Free Republic 2nd Qtr 2024 Fundraising Target: $81,000 Receipts & Pledges to-date: $33,557
41%  
Woo hoo!! And we're now over 41%!! Thank you all very much!! God bless.

Posts by Brandybux

Brevity: Headers | « Text »
  • Scientists Create Semi-Living 'Cyborg' Cells That Could Transform Medicine

    01/31/2023 7:36:43 AM PST · 25 of 26
    Brandybux to Red Badger
    . . . this will not end well . . .

    Perhaps. Or not.

    For now, gene editing is already producing cures for many types of blood cancers. Go to You Tube and look at the vids that pop up with this search term: "CAR-T"

    CAR-T is an acronym for "chimeric antigen receptor T-cell." It's a therapy for some types of lymphoma that works like this:

    • T-cells or natural killer cells are harvested from the patient's blood.
    • These T-cells are then sent to a lab where their DNA is edited so that they acquire the capability to grow an antigen receptor which formerly they did not have.
    • This new antigen receptor is a way for the T-cell to recognize, bind to, and kill the lymphoma cell infesting the patient.
    • The newly "upgraded" T-cells are then multiplied in the lab until they amount to several million (a small vial).
    • These upgraded T-cells are then infused back into the patient's blood stream, after which they go to work ridding his body of the noxious and deadly lymphoma cells.

    I had this therapy applied to myself last June. It was a sort of "Hail Mary" effort after several other attempts to scotch my lymphoma had failed and the cancer was aggressively spreading throughout my body. I am now seven months out, and there's no clinical sign of lymphoma.

    It's early days, of course. But previously, the particular version of lymphoma I have (or had) prior to this therapy killed its victims within 10 months post-diagnosis. Up until recently, it was a death sentence.

    Presently, CAR-T therapy has revolutionized treatment of many blood cancers. It's not been effective (thus far) on solid cancers like breast, lung, pancreas, and similar cancers.

    But, I'm alive now thanks to this therapy. Many patients who received this therapy while in clinical trials show every sign of being cured of previously incurable immune system cancers.

  • The Repentance of Pastors Is The Only Hope For America

    12/11/2022 8:14:04 PM PST · 23 of 23
    Brandybux to oldguy1776
    ... most people who actually attend a church won’t tolerate what you are demanding.

    Where exactly do I demand anything? Rather, I propose what a bona fide repentence on the part of the "pastor-class" would look like.

    And, I definitely agree that most people who actually attend church wouldn't tolerate rate such repentance by their pastor-class. Someone somewhere said something about people with itching ears taking steps to avoid such a thing.

    Hard core christians such as you envision are few and far between today.

    Exactly. Check and mate against any wide-spread repentance on the part of pastors or those they lead.

  • The Repentance of Pastors Is The Only Hope For America

    12/10/2022 9:21:24 AM PST · 18 of 23
    Brandybux to G Larry
    The Repentance of ALL AMERICANS is the only hope for America!

    Agreed. However, it is unlikely that this can happen apart from a prior repentance on the part of bona fide Christians. This, too, is unlikely apart from a similar repentance by pastors.

    Why would anybody suggest that only Pastors are in need of Repentance?

    Hmmm. Well the pattern of rebuke in the Old Testament is primarily upon the leaders of Israel, whose corruption results in corruption within the flocks over which they are shepherds. Similarly, St. Paul forsees a future apostasy amongst Christians as catalyzed by a prior apostasy of the Church's shepherds (cf. Acts20:30).

    So, it would seem that repentance by the pastors is a necessary but (by itself) insufficient condition for national repentance.

  • The Repentance of Pastors Is The Only Hope For America

    12/10/2022 7:30:34 AM PST · 14 of 23
    Brandybux to ducttape45
    Thoughts? Comments?

    It will not do for pastors to preach against the latest perversions of human sexuality - transgenderism and homosexuality. Before these surfaced as the latest Thing, two other perversions became widely settled within the rank and file of the Church: abortion and serial divorce and remarriage.

    The general acceptance of these amongst Christians gave away the farm spiritually, and paved the way for current agendas of sexual perversion. It is rare to find pastors today who will routinely preach against abortion, and virtually none preaches against divorce. Cowardly pastors fear the financial consequences for themselves and the congregations they ostensibly shepherd.

    Authentic repentance among pastors would necessarily include the following:

    • Public confession that they were wrong and (where appropriate) sinful to decline to preach against divorce and against abortion;
    • Beginning to preach/teach against all departures from God's design for human sexuality;
    • Refusal to preside at the remarriage of any divorced person whose prior spouse is still living; and,
    • Refusal to sign any civil license for marriage, insofar as the civil government now defines the word marriage to be an institution that is fundamentally opposed to God's will.
  • Quick Poll: Simple YES or NO If You Believe China Will Invade Taiwan.

