lewrockwell--2020-07-28--The Old ‘New Atheists’

The Old ‘New Atheists’

Of the New Paganism ( or neo-Paganism ) …there is no necessity to take any very grave account , except as a thing which left behind it incomparable exercises in the English language .
Chesterton wrote these words more than 100 years ago .
They are equally applicable to those known as new atheists today .
We no longer have to take them into account either .
The thing that is replacing Christianity is not a void – as the new atheists dream – but a new religion , one that includes original sin but without the possibility of forgiveness @ @ @ @ @ @ @ continually used in fiction and light literature as meaning a man without any religion , whereas a pagan was generally a man with about half a dozen .
The Collected Works of ... G. K. Chesterton Best Price : $ 8.22 Buy New $ 15.79 The new version , the new atheists , are after a religion that is not a religion ; they are after inventing “ good , ” although the best they can do is agree on what is bad ( usually devolving into nothing more than pointing to Hitler @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is OK , or , at least , not to be condemned ) .
They want the Christian ethic , just without the Christianity .
They ignore Nietzsche ’ s warning .
He suggests that the Pagan ideal will be the ultimate good of man ; but if that is so , we must at least ask with more curiosity than he allows for , why it was that man actually found his ultimate good on earth under the stars , and threw it away again .
In his magnum opus , From @ @ @ @ @ @ @ write of G. K. Chesterton that he , along with Hilaire Belloc , was one of the few who understood what was happening while it was happening : Western man was throwing away his ultimate good .
Barzun would call this the Great Switch , when what we know as Classical Liberalism – with still some grounding in Christianity – transformed into its modern incarnation .
Chesterton notes that there is only one thing in our world that knows anything of paganism – and it isn ’ t the neo-pagans or the new @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ancient hymns and dances of Europe , the festivals of Rome , a “ festoon of flowers at Easter or a string of sausages at Christmas.
” All have their roots in ancient paganism .
Everything else in the modern world is of Christian origin , even everything that seems most anti-Christian .
The French Revolution is of Christian origin .
The newspaper is of Christian origin .
The anarchists are of Christian origin .
Physical science is of Christian origin .
The attack on Christianity is of Christian origin .
We have @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the eighteenth century , if not the sixteenth .
At least in the sixteenth century , each of the combatants believed he was acting on a Christian basis ; since the eighteenth , half of the combatants are too ignorant of history to realize this , while most of the other half are too secular to act on what they claim to believe .
Chesterton points to the Seven Virtues , and finding here the real difference between Paganism and Christianity ; this difference is to be seen in the difference of the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Virtues , or Virtues of Grace as he calls these : 2015 Niuu00e9 Proof - ...
Check Amazon for Pricing .
The pagan , or rational , virtues are such things as justice and temperance , and Christianity has adopted them .
The three mystical virtues which Christianity has not adopted , but invented , are faith , hope , and charity .
He notes , of these , two facts : first , the pagan virtues are sad virtues and the Christian virtues are gay and exuberant ; second , the pagan @ @ @ @ @ @ @ virtues are as unreasonable as can be .
He clarifies “ unreasonable ” to mean that these offer a paradox .
To expand , he offers : Justice consists in finding out a certain thing due to a certain man and giving it to him .
Temperance consists in finding out the proper limit of a particular indulgence and adhering to that .
This is quite reasonable .
But charity means pardoning what is unpardonable , or it is no virtue at all .
Hope means hoping when things are hopeless , or @ @ @ @ @ @ @ And faith means believing the incredible , or it is no virtue at all .
And this is all quite unreasonable to modern man .
But Chesterton offers that the development of these three virtues was necessary because , despite being paradoxical , they were practical : The great psychological discovery of Paganism , which turned it into Christianity , can be expressed with some accuracy in one phrase .
The pagan set out , with admirable sense , to enjoy himself .
By the end of his civilization he had discovered that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ continue to enjoy anything else .
Which also describes the phase that we are passing through today .
We have the material means to satisfy virtually every lust ; we are discovering that lust is an unquenchable desire .
Hence , we lose meaning : 3 What do people gain from all their labors at which they toil under the sun ?
To find the cure for this , Chesterton returns to the necessity of humility : From Dawn to Decadence ... Barzun , Jacques Best Price : $ 1.68 Buy New $ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ same urgent reason that it discovered faith and charity—that is , because Christian civilization had to discover it or die .
Why is this so ?
It is humility that renews the earth and stars , that makes the heavens again and again fresh and strong .
Humility preserves our sense of wonder .
Humility allows us to find meaning in all around us .
Only when we grasp the dark , where we have no sight or expectation , can we enjoy the fullness and beauty of life : If we saw @ @ @ @ @ @ @ would be the most fearful and beautiful of meteors .
Now that we see it for the hundredth time we call it , in the hideous and blasphemous phrase of Wordsworth , “ the light of common day.
” Further , humility is necessary for self-examination .
Imagine a world where self-examination is lost .
Wait , you don ’ t have to imagine it ; we live in it .
And it is here where Chesterton extends the point , writing of Thomas Carlyle ’ s “ Great Man ” : Carlyle @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Christianity , with a surer and more reverent realism , says that they are all fools .
This doctrine is sometimes called the doctrine of original sin .
It may also be described as the doctrine of the equality of men .
And with this , he previews that which Solzhenitsyn would so famously articulate decades later : All men can be criminals , if tempted ; all men can be heroes , if inspired .
And this doctrine does away altogether with Carlyle ’ s pathetic belief ( or any one else @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the wise few.
” There are no wise few .
And this is where humility comes in : instead of extending our ego to infinity , we do better to reduce our ego to zero ; instead of thinking more of ourselves , we should think less .
Chesterton ’ s accusation of the neo-paganists and their pagan ideal of reason is quite simple : FR ( 1163-1201 ) AD Medi ...
Check Amazon for Pricing .
I accuse them of ignoring definite human discoveries in the moral world , discoveries as definite @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the discovery of the circulation of the blood .
We can not go back to an ideal of reason and sanity .
But this is what we have been told in the West since the Enlightenment .
For mankind has discovered that reason does not lead to sanity .
We can not go back to an ideal of pride and enjoyment .
For mankind has discovered that pride does not lead to enjoyment .
After the insanity of the French Revolution , the rapid failure of the American Revolution , the half-century of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ communism and fascism , and the insanity of today ’ s ideal of “ pride ” and “ enjoyment , ” isn ’ t it time we learn this lesson ?
I do not know by what extraordinary mental accident modern writers so constantly connect the idea of progress with the idea of independent thinking .
Progress is obviously the antithesis of independent thinking .
For under independent or individualistic thinking , every man starts at the beginning , and goes , in all probability , just as far as his father before @ @ @ @ @ @ @ simplicity .
But if there really be anything of the nature of progress , it must mean , above all things , the careful study and assumption of the whole of the past .
We can stand on the shoulders of giants , or be stomped on by the puny ants of modernity .
I accuse Mr. Lowes Dickinson and his school of reaction in the only real sense .
If he likes , let him ignore these great historic mysteries—the mystery of charity , the mystery of chivalry , the mystery of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ him ignore the plough or the printing-press .
Nazareth Store Catholi ... Buy New $ 4.90 Do we really believe we have one without the other ?
Not that technological advancement did not occur in pagan times , or outside of Christendom ( and its remnants ) .
But , for goodness ’ sakes , man ; check the weight of the evidence .
I asked the following , at the conclusion of this post : I am wondering if this means we have come full circle ; I am also wondering if @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Will the cycle start with Christ , or with an anti-Christ ?
I don ’ t mean in an apocalyptic , Armageddon sort of way .
I mean in terms of the direction our culture might take .
But if we do revive and pursue the pagan ideal of a simple and rational self-completion we shall end—where Paganism ended .
I do not mean that we shall end in destruction .
I mean that we shall end in Christianity .
We will , because we must .
It just is a question of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in the meantime .
The Best of Bionic Mosquito

