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[P]olitical paternalists and social engineers arrogantly advocate the use of political power to tell us how to live, where to work (and at what prices or wages), with whom to interact (and in which ways), and to design our wider societal future. Virtually none of them seem to have any doubts or hesitation that they know what is better for all of us than we do.
They know the salaries we should earn. They know the work environment that is right for us. They know the language people should use in communicating with each other. They know the forms and types of human associations that are to be prohibited or insisted on. They know what we should buy and the prices we should pay. They know the medical care, the schooling, the retirement plans that each of us should have. They know whose incomes are “too high” and whose are “too low.” They know the cars we should drive, the houses we should live in, the kind of communities in which we should reside.
Reflect on practically anything in your private life or your social interactions, and the political paternalists know all about it better than you.
— Richard M. Ebeling
Reading Time: 6 minutes 10 seconds
Today is Wednesday, December 28th, 2022. It is National Card Playing Day, National Download Day, National Call a Friend Day, and National Short Film Day.
On This Day
In 1832, John C. Calhoun became the first vice president to resign, leaving office after being elected to the Senate from South Carolina.
In 1836, Spain recognized the independence of Mexico with the signing of the Santa María-Calatrava Treaty.
In 1846, Iowa was admitted as the 29th state.
In 1895, Wilhelm Röntgen published a paper detailing his discovery of a new type of radiation, which later became known as x-rays.
In 1943, Soviet authorities launched Operation Ulussy, the forced relocation of more than 93,000 people of Kalmyk nationality to Siberia.
In 1948, a DC-3 airliner en route from Puerto Rico to Miami disappeared. The fate of its 29 passengers and three crew members has never been learned.
In 1958, in the “Greatest Game Ever Played,” the Baltimore Colts defeated the New York Giants to claim the National Football League Championship.
In 1967, businesswoman Muriel Siebert became the first woman to own a seat on the New York Stock Exchange.
In 1973, the Endangered Species Act was signed into law by President Richard Nixon.
In 2014, Indonesia AirAsia Flight 8501 crashed into the Karimata Strait en route from Surabaya to Singapore, killing all 162 people aboard.
Today's Birthdays
Actress Maggie Smith is 88. Television personality Gayle King is 68. Actor Denzel Washington is 68. Hockey Hall of Famer Ray Bourque is 62. Linux creator/developer Linus Torvalds is 53. Actress Noomi Rapace is 43. Actress Sienna Miller is 41.
The Links
VERY URGENT: Do Covid mRNA vaccines damage our ability to control the coronavirus after a booster shot? (Alex Berenson)
“The paper ‘provides a very reasonable immunologic explanation for why the mRNA vaccine booster regimens are failing,’ a physician who read it emailed me. ‘A great paper and raises a lot of questions which should be asked. Particularly when you have empirical population-wide data that something’s not working properly.’”
The Future of Biology Studies is Obedience to Orthodoxy (Brownstone Institute)
“[T]hese students were not simply contending with a class of administrative automotons [sic], as many have, but with well-trained, well-educated biologists — the kind of people one might have initially expected to put up the greatest resistance to illogical and scientifically unsound Covid policies.”
COVID Technologies Feeding Into the Global Surveillance State (Tenth Amendment Center)
“The feds can share and tap into vast amounts of information gathered at the state and local level through the ISE and fusion centers. In other words, COVID tracking creates the potential for the federal government to broadly track the movement of millions of Americans with no warrant, no probable cause, and without the people even knowing it.”
FBI COINTELPRO Is Back, And Worse Than Ever (Jim Bovard)
“The FBI especially loathed any opposition to the Vietnam War. The bureau ordered field offices in 1968 to gather information illustrating the ‘scurrilous and depraved nature of many of the characters, activities, habits, and living conditions representative of New Left adherents.’ FBI agents were told: ‘Every avenue of possible embarrassment must be vigorously and enthusiastically explored. It cannot be expected that information of this type will be easily obtained, and an imaginative approach by your personnel is imperative to its success.’ One FBI internal newsletter encouraged agents to conduct more interviews with antiwar activists ‘for plenty of reasons, chief of which are it will enhance the paranoia endemic in these circles and will further serve to get the point across that there is an FBI agent behind every mailbox.’”
Living in the X-Files (The American Conservative)
“Think about it: In 2022, we learned that the Pentagon has been taking unidentified flying objects seriously for decades, revelations sure to inflame old Spooky’s excitable mind. Closer to earth, we learned that the FBI and other elements of the security apparatus work hand-in-glove with at least one Silicon Valley giant, Twitter, to censor information contrary to governmental policies on issues like Covid lockdowns and vaccine mandates. FBI agents, in other words, shape the perceptions not just of ordinary Americans, but even of media elites. The Twitter Files were the real X-Files, and reality is catching up with TV fiction.”
