13 DEC 23: Just a couple of steady-state items to note. The bedtime 50mg CBD doses with melanin help with sleep and a noticeable improvement in 1st thing out-the-bed sore/stiffness. As noted before, C-spine decompression is clearly the main factor maintaining that, probably has been all along, albeit indirectly through inversion years ago. Skipping it starts the elbow tenderizing process with arm-numbing accompaniment. Consuming around 150mg CBD/day total. Feels like I could use more, but the stuff’s expensive. Inflammation is a primary instigator in both the arthritis and nerve stuff. Vaping about half the THC-type cannabis I was at some point previously. I think this is probably due to getting more efficient with it, better equipment, spiking the already HP stuff with kief and bubble hash. Still basically using as much as I can tolerate. That is clearly the therapeutic threshold, for me. Need to be able use enough without going blotto, to blunt pain. It’s a simple tolerance issue, just exactly opposite the way stoners think of it.
Be the Change
Unfortunately, today’s society is so crooked that it is not even seen as strange that powerful interests control the very research that shows that precisely what they make money from seems to be the most effective remedy for the suffering the system they are a part of caused.
Sackler, anyone? It goes to more than just the sad state of personally debilitating mental affairs, but Julia-X from Sweden has that part figured out. I keep telling myself fuggedaboudit, things change, it’s just the way it is – changing. Then I think of something to do next, maybe write a blog post.
Ever wonder why some of the MAGA mutherfuckers seem just, let’s say, crazy? Personality Traits Associated With Dementia Risk.
Live Free or Die?
Looks more like scratch your head and die faster, to me. With nary a single substantiated negative report on the effects of Cannabis legalization from DUI stats, to teen usage surveys, to anecdotal reports and evidence of all kinds from all across the country, the people in New Hampshire still have not yet been able to figure it out.
Gut Check
With Thanksgiving upon us once again, I thought it timely to mention a health topic often overlooked or misunderstood by many: Gut health. I been saying diet is probably one of the biggest factors in alot of the chronic degenerative stuff we’re dealing with. The endocannabanoid system similarly goes underrepresented in healthcare these days, with doctors maybe not yet realizing they have only scratched the surface.
Glia, once thought to be mere glue that fills the space between neurons, were largely ignored in the brain for much of the 20th century. Clearly, neurons were the cells that made things happen: Through electrical and chemical signaling, they materialize our thoughts, feelings and actions. But in the last few decades, glia have shed their identity as passive servants. Neuroscientists have increasingly discovered that glia play physiological roles in the brain and nervous system that once seemed reserved for neurons.
Addicted to Pot
No question about it. Jon Capetta has this part figured out. And I’m a multi-faceted addict of the highest order, including some of the dangerous drugs out there, in my repetoire.
I believe the fundamental addiction gene or whatever it is that makes people love stuff too much is a generally misunderstood term, at least in the healthcare space. It’s probably some sort of personality type more than any physically or medically-connected disorder. The problem with opiates for example, is it gets way too physically connected in terms of withdrawal. That’s the part people seem to have the most trouble with. Withdrawal pains either play 2nd fiddle to whatever the real problem is, OR it’s so intense you can’t cope – so you keep doing it to stay out of withdrawal, regardless. Either way, it’s pretty much a non-starter for any sort of normal life.
Managing that mind-body interface is an ongoing challenge for many, patients and doctors alike. VA doctors had me on Tramadol and some other stuff for several years. I’ve seen more than one reference to Tramadol’s high rating for odd and dangerous withdrawal effects. For me, it was just deep-seated pain in the base of my spine. The addiction/withdrawal roller-coaster ride engendered in that fiasco was scary, painful and totally unnecessary. But that’s what you get when the government thinks they know more about drugs than the doctors and people using them.
At the End of the Day…
It’s always about the money.
Climate
It’s official. We just had the hottest August ever, worldwide.
CHATSUM: The summer of 2023 broke temperature records worldwide, with Gallup, New Mexico reaching 101 degrees, Reno, Nevada reaching 108 degrees, and Kingman, Arizona reaching a staggering 114 degrees. Death Valley also hit 130 degrees, the highest reading on Earth in 89 years.
Doctors Getting More Dangerous
It’s all online – just a question of who’s looking at it and why.
“The number of cyberattacks and information system breaches in healthcare has grown steadily, escalating from isolated incidents to widespread targeted and malicious attacks.”