Of the New Paganism (or neo-Paganism) …there is no necessity to take any very grave account, except as a thing which left behind it incomparable exercises in the English language.
Heretics, Gilbert K. Chesterton (eBook)
Chesterton wrote these words more than 100 years ago. They are equally applicable to those known as new atheists today. We no longer have to take them into account either. The thing that is replacing Christianity is not a void – as the new atheists dream – but a new religion, one that includes original sin but without the possibility of forgiveness.
The term “pagan” is continually used in fiction and light literature as meaning a man without any religion, whereas a pagan was generally a man with about half a dozen.
The Collected Works of... G. K. Chesterton Best Price: $8.22 Buy New $15.79 (as of 03:27 UTC - Details) The new version, the new atheists, are after a religion that is not a religion; they are after inventing “good,” although the best they can do is agree on what is bad (usually devolving into nothing more than pointing to Hitler; hence, everything short of Hitler is OK, or, at least, not to be condemned). They want the Christian ethic, just without the Christianity. They ignore Nietzsche’s warning.
He suggests that the Pagan ideal will be the ultimate good of man; but if that is so, we must at least ask with more curiosity than he allows for, why it was that man actually found his ultimate good on earth under the stars, and threw it away again.
In his magnum opus, From Dawn to Decadence, Jacques Barzun would write of G. K. Chesterton that he, along with Hilaire Belloc, was one of the few who understood what was happening while it was happening: Western man was throwing away his ultimate good. Barzun would call this the Great Switch, when what we know as Classical Liberalism – with still some grounding in Christianity – transformed into its modern incarnation.
Chesterton notes that there is only one thing in our world that knows anything of paganism – and it isn’t the neo-pagans or the new atheists: it is Christianity. The ancient hymns and dances of Europe, the festivals of Rome, a “festoon of flowers at Easter or a string of sausages at Christmas.” All have their roots in ancient paganism.
Everything else in the modern world is of Christian origin, even everything that seems most anti-Christian. The French Revolution is of Christian origin. The newspaper is of Christian origin. The anarchists are of Christian origin. Physical science is of Christian origin. The attack on Christianity is of Christian origin.
We have been fighting a Christian civil war since the eighteenth century, if not the sixteenth. At least in the sixteenth century, each of the combatants believed he was acting on a Christian basis; since the eighteenth, half of the combatants are too ignorant of history to realize this, while most of the other half are too secular to act on what they claim to believe.
Chesterton points to the Seven Virtues, and finding here the real difference between Paganism and Christianity; this difference is to be seen in the difference of the four Natural Virtues and the three Theological Virtues, or Virtues of Grace as he calls these: 2015 Niuu00e9 Proof - ... Check Amazon for Pricing.
The pagan, or rational, virtues are such things as justice and temperance, and Christianity has adopted them. The three mystical virtues which Christianity has not adopted, but invented, are faith, hope, and charity.
He notes, of these, two facts: first, the pagan virtues are sad virtues and the Christian virtues are gay and exuberant; second, the pagan virtues are reasonable, while the Christian virtues are as unreasonable as can be. He clarifies “unreasonable” to mean that these offer a paradox. To expand, he offers:
Justice consists in finding out a certain thing due to a certain man and giving it to him. Temperance consists in finding out the proper limit of a particular indulgence and adhering to that.
This is quite reasonable.
But charity means pardoning what is unpardonable, or it is no virtue at all. Hope means hoping when things are hopeless, or it is no virtue at all. And faith means believing the incredible, or it is no virtue at all.
And this is all quite unreasonable to modern man. But Chesterton offers that the development of these three virtues was necessary because, despite being paradoxical, they were practical:
The great psychological discovery of Paganism, which turned it into Christianity, can be expressed with some accuracy in one phrase. The pagan set out, with admirable sense, to enjoy himself. By the end of his civilization he had discovered that a man cannot enjoy himself and continue to enjoy anything else.
Which also describes the phase that we are passing through today. We have the material means to satisfy virtually every lust; we are discovering that lust is an unquenchable desire. Hence, we lose meaning:
Ecclesiastes 1: 2 “Meaningless! Meaningless!”
says the Teacher.
“Utterly meaningless!
Everything is meaningless.”
3 What do people gain from all their labors
at which they toil under the sun?
To find the cure for this, Chesterton returns to the necessity of humility: From Dawn to Decadence... Barzun, Jacques Best Price: $1.68 Buy New $12.75 (as of 05:45 UTC - Details)
Civilization discovered Christian humility for the same urgent reason that it discovered faith and charity—that is, because Christian civilization had to discover it or die.
Why is this so? It is humility that renews the earth and stars, that makes the heavens again and again fresh and strong. Humility preserves our sense of wonder. Humility allows us to find meaning in all around us. Only when we grasp the dark, where we have no sight or expectation, can we enjoy the fullness and beauty of life:
If we saw the sun for the first time it would be the most fearful and beautiful of meteors. Now that we see it for the hundredth time we call it, in the hideous and blasphemous phrase of Wordsworth, “the light of common day.”
Further, humility is necessary for self-examination. Imagine a world where self-examination is lost. Wait, you don’t have to imagine it; we live in it. And it is here where Chesterton extends the point, writing of Thomas Carlyle’s “Great Man”:
Carlyle said that men were mostly fools. Christianity, with a surer and more reverent realism, says that they are all fools. This doctrine is sometimes called the doctrine of original sin. It may also be described as the doctrine of the equality of men.
And with this, he previews that which Solzhenitsyn would so famously articulate decades later:
All men can be criminals, if tempted; all men can be heroes, if inspired. And this doctrine does away altogether with Carlyle’s pathetic belief (or any one else’s pathetic belief) in “the wise few.” There are no wise few.
And this is where humility comes in: instead of extending our ego to infinity, we do better to reduce our ego to zero; instead of thinking more of ourselves, we should think less. Chesterton’s accusation of the neo-paganists and their pagan ideal of reason is quite simple: FR (1163-1201) AD Medi... Check Amazon for Pricing.
I accuse them of ignoring definite human discoveries in the moral world, discoveries as definite, though not as material, as the discovery of the circulation of the blood. We cannot go back to an ideal of reason and sanity.
But this is what we have been told in the West since the Enlightenment.
For mankind has discovered that reason does not lead to sanity. We cannot go back to an ideal of pride and enjoyment. For mankind has discovered that pride does not lead to enjoyment.
After the insanity of the French Revolution, the rapid failure of the American Revolution, the half-century of World War, the murderous reasonableness of communism and fascism, and the insanity of today’s ideal of “pride” and “enjoyment,” isn’t it time we learn this lesson?
I do not know by what extraordinary mental accident modern writers so constantly connect the idea of progress with the idea of independent thinking. Progress is obviously the antithesis of independent thinking. For under independent or individualistic thinking, every man starts at the beginning, and goes, in all probability, just as far as his father before him.
This is stunning in its simplicity.
But if there really be anything of the nature of progress, it must mean, above all things, the careful study and assumption of the whole of the past.
We can stand on the shoulders of giants, or be stomped on by the puny ants of modernity.
I accuse Mr. Lowes Dickinson and his school of reaction in the only real sense. If he likes, let him ignore these great historic mysteries—the mystery of charity, the mystery of chivalry, the mystery of faith. If he likes, let him ignore the plough or the printing-press.
Nazareth Store Catholi... Buy New $4.90 (as of 03:27 UTC - Details) Do we really believe we have one without the other? Not that technological advancement did not occur in pagan times, or outside of Christendom (and its remnants). But, for goodness’ sakes, man; check the weight of the evidence.
Conclusion
I asked the following, at the conclusion of this post:
I am wondering if this means we have come full circle; I am also wondering if it means the cycle might repeat. Will the cycle start with Christ, or with an anti-Christ? I don’t mean in an apocalyptic, Armageddon sort of way. I mean in terms of the direction our culture might take.
Chesterton answers my question, with hope:
But if we do revive and pursue the pagan ideal of a simple and rational self-completion we shall end—where Paganism ended. I do not mean that we shall end in destruction. I mean that we shall end in Christianity.
We will, because we must. It just is a question of how much pain we must pass through in the meantime.
Reprinted with permission from Bionic Mosquito.
The Best of Bionic Mosquito


The Lowercase Caste

There I was , sitting in Newswriting 101 class back in 1983 or so , long before they even did any of this on computers .
The teacher—a brilliant female Phil Donahue lookalike whose insistence on journalistic accuracy bordered on the sadomasochistic—gave the students a cold set of facts and commanded us to write a news story about it .
As she went around the room asking the students one by one to read their stories aloud , she stopped one aspiring journalist dead in his tracks before he could even finish his first sentence .
He ’ d started @ @ @ @ @ @ @ plush suburb of Chestnut Hill last night as— “ And that ’ s where she cut him off harshly .
She told him that whether or not it was a tragedy is a matter of opinion , not of fact .
And calling Chestnut Hill “ plush ” was also a bit of editorializing that had nothing to do with the fact that someone was murdered there last night .
The Collected Works of ... G. K. Chesterton Best Price : $ 8.22 Buy New $ 15.79 This was the same teacher who @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a letter requesting a recommendation letter from her , marked all my letter ’ s typos in red , sent it back to me , and told me she ’ d write a recommendation letter once I sent her an error-free request .
They don ’ t make ‘ em like that anymore .
And man , do I wish they did .
She also taught us the difference between a fact and an opinion , and unless you were writing what was clearly an opinion piece rather than a news story , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ opinions or biases .
And not only don ’ t you share opinions , the only way to keep yourself from looking like an idiot is to never state anything as a fact , either .
Nothing .
You attribute all statements of either facts or opinions to others .
You never make any claims .
You always attribute claims to others .
That way you ’ re never wrong .
You are perfectly free to QUOTE someone saying the most ridiculously emotional , subjective , unquantifiable , and unfalsifiable thing .
Go @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is racial injustice in the USA .
Hang that stupid sentiment on them .
2015 Niuu00e9 Proof - ...
Check Amazon for Pricing .
The reason she taught us to do it this way is because journalism , at least as she saw it , was an attempt to get at the truth no matter how unpleasant the truth might be .
The LAST thing journalism was supposed to do was push an ideology , because at that point it ceased to be journalism .
She spot-welded the idea into my skull that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ means to “ stick it to the powerful ” —because at that point , it ’ s not reporting , it ’ s advocacy—but as a science .
Report on the powerful , report on the poor , report on everyone in between—but only report on what you can see and prove .
From Dawn to Decadence ... Barzun , Jacques Best Price : $ 1.68 Buy New $ 12.75 FR ( 1163-1201 ) AD Medi ...
Check Amazon for Pricing .
Nazareth Store Catholi ... Buy New $ 4.90 LUHE Small Cross @ @ @ @ @ @

