The Cloak of Grief and Despair

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“There is a sacredness in tears. They are not the mark of weakness, but of power. They speak more eloquently than ten thousand tongues. They are the messengers of overwhelming grief, of deep contrition, and of unspeakable love.” — Washington Irving

“Friendship improves happiness and abates misery, by the doubling of our joy and the dividing of our grief.” — Marcus Tullius Cicero

“Tears are the silent language of grief.” — Voltaire

“The LORD is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit. Many are the afflictions of the righteous: but the LORD delivereth him out of them all.” —  Psalm 34:18-19

Many of us are feeling weighed down with overwhelming grief at what is transpiring, not only in our country, but worldwide, and especially with the evil of Hamas, the Houthis and Hezbollah attacking God’s people, Israel.

The loss of so many blessings and freedoms awaken us each day with a morbid fear of what will come next.  Not only is our country failing, but as we age, personal losses take a toll.

Friends my age say we lived through the best of times, and if I look back, I can say yes, many years were wonderful.  But now I find myself crying out to the Lord and weeping more often than not.

The outlook seems so dreary.  Yet I know that the Lord has His plans and no matter what, we win with Him.  Yet I feel as though I’m drowning in the loss of freedoms, of friends, of trust and in hope for the future.

Thankfully, my husband always makes me laugh or I’d be sobbing all day long because of the evil that has become so staggering.  What do people do without the Lord?  I can’t imagine.

This article shares my heart wrenching feelings for two families. I felt that if I expressed my deep sadness on paper, perhaps the Lord would lift my grief.

Sadness and Loss

When I was in my late 30s or early 40s, my sweet maternal gramma was opening a note from her cousin who was an artist.  He had sent a small colored pencil drawing and it was a lovely scene.  My gram said to me, “The worst thing about growing old is losing family and friends.”

Gramma was so right.  So many of our friends are gone, and so many have lost their spouses.  The grief is overwhelming for those left alone, and try as we might to help, no one but the Lord can ease the sorrow of losing a life partner.  I watched it with my mom and I watched it with my grandparents and many dear friends.  Call those friends for lunch, go shopping with them, send them cards or occasional flowers. Love and caring are so needed through the lonely days of heartbreaking loss.

My husband and I live in a very small community.  Down the street from us were two elderly people, Henry and Carol, who are dear friends.  Both had lost their first spouses and knew each other from church.  Maybe 10 or more years ago, they married and Carol sold her home and moved into Henry’s home.  During the Covid years, Carol came down with the virus and recovered in a week, even though in her 80s.  Her husband refused to sleep in another bedroom in case Carol needed him, and he never contracted Covid.  Our Lord is good!

When the Covid “vaccines” came out, Henry had them both get them.  A year later Carol, who had never been on a medication in her life, had a stroke while driving to pick up Henry from dialysis.  She ended up in hospital and then in rehab, and then home again.  They had to rely on church friends to be drivers for Henry as Carol was no longer allowed to drive.

Another year passed and Carol was diagnosed with congestive heart failure.  She’s now on added medications.

Recently, Henry’s two remaining children urged them to go into assisted living.  Carol did not want to do that, and didn’t want to leave their home, but ultimately this is what happened.  Henry lost his one daughter several years back and he said many times that she was the only daughter who had grown into a wonderful woman; he didn’t have much use for his son and the other daughter.  Those two seem driven by greed and both of them speak ill of their father and his second wife.

The son and daughter cleaned Henry and Carol’s house out and had an estate sale.  One of Carol’s friends would drive her to the house to see if there was anything else she wanted before it was gone, but Henry’s two children became angry with her and disallowed her to enter her own home.  The house will be sold to pay for the cost of assisted living.

Henry and Carol are not happy where they are, but the dye has been cast and now there is no turning back.  These two people are locked away and will perish in this place they detest because of their age and Henry’s children.  Neither of Henry’s children work and both could have helped with their father and his wife to allow them to remain in their home.  Carol’s sons have had to go along with this as only one son lives close and he is still employed.

How sad this makes me for them both, but especially for Carol.  We will miss them both, but especially Carol, and I know how desperate she feels.  She is no longer independent and cannot have any time for herself away from people or even Henry.  My heart breaks for them.

Cancer Diagnosis and Fenbendazole

Our neighbor next door is in his early 50s, and his wife is in her late 40s.  Both are still working and they have no children.  Joe is a smoker and every night he imbibes red wine.  Nothing wrong with that except now he has lung cancer.  His wife has always worked in medical offices, and she noticed that Joe was coughing more than normal.  She sent him for tests.

At first, he was diagnosed with pneumonia and was given medications and inhalers.  The inhalers gave him kidney infections (a side effect of the brand).  When he recovered, he was sent for further testing and over a period of six to eight months he finally received the diagnosis of lung cancer in one lung in an area that is inoperable.  Oncologists have him on 27 weeks of chemo with a port going into the lung.  He was told to stop smoking, but we still see him with cigarettes.  Radiation follows the chemo and then removal of the one lung.  His wife, Bonnie, is pleased that cancer is only in one lung.  Joe doesn’t have any extra meat on his bones, so these treatments will really be difficult.

There are some amazing results with Fenbendazole in treating cancers; it’s another anti-parasitic like Ivermectin.  In fact, ABC interviewed a man who was told that his cancer had spread.

Watch the video from ABC Network with Joe Tippens talking about being diagnosed with lung cancer, given three months to live, and then being cured with Fenbendazole and vitamins.  Six years later he is still alive.

In Dr. David Williams’ important eight-page article, A Cure for Cancer, Hidden in Plain Sight he writes about Fenbendazole.  If you have cancer, or you know anyone who has cancer, give them this article.

Dr. Williams writes about what happened to Joe Tippens.

“Two days later, Joe contacted his friend, a large animal veterinarian, who had posted a story online about a scientist working for Merck pharmaceuticals in the veterinary division. The scientist happened to be testing the effects of their existing products on mice that had various cancers. That’s when she discovered that one of their dog products (a dewormer) was 100 percent effective. This same scientist had stage 4 brain cancer and, like Joe, was also given three months to live. She started taking the dog dewormer and six weeks later, she was clear of the cancer.”

In 2002, while working at MD Anderson, Dr. Tapas Mukhopadhyay and his colleagues reported that mebendazole elicited a potent antitumor effect on human cancer cell lines both in vitro and in vivo.  It is a sister product to Fenbendazole and is typically found in deworming products for humans.

He went further in 2012 and published another study showing that fenbendazole was a potent compound for inhibiting the growth of cancer cells without doing any harm to or affecting the growth of normal cells.

Again in 2018, Dr. Mukhopadhyay published yet another study highlighting fenbendazole as a safe and inexpensive anthelmintic drug possessing “efficient antiproliferative activity” in human cancer cells. (This basically means it inhibits the growth of cancer cells.)

In that same report the doctor stated that FDA and others had published pre-clinical data on toxicology studies showing that dosages several times the approved dosages had no adverse side effects in animals.

MD Anderson isn’t the only facility that has knowledge of fenbendazole.

Dr. Williams writes, “In 2009, researchers at Johns Hopkins evaluated various drugs for treatment of glioblastoma—the most common brain cancer in adults. It is very aggressive, with the average survival 11 to 15 months, and it is considered incurable. They implanted the cancer cells into the brains of mice, which is the normal procedure in these types of studies. Before implanting the cells, however, these particular mice were treated for pinworms with fenbendazole. The brain cancer did not develop. It never grew.”

Stanford Medical Center reports that Fenbendazole is a completely safe and effective antineoplastic agent that can be repurposed for human use in treating genitourinary malignancies.

On page six, Dr. Williams gives Joe Tippens’ protocol with 222 mg. Fenbendazole daily and three other vitamin supplements.

In a recent Canada Free Press article, it included a video of a Marine who had chemo, radiation and surgery but it had not stopped his stage 4 colon cancer. He was told by his oncologist to call Hospice.  Kevin Hennings’ sister called him and told him to try Fenbendazole.  He tells the story, how he took both Fenbendazole and Ivermectin and is now cancer free.

Joe and Bonnie were given all of this information.  I don’t believe they watched any of the videos or read Dr. Williams’ article.  They said they’d stick with chemo, radiation and the removal of one lung.

I’ve laid in bed at night thinking that if only he’d start on the Fenbendazole protocol now, he may save his lung from being removed and cure himself of the cancer.  Instead, he’ll feed the cancer with the sugar in his evening wine, when he most likely could cure the disease and save his lung.

Joe Tippens is a foody and he never stopped eating whatever he wanted, yet the cancer was still destroyed.

My heart breaks because there is a possible cure for Joe, but they still trust the Medical Industrial Complex and the standard poison, burn and cut treatments for cancers.

Conclusion, Our Lord’s Love

In David’s imprecatory Psalm 56:8-9, he is crying out to the Lord.  He says, “Thou tellest my wanderings: put thou my tears into thy bottle: are they not in thy book?  When I cry unto thee, then shall mine enemies turn back: this I know; for God is for me.”

