On The Catalan Secession

Posted: 10/28/2017  Updated/Revised: 11/5/2017

Updated Of 11/5/2017

Today, I read a very good commentary here about the Catalan secession. Here is the essence of this commentary as I understand it:

1. Abuse of solidarity. If it is true that the economically successful and fiscally responsible province of Catalonia has been paying tons of money to support the other, profligate and fiscally irresponsible provinces of Spain, then this could constitute abuse of solidarity
2. Spain had a very tumultuous history between 1808 and 1873 if not beyond. I do not know enough to go into that, but the very short lived First Republic of 1873 should be a reminder that the early intentions of the citizens of Spain was to found a federal republic. Here is an excerpt from Wikipedia: “On 1 June 1873 the first session of the Constituent Cortes was opened and the presentation of resolutions began. The first [resolution] ...: "First Article. The form of government of the Spanish Nation is the Democratic Federal Republic". The president, having carried out the Cortes' regulations for the definite approval of proposal of law, arranged to hold a nominal vote the next day. The resolution was passed 8 June by a favorable vote of 219 representatives and only 2 against, and the Federal Republic was thus declared. Most of the federalists in parliament supported a Swiss-like confederative model, with regions directly forming independent cantons.” (emphasis added)

Trigger

In recent weeks, the situation about the attempts by Catalan secessionists and Spain has tremendously escalated. In particular, the government in Madrid is playing unnecessary rough hard ball with Catalonia.

Food For Thought

Since I am not deeply familiar with the history of Catalonia nor Spain, I will present here only a few bullet points:

1. In history, the proverbial pendulum swings back and forth. In the 19th century and into the 20th, we observed extreme nationalism and forming of unitary states in Europe (e.g. Italy, Germany, Belgium) resulting in ever bigger countries composed of various, but centrifugal entities. Will we see more federalism and more independent smaller states in the 21st century?
2. Catalonia appears to have a long, distinct history of its own and the incorporation into Spain is perhaps a rather artificial result of history
3. The increasing centralisation of 28 European countries into the hegemon EU promoted by a power hungry euro-nationalist elite is a failure. More federalism and more individual freedom are long overdue. Historically, Europe was best and most successful when variety and many small, competing, diverse sovereign powers prevailed
4. If the Czechs and Slovaks were able to separate peacefully in 1993, why can't the Catalans and Spaniards do the same?

Hard Rock A La Mozart

Posted: 10/28/2017

If you grew up on Hard Rock a la Led Zeppelin or Deep Purple and so many other bands you might be forgiven when you sneered at classic music of which you knew little back then.

However, I never forgot that Deep Purple and other hard rock stars also produced albums with classical music using even entire orchestras. Or that the unforgettable lead singer of Queen, Freddy Mercury, was capable of singing like an opera singer and who e.g. was accompanied by a Spanish soprano singer on his Barcelona album.

Then there was the earworm hit song by Chuck Berry “Roll over Beethoven” (1956). The Electric Light Orchestra in 1973 remixed this song by including movements from Beethoven’s 5th Symphony.

Beethoven certainly did not roll over. When you hear e.g. the opening of Mozart’s 29th Symphony or Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 26 you realize that young Amadeus was a hard rock star as well.

Ready For DNA Base Editors

Posted: 10/28/2017

Trigger

Just read these articles (1 & 2) about a new adenine base editor. Many of us, who are now familiar with the CRISPR Cas 9, will appreciate these latest advances in genetics.

Enormous Implications

“Being able to make this type of conversion [to flip base pairs] is particularly important because approximately half of the 32,000 disease-associated point mutations already identified by researchers are a change from a G•C base pair to a A•T base pair.