There I was, sitting in Newswriting 101 class back in 1983 or so, long before they even did any of this on computers. The teacher—a brilliant female Phil Donahue lookalike whose insistence on journalistic accuracy bordered on the sadomasochistic—gave the students a cold set of facts and commanded us to write a news story about it. As she went around the room asking the students one by one to read their stories aloud, she stopped one aspiring journalist dead in his tracks before he could even finish his first sentence. He’d started off with:
“Tragedy struck the plush suburb of Chestnut Hill last night as—“
And that’s where she cut him off harshly. She told him that whether or not it was a tragedy is a matter of opinion, not of fact. And calling Chestnut Hill “plush” was also a bit of editorializing that had nothing to do with the fact that someone was murdered there last night.
The Collected Works of... G. K. Chesterton Best Price: $8.22 Buy New $15.79 (as of 03:27 UTC - Details) This was the same teacher who, after I graduated and sent her a letter requesting a recommendation letter from her, marked all my letter’s typos in red, sent it back to me, and told me she’d write a recommendation letter once I sent her an error-free request.
They don’t make ‘em like that anymore. And man, do I wish they did.
She was the one who taught me very clearly to never say what someone thinks, only what they say, because they could be lying about what they actually think. Journalists nowadays all act as if they can read minds.
She also taught us the difference between a fact and an opinion, and unless you were writing what was clearly an opinion piece rather than a news story, you were never to share your own opinions or biases.
And not only don’t you share opinions, the only way to keep yourself from looking like an idiot is to never state anything as a fact, either. Nothing. You attribute all statements of either facts or opinions to others. You never make any claims. You always attribute claims to others. That way you’re never wrong.
You are perfectly free to QUOTE someone saying the most ridiculously emotional, subjective, unquantifiable, and unfalsifiable thing. Go ahead and let someone say that there is racial injustice in the USA. Hang that stupid sentiment on them. 2015 Niuu00e9 Proof - ... Check Amazon for Pricing.
The reason she taught us to do it this way is because journalism, at least as she saw it, was an attempt to get at the truth no matter how unpleasant the truth might be. The LAST thing journalism was supposed to do was push an ideology, because at that point it ceased to be journalism.
She spot-welded the idea into my skull that journalism should be approached not as a means to “stick it to the powerful”—because at that point, it’s not reporting, it’s advocacy—but as a science. Report on the powerful, report on the poor, report on everyone in between—but only report on what you can see and prove.
Maybe I was missing something all along, but back then the Associated Press seemed to see journalism the same way as my grey-haired butch journalism teacher did.
No more.
Read the Whole Article
From Dawn to Decadence... Barzun, Jacques Best Price: $1.68 Buy New $12.75 (as of 05:45 UTC - Details) FR (1163-1201) AD Medi... Check Amazon for Pricing. Nazareth Store Catholi... Buy New $4.90 (as of 03:27 UTC - Details) LUHE Small Cross Neckl... Buy New $20.99 (as of 03:31 UTC - Details)


The Big Skedaddle

In the early twentieth century , there was an exodus out of Europe .
George , my paternal grandfather , looked around England , where the family had been since the eleventh century , and decided that a national fdecline had begun .
Although England was still very much an empire , it had fallen into the decline that ancient Rome had experienced before it .
Where it had once expanded its possessions and profited from them , it was now spending millions of pounds maintaining them .
The less profitable colonies were becoming a liability and the more profitable @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , the British class structure was beginning to break down .
The ruling class were becoming lazy and unproductive and , increasingly , were bleeding the lower classes in order to continually expand their own idle privilege .
The History of the Dec ... Edward Gibbon Best Price : $ 1.28 Buy New $ 9.79 Worse , Britain had fallen into a seemingly never-ending series of wars .
Wars have always impoverished countries , creating the necessity of increased taxation .
And in the early twentieth century , all of Europe was spoiling @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the “ Great War.
” Historically , these conditions always have led to decline in a nation or empire , leaving the new generation of adults with a worse future than their antecedents had had .
And so , after careful consideration , George came to the conclusion that , as a young , educated gentleman of twenty-four , he would take his new wife off to the “ New World.
” His purpose was to leave the decaying empire to pursue greater opportunity elsewhere .
Meanwhile , my maternal grandfather , Michael @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
His family were from the UK , although he was then living in Russia .
But Russia was also displaying the telltale signs of the fall of Rome .
Under the czar ( the Russian translation of the Roman title “ caesar ” ) , the ruling class were becoming lazy and unproductive and , increasingly , were bleeding the lower classes in order to continually expand their own idle privilege .
The Decline and Fall o ... Brendon , Piers Best Price : $ 3.58 Buy New $ 8.39 Worse , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , the Chinese and the Japanese .
It had all become too much for the average Russian peasant to tolerate , and in 1917 , revolution had broken out .
Although the majority of Russians had great hope for positive change after the revolution , it soon became obvious that the new communist government was far more repressive than the czar had been .
Along with the pre-existing poverty came an unprecedented loss of basic freedoms .
And so , after careful consideration , Michael came to the conclusion that he should take @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” His purpose was to leave the decaying empire to pursue greater freedom elsewhere .
Both of the men above were part of a major exodus from Europe – the Big Skedaddle – people travelling on steam ships , understanding that they were unlikely ever to return .
One sought opportunity ; the other sought freedom .
Each found what he was seeking in the “ New World.
” And at this point in the two tales , we perceive a happy ending .
They each found a home in a former British @ @ @ @ @ @ @ freedom .
But , in fact , it ’ s not an ending at all .
In all such tales , life is ongoing .
Further generations are born , and in time , the same countries that had been so attractive eventually deteriorate , and always for the very same reasons .
The rise of empires is inevitable .
Always , there will be one country whose people are more productive than another ’ s and that country will prosper and expand .
But at some point , its leaders may see @ @ @ @ @ @ @ empire , to expand not only the prosperity , but their own power .
The Fate of Empires : B ... Hubbard , Arthur John Best Price : $ 10.81 Buy New $ 9.99 And inevitably , continued conquest and its costs , coupled with increased taxation and oppression of the home population , followed eventually by unpayable debt , send each empire into decline .
Case in point : In the early twentieth century , the US was the prime destination for those exiting the declining empires of Europe .
It was @ @ @ @ @ @ @ had minimal governmental regulation and , importantly , had virtually no welfare state .
All citizens understood that their prosperity was directly linked to their own work ethic .
It began as a nation of productive people .
And in 1900 , it was at a peak of prosperity that attracted millions to its shores and had just begun its gambit into empire .
One hundred years later , however , the empire phase of the US has played out as empires always have historically .
The US is invading overseas countries at @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ability to pay for the maintenance of those conquered territories .
Like Rome of old , the continued conquest has created an unpayable level of debt that even dramatically increasing taxation can not cover .
And like Rome , ever-increasing entitlements are being offered in order to appease the increasingly taxed populace .
Of course , as in all empires , the decline takes time to unfold .
Although an exodus has begun , those exiting have , for the most part , done so quietly .
And this fact has been further @ @ @ @ @ @ @ flood of immigrants into the US .
Unfortunately , the immigrants are not like the immigrants of a century ago .
Around 1900 , we saw those like George seeking the opportunity to create prosperity for themselves .
And we saw those like Michael , seeking freedom and self-determination .
But the present flood of US immigrants are parasitical , seeking government handouts , whilst those exiting the US are primarily those who have been productive and now have something to lose by remaining .
The next wave out of the US – @ @ @ @ @ @ @ will be the Georges and Michaels , those who have created wealth and seek the freedom to retain it .
This present , smaller wave is the more important one , as they ’ re quietly leaving , taking their wealth with them .
To American eyes , they ’ re invisible , but to those of us outside the US , they ’ re becoming more visible every day , as we see their arrivals increasing in number .
The outside world welcomes them , as they ’ re investing in the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Big Skedaddle from the US Empire is therefore only in its initial stage .
The very visible stage , similar to the image above , is yet to come , but very much on the horizon .