David begins this sad psalm with the words “Be gracious to me, O God, for man tramples on me; all day long an attacker oppresses me.” The Philistines had captured David in Gath, and David was, at the time he wrote this psalm, a prisoner of war, and he had reason to cry and be sorrowful. David says that his struggles are recorded in God’s book (verse 8), and he asks God to put his tears in His bottle.

The idea behind the keeping of “tears in a bottle” is remembrance. David is expressing a deep trust in God, that God will remember his sorrow and tears and will not forget about him. He says, in the midst of this troubling time, “When I cry unto thee, then shall mine enemies turn back: This I know; for God is for me.” (Psalm 56:9) and in verse 11, he states, “In God have I put my trust: I will not be afraid what man can do unto me.”

The Lord remembers all the things that happen in our lives, including the suffering endured for His sake. In fact, there are many instances in Scripture of God’s recognition of man’s suffering. God is a tender-hearted Father to us, a God who feels with us and weeps with us, “And the LORD said, I have surely seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt, and have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters; for I know their sorrows.”  (Exodus 3:7)

If we believe the promises of God, we must wait upon Him, long for Him daily, listen to Him in our quiet times, look to Him for our every need, and truly live for Him throughout our lives no matter what trials come.

He hears every cry of those who belong to Him.

©2024. Kelleigh Nelson. All rights reserved.

Media Attack Florida’s Surgeon General for Defying Science but the ‘Pharmacology of Vaccines is Deceptive’

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“The Washington Post and media in general know their bread is buttered by pharma but some sources say pharma and its industry professionals offer deceptive benefit for symptoms with adverse reaction risk.” — Dr. Richard Ruhling, MD, board-certified in Internal Medicine.

In contrast to ‘authorities’ who make a living in that industry Ruhling says people should know both sides and let parents decide what’s best for their child, as Dr. Ladapo said.

My background includes a Master’s degree in Public Health and a course in Epidemiology that most MD’s do not get.

For example, epidemiology looks as people who don’t get a disease like autism and populations that do get it—tiny babies that get so many shots. Japan waits a year and they have less. It’s not the vaccine, but the mercury that’s added to multi-dose vials as a preservative. Mercury is a neurotoxin and its symptoms can cause symptoms of autism that has become an epidemic in most of the U.S., but not in Quaker or Mennonites who don’t vaccinate.

I and my wife had a couple kids and adopted four more. None of them had any vaccinations and they all grew up healthy with one daughter featured on the cover of a health and fitness magazine.

The former editor of the New England Journal of Medicine, Marcia Angell, MD, wrote The Truth About the Drug Companies—How They Deceive Us. It’s a book title that sounds so much like the apocalyptic warning from the Bible where pharmakeia (Greek word in Rev 18:23) “deceives all nations” but it’s badly translated sorcery.

I think Florida gets negative press on this issue because of DeSantis’ stand against the covid shot, and in retrospect, evidence is mounting that supports DeSantis. In January, Cambridge University reported 25% of folks who got a shot for covid now have VAIDS—Vaccine Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome.

This is further explained by the FDA post that media never reported—maybe Biden’$1 Billion to promote the shot was a factor, but those who got the shot have higher risk for dozens of health problems suggested by the FDA—Readers can check this out on page 16 https://www.fda.gov/media/143557/download.

©2024. Richard Ruhling, MD. All rights reserved.

WATCH: ‘The War On Children’ an exposé of an ongoing battle for control of the next generation and their minds.

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The War On Children website states,

Until now, only pieces of this war have been exposed but this groundbreaking documentary puts ALL of the puzzle pieces together to reveal the full battle plan being used by the left to control the future. To win this war you have to understand the tactics your enemy is using to beat you. Then it’s time to go on offense. Are you ready to be the warrior that children need or will you let the global elite control the future and turn our kids into their soldiers?

The War on Children features whistleblowers, leftists caught on camera, survivors of child mutilation, trafficking victims, corporate executives exposing the plan to sexualize children, the creator of Libs of TikTok, Senator Rand Paul, Riley Gaines, Drag Performer, Pornhub’s Sex Ed Instructor, and many more.

WATCH: The War on Children

Freedom Forever is an organization on the frontlines protecting children from ALL forms of child abuse, trafficking and exploitation. In support of The War On Children documentary, they’re giving away The Parenting Revolution digital manual, a great resource and battle plan for parents.

© Copyright 2024. The War on Children. All rights reserved.

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Florida Grand Jury finds Finds Masks and Covid Lockdowns Were Harmful and Ineffective

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Florida has issued it’s 22nd Statewide Grand Jury Report, which found that masks and Covid lockdowns were both harmful and ineffective.

Preliminary findings show inefficacy of masks, lockdowns, and other nonpharmaceutical interventions.

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Today, the 22nd Statewide Grand Jury released their first interim report, which includes findings on the inefficacy of masks and the years of lockdowns. On December 13, 2022, Governor DeSantis petitioned the Florida Supreme Court for a statewide grand jury to investigate crimes and wrongdoing committed against Floridians related to the COVID-19 vaccine.

The report noted roadblocks in the Statewide Grand Jury’s investigative efforts due to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), the Food & Drug Administration (FDA) and the U.S. Army refusing to provide representatives to testify before the jury. These entities played a substantial hand in the contracting, approval, and distribution process for the COVID-19 vaccines.

Major highlights of the report include:

  1. On nonpharmaceutical interventions (NPIs): “To be clear, scientific research into NPIs and their consequences did not begin with the outbreak of COVID-19. A wealth of contemporaneous scientific information already existed in major publications that could have informed a much more robust and meaningful response with respect to NPIs, but much of it was ignored or even attacked by mainstream public health and media entities in the early months of the pandemic, for reasons that are not always clear. In short, this was not an ‘information’ problem, it was a ‘judgment’ problem.”
  2. On lockdowns: “Lockdowns were not a good trade. Comparative data showed that jurisdictions that held to them tended to end up with higher overall excess mortality. This is especially evident when compared to jurisdictions that targeted their protective efforts towards the highest-risk groups instead of mandating large-scale, extended periods of quarantine for everyone.”
  3. On safety and efficacy: “It should also be apparent that establishing the ‘safety’ of a biological product necessitates a comprehensive, meaningful and accurate evaluation of the risk presented by the disease that product is designed to address.”
  4. On masking: “We have never had sound evidence of their effectiveness against SARS-CoV-2 transmission” and “there have always been legitimate questions around the impracticality of individual adherence to mask recommendations, but once it became clear that the primary transmission vector of SARS-CoV-2 was via aerosol, their potential efficacy was further diminished. Public health agencies failed to adequately explain this important distinction to the American public in favor of a broad mask recommendation that did not make nearly enough distinction between the types of masks available and put at risk those it sought to help. Well-financed federal agencies chose to fill the discourse with flawed observational and laboratory studies, hiding behind their conclusion of ‘no equipoise’ to avoid the potential embarrassment of the public health advice they championed being invalidated by evidence.”
  5. On hospitalization risk: “We know for a fact that this happened because numerous federal and state health officials have publicly stated that they did not ask or require hospitals to distinguish cases where someone was admitted with incidental SARS-CoV-2 infection versus cases where someone was so sick with symptoms of COVID-19 disease that he or she required hospitalization. Thus, it is highly likely that the CDC’s number of total hospitalizations is inflated to some degree with asymptomatic or minor SARS-CoV-2 infections that were classified as ‘hospitalizations’ in order to financially benefit the hospital.”
  6. On collateral consequences: “Somehow, because of panic, hubris, ineptitude or some unfortunate combination of the three, this widely rejected idea not only made its way back into scientific discourse in 2020, it became the law of the land in most of the United States between 2020 and 2022. It is clear to this Grand Jury that whatever benefits inured from these mandates, they were not worth the price.”

Nonetheless, the apolitical Statewide Grand Jury concluded in its first interim report that “there are still many months and much more testimony and evidence to come before our work will be finished. The issue we have been asked to examine is different from prior statewide grand juries in that it obviously affects people all over the United States—and perhaps the world—in much the same way as it affects citizens of the State of Florida.”

Governor Ron DeSantis and State Surgeon General Dr. Joseph A. Ladapo met with members of Florida’s Public Health Integrity Committee (PHIC) to discuss the First Interim Report released by the Florida Statewide 22nd Grand Jury on the harmful impacts of mask mandates and lockdowns, all pushed by the federal government.

Watch the roundtable discussion.

“Florida rejected the prevailing orthodoxy regarding non-pharmaceutical interventions, but in reality, just followed pre-COVID pandemic response guidance, which elite bureaucrats tossed aside as fear and hysteria took over,” said Governor Ron DeSantis. “Florida preserved freedom and blocked mandates. The grand jury has now confirmed what we knew all along – Florida got it right.”

In this initial report, the grand jury noted that their investigation was hampered due to the refusal to participate by various federal agencies including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Even with this refusal from the federal government impeding a review to allow for transparency and accountability, the report’s determinations were clear:

Lockdowns and mask mandates caused more collateral damage than good. The jury identified anxiety, depression, suicidal behavior, and attention deficits were attributable to the “heavy-handed” policies of lockdowns.

