Utopia, you are standing in it!

I haven’t found much about the author of this piece: Clifford MacArthur. He appears to have written just this one article on Medium (click on screenshot to read it). Nevertheless, if his assertions are correct, Tara Reade, who’s accused Joe Biden of sexual misconduct, is an outright liar. And MacArthur has a theory, which is his, about why she’s lied.

You’ve probably heard a bit about this case on the news, though the facts seem confusing.  Reade, an employee of Biden, originally said that he inappropriately rubbed her on the shoulders and neck in 1993. Then, over time, the story became more serious: this year she said that Biden actually cornered her and digitally penetrated her vagina, which is, legally, rape. Her changing story (there has been more than one change) is made less credible by the contradictions in her story, the failure of anyone to corroborate her accusations, her…

Infection Fatality Rates?

Michael Schulson writes at Undark Magazine John Ioannidis Responds to Critics of His Study Finding That the Coronavirus Is Not as Deadly as Thought. Excerpts in italics with my bolds.

At issue here is a simple question: How many people actually have Covid-19? Ioannidis and other researchers from Stanford tried to answer that in a draft paper, or preprint, last month. Other experts began pointing out problems in the study, raising concerns about statistical errors, possible issues with a Covid-19 test kit, and shoddy sampling technique.

A few weeks later, the team released a revised version of the paper. The new draft, which, like the original version, has not yet received formal peer review, softens some of the more controversial claims, and acknowledges more uncertainty about the true number of infections.

The following interview — which covers the papers as well as Ioannidis’ appearances on partisan television…

This post set out to be a fun romp through the naughty marks in the U.S. federal trademark register. Don’t worry, that post is still forthcoming . . . but in the meantime I’ve learned about a distressing trend that’s stopping lots of sweary marks from attaining federal registration.

Despite having been instructed by the Supreme Court that it can no longer refuse trademark applications on the ground that the contents are “scandalous,” the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) won’t commit wholeheartedly. It’s relying on a shaky rationale to justify rejecting a variety of recently-filed FUCK- and SHIT-formative marks, like GOOD SHIT, APESHIT and YOU FUCKING GOT THIS.

For a fascinating insight into the thinking of a Pakeha Appeaser of Griever Maori, I commend to you this email exchange between Green Party MP Catherine Delahunty and author Dr John Robinson.

I urge you to read it all, particularly Delahunty’s second email, and Robinson’s reply.

As you read, and perhaps weep, remind yourself that Catherine Delahunty is a member of our Parliament, to whom we are paying over $140,000 a year.

__________________________________

From: John Robinson
Sent: Thursday, 16 August 2012 3:00 p.m.
To: Catherine Delahunty
Subject: When two cultures meet, the New Zealand experience

Hi Catherine,

I was forwarded your comments on the Treaty, which I believe are mistaken.

The promise was kept and it was some Maori tribes who broke the compact by revolt against the government and many peaceful tribes.

I hope that you will read this historical account.

With best wishes,

John

[Dr Robinson pointed Ms Delahunty to his new book, When Two Cultures Meet…

If, as seems likely, Corbyn goes down to disaster, on December 12th; then the next UK General Election, due in late 2024, will be one, in which the last time Labour won an election, without Tony Blair leading it, was in October 1974. Then they managed a majority of 3. That was fifty years earlier. Fifty years: think about it.

Tony Blair won three General Elections with majorities of 179, 167 and 66. No wonder the left of the Labour Party hate him: he won elections. “Tory with a red tie” they call him. They much prefer to lose elections and let a Thatcher or a Johnson screw the country. I often think that Militant Tendency and Momentum were/are entryist Tories.Their stupidity does the Tories job for them: Tories Useful Idiots they are. I mean what’s not to love for Johnson to face the dire Corbyn and his cult? And…

Karl Von Clausewitz (1780-1831)

Creative Conflict Wisdom is not a blog about war, but we cannot write about conflict without considering the author of the classic: ‘On War’, because as he most famously said:

‘War is the conduct of policy by other means’.

This could be paraphrased to mean war as the conduct of conflict by more than political means. Many think that his book is the greatest ever written about war. As has been well said in Michael Howard’s excellent ‘Very Short Introduction to Clausewitz‘, few can help us think about war so well, and few have penetrated the ephemeral phenomena of their own times so incisively and considered war as a ‘…great socio-political activity distinguished from all other activities by the reciprocal and legitimized use of powerful violence to attain political objectives.’

So what were his top ten insights? (This is the first of…

Are some recent wars the result of over simplistic Power Point driven thinking?

This is a recent Power Point slide of the US military’s view of the Afghanistan War. Clearly unworkable as a Power Point. But that is the point: we often cannot reduce the complexity of a war or other major conflict to a few bland bullet points on a Power Point. Some people I knew in the corporate world used to talk about ‘crisp’ presentations: it came to make my want to throw up! They represented an attempt to seduce into shallow thinking.