In the early twentieth century, there was an exodus out of Europe.
George, my paternal grandfather, looked around England, where the family had been since the eleventh century, and decided that a national fdecline had begun.
Although England was still very much an empire, it had fallen into the decline that ancient Rome had experienced before it. Where it had once expanded its possessions and profited from them, it was now spending millions of pounds maintaining them. The less profitable colonies were becoming a liability and the more profitable ones were breaking away.
In addition, the British class structure was beginning to break down. The ruling class were becoming lazy and unproductive and, increasingly, were bleeding the lower classes in order to continually expand their own idle privilege. The History of the Dec... Edward Gibbon Best Price: $1.28 Buy New $9.79 (as of 09:15 UTC - Details)
Worse, Britain had fallen into a seemingly never-ending series of wars. Wars have always impoverished countries, creating the necessity of increased taxation. And in the early twentieth century, all of Europe was spoiling for a war that was to become the “Great War.”
Historically, these conditions always have led to decline in a nation or empire, leaving the new generation of adults with a worse future than their antecedents had had.
Greater Opportunity Elsewhere
And so, after careful consideration, George came to the conclusion that, as a young, educated gentleman of twenty-four, he would take his new wife off to the “New World.”
His purpose was to leave the decaying empire to pursue greater opportunity elsewhere.
Meanwhile, my maternal grandfather, Michael, had also joined the Big Skedaddle. His family were from the UK, although he was then living in Russia.
But Russia was also displaying the telltale signs of the fall of Rome.
Under the czar (the Russian translation of the Roman title “caesar”), the ruling class were becoming lazy and unproductive and, increasingly, were bleeding the lower classes in order to continually expand their own idle privilege. The Decline and Fall o... Brendon, Piers Best Price: $3.58 Buy New $8.39 (as of 03:34 UTC - Details)
Worse, Russia had pursued wars with the Turks, the Chinese and the Japanese. It had all become too much for the average Russian peasant to tolerate, and in 1917, revolution had broken out.
Although the majority of Russians had great hope for positive change after the revolution, it soon became obvious that the new communist government was far more repressive than the czar had been. Along with the pre-existing poverty came an unprecedented loss of basic freedoms.
Greater Freedom Elsewhere
And so, after careful consideration, Michael came to the conclusion that he should take himself off to the “New World.”
His purpose was to leave the decaying empire to pursue greater freedom elsewhere.
Both of the men above were part of a major exodus from Europe – the Big Skedaddle – people travelling on steam ships, understanding that they were unlikely ever to return. One sought opportunity; the other sought freedom. Each found what he was seeking in the “New World.”
And at this point in the two tales, we perceive a happy ending. They each found a home in a former British colony where there was greater opportunity and freedom.
But, in fact, it’s not an ending at all. In all such tales, life is ongoing. Further generations are born, and in time, the same countries that had been so attractive eventually deteriorate, and always for the very same reasons.
The rise of empires is inevitable. Always, there will be one country whose people are more productive than another’s and that country will prosper and expand. But at some point, its leaders may see the opportunity to turn it into an empire, to expand not only the prosperity, but their own power. The Fate of Empires: B... Hubbard, Arthur John Best Price: $10.81 Buy New $9.99 (as of 03:34 UTC - Details)
And inevitably, continued conquest and its costs, coupled with increased taxation and oppression of the home population, followed eventually by unpayable debt, send each empire into decline.
Case in point: In the early twentieth century, the US was the prime destination for those exiting the declining empires of Europe. It was rich in resources, was undeveloped, had minimal governmental regulation and, importantly, had virtually no welfare state. All citizens understood that their prosperity was directly linked to their own work ethic.
It began as a nation of productive people. And in 1900, it was at a peak of prosperity that attracted millions to its shores and had just begun its gambit into empire.
One hundred years later, however, the empire phase of the US has played out as empires always have historically.
The US is invading overseas countries at a cost that’s beyond its ability to pay for the maintenance of those conquered territories. Like Rome of old, the continued conquest has created an unpayable level of debt that even dramatically increasing taxation cannot cover.
And like Rome, ever-increasing entitlements are being offered in order to appease the increasingly taxed populace.
Of course, as in all empires, the decline takes time to unfold. Although an exodus has begun, those exiting have, for the most part, done so quietly. And this fact has been further obscured by the attention given to the flood of immigrants into the US.
Unfortunately, the immigrants are not like the immigrants of a century ago. Around 1900, we saw those like George seeking the opportunity to create prosperity for themselves. And we saw those like Michael, seeking freedom and self-determination.
But the present flood of US immigrants are parasitical, seeking government handouts, whilst those exiting the US are primarily those who have been productive and now have something to lose by remaining.
The next wave out of the US – those who create the real exodus – will be the Georges and Michaels, those who have created wealth and seek the freedom to retain it.
This present, smaller wave is the more important one, as they’re quietly leaving, taking their wealth with them. To American eyes, they’re invisible, but to those of us outside the US, they’re becoming more visible every day, as we see their arrivals increasing in number.
The outside world welcomes them, as they’re investing in the recipient countries, creating opportunity.
The Big Skedaddle from the US Empire is therefore only in its initial stage. The very visible stage, similar to the image above, is yet to come, but very much on the horizon.
Reprinted with permission from International Man.


lewrockwell--2020-07-28--Consistent Inaccuracies in COVID-19 Testing and Reporting