Lockdowns resulted in higher excess mortality rates. The jury found that jurisdictions that implemented lockdowns tended to have higher overall excess mortality rates.

Evidence to support mask mandates were abysmal. “There is uncertainty about the effects of face masks,” the jury concluded. There has never been sound evidence of effectiveness against the virus from face masks that provided statistically significant benefits.

The CDC’s COVID-19 hospitalization data is likely inflated. The jury found that the CDC’s number of total COVID-19 hospitalizations is likely inflated due to asymptomatic or minor SARS-CoV-2 infections among patients that were classified as COVID-19 hospitalizations in order to financially benefit the hospital.

“Leading by common sense and sound science was a priority for Florida from day one of COVID-19,” said State Surgeon General Dr. Joseph A. Ladapo. “The findings of the grand jury demonstrate how going against federal mandates was the right choice for the health and freedom of all Floridians. The lasting damage done to Americans by COVID-19 mandates is no secret, but the grand jury’s first interim report makes it even more evident.”

“During the pandemic, we threw away the basic principles of public health,” said Dr. Martin Kulldorff, PhD. “The verdict is in. Lockdowns were a huge mistake.”

“CDC and other bodies ignored basic science, used their power to silence scientists that didn’t agree with them, and subverted high-quality evidence to make decisions,” said Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, MD, PhD. “In 2021, [Governor DeSantis] ordered monoclonal antibody treatment for Floridians, and the Biden administration cut the funding at a time that would have saved countless lives. Now, I don’t know for sure, but it looked to me like one political party trying to hurt members of another political party.”

“There have been some accounting tricks used to make COVID-19 seem more dangerous than it really was. There is something odd that a fundamental principle of public health was thrown under the bus,” said Dr. Bret Weinstein, PhD. “It is great to see the state of Florida acting in a capacity of international leadership. The entire planet is suffering from the exhaustion from COVID.”

“Every American knows a large number of mistakes were made. We’re not seeing a nation come together on what we did wrong,” said Dr. Joseph Fraiman, MD. “I hope the grand jury can offer our country guidance on how to organize our government and how to handle events like this in the future.”

“Spotlight needs to be shown on the federal agencies and their actions during the pandemic. That needs to come from the highest level possible, and that’s not happening,” said Dr. Steven Templeton, PhD. “I don’t think [the federal government] has an appetite right now to address these problems, and I don’t think there is going to be an appetite anytime soon for it.”

Copyright 2024. Dr. Rich Swier. All rights reserved.

Spontaneous Recovery – The Body’s Power to Heal from Cancer and Chronic Disease

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The following is a transcript of this video.

“Natural forces within us are the true healers of disease.”

Hippocrates

Modern medicine has achieved remarkable results. Its ability to save people from ailments which a mere generation ago would have led to an untimely death, borders on the miraculous. But when it comes to chronic illness modern medicine has its limits. Sometimes the treatment is worse than the disease. Sometimes the treatment only provides temporary relief from symptoms. Sometimes there is no treatment. Fortunately, modern medicine does not possess a monopoly on our ability to heal as the body possesses innate powers that can heal many chronic health issues. In this video we explore the body’s natural capacity to heal and look the role self-transformation plays in promoting these healing abilities.

“. . .health and illness are not random states in a particular body or body part. They are, in fact, an expression of an entire life lived. . .”

Gabor Mate, The Myth of Normal

Our body is constantly at work healing itself. White blood cells clean out wounds and combat infections, fibroblast cells create new tissue to repair ruptures to our skin and flesh, new bone cells are created to fuse fractures, and the immune system can identify and neutralize all sorts of harmful pathogens. But the body can do more than just heal from wounds, infections, fractures, and viral and bacterial illnesses, it also has the ability to heal itself from virtually all forms of chronic disease as is evidenced by the phenomenon of spontaneous recovery.

A spontaneous recovery occurs when an individual is unexpectedly cured from a disease in a way that cannot be explained through the paradigm of modern medicine. Absent any intervention by doctors, without surgery or pharmaceutical drugs, some people heal from cancer, heart disease, multiple sclerosis, Chron’s disease, rheumatoid arthritis, and other forms of chronic illness. For example, with regards to cancer, it is well-established that tumors can shrink in size, or even disappear absent surgery, chemotherapy, or radiation, or as was written in the medical journal Oncology Letters:

“. . .malignant tumors as well as metastases, of almost all histological types, can regress spontaneously although certain histological types regress more frequently than others.”

Sante Basso Ricci & Ugo Cerchiari, Spontaneous regression of malignant tumors: Importance of the immune system and other factors

A spontaneous recovery does not necessarily occur suddenly, or without cause, rather as Caryle Hirshberg and Marc Barasch explain in their book Remarkable Recovery:

“The original meaning of the word “spontaneous” (derived from the Latin sponte, “of free will”), has little to do with the suddenness, rapidity, or immediate change without cause which contemporary usage implies. The word, the dictionary reveals, originally had more to do with something occurring due to a “native internal proneness,” a tendency to “act by its own impulse, energy or natural law.” It implies a natural process that arises from within.”

Caryle Hirshberg & Marc Barasch, Remarkable Recovery

While only a small fraction of individuals with a chronic disease will spontaneously recover, and while most spontaneous recoveries go unreported, there are still many cases of this phenomenon documented in the medical literature. For example, in Mind Over Medicine the physician Lissa Rankin points to a case of a man suffering from pancreatic cancer, one of the most devastating forms of this disease. This man was scheduled for surgery, but had a heart attack due to a presurgical procedure which forced delay of the surgery and as Rankin writes:

“Within four weeks of his heart attack, while he was recovering from the cardiac event, the symptoms and laboratory findings of his pancreatic cancer began to resolve. Four months after the initial diagnosis, a CT scan revealed that his tumor had disappeared completely – without surgery, chemotherapy, or any other cancer treatment. Four other case studies in the medical literature report “spontaneous” remissions from inoperable pancreatic cancers.”

Lissa Rankin, Mind Over Medicine

An article titled Notes on Spontaneous Regression of Cancer examines twelve cases of spontaneous remissions and tries to understand what life changes may have led to these recoveries. One of the most remarkable cases involved a patient with a grade four brain tumour:

“Dr. Maurice Green, as an intern, observed the treatment of a physician with glioblastoma multiform [grade 4 brain tumour]. The operation was unsuccessful. The patient, however, had a regression rather than progression of symptoms… Eventually he left the hospital completely well, indicating only that he felt differently about life after facing death ….”

Charles Weinstock, Notes on spontaneous regression of cancer. Journal of the American Society of Psychosomatic Dentistry & Medicine

Examples of spontaneous recoveries are not limited to cancer; they span the spectrum of chronic diseases, from cardiovascular and autoimmune diseases to neurological disorders, blood disorders, and skin conditions. There is even the mysterious Lazarus phenomenon which is the unassisted, or spontaneous recovery, from cardiac arrest after a patient has been declared dead and all attempts at resuscitation have ended.

If the body can bring itself back from the brink of death and cure itself from diseases believed to be terminal, then its capacity for healing is far greater than most of us realize. Our goal should be to harness this power to help us heal from chronic ailments or to prevent their onset. For even if we turn to conventional medicine to treat whatever ails us, when our body is optimized to heal the efficacy of such treatments will improve.

Research into spontaneous recovery has yet to unveil a universal formula or specific set of steps to unlock the body’s vast healing potentials, as many factors influence this capacity, and individual needs vary. Those who have studied numerous cases of spontaneous recovery, however, suggest that there are recurring patterns and shared contributing factors that offer potential insights into how we can prime our body to heal.

On the one hand there are the physical factors that contribute to healing, these include changes to diet, regular exercise, improving the quality of sleep, and the breaking of addictions to drugs or alcohol. Factors related to the health of the body are crucially important to our ability to heal. But there is a psychological factor that stands above these in rank of importance, and this is the willingness to undergo a self-transformation.

Self-transformation is critical to the process of physical healing for two main reasons. Firstly, it is often only when we transform our sense of self that we develop the courage, discipline, and desire to change the physical habits that are thwarting our ability to heal. Secondly, self-transformation helps correct for the unhealthy patterns of thought, belief, and emotion, that through the body-mind connection, keep us locked in a state of sickness. Many of these thought and emotional patterns operate below the threshold of conscious awareness and are the product of our conditioning, bit it an upbring in an unhealthy environment or years of conforming to the sickness of modern society. If we free ourselves from this conditioning through self-transformation, we free ourselves from the damaging physiological responses that are dictated by our maladaptive thoughts, behaviours, and emotions.

The literature on spontaneous recovery supports the assertion that self-transformation facilitates healing, for example in the book Cured Jeffrey Rediger who examined hundreds of cases of spontaneous recoveries, writes:

“People who experienced spontaneous healings disrupted the default mode, got out of that rut, saw and experienced themselves in an entirely new way. . .”

Jeffrey Rediger, Cured

Or as Caryle Hirshberg and Marc Barasch write in Remarkable Recovery:

“. . .it has been noted by a number of researchers that extraordinary healing is often preceded by profound personal change, sometimes even what seems like a startlingly different personality.

