It was probably not a mistake. Most doctors don't bother testing for prostate cancer on men over 80 because the false positive rate for men over 80 is astronomical. This is common medical practice. I should note that I had very high PSA numbers causing my doctor to assume I was stage 4 and I consented to a biopsy which was, frankly, the most painful thing I have ever endured in my entire life. The biopsy showed zero cancer, this also means that PSA tests no longer work on me (I am 73) as they will all show me "terminally ill" when I am not. My doctor is resorting to other means of testing for prostate cancer. I had a non-blood uncle die of it but no blood relatives have had it and I have no other risk indicators.

By Jessica Orsini (Jessica_Orsini) on Monday, May 19, 2025 - 08:41 am: Edit

DELETED AS I WARNED

By Jeff Wile (Jswile) on Monday, May 19, 2025 - 11:28 am: Edit

Bombing reported in Palm Springs CA.

Police have released information to the effect that the twenty five year old attacker, died in the explosion, which has been declared, a terrorist attack.

What makes this different, in my opinion, was the motive for the attack.

Apparently, the attack was motivated to bomb the Fertility clinic for “Anti Natal” purposes.

In other words, the attacker believed that people should not have children, ever.

By Jessica Orsini (Jessica_Orsini) on Monday, May 19, 2025 - 12:40 pm: Edit

My apologies, Steve; I'd missed the "no more on this topic" note, and thought to provide some historical context.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Monday, May 19, 2025 - 05:02 pm: Edit

You see why the subject is too hot to handle. We could be seeing pointless Congressional inquiries and useless court indictments, totally bogus charges on other politicians, and a whole lot of thunder and lighting for nothing. Better to let it go somewhere else for discussion.

Sadly, this isn't going to go away, but I am still not going to allow it here. I encourage everyone to do some reading about this. Charges are flying fast and sloppy, with some claiming that the cancer diagnosis was released to distract from the mental competence issues, others pointing to another cover up (honestly, cannot the man have some privacy on life-threatening conditions?), and more ridiculous things.

By Paul Howard (Raven) on Tuesday, May 20, 2025 - 02:39 am: Edit

SVC - Was it announced more for the Positive effect it will have on Men seeking testing and moving it on to someone else, Sir Chris Hoy (one of the famous cyclists) went Public with his Terminal Cancer.
SVC: Probably not. Many think it was timed to distract from the released special prosecutor tapes.

In the UK - I am ashamed to say 'Men of a certain age' in the UK, still try to show the image 'tough men don't cry/seek medical help' etc - and the Government/Medical Services have an uphill challenge in getting people to actually go for testing.

My father (fingers crossed) will come out of hospital today after nearly 4 weeks in 2 different hospitals - and one thing they found was an Enlarged Prostate (and had various Prostate Cancer treatment 10 years go).... and being 82, we are unsure whther it will be put on the list of 'it will cause more damage to do anything about it, rather than leaving it alone' and so we will ignore it.

"Everyone should get tested"

By Jessica Orsini (Jessica_Orsini) on Tuesday, May 20, 2025 - 09:52 am: Edit

Not a full-on disaster, per se, but the storms that went through Missouri last night shoved a "widowmaker" branch right down through the metal awning over my back door. That's a problem I really didn't need today.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Tuesday, May 20, 2025 - 11:58 am: Edit

Paul, no problem, it’s the cognitive problem we cannot discuss.

By Jeff Anderson (Jga) on Thursday, May 22, 2025 - 07:33 pm: Edit

ALREADY IN ANOTHER TOPIC

By Jessica Orsini (Jessica_Orsini) on Saturday, July 05, 2025 - 05:51 am: Edit

The news about Camp Mystic down on the Guadalupe River is awful; at least 23 girls still missing in the floods.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Saturday, July 05, 2025 - 10:19 pm: Edit

The rescue workers at Guadalupe asked for a search helicopter from the Feds and got it within an hour, no red tape.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Sunday, July 06, 2025 - 12:02 am: Edit

Death toll in Guadalupe floods passes 50. About 20 are known to be missing. Some will be found alive having abandoned vehicles and climbed the hills, but others were doubtless swept away.

By Jessica Orsini (Jessica_Orsini) on Sunday, July 06, 2025 - 07:43 am: Edit

The Cajun Navy got there fast, as they usually do, and have been doing a ton of work.

By Ryan Opel (Ryan) on Sunday, July 06, 2025 - 01:19 pm: Edit

Not only got the chopper within an hour of the request, but got it the morning after the 4th of July parties in the middle of a 4 day weekend.

By Mike Erickson (Mike_Erickson) on Sunday, July 06, 2025 - 02:51 pm: Edit

I read that in some parts of the river, it went from a normal water level to +25 feet in less than 1 hour. Terrifying.