The only consistent thing about COVID-19 testing and reporting so far is their inconsistency .
Head-scratching “ errors ” have plagued us from the get-go , and it sure doesn ’ t seem to be getting any better .
I guess it just goes to show that even with access to incredible data-crunching technology , human ineptitude will ensure no one becomes the wiser .
Faulty or contaminated tests have been used and reporting guidelines have been changed and updated multiple times , virtually eliminating any possibility of accurately tracking infected cases and deaths .
Most recently , a July @ @ @ @ @ @ @ International Journal of Geriatrics and Rehabilitation concluded half of all nucleic acid coronavirus tests distributed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention provided inaccurate results — 30 % being false positives and 20 % false negatives .
US Presidential Collec ... Buy New $ 29.95 Suspicions that many were dying with SARS-CoV-2 infection rather than from COVID-19 have circulated for many weeks , and now Florida has admitted a young man listed as a COVID-19 death actually died in a motorcycle accident.3 It just so happens he tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 infection @ @ @ @ @ @ @ inspire public trust .
Perhaps the most egregious misrepresentation of reality is the media ’ s conflating a positive test result with the actual disease , COVID-19 .
These tests only test for the virus directly ( PCR tests ) or antibodies to the virus .
COVID-19 is NOT a positive test ; it is a clinical diagnosis of someone infected with SARS-COV-2 exhibiting severe respiratory illness characterized by fever , coughing and shortness of breath .
The media is intentionally confusing a positive test result with COVID-19 to deliberately mislead the public @ @ @ @ @ @ @ serious than it is .
They know better but consciously choose this despicable practice .
A recent example would be CNN ’ s article , “ Florida Has More COVID-19 Than Most Countries in the World.
” 4 They refer to the positive test as a “ case.
” This is beyond stretching reality to suit their nefarious purposes .
A case is NOT a positive test result but , rather , a person that has a positive test result and is seriously ill .
But you would never know it by reading @ @ @ @ @ @ @ fear-mongering article is a subhead , “ Florida Has Surpassed Italy in COVID-19 Cases , Too.
” But at the very end of the article they finally admit the truth : Even though Florida surpassed Italy in “ cases , ” they had nearly 90 % FEWER deaths — the metric that really counts , unless your goal is to perpetuate needless fear into the population .
Some Labs Appear to Only Report Positive Results One of the latest scandals was highlighted in a July 11 , 2020 , Twitter post5 by a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ suspiciously high number of laboratories in Florida are reporting6,7 100 % of tests as positive .
Cole wonders whether this means many labs are now only submitting positive results , omitting negatives altogether .
Cole points out that the results from labs reporting only positives account for 34 % of the 10,360 new cases on July 11 .
“ Without these , today ’ s ‘ percent positive ’ would fall from 12.6 % to 8.7 % ” Cole said .
Lock and Load 30-Calib ... Buy New $ 9.99 The same anomalous @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Chronicle , July 7 , 2020:8 Confusing matters further , the Florida testing report9 states that “ A person can be tested by more than one laboratory and can have both positive and negative results.
” In other words , while each positive test result is counted as a “ case , ” a single person may actually have two or more test results .
Let ’ s say one individual tests positive twice or even three or four times .
They ’ re now counted as two or more “ cases ” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ one person .
Add to that the fact that in many areas , “ assumed ” cases — obtained through contact tracing — are counted as “ positive cases ” as well ( or have been in the past ) , even without laboratory confirmed testing.10 Donald Trump American ... Buy New $ 28.95 After a local Fox News affiliate contacted several of the Florida labs reporting 100 % positive test results , some of them confirmed “ major errors ” in their reporting .
And they ’ re no small errors .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ not 98 % , as reported to the state , but rather 9.4 % .
Similarly , Orlando Veteran ’ s Medical Center corrected its positivity rate from the reported 76 % down to 6 % .11 KHN.org actually reported12 this problem all the way back on March 25 , 2020 , warning that some states had chosen to exclude negative test results from their reporting , thereby giving us an incomplete and misleading picture of the spread of the disease across the country .
Aside from single individuals being counted as multiple @ @ @ @ @ @ @ than one positive test , the accuracy of the tests themselves have also come under question numerous times .
For example , in June , Texas noticed an abnormal number of positive test results , which threw the accuracy of the tests into question .
As reported by Dallas News:13 As explained by Dr. Deborah Birx during an April White House Coronavirus Task Force briefing , COVID-19 tests are “ not 100 % sensitive or specific , ” and that when prevalence is low in the community , the false positive rate will @ @ @ @ @ @ @ if the prevalence of infection in the community is 1 % , about half of all positive tests will be false positives .
Depending on the manufacturer , the test may return even higher rates of false results .
Some Tests Have High False Positive Rates , Others Negative July 6 , 2020 , the U.S. Food and Drug Administration warned14 clinical laboratory staff and health care providers using the BD SARS-CoV-2 Reagents for the BD Max System test that the test had an increased risk of false positives .
The test is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the SARS-CoV-2 virus in nasal swabs , providing results in two to three hours .
“ In one study , the manufacturer found approximately three percent ( 3 % ) of results were false positive results , ” the FDA said .
Donald J. Trump Signat ... Buy New $ 49.95 False negatives occur too , although it appears to be more difficult to find data on the prevalence of false negative test results .
May 14 , 2020 , the FDA issued a public alert15 warning people that the Abbott ID NOW @ @ @ @ @ @ @ rate .
The FDA started reviewing the test after receiving 15 adverse event reports .
While there seems to be no reliable way to assess just how many positive test results are in fact false positives , as testing continues to climb , it seems clear the number of false results is likely to be quite high .
Meanwhile , hospitalizations and actual deaths have dramatically declined .
The week of July 4 , a grand total of 522 Americans died with or from COVID-19 .
The week of July 11 , the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and that ’ s for the entire nation.16 Mortality peaked the week of April 18 , with 16,897 deaths , and has dropped by the thousands every week since .
At this point , I think it would be safe to say we ’ re out of the danger zone and should allow life to return to some semblance of normal .
False positives do more than fuel fear-based media rhetoric .
In India , false positives are endangering patients who are actually sick by taking up much-needed hospital beds .
As reported @ @ @ @ @ @ @ discharge patients once their symptoms have resolved , many are wary of leaving without proof that they ’ re no longer infectious , as many family members , neighbors and even some housing complexes will not allow access to potentially infectious individuals .
Trump Tie | Long and W ... Buy New $ 59.95 Antibody tests are also turning out to have their share of quality problems .
In a letter to the editor19 published in the July 1 , 2020 , issue of American Family Physician , Drs .
Mark Ebell , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ journal , and Henry Barry , review some of the available data : Ebell and Barry point out that many of the antibody tests that have provisional approval from the FDA still have not even been evaluated for accuracy .
They also recommend that labs report test results “ in a way that reflects the local population prevalence based on widespread testing and include the false-positive rate , ” as this information “ is needed to help family physicians better inform shared decision-making regarding previous infection and return to work or school.
” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ hard-pressed to find anyone including that data in their reporting , and the way things are going , I wouldn ’ t hold my breath in anticipation of such helpful numbers being included in the future either .
Viral and Antibody Test Results Have Been Combined Aside from false positive viral and antibody tests , back in May the CDC also admitted it had combined test results from the two different tests in its national reporting.20 Donald Trump 2020 Hat ... Buy New $ 14.99 Ashish Jha , director of the Harvard Global @ @ @ @ @ @ @ You ’ ve got to be kidding me .
How could the CDC make that mistake ?
This is a mess.
” Indeed .
Several states were also found to have comingled results from the two tests for varying amounts of time , including Pennsylvania , Texas , Georgia , Vermont , Virginia and Maine.22 At the state level , an idiotic error such as this has significant consequences as states use these data points to determine when it ’ s “ safe ” to reopen their economies and allow people back to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ more .
June 30 , 2020 , the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention admitted that prior exposure to coronaviruses responsible for the common cold can result in a positive COVID-19 antibody test , even if you ’ ve never been exposed to SARS-CoV-2 specifically.23 The saving grace there is that studies24,25,26 suggest antibodies produced following exposure to coronaviruses that cause the common cold also appear to provide some general and long-lasting resistance against SARS-CoV-2 .
One such study,27,28 published May 14 , 2020 , in the journal Cell , found 70 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ recovered from mild cases of COVID-19 had resistance to SARS-CoV-2 on the T-cell level , but so did 40 % to 60 % of people who had not been exposed to SARS-CoV-2 .
According to the authors , this suggests there ’ s “ cross-reactive T cell recognition between circulating ‘ common cold ’ coronaviruses and SARS-CoV-2.
” In other words , if you ’ ve recovered from a common cold caused by a particular coronavirus , your humoral immune system may activate when you encounter SARS-CoV-2 , thus rendering you resistant to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ are only found in the most severe cases — about 1 in 5 .
So , a negative antibody test doesn ’ t necessarily rule out the possibility that you ’ ve been infected and didn ’ t get sick .
In fact , this finding suggests COVID-19 may actually be five times more prevalent than suspected — and five times less deadly than predicted .
Other research supports the hypothesis that COVID-19 lethality has been grossly overestimated .
Data from a still-ongoing study30,31 by Wake Forest Baptist Health found that , so @ @ @ @ @ @ @ % of people tested in North Carolina — about 1.47 million people — have antibodies for the coronavirus .
This means they were exposed to the virus , got infected and fought it off , all while experiencing few or no symptoms .
Based on these data , the overall death rate appears to be around 0.1 % .32 John Sanders , chief of infectious diseases at Wake Forest Baptist , told WFAE 90.7:33 An overall mortality rate of 0.1 % is right in line with statistics cited by Stanford University ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ well , who in a June 27 , 2020 , interview with Greek Reporter said:34 31 % of Tested Florida Children Are Positive for Coronavirus July 14 , 2020 , the Florida Sun Sentinel reported that 31 % of 54,022 children tested in the state were positive for coronavirus .
“ The state ’ s positivity rate for the entire population is about 11 % , ” the Sentinel said , implying that children in Florida are nearly three times as likely to be positive for the virus .
But , knowing how @ @ @ @ @ @ @ health officials and the media possibly take the 31 % positivity results seriously — especially considering that studies are showing that the virus affects children differently and less severely than it does adults ?
36 Do Positive Tests Even Matter at This Point ?
If the vast majority of people who test positive for COVID-19 infection have no symptoms , don ’ t feel sick and don ’ t look sick , is COVID-19 really a “ deadly ” disease ?
Or , is it more like HPV — a viral infection that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and which 90 % are able to eliminate without treatment ?
To highlight just a single case , Texas Rangers outfielder Joey Gallo has tested positive for COVID-19 twice , yet he never developed any symptoms .
He ’ s also had several negative tests .
“ It was weird , it was hard to get real answers on if I really had it or not , ” he told KSAT.37 The primary justification for the tyrannical governmental interventions of COVID-19 was to slow the spread of the infection so that hospital resources @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to die due to lack of medical care .
These interventions were not about stopping the spread altogether or even reducing the number of people that would eventually get infected .
They certainly were never meant to prevent all death .
Logic dictates this simply isn ’ t possible , under any circumstance .
The stay-at-home orders and business closings were only intended to slow down the spread so that , eventually , naturally-acquired herd immunity — the best kind — would prevent it from reemerging .
Now all of a sudden , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s no talk about flattening the curve anymore .
The media rarely even mention the all-important death statistics .
Instead , headlines warn of skyrocketing “ cases , ” meaning completely healthy people who happen to test positive and who are unlikely to spend so much as a day in bed feeling poorly .
At the same time , people with simple upper respiratory infections can legally be classified as COVID-19 cases even without confirmed lab results,38,39 which artificially inflate the “ case ” totals even more .
The only rational reason for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ continue to erode your personal freedoms and civil liberties and transfer wealth to those in control .
It ’ s all fearmongering based on a combination of wildly manipulated data and flawed tests .
Hopefully , local and federal leaders will wisen up and start issuing saner guidance sooner rather than later .
Time will tell if the July 14 , 2020 , White House Coronavirus Task Force decision to remove COVID-19 data collection from the CDC will have any effect .
As of July 15 , all U.S. hospitals are directed to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ coronavirus patient information ” to a non-public Health and Human Services database in D.C. instead.40 The Best of Joseph Mercola

