Are You Listening to The News?

 Tuesdays With Jo

 

Remember when the Newspaper was the News?

 

 

Your grandfather or some elder in the family read it daily cover to cover. They were informed and would sit around the table arguing politics long after you left the room.

 

Reporters worked diligently to find and be the first to publish a story. Foreign correspondents went into the battlefields to report the news. In our lifetime, reporters such as Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, with an informant named Deepthroat, broke the story of the Watergate break-in and brought down a President. 

 

Now we’re not sure what is true and what isn’t. If we watch the news (which I don’t, but I get some second-hand), we can tune in for 15 minutes any time of the day. If you miss it once, you can tune in later and catch it. Yet there are those, so I’ve heard, that have the TV turned on ALL DAY. Talk about programming the brain.

 

We begin to think what’s placed before us is the way the world is, and if you hear it over and over, whatever comes into our senses repeatedly, tends to stick. Yet we go to the grocery store, and people are doing their shopping, relatively happy. People are going for walks with their baby strollers and their dogs. Kids are on their bikes. We go to events, and people are laughing and talking about where they will go for lunch. Kids are practicing for the Olympics. Some have dreams of starting a Band. Others are hooked on the computer, and we know those brains will be the programmers of the future. People are writing, and researching and blogging, and singing-- practicing their craft. Many people are turning to spirituality and consciousness training. Many are hiring coaches to help them. 

 

There is a world of Well-being, 

 

Yet the news is a handful of information—primarily shocking, confusing, or dire. The news comes from a tiny pocket of people who control the media. The media owners tell what they want to tell us, and generally, it is to get attention.

 

Out there is a beautiful world. Do we believe it?

 

 

Keep watching the news, and you will get sucked into someone else’s mindset. It is not representative of humankind.

 

No matter where we are, what our beliefs or politics are, we know how watching the news makes us feel.

 

It makes us feel that it’s impossible to gain certainty and direction in our lives when the whole world is uncertain.

 

To believe that we  need the outside world to be okay for us to be okay is a myth.

 

We must get so solidly grounded that we will be secure in our souls, and we will become the change the world needs. 

 

That’s the TRUTH.

 

This morning a reader commented on an old blog post from https://travelswithjo.com titled “This is Only for Those Folks Who Want to Blog, or Write, or Be Heard.” I hit the link--it was written on Jan. 15, 2019. At the bottom of the post, I had included the link to the song, Starry Starry Night, and I listened to it again. 

 

Don McLean sings the song over the printed lyrics and pictures of paintings by Vincent Van Goth. It is awesome. Watch it. It will feed your soul. 

 

Music and art give us time to connect to something outside ourselves. It’s next to impossible to worry while listening to a beautiful song or viewing a gorgeous painting. Art allows us to enter into the sublime. 

 

Isn’t that what life is all about?

 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oxHnRfhDmrk

 

A Wonder Drug

Few drugs can seriously lay claim to the title of ‘Wonder drug.

 

Penicillin and aspirin being two that have perhaps had the greatest beneficial impact on the health and well being of Mankind. 

 

But Ivermectin can also be considered alongside those worthy contenders, based on its versatility, safety, and the beneficial impact that it has had, and continues to have, worldwide—especially on hundreds of millions of the world’s poorest people.

 

Yet, Ivermectin has become a no-no word on specific media sites.  

 

Ivermectin.

 

Have you heard of it?

 

Have you heard of it as a treatment for Covid19?

 

When the pandemic first began, my doctor gave me a prescription for Ivermectin.
At the time, I didn’t know what it was. She said she didn’t want me to die a horrible death, kind soul that she was.

 

I fulfilled one prescription and had two refills left. Recently the doctor told me to have the RX filled before they cut it off.

 

Well, sure enough, they did.

 

Yesterday I tried to fill my Ivermectin prescription and was rejected.

 

Don’t you hate it when that happens?

 

That riled me. 

 

Who ordered the stop-sale of food-grade, compounded for people, Ivermectin?

