lewrockwell--2020-12-02--Covid Vaccine Hesitancy Widespread, Even Among Medical Professionals

It ’ s no secret that vaccine hesitancy is at an all time high , even among many physicians and scientists .
This has actually been observed for a while .
For example , one study published in the journal EbioMedicine in 2013 outlines this point , stating in the introduction : At a 2019 conference on vaccines put on by the World Health Organization this fact was emphasized by Professor Heidi Larson , a Professor of Anthropology and the Risk and Decision Scientist Director at the Vaccine Confidence Project .
She is referenced , as you can see , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
At the conference , she emphasized that safety concerns among people and health professionals seem to be the biggest issue regarding vaccine hesitancy .
Valentines Day Gifts , ... Buy New $ 24.99 We have to ask ourselves the question , why ?
Vaccines are not a one size fits all product , in the US alone nearly $ 4 billion has been paid out to families of vaccine injured children , and a number of studies are calling into question their safety .
Aluminum , for example , seems to be @ @ @ @ @ @ @ about why here , but that ’ s just one of multiple examples .
Here ’ s an example of a vaccine injury I recently wrote about regarding the HPV vaccine .
Below is an article that was recently published Jeremy Loffredo , a reporter for The Defender .
It goes into details about vaccine hesitancy among health professionals when it comes to the new COVID vaccines that are about to hit the market .
As details on the latest COVID vaccine contenders flood the news cycle on a daily basis , reports @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of the vaccine are widespread among many demographics , even including the professional medical community .
As vaccine hesitancy grows agencies , including the World Health Organization ( WHO ) , are stepping up efforts to build vaccine confidence through public relations and communications campaigns .
Researchers from the University of California Los Angeles ’ Karin Fielding School of Public Health surveyed healthcare personnel working in the Los Angeles metropolitan area .
As the Washington Post reported , they found that two thirds ( 66.5 % ) of healthcare workers “ intend to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ not intend to get the COVID vaccine when it becomes available .
They plan instead on reviewing the data once it ’ s widely administered and proven safe .
Turkish Handmade Jewel ... Buy New $ 74.00 Seventy-six percent of the vaccine-hesitant healthcare workers cited the “ fast-tracked vaccine development ” as a primary reason for their concerns .
Typically , vaccines take between eight to 10 years to develop , Dr. Emily Erbelding , an infectious disease expert at National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases , told CNN in an article @ @ @ @ @ @ @ coronavirus vaccine is 18 months .
Experts say that ’ s risky.
” The coronavirus vaccine frontrunners — Pfizer , Moderna and AstraZeneca — are expected to make their debut in January .
The pharmaceutical giants have exponentially accelerated the average safety and review timeline for vaccine development and production , to get the vaccines to market in under a year .
Erbelding admitted that the accelerated pace will involve “ not looking at all the data.
” Susan Bailey , president of the American Medical Association , said in a video that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ unprecedented ” and “ posed a real risk ” to public confidence in vaccines .
A recent Gallup poll showed that only 58 % of Americans plan on getting the COVID vaccine when it ’ s available .
An October poll conducted by Zogby found that nearly 50 % of Americans have concerns about the safety of the coming COVID vaccines .
A new collaborative survey project by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and Langer Research found that Black and Latinx Americans are overwhelmingly concerned about the coming @ @ @ @ @ @ @ reported in the Washington post , claims to be “ one of the largest and most rigorous conducted on this topic to date.
” It found that only 14 % of Black Americans trust that a vaccine will be safe , while only 34 % of Latinx Americans trust it will be safe .
The survey also found , in the context of COVID , only 19 % percent of Black Americans trust drug companies , while less than a third trust the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to “ look after their @ @ @ @ @ @ @ New $ 39.00 According to the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices , a group of medical experts who advise the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ( CDC ) , fears surrounding the painful or harmful side-effects of the COVID vaccine are rooted in reality .
According to CNBC , during a virtual Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices ’ meeting on Nov. 23 , Dr. Sandra Fryhofer told fellow CDC officials that patients need to be aware that the side effects from the COVID vaccines “ will not be a walk in the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ from the vaccines have been reported to mimic symptoms of a mild case of COVID , including muscle pain , fever , chills and headache .
Fryhofer , who explained that both Pfizer ’ s and Moderna ’ s COVID vaccines require two doses , worries that her patients might not come back for a second dose after experiencing potentially unpleasant side effects after the first shot .
As a participant of the Moderna vaccine trials noted “ it was the sickest I ’ ve ever been.
” Despite this , officials at @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to combat vaccine safety concerns and hesitancy using , what some are calling , questionable psychological techniques .
For example , the WHO , which named “ vaccine hesitancy ” as the top global public health threat , has hired the PR firm Hill + Knowlton to identify micro-influencers , macro-influencers and “ hidden heroes ” on social media who could covertly promote the organization ’ s image as a COVID authority in order to “ ensure WHO ’ s advice and guidance is followed.
” New Special Design !
T ... Buy @ @ @ @ @ @ @ chairman of WHO ’ s Technical Advisory Group on Behavioral Insights , recently wrote an article in Bloomberg in which he promoted the use of popular celebrities , athletes and actors as tools for vaccine persuasion against those who “ lack vaccine confidence.
” “ Trusted politicians , athletes or actors — thought to be ‘ one of us ’ rather than ‘ one of them ’ — might explicitly endorse vaccination and report that they themselves have gotten the vaccine , ” Sunstein wrote .
Then there ’ s the “ Guide @ @ @ @ @ @ @ by the University of Florida and the United Nations that aims to help governments improve COVID vaccine uptake .
The authors of the guide promote the tactic of covertly using trusted community leaders to help with pro-vaccine information .
Citing vaccine hesitancy among the African American community , the guide suggests that barber shops and hair salons in predominantly black neighborhoods might be tapped to help disseminate approved vaccine messaging .

It’s no secret that vaccine hesitancy is at an all time high, even among many physicians and scientists. This has actually been observed for a while. For example, one study published in the journal EbioMedicine in 2013 outlines this point, stating in the introduction:
Over the past two decades several vaccine controversies have emerged in various countries, including France, inducing worries about severe adverse effects and eroding confidence in health authorities, experts and science. These two dimensions are at the core of vaccine hesitancy (VH) observed in the general population. VH is defined as delay in acceptance of vaccination, or refusal, or even acceptance with doubts about its safety and benefits, with all these behaviours and attitudes varying according to context , vaccine and personal profile, despite the availability of vaccine services VH presents a challenge to physicians who must address their patients’ concerns about vaccines and ensure satisfactory vaccination coverage.
At a 2019 conference on vaccines put on by the World Health Organization this fact was emphasized by Professor Heidi Larson, a Professor of Anthropology and the Risk and Decision Scientist Director at the Vaccine Confidence Project. She is referenced, as you can see, by the authors in the study above. At the conference, she emphasized that safety concerns among people and health professionals seem to be the biggest issue regarding vaccine hesitancy. Valentines Day Gifts, ... Check Amazon for Pricing.
She also stated,
The other thing that’s a trend, and an issue, is not just confidence in providers but confidence of health care providers, we have a very wobbly health professional frontline that is starting to question vaccines and the safety of vaccines. That’s a huge problem, because to this day any study I’ve seen… still, the most trusted person on any study I’ve seen globally is the health care provider…
We have to ask ourselves the question, why? Vaccines are not a one size fits all product, in the US alone nearly $4 billion has been paid out to families of vaccine injured children, and a number of studies are calling into question their safety. Aluminum, for example, seems to be a concern. You can and read about why here, but that’s just one of multiple examples.
Here’s an example of a vaccine injury I recently wrote about regarding the HPV vaccine.
Below is an article that was recently published Jeremy Loffredo, a reporter for The Defender. It goes into details about vaccine hesitancy among health professionals when it comes to the new COVID vaccines that are about to hit the market.
As details on the latest COVID vaccine contenders flood the news cycle on a daily basis, reports of concerns regarding the safety and efficacy of the vaccine are widespread among many demographics, even including the professional medical community.
As vaccine hesitancy grows agencies, including the World Health Organization (WHO), are stepping up efforts to build vaccine confidence through public relations and communications campaigns.
Surveys reveal vaccine hesitancy
Researchers from the University of California Los Angeles’ Karin Fielding School of Public Health surveyed healthcare personnel working in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. As the Washington Post reported, they found that two thirds (66.5%) of healthcare workers “intend to delay vaccination,” meaning they do not intend to get the COVID vaccine when it becomes available. They plan instead on reviewing the data once it’s widely administered and proven safe. Turkish Handmade Jewel... Buy New $104.00 (as of 05:01 UTC - Details)
Seventy-six percent of the vaccine-hesitant healthcare workers cited the “fast-tracked vaccine development” as a primary reason for their concerns. Typically, vaccines take between eight to 10 years to develop, Dr. Emily Erbelding, an infectious disease expert at National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told CNN in an article titled, “The timetable for a coronavirus vaccine is 18 months. Experts say that’s risky.”
The coronavirus vaccine frontrunners — Pfizer, Moderna and AstraZeneca — are expected to make their debut in January. The pharmaceutical giants have exponentially accelerated the average safety and review timeline for vaccine development and production, to get the vaccines to market in under a year. Erbelding admitted that the accelerated pace will involve “not looking at all the data.”
Susan Bailey, president of the American Medical Association, said in a video that the number of physicians expressing hesitancy was “unprecedented” and “posed a real risk” to public confidence in vaccines.
A recent Gallup poll showed that only 58% of Americans plan on getting the COVID vaccine when it’s available. An October poll conducted by Zogby found that nearly 50% of Americans have concerns about the safety of the coming COVID vaccines.
A new collaborative survey project by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and Langer Research found that Black and Latinx Americans are overwhelmingly concerned about the coming COVID vaccine.
The survey, as reported in the Washington post, claims to be “one of the largest and most rigorous conducted on this topic to date.” It found that only 14% of Black Americans trust that a vaccine will be safe, while only 34% of Latinx Americans trust it will be safe.
The survey also found, in the context of COVID, only 19% percent of Black Americans trust drug companies, while less than a third trust the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to “look after their interests.” Special Design Turkish... Buy New $62.00 (as of 05:01 UTC - Details)
According to the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, a group of medical experts who advise the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), fears surrounding the painful or harmful side-effects of the COVID vaccine are rooted in reality.
According to CNBC, during a virtual Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices’ meeting on Nov. 23, Dr. Sandra Fryhofer told fellow CDC officials that patients need to be aware that the side effects from the COVID vaccines “will not be a walk in the park.” Fryhofer acknowledged that side effects from the vaccines have been reported to mimic symptoms of a mild case of COVID, including muscle pain, fever, chills and headache.
Fryhofer, who explained that both Pfizer’s and Moderna’s COVID vaccines require two doses, worries that her patients might not come back for a second dose after experiencing potentially unpleasant side effects after the first shot.
As a participant of the Moderna vaccine trials noted “it was the sickest I’ve ever been.”
Health officials try to combat vaccine hesitancy
Despite this, officials at the forefront of the COVID response plan to combat vaccine safety concerns and hesitancy using, what some are calling, questionable psychological techniques.
For example, the WHO, which named “vaccine hesitancy” as the top global public health threat, has hired the PR firm Hill + Knowlton to identify micro-influencers, macro-influencers and “hidden heroes” on social media who could covertly promote the organization’s image as a COVID authority in order to “ensure WHO’s advice and guidance is followed.”
New Special Design ! T... Buy New $68.00 (as of 05:01 UTC - Details) Cass Sunstein, the chairman of WHO’s Technical Advisory Group on Behavioral Insights, recently wrote an article in Bloomberg in which he promoted the use of popular celebrities, athletes and actors as tools for vaccine persuasion against those who “lack vaccine confidence.”
“Trusted politicians, athletes or actors — thought to be ‘one of us’ rather than ‘one of them’ — might explicitly endorse vaccination and report that they themselves have gotten the vaccine,” Sunstein wrote.
Then there’s the “Guide to COVID-19 Vaccine Communications,” developed by the University of Florida and the United Nations that aims to help governments improve COVID vaccine uptake. The authors of the guide promote the tactic of covertly using trusted community leaders to help with pro-vaccine information.
Citing vaccine hesitancy among the African American community, the guide suggests that barber shops and hair salons in predominantly black neighborhoods might be tapped to help disseminate approved vaccine messaging.
Reprinted with permission from Collective Evolution.


