The Zvi vs. smart phones; Jonathan Haidt on kids today; Ashley Rindsberg on Fauci the lab-leak denier; Gordon Wood on the U.S. Constitution in historical context;
Mar 15, 2023·edited Mar 15, 2023Liked by Arnold Kling
The reason mental illness is exploding is because it's being encouraged as "normal" in schools, starting with "Trans".
This is a known mental disorder: Factitious Disorder Imposed on Another, according to the ICD-10 (International Classification of Diseases, 10th Revision).
FDIA is classified under the category of "Other disorders of adult personality and behavior" with the code F68.A
Those who identify themselves as "Trans" in fact do have a disease, but it has been imposed on them.
Other mental illnesses and abnormal sexual orientations/kinks are being promoted as well, they have become social status signaling methods of adolescents trying to raise themselves in the coercive, dysfunctional, abusive gulags that are government schools.
it will be a great day when phone use, social media use, and progressive politics are all low-status, like smoking cigarettes
AMEN...butt🤔😏 it took decades of propaganda to get from then to now and I don’t look forward to the barrage the will be needed to get Americans to “look up”
The United States had so many banks for so long because states prohibited branch banking across state lines, and often even within states. The result was many banks with poorly diversified portfolios: their loans and deposits were closely tied to one small area and its economic ups and downs. Canada initially had branch banking within provinces and later, when the provinces united to form a nation, branch banking nationwide. It has been well known to observers from the late 19th century onward that the Canadian banking system has been more stable than the U.S. system. The Canadian-American economist Michael Bordo has written a number of articles on the theme.
On Ashley Rindsberg discussing Fauci: I wasn't able to determine what specific article she was referring to with the limited information available. She was obviously implying something shady, but without reading the subject publication, in todays world of spin, I have no idea whether she is just spinning nonsense (no indication of real scientific knowledge). I am not a real expert in GoF but I have been following the area for some time including GoF experiments before the present restriction. Like one project where they optimized a virus at killing cells in culture but when used in an animal all the changes just made it a better target for the immune system. Real biology is very complex and it is hard to get your brain around it and the devil is in the details.
I find it ironic how people (left and right) seem to believe that government bureaucrats have "God" levels of knowledge required to manage market economies while distorting markets, innovation by throwing money at sectors, or viral biology/genetics. If I had that "God level viral" knowledge to make a virus more effective and bypass the limited immune system of bacteria, I may use that to create a virus that would kill some nasty human bacterial pathogen like TB or some environmental problem like harmful algae blooms. That would make anti-biotics irrelevant and labs around the world are working on what is really GoF virus against bacteria and fungi. We aren't smart enough to do that one either, but that one would be big money replacing anti-biotics. Yes, bacteria can/do get sick and die from viral (aka phage) infections.
I noted with interest that China made most of the live markets illegal after the first Corona virus-1 problem and apparently a lot of illegal activity was going on in the live markets (even China has legal compliance issues). Imagine what would happen when a local city government in the US got caught allowing illegal activity like our dope markets in homeless camps, the government will clean everything and pick up all the used needles, when it gets national attention. Apparently the illegal wet markets got cleaned up fast and everything sterilized eliminating smoking guns, but an explanation of politicians doing their normal CYA (cover your A**) sounds better than a grand conspiracy requiring a cast of thousands keeping their mouths shut.
The smart phone problem implicates the bloodless engineers even more than the bloodful woke, but this sits awkwardly with the nominally anti-woke merchant right who are currently enthralled by conversational AI.
Re: "Israel today is in the pre-democratic stage, with a Supreme Court that is entirely insulated from popular democracy—judges are not chosen by elected representatives, as they are in the United States. "
According to Wikipedia, judges are selected by a mixed committee of nine members (Judicial Selection Committee):
"Justice Minister – Chairman
Cabinet Minister, chosen by the Cabinet.
