Keep Looking for Sunshine You Will Find It

 Keep Looking for Sunshine
You Will Find It
By Paul Skuza
I recently discovered the musical "Hamilton'' and have been immersed in the soundtrack over the past month. One lyric that reoccurs in the production is, "Look around, look around at how lucky we are to be alive right now." Although the story takes over 200 years ago, hearing those words over and over, I cannot help but think how that outlook is as true today as it was back then. Ultimately, a lot of it is about perspective. Whether it be a battle with a global superpower for a nation's independence or surviving a pandemic, you can make an argument that  this is a recurring theme in life. With all of life's challenges ,we can live in gratitude. The question is, which do we want to focus our energy on?
Before I go any further I want to  clear that I have  also been frustrated with all things related to this pandemic. I am  saddened to see or hear about people getting sick and dying here and all over the world. I truly miss seeing family and friends due to isolation and this pandemic. My professional world has been turned upside down.. I am  in the health and wellness industry and pandemic has had an impact. I have been disappointed with inconsistencies and ever-changing restrictions. It has been a very difficult year to say the least.
 I can have an "all or nothing" mentality, but also believe  that it is possible to struggle and still find  good in whatever situation I am in. Throughout my career as a health and fitness professional, I have enjoyed going to work every day and making positive connections with people,hoping to influence the environment for the better. Covid-19 restrictions have made that much more challenging. For the past six months, our facilities have been closed to the pandemic. There were some extremely difficult decisions to be made and challenges to overcome. Reflecting on the past year, I admit that there have been many lows. At the same time, there was a ton of positive work done. For that I am grateful.  
I want to share some of the amazing projects and accomplishments our organzation has done to help fulfill the mission of building healthy communities. Some of which I have been fortunate to be involved in directly. Not having direct interaction,  contact with our members or connecting with people in our centres, we took to the virtual platform to connect and help address a need for home fitness and social interaction. There are now multiple live classes daily available to members, dozens of prerecorded workouts, online coaching, and more. These programs have all been accessible to everyone free of charge in an effort to help keep our members engaged and motivated to a path of physical health. I have been grateful to lead some virtual workouts through facebook live, zoom, and youtube. Online platforms may not feel the same  as the real deal in person experience. It is definitely the next best thing and has been a ton of fun . We are  staying connected with our members. Staying connected is important. As the weather changes  and restrictions loosen, we hope to return  to outdoor classes and workouts, as we did last year. It was  very well received and our members enjoy it. Teaching classes to smiling faces on green grass with the sun and sky in the background is actually a fitness experience hard to beat in my opinion.
 You might be able to tell by now, I am a fitness Coach.  I have always incorporated exercise as a part of my lifestyle and have  a passion for wellness. I have a strong background in sports and football. I am aware and always want to share with others the positive benefits  that exercise can have  on mental and emotional health.  I know it is not the only component to wellness, but an effective way to assist in managing mental and emotional health and stress.  The YMCA believes in this principle as well. We are more  than just a gym. We are a wellness community.
 My  colleagues started a program to deliver food and essential supplies to families in low-income neighbourhoods. We are talking about hundreds of packages delivered weekly during this pandemic and  lockdown to those who need it most. This was at no charge to families. We delivered complimentary flowers and exercise bands to hundreds of older adults in our communities. Our goal was to engage with the older population and attempt to brighten their day. We recognize that Senoirs are impacted by this pandemic and wanted to serve this part of our community. Other health and fitness centres around the association came up with new ways to support the community by offering  the use of our showers to medical professionals and front line workers  after their shift before returning home. We also have had many food and clothing drives, and offer the gymnasium as overnight shelter to the homeless population every night during extreme cold temperatures this past winter. Child care centres, before and after school programs have also been putting in great  effort to make sure children in our day care centres are in a safe environment. Summer camp programs were modified but still took place and gave kids a chance to experience a lot of the same wonderful opportunities that help campers develop social skills. Our charity work continued at every level and significant money was raised through generous donations from members and sponsors. I was honoured to help lead a virtual "SWEAT for strong kids'' event that raised over $100,000, and that was just one event! Hundreds of thousands more were raised to help more people access programs that can help them on their health and wellness journey. Grants were secured to make significant (and much needed) building improvements at several locations.
The list honestly goes on and continues to do so as I write this. Being directly involved in some of the work has been a privilege. Thinking about some of the great things that are being done throughout our communities by great people  including the YMCA is inspiring. I truly believe that it is okay to feel frustrated at this time and it is causing  stress but it is important to be  grateful. Having a positive outlook can take us a long way. Throughout human history you can make a strong argument that there is a constant.  Life  will be tough! We need to finish STRONG! In the words from the play Hamilton, "Dying is easy young man, living is harder"

The rise of China and the dangers ahead

 The rise of China and the dangers ahead
by Maj (ret'd) CORNELIU E. CHISU, CD, PMSC,
FEC, CET, P. Eng.
Former Member of Parliament
Pickering-Scarborough East
It seems to me that a new danger is rising over the horizon and the Western world, including Canada, is ignoring it. Countries once united against the Soviet Union in the cold war era, now seem disunited in dealing with Communist China.

The risk of Chinese "adventurism" is rising, while great power rivalry that used to characterize Central Europe during the Cold War, has shifted to the Pacific region. Yes, today it is China that represents the bigger menace over the long term to Western values and interests. At present, China is primarily an economic and political threat. Not an immediate military threat yet, but heading in that direction at high speed.
China's primary ambition is to supplant the United States at all cost, as the world's largest economy and the region's dominant power. It also learned from the relatively mild world reaction to Russia's annexation of Crimea, that the annexation of Taiwan might be feasible in the very near future.
Steered by a clever and highly educated leadership, modelled on a modified communist doctrine that has been transplanted into a contained capitalistic economical environment, China is now a real and a dangerous addition on the world's political scene.  With lessons learned from the failures of previous communist regimes, it represents a formidable force.

The People's Republic of China had outlived its one-time ally and patron, the Soviet Union. After all, it has cracked down on Hong Kong, clashed with India in the Himalayas, levied tariffs on Australia after officials criticized its handling of the coronavirus, and said Britain would "bear the consequences" for excluding telecom firm Huawei from its 5G network. Neither has Canada escaped Chinese retribution. The arrest of Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig was in retaliation for Canada's arrest of Huawei's Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou.  Chinese spokesmen have also used derogatory words lately, in referring to Canadian leadership, and have listed Canadian MPs as persona non grata who dared to challenge them on human rights issues.

China has been steadily investing all over the world, with a shrewd interest in European infrastructure: State-run shipping companies own significant stakes in 13 European ports, for instance, and the telecom equipment company ZTE has a large presence in southeastern Europe.

When countries cede control of their infrastructure, their manufacturing
of strategic items, their resilience or ability to recover from the shock of a natural disaster or armed attack, suffers immensely. Such developments also make it easier for Beijing to impose its will.
China has already proved itself adept at using other tools in its arsenal - such as economic influence - to intimidate and coerce states, as when Beijing imposed an eight-year ban on Norwegian salmon in retaliation for the awarding of the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize to a Chinese dissident.
It used the same tools on Canadian exports of canola following the arrest of Huawei's Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou. They also restricted PPE exports just as Canada's supplies reached critical stage in the COVID-19 fight.  Being the producers of 50% of the world supply, they can wield a heavy hand there.
 
To safeguard against a future when China decides to wield its growing military power in a similar fashion, it is important to reorient military alliances towards South East Asia.  NATO should refocus today, and invest more in military assets and planning in that region. The entire Western world needs to focus more on China than pay such disproportionate attention to Russia. We must be careful not to force Russia to gravitate towards an alliance with China.  That would be extremely dangerous. Strategically it is extremely important to avoid the formation of a Moscow -Beijing axis.

China has already begun to encroach on the North Atlantic region as well. In the Arctic, for example, Beijing is working on liquid-natural-gas drilling projects with Russia; it is also sending icebreakers to the Norwegian Sea. Not to mention that sooner or later China will encroach on Canadian interests in the Arctic.  There has already been an attempt to buy a mining operation, which, for the moment, has not succeeded.
To address these developments, Canada cannot stay idle.  We must start by formally and seriously including the "High North" in strategic documents for the first time.  We must increase Canadian presence in the region by all possible means, including a robust military. This issue pertains to North American security, and therefore Canada must work closely with the United States on it.

For the western allies a rapid refocusing on South East Asia and curtailing Chinese ambitions in the region is a must. It is necessary to deepen and broaden the relationships with partners in the Indo-Pacific region and Canada must play an important role.