lewrockwell--2020-12-02--Solar Astronomers Can Now Predict Future Sunspots

Astronomers have learned that the Sun can be studied using sound waves .
( Excerpt ) – The surface of the Sun is a turbulent dance of gravity , plasma , and magnetic fields .
Much like the weather on Earth , its behavior can seem unpredictable , but there are patterns to be found when you look closely .
You are my Sunshine Ne ... Buy New $ 18.00 The first pattern to be observed on the solar surface was that of sunspots .
Sunspots were noticed by a few ancient astronomers , but they have been regularly studied @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the number of spots seen each year , they found the Sun goes through active years and quiet years .
There is an 11-year cycle of high and low sunspot counts .
There are other cycles as well , such as the Gleisberg Cycle , which lasts 80 – 90 years .
These patterns are similar to the tornado seasons of the American Midwest , or the El Niño/La Niña cycles of the Pacific .
These large patterns have a regularity that makes them easy to anticipate .
But while predicting sunspot cycles @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of an individual sunspot is not .

Astronomers have learned that the Sun can be studied using sound waves.
(Excerpt) – The surface of the Sun is a turbulent dance of gravity, plasma, and magnetic fields. Much like the weather on Earth, its behavior can seem unpredictable, but there are patterns to be found when you look closely.
You are my Sunshine Ne... Buy New $18.00 (as of 05:01 UTC - Details) The first pattern to be observed on the solar surface was that of sunspots. Sunspots were noticed by a few ancient astronomers, but they have been regularly studied since the 1600s. As astronomers counted the number of spots seen each year, they found the Sun goes through active years and quiet years. There is an 11-year cycle of high and low sunspot counts. There are other cycles as well, such as the Gleisberg Cycle, which lasts 80 – 90 years.
These patterns are similar to the tornado seasons of the American Midwest, or the El Niño/La Niña cycles of the Pacific. These large patterns have a regularity that makes them easy to anticipate. But while predicting sunspot cycles is relatively easy, predicting the appearance of an individual sunspot is not.
Read the Whole Article


lewrockwell--2020-12-02--The Lion and the Lamb

The Lion and the Lamb

This post is prompted by Paul VanderKlay ’ s short video response to the conversation between Rod Dreher and Jonathan Pageau .
Revelation 5 : 4 And I wept much , because no man was found worthy to open and to read the book , neither to look thereon .
5 And one of the elders saith unto me , Weep not : behold , the Lion of the tribe of Judah , the Root of David , hath prevailed to open the book , and to loose the seven seals thereof .
6 And I beheld , and , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ throne and of the four beasts , and in the midst of the elders , stood a Lamb as it had been slain , having seven horns and seven eyes , which are the seven Spirits of God sent forth into all the earth .
We know Jesus is the slain lamb .
What of this Lion of the tribe of Judah ?
Lion and Lamb Heart Ch ... Buy New $ 10.99 Genesis 49 : 8 Judah , thou art he whom thy brethren shall praise : thy hand shall be in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ father ’ s children shall bow down before thee .
9 Judah is a lion ’ s whelp : from the prey , my son , thou art gone up : he stooped down , he couched as a lion , and as an old lion ; who shall rouse him up ?
10 The sceptre shall not depart from Judah , nor a lawgiver from between his feet , until Shiloh come ; and unto him shall the gathering of the people be .
Both Matthew and Luke trace Jesus ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , we have both the lion and the lamb .
How can this be ?
GK Chesterton describes one of the many paradoxes of Christianity in his book Orthodoxy , where Christianity is blamed both for not fighting ( the lamb ) and for fighting ( the lion ) : It was the fault of poor old Christianity ( somehow or other ) both that Edward the Confessor did not fight and that Richard Coeur de Leon did .
He then makes reference to the lion and the lamb : It is constantly @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , that when the lion lies down with the lamb the lion becomes lamb-like .
To be clear , while we commonly picture the lion and the lamb lying together , I don ’ t believe the Biblical sources put it exactly this way .
Isaiah 11 : 6 The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb , and the leopard shall lie down with the kid ; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together ; and a little child shall lead them .
So , the lion and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ same scene .
Continuing with Chesterton , and this image of the lion becoming lamb-like : But that is brutal annexation and imperialism on the part of the lamb .
That is simply the lamb absorbing the lion instead of the lion eating the lamb .
Is this the point – for the lamb to now consume the lion ?
Chesterton thinks not : The real problem is—Can the lion lie down with the lamb and still retain his royal ferocity ?
THAT is the problem the Church attempted ; THAT is the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to a time where Christianity is being moved to the fringe of the society .
The center is being filled by something else .
Christianity has been at the center in the West , losing ground with the Enlightenment , and finally giving way in the First World War .
It has been living on fumes since then .
While Christianity was at the center , there was at least the objective of love , which left room at the margins .
Everything of love and respect to all in society can be @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Sure , never perfect , never progressing fast enough , but undeniably so .
Something other than Christian love is moving to the center .
It is hate ; there is no doubt about this .
I am troubled by this direction , as many are ; the monologue by VanderKlay troubled me more .
For example , VanderKlay offers : Don ’ t despair about being moved to the margin .
Christ didn ’ t belong there either , yet Christ always wins .
I know Christ always wins .
Christ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ t prevent Him from despair : Macrame plant hanger-c ... Buy New $ 44.00 Matthew 26 : 38 Then saith he unto them , My soul is exceeding sorrowful , even unto death : tarry ye here , and watch with me .
39 And he went a little farther , and fell on his face , and prayed , saying , O my Father , if it be possible , let this cup pass from me : nevertheless not as I will , but as thou wilt .
I have often @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Christianity over the centuries , under attack in Europe by the Vikings , the Huns , the Muslims .
For this , I consider Chesterton ’ s comments above : in Christianity ( and in Christ ) we find both a lion who retains his ferocity and a lamb who is ready to be sacrificed .
Where would Christianity be without a few lions : Charles Martel , King Otto I the Great , or King John III Sobieski ?
Charles Martel led the Frankish forces at the Battle of Tours on 10 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ stopping what had been to that point a continuous string of Muslim victories in Europe .
Had Charles fallen , many believe Europe would have been lost , for example : The first wave of real “ modern ” historians , especially scholars on Rome and the medieval period , such as Edward Gibbon , contended that had Charles fallen , the Umayyad Caliphate would have easily conquered a divided Europe .
Gibbon was echoed a century later by the Belgian historian Godefroid Kurth , who wrote that the Battle of Poitiers “ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ events in the history of the world , as upon its issue depended whether Christian Civilization should continue or Islam prevail throughout Europe.
” German historians were especially ardent in their praise of Charles Martel ; Schlegel speaks of this “ mighty victory ” , and tells how “ the arm of Charles Martel saved and delivered the Christian nations of the West from the deadly grasp of all-destroying Islam.
” Next , King Otto I and the Battle of Lechfeld , in August 955 .
By this point , Europe had suffered @ @ @ @ @ @ @ The Battle of Lechfeld was a series of military engagements over the course of three days from 10–12 August 955 in which the German forces of King Otto I the Great annihilated a Hungarian army led by harka Bulcsú and the chieftains Lél and Súr .
With this German victory , further invasions by the Magyars into Latin Europe were ended .
Finally , King John III Sobieski .
He led the Christian forces in the Battle of Vienna in September 1683 .
The Ottoman Empire had been making advances into Europe and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to Vienna as a valuable prize .
The king of Poland , John III Sobieski , prepared a relief expedition to Vienna during the summer of 1683 , so honoring his obligations to the treaty ( he left his own nation virtually undefended when departing from Kraków on 15 August ) .
The European forces would be victorious , ultimately bringing an end to any further threat from the Ottomans : The Ottomans fought on for another 16 years , losing control of Hungary and Transylvania in the process before finally desisting .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ of Karlowitz with the Ottoman Empire in 1699 .
The battle marked the historic end of Ottoman imperial expansion into Europe .
A set of 2 18 ” F ... Buy New $ 118.00 As Chesterton offers , the lion does not lose its ferocity .
The miracle is that he knows when his ferocity must be held back and when it must be brought forth .
Sure , we know “ Christ always wins , ” as VanderKlay offered .
What if Christ “ won ” in those times through Christians such @ @ @ @ @ @ @ about the necessity of leaving room at the margin .
Christianity has done this , perhaps better than any other religion known on earth .
Christians do not fight wars against those who live on the margins of society : grain is left in the field for the poor ; advice and counsel , not stoning , is offered to the adulteress ; dinner is accepted with the tax collector .
VanderKlay suggests not to despair about being pushed to the margin .
I might not despair , if I knew that room @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Pageau also offers that the system which we are being driven toward does not offer anyone survival at the margins .
It is an attempt to form a totalizing system , a system of total inclusivity .
The only people to be excluded are those who do not accept total inclusivity .
Pageau considers that the mark of the beast is near .
I know Christ wins .
It doesn ’ t mean I have to like what is happening around me today ; Christ certainly wasn ’ t looking forward to the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
There is no doubt that it takes more courage to go out like a lamb ( who could be a lion if he chooses ) , than out like a lion ( who is counseled to be like a lamb ) .
I doubt I will have enough courage to go out like that type of lamb .
The Best of Bionic Mosquito

