Notes from when "No Place to Hide," 2014 Snowden book, came out. Yawn – more climate and vaccine links. Cynical investing.
20240221
I wrote a decade ago:
Why do bullies act the way they do? Because they can. This week's edition features audacious exhibitions from both East and West. 2014
In the East, we have Vladimir Putin. He has infiltrated soldiers and activists over the unguarded Ukrainian border – they probably came by car, as tourists – to raise hell and push to separate the Southeastern regions from Ukraine and unite them with Russia.
He does this with impunity. The Ukrainian military cannot stop him. As Putin has the huge logistical advantage of being next door, NATO forces would be foolish to oppose him. The drama unfolds as a very well planned, well-orchestrated effort. If only somebody, perhaps the NSA, had been able to read their mail and see it coming.
Alas, the NSA is too busy reading my email to bother with hard cases like Vladimir Putin, who presumably knows something more about secure communications than I do. It is easier to read my Facebook posts, so that is what they do. The NSA conducts their dragnet in the name of stopping terror, although I participate in no terror whatsoever and feel terror mainly of the omnipotence of my own government.
The most chilling point about Edward Snowden's book is how ineffective the NSA's efforts have been in stopping actual terror and war, but how effective they are at stifling dissent. We are all looking over our shoulders… afraid to say what we think. If they have unlimited power to read our mail, they presumably have equal power to create mail in our name and frame us for any crime they want.
My objective is just to raise a sane child, one who will give me grandchildren. I want him to be able to investigate, know and talk about the truth. Honest communication is the foundation of a successful democracy and commerce-based society. The future looks dicey. The first book I reviewed this week, A Troubled Inheritance, lays out the facts that our government and related institutions do not want told about human nature, and the lengths they went to keep this author, Nicholas Wade, from speaking the truth. The second, Snowden's Nowhere to Hide, describes that same government's incredible ability to invade our privacy.
Now, what do I tell my son? Grow up like a Soviet citizen, afraid even to be exposed to the truth, much less to speak it? That is not a world I would want for myself. However, when it comes to a choice between abandoning truth and not having grandchildren, I'll reluctantly go with the grandchildren. Alas.
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The son mentioned above is now twelve years old and has two sisters. I'll still go for the grandchildren. I'm giving a somewhat cynical speech in Toastmasters on Saturday on teaching him how to invest. It's actually the preamble – why a change of plans is necessary. I'll get into what we will do in future installments.
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In other news, there is an Oregon pediatrician who allowed parents to decide whether or not they wanted their children to receive the CDC recommended, often state-mandated schedule of childhood vaccines. He carefully tracked the medical histories of hundreds of children who had been his patients since birth. Kids he knew. Not only their vaccination status, by vaccine, but their history of office visits, diseases, deaths and everything. He participated in a statistical analysis that found that the kids who were not vaccinated were healthier. Fewer sicknesses, fewer office visits. The peer reviewed study made it into a medical journal. Wonderful!
And… he lost his medical license. The peer-reviewed study was retracted by the journal that published it. The establishment does not want to hear.
In related news, the government itself has found that annual flu shots increase your chances of getting --- the flu!
Reduced effectiveness of repeat influenza vaccination: distinguishing among within-season waning, recent clinical infection, and subclinical infection,NCBI (pre-print), 17 March 2023
Repeated annual influenza vaccination and vaccine effectiveness: review of evidence, PubMed, 16 July 2017
Repeated flu shots may blunt effectiveness, PubMed, 7 April 2015
The human antibody response to influenza A virus infection and vaccination, Nature Reviews Immunology, 5 March 2019
Repeat Influenza Vaccination Linked to Higher Risk of Infection: CDC Preprint, The Epoch Times,
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Beating another very weary, but not yet dead horse, there are always stories about the global warming scam. Like, who reads this stuff any more? The sides are drawn.
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That's the news from Lake WeBeGone, where with Saturday's speech prepared the strong man go back and finish the article, preparing for the next presentation.
Good stuff Graham... My thoughts exactly... Have 2 teenage grandsons and I fear for their future