…

Liu said that particular change is unusually common in part because about 300 times a day in every human cell, a spontaneous chemical reaction converts a cytosine (C) base into uracil (U), which behaves like thymine (T). While there are natural cellular repair mechanisms to fix that spontaneous change, the machinery is not perfect and occasionally fails to make the repair. The result can be the mutation of the G•C base pair to an A•U or A•T base pair, which can lead to certain genetic diseases. …

A major addition to genome-editing technologies, the adenine base editor joins other base-editing systems recently developed in Liu’s lab, such as BE3 and its improved variant, BE4. Using these base editors, researchers can now correct all the so-called “transition” mutations — C to T, T to C, A to G, or G to A — that together account for almost two-thirds of all disease-causing point mutations, including many that cause serious illnesses that currently have no treatment.” (emphasis added)

American Exceptionalism: When Stars Align

Posted: 10/28/2017

Those Rarest Moments In History

There are truly rare moments in human history when the right people, at the right time, and at the right place come together to promote the welfare of humanity and individual freedom.

It is without a doubt one of those moment when so many incredible and diverse men and women came together to found a new republic on the shores of what became later the United States of America.  Divine intervention, if there ever was such a thing, at its best (or divine providence as the Founders would have preferred to say)!

Dedication

This blog post is dedicated to my father, Horst Bingel, who told me about this rare historical moment and who made me aware of its significance.

The Long British Tryst With Socialism Began As Early As 1802

Posted: 10/28/2017

Trigger

Recently saw a history documentary that mentioned the Factories Act of 1847. Wow, this early the British politicians opted for socialist measures? Was there more to it? Did this massive government intervention into private businesses even start earlier?

Motivation

Obviously, for over a 100 years Western countries have adopted many socialist concepts and poured them into one size fits all legislation for all citizens to suffer from to this day. But how early, where, and through which measures etc.?

Many are familiar with the German influence in the late 19th century on spreading socialism through politics and by academics. Keywords: Bismarck, Kathedersozialismus.

Probably, less well known is the significant influence of the British Empire on the implementation and spread of Socialism.

A Conspiracy Of Counter Revolutionaries & Well Meaning Humanitarians

For fear of violent or militant revolutions, British politicians, who wanted to remain in power and control, caved in to socialist measures and acquiesced.

As usual, influential, but naive humanitarians saw it opportune to impose socialist measures on the citizens. It is one thing to abolish slavery, but it is quite another thing to impose e.g. strict working hours on all adult males and females.

Unfortunately, thanks to this powerful long lasting conspiracy, many citizens of the Western world have been brainwashed by government run mandatory public education starting since at least the second half of the 19th century. How convenient!

The British Health And Morals Of Apprentices Act Of 1802

This is the earliest example that I so far could find on how socialism was introduced in Great Britain. Also known as the Factory Act of 1802. It was perhaps the earliest act to address child labor in the still nascent industrial age.

Like most government interventions against individual liberty, it started small and later grew bigger. This law focused only on apprentices in the cotton mill industry.

It was none other than famous Sir Robert Peel who promoted this act. Peel himself owned such a cotton mill. So how much was he interested in the well being of children versus trying to minimize competition to his business?

I conjecture that child labor was considered normal and very acceptable for thousands of years. Was child labor indeed so harmful, exploitative, and brutal as it is officially represented for over 200 years now? Or was it not also a very important education for children about how the world works and to come into contact with other adults and children?

Vicious Spiral Of Government Intervention

It has been reported that the early Factory Acts were not very effective. Guess what, a series of more restrictive laws followed with ever expanding coverage, mandating more inspections etc.  Sounds familiar?

You know the rest of the story … (a reminiscence of the much cherished radio personality Paul Harvey)

Consequences Or The Tragic Betrayal Of The Enlightenment

Does it then surprise anyone that of all countries, the United Kingdom has a nationalised healthcare system (National Health Service) since 1946?

Does it surprise that the welfare state took off latest with the end of the World War II?

What would Adam Smith say today about this? Immanuel Kant and Voltaire are very sad for a long time!

Reader Beware

Unfortunately, I do not have the time to research this topic further and in more detail.