This post is prompted by Paul VanderKlay’s short video response to the conversation between Rod Dreher and Jonathan Pageau.
————————————————-
Revelation 5: 4 And I wept much, because no man was found worthy to open and to read the book, neither to look thereon.
5 And one of the elders saith unto me, Weep not: behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, hath prevailed to open the book, and to loose the seven seals thereof.
6 And I beheld, and, lo, in the midst of the throne and of the four beasts, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent forth into all the earth.
We know Jesus is the slain lamb. What of this Lion of the tribe of Judah? Lion and Lamb Heart Ch... Buy New $11.99 (as of 05:01 UTC - Details)
Genesis 49: 8 Judah, thou art he whom thy brethren shall praise: thy hand shall be in the neck of thine enemies; thy father’s children shall bow down before thee.
9 Judah is a lion’s whelp: from the prey, my son, thou art gone up: he stooped down, he couched as a lion, and as an old lion; who shall rouse him up?
10 The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto him shall the gathering of the people be.
Both Matthew and Luke trace Jesus’s genealogy through Judah. In one being, we have both the lion and the lamb. How can this be? GK Chesterton describes one of the many paradoxes of Christianity in his book Orthodoxy, where Christianity is blamed both for not fighting (the lamb) and for fighting (the lion):
It was the fault of poor old Christianity (somehow or other) both that Edward the Confessor did not fight and that Richard Coeur de Leon did.
He then makes reference to the lion and the lamb:
It is constantly assured, especially in our Tolstoyan tendencies, that when the lion lies down with the lamb the lion becomes lamb-like.
To be clear, while we commonly picture the lion and the lamb lying together, I don’t believe the Biblical sources put it exactly this way.
Isaiah 11: 6 The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them.
So, the lion and the lamb are at least in the same scene. Continuing with Chesterton, and this image of the lion becoming lamb-like:
But that is brutal annexation and imperialism on the part of the lamb. That is simply the lamb absorbing the lion instead of the lion eating the lamb.
Is this the point – for the lamb to now consume the lion? Chesterton thinks not:
The real problem is—Can the lion lie down with the lamb and still retain his royal ferocity? THAT is the problem the Church attempted; THAT is the miracle she achieved.
Jesus achieved that miracle.
We are coming to a time where Christianity is being moved to the fringe of the society. The center is being filled by something else. Christianity has been at the center in the West, losing ground with the Enlightenment, and finally giving way in the First World War. It has been living on fumes since then.
While Christianity was at the center, there was at least the objective of love, which left room at the margins. Everything of love and respect to all in society can be found in Christianity and only in Christianity. Sure, never perfect, never progressing fast enough, but undeniably so.
Something other than Christian love is moving to the center. It is hate; there is no doubt about this.
I am troubled by this direction, as many are; the monologue by VanderKlay troubled me more. For example, VanderKlay offers:
Don’t despair about being moved to the margin. Christ didn’t belong there either, yet Christ always wins.
I know Christ always wins. Christ knew this also. Yet it didn’t prevent Him from despair: Macrame plant hanger-c... Buy New $44.00 (as of 05:01 UTC - Details)
Matthew 26: 38 Then saith he unto them, My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death: tarry ye here, and watch with me.
39 And he went a little farther, and fell on his face, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt.
I have often found myself wondering about the survival of Christianity over the centuries, under attack in Europe by the Vikings, the Huns, the Muslims. For this, I consider Chesterton’s comments above: in Christianity (and in Christ) we find both a lion who retains his ferocity and a lamb who is ready to be sacrificed.
Where would Christianity be without a few lions: Charles Martel, King Otto I the Great, or King John III Sobieski?
Charles Martel led the Frankish forces at the Battle of Tours on 10 October 732. Charles was victorious, stopping what had been to that point a continuous string of Muslim victories in Europe. Had Charles fallen, many believe Europe would have been lost, for example:
The first wave of real “modern” historians, especially scholars on Rome and the medieval period, such as Edward Gibbon, contended that had Charles fallen, the Umayyad Caliphate would have easily conquered a divided Europe.
Gibbon was echoed a century later by the Belgian historian Godefroid Kurth, who wrote that the Battle of Poitiers “must ever remain one of the great events in the history of the world, as upon its issue depended whether Christian Civilization should continue or Islam prevail throughout Europe.”
German historians were especially ardent in their praise of Charles Martel; Schlegel speaks of this “mighty victory”, and tells how “the arm of Charles Martel saved and delivered the Christian nations of the West from the deadly grasp of all-destroying Islam.”
Next, King Otto I and the Battle of Lechfeld, in August 955. By this point, Europe had suffered perhaps 150 years of Hungarian invasions:
The Battle of Lechfeld was a series of military engagements over the course of three days from 10–12 August 955 in which the German forces of King Otto I the Great annihilated a Hungarian army led by harka Bulcsú and the chieftains Lél and Súr. With this German victory, further invasions by the Magyars into Latin Europe were ended.
Finally, King John III Sobieski. He led the Christian forces in the Battle of Vienna in September 1683. The Ottoman Empire had been making advances into Europe and conquering much of southeastern Europe, looking to Vienna as a valuable prize.
The king of Poland, John III Sobieski, prepared a relief expedition to Vienna during the summer of 1683, so honoring his obligations to the treaty (he left his own nation virtually undefended when departing from Kraków on 15 August).
The European forces would be victorious, ultimately bringing an end to any further threat from the Ottomans:
The Ottomans fought on for another 16 years, losing control of Hungary and Transylvania in the process before finally desisting. The Holy Roman Empire signed the Treaty of Karlowitz with the Ottoman Empire in 1699. The battle marked the historic end of Ottoman imperial expansion into Europe.
A set of 2 18” F... Check Amazon for Pricing. As Chesterton offers, the lion does not lose its ferocity. The miracle is that he knows when his ferocity must be held back and when it must be brought forth. Sure, we know “Christ always wins,” as VanderKlay offered. What if Christ “won” in those times through Christians such as these?
Conclusion
Jonathan Pageau often speaks about the necessity of leaving room at the margin. Christianity has done this, perhaps better than any other religion known on earth. Christians do not fight wars against those who live on the margins of society: grain is left in the field for the poor; advice and counsel, not stoning, is offered to the adulteress; dinner is accepted with the tax collector.
VanderKlay suggests not to despair about being pushed to the margin. I might not despair, if I knew that room would be left for me there. Pageau also offers that the system which we are being driven toward does not offer anyone survival at the margins. It is an attempt to form a totalizing system, a system of total inclusivity. The only people to be excluded are those who do not accept total inclusivity. Pageau considers that the mark of the beast is near.
I know Christ wins. It doesn’t mean I have to like what is happening around me today; Christ certainly wasn’t looking forward to the experience of being sacrificed like a lamb.
There is no doubt that it takes more courage to go out like a lamb (who could be a lion if he chooses), than out like a lion (who is counseled to be like a lamb).
I doubt I will have enough courage to go out like that type of lamb.
Reprinted with permission from Bionic Mosquito.
The Best of Bionic Mosquito


lewrockwell--2020-12-02--Israel’s Gift to Joe Biden, Days Before He Even Takes Office: War With Iran

