Monday, March 13, 2023



Ibuprofen Kills Thousands Each Year, so What Is the Alternative?

This is a conventional assertion but it is poorly founded. It is true that there are some studies that show excess deaths among users of Ibuprofen but what does that prove?

People who took Ib did so for a reason: pain. And what caused the pain? In some cases serious diseases. So did those who died do so because of the Ib or because of what they took it for? We don't know.

A randomized placebo controlled trial among healthy people would answer that question but I can see no example of such a trial being undertaken. All the studies seem to be of people who were already ill. So I can see no reason NOT to take Ib. I take one dose of it on rare occasions for arthritic pain and I will continue with that


Pain and unhealthy levels of inflammation are fast becoming default bodily states in the industrialized world. While in most cases we can adjust the underlying pro-inflammatory conditions by altering our diet, and reducing stress and environmental chemical exposures, these approaches take time, discipline and energy, and sometimes we just want the pain to stop now. In those often compulsive moments we find ourselves popping an over-the-counter pill to kill the pain.

The problem with this approach is that, if we do it often enough, we may kill ourselves along with the pain…

Ibuprofen really is a perfect example of this. As mentioned above, this petrochemical-derivative has been linked to significantly increased risk of heart attack and increased cardiac and all-cause mortality (when combined with aspirin), with over two dozen serious adverse health effects, including:

Ibuprofen is, in fact, not unique in elevating cardiovascular disease risk and/or mortality. The entire category of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) appears to have this under-recognized dark side; cardiovascular disease and cardiac mortality score highest on the list of over 100 unintended adverse health effects associated with their use.

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DeSantis Plays 'Pornographic' Video of Books Removed from School Libraries, It Was Too Graphic for the News

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis got help from an unlikely source in his seemingly never-ending fight against the indoctrination of minors — the establishment media.

During a news conference Wednesday in Tampa, DeSantis, presumed by many to be a potential 2024 GOP presidential candidate, shared a graphic video to illustrate the presence of sexually explicit books in Florida schools.

The governor displayed the material as part of an effort to “set the record straight, debunking the mainstream media, unions and leftist activists’ hoax” about the “‘book ban’ hoax,” DeSantis’ office said in a news release.

So graphic were these images — again, readily available to schoolchildren in the Sunshine State — that Twitter slapped a warning on one Florida outlet’s coverage of them.

But the social media platform still allowed the content to be shared with those who wished to see it.

That wasn’t the case with WFLA-TV in Tampa, which deemed the material so explicit that it pulled the video of the news conference from the airwaves.

The NBC affiliate apparently did so at the behest of reporter Mahsa Saeidi. Saeidi said on Twitter that she asked for the feed to go down because she doesn’t “show sexually explicit content” and all “questionable material must be reviewed.”

Well. Yes. Nobody should be disputing Saeidi’s account that “sexually explicit content” shouldn’t be made readily available to the masses — let alone schoolchildren.

Taryn Fenske, DeSantis’ communications director, tweeted the video that the governor showed, asking the very salient question of why such sexually explicit material is OK for children but not OK to air on television.

The video shows graphic depictions of oral sex and gay sex from books that had been available to children before they were removed. It should not be controversial to suggest such books have no place in Florida public schools.

And yet, if you’ve been keeping a moderate eye on DeSantis, you know the liberal media is treating him as the new leader of the Third Reich for wanting to remove sexually explicit content from schools.

In fact, it hasn’t even been a full week since far-left comedian and late-night host John Oliver dedicated the majority of the latest episode of his HBO show “Last Week Tonight” to demonizing the governor for a litany of laughable faults (how dare the pro-life DeSantis sign a 15-week abortion ban) — including the oh-so-sinister decision to remove the above material.

The entire segment, an abomination masquerading as humor, isn’t worth the 25-minute runtime. But this writer still combed through the humorless video so you don’t have to and can confirm one thing: Not once did Oliver even attempt to cover the graphic content available in some of these books.

The reason is pretty simple: There’s nothing to justify. If parents don’t want their children exposed to sexually graphic content, that’s it. There’s nothing more to say.