Sources:

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_and_Morals_of_Apprentices_Act_1802
2. http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/education/resources/1833-factory-act/
3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Factories_Act_1847

German Chancellor Merkel Failed To Step Down

Posted: 10/28/2017

On September 24th, 2017, the German federal elections were held and the leading conservative coalition of the two mainstay christian democratic parties, i.e. CDU/CSU, suffered their second worst election results since World War II.

In the wake of this election, a very new national conservative party (AfD) emerged and was elected with 12.6% of the votes for the first time to be represented in the German parliament. The mostly leftist mainstream media are not taking it kindly with this new party, constantly denouncing it as Nazis and right wing

Despite this crushing defeat of the so called establishment parties, chancellor Angela Merkel refused to step down! Any politician with a modicum of accountability and responsibility would have done so!

Why Is Medical Progress So Slow?

Posted: 10/28/2017

Trigger

Just read a very stimulating article about vagus nerve stimulation (no pun intended; source 1). More about VNS later.

The Usual Suspects/Culprits

Western countries have done many things to undermine faster medical progress. Just to name a few (in no particular order):

1. The special privileges and monopoly powers conferred to the medical profession
2. The excessive specialisation and compartmentalisation of the medical profession
3. Too much excessive legislation & regulation of medical treatments
4. Too much excessive intellectual property protections of inventions
5. Very excessive and heavily exploited fears of harm from e.g. new medical treatments

Vagus Nerve Stimulation

Caveat: I am not a doctor nor am I an expert of the autonomic nerve system (ANS) etc.

A bit history (emphasis added): “An observation first made in the 1880s was that manual massage and compression of the carotid artery in the cervical region of the neck could suppress seizures, an effect attributable to crude stimulation of the vagus. Electrical VNS studies were conducted during the 1930s and 1940s to understand the influence of the ANS on modulating brain activity. Studies in cats and monkeys demonstrated that VNS influenced brain electrical activity. Subsequent studies determined that VNS had anticonvulsant effects on experimentally-induced seizures in dogs …  Cardio-respiratory stimulation of the vagus nerve may explain some of the positive emotional and cognitive benefits of deep breathing, yoga, or aerobic exercise activities. Dedicated clinical trials eventually led to approval by the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) of an implanted VNS device indicated for the treatment of refractory epilepsy in 1997 ...” (Source 3)

Is not the ancient Chinese acupuncture treatment also some kind of VNS? Is not VNS, in its simplest form, easy to apply even for lay persons (see above, manual massage)?

It took doctors and scientists over 100 years to recognize that the all important vagus nerve could help to treat epilepsy, headaches, heart failure/diseases, or treatment resistant depression etc. That is a very dismal performance by a highly educated elite!

I would also bet that diseases like the very annoying irritable bowel syndrome might be susceptible to VNS treatment.

The Power Or Miracle Of Vagus Nerve Stimulation

Here is an excerpt (emphasis added):

“Following the hypothesis that vagus nerve stimulation functionally reorganizes the thalamo-cortical network, we tested its effects on the cortical activity of a patient lying in a vegetative state for 15 years following traumatic brain injury. Behavioral, electroencephalographic (EEG) and 18F-FDG PET recordings were performed before and after surgical implantation of a vagus nerve stimulator. Stimulation was gradually increased to a maximum intensity of 1.5 mA, and its effects were monitored over six months post-implantation. After one month of stimulation, when intensity reached 1 mA, clinical examination revealed reproducible and consistent improvements in general arousal, sustained attention, body motility and visual pursuit. Scores on the Coma Recovery Scale-Revised (CRS-R) test improved, mostly in the visual domain, as stimulation increased, from a score of 5 at baseline (last exam) to 10 at highest intensities (1.00–1.25 mA), indicating a transition from a vegetative to minimally conscious state.” (Source 1,2)

Sources:

1. Hirnstimulator hilft aus Bewusstlosigkeit
2. Restoring consciousness with vagus nerve stimulation
3. Vagus Nerve Stimulation
4. Neuroanatomic and clinical correspondences: acupuncture and vagus nerve stimulation.