HalfEarthMedic
@HalfEarthMedic@slrpnk.net
GP, Gardener, Radical Progressive
- Comment on Australian kindergarten asks parents to pay thousands for their children's art 4 hours ago:
a curated portfolio of their child’s artwork
It’s a novel fundraiser and a couple of nutcase parents called channel nine.
- Comment on ‘We would reverse it’: Ley writes back to Republicans over recognition of Palestine 2 days ago:
Its been a while and I’m writing from memory so happy to have clarifications.
There is a lot of circumstantial evidence that the CIA encouraged John Kerr to dissolve parliament. The US govt definitely didn’t like Whitlam’s foreign policy and wanted him gone. John Kerr was definitely in touch with the CIA and the director of the CIA called him “our man Kerr”. It is also unprecedented before and since(unpostcidented?) for a governor general to dissolve parliament without advice from the PM nor did he seek advice from the queen. I believe, and I think it’s a not uncommon opinion among serious historians, that there was some nudging from the CIA hoping that Whitlam would be ousted before the crisis could resolve itself with Whitlam retaining leadership and that things might’ve been different had the CIA not been subtly pushing their agenda.
Gillard’s ousting I’m less familiar with and so I’m a bit lighter on the details. Again, the US definitely preferred her foreign policy stance and the party members who pushed for Rudd’s removal had ties with the US. Maybe there was some nudging going on. I don’t know enough to judge this one.
Both of these happened on a background of waning leadership of the leader and a viable, electable, alternative already in place. Ley is a joke, it would take more than a nudge from the CIA to get her in.
I’ll sign off now feeling that I’ve sufficiently annoyed both sides.
- Comment on ‘Revival’ Interrupted: World Nuclear Industry Won’t Sustain 2024 Growth, Struggles for Relevance as Renewables Surge 2 days ago:
I’ve never been terribly anti-nuclear (insert several caveats here) but it just hasn’t made a lot of economic sense for some years now to invest in new plants. It’d be great if the next generation reactors are economically viable and I suppose it’s good(ish???) that the Chinese and Russians are keeping the figurative flame alive but nuclear plants just aren’t a big part of the picture for the next 20 years at least.
On a related note I’ve really stopped paying heaps of attention to the anti-solar, anti-wind, anti-EV crowd over the past couple of years as they’ve lost the argument, the economics have shifted away from their ideology. We ought be moving faster but once the invisible hand of the market decides that you’re wrong it’s only a matter of time.
- Submitted 1 week ago to australia@aussie.zone | 5 comments
- Comment on Why Keating’s greatest speeches still matter after the Voice failed 1 week ago:
I can’t help but feel you haven’t read the article posted or my comments. You’re not addressing any of the points raised and instead just seem to have a bee in bonnet about the referendum which is at best tangentially related.
I do understand the fatigue of this being an ongoing issue but that doesn’t really change the situation.
- Comment on Why Keating’s greatest speeches still matter after the Voice failed 1 week ago:
Thanks for the response.
I have to assume that you’re quite young since you seem to think that 30 or 50 years is enough time to erase the kind of trauma anglo-Australians put indigenous Australians through, this is living memory for many of us.
There really is no denying that coming from parents who have suffered trauma and economic disadvantage leaves the children at severe disadvantage themselves, ie the sins perpetrated on the grandparents of today’s young adults are a key reason for their disadvantage.
This kind of reasoning is often taken as ‘excusing’ bad behaviour, it shouldn’t be but it is explanation and we do bear some responsibility to alleviate that disadvantage while still holding people responsible for individual actions.
The final key point is that systemic racism remains rife. You would have to be willfully blind to not see that indigenous people are treated differently at the Centrelink office, the emergency department triage desk, at a job interview.
You correctly point out some big numbers involved in current support for indigenous focussed programmes, I suspect that much of this is providing services that they find difficult to access through the mainstream due to systemic racism which is kind of a bare minimum, regardless we have a long way to go.
The past isn’t gone, it isn’t even past. I hope you can appreciate that there is a but more subtlety to this issue than you seem to give it credit for.
- Comment on Why Keating’s greatest speeches still matter after the Voice failed 1 week ago:
I think there’s a subtlety to this argument that you’re missing.
The prosperity of all non-indigenous Australians is built on what was taken from the indigenous population with brutal force.