By necessity, refocusing on China would involve a change in the mind-set of existing traditional military alliances such as NATO. Beyond ending the training and advising missions in Iraq and Afghanistan, pausing NATO expansion for the moment would make sense, since it would be inadvisable to add new members - such as Ukraine and Georgia, thereby provoking Russia - as it works out its identity crisis.
Russia is already pretty much contained; admitting Ukraine and Georgia now, a move for which many Europeans have little appetite, would doom arms-control and other negotiations with Moscow. Regrettably, as with Russia, Europe is divided over how to deal with China. Many European allies are wary of picking sides in the struggle for influence between the United States and its Asian rival.

Some, like Germany, even appear outright resentful at the suggestion that they must choose. German Chancellor Angela Merkel rushed last year to conclude the E.U.-China Comprehensive Agreement on Investment
China's rise is indisputably the most significant geopolitical development of the 21st century. It would be strange for the Western world including Canada to ignore the challenge and to downplay the danger posed by China's growing influence in the world.

The 2020s are shaping up as the dangerous decade and hopefully China does not do something rash.

Hope for the best!

VACCINES AND NANOBOTS

 VACCINES AND NANOBOTS

By Joe Ingino
Editor/Publisher

“I live a dream in a nightmare world”
   The question in everyone’s mind is.  Should I or Should I not take the vaccine?  Those that took it may be re-thinking their choice as more and more information is being released by so called science.   Government is all for it as without to much thought a vaccine technically means that the virus will go away and the economic damage can begin healing.
I am constantly receiving information and have in the past had the advantage of reading and seeing things that most never get to know about.   I see the world not just a country.  I see the desperation and hear the conspiracy theorist hype up fear.  Fear of catching the virus and fear of getting inoculated. The real question is what are we up to.   Is the cure real and or just another double edged sword that governments of the world are being forced to use without knowledge of what they are doing to their own people.
My first degree from York University in Canada was in the field of psychology.  I first came to know about nanobots in the early 80’.   In the 80’s, nanobots as we know it today were used primarily for industrial applications.   It was thought that nano technology behind the scenes was becoming another cold war race of sorts as governments and many in academia became entangled in projects directed to using these particles to influence the thought and moods of the masses.   One application the Russians has mastered was the ability to use nano particles to track people moves almost like a form of pre-GPS technology as we know it.   I personally worked on a program through the University that was specific to cognitive and bio-psychological applications were nano technology at least in theory could be used to indirectly and even remotely produce a reaction that was that similar to mood or a feeling in a living human being.   My work was very theoretical and very limited.  Now you may be asking.  What is Nano technology or nanobots as we know them today.
Nanobots are robots that carry out a very specific function and are ~50–100 nm wide. They can be used very effectively for drug delivery. Normally, drugs work through the entire body before they reach the disease-affected area.  They can be used very effectively for drug delivery.
The field of nanotechnologies, which studies phenomena at the nanometer scale, 1 to 100 nanometers, is today in full expansion and finds applications in medicine, electronics and the development of new materials.
Richard Adolf Zsigmondy made the  first observations and size measurements of nanoparticles had been made during the first decade of the 20th century by Richard Adolf Zsigmondy, winner of the 1925 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, who made a detailed study of gold sols and other nanomaterials with sizes down to 10 nm using an ultramicroscope.
Adriano Cavalcanti is known as nanorobot pioneer, Cavalcanti is the medical nanorobotics inventor for the practical hardware architecture of nanorobots, which was integrated as a model based on nanobioelectronics for applications in environmental monitoring, brain aneurysm, diabetes, cancer and cardiology.
These tiny, autonomous robots don't need computer programs to repair circuits. ... By exploiting such quirks of nature, scientists have now built nanobots that can repair broken circuits that are too small for a human eye to see.   The most commonly-cited danger of nanobots is their purported ability to self-replicate. Nanobots aren't all that useful if you have to manufacture them yourself. If you can make a few and then have them reproduce to make copies of themselves, that's a far more efficient way of getting enough of them for useful work.
In today high tech world  a remarkable combination of artificial intelligence (AI) and biology has produced the world's first "living robots". Research team of roboticists and scientists published their recipe for making a new lifeform called xenobots from stem cells. ... Using their own cellular energy, they can live up to 10 days.   This technology is one of the primary agents in the many vaccines introduced to the world.   Little real research on the impact on human biology.   The thing about this type of technology.  Once introduced to the human body it can’t be removed.   Although the nanobots can't be removed, there might be a solution to this problem. Nanobots are technology on a quantum level, and in order to solve this problem, we need to address this situation on a subquantum or soul level.   In other words impossible.   In my study at the University one of the inclines of the relationship between psychology and nonotechnology was the future implications for governments to utilize this in order to create a new world order based on stimulants in the air much like the 5G+ technologies, microwaves, x-ray, and many more.    
The “G” associated with cellular networks stands for generation. 5G is the fifth and newest generation of cellular network technology and it should expand the capacity for mobile networks, allowing more devices to use the network than ever before.  This technically, some are seeing as the vehicle to manipulate nanobots in human bodies.
Can nanobots control you?  Mind control is real, it could be developed with invasive neurotechnology as brain nanobots that can control directly the activity of victim neurons and thus, control different body's functions like the motor functions.  This can be proven/verified by science.
Can nanobots make you immortal?   Yes. nanorobots could be programmed to rebuild older cells into younger copies on a regular basis thereby the human body could become immortal. You could live a disease-free youthful life, forever.
Can nanoparticles change your DNA? New research by scientists shows that when cellular barriers are exposed to metal nanoparticles, cellular messengers are released that may cause damage to the DNA of developing brain cells. ... During their interactions with cell membranes and internalisation into cells, key signalling pathways and processes are altered.  So yes.
So far nanoparticle-based vaccines  obtained  approval by the US Food and Drug Administration could represent a giant step in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.
On 18 November 2020, BioNtech and Pfizer announced the final results of their COVID-19 vaccine phase 3 clinical trial1. Only a couple of days earlier, Moderna had also revealed the preliminary outcome of their phase 3 study2. With a claimed efficacy in preventing infection of 95% and 94.5%, respectively, BNT162b2 — the vaccine developed by the small German start-up and the giant American pharma — and mRNA-1273 — developed by the Cambridge-based biotech company in collaboration with the National Institutes of Health — are on route to becoming the first prophylactic measures against SARS-CoV-2 infection.
Two COVID-19 vaccines that use nanoparticles are messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccines. These vaccines contain a strand of genetic code that provides instructions for building a protein that’s found on the coronavirus. When cells take in this genetic code, they build the protein.
When the immune system sees the protein, it begins building antibodies against it that help the immune system fight the coronavirus. After the body has built up an army of antibodies, it can fight off a COVID-19 infection before it causes disease.
This new class of DNA- and RNA-based vaccines deliver the genetic sequence of specific viral proteins to the host cells using nanotechnology platforms. Traditional vaccines instead trigger immune responses upon injection of entire viruses, either as attenuated live viruses, inactivated viruses or engineered viruses, into the body.   Then the question remains.   Do we surrender to government pressure to vaccinate?  Do we trust science?   They said that when they found th e
 ‘God’ particle that they had all the answers to creation.  Now we are faced with the possibility of extinction by submission.   Can we play God and survive the possible extinction of yet another civilization.  My two cents.   Wait it out a bit more until we start seeing the true essence of  science.  Once proven then make a conscious decision on what you are injecting into your soul.

