Source: Saudi Press Agency.

This announcement looks important to me. It appears that China is creating a new role for itself on the world stage and in the process diminishing the U.S. role.

How embarrassing for Stumble Joe’s State Department.

Source: Journal of Clinical & Experimental Immunology.

With the worst of the Covid pandemic behind us we are beginning to see assessment or lessons learned reports in the technical literature. I reproduce below two paragraphs from such a report prepared by two Australian researchers and published in a journal of the Oxford University Press.

Continue reading “COVID-19 vaccines – An Australian Review” →

Source: Bacon’s Rebellion.

“Virginia’s Air Pollution Control Board is continuing through the necessary steps to repeal Virginia’s participation in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), a regional compact that imposes an allowance cost (carbon tax) on fossil fuels used in generating electricity.”

I support withdrawal from RGGI. I believe the benefits are illusory and my electricity bill will go up.

Source: Mises Institute.

A little scholarship on slavery for those who say the truth must be told.

It can be difficult to convey the notion that humanity or human nature tends to be persistent. It seems at present to be fashionable to assume that slavery made humanity nonexistent, as if the disgraceful institution were so thick and total that it completely pushed out friendship, love, family and community. The reality is more nuanced, both for the owners and the owned.

It is sobering to contemplate that the effects of transgenderism can be seen statistically:

• Here, Reuters reports that new gender dysphoria diagnoses in U.S. patients ages 6-17 nearly tripled from 2017 to 2021
• Here, the CDC reports that “In 2021, 42% of high school students felt so sad or hopeless almost every day for at least two weeks in a row that they stopped doing their usual activities” (page 60)

To be clear, these two data points are used here to propose a hypothesis that transgenderism correlates with observed rates of mental illness in children. The correlation is not proved, nor if it were would we know the underlying cause.

But these caveats aside, one can understand why adults, especially parents, are concerned that media and academic attention to transgenderism may be harming children.

Expatriated Russian naval officer Andrei Martyanov thinks they will.

Real General Staffs salivate at the opportunity to try their technology and fighting doctrines on a real battlefield. It is all about those precious war correlates, performance data and its statistical analysis which allow to constantly update tactical and operational manuals, to shape technical requirements, which, in the end, translate into crucial advantages over the enemy.

Martyanov’s point may seem obscure to someone who thinks of modern warfare as a John Wayne movie. Martyanov is referring to the formal discipline of operations research as the foundation of contemporary warfare tactics and strategy.

China might decide for diplomatic reasons not to supply weapons to Russia, but if ever it fears a military confrontation with the U.S. it virtually must conduct operations research by field testing its systems on a battlefield. Ukraine at present is the obvious choice.

Source: Bacon’s Rebellion.

Significantly, this story contains the following links to Virginia’s COVID-19 Pandemic History and After Action Report:

Volume 1

Volume 2

The writer plans to follow up this introduction with a series of articles that explore the After Action Report in detail.

Source: The Wall Street Journal (free link).

The writer makes a fair point, but I wonder how many people actually believe that poverty causes crime. More than a few, I imagine, without really knowing.

One hears the contention from time to time that poverty causes political revolt. Or one hears sad stories about desperate moms who steal formula to nourish their infants. I often associate such things with marxian preoccupations. That is, people who are convinced that the Hegelian “shtruggle” is real tend to look for ways to dramatize it.

Still, the pristine question remains: If we have laws, do we not then, automatically, need law enforcement? I think we do, without apology, and just as much to help the poor as anyone else.

Two items on WSJ’s Opinion page tell a singular story about the state of the union and its potential improvement:

Another Turn in the Covid Lab-Leak Story.

Three Years Late, the Lancet Recognizes Natural Immunity.

Together, these opinions represent a correction of the record — a good thing, considering the Covid-19 hysteria that has ruled in the public square since the beginning of the pandemic.

First, we learn that some U.S. officials think the Covid-19 virus may be man-made. Then we learn that natural immunity may be superior to vaccination in some applications of public health policy/practice.

Neither of these opinions is Earth shattering, but I am glad for both of them. Now that a man-made origin for Covid-19 is an official speculation, we can begin to wonder and discuss who were the men who made it, and why, and what happened when they did. Now that the efficacy of natural immunity is established, we can begin to speak of Covid in terms of the standard epidemiological model again.

Small steps, to be sure, but I expect they will have profound effects on the Covid-19 narrative.

Source: The Unz Review.

You may be surprised to learn that “A few days ago, the UN Security Council held hearings on the accusations by Seymour Hersh that the Biden Administration had illegally destroyed Europe’s $30 billion Nord Stream pipelines.” Jeffery Sachs and Ray McGovern gave testimony.

Tidewater Forum had a post on the Hersh story earlier this month:

https://tinyurl.com/35kr3bzw