Monday, December 26, 2022

Big Tech Is Eliminating Human and Civil Rights by Proxy: Security Expert

Big Tech firms have become instruments to suppress human and civil rights worldwide, says cybersecurity expert Rex Lee.

“They now become arms of the government [agencies], no different than an informant who is informing on people to a secret police force,” Lee, a security adviser at My Smart Privacy, told “China in Focus” on NTD News, the sister media outlet of The Epoch Times.

Rex Lee
Rex Lee (Courtesy of Rex Lee)

He cited Apple’s alleged obstruction of content sharing by Chinese citizens ahead of the massive protests against Beijing’s harsh zero-COVID policies.

The policy of disabling Apple’s AirDrop app on iPhones in China blunted protestors’ ability to coordinate and share time-sensitive information with one another about their locations and activities, as well as those of security forces rounding up protesters.

“Apple is now exposing these consumers who want to exercise their human rights such as protesting, and they’re colluding with the Chinese government and or the Chinese Communist Party,” Lee said.

“So now you have Apple acting as an arm of the Chinese Communist Party, again, informing their customers to a secret police force,” he added.

Information Suppression on American Soil

Lee believes Big Tech is acting as an arm of the government in the United States as well.

He pointed to the “Twitter files”—documented exchanges between Twitter and government agencies including the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), discussing the censorship of certain information and persons. The correspondence release was authorized by new Twitter owner Elon Musk.

“The customer is now being oppressed by the very company that they’re doing business with, who they’re making profits for, by colluding with government agencies, such as the FBI, in order to actually suppress the end users, human rights, and or civil rights, such as free speech, the ability to act, the right to a free press,” he said.

Lee singled out the Twitter Files, made public on Dec. 19, which included an email indicating that the FBI paid Twitter nearly $3.5 million in taxpayer cash.

“It’s misuse or misappropriation of taxpayer funds, when the FBI, who should be concentrating on terrorists, are now putting their focus on U.S. citizens through a biased lens based on the citizens’ political ideology, not that the citizen is doing anything wrong,” he said.

In response, the FBI claimed that the correspondence between the agency and Twitter “shows nothing more than examples of our traditional, longstanding and ongoing federal government and private sector engagements, which involve numerous companies over multiple sectors and industries.”

“As evidenced in the correspondence, the FBI provides critical information to the private sector in an effort to allow them to protect themselves and their customers. The men and women of the FBI work every day to protect the American public. It is unfortunate that conspiracy theorists and others are feeding the American public misinformation with the sole purpose of attempting to discredit the agency,” the agency told the Epoch Times in an email.

Loyal Customers Pay the Price

“What’s missing from all of these stories is the scenario that the customer is the one who’s being exploited for profits as well as oppressed … so it’s the paying customer that’s being oppressed here by the very companies that the customer is patronizing with their loyalty, trust, and hard-earned money,” he added.

Lee opined that Twitter should repay the money, because “that’s our money coming out of our taxes, as well as the administrative costs for the suppression.”

In his opinion, the service’s customers—in this case, social media users—should be protected by existing law.

“There are laws in place, there are consumer protection laws and privacy laws that aren’t being enforced by the FTC [Federal Trade Commission], as well as state agencies and consumer protection agencies that are regulated by the state agencies,” he noted.

‘Crossing the Line’ to Being an Arm of the Government

“So at this point, you have to look at these … companies, and any other companies that are colluding with the government, and ask yourself, when did these companies cross the line from being a consumer product manufacturer of goods and services to being an arm of any government, whether it’s a tyrannical government or the government of the United States?” he said.

“We’re seeing our human rights eliminated here by proxy. We actually see it today. People used to talk about this in theory and didn’t know it was really happening,” Lee said.

The Epoch Times has reached out to Apple and Twitter for comment.

https://www.theepochtimes.com/big-tech-is-eliminating-human-and-civil-rights-by-proxy-security-expert_4940278.html?utm_medium=email&utm_source=MB_article_paid&utm_campaign=mb-2022-12-26-ca&utm_content=2

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Sunday, December 25, 2022

The Real Meaning of Christmas

Don’t you love Christmas? I do, and I am especially looking forward to it this year.

My anticipation is partly due to the two years or more of COVID restrictions and lockdowns. We’ve also been inundated with reports of climate change. This past summer we were terrified by a bout of hot weather, and the word “drought” kept appearing, along with “climate change.” Since then, we have had downpours. Now, we hear the words “floods” and, of course, “climate change.” Along with the peril of being swept away, what we are hearing about now is the terror of Avian flu!

So, Christmas, then, might just prove to be that wonderful respite, relief, and restoration that most of us crave. Christmas offers us time to be at home, time to be with family, time to relax. Well, let’s hope so; let’s hope that is the case for most people.

The Nicene Creed

Perhaps I should stop idealizing Christmas; hasn’t it always been fundamentally flawed: spoiled, commercialized, its true values destroyed? What is Christmas really about? What is its point? Why do people long for it. In short, what is the real meaning of Christmas?

Doubtless, we will all have our own ideas, but for me Christmas can be expressed in five simple words extracted from the Nicene Creed.

Nicene Creed
Christmas can be expressed in five simple words extracted from the Nicene Creed: “He came down from heaven.” This is an icon depicting the Nicene Creed of 325. (Public Domain)

Creeds often tend to be divisive, but I think in this instance we have plenty of scope to interpret these how we want, whether literally, mythologically, symbolically, or as you will.

The five simple words are: “He came down from heaven.” The key word in the sentence is the middle one: “down.” “He came down … .” Christmas is about “coming down.” That is the direction that God enters our lives.

Human beings, by way of contrast, want to go “up: to ascend, to have more, to grow further. But God comes down. Humans have enthroned themselves in the heaven of their own egos, exalted their own self-importance, and drawn immense satisfaction from promoting the works of their own hands.

By contrast, God comes down, and that is what we must recall. For this is what Christmas allows us to do: to be our true selves, to forget our false self-image and projections, particularly those we wear at work. Instead, we can lay all that aside and be true (or truer) to ourselves by doing little, by being with loved ones, and by being grateful. Indeed, by relaxing.

Our True State

I remember when I nearly died of cancer over a decade ago now. Before it, I had been a strong, self-confident individual who could seemingly do anything I wanted to, or had set my heart on achieving; I scarcely felt a sense of limitation.

But as I’d lain there in the hospital bed, getting weaker and weaker, my ego drained away and I began to see—to use a Biblical phrase—that my “own right arm could not save me.” I was helpless.

If I was going to survive and to live, some other power would have to rescue me. And being in that state is just like being a baby—helpless, dependent—and that is what Christmas on an annual basis reminds us of. In terms of the cosmos, of fate and destiny, we are all babes, subject to a greater and superior power.

As I left the hospital, it was so easy to forget how real my vulnerability was when I was nearly dead, and to allow those old habits of self-importance to return.

So, whatever our faith (for all faiths have a God or Tao who finds us where we are), Christmas reminds us that God comes down, partly because that is how God meets us, and partly because with God there is no false self-image that God has or needs to vaunt or exult Himself. God is reality, and we crave reality: to be who we really are without all the pretence.

Why do people love their pets? Because their pets are always authentic, and so are their affections. When your cat wants to be stroked, there’s no pretense. Why do we love babies? We call it their innocence, but it’s a similar thing to having pets: When a baby smiles at you, it’s authentic. There is no pretense.

Christmas is that moment toward the end of the year that we get to see the real baby: the no-ego baby, the baby open to all experience, the baby available to everyone (mom, dad, stable animals, shepherds, wise men, and all), and the baby who is utterly vulnerable: the baby who is a gift. Wow!

Nativity
God came down from heaven in the form of a baby. “Adoration of the Shepherds,” 1485, by Domenico Ghirlandaio, 1485. (Public Domain)

We don’t need to be a Christian to realize that this is something special; an atheist, too, can appreciate that this is an extraordinary story that warms the heart.

Let’s all come down from our highfalutin’ ego-mountains and return to our child-like selves: that is, like the baby. If we could do this all the time, how much better would this world be?

Perhaps just trying it at Christmas is enough. Let’s do it then at this time year, at least.

May the real meaning of Christmas come alive in your hearts and minds as you reflect on that brilliant line from the Nicene Creed: “He came down from heaven.” Down is the Way.

