xylophone

So you have finally given yourself away with one of the groups you follow, "America's frontline doctors" some of whom had their license to practice withdrawn due to the damaging and incorrect information they were putting out in the marketplace, advocating the likes of hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin to treat Covid 19, when in fact none of them have been proven to work. The following describes it better than I can: – America's Frontline Doctors (AFLDS) is an American right-wing political organization.[1][2][3] Affiliated with Tea Party Patriots co-founder Jenny Beth Martin and publicly led by Simone Gold, the group is opposed to measures intended to control the COVID-19 pandemic, such as business closures, stay-at-home orders, and vaccination. The group promotes falsehoods about the COVID-19 pandemic and COVID-19 vaccines. AFLDS made its first public appearance during a media event on July 27, 2020, where they advocated for the use of repurposed drugs such as hydroxychloroquine as treatments for COVID-19. Their statements were made without the support of peer-reviewed evidence or regulatory approval, and the group also alleged that the pharmaceutical industry was intentionally sponsoring studies showing the drugs to be ineffective. Video of the event was distributed via right-wing websites and social media outlets, and also promoted by then-U.S. president Donald Trump and his son.[4][5][6] In 2021, AFLDS shifted to anti-vaccine activism with the rollout of COVID-19 vaccines; the group made false claims about the vaccines' efficacy and safety, and began to promote paid telehealth consultations with "AFLDS-trained" physicians that would prescribe medications claimed to be COVID-19 treatments. It also filed lawsuits in attempts to block an expansion of the Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) for one of the vaccines, and to block a proof of vaccination mandate in New York City under a claim that it was inherently discriminatory against African Americans. So if following this bunch of morons is where you get your information from, then it says much more about you than any of your posts ever can, so I won't be following any of them from here on in. Goodbye to a "not so wise" owl.

There is no problem with my sincerity and intellect, or my ability to discuss topics, and the term "anti-VAX" is in my voice recognition software, so it is at hand and easy to use, and really does describe some of the rabid believers in this type of nonsense. And as for your comment that, "huge amounts of money are spent on convincing busy doctors to prescribe the drugs", well my wife worked in sales for a major pharmaceutical company in the UK, and part of her job was to visit the doctors and run through the products with them, and how they could help patients. There was absolutely no way that these doctors were "forced" to prescribe any particular medicine. The decision what to prescribe was entirely theirs, based on what information and knowledge they had on any particular pharmaceutical. That Doctors cannot be questioned is something you need to look at, and I hope you get the point! PS. OOPS……..here’s that nasty term again!!!! Dr. Simone Gold, leading anti-vax figure, sentenced for storming Capitol on Jan. 6 Gold and her organization have pushed conspiracy theories about COVID-19. The founder of America's Frontline Doctors, Gold and her coalition of physicians have pushed conspiracy theories about the COVID-19 vaccine and promoted disproven treatments like ivermectin. https://abcnews.go.com/US/dr-simone-gold-leading-anti-vax-figure-sentenced/story?id=85445732

No I don't agree, specifically because my son is a doctor in London and has been for many years now, furthermore I have two good friends in NZ who are both doctors, and one is a surgeon, and I have been in touch with a couple of professors of urology in Melbourne and London, and none of the above fit the description you have posted, which basically takes away the freedom that these doctors have to be able to treat and diagnose patients. So as I said, absolute rubbish.

What a lot of old cobblers or claptrap whatever you want to call it and it is typical of the anti-VAX brigade to come out with this type of belief/statement: – "The Big Pharma system is a massive industry/business. Pharma companies actually now dictate the syllabus of learning doctors.. Although the 'pill of every ill' theme has been with us for yonks. In today's world one cannot get to a be a doctor unless a certain script is adhered to. Many doctors and scientists, owe their living to Big Pharma. It's not in their interests to 'rock' the boat". Heard it all before and it's absolute nonsense, and really doesn't bear witness to what is actually happening in the medical and scientific world. It's a wonder people with these views are allowed to carry on poisoning the weak minded through their stupidity, skewed beliefs and lies.

A young lady of doubtful intelligence is shopping in an elegant Paris perfumery and she asks the saleswomen to show her one of their perfumes. "What is this called?" she asks. "Come to me" replies the saleswoman. "Oh, that's interesting" exclaims the customer. The young lady then sprays herself with the perfume to experience its scent. "No, I don't like it, it doesn't smell like cum to me”.