“We believe in the rights of parents to be involved in the education of their children and therefore have enacted curriculum transparency legislation, so that the parents know what books are being used in the classroom, what books do their kids have access to, and then they have procedures where they can say, ‘Wait a minute’ – you know, some of the stuff you saw up there – ‘that is pornographic,” DeSantis said on Wednesday. “Why would we have that in a media center with 10-year-old students?

“It’s just wrong.”

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Once again, the ADL puts Leftism ahead of the welfare of Jews

Orthodox and other right-leaning Jews who attended the annual Conservative Political Action Conference, or CPAC, near Washington, D.C., last weekend criticized the Anti-Defamation League for its article attacking “anti-transgender hate” at the conference and for singling out an Orthodox Jew, Libs of TikTok creator Chaya Raichik, for criticism.

Raichik also returned fire at ADL in comments to The Daily Signal.

“The ADL, an organization purportedly founded to combat Jew-hatred, has now reached the new low of rebuking a publicly Orthodox Jewish woman for her defense of male/female biological and sexual complementarity, as it is reflected in Genesis 1:27,” Newsweek’s Josh Hammer, a religiously traditional Jew, told The Daily Signal in a statement Wednesday. “We have reached peak parody. The left-wing hack Jonathan Greenblatt has taken the ADL through the looking glass.”

The ADL’s Center on Extremism published an article Monday titled “At CPAC 2023, Anti-Transgender Hate Took Center Stage.” The article’s featured image showed Raichik, the Orthodox Jewish woman behind the popular Libs of TikTok Twitter account that shares TikTok videos exposing teachers, doctors, and activists pushing agendas such as transgender identity in schools, hospitals, and elsewhere.

The ADL article did not mention Raichik’s faith, but described her as an example of the “anti-LGBTQ+ extremists” at the conference. It also did not quote Raichik’s remarks, but claimed that “the conference has previously welcomed white supremacists, right-wing nationalists, and other extremists” shortly after mentioning her name. It went on to describe a “dangerous trend of anti-LGBTQ+ extremism in the U.S.,” and described the notion of the “‘objective truth’ of womanhood” as advocacy for the “marginalization of trans people.”

“For me, this really crosses a line,” Rabbi Yaakov Menken, managing director of the Coalition for Jewish Values, an organization that represents more than 2,000 Orthodox Jewish rabbis in public policy, told The Daily Signal. “Just weeks ago, we praised the ADL, but to demonize biblical values and highlight an observant Jew as an example of ‘extremism’ and ‘hate’ is simply projection on their part.”

Menken, who was speaking in his personal capacity as a CPAC attendee, added that “the extremists are those who call it ‘normal’ to mutilate minor children and put [intact] biological men in women’s private spaces, and by siding with that, the ADL helps encourage antisemitism on all sides.”

Nachman Mostofsky, executive director and vice president at the Amariah, an organization dedicated to promoting Torah values, told The Daily Signal in an interview Wednesday that ADL has become “a self-fulfilling prophecy of the creation of antisemitism.”

He criticized ADL for creating “this mystique” that antisemitism is everywhere. “When you call young men ‘Nazis,’ and they’re not, and you keep doing that, they become ‘Nazis,’” he warned.

ADL’s promotion of transgender identity “has nothing to do with antisemitism,” he argued. “Clearly, the ADL either wasn’t there at CPAC or they were there and they’re lying. I didn’t hear any transphobia. What I did hear was anti-grooming.”

Mostofsky noted the irony that progressive activists—some of whom previously condemned circumcision as child abuse—now champion cutting “the whole thing off and turning it inside out.”

David BenHooren, publisher of The Jewish Voice and a CPAC attendee, called the ADL article “beyond deplorable.”

“Besides creating Libs of Tik Tok, Ms. Raichik … deeply cares about her family and families throughout this country,” the publisher told The Daily Signal in a Wednesday statement. “I can tell you that she is definitely not homophobic or anti-gay in any way, shape, or form.”