Several researchers have noted sudden psychological turning points [or what are called] “existential shifts” preceding remarkable recovery. Dr. Marco DeVries and his associates found that a group of spontaneous remission cases they studied all showed a relatively sudden change toward increased autonomous behavior, and significantly altered attitudes toward illness, treatment, relationships, and spiritual beliefs.”

Caryle Hirshberg and Marc Barasch, Remarkable Recovery

In a paper titled “Psychological Changes Preceding Spontaneous Remission of Cancer” several researchers discovered that common among those who spontaneously healed from cancer was:

“…an increased dystonic reaction to limited aspects of the personality and an increased syntonic reaction to a wider set of characteristics than normally accessed.”

Schilder, J. N., de Vries, M. J., Goodkin, K., & Antoni, M. (2004). Psychological Changes Preceding Spontaneous Remission of Cancer. Clinical Case Studies

In layman’s terms this amounts to a rejection of the limiting aspects of one’s personality and an opening up to, and acceptance of, a greater sense of self.

As self-transformation can lead in many directions, some good and some bad, which form of it primes the body for healing? The etymology of the word heal offers a clue, as at root this word means a return to wholeness. A movement in the direction of psychological wholeness, which Carl Jung identified as the epitome of psychological health, is the form of self-transformation that promotes healing. Psychological wholeness is an ideal state which can only ever be approached, never fully attained, and it entails increased awareness of all aspects of who we are and integration of these aspects into our conscious sense of self. In volume 16 of his Collected Works, Carl Jung wrote that:

“…no previous age has ever needed wholeness so much. It is abundantly clear that this is the prime problem confronting the art of psychic healing in our day.”

Carl Jung, Collected Works Volume 16

Wholeness is attained through self-acceptance, coupled with self-knowledge, and expressed through acts of courage. Without self-acceptance we tend to deny and repress aspects of who we are, thus blocking their healthy expression. Without self-knowledge we never discover our true potential and what we value in life. Without courage we never express our potentials in the service of valued ends. Or as Mate wrote:

“When we heal, we are engaged in recovering our lost parts of self, not trying to change or “better” them. As the depth psychologist and wilderness guide Bill Plotkin told me, the core question is “not so much looking at what’s wrong, but where is the person’s wholeness not fully realized or lived out?””

Gabor Mate, The Myth of Normal

While self-transformation can enhance the healing capacities of the body, the fact remains that we are never in complete control of an illness, nor of matters of life and death. We can take all the steps necessary to heal and yet remain sick. But this does not invalidate the benefits of self-transformation as a response to illness or disease. For the pursuit of wholeness is an enriching and meaningful experience that will help us endure life no matter the health of our body. In fact, many people only wake up to their more authentic self when faced with their mortality and so amidst the great suffering that accompanies disease, a silver lining can be found. An illness or disease may be the necessary spark that inspires us to discover who we truly are and which imbues us with the courage to live in a way more aligned with our authentic sense of self.

 “It is only in the face of death that man’s self is born.”

Saint Augustine

Or as Martin Heidegger wrote:

“If I take death into my life, acknowledge it, and face it squarely, I will free myself from the anxiety of death and the pettiness of life – and only then will I be free to become myself.”

Martin Heidegger, Being and Time

EDITORS NOTE: This Academy of Ideas video is republished with permission. All rights reserved.

Oral Arguments begin February 7th, 2024 before the Florida Supreme Court on Proposed Amendment that Codifies Unrestricted Abortion

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Liberty Counsel Founder and Chairman Mat Staver will be presenting oral arguments before the Florida Supreme Court on Wednesday, February 7, 2024, beginning at 9:00 a.m. EST, regarding a proposed amendment that would codify unrestricted abortion as a right in the state constitution.

Liberty Counsel represents Florida Voters Against Extremism which is urging the Florida Supreme Court not to approve the wording of a proposed amendment that is misleading and deceptive and violates the single subject rule.

The proposed amendment, “Amendment to Limit Government Interference with Abortion,” would create a new section in the Florida Constitution “limiting government interference with abortion.” The full text of the accompanying ballot summary states: “No law shall prohibit, penalize, delay, or restrict abortion before viability or when necessary to protect the patient’s health, as determined by the patient’s healthcare provider. This amendment does not change the Legislature’s constitutional authority to require notification to a parent or guardian before a minor has an abortion.”

The proposed amendment is sponsored by Floridians Protecting Freedom, Inc., a political committee supported by the Florida Alliance of Planned Parenthood Affiliates, the American Civil Liberties Union, and other groups that support unrestricted abortion on demand up to birth.

The effect of the proposed amendment would prevent the State of Florida from regulating all abortions that a vague and undefined “healthcare provider” may deem “necessary” to protect the woman’s “health.” The amendment leaves the terms “necessary” and “health” purposefully undefined and vague. The proposed amendment would permit Partial-Birth Abortion, which is banned by the federal Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act. This conflict alone with the federal law disqualifies the proposed amendment. The proposed amendment also violates the Florida Constitution’s single-subject requirement by addressing multiple subjects, including pre-viability abortions and health in the same proposal. Those are distinct issues that cannot permissibly be put into a single ballot initiative.

According to the Florida Department of Health, a “healthcare practitioner” includes nearly 60 categories — everything from a massage therapist, audiologist, 911 public safety telecommunicator, and a tattoo artist. According to this proposed amendment, any of those professions could refer a woman for an abortion.

Please text or call Jack Kinnett, Vice President of Constituency Affairs for the Liberty Counsel @ 407.702.7478 or email Jack@LC.org for information if you are interested in attending or want additional info.

Hear Live Argument Here:

Oral Argument Broadcasts & Ceremonial Sessions

Liberty Counsel’s Briefs:

FL Voters Against Extremism PC (PDF)

Brief FL Voters Against Extremism – Filed (PDF)

Press Releases:

FL Supreme Court Will Hear Abortion Initiative Argument

Deceptive Abortion Initiative in Florida Must Be Rejected

FL Supreme Court Asked To Reject Deceptive and Misleading Abortion Amendment

Media:

(AUDIO) The Florida Supreme Court Will Hear Oral Arguments Regarding This Deceptive Amendment

(AUDIO) Florida Supreme Court Will Hear Abortion Initiative Argument

(AUDIO) Florida Supreme Court Must Reject Misleading Abortion Amendment

©2024. Dr. Rich Swier. All rights reserved.

Prosecution of Pro-Lifers Continues under Biden’s DOJ, with 6 More Convictions

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On Tuesday, a guilty verdict was announced for six pro-life activists for violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act at an abortion facility near Nashville, Tenn. The Biden administration’s Justice Department brought the charges, which stemmed from a peaceful protest on March 5, 2021, in which a group of pro-lifers prayed and sang hymns at the entrance to the Carafem Health Center Clinic.

Video of the protest shows a group of approximately 20-30 pro-life activists peacefully praying and singing hymns while standing and sitting along the walls of a hallway leading to the door of the abortion facility, with a small segment of the group sitting directly in front of the facility’s entrance. Roughly two hours into the vigil, a number of protestors were arrested for blocking the entrance without incident.

In October 2022, the Biden administration’s Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that it was charging 11 individuals involved in the protest with violating the federal FACE Act, which bars individuals from physically blocking the entrance to an abortion facility. Six of the defendants were eventually convicted on Tuesday, with each facing “up to a maximum of 10 and a half years in prison, three years of supervised release and fines of up to $260,000,” with sentencing set for July 2. Four other defendants are scheduled to stand trial for misdemeanor violations of the FACE Act.

The Thomas More Society, which is representing the defendants, is expected to appeal the convictions.

The DOJ’s FACE Act prosecutions are the latest in a series of legal actions directed at pro-life activists under the Biden administration, in which at least 24 cases have been prosecuted since January 2021. At the same time, there have only been four FACE Act indictments of pro-abortion individuals related to a single attack on a pregnancy resource center in Florida, despite the fact that there have been hundreds of attacks that have occurred against churches and pregnancy resource centers during Biden’s tenure.

As noted by Family Research Council’s Arielle Del Turco during a House Judiciary Committee hearing last year, the FACE Act was originally designed to protect abortion facilities, pregnancy resource centers, and places of worship. The types of attacks committed against churches have included “vandalism, arson, bomb threats, gun-related incidents, and interruption of worship services — all of which are punishable under the FACE Act,” she emphasized.

The disparity in prosecutions has led to Congress taking notice. In October, Senator Mike Lee (R-Utah) and Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) introduced a bill to repeal the FACE Act, citing the biased enforcement that is being carried out by the Biden administration. “We need to repeal it and then stop giving authority to the Department of Justice to be able to go after [pro-life] people,” he told Tony Perkins in September.

In comments to The Washington Stand, Mary Szoch, director of the Center for Human Dignity at Family Research Council, questioned the priorities of the Biden administration’s DOJ in targeting pro-lifers amid a spiraling border crisis and the spreading conflict in the Middle East.

“As countless little boys and girls are being trafficked across the border and wars wage across the world, the Biden administration thinks the most important thing to focus on is prosecuting peaceful protestors attempting to save unborn babies from a brutal death,” she pointed out. “Yes, these protestors violated the FACE Act, but the Biden administration should consider spending taxpayer dollars to protect America’s border — not to stop non-violent men and women who are simply singing hymns while defending the unborn.”