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Friday, December 23, 2022

Yes, Jesus Was Really Born on December 25: Here’s a Defense of the Traditional Date for Christmas...


by Dr Taylor Marshall

The Catholic Church, from at least the second century, has claimed that Christ was born on December 25. However, it is commonly alleged that our Lord Jesus Christ was not born on December 25. For the sake of simplicity, let us set out the usual objections to the date of December 25 and counter each of them.

Objection 1: December 25 was chosen in order to replace the pagan Roman festival of Saturnalia. Saturnalia was a popular winter festival and so the Catholic Church prudently substituted Christmas in its place.

Reply to Objection 1: Saturnalia commemorated the winter solstice. Yet the winter solstice falls on December 22. It is true that Saturnalia celebrations began as early as December 17 and extended till December 23. Still, the dates don’t match up.

Objection 2: December 25 was chosen to replace the pagan Roman holiday Natalis Solis Invicti which means “Birthday of the Unconquered Sun.”

Reply to Objection 2: Let us examine first the cult of the Unconquered Sun. The Emperor Aurelian introduced the cult of the Sol Invictus or Unconquered Sunto Rome in A.D. 274. Aurelian found political traction with this cult, because his own name Aurelianderives from the Latin word aurora denoting “sunrise.” Coins reveal that Emperor Aurelian called himself the Pontifex Solis or Pontiff of the Sun. Thus, Aurelian simply accommodated a generic solar cult and identified his name with it at the end of the third century.

Most importantly, there is no historical record for a celebration Natalis Sol Invictus on December 25 prior to A.D. 354. Within an illuminated manuscript for the year A.D. 354, there is an entry for December 25 reading “N INVICTI CM XXX.”  Here N means “nativity.” INVICTI means “of the Unconquered.” CM signifies “circenses missus” or “games ordered.” The Roman numeral XXX equals thirty. Thus, the inscription means that thirty games were order for the nativity of the Unconquered for December 25th. Note that the word “sun” is not present. Moreover, the very same codex also lists “natus Christus in Betleem Iudeae” for the day of December 25. The phrase is translated as “birth of Christ in Bethlehem of Judea.”[i]

The date of December 25th only became the “Birthday of the Unconquered Sun” under the Emperor Julian the Apostate. Julian the Apostate had been a Christian but who had apostatized and returned to Roman paganism. History reveals that it was the hateful former Christian Emperor that erected a pagan holiday on December 25. Think about that for a moment. What was he trying to replace?

These historical facts reveal that the Unconquered Sun was not likely a popular deity in the Roman Empire. The Roman people did not need to be weaned off of a so-called ancient holiday. Moreover, the tradition of a December 25th celebration does not find a place on the Roman calendar until after the Christianization of Rome. The “Birthday of the Unconquered Sun” holiday was scarcely traditional and hardly popular. Saturnalia (mentioned above) was much more popular, traditional, and fun. It seems, rather, that Julian the Apostate had attempted to introduce a pagan holiday in order to replace the Christian one!

Objection 3: Christ could not have been born in December since Saint Luke describes shepherds herding in the neighboring fields of Bethlehem. Shepherds do not herd during the winter. Thus, Christ was not born in winter.

Reply to Objection 3: Recall that Palestine is not England, Russia, or Alaska. Bethlehem is situated at the latitude of 31.7. My city of Dallas, Texas has the latitude of 32.8, and it’s still rather comfortable outside in December. As the great Cornelius a Lapide remarks during his lifetime, one could still see shepherds and sheep in the fields of Italy during late December, and Italy is at higher latitude than Bethlehem.

Now we move on to establishing the birthday of Christ from Sacred Scripture in two steps. The first step is to use Scripture to determine the birthday of Saint John the Baptist. The next step is using Saint John the Baptist’s birthday as the key for finding Christ’s birthday. We can discover that Christ was born in late December by observing first the time of year in which Saint Luke describes Saint Zacharias in the temple. This provides us with the approximate conception date of Saint John the Baptist. From there we can follow the chronology that Saint Luke gives, and that lands us at the end of December.

Saint Luke reports that Zacharias served in the “course of Abias” (Lk 1:5) which Scripture records as the eighth course among the twenty-four priestly courses (Neh 12:17). Each shift of priests served one week in the temple for two times each year. The course of Abias served during the eighth week and the thirty-second week in the annual cycle.[ii]However, when did the cycle of courses begin?

Josef Heinrich Friedlieb has convincingly established that the first priestly course of Jojarib was on duty during the destruction of Jerusalem on the ninth day of the Jewish month of Av.[iii]Thus the priestly course of Jojarib was on duty during the second week of Av. Consequently, the priestly course of Abias (the course of Saint Zacharias) was undoubtedly serving during the second week of the Jewish month of Tishri—the very week of the Day of Atonement on the tenth day of Tishri. In our calendar, the Day of Atonement would land anywhere from September 22 to October 8.

Zacharias and Elizabeth conceived John the Baptist immediately after Zacharias served his course. This entails that Saint John the Baptist would have been conceived somewhere around the end of September, placing John’s birth at the end of June, confirming the Catholic Church’s celebration of the Nativity of Saint John the Baptist on June 24.

The second-century Protoevangelium of Saint James also confirms a late September conception of the Baptist since the work depicts Saint Zacharias as High Priest and as entering the Holy of Holies—not merely the holy place with the altar of incense. This is a factual mistake because Zacharias was not the high priest, but one of the chief priests.[iv]Still, the Protoevangelium regards Zacharias as a high priest and this associates him with the Day of Atonement, which lands on the tenth day of the Hebrew month of Tishri (roughly the end of our September). Immediately after this entry into the temple and message of the Archangel Gabriel, Zacharias and Elizabeth conceive John the Baptist. Allowing for forty weeks of gestation, this places the birth of John the Baptist at the end of June—once again confirming the Catholic date for the Nativity of Saint John the Baptist on June 24.

The rest of the dating is rather simple. We read that just after the Immaculate Virgin Mary conceived Christ, she went to visit her cousin Elizabeth who was six months pregnant with John the Baptist. This means that John the Baptist was six months older that our Lord Jesus Christ (Lk 1:24-27, 36). If you add six months to June 24 you get December 24-25 as the birthday of Christ. Then, if you subtract nine months from December 25 you get that the Annunciation was March 25. All the dates match up perfectly. So then, if John the Baptist was conceived shortly after the Jewish Day of the Atonement, then the traditional Catholic dates are essentially correct. The birth of Christ would be about or on December 25.

Sacred Tradition also confirms December 25 as the birthday of the Son of God. The source of this ancient tradition is the Blessed Virgin Mary herself. Ask any mother about the birth of her children. She will not only give you the date of the birth, but she will be able to rattle off the time, the location, the weather, the weight of the baby, the length of the baby, and a number of other details. I’m the father of six blessed children, and while I sometimes forget these details—mea maxima culpa—my wife never does. You see, mothers never forget the details surrounding the births of their babies.

Now ask yourself: Would the Blessed Virgin Mary ever forget the birth of her Son Jesus Christ who was conceived without human seed, proclaimed by angels, born in a miraculous way, and visited by Magi? She knew from the moment of His incarnation in her stainless womb that He was the Son of God and Messiah. Would she ever forget that day?[v]

Next, ask yourself: Would the Apostles be interested in hearing Mary tell the story? Of course they would. Do you think the holy Apostle who wrote, “And the Word was made flesh,” was not interested in the minute details of His birth? Even when I walk around with our seven-month-old son, people always ask “How old is he?” or “When was he born?” Don’t you think people asked this question of Mary?

So the exact birth date (December 25) and the time (midnight) would have been known in the first century. Moreover, the Apostles would have asked about it and would have, no doubt, commemorated the blessed event that both Saint Matthew and Saint Luke chronicle for us. In summary, it is completely reasonable to state that the early Christians both knew and commemorated the birth of Christ. Their source would have been His Immaculate Mother.