The assassination of Tehran ’ s top nuclear scientist is a ploy by Israel to compel the likely US president-elect to reject diplomacy and choose military action to deal with Iran ’ s nuclear ambition .
Which option will he choose ?
Mohsen Fakhrizadeh was the shadowy father of Iran ’ s nuclear program ; his existence , let alone his work , was barely acknowledged by Iran .
A brigadier general with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Command , Fakhrizadeh was involved in the academic aspects of Iranian national security , eventually heading up the Physics Research Center , where @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in support of Iran ’ s uranium enrichment effort .
In April 2018 , Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu named Fakhrizadeh as the head of a covert military dimension to Iran ’ s nuclear program , something Iran has vociferously denied .
On Friday , November 28 , 2020 , the 62-year-old scientist was assassinated just outside the Iranian capital of Tehran .
While no one has taken credit for his murder , Iran has placed the blame for his death squarely on Israel .
Dog Leash Hook Pet Han ... Buy New @ @ @ @ @ @ @ death , Fakhrizadeh was the head of the Research and Innovation Organization ( RIO ) , part of the Iranian Defense Ministry .
A June 2020 report on nonproliferation published by the US Department of State alleged that Fakhrizadeh used the RIO “ to keep former weapons program scientists employed … on [ nuclear ] weaponization-relevant dual-use technical activities … to aid in any future nuclear weapons development work in the event that a decision were made to resume such work.
” This belief , when combined with Iran ’ s decision to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ landmark 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action ( JCPOA , better known as the Iran nuclear agreement ) regarding the stockpiling of low-enriched uranium and the use of advanced centrifuges to enrich uranium , had the de facto effect of signing Fakhrizadeh ’ s death warrant .
The JCPOA-imposed restrictions were designed with a one-year ‘ breakout ’ scenario in mind – in short , the time it would take Iran to produce enough highly enriched uranium to create a single nuclear device once the decision was made to cease adhering to restrictions @ @ @ @ @ @ @ it could operate , the level of enrichment permitted , and the amount of low-enriched uranium allowed to be stockpiled .
In May 2019 – one year after President Donald Trump withdrew the US from the JCPOA – Iran began pulling back from its commitments under the agreement , citing its right to do so under Articles 26 and 36 of the deal , which allow a party to the agreement to cease its obligations if another party is found to be in noncompliance ; Iran maintains that the failure of Europe to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the JCPOA constituted demonstrable noncompliance .
The end result is that today the ‘ breakout ’ period has shrunk to a few weeks .
For the Trump administration , Iran ’ s noncompliance with the JCPOA had placed it in a quandary ; the policy of sanctions-based ‘ maximum pressure ’ which had been instituted since 2018 was clearly not working when it came to the goal of compelling Iran to return to the negotiation table and hammer out a new , more restrictive nuclear deal .
Having gone on record regarding its @ @ @ @ @ @ @ nuclear weapons ambitions , the Trump administration was confronted with the reality that it had , according to its own beliefs , empowered Iran to produce a nuclear weapon in a time frame that posed a direct threat to the US and its regional allies , in particular Israel and Saudi Arabia .
This concern was behind recent press reports that President Trump was considering military options against Iran ’ s nuclear program .
For Israel , the issues are even more acute ; whereas Iran ’ s potential acquisition of a nuclear @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for the US , for Israel an Iranian nuclear weapon would represent an existential threat .
For this reason , Israel has historically pulled few punches when it comes to confronting even the possibility of an Iranian nuclear weapons capability .
Metal Sign - Keep Gate ... Buy New $ 16.99 While much of the intelligence underpinning the US and Israeli assessments regarding the existence of a nuclear weapons program are derived from sources of questionable provenance and are not conclusive , Israel has taken an absolutist posture ; it ’ s given @ @ @ @ @ @ @ consigned to the bottom drawer .
In its effort to win support for this position , Israel has exaggerated – even fabricated – intelligence on Iran , undermining its credibility to such an extent that , when Israel reported that its intelligence stole a nuclear archive from Iran in early 2018 , the veracity of this claim was called into question after documents previously held to have been forged were claimed to be part of the document trove .
Israel ’ s actions against Iran ’ s nuclear program have been anything but @ @ @ @ @ @ @ with US intelligence to launch a cyberattack using the Stuxnet virus to infect Iranian centrifuge operations at Natanz .
This was followed by a program of targeted assassinations which killed four Iranian nuclear scientists between 2010-2012 ( a fifth attack narrowly missed killing the head of the Iranian Atomic Energy Organization ) .
Israeli intelligence is also said to be behind a series of mysterious explosions at Iranian nuclear-related facilities earlier this year which caused significant damage and disruption to Iran ’ s centrifuge program .
While Israel has not taken responsibility for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ murder can logically be viewed as a continuation of Israel ’ s efforts to degrade Iran ’ s nuclear capabilities .
Joe Biden is no stranger to the active measures taken by Israel in this regard .
As vice president , he sat in on critical meetings regarding the deployment of the Stuxnet virus .
He was fully cognizant of the pressure being placed on President Obama regarding military action against Iran , and understood the role played by the assassination of Iranian nuclear scientists in ratcheting this pressure up .
Jake Sullivan @ @ @ @ @ @ @ national security advisor while he was vice president , played a critical role in the early negotiations with Iran that made the JCPOA possible .
Biden knew full well that the JCPOA was a diplomatic off-ramp for a policy path that otherwise would have led to war .
Biden is intimately familiar with the calculations behind the ‘ breakout ’ timelines , and the decision that was made to de-emphasize the concern over Iran ’ s alleged military interest in nuclear weapons .
The assassination of Fakhrizadeh is a calculated act on the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ no real impact on Iran ’ s nuclear activities – a new generation of Iranian scientists has long since been educated , trained and employed in a program that is far more advanced and mature than the one Fakhrizadeh started more than 20 years ago .
Psychologically , however , his murder – carried out in broad daylight in the heart of Iran – has dealt a psychological blow to Tehran ’ s leadership , once again proving that the long arm of Israeli intelligence can get to just about anyone .
DHK @ @ @ @ @ @ @ $ 62.99 But its most critical impact is the effect it will have on the national security team surrounding presumed President-elect Joe Biden .
Biden and his team have been paying lip service to the notion of rejoining the JCPOA .
However , the preconditions they have attached to such an action – Iran would have to return to full compliance first , and commit to immediate follow-on negotiations on a deal that would be more restrictive – were widely seen as a deal-breaker .
The fact is , many of Biden ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ State-designee Antony Blinken and National Security Advisor-designee Jake Sullivan – have indicated that Biden may have no choice but to continue the Trump policy of sanctions-based ‘ maximum pressure ’ .
For Israel , such a policy – while an improvement over rejoining the JCPOA – is not acceptable .
From its perspective , ‘ maximum pressure ’ has not only failed to compel Iran to the negotiation table , but has also positioned Iran to be on the cusp of developing a nuclear weapons capability .
The assassination of Fakhrizadeh serves two @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the resolve of Iran when it comes to any potential flexibility it might have been prepared to have with Biden regarding a resolution to the nuclear standoff , with Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei directing Iranian scientists “ [ t ] o follow up Martyr Fakhrizadeh ’ s scientific and technical activities in all fields in which he was active.
” The idea that Iran would seek to compromise with the US in the aftermath of Fakhrizadeh ’ s murder is , to put it bluntly , absurd .
But the most important @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to create a fait accompli when it comes to policy options being considered by a future Biden administration .
Rejoining the JCPOA is likely a non-starter – Iran will never agree to the many preconditions sought by Biden and his advisers .
Likewise , continuing Trump ’ s program of ‘ maximum pressure ’ is not a politically viable option , given the advanced state of the Iranian nuclear program and the impact this has on the all-important ‘ breakout window ’ that underpinned , from the US perspective , the legitimacy of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ confronted by the Trump administration regarding the possibility of US forces attacking Iran ’ s nuclear infrastructure will be confronted by President Biden on his first day in office .
By killing Fakhrizadeh , Israel is doing its best to ensure that , for Biden , that military action is the only viable option available .

