So what’s going on? The economy is still being sluggish. A year ago, Americans were using 9.2 million barrels a day of gasoline. Now we are using 8.6 million barrels.
From Peter, we see this story about a man who is taking hormones to be a woman and is now claiming that he is having menstrual cramps. Impossible. Menstrual cramps are caused by the female reproductive organs responding to hormone changes: thickening endometrial tissue, then shedding that thickening tissue as a part of the monthly reproductive cycle.
Even ignoring the absence of endometrial tissue, the hormone changes that cause this cycle aren’t there. The hormones responsible for driving this cycle are the Luteinizing Hormone (LH), Estradiol, the Follicle Stimulating Hormone (FSH), and Progesterone. It’s a complex dance of hormones that work to control the menstrual cycle.
A gland in a woman’s brain (the pituitary gland) produces Follicle Stimulating Hormone (FSH). FSH is carried by your blood to her ovaries. FSH stimulates follicles to grow. As she approaches ovulation, one of these follicles will start growing bigger and faster than all the others. It’s known as the dominant follicle. It is this follicle that contains the mature egg that will be released when she ovulates.
While FSH is encouraging lots of follicles to grow, LH, luteinising hormone, is also produced in small amounts (by the same gland in the brain that produces FSH, the pituitary gland) throughout the follicular phase. LH encourages the follicles already growing to produce estradiol (estrogen). As a woman approaches ovulation, a surge in LH will help to ripen the dominant follicle and rupture it for the egg to be released. (This surge in LH is what the ovulation test kits try and pick up on.)
When the dominant follicle ruptures, it is now called the corpus luteum. LH stimulates the corpus luteum to produce progesterone. The corpus luteum produces both progesterone and estradiol, with the primary role of these two hormones ensuring that the lining of the uterus is fully prepared for implantation by making it thicker, so that it is ready in the event that fertilization occurs. If the woman doesn’t get pregnant, the corpus luteum breaks down, progesterone production decreases and the next menstrual cycle begins when follicle stimulating hormone starts to rise again.
He isn’t taking any female hormone except for Estradiol. Even though men produce many of these hormones, they do so in a steady level. LH and FSH order testes to produce sperm, progesterone is key in the production of testosterone, and estradiol is produced when men have an excess of testosterone, so it is converted into estradiol by an enzyme called aromatase. You can see that, even though men have all of those hormones, they are not cycling up and down from the actions of the pituitary gland and cannot produce a menstrual cycle.
So even if he DID have a uterus and other female reproductive organs, he doesn’t have the necessary hormone cycles to be having menstrual cramps. He is a delusional, mentally disturbed male who needs counseling, not pills.
I don’t care if a man is interested in having another man push a penis in his rectum. That’s his business. I don’t care if a man wants to dress up like a woman and introduce himself as a woman. Just don’t expect me to go along with any of it, and don’t parade it around in front of kids. The problem is that the left just can’t let it stay there. They have to use is to groom kids, they have to parade around and demand that we accept it, too. It’s like they are trying to use this as a lever to relive the civil rights marches of the 60’s. This isn’t that.
The Orlando Philharmonic has been advertising a “family friendly” drag show and have been allowing kids inside. The state warned them that they had better not have the show in front of kids. The Philharmonic went ahead and performed the show with children in the audience any way. Look at the content of the show for yourself and tell me that this is OK for children.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MVzD682YfcI
That was one of the milder parts of the show. If you want to see more, you can check out this link, where there are more videos embedded. One of the performed songs was “Screwdolf the Red Nippled Reindeer.” Aimed at kids, but not kid appropriate, in my opinion. That apparently doesn’t matter, because the website was advertising for “all ages” yesterday.
Children were there, so they have raised and called.
Well, the Governor of Florida says he isn’t going to put up with it, but the process takes time. They were warned, and did it anyway. I am going to wait and see if DeSantis is going to actually take action, or if this is simply a stunt to gain publicity. The “drag brunch” that DeSantis threatened to shut down six months ago is still in operation, so I am not holding my breath. This event from last night is supposedly “under investigation.”
There are a number of laws that can be used here. Chapter 847 of the Florida statutes makes it illegal to have sexual performances in front of persons under 18 years of age. Chapter 823 states that anywhere that performs these acts for minors may be declared a place of public nuisance. Once that happens, all sorts of state laws and regulations come into play. No one can carry a concealed weapon there, no liquor license, no business license, no children allowed inside, and all sorts of other legal headaches.
