes from everyday interaction with people in authority, cashiers, bank tellers, the police departments. It comes from society accepting that their lives don't matter.  Black children are six times more likely to be shot to death by police.    
Shame is a major contender on the road to homelessness.  It is never any one thing that walks a person to the threshold of having no threshold. There are many moving parts in this equation. But what happens when an individual is unable to navigate those moving parts because they do not believe they can, or they don't believe they are deserving of something better, or they don't feel they belong to a social structure whereby it is their right to participate and feel productive.  
We would have hoped that something like the pandemic would have brought us together, in a socially distanced kind of way.  People lending a helping hand, leaving no prisoners behind; that kind of thing. But it appears that in certain instances it has brought out the worst in many people. What would happen if people could just start the day with the simple task of using positive language with others. A little kindness is a lifeline for those who are struggling.  Homelessness has many pathways. 

Reflections on Canada
United States relations

by Maj (ret'd) CORNELIU E. CHISU, CD, PMSC,
FEC, CET, P. Eng.
Former Member of Parliament Pickering-Scarborough East
    As the Covid -19 generated pandemic continues to take its economic and social toll, it is worthwhile to look at the relations between Canada and the United States and try to understand how the post pandemic "new reset" of overall relations will play out.
It is especially important to understand the effect of a change in administration in the United States and how this will shape the economic recovery in both countries.
Relations between Canada and the United States have historically been extensive, due, in particular, to geographical positioning. The two nations have the world's longest shared border (8,891 km (5,525 mi) This has contributed significantly to interoperability within the defense sphere, and increasingly close cultural and economical ties, not to mention similarities. The shared historical and cultural heritage has resulted in one of the most stable and mutually beneficial international relationships in the world.
For both countries, the level of trade with the other is at the top of the annual combined import-export total. However, the U.S. is approximately 9.25 times larger in population and has the dominant cultural and economic influence.
Trade has continued to expand, especially following the 1988 FTA, the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), and the 2020 United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), which has progressively merged the two economies.
The foreign policies of the countries have been closely aligned since the Cold War.
However, a diplomatic debate has been underway in recent years on whether the Northwest Passage is in international waters or under Canadian sovereignty.
Additional recent difficulties have included repeated trade disputes, environmental concerns, Canadian concern for the future of oil exports, and issues of illegal immigration and the threat of terrorism.
Last week a meeting between President Biden and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau took place signaling a symbolic reestablishment of traditional warm neighborly relations.
"The United States has no closer friend - no closer friend - than Canada," Biden said. "That's why you were my first call," he added, and the first foreign leader to receive an invitation to the White House, even if conducted long-distance.
"U.S. leadership has been sorely missed over the past years," Trudeau said. He noted how differently the process of crafting a joint statement went this time: "It's nice when the Americans aren't pulling out all references to climate change, and instead adding them in."
Despite these surface pleasantries, several irritants remain between the two countries, and President Biden added one more on his first day in office when he canceled the permit for the Keystone XL pipeline.
Another issue is the need for Canada to have an exemption from Biden's "Buy American" executive order on procurement, which could squeeze Canadian firms out of U.S. government contracts.
Last week's session, as the first one-on-one for President Biden with a foreign leader, was meant to reflect the resetting of a traditionally close relationship.
"Now that the United States is back in the Paris agreement, we intend to demonstrate our leadership in order to spur other countries to raise their own ambitions," Biden said.
Trudeau, who called President Biden "Joe," added, "We're facing tough times, no doubt. But we're not facing them alone. Canada and the United States are each other's closest allies, most important trading partners and oldest friends." Still, Canada's relationship with the new administration got off to a bumpy start.  The cancellation of Keystone XL pipeline raises a deeper issue; the fact that three U.S. presidents in a row appear to have judged that there is no cost to crossing Canada. Former president Barack Obama and Biden over Keystone XL and former president Donald Trump over NAFTA, national security tariffs and more.
This serious problem warrants a reset in Canada-United States relations, and the start of a new administration is an opportunity to do just that, particularly at the start of this administration. President Biden's position is weak domestically, and as a committed multilateralist, he needs allies like Canada to help him achieve his goals internationally, from addressing climate change and to sustaining the challenge to China and Russia.
Canada's position vis-à-vis the Biden administration appears to be strong, making this the time to push back on some Canadian national interests. Will this be done? Only the future will tell.
Past crises tended to strengthen Canada's relationship with the United States by building trust and mutual understanding. Cooperation in establishing new institutions and policy responses after World War II and even after the September 11 terrorist attacks on the United States institutionalized cooperation on a range of issues and provided Canada with a way to communicate with U.S. leaders that benefitted Canadian national interests.
And yet there have been times when Canada needed to challenge the United States in order to remind Americans not to take Canada for granted.
In 1951, Prime Minister Louis St. Laurent's threat to build the St. Lawrence Seaway without the United States led then U.S. President Dwight Eisenhower to sign a 1954 agreement to build the Seaway together.
In 1960, Prime Minister John Diefenbaker appointed Vincent Bladen to lead a commission to study the trade imbalance with the United States in the auto sector; Bladen's report prompted Canada to increase tariffs and incentives to support Canadian production, prompting the negotiation of the U.S.-Canada Auto Pact by Prime Minister Lester Pearson and U.S. President Lyndon Johnson in 1965.
In 1973, the government of Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau established the Foreign Investment Review Act to evaluate foreign investment, particularly U.S. investment in the Canadian economy. Similarly, the 1980 National Energy Program sought to limit U.S. ownership of Canadian oil producers and resources. Both actions drew U.S. objections, but brought the Reagan administration to negotiate the Canada - United States Free Trade Agreement with Prime Minister Brian Mulroney, who was elected in 1984.
Already, in the early stages of the Biden administration, it seems that the US is not taking Canadian interests into account, so it may be time for Canada to challenge the United States gain. It is for this reason that there needs to be a reset where Canada takes a strong leadership position in defending its national interests.
For the current US administration Canada does not appear to present a crisis or an opportunity that warrants careful attention to Canada's interests.
Canada needs to make it clear that our support is not unconditional and that actions that hurt Canada will be not be accepted with a smile.
The Biden administration's early action against the Keystone XL pipeline is a wakeup call for Canada that Biden's friendly disposition toward Canada over the years is insufficient to safeguard Canadian interests.
Canadians should not take good bilateral relations for granted, and neither should the United States. The question is this: Is the Trudeau government capable of showing the leadership needed to change this dynamic?
Let your conscience answer and let your vote speak for you.
The ball is in your court.