 

Those little white pills have been censored, as well as some sites suggesting them as a treatment for Covid19.

 

Will I be shut off?

 

We’ll see. 

 

I’m just a little blogger crying in the wilderness. I may not be detected, but then those bots can find about anything.

 

 

Ivermectin is a cheap drug. It has been around for 40 years and is used extensively. 

 

It is approved by the FDA as an antiparasitic treatment, but unfortunately, it has not yet been approved to treat viruses.

 

It is, however, considered antiviral.  I know of one couple who caught the Delta variant, were treated with Ivermectin, and are now fully recovered.

 

“Last week, Joe Rogan revealed he had tested positive for the virus and claimed to have gotten better after taking a Z-Pak antibiotic, prednisolone, and ivermectin.”

 

Rogan fell ill with Covid-19 just over a week ago, recovered, and tested negative within three days. He attributed his speedy recovery to “[throwing] the kitchen sink at it” and taking a cocktail of medications, including Ivermectin, monoclonal antibodies, azithromycin, and intravenous NAD. (Also, intravenous Vit C.)

 

He is now fully recovered.

 

Rogan says if people say he was taking Horse paste, they are making that shit up. He was taking Ivermectin under a doctor’s supervision. 

 

Somehow a news report came out that people have been hospitalized for taking Ivermectin Horse Paste. (A cheap way to get it.)

 

Any stupid idiot ought to know that you take medicine dosage according to body weight. You are not a 1500-pound horse. 

 

Apparently, those stories about people over-dozing themselves have not been verified.

 

It did, however, give power for the restriction of Ivermectin.

 

So what if we poison ourselves? It is our business, our lives, our risk. The media keeps screaming at us about how dangerous it is out there. Can you blame people for wanting to protect themselves? Ivermectin has been used on so many people worldwide that it is considered safe, safe safe.

 

So what if it clears out parasites. Big deal.

 

What if it clears out viruses as well. Bigger deal.

 

Some studies involving Ivermectin showed promising early results in preventing the SARS-CoV-2 virus from replicating in cell cultures, prompting widespread use of the human formulation of the drug throughout Latin America.

 

I checked online a month or so ago and could purchase 4 tablets of Ivermectin for the price I had paid to buy 20. I checked today, and you can still purchase Ivermectin online, although it is expensive. 

 

Something is fishy here.

 

Dare I say CONTROL?

 

Ivermectin was discovered in 1975 and used medically in 1981.

 

In 2015: The Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institute has today decided to award the 2015 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with one half jointly to

William C. Campbell and Satoshi Ōmura

for their discoveries concerning a novel therapy against infections caused by roundworm parasites and the other half to

You Tu

for her discoveries concerning a novel therapy against Malaria.

 

 

Although people have searched for another source of the microorganism that creates the Ivermectin, so far, it is found only in Japanese soil.

 

It has been used for veterinary purposes for years. I wonder what the farmers will do if they raise the price. I used the Ivermectin horse paste on my horses for years. It is recommended for use regularly for horses because as they graze, they pick up eggs from the soil, and thru can become infected with parasites. 

 

 

De-worming a horse--It really wasn’t that bad.

 

For humans, I have heard that if Ivermectin is taken on an empty stomach, it will kill any parasites you have dwelling in your intestines. Taken with oil, it is an antiviral. 

 

This information caused people to rush out and purchase Ivermectin. However, because it is not FDA approved for the treatment of viruses, its sale has been halted—at least at my pharmacy.

 

(I checked online, and you can still purchase it there. However, it is expensive.)

 

They need clinicals, they say. 

 

Well, let the people take it, and you will have your clinical. (Yeah, I hear screaming. Clinical must be done in a controlled environment.) 

