(More from David Collum) Just saying …The most popular of all statistics declares that “97% of climate scientists believe anthropogenic global warming (AGW) is a significant problem.” A colleague and climate change activist at Cornell recently claimed in a debate at Cornell, “that 97% number is not even debatable.” He’s right; it’s complete garbage. Over 11,000 abstracts from papers supposedly on climate change were culled down to 79 papers, of which 77 said climate change was a problem. The one chard of truth: 77 of 79 is about 97%. This is what is known by students of Statistics 101 as “selection bias”! Shame on you scientists. You have become propagandists!
Category Archives: Politics
Fascism and Conspiracy Theories
Karma is alive and well!
The State of the World!
Covid:”It’s the schools,stupid”.
I am becoming increasingly alarmed about the devastation,on many levels,being caused by this Covid pandemic. I am even more alarmed by the blindness and mismanagement of the crisis by our governments and it’s “experts”. These “experts” are very knowledgeable about their fields and their studies .On the other hand ,they are deaf and blind to the Reality around them! So they often make the wrong recommendations -as they did about the masks at the beginning of this pandemic.And it was SO obvious! Only a wooly-minded academic could have missed that point.”Not enough studies, yet” is their pathetic mantra!
As I and many other ordinary individuals around me observe,the problem is the children! They are still in crowded classrooms and daycares and they are bringing the virus back home to their parents and elders.I just have to walk down the street from my home and observe the day-cares and public schools and the problem is screaming out at me!Just yesterday,I was at the dentist and saw a local high -school student waiting for her appointment.She was wearing the school sweater,so with my usual chutzpah I addressed her saying:”How many children are in your class?’ “Twenty-five she responded.”And how many were in your class before the Covid?” “Twenty-five”. There’s the problem! The classrooms are still overcrowded-in most cases!
And make no mistake about it.This is not simply a Trumpian problem!Much better managers than him- in Quebec, in France, in England,in Italy are having trouble managing this pandemic.But they all have one thing in common.They want to keep the schools open.We know why that is! The schools are also day-cares for the children-more importantly,socially speaking, than centres of education.And the parents don’t know what to do with them!Nor does the government!
So here is my suggestion;If we want to get a handle on this virus,we need to reconfigure society’s method of childcare.We need to do,at least for the meantime,collective homeschooling-with the help of the teachers.Here is how it would work.Families with children in the same classroom should be grouped in 3’s or 4’s and take care of the children collectively.Preferably this would be families living close together.This collective childcare would allow for people to work 3 out of four or four out of 5 days, and the other days when they would be on call,so to speak ,to monitor their childrens’ educational process.The relevant classroom teachers would then be a resource for these families rather than on-site teachers.All schools unable to socially distance i.e. the vast majority would have to be closed until further notice!
Yes,this would be a major undertaking.However,if we don’t do it,we could lose millions of lives more-until we get to herd immunity-with or without the vaccine..Which is worse?!
On a deeper sociological,humanistic level we should be asking ourselves questions about our current social organization.Have we not gone too far in institutionalizing the care of human beings.The elders are confined to homes! We saw where that led with the Covid. And now it is the institutionalization of childcare,somewhat more subtle in its effects but toxic to the heart and soul nevertheless.Where are we going with all of this?! I don’t see us heading in the right direction i.e. creating more human happiness and satisfaction.Instead we are creating stressed-out robots everywhere.God Help us!
American Politics,Oy Vey!
Conspiracy Theories Unpacked
Conspiracy Theories Unpacked
Fareed Zakaria, one of the more intelligent representatives of the politically- correct, Ivy League Universities of America, dealt with conspiracy theories on todays GPS show on CNN. So it’s time to comment lol.
He talks about “Pizzagate” and Qanon and the “birther” conspiracies but the one conspiracy that he never addresses is the conspiracy of political-correctness and social, scientific consensus. Of course, he cannot address that as he is completely immersed in it! That is the one that tells us that we live in a truly democratic society, that “Due process of the Law” gives us justice and that man can figure out everything he needs to know through Science and Reason. Ever run into that one lol?! Ever notice how much falseness lies therein.
Well, if you don’t or won’t see that, many other people do. They see the lies, the half-truths, the deceptions and they then try to figure out what is going on. Many diverge into the realm of imagination, fantasy an d sometimes pure projection known affectionately as “paranoia”. But you can’t totally blame them as the mainstream media do.They are being lied to, they know it and so they invent their own lies to compensate. Stated simply, the most important cause of conspiracy theories is the lying and deception promulgated by official sources! All part of a very sick and troubled society!
Now, there is another social myth contributing to this problem. That myth is that our educational system teaches us to think! Wrong! Our educational system teaches us to think in a very outward, Empirical, supposedly logical, way that more often than not leads us away from the Truth rather than closer to it. Our educational system does NOT teach us discernment. It does not teach us basirat (insight, inner vision). It does not teach us true listening and hearing. It does not teach us intuition and insight. So, in effect, our educational system is actually a sophisticated form of brainwashing that few, even those who have designed it, are aware of.
Let me give you a couple of concrete examples to hang your pegs of understanding on. In the late 1970’s Raymond Moody came out with his book: ”Life after Life” analyzing his collection of what became the near-death experience “.Since then I have had an avid interest in these accounts to the point where I wrote a book about them called “The Big Questions-Evidence Based Faith” in 2007. (The second Edition is now available on Amazon.)Almost universally, when you present this evidence of the After-Life to “well-educated” people, they respond the same way: ”But isn’t that just because there are biochemical changes in the brain at the time of death?” For someone slightly more aware than that you could be thinking “Wha-a-at?!”.Here are people telling you they left their bodies, they met angels and deceased relatives and even God, confirming ALL the teachings of the great religions of the World, and all you can think of is “Are these biochemical changes in the brain?!” This is Empiricism at its most perverse and pernicious level. In my understanding, this reflex is entirely generated by our educational system.