The assassination of Tehran’s top nuclear scientist is a ploy by Israel to compel the likely US president-elect to reject diplomacy and choose military action to deal with Iran’s nuclear ambition. Which option will he choose?
Mohsen Fakhrizadeh was the shadowy father of Iran’s nuclear program; his existence, let alone his work, was barely acknowledged by Iran. A brigadier general with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Command, Fakhrizadeh was involved in the academic aspects of Iranian national security, eventually heading up the Physics Research Center, where he masterminded the design and material acquisition in support of Iran’s uranium enrichment effort.
In April 2018, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu named Fakhrizadeh as the head of a covert military dimension to Iran’s nuclear program, something Iran has vociferously denied. On Friday, November 28, 2020, the 62-year-old scientist was assassinated just outside the Iranian capital of Tehran. While no one has taken credit for his murder, Iran has placed the blame for his death squarely on Israel. Dog Leash Hook Pet Han... Check Amazon for Pricing.
At the time of his death, Fakhrizadeh was the head of the Research and Innovation Organization (RIO), part of the Iranian Defense Ministry. A June 2020 report on nonproliferation published by the US Department of State alleged that Fakhrizadeh used the RIO “to keep former weapons program scientists employed … on [nuclear] weaponization-relevant dual-use technical activities … to aid in any future nuclear weapons development work in the event that a decision were made to resume such work.”
This belief, when combined with Iran’s decision to cease abiding by the provisions of the landmark 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA, better known as the Iran nuclear agreement) regarding the stockpiling of low-enriched uranium and the use of advanced centrifuges to enrich uranium, had the de facto effect of signing Fakhrizadeh’s death warrant.
The JCPOA-imposed restrictions were designed with a one-year ‘breakout’ scenario in mind – in short, the time it would take Iran to produce enough highly enriched uranium to create a single nuclear device once the decision was made to cease adhering to restrictions on the numbers and types of centrifuges it could operate, the level of enrichment permitted, and the amount of low-enriched uranium allowed to be stockpiled.
In May 2019 – one year after President Donald Trump withdrew the US from the JCPOA – Iran began pulling back from its commitments under the agreement, citing its right to do so under Articles 26 and 36 of the deal, which allow a party to the agreement to cease its obligations if another party is found to be in noncompliance; Iran maintains that the failure of Europe to live up to its economic commitments under the JCPOA constituted demonstrable noncompliance. The end result is that today the ‘breakout’ period has shrunk to a few weeks.
For the Trump administration, Iran’s noncompliance with the JCPOA had placed it in a quandary; the policy of sanctions-based ‘maximum pressure’ which had been instituted since 2018 was clearly not working when it came to the goal of compelling Iran to return to the negotiation table and hammer out a new, more restrictive nuclear deal.
Having gone on record regarding its belief that Iran continued to maintain covert nuclear weapons ambitions, the Trump administration was confronted with the reality that it had, according to its own beliefs, empowered Iran to produce a nuclear weapon in a time frame that posed a direct threat to the US and its regional allies, in particular Israel and Saudi Arabia. This concern was behind recent press reports that President Trump was considering military options against Iran’s nuclear program.
For Israel, the issues are even more acute; whereas Iran’s potential acquisition of a nuclear weapons capability would pose a policy conundrum for the US, for Israel an Iranian nuclear weapon would represent an existential threat. For this reason, Israel has historically pulled few punches when it comes to confronting even the possibility of an Iranian nuclear weapons capability. Dog Decor - Keep Gate ... Buy New $11.99 (as of 01:13 UTC - Details)
While much of the intelligence underpinning the US and Israeli assessments regarding the existence of a nuclear weapons program are derived from sources of questionable provenance and are not conclusive, Israel has taken an absolutist posture; it’s given credence to sources that otherwise might be consigned to the bottom drawer.
In its effort to win support for this position, Israel has exaggerated – even fabricated – intelligence on Iran, undermining its credibility to such an extent that, when Israel reported that its intelligence stole a nuclear archive from Iran in early 2018, the veracity of this claim was called into question after documents previously held to have been forged were claimed to be part of the document trove.
Israel’s actions against Iran’s nuclear program have been anything but passive; in 2009-2010, Israel worked with US intelligence to launch a cyberattack using the Stuxnet virus to infect Iranian centrifuge operations at Natanz. This was followed by a program of targeted assassinations which killed four Iranian nuclear scientists between 2010-2012 (a fifth attack narrowly missed killing the head of the Iranian Atomic Energy Organization).
Israeli intelligence is also said to be behind a series of mysterious explosions at Iranian nuclear-related facilities earlier this year which caused significant damage and disruption to Iran’s centrifuge program. While Israel has not taken responsibility for the assassination of Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, his murder can logically be viewed as a continuation of Israel’s efforts to degrade Iran’s nuclear capabilities.
Joe Biden is no stranger to the active measures taken by Israel in this regard. As vice president, he sat in on critical meetings regarding the deployment of the Stuxnet virus. He was fully cognizant of the pressure being placed on President Obama regarding military action against Iran, and understood the role played by the assassination of Iranian nuclear scientists in ratcheting this pressure up.
Jake Sullivan, who served as Biden’s national security advisor while he was vice president, played a critical role in the early negotiations with Iran that made the JCPOA possible. Biden knew full well that the JCPOA was a diplomatic off-ramp for a policy path that otherwise would have led to war. Biden is intimately familiar with the calculations behind the ‘breakout’ timelines, and the decision that was made to de-emphasize the concern over Iran’s alleged military interest in nuclear weapons.
The assassination of Fakhrizadeh is a calculated act on the part of Israel. His death has no real impact on Iran’s nuclear activities – a new generation of Iranian scientists has long since been educated, trained and employed in a program that is far more advanced and mature than the one Fakhrizadeh started more than 20 years ago. Psychologically, however, his murder – carried out in broad daylight in the heart of Iran – has dealt a psychological blow to Tehran’s leadership, once again proving that the long arm of Israeli intelligence can get to just about anyone. Cuero DHK 16 Inch Vint... Best Price: $55.94 Buy New $63.99 (as of 05:01 UTC - Details)
But its most critical impact is the effect it will have on the national security team surrounding presumed President-elect Joe Biden. Biden and his team have been paying lip service to the notion of rejoining the JCPOA. However, the preconditions they have attached to such an action – Iran would have to return to full compliance first, and commit to immediate follow-on negotiations on a deal that would be more restrictive – were widely seen as a deal-breaker. The fact is, many of Biden’s closest advisers – including Secretary of State-designee Antony Blinken and National Security Advisor-designee Jake Sullivan – have indicated that Biden may have no choice but to continue the Trump policy of sanctions-based ‘maximum pressure’.
For Israel, such a policy – while an improvement over rejoining the JCPOA – is not acceptable. From its perspective, ‘maximum pressure’ has not only failed to compel Iran to the negotiation table, but has also positioned Iran to be on the cusp of developing a nuclear weapons capability.
The assassination of Fakhrizadeh serves two main purposes. First, it hardens the resolve of Iran when it comes to any potential flexibility it might have been prepared to have with Biden regarding a resolution to the nuclear standoff, with Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei directing Iranian scientists “[t]o follow up Martyr Fakhrizadeh’s scientific and technical activities in all fields in which he was active.” The idea that Iran would seek to compromise with the US in the aftermath of Fakhrizadeh’s murder is, to put it bluntly, absurd.
But the most important purpose behind the killing of Fakhrizadeh is to create a fait accompli when it comes to policy options being considered by a future Biden administration. Rejoining the JCPOA is likely a non-starter – Iran will never agree to the many preconditions sought by Biden and his advisers.
Likewise, continuing Trump’s program of ‘maximum pressure’ is not a politically viable option, given the advanced state of the Iranian nuclear program and the impact this has on the all-important ‘breakout window’ that underpinned, from the US perspective, the legitimacy of the JCPOA. The same contingencies being confronted by the Trump administration regarding the possibility of US forces attacking Iran’s nuclear infrastructure will be confronted by President Biden on his first day in office. By killing Fakhrizadeh, Israel is doing its best to ensure that, for Biden, that military action is the only viable option available.
This originally appeared on Common Dreams.


lewrockwell--2020-12-02--2021 Is Already Optimized for Failure

2021 Is Already Optimized for Failure

One sure way to identify a system “ optimized for failure ” is if all the insiders are absolutely confident the system is “ optimized for my success ” .
I often discuss optimization here because it offers an insightful window into how systems become fragile and break down .
When we optimize something , we ’ re aiming to get the most bang for our buck : maximize our efficiency , profit , productivity , etc.
, while minimizing our costs .
To maximize our goal , whatever it is–profits , power , whatever– we strip away redundancy and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ t boost our desired output .
They create resilience , i.e .
the ability to survive disruptions , but the logic of optimization is relentless : get rid of all extraneous costs , because resilience doesn ’ t boost the bottom line .
This trade-off–trading resilience for optimization–looks brilliant when everything goes according to plan .
But when events veer outside the narrow parameters of the optimized system , the system breaks down : supply chains break , safety procedures fail , and so on .
MarqART Wood Art Boat ... Buy @ @ @ @ @ @ @ optimization strips away anti-fragility , Nassim Taleb ’ s term for the ability to not just survive disruptions but emerge stronger and more adaptable .
What happens when inflexible , sclerotic systems optimized to benefit self-serving insiders encounter chaotic turbulence or conditions outside the expected parameters ?
They collapse because the system is optimized for failure .
Put another way : when a system is optimized to benefit insiders at the expense of resilience and anti-fragility , it is effectively optimized to fail because life is not programmable to a steady-state , predictable @ @ @ @ @ @ @ failure in key ways : 1 .
The mRNA vaccines have not been properly tested to answer essential questions such as : can a vaccinated individual retain enough of the virus to infect an unvaccinated individual ?
As I explained before , the only way to really test a viral vaccine is to put the vaccinated volunteers in a controlled setting saturated with the virus for many hours .
If none of the volunteers have any virus in their post-exposure serological tests , then the vaccine works .
If the volunteers still have @ @ @ @ @ @ @ severely ill , this doesn ’ t mean they can ’ t infect others .
One of the problems is the goal of the Covid vaccine trials wasn ’ t to determine if the virus was eliminated by the volunteers ’ immune system ; the goal of the trials was to determine whether the vaccinated individuals became severely ill with Covid or not–with “ severely ill ” being conveniently left undefined .
Individuals who ’ d already had Covid and who took the vaccine were not tested separately for safety and after-effects , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ unanswered questions about the vaccines ’ real-world results will be answered in due time , but not in the lab ; they ’ ll be answered in a public-health “ experiment ” without precedent .
If you wanted to design a testing process that was optimized for failure , you ’ d end up with this haphazard , hurried process careening toward approval .
The trials and testing of the Covid vaccines are not equivalent to those applied to previous generations of vaccines .
COLDFIRE Tactical Carb ... Buy New $ 189.00 The @ @ @ @ @ @ @ sell , the greater the number of red flags raised .
If a product works as wonderfully as advertised , it will sell itself .
If “ consumers ” have to be coerced into buying the product , that speaks volumes–whether we ’ re free to discuss it or not .
2 .
The fiscal-monetary “ solution ” being readied for 2021–print/borrow as many trillions as needed to prop up zombie corporations and obsolete institutions–is optimized for failure .
The unstated goal here is to save everything that ’ s been rigged to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ consequences : we ’ ve “ proven ” we can print infinite trillions with no ill effects .
This appears to be true until diminishing returns hit the wall and linear dynamics suddenly spin into non-linear semi-chaos .
At that point , all the levers that we reckoned were god-like in their stability and power–the Treasury selling bonds which the Federal Reserve then buys , and all the other financial tricks and manipulations–no longer work as expected .
The Best of Charles Hugh Smith

