I think Romans 14 helps us on the matter of wearing masks, though I am not saying that those who believe we should wear masks are weak in faith.

Remember in Romans 14 the strong believed they could eat foods that were unclean according to the OT (Lev. 11 & Deut. 14), and they also believed that the sabbath and special feast days were no longer mandatory.

The weak thought one should refrain from eating food deemed unclean in the OT and also believed the sabbath and other feasts should be observed.

Paul clearly agrees with the strong theologically. No food is unclean now that the new covenant has arrived and Christ has come (Rom. 14:14, 20). The feast and sabbath days are no longer required (Rom. 14:5–6).

Still, when with the weak, they should refrain from eating unclean foods out of love for their brothers and sisters who think differently.

not to go anthropological on everyone but america, the nation, truly does not have much culture and very little history.

we do not respect the land and it's people.
we do not respect each other or newcomers.

and although these aren't specific to america, they are stronger here

america is built on capitalism and very few other values under the false pretense of social and class mobility. but if that were true than most everyone in this country would not be as poor as they are. and we wouldn't have billionaires who profit off of dying people.

america might be the land of dreams but like most dreams there is a harsh reality to wake up to. the people here are probably worse off than most other nations under the skewed and inaccurate qualifier that is GDP per capita.

just because america is rich doesn't make it good.

and then there's america's political influence that pretty much forces other nations into becoming capitalistic, thus slowing all social progress in the name of greed.

I don't hate capitalism as much as you'd think but I do hate greed, and capitalism is rarely without greed.

since america is such a consumer culture as well, preservation is often looked down upon. for instance, cutting down trees for wood, or not respecting burial sites or sacred land in the name of progress.

this often has a multitude of consequences and some that we can't fix.

Ok, time to talk about my psychiatrist experience.
For the course of approx 12 months from mid 2018 to mid 2019, I was abused and mistreated by a psychiatrist who is considered to be one of the main 'experts' in Adult ADHD in Melbourne.

I shrugged off my concerns initially because I was so happy to finally be treated and medicated for my ADHD. In my first appointment, he pressured me to let me Mum join the appointment even though she was only there because she gave me a lift.

he directed almost of the questions in that first appointment. I barely got a word in. Within 45 minutes, after a series of very leading questions asked to my Mum (not to me), he had diagnosed me with two serious mental illnesses and written me several scripts.

every appointment after that, I walked out with at least two new scripts. I didn't fill most of them because I was uncomfortable with the pace at which he was changing my meds and adding new ones.

He never actually listened to my concerns about my meds, and he was very blunt and unhelpful with his general advice. He talked down to me like I was a child, cut me off while I was speaking, and after a few appointments he took to directly insulting my intelligence.

Outside the Capitol now. A crowd is starting to gather. Definitely larger than the previous ones I've seen.

Signs spotted so far:

'Knucklehead Gordon's
'Legislature must convene, fix election fraud.'
'Masks don't work.'

One counter protestor on the corner.

It's started.

Clem: "we are here because we love our freedom, and because the man in that building is a tyrant."

Several hundred people here. Shouts of 'RINO' in the crowd. A few rifles on display.

"Only legislators can make law," he said. Said there was no public input on the health orders.

1/@RANDCorporation just put out a report on drug prices amongst the G7, and the methodology is somewhat appalling. I'm kind of hoping @DrugChannels looks at it because it contains such glaring errors worthy of an Adam Fein Policy Roast.

2/In the introduction of the report (p.viii) they admit that they can't actually compare prices of drugs because US drugs include rebates and many of those aren't public info. So they start out the report by saying they're going to use incorrect numbers....

3/"Although prices net of rebates and other discounts paid by manufacturers after drugs are dispensed are particularly relevant in the United States, these prices are generally not available to researchers."

4/Honestly the report should have stopped right there. How do you honestly proceed after such a whopper of a flaw in your own methodology? What's worse is they buried the useful observation

5/"for unbranded generic drugs (with U.S.
prices at 84 percent of those in comparison countries). Unbranded generics represent 84 percent
of volume in the United States, compared with 35 percent of volume for the other OECD
countries in the study."

A few thoughts on food and land use 2021. This year, and throughout the decade ahead, the world has before it a remarkable obligation and opportunity to bring about a fairer, more inclusive, more sustainable and more resilient food and land use system.

Such a system would ensure that every human being has access to a healthy and nutritious diet; that all the world’s farmers and fishermen live dignified lives; and that the food system itself causes no further loss of biodiversity, no more climate change, and no more pandemics.

To achieve such a food and land use system would require concerted international effort – from governments, companies, farmer’s associations, scientists, and communities – akin in scale and ambition to the quest for a Covid-19 vaccine.

The good news is that a global pivot to more sustainable agriculture, healthier diets, & reduced food loss and waste – coupled with a major effort to protect and restore nature – would generate millions of jobs, as well as sustained economic growth and improved well-being.

To achieve these ambitious aims, action in four areas is urgently needed in 2021 and through the decade:
1.Increase flows of finance to fighting hunger. In the course of the past year alone, the number of acutely food insecure people in the world has risen to 690 million.