The Cross Eyed Saga

 

The Cross Eyed Saga
By Joe Ingino
Editor/Publisher

“I live a dream in a nightmare world”
   
  I don’t know about you.  But I am sick and tired of being led by the crossed eyed thinking we are blind to their incompetence when it comes to COVID-19.
  I say this because it has become clear that politicians have no clue on what is at stake and or how to combat an invisible enemy.    An enemy released upon civilization by design to slowly kill each one of us.   This I believe in my opinion was not a mistake.   A mishap.  An accident.  I believe this was an intentional attack on humanity by the Chinese government.   A government that main business is to oppress it’s own people and manipulate free thought through misinformation.
  What better way to do this then to release a silent weapon that attacks the enemy when less expecting it and when not prepared.
   Case in point what happened across the world.   Politicians in general across the world all share one principle.   Greed.   The also share the fact that they are far from experts in any field other then the particular discipline they come from.   Not even the expert can be held to be a reliable source as they themselves are at awe when it comes to dealing with Covid.
Look at what has happened in Canada just recently.  In Ontario the numbers dropped to 800 and our politicians in their desperate attempt to gain votes order everything to re-open.  Only to be faced with a huge spike to up to 3,000/day.   Just this week Ontario government was  considering provincewide stay-at-home order, closing non-essential retail: that non-essential retail stores would be limited to curbside pickup. Big-box stores, meanwhile, would be restricted to essential aisles only.
  Does this sound to  you like a rational solution to the problem.  Obviously not.  All the government is doing is protecting big box stores.
  I say that if we look back at EXXON oil spill.  How the world was quick to act.   Here we have the worst infestation due to the negligence of a country and we do nothing.
  I have a suggestion for our government.   First, Acknowledge that the virus originated from China.   Acknowledge that the Chinese government is responsible and hold them accountable.   But, wait if they do they will impose sanctions on the Walmarts of the world and we would loose jobs and good coming from China...    I say to our government grow some balls.   Cut China off.   Hold them accountable and clean up this Covid mess once in for all.   If we are to follow science then lets do what we know in the combating of virus.   Let’s not politi-manage this cause it is not working and if anything even with the vaccine.  Getting worst.
I say.  Cut all imports from China.   Demand that they pay for their negligence to the tune of $10,000./per person across Canada.   Then, shut down the country for the next 6 months.  No one is allowed to do nothing.   Nothing stays open except grocery stores and pharmacies and essential services.   Everyone in over the age of 16 in  Canada would receive $10,000./month.   This would inject money into the economy.  It would put people mind at ease.   It would finally put an end to COVID.   As it stands people are afraid.  People are about to loose their businesses.  People do not feel safe/secure in their communities.   We need to take control of this at once.  We need to make China accountable.   China has no interest in the world finding a silver bullet when it comes to the vaccine solution... I even go as far as suspecting that the Chinese government is responsible for all the variants that technically may be released through the vaccines they produce.  Coincidence or fact.  The variants were found in Brazil.  A nation that utilized primarily vaccine made in China.   Same with the African strain.   Canada needs to be the leader in calling out the Chinese government and demand accountability.

It’s Dangerous to Ignore Vitamin K2

   It’s Dangerous to Ignore Vitamin K2
 W. Gifford-Jones, M.D. and Diana Gifford-Jones
          Some vitamins don’t get the attention they deserve. Ask anyone about vitamin K2 and few people can give an answer. In Vitamin K2: The Missing Nutrient for Heart and Bone Health, Dr. Dennis Goodman says ignoring vitamin K2 can be dangerous. So here are some important points to help you understand why K2 needs more attention.

          In 1929, Dr. Hendrik Dam, a Danish scientist, discovered vitamin K. Now we know there are two types of K: K1 and K2. Most people get sufficient amounts of K1 by eating leafy green vegetables, rich in this vitamin. If you’re cut, K1 plays a role in blood clotting.
K2 supports bone density. Bones, although solid structures, are not inert. Rather, they are constantly changing. Cells called osteoblasts build up bone, while other cells, osteoclasts, are breaking it down. Until around 30 years of age, osteoblasts win. But then osteoclasts take over in mid-life and we begin to lose one percent of bone mass each year.
          There is a good solution. Bone must be built up early in life to ensure that it does not become like Swiss cheese later on, a condition called osteoporosis. These bones can snap like a dry twig, resulting in broken hips, which may mean ending life in a wheelchair or death.

          Vitamin K2 serves the important role of helping direct calcium into bone where it belongs. A Japanese study showed that vitamin K2 decreases the risk of spinal fractures by 60 percent and hip fractures by 80 percent.
          A combination of calcium and K2 is like building up money in the bank early in life. Later on, there will be enough calcium for some of it to be withdrawn from bones without causing a fracture.

K2 also supports cardiovascular health. If you have been reading this column for years, you know the benefits of vitamin C in decreasing the risk of coronary attack. But vitamin K2 also plays a role in fighting cardiovascular disease.
          We all need calcium for strong bones. But too much calcium can be deposited into coronary and other arteries if there is a deficiency of vitamin K2. For instance, calcium can be deposited into the aorta, the largest artery in the body, that carries blood to all our organs. Calcium deposits in this location weaken the wall of the aorta increasing the risk of rupture and sudden death.  

A Dutch study of 4,600 men aged 53 and older showed that a high intake of vitamin K2 decreased the risk of aorta calcification by 52 percent. Another study reported that K2 decreased the risk of coronary attack by 41 percent. In a study of 16,057 women, those on high doses of vitamin K2 lived 9 percent longer.
K2 can help with other health problems too. K2 acts like a traffic cop. It helps direct calcium traffic into tooth enamel decreasing the risk of dental decay. Some researchers report that K2 increases insulin sensitivity making it more effective in the fight against Type 2 diabetes.
          There is no easy test to measure K2 levels. But if suffering from osteoporosis, heart disease or diabetes, you are most likely deficient in vitamin K2. Statin drugs to lower blood cholesterol inhibit K2 synthesis.
 
        People who are taking blood thinners should not take vitamin K as it decreases the effectiveness of these drugs.
          Vitamin K2 is an especially important partner to vitamin D, which controls the absorption of calcium. Various brands of K2, including in combination with D, are available, so check with a health food store and your doctor for guidance.

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Covid-19 pandemic and remembering the Battle of Vimy Ridge 104 years later.

    Covid-19 pandemic
 and remembering the
Battle of Vimy Ridge
104 years later.

by Maj (ret'd) CORNELIU E. CHISU, CD, PMSC,
FEC, CET, P. Eng.
Former Member of Parliament Pickering-Scarborough East
     As the world continues to wage war on Covid-19 mutants' invisible tyrants, Canadians are being encouraged to remember the efforts of soldiers during those four bloody days between April 9 and 12, 1917 in France.
Even with the Covid-19 pandemic ravaging our nation it is important to remember that more than a century ago this nation really got created by the effort of all Canadians demonstrating patriotism and a high level of civic responsibility. Today we are asked to demonstrate the same patriotism and civic responsibility against the new enemy.
A couple of months after the critical battle at Vimy, another enemy, the Spanish flu, decimated the world, which also had drastic repercussions in Canada. And now the Covid-19 pandemic is testing the world once again.  Today we are facing a similar situation which requires that all Canadians unite to care for each other. We must rely on our own civic responsibility and sense of duty to win this battle against the coronavirus enemy.   Let us now go back in history to the days of Easter in 1917, which defined the birth of a proud and compassionate nation.
As dawn broke on that morning at Vimy, close to a hundred thousand Canadians poured from trenches, dugouts and tunnels, surged up a slope and conquered an enemy position considered impregnable by its German defenders and, frankly, by Canada's allies.
This was the first time all four divisions of the Canadian Forces fought as a unified unit. They planned and rehearsed, planned again, and they stockpiled vast amounts of ammunition. On Easter Monday (April 9), they launched the battle, and because they were so well prepared, the artillery barrage was said to be so enormous, you could hear the distant thunder of it as far away as London, England, a distance of more than 250 kilometres.
It was a costly victory. 3,600 Canadians making the ultimate sacrifice, and approximately 7,000 being wounded on the 9th: the worst day's losses for Canada in the war. Many historians and writers consider the Canadian victory at Vimy a defining moment for Canada, when the country emerged from under the shadow of Britain and felt capable of greatness. Canadians had done a remarkable thing and, with French and English, First Nations and recent immigrants, they had done it together.
Vimy was followed by other Canadian victories, some of them even greater feats of arms. Sir Arthur Currie, Canadian Corps commander after Sir Julian Byng, the victor at Vimy, was promoted, boasted that he had won an even better victory at Lens when he persuaded his British commander-in-chief to let the Canadians capture Hill 70, forcing the Germans to counter-attack at enormous cost in German soldiers' lives.
Currie's arguments for smarter tactics carried weight chiefly because of Canadian success at Vimy. The Vimy experience provided a pattern for future successes. The Canadians had rehearsed tirelessly before the battle. They dug trenches and tunnels and piled tons of ammunition for the heavy guns that pulverized German trenches and wiped out most of the German artillery hidden behind Vimy Ridge.
The motto for Canadian success was "thorough". Nothing that could help soldiers succeed would be ignored. Digging trenches and tunnels and lugging artillery shells through miles of wet, muddy trenches was brutally exhausting work.
The Vimy victory shaped a Canadian way of making war. Other nations might celebrate flamboyant valour or dogged sacrifice; Canadians built on the conviction that only thorough preparation could spell success. At Hill 70, at Amiens, in crossing the Canal du Nord and even by capturing Passchendaele in October 1917, Canadians could take pride in their "ever-victorious" Canadian Corps.
Then came the Spanish flu.  Also known as the 1918 flu pandemic, it was an unusually deadly influenza pandemic. The virulent Spanish flu, a devastating and previously unknown form of influenza, struck Canada hard between 1918 and 1920. And after a century here we are again hit hard by the Covid-19 pandemic which started in 2020 and has already claimed many victims worldwide, 23,172 Canadian victims as of today, and continues to rage dangerously on its third wave.   The international Spanish flu pandemic killed approximately 55,000 people in Canada, most of whom were young adults between the ages of 20 and 40. These deaths compounded the impact of the more than 60,000 Canadians killed in service during the First World War (1914-18).
Inadequate quarantine measures, powerlessness against the illness, and a lack of coordinated efforts from health authorities led to insurmountable chaos. Countless nurses, volunteers, and members of charitable organizations risked their lives to ensure that a large number of the ill and their families survived. Sound familiar?
With no vaccine or effective treatment, this devastating pandemic affected every inhabited region in the world, including Canada. It came in multiple waves.
The first wave took place in the spring of 1918, then in the fall of 1918, a mutation of the influenza virus produced an extremely contagious, virulent, and deadly form of the disease. This second wave caused 90% of the deaths that occurred during the pandemic. Have we learned anything?   Subsequent waves took place in the spring of 1919 and the spring of 1920. The total number of deaths, estimated at between 50 and 100 million, claimed the lives of somewhere between 2.5 and 5% of the global population. Most of the victims were in the prime of their lives.  Can we learn something from history?
In Canada, the disease arrived at the port cities of Québec City, Montréal, and Halifax, then spread westward across the country. The intensification of the war effort in the final year of the war was instrumental in the transmission of the disease, as troops travelling from east to west by train, mobilized to participate in the war in Siberia, brought the virus westward with them.
Municipal and provincial authorities tried to save lives by prohibiting public gatherings and by isolating the sick, but these provisions had little effect. As the rates of infection grew, the number of healthy workers declined. Does this sound familiar?  Did lockdowns work then?  Why should they work better now?
Before long, the Canadian economy was paralyzed. Health care professionals were perhaps the hardest hit. Ultimately, it was volunteers, nurses, paramedics, and members of religious communities who, risking their own lives, visited those who were ill and their families to deliver modest health care and the supplies needed to survive.  Does anyone remember them today?
Criticized for failing to provide resources and coordination to public health authorities across the country, the federal government responded to the crisis by founding the Department of Health in 1919. Do you think, maybe the time has come to revamp our health protection system?
So it is time for reflection, learning from our own history and acting accordingly. Let's not forget!
Are our leaders leading or hiding? Lest we forget…