One sure way to identify a system “optimized for failure” is if all the insiders are absolutely confident the system is “optimized for my success”.
I often discuss optimization here because it offers an insightful window into how systems become fragile and break down. When we optimize something, we’re aiming to get the most bang for our buck: maximize our efficiency, profit, productivity, etc., while minimizing our costs.
To maximize our goal, whatever it is–profits, power, whatever– we strip away redundancy and buffers because these add costs and don’t boost our desired output. They create resilience, i.e. the ability to survive disruptions, but the logic of optimization is relentless: get rid of all extraneous costs, because resilience doesn’t boost the bottom line.
This trade-off–trading resilience for optimization–looks brilliant when everything goes according to plan. But when events veer outside the narrow parameters of the optimized system, the system breaks down: supply chains break, safety procedures fail, and so on. MarqArt Wood Art Boat ... Buy New $61.85 (as of 06:07 UTC - Details)
Even more consequentially, optimization strips away anti-fragility, Nassim Taleb’s term for the ability to not just survive disruptions but emerge stronger and more adaptable.
What happens when inflexible, sclerotic systems optimized to benefit self-serving insiders encounter chaotic turbulence or conditions outside the expected parameters? They collapse because the system is optimized for failure. Put another way: when a system is optimized to benefit insiders at the expense of resilience and anti-fragility, it is effectively optimized to fail because life is not programmable to a steady-state, predictable stability.
2021 is already optimized for failure in key ways:
1. The mRNA vaccines have not been properly tested to answer essential questions such as: can a vaccinated individual retain enough of the virus to infect an unvaccinated individual?
As I explained before, the only way to really test a viral vaccine is to put the vaccinated volunteers in a controlled setting saturated with the virus for many hours. If none of the volunteers have any virus in their post-exposure serological tests, then the vaccine works. If the volunteers still have the virus but didn’t become severely ill, this doesn’t mean they can’t infect others.
One of the problems is the goal of the Covid vaccine trials wasn’t to determine if the virus was eliminated by the volunteers’ immune system; the goal of the trials was to determine whether the vaccinated individuals became severely ill with Covid or not–with “severely ill” being conveniently left undefined.
Individuals who’d already had Covid and who took the vaccine were not tested separately for safety and after-effects, so this remains an unknown.
The unanswered questions about the vaccines’ real-world results will be answered in due time, but not in the lab; they’ll be answered in a public-health “experiment” without precedent.
If you wanted to design a testing process that was optimized for failure, you’d end up with this haphazard, hurried process careening toward approval. The trials and testing of the Covid vaccines are not equivalent to those applied to previous generations of vaccines. ColdFire Tactical Carb... Buy New $199.00 (as of 05:01 UTC - Details)
The bigger the claims and the harder the sell, the greater the number of red flags raised. If a product works as wonderfully as advertised, it will sell itself. If “consumers” have to be coerced into buying the product, that speaks volumes–whether we’re free to discuss it or not.
2. The fiscal-monetary “solution” being readied for 2021–print/borrow as many trillions as needed to prop up zombie corporations and obsolete institutions–is optimized for failure. The unstated goal here is to save everything that’s been rigged to benefit self-serving insiders and never mind the consequences: we’ve “proven” we can print infinite trillions with no ill effects.
This appears to be true until diminishing returns hit the wall and linear dynamics suddenly spin into non-linear semi-chaos. At that point, all the levers that we reckoned were god-like in their stability and power–the Treasury selling bonds which the Federal Reserve then buys, and all the other financial tricks and manipulations–no longer work as expected.
Read the Whole Article
The Best of Charles Hugh Smith


lewrockwell--2020-12-02--The Plan Is Unfolding for How Vaccines Will Be Monitored

Operation Warp Speed ( OWS ) , a joint operation between U.S. Health and Human Services ( HHS ) and the Department of Defense , continues to be shrouded in secrecy , but little by little information is emerging that long-term monitoring of the U.S. public is part of the plan .
At face value , OWS is a public-private partnership tasked with producing therapeutics and a fast-tracked COVID-19 vaccine1 — 300 million doses ’ worth that are intended to be made available starting in January 2021.2 But it appears the involvement doesn ’ t end there .
Rather than @ @ @ @ @ @ @ made available for those who want it , Moncef Slaoui , the chief scientific adviser for Operation Warp Speed , dubbed the coronavirus vaccine czar,3 said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal that the rollout will include “ incredibly precise … tracking systems.
” 4,5 Timberland PRO Men & rsq ... Buy New $ 105.89 Their purpose ?
“ To ensure that patients each get two doses of the same vaccine and to monitor them for adverse health effects.
” 6 In an interview with The New York Times , Slaoui @ @ @ @ @ @ @ pharmaco vigilance surveillance system.
” 7 What Will the Vaccine Monitoring System Entail ?
This is the No .
1 question , and one that hasn ’ t been answered , at least not officially .
“ While Slaoui himself was short on specifics regarding this ‘ pharmacovigilance surveillance system , ' ” news outlet Humans Are Free reported , “ the few official documents from OWS that have been publicly released offer some details about what this system may look like and how long it is expected to ‘ track ’ the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ receive a Warp Speed vaccine.
” 8 One of the documents , titled “ From the Factory to the Frontlines : The Operation Warp Speed Strategy for Distributing a COVID-19 Vaccine , ” was released by HHS.9 It also mentions the use of pharmacovigilance surveillance along with Phase 4 ( post-licensure ) clinical trials in order to assess the vaccines ’ long-term safety , since “ some technologies have limited previous data on safety in humans.
” 10 The report , which lays out a strategy for distributing a COVID-19 vaccine , from @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , continues:11 Similar language was reiterated in an October 2020 perspective article published in The New England Journal of Medicine ( NEJM ) , written by Slaoui and Dr. Matthew Hepburn.12 COSIDRAM Men Casual Sh ... Buy New $ 39.99 Hepburn is a former program manager for the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency ( DARPA ) , where he oversaw the development of ProfusA,13 an implantable biosensor that allows a person ’ s physiology to be examined at a distance via smartphone connectivity .
ProfusA is also backed by Google , the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Writing in NEJM , the duo writes , “ Because some technologies have limited previous data on safety in humans , the long-term safety of these vaccines will be carefully assessed using pharmacovigilance surveillance strategies.
” 14 Humans Are Free also references an OWS infographic,15 which details the COVID-19 vaccine distribution and administration process .
One of the four key tenets is “ traceability , ” which includes confirming which of the approved vaccines were administered regardless of location ( public or private ) , reminding recipients to return for a second @ @ @ @ @ @ @ dose is administered .
That word — pharmacovigilance — is used again , this time as a heading inferring that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will be involved in “ 24-month post trial monitoring for adverse effects/additional safety feature.
” Pharmacovigilance , also known as drug safety , generally refers to the collection , analysis , monitoring and prevention of adverse effects from medications and other therapies.16 Passive reporting systems for adverse events , like the Vaccines Adverse Event Reporting System , already @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and CDC .
However , a report released by Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health , Center for Health Security suggests that passive systems that rely on people to send in their experiences should be made into an “ active safety surveillance system directed by the CDC that monitors all vaccine recipients — perhaps by short message service or other electronic mechanisms — with criteria based on the World Health Organization Global Vaccine Safety Initiative.
” 17,18 Georgia Men ’ s G6 ... Buy New $ 134.99 What ’ s more , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Despite the claims in these documents that the ‘ pharmacovigilance surveillance system ’ would intimately involve the FDA , top FDA officials stated in September that they were barred from attending OWS meetings and told reporters they could not explain the operation ’ s organization or when or with what frequency its leadership meets.
” 19 STAT News further reported:20 Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health , Center for Health Security , by the way , has ties to Event 201 , a pandemic preparedness simulation for a “ novel coronavirus ” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ along with Dark Winter , another simulation that took place in June 2001 , which predicted major aspects of the subsequent 2001 anthrax attacks .
Hepburn also reportedly “ ruffled feathers ” during a June 2020 presentation to the CDC ’ s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices because he offered no data-rich slides , which are typically part of such presentations , and , STAT News reported , “ Several members asked Hepburn pointed questions he pointedly did not answer.
” 21 Google and Oracle , a multinational computer technology corporation headquartered in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Valley , have been contracted to “ collect and track vaccine data ” as part of OWS ’ surveillance systems,22 a partnership Slaoui reportedly revealed in his Wall Street Journal interview.23 According to Humans Are Free:24 Minnetonka Men ’ s ... Buy New $ 49.95 In an interview with investigative journalist Whitney Webb ( see Mercola hyperlink above under “ Dark Winter ” ) , it ’ s also revealed that Slaoui , a long-time head of GlaxoSmithKline ’ s vaccine division , is a leading proponent of bioelectronic medicine , which is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for the purpose of treating nerve conditions .
The MIT Technology review has referred to it as hacking the nervous system .
But it also allows you to monitor the physiology of the human body from the inside .
Slaoui is also invested in a company called Galvani Bioelectronics , which was cofounded by a Google subsidiary .
“ So , you have Google being contracted to monitor this pharmacovigilance surveillance system that aims to monitor the physiology and the human body for two years , ” Webb says .
“ And then @ @ @ @ @ @ @ project , ” she adds , “ which oddly enough is supposed to work inside the human body for 24 months — the exact window they ’ ve said will be used to monitor people after the first [ vaccine ] dose.
” The conflict of interest is massive , in part because Google owns YouTube , which has been banning our videos , a majority of which are interviews with health experts sharing their medical or scientific expertise and viewpoints on COVID-19 , since June 2020 .
As noted by Humans Are @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the New Normal ?
OWS , rather than being directed by public health officials , is heavily dominated by military , technology companies and U.S. intelligence agencies , likening it to a successor for Total Information Awareness ( TIA ) , a program managed by DARPA that sprang up after the 9/11 attacks .
At the time , TIA was seeking to collect Americans ’ medical records , fingerprints and other biometric data , along with DNA and records relating to personal finances , travel and media consumption.26 According to Webb ( again @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , “ Dark Winter ” ) : Thursday Boot Company ... Buy New $ 199.00 A key difference is that TIA was quickly defunded by Congress after significant public backlash , including concerns that TIA would undermine personal privacy .
In the case of OWS , there ’ s little negative press and media outlets are overwhelmingly supportive of the operation as a way to resolve the COVID-19 crisis .
But what if it ’ s not actually about COVID-19 at all , but represents something bigger , something that ’ s been @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Humans Are Free puts it:27 The Best of Joseph Mercola

