Donald Sterling And The NBA

Introduction

I like basketball a lot, but I have not really cared about this so called scandal and I have not bothered to learn all the details about it.

Some Remarks

1. If it is true that this tape was an illegal recording of a private conversation between two adults (a rich, old man and a young woman reported  to be his mistress) of which excerpts appear to somehow were released to the public, then the NBA had no business to condemn in such a way the owner of one of their teams.
2. I only hope that Mr. Sterling will defend himself and attack this outrageous decision by the NBA!
3. Did the woman get paid for making or releasing these recordings?
4. Did Mr. Sterling consent to the recording of this conversation?
5. If Mr. Sterling really was a racist why would he own and patronize a NBA basketball team and not e.g. PGA golf?

Abraham Lincoln Did Not Understand God

Trigger

Just watched PBS video God in America: Three: A Nation Reborn. Here is the PBS introduction to this video: “As slavery splits the nation, abolitionists and slaveholders find justification in the Bible. Frederick Douglass condemns Christianity; President Lincoln struggles to make sense of the war's carnage and the death of his young son. Lincoln, who previously had favored reason over revelation, embarks on a spiritual journey that transforms his ideas about God and the war's ultimate meaning.”

Abraham Lincoln’s Faith In God

Did Abraham Lincoln indeed believed that the American Civil War was a contest willed by God? To call this savagery a contest is almost Orwellian language.

Was the Union so important to Abraham Lincoln as if ordained by God?

Did Abraham Lincoln really believe by proclaiming the Emancipation Proclamation he would be on God’s side despite all this massive bloodshed and carnage? Or when he tried to reconcile in his 2nd Inauguration Address at the end of the war?

Touching The Nimbus Of Abraham Lincoln

I strongly believe that President Abraham Lincoln was very controversial and still is to this day for many reasons. Yes, he was a great orator, but actions speak louder.

Blessed Are The Peacemakers

For they will be the children of God! Was Lincoln a peacemaker? I am afraid not or I have not studied U.S. history enough.

What is the greatest sin according to God? To kill someone except in self defense! Thus, God does not will civil wars!

Has Lincoln before he became president of as president ever really tried to free slaves by other means? I am not aware of.

President Lincoln had many options to avoid such an all out war lasting for four years. He did not pursue these options as far as I know.

God does not care about state sovereignty, or federal government or any other man made political institutions, he only cares about love among humans and their happiness and individual liberty. The Golden Rule is the holiest of all ancient principles. Did Abraham Lincoln understand this?

Previous, Related Blog Posts

Here, here, here, here, and here.

FDA Wants To Regulate Vapor! Stay Away FDA!

Trigger

FDA wants to expand its authority and regulate e-cigarettes!

Here is the official announcement from the FDA released 4/24/2014. The proposed rules are available for  a 75 day public comment period. I hope many smokers will tell the FDA to mind their own business and leave consumers alone.

Excerpts From The Official Announcement

“"This proposed rule is the latest step in our efforts to make the next generation tobacco-free," said HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius.

Consistent with currently regulated tobacco products, under the proposed rule, makers of newly deemed tobacco products would, among other requirements:

Register with the FDA and report product and ingredient listings;

Only market new tobacco products after FDA review;

Only make direct and implied claims of reduced risk if the FDA confirms that scientific evidence supports the claim and that marketing the product will benefit public health as a whole; and

Not distribute free samples.

In addition, under the proposed rule, the following provisions would apply to newly “deemed” tobacco products:

Minimum age and identification restrictions to prevent sales to underage youth;

Requirements to include health warnings; and

Prohibition of vending machine sales, unless in a facility that never admits youth.

“Tobacco remains the leading cause of death and disease in this country. This is an important moment for consumer protection and a significant proposal that if finalized as written would bring FDA oversight to many new tobacco products,” said FDA Commissioner Margaret A. Hamburg, M.D. “Science-based product regulation is a powerful form of consumer protection that can help reduce the public health burden of tobacco use on the American public, including youth.””

(emphasis added)

This is unconstitutional baloney that this big government agency is uttering!

We do not want this oversight by FDA!

This is Soviet style tyranny!

Do these highly paid and highly educated FDA officials confuse tobacco and nicotine! Is this willful fooling of We The People?

We Do Not Need Government Nannies!

We The People should ask the FDA to stay way out of this. Other than to prohibit children from buying this stuff the only other thing for the FDA  to do is to monitor, research, and publish reports on the content of vaporware. Let the consumers decide!

Previous, Related Blog Posts

Here!

Nevada Rancher Versus Federal Government

Trigger

Lately a standoff between a Nevada rancher (Mr. Bundy) and the federal government got the attention.

Here is just one sample article of many articles about it.

What Is Really The Issue?

The federal government owns way too much land especially in the west. I have previously blogged about this subject here.

Black Lung Disease Money Trail

Trigger

It has been in the news again lately about coal mine workers in West Virginia afflicted by this terrible disease (a.k.a. coalworker's pneumoconiosis

). Should we be compassionate?

Of course, what else do you expect, big government intervened in form of the U.S. Labor Department (see e.g. here).

Money Trail

According to Wikipedia on this subject, labor unions were more interested in making money off the disease than preventing it.

Some questions:

1. I would assume that coal mine workers have well known of this disease for decades if not for centuries.
   To quote Encyclopedia Britannica on this subject: “Georgius Agricola, a German mineralogist, first described lung disease in coal miners in the 16th century, and it is now widely recognized.” (source)
2. Was the pay that good to risk your health in this profession by doing it for life?
3. Would not a rational person perhaps have worked for a few years in this profession and then moved on with the savings? I believe to remember some people have actually exactly done that.
4. Have coal mine workers known of how the company they worked for complies with safety standards etc.? Why would I work for a company if I consider it unsafe to my health? Was the pay to good to pass up?
5. Did current coal mine workers stay on the job for life despite the known health risks hoping to collect huge payoffs later through government enforced compensation?

The Abuse Of The Rule Of Law (2)

Posted: 4/23/2014  Updated: 11/26/2015, 7/22/2014

Trigger

I have recently seen several quotes by famous men that every high school student should learn and understand.

Previously, I have blogged here about this subject.

Quotes To Remember

1. “Useless laws weaken the necessary laws.”
   Charles de Montesquieu (De l'Esprit des Lois [The Spirit of the Laws], Book XXIX, Chapter 16; 1748; source)
2. “More law, less justice.”
   Marcus Tullius Cicero (De Officiis, Book I; 44 BC; source)

3. “The more laws and order are made prominent, the more thieves and robbers there will be.”
   Lao Tse (Tao Te Ching; 4th century BC;  source)

4. Corruptissima re publica plurimae leges (Translation: The more numerous the laws, the more corrupt the government)
   Tacitus (Annals; 68 AD; source)
5. Lex iniusta non est lex (Latin: An unjust law is no law at all), is a standard legal maxim. It originates with St. Augustine, and was used by St. Thomas Aquinas.
6. “The prestige of government has undoubtedly been lowered considerably by the prohibition law [prohibition of alcohol in the U.S. Constitution]. For nothing is more destructive of respect for the government and the law of the land than passing laws which cannot be enforced. It is an open secret that the dangerous increase of crime in the United States is closely connected with this.”
   Albert Einstein ("My First Impression of the U.S.A."; 1921 AD)

Interpretation

Democracies are in crisis (I blogged here about this subject). Over several decades our elected, inept politicians and judges have accumulated more and more silly laws and regulations severely and increasingly endangering individual liberty.

Lao Tse may have very well addressed the possibility of ever increasing overcriminalization as we have observed for decades in the U.S.

Martin Luther in his Letter from a Birmingham Jail said following about unjust laws:

“How does one determine when a law is just or unjust? A just law is a man-made code that squares with the moral law, or the law of God. An unjust law is a code that is out of harmony with the moral law. To put it in the terms of St. Thomas Aquinas, an unjust law is a human law that is not rooted in eternal and natural law. Any law that uplifts human personality is just. Any law that degrades human personality is unjust. … A law is unjust if it is inflicted on a minority that, as a result of being denied the right to vote, had no part in enacting or devising the law.”

Speed limit laws in the U.S. are a perfect example of laws that should never have been passed in a free and open society. I have blogged here about the unconstitutionality of speed laws.

U.S. National Park Service Hostile To Individual Freedom

Trigger

My recent visit to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon National Park (SR). This is the second of a series of blog posts about the U.S. National Park Service (first one here).

Toll Trail

Nearby are three photos I took from displays at the SR created by the National Park Service. When I read them on location I was stunned. Expressions of hostility towards individual freedom and free enterprise. The propaganda of the NPS here is that thanks to the federal government’s land grab we are now all much better off.

“Imagine if all the park trails were privately owned and every time you wanted to use them you had to pay a toll …”

Well first of all admission per vehicle to the Grand Canyon National Park is $25. Sure there are other options available like $10 lifetime pass for over 62 year old persons. However, most of us pay with our taxes for this as well whether we ever visit this park or not.

Of course Ralph Cameron had a “precarious legal” claim to the Blue Angel Trail and he dared to collect tolls for the trail all the while until finally in 1928 our savior the “National Park Service gained control”.

Unfortunately, I do not have the time to do more research into Ralph Cameron here, but this guy was among other things a U.S. Representative and a U.S. Senator from Arizona.

The above photo was taken inside the Verkamp’s Visitor Center at the South Rim at Grand Canyon Village. I believe, this used to be a private business as well until fairly recently. Perhaps, a story for another time. The official NPS story about Verkamp is here.

I believe, the “Mining For Tourist Dollars” exhibit above talks about the early days of the Grand Canyon Village. To excerpt from this chapter: “No one spent a dime on community services, however, or thought to develop sensible zoning.” This is an incredible hogwash!

The early private entrepreneurs provided a variety of community services to common people: affordable, quality lodging and meals; guided tours; jobs and other services. The NPS said about Verkamp among other things following (emphasis added): “The Verkamps built their business on service to their guests, service to their employees, and service to their community.”

To use hyperbole, because there was no “sensible zoning” the federal government was entitled to grab the land for the Grand Canyon National Park? First of all, I would assume zoning was not yet widely established anywhere in U.S., except perhaps for the Northeast, around the turn of the 20th century when the Grand Canyon began to be developed (See e.g. Village of Euclid, Ohio v. Ambler Realty Co., a landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision of November 1926 regarding zoning).  I would also argue that government mandated zoning is no blessing and the disadvantages may have well outweighed the benefits (a story for another blog post). Not least it is often a severe interference with private property rights and freedom of contract.

Patient Versus U.S. Food And Drug Administration

Introduction

For various reasons, I am of the opinion that the FDA should be shut down and completely reorganized as far as medicine is concerned.

To keep this post brief, the FDA has been a serious mistake of big government overreach and socialist approach to medicine. It is a prime example of unconstitutional paternalism in the U.S.

Ulipristal Acetate

For brevity sake, I will not go into details of this mediation here, but see e.g. here.

To my knowledge this fairly new medication is currently only approved by the FDA as an emergency contraceptive.

In Europe and in Canada (since July 2013) it is approved as a pre-operative treatment of fibroids. This medication appears to have excellent outcomes as far as shrinking of symptomatic fibroids and reducing heavy bleeding because of fibroids is concerned. Especially also in cases with multiple and large fibroids.

Thus, women in the U.S. may still have not much choice but to undergo surgical procedures like myomectomy and or hysterectomy, even so this pill can potentially help many women to alleviate their symptoms. Sure their is also morcellation, laparoscopy, uterine artery embolization, and focused ultrasound available.

Instead a woman in the U.S. would currently have to travel to Canada to obtain this treatment.

Big Government In Cahoots With Medical Profession Retard Progress

I am not a doctor, but it is my impression that this medication would be a great alternative for premenopausal women who would either have to undergo hysterectomy or pop ulipristal acetate containing pills for three months every day.

It appears that this pill has lasting effects on the shrinkage of the fibroid even up to six months after ceasing to take the pills. I believe, in the U.K. doctors are allowed to prescribe two regimens of three months total, in Canada only one three months regimen.

So why exactly can a premenopausal women not repeat this treatment until menopause and avoid hysterectomy? I did not come across any compelling warnings in the medical literature!

Why Is The Patient Not Allowed To Decide?

In my opinion, it is absolutely unconstitutional that a big government FDA can deny patients to choose for themselves whether they want to try a medication like this at their own risk and responsibility to improve their quality of life.

This Is Not An Isolated Case

Some people may argue what I presented in this post is an isolated case and dismiss it. I am afraid this is far from the truth.

The fact is that patients are not allowed to override the FDA!

One Of Fred Harvey's Special Girls

Trigger

I recently visited the Grand Canyon Village at the South Rim of Grand Canyon National Park. On the rim SR you find three structures, which were part of Fred Harvey Company, i.e. El Tovar, Blue Angel Lodge, and the Lookout Studio.

It Is Not Judy Garland

Her name is Mary Colter. She is probably among the few early, accomplished female architects of the U.S. She was hired in 1901 by the Fred Harvey as an interior designer, but quickly became one of the main architects for this company completing 21 projects during her over 30 years career with the company.

To excerpt from Wikipedia: “She created a series of landmark hotels and commercial lodges through the southwest, including the La Posada, the 1922 Phantom Ranch buildings at the bottom of the Grand Canyon, and five structures on the south rim of the Grand Canyon: the Hopi House (1905), Hermit's Rest (1914), the observatory Lookout Studio (1914), the 70-foot Desert View Watchtower (1932) with its hidden steel structure, and the Bright Angel Lodge [1](1935); Colter decorated, but did not design, the El Tovar Hotel. The four "Mary Jane Colter Buildings", as a group, were listed as a National Historic Landmark in 1987.”

The Import

Long before big government imposition of Civil Rights, Equal Pay and so on, talented women were making careers in formerly male dominated domains like architecture.