--Mike

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Sunday, July 06, 2025 - 06:37 pm: Edit

Alberta: the first step has been taken to collect signatures to call a referendum to leave the Canadian union and beome a sovereign country. It might then apply to become a state of the US. Or not.

There are actually two separate referendum petitions, one by the oil industry (secretly supported by Texas) and another secretly run by the government of Alberta to confuse the issues and create a referendum question that could mean anything that the government of Alberta says it means.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Sunday, July 06, 2025 - 07:01 pm: Edit

Saskatchewan has now filed the paperwork to hold a referendum to leave Canada.

All of this is caused by western Canadian provinces resenting decades of unfair treatment by the Canadian government. The western part of Canada produces the bulk of the Canadian economy (grain and oil) but the more populous eastern half writes regulations that hurt the West to favor the East. The East also spends the West's money on insane social programs that the West finds disgusting.

Alberta just passed a new law making it a lot easier to force such a referendum. In Alberta, support for independence has surged from 34% to 49%; some outlier polls show support reaching 80%.

By Dana Madsen (Madman) on Monday, July 07, 2025 - 10:35 am: Edit

Lifelong SK/Canadian here.

SK is nowhere close to 50%, maybe they will get to 12.5% interest to put a non-binding referendum question forward but it would get voted down.

While I don't live in Alberta, I'm right next door and I work with a number of conservative Alberta people and travel there frequently enough. They aren't close to 50% either. 15-20% are strongly supportive of the idea, 40% are strongly opposed to the idea. 25% to 35% of the population are willing to say they'd consider it as a negotiating play but when they get to the voting booth for real, most of them won't be there.

This has nothing to do with insane social programs, I don't know where Steve gets that, but his info is flawed. It has to do with economic development and Federal resource development rules that hold back Oil and Gas development (and environmental rules slowing down mining). Then there is secondary arguments on how the constitution at founding in 1867 guaranteed min representation to some of the Atlantic provinces which means they have a few more reps in parliament than they should have by proper representation, but that hasn't really affected who won any elections. It's a handful of extra seats out of 343, it's just annoying and unfair. The Canadian senate representation is also flawed, but the senate is irrelevant, it has no real power.

Canadian GDP by province: Ont (38%), Que (20%), Alb (15%), BC (14%), SK (4%), next 5 small than 4%.

Alberta and Sask do not produce the bulk of the Canadian economy. They don't even get to 20%. They do have a higher GDP / capita and Alberta is relatively richer which means Alberta tax payers pay a higher proportional share for national programs, but they don't pay close to the majority. They aren't that much richer. Just like the average Delaware taxpayer pay more towards US budget programs than the average West Virginian.

At the end of the day, Alberta and SK voters know, that we produce extremely bulky resource driven products that take trainload after trainload daily to ship to the world. Those trains run through BC to the west and MB/ON to the east to get to ports. As well as pipelines out to the states and west to the BC coast for oil and gas. Without BC we are landlocked and would have to take whatever deal and tolls imposed by the rest of Canada or offered by the states. BC isn't close to separation.

Alberta/SK separation is a talking point for a pissed of conservatives, and it may get the East to offer up some concessions. But it's not even close to the levels that Quebec was at when they were working hard at separation in the 70s and 80s.

By Carl-Magnus Carlsson (Hardcore) on Monday, July 07, 2025 - 12:15 pm: Edit

As I understand it support for separation have dropped since the US election.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Monday, July 07, 2025 - 01:18 pm: Edit

You can find a poll to show anything you want. Most people seem to be doing this as a negotiation trick to get concessions.

The west produces most of the exportable/surplus wealth. GDP includes everything from subsistence up and gives a false impression where the money comes from and where it goes. The movable money is from in the west. The west sends money east, not the other direction.

By Ted Fay (Catwhoeatsphoto) on Monday, July 07, 2025 - 03:19 pm: Edit

"There are lies, darn lies, and statistics."
-Benjamin Disraeli (probably)

Use of statistics as a source of authority in argumentation is not a new problem. However, in today's world of deliberate misinformation, deepfakes, and obviously biased media, it become particularly problematic.

If we can't even agree that there is a problem or on the nature of the problem, we sure as heck can't agree on a solution. In some cases, even basic facts that are theoretically verifiable become matters of irreconcilable conflict. Usually this happens when authorities responsible for establishing the facts (scientists, government officials, etc.) are no longer trusted for whatever reason. As a result, conflicts may boil down to the laws of physics (war) because both sides believe they are fully righteous.

As for SK... I can't pretend to offer an opinion as I know essentially nothing about it or Canadian politics. However, I question whether secession of a Canadian province is actually in the cards - I have several Canadian friends who haven't mentioned it and the legacy media would be all over it (truthful or no) because the news loves conflict.