Operation Warp Speed (OWS), a joint operation between U.S. Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Department of Defense, continues to be shrouded in secrecy, but little by little information is emerging that long-term monitoring of the U.S. public is part of the plan.
At face value, OWS is a public-private partnership tasked with producing therapeutics and a fast-tracked COVID-19 vaccine1 — 300 million doses’ worth that are intended to be made available starting in January 2021.2
But it appears the involvement doesn’t end there. Rather than just ensuring a vaccine is produced and made available for those who want it, Moncef Slaoui, the chief scientific adviser for Operation Warp Speed, dubbed the coronavirus vaccine czar,3 said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal that the rollout will include “incredibly precise … tracking systems.”4,5
Timberland PRO Men&rsq... Buy New $116.84 (as of 05:47 UTC - Details) Their purpose? “To ensure that patients each get two doses of the same vaccine and to monitor them for adverse health effects.”6 In an interview with The New York Times, Slaoui described it as a “very active pharmaco vigilance surveillance system.”7
What Will the Vaccine Monitoring System Entail?
This is the No. 1 question, and one that hasn’t been answered, at least not officially. “While Slaoui himself was short on specifics regarding this ‘pharmacovigilance surveillance system,'” news outlet Humans Are Free reported, “the few official documents from OWS that have been publicly released offer some details about what this system may look like and how long it is expected to ‘track’ the vital signs and whereabouts of Americans who receive a Warp Speed vaccine.”8
One of the documents, titled “From the Factory to the Frontlines: The Operation Warp Speed Strategy for Distributing a COVID-19 Vaccine,” was released by HHS.9 It also mentions the use of pharmacovigilance surveillance along with Phase 4 (post-licensure) clinical trials in order to assess the vaccines’ long-term safety, since “some technologies have limited previous data on safety in humans.”10
The report, which lays out a strategy for distributing a COVID-19 vaccine, from allocation and distribution to administration and more, continues:11
“The key objective of pharmacovigilance is to determine each vaccine’s performance in real-life scenarios, to study efficacy, and to discover any infrequent and rare side effects not identified in clinical trials. OWS will also use pharmacovigilance analytics, which serves as one of the instruments for the continuous monitoring of pharmacovigilance data.
Robust analytical tools will be used to leverage large amounts of data and the benefits of using such data across the value chain, including regulatory obligations. Pharmacovigilance provides timely information about the safety of each vaccine to patients, healthcare professionals, and the public, contributing to the protection of patients and the promotion of public health.”
Similar language was reiterated in an October 2020 perspective article published in The New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM), written by Slaoui and Dr. Matthew Hepburn.12
COSIDRAM Men Casual Sh... Buy New $42.99 (as of 06:07 UTC - Details) Hepburn is a former program manager for the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), where he oversaw the development of ProfusA,13 an implantable biosensor that allows a person’s physiology to be examined at a distance via smartphone connectivity. ProfusA is also backed by Google, the largest data mining company in the world.
Writing in NEJM, the duo writes, “Because some technologies have limited previous data on safety in humans, the long-term safety of these vaccines will be carefully assessed using pharmacovigilance surveillance strategies.”14
‘Traceability’ a Key Tenet of Operation Warp Speed
Humans Are Free also references an OWS infographic,15 which details the COVID-19 vaccine distribution and administration process. One of the four key tenets is “traceability,” which includes confirming which of the approved vaccines were administered regardless of location (public or private), reminding recipients to return for a second dose and ensuring that the correct second dose is administered.
That word — pharmacovigilance — is used again, this time as a heading inferring that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will be involved in “24-month post trial monitoring for adverse effects/additional safety feature.” Pharmacovigilance, also known as drug safety, generally refers to the collection, analysis, monitoring and prevention of adverse effects from medications and other therapies.16
Passive reporting systems for adverse events, like the Vaccines Adverse Event Reporting System, already exist and are managed by the FDA and CDC.
However, a report released by Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Center for Health Security suggests that passive systems that rely on people to send in their experiences should be made into an “active safety surveillance system directed by the CDC that monitors all vaccine recipients — perhaps by short message service or other electronic mechanisms — with criteria based on the World Health Organization Global Vaccine Safety Initiative.”17,18
Georgia Men’s 6&... Buy New $150.00 (as of 06:30 UTC - Details) What’s more, according to Humans Are Free, “Despite the claims in these documents that the ‘pharmacovigilance surveillance system’ would intimately involve the FDA, top FDA officials stated in September that they were barred from attending OWS meetings and told reporters they could not explain the operation’s organization or when or with what frequency its leadership meets.”19 STAT News further reported:20
“The Food and Drug Administration, which is playing a critical role in the response to the pandemic, has virtually no visibility into OWS — but that’s by design … The FDA has set up a firewall between the vast majority of staff and the initiative to separate any regulatory decisions from policy or budgetary decisions.
FDA officials are still allowed to interact with companies developing products for OWS, but they’re barred from sitting in on discussions regarding other focuses of OWS, like procurement, investment or distribution.”
Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Center for Health Security, by the way, has ties to Event 201, a pandemic preparedness simulation for a “novel coronavirus” that took place in October 2019, along with Dark Winter, another simulation that took place in June 2001, which predicted major aspects of the subsequent 2001 anthrax attacks.
Hepburn also reportedly “ruffled feathers” during a June 2020 presentation to the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices because he offered no data-rich slides, which are typically part of such presentations, and, STAT News reported, “Several members asked Hepburn pointed questions he pointedly did not answer.”21
Google and Oracle Contracted to Collect Vaccine Data
Google and Oracle, a multinational computer technology corporation headquartered in California, in the heart of Silicon Valley, have been contracted to “collect and track vaccine data” as part of OWS’ surveillance systems,22 a partnership Slaoui reportedly revealed in his Wall Street Journal interview.23 According to Humans Are Free:24
“If the Warp Speed contracts that have been awarded to Google and Oracle are anything like the Warp Speed contracts awarded to most of its participating vaccine companies, then those contracts grant those companies diminished federal oversight and exemptions from federal laws and regulations designed to protect taxpayer interests in the pursuit of the work stipulated in the contract.
It also makes them essentially immune to Freedom of Information Act requests. Yet, in contrast to the unacknowledged Google and Oracle contracts, vaccine companies have publicly disclosed that they received OWS contracts, just not the terms or details of those contracts. This suggests that the Google and Oracle contracts are even more secretive.”
Minnetonka Men’s... Buy New $64.95 (as of 06:07 UTC - Details) In an interview with investigative journalist Whitney Webb (see Mercola hyperlink above under “Dark Winter”), it’s also revealed that Slaoui, a long-time head of GlaxoSmithKline’s vaccine division, is a leading proponent of bioelectronic medicine, which is the use of injectable or implantable technology for the purpose of treating nerve conditions.
The MIT Technology review has referred to it as hacking the nervous system. But it also allows you to monitor the physiology of the human body from the inside.
Slaoui is also invested in a company called Galvani Bioelectronics, which was cofounded by a Google subsidiary. “So, you have Google being contracted to monitor this pharmacovigilance surveillance system that aims to monitor the physiology and the human body for two years,” Webb says.
“And then you have the ties to the ProfusA project,” she adds, “which oddly enough is supposed to work inside the human body for 24 months — the exact window they’ve said will be used to monitor people after the first [vaccine] dose.”
The conflict of interest is massive, in part because Google owns YouTube, which has been banning our videos, a majority of which are interviews with health experts sharing their medical or scientific expertise and viewpoints on COVID-19, since June 2020. As noted by Humans Are Free:25
“With Google now formally part of OWS, it seems likely that any concerns about OWS’s extreme secrecy and the conflicts of interest of many of its members (particularly Moncef Slaoui and Matt Hepburn) as well as any concerns about Warp Speed vaccine safety, allocation and/or distribution may be labeled ‘COVID-19 vaccine misinformation’ and removed from YouTube.”
Is Total Surveillance Set to Become the New Normal?
OWS, rather than being directed by public health officials, is heavily dominated by military, technology companies and U.S. intelligence agencies, likening it to a successor for Total Information Awareness (TIA), a program managed by DARPA that sprang up after the 9/11 attacks.
At the time, TIA was seeking to collect Americans’ medical records, fingerprints and other biometric data, along with DNA and records relating to personal finances, travel and media consumption.26 According to Webb (again, refer to the Mercola hyperlink earlier, “Dark Winter”): Thursday Boot Company ... Best Price: $177.31 Buy New $199.00 (as of 05:47 UTC - Details)
“We now know, for example, that the NSA and the Department of Homeland Security are directly involved in Operation Warp Speed, but they won’t really say exactly what parts they’re doing. But there are some indications as to what they could be involved with.
And the fact that Silicon Valley companies that have been known to collaborate with intelligence [agencies] for the purpose of spying on innocent Americans — Google and Oracle, for example — are going to be involved in this surveillance system … for everyone that gets the vaccine.
It’s certainly alarming, and it seems to point to the fulfillment of an agenda that was attempted to be pushed through or foisted on the American public after 9/11, called Total Information Awareness, which was managed, originally, by DARPA.
It was about using medical data and non-medical data — essentially all data about you — to prevent terror attacks before they could happen, and also to prevent bioterror attacks and even prevent naturally occurring disease outbreaks.
A lot of the same initiatives proposed under that original program after 9/11 have essentially been resurrected, with updated technology, under the guise of combating COVID-19.”
A key difference is that TIA was quickly defunded by Congress after significant public backlash, including concerns that TIA would undermine personal privacy. In the case of OWS, there’s little negative press and media outlets are overwhelmingly supportive of the operation as a way to resolve the COVID-19 crisis.
But what if it’s not actually about COVID-19 at all, but represents something bigger, something that’s been in the works for decades? As Humans Are Free puts it:27
“The total-surveillance agenda that began with TIA and that has been resurrected through Warp Speed predated COVID-19 by decades.
Its architects and proponents have worked to justify these extreme and invasive surveillance programs by marketing this agenda as the ‘solution’ to whatever Americans are most afraid of at any given time. It has very little to do with ‘public health’ and everything to do with total control.”
Sources and References
The Best of Dr. Joseph Mercola