 NOT JUST IN TEXAS
By Joe Ingino
Editor/Publisher

“I live a dream in a nightmare world”
   
    I have a question for humanity at large.  Why does it have to take a catastrophe for humanity to learn preparedness?    Why do we use catastrophe to put blame and shame.  When the rest of us are guilty of the same?
Let’s look at what is happening in Texas.  A severe storm hits.  Texas gets caught with it’s pants down.   Everyone is quick to take sides and point blame on why Texas was not better prepared?
Common sense would tell you.  How could they have ever been prepared?
Was the world prepared for COVID?    Almost a year later does the world even have a clue on how to truly deal with it?
It appears that no matter what the catastrophe is.   WE ARE NOT PREPARED.  Simple and factual.
We may have some safeguards in place.  We may be able to soften the shock.  The reality is we can’t expect to always be prepared.
Take these scenarios in consideration.   What if North America over night faced a terrorist attack that deemed our water ways toxic by some foreign agent?
How would we deal with it.  Are we prepared for such an event?
The answer is NO.
Something not so severe.   What if there was an attack of nuclear threat in two or three cities.  Would we be prepared?  NO again.
Then if we are quick to admit that ‘NO’ we would not be prepared.  How is it we are so quick to condemn Texas for what they are undergoing?
I am concerned over the future of humanity as we are balancing our future on a very thin line.  Much like the atomic clock is warning us that we are within seconds of huge ‘RESET’.   
Meaning:  The Doomsday Clock is a symbol that represents how close we are to destroying the world with dangerous technologies of our own making. It warns how many metaphorical “minutes to midnight” humanity has left. Set every year by the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, it is intended to warn the public and inspire action.
Pretty much the doomsday clock was invented after WWII. it pretty much means the threat of an all out nuclear war. If the clock strikes midnight (pun intended) it means there is an immediate threat of nuclear weapons being used if they have not already.
The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists announced on Wednesday that its symbolic Doomsday Clock remains at 100 seconds to midnight, the same as last year. That's the closest the timepiece has been to symbolic doom in the more than 70 years of its existence.
On January 23, 2020, the Clock was moved further, to 100 seconds (1 minute 40 seconds) before midnight, meaning that the Clock's status today is the closest to midnight since the Clock's start in 1947.
A nuclear war would start fires in cities and industrial areas and pump a lot of smoke into the stratosphere above where we live. In the upper atmosphere, there's no weather or rain to wash it out, and the smoke enveloping the earth would last for years, sending temperatures plummeting.   Would we prepared as a civilization?    What would happen to civilization?
It is obvious what would happen.
Scientist for the longest time have been warning that over population will only lead us towards one of three things.    War, famine or disease.
The bible through it’s teaching have warned us for thousand of years of the same.
Why are we not listening?   Could it be due to the same reason we can never be prepared for anything unexpected?
It is not to live in paranoia.   But to live in awareness of your surrounding.  Society is what keep us civil.  Unfortunately what govern us is our primal instinct.   An instinct that blinds us of forthcoming dangers as it has us to pre-occupied with current dangers.  Texas is not to blame.
Humanity is to blame as we lack the fortitude to self preserve when the writings are so obviously written on history walls.