    08/02/2022 12:45:08 PM PDT · 63 of 150
    Brandybux to gibsonguy
    ... shortly after the idiot of the House leaves.

    Ummm . . . No. It would be WHILE that idiot is still in the White House. He won't do squat, even if China invaded Taiwan while Pelosi is still there.

  • Trump’s Social Media Platform Just Dropped some Massive News, the Waitlist Might Finally Be at an End (Migration to Rumble cloud is complete)

    04/23/2022 9:35:13 AM PDT · 52 of 52
    Brandybux to spacejunkie2001
    They absolutely are providing a desktop app and it should quickly follow now that Apple is done

    Woot! Woot!

  • Trump’s Social Media Platform Just Dropped some Massive News, the Waitlist Might Finally Be at an End (Migration to Rumble cloud is complete)

    04/23/2022 7:28:12 AM PDT · 50 of 52
    Brandybux to spacejunkie2001
    I do hope they will offer a desktop app. I have vision problems which are ameliorated by the enlargement function of most browsers. But, even phones with the largest screen size still present challenges to me.
  • What is your favorite song that actually tells a story?

    04/22/2022 4:45:37 PM PDT · 205 of 493
    Brandybux to Beowulf9
  • [Catholic Caucus] Pope Francis consecrates Russia to the Immaculate Heart today

    03/25/2022 8:39:30 AM PDT · 4 of 12
    Brandybux to Brandybux
    Not replied. SUPPLIED.

    I hate auto-correct.

  • [Catholic Caucus] Pope Francis consecrates Russia to the Immaculate Heart today

    03/25/2022 8:38:07 AM PDT · 3 of 12
    Brandybux to viewfromthefrontier

    The link you replied goes to a 404 page.

  • Humor: Companies and Brand Names Likely to Fail

    03/19/2022 10:43:12 AM PDT · 8 of 93
    Brandybux to Fester Chugabrew
    You know, if I saw a display of Thunderfart Baked Beans in the grocers, I'd buy a can just to taste and test them!

    I once purchased a bottle of wine at the grocer's named Good With Steak. It was, indeed, good with steak - a solid, chewy Cabernet.

  • Cataracts

    10/09/2021 11:00:43 AM PDT · 16 of 105
    Brandybux to brianr10
    My optical surgeon gave me basically two options:

    1. Replacement lenses that let me see at a distance w/0 glasses, but I'd need glasses for reading; or,

    2. The opposite - lenses that let me see up close w/o glasses, but I'd need glasses for watching TV across the room or when driving.; or,

    3. Lenses that would let me do both w/o glasses, though these were significantly more expensive. I spend 70 percent of my waking hours in front of a computer monitor, the rest driving and/or TV watching. So, I opted for the lenses that let me spend most of my time with no lenses. I'm a happy camper.

    Your mileage will vary, of course.

    Meanwhile, it was not painful. I also (at a different time) had the surgery that reduced baggy eyelids (upper and lower). That was sort of disfiguring and irritating for a couple of days, but it that cleared up within a week. Made a huge difference in my vision!

  • Stanley Tucci reveals he lost his appetite while going through his cancer treatments: 'Everything tasted like wet cardboard'

    10/04/2021 5:12:01 PM PDT · 16 of 41
    Brandybux to Trillian
    I lost my sense of taste during cancer treatments.

    Yup. It's a common "adverse event" when receiving various forms of chemo.

    Since June, I've had six week-long infusions of a cocktail of drugs for a rare, essentially incurable immune system cancer: Rituximab, Etoposide Phosphate, Prednisone, Vincristine Sulfate, Cyclophosphamide, and Doxorubicin Hydrochloride. In my case, the cyclophosphamide was wretched! For 72 hours after its infusion, my breath smelled like a recently bombed-out chemical refinery, so bad that I could smell my own breath so strongly, I had trouble falling asleep.

    Taste? Water tasted like rancid and salty oil.

    Eventually, things returned to normal.

  • New therapeutic target discovered for a number of aggressive cancers

    08/04/2021 10:48:28 PM PDT · 13 of 13
    Brandybux to Wilhelm Tell
    Keep us posted.

    Thank you for your well-wishes. I am convinced that "good luck" is the unbeliever's term of art for what I would call the good will of my Father in heaven, the Father of my Lord Jesus Christ.

    Now, this is not inconsistent with His using any agents He pleases to effect the good will He shows us sinners. Agents, for example, as my oncologist.

    As for answering your query, here's the very short report:

    1. I am presently undergoing "conventional" chemotherapy (losing hair, losing a bear I've had for over 50 years, etc.) to "clear out the junk in your torsod" (my oncologist's way of putting things).

    2. I'm simultaneously taking one of those targeted drugs.

    hA PET scan last week showed almost complete remission. I will continue both strategies for another nine weeks, then a subsequent PET scan to verify what we hope will be a complete remission, knowing (of course) that this simply means no cancer is detectable. We can bet the bank that it's still there, lurking somewhere, waiting to return in a far more drug-resistant form.

