George Bush’s 2005 Fowl Play
I can recall my shock that George W. Bush gave a presser in which he pushed for lockdowns. I wrote the following article reprinted below. So far as I know, I was alone in raising protest against this insanity.
The Ascent of Mediocrity
A few years ago, “Precision Medicine” was put forward as a way to significantly improve treatment. Now, it is as if it never happened. Instead of pursuing “Truth” and striving “Ever to Excel,” medicine seems to have the tagline, “Good Enough.”
Peer Review Is Broken—Here’s How to Fix It
For this system to ultimately take the place of the current peer-review system, universities would need to embrace it and figure out how to evaluate scholars’ productivity for the purposes of granting tenure and so forth.
What (and How) Should Our Students Be Taught Today?
There are many – too many – intellectual sources, contemporary as well as throughout the history of the world, from which I could draw to answer it in a very provisional manner, so I’ll have to be selective, but here goes.
What (and How) Should Our Students Be Taught Today? Continue Reading
What If the FDA Were Eliminated?
Reform efforts have been met with frustration. The entire machinery is set up to resist the influence of a politically hostile takeover. For example, Moderna has been given the green light to further develop the technology for a flu shot.
When War Teaches Medicine
War is likely to persist. Medicine, however, must remain steadfast, anchored in principles that transcend conflict, ideology, and time. It should not become a weapon but must remain a profession dedicated to the care of each individual, regardless of circumstance.
The Story of the Victorian-Era Anti-Mandate Movement
All rhetoric and seeming extremism aside, all these movements have ever wanted – from the 1790s to today – is for this product to be subject to normal market discipline of supply and demand, without any interventions designed to back the industry.
The Story of the Victorian-Era Anti-Mandate Movement Continue Reading
The Lost Art of Medicine: What Maimonides Knew That We Forgot
Contemporary medicine is not failing for lack of knowledge. It is failing under the weight of complexity. Nearly every aspect of patient care can now be measured. Yet despite these advances, a fundamental element has been eroded. This erosion is philosophical.
The Lost Art of Medicine: What Maimonides Knew That We Forgot Continue Reading
Not Your Grandfather’s Stagflation
We are going to get a globe-shaking economic conflagration erupting from the void that was the Persian Gulf commodity fountain. That includes between 20% and 50% of all the basic commodities that drive global GDP.
The Behemoth of Global Corruption Is an Extension of Ourselves
Once we cut the behemoth down to human size, we can see that nothing is new, and defeating it is not impossible. It will take perseverance, hope, and a reckoning with ourselves.
The Behemoth of Global Corruption Is an Extension of Ourselves Continue Reading
The Digital Leviathan
Some books explain events, and others explain the world in which events become possible. Jacob Siegel’s The Information State: Politics in the Age of Total Control firmly to the second category. Siegel watched it up close.
Covid of the Past: Smallpox in Yugoslavia, 1972
They did not tell me about favorable time trends in the natural course of other infectious diseases for which there was no vaccine, nor about the correlation of those trends with improved living conditions, sanitation, personal hygiene, and nutrition.
Covid of the Past: Smallpox in Yugoslavia, 1972 Continue Reading