 

 

Abstract

Discovered in the late-1970s, the pioneering drug ivermectin, a dihydro derivative of avermectin—originating solely from a single microorganism isolated at the Kitasato Institute, Tokyo, Japan, from Japanese soil—has had an immeasurably beneficial impact in improving the lives and welfare of billions of people throughout the world. Originally introduced as a veterinary drug, it kills a wide range of internal and external parasites in commercial livestock and companion animals. It was quickly discovered to be ideal in combating two of the world’s most devastating and disfiguring diseases, which have plagued the world’s poor throughout the tropics for centuries. It is now being used free-of-charge as the sole tool in campaigns to eliminate both diseases globally. It has also been used to successfully overcome several other human diseases, and new uses are continually being found. This paper looks in depth at the events surrounding Ivermectin’s passage from being a huge success in Animal Health into its widespread use in humans. This development has led many to describe it as a “wonder” drug.

 

A Wonder Drug?

 

“The ‘Blockbuster’ drug in the Animal Health sector, meaning that it achieved annual sales over US$1 billion, maintained that status for over 20 years. It is so useful and adaptable that it is also being used off-label, sometimes illegally, for example, to treat fish lice in the aquaculture industry, where it can harm non-target organisms. It also has extensive uses in agriculture.2)”

 

 

Last Updated: February 11, 2021

Ivermectin is a Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved antiparasitic drug. It is used to treat several neglected tropical diseases, including onchocerciasis, helminthiases, and scabies.1 It is also being evaluated for its potential to reduce malaria transmission by killing mosquitoes that feed on treated humans and livestock.2 For these indications, Ivermectin has been widely used and is generally well tolerated.1,3 Ivermectin is not approved by the FDA for the treatment of any viral infection.

 

Ivermectin is FDA-approved as an antiparasitic agent.

 

Not as antiviral.

 

Time will tell.

 

I just put Vaseline on my lips. I wonder who in the world would ever suggest putting a petroleum  bi-product on our skin?

 

Maybe What We Need Now is A Course in Miracles.

 Tuesdays with Jo

All through Greece and Italy, my 13-year-old daughter kept saying, “I could be in A Course of Miracles.” (Never take a teenager traveling.)

I’m not going to say how many years ago that was. However, I will say that now my daughter is the finest traveling companion I could ever wish for. However, she was young then and had a boyfriend at A Course in Miracles meeting. (A little motivation there.)

A book titled A Course in Miracles was the rage then, and we were going to a weekly meeting by the same name. Mainly it was a sharing of what miracle we had that week. We would draw from the cards that accompany the book and read it to the group. We used those cards as an oracle. It was fun and a gathering of like-minded souls. We laughed a lot and got a lot of hugs, and it was a fun time.

Strange that I didn’t know who wrote A Course in Miracles.  the word around was that Marianne Williamson wrote it, but she didn’t, although she was strongly associated with it. I guess she was promoting it. And people said the writings in A Course in Miracles was “channeled.” 

The funny thing is it was written by two arguing Professors whose boss told them to get their act together. 

They were Helen Schucman and William Thetford, Professors of Medical Psychology at Columbia University’s College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York.

Our copy of Miracles must have ended up at Good Will along with a stack of other books. You know how some things are pertinent in our lives, and then for whatever reason, they melt away. Maybe we’re fickle or looking for the next great thing to give us either an adrenaline jolt or a new perspective.

Helen Schucman, one of the authors, wrote this about herself:

 “Psychologist, educator, conservative in theory and atheistic in belief, I was working in a prestigious and highly academic setting. And then something happened that triggered a chain of events I could never have predicted. The head of my department unexpectedly announced that he was tired of the angry and aggressive feelings our attitudes reflected, and concluded that “there must be another way.” As if on cue, I agreed to help him find it. Apparently, this Course is the other way.”

This morning I received an email from Steven Pressfield (The War of Art) who said he had the book, A Course in Miracles in his library. It isn’t an easy book to read, Pressfield said, but it’s one we should have on our shelves to pick up on occasion.

Hey, it was written by Psychology professors—that should tell us something. But, wow, the hit that woman got. It shows what can happen when a person is determined. Reading it, one would think it came from a Christian perspective, but it was intended to be non sectarian and is considered to be a universal spiritual teaching.