 The Agony of Shingles: How to Decrease the Risk
 W. Gifford-Jones, M.D. and Diana Gifford-Jones

  “It was like going through hell,” he said. A friend had developed facial shingles, involving his ear, and despite medication the pain continued for weeks. So what is the best way to prevent an attack of shingles? Take action quickly. If you delay, you’ll wish you hadn’t when the pain from hell strikes.
Today, most children are vaccinated against chickenpox. But it was not in the mix of common childhood shots until the mid-1990s. It’s a rare older person who escaped this childhood infection. Unlike other childhood diseases, the varicella zoster virus never leaves the body. Rather, it goes into hiding in nerve cells near the spinal cord. These cells transmit messages from skin to the central nervous system. The virus continually tries to escape and when it does, it surfaces as shingles. This is never good news. Even when its lesions subside, pain may last for months or years.
Dr. Peter N. Watson, a neurologist at the University of Toronto, reported in the Canadian Medical Association Journal that of 261 patients with shingles 24% suffered lingering pain. This complication results in chronic anxiety, depression, insomnia, and poor quality of life.
The problem is not rare. In North America, every year, over two and a half million people develop shingles, 350,000 end up with post-shingles pain, and 400 die. Living with pain day after day is bad enough, but for some the result can be inflammation of the brain, facial paralysis, or the loss on an eye. Of those over 50 years of age, post-shingles pain can affect up to 40% of patients.

Once shingles strikes, a number of antiviral drugs such as Zovirax, Famvir and Valtrex are available to decrease the severity of the attack. The earlier these drugs are prescribed the better the result.
But prevention is better than cure and the Zostavax vaccine has been available for several years for those who have had chickenpox but not shingles. The vaccine halves the risk of getting shingles and decreases by two-thirds the chance of post-shingles pain. The cost of the vaccine is about $200. But anyone who has had shingles, or its complications, is quick to advise finding the money to avoid hellish pain.
Pregnant women, those breast-feeding, and anyone who has had a reaction to neomycin should not take the vaccine.
What about natural prevention? Lysine, an essential amino acid, possesses antiviral effects which are helpful in fighting the shingles virus. For instance, it’s been known for years that lysine can often decrease recurrent attacks of the herpes virus. The addition of vitamin C can make it even more effective in building up immunity to shingles.
But large doses are essential. This means taking 4,000 milligrams (mg) of vitamin C and at least 2,000 mg of lysine daily. This high-dose combination, available as Medi-C Plus, must be used daily and for years to be helpful. Moreover, this high-dose combination of C and lysine also provides protection against heart attack and viral infections.

The big problem is what to do when the lesions of herpes have faded away and patients are left with unrelenting pain. An ancient Chinese and Middle Eastern medical practice, known as cupping therapy, has helped many people suffering from this debilitating pain.
Needle cupping involves pricking the skin at acupuncture points along the herpes nerve roots. A small cup is heated to remove oxygen and then placed over the pricked area. This creates a suction effect drawing internal blood to the area and diseased blood flushed out.
So now you have some options. As always, the message is, choose prevention before hellish pain occurs.Sign-up at www.docgiff.com to receive our weekly e-newsletter.  For comments, contact-us@docgiff.com. Follow our new Instagram accounts, @docgiff and @diana_gifford_jones

DOJ/FBI becomes left's "Gestapo"!

 DOJ/FBI becomes left's "Gestapo"!
Even Olympic Athlete Prosecuted For Jan. 6, 2021
By Larry Klayman
Following the events at the Capitol on January 6, 2021, the Biden Justice Department (DOJ) and its Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), as if the old Trumpian one were not bad enough with its do-nothing attorneys general Sessions and Barr, has been elevated to a level of intimidation and infamy never previously seen or experienced in our once great republic. Terrorizing virtually anyone who appeared at the rally for President Donald J. Trump on that date, or who later marched down Pennsylvania Avenue and entered the Capitol building, the DOJ and its lackey FBI, run by a two-faced political hack by the name of Christopher Wray (another ”great” Republican establishment appointee turned Benedict Arnold), has set out to threaten, arrest, and prosecute supporters of The Donald and other conservatives, as part of a nationwide inquisition to make sure that any dissent to the socialist/communist/atheist takeover of the United States is complete and will remain permanent.