One of the legitimate functions of government is the protection of those who cannot protect themselves, especially including children. This venue, the parents who brought their kids, and the performers all need to be prosecuted.
The Orlando Philharmonic has called the Governor’s hand. I look forward to seeing what the Governor will do about this- is he holding a full house, or is he bluffing with a pair of fives? Governor DeSantis needs to prove that he isn’t all talk- do something to protect those kids, our kids, and our state.
As for the Drag Show? The last event of the tour will be held in Clearwater on Thursday (tonight).
Next time you see a black student getting an academic award, you can remember this story and ask yourself if there wasn’t a more qualified Asian, white, or Hispanic student who didn’t get an earned award because equity.
Yoel Roth was the head of Twitter’s safety department and policy. He chose to ban the right while leaving all sorts of pedophile related content in place. Why did he do that? Because he is likely a pedophile himself. Behold my evidence:
In his doctoral dissertation, entitled “Gay Data,” Roth argued that minors should have access to Grindr, an app that enables gay men to instantly pinpoint each other using GPS technology. “Make no mistake,” as Vice Newsput it, “Grindr is more about hooking up than dating. It’s basically a 24/7 theme park of sex in your immediate locale and uses geolocation to provide a location of the closest users. Roth, who is gay, noted in his paper that he was “documenting and analyzing my own use of these services.”
In one section, Roth wrote:
Grindr may well be too lewd or too hook-up-oriented to be a safe and age-appropriate resource for teenagers; but the fact that people under 18 are on these services already indicates that we can’t readily dismiss these platforms out of hand as loci for queer youth culture. Rather than merely trying to absolve themselves of legal responsibility or, worse, trying to drive out teenagers entirely, service providers should instead focus on crafting safety strategies that can accommodate a wide variety of use cases for platforms like Grindr—including, possibly, their role in safely connecting queer young adults.
Roth named Twitter as a platform that had become—and presumably, should remain—a “general-purpose” site for “connecting queer young adults.” Roth’s says that platforms should “focus on crafting safety strategies that can accommodate a wide variety of use cases,” including “their role in safely connecting queer young adults,” in an “overall queer social landscape” that “increasingly includes individuals under the age of 18,” rather than trying to “drive out” these users attempting to engage with “peers about their sexuality.”
In 2010, he wrote on Twitter: “Can high school students ever meaningfully consent to sex with their teachers?” Roth’s tweet contained a link to an article, “Student-teacher sex: When is it OK?” in Slate, a left-wing publication, about the perils and pitfalls of age of consent laws.
“Musk falsely implied in tweets that Twitter’s former head of trust and safety, Yoel Roth—who is gay—has advocated for child sexualization,” wrote Chas Danner at Intelligencer.
I don’t think it was false at all. I think that there has been a concerted effort to groom and sexualize students. When I was a teacher, we were specifically instructed to talk to high school students about the benefits of gay sex (I refused to do so) even back in 2016. There has been a nationwide push to turn children into little sex slaves.
I used to think that the entire “Q” thing was conspiracy theory bullshit. I am no longer quite so sure that it was.
Christmas day saw me work 13 hours in the emergency department. It was a fairly quiet day. Then came the 26th. Things were pretty quiet until 3 in the afternoon or so, then all hell broke loose. We had drunks and crazies galore.
One guy came in as a Baker Act*. He was screaming that he was a CIA trained assassin and said he was going to kill (pointing at four of us, me included) those guys as soon as EMS let him off the stretcher. My manager was standing next to me. The same manager that had to tell me that I had been suspended for the last time I had to wrestle a patient. Next to that manager were two of our doctors.
Sotto voce (so the patient couldn’t hear) I said, “How good of an assassin could you be? Killing yourself even seemed to be beyond your capabilities.” Coffee immediately shot out of the doctor’s nose. My manager said, so let’s let him off the stretcher and see what happens. I said, “Do you really want to do that? Last time that shit happened, you suspended me for a week.” The manager even laughed. We gave him some Haldol and some Benadryl, which did wonders for his attitude. After an hour or so, he was telling me that I was the smartest man he had ever met. Love that Haldol.
We also worked four codes, some other kidney and blood sugar problems, half a dozen sepsis alerts, and a stroke alert or two. We are also seeing a lot of flu and COVID. We actually had our first COVID death in quite a while. It was legit. He came in complaining of shortness of breath and had an O2 saturation of 65% and a blood pressure of 70/40. We did all we could, and even managed to get his O2 up into the 90’s with some BIPAP, but even Levophed couldn’t keep his BP up. He died about an hour after we sent him upstairs to the ICU.