The only consistent thing about COVID-19 testing and reporting so far is their inconsistency. Head-scratching “errors” have plagued us from the get-go, and it sure doesn’t seem to be getting any better. I guess it just goes to show that even with access to incredible data-crunching technology, human ineptitude will ensure no one becomes the wiser.
Faulty or contaminated tests have been used and reporting guidelines have been changed and updated multiple times, virtually eliminating any possibility of accurately tracking infected cases and deaths.
Most recently, a July 17, 2020, study1,2 in the International Journal of Geriatrics and Rehabilitation concluded half of all nucleic acid coronavirus tests distributed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention provided inaccurate results — 30% being false positives and 20% false negatives.
US Presidential Collec... Buy New $29.95 (as of 04:30 UTC - Details) Suspicions that many were dying with SARS-CoV-2 infection rather than from COVID-19 have circulated for many weeks, and now Florida has admitted a young man listed as a COVID-19 death actually died in a motorcycle accident.3 It just so happens he tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 infection. Things like that surely do not inspire public trust.
Mainstream Media Distortion of the Testing Truth
Perhaps the most egregious misrepresentation of reality is the media’s conflating a positive test result with the actual disease, COVID-19. These tests only test for the virus directly (PCR tests) or antibodies to the virus. COVID-19 is NOT a positive test; it is a clinical diagnosis of someone infected with SARS-COV-2 exhibiting severe respiratory illness characterized by fever, coughing and shortness of breath.
The media is intentionally confusing a positive test result with COVID-19 to deliberately mislead the public into believing the disease is far more serious than it is. They know better but consciously choose this despicable practice. A recent example would be CNN’s article, “Florida Has More COVID-19 Than Most Countries in the World.”4
They refer to the positive test as a “case.” This is beyond stretching reality to suit their nefarious purposes. A case is NOT a positive test result but, rather, a person that has a positive test result and is seriously ill. But you would never know it by reading their article.
Further down in their fear-mongering article is a subhead, “Florida Has Surpassed Italy in COVID-19 Cases, Too.” But at the very end of the article they finally admit the truth: Even though Florida surpassed Italy in “cases,” they had nearly 90% FEWER deaths — the metric that really counts, unless your goal is to perpetuate needless fear into the population.
Some Labs Appear to Only Report Positive Results
One of the latest scandals was highlighted in a July 11, 2020, Twitter post5 by a user named Rebel A. Cole. A suspiciously high number of laboratories in Florida are reporting6,7 100% of tests as positive. Cole wonders whether this means many labs are now only submitting positive results, omitting negatives altogether.
Cole points out that the results from labs reporting only positives account for 34% of the 10,360 new cases on July 11. “Without these, today’s ‘percent positive’ would fall from 12.6% to 8.7%” Cole said.
Lock and Load 30-Calib... Buy New $9.99 (as of 03:36 UTC - Details) The same anomalous trend was also reported in the Alachua Chronicle, July 7, 2020:8
“It looks like North Florida Regional and Shands are reporting at least some negatives, but we now know that UF is not reporting negatives in employee testing to the state.
By law, all test results by physicians, hospitals, and laboratories are required to be reported to the state, but the list of labs reporting 100% positives indicates that’s not happening — or perhaps tests performed by an employer are not covered by the order …
If negative tests aren’t reported, they aren’t added to the total number of tests. That makes the reported positivity rate higher than the actual positive percentage of all tests performed. This can easily be seen when you look at the hospitals reporting 100% positive tests.
If they reported 50 positives with 100% positive tests, for example, the number of tests reported to the state is 50. If they did 500 tests to get those 50 positives, 450 tests were not reported to the state and were not added to the total number of tests reported by the state.”
Confusing matters further, the Florida testing report9 states that “A person can be tested by more than one laboratory and can have both positive and negative results.”
In other words, while each positive test result is counted as a “case,” a single person may actually have two or more test results. Let’s say one individual tests positive twice or even three or four times. They’re now counted as two or more “cases” when in fact it’s just one person.
Add to that the fact that in many areas, “assumed” cases — obtained through contact tracing — are counted as “positive cases” as well (or have been in the past), even without laboratory confirmed testing.10
Donald Trump American ... Buy New $28.95 (as of 03:36 UTC - Details) After a local Fox News affiliate contacted several of the Florida labs reporting 100% positive test results, some of them confirmed “major errors” in their reporting. And they’re no small errors. Orlando Health confirmed its positivity rate was not 98%, as reported to the state, but rather 9.4%. Similarly, Orlando Veteran’s Medical Center corrected its positivity rate from the reported 76% down to 6%.11
Several States Report Only Positive Results
KHN.org actually reported12 this problem all the way back on March 25, 2020, warning that some states had chosen to exclude negative test results from their reporting, thereby giving us an incomplete and misleading picture of the spread of the disease across the country.
“Several states are reporting only positive COVID-19 test results from private labs, a practice that paints a misleading picture of how fast the disease is spreading,” KHN wrote.
“Maryland, Ohio and others are posting the numbers of new positive tests and deaths, for instance, but don’t report the negative results, which would help show how many people were tested overall.
‘This matters because it gives you a false sense of what is going on in a particular location,’ said Dr. Eric Topol, director of the Scripps Research Translational Institute.
He said states should be required to report both positive and negative results for review by public health experts. ‘They should all be pulled together,’ Topol said. ‘It should be automatic.'”
Tests Are Reliably Unreliable
Aside from single individuals being counted as multiple “cases” if they have more than one positive test, the accuracy of the tests themselves have also come under question numerous times. For example, in June, Texas noticed an abnormal number of positive test results, which threw the accuracy of the tests into question. As reported by Dallas News:13
“The state is no longer using a laboratory that has tested 14,000 Texans for the coronavirus, after it turned up an abnormal number of positive results during state-ordered testing at nursing homes and in community surveillance …
It is not clear whether all the lab’s test results will be thrown out from state tallies or just a portion. A spokeswoman for HHSC declined to name the lab, saying only that it was a private one.”
Low Prevalence = Higher False Positive Rate
As explained by Dr. Deborah Birx during an April White House Coronavirus Task Force briefing, COVID-19 tests are “not 100% sensitive or specific,” and that when prevalence is low in the community, the false positive rate will be high.
“If you have 1% of your population infected, and you have a test that’s only 99% specific, that means that when you find a positive, 50% of the time will be a real positive and 50% of the time it won’t be,” Birx said.
In other words, if the prevalence of infection in the community is 1%, about half of all positive tests will be false positives. Depending on the manufacturer, the test may return even higher rates of false results.
Some Tests Have High False Positive Rates, Others Negative
July 6, 2020, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration warned14 clinical laboratory staff and health care providers using the BD SARS-CoV-2 Reagents for the BD Max System test that the test had an increased risk of false positives.
The test is designed to detect viral nucleic acid from the SARS-CoV-2 virus in nasal swabs, providing results in two to three hours. “In one study, the manufacturer found approximately three percent (3%) of results were false positive results,” the FDA said. Donald J. Trump Signat... Buy New $49.95 (as of 03:36 UTC - Details)
False negatives occur too, although it appears to be more difficult to find data on the prevalence of false negative test results. May 14, 2020, the FDA issued a public alert15 warning people that the Abbott ID NOW point-of-care test had a high false negative rate. The FDA started reviewing the test after receiving 15 adverse event reports.
“The agency has been working with Abbott … on a customer notification letter to alert users that any negative test results that are not consistent with a patient’s clinical signs and symptoms or necessary for patient management should be confirmed with another test,” the FDA said.
While there seems to be no reliable way to assess just how many positive test results are in fact false positives, as testing continues to climb, it seems clear the number of false results is likely to be quite high.
Meanwhile, hospitalizations and actual deaths have dramatically declined. The week of July 4, a grand total of 522 Americans died with or from COVID-19. The week of July 11, the death toll was down to 181, and that’s for the entire nation.16
Mortality peaked the week of April 18, with 16,897 deaths, and has dropped by the thousands every week since. At this point, I think it would be safe to say we’re out of the danger zone and should allow life to return to some semblance of normal.
False Positives Lead to Misuse of Medical Resources
False positives do more than fuel fear-based media rhetoric. In India, false positives are endangering patients who are actually sick by taking up much-needed hospital beds. As reported by Times of India:17
“… the dead virus is lingering on in some patients, throwing up false positive reports in those who have completely recovered and are in no danger, either to themselves or to others. This is keeping hospital beds occupied longer than strictly required and denying beds to patients who genuinely need them …”
While hospitals typically discharge patients once their symptoms have resolved, many are wary of leaving without proof that they’re no longer infectious, as many family members, neighbors and even some housing complexes will not allow access to potentially infectious individuals. Trump Tie | Long and W... Buy New $59.95 (as of 03:36 UTC - Details)
“Both RT-PCR and TruNat tests are so sensitive that they can catch traces of the dead virus protein, causing the false positives, said Raja Dhar, Fortis Hospital pulmonologist.
‘These patients are unlikely to transmit the virus and can safely be sent home. But they are reluctant because of the social pressure. Many plead with us to defer release until they test negative,’ Dhar told TOI.”18
Antibody Tests Are Equally Unreliable
Antibody tests are also turning out to have their share of quality problems. In a letter to the editor19 published in the July 1, 2020, issue of American Family Physician, Drs. Mark Ebell, deputy editor for evidence-based medicine for the journal, and Henry Barry, review some of the available data:
“Cellex, the first antibody test approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for the virus, has a reported sensitivity of 94% and specificity of 96% …
When assessing whether patients had a previous infection and may be immune, it is important to avoid false-positives so that patients do not think they are immune when they are not.
Table 1 summarizes the false-positive rates at various population prevalence for the Cellex test and for a hypothetical test that is 90% sensitive and 99% specific.
At relatively low population prevalences, which likely reflect current conditions in the United States and elsewhere, we would argue that false-positive rates are unacceptably high with the Cellex test.”
Ebell and Barry point out that many of the antibody tests that have provisional approval from the FDA still have not even been evaluated for accuracy. They also recommend that labs report test results “in a way that reflects the local population prevalence based on widespread testing and include the false-positive rate,” as this information “is needed to help family physicians better inform shared decision-making regarding previous infection and return to work or school.”
At present, you’d be hard-pressed to find anyone including that data in their reporting, and the way things are going, I wouldn’t hold my breath in anticipation of such helpful numbers being included in the future either.
Viral and Antibody Test Results Have Been Combined
Aside from false positive viral and antibody tests, back in May the CDC also admitted it had combined test results from the two different tests in its national reporting.20
Donald Trump 2020 Hat ... Buy New $14.99 (as of 05:29 UTC - Details) Ashish Jha, director of the Harvard Global Health Institute, told The Atlantic,21 “You’ve got to be kidding me. How could the CDC make that mistake? This is a mess.” Indeed. Several states were also found to have comingled results from the two tests for varying amounts of time, including Pennsylvania, Texas, Georgia, Vermont, Virginia and Maine.22
At the state level, an idiotic error such as this has significant consequences as states use these data points to determine when it’s “safe” to reopen their economies and allow people back to work.
Common Cold Antibodies Can Trigger False Positive Test
Still, there’s more. June 30, 2020, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention admitted that prior exposure to coronaviruses responsible for the common cold can result in a positive COVID-19 antibody test, even if you’ve never been exposed to SARS-CoV-2 specifically.23
The saving grace there is that studies24,25,26 suggest antibodies produced following exposure to coronaviruses that cause the common cold also appear to provide some general and long-lasting resistance against SARS-CoV-2.
One such study,27,28 published May 14, 2020, in the journal Cell, found 70% of samples from patients who had recovered from mild cases of COVID-19 had resistance to SARS-CoV-2 on the T-cell level, but so did 40% to 60% of people who had not been exposed to SARS-CoV-2.
According to the authors, this suggests there’s “cross-reactive T cell recognition between circulating ‘common cold’ coronaviruses and SARS-CoV-2.” In other words, if you’ve recovered from a common cold caused by a particular coronavirus, your humoral immune system may activate when you encounter SARS-CoV-2, thus rendering you resistant to COVID-19.
Another study29 discovered SARS-CoV-2-specific antibodies are only found in the most severe cases — about 1 in 5. So, a negative antibody test doesn’t necessarily rule out the possibility that you’ve been infected and didn’t get sick. In fact, this finding suggests COVID-19 may actually be five times more prevalent than suspected — and five times less deadly than predicted.
COVID-19 Lethality Has Been Massively Overestimated
Other research supports the hypothesis that COVID-19 lethality has been grossly overestimated. Data from a still-ongoing study30,31 by Wake Forest Baptist Health found that, so far, between 12% and 14% of people tested in North Carolina — about 1.47 million people — have antibodies for the coronavirus.
“We can … say the death rate is lower than we have estimated. The severity of symptoms is lower than we estimated and the vast majority of people who were infected are going to do fine.” ~ John Sanders, chief of infectious diseases at Wake Forest Baptist
This means they were exposed to the virus, got infected and fought it off, all while experiencing few or no symptoms. Based on these data, the overall death rate appears to be around 0.1%.32 John Sanders, chief of infectious diseases at Wake Forest Baptist, told WFAE 90.7:33
“We can … say the death rate is lower than we have estimated. The severity of symptoms is lower than we estimated and the vast majority of people who were infected are going to do fine.”
An overall mortality rate of 0.1% is right in line with statistics cited by Stanford University’s disease prevention chairman Dr. John Ioannidis as well, who in a June 27, 2020, interview with Greek Reporter said:34
“0.05% to 1% is a reasonable range for what the data tell us now for the infection fatality rate, with a median of about 0.25%. For people younger than 45, the infection fatality rate is almost 0%. For 45 to 70, it is probably about 0.05-0.3%.”35
31% of Tested Florida Children Are Positive for Coronavirus
July 14, 2020, the Florida Sun Sentinel reported that 31% of 54,022 children tested in the state were positive for coronavirus. “The state’s positivity rate for the entire population is about 11%,” the Sentinel said, implying that children in Florida are nearly three times as likely to be positive for the virus.
But, knowing how unreliable the tests are, how could health officials and the media possibly take the 31% positivity results seriously — especially considering that studies are showing that the virus affects children differently and less severely than it does adults?36
Do Positive Tests Even Matter at This Point?
If the vast majority of people who test positive for COVID-19 infection have no symptoms, don’t feel sick and don’t look sick, is COVID-19 really a “deadly” disease? Or, is it more like HPV — a viral infection that most people have without knowing it, and which 90% are able to eliminate without treatment?
To highlight just a single case, Texas Rangers outfielder Joey Gallo has tested positive for COVID-19 twice, yet he never developed any symptoms. He’s also had several negative tests. “It was weird, it was hard to get real answers on if I really had it or not,” he told KSAT.37
“The 26-year-old All-Star slugger missed the first week of the Rangers summer camp and isolated from teammates for two weeks after two positive tests that sandwiched a negative result during intake testing,” KSAT reports.
“He had two negative tests on his own outside of the MLB testing program, but wasn’t cleared to join the team until consecutive negative tests under the protocol …
Gallo’s positive results were by the saliva test, though he was negative on a swab test. He said he is ‘now on edge’ when going through the testing and gets nervous every time he has to do a saliva test.”
Continued Testing Now Merely Drives Irrational Fearmongering
The primary justification for the tyrannical governmental interventions of COVID-19 was to slow the spread of the infection so that hospital resources would not be overwhelmed, causing people to die due to lack of medical care.
These interventions were not about stopping the spread altogether or even reducing the number of people that would eventually get infected. They certainly were never meant to prevent all death. Logic dictates this simply isn’t possible, under any circumstance.
The stay-at-home orders and business closings were only intended to slow down the spread so that, eventually, naturally-acquired herd immunity — the best kind — would prevent it from reemerging.
Now all of a sudden, the narrative has changed. There’s no talk about flattening the curve anymore. The media rarely even mention the all-important death statistics. Instead, headlines warn of skyrocketing “cases,” meaning completely healthy people who happen to test positive and who are unlikely to spend so much as a day in bed feeling poorly.
At the same time, people with simple upper respiratory infections can legally be classified as COVID-19 cases even without confirmed lab results,38,39 which artificially inflate the “case” totals even more.
The only rational reason for any of the government interventions is to continue to erode your personal freedoms and civil liberties and transfer wealth to those in control. It’s all fearmongering based on a combination of wildly manipulated data and flawed tests. Hopefully, local and federal leaders will wisen up and start issuing saner guidance sooner rather than later.
Time will tell if the July 14, 2020, White House Coronavirus Task Force decision to remove COVID-19 data collection from the CDC will have any effect. As of July 15, all U.S. hospitals are directed to bypass the CDC and “send all coronavirus patient information” to a non-public Health and Human Services database in D.C. instead.40
Sources and References
The Best of Dr. Joseph Mercola


