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You’re nothing without your health. Some people are nothing even with their health.
— “Larry David” (Larry David), Curb Your Enthusiasm, Season 7, Episode 2 (“The Reunion”), original airdate 27 September 2009
Reading Time: 5 minutes 45 seconds
Today is Saturday, November 12th, the 316th day of 2022. There are 49 days left in the year. It is National Happy Hour Day, National Chicken Soup for the Soul Day, National French Dip Day, and World Pneumonia Day.
On This Day
In 1892, “Pudge” Heffelfinger became the first professional football player on record, participating in his first paid game for the Allegheny Athletic Association.
In 1912, the frozen bodies of Robert Scott and his men were found on the Ross Ice Shelf in Antarctica.
In 1927, Leon Trotsky was expelled from the Soviet Communist Party, leaving Joseph Stalin in undisputed control of the U.S.S.R.
In 1954, Ellis Island ceased operations.
In 1969, journalist Seymour Hersh broke the story of the My Lai Massacre.
In 1970, the Oregon Highway Division attempted to destroy a rotting beached sperm whale with explosives, causing the infamous “exploding whale” incident.
In 1979, in response to the hostage situation in Tehran, President Jimmy Carter ordered a halt to all petroleum imports from Iran.
In 1990, Tim Berners-Lee published a formal proposal for the World Wide Web.
In 1997, Ramzi Yousef was found guilty of masterminding the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.
In 2001, American Airlines Flight 587, an Airbus A300 en route to the Dominican Republic, crashed minutes after takeoff from John F. Kennedy International Airport. All 260 people on board were killed, as well as five people on the ground.
Today's Birthdays
Actor Wallace Shawn is 79. Sportscaster Al Michaels is 78. Actress Cote de Pablo is 43. Actor Ryan Gosling is 42. Actress Anne Hathaway is 40.
The Links
“China Was Right”? A Response to Professor Jack Goldsmith (Jonathan Turley)
“Moreover, before the pandemic, companies routinely removed criminal, threatening, and fraudulent postings. However, such bans were narrow and largely avoided censoring viewpoints that others deemed misinformation or disinformation. There was admittedly offensive content that many felt was harmful, but the assumption was that good speech would prevail over bad speech. That is the pre-pandemic allowance for free speech that Goldsmith opposed. Instead, he encouraged countries and companies not to restore the level of free speech previously allowed on the Internet.”
Why Did the Left Fail So Utterly to Resist the Global Biosecurity State? (Simon Elder)
“[T]he Left is the Church in which these Covid-faithful have been raised, their guiding religion and cultic practices formed by the same radically conservative beliefs. To state again what should be obvious to all: no-platforming, cancel culture, misogyny disguised as trans-rights, policing of speech and opinion, and all the other symptoms of this woke ideology did not emerge from a politics of emancipation, class struggle or wealth distribution. They emerged from, and are advocates for, authoritarian practices of censorship, suppression of debate and punishment of non-compliance that are culturally inseparable from the technologies of surveillance and control developed by finance capitalism to police and protect its borders.”
The incredible disappointment of Elon Musk’s first weeks owning Twitter (PART ONE) (Alex Berenson)
“But even before Musk bought Twitter, he’d shown warning signs he might not be the First Amendment absolutist those of us who had faced social media censorship in the last several years had hoped.”
DeSantis Delivers in Huge Win for the Anti-Lockdown Cause (Brownstone Institute)
“Where DeSantis really stands out, however, is in his wholehearted embrace, from that point forward, of the anti-lockdown movement in its entirety. He’s consulted and hosted roundtable discussions with prominent anti-lockdown activists and scientists including Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, Dr. Martin Kulldorff, and Dr. Sunetra Gupta, and appointed Dr. Joseph Ladapo, a strong opponent of Covid mandates, as his Surgeon General.”
‘They completely f--ked up’: How the GOP lost its grip on the Senate majority (POLITICO)
“Interviews with more than 20 strategists and senators from both parties highlight the reasons for Republicans’ stumbles this year: former President Donald Trump played kingmaker, and the party reasoned it could do little about it besides trying to ride historical tailwinds.”
Inflation Remains Stubbornly Higher (American Institute for Economic Research)
“The personal consumption expenditures price index … which is the Fed’s preferred measure of inflation, continues to grow much faster than Fed officials would like. The price level grew at a continuously compounding annual rate of 6.1 percent from September 2021 to September 2022. It has grown at a continuously compounding annual rate of 4.2 percent since January 2020.”
Did Something Happen in Crypto This Week? (Cato Institute)
“In crypto, karma moves fast. And in Washington, a crisis — such as a prominent brand in a buzzy industry losing billions — is thought to be a terrible thing to waste. Nonetheless, policymakers should not hastily patch perceived regulatory gaps in counterproductive ways, such as by scapegoating crypto technologies that mitigate by design some of the very risks plaguing FTX. Rather, the fate of FTX underscores the need for careful line drawing between what FTX is — a centralized crypto exchange, or a financial intermediary — and decentralized crypto exchanges that remove the need for such intermediaries.”
Most people who ‘promise’ to make charitable donations don’t end up paying (StudyFinds)
“Researchers from the University of Copenhagen looked at the effects of social pressure when it comes to charitable contributions, and more specifically, the effect of moral commitment. A majority of Danes in the digital donation social experiment made promises to pay, but never followed through. In fact, 60 percent of people who made in-person or on-the-spot promises to ‘pay later’ ultimately sent nothing to the charity.”
An overweight bloke just won a Miss America beauty pageant (spiked)
“In a world where online pornography is a click away and women in Iran are being killed for removing their headscarves, I struggle to muster too much fury about the kitsch sexism of beauty pageants. The idea of women and girls parading around while sweaty-palmed judges score them is certainly creepy and anachronistic. Nonetheless, the women entered the Miss Greater Derry pageant in good faith and deserved a fair chance. They were denied a prize that rightfully belonged to one of them. Brían sashayed off not only with the tiara, but also with a university scholarship and sponsorship opportunities. The other contestants had no choice but to clap along at the mockery made of their efforts. The spectacle served as a powerful reminder that, in today’s America, failing to show due deference to the trans overlords (or trans overladies?) is potentially career-ending.”
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