But still a team lacking the class and excitement of the Uniteds of yesteryear, I'm afraid to say.

Last night I downloaded and watched "Reptile" and thought it was good, although I did not recognise Alysia Silverstone who seems to have packed on a few pounds these past few years. But then again so had Benicio del Toro, but still good to watch. There were quite a few "red herrings" in the movie, but it did prove suspenseful at times and as it unravelled, so did the surprises. Well worth a watch IMO and thanks to LosLobo for recommending it.

Try the 50s, along with some great dancing!! You might think you've seen this before, at least for the first couple of minutes. But then for the next eight minutes we're treated to a whole new compilation, done by a genius. In these insane times, this is so fabulous.....turn up the volume, get ready to tap your feet and enjoy.

Irish Confession I went into the confessional box after many years of being away from the Catholic Church. Inside I found a fully equipped bar with Guinness on tap. On one wall, there was a row of decanters with fine Irish whiskey and Waterford crystal glasses. On the other wall was a dazzling array of the finest cigars and chocolates. When the priest came in, I said to him, "Father, forgive me, for it's been a very long time since I've been to confession, but I must first admit that the confessional box is much more inviting than it used to be." He replied, "You moron, you're on my side."

While reading an article last night about fathers and sons, memories came flooding back to the time I took me son out for his first pint. Off we went to our local pub only two blocks from the cottage. I got him a Guinness. He didn't like it, so I drank it. Then I got him a Kilkenny's, he didn't like that either, so I drank it. Finally, I thought he might like some Harp Lager? He didn't. I drank it. I thought maybe he'd like whisky better than beer so we tried a Jameson's; nope! In desperation, I had him try that rare Redbreast, Ireland's finest whisky. He wouldn't even smell it. What could I do but drink it! By the time I realized he just didn't like to drink, I was so <deleted>-faced I could hardly push his stroller back home!!!

The reply you get will be pure MAGA nonsense, so don't wait too long!!

Out of luck/unlucky in a nutshell.

Forgot to mention that I also watched a documentary on BBC iPlayer last night, called, "Downfall of the Crypto King – Sam Bankman-Fried" and I enjoyed it, especially as it wasn't full of crypto talk, but down-to-earth explanations of what was going on, and what was going on was an eye-opener. To put it simply it was a crypto scam run by a bunch of amateur nerds, headed by a guy who had no real experience in managing this sort of thing. However all will be revealed in his trial which is this October – – my opinion, guilty of fraud, but we'll have to see what the outcome of the trial is, so I will wait with bated breath. Well worth a watch IMO.

Incorrect to say "should of" when it should be "should have"....... And a quote I like, "It's all part of life's rich tapestry".

I tried to watch the new movie featuring Benedict Cumberbatch and Ben Kingsley, called, "The Wonderful story of Henry Sugar" and persevered to just over halfway through it thinking it might live up to its IMDb rating of 7.5, but to no avail, so switched it off. It is not the normal type of movie, and it is very different, but still too difficult for me to hang on in there.

Can also turn your teeth yellow, and brushing won't make them white again.

Well you won't get them from this bunch of GOP losers!!

Best that you read this, skippy................ https://news.yahoo.com/biden-impeachment-even-house-republicans-own-witnesses-see-no-evidence-of-wrongdoing-203421120.html

Although I had seen it aeons ago, I decided to watch, "Remains of the Day" on BBC iPlayer last night, and was pleased that I did, mainly because I didn't remember much of it from the previous viewing. One particular scene grabbed me at the end, where Emma Thompson was on a bus, waving goodbye to Anthony Hopkins, and the sadness that was portrayed in that scene was heartbreaking; Thompson crying as she waved goodbye, realising that the person that she had loved and admired most of her working life, Hopkins, was irretrievably connected to his role in service and would never be with her. It was so well acted.

Thanks as I absolutely loved the first two seasons.

Do read the information in the link I gave, because IMO it is extremely interesting and to some extent explains the difficulty that urologists have with problems with the prostate. There is an operation in which the bladder is lifted slightly to enable access to the prostate node/nodule, which can then be removed, with no side-effects apparently. Other than that, I'm sure you have tried the medications available: – 5-alpha reductase inhibitors are used to treat larger prostate glands. They shrink the prostate gland if it's enlarged. Finasteride and dutasteride are the two 5-alpha reductase inhibitors available.