The single most important reason that there is such a large gap in quality of life between the indigenous and non-indigenous population is that for more than a century it was government policy to repress and deny opportunity to the indigenous population.
It is not unreasonable to think that we, as a population that has built a prosperous society on the ruins of theirs, that we could give them a hand to regain some benefit of our prosperity.
We hear a lot from conservative cranks that indigenous individuals should take responsibility for their actions, most progressives actually agree on that. I would argue that as a settler society we should take responsibility for our collective past actions.
- Submitted 1 week ago to australia@aussie.zone | 15 comments
- Submitted 1 week ago to australia@aussie.zone | 4 comments
- Submitted 1 week ago to australia@aussie.zone | 0 comments
- Comment on Australian War Memorial defers military history prize after judging panel awards it to book on Ben Roberts-Smith 1 week ago:
Streisand effect at work here.
- Comment on Australia to spend $1.1 billion on Anduril undersea drone fleet 2 weeks ago:
I know this has come about independently from Aukus but it’s hard not to see this through that lens. In the context of all troubles and uncertainty of Aukus this pops up and leaves us all wondering not just are the Aukus subs worth the cost but will they have any tactical value at all in 25y time
- Comment on Psychiatrists fear medicinal cannabis adverse events are 'tip of the iceberg' 2 weeks ago:
Just putting this here as several commentors seem to have misread my intention posting this here
Most responses here seem to assume that I’m opposed to medical marijuana, I’m not. I am in fact in favor of it’s use, appropriately, in select patients, as with any medication.
I also want to caution against conflating recreational use(which may be problematic but is usually fine) with medicinal use(which should be held to the highest standards of evidence as any medicine should).
Now, regarding the evidence to date, efficacy is well established for refractory epilepsy and spasticity in MS. It is quite well established to have a role in pain control. Evidence that it is superior to other treatments for anxiety is pretty scant, we hold antidepressants to a pretty low standard and cannabis fails to even be that good in the published studies.
In terms of safety we frequently see acute intoxication from prescribed cannabis and worsening of co-morbid mental health conditions is really common. Nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea, and abdominal pains are all fairly frequent and I have seen one case of psychosis from prescribed marijuana. What’s more, we see these more commonly in emergency departments, psych wards and GP clinics now that it is easily available from unscrupulous corporate owned clinics.
The article isn’t claiming that medical marijuana is inherently dangerous or that it doesn’t have a role in medicine. It states, correctly, that the TGA has never actually assessed the safety of the vast majority of products on the market. This is concerning for anyone who might want to prescribe these with confidence.
@givesomefucks@lemmy.world @wesker@lemmy.sdf.org @Taleya@aussie.zone
- Comment on Psychiatrists fear medicinal cannabis adverse events are 'tip of the iceberg' 2 weeks ago:
In my experience with people who have been prescribed cannabis according to this metric common side effects are acute intoxication and worsening of existing mental health issues. Uncommon side effects are diarrhoea, nausea/vomiting, abdominal pain. Rare is psychosis, I’ve seen it once in maybe 200 patients but it’s probably not 0.5%.
We really need to define the risks if we’re going to prescribe cannabis at these volumes. Hence the call for TGA to investigate.
- Comment on Psychiatrists fear medicinal cannabis adverse events are 'tip of the iceberg' 2 weeks ago:
I would suggest that corporate practices going gungho prescribing medications without established safety data is more concerning than a potential prescriber impatiently waiting for the TGA to get their act together and assess these medications.
- Comment on Psychiatrists fear medicinal cannabis adverse events are 'tip of the iceberg' 2 weeks ago:
No, I believe I approach the literature with an open mind and while I don’t prescribe cannabis myself I do frequently refer patients who i think will benefit. The fact that there is legitimate use of cannabis in medical settings does not mean that it isn’t being over-prescribed and under regulated.
Incidentally the reason i don’t prescribe myself is purely as I don’t have capacity to add another string to my bow in my already busy practice.
- Comment on Psychiatrists fear medicinal cannabis adverse events are 'tip of the iceberg' 2 weeks ago:
I apologise for not being clearer. My point was that your calculation is wrong. You would need to calculate per patient which is not a published figure. Estimates are more like 1mil but I think that is based on faulty reasoning as my subjective experience is that most people remain on it for only a few months. Also that the vast majority of adverse events go unreported
- Comment on Psychiatrists fear medicinal cannabis adverse events are 'tip of the iceberg' 2 weeks ago:
Don’t get me started on antibiotic overprescribing.