AUTHOR

Dan Hart

Dan Hart is senior editor at The Washington Stand.

RELATED ARTICLE: Report Catalogues Dozens of New Incidents of Persecution against Christians in the West

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EDITORS NOTE: This Washington Stand column is republished with permission. All rights reserved. ©2024 Family Research Council.

The Washington Stand is Family Research Council’s outlet for news and commentary from a biblical worldview. The Washington Stand is based in Washington, D.C. and is published by FRC, whose mission is to advance faith, family, and freedom in public policy and the culture from a biblical worldview. We invite you to stand with us by partnering with FRC.

American mutation: The pitfalls of plummeting population

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A groundbreaking study out of Chicago has confirmed a troubling trend that is changing America: the depopulation of our cities.

This leading-edge analysis, Depopulation and associated challenges for US cities by 2100, was a team effort from the University of Illinois Chicago. Their shocking conclusion? Half of America’s 30,000 cities will have population decline this century.

The study’s rigorous scholarship is no less monumental than its findings. Over 24,000 American cities were examined to document that de-urbanisation is no longer an aberration, but the new normal with no end in sight. Consider: urbanisation was prevalent for most of American history. As the economy grew, people left the country and headed for cities where prosperity beckoned. All was well while it lasted.

Those days are over. The Idea of Progress, the secular faith in a country weaned on individualism and unlimited frontiers, is sputtering to an end. As yours truly posited in these pages last year:

The Idea of Progress, the belief that history ineluctably proceeds towards material well-being and a better life, took hold and superseded religious faith. This belief emerged from Enlightenment empiricism. Mankind had come to believe in itself: Master of the Universe. Modernism was born.

The UI Chicago researchers have unwittingly revealed that Modernism is retrogression. “Modern” has done a 180, and the mantra of perpetual growth wanes. Remember that old Chinese curse about living in interesting times?

Fascinating findings

The UI Chicago disquisition elicited a priceless Fox News clickbait header: “Thousands of US cities are predicted to become ghost towns by 2100: New study.” While things are not that dire, urban America’s decline is underway.

That is problematic. Urban infrastructure has been designed and built to accommodate existing populations as well as anticipated growth. Water systems and electrical grids are expensive to maintain; a declining tax base will lead to reduced services:

Given the current challenges with aging infrastructure in the United States, this reduced financial capacity will probably lead to a lower level of service and even cascade to create unaffordable services. For example, repaving some roads and providing some transit services may become prohibitively expensive… and electric and water utilities may have to raise their rates given the reduced revenue from depopulation, which can create affordability issues that disproportionately impact vulnerable populations.

Below replacement fertility, urban blight and tight money signal the mutation of America’s optimistic “progress” zeitgeist to something less rosy.

The impact on suburban and peri-urban (transitioning from rural to urban) areas is pronounced. Population increases there drain residents from the core cities. As a result, the remaining/left-behind urban core is disproportionately poor. Those are the “vulnerable populations” referenced in the study.

Places like Cleveland, Detroit, Birmingham, Memphis and St. Louis are prime examples. Flint, Michigan and Jackson, Mississippi received national attention for their deteriorating water services. While many factors are involved, urban out-migration and shrinking tax bases have set the stage for manifold problems.

Street and road maintenance will be “economised”. Prioritising maintenance and upgrades will be contentious. Reduced public transportation will affect those who need it most. Public water/sewer, waste disposal and electrical systems will curtail services.

Affordable housing will be another casualty as underutilised infrastructure is decommissioned. That happened in Detroit when the middle class decamped for the suburbs. Entire city blocks were condemned, residents relocated, services cut and fenced off. The Visitors and Convention Bureau does not publicise such things.

America has its slowest population growth ever, though illegal alien numbers are elusive. Reliance on immigration has been the easy way to find cheap labour and prop up urban population. That’s not working anymore. Per the study:

  • Asian and Hispanic immigrants now favour smaller communities outside big cities.
  • Urban depopulation is most severe in the Northeast and Midwest. Out West, southern California is the region most affected.
  • Urban depopulation is coming to the Rocky Mountain states, long considered a refuge from frenzied California and the Northeast.

How to address this?

What is certain is that an important cultural shift in planning and engineering communities is needed, away from conventional, growth-based planning, to accommodate a dramatic demographic shift. [Emphasis added]

Note “dramatic demographic shift”. Any way you slice it, we’re talking about the decline of urban America.

How it started

Following the Martin Luther King assassination (1968), cities burned. Turmoil engulfed inner-city ghettoes. Racial tensions flared. White flight ensued, where folks voted with their feet to the suburbs.

What happened? LBJ’s Great Society, a colossal fiasco with its “War on Poverty”. This vastly expanded social welfare bureaucracy, giving rise to illogical relief schemes. One such program mandated higher assistance payments if there was no adult male (potential breadwinner) in the household. Talk about undermining the family. Why work when you could get by otherwise?

Then came food stamps, a second currency undermining the dollar. The welfare class metastasised. That, along with the swelling cadre of social services workers, boosted the client base of the Democratic Party.

PC penetrated law enforcement. Rather than uphold “law and order” (which itself became a code word for racism), authorities ceded the streets and advised people to just avoid certain areas.

Mass immigration depressed wages. Attendant congestion further diminished the appeal of urban living. Drug abuse skyrocketed, savaging families.

Birthrates plunged to below-replacement level, reflecting changing priorities, wokeism and ever-tightening finances. Urban living is no longer worth it for so many upwardly mobile types.

Then came the crippling triple whammy: Covid lockdowns shut down communities, wrecked the economy and sewed fear and division. Remote work became an option. There is no going back.

How others see us

An old friend is a veteran China Hand – sinologist, linguist, and analyst rolled into one. Smart guy. He says some Chinese scholars are fascinated with America’s decline. They say stuff like, “Don’t your leaders see this?” “Why won’t they do something?” “Can’t you even control your borders?”

Like Ancient Rome, America lost the republic and became an empire. Globalism rules. Whenever that happens, the sense of national identity, thus national pride, fades. What it even means to be an American is up for debate. Mammonism, demoralisation and anomie set in, and the rest is history.

It is not surprising that America’s cities are being depopulated. What goes around comes around.

AUTHOR

Louis T. March has a background in government, business, and philanthropy. A former talk show host, author, and public speaker, he is a dedicated student of history and genealogy. Louis lives with his family in the beautiful Shenandoah Valley of Virginia.

RELATED ARTICLE: America’s elites are living in a bubble — and here’s the data to prove it

EDITORS NOTE: This Mercator column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

Republican Lawmakers Set Their Sights On Abortion ‘Trafficking’ In Latest Post-Dobbs Fight

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  • Republican state lawmakers are going after abortion “trafficking” in an effort to stop abortion advocates from evading state bans around the country and protect pregnant minors. 
  • Idaho, Texas and now Tennessee have all pushed legislation on the issue and Republican state Rep. Jason Zachary of Tennessee told the Daily Caller News Foundation that his bill was personal after he had been “directly involved” with a family whose 14-year-old daughter had been taken away to get an abortion without their knowledge.
  • “It should be the easiest thing in the world to say it’s unacceptable for an adult to take somebody else’s kid anywhere without their parents knowing,” Katie Daniels, state policy director for Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, told the DCNF.

Since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, Republican state lawmakers have proposed a variety of pro-life laws, with three states placing a new focus on abortion “trafficking.”

Following the Dobbs decision, Idaho became the first state in 2023 to pass a bill enforcing criminal penalties for individuals “trafficking” a minor to another state to get an abortion and since then, Texas and Tennessee have followed suit on both the state and local levels. Republican state Rep. Jason Zachary of Tennessee told the Daily Caller News Foundation that he introduced his bill Monday after having been involved in a situation where a 14-year-old girl was taken without her parents’ knowledge to get an abortion last year.

“A young girl, a 14-year-old girl in East Tennessee, unbeknownst to her guardian was taken to West Tennessee and was not notified until the child was taken to West Tennessee. The child called the parents and said, ‘I’m in West Tennessee and I’m being taken to get an abortion.’ I was on the phone with the dad and the mom, [who were] crying asking me what I can do to help stop it. There was nothing I could do,” Zachary told the DCNF.

Zachary’s bill would make it a “criminal offense” for anyone other than a parent or guardian to take a minor out of Tennessee for an abortion and also “provide for a civil action against a person committing the offense of abortion trafficking of a minor for the wrongful death of an unborn child that was aborted,” according to the text. If passed a minor could not travel with someone other than their legal guardian to get a chemical or surgical abortion.

Texas has taken a slightly different approach than Idaho or Tennessee as multiple city councils have established new ordinances barring its citizens from being transported on their state highways to get an abortion, according to the Texas Tribune. The city council in Amarillo, Texas, is one of the latest to consider a travel ban but postponed any vote during a meeting on Dec. 19 for further review.