A second example: When I was working as a psychiatrist, at one point I had a number of patients suffering from Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Multiple Chemical Sensitivity. In many cases, it became obvious that the source of the problem was environmental issues like mould or chemicals or insecticides at the workplace or in the home. I would often have to work as well with the partners of these patients as the consequences of these problems affected them as well. After awhile I noticed a pattern. The partners who understood best (some of them had understood even before the patients came to consult!) were almost invariably workmen in the trades! The professionals (doctors and lawyers and even engineers)and other random intellectuals and administrators rarely got it. They were too stuck in their concepts. Many of them had concluded it was all “psychosomatic”-another of the abused terms of the politically correct class. (To be addressed in a future article).
At this point, my well-educated readers lol are going to reflexly ask the same question! “So what is the solution?!” This too is part of the socially-conditionned thought processes. As if the solution does not emerge spontaneously from a correct understanding of the problem. Which it usually does!
Nevertheless, since peoples’ thinking processes do not change easily or quickly, I will address this issue as well. The answer is that people need to be educated in discernment and all of its doors(what I call Epistemology for lack of a better term).That should be one of the principal goals of education. And I do not know of a single educational institution ,outside of some advanced Sufi circles, that is teaching this very thing that we need so much in the modern world.
This is a very long and complex discussion-full of all kinds of confusions, ambiguities and misunderstandings. So, to avoid the risk of remaining in the abstract and nebulous let me go back to one of the main problems at hand- the Covid epidemic. The conspiracy theories are all over the place on this one. ”This is a “plandemic”-orgainized by some cabal of business and political leaders to control the world”. ”The Covid pandemic is not real. Only 6% of the deaths are really Covid deaths. The epidemic is no worse than the annual flu”.( Ask the doctors on the ground if you need to dispell that one!)”This was a bioweapon developed either by the U.S. military or the Chinese to be used for warfare”. The list goes on and on.I am still waiting for the theory that this is a plot from extra-terrestials lol.Soon to come on your favourite conspiracy web-site.
Then we have the lies of the official classes-somewhat more subtle but toxic nevertheless. Let’s start with the original lie:”This is a naturally occurring virus that transferred from an animal to a human at the Wuhan market”. Almost every serious viral geneticist like Dr.Luc Montaigne French Nobel prize-winner in looking at the genetic sequence can tell that there is human intervention. For those who love the science of it the insertion is called a “polybasic furan cleavage site”. It was produced by “gain of function” research in America which became a hot potato in the U.S. where it was banned and transferred to Wuhan China in 2014. America knew of the danger after a report to the State Department in 2018 but did nothing about it. When it finally emerged in 2020, the Chinese covered it up at first but shut down the whole area around Wuhan. This is not the place to go into the entire history of this virus but suffice it to say for our purposes here that much of the Truth is not being told to the public. Likewise for the efficacy of Hydroxychloriqine and /or Ivermectin used properly.(Both are being used effectively in Third World Countries!)Both denied by official, social consensus science. Then there is the whole question of the safety of massive vaccine programs. Again either the proper research is NOT being done or it is not being used properly. So people have reason to be suspicious! Not to be paranoid but to be skeptical.
For those who are still determined to find solutions, another element would be true transparency by government officials. That, however, is,despite the rhetoric, highly unlikely given the adversarial nature of current democratic politics and the strategic manipulation of information by one interest group or another.
So, we are by no means out of the woods! Of course, the best weapon against conspiracy theories is Truth! But that Truth can only be discovered through discernment and dispassion. And our current leadership, both in politics AND in science and the professions, has neither of those. They are blind, deaf, insensitive, greedy and ideological-a toxic brew like no other we have seen in history!
Bureaucracy,Empiricism and the American Election
Democratic Politics
(Watching bits of the Democratic Convention) Politics,Oy! America has deep problems on almost every level of social existence.There are serious epidemics all over America- of cancer and Alzheimers and autism and auto-immune disorders! And all the politicians are talking only about is Covid-19.There are serious problems of stress at the workplace and all its detrimental health effects downstream.And all the politicians can talk about are trade deals and increasing efficiency! There are serious problems in relationships.60% of marriages end in divorce(John Gottman) and many people no longer even bother to get married.And all the politicians can talk about is uniting the people! Those people are not even united with the people closest to them in their lives!And there are very serious problems with horribly inefficient bureaucracies in many areas of society including the legal system and the income tax system.And all the politicians can talk about is better training for police and reducing incarceration(two good ideas that barely touch the surface of the problem!) Bottom Line.These politicians are seriously out of touch with Reality.It’s a subtle form of psychosis-IMHO.The covid-19 pandemic is only the first sign of the dysfunctionality.Much,much more to come if these problems are not handled.And the politicians don’t seem to have a clue!
Vaccine Development! The Corona Crisis
Kudos to the Russians for the rapid vaccine development i.e. circumventing the obsessional regulatory vaccine process.I did not use vaccines in my medical practice but I can tell you that each time a new anti-depressant came out,I did not need 30,000 cases to tell me if it was safe and effective.By less than ten cases and CERTAINLY by 100,I was well aware of the cost/benefit therapeutically of the new meds! And btw (please turn off your contradiction detectors here.They are not useful lol!) with all this obsessive testing of the regulatory agencies many vaccines have shown harmful effects down the road anyway.What is really needed here is not greater numbers, as the Empiricists like to believe,but better observational skills among the scientists-something sorely lacking in modern medicine- lacking because of this very emphasis on measurability rather than “seeing”!)