Plutarch is Worth a Read; The more things change the more they remain the same

 Plutarch and his live details the Roman Republic in its final days. Political enemies beheaded and oligarchs trying to become rulers. As Grant notes in his preface: 

Two elements perhaps stand out above all others in Plutarch's late republican Lives. The first is the unbridled pursuit of personal power. Every Life in this selection displays the incessantly disruptive and ultimately ruinous effects of competition and ephemeral collaboration for purely selfish ends between a handful of prominent individuals, none of whom was quite powerful enough to achieve sole supremacy until Caesar put an end to the dominance of the oligarchy that had spawned him in the last stage of its decline. The second is the amount of coverage that Plutarch sees fit to give to wars both foreign and civil. 

To a certain extent this need occasion no surprise. In the eyes of the Roman ruling class military glory was the highest form of distinction to which its members might aspire. The biographer of leading Romans could hardly avoid writing about war, and a man's conduct in the field might well provide illuminating insights into those recesses of his character that Plutarch sought to penetrate. Yet much of his military narrative seems, as observed earlier, to be there for its own sake, regardless of any light it might shed on the protagonists’ moral or psychological make-up.

The reason for both these features of Plutarch's work lies in the standard perception of the republic and its fall that quickly developed under the empire. Everyone knew that the republican ruling class, by its dedication to the quest for wealth and personal power, had destroyed itself and the system of government it claimed to cherish. That Plutarch should share this perception is not remarkable. Explanation would be needed only if he did not.

Plutarch. Fall of the Roman Republic: Six Lives (Penguin Classics) . Penguin Books Ltd. Kindle Edition. 
 

So  who is our ruling class today and given current events are they repeating themselves. It is truly worth understanding our history, it does repeat.

Cancer Resarch

 

The NY Times bemoans the reduction in support of cancer research, and they note:

Other countries are seeing opportunity in the chaos. Varmus is among a number of prominent U.S. scientists who have received solicitations from the governments of France and Spain to consider relocating there. America’s 80-year run as the world’s leader of biomedical research — and 50-year run as the global leader of cancer research — may very well be coming to a close, and for no apparent reason. Varmus seemed as puzzled as anyone by the development. “We are great in science,” he said. “Why would we want to destroy one of our greatest assets?”

 Yes the US has dominated research ut frankly I see China galloping along at a fair pace. So should we revamp the NCI? One may want to look at the web site of NCI. It tells a story in a rather politically correct manner. I will let you determine how. But frankly perhaps cancer research needs some restructuring.

Cancer is a complex disease with often no common thread even amongst the same cancers. One need look no further than lymphomas to see such variety.

That complexity is what has been studied over the past 50+ years. Gene after gene, pathway after pathway. From masses of cells to now cell by cell. 

We have two extremes in cancer research. At one end is the silo approach of gene after gene. PTEN, MYC, MTOR, and the list goes on. Then we have  clinical trials with some success. For example we see in cancer like melanoma that immune system control, PD-1 blockage, works in say 30-40% of the cases. Why not all? In hematological cancers with CD19 surface markers we have some success with CAR-T cells, but again not all. Why?

We are missing the middle state. Namely systems analysis of cancers. Looking at "all" the elements from genes to environment such as the tumor micro environment, to epigenetics, and the impact of the patient's other genetic factors. It is very complex and just being addressed.

Perhaps a good look as to how cancer research should evolve would be worthwhile. But one must be careful not to throw the baby out with the bathwater. 

Fall In New Hampshire

 As the summer ends the New England Asters are in full bloom. A beautiful blue color astride every roadside.

A Loss, A True Genius and Leader

 David Baltimore passes at the age of 87. Baltimore and his colleagues came to understand reverse transcription, the writing of DNA segments into our own DNA. That became the key element in understanding AIDS.

He was attacked without basis by the Congressman Dingell, a ruthless attack without merit, which may have very well set back AIDS work a decade.

Baltimore was a fantastic leader and scientist. 

Don't Know How Many Died

 RFK Jr responded to a question by stating he did not know how many died of COVID. At first glance that would be absurd. However after some thought it makes eminent sense. Why? Simple. Many of the nursing home patients for example had massive co-comorbidities. Namely they had cardiovascular issues, pulmonary issues, cancers, Diabetes, etc. So cause of death would be complex even with an autopsy. 

If they tested positive for COVID, the actual cause of death may have been a heart attack, a stroke, etc. At best COVID was a co-morbidity. In the long run, no "cause of death" could be attributed. It is like so many aged, cause of death, pneumonia! It would be simple. Death certificates are notoriously in error unless the patient has been tracked with the full extent of the disease. Pancreatic cancer, lung cancer, massive stroke validate by imaging, may satisfy. But COVID and co-comorbidities, not so much.

The CDC should have understood that but they seem not to. Thus understanding COVID is still a mystery! 

 

Natural Rights

 In the Daily Signal there is a piece detailing what a US Senator thinks of Natural Rights. Namely:

During a nominations hearing of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Wednesday, the former Democrat vice presidential candidate said, “The notion that rights don’t come from laws and don’t come from the government, but come from the Creator … that’s what the Iranian government believes. … So, the statement that our rights do not come from our laws or our governments is extremely troubling.” 

 Now I have written a short book on Natural Rights, a field of study going back centuries. This Senators if clueless.

As I stated:

Our argument is simple. The term Nature is an artifact of the past but it can now take on a reality in fact. Consider the statement; humans walk upright. The comparable statement is that; it is in the Nature of a human to walk upright. But as we know today, scientifically, the genetic structure of human genes results in processes, functions, and structures that make human walk upright. Namely the Nature of a human is to walk upright is the same as the genetic predispositions of humans to walk upright. Genetic structure and functioning are then the basis of the term Nature. We argue they are the sole basis.

It is in the Nature of a rose to have thorns. The genetic makeup of the rose is such that it has the persistent propensity to have thorns. Thus, Nature and Genetics are isomorphic and isometric. We often see various individuals opine on such things as justice and rights. The current milieu in these areas focuses on right and justice in the context of a society, not individuals. Moreover, we see the society broken down into identity group, identity politics if you will, where collectives of individuals who possess certain belief sets congregate to promote their specific interests in those belief sets, their assumed identities.

The two terms are our focus herein. Rights inure to an individual and place a demand on the society in which they exist. Justice on the other hand inures to the society and places a demand on the individuals in the society. In a sense they can be complementary and on the other hand they can be conflicting. We then take another step and examine the construct of Natural Rights and then its alternative Social Justice. Natural Rights we will argue is something emanating fromthe 14th century Franciscan Friars and in a way their women colleagues in the Franciscan orders,

the Poor Clares, and their battles with the rather arrogant Pope John XXII, in Avignon. From this battle emerged the rights of individuals. In contrast the construct of Social Justice emanates from the 19th century ideas of a state's responsibility to care for its citizens. Thus, we have two rather seriously conflicting principles; the rights of individuals, as stated in the US Bill of Rights, and the Social Justice movement which is the benchmark of 21st century Progressive politics.

 Thus Natural Rights is "natural" to the human, NOT granted by any Government. The literature on this is extensive. How do we have so uneducated a political class. This Virginian in my opinion disgraces the work of Jefferson, not to mention Paine.  

I am 82+, but MIT seems to think I should be incapacitated

 

The WSJ has a piece telling how MIT has an Age Lab and that they incapacitate a student to feel my age. They note; 

It took two people to make me feel like I was a woman in my 80s. At the MIT AgeLab, which works on finding ways to improve life for the elderly, a pair of researchers helped me put on their age-simulation suit. They started with a 15-pound weighted vest, tightening the straps around my body. They added more weights around my ankles and wrists, to replicate the sensation of the loss of muscle mass that accompanies aging. They pulled a blue jumpsuit up over the weights, helping me lift each leg and step into the suit without falling. They added a harness around my waist, and a bungee cord system that attached to different body parts including the back of the ankles and my wrists. The cords reduced my ability to reach up and shortened my stride. The get-up made it even more difficult to stand without a slouch. They put a padded neck collar on to limit my rotation and goggles to distort my vision. Foam-padded Crocs on my feet challenged my balance. The MIT designers call the outfit the “Age Gain Now Empathy System,” or Agnes for short. 

Now back in the 60s some clueless student like this would have most likely been a product of BU before Silber, but not MIT. This shows haw MIT has deteriorated  not me. Now my wife is a few years older than I but she spent the day hedge clipping and root pulling. I did some chain sawing and leaf collecting. 

Yes we both have had cataract replacement, but my wife resulting from her life as a chemist and mine from, get it, ageing.  Yes my knee is shot, but more from damage as a result of travel accidents and less just age. 

I still write more than any graduate student at MIT and my wife reads more than any Harvard undergrad. She spends the week bagging the plants at season's end to be collected so the garden is ready for Spring. We are headed for our home in New Hampshire to do the same there on the side on Mount Tecumseh.  

So yes, I hate many of the new packaging schemes but my wife has shown be how to bang open the pickles. 

Would it not have been better to collect a group of 80+ MIT grads like us and see what we have done. Instead money and time was wasted on what simpletons thought we should look like. This is just another sign of deterioration, not of 80+s but of what MIT allows to be foisted upon us as academic excellence. 

Told You So!

 

The NY Times has an article regarding the increased mortality of prostate cancer in American males. In 2012 the USPSTF stated that PSA testing should not be done in men over 70. They relied upon studies in NEJM based in Europe and the US. At the time I stated the studies were flawed. (Also see A, B, C) Finally, multiple studies supported my analysis back then,

PSA has problems but death from PCa also is a problem. In today's environment an elevated PSA would result in a multi parameter MRI. Even that has problems. For example the diffusion weighed scan can show positive result on scars from past prostate biopsies, Then the biopsies have some negative sequella such as infections but frankly at a well experienced site that is a very low risk.

The Times notes:

Many experts in the field say that reducing routine screening may have inadvertently led to a bump in severe disease. “It’s not easy to link a specific guideline to a worsening of disease, but it’s fairly convincing that the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force’s 2012 recommendations were very harmful,” said Dr. Jonathan S. Fainberg, a urologic surgeon at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York who was not involved in the new report.

 But, it was clear to anyone who read the studies that they were flawed. I detailed that at the time. It took almost 15 years to seek a remedy.

Men over 70 have a high risk of PCa. The rule of thumb is that men of 70 have a 70% chance, men of 80 and 80% chance and so forth. But that change may mean an indolent and limited PCa presence. Thus for most 80+ men, if they have PCa then the PSA may be slightly elevated but it is not spreading.

In my opinion and my experience the USPSTF has issued multiple flawed recommendations. Breast cancer is also on their list of flaws. The recommend no mammograms after 75 but many women over 80 have BCa! So what do we do, just abandon them as well!

Perhaps we abandon the USPSTF! 

 

Electric bikes

 The latest trend in our suburbs is the young males (about 12-17) riding electric bikes. Now males 18-35 are the worst and most deadly drivers on the road. I had one total my car a few years back sending my grandchildren to the ED. In NJ unfortunately as a "NO Fault" state, short of vehicular homicide the Insurance company decides amongst themselves and the driver harmed is left empty handed while the at fault driver get a free pass to just go at it again.

But at least cars have licensed drivers with insurance in a registered vehicle, almost always. But the bicycles do 25+ mph and are silent, electric not gas. So they come up behind a pedestrian and zip through sidewalk crowds. The Police seem grossly clueless. After-all they are minors, so until someone is killed, or worse a group slaughtered, nothing will be done. 

There is no Constitutional Amendment that enables reckless pre-teens and teens  to mow down pedestrians. 

I first saw this in DC a decade ago, but now in the suburbs parents spend $1,000 on a deadly weapon and give it to their child. Wait till the Courts catch up with this one!  

The Problem with AI

 AI systems are electricity hogs. They use massive amounts continuously 24 by 7. Then they get to buy this power off the same grid that small businesses and residences do. The net result is they get massive subsidies by effectively taxing the little folk! The Utility Commissions facilitate this.

The solution is simple. Make them pay massively more per unit or demand they construct their own power systems. Prevent them from abusing the consumers. 

Personally, from my experience, much AI is just a flim flam act that is supposed to benefit society when in fact it may be inherently a destructive mechanism. 

Vaccines

 The current conflicts over vaccines in my opinion were a direct result as to how the Government handled the pandemic. The thesis of the Government leaders was that mRNA vaccine was a sine qua non, it worked, prevented getting the virus and prevented the spread. Unfortunately that was based upon literally no clinical evidence,

mRNA vaccines were new, elegant and did have a modicum of effectiveness. Namely they may have reduced persons getting "infected", qua getting sick. It may not have stopped people from getting infected and being a carrier, I cannot find any trials demonstrating that. It did not stop transmission. Frankly we still do not really understand the transmission path. My guess it by aerosols and into the tear ducts. But that is at best an educated guess. Yes, there was no time for clinical trials but frankly the CDC should have been collecting data and making it publicly available, There is a mass of people who could be examining it.

Instead, one relied at best on shaky State data. In New Jersey for example the head of Dept Health was a politically connected RN. It was never clear to me that this individual had a modicum of confidence.

The major problem was the Government stating things which frankly were far from provable. Vaccines did not stop infection nor did they stop transmission. Once the public started to discover this there was a gross collapse of confidence. The CDC was never on top of the issue. 

Vaccines play a major role in health care. I had my small pox vaccine in 1944, and suspect it may very well still be effective. I had Polio vaccines, Rabies, Yellow Fever, and the list goes on. Flu vaccines are good for at most 6 months, COVID likewise. Neither is fool proof. They are mitigators. Polio and Small Pox seem to be effective and long lasting. 

But it is essential that the public be informed even if is a limited amount and that must be stated. Telling the people and absolute when their own eyes show otherwise destroys trust. No trust and you get what we see today.  

Medical Research

 Medical Research has been highly productive over the past fifty years. Much focus has been on cancers, and rightly so, since these diseases are often brutal as well as highly costly to deal with. Yet there are many other diseases that debilitate and are costly, namely those due to what is termed sterile inflammation. An example is osteoarthritis, the breakdown of bone joints inflicting pain and loss of function. In many of these disorders the solution is at best the "grin and bear it" approach.

Now research has found linkages between cancers and sterile inflammations, and as we learn more we see we often know less. The current assault on medical research seems to be highly counter intuitive. In fact it may set us back generations. However a factor in this process often is the researchers themselves. Their work may be highly laudable but the generational sense of entitlement should be mollified. Funding is often done in a closed cadre of associates which breeds a sense of being a protected class. 

I suspect much of the current attack on the research community is as much an attack on attitudes as it is an intent to reduce Government expenditures.  

AI vs The Reference Librarian

 In an old movie with Spencer Tracy and Katherine Hepburn called the Desk Set, Hepburn plays a 1940ish Reference Librarian. Namely some one in the company asked a question and she and her team came up with the answer. Segue to 1970s at MIT. We had Reference Librarians. They were well educated and specialists. Thus if I had a question about some progress in the nascent field on DNA, just about twenty years old by then, I would meet the Reference Librarian and we would have an interrogatory and some brief time later, days usually, I would be gotten back by them and would have my answers and a details list of reference back up. 

My interactions were in a dialog form and my backup was both a list of references and hard copies of the most important ones. No computers, good interrogatories  and detailed results.

The Librarian did not generate anything new, just collected and summarized the data available. 

So what is AI? A computerized Reference Librarian who consumes massive amount of electricity for which the consumer is bearing the costs. My old Reference Librarian consumer de minimis electricity. Also she was quite pleasant and thorough. 

So what is AI?  

Hiroshima vs Manilla

 

Manilla, late 1944, after US landed and took over. Most of the damage was caused by Japanese. This is what the US was looking for if they tried to invade Japan a year later. It was often worse than Dresden. Just an observation.

My Flowers are Blooming

 Many of my daylilies are coming out. Worth a look.

Some Thoughts on College Admission

 Back in 1960, MIT admissions required an application, mostly your address and school, a school record, and SAT scores. No essay, no list of parent funded research at some exotic location, no letter of recommendation from Nobel Prize winners, no pictures of the erstwhile student feeding starving children in some war torn country. Just grades. Also yearly tuition was $750 as was room and board. One could make that working hard over the summer so no student loans were necessary. One just had to be smart, hard working, and focused.

Thus a large group was from New York City, a lot were Jewish or friends of them. Many came from first class City schools or some quality Catholic High Schools. 

Now such students would have zero chance. The new cadre are either socially deprived, or family funded. Hard working city kids would never even get close. But it was those hardworking city kids that built trillion dollar start ups! 

We managed to get through the Vietnam War days with little disruption, although I got to know the Rosa Luxemburg SDS folks, mostly wandering down from Harvard.

The new Administrations have become social brewing pots, collecting the strangest group of social justice warriors possible. The Administration has ballooned into a social justice warrior enclave, a self perpetuating mass of hangers on who are over paid and under educated. 

What will happen to this institution? 

The Idiocy of Commencement Speakers

 I received my doctoral degrees in 1971. It was still amidst the Vietnam War and a year after the massacre at Kent State. The President of MIT, Prof Howard Johnson, just congratulated the graduates, no outside speakers, and no class Presidents. Just get the degree, show the family and friends and then get lunch! Commencement was a day for the graduates. The last thing we needed was some artificial pompous person pontificating on what we should be doing. Just get a job, avoid getting drafted, and become productive. Yet there we no jobs, Nixon had crashed the economy, the War continued, and getting productive was seeking out opportunities at McDonald's!

Come 2025 at MIT we see some Internet comedian giving advice to students who all seem clueless about the reality of life. That was followed by some political radical bemoaning her fate while apparently dissing many students who were too clueless to understand. 

Do Universities have problems? If one examines Commencements then one sees that they sure do. 

As for foreign students it is worth examining the MIT records. 

Remembering the Lost at the Battle of Surigao Straits

The following men were lost on my father's ship, DD-649, The Albert W Grant in the battle of Surigao Strait, most by friendly fire from the Light Cruiser Denver.

  Last Name                     First Name                        Position
Alexander                        Theodore Leroy           MM
Asmore                            Floyd Vernon               MM
Brannan                           Robert Joseph              EM
Cahiea                              William R.                   F
Cairns                              Clyde A.                       MM
Carlson                            Wallace K.                   CPO RM
Carson                              Clyde                            Ensign, Torpedo
Cheek                               Daniel Smith                S
Couette                            Armand N.                   TM
Cunningham                    Edwin James                MM
Davis                                Wilson Howard            CPO EM
Ellis                                  Milford                         CPO WT
Kuebker                           Kenton W.                    Bkr
Kusheloff                         Joseph Myer                 RM
Lee                                   William Danual           S
Luketic                             Anthony Rudolph        F
Markham                         Walter                          MM
Martin                              Joseph Eugene             PhM
Mathias                            Eugene                         RM
Mathieu                            Charles Akin                Lt jg Medical
McElroy                           Warren M.                    CPO MM
McGee                             James Carey                 S
McInturff                         Thomas Samuel           S
Messer                             James Henry                S
Noel                                 Claudius                       RM
Pack                                 Arless A.                      F
Rathburn                          Frederick H.                 TM
Roberts                            Earl Franklin                MM
Rothe                               Donald Terrance          F
Sarver                              Milton Dwight             S
Selleck                             William Marrtin           RM 1C
Springer                           Fred W.                        WT
Stephenson                      James Winfred             MM
Surprenant                       Donal Rosaric              CPO WT
Ward                                Francis Irvin                 CPO MM 

Weber                                                                   MM

An Observation

 In New Jersey there is a collapsed Interstate, I80.Going on a year of being closed. The reason is a set of mines under the highway which collapsed leaving "sink holes". Now if one looks at a map. they had such a few years back when the state decided to build, the Interstate went thru a town called Mine Hill! A hine perhaps that there would be trouble. But alas it was NJ's best employees who apparently did not get the hint. You see New Jersey in the early 1800s was the biggest mining state around. Duh!

BTW the Interstate is still closed. Perhaps the new Governor will take some action but do not hold your breath folks. 

BTW the NY Times finally caught on. How about the Gov!

A Great Bio on Gilson

The book by Michel, a biography of Etienne Gilson is well worth the read. Gilson was a Thomist scholar as well as a classic French intellectual. At a time when France welcomed Sartre, Gilson also played a significant role in the rejuvenation of Thomistic thought. I had studied Thomas Aquinas in college, as did most Catholic students in my day, late 50s to early 60s, before the Vatican II renovation of Catholicism. One must understand the structure of intellectual thought in this period. It was structured and had certain underlying logical assumptions that were open to later critiques. Gilson addressed these issues for the modern reader.

This is an exceptionally readable biography of Gilson, from his youth until his final days. It discusses his interactions with other French intellectuals, his move to Toronto, and his position as a 20th century Thomas alongside Maritan. I would strongly recommend this work to anyone interested in Gilson and this period. Regrettably I am not a Thomist but bent more towards Ockham. Where Aquinas integrated Aristotle into the theology and philosophy he presented, it was Ockham who made a break in many ways to what we see today. Aquinas became a saint and Ockham was excommunicated, albeit by a heretical pope.

Understanding Thomism is facilitated by Gilson more than Maritain in my opinion. Thus understanding the man and his life is a sine qua non to understand the Church and its beliefs. One should remember that Leo XIII, the image of who the current Bishop or Rome uses, made Thomistic thought the sole path for Catholic learning. Gilson's views may be a path to understanding that nexus.

Are you out of your mind!

 The Guardian notes that Leo XIV announces that Leo "opens the doors" for Ukraine and Russia can negotiate at the Vatican. Someone must have forgotten about history. The Guardian notes:

Pope Leo confirmed to Giorgia Meloni his willingness to host in the Vatican the next round of negotiations to try to end the war between Russia and Ukraine, the Italian prime minister said on Tuesday. “Finding in the Holy Father confirmation of the readiness to host the next talks between the parties in the Vatican, the prime minister expressed deep gratitude to Pope Leo XIV for his unceasing commitment to peace,” said a statement from Meloni. Leo, elected two weeks ago, said on 14 May that the Vatican could act as a mediator in global conflicts, without specifically mentioning Russia’s war against Ukraine.

 Now the Russian Patriarch in Moscow has unbroken lineage from the earlier Patriarchs in history. Unlike the Patriarch, the Bishop of Rome, AKA the Pope, has a massively disrupted lineage. There have been multiple Popes, Anti Popes, heretical popes, and of course the Borgias! Hardly the most sanctified lineage. For example John XII, an Avignon Bishop of Rome, never having set a foot in Rome, was declared a heretic! One of many. The list of issues is endless.

Thus to consider Putin, relying on the support of the Patriarch in Moscow, to entertain the kindness of Leo seems ate first glance to be a dunderheaded step by one oblivious of history. It would be akin of some grand Mullah to agree to negotiate under the auspices of the Chief Rabbi of Jerusalem!

This was dead from the get go. But more importantly it shows how little the West even tries to understand Russia. It shows further that such lack of understanding leads to hostility. 

MIT Government Funding and Foreign Students

 MIT is a land grant college. Over its almost 150 year history it has supported the US in various ways such as the Rad Lab, Lincoln Lab, the Instrumentation Lab, and recently such efforts as Koch Lab, Whitehead, and others. Much of the success in technology has come from these efforts. MIT's Government funding is now close to $2.4 billion annually. However it has some 30% of its almost 12,000 students are foreign. 

Now I have been a member of the above mentioned Labs over the years. I have also been in the EECS Department as student and faculty as recently as 2012. However I noticed that by 2012 none of my doctoral students were US citizens, many from the PRC. But worse was the fact that these students were funded from US Government contracts many even from DoD related contracts! One fears that in a remake of the film Tora Tora Tora we see an Admiral Yamamoto saying not that he went to Harvard but to MIT and learned all he could under a DoD sponsored contract while earning a doctorate. While one suspects the American student, say a Feynman double, was not admitted since he did not make the DEI match and was from New York City! 

In my opinion the current Administration may have a point but the point is mired in details which seem to be a blind spot. In the 60s it would have been unheard of to have a large cadre of Soviet grad students funded by DoD! But the parallel today is not only thought of but implemented. Details do count. Perhaps that is a step to understanding what these students are doing and from whence they came.

More critically is why we do not have more American students. Are these 30%, or 3600 foreign students that much better than American students? Could I no longer qualify, even after life's accomplishments to gain admission.  

There is clearly a critical national problem here. Are we educating possible national adversaries at the costs of the taxpayer. Are these putatively a threat of our own making? How does this compare to other countries? Does the PRC admits 30% of their students from the West? Hardly. I have argued this for decades just to see it compounded by the putative adversarial mix of students.

More Bears

 

They are awake and checking things out. Yes, snow in May!

State Farm and New Jersey

 Just got a notice from State Farm stating:

If the subsequent filing is approved for the full amount requested, when combined with the previously approved rate increase, the average policy will see a rate change of +147.0%. The impact of these filings on your rates may vary substantially, depending on the terms of your policy and your individual circumstances. 

 Yes, 147% increase! Last year it was 50%. Cumulatively that is well over 225% increase. And I have a 2 year old Honda with only 4,000 miles! I guess it is all those under 30 males crashing into us older folks. Solution, not allow any male under 35 to drive!

Oh yes, the Gov and his cronies, remember the guy that sent all the old folks sick into nursing homes with the result of massive deaths, well he could stop this but alas he seems to be on his last legs. 

So avoid NJ at all costs!

 

Another Gilson Masterpiece

 Etienne Gilson, the French Thomist, has written many excellent works. This work summarizes many of Leo XIII writings. It includes the writings but Gilson's summaries are exceptional in detail but are brief and to the point. As one looks at Leo XIV, who has indicated he looks back to Leo XIII, this becomes a timely text. Leo XIII was a strong anti-socialist, as he defines socialism. He was a strong supporter of property rights and the rights of workers. An interesting mix. Leo XIII advocated universal adherence to Thomistic philosophy, abjuring the philosophers of the 19th century.

Overall it is an exceptionally clear work and worth reading in our current environment. One may disagree yet knowing what the views are helps.

The FAA and Gross Incompetence

 In 1972 I began some work at MIT Lincoln Lab on advanced air traffic control systems. It ran the gamut from radars, tracking and airport surface traffic control. In 1977 I was seconded to the FAA to work on AirSat, and using GPS. At the time I lectured on GPS at GWU, and I gather I was one of the few experts in the area. I spoke with Congress to incorporate GPS as well as advanced ATC systems. Strangely the greatest opponent was Senator Kennedy and his staff. I guess he finally concurred.

Now fifty years later we are no further ahead than in the mid 70s. One example of this mess is the MIT Lincoln Lab group who has spent fifty years and billions working on this. A leader in the group asserts that their major achievement is:

... is invested in cultivating a strong culture of innovation and is deeply committed to diversity and inclusion across the Laboratory. She currently serves as the Executive Sponsor for the Lincoln Laboratory Hispanic/Latinx Network employee resource group

It seems that this person is more involved with DEI things than getting the billions of dollars of technology working.  As the NY Times asserts:

 The Federal Aviation Administration said that the outage, which affected communications and radar displays at the facility in Philadelphia, occurred just before 4 a.m. and lasted about 90 seconds.
A similar outage of about 90 seconds last week, on a Monday afternoon, upended travel at the airport, leaving controllers with no way to communicate with pilots and keep planes from crashing into one another. Several controllers working that afternoon were distressed by that episode and took time off, which resulted in several days of low staffing at the facility, causing widespread flight delays and cancellations.

 Now loss of telecom connectivity is a demonstration of gross incompetence in my opinion and my experience. In building my fiber network in Eastern Europe I demanded fail safe systems. Diversity touting and redundancy. If the FAA moved things to Philly then there should have been several alternate route for a fail safe system. Instead, after five decades we are still providing a mid 20th century system. Heads should roll, publicly. The Secretary of Transportation should not spend time saying what is wrong but fix it from day 1 on the job. Stop the Press announcements and solve the problem. 

One simple solution is that there should be no politicians in charge, just operations thugs, solving problems, cleaning out the stables, and no press meetings. Also stop the praise of their DEI efforts, lives are at risk.

 

It's a Shame

 The NCI has abandoned its web page. They note:

Due to restructuring and reductions in force at the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the Cancer Information Highlights bulletin will no longer be published.  

At most it was a 1 person job. It was powerfully useful in understanding what NCI was up to. I think they may be cutting too deeply.

"Sweetheart"

 The article in the NY Times presents just the tip of human arrogance in medicine. It begins with elder speak, the way medical support workers deal with their customers, or shall we say patients. 

When I first started to study medicine I got a copy of Harrison's, a Bible of Internal Medicine. The first chapter told physicians how to speak with patients. One called them Mr or Mrs or Miss Jones etc. Never call a patient by their first name unless you are colleagues and even then one called each other Doctor.

What has happened are the following:

First the employees speaking this was are the lowest paid care givers. They are generally uneducated, paid minimal wage and use this speak as a way of dominating the people in their care. It is the only time in their lives they can give orders or even denigrate others when they have often been denigrated.

Second in the olden days the physician was a god. All answered to the physician and the patient received equal treatment. Now the physician is terrified of the Administrators, generally uneducated but politically connected and over paid managers and moneymakers of medical institutions.

Third, the loss of RNs, professionals in medicine and the explosion of the uneducated care givers means that no one is trained to do anything professionally.

 My general approach is to not become a weakling but to dress properly, be well groomed, speak clearly and if necessary speak down to those trying to be in control. All it takes is a bit of astute medical questioning. Yet the first instance almost always is an interface with the "sweetheart" babes especially in New Jersey!

Interesting: From Congress

 The Congressional pages note:

 The federal government has broad authority over the admission of non-U.S. nationals (aliens) seeking to enter the United States. The Supreme Court has repeatedly held that the government may exclude such aliens without affording them the due process protections that traditionally apply to persons physically present in the United States. Instead, aliens seeking entry are entitled only to those procedural protections that Congress has expressly authorized. Consistent with this broad authority, Congress established an expedited removal process for certain aliens who have arrived in the United States without permission.

In general, aliens whom immigration authorities seek to remove from the United States may challenge that determination in administrative proceedings with attendant statutory rights to counsel, evidentiary requirements, and appeal. Under the streamlined expedited removal process created by the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 and codified in Section 235(b)(1) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), however, certain aliens deemed inadmissible by an immigration officer may be removed from the United States without further administrative hearings or review.

INA Section 235(b)(1) applies only to certain aliens who are inadmissible into the United States because they either lack valid entry documents or have attempted to procure their admission through fraud or misrepresentation. The statute generally permits the government to summarily remove those aliens if they are arriving in the United States. The statute also authorizes, but does not require, the government to apply this procedure to aliens who are inadmissible on the same grounds if they have been physically present in the country for less than two years.

Immigration authorities currently apply expedited removal in more limited fashion than authorized by statute—in general, the process is applied strictly to covered aliens (1) apprehended when arriving at a designated port of entry; (2) who arrived in the United States by sea without being admitted or paroled into the country by immigration authorities, and who had been physically present in the United States for less than two years; or (3) who were found in the United States within 100 miles of the border within 14 days of entering the country, who had not been admitted or paroled into the United States by immigration authorities. Nevertheless, expedited removal has accounted for a substantial portion of the alien removals each year. And in July 2019, DHS announced that it would expand expedited removal within the broader framework of INA Section 235(b)(1) to eligible aliens apprehended in any part of the United States who have not been admitted or paroled by immigration authorities, and who have been physically present in the country for less than two years. A federal district court, however, has enjoined the implementation of this expansion pending a legal challenge.

 

 

Back of the Envelope

 I thought it would be worth a back of the envelope calculation for the "due process" costs for the putative 12 million immigrants. Let me consider just one and you can then just multiply. Now this is a very rough estimate.

Legal costs: Let us assume the Government pays for both their attorney and the immigrants attorney. Let us assume the attorney gets $500 per hour. The attorney then meets the client, prepares a brief, makes a filing, prep the client, prepares several other briefs, goes to court. There may also be an appeal. This can easily be 40 to 50 hours so we have for the immigrant attorney  are the low end $20,000 and perhaps another $10,000 for an appeal. Add in the Governments costs we may reach a fully loaded cost of $50,000

Support Costs: The immigrant had Medicaid, Food Stamps, phones, and other living expenses. Using Government numbers we have $8,000 per year for Medicare, $3,000 for food stamps, $1,000 for phones and often another $2,000 for living assistance. This is a total of $14,000 per year.

Total support costs: Now we assume at the very best the immigrant gets a trial in 2 years and an appeal in 2 years. That is 4 years at $14,000 per year. Let us round it down to $50,000 total.

 Total Costs per Immigrant: Simply $100,000

Total Costs: 12 million time $100,00 equals $1.2 trillion! 

Has anyone done this calculation? I may be off here and there but it may very well be in the ballpark. Who do we send the bill to?

Nothing Is Secure

 In a NY Times piece they note that some anonymous sources state that a certain Secretary had a secure conversation where they spoke with others about a certain action. This secure conversation was leaked. Now just how could that be done you say. Well the US has an agency that examines any and all communications. It can break codes, listen to anyone, looks for certain words or persons etc. The recent past head was relieved of their duty at this organization. Perhaps they might have left behind dome friends who might be upset. Then perhaps these friends sought a remedy and perhaps this Government employee was clueless about how Washington works. 

So maybe we need a more experienced person, ya think! Back in my day in the Evil City in the Swamp one knew whatever you said, wherever you went, whoever you spoke to, there were at least a dozen eyes, ears etc on the lookout! So be careful, But the person in question knows they are a target which means one must be holier than Caesars wife, kind of.

Thomas Merton, Seventy Years Later

The book by Thomas Merton, Seven Storey Mountain, was published in 1948. Merton went on to achieve fame for his theological/mystical writings. I first read Merton’s book in 1955. It was at that time a seven year old text. I was in Catholic School, and was influenced by the Franciscan priest who was saying Mass at our church. As many young men in the 50s I thought of entering the seminary and becoming a priest. The door to that exploration was via the Franciscan Pro-Seminary located but a few miles from my house. I would cycle up the steep hill on Saturdays and spend time understanding what was involved in a vocation as a Franciscan. The priest became a long time mentor but at the beginning he gave me a copy of Merton’s work. I guess he did so to enlighten me by as a young man much so Merton was of a man living a life I could at best dream of. Merton was privileged, educated, uncertain, and at times rambling. But I read it in total. As for the vocation, poverty and chastity were no problem, but the obedience thing really got to me. I gather Merton had no problem there. It would not be until some sixty years later when reading St Francis’ revised Second Rule that I saw Francis saying in a somewhat paraphrased manner; “well the obedience issue can sometimes be problematic, if all else fails follow you conscience”. That to me explained Ockham and the battle with Avignon. But alas Merton never got that far.

 Having now read Merton some seventy years later I was surprised how my life and experiences have dramatically refocused this work. In the 50s Catholicism was strong, well organized and focused. The Mass was in Latin in every country, Catholic schools were everywhere, and Rome ruled unquestioned. Furthermore the Church had its philosopher, St Thomas Aquinas, and the mid century philosophers in Gilson and Maritain. The Church was on a strong foundation. Thus in the 30s, the time frame of Merton, the Church was in much the same condition but the world was in the midst of an economic collapse and anticipating the Huns and their advancement. Thus a 50s reader sees Merton in the timeframe of the 50s, post War and economically secure. Today’s reader sees a weakened Church, political conflict, and a fundamental lack of foundation for Catholic understanding.

 My view today of Merton’s work is massively different than that of the 50s. In the 50s I saw Merton on a path to faith. In today’s world I see Merton as a “posh boy” wandering the world without a care or a job. One wonders how he managed to float across Europe with little cares. His father an erstwhile painter, his mother ill and a fellow follower. He had the good fortune of a well to do grandparents. One now wonders what a normal child of the 30s was like, in the midst of the Depression, seeking to eke out a living with a paper route, washing dishes and the youths journey was at best on the A train from Brooklyn to Manhattan. One wonders what the wistful wanderings of Merton add to his religious enlightenment.

 The on to Columbia, the bastion of Catholic hatred by many of its faculty. He becomes a Communist with no understanding of what a Communist is. One asks if this were to be his true path to God. One reads about his studies at Columbia, and one wonders if this were the 2020s how he could ever afford it? Yet then it was affordable. His studies seem to be what he likes, with no emphasis on getting a job! Again displaying his class as one assured of some form of continued success by means of class.

 The turning point seems to be his reading of Gilson and the Medieval Philosophers. Now Gilson is a Thomist, and Thomism was but one of many philosophical movements in the Church. Merton seems affixed by Thomas and this begins his search for something, some meaning of life. As WW II approaches he fortunately gets a 4F rating for having lost too many teeth. In the 50s that passed me by but now in the 20s it struck me as strange. A somewhat wealthy young man spending time all over Europe and educated with degrees at Columbia having less than half his teeth. That became a symbol of his life to that time.

 He thus begins his journey to Catholicism. The structure, the somewhat Medieval symbolism and ambiance drives him forward. He gets baptized and starts on a path to full participation. The strangest part is his desire to become a priest just after no more than two years. It at first appears as just another one of his jumps. He starts with the Franciscans in New York City. Fortunately the Franciscans are concerned as to his rapid choices, more importantly his motivation and maturity. Why they wonder is this young man so eager to join their order. They see his many jumps in life and are concerned that this may very well be just another. They sensitively turn him down. Rejected his finds an alternative, the Trappists. He follows this path and gives us, the reader, the tale of a monk asking, at first, if he wants to enter, him saying no, and upon his second visit, the monk saying he had expected his return. Thus unlike the Franciscans he had found a home. Thus the end of the journey to his new home, with meaning and security.

 One asks how this book has merit in the current times. For the 50s, devout Catholics could see this as a victory over the worldly lives of the unredeemed. In the 20s of today, one may see a youth wandering with no guidance, yet having the financial support to do so, while the world around is in the midst of financial and political collapse. He seems almost oblivious to this. He seems quite comfortable at Columbia seeking wisdom from the literature presented to him, while a mere 10 blocks north people are barely surviving in the financial downturn. In the 50s one could ignore that view, in the 20s one wonders how this could not have been avoided being seen and commented upon.

Are "Scientists" Really That Smart?

 Nature has an interesting piece on scientists and tattoos! Yep, cool scientists are getting tattooed along with Secretaries of Defense and all the lonely people. Nature notes:

... had wanted a tattoo for years, so when she finished her neuroscience PhD in 2019, she knew it was time. “It made sense that once I had my PhD, I would commemorate it this way,” she says. Barry’s research focused mainly on hearing-loss disorders, such as tinnitus, and she spent a lot of time looking at auditory thalamus neurons, the nerve cells that help to process sound. These were often stained using the Golgi method, highlighting the neuron’s cell body and dendrites that resemble tree roots and tendrils — and would make for a good fine-line tattoo.  In 2021, she got the tattoo — aptly, behind her ear. “I really didn’t expect my tattoo to play as much of a part in my identity, but it just felt right,” says Barry, who is now a research fellow at the University of Western Australia and Curtin University in Perth. She’s not alone. Many scientists mark research accomplishments and career milestones by heading to a tattoo par

However, less than a year ago a Lancet article noted:

 The popularity of tattoos has increased dramatically over the last few decades. Tattoo ink often contains carcinogenic chemicals, e.g., primary aromatic amines, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, and metals. The tattooing process invokes an immunologic response that causes translocation of tattoo ink from the injection site. Deposition of tattoo pigment in lymph nodes has been confirmed but the long-term health effects remain unexplored. We used Swedish National Authority Registers with full population coverage to investigate the association between tattoo exposure and overall malignant lymphoma as well as lymphoma subtypes.

 That is not at all surprising. Tattoos elicit a massive immune response, resulting in methylation of histones and resulting in suppression and activation of lymphoma generating genes! Do these scientists have a clue!

Rare Earths

 Some fifteen years ago I wrote about the risk of relying upon China for rare earths. Now we see that China in this trade war is blocking them. The problem is we have unlimited sources but they are blocked by California environmentalists. Perhaps the current Administration could nationalize these sources and manage to get the US back on track.

Fishing and Tariffs

 So what do they have in common. The fly fisher carefully selects the fly, the spot, the time of day, using a select rod, and has great skill and attention. On the other hand the fisher who wants lots and now, takes a piece of dynamite out in a boat, sets it off, gathers lots of fish. 

The Tariff issue is the same. One could look at every country, every trade, consider the positives and negatives then propose something to a Committee. Or, you could just thrown a piece of dynamite and get the answers real quick!

The Ideal College President

 While in Russia with my local colleagues we discussed managers and styles. We even discussed College Presidents. Now I was not your typical American. I spoke a little Russian, I took the Metro not a limo, and I did not belong to a super big American Corporation. My colleagues in other countries saw the difference as well. 

But in discussing management styles, they often said I reminded them of the Dean of the Joe Stalin School of Management. Whether a compliment or an observation of my rather heavy fisted style, I did not eliminate anyone, I found that interesting.

One sets out goals, gets concurrence, the assigns tasks and expects results. No results, no job.

Perhaps a Dean of the Joe Stalin School of Management could be the next Columbia President. But beware of the Trustees! Joe knew how to deal with them.

To The Outgoing President

 I knew this would happen. It was a suicide mission from the get go. Now it is headed by a former Newscaster! So for the outgoing one:

If you can keep your head when all about you

Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;

If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,

But make allowance for their doubting too;

If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,

Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,

Or being hated, don't give way to hating,

And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:

 

If you can dream -- and not make dreams your master;

If you can think -- and not make thoughts your aim;

If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster

And treat those two imposters just the same;

If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken

Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,

Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,

And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools;

 

If you can make one heap of all your winnings

And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,

And lose, and start again at your beginnings

And never breathe a word about your loss;

If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew

To serve your turn long after they are gone,

And so hold on when there is nothing in you

Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"

 

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,

Or walk with kings -- nor lose the common touch,

If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,

If all men count with you, but none too much;

If you can fill the unforgiving minute

With sixty seconds' worth of distance run --

Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,

And -- which is more -- you'll be a Man, my son!