Author Archive: Sarah Hoyt

PEOPLE SHOULD TATTOO TANSTAAFL ON THEIR FOREHEADS. BACKWARDS SO THEY READ IT IN THE MIRROR EVERY MORNING:   The Dismal Science.

THERE WAS NEVER ANY REASON TO DREAD NATIONALISM. NATIONALISM IS NOT THE CULPRIT IN WWI — SCLEROTIC M”ELITES” IN A TIME OF RAPID TECHNOLOGICAL CHANGE WERE– OR WORLD WAR TWO — OUT OF CONTROL SOCIALISM WAS. THE NATIONAL IN SOCIALISM WAS INCIDENTAL — BUT IT WAS BLAMED BECAUSE THE INTERNATIONAL SOCIALISTS HATED IT AND THE INTERNATIONAL SOCIALISTS HAD CONTROL OF THE ACADEMY:  Viral Prerequisites and Nationalist Lessons in Time of Plague.

REPLACE EUROPE WITH GLOBALISM:  Europe Wasn’t Ready for Coronavirus. It May Never Fully Recover.

Let me put this into small bite-size ideas: Globalism, of the sort that assumes there are no real differences between cultures and that totalitarian regimes are as trustworthy as non-dictatorial regimes, is a luxury. It is the luxury of those so wealthy and pampered they can afford to ignore reality and live in make-believe. In centuries past it was the luxury of the very few and very wealthy.  Briefly, for a shining moment in history, all of the West could afford to be that stupid.

No more. Perhaps never again.

YOU SHOULD BE FOLLOWING THIS BLOG:  COVID19 update, March 29, 2020: two brief items+new French hydroxychloroquine study.

And for those following at home, the stress response is why we’re not saving lives: we’re trading lives.  Being locked in the house in unlawful house arrest (quarantine is when the sick are isolated. Locking up the healthy is tyranny and unlawful house arrest) and the subsequent chronic stress will cause everything from auto-immune issues (Hi. Yes, I suffer from them. No. You don’t want to see my hands right now. They’re mostly raw flesh. In my case the stress originating in what we’re doing to the economy and what that will do to our kids’ lives.) to cancer.

That in addition to the problems caused by poverty and deprivation, which we’re aggressively courting.  Things like not having the resources to treat the sick, look after the young, or keep away the various issues of the human condition.  Sure these deprivations were normal/still are for most of humanity. But we didn’t have to endure them.  So, why are we bringing them on ourselves again? What justifies this?

To misquote from A Man For All Seasons: It profits a man nothing to give his soul up the future for the whole world … but for Wales?

Or in other words, you can give up your own prosperity to save “just one life.”  But how many lives will you five up to save that one life? Does it matter if you lack the imagination to see the destruction that s in the future or not right before your eyes?  And will you look back on the work of these months and wonder what possessed the world? And if perhaps that wording is literal?

In every trade it is very important to know what you’re paying for the supposed benefit. It’s even more important to understand There Ain’t No Such Thing As A Free Lunch.

THE PRESIDENT MIGHT HAVE BLINKED BUT I WANT ROGER TO KNOW HE’S NOT ALONE:  It’s Not a Choice Between Lives or the Economy.

Yes, I do remember Heinlein’s dictum that when everyone is rubbing blue mud on their stomach, you should do it just as solemnly, but if the mud is poisonous, one should perhaps be more careful.

LIES, DAMN LIES AND COMPUTER MODELING:  The Kung Flu Hockey Stick.

And yes, I know computer models CAN be accurate and a lot are. But when the results are “doom” and the prescription is some form of central government control we should learn to examine the data that went into them. Garbage In, Garbage Out.

TO BE FAIR IF COLORADO HAD IMPLEMENTED A STAY IN CALIFORNIA PROGRAM SOMEWHERE IN THE EARLY OUGHTS, WE WOULDN’T BE IN THIS FIX. SO ANY EXCUSE WILL DO: Rhode Island does not welcome you.

ALL OF WHICH MAKES OUR CONTINUED DETERMINATION TO PROLONG THE DESTRUCTION OF OUR ECONOMY PUZZLING. EPSTEIN MIGHT NOT HAVE KILLED HIMSELF, BUT WE SURE ARE KILLING OURSELVES:  President Trump Extends Social Distancing Guidelines Through April 30th.

Yes, I know that the Dems want to destroy the economy, but must the president cooperate? Can’t he at least blink SOS in Morse code?