Meals Rejected by Ethiopians

I have seen some soldiers have expressed their upset about MREs with this nasty explanation of what the acronym means.   (I have had one.  It was not so bad.  Had I spent the day hiking with a 40 pound load, I would have nothing bad to say about it.)

So imagine my pleasure at seeing disagreement.  11/22/24 CNN:

"And in Alaska recently, MREs have found new fans: Hungry bears who broke into a storage room at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson to feast on the military rations.

"On October 28, personnel with the JBER – often pronounced, fittingly, as “J-Bear” – Wildlife Conservation Law Enforcement Office responded to reports of a bear in a storage room on base. Upon arriving at the scene, they found the room had been the site of a bruin snackfest, with a mess of open food packaging scattered about, according to a statement from the base."

I think the Army needs to start a new recruiting drive in Alaska.  If necessary, these Urso-Americans (or are they the ultimate Native Americans?) can live off the land.  Hand-to-paw combat will be awesome, but likely contrary to the Hague Convention on Lsnd Warfare. 

I Just Updated the List of Court Cases That Have Cited My Work

 It is a surprisingly slow process.  Feel free to look for typos and broken links.

Things That Make You Go: "Hmmm"

11/20/24 New York Times:

The Biden administration has approved supplying Ukraine with American anti-personnel mines to bolster defenses against Russian attacks as Ukrainian front lines in the country’s east have buckled, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said on Wednesday.

To my surprise, there is a treaty abouyt this.  From the U.N.:

The 1997 Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on their Destruction is the international agreement that bans antipersonnel landmines. It is usually referred to as the Ottawa Convention or the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Treaty.

The Convention was concluded by the Diplomatic Conference on an International Total Ban on Anti-Personnel Land Mines at Oslo on 18 September 1997.

In accordance with its article 15, the Convention was opened for signature at Ottawa, Canada, by all States from 3 December 1997 until 4 December 1997, and remained open thereafter at the United Nations Headquarters in New York until its entry into force on 1 March 1999.

Landmines come predominantly in two varieties: anti-personnel and anti-vehicle mines. Both have caused great suffering in the past decades and continue to kill and injure civilians and by-standers long after conflicts have ended. Anti-personnel mines are prohibited under the Ottawa Convention. 

 The U.S. is not a signatory but Biden does not look good on this.

4D Chess

 MSNBC is warning us of who Trump picjed after Gaetz withdrew.  11/22/24 Fox News:

Occasionally, attorneys general try to behave like they are not the personal lawyer of the President of the United States. That is completely out the window. Pam Bondi is exactly what I was saying in the last segment that we should all fear, because she's competent," he said.

Pulling Gaetz means that a potentially embarassing House Republican is no longer in the crosshairs and someone competent will be AG. 

This Seems Like a Law That Might Not Survive a Post-Bruen Challenge

Department of Justice:

BOISE – A federal grand jury in Boise returned an indictment on November 13, 2024, charging Luke James Estep, 27, of Boise, with dealing firearms without a license, U.S. Attorney Josh Hurwit announced today.

The two-count indictment alleges that in October 2024, Estep, who is not a licensed firearms dealer, was selling firearms.  If convicted, he faces a maximum of five years in federal prison and up to a $250,000 fine.  A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

Estep was arrested on November 14 and booked with the Ada County Jail.  Estep appeared on Monday before U.S. Magistrate Judge Debora K. Grasham and entered a plea of not guilty.  A jury trial is scheduled for January 6, 2025, at the federal courthouse in Boise, before Senior U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill.

It is not clear if he was charged under the old definition of "dealing firearms without a license" or the new broader definition included in the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, but either way would likely fail the Bruen standard.  The only laws regulating firearms sales from the Framing Era are race-based (sales to Indians and blacks).  There are antebellum state laws regulating sales, often to minors, but how these apply to the "why" part of the Bruen standard is unclear.

Even an interstate commerce clause regulatory basis would likely not fit, unless he was buying or selling across state lines.  

Let me be clear: there are people engaged in unlicensed sales that are likely selling to people that would never pass a backgroujnd check.  If I were a gun show, I would insist that anyone selling posr-1898 guns provide evidence of licensure.

Laser Bore Sighter

 I mentioned that the laser bore sighter that slides into the muzzle was not useful in my M1A because of the flash hider length,  What arrived today: EZshoot 243 308 Laser Bore Sight Red Dot Boresighter with 3 Batteries.

confirmed what seem to be the case at the range: the scope was aimed many, many MOA right of the impact point.  The device itself is a .308/.243 cartridge with a laser.  It is bright enough that even at about 37 feet, the dot was very bright.  My dumb, I did not think about that it lacks an ON/OFF switch.  You need to load and unload batteries every time.  Still, it works well, cost about $17, and chambers and extracts like a .308 should.

Today's Scam

 

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Help & Contact | Security | Apps

PayPal is committed to preventing fraudulent emails. Emails from PayPal will always contain your full name. Learn to identify phishing Please don't reply to this email. To get in touch with us, click Help & Contact. Not sure why you received this email? Learn more Copyright © 1999-2024 PayPal, Inc. All rights reserved. PayPal is located at 2211 N. First St., San Jose, CA 95131. PayPal RT000186:en_US(en-US):1.3.2:f40760519955c This was well done.  Call the "PayPal customer support number" and you get an East Indian named John.

Income Tax History

 I ran into this decision because I was curious why municipal bond interest is exempt from taxation by the national government,  While Pollock v. Farmers' Loan & Trust Co. (1895) determined that the national government could not tax state and local governments, the more interesting part of the decision is what led to adoption of the 16thb Amendment which authorized a national income tax:

The Congress shall have the power to lay and collect taxes on incomes, from whatever source derived, without apportionment among the several States, and without regard to any census or enumeration.

Why was this required?  The Constitution granted Congress authority to tax but with a few limitations:

Representatives and direct Taxes shall be apportioned among the several States which may be included within this Union, according to their respective Numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the whole Number of free Persons, including those bound to Service for a Term of Years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three fifths of all other Persons. [Art. I, sec. 2, cl. 3]

Direct taxes, those that applied to individuals or corporations (who by now qwer legally considered "persons," had to be appportioned by state population.  What does that mean?  Pollock quoted from debates in the First Congress:

In the course of the debates, and after the motion of Mr. Ellsworth that the first census be taken in three years after the meeting of Congress had been adopted, Mr. Madison records: "Mr. King asked what was the precise meaning of direct taxation. No one answered." But Mr. Gerry immediately moved to amend by the insertion of the clause that "from the first meeting of the legislature of the United States until a census shall be taken, all moneys for supplying the public treasury by direct taxation shall be raised from the several States according to the number of their representatives respectively in the first branch." This left for the time the matter of collection to the States. Mr. Langdon objected that this would bear unreasonably hard against New Hampshire, and Mr. Martin said that direct taxation should not be used but in cases of absolute necessity, and then the States would be the best judges of the mode. 5 Elliot (Madison Papers), 451, 453.

 It appears that this clause was understood to require direct taxes to be based on representaion in the House.  Under this understanding, apportionment would require each state to collect and pay those direct taxes based on their fraction of the population.  So a state like California with a a bit more than 10% of the population could only ber required to pay that percentage of the tax.  California's billionaires would be overjoyed to pay so little.

The problem with an income tax assessed based on individual income under this rule should be obvious.

Among the direct taxes imposed by Congress in  1796:

The act provided in its first section "that there shall be levied, collected, and paid upon all carriages for the conveyance of persons, which shall be kept by or for any person for his or her own use, or to be let out to hire or for the conveyance of passengers, the several duties and rates following," and then followed a fixed yearly rate on every coach; chariot; phaeton and coachee; every four-wheel and every two-wheel top carriage; and upon every other two-wheel carriage; varying according to the vehicle.

Carriages were luxuries and thus only wealthy people would be paying them.  There wasc no general agreement when this went to the Court:

Mr. Justice Chase said that he was inclined to think, but of this he did not "give a judicial opinion," that "the direct taxes contemplated by the Constitution, are only two, to wit, a capitation, or poll tax, simply, without regard to property, profession, or any other circumstance; and a tax on land;" and that he doubted "whether a tax, by a general assessment of personal property, within the United States, is included within the term direct tax." But he thought that "an annual tax on carriages for the conveyance of persons, may be considered as within the power granted to Congress to lay duties. The term duty, is the most comprehensive next to the generical term tax; and practically in Great Britain, (whence we take our general ideas of taxes, duties, imposts, excises, customs, etc.,) embraces taxes on stamps, tolls for passage, etc., and is not confined to taxes on importation only. It seems to me, that a tax on expense is an indirect tax; and I think, an annual tax on a carriage for the conveyance of persons, is of that kind; because a carriage is a consumable commodity; and such annual tax on it, is on the expense of the owner." 

The reason for the adoption of the income tax was that reduction of tariffs, the national government's primary source of funds required some other source.

Fourteen years after the Pollock decision, President William H. Taft proposed to Congress a new income tax of 2% on corporations. This would be imposed by an excise tax on manufactured goods and an amendment to the Constitution to legally sanction the most recent federal income tax. Several conservative senators proposed different versions of the new amendment throughout 1909. Many citizens living in the West and the South supported an income tax on the grounds that it would be an easier way to raise funds on those less well-off. 

An excise tax on manufactured goods is certainly simpler than a general income tax. 

Jaguar's New Model: The Bud Lite

Jaguar created easily the most absurd ad in history.

11/20/24 Yahoo Finance:

"Elon Musk has criticised a Jaguar advert that featured catwalk models in bizarre clothes but no cars.

"The British carmaker on Tuesday debuted a new advert featuring several models with asymmetrical haircuts and brightly coloured, haute couture clothing walking around a Mars-like landscape bathed in bright pink.

"Messages such as “create exuberant”, “live vivid”, “delete ordinary”, “break moulds” and “copy nothing” flash on the sccreen but no actual cars or references to Jaguar as a carmaker are featured."

Tragically,  Jaguar seems to have abandoned what they are good at: sports sedans.  This is why I have given up on replacing my 2014 XF with anything Jaguar.   Jaguar even managed to fix the longstanding problem of unreliability.   This and the 2005 X-type have been the two most trouble-free cars that I have ever owned.

They are not complete idiots.  The Middle Eastern version lacks the trans guy.  Who exactly are they trying to sell cars to?

It just gets better.  11/20/24 Forbes:

Bev Turner, a British television host on the conservative-leaning GB News channel, said the ad looked like Jaguar asked artificial intelligence to create the “wokest, most pretentious, gender-ambiguous piece of self-satisfied A-level art.”

And this one:

 

Fail-Safe (1964)

One of the deadly serious films that came out of the Cold War.  Looking over the cast is somewhat astonishing: Larry Hagman, Walter Matthau, my distant cousin Henry Fonda, and introducing Fritz Weaver.  Oh yes, the big surprise: Dom Deluise.  For you younguns', he was a comic actor long ago.

Larry Hagman plays Buck, the Russian translator for the President.  My, he was young. 

I had forgotten how powerful the last few minutes are.

Toy Gun Control

December America's First Freedom has an article by me: "Now They Want to Use Toy Gun Control as an Excuse for Actual Gun Bans."  I am rather proud of it.

Again: Do Not Worry

11/18/24 Guardian:

Two undersea fibre-optic communications cables in the Baltic Sea, including one linking Finland and Germany, have been severed, raising suspicions of sabotage by bad actors.

The episode on Monday recalled other incidents in the same waterway that authorities have probed as potentially malicious, including damage to a gas pipeline and undersea cables last year and the 2022 explosions of the Nord Sea gas pipelines.

The 1,200km (745-mile) cable connecting Helsinki to the German port of Rostock stopped working at about 0200 GMT on Monday, Finnish state-controlled cybersecurity and telecoms company Cinia said.

A 218km (135-mile) internet link between Lithuania and Sweden’s Gotland island went out of service at about 0800 GMT on Sunday, according to Lithuania’s Telia Lietuva, part of Sweden’s Telia Company group.

Finland and Germany said in a joint statement that they were “deeply concerned about the severed undersea cable” and were investigating “an incident (that) immediately raises suspicions of intentional damage”.

UPDATE: Danish Navy seizes Chinese ship captained by a Russian for this.

Nothing to See Here, Just Move Along

11/18/24 CNN:

Sweden and Finland have updated guidance to their citizens on how to survive war, as NATO allies bolster defense measures against the backdrop of the Ukraine conflict.

Both nations joined the transatlantic alliance in the past two years, after Russia invaded its neighbor. Many European countries have since ramped up military spending to bolster long-term security in the region.

Booklets distributed to millions of households in the Nordic nations include instructions on how to prepare for the effects of military conflicts, communications outages and power cuts, as well as extreme weather events.

From stockpiling bottled water and sanitary products, to growing edible foodstuffs at home, government authorities offered tips on how residents could sustain themselves in the event of war. The brochures also include advice for parents and caregivers, instructing people to preserve diapers, medication and baby food.

The Swedish government will distribute “Om krisen eller kriget kommer (If crisis or war comes),” to all five million households over a two-week period from November 18, according to the Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency (MSB), a governmental agency that compiled the pamphlet.

The fifth version of the Swedish brochure, which was first published in World War II, will place “greater emphasis on preparing for war,” a statement from the MSB said on Monday. The digital version of brochure, released in October, has been downloaded about 55,000 times, the agency added.

I Think This is Still Saber-Rattling, But Make Sure You Can Prepare with Potable Water and Spare Foodv on Short Notice

 11/19/24 NBC News:

Russian President Vladimir Putin formally lowered the threshold for his country's use of nuclear weapons Tuesday, days after the United States allowed Ukraine to strike inside Russia using American missiles.

The Kremlin announced that Putin had approved an updated nuclear doctrine — a document that governs how Russia uses its nuclear arsenal — including the declaration that Moscow could unleash a nuclear strike if subject to an attack by a nonnuclear country that has the support of a nuclear state.

The Russian Defense Ministry claimed later Tuesday that Ukraine had carried out its first strike on Russian territory using U.S.-supplied long-range weapons, hitting a military facility in the Bryansk region with an ATACMS missile.

I suspect Russian ICBMs and SLBMs may well turn out to be in the functional state as their conventuional forces turned out to be.  Viktor Beleno's MiG Pilot recounts how ground crews used the MiG-25's ethanol coolant for drinking.  I doubt any part ofb an ICBM is drinkable or smokable (yes, I am imagining an ICBM transformed into a really, reaaly big blunt) but still....

Check Your State's Unclaimed Property Website

 I just found several thousand dollars belonging to my late father-in-law on California's website: stock brokerage accounts he failed to close when he left California, what seems to be funds left over from sales of houses in Orange County and even his Reseda house in the 1960s.

UPDATE: Further examination shows that some of these were another Richard Thorne.  The amount likely his is only a few hundred dollars, not worth the effort.

Things You Forget You Have

Attempting to get shots on a target at 25 yards with my M1A was not successful.  The new scope (okay several years new; it has been a busy couple of years) is clearly far from zeroed.  I took off the scope and my son had no problem hitting the 200 yard plate with iron sights.  I was pleased to see that the gun safety I taught him elementary school stuck.  Admittedly,  most is obvious to any intelligent person 

After cleaning the rifle, which makes me appreciate the brilliance of the AR-15,  I put it back in the safe and found the laser bore sighter.  This will be next task this week, to get close enough to reliably get holes in the 25 yard target.

UPDATE: The bore sighter is not long enough to go into the muzzle because of the M1A's flash hider.  I might machine a piece of acetal .30" diameter with one end large enough to accept the .30" end of the bore sighter.

UPDATE 2: I ordered a bore sighter that goes in the chamber so flash hider length should not be a problem. 

Are Eggs A Heart Disease Risk?

I found this amazing explanation at 6/24/11 NPR.  When inflation started to drive ip prices in the 1960s, President Johnson responded to each increase in commodity price with a slightly different solution instead of asking the obvious question:

"When egg prices rose in the spring of 1966 and Agriculture Secretary Orville Freeman told him that not much could be done, Johnson had the Surgeon General issue alerts as to the hazards of cholesterol in eggs."

4/16/24 Harvard Medical School:

"For most people, an egg a day does not increase your risk of a heart attack, a stroke, or any other type of cardiovascular disease."

I Thought a Death Certificate Would Have a Birth County or at Least Birth State

 Florida's do not.  Edwin Bruce Cramer was born February 10, 1949.  Searching newspapers.com, Chronicling America, and ancestry.com has found no matches. There are 3244 counties in the U.S.; sending a rquest for birth certificates to all of them would be prohibitive.  ChatGPT has not been helpful.  Suggestions?

He was a teacher (surprise, surprise). Maybe I can pry this out of the state board of education.

UPDATE: Thanks.  Ancestry.com had the right name, birth date, death date and death location.

Ban Guns to Reduce Mass Murders

11/12/24 AP:

"ZHUHAI, China (AP) — A man who authorities said was upset over his divorce settlement rammed his car into a crowd of people exercising at a sports complex in southern China, killing 35 and severely injuring dozens of others, police said Tuesday."

Not even a record motor vehicle mass murder.  The 2016 Marseilles truck terrorist attack killed 86.

All For Mother Earth!

From 11/13/24 Luxury Launches:

"Mark Zuckerberg, an avid surfer, sent his $300 million superyacht on a 4,800-mile journey from San Francisco to Tahiti. After spending 12 days on the high seas and burning 400,000 liters of diesel, it now awaits the Meta CEO to embark on his sun-soaked surfing adventure...

"It’s clear that the world’s third-richest man, worth $202 billion, would not have 12 days to spare from his busy schedule to indulge in surfing. Instead, he’d zip in James Bond-style on his $71 million Gulfstream G650ER private jet. At the same time, his shadow vessel, Wingman, worth $30 million, follows suit to the pristine destination."

You Wonder How Many Other CIA Officials Are Leaking Classified Documents

 11/13/24 New York Post:

A CIA official has been charged with leaking highly classified US documents about Israel’s potential plan to strike back against Iran over a missile attack.

Asif W. Rahman, who worked overseas for the agency and held a top secret security clearance, was arrested by the FBI in Cambodia on Tuesday over the leaks, the New York Times reported.

His arrest comes after the top secret materials started circulating online last month detailing Israel’s apparent intention to retaliate after Iran launched a barrage of missiles back on Oct. 1.  

The files, which were prepared by the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, in part detailed satellite imagery tied to the potential Israeli strike, as well as the various kinds of missiles on hand.

The top secret files were only meant to be seen by those with proper clearance in the US and the other members of the “Five Eyes” intelligence alliance — Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United Kingdom.

Now "Six Eyes," including Iran, I suspect. 

Simple Request

 On my webpage is a not very complete collection of early right to keep and bear arms decisions.  These were links to PDFs from copies that I made at UC Hasting law school library in  the 1980s and 1990s.  They weresometimes poor photocopies of old books with tight bindings.  I have gone through and changed most of them to links in books.google.com, which means cut and paste will be easier.  If you have a few minutes, could you click those links and vberify that they work and point to books with those cases?

Larry Niven's "Neutron Star"

This 11/13/24 Jerusalem Post article discusses how an upcoming close approach to Earth by Asteroid Apophis will cause significant disruptions on it, including tidally-induced quakes that may resurface Apophis.  This is no surprise.  It will be approaching Roche's Limit which is 2.44 radii of a primary.  Roche figured out that a body with no internal strength (a liquid) will be torn apart by tidal forces at Roche's Limit.

The Larry Niven story referenced above is an entertaining way to understand how tidal forces tear objects apart.  Essentially,  different parts of an object (in Niven's story two explorers) are forced into slightly different orbits around a neutron star with catastrophic effects.

Find the Source

Instapundit.com linked to a Stars & Stripes article that mentioned a recent survey of Germans about defense funding.  I always have suspicions about a web article that summarizes someone else without a link, but I found the survey.  Koerber-Stiftung:

"Boris Pistorius’s proposal to increase defense spending to 3 to 3.5 percent of the gross domestic product received the approval of 50 percent of those surveyed. Fifteen percent even consider this figure to be too low. At the same time, the majority of Germans (65 percent) oppose a military leadership role for Germany in Europe. In 2023, this figure was still at 71 percent. When it comes to greater involvement in international crises, Germans remain divided: 46 percent expressed support in September. This is the highest figure since the survey began in 2017. At the same time, 44 percent continue to oppose a stronger international engagement."

Liberals have tried to cast Trump's cajoling of NATO members to increase spending as threatening to abandon NATO but it appears that Trump was just ahead of the curve. 

Hatpins Again

 A while back, I presented some material about hatpin laws.  Hatpins were popular defensive weapons for women at the close of the 19th and start of the 20th century.

Over dinner, my wife suggested that I might want to look at fashion and concealed carry.  This led to a discussion of hatpin length limit laws.  Published work suggests such laws were to discourage women defending themselves from "mashers."  I found another explanation; long hatpins on public transit could lead to accidental, and rarely lethal injuries.  Streetwalkers apparently used them against police as well.

They were also defended as self-defense weapons:

PLEA FOR BIG HATPINS

Chicago Woman Wants Them for
Protection on Streets at Night
Chicago. March 4. Alderman Herman J. Bauier has introduced his
widely heralded 'hatpin" ordinance in the
city council and it was referred to
the judiciary committee, which will
have prepared, if it can be legally
done, an ordinance requiring hatpins
of a shorter length than those lnow
commonly worn by Chicago women.

A letter protesting against the ordinance was submitted, by May E.
Davis, No. 309 East Seventy seventh
street.  It read:
"In behalf of myself and thousands
of other women in Chicago who are
occasionally on the streets after dark
I want to express an objection which
might not appeal to men against the
ordinance curtailing the use of hat-
pins winch comes before your honorable body tonight.

"A hatpin is woman's weapon of
defense. She is no more permitted
to carry a revolver or other weapon
than is a member of the sterner sex.

"I always feel safe going home late
at night with a hatpin available for
protection. Before leaving a street
car I always carry a hatpin ready in
my hand until I am safe within the
door of my home. Many a time it
has proved its need. Thousands of
other women undoubtedly can speak
from their experience of how a stout
hatpin has been an effective defense
in time of danger. A hatpin is also
useful in repelling 'mashers.' " [The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.), 04 March 1910, 3, h]

No, No One Is Going to Repeal the 19th Amendment

I see leftists screeching on X that Republicans are going to repeal the 19th Amendment to take away the vote from women.  I keep looking for GOP politicians pushing for this.  This is especially silly because there are LOTS of conservative women.  I am somehow having trouble imagining Gov. Noem, Sarah Palin, Rep. Elise Stefanik, Trump's UN Ambassador nominee going along with this.

Worse, these Chicken Littles do not realize thst even the 19th Amendment was repealed,  the voting franchise question would go back to the states where Red States such as Wyoming,  Utah, and Idaho led the way to women's suffrage.

Tragically,  a lot of leftists imagine that every woman is a fierce pro-choice warrior.  In my experience,  the most fiercely pro-life people I know are women.  Pro-life men are seldom as passionate as pro-life women.

I Finally See the Cash Price for That Surgery

$253,008.77.  This is about what I would expect it to be.

My share (6 days in the hospital) is $295 * 6.

$

I Am Hoping This is Atypical

11/12/24 Telegraph:

"Meet the ‘doom-spending’ Gen Z Democrats using retail therapy to cope with Trump win

"Young voters show off their latest purchases made because they are ‘sad about election result’"

At least they are not buying poisons.  Won't they be said if in a couple years they can afford to buy houses?

I Knew That I Had Seen This

 Cecilia Dhejne, Paul Lichtenstein, Marcus Boman, Anna L V Johansson, Niklas Långström, Mikael Landén, “Long-Term Follow-Up of Transsexual Persons Undergoing Sex Reassignment Surgery: Cohort Study in Sweden,” PLOS One, Feb. 22, 2011, doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0016885.

Context

The treatment for transsexualism is sex reassignment, including hormonal treatment and surgery aimed at making the person's body as congruent with the opposite sex as possible. There is a dearth of long term, follow-up studies after sex reassignment.

Objective

To estimate mortality, morbidity, and criminal rate after surgical sex reassignment of transsexual persons.

Design

A population-based matched cohort study.

Setting

Sweden, 1973-2003.

Participants

All 324 sex-reassigned persons (191 male-to-females, 133 female-to-males) in Sweden, 1973–2003. Random population controls (10∶1) were matched by birth year and birth sex or reassigned (final) sex, respectively.

Main Outcome Measures

Hazard ratios (HR) with 95% confidence intervals (CI) for mortality and psychiatric morbidity were obtained with Cox regression models, which were adjusted for immigrant status and psychiatric morbidity prior to sex reassignment (adjusted HR [aHR]).

Results

The overall mortality for sex-reassigned persons was higher during follow-up (aHR 2.8; 95% CI 1.8–4.3) than for controls of the same birth sex, particularly death from suicide (aHR 19.1; 95% CI 5.8–62.9). Sex-reassigned persons also had an increased risk for suicide attempts (aHR 4.9; 95% CI 2.9–8.5) and psychiatric inpatient care (aHR 2.8; 95% CI 2.0–3.9). Comparisons with controls matched on reassigned sex yielded similar results. Female-to-males, but not male-to-females, had a higher risk for criminal convictions than their respective birth sex controls.

The conclusion, of course, is that they need more psychiatric care after surgery.  That te problem might be a need for it instead of surgery did not even occur to the authors. 

Hearing Loss and Dementia

 Rep. Russ Fulcher

U.S. House of Representatives

Washington, DC 20515

 

Dear Rep. Fulcher:

 

This may seem like an odd request in a time when we are already trying to reduce spending to solve our deficits, but I suspect this may actually reduce net spending.  At least it deserves examination as a possible strategy for reducing both spending and suffering.

In the last few years, scientists studying hearing loss have found evidence that hearing loss causes dementia.[1]  Medicare and Medicaid do not currently cover hearing aids.  If covering hearing aids reduces Alzheimer’s this would likely reduce health care costs currently covered by Medicare and Medicaid.

Is covering hearing aids a net gain for government healthcare costs?  I am not sure, but it seems like it deserves examination.

 

Very Truly Yours,

Clayton E. Cramer

---

[1] Timothy D. Griffiths, Meher Lad, Sukhbinder Kumar, Emma Holmes, Bob McMurray, Eleanor A. Maguire, Alexander J. Billig, William Sedley, “How Can Hearing Loss Cause Dementia?” Neuron, Nov. `11, 2020,  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuron.2020.08.003; Alexander Chern, Justin S Golub, “Age-Related Hearing Loss And Dementia,” Alzheimer Disease and Associated Disorders, Jul. – Sep. 2019,  DOI: 10.1097/WAD.0000000000000325; Richard K Gurgel, P. Daniel Ward, Sarah Schwartz, Maria C Norton, Norman L Foster, JoAnn T. Tschanz, “Relationship of Hearing loss and Dementia: a Prospective, Population-based Study,” Ontology & Neurotology, Jun. 2014, DOI: 10.1097/MAO.0000000000000313.

Of course, I sent to Senators Risch and Crapo as well.

Secession in Illinois

 11/9/24 Chicago Sun-Times:

Residents in seven downstate counties voted in Tuesday’s election to explore the idea of breaking away from Illinois to form a new state.

The counties join a growing number of other right-leaning downstate counties that have approved similar nonbinding measures in recent election years. The movement comes as residents’ distaste for the left-leaning policies pushed through the Democrat-led Illinois General Assembly has also grown.

As the article points out, there is little chance of success. 

Into Unknown Skies

David K. Randall.  This is a gripping story of the first race to fly around the world by teams from the U.S., Britain,  France, Italy, Portugal, and Argentina.  In spite of American invention of the airplane,  the American team was by no means the likely winners.  Largely through Billy Mitchell's efforts to drag the U.S. military into the 20th century, U.S. Army Air Service pilots start heading west, while competing teams head east.  

There are exciting adventures of dangerous flying, icebergs, storms, sand storms, landings in tropical rice paddies,  generous gifts to competing teams in times of trouble.   You learn a bit about the technology involved and you cry about a flight that required the flight engineer to hand crank a gasoline pump for four hours over an empty Pacific Ocean.

Have you ever wondered how Douglas Aircraft started.   It was Douglas' technically advanced biplanes that won the race.

This was a gift from my son.  I really enjoyed it.

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H.G. Wells The Island of Dr. Moreau.   This is easily the most horrifying of Wells' novels, more disturbing than the monstrous Martians of Wsr of the Worlds.  There is one part where he describes how Dr. Moreau does monstrous, painful things both surgically and by drugs to make various animals into creatures with some limited human characteristics: speech; walking erect; opposable thumbs; religion with Dr. Moreau as the Divine Lawgiver who uses the fear of the House of Pain where all these Beastmen had passed through as an instrument to create obedience. 

It is a horrifying collection of creatures part human, part animal, sometimes several animals.  Just close enough to suffer what we now call the uncanny Valley with respect to robots.

The description of the procedures by which he makes them almost human is similar to how World War I plastic surgery techniques for correction of severe mutilation of human bodies was adapted to create artificial and utterly phoney genitals.  Moreau's drugs are analogous to the hormonal treatments inflicted on young people to render them perpetually damaged in preparation for barbarous surgery that makes the worst genital mutilation seem almost normal.

It is a profoundly disturbing story of the pursuit of scientific knowledge with no ethical limits.   Until you get to the unfortunately real Dr. Mengele, there is nothing more troubling.