I suppose it is ostentatious to say so, but going through the list of all the things I am thankful for today a pattern emerges. It seems that I am grateful for things that have congregated around me as in a river current.

I cannot credit my own strength or genius for this. Instead I count the strength and genius of others within my reach as pure, glorious miracles. I never deserved any of them any more than the flotsam deserves jetsam.

Thus to my mind does God as metaphor become God as reality.

NPR: Failed communal Massachusetts colony

Socialism isn’t evil because it fails, it fails because it is evil.

And even if you start with the most devout and well-intentioned people, it will make them corrupt, envious and lazy.

It’s a lesson we have to learn sooner or later.

Source: Mises Institute.

This story surprised me, as I had always assumed that vaccines eliminated smallpox. In light of current controversies, I should, however, note that this particular instance of myth busting does nothing to suggest that smallpox vaccines do no good.

Waiting for regularly scheduled meeting

while people die.

The FDA could hold an emergency meeting to extend vaccine eligibility to 5-11 year olds, but anti-virals that could save patients wait until the scheduled Nov 30 meeting for consideration.

Merck and Pfizer have pills that can cut deaths to near zero. Studies were cut short to get them into use ASAP.

But the FDA can’t be rushed.

Could it be that they just don’t want people to have alternatives to vaccination?

Is this an exception to Hanlon’s Razor?

Source: Bacon’s Rebellion (BR).

Except for a twinge of nostalgia, this story doesn’t move me much. Philosophically, at least, I am quite happy to see the newspaper industry consolidate into collapse.

Continue reading “Another Media Merger in the Works” →

Source: Kerry: Unemployed and Unedited.

Ms. Dougherty makes the relevant point:

No doubt city officials will argue that Kelly’s offense was sending a small donation through his work email. Sorry, that is NOT a fireable offense. It was the recipient of the donation that ticked off the highly partisan Police Chief Larry Boone and led to the loss of the job Kelly had held for 19 years.

Let’s be honest, 25 bucks sent to a save-the-puppies charity wouldn’t have ended a distinguished career in the Norfolk PD. It was the wrongheaded belief that Kelly was sending money to a guy who was a vigilante.

Another example of penumbra reasoning. This time at the local police department.

Source: American Thinker.

The writer recounts key details of the Trayvon Martin case and connects the false narrative of George Zimmerman’s guilt to the false narrative of Kyle Rittenhouse’s guilt. I doubt the insight will have much effect.

A strange type of thinking has become commonplace today. It is the habit of reasoning from penumbras. Thus, for example, if Zimmerman and Rittenhouse can be portrayed as being defective in some general way, then the particular actions for which they faced judgement must have been defective, too. Short form: I don’t like the guy; therefore he must be guilty.

https://tinyurl.com/zbj333vu

Let’s assume that $100 pays for 100 jobs that create 100 goods. For our purposes it doesn’t matter who spends the money: the jobs will occur and the goods will be created. It does, however, matter how the money is obtained.

Continue reading “On the Nature of Government Spending” →

Source: American Thinker.

It’s a fair question. One can certainly imagine the process: First black markets exploit security weaknesses to become profitable; the profits fund black market security, resulting in military-style control of territory; then, confronted with a choice between open warfare and assimilation, a feckless sovereign (us) grants statehood.

Migration is indistinguishable from war.