Even the darkest night will end and the sun will rise

Even the darkest night will end and the sun will rise
By Deidre Newman, Whitby Councillor, West Ward
 "Even the darkest night will end and the sun will rise." Victor Hugo
As the world battles the evolving global pandemic, people respond. Families seek refuge in their homes.   Business owners struggle to survive closed doors. Health Care workers serve without rest. Teachers, tested to the limit, rely on their adaptability Youth, without close embrace, become technologically savvy. Seniors, facing isolation, meet family through closed windows. Governments confront the pandemic with best efforts to provide the vaccine in an efficient, safe and equitable process to protect life and return hope.  We are in a unique time as we search within ourselves for compassion, resilience and strength to counterbalance the feelings of distress, anger and fear.  Through this experience, we embrace life as a sacred gift and reflect on our past to support life in the present and for the future.
The Past
"To restore light, the past unites the present reality with future dreams" My first memory at the age of 5 was placing an election sign for my father on the front lawn of a neighbour.   My father was elected as the Mayor of Whitby at 34.  For a decade, he served as Mayor and oversaw the amalgamation of the Town and Township of Whitby-Brooklin, the formation of Durham Region and service as President of the then Canadian Federation of Mayors and Municipalities.  Our family was immersed in the community and I was inspired by him.  I received a Bachelor of Science from the University of Toronto, a Law degree from Queen's University and a Certificate for French study from the University of Paris. As a young lawyer, I worked at a Toronto law firm, as a Policy Advisor with the Government of Ontario, Ministry of Natural Resource on Freedom of  Information and Privacy legislation and  as a Counsel for law students instructing on  legal skills at the University of Toronto Student Legal Aid Clinic. As an experienced lawyer, I have served vulnerable people, through my own law practice in Whitby, focusing on family law in all of its facets with the intersecting aspects of criminal law. As a volunteer, I have been a fitness instructor for many years at the Toronto YMCA and have run more than fifteen marathons including the Boston Marathon. In 2018, I entered public service as the elected West Whitby Councillor to serve people by seeking to achieve a balance between the Town's rich heritage past and a dynamically growing Town in the present and future.
The Present
"In the midst of darkness, light persists."  Mahatma Gandhi General Governance during a State of Emergency In March 2020, the Town of Whitby declared a State of Local Emergency following the States of Emergency declared at the Regional, Provincial and National level. On April 7, 2021, the Province of Ontario declared a third State of Emergency and a Stay-at -Home Order. Since March 2020, as a Whitby Councillor, I have participated, without interruption, on policy, planning, operational and capital decisions at Town Council meetings (conducted virtually), working with health care and government partners to protect the health, safety and essential service delivery to the community.
Health and Well-Being
"What hurts you, blesses you." Rumi During the pandemic, there have been opportunities to support the health and well-being of people in our community.
As a Whitby Councillor, I have acted:
- to support Health Care Workers at Lakeridge Health Whitby  by donating many masks at a time when masks were scarce and creating and delivering gift baskets with gifts  donated from local businesses;
- to celebrate Health Care Workers at Ontario Shores and Lakeridge Health Whitby by delivering art and flowers and participating in a vehicle parade to express thanks;
-to honour Health Care Workers in Long Term Care facilities in West Whitby including Amica Whitby, the Village of Taunton Mills, Lynde Creek Manor and VIVA-Whitby Shores by delivering Art and flowers to express thanks;
- to empower Youth as the Mayor's designate on Youth Council with the initiation of Whitby Youth Day and by mentoring and supporting Youth events including the delivery of gift boxes from the Town for student graduates;
- to support Seniors by responding to individual requests for support; and
- to encourage All to enjoy Art at The Station Gallery (virtually) and outdoor fitness by running along the Whitby waterfront.
Food Security
During the pandemic, there have been opportunities to provide food to families in need in our community.  As a Whitby Councillor, I have acted:
- to support Caremongers Whitby initiated by Niki Lundquist by volunteering and donating food for food drives, delivering hot meals to families, donating gift cards to youth, collecting foodbank donations from All Saints Catholic Students and volunteering for a bottle drive to raise money for continued kind deeds;
- to support the Salvation Army Whitby Food Bank, St. Andrew's Presbyterian Food Bank, Kendalwood Food Bank and St. Vincent de Paul Society by contributing food and monetary donations;
- to support Meals on Wheels organized by Community Care Durham by delivering hot meals;
- to support the Brock House Food Frenzy hosted by The Rotary Club of Whitby; and
- to support Feed the Need Durham by donating trays of soup for the Durham Crusader U13 hockey players' I Play for Soup initiative.
Business Recovery
During the pandemic, there have been opportunities to support businesses in our community. 
Whitby Council has endorsed Whitby's Economic Development Recovery Plan to the end of 2021 with a long-term Economic Development Strategy to follow. The Durham Region Economic Task Force has provided a collaborative approach to achieve the shared goal of economic recovery and access to information on business supports from all levels of government. 
As a Whitby Councillor, I have acted:
- to meet more than thirty small business owners in Whitby (following safety protocols) to present a Town of Whitby Business Kit and conduct a survey to understand the impact of the pandemic;
- to shop local; and - to respond to individual business owner inquiries as requested and provide support  through the Town's Economic Development Department.
Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
During the pandemic, there have been important opportunities to support diversity, equity and inclusion in our community. Focused work is required to enhance education, understanding and systemic change as our community grows.
As a Whitby Councillor, I have acted:
- to address justice issues as a member of the Regional Community Action Group on Anti-Black and Systemic Racism; - to participate in the Peaceful March for Justice; - to honour through remarks the Durham Community Action Group at their AGM; and - to speak on Justice and Anti-Black and Systemic Racism for the Whitby Diversity and Inclusion Advisory Committee.
"When you take the first step into the darkness, you must believe that there will be something solid for you to stand on or from which to fly and see the edge of light." Patrick Overton  Have faith dear World.  The sunlight will come.