Two Knesset Members, chosen by the Knesset (Since 1992 they usually appoint one member from the coalition and one from the opposition).
Two members of the Bar Association (Usually selected by the two largest factions in the bureau).
The Chief Justice, and two other judges of the Supreme Court (replaced every three years by the panel of judges, the selection is usually by seniority)."
It looks like four members of the Judicial Selection Committee represent the legislature and the executive (which is accountable to the legislature), two members represent the law profession, and two members represent represent the Supreme Court (a kind of feedback loop in the judicial appointment process).
Why not call this "democracy"? Perhaps critics have in mind a conception of democracy as *majority rule, through elected representatives in the legislature." I would distinguish (a) majority rule and (b) "democracy". I would define "democracy" as a complex system of representation and accountability. Such systems may vary a lot among "democracies."
I would call "constitutional democracy" the broader set of institutions, which (a) protect individual liberties from "democracy" (e.g., the U.,S. Bill of Rights), (b) establish representation of citizens, and (c) establish checks and balances among the various powers (e.g., branches of government) in a constitutional democracy.
Back to Israel:
The current judicial-appointment system balances representation of the electorate and of experts (the law profession and the Supreme Court). It's a kind of democracy, no?
In practice, the "experts" are all on the left. Also they are predominantly ethnically Ashkenazi (European) as opposed to Mizrachi (Middle Eastern), even though the latter are about half of the Israeli Jewish population. That ethnic fault line is significant. The demonstrators against the reforms are overwhelmingly progressive Ashkenazi.
According to those seeking judicial reform, the Supreme Court has arrogated non-judicial policy functions to itself. It is not limited by a written constitution, which Israel has never adopted.
Yes, yes because that’s just what we need more people social engineering us and trying to micro-manage our lives to change us to conform their expectations, failures and prejudices. It’s not as if we aren’t getting that already in spades. By the by: my smart phone identifies as a desktop - what am I to do?
The reason mental illness is exploding is because it's being encouraged as "normal" in schools, starting with "Trans".
This is a known mental disorder: Factitious Disorder Imposed on Another, according to the ICD-10 (International Classification of Diseases, 10th Revision).
FDIA is classified under the category of "Other disorders of adult personality and behavior" with the code F68.A
https://www.icd10data.com/ICD10CM/Codes/F01-F99/F60-F69/F68-/F68.A
Those who identify themselves as "Trans" in fact do have a disease, but it has been imposed on them.
Other mental illnesses and abnormal sexual orientations/kinks are being promoted as well, they have become social status signaling methods of adolescents trying to raise themselves in the coercive, dysfunctional, abusive gulags that are government schools.
This is entirely by design and intentional.
it will be a great day when phone use, social media use, and progressive politics are all low-status, like smoking cigarettes
AMEN...butt🤔😏 it took decades of propaganda to get from then to now and I don’t look forward to the barrage the will be needed to get Americans to “look up”
The United States had so many banks for so long because states prohibited branch banking across state lines, and often even within states. The result was many banks with poorly diversified portfolios: their loans and deposits were closely tied to one small area and its economic ups and downs. Canada initially had branch banking within provinces and later, when the provinces united to form a nation, branch banking nationwide. It has been well known to observers from the late 19th century onward that the Canadian banking system has been more stable than the U.S. system. The Canadian-American economist Michael Bordo has written a number of articles on the theme.
On Ashley Rindsberg discussing Fauci: I wasn't able to determine what specific article she was referring to with the limited information available. She was obviously implying something shady, but without reading the subject publication, in todays world of spin, I have no idea whether she is just spinning nonsense (no indication of real scientific knowledge). I am not a real expert in GoF but I have been following the area for some time including GoF experiments before the present restriction. Like one project where they optimized a virus at killing cells in culture but when used in an animal all the changes just made it a better target for the immune system. Real biology is very complex and it is hard to get your brain around it and the devil is in the details.
I find it ironic how people (left and right) seem to believe that government bureaucrats have "God" levels of knowledge required to manage market economies while distorting markets, innovation by throwing money at sectors, or viral biology/genetics. If I had that "God level viral" knowledge to make a virus more effective and bypass the limited immune system of bacteria, I may use that to create a virus that would kill some nasty human bacterial pathogen like TB or some environmental problem like harmful algae blooms. That would make anti-biotics irrelevant and labs around the world are working on what is really GoF virus against bacteria and fungi. We aren't smart enough to do that one either, but that one would be big money replacing anti-biotics. Yes, bacteria can/do get sick and die from viral (aka phage) infections.
I noted with interest that China made most of the live markets illegal after the first Corona virus-1 problem and apparently a lot of illegal activity was going on in the live markets (even China has legal compliance issues). Imagine what would happen when a local city government in the US got caught allowing illegal activity like our dope markets in homeless camps, the government will clean everything and pick up all the used needles, when it gets national attention. Apparently the illegal wet markets got cleaned up fast and everything sterilized eliminating smoking guns, but an explanation of politicians doing their normal CYA (cover your A**) sounds better than a grand conspiracy requiring a cast of thousands keeping their mouths shut.
The smart phone problem implicates the bloodless engineers even more than the bloodful woke, but this sits awkwardly with the nominally anti-woke merchant right who are currently enthralled by conversational AI.
Re: "Israel today is in the pre-democratic stage, with a Supreme Court that is entirely insulated from popular democracy—judges are not chosen by elected representatives, as they are in the United States. "
According to Wikipedia, judges are selected by a mixed committee of nine members (Judicial Selection Committee):
"Justice Minister – Chairman
Cabinet Minister, chosen by the Cabinet.
Two Knesset Members, chosen by the Knesset (Since 1992 they usually appoint one member from the coalition and one from the opposition).
Two members of the Bar Association (Usually selected by the two largest factions in the bureau).
The Chief Justice, and two other judges of the Supreme Court (replaced every three years by the panel of judges, the selection is usually by seniority)."
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judicial_Selection_Committee_(Israel)
It looks like four members of the Judicial Selection Committee represent the legislature and the executive (which is accountable to the legislature), two members represent the law profession, and two members represent represent the Supreme Court (a kind of feedback loop in the judicial appointment process).
Why not call this "democracy"? Perhaps critics have in mind a conception of democracy as *majority rule, through elected representatives in the legislature." I would distinguish (a) majority rule and (b) "democracy". I would define "democracy" as a complex system of representation and accountability. Such systems may vary a lot among "democracies."
I would call "constitutional democracy" the broader set of institutions, which (a) protect individual liberties from "democracy" (e.g., the U.,S. Bill of Rights), (b) establish representation of citizens, and (c) establish checks and balances among the various powers (e.g., branches of government) in a constitutional democracy.
Back to Israel:
The current judicial-appointment system balances representation of the electorate and of experts (the law profession and the Supreme Court). It's a kind of democracy, no?
In practice, the "experts" are all on the left. Also they are predominantly ethnically Ashkenazi (European) as opposed to Mizrachi (Middle Eastern), even though the latter are about half of the Israeli Jewish population. That ethnic fault line is significant. The demonstrators against the reforms are overwhelmingly progressive Ashkenazi.
According to those seeking judicial reform, the Supreme Court has arrogated non-judicial policy functions to itself. It is not limited by a written constitution, which Israel has never adopted.
You just described the entire US government as well, it's not limited by a written constitution either.
What a coincidence.
‘Zvi Mowshowitz writes...’
Yes, yes because that’s just what we need more people social engineering us and trying to micro-manage our lives to change us to conform their expectations, failures and prejudices. It’s not as if we aren’t getting that already in spades. By the by: my smart phone identifies as a desktop - what am I to do?
In Power and LIberty, Wood has an entire chapter on the elitist, anti-democratic origins of the Constitutional Convention.