Maybe I need it on my shelf again. No, actually, I need it in my heart and soul. Perhaps it’s what the world needs right now, A Course in Miracles.

 The first entry in the book:

1. This is a course in miracles. ²It is a required course. ³Only the time you take it is voluntary. ⁴Free will does not mean that you can establish the curriculum. ⁵It means only that you can elect what you want to take at a given time. ⁶The course does not aim at teaching the meaning of love, for that is beyond what can be taught. ⁷It does aim, however, at removing the blocks to the awareness of love’s presence, which is your natural inheritance. ⁸The opposite of love is fear, but what is all-encompassing can have no opposite. (ACIM, T-in.1:1-8)

I remember one Course in Miracles card: “Live forever, you holy son of God.” 

It sounded like you were swearing at the person when actually you were blessing them. I used to tell my dog Jewel that. 

If you’re interested in learning more or reading any part of the book, it is available for free at https://acim.org

I just bought a used copy.

Don't Drain the Well

 Tuesdays with Jo

When I was under 6 years old a Hobo—as we called them in those days—came to our back door asking if we could spare any food. Without hesitation, my grandmother fixed a plate of food for him.

My folks said that men would ride the rails, and when the train stopped in our little town on Mt. Vernon, Ill., they would sometimes hop off, find a bite to eat, and move on. I’m sure my grandmother knew of people facing hard times. It was no disgrace or dishonor, and if someone showed up hungry, you fed them.

I don’t know if the man had stopped at other houses before ours. We had a simple house, we weren’t poor, but we weren’t rich either, rather like the neighborhood, I suppose. My grandmother was widowed, had been since my mother was 12.  My father was in the war, my mother worked. We lived with no running water. We had a well in the backyard, the sort that was open on the top. The trick was to throw a bucket into the hole and draw up the water. I think there was a pump in the kitchen, so maybe we had a holding tank. We had an outhouse, electricity, and a furnace.

My Grandmother was an excellent cook. My stepdad said she made the best fried chicken, and I say she canned the best-pickled crabapples and mouth-watering dill pickles. Big ones, like you see at fairs, but her’s were better.

Except for the war hanging over our head–and I learned that war was the very worst thing that could happen. It surprises me that some people don’t necessarily feel that way, but I was young and innocent of the horrors I later learned and ran wild with the neighbor kids. We ate gooseberries that hung over the fence and sat under an apple tree with a saltshaker eating green apples. We put on our bathing suits in the summer and played in the water ditches, and we couldn’t wait for the first day of May when we could go barefoot. This was our way of living. We always had food, and my folks had the luxury of a car. I remember mom and her friends pooling their money for gas so they could go out on Saturday night.

Before my dad became a soldier, a mentally challenged boy lived next door. Often in the summers, my folks would get into water fights, and the neighbor boy loved it., He would egg my dad on, “Glen, I’ll get the water. I’ll get the water.” My mom would squeal and run up the stairs into the house. One time she broke her toe, tripping on the steps.

After being away from the house one day, we came home to an empty well. 

The boy had drained it.

It refilled.

Later my dad got a nanny goat, for he wanted to gain weight and had some stomach problems, and heard that goat’s milk would help. My dad would chain the goat to a stake and place it in various areas around the neighborhood to graze. The trouble was, no matter how deep he pounded in that stake, the boy would pull it out. The boy would then drive it around the neighborhood.  Soon the goat became so nervous my dad gave it away.

Why am I telling you this? I’ve been reading about feeding the homeless, and it caused me to think of Grandmother. And that sometimes it is not the most affluent who are the ones to help their fellow man.

I thought of the tent city in downtown Eugene, and with Thanksgiving coming up, I thought, why don’t we throw a couple of turkeys in the oven and take them down for a feast on the grass. I don’t know about the logistics of that idea or the health issues, but wouldn’t it be grand if when someone showed up hungry, we fed them?

 

Here's a quote from a reader. She found it on the inside cap of her Tazo iced tea.

"Truth is so rare that it is delightful to tell."