“Microsoft said in June that a China-backed hacking group had stolen a cryptographic key from the company’s systems. This key allowed the attackers to access cloud-based Outlook email systems for 25 organizations, including multiple US government agencies.“
Ultimate Vape Rig II
Anybody remember the drain pipe bong that got wedged onto the side of the driver’s seat in that car crash from 1978 on Hozak road? I should’ve been a plumber. Seriously. You should see some of the shyt that’s been flowing stuff around in the vehicles here over the years. Just ask Tanner how many fuel filters are on that truck. It still had #6 injector crap out after whatever mileage they got it up to.
The Crafty‘s a nice little device, but the heater is weak. I can drop the temp on it with a long pull. Then there’s the plumbing to deal with. I need at least one hand free to deal with the keyboard and mouse. I could see the Air Max was a winner right away. It just needed teamed up with the Utilian. The white bits are from a refrigerator install kit, and the big black clip making it a 1-hand rig is just two pieces of plastic irrigation tubing glued together.
Thaw the Bagels
Now I know why the microwaved bagels I been eating for decades seem to agree with me.
How Many More Times?
…will McConnell stand up in public getting his due for decades of right wing deception and depravity? I’m guessing the most imminently pressing RINO issue WRT geriatric legislators is figuring out how to keep his vote as long as possible. Then there’s Grassley. And Feinstein. And… The man himself is long gone. I wonder if he’s thinking “why can’t I talk?” Or maybe “crap, now we’re really fucked.”
It’s no longer about legislating or governing. The dysfunction clearly evident in DC today says it all. They’re just clinging to power.
VA CIO Cautiously Optimistic
Veterans Affairs CIO ‘cautiously optimistic’ Oracle Cerner can turn around EHR modernization under new contract.
The problem with the whole health records quandary is no system of rules, procedures, tracking and measurement will prevent a dishonest doctor from doing whatever the fuck they want. In the healthcare space, that means omitting or ignoring information they may find personally risky after negligence and incompetence take hold. Get enough of ’em together at one government-run hospital, and there’s no telling how far off the rails it’ll run.
Give It Up
Give the people what they need – not what the doctors and authoritarian whackos want. $3.8 Billion with a B. That’s the number for 2022 Colorado Cannabis Tax Revenue. Not overall revenue – just the tax. I gave up the med card this year, just because I’d prefer my contributions going to the schools, not the doctors.
There are still waaaaaay too many fools smoking cigarettes at triple the heavy metals concentrations found in even illicit weed. I guess that’s just one example of how the natural selection evolutionary process works. Alcohol also appears to be a sort of self-remediating self-medication option, with numerous potential fatal health outcomes awaiting the boozers in their degenerative golden years.
Nobody in this state has any issues getting all the Cannabis they want – except possibly the price barrier. All we’ve done with the state regulatory program is employ a bunch of people making it more expensive and time-consuming for everyone. The only outcomes from ALL Cannabis-related laws simply disappearing from the books overnight, would be alot more satisfied customers, happy store owners, prosperous growers and the disappearance of the black market.
VA Disability
The Veterans Administration has the best long-term disability insurance program anywhere on the planet. It’s sort of a requirement, when the employees keep getting killed and maimed in armed conflicts. The non-combat and off-duty crap gets nasty sometimes, too. I see stuff like this and wonder how in the hell they denied my claim. Guess there’s multiple paths to fucking up the VA disability stuff.
Wuhan Virology
The origin of SARScoV2 is obvious. Whether it started as a lab leak or an edible bat is an irrelevant factoid at this point. China royally fucked the response, any way you look at it. What matters in this case, is that China is dealt with accordingly. The lies and deceit have been tolerated long enough.
The US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has suspended and potentially cut off funding to the Wuhan Institute of Virology due to concerns about biosafety violations and non-compliance with US regulations. The institute has received over $1.4 million in federal awards since 2014 but has not obtained any new funding since July 2020.
It’s interesting to note how the far-right-leaning, factless twitchy article leading that list talks about nothing but politics. They continue dovetailing everything with politics regardless of the relationship. It’s how repugs build their talking points. Doesn’t matter what it’s about, as long as it’s a sensational topic everybody hears. Ron Paul accusing Dr. Fauci of supporting Chinese bio-weapon programs had to be the pinnacle of MAGA stupidity. It’s still alive and well in the good ‘ol USA today.
“On lab-leak, there’s no evidence that SARS-CoV-2 escaped from a lab other than the coincidence of the Wuhan Institute of Virology being there,” Robertson told us.
Climate Anxiety
We had an unusually cool, wet spring and early summer here. Many parts of the country baked in record-high temps. Yeah, anxiety might be an issue…