Today marks the establishment of the House of Lords International Agreements Committee as a freestanding Committee of Parliament. So here is a thread on treaty scrutiny in the House of Lords to celebrate the occasion 1/16/

Parliament has never been very good at scrutinising treaties. Bagehot noted the problem in 1872 in the second edition of his seminal work The English Constitution 2/16

I suspect the reasons for this are twofold: first the fact the negotiations of treaties are the responsibility of the Executive under the royal prerogative... 3/16

And second the UK’s dualist legal system - which means that international agreements do not take effect in domestic law until they have been enacted in domestic legislation. 4/16

This sounds like a safeguard. But in fact agreements tend to be signed before any legislation (if it is necessary) is brought before Parliament. So Parliamentarians are left with a rather binary choice... 5/16

As an Emergency physician and a Navy veteran, I'm calling on social media companies to permanently ban Dr. Simone Gold and America's Frontline Doctors from their platform. Here's why. 1/x

Gold may now state that she regrets being part of the group of insurrectionists who attacked our democracy on Jan. 6th. But she WAS a part of it, and their traitorous actions resulted in five unnecessary deaths. 2/x

Not only that, but from a medical perspective, Gold was extremely reckless in joining a group of largely maskless rioters who didn't socially distance whatsoever. These actions go directly against the science we know helps prevent the spread of the deadly COVID-19 disease. 3/x

Sadly, this isn't the only thing Gold and her extremist "America's Frontline Doctors" have done to worsen the pandemic. Since summer, they've spread dangerous disinformation, like touting hydroxychloroquine as a COVID-19 cure, even though it's not and can be harmful. 4/x

And while the safe and effective COVID-19 vaccine is the best tool we have to eradicate the pandemic and save lives, Gold has incorrectly referred to it as an “experimental, biological agent deceptively named a vaccine.” 5/x

Excellent video on the use of race in college admissions. If you do not have time to watch the video, the screenshots set out the basic precepts along with the narrowly tailored cases in which race MAY be considered.
h/t: @ConceptualJames

The news today from Washington signals the biggest victory in the field of #CollegeInPrison in decades. It’s a long time coming. This undoes the #94crimebill’s ban on #Pell Grants for incarcerated students. #PellRestoration #PELLYES
A thread.

Prior to the #94CrimeBill, college was common, even normal, in state and federal prisons across the country. The #Pell ban eviscerated college nearly

Since then, a small but growing number of privately funded programs helped keep the field alive. @BPIBard has been proud to be one of them, but we want to shout out our friends & fellow travelers at @MtTamCollege @HudsonLink & women in Bedford Hills who got so much of this going.

After years of advocacy, the critical moment was in 2015 when advocates convinced the Obama administration created Second Chance Pell, formally restoring college-in-prison to the CJR agenda. No one did more to make that happen than our allies @Vivian_Nixon_WW & @glennEmartin.

Just to say, there was one person in the federal government who carried this torch the whole way. That was our friend John Linton in the Dept of Ed, who we lost last year to pancreatic cancer. We love and miss him.

@paddua @USMarshalsHQ @SebGorka Remedy has been sought from both the Legislature and the Judiciary. Notice was given time and time again...people were given the opportunity to do the right thing. In every case they refused. What has not been used thus far to effect remedy is the Executive.

@USMarshalsHQ @SebGorka Donald Trump knew before he ever took office what needed to be done. He has quietly rooted out corruption in key positions and departments while manipulating the media since he took office...always talking loudly to keep people focused where he wanted them to look.

@USMarshalsHQ @SebGorka The pieces are now in place...Washington DC is occupied by 25,000 soldiers that the DEMOCRATS called in. Those soldiers answer to Donald J Trump and have been deputized as Federal Marshall's.

@USMarshalsHQ @SebGorka Marshalls are authorized to make arrests without warrants for federal crimes committed in their presence or for which they have evidence. On January 6th, the whole world watched approximately 90% of our congress commit treason by knowingly certifying a fraudulent election.

@USMarshalsHQ @SebGorka Donald Trump went on camera before the American people and told us that he has tried every legal means to fix this problem. Right now a state of emergency exists in all 50 states and DC. The head of FEMA is a 26 year veteran who was ALSO just appointed acting secretary of DHS.

[THREAD] After all the pomp and circumstance of a POTUS being “installed” in a capital city that more closely resembled a garrison, we are left with the reality that for the next four years we must “resist” a political party that intends to“fundamentally transform” the USA.

[Thread: Fandoms]
I was called by a long lost friend's parents today. A bit of history, she was involved with the fandom(?) of a popular sports team for the past year or so. The involvement grew so intense that she was engaged with the fandom-things for better part of the day ->

She administered multiple social media "fan-accounts" for the team and the players, had a huge "friends-group" within the fandom itself etc.

In the last few weeks, she almost stopped speaking to her parents, and lost all the contact with her friends in the lockdown. ->

3 weeks ago, somehow a (alleged) rumor spread within their fandom circle's social media that she is a "mole for the opposite team" (or something like that) and she faced everything from abuses to rape threats (was reported to authorities. More on that later) ->

From what the description sounded like, the harassment was really worse than what political social media has (in my experience of hot takes in the past year)

Anyway, 2 days after this rumor, their "fandom team lost to opposite fandom team" on some online contest thing. ->

She was blamed by the "friends" in the fandom "for conspiring" and this person went into a literal shock.

Couldn't speak, couldn't eat, lay in bed all day, didn't even get up to visit the restroom and was deaf to everything. FOR 48 HOURS. Had to be taken to a doctor. ->

If you are still suffering from cognitive dissonance and can't seem to interpret what is going on around you, let me see if I can at least help you understand what is happening within broader evangelicalism and the Roman Catholic Church:

(2) The "church" is becoming the state church. The church that doesn't just obey the state and governmental authorities but that is incorporated into the state.

Ecumenism will be based upon subjective economic, social, and supranational policies: and you must believe.

(3) And along with this transition you must obey and do whatever the state tells you to do. This is now "loving thy neighbor". This is the new collective.

And you must hate the old nation, the old constitution, the old economy, the old ways.

You must embrace the new systems

Politics on social media creates echo chambers that result in people automatically being offended and easily being hurt by terms like "SJW", "libtard", "racist", "fascist", "sexist", etc...I've been scolded by users for saying certain words, even lately, but I've also gotten...