The Art of Finding Work

 The Art of Finding Work
By Nick Kossovan
    Thank you, and welcomes, for reading my column The Art of
Finding Work, which I hope will become part of your job search journey.
COVID19 has had a significant impact on the job market. Millions of Canadians have been laid off, had their hours reduced and furloughed. Companies are reassessing if, when, and how they hire. Yes, there are fewer jobs out there, but there are still plenty of jobs-you just need to be strategic in your job search.
Here are my top 5 job search strategies.
1. Have clear goals.
Reflect on your personal and professional goals. Start by asking yourself:
-    What excites you?
-    What are your non-negotiable "must-haves" for your next position?
-    What are deal-breakers?
-    What's your minimum salary and benefits requirement?
-    Do you want to work for a start-up or a well-established company?
-What type of culture are you looking for? (Never underestimate the importance of "cultural fit".)
By reflecting on how you want your next job to look like, you'll not be throwing (metaphorically) spaghetti at the wall to see what sticks. You'll be focusing your time and energy on opportunities that are right for you.
2. Freshen up your resume and LinkedIn profile.
Surprisingly in 2021, your resume is still the first document hiring managers ask for.
Make sure your resume has a clean format with plenty of white space. Don't list every job you've ever had, just those that are recent and relevant.
Start your resume with a summary of your accomplishments and include any credentials, certifications, and relevant experiences. Highlight your achievements by numerically quantifying accomplishments (i.e., Successfully brought 75 new clients, surpassing the quarterly goal of 50.).
Keep in mind your resume is an organic document. When applying to openings, edit your resume to include phrases in the job description. Many employers use an Applicant Tracking System (ATS) to filter resumes. If the ATS doesn't pick up relevant language, your resume will not be selected.
Give this same attention as mentioned above to your LinkedIn profile, along with having a professional profile picture.
3. Write an enticing cover letter.
Your cover letter has one job: To get the reader to read your resume.
Customize your cover letter for each position you apply to, don't simply repeat your resume. As with your resume, paraphrase the language found in the job description to show you're a fit.
Use your cover letter to highlight your most relevant experiences. Don't focus on what you want, which is obviously a job. Focus on explaining (READ: selling) what value you'd bring to the employer.
4. Enlist Your Army.
It's common knowledge most jobs are never advertised-the job postings online are just a fraction of current job openings. Most positions, I've read as high as 70%, especially those of senior executive, are filled via professional and personal connections.
Often the word "networking" has a negative connotation-it shouldn't. Networking is simply connecting with people, the goal being for people to know you professionally and personally, and vice versa. I'm sure you heard the adage, it's not who you know, it's who knows you.
Right now, you have a network of people who can help you. Your family friends, neighbors, past colleagues and bosses, alumni, your barber, even your LinkedIn connections-anyone you touch base with regularly or have in the past, is a potential lead to a job opportunity. Start leveraging whatever current network you have while actively expanding your professional network.
Consider using a networking app, such as Invitly, LetsLunch, or Shapr. These apps will help you find professionals in your area who are open to meeting up for coffee or lunch.
5. Subscribe to job alerts.
There's no shortage of resources you can use to stay current with job openings. Indeed, Google for Jobs, Eluta, are just a few job boards you can receive job alerts from.
These sites curate from across the Internet job openings, which are then delivered to your inbox every day based on the criteria you specified. This saves you countless hours of not having to search job postings. In next week's column, I'll discuss what is never mentioned, which is good news for job seekers-there's no universal hiring methodology.

The Beginning Of The END

 

The Beginning Of The END
By Joe Ingino
Editor/Publisher

“I live a dream in a nightmare world”
   
   If we learn anything from our time spent on earth is that everything has a Beginning and an unfortunate end.   This pattern can be felt in just about every aspect of our perceived reality.   From our physical being.  At birth we begin a journey towards our unequivocal end.  To our many encounters.... Things start off really good and eventually all end up falling apart and or ending.   
   As a society the same can be seen.... things begin with a bang and normally end up fizzing out.
  Physiologically speaking.... our ends come due to a series of events.  From health conditions to all of a sudden accidents.    Normally we have some sort of indicator at hand not to mention age itself.
    We are upon a very special holiday.  Easter is celebrated by Christians as a joyous holiday because it represents the fulfillment of the prophecies of the Old Testament and the revelation of God's salvific plan for all of humankind. In commemorating the Resurrection of Jesus, Easter also celebrates the defeat of death and the hope of salvation.
Easter, also called Pascha (Aramaic, Greek, Latin) or Resurrection Sunday, is a Christian festival and holiday commemorating the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, described in the New Testament as having occurred on the third day after his burial following his crucifixion by the Romans at Calvary c. 30 AD.
The egg, an ancient symbol of new life, has been associated with pagan festivals celebrating spring. ... From a Christian perspective, Easter eggs are said to represent Jesus' emergence from the tomb and resurrection.
  The human mind in it’s quest to beat the odds and justify and end to a life have gone for thousands of years way beyond the call to rationalize something we all have to face and something that there is no real explanation for.
   Wit this said as you celebrate this great holiday.  Think about what the end to anything is.  Some argue that it is the Beginning of something else unknown.  Others believe it is just that the end.
Well if we look at world history.   Ancient civilizations have come and gone many times.   
  The fact that we celebrate holiday’s like easter... is a testament to our denial of the facts.    That the end is the end.   
   Look at what is happening globally.   The world has been infected in the worst way possible.  Scholars have warned us for decades on the fate of the human race.   They predicted it would come in the form of war, famine or disease.
Well, we have plenty of wars on the go...   Famine has been with us since the Beginning of time.
disease is the keeper.      
Not to sound hysterical and nor neurotic in my thinking... Previous civilizations have come and go due to the same.   Should we not be listening, observing and preparing.
They say that a vaccine is the magic bullet.  Yet the virus keeps mutating.   A vaccine that has significant impact on human DNA.
Everyone is quick at getting it.   The numbers keep surging.   Something is not working.   I hear the argument by many... well we as a civilization have been vaccinated before and it worked.
Yes, I agree.   The difference here is that the introduction of previous virus occurred some what natural.  In this case the origin and or purpose of deployment is unknown.  In my opinion we are dealing with one of the most sophisticated warfare ever introduced to the world.   As we spend this holiday eating chocolate eggs from and Easter bunny.   Think about what we are being injected with as Easter Bunnies do not lay chocolate eggs.

Canadian Covid-19 vaccines saga

   Canadian Covid-19

vaccines saga

by Maj (ret'd) CORNELIU E. CHISU, CD, PMSC,
FEC, CET, P. Eng.
Former Member of Parliament Pickering-Scarborough East
    As we continue to deal with the Covid-19 pandemic, the availability of vaccines and the vaccination of the population itself, we are seeing scientific confusion, contradictions from the responsible medical bodies at all levels of government, and disarray both in the supply of vaccines and their distribution.

Let's review the (mis)information that has been hurled at us. Dr. Theresa Tam said last week that Health Canada, the Public Health Agency of Canada and the National Advisory Committee on Immunization (NACI) work in "lockstep," after NACI announced last week it was advising a pause in the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine for those under the age of 55 due to the rare possibility of blood clots. At the same time, Germany was advising a pause in the use of the A-Z vaccine for those under the age of 60 due to the same rare possibility of blood clots. So what is the critical age 55 or 60?

Not long ago the same NACI recommended suspending the use of AstraZeneca for those over the age of 65 years and Ontario announced a starting date for vaccinating people aged 60 - 64 with it.   Weeks later, the NACI reversed its position, citing access to new information as their reason. What kind of mediaeval hocus pocus is this?  Modern science is supposed to be clear and reproducible.

So who is the National Advisory Committee on Immunization (NACI)? Though created in 1964, it was a low profile organization until recently.  Prior to the pandemic it met only three times a year to discuss vaccines for diseases such as influenza, mumps and measles.

According to Dr. David Naylor, co-chair of Canada's COVID-19 Immunity Task Force, "NACI's committees are made up of volunteers, many with heavy daily responsibilities during the pandemic."  If they are medical professionals, however, one would expect sound and reliable recommendations from them.  However, the NACI's recommendations on the spacing of vaccine doses, for example, are the longest in the world and have come under fire from scientists both at home and abroad.  Not very reassuring, is it?

Returning to the controversy over the Astra-Zeneca vaccine, Health Canada has stated that it is continuously monitoring the AstraZeneca situation and will be working with international manufacturers to require a "detailed assessment of the benefits and risks of the vaccine by age and sex in the Canadian context".  At this time their guidance on the use of AstraZeneca remains the same.  They still maintain that the benefits outweigh the risks and the vaccine itself has "not been associated in the overall risk of thrombosis."
Canada has already administered around 300,000 doses of the vaccine, with no reports of adverse side effects. Cases of blood clots in Europe have been reported mainly in younger women. Following the announcement of the NACI recommendation all provinces and territories have adjusted their own guidance.
Certainly for the average Canadian this change in recommendation will add to vaccine hesitancy, create confusion, and elicit a lot of questions and concerns. This, at a time when the only way out of lockdowns and hospitalizations is to achieve herd immunity as quickly as possible.

