REPUBLIC REBORN

Hair loss drug, Propecia, allegedly induces suicidal thoughts, sexual dysfunction, depression, and weight gain in the men who took it, according to over 1,100 lawsuits filed around the U.S. Merck had apparently known years ago of the risks, but downplayed them or hid them from the public altogether. The documents in one case were sealed by the judge, a tragically common practice in product liability cases. From Reuters:

“Such court-sanctioned secrecy has become the lethal norm in product-liability litigation in the United States. As Reuters reported in June, judges in large product-liability cases routinely seal evidence relevant to public health and safety. As a result, hundreds of thousands of Americans have been killed or seriously injured by allegedly defective products — cars, drugs, guns, medical devices — while evidence that could have alerted consumers and regulators to potential danger remained under seal.”

Having used the same iPhone 6s for several years, I felt like a veritable geezer upon opening the gleaming iPhone 11 earlier today. It’s a beautiful machine, and yet I distrust it. Upon powering up, it was too happy to greet me, to eager to import my data, to scan my face, file and categorize my location and patterns, to let me know just what all it is capable of. Built-in facial recognition doesn’t instill confidence. The knowledge that my phone is always looking for me, and when my face pops up, the phone unlocks. The seemingly intelligent removal of my autonomy is slightly unnerving. I’ve since placed a tiny star sticker over the front camera, and set up a password to unlock the phone. I like passwords as a protector of gadgets, not fingerprint IDs for face scans. Passwords feel far more secure, and they allow at the very least my delusion that I’m more in control.

The rapid advance of this technology makes me feel, strangely, like this gadget is getting more from me than I from it. I don’t like that feeling. I also feel like this type of technological advance is more of a detour than a true advance. The gadget itself radiates tech addiction. Everything is too easy, too much at your fingertips, no dis-utility, no effort to complete various tasks.

It has Microsoft Word. With a bluetooth keyboard, this thing becomes a portable computer. I can write blog posts or articles and submit them, all from this phone. I can easily find and read every bit of news and opinion I want to. I can save articles offline for later reading, I can download and read entire books.And I have a feeling that this phone is cataloging every single thing I do with it, building a virtual file on me, and doing it far better than any Stazi or KGB snoop ever could.

I don’t like the feeling that this small device could subtly, yet significantly, alter my future in some way without my being aware of it. Even if it consists of the alteration of habits of thought. I can’t seem to pin down just why I distrust it so. And yet I will use it.

Saudi Arabia has wanted a war with Iran for years, they just don’t want to be the ones to fight it. The Israelis have wanted a war with Iran for years, they just don’t want to be the ones to fight it. What they want instead is a situation so rare that it has probably happened less than a handful of times in human history: a proxy war, but with the proxy being the largest, most powerful government on the planet. Proxy wars usually consist of the reverse: a powerful government funds and directs smaller bands of rebels to attack their enemies. Our situation would be unique, and uniquely pathetic. Our military doesn’t exist to fight another nation’s conflicts. Saudi Arabia is a totalitarian, fundamentalist hellhole. One that it currently butchers the civilians of neighboring Yemen.

Both the Saudis and the Israelis want the United States to fight this war. Our government would be roped into expending American lives and American dollars at their behest in an open-ended conflict. Saudi Arabia, nor its oil, is worth neither.

The Hill: Tillerson: Netanyahu “played” Trump with misinformation

Electronic Frontier Foundation: Big Tech’s disingenuous push for a federal privacy law 

Activist Post: Facebook to launch ‘independent Supreme Court’ body to monitor its content

The Federalist: If vaping is banned, millions of Americans will needlessly die

Antiwar.com: Despite assurances, 30 Afghan farm workers killed in drone strike

Reason: Cop accused of stealing over $225,000 can’t be sued thanks to qualified immunity

Vice:The private surveillance system that tracks car nationwide

Bodycam catches cop planting drugs during traffic stops:

Off topic, but I can’t be the only one to feel something Homeric about Sergio Leone’s spaghetti westerns. Morricone’s angelic music, the desolate beauty of the Italian vistas, the raw amplified depiction of elemental human emotion and drive. The Italians arguably did westerns better than their American progenitors, probably due to a rich poetic and musical heritage that American film producers lacked. This penultimate scene was filmed at Sad Hill cemetery in northern Spain:

The main point of my column at the Libertarian Institute: Vaccine Mandates Are the Antithesis of Liberty

Paralyze the public with fear, declare that disaster is imminent unless we pass various pieces of tyrannical legislation, brand critics as “un-American” or threats to public safety, engage in witch hunts in justify the fear-mongering, etc. These are all the tactics that were used to sell the War on Terror to the American public, and they are now used to sell vaccine mandates. It doesn’t matter to anyone that cool-headed, rational facts never enter the conversation, once the emotions of the public have been hijacked.

The immediate goal of those who oppose vaccine mandates should be to hold back mandates long enough for enough members of the public to stumble out of the manufactured hysteria and listen to facts, which more are doing. It’s difficult for even a government to sustain a climate of fear, particularly if the fear is baseless. That’s why government tries to pass as many laws as possible when the fear is at its height. Governments understand that in a few weeks or months, no one will buy the “sky is falling” act.

This debate between comic Dave Smith and Libertarian Party Chair Nicolas Sarwark was fascinating to listen to in that Sarwark seems to personify all the reasons that the Libertarian Party has failed to achieve anything over the past 10 years, even while buffeted by Ron Paul’s enormously successful twin presidential campaigns. Paul didn’t win, but he woke millions to the philosophy of liberty, myself included. Dave has maintained the energy of the passionate “soldier of liberty” that we all felt back then, and it comes across in his demeanor. Watch the entire debate and witness Dave’s utter dismantling of Sarwark and the strategy of the national Libertarian Party as it stands:

Dr. Meryl Nass: Why are legislatures imposing vaccine mandates now?

PHILIP GIRALDI: Israel spies and spies and spies

The Intercept: Saudi First: Trump wants to start Iran war if MSB gives the order

Constitution Day 2019: The hidden domestic surveillance crisis

Techdirt: DOJ decides to help publicize Snowden’s memoir by suing him for failing to run his book by the CIA and NSA first

Activist Post: Cops sic K-9 on sleeping man, ripping his arm to shreds Ed: Take this weapon away from cops, instead give them drug/bomb-sniffing rats, which have a far higher accuracy rate, and won’t maul an unresisting suspect at the cop’s behest.

National Review: California’s ban on school suspensions invites another Parkland

DANIEL LARISON: A completely avoidable crisis with Iran

RON PAUL LIBERTY REPORT: No one believes Iran attacked Saudi Arabia:

Popular Mechanics: The Navy says those UFO videos are real

As I work my way through Suzanne Humphries’ fascinating history of infectious disease, Dissolving Illusions, I’ve gained a much better appreciation for just how horrific these diseases had been for all of society. Everyone lived in fear of a great many infections that could appear at any moment, and, when infected, they couldn’t do much more than pray. The medical profession in the 1800’s was little more than quackery dressed up in respectable drapery, and the doctors often did far more harm than good. One such horror was ‘puerperal fever’. This infection killed many new mothers who had just given birth, with the primary cause being the filthy hands of the male midwives. Traditionally, midwives had always been female, but the medical professionals saw a lucrative opportunity and pushed their way into the market. The “male midwife” had arrived, and with him the fool’s notion that one doesn’t need to wash his hands or instruments before assisting patients. Humphries points to the records of a Paris hospital in the 1700’s, where more than half of the mothers that gave birth died. Thousands of new mothers died as a result of the ignorant arrogance of the medical class of the time

The complete unnecessary tragedy of it all was made apparent when Dr. Ignaz Semmelweis ordered the doctors within his hospital to apply a “chlorinated lyme solution” to their hands before getting anywhere near an expectant mother. The death rate immediately dropped to zero.

Never underestimate human arrogance when deciding whether to grant some class of professions greater power.