Hmmm.......where to start? Firstly I've been unlucky inasmuch as I had been suffering from prostatitis for many years, hence the long doses of doxycycline, which helped, then it didn't. Also, because of urine retention and this prostatitis, I did suffer from fairly frequent UTIs and as I mentioned previously, I was prescribed a whole raft of antibiotics, none of which "cured" me. I was told by top urologists and from research, that prostatitis was a difficult problem to cure because if there were bacteria present in the prostate, they would often be protected by what is called a "biofilm", so antibiotics could rarely get through this biofilm to access the bacteria. In addition to this, I had a cystoscopy in Auckland, and the urologist described my prostate as "ragged", which he thought was probably due to quite a few infections in the prostate over the years, which would tally with my experience. Also, calcifications due to the infections over the years were causing inflammatory responses in the prostate and urethra, which I mistook for possible UTIs. Moving along a few years, I eventually underwent a TURP at Epworth Hospital in Melbourne, and the "reaming out" of the prostate actually stopped my prostate/urinary episodes, quite possibly because it removed the calcifications in the prostate. Now onto recent times where I was experiencing something akin to urethritis, with a burning sensation in the urethra, but not all of the time, and tests revealed some bacterial activity, but not enough to be able to culture, unfortunately. That's when I contacted the professors, whom I came across quite by accident through another member of the medical profession. They had been conducting extensive research over the past few years on problems with the prostate and infections of the lower urinary tract, mainly because it was a problem with males, but also with females (not the prostate of course, but cystitis). They found that fosfomycin (Monural) taken once every two days, three times in all, backed up by doxycycline, started on the last day of dosage, for 10 days, and then the use of Hiprex (methenamine) tablets, finally got rid of any stubborn bacteria or organisms which were present. So it can be seen that in many cases prostatitis/prostate infections/UTIs are not as straightforward as we may think, and if you study the link which I will attach here, you will see that there are many other organisms which can cause problems in the urinary tract and prostate, many of which you probably haven't heard of. Not only that, many of them are not susceptible to "regular" antibiotics. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC88899/ PS. The cause of enlarged prostate is not fully understood, although hormonal activity is thought to be one probability, although bacterial activity and inflammation within the prostate could well be another factor.

Obviously my two urologists in New Zealand don't agree with you, because I was taking doxycycline for sometimes 90 days to try and cure my prostatitis, and although it didn't cure it completely, at least the symptoms went away for that period of time, but soon after I stopped, they came back. Just a few years ago I got in touch with two professors of urology, one in Australia and one in London because I was having some prostatitis-like symptoms (more like cystitis) and nothing seemed to work, and they sent me some of the research they had been doing on this and the prostate and it was surprising how many combinations of antibiotics they had tried, and for long periods, before finding a combination that was successful, which I used and it worked. I wouldn't take ciprofloxacin for that period of time, nor did they recommend that antibiotic, but a combination which did work.

Agree with Sheryl..........you should insist on a culture, otherwise you will be given any number of antibiotics to try and fix the problem. Basically a shot in the dark, and very often unsuccessful.

Sarcasm.............I hope ozimoron!!!!! Donald J. Trump Pays Court-Ordered $2 Million for Illegally Using Trump Foundation Funds Trump Ordered to Pay Eight Separate Charities $250,000 Each TRUMP HAS FILED FOR SIX BUSINESS BANKRUPTCIES and has had many failed businesses:- The Trump Taj Mahal in 1991 Trump Castle Hotel & Casino in 1992 and Trump Plaza Casino 1992 Trump Plaza Hotel 1992 Trump Hotels and Casinos Resorts in 2004 Trump Entertainment Resorts in 2009 Not forgetting many other failed businesses….. Trumped!, Trump Steaks, Trump Network, GoTrump, Tour de Trump, Trump Airlines, 7. Trump Vodka, The New Jersey Generals, Trump Mortgage, Trump: The Game, Trump Magazine, Trump Ice and not forgetting Trump University!! (In November 2016, Trump agreed to settle a series of lawsuits related to the school/Uni for $25 million.