Let us now look at how our glorious and competent public health authorities, populated by science bureaucrats, have reacted during critical times in the pandemic.
COVID won't be Canada's problem please do not be racist; until they had to admit that we are officially in a pandemic.
There is no evidence of asymptomatic spread do not panic; asymptomatic spread is real.
Masks are not helpful at all; everybody wear masks please.
Canada will have adequate vaccines; dear friends of the world, please send us vaccines because we cannot manufacture our own.
Vaccine doses shouldn't be spaced more than three weeks apart; in Canada, vaccine doses can be spaced four months apart.
The AstraZeneca vaccine is not safe for seniors; the AstraZeneca vaccine shouldn't be given to people under 55. And so on…, what's next?…….politicians blindly hiding behind their heroic posturing following this voodoo dance, issuing orders that defy common sense.
Canada's Auditor General, Karen Hogan, in a well documented and scathing report, emphasized Canada's public health officials' shocking number of mistakes. The top of the list was the failure of our early warning system coupled with inaccurate risk assessments.
The tragic result was the needless deaths of thousands of seniors in long term care homes and congregate living centres.  These statistics have given Canada the worst record for COVID-19 deaths in long-term care homes among wealthy countries.
The most relevant example of the politicians hiding behind so called "health experts" is the federal government who has relied religiously on advice from them. The most famous face is that of Chief Public Health Officer Dr. Theresa Tam. Her most egregious advice change was declaring that, "Putting a mask on an asymptomatic person is not beneficial, obviously, if you're not infected." Two months passed before she took back those words.

However, the responsibility for these errors sits higher; with the federal, provincial and local governments. Federally the cabinet and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau himself failed to heed early warnings from other countries. He failed to put in border controls that could have slowed the import of the virus. When he finally instituted them it was already late, and they serve only as punitive measures, restricting the freedoms of Canadian citizens.
He failed to procure enough vaccines in time to prevent the third wave from taking hold, betting on a (now collapsed) partnership with Communist China.
Provincial and local politicians are also guilty of shifting leadership duties to others, then blaming them for their own lack of leadership in the pandemic.
After a year of personal, social and economic upheaval, Canadians are at a breaking point. They need confidence in their public officials, their elected representatives and the decisions these people make. They cannot afford more hocus-pocus. They need a responsible leadership, from the top on down.
The conclusion is, that despite claims to the contrary, we are being subjected to a flip-flop, medieval 'science' a.k.a. witchcraft, led by incompetent bureaucrats and certified by clueless politicians hiding behind them. In the meantime the people are suffering, the economy is destroyed, and slowly we are sinking into third world country territory.
This situation has to change. What do you think?

Buried Truths

 Direct Answers
from Wayne & Tamara

Buried Truths
Q My wife and I married in the early 1980s. I was her first. Sixteen months into our marriage, she took me to a party and made out with another man on the floor in front of me and our friends.    It was intentional. She later said she was trying to make me mad and get a reaction out of me. I saw it as a public emasculation. I grew up in an alcoholic household and was emotionally undeveloped as a result of my childhood. I was mad but I shut down.
     A year later she had an emotional affair. There was a public emasculation involved with that as well. We went into counseling and I thought we had resolved the issue. Several months later, she moved to another city to further her education. I stayed home and worked. When I went to visit eight months later, she told me she had been sleeping with three other men and they were “friendships that got out of hand.” That was another public emasculation. Hours before she told me about the affairs, she took me to a party. I shook hands and chatted with two of the men she had been sleeping with.  We went back into counseling where the goal of the counselor was to keep the marriage together. At the end, I was told it was my fault because I was “emotionally unavailable” to my wife. In my opinion, a lot of that “emotional unavailability” started when boyfriends started.
     We did counseling for months. I couldn’t accept what happened. Something snapped, I suppose. I “decided” to pretend that it never happened. I buried it.    My wife’s affairs stopped, but I soon started drinking and became a closet alcoholic for a decade. I sobered up 22 years ago. We were very successful in our careers. I retired two years ago. My head cleared from my extremely busy job, and a year ago I decided to go back in my mind and see if something needed to be addressed. I realized that for the last 30 years, I never thought about the affairs. I knew they happened but never thought about them. I found that odd.
   That’s when the panic attack started. Just like in your book Cheating in a Nutshell, disgust, anger, and trauma hit me like a brick. It’s as if I opened an old door and found everything I left back in the 80s. I brought it up to my wife. She said she wanted to talk about the affairs but I had always blown it off when it came up (which is true). We went into marriage counseling again, and I went into individual counseling.
     These feelings won’t leave me alone. I quickly realized that I should have divorced my wife 35 years ago. I told her this. I also learned more details about the last three affairs. They were worse than I thought.
Our conversations over the last year have deepened our relationship. We both realize now there had been a wall between us for 34 years, and it was my unconscious reaction to the affairs. Our sex life over the last year has also been better than ever. Still, a powerful voice in me demands retribution. It is furious. It is livid. It is disgusted. It demands divorce. I’m having trouble sleeping. I have mind movies. I get sudden flashes of other men’s hands on my wife’s body. It’s the same voice I killed in the 1980s.  The rest of me knows leaving now would be ridiculous, if for no other reason than it would wreck our retirement. She has been an excellent wife for three decades, and we are very close. But the battle in my mind remains. It is constant and sometimes I wonder which side will win. An old wound reopened and a realization that it never healed. I stayed with the source of my trauma. Phil
A Phil, let’s start at the beginning.  You weren’t too “emotionally unavailable” for your wife to marry, but you were so emotionally unavailable it excused her affairs and deliberate emasculations. To block those memories, you turned into a closet drinker, buried yourself in work, and she suddenly became faithful.  We don’t find that story plausible. How did that fix her excuse—your “emotional unavailability”? Even more, as a heavy drinker who buried himself in work, how could you know whether her affairs ended?  The counselor who wanted to “save the marriage” hurt you grievously. PTSD was officially recognized in 1980, and discussions of serious trauma were all over the popular press. Yet this individual was incapable of recognizing your trauma, right before his or her own eyes.  Your wife got herself a defense attorney and you were without representation. You were not a couple having tiffs over childcare responsibilities or the family budget. You were the victim of your wife’s affairs and public humiliations. This needed one session. “These two don’t belong married. She is repeatedly unfaithful.” Done. So instead of one session, the counselor got months and months of pay. Then, with botched counseling behind you, you found ways to mask the problem. When you retired, you did not “decide” to go back and reexamine what happened in the 1980s. Those memories disinterred themselves. In your heart you know, if you had divorced your wife 35 years ago, you could have had all those years with the woman who was the love of your life. That’s what your wife took from you. Why are things better than ever? Most probably she senses something from you, and she fears you will make her pay for her actions.
Your mind, your body, and your soul will continue to plague you because disgust, anger, and the traumatic response are baked into us as human beings. You can’t say you have a good marriage and say your soul is crying out for justice. You don’t get to ride the fence like that. A well-lived life cannot be lived straddling the fence. Fence-straddling neuters you. Wayne & Tamara  
write:  Directanswers@WayneAndTamara.com

Weightlifting, Not Just for a Medal

  

Weightlifting,
Not Just for a Medal
 W. Gifford-Jones, M.D. and Diana Gifford-Jones
When asked how they exercise, people often report jogging, bicycling or walking. But what about weightlifting? Authorities say that picking up weights is not about winning a medal. Rather, as we age, strength exercises can help circumvent medical problems. Take if from Arnold Schwarzenegger, who famously remarked, “The best activities for your health are pumping and humping.”
Let’s leave the humping part aside for now. When it comes to pumping weights, there are a lot of myths.  First, lifting dumbbells is not just for building muscles. In fact, it helps to fight one of the problems that can change your life in a split second.
Getting older is invariably fatal. But long before the final event, we begin to lose bone density, usually starting in our thirties.  By age 70, many people have lost 40 percent of their peak bone mass. This often sets the stage for a fractured hip in the event of a fall.
Osteoporosis (thinning of bones) make bones look like swiss cheese, and it can have tragic consequences. For instance, among the elderly who fall and break a hip, there is a high chance of imminent death. A large population-based study showed that one in three adults aged 50 and over died within 12 months of suffering a hip fracture.
Even when survived, hip fractures have a devastating impact on quality of life by reducing independence and increasing social isolation. Moves to assisted living are common.