Further testimony reveals that the Church Fathers claimed December 25 as the Birthday of Christ prior to the conversion of Constantine and the Roman Empire. The earliest record of this is that Pope Saint Telesphorus (reigned A.D. 126-137) instituted the tradition of Midnight Mass on Christmas Eve. Although the Liber Pontificalis does not give us the date of Christmas, it assumes that the Pope was already celebrating Christmas and that a Mass at midnight was added. During this time, we also read the following words of Theophilus (A.D. 115-181), Catholic bishop of Caesarea in Palestine: “We ought to celebrate the birthday of Our Lord on what day soever the 25th of December shall happen.”[vi]

Shortly thereafter in the second century, Saint Hippolytus (A.D. 170-240) wrote in passing that the birth of Christ occurred on December 25:

The First Advent of our Lord in the flesh occurred when He was born in Bethlehem, was December 25th, a Wednesday, while Augustus was in his forty-second year, which is five thousand and five hundred years from Adam. He suffered in the thirty-third year, March 25th, Friday, the eighteenth year of Tiberius Caesar, while Rufus and Roubellion were Consuls.[vii]

Also note in the quote above the special significance of March 25, which marks the death of Christ (March 25 was assumed to corresponded to the Hebrew month Nisan 14 – the traditional date of crucifixion).[viii] Christ, as the perfect man, was believed to have been conceived and died on the same day—March 25. In his Chronicon, Saint Hippolytus states that the earth was created on March 25, 5500 B.C.  Thus, March 25 was identified by the Church Fathers as the Creation date of the universe, as the date of the Annunciation and Incarnation of Christ, and also as the date of the Death of Christ our Savior.

In the Syrian Church, March 25 or the Feast of the Annunciation was seen as one of the most important feasts of the entire year. It denoted the day that God took up his abode in the womb of the Virgin. In fact, if the Annunciation and Good Friday came into conflict on the calendar, the Annunciation trumped it, so important was the day in Syrian tradition. It goes without saying that the Syrian Church preserved some of the most ancient Christian traditions and had a sweet and profound devotion for Mary and the Incarnation of Christ.

Now then, March 25 was enshrined in the early Christian tradition, and from this date it is easy to discern the date of Christ’s birth. March 25 (Christ conceived by the Holy Ghost) plus nine months brings us to December 25 (the birth of Christ at Bethlehem).

Saint Augustine confirms this tradition of March 25 as the Messianic conception and December 25 as His birth:

For Christ is believed to have been conceived on the 25th of March, upon which day also he suffered; so the womb of the Virgin, in which he was conceived, where no one of mortals was begotten, corresponds to the new grave in which he was buried, wherein was never man laid, neither before him nor since. But he was born, according to tradition, upon December the 25th.[ix]

In about A.D. 400, Saint Augustine also noted how the schismatic Donatists celebrated December 25 as the birth of Christ, but that the schismatics refused to celebrate Epiphany on January 6, since they regarded Epiphany as a new feast without a basis in Apostolic Tradition. The Donatist schism originated in A.D. 311 which may indicate that the Latin Church was celebrating a December 25 Christmas (but not a January 6 Epiphany) before A.D. 311. Whichever is the case, the liturgical celebration of Christ’s birth was commemorated in Rome on December 25 long before Christianity became legalized and long before our earliest record of a pagan feast for the birthday of the Unconquered Sun. For these reasons, it is reasonable and right to hold that Christ was born on December 25 in 1 B.C. and that he died and rose again in March of A.D. 33.


[i] The Chronography of AD 354. Part 12: Commemorations of the Martyrs.  MGH Chronica Minora I (1892), pp. 71-2.

[ii] I realize that there are two courses of Abias. This theory only works if Zacharias and Elizabeth conceived John the Baptist after Zacharias’ second course – the course in September. If Saint Luke refers to the first course, this then would place the birth of John the Baptist in late Fall and the birth of Christ in late Spring. However, I think tradition and the Protoevangelium substantiate that the Baptist was conceived in late September.

[iii] Josef Heinrich Friedlieb’s Leben J. Christi des Erlösers. Münster, 1887, p. 312.

[iv] The Greek tradition especially celebrates Saint Zacharias as “high priest.” Nevertheless, Acts 5:24 reveals that there were several “chief priests” (ἀρχιερεῖς), and thus the claim that Zacharias was a “high priest” may not indicate a contradiction. The Greek tradition identifies Zacharias as an archpriest and martyr based on the narrative of the Protoevangelium of James and Matthew 23:35: “That upon you may come all the just blood that hath been shed upon the earth, from the blood of Abel the just, even unto the blood of Zacharias the son of Barachias, whom you killed between the temple and the altar.” (Matthew 23:35)

[v] A special thanks to the Reverend Father Phil Wolfe, FSSP for bringing the “memory of Mary” argument to my attention.

[vi] Magdeburgenses, Cent. 2. c. 6. Hospinian, De origine Festorum Chirstianorum.

[vii] Saint Hippolytus of Rome, Commentary on Daniel.

[viii] There is some discrepancy in the Fathers as to whether Nisan 14/March 25 marked the death of Christ or his resurrection.

[ix] Saint Augustine, De trinitate, 4, 5.

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Thursday, November 24, 2022

Mass Shooting Truths To Shut Down A Liberal

The media is shifty when it comes to mass shootings.

They decide which shootings we do and do not get to hear about. If a shooting doesn’t jive with the liberal narrative, you’re not likely to hear the gory details.

FACT-O-RAMA! In order to talk about mass shootings, we have to agree on the definition of what a mass shooting is. Gun Violence Archive defines a mass shooting as four or more people shot, not including the shooter/shooters.

The recent mass shooting in Colorado Springs is the 601st mass shooting in 2022. There have been four mass shootings since then, but you likely haven’t about them. You probably didn’t hear about most of the previous 600 shootings, either. Why is that? Because the left is keeping secrets. Let’s talk about what they don’t want you to know about mass shootings and why, so you can dominate your commie relatives at the Thanksgiving dinner table.

Mass Shooting Secret #1: The AR-15 Is Not a Mass Shooter’s Weapon of Choice

The left likes to screech about the evils of AR-15s and their use in mass shootings. Some dolts whine that the AR-15 is the “preferred weapon” of mass shooting whackjobs. I rate this myth: five big, stinkin’ Pinocchios.

When you’re arguing at the Thanksgiving table with your liberal sister-in-law and her green-haired, trans-pan muxe-puke femme-boi?friend, she’ll go full-harpy on how AR-15s are the preferred weapons of mass shooters. This is odd, because even the Pravda-like lefty media outlet ABC News had to admit that’s false. As did Newsweek and The New York Times. Yet the left somehow still manages to convince their quislings that assault semi-automatic rifles are the problem. Why is that? We’ll discuss that in a bit.

Mass Shooting Secret #2: Most Mass Shooters Aren’t Angry White MAGA Dudes

No mass shooting argument is complete without a bolshie screeching that “angry, white men” are responsible for the lion’s share of mass shootings. Again, this lie warrants five whopper Pinocchios. Also, it’s where your lib-in-law will lose its gender-free mind when you show him/her/zhim this article.

As I’ve written before, most mass shootings are committed by black men. The media goes radio-silent when black dudes blaze up a rap concert, as we saw when three black men perforated more than 22 people in Miami in May of 2021. That story disappeared pretty quickly. As did a recent Halloween drive-by in Chicago that left 13 people injured, including three kids, and one man dead. No MAGA hats or white suspects were found.

Mass Shooting Secret # 3: Fudging the Numbers

The liberal guntards are happy to screech that mass shootings are on the rise. In fact, this is true. The nation saw 611 mass shootings in 2020, and we will easily beat that by the end of Thanksgiving weekend this year. There were 690 multiple-victim shootings in 2021.

The left likes to pull some gun-grabbing chicanery at this point. They are happy to point out the 600-plus mass shootings but conveniently leave out that most are drive-by, drug-related, gang-related, or just pointless party shootings. Again, this omission is likely due to the race of those spreading mad brass around our major cities. The commies will scream about the number of mass shootings (because it fits the narrative) while conveniently forgetting to mention who is pulling the triggers, as this wouldn’t work with the liberal brainwashing scheme.

New York’s gun-loathing governor, Kathy Hochul, can’t stop talking about the brutal May 14 mass shooting in her hometown of Buffalo, which left mostly black people killed and wounded, but hasn’t said a word about the Nov. 5 mass shooting in the same city that left four people injured. Nor has she mentioned the 45 mass shootings in Chicago this year. Is it because some lives matter more than others? Or because these shootings don’t help the commie cause?