If passed, Amarillo’s ordinance would allow private citizens to sue anyone who “aids and abet[s]” someone to get an abortion using the highways, according to the Texas Tribune. Similar measures have been proposed in other counties, such as Lubbock, Llano, Odessa, Dallas and San Antonio, according to The Washington Post.

Some city council members have expressed concerns that the ordinances and their framing may be too extreme, according to the Post.

“I hate abortion. I’m a Jesus lover like all of you in here,” Llano councilwoman Laura Almond said during a meeting in August, according to the Post. She explained that in college she had once picked up a friend from an abortion clinic and that the law would have put her at risk of a lawsuit despite her personal beliefs on the subject.

“It’s overreaching,” Almond said during the meeting, according to the Post. “We’re talking about people here.”

Republicans have struggled on the issue of abortion over the last several elections due to poor messaging and a divided base regarding how strong candidates should be on pro-life issues. With the presidential election coming up in November, Katie Daniels, state policy director for Susan B. Anthony (SBA) Pro-Life America, told the DCNF that it will be important for Republican candidates endorsing any kind of abortion legislation, including anti-trafficking measures, to “talk about what they are for” and not just what they are against.

“It should be the easiest thing in the world to say it’s unacceptable for an adult to take somebody else’s kid anywhere without their parents knowing, let alone to another state for a medical procedure that’s illegal in their state. That should be a real point of consensus, regardless of political party,” Daniels said. “Beyond that, candidates should be talking about what they’re for. They’re for resources being available to women and their children, they’re for the pregnancy centers that help these women and they are for the life of both the mom and her baby.”

Daniels argued polling had found that “two-thirds of Americans” support parental notification and consent before minors can get a chemical abortion through the mail and a Rasmussen poll from July 2022 found that 64% of Americans support parental notification before a child gets an abortion.

“This is a very common sense position if you ask normal people. It’s politicians who are tied up to the industry that seem to have trouble with it,” Daniels told the DCNF.

AUTHOR

KATE ANDERSON

Contributor.

RELATED ARTICLE: CVS Employee Sues After Company Allegedly Revoked Religious Exemption To Avoid Prescribing Contraceptives

EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

Top Peer Reviewed Study Calls for Global Ban on Covid Shots

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“Given the extensive, well-documented SAEs and unacceptably high harm-to-reward ratio, we urge governments to endorse a global moratorium on the modified mRNA products…” — Cureus, Journal of Medical Science.

No media. No mea culpa. They are on a death march.

Think of all those poor souls who lost their jobs, their college placements, their livelihoods for having the temerity to think.

Cureus, Journal of Medical Science, is a web-based peer-reviewed open access general medical journal using prepublication peer review.

Top Study Calls for Global Ban on Covid Shots

By: Frank Bergman, Slay News, January 26, 2024:

A group of world-renowned researchers has published a groundbreaking new study on soaring sudden death rates and called on governments to ban Covid mRNA shots globally.

In a peer-reviewed paper published on Wednesday, researchers re-analyzed the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine phase 3 trial data.

However, the researchers uncovered evidence of far more serious adverse events among those in the vaccine group.

This is not what published reports from Pfizer’s phase 3 trials said.

“Many key trial findings were either misreported or omitted entirely from published reports,” the researchers said.

The study was conducted by seven top researchers:

M. Nathaniel Mead
Stephanie Seneff
Russ Wolfinger
Jessica Rose
Kris Denhaerynck
Steve Kirsch
Peter A. McCullough

In the study’s paper, the researchers explained that they set out to re-analyze Pfizer’s trial data because:

our understanding of covid vaccinations and their impact on health and mortality has evolved substantially since the first vaccine rollouts; and, problems with the methods, execution, and reporting of the pivotal phase 3 trials have emerged.

On Wednesday, they published their findings in a peer-reviewed paper titled “Covid-19 mRNA Vaccines: Lessons Learned from the Registrational Trials and Global Vaccination Campaign.”

The paper was published in the renowned Cureus, a journal of medical science.

“Re-analysis of the Pfizer trial data identified statistically significant increases in serious adverse events (SAEs) in the vaccine group,” the researchers wrote.

Adding, “Numerous SAEs were identified following the Emergency Use Authorisation (EUA), including death, cancer, cardiac events, and various autoimmune, hematological, reproductive, and neurological disorders.”

The EUA the researchers are referring to is the authorization granted to Pfizer by the U.S. Food and Drugs Administration (FDA).

As the paper noted, Pfizer’s Covid vaccines never underwent adequate safety and toxicological testing, according to previously established scientific standards.

Read more

AUTHOR

Pamela Geller

EDITORS NOTE: This Geller Report is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

Ohio Becomes 23rd State to Protect Minors from the Transgender Industry

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The bellwether state of Ohio has become the 23rd state to protect children from transgender injections and surgeries, and the 24th to safeguard fairness and privacy in women’s sports, as lawmakers voted overwhelmingly to override the Republican governor’s veto. Yet Democratic opponents claimed Martin Luther King Jr. and Jesus Christ would have supported transgender surgeries for kids, a transgender activist changed the words of a Christian hymn to support transgender surgeries, and liberals likened withholding cross-sex hormones from children to the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II.

The Ohio State Senate voted 24-8 on Wednesday afternoon to reverse the veto of Substitute H.B. 68 by Governor Mike DeWine (R). (The Senate erroneously announced the tally as 23-9 immediately after the vote.) The bill — which combines the Save Adolescents from Experimentation Act (SAFE) and the Save Women’s Sports Act — bans the use of puberty-blockers, cross-sex hormone injections, and gender mutilation surgeries to anyone under the age of 18. It also prohibits men from competing against women in sports, prevents courts from denying or limiting custody to a parent who refuses to “affirm” their child’s transgender identity, and refuses to fund minors’ transgender procedures through Medicaid.

The Ohio House of Representatives overrode the veto on January 10 by a 65-27 margin — four more votes than when the House first passed the bill on December 14. The bill will become state law in 90 days.

“Given that five legislatures have overridden gubernatorial vetoes of legislation protecting minors from the transgender activists pushing experimental drugs and surgeries, any governor who vetoes these SAFE Act-type laws is either politically tone-deaf or being influenced by those who profit from this morally devastating, but financially lucrative industry,” said Family Research Council President Tony Perkins. (Emphasis in original.) Supermajorities of state legislators voted to override Democratic governors’ vetoes of various gender protection bills in Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, and North Carolina in 2023. Arkansas lawmakers also enacted the first SAFE Act over the veto of then-Governor and failed 2024 presidential candidate Asa Hutchinson (R).

Ohio to Trans Industry: ‘We Reject Your Junk Science’

“Today, Ohio has told an exploitative medical industry that we reject your junk science and will no longer allow you to experiment on our children,” said Aaron Baer, president of the Center for Christian Virtue (CCV), an Ohio-based citizen action group that spearheaded support for the override. “This marks a turning point in Ohio: we will not remain silent when our children are being harmed.” Alliance Defending Freedom Senior Counsel Matt Sharp thanked Ohio lawmakers for rejecting “the politicized and harmful practice of pushing minors towards irreversible drugs and surgeries in favor of compassionate mental health care that gives them time to grow into comfort with their bodies and true identities.”

“No one has the right to harm children, and, thankfully, states have the power — and duty — to protect them,” said Sharp. “Our most basic duty as parents is to protect our children,” said Peter Range, CEO of Ohio Right to Life, in a statement emailed to The Washington Stand. “Our children are our greatest legacy, and today’s vote ensures our children are protected in Ohio.” Thanks to the vote, “Child gender mutilation and gender ideology as a whole will end with a whimper,” said Chloe Cole, a detransitioner who testified in favor of the bill and returned to Columbus for Wednesday’s vote.

Democrats Invoke Jesus, Martin Luther King Jr., and Japanese Internment Camps to Argue for Transing Kids

The override vote overcame procedural roadblocks, disruptions by radical transgender activists, and disputes over whether the bill represented God’s will. Sen. Bill DeMora (D-25) moved to adjourn before the chamber could vote on the measure.

A transgender activist interrupted the very first speaker, Sen. Kristina Roegner (R-25), by singing an edited version of “Jesus Loves the Little Children” after fellow transgender activists booed and raised their middle fingers. “Jesus loves the little children. L-G-B-T-Q-I-A, He would be here — Jesus would be here — on their side today!” the activist belted out in the manner of a show tune, before being escorted out of the Capitol.

Democrats picked up the talking point, as Sen. Paul Hicks-Hudson (D-11) insisted overriding DeWine’s veto “does not show that Jesus does love all of us.”

“That same Jesus has determined the gender of every child. Let’s respect truly what Jesus” created, retorted Sen. Jerry Cirino (R-18). “Jesus does love all the little children, including the women who compete [in] sports,” said Sen. George F. Lang (R-4).

Yet Senate Democratic Leader Nickie Antonio (D-23) — who announced, “I’m a lesbian” during her floor speech — said refusing to experiment on children “wasn’t the Christianity I was brought up with.”

Hicks-Hudson also told lawmakers, “We are slapping” the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr., who once said it is necessary to become “maladjusted.”

