Pain, Pain, Go Away!

 March found me back in quarantine, as it did last year. This time, it wasn't a bad cold, but a three-week case of diarrhea. Pepto Bismol, Candibactin BR, black seeds (nigella), NAC, thyroid medication and probiotics did nothing; a jar of kimchi made it a lot worse. So I went to urgent care, where the doctor prescribed a stool test for C. difficile and other nasties that will make you extremely ill. C. diff is so toxic that my employer advised me to stay home until results were in. Of course, I didn't want to infect others, so I quarantined myself...again. I'm even working on my computer in the sunshine as I did last year. I forgot that it's hard to see the screen.   Photo from pixabay.com All the test results were negative, so I'm still trying to figure out why I have diarrhea. Hypotheses include too much B vitamins and too much gut bacteria. It all started shortly after beginning a new probiotic and re-starting thyroid medication (25 mg). As I mentioned, I took

"We thank you for the revenue!" says a satirical(?) billboard just south of the Michigan-Indiana border. The billboard also honors(?) Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer as Indiana's businessperson of the year and welcomes residents of her state to "free-roaming Indiana." Whitmer made the news last year when she banned sales of gardens seeds and activities such as boating or traveling to a second residence. Sheriffs in various counties refused to enforce some of the orders . Peaceful protestors, mostly in cars but some of them armed, stormed the capital and surrounding blocks.  Photo from Steve Swick. Michigan's excess deaths per capita has been among the worst in the US.  Sign owner Steve Swick says,  It’s from the frustration that we see so much with Michiganders who are coming over the border,” said Swick, a Michigan native who grew up about 15 miles north of the billboard in Coldwater. Whitmer “effectively shut down and destroyed small businesses and industri

What if you could take a flamethrower to everything that was wrong with 2020: the lockdowns, the riots, campus speech codes, chokeholds, the endless emergency orders by fiat? The Indiana assembly has all that and much more in its sights this season . Isolate Grandma? She should soon be able to see a caregiver she's related to. Caught rioting? Three hots, a cot and no government job for you. States of emergency? Not without permission from the legislature, and they're in no mood for mission creep . Speakers you disagree with on campus? Grit your teeth or head for a safe space. Defund the police? LOL, the assembly is looking to repeal the law requiring licenses to carry handguns by persons not otherwise prohibited from doing so.  Also on the agenda: prohibition of conversion therapy , civil forfeiture reform , a ban on police chokeholds, decriminalization of marijuana, body cams and dash cams for the police, allowing pharmacists to prescribe and dispense birth control pills and p

I'll start with some  good news : "...residents 70 and older can now register to receive the coronavirus vaccine through the state [of Indiana]'s website." The CDC and some academics wanted to vaccinate essential workers to " level the playing field ," because "essential workers" include a higher proportion of non-white people than the over-70 crowd does. As readers surely know, the over-70 crowd is far more likely to die of COVID than anyone else. No, the link doesn't go to the Babylon Bee or The Onion : they really called for more deaths in the name of Fairness.  And sorry, teachers , but you don't get to jump the line in front of doctors, nurses, essential medical staff and old people, either.  Oldsters among the first to get COVID vaccines in Indiana. Photo from Pixabay . At least the state of Indiana is more interested in saving lives than ideology. Would that the state had such an interest in science and data. Like most other places,

The Purge I've been nostaligic for the days five to ten years back when the worst interaction you might have online was a nasty comment or two. Moderators, who might have to deal with a few hundred comments at most, blocked the trolls if they became too disruptive. Now that Facebook and Twitter are excommunicating people wholesale, maybe we'll go back to smaller, moderated sites and leave the yelling and screaming to the maddening crowds over there.  Dave Rubin asked Tulsi Gabbard today how she'd moderate Twitter. In practice, I don't think it's possible. It's too big with too many users who are completely unhinged and ready to come after you IRL if they don't like what you say. Then there's Facebook, which seemed like a platform for narcissists during the few weeks I used it long ago. They say people used to live in groups of about 150--maybe it's time for virtual communities to return to something closer to that number. Not only was there less trou

I just had the fastest recovery from a muscle injury EVER. Two days ago, I twisted the wrong way while playing with my dog and hurt my back. It felt like an oblique muscle was pulled. It hurt every time I moved, even in bed. The next day after I took a shower, it was gone. Not better, but gone.  Yogurt: stronger than it looks! Photo from Pixabay . A few months ago, working for a few hours on my garage left me feeling like I'd been run over .  The only thing I'm doing differently is eating yogurt made with Bacillus Coagulans Unique IS-2. I ate my normal amount of it, maybe even less, over the past few days. I started making and eating it around mid-November. I've had a number of muscle injuries over the years (including turf toe, which was nearly as painful as an infected tooth, and a couple of bad sprains that took a year to completely heal). I'm blown away at how fast I mended this time. Dr. Davis says his daughter, who plays competitive tennis, uses B. coagulans GBI

Wholesome holiday or superspreader supper? Photo from Pixabay . Doomers warned of a Thanksgiving bump in COVID cases. "A surge upon surge," warned Fauci; " assume that you were exposed and you became infected," advised Birx . Some states instituted restrictions : New Mexico issued a stay-at-home order; Washington state banned indoor restaurant service for a month; Michigan banned indoor dining service for three weeks. North Dakota and Iowa, meanwhile, finally told people to wear face coverings if they're out in public. South Dakota stayed its libertarian course. What were the effects of these various orders, or lack of them? The US has seen increasing COVID deaths and hospitalizations over the past few weeks. Thanksgiving was Thursday, November 26; it's now three weeks later. Was it due to Thanksgiving gatherings? Charts below are from CovidTracking.com , accessed December 16. Thanksgiving bump? Well, it doesn't look like a bump, but a trend that starte