BenHooren warned that “the gay rights movement” is now “exploiting” its status “by fostering and supporting the trans movement and its nefarious agenda of attempting to groom young children for a sexualized lifestyle.” He cited the promotion of “Drag Queen Story Hour,” the growing push for transgender identity in schools, and Disney’s promotion of a transgender character as evidence of a “paradigm cultural shift” tracing back to the “woke, progressive movement.”

“They are interested in cultivating and indoctrinating the new generation of youth with a perverted set of values that flies in the face of the Judeo-Christian morality that has been the backbone of this nation,” he warned, condemning the ADL for jumping on this “woke agenda bandwagon.”

BenHooren said ADL has shifted from fighting antisemitism to advocating “for the rights of those who seek to poison the minds, hearts, and souls of our children,” which “can never be tolerated or accepted.”

Justine Murray, a Jewish producer for Newsmax, also condemned ADL in comments to The Daily Signal.

“The smug Tikkun Olamist JINOS (Jews in Name Only) at the ADL continue to do more harm than good for Jewish Americans,” said Murray, who attended the conference. She was referring to the concept of tikkun olam, the notion of repairing the world that left-leaning Jews use to advocate social justice causes.

“What used to be a noble mission to combat antisemitism has turned into an adoption of all the trendy left-wing causes,” Murray said, condemning the ADL for “patting themselves on the back for spending their entire day tying every single incident of a swastika etched in a toilet stall to white supremacy.”

“When it comes to actual threats from groups they refuse to name pummeling Jews in the streets of New York daily, the ADL remains silent because it doesn’t fit their political narrative,” she added. “The ADL is only successful at throwing fellow Jews under the bus in an attempt to virtue signal to some of the very people who wish for our extermination.”

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Collapsed bank was Woke

Collapsed lender Silicon Valley Bank operated without a chief risk officer between April 2022 and January 2023 while the operation's United Kingdom-based CRO stands accused of prioritizing pro-diversity initiatives over her actual role.

This revelation comes after the firm became the largest bank to collapse since the 2008 financial crisis - disclosing a $1.8 billion loss in its finances.

SVB's former head of risk, Laura Izurieta, who formerly performed a similar role for Capital One, left the bank in April 2022. She wasn't replaced until January 2023 when the bank hired Kim Olson, formerly of Japanese bank Sumitomo Mitsui.

While Jay Ersapah, who acts as CRO for the bank in Europe, Africa and the Middle East and who describes herself as a 'queer person of color from a working-class background' - organized a host of LGBTQ initiatives including a month-long Pride campaign and implemented 'safe space' catch-ups for staff.

In a corporate video published just nine months ago, she said she 'could not be prouder' to work for SVB serving 'underrepresented entrepreneurs.'

According to a press release announcing Olson's hiring in January, she brought 'thirty years of financial services experience.'

'SVB has an impressive track record of sound growth and remaining true to its strategy of serving the innovation economy. I am excited to lead SVB’s outstanding risk management team and continue to build SVB’s risk management framework and capabilities in this important next chapter of the firm’s trajectory,' Olson said at the time.

The bank's CEO Greg Becker credited Olson's 'deep and multi-faceted financial services experience as a senior risk leader and former regulator and bank supervisor positions her perfectly to actively manage SVB’s financial and non-financial risks.'

The bank's website says that the CRO at the bank reports to a seven-person committee made up of board members and the CEO.

Meanwhile, last year professional network Outstanding listed Ersapah as a top 100 LGTBQ Future Leader.

'Jay is a leading figure for the bank’s awareness activities including being a panelist at the SVB’s Global Pride townhall to share her experiences as a lesbian of color, moderating SVB’s EMEA Pride townhall and was instrumental in initiating the organization's first ever global "safe space catch-up", supporting employees in sharing their experiences of coming out,' her bio on the Outstanding website states.

It adds that she is 'allies' with gay rights charity Stonewall and had authored numerous articles to promote LGBTQ awareness.

These included 'Lesbian Visibility Day and Trans Awareness week.'

Separately she was also praised in a Facebook post by the group 'Diversity Role Models,' a charity which campaigns against homophobic, biphobic and transphobic bullying in UK schools.

