Today I go on a tear about sticking to principles when the sticking gets tough. Tales from the Prepper Pantry Found about 10 more steaks! Ready to consolidate freezers down to two Fridge for sale Freeze Drying Basil and other herbs Operation Independence Lodge Warehouse Sale The Bathtub Main topic of the Show: Principles Today started with a video of a OBGYN from a year ago about an anti abortion bill that would charge Dr.’s with murder who do not attempt to re-implant ectopic pregnancies. This is a pregnancy where the egg does not make it to the uterus. And this got me to thinking about big picture principles and how we tend to take discourse from principles to extreme examples in an effort to “win” the argument on issues. She basically landed on the message, “Get politics out of medicine.” Yesterday on a long drive, I heard Nurse Amy from https://www.doomandbloom.net/ defend he choice to get vaccinated - a decision she has grown to regret. Her credibility was attacked from someone who is against the vax. She landed on Get the Politics Out of Medicine. Then I remembered a discussion with a doctor I had who wanted to prescribe Ivermectin, a known antiviral used on humans to help early onset Covid because the research indicated it may help and the risk level of negative impacts from the medicine are unlikely. Pharmacists are refusing to fill it because it is not approved for use in treating covid -- an off-label use. This doctor just wants to see the politics taken out of medicine. Then it struck me. The last 2 years have done something I had not realized. It is not about whether or not politics are in medicine. It is what people are willing to accept from their medical care. A decade ago, it would have been impossible to implement socialized medicine in this country (referred to under new marketing as “single payer”). Want to know why? Nobody would have accepted so much meddling in their treatments, in who does and does not deserve medical help, in long delays for important screenings and procedures, and in off label use for medications. In other countries where medicine is socialized, people are willing to wait months for that cancer screening without raising a fuss. They are willing to accept that elderly do not get the same access to something like heart surgery or limb replacement as a younger person. They buy into rationing of care by a politically appointed governing body, and are resigned to how that works. In fact, they are thankful that their care is “free,” and mystified about how our “free-market” system (That is neither free nor market based by a long shot) can be accepted by people. All this while citizens of their locations travel here to get those delayed screenings faster by paying up front for them. By enacting draconian shut down, implementing control over what can and cannot be used to treat covid, firing healthcare staff who choose not to accept an emerging vaccination, rationing monoclonal antibody supplies for political reasons, and everything else that has happened -- expectations of those who use healthcare have changed their expectations. They are now OK with letting their loved ones go into the system without an advocate under the guise of “protections.” They will wait weeks or months for screenings because of “staffing shortages.” They buy into government bodies who know nothing about practicing medicine making decisions about what can be used to treat an emerging virus, thus stifling progress and innovation in favor of trumping up their corporate sponsors. And these same people screech when something is put forth to change the when and how that a woman can receive treatment for pregnancy-related issues like not allowing treatment of an ectopic pregnancy. Freedom for me but not for thee.  We need to step above this. To embrace something better. The ends CANNOT justify the means even if it is in service of something good lest they be aimed for evil by another. When we empower force of government