Another Democrat compared Republicans denying minors cross-sex hormones and gender-reassignment surgeries to Democratic President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s order herding Japanese Americans into internment camps during World War II. Sen. Kent Smith (D-21), who noted he encountered men who identify as female in his “side-hustle” as a part-time roller derby announcer, compared his fellow Democrats to then-Colorado Governor Ralph Carr (R), who opposed Roosevelt’s order.

Smith, who accused his opponents of the “systematic dehumanization” of trans-identifying people, said one public school official told him she had more trans-identifying children in school than those who identified as homosexual.

Antonio invoked Issue 1, stating, “A majority of the voters spoke when they told us in November that the government shouldn’t be involved in their own personal, private health care decisions.” Yet during the debate over Issue 1, proponents steadfastly denied the amendment had any impact on transgender procedures for minors.

DeMora also inveighed that H.B. 68 “is anti-science and very hateful,” “horrible,” and “the inevitable outcome of this bill will be loss of life.” Legislators should pass laws “to make it easier” for children to get hormone injections, he stated.

Cross-sex hormone injections have caused females to suffer from side effects including “erythrocytosis, severe liver dysfunction, coronary artery disease, cerebrovascular disease, hypertension, increased risk of breast and uterine cancers, and irreversible infertility,” states H.B. 68. “For biological males,” such injections cause “thromboembolic disease, cholelithiasis, coronary artery disease, macroprolactinoma, cerebrovascular disease, hypertriglyceridemia, breast cancer, and irreversible infertility.”

“Suicide rates, psychiatric morbidities, and mortality rates remain markedly elevated above the background population after inpatient gender reassignment surgery has been performed,” the bill notes.

Lawmakers reluctantly added a grandfather clause for children who had already begun transgender procedures before the bill’s passage at DeWine’s request; yet he vetoed the bill anyway.

Transgender procedures are not what gender-confused minors need, said Sen. Roegner. “What they need to know is that they are loved for who they are. They need compassion; they need counseling. What they do not need is chemical castration, sterilization, or physical mutilation. We cannot let this happen to the children of Ohio,” she said. “It is medical malpractice, and it needs to stop.”

Similarly, Sen. Shane Wilkin (R-17) said safety guided his support for allowing girls to have their own space. “I, along with many in my district, do not want shared locker rooms with boys,” he said. “I find this issue is not as difficult as we’re making it out to be.”

Ohioans largely agree. Sen. Andy Brenner (R-19) revealed on Wednesday’s “Washington Watch with Tony Perkins” that 90% of the constituents who contacted his office urged him to protect children.

DeWine Yielded to ‘Experts’ on Transgenderism and COVID

Some in Ohio expressed surprise when DeWine, a centrist Republican, vetoed H.B. 68 on December 29. One week later, DeWine banned transgender surgery for minors by executive order, and he announced new regulations requiring greater psychological counseling for adults before and after transgender procedures. “I think it’s a good way to take this issue off the table” and “talk about other things,” said DeWine.

Brenner said, in lieu of longitudinal studies tracking the long-term impact of puberty-blockers on children, DeWine yielded to the dubious “consensus” of “experts” on transgender studies — much as he did “masking and lockdowns a few years ago” in response to COVID-19. “They don’t really have the data to back up what they’re doing,” Brenner noted.

Between DeWine’s executive actions and H.B. 68, “Ohio now has one of the strongest pieces to protect children in the nation,” said Cole at a press conference alongside the bill’s sponsor, State Rep. Gary Click (R-88), shortly after the vote.

“The SAFE Act and Save Women’s Sports Act are the civil rights issues of our day, ensuring that children have the right to grow up intact and that women are no longer subject to men invading their spaces,” said Click.

Wednesday was a “great day for Ohio women,” agreed State Rep. Jena Powell (R-80), who championed the Save Women’s Sports Act. “I promised to fight for integrity in women’s sports, and I did not give up until we won.” Liberty Counsel Action also called H.B. 68 “a win for the safety of women and children.”

Not everyone was pleased. “F*** the Ohio Senate,” cursed the Ohio Women’s Alliance Action Fund (which did not censor its message). OWA helped craft Issue 1, which opponents said was written to create a constitutional “right” to transgender procedures for minors without parental notification — a position OWA and many of its sponsors support. OWA Deputy Director Jordyn Close, who describes herself as “a sex and pleasure advocate … working on destigmatizing and uplifting sex work,” has said “all barriers to abortion are racist,” because “every abortion is essential.” Similarly, the capital city’s chapter of the Young Women’s Christian Alliance — YWCA Columbus — excoriated the allegedly “discriminatory bill” as “another demonstration of the state weaponizing control over bodily autonomy.”

Ohio Republicans said they stand ready to protect the state’s progress toward protecting the vulnerable and creating a more compassionate state. “I am prepared to defend it against the inevitable legal challenge,” said Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost (R).

While the bill’s passage is “a milestone for Ohio and the nation, there is still more to be accomplished,” said Rep. Click. “We must ensure that all individuals who experience regret have full access to both medical and mental health resources as they realign with their authentic selves.”

AUTHOR

Ben Johnson

Ben Johnson is senior reporter and editor at The Washington Stand.

EDITORS NOTE: This Washington Stand column is republished with permission. All rights reserved. ©2024 Family Research Council.

The Washington Stand is Family Research Council’s outlet for news and commentary from a biblical worldview. The Washington Stand is based in Washington, D.C. and is published by FRC, whose mission is to advance faith, family, and freedom in public policy and the culture from a biblical worldview. We invite you to stand with us by partnering with FRC.

Social Media Goes Ballistic As Biden Speech Devolves Into Word Soup And Supporters Clap ‘Like Brainless Seals’

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Social media went ballistic after President Joe Biden gave a speech that devolved into a word salad bad enough to rival his vice president and yet his supporters clapped enthusiastically.

Biden, speaking alongside Vice President Kamala Harris at a rally in Virginia on Tuesday, tried to emphasize the issue of abortion heading into the 2024 race.

“We’ll teach Donald Trump a valuable lesson, don’t mess with the women of America unless you want to get the benefit,” Biden said, slurring the entire time and forcing people who are transcribing it to listen several times.

Yet for some reason, the crowd went BALLISTIC. Enthusiasm not seen since for Biden since, well, never.

But social media sleuths took Biden to task for his speech.

Greg Price, who does communications for the State Freedom Caucus Network and is also a former Caller employee, tweeted, “I love how nothing he said made any sense here yet the people still clapped and cheered like brainless seals.”

Outkick’s Tomi Lahren challenged viewers to “caption this.”

Other users joked that “idiots just blindly cheer while Grandpa has a stroke on stage.”

Another user said, “Bosses in news companies are going to torture their least favorite employees by assigning them Biden subtitles duty.”

But perhaps the question shouldn’t be “what the hell did our president just say?”

Maybe we should start with something a little easier.

Mr. President, what is a woman?

AUTHOR

BRIANNA LYMAN

News and commentary writer. Follow Brianna on Twitter.

RELATED ARTICLE: McDonald’s, Missiles & Marches: Biden’s Thursday Devolves Into All-Time Gaffe Reel

RELATED VIDEO: Incapacitated: Biden fiddles while the world burns with guest Lee Smith

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EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

Red State Senate Kills Gov’s Veto On Bill Banning Child Sex Changes

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The Ohio Senate voted Wednesday to override Republican Gov. Mike DeWine’s veto of a bill that would prohibit doctors from performing sex-change medical procedures on minors.

The state’s House of Representatives voted 65 to 28 on Jan. 10 to override the governor’s veto of the bill, which would bar doctors from performing transgender surgeries or prescribing cross-sex hormones and puberty blockers to minors. State senators voted 28 to 4, largely among party lines, to pass the legislation.

“The Governor does not have [a] new comment today. His previous comments on the bill and his veto reflect his position on the issue,” Dan Tierney, DeWine’s press secretary, told the Daily Caller News Foundation.

DeWine signed an executive order earlier this month that banned transgender surgeries for minors, but allowed children to obtain cross-sex hormones and puberty blockers. DeWine argued that he never disagreed with his Republican colleagues on the issue, but that other procedures should be left up to parents and medical professionals.

The bill, which is set to go into effect in 90 days, will also prevent men who identify as transgender women from competing in women’s sports, a decision DeWine has publicly come out against in the past. DeWine also received $40,000 in donations between 2018 and 2023 from several state children’s hospitals, at least one of which he visited in December to discuss the bill with families, patients and medical professionals.

A training video from one of the hospitals, Cincinnati Children’s, revealed staff teaching doctors how to work around parental consent when treating a minor transgender patient. The hospital’s CEO, Steven Davis, claimed in his December testimony against the bill that the hospital always gets consent from the parents before performing transgender medical procedures on minors.

AUTHOR

KATE ANDERSON

Contributor.

RELATED ARTICLES:

State Legislatures Are Taking On Gender Ideology In First Weeks Of 2024

Swing State Spent Millions On Sex Changes And Trans Hormones, Including For Those Under 18

EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

Pro-Choice Is a Misnomer

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Around this time of year, we remember the infamous Supreme Court decision of Roe v. Wade of January 22, 1973, which condemned some 65 million preborn people in America to death in abortions. Although Roe was overturned, abortion is very much a pressing issue today.