Mass Shooting Secret # 4: Mass Shootings Are a Tiny Proportion of Gun Murders

As of today, Gun Violence Archive states that roughly 15,608 people have been murdered with guns in 2022. (This doesn’t count defensive shootings and unintentional shootings.) Of those, around 545 people were killed in mass shootings. This means mass shootings make up 3.49% of all gun-related murders. Yet, the apparatchiks in the mainstream media would have us believe mass shootings are a major cause of death in the United States.

SHOCK-O-RAMA! More than 500 Americans are hit by lightning every year, making the chance of getting killed in a mass shooting and getting hit by lightning about the same.

What Have We Learned?

We have learned that the media is very picky about which mass shootings make — and stay in — the headlines. If the shooting doesn’t fit the narrative, it’s almost like it never happened.

We know that those big, scary AR-15s — and those pesky high-capacity magazines — aren’t the weapon of choice for mass shooters, though the bum lickers in the liberal news media would have us think otherwise.

We also figured out that mass shootings make up a tiny fraction of murders in the nation, yet they get most of the media ink. And we learned most shooters aren’t drooling white men in MAGA hats.

So what gives?

There are two bogus narratives oozing out of the liberal press: White guys are the biggest domestic problem facing the nation; and AR-15s pose a threat to the population. Neither is true.

My humble opinion is that the Democrats have been hijacked by globalists who want us unarmed. You know — the way Hitler, Stalin, and Mao wanted their people defenseless. If a government wants its population unarmed, they are probably up to no good.

The leftists are using mass shootings to take away the AR-15. They happily stand on the bodies of dead kids, gay people, and anyone else viciously murdered in a mass shooting to propagate their lies. I almost think they look forward to these violent incidents.

Now that you know how to trounce your commie-in-laws in a verbal joust, let’s start out the Thanksgiving weekend with some laughs. Here’s another great video by my friends at Jokes and a Point. Remember, liberals are miserable, self-hating merry andrews. Conservatives know how to have fun.

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/four-mass-shooting-truths-shut-down-your-liberal-family-members-thanksgiving-dinner

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Wednesday, November 9, 2022

How the supply of white slaves from medieval Europe was controlled by the Jewish guild of Radhanites

Our modern word 'slave' is derived from the name of the Slav peoples of eastern Europe. This trade was controlled by a little-known medieval guild. To understand the transatlantic slave trade, it is essential to know about the earlier trade in white European slaves. Clarke, Duncan (1999) Slaves and Slavery. Rochester: Grange Books Foulke, William Dudley, Translator (1974) History of the Lombards Philadelphia: University of Philadelphia Press Grant, Reg (2009) Slavery. London: Dorling Kindersley Charles Barbier de Meynard, Translator (1865) Des routes et des Provinces. Paris: Journal Asiatique.

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Tuesday, November 1, 2022

I treated victims at the École Polytechnique massacre. I am also a gun enthusiast

https://nationalpost.com/opinion/i-treated-victims-at-the-ecole-polytechnique-massacre-i-am-also-a-gun-enthusiast


I treated victims at the École Polytechnique massacre. I am also a gun enthusiast

Opinion: There are over two million firearms owners in Canada from all walks of life. Many are my colleagues in the health professions

Author of the article:Gregory J. Mosdossy, Special to National Post

I am an emergency physician working at both academic and community emergency departments in Ontario. I was recently asked to sign a petition in support of a National Day of Action organized by the Canadian Doctors for Protection from Guns (CDPG) to ban “assault weapons” and handguns. This recently formed organization is not representative of a majority of physicians or health-care workers and I feel the need to respond with an alternative perspective.

In the early 1990s in Sudbury, Ont., I took care of an eight-year-old boy who was brought to the ER with a shotgun wound to his midsection. He had been playing with the teen next door, who had pointed his father’s improperly stored and loaded gun at the child and pulled the trigger. In spite of our best efforts, the young child did not survive. This case, and the boy’s mother’s resulting advocacy, were part of the stimulus for the 1995 Canadian Firearms Act that put into law our current method of storage, transport, categorization and licensure of firearms.

I was also present at the École Polytechnique massacre in Montreal in 1989. At the time I was chief resident in the Emergency Medicine Residency Program at McGill. Fourteen promising, young, high-achieving women were killed and 13 others were injured by a deranged misogynist. I entered the premises with a paramedic crew and pronounced a number of victims dead on scene. I then helped to extricate and transport some to the Royal Victoria Hospital. I had a two-year-old daughter and a seven-month-old son at the time, and I slept on the floor of their room for six months afterward.

I have had two relatives commit suicide, one by handgun.

I have also owned rifles since I was 12 and have in the past decade become an avid hunter and competitive pistol, rifle and shotgun enthusiast. My wife and two of our three adult children attend competitions in Canada and the United States. I am also a qualified Range Officer with two pistol shooting disciplines (IPSC and ICORE) as well as with the Canadian Shooting Sports Association (CSSA).

I have owned rifles since I was 12 and have in the past decade become an avid hunter and competitive pistol, rifle and shotgun enthusiast

Given the above, I think I have something to offer on the unfolding debate. And it’s not something my colleagues in the CDPG want you to hear.

The term “assault weapon” is bandied about in the public domain with a less than clear understanding of its meaning. A military assault rifle is different from the various semi-automatic sport and hunting rifles in that it has fully automatic fire and high-capacity magazines that are banned/illegal and virtually unavailable in Canada (Canada has a five-round limit). With the exception of some individuals who owned now-banned weapons prior to our new laws being introduced in the 1990s, no one in Canada today can buy such a rifle. Calling for their banning isn’t just superfluous, it’s misleading. They’re effectively banned already.

No one in Canada today can buy such a rifle. Calling for their banning isn't just superfluous, it's misleading

Handguns, for their part, are a staple of the hunting and shooting sports/collectors in Canada. Firearms owners must undergo safety training and testing in two stages with references, a background check and licensure (a so-called RPAL: Restricted Possession and Acquisition Licence) if successful. The process can take several months or more. Once licensed, the RCMP runs a background check every 24 hours on an ongoing basis. The individual must join a range if they wish to shoot a handgun. Collectors must consent to an on-site inspection of their storage arrangements. Most ranges have separate mandatory safety courses. The firearms licence is required for all ammunition and firearms purchases and must be renewed every five years. Restricted firearms can only be transported to a range, gun store, gun show, out of province or the border with special permits.

Firearms laws in Canada are some of the most stringent and comprehensive in the world. Statistics show that we are a very safe country with low baseline crime and suicide rates that have been steadily dropping, with peaks and ebbs, over the past four decades. The recent statistics that some have used to counter those data are parsed from specific geographical areas and interval timelines with biased manipulation to suit the purposes of interest groups.

Firearms laws in Canada are some of the most stringent and comprehensive in the world

There are over two million firearms owners in Canada from all walks of life, many of them women and youth. Many are my colleagues in the health professions. These same colleagues are often reticent to speak up in support of the shooting sports for fear of institutional, public and political retribution. A few have spoken out in an attempt to correct a host of misconceptions. Media coverage is vastly skewed in favour of the dramatic and sensational, which drowns out voices of reason.

I understand that some trauma caregivers, particularly with CDPG, have reacted with understandable emotion to the violence they have witnessed on the job. I have seen more than my share. I have seen the horror and touched the horror. I have felt the abyss of sorrow at the senseless loss of young, productive life. But this movement to ban certain firearms is an emotional response that stems from a lack of information and a distorted view of firearms. When firearms are used for violent purposes, someone has broken the law. When firearms are used for suicidal intent, someone has not received the care they need and the support to distance themselves from the firearm. These are the issues that need to be addressed, not an ineffective and largely redundant blanket ban that targets innocent law-abiding individuals.

This … is an emotional response that stems from a lack of information

As an avid practitioner of the shooting sports, I am committed to preserving its legacy for coming generations. As a physician, I have made a lifetime commitment to saving lives. I have personally and professionally experienced the effects of the illegal and suicidal use of firearms. I support only reasonable and thoughtful approaches to curbing injury and death due to firearms. This petition and the call for a ban are neither.

— Gregory J. Mosdossy is an emergency physician in the Emergency Department of the London Health Sciences Centre in Ontario. Please share this.

