Pivots in mainstream opinion? Reality check on socialized medicine. Early childhood indoctrination

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I sometimes feel like I’m in a gathering thunderstorm, with gusts of news coming from every direction all indicating a major upcoming tempest.

Let me start with Alex Berenson, who calls himself “the world’s wrongest man” with regard to Covid. Just before those gusts started to blow, he published “Tell Your Children” about the dangers of marijuana, which was being legalized at a frantic pace throughout the United States.

I have written here about observations from my youth – I was in college when the drug wave swept across United States campuses in the early 60s – and the impact I have observed of drug use on my peers (many now long dead) and my grown children and their contemporaries.

Mostly what I observed was that druggies simply follow Timothy Leary and “turn on, tune in and drop out.” Their lives are not useful to themselves or society. This is not universally true. Some of you on this distribution enjoyed smoking weed with me back in the 60s and are still alive after successful careers. But reflecting on those who didn’t make it, the euphoria certainly was not worth the price.

Berenson’s latest piece is about aspects of marijuana darker than I experienced.  He writes: “cannabis use causes psychotic episodes and is likely a significant contributor to schizophrenia (and thus to violence, because untreated psychosis drives violence).”  Most significantly, he notes that the New York Times is backtracking on the wonderfulness of legalized marijuana.

As bad cattitude wrote about a week ago in a piece to which I linked, the mainstream is starting to figure out just what a disaster the whole Covid response has been, and more importantly, how it is beginning to make excuses for its unconscionable behavior. Today, as he frequently does, he includes a link to Michael Senger, whose book Snake Oil: How Xi Jinping Shut Down the World describes how we were all taken in on the same topic.

I am no more than an interested observer, my entire family having dodged the jabs and been pretty much unaffected by the lockdowns, distancing, masks and other nonsense. I am more interested, like bad cattitude, in the political repercussions to come when the people of the world figure out they have been had. That dawning realization is the subject of more and more articles such as theirs.

Here is that bad cat again with the observation that just as the United States approves what the head of the WHO calls killing babies with the Covid shots, most of Europe is backing away from doing so.  Common sense is coming to its senses.

Evidence that socialism doesn’t work is all around us. When I saw this piece on the death of Britain’s National Health Service by Vernon Coleman I wrote to a long time friend (and subscriber, hello Michael Bedwell), who within the last year moved into a care home, to ask his opinion. Here is what he wrote:

What you report sounds all too likely, and even in my care home, have never seen a qualified medic. The only live mind I get to chat to is a 17-year old from a local college. Our de facto chief carer is a wonderful lady who encourages us in a weekly Scrabble, but doesn't encourage shy individuals to contribute.  Perhaps it's no coincidence that I've had to use a stick to get around even within the confines of the home.

Luckily I've been sent some issues of Private Eye to keep my critical  facilities alert . C'est la vie.

 Mike

The tenacity with which people believe in vaccines in general and the Covid vaccines in particular has been impressive. The propaganda starts at an early age. I wrote earlier about “Corduroy Goes to the Doctor.” Oksana subscribes to a Ukrainian kids’ publication called Bumblebee. Here are the cover and translated excerpts from an “Interview with Covid 19” intended for early readers.

Other articles in this issue discuss the importance of brushing your teeth and washing your hands. There is no doubt the kids need this kind of instruction. On the other hand, it also accounts for the ungodly fear of microbes that I have to fight every time I turn around. In the case of vaccines, it could be worse than that. The things kids learn in childhood are most often accepted as articles of faith. The pedagogues had better be right!  Sadly, as a refugee from a College of Education, I know better.

Last night Zoriana asked me to read a Ukrainian ABC with her. She sat on my lap and read the whole 30 page book to me! I don’t know if she was reading it or has memorized it. Either way, I am amazed.

Those are the musings from Lake WeBeGone, where the strong man will discuss this very Covid article with the curious boy. And the girl too. The good-looking woman encourages us. All the while baby Mariana throws toys at us and hits us with the stick of her xylophone. She is getting strong enough that it hurts – another teaching opportunity.

Graham