lewrockwell--2020-12-03--Walter E. Williams, RIP

Walter E. Williams, RIP

I was deeply saddened and depressed to learn that my old friend Professor Walter E. Williams passed away yesterday morning at the age of 84 .
For the past forty years Walter was the John M. Olin Distinguished Professor of Economics at George Mason University ; one of the greatest libertarian columnists in the world ; a fabulously inspiring teacher ; one of the best public speakers you would ever encounter on the subjects of economics and libertarianism ; and the most popular guest host of the Rush Limbaugh radio show .
Walter was already at George Mason University when @ @ @ @ @ @ @ professor of economics in 1981 , preceding me by a year .
He and I were the two faculty members who taught the large 300+ student sections of principles of economics .
I quickly realized that it would be many years before I could approach Walter ’ s masterful classroom performances .
( And you do need to be a bit of a performer before such a large audience that can easily be bored to death with such a large crowd and so many distractions ) .
Walter never pulled his punches , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ When he got to the section of the course on labor economics and the economics of discrimination , he shocked his audiences of mostly freshman econ 101 students by reminding them that “ discrimination ” is not always a bad or negative thing .
For example , he would say , when he was looking for a wife he discriminated against fat women , ugly women , and white women .
That was long before America ’ s youth were conditioned since kindergarten to swoon over such language , instigate riots , or @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Silks Artific ... Buy New $ 39.99 In the early ‘ 80s the George Mason administration announced that every academic department was to have an “ affirmative action officer.
” Naturally , we chose Walter .
His job was to report to the administration once a year on how good a job the department had done in recruiting women and minority faculty .
In his first year with that assignment Walter informed the administration that ( paraphrasing ) “ We tried to hire a tall , statuesque blond from UCLA [ true story @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to give us enough salary money to compete for her services.
” Boy , did the sanctimonious campus Leftists hate Walter for such talk – a huge badge of honor on his chest .
Back in those days Walter ’ s office was adorned with a framed picture of his daughter , who he doted over , and a Confederate flag !
When a visitor asked why a black man like himself had a Confederate flag in his office , he said it was to give him the opportunity to explain the virtues @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
That was some fifteen years before I wrote anything about Lincoln , secession , or the War to Prevent Southern Independence .
It was also one reason why I asked Walter to write the foreword to The Real Lincoln , which he did , with a most eloquent essay .
( To this day , of all the hundreds of critiques of The Real Lincoln , I am unaware that any critic has mentioned Walter ’ s great foreword ) .
Shortly after the publication of The Real Lincoln I got a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ morning .
He said that Rush Limbaugh was ill , that he was guest hosting the show , and asked if I would be interested in being on the show for an interview about the book .
I spent an entire hour talking to Rush Limbaugh ’ s audience about the book and taking questions from callers with Walter .
By that evening my Amazon.com sales ranking was # 2 .
I sent Walter a hundred dollar bottle of wine as a thank you gift .
Walter was not only a fabulous classroom @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ; he produced a lot of great scholarship as well .
He was a product of the old UCLA School of Economics , a sort of offshoot of the old Milton Friedman/George Stigler/Gary Becker Chicago School at that time .
( It is a sin that Walter ’ s UCLA mentor , Armen Alchian , was never awarded the Nobel prize in economics ) .
Armed with a great UCLA economic education ( after being drafted and then kicked out of the U.S. Army — not dishonorably discharged –for being too much of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ badge of honor ! )
Walter authored many important journal articles on labor economics and other topics as well as such books as The State Against Blacks ; South Africa ’ s War Against Capitalism [ aka Apartheid ] ; More Liberty Means Less Government ; Race and Economics ; Liberty versus the Tyranny of Socialism ; and American Contempt for Liberty .
His autobiography is entitled Up from the Projects .
Walter ’ s two favorite hobbies were cigarette smoking and long-distance biking , one of which probably shortened his life .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ alleged basketball prowess .
He never left his beloved family home in Valley Forge , Pennsylvania , commuting to Fairfax , Virginia all those years ( down on Monday morning , back on Thursday ) .
He would battle suburban Philadelphia traffic at daybreak on his bike rides , even in the colder Pennsylvania weather .
The last time I saw Walter was when I sponsored a lecture by him at Loyola University Maryland on “ The Legitimate Role of Government in a Free Society.
” It was vintage Walter Williams , a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ founding , political philosophy and economics , and the philosophy of freedom , all explained in a way that anyone could understand and appreciate .
Students were stopping me on campus days later to thank me for bringing him to campus .
Most of them told me that , after 13-15 years of “ education , ” his lecture was the first time they had ever encountered the philosophical arguments for limited constitutional government .
Like most American college students today , they had been taught since pre-school that the more unlimited is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Walter up at his hotel and driving to the campus I pointed out buildings housing Maryland death row .
In typical Walter Williams fashion , he gazed out the window at the buildings and said , “ they ’ re not big enough.
” One of the things that got me interested in economics in the first place as a college freshman was that in my first economics class the professor used a standard textbook and a reader entitled An Economist ’ s Protest by Milton Friedman .
It was a collection of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Back in the late ‘ 60s and ‘ 70s Friedman and Paul Samuelson authored popular economic articles in the magazine on alternative weeks .
I ’ d like to think that Walter ’ s thousands of syndicated columns have had a similar effect on many young people , a giant “ multiplier effect ” for the cause of a free society .
In that sense Walter was the Frederic Bastiat of our day .
Rest in peace my friend .
The Best of Thomas DiLorenzo

I was deeply saddened and depressed to learn that my old friend Professor Walter E. Williams passed away yesterday morning at the age of 84. For the past forty years Walter was the John M. Olin Distinguished Professor of Economics at George Mason University; one of the greatest libertarian columnists in the world; a fabulously inspiring teacher; one of the best public speakers you would ever encounter on the subjects of economics and libertarianism; and the most popular guest host of the Rush Limbaugh radio show.
Walter was already at George Mason University when I arrived there as a young assistant professor of economics in 1981, preceding me by a year. He and I were the two faculty members who taught the large 300+ student sections of principles of economics. I quickly realized that it would be many years before I could approach Walter’s masterful classroom performances. (And you do need to be a bit of a performer before such a large audience that can easily be bored to death with such a large crowd and so many distractions).
Walter never pulled his punches, in the classroom or anywhere else. When he got to the section of the course on labor economics and the economics of discrimination, he shocked his audiences of mostly freshman econ 101 students by reminding them that “discrimination” is not always a bad or negative thing. For example, he would say, when he was looking for a wife he discriminated against fat women, ugly women, and white women. That was long before America’s youth were conditioned since kindergarten to swoon over such language, instigate riots, or set fire to campus buildings. Sympathy Silks Artific... Check Amazon for Pricing.
In the early ‘80s the George Mason administration announced that every academic department was to have an “affirmative action officer.” Naturally, we chose Walter. His job was to report to the administration once a year on how good a job the department had done in recruiting women and minority faculty. In his first year with that assignment Walter informed the administration that (paraphrasing) “We tried to hire a tall, statuesque blond from UCLA [true story] but the administration was too cheap to give us enough salary money to compete for her services.” Boy, did the sanctimonious campus Leftists hate Walter for such talk – a huge badge of honor on his chest.
Back in those days Walter’s office was adorned with a framed picture of his daughter, who he doted over, and a Confederate flag! When a visitor asked why a black man like himself had a Confederate flag in his office, he said it was to give him the opportunity to explain the virtues of secession to whoever asked about it. That was some fifteen years before I wrote anything about Lincoln, secession, or the War to Prevent Southern Independence. It was also one reason why I asked Walter to write the foreword to The Real Lincoln, which he did, with a most eloquent essay. (To this day, of all the hundreds of critiques of The Real Lincoln, I am unaware that any critic has mentioned Walter’s great foreword).
Shortly after the publication of The Real Lincoln I got a call from Walter at 7 A.M. one morning. He said that Rush Limbaugh was ill, that he was guest hosting the show, and asked if I would be interested in being on the show for an interview about the book. I spent an entire hour talking to Rush Limbaugh’s audience about the book and taking questions from callers with Walter. By that evening my Amazon.com sales ranking was #2. I sent Walter a hundred dollar bottle of wine as a thank you gift.
Walter was not only a fabulous classroom teacher, public speaker, and columnist; he produced a lot of great scholarship as well. He was a product of the old UCLA School of Economics, a sort of offshoot of the old Milton Friedman/George Stigler/Gary Becker Chicago School at that time. ( It is a sin that Walter’s UCLA mentor, Armen Alchian, was never awarded the Nobel prize in economics). Armed with a great UCLA economic education (after being drafted and then kicked out of the U.S. Army — not dishonorably discharged –for being too much of a smartass and independent thinker, another badge of honor!) Walter authored many important journal articles on labor economics and other topics as well as such books as The State Against Blacks; South Africa’s War Against Capitalism [aka Apartheid]; More Liberty Means Less Government; Race and Economics; Liberty versus the Tyranny of Socialism; and American Contempt for Liberty. His autobiography is entitled Up from the Projects.
Walter’s two favorite hobbies were cigarette smoking and long-distance biking, one of which probably shortened his life. He also liked to boast about his alleged basketball prowess. He never left his beloved family home in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, commuting to Fairfax, Virginia all those years (down on Monday morning, back on Thursday). He would battle suburban Philadelphia traffic at daybreak on his bike rides, even in the colder Pennsylvania weather.
The last time I saw Walter was when I sponsored a lecture by him at Loyola University Maryland on “The Legitimate Role of Government in a Free Society.” It was vintage Walter Williams, a combination of deep learning about the American founding, political philosophy and economics, and the philosophy of freedom, all explained in a way that anyone could understand and appreciate. Students were stopping me on campus days later to thank me for bringing him to campus. Most of them told me that, after 13-15 years of “education,” his lecture was the first time they had ever encountered the philosophical arguments for limited constitutional government. Like most American college students today, they had been taught since pre-school that the more unlimited is government, the better.
After picking Walter up at his hotel and driving to the campus I pointed out buildings housing Maryland death row. In typical Walter Williams fashion, he gazed out the window at the buildings and said, “they’re not big enough.”
One of the things that got me interested in economics in the first place as a college freshman was that in my first economics class the professor used a standard textbook and a reader entitled An Economist’s Protest by Milton Friedman. It was a collection of Friedman’s Newsweek magazine articles. Back in the late ‘60s and ‘70s Friedman and Paul Samuelson authored popular economic articles in the magazine on alternative weeks. I’d like to think that Walter’s thousands of syndicated columns have had a similar effect on many young people, a giant “multiplier effect” for the cause of a free society. In that sense Walter was the Frederic Bastiat of our day. Rest in peace my friend.
The Best of Thomas DiLorenzo