Sunday, October 30, 2022

The U.S. Has Killed More Than 20 Million People in 37 “Victim Nations” Since World War II


First published on November 15, 2015, this incisive report was among Global Research’s most popular articles. As a result of media censorship it is no longer featured by the search engines 
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GR Editor’s Note .

Let us put this in historical perspective: the commemoration of the War to End All Wars  acknowledges that 15 million lives were lost in the course of World War I (1914-18).

The loss of life in the second World War (1939-1945) was on a much large scale, when compared to World War I: 60 million lives both military and civilian were lost during World War II. (Four times those killed during World War I).

The largest WWII casualties  were China and the Soviet Union, 26 million in the Soviet Union,  China estimates its losses at approximately 20 million deaths.

Ironically, these two countries (allies of the US during WWII) which lost a large share of their population during WWII are now under the Biden-Harris administration categorized as “enemies of America”, which are threatening the Western World.

NATO-US Forces are at Russia’s Doorstep. A so-called “preemptive nuclear war” against China and Russia is on the drawing board of the Pentagon. 

Germany and Austria lost approximately 8 million people during WWII, Japan lost more than 2.5 million people. The US and Britain respectively lost more than 400,000 lives. 

This carefully researched article by James A. Lucas  documents the more than 20 million lives lost resulting from US led wars, military coups and intelligence ops carried out in the wake of what is euphemistically called the “post-war era” (1945- ).

The extensive loss of life in Lebanon,  Syria, Yemen, Ukraine and Libya is not included in this study.

Continuous US led warfare (1945- ): there was no “post-war era.

And now, a World War III scenario is contemplated by US-NATO.

Michel Chossudovsky, Global Research,  September 17, 2022

(more)

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Saturday, October 8, 2022

New Legislation Will Profit Large Canadian Media Outlets by Over $300 Million, Says PBO


New legislation will profit large Canadian media outlets and publishers by upwards of $329 million in government subsidies, if passed, according to Parliamentary Budget Officer (PBO) Yves Giroux.

“We expect news businesses to receive a total compensation around $329.2 million per annum from digital platforms and spend about $20.8 million in transaction and compliance costs for negotiating their first deals under the Bill,” wrote the PBO in his “Cost Estimate for Bill C-18: Online News Act,” as first reported by Blacklock’s Reporter.

Bill C-18 is titled “An Act respecting online communications platforms that make news content available to persons in Canada” and will regulate “digital news intermediaries,” such as Google and Facebook, in order to “enhance fairness in the Canadian digital news marketplace and contribute to its sustainability.”

In short, C-18 will compel internet and social media giants to make deals for sharing ad revenue with online Canadian news outlets.

The bill, which is sponsored by Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez, is currently up for consideration by committee in the House of Commons.

If passed, the PBO said it expects the total cost of developing and implementing the bill to be around “$5.6 million per year over 5 years” for the Canadian Heritage Department and the CRTC.

“The new regulations will give rise to regulatory compliance costs for businesses as well as costs to negotiate and enforce agreements,” wrote the PBO. “This will in turn have fiscal consequence for the federal government.”

‘More Mistrust’

Independent publishers testifying before the House of Commons Canadian Heritage committee on Sept. 23 criticised Bill C-18 as a bailout for “struggling media corporations.”

“I suspect that what we see here is a form of rent-seeking behaviour in which struggling media corporations are using every last iota of their dwindling financial and social capital to lobby for subsidies and regulations,” said Jen Gerson, co-founder of an online newsletter called “The Line.”

Gerson added that “the more the federal government tries to help the media, the more it risks hurting our credibility.”

“When the federal government tries to save the media, the media becomes a legitimate target for partisan attacks, which undermines our fundamental democratic role and function,” she said.

Testifying before the committee on Sept. 27, former CRTC commissioner Peter Menzies said Canadians’ trust in media has “never been lower.”

“It’s going to create more mistrust and it’s not going to end well,” Menzies said about C-18.

When Rodriguez presented the bill in April, he said Canada’s news sector “is in crisis and this contributes to the heightened public mistrust and the rise of harmful disinformation in our society.”

However, “the more that relationship is broken, the more subsidy will be required,” he added.

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Sunday, September 25, 2022

Porn Industry Can Feel the Heat Intensifying from Groups Working to Shut Down This Evil Empire.


LifeSiteNews.com
reported on September 12, 2022:

by Jonathon Van Maren

For decades, it has appeared that the digital porn industry is an unbeatable giant, oozing slime from nearly every screen worldwide. Porn companies rake in more money than entertainment giants; they both facilitate and exacerbate addictions stronger than heroin habits; more than any other corporations, they have facilitated the moral degradation of our society and the breakdown of human relationships.

Six years ago, I was present at a private lecture by several anti-porn activists who laid out a strategy to take down Mindgeek, the porn giant that owns Pornhub. I remember being both hopeful and skeptical — how could a company with so much money, that openly specializes in sexual content that celebrates abuse and degradation, be successfully targeted? As it turns out, the hard, dogged work of activists determined to make the filth-peddlers pay came to fruition.

It has been one scandal after another for Mindgeek over the past several years, with major companies cutting ties, their social media pages being shut down, and reams of press highlighting their distribution of child porn and videos of rape and assault. The once-untouchable corporation has become toxic almost overnight. One of the organizations that has worked so hard to bring this about is the National Center on Sexual Exploitation, a leading non-partisan, U.S.-based organization exposing the links between sexual exploitation such as child sexual abuse, prostitution, sex trafficking, and the public health harms of pornography. CEO Dawn Hawkins explained how the campaign against Mindgeek is proceeding.

How significant are the blows that Mindgeek has been facing?

Anti-exploitation advocates and sexual abuse survivors have been fighting for years to dismantle Pornhub/MindGeek because it has hosted child sexual abuse, sex trafficking, non-consensual, incest and racist material.

Recently, a lawsuit against Pornhub and Visa brought by a sex trafficking survivor was allowed to move forward after a federal judge rejected significant portions of the credit card company’s motion to dismiss it from the case. In rejecting Visa’s attempt to avoid going to court, the judge ruled that there was enough evidence showing that the company ‘knowingly provid[ed] the tool to complete the crime” of distributing child sexual abuse material to warrant the survivor’s lawsuit against Visa being heard in court.

After that ruling and immense public pressure, Visa announced it would suspend acceptance privileges for MindGeek’s, Pornhub’s parent company, advertising platform serving pornography websites owned by MindGeek. Mastercard quickly followed suit. Advertising is estimated to make up 50% of MindGeek’s revenue.

No doubt this is a huge blow to the online exploitation industry. It is no coincidence that MindGeek’s two top executives recently fled amid a growing number of lawsuits that we and other law firms have filed on behalf of sex trafficking survivors whose abuse has been shown on Pornhub, and because of the intense outcry from survivors, advocates, corporations, and even from news outlets like The New York TimesThe New Yorker, and the BBC that revealed Pornhub’s criminality.

The internet pornography industry has been operating with impunity for several decades. It is time that Pornhub and others like it are held accountable for profiting from sexual exploitation.

How have anti-porn and anti-exploitation organizations successfully pushed for accountability?

In addition to lawsuits, we have been a part of an international effort to dismantle Pornhub, a campaign to call out entities like Visa that support the infrastructure of Pornhub and MindGeek.

The National Center on Sexual Exploitation’s UK-based subsidiary, the International Centre on Sexual Exploitation, along with 62 survivors and advocates representing 11 countries, sent a March 2021 letter to Visa requesting it cut ties with all MindGeek-owned entities.

We have targeted mainstream companies that have partnered with Pornhub or other pornography sites as payment processors, advertisers, distribution partners, and more. This grassroots advocacy resulted in Mastercard and Visa opening investigations into the rampant child sexual abuse material (CSAM) and filmed sex trafficking material on Pornhub.

Survivors and our legal and public advocacy moved mainstream corporate advertisers, such as Kraft-Heinz and Wish, to stop running ads on MindGeek sites. We also convinced Pornhub distribution partners Roku and Comcast to remove Pornhub channels from their services. We must continue to call out companies who facilitate and even profit from sexual exploitation by partnering with Big Porn.

What real-world impact does this have on pornography available to people?