lewrockwell--2020-07-29--The Problem With Lincoln

The Problem With Lincoln

“ The problem with Lincoln is the problem with America , ” said my friend Clyde Wilson when I asked him for a blurb for my new book , The Problem with Lincoln ( Regnery , 2020 ) .
That in fact is the theme of the book , written seventeen years after my first book on the subject , The Real Lincoln ( TRL ) , as I shall explain .
A secondary theme comes from something that an academic reviewer of The Real Lincoln wrote at the end of his review seventeen years ago : “ Lincoln was @ @ @ @ @ @ @ as being .
How was Lincoln “ worse ” ; let us count the ways .
Lincoln was in fact an even more extreme racist and white supremacist ( a typical man of the North , in other words ) than I argued in TRL .
This speaks volumes not just of Lincoln but of the Lincoln cult in academe that has covered up these truths for generations .
In The Problem with Lincoln I document page after page of his own statements and declarations demonstrating this point , something that should inspire @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , ” arsonists , and vandals to begin dismantling all the Lincoln statues that scar the land .
The Problem with Linco ... DiLorenzo , Thomas J .
Buy New $ 29.99 For generations , the Lincoln cult has attempted to cover these plain historical facts up by saying that slick old Abe was simply pandering to the pervasively-racist white Northern electorate when he opposed making citizens of black people , or allowing them to intermarry with whites , and to deport them to Africa , Central America — anywhere but the U.S. @ @ @ @ @ @ @ through his teeth his entire adult life , in other words .
That is their defense .
This argument was discredited forever with the publication of the book Colonization After Emancipation by Phil Magness and Sebastian Page , in which they prove that Lincoln was plotting with William Seward until his dying day to deport all black people , including the soon-to-be-freed-slaves , to various locations in the tropics and in Africa .
These authors uncovered correspondence between Lincoln and various foreign governments regarding the purchase of land for the deported black people @ @ @ @ @ @ @ day of the assassination .
I tell the story in my new book .
Magness and Page also debunk the Lincoln cult ’ s century-old tale that Lincoln suddenly gave up on his lifelong advocacy of “ colonization ” ( a.k.a .
deportation ) in 1863 .
Lincoln made racist and white supremacist statements all through his life , whether he was running for political office or not because they were his true beliefs .
He was “ a man of his times , ” as the saying goes , and anything but @ @ @ @ @ @ @ has falsely portrayed him as being .
The Problem with Lincoln goes much further than TRL in showing that the War to Prevent Southern Independence , like all wars in human history , was primarily about money and political power , not humanitarianism .
All of the corruption of the British empire with its corporate welfare subsidies , protectionist tariffs ( “ protecting ” consumers from lower prices , as John C. Calhoun once remarked ) , a corrupt , politicized national banking system , and the vast waste of blood and treasure @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Lincoln ’ s Americanized version of the French Revolution .
That , in fact , was always the dream of the “ nationalist ” tradition in American politics , beginning with Hamilton and the Yankee Federalists .
The Real Lincoln : A Ne ... Dilorenzo , Thomas J .
Best Price : $ 4.25 Buy New $ 7.48 Comparing the first inaugural addresses of Jefferson Davis and Abraham Lincoln , I think I prove conclusively that both men knew – and stated publicly for all the world to hear – that there would @ @ @ @ @ @ @ if the South refused to continue to pay a tariff tribute to Washington , D.C. Of course , the South would not do so any more than the American colonists wanted to continue to pay taxes to King George III .
In his first inaugural address Lincoln essentially drew a line in the sand and effectively said : Pay up or die .
“ There needs to be no invasion of any state , ” he said , as long as Southerners continued to be good little obedient taxpaying serfs to Washington , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ act of Mafia-style extortion a million times worse than anything the largest criminal gang in the world has even dreamed of doing .
I say this as a student of Murray Rothbard , who once pointed out that states that behave in such a manner are little different in their purpose than any criminal gang ; the only difference is that it is a much , much bigger and better-armed criminal gang .
The Best of Thomas DiLorenzo