No one will ever forget the telephone call that a parent has fallen and fractured a hip. And if they’re 75 years of age or over, in spite of all that can be done medically, the risk of dying within one year is 40 percent or higher.
Lifting weights decreases the risk of fractures by building up muscle strength, slowing bone loss, and helping with balance.
Muscle strength is an important factor for the elderly to maintain functional independence – the ability to carry out daily activities such as walking up a flight of stairs, going grocery shopping, and bathing without help. People who neglect basic core strength eventually find it hard to get up from a toilet seat. It comes as a terrible realization when individuals must acknowledge dependency on others to meet their daily needs.
Weightlifting slows bone loss, and some studies show that regular strength exercises can improve bone mass. How does it work? Exercises that involve use of strength – including weightlifting, but also walking, gardening and even dancing – place forces on your bones, stimulating your body do regular maintenance. Don’t forget the importance of good nutrition, including adequate calcium and vitamin D.
Strength training helps with managing or losing weight too, as it can increase metabolism to help burn more calories. Getting rid of excess fat should be high priority for those overweight, as it’s linked to chronic inflammation. Furthermore, obesity triggers type 2 diabetes, increasing the risk of blindness, kidney failure, leg amputation and heart attack.

Building muscle and stronger bones will also mean better balance since it works the systems that keep you stable, and that will reduce your risk of falls.
Strength training can have another benefit when exercises work the body’s core. Most people carrying extra weight aren’t thinking about the ineloquently named non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). But it affects 25 percent of the population worldwide. It’s fast becoming the number one reason for liver transplant.

NAFLD involves visceral fat, fat that accumulates around the liver and other abdominal organs, and is accompanied by inflammation. A serious problem, it can increase the risk of cirrhosis and cancer.

So, grab some weights and start pumping.
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The left and Tom Fitton!

 

The left and Tom Fitton!
Comrades When It Comes to Larry Klayman!
 by Larry Klayman
Ever since I founded Judicial Watch, Inc., on July 29, 1994 – that is almost 27 years ago – and began by holding the Bonnie and Clyde of American politics, Bill and Hillary Clinton to task – the left has been on a jihad to either severely damage me as an activist conservative lawyer through defamatory articles and other dirty tricks, or through phony bar complaints to try to eliminate me from the practice of law. Incredibly, Tom Fitton has collaborated with the left in this latter jihad in particular.
Filing two of these phony bar complaints has been Tom Fitton, an individual who I had hired as my assistant at Judicial Watch but who with poor judgment at the time I later promoted to president, with my retaining my titles as chairman and general counsel. Notwithstanding that Fitton is not a lawyer – indeed when he interviewed with me he falsely represented that he was a college graduate, which he was not at the time – ever since I left my baby to run for the U.S. Senate in Florida in 2003, feeling insecure he then tried to harm me and my family. These two bar complaints are just a small chapter in this long saga which is still winding its way through the courts and has been ongoing for two decades.

One of Fitton’s bar complaints was over my having stepped in to represent three persons who had been harmed when I left Judicial Watch to run for the U.S. Senate in Florida. The first, Louise Benson, an elderly woman now almost ninety years old, who is like my mother, had donated $15,000.00 and pledged another $35,000.00 to a donor fund to buy the building which housed Judicial Watch. Like the other donors who donated their hard earned monies for naming rights for offices and other honoraria – a common practice for non-profits – Louise expected to have one of our offices named in her honor. She wanted to buy the rights for my office, but as someone else, Adolph Schoepe, then the owner of Fluidmaster, had purchased it first, she purchased the rights for Fitton’s office. Despite this, after I left Fitton and Judicial Watch, despite our having raised over $1,400,000 from donors to buy the building and promising in exchange naming rights and other honoraria to donors such as Louise, Judicial Watch pocketed the monies and to this day, going on twenty years later, no building has been purchased. (A review of Judicial Watch’s 990 tax return for 2019 at www.judicialwatch.org reveals that it has assets of over $172 million dollars as of that date, and likely over $200 million by 2021). Sadly, since the average age of a Judicial Watch donor was and remains over 70 years old, many of the donors are no longer alive to see the benefit of their now misappropriated contributions.
The second person is Peter Paul, who came to Judicial Watch and me because he was in fear of the Clinton Justice Department indicting him for alleged securities and bank fraud. I write about Peter in my second book, “Whores: Why and How I Came to Fight the Establishment!,” describing how Peter put on a Hollywood Tribute for then President Bill Clinton to raise money for Hillary’s then campaign for the U.S. Senate in New York. But the money which was raised, nearly $2 million dollars, so called hard money contributions, was hugely over the limit under federal law and thus criminal in nature, and the Clintons never reported it honestly in any event. Peter, having the hard proof that the Clintons has committed crimes and agreeing to come forward if we would defend him in this own criminal proceedings, Judicial Watch and I thus entered into a legal representation agreement to defend him if he would cooperate in our legal actions against the Clintons to finally, we hoped, have them held to account under the rule of law. However, when I left Judicial Watch to run for the U.S. Senate, Fitton, the non-lawyer and his “yes men,” Paul Orfanedes and Chris Farrell on the Board of Directors, who he had somehow coopted, abandoned Peter and he wound up doing ten years in prison largely as a result.
The third person is Sandra Cobas, who is like my sister and who managed the Judicial Watch Southern Regional Office in Miami, my then home city in Florida. Wanting to force out all of the regional office managers who I had hired when I left Judicial Watch to run for the U.S. Senate, Fitton put up a person who aspired to take over from Sandy, Elaine Rodriguez, to defame and harass Cobas, by calling her in front of other office personnel a drug addict and fat old Cuban bitch, among other ethnic and gender slurs. When I tried to resolve matters for Sandy as I was leaving, Fitton, Orfanedes and Farrell gave her the “back of their hands” and she was forced out. Sandy later became my chief of staff when I ran for the U.S. Senate in 2003-2004.
Needless to say, litigation resulted for all three persons, Louise, Peter and Sandy, through another legal counsel. But when they could no longer afford to pay this law firm, I felt duty bound to step in to try to help the pro bono, that is without charging them for my time and expense. For this, claiming that I had a conflict of interest in doing so, Fitton filed a bar complaint against me, which is now over thirteen years old. And, although it sat in the files of the District of Columbia Bar Disciplinary Counsel for many years, during a period when I was not as active as a conservative public interest advocate, it was not coincidentally cynically resurrected when I later formed Freedom Watch and held then President Barack Obama to account under the rule of law, as I had with the Clintons.

In short, the rabidly leftist DC Bar Disciplinary Counsel, which is not only now hard at their nefarious work entertaining bar complaints by a communist law professor Michael Tigar, as well as fellow leftists including former DC Bar presidents, trying to also disbar former Trump White House Counselor Kellyanne Conway, former Trump Attorney General Bill Barr, Republican Senators Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley and of course former Republican and Trump lawyer Rudy Guiliani, was happy to oblige the jealous and insecure Fitton and they became “comrades in arms” against me. To make matters more egregious, during the course of this thirteen year old bar proceeding, Fitton secretly gave DC Bar Disciplinary Counsel records from my former divorce and custody proceeding – which he took from court files – concerning my previous estranged wife, which contained proven false accusations of child sexual abuse – all to try to prejudice and harm me. This had absolutely nothing to do with Fitton’s conflict of interest allegations, but was simply hateful and vindictive.
As a result, despite the ethics opinion of the leading legal ethics expert, Professor Ronald Rotunda (SEE AND READ IT EMBEDDED BELOW), which found that I did not commit any ethics infractions and which was given to DC disciplinary authorities and later the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, I was suspended for three months from the practice of law in the capital of corruption, commonly known as the swamp. In this regard I am seeking reconsideration of a recent order of a Clinton appointed, very leftist and hostile judge on the D.C. Circuit, who recommended an additional three months before his court, in contravention of what other courts ruled in terms of reciprocal discipline, which I had already served.
And, if that is not enough of the damage that Fitton has done, he had also filed another bar complaint against me over my representation of Cliven Bundy before another hostile judge, Obama appointed Gloria Navarro, in a case which we ultimately won. A hearing committee, after the initial trial, could find no violation of professional ethics rules, but that did not stop Fitton from trying to have me disbarred – even with a matter that did not involve him and Judicial Watch.
The atmosphere these days in the nation’s capital is toxic and deadly, as the left now controls all three branches of our so-called government, the District of Columbia Bar as well as the courts – a left that has in nine short weeks under Biden and Harris moved the country to not just socialism but also to the brink of communism. The leftist DC Bar disciplinary apparatus is bent on destroying opposition from conservative activist lawyers and Trump backers like me, and apparently non-lawyer Fitton is happy to oblige when it comes to his feigned and feared competitor Larry Klayman – as he apparently wants to try to reduce me to his non-lawyer status, as well as harm my family and me in other ways.
And, of course, leftist fake news media is happy to jump on the bandwagon by writing defamatory articles about these phony bar proceedings. For this, the authors and their publications are being sued, as I will not turn the other cheek to their rank dishonesty. So too have leftist officials of the DC Bar Disciplinary apparatus.
Well, I have got news for Fitton and his leftist friends! Larry Klayman does not roll over! To confirm this read “It Takes a Revolution: Forget the Scandal Industry!,” which can be ordered online at BarnesandNoble.com and all major booksellers as well as www.freedomwatchua.org.