Our aim is to make pornography intolerable in society, much like tobacco has become. The public health and societal harms of pornography are why our fight to dismantle the infrastructure supporting the pornography industry goes beyond just taking on Pornhub.

Research points to pornography’s addictive nature. A 2021 study on cognitive processes related to pornography use found that excessive time and effort is spent watching and searching for pornography, resulting in impaired self-control over pornography use, failure to fulfill family, social, and work responsibilities, and persistence in these sexual behaviors regardless of the personal consequences. Adolescents are more susceptible than adults to addictions and to developmental effects on the brain. And we know that children are being exposed to hardcore pornography through smartphones, school computers, at their friends’ homes.

Currently, online pornography websites do not have to verify the age or that meaningful consent was given of every individual depicted in the content — this must change in the law. There is no such thing as “ethical” pornography: the online pornography industry and exploitation are inherently intertwined.

What impact does this have on those women who have been victimized by the porn industry?

The online pornography industry has countless victims – not only women, but also children and men. For over a decade, MindGeek has been confronted by numerous survivors who have come forward about their sex trafficking or child sexual abuse being filmed and then uploaded, monetized, promoted, made downloadable, and shared countless times on Pornhub and other MindGeek-owned websites. Pornhub has profited from the mass distribution of filmed sexual crime as well as non-consensually recorded and non-consensually uploaded videos.

Sexual abuse survivors are courageous for confronting the exploitative pornography industry and deserve every ounce of justice. We are honored to serve them in pursuit of justice. Our work will not end until everyone can live and love without sexual abuse and exploitation.

What are the next steps?

We continue to serve survivors in their quest for justice. The National Center on Sexual Exploitation is co-counsel on a class action lawsuit filed on behalf of two survivors of childhood sex trafficking whose videos and images of their abuse were posted on Pornhub and other MindGeek-owned sites. In February 2022, the judge ruled against MindGeek’s motion to dismiss, enabling the lawsuit to move forward.

We continue to advocate for policy solutions, such as the bipartisan-supported EARN IT Act, which would allow survivor of child sexual abuse material to restore the privacy they have lost because their abuse was uploaded to the internet.

We will continue to hold companies accountable for profiting from someone else’s abuse, period. We hope readers will join our fight!

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Friday, September 16, 2022

The Key to Reversing Autoimmune Diseases

The American College of Rheumatology estimates that more than 54.4 million people in the United States have an autoimmune disease.[1] Some of the major ones would be rheumatoid arthritis (RA), multiple sclerosis, and inflammatory bowel diseases such as Crohn’s and ulcerative colitis.

Since I have massive clinical experience with RA, I am going to use it as an example of how all autoimmune diseases can be treated. Why? Because they all have similar origins that are related to an antigen sneaking into your body and your immune system, confusing it with one of your tissues that tags your tissue as a foreign invader. The antigen that gets into your system determines which of your body’s tissues will be affected.

In the simplest terms, an antigen is a molecule or molecule structure that your body identifies as foreign. As such, antigens trigger an immune response. The most famous antigen that most people are likely familiar with is the spike protein from the virus that causes COVID-19.

From the late 1980s and for the following 10 years, I treated over 3,000 patients with rheumatic illnesses, including systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), scleroderma, polymyositis, and dermatomyositis. RA has a devastating prognosis in many patients.

Rheumatoid arthritis affects about 1 percent of our population and at least 1.4 million Americans have definite or classical rheumatoid arthritis, although it’s probably closer to 2 million.[2] This number has increased in recent years, as in 2014, only about one half of a percent of the population suffered from RA.[3]

Since around 7 million Americans have some form of inflammatory rheumatic disease,[4] this means you likely know someone with it. It’s a much more devastating illness than previously appreciated. However, most patients with rheumatoid arthritis also have a progressive disability. This is important, as the suggestions I am going to include should help improve all autoimmune diseases.

Testimonial From One of My Patients

I ran into a former patient, Sarah Allen, after giving a presentation in Orlando, Florida, several years ago, which she happened to be attending. After talking to her, I decided we needed to share her important story as it would provide hope for so many who struggle with this disease. She first came to see me in August of 2003. Even though she was only 28 years old at the time, she’d been experiencing symptoms of RA for about three or four years.

Sarah explains:

“I thought I was very healthy. I was young. I was a competitive triathlete. I believed I had a pretty good diet. So, I didn’t really understand why I was experiencing so much pain in my fingers and in my feet.

I had migrating pain, and a lot of tendinitis issues all throughout my body. It took the Western doctors a long time to diagnose me. It took about three years going to different doctors before they knew what was wrong. It didn’t show in my blood; I didn’t have the RA factor, and my C-reactive protein (CRP) levels were normal. But it showed up on an X-ray.”

Hallmark Signs of RA

One of the hallmark symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis is pain in your hands and/or feet. It tends to affect the proximal joints more so than the distal ones, i.e. the joints closest to your palm, for example, as opposed to the joints further out in the fingers.

So, if you have pain there, especially if it’s symmetrical (affecting the same joints on both hands or feet), then almost by definition you have rheumatoid arthritis or an RA variant. It really doesn’t matter what the blood work shows.

RA is far less common than osteoarthritis, or degenerative joint disease, which isn’t as crippling and is a very different animal and shouldn’t be confused with it. It’s actually relatively easy to treat degenerative arthritis if you understand the components of a healthy lifestyle.

Rheumatoid arthritis is a far more complex disease. It’s an autoimmune disease; your body is destroying itself, and it can be terminal—some people have even been known to commit suicide from the crippling pain.

It’s quite notable that only a small percentage of people with the disease have a spontaneous, sustained remission without the help of medication.[5] Some disability occurs in 50 to 70 percent of people within five years after onset of the disease, and half will stop working within 10 years.[6]

RA Is Typically Treated With Toxic Drugs

Conventional care also doesn’t offer a lot of hope for RA sufferers. Most treatments only ameliorate or treat the symptoms—typically using highly toxic drugs, including prednisone, methotrexate, and drugs that interfere with tumor necrosis factor, such as Enbrel.

This is why I’m so passionate about spreading this information because as Sarah can attest, there’s an alternative, and this drug-free strategy really works. You don’t have to suffer needlessly in a conventional treatment model.

Once diagnosed, Sarah went to a well-known rheumatologist in Milwaukee who told her she needed to stop running or risk becoming permanently disabled. He prescribed a low-dose of methotrexate, which is actually an anticancer drug.

While it can be effective, the complications and the side effects are atrocious. Sarah had to check her liver status every month, and even though she was only on a low dosage for about three months, she started losing some of her hair. A rheumatology researcher at the Mayo Clinic whom she went to told her to keep taking the drug, but expect it to shave 15 to 20 years off her life.

“I was really afraid of what that drug was going to do to my body,” Sarah says. “The physical therapist who recommended I get tested for RA said there was a lot I can do naturally. So I read a lot of books about rheumatoid arthritis and different alternative treatments.

“I read there’s a possibility of it being connected with an infection, and that a low dose of antibiotics was being prescribed. I then came across your name in a book. I looked you up, found you in Chicago, and made an appointment.”

Dr. Brown’s Protocol

The book she’s referring to is “The Road Back: Rheumatoid Arthritis—Its Cause and Its Treatment,” written by Dr. Thomas McPherson Brown and Henry Scammell. Brown was a well-respected board-certified rheumatologist (he died in 1989), but he, like me, was a rebel.

He didn’t agree with the use of prednisone, which was the standard of care for RA in the ’40s and ’50s. He believed RA was an infection caused by mycoplasmas, so he used the antibiotic tetracycline instead.

Eventually, he modified his treatment to more potent discriminating forms of tetracycline, such as minocycline. Brown ultimately helped bring more than 10,000 patients into remission. I first saw his work in a “20/20” special done shortly before he died in 1989, and it really inspired me. I decided to study his work, began using his protocol on RA patients in my practice, and was really impressed with the results.

Eventually, I modified the protocol to the point where I abandoned antibiotics altogether.

There are a number of physicians that still use his protocol,[7] but it would be uncommon to find ones that will be using all of what I consider the vital elements to successfully reversing RA that I list below. If you see one of these physicians, I would encourage you to integrate every one of the elements.

So, these are the steps that I believe are absolutely crucial to integrate in the reversal of not only RA but all autoimmune diseases.