We need to pay attention, get into the data, the causal loops and really think about many possible solutions, to think outside the box. Eventually, we have to distill this complexity down into a decision for action, for a strategy. But there is a profound difference (as Albert Einstein noted) between the simplicity that lies…

Planet of the Humans, Michael Moore’s withering attack on the power and money behind the renewable energy scam (see above) has incensed the climate cult and those that profit from the greatest economic and environmental fraud of all time.

For the best part of 20 years, the mainstream press has been parroting the climate cult’s line that the only solution to the planet’s ‘imminent doom’ is more windmills and solar panels. Subsidised, of course, with your money.

New ‘Green’ Deal Democrats are in it up to their necks. Back in March the Democrats sought to assist their benefactors by amending Donald Trump’s $2 trillion coronavirus stimulus package such that wind and solar power outfits would be able to siphon off hundreds of $billions and keep their scam going for just that bit longer. When that failed, Democrats led the charge on a second round attempt to look after their rent…

The legality of the Covid-19 lockdown in New Zealand has been thrust into the spotlight, with valuable analysis from colleagues Profs Geddis and Geiringer on this blog, subsequent public airing of that legal debate, and issue of judicial review proceedings to test the regime on the back of that analysis. Questions about the validity of the orders under the Health Act – closing business premises and confining all New Zealanders to their household bubbles, for over 6 weeks now – have been percolating in legal quarters. Those doubts have recently seeped into public discourse and become part of political argument. This risks disrupting the delicate equilibrium of public acceptance that has characterised the lockdown – a lockdown that seems to have been pretty successful, so far, in breaking the chain of transmission and stamping out the virus.

We take a more benevolent view on whether the orders are valid and…

by Greg Mayer

The New York Times‘ ‘1619 Project’, and the critical reaction to it, has drawn attention here at WEIT a number of times. The diversity of the sources of criticism has been notable, ranging across the traditional political spectrum from left to right. In another salvo from the right, conservative political commentator George Will attacks the project in a new column in the Washington Post. The occasion of Will’s critique is that, incredibly, the lead writer of the project, Nikole Hannah-Jones, has been awarded a Pulitzer Prize! (As Brian Leiter notes, the Pulitzer people have not covered themselves with glory in their awards for “Commentary”.)

As his headline (in the title above) shows, Will attacks both the historical account given by the project, and its motivations. He selects “three examples of slovenliness, even meretriciousness, regarding facts”. The examples chosen are the significance of a…

Since I’ve never smoked or vaped, I have no personal interest in the the regulatory battle over vaping and e-cigarettes.

That being said, I started writing about this issue back in 2016 because it involves several important principles.

1. The libertarian argument that people should be free to do what they want with their own bodies
2. Whether the “administrative state” should be able to unilaterally grab more regulatory power.
3. The degree to which “harm reduction” or “zero tolerance” should guide government policies.

From a public health perspective, the third point is most important.

It’s a fight between those who want the Food and Drug Administration to use its self-anointed regulatory authority to ban e-cigarettes (because vaping is worse than not vaping) and those who explain that e-cigarettes are helpful (because vaping is far less risky than smoking).

This fight has a September 9 deadline. The Food and Drug…

The great comedian Jerry Stiller, who often performed with his wife Anne Meara, passed away this morning at age 92. Reporting on his life and comedy, NBC News finished the report with these words:

“Meara passed away five years ago. Now this legendary pair is laughing together again.”

Now if that isn’t a paean to togetherness in the afterlife, you tell me what it is. You might be able to confect a tortuous interpretation, like a Sophisticated Theologian®, but I see the words as a sop to the religious.

We are constantly inundated by these nods towards religion and religionists, and this is one of them. It sounds good, doesn’t it? But it’s a lie.

Let’s just watch them laugh together when they were alive. Here they are on the Ed Sullivan show in 1964, with Meara trying to kiss off her ardent boyfriend.

The New Zealand Government recently lifted its “Level 4” COVID-19 restrictions. Significant restrictions, including coercive powers restricting basic liberties, remain active. Parliament’s Epidemic Response Committee is now planning to issue summonses for the production of legal advice given to the Government for these extraordinary measures. This advice is covered by legal professional privilege, which can be waived by the Government. This note explores the current context of scrutiny of the lawfulness of New Zealand’s lockdown measures, and what could (and should) be done by Parliament, if the Government refuses to waive its privilege.

New Zealand’s lockdown and questions about its lawfulness

The legal status and lawfulness of New Zealand’s lockdown restrictions has recently been discussed on this Blog by Professors Andrew Geddis and Claudia Geiringer. In summary, the Government acted under legislation covering national epidemic and emergency responses, to activate emergency powers, including those conferred to medical officers under…