By Carl-Magnus Carlsson (Hardcore) on Monday, July 07, 2025 - 03:29 pm: Edit

There is something to be said for the old Pravda... Sure it was dictatorship opinion control, but it didn't lead to fractures in society. When you can "shop around" for the news that suits you then people are suddenly not living in the same reality.
I recall when television was new here in the country, There was ONE channel. Everyone talked about the same programs next day at the coffe breaks. It united people through a common experience.

By Dana Madsen (Madman) on Monday, July 07, 2025 - 09:15 pm: Edit

Support for separation in Sask and Alberta has increased since Pres. Trump took office, I'd agree with that statement without seeing polls. I've had conversations with people in SK who have had enough of Ottawa (Federal liberal ie democrat government).

The prime reason is not because Pres. Trump has said we can be the 51st state, for some small number, sure, but not main reason. But it was because of his actions, tariffs, and for example, repeatedly calling our PM a Governor.

The main party supported by the west (Alberta, SK, interior BC, NOT Coastal Vancouver BC) is the Conservatives (our Republican light party) and it has been on the outside for 10 years, since 2015. Liberals supported by NDP has been in charge for 23 out of the last 33 years. 7 months ago, the liberal PM Trudeau was disliked by most of the country and hated by most of Alberta and expected to lose the next election so the conservatives would win. Trudeau resigned in January and the liberals ran a quick leader selection and selected Carney who, with the announcement of tariffs and various statements by Trump flipped the polls completely and ran an election on being tough/standing up for Canada and the liberals won again. Not a majority but a very strong minority. Also, we have about 4 parties who generally have representation and the NDP (strong left Sanders/AOC type party) got wiped out, everyone on the left and much of the center outside Quebec voted liberal.

So, in Alberta/SK, there are a number of very upset conservative supporters. A minority have given up and want to separate, about 15 to 20%, maybe a little higher in Alberta and lower in SK. Whether to join the US or be independent, I doubt they know or agree. Another group of 25 to 35% don't really want to separate, but they are willing to flirt with saying they will if they don't get some of the things they want passed even though they haven't won any national elections.

New PM Carney was raised in Alberta before going to Harvard to get a degree in Economics followed by Oxford followed by jobs at Goldman Sachs, then Bank of Canada, Governor of Bank of England followed by boards of various companies and climate savior until he came back to save us. But he can probably remember enough of the bitterness to federal liberals that he can throw the west some bones, make a few changes, whether they are meaningful we'll see, and temporarily placate some of the middle 25 to 35%. He's already introduced a new law to speed up approvals of nationally important resource projects. He actually just plain stole much of the central parts of the Conservative platform and said I'll do that during the election. Again, we'll see what he actually ends up doing.

Canada strangely has laws already passed on how a province can separate from the rest of the country. They came about in the 80s/90s with Quebec's separation attempts. (there might be a number of Texans who would be happy to let California separate, but do you know how would you go about it?) So, it might be possible that Alberta could vote to explore separation in a non binding referendum, a number of people might vote yes to see if that gets them something in negotiations. Essentially, a non-binding vote, gets followed by negotiations (splitting debt, assets, trade actions, etc), followed by a binding vote once everyone knows what the deal post separation is.

But I strongly believe that a yes vote for separation in the west wouldn't cross 30% to 35% if it was for real. And really, in 1995 Quebec hit 49.4% yes, 50.5% no. So, I'm not getting to stressed about 35%.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Monday, July 07, 2025 - 10:39 pm: Edit

These things tend to be self-correcting. If the central government ignores the provinces long enough, the provinces have had enough. Knowing what happened south of them in 1861, I suspect that Ottawa will offer a bunch of concessions. It's fun to watch.

Something that should be noted is that the First Nations peoples strongly support Ottawa against the Western provincial governments, and that has led to decades of problems between the provincial governments and the First Nations. We saw some of this play out on GOLD MINING MORONS on history channel. The FN people got Ottawa to give them control over the water rights. The FNs then refused to renew water permits in a bid to force the whites off of the gold mining claims and let the FNs sweep them up for a song and then turn loose the water. For whatever reason, that didn't work out and the FNs had the water controls mostly taken away from them. But the FNs know they will have more power, money, and control if Ottawa runs the west than if the west runs the west.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Tuesday, July 08, 2025 - 12:48 am: Edit

Deaths in Guadalupe pass 90 with 30 still missing. Contrary to some media reports the weather prediction offices were fully staffed and warnings went out in record time, but a warning at 4am isn’t going to get to everyone. I would have thought those camps would have storm sirens. My old Boy Scout camp near my home has had county storm sirens since 1966.