Optimize Your Vitamin D Levels Without Pills

Since RA is an autoimmune disease, it is vital to optimize your vitamin D level. That’s the most basic and least expensive strategy that one can easily implement. The early part of the 21st century brought enormous attention to the importance and value of vitamin D, particularly in the treatment of autoimmune diseases such as RA.

From my perspective, it’s now all but criminally negligent malpractice to treat a person with RA and not aggressively monitor their vitamin D levels to confirm that they are in a therapeutic range of 50 to 70 ng/ml.

It’s also vitally important to understand that your body was designed to get all the vitamin D it needs from the sun. I haven’t swallowed vitamin D in two decades, yet am able to routinely get my levels up to 90 ng/ml. So the key is to get about one hour of sun exposure a day around solar noon, which is 1 p.m. if you are in Daylight Saving Time, with minimal clothing on. Ideally, you can walk during this time so you get your movement in.

Benefits of Vitamin D From Sunlight

The reason why it’s so important to get vitamin D from the sun is because also provides many additional benefits.

  • It increases subcellular mitochondrial melatonin, which will radically lower oxidative stress where you need it most—in the electron transport chain of the mitochondria. Not only is melatonin a powerful antioxidant, but it causes your body to produce glutathione, which is essential for controlling oxidative stress.
  • Males will be pleased to know that a 2021 study[8] showed that sun exposure for around 30 minutes near solar noon will increase testosterone levels.
  • It will increase nitric oxide to help optimize your blood pressure.
  • It will help convert vitamin A (retinol) to retinoids, which are required for optimal immune functioning.

Using Sun Exposure Wisely

Do practice responsible sun exposure. Avoid sunburns as a matter of routing practice. It’s best to get sun exposure as early in the year as possible so that your skin can build up a protective tan.  Also, be aware that some foods contribute to better skin protection, like those high in antioxidants. Likewise, some foods undermine your health and put you at greater risk of skin cancer. Processed foods and foods with processed seed oils high in omega-6, which is loaded with linoleic acid (LA), should be avoided.

Sadly, most are unable to get enough UVB from the sun in late fall to early spring unless you live below the 20th latitude. Ideally, it would be far better to optimize your vitamin D by safe exposure of your skin to UVB. Even better would be to make sure that you get concurrent near-infrared (IR) exposure at the same time, as this will increase melatonin to suppress any free radical damage from the UVB.

Sunlight has these attributes.

Make sure to take 500 mg to 1,000 mg of magnesium and 150 mcg of vitamin K2, (not K1) which are important cofactors for optimizing vitamin D function. And, remember the only way you know what your vitamin D level is is to test it. Most people I know are shocked how low their level is when they finally get around to testing it.

Ultra-Low Seed Oil Diet

While considered an essential fat, when consumed in excessive amounts—which over 99 percent of people do—LA (an omega-6 polyunsaturated fat or PUFA) acts as a metabolic poison.

Most clinicians who value nutritional interventions to optimize health understand that vegetable oils, which are loaded with omega-6 PUFA, are something to be avoided. What most fail to appreciate is that even if you eliminate the vegetable oils and avoid them like the plague, you may still be missing the mark.

Chances are you’re still getting too much of this dangerous fat from supposedly healthy food sources such as olive oil and chicken (which are fed LA-rich grains). Another common mistake is to simply increase the amount of omega-3 that you eat. Many are now aware that the omega-3 to omega-6 ratio is very important, and should be about equal, but simply increasing omega-3 can be a dangerous strategy.

Over the past century, because of fatally flawed research suggesting that saturated animal fat caused heart disease, the LA in the human diet has dramatically increased, to 30 or 40 grams a day from about 2 to 3 grams a day 150 years ago. LA used to make up 1 percent to 3 percent of the energy in the human diet; it now makes up 15 percent to 20 percent.

It’s my belief that this radical change has had the most catastrophic effect on human health in the history of the human race. This dietary change has undoubtedly killed millions, probably hundreds of millions, prematurely and still continues to do so because people, and more importantly, nearly all physicians simply don’t understand this.

At a molecular level, excess LA consumption damages your metabolism and impedes your body’s ability to generate energy in your mitochondria. It is also likely the primary factor for the increases in obesity, cancer, heart disease, diabetes, and dementia that have exploded in the past century.

There’s also compelling evidence showing eliminating seed oils from your diet will dramatically reduce your risk of sunburn and skin cancer. Susceptibility to UV radiation damage is controlled by how much LA is in your diet. It’s like a dial that can control how fast it happens, and how fast you get skin cancer.

You can use the tables below to help you get a handle on the amount of LA in your diet. You can also use Cronometer.com to enter the foods you eat to identify just how much LA you are eating.

 

Seeds/Nuts%Linoleic Acid
Poppy seed62%
Hemp57%
Wheat germ55%
Walnut53%
Pecan50%
Pumpkin45%
Brazil nuts43%
Sesame41%
Peanut32%
Pine nuts33%
Chia16%
Almond16%
Flaxseed14%
Pistachio13%
Hazelnuts12%
Cashew8%
Macadamia2%
Cooking Oils

%Linoleic Acid (LA)

Average Value

(Range in Parentheses)

Safflower70%
Grape seed70%
Sunflower68%
Corn54%
Cottonseed52%
Soybean51%
Rice bran33%
Peanut32%
Canola19%
Olive oil10% (3% – 27%)
Avocado10%
Lard10%
Palm oil10%
Tallow (CAFO)3%
Ghee (CAFO)2%
Coconut oil2%
Tallow (Grass Fed)1%
Ghee (Grass Fed)1%

Time-Restricted Eating (TRE) 

In July, research published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology revealed that fewer than 1 in 14 adults in the U.S. have optimal cardiometabolic health.[9] This means they lack the ability to seamlessly shift between burning fat and carbs as their primary fuel source and as a result have impaired immune function.

It would seem profoundly obvious that having an impaired immune system would not be good if you had an autoimmune disease. Fortunately, there is a simple inexpensive intervention, called time-restricted eating (TRE), that can help most everyone with this issue.

Research by Satchidananda Panda, Ph.D., suggests that 90 percent of people eat for more than 12 hours a day, and over time, this habit will wreak havoc on your metabolism and limit your ability to metabolize fat as a primary fuel. When you eat throughout the day, and never skip a meal, your body adapts to burning sugar as your primary fuel, resulting in the downregulation of enzymes that utilize and burn stored fat.[10,11]

As a result, you become progressively more insulin resistant and start gaining weight. Efforts to lose weight also become ineffective for this very reason, since to lose body fat, your body must first be able to actually burn fat. Many biological repair and rejuvenation processes also take place while you’re fasting, and that’s another reason why all-day grazing triggers diseases while fasting prevents them.

Time-restricted eating is just what it sounds like. It’s a form of intermittent fasting in which you eat all of your meals for the day within a restricted window of time, ranging from six to eight hours. That means you’re avoiding food (fasting) for 16 to 18 consecutive hours. Eating within a six- to eight-hour window is likely close to metabolically ideal for most. Eighteen-hour TRE windows work better for overweight people, and 16-hour TRE windows are used for normal-weight individuals.

The key is to make sure that you don’t start your TRE window too late in the day. Ideally, the last food you eat should be at least three to five hours before you go to sleep. The last thing you want to do is eat right before bed as that will impair your health.

Contrary to longer fasts and calorie restriction, TRE is a strategy that can work for just about anyone. Remember, you’re not actually limiting or counting calories. Weakness and lethargy, which are signs of undernourishment, simply don’t occur. It’s a practice that should make you feel fantastic and actually reduce your hunger over time.

Wouldn’t it be great to not be controlled by hunger and sweets anymore?

Circadian Optimization

Panda is one of the leading researchers in circadian rhythm. I interviewed him about his book, “Circadian Code: Lose Weight, Supercharge Your Energy, and Transform Your Health From Morning to Midnight,” if you are looking for more information.  He has many great tips in his book on how to optimize your circadian cycle, which is important since it supports a healthy immune system.

If you think about the times you got sick in the past, my guess is that many of those times were related to altered or impaired sleeping schedules. This is a classic illustration of how important this strategy is.