Yesterday was no better. We had all sorts of craziness. A homeless woman who wanted to fight, three codes, and a dislocated hip. Conscious sedation, one nurse leaning on his pelvis, me pushing on the hip joint, and the doctor up on the bed with the patient’s knee on his shoulder, pulling. We pulled several times, then a loud pop. Nope, didn’t realign. Instead, the hip fractured. So now he’s off to ortho for surgery. Another patient had been prescribed Januvia and Novolog and the combination meant that we couldn’t keep her blood sugar up without a constant D10 drip.
Thus ends my work year for 2022. Now I don’t work again until a few days into 2023. I worked 38 hours in three days, which is why there hasn’t been any posting here to speak of.
A Baker Act is a law in Florida that says a person can be held under involuntary psychiatric observation for up to 72 hours, if a Law Enforcement Officer or Physician feels that the person presents an immediate threat of death or serious bodily harm to themselves or others. It’s generally used when a person either attempts or threatens suicide. Every state in the US has a similar law.
Like firearms, cars are tools that can be deadly if misused. A father found that out after standing in front of a pickup truck as his daughter learned to park. She mistakenly hit the gas and ran over him, killing him. A tragedy that could have been prevented, had he not been standing in a location where he could have avoided being struck.
Although I confess that I am an atheist, I have much in common with those of the Christian religion. Nearly all of the values that are prized by those of faith: honesty, family, forgiveness, duty, honor, I share with you. Each of those values are ideals that we can hang on to during the times that are here, and through the tougher times that are coming. It is through our love of each other that we will be able to get through the times to come.
It is during this, the holiest of the holidays of the Christian faith, that we pause to reflect on our lives and the things that we hold dear. We need to be with family and cherish those who are most important to us. I have spent time this Christmas with my wife, my daughter, and my grandchildren. My life is going well, financially, romantically, and otherwise. I have much to be thankful for, and I am in a better position that the vast majority of humanity. I have a wife who loves me, a roof over my head, and I am not worried about whether or not I will be able to eat today. For just those simple things, I am better off than the majority of humanity.
Here is my hope to all of you that you find yourselves just as blessed, just as happy. Spend today with your families and enjoy the time that you have together, for there will come a time when that is no longer the case. Love those close to you. Spend time. Make memories.
Most of all, have a Merry Christmas. Even if you aren’t a Christian. Take a day off from worrying about the state of the world, our country, and just worry about yourself and your family. The world of worry will still be there waiting tomorrow. Until then, let’s hope for at least one more day of peace on Earth and goodwill towards our fellow man.
I was originally going to take a few days off, but felt the need to report this. Until this morning, I was the subject of a criminal and work related investigation. I have been suspended without pay for the past week. I got the call this morning and have been cleared of all wrongdoing, just in time to return to work on Christmas Day.
I was at work a week and a half ago. Another nurse asked me to accompany her and a female technician into a patient’s room because he had been giving her some problems. I went into the room behind them, and the patient began referring to the technician as his wife. Then he accused the EMS personnel of laughing at him while they were trying to initiate an affair with his wife. Standing at his bedside, I told him that no one was making fun of him. He yelled, “You all are!” then tried getting out of bed. I touched his arm and told him to calm down. That’s when he grabbed me and tried pulling my arm to his mouth in order to bite me.
I put him in a wrist lock with one hand, then pressed on his parotid gland with the other, which forced his face into the pillow. He started kicking me and calling me a “punk ass bitch” and saying that he was a retired NYC police officer, and that he would find me on the street and “fucking kill” me.
He later contacted my employer and the police and attempted to file charges against me for battery.
The investigations took 9 days. My employer has suggested that I file counter charges, but since he was delusional, the police said any such charges would go nowhere. My employer told me that they were worried that since he was a retired cop that the local cops would take his side. I explained to him that the local cops don’t like NY cops because they constantly come down here and call the local cops a bunch of hicks and tell them how much better NYPD is.
At any rate, I can now return to work, just in time for Christmas day. At least I will get time and a half plus critical shortage bonus. ( Remember the critical needs bonuses that they cancelled back in September? They reinstated them three weeks ago, because they can’t get anyone to come to work without them.)