In a corporate document for the bank she said: '"You can't be what you can't see" has always been a quote that stuck with me.

'As a queer person of color and a first generation immigrant from a working class background, there were not many role models for me to 'see' growing up.

'I feel privileged to help spread awareness of lived queer experiences, partner with charitable organizations, and above all create a sense of community for our LGBTQ+ employees and allies.'

Ersapah hails from the UK where she studied an undergraduate Economics degree at the University of Warwick.

She has worked for several high-profile names in the finance sector including Citi, Barclays and consultancy firm Deloitte, according to her Linkedin profile.

She describes herself as having 'proven competency in demanding roles.'

Her profile also boasts of her 'interpersonal skills,' 'growth mindset' and ability to lead 'high-performing teams.'

Last year she featured in a corporate SVB video which purported its pro-LGBTQ credentials.

'We proactively make it our mission at SVB to ensure that our clients, employees and partners feel listened to and that their voices matter.

'From funding underrepresented entrepreneurs to having multiple employee resource groups, I could not be prouder of working for a company like SVB.'

This weekend critics hit out as Ersapah's apparent preoccupation with LGBTQ issues.

One Facebook user, Paul Tucker, wrote: 'The [SVB] Board of Directors is filled with diversity hires who are there because of their woke credentials.

'They all have pronouns in their bios, which are filled with corporate newspeak.

'The Head of Financial Risk and Model Risk Management was this nutbag: Jay Ersapah.

'This is what happens when you allow people to manage your money based on woke principles instead of on their actual skill and competence.

'I hope the depositors at this failed bank enjoy all of that diversity, because diversity is your strength, eh?'

He signed off the post: 'Get woke, go broke.'

Another Twitter user said: 'Head of Financial Risk at SVB Jay Ersapah might’ve been busy with more important projects at the bank, such as LGBTQ issues, rather than assessing risk.'

Panic rocked the financial sector Friday after the sudden collapse of SVB.

The bank was sensationally shut down by the California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation which placed its remaining assets under the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation's control.

The crisis was sparked after it disclosed a $1.8 billion loss on its bold holdings this week.

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Youngkin Defends Transgender Policies From the Woke Mob

During a CNN town hall, a 17-year-old transgender student named "Nico" asked Youngkin about his policies requiring students to use bathrooms and locker rooms and join sports teams based on their sex at birth, not their gender identity.

"Look at me. I am a transgender man," Nico said. "Do you really think the girls in my high school would feel comfortable sharing a restroom with me?"

In response, Youngkin stressed the need for schools to try "very hard" to accommodate their students, calling for adding extra bathrooms in the buildings.

"We need gender-neutral bathrooms so people can use the bathroom that they, in fact, are comfortable with," Youngkin said.

However, the Republican governor said his position on transgender athletes, which blocks transgender students from participating in sports that align with their identity, was not up for conversation.

"I don't think biological boys should be playing sports with biological girls," Youngkin said. "I think that's pretty, that's non-controversial, and something that I think is pretty well understood."

Youngkin has previously defended his viewpoint on his state's policies against transgenderism, stating that parents have the right to be involved in their children's lives, whether in or out of the classroom.

"Parents have a fundamental right to be engaged in their children's lives. And oh, by the way, children have a right to have parents engaged in their lives. We needed to fix a wrong," Youngkin said during a CNN interview in October. "The previous administration had had a policy that excluded parents and, in fact, particularly didn't require the involvement of parents. And let's be clear — parents have this right, and children don't belong to the state; they belong to families."

The Republican also defended his executive order that blocked Virginia public schools from teaching "inherently divisive concepts, including critical race theory."

"CRT isn't a class that's taught. It's a philosophy that's incorporated in the curriculum," Youngkin said, adding, "the key point is how we teach it. We need to teach it honestly and transparently, but we shouldn't teach it with judgment."

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My other blogs. Main ones below:

http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)

http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)

http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)

http://australian-politics.blogspot.com (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)

http://snorphty.blogspot.com/ (TONGUE-TIED)

http://jonjayray.com/blogall.html More blogs

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