Colonel

What is life? When does it begin? What value do we ascribe to it - and why? What is the purpose of life? What is it to live a good life? Questions that must be considered in considering the great issues of this age and every age.

In a classic case of British understatement, “look a bit unusual” is doing a heroic piece of heavy lifting here.

While I agree with the sentiments, I think @nicolelampert is both right and wrong. Right: There is nothing innate in the British character. Wrong: To raise WW2 as an exemplar. We are a different character of national now from then.

Heroic effort by @USWPColby to reconcile the contradictions between 🇺🇸 policy declarations and reality. So 🇺🇸 is prioritising the homeland then Asia-Pac., but allies (who we demand prioritise shouldering the defence of their own regions) should really be helping with Iran?

Fascism never gained a strong following in the UK in the 1920s and 30s (a better indicator of national temperament than a global conflict that directly challenged national interests), but we are very different now from then.

Take Scotland as a case in point. The Scotland of today, inwards looking and very suspicious of business and entrepreneurs, is very different from the Scotland of pre-FWW, outward looking with a strong business and trade culture.

@realmikolson As I understand it Catholics do not believe that justification is simply a declaration of righteousness, they believe they are made righteous. But you are correct in that Catholics and Protestants use the same words to mean different things and so defining the terms is important.

Roman Catholic friends, Is justification a one-time, for all-time, declaration of righteousness by God, or an ongoing process that depends on our cooperation (good works)? Follow-up question: If it’s an ongoing process, what is the standard God uses to determine if someone has done ‘enough’ good works to be justified? How can a person have certainty they’re in ‘good-standing’ with God (righteous—‘a state of grace,’ as Rome teaches)? Be specific.

This ‘slow down’ can be laid directly at the door of the current government.

The relentless focus on economic growth and GDP as the metric of success by governments of all political hues is bewildering considering this. A collapsing birth would not seem to indicate a healthy society. thetimes.com/article/7a82ce…

As my hope that the Assisted Dying Bill (in truth, human euthanasia) would die a death in Parliament was fulfilled, and countless vulnerable people have a better chance at life now than they would, had it passed into law, I want to write something deeply personal about this issue. 🧵 As a doctor, I decided long ago that humans weren't sufficiently evolved to be given power to put vulnerable humans down, especially not for profit. My decision has been justified by the ongoing scandals and victimisation of the vulnerable in every jurisdiction where human euthanasia (under whichever euphemism) is allowed. But only in the last year or two, I have come to understand the perils of this practice on a deeply personal level. I live with a chronic illness, which manifests, amongst other ways, in breathing difficulties. I was lucky for a long time for these to be well controlled, but in the last year or so, things started to change - not necessarily for the worse, but symptom control became a problem, in context of underlying fungal chest infection, which is very insidious, difficult to diagnose and it takes a long time to treat successfully. I had chest infections before, and one of the symptoms I get, especially when the infection is insidious in onset, is impending sense of doom. I learned that it was my body's way of alerting me that if I don't do something, it won't end well. In recent months I started to experience terrible distress - mainly because I couldn't find the right treatment for quite some time - and with it, I became acutely suicidal. Not many people know what it's like to not be able to eat, sleep, concentrate, tolerate anything on their back, due to unrelieved and constant breathlessness. Fighting for breath every minute of every day. Randomly being able to breathe but then not and there being no rhyme or reason. Going dusky in the face, desperate, keeling over after a couple of steps, in such pain and anguish that you both wish you could die, as well as are terrified that what is ailing you will kill you. Only my poor husband knows how it is to live with someone in that state for months. I had come as far as settling on the method, and I promised my husband I would call him if I was at risk to do anything of the kind, but the reality is that once you are in extremis, anything can happen. I begged him to let me die many times. He dragged me from the brink, we scrambled to find doctors, the right treatment, considering the nightmare in the NHS. Last time this happened was only two days ago. I had stopped the antifungal medication in hope that the treatment was long enough, and then slowly slid back into unrelieved breathlessness over the 5 day period, culminating with the return of these awful symptoms of hopelessness, doom and suicidality. I have little doubt that somewhere along the line, should the abominable "euthanasia instead of adequate healthcare" bill had passed, I would be at risk of either availing myself of their services in a moment of desperation, or that I would be preyed upon by the unethical healthcare system. In Canada, things have gotten so bad that a woman who went to hospital with a treatable infection and resulting confusion was put down within hours, none of her family being informed. Dead don't talk, so who can prove she didn't "consent"? The risks of what the irresponsible champions of the euthanasia bill were proposing were vast, and would have ushered an era of inhumanity which would have claimed many innocent lives, as it has done elsewhere. As for me, I went back on the antifungal tablets and within 24 hours the symptoms of suicidality and sense of doom, alongside with breathlessness and the rest, simply went away. It's as simple as that. Many have spoken way more eloquently than me, why this bill was dangerous. I can only offer my heartfelt thanks to every person who helped stop that particular slide into barbarity. You have saved many lives. Now, please, let's kick that particular nasty idea, which is so beloved of the privileged classes who so mindlessly liken it to a choice of perfume or an ice cream flavour, into the long grass. And lets fund halthcare, social care and palliative care instead, which would offer ethical and safe assisted living as well as assisted dying to UK patients.