FROM 830 TO 2100

 

FROM 830 TO 2100
By Joe Ingino
Editor/Publisher

“I live a dream in a nightmare world”
   
   Please, please, please someone explain it to me.   How can we go from 830 cases on a semi controlled lockdown to 2,100 cases in just two weeks.  While at it please also explain how our gas prices went from eigthy cents to a dollar thirty in four months.... Ok just teasing about he gas thang.... After all the United States voted in a senile careered ‘YES MAN’.   Making the United States the laughing talk of the world.   The Chinese have never been happy.  The Saudis back rolling in their oil... and here in Canada we go from 830 cases to  2,100 covid cases in Ontario.
  Could draining the swamp mentality have anything to do with it?
Governments of the world have stopped being about the average citizen.  Government of the world have become that of protecting national integrity and  doing what is best for those with power and money.
  How can we expect someone like Ford know anything about the transmission of a virus.   Business and or hardship.   How are we to expect him to guide us when he is counting on numerous others to tell him what is the best course of action.  No real plan.  Just a bunch of trial and error.
One thing for sure is that this is far from the end.   The vaccines are not the silver bullet if anything they may turn out the end of civilization.
You know things are going to get bad when the government hands out money to it’s citizens.  When grants are allocated for just about every sector of the the economy.
A recent news report read:  Province adjusting public health and workplace safety measures for select activities
TORONTO — Based on the advice of the Chief Medical Officer of Health, the Ontario government is moving two public health regions to new levels in the COVID-19 Response Framework: Keeping Ontario Safe and Open, including moving the City of Hamilton public health region to the Grey-Lockdown level. Decisions were made in consultation with the local medical officers of health and are based on the trends in public health indicators and local context and conditions.
"Over the last week, we have continued to see some concerning trends in key health indicators in regions across the province," said Christine Elliott, Deputy Premier and Minister of Health. "As we cautiously make targeted adjustments to public health measures to support the well being of individuals and small business owners, it is critical that everyone remains vigilant and continues to strictly follow all public health measures and advice to keep each other safe."
Christine Elliott, the wife of former Jim Flaherty.    What does this person know about health?
Viral transmission and the monitoring of patterns.  Could this explain the surge.  Elliott’s only attribute to politics was that of sharing the same bed as Flaherty.  Now all of a sudden we the people must turn to her for advice on something she has no expertise in....  Is something wrong with this picture?
Could it be that we are riding on the advice of a bunch of self proclaimed experts that rely primarily on hit and miss protocol, while people die.   I am no expert.  I know a lot about everything and an expert on nothing.   But I can tell you that if I was in charge.  I shut down everything.  I mean everything but grocery stores for six month.   Let the virus play out.   Then slowly open up.  As it stands as soon as we see a small drop. We are ordered to open only to be faced with reality that we are a bunch of incompetents playing Russian roulette with people health

The weather-vane leader of a rudderless party

 The we

ather-vane  leader of a rudderless party

by Maj (ret'd) CORNELIU E. CHISU, CD, PMSC,
FEC, CET, P. Eng.
Former Member of Parliament Pickering-Scarborough East
     I followed the Conservative Party Convention of last week with attention. I have participated in a few of them in the past, but not this one. As I am no longer a member of the Conservative Party, I just followed the developments with a good understanding of what goes on behind the scenes.
Unfortunately, today's Conservative Party is rudderless and leaderless.  Today's Conservative Party is not like it was in the time of Stephen Harper, who showed competence and leadership in leading the Conservative Party to form the government.
Instead of adding to, and making improve ments in the conservative principles that guide the party, there is a definite movement to dilute them and even ignore them in an attempt to move the party towards the uncharted waters of the center.  Following the misguided example of the last, short-lived Conservative Party leader, the current leader is so anxious to become Prime Minister that he is pursuing a "promise them anything" strategy.  He preaches liberal policies in the belief that he will get liberal votes doing that, while totally ignoring the conservative base.  Has he never heard that a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush?
In his ambition to get the top job, he is evidently suffering from an inferiority complex, having sidelined any potential contenders for his leadership and eliminating most of his opponents from the leadership contest.  He promotes only those with no voice in parliament yet, who pose no apparent danger to his leadership.

As it is now well documented, the platform he used in his leadership run has been overturned.  Currently he is promoting essentially liberal ideas wrapped in conservative packaging. He also shows interesting character traits by openly opposing party members who challenge his ideas, brushing them aside, displaying an unpleasant penchant for ignoring democracy.
O'Toole certainly has changed his tune since he ran for the Conservative leadership last year. There was nothing in his speech to the delegates of the Conservative Party Convention about "cancel culture" or the "radical left."  Neither did he offer any tips for winning debates with the "woke left," as he did last fall just months after winning the leadership.  Is the big blue tent fading to grey, or is the color being muddied by shades of red and yellow?
In his prepared remarks at the Convention, he said he wanted to defeat the "lie" that the Conservative Party is a party of "climate change deniers."  However, in a subsequent question-and-answer session with party members, O'Toole declared that the "debate" over climate change is over.
What changed between those two pronouncements, you ask?  Conservative Party delegates rejected a resolution that would have declared that "climate change is real" and "the Conservative party is willing to act" - while committing the party to targeting high emitters and supporting innovation.
This shows that the Conservative Leader was ill-prepared to listen to the members of his Party and did not put forward any ideas to mitigate the issue of the trumpeted climate change.
After telling Conservatives that they need to find the "courage" to pursue "bold" changes, O'Toole said next to nothing about what that might look like.
For now, he seems more interested in saying that the Conservative Party has changed than in actually looking to renew and strengthen the Conservative Party.
After some motherhood statements to members he did not offer a single solution, or even hinted at one. Example:
"We need to reach out …. We can't wage another election just hoping that people come out to our point of view on certain issues"
"I want us to have a serious, comprehensive approach on climate change that is not the tax approach of Trudeau … but a plan that gets emissions down while we champion job growth across the country"
"We need to be more welcoming to people who haven't voted for us before. Like I said, union members who maybe thought we had squabbles in the past we're reaching out"
Interestingly O'Toole singled out private sector union workers and organized labour as audiences he wants to target.  However, he neglected to say what he wanted the party to offer those voters.
O'Toole also said that the wealthiest Canadians should "pay their fair share."  So why didn't he use his speech to call for a new approach to taxation?
Beyond O'Toole's assertion that what the Liberals have in mind is alarming and potentially divisive, no Conservative counter-offer has been put forward.
It is now clear from his actions (we don't need to wonder anymore) that he is trying to push the Conservative Party to become a Liberal Light Party.
He has demonstrated that he is not capable of embracing new ideas.  For example, he could have championed Nuclear Energy as a less polluting form of energy.  This could have been a win-win move for him, had he had the courage to pursue it, as there is a nuclear power plant in his own riding.
Instead of embracing new ideas such as the recycling of the spent nuclear fuel, which would create a lot of high paying jobs, be helpful for the environment and propel Canadian nuclear science to new heights, he is hiding behind some foggy ideas in challenging the Liberals and claiming he has a plan that no one has seen.
In his weather-vane leadership of the Conservative Party, swiveling as the wind blows, he has completely forgotten the importance of family values. I am not talking about the social conservatives' idea of challenging abortion, but looking for new innovative ideas which would critically lower abortion rates and dramatically curtail divorces and family breakdowns.
Let's consider a few ideas in this area:  how about offering graduated tax relief to families with more than two children, giving families with four children or more income tax exemption for life?
Another idea would be to support working women in real, practical ways, giving young mothers the opportunity to work remotely where possible, and encouraging job providers to promote women's careers by taking into consideration that they are the major players in providing life and care for children.

As there are many other valuable ideas to be addressed to Canadians without wandering into Liberal and NDP areas, we would expect responsible and able leadership to be guided by a long term view of the public interest, not short sighted, self-serving personal interests.
Indeed, the time has come for serious soul searching in the Conservative Party, if it does not want to fold in the near future.

In an election soon to come, Canadians need to have a real choice; options other than the 'Coke or Pepsi' offered by the two established parties.
What do you think?