Reverie

 

The socialists of today aren’t experienced logisticians who fail to see the disanalogies between running an organization and running a whole society.  They’re dreamers who want to lead before they learn to follow.  So while I’d gladly give a socialist general a lecture on the economics of socialism, today’s typical socialist needs to hear a simpler message: They should learn to make solid mundane plans for their own lives before they think about imposing grandiose plans on the rest of the world.--Caplan

Once any thought at all is given to the actual processes of collective decision-making, the claims for efficiency-generating properties of the socialist alternative collapse of their own weight.--Buchanan

Food and Drug Administration approved Dsuvia (sufentanil tablet) “to manage acute pain in adults, weeks after the chairman of the advisory committee that reviewed it asked the agency to reject it on grounds that it would likely be abused.” Dsuvia is “a new form of an extremely potent opioid...that has been used intravenously and in epidurals since the 1980s.” FDA Commissioner Dr. Scott Gottlieb said in a statement that Dsuvia is delivered in a “pre-filled, single-dose applicator” and that it will only be used in medically supervised settings like hospitals and surgical centers or on the battlefield to treat wounded soldiers. A spokesperson for the FDA said that “there were drug safety and risk experts on the committee whose expert input was taken very seriously throughout this process.”

Stormy petrel (with apologies to Stormy Daniels): noun:
1. One who brings trouble or whose appearance is a sign of coming trouble.
2. Any of various small sea birds of the family Hydrobatidae having dark feathers and lighter underparts, also known as Mother Carey’s Chicken.

ETYMOLOGY:

The birds got the name storm petrel or stormy petrel because old-time sailors believed their appearance foreshadowed a storm. It’s not certain why the bird is named petrel. One unsubstantiated theory is that it is named after St. Peter who walked on water in the Gospel of Matthew. The petrel’s habit of flying low over water with legs extended gives the appearance that it’s walking on the water. Earliest documented use: 1776.

I believe that Aristotle’s and Washington’s, Jefferson’s, and Madison’s complicity in supporting slavery renders none of these men unsuitable sources today of knowledge, wisdom, or inspiration. One reason for my belief is practical: If we were to take knowledge, wisdom, and inspiration only from saints, we would dramatically reduce our access to the colossal supply of knowledge, wisdom, and inspiration offered to us by history. And rejecting in the name of purity nearly all of this knowledge, wisdom, and inspiration, our society would quickly become polluted by ignorance and evil that would otherwise have been kept at bay.--Bordeaux

The U.N. says that the entire world would have to impose carbon taxes of up to $5,500 per ton to avoid a supposed climate-change catastrophe.

The opening of "Beirut" likens Beirut to a boardinghouse that has no owner and whose tenants are joined only by insincerity, treachery and two thousand years of vendetta. One day strangers come begging entrance and, after violent debate, they are allowed in. They turn out to be the Palestinians and the only thing they want to do is burn down the Israeli house next door.  

Trump is freezing CAFE mileage standards and the earth--and the global warming activists--have trembled in revulsion. But CAFE mileage standards were not created to fight global warming. They were enacted after the 1973-74 oil shock. CAFE was a political solution to a political problem: soaring oil prices

What was....Nephite-Lamanite Wars?

I saw a transgender woman in the office recently with a prostate abscess. Ruby Rose is off Twitter because she has been accused of not being gay enough to be Batwoman.  A guide to some of the topics and terms discussed in “Gender: The Space Between,” as defined by the Human Rights Campaign, GLAAD, The Trevor Project, and the National Center for Transgender Equality includes 22 terms. UK Facebook users can now choose from one of 71 gender options. Fortunately, despite the confusion over what was formerly thought to be straight-forward, the culture is able to assess really complex stuff like global warming clearly and accurately.

Tesla and....the Saudis?

The New York Times reported Trump Administration officials say they have found a way around a ruling by US District Court Judge James E. Boasberg halting a Kentucky plan to introduce Medicaid work requirements.

Is the recording of conversations in the White House a good idea, even if it makes you feel good?

If civic virtue is taught, how much diversity of opinion can be tolerated? If, as the population increases, the number of outliers under the bell curve grows, does freedom become intolerable?

Buffalo Wild Wings is exploring the business of gambling on sports.

An oblique take on property by Bernstein: The right to property is the right that guarantees all other rights. Individuals without property are susceptible to starvation, and it is much easier to bend the fearful and hungry to the will of the state. If a person’s property can be arbitrarily threatened by the state, that power will inevitably be employed to intimidate those with divergent political and religious opinions.

Britain is now being watched by an astonishing 4.2million CCTV cameras - one for every 14 people and a fifth of the cameras in the entire world.

Golden oldie:

Kissinger said that the appearance of a guy like Trump was necessary every so often to reset things. He was speaking specifically about trade. I did not know the European economic community was bigger than the U.S. and that the Americans were subsidizing it as much as they are. The "Free Trade" agreement that Trump is angry about is 22,000 pages long. That's a lot of parsing of free trade.

I am haunted by these statements and pronouncements that claim academic accuracy. I heard a man say that 200 million Native Americans died from disease after the first Europeans arrived. Then the pandemics expert said maybe 8 million. (Still the biggest epidemic ever proportionally. The Black Death killed 25 million.) But  a recent DNA study that traced back to common ancestors and estimated population disturbances that way reported two huge bottlenecks in North America, one in 1000, one around Christ--not the European invasion. Probably the Nephite-Lamanite Wars.

What this kind of hyperbole means about pharmaceuticals and global warming, I just don't knw. 

Anyone suspicious that the Russians do not and have not developed biologic weapons because they signed the U.N. agreement against them need only recall the Russians developed a manufacturing industry for bombs built in toys that they dropped on Afghanistan, knowing they would attract children.

The Kursk, a Russian nuclear submarine sank  to the bottom of the Barents Sea in 2000; all 118 crew members were later found dead. The exact cause of the disaster remains unknown. The Russian government, true to its paranoid and homicidal history, refused the help of British and Norwegian dive teams, recognized as the world's best.

China disputes allegations that it is holding as many as one million Muslim ethnic minorities in internment camps—instead calling them vocational schools—in rare comments before a U.N. panel.

Attitudes toward socialism among Democrats have not changed much since 2010, with 57 percent view it positively, according to the Gallup survey. Negative views of "capitalism" has increased considerably.

Last year, Canadians faced a median wait of more than 21 weeks to receive treatment from specialists after obtaining referrals from their general practitioners. That's double the median wait time of 25 years ago.

The consumer may no longer be able to fund his standard of living with savings and debt. The chart below is scary.

 

After weeks of preparation, angst and fear-mongering, the big white nationalist march came. And went. Reports are that about two dozen "white nationalists" showed up to be harassed by thousands of counter protesters. One protestor organizer, clearly a serious and full time job, said, "We know from experience that ignoring white nationalists doesn't work." How exactly does he know that? This was a non-event, magnified only by the over-response to it.

There are problems in this world but this does not look like one of them. But I'm sure we will continue to focus on this distraction and rub it raw. Like an outbreak of Ebola.

AAAAAAAaaaaaaadddddd........a graph: