The Truth About Hoover and FDR

A fascinating fact-check on the days of Herbert Hoover and FDR.  Did you know that FDR’s pre-election postion was that the goverment was too strong?  And that that was a deliberate lie, so that he could get into office and do the exact opposite?  If you are interested in this part of history, this is an interesting listen.

Free Speech vs Perpetual Warfare

A really fascinating discussion of the trend on campus to deny free speech to disagreeable opinions.

The discussion ranges to the idea of identity politics (who you are, your race, gender, background – what the guest calls “non-essential characteristics” – determine everything about you) vs the Enlightenment idea that “all people are created equal.”

The discussion is wide-ranging and intellectual, yet accessible.  In the end, we come down to either we believe Martin Luther King when he said “Judge a man not by the color of his skin, but by the content of his character”, or we engage in endless, ruthless class war.

This is really worth a listen if you are concerned with political correctness on the left or patriotic correctness on the right.

Neocons Strike Back

Interesting discussion of how the Deep State and the Neocons actually work.

Improve Your Microbiome!

Review of this podcast.

This was a really fascinating discussion about your gut bacteria and how they support health.  When they first sequenced the human genome, they found far fewer genes than they expected.  It turns out that 99% of the genes in our “body” belong to microbes – bacteria, fungi, etc.  To me one of the most amazing discoveries of recent years is that the human genome, the 23 chromosomes, is insufficient to support life! Without the bacteria, we’d all be dead.  The guest on this podcast says that 99% of the biochemical pathways in our bodies involve bacteria.

Gut disbiosys seems to be a contributing cause to almost every major chronic ailment of modern society.  Think about that the next time the doc hands out an antibiotic for a sniffle, or the next time you have a yummy antibiotic-laden burger from your favorite fast food joint!

Must You Obey Government?

Review of this podcast.

You might think “ok, this guy is nuts!”  But I’m not an anarchist – far from it.  And just a few months ago millions of people flocked to airports in the US to defy the government’s order to ban travel from certain countries.  And most people would say that the government of North Korea is not a legitimate government, and the people there have no reason to obey.  So this is a question that deserves some thought.  When is it ok to disobey (and I hope your answer is not “when I don’t like the President” or “when I don’t like the policy”)?

Libertarian thought tries to reason from first priniciples, and this idea comes up again and again over the past 4 or 5 centuries. The point is that “government” is actually a group of individuals – individuals that have an extraordinary power to compel others to do things, or pay money, or even give up their life, things that non-government actors cannot legitimately do.  If you don’t like your neighbor’s plans to expand his house, you cannot compel him to change them. But the city housing inspector can. So the question comes up, from where do they get this authority?

Over the centuries, many theories have been put forth: the social contract, implicit consent, etc etc.  This podcast reviews all those theories and basically shoots them all down, or shows that they are not logically consistent.  What was a little surprising to me was that they did not end with “here’s the only one that actually works.”  They ended with “none of these actually hold water.”

My personal opinion (not included in the podcast) is that while this is philosopically enormously interesting (our basic way of organizing society cannot be justified!), it is of limited practical impact.  There will always be those who are stronger, who decide it is easier to steal stuff from the weaker than produce their own stuff.  We need protection from them.  And, we are primates, wired for hierarchical society, and there will always be those who seek power and control over others. Better to have a recognized, (hopefully) constrained power structure, respected by all, than to let them run wild.

The Great Cholesterol Con

This book reviews the scientific evidence for and against the role of elevated cholesterol in causing heard disease.  Dr. Kendrick’s witty, irreverent style is fun to read, but at the same time he is as rigorous as he needs to be to discuss the science.

You may already know this, but there is actually precious little scientific evidence to support the so-called cholesterol hyphothesis – the preponderence of evidence seems to contradict it.  That’s why there are so many “ad-hoc” hypotheses to try to save it.  There are all the paradoxes (the French Paradox, the Japanese Paradox, etc) and all the hundreds of other risk factors (eating chocolate, drinking red wine, etc) that supposedly impact heart disease.  It goes like this – high LDL causes heart disease.  But this group of people has high LDL but no heart disease. Ah, they drink red wine!  That lowers the risk of heart disease – however, not by lowering LDL, of course.  Although high LDL is the cause of heart disease, these people with high LDL get “protection” through some other mechanism other than LDL lowering, which apparently trumps LDL levels as a risk factor. However, high LDL remains the most important risk factor, even though it is trumped here.  Say what?  Not to mention the last refuge of the cornered, “it must be genetic.”  Isn’t medical science wonderful?  (These ad-hoc hypotheses are akin to the “spheres-within-spheres” of earth-centered cosmology).

The author puts forth an alternative theory for heart disease that needs none of this nonsense. It seems quite promising and appears to account for all the “paradoxes” and such.

If you are interested at all in heart disease, health, etc, this book is a great read.