Willingly joining in this purge is virtually every quarter of American society, including sports leagues. Much like occurred in the years leading up to and during World War II with the rise of Adolf Hitler, these institutions and entities, even if not true believers, have thrown in their lot with the “winner,” just as did the likes of Mercedes Benz, BMW, and Deutsche Bank, the latter of which even saw fit to finance the Fuehrer’s concentration camps. In effect, these entities are paying homage to the radical left as a type of “blood money,” hopefully wishing to be left alone by the dangerous barbarians who, having entered into our gates through a fraudulent presidential election, now have a terminal stranglehold on our body politic and thus our lives.

At the same time that this reign of terror is furthered if not perpetrated by our so-called chief law enforcement agency the DOJ and its FBI – which has been turned into as a lesser version of the Heinrich Himmler’s Gestapo – my once proud employer has not taken action against major crime figures such as James Comey, Andrew McCabe, the “love birds” Peter Strzok and Lisa Page, and Obama’s felonious intelligence czars James Clapper and John Brennan, all of whom criminally caused the now infamous Russian collusion witch hunts. And, let’s not forget that the Bonnie and Clyde of American politics, Bill and Hillary Clinton, with their money laundering racketeering enterprise known as the Clinton Foundation, Barack Obama with his phony birth certificate that paved the way for his two fraudulent presidential elections, and Joe, Hunter and Frank Biden with their bribery caper emanating from Communist China, Ukraine and Russia, all remain untouchables and at loose.

To put what I am saying in stark contrast is a report last Friday in the sports publication “Swim Swam,” titled “Grand Jury Indicts Olympian Klete Keller on 7 Charges Related to Capitol Riots.”

Discussing the arrest, indictment and prosecution of this star athlete, who “raced for the United States at the 2000, 2004 and 2008 Olympics winning bronze in the 400 freestyle and gold in the 4x200 in 2004,” by Biden’s DOJ and its FBI, it was revealed:

“As we first reported on January 11, 2021, it has been reported that Olympic Keller was among those involved in the January 6th insurrection at the United States Capitol.”

“Two days later, it was announced that Klete Keller had been charged in U.S. District Court…”

What were these “serious charges”? Civil disorder, obstruction of an official proceeding, and aiding and abetting, entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds, disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds, impeding passage through the Capitol grounds or buildings, parading, demonstrating or picketing in a Capitol building. If convicted on all criminal counts, Keller could be sentenced to 30 years in prison, it was reported.

As in Woody Allen’s “Take the Money and Run,” Keller might as well have been charged, as was the main character in Allen’s comedy, with having sex with a horse.

But what is even worse if not more despicable and absurd is the “leftist derriere kissing,” again as reported by “Swim Swam,” of the head of the United States and Paralympic Committee:
“First off, I strongly condemn the actions of the rioters at the U.S. Capitol. They do not represent the values of the United States of America or Team USA.

“At home and around the world, Team USA athletes are held to a very high standard as they represent our country on the field of play and off. What happened in Washington, D.C., was a case where that standard was clearly not met. The people involved attacked the very fabric of the democracy we all proudly represent and, in turn, also let our community down. I urge everyone associated with Team USA to continue to celebrate our diversity of background and beliefs, stand together against hatred and divisiveness, and use our influence to create positive change in our community.”

There you have it; the nation total has been turned by the left into a lesser version of National Socialism under the Third Reich, with even sports leagues bowing down to its “fearless leaders.” And, couple this with the DOJ and its FBI being used as a principal sword to keep We the People from exercising our God-given constitutional rights of free speech and protest. And, lest anyone forget, the Capitol building belongs to all of us. That Klete Keller had the guts to enter the building in protest was no more a serious crime than Martin Luther King rightfully using civil disobedience by subjecting himself and his disciples to arrest and prosecution, to fight for equal rights for all Americans.

Yes, as Thomas Jefferson proclaimed ,“When the people fear the government there is tyranny.” That is exactly what Biden-Harris administration and its leftist supporters want. But remember that Jefferson also wisely said, “When the government fears the people there is liberty!’