Every Flaw in Consumers is Worse in Voters, Part Deux (American Institute for Economic Research)
“[E]veryone in the Progressive movement fully recognized the problem with populist movements, of the left or the right. Paternalism is their preferred alternative to actual agonistic politics, and the reason was government failure, not market failure!”
Los Angeles County Extends Its Eviction Moratorium Again, Citing Rising COVID, Flu, RSV Cases (Reason)
“‘We just don’t know where it’s going to end at this point,’ says Daniel Yukelson, the executive director of the Apartment Association of Greater Los Angeles … . ‘It’s been a severe financial strain that’s been put on the backs of what are mostly independent, small rental property owners.’”
“The distance between Dallas and El Paso is over 630 miles and takes over nine hours to traverse in a car. But the unlikely companions found a way to pass the time well.”
US Grid Needs Fossil Fuels, Not Wind (NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT)
“This destroys the idea that the wind is always blowing somewhere, and that all you have to do is distribute surplus power around the country in order to meet demand.”
Japan Signs New LNG Deals To Diversify Natural Gas Supply (Oilprice.com)
“INPEX Corporation, the major gas firm in Japan, announced … a long-term Sales and Purchase Agreement with U.S. supplier Venture Global LNG for the purchase of one million tons per annum … of liquefied natural gas for 20 years.”
Climate Fact Check 2022 (JunkScience.com)
“Nine natural disasters wrongly blamed on ‘climate change’ during 2022.”
Could the LCS fleet be getting a new mission? (Defense News)
“The ships were billed as agile, efficient vessels that could take on all sorts of missions in a world where the United States was the lone superpower setting the global table. But the much-hyped LCS mission modules never materialized, and concerns have emerged about the ships’ survivability in a conventional war with China or Russia.”
Israel Has Grounded Some Of Its F-35s After Texas Crash (The Drive)
“According to the IAF’s official statement on Twitter, the service leveraged findings and information gathered during the investigation of the Texas F-35B crash to determine that a dedicated inspection of their own F-35Is was required. The IAF stated that doing so would be necessary to rule out any chance of repeating the unspecified malfunction among its own fleet.”
U.S. DEVELOPING GLIDE PHASE INTERCEPTOR AND OTHER KEY TECHNOLOGIES TO COMBAT HYPERSONIC WEAPONS THREATS (The Debrief)
“Achieving this is no small task when it comes to intercepting an object that is moving five times the speed of sound. However, in early December, Raytheon announced a ‘milestone’ in its GPI program with the completion of its Systems Requirement Review Prototype.”
Afghanistan & Haiti: failed as autocracies and democracies (Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft)
“The American establishment clearly wishes to forget that Afghanistan ever existed, and since Kabul is 7,000 miles from the United States this could be possible. Americans will however find it more difficult to ignore state collapse in their own backyard. Haiti is in many ways very different from Afghanistan, but the underlying problem is the same: the perennial failure of attempts at modern state-building, both domestic and through outside intervention. And while Haiti, unlike Afghanistan, has not incubated a terrorist threat to its neighbors, like Afghanistan it has generated huge numbers of migrants and great problems of criminality. Haiti over the past 40 years has seen repeated coups and rebellions.”
Your Turn
1. Ever been to Iowa?
2. Is mask-wearing starting to increase where you live?
3. Do you play cards?
4. If the triumph of “green” power is imminent, why has “the major gas firm in Japan” signed a 20-year contract for the purchase of American LNG?
5. Denzel’s best movie?
1. Ever been to Iowa?
No. I've heard their Corn is very good. Now, the Democrats are outlawing corn as a bad thing to eat or as a source for Ethanol. In fact, Democrats wants to destroy the Ethanol production, which has been used with gasoline, because it was a more "Green" solution for reducing GHG (Green House Gases) emission benefits for gasoline! The Democrat Communists are so against "Real America" they are trying to make South Carolina the first State for the Democraps Primary, instead of IOWA! Gosh, is that because South Caroline was stupid enough to vote for Biden in the 2020 Primary? How could Joe do that to his old buddy Corn-Pop, that is said to have come from Iowa!!
2. Is mask-wearing starting to increase where you live?
No, and when you get away from big cities where the Marxist Democrats have big control, you never see them. Real America does not like the current Dem Regime!!
3. Do you play cards?
Online, sometimes, for old times sake. Canasta was the game of choice with my Grandmother and the rest of our Family!
4. If the triumph of “green” power is imminent, why has “the major gas firm in Japan” signed a 20-year contract for the purchase of American LNG?
Because the Green New Deal is not working and in order to destroy America, the Marxist Communist Democrats need to shutdown our Fossil Fuel production. So, they're going to increase everybody's cost for energy rather than lowering our energy cost by creating Energy Independence. How long will Americans continue to be so stupid?!! Trump got it right!!
5. Denzel’s best movie?
The one where he played a black guy!!
3. Everything from solitaire to poker to gin rummy to Exploding Kittens.