    Then we hit it with CAR-T. This has been tried with five others aross the country, and none show any cancer for many, many months thereafter. They appear to be cured, to judge by this cancer's behavior with conventional therapies, including stem-cell transplants.

    I've had a generous and blessed life - wonderful wife of 40 years, four lovely daughters, two upstanding and productive sons-in-law, six (so far) delightful grandchildren. I'm rich, rich, rich in what really matters. I have no fear of death, but would prefer to see my wife safely in heaven before me.

    So, really, I can't lose, no matter what happens. I am very interested in this research into novel and promisng cancer therapies, as they seem to be advancing most rapidly in immune-system cancers. It would be fun to show my grand kids a case-study about their grandfather, reporting a cure of CLL with Richter transformation through some cutting-edge novel therapies! My name wouldn't be in the article, of course. But, I could tell them "That's your Poppa he's writing about!" That would be thick icing on the cake.

  • New therapeutic target discovered for a number of aggressive cancers

    08/04/2021 12:41:43 PM PDT · 5 of 13
    Brandybux to The Antiyuppie
    a potential target for a magic bullet.

    This is the latest and most promising "strategy" for fighting cancer, namely to identify specific targets in the biochemistry of cancer cells and to design chemical monkey wrenches to throw at those targets. In the medical literature I'm reading concerning my own rare cancer, these new drugs are usually called "targeted therapies" or "target drugs" to distinguish them from the much older "chemotherapies" which have a much broader range of cells which they attack - not just rapidly dividing cancer cells, but other rapidly dividing cells, such as blood components, hair, some gastrointestinal linings, mucous membranes, etc.

    If you want to learn about another kind of spookey, science-fictiony sort of strategy for fighting cancer, look up the videos on You tube which explain CAR-T cell therapy. This is likely what I will use to fight a very rare cancer with lousy prognosis (overall survival is 10 months, max; half die by five months).

  • Attention all Democrats

    03/13/2021 8:51:58 AM PST · 12 of 27
    Brandybux to upchuck
    " Don't forget to set you clocks, watches, etc. back one hour before going to bed."

    Ahem. Isn't the mantra Spring forward, Fall back?

  • People With High Omega-3 Blood Levels Less Likely to Die From COVID-19

    01/28/2021 11:51:07 AM PST · 30 of 47
    Brandybux to ClearCase_guy
    Really, the beer is all you need.

    No. There's studies out there showing that nicotine is also protective. I doubled my pipe smoking after I saw that one.

    Otherwise, I, too, supplement with vitamin D3 (10K IU daily), zinc (50 mg elemental daily), and melatonin (which I was already taking, 10mg at bedtime; sleep like the dead, but don't die).

  • UK resists giving EU diplomats full status, sparking row

    01/21/2021 6:24:11 AM PST · 2 of 23
    Brandybux to bert
    I have turned to Al Jezeera for real news.

    They will certainly print news that so-called "mainstream press" will not print. The latter, upon the election of Trump, dropped any pretense of reporting "news." Instead, "all the news that's fit to print" turned out to be "only the reporting we deem will advance our agenda." In other words, it modeled itself on Pravda.

    This is why my routine touchstones for news/commentary include Free Republic and Zero Hedge, as well as outlets usually deemed off-the-reservation such as Al-jazeera.

  • REPORT: Trump Discusses New ‘Patriot Party’ As Republicans Capitulate

    01/20/2021 9:18:57 AM PST · 222 of 301
    Brandybux to dragonblustar
    I'm in

    Ich auch. Moi aussi. Yo también. Anch’io. 私も. أنا أيضا. גם .אני я тоже.

    It's the only way I'm going to vote in a federal election again.

    I have determined for several decades now that I would never vote for anyone running as a Democrat, no matter what he says about abortion, sex-changing, gay marriage, or similar sacred cows for the Democrats.

    Why? Because anyone who deliberately aligns himself with an organization that promotes such stuff has forfeited all entitlement to my vote.

    After the spectacle of the Republican obeisance to the Dems concerning Trump and the stolen election, I now refuse to vote for anyone running for any federal office as a Republican. Depending on how things shake out in this coming election cycle, I may extend my voting boycott to local elections as well.

    Am I "giving up?"

    No, I'm just finished playing stupid election games. If the inmates from either party are running the asylum, why do something so affirming as voting for any of them?

  • Watch What Some Thought Was a Werewolf Captured on Video in Yellowstone National Park

    01/08/2021 8:27:34 AM PST · 3 of 52
    Brandybux to SJackson
    Video at source

    Interesting! I could find no link there that generated a video.

    A browser issue? I'm using Firefox. Maybe a link is blocked?