And it has been and continues to promoted in the name of “choice.” Pro-choice is a misnomer. Those who are pro-choice are in reality pro-abortion.

Although the proponents call themselves “pro-choice,” many studies indicate that the majority of women who have an abortion felt compelled to seek the procedure.

I spoke with Eric Scheidler of the Illinois-based Pro-Life Action League in a recent radio segment on this very topic.

He told me, “When someone tells me now that they’re ‘pro-choice,’ I say, ‘I’m glad to hear that because everyone should have the right to choose to become a parent.’ Then we get into the question of women having a right to motherhood taken away from them by those who are pushing abortion on them.” That includes, says Scheidler, the parents, the boyfriends, the employers, the politicians, and the abortion industry.

OB-GYN Ingrid Skop, M.D., wrote recently: “It is usually assumed that most women in the U.S. freely choose abortion and consider it to have been the best decision for them, all things considered. However, an expanding body of literature calls this assumption into question.”

Skop continues, “A recent peer-reviewed study conducted by [Charlotte Lozier Institute] scholars found that only one-third of abortions are ‘wanted.’ Nearly one in four described their abortion as ‘unwanted’ or ‘coerced.’ An additional 43% described the abortion as ‘accepted’ but ‘inconsistent with their values and preferences.’”

And she adds, “A majority, around 60%, said their preference would have been to give birth had they received more emotional support or had greater financial security….In another 2023 peer-reviewed survey, 61% of women reported “high levels” of pressure to abort.”

So much for choice. As Dr. D. James Kennedy once declared, “The only ‘choice’ the abortionists ever give anybody is ‘Tuesday or Friday? When do you want to have the abortion?’”

Meanwhile, there are crisis pregnancy centers out there doing the Lord’s work as they provide loving options for those seeking abortions. They provide real choice.

Yet these crisis pregnancy centers are often targeted by pro-abortion extremists. For example, on June 7, 2022, in Amherst, New York, the Compass Care crisis pregnancy center was firebombed, causing half-a-million dollars in damages.

I’ve interviewed Jim Harden, the president of Compass Care, about the destruction of his center and on other issues related to abortion. For this piece on how pro-choice is a misnomer, I asked him if he cared to give me a comment.

Harden said, “It is telling that a recent study revealed that nearly 70% of women are coerced to abort their babies….When a woman faces an unplanned pregnancy, she considers abortion because she feels trapped… like she has no choice. Mercenary abortionists masquerade as medical professionals to profiteer from this tragic reality” [emphasis his].

However, Senator Elizabeth Warren has the audacity to claim that these crisis pregnancy centers are “harmful” to women.

Harden continues, “Yet pro-life pregnancy centers help a woman with everything but abortion…for free. Pro-life pregnancy centers are the abortion industry’s only competition, delivering up to 2 million women nearly $358 million worth of free medical care and support every year. And while pro-abortion politicians get re-elected on the coat tails of abortion propaganda, it is the pro-life pregnancy centers that are empowering women with true informed consent and support.”

Thankfully, through the Lord, there is healing and forgiveness available for those who have had an abortion, by choice or otherwise. I saw a news item where a former female rock singer said she is very sorry for her three abortions, which she regrets deeply, but very grateful to God for His forgiveness.

Speaking of regrets, OB-GYN Vivina Napier, M.D. said recently: “In my years in practice, I have never met a woman who has expressed regret over giving birth to her baby, but I have met plenty who shared their regret for having abortions.”

Katie Daniels of Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America says, “There is an abortion industry that makes billions of dollars killing children and hurting their moms, and that is who we’re up against. So we need to speak clearly and honestly about that reality while also contrasting our compassion for moms and babies.”

Our nation’s founders declared independence from Great Britain and dependence upon God. They said that our Creator has endowed us with certain inalienable rights, and that first among these is the right to life.

Real choice is as American as apple pie. But “pro-choice” only chooses one option—and a grisly one at that. America can do better than this.

©2024. Jerry Newcombe, D.Min. All rights reserved.

Mann vs Steyn … and us. An exceptionally important trial just started

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Here is a super-brief outline of this VERY BIG deal – that will not be seen on mainstream media…

Dr. Michael E. Mann is a well-known climate activist. e.g., he was the person who invented the hockey-stick climate graph — which intentionally conveys alarmism.

Mark Steyn is a conservative, outspoken public speaker, writer, TV personality, etc. who has a keen interest in public policies, from COVID to climate.

About 12 years ago, Mark (per here) added some comments to an internet post written by someone else. His observations drew a parallel between Jerry Sandusky (the disgraced Penn State football coach), and Mann (also a Penn State employee). Both Mann and Sandusky were investigated by Penn State’s administration in what Steyn characterized as a cover-up. Steyn also described Mann’s famous hockey stick temperature chart as fraudulent.

My understanding is that Mann subsequently told Steyn to retract his comments. However, Steyn refused, saying that what he wrote was accurate. Mann then said that he would sue Steyn if he didn’t retract, and Steyn said be my guest. This began the saga.

There are at least four fascinating aspects of this lawsuit:

  1. Mann’s contention is that this case is primarily about Science.
  2. Steyn’s position is that this is a trial primarily about Free Speech.
  3. Steyn is acting as his own lawyer (i.e. pro se), which is highly unusual.
  4. The case took 12 years to be heard, which seems to violate due process.

I could easily expand on any of those four issues, but for the sake of simplicity, I’ll focus on just the Science element.

Mann’s contention about Science is interesting, and (for multiple reasons) seems to be a very weak argument. E.g., it’s fascinating to note that, despite this being a high-profile case about a topic of paramount interest (climate change), it appears that not a single Science organization formally stepped forward to side with Mann! (See here.)

Also very interesting is that (earlier) the Judge denied Mann’s request for certain experts (some of his climate alarmist buds) to testify on his behalf. What is extremely fascinating is the Judge’s reason:

“Applying Rule 702 of the Federal Rules of Evidence, and the Daubert standard for scientific evidence, Judge Irving concluded that most of the proffered expert testimony was inadmissible because the experts failed to identify the methodology they used in reaching their conclusions about the contested statements… The methodologies of the expert must be grounded in the Scientific Method, such that another person with similar expertise could replicate them (Daubert 509 US at 591).”

That the Judge is looking for evidence that the Scientific Method is used in the alarmist’s climate arguments is extraordinarily significant, for at least two reasons: 1) alarmists contend that the Scientific Method is not applicable for assessing the validity of climate change claims, as climate is “too complicated,” and 2) as I have explained in earlier commentaries (e.g., here), progressives have specifically attacked the Scientific Method, so that it is no longer taught in almost any K-12 US schools (thanks to the acceptance of the progressive NGSS by some 49 states).

My unsolicited advice is for Steyn to take on Mann about Science. Starting with the definition of Science (“Science is a process”), to what is the main process (the Scientific Method). It’s a major asset that it already appears that the Judge is aware of, and is favorably disposed to, the Scientific Method.

The Scientific Method can be traced back some 4000 years (e.g., here) — and was heavily relied on by essentially every notable scientist in our history (Newton, Curie, Einstein, etc.). That progressives are trying to now throw it in the trash should indeed be vigorously challenged — and this seems like a superior venue.

Steyn should also make it clear that what Mann calls science is really political science. I can not overstate the significance of this distinction. We are inundated with activist scientists who arbitrarily discard the standards of real Science (the process), and substitute their own. Their rationale for this abrogation is the end justifies the means. This is relevant in this trial, as that appears to be exactly what Mann did with the hockey stick graph. (See this excellent detailed discussion about Mann’s graph.)

Mann and Greta Thunberg are birds of a feather. The most relevant difference is that Mann has significantly more academic credentials. He should know better as to what Science is, what the Scientific Method is, what Critical Thinking is, etc. What that translates to is that considering Mann’s dissipations, the sin is greater for him.

If Steyn plays his cards right, he has a superior opportunity to expose Mann’s turpitudes. Ideally, that in turn, could bring about a penitential response by Mann, to begin to make amends for the horrific influence his actions have had on the world, and on genuine Science.

The takeaway here is that Steyn is an odds-on favorite to win this case, based on the merits of either (or both) Science and Free Speech, plus the fact that the judge seems inclined to be serious about this, rather than play politics. Considering that Steyn is an eloquent presenter (see his strong opening statement), this should be savored…

Important — I do not personally know Mark Steyn. If any readers do, please have him contact me as I have some suggestions to help him win this case. I will not post them here for obvious reasons.

Some other sample references of interest:

Watch the Mann-Steyn Trial Live

Mann v. Steyn Finally Gets Under Way

The link between ‘defending Michael Mann is defending climate science’ seems to have been broken

Archive: Judge Strikes All of Michael Mann’s Expert Witnesses from Libel Suit

Injustice Anywhere is a Threat to Justice Everywhere

Day One in Court

Climate Trial of the Century

Go Get ‘Em, Mark!

Mann v. Steyn Goes to Trial After 12 Years

Mann v Ball: How Mann is Losing (an earlier interesting Mann lawsuit)

©2024. John Droz, Jr.. All rights reserved.

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