“The problem with Lincoln is the problem with America,” said my friend Clyde Wilson when I asked him for a blurb for my new book, The Problem with Lincoln (Regnery, 2020). That in fact is the theme of the book, written seventeen years after my first book on the subject, The Real Lincoln (TRL), as I shall explain. A secondary theme comes from something that an academic reviewer of The Real Lincoln wrote at the end of his review seventeen years ago: “Lincoln was even worse” than I portrayed him as being.
How was Lincoln “worse”; let us count the ways. Lincoln was in fact an even more extreme racist and white supremacist (a typical man of the North, in other words) than I argued in TRL. This speaks volumes not just of Lincoln but of the Lincoln cult in academe that has covered up these truths for generations. In The Problem with Lincoln I document page after page of his own statements and declarations demonstrating this point, something that should inspire the current crop of left-wing “protesters,” arsonists, and vandals to begin dismantling all the Lincoln statues that scar the land.
The Problem with Linco... DiLorenzo, Thomas J. Buy New $29.99 (as of 11:50 UTC - Details) For generations, the Lincoln cult has attempted to cover these plain historical facts up by saying that slick old Abe was simply pandering to the pervasively-racist white Northern electorate when he opposed making citizens of black people, or allowing them to intermarry with whites, and to deport them to Africa, Central America — anywhere but the U.S. “Honest Abe” was obsessively lying through his teeth his entire adult life, in other words. That is their defense.
This argument was discredited forever with the publication of the book Colonization After Emancipation by Phil Magness and Sebastian Page, in which they prove that Lincoln was plotting with William Seward until his dying day to deport all black people, including the soon-to-be-freed-slaves, to various locations in the tropics and in Africa. These authors uncovered correspondence between Lincoln and various foreign governments regarding the purchase of land for the deported black people from America that dates almost to the day of the assassination. I tell the story in my new book.
Magness and Page also debunk the Lincoln cult’s century-old tale that Lincoln suddenly gave up on his lifelong advocacy of “colonization” (a.k.a. deportation) in 1863. Lincoln made racist and white supremacist statements all through his life, whether he was running for political office or not because they were his true beliefs. He was “a man of his times,” as the saying goes, and anything but the racial saint that the Lincoln cult has falsely portrayed him as being.
The Problem with Lincoln goes much further than TRL in showing that the War to Prevent Southern Independence, like all wars in human history, was primarily about money and political power, not humanitarianism. All of the corruption of the British empire with its corporate welfare subsidies, protectionist tariffs (“protecting” consumers from lower prices, as John C. Calhoun once remarked), a corrupt, politicized national banking system, and the vast waste of blood and treasure on imperialistic wars was the result of Lincoln’s Americanized version of the French Revolution. That, in fact, was always the dream of the “nationalist” tradition in American politics, beginning with Hamilton and the Yankee Federalists. The Real Lincoln: A Ne... Dilorenzo, Thomas J. Best Price: $4.25 Buy New $7.48 (as of 07:05 UTC - Details)
Comparing the first inaugural addresses of Jefferson Davis and Abraham Lincoln, I think I prove conclusively that both men knew – and stated publicly for all the world to hear – that there would likely be a war over tax collection if the South refused to continue to pay a tariff tribute to Washington, D.C. Of course, the South would not do so any more than the American colonists wanted to continue to pay taxes to King George III. In his first inaugural address Lincoln essentially drew a line in the sand and effectively said: Pay up or die. “There needs to be no invasion of any state,” he said, as long as Southerners continued to be good little obedient taxpaying serfs to Washington, D.C. It was basically a colossal act of Mafia-style extortion a million times worse than anything the largest criminal gang in the world has even dreamed of doing. I say this as a student of Murray Rothbard, who once pointed out that states that behave in such a manner are little different in their purpose than any criminal gang; the only difference is that it is a much, much bigger and better-armed criminal gang.
Read the Whole Article
The Best of Thomas DiLorenzo


lewrockwell--2020-07-29--Is Racism Responsible for Today’s Black Problems?

I doubt whether any American would defend the police treatment of George Floyd that led to his death .
But many Americans are supporting some of the responses to Floyd ’ s death — rioting , looting , wanton property destruction , assaults on police and other kinds of mayhem by both whites and blacks .
The pretense is that police conduct stands as the root of black problems .
According to the NAACP , from 1882-1968 , there were 3,446 black people lynched at the hands of whites .
Today , being murdered by whites or policemen should be @ @ @ @ @ @ @ recent times , there is an average of 9,252 black-on-black murders every year .
Over the past 35 years , that translates into nearly 324,000 blacks murdered at the hands of other blacks .
Only a tiny percentage of blacks are killed by police .
For example , in Chicago this year , there were 414 homicides , with a total of 2,078 people shot .
So far in 2020 , three people have been killed by police and four were shot .
Manhattan Institute scholar Heather Mac Donald reports that “ a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to be killed by a black male than an unarmed black male is to be killed by a police officer.
” Crime is a major problem for many black communities , but how much of it can be attributed to causes such as institutional racism , systemic racism and white privilege ?
The Black Family in Sl ... Gutman , Herbert G. Best Price : $ 32.66 Buy New $ 37.54 The most devastating problem is the very weak black family structure .
Less than a third of black children live in two-parent @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
The “ legacy of slavery ” is often blamed .
Such an explanation turns out to be sheer nonsense when one examines black history .
Even during slavery , where marriage was forbidden , most black children lived in biological two-parent families .
Professor Herbert G. Gutman ’ s research in “ The Black Family in Slavery and Freedom 1750-1925 ” found that in three-fourths of 19th-century slave families , all the children had the same mother and father .
In New York City , in 1925 , 85 % of black @ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ Five in six children under the age of six lived with both parents.
” During slavery and as late as 1920 , a black teenage girl raising a child without a man present was a rarity .
An 1880 study of family structure in Philadelphia shows that three-quarters of all black families were nuclear families .
There were only slight differences in family structure between racial groups .
The percentages of nuclear families were : black ( 75.2 % ) , Irish ( 82.2 % ) , German ( 84.5 % ) @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ) .
Only one-quarter of black families were female-headed .
Female-headed families among Irish , German and native white Americans averaged 11 % .
According to the 1938 Encyclopaedia of the Social Sciences , only 11 % of black children and 3 % of white children were born to unwed mothers .
As Thomas Sowell reported : “ Going back a hundred years , when blacks were just one generation out of slavery , we find that census data of that era showed that a slightly higher percentage of black adults had married @ @ @ @ @ @ @ true in every census from 1890 to 1940.
” The absence of a father in the home predisposes children , especially boys , to academic failure , criminal behavior and economic hardship , not to mention an intergenerational repeating of handicaps .
If today ’ s weak family structure is a legacy of slavery , then the people who make such a claim must tell us how it has managed to skip nearly five generations to have an effect .
There are problems such as grossly poor education , economic stagnation and poverty @ @ @ @ @ @ @ I would like someone to explain how tearing down statues of Christopher Columbus , Thomas Jefferson and Confederate generals help the black cause .
Destruction of symbols of American history might help relieve the frustrations of all those white college students and their professors frustrated by the 2016 election of President Donald Trump .
Problems that black people face give white leftists cover for their anti-American agenda .
The Best of Walter E. Williams

I doubt whether any American would defend the police treatment of George Floyd that led to his death. But many Americans are supporting some of the responses to Floyd’s death — rioting, looting, wanton property destruction, assaults on police and other kinds of mayhem by both whites and blacks.
The pretense is that police conduct stands as the root of black problems. According to the NAACP, from 1882-1968, there were 3,446 black people lynched at the hands of whites. Today, being murdered by whites or policemen should be the least of black worries. In recent times, there is an average of 9,252 black-on-black murders every year. Over the past 35 years, that translates into nearly 324,000 blacks murdered at the hands of other blacks. Only a tiny percentage of blacks are killed by police. For example, in Chicago this year, there were 414 homicides, with a total of 2,078 people shot. So far in 2020, three people have been killed by police and four were shot. Manhattan Institute scholar Heather Mac Donald reports that “a police officer is 181/2 times more likely to be killed by a black male than an unarmed black male is to be killed by a police officer.” Crime is a major problem for many black communities, but how much of it can be attributed to causes such as institutional racism, systemic racism and white privilege? The Black Family in Sl... Gutman, Herbert G. Best Price: $32.66 Buy New $37.54 (as of 05:05 UTC - Details)
The most devastating problem is the very weak black family structure. Less than a third of black children live in two-parent households and illegitimacy stands at 75%. The “legacy of slavery” is often blamed. Such an explanation turns out to be sheer nonsense when one examines black history. Even during slavery, where marriage was forbidden, most black children lived in biological two-parent families. Professor Herbert G. Gutman’s research in “The Black Family in Slavery and Freedom 1750-1925” found that in three-fourths of 19th-century slave families, all the children had the same mother and father. In New York City, in 1925, 85% of black households were two-parent. In fact, “Five in six children under the age of six lived with both parents.” During slavery and as late as 1920, a black teenage girl raising a child without a man present was a rarity.
An 1880 study of family structure in Philadelphia shows that three-quarters of all black families were nuclear families. There were only slight differences in family structure between racial groups. The percentages of nuclear families were: black (75.2%), Irish (82.2%), German (84.5%) and native white Americans (73.1%). Only one-quarter of black families were female-headed. Female-headed families among Irish, German and native white Americans averaged 11%. According to the 1938 Encyclopaedia of the Social Sciences, only 11% of black children and 3% of white children were born to unwed mothers. As Thomas Sowell reported: “Going back a hundred years, when blacks were just one generation out of slavery, we find that census data of that era showed that a slightly higher percentage of black adults had married than white adults. This fact remained true in every census from 1890 to 1940.”
The absence of a father in the home predisposes children, especially boys, to academic failure, criminal behavior and economic hardship, not to mention an intergenerational repeating of handicaps. If today’s weak family structure is a legacy of slavery, then the people who make such a claim must tell us how it has managed to skip nearly five generations to have an effect.
There are problems such as grossly poor education, economic stagnation and poverty that impact the black community heavily. I would like someone to explain how tearing down statues of Christopher Columbus, Thomas Jefferson and Confederate generals help the black cause. Destruction of symbols of American history might help relieve the frustrations of all those white college students and their professors frustrated by the 2016 election of President Donald Trump. Problems that black people face give white leftists cover for their anti-American agenda.
The Best of Walter E. Williams