Friday Hodgepodge

Friday, February 10, 2017

Three Things

1. A former "Young Turk" explains, in less than five minutes, "Why I Left the Left" (via HBL):

Today's progressivism has become a faux-moral movement hurling charges of racism, bigotry, xenophobia, homophobia, Islamophobia and a slew of other meaningless buzzwords at anyone they disagree with.

The battle of ideas has been replaced by a battle of feelings, and outrage has replaced honesty. Diversity reigns supreme, as long as it's not that pesky diversity of thought.

This isn't the recipe for a free society, it's a recipe for authoritarianism.
I agree with much of the video, although I disagree with Dennis Prager, whose site hosts it, that religion is the proper foundation for a positive alternative.

2. For a truly inspiring story, head straight over to the New York Times (I'm not kidding!) and read about one doctor's battle with his own rare, life-threatening, and baffling disease:
Pursuing the answer to that question, it turned out, would become his life's work. It would transform Dr. Fajgenbaum from a patient on the brink of death five different times, whose illness stumped specialist after specialist, to one of the leading researchers in his field. He has even used himself as his own test subject, and may have discovered a treatment for his rare disease.
Read the whole thing.

3. Are feature phones retro or disruptive? In India, they are both.

Weekend Reading

"Should the German judiciary have shown deference to Hitler's orders?" -- Harry Binswanger, in "NeilGorsuch Rightly Advocates Inching Away From 'Judicial Deference'" at RealClear Markets

"When you speak, you're also listening to yourself..." -- Michael Hurd, in "Listen to Yourself" at The Delaware Wave

"Growing up occurs at the moment you stop caring about what others think." -- Michael Hurd, in "Tell Me What I Want to Hear!" at The Delaware Coast Press

"The so-called 'Muslim ban' ... flies in the face of the collectivist, socialist idea that American citizens, as the most prosperous on earth, are morally and politically obligated to support those with less." -- Michael Hurd, in "Entry to US Not an Entitlement" at Newsmax

-- CAV

Updates

Today: Corrected link to Binswanger op-ed. 

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Gus,

Your link to the article about Gorusch links back to your own article's header.

In regard to the MD with Castleman's Disease; there is a theory out there that these
immune system derangements might be because of the lack of a properly mediated microbiome. An interesting book on that topic and its import for Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) is The Human Superorganism by Rodney Dietert.

I know that I suffered from what was diagnosed as an auto-immune disease for 30 years and all the expensive drugs and therapy sufficed only to slow down the disease. I took a chance on an 'off label use' of what is now designated 'a medical food' and was literally cured overnight. I've been symptom-free for going on 42 months now.

If Orrin Hatch (not one of my favorite senators, but I have to give the man his due) had not successfully fought against FDA control of various 'supplements' 10 years ago, I would not have been able to get this without a prescription and my off-label use of it would have constituted a federal felony.

I'm not a vindictive sort and don't believe in karma, but having suffered from something that dominated my life for 3 decades, my earnest wish is that every one of these bureaucrats who think that they have the divine right to dictate what medical treatments are to be made available to those suffering from these conditions, be afflicted by the same diseases that they forbid the treatment of by regulatory fiat. Perhaps that would educate them in a completely non-evadable way about the atrocities that they perpetrate as they go about 'just doing their jobs'.

c. andrew

Gus Van Horn said...

C.,

(1) Thanks for pointing out the error. I fixed the link.

(2) I have heard about the idea that the problems with the microbiome could account for some autoimmune disorders. I find the idea plausible, but don't know enough to comment one way or the other. Another related idea that I find plausible is that many allergies are caused by children being raised without enough exposure to dirt, and thus having poorly-"trained" immune systems.

Gus