The Roundup: Week Ending September 10, 2022

The RoundUp collects the most recent news, listens and observations that caught my attention. Here’s a few things that happened. I’ll comment on some of them below.

• The Fantasy Football Anthem – yes. It’s a music video about fantasy football, and you won’t be able to look away.
• Pastors and burnout
• Ivermectin: The campaign to discredit a drug that effectively combats COVID-19
• Queen Elizabeth dies at age 96
• The sad tale of Gibson’s Bakery and Oberlin College
• The release of new Apple products (iPhone 14 and Apple Watch Series 8)

Queen Elizabeth dies at 96

Charles III paid a touching tribute to his mother at his accession speech on Saturday morning.

Pastors and burnout

A study of Protestant pastors conducted in March by the faith-based research organization Barna Group suggested that unprecedented numbers are thinking about quitting the ministry. The poll showed that rates of burnout among pastors have risen dramatically during the past year, with a staggering 42% of ministers wondering if they should abandon their vocation altogether.^[1]Pastors battle skyrocketing burnout amid politics, pandemic: ‘Wearing on the soul’by Jon Brown, Fox News, September 8, 2022

Please pray for pastors and ministers that you know!

New iPhones and Apple Watches

Apple announced on Wednesday the release of the iPhone 14 and the Apple Watch Series 8 (and Ultra). Stay tuned for a future post about why I’m ditching the iPhone in favor of the new Asus Zenfone 9.

In the meantime… here are 6 Signs You Don’t Deserve An iPhone.

You only use it for scrolling through social media apps

The latest A15 Bionic processor from Apple is the fastest SoC in the market now with one of the best neural engines that can perform up to 15.8 trillion operations per second and a 5-core GPU architecture.

It is obvious that Apple did not include such a tremendously powerful processor in their iPhones just so people could use them to cycle through various social media apps every day endlessly.^[2]6 Signs You Don’t Deserve An iPhone by The Useful Tech, September 6, 2022

Ivermectin Misinformation

I don’t know who kicked the door open, but in recent weeks, we’ve seen a steady stream of “news” from the media that was deemed as misinformation during the pandemic.

This week:

A new peer-reviewed study found that regular use of ivermectin reduced the risk of dying from COVID-19 by 92%.^[3]vermectin reduces COVID death risk by 92%, peer-reviewed study finds by Paul Sacca, The Blaze, September 3, 2022

Another story that’s finally catching people’s attention is that the CDC, NIH and Big Pharma apparently teamed up to censor information about a cheap OTC drug that was touted by physicians during the early days of the pandemic in 2020 as being extremely effective at treating and even preventing COVID-19. We can only speculate as to why Pfizer, Moderna and others didn’t want information about a cheap, already-available drug to get out while they were developing vaccines that they would make billions on and for which they would receive indemnity.

Enter The Ivermectin Movie:

Even the FDA got in on attacking ivermectin.^[4]Why Is the FDA Attacking a Safe, Effective Drug? By David R. Henderson and Charles L. Hooper, Wall Street Journal, July 28, 2021

A comprehensive article was published in the NIH National Library of Medicine journal in April 2021 that determined, “In summary, based on the totality of the trials and epidemiologic evidence presented in this review along with the preliminary findings of the Unitaid/WHO meta-analysis of treatment RCTs and the guideline recommendation from the international BIRD conference, ivermectin should be globally and systematically deployed in the prevention and treatment of COVID-19.”^[5]Review of the Emerging Evidence Demonstrating the Efficacy of Ivermectin in the Prophylaxis and Treatment of COVID-19, NIH National Library of Medicine, April 22, 2021 Intrigued? Here’s some … Continue reading

When Carolyn and I got the ‘rona back in October 2021, we took ivermectin. We had chosen to not get vaccinated. We started feeling extremely flu-like, and we tested positive. After 24 hours on ivermectin, we felt noticeably better, and recovered quickly. I am still amazed at when I tell people that we took ivermectin, the typical response is “What’s that?” It shows just how powerful the blackout was on effective treatments of COVID.

I mean, entire countries have chosen ivermectin as an effective treatment for COVID…^[6]India Govt. Declares Most Populated State Officially COVID Free After Widespread Use Of Ivermectin, One America News Network, October 2, 2021 India’s Ivermectin Blackout: The Secret Revealed by … Continue reading why has there been such an effort toward censorship here?

Oberlin College still won’t pay Gibson’s Bakery

This story about Gibson’s Bakery being falsely accused of racism during 2020 is sad and stunning. It involves an obstinate college, a woke group of students, and how one family became a victim to cancel culture.

We couldn’t make payroll, so we had to let go of half of our employees and cut our operating hours way back. My father-in-law, who made bagel deliveries to the college into his eighties, loved to sit outside the store all day and talk to whomever went by. He was a fixture in the community. Since word about the business with the college had spread, he’d sit outside for hours and hours, but no one would talk to him. It broke his heart, and mine. Calling us racists wasn’t just wrong, it was deeply painful to our core.^[7]Will I Ever See the $36 Million Oberlin College Owes Me? by Lorna Gibson, Common Sense, September 1, 2022

The Fantasy Football Anthem

This is just… wonderful.

This year marks 30 years that I’ve been playing fantasy football. Yep. 30 years. So this majestic musical masterpiece is a fitting tribute to my years of playing, winning and cussing over this fabulous sport. Be watching for my Ode to Fantasy Football 2 post that will drop next week!^[8]Here are some past posts about fantasy football:

• Ode to Fantasy Football, September 13, 2014
• Week 1, Win 1, One Son, September 15, 2009
• Fantasy league Superbowl Sunday, December 22, 2007