Tips to Optimize Your Circadian Rhythm

  • Be sure your sleep timing is close to the natural day and night cycles. The closer you are to the equator or vernal or autumnal equinox the easier that is, as the day and night time is evenly divided between them at 12 hours each. The further you move away, the more significant the change is all the way to the polar extremes of 24 hours of night in the winter to 24 hours of light in the summer.
  • Ideally, you should not have any blue light after sundown. Unfortunately, the invention of electric light bulbs has trashed our circadian cycles. The ideal light would be a candle as it has the right wavelengths and intensity.
    Alternatively, a 3-watt non-flicker red LED light[12] is acceptable and isn’t likely to impair your circadian cycle. You should also make certain that there is no light in your bedroom while you are sleeping; use a sleep mask, if necessary, to get complete darkness.
  • EMF exposure, especially at night, can disrupt your cycle and your health. It’s ideal if you turn off both your Wi-Fi and phone at night, or at least keep it in airplane mode. The last thing you need at night is exposure to these fields, as it will impair your health.

Low-Dose Naltrexone (LDN)

One new addition to the protocol is low-dose naltrexone (LDN), which I would encourage anyone with RA to try. It’s inexpensive and nontoxic and I have a number of physician reports documenting incredible efficacy in getting people off of all their dangerous arthritis meds. Although this is a drug, and strictly speaking not a natural therapy, it has provided important relief and is FAR safer than the toxic drugs that are typically used by nearly all rheumatologists.

Naltrexone is similar to Naloxone (Narcan), which is a narcotic antagonist to save people’s lives in opioid overdoses. In low or even microdoses, it’s one of the few pharmaceutical drugs I wholeheartedly endorse and is remarkably safe.

Naltrexone blocks the opioid receptor only briefly, and by a different mechanism. When used in low dosages, the chief benefit is actually in the rebound effect, after the opioid receptor has been briefly blocked. Naltrexone is one of the few interventions that actually enables your own body and immune system to be able to function better and restore function.

Naltrexone requires a prescription from a doctor willing to work with you. Dosing guidelines can be found at ldnresearchtrust.org/2022_LDN_Guides. I also did an interview with Linda Elsegood, a Briton who founded the LDN Research Trust in 2004, and Dr. Sarah Zielsdorf, who has a medical practice in the Chicago area about the book they wrote, appropriately titled “The LDN Book.”[13]

Carnivore Diet

I would strongly recommend implementing every one of the above strategies. If you still aren’t getting the improvement you need and deserve, then it may be time to consider removing all vegetables from your diet.

This radical shift in diet should be considered a disease treatment. For the vast majority of people, eliminating plant foods isn’t a healthy approach to diet. But for those who are suffering with a severe and debilitating autoimmune condition, this approach may be helpful.

Mikhaila Peterson, the daughter of best-selling author Jordan Peterson, resolved her juvenile rheumatoid arthritis (JRA), which is relatively uncommon, but notoriously challenging to improve, through this diet. Her results are nothing less than spectacular and certainly provide enough anecdotal confirmation to give this unconventional but safe approach a try.

For the scientific justification and help in implementing a carnivore diet, one of the best resources out there is Paul Saladino’s book, “The Carnivore Code: Unlocking the Secrets to Optimal Health by Returning to Our Ancestral Diet,” and also his podcast on YouTube called “CarnivoreMD.”

The reason why avoiding plants might provide relief with autoimmune diseases is that they are loaded with self-defense chemicals and antinutrients. While many people can eat these compounds without issue, others can experience consequences from the following:

  • Nightshades—The solanaceae family of flowering plants includes a number of species that are outright poisonous. But the nightshade family also includes tomatoes, potatoes, peppers, eggplant, and goji berries, which are well-known to promote inflammation and joint pain in some people.
  • Phytic acid—A natural substance found in plant seeds (including grains and legumes), this compound is known as an “antinutrient” for its ability to bind to minerals. Phytic acid impairs the absorption of iron, zinc, calcium, and other minerals, and can promote mineral deficiencies.
  • Oxalates—Compounds found in dark leafy greens, such as spinach, kale, and other nutrient-dense plants. Most people can break down oxalates in the gut. For others, however, these compounds turn into sharp crystals and can lead to chronic pain, inflammation, oxidative stress, kidney stones, and autoimmune disease.
  • Lectins—These plant compounds can promote leaky gut, alter the microbiome, stimulate the immune system, and trigger inflammation. The highest levels are found in whole grains, legumes, and dairy.
  • Salicylates—These are naturally occurring pesticides that plants use to protect against insects, fungus, and bacterial infection. In humans, they can cause a wide range of symptoms from tinnitus to ulcers. High concentrations are found in avocados, berries, grapes, almonds, honey, dried fruits, and many spices.
  • FODMAPs—Though not technically a defense mechanism of plants, these compounds are a collection of short-chain carbohydrates that aren’t properly absorbed in the gut. FODMAP is short for fermentable oligosaccharides, disaccharides, monosaccharides, and polyols. These compounds can cause severe digestive distress for some people. High-FODMAP foods include a wide range of fruits, vegetables, cereal grains, condiments, drinks, and dairy foods.
  • Saponins—Antifeedant compounds that protect many plants from predation by insects, microbes, and fungi, saponins have soapy, foaming characteristics. They promote leaky gut and can cause bloating, gas, nausea, and diarrhea. Legumes (soy, beans, peas, and lentils) as well as quinoa are rich in saponins.
  • Goitrogens—These compounds can reduce iodine uptake in the thyroid gland and slow the production of thyroid hormones. The result can be an enlarged thyroid (goiter) and a host of metabolic disturbances. The most common plant goitrogens are compounds known as glucosinolates found in broccoli, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, kale, arugula, radishes, turnips, collard greens, bok choy, and other similar vegetables.
  • Phytoestrogens—These naturally occurring plant chemicals have a molecular structure quite similar to estrogen. Used as a natural defense against herbivores, they can disrupt animal fertility. In humans, phytoestrogens can cause hormonal dysfunction and may promote cancer. These compounds are most common in soybeans, flax, and sesame seeds.
  • Prolamins and glutelins—Consisting of a wide range of proteins used by plants to store energy in seeds and found primarily in grains and rice, this group of compounds harbors the primary environmental factors in causing Celiac disease.

Early Emotional Traumas Are Pervasive in Autoimmune Diseases

With the vast majority of the patients I treated, some type of emotional trauma occurred early in their life, before the age that their conscious mind was formed, which is typically around the age of 5 or 6. However, a trauma can occur at any age, and has a profoundly negative impact.

If that specific emotional insult isn’t addressed with an effective treatment modality, then the underlying emotional trigger will continue to fester, allowing the destructive process to proceed, which can predispose you to severe autoimmune diseases such as RA later in life.

In some cases, RA appears to be caused by an infection, and it’s my experience that this infection is usually acquired when you have a stressful event that causes a disruption in your bioelectrical circuits, which then impairs your immune system.

This early emotional trauma predisposes you to develop the initial infection, and also contributes to your relative inability to effectively defeat that infection. Therefore, it’s very important to have an effective tool to address these underlying emotional traumas. In my practice, the most common form of treatment is called the Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT).

Although EFT is something that you can learn to do yourself in the comfort of your own home, it is important to consult a well-trained professional to obtain the skills necessary to promote proper healing using this amazing tool. There are, of course, many other strategies other than EFT that can address these; EFT is just the one that I have the most experience with.

Sources

[1] American College of Rheumatology. 2017

[2] The Checkup. Arthritis Statistics 2022

[3] Rheumatol Int. 2017 Sep;37(9):1551-1557. Prevalence of rheumatoid arthritis in the United States adult population in healthcare […], 2004-2014

[4] American College of Rheumatology. Rheumatic Diseases in America

[5] Arthritis Research & Therapy 2015

[6] Reumatologia. 2016; 54(2): 73–78

[7] Road Back Foundation

[8] Cell Rep. 2021 Aug 24;36(8):109579. Skin exposure to UVB light induces a skin-brain-gonad axis and sexual behavior

[9] Journal of the American College of Cardiology Volume 80, Issue 2, 12 July 2022, Pages 138-151 Trends and Disparities in […], 1999-2018

[10] Cell February 8, 2018; 172(4): 731-743.E12

[11] Medical News Today February 8, 2018

[12] Amazon

[13] Amazon, The LDN Book

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