Absolutely top class shithousery 🤣

@sophieRblake With all due respect, neither is reducing the value of life down to purely hedonistic criteria and ignoring the impact on the most vulnerable in society.

@panterdownes Being forced to die in unrelieved agony from a terminal illness, when even the best palliative care doesn’t work, is not compassion.

We should be a caring society, not a killing society. Killing is not compassion.

@realmikolson @pinkpuma21 I thought Grace was the free and undeserved help that God gives us?

… it’s also important to understand that when the Roman Catholic Church uses the word “grace” it’s an oxymoron. They use it in the context of earning things, or merit. But that’s the opposite of what Grace is. If there’s merit involved, it’s not grace. That’s the whole argument Paul makes in a Romans 5 and 6. In other words, Rome plays word games with biblical language, but redefines the words to suit their anti-biblical theology.

Roman Catholics: “The Bible doesn’t say that you’re saved from your sins by faith alone; it also requires good works from you.” Meanwhile, the Bible: Ephesians 2:8–9 “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.” Romans 3:28 “For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law.” Romans 4:4–5 “Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift but as his due. And to the one who does not work but believes… his faith is counted as righteousness.” Galatians 2:16 “A person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ…” Galatians 3:10–11 “All who rely on works of the law are under a curse… the righteous shall live by faith.” Philippians 3:9 “…not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ…” Titus 3:5 “He saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy…” 2 Timothy 1:9 “He saved us… not because of our works but because of his own purpose and grace…” Romans 11:6 “If it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works; otherwise grace would no longer be grace.” John 6:28–29 “What must we do, to be doing the works of God?” Jesus answered, “This is the work of God, that you believe…” Acts 16:30–31 “What must I do to be saved?” “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved…” And this is just a start. The juxtaposition of faith and works—as it pertains to our right-standing before God—is painfully clear throughout the entire New Testament. You’d have to intentionally ignore it to miss it. We are saved by faith alone. 🤝

I've written previously about why this would be wrong. We should be *strengthening* safeguarding checks around surrogacy to make them more akin to adoption. Surrogacy is not akin to conceiving and gestating your own baby.

“Defence production capacity is now the biggest challenge within the alliance,” Bauer said. “We actually have the money, we know what we need to buy, but we can’t buy it because there are empty shelves.” thetimes.com/article/205c18…

@BritishArmyWDs Just had a look and I certainly do not see it.

FML. My Facebook page appears to have been Deleted/Disappeared😡

“Gender medicine in Canada is driven by ideology, not science — so no study, no matter how strong, will inspire the field to self-correct. Meaning, unless Canadians force a reckoning and demand safer and better care for these vulnerable youth, this medical scandal will continue unabated,” writes MLI Senior Fellow Mia Hughes (@_CryMiaRiver). Read here⬇️