in the news

In this morning’s “newspaper”, the Rational Review Digest is one of my sources) I found several excellent articles I would like to share with you. I just couldn’t decide which one(s). So today I give you excerpts with links to the full articles.

– Ted

A Father’s Personal Struggle with the Vaccine Debate

The Dissident Dad
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Nine months ago, on April 18th, I was sitting in a maternity room with my 12-hour-old daughter. When a nurse came in to immunize her from hepatitis B, a disease known to be transmitted only from sex, blood transfusions, and child birth only IF the mother has the virus. Knowing my newborn daughter hadn’t had sex, hadn’t had a blood transfusion, and that my wife – who had been to about 20 doctor visits in the past 6 months – didn’t have hepatitis, I told the nurse I wouldn’t allow them to give this immunization to my baby. The nurses were quite pleasant. They had me sign a form, and that was the end of it.

Prior to the nurse leaving, I asked to see the side effects of the vaccine they had attempted to inject into a half-day-old newborn. The side effects were fever, insomnia, hypotension, drowsiness, loss of appetite and irritability. My heart was crushed after reading this, thinking of all the other babies in the hospital that would be given this shot. Here you are, hours old, you just survived delivery, which can pretty intense, and now someone wants to inject a vaccine into your body, where the side effects could make you sick. For no reason, by the way, in my daughter’s case. So the risk-reward wasn’t even in the equation – it was pretty much all risk.
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Coal

by L.Neil Smith

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Petroleum, Gold tells us, is the second most abundant liquid on Earth. Once the Western world adopts his reasoning, as well, it will fundamentally transform the planet. What need for long, overland pipelines and sea-going tankers when oil is found wherever you look? Why fight endless, bloody wars over oil fields and “choke points”? Why pay more than fifty cents a gallon at the pump for gasoline when you can get your oil and tires checked and your windows cleaned by eager attendants?

It’s criminally ridiculous to assert that we must end our “addiction” to gasoline or our dependency on coal. Why? Must we strive to end our “addiction” to oxygen or struggle to end our dependency on water?
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New rape laws: turning sex into a crime

Jon Holbrook

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Rape is a serious crime: those convicted of it face a lengthy prison sentence. Sexual foolishness or stupidity should not be a crime, although its protagonists may well be deserving of moral censure. There is a line to be drawn between sex that is criminal and sex that lacks the criminal culpability to warrant a lengthy prison sentence. In recent years, that line has moved so that those who deserve the shameful tag ‘rapist’ are now joined by some who do not.
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Why is the Vaccination Debate so Toxic?

By Dan Phillips, MD.

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The mandatory vs. voluntary vaccination debate is once again occupying a vastly disproportionate share of the media airwaves and social media bandwidth. A noteworthy aspect of this debate is that it cuts across traditional ideological lines and is often quite hostile. The ‘conservative’ opinion on this topic could potentially swing both ways, but on the surface the ‘libertarian’ position seems clear cut. That the government should not force a person to be vaccinated strikes me as the obvious libertarian position, but there is perhaps more to it judging by the level of intra-libertarian debate.

Like the abortion debate, there is nuance required because other people are subject to the consequences of an individual’s decision.
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