- Comment on Psychiatrists fear medicinal cannabis adverse events are 'tip of the iceberg' 2 weeks ago:
Do you think 13million individuals have cannabis prescriptions? Do you tink 100% of adverse events are reported? Do you think psychiatrists, emergency doctors and GPs who are reporting concerning rise in adverse events are lying?
- Comment on Psychiatrists fear medicinal cannabis adverse events are 'tip of the iceberg' 2 weeks ago:
I disagree, this wording from a professional organisation is concerning. The usual standard of evidence for medication is that the companies or organisations promoting provide proof of safety.
For example ANZCA (specifically the Faculty of Pain Medicine) state
There’s a lack of definitive evidence showing long-term opioid effectiveness for CNCP, and conversely, substantial evidence of potential harm. As a result, opioids should only be considered in exceptional circumstances—for example, when other treatments have failed and the pain is demonstrably responsive to opioids.
With regards to psychotropic med the RANZCP say
Medications should be part of a comprehensive care plan that emphasizes low doses, minimal number of agents, and the shortest effective duration. Explanation of risks, benefits, and off-label use must be delivered to both young patients and their guardians. Prudence and caution are essential, though when properly prescribed, these medications can significantly improve quality of life for youth with serious psychiatric conditions.
AMCA regarding the safety of cannabis say
¯_(ツ)_/¯
- Comment on Psychiatrists fear medicinal cannabis adverse events are 'tip of the iceberg' 2 weeks ago:
Whenever this is raised the argument about legalisation for recreational use is conflated. Alcohol, cocaine, oxycodone etc all have medicinal and recreational uses and we appropriately treat then differently.
If we are using it as medicine, at a minimum we should see prescription tracking and monitoring with implications for doctors prescribing inappropriately similar to the way we treat other medications with potential for abuse.
My opinion, for what it’s worth is that there should be legalised cannabis for recreational purposes.
What we definitely shouldn’t have is a situation where I am having people turning up to my clinic expecting a prescription for recreational doses of flower to smoke.
- Comment on Psychiatrists fear medicinal cannabis adverse events are 'tip of the iceberg' 2 weeks ago:
As a GP I know very few doctors who don’t accept that cannabis or cannabis derived products have a role to play in medicine. I know even fewer who don’t see the recent rapid explosion of cannabis prescribing as reckless and dangerous.
- Submitted 2 weeks ago to australia@aussie.zone | 24 comments
- Comment on New NAPLAN results demand better deal for public schools 2 weeks ago:
Its not necessarily clear from this article but all the NAPLAN data and other studies have shown that (in Australia) the school you attend has almost no influence on any valuable metric including academic success, long term income, self reported happiness etc. The factors that are most strongly predictive are parental income and parental education level.
Unless the public school has syringes in the sandpit save your money.
- Submitted 2 weeks ago to australia@aussie.zone | 5 comments
- Comment on Don't blame migrants for the housing crisis, blame the millionaires 2 weeks ago:
Obviously the “correct” amount of immigration is something on which reasonable people can agree but I’m curious where you get that 20-30% figure?
- Comment on Don't blame migrants for the housing crisis, blame the millionaires 2 weeks ago:
Thankyou. Fixed
- Submitted 2 weeks ago to australia@aussie.zone | 8 comments
- Comment on Under false flags: why are Australia’s blue and red ensigns and Eureka flag being flown at rightwing rallies? 2 weeks ago:
The Eureka flag has a long history of being appropriated by anyone standing up to authority so it does at least make sense.
The red ensign is interesting, the article points out it was historically the civilian flag but to me it is the flag of the merchant fleet. This means that a flag that has been most used historically to signify obedience to and protection by Australian law despite not being in Australia has been appropriated by a sovereign citizens claiming that they don’t need to follow Australian law despite being in Australia.
:/
- Comment on Who is telling the truth? 3 weeks ago:
Murdoch is way off here. Even if we accept that the majority of protesters aren’t motivated by racism - I don’t accept that, but for the sake of argument - these protests drag the discourse to the right and make the fascists(I tried to type racists but autocorrect got it right this time) seem more reasonable.